Went to Dino's last night, albeit later than normal, to play in our Monday night game. Stevo graciously bought me a beer for my birthday from last week - but i felt like an ass since I sat at the other end of the bar to talk to my good friend, Harry, who was waiting for me. Sorry, bro - next week just send me the bill for the fries, mmmkay?
25 players, made it to 14th. Chipped up to over 3200 a couple of times thanks to 2 big bluff I pulled over on Ron - who loves the 2 pair, no matter what the board looks like. Big hand that kind of screwed me over was not taking a free card with a weak flush-draw on the flop - PJ came over the top of my bet, and without proper odds to call, had to fold. Should have called, but oh well - would have hit my hand.
Vic busted me when I ran 8's from the button into his pocket jacks. Big joy when I hit a set on the flop, however...but a jack on the river, and a 1-outer at that, gives Vic the hand and the win. Justice served somehow, especially since that the last time I played with Vic I took him out with A-2 over his A-Q.
Played in the cash game with the fellas for the first time, and played a pretty LAG style, especially for me. Doubled my $10 buy-in pretty early on, but ended giving it all back in the next hour - got up and cashed out for the original $10. Next time, I play a little tighter, I think.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Bah!
So I played with Stevo and the rest of the goofballs over at Dino's this week - don't really feel like typing out 3,000+ words and rehashing 20+ hands this time, but let's just say it was an odd event for me. I played more of a LAG style for a while, as opposed to my usual TAG style, and actually built up a pretty big stack by the time we got to the final table - this is not normal for me.
Never had to put a ton of chips at risk until I was actually eliminated in 4th, and really fukked up 1 hand that cost me - A-7 when 4-handed got bluffed out by 4-2 on a 8-9-9 board. I really was thiiiiiiis close to coming over the top post-flop on that bluff, but just couldn't pull the trigger. Don't know if I would have won or not, but I certainly would have had a better shot.
Yesterday played in a freeroll for some forum for 20 minutes or so, then unexpectedly had to take care of some tax business with some clients at the house. Ran it up to 3,500 before I sat out, and still managed to finish 17th out of 104 or so...oh well.
Looks like in May I will take $200 or so and try a couple of satellites for the Heartland Poker Tour at Greektown - we'll see how this goes, but should be fun to attempt, at least.
Never had to put a ton of chips at risk until I was actually eliminated in 4th, and really fukked up 1 hand that cost me - A-7 when 4-handed got bluffed out by 4-2 on a 8-9-9 board. I really was thiiiiiiis close to coming over the top post-flop on that bluff, but just couldn't pull the trigger. Don't know if I would have won or not, but I certainly would have had a better shot.
Yesterday played in a freeroll for some forum for 20 minutes or so, then unexpectedly had to take care of some tax business with some clients at the house. Ran it up to 3,500 before I sat out, and still managed to finish 17th out of 104 or so...oh well.
Looks like in May I will take $200 or so and try a couple of satellites for the Heartland Poker Tour at Greektown - we'll see how this goes, but should be fun to attempt, at least.
Monday, February 18, 2008
How to profit from satellite play
Seeing as the WSOP satellites are starting at Full Tilt and Poker Stars in a matter of days, I figured I'd repost this little article I wrote for Gamble On some time ago on satellite play.
One way players can earn profits from poker is via satellite play. Satellites, for those unfamiliar to the term, are smaller tournaments where the prize is usually a seat to a bigger tournament. Depending on the buy-in of the satellite and the seat being played for, you can have from 1 winner to over 200 winners, as was the case with the recent Poker Stars WSOP ME Qualifier tournament. For a good MTT player, these tournaments can be quite lucrative.
The first thing you have to decide is whether or not it’s profitable to play in a satellite. Personally, I feel comfortable in satellites where about 10% of the field gets to the next round. Satellites are good, because players with limited bankrolls or limited abilities can get into higher stake tourneys, with risking only a slice of the real buy-in. For instance, if you try to get in a $100 buy-in tourney, and it takes you 4 10$ satellites before you earn your ticket, you still made a profit of $60 by satelliting into the tournament, as opposed to buying into the tournament directly.
At the start the tournament, the first thing you should do is see how many chips are in play, and figure out how many do you need to reach your goal. This is usually not the total chips divided by number of places paying, but usually less. That’s because there will be at least one player with a big chip stack compared to the others, with a couple of shorter stacks near the end.
In the first period it’s pretty like in any other MTT. There are weak players, and you want to get their chips. But a REALLY important note: you can’t bluff out a weak player. You have to be patient and wait for good cards. The donkeys would go all-in with K-10 and beat your pocket queens, so pick your spots.
After a few blind stages the number of crazy all-inners drops, so now you can more comfortably play whatever style of play you prefer. After an hour you should be a little above the chip average. If your chip stack is less than 10BB, you have to try to double up pretty soon. If you double up, obviously that’s great. But if you don’t, at least you saved time and didn’t wait until the blinds ate you up. You can’t just sit back in the middle of the tournament, even if you have more than average chips. This is an important stage for chip accumulation, and the bigger your stack gets, the more you can run over the table as the bubble approaches. You have to take some risks here, but you don’t have to be reckless, either.
If you are near the end, you don’t need to take crazy risks. Be aware of how many players are left, how many need to be eliminated for the tourney to be over, average stack sizes, etc. Look for any short stacks that don’t defend their chips, since you can raise them and get a few more chips in every round. You don’t need to risk half of your chips or more, because the goal in to be in the top X, not to take first place. Raising all-in when you are not a short-stacked is a main mistake here. Even if you have KK, just raise 2.5 to 4BB, and if there’s an ace in the flop, the proper play most times is to fold and save your chips.
If you are out of the paying places, then you have to double up or try to steal those blinds that are not willing to play. Even the chip leader can fold to your raise, because he may feel that since he’s pretty safe, and might just decide to fold if players push back at him.
Now, if you find yourself in the enviable position of being the chip leader, a pre-flop raise almost every hand will do a couple of things here:
- Get you even more chips – you don’t really need them, per se, but that’s less chips that the other players can fight each other for.
- Put pressure on those hoping to sneak their way into the victor’s circle – since more than likely a call of your raise will pot-commit them, no matter what cards come on the flop. The mantra here is NO CHEAP FLOPS!
One of my more memorable satellite tournaments was a $2 rebuy satellite on Stars last year, and while most of the time everyone but the chip leaders are sweating it out as far as winning a ticket to the next round, this time I had twice as many chips as 2nd place, and had nearly 10x more than anyone else at the table.
Because this was a Turbo tournament, the blinds escalate much faster than normal tournaments – and near the end of these things the blinds often increase every other hand (sometimes after every hand!) because of all the stalling that goes on by players just trying to hang on and win. Every hand, no matter whether I was holding 3-9 offsuit or a pair of Queens, I was raising. The couple of time when I got pushed back at by a player, I had more than enough chips and pot odds to call, and most of the time I was delivering the knockout blow to these players, even after being an underdog going into nearly every hand. When asked by one guy at the end of this why I was playing and pushing every hand, even with a monster chip lead, I told him in all seriousness, “I just want more chips”.
Back to endgame play here - At the end of these tournaments, being patient is something I can’t stress enough. Someone WILL lose his head. You have to think before acting. The position, the players, is it worth it to take this risk? You will reach your goal if you have a cool head.
For me, this strategy works great – hopefully it will work well for you, as well.
One way players can earn profits from poker is via satellite play. Satellites, for those unfamiliar to the term, are smaller tournaments where the prize is usually a seat to a bigger tournament. Depending on the buy-in of the satellite and the seat being played for, you can have from 1 winner to over 200 winners, as was the case with the recent Poker Stars WSOP ME Qualifier tournament. For a good MTT player, these tournaments can be quite lucrative.
The first thing you have to decide is whether or not it’s profitable to play in a satellite. Personally, I feel comfortable in satellites where about 10% of the field gets to the next round. Satellites are good, because players with limited bankrolls or limited abilities can get into higher stake tourneys, with risking only a slice of the real buy-in. For instance, if you try to get in a $100 buy-in tourney, and it takes you 4 10$ satellites before you earn your ticket, you still made a profit of $60 by satelliting into the tournament, as opposed to buying into the tournament directly.
At the start the tournament, the first thing you should do is see how many chips are in play, and figure out how many do you need to reach your goal. This is usually not the total chips divided by number of places paying, but usually less. That’s because there will be at least one player with a big chip stack compared to the others, with a couple of shorter stacks near the end.
In the first period it’s pretty like in any other MTT. There are weak players, and you want to get their chips. But a REALLY important note: you can’t bluff out a weak player. You have to be patient and wait for good cards. The donkeys would go all-in with K-10 and beat your pocket queens, so pick your spots.
After a few blind stages the number of crazy all-inners drops, so now you can more comfortably play whatever style of play you prefer. After an hour you should be a little above the chip average. If your chip stack is less than 10BB, you have to try to double up pretty soon. If you double up, obviously that’s great. But if you don’t, at least you saved time and didn’t wait until the blinds ate you up. You can’t just sit back in the middle of the tournament, even if you have more than average chips. This is an important stage for chip accumulation, and the bigger your stack gets, the more you can run over the table as the bubble approaches. You have to take some risks here, but you don’t have to be reckless, either.
If you are near the end, you don’t need to take crazy risks. Be aware of how many players are left, how many need to be eliminated for the tourney to be over, average stack sizes, etc. Look for any short stacks that don’t defend their chips, since you can raise them and get a few more chips in every round. You don’t need to risk half of your chips or more, because the goal in to be in the top X, not to take first place. Raising all-in when you are not a short-stacked is a main mistake here. Even if you have KK, just raise 2.5 to 4BB, and if there’s an ace in the flop, the proper play most times is to fold and save your chips.
If you are out of the paying places, then you have to double up or try to steal those blinds that are not willing to play. Even the chip leader can fold to your raise, because he may feel that since he’s pretty safe, and might just decide to fold if players push back at him.
Now, if you find yourself in the enviable position of being the chip leader, a pre-flop raise almost every hand will do a couple of things here:
- Get you even more chips – you don’t really need them, per se, but that’s less chips that the other players can fight each other for.
- Put pressure on those hoping to sneak their way into the victor’s circle – since more than likely a call of your raise will pot-commit them, no matter what cards come on the flop. The mantra here is NO CHEAP FLOPS!
One of my more memorable satellite tournaments was a $2 rebuy satellite on Stars last year, and while most of the time everyone but the chip leaders are sweating it out as far as winning a ticket to the next round, this time I had twice as many chips as 2nd place, and had nearly 10x more than anyone else at the table.
Because this was a Turbo tournament, the blinds escalate much faster than normal tournaments – and near the end of these things the blinds often increase every other hand (sometimes after every hand!) because of all the stalling that goes on by players just trying to hang on and win. Every hand, no matter whether I was holding 3-9 offsuit or a pair of Queens, I was raising. The couple of time when I got pushed back at by a player, I had more than enough chips and pot odds to call, and most of the time I was delivering the knockout blow to these players, even after being an underdog going into nearly every hand. When asked by one guy at the end of this why I was playing and pushing every hand, even with a monster chip lead, I told him in all seriousness, “I just want more chips”.
Back to endgame play here - At the end of these tournaments, being patient is something I can’t stress enough. Someone WILL lose his head. You have to think before acting. The position, the players, is it worth it to take this risk? You will reach your goal if you have a cool head.
For me, this strategy works great – hopefully it will work well for you, as well.
Friday, February 1, 2008
People you're likely to meet at a Super Bowl party
Many folks agonize over throwing or attending the perfect party, but agony is futile because, really, all Super Bowl parties feature the same things: lots of nachos, lots of beer and the following infuriating cast of characters.
The Guy Who Hasn't Paid Attention to the NFL in a Decade
He won't be able to get over the fact that the 49ers aren't in it this year and may ask if Reggie White or Walter Payton still play football. If you're bored, it's fun to make football references to him all night so he feels like he is some sort of eunuch-like non-man.
The Guy Who's in It for the Commercials
He won't pay attention to the game, but he'll shoot to the TV like a laser when the commercials come on. He'll spend the first few minutes after each commercial break--important plays or not--analyzing what everyone else just saw, routinely mentioning that "that last ad was pretty good, but not even close to the George Costanza Rold Gold ad in '98 or the P-Diddy Pepsi truck ad in '04." This guy also probably loved the Bud Bowl and will get really quiet and attentive during the ads for E.D. drugs.
The "Tomorrow Should Definitely Be a National Holiday" Guy
In this tool's view, a day when everyone's hung-over and unproductive would fit perfectly on the federal holiday ledger between the day in mid-January commemorating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and the day in mid-February commemorating Presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.
The Guy Who's in a Squares Pool at Work
In a squares pool, everyone throws in a buck or two, and a couple people walk away with an extra 50 bucks. It's a friendly way to keep everyone involved, but there will always be one overly intense guy who shows up to your party with his own squares chart from work, where he bought a $250 square and--as he'll be certain to remind you--could win a ton of money if the Pats manage a field goal and a safety, and the Giants get a touchdown and a two-point conversion. You'll be able to spot him as the one furiously shouting, "Why the hell didn't they go for two?" when the Pats score a TD to go up 14-3.
The Football Pro Guy
Not necessarily a fan of either team, the Football Pro will spend the whole party watching the game on one of the smaller TVs on the fringe, "because I don't want to miss a play and I can't hear the announcers in that other room." He's likely to be a meatier fellow, probably will spend halftime reminiscing about high school football and will constantly use phrases like "fade hook route" and "flanker-back." He'll also let is slip at some point that he would have made it to the pros if not for an unfortunate knee injury in high school. Which may be true. Although the fact that he's 5-foot-8 with short, stubby sausage fingers probably didn't help.
Obnoxious Girl Who Cheers Way too Hard
Moderately attractive but not actually hot, she'll be decked out in full regalia of whichever team the guy she wants to sleep with likes. She'll celebrate a relatively innocuous first quarter field goal like it's just clinched the win, and will instantly show a disturbing amount of concern if a player on her adopted team is slow getting up. It'll be clear that she was molested by her father during NFL games as a child, and should be pitied, not reviled.
The "Is it Cool If I Smoke in Here?" Guy
Even though people will be politely smoking in the backyard, at least one guy will pop up during a semi-important moment in the game and ask, "I don't want to miss this drive--is it cool if I smoke in here?" The answer, as always, is an awkward "I guess," although it's definitely not cool at all.
The "Line Just Moved Half-Point" Guy
Likely to befriend the Guy Who's in a Squares Pool at Work, this guy will bet on everything and let everyone know it. He'll lose $150 on the opening coin toss, but hit nice on his 6:1 wager that a tight end will produce the first score. He'll be really concerned that the third-quarter line moved a half-point during halftime, but he'll look real good on the over, so he won't mind laying that extra half-point. He also threw down $10 bucks at 850,000:1 that a tornado will tear through the stadium during the third quarter... you know, just for the hell of it.
The Little Kid
He's there because his parents were too cheap to hire a babysitter for the night. And while they brought their kid, they probably forgot to bring the chips and beer they signed up for. So while it's not really the kid's fault that he is there to keep sticking his hand in the pretzels after picking his nose, if he does it again he's getting cracked upside the head with a beer bottle.
The "Told You So" Guy
This guy will spend the entire game informing everyone that everything that he predicted would come to pass has happened. Did he? Probably not. But who knows--no one has listened to the bullshit that constantly flows from this guy's mouth in years.
The "Favored Team Apparel Guy"
You can spot this guy immediately upon entering the party--he's decked out in logoed apparel of the team favored to win the game, in this case The Patriots. The stuff is so new it looks like he may have picked it up at the mall on the way over to the party. The tags may even still be attached. You can attempt to call the guy out on his duplicity: "Hey, weren't you a Colts fan last year and a Steelers fan the year before that?" But he'll just mumble something about having an aunt who lives in his new favorite team's city which is why he's rooted for them since he was a kid. It's all bullshit, of course, but at least the guy isn't completely lacking in loyalty. Which, he'll be sure to tell you, is why he still lives with his parents.
The "Fantasy Football Guy"
Fantasy Football Guy spends the entire game pointing out to all who would hear which players were on his fantasy football team this year and in years past. "Oh, man. Great touchdown by Laurence Maroney there. I wish he would have done that more for my fantasy team this year." Hey, buddy, if you like fantasies so much, here's one for you: we all hope you're killed by a drunk driver on the way home tonight.
The Guy Who Hasn't Paid Attention to the NFL in a Decade
He won't be able to get over the fact that the 49ers aren't in it this year and may ask if Reggie White or Walter Payton still play football. If you're bored, it's fun to make football references to him all night so he feels like he is some sort of eunuch-like non-man.
The Guy Who's in It for the Commercials
He won't pay attention to the game, but he'll shoot to the TV like a laser when the commercials come on. He'll spend the first few minutes after each commercial break--important plays or not--analyzing what everyone else just saw, routinely mentioning that "that last ad was pretty good, but not even close to the George Costanza Rold Gold ad in '98 or the P-Diddy Pepsi truck ad in '04." This guy also probably loved the Bud Bowl and will get really quiet and attentive during the ads for E.D. drugs.
The "Tomorrow Should Definitely Be a National Holiday" Guy
In this tool's view, a day when everyone's hung-over and unproductive would fit perfectly on the federal holiday ledger between the day in mid-January commemorating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and the day in mid-February commemorating Presidents Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.
The Guy Who's in a Squares Pool at Work
In a squares pool, everyone throws in a buck or two, and a couple people walk away with an extra 50 bucks. It's a friendly way to keep everyone involved, but there will always be one overly intense guy who shows up to your party with his own squares chart from work, where he bought a $250 square and--as he'll be certain to remind you--could win a ton of money if the Pats manage a field goal and a safety, and the Giants get a touchdown and a two-point conversion. You'll be able to spot him as the one furiously shouting, "Why the hell didn't they go for two?" when the Pats score a TD to go up 14-3.
The Football Pro Guy
Not necessarily a fan of either team, the Football Pro will spend the whole party watching the game on one of the smaller TVs on the fringe, "because I don't want to miss a play and I can't hear the announcers in that other room." He's likely to be a meatier fellow, probably will spend halftime reminiscing about high school football and will constantly use phrases like "fade hook route" and "flanker-back." He'll also let is slip at some point that he would have made it to the pros if not for an unfortunate knee injury in high school. Which may be true. Although the fact that he's 5-foot-8 with short, stubby sausage fingers probably didn't help.
Obnoxious Girl Who Cheers Way too Hard
Moderately attractive but not actually hot, she'll be decked out in full regalia of whichever team the guy she wants to sleep with likes. She'll celebrate a relatively innocuous first quarter field goal like it's just clinched the win, and will instantly show a disturbing amount of concern if a player on her adopted team is slow getting up. It'll be clear that she was molested by her father during NFL games as a child, and should be pitied, not reviled.
The "Is it Cool If I Smoke in Here?" Guy
Even though people will be politely smoking in the backyard, at least one guy will pop up during a semi-important moment in the game and ask, "I don't want to miss this drive--is it cool if I smoke in here?" The answer, as always, is an awkward "I guess," although it's definitely not cool at all.
The "Line Just Moved Half-Point" Guy
Likely to befriend the Guy Who's in a Squares Pool at Work, this guy will bet on everything and let everyone know it. He'll lose $150 on the opening coin toss, but hit nice on his 6:1 wager that a tight end will produce the first score. He'll be really concerned that the third-quarter line moved a half-point during halftime, but he'll look real good on the over, so he won't mind laying that extra half-point. He also threw down $10 bucks at 850,000:1 that a tornado will tear through the stadium during the third quarter... you know, just for the hell of it.
The Little Kid
He's there because his parents were too cheap to hire a babysitter for the night. And while they brought their kid, they probably forgot to bring the chips and beer they signed up for. So while it's not really the kid's fault that he is there to keep sticking his hand in the pretzels after picking his nose, if he does it again he's getting cracked upside the head with a beer bottle.
The "Told You So" Guy
This guy will spend the entire game informing everyone that everything that he predicted would come to pass has happened. Did he? Probably not. But who knows--no one has listened to the bullshit that constantly flows from this guy's mouth in years.
The "Favored Team Apparel Guy"
You can spot this guy immediately upon entering the party--he's decked out in logoed apparel of the team favored to win the game, in this case The Patriots. The stuff is so new it looks like he may have picked it up at the mall on the way over to the party. The tags may even still be attached. You can attempt to call the guy out on his duplicity: "Hey, weren't you a Colts fan last year and a Steelers fan the year before that?" But he'll just mumble something about having an aunt who lives in his new favorite team's city which is why he's rooted for them since he was a kid. It's all bullshit, of course, but at least the guy isn't completely lacking in loyalty. Which, he'll be sure to tell you, is why he still lives with his parents.
The "Fantasy Football Guy"
Fantasy Football Guy spends the entire game pointing out to all who would hear which players were on his fantasy football team this year and in years past. "Oh, man. Great touchdown by Laurence Maroney there. I wish he would have done that more for my fantasy team this year." Hey, buddy, if you like fantasies so much, here's one for you: we all hope you're killed by a drunk driver on the way home tonight.
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