I seem to be pretty decent at getting 2nd place in these medium-field tournaments (this time was 90 players). And when the jump in prize money from 2nd to 1st is by more than 60% (here, from roughly $160 to $260), that's sort of an unfortunate thing to be good at. Could be bad luck, or maybe I need to practice my heads-up game and learn how to close...
Although in all honesty, I can't complain. I went into the final table like 4th in chips, and was doing fine but not awesome... figured I'd likely get like 3rd-6th or so... and then when we got down to 3-way, I was the short stack by like 20k to like 100k and 100k. Getting JJ paid off helped the come-back a bit, and I did actually gain the chiplead for a few hands, but it didn't last.
When we got to heads-up, it was against a guy whose screenname is "sleep w fishes." Now I didn't know who he was, but I looked up his stats... and they're pretty impressive. He's got a few big cashes in these $10-$20 tournaments, including two that are in the $4k-$5k range, and several 1st places in the 45-player $26 tournaments (for $410 each). I actually find it sort of incredible that with all these wins, he's still playing at the $20 level.
Anyways, my reaction while playing him was that he was making some mistakes -- I thought he was a bit TOO aggro, and also calling things a little light. But in retrospect, he may have been playing pretty solid... I may have to go back and look at the hands again to see what I can learn. With how much that he's winning, he must be doing something right...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
528th for $363.95 + $200 bounty
Well I just busted out. My last hand I had 99 in CO, opened to 3x, the BB shoved (had me covered), and I actually thought about folding because I figured it was probably a race at best, even if he was screwing around and re-stealing. But I figured I'd go with it, gotta win races to win the tournament. So I called and yeah he had AK, and flopped the A.
But at least I didn't go away empty-handed, got $363.95 for the 528th place finish, out of a final total of 6275 (they were still doing late registration for a bit). ALSO, they had bounties on all the FTP pros, so you got $200 if you knocked one out. I knocked out Gabriela Hill on this hand. And... for the little bit that I was sitting with her, she really looked like she was playing rather poorly, so I was hoping to get the chance to bust her. And yeah this call by her in her final hand is definitely questionable (although, in all honesty so is my shove, but we won't talk about that, lol).
Come to think of it, I actually don't even really know who she is. So I'm not sure how she got to become an FTP pro. But hey, thanks for the extra $200, Full Tilt :)
(edit: I looked up who Gabriela Hill is. Makes sense now since she's really an announcer, not a professional player).
And now back to my regularly scheduled $10 tournaments... actually, I think I might be ready to move up to the $20s with this $563.95 score, haha. And of course I will have my constant eye on satellites into more of these big events.
But at least I didn't go away empty-handed, got $363.95 for the 528th place finish, out of a final total of 6275 (they were still doing late registration for a bit). ALSO, they had bounties on all the FTP pros, so you got $200 if you knocked one out. I knocked out Gabriela Hill on this hand. And... for the little bit that I was sitting with her, she really looked like she was playing rather poorly, so I was hoping to get the chance to bust her. And yeah this call by her in her final hand is definitely questionable (although, in all honesty so is my shove, but we won't talk about that, lol).
Come to think of it, I actually don't even really know who she is. So I'm not sure how she got to become an FTP pro. But hey, thanks for the extra $200, Full Tilt :)
(edit: I looked up who Gabriela Hill is. Makes sense now since she's really an announcer, not a professional player).
And now back to my regularly scheduled $10 tournaments... actually, I think I might be ready to move up to the $20s with this $563.95 score, haha. And of course I will have my constant eye on satellites into more of these big events.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
FTOPS 2nd break
Well I'm still alive. I'm sitting at 7460 chips, and the average is 8159.
In the first few levels I was pretty active, putting in a lot of bluffs and getting called, so my table might think I'm a total monkey. I had one bluff that I DID get away with though: this REALLY shouldn't have worked.
I think my turn check-raise was fine... but after he calls that, he's saying he doesn't buy what I'm selling. So he's almost certainly calling the river, too. Well, I got really lucky on this one.
On the other hand, here's one I'm really proud of: you don't have an ace.
I was surprised that his pre-flop raise got us heads up. But then again, I think it was pretty apparent from his raise that he was really strong. Now, once that Ace came down on the flop, I felt that it wasn't too likely that he had an Ace. And so I decided to take this pot from him, but to wait until the turn to do so. And yeah, success!
Oh, in another hand, I raised to 4510 by accident... I meant to raise to 450 :-P The keys are too close together on my number pad. Fortunately no one called, haha. Although, I had AQ so I might not have been in too bad of shape if someone did, but still.
okay, back to it.
In the first few levels I was pretty active, putting in a lot of bluffs and getting called, so my table might think I'm a total monkey. I had one bluff that I DID get away with though: this REALLY shouldn't have worked.
I think my turn check-raise was fine... but after he calls that, he's saying he doesn't buy what I'm selling. So he's almost certainly calling the river, too. Well, I got really lucky on this one.
On the other hand, here's one I'm really proud of: you don't have an ace.
I was surprised that his pre-flop raise got us heads up. But then again, I think it was pretty apparent from his raise that he was really strong. Now, once that Ace came down on the flop, I felt that it wasn't too likely that he had an Ace. And so I decided to take this pot from him, but to wait until the turn to do so. And yeah, success!
Oh, in another hand, I raised to 4510 by accident... I meant to raise to 450 :-P The keys are too close together on my number pad. Fortunately no one called, haha. Although, I had AQ so I might not have been in too bad of shape if someone did, but still.
okay, back to it.
FTOPS XI here we goooo
Event #1 of FTOPS XI has begun! We've got a total of 6,108 players and a 1st prize of $210,750.43.
Things have just begun and I'm already in a bit of a hole. Ran into aces, had some other things go wrong, and I'm already down almost 1,000 chips after 7 hands (we started with 5,000).
Projections on 2+2 have been saying that this thing is gonna go until 10:30am EST. Time to get comfortable... hopefully...
Things have just begun and I'm already in a bit of a hole. Ran into aces, had some other things go wrong, and I'm already down almost 1,000 chips after 7 hands (we started with 5,000).
Projections on 2+2 have been saying that this thing is gonna go until 10:30am EST. Time to get comfortable... hopefully...
Sunday, February 01, 2009
SharkScope, Vegas Summary, FTOPS, etc.
Tonight I found a website that is basically a public online database of everyone's tournament results at pretty much all of the poker sites. Pretty sick, huh? You can search for anyone based on their screenname. So of course, I searched for myself! So it returned a bunch of data on me, including this graph of my results:
Pretty cool, huh? I'm not entirely sure how far back it goes, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of this graph is within the last two months or so because I didn't play that many tournaments on Full Tilt before that. Notice the bit of a downswing I'm having right now, though. yeah, it's been pretty sucky. But, I think what I might do is check this website periodically, and post a new graph each month to see how I'm doing.
Anyways, I've been meaning to write a recap of Vegas, which I still plan to. But for now, I'll just give a brief summary of the gambling results: I played in a couple of tournaments, didn't cash in either (3rd in one that paid top 2, 13th in another that paid top 6). Lost a bunch on craps and blackjack, too. But managed to come out ahead in non-tournament poker. The totals were something like:
Blackjack: -$155
Craps: -$100
Poker Tournaments: -$140
Poker cash games: +$220
total: -$175
The FTOPS tournament that I won a seat into is in less than a week, on Wednesday at 6pm. First place is still listed at $172,960... gonna have to have a lot of things go right to even get anywhere close to that. But here we goooo...
Pretty cool, huh? I'm not entirely sure how far back it goes, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of this graph is within the last two months or so because I didn't play that many tournaments on Full Tilt before that. Notice the bit of a downswing I'm having right now, though. yeah, it's been pretty sucky. But, I think what I might do is check this website periodically, and post a new graph each month to see how I'm doing.
Anyways, I've been meaning to write a recap of Vegas, which I still plan to. But for now, I'll just give a brief summary of the gambling results: I played in a couple of tournaments, didn't cash in either (3rd in one that paid top 2, 13th in another that paid top 6). Lost a bunch on craps and blackjack, too. But managed to come out ahead in non-tournament poker. The totals were something like:
Blackjack: -$155
Craps: -$100
Poker Tournaments: -$140
Poker cash games: +$220
total: -$175
The FTOPS tournament that I won a seat into is in less than a week, on Wednesday at 6pm. First place is still listed at $172,960... gonna have to have a lot of things go right to even get anywhere close to that. But here we goooo...
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Heading to Vegas tomorrow
Going to Las Vegas for MLK weekend. Can't wait... Michael Sachs is already there, and has been for like 3 hours now. Rahul and I are the next ones to arrive, and we don't get in until like 7pm tomorrow. I'm eager to see what Mike can do in the 34 hours that he is there alone.
The others coming are Wendy, Brownpa, Steve, and Jon (first Vegas endeavour with him but I'm looking forward to great things).
I've been looking up the current tournament schedules to try and figure out which ones I want to play in. I think my cap for tournament buy-ins on this trip is going to be like $100 per tournament, although I also might want to try and satellite into bigger ones if those opportunities are there.
Trip report to follow.
The others coming are Wendy, Brownpa, Steve, and Jon (first Vegas endeavour with him but I'm looking forward to great things).
I've been looking up the current tournament schedules to try and figure out which ones I want to play in. I think my cap for tournament buy-ins on this trip is going to be like $100 per tournament, although I also might want to try and satellite into bigger ones if those opportunities are there.
Trip report to follow.
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
FTOPS Seat
Tonight I won a seat into FTOPS Event #1, which
is a $200 buy-in tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000. 1st place prize money is currently listed at $172,960 although this could go up as more entrants register.
I had to mount a massive comeback to win this seat, because I was in a winner-take-all satellite, and when we were down to 3 players, I was out-chipped like 8-1 by the chip leader. But somehow I battled back to take it down... in one hand he made a huge overbet for all my chips and I made the call with top pair, which held against his flush draw, and in the final hand he called off all his chips on another flush draw after I check-shoved with middle pair. Fortunately for me, this one didn't hit either and I won the seat.
In another tournament tonight, I had a shot at 1st place prize money of about $1,200 but sadly, I busted in 13th.
Lish and I had a good conversation tonight about the role of poker in my life and the world. My thoughts on that are all kind of whirling around right now though so I'll save that for another post.
is a $200 buy-in tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000. 1st place prize money is currently listed at $172,960 although this could go up as more entrants register.
I had to mount a massive comeback to win this seat, because I was in a winner-take-all satellite, and when we were down to 3 players, I was out-chipped like 8-1 by the chip leader. But somehow I battled back to take it down... in one hand he made a huge overbet for all my chips and I made the call with top pair, which held against his flush draw, and in the final hand he called off all his chips on another flush draw after I check-shoved with middle pair. Fortunately for me, this one didn't hit either and I won the seat.
In another tournament tonight, I had a shot at 1st place prize money of about $1,200 but sadly, I busted in 13th.
Lish and I had a good conversation tonight about the role of poker in my life and the world. My thoughts on that are all kind of whirling around right now though so I'll save that for another post.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Another final table -- almost
Played in one of the PokerStars 180s last night (their 180-person tournaments that they run), and came in 10th; final table was 9. boo.
On the way there, this hand came up:
AA over QQ
Basically, his pocket queens ran into my pocket aces. Then, see the chatbox in the image of the table, below:
Now that's just rude.
Anyways, I was definitely running pretty hot in the first half of this tournament -- this hand put me up to about 13k in chips, which was good for at least top 5 at this point. I basically hovered between 1st - 5th for a while, but then after a while I just couldn't make anything happen, and eventually busted one shy of the final table. oh well.
I was just realizing, too, that I've not yet come in 1st in one of these big tournaments... in anything bigger than like 5 tables. I mean, I haven't played all that many yet, so it's not surprising or anything. But like, these prize pools are very top-heavy; 1st place is where a large chunk of the money is. So... it's time to make it happen!
On the way there, this hand came up:
AA over QQ
Basically, his pocket queens ran into my pocket aces. Then, see the chatbox in the image of the table, below:
Now that's just rude.
Anyways, I was definitely running pretty hot in the first half of this tournament -- this hand put me up to about 13k in chips, which was good for at least top 5 at this point. I basically hovered between 1st - 5th for a while, but then after a while I just couldn't make anything happen, and eventually busted one shy of the final table. oh well.
I was just realizing, too, that I've not yet come in 1st in one of these big tournaments... in anything bigger than like 5 tables. I mean, I haven't played all that many yet, so it's not surprising or anything. But like, these prize pools are very top-heavy; 1st place is where a large chunk of the money is. So... it's time to make it happen!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
16th of 301
Last night I played in another medium-field tournament, still of a small buy-in ($5, with 1 rebuy and 1 add-on; I didn't have to rebuy, but I did the add-on), but with 301 players, 1st place got up to about $750 so that's certainly a nice prize for a $10 investment.
Things were going pretty well, and I got all the way down to the final two tables without much mishap. Then comes one hand, when I'm sitting at about 50,000 chips (just below average at this point): a short-stack moves all-in for about 12,000, one of the bigger stacks re-raises to 20,000 and I'm sitting in the small-blind with pocket kings. I move all-in, everyone else folds and the big stack calls. He's holding AQ, spikes an A on the flop and I'm out in 16th.
Bummer because if I win this pot, I'm up to like 120,000 chips (which would have been about 2nd in chip standings) and would have an excellent chance of making it to the final table and a shot at the 1st place prize.
Did I play it wrong? No way -- I did worry for a split second about the big stack having pocket aces, but that's such a small part of his range; he could be isolating the short stack with anything down to like a medium pocket pair. So I'm definitely not folding. But... could I just call and re-evaluate on the flop? Not with our stack sizes, I don't think. If I just call, there's now 36,000 in the main pot and 16,000 in the side-pot. Then with about 30,000 left in my stack, basically my only move on the flop is an all-in (or a fold). So... I could shove any flop that doesn't have an ace, but what good does that do? If he had a smaller pocket pair than kings, he's probably gonna fold unless he hit a set. And I wouldn't even know if an ace on the flop was a problem for me or not, so this just puts me in all sorts of trouble.
As played, I got called by an inferior hand which is exactly what you want, so definitely by that standard I did the right thing. Unfortunately, it just didn't go my way here.
For 16th place, I won a relatively meaningless prize of $22.73. However, it IS encouraging to continue to go deep in these medium-sized tournaments, so I'm happy about it from that standpoint.
Things were going pretty well, and I got all the way down to the final two tables without much mishap. Then comes one hand, when I'm sitting at about 50,000 chips (just below average at this point): a short-stack moves all-in for about 12,000, one of the bigger stacks re-raises to 20,000 and I'm sitting in the small-blind with pocket kings. I move all-in, everyone else folds and the big stack calls. He's holding AQ, spikes an A on the flop and I'm out in 16th.
Bummer because if I win this pot, I'm up to like 120,000 chips (which would have been about 2nd in chip standings) and would have an excellent chance of making it to the final table and a shot at the 1st place prize.
Did I play it wrong? No way -- I did worry for a split second about the big stack having pocket aces, but that's such a small part of his range; he could be isolating the short stack with anything down to like a medium pocket pair. So I'm definitely not folding. But... could I just call and re-evaluate on the flop? Not with our stack sizes, I don't think. If I just call, there's now 36,000 in the main pot and 16,000 in the side-pot. Then with about 30,000 left in my stack, basically my only move on the flop is an all-in (or a fold). So... I could shove any flop that doesn't have an ace, but what good does that do? If he had a smaller pocket pair than kings, he's probably gonna fold unless he hit a set. And I wouldn't even know if an ace on the flop was a problem for me or not, so this just puts me in all sorts of trouble.
As played, I got called by an inferior hand which is exactly what you want, so definitely by that standard I did the right thing. Unfortunately, it just didn't go my way here.
For 16th place, I won a relatively meaningless prize of $22.73. However, it IS encouraging to continue to go deep in these medium-sized tournaments, so I'm happy about it from that standpoint.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Two final tables and the Holiday $100K
Last night I played a few tournaments, including two in which I made it to the final table, each with roughly 100 players to start. Of course, I'm playing tournaments with tiny buy-ins right now ($5-$10), so the prize money wasn't all that much -- about $40 for 5th place in one, and $150 for 2nd place in the other. The 2nd place finish was actually kind of bitter-sweet, because in one hand during heads-up I had my opponent all-in on the turn with only 5 outs (I had top pair, he had middle pair), and he spiked his trips on the river. And 1st place was $250, so I missed out on an extra $100 there once he won it in the end. But hey, my bankroll IS getting re-built, little by little...
Additionally, I won a seat into the Holiday $100K. So this is a tournament with a total prize pool of $100,000, with 1st place prize money of $10,500. That takes place on Sunday, 12/28 so that's still pretty far away. But it'll be my first tournament of that magnitude in a while.
Matt and I were unsuccessful in our endeavour to play free poker at Goldie's; it turns out that the information on the website was incorrect, and they only have poker on Monday nights (the website said Monday and Wednesday, and we went on a Wednesday). Bummer. Maybe I'll just have to get myself to a real casino again soon...
Additionally, I won a seat into the Holiday $100K. So this is a tournament with a total prize pool of $100,000, with 1st place prize money of $10,500. That takes place on Sunday, 12/28 so that's still pretty far away. But it'll be my first tournament of that magnitude in a while.
Matt and I were unsuccessful in our endeavour to play free poker at Goldie's; it turns out that the information on the website was incorrect, and they only have poker on Monday nights (the website said Monday and Wednesday, and we went on a Wednesday). Bummer. Maybe I'll just have to get myself to a real casino again soon...
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
End of the quarter
Since winter break just started, there is more time to play again. And I've been feeling the desire lately to get back into it.
Last year's WSOP effort didn't end up amounting to anything, because I ran/played really bad for a bit and almost busted my whole Full Tilt account before really even getting into any satellites. I also just pulled over $1000 out of my poker bank account to help pay for overwhelming bills of late.
So now it's all about building the roll back up, before dreaming up any more WSOP plans. In other news, I think I may have finally gotten over the drunken poker stupidity problem -- that is, my habit of signing into my poker account after a night of drinking, and then losing lots of money. The fact that I don't get that drunk very often anymore helps with this too, but last night was our end-of-the-quarter party, and after it was over, I managed to keep myself to just 1 $5 tournament (which I even wound up winning!) before going to bed. So I'm proud of myself for that... and really, all told I think I must have dropped like $3,000 over the years while playing drunk... so it'd be good if I've finally learned my lesson with that.
Matt and I are going to a free poker night at Goldie's up the street from us. I don't know what it's going to be like, and whether they'll have prizes or what, but hopefully it will at least be fun. I've really been itching to touch some cards and chips again.
Last year's WSOP effort didn't end up amounting to anything, because I ran/played really bad for a bit and almost busted my whole Full Tilt account before really even getting into any satellites. I also just pulled over $1000 out of my poker bank account to help pay for overwhelming bills of late.
So now it's all about building the roll back up, before dreaming up any more WSOP plans. In other news, I think I may have finally gotten over the drunken poker stupidity problem -- that is, my habit of signing into my poker account after a night of drinking, and then losing lots of money. The fact that I don't get that drunk very often anymore helps with this too, but last night was our end-of-the-quarter party, and after it was over, I managed to keep myself to just 1 $5 tournament (which I even wound up winning!) before going to bed. So I'm proud of myself for that... and really, all told I think I must have dropped like $3,000 over the years while playing drunk... so it'd be good if I've finally learned my lesson with that.
Matt and I are going to a free poker night at Goldie's up the street from us. I don't know what it's going to be like, and whether they'll have prizes or what, but hopefully it will at least be fun. I've really been itching to touch some cards and chips again.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
WSOP: 2008 effort coming up
I've decided that I want to make a semi-reasonable run at a WSOP seat this year. I've just been dreaming about it so much lately. As you know, I did NOT play in 2007. I didn't get the chance to play very many satellites, because I was bogged down with school and we had our 1st year comprehensive exam in June. With the WSOP being in June-July, this didn't really work out so well.
This year, I'm still getting pretty clobbered by school, but we don't have a huge exam in June. So the schedule might work such that I can get some satellites in. I also have a slightly healthier bankroll right now than last year, although it's still not in GREAT shape (right around $2k now).
This is also coming in the wake of dropping about $250 online the other night while playing fairly hammered. Sigh, some things never change, I guess. At least I wasn't playing 30/60 HU this time. Hopefully I've learned THAT lesson.
Anyways, in my Full Tilt account I currently have $1,064.33. Satellites start probably really soon, but I'm gonna work on building this roll up a bit more first.
Here's the plan: Build the roll up to $3k, and then allocate $1k to WSOP satellites. When I won the seat in 2006, I had allocated $2k for satellites, although I actually got it around the $800 mark.
Now, building up to $3k does seem a bit lofty right now to do in a short amount of time, especially since I'm not playing particularly high limits at the moment. But we'll see how it goes. If I don't quite make it to $3k, I might just take 1/2 of whatever I've made between now and May or so, and put that to WSOP satellite use.
Here's to being a kid with a dream.
This year, I'm still getting pretty clobbered by school, but we don't have a huge exam in June. So the schedule might work such that I can get some satellites in. I also have a slightly healthier bankroll right now than last year, although it's still not in GREAT shape (right around $2k now).
This is also coming in the wake of dropping about $250 online the other night while playing fairly hammered. Sigh, some things never change, I guess. At least I wasn't playing 30/60 HU this time. Hopefully I've learned THAT lesson.
Anyways, in my Full Tilt account I currently have $1,064.33. Satellites start probably really soon, but I'm gonna work on building this roll up a bit more first.
Here's the plan: Build the roll up to $3k, and then allocate $1k to WSOP satellites. When I won the seat in 2006, I had allocated $2k for satellites, although I actually got it around the $800 mark.
Now, building up to $3k does seem a bit lofty right now to do in a short amount of time, especially since I'm not playing particularly high limits at the moment. But we'll see how it goes. If I don't quite make it to $3k, I might just take 1/2 of whatever I've made between now and May or so, and put that to WSOP satellite use.
Here's to being a kid with a dream.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
FTOPS GG
Well. That's that. Just busted in 3216. These two hands had a lot to do it:
I knew you had nothing
And,
lol
ok well. back to my homework now.
I knew you had nothing
And,
lol
ok well. back to my homework now.
FTOPS 1st break
ok here we are on the first break.
I'm sitting at 4290 chips, a bit under the starting stack of 5000. Haven't really been able to do much yet. My table seems unremarkable thus far, with a couple of the fish busting early so that doesn't really help things in terms of trying to get something going.
I had one potentially big hand that I think I screwed up:
J8d in big blind
Was hoping to get in a check-push on the turn, but whiffed. The river card sucks cuz it kills my action, and my hand looks exactly like a flush. But I figured at that point my best bet was an overbet to look like a bluff. Or in case HE has the flush, I'm making him pay for it. But his hand doesn't look like a flush at all; my guess is that he had a medium-big Jack. He did tank forever, but eventually folded :(
Here's another hand that went badly:
River bluff-raise
I wanted to pounce on that river bet of 200 since it looked so weak, and this guy has been playing tight so I thought I could make him fold. I guess the question is, what am I trying to represent? Well, I'd play a set this way, or a 5, and check that turn when I hit my house or trips. I also could have clubs. But my bet size sucks; I didn't do the math carefully because I'm only making him call 600 for a pot of 1400 at that point. So yeah, that's silly.
Anyways. Back at it.
I'm sitting at 4290 chips, a bit under the starting stack of 5000. Haven't really been able to do much yet. My table seems unremarkable thus far, with a couple of the fish busting early so that doesn't really help things in terms of trying to get something going.
I had one potentially big hand that I think I screwed up:
J8d in big blind
Was hoping to get in a check-push on the turn, but whiffed. The river card sucks cuz it kills my action, and my hand looks exactly like a flush. But I figured at that point my best bet was an overbet to look like a bluff. Or in case HE has the flush, I'm making him pay for it. But his hand doesn't look like a flush at all; my guess is that he had a medium-big Jack. He did tank forever, but eventually folded :(
Here's another hand that went badly:
River bluff-raise
I wanted to pounce on that river bet of 200 since it looked so weak, and this guy has been playing tight so I thought I could make him fold. I guess the question is, what am I trying to represent? Well, I'd play a set this way, or a 5, and check that turn when I hit my house or trips. I also could have clubs. But my bet size sucks; I didn't do the math carefully because I'm only making him call 600 for a pot of 1400 at that point. So yeah, that's silly.
Anyways. Back at it.
FTOPS Main Event
So I've barely been playing any poker these days since school has been killing me.
But somehow, on Friday night, I won a satellite into the FTOPS Main Event, which is a $500+35 buy-in tournament.
This is gonna be interesting, since I don't even know if I remember how to play.
It just started, and there are 4371 entrants with top 585 getting paid. 1st place is just over $385,000.
And away we go...
But somehow, on Friday night, I won a satellite into the FTOPS Main Event, which is a $500+35 buy-in tournament.
This is gonna be interesting, since I don't even know if I remember how to play.
It just started, and there are 4371 entrants with top 585 getting paid. 1st place is just over $385,000.
And away we go...
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Road Tripping
So as part of my roadtrip over the past week, I went to Vegas for one night with Kohn and Gabe. We picked up Gabe from UCLA the morning after Reeck and Crystal's wedding (which actually was a LOT of fun), as Crystal's mom insisted that we stop at their brunch that morning and to bring Gabe with us even though he didn't come to the wedding.
We arrived in Vegas around 5:30pm that evening. I actually wanted to go to church since I hadn't yet that day, so I went to mass at the UNLV Catholic Newman Center as Gabe and Kohn got started.
Gabe started out at the MGM, where Kohn and I met him soon after. I sat with Gabe at his 1/2 NL table as Kohn went off to the craps tables. This session didn't go well for Gabe. Kohn lost as well. Things weren't really going my way either, until one hand late in the session where I had A8d in late position so I limped after some limpers. Flop came with 2 diamonds and it checked to me so I bet $10 and got one caller after me. Turn was the Ace of hearts, so good card but I don't want this pot to get out of control in case I'm behind, so I check-called as he bet $20. River was the beautiful King of diamonds, I pondered, then bet $50, which at the time I thought was an overbet (which I intended) but after recalculating right now it's a pure value-bet. whoops. A few drinks can really hinder your ability to count the pot. Anyways, I tried to look like I was nervous and didn't want a call... I'm not sure if that is what did it, but I then heard the beautiful words "all-in" and I had to double-check that I indeed did have the nuts. No straight-flush was possible, and I did in fact have the Ace and Eight of diamonds, so I made the call and just turned over my cards to save him the time and trouble.
After that, Gabe and I had been waiting on a list for a 2/4 Mix game, which we were told was just a rotation where the game was decided at the beginning of each new dealer. Sounded like a lot of fun. But we were 1 and 2 on the list for like a good two hours; NO ONE was getting up from this game. Drats.
But Kohn was ready to call it a night, as he had lost as much as he wanted to and did not want to interfere with our poker. As soon as I realized he was serious about leaving, I said "no way," screw poker, convinced him to stay up and we would continue to drink. We abandoned the MGM and headed back to Bally's to play some video poker and get free drinks while doing so.
Then Gabe kept talking about somewhere that had $1 beers so we headed off in search of this, since Kohn did not want to gamble anymore so we had to find an alternative way to get cheap drinks. We stopped at Bill's Gambling Hall where they had 99 cent Margheritas, but those turned out to be extremely small. So we moved on, next to O'Sheas that advertised "Beer Pong." We went in to investigate, and it turned out to be $20 to buy the two pitchers of beer to play. And these were some fairly small pitchers so it was kind of a rip-off. But we found 2 other guys who wanted to play, so we agreed to play with them and loser would pay. Gabe offers to put the money up front to buy the pitchers, so he goes up to the bar to get them. He of course gets carded (see early Borgata trip report heh), and... it turns out that Gabe had just gotten his California license. But since they don't print them out immediately (they send them in the mail within 10 days), all he had was a paper document to use in the meantime. The bartender would not accept this. Ridiculous... I think we could've called the cops to take care of this since that paper is a legal document. But we instead chose to just argue. Then I said I'd just buy it, but the bartender said "ok, but he (Gabe) can't play." WTFLOL. We talk to the manager too, who won't hear any of it. So we bounce.
Next stop is at Casino Royale, Kohn's favorite place to gamble, and this turns out to be the place with $1 beers! Hooray!! So we hang out there for a bit. This place also has this weird version of Blackjack called Blackjack Switch. Basically, you play two hands, and before you decide whether you are going to hit or stand, you have to decide if you want to switch your cards or not. So for example, if in one hand you have A6 and in the other hand you have 5J, you can switch them so that you have AJ and 56, two far superior hands than previously. But you can only switch the 2nd cards that you receive. Also, blackjack only plays 1:1 (instead of 3:2), and the dealer doesn't bust on 22; if dealer hits 22 then it is a push. Anyways, we played this game for a bit, Gabe won about $100 and I won like $150. w00t.
Finally we head back to Bill's for the cheap breakfast. Except Gabe ordered the steak dinner.
We finally get back to our room at 5am, which was a complete shock to all of us that it was so late.
The next morning we wake up and nurse our hangovers, and head to the Venetian where Gabe and I go to buy tickets to the Blue Man Group, which I really wanted to see since Nick Kittle is in it right now; I know him from Michigan where he was a percussion performance major and in the Marching Band for a year. So we buy them, and then meet up with Nick for lunch/brunch at Peppermill which is a nice little place on the north end of the strip. Kohn unfortunately can't make it to the show since his flight is at 8pm and the show starts at 7pm. But Gabe and I go, and it's an awesome show. Definitely worth seeing. Then we take off after that and head back to LA.
btw it's such a good feeling to drive in Las Vegas. So much better than cab rides. Especially since I now have such a bitter taste in my mouth about Las Vegas cab drivers (see previous post). And it's like, every time I would drive somewhere, I'd just feel like I'm saving $10 or whatever the cab ride would have cost.
Oh also. Today I was driving in rural Oregon (on my way back north after a fun week in LA, San Diego, and Berkeley), and I saw a bunch of signs for a casino. I debated stopping at it... and as I was driving by, I actually missed it. So I was about to keep going, but then I decided that I really wanted to see it, just out of curiousity. So I turned around and went to it. It was... pretty small. But not shady at all, even though it was completely in the middle of nowhere and totally surrounded by woods in all directions. I guess it was sort of close to Crater Lake, but that's about it. Anyways, basically all they had was a bunch of slot machines and a few blackjack tables, with minimum bet of $5. I sat at one for a little bit, and left down $10. oh well.
Anyways this road trip is coming to an end but it's been an awesome one. I think I could see myself living someday in any of the places that I visited. Well, not Hood River. But LA, Vegas, San Diego, Berkeley/Bay area... yeah, I think so. If Seattle doesn't work out for the long run.
We arrived in Vegas around 5:30pm that evening. I actually wanted to go to church since I hadn't yet that day, so I went to mass at the UNLV Catholic Newman Center as Gabe and Kohn got started.
Gabe started out at the MGM, where Kohn and I met him soon after. I sat with Gabe at his 1/2 NL table as Kohn went off to the craps tables. This session didn't go well for Gabe. Kohn lost as well. Things weren't really going my way either, until one hand late in the session where I had A8d in late position so I limped after some limpers. Flop came with 2 diamonds and it checked to me so I bet $10 and got one caller after me. Turn was the Ace of hearts, so good card but I don't want this pot to get out of control in case I'm behind, so I check-called as he bet $20. River was the beautiful King of diamonds, I pondered, then bet $50, which at the time I thought was an overbet (which I intended) but after recalculating right now it's a pure value-bet. whoops. A few drinks can really hinder your ability to count the pot. Anyways, I tried to look like I was nervous and didn't want a call... I'm not sure if that is what did it, but I then heard the beautiful words "all-in" and I had to double-check that I indeed did have the nuts. No straight-flush was possible, and I did in fact have the Ace and Eight of diamonds, so I made the call and just turned over my cards to save him the time and trouble.
After that, Gabe and I had been waiting on a list for a 2/4 Mix game, which we were told was just a rotation where the game was decided at the beginning of each new dealer. Sounded like a lot of fun. But we were 1 and 2 on the list for like a good two hours; NO ONE was getting up from this game. Drats.
But Kohn was ready to call it a night, as he had lost as much as he wanted to and did not want to interfere with our poker. As soon as I realized he was serious about leaving, I said "no way," screw poker, convinced him to stay up and we would continue to drink. We abandoned the MGM and headed back to Bally's to play some video poker and get free drinks while doing so.
Then Gabe kept talking about somewhere that had $1 beers so we headed off in search of this, since Kohn did not want to gamble anymore so we had to find an alternative way to get cheap drinks. We stopped at Bill's Gambling Hall where they had 99 cent Margheritas, but those turned out to be extremely small. So we moved on, next to O'Sheas that advertised "Beer Pong." We went in to investigate, and it turned out to be $20 to buy the two pitchers of beer to play. And these were some fairly small pitchers so it was kind of a rip-off. But we found 2 other guys who wanted to play, so we agreed to play with them and loser would pay. Gabe offers to put the money up front to buy the pitchers, so he goes up to the bar to get them. He of course gets carded (see early Borgata trip report heh), and... it turns out that Gabe had just gotten his California license. But since they don't print them out immediately (they send them in the mail within 10 days), all he had was a paper document to use in the meantime. The bartender would not accept this. Ridiculous... I think we could've called the cops to take care of this since that paper is a legal document. But we instead chose to just argue. Then I said I'd just buy it, but the bartender said "ok, but he (Gabe) can't play." WTFLOL. We talk to the manager too, who won't hear any of it. So we bounce.
Next stop is at Casino Royale, Kohn's favorite place to gamble, and this turns out to be the place with $1 beers! Hooray!! So we hang out there for a bit. This place also has this weird version of Blackjack called Blackjack Switch. Basically, you play two hands, and before you decide whether you are going to hit or stand, you have to decide if you want to switch your cards or not. So for example, if in one hand you have A6 and in the other hand you have 5J, you can switch them so that you have AJ and 56, two far superior hands than previously. But you can only switch the 2nd cards that you receive. Also, blackjack only plays 1:1 (instead of 3:2), and the dealer doesn't bust on 22; if dealer hits 22 then it is a push. Anyways, we played this game for a bit, Gabe won about $100 and I won like $150. w00t.
Finally we head back to Bill's for the cheap breakfast. Except Gabe ordered the steak dinner.
We finally get back to our room at 5am, which was a complete shock to all of us that it was so late.
The next morning we wake up and nurse our hangovers, and head to the Venetian where Gabe and I go to buy tickets to the Blue Man Group, which I really wanted to see since Nick Kittle is in it right now; I know him from Michigan where he was a percussion performance major and in the Marching Band for a year. So we buy them, and then meet up with Nick for lunch/brunch at Peppermill which is a nice little place on the north end of the strip. Kohn unfortunately can't make it to the show since his flight is at 8pm and the show starts at 7pm. But Gabe and I go, and it's an awesome show. Definitely worth seeing. Then we take off after that and head back to LA.
btw it's such a good feeling to drive in Las Vegas. So much better than cab rides. Especially since I now have such a bitter taste in my mouth about Las Vegas cab drivers (see previous post). And it's like, every time I would drive somewhere, I'd just feel like I'm saving $10 or whatever the cab ride would have cost.
Oh also. Today I was driving in rural Oregon (on my way back north after a fun week in LA, San Diego, and Berkeley), and I saw a bunch of signs for a casino. I debated stopping at it... and as I was driving by, I actually missed it. So I was about to keep going, but then I decided that I really wanted to see it, just out of curiousity. So I turned around and went to it. It was... pretty small. But not shady at all, even though it was completely in the middle of nowhere and totally surrounded by woods in all directions. I guess it was sort of close to Crater Lake, but that's about it. Anyways, basically all they had was a bunch of slot machines and a few blackjack tables, with minimum bet of $5. I sat at one for a little bit, and left down $10. oh well.
Anyways this road trip is coming to an end but it's been an awesome one. I think I could see myself living someday in any of the places that I visited. Well, not Hood River. But LA, Vegas, San Diego, Berkeley/Bay area... yeah, I think so. If Seattle doesn't work out for the long run.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
3-handed at Parkers 8/16 game
Somehow, last night, Mike and I ended up playing 3-handed in an 8/16 game at Parkers with one other random dude.
Not exactly the game sitution that I'd like to be in. But basically, we were on the list for 8/16, we got called, and as we were making our way to the table, the game completely broke. There was just one guy left who wanted to play, and suggested that we play 3-handed. I didn't really want to, but Mike did, and the other guy kept saying that more people will come if we keep the game going. So we did.
Anyways, I wound up winning a little bit (like $40) in about an hour. Mike dropped about $200.
Our game ended when the other guy got called for his 12/24 seat. Then Mike suggested that we play heads up. I wasn't sure if he was kidding or not, but I said HELL NO. haha. That kid is crazy sometimes.
Then we got our free comped food (we both ordered fried chicken wings) and left.
Also, I made a bet with Bill (one of Mike's old housemates) last night that he wouldn't get mugged in the next 12 months. He recently moved to First Hill, which is kind of a hit-or-miss neighborhood, in that some parts of it are nice and some are quite shady. But I don't think he will actually get mugged, he's a pretty big white guy, and I'd think that thieves would have better targets than him. So we made a $50 bet last night, if he doesn't get mugged in the next year then I win $50, and if he does get mugged, then I pay him $50. So he has a little insurance for if he does get mugged, heh.
Less than one week until Vegas!!
Not exactly the game sitution that I'd like to be in. But basically, we were on the list for 8/16, we got called, and as we were making our way to the table, the game completely broke. There was just one guy left who wanted to play, and suggested that we play 3-handed. I didn't really want to, but Mike did, and the other guy kept saying that more people will come if we keep the game going. So we did.
Anyways, I wound up winning a little bit (like $40) in about an hour. Mike dropped about $200.
Our game ended when the other guy got called for his 12/24 seat. Then Mike suggested that we play heads up. I wasn't sure if he was kidding or not, but I said HELL NO. haha. That kid is crazy sometimes.
Then we got our free comped food (we both ordered fried chicken wings) and left.
Also, I made a bet with Bill (one of Mike's old housemates) last night that he wouldn't get mugged in the next 12 months. He recently moved to First Hill, which is kind of a hit-or-miss neighborhood, in that some parts of it are nice and some are quite shady. But I don't think he will actually get mugged, he's a pretty big white guy, and I'd think that thieves would have better targets than him. So we made a $50 bet last night, if he doesn't get mugged in the next year then I win $50, and if he does get mugged, then I pay him $50. So he has a little insurance for if he does get mugged, heh.
Less than one week until Vegas!!
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Unplanned trip
On Sunday, I was trying to return from Detroit to Seattle, on standby. Unfortunately, all flights out of Detroit were overbooked, even into Monday. Things were looking pretty grim. Furthermore, there were no direct flights; I would have to connect somewhere else to get to Seattle. But it looked like as long as I could get out of Detroit, my second flight would be fine.
Well Sunday went by as I did not get on any flight... until 11:45pm, somehow I got on a flight to Las Vegas!
I passed out for the entire flight. I had been drinking somewhat steadily for my last 4 hours in Detroit.
I landed at McCarran around 1:30am. The next flight out of Vegas to Seattle was at 9:30am. So, after wandering around the airport for a little bit, I started to ask myself the obvious question: Should I head to the strip? The answer was of course a YES!!
So I did. Of course, I did not have much cash with me, and could not pull that much out of the ATM either. So I wasn't even sure what I was going to play. Eventually I decided I would just keep it simple and play 4/8 at the Bellagio.
Quick side-note: On my cab ride from the airport, the driver took me through the tunnel onto I-15. This is the long way, and costs almost twice as much. I wasn't very pleased about this, and it hadn't actually happened to me before so I didn't really think about telling him not to beforehand (the first I had ever heard about it was when it happened to Emily sometime last year). More details about that can be found here: 2+2 thread
Anyways, I actually went first to Bally's to check my bags. Not that I couldn't have done that at the Bellagio, but Bally's is more familiar to me so you just go with what you know, you know? Also I had planned on ending the night/morning with a breakfast at the Barbary Coast (now called Bill's Gambling Hall or something?) as we had done on other trips, since they have a really cheap breakfast special from midnight to 7am, so that made Bally's a reasonable place to leave my stuff.
I eventually got to a 4/8 table at the Bellagio around 2:30am. The room was still pretty lively, I'd guess about 20 full tables of action. Pretty impressive for a random Sunday night.
The game was pretty good. Lots of pre-flop limping, lots of cold-calling, lots of junk showdowns. And I had a complete maniac directly to my right. He was raising pre-flop with hands such as Q3c, 65o, T2o, etc etc, even 3-betting with such hands. So I had good position on him. Unfortunately, on my best hand of the night, I hit two pair with ATo, only to lose to his set of 8s. And of course I gave him a LOT of action since I didn't figure him to have anything. Anyways, I dropped $200 in this game, but not before getting a coffee and two double Glenlivets neat. That would've cost me about $30 at a bar, so that softens the blow a little :)
There was one really talkative girl at my table. She kept telling the old man next to her how beautiful his daughter was, and then later when his wife came over, how beautiful she was as well. And she kept trying to talk to the guy next to me, who wouldn't respond to her at all. After he wouldn't talk to her, she kept calling him "quiet" and "unfriendly," and then to really get in his face, she stuck out her hand to him and said "My name is Heather, what's yours?" He still completely ignored her. She talked to me a bit too, told me how she wanted an Asian daughter because they are so pretty. Started flirting with me, asked if I was a California boy, I told her I was from Seattle, she asked if she could crash with me if she came up there, I jokingly said yeah! Then she was like "ok give me your number" and whipped out her phone to save it. At that point I waved my hands and was like "nah." Fortunately she didn't seem to take too much offense. She wasn't too bad looking but she was a bit older, and actually was getting quite annoying. And I wasn't about to shout my phone number across the table regardless. Anyways, after about an hour, the guy who wouldn't respond to her at all jumps up and yells "YES!!" sticks out his hand to her and says "Hi, my name is Andy. I just won a $25,000 bet for not talking to you until 4:45."
weird.
Anyways, it was about 6am when I busted my stack. I headed over for breakfast, went back to Bally's to get my bags, and went back to the airport. I may have dropped $200 but I was playing in a good game where I most certainly had +EV, and I got there for free (well, minus $35 for cab rides there and back), so I can't complain.
Oh and I got on the 9:30am flight to Seattle with no problems, and was at work by 3pm.
Next trip to Vegas in 1 1/2 weeks!!
Well Sunday went by as I did not get on any flight... until 11:45pm, somehow I got on a flight to Las Vegas!
I passed out for the entire flight. I had been drinking somewhat steadily for my last 4 hours in Detroit.
I landed at McCarran around 1:30am. The next flight out of Vegas to Seattle was at 9:30am. So, after wandering around the airport for a little bit, I started to ask myself the obvious question: Should I head to the strip? The answer was of course a YES!!
So I did. Of course, I did not have much cash with me, and could not pull that much out of the ATM either. So I wasn't even sure what I was going to play. Eventually I decided I would just keep it simple and play 4/8 at the Bellagio.
Quick side-note: On my cab ride from the airport, the driver took me through the tunnel onto I-15. This is the long way, and costs almost twice as much. I wasn't very pleased about this, and it hadn't actually happened to me before so I didn't really think about telling him not to beforehand (the first I had ever heard about it was when it happened to Emily sometime last year). More details about that can be found here: 2+2 thread
Anyways, I actually went first to Bally's to check my bags. Not that I couldn't have done that at the Bellagio, but Bally's is more familiar to me so you just go with what you know, you know? Also I had planned on ending the night/morning with a breakfast at the Barbary Coast (now called Bill's Gambling Hall or something?) as we had done on other trips, since they have a really cheap breakfast special from midnight to 7am, so that made Bally's a reasonable place to leave my stuff.
I eventually got to a 4/8 table at the Bellagio around 2:30am. The room was still pretty lively, I'd guess about 20 full tables of action. Pretty impressive for a random Sunday night.
The game was pretty good. Lots of pre-flop limping, lots of cold-calling, lots of junk showdowns. And I had a complete maniac directly to my right. He was raising pre-flop with hands such as Q3c, 65o, T2o, etc etc, even 3-betting with such hands. So I had good position on him. Unfortunately, on my best hand of the night, I hit two pair with ATo, only to lose to his set of 8s. And of course I gave him a LOT of action since I didn't figure him to have anything. Anyways, I dropped $200 in this game, but not before getting a coffee and two double Glenlivets neat. That would've cost me about $30 at a bar, so that softens the blow a little :)
There was one really talkative girl at my table. She kept telling the old man next to her how beautiful his daughter was, and then later when his wife came over, how beautiful she was as well. And she kept trying to talk to the guy next to me, who wouldn't respond to her at all. After he wouldn't talk to her, she kept calling him "quiet" and "unfriendly," and then to really get in his face, she stuck out her hand to him and said "My name is Heather, what's yours?" He still completely ignored her. She talked to me a bit too, told me how she wanted an Asian daughter because they are so pretty. Started flirting with me, asked if I was a California boy, I told her I was from Seattle, she asked if she could crash with me if she came up there, I jokingly said yeah! Then she was like "ok give me your number" and whipped out her phone to save it. At that point I waved my hands and was like "nah." Fortunately she didn't seem to take too much offense. She wasn't too bad looking but she was a bit older, and actually was getting quite annoying. And I wasn't about to shout my phone number across the table regardless. Anyways, after about an hour, the guy who wouldn't respond to her at all jumps up and yells "YES!!" sticks out his hand to her and says "Hi, my name is Andy. I just won a $25,000 bet for not talking to you until 4:45."
weird.
Anyways, it was about 6am when I busted my stack. I headed over for breakfast, went back to Bally's to get my bags, and went back to the airport. I may have dropped $200 but I was playing in a good game where I most certainly had +EV, and I got there for free (well, minus $35 for cab rides there and back), so I can't complain.
Oh and I got on the 9:30am flight to Seattle with no problems, and was at work by 3pm.
Next trip to Vegas in 1 1/2 weeks!!
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Back from Vegas
Well, I didn't end up playing in any WSOP events this year. My plan had been to play some satellites on Friday night right when I arrived, but I missed my flight so I actually didn't get there until Saturday afternoon.
Rahul played in the $1500 NL event on Saturday. He had actually won his buy-in into this event at a 2/5 table the night before. Unfortunately, he busted in 2 hours.
I played in a $150 limit hold'em tournament at Binions on Monday. I thought this was a pretty good tournament, well run and nice structure. And lots of people really don't know how to play limit. I think I definitely had an edge in this tournament. Unfortunately I had a couple of rough beats and made a couple of mistakes, to bust in about 2 hours.
The video poker plan didn't really work out either, because I just never found much time to play. I spent most of my time at the poker tables. Which is well enough; I came out about +$320 on the trip.
Anyways, my new summer project is to learn Omaha hi/lo. I've wanted to branch out from Hold'em for a while now, but for some reason never really found the time or motivation to do so. But this summer seems like a pretty good time for this. I really didn't know much about Omaha strategy before I started reading and studying over this past week. It's amazing how NOT intuitive it is after playing Hold'em. So I have a lot to learn. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Maybe I'll even go for a WSOP bracelet in Omaha hi/lo someday. You heard it here first.
Rahul played in the $1500 NL event on Saturday. He had actually won his buy-in into this event at a 2/5 table the night before. Unfortunately, he busted in 2 hours.
I played in a $150 limit hold'em tournament at Binions on Monday. I thought this was a pretty good tournament, well run and nice structure. And lots of people really don't know how to play limit. I think I definitely had an edge in this tournament. Unfortunately I had a couple of rough beats and made a couple of mistakes, to bust in about 2 hours.
The video poker plan didn't really work out either, because I just never found much time to play. I spent most of my time at the poker tables. Which is well enough; I came out about +$320 on the trip.
Anyways, my new summer project is to learn Omaha hi/lo. I've wanted to branch out from Hold'em for a while now, but for some reason never really found the time or motivation to do so. But this summer seems like a pretty good time for this. I really didn't know much about Omaha strategy before I started reading and studying over this past week. It's amazing how NOT intuitive it is after playing Hold'em. So I have a lot to learn. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Maybe I'll even go for a WSOP bracelet in Omaha hi/lo someday. You heard it here first.
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