Bonus cleared....

Yeah, same session as the previous post. Thought about turning in at 3:00am after dropping from $125 to $115 chasing on a couple hands and then checked the bonus stats and realized I was at 321 raked hands out of a necessary 350. Might as well finish it out, given my string of luck tonight...

Unfortunately my flow of cards finally cooled, and it took me until 3:56am to clear my remaining 29 hands. Finished out the circuit, and crawled to bed.

Cleared a $50 reload bonus of 350 raked hands in just over 48-hours and the experience was +EV. Not a lot, but enough to make the experiment worthwhile. Time to start reloading the max every month, it seems.

"Dead as dead can be," my doctor tells me...

After helping my roommate setup his own Party Poker account with bonus code "Performify" and watching him play pretty solid for a while, I sat down at a $25 NLHE table to work on clearing more hands for my latest reload bonus.

Took a nice little pot with pocket aces with a third ace on the flop only a few hands in. Hanging around, playing solid tight-agressive, when I caught a chatty, poor-playing short stack moving all-in over the top of me. His hand held up, despite my having four to the flush plus an overcard against his middle pair, and he (of course) immediately continued talking trash. Hand history posted as Comment #1. Question for the readers: bad call on my part, or just good luck on his part? Fortunately for the table, as these poor players usually do, he busted out a few hands later with his continued poor play.

Table I was playing was EXTREMLY passive. Probably the most passive no limit game I'd ever seen. I'm talking frequent $.25 raises in to a $4 pot. People folding when almost any two cards would have been right to call with. Passive enough I got the opportunity to drop the hammer... and even called it out! See Comment #2.

I wanted to go to bed early tonight, but was having such luck dragging small pots on the passive table that I couldn't walk away. Started playing very mediocre hands when it became obvious I could catch free cards when I was on a draw, could semi-bluff out pots sucessfully with great frequency, and even win showdown pots with bottom or middle pairs. Climbed over $60, clawing out pots $2-$5 at a time. Did managed to get aces cracked by a fun, friendly solid player (Comment #3), but then A9o turned in to quad nines three hands later and won half of the loss back (Comment #4).

Heh, happened again. Aces cracked again, same player even (Comment #5) and then two hands later, trip eights on the flop improve to a full house to win back the losses from the cracked aces. (Comment #6) Poker gods are kind tonight...

The table turned over quite frequently and certainly was replaced with decent players that it was no longer a pushover game, but even so my run of good fortune continued to the point that I just couldn't walk away. I managed to drag a nice pot with jacks over aces (Comment #7) and then a monster pot when my pocket nines flopped trips (Comment #8).

And the string of good luck just kept going. Won four decent pots in a row, posted consecutively in (Comment 9). $25 table buyin run up to just over $120 now. 300+ raked hands played, and I'm sitting +EV on the reload experiment (once the bonus kicks) despite poor play while two-tabling yesterday. Guess I should have reloaded the full $500 instead of just reloading $250, as i've managed to just about clear the requisite number of hands in all of two days of play.

Aparently I am "teh suck" tonight

Definitely not my night. Got back on my usual game towards the end of the night, and then lost my stack yet again. Held pocket sixes in the big blind, four limpers and I debate raising but check not wanting to risk a re-raise. Flop comes Q22. Checked to me, I bet $.05 towards the $1.25 pot. One caller. Turn is a six. I check, looking to be the sneaky bastage with what I assume is a monster, and he obliges with a $2 raise. I re-raise to $4. He re-raises to $7. I push all-in, strongly expecting to be called by Qx or 2x or even slowplayed AA or KK. Instead he flips pocket deuces and I'm drawing to one out, the sole remaining six. Ouch.

Down to $170 from the $250 reload, 173 raked hands played out of the 350 needed to clear. I'll have to analyze today's play on Poker Tracker later, but I'm sure I'll see that I was playing too many hands. I know for a fact I overplayed two pair several times which cost me dearly, still probably the biggest hole in my game overall.

Only bright side is that I'm halfway home on clearing the bonus, so I should have no trouble finishing the hands needed to clear on a single $25 NLHE table, and can focus on playing my best +EV poker and getting back to the positive for this reload initiative...

God bless the Party Poker fish

I know, I know... its been said a million times by a million people.

But the swarms of fish on Party are just beautiful. If you're not playing on Party Poker, go now and sign up with bonus code "Performify" for $25 free... if you're not playing on Party, you ARE missing out.

Second hand of working to clear my reload bonus, and i double up with pocket queens against AJ offsuit. I'm in middle position and pop the pot to $1. He re-raises to $10 and I come over the top for my $25 stack. He makes the loose call quickly, and boom my reload bonus is off to a good start with an immediate double-up. Hand history posted in the comments for those interested...

Ended my first session early due to a dinner appointment, but "cashed out" up $33 across the two tables for the short period of time. 33 raked hands played.

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Rest of the night wasn't quite so kind. Two-tabled $25 NLHE after dinner, and lost four separate all-ins. No point rehasing the beats in detail, but one I flopped a full house with 89s against a 889 flop, and got beat when the player with 8K caught a king on the turn to improve to a better full house. Not much chance of pushing him out of that pot despite having the monster hand - occasionally someone's going to catch a 3-outer and its going to sting. Lost another all-in when I pushed over the top of a early position raiser on a solid semi-bluf with A2d when I flopped four to the nut flush - he waited a while, called with top pair which held up when i couldn't catch another diamond or an ace. Also lost another all-in when a short stack behind me went all in pre-flop with aces dominating my kings. Hand history there posted as comment #2. Not much ability to get away from that situation pre-flop - the short stack hadn't been playing solid enough to make me consider folding the kings given that it was a standard game and I could reload at will.

130 raked hands played so far, and i'm down only a little more than my coming bonus despite the big beats tonight. Slowed down to a single $25 NLHE table to focus a little better... and managed to pull a couple decent pots with the increased focus. Can't let the reload bonus overshadow playing solid poker... its pretty obvious, but its still worth saying: dropping $100 to cash a $50 bonus is certainly not the way to go.

Reloading, working on clearing 350 hands

Elected to take advantage of PartyPoker's 20% reload bonus for April and reloaded $250 for a $50 bonus, once I clear 350 raked hands in 7 days

I'll be doing two-table $25 NLHE and see how that goes. I've got a slightly busy week with two concerts (Moby on Monday, Elton John on Thursday) but other than having a date on those two nights, I should be able to focus on poker quite a bit.

Party Poker posts April Reload bonus

Party Poker has posted their April reload bonus. BONUSAPR for 20% bonus up to $100, minimum deposit of $50 required. Standard 7x raked hands in 7 days to clear. Valid for deposits made between 00:00 AM EST on Friday, 22nd of April and midnight on Wednesday, 27th of April 2005. $100 bonus would require 700 raked hands to clear in seven days. Hmmm.... time to start four-tabling, eh?

Of course, for those of you who don't have accounts yet, you can get your $25 signup bonus with code PERFORMIFY by signing up on Party Poker yourself.

Weekend Update 4/17

After taking down both of the two homegame tourneyments we played Saturday night, I sat down to Party Poker on Sunday night in time to buy in to the $200K Saturday Qualifier. $9+1 with 290 entrants for a $2610 prizepool. Top twelve pay the $200+15 entry in to the $200k Guaranteed Saturday Special tourneyment.

Won my first pot 24 minutes in with K3s in the small blind with a king on the flop. Two hands later the table was dissolved.

About the 1:30 mark, and playing at my fourth table, caught pocket aces and doubled up off a big stack who was playing loose and wild. Hand history posted as Comment #1. 87 players left and i'm sitting at 90% of the average stack size, not so bad...

Just a few hands later, with four to the second-nut flush on the flop plus a bonus gutshot draw, gambled on what i figured was a coinflip, calling a player's all in. His trip-threes held up when I couldn't catch any of my 12 outs. Hand history posted as Comment #2.

Waited to take my all-in shot with my remaining 267 chips. Didn't go so well, running in to pocket jacks. Hand history posted as Comment #3. Finished 75th out of 290 at the 1:42 mark.

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After taking a break to let my roommate play another few SNGs on my account, I sat in a $10+1 single table before heading to bed. Ran a solid game to a disappointing 4th place finish, just out of the top three money positions. Didn't play agressively enough at the end, didn't watch the blinds escalating around me. Was sitting sad-stacked at 800 chips when the big blind of 400 rolled to me, went in with Qh9h called by K3o who improved to two pair to add insult to injury. Watching the people finish out the table with 250/500 blinds was extremly humorous - stacks at the table once I went out were about even at 2500 chips each so three handed the blinds were moving the stacks around the table very quickly.

2nd Place Finish in a $10+1 SNG

Had a little time to kill this afternoon, before I needed to start setting up for our monthly homegame tourneyment kickoff (BBQ @ 5:00, cards fly @ 6:00). Picked a $10+1 one-table Sit-n-Go. Played very solidly, finished second ($30 prize). Quick recap:

Caught pocket aces twice, both times when I really needed them. Second hand I'm dealt my first pair of rockets, and I managed to pull a very nice pot with them, putting me in a solid second place (first hand someone lost a large pot with top pair against a set). This immediately put me in a good frame of mind and allowed me to play tight.

About a third of the way in, I was still holding tight. Tried to limp on a handful of hands in middle position and got raised out almost every time preflop or right on the flop when my drawing hands didn't come through. Was sitting about 900 in chips, solidly in 4th or 5th place.

About halfway through the tourney, six players left and i'm sitting 4th in chips. ATo pulls a small pot with a semi-bluff with a board of 3,4,Q,10.

The sixth place finisher goes out, and its down to five - i'm still sitting 4th. The pocket aces show up again and pull a very small pot (hand history posted as Comment #1). I'm still in 4th.

5th place gets knocked out going all-in with trash and gets picked off by a pocket pair. Now i'm small stack. We make a couple circuits and I've blinded off half my stack down to 650 chips. I catch As8h, one of those hands I like to play agressively to mix up my game. I move all in, pulling down the blinds (300 chips). I fold the next hand, but then I start a nice three-hand run to move up in the world.

The run starts when i'm in the big blind and the pot is folded to me holding A9o. This simple +100 chips takes me to 1050 and puts me 3rd in chips. Next hand from the small blind: AQo. Folded around, I push all-in, and pull down +200 chips to raise my total to 1250. Next hand, on the button: AKo. Small stack (710) has posted the big blind of 200 chips, so on the button I raise it to 700 to force him all in, assuming he'll call with any sort of marginal hand. Small blind actually comes over the top all-in, the small-stacked big blind folds, and I quickly call. Small blind turns over AJo and my AK holds up unimproved. +1450 chips to 2700 and solidly second place. The run of hands posted as Comment #2.

Fourth-in-chips gets blinded out and has to go all-in with 47o - no miracles and he's out. Third place busts him so the table looks like this:

Seat 3: d_brown41 (3485)
Seat 4: Performify (2100)
Seat 7: JAUINE (2415)

Then in the space of three hands, d_brown41 takes down a +1800 pot with a full house to move in to a clear chip lead, then takes JAUINE down with a queen-high flush. So i'm heads up with 1350 chips versus d_brown41's 6650.

Second hand heads-up I move all-in with Q9s and am called - he turns over pocket 7s. Classic coinflip with a slight bonus thanks to the fact that mine are suited and loosely connected. Nine comes on the flop and I double through. Hand history posted as Comment #3. He's still sitting with a 3-1 chip lead though, i'm going to need to double through again and the blinds are moving to 200-400 next hand.

We pass the blinds back and forth, with the occasional steal, for about ten hands. I move all-in with J9o and turns out I'm dominated by QJo when he calls. The queen-high holds up and the tourney is over: second place finish, $30 prize. Not a bad way to kill an hour of the afternoon.

No poker for me last night...

But my roommate played two SNGs on my account.

After watching me play the last few days, he walked up to me tonight and asked if he could hand me some cash and play in a SNG on my account.

First set him up in a traditional $10+1 single table. Was running pretty good until his AQo got picked off with top pair (queens) top kicker against a set of nines. Before the flop he was a solid favorite to double-double through, as three other players were all in (one with a pair of nines, one with AJ, one with K10).

Rebought in to a $5+1 SNG and he managed to pull out a respectable 4th. Just out of the money's not so bad for someone's second time playing on Party Poker. I have a feeling he's only a few days from signing up on his own account - and of course he's smart enough to use bonus code Performify for his $25 signup bonus.

Playing in a $10+1 Million Dollar Qualifier

Walked up to the computer, ready to take a shot at another Party Poker $10+1 2-table SNG. Giving a quick glance at the special tourneyments page, saw that I had exactly two minutes left to buy-in to the nightly $10+1 Million Dollar Qualifier, so I gave it a shot. Probably a dumb decision in the first place... just like my continued foolish attempts to leave the fishy $25 NL games and play the $10+1 SNGs... somehow I've gotten it in my head that playing the SNGs will improve my game faster than grinding away at the $25 table. Its certainly not improving my bankroll...

So we've got 330 entrants, top five paying the $640 entry fee to the Million Dollar Guaranteed tourneyment. Next three spots payout some nominal cash.

Sixth hand. Stupidly committed almost half my starting stack betting out with Ad6c on a flop of 6s, As, Qs with three people seeing the flop. Both players call. Turn is Qh, counterfitting my two pair and I elect to check and fold. Should have checked the flop with the flush possibility anyways. So now i'm sitting low stack on the table, about half of the current average stack.

Doubled up on hand sixteen, the third hand i've seen a flop with. KJs in the big blind, early position doubles the blind and we've got seven people seeing a flop. 3s, Qs, 9h on the flop gives me the second nut flush draw, a gutshot straight draw and an overcard. I bet out with a pot-sized bet of 250, six folders and one re-raise to which puts me all in when I call. He's holding Jh, Th for the openended straight draw - I'm a monster favorite since I'll win even unimproved with King-high. Flush fills in on the turn anyways and now i'm slighly above the average at 1100 chips.

Seven hands later my Jacks hold up over pocket tens to add 50% to my stack - bumping me back over the tourney average of 1600 chips. We've already eliminated 125 players, 35 minutes in.

Decent fold posted as comment #1. Had three to the nut flush with a gutshot straight on the flop. Correctly put the raiser in front of me on top pair decent kicker. Need to come back and look at the math to see what the odds looked like of filling in, despite what actually happened. The 100 call on the flop might have been debatable, but my spot analysis was the EV of the two draws was worth it.

Won a 1200 pot on hand #1892072516 right before the break, by picking off a bluff while holding top pair. I'm sitting just below the average stack of 2500 among the remaining 132 players. Despite that, i'm somehow 8th in chips at my table...

1:30 mark. Sitting at 1800 compared to an average stack of 3800 among 85 remaining players. Need to catch a hand... but i'm still hanging around.

Took my shot at 1:36 with 1800 chips. Try to limp (150) from early position with A4c, late position agressive player raises to 500. I've got 1650 left, and the blinds are at 100/200 next hand (and i'm one away from the big blind). I debate it, then call the 350 leaving me 1300 chips. With a raggedy flop 5d, 9h, 2c, I push immediately, hoping he had suited broadway or something similar. Ran in to pocket tens (one of them is one of my clubs). Needed runner-runner clubs, the 3 to fill in the wheel, or an ace. Seven outs once the turn comes Jd, none of them come through.

Finished 77th out of the 330 entrants. Overall I'm happy with how I played. Definitaly doing a better job of tightening up and focusing on hanging around the average mark. Probably could have waited another circuit or two to push, but I feel OK about the decision to go all in when I did, since blinds would have eaten close to 50% of my stack in only 12-13 more hands. Final hand posted as a comment.

There's a reason they call it "bottom set"

I played two SNG's yesterday. This hand (see the comments) is from the first one which I obviously lost. After playing pretty well, I flopped the bottom set with pocket 88, and ran in to someone who had flopped the top set with pocket AA and played it pretty well...

Finally SNG finish in the money (again)

After a very long dry spell of tournament play on both Party Poker and PokerStars, I managed a respectable money finish last night in a two-table SNG. For those unfamiliar, SNG stands for "Sit-n-Go", a reference to the fact that these SNG tournaments are fast paced and frequently occurring - you literally sit down and go.

Big thanks to Cujofan, whose advice and analysis on my SNG play yesterday over lunch really made the difference. I was making some significant fundamental errors, and he was able to point them out and coach me to improving my tournament game significantly.

Anyways, a couple memorable hands will be posted in the comments for those interested in such details.

Cujofan's major analysis was that I was playing too aggressively in late stages of the game, especially once I had built a chip lead. Instead, I needed to focus on staying ahead of the average stack size, wait for the premium hands, and go from there.

First memorable hand, I was playing ultra-tight, sitting just below the minimum stack, in danger of getting blinded out. Finally reached an all-in point with QdJd and pushed. My opponent's AKo was a slight favorite pre-flop, but hey mine were suited. Doubled through to move comfortably ahead of the average stack.

Second memorable hand, dealt pocket aces in position and managed to get all my money in the middle against the hilton sisters. Rockets hold up and I'm second in chips...

Welcome....

Well, after a couple of months of contributing to Cujofan.com, I've decided to branch out a little.

I'll continue to contribute there of course, but rather than fill Cujofan's site with my poker analysis, i'm going to hone in on this site as a home for my poker-related posts.