Posts Tagged ‘SCOOP’

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...

I played the SCOOP Large Ante $150 and $1500 events yesterday, not even realizing what they were until the tournament started. What a lot of fun! I think formats like this are awesome because they separate the people who understand poker from those who have a robotic, if successful, strategy. No one really knows what the proper strategy looks like and is trying to figure it out as they go along.

For those who don’t know, in this structure, the blinds always stay the same: $5 and $5. However, the antes get bigger every round. This means that as early as Level 2, you are getting better than 20:1 odds to limp into any unraised pot. By late in the tournament, it can be well over 1000:1. Sure, a lot of pots get raised (though again, people have to invent “standard” bet sizes from scratch), but it’s never correct to fold any two cards in an unraised pot. You could tell immediately who was trying to think about the format, because they were the ones at least limping into every pot, and sometimes limp-re-raising. Personally, I was playing something like 60/15.  Read the complete post...

A third of the year is officially behind us. Am I 1/3 of the way to achieving my Yearly Resolutions?

I played all three tournaments: the $10K, the $1K, and the $100. Each was what I expected it to be. The $100 was monkeylicious. The 1K was soft enough for the buyin, certainly weaker play than would be found at a 5/10 cash table or a weekly 1K tournament. The 10K was fairly tough, maybe even a bit tougher than I’d expected. At least at my table, the closet thing to a soft spot was P5′s donkamenteur BelowAbove.

Actually, at my first table, Ahhh Snap was making life hell from my immediate left. Thankfully, that one broke quickly. I still never got anything going, and eventually lost two coin flips plus chopped JJ to Below’s AJ to bust.

I got off to a solid start in the 1K, and there were a few interesting hands. This first one was against wpr101, who I see a lot at the Stars MSNL full ring tables:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $1000+$50 Tournament, 40/80 Blinds (7 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t11530)
Hero (MP1) (t10850)
MP2 (t12305)
CO (t4930)
Button (t7215)
SB (t11790)
BB (t21380)

Hero’s M: 90.42

Preflop: Hero is MP1 with A, J
1 fold, Hero bets t200, 1 fold, CO calls t200, 3 folds

Flop: (t520) 10, 8, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets t350, CO raises to t1040, Hero raises to t10650 (All-In), 1 fold  Read the complete post...

I didn’t play the $25K, but the $2500 was plenty big enough for me. Emily and I even rearranged Easter brunch plans so that I could play it, which turned out to be a huge disappointment, as I lasted fewer than ten minutes against AJKHoosier1, my first round opponent. Obviously one of the most respected tournament players online was no slouch, but he also seemed to be running pretty hot. To wit:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold’em, $2500+$100 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (2 handed) – Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Hero (SB) (t4975)
Button (t5025)

Hero’s M: 66.33

Preflop: Hero is SB with 3, K
Button bets t100, Hero calls t50

Flop: (t200) 6, 2, J (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets t125, Hero calls t125

Turn: (t450) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

River: (t450) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets t250, Button calls t250

Total pot: t950

Results:
Button had J, 4 (two pair, Jacks and sixes).
Hero had 3, K (one pair, sixes).
Outcome: Button won t950

This might not seem like “running hot”, but the outcome of run-of-the-mill spots like this often determine the winner of a heads up tournament between two good players. The variance is through the room. This is just a standard spot where his range ought to be ridiculously wide, I turn my hand into a bluff on the river to knock out Ax and better Kx, and he has top pair.  Read the complete post...