Sydney Mega Recap (with happy ending)

A total of 50 runners his week with 6 people winning seats, 7th-11th getting their money back and 12th getting the leftovers. I ended up failing to get a step 4 token for this one and bought in directly. If I missed I was gonna have to reload my account or not play these any more. I think I was probably willing to reload and take two more shots at it.

Early on in the first two levels pretty much every hand that I played I won with little resistance. I was picking up a lot of big aces along with the occasional pocket pair and had my starting stack of 3000 increased to 3850 at the end of level two. In the third level I played back-to back hands:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $200+$15 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t3480)
MP1 (t2640)
MP2 (t4650)
CO (t2490)
Button (t6340)
SB (t5030)
Hero (BB) (t3475)

Hero's M: 46.33

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8, 8
2 folds, MP2 bets t150, 3 folds, Hero calls t100

Flop: (t325) 10, 4, J (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t150, Hero calls t150

Turn: (t625) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t250, Hero calls t250

River: (t1125) J (2 players)
Hero bets t400, MP2 calls t400

Total pot: t1925

Results:
Hero had 8, 8 (two pair, Jacks and eights).
MP2 had A, A (two pair, Aces and Jacks).
Outcome: MP2 won t1925


and then:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $200+$15 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t3480)
UTG (t2640)
MP1 (t5625)
MP2 (t2490)
CO (t6340)
Button (t5005)
Hero (SB) (t2525)

Hero's M: 33.67

Preflop: Hero is SB with J, 9
5 folds, Hero calls t25, BB checks

Flop: (t100) 7, 3, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets t100, BB calls t100

Turn: (t300) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t200, Hero calls t200

River: (t700) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t440, Hero calls t440

Total pot: t1580

Results:
Hero mucked J, 9 (one pair, nines).
BB had 3, 2 (two pair, threes and twos).
Outcome: BB won t1580


If these hands don't happen back-to-back I know that I make that bet on the turn and take it down. I had just lost a pot and wanted to minimize potential losses. Terrible play IMO. At the first break I was sitting on 1700 in chips.

Early into the 4th level (50/100) I picked-up AKss in the SB. The cutoff raised 9x to 800 and I shoved over the top. He did have the pocket pair I assumed he had, QQ. A little better than I assumed. I flopped the A and got my stack back up to 3600. For the rest of the 4th level I bounced everywhere. Up to 4600, down to 2900 and finally back to 5300 at the end of the level.
I basically played no hands in the 5th and 6th levels and at the end of the 2nd hour I was sitting on a 4400 stack. I believe there were around 20 people remaining +/- a few.

Right at the beginning of level 7 I was active. I won the blinds with QQ. The very next hand I get it all-in 3-ways with AK and was up against AK and 99. The A hit and I chopped-up a decent pot. The very next hand after that I get AQ and raise pre and end up taking it down with a cbet. Just like that I was up to 8200. I nitted it up the rest of the level and did not play a single hand and was blinded down to around 6300.

In level 8 I won a couple decent pots to get my stack back above but then proceeded to bleed it down in the 6k range by the end of the level. When I was in the level I was sitting at 13/5 but still had over 20 bb's so I was in plenty good shape and felt really good about my chances. Early on at the 200/400 level is when I got the double:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $200+$15 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t8786)
MP (t24174)
CO (t12696)
Button (t7674)
SB (t11117)
Hero (BB) (t5920)

Hero's M: 6.58

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, 9
3 folds, Button bets t1000, SB raises to t7200, Hero calls t5470 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: (t13040) Q, 8, 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t13040) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t13040) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t13040

Results:
SB had J, K (one pair, eights).
Hero had 9, 9 (two pair, nines and eights).
Outcome: Hero won t13040

The big shove was a strange play on his part. With the blinds just increasing and a 15bb stack I was willing to go for the double there and had the cards fall good. less than a lap later it was folded to the same player who shoved his last 10bb's in and I had an easy call with A9hh. I outran his 22 and all of a sudden I had a 17k stack.

At the start of the final table, with a redo locked-up here is what the stacks looked like in chip count order:

Seat 2: dave798111 (31345 in chips)
Seat 5: tecracy (26103 in chips)
Seat 9: scottc25 (17237 in chips)
Seat 4: JBW1983 (16889 in chips)
Seat 3: MR BIG TT (14544 in chips)
Seat 1: PokerDomeAA (13910 in chips)
Seat 8: Jackovich (12477 in chips)
Seat 6: Londolozi (11696 in chips)
Seat 7: VHDTGP3 (5799 in chips)

I was in a really odd chip count position. I really can't play too much but can't afford to get blinded down or before too long I could be a short stack on the bubble. I really want to see a couple quick bustouts. On the very first hand of the FT the short stack ran his QQ into AA and was busted. Sick hand as the flop contained a Q but the river A knocked him out. Down to 8 handed.

We stuck at 8 handed for quite a while. There was one massive pot where someone bluffed with air on a very scary board. The other player in the hand made a hero call on the end and his TPMK was good. All of a sudden we had another short stack. That didn't last long as the shorty doubled twice to get back to a top 4 stack. At the end of level 9 we had 8 people remaining. Two to go till the seat. Here were the stacks to start the next level:

Seat 5: tecracy (33952 in chips)
Seat 2: dave798111 (31470 in chips)
Seat 9: scottc25 (16287 in chips)
Seat 4: JBW1983 (15939 in chips)
Seat 3: MR BIG TT (13994 in chips)
Seat 8: Jackovich (13182 in chips)
Seat 6: Londolozi (12871 in chips)
Seat 1: PokerDomeAA (12305 in chips)

Now 3rd - 8th are tightly bunched. One of the CL's said "Support, two coolers please." It didn't take too long for that to happen. The CL KK took out 1010 all-in pre and we were on the bubble. Notice how I haven't mentioned my name at all. I ended up playing a total of two hands at the FT.

And finally the last hand of the tourney:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $200+$15 Tournament, 300/600 Blinds 50 Ante (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t33440)
BB (t15093)
UTG (t14544)
MP1 (t27658)
MP2 (t36051)
CO (t10727)
Hero (Button) (t12487)

Hero's M: 9.99

Preflop: Hero is Button with 7, J
3 folds, CO bets t10677 (All-In), 1 fold, SB raises to t33390 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: (t22304) 10, 7, Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t22304) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t22304) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t22304

Results:
SB had A, Q (two pair, Queens and threes).
CO had 9, 9 (two pair, nines and threes).
Outcome: SB won t22304

I was starting to sweat a bit there towards the end. I was sitting 6th in chips when the last hand was played. The way other people were playing I had some time to find a hand if need be.

Here is the real reason why I won:

Hello scottc25,

We have transferred $0.06 from your account to 'KidPoker' as per your request.

Good luck to you both.

Regards,
PokerStars Cashier

$0.06 in order to make it into the top 6. Boomswitch activiated

I am planning on leaving 4/22 (arriving 4/24, ugh) and coming home the day after the FT on 5/4. They have a number of $300 - $500 aus prelim events and mega-satellites that I would like to play in.

Thanks again to NZ, Zooks and Blaz for the early morning rail yesterday.

Mountaineer Trip Report

I was in Pittsburgh for the week as was able to get over to Mountaineer in West Virginia on Thursday night for a little cash game action and a tournament. Part of the cash game action included my previous post on the worst slowroll I have ever seen. I sat down and played about 2 hours of 1/2 NL. Not my greatest performance.

I sat with $200 and quickly saw that dwindle below $100. I limped a few pots and called a few raises and never hit anything. When I did it was obvious by the turn that my hand was no good. The last hand where I lost the rest of my stack was where I called a smallish raise from the BB in a 3-way pot. I flopped bottom two and lead out. The rest got in on the turn. I had one caller who turned his middle pair into a higher two pair. After that I decided to re-buy with just $100.

After the reload and around $90 in my stack I picked-up AA in late position and after 2 limpers I raised it to $12. After 2 people cold called the limpers called and we took the flop 5 ways. Flop comes J52dd. I lead for $20 and had 2 callers. Turn brings a non-diamond Ace. I lead for $40 leaving myself around $20 or so and get 1 caller. River is a non-board pairing diamond. Resigned to my fate I put the last of my money in. He called but my set was still good. Back over $200.

I played for around an hour after than not picking anything up and left the table with around $150 in front of me for a total loss of $150. I walked over to the tournament desk and signed-up for the $60 tourney. They allotted 3 tables and I was #31 to sign-up. They opened another table and we started about 10 minutes into the tourney. For an extra $5 you received and extra t2000 on top of the t5000. Levels were 20 minutes long and had a great structure. The levels were:

25/50
50/100
100/200/25
200/400/50
300/600/50
400/800/100
500/1000/100
600/1200/100
800/1600/200

The first double jump went from 1k/2k to 2k/4k. Not too bad.

Early on I was fortunate to pick up a couple hands and build my stack. In one hand I called a raise and flopped 2nd pair. Flop went check check. An overcard hit the turn and I called a smallish bet. He bet bigger when another overcard hit the river. It just looked like someone betting with air. I called and he turbo mucked. By the second level I was running over the table pretty well and had it to over 15k.

I made a really bad mistake and didn't change gears when I needed to. I doubled two people up and was all the way down to 5k before I knew it. I was able to slowly build back up and at the first break which was at the end of level 5 I worked my stack all the way to 16k. There were still 4 shorthanded tables left. The very first hand coming back from break I pick-up AA and raise to 2k. A short stack shoves for around 5k and the BB flats. I ship and BB calls all-in for around 8k. Short stack has 99 and BB has AQss. Flop all spades and I am down to 8k just like that. I remember texting Zooks at the break saying I just need the one double and I guarantee a top 3. Oops.

In short order though I was able to get back to my pre-break stack and was sitting OK. Throughout the levels I was building and before I knew it we were down to two tables. I was able to steal enough to hold my stack and when we reached the final table I had 24k. Two shorties busted fairly quickly in the same hand by the CL. Then the table slowed a ton. I was able to raise a hand per orbit to maintain. With the blinds at 2k/4k someone was gonna bust soon.

Soon came fairly quickly when the CL got it in with JJ vs two players. His hand held and just like that we were 6-handed. We did a save for the bubble bitch and it wasn't long before one busted and we were in the money.

After about two hands and the blinds jumping to 3k/6k we cut a deal. Here were the stacks at the time:

CL - 150k
2nd - 45k
3rd - 5th approx 20 - 30k

We decided to give the CL 1st place money and 2nd - 5th chopped up the rest which was $300, about 3rd place money. Good enough.

Cash games - ($150)
Tourney - $235

Sydney Bound

I did it! I won my seat this morning to the ANZPT Sydney tournament. NZ, its your turn now!
Thanks to NZ, Zooks and Blaz for the early morning rail.

Entering the Matrix

So I took the red pill and said what the fuck, what could possibly go wrong, or was it the blue pill? Either way I've started grinding on these things at full tilt. And grind is defintately the best way to describe them. For the lifetime that I've been playing online poker I've been mostly a SNG player, harkening back to my early days at Party (RIP good friend). I like to play the turbos instead of the regular cause my attention span is naught for a sng that takes over an hour to play. I also found myself not concentrating enough on the 6 dollar variety but tilting to easy from the swings at the 11 dollar ones.

Enter the matrix. I know I am giving up some EV by playing these things but how much I'm not really sure. From what I can remember (I have HH but I have not gone through them nor have I installed pokertracker or the like) I have not been shut out yet in the 4. Which means the worst loss I have taken in them is about 8 bucks. On the flip side I think my largest win was about 31 bucks or so, a little better then second place money in a normal sng. On average I would say I'm between 18-25 bucks won, in the winning ones.

At this point I don't really see a reason to stop playing them. They do take a little longer to fill but I'm still done each set in less then an hour. Plus it gives me a nice respit from the cash games. Thoughts on these things from poker land?

online poker is so rigged

(click thru for the hand replayer)

Worst Slowroll I Have Ever Witnessed

It happened when I was Mountaineer Race Track in West Virginia last night. I was in a 1/2 NL game.

In a limped pot the flop came 10c7d6d. Older guy in his late 50's leads at the pot for $10. Next person to act raises to $25. Third player 3-bets to $70. It rolls back to the 50's guy who pretty quickly ships $170 in the pot. Original raiser tanks. He tells the guy who 4-bet that "I know I have the best hand right now." 50's guy said you may have the best hand now. OK I know with 100% certainty that the old guy has a set. I know the original raiser has a set of 7's or 6's and is being beat by the older guy. He ends up shoving for around $250. The 3-bet guy really tanks now and eventually folds (later saying he flopped top 2). Old guy-insta calls. Here is where it gets interesting......

Original raiser flips over bottom set to show the older guy. Older guy sees his hand. Turn and river are the 3s and 2d completing a possible flush. Old guy stares at the set of 6's and says 'there are not too many hands that can beat you. Five seconds later he tables 77 for flopped middle set!!!

In amazement or stupidity the guy says absolutely nothing about the slowroll. Neither does the rest of the table. I mention it to the guy to my left and he wasn't sure what happened. I ask the older guy why he didn't show as soon as he saw the 66. He says, and I quote, "he could have hit the 6 and won." W T F ! ! !

Now the old dude is starting to piss ME off and tries to defend his actions. No can do. His last bit was that "nobody else at the table seemed to care." By the time he said that the rest of the table quietly started on him, although he couldn't hear it.

Completely douche move by a douche player who should have known better. Poker karma is gonna kick this dude in the balls sooner or later, that I can guarantee. I only wish I was there to witness it. I really hoped to slowroll him back but never got a chance to do so. Prick.

BBT4 News Announced

Courtesy of Al's Blog:


Looks like it is running till late May. Here is the schedule:

Here is the game rotation.

Tournament: Brit Blogger Game
When: Sunday's at 16:00ET
Game: NLHE
Buyin: $5+.50
Password: donkament

Tournament: PPI / Riverchasers Tournament
When: Monday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $24+2 or token
Password: riverchasers

Tournament: Blogger Skillz Game
When: Tuesday's at 21:30ET
Game: rotation of non-NLHE games
Buyin: $10+1
Password: skillz

Tournament: The Mookie
When: Wednesday's at 22:00ET
Game: Deepstack NLHE
Buyin: $10+1
Password: vegas1

The Blogger Big Game ($75) looks to kick it off. Go here to read his post.

Sydney Mega-Satellite Recap

A bright an early 5am start for the mega. Approximately 1 in 7 people earn seats. There was a total of 33 runners for 4 seats. 5th-7th won their entry back and 8th received around $80. You started with 3k and 20 minute levels. Plenty of time.

Not much happened in the first level for me. I won one hand in a heads-up pot when I c-bet my 66 on a JJ8 flop. One of the first hands of the second level was when the fireworks stated. (click through for (replayer)



When he check raised the flop I put him on a hand like JJ QQ or KK. There is absolutely now way I can ever put him on an 8 in that spot based on the pre-flop action. I just don't think I can do anything there.

The very next hand I picked-up 88 and shipped, flopped a set and tripled up. Four hands later I had KJ from the BB in a min-raised 4-way pot and called. Flop comes K,4,3. I checked, original raiser bets 1/2 pot, next calls, fold, I shove, raiser folds and limper calls with A,3. My hand held and I had more than doubled to 1605 chips. I chipped up a bit after that and at the end of the first hour I had 2300.

In the second hour I had a good re-steal stack but never had a chance to do anything for the first 15 minutes. I finally picked up a hand, QQ and raised with one caller. A c-bet took it down on the flop. Three hands after that I was able to get the big double that I needed:



After that hand I had a top 10 stack and was back in the game. A actually picked-up AA the very next hand and won a smallish pot on the flop. I held steady for the next little while and right before the break and 100/200 I played the following hand:



Out in 16th. As NZ pointed out after the hand there was absolutely no reason why I shouldn't 3-bet pre-flop. That same player had been raising light. I knew it, but it never registered during the hand. I can take very little solace that I got it in as a slight favorite. Not no much to go on. Oh well, I think I will take 2 or 3 more shots at this before I need to think about what to do.

Thanks NZ for the opinions on my play. Helps a ton when you can bounce ideas off of someone and critique your play. he plans on playing the same thing Thursday. I will have to get up a little early and rail.

Strategy Post #3

This is from a single table satellite. 1st and 2nd win seats to the Double Deuce. 3rd gets their money back.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 30/60 Blinds (8 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com



MP2 (t1010)

CO (t1275)

Button (t1170)

SB (t1465)

BB (t2710)

UTG (t2290)

UTG+1 (t1440)

MP1 (t2140)


Preflop:

1 fold, UTG+1 calls t60, MP1 calls t60, 3 folds, SB raises to t200, BB calls t140, 1 fold, MP1 calls t140

Flop: (t660) 9, Q, 9 (3 players)

SB bets t1265 (All-In), 1 fold, MP1???


QUESTION: What range of hands do you put the SB on?