I'm going to answer a question that was asked by kurokitty. If anyone else has random SNG questions or just general questions I'll probably be willing to dedicate a post to it since my life is generally boring and finding a lot of topics to write about is a challenge.
Note: specific questions are good...questions like "what is your SNG strategy?" obviously are not answerable in one post
kurokitty: What are your 'roll requirements for SNGs, how many buy-ins do you need?
Well, its actually a somewhat complicated question. Its a little bit differnt for every person. For me, its very simple. I like to have 100 buyins at all times because I expect a large portion of my income to come from poker.
How many buyins YOU need to play SNGs is dependent on a few factors:
1. What is your ROI?
2. Are you willing to move down during a downswing?
3. Is your bankroll replaceable if you go busto?
The higher your ROI, the smaller your bankroll can be. If you're beating a game for a sustained 20% then you can probably get away with having 50 buyins. If you're beating a game for 5% or less you probably should keep about 200 buyins. Of course, if you're willing to move down then you can keep whatever roll you want as long as you're disciplined enough to move down when needed and not take shots outside your roll. If you can replace your roll (and you're a winning player of course) then I think it can be appropriate to take shots on occasion.
Basically, if you're looking to play recreationally, you can get away with 50 pretty easily, but if you're going to play professionally, I'd recommend at least 100 buyins. I'm beating the 44s on Absolute Poker for about a 17% ROI (that's DESTROYING the game) and I'm still keeping 100 buyins. Could I get away with less? Yeah probably, but when I went 3 for 56 a couple weeks ago I would have been basically broke if I had 50 buyins. Now, those kind of runs are basically unheard of (easily the worst run I've ever had), but if you play long enough they're going to happen. That's just variance.
Hope this is helpful for everyone.
Monday, May 21, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
What a week!
Sooooooooooooooooo...between a Cubs game (I hate the White Sox!!!), a friend's graduation, and helping a roommate moving out of the house, this has been an interesting week...haven't had much of a chance to play poker though. That's unfortunate. I've got some serious work to do if I don't want to end up $500 in debt to kurokitty which I will if I don't get to 1,000 games this month. I'm not to worried about it, but the end of the month might not be an incredibly social one for me :) I really didn't pick the best month to do this...its kind of a crazy month for me, but I'm happy that I'm forcing myself to play more. I feel like my poker tolerance is growing. 6 months ago it was pretty crazy for me to sit down and play more than 15 games in one setting without losing focus. Now sessions of 40+ games where I feel like I'm not losing focus or playing anything less than my A game are common. That makes me feel like I'm making progress. Really I guess that's the main reason I'm trying to play so much.
Anyhow, its been a pretty decent week even though today was pretty horrible. Can't really complain too much.
Today: 53 $44 sngs played, -$496
May: 500 $44 sngs played, +$2156
2007: 2184 $44 sngs played, +$16052
Anyhow, its been a pretty decent week even though today was pretty horrible. Can't really complain too much.
Today: 53 $44 sngs played, -$496
May: 500 $44 sngs played, +$2156
2007: 2184 $44 sngs played, +$16052
Monday, May 14, 2007
What's this? 2 winning days in a row?
Today: 34 $44 sngs played, +$520
May: 348 $44 sngs played, +$1912
2007: 2066 $44 sngs played, +$16052
Today was a great day.
May: 348 $44 sngs played, +$1912
2007: 2066 $44 sngs played, +$16052
Today was a great day.
Sunday, May 13, 2007
This is crazy!
I've played over 4,000 SNGs at the $44 level on Absolute Poker. Yesterday was the worst day I've ever had playing these. Today was the best day I've ever had. Back to back...that's crazy. Here are the stats:
Today: 37 $44 sngs played, +$1036
May: 348 $44 sngs played, +$1392
2007: 2032 $44 sngs played, +$15532
Today: 37 $44 sngs played, +$1036
May: 348 $44 sngs played, +$1392
2007: 2032 $44 sngs played, +$15532
Happy Mother's Day
I highly doubt my mom is reading this, but who knows...Happy Mother's Day mom...I love you.
So chapter one of the book is probably the most complex part of the book since it deals with ICM. It provides a basic explanation of ICM and also includes some reasons it is used and some very very basic application. Basically, its mostly written out, but I'm not satisfied that it will be understandable to someone who is unfamiliar with the concept. Its a work in progress. I'm going to Texas in a couple weeks and I'll have about 8 hours in the car during the trip (I'm flying in with my mom, but my cousins live in the middle of west Texas, so its still a bit of a drive). If I don't have it done after that I'll be mildly upset with myself. O well...its a work in progress. I expected things to be more difficult than I assumed they would be...if that makes sense.
Anyhow, since I suck at meeting self-imposed deadlines, I'm posting the hands from the end of an SNG I played the other day. This is some really basic stuff that can improve your extreme short stack game around the bubble (I'm talking < 1BB in your stack). I lost an all in to the big stack the hand before this sequence. I see sooooooo many people who get frustrated and just stick in their last few chips with basically any two in frustration. This is a huge mistake. According to a basic ICM calculator, there is still a 14.52% chance that (assuming we play equally as well as our opponents) we'll make the money here. If you don't know what ICM is don't worry...we'll get to that soon. Sufficive to say its a really bad decision to just give up here.
My apologies for this hand history converter. It really sucks and doesn't give as much info as I'd like it too. Its the only one that works with AP SNG hands though and its better than trying to read through long, ugly hand histories. I'll fill in the blanks the best I can. BTW, I'm playing under Duderino_AB on Absolute.
Here we go:
Absolute Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t300/t600
4 players
Seat 1 - HAZELEYEZ26 ($4600 in chips)
Seat 6 - ROOFER45 ($2270 in chips)
Seat 7 - DUDERINO_AB ($170 in chips)
Seat 8 - DR_LOVE ($6460 in chips)
Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is Button with 2c qc
UTG calls t600 (pot was t900), Hero folds, SB calls t300 (pot was t1500), BB checks.
Flop: 3d js 3s (t1800, 3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks.
Turn: 7c (t1800, 3 players)
SB bets t600, 2 folds.
Uncalled bets: t600 returned to SB.
Results:
Final pot: t1800
This first hand is an easy fold. We're going to be facing an all-in situation the next hand even if we call and win, and we have a weak hand that will have to win 4 handed. No brainer.
Absolute Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t150/t300
4 players
Seat 1 - HAZELEYEZ26 ($4600 in chips)
Seat 6 - ROOFER45 ($1070 in chips)
Seat 7 - DUDERINO_AB ($170 in chips)
Seat 8 - DR_LOVE ($7660 in chips)
Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is BB with ah 10s
Button calls t600, (pot was t450), SB folds.
Flop: kh 4s qs (t750, 2 players)
Turn: 5s (t750, 2 players)
River: 10d (t750, 2 players)
Results:
Final pot: t750
This hand we are in the BB and we are forced all-in since the blind is bigger than our stack. If we weren't in the blinds this would once again be a fold. Why you ask? Its very likely that we have the best hand isn't it? Yes. However, at this stage of the tournament winning the hand still would not help us enough. Even if we quadrupled up (which would be unlikely even though we probably have the best hand...we just aren't that likely to win against 3 other hands) we'd still have just greater than 1BB in our stack. The idea right now is survival...not building a stack. We need to put ourselves at risk as little as possible. Anyhow...we won this particular hand so now we've at least got about 1BB to play with.
Absolute Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t300/t600
4 players
Seat 1 - HAZELEYEZ26 ($4600 in chips)
Seat 6 - ROOFER45 ($770 in chips)
Seat 7 - DUDERINO_AB ($510 in chips)
Seat 8 - DR_LOVE ($7620 in chips)
Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is SB with 9s 10c
UTG calls t600 (pot was t900), Button folds, Hero folds, BB checks.
Flop: kh 3d 10s (t1500, 2 players)
BB bets t1200, UTG folds.
Uncalled bets: t1200 returned to BB.
Results:
Final pot: t1500
The reason I folded this hand is somewhat complex. With blinds at 300/600 I'm left with T210 when I fold here. This again is a no brainer of a call just looking at pot odds. However, I think looking at tournament equity this becomes a reasonably easy fold considering stack sizes and the activity of my opponents. My thought process is this. I've got a hand that isn't horrible and could certainly draw out against two others, but I have one thing to my advantage. Since ROOFER45 has misplayed several hands and made himself a shortstack, he will now be forced in before I will. The next time the blinds come around he will be in the BB for all but 170 of his chips. Since I have 210 in my stack after I fold here (and assuming we both fold around back to our blinds which is very highly likely) he will either call for his last 170 when he's in the BB (HAZELEYES26 has been very active and will probably just push him in if the big stack doesn't) or he'll fold and be left with 170. Either way he'll be at risk before me. Obviously he is if he goes in on his BB, but then the next hand we'll both be forced in and I'll have him covered since I'll have 40 more chips. I would win against him exactly 50% of the time since we both would have random hands. At that point I'm making the money approximately 50% of the time. Considering that both the big stacks have been active I think its safe to assume that one of them will at least limp. This is great for me because, since I have ROOFER45 covered, I don't need to win to make the money here...I just need him to not win the hand. Therefore the more people who enter the hand, the better it is for me.
In any case if I call for my last 210 here with T9o I win the hand and stay alive about 30% of the time depending on what range you give the Button limper. Also, even when I win that 30% of the time, I'm still missing out on the money a significant amount of the time since ROOFER45 still has 770 in chips. If I fold here, I'm putting myself in a much better spot.
For the sake of not making this post any longer I'm just going to tell you what happened from here on out. We folded around to ROOFER45's BB, HAZELEYEZ26 pushed all in of course, ROOFER45 folded, we were both all in on the next hand, HAZELEYEZ26 pushed again with A2o and flopped a wheel. Both ROOFER and I were eliminated on that hand, but I cashed since I had him covered going into the hand. That my friends is the anatomy of a shortstacked bubble. Some of that was probably confusing so if you have questions don't hesitate to ask!
So chapter one of the book is probably the most complex part of the book since it deals with ICM. It provides a basic explanation of ICM and also includes some reasons it is used and some very very basic application. Basically, its mostly written out, but I'm not satisfied that it will be understandable to someone who is unfamiliar with the concept. Its a work in progress. I'm going to Texas in a couple weeks and I'll have about 8 hours in the car during the trip (I'm flying in with my mom, but my cousins live in the middle of west Texas, so its still a bit of a drive). If I don't have it done after that I'll be mildly upset with myself. O well...its a work in progress. I expected things to be more difficult than I assumed they would be...if that makes sense.
Anyhow, since I suck at meeting self-imposed deadlines, I'm posting the hands from the end of an SNG I played the other day. This is some really basic stuff that can improve your extreme short stack game around the bubble (I'm talking < 1BB in your stack). I lost an all in to the big stack the hand before this sequence. I see sooooooo many people who get frustrated and just stick in their last few chips with basically any two in frustration. This is a huge mistake. According to a basic ICM calculator, there is still a 14.52% chance that (assuming we play equally as well as our opponents) we'll make the money here. If you don't know what ICM is don't worry...we'll get to that soon. Sufficive to say its a really bad decision to just give up here.
My apologies for this hand history converter. It really sucks and doesn't give as much info as I'd like it too. Its the only one that works with AP SNG hands though and its better than trying to read through long, ugly hand histories. I'll fill in the blanks the best I can. BTW, I'm playing under Duderino_AB on Absolute.
Here we go:
Absolute Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t300/t600
4 players
Seat 1 - HAZELEYEZ26 ($4600 in chips)
Seat 6 - ROOFER45 ($2270 in chips)
Seat 7 - DUDERINO_AB ($170 in chips)
Seat 8 - DR_LOVE ($6460 in chips)
Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is Button with 2c qc
UTG calls t600 (pot was t900), Hero folds, SB calls t300 (pot was t1500), BB checks.
Flop: 3d js 3s (t1800, 3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks.
Turn: 7c (t1800, 3 players)
SB bets t600, 2 folds.
Uncalled bets: t600 returned to SB.
Results:
Final pot: t1800
This first hand is an easy fold. We're going to be facing an all-in situation the next hand even if we call and win, and we have a weak hand that will have to win 4 handed. No brainer.
Absolute Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t150/t300
4 players
Seat 1 - HAZELEYEZ26 ($4600 in chips)
Seat 6 - ROOFER45 ($1070 in chips)
Seat 7 - DUDERINO_AB ($170 in chips)
Seat 8 - DR_LOVE ($7660 in chips)
Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is BB with ah 10s
Button calls t600, (pot was t450), SB folds.
Flop: kh 4s qs (t750, 2 players)
Turn: 5s (t750, 2 players)
River: 10d (t750, 2 players)
Results:
Final pot: t750
This hand we are in the BB and we are forced all-in since the blind is bigger than our stack. If we weren't in the blinds this would once again be a fold. Why you ask? Its very likely that we have the best hand isn't it? Yes. However, at this stage of the tournament winning the hand still would not help us enough. Even if we quadrupled up (which would be unlikely even though we probably have the best hand...we just aren't that likely to win against 3 other hands) we'd still have just greater than 1BB in our stack. The idea right now is survival...not building a stack. We need to put ourselves at risk as little as possible. Anyhow...we won this particular hand so now we've at least got about 1BB to play with.
Absolute Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t300/t600
4 players
Seat 1 - HAZELEYEZ26 ($4600 in chips)
Seat 6 - ROOFER45 ($770 in chips)
Seat 7 - DUDERINO_AB ($510 in chips)
Seat 8 - DR_LOVE ($7620 in chips)
Pre-flop: (4 players) Hero is SB with 9s 10c
UTG calls t600 (pot was t900), Button folds, Hero folds, BB checks.
Flop: kh 3d 10s (t1500, 2 players)
BB bets t1200, UTG folds.
Uncalled bets: t1200 returned to BB.
Results:
Final pot: t1500
The reason I folded this hand is somewhat complex. With blinds at 300/600 I'm left with T210 when I fold here. This again is a no brainer of a call just looking at pot odds. However, I think looking at tournament equity this becomes a reasonably easy fold considering stack sizes and the activity of my opponents. My thought process is this. I've got a hand that isn't horrible and could certainly draw out against two others, but I have one thing to my advantage. Since ROOFER45 has misplayed several hands and made himself a shortstack, he will now be forced in before I will. The next time the blinds come around he will be in the BB for all but 170 of his chips. Since I have 210 in my stack after I fold here (and assuming we both fold around back to our blinds which is very highly likely) he will either call for his last 170 when he's in the BB (HAZELEYES26 has been very active and will probably just push him in if the big stack doesn't) or he'll fold and be left with 170. Either way he'll be at risk before me. Obviously he is if he goes in on his BB, but then the next hand we'll both be forced in and I'll have him covered since I'll have 40 more chips. I would win against him exactly 50% of the time since we both would have random hands. At that point I'm making the money approximately 50% of the time. Considering that both the big stacks have been active I think its safe to assume that one of them will at least limp. This is great for me because, since I have ROOFER45 covered, I don't need to win to make the money here...I just need him to not win the hand. Therefore the more people who enter the hand, the better it is for me.
In any case if I call for my last 210 here with T9o I win the hand and stay alive about 30% of the time depending on what range you give the Button limper. Also, even when I win that 30% of the time, I'm still missing out on the money a significant amount of the time since ROOFER45 still has 770 in chips. If I fold here, I'm putting myself in a much better spot.
For the sake of not making this post any longer I'm just going to tell you what happened from here on out. We folded around to ROOFER45's BB, HAZELEYEZ26 pushed all in of course, ROOFER45 folded, we were both all in on the next hand, HAZELEYEZ26 pushed again with A2o and flopped a wheel. Both ROOFER and I were eliminated on that hand, but I cashed since I had him covered going into the hand. That my friends is the anatomy of a shortstacked bubble. Some of that was probably confusing so if you have questions don't hesitate to ask!
Ran gross today!
My worst day ever playing exclusively $44 sngs. Yikes! The fact that this is the worst day I've ever had shows you that I've been pretty lucky, but still...this was just nuts!
Here are the stats:
Today: 35 $44 sngs played, -$460
May: 311 $44 sngs played, +$356
2007: 1995 $44 sngs played, +$14,496
Here are the stats:
Today: 35 $44 sngs played, -$460
May: 311 $44 sngs played, +$356
2007: 1995 $44 sngs played, +$14,496
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Perspective
Sometimes poker and just life in general is put into perspective in a hurry. I haven't blogged or played for the past few days because one of my friends from college was killed in a hunting accident. I hadn't seen him in about a year, but its still just shocking. I remember so many good times and its just impossible to think that someone so young and full of energy could be gone. I'm not really sad, because he wasn't a huge part of my life - although we did make some awesome memories - but it definitely makes me thing alot about life in general. I appreciate the people around me that much more and it reminds me again that life is for living. Live every day to the fullest and never miss an opportunity to do something great.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
You do the MATH
My MATH debut was ever so slightly different from my Mookie debut. By ever so slightly different I mean completely opposite. Mookie = 1st. MATH = last! I ran KK into AA on the 3rd hand of the tourney and I was done. Gross. It was a hand I probably coulda laid down, but having never played against my opponent, I feel good about getting it in there preflop. No worries...you'll have that. On a positive note I did have my first big day in about two weeks playing SNGs. I won ~$400 a couple days ago but I was up $900 that day before a massive downswing at the end of the day so I don't really count that. Up over $600 today and passed the 15k mark for the year!
Here are my results from today:
Today: 35 $44 sngs played, +$656
May: 236 $44 sngs played, +$1100
2007: 1920 $44 sngs played, +$15,240
Again, I have a really great cause that I'm going to donate half of my Mookie winnings to this week. I'll post about that tomorrow.
Here are my results from today:
Today: 35 $44 sngs played, +$656
May: 236 $44 sngs played, +$1100
2007: 1920 $44 sngs played, +$15,240
Again, I have a really great cause that I'm going to donate half of my Mookie winnings to this week. I'll post about that tomorrow.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Bleh
Here are my stats for today. I'm really really really tired of running bad. I'm ready to run well again at some point. Please?
Today: 40 $44 sngs played, $40
May: 201 $44 sngs played, +$444
2007: 1889 $44 sngs played, +$14,584
Also, big props to Mookie for all the pub he's given me for winning the Mookie last week. I'll be defending this week for sure! Also, I'll be donating half of my winnings this week to a great cause. Details on that tomorrow or Tuesday. Here is my champion's profile on Mookie's blog. Check it out.
Today: 40 $44 sngs played, $40
May: 201 $44 sngs played, +$444
2007: 1889 $44 sngs played, +$14,584
Also, big props to Mookie for all the pub he's given me for winning the Mookie last week. I'll be defending this week for sure! Also, I'll be donating half of my winnings this week to a great cause. Details on that tomorrow or Tuesday. Here is my champion's profile on Mookie's blog. Check it out.
Book Progress
I'm almost done with chapter one of the book. It basically just deals with the concept of Indepedent Chip Modeling (ICM) which is the basic building block of SNG strategy. I'll post an excerpt here sometime this week probably when its finished.
Yesterday's results:
Today: 36 $44 sngs played, -$36
May: 161 $44 sngs played, +$380
2007: 1845 $44 sngs played, +$14,544
Yesterday's results:
Today: 36 $44 sngs played, -$36
May: 161 $44 sngs played, +$380
2007: 1845 $44 sngs played, +$14,544
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Who wants free money?
I need some motivation so here's the deal. If anyone is reading this I'll give $500 to the first person to comment on this post if I don't play 1,000 $44 SNGs on Absolute this month. Through the first four days I'm just barely behind pace as I've logged 125. That's right. You aren't putting up anything. If I get to 1,000 I just don't pay you. That's all. If I don't get to 1,000 I'll pay you $500.
Here's my results from today:
Today: 20 $44 sngs played, $416
May: 125 $44 sngs played, +$440
2007: 1809 $44 sngs played, +$14,580
Here's my results from today:
Today: 20 $44 sngs played, $416
May: 125 $44 sngs played, +$440
2007: 1809 $44 sngs played, +$14,580
Friday, May 4, 2007
Frustration!
Stats for today:
Today: 33 $44 sngs played, -$84
May: 105 $44 sngs played, +$24
2007: 1789 $44 sngs played, +$14,164
I've now run break even over my last 270 SNGs. I'm basically used to streaks like this by now. I know that they are going to happen (and probably worse than this over the long run), but its still frustrating. Even though I'm frustrated I don't feel like my level of play is dropping at all which is when I'd really be worried. O well...that's variance.
Played my first Riverchaser tonight and finished in the bottom third because I had to let my roommate play for me for a little bit. I was challenged to a game of apartment baseball, and when I'm challenged, I step up to the plate...bottomline. After dominating my unsuspecting opponent I returned to see my chipstack cut in half by my clueless roommate. Not much I could do from there and I was gone around 45-50th I think. O well...
Today: 33 $44 sngs played, -$84
May: 105 $44 sngs played, +$24
2007: 1789 $44 sngs played, +$14,164
I've now run break even over my last 270 SNGs. I'm basically used to streaks like this by now. I know that they are going to happen (and probably worse than this over the long run), but its still frustrating. Even though I'm frustrated I don't feel like my level of play is dropping at all which is when I'd really be worried. O well...that's variance.
Played my first Riverchaser tonight and finished in the bottom third because I had to let my roommate play for me for a little bit. I was challenged to a game of apartment baseball, and when I'm challenged, I step up to the plate...bottomline. After dominating my unsuspecting opponent I returned to see my chipstack cut in half by my clueless roommate. Not much I could do from there and I was gone around 45-50th I think. O well...
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
My First Mookie!
So I decided to dive into the blogger tournies a bit. I put $500 on FTP and figured we'll see what happens. Without being too arrogant I figured it was safe to assume that I was better than the majority of the field. I was pretty pleasantly surprised by the quality of the play for the most part. There were a few guys who I was very impressed with and quite a few more very solid players. There were definitely a lot of people who just had very little if any concept of how to play around the bubble, but that's to be expected especially when many of the players in a tourney like this probably aren't regular tourney players. I was able to steal quite a few chips on my way to the final table and eventually the win. That's right! The win!!! I took down my first The Mookie in my first ever attempt!
The $200 and whatever prize really wasn't a big deal - I win about that in any normal sng win - but this is definitely some bragging rights. I'm pretty tired but I'll give everybody a quick rundown of events from memory the best I can. Things started out pretty well. I think I had AA twice in the first level and basically ended up with about 4k in chips right off the bat. I hung right around there until blinds were at 120/240/25. At that point Lucko caught the wrong end of me getting a nice run of cards. He kept raising to 655 and I kept on raising all in. This happened I think 3 times in 9 hands or so. The first one I had A3d in the BB and he raised that from the CO or Button...don't remember. I felt like it was a pretty standard steal and with about 4k in chips I could push him off with a resteal push. He had about 8k at the time and I'd played very tight up to that point so I didn't see him being in a big hurry to get involved. My resteal was successful. Then, next hand if I remember right, he made the same raise and I woke up with JJ. I figured I'd go all in again and maybe get paid by a hand like Ax or smaller pocket pairs. He folded again. My next BB the exact same situation came up with the exact same raise. I had JJ again and pushed again. He folded a third time and told me if I pushed again he was calling me. I told him I had the hand every time, but I'm not sure he believed. I think I kind of came off as a dick and I really didn't mean to at all. Lucko if you're reading this no hard feelings okay? After that it was pretty smooth sailing with normal blind steals. Nothing really of note except getting caught stealing by iam23skidoo. I raised to 800 with T7h on the button and he reraised to 2100. I didn't think he was that strong and he gave me pretty good odds to take a look. The flop came J high with 2 hearts. He pushed in for his last 1500 or so and it was a pretty easy call with the flush draw...I may have had an inside straight too but don't remember and I'm too tired to look right now. I missed my draw and that left me at about 2500, but I was able to steal my way back to about 4500, split a pot with AJ against AA all in preflop (extremely lucky) and then double up with AK in about 5 minutes. After that it was smooth sailing to the bubble. I was chip leader or one of them anyways at ~17k when the worst hand of the tourney happened. 9 were paid and we were down to 10 with 5 at each table. Mookie was the shorty with about 4500. He raised to 3k UTG. I look down and what to my wondering eyes does appear? Pocket Aces just ship that bounty right over here! I smooth call and the flop is KJX. Mookie pushes and of course I call. He turns over TT. Turn is a blank and then the river of course is the T. Brutal. I can't really complain considering how well I ran in this thing, but that was just nasty. Can't fault Mookie for playing it that way either...nothing wrong with it, it just sucked. I was able to grind back to about 20k in chips out of 111k in play going into the final table and Mookie did eventually become the bubble boy if I remember correctly. The final table wasn't really that interesting. Basically me raising a ton and calling all ins when I had odds to. I got some pretty good cards and eventually got to heads up where I felt that I played extremely well. If you read this blog at all you know I'm an SNG player so deep stack heads up (by that I mean more than 20BB in play) is not my specialty at all. I don't remember any of the hands imparticular except that last one where I won a race with KJo against 88. Jack spiked on the flop and there you go! Thanks to anyone who played and anyone who took the time to read this. I've been reading several of your blogs for a while now and I hope you can find time/find this interesting enough to stop by here once in a while too.
O yeah...almost forgot. Here are my SNG results today. At least it was a winning day...I hate SNGs...alot...sometimes.
Today: 37 $44 sngs played, +$64
May: 72 $44 sngs played, +$108
2007: 1756 $44 sngs played, +$14,248
The $200 and whatever prize really wasn't a big deal - I win about that in any normal sng win - but this is definitely some bragging rights. I'm pretty tired but I'll give everybody a quick rundown of events from memory the best I can. Things started out pretty well. I think I had AA twice in the first level and basically ended up with about 4k in chips right off the bat. I hung right around there until blinds were at 120/240/25. At that point Lucko caught the wrong end of me getting a nice run of cards. He kept raising to 655 and I kept on raising all in. This happened I think 3 times in 9 hands or so. The first one I had A3d in the BB and he raised that from the CO or Button...don't remember. I felt like it was a pretty standard steal and with about 4k in chips I could push him off with a resteal push. He had about 8k at the time and I'd played very tight up to that point so I didn't see him being in a big hurry to get involved. My resteal was successful. Then, next hand if I remember right, he made the same raise and I woke up with JJ. I figured I'd go all in again and maybe get paid by a hand like Ax or smaller pocket pairs. He folded again. My next BB the exact same situation came up with the exact same raise. I had JJ again and pushed again. He folded a third time and told me if I pushed again he was calling me. I told him I had the hand every time, but I'm not sure he believed. I think I kind of came off as a dick and I really didn't mean to at all. Lucko if you're reading this no hard feelings okay? After that it was pretty smooth sailing with normal blind steals. Nothing really of note except getting caught stealing by iam23skidoo. I raised to 800 with T7h on the button and he reraised to 2100. I didn't think he was that strong and he gave me pretty good odds to take a look. The flop came J high with 2 hearts. He pushed in for his last 1500 or so and it was a pretty easy call with the flush draw...I may have had an inside straight too but don't remember and I'm too tired to look right now. I missed my draw and that left me at about 2500, but I was able to steal my way back to about 4500, split a pot with AJ against AA all in preflop (extremely lucky) and then double up with AK in about 5 minutes. After that it was smooth sailing to the bubble. I was chip leader or one of them anyways at ~17k when the worst hand of the tourney happened. 9 were paid and we were down to 10 with 5 at each table. Mookie was the shorty with about 4500. He raised to 3k UTG. I look down and what to my wondering eyes does appear? Pocket Aces just ship that bounty right over here! I smooth call and the flop is KJX. Mookie pushes and of course I call. He turns over TT. Turn is a blank and then the river of course is the T. Brutal. I can't really complain considering how well I ran in this thing, but that was just nasty. Can't fault Mookie for playing it that way either...nothing wrong with it, it just sucked. I was able to grind back to about 20k in chips out of 111k in play going into the final table and Mookie did eventually become the bubble boy if I remember correctly. The final table wasn't really that interesting. Basically me raising a ton and calling all ins when I had odds to. I got some pretty good cards and eventually got to heads up where I felt that I played extremely well. If you read this blog at all you know I'm an SNG player so deep stack heads up (by that I mean more than 20BB in play) is not my specialty at all. I don't remember any of the hands imparticular except that last one where I won a race with KJo against 88. Jack spiked on the flop and there you go! Thanks to anyone who played and anyone who took the time to read this. I've been reading several of your blogs for a while now and I hope you can find time/find this interesting enough to stop by here once in a while too.
O yeah...almost forgot. Here are my SNG results today. At least it was a winning day...I hate SNGs...alot...sometimes.
Today: 37 $44 sngs played, +$64
May: 72 $44 sngs played, +$108
2007: 1756 $44 sngs played, +$14,248
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Good Riddance April
April was not a fun month. I had 7 of the 15 worst days I've ever had playing SNGs. Just crazy...especially considering the fact I absolutely crush the game that I'm in. My lifetime ROI there is right around 19% which is ridiculously high for tournaments at this level. In April my ROI was right around 11%. Frustration. I also felt like I played better than I ever have. I guess that's just variance. You'll have that. Anyhow, its a new month and hopefully this one goes better.
Here are my results for today:
Today: 35 sngs played, +$44
May: 35 sngs played, +$44
2007: 1719 sngs played, +$14,184
Here are my results for today:
Today: 35 sngs played, +$44
May: 35 sngs played, +$44
2007: 1719 sngs played, +$14,184
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