Thinking Poker » poker tournament

Good Luck to Andrew Chen!

foucault — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 15:27:52 +0000

Fellow Poker Savvy Pro Andrew “achen” Chen is at the final table of the PCA $5000 Bounty Shoot-Out event, set to begin at Noon today. There were prizes for winning the first two tables, but now everybody has same chip count and it’s winner take all for the remainder of the prizepool ($200K or so). Gogogogo.

Oh some guy named Shawn Deeb also still in the hunt.

NAPT Venetian Day 1

foucault — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 06:51:23 +0000

The table started out pretty soft, with only two players I recognized at the table. Unfortunately, Jon “fatalerror” Aguiar and Bill Chen were on my immediate left. Bill didn’t get involved in too many pots, but Jon sure did.

Early on, I raised 55 on my CO and called a 3-bet from a fishy player in the BB. I made a questionable call on a 932 flop, then turned a 5 to stack his KK.

The table kept getting tougher, with Amnon Fillippi and a few other solid players (but also Dennis Phillips) filling empty seats. A tight-bad player open limped for 300, I made it 1300 with QQ, Jon called, and Amnon shoved 15K from the Button. I reshoved without much thought but ran into AA.

I’d been playing pretty tightly, but at 300/600/75 I opened to 1600 with K9o in MP3. Jon called in the CO, and Amnon called in the BB. Flop came Kh Kd 6d. I bet slightly over half pot, Jon folded, and Amnon called. Turn 8h, he checks, I bet slightly over half pot again, 6400. He tanks and shoves about 20K, I call, he has Jd 5d. River Qd, and he doubles through me and leaves me at 24K.

I work my way up to about 28K when an aggressive younger guy opens to 2100 in the CO (blinds 400/800/100). Dennis Phillips calls on the Button, and I pick up AA in the SB. I make it 6900, kid 4-bets, Dennis folds what he later claimed was JJ, and I more than double up to about 60K.

A few hands later, I open to 2400 with JJ UTG+1. Dennis re-raises to 6500 with about 21K behind. I reluctantly fold.

Overall I had a tough seat at a tough table and what I’d consider below average luck, but I managed to come out of it with 51,400 chips. We started with 872 runners, and there are 510 left, so my stack is almost exactly average, which would be 51,294.

Sorry the Twitter updates were sporadic, my e-mail-to-Twitter thing isn’t working quite right.

I’m Off the Wagon

foucault — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:18:28 +0000

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)

Turn: (t27122) 2 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t27122) A (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t27122

Results:
Hero had 8, K (one pair, twos).
BB had A, 9 (two pair, Aces and nines).
Outcome: BB won t27122

This is just such a perfect spot for a bluff raise on the flop (I have a wide range, this is a tough flop for either of us to hit, and the stack sizes don’t give me many options even if I don’t believe him). Although I was new to the table and didn’t recognize his screenname, I did have some reason to think he was capable of making plays: he 3-bet me on his button at the first opportunity.

When dealing with an essentially unknown villain, though, shoving any two is not the best way to proceed. I can minimize exploitability by bluff shoving hands that will have the best equity vs. his calling range: draws, hands that paired the board, and even two overcards. Shoving something as weak as K8 makes me easily exploitable by a strategy this guy may well be employing, which is only raising when he has a hand good enough to call a shove. And naturally in a spot where he ought to be raising a huge range he has managed to flop top pair top kicker. AKDHAKLSFHSKLFHASFKH

Whoops

foucault — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:10:54 +0000

I’ve been spending most of my time these last few weeks camping, most recently at an amazing site in Arches National Park, and emerging only occasionally to play poker and catch up with the outside world. Annoyingly, this means I’m often at the mercy of either a hotel internet connection or my Aircard, neither of which provides quite as good of an internet connection as one would like when one is playing poker for thousands of dollars. So today the Poker Stars lobby was running at a crawl and I was trying to register for some tournaments while playing other games at the same time. I selected the $200 Sunday Million and clicked OK… or so I thought.

Half an hour earlier than I was expecting, a window popped up with my table. “Welcome to the $2000+$100 single table PCA satellite” it read, or something to that effect. Whoops.

It was definitely too late to unregister through the Poker Stars client. I quickly surveyed my opponents. They were a who’s who of high stakes sit-and-go sharks: Zangbezan, ActionJeff, busto_soon, stevie444, a few others recognized, and two I did not. Even the ones I recognized weren’t necessarily soft spots. For all I know, they could have been fantastic sit-and-go specialists. I hate the things myself and haven’t played them regularly for years. I was sure my proficiency with the proper and shoving and calling ranges was going to be rusty.

I vaguely remembered hearing about a $10 Sit-and-go player who accidentally registered for a $1000 but managed to sit out, e-mail support, and get his money refunded. I thought about trying something similar, but refunds are for wimps. To this day, I still judge a childhood friend of mine who asked for his money back when he misread his hand in a $5 pot at one of our high school home games.

No, that was out of the question. The only thing to do was take my lumps and tough it out. An hour and a half later, I had W$14,130 in my account. Ship it.

Can’t Keep a Good Man Down

foucault — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:55:10 +0000

What is it with me losing three-way pre-flop all ins with Aces on the bubble of the final table of big Full Tilt tournaments? This is with 20 people left in the $300 6-max Saturday tournament.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 1000/2000 Blinds 250 Ante (5 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

MP (t85806)
Button (t128054)
SB (t45228)
BB (t72671)
Hero (UTG) (t120318)

Hero’s M: 28.31

Preflop: Hero is UTG with A, A
Hero bets t4888, MP calls t4888, 1 fold, SB raises to t44978 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero raises to t85068, MP raises to t85556 (All-In), Hero calls t488

Flop: (t219340) Q, 6, K (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t219340) 4 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t219340) 8 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t219340
Results:
SB had J, Q (flush, King high).
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
MP had Q, Q (three of a kind, Queens).
Outcome: SB won t138184, MP won t81156

But with some skillful play…

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 2000/4000 Blinds 500 Ante (5 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t120360)
SB (t212041)
BB (t130758)
UTG (t221896)
Hero (MP) (t149764)

Hero’s M: 17.62

Preflop: Hero is MP with Q, K
UTG bets t9440, Hero calls t9440, 3 folds

Flop: (t27380) 6, Q, 4 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t27380) 3 (2 players)
UTG bets t16660, Hero raises to t33333, UTG calls t16673

River: (t94046) 9 (2 players)
UTG checks, Hero bets t106491 (All-In), UTG calls t106491

Total pot: t307028

Results:
UTG had 9, A (one pair, nines).
Hero had Q, K (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: Hero won t307028

…and a little luck:

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 2000/4000 Blinds 500 Ante (5 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t160688)
MP (t209041)
Button (t116524)
SB (t62398)
Hero (BB) (t286168)

Hero’s M: 33.67

Preflop: Hero is BB with J, 2
1 fold, MP bets t8875, 2 folds, Hero calls t4875

Flop: (t22250) J, 8, 8 (2 players)
Hero bets t7777, MP raises to t23575, Hero raises to t39373, MP raises to t199666 (All-In), Hero calls t160293

Turn: (t421582) 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t421582) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t421582

Results:
Hero had J, 2 (two pair, Jacks and eights).
MP had 4, A (one pair, eights).
Outcome: Hero won t421582

I can still win one of these things!

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em Tournament, 8000/16000 Blinds 2000 Ante (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (BB) (t1554346)
SB (t215654)

Hero’s M: 55.51

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6, A
SB bets t213654 (All-In), Hero calls t197654

Flop: (t431308) 7, A, 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t431308) 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t431308) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t431308

Results:
SB had 9, Q (one pair, sevens).
Hero had 6, A (two pair, Aces and sevens).
Outcome: Hero won t431308

Video of final table forthcoming on Poker Savvy Plus.