Played my 6th full-slate of the year (towards my goal of 13 a month) last night and was able to make a deep run in the $75 40k on Full Tilt. I played well in this tournament but like most tournaments that you have to get deep in, you have to get lucky, which I did on a couple key occasions. Out of 720 players, I was able to have the chip lead when we got inside 3 tables. With a couple solid players at the table late I was caught between two of them and handcuffed for 3-table play. Inside three tables I was raising alot and getting repopped quite often. I tightened up a bit and saw picked up 88 in middle position. Raise9d to 7433 (blinds 1500-3000 500ante) and the small blind shoved for about the 3rd time in the last little bit (he had 67k total - I had 180k), we were playing 7handed and I decided that he had done that too many times and with the quick shove it was very unlikely that I was beat (he had tankshoved before with AKo when he was called by another player). I called and he showed J7d. I called and held and was in a good spot moving on. When we got to two tables an interesting hand came up where a strong player (who i know can steal raise)raised from the cutoff with 57k total (blinds 1500-3000 still) and a short stack with 29k moved from the button. I picked up 99 in the bb and decided to iso shove with 235k and the initial raiser tanked and called with 1010, the short stack had AJd. The board came out KK8Q9 and I rivered the full house. The player I busted, was pretty good spirited about it, unlike the players I have noticed lately and I had over 300k with 15 players left. I cruised into the final table with only making a few loosish plays but these plays allowed be lots of action when I had a hand.
2nd in chips at the final table I faced an utg raise from a pretty solid player. He had raised 2.2x and I don't need to call that raise too often but with a sb call and my 79o I called aswell. The flop came 5J6 and I checked after the sb checked, the utg raiser had been raising there a lot and had just lost a big pot for more than half his stack. He bet half the pot and I called hoping to hit a scary turn in which to bluff if I didn't hit my 8. The turn was a 3 and I picked up a double gutter. I checked and he bet half pot again with 20bbs behind (stacks not as important as the action). I tanked shoved and he insta called with KK, I bricked the river and he doubled. I was down to 160k, good for 7th place in the tournament. A big mistake, though from the way he had been playing its not impossible to put his utg raise on air.
I played very tight until a few short stacks went out. 7 handed I was able to double up with AK vs 88 and was back in it. People began to go out and with the chip leader being someone I would consider to be decent, I felt if I could get headsup with him I would have him crushed. He took out most of the players and when we got 3 handed I was third in chips. I played aggressively and 3bet almost every hand. I chipped up pretty consistently just by 3betting and when the 3rd place finisher went out I was chip leader going into headsup with $1.4million to the second place guy $750k. With $19300 left between 1st and second place (11,900 first, and 7,400 second) I decided to make a deal taking $10,372 and we would play for $100. We played for a little while and I lost the chip lead on a hand where he raised the button and I called with J9o. Flop came KQ10 all spades and we got it all-in with him have 85s. We were about even when he suggested we just go all-in every hand, I said I would just play it. We did get it all-in with 40bbs each and his QQ beat my A7s. No big deal, got the big dough and officially took 2nd.
Not a bad night and a good confidence booster for the start of the year.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
2010 Goals
The past year was slow and due to a busy schedule and being in school I have not been totally focused on poker. I have resolved to make 2010 a much better year for poker and at the core of my goals are deep runs in big tourneys and playing a lot. I have lately began to change my game away from survival and more towards getting deep in tournaments with a lot of chips. Goals for the year are as follows:
- $100k profit online
- 2 online major final tables
- qualify and play in a live big buy-in tourney
- play more and be profitable in live tournaments
- Put in 150 days of playing the whole tournament slate
- WIN
- $100k profit online
- 2 online major final tables
- qualify and play in a live big buy-in tourney
- play more and be profitable in live tournaments
- Put in 150 days of playing the whole tournament slate
- WIN
New Years, Fantasy Football Champ, Live Cash, PAD/HSP, Olympic Hockey
So last night was New Years Eve and we turned a night of doing almost nothing into going out to one of the seediest joints in town. The duchess and I were all settled in for a nice night in and it would have been my first new years that i didnt go out in about 8 years when after speaking with my buddy Girv we decided to get our drink on. He's in the military and back home for some holidays and was visiting with his mom but like me, most of his friends are off with family or in toronto so we met up with him and hit the town. Good time, had a few coors and hit Cowboys for the night. Almost got into about 10 different fights with people using having ten teeth or less. Luckily got out unscathed - got some pizza and in bed by 4am. Good 2009 for life but not for poker - I am sure 2010 will be much better.
For the second consecutive year I was in the running deep in the football season to take down the title. Last year I ended up 2nd overall in my only league and this year (with the help of my boy Beau) was able to take first place and i think $300. Not a ton but definately good entertianment and a nice dinner or two. Warner, Peterson, A. Johnson and Jamaal Charles were studs for us down the stretch and it was an added bonus to clinch in week 16. I lost in the first round of the playoffs in the other league when even c. johnson, brady, charles, and davis werent enough to overcome Roethlisbergers 503yard career day. Excited for next year and will definately be moving on to do all the work myself without Beau.
With nothing to do with a broken computer throughout the holidays, I got as much playing in as I could with my old compaq laptop (which I am still using now as it has taken more than two weeks to order the damn screen for my Mac - Christmas rush- yeah, right), I decided to get in some live action so I head down highway 402 to Point Edward charity casino. Calling ahead I put my name on the list for the 2-5 game that they usually have going. Whats that? Its 10am and no one is playing at all? I was already on the road so I drove there to play the 1-2 game they said they would be starting an hour later. Pacing the casino floor for a hour with no magazines (like most Vegas casinos have and this one used to but for some reason dont anymore) all the table games are screaming at me to play.
- "hey its me your old friend let it ride. Remember that time you came here years ago with only $100 and I took that money from you within 5 minutes? Don't you want to do it again?"
- "No, I'm roullette, do you recall the time when you won 10 black-reds in a row with me? Do it again!"
- "Its me caribbean stud, I have some of the worst odds in the casino but people still play me thinking that I am profitable because of my outrageour bonus"
- "you should come to enjoy me, blackjack, we have been through so much together. From that time you made $7000 from me in two weeks to that one day loss of $800 in Brantford. Dont forget about that time in vegas when you were doubling with 6 and 8 and raising with AA down. Good times!"
Despite all of these games calling my name I was able to wait it out til the game got started and I played in what I would compare to a home game. Everyone knew each others names and mannerism and as far as I was concerned they were all pretty loose passive. I bought in for the max $200 and was going to start out playing tight. Early on I was dealt 77 in the big blind and there was a raise to $7 in early position. 4 calls ahead of me so I called also. The flop came AdKs7d. The utg limp caller lead out $20. There were two callers and I raised to $70. The utg played just called and both other folded. There was already $223. We both have around $130 left in our stacks. *Note: the utg player was a flushmaster - limp calling a raise earlier and showing down the nuts when he flopped a flush with k2d. He bet the whole way $5 and just got called every time in that hand so when he had lead for $20 and called a raise I thought he had some kind of Qhigh or Jhigh flush draw and I was just hoping to see a brick on the turn so I could put the rest of my stack in. 8c hit the turn and I lead out instantly. (Since it was a $100 max bet I said $100 but he technically had to raise me to get it allin). He called pretty quickly and showed AKo. WOw didn't expect to see that hand. The rive didn't improve him and I was instantly up to around $480.
After awhile the game began to get much looser and I saw one old guy, tilted that they questioned him about his second beer of the day at 1230pm, open raise to $52 and when everyone folded showed 56o. I was not sure if he was drunk but not soon after he called a raise his bb and and lead out allin for $130 with 62o on a k64 flop and showed it when the other player folded. Wow. He was even talking into a fake cellphone telling his wife that he was obviously too drunk and that he would be home soon. I joked - "no cell phones at the table sir" to which everyone laughed except him. There was one solid player there and because he was younger looking I decided when I sat down that I wanted to have position on him. So when we chose our seats, I picked one two to his left. We got into a couple hands where he raised in the hijack and i would reraise the button small or call and raise his cbet. There were about five hands and everytime I took the hand down without a problem so when this hand came up I thought the same type of thing was going to happen.
There were two limps in early position and he raised from the hijack to $12. I thought for about four seconds and reraised to $27 on the button with AA. He called, this was the first time he had done that to my 3bet. Flop came down 10d5d3d.I didnt have the Ad. He checked and normally I would bet this spot but I thought I could induce a lot of action from lesser hands and control pot from drawing hands if I checked. I checked back and the turn was a 7c - a pretty good card. He led $20 and I just called. I did not think this player would bet with just a high diamond, especially after I checked the flop , I thought he would check-call, maybe check-raise. I thought that he would have something with some value like a medium pair or A10/maybe even a flush. I thought if he had the flush and it was not very high a river diamond might cause him to check but if he had a set a diamond would also scare him. Because I didn't bet the flop, since I thought he might have hit something there, his range was far too wide and I think the flop cbet wouldn't have been bad, however without the Ad I might be losing all value of my hand if he were to check raise a bare-Ad in which case I would still be playing from behind and have very little idea of his range and be forced to fold to a d turn card or a big bet. This was a tough hand. The river came 3h, a good card. He thought and bet $60 into a $103 pot. I thought about it and called thinking that he could be bluffing a lot but also value betting JJ, A10 (if he thought I would payoff with AK on that board), QQ, KK or he could be bluffing with any missed draw. He could ofcourse have a flush which wouldn't be too far off. Considering the hands that he could be value betting that I beat and bluffing with I think this was a winning call against this player. I had given him control of the pot on the flop and since he was a thinking player it would be very tough for him to put me on AA. Also I had seen him run a few two pronged bluffs after he was given control on the flop before and had to muck to the old guy who called him down with a bare Ahigh. He showed QdJd and had flopped the flush. Overall I had a good time made quite a few solid calls including a three pronged bet from a loose man with 88 on Q74k2 board with JJ for about $210 pot. Left up about $120 after getting in a $400 pot losing with AA to k8d on a Ks6d2d flop and he rivered an 8. ohwell.
Watched Poker after dark cash game replay this past week with hellmuth, ivey, antonius, dwan, hansen, negreanu and peete. Not too much to say about it but that hellmuth is so bad. he is never going to be a winner in these games unless he gets 5 coolers. It is impossible to trap someone in cash game when they are 500bbs deep and know that you never play a hand. Then when he stean 3bets an Ivey raise and Antonius reads it perfectly and 4bets with AJ and Hellmuth has to fold. Like those guys say he has a great tournament game because he can survive and people just give him their chips. But in cash against the best players in the world he is simply outclassed. Luckily he has about $200million so losing a couple hundre thousand wont hurt him. Also, High Stakes Poker was filiming the last couple months and will restart in a couple weeks with Kara Scott-Chad as the co-host (I believe in place of AJ Benza but I cannot confirm). Exciting to watch as I consider High Stakes Poker one of the best Poker shows out there, if not the best - WSOP and WPT are up there for me.
Canada announced their Olympic Hockey Team roster this past week and it doensn't include Mike Green and Dion Phaneuf (most surprising to me) Phaneuf has had a bad year but Green is the top offensive defenceman in the league and which Yzerman said that Doughty is a more complete player, I think you can afford to have Green for the powerplay alone and dress him as a 7th defenseman. We will see how it goes but I think they have a great team and ofcourse are favorites at home. Pumped for mid-february when this thing starts up!
For the second consecutive year I was in the running deep in the football season to take down the title. Last year I ended up 2nd overall in my only league and this year (with the help of my boy Beau) was able to take first place and i think $300. Not a ton but definately good entertianment and a nice dinner or two. Warner, Peterson, A. Johnson and Jamaal Charles were studs for us down the stretch and it was an added bonus to clinch in week 16. I lost in the first round of the playoffs in the other league when even c. johnson, brady, charles, and davis werent enough to overcome Roethlisbergers 503yard career day. Excited for next year and will definately be moving on to do all the work myself without Beau.
With nothing to do with a broken computer throughout the holidays, I got as much playing in as I could with my old compaq laptop (which I am still using now as it has taken more than two weeks to order the damn screen for my Mac - Christmas rush- yeah, right), I decided to get in some live action so I head down highway 402 to Point Edward charity casino. Calling ahead I put my name on the list for the 2-5 game that they usually have going. Whats that? Its 10am and no one is playing at all? I was already on the road so I drove there to play the 1-2 game they said they would be starting an hour later. Pacing the casino floor for a hour with no magazines (like most Vegas casinos have and this one used to but for some reason dont anymore) all the table games are screaming at me to play.
- "hey its me your old friend let it ride. Remember that time you came here years ago with only $100 and I took that money from you within 5 minutes? Don't you want to do it again?"
- "No, I'm roullette, do you recall the time when you won 10 black-reds in a row with me? Do it again!"
- "Its me caribbean stud, I have some of the worst odds in the casino but people still play me thinking that I am profitable because of my outrageour bonus"
- "you should come to enjoy me, blackjack, we have been through so much together. From that time you made $7000 from me in two weeks to that one day loss of $800 in Brantford. Dont forget about that time in vegas when you were doubling with 6 and 8 and raising with AA down. Good times!"
Despite all of these games calling my name I was able to wait it out til the game got started and I played in what I would compare to a home game. Everyone knew each others names and mannerism and as far as I was concerned they were all pretty loose passive. I bought in for the max $200 and was going to start out playing tight. Early on I was dealt 77 in the big blind and there was a raise to $7 in early position. 4 calls ahead of me so I called also. The flop came AdKs7d. The utg limp caller lead out $20. There were two callers and I raised to $70. The utg played just called and both other folded. There was already $223. We both have around $130 left in our stacks. *Note: the utg player was a flushmaster - limp calling a raise earlier and showing down the nuts when he flopped a flush with k2d. He bet the whole way $5 and just got called every time in that hand so when he had lead for $20 and called a raise I thought he had some kind of Qhigh or Jhigh flush draw and I was just hoping to see a brick on the turn so I could put the rest of my stack in. 8c hit the turn and I lead out instantly. (Since it was a $100 max bet I said $100 but he technically had to raise me to get it allin). He called pretty quickly and showed AKo. WOw didn't expect to see that hand. The rive didn't improve him and I was instantly up to around $480.
After awhile the game began to get much looser and I saw one old guy, tilted that they questioned him about his second beer of the day at 1230pm, open raise to $52 and when everyone folded showed 56o. I was not sure if he was drunk but not soon after he called a raise his bb and and lead out allin for $130 with 62o on a k64 flop and showed it when the other player folded. Wow. He was even talking into a fake cellphone telling his wife that he was obviously too drunk and that he would be home soon. I joked - "no cell phones at the table sir" to which everyone laughed except him. There was one solid player there and because he was younger looking I decided when I sat down that I wanted to have position on him. So when we chose our seats, I picked one two to his left. We got into a couple hands where he raised in the hijack and i would reraise the button small or call and raise his cbet. There were about five hands and everytime I took the hand down without a problem so when this hand came up I thought the same type of thing was going to happen.
There were two limps in early position and he raised from the hijack to $12. I thought for about four seconds and reraised to $27 on the button with AA. He called, this was the first time he had done that to my 3bet. Flop came down 10d5d3d.I didnt have the Ad. He checked and normally I would bet this spot but I thought I could induce a lot of action from lesser hands and control pot from drawing hands if I checked. I checked back and the turn was a 7c - a pretty good card. He led $20 and I just called. I did not think this player would bet with just a high diamond, especially after I checked the flop , I thought he would check-call, maybe check-raise. I thought that he would have something with some value like a medium pair or A10/maybe even a flush. I thought if he had the flush and it was not very high a river diamond might cause him to check but if he had a set a diamond would also scare him. Because I didn't bet the flop, since I thought he might have hit something there, his range was far too wide and I think the flop cbet wouldn't have been bad, however without the Ad I might be losing all value of my hand if he were to check raise a bare-Ad in which case I would still be playing from behind and have very little idea of his range and be forced to fold to a d turn card or a big bet. This was a tough hand. The river came 3h, a good card. He thought and bet $60 into a $103 pot. I thought about it and called thinking that he could be bluffing a lot but also value betting JJ, A10 (if he thought I would payoff with AK on that board), QQ, KK or he could be bluffing with any missed draw. He could ofcourse have a flush which wouldn't be too far off. Considering the hands that he could be value betting that I beat and bluffing with I think this was a winning call against this player. I had given him control of the pot on the flop and since he was a thinking player it would be very tough for him to put me on AA. Also I had seen him run a few two pronged bluffs after he was given control on the flop before and had to muck to the old guy who called him down with a bare Ahigh. He showed QdJd and had flopped the flush. Overall I had a good time made quite a few solid calls including a three pronged bet from a loose man with 88 on Q74k2 board with JJ for about $210 pot. Left up about $120 after getting in a $400 pot losing with AA to k8d on a Ks6d2d flop and he rivered an 8. ohwell.
Watched Poker after dark cash game replay this past week with hellmuth, ivey, antonius, dwan, hansen, negreanu and peete. Not too much to say about it but that hellmuth is so bad. he is never going to be a winner in these games unless he gets 5 coolers. It is impossible to trap someone in cash game when they are 500bbs deep and know that you never play a hand. Then when he stean 3bets an Ivey raise and Antonius reads it perfectly and 4bets with AJ and Hellmuth has to fold. Like those guys say he has a great tournament game because he can survive and people just give him their chips. But in cash against the best players in the world he is simply outclassed. Luckily he has about $200million so losing a couple hundre thousand wont hurt him. Also, High Stakes Poker was filiming the last couple months and will restart in a couple weeks with Kara Scott-Chad as the co-host (I believe in place of AJ Benza but I cannot confirm). Exciting to watch as I consider High Stakes Poker one of the best Poker shows out there, if not the best - WSOP and WPT are up there for me.
Canada announced their Olympic Hockey Team roster this past week and it doensn't include Mike Green and Dion Phaneuf (most surprising to me) Phaneuf has had a bad year but Green is the top offensive defenceman in the league and which Yzerman said that Doughty is a more complete player, I think you can afford to have Green for the powerplay alone and dress him as a 7th defenseman. We will see how it goes but I think they have a great team and ofcourse are favorites at home. Pumped for mid-february when this thing starts up!
Friday, January 1, 2010
Mango50 cashes in Daily Dollar
In recent poker action, local semi-pro poker player Mango50 ran deep into the Full Tilt Daily Dollar and finished 1117th out of almost 11000 players for a staggering $2.14. Motivated by his family and his desire to make it big in poker Mango50 was distraught at the idea of staying up til 4am playing in this tournament and was resigned to his fate in the late hours of Friday January 1st when with the blinds at 500-1000 he had 8000, called a min raise on the cutoff with 99 and went allin to a minimum bet on the flop of AK5 and ended up losing. Earlier in the tournament he was noted for his creative stabs at other opponents saying: "I'm going to check and see what f*ck wad over here does" and calling someone a "lucky c*nt" after they won the hand. In the end, his chat was not disabled and he was able to collect his first ever multi table tournament cash upping his roi just overprofitable and his cash rate to a whopping 50%. Look out poker world.
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