Monday, August 31, 2009
2nd Place!!!!
I entered a tourny today as it was too hot to survive outside Brads apartment. $100 buyin with 400 entrants. I was chipleader when there was about 25 people left and I kept that all the way up to my last opponent. I started the heads up battle with about 3 times his chips. He picked up hand after hand and fought his way back to about 600k when I pushed all in for 450k with JJ. He called me with 55 and to my dismay hit one of his TWO outs on the turn. I can't be upset I got 2nd and lost with a 90% chance to win. Second place was good for $6600 and more than paid for our vacation.
Friday, August 28, 2009
The day before we left...
Tarena and I just arrived in California to spend a few days with Brad and Kristin. The night before we left I entered a 30$ tournament and got 4th for $1450! As always I was chip leader for about half this tournament. By the time it was down to 18 from about 160 I was one of the shortest in chips. I played conservatively playing only premium hands and making the odd bluff. The final table was CRAZY. My strategy was to sit back while people knocked eachother out. This worked until I was simply too low in chips not to play and thats when my J-10 ran into AA for a swift and painless death.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Kill me
Well after about 8 hours I was chip leader (420,000) while everyone else had about 100000. This is enough chips for the final table. I now play ultra conservative to maintain my chips. I get dealt pocket Kings a guy raises I reraise all in he calls with 99. He hits quad 9s and I'm down to 300,000. I get in a hand with K8 and the fop is K-8-7. I raise, a player re raises, I push all in and he calls. He hits a flush on the river. Now I'm down to 200,000. Next I flop two pair J-10 on a board of J-10-9. After a lot of betting I reach the river and call a players final bet, he had flopped a straight. Now I'm down to about 100,000. I fought back to 150,000 and pushed all in with AK to pick up a sizeable pot (would have put me to 200,000). Player calls with pocket 10s, this is a coinflip. He hits three of a kind and I am toast. So i'm out 15th when I should have reached the final 9 minimum. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh I couldn't have avoided the Kings or the King 8 but the other 2 I could have done differently.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Tiny Tourny
Well... as I feared the tourny that was initially set up for 300-500 had a very poor turn out due to poor advertising by the Poker Room manager (who was fired over it). So I sit in a field of 35, thats right 35! Its been 7 hours and 2 people have been knocked out. Everyone started with 60000 chips. I now sit just over 100000 (top 5 in chips maybe even 1st). This is a deepstack tourny designed to take a long time (promoting skill over push and hope). At my table is the 2nd most televised canadian player Gavin Smith. Hes quite a hoot.
I'll update you later tonight
I'll update you later tonight
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Where are the poker players?
Frustrating...
I'm having trouble finding a table today. Everyone is folding 99/100 hands... only playing the absolute best hands. This strategy does not do well, they slowly blind down until they eventually run into a bigger hand and lose all of their money. Despite the fact that I've been hopping around the tables for the last couple of hours I remain at the same bankroll. I may play some more tonight if I find some patience.
I'm having trouble finding a table today. Everyone is folding 99/100 hands... only playing the absolute best hands. This strategy does not do well, they slowly blind down until they eventually run into a bigger hand and lose all of their money. Despite the fact that I've been hopping around the tables for the last couple of hours I remain at the same bankroll. I may play some more tonight if I find some patience.
Session 10
Pocket Jacks ran into Pocket Kings... youch.
Session 10:
Table name: Kartaly
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $0
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Bankroll: $705
Session 10:
Table name: Kartaly
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $0
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Bankroll: $705
Session 9 Complete 10 Running
Finally!
It took 100 years but I finally finished session 9. Last 2 hands I knocked out two people. Pocket 9s and Pocket 3s beat K-10 and A-10
Table name: Courbevoie
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $250
Duration: 85 minutes
Total Bankroll: $805
It took 100 years but I finally finished session 9. Last 2 hands I knocked out two people. Pocket 9s and Pocket 3s beat K-10 and A-10
Table name: Courbevoie
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $250
Duration: 85 minutes
Total Bankroll: $805
Day 2 Session 9
Good morning,
Ugh I have never seen such a tight table (ultra-conservative). I swear 6/10 of these guys only play AA. I will post the results soon I hope.
Ugh I have never seen such a tight table (ultra-conservative). I swear 6/10 of these guys only play AA. I will post the results soon I hope.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Session 7
Ah yes variance you cruel foe.
I went all in with AA vs KQ.... flop came QQJ. Turn and river were of no help fortunately session 8 was much better. This will be the last of the night. My 2 losses were acceptable as one was a 50% chance to win 190 with 80 (giving me better than 2-1 when my odds were 50/50) and AA vs KQ which is about 83% chance to win.
Session 7:
Table name: Trevelen
Players: 10 (3 sitting out)
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $0
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Bankroll: $655
I went all in with AA vs KQ.... flop came QQJ. Turn and river were of no help fortunately session 8 was much better. This will be the last of the night. My 2 losses were acceptable as one was a 50% chance to win 190 with 80 (giving me better than 2-1 when my odds were 50/50) and AA vs KQ which is about 83% chance to win.
Session 7:
Table name: Trevelen
Players: 10 (3 sitting out)
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $0
Duration: 60 minutes
Total Bankroll: $655
Session 8
The shortest session yet!
I joined the table as the Big Blind, I was dealt [2][5]. The button raised from $2 to $7, I called to defend my blind. Flop is [2][5][3] I am first to act and I check. He bets the pot (15$) which is standard he would bet this with nothing. I push all in for about $90 he insta-calls. He shows QQ, I am a monster favorite. My hand holds I double up to $205 and leave the table after one hand. This is called a "hit and run" in poker and people don't like it but I must stick to my rules!
Session 8:
Table name: Constable
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $205
Duration: 2 minutes
Total Bankroll: $760
I joined the table as the Big Blind, I was dealt [2][5]. The button raised from $2 to $7, I called to defend my blind. Flop is [2][5][3] I am first to act and I check. He bets the pot (15$) which is standard he would bet this with nothing. I push all in for about $90 he insta-calls. He shows QQ, I am a monster favorite. My hand holds I double up to $205 and leave the table after one hand. This is called a "hit and run" in poker and people don't like it but I must stick to my rules!
Session 8:
Table name: Constable
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $205
Duration: 2 minutes
Total Bankroll: $760
Session 6 Results
First hand of Session 6 I was dealt pocket Queens. The button (position before the blinds) raised and I reraised... he pushed all in and I called. He showed AK I am a marginal favorite. I won the hand bringing me to $190. I considered cashing out but sat around to push it over $200.
Session 6:
Table name: Jerilderie
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $210
Duration: 31 minutes
Total Bankroll: $655
Session 6:
Table name: Jerilderie
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $210
Duration: 31 minutes
Total Bankroll: $655
Sad face
I suspected session 5 would be my first bustout. 5 people had called $7 preflop (35$ in the pot) so I pushed all in ($80) with Ace Queen to try to pick up the bets. All folded but one with pocket 8s. This is a coinflip. As you can probably guess the pair of 8s held up sending me to loserville. I can't be upset if I had won that one I would have been up to $195 and could have cashed out doubling up.
Session 5:
Table name: Kedrovy
Players: 9
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $0
Duration: 85 minutes
Total Bankroll: $545
Session 5:
Table name: Kedrovy
Players: 9
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $0
Duration: 85 minutes
Total Bankroll: $545
Session 4 finshed 5 to come!
Four for Four!
As with the previous 2 sessions I was playing 4 and 5 at the same time. The very first hand of session 5 I ran into pocket AA which turned my $100 stack into $50... so not a good start. When I cashed out Session 4 I had brought that 50$ back up to $100 and I will post the final results of that when it finishes.
Session 4:
Table name: Cosenza
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $235
Duration: 50 minutes
Total Bankroll: $645
As with the previous 2 sessions I was playing 4 and 5 at the same time. The very first hand of session 5 I ran into pocket AA which turned my $100 stack into $50... so not a good start. When I cashed out Session 4 I had brought that 50$ back up to $100 and I will post the final results of that when it finishes.
Session 4:
Table name: Cosenza
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $235
Duration: 50 minutes
Total Bankroll: $645
Session 2 and 3
Hello,
I was writing these posts while playing, I've now stopped to catch you guys up (thats why these posts are after the fact). I just finished playing my 2nd and 3rd sessions which I was playing at the same time. Some people think that playing multiple tables at once is distracting. I find it keeps me more patient as I get to be involved in twice the hands I am less likely to make calls out of bordom.
Session 2:
Table name: Belgrade
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $175
Duration: 46 minutes
Session 3:
Table name: Enderby
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $325
Duration: 45 minutes
Total Bankroll: $510
Well both sessions went well as you can see. I cashed out early on the one table because I wanted to update the blog and I had made more than enough on the other table. I got much better cards this time. A short stack pushed me all in for $40 when I had AA and later my QQ knocked two players out who were holding AK/AJ (this is a good situation where they have eachothers outs). I have to do some stuff for Tarena and then I will play my next sessions(s).
I was writing these posts while playing, I've now stopped to catch you guys up (thats why these posts are after the fact). I just finished playing my 2nd and 3rd sessions which I was playing at the same time. Some people think that playing multiple tables at once is distracting. I find it keeps me more patient as I get to be involved in twice the hands I am less likely to make calls out of bordom.
Session 2:
Table name: Belgrade
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $175
Duration: 46 minutes
Session 3:
Table name: Enderby
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $325
Duration: 45 minutes
Total Bankroll: $510
Well both sessions went well as you can see. I cashed out early on the one table because I wanted to update the blog and I had made more than enough on the other table. I got much better cards this time. A short stack pushed me all in for $40 when I had AA and later my QQ knocked two players out who were holding AK/AJ (this is a good situation where they have eachothers outs). I have to do some stuff for Tarena and then I will play my next sessions(s).
Rules and Moneycount
Rules for my 100$ challenge:
1. I will buy into each table for 100$
2. I will leave the table when I have reached over 200$
3. I will only play 1$-2$ no limit holdem
4. I will only play 10 handed tables with a minimum of 8 players besides myself
All values are in American dollars
SESSION 1
Table name: Dhaka
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $210
Duration: 37 minutes
Total Bankroll: $210
A good first table, no big starting hands just solid calls and bluffs.
1. I will buy into each table for 100$
2. I will leave the table when I have reached over 200$
3. I will only play 1$-2$ no limit holdem
4. I will only play 10 handed tables with a minimum of 8 players besides myself
All values are in American dollars
SESSION 1
Table name: Dhaka
Players: 10
Buy-in: $100
Cash-out: $210
Duration: 37 minutes
Total Bankroll: $210
A good first table, no big starting hands just solid calls and bluffs.
First day of play!
Hello,
As I have just finished my last day of work (possibly for the next year) I have decided to dedicate the next few days to a 100$ challenge. This will also help prepare me for the tournament I intend to play on the 22nd.
Cash poker is very similar to tournament poker and also very different. The first major difference is that blinds don't increase at a cash table, thus your action is less likely to be "forced". You can also reload your stack in a cash game and you don't have to make decisions based on finishing in the money. The final difference is that unlike in a tournament everyone doesn't start a cash game with the same number of chips. In fact, since you're joining games that have been in progress for hours sometimes you sit down against people with a tremendous chip advantage.
I'll be showing hands, statistics, and keeping you updated with my chip count and rules I play by. I will then use this blog to update you on my tournament this weekend. Goodbye for now!
As I have just finished my last day of work (possibly for the next year) I have decided to dedicate the next few days to a 100$ challenge. This will also help prepare me for the tournament I intend to play on the 22nd.
Cash poker is very similar to tournament poker and also very different. The first major difference is that blinds don't increase at a cash table, thus your action is less likely to be "forced". You can also reload your stack in a cash game and you don't have to make decisions based on finishing in the money. The final difference is that unlike in a tournament everyone doesn't start a cash game with the same number of chips. In fact, since you're joining games that have been in progress for hours sometimes you sit down against people with a tremendous chip advantage.
I'll be showing hands, statistics, and keeping you updated with my chip count and rules I play by. I will then use this blog to update you on my tournament this weekend. Goodbye for now!
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