Sunday Wrap-Up

After the past three weeks, my modest bankroll has been taking a hit. It had gone from $2400 to around $1150 coming into today. I had been playing less than perfect I think and also taking some chances playing non-NLH tourneys - I usually find that to be a leak, though I did take down a OHiLo tourney last month. With all sorts of christmas things going on I did not feel I was focusing enough attention on playing. Tonight I was able to get deep in a couple tourneys and finished with 4 cashes in about 10-12 tourneys. 

I made a deep run in the 1pm Superstack and played really well. As usually with this one, I think I should have gone out much earlier, but the shear weakness of the fields allowed me to stick around. It is hard to explain but the players that I play against in these small fields are so weak that I should be winning more often. The best strategy that they can hope for is that I am not able to get chips and they raise a ton. If i am able to get chips anywhere late in these small buy-ins, it is almost never a question of me winning.

I played great and even though I was in last for chips for most of the FT, and I lost two races being all-in and called only twice (the final hand and kk v 1010 near the start of the FT to double me up to 25bbs).

Here was the bust hand above, pretty standard allin preflop with 17bbs to a button pot raise from a maniac. Nothing I could do. In a way I wished I continued to not get any hands as I was avoiding all kinds of tough spots and moving up throughout the FT. Their betting and timing patterns made their hand strengths pretty apparent and this has both boosted my bankroll and got me excited to play again.

In other news, i decided to go to the WSOP in July and will be saving a portion of my winnings until June (probably 10-20%) to fund the trip. I hope the start of the year is good and I can make some big scores- I would love to play a few small events at the WSOP.

I will be comprising a list of goals for 2011 and I think this was a good way to end the year. I might play the slate a couple more nights. I will be starting the year with my normal $2000 bankroll - one of my goals will be to have a much bigger roll by the end of next year. Nice to get a little cash in the mail soon and get back at it.

Wednesday Action - 0/3

Put in a short day yesterday playing only three small tourneys. Just outside the money of the 9am $26 KO I was in a good spot in chips. With 90 making the money and down to 120, I had about 30bbs and was sitting around 50th. This hand came up:

Preflop:
It folded to the sb and he raised to 2400. This is a pretty standard range with most of the hands he is going to play considering the player and the situation. He knew it was close to the bubble and I might not want to play a flop but I can't narrow his hand by too much. J10s is a good hand and I call most of the time in pos incase I whiff the flop I can get away with still 25bbs.
Flop:
The flop comes as seen and he bets 3250, I contemplate his cbet and decide to call. I believe I could easily have raised 2-2.5x with the intention of stacking towards the larger end of my raise. Still, I think a call here is okay as I would call with most Ks two pair, A9, A8, j10 or q10 (maybe).
Turn:
9h hits the turn and he checks. I think he checks most hands here any king, ahigh hands, A8 and probably a 9 also considering the stacks. For some reason, I check pretty quick thinking I could hit my straight or maybe 10 or J for free. I really think I should have bet here - though, with a 9 and the board as such I check here most of the time to hopefully get value on the river.
River:
6d - BRICK hits the river and he checks pretty quick. There is about 13k in the pot and I have 17k in my stack. I decide to bet repping a 9 here - I would also consider betting a 8 for thin value bet - but that would only be if I know the player better. He thinks for half a second and calls with AQo. I put myself in a really bad situation for the remainder of the bubble and have to shove with 9bbs a couple rounds later with Q9o in the c/o and lose to AK.


I think I played the hand wrong on the flop as I could have raise and I didn't plan ahead that if I was going to bluff a brick on the river, I should have bet the turn as it would be much harder for him to call. The question though on the turn would be how much to bet? Do I bet 8k into the 13k pot leaving me 9k back that pretty much has to go in on the river when he is likely to call both or just shove which looks like too much of an overbet from a 9... 


The other two I played in I got pretty deep but ran into some unfortunate situations. While not an overly thrilling day of cards, I still feel it will help me to discuss at least one hand a day.

16 hours, 3 miniFTOPs, 24 tournaments about even...

Today was one of those long days I usually love to put in. I play sometime from the time I wake up, through the morning tournaments (best start at 9am) and hopefully there is a big overlap between with the morning starts and the afternoon starts (which can begin at 1pm due to late registration). I played the morning stuff with no success, luckily was able to have a nice break from 1130am til 1pm and have lunch and relax. I knew that I had wasted the morning but on a day like this when I am determined to play a lot, I love to get a break and back at it. The afternoon stuff saw very little success - I played in two miniftops and got pretty unlucky in the PL HA event - which I am essentially dead money in anyways. I scored one meaningless cash in the early double B around 60th place. In the 630pm Headsup I did really well in the round of 128 after getting a bye and then got outplayed against a guy who got quite a few hands but played them well.

The MiniFTOPs event was a 4x Shootout $55 with 2544 to start. The first round of the shootout was only 3 people at the table. As I understood there were 729 tables and the winners would move on. only the top 7 of those players would get paid and the next pay just came at 81.

The first round I played a really good player with good stats heads-up and was feeling it against him. I could sense when his button raises (always 2x, as mine were) were in a weak spot and when was right 3bet him (almost always 2.5-3x). He was folding to my 3bets and through about 100 hands of headups and my 3betting his button 2x about 8 times he finally jammed with a7s with about 25bbs. I had 99 and could sense he was going to move - just fortunate. I was able to take him out and had to wait about 1.5 hours for the next round to start.

The second round saw back to a 9-man table. As I knew I would be playing with these players a lot, I used Officialpokerrankings.com to search all of them and found that 7 of the 8 players were solid winning players. All 7 had profits over 16k and 3 of them over 60k. Sadly, I think this was the toughest table of midstakes grinders I had ever played at. I played very slow to start out called a small raise on the button with 33 and flopped a set to the utg raiser, he lead 2/3 pot on a jh8h3s board and I flatted (about 70bbs deep each) hoping to induce a call or raise from bb who had also called pf - bb folded. 10r hits the turn and he check calls my 2/3 pot bet. Having about a pot sized bet left, he check calls almost his whole stack with AJo to double me up. Good start. After playing well and into the money, got headsup with Tragedy83. He was a solid player and he came in with a 21k to 6k chip lead. We battled and I was able to peak at 12k to his 15. We were playing fast and I was doing well. All the button play was min raise or fold with maybe 3 limps on the button. I had dwindled to about 8500 and a double up would put me up 2-1 in chips.

This curious hand that I don't know if I could have played it differently ended it for me.

Full Tilt Poker Game #26410884513: MiniFTOPS Event #19 (190747256), Table 9 - 150/300 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:42:23 ET - 2010/12/14
Seat 1: llebdet (8,522)
Seat 9: Tragedy83 (18,478)
llebdet posts the small blind of 150
Tragedy83 posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to llebdet [9d Td]
llebdet calls 150
Tragedy83 raises to 900
llebdet calls 600
*** FLOP *** [9c Qh 2c]
Tragedy83 bets 500
llebdet calls 500
*** TURN *** [9c Qh 2c] [9h]
Tragedy83 checks
llebdet bets 2,400
Tragedy83 raises to 4,800
llebdet raises to 7,122, and is all in
Tragedy83 calls 2,322
llebdet shows [9d Td]
Tragedy83 shows [2h 2s]
*** RIVER *** [9c Qh 2c 9h] [6d]
llebdet shows three of a kind, Nines
Tragedy83 shows a full house, Twos full of Nines
Tragedy83 wins the pot (17,044) with a full house, Twos full of Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 17,044 | Rake 0
Board: [9c Qh 2c 9h 6d]
Seat 1: llebdet (small blind) showed [9d Td] and lost with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 9: Tragedy83 (big blind) showed [2h 2s] and won (17,044) with a full house, Twos full of Nines

I didn't raise the button because I felt he was going to 3bet if I did and this was too good a hand to have to fold, I knew if I limped, he would only raise 3x so I would get to see a flop. I limped and he made it 900. He does not have to have a hand here as I had folded this spot twice before and I could tell that taking the lead was a big thing to him. On the flop his follow is standard small which he had made and before and shut down on the turn. my call keeps the pot small and could free a lot of bluffs on the turn as I had just been calling with top pairs in the same spot. when the 9 hits the turn and he checks my bet is not to end the hand but to look like a bluff. I thought that he could put me on J10 or XcXc and when he min raises I have to think about it... However I think sometimes he could put me on one of those hands and check raise with KQ,AQ, KK, AA to get the money in with all my non-9 hands as well as maybe get a crying call from my draws. He could definately have played or A9, K9 (the hand he had also fits here) in the same way as since he is out of pos he may as well get it in now because his hand is still vulnerable. I think he could check call and lead the river with QQ as he is not afraid of any draws and should want to get my last 4500.

I also thought there was a chance he could check raise the turn on a bluff and maybe just cower and fold to the remaining min raise but that was very small and likely only if he thought I floated his small lead on the flop which I might have done before as I had call a lot of flops and bet when he checked the turns.

Either way, I think I played it fine and considering the depth of stacks and the lengthy heads-up I was okay with having 7 outs to win. Didn't work out but I played very well. 127th for about $130

The rest of the night went okay but I was not able to get much going besides a small cash in the Daily Double A. Overall I was only down $25 after cashing in $215 TDs.

A day of running below expected and a boat-load of tourneys. Happy that I was able to get this post in, it will hopefully help if I am able to discuss one thing a day.

Posted that last hand to P5's. Interested to see what they think.

http://www.pocketfives.com/f7/2nd-rd-miniftops-tonight-hu-analysis-611863/ 

November was a pretty decent Month

Considering the amount of time I put into playing in November, I would say it was a pretty good month. It was certainly the best month I have had in awhile. With a profit of $7374 playing low stakes multis and playing only 104 tournaments, this was a good result. I won 3 tournaments and finally won the midnight madness again (a tourney that I had crushed in the past but had recently not done so well in.
Here are some pictures of the results I had in November.

I spent the last two weeks getting a lot of family stuff done and have missed a great portion of the miniFTOPS. I am starting it back up again and hoping to make a strong finish to the year in preparation for a good run in 2011. I am in the middle of setting up my goals for the year but am running into some problems in projections. I am concerned that I will not be able to get enough volume in. Should I be offered a job, I would almost certainly take it as the longer I remain out of the job force the worse it looks on me. I will be finalizing my goals for 2011. This year was pretty slow and I played my lowest volume in the past 3 years but still managed to profit $29000 before subtractions for the short backing deal I did and $23500 after I gave up a cut.

Before the end of the year I will also go over the positives and negatives I had this year in poker. But the year is not done and I am still confident I can knock out a couple good scores before it is.

Thursday's Tourneys - Day and Night

Thursday was a pretty decent day for my play. I had taken a couple days off and decided to put in a long session. I ended up playing 16 MTTs from 9am til 430am with a little break around dinner. Early in the day I made a deep run in the 10am 16k $26 but was unfortunately not able to make my first final table of October. I had played about 56 tournaments in October to that point and was down about $100. Deep in the tourney I was holding on and managing my stack very well. I made a very poorly timed bluff:
14 players left and I am utg+1 with QJo . I have been able to steal from early position for quite a while and that had helped me survive the lack of cards I had received in the final few tables. blinds 2k-4k 500ante. I raise to 10780 and it folds to the bb who calls. (I have 123k back, he 247k - he is noted as aggressive but not very experienced - he defended his bb with almost anything but folded to cbets.) Pot is 27k.
Ah7s9s flopped and he check-called 18990. pot is 63940. (i have 105k he 228k)
Turn is a 3 and he checked again. This time i bet 47370. That is where he shoved. a strong move considering my line and his checking twice. I had to fold of course and was left with 57k. I was able to survive a few more hands but had to shove with my 13bbs when the same player opened in mid pos and i had AK. His A10 outflopped me and I was out.
I was mostly happy with how I played because in this tourney I was not able to get much going late. However, even though I was varying my play and raises, I think I was betting too much thinking that it would make my opponent believe that I had a stronger hand (ex: a big ace in the big hand). I have to remember to adjust my lines to my opponent and not necessarily play them as I think they look strong. Needless to say,this was very frustrating taking $130 when first was $4000+.

The positive thing is that I am always the most experienced and usually the best player in the field late in these small stake tournaments. It is rare that I am finding people that I cannot handle.



So I have had a pretty good time playing the $11 Superstack tournaments. The structure is so good that it takes away so much of the luck factor and with deep stacks, my advantage is multiplied. I have made so many deep runs in these of late, I am starting to think that I shouldn't play anything else.

Finished 4th for $1550 in this one and was playing for almost 10 hours. This tournament I managed my stack well late and got very lucky! Winning 1010 v JJ near the final table bubble, QJ v AJ shortly after and A8s v QQ with a rivered A at the final table. I made one bluff that i think I played well but the result would say otherwise.
For the record, the players at this table were decent. I think all three in the final four were profitable (a big deal these days) and they were 3 betting a ton.

With 2.7m (blinds 20-40k 5k ante). I raised utg 79o to 108000. button folded as he always did and sb and bb called (pot 344k). A96r flop and the sb leads 160k to me. i imagine what I would do with a good ace or two pair (AQ, AK, A6, A9). Since it is not superdrawy, I would call and raise most turns (not to mention I might have the best hand - if he bets a brick turn I am only proceeding as a bluff).  I call - pot 664k. (he has 1.365m, me 2.4m). The turn is a 2s BRICK!. He checks. This is where I went wrong. I was attempting to protect my hand by betting BUT i am not protecting against anything by betting here - except 87 which i should be able to just be aware of on the river. PLUS, i might still have the best hand. For some reason, I bet 384k (this cant be for value- why would i do this?) he calls. 1.4m in the pot. 980k behind for him. The river 3s and now I am worried that he has an ace. if he had AK, AQ, or two pair he would have shoved the turn so now with 1.4m in the pot I decide I need to bet. I feel I can make any 9, A4, A5, A7, A8, A10 and maybe AJ fold. I move allin and he tanks and calls with AJ. I am not sure if he knew i was bluffing but it was a monster pot that put him almost at chip lead and lead him to finish second. With the way I was playing preflop and on flops, there was no reason for me to take a chance. I lost the hand on the turn with my 384k bet and should have gone for pot control with what might have been the best hand.

I was down to about 25bbs and about 20 minutes later with the blinds 25-50k 7.5k ante. I shoved utg/co with 55 and was called from the other shortstack on the button with KK. crippled i was out the next hand.

I let this one get away from me and should have been more patient. It reminds me of watching the WCOOP final table when AJKHoosier was there and watching the amazing amount of time the players took to make each decision. That is something that I need to do late. It surprising how much you can get caught up in the fast play if the whole table is moving quickly. Nice to get my first final table of the month and I'll take the $1550 for now.

Not Sure If I should ever fold AK again

Played the evening slate tonight and have to say that I played very well in all of my tournaments. I got deep in the daily dollar (probably the best EV tournament on FullTilt) and finished 84th for $11.

Had a tough hand as seen above in the 8pm $35K. With pretty short stacks at this stage I knew the two guys to my right were tough active players and I had been resteal shoving on them a couple times in the previous rounds. This to me is a great spot but I was giving myself second thoughts as the action went down. The man in the cutoffs raise is standard 2.5x and after I see that i am positive I will not fold this hand, unless one thing happens - the button player JUST raises. The reason I feel the just raise feels so strong is that he has essentially committed himself (I know that I will never make this move and fold at this stage in the tournament with less than 20bbs. I would almost prefer his 3bet shove because his range is so much wider and I can beat most of it and will be racing against about a third of it. I decide that the button knows enough about this open raise that he will obviously not fold. He issue also is he has to know from playing with me that I will realize he is committed. From this deduction I know he will not fold but the fact that he just raised means he probably has a weaker hand (being that he will attempt to get me to fold a small portion of my range that he cant beat ie AQ, AJ, 88-1010, perhaps JJ. I dont think he will expect me to fold AK but in this case he may have eliminated some of my calling hands that he cant beat. After I shove the initial raiser folds and the button tanks and I thought for a second that he may just fold and avoid almost surely being a 4.5-1 dog and save his 11 bbs for another hand. He did make the call and I was out on a K736K board. I played it well but 119 of 1618 is not what I came out for.

The reason for the title is that there were about five times tonight that people have played hands so strong against me when I have had AK that I have almost fold in what I would determine as a 'no fold AK zone' (aka 20bbs to one raise or 15bbs to one steal raise and a 3bet). In these spots people were putting me to the test where considering the situation I thought the bottom of their range was AK or QQ. In 1 occasion I did call off and the opponent had AA - that is going to happen. In two occasions I folded and one time the opposing player had Isolated with k10o to two allins after small raising utg!! He lost to one of the allin AQ - which my AK would have beat for the chip lead with 80 people left. In the other time I folded to an iso shove the other player had AQ. I called off twice successfully and beat AQ and AJ. Im not serious in that I wont ever fold AK again as its pretty routine early in tournaments but I just have to realize that people are playing more aggressively in every aspect of the game.

I was very happy with how I played tonight. One of the AK to AQ i lost was for 3rd in chips of the daily double b with 35 people left. UTG raised 2.2x with 25bbs and I rerasie to 5.2x with 25bbs from HJ. He crammed and I called with AK and lost to his rivered flush.

3/8 in tourneys tonight and a slight loss but the key is that I am giving myself chances to get deep. The luck part is there some nights and not others. If I give myself a chance every night the luck with be there eventually.

What?! I have to deposit again!

After a horrible August and early september that saw my bankroll dwindle from $2000 to nothing. I had to redeposit for the first time in 3 years. I am playing exclusively on FullTilt right now and decided to start over on September 21st. I deposited $500 (I haven't played with a bankroll this small since I first started playing on FullTilt back in '08).

After a couple days of delicately selecting what types of tournaments I would play in, I was able to get deep in an $11 superstack and played very well to finish with the headsup chop for $3200+. While the player I was matched up against headsup was not good enough to beat me most matches and we were fairly deep (me 50bbs and him 75bbs) I was so desperate for the bankroll that I did not want to risk the drop from $4100 to $2700 in first to second place money. He definitely knew I was better than him and was more than happy to take the chop where he took $3500+ and I took the $3200+. I was very happy because it was the first sign of success that I had seen in quite awhile and I was able to take some money out and my bankroll was back at $2000 (not ideal but we all have to start somewhere). While I am happy to get my bankroll back, I think the place where I will make the most money in the future is in the $26 tournaments. It is great to have the opportunity to play bigger (as I did when I was staked), the problem is, that when I play, I want the edge. Frankly, there are so few people doing this for a profitable living in the lower stakes tournaments (I would guess less than 15%) that I have a massive edge in those tournaments. I believe that while I may be giving up some equity in playing the bigger stuff, with my bankroll, this is where I want to be.

GOALS

My goals for poker in the upcoming months have shifted. I had hoped to make $50K in the time leading up to the end of 2010. Due to many things happening and my utter lack of focus; that was not going to happen. I have reset my goals and I am planning on getting my yearly profit back to $50k for the year.

Current Yearly total: $21,298

This is definitely my lowest profit at this stage in a year since I started and it has nowhere to go but up.

I recently added a couple deep runs in tournaments and will just include shots of the lobbies for ease of explanation. I have been playing really well in the last couple weeks and in October I have been fortunate enough to play in 4 of the 5 days. I have cashed in 9 of 32 tournaments and am feeling really good about how I am playing.

In the coming weeks and months I hope to post many more winning sessions and deep runs. A couple of the negatives of playing the way I am:
1) I limit the number of tournaments I can play because I only play on FullTilt (by far my most profitable)
2) With such small volume, there will be more time between big scores - playing every day helps
3) I have found myself playing $1 tournaments!! Now sometimes I think they can be profitable and can help with a decent score ($1600-2000 for first) but the main reason I still play them is that I know if I can avoid getting below 20bbs I will run over that field. I can be pretty sure that there are not many players of my caliber that would bother entering those tournaments and even if there are, it is unlikely that two of us would get deep in one of those fields, needing to survive all the landmines of bad players.
4) I am limiting my chances of a big score.

All of these issues are serious and in the back of my mind when I set up for the day. The best thing I can do is get back to reviewing hands and writing about poker again. I had become complacent and need to get the interest in playing more. With NHL starting up again, the Leafs will surely draw me away once in awhile but I will make the effort to play much more (22+ days a month with 150+ tournaments).

Will be back to update my action very soon, may take the day off or just play the night-time stuff.

Life is good :)

Ugh

After several weeks of watching my bankroll dwindle I have tried to refocus. Tonight I played well and avoided any distractions. i ran as expected but have yet to get back to my normal standards of cashing. Here's to the next week where it will certainly turn around

Update: August 11, 2010

It has been a pretty slow two weeks. I have played 3 full days and my 3 favourite FTOPS events with no real results. -$1000 so far on my goal for $50k for the last five months of the year. I have decided to focus when I play and play the most +EV tourneys that I can. I will try to play at least some each day but will put in two full days each week. I should be at $4k profit at this point but things are just getting started and sometimes you have to change your strategy on things. I will feel so much better once i get things going again and even scoring a small tourney win will get the roll fully rejuvinated and this goal back on track. It is going to happen, I can feel it.

Back to the Grind

"Life" things seemed to have slowed down of late and, as such, I will be able to get back to playing more MTTs. Looking at my OPR ratings over the past several months I should be ashamed! I have planned so few tournaments that it is almost idiotic to call myself any kind of poker player. On average I have been playing about 120 MTTs a month and that is horrible! With an ROI around 130% lifetime I decided that if I played more there was no reason I could not pull in a steady wage. That is why I have decided to set a goal for the remainder of the year.

Up until this point in 2010, I have profited a mere $14000 for almost 7 months (pathetic).
Putting in good volume and playing the right tournaments,  I will make $50,000 in the next 5 months.
I have set this goal because I know i can attain it. I will play more tournaments each month that I ever have and focus on playing the right tournaments based on skill level of the field. I am determined to get this done.

SIT BACK AND ENJOY- numerous updates will be up in no - time :)
TB

A good night!

While I still haven't cashed for anything respectable on Pokerstars I did have a good night on Full tilt on thursday. Its only my 2nd week of not being staked and I was able to turn my meager $1100 bankroll into about $7600 in one night. Final tabling the 1pm superstacked tourney and getting 5th for $1200. I finished second in the 6pm $26 for $5300. I punted it bad headsup and should have taken the $8300 for first but I am obviously happy with the result. Big playing day today and I hope for some more deep runs. I seem to dominate the low buyins and I'm quite okay to play lower stakes for now. Good start so far this month and I will keep it coming!

Win the 12pm on FT -$5056 - New Beginning

Yesterday was a kind of exciting day for me. I decided to step out of my normal routine and play the daytime tourneys which I have had good success with in previous experiences. Since being backed, Starting Oct 1. I have not had a ton of success but since I am so conservative with my game selection and I was not buying into as big of tournaments as expected, I had been thinking of getting out of being backed all together. What kind of sense does it make to be backed when I am playing tournaments that I can easily afford to buy-in to myself? It doesn't! So with backing the way it was going I was only making money every little while and when I did, since I am such a nit about what tourneys I play, I was splitting small cashes. Since I didn't want to get stuck in huge in makeup if I had a bad run, It just made sense for me to go on my own and I was just waiting to get the $800 or so I was short in makeup back so that I could just go on my own. Yesterday I was able to do that and took down the $26 12pm 19.5k Gaurenteed on Full Tilt for $5056. Winning that much was nice, the sad part was that I had to give $2115 of that away in backing money. As my final act being a staked player, I was able to transfer back all the makeup and some profit and give myself a small stake to start up with again on Full Tilt and PokerStars.

So with my new bankroll set, I am setting myself structure for the summer.

• Only play the most profitable tournaments
• Play a lot of volume in tourneys $26 and less
• Play all the small stake tourneys like the MSOP on FT 
• Play the best events in the FTOPs
• Focus on each tournament like it is the only one
• Hit the forums and read more strategy
• Leave Cash games alone for a little while til my roll is up
• Qualify for everything
• Keep good records 
• Make $25k profit before September 1st.

To start my Bankrolls are as such.

PokerStars: $397.56
Full Tilt $1707.17

I am going to attempt to turn this into a successful micro/small stakes grinding session for the summer and see if I can hit a couple decents scores. I am finding the european players that play when it is morning for us to be pretty weak. I am going to play the daytimes for the most part and maybe some of the weak stuff on some nights. I hope to play every Sunday because the value cannot be beat then.

Sunday Tourneys

Had a pretty good little day at the tables. Got 125th in the 750k on FT for $630 after losing with 12 bbs and QQ to a button min raise i ship and he called with KQo and won. Finished 4th in the 630 Headsup tourney for $430ish and played really well to win 6 matches in a row. finally got 35th in the 800 $26 for $114 after running a pretty good bluff i thought that was called down. First Sunday playing everything in awhile and was profitable.

Going to attempt to play a lot this week - though hopefully after the family goes to bed

School, School, More School

I can't believe that I haven't posted in over a month. Been at school since the new year started and going crazy. Only put in one solid day of the full slate and it was a -$1500 day or so  (mind you I had pumped out all of that in TDs, it was still annoying to blank nearly every tourney I played in). Only two months til I move and am able to play full time for about four months. I am so looking forward to that and since my profit for the year is less than $10k and I have no time to play these days, I am dying to get my PCs back and all my monitors. I am going to pump out day after day from May 1st throughout the summer and have full intentions of killing it. Will play my first SCOOP in may and hope to finally have some results in a PS tourney. back in not to long hopefully.

tb

Win (technically 2nd) in 40k on Tilt

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.

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

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!

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.