PokerStars Guinness World Record

PokerStars is at it again.  Trying to get you to donk it up with a brazillian and one of your closest friends.

Snuffy registered ages ago. 

I just donated my dollar.

Come donk it up with us!

P.S.  No PokerSlut tour tonight, but if you go deep in the PokerStars MegaUberDonkathon you will be thankful there is no Sluts tonight.

Two Interesting Live Sessions

Last Wednesday and Thursday I was able to play live sessions. On Wednesday I was seated at a table that just opened and started in the small blind. Three people limp in front of me and I complete with 33 and the bb checks. Flop J83 rainbow. I lead for $5 and everyone folds. Next hand on the button I pick-up presto and limp after a couple limpers. Flop 985dd. Checks to me and I bet $5 and get 2 callers. Turn is a brick and I bet $15 and take it down. Two hands, two sets, little action. I fold the next hand and the one after that I have 22 in the hijack. Couple limpers and I limp. Flop J33 and it gets checked around to me and I bet $6 and get 1 caller. Turn 2. Checked to me and I bet $12 and take it down. 4 hands, 2 sets, 1 boat and a total profit of $24. The session was pretty boring after that and I shut it down after about 2 hours. I ended with a profit of $85.

On Christmas eve they had a high hand promotion going all day. High hand every 15 minutes wins $300. When I got there around 4:30 every table was being used, around 30 in total. The 2/5 list had around 50 on the wait list, 1/2 had 40, 2/4 had 25 and 1/1 had 60. I put my name on the list for 1/2 and 2/4. The 1/2 list was moving pretty fast and I was #12 on the list pretty quickly, then the open seats died. Before I was called the 2/4 list was cleared so I sat. I ended up playing about 30 mins and never even came close to winning a pot and dropped $40. I gave up and moved over to a 1/2 table.

I bought in for the $100 max (when are they ever going to change that). I actually do like the $100 max buy-in though. I had another $20 in my pocket and kept topping off to $100 if I entered a pot and folded. After about 10 minutes our table dropped to 4 people and it broke. I was able to get an immediate seat at another table though. This would be a very good table change. There was what I considered on one solid player in the game, 2 other very tight players and the rest were pretty bad. In other words your standard table there. I had $120 in front of me when I played Q10ss for a limp in a straddle pot. The solid player at the table was the straddle. He was having a pretty rough go of it in the time I was at the table, getting sucked out on left and right. After about 4 limpers he raised out of the straddle to $11 and I called along with all of the limpers. We went to the flop 5 or 6 handed and it came A,J,9. Straddle leads for $15 and I am to only caller. I hit broadway with the K on the turn. Straddle leads for $15 again and I raise it up to $40 and he calls. The river is a brick. He checks and I ship my last $50 or so. He took about a minute or so and called and I got the full double to around $240. He later said he flopped two pair.

Here is the interesting hand of the night. The room has a bad beat jackpot for quad jacks or better beaten. The jackpot was at $38k. The solid player in the game raised to $15, I folded and two others called. Flop come 10s10c3h, suits are important. The hand gets checked around. Turn is the 7s. Checked to solid player who bets $15 and both players call. River is the Js. First to act leads for $20, next to act raises to $50. Solid player ships all of his chips in who has both covered. 1st player thinks and folds what he said was a straight. Next guy Phil Hellmith snap calls all of his chips in and shows 9s8s for the straight flush. Solid player had 1010 for flopped quads. We missed the bad bead jackpot by just that little bit. The really bad thing is that the qualifier dropped to quad 10's two days later. The additional bad luck for the solid player is getting quad 10's and not even winning the high hand for the 15 minutes. Solid player was a very good sport about it, even though the guy with the straight flush WOULD NOT SHUT UP.

The good thing about the guy who won the hands was a terrible player and now had $500 on the table. I stayed until he left. I ended up booking a small profit of $41 over about 3 hours. Two decent sessions for me after not playing live for a couple of months. I hope to get out twice this next week as well.

Deals

This time I'm not talking about a deal at the end of a poker tournament. This one is about the end of the fantasy football season. In my league it's $250 for 1st and $100 for 2nd. In just about every league that I play in we end up making a deal before the championship game. I really don't want $150 riding on a single fantasy football game. Case in point in my other league this year we each took $170 and played for the extra $10.

Now there are deals and then their are potential fuck jobs. This one is such the case. I sent my opponent three different offers. Split it even up, take $150 each and play for $50 or take $170 each and play for $10. Here is the offer I received back:

"Well, if you were willing to award me $50 for finishing first in the regular season, I'd be willing to do something like this. How about if I'm guaranteed $175, you get $125 and we play for the final $50?"

I would have to be the biggest retard in the world to accept that one. For only locking up $25 more I would never take that deal if I had to pick-up a roster today to start. Here was my response:

"I can't really do that, I'm too good at math to accept that one."

I sent him another offer where he gets $170 and me $150 but he shot it down. Well, karma has a way to get you back. After tonight's game I am up 46-0 after starting Rivers and Sproles. This league gives one point for every 25 return yards. Sproles is a great start in the league and tonight was one of those nights.

I hope to keep it rolling come Sunday.

On a poker related note I have already done the year in review. I guess that leaves a goals post for 2010. I may or may not get around to it before the new year. I am still working on a decade in review and another post on two live sessions I played the last two days and almost hitting a piece of the bad beat jackpot.

Snuffy's Year in Review

I'm sure everyone else is gonna do one of these ghey as s year in review posts I might as well be the first to do so.So here it goes...

January started off with one of my more stupid ideas I have ever had. Play 900 double or nothing SNG's in one month and show a profit. The results can be found here. Although I didn't win as much money as I had wished it was worth the experience. I wanted to get in a ton of hands and that sure did it.

February started off good with a new season of AIPS when I finished the opening event in 4th. February was also the month I decided to try and satellite my way into the ANZPT event in Sydney, Australia. I failed in the first satellite but won my way in the second time around.

March and early April was filled with a bunch of losses in the BBT4. It took me a full 12 events to even make a points showing. I ended up piling a big loss over the run of the series.

Late April and early May was filled with my Trip to Sydney. In contrast to my trip to Macau a couple years earlier I made sure to spend plenty of time outside of the casino and catch everything the city had to offer. Poker wise I made it deep in a NLHE prelim event and a PLO prelim event, but after a total of 18 hours of play I had nothing to show for it, making the last couple of tables before the bubble burst in each event. In the Main Event I had quite a ride but ended up busting late in day one.

In July I had a Vegas trip. Played a lot of tournaments and didn't cash in a single one. After this trip I had to do some serious soul searching. I have spewed way too much money in my live in tournaments. If I can satellite in at a greatly reduced price then fine, otherwise I decided that I need to kiss tournament poker goodbye.

September was the start of something different for me. Without the ability to dump money online as I please (fuck you economy) I took the a hyper-conservative approach to online poker. I started in the /10/.20 LHE games during the awesome Take 2 promotion on Full Tilt. I have rallied on that money ever since and haven't looked back. I took that money from September 1st and have increased the online roll about 220%. I am currently playing the .25/.50 LHE games and hoe to hop up to the next level within the next 1-2 months. At some point I may get back into the online NLHE games but I'm not sure I have the stomach for that game any more.

One other important item of note in 2009 is the birth of Poker Soup. Out version of a poker podcast has had its ups and downs over its first year. We aren't cranking out the number of episodes that we used to. Hopefully when 2010 rolls around we will get back at it.

I think I have most of my 2010 poker travel plans in place. I am going to meet loser64 in St. Louis during their first ever WSOP-C event there. I am also planning on a Vegas trip in June during the WSOP. The family will be coming along so there won't be as much poker going on, but that's not all that bad. In Devember I vow to return back to Vegas for the winter gathering. After reading everyones blogs and tweets over the last couple week I WILL NOT miss another one of these again. Hopefully the rest of the Poker Soup crew will make it out there with me.

As for goals for 2010? I guess my #1 goal is to be profitable. No more dropping $300 on a tournament. When I hit up these places I need to only play the cash games and not chase the big tournament score. GL me.

PokerSlut Tour XVII $1 Rebuy

It's the last PS Tour event this year and I'm sure it will be quite the donkament!

Next season starts January 3rd, 2010!

Mini FTOPS Recap

First off before the event started yesterday I was bored and decided to get in a 300 chip $2 satellite to win another seat. blinds start at 15/30 and the levels were 5 minutes. There were 262 people for 23 seats. I got a double in the first dozen hands or so and was able to get three more doubles along the way and easily rolled into another seat. That's 4-4 in sats for me.

Mini-FTOPS Event #20 was a $20 NLHE event with 5k in chips to start and a slow structure. About half-way through the 2nd level I called a raise with presto and flopped a set but go no action. Three hands after that I had AsQc in the cutoff and raised 3x to 90 and the SB and BB came along. The rest was beautiful.

(click through for replayer)



I flop top top with the nut flush draw, turn the nut flush, and river the royal. My opponent was unfortunate enough to river the straight flush. Just like that I was up to a little over 8k. This was the second royal I have ever had. My last one was in a .10/.25 cash game where someone else had a flush and the other person had a boat and I got paid off big time. Three hands later I open with AQ off again and get 3bet. I called and flopped top top. Check called the flop. Turn gets checked through and I lead on the river and take it down.

That hand started at 13:25. I wouldn't win another hand (besides one walk) until 15:04. Talk about a long dry spell. I really didn't have anything playable except a couple of small pairs that didn't connect. The third hour of the tournament was more of the same. I was able to pick up a few pots to stay afloat. At the 200/400 level I had 11 bbs and raised with AJo and was re-raised by a big stack. Committed I shipped and they called with AQcc. Fullt Tilt rewarded my bad play with a J on the flop and river and I got the full double up to 9720. I won one other medium-ish sized pot in the third hour and that was about it.

Moving to hour 4 and still nowhere near the money bubble I was back down to 4620 with blinds at 300/600 and shipped AJo with no callers. A few hands later a big stack opened and I shoved AKo. Big stack called and showed 44. Flop K84 and I am almost dead. I did pic-up the flush draw on the turn but bricked the river and I was out in 2272nd place. Tourney paid top 1080 out of 9600.

It felt good playing a tournament of that size again. Even though I didn't cash it was still a ton of fun and the price was right (only using FPP's). With the satellite wins now I can go bananas in the Pokersluts $1 rebuy this weekend.

.25/.50 Going Well

Since the move up to the .25/.50 LHE level it has been going pretty well. Over 3100 hands I am running at 3bb/100, much better than what i was doing at the .10/.20 level. The play at the .25/.50 level is much more fit or fold. I either win the blinds with a raise or a get three bet. Not a whole lot of calling two bets cold, especially from someone not in one of the blinds. I have kicked up the aggression pretty well over the last 1000 hands as well to varying degrees of success. I think I have a better grasp now on when it works and when it is futile.

Below is my graph over all of my .25/.50 hands (click for full view)

I am still working on the free bonus on Full Tilt. I am clearing points a lot faster at the higher level but certainly not as fast as a NL player. I have cleared the first $10 of the bonus so far. Weekly rakeback payments are getting better as well.

In other odds and ends I won the Pokersluts Stud 8 last Sunday. Second win of the season in four events played (other was Stud). I think this is the second time I have won two stud variants in the same season. One of these seasons I will win the Lisandro trophy. One other note I am playing FTOPS $20 NLHE event on Friday afternoon. I used the FPP's I won towards the buy-in. I will probably nit it up and then lose near the end of the 3rd hour and fall 100 spots or so short of the money. Since this post is going up Friday night LOOK FOR ME NOW! If I'm still in I will be a very happy camper.

Flip It

Poker.  It's all skill.  Yeah it is. 

That's what we tell ourselves when we dominate those fish. 

When the fish get lucky and stack our chips we say things like, "If it weren't for luck I would win them all."  Or so I hear.

So, explain to me why we get such a kick out of flipping?

Oh don't you get all on your high horse and say you've never done it.  We have all done it.

Heck, we used to have a weekly event called "All in or Fold".  Yeah, we used to play a tournament where your only choice was to go all in or fold.  The suckouts were brutal.  Brutal!  And, when we were out of the event, we would go sit a a nickel/dime NL table and play all in or fold cash game with the minimum buyin.  We would tilt a table so fast.  Then, some players would figure out what we were doing and actually voluntarily sit down to donk it up with us.  Let's be real.  We were only flipping for a couple of dollars at a time and we were feeling like degenerates.

When Poker After Dark decides to run a week of cash game instead of the usual one table tournament I get excited.  High Stakes Poker just doesn't run long enough to satisfy my cash game cravings.  The past week I've been watching Antonius, Negreanu, Hansen, Ivey, Dwan and Hellmuth duke it out. 

The craziness was kicked up a notch when they started 'flipping' for 100k.  That's right, these professional poker players were 'flipping' for 100,000 dollars.  ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS.  These nosebleed stakes make my head spin. 

You have to wonder, after reading all about these crazy pots being played online, if these guys practice any kind of bankroll management.  I could easily afford to lose a few bucks flipping for $2 at a time.  I just can't fathom doing it for 100k. 

Don't even get me started on all the prop betting and cross booking going on.  I guess these guys are just old fashioned gamblers and I'm just a poker player.

Suckouts Galore!

PokerSlut Tour XVI Stud Hi/Lo

Is your Stud Hi or Lo?

Satellite Hand Question

Playing a satellite today to win a Mini FTOPS seat the following hand came up. We have about 130 remain and 94 win seats. I am currently sitting around the bubble spot.

Full Tilt Poker Game #16712888522: Satellite to MiniFTOPS #4 (118129418), Table 9 - 250/500 Ante 50 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:40:45 ET - 2009/12/11
Seat 1: theboy420 (2,595)
Seat 2: scottc25 (1,980)
Seat 3: Dante Ellis (3,040)
Seat 4: Fufu967 (3,710)
Seat 5: Nephus (3,295)
Seat 6: nicvig (7,330)
Seat 7: nmop441 (3,985)
Seat 8: le vrai mako (5,155)
Seat 9: acamrash1 (4,560)
theboy420 antes 50
scottc25 antes 50
Dante Ellis antes 50
Fufu967 antes 50
Nephus antes 50
nicvig antes 50
nmop441 antes 50
le vrai mako antes 50
acamrash1 antes 50
Dante Ellis posts the small blind of 250
Fufu967 posts the big blind of 500
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to scottc25 [Xx Xx] removed it here
Nephus folds
nicvig folds
nmop441 has 15 seconds left to act
nmop441 has timed out
nmop441 folds
nmop441 is sitting out
le vrai mako folds
acamrash1 folds
nmop441 has returned
theboy420 has 15 seconds left to act
theboy420 has timed out
theboy420 folds
theboy420 is sitting out
scottc25 ?????

What is your shove range in this spot if you have no further information on the two people in front of you?

One of the reasons for the post is to let everyone know about weaktight.com . Both Zooks and myself post hands over there for further discussion. Its a 1343452349% better way to send someone a hand rather than reading the full text (like above).

For results go to my weaktight site.

For Zooks weaktight site go here.


Also there is an option on the site to friend people and you can get all of their hands posted through an RSS feed. Check it out.

$2.20 --> $T11 --> $9.52

AIPS

I'm not completely happy with the amount I won with the T$ but I really can't complain either. I finished 11th in AIPS Badugi last night for a min cash. It was the first time I have played Badugi in about six months. I listened to the Ante Up interview of Greg Raymer and it helped quite a bit. After getting into the tournament a little bet I could tell the betting thought process is exactly the same as 2-7 Triple Draw. We did a Skype call last night and it was good talking to Gambit and confirming some of our thought processes.

The tournament went pretty well. 1500 chips to start and in the first level I was able to build up to 2200 fairly quick. I did hit a wheel once after the first draw but didn't get any action. Going into the second and third levels I bounced around quite a bit. Lose a pot and go down to 1300 win a pot and get back to 2000. At the first break I was somewhere in the middle of the pack of around 45 players remaining or so. The second hour flew by pretty quickly and when we were down to 22 players with 12 getting paid I was sitting in 21st, unable to build a stack and just able to tread water. Shortly after I was able to triple-up when I was dealt a pat 10 low and got action from a J low and someone else drawing. I think I doubled up one more time before the bubble burst. When it burst I was sitting around 8th place or so. My last hand I had a 9 low after the first draw and was all-in but was outdrawn.

Throughout the whole tournament I think I limped maybe once when I was short and that's about it. Every other time I played a hand I called a raise or opened for a raise. I folded all of my good 2 card hands. I would open or call a raise with a 3 card low of 7 or better. If I would raise some of my worse 3 card lows and was called it was time to tread lightly. If I didn't improve and checked after the first or second draw I would just pitch it bet into. I would have to hit my hand at that point and even if my opponent was on a draw it was certain that they had a better 3 card hand than I did.

Others

I also played in the AIPS second chance last night and ended up the bubble boy in 4th. I definitely didn't give it as much attention as needed since I was still in the other tourney. I also used up the rest of my tourney dollars by playing 4 $1 double or nothings. I ended up only winning in one of those and bubbled in 6th in two others.

Isildur1

How sick is this person? I was reading an article on PokerNews and saw his results vs some of the top players:

Who’s winning against Isildur1? Hastings (+$3.84 million), Ivey (+$2.91 million), Antonius (+$2.18 million), and Townsend (+1.32 million).

Who’s losing against Isildur1? Dwan (-$5.52 million), David Benyamine (-$560,000), and Sahamies (-$120,000)

Some sick shit indeed. Read the whole article here.

Run Good Activated

Just by saying those words I have probably flipped the doomswitch but oh well. I am on the road in Houston this week. When I'm on the laptop I can 4 table with no overlap but anything over that reading the HUD gets difficult. Instead this week I decided to take a few days away from the cash games and play some satellites.

Monday night I decided to hop on Stars. After reading what pointledge did playing the Megapath to the PCA I decided to give it a try. The jist of the Megapath is to play a series of 10 satellites. I bought into the first round with 75 fpps. If you won you get a seat into a 200 fpp round two tournament. Step one was one of those 500 chip hyper-turbos. Levels are 2 minutes long and start at 25/50. before the blinds got to me a second time I had JJ and doubled. From there I called short stacks in the blinds when it was less than one more bet and I advances. I was immediately registered for the second round which was already 10 minutes in. This tourney had a fantastic structure. You get 1500 chips with 10 minute levels. Blinds were very slow in moving up. At the end of hour one blinds were at 40/80.

At my opening table it was a shovefest early. Someone went from 1500 to 5k to out all within 10 minutes. He shoved every hand. After he was gone I picked-up AK and shoved over a raise. I was called by KJ and got the double. I hung on till the 25/50 level when I had 57 in the sb. There were two limpers and I completed. BB made the min-raise, call, call and I called. Flop come 346. I check raised the BB's 200 cbet to 600 and he was the only caller. I shipped the 6 turn and got a fold. I think I only played about 4 hands after that, shipping AK 2-3 more times and KK once and advanced to round three. Here is where it sucks now. Round three and four are both hyper-turbos! So I have a 3/1 lottery shot in each. Round five isn't much better. It has 5 minute levels and 1k in chips. Blinds increase pretty fast. Finally in round 6 (which is where pointledge is) has a good structure. Rounds 3-6 are all on Saturday.

Last night I decided to play one of the 1/4 million satellites on Stars. $2.20 buyin for an $11 seat and it ended up giving away 12 seats. I was at or near the top of the chip counts most of the way and was able to win a seat. I unregistered and took the T$. I will use $5.50 of it for AIPS tonight which is Badugi. That outta be fun. I may play $1 double or nothings with the rest of the money.

Today after work I fires up Full Tilt as the FTOPS series starts today. I was looking for some FPP satellites to play in. I found a 6-max SNG for 750 fpps. 1st one the seat worth $22 and 2nd got 100 fpps back. I ended up winning the seat. Nothing too spectacular in that one. The $20 6max NLHE event starts at the same time as AIPS tonight. I decided to unregister as I am by far anywhere near a decent 6max player. I will probably use it for more satellites or maybe a alter event. When I unregister and look at by cashier I see that I didn't get T$. I got the equivalent in FPP's back in my account. I see that when I try and register again I can use FPP's to get in. I imagine that would kill my rakeback though. Guess I will keep the FPP's.

PokerSlut Tour XVI HORSE & Justin Shronk Memorial

You're going to be playing anyway so you might as well sign up for both!

Justin Shronk Memorial Tourney
Where: Full Tilt Poker

 

Tournament ID: 121607994
Time: Sunday, December 6 @ 18:00 (or 6pm ET)
Game: NL
Buy-In: $5 + $5
Password: Justin Shronk (type as is)

Time To Move Up

Full Tilt is running a free bonus offer where you get 30 days to clear as much of it as you can. The bonus is cleared in $10 increments. Throughout the length of the promotion I hope to clear $20 of it. In order to clear more of it I have decided to move up to 0.25/0.50 LHE. I have a little over 400 big blinds in my account which should be plenty to move up.

I ended up playing just a tick under 6k hands. I won at a less than 2bb per 100. Of course it was time to move up. I think with bonuses and rakeback I won over $100 with only $20 of it being actual profit from the game.

(click to enlarge)

PokerSlut Tour XVI PLO DS

PokerSlut Tour XVI LHE

Yes, it is time for that slow painful death. 

PokerSoup Table for Fill Tilt Available!!!

I finally completed it last night. I made a white one as well but ran into a problem with that one. The pot size writing is white so it didn't work. Plus it was hard to see the chips. Here is a pic of the good one:

(click to enlarge)

















Overall I think it turned out really well. I found the rail from some site (wish i could remember now) and added the background and logo using paint.net. I finished it off using Paint.

Download it here.


Save it to the following location:

C:\Program Files\Full Tilt Poker\Graphics\NewTable\RaceTrack\Backgrounds

Save over the file Table.png . I highly recommend that you save the old Table.png as Table.old in case you want to go back to it.

Enjoy!

SECT

I ran across this post on POKER BLAARGH describing the SECT utility that lets you see your EV on every street of a hand not just when you get it all in as HEM does.  Well, that's quite interesting.  I tend to pride myself on betting when I'm ahead.  This seems like a good tool to evaluate that.



These are my results from October 1st through today.  Check out that lovely bit in the middle there.  Talk about running like dookie.  I'll never ever feel bad about sucking out again.  I think this hand accounted for that flip around hand 2750. 



Oops.

And this one around hand number 3750.



Well, this one wasn't so bad since he was a shorty. 

I actually considered folding the KK hand above but only pussies fold KK.  :)

If you use HEM you might want to check out that SECT Utility and throw a couple chips to the developer.  Every little bit helps.

Darvin Gump Shows Up At Pokerslut Tour

Glad to see Darvin (Moon) gump use the night off to play pokersluts last night. He somehow took over the account of BamBam last night. We played Stud last night. We were 3 handed when the following hand came up:

FullTiltPoker Game #15894020038: PokerSlut Tour XVI (111159016), Table 2 - 600/1,200 Ante 100 - Limit Stud Hi - 23:23:49 ET - 2009/11/08

Seat 1: scottc25 (12,774)
Seat 5: ELM22 (3,040)
Seat 7: BamBamCan (8,186)
scottc25 antes 100
ELM22 antes 100
BamBamCan antes 100
*** 3RD STREET ***
Dealt to scottc25 [3c 9h] [4c]
Dealt to ELM22 [2s]
Dealt to BamBamCan [Ah]
ELM22 is low with [2s]
ELM22 brings in for 200
BamBamCan completes it to 600
scottc25 folds
ELM22 calls 400
*** 4TH STREET ***
Dealt to ELM22 [2s] [5h]
Dealt to BamBamCan [Ah] [5c]
BamBamCan bets 600
ELM22 calls 600
*** 5TH STREET ***
Dealt to ELM22 [2s 5h] [6d]
Dealt to BamBamCan [Ah 5c] [9d]
BamBamCan bets 1,200
ELM22 raises to 1,740, and is all in
BamBamCan folds (WHAT???????????????)
Uncalled bet of 540 returned to ELM22
ELM22 mucks
ELM22 wins the pot (5,100)
*** SUMMARY ***
Duration 26s
Total pot 5,100 | Rake 0
Seat 1: scottc25 folded on 3rd St.
Seat 5: ELM22 collected (5,100)
Seat 7: BamBamCan folded on 5th St.


Kinda reminds me of the Darvin Moon fold getting 7.5/1 on his money. This one was even worse though. The Bammer was getting nearly 10:1 on a call. ELM was showing no pair. My guess is Bammer had a few too many or he was playing multiple tables and didn't realize how much more it was to call. He probably saw the raise, had no pair and folded, not realizing how little it was to call. Which one is right Bammer?

Moving on I am about 45 minutes through watching the WSOP final table. I can't believe that Darvin Gump made the moves he did in that hand with KQ. What makes for even better TV is that he goes over to his wife and the rest of his fans and says that he folded QQ, hahahahhahah. If anyone in his group had poker skill I'm pretty sure they would have collapsed. He also said that he put him on AKss. How specific of a read would that be. Goes to show that ANYONE can run good and get deep in any tournament.

I loved Joe Sebok's comment on the live audio broadcast. With those pot odds he should call with a tarot card and a snickers wrapper. So is this good or bad for poker and the whole skill argument?

If anyone ins interested the Ante Up people have their monthly AIPS event tonight. Its NL Heads-Up on PokerStars. $5.50 at 21:00 server time, password is anteup. Hope to see some bloggers there. If you want to be on PokerSoup tonight drop me an e-mail. snuffy at poker soup dot tv.

PokerSlut Tour XVI Stud

Save a HORSE, ride a STUD!

Best Limit Day So Far

I actually can run good sometimes. I played probably my largest number of hands (779) and big bets won (68) in a day since I moved over to limit. I never put in long sessions any more but I was motivated to put in a lot of hands yesterday (for me at least). I played the hands over 3 one hour long sessions. One killer hand on the day for me was KK. I flopped top set with it twice and managed to lose, both on runner runners. Here is the graph:

(click to enlarge)













I also recorded a 15 minute video of me six tabling. It's a little over 1G in size. Not sure where I can post it, any help is appreciated. The resources on my system were maxed out when I was recording and it started screwing up my HUD so I cut the recording off. Guess that's one more reason for me to pick-up a new computer.

Edit: Video is here

Little Poker

Not much in the poker front lately, although I think I am probably playing more than Snarf. Seriously, where has this guy been? I know his beloved Phillies are in the World Series.

For October I had a net loos on the month in the cash games. It was a small loss but a loss any way you slice it. I still an playing the 0/10/0.20 LHE tables. I plan on playing 10k hands before I move up. I probably won't complete that until the end of December. I think i am going to move up to 6 tables when I am at home and stay with 4 when I am on the road. I have only two work trips between now and the end of the year so I MAY be able to get more hands in.

PokerSlut Tour XVI Razz

She's a brick house....

PokerSlut Tour XVI PLO8 DS

Double stack split pot game.  OMGWTF was I thinking?

PokerSlut Tour XVI NLHE DS

October - So Far

With the help of Table Ninja for Full Tilt (beta) and the promise of free Stox and/or Card Runners video training I've renewed my efforts to play more and improve my game.  The month started off well then went to crap.

Click to see bigger version.

My all-in EV went to shit after losing a couple huge pots when I was waaaay ahead - one at 100PLHE and one at 50PLHE.  I had a nice session today winning two all-ins and several decent sized pots.  I've resolved to play better, smarter poker.  Virge told me a long time ago that if you work on getting your non-showdown winnings to be about even the rest will fall into place.  I'm starting to believe him. 

I can't imagine playing 6-8+ tables without Table Ninja.  I use the right click to check/fold and sometimes use the best sizing options.  It makes multi-tabling so much easier.  That said, I did make one error at a table for a buyin that wouldn't have happened had I not be using Table Ninja but that was operator error and not the fault of the software.

I earned half of month of free Stox Poker last month and I'm well on my way to earning a full month next month via Truly Free Poker Training.  The best part is getting credit for partial months so those of you that play lower stakes can also take advantage of this offer. 

I've finally reached the target for my bankroll to play more of the 100PLHE.  I've found that the play is actually loser on the 100PLHE tables than it is at the 50PLHE tables - at least lately - but there are usually fewer 100PLHE tables running.  That works out well for me since I'm mixing in one or two tables of the 100s with my 50s.  I might move closer to a 50/50 mix with a few 50NLHE tables thrown in when I can't find enough PLHE running.

I know I've said this in the past but it is still true today: the PLHE tables are much juicier than the NLHE tables.  Check the table stats for yourself.  It is still surprisingly easy to get a player's stack with a big hand or less at the PLHE tables that you might think. 

Cap It or How To Play JJ

Ever remember the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons? They give you two possible titles of the cartoon. You can pick the one you want here. I have never been in a hand before where it is capped every street.

(rss readers click through for hand replayer)


I guess I run goot with JJ (see last post). Wonder if my opponent ever decided to slow down on any street. I know I was not liking the K river but eff it, lets' cap it!!!

Have a good weekend everyone.

So You Say Micro Limit Poo Flinging Is Beatable???

I would tend to agree with you. Case in point from a session yesterday:

(Click through for replayer)


It's kinda hard to figure out exactly what my opponent was thinking. I won't even go with calling 3 bets cold pre-flop. I didn't have enough hands on him for good stats but I think it's pretty easy to say he is a tad bit on the loose side.

Let's fast forward to the river. If he is looking to bluff catch, which in itself is questionable cause he can't even beat ace high or any pair, why does he not just call on the end? If he is looking to steal with king high why call on the river? Maybe I am just reading way too much into a hand. Zooks thought maybe my opponent thought they held the straight. Who knows. For sure some money still to be had out there.

I am thinking about having a lockdown day of my own on Thursday or Friday. I need to kill some vacation time and I want to get in an extended session. I may try and top it off with a live session if I can swing it.

PokerSlut Tour XV $1 Rebuy

Say it with me!

Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy!
Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy!
Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy! Rebuy!

There.  Didn't that feel good?

PokerSlut Tour XV Stud Hi/Lo

I Did It!!!

It's the end of the Take 2 promotion on Full Tilt and I am happy to say that I made a healthy profit. Much like what djm182 posted the other day, I think this is the first time I have bonus whored and made a profit. All told the profit broke down as follows:

Actual Play - $28.40
Free Bonus Offer: $10.00
Take 2 Bonus: $50.00
Rakeback: $3.84

Total Profit: $92.24

Not too shabby for someone who split time between .10/.20 and .25/.50 LHE for the month. This bonus was really easy to clear. If I fired up 3-4 tables at a time at .10/.20 I had my point within a lap and a half and could quit if I chose to do so, which I did a lot. Here is the graph for the hands played:

(click to enlarge)













As you can see I had a very lengthy break even stretch. I was not watching the Deuces Cracked videos as much and my play really showed. Once I got back to watching over the last few sessions of the month the play started to improve. In talking to Zooks I think I did run really good on the month. I had AA 10 times in 3k hands and they held every single time. In limit that's practically impossible, but I did it.

What did I learn?

I definitely learned a lot over the month. The single greatest thing I learned was how to use my HUD stats on other people to my advantage. It allowed me to try steals a lot more in late position and it told me when to fold hands like AJ and QQ to raises and 3bets vs certain opponents. Another thing I learned was to be more aggressive in the hands that I do choose to play. Raise pre-flop to isolate a limper and cbet almost every flop.

What my stats tell me?

(click to enlarge)





My VPIP and PRF stats are pretty solid. I think I could raise more pots than I currently do. I should be raising the A6 and K8 hands when I am in the cutoff and hijack positions when its folded to me. My attempted to steal the blinds should be way higher. Similar to above I just need to open up more hands in later positions.

Overall I think it was a smashing success for me.

Tis better to be lucky....

Meant to post up on Friday but got lazy and forgot. So you get some quality reading, er something like that, on this fine Monday morning. Starting with Tuesday, had a decent little session grinding on my PLO tables so decided to play Skillz which was PLO8. Played tight, don't remember much, before I knew it we were 4 handed. I think had 1 or 2 KO's then won a big pot 3 handed but couldn't capitalize HU. Actually there was a big hand HU where I think he had AA3x and I had A235 or something to that effect. It went all in pre and there was no low to be had so that pretty much crippled me but I hung around and for a little before dying.

Wednesday night had a nice winning PLO session and decdided to play the Mookie. Played it like shit. Played the AIPS Razz freeroll on Stars. Started A234 and was getting capped by someone with a 9 low draw on 4th and couldn't get there. Freely gave away my chips after that.

Thursday was an interesting day on many levels. Played hookey from work to go to AC. Met up with a buddy and decided to play the 10:15 turbo bounty at Harrah's, figuring if we both busted early we could hit another tourny before heading home. Only 30 people in, which is a little disappointing but a very winnable size. First hour was particularly quiet. Second hour won a big pot with 84os in the SB where I flopped trips and turned a boat. Not much going after that, things stagnated around 14 left, then picked up until we had 7 left, 2 from the bubble. Of course I had no bounites to this point and they stop paying bounties at the FT (no idea why). Any whore, we get to the bubble (6 handed) and I have 26K UTG, the blinds are 3k-6k and going up on the next hand to 4k-8k. I find A7dd and ship, of course a chick with 12K wakes up with AK and I cannot suck out. BREAK. Awesome I have to wait 10 minutes to bubble. Come back and I'm in the BB for 8K, 1 limper, I get a free look and check. Miss the flop, he shoves, I fold, he shows TP. Sweet 6k left in my SB for 4k. Folds to cutoff who shoves, I look (why I don't know), find A3 call-in, and see the cutoff has AQ. Flop A45....turn Q....river 2 baby! Up to 18k. Next hand folds to me OTB, shove with A4, BB calls with 88, flop an ace, it holds. B2B 3 outers FTW! Now we lose the bubble and 5 handed I'm try talking of a chop and I guess the CL was waiting for 1 more to go out, needless to say 2 bad beats and a race later he is out in 5th. Three handed it all comes to roost. I'm still talking chop on deaf ears when I shove......the A and the Jay. That fuckin whore of a hand. The SB calls (who has me covered) and the BB calls (who has her covered), three way allin against A2 and A8. Flop KK4...Turn COCKSUKING 2...river blank. Knew that was coming. No complaints. Got lucky when I had to and still had a nice cash for a little of 200. BTW when I was talking chop 3 handed there was 300k in chips on the table and the blinds with 8k-16k, it was sick. I knew this would happen but I figured people would just want to end it. Oh well, guess they knew more then me.

Played a little when I got home late on Thursday, dusted off a PLO buyin at 1 table but was up 2 at another. Weird session. Should be happy with the win but the dusting off on the one table annoyed me more then it should have. Need 3 more days to make 15 for the month on the 2 for 2 thingy on FTP. Not bad since vacay in the middle kept me from playin about 10 days this month.

PokerSlut Tour XV HORSE

Profitable Week

Pretty sure I was born to play slot machines for a living. Or at least it seems like it. I'm glad I found my future profession when I turn 70.

I went to Wheeling Island Tuesday night. I got there at 7pm or so, just after a tourney started. They had two tables of 2/4 running and 5 1/2 games going. I got an immediate seat in the 2/4 game. In the first lap I was in the cutoff and raised it with QQ and got 6 callers on an 8 handed table. Flop comes 234dd. Someone leads, I raise and 2 people call along with the original raiser. Turn is the 3d and it gets checked around. River is the 5d. I have the Qd. The bettor on the flop bets, I call and one other calls. Lady had a straight flush with the 9d6d. I guess having a $135k bad beat jackpot makes people play anything that could result in hitting it. After the hand the table started falling apart and after 1/2 hour we were down to 4 handed and the table broke. There was only one seat in the other 2/4 game so I called it a not for poker with a $33 loss.

Earlier in the night I signed-up for their player rewards card and received $10 in free play. I sat at a penny machine and promptly dusted that off in around 15 minutes. Probably would have only lasted 5 minutes if the damn spin button would have worked better. After that I walked over to an empty Pai Gow table and bought in for $40. The table minimum was $10. No fortune bonus, no dragon hand, no being the dealer. Straight Pai Gow. You know what's gonna happen, right?

I went 3-0-2 in my first 5 hands with trips twice and a boat once. Sure glad they didn't have the fortune bonus. New dealer comes in. First hand I picked up a hand I have never had before, 9875432, the worst hand possible. After that I went on a good run over about an hour or so and left up $45. Add that to the poker loss and I walked away with a $12 profit.

Fast forward to today I was able to get an extended session of 2/4 in. Extended for me at least. The day was mostly up and down. My low point was -40 and my high point was +50. After my last hand I was exactly at even. I ended up going over for a couple hands of Pai Gow before I hit the door and won $8. Ship it.

On the way back to the hotel we decided to head over to The Meadows for dinner. This place was gorgeous. It is a slot parlor with a harness track. Word is that they may get poker soon and table games shortly after that. If they do this will by far be the nicest place in the area. The place kinda reminded me of Fallsview Casino. Wheeling Island might as well shut their doors. They had a cash giveaway, $400 at 6:30 and $10k at 7pm. We got 5 entries each. You also had to put a little through the slots as well. I went to the Monopoly machine that treated me so well in New Orleans. This one as a nickel machine. I was gonna put a max of $10 through it. When I was down about $5 I won 510 credits. I played a while longer and cashed out up $10. I am a (winning) slot jockey.

Total profit for the trip was $30. Not a big win, but a win none the less.

Next trip with a casino is back to Detroit the week of October 19th.

P.S. - Almost forgot to add that I won a seat in the AIPS freeroll last night. Playing a freeroll razz tourney. Yes, it WAS as painful as it sounds. Good to hear from nzgreen again as he called in sick to work and played. He won a seat. Tough luck to Jerry who bubbled.

Odds & Ends

Been struggling to find time to post. I know, I know no excuses but you'll just have to deal. Despite my rambling, incoherent, disjunct, and grammatically incorrect style, I do try to only post when I have something interesting to say. Well, dammit, things have been pretty boring in the poker front but I do a few loose ends that should lead to some interesting discussion at some point.

First off, have been grinding on the 6 max PLO tables with fairly decent results. Mostly playing the cap limit games for a few reasons. The biggest being that the play is so effing awful on these that it I think it may make them more profitable then the regular PLO tables. Also I'm finding it easier to multi-table with these then the non-capped versions.

Next of the agenda, since I have been playing more PLO I decided to get some books. Picked up "Farha on Omaha" and "Championship Omaha" by Cloutier and McEvoy. Haven't picked up the Farha book yet and just getting into the Cloutier one. I promise some form of illeterate poker write up when I finish these. I'm sure it will help you all immensely.

Finally, something Jordan touched on with a post that I saw in my Sunday paper. Looks like poker is close to showing up in nearby Philly. While AC is only an hour drive for me, it's still tough to get there with any regularity. BUT if you put some decent games within 20 mins, now we are talking. Hopefully this will lead to some more regular live play and maybe me actually learning to play 1-2 NL as opposed to the monkey that I seem to be right now. Or maybe even a regular 4/8 or 5/10 game, but I won't be holding my breath.

Oh yeah and I actually played the Mookie last week and did so poorly. Maybe I'll play Skillz tonight if it's something interesting.

Take 2 Week 3

I should just copy and past my results from week 2. I only played in 4 of the last 7 days with a significant amount of hands only one of the days. I played pretty much break even for the week, maybe turning a small profit. I can only miss 2 more days the rest of the way which should be doable. Probably will do the minimum this week as the intertube connection here in Washington, PA is pretty sketchy. See what happens when you are near West Virginia?

Not too many significant hands but one that I played today kinda sticks out. In a 10c 20c game its folded to the button who raises and I have AA in the SB and 3bet. BB folds and THE BUTTON FOLDS. Even if you are one a complete steal don't you call one more small bet and see you can flop something? Guess not.

I am near Wheeling Island where they have a poker room and casino so I may check it out later in the week. Based on my prior post about the room it looks like I will be playing some 2/4 LHE. I am sooo rolled for that game :) .

PokerSlut Tour XV PLO DS

Nawlins

I am in New Orleans for a night before catching a flight home. I was able to go over to Harrah's for my first live sessions since the WSOP. On a limited roll I decided to play some 3/6. The table had an average age of around 60 or so. The one other younger guy in the game was a loose passive fish. This was the game that dreams are made of. I wasn't going to win that huge pot but I was able to slowly chip up throughout the 2 1/2 hour session.

Over the session I probably raised around 10 hands. The rest of the table combined raised an additional four times. My pre-flop raises were thinning the field and leaving in the weak passive players. I had a few decent starting hands. I had AK twice and lost both times with it. KK held. JJ held. and in the last hand of the session I raised 1010 UTG and the whole table folded.

I was able to steal on tons of spots with air or next to it. Couple of notable hands. I saw one older dude fold JJ on a J,9,8,6,4 board. I'm pretty sure I saw the board right. I don't even remember seeing any flushes out there earlier. One decent pot I won was with K3ss with a free look from the BB. I flopped the nut flush and 3 barreled it and was called in two spots all the way down for a decent pot.

The whole table was a bunch of tell boxes. I one hand I flopped top pair from the sb with K7 and lead and was raised from the button. I called the turn and binked the two pair on the river. I was going to lead out but the button was about to release chips so I let him bet and threw in a check-raise. I was called by an ace high missed flush draw. If I miss on the river I might pitch top pair there too.

I ended the session with a $77 profit. Those videos helped more that I would have thought in the live setting.

After hitting the buffet I was looking for some penny slots to throw $20 in and get a point to let Harrah's now that I show up there and try and get some more offers coming my way. I found a 1 cent Monopoly machine and played 20 lines at a time. Right away it was loss after loss with the occasional 10 cent "win". I was gonna quit when I got down $5 but right before it I hit the bonus round for two choices of squares. First one I got something special and looked up and I won 2500 credits. I didn't even know that was the big win till the lady next to me told me. With the rest of the bonus round I won 3240 credits as noted below in the pic I snapped.


I ended cashing out with a $25 profit. Ship the penny slots.

I had a $15 match play to play on any even money table game. I decided to play roulette. Since it was a match play I had to put up $15 0f my own money. I got the brilliant idea to put $15 on red and another $15 on black along with the match play. Ball landed on red (one away from single zero) and I broke even. All told I walked out with a $102 profit.

I run good in Louisiana.

Take 2 Week 2

Two weeks in the book in Full Tilt's Take 2 promotion. I have been able to earn my point every day so far the last 14 days. I am well on my way to clearing the whole $50. Here are the stats so far.


I am more or less on a 1900 hands break even streak. In particular the last 500 hands or so I have had very few premium hands and the ones that I do play are not connecting. I can't complain about showing a profit though. Take the $28 profit plus the $10 in bonus money I have cleared plus $25 of the Take 2 bonus plus the $3 in rakeback I have earned I am showing a nice $66 profit.

My stats are looking pretty good. The VPIP and PFR have slipped a little bit over the last 1000 hands or so. I actually want those numbers up, not down.

Pokersluts was a disaster last night. It was LHE and I tried to use my cash game strategy. Epic fail. This kind of epic fail:

That one is for Columbo.

PokerSlut Tour XV Limit Holdem

Worst...Beat...Ever

Warning, bad beat story ahead. Like you couldn't tell by the title already anyways. Here it goes...

I think I was handed the worst beat I have ever taken at a poker table last night during AIPS. It was pretty much the perfect storm. It's not about the $5 buyin. It's about the side bet that a lot of the Poker Soup crew has on the player of the year standings. I have a slim lead over Jerry. Luckily nobody made the points last night.

The hand that took me out was a doozy. Part of the perfect storm was who my loss came against, Heffmike. He has to be the luckiest motherfuckin' blogger who has ever walked the earth. I have seen him put so many horrific beats on so many people it is just sick. I used to hate his game but anyone who gets that deep that much is not a fluke. He is a very good player.

To set-up the hand we have around 30 people left paying top 15. I am down to 4 big bets and looking to find a hand to 3bet pre and let it play out. I find KK23 and am going with it. With Heffmike 2betting right in front of me this is the perfect spot. Even if I have a worse hand I go with it here because he is likely to open light in this spot a lot.

(click through for hand replayer)


Our pre-flop stats show us the following:

scottc25 -
Scoop: 74.08%
Hi: 74.08%
Lo: 43.91%

Heffmike -
Scoop: 19.29%
Hi: 25.92%
Lo: 0.00%


After the flop I have him so far in jail its fucking sick. About as good as it gets in Omaha really. He is dead to running queens or running jack 10. Here are the percentages:

scottc25 -
Scoop: 97.93%
Hi: 97.93%
Lo: 63.41%

Heff -
Scoop: 2.07%
Hi: 2.07%
Lo: 0.00%


I guess my only solace is that he was bounced out on the bubble. What can I say, I take great pleasure in other peoples misfortune.


Following-up on the Take 2 challenge I cleared the second hurdle today. I have earned $15 of the $50 so far. I took some beats early today as my wall can attest to. Losing this morning cost more than the $5 in poker. Fixing the holes in the walls will cost $20 to fix. I think I might have an anger problem.

Week 1 of Take 2

It's the 7th so we are one week down in the Take 2 promotion on Full Tilt. I have been able to get my point each day so far. Now I only have to get points in 18 of the last 23 days of the month. With a couple of work trips including one to New Orleans, I am going to need those days.

Not including the $5 bonus I have earned so far I am up a touch under $25.


Respectable numbers in my opinion. I guess I am not shocked when I see that the 10c 20c game is waaaay easier than the 25c 50c game. Having the HUD running from Poker tracker makes a world of difference. I know when to raise when tight players are behind.,I know when to discount and aggro player raise, etc.

I might try and play more hands this week, concentrating on the triple points happy hour between 1pm and 6pm. Not sure if I should make an effort to play more of the lower game or higher game.

The videos have helped a lot. I am 4 videos into the first series.

Pokersoup.tv Invitational

Another week off from the Pokersluts means another Pokersoup tourney. This time we are giving away a stylish pokersoup.tv hat for 1st place. Come see if you have enough to beat Blaz in a limidonk game.


Pokersoup.tv Invitational
Sunday, September 6th
Full Tilt Poker
21:00 server time
H.O.R.S.E
password is pokersoup

Go to the Pokersoup web site for more details.