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)