Online Poker Tournament Rankings

March 2009 - Posts

• Another FT + Full Analysis

  By pokerpurity - Mar 31 2009, 05:26 PM

  I spent a few hours these last few days, railing some of the bigger online tournaments. Because I’m in Sydney, a lot of the Sunday tournaments’ final tables form during the morning hours, so I was pleasantly watching the action with a cup of coffee in my hand after a relaxing night’s sleep (I feel for the Europeans in these tournaments).   I was watching out of general interest, but obviously also paying attention so that I might pick up on the intricacies of late tournament play – something I openly confessed to needing assistance with, in my last blog.   In fact, I’ve really gone back to becoming a student of the game and this blog has played a vital role. Because I’m reporting HOW I do (and more importantly WHAT I do) I seem to be more alert and more deliberate in my actions. Because I also wanna do well, I’m a lot more intent on improving my established skill-set by way of learning from others – as well as myself. Just yesterday, I decided to do a full review of all hands from my most recent MTT and I went about it as analytically as I could. I figured the objective would be to gain a more thorough understanding of an MTT in general, but also try to unlock any of my inherent traits, which might be hurting my overall success. Here’s what I got:   The last time I played I – incredibly – managed to make another final table. My tournament selection this time was as follows:   Tournament 1: $5.50 rebuy MTT – 14th place                         Profit USD -15.50 Tournament 2: $22 Freezeout MTT – 5th place                        Profit USD 122.00   I thought I’d played well throughout the tournament (another in-the-money finish, 5th overall – I mean, come on – that’s not bad right?), but after having reviewed my hands I’m not so sure. A few stats first:  For the sake of this analysis, the following definitions apply: -          Hands played              =      Hand that did not fold preflop -          Early Position              =      UTG, UTG+1 and UTG+2 -          Middle Position           =     MP1, MP2 and HJ -          Late Position                =     CO, Dealer  TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS SEEN:                                             194 TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS PLAYED:                                           44   Comments: I don’t have much to compare this to, but off-hand seems ok. I’m playing roughly 23% of hands and don’t think it should be a lot more (or less, for that sake) than that.   TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, RAISED:                                       25 TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, LIMPED:                                        5 TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, CHECKED BB:                                5 TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, CALLED RAISE:                              7 TOTAL NUMER OF HANDS, RERAISED:                                       2 This really bothers me. The limped hands aren’t that bad – except for one. Actually, they’re all from the SB except for 1, so it’s not all bad. Still - just because somebody limps ahead of you, does NOT mean you need to follow suit (no pun intended) and limp along with Qd9h. No, the bothersome part is the number of hands I reraised. I did it twice – both times out of the blinds and both times with a pair (9s9h & JsJh). Incidentally, I won both hands but not the point. With my new focus on late-stage tournament play, I’ve come to realize that this is a leak of mine. I’m simply not protecting my chips well enough. Need to start looking for spots, at that stage of the tourney, where I can come over the top of a raiser, when I think he doesn’t have it.   TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, PLAYED FROM EP:                     6 TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, PLAYED FROM MP:                    6 TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, PLAYED FROM LP:                    12 TOTAL NUMBER OF HANDS, PLAYED FROM BLINDS:            18   These figures seem fair enough. Except for 1 hand (raised 7d8d from UTG, just ‘cause it’s soooo pretty) I had the goods each time I raised from EP (inter alia, AA twice), I was very solid from MP as well (KK twice) and apart from a poorly played 6s5s that I raised on the button, as well as a loosey-goosey call with Ac2h from the SB, I can’t find too many errors in my LP/blinds play too much.   The last statistic I’ll share is my ‘frequency of involvement’ – a phrase I coined just now. Please send me a couple of bucks, if you decide to use it. This table is pretty crude, but it proves my point.   Hands 1-30:                                  9 involvements Hands 31-60:                                8 involvements Hands 61-90:                                9 involvements Hands 91-120:                              8 involvements Hands 121-150:                           1 involvement Hands 151-180:                           7 involvements   From my last blog, “Once I get close to the bubble, I definitely try to loosen up my game and thereby take advantage of the weak/timid players”. Well, that’s just a load of bullshit isn’t it? A convenient little sound-bite that I probably picked up from a poker-player with ACTUAL BALLS between his legs. Geez, I’m a pathetic fucking wimp aren’t I. Rhetorical. Don’t answer that.   Starting bankroll: USD 5,173.13 Session result: USD +106.50 New bankroll: USD 5,279.63 Days left until Aussie Millions 2010: 289   More to come. Thanks for reading.   No Comments on this post. 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• 2 Sessions - 1 blog, back-to-back final tables

  By pokerpurity - Mar 28 2009, 06:50 PM

  As the title of this blog hints at, I’m running really well at the moment. I’m not sucking out with 3-outers, in fact I’m not really getting myself into bad spots – it’s more ‘running well’ in the all-of-my-70/30-spots are-holding-up kinda way and as I’m sure you’ll agree with, that just creates a yummy feeling deep down inside, hard to compare with anything else.   I’ve bundled two sessions into one blog this time, cause I couldn’t be bothered to write one for each. My latest sessions involved the following activity/results:   a)      $6.60 rebuy MTT – 10th place (FINAL TABLE);            Profit USD 25.46 b)      $11 Freezeout MTT – 10th place (FINAL TABLE);        Profit USD 43.00 c)       $11 STT, 6 players – 1st place;                                    Profit USD 31.00 d)      $11 STT Deepstack, 10 players – 3rd place;                Profit USD 9.00 e)      $15 Freezeout – 23rd place;                                         Profit USD 21.36 f)       $7.70 rebuy – 27th place;                                             Profit USD 19.09    So 4 MTTs and 2 STTs and I made the money in all of them. Total profit was no more than 148 dollars, but it’s evidence enough that I’m doing something right and that the larger payday is somewhere around the – hopefully not too distant – corner.   MTTs (a) and (b) were pretty standard. In the Freezeout I only JUST made the final table, without actually ever sitting at it, when two of us went out at the same time – he having had fewer chips to start the hand with. My shove was pretty standard. Blinds were 1250/2500/a250, we were 5-handed and with a 25K stack I picked up As10d in the CO. Big blind happened to have jacks – so be it.   My exit in the $6 rebuy was a little more questionable though and after reviewing the hand, I think it’s a VERY marginal situation. Next time I might fold. The final table had just formed and on the 2nd hand I pick up KcQs in the CO. Blinds are 2500/5000/a500 and I have the second-shortest stack at 36K. Bear in mind though, that everyone was playing insanely tight leading up to the FT, so the average was no more than approx. 60K. We’re nine-handed and it folds to MP+2 who shoves for 62K, folds to me. What’s correct here? In my experience, as soon as you get to the final table, people loosen up considerably, so I think it’s fair to assume that his range is not just JJ+ here.   I remember clicking call and not liking it very much. Based on the stack-blind ratio it seemed like an insta-call opportunity, yet I wasn’t feelin’ it. My mood didn’t improve, when the dealer snap-called right after. MP+2 flips over two red nines and the dealer showed AsKs. Hmmm… still unsure.   Not much to tell about the other tourneys or the STTs for that sake. One thing did however become very clear. I have failed to adjust properly to bubble-play and late-stages-play in MTTs. Especially one guy in the $15 freezeout was a real pain in the neck, but I was basically letting him walk all over me. It dawned on me when I was reading Annette_15’s blog earlier. She was referencing a few articles on the Betfair site written by Marcus Bateman and in particular one of them was a real eye-opener. Once I get close to the bubble, I definitely try to loosen up my game and thereby take advantage of the weak/timid players – a sound strategy. I simply failed to be aware that someone might be watching me, like I was watching them. Two to my left was this douchebag, who kept coming over the top of me. God, did I feel owned.   Anyway, something I’ll try to be more aware of.   The one last thing I’ll mention is volume. I’m clearly not putting in enough volume right now to make any serious headway towards my goal, so that will need to be rectified. Right now I’m just happy with my results and hope to keep it going.   Starting bankroll: USD 5,024.22 Session result: USD +148.91 New bankroll: USD 5,173.13 Days left until Aussie Millions 2010: 294   More to come. Thanks for reading.   No Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.




• Two Deep Runs

  By pokerpurity - Mar 27 2009, 01:48 PM

  Tournament 1: NLHE, 5 dollar buy-in & 584 entrants. $2,000 Guaranteed Prize-pool.Tournament 2: NLHE, 25 dollar buy-in & 135 entrants. Double-stack event.  That was the line-up for the day. As I hinted in my last post, I made deep runs in both of them and played well for the most part. A few hand histories coming up – you be the judge. A general note first though. I’ve been doing some thinking about what my general edge in tournaments is. Obviously, I think I’m better than the average player – otherwise I might as well flush the buy-in down the toilet, but that aside, I doubt I’d be able to put a number on my ‘skill level’ if I tried. Does it really matter? Well, probably not, but sometimes I like to boost myself a little bit, before going into battle and reminding myself that at a 10-handed table, at least say… 6 other players are worse than I am, oftentimes does the trick! Having just written the above paragraph and knowing that mates of mine might be reading this, I just realized how pleased I am that I didn’t start talking about my skill level OUT-LOUD! Make no mistake, had I done so in their vicinity – at least 99% of them would be either rolling on the floor laughing or barking ‘BULLSHIT’ behind muffled coughs. That’s just good-natured needling and part of how we roll. So many tiers of irony and sarcasm, you wouldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t have it any other way though. Last thought on skill-level needed when playing MTTs. This might seem radical to some, might just seem stupid to others, but consider this: If you are consistently the second-worst player at any table, but the best at identifying and exploiting the worst player, you should have a theoretically sound chance of finishing 9th in every tournament you play. Right? Talk about random thoughts… So, I played the aforementioned two tournaments. Just went through my hand histories and I saw a total of 185 hands in the $5 tourney and 213 hands in the $25 tourney. Won’t bore you with all the hands, but here are a few interesting ones: NLHE, 5dollar. Standard online tourney which starts me off with 1500 chips and 10/20 blinds. I raise good hands during the first two levels, but don’t get much action and it’s not until the third level (20/40) that I find a good spot. With 1415 in my stack I open AdQh to 110 in MP+2 and am called by the dealer and both blinds. Pot 440, FLOP: 6d-Ac-9c Check to me and I bet 280, roughly 2/3 of the pot. The dealer, who started the hand with 1870 in chips, now moves all-in and the blinds fold. Without a very specific read, there’s no way I’m ever folding here and the fact that there’s a flushdraw out there helps. I call, he shows Ah3c which doesn’t hit. A very easy double early in the tournament. For a long time, nothing interesting happens. I’m not getting out-of-line and because of my early double I have absolutely no reason to. During the 40/80 level I raise two queens to 220 from UTG, get two callers and take it down on the J-high flop. No tough decisions required. I do get a little lucky during that same level, as not too long after the queens, I find myself in the HJ with two jacks. UTG minraises and it folds to me. I hate this spot. The UTG raise completely polarizes his range (at least in my experience) and I have no idea what to do with my hand. As a result, I just call the 160. It then folds to the BB who moves all-in for 3900 (covers both of us) and UTG SNAP-calls with his stack of 1600. It’s on me and I have an easy fold, guessing the BB is in big trouble. Turns out it’s the BB who’s got the kings, whereas UTG must’ve thought he was picking off a steal, as he shows a measly Ad7h. (Note: Wouldn’t have put A7 in the UTG’s range and have decided to chalk it up to poor play – just because I don’t know what else to do with it, but I’ll be aware of it in the future). By the time we get to the 60/120 level, my stack is still hovering around 3K with no interesting confrontations to write home about. I then face another UTG minraise: I’m UTG+1 with QhJh and again I just call the 240. MP+1 calls as well, as does the BB. 4 players: Pot 1020, FLOP: Ah-Qc-8h The original raiser checks to me and I remember checking my stack at this point. Only in the last few months have I become more aware of my bet-sizing and what opportunities you can create for yourself by calculating what one bet will leave you with, stack-wise, for subsequent streets. After the flop I had 2820 in my stack and was getting ready to bet. Since I might not have the best hand on the flop, I figured I might also need a substantial bet (close to the pot) for the turn, if I’m called on the flop and don’t make my hand. Incidentally, my ‘usual’ flop c-bet would be 2/3 of the pot and that worked out nicely here too. By betting 660, I was leaving myself with 2160 for the turn, which – if called by 1 player – would represent approx 90% of the pot. MP+1 decided to tag along as the only one. POT 2340, TURN: 6h It’s always nice to get there, but in this spot I was so ready to jam my stack on a semi-bluff, that I really didn’t know what to do with a made hand. My days of playing Omaha eventually took over, meaning I stuck it all in there anyway. It has the added value of actually looking like an all-in-desperation-bluff, which is sometimes rewarded in low-stakes-MTTs. In this case it was – MP+1 thought for a little bit and called me with Ac10h. Stack afterwards: 6660. Jumping ahead to 125/250/a25 after a few uneventful levels, I find “that one big hand” which all of a sudden catapults me up towards the chiplead. My stack has at this point grown into approx 10K: UTG limps with 3700 behind and it folds to me on the HJ with 8c9c. Up until this point, the table has been quite acquiescent towards EP limpers, creating limp-festivals. With that reasoning, I decide to limp behind with my suited connector. The CO, who just covers me, comes along and it folds to the BB who checks. 4 players: POT 1375, FLOP: 4c-8h-9h I’m obviously loving this flop, but hadn’t quite counted on getting as much action as I did. BB leads for 1350, UTG calls and now it’s on me. The pot is an awkward 4075 and I’ve got roughly 9500 – again a spot where I’m not quite sure of myself. Stick it all-in now because I’m getting it in no matter what happens, or raise a little bit because there’s value in letting them come over the top of me? Still don’t know. I end up making it 4000 to go and then something unexpected happens. The CO, next to act, moves all-in. BB folds, UTG calls and I… well, also call hoping for the best. UTG shows: JhJs - CO shows: Ah10h. Just checked the odds calculator and those two hands combined are approximately 50% versus my hand. Guess I only needed positive equity against the CO, but still – should/could I have played this differently? Think I’d have to do the same thing if faced with a similar situation. As you might have guessed, board bricks out and a little more than 25K in chips slide my way. At blind level 300/600/a100 it folds to me on the button with 9s7d, I raise to 1800 and the BB calls. I c-bet 3200 on the 5sJhQs flop, he moves all-in and I have to fold. Not happy with this play. I had been opening quite a few pots and should have known that somebody was bound to play back at me soon – 9,7 offsuit just isn’t good enough for me to go into battle with. More patient but boring tournament play for the next few levels and by the time we reach 500/1000/a100 I’m sitting on circa 20K in chips. On the button I pick up AhKd. The CO, who covers me, makes it 3000 – I reraise all-in and the BB calls all-in for a little less than 10K. CO folds, I’m up against 7h7s and win, when I flop an ace. Stack is now 35K. We’re now down to two tables in the tournament and I pick a weird line in this next hand. Blinds 800/1600/a160. I’m the SB with 4c4h. We’re 8-handed and 1 before the HJ raises preflop to 4800. I’ve got 32K and he covers me. I’m the only caller. POT 12480, FLOP: 4d-5h-Kh Basically, GIN! What SHOULD my thought process be in this hand?? A: “Down to 16 in the tourney, you’ve flopped a huge hand, just check it to the other guy and hope he bets. You’re not afraid of giving away free cards, cause he’ll probably bet draws anyway.” B: “If you lead into him now, he’ll probably remember that you did the exact same thing 133 hands ago against that other guy, who called you down all the way and picked off your ridiculous bluff, wherefore it would make the most reverse-opposite sense for you to bet out now and completely throw him off. In fact, it is almost guaranteed that he is an absolute maniac, even though he hasn’t shown that yet, but against you he probably will be – cause they’re ALL out to get you – so hurry up and bet into the guy, so that he can push all-in with his hand that most likely hasn’t hit anything”. I bet 7500, he folded and I felt like an idiot. I didn’t make the final table in this tournament, but not much I could’ve done: Still 8-handed but with blinds at 1000/2000/a200, I pick up AdKd UTG+1 and make my standard raise to 6000. The CO who was nursing a 6BB stack moves all-in and a little surprisingly the SB (who covers me) just calls. When it gets back to me, I re-shove my stack for 33,200 total. SB now folds and I’m racing against two red jacks. He makes a set on the flop and wins the hand. After this hand, I was still left with a little more than 21K, which wasn’t too bad at that point. However, the tables had just been balanced, we were now 7-handed AND the blinds had just gone up to 1250/2500/a250. When I saw a pair of 5’s UTG I insta-shoved. Guess that should be standard when your M is slightly less than 8, but it still hurts when the SB calls with AQ and you go out in 14th place. The NLHE 25dollar tournament I played simultaneously and ended up coming 13th there. I busted almost at the exact same time as the 5dollar tourney and also here my final hand was a small pair not holding up against two overcards. I’ll get there eventually, but the Aussie Millions is still quite far away. Starting bankroll: USD 4,991.90 Session result: USD +32.32 New bankroll: USD 5,024.22 Days left until Aussie Millions 2010: 305   Until next time. Thanks for reading.   No Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.




• Challenge details

  By pokerpurity - Mar 27 2009, 06:53 AM

  Well, ladies and gentlemen – I suppose we’re now officially ’off’, what with my first poker-related entry posted online for all to see and this third entry overall being composed right now. I’m currently at home, sitting in the office/guest room of my Sydney apartment. My girlfriend and I just returned from something as mundane as grocery shopping which also included stopping by the bottle shop for a bottle of white wine and a six-pack of “Hahn Super Dry – Premium Low Carb Beer” – one of which is now right next to me. I guess the ‘low carb’ bit is slightly gay, but to me the stuff tastes just as good as the beer-gut-inducing alternative, so what the hell. The unaccompanied beer-drinking is new to me and not something I aim to pursue in any way, but when I went to get the white wine, it was a spur-of-the-moment kind of decision. I guess I’m looking to move away from only picking some up, when I know that mates of mine are coming by to get wasted! I’ll be 29 this winter (that’s actually ‘summer’ to all of you in the northern hemisphere) and I feel it’s only natural the way my beer consumption has evened itself out over the past few years. Not nearly as often do I find myself downing 10 bottles on a single night, whereas having one from time to time at home - “just ‘cause” - happens more regularly. Back to the figurative felt. Initially, I promised you all a bit more information about myself, as well as some more detail on the rules that I’ve laid down for this challenge. As others before me have done quite well in establishing frameworks for similar things, I’ll be courteously steeling from them. Here are the ground rules: I will start with a bankroll of USD 5,000.00 and my overall goal will be to grow that bankroll into enough money for me to buy into the main event + all preliminary events at the Aussie Millions 2010. I will be playing ONLY sit’n’gos and MTTs – NO cash games. Cash games have been and will always be my poison, but I have never done well in them on a consistent basis. Whether they’ve made me a better poker player, I don’t know. I’ve read stuff from some people who might make that case, but I’ve never known exactly what the facts behind that specific argument are. Limitations: I am sticking to the 100 buy-in rule as a BARE minimum but in the strictest fashion, meaning a USD 50+5 tournament is currently not within my reach, as that would require a balance of 5500 dollars. Same thing applies to rebuy tournaments, as I’ll probably be getting into a few of those. If I choose to play 20+2 rebuy, I am currently allowed either 1 rebuy or 1 addon, but definitely not both (meaning, I won't be playing any for the time being). Bankroll management has never been my forte, so in order for this to succeed, I’ll be getting tough on myself about this – absolutely no exceptions. Moreover, never more than 3 tables at a time. Each time I’ve tried multi-tasking to the tune of 4, 5 or even 6 tables, my results have suffered severely. Don’t have it in me – at least not yet, so none of that. Finally, NO TURBO tournaments! They’re just crapshoots anyway and if that’s what I wanted; the Sydney Star City Casino is only a 10-minute walk away. Another guideline I’ve decided on, includes posting progress reports/random blog rants (dependant on my mood at the time) at least twice a week. I have no intention of posting play-by-plays all the time (so fret not!), but will try to do so once in a while if people find them interesting. Also, they are a good way for me to analyze how I’m playing (edit: what I’m doing wrong!) – so perhaps you’ll be seeing more than ‘just a few’ in the months to come. Guess that wraps that up. My next entry has pretty much written itself already. I just played two tournaments side-by-side (starting approx 10 minutes apart) and proceeded to go deep in both of them – more to come. Thanks for reading. No Comments on this post. Click here to post a comment.