Saturday, May 26, 2007

Stars

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

Ring Game Update

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

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

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

Several Tournaments

Nightly 100K on stars

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

Stars Million

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

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

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


Ultimate Bet Satellites

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

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

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