Laugh over peoples ideas about late tournament play

So I just busted 7th out of that 90 man I mentioned last post. And the guy who called my shoved and spiked the river to knock me out asks "Why All In?" So I feel compelled to have an ego know-it-all moment.

Numbers don't mean anything late in tournaments. Stack size and fold equity is EVERYTHING. And for those who haven't figured it out yet: PUSHING ALL IN with a marginal hand IS ALWAYS BETTER than CALLING ALL IN.

For example I played at the Water Tank on Thursday and freaked everyone out when I started open shoving 13K with blinds at 500/1000. It was freaking people out because it THIRTEEN THOUSAND AND THAT'S SO MUCH.

NO IT'S NOT. It's 13 big blinds and taking 1500 in blinds represents more than a 10% increase in my stack size. Here's a great example:

Full Tilt Poker Game #11898871252: $3 + $0.30 KO Sit & Go (89178732), Table 10 - 1200/2400 Ante 300 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:54:21 ET - 2009/04/27
Seat 2: Dray (27,320)
Seat 3: Artemii 83 (36,652)
Seat 4: QUOVADIS37 (27,128)
Seat 5: Xblack iceX (82,540)
Seat 6: Daholyone (19,284)
Seat 7: susu56 (25,866)
Seat 8: rocktum (51,210)
Dray antes 300
Artemii 83 antes 300
QUOVADIS37 antes 300
Xblack iceX antes 300
Daholyone antes 300
susu56 antes 300
rocktum antes 300
Xblack iceX posts the small blind of 1,200
Daholyone posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dray [As Th]
susu56 folds
rocktum folds
Dray raises to 27,020, and is all in
Artemii 83 folds
QUOVADIS37 folds
Xblack iceX folds
Daholyone folds
Uncalled bet of 24,620 returned to Dray
Dray mucks
Dray wins the pot (8,100)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8,100 | Rake 0
Seat 2: Dray collected (8,100), mucked
Seat 3: Artemii 83 folded before the Flop
Seat 4: QUOVADIS37 (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Xblack iceX (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Daholyone (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: susu56 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: rocktum folded before the Flop

I have just barely over 10bbs if you're not paying attention to the antes. There's 5700 in the pot before cards are even dealt out. That's 20% of my stack! It's VERY worth it to pick up the blinds and antes.

Some people tend to think that the later the tournament and the bigger the blinds, the more "real poker" is being played. BULLSHIT. If you have 20bbs or less I'm sorry you're not playing real poker anymore. You're at the point where if you put any significant portion of your stack and fold you're making a big mistake.

In the above hand, why would I want to raise to 6000 to get called, cbet 8000 on a missed flop and fold to a raise leaving myself with 13000 and 5 bbs? Just fucking shove it and see all 5 cards. #1 there are people who will call you with hands you dominate like lower Aces, KT, QT, etc. #2 if you shove against people who barely have you covered you can make them fold better hands that are marginal such as AJ, or pocket pairs like 66, 77, or 88 because they're afraid you might have a big one. #3 If they call you with a pair like that, you're guaranteed to see all 5 cards and you can't get pushed off a flop you miss. When you're so low on chips you should be happy to race for 50% equity instead of being stuck lower pair vs higher pair for 20% or being dominated by a higher kicker like AT vs AK for 30%.

Finally I'll say this because I've spent too long on this anyway. When you're shoving consistently without anyone calling you, someone's going to want to take a stand because you have a maniac image. Meaning, they're going to start calling you with weaker and weaker hands. And if you just shove your big hands exactly like you would your others, they're going to pay you off and you'll build a stack so that you CAN play real poker. (I'd say 50bbs at least in tournament play)

I'm not really complaining because I want people to play bad and have totally skewed poker theories that translate into money for me. I've completely stopped the whole know-it-all strategy talk stuff when I'm at a table though. It's stupid and everyone thinks they're right even if they're completely wrong.

But I will reserve the right away from the table to talk strategy and learn from other players who actually care to think about the game, and also to make fun of the bizarre retarded things that people who don't care do and say at the table.

And seriously if you haven't read Harrington on Holdem v.2. You really should.

Here's my last hand from the tourney:


Full Tilt Poker Game #11898914745: $3 + $0.30 KO Sit & Go (89178732), Table 10 - 1500/3000 Ante 400 - No Limit Hold'em - 11:58:30 ET - 2009/04/27
Seat 2: Dray (38,520)
Seat 4: QUOVADIS37 (32,428)
Seat 5: Xblack iceX (73,640)
Seat 6: Daholyone (23,170)
Seat 7: susu56 (57,832)
Seat 8: rocktum (44,410)
Dray antes 400
QUOVADIS37 antes 400
Xblack iceX antes 400
Daholyone antes 400
susu56 antes 400
rocktum antes 400
susu56 posts the small blind of 1,500
rocktum posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dray [Jd Qs]
Dray raises to 38,120, and is all in
QUOVADIS37 folds
Xblack iceX folds
Daholyone folds
susu56 calls 36,620
rocktum folds
Dray shows [Jd Qs]
susu56 shows [3d 3s]
*** FLOP *** [8h Js Td]
*** TURN *** [8h Js Td] [Kd]
*** RIVER *** [8h Js Td Kd] [3c]
Dray shows a pair of Jacks
susu56 shows three of a kind, Threes
susu56 wins the pot (81,640) with three of a kind, Threes
Dray stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 81,640 | Rake 0
Board: [8h Js Td Kd 3c]
Seat 2: Dray showed [Jd Qs] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 4: QUOVADIS37 folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Xblack iceX folded before the Flop
Seat 6: Daholyone (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 7: susu56 (small blind) showed [3d 3s] and won (81,640) with three of a kind, Threes
Seat 8: rocktum (big blind) folded before the Flop

The hits keep on comin

I had me another nice run in an MTT, 3rd in a $2.25 180 man good for like $45. That boosts me up to like $275. It's funny how streaky poker is. I've actually been indecisive on what to do with this money boost, like what direction to go in. Sometimes I get bit by the tournament bug really bad and that's what I find myself looking for constantly. But I also know that the variance is so high, I don't REALLY want to bang away at them because the money's always few and far between.

Honestly lately I've been so indecisive lately that when I'm not feeling it I either don't play at all or just very little. I haven't started 4 tabling $5 sngs and I'm glad because the $2.25's I've been grinding the last 2 weeks haven't been going well at all. It seems like the last few sessions I've put in I cash in 1 out of the 4 I play and it's usually a 3rd or 2nd. Good thing I'm making up for it in other games!

I'm thinking about straight buying into the $33 WSOP satellite in two Sundays. It's a big guarantee for $2500 packages to the series, $1000 buyin for event #4 and $1500 travel expenses. My interest in tokens and satelliting in for less is really down because I'd probably spend the same amount trying to win the dang buyin. I dunno we'll see. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing and take it as it comes.

Real world update I officially have a job with Blizzard Entertainment, the company that created World of Warcraft. I start training in a week. The pay is kind of low so I'm still keeping my eyes out for other opportunities. I actually have an interview with a real estate company tomorrow to be there admin assistant. The pay's a little closer to what I was making at SWA but they don't offer benefits. Whatever happens I'll be happy to be working again. Blizzard seems like a really cool company with a very young employee base. I already have two friends that work for them.

OK I'm getting distracted from the $3.30 90 man I'm in right now. Later!

While Full Tilt's down...

I was just in the middle of 3 games and now Full Tilt's servers went down, so time to catch up.

The good luck last Saturday continued as I took down a $3.30 90 man while working at the station. That boosted my roll up to $250 and I haven't seen that much in my account since NOVEMBER. The one I took down was actually my 3rd shot after doing nothing and being card dead in my first two. I was thinking to myself, maybe 3rd time's the charm in the $3.30 when I entered the last one. The difference between the winning game and the first two? A fuck it mentality. Seriously. In turbo tournament poker, a little bit of fuck it goes a long way.

The hilarious hand that started my run was me reraising the guy on my right with AT and he calls. I hit nothing on the flop but my stack is just slightly over the pot size so when he checks, I just shove and he calls with T5 of hearts with 2 hearts on the board and misses. At the final table I remember winning a big coinflip with 66 against AK to get a decent stack. After that I just ran pretty hot.

It's almost tempting to start multitabling $5.50 SNGs now but I'm going to wait and work up the roll a little bit higher before going there. I'm sure the difficulty level is the same as $2.25's but I want the added protection. And since I've gone back to grinding the $2.25's I've been running/playing not so good.

Before FTP went down I was listening to the 2+2 poker podcast and they were talking about this clip of Annie Duke from the Celebrity Apprentice:



Umm that generated unpleasant images in my brain. I've never been that crazy about Annie Duke. She's one of the most well known female poker players but I really don't consider her to be THAT great. Plus I think she's pretty annoying personally. She gave an interview about the Ultimate Bet scandal on Pokerroad and she straight up filibustered them and wouldn't let them ask any questions. It was stupid.

My favorite female poker player is probably Kathy Liebert, even though some people think she's annoying. LOL Why she doesn't rub me the wrong way I don't know, I guess my respect level for her skill negates me caring about her personality. I've never gotten what the big deal is. Jennifer Harman's a close 2nd for fav female pro.

While we're on the subject if you've never seen this clip of Jennifer Tilly on Poker After Dark it's a classic you must know NOW:



Everyone's reaction to how bad she played the hand is what makes this so awesome. Harman looks disgusted, Lindgren looks like "Wow", and Ivey looks like half shock and half I'm trying so hard not to laugh my ass off.

One last thing, in poker news the WPT Championship is happening right now at the Bellagio. I honestly haven't been keeping up with many of the tourneys since I've been unemployed, but I checked in to see who's left and there are quite a few noticeable names including well known online players. Check it out.

Saturday's off to a good start

I've barely touched Full Tilt this week. Since last Saturday I played one 4-tabling round of SNGs. I've just been really busy working the temp call center job from 7-2:30. That schedule has me ready to crash anywhere from 10:30-Midnight. Tuesday night we also had our church small group meeting which went well. It was nice going to church this past Sunday and recognizing people from the group.

I probably could've stayed in and grinded a lot last night while Kristina closed at Old Navy but instead I invited Patrick over to spin some records. I really love that the speakers are working well thanks to me restripping the speaker wire when Eli came over a month ago. Long before I was obsessed with poker I was hooked on vinyl. Even though I've heard most of my records hundreds of times I still get the same joy from mixing and jamming out. Last Friday I had an hour and a half between work and meeting Kristina to get her hail damage appraised. I just came home and straight rocked it for the whole time and then headed out. The only greater satisfaction with DJ'ing is doing the same thing but in front of a crowd that gets it and loves it.

So anyways this morning Kristina's back at work and I just fired up a $5.50 18 man and took 2nd place, good for a $21 profit. My account balance this month started out at $133 and now it's up $187 so I'm definitely walking on sunshine so far today. I know $21 isn't anything to get giddy over in terms of itself, but in terms of percentage increase in my bankroll and that it's 3x the amount a $2.25 SNG win would get me it's a VERY nice boost.

Oh about the hail damage, State Farm's cut us a check for $3500 so we'll be shopping around for a used car in the coming weeks. Kristina came up with the brilliant idea of us keeping her car with the salvage title to it and using the money to get a 4 door that she'll need for the baby. So she'll get the four door and I'll start driving her Civic, which means we can kiss my piece of shit car goodbye!!!!!! And not only will I have a car with AC after being deprived for over 5 years, but all the stickers are updated so no more sweating close encounters with the police. And I imagine with the change in car status perhaps our insurance premiums will go down too.

No real advancements in the job search. As far as I know the temp job is over for now until they call me back, which could be on Monday if last time was any indicator. I do have a possible lead through one of Kristina's friends. Her fiancee knows a guy who's leaving next week and so as soon as he knows what I have to do to apply for the job they'll let me know. It's a good company with flexible schedules and good benefits and the job would be kind of an inventory clerk type deal. So I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that it will work out and we can get some kind of stability back in this sphere of life.

Don't forget to check the baby blog for updates about the pregnancy. We've got another appointment coming up this Wednesday afternoon! I'm officially excited for this baby now. :)

Annoying

The start of this month I was running insanely good and the last few days it's starting to even out. The last 2 or 3 rounds I've put in I've cashed in maybe 1 out of 4, no wins either.

This just happened and I wanted to post it because it's really annoying to me. It really eggs me when I've spent 10 minutes shoving and abusing the bubble and the tightwad that's not playing anything does this to me in 2 hands:


Full Tilt Poker Game #11625563951: $2 +

$0.25 Sit & Go (87248110), Table 1 -

150/300 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:24:47

ET - 2009/04/11
Seat 3: 1Krom (4,380)
Seat 4: Dray (4,415)
Seat 7: romasik77 (1,910)
Seat 8: skeyediver (2,795)
Dray posts the small blind of 150
romasik77 posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dray [Ks Th]
skeyediver folds
1Krom folds
Dray raises to 4,415, and is all in
romasik77 has 15 seconds left to act
romasik77 calls 1,610, and is all in
Dray shows [Ks Th]
romasik77 shows [6c 5c]
Uncalled bet of 2,505 returned to Dray
*** FLOP *** [Qc 8c 2c]
*** TURN *** [Qc 8c 2c] [9h]
*** RIVER *** [Qc 8c 2c 9h] [5d]
Dray shows King Queen high
romasik77 shows a flush, Queen high
romasik77 wins the pot (3,820) with a

flush, Queen high
Dray is feeling angry
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,820 | Rake 0
Board: [Qc 8c 2c 9h 5d]
Seat 3: 1Krom (button) didn't bet

(folded)
Seat 4: Dray (small blind) showed [Ks

Th] and lost with King Queen high
Seat 7: romasik77 (big blind) showed

[6c 5c] and won (3,820) with a flush,

Queen high
Seat 8: skeyediver didn't bet (folded)

Full Tilt Poker Game #11625569699: $2 +

$0.25 Sit & Go (87248110), Table 1 -

150/300 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:25:20

ET - 2009/04/11
Seat 3: 1Krom (4,380)
Seat 4: Dray (2,505)
Seat 7: romasik77 (3,820)
Seat 8: skeyediver (2,795)
romasik77 posts the small blind of 150
skeyediver posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dray [Ac 4h]
1Krom folds
Dray raises to 2,505, and is all in
romasik77 raises to 3,820, and is all

in
skeyediver folds
romasik77 shows [Js Ah]
Dray shows [Ac 4h]
Uncalled bet of 1,315 returned to

romasik77
*** FLOP *** [Kc Jh 5h]
Dray: gg
*** TURN *** [Kc Jh 5h] [7h]
*** RIVER *** [Kc Jh 5h 7h] [2s]
romasik77 shows a pair of Jacks
Dray shows Ace King high
romasik77 wins the pot (5,310) with a

pair of Jacks
Dray stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,310 | Rake 0
Board: [Kc Jh 5h 7h 2s]
Seat 3: 1Krom didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Dray (button) showed [Ac 4h]

and lost with Ace King high
Seat 7: romasik77 (small blind) showed

[Js Ah] and won (5,310) with a pair of

Jacks
Seat 8: skeyediver (big blind) folded

before the Flop

Sorry for the poor formatting this is just how it looked after I pasted it into Notepad. I got my first rakeback deposit yesterday for $3.70 which is cool.

On a real world note I've been working as a temp at a call center for the last week. The shift is from 7am-2:30pm and the people there are really laid back. They don't regiment your breaks they just want you to document them. The break room has internet and Wii. It sucks getting up going to be early and waking up at 5:45 but I really like getting out at 2:30. Not battling traffic is pretty sweet too.

I still need to keep looking for a permanent job though. I did my minimum searches all on Monday when I was off and nothing since. I called and did a phone interview for a dentist's office, still haven't heard back about that. One of Kristina's friends had a lead for me too in her friend's husband's office. Some guy is going to be putting in his 2 weeks this week I think. It's an inventory type job and it's supposed to be a pretty decent company with lots of perks.

What else...we're probably going to be getting a new car soon. We took Kristina's civic to get appraised for hail damage yesterday and they said it was really close to totaling out. So we might end up taking the money and getting a used car that has four doors. That's our primary concern because trying to get a baby in and out of that thing would be a pain in the ass. I always thought we'd be replacing my car but it's been 3 or 4 years since I've talked about it and it's never happened. It's at 191K miles right now (Mazda Protege) and even though it has no AC, among other things, I still think I can get a couple more years out of it.

Also, we were looking into possibly transferring into a 1 bed/1 study apartment this week that was going to be cheaper than the rent we're paying. But that got totally screwed because I don't have a job and so I wouldn't be able to pass their screen for that. Dammit. Kristina wasn't happy with the situation, but I thought about it and at least the timing of my layoff was good to where our lease isn't up until August. If it had come up sooner and we were looking to move we'd be facing the same situation.

That's enough for now. Here's a made for TV hand that I played this morning:

Full Tilt Poker Game #11625332924: $2 + $0.25 Sit & Go (87248199), Table 1 - 60/120 - No Limit Hold'em - 10:01:30 ET - 2009/04/11
Seat 1: volucer (3,520)
Seat 2: bellheim (2,350)
Seat 3: crazyboyroy (2,820)
Seat 4: Sphageus (935)
Seat 5: SwannySA (1,490)
Seat 6: Dray (1,650)
Seat 7: mt204 (735)
volucer posts the small blind of 60
bellheim posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Dray [Ac 4c]
crazyboyroy folds
Sphageus has 15 seconds left to act
Sphageus folds
SwannySA folds
Dray raises to 1,650, and is all in
mt204 folds
volucer folds
bellheim calls 1,530
Dray shows [Ac 4c]
bellheim shows [5d 5c]
*** FLOP *** [3s Ad 5s]
*** TURN *** [3s Ad 5s] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [3s Ad 5s 2c] [5h]
Dray shows a straight, Five high
bellheim shows four of a kind, Fives
bellheim wins the pot (3,360) with four of a kind, Fives
Dray stands up
The blinds are now 80/160
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3,360 | Rake 0
Board: [3s Ad 5s 2c 5h]
Seat 1: volucer (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: bellheim (big blind) showed [5d 5c] and won (3,360) with four of a kind, Fives
Seat 3: crazyboyroy didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: Sphageus didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: SwannySA didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Dray showed [Ac 4c] and lost with a straight, Five high
Seat 7: mt204 (button) didn't bet (folded)

Sweet email this afternoon

I got an email from Full Tilt saying that I can now get rakeback!!!! WOO HOO!!!

It was thought to be that if you already had a preexisting account you couldn't get rakeback. But after poking around on 2+2 I found that some people had managed it by asking for it. I asked a few months ago and the response I got made it seem like I was put on a list to be reviewed later.

Lo and behold today that referred me to a site so I could get it. So now every week I'll get 27% of the fees I pay, and rake collected off the cash games redeposited into my account.

w00t!

March SNG recap

Crunched the numbers this afternoon in Notepad:

69 regular $2.25 9 man SNGs = $155.25 invested
14 wins X $9 = $126
7 seconds X $5.40 = $37.8
9 thirds X $3.60 = $32.40

$196.20 total returned
Profit = $40.95


15 turbo $2.25 9 man SNGs = $33.75 invested
2 wins X $9 = $18
3 seconds X $5.40 = $16.2
1 thirds X 3.60 = $3.60

$37.80 total returned
Profit = $4.05

13 turbo $2.25 6 man SNGs = $29.25 invested
1 win = $9
3 seconds X $5.40 = $16.2
4 thirds X $3.60 = $14.4

$39.60 total returned
Profit = $10.35


$218.25 total invested
$273.60 total returned

$55.35 total profit or 24.6 buyins
ROI = 25%

97 SNGs, 44 cashes, 45% cash rate.

I crapped out again on my goal to stick to SNG's all month. I instead decided to take repeated shots at bigger money with my profits. I played 6 double stacked 90 man knockouts and made two final tables, a 6th and 7th. $12, and $6 profit respectively. Close, but no cigar in my book.

Also played some token games, some multi table tourneys and I also put in quite a few turbo heads up SNGs compared to my normal rate. I mainly wanted to get a little more practice in the quick format in the hopes to improve my performance in the SNGs.

I can't say definitively it had anything to do with it but compared to last months results I had twice as many firsts as seconds. February was the other way around. It's funny when you look back at the stats too, the cash rate is still the same but the profit difference is almost doubled, including the ROI.

Overall I ended up like $15 from the balance I started at the beginning of March. I think it would be tempting to think "Man why didn't I just stick to SNG's and I'd have $40 more added to the balance?" But then I thought that if I played more SNG's there's no guarantee that the profits would still be the same. I could have played maybe 50 more and then ran a little worse and maybe the profits wouldn't have been as high. Who knows?

It reminds me of an interview with Alan Cunningham on Pokerroad radio. He was talking about how it's really hard to know how good of a player you really are in poker. Like any good scientific study it takes a lot of data to get a realistic picture of trends, you know?

I saw a 2+2 post in the SNG forum where a guy had 800 games in and was asking about his play and a lot of people told him that he couldn't draw any real conclusions based on EIGHT HUNDRED GAMES! At the rate I'm playing averaging 100 games a month it's going to take me 6 more months to get to that guys sample size and yet I still can't draw conclusions?

It has to do with variance and how good/bad you run. One guy said you could look at an 800 game sample of his and say he's one of the best there is. And you could take a different 800 games sample and call him a huge donk. That's why players who win big televised tournaments can have a phenomenal year or two and then do nothing for the next 3, 4 or 5.

All I can say is that I KNOW with certainty I ran DAMN good this month and that made a huge difference in the stats. Still, it would be nice to even have enough bankroll to play $5 tournaments to where I could be content with the monthly profits from just grinding SNGs.