Before I start my actual post, congrats to Waffles, Willwonka, and Katitude for also advancing to the 2nd round of HUC6. Go to that site for updated brackets. Also, please note that if your 2nd round opponent is set, you can go ahead and schedule/play your match.
So last night was a little different for me. Normally I have 4 cash tables open, grinding as usual at the 2-4NL 6 max tables. But last night, I had 3 tables open... two of which were tournaments. Unreal. I satellited into FTOPS #1 so I had that going. And at 10pm, the Mookie started as well as the deep stack 4/8NL blogger cash game. My buddy Pouringreign asked a good question on the girly chat. "Shouldn't you play against lesser competition at 2-4NL 6 max rather than playing against these known ringers?" My response? "They're all donkeys." Just kidding. That was not my response. My actual response was "yeah, but Fuel said I would be publicly humiliated if I didn't play. Plus after all the cash game posts and the recent posts, if I didn't play, I'd basically be admitting that I can't hang." Gotta get the "felt cred."
Unfortunately (or fortunately), I didn't really get much for cards. I definitely played fairly tight but the cards were just atrocious. Not even suited connectors or one gappers in late position... One AA on the button but it was folded to me and I raise and stole the blinds... One KQ from the CO, button calls my raise, I flop a straight but of course, I fire out a c-bet because that's what I do and the button (nonblogger) folds.
I don't have the HH for this one but one interesting hand was when Rakefeeder, Fuel and I were in a hand. I raised from MP, Fuel calls (because he has position on me and I'm sure desperately wants to rub in the fact that he's got more game or something), and Rakefeeder calls from either the SB or the BB. 3 way. We see a flop 9 high with two diamonds. Rakefeeder comes out firing a pot sized bet. The initial pot sized bet made me think that he either had TT or maybe a hand like A9. Either way, fairly strong for that board but not THAT strong, was my read. What did I have? KdJd. Two overs with a king high flush draw. I seriously considered raising there but I didn't want to get reraised off what I thought was a pretty good draw. Plus Fuel was behind me and I wasn't sure what he might do. If he flopped a set (there was a 5 out there if I recall correctly) and he decides to raise and rakefeeder comes over the top, it would be an easy fold for me. So, I smooth call. Fuel calls. Turn is an offsuit J. Rakefeeder checks to me so I fire out a good size bet (prob 80% of the pot), Fuel folds and Rakefeeder after thinking about it folds. So, Rakefeeder, if you had TT, it's a good fold. And as promised, I'm telling you what I had.
Speaking of which, I got lucky with my seating. I was seated to the left of Gnome and Cmitch, two of the players that I would much rather have on my right than to my left. Cmitch was probably not too excited that whenever he raised, I put in a reraise. However, both times that I 3 bet, I had a hand. One was AK, the next was TT. With Cmitch, I wanted to apply aggression with strong hands and couple that with the fact that I had position on him, it would be very hard for him to play on without premium cards. And since I was playing tight, there's no reason for him to think that I would be getting frisky without cards. At the end of the night, I ended up a little over $800. Nothing crazy considering the stakes but definitely happy about that. Thanks again to Gnome for setting that up. Oh, and before I forget, here's a good HH. Fuel knows what I have before I know what I have. :) Good thing he's a payoff wizard.
Full Tilt Poker Game #5152471555: Table Alise (deep) - $4/$8 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:55:34 ET - 2008/02/06
Seat 1: SirFWALGMan ($945.20)
Seat 2: weak_player ($1,547)
Seat 3: Fuel55 ($1,600)
Seat 4: Bone_Daddy84 ($1,592)
Seat 5: Rake Feeder ($1,403.20)
Seat 6: smizmiatch ($2,127.30)
Seat 7: cmitch ($1,659)
Seat 8: RecessRampage ($1,805)
Seat 9: SPIRITSLAYER ($1,307.40)
RecessRampage posts the small blind of $4
SPIRITSLAYER posts the big blind of $8
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [8c 8s]
SirFWALGMan folds
Fuel55 raises to $24
Bone_Daddy84 folds
Rake Feeder folds
smizmiatch folds
cmitch folds
RecessRampage calls $20
SPIRITSLAYER folds
*** FLOP *** [6c Kc Td]
RecessRampage checks
Fuel55 checks <--- he always checks top pair
*** TURN *** [6c Kc Td] [Th]
RecessRampage checks
Fuel55 bets $24
RecessRampage calls $24
At this point, I did think that Fuel had the K. If he had a draw, he'd bet out the flop. So, I actually thought about making a move on the river if another club comes. Except I forgot Fuel runs so bad (only according to him).
*** RIVER *** [6c Kc Td Th] [8h] <--- gin!
RecessRampage checks (he's got top pair so he'll bet)
Fuel55 bets $64 <--- right on cue
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME (I like to think about my bet sizing)
RecessRampage raises to $244
Fuel55: ceom on
Fuel55: you have 88? <--- he's good...
Fuel55 has 15 seconds left to act
Fuel55 has requested TIME
Fuel55: i am a payoff wizard <--- oh thank god
Fuel55 calls $180
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RecessRampage shows [8c 8s] a full house, Eights full of Tens
Fuel55 mucks
RecessRampage wins the pot ($589) with a full house, Eights full of Tens
Fuel55: fawek i knew <--- I know...
Nothing much to report on the Mookie except I had a decent chip lead that I rode to the final table but couldn't get anything going and busted out in 8th or 7th or something. Admittedly, between the blogger cash game and the possibility of going deep in FTOPS#1, I really wasn't paying much attention to the Mookie.
On the FTOPS, the first hour, I played like... a bitch. Oh my god. I wanted to play tight. Instead, I played some weak tight poker. After the first hour, I knew I had to do something different. Basically, I needed to play my game. My desire to play tight actually made me play weak tight. So, after the first break, I decided to still play tight but be more aggressive. Slowly, I was able to chip up and the big break came when I flopped top set with QQ against a guy who had QJ and doubled up. Chipped up nicely after that until this hand came.
Full Tilt Poker Game #5153078013: FTOPS Event #1 (35825338), Table 385 - 170/340 Ante 25 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:41:58 ET - 2008/02/06
Seat 1: canuckoo (28,460)
Seat 2: BRAZILUSA (27,306)
Seat 3: bkrake (5,757)
Seat 4: SuperSnoopy (8,685)
Seat 5: ProtekYoNuts (12,188)
Seat 6: 3pounder (6,053)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (14,425)
Seat 8: unemployed (6,170)
Seat 9: SELPARA (20,099)
canuckoo antes 25
BRAZILUSA antes 25
bkrake antes 25
SuperSnoopy antes 25
ProtekYoNuts antes 25
3pounder antes 25
RecessRampage antes 25
unemployed antes 25
SELPARA antes 25
3pounder posts the small blind of 170
RecessRampage posts the big blind of 340
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [6d 4d]
unemployed raises to 725
SELPARA folds
canuckoo folds
BRAZILUSA calls 725
bkrake folds
SuperSnoopy folds
ProtekYoNuts folds
3pounder folds
RecessRampage calls 385
*** FLOP *** [3d 8d 9d] <--- gin!
RecessRampage checks
unemployed checks
BRAZILUSA bets 2,570
RecessRampage calls 2,570
unemployed has 15 seconds left to act
unemployed raises to 5,420, and is all in
BRAZILUSA calls 2,850
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 13,675, and is all in
BRAZILUSA has 15 seconds left to act
BRAZILUSA folds
RecessRampage shows [6d 4d]
unemployed shows [Jd Ad] <--- d'oh!
Uncalled bet of 8,255 returned to RecessRampage
*** TURN *** [3d 8d 9d] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [3d 8d 9d Kd] [Kh]
RecessRampage shows a flush, King high
unemployed shows a flush, Ace high
unemployed wins the pot (18,830) with a flush, Ace high
Fortunately, that only brought my stack down to about average so no big deal. I was able to chip up again and at one point, I was like in top 20 out of 1000ish players left. When this next hand happened, I was like in top 100 out of the remaining 950ish players with 750ish spots cashing. But of course, cashing isn't the goal here. I don't know what the minimum cash amount was but I'm guessing like $300 or something maybe? Anyways, that's not gonna do much to my roll. I wanted at least 4 figures... of course I was dreaming 5 or 6 figures...
Full Tilt Poker Game #5153656456: FTOPS Event #1 (35825338), Table 41 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:29:59 ET - 2008/02/07
Seat 1: RecessRampage (26,850)
Seat 2: fightingchicken (7,804)
Seat 3: ArmenH1 (28,425)
Seat 4: blubboz (7,423)
Seat 5: Donwaldorf (58,438)
Seat 6: Gwermpt (14,927)
Seat 7: ckingusc (12,237)
Seat 8: MrTimCaum (13,446)
Seat 9: GAME OVER 73 (14,413)
RecessRampage antes 75
fightingchicken antes 75
ArmenH1 antes 75
blubboz antes 75
Donwaldorf antes 75
Gwermpt antes 75
ckingusc antes 75
MrTimCaum antes 75
GAME OVER 73 antes 75
RecessRampage posts the small blind of 300
fightingchicken posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qd Qc]
cmitch (Observer): gl alan <--- nice guy, that cmitch.
RecessRampage: ty cmitch
ArmenH1 raises to 1,555
blubboz folds
cmitch (Observer): so what did u have? <--- relentless
cmitch (Observer): i had AK <--- he must've really hated me reraising again
Donwaldorf has 15 seconds left to act
Donwaldorf calls 1,555
Gwermpt folds
ckingusc folds
MrTimCaum has 15 seconds left to act
MrTimCaum raises to 13,371, and is all in
GAME OVER 73 folds
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 26,775, and is all in
fightingchicken folds
ArmenH1 has 15 seconds left to act
ArmenH1 folds
Donwaldorf has 15 seconds left to act
Donwaldorf folds
RecessRampage shows [Qd Qc]
MrTimCaum shows [Ah Kd]
Uncalled bet of 13,404 returned to RecessRampage
*** FLOP *** [As 7h 5d]
*** TURN *** [As 7h 5d] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [As 7h 5d 8s] [8d]
RecessRampage shows two pair, Queens and Eights
MrTimCaum shows two pair, Aces and Eights
MrTimCaum wins the pot (31,127) with two pair, Aces and Eights
This was huge. I felt that the guy's shove meant he was a little weaker so I ruled out AA and KK. I honestly considered folding the QQ here but again, I felt that his shove was an attempt to pick up the two weakish raises from EP. And I didn't have any reason to believe that the other two players involved were tricky players. So, I decided to take a stand here. If I win this race, I'm top 20 in chips. Instead, I lose half my stack but still ok. But then I think one hand later, this happens.
Full Tilt Poker Game #5153680548: FTOPS Event #1 (35825338), Table 41 - 300/600 Ante 75 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:32:04 ET - 2008/02/07
Seat 1: RecessRampage (13,329)
Seat 2: fightingchicken (6,754)
Seat 3: ArmenH1 (26,120)
Seat 4: blubboz (7,273)
Seat 5: Donwaldorf (56,733)
Seat 6: Gwermpt (16,352)
Seat 7: ckingusc (12,087)
Seat 8: MrTimCaum (31,052)
Seat 9: GAME OVER 73 (14,263)
RecessRampage antes 75
fightingchicken antes 75
ArmenH1 antes 75
blubboz antes 75
Donwaldorf antes 75
Gwermpt antes 75
ckingusc antes 75
MrTimCaum antes 75
GAME OVER 73 antes 75
ArmenH1 posts the small blind of 300
blubboz posts the big blind of 600
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Ac Qs]
Donwaldorf folds
Gwermpt folds
ckingusc folds
MrTimCaum folds
GAME OVER 73 raises to 1,555
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to 4,200
fightingchicken folds
ArmenH1 folds
blubboz folds
GAME OVER 73 has 15 seconds left to act
GAME OVER 73 raises to 14,188, and is all in
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage has requested TIME
RecessRampage calls 9,054, and is all in
GAME OVER 73 shows [Ad Ah]
RecessRampage shows [Ac Qs]
Uncalled bet of 934 returned to GAME OVER 73
*** FLOP *** [2s 3s 2h]
RecessRampage: damn
*** TURN *** [2s 3s 2h] [8d]
RecessRampage: gg
*** RIVER *** [2s 3s 2h 8d] [4d]
GAME OVER 73 shows two pair, Aces and Twos
RecessRampage shows a pair of Twos
RecessRampage stands up
I guess I coulda called there and fold to a flop bet. By reraising, I kinda got pot committed when he came over the top and shoved like that. I thought I would be racing and with me getting 2:1, I couldn't fold... or so I thought. Tough spot I think. I coulda just tried to hang around to cash but again, cashing was not my goal. It was extremely fun playing in this tournament though. I still have a long ways to go with my MTT game but since I actually satellited into this after my first try, it only cost me $24+2. Good times.
Thanks for IT, Buddy, and Smokkee for showing me love on the radio. And thanks to all those who were railing me during the Mook, FTOPS 1 and blogger cash. Good times.
Showing posts with label FTOPS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FTOPS. Show all posts
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
HUC 6, FTOPS I, and Blogger Cash Game
Well, it appears that the HUC6 is officially under way. PvanHaribo kicks off this thing with a pseudo upset (I say pseudo because considering her recent successes, it's really not fair to call her an underdog in any tournament) but considering that she was against the HUC5 champion, I think it's fair to call this an upset. Good thing because I woulda hated to have her get bounced and then question the "random function on RecessRampage's computer" as CK31 so cleverly put it. Well, you can see the updated brackets on the official HUC website. I'll try to keep that updated as the results come in. And speaking of CK31, congrats to her for knocking off Cmitch. On paper, it might seem like an upset but I think CK31 plays a pretty disciplined, aggressive game so even though my initial reaction was that of a slight surprise, I'm actually not that shocked anymore.
As for me... my first round match was against lifesagrind who admittedly, I didn't know much about. But, as the commissioner and HUC5 runner up, I wanted to make sure I had a respectable showing. So, I went to check out his blog, found out he's mainly a MTT/SNG guy but beyond that, I couldn't find much else about him, his playing style, etc. So, I played a few HU matches to warm up and then when he was ready, we kicked things off... sort of... these $5 HU matches are so hard to coordinate. I LOVE the new rematch feature that FullTilt now has on the heads up match. I think UltimateBet had that and I liked that about that site so I'm glad FullTilt finally brought that in. But that still doesn't solve the problem of being able to find a table where a random person doesn't jump in. As such, lifesagrind had to play a random dude because apparently, I didn't click on the "ok" button quick enough. Then, after he got done working over some random online donkey, we tried again... this time, I ended up with two tables... neither of which was against lifesagrind. I did win both of them so that was good. Eventually, we were able to land on the same table and finally, we were off.
I don't have the HHs or the number of hands or the stats on me. But I know that I had to adjust my game very early and quickly. Lifesagrind was much more aggressive than any of the opponents I faced in HUC5. In HUC5, I felt that I was the one applying aggression every round. In this one, I could tell that he was going to be the aggressor. So, I hunkered down a bit, played a little tighter and tried to keep the pot small unless I had a big hand. I got lucky in the first match when he had a 2:1 chip lead, I flopped a set with 55 against his overpair to the board, doubling me up and I was able to finish him off. 1-0. Next match, was kind of a blur but it was another instance where I flopped a better hand against his pretty good hand. Sorry, again, no detailed memory because I ended up playing 5 HU matches by accident so they're all kinda running together right now. But I think one was like A high flop, he has top pair, I have two pair, type of situation. Not much you can do in a HU match. I was able to take the second match and advance to the second round of HUC6.
Tonight kicks off the FTOPS. I know that a bunch of bloggers are playing in this thing. I qualified for it as well so we'll see how well I do. Admittedly, I wanted to play a few more MTTs over the weekend but I never got a chance to. Friday night, my buddies and I went out, got totally thrashed, so not much poker was played. Saturday night (though some of us were still struggling from the night before), we had "poker" night. Now I put quotes around that because I can't even call this poker... but it is the same game... I mean we all get dealt two cards and see a flop, turn and river... but really, there's no thought process involved, hardly any raises preflop, I don't think I ever folded preflop, etc. Anyways, so no time for MTT, just enough cash game online for me to earn 200 pts (having to work during the day didn't help). Sunday was Superbowl and catching up on sleep so again, no MTTs. As much as I talk poker, apparently, it's not as high on the priority list as I make it seem...
Ok, back to FTOPS. I wanted to play some more MTTs since I rarely play them and I also wanted to watch more videos on PXF. I'm in the middle of watching Rizen take down the Sunday Million on Pokerstars and he does a great job of explaining his thought process in the tournament. I wanted to complete all 11 or 12 installments of that series but alas... I'm only at part 3... So, I guess I'll just have to hope to get lucky if I want to do any damage tonight on that thing.
One last thing is the Blogger Cash game that gnome is organizing. It's $4/8 NL on Full Tilt. This should be interesting. I have mixed feelings about this game. First off, it doesn't start till 11:30pm EST which is quite late for me since I usually go to bed around midnight. Second, if I'm in the FTOPS still at this point, I would want to focus on FTOPS. But then again, I've seemed to have made quite a name for myself in the cash game blogger world... so it would look like I'm copping out if I'm online but not playing in this thing. Third, this would be an extremely -EV cash game. In other words, you hear everyone preaching table selection and how you want to be at a table full of donks. So why voluntarily sit at a table where everyone is a profitable cash gamer??? Of course, as a guy who wants to prove his worth, I am fairly eager to play in that sense... even if that costs me. So we will see where I'm at when the thing starts.
Good luck to everyone tonight in whatever they are playing.
As for me... my first round match was against lifesagrind who admittedly, I didn't know much about. But, as the commissioner and HUC5 runner up, I wanted to make sure I had a respectable showing. So, I went to check out his blog, found out he's mainly a MTT/SNG guy but beyond that, I couldn't find much else about him, his playing style, etc. So, I played a few HU matches to warm up and then when he was ready, we kicked things off... sort of... these $5 HU matches are so hard to coordinate. I LOVE the new rematch feature that FullTilt now has on the heads up match. I think UltimateBet had that and I liked that about that site so I'm glad FullTilt finally brought that in. But that still doesn't solve the problem of being able to find a table where a random person doesn't jump in. As such, lifesagrind had to play a random dude because apparently, I didn't click on the "ok" button quick enough. Then, after he got done working over some random online donkey, we tried again... this time, I ended up with two tables... neither of which was against lifesagrind. I did win both of them so that was good. Eventually, we were able to land on the same table and finally, we were off.
I don't have the HHs or the number of hands or the stats on me. But I know that I had to adjust my game very early and quickly. Lifesagrind was much more aggressive than any of the opponents I faced in HUC5. In HUC5, I felt that I was the one applying aggression every round. In this one, I could tell that he was going to be the aggressor. So, I hunkered down a bit, played a little tighter and tried to keep the pot small unless I had a big hand. I got lucky in the first match when he had a 2:1 chip lead, I flopped a set with 55 against his overpair to the board, doubling me up and I was able to finish him off. 1-0. Next match, was kind of a blur but it was another instance where I flopped a better hand against his pretty good hand. Sorry, again, no detailed memory because I ended up playing 5 HU matches by accident so they're all kinda running together right now. But I think one was like A high flop, he has top pair, I have two pair, type of situation. Not much you can do in a HU match. I was able to take the second match and advance to the second round of HUC6.
Tonight kicks off the FTOPS. I know that a bunch of bloggers are playing in this thing. I qualified for it as well so we'll see how well I do. Admittedly, I wanted to play a few more MTTs over the weekend but I never got a chance to. Friday night, my buddies and I went out, got totally thrashed, so not much poker was played. Saturday night (though some of us were still struggling from the night before), we had "poker" night. Now I put quotes around that because I can't even call this poker... but it is the same game... I mean we all get dealt two cards and see a flop, turn and river... but really, there's no thought process involved, hardly any raises preflop, I don't think I ever folded preflop, etc. Anyways, so no time for MTT, just enough cash game online for me to earn 200 pts (having to work during the day didn't help). Sunday was Superbowl and catching up on sleep so again, no MTTs. As much as I talk poker, apparently, it's not as high on the priority list as I make it seem...
Ok, back to FTOPS. I wanted to play some more MTTs since I rarely play them and I also wanted to watch more videos on PXF. I'm in the middle of watching Rizen take down the Sunday Million on Pokerstars and he does a great job of explaining his thought process in the tournament. I wanted to complete all 11 or 12 installments of that series but alas... I'm only at part 3... So, I guess I'll just have to hope to get lucky if I want to do any damage tonight on that thing.
One last thing is the Blogger Cash game that gnome is organizing. It's $4/8 NL on Full Tilt. This should be interesting. I have mixed feelings about this game. First off, it doesn't start till 11:30pm EST which is quite late for me since I usually go to bed around midnight. Second, if I'm in the FTOPS still at this point, I would want to focus on FTOPS. But then again, I've seemed to have made quite a name for myself in the cash game blogger world... so it would look like I'm copping out if I'm online but not playing in this thing. Third, this would be an extremely -EV cash game. In other words, you hear everyone preaching table selection and how you want to be at a table full of donks. So why voluntarily sit at a table where everyone is a profitable cash gamer??? Of course, as a guy who wants to prove his worth, I am fairly eager to play in that sense... even if that costs me. So we will see where I'm at when the thing starts.
Good luck to everyone tonight in whatever they are playing.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Looks like I'm in at least one of them...
This weekend, I decided to switch it up a bit and play some tournament poker instead of cash games... of course, I did play some cash games but just not to the extent that I played last few weekends. My bonus is pretty much cleared (I have like $8 remaining) so I'll clear that just by playing like I normally do. To say that I hardly ever play tournaments is an understatement. Here's a screenshot from officialpokerrankings.com filtered by all the tournaments I played in the past 30 days...
That's 12... total... for the whole month.
Nonetheless, since one of my goals this year is to do well in MTTs, I figured I need to start increasing the amount of tourneys I play. I also enjoy playing in bigger tourneys so I tried my luck in one of these things to see if I can win. The play at this level is fairly atrocious and when it was down to 3-4 handed, I was basically killing the table. Amazing how the experience at the 6max cash tables really came to help me at this stage of the tournament. I was stealing and restealing like crazy and I never was in jeopardy of busting out when it was down to like 3-4 players. As a result, I'm in FTOPS #1!
That's 12... total... for the whole month.
Nonetheless, since one of my goals this year is to do well in MTTs, I figured I need to start increasing the amount of tourneys I play. I also enjoy playing in bigger tourneys so I tried my luck in one of these things to see if I can win. The play at this level is fairly atrocious and when it was down to 3-4 handed, I was basically killing the table. Amazing how the experience at the 6max cash tables really came to help me at this stage of the tournament. I was stealing and restealing like crazy and I never was in jeopardy of busting out when it was down to like 3-4 players. As a result, I'm in FTOPS #1!
Thursday, August 9, 2007
FTOPS #1, Mookie, and Buddy Dank Radio appearance
Wow... I have so much to go over. And yet I know I won't have time to cover everything. So, first off, let me get all the important stuff out of the way. Congrats again to PvanHaribo (LJ/Lana) for coming in 3rd in the 32k that she satellited into with $8.80 and turned it into $4,700+. Too funny considering just the day before, she was talking about how she needed to build her online roll and so she was playing in $2 sng... amazing how quickly things change.
Next, I know none of these guys are probably happy where they ended up but they all did cash in the FTOPS #1 event. And yes, I know that there's no glory in cashing for these guys but hey, something is better than nothing. So, please go congratulate Julius_Goat, Hoy, and Cmitch.
Ok, so now I spread the love for my fellow bloggers, let's see... how did I do? Well, few weeks back, I played in a $8 single table super satellite to FTOPS #1. I took that down and quite frankly, never played in any other satellite to the FTOPS. So, I was entered into the $55 satellite last night into event #1 and I sneaked into the tournament, coming in 240th (top 243 places won the entry).
As for the FTOPS event itself... I wasn't so successful. I eventually busted out in 952nd place out of the original 4,165 runners. I suck. What more can I say? And I don't say this in a "I'll say I suck so please give me pity" type of way. Early in the tournament, I was doing fine, I think. Now I wasn't giving it the focus it probably deserved because I also had two 2-4NL cash games open and an hour into the FTOPS, the Mookie started. Oh yeah... and I made a guest appearance on the BuddyDank radio. That was a lot of fun. Hopefully, I didn't water down the show too much for all you listeners out there. And thanks to Buddy and Sean (aka InstantTragedy) for letting me come on the show. Again, that was a lot of fun.
Shortly thereafter though, I did close down the cash tables so that I could focus on the tournaments... but now that I went from 4 tables to 2, I decided to look for other bloggers. And I found Hoy and Cmitch so I started railing them. It wasn't till much later when Bayne told me that Jgoat was in as well. And one thing I noticed? I suck in tournaments. Wait, did I say that already? Why do I say that? Watching them, I could tell that they are picking their spots but they are also making moves. Or so I assume. I know Hoy was very active. Cmitch seemed to have timely aggression. Me? None of that. Ok, maybe once in a while but eventually, not enough to keep up with the pace of the escalating blinds and eventually, I go into a double up or go home mode. And no matter who says what, that is NOT a key to success in tournaments. I'm bound to lose a race or get sucked out on eventually and by letting my stack get shorter, I'm handcuffing myself from making plays and pretty much gets to a push and pray mode. So much more to learn for me.
Surprisingly, I was doing well in the Mookie. I don't even know how. Mookie was almost like an afterthought for me. Like a background music. Something to cover up the portion of my laptop screen that doesn't have a poker table up. But next thing I knew, we were down to like 15 players and there I was... in top 6 or something. Eventually (again, this is still all a blur and I don't have the HH with me to go over it right now), we get down to the final table but at this point, I'm more interested in how Hoy and Cmitch were doing in the FTOPS... well, pretty much. But now that we were at the final table, I wanted to win.
So, I started focusing my efforts on the final table of the Mookie and I think I played fairly well. Eventually, the money bubble broke and there were 5 remaining when Don suggested a chop. No one really said anything but when we lost another player, we seemed to have agreed to a chop. Or did we? It was interesting actually.
I don't have the chat log but last night, we saw what was probably the most controversial over the least amount of money at 1:30am-ish... At one point or another, all 4 remaining players (Don, Jordan, Joe Mav (I don't know your blog, if you have a blog AND you read this, please comment so I can link you, and myself) agreed on a 4 way chop when our chip counts were all relatively even. I was ok with this since it was late and winning the Mookie was like $210 or something vs the $130 or so that we get if we chopped. At this point, $80 was close to nothing... not to laugh at $80 but considering I play $2-4NL, that's like a size of one pot... so it really wasn't worth arguing over. So, once I thought we agreed on a chop, I shoved my KQ from the BB when JoeMav in SB raised. Believe it or not, it was more or less a "oh well" shove. I busted out in that hand against JoeMav's AJ. And then an interesting thing happened. I saw in the chat, someone goes "so are we chopping?" HUH? I thought we just agreed on that... and from that point on, a huge discussion ensues about whether they agreed to a chop or not... AFTER I busted.
Personally, I really don't care. If they end up chopping 3 ways, that's fine. If they do it 4 ways, that's fine. Either way, no grudge held here. Believe me. I have no problems with other bloggers and I'm not about to start one for $80 or so. So, any controversy/disagreements aside, gg to Don, Jordan, and JoeMav. Thanks again to Buddy and Sean for having me on their show and good job Lana, Hoy, Goat, and Cmitch.
And if anyone said anything to me on the chat box at the tables, sorry I didn't respond. I never saw anything but that doesn't mean that I didn't miss it. I had 4 tables up so when I do that, I can't pay attention to the chat. And if you wanna talk to me, my girly chats are to the right of this screen. Hit me up anytime!
Next, I know none of these guys are probably happy where they ended up but they all did cash in the FTOPS #1 event. And yes, I know that there's no glory in cashing for these guys but hey, something is better than nothing. So, please go congratulate Julius_Goat, Hoy, and Cmitch.
Ok, so now I spread the love for my fellow bloggers, let's see... how did I do? Well, few weeks back, I played in a $8 single table super satellite to FTOPS #1. I took that down and quite frankly, never played in any other satellite to the FTOPS. So, I was entered into the $55 satellite last night into event #1 and I sneaked into the tournament, coming in 240th (top 243 places won the entry).
As for the FTOPS event itself... I wasn't so successful. I eventually busted out in 952nd place out of the original 4,165 runners. I suck. What more can I say? And I don't say this in a "I'll say I suck so please give me pity" type of way. Early in the tournament, I was doing fine, I think. Now I wasn't giving it the focus it probably deserved because I also had two 2-4NL cash games open and an hour into the FTOPS, the Mookie started. Oh yeah... and I made a guest appearance on the BuddyDank radio. That was a lot of fun. Hopefully, I didn't water down the show too much for all you listeners out there. And thanks to Buddy and Sean (aka InstantTragedy) for letting me come on the show. Again, that was a lot of fun.
Shortly thereafter though, I did close down the cash tables so that I could focus on the tournaments... but now that I went from 4 tables to 2, I decided to look for other bloggers. And I found Hoy and Cmitch so I started railing them. It wasn't till much later when Bayne told me that Jgoat was in as well. And one thing I noticed? I suck in tournaments. Wait, did I say that already? Why do I say that? Watching them, I could tell that they are picking their spots but they are also making moves. Or so I assume. I know Hoy was very active. Cmitch seemed to have timely aggression. Me? None of that. Ok, maybe once in a while but eventually, not enough to keep up with the pace of the escalating blinds and eventually, I go into a double up or go home mode. And no matter who says what, that is NOT a key to success in tournaments. I'm bound to lose a race or get sucked out on eventually and by letting my stack get shorter, I'm handcuffing myself from making plays and pretty much gets to a push and pray mode. So much more to learn for me.
Surprisingly, I was doing well in the Mookie. I don't even know how. Mookie was almost like an afterthought for me. Like a background music. Something to cover up the portion of my laptop screen that doesn't have a poker table up. But next thing I knew, we were down to like 15 players and there I was... in top 6 or something. Eventually (again, this is still all a blur and I don't have the HH with me to go over it right now), we get down to the final table but at this point, I'm more interested in how Hoy and Cmitch were doing in the FTOPS... well, pretty much. But now that we were at the final table, I wanted to win.
So, I started focusing my efforts on the final table of the Mookie and I think I played fairly well. Eventually, the money bubble broke and there were 5 remaining when Don suggested a chop. No one really said anything but when we lost another player, we seemed to have agreed to a chop. Or did we? It was interesting actually.
I don't have the chat log but last night, we saw what was probably the most controversial over the least amount of money at 1:30am-ish... At one point or another, all 4 remaining players (Don, Jordan, Joe Mav (I don't know your blog, if you have a blog AND you read this, please comment so I can link you, and myself) agreed on a 4 way chop when our chip counts were all relatively even. I was ok with this since it was late and winning the Mookie was like $210 or something vs the $130 or so that we get if we chopped. At this point, $80 was close to nothing... not to laugh at $80 but considering I play $2-4NL, that's like a size of one pot... so it really wasn't worth arguing over. So, once I thought we agreed on a chop, I shoved my KQ from the BB when JoeMav in SB raised. Believe it or not, it was more or less a "oh well" shove. I busted out in that hand against JoeMav's AJ. And then an interesting thing happened. I saw in the chat, someone goes "so are we chopping?" HUH? I thought we just agreed on that... and from that point on, a huge discussion ensues about whether they agreed to a chop or not... AFTER I busted.
Personally, I really don't care. If they end up chopping 3 ways, that's fine. If they do it 4 ways, that's fine. Either way, no grudge held here. Believe me. I have no problems with other bloggers and I'm not about to start one for $80 or so. So, any controversy/disagreements aside, gg to Don, Jordan, and JoeMav. Thanks again to Buddy and Sean for having me on their show and good job Lana, Hoy, Goat, and Cmitch.
And if anyone said anything to me on the chat box at the tables, sorry I didn't respond. I never saw anything but that doesn't mean that I didn't miss it. I had 4 tables up so when I do that, I can't pay attention to the chat. And if you wanna talk to me, my girly chats are to the right of this screen. Hit me up anytime!
Monday, May 14, 2007
Donks do what donks do best - FTOPS IV Event 4
First off, if you haven't looked, this is not a victory speech or a "this is how I won more money in a tournament ever" blog...
Having said that, I want to thank surflexus for railing me till I donked off my chips with J-10... that was kinda embarrassing but I thought my image was tight enough and I was desperate enough that my early position raise would be respected... I guess not. When the villain pushed, I had no choice but to call, considering the stack size, blinds, level of play, etc hoping I had two live cards, which I did. I have to admit... the level of play overall in this tournament was definitely above me. When you can "feel" several players at the table making a play on you and yet you do nothing about it, it's not good. I tight donked my way to 215th out of 908 runners. Surf, thanks again for the support. You helped a lot more than you know.
I also want to thank InstantTragedy and Astin for the priceless entertainment they provided at the MATH "discussing" today's episode of Heroes which I obviously didn't watch because of the FTOPS tournament. It's DVR'ed so I will certainly catch it, hopefully at lunch tomorrow but if not, on Wednesday for sure (as of now, I intend to play at the PAPT tomorrow night). Seriously though, you guys were cracking me up which definitely helped because early in the FTOPS tourney, I was a nervous wreck. The dollar amount of the buy-in should not affect my tourney play considering I originally put up $26 for it... but it did. You guys helped calm my nerves... too bad I needed a lot more than just calm nerves to make anything happen.
A quick recap of how I went down... Really, I think my starting table said it all... I got nervous (read intimidated) from the beginning when I saw my starting table...
Bonaparte9 (past FTOPS winner) to my left, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and his railing posse at the table, I was pretty intimidated... And I played like a donk early... very donkish. There were two hands that I felt I was ahead but wasn't sure... so instead of being aggressive with it, I acted passive, and then folded to a bet which was surely induced by my show of weakness... fortunately, I was able to come back from that after a while but again, I couldn't really get anything going. And I was relatively card dead when the blinds got high... I mean there were times I was willing to push with anything that was coordinated... Ax, any two face cards, any pair, any connector, any suited one gapper or better... and all I kept getting were 8-3, J-2, 9-4, etc... I mean I've heard the ATC but I guess I'm just not loose enough...
I just wish that I chose a better hand to go down with but given that I made the initial mistake by raising from EP with J-10off, after that, I don't think calling the push that would put me all in was a mistake. Folding would have left me with a M of less than 4 and I was going to be either UTG+1 or UTG next hand so the blinds were right there... that was the spot that I was gonna have to get lucky... again, after the blunder that was raising with JToff... I honestly thought I would get away with it though because I've been playing tight all tourney and I know I was giving off that image... oh well. You live you learn I guess.
Again, thanks to all who railed me, entertained me, and wished me gl. I know all the thanking sounds like a victory speech... too bad it's not. Good night now!
Having said that, I want to thank surflexus for railing me till I donked off my chips with J-10... that was kinda embarrassing but I thought my image was tight enough and I was desperate enough that my early position raise would be respected... I guess not. When the villain pushed, I had no choice but to call, considering the stack size, blinds, level of play, etc hoping I had two live cards, which I did. I have to admit... the level of play overall in this tournament was definitely above me. When you can "feel" several players at the table making a play on you and yet you do nothing about it, it's not good. I tight donked my way to 215th out of 908 runners. Surf, thanks again for the support. You helped a lot more than you know.
I also want to thank InstantTragedy and Astin for the priceless entertainment they provided at the MATH "discussing" today's episode of Heroes which I obviously didn't watch because of the FTOPS tournament. It's DVR'ed so I will certainly catch it, hopefully at lunch tomorrow but if not, on Wednesday for sure (as of now, I intend to play at the PAPT tomorrow night). Seriously though, you guys were cracking me up which definitely helped because early in the FTOPS tourney, I was a nervous wreck. The dollar amount of the buy-in should not affect my tourney play considering I originally put up $26 for it... but it did. You guys helped calm my nerves... too bad I needed a lot more than just calm nerves to make anything happen.
A quick recap of how I went down... Really, I think my starting table said it all... I got nervous (read intimidated) from the beginning when I saw my starting table...
Bonaparte9 (past FTOPS winner) to my left, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and his railing posse at the table, I was pretty intimidated... And I played like a donk early... very donkish. There were two hands that I felt I was ahead but wasn't sure... so instead of being aggressive with it, I acted passive, and then folded to a bet which was surely induced by my show of weakness... fortunately, I was able to come back from that after a while but again, I couldn't really get anything going. And I was relatively card dead when the blinds got high... I mean there were times I was willing to push with anything that was coordinated... Ax, any two face cards, any pair, any connector, any suited one gapper or better... and all I kept getting were 8-3, J-2, 9-4, etc... I mean I've heard the ATC but I guess I'm just not loose enough...
I just wish that I chose a better hand to go down with but given that I made the initial mistake by raising from EP with J-10off, after that, I don't think calling the push that would put me all in was a mistake. Folding would have left me with a M of less than 4 and I was going to be either UTG+1 or UTG next hand so the blinds were right there... that was the spot that I was gonna have to get lucky... again, after the blunder that was raising with JToff... I honestly thought I would get away with it though because I've been playing tight all tourney and I know I was giving off that image... oh well. You live you learn I guess.
Again, thanks to all who railed me, entertained me, and wished me gl. I know all the thanking sounds like a victory speech... too bad it's not. Good night now!
$1,060 buy-in tournament? I'M IN!!!
There was some serious donkage going on tonight in the $216 buy-in satellite that I qaulified for with a $75 token (which I won, with a $24+2 buy in). Towards the end, with about 18 players to the tournament entry, everyone was taking all 15 seconds to fold. Nonetheless, when it was all said and done, I survived long enough to get in to the FTOPS IV Event #4 which is a $1,000 + 60 buy-in.
This is what event 4 is looking like as of 30 minutes before start time...
That's a solid prize pool... Let's see if I can do some damage.
This is what event 4 is looking like as of 30 minutes before start time...
That's a solid prize pool... Let's see if I can do some damage.
Friday, May 11, 2007
2.5hrs - My take on MTT strategy
Survival vs accumulation - I think this topic has been discussed in many different forums regarding multitable tournaments (MTTs). Just to briefly rehash, the debate is on whether to play tight so that you can survive into the later parts of the tournament vs taking big risks early to accumulate chips so that you can enter the later stages of the tournament with a big chip advantage. In today's tournament structure where the top finishers get rewarded heavily, the chip accumulation strategy makes sense. However, the question here is how do you accumulate chips quicker? In other words, how do you make something out of nothing?
That is a question I've been struggling with for a long time which is why I always refer to myself as a tournament donk. I think I just don't get it. Whenever I tell Mrs Recess that I am in a tournament, she always asks what time it started because she knows that almost every time, I'm out of the tournament in 2.5 hrs... Sometimes, it stings. Other times, I just kinda laugh it off. But when I sit down and think about it, it's definitely more of a symptom than a coincidence. In other words, if Mrs Recess who pays no attention to my poker playing (or this blog) also realizes that I'm out of tourneys in 2.5hrs, then I must always be out of tourneys in 2.5hrs. So then the next question was why?
And the inevitable truth comes out. I play too tight and so I end up playing survival instead of chip accumulation. But if I don't get it, I just don't get it, right? In other words, I can't just say "oh, I'm playing survival poker. I need to switch to chip accumulation poker." And then switch it like that. If it were that easy, I'd like to think I'd have done that by now. So, first off, as I read the forums and other blogs, I noticed one trend which is pushing the marginal edge early on. In other words, a lot of people seem to go into the race situation early. Now, I'm not going to repeat Hoy's post regarding this but I'm personally not a big fan of getting into a coinflip situation early. And here's my take on why that is.
For aggressive chip accumulation, let's say that you push in order to double up, every time you sense there's a race situation. Well, if you do that, then let's say you have a 50/50 shot at winning that race. You win one and that's great, you just doubled your stackc. Of course, if you lose, you're out. But let's say in a tournament with 150 players, what good is doubling your chip stack at that point? Ok, let me rephrase the question. What good is doubling your chip stack at the risk of being out of the tournament so quickly? Now, I also understand the argument of if you have more chips, you can take bigger risks early on to add to your stack. But one thing about the race situation is that you are taking the skill factor out of poker and just letting it ride on luck. And in these tournaments, there are always donks out there who you should be able to outplay. But by pushing and making the donks have to make only one decision (call all-in or fold), you're in effect negating your own skills, no? Where as you may be able to outplay a donk on the flop or the turn, you're letting the cards do all the talking if you just push for a coin flip.
Having said all that, there must be something. Today, I qualified for Event #1 of FTOPS IV. As usual, I played tight early on, very slowly accumulating chips. After the second break, the antes kicked in and so I was going to open up my game a little more but the cards didn't cooperate. Until I picked up pocket jacks at the cutoff position... which I raised, got called by a big stack in the big blind, flop comes 9-9-10, he checks, I jam, he calls with pocket aces and I end up 851 out of 2,573 runners. Now, that's definitely just unlucky that that happened but when I saw that my bust out time was approx 2.5 hrs after the tournament started, I knew. I just knew something needs to be done with my game here. In other words, my game was so tight that my raises would have only been called with premieum hands. So it was inevitable that at some point, someone was going to have better cards because if they narrowed my raising range to any pocket pair and AQ+, though I'm not that tight, they won't be too far off. So in other words, if they tighten their calling range to that, then it won't be too often that I am ahead.
So, for those of you that play a lot of tournaments, what's your style/strategy? Where do you choose to open up? Do you try to double up early or do you wait till the pots are worth stealing, ie bigger blinds or blinds with antes? This is certainly an area I would like to improve in and so I'm gonna go do some homework myself.
That is a question I've been struggling with for a long time which is why I always refer to myself as a tournament donk. I think I just don't get it. Whenever I tell Mrs Recess that I am in a tournament, she always asks what time it started because she knows that almost every time, I'm out of the tournament in 2.5 hrs... Sometimes, it stings. Other times, I just kinda laugh it off. But when I sit down and think about it, it's definitely more of a symptom than a coincidence. In other words, if Mrs Recess who pays no attention to my poker playing (or this blog) also realizes that I'm out of tourneys in 2.5hrs, then I must always be out of tourneys in 2.5hrs. So then the next question was why?
And the inevitable truth comes out. I play too tight and so I end up playing survival instead of chip accumulation. But if I don't get it, I just don't get it, right? In other words, I can't just say "oh, I'm playing survival poker. I need to switch to chip accumulation poker." And then switch it like that. If it were that easy, I'd like to think I'd have done that by now. So, first off, as I read the forums and other blogs, I noticed one trend which is pushing the marginal edge early on. In other words, a lot of people seem to go into the race situation early. Now, I'm not going to repeat Hoy's post regarding this but I'm personally not a big fan of getting into a coinflip situation early. And here's my take on why that is.
For aggressive chip accumulation, let's say that you push in order to double up, every time you sense there's a race situation. Well, if you do that, then let's say you have a 50/50 shot at winning that race. You win one and that's great, you just doubled your stackc. Of course, if you lose, you're out. But let's say in a tournament with 150 players, what good is doubling your chip stack at that point? Ok, let me rephrase the question. What good is doubling your chip stack at the risk of being out of the tournament so quickly? Now, I also understand the argument of if you have more chips, you can take bigger risks early on to add to your stack. But one thing about the race situation is that you are taking the skill factor out of poker and just letting it ride on luck. And in these tournaments, there are always donks out there who you should be able to outplay. But by pushing and making the donks have to make only one decision (call all-in or fold), you're in effect negating your own skills, no? Where as you may be able to outplay a donk on the flop or the turn, you're letting the cards do all the talking if you just push for a coin flip.
Having said all that, there must be something. Today, I qualified for Event #1 of FTOPS IV. As usual, I played tight early on, very slowly accumulating chips. After the second break, the antes kicked in and so I was going to open up my game a little more but the cards didn't cooperate. Until I picked up pocket jacks at the cutoff position... which I raised, got called by a big stack in the big blind, flop comes 9-9-10, he checks, I jam, he calls with pocket aces and I end up 851 out of 2,573 runners. Now, that's definitely just unlucky that that happened but when I saw that my bust out time was approx 2.5 hrs after the tournament started, I knew. I just knew something needs to be done with my game here. In other words, my game was so tight that my raises would have only been called with premieum hands. So it was inevitable that at some point, someone was going to have better cards because if they narrowed my raising range to any pocket pair and AQ+, though I'm not that tight, they won't be too far off. So in other words, if they tighten their calling range to that, then it won't be too often that I am ahead.
So, for those of you that play a lot of tournaments, what's your style/strategy? Where do you choose to open up? Do you try to double up early or do you wait till the pots are worth stealing, ie bigger blinds or blinds with antes? This is certainly an area I would like to improve in and so I'm gonna go do some homework myself.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Weekend recap, FTOPS IV, MATH, and PAPT (or the lack thereof)
I don't even really know why I wait till the weekday to blog. I think this is relatively common in that I usually visit other blog sites on the weekdays so it makes sense that I update mine on the weekdays as well. Having said that, it would seem like it would make a lot more sense if I actually did the weekend recap on a Sunday night or something when I feel like I have time. But then again, I use that time to play poker so I guess it's almost a catch 22. Anyways, this weekend was really not all that exciting on the poker front. On Saturday, I only played for like an hour and got killed. Well, my "getting killed" is about $600. This is the hand that especially sucked when Presto wasn't so gold this time...
FullTiltPoker Game #2210341074: Table Karina Jett - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:02:21 ET - 2007/04/14
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RecessRampage [5d 5h]
UTG calls $4
RecessRampage calls $4 <--- from the button (yes, Fuel, I realize now that this is a raising hand)
SB calls $2
BB checks
*** FLOP *** [5c 7s Tc]<--- uh oh, Presto is gold!?
SB bets $8
BB calls $8
RecessRampage raises to $36 <--- slow playing trips is overrated
SB calls $28<-- must be on a draw
BB folds
*** TURN *** [5c 7s Tc] [8h]
SB bets $80<--- wtf!? did he make a straight? 4-6? or did he now catch a pair with his 8-9?
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to $307, and is all in <-my hand is still good right!?
SB calls $227 <--- oh f***
RecessRampage shows [5d 5h]
SB shows [4d 6h]
*** RIVER *** [5c 7s Tc 8h] [9s]
RecessRampage shows three of a kind, Fives SB shows a straight, Ten high
SB wins the pot ($707) with a straight, Ten high
That sucked. And admittedly, that was a situation where I should have just called on the turn. I'm not sure that pushing was the right move. However, I will say this. In terms of his likely holdings, I thought he would do that with 7-8, 8-9... 4-6 did cross my mind because he was also deep so I knew that he knew that he had enough odds to make that call on the flop... and admittedly, I wanted that call on the flop. Still, probably a poor play. Sometimes, it's such thin line between "Presto is Gold" series that Fuel does on his blog and this type of disaster (mainly found on my blogs).
Fortunately, like lucko mentioned before in his blog during his sick run last month on the cash tables, the weekends at FTP are softer than usual. There are sooooo many bad players who buy in short at these tables so, on Sunday, I made up everything I lost. It would be better if I can say I made up what I lost on Saturday and then some but then again, I'm not as sick as some of the other bloggers here. But, making up the $600 loss from Saturday still felt good. This hand came up on Sunday, when I got involved with a guy who took some of my money with a total donkish but lucky hand. But based on what I saw on Saturday, I had notes on him... a very simple one that said this "total calling station - will call down with any piece of the board regardless of the size of the bet."
So, when this hand came up, I decided to trust my note, even though my hand was definitely vulnerable.
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc Ks]
EP calls $4
3 players fold
RecessRampage raises to $18 <-- from late MP
CO-1 folds
CO (cutoff) calls $18 <-the aforementioned donk
Button folds
Both blinds fold
EP calls $14
*** FLOP *** [Kh 4h 8s]
EP checks RecessRampage bets $50 <- pot was like $55-57
"the donk at CO" calls $50 <- here he comes.
At this point, I wasn't really worried about a set. He'd make this call with a hand as bad as 4-5.
EP folds
*** TURN *** [Kh 4h 8s] [5s]
RecessRampage bets $120 <-- now the board is starting to look dangerous with str8 possibilities and double flush possibilities so maybe I should've bet more here. The pot was like $150 so he was getting better than 2-1. However, I actually put him on a weak king so I felt like this was a good amount.
"the donk at CO" calls $120
*** RIVER *** [Kh 4h 8s 5s] [Jd]
RecessRampage checks <-- the river felt safe but now, I'm not too crazy about my hand. Plus, if he simply missed the flush, maybe he'll take a stab at it
"the donk at CO" bets $80.90, and is all in
RecessRampage calls $80.90 <--- my only thought here was "man, if he has KJ, that's so sick."
*** SHOW DOWN *** the donk shows [8h 7h] (a pair of Eights) <-- actually had more outs than I gave him credit for
RecessRampage shows [Qc Ks] (a pair of Kings)
RecessRampage wins the pot ($558.80) with a pair of Kings <-- thanks for holding on to my money but I'll take back what's mine!
The MATH hosted by Hoy last night had another good turn out with 49 bloggers. Yours truly, in true tournament donk fashion, busted out 21st as my stack steadily dwindled down. I'm such an uber weak tight tournament player, it's almost funny. I let my stack steadily dwindle down until the blinds increase or my stack dwindles (or the combination of both) to the point where my M is around 5 and then I just become a push monkey, pushing all in with half decent cards and sometimes not so half decent cards. I'm bound to get caught and eventually, I do... alas, my exit at 21st place when my 33 ran into a 99 in the small blind... I need to switch things up for the Mookie tomorrow night.
Speaking of tournaments, it must be that time of the year again. Already!? FTOPS IV Schedule is out so FullTilt is now running a bunch of satellites to qualify for the events. I need to start playing in these satellites as well as the WSOP satellites that I have been kinda neglecting...
And speaking of neglecting, I haven't talked about PAPT (Park Avenue Poker Tour) in a long time.... that's because I haven't been to it in a long time. I feel like the past several Tuesdays, something was always up whether it was work, family visiting, basketball league games, etc where I just wasn't able to make the 8pm starting time. As such, I still only have a meager 3 points on my quest to a PAPT POY which Tyke is furiously trying to get. And consider this. He was the second place finisher last year after Sia who decided to graciously move down to FL to give the rest of us a chance so Tyke is definitely picking up right where he left off. Hopefully, he'll be like the hare in that story and me the tortoise... funny how comparing myself to a turtle is never all that exciting...
Alright, time to start working! (read: check out other people's blogs!)
FullTiltPoker Game #2210341074: Table Karina Jett - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:02:21 ET - 2007/04/14
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RecessRampage [5d 5h]
UTG calls $4
RecessRampage calls $4 <--- from the button (yes, Fuel, I realize now that this is a raising hand)
SB calls $2
BB checks
*** FLOP *** [5c 7s Tc]<--- uh oh, Presto is gold!?
SB bets $8
BB calls $8
RecessRampage raises to $36 <--- slow playing trips is overrated
SB calls $28<-- must be on a draw
BB folds
*** TURN *** [5c 7s Tc] [8h]
SB bets $80<--- wtf!? did he make a straight? 4-6? or did he now catch a pair with his 8-9?
RecessRampage has 15 seconds left to act
RecessRampage raises to $307, and is all in <-my hand is still good right!?
SB calls $227 <--- oh f***
RecessRampage shows [5d 5h]
SB shows [4d 6h]
*** RIVER *** [5c 7s Tc 8h] [9s]
RecessRampage shows three of a kind, Fives SB shows a straight, Ten high
SB wins the pot ($707) with a straight, Ten high
That sucked. And admittedly, that was a situation where I should have just called on the turn. I'm not sure that pushing was the right move. However, I will say this. In terms of his likely holdings, I thought he would do that with 7-8, 8-9... 4-6 did cross my mind because he was also deep so I knew that he knew that he had enough odds to make that call on the flop... and admittedly, I wanted that call on the flop. Still, probably a poor play. Sometimes, it's such thin line between "Presto is Gold" series that Fuel does on his blog and this type of disaster (mainly found on my blogs).
Fortunately, like lucko mentioned before in his blog during his sick run last month on the cash tables, the weekends at FTP are softer than usual. There are sooooo many bad players who buy in short at these tables so, on Sunday, I made up everything I lost. It would be better if I can say I made up what I lost on Saturday and then some but then again, I'm not as sick as some of the other bloggers here. But, making up the $600 loss from Saturday still felt good. This hand came up on Sunday, when I got involved with a guy who took some of my money with a total donkish but lucky hand. But based on what I saw on Saturday, I had notes on him... a very simple one that said this "total calling station - will call down with any piece of the board regardless of the size of the bet."
So, when this hand came up, I decided to trust my note, even though my hand was definitely vulnerable.
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RecessRampage [Qc Ks]
EP calls $4
3 players fold
RecessRampage raises to $18 <-- from late MP
CO-1 folds
CO (cutoff) calls $18 <-the aforementioned donk
Button folds
Both blinds fold
EP calls $14
*** FLOP *** [Kh 4h 8s]
EP checks RecessRampage bets $50 <- pot was like $55-57
"the donk at CO" calls $50 <- here he comes.
At this point, I wasn't really worried about a set. He'd make this call with a hand as bad as 4-5.
EP folds
*** TURN *** [Kh 4h 8s] [5s]
RecessRampage bets $120 <-- now the board is starting to look dangerous with str8 possibilities and double flush possibilities so maybe I should've bet more here. The pot was like $150 so he was getting better than 2-1. However, I actually put him on a weak king so I felt like this was a good amount.
"the donk at CO" calls $120
*** RIVER *** [Kh 4h 8s 5s] [Jd]
RecessRampage checks <-- the river felt safe but now, I'm not too crazy about my hand. Plus, if he simply missed the flush, maybe he'll take a stab at it
"the donk at CO" bets $80.90, and is all in
RecessRampage calls $80.90 <--- my only thought here was "man, if he has KJ, that's so sick."
*** SHOW DOWN *** the donk shows [8h 7h] (a pair of Eights) <-- actually had more outs than I gave him credit for
RecessRampage shows [Qc Ks] (a pair of Kings)
RecessRampage wins the pot ($558.80) with a pair of Kings <-- thanks for holding on to my money but I'll take back what's mine!
The MATH hosted by Hoy last night had another good turn out with 49 bloggers. Yours truly, in true tournament donk fashion, busted out 21st as my stack steadily dwindled down. I'm such an uber weak tight tournament player, it's almost funny. I let my stack steadily dwindle down until the blinds increase or my stack dwindles (or the combination of both) to the point where my M is around 5 and then I just become a push monkey, pushing all in with half decent cards and sometimes not so half decent cards. I'm bound to get caught and eventually, I do... alas, my exit at 21st place when my 33 ran into a 99 in the small blind... I need to switch things up for the Mookie tomorrow night.
Speaking of tournaments, it must be that time of the year again. Already!? FTOPS IV Schedule is out so FullTilt is now running a bunch of satellites to qualify for the events. I need to start playing in these satellites as well as the WSOP satellites that I have been kinda neglecting...
And speaking of neglecting, I haven't talked about PAPT (Park Avenue Poker Tour) in a long time.... that's because I haven't been to it in a long time. I feel like the past several Tuesdays, something was always up whether it was work, family visiting, basketball league games, etc where I just wasn't able to make the 8pm starting time. As such, I still only have a meager 3 points on my quest to a PAPT POY which Tyke is furiously trying to get. And consider this. He was the second place finisher last year after Sia who decided to graciously move down to FL to give the rest of us a chance so Tyke is definitely picking up right where he left off. Hopefully, he'll be like the hare in that story and me the tortoise... funny how comparing myself to a turtle is never all that exciting...
Alright, time to start working! (read: check out other people's blogs!)
Saturday, February 17, 2007
FTOPS #8 - Pot Limit Hold'em.... Finally!
I hate putting a title that makes it seem like I did something special... because I didn't. However, I did manage to cash in this event and since this is the first one that I've cashed in, "finally" seemed appropriate. This was a pot-limit hold'em game which played to my strengths a lot more because early on in the tournament played a lot more like a cash game since someone couldn't make a ridiculous overbet like in NLH so you actually had to play the flop, the turn, and the river like you would in a cash game. But, when I saw the starting table, I wasn't too excited to see this...
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A pro (Berry Johnston) to my left and last night's FTOPS champion (in the gold jersey avatar). Great start. But, regardless of my results, I'm a confident player and so this really didn't bother me as much.
I'm not going into any key hands or any thing here. Nothing too crazy. I was running well and I was like top 20 with about 150 people remaining (top 150 cashed)... and then a few hands later, I got dealt AQ of spades from the small blind so I reraised the initial raiser who was also short (his M was a little short of 5). He called with his KK that held up and though that didn't cripple me, that put me on a slippery slope towards the inevitable bust out at 100th place several hands later...
The tourney started at 9pm and I busted out around 1am... 100th place prize was $293.12... so frustrating. But at least I didn't go through the entire FTOPS without cashing... yep, the glass is half full!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
FTOPS event #3
Ended up 969 out of 2755 players. Last hand, I had pocket 5's cracked by KJ when the king hit the river, all in preflop. I was relatively shortstacked and the guy who called had like 5 times the chip count I had so it made sense. Considering right before that, I went all in with AK and everyone folded to me. What a tough end to an otherwise fairly well played tournament, in my opinion. The big donkish thing I did was when I pot committed myself with KQ against a guy who had AQ. That cost me a good chunk of my chips. Oh well. I'm not as upset with the way this one ended since I felt like I played fairly well but just got unlucky at the end. If I won that race, I was right back in the thick of things. 1st place prize of this tournament is over $150k... Man, can't imagine winning that kinda money online.
FTOPS#3 - 1st hour...
Wow... in terms of the tournaments I played, this was a very topsy turvy 1st hour of the tournament. I'm pretty happy that I'm still alive considering that very early (5th hand dealt) in the tournament, this happened...
ullTiltPoker Game #1777467931: FTOPS Event #3 (11292129), Table 176 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:03:42 ET - 2007/02/11
Seat 1: BoomerangPoker (2,970)
Seat 2: iLLNuGWichee (2,955)
Seat 3: Richard Cranium (3,015)
Seat 4: habibi1 (3,000)
Seat 5: tranquilo (3,015)
Seat 6: KGtheACE (3,000)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (3,000)
Seat 8: venom720 (3,000)
Seat 9: TheHebrewHammer (3,045)
tranquilo posts the small blind of 15
KGtheACE posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Jh Jd]
RecessRampage raises to 105
venom720 folds
TheHebrewHammer folds
BoomerangPoker folds
iLLNuGWichee folds
Richard Cranium raises to 360
habibi1 folds
tranquilo folds
KGtheACE folds
RecessRampage calls 255
*** FLOP *** [3s 7h 9c]
RecessRampage checks
Richard Cranium bets 480
RecessRampage raises to 1,400
Richard Cranium has 15 seconds left to act
Richard Cranium raises to 2,655, and is all in
RecessRampage folds
Uncalled bet of 1,255 returned to Richard Cranium
Richard Cranium mucks
Richard Cranium wins the pot (3,565)
If he made this play with AK, then good for him. Otherwise, I'd have to believe I was beat by QQ, KK, or AA. So, very early, all of a sudden, I'm down close to 2,000 in chips. Fortunately, this happened:
FullTiltPoker Game #1777693094: FTOPS Event #3 (11292129), Table 176 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:35:08 ET - 2007/02/11
Seat 1: Teldren (3,420)
Seat 2: iLLNuGWichee (3,930)
Seat 3: Richard Cranium (3,335)
Seat 4: habibi1 (2,370)
Seat 5: tranquilo (5,515)
Seat 6: KGtheACE (2,760)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (1,520)
Seat 8: venom720 (3,490)
Seat 9: TheHebrewHammer (2,740)
TheHebrewHammer posts the small blind of 25
Teldren posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qs Qd]
iLLNuGWichee folds
Richard Cranium raises to 150
habibi1 foldstranquilo calls 150
KGtheACE folds
RecessRampage raises to 1,520, and is all in
venom720 folds
TheHebrewHammer folds
Teldren folds
Richard Cranium raises to 3,335, and is all in
tranquilo folds
Richard Cranium shows [Ah Qc]
RecessRampage shows [Qs Qd]
Uncalled bet of 1,815 returned to Richard Cranium
*** FLOP *** [4s 4c 5s]
*** TURN *** [4s 4c 5s] [As]
*** RIVER *** [4s 4c 5s As] [6s]
Richard Cranium shows two pair, Aces and Fours
RecessRampage shows a flush, Ace high
RecessRampage wins the pot (3,265) with a flush, Ace high
Sweet justice. When the ace came on the turn, I literally put my hands to my face in disgust. Thank you river for the sweet justice.
ullTiltPoker Game #1777467931: FTOPS Event #3 (11292129), Table 176 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:03:42 ET - 2007/02/11
Seat 1: BoomerangPoker (2,970)
Seat 2: iLLNuGWichee (2,955)
Seat 3: Richard Cranium (3,015)
Seat 4: habibi1 (3,000)
Seat 5: tranquilo (3,015)
Seat 6: KGtheACE (3,000)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (3,000)
Seat 8: venom720 (3,000)
Seat 9: TheHebrewHammer (3,045)
tranquilo posts the small blind of 15
KGtheACE posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Jh Jd]
RecessRampage raises to 105
venom720 folds
TheHebrewHammer folds
BoomerangPoker folds
iLLNuGWichee folds
Richard Cranium raises to 360
habibi1 folds
tranquilo folds
KGtheACE folds
RecessRampage calls 255
*** FLOP *** [3s 7h 9c]
RecessRampage checks
Richard Cranium bets 480
RecessRampage raises to 1,400
Richard Cranium has 15 seconds left to act
Richard Cranium raises to 2,655, and is all in
RecessRampage folds
Uncalled bet of 1,255 returned to Richard Cranium
Richard Cranium mucks
Richard Cranium wins the pot (3,565)
If he made this play with AK, then good for him. Otherwise, I'd have to believe I was beat by QQ, KK, or AA. So, very early, all of a sudden, I'm down close to 2,000 in chips. Fortunately, this happened:
FullTiltPoker Game #1777693094: FTOPS Event #3 (11292129), Table 176 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 18:35:08 ET - 2007/02/11
Seat 1: Teldren (3,420)
Seat 2: iLLNuGWichee (3,930)
Seat 3: Richard Cranium (3,335)
Seat 4: habibi1 (2,370)
Seat 5: tranquilo (5,515)
Seat 6: KGtheACE (2,760)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (1,520)
Seat 8: venom720 (3,490)
Seat 9: TheHebrewHammer (2,740)
TheHebrewHammer posts the small blind of 25
Teldren posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to RecessRampage [Qs Qd]
iLLNuGWichee folds
Richard Cranium raises to 150
habibi1 foldstranquilo calls 150
KGtheACE folds
RecessRampage raises to 1,520, and is all in
venom720 folds
TheHebrewHammer folds
Teldren folds
Richard Cranium raises to 3,335, and is all in
tranquilo folds
Richard Cranium shows [Ah Qc]
RecessRampage shows [Qs Qd]
Uncalled bet of 1,815 returned to Richard Cranium
*** FLOP *** [4s 4c 5s]
*** TURN *** [4s 4c 5s] [As]
*** RIVER *** [4s 4c 5s As] [6s]
Richard Cranium shows two pair, Aces and Fours
RecessRampage shows a flush, Ace high
RecessRampage wins the pot (3,265) with a flush, Ace high
Sweet justice. When the ace came on the turn, I literally put my hands to my face in disgust. Thank you river for the sweet justice.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
FTOPS #1 - almost 9 hrs...
Wow... this is a test of endurance. I mean I know playing 9 hours live is normal but playing online for 9 hrs is a very long time. Healthy first place prize though...
Tilt away - good luck, if you do read this before your event on both the ironman as well as the HORSE event tonight.
Friday, February 9, 2007
FTOPS #1 - OUT
When I run so bad in a tournament, I don't even know if I'm any good or not. I'm up $400 for the night in the cash game but I just busted out of the tournament in 1,012th place (1922 started). Not that, that's really any indication of anything. I was probably around 300~th in chips when I busted out with the following:
FullTiltPoker Game #1765413513: FTOPS Event #1 (11291993), Table 14 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:54:27 ET - 2007/02/09
Seat 1: IAMTHELLIQUOOR (8,230)
Seat 2: pwn7s (1,430), is sitting out
Seat 3: kq91rn (3,674)
Seat 4: Phwap (9,698)
Seat 5: nm_21 (3,785)
Seat 6: doleman19 (4,474)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (4,203)
Seat 8: BigNumber3 (7,186)
Seat 9: dhansen (1,990)
IAMTHELLIQUOOR posts the small blind of 80
pwn7s posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RecessRampage [Ac Qc]
kq91rn folds
Phwap folds
nm_21 folds
doleman19 folds
RecessRampage raises to 400
BigNumber3 calls 400
dhansen folds
IAMTHELLIQUOOR calls 320
pwn7s folds
*** FLOP *** [Qh 7s 3c]
IAMTHELLIQUOOR checks
RecessRampage bets 800
BigNumber3 calls 800
IAMTHELLIQUOOR folds
*** TURN *** [Qh 7s 3c] [8s]
RecessRampage checks
BigNumber3 bets 5,986, and is all in
RecessRampage calls 3,003, and is all in
BigNumber3 shows [7c 8c]
RecessRampage shows [Ac Qc]
Uncalled bet of 2,983 returned to BigNumber3
*** RIVER *** [Qh 7s 3c 8s] [Jh]
BigNumber3 shows two pair, Eights and Sevens
RecessRampage shows a pair of Queens
BigNumber3 wins the pot (8,966) with two pair, Eights and Sevens
RecessRampage stands up
Did I play that wrong? I bet 800 into a $1300ish pot. Should I have bet more? Did I want to limit the action or encourage action? Let me know what you guys think.
FullTiltPoker Game #1765413513: FTOPS Event #1 (11291993), Table 14 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 22:54:27 ET - 2007/02/09
Seat 1: IAMTHELLIQUOOR (8,230)
Seat 2: pwn7s (1,430), is sitting out
Seat 3: kq91rn (3,674)
Seat 4: Phwap (9,698)
Seat 5: nm_21 (3,785)
Seat 6: doleman19 (4,474)
Seat 7: RecessRampage (4,203)
Seat 8: BigNumber3 (7,186)
Seat 9: dhansen (1,990)
IAMTHELLIQUOOR posts the small blind of 80
pwn7s posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***Dealt to RecessRampage [Ac Qc]
kq91rn folds
Phwap folds
nm_21 folds
doleman19 folds
RecessRampage raises to 400
BigNumber3 calls 400
dhansen folds
IAMTHELLIQUOOR calls 320
pwn7s folds
*** FLOP *** [Qh 7s 3c]
IAMTHELLIQUOOR checks
RecessRampage bets 800
BigNumber3 calls 800
IAMTHELLIQUOOR folds
*** TURN *** [Qh 7s 3c] [8s]
RecessRampage checks
BigNumber3 bets 5,986, and is all in
RecessRampage calls 3,003, and is all in
BigNumber3 shows [7c 8c]
RecessRampage shows [Ac Qc]
Uncalled bet of 2,983 returned to BigNumber3
*** RIVER *** [Qh 7s 3c 8s] [Jh]
BigNumber3 shows two pair, Eights and Sevens
RecessRampage shows a pair of Queens
BigNumber3 wins the pot (8,966) with two pair, Eights and Sevens
RecessRampage stands up
Did I play that wrong? I bet 800 into a $1300ish pot. Should I have bet more? Did I want to limit the action or encourage action? Let me know what you guys think.
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Coming up.... FTOPS III
Tomorrow at 9pm will kick off the start of FTOPS III (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) which will run for a week and conclude with a $1.5 million guarantee on Sunday the 18th.
So far, I've qualified for 4 of the events. Events 1, 3, 5, and 8 are the events I'm in. I haven't played in any of the satellites for the Main Event, mainly because the times have been inconvenient (there was like one at 6pm, at which point I am generally still at work and another at midnight, at which point, I'm generally turning the lights out to go to sleep). I'm sure there will be many more satellites coming up this week so I'm definitely planning on qualifying for the main event.
Last night, one of the FTOPS winner was playing at one of the $2-4 NL tables that I was playing at. I also managed to donk off $300 to him when I tried to bluff him off his K-J after the flop with my pocket 10s when J was the highest card on the board. I fired off a $200 bet on the river, he thought about it for a while and called. How did I know he was a FTOPS winner? Well, all FTOPS winner wins a gold jersey as an avatar (of course, along with the first place money which is generally $30,000+). So based on that, I thought he might make that lay down. Last night was brutal. I was literally up $300 across 3 tables of 2-4NL (starting to do ok with my multitabling 2-4NL) but ended the night being down $300.... that's a $600 swing. That sucked. Aside from the donk play, I lost a fair amount when my pocket aces lost to pocket kings when he hit top set. Fortunately, I played it cautiously when the K hit the board because I had a bad feeling about it based on how the betting went. Losing only $200 in that hand, in my mind is minimizing the loss considering we both had about $500 (it would have really sucked if I lost the entire stack). I really hope I do well. I'm not gonna kid myself. It will require a mini-miracle for me to win any one of these tournaments. But this would be a good time for a mini-miracle (ok, maybe I need a ridiculous freakin miracle... always a good time for a ridiculous freakin miracle, right?).
So far, I've qualified for 4 of the events. Events 1, 3, 5, and 8 are the events I'm in. I haven't played in any of the satellites for the Main Event, mainly because the times have been inconvenient (there was like one at 6pm, at which point I am generally still at work and another at midnight, at which point, I'm generally turning the lights out to go to sleep). I'm sure there will be many more satellites coming up this week so I'm definitely planning on qualifying for the main event.
Last night, one of the FTOPS winner was playing at one of the $2-4 NL tables that I was playing at. I also managed to donk off $300 to him when I tried to bluff him off his K-J after the flop with my pocket 10s when J was the highest card on the board. I fired off a $200 bet on the river, he thought about it for a while and called. How did I know he was a FTOPS winner? Well, all FTOPS winner wins a gold jersey as an avatar (of course, along with the first place money which is generally $30,000+). So based on that, I thought he might make that lay down. Last night was brutal. I was literally up $300 across 3 tables of 2-4NL (starting to do ok with my multitabling 2-4NL) but ended the night being down $300.... that's a $600 swing. That sucked. Aside from the donk play, I lost a fair amount when my pocket aces lost to pocket kings when he hit top set. Fortunately, I played it cautiously when the K hit the board because I had a bad feeling about it based on how the betting went. Losing only $200 in that hand, in my mind is minimizing the loss considering we both had about $500 (it would have really sucked if I lost the entire stack). I really hope I do well. I'm not gonna kid myself. It will require a mini-miracle for me to win any one of these tournaments. But this would be a good time for a mini-miracle (ok, maybe I need a ridiculous freakin miracle... always a good time for a ridiculous freakin miracle, right?).
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