Quick Week in Review ...

It's been a while since my last post ... as has been the norm lately (I'm working on this and will make a better effort to post more regularly). First things first, how 'bout them OILERS, up 3-1 on Anaheim with a chance to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup finals tonight --- GO OIL GO! (yup, you guessed it, no poker tonight!).

The past week has been busy and unfortunately not with much poker. Was down and out for a couple of days and of course with the OIL playing that took a couple of other days out of the mix.

I managed a good session, about 3 hours, on Monday night at Party. Was making fleeting attempt to clear my Party reload bonus (needing about 475 raked hands) in one night -- obviously didn't happen but did manage to come out ahead 30 BB. Based on my performance and the grind of the last month or so, I'll take it. Needless to say I didn't manage to clear the bonus and have to admit that this is the first bonus that I started and wasn't able to finish.

The only other poker really this week was on Thursday night when I had my last 'new player' freeroll at RB. Unfortunately I missed the first 40 mins or so and when I finally logged in it looks as though that was enough to put me out of contention. Amazingly enough there were about 310 people in this freeroll, the last two of these only had about 100. Anyway, when I logged in I had about 600 chips left with the blinds at 50/100 and me just about to hit the blinds - like I said, not much hope left. Well, I managed to pick up a few pots right out of the gate and double a couple of times. One of the pots I was way behind when I got my money all in pre-flop with 77 against 99 but ... spiked a 7 on the flop and doubled up. Very quickly I had my stack up to about 1500 and out of all-in or fold territory ... cool. I stayed patient and managed to get my stack up to about 6k and near the first page of the leaderboard. But, with this many people there was a long way to go. I stayed patient and amazingly enough we started to approach the bubble with about 4k in chips when .... I pick up TT UTG and go all-in and get a hesitated call from LP and he turns over 99 (hmmm sound familiar anyone?). The flop comes XX......9, yup again, TT vs. 99 and I'm done. In the end I finished 52, one off the bubble and 2 out of the money.

And finally, with no other reloads out there, so last night I took the Paradise plunge. After getting everything setup including PT (wow, what a pain in the a$$, having to request the HH every 15 mins or so). Was cruising along, up about $20 until I ran into the following hand ...

Dealt to poker1eh [ 9h 9c ]
2 folds, MP1 raise, 2 folds, CO calls, button folds, SB folds, Hero calls

FLOP 7h Jh Jd
Hero checks, MP1 checks, CO checks

TURN 9s
Hero bets, MP1 calls, CO folds

RIVER Kd
Hero bets, MP1 raises, Hero reraises, MP1 caps

*** SUMMARY ***Pot: $12.75
Hero [ 9h 9c ] (a full house, nines full of jacks)
MP1 [ Jc Js ] (four of a kind, jacks)

WOW, and the capper for this is, MP1 is a big fish ... never, ever, ever could have put him on this hand. EVER!

A few other hands with like outcomes and I ended up down a couple of BB ... overall not too bad for my first night there. Was very happy with my play which is still where my main focus is.

That's it for now, DVR has started to capture the game so almost time to start watching. (DVRs are the greatest TV gadget ever, never watch live TV again and no more commercials !!!)

AA up.

10.5k Freeroll Review

As promised, I’m posting some of the key hands and more details from last weekends PSO 10.5k freeroll. But, first things first, it is a great morning to be an OILERS fan. Great win last night and now on to the next round starting tomorrow night in Anaheim. Should be another good series – GO OIL GO!

The is a long post so consdier yourself warned!

Through the first hour of the tourney I haven’t played too many hands. After donking off about $350 on the first hand of the tourney and settle in and stay paitent. I don’t really pick up any hands in the first hour other than KK, AJs and KJs and after a pre-flop raise called by one person and a raise on the flop I win the pot – other than a few BB that are checked down, I have yet to see the river (odd really, I would have never thought that would be the case). A few other miminal blind steals and I end the first hour with about $2800 in chips, which is a bit more than the avg of $2500. So far the play seems to be very tight.

Then, early in the second hour with a big stack (and maybe even the chip leader at this point) I play these two donkey hands back to back …

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is MP3 with K♥ 10♠
4 folds, Hero raises to $300, 3 folds, BB calls.

Flop: Q♥ 7♥ A♣ ($675, 2 players)
BB bets $150, Hero calls.

Turn: QD ($975, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks.

River: 2♣ ($975, 2 players)

BB bets $1200, Hero folds.

Uncalled bets: $1200 returned to BB.

Results:Final pot: $975

Then the very next hand …

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is MP2 with 8♠ 8♣
3 folds, Hero calls, 3 folds, SB calls, BB checks.

Flop: 6♠ K♣ 9♣ ($450, 3 players)
SB bets $150, BB folds, Hero calls.

Turn: QD ($750, 2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets $300, SB calls.

River: 10♣ ($1350, 2 players)
SB bets $1050, Hero folds.
Uncalled bets: $1050 returned to SB.

Results:Final pot: $1350

Ouch, what was I thinking … not sure but that cost me about almost half my stack! Time to regroup and stay patient … again. Over the next half hour or so I manage to pickup a few blind steals with decent hands but the blinds are getting up there and it has started to eat away at my stack, am down to about $1300 and in all-in or fold territory. Then the following hand … (sorry quadman!):

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is Button with 3♥ A♥
6 folds, Hero raises all-in $1290, SB folds, BB calls with A9o.

Flop: Q♥ 3♣ 4D ($2680, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2680)

Turn: 7♥ ($2680, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2680)

River: 10D ($2680, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2680)

Results:Final pot: $2680

Well that helps my cause but not out of the woods yet. A short while later I pick up AJo in MP and raise 3 BB and get a short stack to call and putting himself all in with 66. I don’t improve and lose the hand. After posting a few more blinds I’m down to $1770 and pick up …

Pre-flop: (8 players) Hero is Button with A♣ K♣
4 folds, CO raises to $1000, Hero raises all-in $1770, 2 folds, CO calls.

Flop: 4D A♥ KD ($3990, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3990)

Turn: JD ($3990, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3990)

River: 2♣ ($3990, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3990)

Results:Final pot: $3990
CO shows 9s 9h

Huge double up, now I was in position to stay patient and likely get into the money. After sitting tight for the next 20 mins or so and picking up a few blinds along the way we hit the second break and I’m at $4440 and we haven’t hit the money yet – still some work to do. I think shortly after the break we hit the money bubble and now safely into the money and can hopefully pick up a few hands as the really short stacks start to push all in. Here goes …

Pre-flop: (9 players) Hero is CO with Q♣ QD
UTG raises to $1200, 3 folds, MP3 raises all-in $2510, Hero raises all-in $4440.

Flop: Q♥ A♥ 6D ($7120, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $7120)

Turn: 4♥ ($7120, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $7120)

River: 2♠ ($7120, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $7120)
Results:Final pot: $7120
MP3 shows TT

Big time double up, and am now in very good shape. But the key remains staying patient. Five hands later this happens …

Pre-flop: (7 players) poker1eh is BB with 9♣ 10♠
4 folds, Button raises to $1600, SB folds, Hero calls.

Flop: 4♥ 10♥ 9♥ ($3600, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $2400, poker1eh raises all-in $7450, Button calls all-in $2830.Uncalled bets: $2220 returned to poker1eh.

Turn: 9D ($14060, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $14060)

River: 8D ($14060, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $14060)

Results:Final pot: $14060
Button shows Qs Jh

In the end maybe a bit lucky but with top two pair I think I had to push. Worst case I take a big hit to my stack but it wouldn’t be the end of world. If is do make it I have a great stack and am setup nicely to make a run. Two hands later I take two more guys out with this hand …

Pre-flop: (8 players) poker1eh is SB with A♣ K♣
UTG+1 raises all-in $460, 3 folds, Button raises to $2000, Hero raises to $6300.

Flop: 3♣ 7♠ KD ($9160, 2 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1780, Sidepot 1: $7380)

Turn: 5♠ ($9160, 2 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1780, Sidepot 1: $7380)

River: 4♣ ($9160, 2 players + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1780, Sidepot 1: $7380)

Results:Final pot: $9160
UTG shows Js 10s

Now am sitting very comfortably just under 20k in chips and am the chip leader … fun stuff. Again, I’m trying to stay patient not put myself in too much trouble with marginal hands. I lose about 5k when a flush draw doesn’t hit but am still in decent shape. Now I’m really trying to maintain and build a good chip stack for the final table. Just before the final table starts (actually the guy I bust out here is the last to go before the final table) I pick up AQ and it holds up against a guy who went all in with A3 and I pick up another $6600.

Once at the final table I pretty much go card dead, a few limp folds and one push all in with KQs and pick-up the blinds and an early raiser. Then this …

Pre-flop: (6 players) Hero is UTG+1 with 10♥ 10D
UTG folds, Hero raises all-in $14620, 2 folds, SB calls, BB folds.

Flop: 9♣ 3D 7♠ ($30840, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $30840)

Turn: A♠ ($30840, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $30840)

River: 8♥ ($30840, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $30840)

Results:Final pot: $30840
SB shows 9d 9h

And this is it, I’m done, 6th place and $525 later. Not bad for a nights effort J. The last hand kind of sucks as I’m an 80% favorite when we get all the money and unfortunately the guy hits a 2 outer. Oh well, can’t win them all.

That’s it for now, gonna keep my eye out for more of these types of tourneys and who knows, if I can find the time I may invest a bit of the winnings into an MTT that has a similar payout.

Till next time, AA up.

Well I’ve been delinquent in my posting again, have been keeping busy playing and watching the OIL play some great hockey. Huge game tonight, they can put the Sharks away and move on to the next round … GO OIL GO!!!

So this posting will mostly be a recap of the last couple of weeks – I’ll try and keep it brief! I’m still planning to write a few posts about my play and observations over the last three months, hopefully I’ll get to one of them later this week (but don’t hold your breath!).

First off I finished the Party reload and believe it or not, I was up a few BB over about 1800 hands – whew. I still felt like it was a grind and couldn’t put together a couple of winning sessions. I just keep telling myself to stay patient and it will come.

Next up was the PR reload, $50 bonus for 500 raked hands – shouldn’t be to hard to clear. First night out I get totally creamed, down about 25BB and I’m feeling like I need to change things up a bit. So … the next night I decide to buy into a 6-max $20 NL table – WHAT? Yes, that’s right, a 6 max NL game, talk about changing things up! First two sessions I’m killing, up like $40 and thinking this is the best thing since sliced bread. I stayed patient and picked up some premium hands and got paid. But like always, things aren’t that easy and after a few more sessions I not only loose my $40 that I was up, I loose another $40. Time for me to move back to what I’m a little more comfortable playing.

It was an interesting experiment – most of the time I didn’t even know what to do or how to bet or if I should even play my two starting cards. It may sound odd to hear that but I found the game (6-max NL) to be soooooo different then limit hold’em. (and that may be stating the obvious).

So in the end I wrapped up the PR reload the other day and had a net lost $0.37 trying to make $50 in bonus – not very good.

I’ve now started the latest Party reload – put in a couple of hours last night and was up about 16 BB – so a good start to that one. Now we’ll have to see if I can put together a few sessions of positive results (but not holding my breath just yet!).

That pretty much sums up my ring games for the last few weeks, now on to the fun stuff, freeroll tournaments.

About a week an half ago I was able to play in a new player freeroll at RB - $1000 tourney with a short field, I think about 200 people. This was an interesting tourney as I would only be able to play for about an hour before having to do some other things. So the plan was to try and build a bit of a stack so that I could leave and coast into the money. Well let me tell you, build a stack is what I did, I had such a run of cards that at the first break I was chip leader and had more than double that of second place. As I left the table there was no issue with coasting into the money. I left the game, which was too bad because I think I could have owned this tourney, but oh well. As chance would have it I was able to return an hour later and believe it or not, I was still chip leader – but only by a few K at that point. It took about another hour and a bit to finish and after leading the way for most of the tourney I busted out in 3rd place and $100 in my pocked – neat stuff.

And then came this past Sunday, it has been marked on my calendar for a while – the PSO 10k freerol at PR. Finally a tournament that starts a decent time for me, 9 PM. When we (the geek and quadman) first heard about this tourney I thought there would at least a 1000 people – PSO has many thousands of members. As we got closer to the start time it was evident that there wouldn’t be 1000 people and may not even reach 100 (which was amazing to me). The payouts for this freeroll were huge compared to what we’ve been playing, almost 2k for first, the final table all making at least $300 and 30th gets $50. In the end we had 75 people. The plan was to stay patient early on wait for a few decent hands to come my way – it was likely there would be few if any auto folds and we would have to play through everybody to get into the money.

Early on I flopped top pair while in the BB and bet it out and got raised by a limper, I called that raise and ended up folding on the turn because I had no kicker – damm, right out of the gate I’m near the bottom of the leader board. I stayed patient and picked up a few blind steals and few other small pots and by the first break was in OK shape with about the same chips as I started with. As expected, people were slow to bust out with only 15 gone after one hour – this may take a while!

After the break I picked up a few hands and managed to get a slightly above chip stack and really just waited for some cards. After donking a few chips away here and there I started to get a bit short stacked. I managed again to pick up some chips and really positioned myself to coast into the money – but not really in great shape to do anything once I got there. Just after we made the money I picked up QQ and pushed all in and got called by AK – hmm coin flip, need to hope for the best. The flop comes with an A ….. and Q and I double up … cool. Not in perfect shape just yet but now I have some breathing room. A few hands later I picked up AK and end up all in and double up again. Just like that, I’m chip leader … wow. How quick things can turn around. I managed to hold the chip lead for a while and enter the final table at or near the chip lead. At this point I think I could have loosened up a little and maybe used my stack to my advantage rather than wait for some big hands. Anyway, in the end I get all my chips in the middle with TT and get called by 99 – nice, he only has 2 outs – and hits one of them on the flop. I’m done in 6th place and pick up a whopping $525. Awesome, what a feeling! You can bet I’ll be entered into the next PSO freeroll.

OK, long enough post for today, I’m gonna pull some HH from some of my NL games and the big tourney and post some of the key hands in the next couple of days.

In closing, my BR is now a very healthy $1400 :)

Until next time, AA up.

Well the grind is still ongoing but at least I can say I’m moving in the right direction. I’m still working through clearing the Party reload bonus and it looks like there are a couple of bonuses now waiting for me when I clear. Poker Rewards has a reload starting the weekend, 25% up to $50, not much but should clear fairly quickly – only need 500 hands. Also, River Belle has some funky promotion where you can win blah blah blah, but at the end of the day it you play 500 raked hands in the month of May they will give you $50 – again, should be easy enough to get. And with whatever their promo is, maybe I’ll pick up some extra cash.

Now, I’ve been tempting all my readers for the last month about my ‘revelation’. I figure all of you have waited long enough, so, here goes …

‘It’s not all about the money’

WOW, did I just say what I think I said? OK, it is all about the money but let me explain where I’m coming from when I say that.

I’ve been at this for almost three months now and really I think my game has improved and changed a lot since I started. When I say it isn’t about the money the premise is, do I want to ‘learn’ how to play when I’m playing $0.50 / $1.00 or when I’m playing $5.00 / $10.00? If you think back to the timing of when I first said I had this ‘revelation’, it was when I was on my huge downswing.

The thinking is, I’m much happier learning and losing at this level than any high levels. I would rather learn the finer points of the game now when it doesn’t cost me as much money. Don’t get me wrong, the ultimate goal is to make money and the grinding I’ve been doing the last month or so is positive rather then negative. And besides, as my game improves so will the winrate.

I’ve been really trying to focus on each hand rather than what my BR is or even my stack at the table. The challenge (and it still is a challenge) is to stay focused on playing solid poker, I know that I will get sucked out on on a regular basis (especially at this level) but if I make profitable decisions, in the end I will be profitable.

I’ll get more into my BR update in my next post, but for the purpose of this discussion, currently I’ve lost about $50 playing ring games (includes all levels) and my intent is only to move up when I’ve turn that number into a positive one. I now have a sufficient BR to play $1/$2 but what does that gain me – more learning and losing at a higher level.

As I said, I think my game has come a long way over the last month and I don’t want to put a timeframe on when I will move up … but (can’t help myself), if things continue to move in the direction they are going I’m going to play at the same level until the end of May and reevaluate then.

It’s funny how things go and how your mind reacts to your swings. Maybe in a future post I’ll do some fancy graphs (ala Poker Geek), to show what my rollercoaster ride looks like and the mental make up is at each point in the graph.

Hopefully it has been worth the wait and provides some insight for other beginners!

That’s it for now, AA up.

Grind, grind, grind … that is what it feels like for the last couple of weeks. I know I’ve been very delinquent and I apologize to all my many readers!

That being said, I think I left off as I was just feeling like I was coming out of my major downswing and really the last few weeks have been truly a grind. I haven’t won or lost much, just plowing through trying to keep my head above water. I think I’m +40 BB over that period (and most of it coming in one good session). And it’s not like I haven’t played much, I’ve been squeezing in as much as I can (much to the chagrin of poker1eh’s wife).

So, what’s the problem? Well, not really sure, I think I’m just adjusting my game and going through that learning curve. I recently finished reading Small Stakes Hold’em and have now started rereading it and picking up some of the early pre-flop strategies that I may have missed the first time around.

Here is a quick recap of what I’ve been up to the last few weeks …

I finished of the PR reload promo (and managed to come out of it about even, obviously not what I want but an improvement over the last month or so). Once I finished that up, I moved over to River Belle for their sign-up bonus – and actually just finished it up on Friday (and managed to come out of it +$30 …. Yeah!!!). And just as that wrapped up on Friday there was reports of a Party reload, I got that confirmed and last night made my deposit there and started down that road. The reload is 50% up to $100 clearing at 10x. I’ll likely keep plowing through this for the next week or so.

Also, on the weekend there was a $1000 new player freeroll at RB and figured I would sign-up for it. The only problem with this was the timing, starting at 3:30 in the afternoon just as the Oilers and Detroit game started --- major problem for me … well not really. GO OIL GO!!! So while watching the game I had the tourney open on my computer and during commercials and whistles I would check it out and maybe play a few hands. Funny how it worked out, very early on I managed to pickup a few hands and double up. This allowed me the time to miss some hands while watching the game and not be crippled. During the first intermission of the game I really went on a rush and made it as high as 3rd in chips. And from that point on I stayed mostly in the top 10 or 15 for the rest of the tourney. After the game ended I couldn’t spend all my time on playing but again managed to play enough hands to stay competitive. Finally, after 5 hours (which in my opinion is way to long for a freeroll to last), I busted out in 4th place, picking up $80.

This was some of the best and most patient tournament play that I’ve had yet. It was fun and I look forward to the next time I get to play in one. There are a few coming up this month at RB and one via PSO (a 10k freeroll, so I’ll want to be on the top of my game for this one!).

Anyway, that’s it for now, in the coming week I’ll have more posts covering off some of the other happenings of the last little while – including a BR update, review of PR and RB, and of course my revelation!

Back soon, AA up.

And GO OIL GO … biggest game of the year tonight!!!