Back in the game

Despite the lack of recent posts here, I have actually been playing more poker lately. Full Tilt offered a "Take 2" bonus this month of which I took advantage. You had to play two or more tables simultaneously and earn at least one FT point between the two tables. You got bonus money at various intervals, up to a total of $50 for 25 days of play. I played PLO exclusively and collected the last of the $50 Monday night.

Aside from the bonus, the PLO was also reasonably profitable. I actually didn't track the money that closely, but I think I must have won at least as much in play as I gained from the bonus. Given my bonus chasing performance over the last few years this was a marked improvement.

Last night I decided to rejoin The Quest by getting back into the DoNTs at Stars. It was only one tournament, but based on a sample size of one, it seems my previous observations about these tournaments getting a lot tighter are still holding true. That's what I get for posting a bunch of lessons on how to play these.

I had some strong hands early and got up a good amount. Later on I got into a coin flip for most of my chips with my TT versus two big cards. My tens held and I could have coasted from there. I didn't, but I could have. I did end up winning. All in all, a nice return to The Quest.

The bankroll is up to $205. Hopefully I'll retain my interest for a while this time.

Five years ago today...

Five years ago today a guy who thought he knew how to play poker decided to take a chance on this online poker thing. Pacific Poker was the place. It was chosen because it was where his buddy George played online.

He started playing limit hold'em at a level that was way beyond his bankroll, or at least the amount deposited. And he got lucky. It didn't hurt that Pacific Poker was widely regarded as the site with the worst poker players online. That small initial deposit grew.

Within a fairly short period he began to realize how little he actually knew about the game, despite nearly a lifetime of playing poker at almost every opportunity. Books were ordered and studied. Shortly the initial bankroll had multiplied several times and the confines of Pacific Poker, rich though they were, began to feel limiting.

If memory serves, Poker Room was the next stop, along with a very nice first deposit bonus. Bonus? "Oh, yeah, this is sweet. All I have to do is be reasonably competent and do what I'd be doing anyway, and this site gives me money to do it."

It was about this time that everybody and their maiden aunts thought they could run a poker site, and they were happy to throw money away trying to build a base of players. The Cryptos were particularly sweet, most of them offering regular monthly bonuses just for playing. No special deposit required. And the tables were loaded with drunken Europeans playing way over their limit. The GBP tables were the sweetest. Must have been due to the pubs closing early or something.

Eventually the Poker Room network opened up and some extremely lucrative bonuses appeared. Ah, those were the good old days. Four-tabling $2/$4 limit. Watching the bonus money pile up. Cha-ching.

Never happy with the status quo, the Cryptos started offering micro-limit tables and the action at $1/$2 and above completely dried up. The bonus became very difficult to clear. Eventually it seemed hardly worth the effort.

At some point along the way, the siren call of tournament poker became too attractive to ignore. Bye-bye, limit. Hello, NLHE. Tournaments, tournaments, and more tournaments. The Wil Wheaton-hosted WWDN became a regular weekly stop. Then more blogger tournaments started to appear. If you go back and read the first entry on this blog you'll see it was started just to fulfill a requirement for entry to a blogger tournament.

Then came the day the poker died. Well, almost. I'll leave you to fill in your own Pythonesque skit here. The UIGEA was signed into law. It has so far turned out to be more nuisance than actual death, but it has definitely put a damper on things.

Like most episodes of looking back, it simultaneously seems like just yesterday and a long, long time ago that I sat down at the first virtual poker table. I played for at least an hour pretty much every day for the first couple years. I've been more on-and-off with it over the last three. I'll play regularly for three or four months, then I'll kind of lose interest and let it sit idle for a while.

This year has seen me go through a number of pretty major life changes. I've had three mailing addresses -- one on each of the coasts and one pretty much in the middle. I'm recently coming out of another hiatus that was due mostly to one of those real life changes. Things are settling into a regular pattern again and I find myself catching hints of that siren call just at the limits of my hearing.

I've been playing a bit of PLO the last couple weeks. It seems to be about where hold'em was five years ago -- full of players who have barely a clue what they're doing. You could fit my knowledge of PLO in a thimble and have plenty of room left over, but it's still a lot more knowledge than many of the players I've seen online. Of course, I'm still wading in the kiddie pool. Fun thing is, you can make some real money in the kiddie pool.

The last five years have not always been the greatest in my real life, but the poker has been fun. I've learned tons, made quite a few friends I've never met, and turned a pretty decent profit.

Something I never expected when I threw myself at poker was how much I'd learn about real life from playing a game. Poker has brought me patience I never had before. It has taught me that slim odds are not the same as no odds. One-outers do hit, seemingly far more often than the odds would suggest. It has taught me that the proper answer to almost any question is -- it depends.

I hope by the time I write my tenth anniversary post that the US government will have stopped wearing its ass for a hat and online poker will be legal in all states. I hope it will be regulated by some recognized, impartial party and this will give the average Joe faith that the game is honest and his money is safe (at least when it's not in the pot). I don't give this outcome great odds, but it wouldn't be the first time I've hit a two-outer at the river.

Suckout City

I just finished a DoNT that had to have a higher concentration of suckouts and re-sucks than any tournament I've ever played. It was both amazing and rather disgusting at the same time.

I played my normal ultra-tight game until blinds got to 100/200/20 and I had blinded down to 1280. (I had taken a couple very small pots prior to this.) I get AJo UTG. We're down to seven players. I figure a push is the only reasonable action here. I get one caller who turns over AQo. I'm already packing up my stuff and heading for the exit. That is until I flop Broadway. No jack comes to save the other guy. I double up and he's down to crumbs.

Two hands later it folds to me in the SB holding KJo. I'd like to see a flop so I call. The BB, who has about 1000 more than me, makes it 600 to go. There are four players with stacks less than half the size of mine and only two more eliminations, so making a strategic withdrawal is the only reasonable course of action here. I go to click on the fold button but somehow hit the call button instead. I guess even your button clicking skills suffer if you don't play every day.

Figuring I've just thrown away 400 chips, I'm shocked to see a flop of KJ8, rainbow. This is a hand that demands to be slowplayed, so I check. The BB pushes all-in. I probably should have folded, but I just couldn't see him having trips. I called all-in. He turns over AA and I'm already counting my chips. Then disaster strikes. The turn is an 8. I can't believe it. Again I'm packing up and heading for the rail.

Not so fast. The suckouts aren't over yet. The river brings a K and I re-suck to take it down. I'm now the BIG stack by over 1500.

A couple hands later the guy who had the aces pushes all-in with 99 and gets a call from another smaller stack holding KJo. The flop is TT9, handing a boat to the guy I almost knocked out. The other guy fills his straight on the river, but it's not enough.

A few hands later, one of the smaller stacks raises with K2s and gets a call from the BB. When the flop brings a K, the K2 guy pushes in. The BB calls and turns over KQs. Of course, the river brings a 2 and another suckout keeps the tournament from ending.

There's maybe ten hands with a bit of blind stealing and not much other action. Then somebody is forced all-in in the SB. I call from the cutoff with AQo. We don't see the cards at the time because not everyone was all-in, but the SB has K6o. The flop brings KK9, with the turn filling his boat with a 6. When the river brings a 9 I figure I'm going to take it with kings and nines, ace kicker, but noooooooo...

A few hands later a couple of the smaller stacks push all-in. One has AJs, the smaller stack has A3s. This should be the last hand. But wait, there's more. The flop is 337. We're not done yet.

A couple hands later I'm in the SB with Q7o. The BB has only 180 left after posting the blind. I call, hoping he has less than an average hand. He does, but that doesn't matter when the flop brings him trips. At least it only cost me another 180.

Next hand we get another all-in from a small stack and a call from somebody with only 185 more. TT vs 44, with the bigger stack having the tens. Again, this should be the last hand. Nope. The guy with fours hits his two-outer on the river.

Finally, we get to the final hand. The loser from the last hand is all-in in the SB. Big stack to my right calls. I've got KK so of course I call. BB checks his option. We check it down, my kings prevail, and it's finally over.

Maybe it wasn't the most suckouts ever, but it sure seemed like a lot of them in pretty short order.

Luckiest I've ever seen

I played a DoNT last night and watched as one of the other players combined incredibly poor judgment with unbelievable luck, the likes of which has not been seen since Danny Nguyen took down the Bay 101. I don't ordinarily like to put up lots of screen shots, but this is a special event well worth the trouble and the download time. If I were the paranoid sort I'd say the fix was in for this guy.

In the screen captures that follow, I've redacted the player names to protect the innocent. I'm in seat one. The luckbox of the night is in seat 6. I'm sure you'd have figured that out after the first hand.

Here's hand #1.



This makes perfect sense, right? I mean, seriously, who wouldn't limp from MP with 93o. You'd have to be crazy not to want to get into the action with a monster like that.



To get things going in the right direction, he connects just a little bit with the board.

I show hand #2 here, not as an illustration of luck, but just to give you a sense of the masterful grasp of tournament Hold'em possessed by our anti-hero.



What I missed in the screen capture here is that he did a min-raise with Q3s. The guy with A6o who called the min-raise isn't any smarter, so this should be a fun hand.



We see here that not all the luck ran toward seat 6. The truly amazing thing here is that A6o bet 40 on the flop and 40 again on the turn, each time getting a call from Q3s. On the river A6o bet 100 and got a call. The luckbox apparently felt his Q was good. Or this is really Dennis Rodman. (That's a Celebrity Poker joke, just in case you missed it.)

On to hand #3.



If you can raise with Q3 sooted from UTG+1, it seems only reasonable to call UTG with T9o. The poker gods, of course, clearly favor fools. Wait for it...



Another slight connection with the board. Let's do a quick recap. Three hands. Calls or raises with total trash on all three. Result -- four of a kind, a full house, and one small loss. And we're just getting started.

There's no screen cap of hand #4. Our anti-hero called all the way to the river and then mucked his hand. There was an ace and two kings on the board, so I'm figuring he had a powerhouse like 84o.

Hand #5.



An actual solid starting hand for our luckbox. This doesn't bode well. And it turns out not. Seat #5 pushes all-in on the flop and ends up with two pair. At least the other two in the hand just checked it down after they both completely missed the board.

Hand #6 was rather uneventful. Five to the flop. Check around. Check around again on the turn. Check to our man on the button who puts in a bigger than pot sized bet with four hearts on the board. Everybody folds.

Hand #7 was one of my few decent hands. I had AA and raised to 90. Three callers. The flop was J-high with two diamonds. I bet 330 into a 405 pot. One call from the luckbox. The turn brought my third ace and he finally folded to my bet of about half the pot. I was half hoping he would call.

Hand #8.



As should come as no surprise by now, our guy calls with junk.



And as should come as little further surprise, he connects. What I totally don't get is that he checks here. I realize trying to get inside this guy's head is likely to lead to the same experience Jennifer Lopez's character had in The Cell, but I still can't help trying. Does he not think top pair is likely good here? Is he slow playing? Is he really Dennis Rodman and actually has no idea what the little symbols on the cards mean?

It gets checked all the way down and the luckbox takes it.

Hand #9.



Four players see a flop of K22 with two spades. The cutoff bets 150. In what seemed to be a good move at the time, I called hoping to fill my flush, which would have lead to tragedy. Of course, the luckbox still has two cards, so he calls.

The turn brings an ace and it checks around.



As you can see, the river fills the cutoff's boat. He bets 150. I fold. The luckbox -- I swear he can't have any clue what the little symbols mean -- calls. Seriously, how could you possibly call with J6o on that board? This is why I'm writing this up. The obvious luck involved in this guy lasting more than a couple hands is very rare.

Hand #10. Hold on to your hats. This one's a real doozy.



The luckbox actually has a so-so hand this time. Can't fault him for limping. Well, some might argue he should have raised. With the way his luck is running, he's probably a fool for not raising. OTOH, he clearly plays better with junk. Anyway, five players see the flop.



Of course, our guy catches a piece. It checks to the cutoff who makes a pot sized bet. I'm guessing he has a queen and is trying to get rid of any flush draws. Silly wabbit. Hasn't he figured out there's no scaring away the luckbox?

Two folds, two calls. Given how hard I've been on the luckbox, I need to point out seat #8 makes a very stupid call here. At best he's got 7 outs. That makes him about 15% to catch his card on the turn and he's only getting 3:1 from the pot. Dumb call.



You saw this coming, didn't you? The luckbox bets 200 and it gets called around. Seat #8 is getting 9:1 from the pot this time so his call isn't quite so bad, though only if you figure his ace might still be good. Which it isn't.



The river doesn't help the luckbox or seat #8 and seems unlikely to have helped the cutoff. Things get really strange here. The luckbox puts out a miniscule bet of 50. It's a ridiculous bet, but what else can we expect? I can only guess that seat #8 thinks his bluff raise to 200 is going to move everyone else off this pot. Not likely.



The cutoff calls the bluff raise. We now discover that apparently the luckbox really can read the cards. He makes a teaser raise of 150. Seat #8 continues his folly of half-assed bluffs, this time making it 600 to go. It's unlikely he was ever going to succeed with this bluff, but if he had any chance at all he had to put some real conviction into it. Adding 250 on top of what's already gone into the pot isn't going to scare everyone away.

The cutoff finally realizes his queens aren't any good and he folds. The luckbox calls.

Hand #11.



The luckbox has two cards, so he calls. The flop doesn't help anyone so it checks around. The luckbox catches a card on the turn, but either doesn't read his hand right or is afraid someone is being very passive.



The river, naturally, fills his flush and he calls the weak bet from seat #5.

Hand #12 was taken down by the luckbox with an almost pot sized bet on the turn.

Hand #13.



The luckbox gets two cards, and they're sooted, so it's clearly time for a raise. The flop gives seat #5 top pair. Since we need a microscope to find his stack, he pushes. The luckbox, with no hand and no draw, naturally makes the call.



Words fail me here. Perhaps we should all just take a moment and contemplate in silence the awesome power of dumb, idiotic, borderline moronic luck.

Hand #14.



Seat #9, holding AQo, quite properly puts in a raise. I would have pushed right off the bat here considering his stack size, but I guess he was trying to be cautious. The luckbox is holding two cards so he calls.



The luck gets reversed in this hand. Our guy catches a piece of the flop and it completely misses seat #8. Nevertheless, he decides this is a good time to push it all in. As I said, this move would have made a lot more sense before the flop. Now it's kind of stupid. The luckbox has already checked so seat #8 could have seen the turn for free. But he pushes. Of course, our guy has bottom pair so he's not going to be deterred by a pot sized all-in.

Seat #8 lucks out and catches a queen on the river to double up.

Hand #15. Seat #3 and seat #10 both push all-in. Seat #10 takes it with a better kicker and seat #3 is down to crumbs.

Hand #16.



Luckbox has two cards, so he calls. Honestly, the way things are going for him I can't say as I blame him. I'd probably be calling with any two as well.



Luckbox again catches on the flop, but doesn't pursue it. They both check it all the way.

Hand #17.



Seat #3 pushes his crumbs into the pot. Seat #4 and the luckbox call, the BB checks.



The luckbox catches a T on the flop and everybody checks it down. Luckbox wins again. Seat #3 hits the rails.

Hand #18.



This one is somewhat uneventful. Luckbox calls with 83o. Who can blame him?



The flop brings seat #10 and I two pair. It checks to the river. Seat #10 puts in a min-bet. I call. Of course the luckbox, with an 8 high, calls. I think a chimpanzee is playing that seat. Seat #10 and I split the pot.

Hand #19, the luckbox raises pre-flop and everyone folds.

Hand #20.



The luckbox and seat #4 go to the turn. Luckbox bets, seat #4 folds. Yawn.

On hand #21 something remarkable happened. The luckbox folded to an all-in from seat #10. Somebody alert the media!

Hand #22.



Seat #8, UTG, pushes all-in for 545. Seat #10 and the luckbox call.



Seat #8 and the luckbox catch the same straight on the turn. Luckbox bets, seat #10 folds. Luckbox and seat #8 split.

Hand #23.



The luckbox, holding the never-to-be-fooled-with 53o, calls from the button. Who wouldn't? It checks all the way to the river.



Who could have possibly doubted? The luckbox bets 200 and seat #8 calls. Stupid call, especially with so few chips left.

Hand #24 is a huge surprise. The luckbox calls an all-in from seat #8 with the luckbox holding the Brunson and the luckbox loses! What is this tournament coming to?

Hand #25 we get back on track. Luckbox call an all-in from seat #4, this time holding A6s. Seat #4 was clearly desperate because he pushed with 98o. The luckbox catches a pair and seat #4 can't quite make his straight.

Hand #26.



This time I wake up with a playable hand. The luckbox calls with two cards and seat #10 calls.



I catch TPTK on the flop and bet a bit over half the pot. The luckbox still has two cards, so he calls. Seat #10 folds.



The turn brings both straight and flush possibilities. I check, knowing that if there's any way I can be beat, I probably am against this opponent. The luckbox checks. This could mean absolutely anything.

The river doesn't improve my hand so I check again. So does the luckbox. Seeing the cards it's obvious I should have bet, particularly since he was almost certain to have called. I take a pot that almost assures victory in this one.

The final hand.



The luckbox actually gets decent cards and limps in. Seat #10 violates a couple basic rules (don't risk chips when you don't need to and don't ever go all-in against the luckbox) and pushes all-in with 99. Seat #2, down to the felt, decides this is as good a time as any to go home and calls all-in. Naturally, the luckbox calls. Three to the flop.



You just knew that was coming, didn't you? Really, what other cards possibly could have fallen. Okay, they could have all been hearts. Short of that, though, this is the only possible outcome with the luckbox in the hand.



And the magic is finally over. This last hand is one of the few I think he actually played right. Maybe he was just trying to get into the groove.

Let's recap. Twenty-seven hands played. The luckbox bumbles his way to 15 wins and one split. In some ways I suppose the real miracle here is that he didn't piss away his chips on the other ten hands he played to the showdown.

If it wasn't for a few incredibly stupid calls, I'd have to suspect this guy could see not only the other players' cards but the cards that were yet to fall on the board. Maybe he could and the dumb plays were just his way of providing cover. Okay, not likely at a $5 DoN. Still, this is one of the most amazing runs of dumb luck having out over incredibly stupid play I've ever seen. And I've been playing poker a LONG time.

Another milestone

The Quest has passed another small milestone. The bankroll is now over $200. It's been quite a while since I started with that measly $5. The most notable jump has been since Christmas when I first started playing the Double-or-Nothing tournaments. Those have been incredibly lucrative, growing the bankroll by 66% in under two months. And that includes a couple weeks when I didn't play at all due to travel and lack of an Internet connection. (Which is also why I haven't been posting regular blog entries.)

Despite a few recent losses, my ROI on these is still over 21%. I'm not sure if that's really good or not, but I'm thinking about asking my financial advisor if DoN tournaments are an allowable investment for my IRA.

The competition at these, even in the shallow end where I'm playing, definitely seems to have tightened up recently. I'm seeing lots of players with VP$IP's under 20%. I suspect it's even worse as you move up the ladder.

I played one tournament today where I got absolute crap cards. The most playable hand I got was KQo, but somebody put in a big raise before it got to me and folding seemed the proper move. When I finally got an ace, I was in the SB and it folded to me. I had already blinded down to the point where I needed to make a move and this seemed as good a time as any. I pushed and, wouldn't you know it, the BB has pocket jacks. I make it all the way to 75/150 blinds, play one single hand the whole time, and run into a pocket pair. So it goes...

The other two I've played so far today went much better. I squeaked by in one and dominated the last half of the other. Somewhat surprisingly, or maybe not considering how things have tightened up, the last hand in the latter was played very well by one of the other players. The shortie pushes all-in for just a bit over 2BB. I call with something like K7o. (The shortie was UTG, so he could be moving with any two cards here.) One other bigger stack calls. We check it all the way down. The other big stack had QQ the whole way. Didn't raise pre-flop, didn't raise after the flop despite his queens being an overpair the whole way. It's refreshing to see it played correctly.

Double-Up Getting Tougher?

If poker has taught me anything, it's that one shouldn't attempt to draw larger conclusions from a small set of occurrences. It's one of the fallacies that allows the sharks to feed off the fishes.

That said, I'm starting to wonder if the sharks aren't beginning to swarm in the Double-Up pool. Until the last couple days most of the Double-Ups I've played have been heavily populated with players who clearly didn't have a clue about proper strategy.

Some of the ones I've played recently, though, have had a majority of players who weren't idiots. Play even in the turbos has dragged on for quite a while, with pressure being applied all around.

I'm playing one right now where the VP$IPs of the last six players are 14%, 4%, 12%, 7%, 18%, and the high of 32%. That's after 60 hands. These all appear to be decent players who know what they're doing in this situation. No rash moves. No panic from the small stacks. It's kind of scary.

I'm dearly hoping this is just a blip and not indication of a larger trend. These have been quite profitable for me.

In case you're wondering, the one I was playing finally ended. The guy with the VP$IP of 32% made a stupid move on the last hand, raising a dry pot on the river when one player was already all-in, but it turned out okay. He won the hand and I added another big $4.80 to my bankroll.

Addendum: I just played another one that went longer than any of the turbo Double-Ups I've played. The play was very, very tight, but a couple of these guys still didn't have a clue about strategy. Three times there was a player who had crumbs left after posting the blinds and this one bigger stack raised pre-flop. He raised! I couldn't believe it. One player left to eliminate. One player who is clearly going all-in for just a bit more than the BB. And this moron raises and shuts everyone else out of the pot. I was screaming at the screen.

There were a couple other times where there were obvious calls to be made and people folded. I recall one where the SB had about 200 more than the BB. (The amount, not the player.) I had a lot of chips so I called from the button knowing he'd push and the BB (the player, not the amount) would call. He pushed, then the BB folds. He's already in for 800 and he folds for 200 more. Oh, well. They may be tight players, but they clearly don't know beans about proper strategy.

Double-Up Object Lesson

Today I'm going to yet again ram home the point made in Secret #1a. Don't risk chips when there's nothing to gain. This happened on the last hand of a tournament I just finished.

Here's the scenario. Six players left. Blinds are 125/250/25. The SB has 180 left after posting the blind. Proceeding to the left, the BB has 6235, UTG has 1960, I'm UTG+1 with 3140, the cutoff has 1580, and the button has 1380. If you've been reading this series, you know I consider this to be the entire table vs the SB.

UTG folds. I've got AJo. I wanted to force the SB all-in, so I made a min-raise to 500. In hindsight, I should have just called. The raise was more likely to scare him away. Here's where the larger mistake occurred. The cutoff raises to 1000, leaving 580 behind. Huh? The whole point here was to get the SB to push in with his last chips. Okay, again, I should have just called, but this guy has now compounded my error and clearly violated Secret #1a. All he has to do is stay alive a few more hands, one round at most, and he's in the money. But now he's trying to add chips for no good reason. And he's made it clear to the SB that unless he's holding AA, his correct move is to fold.

Of course, it folds around to me. The correct action would have been for me to fold. But I knew the SB was about 95% to go out in the next couple hands and even if I went all-in against this guy and lost, I'd still have enough chips to survive. And I wanted an opportunity to punish this guy for his stupidity improper play. I know that probably sounds horrible, but his action annoyed the hell out of me. Plus, I could always end it on this hand. I call.

The flop comes AT7 with two spades. I check, knowing the other guy is going to push in and that I'm going to make the call, hoping he doesn't have me outkicked. Naturally, he pushes, which turns out to be an even dumber less optimal move than his pre-flop raise. I call. He turns over KK. The turn and river bring him no salvation.

I know it's hard not to take aggressive action with KK, but you still have to take the overall situation into account. If he'd just called pre-flop I wouldn't be writing this. Absolutely couldn't fault him for that. If he'd checked it down I wouldn't be writing this. He'd have still lost, but he'd be left with enough chips that he might outlast the SB. Re-raising pre-flop was risking chips he didn't need to and pushing all-in with an ace on the board is risking the whole tournament for unneeded chips. And he paid the price.

One can only hope the guy with KK learned something here.

Thus ends today's object lesson.

Double-Up Secrets #6

I don't have a clever name for this one. You could file it under "collusion", or one of the entries about the small stacks being the enemy, or we could just call it "Use your frellin' head!"

Here's the situation. Small stack moves all-in for less than 2BB. SB, who has him well covered, calls. The BB, who has about three times as many chips as the next closest stack and would in no way miss the chips, folds. What kind of cards can you possibly have that you fold on a chance to force out the final player when you're getting better than 5:1 on your money? 72o is only giving 8:1 against AA. AKs vs 32o is only 3:2 in favor of AK.

Admittedly, the pot odds are somewhat irrelevant at this point and maybe the guy figured he'd just be donating to the small stack, but there is already one caller. This is going to the showdown and two players vs one greatly increases the odds of the one player losing.

If a player moves all-in with less than 2BB and you've got three times as many chips as the next closest player and you clearly won't miss the 2BB, you call. There's nothing to think about here. It doesn't matter what your cards are. You call. End of story.

If you fold and the small stack wins, he gets one or two BB less than he would have if you called. In this case the difference is less than 1BB. If you call and the small stack wins, he gets one or two BB more than he would have if you folded. Neither of these results is likely to make a huge difference in the overall outcome for you. If you call and win, the small stack is out and you're one player closer to winning the prize.

Use your heads out there, people.

Double-Up Secrets #5

Double-Up Secrets #5: Time your all-in

At some point in these double-up tournaments you're bound to find yourself with a small stack and in need of at least stealing the blinds. And sometimes, regardless of how patient you've been, the cards just aren't cooperating. You haven't seen a decent hand in ages and you're getting desperate. Hopefully you still have enough chips left to make at least some of the other players take notice when you push all-in.

It won't happen all the time, it may not even happen often, but sometimes you'll find the players in the blinds have fairly comfortable stacks -- well situated in the top five -- but not so comfortable that you are of no concern. If your stack is big enough to move them out of that comfort zone if they call your all-in and you win, that's the situation you want.

If you aren't getting cards and are forced to make a move, you're just hoping everybody is going to fold to your bet. By timing your move so the players in the best position to make the call are ones that you can hurt, you maximize your chances of getting the folds you want.

Here's an example from a recent tournament. Blinds are 125/250/25. I'm the small stack with T1085. The next closest stacks have T1535 and T1615. It folds to me in the cutoff. I've got a lowly 98o. The button has T1940. He's likely to not be playing anything but super-premium hands. The SB is the big stack with T5780. He's a concern because he can double me up and barely notice it. The BB has T2520 left after putting in the blind.

In this situation, the BB is comfortable, but calling my all-in and losing would knock him right out of that comfort zone and make him the small stack. If he's a smart player, he's unlikely to call with anything less than AA or KK.

Pushing all-in here with 98o is clearly a gamble, but by evaluating the situation you can maximize the odds that your gamble will pay off.

I pushed and it folded around. I was no longer the small stack and the blinds were about to hit the other two small stacks. Three hands later it was all over. The well timed push with junk was just what I needed to survive until the big stack could knock somebody else out.

The same kind of thing certainly applies to normal tournaments as well, but the comfort zone that exists in the double-up tournaments isn't quite the same in regular tournaments. Players are always looking to acquire more chips and will be far more likely to call what looks like a desperation all-in with mediocre holdings. The threat of dropping out of that comfort zone is what makes this more likely to succeed in the double-ups.

Double-Up Secrets #4

Today I'm going to write about a topic that's not just a secret for double-up tournaments, it's treated kind of like a poker secret in general. It's often practiced by the pros in tournaments but seldom discussed. So let's keep today's topic just among ourselves.

Double-Up Secret #4: Collusion

Perhaps "collusion" is a bit too pejorative. Let's call it players acting in their own collective best interest.

The situations where this might come into play occur fairly often in the very latest stages of double-up tournaments. (The same concept will often apply in any tournament where the top X players all get the same prize and to a lesser extent in any tournament where the prize steps start getting big.)

Say there are two or three big stacks with T3000 or more and one small stack with less than T500. Say blinds are 150/300/30 and there are six players left. One of the big stacks limps and the shortie pushes all-in. It's almost a lock the limper is going to call since he's getting more than 4:1 on the call. The proper play for any of the big stacks yet to act is to make the call, regardless of what cards they hold. If the original big stack has a brain, he will call. Then, and here's the "collective best interest" part, everyone checks it all the way down. If you caught quads on the flop, you still check it all the way down.

There are two key points here. First, the shortie doesn't have enough chips to put much of a hurt on any of the big stacks. Second, and this is a repeated theme, the "enemy" here is the shortie. It is in the collective best interest of all the remaining players to do whatever maximizes the chances of eliminating the final player. The shortie is all-in, so he's going to the showdown no matter what. The best odds for the other players to defeat him is to have as many hands as possible going against him.

All too often I see this kind of situation arise, and then one of the bigger stacks catches something on the flop and can't resist the temptation of betting his hand. He's lost sight of the true goal -- survival. In this case survival is best achieved by eliminating that last player. And that is best served by having everyone hang around until the showdown.

A similar scenario that will often come up is when one player is forced all-in by the blinds or the ante. Be observant for this and, if it doesn't cost you most of your chips, be sure to call. And pray the players acting behind you know how to act in their own best interest. Again, the proper play is to call and then check it all the way down. Five hands drawing against one have far better odds of coming out on top.

Sometimes that last scenario will arise when there is more than one player yet to be eliminated. The collective best play is still to call and check it down, but you need to watch for shorter stacks who may hit the flop big and decide their personal best interest is served by pushing all-in. For this reason it may be best to only make the original call if you won't miss those chips (they're a tiny part of your stack) or you can afford to call the second biggest stack without serious damage to your stack.

In any of these situations there's always the possibility of some idiot who doesn't know the proper play. He'll catch on the flop and put in a big bet. In this case, all you can do is scream at the screen, shake your head in disgust, do what makes the most sense to conserve your chips, and take solace in the certainty that karma will catch up to him eventually.

There will sometimes be other situations where there will be an opportunity for players to act in concert toward their own collective best interest. In Double-Up Secrets #1 I wrote about a tournament I played where somebody built a big stack and then sat out.

Ordinarily, given the size of the player's stack, this wouldn't be a bad idea. In this case, however, the chips moved around among the smaller stacks for quite a while and this player was eventually in serious danger of blinding out. I was monitoring his stack size and noticed when it was getting low. In fairness to some of the other players, PokerSnore overwrites the player's stack size with "Sitting Out" when the player isn't at the table, so you had to hover over his spot to have his stack size pop up. But keeping track of the size of the other players' stacks, even if they're sitting out, is part of situational awareness. Everyone should be doing this at all times.

With just one more player to be eliminated, it became clear to me that the best course of action for the active players was to simply fold to the BB as quickly as possible. This would move the blinds around and more rapidly deplete the stack of the player sitting out. Sadly, not everyone caught on to this fact. Eventually this player was blinded out and eliminated, but we had to sit through a number of completely unnecessary hands being played out because some players were either unaware of the situation or couldn't figure out for themselves the proper strategy.

I want to make it clear that this was not a situation of someone who was unavoidably detained and fully intended to return. It was clear he sat out on this table as a strategy toward winning. It removed the temptation to play marginal hands and allowed him to do other things while coasting to a win. His sitting out was a strategy, and as such is subject to being taken advantage of just like any other strategy.

At any rate, the larger point is to maintain situational awareness and keep looking for spots where you can further the collective interests of those players most likely to win, which hopefully includes you.

Double-Up Secrets #3

Double-Up Secret #3: The big stack is also not your friend.

Last time I wrote about the big stack not being your enemy. Just because he isn't your enemy doesn't mean he's your friend.

When it's late in the going -- seven players left or a big gap between the five biggest stacks and the rest of the players -- you don't want to get involved in a serious pot with somebody who can put a bad hurt on you. I'm assuming you're one of the big stacks here. If you're one of the small stacks, you have no choice but to go up against somebody who can put you out or leave you with crumbs. If you're in the top five, particularly if there's a big gap between five and six, you don't want to risk losing a lot of chips.

This doesn't mean you have to run away every time a big stack limps into a pot. You just need to be sure you hit the flop huge before you commit a significant number of chips. If you catch big on the flop and are first to act, go ahead and bet out. The other guy, if he's smart, will run away. If the other guy bets into the flop or plays back at you, you best be holding THE nuts if you continue. The penultinuts is death in this situation. I've written before about how I made this mistake in a ticket tournament. I rode the penultinuts from a sure ticket right to the rail. It's a lesson that has been seared in my memory. Learn from my mistake. Remember, your goal at this point is not chip accumulation, it's chip conservation. You must stay in that top five. It's far better to take a small hit and run away than to risk losing a big chunk of your stack.

I see this kind of thing happen all the time. Guys who could sit out and make the money keep taking risks trying to accumulate chips and often find themselves on the rail with nothing.

You know you're involved with some smart players when you see two big stacks quickly check it all the way down once getting into the pot. They know that playing into each other will just end with sadness for one of them and not really that much additional joy for the other.

This secret covers much of the same ground as Double-Up Secret #1a, but it's well worth repeating.

Quest Update

The Quest is moving along quite nicely of late. The Double-Up tournaments have clearly been the shot in the arm that I needed. The bankroll is up 58% since I began playing these tournaments. PokerTracker tells me my ROI in these is 26%. I don't know if that's a good tournament ROI, but I know I'd love to get half that return on my other investments. I'm now 25 for 38.

I got email from what used to be Poker.com and is now PDC Poker reminding me that I still have money there. I loaded up their new software and found they sit $0.02/$0.04 NLHE. No short-handed tables, but at least it's another place I can play with the current bankroll. I played for about an hour and walked away with $1 in profits. Overall impression was that the tables were very soft. Much more like I would expect at this level. The tables at PokerStars are hardly filled with sharks, but there are far more decent players in the shallow end than you would imagine.

PDC Poker also sent me a special reload bonus offer, but the clearance requirements look a bit steep. 300 comp points to clear $1 of bonus. Playing an hour of $0.02/$0.04 I earned a big ZERO comp points. At Poker.com you earned comp points for just sitting there. At the new place I can't even find specifics on how the comp points are awarded. I think I'll pass on their fine reload offer.

The bankroll now stands at $169.41. If I can sustain the current pace the next step up should be less than two months away.

Double-Up Secrets #2

Double-Up Secret #2: The big stack is not your enemy.

Remember, your goal is not to finish with the biggest stack. Your goal is to finish in the top five. This means your enemy, or at least the one you should be focusing on, is the small stack. If you are the small stack, then it's the player with the next bigger stack. Early on this isn't particularly relevant, but when you're down to seven players -- only two eliminations left -- the focus of your aggression should be the two smallest stacks. If there are several stacks all in the same range, all of them should be your target.

These are the guys you want to see lose chips. If you're in the top five, then it doesn't even matter if you're the one winning the chips. You just want to see the small stacks get smaller.

Conversely, these are the stacks you don't want to see get bigger. It's sometimes painful to see these guys take the blinds, but it would be even worse to limp with a marginal hand only to have the shortie go all-in from one of the blinds with just enough that you have to fold. Now you've made his stack just that much larger.

Hurt the small stacks whenever you can, but don't give them chips. Just like in any other tournament, somebody who's in trouble stack-wise is likely to push all-in with anything they think has a chance of winning. You don't want to go up against a small stack with anything you wouldn't be willing to call his all-in with. If he's a smart player he'll read a limp as weakness and an opportunity to pick up some badly needed chips. Be sure you aren't just donating when you call.

If you're finding these tips useful, I'd appreciate you stopping by Poker Weblogs and rating the Patchwork blog. You will need to register there in order to vote.

Double-Up Secrets #1a

This one is somewhat a corollary of Double-Up Secret #1 and may on the surface sound like another, "Well, duh!"

Double-Up Secret #1a: Don't risk chips when there's nothing to gain.

I just finished playing a Double-Up tournament where I saw this happen. We were down to six. There were three players all with about T800, in serious danger, and three who were in no danger at all. One of the shorties got involved in a hand with one of the big stacks and came out on top, more than doubling up. He wasn't a shoe-in to win, but he was in no immediate danger and with two players still at T800 he should have been folding anything but super premium hands. In his situation I would probably fold anything other than AA, KK, or QQ. I might call from the SB with a very strong drawing hand. But that would be it.

The next hand he was in the BB with the big stack in the SB. It folds to the SB who does a min-raise. The BB is holding AJo. The number one priority at this point is to protect your stack. Short of super-premium holdings, the proper action here without question is to fold. I don't consider AJo to be a super-premium holding.

Instead of folding, he does a min-reraise. This is probably the worst possible play here. He's committed 15% of his very precious stack on a non-made hand. Further, he's made a bet that's sure to be called because the pot is laying almost 6:1. And he's playing against someone with a stack more than twice the size of his -- somebody who has no fear of him at all. I could maybe see making a call here with the assumption you'd fold unless hitting the flop huge, but fold is still the obvious correct play. Pushing all-in would be better than making a min-reraise. The SB calls.

The flop is QQ6. The SB checks. Not holding a Q, I'm checking here. If you put in a reasonable bet, say half the pot, your stack is back very close to the danger zone and you're almost pot committed. Doing that on a bluff is suicidal. He dons his kamikaze outfit and bets T450 into a T990 pot, leaving T1210 behind. The SB calls. Oops.

The turn is a 4, unlikely to be any help to anyone. The SB checks again. Watching as this unfolded, even without knowing the cards, I had the clear sense the guy had gotten himself into a bad situation and just didn't know how to get out. He had enough chips already in the pot he felt he couldn't leave them out there, but he didn't know how to get them back.

I have no clue what was going through his head, but he bet T750 into a T1890 pot, leaving T460 behind. If the SB has anything -- and he must have something or he would have folded to the flop bet -- he's not going to fold to such a small bet now. The BB is clearly pot committed at this point, but doesn't push all his chips in. This is either desperation or somebody holding QQ trying to suck the other guy into pushing him all-in. The SB raises him all-in. Being pot committed he has little choice but to call. Actually, given the way the betting unfolded, it was pretty clear he was toast. It would have been smarter to fold and take a chance on the next hand rather than tossing in the rest of the chips on what was sure to be a losing hand.

The SB turns over KQ and we don't even need to see the river. The two small stacks who were in big trouble no doubt say a prayer of thanks and the tournament is over.

There were many mistakes made here by the BB, but by far his biggest was getting involved in the first place. If he folds to the min-raise by the SB he's still got twice as many chips as the next closest stack and there are two players in serious trouble with just one elimination left. He should be playing turtle and letting the big stacks finish the tournament for him. Instead, he tried to build his stack to no good purpose. One of the short stacks is quite likely to be eliminated in the next round or two. There's no good reason to take a risk on chipping up at this point. Don't risk chips when there's nothing to gain.

A Quest milestone

As I write this, The Quest bankroll stands at $150.06. That's the 30 buy-ins I need to safely play at $0.02/$0.05 NL. I've been playing at that level for a while, theoretically just getting my toes wet, but now it's official. The Quest is now marching toward the $0.05/$0.10 NL level.

It's always been my intent to use good bankroll management on The Quest. I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with the 30 buy-in bankroll. It was no big deal before. If I lost a few buy-ins I could easily refund or just start over. It's still not really a big deal, but the 30 buy-ins doesn't leave me feeling safe. I'd like to see more like 50 buy-ins in the bankroll.

I'm going to advance the buy-in level before the next move up. I'll start dabbling with $10 buy-in events when I hit 30 buy-ins, with the official move coming at 40 buy-ins. For the level after that I'll advance both points by another 10 buy-ins and will then be at the point I consider fairly safe.

You made the call

Well, actually, I don't know what you would have done because there were no responses to my "You make the call" entry.

Here's the situation. PokerSnore Double-Up tournament. You're in the BB for T300 with T1800 behind. Blinds are 150/300/30. There are six players remaining -- one more elimination and it's over. The short stack has T1415. The next biggest stack has T2430. You're holding KQs. The small stack pushes all-in and it folds around to you.

If you fold, you've still got T1800 and aren't in immediate danger of blinding out, but the SB is coming next hand and you'll be down to T1620. Just as importantly, the once small stack will have T2045 if you fold. He's pretty desperate, being down to less than 5BB. He could be pushing here with almost anything, hoping the other short stack won't play back at him.

If you call and win, the tournament is over and you walk away with money. If you call and lose, you're in very big trouble and will probably have to push with whatever you are dealt next hand. Certainly you'll have to push within the next four or five hands.

I made the call. Ultimately, I reasoned that no matter what I did I was going to have to risk all my chips within the next few hands. Better to make my stand now with decent holdings and hope my opponent had JJ or less, giving me a coin toss.

My opponent had AJo. I didn't catch and he took down the pot.

I was forced to push with 54o a couple hands later and ended up getting outkicked by a 73o. Sad way to end a tournament.

If you have any thoughts on this, please leave a comment. I think I made the right choice here, regardless the outcome, but I would like to hear what others think.

Double-Up Secrets #1

I've long used StatCounter to monitor the activity here on the Patchwork blog. Mostly it shows me how futile is the effort to continue this mess, but I do it as much for myself as anyone else, so I keep going. It's also made clear to me that the vast majority of people who come here via search engine do so by mistake. That was the genesis of the "Maybe you were looking for..." section off to the right (if you're not using Bloglines or Google Reader).

A strange thing has happened recently. Some people have been searching for terms that properly link here. (Aside from "Guest-Tek sucks". It still cracks me up that I'm #1 on Google for that search string. I'll probably now cement that position since I've mentioned it again.) Someone came here specifically looking for "MMIAs". That's a bit of a hoot since as far as I'm aware I'm the only one to ever use that term and even I haven't used it in quite a while. There are still plenty of them out there in case you wondered.

Several of the recent searches have been for information regarding the Double-Up tournaments I've been writing about. Specifically, people seem to be looking for tips on how to win at these. Careful reads of what I've written will no doubt turn up more than a few useful tips, but I've generally assumed anyone reading this blog is already an experienced player and is aware of how to properly play in the types of events where the top X places all get the same prize.

I may come to regret it, but this is the first of what will no doubt be a very irregular, disjoint series of tips on how to be successful at Double-Up tournaments. In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that right now I stand 16 for 25 in these. I was bubble boy in at least three of the losses. (I also gigli'd in a couple, most spectacularly when I went out on the first hand in a KK vs AA battle.)

So, without further ado, here is Double-Up Secret #1.

You don't have to come in first to win.

This may well be firmly in the "duh" category, but it has everything to do with how to properly play in these tournaments. You don't have to build a giant stack. It's a bit like when you're in a group hiking and you come across an angry bear. You don't have to be the fastest runner in the group. You just have to not be the slowest.

With the Double-Up tournaments, you just have to keep your stack in the top five. Much of the time simply not being the short stack is good enough. I'd like to be able to say when you build your stack to size X you can sit back and relax, but I can't. There is no fixed rule on stack size because, like with most things in poker, it depends on the situation.

Generally speaking, if you double up early, this will take you most of the way to victory. If you do so, you should start playing ultra tight. Only get involved in situations where you know you're very, very likely to come out on top. Only play premium holdings and be willing to let go of the drawing hands if there is any resistance at all. I've folded AK pre-flop because somebody ahead of me put in a big raise and I wasn't willing to risk the chips on a hand that will have to connect with the flop to continue. Once you've doubled up your starting stack your objective is chip conservation. The chips you already have will quite likely carry you through, so guard them carefully.

This is not to say you should take undue risks to double up. Some people play these a bit like freerolls, trying to double early, and will push all-in with almost any two cards. If you happen to have premium holdings when this happens, go for it. I don't recommend taking much of a risk though. If you don't have AA, KK, or QQ, it's probably not worth calling. Even QQ would be marginal in the very early going.

Short of a situation like this, play only strong starting hands and maybe the odd speculative suited connector if you can see the flop cheap. Even in the turbos you have sufficient time to build your stack if you don't take a big hit in the early going. Don't be in a hurry. Remember, you don't need the biggest stack, you just need to be in the top five. Once you get beyond the first two or three levels, drop the speculative hands unless you're sure you can afford it.

If you do double up, don't get too confident in your big stack. The blinds will keep rising and you may eventually be forced to engage again. I was in a game the other day where one guy had built his stack to about T4000 and then sat out. Ordinarily a stack of this size at the point in the tournament that he sat out would coast to victory, but this particular tournament dragged on and on. His stack began to dwindle. The blinds kept going up. At some point it became obvious to me that if we all simply folded to the BB as quickly as possible, the absent player would be blinded out and the rest of us would win. Not exactly the white hat way of winning, but this is poker. If you walk away from your seat, you suffer the consequences. The guy did eventually blind out, though it was clear that some of the other players weren't aware of the situation because they kept playing their hands. We'll discuss that topic another time.

You make the call

Here's the situation. PokerSnooze Double-Up tournament. Six players remaining, meaning only one more elimination to go. I'm in the BB for T300, leaving me T1800 behind. There's T630 already in the pot, including my blind. The short stack pushes all-in for T1415. It folds to me. I'm holding KQs. The pot is laying me 1.83:1. Do I make the call for T1115?

If I fold, I'll be the short stack by about T250. I won't be out of it, but I'll need to catch something to push with in the next four or five hands. (Or there's always the possibility two of the bigger stacks could mix it up, but I'm not holding my breath on that.)

If I call, there's a small chance I'm ahead. Most likely I'm behind. If I'm lucky, he's got JJ or less and we're in a coin flip. If I'm slightly unlucky, he's got an ace. If I'm really unlucky, he's got AA, KK or QQ. If I lose I'll be left with about T700.

Assuming he's got any pocket pair, or ace-anything, PokerStove says I win 42.68% of the time. If I'm just playing the odds, I clearly make the call given what the pot is laying me. But there's a lot else at play here seeing as I only need to survive past one more elimination that isn't me. If I fold, the two next biggest stacks will be T2045 and T2430, with blinds at 300/150/30.

Discuss amongst yourselves. Do I make the call?

Still doubling

I'm still hitting up the Double-Up tournaments at PokerSnooze. Results the last week have been off a bit. I lost three in a row yesterday.

Very first hand on one of them I get pocket kings. There is a min-raise ahead of me. For some reason the alarm bells didn't go off on this. I'm thinking now that for some reason I didn't notice it was a raise. Two more callers ahead. I make it T140 to go. The original raiser pushes all-in. Combined with the min-raise this should have made the alarm bells ring their loudest. That's why I'm thinking I misread the min-raise as a call. I called. Of course, the other guy had aces. One hand and I hit the rails.

These tournaments appear to have become exceedingly popular. I tried for about five minutes yesterday to register in one of them. I'd select one with just one player registered. By the time I could click on the necessary things to get registered the tournament would be full. Even when I clicked the "register me in any similar tournament" button it took a couple minutes for a table to come up.

As I was writing this I won my third Double-Up of the day. It doesn't quite make up for yesterday due to the rake, but it sure feels good. I was beginning to wonder if I'd lost my touch.

I've noticed that the quality of play in these has been improving a bit. In the last hand of the last tournament one player was all-in in the SB. I had squat, but I called anyway hoping everyone else would grok the situation and do likewise. One other player did and the BB checked. Surprisingly, the BB caught trips on the flop, but he checked it down. The shortie was eliminated and the rest of us walked away with money. It's nice to see it played properly at least sometimes.

The recent tournament losses have set back progress on The Quest a bit, but it's still moving in the right direction.

More doubling, sort ot

I've been continuing to play the Double-or-Nothing tournaments at PokerStars. One bubble and two more wins making me 6 for 7.

One thing here has started to bother me a bit. "Double-or-nothing" implies you walk away with double what you wagered or empty handed. That only happens here if you disregard the 8% tournament fee. If you're looking at this in a truly logical manner, you can't just ignore that fee. It's money that was in your virtual pocket before the tournament started and is no longer there once the cards fly.

In the non-turbo tournaments that 8% fee means you're really looking at winning 85% of what you actually wagered. That's not really "double-or-nothing". It's a bit better with the turbo versions since the fee is only 4%. There you're looking at winning 92% of your original wager.

Thinking about all this made me realize how PokerStars can afford to sponsor all those pros. The tournament fee percentage is relatively constant across all tournaments. In the deep end of the SnGs they're making about $80 an hour for server resource time. In the shallow end it drops to $4/hour or less, but I'd be willing to wager they're still making a tidy profit even at $4/hour for a resource that's shared among probably dozens of tables. In the deep end they're clearly making a killing.

In many ways, it would be far more equitable for the poker sites to charge a flat hourly fee for sitting at a table. But that would make the charge far more obvious than rakes and tournament fees do and would no doubt scare away a lot of potential customers.

As to the quality of play at the DorN tournaments, it continues to be quite horrible. With only two eliminations to go, two players on life support and a third with an M of about 3, I watched as the two big stacks pushed all-in against each other. Stupid, stupid move.

I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on these guys. I once pushed all-in on the bubble of a ticket tournament where I could have easily folded my way to a ticket. I had the penultinuts and figured the odds of the other guy having the nuts were slim. I was wrong. But at least I learned from that experience. Last night I folded AKo against a small raise ahead of me. I probably had the best hand, but with two eliminations to go, one guy with less than 2BB, another with just a bit more, and a third with less than half my stack, it simply wasn't worth the risk. My goal at this point is survival, not chip accumulation.

Too many of these players appear to be falling into the trap of wanting to build huge stacks. There's nothing wrong with that if it's early in the tournament. Late in the game, however, you don't want to take any unnecessary chances. Fifth is the same as first in these things. You don't need the biggest stack to win. All you need is to still be seated when that fifth player is eliminated. One of those big stacks I mentioned above threw away a win. He could have clicked "sit out" and made the money. Instead, he took a chance on increasing his stack and went home with nothing. Thanks for playing.

I'm going to continue playing the DorN tournaments as much as possible. The turbos are kind of nice because the whole thing is over in about 30 minutes. I usually don't bother even trying to play if I know I have less than an hour available. With these turbos I can probably play four in that time. (Two at a time.)

I only wish more players would play at turbo speed. Far too many players seem to be simultaneously playing on more tables than they can really handle. It makes action even at the turbo tables a real snooze-fest much of the time. Given that PokerStars has actively been courting this kind of non-action, I'm thinking they should really be called PokerSnooze. If you want to play 20 tables at once, I'm sure the action is coming at you non-stop. If you play just one or two tables at the same time, keep the coffee handy. You're going to be needing it.