O-Poker

Wow!! Thanks for all the great comments on the "How would you play it? AQs" post.

I posted the hand because I felt like I really butchered it. I let some outside factors influence my play. I had been disconnecting a lot while still connecting to other sites with no problem. I actually disconnected pf after he 3b and before I had a chance to decide on my pf action. When I reconnected I didn't have much time to decide what to do, so I called. I was also about to quit for the night, had already unchecked the post blinds button, and had already closed a few of the other tables I was playing. I was up two buy-ins on the session. In the back of my mind I was thinking if I got stacked here I would be at even for the night after being up 2 buy-ins and that was probably a factor in my horrible play of the hand. I know that this shouldn't be a factor and is definitely a leak that I am working on.

Now, that I tried to justify :) why I played that hand so poorly, here is what I actually did.


Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $100.00
Hero (UTG+2): $455.10
MP1: $308.35
MP2: $196.00
CO: $203.00
BTN: $365.00
SB: $96.00
BB: $608.60
UTG: $366.65

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG+2 with Q A

2 folds
Hero raises to $7
5 foldsBB raises to $24
Hero calls $17

Flop: ($49.00) 4 8 9 (2 players)

BB bets $30
Hero calls $30

Turn: ($109.00) J (2 players)

BB bets $106
Hero calls $106

River: ($321.00) K (2 players)

BB checks
Hero checks

Final Pot: $321.00
Hero mucks Q A
BB shows T T (a pair of Tens)
BB wins $318.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Thoughts on what I should have done.

Preflop
When I first posted this I felt like flat calling the 3 bet preflop with AQs might have been a little spewey. After a couple of days and as a few peopel pointed out, flat calling the 3b in position this deep is OK. I actually this it is probably the best option between calling, folding, and 4 betting.

Flop
This is where I totally butchered the hand. I could have raised the flop to around $90 and he probably would have folded. Even if he just called, I might have been able to get him to fold the turn.

Turn
Since, I butchered the flop I'm not sure how believable a shove is going to be here. It would look like a set or a draw. I felt like this player is folding such a small portion of his range here that calling was the best option. My plan for the river was to try to get all the money in on a T or heart and decide what to do if an Ace hit based on his action. This may seem a little weak, but I think that I reduced my options after my weak flop call.

River
I could have bluffed at the river K, and maybe represnted something like AhKh but hindishgt is 20/20. I gave up. Anyone make a big river bet or just wave the white flag?

I am going to keep trying to make a more concerted effort of not letting the outside factors (disconnections, end of an up session, etc) effect my play. This is definitely an example of me playing a hand differently than I normally would/should.

Thanks again for all the comments.

I think I butchered how I played this hand the other night. How would you play it?

Button had a 3 bet % of 6.1% and a c-bet of 89% over 2,700 hands
Villain Stats - 19/13/3.6 (winning player)


Several questions.

1. Is flat calling the 3b here a huge leak this deep giving the 3b% of 6.1%?
2. Thoughts on flop flat call?
3. What would you do on the turn?
4. What is your plan for the river if you wiff?
5. What is your plan for the river if you just hit an ace?
6. What is your plan for the river if you make nut flush or the straight?

Full Tilt Poker $1/$2 No Limit Hold'em - 9 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

UTG+1: $100.00
Hero (UTG+2): $455.10
MP1: $308.35
MP2: $196.00
CO: $203.00
BTN: $365.00
SB: $96.00
BB: $608.60
UTG: $366.65

Pre Flop: ($3.00) Hero is UTG+2 with Q A - AhQh

2 folds
Hero raises to $7
5 folds
BB raises to $24
Hero calls $17

Flop: ($49.00) 4 8 9 (2 players) - 4h8h9d

BB bets $30
Hero calls $30

Turn: ($109.00) J (2 players) - Js

BB bets $106
Hero ?????

Looking forward to how others would have played this

FTP Update/Fixes to Cash Games

I guess when you make changes, some things get messed up. When you fix the problems sometimes it creates additional different problems. It looks like this is the case with the FTP update and fix. There was a big outcry from the cash game players after the initial update last week when the deep stack tables were moved away from the 100BB tables. I was among them. The main reason is that the min buy-in for the DS tables is 50BB vs. 20BB for the 100BB tables. There are times when almost every 100BB table has at least 2-4 short stackers which makes the game completely different.

FTP came out with a fix late last week that moved the DS tables back with the regular tables. The fix also mixed the PL and Capped NL games in with the the DS and regular tables. Oooops. My guess is that they are working on a fix for this. I played 13 PL hands this weekend when I thought I was playing NL. It wasn't a big deal, but the thing that bothered me was that you have to pay very close attention when getting on wait lists and when you take your seat because it isn't obvious when you are sitting at NL table vs. PL table. The much bigger issue (not so much at full ring) is that they mixed the capped games in with the other tables. Capped games are completely different and require very different strategy - they are basically tables where everyone is a short stack.

Hopefully, this all gets fixed quickly.

---------------------------
WSOP Plans

I still haven't booked my flight yet, but I'm guessing I'll get in sometime around 2-3PM on Monday June 15th and leave the morning of Sunday, June 21st. I am probably going to play at least one WSOP tourney and 1-2 Venetian or Caesar's tourneys. I'll figure out which ones as a it get closer.

I ran across a schedule of all summer LV tourneys that someone put together. I'm not sure if there are errors, but it doesn't look like it

Google Calendar Summer Tourney Schedule

---------------------------
Cardrunners/Stoxpoker for Free

I continue to receive CRs and Stoxpoker for free thanks to their new (4-6 month old) program of free membership just for playing on FTP.

The link: http://www.trulyfreepokertraining.com/

The details:
Earn 5.5k FTP points in a month and get 1 month of CRs free
Earn 3k FTP points in a month and get 1 month of StoxPoker free
No hit to rakeback
You keep your points
Pretty simple (I guess it is FTP paying ppl additional RB to play)
Go sign up

It looks like FTP listened to all the cash game players that were unhappy about the deep stack tables being moved below and away from the 100BB tables. There was an update today and the deep tables are now mixed back in with the 100BB tables. They are still sortable, so if you don't like the deep tables or like only the deep tables you can sort by your preference. FTP gets a lot of flack for slow responses, but this one was pretty quick considering it took a software update. Kudos to FTP!!

------------------
WSOP

I changed my dates slightly. I forgot that June 14th is Father's Day, so I won't being leaving until the next day - Monday, June 15th.

First the bad:

FTP added ring game filters as a step in the process of adding filters for cash games. This sounded good until I opened the FTP software and went to the cash game lobby. The update moved all deep stack cash game tables to the bottom of the 100BB max buy-in. They were previously mixed in with the 100BB tables and the group of table was sorted by number of available seats/number of people on waiting list. The best thing about the deep tables is the min buy-in is 50BB vs. 20BB for the 100BB tables. You don't have to worry about playing against a table full of short stackers.

I encourage everyone to email FTP and let them know that you don't like this change and to please inter-mix the 100bb and 200bb tables.


Below is a lit of updates from the 2+2 FTP Answers 4/28 thread:

A. Blinds + Antes games - No Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha with antes! Limited to higher stakes only for now, but it should work down to the lower limits in the coming weeks. - This could be awesome. I'll post more about this once they add them to the lower limits.

B. Ring Game Lobby Icons - No, it's not ring game filters. It is, however, a step closer to that goal (some of the plumbing that is needed for filters is now done because of this feature). For now, you can sort by ring game type better than you could before. For example, Deep tables used to be mixed in with normal tables, and now if you sort by "Type" they are separated. - Good idea. Bad implementation. (see above)

C. Synchronized Breaks - Basically, every multi table tournament in the game will now start going on break at :55 past every hour. The tournament clock will stop, the current hand will finish, and then the 5 minute break will start. This means that the actual restart of all tournaments will be slightly staggered (since the tournament with more players take longer to finish that final hand before the break than the tournaments with fewer players) but most people will have a good 5 minute break now no matter how many multi-table tournaments they're playing. - AWESOME!!! AWESOME!!! AWESOME!!!

You can find more details here: http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/synchronized-breaks

As a side note (since I know it will come up), when I asked the developers what it would take to implement this feature after seeing all the requests and threads about it, I was surprised to learn that it was a pretty easy thing for our system. It took one server programmer to fully implement, and he is in no way associated with either ring game filters or security features.

D. Improved Network Communication - Even though this isn't a "feature" that you can see when you log in, this is probably the thing that will make the biggest difference in everyone's day to day playing experience. Basically, the way the game client communicates with the server has been completely re-written. It's easiest to notice the difference when you flip back and forth between, say, the Hold'em and Omaha lobbies or when you open a very large tournament like the Double Deuce. What used to take an annoyingly long time is now much faster. The worse your internet connection is, the more of a difference you'll notice. - Jury out....but anything to reduce the lag is great!!!

This was a very large project and has been a long time coming (I could do the way-back-machine thing again and show you where I was talking about it, but that'd just be embarrassing). I hope anyone who has experienced any kind of "network lag" when it didn't seem like it was their connection gives it another go to see how it behaves now.

E. Anti-Ratholing in Limit Games - The same check we've always had for NL games is now being applied to limit games. If you leave a game with more than the minimum buyin, you can't re-join the game with less than that amount within 30 minutes (or 30 hands, whichever comes sooner). - Very good news

I haven't booked a flight yet, but I just booked my room at the Rio for the WSOP

Check-in Date: June 14
Check-Out Date: June 21

Leave me a comment or send me an email at cmitchpoker(at)gmail.com if you are going to be in LV during that time and want to meet up.

So, the plan starting at the beginning of the month was:

1. 5k hands of 200nl full ring - 2 tables max
2. 5k hands of 200nl full ring - 3 tables max
3. 5k-10k hands of 200nl full - 4 tables max

I haven't gotten nearly as many hours in so far as I would have liked - mainly due to being out of town Easter weekend for my sister's wedding and playing most of the BBT4 events this month. There have also been a lot of nights that I either called it quits early or didn't play cash games because I knew that I wouldn't being playing my "A" game. I have been working a lot (which is a good thing) and by the time I get home I'm often too tired/worn out to put in the kind of focus that I need.

Currently, I have only played 3,686 hands and am up $602 (4 ptbb/100).

I got off to a great start and was sitting at +$990 around the 2k hand mark, then variance caught up. I had a session where I lost a little less than 4 buy-ins - mostly coolers and bad beats with prob 1 buy-in worth of spewing thrown in. The spew wouldn't have been a spew under most circumstances but in hindsight it was a spew because of my table image and the player. I had some really aggro stats and had lost 2 buy-ins at that table. I bluffed after river card that made four to a straight and was called by what I knew was an overpair. If I had analyzed the situation a little better, I wouldn't have been bluffing that player in that situation. I guess that is why you review your sessions so it doesn't happen again.

I have found myself getting bored and losing focus while playing two tables. Hopefully, I finish the first 5k hands before the weekend and can move on to 3 tables.

I watched the UFC PPV fight last night and I think it sucks that the UFC dropped and banned fighters from wearing FTP logos. When I first heard about it, it made sense. They were dropping FTP as a sponser because UFC is getting bigger and bigger and they don't need the heat of being associated with a site that some govt officials may consider illegal. Surely that was the case, right? WRONG!!! They dropped FTP to pick up a much more reputable sponser UltimateBet. Just leaves me shaking my head.

I ran across this on the Ante Up Blog today (pay particular attention to the bold items):

Josh Hafenbrack of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel is reporting that the Florida House has unveiled its gambling plan … and its great news for Florida poker players.

A bill working its way through the Florida Senate essentially lifts most restrictions on gambling in Florida, including limits on poker bets, buy-ins and tournament entries. But few people expected the conservative House to allow anything more than the bare minimum in order to reach a compact with the Seminole Tribe.

However, the plan Hafenrack says was unveiled Wednesday does much more than for the state’s rounders. It raises bet limits to $50, raises the buy-in for no-limit Texas Hold’em to $1,000, allows poker rooms to remain open 24 hours a day and allows quarterhorse tracks to offer thoroughbred racing and open poker rooms. The House plan also lowers taxes on slot machines and licensing fees.

The House plan is actually more generous than the Senate’s on hours of operation. The Senate allows for 18 hours a day, and 24 hours on weekends and holidays. But most poker room managers Ante Up have talked with say they’d be unlikely to deal for 24 hours except on weekends, so essentially the difference is minimal.

Nothing is guaranteed in the Legislature, of course, but it appears the House has set the bottom of its bar high enough to appease most Florida poker players, and any negotiation should be likely to raise that bar.

Huge!! Huge!! Huge!! NL games with $1k max buy-ins instead of the current $100 max and $25/$50 limit games. I hope this happens and happens soon. The games will be so incredibly juicy.

After a horrible 2008 and a 25k hand break even stretch in cash games over the first couple of months of 2009, I have taken a step back and really tried to analyze my game and make some changes.

I started thinking more about the areas of my game that don't involve call, bet, raise, or fold. The catalyst to me making some changes came about a month ago when I first heard Tommy Angelo on the Deuces Cracked podcast. I was driving back from the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa. I left after taking a few bad beats in a row in the 2/5 $100 max buy-in game. Quitting the game and leaving wasn't as hard as it usually is when I'm down. I had accepted that I was playing a low max buy-in, high variance game. I played well and got my money in good, but wound up losing. I realized that sometimes that is just how things go and I have a huge edge in the long run against those players.

On the ride home, I fired up the Deuces Cracked podcast and listened intently on my 1 hour drive home without any distractions. I think that I happened to be in the exact right frame of mind to listen to Tommy Angelo for the first time. Over the next week or so, I listened to part 2 of the podcast and the 2+2 podcast interview with him from several months ago. I couldn't get enough of what he was saying and it has helped me to start to make some changes.

I decided to set some strict guidelines for myself starting at the beginning of April and have developed an initial plan without any specific time frame or monetary goals. While doing this I'm also hoping to find the right balance between number of tables and hourly rate for me.

So here is plan:

Cash Games
1. Play no more than 2 tables of full ring $200 NL cash games at the same time for 5,000 hands.
2. After completing 2 tables of 5k hands, play no more than 3 tables of full ring $200 NL cash games at the same time for 5,000 hands.
3. After completing 3 tables of 5k hands, play no more than 4 tables of full ring $200 NL cash games at the same time for 5,000 hands. (may increase the number of hands here to get a comparable hourly rate.)
4. I'm not sure, but I may also try this for 6 tables, but probably not. I think that I have already made up my mind that six tables only works for me in short sessions.

I realize 15k-20k hands isn't going to really tell me much, but one of the reasons that I am doing this is to keep myself disciplined. I am not going to let myself play any additional tables or any higher stakes during this period.

Tourneys
1. No more than two tables at the same time.
2. No tourney over $100 unless using T$ that I won specifically for the tourney that I am going to play.

What I'm doing differently that has seemed to help so far:

1. Forcing myself to quit or sit out for a few minutes whenever I feel like I made a mistake and after taking a bad beat.
2. Hitting the time bank button and waiting at least until my time starts counting down before making a big decision.
3. Asking myself what my plan is every time before I make a call OOP, especially asking myself if a flat call OOP is +EV or -EV in the particular situation against the particular player.
4. Taking notes more often and more detailed notes. (a lot easier right now while playing only 2 tables)
5. Paying more attention to how others are playing when not involved in a hand (and take notes on their play - see above)
6. Leaving tables that don't have any fish.
7. Leaving tables when some tough aggressive players are sitting to my left.
8. Sometimes deciding to quit when ahead to book a win if I would be quitting relatively soon anyway.
9. Making the decision not play by asking myself before starting a session if I really think I can play my "A game" right now.
10. Not sitting at tables with more than 2 short stacks unless there is a huge fish at the table.

Hopefully, being more self aware while playing will revitalize my game. It can't hurt.

literally on the bubble in the 50/50 just after I took a beat

I'm still trying to figure out when I'll head out to the WSOP this year. The Venetian just came out with their Deep Stack Extraganza that is running during the WSOP. I'll cross reference it with the WSOP Schedule some time this week to try to get a better idea of the best time to be out there.

Right now the plan is to head out sometime around my birthday (June 11th). That is usually a good excuse.


From the pokernews story:

The 2009 Deep Stack Extravaganza III schedule:

Day (Date) Buy-In Event

Th (5/28) $250 Super Satellites

F (5/29) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
Sa (5/30) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
Su (5/31) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
M (6/1) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
T (6/2) $330 No-Limit Hold'em

W (6/3) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
Th (6/4) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
F (6/5) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Sa (6/6) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Su (6/7) $1,070 No-Limit Hold'em

Su (6/7) $550 H.O.R.S.E (4 P.M.)
M (6/8) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
T (6/9) $225 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout
W (6/10) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Th (6/11) $330 No-Limit Hold'em

F (6/12) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Sa (6/13) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Su (6/14) $1,590 No-Limit Hold'em
Su (6/14) $550 Omaha 8/B (4 P.M.)
M (6/15) $330 No-Limit Hold'em

T (6/16) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
W (6/17) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Th (6/18) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Th (6/18) $550 P.L.O. (4 P.M.)
F (6/19) $550 No-Limit Hold'em

Sa (6/20) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Su (6/21) $1,070 No-Limit Hold'em
M (6/22) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
T (6/23) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
W (6/24) $330 No-Limit Hold'em

Th (6/25) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
F (6/26) $2,100 No-Limit Hold'em
Sa (6/27) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Su (6/28) $1,070 No-Limit Hold'em
M (6/29) $330 No-Limit Hold'em

T (6/30) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
W (7/1) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
Th (7/2) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
F (7/3) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Sa (7/4) $1,070 No-Limit Hold'em

Su (7/5) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
M (7/6) $330 No-Limit Hold'em
T (7/7) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
W (7/8) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Thu (7/9) $550 No-Limit Hold'em

F (7/10) $550 No-Limit Hold'em
Sa (7/11) $1,070 No-Limit Hold'em
Su (7/12) $550 Super Satellites
M (7/13) $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em (Championship Event)

-- all starting times noon unless otherwise noted

I have read posts about Tommy Angelo in the past, but never really thought twice about him. Most of the posts were about his book and the unconventional aspects of his thinking. I never made it much past that when reading blog posts about him. I always such assumed his book would be something along the line of don't tilt, play your "A" game, know when to stop playing, be aware of your surroundings, don't play while drinking, play within your bankroll, don't do other things while playing, etc, etc. Basically, I thought his book was just going to reiterate the things that most of us know to do (or don't do) but don't always do (or don't do). I didn't have an open mind and just felt like it was another poker player trying to take an angle to sell his book. It sounded like it was going to be similar to Barry Greenstein's book - Ace on a River.

My thinking changed about 2 weeks ago when I listened to Bart Hanson interviewing him on the Deuce Plays podcast (Part 1). Some of the things that he was saying seemed to really apply to my game and leaks associated with my game. I couldn't get enough of what he had to say and immediately downloaded and listened to Part 2 of the interview followed by the 2+2 podcast interview with him a few months ago. All excellent stuff!!

I ordered his book off Amazon and it should be here today or Monday. I'm guessing I will get more out of his book than I have out of any other poker book.

Definitely more posts to follow on the topic.................

After I busted out of the turbo tourney, I grabbed some pizza, checked out the new areas of the casino, and finally made my way to the cash tables.

Florida law (even at the Indian Casinos) is $100 max buy-in for NL cash games. The Hard Rock runs $1/$2 NL and $2/$5 NL with $100 max buy-ins. The $1/$2 games are usually nit fests and the $2/$5 games are incredibly loose.

I sat down as they were starting a new table. The game started off pretty interesting including one older wanna-be cowboy getting KK 5 times in the first 8 hands - no joke (I'm not sure what the odds of that are). He was down $200 plus because he ran one of them in AA and one into AK (flop an Ace). Needless to say the tilting pseudo-cowboy help make the game good.

Some random happenings of the day:

Slow Rolled

I guess a lot of live players are clueless and I'll write this off as him being clueless instead of an asshole.

I had a decent stack and wound up calling a guy's small bets down with 99 on a KK3K5 board. After I called his 1/12th of the pot size river bet almost certain that he had the King, I waited for him to turn up his hand. He says what I thought was "You got it." So I turn up my 99. He leans over and looks at my cards and then finally turns up his freaking KQ. I never screw around in a cash game (espec low stakes), if I think I have the best hand whether it is my turn to act or not I show it.

I said something along the lines of WTF?

He replied, I had the right to see what you called with and wanted to see it and that he didn't say "you got it" but instead said, "what you got?"

I proceeded to inform him that he was 1st to show and explain to him how much of a ass he was for slow rolling me. The dealer apologized to me for not asking him to show first.

I think the worst part of the situation is that the guy actually thought I had to show first since I called his bet.


Monster Draw

I had a monster hand when I had a decent stack (relative to the start).

My hand - 4c6c in multi-way limped pot and I was on the button

Flop - 3c7c9x
Turn - 3c7c9x4x

I obviously wound up getting all-in on the turn against QQ and wound up missing my 17 outs.

Tiliting Blackjack Players

I had been up and down, but managed to build a decent stack again when a new player sat down at the table. He was clearly in a horrible mood and looked really pissed. After a few minutes he went on and on about how he just "lost fucking $5k playing blackjack in 30 minutes" and he was waiting for a $200 SNG to start. (Oh, by the way, the Hard Rock can run $1k sngs and mtts, but the max buy-in for cash games is $100)

I open raised to $20 pf with AJo and some guy comments about how much I have been raising. Drunk Tilting BJ players (DTBJ) makes the call from the BB. The flop comes all raggy and he leads out for $40. I fold.

The very next hand I look down at AA. The situation couldn't have been any more perfect. DTBJ seems to want to get all his money in the middle and he thinks I am way too loose thanks to another's players comments about my pf raises. I make it $20 to go again. The button calls and DTBJ calls out of the SB. Flop is all rags with 2 clubs. He leads out for $30. I shove. He calls and says, "I AM going to suck out on you." He flipped over 4c8c and hit his flush on the river.

Somehow, this guy had my number. About 10 hands later, my stack was around $180 and he had me covered. I get dealt KK and raise 3 limpers to $35. DTBJ shoves all-in. Everyone else folds. I insta-call. He shows KhTc. The pot gets pushed to him thanks to 3 hearts on the flop and another on the river.

This seemed like a good time to leave the table and grab some dinner. :)

Funny Comments

I heard a few funny things at the table that show why live cash games are so good.

Early in the game. I had been playing pretty tight waiting for a good spot to double up. A girl in middle position open shoved for $45ish. I looked down at TT and I shoved my $120 all-in and a player behind me with more chips said, "Do you want a call?" I replied, "Surrrrrre! The more the merrier!" He thought for a few minutes and called with A9o. After the board ran out and I won the pot, he turned to me and said, "Hey, sometimes that works and you wind up winning a big pot." I think he honestly thought that way, too.

A lady at our table looked extremely tired and proceeded to tell the entire table, "I played all day yesterday until 4:30 AM. I probably should have gotten a couple more hours of sleep but I was so excited to come back and win more money. I won $342 yesterday!!! and couldn't wait to get back!!!!" The best part was she said that she won $342 like you might expect someone to talk about how they won $5k playing cash or came in 1st in a tourney. A few hours later she left after blowing through that $342 plus another $258 (6 buy-ins by my count). Some of her plays included folding the remaining $10 in her stack on the flop when the pot was around $150, shoving all-in over the tightest player at the table with 56 suited, and getting all in with on a flop that contained two spades because she had the Ace of spades and "might make a flush."

I need to play more live poker

I was meaning to put up this post on Monday, but work got in the way. (I can't complain about that.)

We had a baby sitter for the day on Saturday and my wife was heading to an ex-coworker's wedding with the girls, so it was the perfect opportunity to head over to the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa.

Live MTT

Before heading over to Tampa (about 1 1/2 hr drive), I checked the MTT schedule. The only tourney running was a 10 AM $85+$15 MTT. I started a thread on 2+2 to find out just how horrible the structure of that tourney is and how many people usually play in it. I decided to play in it, knowing that it was going to be a turbo, and then play some cash games afterwards. One of the replies to my post summed up the tourney:

"The tournament is a turbo style that has 15 minute levels. It usually gets around 250-300 players in which half of them have received a free buy in from various promotions in the room. It has a patience factor of like negative infinity and I would rather play heads up Casino War for Rollz. Other than that GL."

I was running late and pulled into the Casino parking garage at almost 10 AM on the nose. No worries. I made my through the smoke filled metal warehouse filled with tables and slots between the parking garage and the "real" building and over to the poker room. (The Seminoles only recently made a deal with the governor of FL to have LV style gaming and they had obviously added as much space as possible as quick as possible.) After waiting in line to get my Player's card and then again to register, I found table 3-2 and paid the extra $5 dealer add-on for an additional 1,000 chips. So we started with 3,500 chips and blinds at 25/50. The bad thing was the blinds went up every 15 minutes (ridiculously fast for live play).

The finally tally was 285 players, paying 24 spots, 6k+ for 1st.

To say some of the players were horrible was an understatement. There was a guy that was clearly on a flush draw. I think the pot size was around 800 when he hit his flush on the river. He was first to act and immediately over shoved his remaining 3k into the pot. The other player thought for about 3 seconds and called with 2nd pair. Amazing. The blinds were still 25/50.

I managed to gradually chip up. It really didn't matter how much I chipped up because it quickly became an all-in shove fest. I was up and down. My 99 shove was called by J7o and I lost. I called a shove with 77 and won the race against AQ. I was dealt TT and I shoved over a guy that had been raising a ton. He had a huge stack and it was an incredibly small amount to call my all-in relative to the pot and his stack. He folding and showed the other tow Tens saying that I would have to have a huge hand to make that bet - LOL.

Fast forward to bubble time. I had around 20k chips when we got down to 3 tables and wasn't getting any opportunities to shove. Once we hit 25 players they started going hand for hand (still 15 min blinds levels and we were getting about 1 hand every 4-5 minutes). The blinds went up to 3k/6k right before my BB and I have 15k chips. UTG+1, I folded 25. UTG, I folded 49.

I post 6k of my 15k in the BB. A guy from mid position, that had been pretty active during the bubble period, pushed all-in. It folded around to me. I look down at AJ. My guess is that I am ahead of most of his range, so I called. Unfortunately, he had AQ and I was the bubble boy.

To give you an idea of how much of a turbo this tourney was:

It started around 10 AM with 285 players and I bubbled in 25th at 1:30 pm. I went and grabbed a slice of pizza and checked out some of the other areas of the casino. Around 2:15ish, I went to see who was left and it was over. :)

Low Limit ($100 max buy-in $2/$5 NL) cash game post tomorrow including being slow rolled, monster draws, tilting blackjack players waiting for a SNG, spewing players, and someone mentioning that they made a call because "Hey, sometimes that works and you win a big pot."