Posts Tagged ‘FTOPS’

The FTOPS main event started at 3PM PST. I busted the NAPT around 3:20 and booked it back up to my room to late register. Obviously immediately after experience some bad luck in a big live tournament, I wasn’t in a mindset to play the best poker of my life, but I didn’t want to miss a juicy $500 tournament. Hard to say whether that was a good decision though. Here are the two big pots that did me in:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP3 (t7733)
CO (t8986)
Button (t7340)
SB (t7032)
Hero (BB) (t8773)
UTG (t4813)
UTG+1 (t14044)
MP1 (t1738)
MP2 (t16268)

Hero’s M: 73.11

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6, 5
1 fold, UTG+1 bets t280, 3 folds, CO calls t280, 2 folds, Hero calls t200

Flop: (t880) 4, 7, 6 (3 players)
Hero bets t333, 1 fold, CO calls t333  Read the complete post...

My starting table had not a lot of chips but a couple of notable players, including Owen “ocrowe” Crowe, Andrew Chen, Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo, and Lauren Kling. We broke after less than an hour, but I still managed to play a few interesting pots. Also, a very friendly reader named Mark (hi, Mark) recognized me from the Blog and introduced himself, which was cool. A kid at the PCA recognized my voice from Poker Savvy, but I think this is the first time a blog reader I didn’t already know has recognized me.

500/1000/100, I open complete 73o in the SB, Lauren checks.

Flop Ks Js Jc, I check planning to call a bet and bluff river. She checks behind.

Turn 7c, I check, she bets 3000, I call.

River 9d, we check, I show my hand, and it’s good. Owen comments on my playing 73o and predicts that I won’t be giving a lot of walks.  Read the complete post...

Story of the FTOPS for me for as long as I’ve been playing it: I went deep but not quite deep enough. After nearly 7 hours, I took 37th and won less than 4 buy-ins. My bust-out hand was pretty standard, shoving 33 from the SB over a button raise from gboro, who woke up with QQ. At least I’m in the Pacific time zone right now, so I was only up until 1AM rather than 4AM. Oh and I managed to win a 3-way all-in with AA, which hasn’t been my experience of late when deep in FTP tournaments.

Got a bit of a drive ahead of us today to Death Valley, where we’ll be camping for the next few nights before returning to Vegas for the NAPT Venetian. I’ve got one blog post scheduled to post up tomorrow, and we’ll see how many more I get to, but please excuse me if things are quiet on here for a few days.

Edit: Yeah, I’m an idiot. It was late when I posted this, and I did in fact calculate my pre-flop equity rather than my flop equity. I’m actually a 2:1 dog here, which is more what I expected. Thanks to qanda201 for pointing it out in the comments. I thought it seemed too good to be true.

UTG+1 (t32863)
MP1 (t13444)
MP2 (t17933)
MP3 (t4420)
CO (t19270)
Button (t11849)
Hero (SB) (t20290)
BB (t16994)
UTG (t11219)

Hero’s M: 13.53

Preflop: Hero is SB with K, K, 2, 3
1 fold, UTG+1 bets t2500, 1 fold, MP2 calls t2500, 3 folds, Hero calls t2000, BB calls t1500

Flop: (t10000) 5, 10, J (4 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t10000, 2 folds, Hero raises to t17790 (All-In), BB calls t4494 (All-In)

Turn: (t38988) 8 (2 players, 2 all-in)  Read the complete post...

My tournaments results have been pretty good the last few months, culminating most recently in two PCA seats and a win in the FTP $300 Saturday 6-Max. I attribute this improvement to a disciplined effort to avoid bringing the aggressive play needed to win in high-stakes cash games over to a tournament setting where my opponents are far more passive and far less tricky.

Last night, in the $300 rebuy FTOPS event, I was rolling along nicely and then fell off the wagon:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 170/340 Blinds 25 Ante (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t13511)
UTG (t19356)
MP (t20140)
CO (t18855)
Button (t12236)
Hero (SB) (t19919)
Hero’s M: 30.18

Preflop: Hero is SB with 8, K
4 folds, Hero bets t1020, BB calls t680

Flop: (t2190) 9, 2, 7 (2 players)
Hero bets t1333, BB raises to t3125, Hero raises to t18874 (All-In), BB calls t9341 (All-In)  Read the complete post...

The whole idea of betting for protection is one that I feel I am really only now starting to understand. Most people, when they first start playing, are way too concerned about protecting their hands. You see them overbetting and moving all in with one pair hands in spots where they will never be called with worse.

Many better players like to make fun of the fish who talk about protecting their hands. Because betting for protection is so popular among weak players, many stronger players think it is an intrinsically bad play.

I’ve been trying to reach a more nuanced understanding of the concept recently. My current thinking is that it has a lot to do with, not whether you will get drawn out on, but whether future streets are likely to be +EV for you. Sometimes you have a hand that will play well on future streets, in which case you aren’t concerned about protecting. Other times, you have a hand that can’t improve and can’t catch bluffs, in which case it’s often best to take it down right away.  Read the complete post...

Particularly earlier in the year, running too many big bluffs in tournaments was a substantial leak of mine. I’ve made a concerted effort to confine the monster bluffs to the cash tables, and my tourney results have improved a bit. In the $300 rebuy 6-max FTOPS, though, I did pull off what I think was a big, good tourney bluff:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 80/160 Blinds (6 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t6916)
MP (t3171)
CO (t7325)
Button (t12320)
SB (t12015)
Hero (BB) (t6713)

Hero’s M: 27.97

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, K
2 folds, CO bets t320, 1 fold, SB calls t240, Hero raises to t900, 1 fold, SB calls t580

Flop: (t2120) J, Q, 5 (2 players)
SB bets t900, Hero calls t900

Turn: (t3920) A (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t999, SB calls t999  Read the complete post...