I've been having a good time with MTTs this month even though I'm not up all that much (roughly 7-8k at best)....They really have renewed my interest in poker and I actually look forward to starting them when I wake up. There's not a better feeling then winning a tournament, especially a larger one with a bigger field. Of course when you win the tournament you have to realize the ridiculous amount of luck that went your way, but knowing you were #1 of that field for that day is a good feeling. So yesterday my buddy jay won the FTP 50k and came 2nd in a 50r1r1a on Stars for a nice +20-21k day. Thats always nice to see when I had a -1100 day :(....He was due though he had been running like shit in MTTs the past month. Even though I had a -1100 day, I felt great about my game and had no spots where I regretted how it went down. I made one final table yesterday, the afternoon 30r on FTP, but busted 9th after losing 2 flips with 10 people left. I came into the final table with like 7 bbs and was basically out 5 minutes later. I also was deep in the 40k gtd on Tilt but had AK cracked by AQ and some other nonsense go down. Oh well, thats tournament poker. I've been watching a ton of videos lately on PXF from the likes of JohnnyBax, Sheets, Rizen and a couple more. I gotta say, if you don't subscribe to a training site your missing out on a ton of positive EV....Even if your a big winner in whatever game you do, its always good to watch other sucessful players and how they approach things. I think alot of people don't join training sites simply based on ego - to think spending 20/mo is not worth what is available on the sites is ridiculous.
Next week Ill be spending 3 days in AC with Southcjay at the Borgata. AC in my opinion is a pretty big dump outside the Borgata - the other hotels are garbage and the area is very ghetto. Our plan is to play a couple of the daily tournaments over there (they got a 340 on Friday), and probably some cash games. I haven't had much success live even though the players are terrible, so I'll be looking to tear up the 2/5 NL game and maybe higher if things are going well. My postflop has definitely improved over the past month or two so Im sure I could easily beat the 2/5 NL game longterm, and probably a slight winner at the 5/10 NL. Its funny because online I'd prob barely a slight winner at 1/2 NL and probably a loser at 2/4, yet in person the stakes are alot easier. After that my birthday is coming around and I'll prob relax with my gf for that one. Can't beleive Im going to be 24 and still playing online poker. What a waste I am.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
running bad turns into running good
MTTs are an interesting animal. The luck involved in a single MTT is ridiculous, especially those with weaker structures. One may be a long term winner but over 500 MTTs be a loser and quit them for good. The opposite can also happen, where a long term loser can crush the game over a couple hundred even 1-2,000 MTTs.....With that said, this past week was brutal. I got killed in really everything I played - I ended up the week only -2k or so, but the process of losing that 2k was excruciating. MTTs are really a kick in the gut compared to SNGs and cash. With SNGs and cash, you can always reload, while in MTTs a bad beat or two at a major final table can be so tough to bear mentally and financially. Luckily I think I take bad runs pretty well - I understand variance real well and how expectation can deviate in both directions dramatically, especially in bigger tournaments. I came into today with an open mind - I was looking forward to playing a long session of 20-22 MTTs, so I sat down at 3 PM EST and began my schedule. Throughout the day I took the worst beats imaginable - I lost pair to under pair 3-4 times, ran into AA a ton, and just got raped every way possible. I registed all the way up to the AP 30r, and with 5 to go on the day and zero cashes, I was thinking it would be a wash.
In the end I had the 20k,30k, and 15k 30r left all on AP as my final three. First came the 20k where a shorty shoved, a big stack flatted, and I reshoved AQ with like 18 bbs. Me and the shorty had AQ, big stack 10s, gg me. Then came the 30r - I had about 35 bbs when I 3 bet a UTG raiser with AKo. He flatted and the flop came all rags - I wasn't too happy 3 betting pre looking back on things, but I ended up throwing out another bet to see where I was - he min raised me and I had to fold. Eventually I got it all in and busted. The 30k was my final hope - the funniest part of the tournament was I had gotten KK/AA with about 10 bbs and gotten no action. I thought to myself there's no way Im doing anything in this tourny if I cant atleast get action with the big hands and being so short. At this point luck came my way - 44 cracked 99 for a double. Some donk slowplayed KQ and let me get there with a weak hand to pick up another 15k, and slowly I was gaining some chips. I doubled later on with A6 vs A3 in a blind battle, and later on got some value out of AA(finally). I came into the FT in 2nd, and worked my way to 3 handed. This hand was pretty big
Stage #1772396594 Tourney ID 4446726 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit 6,000 - 2009-07-14 02:48:05 (ET)
Table: 22 (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 5 - JWC64 (334,050 in chips)
Seat 6 - ETHANSKY1234 (298,942 in chips)
Seat 8 - Z06FANATIC (210,008 in chips)
JWC64 - Ante 600
ETHANSKY1234 - Ante 600
Z06FANATIC - Ante 600
Z06FANATIC - Posts small blind 3,000
JWC64 - Posts big blind 6,000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Z06FANATIC [10d 10c]
ETHANSKY1234 - Raises 18,000 to 18,000
Z06FANATIC - Raises 54,200 to 57,200
JWC64 - Calls 51,200
ETHANSKY1234 - Folds
*** FLOP *** [Jh 5d 4h]
Z06FANATIC - Bets 134,200
JWC64 - All-In(Raise) 276,250 to 276,250
Z06FANATIC - All-In 18,008
JWC64 - returned (124,042) : not called
*** TURN *** [Jh 5d 4h] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 5d 4h 9d] [6d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JWC64 - Shows [Ad Qs] (ace high)
Z06FANATIC - Shows [10d 10c] (One pair, tens)
Z06FANATIC Collects 438,616 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(438,616)
Board [Jh 5d 4h 9d 6d]
Seat 5: JWC64 (big blind) HI:lost with ace high [Ad Qs - P:Ad,P:Qs,B:Jh,B:9d,B:6d]
Seat 6: ETHANSKY1234 (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 8: Z06FANATIC (small blind) won Total (438,616) All-In HI
438,616) with One pair, tens [10d 10c - P:10d,P:10c,B:Jh,B:9d,B:6d]
We got HU and just chopped it. yes im a pussy when it comes to these situations, but the guy played semi well and whats really my long term edge here? Even so, this was a short term situation and we both had equal stacks, 80 bbs deep, and I figured what the hell let me chop it. I got 6600 for the ordeal, and turned my day from in the gutter to a very good day. Its funny how quick things can change in MTTs, and how a little bit of luck can turn things in a whole new direction. Anywyas back to the grind tomorrow - my only real goal lately is to win the 75k on tilt, so lets hope that happens tomorrow.
In the end I had the 20k,30k, and 15k 30r left all on AP as my final three. First came the 20k where a shorty shoved, a big stack flatted, and I reshoved AQ with like 18 bbs. Me and the shorty had AQ, big stack 10s, gg me. Then came the 30r - I had about 35 bbs when I 3 bet a UTG raiser with AKo. He flatted and the flop came all rags - I wasn't too happy 3 betting pre looking back on things, but I ended up throwing out another bet to see where I was - he min raised me and I had to fold. Eventually I got it all in and busted. The 30k was my final hope - the funniest part of the tournament was I had gotten KK/AA with about 10 bbs and gotten no action. I thought to myself there's no way Im doing anything in this tourny if I cant atleast get action with the big hands and being so short. At this point luck came my way - 44 cracked 99 for a double. Some donk slowplayed KQ and let me get there with a weak hand to pick up another 15k, and slowly I was gaining some chips. I doubled later on with A6 vs A3 in a blind battle, and later on got some value out of AA(finally). I came into the FT in 2nd, and worked my way to 3 handed. This hand was pretty big
Stage #1772396594 Tourney ID 4446726 Holdem Multi Normal Tournament No Limit 6,000 - 2009-07-14 02:48:05 (ET)
Table: 22 (Real Money) Seat #6 is the dealer
Seat 5 - JWC64 (334,050 in chips)
Seat 6 - ETHANSKY1234 (298,942 in chips)
Seat 8 - Z06FANATIC (210,008 in chips)
JWC64 - Ante 600
ETHANSKY1234 - Ante 600
Z06FANATIC - Ante 600
Z06FANATIC - Posts small blind 3,000
JWC64 - Posts big blind 6,000
*** POCKET CARDS ***
Dealt to Z06FANATIC [10d 10c]
ETHANSKY1234 - Raises 18,000 to 18,000
Z06FANATIC - Raises 54,200 to 57,200
JWC64 - Calls 51,200
ETHANSKY1234 - Folds
*** FLOP *** [Jh 5d 4h]
Z06FANATIC - Bets 134,200
JWC64 - All-In(Raise) 276,250 to 276,250
Z06FANATIC - All-In 18,008
JWC64 - returned (124,042) : not called
*** TURN *** [Jh 5d 4h] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [Jh 5d 4h 9d] [6d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
JWC64 - Shows [Ad Qs] (ace high)
Z06FANATIC - Shows [10d 10c] (One pair, tens)
Z06FANATIC Collects 438,616 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot(438,616)
Board [Jh 5d 4h 9d 6d]
Seat 5: JWC64 (big blind) HI:lost with ace high [Ad Qs - P:Ad,P:Qs,B:Jh,B:9d,B:6d]
Seat 6: ETHANSKY1234 (dealer) Folded on the POCKET CARDS
Seat 8: Z06FANATIC (small blind) won Total (438,616) All-In HI
We got HU and just chopped it. yes im a pussy when it comes to these situations, but the guy played semi well and whats really my long term edge here? Even so, this was a short term situation and we both had equal stacks, 80 bbs deep, and I figured what the hell let me chop it. I got 6600 for the ordeal, and turned my day from in the gutter to a very good day. Its funny how quick things can change in MTTs, and how a little bit of luck can turn things in a whole new direction. Anywyas back to the grind tomorrow - my only real goal lately is to win the 75k on tilt, so lets hope that happens tomorrow.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
MTT schedule
I don't know if anyone really reads this blog to begin with, but what the hell I'll continue posting when I'm bored. Since im sitting here at 2 am not wanting to go to sleep, I figured I'd throw up my MTT schedule. I've been running this schedule about 3 days a week, and then running a half a day on one of my off days. My goal is to get in 80 MTTs a week - originally I wanted to do 100/week but figured thats not gonna happen unless I kill my social life and start 12 tabling. Here's my current lineup
All EST times
3 PM - Stars 55 80k
AP 30r 8K
Cake 30r 20k
FTP 162 50K
330 - FTP 50+5 20k
4 PM - FTP 75 22.5K
430 - FTP 30r 19.5 GTD
5 PM FTP 120 KO 30K
5:15 Stars 50 1r1a
530 - Stars 30r 2r1a
7 PM - Stars 100 40k gtd
FTP 75 40k
AP 50r(debating tossing this in)
730 - Cake 109 20K gtd
8 PM - FTP 162 75K
AP 120 20K
830 - FTP 30r
9PM - Cake 30r
AP 30K Sniper
10PM - AP 30r
So right there is 20 MTTs - I might try to work more in from time to time, but after 8pm I got 8-9 rollin so thats definitely not when i wanna add more. I end up spending around 2100-2300 in buy ins on these full days, and I figure with atleast a 50% overall ROI I should see some good profits. So far its been fun but ive also ran above expectation....I raped AP last month, and finally hit a FTP top 3 when I went 2nd in the 30r the other day for 4700. Im hoping I can hit one of the bigger ones soon enough - Ill continue to try to satty into the FTP 1k/AP 1k, as the qualifiers (especially on AP) are super easy. Stars hasn't offered a ton to my schedule and so far ive skipped out on the Nightly Hundred Grand hearing that its not the most +ev MTT. My main focus is playing the rebuys, and all the AP/Cake tournaments. There's some terrible players on these two sites, and Ive done real well in my AP career, although Cake has yet to show me any profit.
I have yet to be tempted back to SNGs - mainly because im so sick of playing them, but my overall profits without race cards wasn't too hot. It also didn't help last year I never took advantage of reload bonuses, so that definitely hurt me alot. With race cards Im sure the hourlys are very comparable, but in a sense 1 hour of MTT play isn't as brutal to me as 1 hour of SNG play. Grnding a 4 hour clip of SNG's use to brutal, and during the races I'd go 4 hours break, and go another 4 hours. Even 2 hours got boring to me, but with MTTs the feeling Id get after 4 hours of SNGs usually comes 10-12 hours in. Also obviously theres more excitement when your deep, especially in a bigger buyin tournament where first place is over 10k. Its hard to get too excited about a 3-4k cash considering a full day of buy ins is 2k, but cracking a 15k score is always real exciting. Another silly thing is checking out PLB points on pocketfives - yes the leaderboards are pretty worthless considering you could be ranked in the top 100 and still in the red, but it keeps me interested and sort of something to look forward to. I'd like to get up there in the ranks one day even though the whole thing is silly, so we'll see how long that takes. Anyways I guess ill wrap this up so i can go to bed and get ready to ship some mtts tomorrow. Later folks
All EST times
3 PM - Stars 55 80k
AP 30r 8K
Cake 30r 20k
FTP 162 50K
330 - FTP 50+5 20k
4 PM - FTP 75 22.5K
430 - FTP 30r 19.5 GTD
5 PM FTP 120 KO 30K
5:15 Stars 50 1r1a
530 - Stars 30r 2r1a
7 PM - Stars 100 40k gtd
FTP 75 40k
AP 50r(debating tossing this in)
730 - Cake 109 20K gtd
8 PM - FTP 162 75K
AP 120 20K
830 - FTP 30r
9PM - Cake 30r
AP 30K Sniper
10PM - AP 30r
So right there is 20 MTTs - I might try to work more in from time to time, but after 8pm I got 8-9 rollin so thats definitely not when i wanna add more. I end up spending around 2100-2300 in buy ins on these full days, and I figure with atleast a 50% overall ROI I should see some good profits. So far its been fun but ive also ran above expectation....I raped AP last month, and finally hit a FTP top 3 when I went 2nd in the 30r the other day for 4700. Im hoping I can hit one of the bigger ones soon enough - Ill continue to try to satty into the FTP 1k/AP 1k, as the qualifiers (especially on AP) are super easy. Stars hasn't offered a ton to my schedule and so far ive skipped out on the Nightly Hundred Grand hearing that its not the most +ev MTT. My main focus is playing the rebuys, and all the AP/Cake tournaments. There's some terrible players on these two sites, and Ive done real well in my AP career, although Cake has yet to show me any profit.
I have yet to be tempted back to SNGs - mainly because im so sick of playing them, but my overall profits without race cards wasn't too hot. It also didn't help last year I never took advantage of reload bonuses, so that definitely hurt me alot. With race cards Im sure the hourlys are very comparable, but in a sense 1 hour of MTT play isn't as brutal to me as 1 hour of SNG play. Grnding a 4 hour clip of SNG's use to brutal, and during the races I'd go 4 hours break, and go another 4 hours. Even 2 hours got boring to me, but with MTTs the feeling Id get after 4 hours of SNGs usually comes 10-12 hours in. Also obviously theres more excitement when your deep, especially in a bigger buyin tournament where first place is over 10k. Its hard to get too excited about a 3-4k cash considering a full day of buy ins is 2k, but cracking a 15k score is always real exciting. Another silly thing is checking out PLB points on pocketfives - yes the leaderboards are pretty worthless considering you could be ranked in the top 100 and still in the red, but it keeps me interested and sort of something to look forward to. I'd like to get up there in the ranks one day even though the whole thing is silly, so we'll see how long that takes. Anyways I guess ill wrap this up so i can go to bed and get ready to ship some mtts tomorrow. Later folks
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
June wrap
MTTs have been going great thus far - Ive ran like a god on AP this month, so so on FTP, decent on Stars, and slightly up on Cake. Ive also been watching alot of PXF vids to work on my game, and it seems to be going well - I feel alot more comfortable in 30-40 bb spots where before I was a little out of place. Im glad to be breaking from SNGs for a while as they were very boring and really weren't doing too much for my game. I'll still keep them around but for now Im just running MTTs until AP offers some ridiculous free money to come back. Heres the stats for the first half of 2009
Second half of June 09 -
+17,378.92 in MTTs
-750 in live losses
-550 from not making 1k in the rakebreak race that I factored into race cards
+16,078.92
2009 stats
Total profit 102,327.28
Hours played 879
Hourly rate = 116.41
Second half of June 09 -
+17,378.92 in MTTs
-750 in live losses
-550 from not making 1k in the rakebreak race that I factored into race cards
+16,078.92
2009 stats
Total profit 102,327.28
Hours played 879
Hourly rate = 116.41
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