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Poker Elmo's World    View profile

Poker Elmo's World - 2007-05-26

Date: Sat, May 26, 2007

Stars

Thanks in part to their double FPP promotion, I reached Platinum Star for the first time. I really wish I would have played a bit more, actually, and provided myself a good base for getting supernova. I also deposited for the first time since Neteller left, going to my local wal-Mart to make a deposit for a $150 bonus. Even with the $9.50 fee– it was definitely worth the time.

Ring Game Update

After having a great few days at the beginning of the stars FPP promotion, I essentially broke-even on ring games during the last week of the promotion. I think part of the reason were the games were much tougher, since many grinders were 10-tabling more than normal to get double-FPPs. I also ran a little cold, losing several hands where I got all in with 70% chance to win or better. I earned over 35K in FPPs during the 11 days of the promotion – which is enough to buy into the $530 Sunday million should I choose, and ended up a fair amount based on wins for the first 5 days.

On Wednesday, the first day after the promotion ended, I started winning again. I played FTP and stars and players seemed much worse. The quality of players really does matter, lol.

My current MO is to buy into Full Ring games with 27.5 big blinds. The number 27.5 is not too important, but at 1-2 NL I buy in for $55. That allows me to multitable quite easily.

Several Tournaments

Nightly 100K on stars

I played this Tuesday, May 15th and finished 9 out of the money. I pushed A3o on the button first in with an M=4 and was called by 99 and did not improve. I was half the average stack, and think my move was right since I will probably pick up the blinds 75% of the time, and the other 25% of the time I will still win some of the time. I was bummed about the bubble, as I had a great table where I had a good read on lots of donks but was moved with about 30 from the bubble to a different table with lots of bigger stacks and I had no reads.

Stars Million

I played in and cashed in my first stars million on Sunday. I was able to triple up early by hitting 2 sets. I played both moderately slow. On one, I got a lot of chips out of AJ when I probably would not have won much had I played it faster. The other, I won 10K post-flop on a A72 flop w 77 when the other guy had AK. Had I led that flop harder, I think I could have busted the guy, which would have given me an extra 4K, as he had a 14K stack.
I won with QQ vs. K5 to give me a 50K stack, which was actually bigger than the average stack on the bubble (40K). It was a funny tourney, as prior to the bubble bursting, I lost with AK to KK to go to 17K. The bubble burst, I stole blinds a couple times, then pushed J8o with a 20K shorter stack and was called by 66. The flop was T92 giving me 14 outs (4-Qs, 3-Js, 3-8s, 4-7s). I turned a straight and was average. I stole a couple blinds and was up to 60K, which was barely above average.

Shaniac, a top tourney pro both online and live, was at my table. He was in the big blind with about 25K when I had 40K after dwindling a bit. The cost per orbit was now about 6K, and when it folded to me, I pushed 54s on the button into his big blind. He picked up AK and held and, just prior to the 2nd money level, I was again pushed down to 17K. The 2nd money level bubble burst, and I was alive, but desperate. There were 1500 or so left, and I had just over double the starting stack. However, I won a coin flip with 88 vs. AK, then utg pushed and I had JJ in MP and called and doubled again! All of a sudden I was at 80K. I pretty much maintained without getting cards by making the occasional steal. By the time the bubble for the third money level came around, I was at about 60K when the average was 100K. Everyone folded to my SB, when I had K7. With blinds and antes worth about 11K at this point, it was an easy push. The big blind thought and thought, and called off his tournament life with T6o. The donkey hit, however, and I was back to 17K right before the bubble for the third money level. It was so odd – before each money level bubble I moved down to 17K. I survived the money bubble, and checked my rankings. The average was 110K, I had 17K, and at one point my stack size was 885 out of 895.

I picked up a 3-hand rush, however, tripling with KQ when I hit a K, then, on the next hand in the big blind, it was folded to the sb who pushed KJ and I called with AQ and doubled again. I reraised all in with 88 vs. a LAGGY player on our table, and was at 120K – above average! After 20 hands or so, I picked up AQ, and the table donk raised in EP so I pushed. (Big blind was 10K, so he raised to 30K, and I pushed my 110K stack). He called with K7o (the idiot raised K7o utg, WTF) but hit his K. I was down to 10K, and this time I did not recover. I cashed for 700 or so, and was generally happy with my play. The one thing I would have liked to do better was prevent my stack from dwindling so much, but I was at an aggressive table without much for cards, so I don’t know how much more I could do.


Ultimate Bet Satellites

On Friday I played 3 ultimate bet satellites – one to $200 WSOP Satellite, one to their $200 buy in 200K guarantee, and one to their $530 buy in tourney. All were turbo tourneys, and I won seats in the later two events! After buyins, I won a net of 600 in tourney dollars with these wins. I cashed out the $530 buyin – as that tourney has a really tough field, but am playing the 200 on UB this Sunday. I might play the 200 on UB the next few weeks.

Tourneys this weekend
I am playing the Goldstar freerole today on Stars. Tomorrow, I am playing the People’s Championship for ITH. Winner gets a WSOP ME seat with 4K in equity – although I will likely buy 1K more of myself. It will be a huge, huge hassle if I win, but I will probably try to fly my mother out to watch the kids while my wife and I go to Vegas. I am also playing the UB $200.

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Poker Elmo's World - 2007-05-12

Date: Sat, May 12, 2007

Got my computer set up – have begun multitabling

I have been on a good run at 6-max $200 buy in NL if I play 1 or 2 tables. I want to begin multitabling at stars, however, now that they have their double FPP promotion. I can easily 8-table with 2 screens, and might even have 10 tables open much of the time.

To do this, I don’t buyin full, I will be playing NL full-ring, and buying in for $55. That allows me to play short-stack strategy and capitalize on bigger stacks who are playing looser against other big stacks (for implied odds) and will not give me enough credit since they think I must be weak for buying in short. I hope to make platinum star by the end of their 10 billion hand promotion, and maybe even rack up several thousand extra points.

With double points, if I played 8 hours, I would earn pretty huge FPPs (10K or more). Without any earnings, that is worth about 215 T$ – a huge boost. Naturally, I expect to earn significantly more than that. However, I don’t plan on playing 8 hours per day. But, I would like to 8-10 table 1-2 hours every day at NL (perhaps 1 hour twice a day). My earnings per hour doing that should be pretty nice.

Tourneys

I played a few tourneys last week. I am rusty. I made a couple bad moves, although some decent ones as well. Only one worth mentioning was a FT tourney. I was well above average with 200 left (money starts at 150 and lost with AJ to 77 and 99 to AJ back-to-back to bust out. If I win the second flip, I am about 4th in chips headed into the bubble, a prime spot to make a run. But, it did not happen. Now that the semester is over, I have over 1000 T$ to use and hope to play some nightly 100Ks and some Sunday millions.

I have also played a couple $33R on stars for WSOP seats (I would just keep the 10K). I have had the most horrendous luck in the rebuy period on those – just sick. I have spent 6 buyins in the last two tourneys and stopped before the rebuy period ended. Just sick beats and was so disgusted with those I did not want to continue. I will take some shots again at those, however (still have over 1200 in W$).

The rust should be off here by this week – hopefully I can start making a few runs. After seeing how well ITHers are doing in the nightly 100K and in the million – I am itching to get in there and make some noise.

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Poker Elmo's World - 2007-05-08

Date: Tue, May 8, 2007

My poker mindset

Matthew Hilger and Ian Taylor (Piemaster) have a great book on the poker mindset. I know most of the material they write pretty well, but I admire their cold and calculated look at how a poker player should approach the game. Sometimes I wonder about my own mindset.

If I am being honest, I think my biggest skills are:

Ability to adapt to many different situations in MTTs, especially post-bubble
Analytical ability in NL holdem and willingness to adjust
Ability to never take a massive loss and walk away from games if I had a bad run
Ability(?) to never play games that are outside my bankroll.

My biggest weaknesses
Inability to be satisfied with mastery of one game (I jump from PLO to NL holdem, to tourneys, to SNGs, etc.)
Frustration level when I get a couple bad or unlucky beats
Unwillingness to move up levels quickly

Most of my biggest weaknesses have to do with mindset. Sure, I can become better at every game I play, but in NL holdem and NL holdem tourneys, I am not "weak". I am not sure my emotional state with poker is optimal, however. For example, I had a great run over the past few days, clearing about 1000 in a few days. But one session where I have AA losing to QQ on a flopped set, KK losing to QT all in on a Q94 flop, and 22 losing to 99 on a 982 flop, got me very frustrated. I need to do a better job realizing this is variance and focus on the longer run.

I know completely that a focus on the short term is unhealthy, yet my mind and emotions don’t always run side-by-side.

Summer is here – expect more updates

The school year is over, and grades are in. I expect to update my blog much more often!

Got a new computer with dual monitors

I am just getting it hooked up, but I expect to be able to 8-table some now with this setup. Woo-hoo!

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Poker Elmo's World - 2007-04-22

Date: Sun, Apr 22, 2007

Played a little the past few days - big tourney mistake

I played a little the past few days. Thursday I played the bodog $40 tourney, 25K guaraneteed. I was doing well, was chip-leader for a while with under 100 left, and decided that when it got down to two tables, I would try being a bit more aggressive to try to get a lot of chips going into the final table.

That was a mistake. I normally play the final 3 tables so well, that I should not have changed. I am plenty aggro in spots, but also know how to be patient. I chose an awful spot for an ill-timed bluff and busted in 18th. I got paid a miserable $250 or so, when top 6 all paid over $1K. It was an awful feeling, and so uncharacteristic of me to donk it up so late. My usual strategies work. If I want to make subtle changes, I should just follow along with toro or TP and think through each situation late.

In other news, I have played some PLO and NL holdem. Overall, I am down a bit, but it is because the one time I bought in full and played I lost with A6 to AQ on a AQ6 board to get stacked.

Also, once summer rolls around, I am going to play the majors most Sundays, or at least the million. The money at the top is so big, I have to throw in my lottery tickets each week.

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Poker Elmo's World - 2007-04-18

Date: Wed, Apr 18, 2007

Swamped at Work - but Iowa donks killed me

I have not played much recently, with two weeks left in the semester, things are pretty swamped.

However, I took a trip to Iowa for work last week, both to present a paper and conduct some research. I was also able to go to Prairie Meadows to play some poker. Wow, the donks had a wonderful time with me there. I got aces three times, once only getting the blinds, and the other two times I played against guys who flopped sets. I got a King high flush and the table idiot had an ace high flush. I made one mistake, getting too aggressive with A7 diamonds on an A35 flop to a guy who limped 24 and flopped a straight.

Given these 4 hands, I am thrilled that I only lost a little more than one buyin. Overall, not bad given those 4 hands.


Reading Rolf's PLO book.

I have been reading Rolf's PLO book. Initial thoughts are that it is a good book, although mainly designed as a short-stack strategy. I am reviewing this later for ITH, so I won't say much about this now.

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Poker Elmo's World - 2007-04-06

Date: Fri, Apr 6, 2007

A sick hand

There are 17 players left, 16 win $1050 seats to the Friday night WSOP qualifier on stars. I am in 2nd position – and here are the stack sizes.

Seat 1: calluch (22880 in chips)
Seat 2: KidPokerJD (9534 in chips)
Seat 3: muscovey (11040 in chips)
Seat 4: pokerelmo (7439 in chips)
Seat 5: beowulf (4644 in chips)
Seat 6: raiseit (15960 in chips)
Seat 7: DaDonkeyDonk (44524 in chips)
Seat 8: Duffs#1fan (4448 in chips)
Seat 9: Y2JKID (31960 in chips)

The big blind is 8000, which means neither the big blind nor utg can get through the blinds without going all in (before I have to be all in). Further, the player utg on the other table has only 6000 chips, so he is all in.

I pick up aces!

What do you do?

I figured at least one other player would call, so I would win about 7/10 of the time.

I figured the odds of the 3 players all winning were about 1/8 (giving each a 50/50 chance). So there is a 7/8 chance I win without having to win a showdown. Further, if disaster strikes and they all win, I still could win my all in when I get the big blind.

I folded.

Here is what happened:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t8000 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)



SB (t22880)

BB (t9534)

UTG (t11040)

Hero (t7439)

MP1 (t4644)

MP2 (t15960)

MP3 (t44524)

CO (t4448)

Button (t31960)



Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with As, Ah.

7 folds, SB raises to t16000, BB calls t1134 (All-In).



Flop: (t20334) 5h, Kh, 6c (2 players, 1 all-in)



Turn: (t20334) 2h (2 players, 1 all-in)



River: (t20334) Qs (2 players, 1 all-in)



Final Pot: t20334



Results in white below:

SB has Jh 9h (flush, king high).

BB has Kc Ad (one pair, kings).

Outcome: SB wins t20334.


And I win 1050 W$. Woo Hoo!

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Poker Elmo's World - 2007-04-06

Date: Fri, Apr 6, 2007

My best call ever?

There was a quick call on the flop, which made me think he might have a draw. Then he had a quick overbet on the river which made me think he had air.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (9 handed) Hand History Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)

UTG (t1410)
UTG+1 (t4855)
MP1 (t1535)
MP2 (t955)
MP3 (t1345)
Hero (t4300)
Button (t1730)
SB (t1060)
BB (t1565)

Preflop: Hero is CO with Qd, Ac.
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t30, MP1 calls t30, 2 folds, CO raises to t120, 3 folds, UTG+1 calls t90, MP1 calls t90.

Flop: (t405) 3d, 2d, 9c (3 players)
UTG+1 checks, MP1 checks, CO bets t305, UTG+1 calls t305, MP1 folds.

Turn: (t1015) 6c (2 players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks.

River: (t1015) 3c (2 players)
UTG+1 bets t1440, Hero calls t1440.

Final Pot: t3895

Results in white below:
UTG+1 has 5d 7d (one pair, threes).
Hero has Qd Ac (one pair, threes).
Outcome: Hero wins t3895.

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