Played a little the past few days - big tourney mistake

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

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

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

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

Swamped at Work - but Iowa donks killed me

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

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

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


Reading Rolf's PLO book.

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

My best call ever?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final Pot: t3895

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

A sick hand

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

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

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

I pick up aces!

What do you do?

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

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

I folded.

Here is what happened:

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



SB (t22880)

BB (t9534)

UTG (t11040)

Hero (t7439)

MP1 (t4644)

MP2 (t15960)

MP3 (t44524)

CO (t4448)

Button (t31960)



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

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



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



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



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



Final Pot: t20334



Results in white below:

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

BB has Kc Ad (one pair, kings).

Outcome: SB wins t20334.


And I win 1050 W$. Woo Hoo!

Playing just a bit – thoughts on cash games

I still am busy, but have a moderate lull in my schedule this week. I have been able to play a little, and have mostly played 1/2 blind NL. I have started playing full ring, and simply tightening up my game PF, and the results have been good. I have not jumped onto 1/2 NL 6-max tables recently, but the games have not been this easy since before neteller. Perhaps the U.S. fish are finding a way to deposit money into sites again. Either that or some U.S. sharks have given up. Whatever the reason, I though the cash games had gotten a lot tougher from right after neteller left until mid-March or so. Now they seem to be getting a bit easier. I have seem some WTF type calls from people, which are very profitable and I did not see as many of those in the past couple months.

I usually buy in for $80 on those tables and 3-4 table, although I actually have 5-tabled it easily. I need to get a dual monitor setup so I can start to 8-table. I think that would be a profitable investment.

When will I have time to play tourneys?

I have 1200 in T$ at stars, and several hundred also at Ultimate Bet, but I don’t know when I will get to use them. It might not be until after my school year is over, although I suspect I will be able to sneak in a tourney here or there. My plan is to play the nightly 150s or Sunday millions with these T$ on stars, and the 120 bounty or sunday 200K on UB. However, I am sure a few smaller tourneys or satellites will eat some of the funds. Still - I should get buyins for at least 7 $100+ tourneys out of this. Hopefully I can hit a big score.