Study Guide

Date: Fri, Feb 1, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

Read any interview with any successful poker player and they will all have 'constant study' and self analysis as one of the keys to becomming a winning poker player. In this section i will go over basic poker concepts and eventually deal with more advance ideas.

Hand Rankings

Starting Hands

Poker Odds

Bankroll Management

Pre-flop Strategy

Post-flop Strategy

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Challenges

Date: Fri, Feb 1, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

There are alot of poker challenges all over the internet. They are a great way to stay motivated and to have fun with fellow bloggers. I recently joined RTR forum because they have alot of challenges running all the time. I will record my results from any of those challenges as well as any personal challenges i start on this blog.

Join me or start your own challenges and give me a shout... i will join in if possible.

Poker Stars $4 180 man Sng challenge

Poker Stars $3 45 man Sng Challenge

Poker Stars $6 45 man Sng Challenge

Poker Stars $12 45 man Sng Challenge

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Poker Tools

Date: Fri, Feb 1, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

SitNGo Wizard

Poker Calculatem

Poker Tracker

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Small Stakes Grinder : : January Results

Date: Tue, Jan 29, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

I don't think i will be playing anymore before the end of the month so i will post these results from officialpokerrankings.com I had not set any monetary goal for this month but i am please with the overall result. A +1k month is nothing to laugh at for someone who started out a few month back with $38 bucks in the old poker account. A big chunk of that came from my 3rd place finish in the $5

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Small Stakes Grinder : : January Results

Date: Tue, Jan 29, 2008 Internet Live Tournament

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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 stars $4/180s. So Saturday after more of the same i decided that i was in the mode for some turbo sngs and started playing the $3/45s on stars. I played 24 total turbos in

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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.

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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....

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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.

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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

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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!

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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

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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

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$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.

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