Day 4

Well it looks like that will do it for me. In my 4 days of poker I didn’t crack 1 win nor one top 3 finish. Yesterday started really poorly but during the middle of the day I got it back on track and was doing well in all 3 UB tourneys, the 1k, sniper and deepstack. I didn’t cash any somehow and in the deepstack with 40 left I ran QQ into AA and the very next hand JJ into KK to go out from 30bbs. I was also doing really well in the 109r on tilt before I ran KK into AA from 50bb’s deep with about 60 left. My best finish came in the 30r where I finished 14th where I was in the top 5 in chips for the last 3hrs of the tourney.

Anyways, such is poker. Next time I play will be Monday and I’ll probably play 2/3 times next week and in the following few weeks. I’m really looking foward to the SCOOP and I’m going to start practicing some other games like PLO and most of the HORSE games to prepare myself.

Till next time

Kochan

Day 3: Awful game

Pretty sick game this poker thing. Another nothing day. I came 9th in the UB 50r and 11th in UB Deepstack. That’s all I cashed today though I went relatively deep in most tourneys. I thought I kept focus really well today and played especially well in the UB Deepstack which was a 6max. Never noticed it as a 6max before it must be new. It’s a very fun tournament to play particularly when you’re at a table with all players >30bb, something you hardly ever see online. Anyway I gotta rant about one thing and it’s something I mentioned before in my blog. Some of the players in the 109r suck so much!!! I found another example hand today..

Table ’144063733 18′ 9-max Seat #1 is the button

Seat 1: BANGOR60 (8200 in chips)

Seat 2: 00psiedaisy (5975 in chips)

Seat 3: PURPLE”K”99 (5350 in chips)

Seat 4: puntnko (6677 in chips)

Seat 5: gkap13 (10935 in chips)

Seat 6: eisenhower1 (4061 in chips)

Seat 7: detroitj6 (4230 in chips)

Seat 8: dankness3 (4525 in chips)

Seat 9: Donkaroo22 (5400 in chips)

00psiedaisy: posts small blind 75

PURPLE”K”99: posts big blind 150

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to puntnko [6s 6d]

puntnko: raises 300 to 450

gkap13: raises 800 to 1250

eisenhower1: raises 2811 to 4061 and is all-in

detroitj6: folds

dankness3: folds

Donkaroo22: folds

BANGOR60: raises 4139 to 8200 and is all-in

00psiedaisy: folds

PURPLE”K”99: folds

puntnko: folds

gkap13: calls 6950

*** FLOP *** [As 5h Jc]

*** TURN *** [As 5h Jc] [Kc]

*** RIVER *** [As 5h Jc Kc] [3d]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

gkap13: shows [Qh Qd] (a pair of Queens)

BANGOR60: shows [Jd Js] (three of a kind, Jacks)

BANGOR60 collected 8278 from side pot

eisenhower1: shows [Ad Ks] (two pair, Aces and Kings)

 

How in the hell does the guy get it in there with JJ??? utg raise, utg+1 3bet, utg+2 4bet…. I mean seriously does he just pray that all 3 of us turn over AK? If you’re not folding JJ there you might as well resign yourself to the fact that you’ll never fold it no matter what the circumstances. Even QQ is a pretty tough call there from utg+1…if I was ever gonna fold QQ pre it might be there. But if there are nutjobs like the guy with JJ why would you bother. Anyway needless to say JJ got a note from me. Although I’m finding myself at alot of tables nowadays with players with notes ‘moron’. I think I should be a little bit more specific.

Anyway tommorrow is the day I’ve been most looking foward to playing. I never get to play on Thursday’s but now that touch footy season is over I can. I think I can throw triple crown goals out the door. But I’ll settle for a win in the 320 on stars or 109r on tilt.

Till tmoz…

Kochan

Day 2

Still nothing. Came relatively close with a 5th in the Big Double B going out A10 to A8. Good news is I finally got something worthwhile to record as my first video for PokerVT and that tourney will probably be it.

The rest of the day was a writeoff. Cashed the Stars 109 and that was pretty much it. Built a decent stack in the 1k Monday on tilt and then blinded from 15k to 10k before losing a flip.

Gee playing a high volume is tougher than it seems. It’s so hard to keep concentrating once you’ve gone out of the majority of big tournaments for the day and your stuck 3 tabling with the big doubles on ftp and 600 left in the Stars 50/50. Full credit to those sickos who do it on a regular basis, I’m struggling bigtime and its only day 2 and I don’t even really play a full schedule. Anyways, I might play tommorrow but not 100% sure but if not I’m definately playing Thursday.

Kochan

Day 1

Relatively unsuccessful day. I played heaps of tourneys today. Most I’ve played in a long time. I final tabled UB 30r and the Inter Poker major but ran pretty bad and came 8th in both. Finished in the money in the morning 109r and cashed some other small things but overall nothing exciting.

Still 3 tourneys to win…

Maybe tommorow?

Kochan

Triple Crown week

I’ve marked this week down as the week I win the triple crown. Pretty rediculous but I figure it’s a decent goal to set myself to maintain my concentration and motivation and encourage a high level of volume. I took some bets against a couple of friends of mine, donating money really by backing myself at 3-1.

The last few months I’ve barely played more than 2 tourney days a week. Since this is one of my last weeks before I go back to uni and I don’t have a lot on I figured I’d try play a pretty full schedule. The plan is to play Monday/Tuesday and/or Wednesday/ Thursday/ and twice out of Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon. I’ll probably play most of the tourney’s from 20rebuy’s up.

I’ll most likely keep this blog updated throughout the week updating my progress as I go along. Although it wouldn’t suprise me if after all this I played Monday ran bad and then just gave it up !! Anyways should be fun

 

Kochan

Swing up

Gee an upswing feels good! Poker’s such a brutal game. When you’re running bad you wonder if it’s even possible to win, just cashing seems like a massive battle. And when your running well you think you’re the best player in the world and its just the easiest game.

Anyway after a week of not winning an all in preflop I wasn’t exactly looking foward to Monday. I definately didn’t expect to final table two majors. I came 2nd in the Titan main weekly tourney for 31k. It’s not a particularly good structure when it gets deep in this tourney so I had to run very well to get there. I found myself heads up with about a 2:1 chip lead. The guy I was up against wasn’t particularly good but didn’t make less than two pair a hand and I eventually lost when I got it in on a 932 flop with 96 vs QQ. I was pretty frustrated because I have a record of 2nd’s in big tourneys (that my friends like to remind me of) and there was a 25k difference between 1st and 2nd. Can’t complain though.

I stopped adding at 10am with the FTOPS main event and at about 3pm I was doin well in that tourney, the Second Chance on and the Sunday 500 both on stars.   I lost back to back races to go out of the second chance and withered away in the Main Event but I went on an insane rush of 20 hands in the Sunday 500 which included QQ>10s blind vs blind followed by to blind steals with JJ/AK, followed by A10>AK blind on blind and then AQ>10s and all of a sudden I was chip leader with about 30 left. I swung up and down a bit from there and came into the final table with 25bbs. I hung around for a bit before running AA into KK and KQ (thats standard isn’t it?) to almost triple. From there I had a running battle with one of the players with him getting the edge over me. Then 4way i raised the button with 55 and he defended from the BB. Flop came down 9cl 6cl 5. He checked I bet, he reraised, I shoved and he called with Q9 drawing semi dead. This took me to chipleader by a decent margin and I was in good position, opening almost every pot and dominating. Then two of the player got it all in and one of them was reduced to 1bb. The 1bb player then proceeded to double and then double again. Now, I couldn’t really open as many pots since he had about 10bb’s and was on my left. Shortly after it folded to me in the SB and I shoved on him with 75 and he snapped with A6 and left me drawing dead on the flop. I folded some more and blinds went up and now I was somehow down to 13bb. It folded to me on the button and I shove 109s and the same guy made the call with 7s from the small blind. I bricked and came 4th for 43k.

I went through my usual ritual of mouse smashing and chair throwing before comming to the realisation that I had to get very lucky to get to that situation and that I probably ran better than 95% of players to get the results I did for the day.

Anyway all’s well that ends well and hopefully I can keep this rush going for a while

Kochan

Swing down

Definately on a MTT downswing at the moment. Really can’t do anything right. Probably been down in my last 3 or 4 sessions. Yesterday (monday) I went deep in a few tourneys and built stacks but didn’t cash them in particular the morning stars 109r and the stars 50r. I was left two tabling alot earlier than I usually am. I was left with FTOPS 9 the heads up event and FTOPS 10 $322 NLHE. I cashed both the events and built a really big stack in the 322 before losing quite a big pot AJ<KK then going really card dead for about an hour and then busting in a 40/60 with 10bbs.

Today was just awful and I basically didn’t see a premium unless I was running it into a better premium. I had my usual 109r finish of 65th with 36 paying. I swear that this tourney is so overratedly difficult. In fact I would definately say that it is a much softer tourney than the tilt 163. Its just so filled with these super spewy players that try and gift you chips. There’s definately a large percentage of the field that think that they’re awesome but play overagressively. Here’s an example:

eat 1: GHSE00011364 (17098 in chips)

Seat 2: FatsoFat6969 (24013 in chips)

Seat 3: Glacier11568 (9735 in chips)

Seat 4: TherookieQQ9 (3660 in chips)

Seat 5: BleedBlue33 (9768 in chips)

Seat 6: sketchy1 (6375 in chips)

Seat 7: 1$ickDisea$E (17635 in chips)

Seat 8: puntnko (11622 in chips)

Seat 9: p W î (13860 in chips)

GHSE00011364: posts the ante 50

FatsoFat6969: posts the ante 50

Glacier11568: posts the ante 50

TherookieQQ9: posts the ante 50

BleedBlue33: posts the ante 50

sketchy1: posts the ante 50

1$ickDisea$E: posts the ante 50

puntnko: posts the ante 50

p W î: posts the ante 50

FatsoFat6969: posts small blind 200

Glacier11568: posts big blind 400

*** HOLE CARDS ***

Dealt to puntnko [Th Ts]

TherookieQQ9: folds

BleedBlue33: folds

sketchy1: folds

1$ickDisea$E: folds

puntnko: raises 700 to 1100

p W î: folds

GHSE00011364: folds

FatsoFat6969: folds

Glacier11568: raises 1900 to 3000

puntnko: raises 8572 to 11572 and is all-in

Glacier11568: calls 6685 and is all-in

Uncalled bet (1887) returned to puntnko

*** FLOP *** [7h Js 6h]

*** TURN *** [7h Js 6h] [9h]

*** RIVER *** [7h Js 6h 9h] [3c]

*** SHOW DOWN ***

Glacier11568: shows [5c 5d] (a pair of Fives)

puntnko: shows [Th Ts] (a pair of Tens)

puntnko collected 20020 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***

Total pot 20020 | Rake 0

Board [7h Js 6h 9h 3c]

 It’s not awful but it’s definately on the spewy side imo.  With 23bb here and relatively earlyish in the tourney still.

Anyways I might play tommorrow but undecided as of yet. Due to the frustrations of running bad I’ve been donking out of some smaller buy in tournaments once I’m out of the big ones. I;m not going to play unless I can get my head clear and get intoa  positive state of mind. This is not looking promising atm but we’ll see

 

Kochan

 

 

Long time no blog

Haven’t written for a while because not much has been happening. After I got back from Melbourne I decided to continue playing some cash games after the success I had had pre-Melbourne. I promptly dropped 8k at 2/4nl on stars in about 3 days. I then moved to PP 2/4nl where I quickly went up 6k and then hovered around there for a while.

From Sunday I have begun playin MTT’s again but without much success. Today I played about 12 tourneys and didn’t cash any. Not running particularly well especially on Full Tilt. Will play again either Saturday or Sunday.

In other news I recently signed with PokerVT (negreanu’s training site) to do training videos there. Seems like it’s a good opportunity for me and I have always been interested in teaching poker to some extent. If you have PokerVT look out for my videos over the next month. If you don’t have it, sign up obv!

Kochan

The tension, the drama, the buzz, the crowd, the mistake

So I started day 2 with 95k chips, perfect position with around 300 players left. My table was nice and soft with mainly stacks with 20bb’s and no-one particularly good or aggressive. In the first level and a half I slowly increased my stack to 110k playing a fair few pots but not making many hands. Soon after that my table got broken and I moved to the table of death. Somehow my healthy 110k stack was only the 5th biggest on my table and I was caught in between some good young players, Zach Gruenberg and Noah Schwartz who had at least 150k each. On the previous table there was generally only one raiser and maybe one caller to each hand, this table there were raisers and callers and 3-bettors and lots of action. My first hand came up with Noah Schartz opening UTG+1 to 2300 at 400/800. I called behind with 87cl and the bb, a young Japanese guy also called. Flop came 436dd and bb lead out for 2k. Noah Scwhartz thought for a while and then made the call and I called as well. Turn comes a 10, a pretty good card giving me a double gutter and this time bb lead out 2500. Schwartz called again and I called. The river came a 7 and the bb tanked for a while and bet out 5500 with Schwartz again making the call. So now action is on me and I’m clearly not ahead. Thing is that I don’t really believe the Japanese guy with a 5 here because his river bet is just so small against 2 players, about half pot. It feels like he has a 76 sort of hand and Schwartz seems to have just played the hand cautuiously with a pair like 8s 9s or even Js. I decide to make it 21k and am quickly called by the Japanese guy with 45off for the straight. OOOOPS!

So back I go to around 80ishk where I stay till the end of the level not getting dealt any hands of any sort. At 500/1000 I raise 109d and continuation bet a Q 4 2  and then give up on the turn sending me back down to 70k. Things are not going according to plan. Noah Schwartz who has been one of the more active players raises utg+1 and it folds to me on the cutoff with JJ where I flat call. The flop comes 882 and he bets out 5.5k. I think for a while and decide that its go time. I’m not happy about it but I dont feel as though I can flat call and allow a Q/K/A come off on the turn and then fold. In addition my hand is very underrepresented and he’s going to have a hard time deciding what to do with 6s, 7s,9s, 10s. I make it 14.5k and he tanks for ages before throwing down his hand. He later told me he folded 9s. Damn those good young online players. Against most live players I probably double up there. Later on in the level a middle aged Irish guy with a big stack who had also been quite active raises UTG to 3000. Again I pick up JJ on the button and flat call. Flop comes down 10 3 2 rainbow and he checks to me. I bet 4800 and he thinks for a while before rolling out 15k. This play makes almost no sense really. If he has JJ,QQ,KK,AA its very unlikely he plays it this way and loses a potential street of value on the flop , especially since I have shown a tendency to check behind often. He can’t have 10s or a set because he would just check/call not reraise on the absolutely nothing flop. I pretty much put him on air or maybe a mid pair and I reraise to 55k. He decides to stare me down which pretty much indicates to me that he doesn’t believe that I have a hand but he knows he doesn’t have a hand either. It makes me regret making my 3bet so big and not leaving enough fold equity. If i had my time over again I would probably make it 42k or so. He eventually folds and my comeback continues. I’m back at 110k

 

Towards the end of the level Noah Schwartz limps UTG+1 and I limp K10cl behind. 1 other limper and the blinds both come in for some 5 way action. Flop comes Qcl Jcl 10. HUUUUUUUUGE FLOP. Pair and royal flush draw ftw! Schwartz makes it 3.5k and I reraise to 8k. Everyone folds back to him where he thinks for a while and rolls out a 4 bet to 20k. I go into the tank and try and break down the hand. He limped here so I cant really put him on AK for the flopped straight. It seems very unlikely that he has 89 as well because his 4bet is so small he’ s not getting me off any sort of draw I might have. If he were to have 89 he would have to make it at least 30k in my opinion. So that leave QJ the most likely possibility or Q10. He’s definately way too good to limp early position with K9 there. So facing his hands of QJ/Q10 I feel as though if I flat call here and 1 of my outs hits the turn, its going to be very easy for him to get off the hand. I also think I’ve got plenty of fold equity against QJ and feel as though he’s unlikely to get it in for a 220k pot. I reraise to 72k indicating that I’m going with this hand. He seems really disgusted and thinks for ages. I get the feeling that he really doesn’t want to fold. Looks down at his cards a few times before folding and saying ‘I can’t believe I’m gonna fold this hand’. He folds and I decide to show my hand and he reels back. ‘I folded JJ’ he says. Wow. So insane gross that he limped JJ there and folded when he flopped a set. Realistically the only hands I play that hand that way are 98 and K10cl so hes never really ahead but still its a very disgusting fold. I’m relieved I don’t have to get it in and race for 230k chips. I’ll take my 135k at the dinner break. 

 

Shortly after the dinner break after folding for the first 3 rounds I decide its time for my inaugral 3bet pre and look for a spot. It seems as though 3betting Schwartz in position is my best play because alot of the other players have a tendency to call 3bets out of position and cause trouble. Also I figure having played so many hands with Schwartz he’d give me more respect for a hand thinking that I wouldn’t want to tango with him light given our history. I raises  to 4000 and I look down at 46d on the button and make it 11500. He calls relatively quickly. OK. Flop comes down 3d 3 4 and he checks to me. I make it 15k. He looks down at his chips and reraises me to 35k. I can’t put him on a gigantic hand here and I figure I should call here and continue my line of JJ-AA. I call and the turn is the Ad and he checks to me. This is a really strange card for me. It gives me outs to my flush and I find it hard to bet since I can’t really represent AK so it negates what I’m trying to represent. I check behind as I would if I had any of JJ-AA here and the river comes a 7. I miss. He checks to me. His hand appears to be 8s-10s here and I feel as though I have represented my hand well enough here to get him to fold those relatively easily. I bet 44k and he seems quite frustrated. ‘I can’t beat you in a pot. You must be the best player in the world.’ I already have visions of rolling over the 6d if he folds but suprisingly he calls. He turns over QQ and I am pwned. I’ve thought a fair bit about this hand and spoken to some people about it. I think it was a case of thinking too much about my hand and not thinking enough about his. As one person told me, raising the flop for information is not a play that young players use very much and when he did it I should have given him more credit for a hand than 8s-10s. If anything he would most likely flat these hands on the flop. So I guess it is a mistake from me but not really one I can beat myself up about too much. I wasn’t unhappy with the way I played the hand and if I hit an 11 outer I could’ve been up to 220k instead of down to 35k. Such is poker.

 

With 35k at 800/1600 I still felt like I was in it. But as usual picked up absolutely nothing and dropped to 20k without playing a hand before going out A6<A9 missing a 14 outer to chop the river. So now I sit deciding whether to play the 6max 2k tourney in 1hr. 

Pros:- I avoid having to be forced to drink Sambucca by roomates when we go out tonight (def. no1 reason) 

           -I like 6max

           – I don’t have alot to do today apart from watch the cricket which I can do while I play

 

Cons: – I hate live poker

            - Got a flight tommorrow at 11am which I would miss if I make day two

            - I’ll probably bust out within 8hrs and will still have to drink Sambucca

            

Pending…

 

Kochan

Bag those chips!

Woooooohoooo

Finally made it through an entire day of poker. Waaaaaayyyy too many hands to go through really but I finished the day with 95k (starting stack 20k) which was well above average. Very syatisfied. Looking foward to day 2 on Wednesday.