You know whats lots of fun?
Being 2nd in chips with 20 left in a tournie with a big field, and getting your money in pre with AA vs KK against the guy who's first in chips.
And losing.
You know whats even more fun than that?
Less than an hour later, after grinding your way through 450 people to get to the FT of a different tournie, getting it in pre with AA vs KK against the CL when 2nd in chips.
And busting in 9th.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Bad Party (Gaming)
The biggest shareholder in PartyGaming and therefore party Poker, has
agreed to pay US authorities $300m (£195m) and plead guilty to a
charge related to illegal online betting.
This person is also in the unfortunate position of being called Anurag
Dikshit, which I know I probably shouldn't find funny. He's an
extremely wealthy Indian businessman who owns a 27% stake in the
company. This will probably be a landmark case where online gambling
in the US is concerned, as it appears two other major Party
shareholders have not followed the same course of action. I also
suspect many of the Poker and other online gambling sites still
operating in the US will be very interest to hear the outcome of this
case.
It's all a much more serious than I had originally thought, with
Dikshit potentially facing up to 2 years in prison. It seems likely
that the negotiations, coupled with Anurag's willingness to cooperate
will result in a settlement with the US DoJ, but it's certainly one to
watch over the coming weeks.
On a more personal note, as a result of playing cash at FTP over
the past couple of weeks, I have also fired up a few tournies there
having never really played anything other than the Sunday $750k. Last
night I busted my first Full Tilt Pro, by sucking out on a short
stacked Lee Watkinson with KQ > AJ, who I didn't even realise was at
my table until I got the pop-up afterwards.
There seems to be so many of these guys in the mid stakes tournies
that I don't think it'll be long until I'm able to cover a whole room
with the commemorative T-Shirts.
agreed to pay US authorities $300m (£195m) and plead guilty to a
charge related to illegal online betting.
This person is also in the unfortunate position of being called Anurag
Dikshit, which I know I probably shouldn't find funny. He's an
extremely wealthy Indian businessman who owns a 27% stake in the
company. This will probably be a landmark case where online gambling
in the US is concerned, as it appears two other major Party
shareholders have not followed the same course of action. I also
suspect many of the Poker and other online gambling sites still
operating in the US will be very interest to hear the outcome of this
case.
It's all a much more serious than I had originally thought, with
Dikshit potentially facing up to 2 years in prison. It seems likely
that the negotiations, coupled with Anurag's willingness to cooperate
will result in a settlement with the US DoJ, but it's certainly one to
watch over the coming weeks.
On a more personal note, as a result of playing cash at FTP over
the past couple of weeks, I have also fired up a few tournies there
having never really played anything other than the Sunday $750k. Last
night I busted my first Full Tilt Pro, by sucking out on a short
stacked Lee Watkinson with KQ > AJ, who I didn't even realise was at
my table until I got the pop-up afterwards.
There seems to be so many of these guys in the mid stakes tournies
that I don't think it'll be long until I'm able to cover a whole room
with the commemorative T-Shirts.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Stars Blogger Tournie
I played in this the last 2 years, and will be doing so again this year. One of the guys at ITH made the FT last year, so I have a decent target...
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!
The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.
Registration code: 416977
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Running good, but not good enough...
It's been a busy few weeks for me away from the felt, so I haven't had much chance to play poker of late. When I have been able to get away from my clients pre Christmas demands it's been a great chance for me to bubble final tables and generally run good right up until it really counts. I have posted a 10th, 12th and 15th all in tournies with over 500 players in the past two weeks.
Outside of that I've been keeping up a half-respectable volume at the cash tables, dropping down to $200 NL 6-Max so that I can play a few more tables. I have been playing well in these games and running at what I would imagine is about expectation. Nothing to shout about really, just good old fashioned grinding to make up for a lack of playing opportunities.
I have a decent amount of time over the next 3 or 4 weeks so I intend to get really stuck in and get some decent volume posted. There are a few decent tournies over the holiday period, so I might focus on getting back to my tournie A game and taking things a bit more seriously going into the new year.
There has been some interesting field sizes at a few of the larger live tournies, notably the Bellagio events, but I'll write up my thoughts on that when I have a bit more time.
Outside of that I've been keeping up a half-respectable volume at the cash tables, dropping down to $200 NL 6-Max so that I can play a few more tables. I have been playing well in these games and running at what I would imagine is about expectation. Nothing to shout about really, just good old fashioned grinding to make up for a lack of playing opportunities.
I have a decent amount of time over the next 3 or 4 weeks so I intend to get really stuck in and get some decent volume posted. There are a few decent tournies over the holiday period, so I might focus on getting back to my tournie A game and taking things a bit more seriously going into the new year.
There has been some interesting field sizes at a few of the larger live tournies, notably the Bellagio events, but I'll write up my thoughts on that when I have a bit more time.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
WSOP Taxes
Sometimes I hate living in the UK. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of things I love about this amazing and unique country, but from time to time I get annoyed with the weather, the way the country is run or a number of other random annoyances.
It's easy to just see the negatives, but it's important that you don't take the positives for granted. One of these is that I don't have to pay tax on my poker winnings. This suits me for two reasons, the first is that obviously I make more money, but the second is that I'm lazy when it comes to things like record keeping and form filling. So with the news about the taxes due by the players at the Final Table of the WSOP, I'm very grateful for the tax laws on gambling in my home nation.
It's been widely reported so I won't go into too much detail, but overall the players who made at FT this year potentially face an average tax bill of over 42%. There are some changes as the winner Peter Easgate moved to the UK during the break (one definate advantage of the FT delay for him, that's for sure) but the overall result is that all of the players are paying at least some taxes on their winnings.
Had Eastage not moved he would have been in line to pay 72.77% of his winnings, some $6.6 million, straight to Denmark's tax agency. That's a pretty sick rake.
It's easy to just see the negatives, but it's important that you don't take the positives for granted. One of these is that I don't have to pay tax on my poker winnings. This suits me for two reasons, the first is that obviously I make more money, but the second is that I'm lazy when it comes to things like record keeping and form filling. So with the news about the taxes due by the players at the Final Table of the WSOP, I'm very grateful for the tax laws on gambling in my home nation.
It's been widely reported so I won't go into too much detail, but overall the players who made at FT this year potentially face an average tax bill of over 42%. There are some changes as the winner Peter Easgate moved to the UK during the break (one definate advantage of the FT delay for him, that's for sure) but the overall result is that all of the players are paying at least some taxes on their winnings.
Had Eastage not moved he would have been in line to pay 72.77% of his winnings, some $6.6 million, straight to Denmark's tax agency. That's a pretty sick rake.
Friday, November 14, 2008
The Poker Economy
The Poker Economy
I have never really thought about how the poker economy until the last couple of months. I always just saw a system of people depositing $100 on a Friday night, donking it off in whatever SNG's or cash games they saw fit with the money filtering through to the winning players (and some others who eventually lose it) and the rake takes it cut. The winning players move up, maybe some cash a bit out, maybe some of the players at the higher levels take some of the money off them and move up, and so on.
Tournament wise I think you have to assume that your average winner of the Sunday million or an FTOPS event doesn't plough the $200k back into the poker economy. It seems likely such is the same for the mid/high stakes grinders too. I think this system is reasonably sustainable, as long as there is a steady supply of people doing the initial depositing and some maniac open shoving every third hand on a Friday night at $2/$4.
So it's interesting to see how things are changing at the moment. Someone told me last week that cash game traffic was actually up at Stars and FTP over the last few weeks. I thought that was a little strange give than they are currently struggling to make some of their more aggressive guarantees at the moment. However, it would appear that at least some of this traffic is coming from other sites where the games are drying up, as I found out this weekend. There has almost always been decent traffic at Cake and Party for the limits I play ($200NL/ $400NL) at the weekend, but that seems to have slowed a bit recently, and with less decent table selection options available, I found my self playing cash at Stars for the first time in ages.
On the positive side, there still seems to be plenty of action online. It feels a bit like early post UIGEA with nobody really knowing what effect it will have on the player pool. The games may be marginally tougher but for now at least, I think the industry is going to be fine. It will be interesting to see what happens other the coming months as people discover that this financial storm may be a little harder to weather than people suspected.
Now of course we have the confirmation/finalisation of UIGEA to fret about. I think the banks currently have a bit more to worry about that spending money on systems to implement the changes made my a pretty open-for-interpretation law, but that’s just the way I see it. The reality is it could be worse, and the harder it is to deposit the less liquidity there will be in the games, so they are bound to get tougher.
Certainly an interesting time for online poker. And only time, as we are all fully aware, will tell.
I have never really thought about how the poker economy until the last couple of months. I always just saw a system of people depositing $100 on a Friday night, donking it off in whatever SNG's or cash games they saw fit with the money filtering through to the winning players (and some others who eventually lose it) and the rake takes it cut. The winning players move up, maybe some cash a bit out, maybe some of the players at the higher levels take some of the money off them and move up, and so on.
Tournament wise I think you have to assume that your average winner of the Sunday million or an FTOPS event doesn't plough the $200k back into the poker economy. It seems likely such is the same for the mid/high stakes grinders too. I think this system is reasonably sustainable, as long as there is a steady supply of people doing the initial depositing and some maniac open shoving every third hand on a Friday night at $2/$4.
So it's interesting to see how things are changing at the moment. Someone told me last week that cash game traffic was actually up at Stars and FTP over the last few weeks. I thought that was a little strange give than they are currently struggling to make some of their more aggressive guarantees at the moment. However, it would appear that at least some of this traffic is coming from other sites where the games are drying up, as I found out this weekend. There has almost always been decent traffic at Cake and Party for the limits I play ($200NL/ $400NL) at the weekend, but that seems to have slowed a bit recently, and with less decent table selection options available, I found my self playing cash at Stars for the first time in ages.
On the positive side, there still seems to be plenty of action online. It feels a bit like early post UIGEA with nobody really knowing what effect it will have on the player pool. The games may be marginally tougher but for now at least, I think the industry is going to be fine. It will be interesting to see what happens other the coming months as people discover that this financial storm may be a little harder to weather than people suspected.
Now of course we have the confirmation/finalisation of UIGEA to fret about. I think the banks currently have a bit more to worry about that spending money on systems to implement the changes made my a pretty open-for-interpretation law, but that’s just the way I see it. The reality is it could be worse, and the harder it is to deposit the less liquidity there will be in the games, so they are bound to get tougher.
Certainly an interesting time for online poker. And only time, as we are all fully aware, will tell.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Where are the November Nine?
I'm not sure what Harrahs/ESPN's plans were to hype up the WSOP final table, but it doesn't seem to be working.
As we approach the end of September I honestly can't name any of the players at the final table. Perhaps that would have been different if the gorgeous and highly marketable Tiffany Michelle had made the table, or either Helmuth or Matasow had managed to run a bit deeper.
I think if they are going to generate the hype they need to pull this off they need to start now. As for making it a global event, I haven't even seen anywhere it's being shown here in the UK. I guess we'll have to wait for re-runs on some random entertainment channel in 2010 or something.
I hope I'll be proved wrong and when the WSOP programmes start to air they pick up a significant amount of interest. This should be a great chance for poker to get an influx of new players to the game, and help improve the profile of poker as a game where peoples dreams can be realised.
On that note, the WCOOP Main Event final table featured a microstakes tournie player who won a $5200 seat in a depositors freeroll. He wasn't able to unregister so played, made the final table and ended up dealing for over $800k with a shot at making over $1 million if he won. If you're going to run good for once of your life, I'm pretty sure that's the time to do it...
Edit: Sods law, after I posted this I fire up Stars and see they are doing a big promo called The Million Dollar Men which involves the 6 PokerStars players at the final table of the WSOP.
Trust Stars to succeed where others have failed.
As we approach the end of September I honestly can't name any of the players at the final table. Perhaps that would have been different if the gorgeous and highly marketable Tiffany Michelle had made the table, or either Helmuth or Matasow had managed to run a bit deeper.
I think if they are going to generate the hype they need to pull this off they need to start now. As for making it a global event, I haven't even seen anywhere it's being shown here in the UK. I guess we'll have to wait for re-runs on some random entertainment channel in 2010 or something.
I hope I'll be proved wrong and when the WSOP programmes start to air they pick up a significant amount of interest. This should be a great chance for poker to get an influx of new players to the game, and help improve the profile of poker as a game where peoples dreams can be realised.
On that note, the WCOOP Main Event final table featured a microstakes tournie player who won a $5200 seat in a depositors freeroll. He wasn't able to unregister so played, made the final table and ended up dealing for over $800k with a shot at making over $1 million if he won. If you're going to run good for once of your life, I'm pretty sure that's the time to do it...
Edit: Sods law, after I posted this I fire up Stars and see they are doing a big promo called The Million Dollar Men which involves the 6 PokerStars players at the final table of the WSOP.
Trust Stars to succeed where others have failed.
Friday, September 12, 2008
WCOOP
I have been seriously impressed by the turnout at the WCOOP this year. Stars have just had to increase the number of seats in the $25k HU event as it reached it's 64 person capacity a full three days before the event was due to start. They have also smashed the guarantees on all of the events so far, so maybe getting 2,000 players to stump up $5k for the Main Event, which has a $10 million guarantee, won't be a difficult as I thought.
Unfortunately I'm 0 for 4 during this series, and it looks unlikely I'll be able to play any more events.
As I suspected the play in the non Hold'em events was horrible, but I think all the super duper mega crapshoot sats probably had something to do with that. I satted into the $320 Omaha event in a $107 tournie with 750 starting chips and 3 minute levels, the only saving grace being that none of these super turbo satellites have a rake. I'm pretty sure people who simply had no idea what they were doing were playing these, and due to the structure of the sats there would have been plenty of them in the main WCOOP tournies.
Even though I won't be participating I still have a decent number of stakes in people for the remaining events, some of which are most definitely due a ~$400k win so hopefully I'll have a big score to write about next week.
Unfortunately I'm 0 for 4 during this series, and it looks unlikely I'll be able to play any more events.
As I suspected the play in the non Hold'em events was horrible, but I think all the super duper mega crapshoot sats probably had something to do with that. I satted into the $320 Omaha event in a $107 tournie with 750 starting chips and 3 minute levels, the only saving grace being that none of these super turbo satellites have a rake. I'm pretty sure people who simply had no idea what they were doing were playing these, and due to the structure of the sats there would have been plenty of them in the main WCOOP tournies.
Even though I won't be participating I still have a decent number of stakes in people for the remaining events, some of which are most definitely due a ~$400k win so hopefully I'll have a big score to write about next week.
Friday, September 05, 2008
Harrington, WCOOP and Cash Games
It's been a busy few weeks for me since my last entry and although I have played a fair bit of poker, it's been a bit hit and miss, and mostly cash games.
I ran at 4BB/100 over 35k hands in August at $400 NL 6 Max on Party, but I also did a few 12 tabling sessions on Stars at $200 NL when I had the motivation. Hardly exciting stuff, but certainly very profitable.
I have also been reading the Harrington cash game books over the last few weeks. I have seen people on various forums arguing both ways over the books, but I really like them. I don't think they'll ever be the well known 'must read' books that the Harrington on Hold'em books are, but they definatly have a place on the bookshelf of anyone who plays cash games. I really like Harringtons writing and explanitory styles, and I think these make the books easy to understand. As with the tournament books there isn't anything in them that makes you go 'Wow, that's some crazy shit, that might just work' but they help you look at your own game and how you approach certain aspects of deep stack play. It's also nice to look at someone elses thought processes and the way they view other peoples situations in hand examples from multiple angles.
Unfortunately I haven't really had time to play any tournies. Mostly I have just been donking around in 45 man Turbos when I haven't felt like playing cash. I think there is probably some decent money to be made in these, especially at the $55 level where they run often enough to get significant volume in but the players are still aweful. You get some regular multitablers and some decent players in them, but most of these are easy to identify if you use PAHUD or something similar.
So after grinding cash games for over a month now I fell like switching back to tournies again for a while. Hoepfully I should have more time now that work is a little quieter.
The WCOOP starts today and I have been playing a few sats to different events. I managed to win two seats to $530 events and an EPT Double Shootout which was also good for $800 in W$. I'm going to be playing the first NL event tonight, then the $530 NL on Sunday followed by maybe one or two random $215's during the week.
Unfortunely in the second week I'm moving, so I don't know how quickly I'll get a new broadband connection or whaetver set up. Hopefully it will be in place by Sunday for the $1k NL event, but I really have no idea how long it will take.
It's times like this I wish I was a bit better at other games. My HORSE isn't too bad, with the possible exception of Razz, but I don't think I have enough of an edge to be playing the $320 PLO events or anything like that. I might be wrong of course, I'm sure with all the sats the fields in the non Holdem WCOOP tournies will be bad, so maybe I should take a shot at one or two if I get the chance.
I ran at 4BB/100 over 35k hands in August at $400 NL 6 Max on Party, but I also did a few 12 tabling sessions on Stars at $200 NL when I had the motivation. Hardly exciting stuff, but certainly very profitable.
I have also been reading the Harrington cash game books over the last few weeks. I have seen people on various forums arguing both ways over the books, but I really like them. I don't think they'll ever be the well known 'must read' books that the Harrington on Hold'em books are, but they definatly have a place on the bookshelf of anyone who plays cash games. I really like Harringtons writing and explanitory styles, and I think these make the books easy to understand. As with the tournament books there isn't anything in them that makes you go 'Wow, that's some crazy shit, that might just work' but they help you look at your own game and how you approach certain aspects of deep stack play. It's also nice to look at someone elses thought processes and the way they view other peoples situations in hand examples from multiple angles.
Unfortunately I haven't really had time to play any tournies. Mostly I have just been donking around in 45 man Turbos when I haven't felt like playing cash. I think there is probably some decent money to be made in these, especially at the $55 level where they run often enough to get significant volume in but the players are still aweful. You get some regular multitablers and some decent players in them, but most of these are easy to identify if you use PAHUD or something similar.
So after grinding cash games for over a month now I fell like switching back to tournies again for a while. Hoepfully I should have more time now that work is a little quieter.
The WCOOP starts today and I have been playing a few sats to different events. I managed to win two seats to $530 events and an EPT Double Shootout which was also good for $800 in W$. I'm going to be playing the first NL event tonight, then the $530 NL on Sunday followed by maybe one or two random $215's during the week.
Unfortunely in the second week I'm moving, so I don't know how quickly I'll get a new broadband connection or whaetver set up. Hopefully it will be in place by Sunday for the $1k NL event, but I really have no idea how long it will take.
It's times like this I wish I was a bit better at other games. My HORSE isn't too bad, with the possible exception of Razz, but I don't think I have enough of an edge to be playing the $320 PLO events or anything like that. I might be wrong of course, I'm sure with all the sats the fields in the non Holdem WCOOP tournies will be bad, so maybe I should take a shot at one or two if I get the chance.
Monday, July 14, 2008
WCOOP, WSOPE and being bad at poker
After grinding out the cash games last week during the Stars promo I'm back to tournies this week. I have sucked sooo badly all week, repeatedly running up huge stacks and donking them off in a variety of super fun ways. I went deep in a couple but lost key flips/got sucked out on, and had a couple of light shoves called and way behind when short. Didn't really get much going in the Sunday Million or any of the other Sunday tournies last night, so a dissapointing week overall.
Unfortunately all of the guys I backed are out of the WSOP. One guy made the money but busted in the first level. It was fun railing the guys and it was cool being at work in the morning here in the UK and getting the odd update e-mail.
There isn't much on the poker horizon for me a the moment, but two things I'm looking forward to are the WSOPE and the WCOOP, both of which aren't until September.
Since they have added a £1500 (roughly $3k) event to the WSOPE, I initially looked at trying to sat into that, but it appears nobody is running sats to that event, so I may try to buy-in direct. I don't really have the patience or the bankroll to try to win a $25k ME package, so I doubt I'll be bothering with that.
Unfortunately all of the guys I backed are out of the WSOP. One guy made the money but busted in the first level. It was fun railing the guys and it was cool being at work in the morning here in the UK and getting the odd update e-mail.
There isn't much on the poker horizon for me a the moment, but two things I'm looking forward to are the WSOPE and the WCOOP, both of which aren't until September.
Since they have added a £1500 (roughly $3k) event to the WSOPE, I initially looked at trying to sat into that, but it appears nobody is running sats to that event, so I may try to buy-in direct. I don't really have the patience or the bankroll to try to win a $25k ME package, so I doubt I'll be bothering with that.
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
Stars Promo and WSOP
I've played quite a lot of cash games on Stars over the last few days as they were running a double VPP promotion which was just about worth me moving from my usual games at Party. I dropped down a level to $200 NL and ran 10-12 tables of FR. I have to admit after doing so much 3-4 tabling and improving my concentration I struggled a bit to start with but overall I finished up $1,200 which was not too bad, and managed to clear 12,000 VPP's.
I would have liked to do more, but I only really got the chance to play on the final two days of the promotion. It looks like they might be doing a similar one next week so maybe I'll get more time to play then.
It was part of a 4 week '2x' promotion by Stars during the first week of which they had the VPP promo above in addition to a bunch of double chance tournies at $2, $22 and $222. This week they are doubling the guarantees of all of their regular tournaments. I initially thought they might squeeze a small overlay on some of them, but that thought was quickly dismissed when the $50 gtd had an astonishing 2500 runners compared to it's usual 1200, and a $125k prizepool.
I posted on the forum that this was great and all, but only really means I'll be busting out of tournies with bigger prizepools. I didn't disappoint last night, busting from the 100k with KK < A9, from the 90k with AK < QQ, from the 80k with 55 < 85 (he shoved to resteal and I called, river 8 obv) and last but not least the 50k with KK < AA.
Good times.
I have been watching the WSOP ME updates all week too, and a couple of the guys I backed made it to day 2. One has just over 70k in chips, the other is short on 15k. Still plenty of room to play though and they are on separate days (2a and 2b) so at least I get to rail a little tonight and tomorrow. My favourite non poker story from the WSOP so far is of the guy who, when the cards were first in the air at the start of the day, stood up from his chair and crashed two symbols together. He was promptly informed about the excessive behaviour rule or whatever it's called, and told not to do it again. Something tells me he already knew about the rule.
I would have liked to do more, but I only really got the chance to play on the final two days of the promotion. It looks like they might be doing a similar one next week so maybe I'll get more time to play then.
It was part of a 4 week '2x' promotion by Stars during the first week of which they had the VPP promo above in addition to a bunch of double chance tournies at $2, $22 and $222. This week they are doubling the guarantees of all of their regular tournaments. I initially thought they might squeeze a small overlay on some of them, but that thought was quickly dismissed when the $50 gtd had an astonishing 2500 runners compared to it's usual 1200, and a $125k prizepool.
I posted on the forum that this was great and all, but only really means I'll be busting out of tournies with bigger prizepools. I didn't disappoint last night, busting from the 100k with KK < A9, from the 90k with AK < QQ, from the 80k with 55 < 85 (he shoved to resteal and I called, river 8 obv) and last but not least the 50k with KK < AA.
Good times.
I have been watching the WSOP ME updates all week too, and a couple of the guys I backed made it to day 2. One has just over 70k in chips, the other is short on 15k. Still plenty of room to play though and they are on separate days (2a and 2b) so at least I get to rail a little tonight and tomorrow. My favourite non poker story from the WSOP so far is of the guy who, when the cards were first in the air at the start of the day, stood up from his chair and crashed two symbols together. He was promptly informed about the excessive behaviour rule or whatever it's called, and told not to do it again. Something tells me he already knew about the rule.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Staking
I have been doing a lot of staking recently, so I thought since it's more interesting than me talking about bubbling final tables or bitching about losing huge pots in cash games as a massive favorite I may as well write about it here.
There are two types of staking deal I engage in. The first is purely for fun, sometimes they make a little profit, sometimes they don't. I still seek to back + EV players but it's usually for small amounts, a typical deal will be someone playing 50,000 hands of $50 NL and me picking up 10% of a $1k seed fund and taking 60-80% of the profits on my share. I often rail these people, try to give them advice and just enjoy being a part of something they are trying to achieve. I have done a few smaller MTT ones too, backing people 100% for a set number of tournies and taking a cut of any profits.
The second type is more about making money. I have backed people for everything from $50 NL to 30/60 FL sometimes picking up all of their action. On the whole these deals have gone very, very well for me. One person I backed made me just over $4.5k in two separate deals (including makeup from the first) over just two months, and my biggest loss to date has been about $500 which I'm more than happy to write off given how well my other deals have gone.
Last week however I encountered my first real issue. I backed a player $2,000 to play $100 NL 6-max with a 20 buy-in BR over a set number of hands. This player was hugely +EV and after running badly at the start and dropping to $50 NL for a while, he eventually clawed it back and went on a nice run towards the end to finish up at $3800 total. We had a 70/30 split in my favour, so I was due to pick up a tidy $1200 profit and he was going to pick up $600 for his efforts.
Unfortunately after the deal had ended he supposedly decided he wouldn't want to play low stakes after being at $100 NL with his newly earned, but ultimately smaller $600 BR, so he proceeded to try to work up a bit more money using the money I staked him while he still had it.
The story is that he was taking shots and first lost the $600, then lost a bunch while tilting, eventually stopping at $2k. This was over a period of about 2 weeks while I didn't hear from him at all (before this we spoke 3-4 times a week, so initially I thought he had done a runner with the whole lot). I managed to get my $2k back which I was happy about after being frozen out and thinking I might end up with nothing, so at least I didn't actually lose anything on the deal.
Obviously I have no way of knowing if his story is true. He has no way to pay the money back, hence the original staking deal, and the only way he could raise more funds was to get another backer, which I would obviously move to block. So I think I have to write that money off, which is annoying, but I think it would be too much effort and stress to try to get it back when I consider my chances to be pretty low from the outset. Ironically I knew he wanted a larger BR, and if he didn't go silent for 2 weeks I was going to alter the deal slightly in his favour to give him a chance to build a half decent BR and start playing for himself.
All this leads to a few deals I have been arranging recently for the WSOP. I had a couple of stakes for people in prelims but I pretty much broke even on those with one early exit and one small cash. However, I have backed no fewer that 7 people for the WSOP Main Event this year, all on different deals. Some of them are buying straight up percentages, which isn't that good of a deal for the backer, but it's just a bit of gamboool with a potentially huge payouts.
So I'll be watching the ME with interest next week and hopefully one or two of my guys will go deep and make me some serious money...
There are two types of staking deal I engage in. The first is purely for fun, sometimes they make a little profit, sometimes they don't. I still seek to back + EV players but it's usually for small amounts, a typical deal will be someone playing 50,000 hands of $50 NL and me picking up 10% of a $1k seed fund and taking 60-80% of the profits on my share. I often rail these people, try to give them advice and just enjoy being a part of something they are trying to achieve. I have done a few smaller MTT ones too, backing people 100% for a set number of tournies and taking a cut of any profits.
The second type is more about making money. I have backed people for everything from $50 NL to 30/60 FL sometimes picking up all of their action. On the whole these deals have gone very, very well for me. One person I backed made me just over $4.5k in two separate deals (including makeup from the first) over just two months, and my biggest loss to date has been about $500 which I'm more than happy to write off given how well my other deals have gone.
Last week however I encountered my first real issue. I backed a player $2,000 to play $100 NL 6-max with a 20 buy-in BR over a set number of hands. This player was hugely +EV and after running badly at the start and dropping to $50 NL for a while, he eventually clawed it back and went on a nice run towards the end to finish up at $3800 total. We had a 70/30 split in my favour, so I was due to pick up a tidy $1200 profit and he was going to pick up $600 for his efforts.
Unfortunately after the deal had ended he supposedly decided he wouldn't want to play low stakes after being at $100 NL with his newly earned, but ultimately smaller $600 BR, so he proceeded to try to work up a bit more money using the money I staked him while he still had it.
The story is that he was taking shots and first lost the $600, then lost a bunch while tilting, eventually stopping at $2k. This was over a period of about 2 weeks while I didn't hear from him at all (before this we spoke 3-4 times a week, so initially I thought he had done a runner with the whole lot). I managed to get my $2k back which I was happy about after being frozen out and thinking I might end up with nothing, so at least I didn't actually lose anything on the deal.
Obviously I have no way of knowing if his story is true. He has no way to pay the money back, hence the original staking deal, and the only way he could raise more funds was to get another backer, which I would obviously move to block. So I think I have to write that money off, which is annoying, but I think it would be too much effort and stress to try to get it back when I consider my chances to be pretty low from the outset. Ironically I knew he wanted a larger BR, and if he didn't go silent for 2 weeks I was going to alter the deal slightly in his favour to give him a chance to build a half decent BR and start playing for himself.
All this leads to a few deals I have been arranging recently for the WSOP. I had a couple of stakes for people in prelims but I pretty much broke even on those with one early exit and one small cash. However, I have backed no fewer that 7 people for the WSOP Main Event this year, all on different deals. Some of them are buying straight up percentages, which isn't that good of a deal for the backer, but it's just a bit of gamboool with a potentially huge payouts.
So I'll be watching the ME with interest next week and hopefully one or two of my guys will go deep and make me some serious money...
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Bubbling Final Tables Is Fun
I often switch between cash and tournies depending on how I feel, but I generally go in patterns of a week or so playing one, then switching.
I think tonight might be the end of my tournie run for a week or so. I ran up a huge stack in the $10 rebuy on stars and made the final 2 tables 1/18. From there I lost like 459 flips and ended up busting in 13th after shoving over the top of a 3x BB raise with JJ, only for him to tank for like 30 seconds and call with KQ.
I can't win the flip and I miss out on what would have been my first FT for a while. On the bright side, I managed my big stack really well and utilised it to stay the CL from about 60 down to the final 2 tables.
So frustrating.
I think tonight might be the end of my tournie run for a week or so. I ran up a huge stack in the $10 rebuy on stars and made the final 2 tables 1/18. From there I lost like 459 flips and ended up busting in 13th after shoving over the top of a 3x BB raise with JJ, only for him to tank for like 30 seconds and call with KQ.
I can't win the flip and I miss out on what would have been my first FT for a while. On the bright side, I managed my big stack really well and utilised it to stay the CL from about 60 down to the final 2 tables.
So frustrating.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Well, this doesn't happen live...
It's rare I make any stupid mistakes online with regards to bet sizes or accedental calls, so maybe I should be glad that this doesn't happen more often.
I rushed home from a busy day at work to make the $50k gtd on Stars and a few other tournies. About 10 mins in I get QQ in the SB and it folds to the button who just calls for 20. I bump it up to 100 and both the BB and the button call.
Flop = K85 with two hearts and I go to lead for 275 to see where I am.
Instead, I bet 2775, and the BB instacalls.
Interestingly he has 4h 5h for the flush draw, but of course still hits on the river.
So pissed off with myself now. Not because of the bustout, but because the $50k is pretty much the only decent tournie I can play tonight and I definitely wasn't busting on that hand if I didn't make that mistake.
I rushed home from a busy day at work to make the $50k gtd on Stars and a few other tournies. About 10 mins in I get QQ in the SB and it folds to the button who just calls for 20. I bump it up to 100 and both the BB and the button call.
Flop = K85 with two hearts and I go to lead for 275 to see where I am.
Instead, I bet 2775, and the BB instacalls.
Interestingly he has 4h 5h for the flush draw, but of course still hits on the river.
So pissed off with myself now. Not because of the bustout, but because the $50k is pretty much the only decent tournie I can play tonight and I definitely wasn't busting on that hand if I didn't make that mistake.
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
WSOP 2008
So it's WSOP time again. After seeing a few trip reports and live updates my enthusiasm is definitely back, I can't wait to get out there later in the series to tear it up and lose large amounts of money.
One of my favourite things about the WSOP is the stories it brings. So far this year I have heard of the open shoving cash game player who offered to take his whole table elsewhere to play in a limo (to which they obliged) and more recently today's action from the $1k rebuy event where a handful of people are in for $20k+, twice the buy-in for the main event and still on starting stack. It tilts the hell outta me when I'm in for $150 or something in the $10r, but I guess these guys are playing with the same rebuy period approach as me, just with a LOT more money.
All the stuff I have been reading has made me a little annoyed with myself for not playing any WSOP sats this year. I was really excited when they came out, made a half hearted effort to build a W$ roll and then never really followed up on it.
I look forward to posting some interesting stories over the next few weeks, and hopefully some deep runs from either myself or one of a couple of people I have backed this year.
One of my favourite things about the WSOP is the stories it brings. So far this year I have heard of the open shoving cash game player who offered to take his whole table elsewhere to play in a limo (to which they obliged) and more recently today's action from the $1k rebuy event where a handful of people are in for $20k+, twice the buy-in for the main event and still on starting stack. It tilts the hell outta me when I'm in for $150 or something in the $10r, but I guess these guys are playing with the same rebuy period approach as me, just with a LOT more money.
All the stuff I have been reading has made me a little annoyed with myself for not playing any WSOP sats this year. I was really excited when they came out, made a half hearted effort to build a W$ roll and then never really followed up on it.
I look forward to posting some interesting stories over the next few weeks, and hopefully some deep runs from either myself or one of a couple of people I have backed this year.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Biggest Cash Pot
Last week I was having a discssion about poker with a friend of mine who mainly plays live. He got me thinking about live poker again, and since I hadn't played for a while and had a 4 day weekend I thought I'd make an effort to play live.
It's fairly obvious from the title, but it went really well. I played two nights running and on the first night I made the final table of a £10 rebuy with 120 runners. I busted in 5th when I shoved 2 pair on the flop vrs a flush draw for half the chips in play and he hit.
I played a great £5/£5 NL cash game after I busted, but it broke up about 30 mins after I started playing as it was already pretty late.
I decided to play the game again the following night. It's a fair bit above my normal $400 NL games online (pretty much $1k NL) but I feel comfortable in the game, and it's not like I'm playing any significant volume.
It was an interesting mix of players, two or three players who knew each other who were quite old and nitty, two younger guys who were loose and aggressive, and the rest were either really straight forward or really awful.
Unfortunately it's not a particularly interesting hand, basically I raised preflop with AK, two callers, JT3 rainbow board, I raise, a guy in MP folds and the other calls. Turn is an offsuit Q so I bet out again, villain re-raises quite big and I flat. The river is a blank and I bet out 1/2 te pot or so and he jams.
I half expected him to have the same hand, but he flipped JT for flopped two pair and I raked in a pot of about £1200, which is roughly $2400. Not much happened in the game after that, but it was petty sweet to cash out my chips rather than just logging off after a win like that.
Not played much online this week, but have run quite deep in the $50k on Stars a couple of times. I made a pretty bad play in one with about 40 left and a decent stack, which I was pissed off about, but I played again the next night and made a similary decent run. I was runnning sooo bad in the $50k, so hopefully this will be the start of me running a little deeper in it from now on. It's pretty much the only decent tournie that starts at a good time for me, so I play it pretty much every time I'm online in the evenings.
It's fairly obvious from the title, but it went really well. I played two nights running and on the first night I made the final table of a £10 rebuy with 120 runners. I busted in 5th when I shoved 2 pair on the flop vrs a flush draw for half the chips in play and he hit.
I played a great £5/£5 NL cash game after I busted, but it broke up about 30 mins after I started playing as it was already pretty late.
I decided to play the game again the following night. It's a fair bit above my normal $400 NL games online (pretty much $1k NL) but I feel comfortable in the game, and it's not like I'm playing any significant volume.
It was an interesting mix of players, two or three players who knew each other who were quite old and nitty, two younger guys who were loose and aggressive, and the rest were either really straight forward or really awful.
Unfortunately it's not a particularly interesting hand, basically I raised preflop with AK, two callers, JT3 rainbow board, I raise, a guy in MP folds and the other calls. Turn is an offsuit Q so I bet out again, villain re-raises quite big and I flat. The river is a blank and I bet out 1/2 te pot or so and he jams.
I half expected him to have the same hand, but he flipped JT for flopped two pair and I raked in a pot of about £1200, which is roughly $2400. Not much happened in the game after that, but it was petty sweet to cash out my chips rather than just logging off after a win like that.
Not played much online this week, but have run quite deep in the $50k on Stars a couple of times. I made a pretty bad play in one with about 40 left and a decent stack, which I was pissed off about, but I played again the next night and made a similary decent run. I was runnning sooo bad in the $50k, so hopefully this will be the start of me running a little deeper in it from now on. It's pretty much the only decent tournie that starts at a good time for me, so I play it pretty much every time I'm online in the evenings.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Cash Going Well
Not too much going on recently. Didn't really get anywhere with the Sunday tournies this week. I'm a little annoyed about all the FTOPS events starting at 11pm UK time, but not much I can do about that.
I'm running at about 5bb/100 over the last 20k hands of $400 NL 6-max. Not the biggest sample size ever, but I think I'm finding my feet a little more now. I have invested some time in reading through my HH's and watching some videos on Cardrunners and PXF.
There does seem to be lots more decent multi tabling regulars at this limit, but I'm not struggling to find good games, and they also seem to want to steer clear of me unless someone is really spewing which is a good thing I guess. I'm only playing 3-4 tables at the moment, so I think it would be more of a problem if I wanted to start doing more. I can't see that being any time soon though, so I should be okay.
I'm aware I need to start posting more content, I just never seem to think about this blog. I'll try to make some notes when I'm playing so I remember anything interesting and make sure I post about it here.
I'm running at about 5bb/100 over the last 20k hands of $400 NL 6-max. Not the biggest sample size ever, but I think I'm finding my feet a little more now. I have invested some time in reading through my HH's and watching some videos on Cardrunners and PXF.
There does seem to be lots more decent multi tabling regulars at this limit, but I'm not struggling to find good games, and they also seem to want to steer clear of me unless someone is really spewing which is a good thing I guess. I'm only playing 3-4 tables at the moment, so I think it would be more of a problem if I wanted to start doing more. I can't see that being any time soon though, so I should be okay.
I'm aware I need to start posting more content, I just never seem to think about this blog. I'll try to make some notes when I'm playing so I remember anything interesting and make sure I post about it here.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Titles?
I'm running out of names for titles, so I might start using the date in future. I should probably be more imaginative, but since my posts aren't that frequent they often cover a number of topics, so nothing really covers them all.
I have had a bit more time over the last week or so to play poker, which has made a nice change. I kept trying to play when I didn't have much time or had other things on my mind which inevitably doesn't work.
The other day I started playing what I thought was two turbo double shootouts because I only had a couple of hours to spare. They were both normal speed which I didn't have time to play. I donked around a bit and true to form when you're not trying, I won both my first tables and ran up big stacks at both final tables just before I had to go. I was 1/3 in the $650 satellite with 2 seats and 1/7 or 1/6 in the $215 Sunday million one with 3 seats.
I gave one of my non poker playing friends a quick lesson on how to play internet poker and handed over the controls. Needless to say he won neither seat, pretty much call/folding his stack into oblivion.
gg $765.
I played the Sunday Million for the first time in ages last Sunday. Unfortunately Monday is now an early start and a busy day for me at work, so normally I don't bother. It was the $530 buy-in this week and I came 70th or so for about $3,000. I basically short stacked the whole tournie, I think I had about an hour or so with above avg stack when was floating around 230k ish and the avg was 150-190k.
It's a bank holiday here tomorrow in the UK, so I'll be playing the Sunday tournies again tonight.
They confirmed the WSOP final table delay I spoke about in my last post. I still think it's a pretty crazy idea, but I guess it's probably never going to effect me. It should at least be entertaining to watch the build up and see what they can do with it. On the plus side, if it does create more hype and get more exposure then it will bring more players to the game, which is obviously a good thing.
I have had a bit more time over the last week or so to play poker, which has made a nice change. I kept trying to play when I didn't have much time or had other things on my mind which inevitably doesn't work.
The other day I started playing what I thought was two turbo double shootouts because I only had a couple of hours to spare. They were both normal speed which I didn't have time to play. I donked around a bit and true to form when you're not trying, I won both my first tables and ran up big stacks at both final tables just before I had to go. I was 1/3 in the $650 satellite with 2 seats and 1/7 or 1/6 in the $215 Sunday million one with 3 seats.
I gave one of my non poker playing friends a quick lesson on how to play internet poker and handed over the controls. Needless to say he won neither seat, pretty much call/folding his stack into oblivion.
gg $765.
I played the Sunday Million for the first time in ages last Sunday. Unfortunately Monday is now an early start and a busy day for me at work, so normally I don't bother. It was the $530 buy-in this week and I came 70th or so for about $3,000. I basically short stacked the whole tournie, I think I had about an hour or so with above avg stack when was floating around 230k ish and the avg was 150-190k.
It's a bank holiday here tomorrow in the UK, so I'll be playing the Sunday tournies again tonight.
They confirmed the WSOP final table delay I spoke about in my last post. I still think it's a pretty crazy idea, but I guess it's probably never going to effect me. It should at least be entertaining to watch the build up and see what they can do with it. On the plus side, if it does create more hype and get more exposure then it will bring more players to the game, which is obviously a good thing.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
WSOP Final Table Delay
As some of you may have heard, Harrahs/ESPN are looking at delaying the Final Table of the WSOP by 3 months. The idea is that they would then have the time to follow the players around, build a back story and make the FT more of a global sporting event than it is now.
Some of the main reactions to this are quite funny:
- OMG What if someone dies in that 3 months
- People will collude and do deals
- People will get trained/coached by pros for a % of their winnings
Although I think all of these points are valid, I don't think any would be that big of a deal.
It's possible someone dies during the WSOP while they still have chips anyway. I realise that this is more likely given a 3 month gap in which to croak, but it's still not something that would be a major concern.
As for the training, I think you would be surprised how little you can teach some people in 3 months. I think the better professional players (if any) who make it would suffer a bit as the level of competition would increase, and naturally there will be more information available on them than the randoms who make it to the FT. However, the dynamics of the tournament can change at any time, so much of what they might learn could change in an instant. They suddenly find themselves short, or double through twice and a few players bust early and leave him 5 handed with a huge chip lead.
I don't think it's possible to practice all of those eventualities, so I still think the player who can adapt and draw on his own experiences will still have an edge.
There are some benefits for the players however. They will fill the poker media for 3 months prior to the big day. Their faces will be on the front of magazines, Stars and FTP will sponsor the non-sponsored players and they'll generally get a lot of exposure that they wouldn't otherwise, because normally we only know who makes the FT the day before. I can't even name the people who busted 6th or 7th in previous years, but I definitely would be able to if I got 3 months of them in interviews/magazines/websites.
After saying all this, I still think it's a bad idea. Harrahs are trying to hold on to a TV audience that is losing momentum. There is a lot of poker on TV these days and not enough people to watch it all. It's difficult as a producer of these shows, because fast paced action with vibrant well known pros is what the majority of poker programme viewers want. Only a minority want to see interesting well thought out hands with detailed analysis. When you're trying to appeal to a wide market you don't want to confuse them by saying that 'He floated the flop so that he could shove over the top of any turn card that was unlikely to have hit villains range'
If they want to appeal to the wider audience then this 3 month gap is the way to go.
I have a solution that probably helps both parties though. It's actually really simple.
Run the WSOP episodes DURING the WSOP. It's a long enough event, with 4 starting days you have plenty of time to edit a story together. Then it might be worth having a day or two gap before the final 18 start. That way they can catch up on the action, show the story so far and still keep the players happy. Play down to 9, break for a couple of days to air the last lot of highlights from the final two tables and build some excitement. Do some bios on the players, market the hell out of the final table then screen it live with a reasonable delay.
As long as they remain smart with which hands they show from the earlier tables I don't think this would be a bad idea at all. It keeps it close to the original format and nobody is going to get whacked to improve the equity of someone else at the table.
Some of the main reactions to this are quite funny:
- OMG What if someone dies in that 3 months
- People will collude and do deals
- People will get trained/coached by pros for a % of their winnings
Although I think all of these points are valid, I don't think any would be that big of a deal.
It's possible someone dies during the WSOP while they still have chips anyway. I realise that this is more likely given a 3 month gap in which to croak, but it's still not something that would be a major concern.
As for the training, I think you would be surprised how little you can teach some people in 3 months. I think the better professional players (if any) who make it would suffer a bit as the level of competition would increase, and naturally there will be more information available on them than the randoms who make it to the FT. However, the dynamics of the tournament can change at any time, so much of what they might learn could change in an instant. They suddenly find themselves short, or double through twice and a few players bust early and leave him 5 handed with a huge chip lead.
I don't think it's possible to practice all of those eventualities, so I still think the player who can adapt and draw on his own experiences will still have an edge.
There are some benefits for the players however. They will fill the poker media for 3 months prior to the big day. Their faces will be on the front of magazines, Stars and FTP will sponsor the non-sponsored players and they'll generally get a lot of exposure that they wouldn't otherwise, because normally we only know who makes the FT the day before. I can't even name the people who busted 6th or 7th in previous years, but I definitely would be able to if I got 3 months of them in interviews/magazines/websites.
After saying all this, I still think it's a bad idea. Harrahs are trying to hold on to a TV audience that is losing momentum. There is a lot of poker on TV these days and not enough people to watch it all. It's difficult as a producer of these shows, because fast paced action with vibrant well known pros is what the majority of poker programme viewers want. Only a minority want to see interesting well thought out hands with detailed analysis. When you're trying to appeal to a wide market you don't want to confuse them by saying that 'He floated the flop so that he could shove over the top of any turn card that was unlikely to have hit villains range'
If they want to appeal to the wider audience then this 3 month gap is the way to go.
I have a solution that probably helps both parties though. It's actually really simple.
Run the WSOP episodes DURING the WSOP. It's a long enough event, with 4 starting days you have plenty of time to edit a story together. Then it might be worth having a day or two gap before the final 18 start. That way they can catch up on the action, show the story so far and still keep the players happy. Play down to 9, break for a couple of days to air the last lot of highlights from the final two tables and build some excitement. Do some bios on the players, market the hell out of the final table then screen it live with a reasonable delay.
As long as they remain smart with which hands they show from the earlier tables I don't think this would be a bad idea at all. It keeps it close to the original format and nobody is going to get whacked to improve the equity of someone else at the table.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Back On Track
Things have been much better since I got back from my holiday last week. I think the break did me some good.
I have been on a good cash game run over the last week, running up about 7 or 8 buy-ins over ~25k hands. I'm enjoying playing less tables with the same earn rate, but the $400NL games are definitely as tough, if not tougher than I expected. While I'm enthusiastic about playing cash I'm going to make the effort to learn as much as I can and put some more time into studying the game. I think table selection is going to be much more important than it ever has been for me. I have never really played at a level where you have to do as much as you can to avoid the good regulars.
I'm also looking around at some other sites, as I tend to stick to Party, FTP and Stars. I need a site with decent ring games and a good rakeback deal so I have more choice when the games are a bit dry elsewhere.
I haven't played many tournies since I got back. I played a couple of the big Sundays but other than that I have just been donking around in a few sats.
Last week I played in an awesome home game with 8 guys, of which only one really knew what he was doing. The stakes weren't high but it was certainly interesting trying to adjust my game to play against people who think 4 cards make a straight, and that middle pair is a hand to bet your house on. I might write up a trip report for that as it was good fun and actually highlighted a couple of aspects of my game that I need to work on.
I have been on a good cash game run over the last week, running up about 7 or 8 buy-ins over ~25k hands. I'm enjoying playing less tables with the same earn rate, but the $400NL games are definitely as tough, if not tougher than I expected. While I'm enthusiastic about playing cash I'm going to make the effort to learn as much as I can and put some more time into studying the game. I think table selection is going to be much more important than it ever has been for me. I have never really played at a level where you have to do as much as you can to avoid the good regulars.
I'm also looking around at some other sites, as I tend to stick to Party, FTP and Stars. I need a site with decent ring games and a good rakeback deal so I have more choice when the games are a bit dry elsewhere.
I haven't played many tournies since I got back. I played a couple of the big Sundays but other than that I have just been donking around in a few sats.
Last week I played in an awesome home game with 8 guys, of which only one really knew what he was doing. The stakes weren't high but it was certainly interesting trying to adjust my game to play against people who think 4 cards make a straight, and that middle pair is a hand to bet your house on. I might write up a trip report for that as it was good fun and actually highlighted a couple of aspects of my game that I need to work on.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
No Fucking Way
Ugh. If these sats were beyond a joke before then I really don't know what they are now. I made another FT of a Double Shootout tonight, making it 4 in the last 6 tournies. I'd trade any of those for a win on the second table of course, but it just doesn't want to happen. I got HU in this one and got my money in with 2 pair vrs a higher 2 pair.
I then made the FT of an $11 rebuy for the same $650 seat. I was only in for $33 and happy to make the FT, even if I was short. This was a regular speed tournie so we were quite deep by the time we got 4 handed. There was 2 seats up for grabs. I played pretty aggressively and was CL with and M of over 40 for quite a while. The shortish stack kept shoving quite deep over my SB raises and I was looking for a good spot to call. I finally picked up AQ, raised, he shoved and I call. He flips A8 and promptly flops an 8 and leaves me 4/4 and desperate to get back in it. I finally bust after shoving 44 into 77. If win the hand we're 3 handed with 2 seats and I'm a decent chip leader.
These are really starting to piss me off now. I have come so close so many times and like I said in my earlier post I'm giving up value in other games I could be playing instead of trying to build a roll for the WSOP sats. I'm actually up about $150 from playing all these sats from all the $80's and $60's that I have won from bubbling, which is pretty funny.
I didn't play the direct WSOP sat as I played live tonight. Got nothing going there but it was just fun tournie I play with a few friends who don't play too seriously.
Off on holiday for a week now so no poker until I return. Let's hope I can pick up some momentum when I get back. One thing is for sure though, I have already worked harder to win a WSOP seat this year than I did to win either of the two I won last year.
I then made the FT of an $11 rebuy for the same $650 seat. I was only in for $33 and happy to make the FT, even if I was short. This was a regular speed tournie so we were quite deep by the time we got 4 handed. There was 2 seats up for grabs. I played pretty aggressively and was CL with and M of over 40 for quite a while. The shortish stack kept shoving quite deep over my SB raises and I was looking for a good spot to call. I finally picked up AQ, raised, he shoved and I call. He flips A8 and promptly flops an 8 and leaves me 4/4 and desperate to get back in it. I finally bust after shoving 44 into 77. If win the hand we're 3 handed with 2 seats and I'm a decent chip leader.
These are really starting to piss me off now. I have come so close so many times and like I said in my earlier post I'm giving up value in other games I could be playing instead of trying to build a roll for the WSOP sats. I'm actually up about $150 from playing all these sats from all the $80's and $60's that I have won from bubbling, which is pretty funny.
I didn't play the direct WSOP sat as I played live tonight. Got nothing going there but it was just fun tournie I play with a few friends who don't play too seriously.
Off on holiday for a week now so no poker until I return. Let's hope I can pick up some momentum when I get back. One thing is for sure though, I have already worked harder to win a WSOP seat this year than I did to win either of the two I won last year.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Double Shootout Sickness
The $16 Double Shootouts to he $650 WSOP sat are getting beyond a joke now. I made another FT today (3rd in a row) and was shoving light a lot with 6 left and a stack around 1200 to 1800. I pick up the blinds twice in an orbit and get dealt KK in the BB. UTG opens for 600 and I shove for 1700.
UTG calls with 99 and the board runs out T2JQK. So sick. With how bad I'm running in these can I at least win an 80/20? That pot wold have seen me in great shape and this one paid 2 seats as it was nealry full.
I'm free tomorrow night so I might just buy in direct to the WSOP sat. I don't really want to waste too much time playing these to increase my value when I'm missing out on games where my hourly is much higher. Plus they are now tilting the shit outta me.
UTG calls with 99 and the board runs out T2JQK. So sick. With how bad I'm running in these can I at least win an 80/20? That pot wold have seen me in great shape and this one paid 2 seats as it was nealry full.
I'm free tomorrow night so I might just buy in direct to the WSOP sat. I don't really want to waste too much time playing these to increase my value when I'm missing out on games where my hourly is much higher. Plus they are now tilting the shit outta me.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
FU DS
So I seem to be running pretty much normal in everything now except the bloody $16 turbo Double Shootouts to the $650 WSOP sat. I think I have made FT's in about 8 or 9 of them now to no avail. I have been playing/running well on the first tables but just never seem to be able to get anything going on the second.
Even though I promised myself I wouldn't waste too much time with the steps tournies I have managed to run up a couple of entries to the $215 level from the $27's. There are a few decent players going through them, but on the whole the play is pretty soft, even in the $82's.
I'm going to Egypt for a week in a few days, so hopefully I can turn things around when I get back. Having this trip coming up has calmed me down a bit this week. I have booked a five star all inclusive break for myself and my girlfriend courtesy of some of my poker winnings from last year. Knowing that I could pay for that holiday without putting too much of a dent in my bankroll helps keep me focused on playing well and getting back to the other side of the variance I'm experiencing at the moment.
Even though I promised myself I wouldn't waste too much time with the steps tournies I have managed to run up a couple of entries to the $215 level from the $27's. There are a few decent players going through them, but on the whole the play is pretty soft, even in the $82's.
I'm going to Egypt for a week in a few days, so hopefully I can turn things around when I get back. Having this trip coming up has calmed me down a bit this week. I have booked a five star all inclusive break for myself and my girlfriend courtesy of some of my poker winnings from last year. Knowing that I could pay for that holiday without putting too much of a dent in my bankroll helps keep me focused on playing well and getting back to the other side of the variance I'm experiencing at the moment.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Running Worse Than Judas
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So yeah, I'm running bad. I can't remember ever running as bad as this. I'm just going through one of those stages where I can't seem to win an 80/20, let alone a flip.
I have now made 4 final tables in $650 satellites since my last post, and managed to come 4th in one that paid 3 seats, 9th on one that paid 6 seats, and I came 8th in two of the double shootouts that paid just the one seat.
Last night at $400 NL I had AA < KK then the very next hand I lost with KK on a K29 rainbow board against AA.
I'm repeatedly shoving hands like AQ or TT into AA/KK and repeatedly getting sucked out on when people shove junk into my monsters.
This has never really happened when I have been running bad before, but I think it's starting to effect my play. It's early Friday night and I was about to settle in for a poker filled weekend. Instead I'm going to take a break until at least Sunday night and go party for the weekend.
Edit: Someone told me not to forget that I MINIMUM CASHED the $55 on Stars last night. Fucking great.
So yeah, I'm running bad. I can't remember ever running as bad as this. I'm just going through one of those stages where I can't seem to win an 80/20, let alone a flip.
I have now made 4 final tables in $650 satellites since my last post, and managed to come 4th in one that paid 3 seats, 9th on one that paid 6 seats, and I came 8th in two of the double shootouts that paid just the one seat.
Last night at $400 NL I had AA < KK then the very next hand I lost with KK on a K29 rainbow board against AA.
I'm repeatedly shoving hands like AQ or TT into AA/KK and repeatedly getting sucked out on when people shove junk into my monsters.
This has never really happened when I have been running bad before, but I think it's starting to effect my play. It's early Friday night and I was about to settle in for a poker filled weekend. Instead I'm going to take a break until at least Sunday night and go party for the weekend.
Edit: Someone told me not to forget that I MINIMUM CASHED the $55 on Stars last night. Fucking great.
Monday, March 03, 2008
WSOP Sat Time!
At last Stars have started their WSOP sats. I don't have as much time as I would like over the next couple of months, but I'm going to do my best to qualify playing from the lower buy-in super sats upwards.
I got off to an awful start tonight - I played 10 of the $27 Step 2's and only advanced in one. Luckily I managed to run that up to a $215 ticket for a step 4 which I'll probably play tomorrow. In this set of 10 I lost to runner runner quads and 3 other hands where my opponent had less than 4 outs, all in spots which would have seen me either in great shape, or busting someone to win the seat.
My luck improved a little in a $16 DS to the $650 I played later. I made the FT but busted after an AQ shove OTT of a LP raiser was called by JT and the obvious T on the flop followed by blanks saw me down to 300 chips.
So a slightly frustrating start, but all the sats I played tonight were pretty soft. The $82 step was reallly tight, even late on, possibly as a result of a few players working their way up.
I think I'm going to try mainly to qualify for the weekly $650 on Stars and try not to waste too much time on the Steps tournies. The $27 rebuys were pretty good for building a W$ roll last year, so I'll be playing those again alongside the $16 DS's and maybe some of the direct qualifier $215's if I manage to win a few seats to the $650's
The sats on Party also look pretty soft. I bubbled one of the $65 sats to thier weekly direct qualifier, but the play was crazy bad on the bubble, and those certainly very exploitable even if they don't run too often.
I also might look into the bracelet race tournies on FTP if they do those again, but I'd prefer not to use too much of my BR to get over to Vegas from the UK, which makes the Stars $2.5k in expenses look like great value.
I got off to an awful start tonight - I played 10 of the $27 Step 2's and only advanced in one. Luckily I managed to run that up to a $215 ticket for a step 4 which I'll probably play tomorrow. In this set of 10 I lost to runner runner quads and 3 other hands where my opponent had less than 4 outs, all in spots which would have seen me either in great shape, or busting someone to win the seat.
My luck improved a little in a $16 DS to the $650 I played later. I made the FT but busted after an AQ shove OTT of a LP raiser was called by JT and the obvious T on the flop followed by blanks saw me down to 300 chips.
So a slightly frustrating start, but all the sats I played tonight were pretty soft. The $82 step was reallly tight, even late on, possibly as a result of a few players working their way up.
I think I'm going to try mainly to qualify for the weekly $650 on Stars and try not to waste too much time on the Steps tournies. The $27 rebuys were pretty good for building a W$ roll last year, so I'll be playing those again alongside the $16 DS's and maybe some of the direct qualifier $215's if I manage to win a few seats to the $650's
The sats on Party also look pretty soft. I bubbled one of the $65 sats to thier weekly direct qualifier, but the play was crazy bad on the bubble, and those certainly very exploitable even if they don't run too often.
I also might look into the bracelet race tournies on FTP if they do those again, but I'd prefer not to use too much of my BR to get over to Vegas from the UK, which makes the Stars $2.5k in expenses look like great value.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Time!
I haven't been able to play much over the last couple of weeks. Work has been really busy and unfortunately that's only going to get worse. I have also been busy at the weekend so my playing time has been severely limited.
Not being able to play tournies has been killer. I have trouble motivating myself to play cash ring and SNG's, managing to post just 3,000 hands of $200 NL 6-max and about 50 SNG's in two weeks.
I'm desperate for WSOP sats to start on Stars and FTP to give me something to focus on. I probably used up my luck by winning two seats last year, but I'm definitely going to make an effort to play lots of sats this year and try to get myself out to Vegas again.
I did manage to get a live tournie in last night. There was a disappointingly low turnout of 80 runners, but it was a rebuy, so at least the prizepool was half-decent.
I made the FT with a little above average stack and busted in 5th when, after shovebotting for a while, I got called light when I had AQ and got sucked out on. I picked up $800 for my efforts though, so i can't really complain.
Not being able to play tournies has been killer. I have trouble motivating myself to play cash ring and SNG's, managing to post just 3,000 hands of $200 NL 6-max and about 50 SNG's in two weeks.
I'm desperate for WSOP sats to start on Stars and FTP to give me something to focus on. I probably used up my luck by winning two seats last year, but I'm definitely going to make an effort to play lots of sats this year and try to get myself out to Vegas again.
I did manage to get a live tournie in last night. There was a disappointingly low turnout of 80 runners, but it was a rebuy, so at least the prizepool was half-decent.
I made the FT with a little above average stack and busted in 5th when, after shovebotting for a while, I got called light when I had AQ and got sucked out on. I picked up $800 for my efforts though, so i can't really complain.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Credit Card Roulette
I have managed to convert a few of my friends to the delights of Credit Card Roulette. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, every time you get a bill in a restaurant or a bar everyone puts their card on the tray and you spin it. Whoever is lucky enough for it to land in their card gets to pay the bill.
The people I have introduced to this game love it already, mainly because I have picked up pretty much every bill since we started doing it last week.
We had a meal out for 6, I lost that one, followed by the Friday lunch AND Friday night food/bar bills. Then on Saturday night 4 of us were out for dinner and I lost that one too.
It's possible to run bad in other ways than just losing of course. One I actually managed to avoid was on Sunday night, our tab in the bar for about 45 mins which came to a massive $21. Awesome.
In poker related news I had a pretty bad day of it in the Sunday tournies last night. I think I made one first break out of 7 or 8 tournies I played, and that was the $55 buy in at 10pm on Stars, my lowest buy-in of the night.
I made a pretty big mistake in the Sunday Million when I could have called an obvious value bet rather than shoving over the top for the rest of my stack with 2 pair like the LAGtard I am. Only two hands in his range were ahead, but I should have just called and kept the pot smaller. I had him covered but I busted a few hands later.
I just need to learn when to control my aggression in spots like this, but I do find it really hard to give too much credit to unknowns in donkfests like the Million.
Still, I picked up on the mistake and learned from it, which is at least one positive I can take away. I might read through a few hand histories from other tournies and take a look at what I have done in similar spots. I haven't played much the past couple of weeks, so it's nice to come back and still be enthusiastic about plugging my leaks and improving my game.
The people I have introduced to this game love it already, mainly because I have picked up pretty much every bill since we started doing it last week.
We had a meal out for 6, I lost that one, followed by the Friday lunch AND Friday night food/bar bills. Then on Saturday night 4 of us were out for dinner and I lost that one too.
It's possible to run bad in other ways than just losing of course. One I actually managed to avoid was on Sunday night, our tab in the bar for about 45 mins which came to a massive $21. Awesome.
In poker related news I had a pretty bad day of it in the Sunday tournies last night. I think I made one first break out of 7 or 8 tournies I played, and that was the $55 buy in at 10pm on Stars, my lowest buy-in of the night.
I made a pretty big mistake in the Sunday Million when I could have called an obvious value bet rather than shoving over the top for the rest of my stack with 2 pair like the LAGtard I am. Only two hands in his range were ahead, but I should have just called and kept the pot smaller. I had him covered but I busted a few hands later.
I just need to learn when to control my aggression in spots like this, but I do find it really hard to give too much credit to unknowns in donkfests like the Million.
Still, I picked up on the mistake and learned from it, which is at least one positive I can take away. I might read through a few hand histories from other tournies and take a look at what I have done in similar spots. I haven't played much the past couple of weeks, so it's nice to come back and still be enthusiastic about plugging my leaks and improving my game.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Sunday 100k Donkfest
I made the final table of the Stars 100k guaranteed last night.
It's a 20,000 player field and I ended up finishing 8th when I finally lost a flip. I played exactly zero interesting hands, since nearly all of the poker I played was preflop. It was fun though, and at least I can say I have made the FT of the biggest weekly online tournie.
I think I used up my luckbox for 2008 already though.
It's a 20,000 player field and I ended up finishing 8th when I finally lost a flip. I played exactly zero interesting hands, since nearly all of the poker I played was preflop. It was fun though, and at least I can say I have made the FT of the biggest weekly online tournie.
I think I used up my luckbox for 2008 already though.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
ROYAL FLUSH!
Dealer: arestone has a Royal Flush
I was having a bit of a brutal night until this just happened. I have been playing online for nearly 3 years, logged over a quarter of a million hands and tonight I hit my first Royal Flush.
On the river.
It was an EPT Dortmund sat and I had AdTd in the BB. A short stack shoved from LP and I made the call. I didn't even see it until I read the chat.
Now to get one of each suit...
I was having a bit of a brutal night until this just happened. I have been playing online for nearly 3 years, logged over a quarter of a million hands and tonight I hit my first Royal Flush.
On the river.
It was an EPT Dortmund sat and I had AdTd in the BB. A short stack shoved from LP and I made the call. I didn't even see it until I read the chat.
Now to get one of each suit...
2007
I had a great year in 2007. Considering the relatively low volume I play I had some great scores over the course of the year, ending with my win in the Stars $35k gtd in December.
I cashed for over $50k in total with an ROI approaching 120% over nearly 1000 tournies. I also managed to win 2 WSOP Main Event seats. It's not a massive sample size, but I think that's about as much volume as I'll ever be able to put in as a recreational player.
Playing the WSOP was definitely the poker highlight of the year for me. I really enjoyed my time in Vegas. When I left I felt like I would leave it a few years before coming back, but after a few months I started to feel like I was ready to go back again. I'll definitely be making an effort to play some sats this year and hopefully I'll be able to get out to Vegas again this summer.
The WSOP schedule isn't great for me this year, so what I might do if I win a seat is fly out and play $10k worth of prelims. I did say I'd do this last year though and still ended up playing the main. It really depends if people I know are going to be in town during the main or if there is a big meetup during the preliminary events.
I flip good in 2008 so far. Went out of both the Stars Million and the Full Tilt 750k on Sunday to big flips. I hope it's not a sign of things to come.
Here's to running as hot in 2008.
I cashed for over $50k in total with an ROI approaching 120% over nearly 1000 tournies. I also managed to win 2 WSOP Main Event seats. It's not a massive sample size, but I think that's about as much volume as I'll ever be able to put in as a recreational player.
Playing the WSOP was definitely the poker highlight of the year for me. I really enjoyed my time in Vegas. When I left I felt like I would leave it a few years before coming back, but after a few months I started to feel like I was ready to go back again. I'll definitely be making an effort to play some sats this year and hopefully I'll be able to get out to Vegas again this summer.
The WSOP schedule isn't great for me this year, so what I might do if I win a seat is fly out and play $10k worth of prelims. I did say I'd do this last year though and still ended up playing the main. It really depends if people I know are going to be in town during the main or if there is a big meetup during the preliminary events.
I flip good in 2008 so far. Went out of both the Stars Million and the Full Tilt 750k on Sunday to big flips. I hope it's not a sign of things to come.
Here's to running as hot in 2008.
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