A good night....

Read'em and weep! (I only started taking notes in the 2nd hour; in the first hour I was playing the heads-up tournament in parallel (see my previous post below!)). [To keep a perspective, always important after a win, my overall net profit is still below the maximum value that I ever reached, back in November. But it is getting close...]

$10 FTP Turbo, 2nd hour

KK, three all-ins before me. I call, they have AQ, QQ, 66. There is no A, Q, or 6 on the table, and I scoop a huge pot: 21k. This put me into 2nd place in the tournament.

Some steals fail: 16k. Blinds are 300/600 with antes, so my M is now 10, 4th place.

23 players left, top 18 get paid.

KQo UTG, I raise to 3BB, all fold: 17k. 22 left.

77 as SB... call button raise, lose to AA!
Down to 12k, he was short.

KK beats A9: 21 left.

22 in CO. Raise to 4BB, all fold. AQ in next hand. Raise to 4BB again, all fold.
15k, round costs 1900, M=7.5. I am in 5th place with 21 left. Fold A9s UTG. Would have won.

BB A8, folded to me. 16k. Fold SB 4-2. 20 players left, 2 more to go.

Raise A5o in CO, all fold. 17.5k. Shorty wins showdown, too bad.

Together with BB I push out the shortstack, 19 left!! Hand for hand play now. 18.5k, still in 5th place. Avg. stack is 13k.

Raise A9o in 2nd pos.(from 6), all fold. 20.5k.

QQ as BB... FOLDED to me! Blast. Blinds now 600/1200 + 150 ante, round costs 3150, M=6. I am IN THE MONEY!!

TT in CO. Push over short push, he has 77. I win. 28k. I AM CHIP LEADER!!!!!!!!

Not for long, some guy wins a big pot. Still, nice while it lasted :-) And another one, down to 3rd position now! Still, am in excellent position to make the final table here.

KQo UTG. Raise to 3BB. BB calls with... T4? Well, he had a tiny stack. AJ as BB...
I fold when I miss the flop, my opponent has the same stack as I do, this is no time for heroics. Fold my SB as well.

Still 29.5k. Raise KTo OTB, blinds fold. Call A9s in CO, button calls! Didn't count on that. 31k. I am at a 5-player table now! Wow, that went really fast, only one more player needs to go before I have reached the final table.

Blinds are now 1000/2000 with antes 250 (did I mention that this is a turbo tournament?), round costs 4250, M=5.

YES- final table is here!!

Payout of $35 assured. Nice prizes start at top 6 ($90). First player leaves, already payout $50!

AQo UTG, raise to 6k. BB calls with A9, pushes on flop A, and spikes a 9 on the river. That's it for me... (At this point I expected to go out in a few more hands.)

I am now down to 5k and have by far the shortest stack. The only question is how long I can still survive. I will-

I was just going to write I had to settle for an eighth place, when there was a showdown between two big stacks! (Well, they are all big compared to me...) SO now I will get at least $62, still nice...

Fold A7o in 2nd pos. BB pushes.

Down to 3.8k, UTG, BB costs 2.4k. Fold. And I get 66 as BB... SB obliges, raises with K4, and I actually win the race. Now I have 7.5k again, and can survive another round.

OMG, another showdown!! 99 vs AT. AT wins, too bad 99 still has 70k chips...

Oh great, blinds went up, now 1.5k/3k. Not that it makes that much difference to me...

Really too bad 99 didn't win that, would have earned me $30! ANOTHER showdown now!! YES!!! Largest stack wins! Now I get $90!

Q3 as BB. Button raises, I have to call and actually make a straight on the river... Now I have 14k, but completing SB and losing brings me down to 10k. Push K9o. All fold: 17k!

55 UTG, I push. All fold. 20k after paying the BB (3K). Yet another showdown... Blasted, short stack wins again. 33 as SB.
I fold after a big raise and call. Again the short stack wins. Push K5o as button, all fold. 26k. I am actually in 4th position now out of 6! ANOTHER short stack wins a showdown.

QT as BB... Fold to MP raise. Fold SB as well. 18k. ANOTHER showdown. A8 vs 33. A8 wins, I am actually assured of $123 now...

And I am not the shortest stack! Now I am, the short stack just lost. I am now 4th, but my payout is now $165, this is quite incredible. Will I outlast another player???

Now have 11.6k, round gets folded to me, 16.5k. Push 78s. BB calls with 64... and wins (flops a 4). What a game.

I won an MTT

I never thought I'd see the day... Too bad it was only a $1 buyin :-) Of course, I had a LOT of luck during the tournament. I will write a report at some point...

It's the structure, stupid!

I realize why I am doing so badly at Pacific, I have been getting spoiled by the slow structure at Full Tilt... Now, playing at Pacific is like playing a turbo game for me! And I never was any good at those.

Lots of losses

I seem to have forgotten how to play poker at Pacific - I have now lost six games in a row there, in total $45... Or perhaps I have forgotten how to play without the helpful hints of PokerOffice, since Pacific asked me to try their new interface and PO does not work with that.

Oh well, back to Full Tilt for me...

No news is good news, unless it's bad

I find that I have not so much to write about recently. My SNGs are going nicely at the moment (yesterday: played 2 simultaneously, one second place, +$5). But even if they weren't, what can I say about them? It remains true that much if not all of the play in those games can be automated. Sometimes you win the races, sometimes you lose them.

At the moment I also lack the time to play MTTs; even if I had the time, various subtle hints thrown my way have indicated that these are not my most interesting posts. Not that I care, I write this blog for myself, to learn from it. But I seem to have reached some sort of plateau, I am not making any real progress towards playing better poker. I should probably read more about the game again. While I will never again make a jump similar to when I read Harrington on Hold'Em, there is surely more progress to be made.

With that in mind, I recommend the following postings (bottom of the page, by Bond18; read the whole series!).

I am BACK

I just cashed in two simultaneous $10 games again. Still did not manage to win any of these games, but at least I am reaching the money spots now! It is a great feeling to be playing at this level again. I have now doubled my Full Tilt bankroll (from $50 to $108). It is actually still too low really to be playing $10 games, but I will continue to play it somewhat safe. My new lower limit is $75, so I can afford to lose three games in a row before I have to drop back down. But hopefully, I have left these $5 games behind me for good now...

Also, my form at Sharkscope is "Hot" again, very nice. However, I should keep a proper perspective, I have now played 8 of these $10 games at Full Tilt and my overall result is -$25 for these games, so I still have a loss to make up here (my overall profit at the $5 SNGs is now $73, and at the $5 HU games it is $22; almost $100 in total!).

My recent games

I guess that any post of mine could be titled like this...

1. I managed to win five heads-ups in a row, four at Full Tilt and one at Pacific
2. I cashed in two simultaneous $5 games: a 1st and a 2nd place (where my opponent got quite lucky at the end: he raised, I reraised, he put me all-in. I gladly called with TT, and he had only K3(...) but of course he immediately flopped a K. Still, it was a nice result: a net profit of $25 in a little over an hour's play.
   
3. For the first time ever, I cashed in a $10 game at Full Tilt: a third place, hurray... I played two simultaneous games here as well, but I guess I got too impatient in the other one when I raised and then pushed A9 after a reraise by what turned out to be 99. So in these two games, I paid $22 to play and earned $18, but fortunately the second $5 installment of my bonus was released at the same time, so I did make a profit here...

I noticed during these last $10 games that I actually felt more relaxed at this level. I have the feeling that people fold more often when I push, which is always something to look for in opponents. So my next games will also be at this level, even though I do not really have the bankroll to sustain this: I have $85 at the moment. If I drop to $60, I will go back to the $5 games again...

Oh yeah, I also saw the most amazing hand happen today, fortunately I was not involved in it: KK was all-in preflop against AA. The flop was AQT, giving the AA player a set of course but also giving the KK player a gutshot draw.

The turn was a K.

The river was a K.

I have never seen anything like this before...

Two simultaneous wins

This has also been QUITE a long time ago: I played two SNGs at the same time and won them both! I really needed that, my bankroll at FTP had again dropped to $35. Now I have $70 again, that looks a lot better. I hope that I can maintain this level now... My profit graph at FTP is also looking like a rollercoaster at the moment :-( My ROI at the $5 games is quite OK though, it is 40% now, about the same as my ITM%.

This morning I had tried to play three SNGs at the same time, but this only resulted in a 7th, 6th and 4th place. I think I will stick to no more than two of these games at the same time...

Another MTT

Another blowout... I have marked the most important hands in red.

$5 FTP

Call 105 raise with 66, miss flop.

Raise to 120 = 3BB with QQ. Medium stack pushes, limper calls this push. I push, he calls this too... with AT. The pusher had K9. I was thinking "A or K and I'm dead." The flop was... Q33. Stack 3500, average 2317.

Limp 88, miss flop. Already 3 pocket pairs in 21 hands!

And there is the fourth: 22. I accidentally fold, but miss the flop, which is Ace high. 112 players left out of 190, top 18 gets paid. My M is high.

QQ again!! Raise to 150 = 3BB. SB calls, checks flop. I CHECK, flop was J96, two diamonds. Now he bets the pot on a low turn! I flat call. The river is K. He checks, pot is 1000. I bet 200, he calls with JT. Very nice, very well played if I do say so myself. Stack 4115. I am in 22nd place out of 101 players remaining.

I have now had five pocket pairs, including twice QQ, in the first thirty hands... Even more surprisingly, both QQ's won me nice pots!

99!!! as SB. Raise to 4BB after one limper. Short-stacked BB pushes, limper folds, I get 2:1 odds and call. He has AJ, I win the race. Stack 5000!!! And there is my SEVENTH pocket pair, 44!!

The flop gets checked to me, I bet more than half the pot. One caller, he checks the turn, I check as well. Now he bets 3/4 of the pot on the low river. Why would he bet so much? I think about it for quite some time before calling. He had KQ... Stack is now 5858, this is quite incredible. I am now in 13th place out of 82 remaining. The average stack is 3607.

Of course, I've had tournaments like this before, where everything is going great at the start. The important thing here is to remain calm and focused, and not do any weird calls with subpar hands. Fortunately I was playing a SNG in parallel, and I think I got some of the weird calls out of my system now (don't ask).

The blinds are still only 40/80, this means my M is now 48. That may be some kind of record for me... But the average M is 30, so I should not make too much out of this. I am 14th out of 74 players.

Blinds now 50/100, M=38. Succesful steal keeps me level.

66 UTG, I limp. Flop 442, I bet 400 into 500 pot. One caller... Indeed, he has the 4 (A4 it was). Back down to earth! Stack now 4188. 4088. Continued steal: 4388, fortunately. 4288 after OTB limp.

I misread the pot in that hand, otherwise I would not have bet quite so much. After the call, I guess I definitely should have given up on the hand, but it worked before...

So now I'm back in average position, with a stack of 4288 (avg 4453).

I just got moved. Raise AJo UTG. Only BB calls, but refuses to bet anything despite my repeated checks- the flop was JJ3... 4538.

BREAK

I am 29th out of 61 remaining. Quite OK.

Blinds now 60/120, M=24. Take it easy!

Limp SB with the hammer. I turn an oesd but check before realizing it. Everyone keeps checking and I actually make my straight. Now I check again, I probably should have made a tiny move here. Someone must have had a pair... Yes, actually two people did. Oh well.

Successful steal: 4898, average 5181.

AJo in MP, raise to 360=3BB. All fold! Limp T9o in next hand, only blinds play. Flop flush draw, bet 320 into 480 pot. BB gets disconnected! Now I have to wait a minute and a --- he folds. Stack 5398, slowly chipping up... Average stack 5277.

I am 17th out of 52 remaining, that is not bad at all!

Limp A6 as SB and notice that BB is not interested in this game (insta-check), so I bet out on the flop J97. He folds as does the single limper. 5558, but average 5700! A few people got eliminated in quick succession.

I avoid disaster when I fold 88 after I raise, the big stack pushes and is called. They have AK and KT(...) and the turn AND river are kings. But since I raised, I am now down to 4758 again. Back to work... Blinds 80/160, so my M=20.

Raise JKs in 3rd position, get reraised, dammit. By KK. Good that I folded...

Down to 4278 now, but M still 17.5.

That was a silly move I guess, my position was too bad for JKs.

Now I am 31st out of 46 remaining.

About one player per minute gets eliminated. There is real value in being patient. Especially since there is also a very big stack at this table, to my immediate left, who is stealing with abandon.

JUST GREAT: I fold K7 after a minraise as BB, flop K77.... Wonderful.

3978, blinds 100/200, M=13.
Starting to get more exciting now.

Funny, I am in 32nd place, the player in 33rd had only 3000! Seems I am the last player with a somewhat reasonable stack (though even he still has an M of 10).

Try to steal with QTo. AND IT WORKS, phew. Now i get AJo! AGain raise to 600. Again all fold! Now I get AK!! Third successive raise to 600. NOW the BB calls, and the flop is K44, a dream flop. We both check, he tries something on the turn, I raise to be on the safe side, he folds.

Back to a stack of 5878 where I was 15 minutes ago! Of course, it was worth more back then, but I'll take it... Back in 17th position, 40 are left now. Average stack is 7125.

Failed ministeal as SB: 5278.

Am going to fold a couple of hands now, don't want too much action when I raise.

We still need to lose 20 players before we get paid.

Steal OTB works: 5328. 33 players remain, 15 more to go...

Round now costs 560, so my M is down to 10. I probably calculated it wrong earlier, I forgot about the antes.

31 remain, I am 21st.

A9 as BB. Call minraise (was getting 7:1 odds). Flop 872... One pushes with middle pair, is eliminated by set of 2s. 30 left.

AJ OTB. Raise to 900=3BB. SB pushes, I have to fold.

Now we are definitely into push-or-fold territory: my M is down to 6!

Going to be difficult to outlive the bubble, there are still 30 players left. Am going to have to double up soon.

28 left now, I am 22nd...

Q4 as BB. I flop two pair...
All check, turn is second J! I FOLD when the river also brings a third spade. Sickening. I should have bet bigger on the turn, probably push... The turn was the second spade.

On the next hand I push as SB with AJo, BB INSTACALLS with A2 and IMMEDIATELY flops a 2. Out in 28th.

Another two hours of my life gone...

Rollercoaster ride

I just had the most amazing game ever, I think. I've had some nice comebacks in the past (see recent post), but this game tonight was more of a rollercoaster ride. My only worry is that I may have used up all of my luck for this month or so (said the mathematician). But judge for yourselves...

1. Up (a bit) due to the 10% rule.
No Limit Holdem Tournament
$5 + $0.50 Sit & Go
8 players
Converted at weaktight.comBlinds: 20/40

Pre-flop: (60, 8 players) Hero is SB with 1430

1 fold, UTG+1 raises to 160 (1335), 3 folds, BTN calls 160 (1445), Hero calls 140 (1270), 1 fold

Flop: (520, 3 players)
Hero bets 200 (1070), 2 folds (I felt that I had to bet here, given that there are two opponents and somebody might be on a flush draw. But of course this means that in many cases, all opponents are going to fold, and that means that I am not getting paid enough to compensate for the cases where I miss the flop. This is something that I had not considered before. Perhaps I do have to check in such situations. Given that there was a preflop raise, it does seem likely that the raiser will put in a c-bet, which I could checkraise. Otherwise I am relying on the opponent with the flush draw to bet here. It seems that not everyone with flush draws bets though.

All in all, I think that I do need to check here. It might give me some difficult decisions later in the hand, but I have to take a risk in order to get paid for my sets...)

Final Pot: 520

Hero wins 520 ( won +160 )
UTG+1 lost -160
BTN lost -160

2. Up a bit more as BB
Blinds: 25/50

Pre-flop: (75, 7 players) Hero is BB

2 folds, MP calls 50 (2030), CO calls 50 (1130), 1 fold, SB calls 25 (1255), Hero raises to 200 (1420), MP folds (2030), CO calls 150 (980), SB folds (1255)

Flop: (500, 2 players)
Hero checks (1470), CO checks (980)

Turn: (500, 2 players)
Hero bets 350 (1120), 1 fold

Final Pot: 500

Hero wins 500 ( won 300 )
MP lost -50
CO lost -200
SB lost -50

3. Up yet a bit more due to a continued steal on a missed flop with A5; a loss would have brought me down to 1255, now I had 2375.

4. Up by a huge amount...
Blinds: 40/80

Pre-flop: (120, 7 players) Hero is UTG+1

1 fold, Hero raises to 240 (1895), 1 fold, CO raises to 800 (2285), 3 folds, Hero calls 560 (1335) (pot odds 2:1)

Flop: (1720, 2 players)
Hero checks (1335), CO bets 1440 (845), Hero calls 1335 (0) (pot odds 2:1 -- how can I fold this? He may have JJ, QK, 55...)

Turn: (4498, 2 players)

River: (4501, 2 players)
CO says "bs" (845) (he proceeded to call me an idiot, but I was getting good odds for both of my calls. Of course, had I known that I was up against AA, I never would have played this hand, but as I wrote above he could have had several other hands.)

Final Pot: 4390
Hero shows:
CO shows:

Hero wins 4390 ( won +2255 )
CO lost -2240 (to make things worse, on the very next hand he lost his remaining 400 chips with AQ vs AA...)

5. DOWN by a very large amount when I could not resist calling with top pair:
Blinds: 40/80

Pre-flop: (120, 6 players) Hero is SB

2 folds, CO calls 80, 1 fold, Hero calls 40, BB checks

Flop: (240, 3 players)
Hero bets 160, BB calls 160, 1 fold

Turn: (560, 2 players)
Hero bets 320, BB goes all-in 1705, Hero calls 1385 (I could have saved myself a LOT of trouble by folding here; this opponent would turn out to be quite tough)

River: (3970, 2 players)

Final Pot: 3970
Hero shows:
BB shows:

BB wins 3970 ( won +2025 )
Hero lost -1945
CO lost -80

6. Up back again with QQ: minraise, one caller (BB from previous hand), BB pushes 55, I push over the top, remaining opp folds. 3575 with 5 players remaining.

7. DOWN by a near-fatal amount when I flop two pair as SB...
Blinds: 60/120

Pre-flop: (180, 4 players) Hero is SB

CO calls 120 (4165), BTN calls 120 (2250), Hero calls 60 (3035), BB checks (3570)

Flop: (489, 4 players)
Hero bets 360 (2675), BB calls 360 (3210), 1 fold, BTN raises to 720 (1530), Hero goes all-in 3035 (0), BB folds (3210), BTN calls 1530 (0)

Turn: (6151, 2 players)

River: (6151, 2 players)

Final Pot: 5340
Hero shows:
BTN shows:

BTN wins 5340 ( won +2970 )
Hero lost -3155 and is left with 785, blinds 60/120...
BB lost -480
CO lost -120

8. After several uncalled all-ins, I double up in the following way... Words fail me.
Blinds: 80/160

Pre-flop: (240, 4 players) Hero is CO

Hero goes all-in 1205 (0), 2 folds, BB calls 1045 (3895)

Flop: (2490, 2 players)

Turn: (2497, 2 players)

River: (2504, 2 players)

Final Pot: 2490
Hero shows:
BB shows:

Hero wins 2490 ( won +1285 )
BB lost -1205

9. Some 20 hands later, doubled up again like this:
Blinds: 100/200

Pre-flop: (300, 4 players) Hero is CO

Hero calls 200 (1730), 2 folds, BB checks (2155)

Flop: (508, 2 players)
BB bets 500 (1655), Hero goes all-in 1730 (0), BB calls 1230 (425)

Turn: (3991, 2 players)

River: (3998, 2 players)

Final Pot: 3960
Hero shows:
BB shows:

Hero wins 3960 ( won +2030 )
BB lost -1930

10+11. And not too long after this, I played the following two hands in succession.
Blinds: 120/240

Pre-flop: (360, 3 players) Hero is BB

1 fold, SB goes all-in 3205 (0), Hero says "have to call this" (4385), Hero calls 2965 (1420)

Flop: (6410, 2 players)

Turn: (6419, 2 players)

River: (6419, 2 players)

Final Pot: 6410
Hero shows:
SB shows:

Hero wins 6410 ( won +3205 )
SB lost -3205

Blinds: 120/240

Pre-flop: (360, 2 players) Hero is BTN

Hero raises to 720 (6990), Hero says "gl" (7110) (I did not mean this sarcastically, I just type this when the heads-up phase starts...), BB goes all-in 5670 (0), Hero calls 4950 (2160) (It is impossible for me to fold this after just winning a huge pot)

Flop: (11359, 2 players)

Turn: (11363, 2 players)

River: (11363, 2 players)

Final Pot: 11340
Hero shows:
BB shows:

Hero wins 11340 ( won +5670 )
BB lost -5670

A very satisfying tournament win, but obviously completely undeserved!

Oh well

I made it five losses in a row, but now I've finally finished in the money again with a second place. Oh well, better than nothing... It was probably wrong to push 77 so early in the heads-up phase, but I did not feel that confident against this opponent, and he already had a 2:1 chiplead.

OK, so now I've lost four in a row

This, unfortunately, is more common.

A first

For the first time ever, I won three successive SNG's (I just won the third of the sequence). This has doubled my bankroll at FTP--it had dropped to $40 before this sequence (I deposited $50). Very nice...

I did once win four SNGs at Titan in a row. In fact those were SNGs of the type where if you win five in a row, you earn $5000 or something. Unfortunately, in the fifth I went out in third place. I never got anywhere close to this result again and in fact, as longtime readers of this blog may remember, I have an overall lifetime loss at Titan, amazing as this may sound to some of you.

What makes that sequence different from the current one however, is that I played other games in between. So I did not strictly speaking win four games in a row. If you only count sequential games, the best result I achieved before today was two of those Titan games plus a third game at Titan, which was a heads up game for $2. This happened all the way back in December 2006!

It is nice to achieve something like this, especially after a kind of dark period that I have gone through. Let's hope the fourth game goes just as well :-)

Another note about firsts: recently I got AA twice in a row in an SNG! This is also something that had never happened to me before. I guess if you play SNGs long enough, you encounter things like this. I was just getting annoyed because I finally got AA, I raised to 3xBB or something, and everyone folded... until I saw that the new cards were again AA. THAT time I got paid, though it was unfortunately not enough to finish in the money, eventually.

75 chips

I have posted several comebacks in the past, but I think this has to beat them all: at one point, I had 75 chips left with six opponents still in the game. I ended the game with 13,500 chips (it was nine-handed, FTP).

The game could have been a relatively short one: this happened after 49 hands and 35 minutes.

But let's start at the beginning. I limped with 44, called a minraise and got a flop of AQT: fold. Completed as SB with K4, ended up calling a small river bet with a pair of fours, my opponent had made a set with 33 on the river. Limped with 33, checked the flop, on the turn I made a bet (board was K74-6) only to find that one opponent had acquired third pair with the 6, while another had an oesd now.

T9s as BB. Bet out when I made top pair on the turn, board 752-9. One caller. River was a 4, I check-folded. He bet 300 here, the pot was 225. A suspicious bet, but I was worried about him having limped AA or something. Why else would he call my turn bet?

Called with Q5o OTB to be in position, but had to fold to a flop bet. This left me with 910. Then I limped 66, flop was Q42 and I bet 180 into a 240 pot in third position. Thankfully, all three opponents folded: 1090. After the blinds passed, I raised with KQo in MP, all fold: again 1090. A few hands after that I got KQs UTG and bet 240 (4xBB) but both blinds called. The flop was 972 and the SB bet out, so I had to fold: 850.

With QJs as SB, I bet out when the turn gave me a flush draw and both opps had checked the 887 flop: they folded. As BB next time, I got to see a flop of KJ7 and both opps checked! So I bet small on the turn 2, one opp stayed around with his oesd (he should have bet the flop of course) and checked it down. Now I had 1230 again, blinds now 50/100.

Then, a round later, disaster struck. I got KQo OTB, it was folded to me. My M was 7. I decided there was no point in just raising, and pushed. I guess this is extreme. Anyway the SB called with 55 and his pair held up. Fortunately, he had 75 chips less than I did....

This is when the real fun started.

I folded the next two hands, then got 44 in 2nd position and called. The blinds were now 60/120, so there was not much else I could do. It was folded to the BB, who had... 44. So we shared the SB in this hand, and now I had 105. I folded the next hand (97o), but then I was all-in as BB! However, the SB, with 1730 chips, refused to call 45 into a 165 pot. Let's just say that it is clear that he does not understand much about poker. He said he had 7-2, but that is hardly an excuse, obviously.

Now I had 165 chips, down to 105 after paying the SB (I cowardly folded 65s to an early raise). Two hands later I got Q4 and it was folded to me, so I just limped (remember that I still did not have enough chips to pay the big blind). UTG limped and the SB raised, so I thought that was certainly the end.

The flop was KKQ.

My opponents had AJ and A5. Now I had 420 chips again, and it was all uphill from here... I pushed on the very next hand with KQo, no callers: 600. I folded 7-5 as BB to an early raise, and then got A7o as SB. OTB called for 75 chips (he had lost with 66 to KK on the previous hand) and I pushed, only to be called by the BB with... K7. Unfortunately, the first caller did beat me, so I only got the side pot, keeping me stable at 600. But two hands later I pushed T6o when it was folded to me, and two hands after that QTs. Nobody called. Now I had 1080 again!

One opponent was predicting around this time that I would win the game. I did not believe this for a moment, but shortly after this I beat AJ with AK (1810), then later got a free round (1610), pushed 99 without callers (1810), then 55 (1810), and then this particular opponent was nice enough to call my push with A6 while he only held 65s. Now I had 3720 chips with five players left.

This is when I started to get lucky ;-) I flopped a full house as BB, checked it until the river. My opponent finally tried something, bet and also called my minraise: 4940 - I was chipleader now. The same opponent was nice enough to call my river bet a round later with air (QJo, board AKK66 - he was probably hoping to share the pot), again the hand had been checked down although I had made a flush on the turn: 5660.

He really was a horrible player, he also gave me a lot of free rides during the tournament by folding his SB to me.

As SB I made a straight on the river. But worse was yet to come (for my opponent): in the next round as SB, I minraised and was forced due to pot odds to call his all-in. He had AJo, I had K4s, but I made a flush on the turn. This put me into the money. Then, a couple of rounds later, I limped with T9o and was forced, again, to call the all-in of the BB, who had... T9s! Nevertheless, even though he held the suited cards and I did not, I was the one to make my flush on the river.

Finally, the heads-up phase was determined by a hand where my opponent raised preflop, I flat called with AK and flopped a straight. I checked it and he pushed with 55(on a QJT flop...), and that's all she wrote...

PS: this marks another event that has not happened in a long time, probably not since early September: I won two SNGs in a row. Last time this happened, I was playing for $20 and $30, but let's not let that spoil the good feeling...

First place

I literally cannot remember the last time that this happened, but yesterday I finally managed to not only make the money but actually win a SNG ($5.50 buyin, $22.50 payout (nine players)). It happened at Full Tilt Poker, where I started playing two days ago. In two earlier attempts, I had bubbled, but both times it was due to tremendous bad luck on the bubble. Once I lost with AJ against AT (he made his flush), I don't even remember the other game.

But let me begin by praising the structure of the games at FTP. I have never seen anything like it! The blinds increase so slowly, you get to play a LOT of poker before luck begins to play a factor. This is great. In SNGs, the blinds increase every 6 minutes, and the big blind starts at 30 and then increases to 40,50,60,80,100,120,160,200,240,300. As an example, this means that after 30 minutes, the level 60/120 starts. Compare this to Party Poker, where the blinds go 40,60,100,200,300 (but in 10 minute increments): there you are playing at the level 100/200 starting from the 31st minute. To be fair, you get a larger stack at Party (2000), so multiplying by 3/4 you actually have a level of 75/150, and after that 112/225 from minute 41, compared to 100/200 starting from minute 43 at FTP.

OK, so taking the different stack sizes into account, the difference is not all that large. Especially since the tables at FTP are nine-handed, so you have to pay the blinds slightly more often. Nevertheless, all those small differences do add up, and this slow increase is very pleasant. It feels a lot different if you have a jump from 50/100 to 100/200 (a doubling of the blinds!) or from 50/100 to 60/120 to 80/160, even if the blinds go up faster.

Also I feel that all the heads-up games I have been playing are paying off. Of course you frequently find yourself heads-up during a SNG, and I find myself checking on made flops more often. I do have to force myself to click on the button of death marked "check", knowing that the next card may kill me, but it pays off tremendously. Most opponents will start to bet on the turn given the chance.

I also played an MTT at FTP. Things went quite well until after 2.5 hours my AA (all-in preflop) got cracked by J9s (made his straight). What can you do... But I shouldn't complain about this, since earlier in the same game I was all-in with top pair against what turned out to be two pair, and we both made a straight.

The 10% strategy

It works!

You may remember that I introduced some new rules recently, including one where I was going to call with small pairs as long as this did not cost me more than 1/10 of my stack. So far, the results are very encouraging. The most surprising aspect is that I already won two hands without hitting the flop. Yesterday, I called a raise with 77 as BB, the flop was K83 with three opponents, but nobody made another bet, not even a continuation bet! Somewhat to my surprise, I won the showdown. Turns out my opponents held AJ, AQ, and T9s (...).

Later in the same game, I first limped for 100 and then called an additional 200 with a stack of about 2600. This time I hit the flop and won a nice pot - not a stack though, but I had to bet strongly since the flop was T97, quite dangerous.

In an earlier game, I was in position against three opponents and bet on the flop with 33, which gave me the pot. (Again there was no c-bet, the flop was KQ9.)

I had not taken into account that you could win pots with small pairs without hitting the flop. This suggests that you could call raises even looser than I am doing now. But, for now I will stick to the rule as it is. After all, I have only played a few hands with small pairs so far. There was also one hand where I lost a large pot, I don't remember the details (probably tried to steal it on the flop). Still, very interesting.

PS: Of course there is another side to this story as well. Not only can you win without hitting the flop, you can also hit your set and still lose to a straight or flush. Another good reason to just stick to the 10% rule, and not play any looser than that!

A winning year

A happy new year to all of my readers!

I could also have called this post "Two losing months", since I lost money again in December, but I prefer to keep a positive outlook. In 2007, I made a profit of $1744.13. This is quite a huge improvement compared to 2006, where I made a profit of $83.92 (but I played only in the last few months). So my profit has increased by 1978%, call it 2000% or a factor 20. Not bad overall. (Too bad that the US dollar is worth less now than it was a year ago...) Let us see what the new year may bring. I will be satisfied if my profit stabilizes, especially in view of the last two months... BTW my loss in December was only half that of November, so things are somewhat looking up again.

I just withdrew my money from Celeb Poker. I again received $25 from Party, who are apparently desperate to see me back at their tables. Well, I'm game, I look forward to seeing what I can do with their new gift (I squandered the previous one, unfortunately).

PS: so far I can apparently win $12.21 :-) I played two $6 SNG's, made one second place when I picked a bad time to reraise, and one third place when my moron opponent made runner-runner straight after calling my all-in with Q7. A good start.