_Fisherman Just another PokerSavvy weblog

Bahamas Pt 2

Sorry I was so slow with the updates, the internet down there was really, really bad. Ill start from the top.

PCA Day 2

I started the day with roughly 80k. We redrew for tables to start the day and my table looked pretty good. There was only one person I recognized who coincidentally was the only person who was deep, and he was seated on my right. Everyone else was kind of short and seemed fairly weak. I started off the day raising a lot of pots and took down the blinds a few times in the first 2 orbits. A couple of the short stacks busted and 2 big stacks got moved to our table, directly to my left, damn. First hand of interest:

I open in MP with a8s. Big stack 2 to my left calls in the CO. Everyone else folds.

Flop QQJ rb

I 2/3 pot he calls

Turn Q

I 2/3 pot he calls

River 7

I 2/3 pot he insta-calls with 55.

Whoops. Im done to about 50 now. A few orbits go by and I open KJ in the HJ. Same guy from hand 1 calls from the button.

Flop AK4 dd

Check, check.

Turn 7o

I lead half pot, he 3x raises, I think and call. I dont think this guy is tricky at all and he wouldnt play anything except 77 like this. Maybe k7. He def would make transparent bluffs like this though.

River Jd

I check, he half pots, I call.

He says youre good and mucks.

Table breaks after a few more orbits. I have roughly what I started the day with.

My new table is a lot tougher. I dont recognize anyone but they seem to all play fairly well. There are 2 big stacks to my left and I get reraised by them the first 2 times I open preflop. I dont think Ill be running this table over.

I decide to tighten up and wait for some hands. 2 levels pass and I manage to take down the blinds once or twice, but no real significant action. Im down to 65k.

I open 87s in MP and get called by the BB, a girl with a similar sized stack.

Flop KJT ss

She checks, I bet 3/5 pot, she pushes, I fold.

Next hand I open with AA. Steam raise! I *think* the blinds were 800/1600 at this point and I opened to 4k. Guy to my left calls and the button stop and thinks for a long time. Hes one of the other big stacks at the table and asks me how much I have, and then asks the caller how much he has. I dont think hes acting, I think he legitimately has a tough decision. Finally he announces a raise to 18.5k. I stop and think for a while. I figure the squeezer has to call with pretty much whatever he has if I shove since hell be getting such a good price. I think about maybe just calling and hoping the other guy tags along but decide to push. First caller instantly folds and the squeezer tanks for about 5 minutes before calling with TT. Flop has an ace in it and I double back up to 125 or so.

I try and open up a little bit after this figuring Ill get more respect but I keep getting reraised. My stack dwindles to about 100k when this hand comes up.

Im in the SB with AKo. Folds around to the button who raises. The button has me covered by about 20k and is IMO a pretty bad player. He plays way too loose. I think about reraising but Im pretty sure this guy will call with any two cards he opened with and playing a bloated pot oop with ak may be tough. I havent played a lot of tournaments and its these sort of situations that I struggle with, being roughly 40bb deep preflop (actually I think we were deeper at this point, but whatever). Anyways, I decide to call and hope for a squeeze from the bb, since hes a pretty aggressive player, the button opens with a huge range, and Ive been playing pretty tight so far. I get my wish and he reraises to 18k. The button instantly announces allin. %^$#!. I think to myself that this is a pretty close decision, but its a tournament, gamble, get a big stack, blah blah blah but at the last second I talk myself out of it and fold. I instantly regret it. Oh well. The bb snap calls with AK and beats the buttons 55.

Nothing happens for a while and I get down to 70k. The blinds are 1000/2000 with 300 ante. It folds to me in the SB with AK. I open to 5k. The BB has a big stack and calls (AK guy from the hand before). Flop comes T83 rb. I lead for 7500. He calls pretty quick. Turn K. I bet 16500 and he thinks for a while and announces all-in. Im pretty confused. Im not really sure what sort of range to put him on. Not a lot of hands make sense. Maybe he slowplayed a flopped set, although I think he would have reraised TT preflop and probably would have raised the flop with 88 or 33. Maybe he turn kings up with KT. Hes definitely an aggressive player and I think he might play QJ and J9 this way. Maybe he floatde with KQ or KJ....blech. I think if he has me beat its with KT, and hopefully hes on a draw. I call. He turns over a6o for the pure steal. Sweet, hes drawing dead. I have about 150 now.

Nothing really interesting happens for the rest of the day. Hevad Khan got moved to our table to the seat on my right. He was less of a dbag than I expected. He seemed pretty normal and didnt do any of those lame WSOP antics. I open a few pots and lose. The only big pot I played was when I reraised a huge stacks open in EP (he got moved to our table during the last level of the day) with TT and folded to his 3 bet. I finish the day with 100k. Hevad manages to badbeat someone pretty hard and ends the day with about 300 I think (he shoved AQs on a J83rb board over someones flop c/r and hit running diamonds to beat aj. I didnt mind his play though, it was a button vs bb confrontation and I think the guys range was pretty wide and he had a lot of fold equity).

PCA Day 3

We start the day with 159 players and they pay 120 spots. I make a propbet for 100 bucks with the guy to my left that we wont get through the bubble in less than 2 levels (he busted before this but won the bet easily. I never saw him again and never payed up. If you're him and are somehow reading this, shoot me a message and Ill transfer you 100 bucks online). Nothing happens for the first level as I demonstrate how clueless I am about shortstacked poker and probably play way too tight.

One interesting hand in the second level (2000/4000 w/ 400 ante):

Im in the BB with AA. CO opens to 11k (he has 70k I have 90 or so) and I decide to just call, planning on c/ring allin on pretty much all flops. Flop comes TT6 and I get fancy play syndrome and decide to weak lead for 9k. He folds. Im thinking way too hard about these hands. That was a stupid lead, I dont think he bluff raises very often but he probably would have cbet if I had checked with almost 100% of his range. Blah.

I fold my way into the money (there wasnt really a bubble to speak of, we got down to 120 players really, really fast and only had to play hand for hand for 2 hands). Blinds go up to 2500/5000 with a 500 ante. I have 80k and Im pushing or folding preflop. My table breaks, and I make it through to the next level with 90k. Blinds are now 3000/6000 with a 500 ante. Wow those are big. Im still pushing or folding and Ive yet to get called. I make it through to the next level with 100k. With the blinds at 4000/8000 with a 1000 ante I shove kjo utg. The button, who has maybe 5k more than me, insta-calls. Uh-oh. The blinds fold and he tables ato. At least Im live. Flop is ten high, turn is a blank, river king! Sweet!

I have 220k. The average stack is 340k and Im still pretty short relative to the blinds. I fold a3 in the bb to an utg raise. Next hand I have ako in the sb. MP opens to 24k, the CO calls, and I jam. MP instacalls with JJ and the CO thinks and folds. I whiff and Im out in 62nd for a 16k payday (120 through 50 all payed the same, 16k).

Bah, tournaments are lame. I played way too much live poker in those 3 days for not very much money. Im swearing off live tournaments (as I do after every one I play only to forget about it a month later). The rest of the trip was fun and uneventful. I spent a lot of time on the beach and waterslides.

End of day 1b at atlantis

Played the first day of the ept pokerstars carribean adventure today. Also got to meet ansky (yesterday) and jurollo (today) for the first time in real life which was nice.

Some interesting hands:

100-200 level (2nd level). UTG opens to 675 (he opens a LOT of pots, maybe 50% of the time when no one raises in front of him. He seems decent. He also knows who I am from online), I reraise UTG+2 to 1750 with KK, UTG+3 who seems to be fairly inexperienced reraises to 7k, everyone folds to me, I think and shove. He doesnt snap-call, I breathe a sigh of relief. He calls with QQ after about 90 seconds. My hand holds up, and I double through to 38k.

Two levels later (200-400 with a 50 ante) I have 36k. Same utg from first hand opens utg for 1100, I reraise to 2700 with 67s. He calls. Flop comes 89T. He checks, I bet 4500, he asks how much I have and then shoves for 30k. I call. He has T9 and the turn and river brick and I have 75kish really early in the tournament.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful with some blind stealing and some small pots. I ended the day with slightly more than 80k. Play starts tomorrow at noon EST with ~500 of 1100 players remaining.

Jurollo has 72kish and ansky has 60kish (I think), so hopefully we can all make it deep into the tourney. Ill write another post after tomorrow.

Bahamas

Happy New Year everyone. Im in the bahamas for pokerstars carribean adventure for the next week. Ive been here since the 1st and have been having a great time. I came down with a bunch of friends and weve spent our days hanging out on the beach, playing poker, and eating well. Ill make more detailed blog posts once the tournament starts (tomorrow), but if anyone else from pokersavvy came down please come say hello. Im staying in the reef tower but Ill be in the pokerstars lobby a decent amount too. We may try and arrange an official psavvy get together later this week so keep an eye out for that.

Running Bad and Implications

Ive been running pretty poorly so far this week. Its not so much that Ive been getting outdrawn in big allins or getting coolered all the time (Id be much happier if this were the case), but moreso that every one of my semibluffs or bluffs has run into the nuts and I havent been getting my fair share of favorable setups. I find that this is the most frustrating way to run bad, as you cant pick hands and say 'well if I hadnt gotten sucked out on there Id be even.' I think its also the most devastating way to run bad in terms of what it does to your game. Since so much of poker is experience and feel, and since both of those depend heavily on short term results, its really easily to make slight adjustments in an effort to 'fix' your game, either consciously or unconsciously, that can really ruin it.

I think Im going to take a couple of days off from high stakes. Ill still be active on the forums here and might spend the time making a couple of small stakes videos and finishing work on article Ive been writing.

Bad Day

It seems like everyone I know is running bad the last few weeks. Among my closest poker friends, I know at least 5 who are going through pretty large (20 buyin+) downswings. I know ansky has a pretty rough day yesterday too. I, for the most part, have steered clear of this whole running bad business. Until today, that is. I promise I wont use this blog as a forum for me to post bad beat hands and complain, but I just cant resist doing so today.

The day started out fine. I played a few 25/50 HU matches and ended up about half a stack. I recently opened an ipoker account and deposited 5k there and decided to give it a shot. I picked a 25/50 player at random who was sitting by himself at a hu table and was greeted with the most horrendous noise ive ever heard from a poker site when it was alerting me that it was my turn to post my small blind. It was like a fog horn going off in a broom closet. Needless to say, I disabled the sounds first thing.

The guy I was playing seemed to be a pretty average high stakes hu player. He played kinda tight from his button, and didn't really reraise
enough. The software was painfully slow though, and I started to get really impatient and made a really bad float in a reraised pot, turned a pair to go along with my gutshot, and decided that it would be a worthwhile play to shove over the top of his bet (which was less than a minraise). GG me. I don't think i'll be playing at ipoker anymore.

Anyways I took a break for a bit and had lunch with a friend. I came back and most of the hu action was pretty dead so I started playing some 25/50 and 50/100 shorthanded. The 25/50 didn't go very well. Two failed semibluffs, a coinflip, and a big bluff later I was stuck almost 20k. The table filled up to 10 handed and I decided to quit.

The 50/100 game was running 3 handed and it was going better. It was me, another reg who plays pretty straightforward against me, and a soft spot. The soft spot had 20k when I sat down and had built that up to 25k mostly against the other player. I was picking on him, constantly reraising him preflop and taking down pots postflop. I had built up to 15k when this hand went down:

Seat 2: _NormanChad ($13,784 in chips)
Seat 7: reg ($11,644 in chips) (on the button)
Seat 8: villain ($13,142 in chips)
*** Blind Bet Round *** :
villain : Post Blind ($50)
_NormanChad : Post Blind ($100)
Dealt to _NormanChad: As
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ks
*** Pre-Flop *** :
reg : Fold
villain: Bet ($250)
_NormanChad : Raise ($1,200)
villain: : Call ($1,000)
*** Flop *** : 3c Kh 10h
villain: : Check
_NormanChad : Bet ($1,900)
villain: : Call ($1,900)
*** Turn *** : [ 3c Kh 10h ] 5s
villain: : Check
_NormanChad : Bet ($5,250)
villain: : Raise ($9,942)
_NormanChad : Call ($4,692)
*** River *** : [ 3c Kh 10h 5s ] 8d
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $26,282 | Rake: $2
Board: [ 3c Kh 10h 5s 8d ]
_NormanChad lost $13,142 Shows [ As Ks ] (a pair of Kings)
reg lost $0
villain bet $13,142, collected $26,282, net $13,140 Shows [ 3h 3d ] (three threes)

Oh well, whatever. Just one of those hands where you're going to go broke. I grind back up to 20k and proceed to successfully make a huge bluff in this hand:

Seat 2: _NormanChad ($19,538 in chips)
Seat 7: reg ($9,850 in chips)
Seat 8: villain ($24,757 in chips) (on the button)
*** Blind Bet Round *** :
_NormanChad : Post Blind ($50)
reg : Post Blind ($100)
Dealt to _NormanChad: Js
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ah
*** Pre-Flop *** :
Johny 001 : Bet ($300)
_NormanChad : Raise ($1,250)
reg : Fold
villain : Call ($1,000)
*** Flop *** : 5d 7s 9c
_NormanChad : Check
villain : Check
*** Turn *** : [ 5d 7s 9c ] 5c
_NormanChad : Check
villain : Bet ($1,600)
_NormanChad : Call ($1,600)
*** River *** : [ 5d 7s 9c 5c ] 6h
_NormanChad : Check
villain : Bet ($3,500)
_NormanChad : Raise ($16,638)
_NormanChad : All In ($16,638)
villain : Fold
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $26,036 | Rake: $2
Board: [ 5d 7s 9c 5c 6h ]
_NormanChad bet $19,538, collected $26,036, net $6,498
reg lost $100
villain lost $6,400

Nice, things are looking good and I think I have the villain pretty well set up to call his stack off light. 3 hands later I get aces on his button, reraise him preflop and am getting ready to win a huge pot.

Seat 2: _NormanChad ($26,136 in chips)
Seat 7: reg ($10,198 in chips)
Seat 8: villain ($17,807 in chips) (on the button)
*** Blind Bet Round *** :
_NormanChad : Post Blind ($50)
reg : Post Blind ($100)
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ad
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ah
*** Pre-Flop *** :
villain : Bet ($300)
_NormanChad : Raise ($1,250)
reg : Fold
Johny 001 : Call ($1,000)
*** Flop *** : 9d 6c 2h
_NormanChad : Bet ($2,100)
villain : Call ($2,100)
*** Turn *** : [ 9d 6c 2h ] 8s
_NormanChad : Bet ($6,500)
villain : Raise ($14,407)
villain : All In ($14,407)
_NormanChad : Call ($7,907)
*** River *** : [ 9d 6c 2h 8s ] Qs
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ad
Dealt to _NormanChad: Ah
Dealt to villain: 6s
Dealt to villain: 2s
Johny 001 : Show Cards
_NormanChad : Show Cards
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $35,712 | Rake: $2
Board: [ 9d 6c 2h 8s Qs ]
_NormanChad lost $17,807 Shows [ Ad Ah ] (a pair of Aces)
reg lost $100
villain bet $17,807, collected $35,712, net $17,905 Shows [ 6s 2s ] (two pairs, sixes and twos)

Damn. I was way, way ahead of his hand range there. Oh well. The reg doubles through the other guy and then quits. Its hu now, sweet! I reraise him a couple times preflop and take down pots and am back up to 13.5k. I get jacks in the bb, reraise preflop, and flop top set. He raises the flop allin, sweet! Crap.

Seat 2: _NormanChad ($13,496 in chips)
Seat 8: villain ($24,133 in chips) (on the button)
*** Blind Bet Round *** :
villain : Post Blind ($50)
_NormanChad : Post Blind ($100)
Dealt to _NormanChad: Jd
Dealt to _NormanChad: Js
*** Pre-Flop *** :
villain : Bet ($250)
_NormanChad : Raise ($1,200)
villain : Call ($1,000)
*** Flop *** : Jh 7h 9c
_NormanChad : Bet ($1,900)
villain : Raise ($5,000)
_NormanChad : Raise ($10,296)
_NormanChad : All In ($12,196)
villain : Call ($7,196)
*** Turn *** : [ Jh 7h 9c ] 3h
*** River *** : [ Jh 7h 9c 3h ] 8d
Dealt to _NormanChad: Jd
Dealt to _NormanChad: Js
Dealt to villain: Qd
Dealt to villain: 10s
_NormanChad : Show Cards
Johny 001 : Show Cards
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: $26,991 | Rake: $1
Board: [ Jh 7h 9c 3h 8d ]
_NormanChad lost $13,496 Shows [ Jd Js ] (three Jacks)
villain bet $13,496, collected $26,991, net $13,495 Shows [ Qd 10s ] (a straight, Queen high)

Blech. I called it a day after that one.