Friday 31 October 2008

October review

Cash games : +$378 (10k hands)
SnG + MTT: -$201 (13k hands)
Rakeback : +$173
Live Casino Play : -£55 (3 visits)
FT Iron Man Status : Qualified Silver
FT One-a-day freeroll : Qualified

Quick review of last month's goals
----------------------------------
1. Register at cardrunners.com if they are still offering a free week
It was deucescracked and I have watched and downloaded a few vids.
2. Read some more books
I've read some of Elements of Poker which has some really good stuff. I've also ordered my own copy of the Slansky book with FTP points but its yet to arrive.
3. Focus on playing $20 SnG
I started out with this in mind but had a bad run and decided to focus more on the cash
4. Play a few $5 MTT/Multi SnG
I did and had a good place in a $10 MTT but the SnG losses wiped any profit out :(
5. Play a few sessions at $0.5/$1 (around 2k hands) and analyze
Played way more than target 2k hands due to some early success. I'm finding 9-seaters more suited to my play but probably need to think about why most grinders play 6-seated
6. Play a few live casino games
I did, but no big wins this month
7. Win $!
I finished up, so thats always good :)
8. Stop playing 300 chip super-turbos!
Played a handful but way less than before!

New goals
-----------
1. Play mainly cash (0.5/1) - probably target around 20k hands
2. Move to 4-tabling from 3-tabling
3. Try and play more focussed sessions (1-2hr) and learn to quit better (poker element #5)
4. Read more and watch more
5. Play a few MTT/Multi-Table SnG
6. Play a few live casino games
7. Try and do more/better analysis and maybe get some coaching?
8. Win $$££!

Monday 27 October 2008

Rebuy

With a smaller than usual field, I got AA early on and doubled up against QQ but it went downhill from there. There was a lot of aggression at the table from both good and bad players so had to try and win a few races but came off worst each time. Post-break I had a puny 3.5k chips after 3 rebuys and addon. I gained a little and then had to take my chances with 88 vs AQ and held on until the river Q and I was out.

I ended up going home much earlier than usual so joined a $10+1 knockout multi online finishing 3rd for around $500 so it wasn't all bad :)

£10 rebuy placed:
1st=(with 3 others)/5? (£330) DEAL +£289
8th/53 (£0) -£41
8th/60 (£0) -£31
6th=(with 1 other)/54 (£75) +£44
2nd/53 (£420) DEAL +£359
17th/61(£0) -£21
30th/41(£0) -£21
10th/71(£50) -£1
8th/45(£40) -£31
5th/53(£140) +£89
8th/58 (£40) +£29
25th/39 (£0) -£51

£10 rebuy profit/loss : +£613
Final table appearances : 9/12 (75%)
Average profit :+£51.08
ITM : 7/12 (58.3%)

Saturday 18 October 2008

buyin : $11
rebuys : 0
addons : 0
entrants : 58
placed : 8th
prize : £40
profit : £29 (£39 if you count the £10 I was given by my manager for fixing a problem late on Friday afternoon that payed for most of my buyin!)

rebuy period
-------------
final hand : blinds 100/200 Q9 SB, button limps, i limp, BB (welshman) checks, flop Ad92 (rainbow), i check, BB checks, 300 raise from button, i call, BB calls. Turn Qd. I open for 1000, BB pushes all-in with around 4k. button folds, I call with my last 4k. He has K7d (nut flush draw), and river is 9d. Panic'd when it first came out but made a FH to have stack of 11.5k at the break so didn't add on.

post-break
-----------
a lot of rubbish..(some terrible play from others.. 6k stack all-in with A9d and called by 15k stack with 42o who hits a 2!). With blinds 400/800 I had around 6.5k. Drunk welshman raises 2k, and I push all-in with A3. He calls to show J9 and I hit 33 on flop to get back to around 14k.
with blinds 600/1200 and a stack around 10k I push from button with 97d and called by AJ (the guy who played 42 earlier). I hit a 9 on the flop and hold on to double up.
Sneaked onto the final table with 16.5k chips in around 8th position - chip leader has 52k.

final table
---------
opening hand, blinds are 1000/2000 and dealt 88. I pushed all-in and called by chip leader on BB with KK. Flop shows an 8 and I have around 34k :)
Few hands later chip leader calls an all-in from another shortstack with 33. Chip leader shows 88 and 3 comes on the flop!
Few hands later on SB with ATs. Agressive player raises from button and I decide to fold, happy with new stack and not with my position. In hindsight probably a mistake - he showed one card - a Q I think (he was to go out in 9th shortly).
Chip leader goes out first in 10th.. pushing with QT and beaten by KQ.
Couple of hands later a 16k stack goes all-in. I push over the top with AK to see his A5 hit a 5 on the flop and win leaving me with 14.5k.
Blinds up to 1500/3000 and I have to fold my BB and SB.
On the button I have 10k chips (3.3 BB) and K7. There was a limper from MP3 (around 25k chips) and I decided to fold. Flop came K22 then 7 then Q and I think I would have won. It seems to be borderline in the Moshman push tables so not sure if it just looks like a mistake in hindsight due to the way it played out. BB was as short as me and I was worried a little that MP3's limp had strength and was thinking BB or I would push (reading this thought back now seems pretty dumb.. they would have just pushed over us with strength). K7 is a pretty weak push hand and I expected a call from one of the 3 still in the hand anyway.
Next hand in CO I had QJd. All folded round to me and I pushed. SB with similar stack called with AJ. I had 7 outs before the river (3*Q and 4*T for straight) but they never came and I was out.

Think I played the final table ok and was just wasn't my day?

£10 rebuy placed:
1st=(with 3 others)/5? (£330) DEAL
8th/53 (£0)
8th/60 (£0)
6th=(with 1 other)/54 (£75)
2nd/53 (£420) DEAL
17th/61(£0)
30th/41(£0)
10th/71(£50)
8th/45(£40)
5th/53(£140)
8th/58 (£40)

£10 rebuy profit/loss :
+£289
-£41
-£31
+£44
+£359
-£21
-£21
-£1
-£31
+£89
+£29
------
+£664

Flattering Stats:
Final table appearances : 9/11 (81.8%)
Average profit :+£60.36
ITM : 7/11 (63.6%)

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Matrix tournaments

Full Tilt has introduced an interesting new format of tournament called "Enter the matrix". Just tried one (only $2+0.25).. came 1st, 2nd, 6th, 7th to end up 4th in the matrix (just out of the overall money) but did make a small profit overall.

Wednesday 8 October 2008

$0.5/1

I've been playing a lot of $0.5/1 and almost at my target of 2k hands for the month already. Sit n Gos haven't been going so well so may take a break from them for a while. FT points and rakeback sure flow in faster at this level of cash play - around $50 rakeback per week and heading towards silver/gold/iron Iron Man level if I keep up the same amount of play.

Just had a good session with 2 very profitable hands straight after each other at the same table but felt very uncomfortable with my play. Also posted a couple of other hands that happened soon after. Left the table with $500 after sitting down with $100 but did lose $130 across 2 others.



Donkey or genius?

QQ : http://weaktight.com/443713

JJ : http://weaktight.com/443715

KK : http://weaktight.com/443717

K9 : http://weaktight.com/443718

T8 : http://weaktight.com/443721

57 : http://weaktight.com/443730

EDIT:
had to add this one from later on... (a +$150 session)
QQ : http://weaktight.com/443764 - the guy is playing VP$IP : 94 and PFR : 66 after 40 hands. Glad he didn't have the A though! He left the table after another reload and donk to cries of 'please rebuy' :)

Monday 6 October 2008

Top of the league!

Circus £30 freezeout

I tried the circus £30+3 double chance freezeout this saturday. Players get 3500 chips to start and a 2000 chip token which can be cashed at any point during the first 3 levels. It was my largest live field with 78 players.

I dealt for the opening 3 levels and although I gave myself AA once it didn't turn into many chips and I arrived at the break 500 chips down at 5k. Post-break I won a couple of pots but the rising blinds were eating away at my stack, so with around 6BB I pushed with AQ and got a call from a KK. The flop brought an A, and so did the turn, and so did the river! :) Thats twice with quad aces in just over a month. I took another pot with a re-steal and then our table was broken up.

On the final 2 tables I had around 16k chips with blinds of 800/1600 before my final hand. I'm kicking myself about how I played it still... :(

I was dealt 55 in early mid position. The blinds were about to hit me and the clock only had a few minutes to 1k/2k blinds so I knew I didn't have much time and opened with a raise to 5k. The player to my left with about the same chipcount as me pushed all-in and I called to see his AQ. The board came 9TJK.. and it was all over:(

I'm pretty sure I played this hand all wrong and will run some calculations to check. The raise to 5k was definitely a mistake.. a shove would probably have been best even though AQ may have called anyway. A min raise might have been better and I could probably have got away from he all-in. However, perhaps the correct play would be to fold? In such early position 55 is pretty weak with so many left to act and it being at that stage of the tournament. I've played against the guy who shoved a few times and I've seen him play 2 high cards far too strongly before. I put him on AK,AQ,AJ,KQ so realised it would be a race and probably not a great one. Part of the reason I called was the upcoming blinds and the end of the level (was just over 2 minutes at this point). My opening bet had commited a large chunk of my stack and with the blinds I decided to take my chances. I'm sure I was partly beating myself up over the initial raise and called to try and correct the mistake... tilting at its best!