30 July 2007
The Poker Mindset
I've added a new poker book to the list off to the right there (assuming you're reading at blogspot), The Poker Mindset: Essential Attitudes for Poker Success. (What is it with these poker authors and their titles that are longer than my arm?) I haven't actually finished reading it yet, but since I got a free review copy I figured it only fair to add it to the list. I'll be posting a full review when I finish.
The Weekend
The weekend is a bit of a blur in my mind, which is to say there was little of special note that occurred. Friday I went to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. We got there in time for "happy hour", which included two-for-one tap beers. Four Peronis and a Sambuca later, I was very much in the mood for the Friday Donkament.
I don't remember too much of the donkament. I recall more people showed up than the week before, I again didn't have to rebuy (other than the initial top-up and the add-on), and I didn't repeat my win from the previous week. And I fell asleep almost as soon as I busted out. Yeah, I'm a real lightweight when it comes to alcohol these days.
Saturday I played a HORSE tournament at Stars. My recollection is of being mostly card dead and never getting anything going. I finished well out of the money.
My successes this weekend were at the cash tables. I played a bit of 6-max NL and did pretty well. There was one guy at my first table who was raising almost every hand. He was clearly pushing the table around and I immediately started looking for a hand I could use to play sheriff. I found it in A9s. I limped, expecting him to raise, and he didn't disappoint. The flop came 8 high with two of my suit. I checked, he bet, I check-raised, he re-raised me all-in. I hate calling all-ins with just a draw, but I figured I had at least 12 outs, possibly 15. That priced me in. Turn was an ace and the river brought a 9. I doubled up and Mr. Raise Every Hand started playing a bit tighter after he bought in again.
My other really big hand was surrounded by odd circumstances. The guy sitting to my right had been playing ultra-tight for a long time. I had almost 100 hands on him and he was about 18% VP$IP at 6-max. I mostly stayed out of his way. Then, all of a sudden, he starts making pot-sized raises almost every hand. It was like he'd been on autopilot, folding to any action, and then switched over to maniac mode. The table had been playing very tight for a while so it's possible he was just trying to take advantage of that.
I finally get a decent hand, AQ. He makes his pot-sized raise from UTG. AQ not exactly being a monster, I decide to just call and see what the flop brings. No help. He puts in a small bet. I've got nothing, but given the number of times he'd been raising lately, I figured I might actually be ahead. I call. The turn brings an ace. I end up all-in and he calls. Turns out he's got KK. Maybe the guy was still playing just as tight and happened upon a great run of cards. I almost felt sorry for him as I was stacking his chips.
It's probably just a short run of decent luck, but 6-max NL in the shallow end of the pool is looking like fairly easy pickings. Play pots cheap when you can. Mostly wait for good cards. Take a stab at orphaned pots, especially when you can do it cheap. Then just sit back and watch as your opponents make mistakes.
For those who haven't already heard, Neteller is finally releasing money to US players. Get it while you can.
I don't remember too much of the donkament. I recall more people showed up than the week before, I again didn't have to rebuy (other than the initial top-up and the add-on), and I didn't repeat my win from the previous week. And I fell asleep almost as soon as I busted out. Yeah, I'm a real lightweight when it comes to alcohol these days.
Saturday I played a HORSE tournament at Stars. My recollection is of being mostly card dead and never getting anything going. I finished well out of the money.
My successes this weekend were at the cash tables. I played a bit of 6-max NL and did pretty well. There was one guy at my first table who was raising almost every hand. He was clearly pushing the table around and I immediately started looking for a hand I could use to play sheriff. I found it in A9s. I limped, expecting him to raise, and he didn't disappoint. The flop came 8 high with two of my suit. I checked, he bet, I check-raised, he re-raised me all-in. I hate calling all-ins with just a draw, but I figured I had at least 12 outs, possibly 15. That priced me in. Turn was an ace and the river brought a 9. I doubled up and Mr. Raise Every Hand started playing a bit tighter after he bought in again.
My other really big hand was surrounded by odd circumstances. The guy sitting to my right had been playing ultra-tight for a long time. I had almost 100 hands on him and he was about 18% VP$IP at 6-max. I mostly stayed out of his way. Then, all of a sudden, he starts making pot-sized raises almost every hand. It was like he'd been on autopilot, folding to any action, and then switched over to maniac mode. The table had been playing very tight for a while so it's possible he was just trying to take advantage of that.
I finally get a decent hand, AQ. He makes his pot-sized raise from UTG. AQ not exactly being a monster, I decide to just call and see what the flop brings. No help. He puts in a small bet. I've got nothing, but given the number of times he'd been raising lately, I figured I might actually be ahead. I call. The turn brings an ace. I end up all-in and he calls. Turns out he's got KK. Maybe the guy was still playing just as tight and happened upon a great run of cards. I almost felt sorry for him as I was stacking his chips.
It's probably just a short run of decent luck, but 6-max NL in the shallow end of the pool is looking like fairly easy pickings. Play pots cheap when you can. Mostly wait for good cards. Take a stab at orphaned pots, especially when you can do it cheap. Then just sit back and watch as your opponents make mistakes.
For those who haven't already heard, Neteller is finally releasing money to US players. Get it while you can.
27 July 2007
That's Mr. Donkey to you
Still somewhat riding the high of my weekend wins, I sat down to play a bit last night. I managed to Gigli+1 from a FTP ticket tourney when some clown showed no respect for my TP, calling with bottom pair on the flop and catching trips on the turn.
Since that had taken only five minutes, I immediately signed up for another. I left this one even sooner when I again seriously overplayed TP.
Then, realizing I needed a real donkey event if I was to do anything worthwhile, I signed up for a $1 rebuy. Just like on Friday, I was able to get through the rebuy with just my initial two buy-ins and the add-on.
I was doing okay considering how bad my cards were. I more than doubled on the one good pocket pair I caught. But much of the rest of my little bit of success was due to suckouts.
The guy sitting to my immediate right was playing pretty tight, but every time it folded to him in the SB he'd toss in a raise. I was getting nothing so there wasn't much I could do to fight back without taking a big risk. Finally I'd had enough and pushed back with a massive J2. He had KJ, but I managed to catch runner-runner for a small straight.
This type of thing happened several times. He'd put in a raise, I'd push back, and he'd have something better than I did. Every time. Sometimes I'd get lucky, sometimes not. Nearing the money -- a whopping $6 -- I was getting short and needed to build my stack to get beyond the bubble. After what seemed like an eternity I finally got a hand worth pushing with: AQ. I'm in the BB. There's one limper and then my "friend" in the SB makes it 3BB to go. I push, he calls (which he probably would have done regardless of his cards given the massive 2BB raise my push represented), and turns over AK. It's deja vu all over again, except no suckout for me this time. I hit the rail just a few spots short of the money.
I was kind of surprised at this rebuy. A $1 rebuy is usually a total donkfest. Five-way all-ins with only one guy having anything resembling a real hand. But not this one. There were some rebuys, but not nearly the number I'd expected and very few of them as a result of totally crazy play.
There's something unsettling about this. I've noticed a similar trend in the last several rebuys I've played. I'm not entirely sure what it means, but I have a suspicion it's not good.
Since that had taken only five minutes, I immediately signed up for another. I left this one even sooner when I again seriously overplayed TP.
Then, realizing I needed a real donkey event if I was to do anything worthwhile, I signed up for a $1 rebuy. Just like on Friday, I was able to get through the rebuy with just my initial two buy-ins and the add-on.
I was doing okay considering how bad my cards were. I more than doubled on the one good pocket pair I caught. But much of the rest of my little bit of success was due to suckouts.
The guy sitting to my immediate right was playing pretty tight, but every time it folded to him in the SB he'd toss in a raise. I was getting nothing so there wasn't much I could do to fight back without taking a big risk. Finally I'd had enough and pushed back with a massive J2. He had KJ, but I managed to catch runner-runner for a small straight.
This type of thing happened several times. He'd put in a raise, I'd push back, and he'd have something better than I did. Every time. Sometimes I'd get lucky, sometimes not. Nearing the money -- a whopping $6 -- I was getting short and needed to build my stack to get beyond the bubble. After what seemed like an eternity I finally got a hand worth pushing with: AQ. I'm in the BB. There's one limper and then my "friend" in the SB makes it 3BB to go. I push, he calls (which he probably would have done regardless of his cards given the massive 2BB raise my push represented), and turns over AK. It's deja vu all over again, except no suckout for me this time. I hit the rail just a few spots short of the money.
I was kind of surprised at this rebuy. A $1 rebuy is usually a total donkfest. Five-way all-ins with only one guy having anything resembling a real hand. But not this one. There were some rebuys, but not nearly the number I'd expected and very few of them as a result of totally crazy play.
There's something unsettling about this. I've noticed a similar trend in the last several rebuys I've played. I'm not entirely sure what it means, but I have a suspicion it's not good.
24 July 2007
An old story
I was checking for new stuff on Julius Goat's blog and re-read one of his very funny player profiles -- Pvt. Pooosh. On this reading I was reminded of a live game I played in at Darval's a long while back.
There was a new guy in the game who was bragging about how he played online poker all the time and totally killed the game. In Darval's game we would always buy in for $5 and get $50 in chips. We all knew each $1 chip was only ten cents, but we tried to play like they were real dollars. For some reason, the new guy and one other player had bought in for $20 instead of the usual $5. No biggie.
So we start with the usual $0.50/$1 blinds. First hand the new guy raises to $25. $1.50 in the pot, and he raises to $25. Of course, everyone folds. A couple hands later he does the same thing. And again. And again. Finally he says, "I thought you guys were poker players." Someone responded, "We are. That's why we're folding. Your bets are way out of proportion to the size of the pot."
He understood we thought his bets were too big, but it was pretty clear he didn't understand why. He toned it down a bit after that, once or twice slipping back into gigantically oversized bets.
After a while I asked him where he liked playing online. Based on what I'd seen of his play, I figured I'd go look him up online. He said he only played at Yahoo. Yahoo? Suddenly it all made sense. He was used to betting fake chips that had no value, so it didn't matter if he bet $5 or $5000. Both bets were actually worth $0.
I may have told this part of the story before. I'm too lazy to go back and search my own blog. Fairly early we get in a hand where I had something like A4 and there were two aces on the board. We get to the river and I make a small value bet. He comes over the top big. At this point I figure he's got an ace and is almost sure to have a better kicker. I even said out loud, "I think you have me outkicked." So I folded.
He very proudly turns up something like 97, which paired with the board. He wasn't turning it up to wave his bluff in my face. He was proud of his big two pair. There's a pair of aces on the board, and he was pushing hard with aces and sevens. Okay, noted. I also noted that he seemed a bit confused at my comment.
I won't attempt to discuss any of the rest of the action except to say that most of his chips were sitting in front of me before we were finished. And it was pretty easy pickings once I knew what he thought of as a really good hand.
The moral of the story, if there is one, is to be patient when you run into Pvt. Pooosh. Time your action just right and all his chips will become yours.
There was a new guy in the game who was bragging about how he played online poker all the time and totally killed the game. In Darval's game we would always buy in for $5 and get $50 in chips. We all knew each $1 chip was only ten cents, but we tried to play like they were real dollars. For some reason, the new guy and one other player had bought in for $20 instead of the usual $5. No biggie.
So we start with the usual $0.50/$1 blinds. First hand the new guy raises to $25. $1.50 in the pot, and he raises to $25. Of course, everyone folds. A couple hands later he does the same thing. And again. And again. Finally he says, "I thought you guys were poker players." Someone responded, "We are. That's why we're folding. Your bets are way out of proportion to the size of the pot."
He understood we thought his bets were too big, but it was pretty clear he didn't understand why. He toned it down a bit after that, once or twice slipping back into gigantically oversized bets.
After a while I asked him where he liked playing online. Based on what I'd seen of his play, I figured I'd go look him up online. He said he only played at Yahoo. Yahoo? Suddenly it all made sense. He was used to betting fake chips that had no value, so it didn't matter if he bet $5 or $5000. Both bets were actually worth $0.
I may have told this part of the story before. I'm too lazy to go back and search my own blog. Fairly early we get in a hand where I had something like A4 and there were two aces on the board. We get to the river and I make a small value bet. He comes over the top big. At this point I figure he's got an ace and is almost sure to have a better kicker. I even said out loud, "I think you have me outkicked." So I folded.
He very proudly turns up something like 97, which paired with the board. He wasn't turning it up to wave his bluff in my face. He was proud of his big two pair. There's a pair of aces on the board, and he was pushing hard with aces and sevens. Okay, noted. I also noted that he seemed a bit confused at my comment.
I won't attempt to discuss any of the rest of the action except to say that most of his chips were sitting in front of me before we were finished. And it was pretty easy pickings once I knew what he thought of as a really good hand.
The moral of the story, if there is one, is to be patient when you run into Pvt. Pooosh. Time your action just right and all his chips will become yours.
23 July 2007
A long time ago, at a poker site far, far away, a friend had won a seat in a freeroll. He was unable to play and asked me to play in his stead. I agreed before realizing what I was getting myself into.
Turns out it was a limit tournament. I feel very strongly that limit Hold'em does not lend itself well to tournament play and try to avoid limit tournaments like the plague. But I'd already agreed to play, so I did.
I was doing regular email maintenance and came upon a message to my friend narrating the progress in the tournament. Think of it as tape-delayed live-blogging. You may find it amusing. You might find just a wee bit of sarcasm here and there. You've been warned.
Started out doing pretty good. Won a couple decent pots. Then I get TP aces on a ATx board. I bet, two callers. Turn is a blank. I bet, one fold, one call. River is a K. I figure I'm still ahead so I bet. Raise. TP isn't that strong so I call. The bloody calling station turns over QJ. She's stayed through all that on an inside straight draw. Idiot.
We're midway through level 4 now and I've been card dead ever since losing to the calling station. Not even anything remotely playable. If the cards don't improve this is going to be over soon. I hate limit.
First break. Blinded down to 750. Meantime, the calling station, down to 500, pushed hard with ATs from UTG+1 and was rewarded with two callers holding air. She's up to 1600. There is no justice.
The calling station just got eliminated. Without me having a chance to get back any of your chips.
Just got my best hand so far -- 33 -- and had to fold to a raise.
We just tripled up with A8 that completely missed. A-high with the 8 playing as kicker. Up to 1350 now. Maybe I should just play the junk.
Two hands later I get 66. Folds to me. There's a sit-out in the BB, so I raise hoping to scoop. Big stack calls. Flop is QQ6. More than double again.
Just rode AJ to victory over same big stack. We're back in this. 4300. Average is 2800. Amazing what getting some cards can do.
Dropped 1000 on some good starters that didn't pan out. 3300. Blinds at 100/200. Average up to 3900.
I just noticed, they're paying 20% of the field in this thing. 564th gets $0.70. We got a shot at the money! Unfortunately, serious money doesn't start until... uh, 1st? Why are we playing in this?
Just got moved to a table of big stacks. This should be fun. Still card dead. Haven't seen a winner since that AJ hand. Did dodge a stacker when I folded AJ to a raise. Raiser had AQ and two A's fell on the flop.
Oh, great. Finally caught a hand, AK, raise UTG, and it folds around.
Just picked up a small pot with KJs. Then lost it all back when I raised from the SB with K4o, not noticing someone had already called. Ack. Gotta pay more attention.
100 more eliminations and we're in the money!
Just got moved again, but we dodged the blinds. A free round. Weehee!
KK in the SB. Up to 6300.
I can't believe it. These idiots are slowing play trying to be sure they get $0.70. OMG, we've gone to hand-for-hand. For $0.70? This is torture. 64 tables still in play and we're hand-for-hand. Arggggghhhhhh!!!!
We made the money! And, more importantly, we're out of hand-for-hand for another 100 eliminations.
Second break. We've got 5700 with blinds going to 300/600. 45 more eliminations and we're up to $0.80!
I tried a couple well-situated bluffs that fell completely flat. Folds to me in the SB. BB is very short. I raise, he re-raises, I call. Turns out he's got T3. Okay, so I was bluffing, but what the hell is he doing coming back with T3o? He went all-in and the pot was laying about 40:1, so I called with air just hoping to catch something. I didn't. Down to 2600. But we made the next money level! Another 100 eliminations and we move to $0.90.
We're on the ropes -- down to 1400 -- but we're gonna make the next money tier. $0.90!!!
We've got less than 2BB. I pushed with A8s. No help on flop, or turn, but we win anyway. Up to $6k! Half the average stack, but off life support. We may make the $1.00 payout!
We're up to $1.00, but it's not looking good. Haven't had a hand since the Hoover administration. Oh, wait, AKo on the button. We're all-in against QQ. Rivered a K! Crap, at this rate I could be here all night making $0.10 an hour. Just got moved again.
We're up to $1.10. This is getting exciting.
Shit! I just doubled up. 13.5k. We could be looking at some serious money in this thing. I'm talking $2.00, maybe $2.20.
Wow, first "regular" hand I've played in ages. 77, call from MP. Blinds call. Q high flop. Check, check, bet, fold, fold. Up to 16.7k. Blinds are at 800/1600 though. We're gonna make $1.20.
AKo. Up to 20k. Moving to $1.30.
Third break over. Blinds at 1k/2k and we're down to 15k. And, more good news, the chip leader just sat down on my right. Wonderful.
Got moved. At least no ginormous stack to my right.
$1.50! We made $1.50!!!! Yay!! Only 15 more to $1.60.
Out in 98th on the cooler of coolers. Four pocket pairs. We had the smallest, but it was worth it on the off chance of catching a set. You're now $1.50 richer. Yee hah!
Turns out it was a limit tournament. I feel very strongly that limit Hold'em does not lend itself well to tournament play and try to avoid limit tournaments like the plague. But I'd already agreed to play, so I did.
I was doing regular email maintenance and came upon a message to my friend narrating the progress in the tournament. Think of it as tape-delayed live-blogging. You may find it amusing. You might find just a wee bit of sarcasm here and there. You've been warned.
Started out doing pretty good. Won a couple decent pots. Then I get TP aces on a ATx board. I bet, two callers. Turn is a blank. I bet, one fold, one call. River is a K. I figure I'm still ahead so I bet. Raise. TP isn't that strong so I call. The bloody calling station turns over QJ. She's stayed through all that on an inside straight draw. Idiot.
We're midway through level 4 now and I've been card dead ever since losing to the calling station. Not even anything remotely playable. If the cards don't improve this is going to be over soon. I hate limit.
First break. Blinded down to 750. Meantime, the calling station, down to 500, pushed hard with ATs from UTG+1 and was rewarded with two callers holding air. She's up to 1600. There is no justice.
The calling station just got eliminated. Without me having a chance to get back any of your chips.
Just got my best hand so far -- 33 -- and had to fold to a raise.
We just tripled up with A8 that completely missed. A-high with the 8 playing as kicker. Up to 1350 now. Maybe I should just play the junk.
Two hands later I get 66. Folds to me. There's a sit-out in the BB, so I raise hoping to scoop. Big stack calls. Flop is QQ6. More than double again.
Just rode AJ to victory over same big stack. We're back in this. 4300. Average is 2800. Amazing what getting some cards can do.
Dropped 1000 on some good starters that didn't pan out. 3300. Blinds at 100/200. Average up to 3900.
I just noticed, they're paying 20% of the field in this thing. 564th gets $0.70. We got a shot at the money! Unfortunately, serious money doesn't start until... uh, 1st? Why are we playing in this?
Just got moved to a table of big stacks. This should be fun. Still card dead. Haven't seen a winner since that AJ hand. Did dodge a stacker when I folded AJ to a raise. Raiser had AQ and two A's fell on the flop.
Oh, great. Finally caught a hand, AK, raise UTG, and it folds around.
Just picked up a small pot with KJs. Then lost it all back when I raised from the SB with K4o, not noticing someone had already called. Ack. Gotta pay more attention.
100 more eliminations and we're in the money!
Just got moved again, but we dodged the blinds. A free round. Weehee!
KK in the SB. Up to 6300.
I can't believe it. These idiots are slowing play trying to be sure they get $0.70. OMG, we've gone to hand-for-hand. For $0.70? This is torture. 64 tables still in play and we're hand-for-hand. Arggggghhhhhh!!!!
We made the money! And, more importantly, we're out of hand-for-hand for another 100 eliminations.
Second break. We've got 5700 with blinds going to 300/600. 45 more eliminations and we're up to $0.80!
I tried a couple well-situated bluffs that fell completely flat. Folds to me in the SB. BB is very short. I raise, he re-raises, I call. Turns out he's got T3. Okay, so I was bluffing, but what the hell is he doing coming back with T3o? He went all-in and the pot was laying about 40:1, so I called with air just hoping to catch something. I didn't. Down to 2600. But we made the next money level! Another 100 eliminations and we move to $0.90.
We're on the ropes -- down to 1400 -- but we're gonna make the next money tier. $0.90!!!
We've got less than 2BB. I pushed with A8s. No help on flop, or turn, but we win anyway. Up to $6k! Half the average stack, but off life support. We may make the $1.00 payout!
We're up to $1.00, but it's not looking good. Haven't had a hand since the Hoover administration. Oh, wait, AKo on the button. We're all-in against QQ. Rivered a K! Crap, at this rate I could be here all night making $0.10 an hour. Just got moved again.
We're up to $1.10. This is getting exciting.
Shit! I just doubled up. 13.5k. We could be looking at some serious money in this thing. I'm talking $2.00, maybe $2.20.
Wow, first "regular" hand I've played in ages. 77, call from MP. Blinds call. Q high flop. Check, check, bet, fold, fold. Up to 16.7k. Blinds are at 800/1600 though. We're gonna make $1.20.
AKo. Up to 20k. Moving to $1.30.
Third break over. Blinds at 1k/2k and we're down to 15k. And, more good news, the chip leader just sat down on my right. Wonderful.
Got moved. At least no ginormous stack to my right.
$1.50! We made $1.50!!!! Yay!! Only 15 more to $1.60.
Out in 98th on the cooler of coolers. Four pocket pairs. We had the smallest, but it was worth it on the off chance of catching a set. You're now $1.50 richer. Yee hah!
I'm Donkerific
After a rather trying day at work on Friday, I was definitely in the mood for some donkey poker. The blogger donkament on FT was just the ticket. I got my head into the right place by eating some leftover pizza while downing a few beers.
I'm not going to begin to talk about the play. There were some accusations that a few of the participants weren't exactly into the spirit of the whole donkament. I must admit I didn't wildly push with any two cards whenever the mood struck. I did that last time and ended up re-buying eleven times. This time I was a bit more careful, though still far more risk taking than normal. I ended up just doing the initial rebuy to build my stack and then the add-on at the break.
Two hours later it was down to jeciimd and me. I had a pretty big lead, but jeciimd was getting tired so we agreed to just start pushing until someone won. (There wasn't even close to enough money at stake to go find somebody to chop it.) I get 85s, but push as I promise. Jeciimd showed 44. I catch a 67 on the flop and a 9 on the turn to end the torture. Don't remember how much my big win was, but I don't think it covered the pizza and beer. And the pizza was a sunk cost.
Sunday night was WPBT 07 Event #7. Seems that interest in these has waned just a tad. Only ten runners in a $24 HORSE tournament.
Full Tilt outdid themselves in the card rack department tonight. I got quads four times (and was able to win something with them). I saw at least two other players with quads too. One of my quads was in Stud. I got dealt AAA. Naturally, I was pumping the pot from the beginning and was all-in on 5th street. My opponent had K's, caught a second pair on 6th street and a boat on 7th street, but I caught the 4th ace on 7th street to take down a pot I desperately needed. Pretty sick to fill the full house only to lose to quads filled on the same street.
Despite the good result above, I've decided I really don't like stud. After more years playing it than I care to admit, you'd think I'd feel some comfort with the game. But I feel completely out of my element. I'm okay with Hold'em and am feeling much more comfortable with O8 and Razz, but stud just doesn't feel right. I've decided my best tactic is to play really, really slow and hope to get through that round playing as few hands as possible.
Speaking of slow play, I swear some of these guys play slower than my grandmother, and she's been dead for ten years. Every stinking hand we're waiting on the same people. I'm sure some of them are playing multiple tournaments, but it's just plain rude, especially when it's an invitation-only event like this. If you can't give sufficient attention to the game, don't play. Okay, enough ranting.
iam23skidoo brought his chips to the final table in a wheel barrow. He had 2-1/2 times the stack of the next closest player. And he kept building it. It wasn't until we were down to just four players that a bit of a dent was made.
pvanharibo bubbled when iam23skidoo played big stack poker, calling her down with squat and getting lucky at the river.
Khanwoman, who had been hanging on by a thread for quite a while, was the next to go. She was dealt a pair of tens in Stud Hi, but I caught a third 7 on 4th street and put her all-in. She didn't improve and hit the rail with 3rd place money.
skidoo and I started heads up almost even in chips. I had him on the ropes after taking down a huge pot with quad fours. But skidoo fought back, taking the lead and eventually having me down 3-to-1 in chips.
A couple very good hands got me back in it. We traded the lead several times before I caught a couple good hands in O8 to get him down and finally put it away.
I will say I now understand why at the WSOP last year they switched the HORSE tournament to all Hold'em when they hit the final table. When you're down to just a few players, split games suck big time.
It feels good to have won one of these, even if there were only 10 runners.
I'm not going to begin to talk about the play. There were some accusations that a few of the participants weren't exactly into the spirit of the whole donkament. I must admit I didn't wildly push with any two cards whenever the mood struck. I did that last time and ended up re-buying eleven times. This time I was a bit more careful, though still far more risk taking than normal. I ended up just doing the initial rebuy to build my stack and then the add-on at the break.
Two hours later it was down to jeciimd and me. I had a pretty big lead, but jeciimd was getting tired so we agreed to just start pushing until someone won. (There wasn't even close to enough money at stake to go find somebody to chop it.) I get 85s, but push as I promise. Jeciimd showed 44. I catch a 67 on the flop and a 9 on the turn to end the torture. Don't remember how much my big win was, but I don't think it covered the pizza and beer. And the pizza was a sunk cost.
Sunday night was WPBT 07 Event #7. Seems that interest in these has waned just a tad. Only ten runners in a $24 HORSE tournament. Full Tilt outdid themselves in the card rack department tonight. I got quads four times (and was able to win something with them). I saw at least two other players with quads too. One of my quads was in Stud. I got dealt AAA. Naturally, I was pumping the pot from the beginning and was all-in on 5th street. My opponent had K's, caught a second pair on 6th street and a boat on 7th street, but I caught the 4th ace on 7th street to take down a pot I desperately needed. Pretty sick to fill the full house only to lose to quads filled on the same street.
Despite the good result above, I've decided I really don't like stud. After more years playing it than I care to admit, you'd think I'd feel some comfort with the game. But I feel completely out of my element. I'm okay with Hold'em and am feeling much more comfortable with O8 and Razz, but stud just doesn't feel right. I've decided my best tactic is to play really, really slow and hope to get through that round playing as few hands as possible.
Speaking of slow play, I swear some of these guys play slower than my grandmother, and she's been dead for ten years. Every stinking hand we're waiting on the same people. I'm sure some of them are playing multiple tournaments, but it's just plain rude, especially when it's an invitation-only event like this. If you can't give sufficient attention to the game, don't play. Okay, enough ranting.
iam23skidoo brought his chips to the final table in a wheel barrow. He had 2-1/2 times the stack of the next closest player. And he kept building it. It wasn't until we were down to just four players that a bit of a dent was made.
pvanharibo bubbled when iam23skidoo played big stack poker, calling her down with squat and getting lucky at the river.
Khanwoman, who had been hanging on by a thread for quite a while, was the next to go. She was dealt a pair of tens in Stud Hi, but I caught a third 7 on 4th street and put her all-in. She didn't improve and hit the rail with 3rd place money.
skidoo and I started heads up almost even in chips. I had him on the ropes after taking down a huge pot with quad fours. But skidoo fought back, taking the lead and eventually having me down 3-to-1 in chips.
A couple very good hands got me back in it. We traded the lead several times before I caught a couple good hands in O8 to get him down and finally put it away.
I will say I now understand why at the WSOP last year they switched the HORSE tournament to all Hold'em when they hit the final table. When you're down to just a few players, split games suck big time.
It feels good to have won one of these, even if there were only 10 runners.
20 July 2007
Win some, lose some
I played in the FTP $24k last night. Not my best performance.
I tried to get something going early, but without any success at all. Every time I'd make a move, somebody moved back even bigger. I dropped almost half my stack on an ill advised move with KQo when the flop came up low and ragged. The other guy pushed all-in and I ran away with my tail between my legs.
A few hands later I sucked out against the same guy when I took my 88 against his KK and caught a set on the turn. That got me back to my starting stack.
I decided it might be in my best interest to wait for some actual cards before making another move on a pot. So I drifted sideways for quite a while.
Then came one of those hands where the action builds throughout the hand until somebody pushes all-in, but by then the pot is so big it's still giving good odds. I limped with a mid-suited ace. Several others limped as well. The flop brought an ace and one card of my suit. There was a min-bet and two calls. My ace didn't feel strong enough to make a move, so I called and hoped for the turn to bring me something good.
The turn brought another mid card of my suit. Unlikely to have been of great help to anyone else. One of the other players put out a weak bet. With TP, four to the nut flush, and nobody showing great strength, it was time to make a move. I raised to slightly less than the size of the pot. The bettor called.
The river paired the low card on the board. The other guy pushed all-in. I'm figuring him for a hand like mine -- a weak ace. I can't see him playing bottom pair (now trips) the way he has. Maybe he had bottom two pair and just filled, but pushing all-in doesn't seem a smart way to play that. Nope, I'm thinking we've both got aces and fives and both playing the jack on the board as our kicker. So I call.
I was wrong. He didn't have an ace. He didn't have a five. He had QJ. I took down a very nice pot and was suddenly pretty healthy.
There was a long period of going nowhere. Then I get TT in MP. UTG and UTG+1 both limp. This looks like a good time to make a move with both of them showing weakness. I pot it. It folds back to UTG who thinks a bit and then pushes all-in. He has me covered by a wide margin. It's possible he was weakly playing a big pair hoping to get action, but I'm leaning more toward a simple re-steal. I call. He turns over KJs. The flop is Q6T with one of his suit. The turn is a blank but he rivers a 9, giving him the straight, and I go home in 500th of 1100-some.
I don't normally like to be calling all my chips on just a coin flip, but I figured there was a chance he had a smaller pair and I'd have been going in a big favorite. Plus, I was down to M=10, so I needed to make a move soon anyway. When you add in that the pot was laying me 1.6:1, I guess it was the right move.
Later in the evening I played another Tier One tournament. It was a real roller coaster ride. Up and down and up and down. I was in deep trouble on several occasions, but each time managed to extricate myself, eventually getting past the bubble as the dominant stack. I felt pretty good after that one. It was like I actually had a clue about what I was doing.
I'm not sure yet what's up for the weekend. Maybe I'll check out some of the FTOPs prelims.
I tried to get something going early, but without any success at all. Every time I'd make a move, somebody moved back even bigger. I dropped almost half my stack on an ill advised move with KQo when the flop came up low and ragged. The other guy pushed all-in and I ran away with my tail between my legs.
A few hands later I sucked out against the same guy when I took my 88 against his KK and caught a set on the turn. That got me back to my starting stack.
I decided it might be in my best interest to wait for some actual cards before making another move on a pot. So I drifted sideways for quite a while.
Then came one of those hands where the action builds throughout the hand until somebody pushes all-in, but by then the pot is so big it's still giving good odds. I limped with a mid-suited ace. Several others limped as well. The flop brought an ace and one card of my suit. There was a min-bet and two calls. My ace didn't feel strong enough to make a move, so I called and hoped for the turn to bring me something good.
The turn brought another mid card of my suit. Unlikely to have been of great help to anyone else. One of the other players put out a weak bet. With TP, four to the nut flush, and nobody showing great strength, it was time to make a move. I raised to slightly less than the size of the pot. The bettor called.
The river paired the low card on the board. The other guy pushed all-in. I'm figuring him for a hand like mine -- a weak ace. I can't see him playing bottom pair (now trips) the way he has. Maybe he had bottom two pair and just filled, but pushing all-in doesn't seem a smart way to play that. Nope, I'm thinking we've both got aces and fives and both playing the jack on the board as our kicker. So I call.
I was wrong. He didn't have an ace. He didn't have a five. He had QJ. I took down a very nice pot and was suddenly pretty healthy.
There was a long period of going nowhere. Then I get TT in MP. UTG and UTG+1 both limp. This looks like a good time to make a move with both of them showing weakness. I pot it. It folds back to UTG who thinks a bit and then pushes all-in. He has me covered by a wide margin. It's possible he was weakly playing a big pair hoping to get action, but I'm leaning more toward a simple re-steal. I call. He turns over KJs. The flop is Q6T with one of his suit. The turn is a blank but he rivers a 9, giving him the straight, and I go home in 500th of 1100-some.
I don't normally like to be calling all my chips on just a coin flip, but I figured there was a chance he had a smaller pair and I'd have been going in a big favorite. Plus, I was down to M=10, so I needed to make a move soon anyway. When you add in that the pot was laying me 1.6:1, I guess it was the right move.
Later in the evening I played another Tier One tournament. It was a real roller coaster ride. Up and down and up and down. I was in deep trouble on several occasions, but each time managed to extricate myself, eventually getting past the bubble as the dominant stack. I felt pretty good after that one. It was like I actually had a clue about what I was doing.
I'm not sure yet what's up for the weekend. Maybe I'll check out some of the FTOPs prelims.
16 July 2007
I'm an idiot
One of these days I'm going to start writing down all the poker lessons I've learned. Hopefully this will keep me from having to relearn them the hard way.
Lesson for today -- when somebody you've sat next to all tournament, who has a VP$IP of 12%, who you've never seen even hint at bluffing... when this guy raises, believe it. And believe that he knows he has something.
I played a simple $20 SnG at Full Tilt last night. Did nothing but keep my head afloat for a long time. Then I triple up with KK vs JJ vs AK. Next hand I catch QQ and add a bit more. In two hands I go from second to last to a very comfortable chip lead. I hung on to the lead for a long time by basically doing nothing. Eventually we get to the bubble with me still in the lead and I start stealing pots. Not every pot, but often enough that I started feeling full of myself, as if I could take every pot just by putting the other guy to the test. Then I ran into someone who passed the test.
I raise to 300 with 88 from UTG. BB comes over the top big, making it 950 to go. I guess I figured with such a big raise he either had two big cards or a weak pair. I know at this point in the tournament I'd definitely be slowplaying a big pair. So I pushed and he insta-called with KK. Thinking it through, maybe it wasn't THAT stupid of a move on my part, but I still shouldn't have risked it. I could have given up the 300 and still had the chip lead.
Two hands later I pushed with TT, got called by 77, and bubbled when he turned a third 7. From chip leader to gone in three hands. Basically, one mistake cost me the tournament.
On Saturday I ventured back to Stars for the first time in ages. It had been a long time since I played a regular SnG (the one above was played on Sunday), so I decided to try a $10 single table just to see if I still knew how to play those.
Second lesson for today -- when you are clearly the stronger player heads-up, do not be in a hurry to get things over with.
I may never really learn this one. I've fallen victim to it I couldn't tell you how many times.
A corollary of this one is that if a player appears to be out of his element when heads-up, he probably won't catch on during this session. If you keep raising with air and he continues to give it up without a struggle, when he does come back at you it almost certainly means he's got something. The odds are very slim that he's caught on and is fighting back with nothing but chutzpah.
As you may have guessed by now, I finished 2nd in the Stars SnG.
I also played a Tier One SnG at FTP where I had a brief lapse of situational awareness. I went into the final table in very good shape. The kind of shape where you can pretty much fold your way to a token.
And then, on the ticket bubble, I get AQo and for just an instant forget that my goal is survival, not stack building. I push all-in with nothing but shorties left to act. I know better than to do this. In almost any other situation it's a good move, but not in a multi-way satellite.
One of the shorties, quite inexplicably, decides to call with J3 sooted. Okay, my move was stupid from the perspective that I was risking a lot to build my stack at a time when it didn't really need building. But to call an all-in with J3 sooted? It's one thing to think somebody's trying to buy the pot, but you still need to have something to go against them with. For the life of me I can't understand that call. Naturally, he caught a J and I didn't improve.
Then my KK goes down to KQo when he rivers a straight. I bubble the ticket, picking up a few bucks for my trouble.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Lesson for today -- when somebody you've sat next to all tournament, who has a VP$IP of 12%, who you've never seen even hint at bluffing... when this guy raises, believe it. And believe that he knows he has something.
I played a simple $20 SnG at Full Tilt last night. Did nothing but keep my head afloat for a long time. Then I triple up with KK vs JJ vs AK. Next hand I catch QQ and add a bit more. In two hands I go from second to last to a very comfortable chip lead. I hung on to the lead for a long time by basically doing nothing. Eventually we get to the bubble with me still in the lead and I start stealing pots. Not every pot, but often enough that I started feeling full of myself, as if I could take every pot just by putting the other guy to the test. Then I ran into someone who passed the test.
I raise to 300 with 88 from UTG. BB comes over the top big, making it 950 to go. I guess I figured with such a big raise he either had two big cards or a weak pair. I know at this point in the tournament I'd definitely be slowplaying a big pair. So I pushed and he insta-called with KK. Thinking it through, maybe it wasn't THAT stupid of a move on my part, but I still shouldn't have risked it. I could have given up the 300 and still had the chip lead.
Two hands later I pushed with TT, got called by 77, and bubbled when he turned a third 7. From chip leader to gone in three hands. Basically, one mistake cost me the tournament.
On Saturday I ventured back to Stars for the first time in ages. It had been a long time since I played a regular SnG (the one above was played on Sunday), so I decided to try a $10 single table just to see if I still knew how to play those.
Second lesson for today -- when you are clearly the stronger player heads-up, do not be in a hurry to get things over with.
I may never really learn this one. I've fallen victim to it I couldn't tell you how many times.
A corollary of this one is that if a player appears to be out of his element when heads-up, he probably won't catch on during this session. If you keep raising with air and he continues to give it up without a struggle, when he does come back at you it almost certainly means he's got something. The odds are very slim that he's caught on and is fighting back with nothing but chutzpah.
As you may have guessed by now, I finished 2nd in the Stars SnG.
I also played a Tier One SnG at FTP where I had a brief lapse of situational awareness. I went into the final table in very good shape. The kind of shape where you can pretty much fold your way to a token.
And then, on the ticket bubble, I get AQo and for just an instant forget that my goal is survival, not stack building. I push all-in with nothing but shorties left to act. I know better than to do this. In almost any other situation it's a good move, but not in a multi-way satellite.
One of the shorties, quite inexplicably, decides to call with J3 sooted. Okay, my move was stupid from the perspective that I was risking a lot to build my stack at a time when it didn't really need building. But to call an all-in with J3 sooted? It's one thing to think somebody's trying to buy the pot, but you still need to have something to go against them with. For the life of me I can't understand that call. Naturally, he caught a J and I didn't improve.
Then my KK goes down to KQo when he rivers a straight. I bubble the ticket, picking up a few bucks for my trouble.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
14 July 2007
ct4um8
The worlds of texting and online poker playing on occasion intersect in the chat window. It's more an intersection of concepts than anything else. Beyond a few very obvious bits of shorthand, the typical texting abbreviations don't much apply in the chat window and, unless you're texting your poker buddies, the poker abbreviations don't much apply to the wider world of texting.
We've all seen the usual -- "nh", "nb", "gg", "gla" (usually preceded by several "gg"s and the word "observer").
I was watching the WPT LA Invitational the other night. At one point Miami John had just put a horrendous bad beat on a younger player. Before the next hand, Miami John looked across the table and said, "I'm glad I won the hand, but I'm sorry about the way it happened."
The young guy replied, "I'm glad you said you were happy you won the hand. I hate it when guys say they're sorry when you know they really aren't."
I'm sure we've all been on both sides of this. Having put a horrible beat on someone and wanting to express that you know you got extremely lucky, as if that will somehow make it better. Having suffered someone hitting their one-outer at the river to send you to the rails and seeing them type "sorry" in the chat, knowing it's not really true.
We need a saying for this situation that adequately expresses both joy at having won and some small token of sorrow for the other player's loss. And, just as importantly, we need a shorthand way of saying it.
It is with this in mind that I give you "ct4um8" -- crocodile tears for you, mate.
"Crocodile tears" because I just swallowed your stack, yet I'm still shedding tears "4u". And "m8" just because it sounds friendly and reminds me of Crocodile Dundee.
Please feel free to borrow ct4um8 and use it whenever it seems appropriate.
We've all seen the usual -- "nh", "nb", "gg", "gla" (usually preceded by several "gg"s and the word "observer").
I was watching the WPT LA Invitational the other night. At one point Miami John had just put a horrendous bad beat on a younger player. Before the next hand, Miami John looked across the table and said, "I'm glad I won the hand, but I'm sorry about the way it happened."
The young guy replied, "I'm glad you said you were happy you won the hand. I hate it when guys say they're sorry when you know they really aren't."
I'm sure we've all been on both sides of this. Having put a horrible beat on someone and wanting to express that you know you got extremely lucky, as if that will somehow make it better. Having suffered someone hitting their one-outer at the river to send you to the rails and seeing them type "sorry" in the chat, knowing it's not really true.
We need a saying for this situation that adequately expresses both joy at having won and some small token of sorrow for the other player's loss. And, just as importantly, we need a shorthand way of saying it.
It is with this in mind that I give you "ct4um8" -- crocodile tears for you, mate.
"Crocodile tears" because I just swallowed your stack, yet I'm still shedding tears "4u". And "m8" just because it sounds friendly and reminds me of Crocodile Dundee.
Please feel free to borrow ct4um8 and use it whenever it seems appropriate.
13 July 2007
Rebuy, cash, and BBT
For some reason I can't quite fathom, I played in a cheap rebuy tournament last night. I used to hate these things. The crazy play in the rebuy period would drive me nuts. I'd spent so much time keeping my inner donkey in check I just couldn't embrace the idea of letting him out, if only for a little while.
Now I've learned to successfully thread my way through the donkey period, well, most of the time, and get to the point where play becomes a bit more normal. I wouldn't say I've gotten to where I love rebuys, but I don't hate them anymore.
Rebuys do generally exhibit some characteristics that can give great advantage to a knowledgeable, careful player. There are usually LOTS of donkeys playing these things, particularly the cheap ones. This presents many opportunities to greatly increase your stack during the rebuy period.
I've been loosening up my play a lot during this time. Not to the point of being totally nuts, but I'll play any two tightly connected cards, pretty much any suited connectors, any big cards, any suited ace, assuming I can get in cheap. I'll be generous when calculating implied odds to justify making what would otherwise look like a donkey call. I called one inside straight draw last night because I knew if I hit it I'd get the other guy's stack. I did.
A side effect of the looser play during the rebuy period is that a larger percentage of donkeys will make it through the first hour with very large stacks. This provides a second chance at taking away huge stacks for the cunning player.
These cheap rebuys also seem to simply attract a lot more donkeys. Idiotic play can be seen well past the bubble. I suppose this alone does not distinguish rebuys from regular tournaments, but it does seem to be observed with greater frequency in the rebuys.
Last night I played a $3 rebuy with a $6,000 guaranteed prize pool. I don't know if it was just an off night or what, but Full Tilt definitely lost money on this one. Even with the rebuys and add-ons, we fell considerably short of $6,000.
My first table seemed to be populated by people who'd never played a rebuy. Hell, I think most of these people hadn't even played much NL. One other player and I were the only ones to take an initial rebuy. Play was not the loosey-goosey stuff you normally see. I don't think I've ever seen so many min-bets and min-raises in one tournament before. They appeared to all be escapees from limit.
I had a few hands where I made good reads and was able to capitalize. At one point I think I made it to about 20th on the leaderboard. My first big hit was when somebody slowplayed pocket rockets, caught his set on the flop, and I had the misfortune of turning two pair. He played it well enough that I actually pushed him all-in.
By this time the disparity between big stacks and small stacks had grown quite large, and some of the big stacks were taking advantage. This made it tough to do much without cards, and those had pretty much dried up. I went out just before the second money increase. $2.70 profit for my three hours.
When that was over I decided to go play in the shallow end of the NL pool. If not for one hand where I got suckered by a too-big river bet I would have done a lot better. As it was I still walked away up 20BB in less than an hour. Not too shabby. Certainly a better per-hour rate than the rebuy.
Finally, the BBT. There has been a lot of discussion on various blogs about the points system and how extending the points all the way to the 50% mark resulted in people playing unusually tight, some even folding their way into the points. There are a number of issues here and some of the arguments don't seem to hold a lot of water.
Hoyazo in particular has been critical of the system and what he believes are resultant changes in the way some people would ordinarily play. I find this argument more than a bit confusing. Earlier this week he mentioned in his blog that one of the points of the blogger tournaments was for bloggers to have a place to hang out together, blow off steam, and feel free to play like the donkeys they so hate to suffer suckouts from in "regular" play. (Thanks, BTW, for making my good read of your too-large river bet sound as though I was some calling station who benefited from your sudden urge to act like a donkey just because you could.)
So, this raises a question. Is the "regular" style of play hoy is used to seeing in these blogaments the bloggers' "A game", or is it a donkefied version they save for these events to blow off steam? If hoy's contention that bloggers are donkefying their play for the blogaments is true, then perhaps what he was witnessing in the BBT was the real "A game" because they'd suddenly started taking these tournaments seriously. This would mean the only real change was that people were being serious about acquiring points. That would seem to be the objective of the BBT, so it should come as no surprise.
I would agree that there were changes in play style due to the artificial, second bubble created by the points at the 50% mark. Again, this is to be expected if people are taking the points seriously. It's no different than the money bubble. If you want a tournament with no bubble play, then you need to make it winner-take-all.
Hoy is suggesting the points be moved to the 20% mark rather than the 50% mark. I don't believe this does anything to fix the "problem", it simply moves the goal line. Instead of two bubbles separated fairly widely, there will be two bubbles fairly close together.
I believe Jordan came far closer to the truth of the matter. The points are there to encourage long term participation. By making it harder to get to the points, you are going to discourage those who don't score big points early in the blogament series.
My suggestion on the points embraces Jordan's concept and goes in the opposite direction of most other suggestions. I say change the formula so everyone gets points just for participating. To make it so simply showing up and giving a mediocre performance week after week won't get you to the top of the leaderboard, some changes to the formula will be necessary.
This season the BBT used the PokerStars TLB formula, modified to give points down to the 50% points for each tournament. The formula is:
Points = 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)]
Where:
n is the number of entrants
k is the place of finish (k=1 for the first-place finisher, and so on)
b is the buy-in amount in dollars (excluding administrative fee).
My suggestion is to further multiply this amount by some factor representing the amount of money won in the tournament. I'm no math whiz so maybe somebody has a better suggestion, but my first shot would be to multiply by sqrt(1+m), where m is the number of dollars won. The new formula would be:
Points = 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)] * sqrt(1+m)
Where:
n is the number of entrants
k is the place of finish (k=1 for the first-place finisher, and so on)
b is the buy-in amount in dollars (excluding administrative fee)
m is the amount won in dollars.
This gives everyone points so they can look at the leaderboard and see something other than a blank next to their name. It encourages a sense of participation. This formula also results in a single bubble where the money begins. Those who win big money get big points, those who consistently finish near the bottom still get to be less embarrassed when they look at the leaderboard.
As always, your comments are welcome.
Now I've learned to successfully thread my way through the donkey period, well, most of the time, and get to the point where play becomes a bit more normal. I wouldn't say I've gotten to where I love rebuys, but I don't hate them anymore.
Rebuys do generally exhibit some characteristics that can give great advantage to a knowledgeable, careful player. There are usually LOTS of donkeys playing these things, particularly the cheap ones. This presents many opportunities to greatly increase your stack during the rebuy period.
I've been loosening up my play a lot during this time. Not to the point of being totally nuts, but I'll play any two tightly connected cards, pretty much any suited connectors, any big cards, any suited ace, assuming I can get in cheap. I'll be generous when calculating implied odds to justify making what would otherwise look like a donkey call. I called one inside straight draw last night because I knew if I hit it I'd get the other guy's stack. I did.
A side effect of the looser play during the rebuy period is that a larger percentage of donkeys will make it through the first hour with very large stacks. This provides a second chance at taking away huge stacks for the cunning player.
These cheap rebuys also seem to simply attract a lot more donkeys. Idiotic play can be seen well past the bubble. I suppose this alone does not distinguish rebuys from regular tournaments, but it does seem to be observed with greater frequency in the rebuys.
Last night I played a $3 rebuy with a $6,000 guaranteed prize pool. I don't know if it was just an off night or what, but Full Tilt definitely lost money on this one. Even with the rebuys and add-ons, we fell considerably short of $6,000.
My first table seemed to be populated by people who'd never played a rebuy. Hell, I think most of these people hadn't even played much NL. One other player and I were the only ones to take an initial rebuy. Play was not the loosey-goosey stuff you normally see. I don't think I've ever seen so many min-bets and min-raises in one tournament before. They appeared to all be escapees from limit.
I had a few hands where I made good reads and was able to capitalize. At one point I think I made it to about 20th on the leaderboard. My first big hit was when somebody slowplayed pocket rockets, caught his set on the flop, and I had the misfortune of turning two pair. He played it well enough that I actually pushed him all-in.
By this time the disparity between big stacks and small stacks had grown quite large, and some of the big stacks were taking advantage. This made it tough to do much without cards, and those had pretty much dried up. I went out just before the second money increase. $2.70 profit for my three hours.
When that was over I decided to go play in the shallow end of the NL pool. If not for one hand where I got suckered by a too-big river bet I would have done a lot better. As it was I still walked away up 20BB in less than an hour. Not too shabby. Certainly a better per-hour rate than the rebuy.
Finally, the BBT. There has been a lot of discussion on various blogs about the points system and how extending the points all the way to the 50% mark resulted in people playing unusually tight, some even folding their way into the points. There are a number of issues here and some of the arguments don't seem to hold a lot of water.
Hoyazo in particular has been critical of the system and what he believes are resultant changes in the way some people would ordinarily play. I find this argument more than a bit confusing. Earlier this week he mentioned in his blog that one of the points of the blogger tournaments was for bloggers to have a place to hang out together, blow off steam, and feel free to play like the donkeys they so hate to suffer suckouts from in "regular" play. (Thanks, BTW, for making my good read of your too-large river bet sound as though I was some calling station who benefited from your sudden urge to act like a donkey just because you could.)
So, this raises a question. Is the "regular" style of play hoy is used to seeing in these blogaments the bloggers' "A game", or is it a donkefied version they save for these events to blow off steam? If hoy's contention that bloggers are donkefying their play for the blogaments is true, then perhaps what he was witnessing in the BBT was the real "A game" because they'd suddenly started taking these tournaments seriously. This would mean the only real change was that people were being serious about acquiring points. That would seem to be the objective of the BBT, so it should come as no surprise.
I would agree that there were changes in play style due to the artificial, second bubble created by the points at the 50% mark. Again, this is to be expected if people are taking the points seriously. It's no different than the money bubble. If you want a tournament with no bubble play, then you need to make it winner-take-all.
Hoy is suggesting the points be moved to the 20% mark rather than the 50% mark. I don't believe this does anything to fix the "problem", it simply moves the goal line. Instead of two bubbles separated fairly widely, there will be two bubbles fairly close together.
I believe Jordan came far closer to the truth of the matter. The points are there to encourage long term participation. By making it harder to get to the points, you are going to discourage those who don't score big points early in the blogament series.
My suggestion on the points embraces Jordan's concept and goes in the opposite direction of most other suggestions. I say change the formula so everyone gets points just for participating. To make it so simply showing up and giving a mediocre performance week after week won't get you to the top of the leaderboard, some changes to the formula will be necessary.
This season the BBT used the PokerStars TLB formula, modified to give points down to the 50% points for each tournament. The formula is:
Points = 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)]
Where:
n is the number of entrants
k is the place of finish (k=1 for the first-place finisher, and so on)
b is the buy-in amount in dollars (excluding administrative fee).
My suggestion is to further multiply this amount by some factor representing the amount of money won in the tournament. I'm no math whiz so maybe somebody has a better suggestion, but my first shot would be to multiply by sqrt(1+m), where m is the number of dollars won. The new formula would be:
Points = 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)] * sqrt(1+m)
Where:
n is the number of entrants
k is the place of finish (k=1 for the first-place finisher, and so on)
b is the buy-in amount in dollars (excluding administrative fee)
m is the amount won in dollars.
This gives everyone points so they can look at the leaderboard and see something other than a blank next to their name. It encourages a sense of participation. This formula also results in a single bubble where the money begins. Those who win big money get big points, those who consistently finish near the bottom still get to be less embarrassed when they look at the leaderboard.
As always, your comments are welcome.
10 July 2007
A good start at MATH
I got off to a great start in the Mondays At The Hoy tournament last night. Sadly, I was unable to carry through from the good start.
I've mentioned before that when hoyazo and I get into a hand together I often get the impression of two boxers warily circling each other in the center of the ring, each waiting for the other to attempt the first punch. Last night we were more like two super-heavyweights, feet planted firmly, determined to see who could take and deliver the most punches. Rocky and Apollo in the middle of the ring. Only without the funny shorts.
The very first hand I get 54o on the button. It folds to me. I want to play the hand and figure I might as well toss in a raise at this point. (This is a double-stack tournament so I've got plenty of chips to waste.) I make it 3BB. Both hoyazo in the SB and dnasty13 in the BB call.
Flop comes K54 rainbow. Hoy bets out 220 with 270 in the pot. Dnasty13 folds. Naturally, I call.
Turn brings a T, still rainbow. Hoy checks. I bet 450, a bit more than half the pot. He calls.
The river brings a 5, giving me fives full of fours. Hoy checks. I really don't have a good read on what he might be holding here. Maybe a middle pair. Possibly a weak king. Something like jacks or queens wouldn't be inconsistent with his play so far. Maybe a straight draw, hoping to hit on the river and bust me.
Since he's come this far, I'm figuring he's probably going to call my river bet, so my objective is to maximize my return. What is he most likely to call? A smaller value bet? An overbet that looks desperate? I opt for the latter. Sadly, hoyazo folds. Thinking I missed an opportunity to extract more chips, I'm still not too upset at picking up over 800 chips on the first hand.
Round 1 to Patchmaster.
Not too much later Hoy and I got into another battle. Unfortunately, Full Tilt or Poker Tracker or somebody managed to lose the hand history. And my memory of the hand is a bit hazy. I recall having K-something and hitting a king on the flop. Chips started flying and hoyazo eventually pushed all-in. I went into the tank. He certainly could have had me beat, but running through the action in my head it just didn't add up. I made the call. Hoy showed just an unpaired ace.
Knockout in the second round, Patchmaster is victorious. It should be interesting to read what Hoyazo has to say about this hand.
I had more than doubled up before level one was over. This was certainly the most chips I'd ever had in a blogger event this early. And I built the stack even more, having over 7000 sometime in level 3. Then I ran into Astin, the card rack.
I get AQo and make a pot sized raise. Astin calls. Flop is AK6. I bet 250, about 2/3 the pot. Astin raises to 750. I decided to play big stack poker and push him all in. He calls and turns over pocket sixes, eventually catching a fourth one on the river just to rub it in.
I don't know about Astin. He plays a ton of hands, way more than can possibly be justified by his cards. And he plays them very aggressively. Yet it seems every single time somebody makes a run against him he's got the goods. At one point later in the evening, after he'd built up a healthy stack, he was raising practically every hand. And winning almost every time somebody called him down. An aggressive card rack is a bloody nightmare to play against.
As for me, Astin's quads were the beginning of my demise. I still had a very healthy stack, but I just wasn't connecting on much. My stack began to dwindle. I got most of my chips back from Astin later on, but by then things had changed drastically. Astin had a huge stack and I was down to M<10. I eventually went out in something like 17th.
I guess next up in the blogger world is The Mookie on Wednesday.
I've mentioned before that when hoyazo and I get into a hand together I often get the impression of two boxers warily circling each other in the center of the ring, each waiting for the other to attempt the first punch. Last night we were more like two super-heavyweights, feet planted firmly, determined to see who could take and deliver the most punches. Rocky and Apollo in the middle of the ring. Only without the funny shorts.
The very first hand I get 54o on the button. It folds to me. I want to play the hand and figure I might as well toss in a raise at this point. (This is a double-stack tournament so I've got plenty of chips to waste.) I make it 3BB. Both hoyazo in the SB and dnasty13 in the BB call.
Flop comes K54 rainbow. Hoy bets out 220 with 270 in the pot. Dnasty13 folds. Naturally, I call.
Turn brings a T, still rainbow. Hoy checks. I bet 450, a bit more than half the pot. He calls.
The river brings a 5, giving me fives full of fours. Hoy checks. I really don't have a good read on what he might be holding here. Maybe a middle pair. Possibly a weak king. Something like jacks or queens wouldn't be inconsistent with his play so far. Maybe a straight draw, hoping to hit on the river and bust me.
Since he's come this far, I'm figuring he's probably going to call my river bet, so my objective is to maximize my return. What is he most likely to call? A smaller value bet? An overbet that looks desperate? I opt for the latter. Sadly, hoyazo folds. Thinking I missed an opportunity to extract more chips, I'm still not too upset at picking up over 800 chips on the first hand.
Round 1 to Patchmaster.
Not too much later Hoy and I got into another battle. Unfortunately, Full Tilt or Poker Tracker or somebody managed to lose the hand history. And my memory of the hand is a bit hazy. I recall having K-something and hitting a king on the flop. Chips started flying and hoyazo eventually pushed all-in. I went into the tank. He certainly could have had me beat, but running through the action in my head it just didn't add up. I made the call. Hoy showed just an unpaired ace.
Knockout in the second round, Patchmaster is victorious. It should be interesting to read what Hoyazo has to say about this hand.
I had more than doubled up before level one was over. This was certainly the most chips I'd ever had in a blogger event this early. And I built the stack even more, having over 7000 sometime in level 3. Then I ran into Astin, the card rack.
I get AQo and make a pot sized raise. Astin calls. Flop is AK6. I bet 250, about 2/3 the pot. Astin raises to 750. I decided to play big stack poker and push him all in. He calls and turns over pocket sixes, eventually catching a fourth one on the river just to rub it in.
I don't know about Astin. He plays a ton of hands, way more than can possibly be justified by his cards. And he plays them very aggressively. Yet it seems every single time somebody makes a run against him he's got the goods. At one point later in the evening, after he'd built up a healthy stack, he was raising practically every hand. And winning almost every time somebody called him down. An aggressive card rack is a bloody nightmare to play against.
As for me, Astin's quads were the beginning of my demise. I still had a very healthy stack, but I just wasn't connecting on much. My stack began to dwindle. I got most of my chips back from Astin later on, but by then things had changed drastically. Astin had a huge stack and I was down to M<10. I eventually went out in something like 17th.
I guess next up in the blogger world is The Mookie on Wednesday.
09 July 2007
Slow weekend
Another slow weekend for me. I didn't play any poker at all until late Sunday night. For some reason I got the urge to play right about the time I should have been heading off to bed. Figured maybe I'd hit up one of the $8 Turbo Tier One tourneys and pick up a ticket for tonight's MATH.
I get seated and we're about to get underway when I look around and find smokkee a couple seats to my right. I expect to see these guys in the blogger tournaments, but it always kind of freaks me out to bump into bloggers in open tournaments. Smokkee got moved to the other table fairly quickly and I didn't see him again until we made the final table.
It was a pretty good tournament for me. I actually caught a few decent hands, not that I was able to capitalize on them to any great degree.
Only one major suckout, and even on that the other guy was the one who made the mistakes. It folds to me in the SB and I raise to 600 (100/200 blinds) with air. BB, with M=4 even before posting the blind, simply calls with what turns out to be a pair of fours. The flop is T62, giving me bottom pair. I bet enough to put him all-in. He calls. I just don't get this. If he wants to play the fours, he should have pushed before the flop. I probably would have let it go and he'd have increased his M to 6. After the flop, looking at two overcards and a flush draw he decides to toss in the rest? If he read me for a bluff and a c-bet, more power to him, but I have a tough time believing it. I turned a deuce and he went home out of the money.
That suckout left me in a very healthy position and I was able to fairly easily work my way into a ticket.
I'm still troubled a bit by the people playing in these things who clearly don't grasp that optimum strategy at the final table of one of these is quite different than in regular tournaments. When five of the final nine win the top prize, the goal is not to amass the most chips, but to eliminate other players. When a shortie pushes all-in and you have a healthy stack and a good hand, you don't re-raise. You call and hope all the other big stacks behind you do the same. Collectively you have far more outs than any of you individually. You don't bet other people out of the pot unless you have THE nuts, and even then it's a marginal play unless you think you can suck another player into an elimination.
It may seem against the rules, but passive collaboration is the best strategy. The big stacks should be joining forces to eliminate the little stacks.
Smokkee and I both got our tickets. I'm going to use mine in tonight's MATH. Hope to see you there.
I get seated and we're about to get underway when I look around and find smokkee a couple seats to my right. I expect to see these guys in the blogger tournaments, but it always kind of freaks me out to bump into bloggers in open tournaments. Smokkee got moved to the other table fairly quickly and I didn't see him again until we made the final table.
It was a pretty good tournament for me. I actually caught a few decent hands, not that I was able to capitalize on them to any great degree.
Only one major suckout, and even on that the other guy was the one who made the mistakes. It folds to me in the SB and I raise to 600 (100/200 blinds) with air. BB, with M=4 even before posting the blind, simply calls with what turns out to be a pair of fours. The flop is T62, giving me bottom pair. I bet enough to put him all-in. He calls. I just don't get this. If he wants to play the fours, he should have pushed before the flop. I probably would have let it go and he'd have increased his M to 6. After the flop, looking at two overcards and a flush draw he decides to toss in the rest? If he read me for a bluff and a c-bet, more power to him, but I have a tough time believing it. I turned a deuce and he went home out of the money.
That suckout left me in a very healthy position and I was able to fairly easily work my way into a ticket.
I'm still troubled a bit by the people playing in these things who clearly don't grasp that optimum strategy at the final table of one of these is quite different than in regular tournaments. When five of the final nine win the top prize, the goal is not to amass the most chips, but to eliminate other players. When a shortie pushes all-in and you have a healthy stack and a good hand, you don't re-raise. You call and hope all the other big stacks behind you do the same. Collectively you have far more outs than any of you individually. You don't bet other people out of the pot unless you have THE nuts, and even then it's a marginal play unless you think you can suck another player into an elimination.
It may seem against the rules, but passive collaboration is the best strategy. The big stacks should be joining forces to eliminate the little stacks.
Smokkee and I both got our tickets. I'm going to use mine in tonight's MATH. Hope to see you there.
02 July 2007
My Big Game Sunday
Sunday was a day of big poker tournaments for me. Earlier in the week I won a ticket to the Full Tilt $500k at 6pm, and then there was the final BBT event, Miami Don's Big Game, at 9:30pm.
I wish I could say the outcome was better. I finished in the upper half of the $500k field, but still well out of the money. And my Big Game results were roughly the same. The only bright spot was that I got just enough points to squeak into the top 50 on the BBT leaderboard and qualify for the freeroll.
In the $500k there was one guy at my first table who was the poster child for calling stations. How somebody who plays like this ever got into this tournament is beyond me. Maybe it was a case of more money than brains. Of course, I shouldn't be bragging when it comes to the brains thing. I'd already identified this guy as a calling station, but I still made a run at a bluff against him. Against anyone who knew how to read the board the bluff probably would have worked, but not against the calling station. And I clearly should have known better. I did get it back when he checked his way into my hitting a straight and then, with a board of A3456 and him holding AK, called my large river bet. I was very sorry when somebody else busted him a short while later. I was hoping he'd luck into getting somebody's chips so I'd have a shot at taking them from him.
And that was pretty much the only high point of my $500k. I went card dead and just could not get anything going. It was very disappointing.
I tried to get my mind cleared and ready for Miami Don's Big Game, but it was tough to shake off my exceedingly lackluster results in the $500k. I certainly had no delusions of winning, but I had hoped to money. So with a bit of a cloud already over my head I started the Big Game.
Naturally, my table was filled with total pushover players. Lucko21, hoyazo, MiamiDon himself, jeciimd, irongirl01, TripJax, ChapelncHill, and Kajagugu. Yeah, pushovers, right. You'd be hard pressed to come up with a tougher blogger table.
Fairly early irongirl01 and Kajagugu got into a big battle that turned out set over set, irongirl on the losing end. She was put out of her misery a few hands later. Really bad break for irongirl.
Hoyazo and I got into an interesting hand together. Considering the number of times hoy and I have been at the same table, it's surprising we've not gone head to head all that many times. The times we have there has been enough trickery that we now both seem extremely wary when we find just the two of us in the pot. I usually get the impression of two boxers dancing around each other in the middle of the ring, each not sure he wants to be the first to make contact.
This time was no different. He raised to 3BB and I called from the BB with 66. The flop was somewhat uninteresting. I check after a bit of a pause. Hoy thinks a bit, then checks. The turn paired the board. I check. Hoy bets 280 -- about 2/3 the pot. I raise to 720 and hoy eventually folds. I thanked him for the dance and we went our separate ways.
I moved sideways for a long time until I managed to get very lucky against columbo. Like they always say on TV, the third raise means aces or kings, and I should have paid attention. Columbo raises, I re-raise with AKo, columbo pushes for 1500 more. At this point there's over 4000 in the pot so if he's got anything other than aces I'm getting the right odds to make the call. I do, he flips up kings, and I flop an ace to take down a very juicy pot.
Sadly, I got rather full of myself and ran my top pair no kicker nut flush draw into loud423's set of fives. My newly won chips quickly made their way into loud423's stack. A short while later I got some of it back when my AK proved stronger than loud423's A6.
I later took another fair sized pot with QQ, but that was pretty much the end of the road for big pluses in my Big Game. With blinds/antes at 200/400/50 and my stack at 5590 I found AKo UTG and raised to 4BB. MiamiDon, renown for pushing all-in with pretty much any two cards, makes the push and I call. He shows 99, I don't improve, I hit the rails.
As I said toward the beginning, my 17th (of 45) place finish gave me just enough points to squeak into 50th spot on the BBT leaderboard. So, assuming real life doesn't get in the way, I'll be at the freeroll.
I wish I could say the outcome was better. I finished in the upper half of the $500k field, but still well out of the money. And my Big Game results were roughly the same. The only bright spot was that I got just enough points to squeak into the top 50 on the BBT leaderboard and qualify for the freeroll.
In the $500k there was one guy at my first table who was the poster child for calling stations. How somebody who plays like this ever got into this tournament is beyond me. Maybe it was a case of more money than brains. Of course, I shouldn't be bragging when it comes to the brains thing. I'd already identified this guy as a calling station, but I still made a run at a bluff against him. Against anyone who knew how to read the board the bluff probably would have worked, but not against the calling station. And I clearly should have known better. I did get it back when he checked his way into my hitting a straight and then, with a board of A3456 and him holding AK, called my large river bet. I was very sorry when somebody else busted him a short while later. I was hoping he'd luck into getting somebody's chips so I'd have a shot at taking them from him.
And that was pretty much the only high point of my $500k. I went card dead and just could not get anything going. It was very disappointing.
I tried to get my mind cleared and ready for Miami Don's Big Game, but it was tough to shake off my exceedingly lackluster results in the $500k. I certainly had no delusions of winning, but I had hoped to money. So with a bit of a cloud already over my head I started the Big Game.
Naturally, my table was filled with total pushover players. Lucko21, hoyazo, MiamiDon himself, jeciimd, irongirl01, TripJax, ChapelncHill, and Kajagugu. Yeah, pushovers, right. You'd be hard pressed to come up with a tougher blogger table.
Fairly early irongirl01 and Kajagugu got into a big battle that turned out set over set, irongirl on the losing end. She was put out of her misery a few hands later. Really bad break for irongirl.
Hoyazo and I got into an interesting hand together. Considering the number of times hoy and I have been at the same table, it's surprising we've not gone head to head all that many times. The times we have there has been enough trickery that we now both seem extremely wary when we find just the two of us in the pot. I usually get the impression of two boxers dancing around each other in the middle of the ring, each not sure he wants to be the first to make contact.
This time was no different. He raised to 3BB and I called from the BB with 66. The flop was somewhat uninteresting. I check after a bit of a pause. Hoy thinks a bit, then checks. The turn paired the board. I check. Hoy bets 280 -- about 2/3 the pot. I raise to 720 and hoy eventually folds. I thanked him for the dance and we went our separate ways.
I moved sideways for a long time until I managed to get very lucky against columbo. Like they always say on TV, the third raise means aces or kings, and I should have paid attention. Columbo raises, I re-raise with AKo, columbo pushes for 1500 more. At this point there's over 4000 in the pot so if he's got anything other than aces I'm getting the right odds to make the call. I do, he flips up kings, and I flop an ace to take down a very juicy pot.
Sadly, I got rather full of myself and ran my top pair no kicker nut flush draw into loud423's set of fives. My newly won chips quickly made their way into loud423's stack. A short while later I got some of it back when my AK proved stronger than loud423's A6.
I later took another fair sized pot with QQ, but that was pretty much the end of the road for big pluses in my Big Game. With blinds/antes at 200/400/50 and my stack at 5590 I found AKo UTG and raised to 4BB. MiamiDon, renown for pushing all-in with pretty much any two cards, makes the push and I call. He shows 99, I don't improve, I hit the rails.
As I said toward the beginning, my 17th (of 45) place finish gave me just enough points to squeak into 50th spot on the BBT leaderboard. So, assuming real life doesn't get in the way, I'll be at the freeroll.
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