Online Poker Tournament Rankings

March 2009 - Posts

• Hands That Change a Tourney

  By dtools22 - Mar 30 2009, 09:10 AM

  Almost every win in any MTT can be traced back to a few key hands that got that person into the money, to the FT, or even to a win.  These hands are often big pots.  Sometimes it's finally winning that big coin flip with 30 runners left in the event, others it's putting a cooler or even bad beat on someone late to build a huge stack.  However a pivotal hand can actually be one that completely flies under the radar.  Maybe you pulled off a huge bluff and didn't show it so no one but you knows how big a turning point that was, maybe you had the nuts and didn't get called down to the river but still won a huge pot, or maybe you were like me and just had an enigma of a hand pop up and it changed the course of the MTT you were in. I was playing in the $2K Guaranteed $4.40 FLHE on Stars this past Friday night.  I had won this tourney at the very beginning of the month and was looking to make another deep run.  At the end of hour 2 I had a top 10 chip stack and was on cruise control.  Big hands kept coming my way and they kept getting paid off.  Even after 45 mins of going card dead I would then pick up a hand and win a big multi-way pot to chip right back up to a top 10ish stack.  The road got a little rocky with 2 tables left but I managed to make it to the FT with a stack of about 169K (ave stack was 183K) and was 6/9 in chips coming in.  That's when things took a nose dive. With 8 players left and only about 10 hands into the FT not much had happened for me.  On my BB the button raises preflop with the stakes at 7K/14K and I decided to defend my blind with A5o.  Here's the HH: PokerStars Game #26446164276: Tournament #149950206, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em Limit - Level XXI (7000/14000) - 2009/03/28 2:31:09 ET Table '149950206 51' 9-max Seat #5 is the button Seat 1: BB-GT-928 (252759 in chips) Seat 2: snatcher657 (376196 in chips) Seat 3: CORY187 (186012 in chips) Seat 4: sixkcpack (154552 in chips) Seat 5: Farscape1 (295676 in chips) Seat 7: pnorwood (173108 in chips) Seat 8: dtools22 (159413 in chips) Seat 9: horsewhiskey (49284 in chips) pnorwood: posts small blind 3500 dtools22: posts big blind 7000 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to dtools22 [5d Ac] CORY187 said, "gg" horsewhiskey: folds BB-GT-928: folds snatcher657: folds CORY187: folds sixkcpack: folds Farscape1: raises 7000 to 14000 pnorwood: folds dtools22: calls 7000 I decided to defend because Farscape1 had been fairly active at the FT so far and the hands he was showing down just made it look like he was catching good so I figured he is very likely trying to make a play here and I don't want to give up my blind so easily. *** FLOP *** [Jh As 4d] Pretty decent flop but since I'm OOP I'm going to let him drive the action a bit here and see what's up.  I don't really want to get a lot of bets in with this hand so I'm going to try and keep the pot small and let him bet at it like he has before.  If he has nothing on the turn, he'll shut it down. dtools22: checks Farscape1: bets 7000 dtools22: calls 7000 *** TURN *** [Jh As 4d] [5s] Gin.  Now I'm looking to torch this guy for everything I can.  I figure if he bets again on the turn then I'm at least going to get him to call a raise on the turn and then a river bet, netting me 42K just on those three bets. dtools22: checks Farscape1: bets 14000 dtools22: raises 14000 to 28000 Farscape1: raises 14000 to 42000 dtools22: raises 14000 to 56000 Betting is capped Farscape1: calls 14000 *** RIVER *** [Jh As 4d 5s] [Jc] Was not expecting the betting to be capped on the turn but I figure more than likely it's something like AK/AQ and he's going crazy.  The river obviously is a total dumpster fire card.  I now beat very very little however I still have to call a river bet by him in case he has some kind of busted draw of which there are pleanty out there. dtools22: checks Farscape1: bets 14000 dtools22: calls 14000 *** SHOW DOWN *** Farscape1: shows [Ad Ah] (a full house, Aces full of Jacks) dtools22: mucks hand Farscape1 collected 185500 from pot That hurt bad.  Suddenly I'm staring elimination square in the face.  I don't regret playing the hand the way I did at all given reads on my opponent but man does that turn hurt my hand in an epic fashion.  At this point I am in dire need of some serious help to stay alive.  Now, while this was a big hand this was not my most pivotal hand of the match.  I found myself 15 hands later in the BB again.  Action was folded around to the SB who limped along.  I checked my option in the BB with 53hh.  Here's the HH: PokerStars Game #26446317618: Tournament #149950206, $4.00+$0.40 Hold'em Limit - Level XXI (7000/14000) - 2009/03/28 2:41:28 ET Table '149950206 51' 9-max Seat #5 is the button Seat 1: BB-GT-928 (231759 in chips) Seat 2: snatcher657 (384946 in chips) Seat 3: CORY187 (152762 in chips) Seat 4: sixkcpack (105552 in chips) Seat 5: Farscape1 (460176 in chips) Seat 7: pnorwood (208108 in chips) Seat 8: dtools22 (54413 in chips) Seat 9: horsewhiskey (49284 in chips) pnorwood: posts small blind 3500 dtools22: posts big blind 7000 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to dtools22 [3h 5h] sixkcpack said, "nh" horsewhiskey: folds BB-GT-928: folds snatcher657: folds CORY187: folds sixkcpack: folds Farscape1: folds pnorwood: calls 3500 dtools22: checks *** FLOP *** [2c Th 7h] I'm not really going to see many more outs than this so I figure it's do or die time now.  I have to hope I can get lucky and hit a heart or my chances to win this MTT twice in the month go up in smoke. pnorwood: bets 7000 dtools22: raises 7000 to 14000 CORY187 said, "wow what a monster stack farscape" pnorwood: calls 7000 *** TURN *** [2c Th 7h] [Ts] Not really the card I had in mind, down to one card for my MTT life.  Villain bet out on the flop so he has to be willing to go the distance with me here. pnorwood: checks dtools22: bets 14000 pnorwood: folds Uncalled bet (14000) returned to dtools22 dtools22 collected 42000 from pot Holy shitcakes Batman!!!!  He mucked the hand.  I took down a very badly needed pot with 53hh and was now sitting on a 75K stack.  I had a buddy of mine watching me at the FT and I said to him, "If I go on to win this MTT, that hand is the reason why."  I'm sure some of you are wondering why this is such a big hand.  The reality of what just happened is that I was in a do or die spot where I was bleeding chips and in the BB I had a hand that if this pot was raised at all preflop I was going to have to fold off another 7000 chips that I really couldn't afford to lose.  I not only get to see a flop for free but the pot goes HU and I pick up a draw that I can run with.  The SB then makes the big mistake of putting a bit into this pot when he is not willing to go to the river and I wind up scooping a much needed 21K. I did in fact go on to win the MTT for a $412.85 1st prize.  What was more important to me however was the fact that I've now taken this MTT down not once, but twice.  I have validated myself a little bit with this second win as a good Limit HE player.  Either than or I am just running really really good.  Whatever the case may be, hopefully I can translate this win into some SCOOP low limit success. 3 Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.




• My Sith Apprentice

  By dtools22 - Mar 26 2009, 08:10 PM

  The poker economy is a fascinating thing.  The rate at which money changes hands can be extraordinary and I'm not talking about wins and losses.  Backing arrangements are as old as sin in the poker world, they are a way for good players to get a shot in some bigger buy in MTTs and games.  In some cases however, players get approached by friends or fellow grinders to teach them how to play the game.  I was approached by a buddy of mine recently and I've gotta say it is a pretty cool feeling. I was in a meeting with my fellow film makers of Broken Wall Films talking about what our next project is going to be.  The meeting broke and John, Nick, and I all left Subway to wait for Alex at his apartment (Don't worry about the names it's not terribly important, we're at someone's apartment talking).  Nick left a few minutes later leaving John and I to try and talk about names for his senior project.  I somehow dropped into the conversation that I'd been playing poker more recently since I'd had the past few days off from school.  His response somewhat surprised me. Now I'm sure everyone has friends that for lack of a better term don't understand your "obsession" with the game of poker.  You start to talk even just the slightest bit about skill and you see their eyes start to glaze over.  This is then followed by the infuriating yet all to prevalent response, "It's just gambling, there is no strategy."  However, John for the most part actually seemed interested.  He started asking me what I liked to play, how the numbers worked, where the skill came in.  He was more than just humoring me too, he was actually showing genuine interest in the game and that my friends is the key to life right there.  If you have yet to experience this then I pity you because it's amazing.  Teaching someone else about poker and just having the conversations with them is absolutely a huge rush. Then I got the response I never thought I would get, "Would you be willing to show me how to do it?"  Now to some people I'm sure this is not a huge deal but to me this is epic.  I feel like it is the ultimate validation as a poker player to be asked for help.  More than a big score or a huge cash game session, that validation that you get from having someone approach you about learning the game is simply unmatched.  I was on cloud nine and my ego had gotten a huge boost.  Having said that I asked John some questions and quickly realized he is a grade A noob.  Nothing a little volume won't cure. So, for the first time ever I now have an understudy.  As John put it he is my new Sith Apprentice and it's a very cool feeling.  Moreover for me it's nice to have someone to talk to about cards that I see on a regular basis.  It just brings another level of comrodery to the game that I have been lacking in my persuit of a poker profession.  I can also see this helping me out a great deal in the long run.  By teaching John how to play, I then build up my own foundation of skills and get another pair of eyes looking over my shoulder forcing me to play well. No, I am probably not the best player he could be learning from since I'm still starting out myself but hell I've read the books how hard can this game be, lol. 4 Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.




• BR Doubled in 6 weeks

  By dtools22 - Mar 24 2009, 03:25 PM

  First off everyone, I apologize for the recent blogs and their lack of punch.  I got hit with the flu last week, finals week the week before, miz those two things together with some really boring Foxwoods trips and you have some really shit-tastic blogs so I'm sorry to have made you read them.  Now, putting my best foot forward (in my best Russian accent), "Let's play some cards." When I started this blog I had my eye on a list of goals for the new year in poker.  Some where a little easier to achieve than others: Don't go broke Keep better track of wins/losses Go to Foxwoods at least a few times a month Grow the bankroll Not a hard list, but an ongoing challenge to myself to get better everyday.  I'm very proud to say that I've done well thus far.  My online bankroll went from $300 to about $750 in a little less than 6 weeks (it helps to run good in a few MTTs and the $4.40s on Stars).  I've also been able to pay off bills with some of the winnings.  and grow the Live game BR to about $300.  Still not a true BR for games like 1/2NL or 4/8 LHE, but it's been going in the right direction and that's the big part. There are many things lacking from my achievements in the poker world, and if that's news to you I appreciate the support but I'm simply too green at being a pro to have done much of anything.  Time will tell whether or not I can make this last but for the mean time, there are a few things on my list I would like to before the year is out. Get an MTT score worth $1K+ Get to 800PLB points Win a live MTT The first one on that list really bothers me.  It's not as thought I am new to MTTs and have a case of I-saw-it-on-tv-ites.  Over the summer I played about 210 MTTs, cashed in 51 or them, 13 FTs, 7 top 3 finishes, 5 3rds, 2 wins.  Pretty solid stats, ROI up over 100%, cash rate 25%, and yet with all this success, when I played in the bigger MTTs I always found a way to bubble when it mattered most.  I'm very proud of the MTT success I have had, but it's definitely a sticking point to have your biggest win be worth only $810.  I'm not complaining btw, everyone has something to improve upon and that's a big one of mine. Short, sweet, and to the point, the BR has doubled and the career is heading in the right direction.  Now that I'm feeling better I plan on getting some really solid hours in to continue to grow the BR and get better.  My fellow grinders, cya at the tables. 3 Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.




• All You Need is Love

  By dtools22 - Mar 20 2009, 03:09 PM

  For those of you who have taken a terrible beat and need a way to calm down, I have just the story to make you feel better.  Foxwoods set up a bad beat Jackpot as a way to create some more action at their tables.  This is fairly obvious because the prize pool never seems to get about $2500 before someone hits it.  The rules are fairly simple, you must use both the cards in your hand in holdem and you have to lose with AAAJJ or better.  If that happens then you get 50% of the prizepool, the person who put the beat on you gets 25% and the rest of the table splits the last 25%.  The rules vary slightly depending on the game but that's not the point for now. I was walking around the poker room when I heard a loud comotion coming from one of the 2/5NL games.  Normally those guys stay a little bit quieter than the 1/2 nutjobs so I wandered over.  I didn't see the hand but all I heard was one of the gentleman signal the floor over and say he needed to move down to 1/2 because he was now stuck 2K.  I chuckled hearing this.  It's only logic a poker player can appreciate, "Well I took a shot and missed, time to move back down."  Anyone else hears that they think to themselves that this man was nothing more than a degenerate gambler looking for thrills. About 30 mins later I got up again to get food and I saw the same guy in a big hand at a 1/2NL table.  All the money got in on the turn with the board reading AAJ6 rainbow.  The villain flipped over his AK and our hero from the other game rolled over AJ.  Sure enough the river comes off Ks and our hero goes down in flames yet again.  Just as he is about to muck the cards someone finally says to this guy, "Hey stop, that's good for the jackpot."  The floor gets called over.  He sees the hand and congradulates the players on being part of todays bad beat jackpot.  He then asked everyone for their IDs so he could go back and have security bring the prize money out.  Our hero starts telling the table how he could use the boost, he's stuck right now $2250 on the day and it would be nice to get something back.  The table starts joking around with him and everyone is having a great time. The floor comes back out with a solemn look on his face.  He then declairs to the table, "I'm sorry gentleman, the bad beat jackpot was already hit today and cannot be hit again until tomorrow."  Our hero gets up at this point and goes to the floor, "So we get nothing after all that?"  The floor nods.  The hero then just looks at him straight faced and said, "Then I'm leaving, I'll be back tomorrow when my running bad might be worth something.  But before I do, I think at the very least I deserve a hug to make me feel better."  The table was in stitches, I watched in awe as the floor just turned to him, hugged him, and said, "See ya tomorrow." Just in case you thought your bad beats sucked, or that they only happened online, this one should make you feel a little bit better. 2 Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.