Posts Tagged ‘SCOOP’

I know where I’ll be May 8-22: PokerStars is guaranteeing $45 million in prizes over the course of two weeks in the third annual Spring Championship of Online Poker. They’ve released the schedule, and just looking at it gets my adrenaline rushing. There are so many tournaments that will be both fun and very profitable, and there’s also the opportunity to blow through $50,000 or so in buy-ins if things don’t go well.

I love the SCOOP. It’s my favorite tournament series of the year, by far. Not only are there some unique and creative formats (Antes Up, 4-Max), but the range of buy-in options lets everyone get in on the fun. Even players with small bankrolls can participate in a major tournament series. Plus, it’s a better solution to letting regulars multi-table a major series than allowing multiple entries. The big buy-in events will be reg-infested, but the small and medium ones won’t end up as saturated with professionals as I understand many events were in a certain other tournament series that ran recently and allowed multi-entries.  Read the complete post...

Tournament Statistics

Certainly an above average year in tournaments, with an FTOPS win, a WCOOP final table, a SCOOP final table bubble, and a top 100 finish in the WSOP Main Event. No room to complain about anything here. My true ROI is probably in the neighborhood of 100%, so I ran well above expectation. The high average buy-in and field size indicate that I focused my play on big buy-in events and special huge-field events like the WCOOP, FTOPS, and Sunday tournaments, which was the goal.

ROI: 395.8%

ITM: 17.5%

Average Buy-In: $546

Average Field Size: 2,204

Average Finish: 38.7%

Win Rate: .73 Buy-Ins/Hour

Biggest Win: $2000 FTOPS 2-Day NLHE

Cash Game Statistics

These numbers aren’t as bad as they look. Basically I got creamed in some high stakes heads up games, and those dragged down my overall win rates. Excluding heads up games, I’m up across the board, even in high-stakes games (2.5 BB/100 win rate). Basically I just need to either get better at heads up, stop playing it, or at least practice better game selection.

I’m also a little unhappy with the number of hands played. Because of my nomadic lifestyle, I was on my laptop for most of the year, with just one monitor. Thus I often played just 4 tables at once. It’s been nice getting back on two monitors, and I’m looking forward to getting a lot more hands in for 2011.  Read the complete post...

We played four rounds today. The first one started at 13:00 and I finished a little before 20:00, though many tables were still playing for some time thereafter.

My first opponent was by far the toughest. He’s a regular with a in biggest NLHE games on Poker Stars, not as well known as most of the guys who play in the game but with a respectable win rate. I don’t think we’d ever played cash together, so it’s possible he knew nothing about me. He certainly seemed to underestimate me, anyway. He was 3-betting a lot, and the first time I 4-bet him, he shoved 87o and lost to my AA. That got me a 3-1 lead, but then I got it in with K7 vs. AA (he flat called pre-flop) on a KQ6 flop and doubled him up. The second time I 4-bet him, he shoved and I folded. The third time, he shoved and his Q2s lost to my KK.

My second opponent was the weakest of the four, though he got an early lead when he one-outed me in a 3-bet pot. I’d called his 3-bet with Q8, and he’d check-called two bets on a Q-high board. The river was an 8 and put four to a straight on the board. He checked and called a big bet with 88. I got back to even with AA vs. his KK, then ground him down and polished him with AK vs. his KQ.  Read the complete post...

I played both the 250 and the 2500 but not the 25K. Go ahead, call me a nit.

My first opponent in the 250 was absolutely awful. He played 63/1 over the course of the match (he open limped his button when he didn’t fold it) and played pretty badly post-flop. I dispatched him tidily and drew a more challenging opponent in the second round. He was up nearly 2:1 on me when I 3-bet him with KK, bet a J95 flop, and called a shove. He had JT and caught another J on the turn, and that was that.

Things were tougher in the 2500. I didn’t recognize the name of my first round opponent, but my research revealed that he was a significant winner at 1/2 – 3/6 NLHE heads up cash games. He played well but a little too stubbornly, basically never giving a hand up on the flop. I sucked out on him once, AJ > AK, after getting kind of short. The way the hand went down we pretty much had to get it in pre-flop.

Then I really stuck it to him with this one:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 2600 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t7955)
Hero (BB) (t12045)

Hero’s M: 100.38  Read the complete post...

I like PLO8 and know a bit about it, but I’m far from an expert. I also played the $100, in which I was surely a favorite, but the 1K had a surprisingly competent field (or maybe not so surprising- I mean it was a 1K). Not that there wasn’t any bad play, but I may well have been a dog to the field.

I decided that at least in the early stages of the tournament, I was going to limp in EP with anything I wanted to play. Villain here had been isolating me a lot, so I decided to check-raise him on this flop- not sure if that’s good or nto.

Poker Stars $1000+$50 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Tournament – t15/t30 Blinds – 9 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG: t5294 M = 117.64
Hero (UTG+1): t4975 M = 110.56
UTG+2: t3913 M = 86.96
MP1: t8037 M = 178.60
MP2: t4955 M = 110.11
CO: t5992 M = 133.16
BTN: t5202 M = 115.60
SB: t8119 M = 180.42
BB: t8852 M = 196.71

Pre Flop: (t45) Hero is UTG+1 with A T 4 5
1 fold, Hero calls t30, UTG+2 raises to t120, 6 folds, Hero calls t90

Flop: (t285) 3 3 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+2 bets t180, Hero raises to t555, UTG+2 calls t375  Read the complete post...

I ended up doing quite well in this one, finishing 5th out of more than 1400 runners. On the whole it was a lot of fun to play so short-handed and I felt I played well, but a monumental error in my final hand left a bad taste in my mouth.

The thing about a 4-max tournament is that you have to play a lot of pots with everyone at your table; there’s no avoiding anyone. That’s good news if you’re the best player at the table, but bad news if even one of the others is better than you, especially if he knows it and takes full advantage of it.

Call me cocky, but I feel like I’m a favorite over a huge percent of the field in a $300 SCOOP event, and sure enough I dominated the first few tables I was at. That gameplan ran into a brickwall when I ended up at a table with ZeeJustin and a high-stakes PLO player who also played very well. Suddenly I was the third best player at the table and was getting killed.  Read the complete post...

Last night, as I was sleep-deprived and caffeine-jittery and getting deep in the $300 SCOOP 4-Max, I was also on the phone with Mike Johnson and Adam Schwartz, hosts of the 2+2 Pokercast on which I am this week’s feature guest! You can search for it on iTunes or listen here to hear me talk strategy, offer some life advice to all those young poker pros out there, and even play a hand with the nuts live on the air! I haven’t actually listened to the episode yet myself, but apparently the guys also talk about the latest debacle at UB/AP.

Please let me know what you think!

Between the deep stacks and the very short-handed tables, I was really looking forward to this event. I’ve actually missed both Sundays of the SCOOP, but I made sure I was around for this one.

Needless to say, it was a tough field. My first few tables actually weren’t bad, but they were breaking quickly, and eventually I ended up at a table with three guys who all play higher stakes cash games than I do.  Granted, one of them seemed to be a net loser, and one of them was David Benyamine, but still.

I ended up losing my stack in two big pots with Justin “Boosted J” Smith. This first one is going to look bad, but I’m actually OK with it. I may not always 4-bet my biggest pairs, but I’m pretty sure 99 is at least near the top of his perceived range for me, so I don’t mind playing it strongly.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, 3150 Tournament, 15/30 Blinds (4 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t2955)
UTG (t9559)
Hero (Button) (t4237)
SB (t4885)

Hero’s M: 94.16

Preflop: Hero is Button with 9, 9
1 fold, Hero bets t60, 1 fold, BB raises to t270, Hero calls t210

Flop: (t555) 4, 6, 6 (2 players)
BB bets t380, Hero raises to t777, BB raises to t2685 (All-In), Hero calls t1908  Read the complete post...