Tournaments are retarded - Part 2

There will be almost nothing interesting in the below post. I just have nothing better to do as Crown internet is retarded and I can’t play as it keeps cutting out.

Gheyest day of poker in my life, and I thought it would be a long time before I had a day as frustrating as my bubble day in Feature Event.

I was incredibly worried about my starting table, with Joe Cassidy and a young Nowegian dude (Andreas Walnum) who won Fiesta Al Lago on my table. But Joe was not feeling well and only played around half of the first two levels. He did seem to win just about every pot he played when he did play, but his stack was getting milked heavily whilst he was gone. He finally put his stack in in a really bad spot, and looked almost relieved to be out (resigned might be a better word). I thought Andreas was playing really well, and I’ll admit I was quite pleased to see him get snapped off by some pretty crappy play from the less-than-fearsome opponents on our table. Example: Button open-limps with A4o. Andreas pots in SB with QQ. I fold in BB and Button calls. Flop A-5-5. Andreas leads out and gets called. Turn and river are both checked and I saw a glimpse of my entire future in Andreas’ eyes (sheer frustration), even though I didn’t realise it at the time. I probably had that exact same look 30 times today.

Andreas got involved in a pot with Peter Pratis, who is a great guy and I hope he does really well for the remainder of the tourney. However, Peter plays a pretty bad pot against this young poker star. Peter open-limps in hijack with 86cc. Andreas completes and I check in BB. Flop Ac-5c-5 (again yes). Checked to Peter who bets out, and gets check-raised big by Andreas. I fold and Peter calls. Turn is a 9, giving Peter a gutshot straight draw to go with his flush draw. Andreas leads out fairly big and Peter calls. The river is a blank and Andreas checks and Peter leads out for most of his stack and Andreas folds, showing a little frustration. Peter shows his missed draws and Andreas is like, “What did you think I had?” I think Peter’s bet here on river is so bad. Andreas is eliminated not long after when he runs into pocket Kings, and I get the feeling he is a little disgusted.

I spoke briefly about an incident with a guy the other day who complained about our side-betting flops. I got the names mixed up. The guy was John Maver, not John Homann (I have never met John Homann). Anyway, John Maver gets moved to my table and I’m pretty happy to see it as he would pretty much be one of the biggest bunnies left in the tournament. Some of his logic is almost beyond bad. Example: Maver is in BB with AQs. Cutoff open-raises and Maver calls. Flop A-J-T. Maver leads out for 9000 - cutoff calls. Turn rag, and Maver checks. Cutoff has about 35k left and bets 16k. Maver quickly calls. River is low repeater so the board looks something like A-J-T-4-4. Maver checks and cutoff puts his last 19k or so in. Maver folds. I tell myself I will have 300,000 by the end of this day after seeing this hand.

I knocked Billy the Croc out early in the day when I raised with 66 from middle position and Billy pushed in his small stack with AQo. I am getting 2:1 and make the call, winning the race. I don’t think Billy’s push is terrible, but I think he can find a better spot to put his small stack in. Small stacks have a lot more equity when open-pushing rather than getting into situations like this one.

From then on, my day just gets retarded. Firstly, there is no way I played every hand well - in fact, I can’t really think of any hands I played well apart from a snapped set, when I made a pretty good fold on the river. But I played solid almost the whole day, and against my opponents today, that should have been enough to walk into the money with 200-250k plus. I really believe this. This day will go down as easily the gheyest day of poker ever for me so far.

I changed gears a lot throughout the day, at stages playing pretty laggy. At one stage, I open-raised JTs in middle position and took the blinds. Next hand, I open-raised QQ in hijack and took the blinds. Next hand, I open-raised QQ in cutoff and took the blinds. Next hand, I have AKo on button and fold when UTG raises pot and Dan Alspach (a nice guy but makes major donkey plays) pushes all-in for 26k UTG+1. I steal the blinds open-raising with Aces and Kings around this time, but am 3-bet by tight players a couple times when I raise 97s in cutoff and KJo on button. I just know it’s not going to be my day.

Many, many sick situations arise throughout the day and I’m basically playing semi-tilted all day, but still well above the curve. For much of the day, I didn’t really get any traditional bad beats, just endless situations like I’d raise KQcc and get 3 callers, building a massive pot. Flop would then come A-7-4 (all red) and someone would lead out. I raise with 99 and the flop comes K-Q-J. I raise with AK and the flop is 9-4-4 and I’m check-raised when I c-bet. Just over…and over…and over again. All day. I see so many flops multi-way with suited connectors and pairs and miss and miss and miss. I’m bleeding chips and it’s obvious to everyone that I’m pretty tilted. Most of them probably think they are really outplaying me, and I suppose they kind of are, as I can’t get to a showdown. Hard to take a tight player to showdown with A-high no draw.

I 3-bet Dan Alspach a bit in some obvious spots with rags and never get called. He runs his 60k starting stack down to about 20k very quickly. A guy gets moved to my table who I’ve met before but don’t really know all that well. He plays 2/3nl every day here at Crown, I am told. He is playing very well, open-raising a lot (probably more than me). I want to 3-bet him a bit, but can’t really find a good spot, as I am to his direct left and if I 3-bet, there are still 3-4 live players every time. I find some good spots around the blinds and 3-bet him a little and don’t get called. I am also able to pick up the blinds and a button open-limp a few times raising in the BB with rags.

I make a mistake in this hand maybe: SB player (the 2/3nl Crown player) limps in the SB HU. I have 33 and do not raise (possibly a mistake). In a cash game, this is a standard raise but even though this is a “deep-stacked” tourney, the avg is still only around 50bb all day. In this hand the effective stacks were 40bb, and I fear a limp-reraise here that I can’t call with a really nice low pair. I have position and I can play HU ok with position (I suck OOP). Flop is 6-5-3 with 2 spades. SB leads out 4k and I call (my style of play is to call a lot of flops and play turns pretty strong as I float flops and also its much easier to price drawing hands out on the turn). Turn is a King. SB checks, and I bet out 8k I think. He calls. River is a 2, and he leads out 10k. If I call and he has the straight, I lose over half my stack in the hand. I fold my set in disgust as I put him on the straight draw from the start, saying “I know you have it.” He shows me a A4o (no flush draw) and says “I also had the Ace.” I’m not sure what that really means, but that hand just epitomises my whole day. His play is not horrendous, but it is so far from good, IMO. He just has almost no implied odds with his 6-outs and stands to bleed chips on so many other outs. You just can’t take a crappy straight draw when there is a flush draw out against a better player when you are out of postion. His turn call is just so frustrating for me, and epitomises my entire day. Maybe 6-8 pairs I call big raises in multi-way pots with (or I’ve raised and we’ve seen a big multi-way flop) and I can’t hit, then I hit a set in a HU blind battle and maybe play it bad, but lose a quarter of my stack to my opponent, who definitely played it worse.

I triple up a really nice kid playing his first big tourney. He is a very new player, so I don’t want to say anything negative about his play but, as he said, “This is a LOT different to playing in the free pub games.” I think I triple him up shortstacked 3 times. First time I raise UTG with AK. He has 16bb and raises to 10bb. I want to fold so bad, but it’s just not in me to fold AK to a 16bb shortstack. I call and he shows KK, which is a lot better than the other hand I think he probably has. Alspach gets more than half his stack in preflop with KJs against this young kid, and the kid has KK again and doubles up again. The kid is playing WAY too tight, and he was actually at my starting table yesterday so I know how he plays, yet I somehow manage to double him up again with AT vs his AJ on an A-high board when he had about 21bb pre. I raised with AT on button and he cold-called in SB and we saw a A-high flop. It’s just not in me to check/fold here with postion, although I probably should have. I actually can’t believe he called with AJo. Maybe the lowest-strength hand he played all day.

I miss a lot more flops, we go to the dinner break and come back and I’m still basically very disgusted with the whole day so far. I’m winning lots of chips preflop all day but whenever the money goes in on a medium sized pot, I run 2nd or get run down. Nothing really all that special about any hands, just perhaps the number of times it happens over and over.

I open-raise JJ from middle to like 7.5k and Maver pushes for 70k. I have like 70k and fold. A few hours later, I open-raise AQs from cutoff and Maver pushes for 65k the hand before the dinner break, and I fold.

After dinner break, I raise 88 to 7.5k from middle position and Dan Alspach (who has built his stack up to average after a sick horrendous suckout against the Russian dude) calls in the BB. The flop is Q-9-8 (two hearts). He checks, I c-bet, he calls. Turn Ah. Pot is 30k, I have 65k and Dan Alspach donks out his whole stack (80k). I fold. I am not convinced my fold is good, but I cannot risk it all here in this spot. He says, “I’ll bluff into that all day if you’ll let me”, whilst being careful to muck his cards. I now KNOW my fold is good. I love it when donkeys trash-talk. After folding about 25 hands in a row, Maver open-raises his button. The blinds fold and Maver says, “When you guys gonna play back at me? Are you going to let me steal all day?” or something like that, but in a really ghey tone. Awesome.

The gheyness of my table is tilting me so hard, as are the bad dealers. Crown took $370,000 out of the prizepool for this tourney, and only a couple of our dealers today were able to collect antes without tilting me hard every hand.

I’ll admit I’m about to crack, as I can see my situation getting pretty bleak. The bubble is approaching, and my stack is down to around 45k or something as everything has gone pear-shaped. I want a stack to exert pressure around the bubble, so I decide to make a very strong move when the button open-raises to 8k. I am in SB with T8o and raise to 16k, leaving myself around 30k behind I think. The BB asks for a count and folds. The Button player (the 2/3nl Crown live player guy) clearly does not like spot, looks at my chips up and down and calls. I read him as weak rather than slowplaying. The flop is 9-high and I push all-in for 30k. The button hates his spot. He thinks for ages, maybe 4-5 minutes, and finally says, “I think I have to call.” He doesn’t call though. He thinks for some time more. Finally, he makes a crying call - with KK. I wish I had a photo of my face then - it would have been so awesome. He wasn’t slow-rolling me, he just hated his spot, which got me to put my whole stack in against KK with less than 20bb’s. Turn is a 7, giving me 8 outs to lay a sick beat on him, but the board pairs, and I finish 30 spots outside the money or whatever and I start the long walk back to my hotel room.

Easily the most painful, gheyest day I have ever played. Tournaments are so silly I think - maybe I just don’t understand them. For example. Antonius is raising like 60% of hands preflop. Most of the stacks on his table are 40bb or less. How he doesn’t get pushed on every 2nd hand is something I’ll never understand. Are these people morons? What do they think his range is? How do these people get 600 deep in a 10k buyin event?

I’m not even really all that annoyed as I don’t *think* I really played any hands poorly. I dunno. It just seemed like a cursed day where the chances of me finishing the day with 350k were much greater than me busting, but I busted. Meh - I won’t play any more tourneys from here on in, I don’t think. I have suspected that they are pretty dumb for awhile now, and tonight I really think they are dumb.

My friend Ville has a big stack I think and I have 5% of him so I hope he does well, but I can’t check the Live Updates and Crown internet is retarded. I think I hate the Crown Joker Room - I can’t see myself coming back anytime soon.

Posted in Live Tournaments | 8 Comments »

Tournaments are retarded.

Just got knocked out of the Main Event 30 or so from the money. I had one of the best tables in the world today, and ran pretty bad at showdowns.- lost with two flopped sets against some of the worst players in the world, but I probably played pretty crappy too. I was able to pick up the blinds 5 times today with QQ/KK/AA which was nice.

One of the sickest days of poker in my life. I would like to play that table for a living, but just could not make anything happen. I don’t think I will ever play a serious tournament again.

Posted in Live Tournaments | 1 Comment »

Day 2 draw sucks for me I think…

I think I have drawn a pretty bad table for today. The two players I am most worried about are Andreas Walnum (a 23 year old Norwegian who WON Fiesta Al Lago - $1,000,000 plus) and Joe Cassidy, who has a ridiculous amazing record. I have not played with either before though.

Sergey Rybachenko is a laggy Russian player who I’ve played in Moscow and is very dangerous. I am NOT excited about playing him.

All 3 of these players have big stacks, well above average. Billy the Croc also on my table but he is short stacked.

Vincent Fernandes I don’t know, and Peter Pratis is no bunny. I have Dan Alspach who I don’t really fear, but he must be playing well as he also has a large stack. I think this is a pretty sik bad table.

Oh well - will need to get lucky today. I’m a little sad at the draw, as there would still be many, many bunnies left in this tournament. Maybe the gods will smile on me and my table will break or I will get moved early….

Posted in Live Tournaments | 1 Comment »

Main Event Day 1

The best thing I did for today was NOT get drunk the night before. I woke up feeling really good, took my time, had a good breakfast and then headed down to the poker room for what I knew would likely be a very long day. I really think I’ve under-estimated the importance of playing a day like this in the best possible health (i.e. NOT hungover/tired).

My first table was pretty awesome. There were no name players apart from Harry Demetriou, who I really like, but who I don’t personally fear as a player. In fact, I probably could not have asked for a better starting table.

My plan today was to play pretty laggy at the start, and hopefully get someone to over-commit in a big pot. Whether or not my plan worked as I intended I don’t really know, but it definitely seemed to. I raised one player’s blinds from the cutoff 5 or so times in a row, and I knew if I hit, I could stack him, even though we all started with 200bb (oh god that is a sexy amount of bb). I actually folded KK to a big turn check-raise on a J-high unsuited board after raising pre, c-betting flop hard and betting hard on turn, and felt pretty good about the fold. I probably should have checked behind on turn, but we were pretty deepstacked. I wasn’t too fazed about the fold - if he is gutsy enough to check-raise there, he deserves the pot.

Early in the second level, I had the feeling one of the players to my left was about to crack, and I open-raised 99 in the cutoff and was smooth-called by the BB. Flop K-9-x (two clubs), he checks, I c-bet, he check-raises big, I call. Now, a good player with his hand (AKs) check-calls the turn, but he made the mistake of leading out strong, and I put him all in, and he reluctantly called. I was up to 40,000 after that, which was a relief. It looked really bad the way he played the hand, but players put 100bb in with TPTK on draw heavy boards all the time - it’s not great play, but there are worse things you can do.

I was moved to a new table when my first table broke, and I was very disappointed. But my new table was unbelievably good - I have never seen anything like it. There was only one really good player on it, and I had position on him. We were able to take turns stealing and, because I had position, I was able to throw in the odd 3-bet on his raises which kept him honest. I could not have asked for a better table than this one. Joe Huminicki, who I DO think is a good player, was also on this table, but he was playing very tight due to so many bad players, and I was not fearing him. On a sidenote, I really like Joe and Doris Huminicki - I think they are some of the nicest people in Australian poker. Joe was desperately unlucky after playing a hand really well - a bad player open-raised big and Joe called with AhK - flop 9-x-x (all hearts). Joe checks, the bad player bets 5k, Joe reraises to 15k, and the guy pushes for another 17k on top with TT (no heart). Ridiculously bad play. Joe calls and is a favourite, but the board blanks out, and the TT chump wins a massive pot.

I am basically in heaven however. It is a real pleasure to play a 10k buyin event and not be scared in the slightest by any of your opponents on your table. I should have known this would not last however, and eventually two extremely good players were moved to my table. Everytime I am doing very well in a tourney, God sends a Scandinavian to my table to mess with me. This time, my opponent was a 25/50nl pro from Finland who was incredibly good, and incredibly scary. I was just thinking to myself how lucky I was that he was on my direct right, when I play a dumb pot out of position against him in a really tricky spot. The 3rd best player on my table open-raises big in middle position and the Finnish high-stakes pro cold-calls on button. I find TT in SB (50k stack - both opponents have me covered), but do not like a raise here as it looks too much like a squeeze play, and I see myself getting in a lot of trouble by raising. I call. Flop is 9-8-3 rainbow. I really like this flop. I think I am likely ahead due to the action, and if one of the players floats me when I lead out, if I get a Jack or 7 turn, I can make a very gutsy check/raise on turn which looks incredibly strong and fold a lot of hands. Even if I run into set, I still have 10 outs for an absolutely monster pot if it gets to that point. I lead out 8k. I will also do this with a set, and I think both opponents are aware of this, and realise that the standard play (if I have a set) will be to lead and check-raise all in the turn, so I think my lead is very strong. Initial raiser folds and Finnish pro either floats me or slowplays me, as expected. Turn is 5, and I check. Finnish pro bets 14k, and I briefly think about check-raising as I think he might have been floating me, but decide I will feel pretty stupid if I get called so fold. I also have to take into account that he might expect a turn check-raise all-in, so his play is pretty strong too. I’m pretty sure he floated me with overcards, but its such a tricky spot. He almost definitely played the hand very well.

The three better players than me on my table are taking turns raising every hand, and if I play weak, I will almost never get the chance to steal, and my stack will eventually dwindle. Also, it’s not really in my nature lately to play weak, so I do a few 3-bets in good, but still very scary, spots. I am picking up absolutely nothing - but I want to get paid off when I do pick up a hand, so I continue 3-betting. I take down some pots preflop, but get moved off some postflop when I don’t hit. They probably didn’t hit either, but they are just better than me, so I have to fold. I’m bleeding chips slowly and very frightened, with an hour left to play in the day. I think there is a really good chance I will be eliminated by the end of the day, as these players are very good and aggressive.

I’m down to 35k (now below average - from a high of 60k) very late in the day when one of the good players open-raises and I 3-bet AQo to 13k on the button. To my disgust, he calls. I think at this stage I am in massive trouble. The flop is A-K-Q (2 diamonds) and he leads out for 10k. I feel so sick…I am SURE he has AK. I decide that he might have flush draw, would probably check-raise AK, I have been 3-betting a lot, etc etc - there were a few factors in play, so I pushed for my remaining 22k. He calls and flips A9s and is basically drawing dead. He is disgusted at his play, and says something like, “I wanted you to think I was committed, then when you raised, I realised I actually was committed. I’m so embarrassed at this hand. Let’s not talk about it.” I was very happy to double up here, as he was a very good player and playing very well. To his credit, this was the ONLY hand I saw him play bad in many, many hands, and I’m just lucky I was the recipient of the mistake.

I finished the day with 76k, which puts me in the top 40-50 I think for tomorrow. I’m very nervous, but will play as good as I can, and will not be playing to just cash, so things could get interesting. Fingers crossed.

I swapped 1% of Lee Nelson with Vos for 3% of me when I had 55k avg 30k. It’s an interesting fun little swap, as Lee is a ridiculously good player, and has double average. I think if I got the line wrong, it’s not wrong by much.

I also have 5% of Finnish 25/50nl online pro Ville Laukkanen, who has average stack and will always threaten, so I hope if I can’t go deep, either Lee or Ville can go sik deep.

Posted in Live Tournaments | 4 Comments »

Damien Leith

For those of you who don’t watch the - like - AWESOME show that is Australian Idol, Damien Leith is the 2006 winner. He is from Ireland. Yep, one of the crappest winners of Australian Idol ever (and we’ve had some crappy ones) isn’t even Australian. What a joke.

Apparently, someone in Damien’s record label also thought this was a little strange, so the newspaper today reported Damien as having applied for Australian citizenship.

“It’s all about comitting 100 percent. We made a decision and we are going all the way with it. It is very important to me,” said Damien.

The newspaper then reports that Damien is keeping his Irish citizenship to “maintain his link to his homeland”.

Getting new citizenship and keeping your old one is like getting married and keeping your old girlfriend. Not quite 100% committment. Doesn’t sound like “all the way” to me.

Damien Leith is like 35 or something, old enough to be the father of most of the contestants. He got more votes than the cute-as-hell Lisa Mitchell, which only proves that the Australian TV voting public are morons.

Damien, it’s bad enough that you won Australian Idol - but then you have to go sing a crappy song that goes to No. 1 on the pop charts on the back of the fact you got a few percent more votes than the next crappy contestant.

“Here we are,
Shooting stars,
Renting time in someone else’s space.”

Please Damien, you’re making me sick. I know these lyrics weren’t written by you, but still, you sung them and so I am legally allowed to punch you in the head if I ever see you.

Posted in Random | 6 Comments »

Running good before big one…

Ran really well today. I swore I would not play 10/20nl this year as I am sik losing 10/20 player, but the Mansion 10/20nl was up today, and I realised most of the players playing were the normal 4/8nl donks that shouldn’t really be playing that high, so I couldn’t resist. Ran good and won a couple k, and didn’t make any big mistakes, which was a change for me at 10/20nl.

I cashed in the 100k guar at Mansion at the same time. We won’t worry about exact details, as the most important thing is I broke my run of bubbles. Pop Pop.

The game broke (yep, I broke my first ever 10/20nl game - normally I sit down and the waiting list shoots out to double figures like when Gus Hansen sits down at 1/2nl at FT), so I played a couple thousand hands at Bodog and ran really good. Was actually not playing all that great as I’m loosening up a lot trying to get to 20/15 by the end of the year, which I think I should achieve. I played 19/15 today, which is still tight, but very loose for me - playing that “loose” got me in a few weird situations, and I made some mistakes overplaying big draws but got away with them.

I also hit a 1-outer with set under set against a really good player, which is always nice. I was so chuffed to finally trap him, and when the cards were flipped, I would have looked something like this:

Then I hit that miracle out. Money won from players better than you is much, much sweeter than money donated to you by donks - and to come in this format was very mango sweet.

I almost ran ridiculously good were it not for a couple of cold deck hands like this one:

History for Hand #538573446
Hold’em No Limit ($5.00/$10.00)
Table ‘Jonny Will Win Main Event’ 6-max
Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: UTG ($690.00)
Seat 2: Hijack ($213.00)
Seat 3: Cutoff ($931.00)
Seat 4: Button ($206.00)
Seat 5: SB ($341.00)
Seat 6: Hero ($1176.00)
——————————
SB posts $5.00
Hero posts $10.00
— DEALING POCKETS
Hero is dealt [Ks,Kc]
UTG: raises $25.00 to $35.00
Hijack: folds
Cutoff: calls $35.00
Button: goes all in $206.00
SB: folds
Hero: calls $196.00
UTG: goes all in $655.00
Cutoff: goes all in $896.00
Hero: calls $725.00
UTG: shows [Ah Ad], a Pair, Aces
Cutoff: shows [Qs Qh], a Pair, Queens
Button: shows [Kd As], High Card, Ace
— DEALING FLOP [9s,3s,8s]
— DEALING TURN [9h]
— DEALING RIVER [6d]
Hero: shows [Ks,Kc], Two Pair, Kings and Nines
Cutoff: shows [Qs Qh], Two Pair, Queens and Nines
UTG: shows [Ah Ad], Two Pair, Aces and Nines
Button: shows [Kd As], a Pair, Nines
Hand 538573446:
Hero: wins side pot($481.48)
with Two Pair, Kings and Nines
UTG: wins side pot($1,450.43)
with Two Pair, Aces and Nines
UTG: wins main pot($828.10)
with Two Pair, Aces and Nines

I was looking very hot on the flop. Riggd that my Spade didn’t come.

———–

I’m playing the early flight tomorrow and, if I run as good as I ran today for the entire Main Event, it will be hard not to win.

Posted in Online Cash | 3 Comments »