Friday Night MTT's

I guess I better stop playing such low buyin MTT's. I mean, really. So much time to get to the final 3 tables and so little playout. 24 out of 619 is good, but of course the real money is in the final table. At least I did make my buy in back with all my KO's. The payout was pure profit....

Congratulations to my buddy Scott (Bowie300) for hitting 4th of 289. Another micro MTT but a real nice return on his buyin ($56 prize for 4th

Night A What Oh

Somewhere around 4 posts ago, I hit 200 posts. I don't know if that is an accomplishment or a testament to how much time I am wasting on this blog....

Last night I played the Mookie, the $26 token Frenzy, and a $3 90 player KO. As well as things went the night before (see "Oh What A Night"), they went exactly opposite last night. I didn't cash in a single one of them.

In the Mookie, only a couple of hands in, I made a loose call in position with 9s7s to change100's 3x BB raise. The flop comes 9h2c3c. I don't remember the betting exactly, but the turn brought a 6d and I end up calling change100's all in. I thought about it real hard and finally decided she must be on AcKc or similar flush draw and I am surely ahead here and can win a flip. She flips over pocket Queens. Oooops. I'm getting ready to close my laptop and I see all the chips coming to me. WTF???? The river brought a 7 to give me two pair.

I hit a few draws and managed to stick around for the first break and then some. We were down to 25% of the field left and I was below average in chips, when I was in the BB and someone raised 3x BB for the millionth time. I figured it for a steal and re-raised all in with my mighty AJ. Oooops. AA calls my all in and I am done. I don't like putting my tournament on the line with Acecrap hand, but I figured 75% of the time that is purely a steal and my resteal takes the pot. Am I wrong about that? Were there too many hands that had me beat that I should have just folded there? 4 BBT3 tournaments and only 1 cash. But I have hit the points 3 of 4 times. Gotta get those points, just ask this Points Junkie.

Token frenzy was a joke, as usual. You either win with your made hands, or someone sucks out on you. I mean it's rare you make a bad move in those. They are just too easy to wait for good hands and maximize your pots.

In the $3 KO, I was running over the field. With 50 left I was the chip leader for a long time. I was getting cards and people were calling my all-in's assuming I was trying to bully. Overbets were working great. Then I ran into this hand.

14 players left, the money is at 9. I am in 3rd place in chips but very close to 1st. The chip leader is at my table. I'm in the BB and I get AA. The CL raises 3x BB from the cutoff and I re-raise to 3x his bet. He insta-shoves. I think for just a second as I know I will be out of the tournament if I lose this hand. This is a $3 tournament, so of course I call and he flips over 99. A 9 on the turn sends me home in 14th place.

But lets assume that this was a $3000 buy in tournament. Do you fold AA that close to the money? Preflop, do you fold AA ever? It just made me sick to go from chip leader to out in a matter of minutes.

Oh well. For some great tips on Micro level KO play check out this site. And if your lucky you may even be able to get an autograph from him.

Stay patient....

Oh what a night

I ran goot tonight. Some nights are like that. Some are the opposite.

I played in the MATH and finished 8th of 75, which was just into the money. 26$ buy in and $63 payout. Not great, but a cash is a cash. Congratulations to corron10 on getting a seat to the TOC!

I also finished first in the 9:45pm Token Frenzy on FTP so I have my buy in for next Monday's MATH already set.

Then while railing Alan at the final table, I played a $5 6player SNG and took 1st place.

I was in the zone with all 3 playing very well when I needed to.

Bloggers had a great weekend cashing in big tourneys. Check out Bayne and QOD about big cashes this weekend.

See you Wednesday in the MOOKIE.

Stay patient......

Results from my weekend play

I played live for charity on Saturday night. There were only 40 players with the top 8 getting some type of prize. The guy running the tournament was definitely a bit odd. He read all of his rules line by line and then some. He talked about all the tournaments he has played in and run, to make sure everyone was comfortable with him running it, but it came across as bragging. Quite frankly, there were no major arguments, but he could have done so much better.

First of all, the blinds were insane. We started with 2000 in chips and the first 3 blinds were 25/50, 50/100 then 75/150 at 20 minutes each. I started as the big blind and was the first big blind at the 2nd level. 20 minutes to get around the table once.

There was also no consideration for position when moving or after someone was knocked out. No ghost blinds, skipped Small blinds or anything. Sometimes people would be set to be BB and then do just SB because someone went out. We argued our point to the TD but his response was "I know what you are saying, but we are not doing that here. " If he has soooooooo much experience, I would think he would know how unfair it is to move someone from one table in the BB and be the BB again right away. It's not that hard to ask people to scoot around.

OK, so enough bitching from me, let's get to some hands. We are seated 8 to a table and pick our own seats. I don't know that this was an advantage at all, since I really didn't know the other players. I quickly learned that I picked poorly. To my immediate left was "Maniac" old guy. After him was the only other good player at our table (Steve).

The very first hand, I am in the BB with 33. Maniac UTG raises 2x BB. One player calls and I call to see a flop. 2 clubs come on the flop with 9 high. I c-bet 1/2 the pot. Maniac calls. MP folds. Turn is a blank and we go check-check. River brings the 3rd club, still all little cards on the board. I look at the maniac and he is reaching for his chips. Twice he starts to grab his chips, then stops. I figure he is itching to get his money in so I check. He bets 1/4 pot and I fold.

So my ability to steal blinds was severely crippled when the maniac would call with anything and the good player would read my steals as what they were and pick his spots to fire back at me. The rest of the table was pure calling stations. Any Ace was playing. Any two paints was playing. The maniac at my table took down a few pots with 3rd or 4th pair.

At 50/100 I get AdKd from the CO and raise 4x BB after 2 limped in. 1 limper calls (UTG) and we are heads up. Flop comes 9c8h6h, UTG checks and I insta-shove. My thinking here is that he played his "any Ace". I have 1050 behind and he has 350, so I know this is not putting my tournament on the line. I put the pressure on him to decide and since he checked, he surely missed the flop. He tanks and asks if I hit the straight. Then he says, you probably played pocket sixes, but I'll call. He flips over Ad9h and I don't improve. With 700 left and 75/150 blinds coming, I am feeling pressure to make a move.

I am completely card dead. I lose a few blinds as I can't call raises with junk. Finally I get a hand where everyone folds around to my SB of 75. I have Q7 off and 375 left in front of me. The chip leader at our table is the maniac, so I just smooth call my monster hand. He checks behind me and we see a flop of 986 rainbow. I go all in for another 300 and he calls with K5off. Queen on the river doubles me up. Suckout is nice.

A few hands later I get AdJd in the BB. 4 limpers to me and I go all in for 900. Maniac UTG calls (everyone else folds) and he shows 7c8c. Ace on the turn seals it and the maniac has doubled me up again!

I have a little breathing room now. The Maniac is still chip leader having hit a couple of 4 card flushes and bullying everyone he can.

The very next orbit I get Ac9c in the BB. Maniac UTG calls and everyone else folds to me. I think seriously about raising him, but I know he will call and if I hit, I know I'll easily be able to trap him. I check and flop comes 3 clubs giving me the nut flush. My trap is perfect, check-calling to the river where I check re-raise all in and he calls. Maniac tables 22. Pair of 2's. Deuces. Ducks. Da-looosers. Doh! He is crippled but not out. A few hands later he is gone.

Down to two tables. Blinds are 1k/2k. I have 7k and I sit in the Button seat. First hand I have A2sooooooted and attempt a steal all in. SB calls with K10 and hits a K on the flop. Ace on the river and I get suckout #2. Double up.

Then A7 off from the BB and have 2 limpers ahead of me. I shove (again on a steal attempt) and get called by one player. He tables 22 -Da-looosers no good again and I double up when an Ace hits. I am now the chip leader at the table.

People are dropping fast with the blinds so high, so we only play a few hands at 2 tables then go to final 8. I am probably right in the middle of the pack. A steal attempt now costs 6k to win 3k. I steal one from the CO with KQspades but don't see much other action.

Player to my immediate right has 2k left so is all-in when the BB comes to her. I minraise from UTG with J9sooooted to try to isolate just the two of us. Everyone folds. She flips over Q8off. Jack on the flop, 9 on the turn........... and she completes her straight on the river. (She would have been out 7th but comes back to take 2nd place- very nice run of cards).

I go card dead again and am getting KILLED by the blinds. Of course, so are other players and the field is dropping players fast. I am sitting 4th out of 4 with around 7k in front of me when I get 910off in the BB. UTG is our chip leader and he calls the 4k BB. Everyone else folds and I check. Flop comes 910J rainbow. I shove my remaining 3k into the 10K pot. UTG thinks about it and finally says "I gotta call". He Flips over AQ and a King on the turn sends me home in 4th place.

I missed the cash prizes by one spot. I won a couple rounds of golf and some golf balls. I also won the raffle for Cardinals Opening Day tickets. I am so lucky! I won another set of Cardinals tickets and sold them and donated the money back to the charity. The other good player there, Steve, finished 5th. It was really a push fest and somehow I got lucky. Congratulations to my buddy GOFF for taking down 1st. You can find him on FTP under FFOG.

There are pictures here if you are interested.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This was fun! At one point, I was down to 500 in chips. I was also in first with 3 people left and had a 3-1 chip lead on each of the players. I was really disappointed not to take 1st, since I consider my final table play to be one of my strengths ("so why do you suck at SNG's?" you say????). I sucked out a few times and won the majority of my races. That's what it takes to go deep.


Thanks to everyone for your critique of my cash hand. It's weird that I wouldn't play that hand in that position in a tournament, and it sounds like I shouldn't in cash play either.

I'm playing in another live tournament tonight for charity. I'll try to remember to stay patient.

Need help with this hand please

Here's the situation. I'm playing at this cash table ($25maxNLHE 6max) for a little while now and I have watched daytimerobbery reload twice already. He's playing extremely loose and reloads for $10 each time on a $25 max table. He's trying to hit a nuts hand and stack someone and he's playing a lot of pots. I don't have pokertracker or anything else running, so I don't know his VP$P or any other stats but I have a feeling for what he is doing.

In the following hand (scroll down for cards), I raise UTG with suited 1 gappers in hopes of grabbing the blinds or hitting a nice draw on the flop. daytimerobbery reraises me and everyone else folds. Now this is an odd raise amount to me. And I'm only calling .60 into a 2.65 pot. Question 1: Do you throw this away now with two low cards knowing he is probably on two overcards? My thought was that if I can connect in any way to the flop, I will stack him, and I'm getting 4-1 to call here.

The flop comes two cards to my flush and 1 pair. I immediately decide to check raise (I probably should have raised more), and he insta-shoves for 4.55 more. I'm only getting 2-1 to call here, but my read is that he is on AK or AQ with one club. Question 2: After the check raise, do you throw away the hand on his all in? I figure he calls my check raise if he has the hit the set. The reraise seems like an attempt to buy. I figure if he has AK and 1 club, I am an 80% favorite.

I call and find out I am actually only a 51% favorite. I dodge the 13 outs he has and win the pot, but it felt really ugly. Question 3: How bad was this play? I played a hand out of position, very loose, but made a read after the flop. I appreciate your honest critique.

Overvaluing AK

I should have reraised all in from the initial raiser. I learned nothing about his hand with a call. After the flop, I doubt I get away from this hand, but either way, I overvalue AK all the time. I am working on it...