In truth I almost didn't go...I got up late and didn't really feel the poker juices flowing, but considering the recent decline of live poker activity in the Big Apple, I decided to go anyway.
Upon arrival I realized it was Dawn's birthday(although I suddenly re-remembered F-Train's humorus post and realized I forgot), and our host had already consumed a good amount of wine. Now, Dawn assured us that alcohol did not play a part in her slurred speech and birdie-finger pointing in the night's festivities, but of course, all we can do is take her word for it. :)
I bought in for double ($60) as I always feel empowered by starting with as many chips as possible, and I pretty muched hovered around tha starting stack of 6000 until right before the end of rebuy after 80 minutes when I shoved J10 on a J-high board, fully aware that I would gladly rebuy for $60 more if need be. Vinny held AJ, and I donated about 5800 to his stack at break's end. REEE-buy!
We got down to 6 players not long after that, with Ross, Kearns and I short-stacked. I had a fairly good feel of everyone at the table...Vinny was the big stack and at 400/800 he was 2.5BB raising about 30% of hands, Dawn was playing tight, so I knew it would probably inevitably come down to a shove showdown with Kearns, Ross or myself once I got below 10BB's, unless Mary got involved, who is a little more game than Dawn to get involved with a shove. I had KK and limped and let Mary call, flop came dry and she checked, and I shoved. This was the only time I had tried to extract any value post-flop, and it worked, but otherwise there werentt many other opportunities....I did hit QQ, KQ, 1010 which I all shoved and got no action and chipped me to about 6000 when we got to 500/1000, and I came across K10, Ross goes all-in and I feel like I can't really wait 6 handed...he shows KQ and it holds, out 6th.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Switch to Stars going well
After posting a pretty sweet profit multi-tabling on FT, I was forced to cash a good chunk of it out for life expenses, so I decided to start the SNG grind on Stars! Here's my graph so far, grinding 27. 45 and 90 mans at the oh so lowest of levels. Granted, when you only play $1/$2 SNGs, you're only going to average .30 per tournament, but this is how my grind started on FT 3 months ago and as I moved through the ranks I ended up with a healthy bankroll I've had much more variance in the early going this time, hovering right around a 20% ROI.
Upon reading Dusty Schmidt's book, Treating Poker As A Business(which I recommend to all), he pooh-poohs the concept of grinding SNG's, advocating that cash games are really the only way to go if you want to see poker profits. Well, that might be true, but I don't find cash games to be particularly fun online. I enjoy tournament structure, as that's where my strength lies, and while I could put some oomph into studying more and improving my cash game..why spoil a good thing?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
WSOP Circuits open up...
Read all about it here... I think it is great that they are lowering the buy-ins for the Main Events. It will definitely be a +EV call to try and satellite in here, and should you cash in one, it might be worth your while to travel elsewhere and try your luck beyond the two AC destinations(for us NY'ers), as the top 100 in points get to play in a championship tournament. Thanks to the minds at the WSOP for doing this!
Monday, July 12, 2010
AC Trip
In what was definitely one of the most anticipated trips this year, I was headed to AC with Bonnie while she helps run the Tribeca Film Festival event on the beach at Caesar's, and this could only mean one thing...four days of poker.
Granted, it didn't really turn out that way. A lot of events transpired which, since this is a poker blog after all, will not be discussed. I will leave it to say that while some parts of the trip were a bit stressful, in the end I think a lot was gained from the stressful interlude. Now, on to the trip.
The TFF people were treated in style, and we had a suite on the 43rd floor in the Centurion Tower, with awesome beach views. We were alos sailing on a $100/day dining credit, which we didn't really use as much as we could/should have. Anyway, after gazing out at the beach for a few minutes, I descended on the Caesar's poker room.
I had set aside $400 for the trip. I figured this was reasonable, as it would hopefully leave room for some cash and some of the smaller buy-in tournaments available. Things didn't start so well.
About 20 hands in my trip 7's were cracked by a straight, and my initial $100 buy-in was gone. I slide in another Benjamin, slowplay a nut flush against trips and make it back, and leave after about one hour up $25.
I heard lore about the sort-of new Bally's poker room, and let me tell you, it is a bitch to find. Once I found it, I was amazed to find what was one of the peculiar highlights of the trip...a $1/$1 No'Limit Table? It was sporting a $100 max, so I had to check it out.
What a table full of poker degeneracy. Basically the gist of this game was limp, limp limp limp, 7 handed pre-flop lottery. So, yours truly started raising, causing commotion. I was basically just doing this for information, so I could see who would play back. One Crazian was more than happy to, and about 10 minutes in he called my $10 raise with 4d5d. The flop came a crystalline 545, and I checked. Crazian makes it $17, and I call. Flush draw hits, and I Hollywood for about five seconds, and check. He makes it $40, I sit back in my chair, and after about 10 seconds of Tony-winning hemming and hawing, I call. I don't remember the river, but it was a brick of some kind, and I start thinking of what might end up looking like a blocking bet on my part. so I risk $20. Sure enough he shoves, and I call, and he tables AA.Woohoo! Then someone says 'Go spin the wheel.' Apparently, if your aces get cracked in the room, you get to go spin a wheel where you can win comp dollars and what-not. A large African-American fellow who appeared to be a regular said "Too bad they got no Ipod no more on that wheel," so I guess the eceonomy had affected the wheel's payout. Off the Crazian went, and he never returned.
After a few ridiculous drawing hands, I decided $1/$1 was not for me and I left the double having doubled up plus $25, and I'm now up $150 for the trip.
Then poker ended for a while. Too much to go into but let's just say I needed to set things right with the gf, so a trip to Tiffany took away my bankroll profit and an unnamed amount more, so let's just call it the new zero.
Right before the end of the trip, I go to Showboat to enter the $60 buy-in tournament. I chip up a bit here and there, one big bet with AQ on a q high board took down about 4000 to chip me up to 14K. About 10 minutes later, I find myself with AA UTG. an interesting error on my part...the blinds had just raised to 200/400 and and I threw in 600, thinking we were still at 100/200, so the dealer says, "That's just a call." essentially concealing the monster I had. Others limped, and we were about four handed, when an innocuous rainbow flop with a J appeared. I led out for 2200, and a guy in MP announced "All-in," and shoved in 10K and change. Well, if I get swung out with a set, that's fine. I call. He tables AJ and I find myself at around 30K by the first break.
Then the crash. I wake up with 99 after about 20 minutes of card deadness. Someone ahead makes it 1600 in 400/800, I call, and one other older fellow calls. Flop comes Q-10-9 rainbow, giving me trips. I make it 3200 and the older fellow calls everyone else is gone. While this guy was fairly tight, I felt like he might just be trying to draw to a straight, and if I saw what appeared to be a brick on the turn, I'd shove, exposing myself to JK or J8, with JK being a more likely possibility since he called the pre-flop raise. Either way, I don't see calling a raise with JK in MP as a completely horrible play, but when you consider the initial raiser was uber-tight and I had tabled monsters when I was in, it seemed unlikely that he had JK. Turn comes a brick and I waa already decided. I shove and he snap calls with the nuts, sure enough JK. I'm down to 2800 chips at 400/800 and bust three hands later. Oh well!
So, I can't really report on a definite bankroll total for the trip. For once, AC was not just about poker for me.
And that was just fine.
Granted, it didn't really turn out that way. A lot of events transpired which, since this is a poker blog after all, will not be discussed. I will leave it to say that while some parts of the trip were a bit stressful, in the end I think a lot was gained from the stressful interlude. Now, on to the trip.
The TFF people were treated in style, and we had a suite on the 43rd floor in the Centurion Tower, with awesome beach views. We were alos sailing on a $100/day dining credit, which we didn't really use as much as we could/should have. Anyway, after gazing out at the beach for a few minutes, I descended on the Caesar's poker room.
I had set aside $400 for the trip. I figured this was reasonable, as it would hopefully leave room for some cash and some of the smaller buy-in tournaments available. Things didn't start so well.
About 20 hands in my trip 7's were cracked by a straight, and my initial $100 buy-in was gone. I slide in another Benjamin, slowplay a nut flush against trips and make it back, and leave after about one hour up $25.
I heard lore about the sort-of new Bally's poker room, and let me tell you, it is a bitch to find. Once I found it, I was amazed to find what was one of the peculiar highlights of the trip...a $1/$1 No'Limit Table? It was sporting a $100 max, so I had to check it out.
What a table full of poker degeneracy. Basically the gist of this game was limp, limp limp limp, 7 handed pre-flop lottery. So, yours truly started raising, causing commotion. I was basically just doing this for information, so I could see who would play back. One Crazian was more than happy to, and about 10 minutes in he called my $10 raise with 4d5d. The flop came a crystalline 545, and I checked. Crazian makes it $17, and I call. Flush draw hits, and I Hollywood for about five seconds, and check. He makes it $40, I sit back in my chair, and after about 10 seconds of Tony-winning hemming and hawing, I call. I don't remember the river, but it was a brick of some kind, and I start thinking of what might end up looking like a blocking bet on my part. so I risk $20. Sure enough he shoves, and I call, and he tables AA.Woohoo! Then someone says 'Go spin the wheel.' Apparently, if your aces get cracked in the room, you get to go spin a wheel where you can win comp dollars and what-not. A large African-American fellow who appeared to be a regular said "Too bad they got no Ipod no more on that wheel," so I guess the eceonomy had affected the wheel's payout. Off the Crazian went, and he never returned.
After a few ridiculous drawing hands, I decided $1/$1 was not for me and I left the double having doubled up plus $25, and I'm now up $150 for the trip.
Then poker ended for a while. Too much to go into but let's just say I needed to set things right with the gf, so a trip to Tiffany took away my bankroll profit and an unnamed amount more, so let's just call it the new zero.
Right before the end of the trip, I go to Showboat to enter the $60 buy-in tournament. I chip up a bit here and there, one big bet with AQ on a q high board took down about 4000 to chip me up to 14K. About 10 minutes later, I find myself with AA UTG. an interesting error on my part...the blinds had just raised to 200/400 and and I threw in 600, thinking we were still at 100/200, so the dealer says, "That's just a call." essentially concealing the monster I had. Others limped, and we were about four handed, when an innocuous rainbow flop with a J appeared. I led out for 2200, and a guy in MP announced "All-in," and shoved in 10K and change. Well, if I get swung out with a set, that's fine. I call. He tables AJ and I find myself at around 30K by the first break.
Then the crash. I wake up with 99 after about 20 minutes of card deadness. Someone ahead makes it 1600 in 400/800, I call, and one other older fellow calls. Flop comes Q-10-9 rainbow, giving me trips. I make it 3200 and the older fellow calls everyone else is gone. While this guy was fairly tight, I felt like he might just be trying to draw to a straight, and if I saw what appeared to be a brick on the turn, I'd shove, exposing myself to JK or J8, with JK being a more likely possibility since he called the pre-flop raise. Either way, I don't see calling a raise with JK in MP as a completely horrible play, but when you consider the initial raiser was uber-tight and I had tabled monsters when I was in, it seemed unlikely that he had JK. Turn comes a brick and I waa already decided. I shove and he snap calls with the nuts, sure enough JK. I'm down to 2800 chips at 400/800 and bust three hands later. Oh well!
So, I can't really report on a definite bankroll total for the trip. For once, AC was not just about poker for me.
And that was just fine.
Friday, July 2, 2010
Turning to the Super Turbo
As some of you know, I've been putting in tons of volume across the SnG world, and have been achieving some pretty stellar results. The more volume you put in, the less variance you experience, as long as you put yourself in a winning mindset and make correct decisions. Sure, 12-tabling sng's is not finesse poker, but it is still a palpable skill, and my ROI overall is currently about 19% since May 15, when I started this endeavor.
I've found a new baby, though. I played these 54 man hyper-turbos back when jamyhawk was into them(he may still be), but I had never done the $2 ones. There's just, well, a lot of bad play going on down there, and they fit WELL beneath my bankroll...but there's 200% ROI on a win ($48). Well, I've recently been grinding these 6 at a time, and my ROI is currently about 250%. Either I am running insanely good or I am making the right decisions when they count! Granted, my bankroll is now dictating I could play these at $10 or even $12, but I am finding that I am getting, well...crushed a bit at the higher levels, as that is where all the regs are. So, without a doubt I am going to be incorporating these into my regular stable of sngs as I watch the bankroll slowly creep up to that $10K end-of-year goal!!!
Monday, June 14, 2010
I Had Outs w/ Dawn
Since I felt my I Had Outs experience should not be included with my incendiary post about the WSOP, I continue with a second entry about my trip to Brooklyn to visit the legendary Dawn Summers and her I Had Outs tournament.
I meet Jordan downtown, as we are neighbors, for the trip to Brooklyn. I had never really ventured much in this area before, but Dawn's neighborhood seemed really nice and residential...more Park Slopish than I had imagined.
We enter and the tournament almost looked like it might not occur, but before long we had a full table and I was introduced to some faces that I had read about for a while...Mary, Alceste, Kearns, etc. and of course Dawn herself! And play was underway.
Basically you're allowed 3 rebuys in the first four levels. I had only brought $60 and decided to double buy-in to begin...my usual strategy. Well, right off I am snagged by Jordan early on...he spikes the river to make a straight against QQ. I then bump into Mary's AK against my AJ. How do you say it? Lemon!
So, I rebuy once again, borrowing $30 from Jordan. I proceed to get bluffed off by Kearns, and then run into something that for some reason I have decided to block out, but since others were getting a fourth rebuy and I was at about 2200 chips at 100/200, I rebuy once again with 3000 more...and then I finally start playing some marginally good poker.
Occasionally you feel like you're in a bit of a zone, and my TAG appearance early on started to gain a little bit of respect, combined with a good dose of run-good. I was able to chip up into contention, with new guy Nikos and I fighting on the bubble against Eric and Jordan's big stacks. Nikos was playing rather loose, so I tightened, hoping he would run into some sort of mistake, but he managed to chip up against Jordan while making some good laydowns along the way to put him way ahead of me, and I was back into shove mode. With about 8BB four handed I shove with Jc10c and run into AK, and I miss a K and go out in fourth.
But hey....I Had Outs!
I meet Jordan downtown, as we are neighbors, for the trip to Brooklyn. I had never really ventured much in this area before, but Dawn's neighborhood seemed really nice and residential...more Park Slopish than I had imagined.
We enter and the tournament almost looked like it might not occur, but before long we had a full table and I was introduced to some faces that I had read about for a while...Mary, Alceste, Kearns, etc. and of course Dawn herself! And play was underway.
Basically you're allowed 3 rebuys in the first four levels. I had only brought $60 and decided to double buy-in to begin...my usual strategy. Well, right off I am snagged by Jordan early on...he spikes the river to make a straight against QQ. I then bump into Mary's AK against my AJ. How do you say it? Lemon!
So, I rebuy once again, borrowing $30 from Jordan. I proceed to get bluffed off by Kearns, and then run into something that for some reason I have decided to block out, but since others were getting a fourth rebuy and I was at about 2200 chips at 100/200, I rebuy once again with 3000 more...and then I finally start playing some marginally good poker.
Occasionally you feel like you're in a bit of a zone, and my TAG appearance early on started to gain a little bit of respect, combined with a good dose of run-good. I was able to chip up into contention, with new guy Nikos and I fighting on the bubble against Eric and Jordan's big stacks. Nikos was playing rather loose, so I tightened, hoping he would run into some sort of mistake, but he managed to chip up against Jordan while making some good laydowns along the way to put him way ahead of me, and I was back into shove mode. With about 8BB four handed I shove with Jc10c and run into AK, and I miss a K and go out in fourth.
But hey....I Had Outs!
Ladies Event. WTF is the big deal?
Maybe the simple fact is that everyone in WSOP land needs to stir up something newsworthy, but I'm personally sick of reading about the Ladies Event over, and over....and over.
I am not going to languish over my own personal opinion here, but come on, folks! The Ladies Event attracts women who might not otherwise play...to play. Do we not want more people to play poker? Or, do we want to focus on it as some sort of controversy so that more people with decision-making power think that it shouldn't be legal in many states? We are already getting enough bad press because Joran Van Der Sloot decided to thrust his hands all-in on a woman's neck in a casino...do we really need more bad press?
Guesss what? Men have entered many a Ladies Event before, at the WSOP, The Borgata, WPT stops, without a whole lot of fanfare. So, who to blame here? Personally, I'd blame the WSOP reporters and bloggers who have decided to make it newsworthy. All you are doing (Daniel Negreanu included) is giving these interlopers the attention that they are craving. Since it is exponentially more difficult for someone to gain notice in the poker world by ACTUALLY DOING WELL in a tournament, they are getting their attention the easy way. Why encourage it? Well, because while the WSOP is an exciting event, I have to agree with Bill Rini here. The WSOP 'news' community is preoccupied with finding something fantastical to write about instead of just making the chip counts accurate. Let's face it, the same shit goes on at every poker tournament. Bad beats, good runs, just like in baseball there are base hits and double plays. but where it is different is that the color commentary is about the GAME. It seems that the color commentary in poker has gone beyond simple Wicked Chops photos of hot women on the rail. It is no longer about the winners...it is about Shaun Deeb losing a prop bet and playing in the Ladies Event.
WSOP bloggers, I appreciate the work you do (and would probably rather be doing it for two months instead of my own job), but let's focus on the winners...not the losers.
I am not going to languish over my own personal opinion here, but come on, folks! The Ladies Event attracts women who might not otherwise play...to play. Do we not want more people to play poker? Or, do we want to focus on it as some sort of controversy so that more people with decision-making power think that it shouldn't be legal in many states? We are already getting enough bad press because Joran Van Der Sloot decided to thrust his hands all-in on a woman's neck in a casino...do we really need more bad press?
Guesss what? Men have entered many a Ladies Event before, at the WSOP, The Borgata, WPT stops, without a whole lot of fanfare. So, who to blame here? Personally, I'd blame the WSOP reporters and bloggers who have decided to make it newsworthy. All you are doing (Daniel Negreanu included) is giving these interlopers the attention that they are craving. Since it is exponentially more difficult for someone to gain notice in the poker world by ACTUALLY DOING WELL in a tournament, they are getting their attention the easy way. Why encourage it? Well, because while the WSOP is an exciting event, I have to agree with Bill Rini here. The WSOP 'news' community is preoccupied with finding something fantastical to write about instead of just making the chip counts accurate. Let's face it, the same shit goes on at every poker tournament. Bad beats, good runs, just like in baseball there are base hits and double plays. but where it is different is that the color commentary is about the GAME. It seems that the color commentary in poker has gone beyond simple Wicked Chops photos of hot women on the rail. It is no longer about the winners...it is about Shaun Deeb losing a prop bet and playing in the Ladies Event.
WSOP bloggers, I appreciate the work you do (and would probably rather be doing it for two months instead of my own job), but let's focus on the winners...not the losers.
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