Best Day Yet!

Had my best day of poker ever yesterday. First, played some $1/$2 NL cash tables and took in about $250 and then played in one of PokerStars 180 player $20 SnGs. Things didn't start well as I lost 3/4 of my stack in the early going to a player that made his gutshot on the river. At one point during the first half hour I was down to about 580 chips. Things turned around quickly however and by the first break I had over 3,000 chips and was in the top 32. The second hour went well and I comfortably got past the money bubble. With only ten players remaining I was the chipleader and once we reached the final table I was 3rd in chips. Was card dead for the first several orbits at the final table and then misplayed a hand against one of the short stacks. This knocked me down to the point where I was 5th out of 6. Fought back and grabbed a big pot when I got all the money in against this year's TLB leader on Stars tenetter, my QQ held up against his KQ. Once 6th, 5th and 4th were knocked out I was chipleader going to 3-handed. Played solidly and held the lead as we went to heads-up. Nearly ended it when, with a 2-to-1 chip lead, all the money went in with my 99 vs. his KTo. Flop brought rags, however, the turn and river both brought tens. This swung the match around and it ended with me in 2nd when my AQ lost to his A9 when he rivered a flush. Was very happy with my decisions throughout the tournament and I felt I outplayed my opponent heads-up, he just caught the cards. In any event, I'm very happy with nearly a $1,000 day of poker.

Poker and Me

Yeah, so poker and I are still on speaking terms. But I have to say she doesn't have the same allure she did a few months back. I've cashed in a few MTTs (including finishing 28th out of over 900 in a recent Stars MTT) and did win a seat to the Stars $650 WSOP Main Event qualifier (busted out near 100 out of 500 in that though), but a certain malaise has come over our relationship. Playing cash tables while chasing bonuses is just flat boring at times and it gets tiring building up a decent stack only to see most of it sucked away by some runner-runner gayness. So, lately I'm sticking more with MTTs. But with cashes being infrequent and small when they do come, it's not helping out the roll. So, I may cool off my on-line play for a bit... perhaps I'll get back in shape and drop some of this "poker weight" I've put on over the past few months. I'll play here and there and will definitely keep playing my monthly home game, especially since it has been very profitable lately (cashed in all 4 SnGs we played this month, for some reason the guys I play with never think I have a hand even though I'm playing tighter than anyone else at the table, if one of them ever starts to pay attention I might be in trouble)... but I digress. Anyway, I feel like poker and I are at a bit of a crossroads... we'll see what happens.

Sorry... I'm a Slacker

Yeah, 5+ months since the last update... no excuses, I'm a slacker.

My poker life lately has been fairly mundane. Cashed out more than 2/3 of the roll in February and have been grinding it out and chasing boni (that would be the plural form of bonus) at the lower limits on Party, Full Tilt and UB for the last several months. Pretty much gave up trying to qualify on-line for the WSOP Main Event as I just have too much going on this summer (teaching a law school course and coaching some of the sports teams my two boys are on). The cash game grind has me bored of late so I started playing the 6-max SnGs at Party and I may have found (a) a game I really enjoy, and (b) a nice little profit source. I know this is way too small of a sample to get too excited about but I tracked the first 10 of these I've played and have finished in the money (only top 2 places pay) 7 out of 10. These games are guaranteed to have at least two or three players that are completely clueless, unless they get extremely lucky they are dead money... that leaves only 1 or 2 other players to take-out to finish in the money. Right now I'm only playing the $11 tables but will likely move up to the $22 and $33 after I track about 20-30 more of these at the $11 level.

That's all for now... I'll try to be a bit more active than the 5+ months plan. GL all.

First Step Towards the WSOP

Played in a satellite to the UB $300+20 WSOP Main Event Qualifier today and won a seat!! It was a $5+.50 re-buy satellite with 57 players. Started slowly for me and had almost no playable hands for the entire re-buy period. Actually, until the final table I saw very few playable hands... but my patience paid off as I doubled-up right before we got down to the final 10. Play at the final table was very tight but the deck still ran cold so I couldn't take advantage of the tight play. When we were down to the final four (top two spots won a seat to the Qualifier), I did get a lucky river card that kept me alive. The hand was against the big stack who had been pushing around the other three of us who were well behind him... he raised pre-flop and in the BB I called with Kd5d. The flop came 345 rainbow, he checked and my only move at that point was to shove all my chips in and hope for a fold or that my pair of 5s would hold up (I put him on two big cards). He thought and said, "going to gamble" he makes the call and flips over A6o. So, my 5s are good, until the turn brings an Ace, I think I'm dead and get ready to close out the table but the river brings... a King!! After that I played solidly and actually knocked out both the 3rd and 4th place players in one hand and then it was down to the two of us. With our seats to the WSOP Qualifier both already won we went all-in on the first heads-up hand and my Q3o made two pair for the win!! The $300+20 Qualifier is Friday night at 10:30... wish me luck!!

Back-to-Back Final Tables!!

Well, since I made the final table in yesterday's 11:30 a.m. Pokerroom $10+1 MTT I thought I'd give it another try today and, low and behold, made the final table again!! This time I improved on yesterday's 7th place finish by coming in 3rd and getting up closer to the decent money. Couple hands were memorable, the most being perhaps one of my best laydowns... when I was 4th in chips and there were only 30 left in the tournament I was dealt AKo in the BB, one of the medium stacks goes all-in and the SB (who was the chip leader) calls, I think and think and decide I'm probably up against AA or KK so I lay it down. The medium stack flips over AQ and the chip leader filps over QQ, for a split second I wished I had made the call, then the flop comes AQx, turn and river are blanks and the chip leaders set of queens holds up. Now I'm quite happy as I would have gone broke on that hand had I called. When we got down to about 18 players I lost a race when my 99 didn't hold up against a smaller stack that went all-in with AKo. This almost knocked me out, but within one of the next few hands I pushed all-in with ATs and was called by two others, hit an A on the flop and tripled up!! This got me back in it and I played solid poker until we were down to the final 3 where I was the short stack and finally had to push with a mediocre hand. But, I'll take 3rd and back-to-back final tables in the same event!!

First MTT Final Table!

Played some lunch-time poker today and made my first MTT final table. It was the Pokerroom 11:30am $10+1 and it started with a relatively small field of 160. I've been close on a number of occasions in the last few weeks but finally got there today. Two big hands helped me get there... first fairly early in the tournament I had been playing tight-aggressive and chipped-up to about 2k, get AA in late position and was happy to see two of the smaller stacks go all-in ahead of me, I call and one holds a small PP while the other has A9s... the aces hold up and I vault into the top 15. Again played tight-aggressive and stayed in the top 30 in chips until just before the second break, in the CO I raise 4xBB with KQs and the BB goes all-in. I've got him covered but not by a lot. I think and decide if I want to assure myself a shot at the final table this pot would probably get me there, the raiser had been aggressive and had bluffed at a number of pots... I call, he flips A3o which I'm happy to see. I catch both the K and Q on the flop, knock him out and get into the top 5! Again played tight-aggressive until we got down to the final table. The end was very disappointing though... with 7 left at the final table (I was 5th in chips) I get dealt AA in LP, the big stack raises 1.5xBB, folds around to me and I go all-in, big stack calls and flips over QQ... you guessed it, 3rd Q comes on the flop.

$1000 Christmas Challenge Update: Back at the end of September I wrote here about how I told the wife I'd make $1000 for her to use as Xmas shopping money. Well, I'm happy to report that the bankroll is now over $1,100. So, unless I turn into a complete donkey over the next month and a half, I think she's going to be getting a nice $1000 check soon.

Calling the Donkey Overbet = +EV?

Played the $100NL cash tables at Titan Poker on Sunday and Monday night and netted over $325. As much as I enjoy playing MTTs, it's clear to me now that for me the best use of my on-line poker time is at the cash tables.

I also spent some time this past weekend going through the first part of Small Stakes Hold 'Em (2+2 Publication) and the section on EV got me thinking about something I see a lot at the cash tables and that's the overbet. What I started to wonder was weather calling an overbet, under certain circumstances, might result in a positive EV. Well, while the sample size is obviously way too small, I can say that I collected most of that $325 profit by calling some big overbets.

Clearly you don't want to go calling overbets all the time and without good reason, so I came up with some "rules" for myself when playing against a super-aggro overbetter. First rule: make sure you've watched them play several hands, see what cards they're playing, see how they bet those cards... most of the times these super-aggro players are extremely reckless and will play almost anything and play it hard. Next rule is that after you've tagged someone as an aggressive player that overplays their hands, be patient and wait for a good hand, with position, and then hope that the maniac wants to play. One thing you'll have to be ready to do is call or raise the aggro player's bet, they'll be big and you can't let that scare you off a good hand... if you've been playing close attention to this player and seeing the garbage they play there will be a good chance they're playing junk again. Of course, you need to be wary of the board cards, if something screwy like four of one suit hits the board you might be in trouble. But if the board has nothing scary on it, play your good hand and don't let the big bets run you off.

Case in point, last night I was dealt QQ in position, raised 4xBB and the maniac called from the SB, flop had all low cards, no flush and no real straight draw. The aggro player fires out a big bet (as he always did), I called, turn was another low card and the maniac throws out another big bet, I call, river is a J and the super aggro goes all-in, I call and he flips over K10 and I bust the super aggro and scope a very nice pot. This scenario played out several times over the last few nights and led to two very profitable nights of poker. Like I said, this sample size is way too small, but I really think that if you play it right, there is a lot of money to be made calling these aggro player's overbets.

One last thing, don't forget to take notes on these players and add them to your buddy list!!