AJ's no limit tourney on wednesday. 500 starting chips, $20 rebuys.
had a pretty good seat placement with position on weak players, but I still started the tournament badly. Folded a few hands in the beginning, waiting to amp up the aggressive factor. Soon, had 10 8 and raised to 200 with blinds only 20 when a couple of limpers entered the pot. Had someone "fat dude" who called.
Flop came out: 7 9 5. Fat dude puts in a 300 bet. I push all-in with 500 and he calls with A 6.
Turn: 2
River: A
He wins the first big pot of the table.
After rebuying, I put in another raise to 120 with 6 7 of spades. "Fat dude" calls again and two others.
Flop comes out: 9 10 6 with two spades. I have a straight draw, flush draw and straight flush draw and bottom pair!
Fat dude in first position makes it 300. It folds to me and I push with 500. He calls with two pair. 9 10.
Turn and river, i miss. REBUY!
Started to low ball things a little more and call to see flops or push pre-flop with something decent. Finally got a good stack before the break. 1200 chips.
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Sometime after the break, short stacks are starting to go all-in a lot hoping to double up. I get dealt aces under the gun and decide to limp, hoping someone will push all in and I will snap call. Instead, guy next to me raises, another guy pushes all in and guy after him pushes all in. Big blind pushes all in and I go all in. Guy who initially raised goes all in.
So we had 5 players all in. I didn't like it, but was sure aces would hold up.
Hands in the all-in moment: QQ, 99, 10 10 and big blind has aces also!
Flop comes out 6 J 6. Turn and river miss the other hands and both the aces double up. I have 4400 chips!
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Mid level: the blinds and ante really take into effect and I'm short stack again and bluff with hands in position. I get away with it!
I have enough to survive, but still only have move which is to push all-in. I don't have enough to just call or raise.
Tables are this point are playing hand for hand with one bubble left.
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FINAL TABLE: I made it! just when I sat down, the table already made a deal to chop it 9 ways. haha! I left with $500 winnings.
Notes: I really got lucky towards the end to survive and get to the final table. I like how I adjusted after the first rebuy and made my raises smaller to deal with the lucky "fat dude" player who was calling with A-anything and almost any connector above 8.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Thursday, November 26, 2009
PokerStars Tourney
Was super bored on thanksgiving day, so I went ahead and deposited $10 bucks into PokerStars and played a $2 tourney with 180 players. On my first attempt, I got FIRST place! $110 dollar prize. Yeah! I love how I won with my favorite hand. I hope someday J10 gets named after me. haha!
I took a slightly different approach to this tourney, which was to play tight in the first few rounds and only enter the pots with raises as well as setting traps everywhere. Of course, I gambled a bit on some hands when someone went all-in, knowing they had AK and calling them with a small pocket pair. Winning those races definitely helped a lot.
By the final 3 players, I had such a huge chip advantage that the other two had no choice but to all-in to my raises. Too bad for them, that I had hands like AA, QQ, JJ or AK, AQ, AJ to their small pocket pairs or weak kicker.
I'll probably end up just using the prize money to enter some of the $10 dollar buy-in and try to win $1000 or bust trying.
I played alittle in the .5/.25 cent cash games, but online cash games are so boring for me and I lose interest fast. I did end up winning a extra $10 from the game.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
2nd attempt at AJ's limit mix game tourney
Wasn't going to play tonight, but been asking Chu to freeroll me (only if he made lot of money at the cash tables) for 50% of my profits if I placed. I really didn't want to disappoint him and felt I was going to go far in the tourney.
Oddly enough, I'm in the same seat as last time I entered. What a sign! I came in thinking I would be aggressive like last time, since it worked out pretty well. But, we had 3-4 other aggressive players and we had a lot of 3 -4 and even 5 cap bets preflop!
I finally slowed down and decided to let others be aggressive and just try to see flops cheaply and maybe throw in two bets if I'm UTG. Things weren't going my way until my second re-buy and I won a huge pot in a Omaha hand where I had a full house. Sadly, the guy next to me caught the wheel on the turn, but the pot was still huge, because everyone was drawing to the low-hand and someone had made a flush.
By the break, I had a awesome amount of chips and I think I was pretty much chip leader by 1k. But, since I didn't add-on for another 1k and everyone else did. I was even in chips when the game started again. Maybe a mistake?
I later won another huge pot in a omaha hand where I had KQ22 on a board of A 5 J 10 2. What I really hated was someone had a 8 low!!! I kept thinking, how could he still want to draw to a 8 low? But, he wasn't much of a Omaha player, since he called a 3 bet with 666J2 earlier. Everyone was all confused...lucky, he didn't win that one despite hitting a full house.
It wasn't until the blinds got to 100-200 that I ran bad and couldn't hit the draws I needed on valuable omaha pots I desperately needed. I even when all-in with a 3325 hand. Despite having a flush draw and a low hand draw, I didn't hit! urg.....wtf?
Still, I lasted longer than Chu. hehe! Next time, we need to get our other buddies into the game and have a last longer bet. $10 dollars maybe?
I made a deal with Chu that since I didn't place this one, I will give him 20% of any future winnings at a AJ tourney. I hate having this monkey on my back. So many final tables, yet so short of cashing any real money.....Soon please! I so badly want to beat richie's 2 first place finishes and jose's first place finish at the Concord tourney.
Notes: Not much, expect I liked how I played to adjust to the table by slowing down and drawing as cheap as possible by check-calling, since the table was so aggressive and knowing what people were drawing too. The way to win this tourney, is really to win some huge pots in the beginning and always be drawing to the nut hand in omaha or else, by round 5 the blinds are so high, the luck factor comes in...so you need a lot of chips to gamble and kick out weaker hands by 2 betting or 3 betting, since people tend to fold alittle more when the blinds get to 60-100.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
embrassing performance at bay 101 midnight tourney
Urg! I don't even want to write about this tournament, but I like to keep records.
So here it is, Bay 101 midnight tourney. I've already played a couple of them and like the structure. I came in wanting to win it and hope to play good. Well, it didn't work out that way.
First hand, a couple of limpers ahead of me and I have Q 8 suited clubs in mid position. Wanted to raise, but opt to call instead. 5 to the flop.
Q 4 6. Someone bets and two callers.
10. Little blind who had checked earlier, now bets out. Original better folds and I call.
River is a J.
LB puts in a big bet and I feel like he has me beat, but since it was the first hand...I thought it was possible it could be a bluff. I call. He shows Q 4 for two pair as I kind of already suspected. Lost almost half my stack. Thinking back, I knew I should of raised! He called because of pot odds and he was on the button.
After that, won a couple of really small pots, but nothing brought me close to my original 10k in chips. I was around 3-4k . Up and down until level two. I'm in the big blind and was raised by the little blind to 3x. I push all in with A 10 and a caller folds and I made a mistake of showing my cards before the little blind called. He tanks for a bit and finally calls with Q K. I honestly think he would have folded, if I hadn't showed my hand.
My performance was so poor that I didn't care.
Note to myself: I should not play midnight tourney's, esp. when I had no sleep the day before.
So here it is, Bay 101 midnight tourney. I've already played a couple of them and like the structure. I came in wanting to win it and hope to play good. Well, it didn't work out that way.
First hand, a couple of limpers ahead of me and I have Q 8 suited clubs in mid position. Wanted to raise, but opt to call instead. 5 to the flop.
Q 4 6. Someone bets and two callers.
10. Little blind who had checked earlier, now bets out. Original better folds and I call.
River is a J.
LB puts in a big bet and I feel like he has me beat, but since it was the first hand...I thought it was possible it could be a bluff. I call. He shows Q 4 for two pair as I kind of already suspected. Lost almost half my stack. Thinking back, I knew I should of raised! He called because of pot odds and he was on the button.
After that, won a couple of really small pots, but nothing brought me close to my original 10k in chips. I was around 3-4k . Up and down until level two. I'm in the big blind and was raised by the little blind to 3x. I push all in with A 10 and a caller folds and I made a mistake of showing my cards before the little blind called. He tanks for a bit and finally calls with Q K. I honestly think he would have folded, if I hadn't showed my hand.
My performance was so poor that I didn't care.
Note to myself: I should not play midnight tourney's, esp. when I had no sleep the day before.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Artichoke Joe's Limit Hold em & Limit Omaha Tourney
John, Hanso and I decided to go over to Artichoke's in San Bruno to play a nighttime tournament they had. This is the first time I been here and its a totally different feel than Lucky Chances.
We enter a limit texas hold em/limit omaha hi-low tourney with a $50 dollar buy-in. $20 dollar rebuys until the break with $40 dollar add on.
I was excited by the fact that this was a mix game tournament, like HORSE except without the RSE. John and I got put at the same table and here we go:
Just like my last limit texas hold em tournament at bay101, I decided to put pressure right off the bat and achieve two things: to control the table (meaning if they going to play garbage cards, then pay for it) and put the aggressive image out there. What good is play poker if everyone is in the hand? Trust me, there is a method to my madness...So I pretty much two-three bet every hand in the first round. Sure, I lost a bunch of chips, but I also gain a lot when I finally hit one of my hands.
It really seem like the whole table was after me. Some guy said "man, this guy....so aggressive", another guy "You won't make it to the final table" and a woman "raise again? ...gosh!"...Already right there! I got tells on all of them. They didn't have anything good in their hands, so I could put their range and read them better. They say its hard to bluff in limit, but I pulled one off when I represented a flush on the river.
When the Omaha hi-lo round came along, I had to give John and Hanso a crash course in the game. While I didn't see how hanso did, John did pretty well and hit a couple wheel hands (A2345) and scoop some huge pots!
Omaha rounds are the ones you can lose a lot of chips, because you are constantly drawing to a hand and when you miss...you don't really much choice except to fold. I tried to never draw to a low hand, except if the pot is huge. This is a game I still need to work on, but its basically if the pot odds are there...you should call to hit...given your stack.
The event started with around 30 players and I played for 3 hours before it finally got down to the final table! I made it yet again to the final table! It's such a great feeling, especially since this was my first Omaha tournament. I've alway kind of pride myself that I took time to learn all the different form of poker games.
But, it wasn't long I was met with disappointment when I busted out in 8th.
At this point, the blinds were so high and I only had 2.5 bb left. It gets folded to the LB who two bets me and I push it all in. I couldn't afford to fold anyways. He shows 34 and I show 64. He somehow gets a straight on the turn and I'm dead.
Overall, it was fun and interesting. Not bad for the first time here. I wish I could have seen that guy's face when he told me "i've never seen you at the final table"
We enter a limit texas hold em/limit omaha hi-low tourney with a $50 dollar buy-in. $20 dollar rebuys until the break with $40 dollar add on.
I was excited by the fact that this was a mix game tournament, like HORSE except without the RSE. John and I got put at the same table and here we go:
Just like my last limit texas hold em tournament at bay101, I decided to put pressure right off the bat and achieve two things: to control the table (meaning if they going to play garbage cards, then pay for it) and put the aggressive image out there. What good is play poker if everyone is in the hand? Trust me, there is a method to my madness...So I pretty much two-three bet every hand in the first round. Sure, I lost a bunch of chips, but I also gain a lot when I finally hit one of my hands.
It really seem like the whole table was after me. Some guy said "man, this guy....so aggressive", another guy "You won't make it to the final table" and a woman "raise again? ...gosh!"...Already right there! I got tells on all of them. They didn't have anything good in their hands, so I could put their range and read them better. They say its hard to bluff in limit, but I pulled one off when I represented a flush on the river.
When the Omaha hi-lo round came along, I had to give John and Hanso a crash course in the game. While I didn't see how hanso did, John did pretty well and hit a couple wheel hands (A2345) and scoop some huge pots!
Omaha rounds are the ones you can lose a lot of chips, because you are constantly drawing to a hand and when you miss...you don't really much choice except to fold. I tried to never draw to a low hand, except if the pot is huge. This is a game I still need to work on, but its basically if the pot odds are there...you should call to hit...given your stack.
The event started with around 30 players and I played for 3 hours before it finally got down to the final table! I made it yet again to the final table! It's such a great feeling, especially since this was my first Omaha tournament. I've alway kind of pride myself that I took time to learn all the different form of poker games.
But, it wasn't long I was met with disappointment when I busted out in 8th.
At this point, the blinds were so high and I only had 2.5 bb left. It gets folded to the LB who two bets me and I push it all in. I couldn't afford to fold anyways. He shows 34 and I show 64. He somehow gets a straight on the turn and I'm dead.
Overall, it was fun and interesting. Not bad for the first time here. I wish I could have seen that guy's face when he told me "i've never seen you at the final table"
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Grinding it out
Up $600 dollars this weekend with 8 hours of play. Would have been a little more, but sometimes you cant avoid the bad beats, despite being ahead.
Lately, I've really been treating this as a business. My new motto is not to gamble, but make money. So not needlessly putting my stack at risk with hands that I don't know if I'm ahead or not. Most of it comes down to how well I can read the guy.
Example: A guy raised and I was sure he had jacks, so I laid down AQ suited. While another guy called and won the pot with AQ offsuit when he hit a queen on the turn.
Second example: Folded AQ offsuit again to a player who raised. I also put him on a high pair like kings. I would have turned the straight, but that player won when he rivered a full house. Whew~ I would have lost a lot here.
So this is how I've been playing. I figure its not tournament, so I don't have to worry about surviving. I'll choose my spots and play the cards when its on my terms, where I have a edge.
Friday. Had a pretty solid table of players who knew what they were doing. Passive preflop but aggressive on most flop. Out of the 9 players, about 5 of them love to bet on every street, no matter their cards. So, I played tight for about a half a hour and tried to see flops as cheaply as possible with hands I like.
Lost my first buy-in to someone who raised high on his draw. I pushed and he called. Hit his straight on the turn. Urg! Brought back in and doubled up on my first hand.
Most of my winnings came from a big stack player who was aggressive not only with his cards, but with his mouth. He so love bad-mouthing plays and the dealers. When I first sat down, he was constantly talking, until I started busting him up for about $400. It wasn't too long that he put me on tilt with his mouth.
So I table changed.
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Saturday: Strolled in around 6pm and brought in for only $60. Left at around 8:30pm with $420. Not too bad. Pretty much played solid and felt the table up to identify players. Who was aggressive? Who was passive and who was the fish?
The biggest win came from this hand. A raised from a UTG player to $12 and a call. I'm in the big blind with aces and raised to $40. I get two callers. Flop comes out A 3 5 with two hearts. I pause with for a bit with my set of aces and trusted my gut that if I checked, he will bet thinking I didn't like the ace. My trap worked and he bets out $75. After a fold, I push for $160 total. He insta-called and mucks after I show him my set.
It wasn't long that the table got a whole lot of new faces. I was way too tired to try to identify these new guys, so I left, not wanting to lose what I won.
Lately, I've really been treating this as a business. My new motto is not to gamble, but make money. So not needlessly putting my stack at risk with hands that I don't know if I'm ahead or not. Most of it comes down to how well I can read the guy.
Example: A guy raised and I was sure he had jacks, so I laid down AQ suited. While another guy called and won the pot with AQ offsuit when he hit a queen on the turn.
Second example: Folded AQ offsuit again to a player who raised. I also put him on a high pair like kings. I would have turned the straight, but that player won when he rivered a full house. Whew~ I would have lost a lot here.
So this is how I've been playing. I figure its not tournament, so I don't have to worry about surviving. I'll choose my spots and play the cards when its on my terms, where I have a edge.
Friday. Had a pretty solid table of players who knew what they were doing. Passive preflop but aggressive on most flop. Out of the 9 players, about 5 of them love to bet on every street, no matter their cards. So, I played tight for about a half a hour and tried to see flops as cheaply as possible with hands I like.
Lost my first buy-in to someone who raised high on his draw. I pushed and he called. Hit his straight on the turn. Urg! Brought back in and doubled up on my first hand.
Most of my winnings came from a big stack player who was aggressive not only with his cards, but with his mouth. He so love bad-mouthing plays and the dealers. When I first sat down, he was constantly talking, until I started busting him up for about $400. It wasn't too long that he put me on tilt with his mouth.
So I table changed.
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Saturday: Strolled in around 6pm and brought in for only $60. Left at around 8:30pm with $420. Not too bad. Pretty much played solid and felt the table up to identify players. Who was aggressive? Who was passive and who was the fish?
The biggest win came from this hand. A raised from a UTG player to $12 and a call. I'm in the big blind with aces and raised to $40. I get two callers. Flop comes out A 3 5 with two hearts. I pause with for a bit with my set of aces and trusted my gut that if I checked, he will bet thinking I didn't like the ace. My trap worked and he bets out $75. After a fold, I push for $160 total. He insta-called and mucks after I show him my set.
It wasn't long that the table got a whole lot of new faces. I was way too tired to try to identify these new guys, so I left, not wanting to lose what I won.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Rack Attack!
Won the rack attack tonight! Second time at lucky chances. Was lucky enough to hit a set of deuces on the river.
Tonight, had a stack of $300 after 3 hrs of play. Two bad beats and I lost it all. Later a buddy from work called me and asked me to pick him up to play at lucky chances also. So, after I came back, he staked me for $100 and asked for 20% of my winnings. Haha! Just like Kanish on Rounders.
I made sure he didn't regret that stake. Won a total of $420 for the night. After returning the investment and profit, I pocketed about $240 for the night.
Tonight, had a stack of $300 after 3 hrs of play. Two bad beats and I lost it all. Later a buddy from work called me and asked me to pick him up to play at lucky chances also. So, after I came back, he staked me for $100 and asked for 20% of my winnings. Haha! Just like Kanish on Rounders.
I made sure he didn't regret that stake. Won a total of $420 for the night. After returning the investment and profit, I pocketed about $240 for the night.
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