Titan 100K Satellite Win

I Played in a Titan 100k satellite on Sunday. I got a free token for coming back to play on Titan after taking a few weeks off. The MTT satellites go off at 2:15 Pacific which is bad for me. I finally played on Sunday. I got off to a slow start, but chipped up in the middle rounds. When we got to the final table I was in pretty good shape with the top 5 getting $215 seats in the 100k. I got on a rush at the final table, catching big pairs and flopping sets. When it ended, I was the chip leader. Too bad this was a satellite and not a regular MTT, because I probably would have taken it down. I will be freerolling in the 100k next weekend. Wish me luck!

A Pair of Nines

I played in a new Poker League On Saturday night. The concept is you play 5 monthly tournaments, and points are taken based on your finish. The Top 10 points earners play a single table championship. The format is $50 buy in with one $40 rebuy if you get down to T300 (start with T1500). $5 from the initial buy-in and $10 from any rebuys goes to the championship pool. Blinds start at 25/50 and go up every 20 minutes.

When I looked at the blind schedule, it looked a little crap-shooty to me. You start with 30x the BB, and with 20 minute levels your probably going to see 5-6 hands per level. The rebuy helps, but you can only take it if you get low. I was going to have to miss the august event, but I decided to play anyway. (You get to drop your worst finish).

Play starts with 30 entrants, and I can tell right away that these guys are not very good. I will have to wait for a real hand, as these guys are calling anything and getting into some big pots with crap. There was an early hand where three people were all in on the flop, and none of them even had a pair yet. Gutshot draw beat the flush draw on that one. I sat back and waited, but it was not going to be my night.

My best hand all night through 2 1/2 hours of play was a pair of nines!

Below are the few hands I was able to play:

I called a min raise with pocket 3s from the BB, with 6 people seeing the flop. I missed and folded on the flop. Eventual winner had AA. Dangerous!

I raised 3x from the cutoff with 66 after everyone folded to me, and stole the 50/100 blinds. My first pot of the night 50 minutes in to the tournament.

My stack got down to T975, blinds 100/200, and I pushed in UTG with AK (best hand all night). I got one caller with AK, no help, and we chopped the pot for my second win of the night.

I get blinded down with nothing playable, and have T500 left with blinds 200/400 at the break after level 6. I will be in the SB on the first hand after the break. I pretty much am going to have to push if I want any shot at this thing with any 2 cards. We are down to 15 players, and the top 15 get points. I am thinking my chances of a cash are low, and if I fold my first hand I may be able to pick up some valuable points towards the championship. I get delt 97o, with 4 limpers to me. I have to complete the blind with these odds. Flop comes AQx, and after checking a betting frenzy breaks out. I figure I am pretty much dead here, and fold even though I am down to a single T100 chip. I will wait for the BB, and try to pick up some points.

In the cutoff I get A5o, and it folds to me. I figure I got a shot here, and toss my last chip in. SB and BB call. Flop has a flush draw, and misses my hand. Turn completes the flush, and BB bets, SB folds. We flip up, and my A high is still good. River misses the BB, and I triple up to T300.

I am all-in in the BB with 94o. Flop comes 9 high, and a maniac at the table makes a huge bet. We are heads up, and maniac has a gutshot. He has hit these all night, but misses. I triple up to T900.

Blinds still 200/400. On the SB I get ATs. It folds to the button who goes all-in for 600. I call to see a flop, and BB calls. Flop comes KQx with one of my suit. I check and BB puts me in. I have a gutshot, an over and runner runner flush potential. About 9 outs. It will cost me T300 for a T2400 pot. I have odds galore and call. BB has KQo, button has T9o. Damn, I will need a J or runner runner flush. I don't hit, and am out in 13th out of 30.

My best hand all night was a pair of 9s when I was all-in in the BB. Pathetic. These guys were horrible, but I could not pick up any cards to go to war with. Its amazing I made it that far, outlasting 17/30 people without the flop ever helping me and no big pockets all night, and without a rebuy. I actually think I played pretty good. These guys would have paid me off if I got a hand, but there were not the types you could bluff off easy. I ended up picking up 4 points towards the championship on a horrible night. I can't wait till the next one to get some payback.

PokerStars Blogger Championship

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Registration code: 3145198

I am Iron Man

Well, I qualified for the FullTilt Ironman free roll in just 26 days. With this one, I get a free FullTilt 500 pc. chipset. Hopefully, I will do better than last time, and bank some winnings as well. I am unsure If I should go for the next 20 seat WSOP freeroll. I have done horribly in the last 2. It is quite a letdown to work so hard for a month to qualify, and get knocked out before the first break. With only 1/35 getting a seat, I have been playing real aggressive early to try to chip up for a run at a seat. This has not been working so far.

In the latest one, there were 4 zombies at my table, and I wanted their dead money bad. The guy to my left was super aggressive, raising about 55% of his hands, and restealing other's attempts to get at the zombies money. I was not getting any decent cards in the first 1/2 hour, so I had to laydown to all of his resteals. To me this was a way of setting him up for when I got a real hand. If I could bitch slap this guy, the table was mine, and the 8k in zombie chips would be all for me. The key hand came when I picked up AJs and raised 3x to $150. Aggressor reraised to $500 in his typical restealing fashion. His range was huge here. Any A, any pair, any two paint, or any suited connector. AJs was the best I had seen, and I felt it was time to take a stand before he scooped up all of the zombie chips. My hand dominates a good portion of his range, and I get a coinflip with most of the rest of his range. If he folds to my aggression, I may be able to keep him in check at least. I push in for $2200, and he calls with a real hand (QQ). Damn. I still have a 1/3 chance of spiking an A. He flops a bitch, but I pick up a gutshot that does not hit. Out in 45 minutes.

I think the deciding factor on if I go for the freeroll is if FullTilt does another reload bonus soon. It takes 5000pts to clear the $300 bonus. I am sitting on 3000 pts right now. Clearing the bonus gets me close enough. Come on FullTilt, give me a reason to get another 10k in FPPs.

Rake Free Rocks!

I have been playing on the World Poker Exchange for about three weeks now, and the rake that I am getting rebated is starting to pile up. The total economized rake ($161.16) is what I earned in my first 10 days of limited play on the site which has already been added to my balance. The $146.97 is what I earned in just the last week. Though the traffic is only up slightly, there are 3 to 4 tables of .50/1 NL typically open. If I could get on 4 of these tables at a time and start playing more exclusively on World PX, I am sure I could make $300-400 a week in rake in addition to my table winnings. I will say it again, you need to try this site. If you are paying rake on another site you are missing out bigtime.

K8 Sooted, Are You Kidding Me?

Below is a crazy hand from last night. The great thing about poker is you can do something incredibly stupid, and end up looking like a genius when the hand is over. I guess this is what keeps the fish coming back for more.


I pick up AA, and after a couple of limpers raise it up to 5x the blind. The BB reraises me to 9x the blind, and two people call. This is getting great. Can't ask for a much better situation with AA. I want to cut off draws to a set, and narrow the range of hands I'm against big time, so I re-reraise to 29x the blinds. I get a single caller. Flop is A97 with 2 hearts. I have flopped the nutz, and the pot is already huge. All I am thinking is how can I get all of this guys money. This guy called a 29x re-reraise preflop. He has to have a big pocket pair or AK, AKs. Possibly AQ or AQs if he is real fishy. That entire range does not include a flush draw with the A to the flush. I am not worrying about protecting my hand at all. Caller opens for $17. I reraise to $34. I will just keep sucking this guy in until I have all of his chips. Turn is a blank, he checks, I push in for my last $35.50, he calls. River is a 5h completing the flush draw. He has fucking K8 sooted for the flush and the win. Unbelievable!

This guy called a 29x preflop with K8 sooted. That was a complete donk move. You can't fault his post flop play though once he picked the draw up. I could not put him on the flush draw, so I gave him drawing odds the whole way (the turn call was borderline with no implied odds). If I don't flop top set nutz, I probably just push-in on the flop and force him to release his draw (he may not have). Flopping the set, actually hurt me in this hand. I have better odds of improving to beat a flush, then he has of hitting the flush, but still I could not put him on the flush draw.

There was some discussion at the table about preflop pot odds after the hand. Someone chimed in that he had pot odds to call the $20 raise for a $77.50 pot. That is total BS. Preflop pot odds are an interesting subject. I can see if there is a min raise preflop, how you can say you have 4-1 or 6-1 or whatever pot odds to call, but with the action preflop, he had to know he was against AA or KK. Any two cards flops 2 pair or better about 1 time in 40. You flop the flush less then 1 time in 100. He could not flop a straight with those cards. A flush draw flop is more likely, but he had to figure with that big a pot, that he would not get post flop odds to draw to a flush. He did not have pot odds to call a $20 raise for a $77.50 pot preflop with K8 sooted. Anyway, he made the preflop call and rivered the flush. Nice hand sir.

Another $500 Guarantee Win

I won another $500 guaranteed tournament on the World Poker Exchange last night. I have been running real good in this tournament with 2 wins and 3 third place finishes in about 9 tries. There was a nice $170 overlay in this one.

I got off to a great start when my ducks flopped a set on the first hand. I doubled up and took the early chip lead. From there, I went pretty card dead and just kind of cruised to the final table. When we got to the bubble, I was on it in 6th place. A lost coinflip I was not involved in kept the bubble going. I would need to make some moves to chip up. To my right was dank_lover. He was the Loose Agressive type. He raised from the button early on, and I folded K7o or something. He showed 64o, and said "sorry to be an a-hole and show that hand". I said, "No prob, I took a note of it and will use the info later". If your Loose Agressive, its a bad idea to be showing crap voluntarily, so I am not sure where this guy was coming from. He pretty much stopped pushing on me after that point, and would release to any sign of strength from me. He would be a great place to grab chips at the final table. To my left was ekey, who was tight and solid. I watched him eliminate 4 players on one hand 10 minutes in to the tourney, and clamp down after that point.

I pushed in with AJs after a couple of folds and stole the blinds. I then picked up JJ, and reraised all-in the short stack who raised from early. He had AQ, I won the coinflip, and the bubble was burst. We got down to 3. Me, dank and ekey. The three of us had been seated in the same place for the whole tourney as our table never broke. The key hand was when I open raised with AK, and ekey who was chip leader pushed in. I called, and was against AQ. No help for ekey, and I doubled up to 20k plus in chips and took a nice chip lead. 3-way action lasted for about 20 minutes, and the blinds got up to 1k/2k. I called a min raise from dank with QTo. Dank pushed in on a Ten high flop, and I called. Dank was bluffing, and was out in third place.

When heads up started I had a 3-1 chip lead. I was also against a tight player, so I felt pretty good. Ekey was regularly folding his SB and releasing his BB to any raise. The one or two times he showed any strength, I folded. My stack grew quickly. I picked up KQs, and we got all-in preflop. Ekey held K5o, and after no help the tourney was over. My second MTT win in less than 2 weeks, after years of being a virgin, and I don't really play many MTTs. Just this one about every other day. The 20 seat FullTilt WSOP freeroll, is this this Saturday. A performance like last night will earn me a seat. Can't wait to give it a try.

The Delayed Continuation Bet

Continuation bets are when you raise preflop, and bet out again on the flop. Your preflop raise indicates that you have a strong hand, possibly as strong as AA or KK. Your continuation bet indicates that you have either hit the flop, or did not need to because you have an over pair. Unless one of your opponents hit the flop hard or is very tricky, they will usually fold to your continuation bet. This is why continuation bets are key to being a profitable player.

I like to make a standard preflop raise of 4x the blinds when I hold TT-AA, AK, or AQ. I start to expand that range if I have good position and everyone has folded before me. I increase the size of the raise, if their were limpers before me. So you make your standard raise, and everyone folds right there, or you get some number of callers. Now the flop comes and lets say that you hit the flop with either an over pair, or hit an A or K with AK, or an A or Q with AQ. A continuation bet on the flop should be automatic in those cases regardless of how many people called the flop. You should also make the continuation bet if you flop a monster in most cases. Now lets say that you missed the flop. You don't have an over pair with your pocket pair, or you missed with AK or AQ. Now things get a little trickier. If you have position and it checks around to you, you probably should fire out with a continuation bet regardless of the number of preflop callers. You will need to be careful if there were a lot of preflop callers, and your continuation bet gets raised however. Now lets say you missed the flop like above, but you are out of position. Now the key is how many people called the preflop raise. If it was one caller, a continuation bet should be automatic. If there were 2+ callers and you missed things get a little trickier. This is where the delayed continuation bet comes into play.

So you raised preflop, got 2+ callers, missed the flop, and are out of position. With 2 callers, you should make the continuation bet about 1/2 of the time. If you have 3 or more callers, don't make the continuation bet. Especially if the texture of the flop looks scary. In this case you go for the delayed continuation bet. You check and see what happens. Your check will seem a little suspicious to the other players. They have seen you make nearly automatic continuation bets every time if you use the criteria above. They will be thinking that you either flopped a monster, or missed. If it ends up checking around the stage has been set. If someone bets, get out of there cheaply. So it checks around on the flop, and a harmless turn card appears. You make the delayed continuation bet. Now, your opponents will think you tried to slow play a monster on the flop, but they did not cooperate with a bet. Unless they hit the flop good, they can't call your bet. They already told you they missed by checking behind you weakness on the flop. You will take it down more times then not.

How big should a continuation bet be (flop or delayed)? I like to bet about 2/3 to 3/4ths of the pot. I will bet more, if my hand is exposed. Like if I flop an over pair with TT or there are some obvious draws on the flop. I like that amount, because you can take it down less than 1/2 the time and still be profitable. Also, it will be easier to release to a reraise, if you are not betting the pot on the flop all of the time.

Online Bankroll $11,264

Well I have had a pretty good run over the last few weeks, and grown my online bankroll nicely. Lets see if I can keep it up. My online balances as of today our shown below.

FullTilt $2,405
PokerStars $1,700
DoylesRoom $1,210
PartyPoker $1,030
World Poker Exchange $729
Titan $598
Noble $400
CD Poker $292
Neteller $2830
Transfers $70

Total $11,264

This represents almost a 3k gain in less than 30 days which is probably my best 30 day run ever. I won about $1,800 on Fulltilt during the period. The rest of the increases came mainly from PartyPoker, World PX, and Titan. I also qualified for the Fulltilt 20 Seat WSOP freeroll, the FullTilt Iron Freeroll, and the PokerSavvy WSOP freeroll during the period. If you have not tried the rake free poker at World Poker Exchange, you are missing out big time. In just about 2 weeks of limited play there, I have earned $160 in refunded rake while steadily building my bankroll. Their guaranteed tournaments with overlays are too good to pass-up, I just wish I had more time to play in them.

When I am running good like this, I want to try to figure out what I am doing differently. I am having a tough time right now putting a finger on the differences. I am still making some serious mistakes from time to time, so its not that I am playing perfect poker all of a sudden. I think I am doing a better job of releasing a decent hand when I am behind. I am also getting slightly trickier at certain opportune times and this has helped. I released a flopped bottom set the other day, when the betting was 3-way and huge on the flop. I was up against a higher set and a flopped straight. Before, I probably would have went to war with any flopped set. I am also doing a better job of managing the pot size when I am unsure if I am ahead. In one case I slowed things down after a series of min raises back and forth on a flop where I flopped top set. There was a possible straight on the board. When the board paired on the river, I got all the money in, and it turned out I was against a flopped straight. Sometimes it is better to wait to get the money in. This is pretty rare, but the stop and go stuff really confuses decent players.

The Poker Gods Don't Seem To Want Me To Move Up

I would never do anything to piss off the poker Gods, as they have been very good to me, but I appear to be hopelessly stuck at the .50/1 nl level. This level is my ATM machine. It is good for a very consistent $30-40 per hour (4 tabling) long term. I have aspirations for much greater poker income, but I seem to get bitch slapped around when ever I move up to 1/2. This is getting really old. If you were to look at my pokertracker statistics you would laugh. I am a huge winner/100 hands at .50/1, and a huge loser/100 hands at 1/2. The key statistics like preflop raise%, voluntarily entered the pot%, showdown win%, and post flop aggression are very similar for the two levels. The luck factor is not. I have to be one of the most unlucky players ever at 1/2. I might have to just skip it and go straight to 2/4 at some point if I ever want to move up. I know this is what the Doubleas recommendation would be.

I have been playing a little bit of 1/2 lately, and starting to churn out some decent results, and move back towards the positive. I kicked Perry Friedman around a few weeks ago at 1/2 on FullTilt. I also needed to step up my FPP accumulation for the FullTilt WSOP freeroll, and 1/2 certainly helps to that effect. I 4-tabled 1/2 on FullTilt Wednesday night, and had a nice run clearing about $110 in profit in an hour plus about 250 FPPs. They play in general seemed pretty bad. Worse then I remembered. It felt like I was being a pussy and not taking advantage of the fish at 1/2 if I stayed in my .50/1 comfort zone.

I played some more today and got bitch slapped bad. This is the 1/2 I remember. I got my chips in as a ridiculous favorite, and get sucked out everytime. Today it was laughable. I pick up AA twice in the span of 5 hands (different tables). I have $120 in front both times as I usually buy in a little light at this level. Both times someone opens for $10. Both times, I reraise to $25. The size of the reraise does 2 things for me. It takes away thier odds to draw to the set (no rule of 10 based on my stack), and it gives me a good idea of their range if they call. I am figuring a pretty big pair or AK if they just call. If they reraise, the money is going all-in right there. If they fold, I'll just take the win and be happy. In this case both times they just call. Flop #1 Qxx, Flop #2, 9xx. Flop 1 is a little scary, because QQ is in the range. Flop#2 does not bother me at all. Both cases, all the money goes in on the flop. Both cases I am against KK and way ahead. Case #1, a turned K. Case #2 a rivered K. OMG, why do the poker Gods hate me.

Lets just take a quick look at the odds here. KK has 2 outs. 2/45 + 2/44 = about a 9% shot or about 11 for 1. I hit an A about 4.5% of the time the K hits and still win so the odds are slightly worse than that. What are the odds that this happens back to back? 121-1. What are the odds that I win both? That happens 82% of the time. So I win both 82% of the time, we split 17% of the time, and I lose both less than 1% of the time. Damn, am I unlucky at 1/2 nl. I am supposed to win one of them back at least, what a JOKE. I'll tell you one thing, my pocket Kings never beats pocket Aces. Never, never, never.

Anyway, I did not tilt, and continued on at 1/2. Normally, I would have been away from 1/2 for a week or two after a beating like that, but I am not going to give up that easy. I managed to recoup 1/2 of my losses, and then ran top 2-pair against a flopped straight. Managed not to rack out there, but I was back to down $240. I think I am dealing with it better now-a-days. I went on a mini slump for a couple of days last week at .50/1, but I laughed it off, blogged about how funny it was, and was back to my winning ways by the third day. Someday things will turn around for me at 1/2. I hope it is soon. Poker Gods, throw me a bone please.

Cherry Poppin at the World Poker Exchange

Well, its been a long time coming, but I have finally won my first MTT. When I started playing online poker a couple of years ago, I used to play a ton of MTTs. I took 2/450 in my first MTT on PokerStars in a WPT qualifier. I also got 3/1000+, and a 4/700+ for some decent cashes. Still have not got a $1000+ MTT cash. Lately, I have become more of a cash game specialist, and rarely play any MTTs, except for blogger events. I started playing on the World Poker Exchange a week ago, and the overlays on the guaranteed MTTs were to hard to resist. They have this $10 buy-in, $500 guaranteed MTT that goes off at 11PM Pacific Time. I have played in it 5 times now, and have two third place finishes. Last night I broke through and won it for a $200 cash and my first MTT win ever.

The tourney went off light with 34 entries and a $160 overlay. I picked up KJ on the button on about the third hand. Flop came KJx, and I bet it the whole way, and got my stack up to 2150. I went completely card dead after that, and got blinded down to about 1250 when I picked up rockets with the blinds at 100/200. There was a min raise open from early, and I reraised to 650. I wanted some callers as I needed to chip up. I would be pushing in on any flop here. Amazingly, after sitting on my hands for close to an hour, I actually got an overcall + the original raiser to call. I pushed in on a Q high flop, and got a caller with top pair. I won and got my stack north of 3k for the first time. 1 hour in, 2 hands won. I started picking up some decent hands, and won a bunch of pots with preflop raises. I ran AK vs AJ all-in preflop, and doubled up just as the final table formed getting up to 6000+. I continued to pick up decent hands at the final table. I eliminated a short stack, and we were down to 9. With my stack north of 10k and 5 players left, I picked up TT. I pushed in over a 3x open raise to 900. I get called by AT, and flop a T. Other guy had 10k also, and I double up to 20k+ and take the chip lead with 4 players left. I pick up AA, min raise, and the shortest stack pushes in. I call, he has JJ, and he is out. Down to three players. I have 30k, other stacks are 15k and 5k. 5k gets eliminated by 2nd place, and we are heads up 30k vs 20k.

I want to be aggressive here with the chip lead, but the cards are not really cooperating. I put constant pressure on the other guy, but he is hanging tough, and I never really have the cards to take a big stand. This guy seems beatable, but I just can't seem to close it out. He eventually takes the chip lead back from me and it gets to about 22k vs. 28k. I keep the pressure up, min raising every SB, and pushing pretty hard after the flop. This guy pretty much folds or pushes-in after the flop. I avoid the all-in moves, because I never really get the right hand to make a stand. I eventually chip back up to 30k vs 20k. We have been heads up for 20+ minutes now. I pick up K7o. He makes a min raise from the SB, and I push-in. He calls with A8o. Damn. I miss the flop, but turn a 7. River is a blank, and I have won my first MTT. It felt great. I think I played heads up as well as I could have, but was not getting any cards. Only 1 Ace, and 1 pp in about 50 hands. The key for me in MTTs is to get cards late. I will take a huge drought early on when the blinds are small, if it means I will get the cards later. In this one I got great cards late, with the exception of heads up, and was able to work my way into the lead at the final table.

A Gift To My Loyal Readers

I always wanted to give something back to the 2 or 3 loyal readers that I have. This ones pretty big. If there were more of you I really could not announce it here for fear that the good times would end and the free money would stop. So without further ado, here it is!

The World Poker Exchange has guaranteed tournaments running around the clock and not nearly enough players to fill them. I played all weekend, and never once did one of the guarantee tournaments not have an overlay. Typically the overlays are pretty big. Plus the site is rake free, so you get your entry fee back as well. I have no idea why a rake free site would have guaranteed tournaments, but they do, and its sweet. Sign up and take advantage while you can.












Above is the first one I played in. They have these 10+1, $500 guarantee tourneys running every couple of hours. I have seen them have a range of 29-45 players, but never the required 50 to not have an overlay. In this one, I was the chip leader with three players left. I took a coin flip with my 66 vs. AK against the second position player, and lost. If I win that hand, I am heads up with a 6-1 chip lead and probably win it.

Later I played in a $5000 guarantee $25+2 buy in tournament. They would need 200 players in it to not have an overlay. When it went off there were 1400 players on line, with 800 of them in a $50 freeroll. There was no way they had 200 players ready to drop $25 on a tournament. It went off with 135 players for a $1,625 overlay (about 1/3 of the total pool). I ran my stack up to 5500 in the first hour, and was in 3rd place with 66 players left and top 18 places paid. I could have folded into the money, but got a run of cards that would doom my chances. I picked up JJ, blinds 100/200, and called a 2.5x preflop. Flop came T high, and initial raiser pushed in for 1700 more. I did not put him on a big pair so I called, but he had AA. A few hands later, I pick up AKs, and got into a 3-way all-in preflop pot. I was up against AQo and KK, but did not improve. Down to 770 in chips. Next hand I get 77, and open push from middle position. I get called by A8s, and I am eliminated when an 8 flops. Bummer! Well, I was playing for a big payday, and got a little unlucky there late, when my big hands were up against bigger ones. You have to love the overlays though. Don't miss out.

I played as much as I could on WorldPX over the weekend. Could only get on 1 or 2 cash tables at a time due to the lack of traffic. I would characterize the players as generally week, but there are a handful of decent players you will run into a lot. I ended up generating $30 in rake which was refunded to my account this morning. They have a rack free calculator on the site. It turns out that if you 4 tabled 1/2 nl for 40 hours a week you would generate about 100k in rake in a years time. So if your good enough to play break even poker at 1/2 nl, you could be making 100k a year. Incredible. I really hope this site takes off, because you can't get on that many tables right now. WorldPX is now officially my favorite site. I will be playing there as much as possible from now on, and filling in with FullTilt tables to get up to 4-5 at a time. You have to try this site.