Yet another MTT cash, plus a bundle of SNGs

Entered a $30+3 MTT with 1190 people on Tuesday night, and ran up to 402nd place before getting KK cracked by A9o (limper called a 5x BB raise which was 75% of my stack, gotta love it).

In brighter news, tonight I cashed again in the $20+2 "$34k Guaranteed". I played very good tournament poker and was above average the entire way, until getting kings cracked by a smaller stack about 100 people before we hit the money: I 4x'd the BB from early position, got called by the BB who hit trip threeve on a flop of 359 and who proceeded to push the flop for about half of my remaining stack, 2x the pot. His overbet worked - I called thinking he was on a semi-bluff (or even an overpair smaller than my kings) and boy was I wrong. I went from second in chips at the table to bottom three.

I then tightened the hell up and squeeked in to the money (top 220 paid). Once ITM I managed to win my manditory all-in hand (passed on calling a raise from the BB getting 3-1, instead pushing from the SB with whatever i had which happened to be a dominating hand when the BB had to call), then caught KK next hand on the button and trippled up to put myself in position to actually play some more (5BB stack). Rather than playing ultra-tight to try to jump another level or two I decided to play more agressive, and ended up busting out after pushing A7o from the SB into a much larger stack (after it was folded around to me) and running into the BB's ATo which was good enough to win unimproved. Bad timing. I finish 186th out of 2202 entrants.

In retrospect looking at the hand (Comment #1), blinds were 500/1000 and I had just over T4000 chips after losing my BB hand and posting my T500 SB. Pushing any ace there seems +EV given the circumstances, but I certainly could have played a little more conservatively (hoping for a big pair or bigger ace in the next 2-3 orbits) but I'm not dissatisfied with my overall play by any means.

This brings me to 37.5% ITM lifetime on $20+2 MTTs (22.91% ROI) and lifetime MTT stats of 31.58% ITM with just over 500% ROI. I'm doing better on my goal to play more big MTTs more frequently - thats two this week alone, and i'm sure I'll get some poker in this weekend...

SNG update: Since last post I've played 7 x $22 SNGs with 57% ITM and 30% ROI, and 5 x $33 SNGs with only 20% ITM and negative ROI. So far i'm just over 40% ITM with 6% ROI at the $33 level, so I'm still doing OK there despite the downturn. I'm green at every level of single table SNGs, and I think i've got what it takes to stick around the $33 level for now. I'll probably continue to mix the $22s and $33s until I rebuild the bankroll after cashing out a grand earlier in the month...

New books, new level

I finally got around to adding a few new titles to the poker library this week. Amazon was kind enough to ship me Harrington on Hold'em Vol II (by Dan Harrington), Ace on the River: An Advanced Poker Guide (by Barry Greenstein), and Weighing the Odds in Hold’em Poker (by John Feeney) along with some new fiction including the latest Dan Simmons novel. I've started in on Harrington V.II and I'll post a full review as soon as I'm through it. However, early indications point to the combination of Harrington's two books taking over as the best poker book(s) in my library.

I've been playing a decent amount of live poker lately, hosting a couple large events organized through KCPoker.org as well as a couple smaller home games. My tournament game remains my best - in the last two larger KCPoker events I took second and first respectively. I crossed the 100 SNGs played @ the $20+2 level this weekend, and have started mixing in $30+3 SNGs (usually playing one $22 and one $33). So far I'm 3/4 ITM at the $33 level with a first and two thirds. I'll probably be playing exclusively at the $33 level here very shortly.

I cashed out a grand from the bankroll earlier this month to pay for some unexpected real-world expenses relating to the new house, and I plan on re-depositing $500 at a time with the next two Party Poker reload bonuses. I'm actually looking forward to getting back to the limit tables and grinding out the bonus - I believe my game is much improved since my last serious forray at the limit tables, and my ego takes a bit of a blow every time I open up the ring game statistics in Poker Tracker and see negative numbers at the $2/$4 limit tables.... so I'm looking forward to heading back in to battle at the same limit tables that delivered as much junk-kicking in the past, under the guise of bonus chasing and its +EV goodness. Once that $1000 is back in the bankroll, i'll likely be moving up to the $33 SNG level full time.

Three MTTs, Six STTs

2/6 ITM tonight on $22 SNGs, with a first and a second for 21.21% ROI. Leaves me at 34.15% ITM with 10.86% ROI lifetime at the $20+2 level. I mostly spent the night playing multi-table tournaments. Started with a three-table $5+1, just trying to get those stats back in the green - finished ninth there, nothing spectacular. I need one more top three finish to go green lifetime (20% ITM lifetime there) and then i'm done with those forever...

Entered the 7:30 $10+1 No Limit tournament. Bounced out early there when i caught top set on the flop, got an overpair to put all his money in re-raising me, and then he caught his two-outer on the river to send me home.

Before I entered the $10+1, I saw a $20+2 Hold'Em tournament with 580 entrants starting up (#427118). I quickly bought in, without realizing that it was a limit tournament. Damn, I hate limit. However, things worked out well, as I finished 13th overall for a payday of ~$100. My tournament game played out well despite the limit format - I played a tight, agressive game, was chipleader at my table for the first 3/4th of the way and never fell below average for more than an orbit, until we were in the final three tables. Only made a couple minor mistakes along the way - my biggest mistake was misplaying a nut flush draw, ending up putting in a couple bets more than I needed to while on the draw, including calling an extra big bet on a river where I missed my nut flush draw but caught a medium pair - the way my opponent was betting I knew he had top pair so it was a stupid frustration call on the end...

I did face two major suckouts along the way (Bad Beat Story alert - beware) - both in the last stages of the tournament, which pretty much kept me from coasting to the final table. QQ getting cracked by 88, I raise pre-flop, flop comes ace rag rag and I don't give him credit for the ace. I'm betting out all the way and he's calling - he catches his third eight on the river and I've lost half my stack, dropping from the top ten in chips to under the average with ~25 remaining. Final hand I get bounced, I raise from the BB with ATo and am called by one of two limpers. Ace on the rainbow flop and we re-raise all the money in the middle - he turns over A3s and I'm way way ahead. Ten on the turn but its a second spade, and the river brings one more for the runner-runner flush to send me home 13th.

Ultimately I feel my MTT skills are still my top game, even with my recent focus on SNGs. I'm 29.41% ITM lifetime on MTTs with 604% ROI. 33.52% ITM with 45.72% ROI across all tournament games (SNGs and MTTs combined). I really need to focus on playing the big MTTs more often, but its hard to sit down for three to four hours multiple nights each week. I need to at least make it a goal to play MTTs at least one night each week.

My roommate VG played in the NL $10+1 MTT and finished ITM at 69th - lost 90% of his stack on a coinflip with QQ running in to AKo (king on the flop) and then bounced very next hand losing middle pair on the flop to an OESD that completed on the river. He had a very good run, and always got his money in the middle with the best hand - the most you can ask for, besides Aces every hand...

SNG rush today

Came home from work, hopped on Party, and hit a very nice rush. Three first places in a row, followed by a second place when ATs ran in to AKo heads up and didn't improve. Thats the best consecutive SNG rush i've experienced at any level, and doing it two-tabling the $20+2 made me feel pretty good. Total SNG stats for today: 10 played, 60% ITM, 136% ROI. Four 1st, two 2nd, two bubbles, an eighth (re-raised a small stack's minraise from the BB with suited broadway, he called with a small pocket pair and I didn't improve) and a tenth (KK cracked by A7o building a wheel with runner-runner, money all-in preflop).

This moves me to 32.86% ITM lifetime on the $20+2 with a massive 6.5% ROI with 70 played at this level. However I'm a more reasonable 40% ITM with 22% ROI for my last 35. Certainly not a big enough sample size to extrapolate consistent returns, but certainly moving in the right direction.

---

Thursday update: just time for 3 SNGs tonight - just single tabling while doing other work on the computer in between hands. 2/3 ITM with a first and a third, 112% ROI. That jumps me to 42.11% ITM with 29.19% ROI for the month and lifetime $20+2 SNG stats of 34.25% ITM with 10.83% ROI.

Made a massive comeback on the third place finish - I had 300 chips left with 50/100 blinds and eight people left. Was able to steal at all the right times, get doubled up once with a dominating hand (AQ vs A5) and once with a dominated hand (A7 vs A8, caught a seven). Ended tied in chips with another short stack when ITM, pushed with 33 and was called by AK - ace on the river and my comeback is done, but I'm very happy just clawing to ITM.

In a personal note, i've decided to stop lurking so much and start posting more on 2+2 (in the past I've only dispensed sports betting advice over there). I've taken a lot of great advice from the forums there the past year, especially the STT forum, and I'd like to start contributing if I feel I can add any value - even if its just asking the right questions of the right people...

Casino NL last night

Quick SNG stats update: 8 played tonight, 50% ITM with 47.73% ROI. A first, two seconds and a third. Since Friday, 14 played, 50% ITM for a 36.36 ROI. Prettt solid - I think i've got my SNG strategy adjusted to the subtle differences of the $20+2. We'll see if I can maintain these solid results through the week, or if I'm just running hot...

---

One of our usual crew of players (Eddy) is in town for the week (from Omaha, somewhere in Middle America) on business, said business being convieniently being located at the local casino housing our favorite poker room. So three of our in-town crew headed to the boats last night to meet him for drinks and to throw some cards. While the rest of the gang sat the 3-6 kill pot, I bought in to the $100-$300 NL game, despite being tempted by an open seat at the $6/$12 Omaha Hi/Lo table - if I was going to play, i was going to play my best game. We played for three hours: two of the crew dropped 20BB to donkeys drawing out. Sure, cold-call his pre-flop raise with 3-5 offsuit. Oh by the way Eddy, those kings have cracks in them... I completely empathized when Eddy pulled a Helmuth after this beat - not as much from the guy playing 35o to a raise pre-flop and then calling down when he flopped bottom pair just to catch another five on the river - but more to the donkey sitting next to him who said, in all seriousness "3-5, thats a good hand, way to go man". Eddy: "You gotta be fucking kidding me". Dealer: "sir, thats a warning, you can't say the f-word at the table". Eddy: "what the fuck did I say?"

Cujofan walked out up about 10BB from the 3-6 table. Personally I walked out up 11 BB from No Limit. I played ubertight (and pretty card dead most of the way), certainly less than 10% VP$IP i'd estimate - I had a single max buyin with me, so definately playing short money even though my bankroll could absorb losing the buyin - more scared of the "bust out and spend the next hour watching your friends play from the rail" scenario. General pre-flop raise was 4x BB and you'd generally see 2-4 to the flop with a pre-flop raise 90% of the time, so a pretty standard B&M no-limit game in my experience.

I played so few hands I can recount just about every hand I actually played in the three hours: I got to play suited ace-small three times cheap and missed every time. Limped 89c once from late position and missed completely. I led twice in position with AJs, once with AKo and twice with AQo in position and missed the flop completely every time - won a couple small plots semi-bluffing flops of undercards, but mostly check and fold (or continuation bet the flop, then check down when called) since people were usually calling with medium pairs in that scenario and would call down on raggedy flops.

Called a minimum raise from the button with A9d once, caught two diamonds on the flop, and misplayed it completely twice: Misplay #1, the preflop raiser made a continuation bet and I just called. I should have re-raised here as a semi-bluff, that's my usual play in this scenario (when reading weakness, semi-bluffing to take the pot down right there, and/or get a free card on the turn). The turn is an offsuit blank, the raiser checks and and with mistake #2 I make a weak semi-bluff here - the same bet he made on the flop, about 1/4th the pot (6 BB). While a semi-bluff move here isn't terrible (as I've got a read that his hand isn't that strong and I have decent fold equity), I needed to bet at least half the pot if not the whole pot to get this guy to lay down his hand. Immediately after I announced the bet I knew I'd bet too little. My opponent thought for quite a while and then just called. The river was another blank and I just checked down. I probably could have led here, but a pot-sized bet would have required me to go nearly all-in, so I made the short money weak-tight play and just announced my busted draw of ace-high. His second pair took down the pot - a perfect example of how making a series of mistakes playing your hand can cost you a quick 10BB.

Oh, and I doubled up twice with Aces and Kings. Aces caught top set on a rainbow flop of A-J-4, I checked to the hyper-agressive big stack sitting to my immedate left, who bet 2/3 my stack (about 1/10th his) in to me - I came over the top, he disappointedly realized how little I had left and made the crying call with just JKo. With the kings, the very tight + solid player (who was also a lot of fun) to my right decided to straddle UTG (gotta love it). I raised 3x his straddle and got five callers - uh-oh. Flop comes A-5-3 rainbow. I check, the hyper-agressive big stack to my left bets the pot. Everyone folds around to me. I go in the tank for thirty seconds, then push over the top. He quickly calls and I figure I'm in real trouble: nope, he's got pocket sixes - he said he didn't figure me for an ace and thought I was bluffing with KQ or etc. Yeah, i've played less than 10% of the hands and I decide to risk my stack into someone with the chips to call without a care with nothing... obviously my kings hold up, and I drag one of the biggest pots of the night. Just goes to show you, even in real life - not just on Party Poker - despite playing tight all night you can still get action on your premium hands.

Thursday night poker smorgasboard

Decided to play all sorts of games tonight. Started with 1/4 ITM on the usual $20+2 SNGs - a single second place, nothing great. Nothing exciting to report there, except I should have finished first in the one ITM: came in to heads up as a 2-1 dog, outplayed him to a 2-1 favorite, then got him to push all-in while I was holding top set but he caught runner runner for a ridiculous straight draw (filling in his cards, he had one over and one under and needed the exact two cards to fall). He came back to win after that, but I certainly felt good about the results overall: my heads-up game is still very sharp.

Then I jumped in to the $20+2 $34k guaranteed for the first time in...well, too long anyways given that i'm 28.57% ITM across 20+ MTTs. Tonight we had 2157 entrants for a $43,140 prize pool - over $9k for first place and top five all made over $1200.

Made quite a run as the short stack the entire way. Really only played one big hand, calling a short-stack's all-in with KK and winning to almost double up in the fourth level, and otherwise just sniping small uncontested pots here and there to stay alive. I generally had run pretty well playing the short stack role (generally all-in pre-flop over the top of limpers with premium hands, or sniping the blinds from late positions) before bouncing on this hand: I had a little more than 3x the BB at this point and pushed pre-flop in late position with KQo - got two callers - they both checked the flop of rags, I caught a King on the turn and thought I was probably good, but an ace fell on the river, one of the two bet out and I knew I was dead - she turned over ATo and I was gone in 430th. Top 220 paid so I still made a decent run for never catching many good cards.

Two-tabled the $2/$4 BBJ during the tournament. Was down to about $40 on each table before making a run back to be up about $80, then lost a very good amount of money on two hands after busting out of the tournament: running in to slowplayed KK with my QQ with only three people in the hand (right before the table broke up) and then losing with an overpair to a donkey drawing to a flush with jack-four suited (yeah, he called a pre-flop raise with the jackhammer). Ended down about $50 - not terrible but could have been better. I still like tackling the limit BBJ tables because you can find a lot of fishy fish there (four players at one of my tables with a VPIP over 50%), but on the other hand I detest limit poker... just good for a break now and then i guess.

Taking the day off work tomorrow - detailing the M5 in the morning before the buyer flies in to town to inspect it and make off with it. Should have the afternoon free for poker after thats all done...

Quick SNG update

After going 0/5 at the $20+2 level tonight bringing me to 0/8 for the week, I vowed that I'd cash in my next two or I was dropping back down to $10+1 for at least a week.

I finished second and third, thus the $20+2 level will remain my new home for now. Sadly that brings me to 20% ITM (2/10) for the fresh month of August, with 40% of my finishes coming in precisely fourth place and thus just outside the money. So I'm not playing terrible SNG poker, I'm just not converting when I need to convert the most.

Hopefully I'll have time to play more solid SNGs the rest of this week / weekend and we'll turn these numbers around.

Upcoming home game tournament - August 13th

If you can be in Kansas City on August 13th, I'm hosting a home game tournament for KCPoker.org. Drop me an email or post here if you are in the area and want an invite... or register for KCPoker.org and look in the 'Home Games" forum.

No real poker since Wednesday's update - except we held a low buy-in eight-person freeze-out in Omaha this weekend with a portion of our usual crew and a few non-regulars. Top two paid, I washed out in third as a 2-1 favorite to win the hand: I raised 2x the pot (for 1/3 my stack) in to the chipleader (5-1 chiplead easy) when I flopped bottom two pair on a coordinated board (two connected cards, two suited cards). He re-raised me all-in - i put him on a OESD or the flush draw, not on trips or top two pair. I called, he caught his straight on the turn, and I was out in third. Probably could have waited to get the money in the middle with more of a lock on the hand, but I was content moving in there as a 2-1 favorite to double up. Certainly playing for the win... screw second place.