Weekend Results
Date: Sun, Jan 27, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
Since my MTT final table i've been in what i'd term a mini slum... nothing major but i've felt kinda out of it when playing and its lead to some poor play (see last post). I think i've been averaging around 108th place in the pokerstars $4 180 sngs.
So Saturday after more of the same i decided that i was in the mode for some turbo sngs and started playing the Pokerstars $3 45 sngs . I played 24 total Turbos in 3 sessions (morning, afternoon & late evening) on saturday. My results were amazing.
I finished...
1st....5
2nd....3
4th....1
8th....2(bubble)
OOTM...16
Just crushed the games for a whopping 400% ROI. It was a really sweet feeling and a huge confidence builder. My game had gone a bit off and these turbos set me straight.
Today i decided to play in the $5.50 5K guarenteed @ 1pm on stars and the 100K guarenteed at 3:30pm. I was playing the 5k guarenteed and a $4 180 sng when my electricity went out. What a disaster... I was running good in the 5K and had just taken the chip lead with about 26 left in the 180.
My ups only lasted an additional 15 minutes before it started beeping furiously... I also have my modem and router on the ups so when i shut down the computer there was enough power to keep the network up. I burrowed my nephew's laptop and spent about 20minutes installing pokerstars and trying to remember my password. Once i got on i soon realized that the laptop battery was about to go... talk about bad luck. So i just decided to donk it up and try to get a big stack or bust. long story short i made the final table as a short stack and finished 8th... then my pwr came back on.lol.
I fired up another $4 180 sng to go along with the Sunday 100k Gaurenteed. I didnt get deep in the 100K but finished 2nd in the $4 180 sng which was a good result. So two final tables in one day... not bad. Just checked officialpokerrankings and i'm running 20% ITM & 94% ROI over 246 tournys for January, and that is without the 2nd place finish.
Monday Night Tournaments
Date: Tue, Jan 22, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
I only played two tournaments tonight. A $4/180 on Stars and a $6.50 Bounty on UB. I played really well in both tournaments but again made one huge mistake down the stretch to bust out. I finished 36th in the UB bounty having collected 3 bounties for a total prize of about $14 bucks... 39 places paid. I was sitting in about 10th place when i decided to get cute and had a complete meltdown....
Monday Night Tournaments
Date: Tue, Jan 22, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
I only played two tournaments tonight. A $4/180 on Stars and a $6.50 Bounty on UB. I played really well in both tournaments but again made one huge mistake down the stretch to bust out.
I finished 36th in the UB bounty having collected 3 bounties for a total prize of about $14 bucks... 39 places paid. I was sitting in about 10th place when i decided to get cute and had a complete meltdown....
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1976264
I've seen this line numerous times and its very rarely weakness this late in a tourny... yet i've busted against it several times, although with better hands that this one. In future i will have to hold a monster to continue.
I finished 10th in the 180.... again sitting in good chip position on a completely unnecessary hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1976246
sigh... its dissappointing to look at because i know i'm better than these plays and i could've done some serious damage in both tournys.
This situation with the mono flop has also occured several times and i've busted before playing it aggressively. In future i will attempt to play more cautiously in this situation... to drive home the lesson i've reviewed some numbers in pokerstove.
Firstly i think i probably couldve reraised this hand since we're short handed but calling wasnt so bad against another big stack with position and a potentially dominated hand.... or was it?
On the flop is where i botched it completely... I've run this in poker stove against several potential hands
22+ vs. AJs = 54/46 dog
Made flush or Set = 70/30 dog
AT or TP type hands = 56/44 dog .... i might have some FE against these hands but is it worth it?
I also remember busting one tournament with a set on a mono flop that i played aggressively... so i ran those numbers also...
set vs. Made flush = 65/35 dog
set vs. 22+ = 70/30 fav
set vs. flush draw = 70/30 fav
The shove with the nut flush draw is really donkish now that i've look at it... It will only get called by hands that have me in bad shape... namely a made flush or set. With a set on a mono flop i should charge draws but still not go crazy.
First MTT Final Table
Date: Sun, Jan 20, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
I made my first Final table in a real MTT saturday. It was a $5 FO with 1784 runners and i finished 3rd for $652.00. 1st paid $1868.00, it would have been great to win my first MTT final table, but i made a mistake when we were 3 handed that cost me the tourny. I was really pleased with how i played overall. I got lucky when i had to, won most of my races, got paid off huge on some of my
First MTT Final Table
Date: Sun, Jan 20, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
I made my first Final table in a real MTT saturday. It was a $5 FO with 1784 runners and i finished 3rd for $652.00. 1st paid $1868.00, it would have been great to win my first MTT final table, but i made a mistake when we were 3 handed that cost me the tourny.
I was really pleased with how i played overall. I got lucky when i had to, won most of my races, got paid off huge on some of my monsters, made some good lay downs and remained aggressive and patient.
I havent made anymore final tables in the 180s, but i've busted 19th twice now after playing relatively good poker. I'm starting to make bad plays down the stretch again that have kept me from going deep. I now find these tournaments really soft. Its easy to get down to 50 players and then its just a matter of execution. I really should be winning more of these.
Sunday was a bust although i managed to get ITM in a $12/180 turbo but busted 12th. I am not sure i will be playing many of these because they're just too fast. I was in push bot mode way before the first break. Otherwise Sunday was a dissappointment.
I decided that i would play the 100K and a $180 on Stars and two $5 FO on UB. I was running really well in all tourny's when i started to realize that i could not handle them all. Then for some reason UB started freezing my pc... i would time out of hands, only one card would show etc. etc. This has never happened before and i know my pc is fast enough because i have a 3.2GHZ processor and 1.5GB of RAM. This threw me off my game and kinda tilted me. I soon busted all tournies. I simply shouldve thrown away the UB tournaments and focus on the 100k... but i was running so well that i didnt want to let them go and it cost me.
THE DREAM
I encountered one of those dream situations that every poker player dreams about;
Blinds 4000/8000 800ante... I have 226K and i'm dealt AA in SB... Its folded to BTN with around 90K, he makes it 24k i almost shoved AI but decided to just min rr to 56K... BB with 254K then proceeds to shove AI... OMG!!!! lol GOD that was beautiful!
180 Final Tables
Date: Thu, Jan 10, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
I've now made two final tables in two days, finishing 7th & 8th. The level of play was astonishing. From my sample of tournaments it is normal for up to 60% to have busted by the first break. However, in one of today's tournaments 70% of players had busted by the break and i had accumulated +10k chips. I was able to make the final table in this tournament but was stuck behind a maniac who
180 Final Tables
Date: Thu, Jan 10, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
I've now made two final tables in two days, finishing 7th & 8th. The level of play was astonishing. From my sample of tournaments it is normal for up to 60% to have busted by the first break. However, in one of today's tournaments 70% of players had busted by the break and i had accumulated +10k chips. I was able to make the final table in this tournament but was stuck behind a maniac who
$4 180 Sit N Go Final Tables
Date: Thu, Jan 10, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
I've now made two final tables in two days, finishing 7th & 8th. The level of play was astonishing. From my sample of tournaments it is normal for up to 60% to have busted by the first break. However, in one of today's tournaments 70% of players had busted by the break and i had accumulated +10k chips. I was able to make the final table in this tournament but was stuck behind a maniac who eventually busted me with a really bad call preflop.
Here are a few other hands from my other tournies
I'm happy with the way i played this hand... his preflop was really bad and then i guess he put me on AK/AQ.Players always seem to put you on AK at this level.
Trying to short stack ninja in this tourny with about 57 left i think. This has got to be the most ridiculous call i've ever seen. But it shows what these players are capable of.
I'm dissappointed that i didnt win any of the Final tables but i'm pleased that i made the final table in the first place. Thats about 8/8 times of making the FT when i made the money.
Weekend Update & Junkanoo Parade
Date: Mon, Jan 7, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
My ladyfriends sister got married on Saturday and everybody seemed to be implying that we were next. We just smiled and ignored the comments and went on like nothing was said. By the end of the night she was completely drunk and had to be helped to the car. We spent most of sunday together so i didnt get to play any tournaments until that evening. I played in a $5 FO, finished 855th and in a $10
Weekend Update & Junkanoo Parade
Date: Mon, Jan 7, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
My ladyfriends sister got married on Saturday and everybody seemed to be implying that we were next. We just smiled and ignored the comments and went on like nothing was said. By the end of the night she was completely drunk and had to be helped to the car. We spent most of sunday together so i didnt get to play any tournaments until that evening. I played in a $5 FO, finished 855th and in a $10 360max entrants along with a few 180s, But didnt finish get deep in any.
This morning i got up early and decided to play a $2.20 128max headsup winner take all tourny. I finished in 20th place having won two heads up matches which were really easy. My third opponent and i were more evenly matched. I got down early and was fighting back for most of the match, finally going out with KJo vs 75o on a J75 flop. Probably should've pushed pf... meh. These are good for developing a good heads up game... i will definitely play this tournament again.
Junkanoo Parade
Each year in The Bahamas on Boxing Day morning and New Year's day morning we have a huge parade called "Junkanoo". It is similar to Carnival or Mardi Gra and is rooted in our African heritage. I thought i'd just put youtube link up to show people what its like. This one shows the costumes better than any other that i found, but the music is not the best. The music is key to junkanoo... you feel it and just have to move.
Reading and Plans
Date: Fri, Jan 4, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
Haven't played at all this week. But i've been hitting the forum and reading alot, Mostly 2p2 and HOH2. 2p2 is a great resource and all other forums reference it, so i rarely read any other forums although i visit several blogs. As for poker books, i think that the definitive books on MTTs and cash games have been written. And what is not in any book that i have can be found on the forums for
Reading and Plans
Date: Fri, Jan 4, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
Haven't played at all this week. But i've been hitting the forum and reading alot, Mostly 2p2 and HOH2. 2p2 is a great resource and all other forums reference it, so i rarely read any other forums although i visit several blogs.
As for poker books, i think that the definitive books on MTTs and cash games have been written. And what is not in any book that i have can be found on the forums for free, therefore i think its unlikely that i will purchase another poker book anytime in the near future.
I currently own;
poker for dummies... never read this one
play poker like a pro? by phill hellmuth
These two were my very first purchases before i'd discovered any forums or knew anything about poker... waste of money imo.
Definitive works
SuperSystem2
Theory of Poker
HOH1 & HOH2
No Limit Holdem: Theory & Practice
Other
Kill Phil 1
Phil Gordon's little green book
Thats it. I can reread several chapters in any of these books (besides the first two) and still find useful info.
I have been thinking of making some changes to the blog. During my research into PXF one thing i noticed, and it was the same when i was a member of Cardrunners, was the lack of low limit videos. When they do a low limit video it would invariably be 2/4 NL (CR) or 11R(PXF) which is still high for the average micro stakes grinder. While you can learn much from these videos i alway thought it'd also be great to actually see videos of situations that we encounter at our level.
To that end i will put up some more videos of bubbles/ITM/Final tables and whole hand histories of some of the tournaments i've played. While i cannot promise that they will be played perfectly, hopefully they can be of some use to other players who play the same levels.
I will also try to post a little more about my life. I'm not one for the social blogs and really don't like the "poker" blogs that have more personal than poker content. But i will probably add a few post here and there with personal content to keep it interesting.
Island Grinder 2008
Date: Wed, Jan 2, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
2007 was an interesting year. I went from sngs to full ring cash to 6 max back to sngs and now MTTs.I have not tried any other forms of poker besides NLHE. I've decided that i will be mainly a MTT player for now. I'm simple not up to the grind and variance of the cash games and right now it doesn't feel like i will be up to them anytime soon. My game improved a lot in December, which was my best
Island Grinder 2008
Date: Wed, Jan 2, 2008 Internet Live Tournament
2007 was an interesting year. I went from sngs to full ring cash to 6 max back to sngs and now MTTs.I have not tried any other forms of poker besides NLHE. I've decided that i will be mainly a MTT player for now. I'm simple not up to the grind and variance of the cash games and right now it doesn't feel like i will be up to them anytime soon.
My game improved a lot in December, which was my best month since i started playing sngs again. I played 45 180sngs... bubbled 5 times and got ITM 7 times. I made the FT everytime i got in the money, finishing with 2 wins, 2 2nds, 6th, 8th & 9th for a 400% ROI.
My Bankroll now stands at $1100.00, which is more than enough for the $4/180 sngs that i currently play. However,I am not interested in just trying to grind the 180s for a monthly profit, instead i will begin preparing for and taking regular shots at large field MTTs. Of course I will still play the 180s regularly also.
I will eventually join a training site, most likely PXF. But i will not do so until Feb/March because i feel that there is still alot that i can do on my own to improve my game.
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