Posts Tagged ‘satellite’

Played the 1K WSOP satellite on Stars tonight. There were 21 runners, meaning 2 seats and a lot of cash paid out. I came into the final table in second place, and had the lead by the time we got down to 5. I was running roughshod over everyone, and with four left I had as many chips as the other three combined. I definitely felt I was the strongest of the remaining players, but there were two other guys (none of whom I recognized) who seemed to get satellite strategy pretty well and one guy who was awful. One of the good players busted the other, so we got down to 3-handed with me and the other good player in a substantial lead.

At some point the fish doubled through him, which wasn’t ideal (I’d prefer the fish to bust and lock up my seat) but certainly an improvement. I took a shot at busting the now-short good player, but it didn’t end well:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $1000+$50 Tournament, 400/800 Blinds 100 Ante (3 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (Button) (t36843)
SB (t39582)
BB (t16575)

Hero’s M: 24.56

Preflop: Hero is Button with 10, 10
Hero bets t1600, SB calls t1200, BB raises to t16475 (All-In), Hero raises to t31350, 1 fold  Read the complete post...

To top off a great weekend, I played and won my second $2000 satellite to the $10,000 WCOOP main event. The first one I played, which I replayed for Poker Savvy Plus, had only 9 runners and paid one seat plus a lot cash. This one got 52 runners, paying 10 seats plus some cash for 11th. Naturally it was a very different satellite dynamic. Here are a few of the more interesting hands:

This one occurred with 25 players left. With fewer players left, or a slightly weaker hand (JJ, even), I think it would be very close. Even here, I wasn’t happy with Queens:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $2000+$100 Tournament, 125/250 Blinds 30 Ante (8 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t7802)
Hero (UTG+1) (t6339)
MP1 (t5140)
MP2 (t7681)
CO (t4490)
Button (t9135)
SB (t2515)
BB (t6864)

Hero’s M: 10.31

Preflop: Hero is UTG+1 with Q, Q
1 fold, Hero bets t666, 3 folds, Button raises to t2000, 2 folds, Hero raises to t6309 (All-In), Button calls t4309

Flop: (t13233) 3, 8, 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t13233) 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t13233) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t13233

Results:
Button had K, A (one pair, tens).
Hero had Q, Q (two pair, Queens and tens).
Outcome: Hero won t13233  Read the complete post...

After working most of the morning, I got to the Rio about 4:30 and wandered through the Gaming Life Expo. It was pretty disappointing, way fewer scantily clad women than in past years. There were long lines to meet Chris Moneymaker and Doyle Brunson, but there was no wait for Dario Minieri or David Sklansky. I elected to meet no one.

I planned to get dinner in about an hour, and rather than spend half that time waiting for a cash table, I decided to play a $1K one table satellite, figuring that would take about an hour. Two and a half hours later, I busted in 4th. The blind levels seemed longer than last year, which ordinarily I’d be fine with, but this time I played specifically because I wanted it to be short.

Before we got started, a loud fat guy with a deep voice and unkempt facial and chest hair collected $300 from six of us for a last longer. Two of the six were the first two to bust, which was nice, and they both busted to non-participants.  Read the complete post...

Although I’m running pretty low on cash on Poker Stars of late, I did have some $W sitting around, and since I don’t actually have a conflict with the European Poker Tour Dortmund event at the end of January, I decided to play a satellite. We started off 250 BB’s deep, and I felt I did a very good job of taking advantage of weaker players with such deep money. I don’t think it will be necessary to offer commentary on each of these hands, but hopefully they are illustrative of some important deep stack concepts like pot control, isolation, and position. I am happy to answer any questions that get posed in the Comments section.

Poker Stars, $760 + $40 NL Hold’em Tournament, 10/20 Blinds, 7 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

BB: 4,540
UTG: 4,630
UTG+1: 5,300
MP: 5,600
Hero (CO): 4,970
BTN: 4,900
SB: 5,060

Pre-Flop: (30) A T dealt to Hero (CO)
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls 20, MP folds, Hero raises to 120, 3 folds, UTG+1 calls 100

Flop: (270) 8 7 6 (2 Players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks

Turn: (270) 3 (2 Players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks

River: (270) 6 (2 Players)
UTG+1 checks, Hero checks  Read the complete post...