fill'em up

2009-02-20T08:25:00.000-08:00

Its been a good week so far. I finally made use of my FTP points on Full Tilt and played in the 2500FTP qualifier to the FTOPS ME. Top 72 get 535 T$. I think I played pretty good. Couple of key hands ->

1) Shoving A6 from the blinds against a MP steal. I had a read on the guy based on his pre-flop raise. He called with 78s (coz he had the right odds), and I doubled up.

2) Later I folded AKo when there were ~85 ppl left. The action was raise, 3 bet shove by mid stack. I was in 30th position or so at that point so folding I think was the right play. Now if the tournament had a regular pay structure I probably would have shoved. Anyway folding AK pre-flop is sooooo hard!!

As expected I didn't play the main event. Its too much $$$ especially given the current state of my bankroll. So I converted the T$ to USD and now I'm waiting for a nice $500 check from Full Tilt.

Also I started playing NL50!! YAY!!

Also here is my progress so far in NL50,

2009-02-10T21:46:00.000-08:00

New rule for myself:
4 tables MAX!!! - I just realized, when I play 6-9 tables its hard to focus on player betting patterns! I think if I don't understand these patterns I'll never become a good enough player.

$2500 for NL50 looks a long way off now, but I think its better I get a solid bankroll now rather than struggle later. I want to be able to support myself with poker by the summer of 2010. And I think I would need to be @ NL200 with 60 BI's (~$12000) in order to do that.

This weekend, I'm going to play 8 180man $4.4 tourney on stars. 50% of my winnings are going to go towards a fund set up by some of my friends.

Lets hope I make some $$$ - after all its for a good cause :)

2009-02-04T23:40:00.000-08:00

Quick change, after a high variance session on stars I've decided to make that 60BI's before moving up.

yay for bankroll nittiness (sp?) - it was about time!

2009-02-04T01:29:00.000-08:00

Well I withdrew a big chunk of my roll for a medical emergency. I hate asking my parents for money!!

Although I'm still sufficiently rolled for NL100 (20BI's), I'm rebuilding from NL25. I will be 6-9 tabling.

The rules for moving up are:
- I should have 50 BI's of the level I wish to progress to. For example I should have $2500 before playing NL50, $5000 before playing NL100 etc.
- All tourney scores I can spend (since I'm a SENIOR!!! yay!!)

Well I started 6 tabling NL25 on Sunday, and today I 9 tabled. So far so good, I played approximately 2k hands in 6.5 hours. I was hitting the flops hard and was able to extract a lot of value from the fishies. Also it help when you win those flips!

I WILL UPDATE THIS BLOG AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK!!!! I NEED TO KEEP ON TRACK!

Anyway goal for Feb 2009 is to move up to NL50 with my new 50BI rule.

2008-12-30T19:09:00.000-08:00

What a horrible session on stars .... suckout after suckout.
Brutal, especially given the short amount of time within which everything happened.

Here are some examples ...

And I was in such a good mood before this session, I had quads and a straight flush all of which I played well and extracted max $$ (although some of the calls ppl made were pretty bad)

Hopefully when I clear the bonus on stars I'll break even by the end of this week ...

C'mon RUN GOOOOTTT

2008-12-11T05:19:00.001-08:00

I forgot to update, but I ended up 81/~3400 for a cash of ~$50. Not bad, I was in 20th position or so and then in two hands - two bad beats and GAME OVER. It was frustrating but it just served as a reminder for good bankroll management. Despite the skill involved, poker is still a game of luck - its good to be reminded once in a while.

Started playing some LHE on PS. I'm doing it, because I feel that the fish are drying up in NL100 & NL200 - and I've noticed ALL THE GOOD players right now started with LHE. I think this run is going to help my NL game because you see more hands played out so it gives you a feel for the odds that someone has top pair or another made hand.

Good stuff. My next aim is to play exclusively on PS and try and reach Gold or Platinum VIP status by December and then play in the VIP tournaments.

2008-12-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

cool 960/1972 at the break!
4600 chips, average is ~5000 chips and the chip leader has more than 28k in chips!

I've been missing out on a lot of value on the river, need to bet my 2nd pair/top pair more often and not be scared of hands that dominate. I need to make my opponents make mistakes!

2008-12-09T16:06:00.000-08:00

I'm giving the 30k Guaranteed $11BI tourney on PokerStars another shot.
Working on a project at the same time, hopefully that will prevent me from doing stupid things in the first hour.

Cash games have been going great been running like GOD! ~45BB's/100 hands ...

2008-11-26T17:24:00.000-08:00

Super quick bust from the tournament. Ended up in the 1700's. Busted when my AKs got called by KQ all in pre and he turned a straight.

My biggest problem in tournaments is that I tend to play big pots. There are so many people who just "want to see the flop" that I find it necessary to raise at least 5 to 6 times the BB pre flop which results in stacks going all in early.

Anyway while I try and fix my tournament leaks, I'll keep grinding cash games. Here's a hand in which I made my tourney buy in and some more :)

Obviously we learn from our mistakes, but its good to observe and learn where our opponents go wrong and learn from their mistakes too!

Two horrible mistakes by V:
1) Calling an UTG raise with Broadway cards Out Of Position. Generally that is a horrible play because often you will hit top pair and are dominated by a better kicker or an over pair. Even if you are capable of laying it down you end up wasting some more $$$ before realizing you are dominated. If you want to play suited connectors and stuff realize that you NEED position to outplay your opponents or in this case his aim would have been to keep the pot small.
2) The donk bets on the flop and the turn. I have no idea what he was thinking but he failed to keep the pot small. His bets made it really easy for me to get all my chips in the middle.

Anyway I'm going to grind some more and then work on a school project which has been long overdue!

2008-11-26T14:58:00.001-08:00

Tournaments: I usually only play the $4.40 180 MTT on stars, however I've played in a couple of $11 to $55 BI tournaments as well. Haven't cashed in most of them, however I took down one of the $11 180 MTT on stars in October for $540 - nice 5 BI boost to my bankroll!!

So today I'm in the mood and I'm going to give the $11 30k guarantee on stars a shot! Hope I run gooood!!!!

I'll post results later!

and as I typed the (hope I run good comment) this happens on my NL100 cash table:

Another Poker Blog!!

2008-11-24T14:09:00.000-08:00

I know there are a ton of Poker Blogs online now!! Well I can't promise anything *special* but I will try my best to post interesting hands and break them down.

I am by no means a pro, I play FR $0.50/$1 on pokerstars (most of the time). When I do play NL100 I usually just play 1 or 2 tables and try to get reads on players and manipulate them. When I am hard stripped for $$$ I play 6 to 9 tables at lower stakes ($0.25/0.50). It all depends on which game is juicy!!

Anyway the first hand I will post is a hand I saw on Poker Hand Replays, which btw is a GREAT website for all poker players.

The reason I like this hand a lot is because it demonstrates how important position is, and I believe both opponents in this hand were pretty poker savvy.

A standard raise from the HERO is late position with AQs. Obviously I'm unaware of any history between the players but BB is probably putting the HERO on a steal (since now the new trend is to steal from the cut off) and 3 bets. HERO calls since he has position and he knows BB might be making a play. Standard bet - call on the flop given the situation. The turn gets interesting - the BB checks pretty much giving up on the hand, however hero decides to check too given the dry board. This check is great because it keeps the pot small in case he is up against a monster and is gives the BB another chance to bluff on the river id he has air. Now given the action so far, HERO probably puts BB on a pocket pair and is hoping that his turn check will help him get another $30-$40 from the BB on the river.

River is a blank, and BB checks again. Now hero decides to go to value town and bets. His bet size is perfect - notice that he will get paid off by jacks-kings and as demonstrated in this hand the BB might see this as a sign on weakness and play back at him! That is exactly what happened, BB puts in a decent raise and HERO probably insta-called!

Now I personally think HERO played the hand perfectly. I believe the BB made two mistakes.
1) Tried to make a play without a sufficient read pre-flop.
2) Post flop on the turn after giving up - get rid of your pocket cards. If you want to bluff you have to tell a consistent story. A check raise on the river makes no sense after the turn check! Think about it - is there any hand with which you would check the turn and then check-raise the river?

Overall great hand!!