Ok so today was the last day of double guarantees on Full Tilt. For those who don't know what that means, in any big tournament online the websites post a guaranteed number for the prize pool, such as a 26 dollar buy in tournament guaranteeing a prize pool of 10,000 bucks. This week, FTP decided to double all of their guarantees, meaning that their main weekly tournament was guaranteed a 1.5 million dollar prize pool. While I wasn't able to satellite directly into it, I satellited into a 216 ftops, and decide to use that on the tournament today. I played a couple tournaments before, including the double deuce, where I was out in half an hour, and the 7 game 6k I final tabled a few days ago, and fell just short of cashing in ti for the 4th straight time. Got 46th with 32 getting paid.
Ok so onto the 1.5 mil guaranteed. Started out with 3k in chips, which is ridiculous I think you should def start with 5k in this tournament since most of the ftops tournaments start with 5k in chips. Got up to 4325 after I hit top pair with 86 and let a big stack bluff at me. Then I got into another pot with the guy to my left, who was a huge donkey and called literally every single hand, yet had built a huge stack after getting luck in one big hand. I raise with AJ and he called the flop came J high. I bet big he called turn an under card I shoved and he folded lameeee. Then after getting to 6300 I dodged a huge bullet in this hand. Raised utg with QQ get called by a guy on the button then the bb who was even with me three bet me very small. I had him on a pretty big hand, and thought about 4 betting but decided to just call. The flop came J 7 5 all clubs, and I had the Q of clubs. The big blind pot bet it 2150 and I had a tough decision. I decided to let it go, as i had him on KK or AA and didn't wanna find out if he had the club or not. The other guy shoved, and got called. They flip up A6 of clubs and 77! So I ended up being behind both, though given the hands, I might have been able to win it preflop had I put in a big 4 bet. Oh well.
After getting knocked down to 4700, I win a huge hand with blinds at 60 120. I raise to 370 on the button with J10 and the bb 3 bets me very small only to about 700. I call. Flop is a beautiful Q 10 9. He shoves and I call he flips a beautiful AK. Meaning I need to dodge an A or a J. Turn is an 8 and I hold and get up to 8400. Next hand I pull a good bluff. I call a raise preflop with QJ of diamonds. The guy had about 3k less then me. The flop comes K52 with two clubs. He bets small about 330 into a 1k pot. I decide to float it(meaning I call the flop with nothin with the intention of bluffing the turn). Turn is a great card 10. He bets about 700 into the 2k pot and I call again with the intention of shoving the river if its an A,9, or club. River is a club 3 of clubs and he fires 1600 into the pot with 3k behind. It was more then I expected, but there really isn't much he can call a shove with unless he flopped a set or something. I stick with my read, shove, and he folds. Gotta stick with your gut. Up to 12k.
Sadly, that was the most I would get up to. A few rounds go by with just one or two raise pre flop and take its. Then I got knocked down to 7400 after raising pre flop with 33 and continuation betting the flop of J74. One stack shoves, and I fold. I get knocked down all the way to 4k just no cards. I shove the button with 104 suited and get no calls. Then 3 hands later AA here we go!! I raise to 1200 blinds at 250 500 and get one call. Flop comes 643 a bad flop for me. I bet 1500 and he folds. Then a round goes by and I pick up KK in the BB! A guy raises to 1400 I shove for 6k total and he SNAP calls with...A9!! Well the flop comes down 9 2......9. I cant catch up. Out about 1500th. Oh well what can you do.
Been a long week but I've developed a nice system. I try to play 2 26 buck, 2 13 buck, and 2 6 buck 90 person KO's at one time. It invest 91 bucks, meaning that, with an average amount of KO's, I need to get a 6th in a 26 buck, a 4th in a 13 buck, or a 2nd in a 6 buck. So far,I've had great success. I've played 6 sets with the following results
1st set: A 5th in a 6 buck for 30 bucks
2nd set: A 2nd in a 26 buck for 358
3rd set: a 7th in a 6 buck for 27
4th set: A 7th in a 6 buck, a 6th in a 13 buck, and a 3rd in a 26 buck, for a total of 350ish
5th set: a 6th in a 12 buck for 50ish
6th set: a 2nd in a 12 buck for 160.
So overall, I've profited around 600 bucks by doing this. So I think for now, I'm going to stick with running these for the time being. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more recaps.
Close calls end my Double Guarantees Weekend
Longest poker day of my career
In this case, I literally mean the longest. Not metaphorically like ugh got suckouted out on so many times that it seemed like the longest day. No on Wednesday I decided to do something on pocketfives.com. Its a cool poker forum website where people talk about everything from how to play a hand to thoughts on a pro winning a tournaments. And often times people who are playing alot will post their schedules here. I did such a thread on Wednesday, and while it was a very long day (I clocked in at 8:00 am and clocked out at 11:58 pm) it was an absolutely blast.
So the day started off rather bad. I was out of all of my first few tournaments within half an hour, and ran into some bad coolers. In one of the 8 buck multi's I had 1010, and got it all in on a flop of 5 10 Q. The guy had KK and hit a K on the river to knock me out. Then in the rebuy period of the 10 buck cubed I had AK on a board of 6 8 A K. the guy flips AA and I have to rebuy. Then in the 5 buck heads up, I got it all in with 53 on a board of 5458 against my opponents 87 and the river brought a 6. So the early part was pretty lame.
Then in the next round I made two deep runs. One in the 5 buck turbo the other in a 15 buck super turbo. In the 5 buck turbo, I made a sickkkk comeback. I was all in with 77 preflop vs KQ and 66. Flop comes 345, and the turn brings a 7, set for me straight for the other guy. I don't pair the river and I'm down to 124 with blinds at 100 200. So after one double up, I raise all in for 450 with K6 and get called by 10 10. The flop comes K2K yahtzee! and I'm up to 1k. Then the hand of the tournament just a few hands later. I get in a 4 way all in with A8 vs AQ, QJ, and A2. The flop has my gin card when it comes 8 3 5 and I hold up to get to 4k!
Doubled up again with A10 vs 99 when the flop came KJ10 and now I have 8k with the blinds at 300 600. Then doubled up again to 20k with blinds at 500 1k when I got JJ in preflop vs 10 10 and held. Then after winning a big coin flip with 88, I had gone from 124 to 50k! Sadly, my run would end there in a very bizarre and very lame fashion. With 50k, the blinds at 1500 3000, and facing two limps, I shove with AK in the sb. A guy my equal size in chips SNAP calls and the other guy folds. He flips....K10 of diamonds?!?!? Flop brings two diamonds, and the river binks one more. Would have had over 100k and been chip leader. As it was, out in 17th for 17 bucks. So weird but whatever. Then I get 15th in a superturbo for 70 bucks, and am pretty much even on the morning.
From there, not much happened until the 6 k guaranteed 7 game tournament. This is a tournament like HORSE, but it includes no limit holdem and pl omaha. So the game goes limit holdem, limit omaha hi/lo stud hi/lo, razz, stud hi, limit no limit holdem, and pl omaha. I had played this tournament the previous two days, and gotten 16th and 13th. So I figured I Was due for a 10 place showing! Did a bit better then that. Sitting with just 3500 in the stud level, and the bets at 400 and 800, I doubled up big to 8k when I made quad queens. Then a huge pot in the pl omaha. I limped preflop with 5599 doubled suited, and the flop comes Q58 with two spades. Yahtzee! I get it all in, and the guy flops...QQ for top set. Lame. Need a 5 or spade. River...K of spades!! Double up again to 14k.
Then I win another huge pot in stud with trip jacks to get up to 28k and 2nd in chips with 25 left. I entered the final table 4th in chips out of 8, but stood pretty much dead even from there. I then find myself 5th in chips with 5 to play. Top stack has about 130k, I have 50k. Everyone is begging to look at a chop deal, and I decide to cave in and look at numbers. At that point, 5th place money was 300 bucks. I didn't think I would get any more then 450, but when the numbers came up, I could get 600 bucks right now! Now under many circumstances, I might not have taken the deal, but given that the deal would put me at about 100 bucks over even on the day with a handful of tournies left, it was an easy decision. I decide to take the chop, get 5th for 600 bucks, and profit on the day.
I'm sure you guys are tired of reading right now, so I'll make the last one quick. Made a deep run in the $50 buy in 100k guaranteed. Got 38th for 250 bucks 77
Winning a Poker Tournament is Really, Really Hard.
Its days like today that make me appreciate how sick of a heater I was on in December of 2008. In a two weeks span, I won 3 tournaments, made two more final tables, and got top 100 in the 750k and double deuce. Today, I had 3 huge results, all top 10s, that fell just short of what I was hoping for.
First, a 2nd in a 26 buck 90 person KO. With two tables left, me and this other guy were dominating chip leaders. I was pounding the fuck out of the final table bubble. For any poker player out there, this is a very important note. When you have a big stack and everyone is playing tight on the bubble you have to play extremely aggressively. But even more important then that, you don't want to call any short stack all ins! This might sound weird, but you stand to make alot more money by stealing round after round of blinds then you do by trying to KO the small stack. So pound as hard as you can, and if the small stack shoves on your BB, fold it! Unless you have AA or KK..then maybe you call lol. Ok but I was a big chip leader 5 handed when I got in a huge pot with A8. I always tell myself that I wont get involved with weak hands as the big stack, but it always ends up happening. I lost, and suddenly, I was the short stack with 29k, blinds at 2500 5000!But I grinded my way to a 2nd place finish, which I was happy with.
The next tournament was the 10 buck heads up. One of my favorite tournaments, I play this whenever I can. I love the heads up format, and 10 bucks is the perfect blend of bad play and good prize pool. I was behind in both my round of 32 and sweet 16 matches, but came back to win both! Couldn't pull a 3rd one though, and was out in 5th place for 72 bucks. Respectable, but 1st woulda been nice.
The last big run of the day was the 3 buck with rebuys. I have a good track record with this tournament. This was probably only the 7th or 8th time I've played this type of tournament. I won the nightly version of this in December of 08, and cashed in the same tournament yesterday. Whats great about this one is that it combines a low buy in, deep stack play, and alot of bad players. Ok so I wanted to discuss a few big hands that ended up being key in the tournament.
The end of the first hour I was on fire. I built my stack from 5k to 17k in a flash, and grinded my big stack all the way up to about 50k when this hand happened just short of the money bubble. With blinds at 600 1200, I limp with 33 in early position. A stack about 20k raises to 3600 and I call. The flop comes 652 with two hearts. This is a great flop for me. I immediately bet out 5k, for two reasons. One, if he has any combination of big cards, he's folding here. And two, if he has an over pair, the math says i have to call, and now I've added the four 4's n the deck as straight draws. He bets 10k more all in, and I have to call. He shows me A5 suited! Not good cause the flush draw takes some outs away. Turn comes an A, giving him two pair but not changing anything. River is a 3. I got lucky, but the play was about the math and ranges. I'm doing that every time.
The next big hand happened to be 33 again! I get 33 in the bb. I have 100k. A guy with the same stack bets 7200. I call to see a flop. it comes 3 2 K with two clubs. YAHTZEE!! Now playing a flopped set out of position is actually one of the harder things in holdem(but I'll take the dilemma every time!). I decide to check, and he almost instantly gets pot 14k. This is a great sign. He has to have a piece of this board. He would not make this bet with 66-QQ. He's making this bet with 3 hands..AA, AK, and KQ. So I decide to do just over a min raise to 29k. I know he's shoving with the draw out there, and sure enough he does. I snap call, he flips AK, and I hold. Up to 200K! He later berates my play but I'm certainly not folding there just an unlucky flop for him.
The next hand is one that wasn't huge for me but has alot of deeper level thinking that I want to go through thoroughly for anyone who plays poker and wants to get better. With about 230k, and the blinds at 1k 2k, I raise in early position with 75 of hearts. When I'm the big stack, I like to bully the others around and use my chips. But the important thing is, I want to do it with good hands or hands that will connect easily. I don't want to get in the habit of raises with K4 suited. With 75 suited, I can flop a big hand, and win a big pot. the guy to my left with a stack of 20k shoves. Its folded around to me. Now here's where it gets deep. There is 35k in the pot. Its another 17k for me to call. I have to call 17k to win a pot of 52k. By math, its an easy call. But even deeper then that, I want to show the table two things. One, I'm not afraid to call a big bet with crap, and two, to show that I am crazy enough to raise and call a 3 bet all in with 7 high. What this does is make them think that I am a maniac who is raising every hand. By lowering my level of respect for my bets, people are more likely to make plays at me with a middle aces or any two face cards. So later on when I tighten up a bit, I can exploit this. I call, he shows AK, and I flop a 7, and hold up. The guy goes crazy on the rail but mathematically it was an easy call.
Another point I want to make here is that its very important to keep an eye on the players who seem really aggressive or ones that will over bet hands and will be easy to trap. There were two instances here where I used this, and unfortunately both times, I was sucked out on. But it stays the same. So with 250k I had AQ and Raised two callers came along including a horrible calling station who I'm pretty sure was over the tournament and ready to go. The flop is a beautiful AQ3. I bet 9k, hoping someone raises over the top of me. Just get the one caller he has 12k left. Turn is a 10, I put him in, he thinks for a few seconds and calls with....32. So just gotta dodge a 3 and I win. Well the river somehow is a 3, and I'm down to 200k shoulda been at 300k but no big deal. Then, I raise to 6k with AJ suited blinds at 1k 2k and I have around 230k again. A new guy at the table shoves all n for 50k. The math doesn't say call, but I told my buddy Platt who was watching that I played with him earlier and he was crazy and I was for sure calling. I do and he flips KJ!! But wouldn't you know it, the flop comes K high. Thankfully it wasn't that much, but still pretty annoying.
Anyways I get moved with 270k, and I start running over my new table. Playing aggressive and picking great spots to bluff in. One time with Q9 I call a raise in the sb and the flop comes K32 rainbow. He puts a small 3200 bet into a pot of 12k. This size bets means only two things. AK or nothing. If you can afford to do so, you should be check raising this kind of board every time. He can only call you with a K. He folded, and I scooped the pot.
Ok so for the most part, I hover around the middle to upper part of the middle all the way to the top 18. There, I am 12th with 18 left, but have just over 10 bbs. I patiently wait until I pick up AJ in the sb. I have 180k blinds are 10k 20k. Folds to the big stack bully who raises and I shove. He calls with Q6 and I hold to get up to 400k. I fold a round or two, when the bully gets moved and now I have a great table. 6 handed, with 3 other very tite small stacks and two tite big stacks. So the plan is to start bullying them. That lasted all of 1 hand. I pick up JJ in the big blind. One of the bigger stacks who has 10k less then me and has been very tite raises huge to 100k! It folds to me, and I come this close to folding. I decide to shove, praying for 1010. She snap calls my all in with....KQ?!?!?
Side bar: one of my biggest pet peeves in poker is calling off your whole stack with KQ. KQ CANNOT BEAT A SINGLE HAND THAT I'M SHOVING WITH!! I'm certainly not making this play with KJ or QJ you are praying for a coin flip at best. Its just a horrible play, yet I see it at least once or twice every tournament.
Well as you can probably guess, I lost the hand. The flop came Q high, and now I am sitting with less then the sb in the next hand. I have 83 and it gets folded to me and the bb and he has 104. The flop and turn blank but the river is the lovely 8 and I now have 39k with blinds at 12k 24k! Two hands later, I shove with 99. The big stack that broke me calls, and the bb small stack folds for just 9k more! She shows K7 and I hold to get up to 100k. Suddenly, 3 players go out in 3 hands, and I've snuck into the final table with 3 bbs!
Sadly, I get moved to under the gun, and find myself with half my stack in the middle in the bb with 63 suited on the next hand. It folds to the big stack on the button who shoves, and I have to call, he flips...22! Perfect got a coin flip! but I miss out, and am out in 9th for 174.
I was in the zone today, and I have a 2nd, 5th, and 9th place showing to show for it. Great results, but I'm always left wanting more. Thanks for reading.
Two Full days of poker Later...
And I'm down about 150 bucks. I've been playing alotttt of poker in the past couple days as I'm going back to my internship next week I think. So yea here are a couple of the high and low lights.
I've been playing alot of the 26 buck turbo kos. I made two final tables today, but managed just a 5th and an 8th. Also, a few days ago, had one of my bigger choke jobs ever. Had 64k, 30k more then anyone else, and was 1st with 14 left and ended up out in 10th. As I recall, here's how it happened. I lost about 8k when my 88 lost to A5. Then I raised in the sb and got 3 bet small by a guy with 25k. I raise all in, bad move, and he had JJ and held. this knocked me down to 30k. Then I called an 8k all in utg with 44 when the button shoved for 20k. I have 30k, and the math says to call for the huge pot, so I call even thought he has to have a monster. He has JJ, and I lose. So on the FT bubble I shove with K6 and the guy calls with A4. He flops trips, and I blew it. Lame.
And here are a few deep runs that I made. Yesterday I made a run at the 10 cubed which I've won before. I ended up getting KOed in 20th for 54 bucks. I forget how I got the boot. Then I got 14th in the 26 buck heads up tournament. It was an interesting one. I got a 1st round bye even though there were 250 people meaning I was one of only 6 people to get a bye. The next three matches were relatively uneventful with no real action. Then in my round of 32 match, my opponent was a no show. So I in essence got 2 byes. I lost in the round of 16 to a guy that beat me up pretty good. I'd honestly say that for the most part, I'm better then the guys that beat me about 75% of the time. But this was an exception. he had my number the whole time.
Then today I made a good run at the `19.5k but got knocked out in 28th. I rode the short stack most of the top 100, and managed to survive until I ran my 88 into the big stacks 10 10. He flopped a 10, and to add insult to injury, I turned my 8. Oh well. 28th for 75 bucks. And the last main run was in the 3 buck with rebuys where I got 135th for 22 bucks.
So yea been a bit frustrating I'm due though for a MTT final table so cross your fingers. Thanks for reading.
Poker Updates
So its been a while since i actually posted about my poker playing. Thats due in part to there being alot of football to talk about, ,but its mostly because I really wasn't playing that much. After my huge weekend a couple of months ago, I wasn't really feeling poker too much, but that has changed in the last couple weeks. After chipping up a couple of hundred bucks playing sit n go's, I put alot of tournaments in a couple of nights ago with no success. The roll was lower then it has been in a long time, but yesterday, I had a hugeeeeee day.
I started the day bright and early, waking up at 8 am for the morning schedule, as I had last summer when I was playing the most volume i ever had. The morning tournaments weren't great, until my last two. I ended up winning a 12 buck 90 person KO for 288, then got 2nd in an 8 buck 180 person tournament for 244. Hugeeee relief to get some money back. I went on to cash in two others on the day. Got 30th in a big super turbo for 89 bucks first got 3k lame. Then got 10th in a 5 buck heads up shootout. Only for 24 bucks, but always fun to play the heads up tournaments, so that was good.
So yea great day of poker yesterday, hoping to keep it going through the FTOPS coming up in February. I think I've played at least one event in the last 5 or 6 series, but have yet to cash in one since I cashed in two events, including the main event, about 2 years ago. So need to get the monkey off my back! I'll post updates on my FTOPS schedule when I know. Thanks for reading.
My thoughts on the Playoffs
Well I'm back from Las Vegas! And I actually was up on my trip I'll do my best to get a recap up in the next few days but in the meantime I'll give my thoughts on the first round of the playoffs. Truth be told, all of these games were pick ems for me, as you would expect in the playoffs. What really threw me off was the fact that we were looking at 3 week 17 rematches. So I know that I didn't post predictions, but I woulda gone 2-2, as if I had t bet, I would have bet on all 4 home teams, Dallas, Zona, Cincy, and New England. But onward to the rest of the postseason!
First i'll look at the AFC: Baltimore at Indy....New York at San Diego
Two solid matchups. While Baltimore looked mighty impressive against New England, Indy just seems to have their number. And while i really hate Cadwell's decision to bench Manning in the SECOND to last week of the season in a COMPETITIVE game against ANOTHER PLAYOFF CONTENDER(I'm not bitter)... I think the Colts pull it out here 21-17.
Other matchup you have the hottest team in the league vs the leagues best defense and a team that is showing no signs of fear or intimidation of any kind. I think this game is going to be alot closer then some would expect, but I still think the Chargers squeak it out at home 24-20. Look for two fantastic AFC games.
In the NFC we have....Arizona at New Orleans and Dallas at Minnesota
Expect some Packers/Cardinals type fireworks in this game against New Orleans. You mite be a tad disappointed. You see the difference between the Packers and the Saints is that I actually expect the Saints D to show up. Especially since this one is in the Dome, I think the Saints win it by 11 here 35-24.
In the other matchup, you have one of the hottest teams in Dallas vs a Vikings squad that has looked awful in recent weeks. What is often said that can't be true enough is that its not always the best team in the playoffs its the hotter team. This is a tried and true case here. The boys pull the upset 27-17.
So the Championship games are: San Diego at Indy and Dallas at New Orleans.
On paper, the Colts are the more complete team, which is saying alot considering the Chargers are damn good, but the trump card here is the past. For whatever reason, the Chargers have the Colts number in seasons past. And I think he mite stay the same here. It pains me to say, but I think the Chargers get to the big game with a 27-24 upset.
In the other, you have a rematch of the week 15 matchup that spoiled the Saints perfect season. New Orleans had no reason to come out to that game flat footed, yet they did. And in the end it was too little too late. I don't see the Saints making the same mistake. They come out fast early and hold off the boys 27-21.
Super Bowl!- San Diego vs New Orleans.
Wow this is a sick matchup right here. I'm not sure outside of an Indy New Orleans super bowl you could have a better one. The Chargers mite be the hottest team in the league, but the Saints seem to ahve destiny on their side. And Drew Brees could prove on the biggest stage that he is the best QB in the league. In what should be a classic, the Saints pull out a thriller 31-28.
Those are my thoughts. What do you think? Feel free to leave any comments. Thanks for reading.
