The Golden Nugget is running a series of poker tournaments in parallel to the WSOP, but with much smaller buy-ins. I happened upon this series after I had planned my trip and the link I had listed today as a PLO8 tournament, so I figured I'd play if I wasn't in day 2 of Event #48. You know what happened, I didn't make day 2, so I went over to the Golden Nugget to play.
It turns out, today's tournament was changed at some point to a Big O tournament. That's simply PLO8 with 5 cards rather than 4. It's an interesting game but for the most part, structurally similar to PLO8.
I started out roughly. We had 15k starting stacks and within the first hour I was down to 6k after getting quarted for a pot. I had nut low and a set with A377J on a 247Q board, when my opponent and I got all our money in. He had the nut low as well with A3 but had a club flush draw which he hit on the river. So rather than I getting 3/4 of the pot, he swiped it out from me and I took only 1/4.
What I'm most proud of is staying calm at that point. The blinds were only 50/100 and with 6k, I still had plenty to play with. I slowly and surely worked my way back up to 12k, then 15k, then before I knew it, I had 21k. All without notable hands.
Then, with AJT97 on a board of 268T4, I was able to guess right that the other two players in the pot were going to low and I made them pay. That got me up to 28k.
Then, I really wish I had the breakdown of how it happened, but I got into a 3 way all in, where they had 15k combined. I had nut low, with wheel and diamond flush draws and I scooped the pot when my diamond hit on the river. That was my high point when I hit 45k.
With a stack that high, I should have been able to make it further in the tournament than where I did, but this is where I started to falter, and my tiredness started to kick in. I started to make some loose calls pre-flop, and my stack started to dwindle down to 30k. I managed to work it back up to 40k when a couple of new players arrived at our table. One of them had me covered and was to my right.
I limped first to act with AQT46 double-suited at 300/600 level, and got a few other callers until the big stack raised to 3300 from the SB. I called as did one other player. My first mistake was not giving him credit for as big a hand as he should have in that spot. Even if he didn't have that big a hand, I still have to give him more credit for that possibility. And that's what happens when I'm tired. I saw my "pretty" hand, which shouldn't have looked so pretty anymore given the action, but I didn't analyze properly.
So now comes the flop of AQ3, and the raiser bets 11k. Warning flags should have been going off in my head. Instead, I saw that I had top-two and surmised that the odds of him having AA were very small now. So I raised. This was a huge mistake. So the first call mistake, led into the second raise mistake, and that is what happens in pot-limit games, The pots grow very fast, but you are never getting worse that 2:1 on your calls, so you have to call often, which is which bad calls early, create situations where you have to make calls later that you would rather not have.
In the end, he had a great hand for that flop, A2457, but I was technically ahead for the high portion of the pot. He needed a 2, 4 or 5 to hit a straight and me not hit an A or a Q for a full house for him to win the high portion of the pot. He needed 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 to win the low. That gave him 18 card for low and 8 cards for high. I needed anything 9 or above for the last two cards to scoop the pot, which gave me 20 cards. Here are the odds:
Pre-flop
http://www.propokertools.com/simulations/show?g=o85&h1=Aqt46&h2=A2457&s=generic
Post flop
http://www.propokertools.com/simulations/show?b=Ah3d+Qc&g=o85&h1=A2457&h2=AQT46&s=generic
He's a slight favorite because he has those 2 chances (turn and river) to hit one of his 8 scoop outs. But, in this exact hand, my play wasn't terrible, but the real analysis should have been pre-flop, with his best possible scenarios.
Aa2**:
http://www.propokertools.com/simulations/show?g=o85&h1=Aqt46&h2=Aa2%2A%2A&s=generic
Aa***:
http://www.propokertools.com/simulations/show?g=o85&h1=Aqt46&h2=Aa%2A%2A%2A&s=generic
My odds decrease significantly when up against AA...
Again, my mistake was not absorbing the declaration that he had a strong hand, and that is what happens when I'm tired. So even though I didn't feel that physically tired, that was proof that I was mentally tired.
So why am I up at 11:10 writing this when I should be sleeping? That's because I'm hoping that this write up will help me organize my thoughts, absorb what I did wrong so that I don't do it again:
Accept responsibility for the past
Control and focus on the present
Prepare for the future
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
WSOP Event #48: $1500 PLO 8/b
Made the drive up from San Diego this morning and drove straight to the Rio to register! After that, I checked into my hotel, but had to wait for the room to be ready. It took about 1.5 hours, but it was ready before I had to head back to the Rio, so I was happy to get all my stuff into the room from the car, because it's INSANELY HOT here! Oh wait, it's the desert. It's supposed to be...
The tournament started off right. I played well with some aggression and some passivity. There was no need to commit tons of chips pre-flop in this game. I worked my stack form 4500 to just under 9k at one point fairly smoothly, without any notable hands. There were quite a few young successful pros at my table (Ryan Laplante and Joshua Field) and 4 other young guys who looked like pros (wannabe pros possibly).
They were playing terrible hands, at least generally for PLO8. My knockout hand is an example of that, which I'll get to later. But the wheels fell off for me in level 4 (75/150). I lost one pot to get me from 9k to 7.5k. Then a short stack raised in front of me and I reraised him to put him all in: AAcJc4c for me and A357 for him. The flop: 457. He flops as straight, and wins. I lost 1k in that pot (odds here). Now down to 6.5k, I call a raise with KhThQQ and we are 3 to the flop. If comes AhJh6d. I check with my straight and flush draw, then next player shoves and the original raiser calls and I call behind. The turn and river at 9 and 7 and the other two players split the pot (AQJ2 for high, and A348 for low). I was break even against them (33%), but I was putting 2k to win 8.5k, so that's a play I need to make all the time.
Final hand, the second player to acts bets 550, but since it's pot limit and the blinds are only 75/150, he can only raise to 525. By his reaction, I can tell that he doesn't have a strong hand, so I make the call with Kc4c4dAh form the small blind and we see a flop with the BB. It comes down Kd4h3c and I check, BB checks, he bets 1.2k, and I raise him my last 4.5k. He calls with 2x2d3d5x and I'm another 60/40 favorite, but he his a 6 on the turn leaving me drawing to a 2 to take the low, or the board to pair for me to take the high.
I'm disappointed to be out, but I'm not disappointed with my play. I had some good opportunities to earn some chips and they didn't pan out.
For now, I'm going to rest and decompress. Then I'm going back to the Rio to play some cash games. Tomorrow, it looks like the Golden Nugget is hosting a smaller PLO8 so I'll go and play that to get some more experience to be more ready for Friday.
The tournament started off right. I played well with some aggression and some passivity. There was no need to commit tons of chips pre-flop in this game. I worked my stack form 4500 to just under 9k at one point fairly smoothly, without any notable hands. There were quite a few young successful pros at my table (Ryan Laplante and Joshua Field) and 4 other young guys who looked like pros (wannabe pros possibly).
They were playing terrible hands, at least generally for PLO8. My knockout hand is an example of that, which I'll get to later. But the wheels fell off for me in level 4 (75/150). I lost one pot to get me from 9k to 7.5k. Then a short stack raised in front of me and I reraised him to put him all in: AAcJc4c for me and A357 for him. The flop: 457. He flops as straight, and wins. I lost 1k in that pot (odds here). Now down to 6.5k, I call a raise with KhThQQ and we are 3 to the flop. If comes AhJh6d. I check with my straight and flush draw, then next player shoves and the original raiser calls and I call behind. The turn and river at 9 and 7 and the other two players split the pot (AQJ2 for high, and A348 for low). I was break even against them (33%), but I was putting 2k to win 8.5k, so that's a play I need to make all the time.
Final hand, the second player to acts bets 550, but since it's pot limit and the blinds are only 75/150, he can only raise to 525. By his reaction, I can tell that he doesn't have a strong hand, so I make the call with Kc4c4dAh form the small blind and we see a flop with the BB. It comes down Kd4h3c and I check, BB checks, he bets 1.2k, and I raise him my last 4.5k. He calls with 2x2d3d5x and I'm another 60/40 favorite, but he his a 6 on the turn leaving me drawing to a 2 to take the low, or the board to pair for me to take the high.
I'm disappointed to be out, but I'm not disappointed with my play. I had some good opportunities to earn some chips and they didn't pan out.
For now, I'm going to rest and decompress. Then I'm going back to the Rio to play some cash games. Tomorrow, it looks like the Golden Nugget is hosting a smaller PLO8 so I'll go and play that to get some more experience to be more ready for Friday.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Finals Details
Out 28th out of 57. Turns out Jim and I only had one more join us as the only three to qualify for the finals twice. Not that it made much difference, but the interesting thing is that the chip numbers worked out as I expected. About 17.5M chips in play with just about 30k average stack. The most interesting thing they did was drop the starting blind levels to 500/1k, even though the lowest semi was 1k/2k, They decided that it would be better for the players which was true. However, they were already at 4k/8k after 1 hour, which is the level I busted. So the average stack was 60k, which is only 7.5BB.
I'm proud of my play overall. The only hiccups I'd say was that I wasn't expecting 500/1k, and so I ended up with an awkward situation because I was so "deep". The blinds had just passed in my first orbit and I was on the button. It folded to me and I decided to raise to 3k with 8s5s. It's not a terrible hand to raise the button if you think there is a high probability that you can steal. It failed miserably as both blinds called. I ended up having to fold to the BB's shove on a 9d8h4d flop. The SB finally made the call after some deliberation, and the BB had Td3d vs Ad9h for the SB. BB hit her river T and crippled the BB. Now, had that 4 been a 5, I would have had a lot of chips to play with.
The next hiccup was with a 22k stack at 1k/2k, I raised UTG with AcQc to 6k, and got called in 2 spots. What's really annoying is that people weren't really calling raises and yet, my first 2 raises are called in 2 spots, including the big stack in the BB. He effectively shoved on the Jd9d3s flop, and I folded as did the other player. So I was down to 16k from 26.5k starting stack and the blinds are creeping. Thankfully, I got JJ after the big stack to my right limped, I shoved, and then the SB flat called, and the big stack folded. I'm glad he did because he flashed 22, and he would have beat my by the river. Thankfully the SB was being quite loose calling with Ts7s, and I doubled back to 27k. I managed to steal some blinds with TT, AQ and A7 to get my stack to a high of 41k, but then went 2 orbits, one at 2k/4k and the other at 4k/8k where there was only one questionable fold on my part. I might have opened shoved with A3o at 2k/4k, but given how active I had just been, and there were still 6 people behind me to act, I think folding is correct there. Unfortunately, I got crap 9-high or worse hands from there on out.
Just after we passed the blinds at 4k/8k at my table, we broke as we were down to 30. I got moved to another table, and was fortunate to be far from the blinds. I was down to 23k, and fortunate again to have short stacks on my left. It was pretty clear that I was going to shove any 2 cards at that point if it was folded to me, but 3 different players ahead of me all shoved 3 consecutive hands, and either won the blinds or doubled up. Then I was in a little predicament. The largest stack (>100k) was now in the BB for 8k. No matter what 2 cards I have, he's calling. So, I had to figure out my threshold for shoving. I settled on any pair, any A, any 2 cards T or bigger, and suited K's and bigger suited Qs (Q9, Q8).
I was lucky to be dealt Ad7h. I shoved, he predictably called, but only after the SB took a long time to fold. He had 44, and unfortunately, that's the sort of hand that only he, with so many chips, can be in a position to call with. I lost the race and was done. Within 8 minutes, they had knocked out another 7 players and were down to 20.
They called for a 10 minute break, and I decided that that was enough watching for me and it was time to come home.
Overall, I profited from the tourney series and gave myself a chance at a big score. I'm feeling quite happy about my play, and am looking forward to going back as they are repeating this structure with a 10k entry to a WPT event in Vegas in November.
Tomorrow I celebrate my birthday, and then on Tuesday I'm off to Vegas for event #48: $1500 PLO8. I'm excited! I'll check off something I've wanted to do for a very long time!
I'm proud of my play overall. The only hiccups I'd say was that I wasn't expecting 500/1k, and so I ended up with an awkward situation because I was so "deep". The blinds had just passed in my first orbit and I was on the button. It folded to me and I decided to raise to 3k with 8s5s. It's not a terrible hand to raise the button if you think there is a high probability that you can steal. It failed miserably as both blinds called. I ended up having to fold to the BB's shove on a 9d8h4d flop. The SB finally made the call after some deliberation, and the BB had Td3d vs Ad9h for the SB. BB hit her river T and crippled the BB. Now, had that 4 been a 5, I would have had a lot of chips to play with.
The next hiccup was with a 22k stack at 1k/2k, I raised UTG with AcQc to 6k, and got called in 2 spots. What's really annoying is that people weren't really calling raises and yet, my first 2 raises are called in 2 spots, including the big stack in the BB. He effectively shoved on the Jd9d3s flop, and I folded as did the other player. So I was down to 16k from 26.5k starting stack and the blinds are creeping. Thankfully, I got JJ after the big stack to my right limped, I shoved, and then the SB flat called, and the big stack folded. I'm glad he did because he flashed 22, and he would have beat my by the river. Thankfully the SB was being quite loose calling with Ts7s, and I doubled back to 27k. I managed to steal some blinds with TT, AQ and A7 to get my stack to a high of 41k, but then went 2 orbits, one at 2k/4k and the other at 4k/8k where there was only one questionable fold on my part. I might have opened shoved with A3o at 2k/4k, but given how active I had just been, and there were still 6 people behind me to act, I think folding is correct there. Unfortunately, I got crap 9-high or worse hands from there on out.
Just after we passed the blinds at 4k/8k at my table, we broke as we were down to 30. I got moved to another table, and was fortunate to be far from the blinds. I was down to 23k, and fortunate again to have short stacks on my left. It was pretty clear that I was going to shove any 2 cards at that point if it was folded to me, but 3 different players ahead of me all shoved 3 consecutive hands, and either won the blinds or doubled up. Then I was in a little predicament. The largest stack (>100k) was now in the BB for 8k. No matter what 2 cards I have, he's calling. So, I had to figure out my threshold for shoving. I settled on any pair, any A, any 2 cards T or bigger, and suited K's and bigger suited Qs (Q9, Q8).
I was lucky to be dealt Ad7h. I shoved, he predictably called, but only after the SB took a long time to fold. He had 44, and unfortunately, that's the sort of hand that only he, with so many chips, can be in a position to call with. I lost the race and was done. Within 8 minutes, they had knocked out another 7 players and were down to 20.
They called for a 10 minute break, and I decided that that was enough watching for me and it was time to come home.
Overall, I profited from the tourney series and gave myself a chance at a big score. I'm feeling quite happy about my play, and am looking forward to going back as they are repeating this structure with a 10k entry to a WPT event in Vegas in November.
Tomorrow I celebrate my birthday, and then on Tuesday I'm off to Vegas for event #48: $1500 PLO8. I'm excited! I'll check off something I've wanted to do for a very long time!
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Finals Analysis part 2
Here's the information that I know:
Finals start the blinds at 1k/2k, unless tonight's tourney miraculously ends at 500/1k.
# players played:
Semi #1: 42
Semi #2: 58 (the most)
Semi #3: ??
Semi #4: 48
#2 was more evenly spread while #5 was more top-heavy. I think this makes some sense because with fewer players, and fewer chips in play at the end, each blind accounted for a greater % of the chips in play, and the players most likely to be able to take advantage of that would be the big stacks.
However, I had heard that semi #1 had 2 top stacks of about 54k, so it was less top-heavy compared to semi #5.
How does this help me? I guess it really doesn't... It would appear that my stack of 26.5k will be below average, but middle of the pack. Total chips in play, before removal of double qualifications, will be probably 1.9M, and I think it's fair to assume total chips in play after removing double qualifications will be about 1.7M to 1.8M. That means average will be about 30k, which is 15BB. The blinds levels will be
1k/2k
2k/4k
4k/8k
After that, I'm assuming it'll be 5k/10k given how they structure the early part of the tourney, but no qualifier has ever reached that point, so I don't know for sure.
I've got to figure out how to get though the first couple blind levels first, and that's the tough part. With 13BB dropping to 6.5BB after the first 20 minutes, it would seem that I'd have to be aggressive. However, there has been talk that "chop talk" starts at around 20 people left. So do I try and tread water and steal no more than once per round? Or do I go out swinging and try and build buffer or a big stack early?
I guess part will be feel:
- Are the players playing tight not to go out on the first few hands?
- Are the players on my left loose callers from what I know?
- Do the players on my left know that I'm prone to shove wide when my stack is short compared to the BB?
- Will they care?
- Will the short stacks gamble appropriately?
- Will the big stacks over or under defend their blinds?
The other part will be studying my Nash Equilibriums for push/fold. I've played a ton of Hyper-Turbo SNGs on PokerStars back in the day. Those were the epitome of knowing when and how to push or fold. However, the crowd participating here are different than those players, and I'm wondering if I should adapt or try and play as close to what I think GTO play is (which, I only have a vague idea of what that would be in this case...)
Lots to think of. If anyone out there has some feedback, let me know. Thanks,
Finals start the blinds at 1k/2k, unless tonight's tourney miraculously ends at 500/1k.
# players played:
Semi #1: 42
Semi #2: 58 (the most)
Semi #3: ??
Semi #4: 48
Semi #5: 44
Semi #6: 46
Chip distribution from semi #2
87 / 75 / 61 / 46.5 / 32 / 26.5 / 21 / 18.5 / 15.5 / 8 (391k total, 6.75k/pp starting)
Chip distribution from semi #5
75.5 / 55.5 / 36.5 / 26.5 / 22 / 19.5 / 19 / 19 / 6 / 5 (284.5k total, 6.5k/pp starting)
There were at least 2 double qualifications, eliminating stacks of 26.5k and 61k.
The chips distributions as a function of % of chips:
#2: 22.2% / 19.2% / 15.6% / 11.9% / 8.2% / 6.8% / 5.4% / 4.7% / 4.0% / 2.0%
#5: 26.4% / 19.5% / 12.8% / 9.3% / 7.7% / 6.9% / 6.75% / 6.75% / 2.1% / 1.8%
However, I had heard that semi #1 had 2 top stacks of about 54k, so it was less top-heavy compared to semi #5.
How does this help me? I guess it really doesn't... It would appear that my stack of 26.5k will be below average, but middle of the pack. Total chips in play, before removal of double qualifications, will be probably 1.9M, and I think it's fair to assume total chips in play after removing double qualifications will be about 1.7M to 1.8M. That means average will be about 30k, which is 15BB. The blinds levels will be
1k/2k
2k/4k
4k/8k
After that, I'm assuming it'll be 5k/10k given how they structure the early part of the tourney, but no qualifier has ever reached that point, so I don't know for sure.
I've got to figure out how to get though the first couple blind levels first, and that's the tough part. With 13BB dropping to 6.5BB after the first 20 minutes, it would seem that I'd have to be aggressive. However, there has been talk that "chop talk" starts at around 20 people left. So do I try and tread water and steal no more than once per round? Or do I go out swinging and try and build buffer or a big stack early?
I guess part will be feel:
- Are the players playing tight not to go out on the first few hands?
- Are the players on my left loose callers from what I know?
- Do the players on my left know that I'm prone to shove wide when my stack is short compared to the BB?
- Will they care?
- Will the short stacks gamble appropriately?
- Will the big stacks over or under defend their blinds?
The other part will be studying my Nash Equilibriums for push/fold. I've played a ton of Hyper-Turbo SNGs on PokerStars back in the day. Those were the epitome of knowing when and how to push or fold. However, the crowd participating here are different than those players, and I'm wondering if I should adapt or try and play as close to what I think GTO play is (which, I only have a vague idea of what that would be in this case...)
Lots to think of. If anyone out there has some feedback, let me know. Thanks,
Week 23: Semi-finals #2
I managed to qualify again, with the exact same stack as last week: 26.5k. What that means is that I have effectively removed 26.5k chips from the finals total chip count since we forfeit our lowest stacks. I had a 38.5k stack at one point with 12 left, but was being appropriately aggressive on the bubble since my table was really tight, and lost 1/3 when I ran into a good hand.
There were 3 20k+ stacks and 2 10-15k stacks, and I surmised that I wasn't going to get called on my PF raises by anything less than a 10% hand. Well, that's exactly what happened when I ran Q9s into JJ in the SB. I raised to 6k @ 1k/2k level, she shipped for 12.5k total and I had to call the extra 6k. She flopped a set to add insult to injury. From there, I treaded water on my stack, shoving with anything decent to steal blinds so I was fluctuating between 20.5k and 26.5k.
I wasn't the only one to earn himself a second entry to the finals. A man named Jim, who qualified last Tuesday with a 61k stack, qualified again with a 75.5k stack! That means he has removed those 61k from play. That's good because the more chips removed from the table, the more valuable the chips that I have become.
I'm going to do another full Finals analysis later in the week. I'm going to call the poker room tonight to find out how many players there will be for the final flight. I found out that last Tuesday was the night with the most entries by far, so that really changes my analysis from last week. The good news is that one of the nights finished at the 1k/2k blind level, so I'll have a little more play in the Finals.
As for my overall play this week, I started out a little loose, and dropped my 10k down to 8.5k pretty quick. I was able to buckle down, and honestly was happy to get a streak of really bad cards that I was happy to fold away. It had been so long since I had seen a playable hand that when I raised A9o in mid position, everyone was in a hurry to fold! I got dealt AA the very next hand and raised the exact same amount. I had hoped that someone would think I was trying to get out of line, and I got lucky when the man next to me shoved. I insta-called and he showed AK and I won. With that, I had a 20k stack, and was in very good position to be patient or aggressive. I chose patient because there was a player 2 to my left that was calling EVERYTHING! He wasn't going anywhere, and so I just chose to wait things out. I did my part calling short stack all-ins and winning small pots here and there to work my way up to the 38.5k high point. But the fact is, that AA had was the one defining hand of the night.
Cash games went well early and crappy late. I won $100 before the tourney and lost $400 after.
-295 1/2 NLHE
+148 3/6 LHE
-443 3/6 LO8
+162 tourney
+200 promos
-19 Food
=-247
There were 3 20k+ stacks and 2 10-15k stacks, and I surmised that I wasn't going to get called on my PF raises by anything less than a 10% hand. Well, that's exactly what happened when I ran Q9s into JJ in the SB. I raised to 6k @ 1k/2k level, she shipped for 12.5k total and I had to call the extra 6k. She flopped a set to add insult to injury. From there, I treaded water on my stack, shoving with anything decent to steal blinds so I was fluctuating between 20.5k and 26.5k.
I wasn't the only one to earn himself a second entry to the finals. A man named Jim, who qualified last Tuesday with a 61k stack, qualified again with a 75.5k stack! That means he has removed those 61k from play. That's good because the more chips removed from the table, the more valuable the chips that I have become.
I'm going to do another full Finals analysis later in the week. I'm going to call the poker room tonight to find out how many players there will be for the final flight. I found out that last Tuesday was the night with the most entries by far, so that really changes my analysis from last week. The good news is that one of the nights finished at the 1k/2k blind level, so I'll have a little more play in the Finals.
As for my overall play this week, I started out a little loose, and dropped my 10k down to 8.5k pretty quick. I was able to buckle down, and honestly was happy to get a streak of really bad cards that I was happy to fold away. It had been so long since I had seen a playable hand that when I raised A9o in mid position, everyone was in a hurry to fold! I got dealt AA the very next hand and raised the exact same amount. I had hoped that someone would think I was trying to get out of line, and I got lucky when the man next to me shoved. I insta-called and he showed AK and I won. With that, I had a 20k stack, and was in very good position to be patient or aggressive. I chose patient because there was a player 2 to my left that was calling EVERYTHING! He wasn't going anywhere, and so I just chose to wait things out. I did my part calling short stack all-ins and winning small pots here and there to work my way up to the 38.5k high point. But the fact is, that AA had was the one defining hand of the night.
Cash games went well early and crappy late. I won $100 before the tourney and lost $400 after.
-295 1/2 NLHE
+148 3/6 LHE
-443 3/6 LO8
+162 tourney
+200 promos
-19 Food
=-247
Friday, June 13, 2014
Finals Analysis part 1
Let's gather up all the numbers I have as of now to see if I can make some inferences for the finals. I'll refine this analysis when I go back next Tuesday and play again. Hopefully I'm able to extract more data from the Floor Man for yesterday's semi-final, and next Monday's semi-final, on top of the info I'll get for the night I play.
Here's the chip counts for the final players on Tuesday:
87k
75k
61k
46.5k
32k
26.5k (me)
21k
18.5k
15.5k
8k
There were 900 entries available through qualifying, which would have worked out to 150 entries per semi-final. A total of 391k chips were in play across 58 players on Tuesday. Each player earned their initial 5k stack through 1 entry, so that accounts for 290k in chips. That leaves 101k additional chips, which means that the number of entries out of the 900 which were directed to stacks on Tuesday was 159 (101 additional 1k + 58 players). There is one assumption here that the color up of the chips didn't add too much money in play.
That actually surprises me. Given that the Floor Man has told me that there were over 70 players registered for every night, I thought with the lower turn out there would be less than the 150 entry average.
All I know from the first semi-final on Monday is that there were only 42 players, and the top stacks to make it to the final were in the range of 54k. Assuming that the last 4 semi-finals will have 70 players and assuming that they will have the same average chip stack as we did on Tuesday (which will be high since we had >150 entries) I came up with the following chip distribution for the final table:
> 100k: 4
90-100k: 4
80-90k: 1
70-80k: 5
60-70k: 2
50-60k: 5
40-50k: 2
30-40k: 10
20-30k: 11
10-20k: 10
0-10k: 6
It may seem weird that the top-stacks will be as evenly distributed as that, but because you have the combination of 6 separate tournaments, I do actually expect it to be very smooth at the top with all buckets above 50k to have roughly the same number of people.
And yes, some people will try to limp into the finals with 1BB or 2BB stacks...
We finished our tournament at the 2k/4k blind level which was the lowest blind level of the two nights. Until I get more information next week, I'll assume that this will be the starting blind level for the Finals.
I'm also going to ignore multiple final qualifications, in which the player will forfeit his lowest chips stack(s) and play only with his/her big stack. I'd much prefer to combine, but those are the rules.
I'll be starting with a 26.5k stack, with a projected average stack of 42.7k. I'll be ~45th out of 60 players with 6.5BB.
My table draw will be critical, but since my M is still about 4.5, with the average M around 7, I can afford to go one round without open shoving to steal the blinds but that's about it. I think the threshold of 20k is needed against a full table to not be called light on my shoves. It will really be an exercise in my push/fold ranges, and figuring out my opponents call/fold ranges to my pushes.
I'm looking forward to next Tuesday. It can't come soon enough!
Here's the chip counts for the final players on Tuesday:
87k
75k
61k
46.5k
32k
26.5k (me)
21k
18.5k
15.5k
8k
There were 900 entries available through qualifying, which would have worked out to 150 entries per semi-final. A total of 391k chips were in play across 58 players on Tuesday. Each player earned their initial 5k stack through 1 entry, so that accounts for 290k in chips. That leaves 101k additional chips, which means that the number of entries out of the 900 which were directed to stacks on Tuesday was 159 (101 additional 1k + 58 players). There is one assumption here that the color up of the chips didn't add too much money in play.
That actually surprises me. Given that the Floor Man has told me that there were over 70 players registered for every night, I thought with the lower turn out there would be less than the 150 entry average.
All I know from the first semi-final on Monday is that there were only 42 players, and the top stacks to make it to the final were in the range of 54k. Assuming that the last 4 semi-finals will have 70 players and assuming that they will have the same average chip stack as we did on Tuesday (which will be high since we had >150 entries) I came up with the following chip distribution for the final table:
> 100k: 4
90-100k: 4
80-90k: 1
70-80k: 5
60-70k: 2
50-60k: 5
40-50k: 2
30-40k: 10
20-30k: 11
10-20k: 10
0-10k: 6
It may seem weird that the top-stacks will be as evenly distributed as that, but because you have the combination of 6 separate tournaments, I do actually expect it to be very smooth at the top with all buckets above 50k to have roughly the same number of people.
And yes, some people will try to limp into the finals with 1BB or 2BB stacks...
We finished our tournament at the 2k/4k blind level which was the lowest blind level of the two nights. Until I get more information next week, I'll assume that this will be the starting blind level for the Finals.
I'm also going to ignore multiple final qualifications, in which the player will forfeit his lowest chips stack(s) and play only with his/her big stack. I'd much prefer to combine, but those are the rules.
I'll be starting with a 26.5k stack, with a projected average stack of 42.7k. I'll be ~45th out of 60 players with 6.5BB.
My table draw will be critical, but since my M is still about 4.5, with the average M around 7, I can afford to go one round without open shoving to steal the blinds but that's about it. I think the threshold of 20k is needed against a full table to not be called light on my shoves. It will really be an exercise in my push/fold ranges, and figuring out my opponents call/fold ranges to my pushes.
I'm looking forward to next Tuesday. It can't come soon enough!
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Week 22: Semi-final #1
Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm prone to over thinking things a little. So... most of yesterday was spent trying to figure out little things like:
- Should I get to the card room early and play a little cash to work out the jitters, or only arrive in time to play the tourney and forget about cash for the moment.
- How many chips are likely going to be in play? How many total qualifications would there have been and what % of those will be multiples (2,3,4,5, or 6)?
- Would the floor man give me the details for the Monday night qualifier?
In the end, I decided that I would arrive at the card room 1.5 hours before the tourney to play an hour of cash beforehand. The goal was simply to get in game flow before the tourney, and try to play cash like the tourney (tight), not like my usual cash game (loose-aggressive). It worked out nicely as I booked a $47 profit and was mentally primed for the tournament.
Playing cash also gave me the opportunity to talk to the floor man about the tournament the night before. He told me that there were 70 qualifications, but only 42 showed. Some no shows were expected as some people who played the tourney during the qualifying period were not there to qualify, but to simply play a tournament. Other's may have forgot, and the room is open to allowing them to re-schedule to another day, which is nice of them.
He also said that all nights had about 70 qualifiers, which is useful information. The tourney series ran for 30 weeks, which meant there were 900 qualifications up for grabs. I had guesstimated on Monday that there was going to be about 60 per night, so that tells me there will be fewer large stacks per night.
I also found out that the finals will start at the lowest of the blind levels of the 6 semis and that the Monday semi finished at 4k-8k (too high!). So, I'm hoping that one of the nights finishes fast to give us some play in the finals, otherwise it'll be a shove fest.
The weirdest things I discovered is that I still had to pay to play in this tourney. They still took the $8 rake! That was totally unexpected. I would have preferred to have known that beforehand....
We started our semi-final, and our table only had 3 people will additional chips. As they were distributing out the chips, I wondered if some of the bigger stacks would be a little looser because they would not be all-in against a shorter stack. How would I know that would come into play first hand!
I'm in middle position with Ad8d, blinds are 100/100 and I raise over 1 limper on my right to 400. The BB calls and the limper calls and we are 3 to the flop. Run good begins: flop is 887. There is already 1300 in the pot and I have 4600 in my stack, and it is checked to me. I bet 1100, fully expecting everyone to fold. The BB folds but the limper calls. Turn is a K. He checks, and I move in for the rest of my 3500. Hey, I'd be happy with the 3500 in the pot, but lo and behold, the guy to my right is one of the guys with extra chips. He's got an extra 2k, so he pulls out the calling chips and looks at his remaining 2k. He's not thinking about my hand, he just cares that he'll have chips left if he loses and eventually makes the call with K7 for 2 pair. I fade the K river, and I have doubled up first hand. I couldn't have asked for better practice for my qualifier next week with 10k, as I now have 10.5k in may stack after the first hand of the tournament. My run good continued from there. I won a few small pots, and got up to 14k. Then my run good paused, and I lost a hand flush over flush, to get knocked down to 7k, but then re-doubled and before I knew it I was up at 18k.
From there, most of the people had sub 8k stacks, with some at sub 4k stacks, which meant I had to make some loose all-in calls from the BB versus all-ins from short stacks. I called 2k more at 400/800 from the BB on an open shove with T6o, and beat AJo. He wasn't happy with my call, let me tell you. A few more like that, and I had run my stack to 40k with 20 people left. Then things stopped working. I got dealt 44 in quick succession and raise PF, only to be called in 2 places both times and having to fold after missing the flop. That brought me down to 32k. Then I made a bone-headed mistake. I meant to raise to 5k at the 1k/2k level, and tossed out a 5k chip, but neglected to say raise, so it was interpreted as an overchip call. I was instead called by the button and SB. I was on a pure steal with Js4s. The flop came 4c5s9s, which is as good a flop I could have expected for my hand. SB shoved for 8k, I re-shoved to isolate, but the BTN came along. He flipped over 94o for flopped 2 pair and the SB showed 85o for flopped middle pair. It was a flip between me and the BTN, one that I lost and crippled me down to 14k. If I had raised correctly, they all would have folded and I would have won the 3k in blinds. Live and learn...
From there, I open-shoved a few times, and was able to steal blinds enough times to get myself back above 20k. The it was a battle of attrition. We were down to 12, so players were being tight not wanting to bubble. I got lucky in one spot where I open shoved A6o from UTG and the BB to my right, who had enough chips to call, and still have *some* left over, mucked AsJs. I flashed him my A to make him feel like he made the right play to fold. The irony is that he was the next person knocked out after running bad into the person 2 to his right in 3 hands in a row.
Once he was gone and we were down to hand-for-hand play, everything slowed down, and that's where the blinds start going up fast. No one wants to play, so we finally knocked out the bubble boy and I made the finals. The stacks at the end of the night for our final 10 were: 26.5k (me), 15.5, 75, 32, 46.5, 61, 87, 18.5, 21, 8. That leaves me with a below average stack of 6BB @ 2k/4k blinds if that's where we start the finals. However, the average stack, 39.1k is less than 10BB, so there should be opportunities to steal blinds if I need to. It'll all be able knowing my push/fold equities at that time.
Given that last night's average starting stack was roughly 6.75k and the night before there were only 42 players, that means that the average stack from the night before was probably around 28.5k. So, my stack isn't terrible relatively so far. Though if more players play the other qualifiers, my stack will go down further relative to average.
I'm super happy that I qualified. It'll be much less stressful next week and I can play solid poker instead of scared poker. I'm really looking forward to it.
After the tourney, I played some cash. I played 15 minutes of 3/6 LHE and won 2 hands to leave +57, then moved over thee NLHE where I then continued to run well and booked a 467 win!
So my stats are now:
+69 1/2 NLHE
+82 3/6 LHE
-443 3/6 LO8
+172 tourney
+200 promos
-18 food
= $62!
See you next week!
- Should I get to the card room early and play a little cash to work out the jitters, or only arrive in time to play the tourney and forget about cash for the moment.
- How many chips are likely going to be in play? How many total qualifications would there have been and what % of those will be multiples (2,3,4,5, or 6)?
- Would the floor man give me the details for the Monday night qualifier?
In the end, I decided that I would arrive at the card room 1.5 hours before the tourney to play an hour of cash beforehand. The goal was simply to get in game flow before the tourney, and try to play cash like the tourney (tight), not like my usual cash game (loose-aggressive). It worked out nicely as I booked a $47 profit and was mentally primed for the tournament.
Playing cash also gave me the opportunity to talk to the floor man about the tournament the night before. He told me that there were 70 qualifications, but only 42 showed. Some no shows were expected as some people who played the tourney during the qualifying period were not there to qualify, but to simply play a tournament. Other's may have forgot, and the room is open to allowing them to re-schedule to another day, which is nice of them.
He also said that all nights had about 70 qualifiers, which is useful information. The tourney series ran for 30 weeks, which meant there were 900 qualifications up for grabs. I had guesstimated on Monday that there was going to be about 60 per night, so that tells me there will be fewer large stacks per night.
I also found out that the finals will start at the lowest of the blind levels of the 6 semis and that the Monday semi finished at 4k-8k (too high!). So, I'm hoping that one of the nights finishes fast to give us some play in the finals, otherwise it'll be a shove fest.
The weirdest things I discovered is that I still had to pay to play in this tourney. They still took the $8 rake! That was totally unexpected. I would have preferred to have known that beforehand....
We started our semi-final, and our table only had 3 people will additional chips. As they were distributing out the chips, I wondered if some of the bigger stacks would be a little looser because they would not be all-in against a shorter stack. How would I know that would come into play first hand!
I'm in middle position with Ad8d, blinds are 100/100 and I raise over 1 limper on my right to 400. The BB calls and the limper calls and we are 3 to the flop. Run good begins: flop is 887. There is already 1300 in the pot and I have 4600 in my stack, and it is checked to me. I bet 1100, fully expecting everyone to fold. The BB folds but the limper calls. Turn is a K. He checks, and I move in for the rest of my 3500. Hey, I'd be happy with the 3500 in the pot, but lo and behold, the guy to my right is one of the guys with extra chips. He's got an extra 2k, so he pulls out the calling chips and looks at his remaining 2k. He's not thinking about my hand, he just cares that he'll have chips left if he loses and eventually makes the call with K7 for 2 pair. I fade the K river, and I have doubled up first hand. I couldn't have asked for better practice for my qualifier next week with 10k, as I now have 10.5k in may stack after the first hand of the tournament. My run good continued from there. I won a few small pots, and got up to 14k. Then my run good paused, and I lost a hand flush over flush, to get knocked down to 7k, but then re-doubled and before I knew it I was up at 18k.
From there, most of the people had sub 8k stacks, with some at sub 4k stacks, which meant I had to make some loose all-in calls from the BB versus all-ins from short stacks. I called 2k more at 400/800 from the BB on an open shove with T6o, and beat AJo. He wasn't happy with my call, let me tell you. A few more like that, and I had run my stack to 40k with 20 people left. Then things stopped working. I got dealt 44 in quick succession and raise PF, only to be called in 2 places both times and having to fold after missing the flop. That brought me down to 32k. Then I made a bone-headed mistake. I meant to raise to 5k at the 1k/2k level, and tossed out a 5k chip, but neglected to say raise, so it was interpreted as an overchip call. I was instead called by the button and SB. I was on a pure steal with Js4s. The flop came 4c5s9s, which is as good a flop I could have expected for my hand. SB shoved for 8k, I re-shoved to isolate, but the BTN came along. He flipped over 94o for flopped 2 pair and the SB showed 85o for flopped middle pair. It was a flip between me and the BTN, one that I lost and crippled me down to 14k. If I had raised correctly, they all would have folded and I would have won the 3k in blinds. Live and learn...
From there, I open-shoved a few times, and was able to steal blinds enough times to get myself back above 20k. The it was a battle of attrition. We were down to 12, so players were being tight not wanting to bubble. I got lucky in one spot where I open shoved A6o from UTG and the BB to my right, who had enough chips to call, and still have *some* left over, mucked AsJs. I flashed him my A to make him feel like he made the right play to fold. The irony is that he was the next person knocked out after running bad into the person 2 to his right in 3 hands in a row.
Once he was gone and we were down to hand-for-hand play, everything slowed down, and that's where the blinds start going up fast. No one wants to play, so we finally knocked out the bubble boy and I made the finals. The stacks at the end of the night for our final 10 were: 26.5k (me), 15.5, 75, 32, 46.5, 61, 87, 18.5, 21, 8. That leaves me with a below average stack of 6BB @ 2k/4k blinds if that's where we start the finals. However, the average stack, 39.1k is less than 10BB, so there should be opportunities to steal blinds if I need to. It'll all be able knowing my push/fold equities at that time.
Given that last night's average starting stack was roughly 6.75k and the night before there were only 42 players, that means that the average stack from the night before was probably around 28.5k. So, my stack isn't terrible relatively so far. Though if more players play the other qualifiers, my stack will go down further relative to average.
I'm super happy that I qualified. It'll be much less stressful next week and I can play solid poker instead of scared poker. I'm really looking forward to it.
After the tourney, I played some cash. I played 15 minutes of 3/6 LHE and won 2 hands to leave +57, then moved over thee NLHE where I then continued to run well and booked a 467 win!
So my stats are now:
+69 1/2 NLHE
+82 3/6 LHE
-443 3/6 LO8
+172 tourney
+200 promos
-18 food
= $62!
See you next week!
Week 21
The last week to add to my qualifications ended on the bubble. I finished 12/49. I'm still debating if I made a mistake pushing there, when I was 9th in chips but with only a few BB stack. It really depends on what was important to me, and that's where I'm conflicted.
Since the tourney has a regular payout schedule, then I need to shove there to increase my $ equity. However, I am also playing to increase my qualifications to the semi-finals, which means that unless I'm 11th or 12th in that spot, I should still be playing tighter. There's a good explanation of this from Mike "Timex" McDonald here about playing a large bubble payout, which in effect, is what a qualifier tourney is doing.
So, I went for the money rationalizing that I already had 2 days of seats and that the extra 1k might not make that much of a difference on my second day.
So now the qualifications are done. I qualified 7 times out of 21. Which is better than average as there was about 35 people per tournament. It was also profitable to the tune of $180 which was a nice added bonus!
I played some cash games afterwards and I ran terribly in LO8 (-420) and ran like a god (+220) in the few minutes of NLHE I was playing before I got moved to the LO8 tables.
Running totals with this week:
-445: 1/2 NLHE
+25 3/6 LHE
-443 3/6 LO8
+180 tourney
+200 promos
-18 food
= -$501
Next week, I start my first semi-final. It'll be my short-stack day (5k starting stack).
Wish me luck...
Since the tourney has a regular payout schedule, then I need to shove there to increase my $ equity. However, I am also playing to increase my qualifications to the semi-finals, which means that unless I'm 11th or 12th in that spot, I should still be playing tighter. There's a good explanation of this from Mike "Timex" McDonald here about playing a large bubble payout, which in effect, is what a qualifier tourney is doing.
So, I went for the money rationalizing that I already had 2 days of seats and that the extra 1k might not make that much of a difference on my second day.
So now the qualifications are done. I qualified 7 times out of 21. Which is better than average as there was about 35 people per tournament. It was also profitable to the tune of $180 which was a nice added bonus!
I played some cash games afterwards and I ran terribly in LO8 (-420) and ran like a god (+220) in the few minutes of NLHE I was playing before I got moved to the LO8 tables.
Running totals with this week:
-445: 1/2 NLHE
+25 3/6 LHE
-443 3/6 LO8
+180 tourney
+200 promos
-18 food
= -$501
Next week, I start my first semi-final. It'll be my short-stack day (5k starting stack).
Wish me luck...
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Weeks 19 and 20
As many of you followers (are there any of you?) know, when I don't post, it's because things went bad. So, without further ado, here's how bad it was over the past 2 weeks:
5/21/2014: -671 NLHE, -45 trny
5/26/2014: -669 NLHE, -45 trny
Both times, I could have left with a smaller loss, or profit even, but just kept playing despite knowing I was not playing my best.
The only redeeming event in the past 2 weeks is that, even though I didn't cash in the tourney on 5/26, I did final table, so I earned myself a new 5k stack on a second semi-final day. I have chosen 6/10, so now I will have 2 semi-finals from which to make the finals. While I would love to qualify for the finals from the semis on 6/10, it will be tough as I expect most players will have 10k stacks that day. I hope to use that day as a study session to figure out the best approach for my 6/17 semi-finals, where I will be playing with a 10k stack.
I still have one more week to earn extra 1k chips for my 6/10 semi, and I will likely go back this Tuesday.
As for cash game analysis, I finally got around to updating my spreadsheet. Week 19 was bad luck all around, and yet I could have left with a profit had I been disciplined. I was disciplined for a bit as I managed to fold KK pre-flop to an UTG limp-raise which is almost (and was again) AA. However, that wasn't the only time I ran into AA:
I called a 3-bet PF from a very loose-aggressive player with K9s, and called his all-in for about 50% of the pot on the 732r flop. He woke up with AA. I had JJ on the button which I had straddled. I 3-bet an known player who plays lots of hands PF, and he 4-bet me, and I 5-bet shoved and he showed AA. In another pot, this one, in retrospect I played too aggressively for the opponent, I 4-bet shoved 44, and he won with AA. For the first time in a couple of weeks, I lost my flips. So all of that together made for a pretty bad session. The more I lost, the more aggressive I became (44 4-bet shove as an example). When it comes to tilt control, that is something I definitely have to work on: No matter how the game is going, especially if the game is going bad, I need to keep my mind open (it tends to shut off and I'm unable to process the blatant information right in front of me) and keep calm. Easier said than done, but identifying the problem is the first step to being able to find the corrective actions to prevent it.
Week 20, I think I may still have been on tilt from the week before. I played a lot more hands, played them more aggressively (very high raise %, high VPIP, and very low limp %). Doesn't help that I got unlucky too in big pots. One of the hands after my phone died, had me with AcKc on the button, straddled. I raised 4 limpers to 25, and the SB 3-bet to 100, which I 4-bet shoved $250 and he called with KdTd. He was like "you've been really aggressive from the button", which was true. So, after I got myself in the best position possible, he flops a T and I'm stacked again. After that, I overplayed every hand, and stacked myself with top-pair, no flush draw on a monotone board, and my opponent had the only thing he could after check/calling the flop c-bet and c/raising the turn bet: a strong flush.
So, here are my cumulative results:
-665: 1/2 NLHE
+25 3/6 LHE
-23 3/6 LO8
+225 tourney
+200 promos
-11.50 food
= -249.50
Considering, it's not all bad, but given the quality of the players in the game, I find that I'm lowering myself too much to their level, rather than improving my play to beat them.
For the next few sessions, I'm going to go later, so that I focus on the tourney and the cash games will be secondary (for the past couple weeks I've been trying to get in 2 hours of cash before the tourney, and then some afterwards). Secondly, I plan not to chart my play, but write down the hands that "known" players are playing and how they are playing them. I need to figure out if there are some exploits I can take advantage of, or if there are some things that they are doing naturally which take advantage of my game.
5/21/2014: -671 NLHE, -45 trny
5/26/2014: -669 NLHE, -45 trny
Both times, I could have left with a smaller loss, or profit even, but just kept playing despite knowing I was not playing my best.
The only redeeming event in the past 2 weeks is that, even though I didn't cash in the tourney on 5/26, I did final table, so I earned myself a new 5k stack on a second semi-final day. I have chosen 6/10, so now I will have 2 semi-finals from which to make the finals. While I would love to qualify for the finals from the semis on 6/10, it will be tough as I expect most players will have 10k stacks that day. I hope to use that day as a study session to figure out the best approach for my 6/17 semi-finals, where I will be playing with a 10k stack.
I still have one more week to earn extra 1k chips for my 6/10 semi, and I will likely go back this Tuesday.
As for cash game analysis, I finally got around to updating my spreadsheet. Week 19 was bad luck all around, and yet I could have left with a profit had I been disciplined. I was disciplined for a bit as I managed to fold KK pre-flop to an UTG limp-raise which is almost (and was again) AA. However, that wasn't the only time I ran into AA:
I called a 3-bet PF from a very loose-aggressive player with K9s, and called his all-in for about 50% of the pot on the 732r flop. He woke up with AA. I had JJ on the button which I had straddled. I 3-bet an known player who plays lots of hands PF, and he 4-bet me, and I 5-bet shoved and he showed AA. In another pot, this one, in retrospect I played too aggressively for the opponent, I 4-bet shoved 44, and he won with AA. For the first time in a couple of weeks, I lost my flips. So all of that together made for a pretty bad session. The more I lost, the more aggressive I became (44 4-bet shove as an example). When it comes to tilt control, that is something I definitely have to work on: No matter how the game is going, especially if the game is going bad, I need to keep my mind open (it tends to shut off and I'm unable to process the blatant information right in front of me) and keep calm. Easier said than done, but identifying the problem is the first step to being able to find the corrective actions to prevent it.
Week 20, I think I may still have been on tilt from the week before. I played a lot more hands, played them more aggressively (very high raise %, high VPIP, and very low limp %). Doesn't help that I got unlucky too in big pots. One of the hands after my phone died, had me with AcKc on the button, straddled. I raised 4 limpers to 25, and the SB 3-bet to 100, which I 4-bet shoved $250 and he called with KdTd. He was like "you've been really aggressive from the button", which was true. So, after I got myself in the best position possible, he flops a T and I'm stacked again. After that, I overplayed every hand, and stacked myself with top-pair, no flush draw on a monotone board, and my opponent had the only thing he could after check/calling the flop c-bet and c/raising the turn bet: a strong flush.
So, here are my cumulative results:
-665: 1/2 NLHE
+25 3/6 LHE
-23 3/6 LO8
+225 tourney
+200 promos
-11.50 food
= -249.50
Considering, it's not all bad, but given the quality of the players in the game, I find that I'm lowering myself too much to their level, rather than improving my play to beat them.
For the next few sessions, I'm going to go later, so that I focus on the tourney and the cash games will be secondary (for the past couple weeks I've been trying to get in 2 hours of cash before the tourney, and then some afterwards). Secondly, I plan not to chart my play, but write down the hands that "known" players are playing and how they are playing them. I need to figure out if there are some exploits I can take advantage of, or if there are some things that they are doing naturally which take advantage of my game.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Week 18
Really good cash game results. Failed to make the final table in the tourney. Let's talk tourney first:
Ran bad when AT>KK all-in pre-flop, especially when, right before the river, players to my left and right both said they folded and A, and the dealer proceeded to river the case A! Then I had AK>QQ, but thankfully not cost me my tourney. I shoved a few times to steal the blinds, and was finally called the 3rd time when I shoved A8o and was called by 66 and lost the race.
Results: -$45, 15/31
Cash game:
I arrived early and was able to get 2.25 hours in before the tourney. I continued to chart my hands this week, and so far, it's given me some luck. I have yet to lose a big pot. Although this time, I got the money in with the right odds in spots, but not necessarily the favourite to win with one card to come.
I played another hour and 15 minutes after the tourney and both ran really good, and got somewhat unlucky.
I'll start with unlucky... After I was eliminated from the tourney, they had enough players to start a 2nd 1/2 NLHE table. This was a "must move" table, so whenever an opening happened in the main game, that seat needed to be filled. Now Sycuan is lax with some rules (see this post about what constitutes a bet), so they are lax with this one. First they will ask the "must move" table if anyone wants to voluntarily move. Then they'll occasionally ask the player waiting to be seated if they'd prefer to be in the main game. After that, they'll force the top-of-the-list player from the "must move" to the main game (which is usually what you will see elsewhere). After 16 hands at the "must move" table, I get called to the main game. In hand 17 at the "must move" table, they hit the bad beat jackpot! :( Loser of the hand won $5300, winner of the hand won $2650, and the 6 remaining players split $5300 ($883). Yeah, I missed out on almost $900 because of a table change...
However, as unlucky as that was, I didn't lose any money in the process. So, I played in the main game, and ran hot again, mostly at the expense of one player, who I got all-in on 3 different hands in the span of an orbit. Flopped top-bottom 2 pair in a straddled pot, where I filled up on the turn and the player "said" he had top-two on the flop. If it's true, it's probably the only time in the past two weeks I've really got my money in bad in a big pot. The next time, in a cash splash pot (extra $50 added to the pot), he put the rest of his money in, $32, and I raised to $75 to isolate with AJo and won (he had ATo). Finally, he straddled the button, and I raised from the SB with AKo, and he shoved for $100, and I called and my AK>JJ.
So, in the first 2.25 hours, I won $464 and in the last 1.25 hours I won $449.
Here is the link to the spreadsheet, with the new tab for 5/13/2014. Here are some analyses:
Results so far:
+675 1/2 NLHE
+25 3/6 LHE
+315 Tourney
+200 Promos
-8.50 food
= +1206.5 profit
Ran bad when AT>KK all-in pre-flop, especially when, right before the river, players to my left and right both said they folded and A, and the dealer proceeded to river the case A! Then I had AK>QQ, but thankfully not cost me my tourney. I shoved a few times to steal the blinds, and was finally called the 3rd time when I shoved A8o and was called by 66 and lost the race.
Results: -$45, 15/31
Cash game:
I arrived early and was able to get 2.25 hours in before the tourney. I continued to chart my hands this week, and so far, it's given me some luck. I have yet to lose a big pot. Although this time, I got the money in with the right odds in spots, but not necessarily the favourite to win with one card to come.
I played another hour and 15 minutes after the tourney and both ran really good, and got somewhat unlucky.
I'll start with unlucky... After I was eliminated from the tourney, they had enough players to start a 2nd 1/2 NLHE table. This was a "must move" table, so whenever an opening happened in the main game, that seat needed to be filled. Now Sycuan is lax with some rules (see this post about what constitutes a bet), so they are lax with this one. First they will ask the "must move" table if anyone wants to voluntarily move. Then they'll occasionally ask the player waiting to be seated if they'd prefer to be in the main game. After that, they'll force the top-of-the-list player from the "must move" to the main game (which is usually what you will see elsewhere). After 16 hands at the "must move" table, I get called to the main game. In hand 17 at the "must move" table, they hit the bad beat jackpot! :( Loser of the hand won $5300, winner of the hand won $2650, and the 6 remaining players split $5300 ($883). Yeah, I missed out on almost $900 because of a table change...
However, as unlucky as that was, I didn't lose any money in the process. So, I played in the main game, and ran hot again, mostly at the expense of one player, who I got all-in on 3 different hands in the span of an orbit. Flopped top-bottom 2 pair in a straddled pot, where I filled up on the turn and the player "said" he had top-two on the flop. If it's true, it's probably the only time in the past two weeks I've really got my money in bad in a big pot. The next time, in a cash splash pot (extra $50 added to the pot), he put the rest of his money in, $32, and I raised to $75 to isolate with AJo and won (he had ATo). Finally, he straddled the button, and I raised from the SB with AKo, and he shoved for $100, and I called and my AK>JJ.
So, in the first 2.25 hours, I won $464 and in the last 1.25 hours I won $449.
Here is the link to the spreadsheet, with the new tab for 5/13/2014. Here are some analyses:
- My hand distribution was good starting hand heavy again. I should have an average of 5.75 hands per 5% bucket, but I've got 8 top bucket and 33% of my hands with in the top 25% of starting hands.
- I did not get my good hands in good positions, yet I still won raised pots with them, mostly on the flop. KK and AJs in the BB raised and cbet and won on flop, QQ in the SB (although straddled pot made it easier to raise larger and win a bigger pot outright at the beginning), AKo in the SB (again straddled, and won the race against JJ).
- I didn't have a failed multi-street bluff. The only bluffs I lost were getting my cbets check-raised on the flop. I think reducing my PF raises is helping me not get into many situations where I need to bluff medium strength hands out, because my hand would be weak against their range.
- I saw only 4 3-bets: KK, KQo, JJ, and ??. The ?? hand ended with the 3-bettor betting the flop and taking it down.
- I didn't suffer a bad beat or suckout again.
- I like the distribution of the hands I played. I was tight in the first few positions, and played a lot looser in late. I was a little tighter in the SB than I was last week, and I am comfortable now with the amount of hands I'm playing out of the BB.
Results so far:
+675 1/2 NLHE
+25 3/6 LHE
+315 Tourney
+200 Promos
-8.50 food
= +1206.5 profit
Thursday, May 8, 2014
More Sycuan Notes
I'm 17 weeks into my WSOP main event qualifier tourney series at Sycuan. I've racked up 6 final tables so far (average # players / tourney = ~35). The first final table appearance gives me an entry to the semi-final of my choice (6 available days, I chose June 17th) with a 5k starting stack, and the next 5 entries have given me an additional 1k chips to start with. You can max out your starting stack at 10k, which is what I have managed to do. My next final table will give me a second 5k starting stack on a different day,
The tourney on its own has been profitable to the tune of $360, which has been an added bonus (one outright win, and several chops). Here's the breakdown
-238 1/2 NLHE
+25 3/6 LHE
+360 Tourney
+200 Promos
-8.50 food
= +338.5 profit
Yes, I sat in a 3/6 limit hold'em game while I waited for my seat in the NLHE game. I hate waiting and doing nothing.
The NLHE loss is deceiving because it doesn't look as bad as it did on Monday before I booked a 1k win in the game. The previous 4 weeks had been VERY volatile and VERY negative: lose big, lose big, win big, lose big.
So this week, I set out to try something different. I had seen poker pro David Williams talk about doing this once in a tournament: write down every starting hand dealt, and try and capture general information if you play the hand. So that's what I did, and here are the results.
It becomes pretty clear why I was able to win as much as I did:
The tourney on its own has been profitable to the tune of $360, which has been an added bonus (one outright win, and several chops). Here's the breakdown
-238 1/2 NLHE
+25 3/6 LHE
+360 Tourney
+200 Promos
-8.50 food
= +338.5 profit
Yes, I sat in a 3/6 limit hold'em game while I waited for my seat in the NLHE game. I hate waiting and doing nothing.
The NLHE loss is deceiving because it doesn't look as bad as it did on Monday before I booked a 1k win in the game. The previous 4 weeks had been VERY volatile and VERY negative: lose big, lose big, win big, lose big.
So this week, I set out to try something different. I had seen poker pro David Williams talk about doing this once in a tournament: write down every starting hand dealt, and try and capture general information if you play the hand. So that's what I did, and here are the results.
It becomes pretty clear why I was able to win as much as I did:
- My hand distribution was good starting hand heavy. I should have an average of 8.9 hands per 5% bucket, but I've got 10, 12, 10 in the top 3 buckets.
- I got my good hands in good position. I got AA and JJ (twice) on the button and was able to raise and create (and win) big pots with them. Getting AA under-the-gun and raising and getting 4 callers, really makes it awkward to play against players who can have anything (unless you flop a set).
- Conversely, I got a lot of my bad hands in bad position, and it was easy to muck.
- I didn't have many middle strength hands that are "fun to play" but generally get me in trouble.
- I didn't have a failed bluff. I run a lot of bluffs. Mostly because the players there won't call without strong hands. I was fortunate that I never ran into that in this session. Losing those bluffs makes future ones more difficult to run, and tilts me, because I still try and run them...
- I had strong bluff catchers that were able to call raises out of position and bets on all 3 streets.
- My opponents were not 3-betting much, and when they were, they almost always had AA.
- I didn't suffer a bad beat or suckout (the JJ hand I win vs the flush draw is an example). The week before I had AA and KK cracked in huge pots.
So, while I'm happy with the results, I see that I was fortunate: good hands in good position, good bluffs in good spots, and no tilt inducing events.
Looking at these stats, there are some things I need to work on:
- I still played too many hands PF. I should really trim some of my garbage holdings like weak suited cards or weak Aces out of my playing range.
- In general, I don't tend to limp as much as I did in this session. But the problem is, I was usually raising those marginal+weak hands and creating bloated pots. At least I improved on not raising those. Next is to simply fold them.
- I defend from the SB and BB a tad too much. There are very few outright folds. And while it seems like it was profitable this session, it doesn't seem sustainable.
- I'm not a good value bettor. I am always afraid of betting too much and having people fold and so I feel that I miss out on cash here and there.
If any of you readers think I should examine any other pattern, let me know in the comments. I'm going to try and do this again next week.
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Poker Rules
Hello all! Yes, t's been a long time, that's all I'm going to say about that, and pretend like it hasn't been over a year since I've written!
So I've moved to San Diego and am playing a lot more live cardroom poker than I have ever. Every Tuesday night, I go to the Sycuan Casino and play in a weekly WSOP qualifier tournament and then play some 1/2 NLHE after that.
An interesting situation came up last night, but let me give some background. Most poker rooms do not allow you to grab a large amount of chips from your stack and then make a forward motion but only drop a few past the betting line for your call or raise. Usually, if you make a forward motion with a stack of chips, that defines your bet. Sycuan does not enforce this rule. I'd say the bet is only final once the chips are on the felt, but it's really a dealer judgement call, as the staff are liberal. They will typically verbally confirm the bet with the player to make sure before allowing action to move forward, and most of the time that works.
Well, last night, I built a pot up to $100 on a draw, and on the river I was first to act. I was resolved to bluff and thought $35 would be a nice price to get a fold from weak hands and only called and raised by strong hands. I cut out the $35 in chips in front of me, picked them up about 6-12 inches off the table, and brought my arm forward to bet them, when my opponent couldn't stop himself from putting his call out before I had placed my chips down. So I pulled my arm back. The dealer said I couldn't do that, and I told him I thought he was right, but that I didn't declare a bet, so what's the amount? We called the floor, and the floor ruled that I only had to bet the minimum $2. Makes sense to me, but that really pissed off my opponent. What sucks worse is that he then rivered me a few hands later for my stack, and I could tell he was happy to have gotten his "vengence".
I rebought and re-grouped (eventually) and was able to felt him later and end up leaving with a profit on the night.
I'd like to say something enlightening like "It pays to be deliberate at the table. I took my time, while he rushed", but lets face it, I got lucky in that spot. The floor could have ruled against me.
However, now I know should that ever happen again, I should just verbally declare the minimum bet and drop a single chip onto the felt. Simple. Easy. And I should pray that I have a made hand, rather than a bluff so that I can re-raise!
So I've moved to San Diego and am playing a lot more live cardroom poker than I have ever. Every Tuesday night, I go to the Sycuan Casino and play in a weekly WSOP qualifier tournament and then play some 1/2 NLHE after that.
An interesting situation came up last night, but let me give some background. Most poker rooms do not allow you to grab a large amount of chips from your stack and then make a forward motion but only drop a few past the betting line for your call or raise. Usually, if you make a forward motion with a stack of chips, that defines your bet. Sycuan does not enforce this rule. I'd say the bet is only final once the chips are on the felt, but it's really a dealer judgement call, as the staff are liberal. They will typically verbally confirm the bet with the player to make sure before allowing action to move forward, and most of the time that works.
Well, last night, I built a pot up to $100 on a draw, and on the river I was first to act. I was resolved to bluff and thought $35 would be a nice price to get a fold from weak hands and only called and raised by strong hands. I cut out the $35 in chips in front of me, picked them up about 6-12 inches off the table, and brought my arm forward to bet them, when my opponent couldn't stop himself from putting his call out before I had placed my chips down. So I pulled my arm back. The dealer said I couldn't do that, and I told him I thought he was right, but that I didn't declare a bet, so what's the amount? We called the floor, and the floor ruled that I only had to bet the minimum $2. Makes sense to me, but that really pissed off my opponent. What sucks worse is that he then rivered me a few hands later for my stack, and I could tell he was happy to have gotten his "vengence".
I rebought and re-grouped (eventually) and was able to felt him later and end up leaving with a profit on the night.
I'd like to say something enlightening like "It pays to be deliberate at the table. I took my time, while he rushed", but lets face it, I got lucky in that spot. The floor could have ruled against me.
However, now I know should that ever happen again, I should just verbally declare the minimum bet and drop a single chip onto the felt. Simple. Easy. And I should pray that I have a made hand, rather than a bluff so that I can re-raise!
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