Made it to the second stage of Party’s WSOP Freeroll again. Got up at 6am on Sunday to start play at 6.30am. Had my Kings cracked by A5 at 7.15 am (we got it all in pre-flop). Back in bed by 7.25am. So, you know, just the usual.
I played a bunch of other tournaments later on Sunday but got pummelled. Which means after about two weeks of some success (I think I made 6 final tables), it looks like I’m back to my standard tournament fare.
(Addendum – I should note that between my last post and this one I played Party’s 30 + 3 P/L Omaha Hi/Lo tournament on Sunday and came 3rd for about US740. I was fairly happy with this as it was the second Sunday in a row I made the final table for this particular tournament).
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Another Whiff
A good weekend.
Played the $10 +1 P/L Omaha Hi/Lo tournament on Friday evening - and managed to win the damn thing for $555. It was the first online tournament that I had won in a while (not including satellites) and it was a relief to get in the money again. It was a re-buy tournament; however I didn't need to re-buy after tripling up early (although I took the add-on).
I like this tournament. It usually has about 60 to 80 runners - so the field size is not prohibitive - and the payouts are good. In the Friday tournament, for example, there were 65 runners, 8 got paid, but with all the re-buys 8th place got close to a hundred bucks. The players - well, I shouldn't say they're crap - they just don't know the game. I hasten to add that I only know the basics - but I'm playing against people who essentially don't know starting hands values or the value of their hands once the flops hits (two pair may feel donktastic - but brother, it ain't worth the time of day).
On Sunday I played the 30 + 3 P/L Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. 235 runners this time and I snuck in to 5th for another $500. Happy with this one too. I was short stack (as in THE short stack) from about 50 players down to the last five. The bubble was 30 - with 31 players left, I had about 3100 in chips with the blinds at 800/1600. But I hung on tenaciously, picked my spots, won a couple of coinflips (in Hi/Lo everything's a coinflip), and before I knew it I was at the final table. The final table seemed intent on dismembering itself - or at least playing hands that no-one in their right mind would - and before I knew it was the short stack with 5 left. I pushed with the best hand. From memory I had A235 with the Ace suited, I was called by AA44 and the board fell with only high cards. But really, I was happy to get that far and happy to hit one of my best tournament weekends in a while.
I think i'm going to play the 10 + 1 re-buy more often and the 30 + 3 at least once a week. I'm also thinking about higher buy-in NLHE tournaments - between 50 + 5 and 100 + 9. I figure I play live with this sort of buy-in regularly, and the bigger buy-ins bring smaller fields and therefore less variance. While the players are better at this level, there are still spectacular fish that will pay off your big hands (a surprising number), with the added bonus of good players who will fold decent hand to well-timed bluffs.
Anyway, that's the plan. Perhaps not a 100 + 9 for a while, but if I hit another big score in the P/L Omaha Hi/Lo, I think it'll be time to give the bigger NLHE tourneys a shot.
Anyway, blah blah blah, right? I'll let you know how things fair.
Played the $10 +1 P/L Omaha Hi/Lo tournament on Friday evening - and managed to win the damn thing for $555. It was the first online tournament that I had won in a while (not including satellites) and it was a relief to get in the money again. It was a re-buy tournament; however I didn't need to re-buy after tripling up early (although I took the add-on).
I like this tournament. It usually has about 60 to 80 runners - so the field size is not prohibitive - and the payouts are good. In the Friday tournament, for example, there were 65 runners, 8 got paid, but with all the re-buys 8th place got close to a hundred bucks. The players - well, I shouldn't say they're crap - they just don't know the game. I hasten to add that I only know the basics - but I'm playing against people who essentially don't know starting hands values or the value of their hands once the flops hits (two pair may feel donktastic - but brother, it ain't worth the time of day).
On Sunday I played the 30 + 3 P/L Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. 235 runners this time and I snuck in to 5th for another $500. Happy with this one too. I was short stack (as in THE short stack) from about 50 players down to the last five. The bubble was 30 - with 31 players left, I had about 3100 in chips with the blinds at 800/1600. But I hung on tenaciously, picked my spots, won a couple of coinflips (in Hi/Lo everything's a coinflip), and before I knew it I was at the final table. The final table seemed intent on dismembering itself - or at least playing hands that no-one in their right mind would - and before I knew it was the short stack with 5 left. I pushed with the best hand. From memory I had A235 with the Ace suited, I was called by AA44 and the board fell with only high cards. But really, I was happy to get that far and happy to hit one of my best tournament weekends in a while.
I think i'm going to play the 10 + 1 re-buy more often and the 30 + 3 at least once a week. I'm also thinking about higher buy-in NLHE tournaments - between 50 + 5 and 100 + 9. I figure I play live with this sort of buy-in regularly, and the bigger buy-ins bring smaller fields and therefore less variance. While the players are better at this level, there are still spectacular fish that will pay off your big hands (a surprising number), with the added bonus of good players who will fold decent hand to well-timed bluffs.
Anyway, that's the plan. Perhaps not a 100 + 9 for a while, but if I hit another big score in the P/L Omaha Hi/Lo, I think it'll be time to give the bigger NLHE tourneys a shot.
Anyway, blah blah blah, right? I'll let you know how things fair.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
The Smell of Victory
So I slogged though the first round of Party's WSOP freeroll. Needed to get into the top 50 (of 3500). I did so.
Next stage started at 6.30am Sunday morning Australian time. Thank you, North America, thank you. Can't remember the last time I've awoken before dawn. Don't care to try it again any time soon, thank you very much.
At least - I thought - I'll listen to the romantic trilling of the birds as the rozy dawn approached. But the dawn - great metaphor that it is - was a dispiriting grey. Heavy rain clouds hung overhead and few birds trilling did this lone gunman hear.
At one stage I thought I detected the wailing of mating cats not far from my misty computer room window. But pulling aside the curtain and surveying the pre-dawn surrounds, I discovered, much to my displeasure, the jarring, cat-humping sounds were emanating from a small, innocuous looking gray bird perched at my window.
Peculiar.
What did this little maestro foretell with his animal-mating jabber jabber? Nothing, of course. Just an arbitrary moment in another arbitrary day at the tables. If NLHE tournament poker is a metaphor for life, then this would be it. The arbitrary, the unnecessary, the unexpected. Good, bad, right or wrong - as the bard says, all are punish'd.
Anyway, as much as pontification and navel gazing seems an integral part of any blog, methinks some actual poker talk is in order.
The Scent
So I was chip leader - or close to it - for the first 7 levels. Nothing spectacular - just bad players dumping their chips off to me when they were drawing dead or close to it.
And the 3300 were whittled down. Steadily, unceasingly, they dropped. 2000 - 1500 - 600. And still I stayed close to the top of the chips.
The World Series of Poker? Dare I believe it? Dare I conjure in my mind that I may have a shot? That I was going to freeroll my way to the biggest game of all?
No fucking way.
The fall
Then it was three levels of cold cards, mis-timed steals, and a touch of impatience. Yet given all this, I managed to hover around the 50 000 chip mark (about the average with 160 left).
I find JJ in the cutoff. Best cards in a long while.
Blinds 1500/3000/200. I raise it to 10 000.
Fold, fold, BB calls.
Flop T24 rainbow. Not bad for JJ, not bad at all. I bet 15000 into a pot of about 23 000. BB calls (more than half of his stack is in the pot by now).
Hmm. Well, he isn't the sort of player to try something clever with QQ - AA, so I discount these. He ain't calling with a pocket pair under ten either, so I discount these also. He's either a clever boy with a set, or a donk with AT or thereabouts.
Turn is a bitch. Another Ten.
My opponent checks (of course he does - dickhead). I obviously check.
River is another rag. He leads out with a bet of about 7000 (into a pot of about 60 000). I make the crying call, he shows KT.
Nice hand sir, nice hand.
I had 17 000 after that and never recovered. Went out 151st.
That smell of victory? Well, just the scent, unfortunately.
Next stage started at 6.30am Sunday morning Australian time. Thank you, North America, thank you. Can't remember the last time I've awoken before dawn. Don't care to try it again any time soon, thank you very much.
At least - I thought - I'll listen to the romantic trilling of the birds as the rozy dawn approached. But the dawn - great metaphor that it is - was a dispiriting grey. Heavy rain clouds hung overhead and few birds trilling did this lone gunman hear.
At one stage I thought I detected the wailing of mating cats not far from my misty computer room window. But pulling aside the curtain and surveying the pre-dawn surrounds, I discovered, much to my displeasure, the jarring, cat-humping sounds were emanating from a small, innocuous looking gray bird perched at my window.
Peculiar.
What did this little maestro foretell with his animal-mating jabber jabber? Nothing, of course. Just an arbitrary moment in another arbitrary day at the tables. If NLHE tournament poker is a metaphor for life, then this would be it. The arbitrary, the unnecessary, the unexpected. Good, bad, right or wrong - as the bard says, all are punish'd.
Anyway, as much as pontification and navel gazing seems an integral part of any blog, methinks some actual poker talk is in order.
The Scent
So I was chip leader - or close to it - for the first 7 levels. Nothing spectacular - just bad players dumping their chips off to me when they were drawing dead or close to it.
And the 3300 were whittled down. Steadily, unceasingly, they dropped. 2000 - 1500 - 600. And still I stayed close to the top of the chips.
The World Series of Poker? Dare I believe it? Dare I conjure in my mind that I may have a shot? That I was going to freeroll my way to the biggest game of all?
No fucking way.
The fall
Then it was three levels of cold cards, mis-timed steals, and a touch of impatience. Yet given all this, I managed to hover around the 50 000 chip mark (about the average with 160 left).
I find JJ in the cutoff. Best cards in a long while.
Blinds 1500/3000/200. I raise it to 10 000.
Fold, fold, BB calls.
Flop T24 rainbow. Not bad for JJ, not bad at all. I bet 15000 into a pot of about 23 000. BB calls (more than half of his stack is in the pot by now).
Hmm. Well, he isn't the sort of player to try something clever with QQ - AA, so I discount these. He ain't calling with a pocket pair under ten either, so I discount these also. He's either a clever boy with a set, or a donk with AT or thereabouts.
Turn is a bitch. Another Ten.
My opponent checks (of course he does - dickhead). I obviously check.
River is another rag. He leads out with a bet of about 7000 (into a pot of about 60 000). I make the crying call, he shows KT.
Nice hand sir, nice hand.
I had 17 000 after that and never recovered. Went out 151st.
That smell of victory? Well, just the scent, unfortunately.
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