Archive for December, 2008

Micro Saturdays

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Tournament | 2 Comments

Submitted by Kochan, this article is a part of the Poker Tournament series.

So after barely playing since Monday I thought I would put in a solid MTT session on Saturday. Saturday’s really suck for online MTT’s because there are no special tournaments and the field sizes are at their smallest. So to combat boredom I thought I would just load up alot of tables including small buy in tournies I normally wouldn’t play.

Overall for the day I took a 2nd in the stars $27.50 and 2nd in the tilt 50/1/1 for 9k combined so can’t complain. Made a fair few tight laydowns preflop throughout the day but the most interesting hand I played was this one:

Full Tilt Poker Game #9463677032: $22,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) (71390749), Table 28 – 60/120 – No Limit Hold’em – 21:59:34 ET – 2008/12/12Seat 1: catchchase (5,515)

Seat 2: jocourier (16,327)

Seat 3: BADMAN STJ (5,655)

Seat 4: bdybldngpkrplyr (15,820)

Seat 5: QLA123 (7,410)

Seat 6: hattrick7339 (9,445)

Seat 7: AmazingMiss (8,820)

Seat 8: Kochan (6,530)

Seat 9: TreyGarcia (9,140)

hattrick7339 posts the small blind of 60

AmazingMiss posts the big blind of 120

The button is in seat #5

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to Kochan [As Kd]

Kochan raises to 360

TreyGarcia folds

catchchase folds

jocourier folds

BADMAN STJ folds

bdybldngpkrplyr folds

QLA123 calls 360

hattrick7339 folds

AmazingMiss folds

*** FLOP *** [Qh Kc 8h]

Kochan bets 600

QLA123 calls 600

*** TURN *** [Qh Kc 8h] [Ts]

Kochan checks

QLA123 bets 2,100

Kochan folds
Uncalled bet of 2,100 returned to QLA123

QLA123 mucks

QLA123 wins the pot (2,100)

This isn’t really the standard line I would take for this hand but I got thrown off by his pot sized bet on the turn. I figured that if he had a hand like KJ QJ J10 that would be a strange sort of bet and I would expect him to take a free card with those sort of hands on that board. Basically I thought his most realistic hand here is Q10/K10 which I think he shows up a much higher % of the time than anything else.

I played today as well because I woke up unexpectedly at 8am and there’s nothing better to do at that time of the morning. I wasn’t feeling particularly well so ended up donking out of the majority of tourneys and stopped adding at 930. I semi salvaged with a cash in the tilt 216 heads up tourney.

Gearing up for Monday bloody Monday!

Kochan

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Do Poker Dealers Make Good Poker Players?

Monday, December 15th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Pro | 2 Comments

Submitted by Markus, this article belongs to the Poker Pro series

I have always wondered why most poker dealers are poor poker players. Nothing seems to make a game better than a dealer who just finished working and then hops into the game. I don’t know if it is because they are tired from work but they always seem to play poorly and immediately start to gamble it up. You would think that a dealer would become a better player simply by watching all that poker while working. They certainly should become better at reading hands from seeing a couple hundred hands a day. Dealers could also imitate things that the winning players do and incorporate it into there own games.

So why do most dealers play poorly? Maybe they see 2 3 off-suit crack aces for a big pot and they figure they can do it too. If approximately 90 percent of poker players are losing players, then your average poker dealer is watching primarily poor play and then do it themselves. It seems that most dealers know how to play good poker but choose not too most of the time. They seem to want to blow off steam and “gamble with the boys” instead of playing good, fundamentally sound poker. Maybe that’s the reason they are dealing in the first place; because they couldn’t make it playing and are now trying to rebuild their bankroll by dealing.

On the other hand, there is a long list of successful professional poker players that started out dealing poker. Mike Matusow, Johnny Chan, Scott Fischman, Ted Forrest, and Scotty Nguyen top the list of dealers that have had success on the other side of the table. Most of them attribute their good card reading sense to the countless hours they spent in the box dealing cards. I think anyone who spends 40 hours a week watching poker should quickly become an expert at reading hands. A dealer should certainly be aware of the pitfalls of playing professional poker such as playing out of your bankroll, gambling in the pit, and going on tilt. They see it ruin poker players every day!

I think that any poker dealer who wants to become a good poker player certainly has the opportunity to become one. It comes down to deciding to play your best poker game all the time and having the discipline to play good solid poker. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more dealers make it “big” and reach professional status as a result of the poker boom. There are certainly more people dealing poker at casinos around the country than ever before and just on strictly a numbers basis, some of them will climb to the top of the poker ladder.

Perhaps they should start by practicing at the online poker sites.

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Poker Bankroll blog is do follow

Sunday, December 14th, 2008 | Poker News | 10 Comments

Poker Bankroll blog is now “do follow” also for comments.

Traditionally comments made on blogs are “no follow”. This means that search engines do NOT follow links in comments to other web sites. Webmasters chose the “no follow” option in comments to reduce the number of outgoing links to other web sites (also known as “link bleed”) which leads to better Google page rank.

We at Poker Bankroll Blog want to build an active community around our poker article database and therefore welcome quality comments to our articles. To give something back to people making quality comments on our blog we have chosen to join the growing group of  ”do follow” blogs. This means that if you make a quality comment to one of our articles you get a backlink to your web site and some link juice from Google.

Please be advised that only quality comments that are related to the topic presented in the article will be accepted.

Important: The Poker Bankroll Blog is no longer do follow due to the negative effect this has on Google Page Rank

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Why the cards matter least – Poker Strategy Part 4

Saturday, December 13th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy | 2 Comments

Submitted by McTap, this article is a part of the Poker Strategy series.

In this article I will discuss what poker table image is and how to play accordingly. If you have not read the previous articles in this series, check out Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 at your convenience.

When it comes to table image, betting patterns and hands played dictate exactly how a person is portrayed at the table. Through everybody’s image on the table you can better understand the action that has happened, and what is to follow at the table.

Here are several types to describe your opponents.

Tight Player
If a player has not played many hands over a long period of time, that player will have what is considered a tight table image. This type of player only plays the monster hands. If you have PokerTracker (PT3) or Hold’em Manager (HM) running, this player will have a VP$IP (Voluntarily Puts $ In Pot) of less than 20. A player with a VP$IP of less than 20 means they only play about 20% of the hands they see. Keep in mind that you need at data set of at least 1000 of your hands before you should take these numbers at face value. Anything less does not represent a good enough data set to be confident in the number. That doesn’t mean you ignore the numbers, just be aware that the numbers could be a little skewed.

Tight Aggressive Player (TAG)
If your opponent is considered a tight player and decides to raise the hand he/she is playing, then he/she would be considered to have a tight aggressive table image. This type of player is very common, as many people feel that this is the way to play in order to be successful. TAG’s usually have VP$IP and PFR (Pre Flop Raise) numbers (using PT3 or HM) very close together, as this shows that they always raise the strong hands they decide to play. This is an excellent strategy for playing Sit ‘N’ Go’s (SNG), or Single Table Tournaments (STT), but usually falls short when playing Multi table tournaments (MTT) as you are relying too much on your cards to chip up.

Tight Passive (TP)
If your opponent is considered a tight player but only limps, or calls PFR, into the very limited pots they play, then he would be considered to have a tight passive table image. In my opinion, this is a new player who is scared to play big pots, so by not raising or re-raise with their strong hands, they limit the size of the pot and the amount they could lose. They would rather see the flop fairly cheap before making a decision for more of their chips. Unless this player is holding AA or KK, they can be pushed out of pots with PFR or strong bets on the flop with a non scary board (no face card). On the other hand, if you feel that your opponents play very loose and aggressive, then playing tight passive is an excellent way to trap them with your monster hand. I wouldn’t recommend playing this way too often, as you allow too many players into the pot cheaply, against your strong hand, where they could easily out flop you.

In order to maximize your profits against the above tight players, playing in a loose style will allow you to do this, as long as you remember that a raise from a tight player usually indicates strength, requiring your starting hand to be strong(er).

Loose Player
The more hands an opponent plays, the more he is considered to have a loose table image. This translates to a much higher VP$IP than a tight player. As everybody knows, premium hands do not come around that often, so if a player has a VP$IP of 20/30/40 or higher, then they are getting to the point where they are playing just about any 2 cards, without really considering their position or their opponents. Most loose players are just trying to hit the flop hard (2pr, straight, flush, etc.) and then try to trap their opponents with their made hands, or if they miss, but the flop is uncordinated (no face, no connected or no suited cards), then they again will try to steal the pot against tight players. Most loose players have no problems with folding weak hands after the flop. The problem is putting them on a range a hands that the flop did not hit, so that you may bet/raise on the flop to get them to fold.

Loose Aggressive Player (LAG)
Now if your opponent is playing plenty of hands and raises many of these hands, then he is probably using the fact that their opponents are tight and playing aggressive against them so they can win the pot without getting to the showdown, or flop for that matter. When it comes to their VP$IP and PFR numbers, you will find LAG’s having high numbers that are close together. The best way to play against this player is to wait for a strong hand and play back at them with raises and re-raises.

Loose Passive (LP)
This is probably the toughest opponent to play against, as their hand range runs pretty wide. The problem with a LP player, you really don’t know if they are a fish or a skilled player trying to outplay their opponents on the flop/turn/river. Because LP’s play many hands, you will find it very hard to know if the flop/turn/river has hit your opponents hand. The best way to play against this type of player is to always raise your hands pre-flop, making it expensive for the LP player to see a cheap flop.

In order to maximize your profits against the above loose players, playing in a tight style will allow you to do this, where your starting hands will be stronger than the average hand played by the loose player. Be very careful with trap plays against loose players, as their range could be very wide allowing the flop to hit them strong in many ways.

Hand Ranges
Now that we have a better understanding of the types of opponents you have, you need to be able to place your opponents on a hand range according to their table image.

Here’s a pretty good breakdown taken from PokerShark
Group 1 Hands: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AKs. There are 28 ways to make these 5 hands, 2.11% of the possible hands.
Group 2 Hands: TT, AQs, AJs, KQs, and AK. There are 30 ways to make these 5 hands, 2.26% of the possible hands.
Group 3 Hands: 99, JTs, QJs, KJs, ATs, and AQ. There are 34 ways to make these 6 hands, 2.56% of the possible hands.
Group 4 Hands: T9s, KQ, 88, QTs, 98s, J9s, AJ, and KTs. There are 50 ways to make these 8 hands, 3.77% of the possible hands.
Group 5 Hands: 77, 87s, Q9s, T8s, KJ, QJ, JT, 76s, 97s, Axs, and 65s. There are 98 ways to make these 18 hands, 7.39% of the possible hands.
Group 6 Hands: 66, AT, 55, 86s, KT, QT, 54s, K9s, J8s, and 75s. There are 68 ways to make these 10 hands, 5.13% of the possible hands.
Group 7 Hands: 44, J9, 64s, T9, 53s, 33, 98, 43s, 22, Kxs, T7s, and Q8s. There are 106 ways to make these 20 hands, 7.99% of the possible hands.
Group 8 Hands: 87, A9, Q9, 76, 42s, 32s, 96s, 85s, J8, J7s, 65, 54, 74s, K9, and T8. There are 132 ways to make these 15 hands, 9.95% of possible hands.

Here’s an updated table that includes variance increase of 3.5% for 10 player tables, and 6% for 6 player tables (again taken from PokerShark). Keep in mind that the numbers are not exact as they do tend to overlap. For a better understanding of ranges, I would suggest reading Sklansky’s book titled “Hold’em Poker for Advanced Players.”

A Player Plays Hands Up to

Full Ring VP$IP

6-max VP$IP

Classification

Group 1

4.11-7.11%

8.11-12.11%

Very Tight

Group 2

6.37-9.37%

10.37%-14.37%

Very Tight

Group 3

8.93-11.93%

12.93-16.93%

Tight

Group 4

12.7-15.7%

16.7-20.7%

Tight

Group 5

20.09-23.09%

24.09-28.09%

Tight/Semi-Loose

Group 6

25.22-28.22%

29.22-33.22%

Semi-Loose

Group 7

33.21-36.21%

37.21-41.21%

Semi-Loose/Loose

Group 8

43.16-46.16%

47.16-51.16%

Loose

Any Two Suited or Worse

>47%

>55%

Extra Loose

Now with a better knowledge of table images and hand ranges, your decisions process should improve. Here’s what I mean, A-Q is a much stronger hand against a loose player than against a tight player. The reason for this is the loose player has been entering many hands and probably does not have a hand as strong as yours, while the tight player needs a premium hand to enter the pot. As a result, raising the loose player is a smart play, while folding might be the right play against a tight player.

Another thing to remember is what your opponents consider your table image to be. Keep in mind that what you think you are playing as might not be perceived in the same way as what your opponent think you are playing as. For example, you’ve played tight for the 1st 15 hands of the game and all of a sudden you go on a run of 4-5 hands that you raise because they were very strong. You might think you are playing like a TAG player, as you only played/raised strong hands, but your opponents have just seen you raise 4-5 hands in a row and now consider you to be LAG. This is especially true for opponents that you have not seen too often (very small data set on them), as they have not see you either, so they have limited data on you.

So while you play, keep in mind how you may be perceived at the table (by the number of hands you have played and how you have played them) and try to play the opposite of your table image, so that you can keep your opponents of guard. If your opponent views you as never being able to bluff, it will be easier to make a play that will bluff him out of a hand, and if your opponent views you as a maniac, you will be much more likely to be called or even raised that could help your big hands get paid.

If you can place your opponents into a specific table image style, you can play the opposite style against them, no matter what cards you have.

Good luck at the tables.

McTap03

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Randy Couture Joins Full Tilt Poker

Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | Poker News | No Comments

Written by Markus, this article belongs to the Poker News series

Ask any serious poker player out there and they would likely agree with the statement that a poker table is a battleground in which players are doing battle with one another to take away each other’s chips and break their spirit in the process. Never has this comparison been more evident before this week with the announcement that Full Tilt Poker has signed up UFC champ Randy Couture to be part of team FullTilt.

In the ring, Couture is well-known for his aggressive style and uncanny ability to knock his opponents into submission. Full Tilt is expecting him to bring those very qualities to the poker tables. Couture has built up an impressive resume in the ring by being a 5-time champion in two different weight classes, showing his versatility.

The signing of Couture was mulling around the rumor mill for about a week after he arrived for a highly publicized bout against WWE wrestler Brock Lesnar decked out in FullTilt poker logos. Though he ultimately lost the bout, he fully expects better results at the poker table. So now is your chance to prove your wares in taking on a champ. Just don’t ask him if he’d like to step outside…

Download and Play at Full Tilt Poker

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Phil Ivey Dominating Full Tilt

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Pro | 2 Comments

Submitted by Markus, this article belongs to the Poker Pro series

According to online poker trackers, Phil Ivey has been dominating the online poker scene at Full Tilt Poker, earning over $9 million in profits since January 2007. The impressive accomplishment in itself is pretty mind-boggling and captures the imagination of aspiring online poker players anywhere. Perhaps the most impressive fact of Ivey’s achievement is that he has done this across all forms of poker, not just one particular game. Unlike other top players who are consistently crushing one or two poker forms, Ivey destroys all comers in all games. His remarkable run is inclusive of HORSE, Stud and Omaha games as well as Texas Hold’em. This adds credence to the belief that Ivey is the top player in the world.

Among his most impressive stats are:

- Over $1.99 million dollars in profits in the high-stakes HORSE games over just 25,980 tracked hands ranking him #1 overall.

- Over $2.3 million dollars in profits in No Limit Hold Em over 41,176 hands ranking him 3rd

- Over $1.4 million dollars in profits in Pot Limit Omaha games over 47,953 tracked hands placing him in the top 15 overall.

- Over $3.1 million dollars in profits playing Omaha Hi/Lo over 20,115 tracked hands ranking him 2nd behind Gus Hansen.

It should be noted that for the Omaha/Hi Lo and HORSE figures only began keeping track within the past six months which makes it highly likely that Ivey’s win totals are much, much higher than those reported and makes it possible that he could in fact be in the top 5 of all 4 categories. This line of thinking lead most observers to believe his profits are well over $10 million.

Ivey’s accomplishment is pretty phenomenal if you consider just how difficult it would be to make over a million dollars in any single game, and he has done this in four different forms

To fully appreciate Ivey’s superiority, it is worth mentioning that his $9 million in profits more than doubles what the 2nd place player has made over the same time period. Di “Urindanger” Dang has banked just over $4.34 million dollars and they are followed by David Benyamine ($4.089 million), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond ($3.979 million) and Tom “durrrr” Dwan ($3.642 million). If you have made this list, you are obviously at the top but mathematically speaking, Ivey has been twice as successful as anyone else.

The last piece of evidence illustrating Ivey’s superiority is the fact that overall, he has played in about half as many hands as anyone else on the list. So, in essence, Ivey puts in half the time and makes twice as much as anyone else. In addition, Ivey’s live tournament cashes are at $10 million and rising. It will be most compelling to poker fans to see if Ivey is able to continue his dominance.

Source: Poker King

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Heads-up poker strategy; an easy to follow introduction

Monday, December 8th, 2008 | Poker Articles, Poker Strategy, Poker Tournament | 1 Comment

Submitted by Q, this article is a part of the Poker Tournament series.

Playing heads-up poker

What is the beauty and power of attraction of poker? Personally I think it is its many facets. In contradiction to other sports or games, every situation is unique and asks another approach. One of the most important factors which influence a specific situation is the amount of people that is involved in a hand. That’s why it’s informative to play some heads-up games for a change.

Till a few weeks ago, I only knew heads-up poker from final tables in single and multi table tournaments. But then I decided to give the specific heads-up  games on Full Tilt Poker a try, after being convinced by some friends that it’s very profitable. Up until that moment I had avoided those games because I thought it was mainly a matter of luck: a game where people shove with any two cards and subsequently see who has the best hand.

I was certainly wrong on that point. First, heads-up poker isn’t just gambling, it’s a very important discipline in poker, which could deliver you a lot of extra profit in the big multi-table tournaments when you control it well, because of the often big gap in prize money between first and second place. Second, why would you bother when OTHER PEOPLE perceive the game as gambling? Instead, this can deliver you a LOT of very easy money. For examples of specific heads up plays, check out my blog.

Important to know before you start playing heads-up games, is the fact that you should play sit ‘n go tournaments instead of a cash game. Reason is the fact that you’ll see a lot of money disappear during a heads up cash game due to the rake. Once you’ve started playing, you’ll notice that you stay very concentrated during the game. This is easy to explain: you’re involved in every hand, which is a big difference compared to multihanded tournaments and especially cash games, where it can be extremely boring to wait on a decent hand to play.

Concerning strategy there are two important aspects to keep in mind: position and stack size. Fifty percent of the times you have the button in heads up games and you should use it! It guarantees you position on the flop, one very good reason to play aggressively preflop. Same things apply for stack size: once you’ve got your opponent covered with a decent amount of chips, you should put some serious pressure on him. One last important issue: you should play the first couple of hands with prudence, so you can figure out what kind of opponent you’re up against. This will prevent you for example from making moves against a loose cannon who calls anyway.

If you keep these remarks in mind, you should be able to make some nice profit on heads up games, unless…you start steaming. Because you play so many hands, you’ll be confronted with a lot of bad beats and frustrating situations during heads up games. Going on a tilt after such situations is twice as bad in  heads up games as in regular games: because of the velocity of the game, you can loose a lot more money in a shorter time period!

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Caribbean Poker Classic 2008; final table action in the 400$ +40$ buyin tournament

Sunday, December 7th, 2008 | Caribbean Poker Classic 2008 | 7 Comments

This article is a part of the Caribbean Poker Classic 2008 series. Follow the link to read more about how I got to go on the trip in the first place.

While waiting to participate in the final table of the 400$ tourney, the boat made it’s first stop on the route in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We really wanted to check out the El Yunque rain forest some 50 clicks from San Juan. Unfortunately the boat arrived in San Juan at 3pm and the sun set at 5pm so there wasn’t really time. I’m still amazed that it was possible to buy a horseback tour of the rain forest including one hour of swimming through the ship’s Excursion Centre. Perhaps artificial sun light was included in the price?

We instead opted for a tourist tour of the Condado beach area close to San Juan and the old town San Juan itself. For 20$ a head, the tour was reasonably priced, but pretty lame. However this could have had just as much to do with us being completely nackered from the previous night of poker (we actually slept through the first half of the tour). When we finally reached old town San Juan we ditched the bus and wondered around the narrow streets with my trusted Lonely Planet in close proximity for hands-on tourist support. Actually we should have just stated out hanging out in the old town San Juan area….it was pretty cool.

San Cristobal fort seen from the ship

Artur with Condado beach in the background 

Colonial houses at night, old town San Juan

Ahh Starbucks

Now for a recollection of the final table action. I came a bit early to note down the starting stacks of all my opponents:

  • Position 1: 38100 chips. The solid Danish (of course:-)) player capable of making moves who was sitting at the first table I played on in the tournament
  • Position 2: 71500 chips. Really lucky Swedish player who stayed alive in the tournament through two river 2-outers within 15 minutes
  • Position 3: 53000 chips. Danish player, so probably solid
  • Position 4: 52200 chips.
  • Position 5: 24800 chips.Amatay, nice English player…..check out his blog in our blogroll section
  • Position 6: 23000 chips. Lucky Finnish player but capable of making moves
  • Position 7: 38600 chips. Me, solid Danish player capable of making insanely complicated moves…should be playing on the pro tour
  • Position 8: 61500 chips. English woman playing ABC poker and having the run of her life
  • Position 9: 26400 chips.

Blinds were 1000/2000 and antes 200 giving me an M of roughly 8.

During the first hour or so I took down a few pots uncontested with preflop raises and then lost the blinds I had won after a preflop raise in late position with KJ suited. The Dane in position 1 reraised me all in, and I had to fold. For the rest of the trip I was not overly fond of this guy. A bit later I was dealt AJ in middle position and the Finnish player in position 6 went all in for about 20000 chips. Fairly confident I was ahead of most of his handrange I opted to call to signal strength - hoping for the players behind me to fold - and decided to re-evaluate the situation if someone behind went all in. Player 3 thought for a long time and eventually folded AQ, or so he said. The Finnish player showed J10 and I was 70% favorite to win the hand and increase my stack to 60000 chips. Unfortunately the Finne caught a 10 on the flop, and with no ace to me I was left shortstacked with roughly 20000 chips. I am in doubt whether I would have called a reraise from player 3 in the given situation. What do you guys think?

About 15 minutes later the blinds were 2000/4000 and antes 400. I look down at 98 suited in small blind position with 15000 chips behind me and decide to push no matter what. The Dane in position 1 makes it 9200, I push, he calls and shows KQ. The flop is KQ8 which leaves me as a huge underdog. No help on the turn and river, and I finish the tournament in 7th place. The English woman in position 8 ended up beating the Dane in position 3 heads up. I don’t think he was too unhappy though; as I heard he took 500$ of his winnings onto some cash Omaha table and left a couple of hours later with 6000$!

In hindsight I am pretty happy with my game in the tournament, but still can’t believe that 10 came on the flop…..

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Caribbean Poker Classic 2008; securing a final table seat in the 400$ +40$ buyin tournament

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 | Caribbean Poker Classic 2008 | 2 Comments

This article is a part of the Caribbean Poker Classic 2008 series. Follow the link to read more about how I got to go on the trip in the first place.

I left you last time with a picture of Artur and I sitting at the same table in the 400$ tournament. Since this is were my story starts again I will include the picture once more (a good picture can never be shown to often right? :-) )

Notice the guy scratching his face to the right of Artur? We talked to him in the casino the night before the tournament and it turned out he was also from Denmark. As the conversation progressed we learned that he was in fact the same guy Artur had beaten head’s up in the online satellite to the main event of the Caribbean Poker Classic 2008. In the final hand they were all in preflop, Artur with 99 and the Danish guy with JJ. The flop was 8910 and Artur ended up winning the hand and the 2700$ entry to the main event. It seemed like the hand had left a mental scar on our Danish friend. I trust it was a great satisfaction for him to bust Artur out of the tournament…here’s how it went down:

As I recall I was in late position and looked down at 55. Artur being shortstacked pushed all in and the Danish guy also pushed all in. The action was folded to me and I decided to fold and hope for Artur to double up. In the showdown the Danish player showed AA and Artur flipped over 55!!! What are the odds of that happening? Knowing Artur was almost drawing dead I couldn’t help smiling a bit at the whole situation…revenge is sweet.

During the following hours I played 4 or 5 key hands at the new table to secure my seat at the final table:

  • I had about 10000 chips and the blinds were 300/600 with 100 antes when I picked QK clubs in middle position. I put in a raise of 2000 and got reraised 1200 by the Danish guy. I called. The flop was 857, one club. I checked and the Danish player checked behind me. At this point I began to suspect that he hadn’t hit the flop. The turn was 9 of clubs giving me a flush and a gutshot straight draw. I bet 2000 trying to make it look like a value bet, and at the same time deciding to push all in if I was reraised. The Danish played folded after some consideration and later revealed that he was trying to put pressure on me with two high cards.
  • Raised to 1400 with 77 only to be reraised all in by a short stack player with 5000 chips left. In hindsight I probably should have folded instead of risking 1/3 of my stack, but I ended up calling and he showed QQ which held up. Back to square one.
  • In middle position with A10 (M around 5-6) I got a raise in front of me. I pushed all in (again in hindsight I probably should have folded this one and waited for a better spot, A10 is a borderline push if you are first to act, but not good enough if you have a raise in front of you) and was called by AQ. I picked up a flush on the river with my 10 and won the hand. Remember you have to be lucky two or three times in a tournament when you are behind….this was one of my lucky hands.
  • I was down to about 7500 chips with blinds 400/800 and antes 100 when I looked down at 98 unsuited. I decided to push all in and got called by AK. A 9 on the flop saved me….this was the second lucky hand.
  • I raised in late position with AK and the big blind went all in. I instant called and he showed Q10. I won the hand.
  • I called a small stack all in with Q9 suited in late position. A guy from Sweden who had me covered also called from the big blind position. The flop was Q23, and I decided to go all the way with the hand if necessary. I checked hoping for a bet from the Swede, but he checked behind me. The turn was a 9 and in my eagerness over hitting two pairs I bet 9000, which in hindsight was probably too much since the Swede folded. Perhaps I could have made him bet if I had checked the turn. He was semi-aggressive and I had seen him play some strange hands earlier. The short stack who went all in preflop showed A3, and I won the hand. The Swede commented that he had me out kicked with a better Q, so his check on the flop might have been an attempt to trap me. I an now thinking that I definitely should have checked the turn.

The Q9 hand left me with 38600 chips and shortly after we were 9 left in the tournament. The final table was to be played the following night which gave me a whole day of anticipation:-)

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Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 | Sports and Fantasy betting | No Comments

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