FTOPS

FTOPS IV is coming!

I'll be playing in 6 events.

Event 1 - Friday, May 11th - NL Hold'em
Buyin: 200+16
300k Guarantee
QUALIFIED!

Event 3 - Sunday, May 13th - NL Hold'em
Buyin: 300+22
750k Guarantee
QUALIFIED!
ENTRY IN SATELITTE(S): (A) 50+5

Event 4 - Monday, May 14th - NL Hold'em
Buyin: 1000+60
300k Guarantee
ENTRY IN SATELITTE(S): (A)100+9, (B) 200+16

Event 6 - Wednesday, May 16th - 6-Handed NL Hold'em
Buyin: 200+16
400k Guarantee
QUALIFIED!
ENTRY IN SATELITTE(S): (A) 50+5

Event 8 - Friday, May 18th - PL Hold'em
Buyin: 200+16
150k Guarantee

Event 10 - Sunday, May 20th - NL Hold'em
Buyin: 500+35
1.5M Guarantee
QUALIFIED!

I'm planning on winning seats into all of them. I'd love to win an event, but I'd settle for two deep cashes...

Round 2!

So I played some more MTTs this week. I spent around $200 and 4000 FPP points in tourney entries and won 3 $26 tokens, 1 $75 token, 1 entry into a satelitte into the 1k entry tourney FTOPS #4 ($216) on May 14th, and a $400K seat for today ($216).

The satellites continue to be a great value on FT. Players are very bad, and I find myself in the bubble/money range in nearly all of them.

Hoping I can weed my way through the 400k today. I'll continue to update as I go, with interesting hands.

Satellite cheese reborn!

I have started to mine the 14+1 turbo, rebuy satellites on full tilt. I've played 5 so far. Gotten 2 seats - one of which gave me $535 of cash, the other a seat into the 750K tourney. Also one 2nd for $166. Spent about $200 total, made $1236 -> profit roughly $1K. :D

I'm gonna keep playing these a lot. They are full of terrible players so its pretty easy to get pretty deep in every single one. Then its just about getting chips or getting out, and once you have chips, using em' to steal enough blinds to earn a top finish.

I just doubled up in the 750K, trapping a guy I had been needling a bit for about an hour.

More updates to follow.

Playing in the 750K guarantee on FT

I played in a few satellites today.

3 were FTP tournies that satellite into a huge Super that gives out like 30 seats to the Sunday 750K guarantee. Only first earns a seat in the super - and I managed to win on my 3rd attempt. :)

2 were small rebuy tournies (1+.10 rebuys) that satellites into a 100+9 super satellite that gives away 100+ seats to the 750k guarantee. I lost both of these - but only after the addon period with only my initial rebuy - net loss was only about $6.00

1 was a 14+1 rebuy satellite straight into the $750k guarantee. Guess who won? :D :D :D
I had to double rebuy about halfway though the rebuy period, but it was worth it - for about $70, I earned a 500+35 seat!

I'm going to try to start playing in this tourney every weak - qualifying via satelites. I figure if I can get in it for less than $100 per week, it would be a very good value, and I'm bound to get deep in one of these big ones eventually, for a big cash.

On a side note, I earned about $300 in cash games today. I'm finally feeling like I'm playing well again. I play super tight most of the time, but really try to play my opponents cards more than mine. I really want to try to keep improving. For a while I was starting to get set in my game, and my thoughts of my skills as a player. Truth be told, I'm much worse than I had thought I am. Plain and simple there is no excuse that I'm still playing .50/1 after more than a year, other than my poor play. I know that good players are making a lot of money, and I know I have the potential to reach that point too.

I'm planning on signing up for card runners, which has videos of top pros for download. I think its like $30 a month for unlimited access. So I'll probably subscribe for a month, download all the videos, and then unsubscribe.

I also am going to try to focus on putting some money for tournies aside every week on top of the $100 I'm putting towards qualifying for the big sunday tournament. I'd like to be able to eventually play in all of the big tournies every weekend, on UB, Stars, and FT. The fields are huge, but the payouts are substantial. Most of these final tables often payout 50+K to the final 4-5 players.

Pocketfives really has me interested in tournaments because many players are consistently beating these big tournies, and I feel like if you only enter tournies via satelites, the bigger tournies are a great opportunity. However, buying in for $535 outright into a tourney is clearly inferior to entering for FTP points, a few dollars, or even $50.

One thing I like about tournaments is that situations are much easier to see and attack. Its all about giving yourself lots of folding equity and trapping. I've been much more willing to go broke lately, and I think that has improved my results considerably. I bust out in retarded spots a bit more - I called an all-in of a 2x reraise with K7s to see KK today for instance. But some of the time, those marginal calls with the right odds give you spots to get lucky and get enough chips to make a run at the final table. Patience is important, but more important is knowing when you have a powerful opportunity to leverage your opponents into folding, and chipping up.

I've noticed that in these satelites most players do not adjust well to shorter handed play - so if I can get to a final table, and not run into huge hands, selected aggression dominates this situations big time!

I want a new poker name!

After stumbling upon www.pocketfives.com I have come to two realizations.

1) There is a very active scene of online tournament players who make a living playing tournies full time.
2) My poker name sucks.

I've decided to start playing some MTTs here and there - via satelites mostly AND I've decided that I need a new poker name.

Any suggestions?

Vegas trip. :D

I just got back from a trip to vegas on Monday night - I was there Sat., Sun., and Mon.

Over the course of this period I played 5 sessions. 2 at Binions, 2 at the Sahara (where I was staying), and 1 at the Rio. Binions plays a 1-2 NL game with no max-buyin. Sahara had a 1-3 NL game with 500 max buyin. Rio had a 2-5 NL game with a 500 max-buyin. At every limit/game I bought in for 200 - I felt like this was a good amount because I didn't want to create a "serious" atmosphere and I still had most players matched or covered at each table.

Overall, I felt the games were incredibly good - I could easily see how poker players could make a living playing just cash game poker in Vegas. Generally, the players were extremely passive or extremely aggressive, but either way they were extremely patterned. I would usually start each session trying to figure out how each player played and then I would just hope to get into pots (in position usually) and take advantage of their weaknesses. I noticed that players checked way more often than in online games - like way, way more often. So, I felt like this was a great thing to exploit. Whenever I limped in on the button and it was checked to me and I felt like everyone was weak - I'd fire out a decent sized bet and nearly always pick up the pot.

One of my favorite plays- and one that I have never done before - largely due to my very little live experience - was calling or checking the SB/BB and then checking the flop dark. It was nearly automatic for players who were the aggressor or were just aggressive in general to bet here. Whenever they did - I would fire out a check raise if I had a decent hand and usually scoop the pot. For example, I had Ts7s on the BB. The cutoff min raised to 2x BB - $10. I called, and checked in the dark. The flop came Th9s2h. My opponent bet 2xBB - $10. I raised to $35 - 7xBB. My opponent folded.

I also sometimes would call in position with mediocre hands like middle aces and suited connectors. When I hit the flop I'd usually just bet out and if I was called - my opponents would just check it down - even if they had something stupid like middle pair. OR if I was lucky, they would bet hands after limping preflop with strong hands - but not made hands. One of my better hands I Th9s on the button. Three players limped in. I called. The SB called and the BB checked. The flop came TcJs3h. A player who I'd seen be pretty aggressive, but often after the flop - rarely preflop, bet about 3x BB - about half the pot. I called - I felt that I very likely had the best hand because I hadn't seen this player hold middle cards up to this point - and I had been playing 3-handed with him for over an hour earlier in the session. I figured this player could only have a hand like a set of jacks or AJ or he had over cards like AK, or AQ. The turn, paired the 3. My opponent bet again, but this time he bet very weak about the same as on the flop. I took this to mean I had the best hand, and figured I might be able to earn a further bluff on the river if I called, but if I raised my opponent would only call with a hand that beat me. The river came a blank - 5d. My opponent, after thinking for a few seconds, bet half the pot. I called - he said "you win" and I scooped the pot with my 2nd pair. :)

I won $200 over the course of my sessions - winning at least a little bit in every single session and $120 in the last one at the Rio - interestingly, I never had a big hand the entire session that I won the most in, but then the blinds were higher and the players were worse.

I liked the 2-5 game a lot more than the 1-2 and 1-3 games. A typical raise to 15 would get a couple callers, but in the 1-2 and 1-3 games it would take a raise to 20 or more to get it 3 handed or heads up. Basically a lower amount of BBs would get fewer players and this made pots easier to play after the flop.

I had one bad beat, one terribly played hand, and two great hands throughout the whole weekend.

Bad Beat?
I don't like telling bad beat stories, so I'll keep this one brief.
Sahara - 1-3 Blinds
I had AsAh UTG in a 6 handed game. I raised to 4x BB and was called by the cutoff and button. The blinds folded. The flop came JT9 rainbow. I checked. The cutoff bet about half the pot. The button called. I moved all-in for about $115- the pot was about $50 at this point, so this was a large overbet. The cutoff called, showed QQ. I was 61.7% to win the pot, but alas, an eight hit the river and my opponent scooped it with a straight.

Donkey is me - but it wouldn't have mattered.
Binions 1-2 Blinds
I raised in middle position with AdAs - to 14 - 7x BB. I got 1 caller in the SB. The flop came Ah5d8d. I bet out about 7x BB - around half the pot. My opponent called. The turn came Jd. My opponent bet $25 - about 8x BB. I had a set of aces - but alas because I'm a moron I didn't realize I also had the nut flush draw. I was a favorite against nearly every hand. I called. The river came the Kd. My opponent checked. And like an idiot who didn't realize he had the nuts, I asked him if he had a diamond and showed my hand. I won the pot - and it turns out he had nothing and was completely bluffing on the turn - but I cannot believe I checked the nuts on the river...

Lucky hand #1
Sahara 1-3 Blinds
I had 9h9d on the BB. A somewhat tight player raised to 5xBB in early position. 2 players called in front of me. I called. The flop came 9cThJh. I bet 7xBB hoping that my opponent, with the preflop lead, would raise - I would like to note that he was relatively short stacked - only about $75 in his stack after the flop. Figuring if he has KQ I'm going broke every time. My opponent obliges by moving all in with AQ and my hand holds up. :) I scoop a nearly $200 pot.

Lucky hand #2
Binions 1-2 Blinds
Ts8s on the BB. 4 players limp in in front of me. I check. The flop comes Tc8h8c. I check. A woman, who had just moved to the table bet about half the pot. I called. The turn was a 5d. I checked and after she bet again, I thought for about 5-6 seconds before calling. The river was Ah. Obviously a bad card for me. I checked - figuring I might have just gotten sucked out. She moved all-in, I crying-called and my boat beat her Qh8d for trips.

Overall, I had a great time and I think live play has so much more potential over online play. Players are sooooo terrible and I could easily see making a lot of money hanging out at the rio or a similar "touristy" casino every weekend. :)

Check-raising on FT

So I've made an observation. Most players on FT have a 4+ agression factor post flop.

This generally means that if you check to them - they bet.

I was noticing that I was missing out on a lot of money because I was nearly always betting on flops. I mean always betting - like I'd bet second pair and flush draws and straight draws - or even stone bluffs. I'd always bet my strong hands too. So top two pair or sets or TPTK, etc.

Now the first group of hands I mentioned are good spots to bet. Often betting out hands that may have you beat is a great thing to do - and is a very profitable play.

However, the second type of hands - the times you are strong - its much, much better to check-raise most flops instead. I do this with overpairs, top pair, sometimes second pair, or my super strong hands.

Advantages to this strategy:

Gives strength out of position. Its so hard to play hands like middle pairs and AK out of position, but if you check-raise with made hands a lot of time, your checks will get more checks behind them, giving you free shots at turn and river cards to make your hand.

Aggressive players like to bet. When you check to an aggressive player, they nearly always bet. However, most won't put any more money in pots with hands like middle pairs or AK when they miss the flop if you bet first. By check-raising you get money in the pot that you wouldn't if you led out. Aggressive bluffers will bet half to pot sized bets on nearly every flop you check, and those bets are just free money, when you check-raise and take the pot away.

Extra information in multiway pots. Aggressive players love reraising in multiway pots with very good hands. Checking lets you see what the players behind you do. Many times it will go raise - reraise, and you can get out of a medium strength hand without losing a dime.

Confuses / misleads opponents. Most players won't put you on a very strong hand if you check the flop. This can lead to extra money won later in the hand. I find that if I check the flop, I like to be more aggressive throughout the rest of the hand. You'd be surprised the types of hands will try to catch you bluffing the turn/river.

-----

Now, its important to note that I'm absolutely not advacating a 100% of the time check raise strategem. What I am saying is when you are out of position and you have a semi-strong to strong hand AND you think its unlikely you will win any more money by betting, checking is the better tactic.

Thoughts? Opinions?

Crossed to 1K threshold!

Since its all the rage on this blog, I'm going to be trying to change $500 into $5K.

I have started data mining heavily - and am playing .50/1.00 tables at full tilt.

After about 3500 hands in I'm up to $1051. Mind you, $80 is bonus money, but not too bad. I had two pretty "lucky" hands where I won pots of $200+ and I've only lost 4 buyins (or near buyins) in all those hands.

Apparently I play like a little girl though - stats:

VP$IP: 15.8
PFR: 8.3
AGR (Total): 1.61

Not sure where I need to be more aggressive. I rarely ever call other than preflop - and thats when I have PPs (calling for a set) or am trapping - OR if its a limped pot and I don't mind seeing a flop. But - I'm thinking about starting to make my raises always the same - like Matt and I recently talked about. Always raising say 3 or 4 x the BB every time I raise - no matter my hand. I currently vary my bet based on position ala Phil Gordon. I raise 2.5 x BB up front, 3x in middle/late and 3.5 on the button, cutoff, or blinds.

What do we think of this hand?

FullTiltPoker Game #2040403322:
Table Morgan (6 max) - $0.50/$1 -
No Limit Hold'em - 21:40:33 ET - 2007/03/21

Seat 1: ScratchPlayer ($53.30)
Seat 2: HERO ($106.55)
Seat 3: kew1076 ($100.35)
Seat 4: jasoncho83 ($188.40)
Seat 5: mammamia1355 ($89.20)
Seat 6: Paul Coffey ($96)

kew1076 posts the small blind of $0.50
jasoncho83 posts the big blind of $1
The button is in seat #2

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to HERO [Ac 8c]

mammamia1355 calls $1
Paul Coffey calls $1
ScratchPlayer folds
HERO calls $1
kew1076 foldsjasoncho83 checks

*** FLOP *** [2s 3c 7c]

jasoncho83 checks
mammamia1355 bets $4.50
Paul Coffey raises to $12
HERO has 15 seconds left to act
HERO calls $12
jasoncho83 raises to $187.40, and is all in
mammamia1355 calls $83.70, and is all in
Paul Coffey calls $83, and is all in
HERO calls $93.55, and is all in

jasoncho83 shows [2d 2c]
mammamia1355 shows [Kd Kh]
Paul Coffey shows [3h 3s]
HERO shows [Ac 8c]
Uncalled bet of $81.85 returned to jasoncho83

*** TURN *** [2s 3c 7c] [9c]

*** RIVER *** [2s 3c 7c 9c] [Ad]

jasoncho83 shows three of a kind, Twos
HERO shows a flush, Ace high
HERO wins side pot #2 ($21.10) with a flush, Ace high
Paul Coffey shows three of a kind, Threes
HERO wins side pot #1 ($20.40) with a flush, Ace high
mammamia1355 shows a pair of Kings
HERO wins the main pot ($354.30) with a flush, Ace high

First:
When the action first reaches me - is this is a raise, call, or fold situation? Notice two players are acting behind me, and one of them has already raised - all four players are deep stacked.

Second:
When the action reaches me for the second time - is this a call or fold situation?

----

The first situation I viewed as a poor spot for sure. I figured I probably was beat because the flop was pretty bland and so I almost for sure am up against at least top pair and an overpair. I figure I could also be up against a set of any of the ranks on board. So, I looked at my opponents' stack sizes and decided that if I called, I might encourage the other player to call, and then I would be getting a great price to catch my flush. I also figured that if it got reraised by the initial raiser and called by the reraiser, I could call the all-in because of the price I would be getting to see two cards. The large stack sizes would mean that if I did hit my flush I might be able to win a couple more large bets (possibly a player's whole stack) from a set or two pair.

I don't like reraising because if you are up against a set you are an underdog and you need to hit your hand - reraising in this spot would almost certainly be a push or near push. I will also mention that I had very little info on the reraiser - so I had to value his reraise here as a very strong hand - like two pair or a set.

Folding seems a bit silly to me here. The only "bad spot" you could get your money in would be if it got back to the initial raiser who pushed all-in and the reraiser folded.

Okay so, then when the action reaches me again the pot is HUGE, I only have to call $87 to win a $354 pot. So I'm getting about 4:1, and I'm about 3:1 to hit my hand - poker stove puts my equity slightly better at 29%. This is an easy call.

Lucky me - for once.

Poker and Drunk Idiots

Before I get into the details about the ridiculousness which was yesterday I'm gonna get the poker stuff out of the way. I managed to get 4,176 hands in today. I started off on fire, shooting up about 5 buyins on the day... that did not last, after getting coolered on a couple of hands (Set over set, OESFD missing, etc... ) and playing a couple of hands horribly I managed to get myself down to about even. I don't want to say that I was tilted but I was definatly not very happy, mostly at myself for playing like a monkey on meth. Anyway, so I managed to battle back towards the end, finishing up two buyins... which adds up to about 2.5PTBB/100.

Hand 1- This hand was really tough. I hate folding with an overpair to a min raise but I think if I call i'm just going to leak a bunch of chips... I could raise it but I don't think i'm getting my money in ahead of anything thats calling... even if he only has the 8d... i'm still not in very good shape. Have I mentioned how much I hate the min raise?

Hand 2 - I have absolutly no idea what this guy was thinking... he cannot beat anything but a 100% pure bluff... such a donk. I hate getting my stack in with only one pair, but these players are just so bad...

Hand 3 - I'm not sure how well I played this hand, I can't really think of any spot where I could have gotten away from the hand. I dont think I can fold when gaf1704 makes it $5.30 more and then on the turn the pot is $50 and jreezy only had $9.75 in his stack, I'm going to call that so I figured I might as well put him in. The only thing I could have done was possibly check the flop because then they would have gotten it all in and I would have had a chance to fold. Then again, maybe jreezy checks behind me, gaf1704 bets and then I raise and i'm even more commited to the pot. Tough spot... I think this is just one of the times your going to get stacked.

My PT stats for the day

So yesterday I wake up at around 10:30 to get ready for the party me and my buddies had purchased tickets for a week earlier. The big thing about this party was that there we're going to be 3,000 coldshots and it's all you can handle... In retrospect, that sounds like a formula for disaster but none of made that connection at the time. After a hardy breakfast at McDonalds(I haven't been awake early enough for MD's breakfast in years so this seemed like a no brainer), we headed out to the party. We arrive at 11:15, a little late but not many people had shown up yet... Someone comes up with the great idea that we should wager who could drink the most before they ran out(if they ran out)... I think we can all see where this is heading. So we all shotgun our first 5 coldshots in about 20 minutes. For those who don't know, to shotgun a beer if when you make a small hole in the bottom of the can then pop it open and watch all the beer goodness flow into your mouth.

What happend from this point on is kinda blurry... I can tell you this much for certain, after 15 beers, I vommited into the sink... which really hurt me because when you vomit, your beer count gets knocked down 3 which put me on twelwe and since my buddy kyle had just hit 18, things we're not looking good. But fear not, I rallied and managed to tie him with 18 beers... I would like everyone to recognize that this was all in a 2 hour span.

Obviously at this point we we're all very drunk and things started getting out of control... Kyle began ripping off the cabinet doors, I'm not quite sure why but my guess would be that he thought they we're looking at him the wrong way. Eric was urinating in the corner of the room... there we're 300 people in the room. Tom has slipped on the floor and smashed his head on the refridgerator, he later went to the hospital to get 5 stiches on his skull. I was suprisingly doing pretty well... I make an exectutive decision and decide we are leaving for the following reasons - a) Kyle is unable to stand anymore and is falling everywhere
b) We are going to get our faces punched because of Kyle breaking the cabinets and Eric urinating in the room
c) Most important reason of all, they ran out of beer.

The walk home from the party is not long, especially considering we are going to a friends place which is even closer. I would estimate it to be about 400m door to door. About 3/4 of the way there, Kyle decides that he cannot use his legs anymore and collapses. I have included two pictures of us trying to carry kyle... I'm not gonna bother writing anymore about the remaider of the day because I think those two pictures sum it up pretty good.