Archive for June, 2008

More often than not I end up regretting big moves like this in tournaments, but I think this one is alright. It worked, anyway.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold’em Tournament, 120/240 Blinds, 25 Ante, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

MP: 25,020
CO: 25,268
BTN: 3,120
SB: 6,095
Hero (BB): 6,510
UTG: 7,269

Pre-Flop: (510) 2 A dealt to Hero (BB)
UTG folds, MP raises to 720, CO calls 720, 2 folds, Hero calls 480

Flop: (2,430) K J 5 (3 Players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO checks

Turn: (2,430) A (3 Players)
Hero checks, MP checks, CO bets 960, Hero calls 960, MP calls 960

River: (5,310) 9 (3 Players)
Hero bets 4,805 and is All-In, 2 folds

Results: 5,310 Pot
Hero mucked 2 A and WON 5,310 (+3,605 NET)

MP was new to the table, but so far he’d been pretty tight/straightforward. CO was a giant calling station, especially pre-flop. He was in like 70% of pots, rarely as the aggressor. He pretty much always potted it when he liked his hand, but would call with as little as a gutshot.  Read the complete post...

With deeper stacks (these hands are all from deep tables), you need to be, not necessarily more aggressive, but aggressive in more situations. With 100 BBs’s, a 4-bet squeeze will almost always commit your stack, which means there’s only a narrow range of hands with which you can make this play. Showdown equity is always important.

But as stacks get deeper, there is more room to maneuver. You can put in more bets in more spots and still have room to fold. That doesn’t mean you can go crazy against just anyone. Reads are important, as you need to know that your opponents are capable of letting go of a hand and/or having a less-than-stellar hand in the first place.

In this first one, MP and CO were both very aggressive pre-flop. I was certain they’d fold often enough to make this profitable. The only x-factor was the Button. I wasn’t sure what would be his standards for cold calling a 3-bet. But he was also deep, and I figured that coming in cold for the fourth bet would get him off of even some pretty strong holdings:

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BB: $458
UTG: $400
MP: $1,303.30
CO: $1,099
BTN: $827.40
Hero (SB): $915  Read the complete post...

Man I was around Vegas for most of the WSOP last summer and nothing spectacular happened. Then I sit it out this summer and all of my best poker buddies start kicking ass. Guess I am a jinx.

Payouts

1 $434,789
2 $277,452
3 $167,973
4 $137,343
5 $112,641
6 $88,927
7 $69,165
8 $54,344
9 $39,523

Seats and Chip Counts

Seat 1: Sebastian Segovia (Guatemala) — 128,500
Seat 2: Alex Bolotin (Brooklyn, New York) — 534,000
Seat 3: David Singer (Las Vegas, Nevada) — 334,000
Seat 4: Thuy Doan (Williamsburg, Virginia) — 369,500
Seat 5: John Phan (Stockton, California) — 396,500
Seat 6: Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin (Red Hook, New York) — 1,007,500
Seat 7: Stewart Newman (Coral Gables, Florida) — 398,000
Seat 8: Johnny “Schwah” Neckar (Madison, Wisconsin) — 796,000
Seat 9: Tony “Bond18″ Dunst (Melbourne, Australia) — 333,000

There are a few other notable players here as well, including FTP pro David Singer, who recently won the $25,000 heads up tournament on that site, Thuy Doan, who posts as Shes on 2+2, Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin, who’s been backed and ghosted to some big internet scores by the infamous JJProdigy, and Johnny Neckar, who’s well-known to 2+2 MTT community as Schwah.

Play is scheduled to start in about an hour. Good luck Tony!

is that the bad beats are more expensive than ever! Here are some monsters I lost today:

Full Tilt Poker, $2/$4 NL Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

UTG: $1,006.70
MP: $448.30
CO: $870.20
Hero (BTN): $1,021.50
SB: $416
BB: $525

Pre-Flop: A A dealt to Hero (BTN)

UTG calls $4, MP raises to $18, CO folds, Hero raises to $64, 2 folds, UTG calls $60, MP calls $46

Flop: ($198) 6 T A (3 Players)
UTG bets $50, MP folds, Hero calls $50

Turn: ($298) 9 (2 Players)
UTG bets $85, Hero calls $85

River: ($468) 5 (2 Players)
UTG bets $807.70 and is All-In, Hero calls $807.70

Results: $2,083.40 Pot ($3 Rake)
UTG showed 7 8 (a straight, Ten high) and WON $2,080.40 (+$1,073.70 NET)
Hero mucked A A (three of a kind, Aces) and LOST (-$1,006.70 NET)

I can’t claim I played this one great. In my defense, I at least tanked before calling the river. I was hoping he had a smaller set that he thought was the nuts, since the only way I was beat was if he had led into me with a gut shot on the flop.

I was obviously really excited to pick up a set against this same guy towards the end of my session:  Read the complete post...

My dad keeps up with the blog, so I figured I’d make a post to wish him a Happy Father’s Day. I didn’t see him today, since he’s in Maryland and I’m in Boston, but he’ll be coming out to Las Vegas for the WSOP as he has for the last two years. After my first day (1C), we’re going to Bryce Canyon for two nights before I (hopefully) play Day 2B. Happy Father’s Day, dad.

On the same theme, here’s a great story about being a father from 2+2 poster “Marlow”:

In the months leading up the birth of my daughter, just about everyone who had the chance told me that my life was going to change. Of course they were right, but it’s interesting that no one ever asserted that I was going to change. Beyond the impact my daughter has had on my sleep schedule, ability to play cards, drink, watch football, and travel – the greatest changes have all been to my personality and outlook. Before, I was a walking existential crisis. So much of my life was devoted to exploring my place in the world, and what the whole “meaning of life” is. But after she arrived, I stopped asking these questions. I’m no longer tortured by all of that. I’m satisfied. I can’t say that I know definitively what the meaning of life is, but my need to ask the question of myself and the world has ceased completely.  Read the complete post...

Ran down to Foxwoods for a few hours today to get back in the swing of live poker in preparation for the WSOP. Mostly I reminded myself how mind-numblingly boring the games are and how god damn stupid and annoying the players are. Jesus it’s bad enough they take two and three minutes to make the most obvious folds, with all the dramatics of turning over cards and staring at each other and babbling when it’s ridiculously clear they are beat, but then when hands do go to showdown all the song and dance about who’s going to show his hand first starts up.

Probe Bet

Enough ranting, let’s talk hands. I was sitting at a 5/10 NL must move table for most of the day. The cap in that game is $2000, and thankfully most of the table was in for the maximum or close to it. The first pot I remember playing was a squeeze against one of the more loose and aggressive guys at the table. UTG, a very loose player, limped in for $10, there was another call, the LAG raised to $30, got called, and I popped it to $175 from the CO. I don’t remember what I had, but it wasn’t air, probably a suited connector or something. UTG called $165 more, which would be troubling from some people but didn’t mean a whole lot from this guy, and the other two called as well. This table was a riot.  Read the complete post...

As some of you know, my poker playing for the last few years has supported not only myself but a debate league in the Boston Public Schools. It started as just a volunteer thing that I did with a few teachers, but we soon realized that it had potential to help a lot of students if we could make it better. The key to that has been getting the administration of BPS to take some ownership of it, so that it would become part of the school system and not just an outside program.

I’m very excited that after months of meetings, the superintendent and her staff have agreed to invest $50,000 in the League. This is actually less than I was hoping, but it’s still a huge improvement from nothing and will hopefully get us a foot in the door. Everyone I’ve met in the administration has seemed genuinely taken with the program. Now we’ll have access to data such as debaters’ GPA and test scores (this will be part of our deal with BPS), the numbers will back up our claims about how participation in debate can improve confidence, academic achievement, critical thinking, literacy, etc. It seems very plausible to me that there could be debate teams in every high school in the city, and maybe middle schools as well, within ten years.  Read the complete post...

I’ve never even heard of this magazine, but their ad is clever and pretty funny. It took me a minute to get it. If you can’t read it, the text at the bottom says, “Become the King of Bluff.”