Online Poker Tournament Rankings

Mohegan Sun Recap

So I went busto in the Mohegan Sun $200K Guarantee w/ JJ vs. AA late in Day 1. But that's not what I'm interested in with this blog. It was an eye-opening experience. Let's recap.

Starting Stack of 15K w/ 25-50 blinds and they go up every 40 minutes. My first table is a bunch of weak-tight wimps, so I chip up to 22K without having to show down a hand in the first two levels. My table breaks (I'm a bit upset at this) and I move to a table of a bunch of old timers and two women (one of which I recognized right away but I kept it to myself -- Olga Varkonyi).

I get involved in a big hand w/ AQhh and I get bluffed on a 10-8-6ss board. Down to 17K. I guess I could've checked the flop instead of c-betting, but I think the old man was just concerned with "putting me in my place" so he bluff-raised w/ KQ w/ one spade. Oh well.

A bit of an interesting hand later on. On the button w A5hh to FIVE LIMPERS. I decide to limp since I don't know what these old cats are capable of. Off to a flop: K-3-4hh. Very close to my dream flop w/ nut flush draw and gutshot. Check ALL THE WAY AROUND to me. I lead out for 1/3 the pot and the guy UTG doubles it (Uh oh). The rest fold and I elect to just call. Turn 10s. He leads out for 5K into a 16K pot. I decide to just call because I have so many outs but I don't know what this guy has. I thought he had KQ (boy was I wrong). River: 2s. He shoves, I snap call, he flips over KK for a set, and I show the wheel. Up to 38K. Someone at the table said he misplayed the hand if he had me on any draws. If he was worried that I had any draw, he should've shoved on the turn. How very correct.

So I get moved a bit later at a 43K stack and I get seated directly to the right of Robert Varkonyi. I don't know what to say so I decide to just sit and play. He starts talking to me and he lies, says he's Alan Kessler. I play along and introduce myself. At the break, I ask him where he's from, what he does, etc. etc. and we get to talking. Someone walks by and says, "Hey, you look like Robert Varkonyi!" He goes, "Oh no no, I hear that a lot. I'm Alan." Guy goes, "Oh, wow. You look a lot like him." and he walks away.

Olga comes over to the table and I was playing with her earlier. She starts talking to him and says she's going to drive to the Borgata in AC for a tourney starting this morning. I laugh because I said (quietly), "If that's your wife, then you're Robert Varkonyi." He knows I'm kidding around. He obviously knows I'm not just a newbie playing or a local (also wearing the Full Tilt hat with my card protector). I asked quickly, "Why are you playing at Mohegan in a $400 tourney? Just here to have fun?" He replies, "I'm just here to play poker. It's a nice place and my wife wanted to come." We go off on the "Keeping the Wife" happy conversation and move on.
 
I talk to he and his wife away from the table on the next break, and he asks what I do for work, where I live, etc. etc. Told him I was rooting for him in the Tournament of Champions this year and I look forward to playing with him in the future if he comes down to Mohegan or I see him at the WSOP in a few years.

He had some great insights into life and poker. I made a joke (slightly seriously) saying, "You're another guy who won a poker tournament for a lot of money. Yes, it was the WSOP ME, but you don't have all the answers, just like Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, and the like." His eyes almost open full scope as he goes, "EXACTLY. Finally someone who gets it. I just wish there were more people out there that got that." 

I ended up going busto at the 8K/16K level when I raised pre- w/ JJ in pos. to 5.2K. Get called by SB. Flop: 7-4-4. He checks. I lead out for 12K. He calls. Turn: 4. He checks, I shove my remaining 22K, he snap calls and shows AA. Oh well. Well played on his part. I shake hands at the table and head out and Robert shakes my hand and says, "It was nice playing with someone who understands the game so well. You play well. Hopefully I'll see you at the WSOP soon."

I was just happy I played well.

Full Tilt Recap -- A win!

I got home at about 10:30 from Mohegan and I already took this Monday off from work in case I made Day 2, so I fired up a couple late night tables (Midnight Madness, the $12.5K KO Tourney, and the $2K Stud Hi/Lo).

I went busto 5 hands in the 12.5K KO w/ AA<KK AIPF. K on the turn....FML. Happens and I move on. Went busto less than an hour into the Midnight Madness w/ AK<AQ AIPF. Q in the window. FML again. Looked like it was going to be a quick night. Oh not so.

I ended up at the FT of the Stud Tourney and took it down for just under $800. I played REAL well in that tourney, folding a flush once and folding plenty of pairs early in hands. I've never played so well in a Stud tourney, and I got lucky a few times where I had the low in 5 and I would river the straight or flush to scoop the pot. Was pretty impressive. With 4 left, I had 146K and all 3 others had less than 30K. Just kept playing my game and got all-in w A23 and scooped, A25 and scooped, and then rolled up 8's and scooped.

I'm happy I'm playing well and hopefully it will continue. Now it's off to the tables for my day off.

I've been pretty stagnant on FTP, finishing 5th in the Daily Double B on Nov. 5, and finishing 7th in the 5k PLO event. Between that, it's been pretty slow going, not picking up much action online. I'm still +134 from 2 weeks ago, but it was a down week last week. It's good though, since I cashed out for just over $2.5K to take care of some things, and I'm happy to be playing winning poker again.

I decided to play live last night in my local $60 w/ 1 60 rebuy event last night. 4 tables and not a lot of people rebought, only putting the 1st place prize at $1,160. I usually play well here because the play is so weak-tight, but not last night....Some hands to play through.

Starting stacks of 10K w. 1 10K add-on available (which I did up front). 5 hands in (25-50 blinds), 4 limpers to me on the button w/ KK. I raise to 400, only to go back to UTG who overshoves for 7.5K (he had lost a few pots). I snap call knowing there's no way he has AA. He flips over AQ, cards run, KK holds, up to 30K. Chipped up throughout the first table and we broke when I had 45K.

Now, I played w/ the most aggro NLHE player I've ever seen, and it was a little old lady about 70 years old. Any ace she re-raised pre-flop and every hand she was in position she re-raised. Before I go into my 2 monster hands with her, I'll replay one hand between her and another opp:

UTG: Lady raises to 1200 (blinds 200-400 25 ante)

Folds around to BB who pops it to 4900, she snap calls.

Flop: 4-4-2dd and BB instashoves the rest of his stack for 15K, she snap calls and she has Q-4o. She holds vs. his AK and now I have her in my sights.

She's sitting in the BB on my button so I'm just waiting to pick her off. She is the bnig stack at this point with 70K and I have 55K. Fold to me on the button w/ 3-4s. I raise to 1200, she re-raises to 2400 and away we go. Flop 3-4-6 (GOLDEN), and she comes out firing for 5K.  I re-raise to 12K, she comes back over for 24K, and I go all in for my remaining 33K and SHE FOLDS. I was stunned. She claims she had AA but I don't believe her in any way from her reaction (and I saw a Q was one of her two cards).

So now I'm the chip leader at the table, but I don't see much for a while until another hand w/ this crazy lady. Fold to me w/ 88, I raise to 1.2K, she repops to 8.7K. Now I know she's pissed that she hasn't won a hand she and I are involved in and she's crazy spewy at this point. She was back up to 60K and I had 75K, so again not a race situation I want to be in. So I elect to call. Flop 9-5-2 and she leads for 4K (WTF?). Either she has a monster and is praying for a call here or she has nothing. I shove right there and she starts yelling at me saying how bad of a play that is and slams her hands on the table. She goes off saying how I've overplayed all my hands (when in reality that's all she's been doing). She folds and we move on.

She gets all-in UTG for 20K and folds around to me in the BB w/ JJ. I call and she flips over Q-10s. She turns a Q and I'm down to 60K. She tells me that it's a bad call with JJ (LoL --> When I haven't seen her show a premium yet, I was 90% sure I was dominating her here, which I was).

I take a tough one against another player all-in pre, and I'm down to 38K (KK<AQ aipf). With blinds at 600/1200 w/ a 100 ante, I'm now in trouble. So I start shoving Jen's chart range and everyone keeps folding. Up to 48K, down to 11 players, and I have A8o on the button. Fold to me and I shove. Crazy lady has 41K and she calls w/ QJo. In the ranges so I don't mind. Flop: 9-10-5 and I'm already packing up. Turn: Q (gross). River: A!. She slams the table, starts berating the dealer and me and I don't care as I smile and stack her chips.

Long story short, we chopped it 6 ways at the FT, it's midnight and the place closes at 1 so they kinda want us out. So I take home $400 (+280) and call it a good night for 5 hours of play.

Anyways, that's my buy-in for Sunday's Mohegan $400 event that I'll hopefully crush. Anyone in CT for Sun., swing by and hopefully I'm dominating Mohegan's finest.

So I took some shots at some bigger buy-in tourneys (according to Jen's "Taking Shots" rules) and ended up busto in all of them. That's ok, as I ended up cashing out over $2.4K and left $1K on FTP. Puts my November at a modest $520 in cashout profit (I never include what is still on FTP as my profit until it's a pretty check) and with a +$200 session at .$50/$1 NLHE last night, my roll still sits pretty at $1.2K.

Quick notes:

- Slightly worried about the Dec. 1st deadline. Will be paying attention to the legislation and board remarks/posts/comments.

- Going down to play the Mohegan Sun $400 BI $200K Guarantee this weekend. Hopefully will run well and play well. Always find myself playing better live than online because of focus and reading ability.

- I am a MUCH better stud hi/lo player than NLHE player and have been mixing those tables in. I have yet to record a losing hi/lo session in 7 sessions at $5/$10.

Now that my break is over at work, I'll see you at the tables tonight on FTP!

So since I've been tracking ALL sessions in Excel, it has allowed me to focus much more rather than just using OPR, SharkScope, and/or PokerTableRatings. I built out a system so I see how much I'm making per hour at which levels in cash, and MTTs are pretty simple to track based on money earned.

MTTs
Overall, a good week now that I'm sticking to my two nights a week plan. My fiance (gracefully) allowed me to tell her which two nights I'm going to play and I only play between 4-6 MTTs a night these days. Starting after dinner and going until, well, whenever I go busto.

Cashes: 3 for 9 (33%) -- Pretty good
Final Tables: 1 (Daily Double A 11/5 -- 6th place)

Reviewing the HHs I only got "outplayed" once in a showdown situation over the course of these 9 MTTs (re-raise from 3-6o in position when I had TT in the $35K Guar. on Thursday. I called down like a donkey on every street and he rivered his 6 for two pair since the flop paired his 3). I have settled in to making well timed bluffs and c-bets, especially last night which allowed me a deep run. Although I had a major suckout when we were down to 2 tables in last night's Double A (99 > KK when I shoved with only 8 BB's left), I played very well. Went busto in the Double A w/ a 10 BB stack in the SB and shoved w A-8s (standard) and got snap called by 99. No improvement to my hand and out the door I went.

Overall Plus/Minus: +$365.11

Cash
I've come to the conclusion that I'm a much better cash player than MTT player, but I'm adjusting my game for MTTs much better. I had a few big hands playing $1/$2 NLHE which provided a lot of variance and I also mixed in my good ol' steadfast $3/$6 Stud Hi/Lo.

NLHE Plus/Minus: +$8.40
Stud Hi/Lo Plus/Minus: $61.99
Time Played: 333 min (5h 33m)
Hourly Rate: +$12.68/hr

Hopefully next week will be just as successful as I continue to battle my way to a 5-digit bankroll again. Just gotta keep the head down and grind.

See you at the tables.