Tuesday FTP MTTs

The theme of today seems to be trusting my reads. I've busted from the $5 and $2 for not listening to my reads. In the $5, I raised in MP with AKo and got one caller from the BB. The flop came 59K with two clubs, and I got check-minraised. I called with the intention of calling a bet on a non-club turn and folding on a club turn. Also, the possibility of my opponent having 99 was in my mind as well, but I'd decide depending on what he did on the turn. Well, a club hit on the turn and he pretty much put me in. Of course, why would I listen to myself. I called and he showed 99 for set. I could have gotten away from that.

In the $2, I limped with QJ and I think 5 of us saw a 4Q7 flop. I bet out and got called by a player who had acted before me. I put him on some draw and since the board was a rainbow I put him on 56. The turn was an 8 and he pushed. Obviously, why would I listen to myself. I called and he showed 56 fofr the turned straight. I could have gotten away from that.

Its hard to fold top pair for me. I hate it. I'm such a donk.

3 or 4 more tournaments to go!

EDIT: Haven't been able to last more than 25m of any tournament today. Scandalous. Luckily, I'm still in the $3r $6k Guarantee, and we just got to the first break! Sitting with T15.8k with the CA @ T8.3k. I ♥ rebuys.

In other news, I couldn't find the $1r today. So, when I made up my tournament schedule a few days ago, I must have completely imagined it or something. I don't know. Also, I think I'm going to add two tournaments to the list, although I'm not quite sure because they start somewhat late and have a sick amount of entrants. The tournaments are called the Daily Double, and there is an A tournament and a B tournament, each $10 + $2. Not only does each tourney have $8k guaranteed, but a Daily Double Jackpot. Check it out.

I'm at the point in my bankroll where I don't know if I should be playing many $10 MTTs. I probably shouldn't, but I want to give it a shot. If I dip below... $150, I'll stop playing them. Mark my words.

-$240. TILT!

LOL, took a stab at something and lost $240. I'm cool with it and had I done well I'd be over $1k easy. Oh well, back to following bankroll management.

I run good.

Tournament Results

Date	Buyin		Tournament/Event	Place	Entrants	Winnings
7/29/2007	$1		NL Hold'em+Rebuys	3	535	$155.13
7/29/2007	$10		NL Hold'em	37	498	$16.18
7/29/2007	$5		NL Hold'em	44	583	$9.47
7/29/2007	$2		NL Hold'em	25	578	$5.20
7/29/2007	$1		NL Hold'em	33	619	$2.48
7/29/2007	$1		NL Hold'em	119	1286	$1.93

Yeah, in 24 hours I cashed in 6 MTTs. I think I played 9 or 10 total, which is absolutely sick. I don't think I've ever run so good before.

As I said earlier, MTTs are my bread and butter. It is where I make my money. Unfortunately, I rarely have the opportunity to play them. I am running burning hot right now though so I need to play them as much as I can. I was 4-tabling MTTs today, which I rarely did at UB for some reason. Anyways, I can deff do it here. MTT poker is so ABC and I think that with PokerTracker on I can afford to look @ other tables. It keeps stats so I'll know everyone's VP$IP/PFR/Aggression anyways.

So, I'm going to take a gander at FTP and see what I can play tomorrow starting at 5 o'clock, given I have the available schedule. If I can't play tomorrow, this'll be my tournament schedule for the upcoming week:

• $5 Tournament at 5:00 PM
  
• $2 Tournament at 5:30 PM
• $10Tournament at 6:00 PM
• $1r Tournament at 6:30 PM
• $5 Tournament at 7:00 PM
  
• $3r $6000 Guarantee at 7:30PM

Full Tilt Poker: $512

SHOW DA SCRILLA

UB Bust, FTP NL50, Placed ITM in FTP Ferguson

Earlier today I busted out of UB. Meh, oh well. I never really was able to play any MTTs with those $50 dollars. MTTs are honestly my bread and butter. Cash games and SNGs are nice but I don't really know if I'm a winning player at them in the long run.

However, regardless of whether or not I'm a winning player at them, I did have a sick run at an FTP NL50 table. I ran up my $50 stack to $343 by the end of the session. Sick. Everything seemed to be going right. I'd call a raise with position with the intention of betting if checked to me (called floating) and would hit mid pair. I'd call the flop bet and would hit two pair with my 8-6 and either 1) bet the turn if checked to, which I would've even if I had 9 high or 2) reraise the turn, because I'm not floating anymore since I really do have a hand.

Anyways, sick sick session which was great because I had busted from UB earlier and was pissed about my play.

I played the FTP Ferguson and busted right before the 3rd break. I had 88 UTG+1 where UTG had limped. I didn't have a huge stack, and although raising x4 would've been ok, I just decided to limp along. If UTG hadn't open-limped, I would've easily raised. I just wanted to encourage limpers and hopefully hit something hard. Well, I think I saw a 5-way flop of 666. It was checked to me and I bet out about 2/3 of my pot, which basically committed me to the hand. A player from the SB thought for a long time and even used his Time Bank function and finally called. What a fucking tool. K on the turn, he ck'd, I pushed, he slowrolled the fuck out of me, which I can't fucking stand, and said "betting with the 6, are we?" before finally tabling 67 for flopped quads. Now, I don't have a problem with him slowplaying that hand. I don't give a shit about that becuase obviously anybody would. But, once your slowplay has worked successfully and your opponent has pushed all his chips into the middle, don't take a fucking year to call. Insta-call that and take it down. Don't write to me in the chatbox and berate me you...

Fucko.

Anyways, I'll be playing a lot of FTP tournaments today and I even have the bankroll for the bigger tournaments! Wish me luck.

New day, I'm excited.

Today I'm getting my hands over every single $1 and $2 MTT I can. When there aren't any, I'll be playing $1 SNGS and $1 SNG MTTs. I'm playing a lot today.

In the evening, I'll be heading to a birthday party but am planning on being back in time for.. the UB $1k Guaranteed and the FTP Ferguson.

What I'll be doing differently today? Not going to all of a sudden go crazy and bet a hand like I've got the nuts when really I have mid pair with an 8 kicker. I'm going to play smart, and when I actually do have the nuts, I'll play it hard. ABC poker. No fancy moves, becuase, well, $1 and $2 tournaments are donkaments and they don't understand my fancy moves.

Poker is hard.. so take a break and live

Things haven't been going so well but luckily I've matured enough to not tilt everything away. I've been playing badly but instead of chasing losses for tonight I've made plans for coffee and to watch the Simpsons. Hopefully I'll have a fantastic time and can come home tonight and make the decision if I can play or not. I'd like to play the UB $800/$1000 (it always switches) and the FTP Ferguson. I think I've been playing very good MTT poker and have been in great spots yesterday and today to win the entire tournament, and then just going crazy one hand and spewing a ton of chips on a marginal hand. Lately, I've been playing bad big stack poker and just trying too hard to force people off hands. As a matter of fact, I've just been trying to force people out of pots entirely too much. It shouldn't be done every hand. If anything, I want them to call, don't I? I think a majority of my hands should be played that way: with me looking for a call. Obviously then this means waiting for good hands and great flops. The push people out should be for players I know are capable of making laydowns. This involves having studied the table and taking notes on the players, something I don't do but are insanely important I can't believe I don't do it yet. I guess I just don't know how but I'll get on 2p2 tonight and figure it out.

Hopefully I can get something going tonight. I just get too aggressive with my chips and try to bluff people off. The majority of the idiots I play aren't going to laydown top pair. It doesn't matter if I bet-call their raise on the flop (red flag!), check-raise them on the turn (red flag!) and push all in on the river (red flag). Obviously, their pair of Kings, 5 kicker, equals the nuts. Forget that the rest of that board is 679T with 3 diamonds.

Full Tilt: $83
Bodog: $98
UltimateBet: $12
Total: $43

Bodog NL10; Lots of Reading at 2p2

I'm still in the process of getting PokerTracker to work over at Bodog. Hopefully soon I'll be able to start posting some numbers.

One thing that is different about Bodog is that they limit the amount of tables you can play. I could play no more than 3 today. On one hand, I feel like this is a bad business move for them because more tables equals more rake. But, on the other hand, I am in some way grateful because, being a beginning player, 3-tabling allows me to be better focused and make better decisions I normally wouldn't be able to do during a 6-table session.

I 3-tabled NL10 for 50 minutes tonight and tore the games up, earning $43 in profit. Wouldn't it be great to run that well everyday? I could have made more money, because I remember making standard laydowns like folding QQ on a raised pot with a flop of AKx and having my opponents turn over JTo and or bottom pair. I can't really do anything about that though.

Oh, we also had a kind of big hand today. Yes, my second royal flush.


Posted next is my reaction as I was talking to my buddy, BigSlick. For some reason I was stoked about flopping a straight flush. True sign of a donk. Obviously, turning Royal Broadways are much better and a necessary move for winning players.


PS who likes my avatar? I think it is badass. nh. ty.

I've also been reading a lot over at twoplustwo.com. For those interested about seriously improving their game, please go. I've found this anthology on SSNL 6-max play an eye-opening read. Just like pro athlete's work at their game through practice, poker players must to the same thing. Reading is, imo, imperative. Anyways, read what I linked. It links dozens of articles and they are all top notch stuff.

UltimateBet: $23
Full Tilt Poker: $112
Bodog: $106

I'm going to try to keep all my bankrolls similar because in the future I don't want to have to jump from NL100 on one site to NL25 on another site. I'd rather play similar stakes. So, UltimateBet... watch your ass tomorrow.

Met a Poker Pro, Bodog, Site Bankrolls

I dealt poker in Downtown Houston and for the first time had an incredibly fun time dealing. I had just finished dealing a small game that broke up when everyone decided to go dancing. Well, one guy sits at the table and asks me to play with him. I tell him that I can't and he needs one more person but he replies with "cmon man I do it all the time." It was at this moment that I realize that he's dressed in a white collar shirt with a bow tie just like me! I shuffle up and deal and before we really get to playing heads up he asks me if I play and I simply reply with "yes." I ask him if he does and he looks at me for a bit before saying ".. professionally." So, yes, last night I played HU against a player who plays cards for a living. We also had probably the greatest conversation about poker that I've ever had.

Firstly, about the games: We played two HU games. We each started w 1k in chips and the blinds @ a constant 25/50 throughout. He played the first hand pretty aggressively and I knew I couldn't let him think he could walk all over me for the entire night. So I bluffed with Q high my first hand and gained a 1200-800 adv. So, now he can take his aggressive image and stick it up his ***, lol.

I ran him over the first game and eventually he tried making a move on the turn when I had just turned trip 9's. GG.

The second game, I got down to about 500 chips and kept pushing all in since I only had 10BBs and felt like I had no play left. In the bust hand, I pushed A4 and he called with 69s and spiked a 6 on the flop to take it. He hit a 9 on the river, just for kicks.

Anyways, through out this we're discussing poker and wow, it was an amazing conversation. I started with a few basic questions about where he plays and for how much he plays for. This guy plays for NL10000 over at Sportsbook Poker. Yes, you read that correctly. $5/$10 NL. I felt like a baby saying I could only play $1/$2 and dabbled at $2/$4 but he totally respected it.

We covered all topics from bankroll management, bad beat stories, tilt, rail-birding high stakes ring games online. So many topics and I had a fantastic time. I can't even remember exactly everything we talked about but it blew my mind.

He was just so chill about playing poker professionally. He only 2-tabled and explained why playing so many tables is -EV. He suggested realizing who is multi-tabling, sitting at one of their tables (with position on them) and just heckle them whenever possible. Since they are playing so many tables at once, they don't have time to get cute and mix it up with crazy plays. They are going to play straight up. Either they have it, or not. They are incredibly easy to read and he says he makes a lot of money doing this. It sounds really fundamental but its something I had just never thought of before! I'm definitely going to get on that once I start playing ring games again.

He said he didn't play many SNGs and MTTs because the probability of him succeeding and taking one of those down was so slim. He hates losing and would prefer to have a winning session of ring play than play for 3 or 4 hours and still finish OTM in some MTT. When I told him I enjoyed MTTs he asked "reeally?" and I explained to him why. What was great about him was that I could tell he completely respected my opinion.

He respected my game as a player which is suhweet.

We exchanged email addresses and invitations to play at each other's poker rooms. One of these days I'll play at Sportsbook Poker I guess, but since he plays $1/$2 I'd have to buy in for something like, $2k. Haha. We'll see if that ever happens.

In other news, I deposited into Bodog today. Seeing as how I have a +$1k check arriving in the mail hopefully sometime soon, I don't care. Anybody saying "OMG HE DEPOSITED INTO ANOTHER ROOM?!" can shove it. I'm playing at Bodog under the name Barry McCocknya.

I think I have the most creative and recognizable names in all the rooms. Especially at UB, I sit at a table and its so great to be known. I played the UB $1k Guarantee last night and before I even played a hand a railbird told the entire table that I was a shark. That in combination with me actually being a shark is +EV. Too bad I fell asleep in the 3rd hour of that tournament and didn't wake up until I had been blinded out, lol.

Birds n Bees, UltimateBet
Bankroll: $31 w/ $50 pending bonus dollars

Show da Scrilla, Full Tilt Poker
Bankroll: $86 w/ $33 pending bonus dollars

Barry McCocknya, Bodog Poker
Bankroll: $60 (I have a bonus but I don't know how much or how it works)

The Ferguson, 4th for $72

4:04 AM: I'm deep into the FTP Ferguson, a $1000+ Guarantee tournament that starts every night at 12:30AM. I really can only play this tournament on Fridays and Saturdays because of work on weekdays. I chose to play today and am glad I did so. With 30 players left, I'm sitting with a commanding lead over the rest of the competition. I have 252,372 to my name with 2nd coming in with 124,149. The average is at 60k. I'm in fantastic position to win the $219 first place prize.

04:12AM: I've run my stack up to 290k with 2 knockouts. I raised JTdd to 7200 @ 1200/2400/300 and the button pushed for 22k total. I thought for a good bit and finally called. Button tabled A8 and the board came 9J864 for the pot and the KO. The second hand came immediately after when I raised ATo to 7200 and the SB called, leaving him with <1k in chips. No idea what he was thinking there. He pushed on a KA2 board and of course I call. He shows A3 for the dominated Ace and fails to improve.

04:22AM: Lost a huge pot worth 227,000 against the person who was 2nd in chip with JJ against his limp/pushed AQhh, lol. Bet he couldn't wait to get his AQ in there. Can't believe people actually plan on limp/raising with a trash hand like AQ. You aren't trapping with that!

04:24AM: Another semi-big hand lost. I limped with 26dd in a multi-way limped pot. The flop came 4J3 with 2 diamonds. I ck, the BB let out for 10k, and MP repopped to 50k, leaving him with 28k behind him. I pushed and the BB folded and after much deliberation the MP player called with 33 for a set. I needed a diamond or the gutshot to win the hand but couldn't improve.

04:27AM: Recaptured the chip lead with this hand. Managed to get aipf with TT v 88 and Q5o and held. We're down to 18 players.

04:40AM: Oh boy, no action as far as I go but we are 12 handed and I sit 4th in chips. 3 more eliminations until the final table!

04:43AM: I've knocked a player out with AT v J8o, aipf. This brings me to 221k in chips. 2 more eliminations until the FT.

04:44AM: Down to 183k after trying to bet other player out of the flop when board paired on the river. He ended up calling rather quickly with A4 for Aces up.

04:50AM: I've knocked out yet another player. A short stacked raised to about 15k from EP and I put him all in with KK fom the button. He called his last 21k after much thought and tabled KT. The board came JxxJx and we're 5-handed, playing hand-for-hand, at each table until 1 more bust. We are also on break. I've amassed 253k which is a good feeling until I remember that I had this much about 40m ago until I lost with JJ against that dumb limp/pushed AQhh.

05:01AM: We're at the final table! I've entered 4th/9 in chips with 246k to my name and the average at 192k, although chip average matters a tad bit less 9-handed and at a single table. I'm guaranteed $17 for 9th place.

05:05AM: Babink. I limp on T7cc on the button with 1 limper already. The blinds both call. There is 41k in the pot. The flop is 3K4 with two clubs and the limper bets pot. I call and the blinds step out of the way. The turn brings the 6c, completing my flush. My opponent reads me correctly and checks my way, but calls my 60k bet. Another club finishes out the board and it goes ck-ck and I take down the pot. First place with 361k in chips.

05:11AM: In a few hands, we go from 9-handed to 6-handed. This changes the game completely and it is time to open up. Second place with 342k in chips. I'm guaranteed $40 for 6th place.

I'm getting tired of writing this! Haha.. I'll post the results after the tournament. Wish me luck.

4th place for $72! Huge win. I'm happy.

Introducing: SNG Sets; More thoughts/advice

So, I've been playing on Full Tilt lately. For those of you who don't know, I cashed out $1150 from UB the other day. I feel like I've triumphed over UB and now want to try to crack FTP. So far, not too hot. I played very undisciplined poker at first and am down to just $20 now. However, I've got a game plan now that I'd like to share with my readers/railbirds.

FTP Game Plan

• Introducing "SNG sets." SNG sets is a fancy way of saying a session of 6 SNGs simultaneously. My first set at FTP was pretty miserable with 5 OTMs and 1 2nd. I just got down playing my second set and did very well, finished 2 OTM, 2 in 3rd, 1 in 2nd, and 1 in 1st. I am playing at the $1+$0.25 9-handed level. I would like to play in the very least one set per day and set a maximum on 4-5 per day.
• Play 2 45-entry SNGs daily(time given, obv). I like these SNG MTTs a lot and I honestly think they are very soft. In the 45-entry ones, top 6 pay (15% of the field as opposed to the usual 10% in most MTTs). I enjoy playing them because I consider my strong poker game to be MTTs, and navigating a field of just 45 is something I know I'm successful at.
• Play 1 90-entry SNG daily. Again, another great SNG MTT but even better than the 45-entries because the top 18 pay in this. That is 20% of the field! I should be able to do that the majority of the time with my eyes closed. Anything less and I'll be very disappointed.
  
• No ring game. I don't have the bankroll to deal with the swings at the moment. I won't touch NL10 until I hit a bankroll of... $200, equal to 20 buy-ins at .05/.1.
  

More thoughts/advice that I feel like adding to what I wrote about yesterday.

• The importance of a game plan. You need a course of action. You need to know what your goals are and how you will achieve them. Be detailed in your plan. What stakes will you play? What bankroll do you need to have before moving up? Will you build your bankroll via ring play or SNGs? What is the most you'll spend on an MTT? All of these are important things you need to think about and document. Once a month, go back and look at how you've fared. Change your goals monthly. Also, stick to your plan! If you create a great plan and are disciplined in following it strictly, I assure you success. Wander off course by playing games that are too high stakes, and you will bust, I assure you.
  
• I encourage anyone starting a bankroll to join this blog and post your results and plans and thoughts. We're a very small community but I firmly believe that everyone can learn from everyone here. Please, join! I'm very interested in reading and sharing my thoughts about others' poker games.

I will write more soon. Here are some topics I want to cover in the near future:

• The most misplayed position in NLHE, the SB.
• Continuation betting, when to do it and when not to.
• Call a bet out of position? When to take a stab at the flop.
  
• Top pair, top kicker is not the nuts. When to slow down.
• When to slowplay.

Any other suggestions?

FTP: $25

2nd in a $1 FTP MTT SNG for ~$11; Thoughts

It is difficult to be excited about an $11 score at FTP compared to where I'm at at UB, but it is what I'm going to have to do to in order to be successful at Full Tilt. I've been playing there a lot recently, and have grinded up very slowly to $65. I'm very satisfied thus far.

It is interesting to build a bankroll up from scratch again. A few thoughts about the second time around:

• Bankroll management skills are necessary. I know I can play 1/2 successfully. However, with a starting bankroll of $50, I can't jump into 1/2 and expect to succeed. Firstly, I'd be terrified to get into hands without holding the best hand. I would probably fold 19 straight hands, raise the 20th, and steal the blinds. In the long run, I'd lose money playing scared. So, to anyone who wants to make their $50 into something more, practice good bankroll skills. Have the discipline to stay away from the higher games (even .1/.25 is suicidal for a $50 bankroll) and the patience to know that someday you will get there. A good rule of thumb is to always have 20 buy-ins of whatever the max buy-in is.
  
• .05/.1, $200
• .1/.25, $500
• .25/.5, $1000
• .. so on and so on

As you can see, an adequately rolled player starts with $200 and plays NL10 until he hits $500 and moves up to Nl25. Players who start with $50 need to treat their bankroll preciously until they grind $500. It'll take a long time but the experience you gain while hitting $500 is invaluable.

• Read. I've been reading a lot more lately. Luckily, the WSOP is going on right now and everyday I'm flooded with the hands that professionals are playing. Forums like 2+2 help a lot, as do the blogs of pro's for insight into their lives.
  

• Every street of every hand is important. Play your best, always. Don't play out of boredom. Don't play to chase losses. Don't play for the sake of playing. Play to win. Don't play angry, tired, sad, lonely, hungry. Plan times for your sessions and stick to them. If things go poorly, play later. What is the point of playing flawlessly for 9 hours and then losing everything you just worked for in the 10th hour. Play each hand like its your very first hand of the session. Play your best, always.

That's all I've got for now.

Long Break

No more for a long time. I want to be with friends and watch movies and just do something more. Will play rarely for the awhile now.