Money, Money...mooooney
February 10, 2008 Update
Sunday's are now known as MTT days! You have to love the wide variety of games available on PokerStars on any given Sunday. Now if you notice, the blog description says "modified" Chris Ferguson challenge. I am risking more then the 5% that Chris
did during his challenge. It's not the correct way to manage a BR, but hey I started with nothing right.
I have not been too active the entire week and didn't even play online Saturday. My first thought upon waking up is, "What tournament do I want to play today?" (Sic isn't it) It's about 10AM and I'm looking for a bigger game today to escape all these micro buy-in's. Since I am fresh and ready to go, I elect the $10/$1 deep stack tournament that Floppy placed in weeks ago. Let's just say my patience for this deep stack was lost after about 30 minutes of tight play to where I reverted to my usual aggro style. This was short lived and I made a quick departure. So far for the day -$11.
I don't see any good tournaments for a while and decide on the $10/$1 100k at 1:00. I am still a few hours away from this and decide to play a ring game of $0.50/$1. This goes bad early and I am already sunk a total of $35 for the day! Not a good start and looking pretty sad to the $65 I have left in my BR. With some patience and the moving to a loose table, I regain some momentum and get all of my money back, plus enough to buy-in to the 100k.
About 20 minutes before the tournament, I attempt to buy-in to the 100k. "Your request has been placed on a list... yada, yada, yada, and will be processed in the order received" or whatever that statement is. I wait... and wait... What's going on? I also pre-registered for the $1 Omaha tournament that I played in last week. This tournament pop's up 15 minutes late and lags. We play one hand and the table just stops as if we were in hand-for-hand play. Something is definately f***** up. Then it happens, the 100k gets canceled. When I was attempting to register there was about 18,000 people registered. I wondered what happened with everyone that was registered. It didn't take me long to find some of them.
Now last week I played the $3 rebuy tournament with success. It was not a deep run, but I did get 10x my rebuy back due to no rebuys or add-on. I couldn't find this tournament today, but did notice that there was a $11 rebuy tournament about to begin. When I signed up there was already over 6000 players registered. This field was huge compared to the $3R tournament last week. I believe a lot of these players came from the 100k that was canceled as they are the same price (without rebuy). I put in my $11 with the notion of not rebuying or buying the add-on. There is no need to go reuby crazy if I bust and I treat it as a freeze out with benefits.
Things start off a little slow, but I get a good feel for the table and find all the loose rebuy players. About 20 minutes into the tournament I start picking up hands and I mean picking up hands. At one point I won 6 straight hands, not only that but I won 2 before the streak of 6 and then won 2 a few hands after the six in row for something like 10 for 13. (I have a screen shot of the hands that I will post later) Not only was I on a heater, I was getting and catching cards as if using a net during spawning season. If I had a gut shot, I'd get it. A race, I won it. 4 to the flush, I'd hit it. My opponents would have 4 to the flush, they'd miss it. It was awesome! The chip stack soared from the measly 1500 chip stack to well over 30k. I watched as the crazy players would double rebuy, go all in, give me their chips, double reuby, give someone else all their chips, then that person would give me all their chips and everyone would double rebuy. The first break comes and the add-on's start generating a huge $270,800 prize pool which is way larger then a maxed out 100k tournament ($200,000). My chip stack, without rebuys or an add-on is 33,090 good for
13th in chips with 5513 players remaining.
After seeing the first place and second place prize money of $38,180 and $19,326 I start to feel confident. This would be a HUGE cash for my measly $10 and I start to anticipate the final table. The break is over and it's back to the virtual felt. A few hands are played and I get moved to another table. Is may be just me, but when I get moved to another table I end up with someone on the table that has me out chipped even though I am in the top 1%. I try to use my chips to my advantage which fares pretty well until I get called down. This slows me down and I never get anything going for the next hour leaving me with only 21,965 chips after the second break.
I regroup during the break and decide, I'm going to have to get something going. The average is now around 19,000 chips and I have less then I did after the first break! It's time to start turning on some aggression and weed through the stragglers that are just trying to muck into the money. Again, I get moved to another table where there are 4 stacks that can send me to the virtual rail. I need to play well and start buying some pots since the ante's are staring. Now, I usually gain a lot of chips off mediocre bets and position raises, but not once have I sucked out in this entire tournament. With about 1300 players left and 1080 players paid I run into KQ of diamonds two from the button and raise. Slyguy4 is in the SB and makes the call, everyone else folds. Flop is KJJ rainbow and SB checks. I bet out the pot and SB check raises. I started the hand with about 25,000 chips and this call would leave me 12,000. After much deliberation, I make the call. Now if he has the J, it's a no brainer for him on the flop and will go all-in, if he doesn't I should get a free turn card. Turn comes a blank and he bets enough to put me all-in. Wow! decisions. I run my extra time by about 30 seconds and think to myself. Could this be a bluff, he's in the small blind and why would he call my pre-flop raise. Does he want me out now because of my short stack or could he possibly have AK. My wife is in the room and see's the hand. "He's got the J", she tells me and I go naw, it's a bluff and he wants me out. I go with my gut and make the call and he tables JQ for trips. I am sick to my stomach and curse out loud only to hear my wife say, "I told you so!" My other tournament table pops up blocking part of the screen and I am unable to see the river card. Thinking I have lost anyway, I play out the hand in the popped up table. I am unable to see the river card, but I notice the chat area saying Scrupboy wins with a full house Kings over Queens. What?! I flip to that table and sure enough, I grab one of two outs in the entire deck to suck out and take the pot of 60,000 chips. Wow! I take this as an omen to play smarter and hold on to my chips at least until 1080th place which pays $50 which would be 5x my buy-in. The next break comes and I have built my chips back up to 87,912 good for 60th in chips with 1153 players remaining.
The 3rd hour comes and I get moved again to a table that only has 2 people that can seriously damage my stack. I catch some hands and get my chips up to 170,000 boosting me into the top 30, not only that but the money bubble has been crushed and everyone is getting paid a minimum of $50. Then the following hand happens. I get 9's in the cutoff and raise four times the blind. Button goes all in for 5000 more, then another all-in on the SB, but can't cover the pot, then even another middle position player pushes all-in for 40,000 chips more. I deliberate and decide to make the call with 99 which still leaves me 100k in chips. The pot was huge and I felt this would be a good place to make a run for the chip lead while risking about 35% of my chips. Wow, I am way behind as the button has KK, SB has 10-10 and middle position guy has AK. Now 80k of this is with middle position guy to which I am in a race and two of his K's are gone. Flop comes A-10-8 leaving me with very little outs. I never improve and drop a crap load of chips to the rest of the table. Now the average is only about 75k so I am still in good position. The table starts to beat me up and I never fully recover ending this hour with only 60,368 chips.
Play begins again and about 30 minutes in I get moved to another table. Now I have been maintaining between 70 - 100k in chips, but the blinds are now ridiculous. Stealing the blinds are worthy now as the antes are in the 600 range. I survive this round on short stack poker and stealing the occasional blind per round. Not much happens, but I have moved up the money ladder slowly approaching the top 100. The break comes and I have 100,216 chips good for 141 out of the 169 remaining players.
Play resumes and I need chips. I make a couple all-in moves with AQ and AJ to take some blinds, but no hands really developed. My BB comes and I have about 75k in chips with the blinds at 6000/12000 and a 1200 ante. I look down at KQ of diamonds. Everyone folds to the SB. He hesitates and I can tell he wants to take my blinds. Now this guy has been real aggressive since I have been on the table and playing very loose. I can't put him on a hand and make a decision to call no matter what. He pushes all-in and he tables A6o. I'm behind, but not too much of a dog as my cards are live. The flop comes 8-8-2. I miss and bust out in 128th place for a payday of $297.88 and a $286.88 profit. I should have known the KQ of diamonds would eventually kill me as this is the same hand that I received the river suck out with earlier in the tournament. I'm disappointed and the hand keeps replaying in my mind. The one thought I did have in this tournament was to play to win, which I believe I did. I was not protecting my stack to the point of being blinded off. My intentions were to be a little more aggressive, take bigger risks and play smart in order to make a real run for 1st place. Overall I can't be too disappointed as this cash is 27x my buy-in and does wonder for my BR. One thing is for sure, I have cashed twice in rebuy tournaments without ever rebuying. I look forward to the next one.
Session Total: +$312.12
Bankroll Total: $410.04
Sunday's are now known as MTT days! You have to love the wide variety of games available on PokerStars on any given Sunday. Now if you notice, the blog description says "modified" Chris Ferguson challenge. I am risking more then the 5% that Chris
did during his challenge. It's not the correct way to manage a BR, but hey I started with nothing right.
I have not been too active the entire week and didn't even play online Saturday. My first thought upon waking up is, "What tournament do I want to play today?" (Sic isn't it) It's about 10AM and I'm looking for a bigger game today to escape all these micro buy-in's. Since I am fresh and ready to go, I elect the $10/$1 deep stack tournament that Floppy placed in weeks ago. Let's just say my patience for this deep stack was lost after about 30 minutes of tight play to where I reverted to my usual aggro style. This was short lived and I made a quick departure. So far for the day -$11.
I don't see any good tournaments for a while and decide on the $10/$1 100k at 1:00. I am still a few hours away from this and decide to play a ring game of $0.50/$1. This goes bad early and I am already sunk a total of $35 for the day! Not a good start and looking pretty sad to the $65 I have left in my BR. With some patience and the moving to a loose table, I regain some momentum and get all of my money back, plus enough to buy-in to the 100k.
About 20 minutes before the tournament, I attempt to buy-in to the 100k. "Your request has been placed on a list... yada, yada, yada, and will be processed in the order received" or whatever that statement is. I wait... and wait... What's going on? I also pre-registered for the $1 Omaha tournament that I played in last week. This tournament pop's up 15 minutes late and lags. We play one hand and the table just stops as if we were in hand-for-hand play. Something is definately f***** up. Then it happens, the 100k gets canceled. When I was attempting to register there was about 18,000 people registered. I wondered what happened with everyone that was registered. It didn't take me long to find some of them.
Now last week I played the $3 rebuy tournament with success. It was not a deep run, but I did get 10x my rebuy back due to no rebuys or add-on. I couldn't find this tournament today, but did notice that there was a $11 rebuy tournament about to begin. When I signed up there was already over 6000 players registered. This field was huge compared to the $3R tournament last week. I believe a lot of these players came from the 100k that was canceled as they are the same price (without rebuy). I put in my $11 with the notion of not rebuying or buying the add-on. There is no need to go reuby crazy if I bust and I treat it as a freeze out with benefits.
Things start off a little slow, but I get a good feel for the table and find all the loose rebuy players. About 20 minutes into the tournament I start picking up hands and I mean picking up hands. At one point I won 6 straight hands, not only that but I won 2 before the streak of 6 and then won 2 a few hands after the six in row for something like 10 for 13. (I have a screen shot of the hands that I will post later) Not only was I on a heater, I was getting and catching cards as if using a net during spawning season. If I had a gut shot, I'd get it. A race, I won it. 4 to the flush, I'd hit it. My opponents would have 4 to the flush, they'd miss it. It was awesome! The chip stack soared from the measly 1500 chip stack to well over 30k. I watched as the crazy players would double rebuy, go all in, give me their chips, double reuby, give someone else all their chips, then that person would give me all their chips and everyone would double rebuy. The first break comes and the add-on's start generating a huge $270,800 prize pool which is way larger then a maxed out 100k tournament ($200,000). My chip stack, without rebuys or an add-on is 33,090 good for
13th in chips with 5513 players remaining.
After seeing the first place and second place prize money of $38,180 and $19,326 I start to feel confident. This would be a HUGE cash for my measly $10 and I start to anticipate the final table. The break is over and it's back to the virtual felt. A few hands are played and I get moved to another table. Is may be just me, but when I get moved to another table I end up with someone on the table that has me out chipped even though I am in the top 1%. I try to use my chips to my advantage which fares pretty well until I get called down. This slows me down and I never get anything going for the next hour leaving me with only 21,965 chips after the second break.
I regroup during the break and decide, I'm going to have to get something going. The average is now around 19,000 chips and I have less then I did after the first break! It's time to start turning on some aggression and weed through the stragglers that are just trying to muck into the money. Again, I get moved to another table where there are 4 stacks that can send me to the virtual rail. I need to play well and start buying some pots since the ante's are staring. Now, I usually gain a lot of chips off mediocre bets and position raises, but not once have I sucked out in this entire tournament. With about 1300 players left and 1080 players paid I run into KQ of diamonds two from the button and raise. Slyguy4 is in the SB and makes the call, everyone else folds. Flop is KJJ rainbow and SB checks. I bet out the pot and SB check raises. I started the hand with about 25,000 chips and this call would leave me 12,000. After much deliberation, I make the call. Now if he has the J, it's a no brainer for him on the flop and will go all-in, if he doesn't I should get a free turn card. Turn comes a blank and he bets enough to put me all-in. Wow! decisions. I run my extra time by about 30 seconds and think to myself. Could this be a bluff, he's in the small blind and why would he call my pre-flop raise. Does he want me out now because of my short stack or could he possibly have AK. My wife is in the room and see's the hand. "He's got the J", she tells me and I go naw, it's a bluff and he wants me out. I go with my gut and make the call and he tables JQ for trips. I am sick to my stomach and curse out loud only to hear my wife say, "I told you so!" My other tournament table pops up blocking part of the screen and I am unable to see the river card. Thinking I have lost anyway, I play out the hand in the popped up table. I am unable to see the river card, but I notice the chat area saying Scrupboy wins with a full house Kings over Queens. What?! I flip to that table and sure enough, I grab one of two outs in the entire deck to suck out and take the pot of 60,000 chips. Wow! I take this as an omen to play smarter and hold on to my chips at least until 1080th place which pays $50 which would be 5x my buy-in. The next break comes and I have built my chips back up to 87,912 good for 60th in chips with 1153 players remaining.
The 3rd hour comes and I get moved again to a table that only has 2 people that can seriously damage my stack. I catch some hands and get my chips up to 170,000 boosting me into the top 30, not only that but the money bubble has been crushed and everyone is getting paid a minimum of $50. Then the following hand happens. I get 9's in the cutoff and raise four times the blind. Button goes all in for 5000 more, then another all-in on the SB, but can't cover the pot, then even another middle position player pushes all-in for 40,000 chips more. I deliberate and decide to make the call with 99 which still leaves me 100k in chips. The pot was huge and I felt this would be a good place to make a run for the chip lead while risking about 35% of my chips. Wow, I am way behind as the button has KK, SB has 10-10 and middle position guy has AK. Now 80k of this is with middle position guy to which I am in a race and two of his K's are gone. Flop comes A-10-8 leaving me with very little outs. I never improve and drop a crap load of chips to the rest of the table. Now the average is only about 75k so I am still in good position. The table starts to beat me up and I never fully recover ending this hour with only 60,368 chips.
Play begins again and about 30 minutes in I get moved to another table. Now I have been maintaining between 70 - 100k in chips, but the blinds are now ridiculous. Stealing the blinds are worthy now as the antes are in the 600 range. I survive this round on short stack poker and stealing the occasional blind per round. Not much happens, but I have moved up the money ladder slowly approaching the top 100. The break comes and I have 100,216 chips good for 141 out of the 169 remaining players.
Play resumes and I need chips. I make a couple all-in moves with AQ and AJ to take some blinds, but no hands really developed. My BB comes and I have about 75k in chips with the blinds at 6000/12000 and a 1200 ante. I look down at KQ of diamonds. Everyone folds to the SB. He hesitates and I can tell he wants to take my blinds. Now this guy has been real aggressive since I have been on the table and playing very loose. I can't put him on a hand and make a decision to call no matter what. He pushes all-in and he tables A6o. I'm behind, but not too much of a dog as my cards are live. The flop comes 8-8-2. I miss and bust out in 128th place for a payday of $297.88 and a $286.88 profit. I should have known the KQ of diamonds would eventually kill me as this is the same hand that I received the river suck out with earlier in the tournament. I'm disappointed and the hand keeps replaying in my mind. The one thought I did have in this tournament was to play to win, which I believe I did. I was not protecting my stack to the point of being blinded off. My intentions were to be a little more aggressive, take bigger risks and play smart in order to make a real run for 1st place. Overall I can't be too disappointed as this cash is 27x my buy-in and does wonder for my BR. One thing is for sure, I have cashed twice in rebuy tournaments without ever rebuying. I look forward to the next one.
Session Total: +$312.12
Bankroll Total: $410.04
Now I really wish I'd entered the $11R, using your reasoning that it was probably mostly $100k players looking for a replacement, with no intention to rebuy.
I usually rebuy up front in all my rebuys, but only rebuy after that if I feel I have equity in the tourney -- but on 2nd thought now, I bet a much larger portion of that field had less idea how to play rebuys than usual. I'm such a dumbass.
Congrats on your massive finish! Hell, your PS roll is bigger than mine now. Wanna stake me? LOL
BTW, if you ever busto, I'll gladly stake you .60 next time. Ha!
...can I have that in writing? The $0.60 stake if I ever bust. =]]