Weekend Recap
March 28 - 30 Update
Since padding the old BR with $10 last week things have been running well. Throughout the week the single table SNGs have been running well. I've been consistently cashing in $5 and $10 SNGs for small profits. Consistency is key and I feel good about my recent play.
Friday comes and I am disappointed that I won't be playing in any of the Heartland Poker Tour satellites at the Golden Gates Casino that are currently taking place in Blackhawk. The ME isn't until the 12th and 14th, but I would love to be up there trying to qualify early. Looks like I may be able to get into a few satellites next week though.
I play a few SNGs with a little success. At about 10PM I decide to buy into a 4/180 while at the same time playing a few SNGs. I triple up almost immediately in the 4/180 when I get ppK's and two other players get it all in. One has ppJ's and the other AK. The case K flops and I take down a nice pot. After this it is poker 101 and I only get involved with good starting hands. It's amazing as I was picking up cards at an unbelievable rate and not only was I getting cards, but they would hold or I would flop a monster if anyone called. For the next 2 hours I must have knocked out about 30 players without risking many of my chips. Not once did I fall below chip average and not once did I get sucked out on. We get to the final table and I have a second place chip stack. This table is pretty timid with only the chip leader seemingly stealing pots. The other players are playing pretty tight and pushing all in preflop from time to time. It's still any ones tournament and a few doubles will get anyone in contention. A few players get knocked out and we play 5 handed to where the game tightens down and it turns into a blind stealing game. I have not gotten any cards, but steal from time to time and have to lay down when others push my raise. Then I get KK in middle position, I do a 4x the BB raise(I've been raising 4x the entire tournament and betting out 3/4 on the flop regardless if I hit or not) to which everyone folds. Next hand I'm dealt 88 and raise 4x and everyone folds. WTF? Do they all have poker radar. Immediately after the 8's I get dealt AA and raise 4x the BB and I anticipate a call as this is my 3rd raise in a row. All fold and I get the blinds again. It was pretty sickening to get three pp like this in a row and get no action. I almost thought about just betting 3x the BB, but it makes more sense to stick to the same raise amount to not give anything away. It was time to start playing mediocre hands as the short stacks were starting to slowly climb and chip leader and I were starting to fall from out 4x chip stacks over 3rd in chips. I call an all in with Qd10d to an all in raise. Opponent shows AQ and I am dominated. The miracle 10 flops and I take him out in 5th. Next up I get Ah10h against AKo. Flop brings 2 hearts and there is "no waiting" as the turn is a heart. Three way action and I get dealt pp8's in the BB, short stack doubles the bet to which I push. Opponent immediately calls and tables KK. What happens? The 8 flops and I take down the pot. It's now heads up and I have about 170k to 100k. The last few players knocked out are on the rail talking about my lucky play and that there was no way I could lose as it is just my night. About 6 hands into HU play I get dealt A7 on the button. Opponent raises, I call. Nothing on the flop to which it is checked, turn brings the 7 and I make a pot sized bet. Opponent thinks for a moment and calls, river is the A. He checks and I put him all in, after a short deliberation he makes the call and shows A6 and victory is mine!
Of course it is now 2AM and I am pumped. The only thing I could think of was getting on the Pokerincolorado forum and posting my win in the "Brag" section. My first official 1st place finish. Now I've chopped a tournament and taken down plenty of single table SNGs, but placing numero uno all by yourself is just a great feeling. Especially after taking second just one week ago. I thought about some of my suckouts on the final table and I can justify all the calls I made. When it comes down to the final table, it's important to take chances when you have a decent chip stack. I didn't want any of the short stacks to gain any momentum and had to eventually take a stand with my chips. There was a much wider variety of hands that I would call due to only one person on the table that did not have less then 50% of my stack. Yes, I did get lucky with the worst hand and yes I did call mediocre hands, but at the time it turned out to be good strategy. Of course, If I would have lost 1/2 my stack I would have needed to change my strategy and control the pot. Altogether I believe my play throughout the entire tournament to be near perfect. Some days, everything just seems to go your way.
Saturday is a different story. I enter the 100 FPP $20,000 freeroll tournament for Silverstar members to where I end up busting right out of the money when my aces get cracked. I play a few $10 SNGs with no success. The day continues of SNGs and a few 180 person tournaments to where I get aces cracked 6 times total. I'm not sure what the math is but I would think that getting aces cracked 6 times with the best of it each time to a suckout is pretty rare. I was steaming which effected my play tremendously. The entire afternoon was a disaster and eventually I dropped $150 from the bank. It's so odd how you can run so well one day and immediately the next day run so bad.
Sunday I am entered into a 1000 FPP Silverstar tournament for a WSOP seat. The tournament ends up with nearly 3000 entries and top 4 get a seat to the WSOP while the top 100 get a cash prize. I run well and then it happens. I get sucked out on with AA again. I never recover and don't even get close to the $$. How can this possibly be that I lose with aces again after the horrific beats from Saturday. I try not to let this effect me and decide to play ring games. I find a couple 1/2 limit games and try to build up. Play is very tight at many of these games and I do find the same people on multiple tables. One guy is playing in 14 different games and he actually plays very quickly. I'm surprised at how he is able to play with no hesitation, but I do use this to my advantage as I know he is playing the cards and not the player. If's funny how many of these players I have played with prior. The players that I notice at multiple tables are the tight players (sharks) while the occasional fish shows up trying to buy every pot in the game. After losing $40 right away on one table I get things rolling. I win $40 on another table before it busts and have a nice steady flow on another table. At the same time I'm playing in $5 SNGs and make the money in 5/6 including a first. When all was said and done I ended up a $100 winner for the day without playing any MTTs. Not bad for a days work at the micro limits (but I'll keep my day job).
I did invest in 5 step 1 tournaments as well. I made it to step 2 three times, but could never break away. It really is a lot harder to make the final 2 as the turbo structure gives no room for error and becomes a crap shoot with the final 4. If I could just get to step 4 where 6 places are paid.
Overall it was a good start to the weekend on Friday with my first official solo win. The rest of the weekend ended in a $50 loss, but with the Friday win I'm well on the way to bigger, better things.
Best of luck on the virtual felt all!
Since padding the old BR with $10 last week things have been running well. Throughout the week the single table SNGs have been running well. I've been consistently cashing in $5 and $10 SNGs for small profits. Consistency is key and I feel good about my recent play.
Friday comes and I am disappointed that I won't be playing in any of the Heartland Poker Tour satellites at the Golden Gates Casino that are currently taking place in Blackhawk. The ME isn't until the 12th and 14th, but I would love to be up there trying to qualify early. Looks like I may be able to get into a few satellites next week though.
I play a few SNGs with a little success. At about 10PM I decide to buy into a 4/180 while at the same time playing a few SNGs. I triple up almost immediately in the 4/180 when I get ppK's and two other players get it all in. One has ppJ's and the other AK. The case K flops and I take down a nice pot. After this it is poker 101 and I only get involved with good starting hands. It's amazing as I was picking up cards at an unbelievable rate and not only was I getting cards, but they would hold or I would flop a monster if anyone called. For the next 2 hours I must have knocked out about 30 players without risking many of my chips. Not once did I fall below chip average and not once did I get sucked out on. We get to the final table and I have a second place chip stack. This table is pretty timid with only the chip leader seemingly stealing pots. The other players are playing pretty tight and pushing all in preflop from time to time. It's still any ones tournament and a few doubles will get anyone in contention. A few players get knocked out and we play 5 handed to where the game tightens down and it turns into a blind stealing game. I have not gotten any cards, but steal from time to time and have to lay down when others push my raise. Then I get KK in middle position, I do a 4x the BB raise(I've been raising 4x the entire tournament and betting out 3/4 on the flop regardless if I hit or not) to which everyone folds. Next hand I'm dealt 88 and raise 4x and everyone folds. WTF? Do they all have poker radar. Immediately after the 8's I get dealt AA and raise 4x the BB and I anticipate a call as this is my 3rd raise in a row. All fold and I get the blinds again. It was pretty sickening to get three pp like this in a row and get no action. I almost thought about just betting 3x the BB, but it makes more sense to stick to the same raise amount to not give anything away. It was time to start playing mediocre hands as the short stacks were starting to slowly climb and chip leader and I were starting to fall from out 4x chip stacks over 3rd in chips. I call an all in with Qd10d to an all in raise. Opponent shows AQ and I am dominated. The miracle 10 flops and I take him out in 5th. Next up I get Ah10h against AKo. Flop brings 2 hearts and there is "no waiting" as the turn is a heart. Three way action and I get dealt pp8's in the BB, short stack doubles the bet to which I push. Opponent immediately calls and tables KK. What happens? The 8 flops and I take down the pot. It's now heads up and I have about 170k to 100k. The last few players knocked out are on the rail talking about my lucky play and that there was no way I could lose as it is just my night. About 6 hands into HU play I get dealt A7 on the button. Opponent raises, I call. Nothing on the flop to which it is checked, turn brings the 7 and I make a pot sized bet. Opponent thinks for a moment and calls, river is the A. He checks and I put him all in, after a short deliberation he makes the call and shows A6 and victory is mine!
Of course it is now 2AM and I am pumped. The only thing I could think of was getting on the Pokerincolorado forum and posting my win in the "Brag" section. My first official 1st place finish. Now I've chopped a tournament and taken down plenty of single table SNGs, but placing numero uno all by yourself is just a great feeling. Especially after taking second just one week ago. I thought about some of my suckouts on the final table and I can justify all the calls I made. When it comes down to the final table, it's important to take chances when you have a decent chip stack. I didn't want any of the short stacks to gain any momentum and had to eventually take a stand with my chips. There was a much wider variety of hands that I would call due to only one person on the table that did not have less then 50% of my stack. Yes, I did get lucky with the worst hand and yes I did call mediocre hands, but at the time it turned out to be good strategy. Of course, If I would have lost 1/2 my stack I would have needed to change my strategy and control the pot. Altogether I believe my play throughout the entire tournament to be near perfect. Some days, everything just seems to go your way.
Saturday is a different story. I enter the 100 FPP $20,000 freeroll tournament for Silverstar members to where I end up busting right out of the money when my aces get cracked. I play a few $10 SNGs with no success. The day continues of SNGs and a few 180 person tournaments to where I get aces cracked 6 times total. I'm not sure what the math is but I would think that getting aces cracked 6 times with the best of it each time to a suckout is pretty rare. I was steaming which effected my play tremendously. The entire afternoon was a disaster and eventually I dropped $150 from the bank. It's so odd how you can run so well one day and immediately the next day run so bad.
Sunday I am entered into a 1000 FPP Silverstar tournament for a WSOP seat. The tournament ends up with nearly 3000 entries and top 4 get a seat to the WSOP while the top 100 get a cash prize. I run well and then it happens. I get sucked out on with AA again. I never recover and don't even get close to the $$. How can this possibly be that I lose with aces again after the horrific beats from Saturday. I try not to let this effect me and decide to play ring games. I find a couple 1/2 limit games and try to build up. Play is very tight at many of these games and I do find the same people on multiple tables. One guy is playing in 14 different games and he actually plays very quickly. I'm surprised at how he is able to play with no hesitation, but I do use this to my advantage as I know he is playing the cards and not the player. If's funny how many of these players I have played with prior. The players that I notice at multiple tables are the tight players (sharks) while the occasional fish shows up trying to buy every pot in the game. After losing $40 right away on one table I get things rolling. I win $40 on another table before it busts and have a nice steady flow on another table. At the same time I'm playing in $5 SNGs and make the money in 5/6 including a first. When all was said and done I ended up a $100 winner for the day without playing any MTTs. Not bad for a days work at the micro limits (but I'll keep my day job).
I did invest in 5 step 1 tournaments as well. I made it to step 2 three times, but could never break away. It really is a lot harder to make the final 2 as the turbo structure gives no room for error and becomes a crap shoot with the final 4. If I could just get to step 4 where 6 places are paid.
Overall it was a good start to the weekend on Friday with my first official solo win. The rest of the weekend ended in a $50 loss, but with the Friday win I'm well on the way to bigger, better things.
Best of luck on the virtual felt all!
