Circus £165 trip report

By admin on Monday, December 31, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized

**BUFFET REPORT**
GG on the buffet Circus. Rake well spent on cold meat sandwiches, salad, and even chilli with rice. Overall buffet rating: delicious/10

Pretty late now, 5am-ish. Gonna head to bed, will try to put in the last 500 cash hands tomorrow before I head out for Hogmonay. Ta to the Circus staff for putting on such an ace tourney.

It’s 4am, just got in, I finished 12/140 for £160. The tourney had it all, yoyo swings, busting out 3 players in 1 hand, great reads, moments of table domination, and the inevitable brutal dick in ass ending. Walked back from the casino and wrote this report in my head so mayaswell type it up. I like long walks through the city after big tourneys, usually find that by the time I get home I’ve cleared any bad beats from my head and analysed most of my play.

They got the capped 140 runners, which was pretty amazing, generating a huge £20k ($40k) prizepool, with £7,500 to first place. Really top heavy structure, with 11-20 being paid basically their buy-in back. Tourney structure was really good, 40min blinds the whole way and antes in the later levels, I love antes.

Dealer draws in the monster pot and deals the flop. My eyes immediately catch a Q in the window then she rolls out a J and K behind it making him a flopped straight. Utter brutality. An A on the turn gives me a few outs, but river is a blanko. Congrats/condolences from the table and railers for making the call, but I’m really too gutted to care. I’ve got so much adrenaline that I somehow manage to get paid out and leave the casino without remembering to steal a copy of Bluff magazine lol.

** WARNING: BUSTOUT HAND… WEHHH **
The very following hand it’s folded round to me in the SB and I look down at AQo. BB is a good solid player, I’ve got a lot of respect for his online game, and he’s got about 80k in chips. Interesting thing here is that he called out my hand in the previous hand where I picked up the pot with a resteal. He said I had 67s, which made me aware that a) he knows how to resteal, and b) he has noticed that my image is very LAG.

Walking out I’m obv just feeling like smashing things. That pot would have put me 3rd in chips with 12 players left, the final table paying £7.5k, £4.5k, £3k, etc. It’s just not easy to take a beat like that, but after the walk home I feel great about the tourney now. I had a lot of fun, got lucky and had my hands hold in situations… and ultimately lost a 75/25 in the late stages. Such is the nature of the tournament poker beast.

I think I made 2 mistakes the whole tourney (6-7 hours) other than that I played awesome poker, made great decisions, and had a lot of fun. I’m really happy with the way I played. I didn’t go in expecting a whole lot, I was really just taking a shot and having some fun, to break even is fine with me, what’s most important is that I played my AAAAAA virtual online games. (ta for the reminder Neil) ;)

When I left another OP player, Adam, was still left playing hand for hand on the final table bubble. Apologies for not wishing GL on exit, I pretty much forgot in the heat of the bustout. Hope you’re taking it down right now sir!

Ok some hands. We’re 300/600-50a, I’ve got about 6500 (from my starting 7500) and pick up TT in UTG. Pretty standard insta-ship. MP player reraises, LP shortie calls all-in for 4k, BTN calls all-in for about 5k. Err, shit. I’m hoping they all have AK/AQ ;) They table AK, KK and AQ. T88 flop, and I hold. Puts me up to about 22k. Thankyou poker gods!

So arguments could be made for shipping it here due to the antes and being OOP with AQ, but I think I’ve still got room and raise to 13,500 total. He thinks for about 30 secs while playing with his chips then announces all-in. At this point I know I can’t lay AQ down, but take a few minutes to think the hand over. With my loose image he could put me on a wide range, too much of his range consists of resteal hands. I call all-in for 50k more, making a 120k total pot. He raps the table and flips ATo.

So anyway like fuck all happens in the first few levels, I go to the break with my starting stack. Played really TAG and only been involved in relatively small pots. I’d got a tight image as I literally can’t bluff because my table is full of stations, and I’ve not picked up many hands to value bet.

Table 3
Now down to 30 players, my stack is a little below average. Here I just continue to keep it pretty tight ’til we’re down to 23 players and the blinds have ramped up a lot. Now I’m stealing and restealing trying to pick up as many chips as possible on the bubble. I run up to about 40k, bubble breaks and we’re down to the last 2 tables. I’m guaranteed my buy-in back (yawn). I stick pretty tight as people like to gamble after the bubble and more bust out down to 12 players.

Anyways, we’re about 600/1200-100, a really strong player (Gerry) has just joined a couple of orbits ago, so he doesn’t know how stupidly tight my image is. He makes it 4000 more from the CO, I’ve got 13k (he has me covered) after paying the blinds and look down at QQ. Now obviously I’m shipping it here, but I want called. I know his steal range from the CO/BTN is wide, so I try my best to look pained by the decision for 2 or 3 mins, including even at one point turning round to analyse the tourney timer/blinds on the plasma lol. I move in, trying to look pretty stressed/frustrated and he snap calls with A9o. I hollywood good. He’s getting close to 2/1 but it is for about half of his stack, he said after that he only called because he really didn’t think I had a hand. My ladies hold and I’m up to 25k.

Table 2
Tougher table this time, people seem to know how to play here. I get cold decked and barely any good steal situations and fold for an hour and a half solid, getting chipped down to about 14k. I did have one situation where I should have made a resteal, an all-in player got in my way but I still should have done it as I knew the original raiser was weak. Didn’t have the balls though and I should have taken down a 10k pot.

First Table
God damn, I have a good table. Is everyone’s table this good? I mean seriously there are like 3 players who I’d class as “good at poker”. In the first few levels a few people stack off in ridiculous ways. My favourite was a guy who shoved all-in 6k into a 2.5k pot with A4 on a JJ6 flop, to get called by AQ because she thought she had AJ. lol are you serious? Who’s play was worse, I can’t decide.

Have a great new year all!

I’m up to about 50k now with some well timed steals. Folds round to the SB who’s a good solid player, we’re 2000/4000-400a. He makes it 12k total and this is a beautiful spot for me to ship it with 98s in the BB. He folds and I’m chipped up to 64k now, just around the average. Life is good.

Happy Holidays to all!

By admin on Sunday, December 30, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized

Would probably have went the whole way if it wasn’t for getting BRUTALLY river 4-outered in a $240 pot prompting me to insta-quit all tables. Despite most of my session profit going that donk who though bottom 2pr (23o) was good for 120BBs on a 3flush board I’m pretty happy with the session.

Business
With 2.5k hands to go to make the 10k target for the end of the year I decided to remove myself from Mario Galaxy and put a monster session in. I 4-8 tabled $100NL for 3 hours, then another 2 hours later. Got a record 1891 hands in for the day. This leaves me with about 600 hands left to complete today/tomorrow.

Looking forward to doing the 10k writeup. $100NL has went ok. Preflop i’m playing 21/17 now which is great. But postflop I’ve still got a lot to work on. Looking forward to posting a lot more hands, and figuring out a study plan for the new year to get my postflop play up to scratch.

Circus £165 tonight

Playing the £150+15 Christmas tourney at the Circus tonight. It’s a freezeout with 40min blind levels, dealer dealt, expecting 100+ runners for a £15,000 prizepool. Should be around $10k to the winner. 40 seats are already gone to sat winners so there should be loads of value.


I’ve had a great Christmas, been super chilled out and doing absolutely nothing productive over the last few days… which has been great. Super relaxed, loads of nice food, beer, family and friends. Christmas rules. Looking forward to new year too. I don’t go back to work ’til the 7th… ahhhhh. :) Have a great new year.

Took shots at fishy $200NL tables this month, this has went ridiculously well lol. Check this out, selecting tables with ACTUAL RETARDS playing = $$$cash money.


I’ll do a big update and 10k review over the next few days after I’ve completed the $100NL hands. Bankroll is looking good. On track to be rolled to move up to $200NL after another 10k $100NL hands. It’s allllll good.

The buy-in represents less than 10% of my bankroll so i’m classing it as “taking a shot”. AAAAA game online time. I’ve saved used up all of my running bad at the Circus so I can run good in this one. Come on!!

Sammy’s endless money

By admin on Saturday, December 22, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized

Now… I don’t remember any instances where’s he’s minraised pre, but he may have Not seen him minraise before, but I’ve only see him play 10-12 hands. I look down at 88. Thought for a while, decided I wanted to raise and a raise would commit me, so shoved. He snap calls with KK. Goodnight.

Such a donk shove. I thought he only had 14-15k in his stack, but even then I just can’t overplay 88 here. I think a random’s minraise range here is like 22+/QJ+/KT+/Ax, but weighted towards the strong hands. I’m like 4th in chips in the tourney I can’t just jizz my chips off here. Despite my hand *maybe* being ahead of his range I can’t raise. I don’t want to get committed with a marginal hand in this spot, instead I should want to play a small pot against someone that can damage me. Should have called, lead most flops and shut down if called I think.

I’m was wanting to play the £150 freezeout that’s on at Circus next week, but I’m not sure I should. The last few tourneys I’ve played I have made critical mistakes to bust out or cripple myself. Problem is I’m just not taking in all of the information and considering things quickly and calmly enough at the time… I can be prone to missing things (blind going up, etc).

Check it out, cartoons start at post #280. :) http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=76524

11 players remain, top 6 paid. Blinds are 800/1600 with a 150 ante (3300 in pot pre), we’re 6 handed. Standard player minraises 3200 preflop from the CO, from what I’ve seen his virtual game is standard, plays his cards. We both have 23k behind and are 2 of the bigger stacks at the table.

Burning money #2
Played this one badly too… villain is another 40/7′er. On the flop I can flat call his minraise, or reraise/fold. I decided for the latter option and raised for information, he shoves, and I start thinking, “but he’d play 88-TT this way” and “there can’t be too many hands he calls with pre that contain a 7?”. If I raise to see where I’m at I need to be able to fold after getting told I’m behind.

Apparently there’s a $2k/$4k PLO online game on in Bobby’s Room just now. Which sparked an awesome thread on 2+2 about where Sammy gets his money from… amazing cartoon strips!

Burning money #1
One of the big leaks in my virtual online games I noticed a lot tonight is calling all-ins despite my opponents lines being really strong. The SB is 40/7. His line is just so strong. Check call preflop on a pretty dry board, flop misses the FD, he check-raises me… what can he have here? His line just screams set, or at least 2pr+. Called on a dry flop, then check-minraised, I guess I figured he could have been doing this with JQ/KQ, but it’s not that likely. I think I can call on the flop… but when he shoves the river I just have to fold. These calls are hammering my BB/100 because they’re worth so many BB by the river in a big pot!

Played OP today
Played pretty good, sucked out KQ > AK when we got to the final 2 tables, then chipped up a lot short-handed pre final table. Then. the hand that killed me… It’s been ages since I’ve been so angry busting from a tourney. I played this hand so fucking bad I just felt like smashing things for half an hour. Fucking donkaments.



Session tonight
Played 1000 hands of $100NL yesterday/today so I’m now on track to finish the 10k hands for the end of the year. It’s going alright I guess. Preflop I feel set now, really like my preflop virtual game, but postflop I just suck ass lol… gonna try to play better postflop for the last 2,500 hands.

Circus is a joke I just can’t win any money there! I’ve literally done £500 of buy-ins there without cashing now… maybe not surprising if I donk all my chips off with mid pairs though. Eeeughhh.

Shipping monster $200nl pots
Been taking some shots at weak $200NL game onlines too, which has been going well. Typically playing 3-4 $100NL free online games and 1 $200NL table. Took down a pretty sick $483 pot tonight after flopping a set of aces against 2 pair.

WPT Bellagio and Super High Stakes Poker

By admin on Thursday, December 20, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized

The $15,000 Five Diamond Bellagio WPT will always be one of my favorite tournaments. I arrived almost two hours late, and within forty minutes I built the initial 30,000 stack to 80,000. Since I missed all of level 1, I made things happen in level 2.

The first big pot was when I called a raise with the 8h 5h in the small blind. The flop came 2 2 4 with two hearts. I led out and the initial raiser raised to 9000 which left him with 18,000. He looked very strong when he raised me, so my plan was to call and if I did not improve, I would fold on the turn. The turn was an off suit 8 giving me top pair and I checked. My opponent all of a sudden looked very uncomfortable, he looked back to his cards, and it was pretty clear to me that my pair of eights was most likely the best hand at the moment. He went all in and I called. He had AK with no hearts, so he had four outs to beat me. The river was a blank and I won a nice sized pot.

Another interesting hand occurred around twenty minutes later in level 2. I was in the SB with pocket Jacks. The button limped and I raised to 800. The BB and the Button both called. The flop came 9 5 3 with two spades. I bet 2000 into the 2400 pot and was called by both players. The turn was the 9 of spades completing the flush and pairing the board. I had the Jack of spades, but I checked and the BB checked, the button bet 5000. I called and was surprised when the BB came along as well, I was wondering what he had. The river was the Ace of spades and I led out for 12,000. The BB folded and the button called with 8s 6s. He turned the flush, but I caught one of my outs on the river.

On one of the last hands of the night I was dealt AK on the button. A player in middle position raised it to 2000 and I re-raised to 7000 and he called. The flop was A J 4 and it was looking like a great way to finish the night. He checked and I bet 8000 and he went all in. I called of course, but was up against a set of Jacks. I doubled him up and left myself with 24,600 going into day 2. We started with 30,000 so it was not an ideal position to be in, but I was still alive and was ready to fight hard on day 2 to make a run at the title.

Day 1 finished around 9pm and I grabbed dinner with Maya and Gus Hansen. It also happened to be my birthday. I am not a huge fan of birthdays and was trying to sneak through the day without too much attention. Maya and I had a lot of fun relaxing and talking with Gus and some other friends. I was on the waiting list for the “Big Game” but it was getting late and I decided to go back to Maya’s and get some rest for day 2.

Day 2 did not last long; I managed to win a pot early on by making a flush, increasing my stack to 36,000. I folded a whole round and was waiting for a hand. Nenad Medic raised in the cutoff and I called with 9c 7c. The flop was K T 2 and we both checked. The turn was a Jack giving me a eight outs for a straight. I bet 3500 on the turn and he called. The river was an 8 giving me the third nut straight. The pot was around 15,000 and I bet 10,000. He raised, which would put me all in. I pretty much knew I was beat, but I could not lay it down, since I was getting 6-1 odds to call. Nenad could be raising with a set or big two pairs as well, so I had to call. He had AQ, the nuts so I was out.

The tournament was not exactly over for me when I busted out. I had cross booked with one player before the tournament. And it happened that that player was the chip leader going into day 3, no other than Mr. Phil Ivey. I was sleeping after a long twenty hour session when Maya woke me up and told me that Phil was out. Cross booking is a great way to add a little more excitement to tournaments. I will cross book with any players in the world, the ideal scenario would be 6-10 players and we cross book 10-15% per person.

I have been playing a lot in Bobby’s Room this December. This tournament seems to bring all the high stakes players into town. Last week I played the biggest poker virtual game I have ever played. It is hard to imagine that five years ago I was playing $1-2 PLO at Free Online Casin Helsinki and a few nights ago I was playing 2k-4k PLO against “Mr Omaha” himself. We played with a $200k cap, which was probably a little too small, but we were trying to keep things a little under control. I played twenty seven hours straight and made a decent hourly rate.

I am a huge fight fan, weather it is MMA or Boxing, I enjoy a good fight. A good friend of mine hooked me up with some great seats to the recent Mayweather vs. Hatton fight the other night at Mandalay Bay. This was probably the best boxing match I have ever seen.

With so much action at the Bellagio I have had no time for the online virtual games. Although I have heard that there are no big virtual online gamess running. I have sat at the Martins Poker tables a few times, but no one has come to play. Hopefully the online game onlines start running more and I can get back to business.

Good luck at the tables

-Patrik-

DTD trip

By admin on Thursday, December 20, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized

As for getting my 10k hands in by the end of the month… it’s gonna be tight. I’ve done 6500 so far, not far away, but I’ve got a lot of plans over Christmas so hopefully I can fit them in somewhere.

Reviewed Willie’s first video for my SSNL group tonight, which was really well put together. Took an age to get through it as there were so many interesting hands to comment on. One of the tables had a guy playing 50/48 which was pretty sick.

Update
Been ill for the last couple of days, had got a shitty cold bug thing so I’ve stayed away from the tables. Played an interesting session a few days back though where I opened my fre online game up a bit and played 26/22/3.5. Considerably more aggressive than usual. Playing this aggressively gave me a lot of action from players and put me in a lot of tough spots postflop with marginal hands. In short it was great fun, so many tough decisions postflop, which is really where I need to work. It’s definately my aim to play a more 26/22 virtual online games when I get to $200NL, so no harm in experimenting in it now.

Andy’s Christmas home online game tomorrow night, which I’m looking forward to. Booked Friday off of work in anticipation of a mixed cash game online running through to the morning. Should be interesting as I can basically only play NLHE…

Dusk Till Dawn poker club finally opened in Nottingham a couple of weeks ago, and looks fantastic. I’m fancying taking a trip down there just after new year to check it out. Looking to head down around Thurs or Fri (4th/5th) of January, either stay a night down there and play for a couple of days or head down for opening at 6pm and play tourneys/cash ’til close at 6am and head back. :)

Give me a shout if anyone’s up for meeting up there, or fancies heading down from Edinburgh/Glasgow and we could maybe share travel costs.


They’ve got £50/£100/£500 MTTs, lots of STTs and cash virtual games from £0.50/£1. I’m planning on playing in a £100 MTT, maybe the £50 too, and some £1/£2 cash. More details at the DTD site.

Actually ship it. Tomorrow’s my last day at work ’til the 8th of January. Sweeeet. Looking forward to spending time with the family at Christmas… and getting Super Mario Galaxy. :>

Checkin’ in

By admin on Monday, December 17, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized

Pokerroad
Enjoying the pokerroad radio podcasts. All 3 (pokerroad radio, 2 jacks in the hole, big poker sundays) are really good and feature different presenters. They’re all really funny and have some great content. Get them added in iTunes, or you can stream them straight from the pokerroad site.

Hand 3: QQ, 2 overs on flop, checked to
This one’s a little different, that flop is about as bad as it gets for QQ. Villain is a standard 20/13 player, follow up here to rep a big ace? Check and bet the turn if he checks again? Try to check it down?

High Stakes Poker
Been following High Stakes Poker too. Last couple of episodes have been slightly less eventful. Guy Laliberte has kind of got annoying, his constant charity to others at the tables just isn’t poker. Don’t get me wrong the show is still fantastic, but it seems that every big pot so far has kind of been a cop out due to either Guy’s charity or running it 2/3/4 times. Still a couple of eps left this season on what is without a doubt the best poker show ever broadcast.

Hand 1: Mid-sized flop, AJo
Is following up here profitable against a LAG player? It just feels like I’m going to get played back at or floated a lot here.

Been chilling out for the past few days. Played some home virtual game poker, but none online, not really felt like it… which is cool, not going to force play when I’m not in the mood.

Training Day
This is definately one of the most underrated action films of recent time. If you’ve not seen it, waatch it! I’m pretty lucky as I have the amazing ability of not being able to recall anything that happens in films like a week after I’ve watched them, I seem to just forget everything. So I was able to watch it again without being able to remember most of the plot. The last 30 mins just build and build in tension, it’s amazing. I won’t give any of the story away, just watch it!

Some reading
Been studying a bit, almost finished a re-read of Zen and the Art of Poker, which is considerably less useful the 2nd time round. I’ll need pick up Hilger/Pie’s poker Psychology book at some point. Also nearly finished Sklansky/Miller’s NLHE book, which is fantastic. Finding a lot of concepts that I can apply.

3-Betting spots
Focussing on hands where I’ve 3-bet, got called, then not been sure whether I should follow up on the flop. As usual, cross-posted on CR forums.

Hand 2: Lead mid-sized flop, AKs
Similar situation, this time villain is TAG. Is it profitable leading here?

Workin’ away to 10k

By admin on Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized

So as usual, any comments welcome, I’ll start out with an easy one.

Preflop and flop are standard, despite my loose image, I think betting both of them is definitely still the most +EV move. I’d often go for a delayed cbet to mix it up here, but I think he’s gagging to take pots away from me so I don’t want to check/fold.

… and finally, showing off some moves…

Cheers

I’m not sure about my bet size on the end. I decided to go small as that best reps the trip 9s, but it does give him odds to call with flush or straight draws. It’s possible that a bigger raise could be better.

Turn card pairs the board, aggro $100NL players just love to bluff here… and if they’ve made trips they’ll usually check. I check and as expected he puts out a strong bet to try to take it down. When I check-raise him here I rep trip 9s extremely strongly, there’s just no way he can call without a really big hand which it’s really unlikely he has. He’s gonna have to muck here a huge amount of the time.

Playing more tables means that I’m getting more hands in, gone from playing 400-500 in an evening session to 600-800 per session. Over halfway through the new 10k hands, I’ll easily get done for the end of the year.

Tempted to post an update, but I’ll save it for when I hit my 10k target. Gives me more drive to put more hands in and get there. :)

Hand 3: Not sure how to play this royal flush draw.
Preflop, I’m OOP and unlikely to make them fold, they’re cold-calling a lot. I decide to take a flop instead of 3-betting. I flop FD/SD and overs. What’s my line against 2 LAG players? Am I looking to try to get it in on the flop? If I bet out and get raised do I shove? Or should I check-raise here and try to take it down? Do I want action?

Hand 4: A well timed check-raise
Villain is 30/9/5 over 100 hands. I’ve been beating on him and he’s just started playing back to my cbets. He pushed me off of a previous hand on the turn after I cbet the flop. Instead of tightening up I’m looking to mix up the ways I push him around, to keep him confused. CTS talks about this a bit in his 2nd video.

Put 650 hands in last night, then reviewed my last 1500 hands. Extracted 18(!!!) hands to weaktight for further analysis. It’s going to take me a while to get through posting them on CR and analysing them… don’t want to post more than 3 at a time on here as it makes it easier for people to comment on them… and 3 at a time on CR too so it doesn’t look like i’m whoring the boards. :> Going back over hands is bringing up so many tough situations I’m unsure about, analysing these is improving my fre online game so much.

Hand 1: Raise QJo from the BB?
I’d happily isolate this in position, but do we want to isolate OOP against a poor/loose player?

Hand 2: Value bet a weak straight on 3-flush board?
It doesn’t look much like either of these fish made the flush… can I value raise here?

A non-strategy post!?

By admin on Monday, December 10, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized

Too much strategy recently. ;) Took the weekend off a bit and played a couple of live donkaments. Still can’t cash at the Circus… grr! Anyways, check out the new GTA trailer…

Marathon Sessions

By admin on Friday, December 7, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized
I would like to give my condolences to the family of Chip Reese. I had the utmost respect for Chip. If there was one player that I could have sat behind and watched play, it would have been Chip. Poker lost one of the all time greats and he will be missed all. If it were not for Chip, poker would not be where it is today. I am lucky that the old timers paved the way for us so that it is possible to make a great living playing poker.

I was planning on posting a blog a few days ago, but I was on my way to the Bellagio and decided I would wait until I got back in case there were any interesting hands I could add.
I surprised myself earlier in the week by playing a 26 hour session, but I topped that off with a 41 hour session. I barely made it back to Maya’s house, I have never been that tired before in my life. I slept 18 hours and woke up wondering what day it was. That is the longest I have ever played and hopefully I will never play that long again.

My first marathon session started as a $3k-6k mix of Chinese, Stud 8, PL 5 card draw, Triple Draw 2-7, PLO, and NL hold em. The NL and PLO had a cap. Johnny Chan, Gus Hansen, Doyle, and Jim were all in the online game.

There were a few exciting hands during the night. In a no limit Texas hold em hand, Johnny Chan raised it up and Doyle announced “Cap,” which means he is all in for the max. Johnny inst called and Doyle says “Queens” and Johnny says “Aces.” It looked good for Doyle when the flop came Q 4 2. But an Ace on the river gave Johnny the pot. Even the greatest player of all time loses on the river every once in awhile.

Now for an interesting PLO hand. We are playing four handed. Gus, Johnny, Jim and myself. I raised pre flop and Johnny and Gus called. The flop came Q Q 9 and I bet and Johnny called. Gus took a little time shuffling his $5000 chips and finally raised. I did not hit the flop so I mucked, but Johnny tanks for quite a while before folding. The funny part was while Gus was raking in the pot; Jim told us that he mucked QQ and what the hell was going on with all the betting and raising. Gus just smiled and I am sure if he was playing online, he would have typed in “*ups*.”

The virtual online games finally broke, but Gus and I were not ready to leave. We stayed and played Chinese, it turned out to be an epic session and after being down almost the whole time I made a great comeback in the last hour and ended up winning around $50,000. I was so tired at the end I made a crucial error in Chinese that cost me around 40k. It was obviously time to quit. I enjoyed this session of live poker because it was shorthanded the whole time and you can play more hands.

A few nights later I had my 46 hour session. People were in and out of the game online, but David B and I were in the game online the whole time. I finished a winner, but the wear and tear on the body was not worth it. Unless Bill Gates is passing out $25,000 chips I do not think I will ever play another 40 hour session.

I went another night really late to play again at the Bellagio. I got to Bobby’s Room around 2am and played with Doyle, David, Jennifer, Jim, Johnny, Eli, and Rafi. We played 2k-4k mix. The virtual game broke a little later and this time, since Gus was not around, I found a Chinese poker opponent in Rafi. We mixed it up and played with 2-7 in the middle, which is a new variation that is gaining popularity in some bigger mixed virtual online gamess. I booked a small small win, which sure beats losing.

I have been icing my thumb as much as possible and wearing a brace to try and speed up the healing process. I miss being at the golf course everyday. Hopefully only a few more days and I can get back out there. I am thinking of taking a golf vacation in December, I am trying to decide between Hawaii and California.

Good luck

-Patrik-

Baz Video #1

By admin on Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Filled Under: Uncategorized

TT on an all undercard board
His flop bet looks like a big ace or 88-QQ to me. I checked because I really don’t like getting check-raised in this spot, I’d probably have to pass. I have position too, so I’d like to see what he does on the turn, the disadvantage of this is that he gets to see the turn card. Turn pairs the 7, he checks either his OP (worried I’ve made trips), 2 overs (giving up), or a 7 (check-raising). He flat calls and the river is an 8, what should I do on the river? Effective $70 stacks.

Double barrelling on a turned 3-flush board
Villain is new, no reads. In general is this turn card a standard double barrel? I seem to remember CTS saying that he likes following up in these spots in one of his videos. If the turn was an offsuit 9 I’d definitely double-barrel hard, but the suited 9?


My first $100NL video

I really enjoy watching and commenting on other bloggers poker videos, and my study group have been are doing a lot of these at the moment. My first video is 4-tabling $100NL at iPoker. I’d love to hear comments on any hands or situations, or anything. Drop me a mail to bazclef at g mail dot com, I’d really welcome any feedback, the more the better.

Some $100NL hands
3-street opponent range analysis
I’d been finding a lot that people like to shove the river in at $100NL when a scare card hits. Obviously if we look at our hand and his bet on the river on that board we’re too weak to call, can we work through the hand to find that his line doesn’t make sense and find a hero call? FWIW he insta-shoved the river. It feels like he has a set to me. I guess other possible hands could include 46, TPGK (inc 98 for the straight), flush draw (but less likely).

River is a 9 which double-pairs the board. He shoves, this makes any flopped set a more unlikely holding (33/44 he’d probably check, and 99 for quads isn’t statistically likely). The only hand I’m really worried about is A9, which is definitely possible, but he probably wouldn’t over-shove it, he’d make it just over my stack size, or 1/2-2/3 of the pot for value. His shove on the end just feels like it doesn’t want me to call, and my turn check looked weak which could definitely have induced a bluff. So in the end this is a super-easy call.

Overpair, river double pairs the board
He limp-calls UTG, then donkleads 1/2 pot. Kind of a confusing line, not too sure what to make of it. Board isn’t too draw-heavy, and I definitely want to see where I’m at, so I just pop it up to $30. He calls. Turn pairs the 4s, It’s pretty unlikely this helped him, I feel if he had a JJ+ here he’d probably bet it out. My hands probably good, I guess he’s got like 56/33-99/A9. I could shove right here? I decide to just try to check it down, in heinsight I probably prefer shoving though.

I’ve hosted the video publicly at megaupload, just click here to access it. Enter the letters to the right of the Megaupload logo in to box and click Download, then wait until the timer runs down below the free option to download the video.

Update
Current 10k hands are going really well so far, I’m about 4k through already. My positional stats in particular are going really well, I’m openingFeel comfortable playing 6-tables of $100NL now, which is really helping me plough through hands. I’ve just got a lot of drive to play and analyse at the moment, which rocks.

Not doing a “November Update” as I don’t really care what my bankroll status, etc is. Trying to be as least results/money oriented as possible these days. I’m just continuing to work hard on my current goal of getting to the 20k hands mark.

EDIT: If you have problems viewing the video install this codec.

3 limpers, raise 99 in the BB?
UTG (56/10) started a limp-a-thon. All players are pretty loose. With up to 88 I’d probably check, but 99+ raise? I don’t think I mind taking a lead and building a bit of a pot here either.

Checking the turn like that is a really common line for me at the moment, and though the more obvious play might have been to shove the turn I think checking there gets a lot of players to stack off with a big river bluff.