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Update

Date: Wed, May 13, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

I've had a fairly good week. I've cashed in 3 tournaments in a row. My last was an 11th place finish in the nightly HORSE tournament. I was catching cards and had a very big stack at one point, so the 11th place finish is kind of disappointing.

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Still Around

Date: Tue, Apr 7, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

Haven't played much so far this month. I played one of the Spring Pokerstars tournaments that I satellited into and a few 90-mans. Zero cashes so far this month.

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Spring Break

Date: Mon, Mar 23, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

I was on Spring Break last week and I played a ton of tournaments. I had a really great start to the week with several cashes in several different types of tournaments. Towards the end of the week my luck really started to run out and I ran pretty cold.

I am going to make an effort to post more hands. Hopefully looking at some of my hands in more detail can help me plug some leaks.

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Update

Date: Wed, Mar 11, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

I had a really swingy weekend. At one point I was down around $16. By the end of the weekend is was actually up a few cents. Note to self: Don't play when you know that you are on tilt!

Last night I played one .25 90 man tournament. I finished 2nd and was relatively happy with the way I played. There were a few times that I left some chips out there, but I think I'm getting better at identifying these situations. The one thing I was unhappy about was that I got absolutely destroyed heads up. I don't have much experience playing heads up with huge blinds and I definitely need to improve, but overall I was happy to get 2nd.

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Yay! A Final Table

Date: Fri, Mar 6, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

Managed to get to the final table of the nightly HORSE tournament last night. Sadly, I finished 8th when I busted in a Stud level when my OESD didn't get there. I was up and down a lot the whole night and was happy to last as long as I did. At one point I was in 76th chip position out of 77.

At least for me HORSE is one of the more interesting tournaments. The different games help me stay entertained and also help keep my mind fresh. My only complaint is that they kind of turn into a crap shoot near the end.

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More Consistent

Date: Tue, Mar 3, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

I had a pretty good weekend playing. Had both a 2nd and 3rd place finish in the .25 90 man tournaments on stars. I like these because they are more deep stacked than regular tournaments and they have more blind levels added in. Many players simply do not take these factors into consideration.

While I'm happy to finish 2nd and 3rd I really would have liked to turn at least one of them into a first. Both times I went out on pretty questionable moves on my part. I'll try to post the hands soon.

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Last Night

Date: Fri, Feb 27, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

Had a pretty good run in the nightly $1.10 HORSE tournament last night finishing 12th. I still need to work on my late tournament play it seems like I always seem to lose ground during this phase of tournaments.

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Weekend

Date: Mon, Feb 23, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

Played several NLHE tournaments plus my HORSE and triple-draw tournaments over the weekend and the last part of the week. I had some promising runs, but they all fizzled around the money bubble. Nothing really stood out in the tournaments I played other than there are some really bad players at this level.

I also played a little .02/.05 NLHE cash games. So far I'm 4/4 on winning sessions, but I haven't played enough hands to have any type of accurate assessment.

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Finally Over the Hump

Date: Thu, Feb 19, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

I had a pretty good run last night. First, I won a small $1.20 sit and go. Next, I finally won one of the 90 man $.25 tournaments. Lastly, I cashed in the nightly $1.20 HORSE tournament.

I have to admit that I am pretty happy to finally win the 90 man tournaments. Field wise it was the biggest tournament that I've ever won. I've had some bigger cashes, but it always feels good to win a tournament no matter how much you are playing for.

Here are some key hands in the 90 man tournament.

This first hand was a bad hand for me.

Poker Stars $0.25+$0.00 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 9 players - View hand 43385

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: t3045 M = 40.60

UTG+1: t5115 M = 68.20

UTG+2: t3260 M = 43.47

MP1: t3620 M = 48.27

MP2: t6270 M = 83.60

CO: t2250 M = 30

BTN: t9115 M = 121.53

SB: t2845 M = 37.93

Hero (BB): t4535 M = 60.47

Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is BB with K K of hearts A A of clubs

UTG raises to t150, 1 fold, UTG+2 calls t150, 3 folds, BTN calls t150, 1 fold, Hero raises to t500, UTG calls t350, UTG+2 calls t350, BTN calls t350

Flop: (t2025) 4 4 of diamonds 4 4 of clubs J J of hearts (4 players)

Hero bets t1300, UTG raises to t2545 all in, UTG+2 folds, BTN folds, Hero calls t1245

Turn: (t7115) J J of spades (2 players - 1 is all in)

River: (t7115) 3 3 of hearts (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t7115

UTG shows Q Q of hearts Q Q of clubs (two pair, Queens and Jacks)

Hero shows K K of hearts A A of clubs (two pair, Jacks and Fours)

UTG wins t7115

I'm entirely sure what my line should have been on this hand. I am fine with my re-raise preflop, but I was definitely not happy to get 4 callers. On the flop, I continuation bet 1300 into a pot of 2025. In retrospect, I think this was a mistake. UTG pushed for 1245 more. Getting 4.7 to 1 on my money makes this an easy call. As it turned out, I was lucky to not run into AA or KK and had six outs. In the end, I didn't get there and was knocked down to the short stack at the table with 1490 chips.

Thinking back, I now think I probably should have check folded on the flop. UTG raised pre-flop which usually indicates a strong hand. He also was the first to call my re-raise preflop. At this point, I should have put him on a very strong hand. Making such a large continuation bet on the flop meant that I had to call his push. If I had check folded this hand would have cost me 500 chips instead of 3045.

Not much to say about this next hand other than I was very lucky to double up.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25+$0.00 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

SB (t6475)
BB (t11935)
UTG (t1345)
UTG+1 (t11436)
MP1 (t2910)
MP2 (t1800)
MP3 (t10200)
CO (t3130)
Hero (Button) (t945)

Hero's M: 7.88

Preflop: Hero is Button with 3,3

UTG calls t80, UTG+1 calls t80, 4 folds, Hero raises to t945 (All-In), 3 folds, UTG+1 calls t865

Flop: (t2090)Q,3,3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t2090)2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t2090)Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t2090

Results:
Hero had 3,3 (four of a kind, threes).

UTG+1 had J,J (two pair, Queens and Jacks).

Outcome: Hero won t2090

The moral of the story of the next hand is to not go crazy if you get played back at after limping with a big hand.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25+$0.00 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (8 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

UTG (t5555)
UTG+1 (t11575>
MP1 (t985)
MP2 (t11451)
CO (t1080)
Button (t1680)
SB (t4420)
Hero (BB) (t3230)

Hero's M: 26.92

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8,6

6 folds, SB calls t40, Hero checks

Flop: (t160)6,8,A (2 players)

SB checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t160)2 (2 players)

SB bets t80, Hero raises to t240, SB raises to t400, Hero raises to t3150 (All-In), SB calls t2750

River: (t6460)7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t6460
Results:

SB had Q,A (one pair, Aces).

Hero had 8,6 (two pair, eights and sixes).

Outcome: Hero won t6460

I'm not sure if I would have limped in the SB's situation AQ is a nice hand but it is beaten by any pair unimproved. Why give the big blind a free chance to hit a huge hand, especially when we still have decently large stacks in relations to the blinds? I may make this play with a huge overpair or heads up when the blinds are huge in relation to our stacks, but I hate it in this situation.

Here is another example of why you shouldn't limp!

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.25+$0.00 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

UTG (t13735)
MP1 (t10725)
MP2 (t3631)
CO (t27897)
Button (t16955)
SB (t28310)
Hero (BB) (t12817)
Hero's M: 13.49

Preflop: Hero is BB with 7,J

2 folds, MP2 calls t400, 1 fold, Button calls t400, 1 fold, Hero checks

Flop: (t1750)J,7,2 (3 players)

Hero bets t1000, MP2 raises to t3181 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero calls t2181

Turn: (t8112)6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t8112)4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t8112

Results:

Hero had 7,J (two pair, Jacks and sevens).

MP2 had 6,3 (one pair, sixes).

Outcome: Hero won t8112

After those two hands, things were mostly standard. I stole a lot of blinds with preflop raises and continuation bets. I also won a couple races. The rest of the hands mostly involved all-in preflop bets.

My heads up opponent was fairly easy to play against. He either pushed all-in preflop or he folded. Eventually, I trapped him for all of his chips. All-in-all I'm happy with the way this turned out. I got extremely lucky on a couple of occasions, but my patience paid off and gained a lot of confidence with this win.

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Late Tournament Woes Continue

Date: Wed, Feb 18, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

Last night, I only played one .25 90-man tournament. I was among the chip leaders for a majority of the tournament, but once again I faded as the final table approached. This seems to be a very common theme for me lately and I'm not sure how to get out of this rut.

I will say that I did take a pretty nasty beat when I got it all in preflop with JJ against 55 and lost when the other guy flopped his set.

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Triple Draw Final Table

Date: Tue, Feb 17, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

I managed to finish 5th in the nightly Triple Draw Tournament on Sunday night. I still need to work on my late tournament play, no matter the tournament it seems to consistently fail me. But it had been awhile since I had final tabled a non sit and go tournament so that felt good.

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$120 live tournament

Date: Sat, Feb 14, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

I managed to finish 14th last night in Cherokee's $120 buy-in tournament. 14th place paid $466. I think that I played relatively well, but I really need to work on being more aggressive whenever the blinds represent a large percentage of my chips. I also need to try harder to put people on hands.

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Double or Nothing Fun

Date: Wed, Feb 11, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

I didn't play very much yesterday, but I did play one quick double or nothing ($5.40) sit and go and cashed! As I mentioned these are mostly pretty easy. Early in them I typically only play very high pairs or my blinds if they look playable. I lost around 500 chips on the first hand when my 2 pair lost to a better two pair, but it generally only takes 1 big hand to cash in these things and the hand posted below was mine.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $5.00+$0.40 Tournament, 50/100 Blinds 10 Ante (7
handed) -

Poker-Stars Converter Tool from
FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t1545)
Verile (SB) (t965)
BB (t730)
UTG (t1245)
MP1 (t4010)
MP2 (t2185)
CO (t3320)
Verile's M: 4.20

Preflop: Verile is SB with
,

2 folds, MP1 raises to
t300, 2 folds, Button calls t300,
Verile raises to t955 (All-In),
1 fold, MP1 calls t655, Button calls t655

Flop: (t3045) , ,
(3 players, 1 all-in)

MP1 checks, Button bets t580 (All-In),
1 fold

Turn: (t3045)
(2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t3045)
(2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t3045

Results:

Button had A, K
(two pair, Aces and sevens).

Verile had A, A
(full house, Aces over sevens).

Outcome: Verile won t3045

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Back in Action

Date: Tue, Feb 10, 2009 Internet Live Tournament

Well for awhile during football season Poker took a backseat. I have started playing more regularly again. I had my account up to a little over $180 but last around $6 last night playing various tournaments.

I have recently discovered a new bankroll builder. Pokerstars has added "recently" some double or nothing sit and gos. The structure is pretty simple, if you finish in the first 5 you double your money if not you lose. I have a very high cash rate in these tournaments. It seems for the most part people don't really know how they are supposed to play them. In this type of tournament, there is very small incentive to accumulate chips. Survival is paramount. I generally play very few hands especially early on because the risk of losing chips far outweighs my chance of winning a lot of chips. As the tournament gets closer to the bubble anyone below 5th place has to try to steal some blinds to stay alive. I play at pretty low stakes $5.00 right now and at that level people simply play too loose go crazy and knock themselves out. Patience is a big key at this level.

My wife and I recently played a live Jack and Jill tournament at Cherokee Casino here in Tulsa. This tournament is part of their Oklahoma State Poker Championship series. This was only her 2nd time to play in a live tournament but she did very well. In fact, she played far better than I did. The biggest issue that I had is I failed to adjust for all the weaker players that were in this event. The players on a whole were the weakest bunch that I have ever seen. A ton of call stations. Note to self: Do not try to bluff call stations! I eventually busted us when I pushed AKo on a Queen high flop and got called by KQ. I should have pushed pre-flop, but in this particular instance it wouldn't have mattered. I would have been called anyways.

On a happy note, my co-worker has a son that plays poker pretty seriously. The player's name is Noah Nodine. Congrats to him on winning the $340 NLH event and getting close to a $20k payday!

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