At it again...

So I haven't been able to play much lately because I have a buddy of mine in from Arizona. It's been more of a booze filled week with late night food binges mixed in here and there. Since I haven't been able to get wrapped up in any tournaments due to the time commitment, I've been dabbling in the short handed cash games. I've been focusing on heads up play trying to improve that part of my game.

$1/$2 has been my pick of the litter and has been treating me quite well. I think I have found a glitch in my game that I am now slowly fixing. Take a look at these stats from these my shots at $1/$2 lately.

Game	Total Hands	VPIP	Amount Won	BB/100	PF Raise%	Total Agg.
Hold'em NL($2) 6 Max	1,751	25.01	$1474.75	21.06	17.42%	2.42

I think I've been playing well focusing solely on limited tables and specific players. I also think I've found something that I like in heads up cash game play and I hope in it the near future Stars will open tables that cater more to this.

So after all this I brought my bankroll to a little over 5K and was ecstatic with that progress. Then just last night I knew we (my buddies and I) were staying in for the night, so I decided to play in the 1:00am $109 30K guaranteed. It got around 400 players and paid out close to 10K for first place. I hadn't played a tourney in a while so right off the bat I was playing tighter than my ass hole and wasn't really picking up any cards to make moves. Then a hand came up where yes it was a questionable play but my thought process was to either double up and have some chips to work with or go home.

I was holding 67dd in the BB when it was raised 3x from early position with one caller. The blinds were at 75/150 and my stack was right around 3K. I made the call and flopped the diamond draw. Now normally I would hesitate to stick much more in this pot, but given the action I thought this was a good shot to either win a monster or bust. I checked and 3/4 pot size bet was made and called by the first and second player to act. So here is what we are looking at, 2750 in the pot they both have fold equity and I have the draw. I push on the pot and get called by a monster...a set of tens! Oh but a diamond come on the river and I ship a nice size pot and at that point had a top 20 stack. From there I was able to maneuver with ease picking up pot after pot. I played a great tourney and reached the final table about 4 hours into play. I was 8/9 going in, and the payouts were very top heavy so I was on my best behavior for the first few orbits. I had an action packed table and was able to make some moves to chip up to the middle of the pack. After all was said and done I got all my money in 4 handed with an A9 vs. JJ. I flopped my ace but he turned one of his remaining two jacks and I busted in 4th taking $3,200.

Not a bad day considering I had a great $1/$2 session netting around 2 buy in's earlier as well. Well now I have a pretty hefty roll of $8,700 and are quickly approaching the 10K mark!

Running Good!

I did it again! Last night I played in a few tournaments, one of which was a first for me...the $30 deep stack starting at 2:00am which I chopped 3 ahnded and then won the leftovers. This tourney was a lot of fun due to its structure which was 5K in starting chips and 30 min. blind levels! This was a great structure for me seeing as how I love deepstack tourney play. I was able to actually play poker and and not worry about going broke with one hand or antoher.

Things never really got out of hand and I don't think I ever dipped below the original 5K. My savior in this tourney was the reckless player sitting directly to my right. And when I say reckless I truly mean it...he was open pushing on 250 chip pots with 200 bb's and just min re-raising any pre-flop raises in position. Needless to say he was a great ATM to have at the table and padded my stack many of times. I think at one point he was atually the chip leader after having sucked on Aces when he hit his bullshit two pair on the river. It was just a matter of time with this guy and not long after the money bubble he just handed his chips over to a player with bottom pair.

Something to think about in this tourney was the amount of post flop play and how this benifitted more experienced players. I think I only got my chips all in 2 or three times and that was when were are at the final table. The majority of the time I tried to keep the pots small and chip up without confrontation. My stratagey going into the final table was to sit back and let the hee haws knock each other out given the top heavy pay scale. I did just that and before I knew it we were down to 5 players when a crucial hand came up.

I was in the BB with J7s and it was raised 3x by the button. I made the call and saw a flop of Q23 with two spades. I check trying to peel off a free card but instead get faced with a pot size bet of around 14K. At this point a few things are running threw my mind...first, what hand range do I put this player on? Well, given the structure and amount of chips we are sitting with he has such a wide range I choose to look at the situation this way. It was 14K for me to call, which is roughly a 10th of my stack and I am pretty sure (given the strength of his flop bet) that if a spade comes on the turn I can get all of his chips. I call and the 5 of spades comes on the turn. I insta check and after thinking about it for a while he pushes for around 121K....I call and he flips AdKs. The river blanked thankfully and I get shiped a monster.

So we now have a player on tilt, tortuga with a shit load of chips, and 1st place in sight! Two more players get knocked out that were short stacks and we decided to chop 3 handed. At this point we had been playing for over 6 hours and I was dead tired so anything proposal was fine by me. I think 1st - 3rd initally took 1700, 1200, 780 and we ended up chopping for 1300, 1250, and 1100. I got the 1100 having been 3rd in chips but shipped the remainder of the tourney for an extra $50. When everything was said and done I ws very happy with this tourney not only for the cash but more so for my pacientce and well thought out play.

My bankroll now sits at $5300 and we are looking good for the 10K goal. Here are my stats thus far for July...

2007 July	Prizes	Profit	ROI	ABI	ITM
Hold'em NL	$7,111	$5,616	376%	$20	11/76 (14%)

My Intentions were good....

So I was ready to come home and hit the tourneys running for a good 24 hour period but I ran into a few hitches along the way. First off poker stars was up to no good with their server upgrades so no tourney got started between 11:00 and 8:00! That kind of put a damper on things but I figured I would just get some sleep and in the morning with the $8 rebuy and work from there. Well my buddy then proposed the idea of getting in a round of golf....and I just can't say no to golf on a nice day!

So there I was sitting on the couch watching poker on tv and craving some action. I decided to give a small session of cash games a shot and it wasn't a bad idea. I opened up a table of $1/$2 and a table of .5/$1 and told myself that I was only going to play around 200 hands. This was due to the past few sessions where I had amassed big stacks early and then pissed them all away for one reason or another. Right off the bat I get into the following hand and played it perfectly....i thought.

POKERSTARS GAME #10895436883: HOLD'EM NO LIMIT ($0.50/$1.00) - 2007/07/12 - 01:15:45 (ET)
Table 'Carme' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: 2hot4allofu ($154.10 in chips)
Seat 2: tortuga0981 ($97.50 in chips)
Seat 4: pkaji ($107.15 in chips)
Seat 5: Nataraja21 ($115.50 in chips)
Seat 6: limitpam ($57.30 in chips)
pkaji: posts small blind $0.50
Nataraja21: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tortuga0981 [9h 7d]
limitpam: folds
2hot4allofu: folds
tortuga0981: raises $3 to $4
pkaji: calls $3.50
Nataraja21: folds
*** FLOP *** [9c 4h 2d]
pkaji: checks
tortuga0981: bets $5
pkaji: raises $9 to $14
tortuga0981: calls $9
*** TURN *** [9c 4h 2d] [9s]
Drock8d5 joins the table at seat #3
pkaji: bets $25
tortuga0981: calls $25
*** RIVER *** [9c 4h 2d 9s] [3h]
pkaji: bets $64.15 and is all-in
tortuga0981: calls $54.50 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pkaji: shows [Jh Qs] (a pair of Nines)
tortuga0981: shows [9h 7d] (three of a kind, Nines)
tortuga0981 collected $194 from pot
pkaji leaves the table

So this is about 10 hands in when it is folded to me in middle position and I raise with 97off. The sb calls and we see a flop of 9 high, rainbow. I'm in position and the caller checks so I fire $5 at a pot of $9. I get check raised to $14, and with the quickness of the bet and size of the bet I see no reason why I should be alarmed. I honesty get the feeling that he is simply making a play on the "new guy" at the table. I don't think he would play 10's - AA's this way having 3 bet me pre-flop with a hand like that, a set would have most likely smooth called and over cards like any two broadway is what I put him on. I call the $9 and another 9 peels off on the turn. At this point I'm about 98% I am ahead so I think about how I can milk him for his entire stack. Since I thought about the call of the check raise for a while I got the feeling that he would stick in another bet having shown aggression and dominance on the hand. Sure enough, with the pot sitting at $37 he fired $25 and I again think a sec and just call. The river was a harmless 3 and he instantly moved all in and I called...he flipped over QJoff and I shipped a nice $194 pot!

The session continued to roll as I ended up walking with a little under 2 buy ins. The $1/$2 table had nothing special about it. I three bet with KK's and 10's and won a little from those but other than that I don't think I showed down a hand and walked with like $18 profit.

I am clicking through the tourney tab on poker stars and see that they have numerous turbo tourneys that are starting knowing that they will be over before the server restart. I see that a $5 turbo is about to start so I decide to give it a go. There were 900+ players and first place got a little over 1K. I played it just like a turbo SNG and to my surprise won the majority of my coin flips and got folded to when I pushed. Before I knew it we were ITM and then at the final table. I ended up getting it all in with A9 vs. AQ and finish in 4th for about $300+. So overall not a bad night considering it isn't at all what I wanted to play and wasn't what I was looking for!

For now it's time to get some sleep, I need to rest up for the links tomorrow. Later.

The grind that is poker....

So I've played a few tourneys here and there since my 1st and 2nd place showings this past week. I actually sat. into the Sunday Million and worked up a stack of about 35K, but couldn't really do anything with it and busted in 1456th or something like that.

Two nights ago I final tabled the same $20 freeze out that I took second in and had the chip lead going into the final table. I played an ok table execpt for one hand (which is usually how it goes). We were down to 5 when I picked up AQ in the SB. A player who had been playing pretty aggresive both pre-flop and post flop made a huge raise from the button looking like a blind pick steal to me. I had him out chipped roughly 3 to 1, so I pushed on him and he insta called with AK :(. I lost the pot and was never able to pick up anything else to give me a shot. I busted in 5th bringing home $683.

I think I'm going to play a shitload over the next 24 or so hours since I have the day off. I am hoping for some deep finishes and hopefully a final table or two. I have really been playing well and have now set a goal of a 10K bankroll. I'll get back soon with some reports of how the next 24 hours go.

Back to Back?!?!?!?!

Running good? I'd say so, for the second straight night I final tabled a nice tourney taking second two nights ago and winning last night. I'll give you one guess what tourney it was....thats right the nightly $5 rebuy!

We had our normal 350+ player field paying out 45 places and shipping at least 1K to the top two spots. Coming out of the rebuy period I was sitting with 9K in chips for an above average stack. I was in for only 5 buy ins and had a great read on my table. I played my normal second hour game sitting with well over 50bb's. I sat around and picked my spots well. I flopped a flush in a limped pot with j7ss and got payed off to the tune of a near double up. My big hands that jumped me into contention were the following....

PokerStars Game #10762008804: Tournament #54104847, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em
No Limit - Level XII (600/1200) - 2007/07/04 - 08:26:02 (ET)
Table '54104847 25' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: Cold-decker (92055 in chips)
Seat 2: Chripi (96104 in chips)
Seat 3: JimiChang (19656 in chips)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 (49869 in chips) 
Seat 5: bananaman61 (72307 in chips)
Seat 6: Brassass2 (121054 in chips)
Seat 7: THE CONVICT (30232 in chips)
Seat 8: 10E$UN (46475 in chips)
Seat 9: realmann04 (66267 in chips)
Cold-decker: posts the ante 125
Chripi: posts the ante 125
JimiChang: posts the ante 125
tortuga0981: posts the ante 125
bananaman61: posts the ante 125
Brassass2: posts the ante 125
THE CONVICT: posts the ante 125
10E$UN: posts the ante 125
realmann04: posts the ante 125
tortuga0981: posts small blind 600
bananaman61: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tortuga0981 [8c Tc]
Brassass2: folds
THE CONVICT: calls 1200
10E$UN: calls 1200
realmann04: folds
Cold-decker: folds
Chripi: calls 1200
JimiChang: folds
tortuga0981: calls 600
bananaman61: checks
*** FLOP *** [8d 8s 5d]
tortuga0981: checks
bananaman61: checks
THE CONVICT: checks
10E$UN: checks
Chripi: checks
*** TURN *** [8d 8s 5d] [4h]
tortuga0981: bets 2400
bananaman61: calls 2400
THE CONVICT: folds
10E$UN: folds
Chripi: calls 2400
*** RIVER *** [8d 8s 5d 4h] [Td]
tortuga0981: bets 7200
bananaman61: calls 7200
Chripi: folds
*** SHOW DOWN ***
tortuga0981: shows [8c Tc] (a full house, Eights full of Tens)
bananaman61: mucks hand
tortuga0981 collected 28725 from pot
bananaman61 said, "n1"
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 28725 | Rake 0
Board [8d 8s 5d 4h Td]
Seat 1: Cold-decker folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Chripi folded on the River
Seat 3: JimiChang (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 (small blind) showed [8c Tc] and won (28725) with a
full house, Eights full of Tens
Seat 5: bananaman61 (big blind) mucked [Ac 4c]
Seat 6: Brassass2 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: THE CONVICT folded on the Turn
Seat 8: 10E$UN folded on the Turn
Seat 9: realmann04 folded before Flop (didn't bet)


-------------------------------------------------------------------

PokerStars Game #10762206539: Tournament #54104847, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em
No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/07/04 - 08:47:52 (ET)
Table '54104847 25' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 2: Chripi (27687 in chips)
Seat 3: JimiChang (23881 in chips)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 (70480 in chips)
Seat 5: bananaman61 (100039 in chips)
Seat 6: Brassass2 (114965 in chips)
Seat 7: THE CONVICT (22053 in chips)
Seat 8: All_in_at420 (140683 in chips)
Seat 9: realmann04 (123784 in chips)
Chripi: posts the ante 150
JimiChang: posts the ante 150
tortuga0981: posts the ante 150
bananaman61: posts the ante 150
Brassass2: posts the ante 150
THE CONVICT: posts the ante 150
All_in_at420: posts the ante 150
realmann04: posts the ante 150
Brassass2: posts small blind 800
THE CONVICT: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to tortuga0981 [9h 9s]
All_in_at420: folds
realmann04: raises 3200 to 4800
Chripi: calls 4800
JimiChang: folds
tortuga0981: calls 4800
bananaman61: folds
Brassass2: folds
THE CONVICT: raises 17103 to 21903 and is all-in
realmann04: folds
Chripi: raises 5634 to 27537 and is all-in
tortuga0981: calls 22737
*** FLOP *** [7s 4s 2d]
realmann04 said, "a8"
*** TURN *** [7s 4s 2d] [7d]
*** RIVER *** [7s 4s 2d 7d] [2c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Chripi: shows [6d 6c] (two pair, Sevens and Sixes)
tortuga0981: shows [9h 9s] (two pair, Nines and Sevens)
tortuga0981 collected 11268 from side pot
THE CONVICT: shows [Th As] (two pair, Sevens and Deuces)
tortuga0981 collected 72509 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 83777 Main pot 72509. Side pot 11268. | Rake 0
Board [7s 4s 2d 7d 2c]
Seat 2: Chripi showed [6d 6c] and lost with two pair, Sevens and Sixes
Seat 3: JimiChang folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: tortuga0981 showed [9h 9s] and won (83777) with two pair, Nines
 and Sevens
Seat 5: bananaman61 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Brassass2 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: THE CONVICT (big blind) showed [Th As] and lost with two pair,
Sevens and Deuces
Seat 8: All_in_at420 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: realmann04 folded before Flop

This was a hand that I can chalk up to good table reads. The player that raised in early position was a loose noob as far as I had seen. I call and it folds around to the player in the bb (who had an identical stack as the raiser) who squeezed on the pot...the initial raiser makes the call right away and I am 100% my hand is good here. The squeezer is capable of this move and the early position player I just gave no credit, plus it was to good of odds to not call.

From there I tried to play small pots pre flop and post flop. I was truly able to raise at will with any two cards picking up round after round of blinds. I had a few key hands late that moved me up the ladder. I think I turned a boat with 74off out of the bb, and flopped quad nines on a three way all in 9 handed. I was basically running well and playing well again. More than anything with this tourney I made it a point to focus on players and their tendencies and was able to grasp some great reads that paid off big time. I chopped HU for $1500 and won the remaining cash bringing my total to $1700 on the tourney.

I am very excited with my play of lately and to be honest can't wait to get back on the tables.

Money in tha bank......

So last night (this morning) I played my normal $5 re-buy and had a great showing but once again came up short(I'll explain). For the entire tourney I was in the top 25 with a well above average stack and was playing really good poker...making moves when I needed to and winning the flips. I believe it was at the 1500/3000 level where this hand went down and put me in real contention.

PokerStars Game #10727437579: Tournament #54104504 $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em
No Limit - Level XV (1500/3000) - 2007/07/02 - 09:04:58 (ET)
Table '54104504 29' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: Rickydee4 (30738 in chips)
Seat 2: kito-80 (49917 in chips)
Seat 3: Pigskin10 (21718 in chips)
Seat 4: lucasro (36479 in chips)
Seat 5: drivenes (28942 in chips)
Seat 6: Elvis DK7 (69130 in chips)
Seat 7: tortuga0981 (46734 in chips)
Seat 8: Bubbagump22 (42642 in chips)
Seat 9: tom.dieRaupe (17803 in chips)
Rickydee4: posts the ante 300
kito-80: posts the ante 300
Pigskin10: posts the ante 300
lucasro: posts the ante 300
drivenes: posts the ante 300
Elvis DK7: posts the ante 300
tortuga0981 : posts the ante 300
Bubbagump22: posts the ante 300
tom.dieRaupe: posts the ante 300
kito-80: posts small blind 1500
Pigskin10: posts big blind 3000

Holecards:
Dealt to tortuga0981 [6d6c]
CALL lucasro, 3000
FOLD drivenes
CALL Elvis DK7, 3000
CALL tortuga0981 , 3000
FOLD Bubbagump22
FOLD tom.dieRaupe
FOLD Rickydee4
CALL kito-80, 1500
CHECK Pigskin10:

Flop:
[ 7s 10c 6s]
BET kito-80, 3000
FOLD Pigskin10
RAISE lucasro, 9000 to 12000
FOLD Elvis DK7
RAISE tortuga0981 , 31434 to 43434 and is all-in
FOLD kito-80
CALL lucasro, 21179 and is all-in

Turn:
[ 7s 10c 6s] [9s]

River:
[ 7s 10c 6s 9s] [2h]

Showdown:
lucasro: shows [KdKh] (a pair of Kings)
tortuga0981 : shows [6d 6c] (three of a kind Sixes)
tortuga0981 collected 87058 from pot
---------------------------------------------

From there I chipped up nicely and looked to be heading for a nice final table but a weird tourney situation came up as we reached the final 2 tables. The chip leader was holding a ridiculous amount of chips so the diparity amoungst the rest of us was very close. I'm talking, one hand I'b be in 10th and then after stealing the blinds I'd be in 2nd or 3rd. It was really weird and made it hard to manouver. Anyway, when we were down to 12 I was in the BB, 5K/10K blinds w/ K9off. My stack is 105K and the UTG short stack who only had 5 1/2 bb's pushed. It folded around to me and my thought were as follows....

1) he has roughly 5 bb's
2) next hand he gets hit w/ the BB and is reduced to nothing
3) all that being said K9 is a close call but I think it is ahead.

I call and he flips AA! I left a few words fly and get reduced to 40K. The next hand it gets folded around to me in the SB and I push on this same guy with J5c and get insta called w/ QQ. GG me and I bust in 12th for $50 bucks.


So I head to work having not slept and now steaming over the tough tourney. I keep having to tell myself that I played a great tournament and that one of these close calls has to eventually pan out. So I get home from work around 3:00 and crash until around 8:00. I get some dinner and hit the tourneys right back where I left off. I played in 2 tounraments, a $20 freezeout and a $4 180 man. In the $4 tourney I get one outted after flopping quads...yes thats right you heard me corectlly. We get it in preflop, QQ vs. K10d and I flopped quad Q's and he turned the royal flush. I couldn't help but laugh and having a decent stack in the $20 freezeout I knew I still had something to work with.

Well 3 hours later I am heading into the final table of the $20 tourney with a stack good enough for second place. The final table played pretty tight at first, then one player caught the biggest rush of cards ever and knocked out almost every player with short stacks. I tighten up knowing that top three places get over a grand w/ 1st bringing home $2,700. I had a mediocre run of cards and play them as well as I could and what do you know, I FINSHED IN 2nd for $1700!

So like I've been saying all along, I knew it was close w/ the way I have been playing and I finally got over than hump for a decent sized cash. Something funny about the score tonight is that going in to the tournament I was sitting with $205 in my account and now I have a bankroll again of around 2K! Of course I'm excited and all about the money, but more than anything I now have a huge boost of confidence for my poker playing abillities. I knew I was on the cuspt of something big getting so close so often and now I have the funds to step it up a bit and see what I'm really made of!