O-Poker

I had a crazy night at the tables (400nl). I went up two buy-ins right out of the gate but then things started to fall apart. Nothing was working - I won't go into all the gory details because I am trying to keep from posting bad beat, suckouts, coolers, etc. By the end of the night, I managed to claw my way near my high point of the night thanks in part to the Royal Flush below. It's nice to get a Royal Flush, but it is even better to get paid off when you have a Royal.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: ($896.40)
Seat 2: Sitting Out
Seat 3: ($394) -
Seat 4: ($402) -
Seat 5: ($420.50) -
Seat 6: cmitch ($394)


PRE-FLOP:
Seat 4posts small blind $2
Seat 5 posts BIG blind $4
Dealt To: cmitch


RAISE cmitch ($14)
CALL Seat 1 ($14)
All FOLD

FLOP:
Pot: $34


BET cmitch ($24)
CALL Seat 1($24)


TURN:
Pot: $82


CHECK cmitch - Please bet. Please bet.
CHECK Seat 1 - ugggh - might be tough to get paid off on this hand

RIVER:
Pot: $82


BET cmitch ($72) - Let's take a stab and hope he bites.
RAISE Seat 1 ($200) - Bingo looks like he has a big hand - crossing my fingers that the river filled him up.
RAISE cmitch ($356)
CALL Seat 1 ($156)


SHOWDOWN:
cmitch:

MUCK Seat 1

cmitch collected $791 from main pot with a Royal Flush

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $794 Rake: $3

Final Board:


Seat 1: Seat 1 mucked [Jc Td] - a full house, Tens full of Jacks - Net Gain/Loss: ($-394)
Seat 6: cmitch showed [Ah Qh] and won 791 with a Royal Flush - Net Gain/Loss: ($397)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

The villain seems to float a lot and plays ATC from the button. I had seen him make a quick pot size bet on the river from the button a few hands earlier with bottom pair, no spade on a board that contained 4 spades. He was called by another player with 2nd pair, no spades. My general impression was that he would bet every time someone checked to him after they had bet earlier streets.

Full Tilt Poker Game $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: ($196.40)
Seat 2: ($445)
Seat 3: cmitch ($400)
Seat 4: ($725.70)
Seat 5: Villain ($434.90) - running 39/14/2 over small sample
Seat 6: ($1,328.20), is sitting out

Seat 1 posts the small blind of $2
Seat 2 posts the big blind of $4
The button is in seat #5

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to cmitch [Js Ks]
cmitch raises to $14
Seat 4 folds
Villain calls $14 - Likes to play the button every time; usually raises or 3 bets on the button with any pair/any two big cards
Seat 1 folds
Seat 2 folds

*** FLOP *** [Tc 7s 4c]
cmitch bets $28 - standard contiuation bet against this vilain
Villain calls $28 - I think he is raising almost every time he has any draw or top pair

*** TURN *** [Tc 7s 4c] [9s]
cmitch bets $72 - Was going to give up on the hand, but this card drastically improved my hand.
Villain calls $72 - This kind of threw me off. Hadn't really seen him just flat call a 2nd barrel.

*** RIVER *** [Tc 7s 4c 9s] [Qc] - Made nut straight, but it also completes a flush draw.

cmitch checks - I decide to check and let him bet. I'll make my decision to call based on his action.

Villain bets $320.90, and is all in - He insta-shoved (absolutely no delay). Based on his past actions combined with the insta-shove, I was guessing he had something like 2 pair, missed straight, smaller straight, outside chance of a set, or air. I didn't feel like there was any chance that he had the flush when he insta-shoved.

cmitch calls $286, and is all in - Insta-Called.
Uncalled bet of $34.90 returned to Villain

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Villain shows [5d 4d] a pair of Fours - He might want to find a better hand to float with.
cmitch shows [Js Ks] a straight, King high
cmitch wins the pot ($803) with a straight, King high

Thanks for all the comments on the hand yesterday. I was really at a loss for the correct play - especially since it was a turbo sng.

One thing that I forgot to mention - the guy to my immediate right was pretty tight. He had given me walks almost every time. He folded every time someone shoved on his blind except the one time that he had AA. Does knowing that one of the remaining players is too passive for a turbo sng end game change your mind?

To recap, the hand went as follows:

$110+$9 turbo SNG
Blinds 200/400 (go to 250/500 in less than 1 minute)
5 handed - 2 ultra short

Seat 1: beanmo (515)
Seat 2: PokerToronto (115)
Seat 6: bballbilly77 (6,460)
Seat 7: cmitch (4,690)
Seat 8: wpm65 (1,720)

wpm65 posts the small blind of 200
beanmo posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #7

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to cmitch [Qs Td]
PokerToronto calls 115, and is all in - obviously no choice for him
bballbilly77 folds - big stack
cmitch calls 400 - I call to hope to knock out both shorties
wpm65 raises to 1,720, and is all in - not sure why he didn't just call
beanmo calls 115, and is all in - obviously no choice for him

cmitch ?????

Several people commented that I should have pushed instead of limping. I disagree. If we knock out the two short stacks then we are itm. I thought that the button would also limp and we could get into a 4 way pot with a great chance to knock out both of the shorties. It looks like Hoy and Kaja (and probably Fred and Mike) were the only ones that felt the same way.

It is 1,320 to call. If I call and lose then I am sitting at 2,970. If I call and win, I am heads up about even in chips. If I fold, I am left with 4,290. If I call there is a very good chance both ultra-short stacks go out and we are itm.

I was really hoping someone would run the math for me. I tried to run 22+, AJ+ vs. Q10o vs. random vs. random and I think I broke pokerstove. I never could get it to work. It had run 14 billion scenarios and said that it was still 0% complete!!

So what did I do?

I was playing to win. I felt like his range was any pair and AJ+. I wouldn't mind getting in with Q10o against two random short stacks hands and 22-99 or any two non Queen face cards. Also, given the fact that the blinds were going up the next hand, there were two short stacks all-in, and I had a passive player to my immediate right I felt like calling was probably close to correct. If I win, I am in great shape to win the sng. If I lose, is having 3k chips really that different than having 4k chips when the blinds ae 250/500? It is pretty much push or fold time at that point anyway.

I ran into one of the hands in his range that I was worried about, but got very lucky.

cmitch calls 1,320
wpm65 shows [Ad Qd]
beanmo shows [3d 5c]
PokerToronto shows [Kc 8d]
cmitch shows [Qs Td]
*** FLOP *** [9s 9h 6s]
*** TURN *** [9s 9h 6s] [Th] - BOOM!!!
*** RIVER *** [9s 9h 6s Th] [9c]
wpm65 shows three of a kind, Nines
cmitch shows a full house, Nines full of Tens
cmitch wins side pot #2 (2,410) with a full house, Nines full of Tens
beanmo shows three of a kind, Nines
cmitch wins side pot #1 (1,200) with a full house, Nines full of Tens
PokerToronto shows three of a kind, Nines
cmitch wins the main pot (460) with a full house, Nines full of Tens
PokerToronto stands up
beanmo stands up
wpm65 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,070 Main pot 460. Side pot 1 1,200. Side pot 2 2,410. | Rake 0
Board: [9s 9h 6s Th 9c]
Seat 1: beanmo (big blind) showed [3d 5c] and lost with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 2: PokerToronto showed [Kc 8d] and lost with three of a kind, Nines
Seat 6: bballbilly77 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: cmitch (button) showed [Qs Td] and won (4,070) with a full house, Nines full of Tens
Seat 8: wpm65 (small blind) showed [Ad Qd] and lost with three of a kind, Nines

I think that the math would probably dictate a call, but am not 100% sure. I guess I felt like the possibility of being in position to win the sng heads up out weighed having 3k vs 4k chips with 250/500 blind levels.

I went on to win heads up a few hands later.

----------------

BTW - go congratulate Hoy for his 3rd place finish in the FTP 50/50. Awesome job!!! Now is a great time for him to be getting back into his groove with the WSOP sats right around the corner.

I am not sure of the correct play in this situation. Hopefully, some of the better SNG players can give me some advice on the right play since I don't play many SNGs.

$110+$9 turbo SNG
Blinds 200/400 (go to 250/500 in less than 1 minute)
5 handed - 2 ultra short

Seat 1: beanmo (515)
Seat 2: PokerToronto (115)
Seat 6: bballbilly77 (6,460)
Seat 7: cmitch (4,690)
Seat 8: wpm65 (1,720)

wpm65 posts the small blind of 200
beanmo posts the big blind of 400
The button is in seat #7

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to cmitch [Qs Td]
PokerToronto calls 115, and is all in - obviously no choice for him
bballbilly77 folds - big stack
cmitch calls 400 - I call to hope to knock out both shorties
wpm65 raises to 1,720, and is all in - not sure why he didn't just call
beanmo calls 115, and is all in - obviously no choice for him

cmitch ?????

It is 1,320 to call. If I call and lose then I am sitting at 2,970. If I call and win, I am heads up about even in chips. If I fold, I am left with 4,290. If I call there is a very good chance both ultra-short stacks go out and we are itm.

I'm sure someone can tell me the mathematically correct play here keeping in mind the short stacks, the blinds about to go up, and the crazy aspect of the end game of a turbo sng.

Gnome had a great idea in setting up a Blogger Deep Stack Cash game. I wasn't sure how much of a turnout he would get for a 4/8nl cash game with a min/max buy-in of $800/$1,600. I wasn't even sure if I was going to play because I am trying to only play within my current online bankroll. I try to play with a min of 20 buy-ins even if it is just a one time game. That would mean a minimum of $32k ($1,600 x 20) to play the game somewhat comfortably. Eventually Fuel talked me into to playing. I decided to only buy-in for $1k, not reload, and leave if I lost my original $1k. Obviously that is a poor way to approach a game, but oh well.

The turnout was better than I expected:
weak_player - not sure if I have the right link since the blog was last updated 1 year ago.
smizmiatch - The host
RecessRampage - I figured he had the biggest advantage since he has probably logged more full ring hands than most.
Fuel55 - Dead Money :)
Bone_Daddy84 - Didn't know much about his cash game play before this game.
RakeFeeder - same as bone daddy - wasn't sure about his cash game style.
Waffles - Weeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! Helped liven up the game and played fairly well, but probably a few too many hands for a full ring game.
thepokergrind - Same as Bone Daddy and Rake Feeder
Me - calling station

I went into the game with the idea of not playing any big pots unless I had a monster. I planned to pick up the small pots that looked to be easy picking, play big pots with big hands, and take some pots away from anyone that got a little too aggressive. Nothing earth shattering there.

I only had a couple of interesting hands.

Hand 1 - The first hand of any interest happened in the first few orbits. I called (in position) gnome's preflop raise with 67s. Everyone else folded. Flop came Ah5h10d. He led out for $50. The bet seemed a little weak to me for some reason. Maybe he had bet bigger on previous flops. I'm not sure. So, I decided to try to take down the pot right there. I raised to $152 figuring that he couldn't continue without an Ace. He re-raised me. (I guess I shouldn't have told him before we started that I wasn't reloading if I lost my stack.) I folded and he showed 66. Nice play and the best hand!!!

Hand 2 - I was dealt 1010 in the SB and decided to disguise my hand my flat calling thepokergrind's late position pf raise. Flop was pretty good for my hand - 9s8s9h. He made a small bet and I flat called with the intention of check raising a good turn. Another good card came for my hand - 7d. I checked planning to c/r and he bet pot. I figured the pot size bet for either a bluff/semi-bluff or a monster. If I c/r the turn, he is probably folding most hands I beat and shoving hands that are beating me or shoving a big draw (straight and flush draw). I decided that the best risk/reward was to just call and see what the river brings. I couldn't be worried about letting him catch up. The river was perfect - 9d (put trips on the board). If he had an overpair or a 9 then so be it. It may look weak, but I felt like checking was the most +EV play. It gives him the opportunity to bet if he missed his draw. He bet pot and I called - again no reason to raise because only a better hand would be calling my raise. He had QJo and I won a decent sized pot.

Hand 3 against Waffles - The table had been pretty tight and I think that I had a tight image at the time, so I raised from the CO with 78o. Waffles called. Flop came 77K. He donk bet into me. I flat called. Turn was 10h. He led into me again for a little less than pot. I flat called again. I think this is where I made a big mistake. I should have re-raised him and he might have shoved a hand like AK, KQ, or flat called with a weaker King. I felt like he might make another pot sized bet on the river. The river had to be a scare card for his hand - Qh. He checked and I made a bet small enough that I thought he might call. He thought and folded. I'm not sure what he had, but I would guess Kx or something like 88 or 99.

Hand 4 - Not much to say other than I could have lost a lot more here. Opponent was one of the non-bloggers at the table.

I finished up around $400 from a high point of about $700. Weak Player was the big winner thanks to getting all in with a set over set and flopping a set of 2s against AA. Fuel played great but ran into some horrible situations like flush vs flush.

Here is the win/loss of the players in the game (including the non-bloggers at the table):

























I had a great time playing and I'm looking forward to the next time gnome gets one of these going.

About a month ago I put up a post with the events that I want to play. I have played three or four sats and have qualified for one of the tourneys so far - FTOPS #1. I'm going to try to play a few more sats over the next week and hopefully qualify for some more events.

Below are the events that I hope to play:

FTOPS #1 $216 NL Holdem - Qualified last night in the $55 super sat. I'm exhausted today because my son is sick and was coughing a lot last night. I guess I'll have to get the caffeine ready.

FTOPS #9 $322 NL Holdem (Sunday) - I've tried to qualify for this one twice without any luck.

FTOPS #10 $1,060 NL Holdem 6 Max (Monday) - I may play one or two of the turbo $163 sats. I'm not 100% sure that I want to play this one since I am usually exhausted on Monday nights.

FTOPS #18 $2,620 NL Holdem 2 day event (next Sat-Sun) - I haven't really seen any sats to this one other than the turbo on the start day. Anyone know if they are planning on having any sats to this one? I would like to play, but I'm not sure a $500 turbo sat is the best use of funds.

FTOPS #20 $535 Main Event - Will probably wait until next week to play sats for this one.

If I get the urge, I may play a few other events but it is tough to play any during the week because the finish so late/early depending on how you look at it.

---------
I played the first round match of the HUC6 and pretty much got worked over by ck31. I lost two straight turbos to her mainly due to my over aggressive poor play.

I'll be rooting for her to beat up on Fuel in the next round.

I worked a lot in January and had to deal with a ton of work related stress (not going into the work stress details on the blog). As a result, I didn't get in as many hands as I wanted to. There were times that I didn't play as well as I should. There were quite a few bad beats and coolers, but I also sucked out a few times. I had nights were I felt like rant posting and putting up all the set over set hands, especially when it happened on two tables within five minutes. I didn't post them and won't because I am trying to steer clear of bad beat/coolers posts. No one wants to read them.

I think I can sum up Jan. in three words....

Break even sucks!!!

I had some big swings and never really could get things going. I am trying to do a better job of table selection and I think I did well in that area. It definitely played a part in the swings though because I getting all in a lot more often against some weak players and you can only win so many 65/35 or even 80/20 situations.

Overall Results
Target Hands for year = 275,000
Hands Played in Jan = 14,105 (7k short of avg monthly target)
Target ptbb/100 = 5.0
200nl ptbb/100 = 4.92
400nl ptbb/100 = -4.82 (small sample though - 4k hands)
Overall Win/Loss = $468 (obviously disappointed)

My plan for Feb is to play only 200nl until I get at least 15k hands of 200nl. I'll re-evaluate after that.

200nl - I focused on playing less tables towards the end of the month and it really paid off.

400nl - Lots of swings. The big spike down at the end was the two set of sets within a few minutes of each other plus a few other hands.

Since my Nano is on it's last legs, I ordered the IPod Touch (16 GB) from the Full Tilt Poker store on December 1st and it looks like it will finally arrive tomorrow. FTP said 6-8 weeks when I shelled out 89,000 points to order it. I decided to email them early last week when I hadn't heard anything and got the following response:

"Hello xxx,

Thank you for your email. Our records indicate that the home docking
station was temporarily on backorder. We have received a new shipment,
however, and your full order will be shipped soon.

We apologize for the delay"

I love FTP but it seems like their store is a little overwhelmed. I have read several threads on 2+2 with people complaining about how long items take to receive. I think the whole thing could probably be resolved by FTP if they kept their customers informed of what was happening during each step of the ordering process. Whenever I see complaints about FTP's store most have them have email replies from FTP stating XYZ was/is "on backorder." I'm not sure if this is their standard reply or they are having more orders come in than they can process in a timely manner.

Hopefully, it is just growing pains from adding a ton of new items to the store over the last 6 months. My next order will probably be the 42" Plasma and I hope it doesn't take 2 months to ship. It will be a while before I order it though since I only have 225k FTP points right now and it is around 300k FTPs.

Unlocking the IPod Touch?
Anyone unlock (jailbreak) the Ipod Touch? Is it worth doing? I have heard the new Ipod Touch OS allows editing. Does it allow 3rd party software to be installed?

Rubbarose had a huge score over the weekend when he took down the 1 AM EST $17k guarantee on FTP for $5.5k. He had a series of huge cashes back in June/July. It looks like he is cranking things back up in full force just in time for the FTOPS.

Go congratulate him - maybe it will inspire him to start blogging again.

Congrats!!!

I meant to post this sooner but have been swamped at work.

Thanks for everyone's comments on the last post. RecessRampage got so fired up about the hand that he even posted a detailed analysis on his blog.

I specifically posted the hand for thoughts on the best play on the river, but got a lot of comments about my bet sizes preflop, flop, and turn.

A breakdown my street

PREFLOP
Full Tilt Poker Game $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em
Seat 1: danishdude ($162.40)
Seat 2: IRunSoGood ($1,030.50) - roughly 250 BB deep effective stacks
Seat 3: eb226 ($400)
Seat 4: ConstantColorUp ($853.10)
Seat 5: cmitch ($1,347.40)
Seat 6: SkyzZik ($783)
cmitch posts the small blind of $2
SkyzZik posts the big blind of $4
5 seconds left to act
The button is in seat #4

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to cmitch [Ac Ah] - Obviously nice to get, especially since I had been 3 betting from the blinds quite a bit (mainly due to actually getting good hands in the blinds)
danishdude folds
IRunSoGood raises to $14 - Standard opening range
ConstantColorUp folds
cmitch raises to $46 -I probably should have raised more here given that we are so deep.
SkyzZik folds
IRunSoGood calls $32

I posted the hand in the cardrunner forums and Brian Townsend posted a very good response.

His thoughts preflop:
"I would reraise to at least 60 preflop with these deep stacks and with you being out of position."

FLOP
*** FLOP *** [5c 4c Jc]
cmitch bets $65
IRunSoGood calls $65

I got some comments about betting bigger on the flop but I had my reasons for the bet size.

I wouldn't normally bet this small with this strong of a hand on a flop like that, but the villain had been re-raising my continuation bets quite a bit. I felt like the small bet might induce him to re-raise me and allow me to put in a 3rd bet.

The smooth call could almost mean anything here. KcKx, QcQx, AJs, flopped flush, set, etc, etc. I really think that he would raise a set here though to see where he stands.


TURN
*** TURN *** [5c 4c Jc] [9h] - Pot Size ($226)
cmitch bets $125
IRunSoGood calls $125

This is where I butchered the hand. I should have bet something along the lines of $180-$200 given our stack sizes. I don't agree at all with check/calling here as Alan (RR) suggested. It seems weak in this spot and a good player that had a strong enough hand to continue this far is going to be betting almost every time.

I got a few other comments about the turn, but most of them were pretty much along the lines of "You should have bet more on the turn."

Brian Townsend's had an interesting thought on the turn bet:
"and as you mentioned the turn bet should be larger. This is also a nice spot to check raise the turn. If you had bet closer to pot on the flop the stack sizes would have worked better for a turn check raise. "

RIVER
*** RIVER *** [5c 4c Jc 9h] [Js]
cmitch bets $225
IRunSoGood raises to $794.50, and is all in - Insta-shove
cmitch has 15 seconds left to act
cmitch has requested TIME - I'm obviously folding but hated to do it.
Uncalled bet of $569.50 returned to IRunSoGood
IRunSoGood mucks
IRunSoGood wins the pot ($923)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $926 | Rake $3
Board: [5c 4c Jc 9h Js]
Seat 1: danishdude didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: IRunSoGood collected ($923), mucked
Seat 3: eb226 is sitting out
Seat 4: ConstantColorUp (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: cmitch (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 6: SkyzZik (big blind) folded before the Flop

Even though I played the hand poorly on the flop and turn, I feel like I made the right decision on the river.

There were several people that said I should check/call the river, but I don't like that line as I said in a comment on Alan's post:

Alan's comment - "I check and decide depending on what the villain does. If the villain bets half the pot, I would be compelled to call. Could it be a value bet? Sure. But again, it's really hard to put him on a J here and if that's what he has, I'll pay half the pot."

My response - "Wouldn't it be better to just fire out a half the pot size bet if you are planning to call a half pot size bet? This way you are deciding how much to put in on the river. He can't raise with a worse hand, so if he raises you are pretty much beat. He probably isn't checking a better hand behind either. "

I think most people were thinking along the same lines as me between the comments, the CR forum and a 2+2 post. I had comments of betting anywhere between $175-$325 on the river and folding to a shove.

Based on the insta-shove, I think that the guy probably flopped a set or possibly flopped a flush.

I appreciate everyone's comments. It really helped me analyze the hand and hopefully I can play it differently when I am the same spot again.

AA oop with the nut flush draw. I made a smallish bet on the flop hoping for a raise. I definitely should have bet more on the turn. (Basically, I played it poorly, especially because I was oop.)

What do you do on the river? What is your plan if he shoves?

400NL - Villain is 19/17 over a small sample

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: danishdude ($162.40)
Seat 2: IRunSoGood ($1,030.50)
Seat 3: eb226 ($400) Sitting Out
Seat 4: ConstantColorUp ($853.10) -
Seat 5: cmitch ($1,347.40) -
Seat 6: SkyzZik ($783) -


PRE-FLOP:

cmitch posts small blind $2
SkyzZik posts BIG blind $4
Dealt To: cmitch


FOLD danishdude
RAISE IRunSoGood ($14)
FOLD ConstantColorUp
RAISE cmitch ($46)
FOLD SkyzZik
CALL IRunSoGood ($32)


FLOP:

Pot: $96


BET cmitch ($65)
CALL IRunSoGood ($65)


TURN:

Pot: $226


BET cmitch ($125) - Yes, I probably should have bet more here.
CALL IRunSoGood ($125)


RIVER:

Pot: $476


Action?????