RakeTheRake Freeroll

I recently finished 145th in the RaketheRake.com monthly freeroll on Full Tilt Poker. The win was enough to net me $30 for my zero dollar investment, but I must admit I am a little disappointed in the finish.

At hand #55 I was able to double through to t2,800 when I was dealt 99 UTG and limped in for t60. The action folds to MP2 who raises to t123 total. Everyone folds to me including the blinds and I call the t63 more creating a pot totaling t336. The flop comes 5 4 3 and I check. My opponent bets out t234 and I raise to t600. Right now I feel like I have the best hand and my check-raise here was to extract more chips from my opponent. He has over t10,000 and the second highest chip stack at our table has t1,560. His action has been raising every hand preflop and betting out on the flop regardless what the board brings. With only t632 left after the check-raise I am happy to win the pot right now; I am also willing to call an all-in shove as this would not be an uncommon reaction to my check-raise from this player. As expected, my opponent moves all-in for t10,423 and I call my remaining t632. The Turn and the River bring a Q & 3 which is no help for my opponent's A T.

After the double up I took down a couple small pots and stayed out of the way until hand #66. I got dealt pocket Aces followed by Big Slick which both ran good and stacked me up to t3,700. The action got quite from me until 30 hands later when I was dealt A J in the Hi-Jack. With the blinds at t50/100, I raised to t300 and the table folded around to the big blind who shoved all-in for t1,370 more. I called, and a J on the flop won the race against his 8 8 giving me a t5,890 stack to work with.

For the next 150 hands I stayed around 7-9,000 chips. It seemed that every time I would win a t2-3,000 pot I would loose one the same size a few hands later. I was never really able to accumulate chips like some of the other players however, I was making enough not to feel a lot of pressure from the blinds. On hand #191 I was dealt pocket Kings on the button when a UTG+1 player shoved all in for t7,397. My Kings stayed clear of his A-7 of clubs and brought me up to t13,018, the second largest stack at the table. I continued folded an orbit until the following hand occurred:
I started the hand with t8,992 and the blind structure at t400/800/100. I was dealt A J in MP2. The player in UTG+1 (t15,848) raised to t2,400. This was his 4th raise in the row with no resistance or calls. I decided that I needed to make a stand with just over 10x BB and shoved all-in. With t4,500 existing in the pot I am more then happy to take it down preflop and give myself over a 50% stack increase, instead, the action folds around to the original raiser who calls with J T. Three hearts on the flop give me the best hand and I double through to t19,824.

In the next three hands the guy who called me with JT was able to take ~t5,000 and make a little over t14,000. Unfortunately this was enough to cripple me in the follow hand:

The blinds are still t400/800/100 and I am in the big blind (t19,524). The hi-jack (t25,435)raises to t2,400 and the villain (t14,174) calls on the button. The small blind folds and I have A K looking at t6,900 in the pot. I am certainly not folding and I do not feel that either player is that strong. In this spot I am usually making a squeeze play and moving all my chips in the center of the table. Taking down this pot preflop will bring me over t25,000 and even if I am called I have a hand that can have decent show down value. The original raiser folds and the villain (who just smooth-called prior) calls the all-in putting his tournament life on the line with J 9. The pot is now t42,548 and I am 60% favorite to win this hand. The flop comes 8 T T giving him additional outs and creating a coin flop situation. The Turn is the T which is a good card for me. My percent to win goes to over 60% again as now only a 7, Jack, Nine, or Queen are his only outs to win (an 8 would split). It seemed like an eternity until the 9 was finally dealt on the River. With that pot I would have had a solid amount of chips, able to put pressure on the table and start building a decent stack for the final table. Having such a large stack would have also kept me out of trouble a few hands later when I called an UTG shove with pocket Nines and my t4,000 stack. The UTG player had almost 20k and which would have been an easy fold if I had 50k in chips. However, needing to make a move, I took the chance but could not best KJ os eliminating me 145th out of over 2,200 people.

Over all the tournament was a lot of fun, and the win definitely helps me reach my goal of turning $100 into $500. I hope to qualify for more of these tournaments in the future and go a little deeper next time. It would be nice to blog about a final table experience or even a take-down. Until then I will stick with grinding out the micro-limit Sit 'N Gos and continue to work towards my goal.

Until next time,
y.

Back Home, Update On Things

It's been over a week since my last post and as always I want to keep my readers informed on my latest happenings. Last night I arrived back home after a long vacation. I wanted to post a blog about leaving, but with me procrastinating on everything before going, I left myself no time to do so. Now I am home, well rested, cleared my mind, and looking forward to playing some solid poker. I feel good about making some gains on my goal to $500 and hope to do so this week. I have been enjoying the Sit 'N Go Strategy book I discussed before and looking forward to sharing some of it's information with everyone in the near future. I must admit it's late for me and I must catch some sleep.

Until next time!

Poker is Good For You, Mr. Kobe

Here are some interesting reads before I go away this weekend. As some of you may already know, David Sklansky and Dr. Alan N. Schoonmaker have recently published a 6,000+ word essay entitled, Poker is Good For You. This article can be found at Two Plus Two's Internet Magazine and is a must read for any poker player, or any person who has been following the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006.

In other news, professional basketball player Kobe Bryant attempted to out purchase bottles of Cristal against Antonio Esfandiari (and friends) at the grand opening of the nightclub Blush. You can read about this fun night out at AlwaysBluff.com.

Have a great weekend!

Update: Sklansky and Schoonmaker's article is no longer found on Two Plus Two and can be found here.

Road to $500, Update 1

I have been writing this blog since Sunday. The reason for the lack of updates is not because I face writers block; instead I’ve been facing an upcoming trip, raise, and whatever else that can deviate my time away from blogging and poker. But without further ado it’s been (over) a week since I posted the blog entitled “Road to Recovery”. In that post I mentioned that I wanted to take $100 and turn it into $500 by following certain bankroll management rules. I promised to keep everyone informed on my progress, and true to my word, this is the first of many posts on where I stand in attempts to reach my goal. I would also like to discuss PokerTracker, as well as poker books Small Stakes Hold’em: Winning Big With Expert Play (Sklansky), & Sit ‘n Go Strategy (Moshman).

PokerTracker

I mentioned in my previous post that I was always against such programs because I felt today’s players are more focused on doing what a computer tells them to do rather than play “poker”. Recently I woke up to the conclusion that if my opponents are using such programs and I am not, then I am the one playing with a huge disadvantage. Since purchasing PokerTracker I have noticed that in certain blind levels I have leaks that cause me to go broke more often than not. However, if I make it to level ‘X’ I usually win the tournament or finish second.

Along with looking for leaks in blind levels I have been analyzing my most successful and devastating hands. When studying my hands I have been looking to see if my play is accurate on all streets regardless if I won or lost a big pot. I want to ensure that when I win chips it’s because I am doing the correct play rather than sucking out for a big score. In hands that I have lost chips I look for where I went wrong and try to correct my mistakes for future games. While I would like to discuss this in detail I have not fixed all my leaks to a point on where I am comfortable revealing them publicly. I would like to save this for a future post and go more in detail about certain hands and where I made mistakes and how I corrected them. Thanks to PokerTracker, I have found leaks in my play that will make much more than the $55 USD it cost to purchase the program.

Aside from PokerTracker I have been evaluating PokerAce HUD. For those unfamiliar with PokerAce HUD, it’s a program that can overlay statistics captured by PokerTracker right on your poker table. You can customize information you’d like to display on the screen, as well as add more in-depth information available about a player by clicking on their name. While I am still using the trial version of this software I do feel confident that I will be purchasing this program once my trial expires. I strongly believe that if you are willing to spend the money on PokerTracker but not the additional $25 USD for PokerAce HUD you can not be serious on using the information captured by PokerTracker to your benefit. The program has aided me in making some key decisions based on my opponent’s habits allowing me to capitalize on opportunities that I might have missed. Further discussion of these situations would make for an excellent article in a future blog. Right now I wanted to highlight on the product and put my recommendation to purchase both PokerTracker and PokerAce HUD. They are a must buy if you are truly serious on working to strengthen your game.

Road to $500

It’s been about one week since I have posted my challenge of taking $100 and turning it into $500. I have not played many games this week due to a wide variety of reasons as mentioned before. With that in mind here are my results:

Tournament Count: 6
Total Buy-in Amount: $33
Total Payouts: $64
Total Won/Lost: $32Average Won/Lost: $5
ROI: 51.5%
Current Bankroll: ~$132

It’s a slow start, but it’s a positive one. I know many fellow bloggers reading this post might look at a $32 gain and shrug at it, but keep in mind these gains are from $5 plus $.50 Sit ‘N Go’s. It will take some time to build up enough money to see greater gains, but with playing 6 games and making a 51% return on investment I believe it’s a great start.

Fun with Paperbacks

Recently I finished a book titled, “Small Stakes Hold’em: Winning Big With Expert Play” written by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, & Mason Malmuth. The book retails for $24.95 and is over 350 pages in length. This book focuses on micro-& low-stakes Limit Hold’em and presents the reader advice on dealing with the players and their actions in these low-stake games. If I can sum up the advice in this book in one sentence it would be: when the pot is small, fold if you have any doubts; if the pot is large, and call even if you’re unsure. The book does repeat a lot of theory already found in other poker literature; however, there are a lot of ‘new’ concepts in the book that are surprisingly refreshing. These concepts are custom tailored for the small-stakes game and shouldn’t be applied to the bigger games. In one example the authors have you call a River bet with Ace-high even though “you are most likely beat”.

Being a No-Limit player it’s hard to put all of the concepts in this book to use. Often the authors will tell you to call bets or make bets in situations because it’s only a fraction of the pot. The problem No Limit players face is that in the small-stake games this is rarely the case. Most players have no concept on proper betting and will usually over-bet the pot with their draws and made hands. Furthermore, since the book is based on Limit Hold’em, and not No Limit, it does not have any advice on dealing with players who abuse the all-in bet, or players who constantly raise 10x BB with any two pre-flop. To the book’s credit it does provide very informative information for the Limit player, and with enough thought, a No Limit player can modify the concepts and integrate them into their game with profitable results. Whether it’s Limit or No Limit the book has provided some interesting ways of looking at situations and many of them worth revisiting for further discussion. In the future I plan to re-read this book and take notes on some of the key topics & concepts and discuss them in a blog.

With that note I’d like to introduce you to the latest book on my bookshelf entitled, Sit ‘n Go Strategy by Collin Moshman. This book retails for $24.95 and runs just over 280 pages in length. A search on Amazon doesn’t leave you with much information; and while I have not yet began the book, I will attempt to give you a brief introduction on what the book is about.

The book is of course about Sit ‘n Go tournaments and it’s written in a very similar style that compares to the “Practice” sections of the Harrington books. Each lesson follows a hand history that constantly challenges the reader to answer, “what’s next?” followed by the actual course of action and an explanation. The book advertises its key points as:

- Master expected value, tournament equity, and fundamental poker concepts
- Distinguish between earning chips and earning money
- Develop an ultra-aggressive late game strategy to steal all the chips when the blinds are high and your opponents are tightening their play
- Play multiple tables, incorporate tracking software, and seize online-only edges
- Exploit recreational players in your table selection and game-play strategy, and
- Maximize your sit ‘n go profits by treating each game as a business investment

With only briefly skimming the book I am really anxious to dive into the material. This will be the first book I am going to take notes on, and when I am finished with the book I plan to share some of them with you. If I come across any concept that grabs my immediate interest I will be sure to post it up for discussion.

Wrap Up

That’s it for now, mainly because it has taking so long to get this far. I will continue to update this blog with my status and look forward to hearing your comments as I attempt to reach my goal.

Until we chat again, Cheers!