I tried to start this long, literary post about my upcoming trip to LV; I even had a little snippet of movie dialog to start off with, but sadly I am no Pauly. The title of the post comes from Bull Durham, where Crash (Kevin Costner) is talking about his 21 days in "the show" (the major leagues). I remember how people around him in the bus stop to listen, hanging on his every word.
For poker players, the WSOP is "the show." Of course, the main event is the show of shows, but to play in any event-- even a $1,500 buy-in event-- is enough of a dream (or at least the first step) for many. To be able to say that you played in the WSOP, even if it's just for a few hours, is something you will have for the rest of your life.
But do I want to spend a majority of my bankroll on one event? I think it's pretty safe to say that the answer is "no." Especially when Caesars and the Venetian will be running their Mega Stacks and Deep Stacks tournaments respectively and I can play in 2 fairly big, deep-stack events for about two-thirds the price. I might take a stab or two at winning a satellite to the $1,500 but I just can't see buying in directly. Of course, if I go deep in my first tourney I would consider buying into the WSOP event, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.
Until then, the dream of going to the show may just have to wait a little longer.
Showing posts with label mtt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mtt. Show all posts
22 May 2009
30 March 2009
How to win a 45-man SNG
Get hit in the face by the deck. Hard. Win coin flips.
Last night on Full Tilt I had AA 3 times (in 4 hands), AK 3 times, KK twice and QQ once. And they all held up. Having nearly 50% of the chips in play at the final table I was able to steal with impunity. I only lost the chip lead when we got heads up but then this hand came up:
You know you're running good when you win with 32o.
Last night on Full Tilt I had AA 3 times (in 4 hands), AK 3 times, KK twice and QQ once. And they all held up. Having nearly 50% of the chips in play at the final table I was able to steal with impunity. I only lost the chip lead when we got heads up but then this hand came up:
FullTiltPoker Game: $10 + $1 Sit & Go, Table 2 - 800/1600 - No Limit Hold'em -
Seat 1: Opponent (39,020)
Seat 9: tanksj (28,480)
Opponent posts the small blind of 800
tanksj posts the big blind of 1,600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tanksj [2c 3d]
Opponent raises to 4,200
tanksj calls 2,600
*** FLOP *** [2s 8d 3c]
tanksj checks
Opponent bets 7,000
tanksj raises to 24,280, and is all in
Opponent calls 17,280
tanksj shows [2c 3d]
Opponent shows [Td Tc]
*** TURN *** [2s 8d 3c] [6h]
Opponent: lol
*** RIVER *** [2s 8d 3c 6h] [Ac]
Opponent: nh
tanksj shows two pair, Threes and Twos
Opponent shows a pair of Tens
tanksj wins the pot (56,960) with two pair, Threes and Twos
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 56,960 | Rake 0
Board: [2s 8d 3c 6h Ac]
Seat 1: Opponent (small blind) showed [Td Tc] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 9: tanksj (big blind) showed [2c 3d] and won (56,960) with two pair, Threes and Twos
You know you're running good when you win with 32o.
23 February 2009
Happiness is ... (II)
Getting it all in on the turn with your opponent drawing dead.
Middle stages of the 11:00 AM Saturday tournament at the Snoqualmie casino. I'm in late middle position and look down to see pocket rockets. One limper with whom I've played one hand against since he got moved to our table (In the previous hand he called strong bets on the flop and turn with Ax9c with aces and the club flush draw). I raise about 4 times the BB and all fold to the limper who calls. Flop comes Ac 7c 9?. He bets (thank you!). No sense in getting cute here. I know he's not going to go away if he has an ace and I want to make him pay if he's chasing a flush draw so I raise about the size of the pot and he calls. Turn is a 4 (not a club) and he puts me all in and I call. There are times like these when your opponent will flip over something like Kc 9c and you have to sweat the river but thankfully this was not one of them. He shows A7 and I can sit back and watch the meaningless 4 fall on the river.
I had a good time at the Snoqualmie. Their tournament is your typical "draw them in so they'll play cash games" fast tournament. The rounds are only 15 minutes but they use shuffling machines and there wasn't a lot of hollywooding so we got in a fair number of hands in at each level. Maybe it's because the number of players is capped at 80 and the buy-in is only $60 but there didn't seem to be as many pro wanna-bes as the Tulalip Saturday tourney with a $90 buy-in and sometimes over 150 players. There was one guy who I played a little pai-gow with while waiting for the tourney to start who I prayed wouldn't be at my table. The way he bitched and moaned about every hand I just knew he would annoying. Luckily I never had to find out as I saw him leaving before the first break.
This was the first hand at our table. Folds around to older gentleman (OG) in MP who raises to about 3x the BB. He gets called by asian woman on the button (WoB). Flop comes 4 5 6. OG bets out maybe half the pot and gets called by WoB. Turn comes 3 and OG bets and gets called again. I forget the river but it doesn't pair the board. OG goes all in and gets called by WoB. OG has 77, WoB has 44. After the woman leaves we all sit there in disbelief. OG comments on how the WoB never raised him and let him catch his straight for cheap.
At one point during the tournament we had back-to-back quads at our table, something I can't ever remember seeing before. In both instances, a shortish stack shoved all in (the first one with 66, the second with 77) only to be called by AK. In each hand, the pocket pair improved to quads by the end. The next hand after that I'm in the BB with 5c7c and see a flop of 2c 5d 7d. I check-raise-re-raise-all-in an early position bettor only to have him turn over 5h7h. Sadly my free-roll didn't result in the flush and we chopped.
Overall I played pretty tight and used that image to steal a few pots here and there. Except for one mis-step, I think I played pretty solid, straightforward poker and only got it in with the worst of it a couple of times and even then I wasn't a big dog. When our table got broken and we were down to two tables I had about T11,000 in chips with blinds at 1,000/2,000. After stealing the blinds once I caught AdKd on my BB and tripled up against KJo and JJ. A short time later I busted a small stack with QQ against his 88 and from that point coasted to the final table.
I arrived at the final table as one of the top 3 biggest stacks and was able to sit back and let the little stacks make desperation shoves. Down to three the blinds were 10,000/20,000 and we were pretty evenly stacked so a chop was proposed. As is my MO, as soon as the deal was agreed upon I played like a donk and shoved from the button with 6d9d only to have the SB wake up with AQo. The flop gave me a flush draw but that was as good as I got and I busted out in third.
Middle stages of the 11:00 AM Saturday tournament at the Snoqualmie casino. I'm in late middle position and look down to see pocket rockets. One limper with whom I've played one hand against since he got moved to our table (In the previous hand he called strong bets on the flop and turn with Ax9c with aces and the club flush draw). I raise about 4 times the BB and all fold to the limper who calls. Flop comes Ac 7c 9?. He bets (thank you!). No sense in getting cute here. I know he's not going to go away if he has an ace and I want to make him pay if he's chasing a flush draw so I raise about the size of the pot and he calls. Turn is a 4 (not a club) and he puts me all in and I call. There are times like these when your opponent will flip over something like Kc 9c and you have to sweat the river but thankfully this was not one of them. He shows A7 and I can sit back and watch the meaningless 4 fall on the river.
I had a good time at the Snoqualmie. Their tournament is your typical "draw them in so they'll play cash games" fast tournament. The rounds are only 15 minutes but they use shuffling machines and there wasn't a lot of hollywooding so we got in a fair number of hands in at each level. Maybe it's because the number of players is capped at 80 and the buy-in is only $60 but there didn't seem to be as many pro wanna-bes as the Tulalip Saturday tourney with a $90 buy-in and sometimes over 150 players. There was one guy who I played a little pai-gow with while waiting for the tourney to start who I prayed wouldn't be at my table. The way he bitched and moaned about every hand I just knew he would annoying. Luckily I never had to find out as I saw him leaving before the first break.
This was the first hand at our table. Folds around to older gentleman (OG) in MP who raises to about 3x the BB. He gets called by asian woman on the button (WoB). Flop comes 4 5 6. OG bets out maybe half the pot and gets called by WoB. Turn comes 3 and OG bets and gets called again. I forget the river but it doesn't pair the board. OG goes all in and gets called by WoB. OG has 77, WoB has 44. After the woman leaves we all sit there in disbelief. OG comments on how the WoB never raised him and let him catch his straight for cheap.
At one point during the tournament we had back-to-back quads at our table, something I can't ever remember seeing before. In both instances, a shortish stack shoved all in (the first one with 66, the second with 77) only to be called by AK. In each hand, the pocket pair improved to quads by the end. The next hand after that I'm in the BB with 5c7c and see a flop of 2c 5d 7d. I check-raise-re-raise-all-in an early position bettor only to have him turn over 5h7h. Sadly my free-roll didn't result in the flush and we chopped.
Overall I played pretty tight and used that image to steal a few pots here and there. Except for one mis-step, I think I played pretty solid, straightforward poker and only got it in with the worst of it a couple of times and even then I wasn't a big dog. When our table got broken and we were down to two tables I had about T11,000 in chips with blinds at 1,000/2,000. After stealing the blinds once I caught AdKd on my BB and tripled up against KJo and JJ. A short time later I busted a small stack with QQ against his 88 and from that point coasted to the final table.
I arrived at the final table as one of the top 3 biggest stacks and was able to sit back and let the little stacks make desperation shoves. Down to three the blinds were 10,000/20,000 and we were pretty evenly stacked so a chop was proposed. As is my MO, as soon as the deal was agreed upon I played like a donk and shoved from the button with 6d9d only to have the SB wake up with AQo. The flop gave me a flush draw but that was as good as I got and I busted out in third.
16 November 2008
I should just stick to MTT
Took down another 45-man MTT on FT today. Nothing too exciting, just stuck to sound, fundamental poker until I had established a tight image and then loosened it up a bit to steal a pot here and there. After my first steal with T7o I mis-clicked the "Show cards" button and gave away a little more information than I would have liked. When we were down to two tables, the short stacks started a shove-fest right about when I went card dead. I managed to stick around and finally pick up AA to knock out the 10th place guy and get us down to the final table. I went into heads up with about a 3-to-1 chip lead against a Danish guy who liked to type "ups" whenever he won a big pot. Once I moved him off a pot I typed "Fed Ex." I guess they don't have Fed Ex in Denmark because he didn't get the joke.
02 November 2008
end of a drought
Took down a 45-man MTT on FTP tonight. It felt good to go deep into the tourney. Never caught aces but had kings twice. A couple of well-timed bluffs really made the difference and even when my bluffs got picked off, I made my bets look like value-bets and was able to lose a little instead of my whole stack. Once we were at the final table I was catching a lot of big aces. I think I had A
Qo twice in a row and maybe 3 times in 10 hands with an AJ in there as well.
Qo twice in a row and maybe 3 times in 10 hands with an AJ in there as well.
07 September 2008
Live Blog MTT
$24+2 90-man MTT on FTP.
First hand, AKo. Raise, two callers, c-bet, take it down.
20/40 blinds: T3,220
down to 410. Called min raise with 8h8d. 5 to the flop. Flop an OESFD, turn a straight. All in. Villain has AhTh.
Out in 82nd.
Bleh.
First hand, AKo. Raise, two callers, c-bet, take it down.
20/40 blinds: T3,220
down to 410. Called min raise with 8h8d. 5 to the flop. Flop an OESFD, turn a straight. All in. Villain has AhTh.
Out in 82nd.
Bleh.
06 July 2008
3/45
After losing a couple of heads up Sngs - in one match there were two straight flushes, including the last hand that knocked me out- I decided to try my hand at a little MTT. Decided to play a 45 player MTT on FTP. Got knocked down to a pretty small stack but managed to battle my way back to be in the top 5 for most of the later part of the tournament. With 2 tables left, the top four stacks were all at our table. When we were down to 10 we had the 4 biggest stacks and the smallest stack. He managed to hang on for a while until I made the comment "cue the Rocky theme song" after he won a hand. Of course that was the kiss of death and busted out on the very next hand.
Not only does it feel good to cash, it feels even better to have hung tough and protect a small stack and manage to make it to final table, especially considering I never had aces, kings or jacks and only had queens once and that wasn't until the final table.
Not only does it feel good to cash, it feels even better to have hung tough and protect a small stack and manage to make it to final table, especially considering I never had aces, kings or jacks and only had queens once and that wasn't until the final table.
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