Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
17K guarantee
Here I am late in the game with Scott Fischman shortstacked and to my right. I was dying to take him out, but it was not meant to be.

My aggression got me deep in the tournament, and my aggression took me out. I probably should have changed gears about here, since the payouts didn't get aggressive until the final table. I had about $120,000 and could have probably made top 18 easily. But I was going for bigger and bigger and lost a couple of big flips. I still came out a profit but was very disappointed to go as long as I did in this and not make any more.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008

At the 3rd break, with 14 players left, I've dropped to 5th place. I no longer have the same "bully" affect on my table that I did with the chip lead, so I sit back and wait patiently for good hands or to make the final table. It's 4:19am my time and I am pinching myself to stay awake.

At the final table, players dropped like flies. I don't know if it was because of the time or because we went to the final table with 8 players (2 people went out at the same time). I almost just sat back and watched everyone going out.
Then with 3 players left, I had about $20,000 in chips and the other 2 players had over 100K. I get A4 sooted on the button and shove and get called by KQ off. King on the flop and I don't improve. I could have probably waited a bit longer, but I was under 10BB's and felt that was a good shove hand 3 handed in position. What do you think?

I really need to stop playing the bigger field tournaments like this late at night. At least for the smaller buy-ins. I wasn't as dead tired the morning after I won $6000+ (I had too much adrenaline flowing). But to stay up all night for $168, wears me out. I did manage to win a 45 player SNG at the same time I was playing this, so overall, I won $339.
Hope the tables are treating you well. Stay patient....
Monday, December 1, 2008
Rebuy anyone?
The second reason I love them is that there is so much extra prize money pumped in from the rebuys. So even if you finish the rebuy period with a below average chip stack, there is a lot more cash you are playing for with less players to beat for it. I will typically rebuy right away to maximize my doubling potential and then buy the add on.
Here are two I played simultaneously and ended up fairing well in both. I really hate missing that first place money though.
This one I finished 7th out of 205. I was really disappointed I did not finish higher, especially since I was chip leader for awhile when we were down to 2 tables. I did one rebuy as soon as the tournament started and 1 add on for a total of $93 dollars invested.

Here I finished 4th of 230 but since it was a lower buy in, it paid less than the 7th place finish above. I was never chip leader, so was pretty happy where I finished. I was dead tired though as this one finished around 6am my time. Luckily, I was already scheduled off for a vacation day. I did one rebuy and then the add on for a total of $15.50 invested. A much higher ROI, fore shore!
I'm starting to try to learn Omaha more. I have been playing Omaha for 10+ years and understand the game play and the differences from Texas Hold 'em, but I have never studied and don't understand the best starting hands, best hands after the flop, etc., like I know in Hold'em. Anyone with any shortcuts, I would greatly appreciate it. So far, I am finding that PL Omaha High is my favorite and it seems pretty easy to win.
I took a vacation day today and spent all day with Hawkette and all the little Hawks. It was a fantastic day. We did a whole lot of nothing but spent the entire day together. It was great. I highly recommend it if you ever find yourself too involved in the routines you have.
Stay patient...
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Every little bit counts
Monday, November 10, 2008
FTOPS Event #9 Recap

Here's a hand that I got burned on. I actually played it poorly. I raised pre-flop, as I tried to quite often from the button and cutoff. Harlindo is wearing an FTOPS jersey, so I know he has to be a decent player, since he has won an FTOPS event before. He has ~4000 to start and I have ~8000 in chips. He smooth calls my raise. After the flop, he checks and I decide to check behind. The turn comes a blank (but does give me some interesting outs) and he checks again. Now, I decide to fire out to see where I am and I bet about 3/4 of the pot. He smooth calls. Now I put him on a straight draw like K10 or maybe A6 or A5. After the river hits, he checks and I insta-shove to put his tournament on the line. I figure, he missed whatever draw he could be on and without a Queen, he can't call for his tournament to be over. He made a good read, called and won. I should have checked it down and saved myself about 2800 in chips. Now I'm right around 4100 in chips.

I still have enough chips to play aggressive, so I chip up buying blinds and c-betting a few times when needed. After the 2nd break, I am just under the average chips by about 1000. You can see Berry hit his two AA double ups, and Harlindo has hardly played anything.

This next hand is when I took Harlindo out. The nice thing was that I was putting in standard raise sizes still. I think later in the tournament you need to start varying things up, but this was in the third hour and I kept all my raises the same, so when I came at the blinds from the cutoff, AGAIN, Harlindo fired back at me all in and it was an easy call for me.

My buddy Rich (TheCloserX5), who plays fairly tight, at least a lot tighter than I do, was below average in chips but not short stacked by any means. He raised the big blind, who smooth called, and then couldn't get away from this flop no matter what. He finishes in 2511th place.

This is an example of the shitty play you will see, even though we have almost half the field gone. This guy was not short stacked at all. I raise pre-flop, then check call after the flop and after the turn. He checks on the river and when I shove all in and he calls, I think I might be in trouble. NOPE! I guess he put me on a total bluff.

Here's another race I won. I'm only a 53/47% favorite. I don't think I have lost a race yet, where I am getting my chips in ahead. That is critical in being able to continue moving up the ranks.

This is right at the 3rd break and I am sitting in 8th place with over 1700 players left still. The nice thing here is that my pre-flop raises are winning more pots now just because of my stack size. I'm still folding to large re-raises and I'm barely playing anything out of position.

Here's another hand where I got in ahead and it held up. I can't tell you how many times that I held up with the best hand in this tournament, and we all know how rare that can seem sometimes.

Here's one where someone limps, I re-raise and get two callers. After the flop, the first player fires all in from a short stack, so insta-reraise all in trying to isolate. Of course when I get a call behind me I know I am in trouble. This takes me from about 72000 in chips down to 50000. It was enough to sting. Are you getting away from this hand after the flop? Maybe if you don't have the other two covered, but I couldn't see anyway that I am folding this, especially given my relevant chip size.

Here's another example of the fabulous play on here. We are down to almost 1300 players and mc_gambler has been very aggressive with all in moves. And especially coming from the button, I put him on a pretty wide range. He had over 20,000 in chips and I had just over 50000, but I figured this was a pretty easy pre-flop call. I didn't realize how easy, but it was a nice gift he gave me. Again, getting it in with the best hand held up.

Here's another big hand that held up. I was a 60% favorite getting it all in after the flop, but it felt like he had about 45 outs.

4th break. I'm very happy to be in 10th place. I was in first or 2nd for half of the last hour so I'm starting to get excited that I have a shot at taking this down. But there is a lot of poker still to go!

This hand costs me half my stack, taking me from over 100K down to 50K. I really screwed this up as it was unnecessary to go all in preflop with QQ here. Especially since the Ace came on the flop, there would be an opportunity for me to outplay the Kings or get away from the hand. Either way, I was getting too cocky that all my good hands were holding up and I didn't take into account that I could be behind pre-flop.

Here's an easy laydown where I raised the blinds and got re-popped from the small blind. Some people are shoving with any pair here, but I think that I would rather play post-flop for all my chips.

Break #5 and I've dropped in the rankings considerably. I've basically hovered around the same chip stack for most of the hour by buying some blinds. But I'm starting to feel real pressure to make something happen. This is not a good feeling as I don't want to lose focus. We are in the money though, so even if I go out now, it is not a total loss.

Here's a hand I would like your feedback on. I'm in the small blind with 70,000 in chips and the big blind has 72000. The button is short stacked with 19,000. The button limps in and I simply call. The big blind raises 3 1/2 times the BB and the button comes over him all in. I folded. Would you have? Of course this would have been a huge double up for me.

Here's a hand I raise and get a call from the button. A c-bet takes it down. But it sets me up for the next hand which happens to involve the same player.

Here the villain raises pre-flop 2 1/2 times the BB. I insta-shove, hoping to take down the pot with antes. He insta-calls and tables the might ACEJACK-OFF. I absolutely hated the flop and confirmed that on the turn. I think if I smooth call him we are both getting it in after the flop anyway. So it was my time to go home.

214th place not bad, but was disappointed I couldn't go deeper. The real money didn't start until about 86th place and you needed to final table to make it to 20K or higher. Maybe next time.

Feel free to point out all the mistakes I made.
Hope the tables are treating you right. Stay patient...
FTOPS Event #9 Cash
Thursday, November 6, 2008
What would you do for $6.33 an hour?
Monday, September 29, 2008
thecloserx5 cashes big!!!!!!

My good buddy Rich hit a big one yesterday. Way to go Closer!!!!!!!
Here's some notes from him on it:
1st Break – 14680 chips ranked 11th out of 2576 players
Top 19645
Avg 4022
Low 30
2nd Break – 16010 chips ranked 64th out of 1527 players
Top 32200
Avg 6785
Low 310
3rd Break – 27098 chips ranked 73rd out of 684 players
Top 57787
Avg 15149
Low 169
4th Break – 58070 chips ranked 48th out of 270 players
Top 139437
Avg 38377
Low 3579
5th Break – 154630 chips ranked 17th out of 100 players
Top 311723
Ave 103620
Low 21136
6th Break – 622944 chips ranked 4th out of 36 players
Top 1013392
Ave 287833
Low 33074
7th Break – 845395 chips ranked 4th out of 10 players
Top 2247483
Avg 1036200
Low 215644
8th Break – 1812580 chips ranked 4th out of 4 players
Top 3735765
Avg 2590500
Low 1812580
TOOK 3RD FOR $52,500.00
Not bad for a $7.80 investment in a 36players shoot out satellite
Thursday, September 4, 2008
$6400 win follow up
Tuesday was a whirlwind. I was just finishing the tournament and saving a screenshot to prove I won, when Hawkette came down the stairs from our bedroom. I usually come to bed by 2am if I'm playing poker and working the next day, but it was after 4am now and she noticed I wasn't in bed and was worried. I started excitedly waving her over to me at the computer: "Get over here! Get over here, right now". She perked up as she saw that I won over $6,000 in ONE poker tournament. It was surreal. Hopefully, it will become a more regular occurrence for me, or at least enough of one that it is not so unbelievable when it happens.
I never felt I had a lot of chips, until we reached the final two tables. I played fairly loose to start the tournament and had to rebuy twice in the first hour after chasing draws. But this may have helped me pick up some pots later when I had made hands. I went card dead for what seemed like, forever, but then hit a couple of nice pots. Then with about 7 or 8 spots from the money bubble, I got moved to a table where no one was defending their blinds and then it was ON! I chipped up, started bullying short stacks, even sucked out a couple of times to win nice sized pots (but I had the chips to gamble).
By the time we hit the final table, I had over $600,000 in chips with the next closest to me having $248,000. I pushed on the blinds constantly. I was SUPER AGGRO like I learned from the dynamic duo of poker. In the end, I think the heads up lasted 3 hands because I was so lopsided with the chips and so aggressive.
Nothing too exciting and I don't have exhausting hand histories and quite frankly, I'm sure I didn't play perfectly. But, I think the biggest thing I have been doing lately is folding hands when I think I am beat. You have so much more power raising than you do calling, so if you can't raise with the hand: FOLD IT! And I never call "with pot odds" if it's going to put me all in. I can double up later if I have to, but if that 4th heart falls on the river and I have a set with no heart, I can fold, even if the "pot odds" tell me not to.
OK, that's it for now. Hope the tables treat you right. Try the riverchasers tonight! See the banner on the right.
Stay patient.....
Saturday, July 19, 2008
55 rebuy score

So a buy in for $55 and an add on for $50 got me there. The play was more soft than I thought it would be for a $50+ buyin tournament.
I did manage to fold KK once when I raised pre-flop and got one caller. Flop is Ace high and opponent bet the pot.
I finally downloaded Screenhunter. It is AWESOME! Go Get it! Thanks to Kaja for telling me about it.
Hope the tables are treating you well.... Stay patient...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Friday Night MTT's








