Posts Tagged ‘deep stacks’

The second installment of my trip report from the main event of the 2010 World Series of Poker, covering Days 3 and 4, has just been published in the September issue of 2+2 Magazine. Here’s an excerpt:

I came into Day 4 with a monster stack relative to the field. I had over 500,000 chips, when the average was about 180,000, ranking me 27th among the more than 1,200 players who remained. Day 4 was a particularly good day for this, as it was also the day that would separate the players who would win nothing from those who would take home at least $19,000. With 747 players to be paid, no one wanted to be eliminated in 748th place (or 762nd, for that matter), which meant that most people were playing more conservatively than usual.  Read the complete post...

I won’t be a back-to-back champion in the $2000 2-day FTOPS. I actually had quite good luck with my table draws, recognizing no one at my starting table and only two players over the course of the three and a half hours I played: Eric Froehlich and Tmay. The two big pots I lost were with AA and KK:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 30/60 Blinds 7 Ante (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t1851)
BB (t2250)
UTG (t8364)
MP (t15220)
CO (t6557)
Hero (Button) (t5577)

Hero’s M: 42.25

Preflop: Hero is Button with A, A
UTG bets t150, 2 folds, Hero raises to t444, 2 folds, UTG raises to t1095, Hero calls t651

Flop: (t2322) 4, 9, 8 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets t777, UTG calls t777

Turn: (t3876) K (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

River: (t3876) A (2 players)
UTG bets t3876, Hero folds  Read the complete post...

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button ($3902.35)
SB ($1434)
BB ($911.25)
Hero (UTG) ($2747)
MP ($1000)
CO ($1242.25)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, J
Hero bets $40, 2 folds, Button calls $40, 2 folds

Flop: ($95) J, 4, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets $77, Button calls $77

Turn: ($249) A (2 players)
Hero bets $222, Button calls $222

River: ($693) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $555, Button raises to $1850, Hero folds

Total pot: $1803 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button didn’t show
Outcome: Button won $1800

Pretty gross spot. I feel like he actually shouldn’t be raising low flushes, since I could easily have the nuts myself. Maybe he has the straight flush? On the other hand it’s also a weird spot for him to turn a hand into a bluff, since again I could easily have a flush. Ultimately his aggression wasn’t that high, and I’m at the bottom of my value range, so I folded suspiciously.

I’ve been taking a beating in heads up games recently. There were one or two cases of bad game selection, but for the most part I don’t think I’ve playing or running all that badly. I’m losing to people against whom I’m pretty confident I have an edge, not because of bad luck or consistently bad play, but because I keep making like one big mistake per match. And the thing is, no matter how well you play 99% of your hands, you can’t afford to make a 100BB+ mistake, not even once. That just isn’t a handicap you can overcome.

Here was tonight’s. I was up about four buy-ins across on this guy across all the tables we were playing when this happened:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $50.00 BB (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) ($8949.50)
BB ($28887)  Read the complete post...

The first installment of my 2010 WSOP main event trip report, covering Days 1 and 2, is now appearing in the 2+2 Internet Magazine:

“We began play with 30,000 chips each and blinds of just 50 and 100. On the very first hand, about half the table folded before the player on my right, a young French Canadian in a red hoodie who looked sort of like a raccoon, made a small raise to 200. I was next to act holding K5s. I re-raised to 600. Everyone folded, and just like that I was up to 30,350 chips. It was the most I would have all day.”

If you want to find out what went wrong on Day 1 and why I got called a “douchebag” on Day 2, then read the article. And of course, let me know what you think of it!

This time I’m on the receiving end. Villain is ordinarily a pretty big nit, but he doesn’t like me much and seems to enjoy putting moves on me. I was calling any river, though obviously this one makes it a lot easier.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($2559.15)
BB ($2539.50)
UTG ($3669.15)
Hero (MP) ($2545)
CO ($2069)
Button ($3038)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K, 10
1 fold, Hero bets $45, 1 fold, Button calls $45, 2 folds

Flop: ($117) 10, 3, 4 (2 players)
Hero bets $88, Button raises to $225, Hero calls $137

Turn: ($567) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $450, Hero calls $450

River: ($1467) 10 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $2316 (All-In), Hero calls $1823 (All-In)

Total pot: $5113 | Rake: $3  Read the complete post...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $4.00 BB (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($1000)
Hero (SB) ($1807.80)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 10, 6
Hero bets $12, BB calls $8

Flop: ($25.60) 3, 5, 6 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $19, BB raises to $64, Hero calls $45

Turn: ($153.60) 4 (2 players)
BB bets $72, Hero raises to $211, BB calls $139

River: ($575.60) J (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $1520 (All-In), 1 fold

Total pot: $575.60 | Rake: $0.50

Results:
Hero didn’t show 10, 6 (nothing).
Outcome: Hero won $575.10  Read the complete post...

What a run. In the last two days I’ve 20x’ed my chips without ever seeing TT, QQ, KK, or AA. I did have AK quite a few times today, though, and I connected with a few flops when it counted.

I stole more than my share of pots for a few hands, then made a questionable 4-bet shove with AKo. UTG+1 had raised to 2500, and I called with AKo next to his act. Then Brian Jensen re-raised to 8500, the raiser folded, and I shoved like 55K. He snap-called with KK, and then though I turned a flush draw, I couldn’t get there on the river. I probably should have just 3-bet the original raiser, and that would have had the added advantage of being able to get away if Brian cold 4-bet. Anyway, that didn’t help.  Read the complete post...