I felt pretty comfortable at my first table, and though I had a rough start, by the first break (2 hours in), I had chipped up to 4.5k from my 3k starting stack. Shortly before the break, who should walk in and sit two seats to my left, but Phil Hellmuth. I stole (according to him) his blinds a couple times, and I called an all-in bet from him with ATs (He was pretty short-stacked). He also had AT, and we chopped.
By the time that table broke (shortly before the 2nd break), I'd chipped up to 7.5k. Unfortunately, I was apparently in the seat-of-death at my new table. (The last 5 guys sitting at that seat had busted.) I stuck around for a while, but every time I raised, the guy two seats behind me went all-in (he had me covered), and I couldn't call (with hands like AJ, JT, 77). That set up the dynamic for the hand I busted on.
By this time, my M was down to about 5, so I was ready to play a hand for all my chips. I found AQ of clubs 3rd to act, and limped in, hoping the guy two seats behind would raise me, as usual. But he just called, and that let in the blinds for cheap. The flop was 378 with two clubs. The small blind bet 1/3 of the pot, and I figured that I had two overcards and the nut flush draw if he had a pair. I push all-in, he calls with a worse flush draw, and an inside straight draw. He pairs his jack on the turn, and there's no A,Q, or club to save me on the river, and I'm out.
I got greedy by just limping before the flop, and I paid for it. In retrospect, I'd rather have pushed all-in pre-flop, and won the blinds and antes with my AQ.
Oh well. It was definitely a fun experience, and I'll come back next year. Now I'm off to find a good cash game, and there are some other smaller tourneys I might play while I'm here.
Showing posts with label tournaments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tournaments. Show all posts
Saturday, June 9, 2007
I'm in
Table 200, seat 7, in case you want to stop by. ;-)
I think I had very good timing for the registration line, and only had to wait about 20 minutes. By the time I was done, there were enough people that the last one in line would probably wait 90 minutes. I pity the fool who waits until tomorrow morning to register.
OK, off to dream of quads, and get up in time to join some folks for brunch. 'night.
I think I had very good timing for the registration line, and only had to wait about 20 minutes. By the time I was done, there were enough people that the last one in line would probably wait 90 minutes. I pity the fool who waits until tomorrow morning to register.
OK, off to dream of quads, and get up in time to join some folks for brunch. 'night.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
WSOP or Bust!
...or more likely, WSOP and bust. ;-)
I've decided to play in event #15 ($1500 no-limit Hold'em). I'm leaving for Vegas after work tomorrow, and taking Monday off, in case I make the final table.
I didn't decide to play until it was too late to pre-register, so I may have to forgo sleep to stand in line when I get there. We'll see. I'll try to update at the end of each day.
I've decided to play in event #15 ($1500 no-limit Hold'em). I'm leaving for Vegas after work tomorrow, and taking Monday off, in case I make the final table.
I didn't decide to play until it was too late to pre-register, so I may have to forgo sleep to stand in line when I get there. We'll see. I'll try to update at the end of each day.
Sunday, January 28, 2007
WPBT cash
Well, I made the final table and the money in my first Poker Blogger event, the World Poker Blogger Tour event #1.
I went on two nice streaks, one early-on, which put me in the chip lead for a while, where I got AA a couple times and KK a couple of times. Then, when we were down to 2 tables, I got another streak where short stacks were pushing into me, and I would call with a hand *just* good enough to beat them. 66 vs 55, AT vs A9, etc. I was 2nd in chips going into the final table. I lost a race in a blind vs blind situation, and was back down to average stack, then went card dead for a while. Aside from one exciting moment, I basically folded my way into 5th. My M was about 6 when Mean_G, the big stack at the table raised my blind. I had K9, and thought it was a position raise, and pushed. I was wrong, and he called with AT, and IGH 5th.
The exciting moment was one of two times I dropped the hammer in a bluff reraise. I very rarely bluff reraise in my regular game unless I really smell weakness (which I didn't in either case here), and let me tell you, it really gets the heart pumping to put 40% of your chips at risk with the worst hand!
Anyway, I had fun, and it's always nice to finish in the money. I hope I'll get to play in more of these, and get to know some of the folks better, since I already feel like I know many of them from their blogs.
Raveen took it down. Nice going!
I went on two nice streaks, one early-on, which put me in the chip lead for a while, where I got AA a couple times and KK a couple of times. Then, when we were down to 2 tables, I got another streak where short stacks were pushing into me, and I would call with a hand *just* good enough to beat them. 66 vs 55, AT vs A9, etc. I was 2nd in chips going into the final table. I lost a race in a blind vs blind situation, and was back down to average stack, then went card dead for a while. Aside from one exciting moment, I basically folded my way into 5th. My M was about 6 when Mean_G, the big stack at the table raised my blind. I had K9, and thought it was a position raise, and pushed. I was wrong, and he called with AT, and IGH 5th.
The exciting moment was one of two times I dropped the hammer in a bluff reraise. I very rarely bluff reraise in my regular game unless I really smell weakness (which I didn't in either case here), and let me tell you, it really gets the heart pumping to put 40% of your chips at risk with the worst hand!
Anyway, I had fun, and it's always nice to finish in the money. I hope I'll get to play in more of these, and get to know some of the folks better, since I already feel like I know many of them from their blogs.
Raveen took it down. Nice going!
Friday, January 19, 2007
STFU
So, I've been watching Poker After Dark, on NBC, and it's not bad. It has the flavor of High Stakes poker, but it's in a tournament format. They show most (all?) of the hands, and most of the time the interactions between the players are featured. Shana Hiatt does exit interviews, and is available throughout if a player feels like getting up to talk to her about what's going on.
All of that is very cool. It even seemed for a while like they were going to not have any commentary, and let the players' conversation and actions be the whole of the entertainment.
But, it turns out there's this annoying announcer, who not only makes informational statements (some of which are useful, but most of which are completely redundant with either the graphics or the obvious actions of the players), but also makes these snarky comments out of the blue, and pretends to be involved in conversations at the table, even though it's obvious he's adding his comments in a studio after-the-fact.)
Here are some examples:
Sheiky rakes in the chips, while Annie's in the middle of a story. The announcer drowns out the story I want to hear to share this pithy thought:
Ann: Shawn wins the pot
Annie: David Grey against Sam [Grizzle] with his crippled hand.
Ann: Sounds like a pay-per-view event.
Sheiky: Don't do that to Steve
Ann: Sheiky the peacemaker.
Gus: Alright, let's try something new [as he pushes all-in].
Ann: Yeah, how about someone calling a raise.
Annie: All-in
Ann: Annie's taking a page out of Gustav's book.
Gus Hansen: I hit my man right away.
Announcer: If Gus keeps hitting men, he may as well sign with Don King.
Gus shows AKs to the hole camera, and we hear the insightful:
Announcer: Another big hand for Gus.
Gus: I guess I could stack them a little bigger.
Ann: Ya think, Gussie?
[Doyle folds T2]
Ann: How do you not play your own hand, Doyle?!?
Mike Matusow: I'm not creative. I'm not here to be creative.
Ann: Oh come on, Mikey, you're a poker artiste.
[out of nowhere]
Ann: David still nursing the tail end of that drink.
David Grey: Wherefor are you Dolly?
Ann: Easy there, Shakespeare.
Ann: Carlos is rockin' the tower of power chip configuration...
[Moneymaker plays his first hand.]
Ann: Nice of you to join us, Moneymaker!
Ann: You think Chris Ferguson wears a suit to bed, like PJs?
Ann: [Johnny Chan] kind of looks like Superman, with that curl. Now we just have to get him a cape.
[After Chan makes a flush (and a straight) on the river]
Ann: Johnny makes a runner-runner straight, and Doyle's stack is now extremely short.
I think the show could be revolutionary, if they just drop any commentary (other than the lead-in for each segment after returning from commercial). If there's silence, so be it. I think the fan base knows how to tell what's going on in a hand without needing to be spoonfed information like:
3 players to the flop.
Daniel's betting with 9-high.
Gus wins the pot.
etc.
I've read other complaints about this, so I hope for next season NBC will either eliminate/replace him, or get him to tone it down.
All of that is very cool. It even seemed for a while like they were going to not have any commentary, and let the players' conversation and actions be the whole of the entertainment.
But, it turns out there's this annoying announcer, who not only makes informational statements (some of which are useful, but most of which are completely redundant with either the graphics or the obvious actions of the players), but also makes these snarky comments out of the blue, and pretends to be involved in conversations at the table, even though it's obvious he's adding his comments in a studio after-the-fact.)
Here are some examples:
Sheiky rakes in the chips, while Annie's in the middle of a story. The announcer drowns out the story I want to hear to share this pithy thought:
Ann: Shawn wins the pot
Annie: David Grey against Sam [Grizzle] with his crippled hand.
Ann: Sounds like a pay-per-view event.
Sheiky: Don't do that to Steve
Ann: Sheiky the peacemaker.
Gus: Alright, let's try something new [as he pushes all-in].
Ann: Yeah, how about someone calling a raise.
Annie: All-in
Ann: Annie's taking a page out of Gustav's book.
Gus Hansen: I hit my man right away.
Announcer: If Gus keeps hitting men, he may as well sign with Don King.
Gus shows AKs to the hole camera, and we hear the insightful:
Announcer: Another big hand for Gus.
Gus: I guess I could stack them a little bigger.
Ann: Ya think, Gussie?
[Doyle folds T2]
Ann: How do you not play your own hand, Doyle?!?
Mike Matusow: I'm not creative. I'm not here to be creative.
Ann: Oh come on, Mikey, you're a poker artiste.
[out of nowhere]
Ann: David still nursing the tail end of that drink.
David Grey: Wherefor are you Dolly?
Ann: Easy there, Shakespeare.
Ann: Carlos is rockin' the tower of power chip configuration...
[Moneymaker plays his first hand.]
Ann: Nice of you to join us, Moneymaker!
Ann: You think Chris Ferguson wears a suit to bed, like PJs?
Ann: [Johnny Chan] kind of looks like Superman, with that curl. Now we just have to get him a cape.
[After Chan makes a flush (and a straight) on the river]
Ann: Johnny makes a runner-runner straight, and Doyle's stack is now extremely short.
I think the show could be revolutionary, if they just drop any commentary (other than the lead-in for each segment after returning from commercial). If there's silence, so be it. I think the fan base knows how to tell what's going on in a hand without needing to be spoonfed information like:
3 players to the flop.
Daniel's betting with 9-high.
Gus wins the pot.
etc.
I've read other complaints about this, so I hope for next season NBC will either eliminate/replace him, or get him to tone it down.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Going AIP!
One of the media I exploit for my poker edutainment is the Ante Up! podcast. I just started listening about 5 weeks ago, and I'm really enjoying catching up on the back episodes when I have time. They have a great rapport, and the show is a good mix of education/exploration and entertainment.
For the last few weeks, they've been running a mixed tournament series called the Ante-up Intercontinental Poker Series (AIPS). Each week the tournament is a different poker variant, to encourage their listeners to check out some of the other games than just Hold 'Em. This week, the game was "Stud Hi/Lo, 8 or better", or "Stud/8". I guess I probably had an advantage over most of the field, since my local cardroom actually spreads this game, so I've gotten some experience with it in the past 6 months or so.
I got a couple big hands in succession about 40 minutes in, and moved from near the bottom of the field to the top 5. After that, I was able to play big-stack poker, and win a lot of pots through sheer aggression. (This was a good experience for me, because my usual style is much tighter, at least until I get to the short-handed part of the tournament.) By the second break, I had twice as many chips as my closest competitor, and by the time we were down to 10 players, I had half the chips in the tournament. Perhaps needless to say, I won the tournament:
My victory is officially commemorated here. I'm now 6th in the overall player standings, so I'm gonna try to cash again in the next few. After winning the "top banana" trophy for this tournament, now I'm going for the series trophy.
For the last few weeks, they've been running a mixed tournament series called the Ante-up Intercontinental Poker Series (AIPS). Each week the tournament is a different poker variant, to encourage their listeners to check out some of the other games than just Hold 'Em. This week, the game was "Stud Hi/Lo, 8 or better", or "Stud/8". I guess I probably had an advantage over most of the field, since my local cardroom actually spreads this game, so I've gotten some experience with it in the past 6 months or so.
I got a couple big hands in succession about 40 minutes in, and moved from near the bottom of the field to the top 5. After that, I was able to play big-stack poker, and win a lot of pots through sheer aggression. (This was a good experience for me, because my usual style is much tighter, at least until I get to the short-handed part of the tournament.) By the second break, I had twice as many chips as my closest competitor, and by the time we were down to 10 players, I had half the chips in the tournament. Perhaps needless to say, I won the tournament:
My victory is officially commemorated here. I'm now 6th in the overall player standings, so I'm gonna try to cash again in the next few. After winning the "top banana" trophy for this tournament, now I'm going for the series trophy.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Vegas, Baby!
Yay to McCarran Airport, which has free wi-fi. I'm returning from 2.3 days in Vegas with my friend Barry. We stayed at the Stratosphere.
My poker record was pretty good, where basically my cash-game winnings paid for my entries into 4 tournaments.
My hold-em tournament record:
Friday:
Stratosphere Midnight Tournament: 5th out of 36. (no money)
Saturday:
Harrahs 3:30pm: 12th out of 40. (no money)
Stratosphere Midnight Tournament: 1st out of 32. "You're so money, and you don't even know it."
I also played in a no-limit Omaha tourney (Sunday Stratosphere Midnight tourney) of about 30 people, but (as I expected) I didn't do nearly as well in that one. I still don't really have a good feel for Omaha (especially since the only Omaha spread locally is high/low, and this was high only).
The tourney win paid for the whole trip, so it was definitely a success!
The big hand of the tourney went down like this:
We were 3-handed. Short stack on my right with an M of about 2. The other guy and I had about equal stacks (M around 5) but I thought he had me covered. I think I had a pretty good table image as a tight solid player, so since the blinds had just gone up, I wanted to steal them. I was in the small blind, and the short stack folded UTG. I looked at my cards (T3o), but tried to see AJ in my head as I raised it up (to about 2.5x the Big Blind). Big blind calls, after thinking for a bit. At this point, I've forgotten my actual hole cards, but going back to look at them would give away my weakness.
The flop comes AKJ, all diamonds. This seems like a fairly scary board, so I think for a bit, then push all-in. (I'm thinking he definitely credits me for an Ace, and figure he can't call without a diamond draw and at least a pair.) He thinks, and thinks, and thinks some more. He finally calls me. As soon as he calls, I say "Great call. I have nothing." He turns over KJ (no diamonds) for 2-pair. (I'm thinking, "Why'd it take so long, I would've called pretty quickly with that.") I turn over my cards (also no diamonds, but I didn't remember that when I pushed), and start to get up, when I realize I have four outs to the straight.
I luck out and get a queen on the turn, and luck out again, when he *doesn't* hit the full-house on the river, and then luck out *again* when, to my surprise, I actually have him covered.
Now I'm heads up with about 9x chips of my opponent, and get Ax the next hand. I put him all in, and he calls with Kx, which doesn't improve.
Overall, I was pretty happy with my play. I was shortstacked most of the tournament, and played with patience, picking my spots. That big hand was the only time I had all my chips at risk, other than when I got KK (which held up against AQ). I did definitely get lucky to win, but I think that it's probably necessary to suck out at least once in a tourney to win.
My poker record was pretty good, where basically my cash-game winnings paid for my entries into 4 tournaments.
My hold-em tournament record:
Friday:
Stratosphere Midnight Tournament: 5th out of 36. (no money)
Saturday:
Harrahs 3:30pm: 12th out of 40. (no money)
Stratosphere Midnight Tournament: 1st out of 32. "You're so money, and you don't even know it."
I also played in a no-limit Omaha tourney (Sunday Stratosphere Midnight tourney) of about 30 people, but (as I expected) I didn't do nearly as well in that one. I still don't really have a good feel for Omaha (especially since the only Omaha spread locally is high/low, and this was high only).
The tourney win paid for the whole trip, so it was definitely a success!
The big hand of the tourney went down like this:
We were 3-handed. Short stack on my right with an M of about 2. The other guy and I had about equal stacks (M around 5) but I thought he had me covered. I think I had a pretty good table image as a tight solid player, so since the blinds had just gone up, I wanted to steal them. I was in the small blind, and the short stack folded UTG. I looked at my cards (T3o), but tried to see AJ in my head as I raised it up (to about 2.5x the Big Blind). Big blind calls, after thinking for a bit. At this point, I've forgotten my actual hole cards, but going back to look at them would give away my weakness.
The flop comes AKJ, all diamonds. This seems like a fairly scary board, so I think for a bit, then push all-in. (I'm thinking he definitely credits me for an Ace, and figure he can't call without a diamond draw and at least a pair.) He thinks, and thinks, and thinks some more. He finally calls me. As soon as he calls, I say "Great call. I have nothing." He turns over KJ (no diamonds) for 2-pair. (I'm thinking, "Why'd it take so long, I would've called pretty quickly with that.") I turn over my cards (also no diamonds, but I didn't remember that when I pushed), and start to get up, when I realize I have four outs to the straight.
I luck out and get a queen on the turn, and luck out again, when he *doesn't* hit the full-house on the river, and then luck out *again* when, to my surprise, I actually have him covered.
Now I'm heads up with about 9x chips of my opponent, and get Ax the next hand. I put him all in, and he calls with Kx, which doesn't improve.
Overall, I was pretty happy with my play. I was shortstacked most of the tournament, and played with patience, picking my spots. That big hand was the only time I had all my chips at risk, other than when I got KK (which held up against AQ). I did definitely get lucky to win, but I think that it's probably necessary to suck out at least once in a tourney to win.
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