Two things, the first is a question about the 3-table posts... lately I've been attempting to post every single hand, no matter how crappy, when I fold. At first I was doing that b/c I wanted to see if a bunch of hands would jump out as hands I should have played or tried a steal or limped early, things like that. But re-reading through these, it seems it might just clutter things up too much. Any suggestions/thoughts for how I'm posting the tournament play?



2nd, I went through and tracked all my results at these 3-tables, as MJ4H suggested earlier. I don't have them in tracker so I'll just keep my results updated here.

3-table stats:

Entered: 12
Entry Fees paid: $396
1st: 1
2nd: 0
3rd: 1
4th: 1
5th: 2

ITM%: 41.6%
Money Won: $765
ROI: 93%

Sample size is clearly way too small to matter, and a 93% ROI is clearly insane. I'll keep track of this here as I play more of these, while my ring game play is being tracked religously in pokertracker. I am curious how these will compare to single tables, is a 40% ROI good? How often should a good player make the money when the finish has to be top 5 out of 30, compared to top 3 out of 10.

Just getting caught up reading this. Lots of stuff over the weekend which is good but lots to read over as well. I kind of like the idea of posting every hand and I like the comments like "KJo folded to an all-in". Stuff like "83o folded" is very quick to read over so I don't really care if you leave this in or not. I really like the key hands post inside the regular raised to steal the blinds or folded to a raise stuff.

That is a pretty crazy ROI. Even if this comes back to earth it appears like you might be making more in the long run this way than any of the limit tables you were playing. Congrats on the success and keep it up.

without having something like pokertracker to break down true hourly rates for all various games, it's hard to compare. At 3 1/2 tables I've settled down to about $11/hr, which is about what I'd expect, that's about 2 BB/table/hour. I believe that would be a sustainable win rate over time. That's not my end goal though, I've been stepping it back up in the full games, and am close to jumping up to 3 2/4 tables.

Were I to average $20/hr doing that, then it gets a little fishy as to what's better.

Here's another thought. I first posted that a 93% ROI seems quite insane. But, a 40% ROI is a solid win rate at single table Sit n' Gos. A 3-table takes about twice as long. A single table takes 40 minutes to an hour, a 3-table takes 90 minutes to two hours.

If one could sustain a 35-40% ROI at single table tourneys, wouldn't you need to have a 70-80% ROI to make 3-tables worth playing from a true win rate standpoint?

And then there's the *very* easily defined win rate from limit games that pokertracker can simply spit out for me.

Intersting stuff to think about at least.

And thanks for the comments :)

Speaking of PokerTracker, how best are you using it during "in-game" situations (for both ring games and SnGs)? I mean, I have it running and load up the few familiar faces, but I'm not sure how to interpret the numbers to live situations and make on-the-fly decisions based on those numbers...

I'm not importing my SnG hands. the multi-table ones do not offer me the chance to get a tournament summary mailed to me that will load in the entire tourney.

For ring games, I export notes into partypoker directly. There's a feature in the more recent versions of tracker that allow you to export your pokertracker notes directly into partypoker notes. That way as soon as someone sits at the table I see that there's a note on him and I get all the info I want.

I export:

hands played, win rate, agression factors(all of them, pre/flop/turn/river/total), VP$P %(voluntarily put money into the pot), PFR %, and how often they check-raise.

This gives me a broad overview of how a player plays. Of course, if I only have 40 or 50 hands for a player I won't let it *totally* guide me, but I will take their play style into consideration.

If I sit down at a table and there are 3 players who are all very tight, I may go find another table, so it helps a little with table selection.

If I've got a rock to my left, I may raise more often in strategic positions, knowing he'll fold too many hands. If I've got a maniac nearby, I'll adjust my playstyle accordingly, raising more often along with the maniac to try to isolate him.

You see sooooo many people at partypoker that the notes I have on a player rarely change my playstyle, but it always helps having more information on them the second they sit down, and the few times I see a total maniac sit down and I can confidantly label them immediately b/c of pokertracker notes, it may win me a signifigant number of extra bets.

With some time to kill I join another 3-table NL #30 tournament, hoping my luck+good enough play of late continues.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

I start in the BB, I'm on table 1, so don't expect much movement.

T6o, BB, folds to a 50 raise. - a call and a 250 reraise later and this pot is 800 chips pre-flop. bowlerz goes all in on the hand(he limp-reraised to 250). InfoWins thinks for a long time before calling. bowlerz has KK, info AJ on a jack-high flop. bowlerz has 2290 and we just started.

65s, SB. I complete, lordlucan(BB) raises to 30, and with 4 callers I call as well. I am out of the way after the flop is all high cards, none of my suit. lucan had QQ and flopped a set.

82s, button, folds
Q5s, cutoff, folds
J7o, cutoff-1, folds - lordlucan has AQ on a QQ9 flop, he slowplayed too much, bowlerz made runner-runner flush for very cheap, now lordlucan is gone. Bowlerz has 3370 chips.
KJo, cutoff-1(since lucan is gone), folds to a raise+call before me.
Q9o, UTG+2, folds
93o, UTG+1, folds
96s, UTG, folds

A7s, BB, 4 limp to me and I check. flop is awful and I fold.
K4o, SB, I complete and we have a 6-way pot. I'll play anything for 5 chips. I fold when it misses me though.

Level 2, 10/20 blinds

4 people went out in the first round. I am down to 925 in chips after the blinds come through twice in the first 10 minutes.

52o, button, folds A6540 goes out with 34o, going all in for 500 chips when he flopped middle pair on a 942 flop...
K9s, cutoff, folds to a raise up to 55 before me. Debated calling but I don't want to bleed away too much. SB re-raises to 100, 3 see the flop. SB, AstroTim wins about 500 chips with a big turn bet.
J3o, cutoff-1, folds
84s, UTG+1, folds (7-handed for now, we'll even out to 8 per table next player out I think)

AQo, UTG, I open-raise to 60, 3x the BB. Two call. I win with a flop bet of 150(pot was 200). Flop missed me totally.

T9o, BB. Free flop, I flop an inside straight with a 776 flop, its checked to the river, I never hit anything but the pot was only 60 chips, so I never considered a steal either(maybe should have thrown otu a pot-sized bet on the turn, but alas)

pastramysand joins to make it 8 at our table, now down to 24 total

K5o, SB. Folds after a pre-flop raise earlier.

52s, button, folds
54o, cutoff, folds

pastramy is gone, all in on a 2nd pair+straight draw flop(he had JT, board was 9TQ). He is called by KJ and is out 24th.


Level 3, 15/30 blinds

I have 1035 chips, 23 remain. 7 at our table, bowlerz still has 3300 to lead the tourney. Everyone else is 900-1600 at my table.

KTo, cutoff-1, folds
J3o, UTG+1, folds
KTo, UTG, folds
K9o, BB, folds to a raise to 75 chips
34o, SB, folds
Q3o, button, folds
Q5o, cutoff, folds
Q9o, cutoff-1, folds

AKo, UTG+1, I raise to 3x the BB. BB calls me. Flop comes KT6, two diamonds. My king is a diamond. checked to me, I bet the pot(195 chips), and I win it there. I remain at 1095.

Some sort of major attrition at the other tables saw us drop from 23 to 20 in a matter of 2 hands. Two tables now, I am ten handed.

Key Hand #1

UTG+1, AKo. I raise to 90. ChemE25(same guy from last AK hand) re-raises to 150. stylcatz calls. I think and I call. stylcatz bets small, just 100 chips, but leading out worries me. I fold. ChemE raises it to 500, this woulda been all in if I had wanted to play. I am down to 945 with my fold, but I have to assume I was beaten there.

Level 4 - 25/50 blinds

I have 945 chips, there are 19 remaining, so I am well under average, but still with enough to make a big move if I can catch a hand.

53o, UTG, folds
K3s, BB, folds to a raise
74o, SB, folds - QQ/TT end up all in, QQ wins, down to 18 now, and the two biggest stacks at the table are to my left.

870 chips after the blinds, my table is nearly full so I have a ways to go still. I need to make something happen though.

T9o, button, folds

Key HAnd #2
ATo, cutoff, not the greatest hand but I have position. TWo limp and I raise it up to 150. Only finglas calls me. Flop comes 332. Will he call a bet? I bet the pot, basically committing myself(and parying he folds). He does. I am up to 1145.

76s, cutoff-1. I try to limp here, which is probably a mistake really. But I get a cheap 4-handed flop, I miss, but we get a free turn and I have an inside straight draw. Can we get a free river? Nope, I fold to a pot sized bet.

96o, MP, folds

finglas gets disconnected on every street, that last hand took about 4 minutes to play, and we are moving to the next level sooner rather than later. In the end, Stylcatz went all in with pocket 7s and got called, and busted, by a king. 17 left.

I get my BB out of the way before the level increase though.

K2o, BB, fodls to a 200 raise.

Levle 5 - 50/100 blinds

I have 1045 starting this round, and start in the SB.

17 remain and I am now just over half of the average stack. But boy these cards have been ass.

J9o, SB. bowlerz raises to 250 and I fold this one. - acehole0 goes all in for his last 420. TWo big stacks both call, and they check it down(it's really a little early to be doing that isn't it??) well, neither had great hands, pocket 8s vs ace high, so tht makes some sense.

Quickly down to 15 now. 7 at my table.

J3s, button, folds.

QTo, cutoff, folded to the min raise - AK vs AK splits a 4500 pot, bowlerz lost about 1000 chips donating to the two AK's befoer getting out of the way.
74o, cutoff-1, folds
J6o, UTG+1, folds
75o, UTG, folds
an ace!! A3o, BB. Jesus. 5 limp to me. We see a flop 6-way. It comes Q73, two hearts. I have the 3 of hearts :/ I can't call a 300 bet with this though. I am not that desparate yet.
K8o, SB, folds to a raise

JJ, button, folded to me I open-raise to 300, and I steal the blinds. Back to 995.
J4s, cutoff, folds

Clarksville, to my left, has 6500 chips now, busting AstroTim, who went all in for 1800 with an ace high flush draw(+ overcards on a ten-high flop). Clarksville had QQ and won a big one.

14 left.

AKo, UTG. I raise to 300 and steal the blinds again.
K4o, BB. Free flop with the SB. Flop comes 642, checked to me, I bet 200, I win the pot.

Two small but very helpful wins there to keep me treading water.

52o, SB, folds.
32o, button, folds
Q5s, cutoff, folds
Q7o, MP, folds

Level 6 - 75/150

14 remain, I am still about 950 chips below average, with only one stack lower than me at this table.

J9o, UTG+1, folds
K7o, UTG, folds - mrjslade and finglas build a 2300 pot, finglas CALLING all the way with KK to a ten high very non-scary board... he wins big but that was weird. mrjslade bluffed with A7 the whole way and is down to 400 chips

I clearly have to steal more, a dangerous prospect with the someone who has me covered 7:1 to my left, but I will have no choice soon.

73o, BB, folded to large raise
J7o, SB,folded to large raise - mrjslade all in for 410. finglas and clarksville are still in it with him. clarksville bets big and busts out slade with 78o, bottom pair ont eh flop.

12 left.

crap, button, folded to 700 bet.
T2s, cutoff, folded to big raise
T6o, MP, folded to 600 raise
J4o, UTG, folds

I have 970 as the blinds hit, getting shaky.

Key Hand #3
A4s, BB. Clarksville raises the min to 300. He's been raising a ton. I decide I don't have enough chips to just see the flop, and 6 handed I can't fold here. I go all in. He calls with AJo. I catch a flush on the river to stay alive and double up!

Clarksville: nh
me: heh, glad to still be hre.

crap, SB, folds
KJo, button, folds to a 800 raise from ChemE
T2o, cutoff, folds
T2o(again), MP, folds
Q9s, UTG, folds sharpy all in with T9o, Clarksville K4s(only 150 more for him to call after he open-raised it) Sharpy catches two pair.


Level 7 - 100/200 blinds - hour break - FINAL TABLE

The other table lost one to drop to 10 left.


My 1940 is over 1000 short of the "average" 3000. however, with two dominant leaders, clarksville, 7000 even, and CashMeCall, 6070. Plus a solid 3rd TonyBowling with 4235, my 1940 is good for 6th place and I am still in an "anything can happen" mode.


85s, UTG+1, folds - clarks raises out of position again... dude doesn't know how to play a big stack, min raises from god knows where. one call, a 1000 raise, then cashmecall shows em how its down by going all in for 6000. His AK knocks out ChemE25 and we're down to 9.

JTo, UTG, folds
J5s, BB - folded to SB, he limps, I check. flop is 966, we check, he bets the turn and I give him the pot. Bleh.
J2o, SB, not enough to try to steal from the chipleader. I fold.

1640 left after the blinds.

A2o, folds to a big raise from cashmecall
JTo, folds to a big raise from cashmecall - cash takes two big pots off of clarksville and is up to 12,000... clarksville down to 4500.

64o, cutoff, folds clarks wins big w/ a made flush vs ace high draw, finglas(another bigger than me stack) is out, 8 left.

ATo, I fold when cashmecall bets big enough to put me all in pre-flop. he had QQ, an ace hit, but alas.

Key Hand #4
AJo, UTG+1, I open-raise to 600, cashmecall calls me. Flop comes KQx, all one suit. I fold to a large bet. I culd have made a stand with one of these but I seriously thinkg that there are some terrible players here and I have a very good shot at the money. I am playing conservative.

Key Hand #5
AQo, UTG, ok, I contradict myself. I realize I am down to 1000 and no matter how bad the others are I need more chips. I go all in, get called by the BB with KQo, and double up to 2480.

I pass through the blinds with crap and fold. Button too.

FOUR players are under 1K in chips. only 3 need to bust out for the money. I am 4th in chips but not in great shape myself, but I am content to be patient and see hat happens here(though the cards are making this easy, outside of the AJ decision perhaps, which I think was right under any circumstance anyway.

sharpy33 doubles up to 1290 with A7 vs CashMeAll's 77.
C_Kid doubles up with KK vs 88, up to 1960.

Reeden all in with AK, called by AQ. finally, a queen hits, and the suckout drops us to 7 left.

Level 8 150/300 blinds

I am raised out of T6s in the BB, and fold 82o in the small blind.

Sharpy doubles up again, this time off of clarksville, 2680.

One short stack gone, two have surpassed me in chips, and one is hanging to a thread. this sucks.

The other two stacks my size get heads up on a flop but it ends quickly.

Key Hand #6

99 in my big blind. This'll be it I bet. CashMeCall raises the min, I push all in for 1730 behind him. One limper folds. Cash thinks long, long, long and FOLDS.

I am up to 2780, that is a big steal.

QQ in my Big blind. I steal the blind frmo Clarksville.

Up to 3080.

Bowlerz is all in in his BB for 230. Sharpy bets 600, I fold my crap, and Sharpy's AJ beats bowlerz 85 and we are down to 6.


On the bubble:

cashmecall - 10500
clarksville - 5900
TONYBOWLING - 5900
ME - 3080
Sharpy - 3060
C_Kid 1510


WHOA. Tonybowling and clarksville get into a 4500 pot, tony bowling pushes all in, and covers clarksville, who thinks very hard before folding, the curse of the bubble, eh? He still has 3800 but lost a big chunk there.

C_Kid raised on his BB, he's down to 1210 if he folds. He calls, cashmecall bets, C_Kid goes all in and probably has the best hand. Only 610 more for cash but he doesn't doit. 2400 now for C_Kid.

K7s in my BB but all fold to me.
I fold right back to a raise with K2o in my SB.

74o, button, folds - 3 limp, including the two shorter-than-me stacks. Sharpy bets 1300 on the flop and is called by the big stack, tonybowling. All in on the turn. OUCH. trip 5s for sharpy33. No longer a short stack at all, 6300. Tonybowling still has 4800.

C_Kid is at 1960, me at 3080, clarksville at 3835. Blinds jumping 200/400 very soon.

C_Kid 1660 folding to a raise in his BB.

I have A5 in my BB. all fold to me again. C_Kid 1510, Me 3080 still after 34o in the SB. C_Kid all in on the button, clarksville folds.


Level 9 - 200/400 blinds

C_Kid 1960, me 3080, Clarksville8 3385.

I fold 3 hands in a row without a face card.

C_Kid in his BB, I fold 85o UTG. clarksvile raises, this is beautiful, two short stacks. But C_Kid folds. 1560 for him.

Key Hand #7
A2o in my BB. I hate this one, at least, I do if C_Kid tries to steal. He does. All in. C_Kid has folded to me the last 3 BB's in a row. I am tending to think he has a better hand than me. I don't want to risk so much on a 50/50 shot there, even if it could knock him out. Curious if others call here. I love aces but the thoght that he has folded to me 3 times in a row was the kicker for me(along with my deuce :P)


C_Kid 1960, me 2480, clarksville 3385 after the blinds pass us all - Until Clarksville steals the BB on his hand, he is 3985 actually.

C_KID IS OUT. free flop for me, with sharpy and c_kid, i have K5o. blanks all the way down until an ace on the river. c_kid bets, is pot committed, sharpy all in. Sharpy turned a set and waited it down.

In the Money

I have limped into the money, and need a lot of help to do any better than 5th.


I get KQo in my BB, this is an all-iner right here. NM. folded to me. 2080.

K7o, SB. Big raise by tonybowling and I get out of the way. clarksville and tonybowling build a 3000 pot by the turn, tony bets big, 5000 pot. tonybowling was bluffing and is down to my level at 1700.

clarksville raises next hand, with tony in BB. he's committed with 945 chips left. All in, K9 vs K3, tonybowling is OUT.

4 left.

3rd place has me outstacked by 4:1

AKo in my big blind. clarksvile raises, I'm all in. clarksville calls with 58o. 58o > AKo. 8 on the flop.


I am very unsure about some of my late play there. I cannot say whether I felt timid or if it was just my read on the table... So many times I could try to steal with K7o and the like, or, I could get out of the way and let others knock themselves out. Sometimes that will kill me, this time it won me $100. This is, for better or worse, how I typically play a short stack when there are also other short stacks. The big stacks are willing to risk 2K with any ace to try to knock out a little guy. That's what happened here, and I watched everyone else gamble their way out while I hung on. If I'm a bigger stack, I try to steal a lot more. If there are not very many small stacks, I will gamble to try to build up and survive. But when there are 9 left and 5 people have 2000 or less, I am content to be ultra-careful and let them kill each other.

It worked here, but thoughts on this strategy in general? If I get good cards, I'm taking my chance(see the 99 hand), but with hands that are steal hands but aren't likely to hold up if called, I don't risk it.

4th place: In: $33, out: $135




Updated Stats

Entered: 13
Entry Fees paid: $429
1st: 1
2nd: 0
3rd: 1
4th: 2
5th: 2

ITM%: 46.2%
Money Won: $900
ROI: 110%

Another $30+$3 tourney

I start out at table #2, no names that I recognize here.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

T7o, MP, folds
Q4s, MP, folds
J4o, UTG+2, folds
T4o, UTG+1, folds
J2o, UTG, folds

Key HAnd #1
AQo, BB - I call the min raise from KevDoggy, and we are heads up on the flop. Flop comes K9x, I bluff into the pot, betting 70 chips. Kev raises me to 140 an I call. Turn helps me none and I fold. I think the flop bluff was ok but calling the raise was very dumb. I also should have thrown in a re-raise on the flop to see what he did. Who knows what he had, I just played that poorly.

J4o, SB - I complete but fold on the flop

Down to 815 as a result of that messed up hand.

J6o, button, folds
Q3o, cutoff, folds

Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

No one is out yet. I have 815 chips, annoyed at that hand but not in terrible shape or anything.

A3o, cutoff-1, folds
75s, cutoff-2, folds
T6o, MP, folds
32s, UTG+2, folds
T2s, UTG+1, folds - flush vs 2 pair all in on the turn. 2 pair fills up on the river, kuhse1970 down to under 300 chips.
J2s, UTG, folds
K4o, BB, folds to a raise - kuhse is out
95o, SB, folds
A2s, button, I fold to a large raise pre-flop
62o, cutoff, folds
J6o, cutoff-1, folds
J7s, MP, folds

Level 3 - blinds 15/30

Lots went out at the end of level 2, we're down to 25. I have 785 chips and am going nowhere so far.

T3o, UTG+1, folds
63s, UTG, folds
T2o, BB, free flop, fold when it misses
85s, SB, folds
J8o, button, folds
42o, cutoff, folds
QTs, cutoff-1, 3 others had limped already, I give it a shot too. Flop has an ace and misses me totally and I get out of there to a bet.
T3o, MP, folds

Key Hand #2
AJs, UTG+1. I raise to 80, and 2 people call. Flop comes 9TQ. I bet the pot, and tonyvas calls me. The turn is another ten. I am so pot committed right now. I am down to 300 chips and there's about 1000 in the pot and unless eh's got a full house, I have outs. I'm all in, called by KQo. I don't hit my ace or straight and I am out 23rd. My worst finish ever!

I probably played both of these hands terribly. Ick. That is most definitely all for tonight :)


Updated Stats

Entered: 14
Entry Fees paid: $462
1st: 1
2nd: 0
3rd: 1
4th: 2
5th: 2

ITM%: 42.8%
Money Won: $900
ROI: 94.8%

Ok, time for another $30+$3 NL tournament, I am in a much, much better mindset today than I was last night, last night that tourney I played was a late night distraction after a long night, though I'm not sure I really messed up too bad anyway.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

I'm at table 2, starting in the SB on the first hand.

QJo, SB, I limp, miss, and fold.
A9o, button, folds to a 125 raise by rickenbacker before me.
76o, cutoff, folds
QTo, cutoff-1, folds
A7o, cutoff-2, folds

Key Hand
QQ, MP, captain9414 raises to 45 UTG. I re-raise to 100. captain9414 calls me. Flop comes QJ8, three spades. Now, how do you play here? Top set, but 3 spades? I bet the pot and get called. Pot is now about 425 or so. I have about 680 left. The turn is a total blank. Now what? Do I check top set? Does anyone think all-in is a bad play here?

I all in. I'm called by AK, one spade. Inside straight+flush draw. the ten on the turn knocks me out with my worst finish ever, 28th.

Comments? On the turn I was 3:1 to win, so I think I did the right thing.

Lets try this again, that just stunk.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

66, MP, limp, but end up folding when overcards flop
Q5o, MP, folds
J3o, MP, folds
T9o, UTG+1, folds
84o, UTG, folds
63o, BB, folds to early raise
34o, SB, complete for 5 chips but fold to a bad flop 3 players to the river on an interesting 6678T board with 4 hearts. The ace of hearts beats the straight. No cool straight flushes or anything.
32o, button,folds

Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

Two went out in the first round, none at my table, my table is boring. LION_KING leads with 1455 chips at mine. I have 955 still.

T2o, cutoff, folds
Q4o, cutoff-1, folds
Q7o, MP, folds
KK, MP, I raise to 80 chips(4x the blind). Wow, no one calls. Tight. Damn :(
K9o, UTG+2, folds - AQ vs KK end up all in on a queen high flop. Ace on the turn, KK is hurt.
T5s, UTG+1, folds

down to 9 at our table as a 3rd person goes out elswere and the tables are evened out.

T2s, BB, after two limipers lion_king raises to 200... bodiepal goes all in over him for 640. lionking calls with AA. bodie had 33. bodie is very gone.
A3o, SB, limp with two others, fold to a BB raise
45o, button, folds - most raises here are the min, nto very threatening
K6o, cutoff, folds - 3 limps, a raise to 55, both blinds and two of the limpers call, then a 300 raise from the last limper, fold/fold/fold/one call/fold - 820 pot pre-flop. raiser checks even tho he has only 235 left. LION_KING puts him all in on the turn. THE_Chop(the raiser) calls and shows a nicely slowplayed AA w/ trip aces for a nice win.

Level 3 - 15/30 blinds

J9s, cutoff-1, folds

26 left(I've outlasted the last tourney!!)

Key Hand #1
KTs, MP, I raise to 85, two call. Flop comes JJ6 with two clubs. I bet out 200 chips, only petch84 calls me. Turn is the queen, making my flush. I force petch all in, he's about 400 shorter than me. He calls, he has KJ and doesn't fill up, I win to push up to 1575 chips.

couple of crap hands go by

Two Key Hands #2 and #3
T8s, BB. Free flop 4-handed. Flop comes KT6, one of my suit. There'a 30 bet, I call it. The turn is a 2nd heart. I call a 50 bet, 5:1 odds on my flush. I don't hit and a king takes down the pot.
K8s, SB. I limp, 4 handed, and flop a flush draw. Another weak 30 chip bet, I'll call. On the turn I hit an 8, and call a 100 bet. The river is a blank and I call another 100 chip bet, very weak betting that I'm allowying myself to call along on... I see 24o, two pair on the river.

crap, button, folds.

Key Hand #4
KQs, cutoff. there are 4 limps before me. I raise it up to 100. I get tons and tons of action. 6 callers. 715 in the pot. Sheesh. The flop comes JT8, two of my suit. I immediately go all in. The entire table folds to me, and I am up to 1795. Two weak draws played poorly, followed by a strong draw played well, and I am back up nicely.


Level 4 - 25/50 blinds

Right as the blinds increase we drop to 20 people, down to 2 tables. I am 2nd in chips at my table, the chipleader, JoeyEvans, is about 4 to my left with over 4K in chips. I have 1795 still.

some crap folded during the writeups.

K5o, UTG+2, folds
83o, UTG+1, folds
xx, UTG, folds
Q2o, BB, folds to a 225 raise, and an 845 all-in behind that. AKs and J9s(845 all-in for J9s??). Of course, J9s wins.
K3o, SB, folds



Down to 19 left.

Key Hand #5
JTo, button. After 4 others limp I limp as well. Great implied odds if I hit hard. Flop comes J77, I don't hit that hard. Checked around to me, I bet 250, prepared to give this one up to a lot of agression, but hoping I have the best hand. Everyone folds. I am up to 1970.

T5o, cutoff, folds

a few crap hands folded

Key Hand #6
AQo, MP, two limpers, I raise to 200. Two people call. Flop is 9-high, I bluff out 500 chips into the 700 pot. Both fold and I win the pot.

Level 5 - 50/100 blinds

I am up to 2470, still 2nd in chips at my table, but a couple others are very cose to me. I'm 4th in chips total.

19 remain still.

AKo, UTG. I raise to 300. I win the blinds.
86o, BB - I fold to an all in for 1000 by the button.
57o, SB, folds

18 remain, one is gone on the other table.

65s, button, folds
53o, cutoff, folds
63o, cutoff-1, folds

Down to 16 after we lose two quickly at my table, 50/100 blinds is great for the attrition

76o, UTG+1, folds
Q9o, UTG, folds
72o, BB, folds to a raise
AQo, SB, folded to me, I raise to 250, I steal the BB.
J9o, button, folds

Level 6 - 75/150 blinds

There are 15 left at this point, a fe went out real fast last level

K6o, cutoff, folds
A6o, cutoff-1, folds to raise before me
Q4o, UTG+1, folds
32o, UTG, folds
A8o, BB - joeyevans raises to 600, i get out of his way (He's the 3500 big stack at the table)
Q8o, SB, folds to min raise AA vs J9 all in, down to 14 now.
Q5o, button, folds
Q8s, cutoff, folds - small stack tries to steal, lion_king goes all in on the flop and scares small stack off his hand
Qxo, cutoff-1, folds
74o, UTG, folds


Level 7 - 100/200 blinds - hour break

I'm at 2245 in chips 13 remain. 2 stacks under 1K and a couple barely over 1K that will probably cause a lot of shakeups right away.

My 2245 is right about at the average. I'm 4th at my table, LION_KING has 4900 after some big gains, JoeyEvans is at 3095, poundtown has 2500, I have 2245, The_Chop has 1780, auburnstud has 640. I'd be 4th at the other table as well, putting me 7th overall at the break. Anything can happen, I'm ina good position to make a move, but not in a great one.

KTo, BB - I fold to a large raise
32o, SB, folds (sux, auburnstud down to 440 left in hsi BB there)
65o, button, folds

Key Hand #7
ATo, cutoff, open-raise to 400. auburnstud goes all in for 645, and lion_king calls. I call the extra 200. Flop has 3 hearts, my ace is a heart. Lion king and I check it down, a heart, ten, ace, never hit. Auburn has AK and wins the pot. I am getting a bit short now with 1305. Ugh.

T9o, UTG, folds
62s, BB, folds
32o(again!), SB, folds

I have 1000 chips, still 13 left, this is starting to look grim.

75o, button, folds
K8o, cutoff, folds

Key Hand #8
99, UTG+1, I raise to 600, one caller(LION_KING). I'm all in on a Q22 flop. hope he has no queen. He goes all in, I call. He shows 77, my 99 holds up and I double up to 2210 chips.

A2o, BB, folds to a large raise. That's probably a bit timid.
crap, SB, folds
Q5s, button, folds
66, cutoff, steals blinds
A5s, UTG+1, raise to 500. poundtown calls. ARGH. AQ6 flop, all clubs. I hate these suited flops. I have to bet it, short table rules now. I bet 800 and win the pot, whew.
98o, UTG, folds


Level 8 - 150/300 blinds

All 13 survived that entire level. Impressive.

92o, BB, SB raises but I can't call with this.
95s, SB, folds to a raise. - LION_KING raises *a lot*

Finally down to 12.

42o, button, folds
53o, cutoff, folds
K2o, UTG+1, folds

Key Hand #9
AQo, UTG, I raise to 800. One of the few shorter than me stacks calls, and a 970 stack goes all in. Another 170 to call, which I do. Other stack only has 300 left. He goes in on the flop, I call. I am down to 990 when my AQ and short stack's AJ don't hit and 77 triples up AuburnStud.

Q4o, BB, fold

Key Hand #10
JTo, SB - I go all in for about 400 extra here. Two are in with me. Flop is jack high, I have top pair, but JoeyEvans has KJ.

I am out 11th.



Updated Stats

Entered: 15
Entry Fees paid: $495
1st: 1
2nd: 0
3rd: 1
4th: 2
5th: 2

ITM%: 40%
Money Won: $900
ROI: 82%

Oops, my stats are off in that last post, I skipped updating them one tourney:

Updated Stats

Entered: 16
Entry Fees paid: $528
1st: 1
2nd: 0
3rd: 1
4th: 2
5th: 2

ITM%: 37.5%
Money Won: $900
ROI: 70%

Also, a bankroll update since I haven't updated in a bit:

PokerStars: $168
Neteller: $1121
PartyPoker: $1350

Total: $2639


Solid total. neteller acct is down a bit. After my cashout at intercasino I deposited another $100. The blackjack didn't work out with the free $90 for July, but I don't expect that to win w/ that every month or anything, the problem though is that the poker didn't either. I played about 180 hands and lost the entire $100. Terrible streak at the 1/2 short tables, and probably some bad play as well. I'm only 120 hands or so from that $50 bonus now though, so I'll likely deposit some more into intercasino just to finish up that bonus and pull it back out, but I'm showing a net loss there this month(karma after quadrupling my money last month I suppose).


I played 3 2/4 tables for a bit last night, and i've officially jumped up to 2/4 for my ring game play. I've just made that jump though and only have about 250 hands recorded at 2/4. I won't be posting any of those hands since there's no way to record while playing 3 tables and still remain sane, but I'll post up my results every 1000 hands or so to track progress.

After some 2/4 grinding it out I get the urge to play in a multi-table tourney. I join a $50+$5 pokerstars tourney, ~240 are entered(we'll see exactly how many in a minute.

For now there are 30 tables

Everyone gets 1500 chips, blinds are 10/20, and levels increase every 15 minutes.

Level 1 - 10/20

A4o, cutoff, folds - jack_dawson loses half his stack.
QJo, cutoff-1, folds - jack all in with AJ, called by 99. jack back to starting chips. EarlBry down to 750.
83o, cutoff-2, folds

Late registration closes, we have 270 entrants. 27 get paid

Q9o, MP, folds
53o, UTG+1, folds
33, UTG, folds

Jack Dawson has won 3 of the last 4 pots, he's in there mixing it up a lot.

75o, BB, free flop 3-way, folded on flop
85o, SB, folds to raise
T6s, button, folds
82o, cutoff, folds
K8o, cutoff-1, folds EarlBry/Ckrad all in preflop, A7 vs A6, they split. EARL is short stacked somewhat, ckrad doesn't have an excuse.
82o, MP, folds
K7o, MP, folds
J6o, UTG+1, folds
42o, UTG, folds
J9s, BB, folds to a raise to 60
62o, SB, folds
52o, button, folds
T9o, cutoff, folds

Level 2 - 15/30 blinds

242 out of 270 remain. 27 tables left.

I have 1440 chips. 147th out of 242.

45o, cutoff-1, folds - earlbry all in again, hcor879874 calls. AK vs A7. some very bad all in calls here. Earl back up to 1185 and still kickin

52s, MP, folds
Q9o, UTG+2, folds
A5o, UTG+1, folds
Q4s, UTG, folds

Key Hand #1

KK, BB, 3 limp and I raise to 100. Jack Dawson calls. Flop comes 842. I bet ~the pot, 270, and JackDawson folds.

84o, SB, folds

1585 chips after the SB

92o, button, folds
J2o, cutoff, folds
72s, cutoff-1, folds

Key Hand #2
KQo, MP, open-raise to 90. Button and BB call. Flop comes 3 low cards, I bet hard(200 or so into the 270) and button folds. Turn is an ace. First really hard decision of the day. Ckrad checks to me. Do I bet hard or give it up? I choose to bet here, I bet 400 chips, a pretty big underbet of the pot but ckrad is shorter stacked so I think it's enough to push him out if he doens't have the ace. He folds, and I am up to 1990 in chips.

Coupld of folds in the UTG positions.

J4o, BB, folds to a 270 raise.
KQo, SB - no shot at position here, so not sure how to play this one. ckrad all in for 505 makes it easy. fold.

Key Hand #3

AA, button - two limps, then a raise to 90 by the big stack at the table. Pot is upwards of 200. I raise to 270. Dawwg calls, he has a lot more chips than me. Flop comes Q33. he checks, I bet 500 into the 645 pot, and dawwg folds.

JTs, cutoff, folds to another ckrad all in.
xx, cutoff-1, folds
A4o, cutoff-2, folds

Level 3 - 25/50 blinds

Level 2 was very good to me. I pushed up to 2320 in chips.

203 out of the original 270 remain. 23 tables left. I am 59th out of the 203 left.

crap, MP, folds
KJs, UTG+1, I raise to 3x the blind, and I steal the blinds.
T2o, UTG, folds

Under 200 remain.

J3o, BB, folded to a raise
J2o, SB, folds

No flop in the last 4 hands.

J6, button, folds - big hand, dontbeafraid flops top two pair and backdoor flush draw. The_Lyl flops a set. On the turn dontbeafraid has 4-flush + the two pair. All in, the flush hits the river adn doesn't pair the board, The_Lyl knocked out in a rough way there.

xx,cutoff, folds

Key Hand #4

A8o, cutoff-1, I open-raise to 150 and ckrad calls from the big blind. KJx on the flop. He checks, and I bet 400 to put him all in, he's been making a lot of calls and then folds ont eh flop, and really just staying alive stealing w/ pre-flop all ins. He got me good though, He has AA. I am down to 1760.

crap, folded a couple of times.
AJs, UTG, I raise to 150, and ckrad goes allin for 900. Can I call that? I don't think so. I fold it.

crap, BB, folded to raise.
63o, SB, folds

I am back to the starting chip level, 1535 after those two hits.

xx, button, folds
J8o, cutoff, folds
K4s, cutoff-1, folds
87o, MP, folds
Q4o, UTG+2, folds
A4o, UTG+1, folds

Key Hand #5
AKo, UTG, I raise to 150 - 4 people call. The board comes with a straight draw and a flush draw, I don't see any advantage to betting into this one... I get out of the way.

J2o, BB, folds to pre-flop raise

Level 4 - 50/100 blinds

62o, SB, folds

166 of the original 270 remain. 19 tables left.

After the SB I am down to 1285 and going in the wrong direction. I am now 125th out of 166.

73o, button, folds
85o, cutoff, folds
73o, cutoff-1, folds
J6o, MP, folds
QTo, UTG+2, folds

JTs, UTG+1, I try to limp(dumb w/ 1285 left huh?) - I fold to a 1200 all-in. ckrad calls it, QQ vs 88. 8 on the turn. ckrad is way up now.

72o, UTG, folds

Key Hand #6
T9o, BB, folds - 9-high flop, 986. dawwg bets 300, and I go all in. Top pair+inside straight draw. dawwwg things awhile, and folds. That pot takes me back up to 1685, 1635 after my SB.

crap, SB, folds
85s, button, folds - boink all in for 750ish, honkmyhorn big raise over him. AQo vs AJs. AQ holds up. Everyone around 1000 is starting to try to make moves w/ any decent hand here.
xx, cutoff, folds
Q7o, cutoff-1, folds

4 all-ins in the last 5 hands, all of them called pre-flop. 2 ppl busted out.

K7o, UTG+1, folds

QJs, UTG, I raise to 300. Very happy to win the blinds there.
82o, BB, free flop 4 way, folds on the flop.
65o, SB, folds to a raise
82o, again, button, folds

5 of the 9 guys at the table have 3000+ chips.

Key Hand #7
AKo, cutoff - a raise to 300 and a call before me. 750 pot. I go all in for 1635. Dawwg calls me with AQ. 89T flop, ugh. 789T after turn. Guess what hits the river? Yup, a jack. straight on the board, but Dawwg has the top end of it. Dominated hands no good!

I am out 123rd out of 270. Had that held up I would have had nearly 4000 chips and been in a solid position.

2/4 1000 hand update

Playing 3 tables the hands rack up pretty fast... that's the whole idea, lower limit multiple tables hoping to even out to a win rate of 6/12 or 7.5/15 standards.

For my last session I played 4 tables and had similar results as with 3, I think if I want to sit down for a solid hour or two of poker if my head is clear I'll try 4 on occasion.


HANDS: 1038
WON: $234.50
per table BB/hr - 3.56
True Win Rate (this is 'real time' not per table): $38.65/hr, or 9.66 BB.


Sample size is terribly small so it doesn't mean much except that I'm winning right now and happy :)

9 BB/hr is a bit high but I think a long term expectation of 1.5-2BB per table per hour is very reasonable, so depending on whether I do 3 or 4 tables most of the time I think a win rate of $18-$25/hr is where I will end up settling in.

I plan on sticking it out here for 5000 hands or so, and if I'm happy with my play, I'll give 3/6 a try, but am a little wary of playing 3 3/6 tables with a "bankroll" that gets reset to $2500 every month. I may well start most months at 2/4 and then only move up to 3/6 once I get ahead.

Quick weekend update:

PokerStars: $113
Neteller: $1221
PartyPoker: $1301 (cashed out $200, so neteller is higher/partypoker is lower)
InterCasinoPoker: $101 (A cleaning frenzy last week either resulted in the mail with my PIN beign thrown away, or hidden under a stack of scrapbook supplies that is about 45 feet high, so I am going to re-request it, so this money is stuck for a week probably).

Total: $2736

I'd love to get that up over $3000 before the profit cashout at the end of the month. but I'm afraid that talking about things like that will cause a losing streak so pretend I didn't say that :D

Yup, that losing streak started immediately. AFter I posted my first 1000 hand update at 2/4, I've lost the last 3 times I've sat down, down about $150, so just a small little swing over about 750 hands, I'll post details when I hit 2000 hands, hoping for a win next time.

My final session tonight I was down about $45, and got heads up with a guy with $100... he was calling with anything and I was catching good cards, he'd be raising into my 2-pair with 9-high, etc. I took about $50 off him and finished about even for the hour I got to play tonight, maybe that'll signal that this is just a small(only 40 BB) downswing.

I've had a lot of success lately at the 30/3 multis radii

won one last night after coming back from down ~24K to ~6K in chips once we got heads up at the end

took 5th in a tourney right after that

and 12th on a bad beat after that before heading to bed.

really enjoying this read and relating to my own play...keep up the good work!

congrats MrIllini :) First place in one of those is a great feeling.

I'm back in grind it out multi-tabling 2/4 mode for now, but I'm sure a break for a tournament or two will come along soon enough and I'll write up a few more of them.

Thanks for reading!

Any good deposit bonuses going on right now? Came into a bit o' cash and after a short break, I'm gonna throw my cards back into the ring.......

A big downturn in the 2nd thousand hands, AA/KK

After 1000 hands:

WON: $234.50
per table BB/hr - 3.56


2/4 2000 hand update

Hands: 2010
Won: $99.50
per table BB/hr: 0.81
True Win Rate: $9.24/hr



So the last 1000 hands have been pretty rough. I have broken even in my last 2 sessions though, after having two terrible sessions in a row, hopefully things will turn up.


AKo, 20 times, lost $34.50
AKs, 9 times, lost $29.50
AA is winning big but I've only gotten it 6 times in over 2000 hands
QQ is my best hand, I've gotten it 13 times(that's quite a lot) and has won $123.


53s and PRESTO are my biggest losers.

None of that means anything at all after just 2000 hands, and I'm not worried at all it's a pretty small downturn, $135 is only 30 BB, no sweat.

I like the bonus that InterCasinoPoker offers. $50 free every month after playing 300 hands, and a free $80 or $90 to use in their casino as well(that's freeroll money, if you play a ton with it and don't lose it you can keep it, if you lose it and don't dip into the money you deposited it's no loss).

The only caveat is that they snail-mail you a PIN when you open the account so you have to wait for it to cash out, but it only took about a week to get it for me.

cthomer pointed that one out, thanks to him for that :)

AFAIK, no other great bonuses goijng on now or anything.



I played for another hour and won $90 in about an hour, so it's nice to be on the winning end again

won another $135 playing 3/6 at Party this afternoon on my lunch hour

i'm really enjoying being a profitable poker player :)

radii, we should both play a 30/3 multi soon! :)

Damn, I wish I could play on my lunch hour, but congrats on the winnings.

BTW great dynasty Radii, reading you poker dynasty is the closest thing I get to playing while at work! :)

I don't see anything in the promo about the casino money. Maybe that part is over?

2/4 3000 hand update

BLECH. 8 of my last 9 tables are small-moderate losers. I don't think I'm playing bad, just need to play through the bad streak.

Cards are probably running a little poor as well. At least I've gotten AA and KK about 7 times total less than I should have, and JJ isn't coming that often either. Someone on 2+2 said in a post I read today that they set up filters for the Sklansky level 1 and 2 hands and look to see how much they're getting those cards over a short run to see if they're running bad or not int erms of simply cold starting cards.


Anyway, enough whining.

2937 hands
up $51.07
up 0.28 BB/hr/table, Making $3.53/hr overall.

It's always running, they do it every month. You don't have a bonus code to enter to get it or anything. Just deposit, play 300 hands and $50 will magically show up in your acct.

I enter a multi-table tourney on partypoker, a $50 tourney with over 700 entrants. Why? I'm an idiot, that's why! I've been playing the ring games hard in the past few days, it's time for a tourney.

720 entrants, top 80 pay.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

15 minute levels, everyone starts with 1000 chips.

I start at table 7.

maimai goes out before we even get to the flop at my table. looks like 2 went out on the first hand :D


Hand #1: Siviter and placidgolf fight it out in the first hand, a flush hits on the flop, then running 5s put 3 5s on the board, thsi looks dangerous for someone. K7555 board, 3 hearts... Siviter goes all in and gets called. KQ vs J7. Siviter has 2050 chips and is the early leader at the table. That was the first hand, and placidgolf went out 705th (15 out already)

that hand also took about 5 minutes

Hand #3: TT, UTG. I just limp, I'm not making a big move early out of position. Siviter raises to 45 and 3 of us call. The flop comes 3 undercards and I bet out 150(I guess I am making a reasonably big move w/ TT out of psoition...) all fold to me and I take the pot. 1135 chips.

K3o, BB, flop misses, checked around. Turn gives me an open ended straight(245) but puts the flush on the board. checked around... river is an ace. I bet 50 chips, two call. One other has the 3 and we split the pot. I have 1195 chips after SB

JTo, SB, folds
65o, button, folds
QTo, cutoff, folds
45s, cutoff-1, folds to a raise to 50 preflop, 662 flop, siviter/davieter build the pot up to 715 with a big flop bet. Jack on the turn is checked. 3 on the river(no flush), davitater is all in, siviter is the chipleader, but he folds. daviater up to 1265, siviter down to 1660.
Kjo, cutoff-2, folds
T5o, MP, folds - daviater losts most of his chips on a busted straight, while kaos_theory calls a big bet w/ J8, top pair.
ATs, MP, limp/fold to a 150 bet by Sir_Ott Ott busts out with AK, all in vs AJ on a jack high flop. tcb624 now has 1975 chips to my right.
QTo, UTG+1, folds - eagle_i/Siviter/tcb624 enter the pot for a raise, 125 flop bet/250 turn/450 river... eagle_i makes quads on the river with JJ to outdraw siviter's straight that he made on the turn.
crap, UTG, folded - siviter and STEELFISHING go at it, a 750 pot won by pocket 7s, siviter bluffing hard on a flush draw

Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

I have 1180 in chips. 597 remain out of the original 720 (holy crap!) - almost 130 gone in 15 minutes

44, BB, folded to 90 raise
J8o, SB, folds
Q6o, button, folds
T3s, cutoff, folds
K5o, cutoff-1, folds - siviter raises to 60, davieter all in for 430, siviter calls. AQ vs A9. A9 is suited and hits a flush, siviter is gone, daviater has 890. Oh, no, siviter has 15 chips left!
J4o, MP, folds - one limp, daviater all in for 890... he ready to go home? he has TT, knocks out siviter for good.
T6s, MP, folds - yup, daviater all in for 935. tcb624 calls him this time. wow, JJ for daivater. AKo for tcb. tcb flops a straight and turns a flush, daviater hit a set but never fills up. he's gone.
crap, UTG, folds
36s, BB, folds to raise pre-flop
82s, SB, folds
K2o, button, folds
Q8o, cutoff, folds

200 are now gone, 520 left.

K8o, cutoff-1, folds
93o, MP, folds

I have 1120 chips after folding the level away.

AJs, UTG+1, I raise to 50 chips, and only STEELFISHING calls me. The flop comes ten high with two hearts. steel leads out for 20 chips, I raise him to 125, and he folds.

Level 3 - 15/30 blinds

Blinds are still minimal so I can still afford to be patient, but with so many out I would like to be able to build up my stack some in this level before 25/50 where things hurt a little more.

I have 1200 chips, 5 at the table have 1800+ and 4 over 2000.

495 remain in the tourney, about 225 out.

crap, UTG, folds
J8s, BB, button limps, SB completes, I check. Flop comes J43, I bet the pot(90) and win it right there.
J3o, SB, folds

I am now up to 1245, slowly slowly climbing, and yet to meet any resistance, I have only played 1 hand past the flop so far.

J7o, button, folds
KTs, cutoff, the table gets very limpy all of a sudden and I'm in a 6 way pot for the min bet. It misses me totally and I'm not bluffing off any chips yet, I get out of the way.
2 hands folded while I'm in a minor daze looknig at something else(pay attention, moron!)

A big pot builds between eagle_i, kaos_theory and parisbimbo. eaglei takes 2000+ and knocks paris out, flush over set.

94s, MP, folds

eagle_i has 3640 chips, easily leading the table. he's across from me. tcb624 to my right has 2540, dizzeee two to my right has 2330, kaos_theory 2 to my left has 2310, dekan across the way has 2055... I'm a shortish stack at this table, with 1215. Tourney average is 1596 right now.

JJ, UTG+1. I open-raise to 90. Table folds... sheesh.
A4o, UTG, folds
99, BB, MP limper(dekan17978), tcb limps, and I check. Flop comes AKQ, about the worst I can see wit this hand... it's checked all the way to the river though, and I make a small (50 chip) bet, thinking I have the best hand. dekan calls, he has TT. Oops. Probably a dumb play there.
84o, SB, folds

1165 chips after the blinds and that bet.

66, button, folds to a 90 raise pre-flop w/ 1 caller.
A8o, cutoff, folds to raise
A4o, cutoff-1, folds

Level 4 - 25/50 blinds

And this is the level I absolutely must make a move or likely go into the 2nd hour with all in/fold options.

I have 1165 chips, 417 remain, 303 people gone in 45 minutes. Any hand I make a play at hurts my stack bad, and failing to build up in this level will leave me very small and crippled at the 50/100 level.

T3o, MP, folds
A2o, MP, folds
93o, UTG+2, folds
K6o, UTG+1, folds
Q5o, UTG, folds - 3 in for a raise to 325 by eagle_i, procappers all in on the flop for 820, eagle_i calls, AK beats AJ, eagle_i up over 5000 now!
Q3o, BB, folds(to an 800 raise....) eagle raises to 275, dizzeee re-raises to 800, eagle thinks for a long time and calls. 667 flop, two diamonds. dizzee all in for 1120. eagle_i folds, leaving him with 4260, dizzeee up to 2850.
86o, SB, folds

Where are these great raising hands for me?

74o, button, folds
AJo, cutoff-1, raise to 150, eagle_i (big stack) calls. Flop coems king high, eagle_i bets out prety hard and I give him the pot.
62o, MP, folds

I am down to 940 after that loss.

52o, MP, folds
crap, MP, folds

under 360 to go, half of the field is gone. I'm still around, but I need to increase my stack pretty desparately.

K8o, UTG, folds

If I don't get anything through the blinds, I'll be at 865 when the blinds hit 50/100.

44, BB, tough hand here... if there's a raise do I make a stand with it? There's a raise to 200 and two callers before me... I'm not committing myself on this. Flop comes 356 and I curse a bit, but we do get to see eagle_i bullying a bit, and having to show down J9o. Good info.

65s, SB. Another raise to 200... dammit. Lots of raises and multi-way pots here for 200+ pre-flop. I am just going to have to pick a hand and go at this rate.

JTs, button. I call a raise to 150 pre-flop here and we are 4-way on the flop. Flop comes AK2, two of my suit (ace and king). I get to draw cheap, a bet for 100. I just call. The turn is a jack, but I can't imagine that's good for anything now. I need to hit my straight or flush. I call another bet on the turn, thinking I should have gone all-in on the flop, I am playing this the pussy way, and I'm going to totally pay for it. The river is a blank and I know for sure I am dead, and I get out of the hand with what few chips I have left (just 165, I cannot believe how amazingly poorly I played that hand). I think the pre-flop call was ok but when I hit that draw I had to push all in and try to win the pot there, if not pick up my draw and double up + some. Terrible, terrible, terrible play on my part. the cheap flop threw me off and I thought I could try to catch my flush on the cheap. And if you can't tell by how much I'm writing, I've got 5 minutes to dwell on that poor hand.


And that is the very last hand before the break, so I have to wait 5 more minutes until I can give away the rest of my chips(or double up 4 times to get back in this thing!)

Level 5 - 50/100 blinds

No more tough decisions... all in or fold, hope I get AA, 9 callers, and AA holds up :D

Anyway, 335 remain at the break.

34o, cutoff, folds
Q4s, cutoff-1, folds
A5o, MP, that's good enough for me. I'm all in. The BB calls, and he has Q2. He catches a queen and I'm out 327th.

Barring that one mistake I think I have a chance to make a run and with 320 left anythign can happen. I cannot believe how terribly I played that JTs.

up for a late night tonight, I give this one more try, I enter a $30 multi-table on party. 910 others enter, and the top 100 will pay.



ERGH... a crash kills the first 40 minutes of tournament writeup...

I'm playing well, I've made a couple of loose pre-flop calls and hit pretty good, I've doubled up to 2155 chips.

Level 3 - 15/30 blinds

This level is almost over. I have 2155 chips, avg is 1558. 584 remain of the original 910.

I'm on table 55, with only 59 tables left I'll be moving very soon.

T4o, UTG
QTo, BB, folds to 90 raise.
86o, SB, folds


Level 4 - 25/50 blinds

559 remain at the start of the level. I have 2110 in chips and start the round on the button. I wonder if we'll fall to the 455 required to hit the halfway mark before the hr break.

J4o, button, folds
K7s, cutoff, folds to 150 raise
83o, cutoff - 1, folds
A2o, MP, folds

I am moved to table 52, I won't last long before another move from here...

Rob_Paulsen has 3890 chips to my right. I have 2110. No one else at the table has over 1600.

AQo, UTG+1, raise to 150, I steal the blinds
J2o, UTG, folds
84o, BB, free flop with 2 others, flop misses big time and I fold to a 125 bet.

Moved again! To the cutoff, on table 26. Now here I will last for a good 30 minutes at least. 502 left.

3 very big stacks here, two and three to my left are ohhsht with 5215, wookie32 with 5100, and across the table is gold_tribble with 4790. 2 others are in the 2000 range with me. As the very short stacks disappear off the table, expect this to become a powerful table with a large number of chips.

A2o, MP, folds
72o, MP, folds
KTo, UTG+2, folds
72o, UTG+1, folds

We have our first guy with 10,000 chips. gilley1979 on table 39. Lets see how he ends up.

83s, UTG, folds
K5s, BB, 3 limp, then baldcatfish goes all in for 2000... 225 in the pot, I guess it's nto a bad pickup.
J8s, SB, I limp to see a 4-way flop, but fold when it sucks.

455 remain, half of the original 910, gone by the break.

Q2s, button, folds

Level 5 - 50/100 blinds - 1 hr break

I have 2035 chips at the break, the average is 2091. 435 of the original 910 remain.

At my table, to my left in order:

xXxDragonxXx - 700
ohhsht - 5640
wookie32 - 6136
HJR192 - 505
pokersmylife - 2220
gold_tribble - 4240
esjaykay - 1000
baldcatfish - 2126
empty seat
me - 2035

So I'm right around the mean at the table, with the three large stacks still lingering.

JTo, cutoff, folds
Q6o, cutoff-1, folds
J5s, MP, folds

rdicecco with 1190 chips is to my right now

83o, MP, folds
94o, UTG+2, folds
74o, UTG, folds

We're now under 400 remaining.

K9o, BB, free flop with only the SB limping. I flop a king, he checks, I bet 200, and I win the pot. net up 50 after I fold my crappy SB.
95o, SB, folds

I have 2085 chips, slowly sinking below average(2390 now)

92o, button, folds
73o, cutoff, folds
22, cutoff-1, folds
55, cutoff-2, I open-raise to 300 chips, praying to just take this one b/c I hate this hand. Hooray! I win the blinds.
97o, MP, folds
KTo, UTG+2, folds ohhhsht is a terrible, terrible player, calling bet after bet with jack high. Never making a move on the pot, just calling to see if he's best. No idea how he got 6000 chips at one point, he's down to 3300 now.

QQ, UTG+1, I raise to 300. I again win the blinds.


Level 6 - blinds 75/150

342 remain, almost 100 went out in that level.

I start out in the BB, before I posted, I had 2385 chips, still lingering just below the average in chips.

86o, BB, one limper, I check. I give up the pot on an AJJ flop.
K8s, SB. A large bet by the chpleader at the table pushes me off this one
K5o, Button, folds - a 350 bet/550 raise build a nice pot pre-flop. pokersmylife is all in on the flop, and his A6s loses to ESJAYKAY's KK when KK hits a straight. (AQT flop, jack on the river).

I have 2160 chips now. Stealing pots starts to become very important now.

crap, cutoff, folds - baldcatfish all in pre-flop again... called by a very short 200 stack, bald wins w/ JJ.
A2o, cutoff, folds
73o, cutoff-1, folds

jsewruk joins to my left with 1934 in chips.

J2o, MP, folds
52o, UTG+2, folds
52o, UTG+1, folds

we have less than 300 players remaining. 1/3 of us left will make the money.

K5o, UTG, folds
Q2s, BB, 3 limp to me and we have a free flop, 357 suited, not my suit. I fold.
T4o, SB, folds

I am down to 1935 after that pass through the blinds. The blinds will be 100/200 when they pass me again and I need to look for hands to steal with(like all those great hands I got last orbit)

ohhsht loses a bundle with KJs vs AA, he's under 1500 now.

J9o, button, folds

Here's a hand.

AJo, cutoff, folded to me, I raise it to 400. I'm called by jsewruk. The flop comes AQ8, two diamonds. I bet the pot (1000) leaving me w/ 500 and clearly pot commiting me. Turn is another ace, I go all in for my last 500. I'm called by ATo, no ten and my kicker is in play after a blank on the river!!! I have doubled up!!!

I now have 4095 in chips, good for 3rd at the table. This table is breaking soon though.

Q8o, cutoff-1, folds
69o, MP, folds
66, UTG+2, folds to a raise by baldcatfish

Level 7 - 100/200 blinds

with 4000 chips I am in much, much better shape to handle 100/200 blinds, but I have to build my stack up some more

261 remain out of the original 910.

This table breaks after 5 more people go out.

J2o, UTG. I take my time folding, hoping to get moved before my BB hits. It doesn't work.

A8s, BB. all fold to me, wow.
J4s, SB. fold to a 1200 raise from baldcatfish

I am moved to table #7, on the button. I'll be here for awhile again.

there are lots of big stacks here. flopmasterJ has 11,241 and is probably top 10 in chips out of all left. esjaykay also got moved here, he has 7200. wackyjaxon has 8300, sharpturn has 6485, and luckybadplyr has 4600. I'm next with 4100...

Q9o, cutoff, folds

Key Hand
66, cutoff-1, open raise to 400. two callers. A34 flop. I bet 1000 into the pot of 1200, and I take it down, a very nice pickup that moves me up to 4895 in chips.

Key Hand
AQs, MP. jhburton raises to 400. I just call. danenania goes all in for 1230 behind us, and sharpturn calls it. jhburton then goes allin for 4200.... I think I can safely fold. sharpturn folds as well, jhburton's AK losees to dane's JJ.. with all the extra money in that pot dane is up to 4090, quadrupling up basically.

xx, MP, folds

Key Hand
KK, UTG+1 - I raise to 600, flopmaster calls. luckybadplyr goes all in for 3740. I go all in for 4495. flopmasterJ folds. LuckyBadPlyr turns over QQ. The queen never comes and I nearly double up again!


J6o, UTG, folds
a stroke of luck(a bad player to my left going out) lets me avoid my BB.

A4o, SB. folds to a 425 raise.

Now, I have 9035 in chips. I am 2nd in chips at the table and a very large stack. I have little experience playing with a large stack and am entering a new territory. I have made the money in these kinds of tourneys before but usually fighting the entire way. And with still such a long way to go I know I have to stay agressive and pick up a lot more chips.

I fold a few worthless hands.

97o, MP, folds - two limps, a raise to 600, then flopmasterj raises all in for 12,000... short stack that had raised calls, and flopmaster's KK catches trips on the flop to beat AQ.

88, UTG+2, I raise to 500 and steal the blinds
84o, UTG+1, folds


There are now 198 players remaining out of the original 910. Half of us that are left will make the money.

Level 8 - 150/300 blinds

196 left.

65o, UTG, folds - danenania doulbes up to 7880 off of wackyjaxon, KK vs JJ, both hit sets.
75o, BB. 5 limpers... insane. I check, and hit bottom pair ont he flop, Q85, two diamonds. 6 handed I don't want a piece of this(is this where I should play the big stack and bet?) - well, wackyjaxon bets 650 and gets two callers, glad I didn't throw out a bluff.


AA, SB - damn. Folded to me, i make the min raise and win the blinds. I'm not limping and letting the BB catch something and knock me down. Oh well.

crap, button, folds.
Q7o, button again(guy to my left just went out), folds
QTo, cutoff, folds to 750 raise

We're starting to see an awful lot of all-ins here.

53o, cutoff-1, folds
62o, MP, folds

180 remain

86o, UTG+2, folds
K3o, UTG+1, folds
64o, UTG, folds
53o, BB, folds
83o, SB, folds

I have 8885, and there are 169 left now.

Key Hand
KQo, button, I call a raise to 600 by jhburton. Flop comes AQx. jhburton bets the min, 300, I raise to 1500, and he goes all in for most of the rest of my stack. No way I can call that, and I take a hit there.

crap, cutoff, folds
85o, cutoff-1, folds
T3o, MP, folds

I am down to 6785. Avg stack is 5617. 5 ppl have more than me at the table.

A3o, MP, folds
K6o, UTG+2, folds
J2o, UTG, folds
J7o, BB, folds
A3o, SB, folds to big stack raise to 1100. BB all in's, AK vs QQ, QQ holds up.
J3o, button.
73o, cutoff, folds

Key Hand
QTs, cutoff-1, I open-raise to 600. flopmasterJ calls me. Flop comes J95, two hearts. flop bets out 1200, and I raise him to 3000. He goes all in and I think for awhile and call. He shows J8 for the top pair. I don't make my flush or my straight and I am the very last person out before the break, 151st.



That flop is just too good to pass up. In fact, I'm a 60% favorite on it. I'm not sure about putting all my money in on a draw, but, there you go.

151st out of 910. I am much happier with my play in this one than the last, that's for sure, though, having to make a decision for all my chips on a draw against the big stack at the table in that last hand really sucked.

I went from 9000 to OUT way too quickly there. I really don't like that last hand. I was still in a very good position and had time to wait for a great hand instead of a draw, no matter how good.


I think, as I learn a little more about multi-table tournament strategy, I find myself improving slightly every tournament, but I still appear to be very prone to that one stupid decision that costs me the tournament. That should cure my tournament fix for awhile though and I need to build myself back up via the ring games. Those two losses + the bad run at the ring game over the last 2000 hands have me down under $2500.

A good run at the 3 2/4 tables would cure all that though :)

God bless party poker weekend games. :D And a 38 BB win in 1 hour of ring game play.

uh, yeah, scratch that 38 BB in 1 hour. Make it 74 BB in 1 1/2 hours. What a rush!

I won about 10 BB earlier in the morning before I had to go out as well, so I've played about 2 hours total today(3 tables simultaneously in the morning, 4 tables simultaneously this afternoon), and am up about $330.

And to show just how meaningless stats after 3,000 hands can be, my win rate over my now 3400 2/4 hands just jumped from about $3.50/hr to $22/hr. More detail at 4000 hands of course. That might be all the paly for today, we have a busy evening.

after the learning experiences yesterday and the massive victory today, I get myself entered into antoher NL multi-table tourney. I really think I can place in these if I play well and don't chase at the wrong times, like I did when I busted out of both tourneys I tried yesterday.

After the early rounds, DONT DUMP OFF YOUR STACK CHASING DRAWS

I'm on table #68, out of 70 tables, so I'll be moving in a matter of minutes.

700 enter, the top 80 pay, and 1st will take $7700.


Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

J3o, BB, folds to 45 chip raise
72s, SB, folds to 85 chip raise
42o, button, folds
34o, cutoff, folds
95o, cutoff-1, folds
64o, cutoff-2, folds
Q4o, MP, folds

I'm moved to table #47, and open up in teh big blind.

AQs, BB, first hand at the new table. a raise to 250 and a call,and I decide to fold. ATo vs 99.
95o, SB, folds
Q5o, button, folds - lots of limips, a raise to 60, and there's 7-way action... AJ9 flop, a 200 bet into a 420 pot by the PF raiser(jackshigh), called by two. checked turn, checked river, and jackshigh raised 9Ts, mamu35 also had 9Ts, oraciv had Q9... all had middle pair, but mamu rivered his flush.
J3o, cutoff, folds

99, cutoff-1, raise to 30 from EP, called by 2 already, I just call, I think I'm looking for a set here. yeah we are 7 handed again... KJ on the flop and I'm not messing with this. Qjo and J5o get shown down at the end...

T3s, MP, folds - raise to 30, ajckshigh all in for 370, call, another all in for 800ish, another call. AA vs QQ vs QJo. AA hold up and jackshigh triples up.
xx, MP, folds - 4 people in for a raise pre-flop, THREE go all in on the flop of 853. AQ vs 78 vs 8T. T8 holds up. This is INSANE


Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

I have 920 in chips after a very dull first 15 minutes. 613 people remain, 87 got knocked out in the first level.

First 100 gone, 18 minutes in.

Q6o, UTG+1, folds - 4 hands to the showdown, 92s, J9o, K5s, and K8o, after a raise to 80.

I'm not sure how to play this table exactly, I have never seen anything quite like it, but I'm going to be here another 15-20 minutes.

76o, UTG, folds
A8o, BB - placidgolf can't deal with the table either it seems. all in for 1055 pre-flop. Maybe he just knew he'd get called. He does, by tigerz. placid has 44, tigerz AKs. 422 flop and placidgolf has lots of chips now.
64o, SB - folds - tigerz all in for 130, placidgolf calls him, oraciv also calls(220 left after the call). T76 suited flop. They end up all in. K2s(different suit), Q8o... tigerz had AQ and wins the pot to stay alive.

T9s, button - a rare set of fold... I limp and we see a flop 4-handed. Flop misses me totally and I fold. If I've leraned anything its that you're going to have to show down the best hand.

I have 870 left now.
82o, cutoff, folds - placidgolf/jackshigh/tigerz again, tigerz all in for about 350. placidgolf all in on the turn for 2000 with 2nd pair/2 kicker. This is just crazy.

65o, MP, folds - a 620 pot on the flop, placidgolf again all in on the flop w/ two opponents left. board Q66. He takes it down.
K6o, MP, folds

Level 3 - 15/30 blinds

I have 870 in chips still. 510 remain in the tourney.

42o, UTG+2, folds
Q3o, UTG+1, folds - 5 people in for 150 pre-flop. Three see the turn for 300 more (1850 pot now) - all in on the turn for 855 from jackshigh, mamu has been bleeding away and then folding to the all-in for awhile now. He calls this time, and his AJ is crushed by J9, A9 on the flop, 9 ont he turn

My table will break up during this level. I would love to hit a big hand b/c of the action here, but I'm not going to start mixing it up with junk.


Q5o, UTG, folds
43o, BB, fold to a raise to 125 pre-flop
Q4s, SB, I limp into a huge field of 7. placidgolf raises to 60, and I call 30 more hoping for my big score here. It's not to be, as I fold on the flop. 3 people are all in on the flop with two big stacks still playing. 53s, A8o, 99, 78s, and KTs all get shown down. KTs wins 2610 wih two pair.
K7o, button, folds


After this hand I am moved to table #30. I'm in position to be UTG on hand one, I just paid a blind, hopefully I pass it... shame that I couldn't catch any cards at that wild ass table, but I wasn't going to blindly gamble.

I get cards... blah.

J7o, UTG, folds
84o, BB, free flop, folded when the flop misses me.
65s, SB, I complete and we are 4 handed on the flop, which is 3 paint cards, none of my suit *sighs*

AKo, button, my best hand of the tourney so far - I call a raise to 90 and see a 3 handed flop - J83, two hearts, my king is a heart but I am not ready to call an all-in. Probably needed to re-raise pre-flop there and take control

K6o, cutoff, folds


Level 4 - 25/50 blinds

I have 630 in chips left, not looking so hot.

AQo, cutoff-1.. do I risk my tourney life here? a micro stack all-ins or 80, a caller, a re-raise to 400... do you call here? you've got 3 opponents, two legit... well, I fold. Is that a wuss play? I would have won the hand, but would have been up against KK.

Q4o, MP, folds
36o, UTG+2, folds
64o, UTG+1, folds
Q5o, UTG, folds

blinds are going to knock me to the mid-500 range and I really haven't played a hand yet. I've misplayed an AKo but I think that's really it.

Q7o, BB, free flop, fold to a large bet on a bad flop
T7o, SB, folds

I have 555 in chips after that round of blinds. Time to make something happen, cards or not.
T2o, button, folds to a large raise
J6s, cutoff, folds

Key Hand
AKo, cutoff-1, one limper(giant 4000 stack), I raise to 200, big blind goes all in and I have an easy call there. BB shows down AJo. A king hits the flop, a ten on the turn, and the miracle queen never hits, I hold up and double up + a little to 1185, stayin alive.

62o, MP, folds
82o, MP, folds
83o, UTG+2, folds

Key Hand
TT, UTG+1, I open-raise to 150, big stack calls me. Flop isn't pretty, QJ2, but I bet into it, betting the pot of 325, and I take it down.

Briefly up to 1360(blinds hitting soon)

66, BB short stack is all-in for 250. I'll call 200 more if we're heads up here. the SB calls though and I decide to stay out of the way. 55 vs AJ, a jack hits and short stack is gone.

93o, SB, folds

I am left with 1285 in chips after the blinds pass.


Aaaand, we're on break. I survive the first hour again, something I'm getting good at. I think I misplayed one, maybe two hands (AK and AQ) by being too timid with them. I made up for it with the double up and win with TT to keep me alive.

Level 4 - 50/100 blinds - 1 hr break

351 players remain. The average stack is 1994. I have 1285. At table 30, I will move during this level if I stay alive. There are 6 stacks under 1500 at this table, and 3 large stacks of 3500+. Two of them are to my direct right, exactly where I want them.


J7o, button, folds
J7o, cutoff, folds
QQ, cutoff-1, open-raise to 300, short stack of 250 thinks for a long time and folds. I steal the blinds, only a big blind this time b/c of a knockout.

85o, MP, folds
73o, UTG+2, folds
Q8o, UTG+1, folds
J5o, UTG, folds
J8o, BB, folded to me
J3o, SB, folds

I increase my stack by a whole 100 chips that orbit. 1385 chips.

A3o, button, I open-raise to 200. short stack calls all-in for 150. He has KQ, queen on the flop and I never hit an ace.

1235 in chip.

J3o, cutoff, folds

300 remain

T8o, cutoff-1, folds


I am moved to table 29. From table 30. I start UTG+2.

crap, UTG+2, folds
32o, UTG+1, folds

under 280 to go this table should mvoe next.

Aaaand there it goes. I skip UTG and go straight to the BB.

I'm now on table 26, another table that will move quickly.

T5s, BB, an all in for ~150, 2 others call and I'll call that. I fold on the flop though.
Q3o, SB, folds

After that I am now stuck at 996 chips. I need to double up twice to be comfortable at all with my chip position.

Level 6 - 75/150 blinds

I have 996 in chips, whichi s not much at all with 270 remaining.

Key Hand
A6o, button. one small-stack limp before me, and this is my spot, I push all in. The small stack calls, showing KQo. An ace on the flop, and he's drawing dead on the turn. I double up to 2052 in chips!

crap, cutoff, folds
63o, cutoff-1, folds

Avg stack is still 2600, but I am at least alive now. I can make one move/raise without being committed all in. I still need lots to go my way though.

85s, UTG+2, folds (moved up to the blinds fast b/c of some eliminations)

Key Hand
55, UTG+1, I raise it to 400. Not the best hand but I have to make some moves here. giant stack calls me. I'm all in on the flop no mmatter what here. If he hit a higher pair I'm just screwed. JTx flop, I go all in for 1500, he folds.


I am up to 2677 before the blinds hit.

crap, UTG, folds

42o, BB, free flop, which, not suprisingly misses me badly, two opponents betting and I am out.

Moved to table #16. I get to skip my SB!

KJs, cutoff - two limp before me and I decide not to push hard here(mistake?) - we end up 4-handed and I get out of the way when the guy w/ 7000 chips starts betting.
T2s, cutoff-1, folds

Key Hand
A2s, MP. I open-raise to 400, really just hoping to win the blinds here. One smaller stack calls my bet and we are heads up. I put him all in on the flop of AQ4, one heart(two clubs). He folds.

I now, for the first time in god knows how long, have an average sized stack. I have 3002, avg is 2953.

two crappy hands folded UTG+1/UTG

KQo, BB - 4 limp... and I check. Flop comes K76 with two hearts. I bet the pot, 750. And I win it right there.
A3o, SB - I decide to fold to a raise and a few callers.


Level 7 - 100/200 blinds

I start the level on the button with 3527 in chips, floating just above the avg(now 3353). 209 remain of the original 700.

54o, button, folds - AA busted up by KQ, KQ on the flop.
85s, cutoff, folds
Q8o, cutoff-1, folds
ATo, MP - ugh, folds to a 1000 chip raise before me. AA is shown.
K4o, MP, folds
94s, UTG+2, folds

Key Hands
KQo, UTG+1 - I open-raise to 500, BB calls. I bet 700 into the 1100 pot when the flop coems K83, and I win it right there.
ATo, UTG - I open-raise to 500, and I steal the blinds.

94o, BB.
J4s, SB, folds

After the blinds pass me I have 4127 in chips. This is about where I was in the 2nd tourney last night when I doubled up to a large stack and pissed it right back. avg chips is 3977. 176 remain, so about 100 to go til the money.

85o, button, folds
Q5o, cutoff, folds
K3o, cutoff, folds (would be dealer just busted out)


160 left, half of those remaining will make the money

TT, MP - here's where I don't know how to play this. 3 limp before me... do I try to push it, or take some great implied odds on a set here? I lmip... we see a 5-way flop, and it comes A23 and I fold to a very large flop bet. No idea how I should play that with those limpers before me and a good but not astounding hand.

Level 8 - 150/300 blinds

gave back just a touch there, and I enter this level with 3927 in chips. Avg stack is up to 4635. I'm still treading along, I need to keep pushing ahead though.

150 remain.
J2o, MP, folds

My table breaks up and I'm moved to table #15, with just 147 left this table won't last long at all either.

A4o, cutoff, I fold to a raise before me. Good thing, AK and AT go all in(AT hits two pair).
Q8o, cutoff-1, folds

Now under 140, this table is about to go.

Heh, one more up, table #14... I won't last here long either. But I got moved from the cutoff to UTG+1. Screw that, I am holding out :P I take my time folding my first hand hoping the needed 7 more will go before my hand comes around.

K6o, UTG+1, folds
K2o, UTG, folds

hah, I WIN.

moved after that hand, to the cutoff again. I am at table 6 now, if I survive long enough to see this table break up, it'll be a great thing for me.

ATo, cutoff - I open-raise to 800. I steal the blinds.
72o, cutoff-1, folds
T3s, UTG+2, folds (8 person table at the moment, until another table breaks up)
T6o, UTG+1, folds
K9o, UTG, folds
92s, BB, to my right is a tourney leader, moptree has 19124. I'm suprised when he folds, but I get a free flop with one other. Flop misses and I decide against bluffing at it, he takes it on the flop.

K3o, SB, folds to a raise

Down to 3927 after the blinds - 5800 is avg now.

93s, button, folds
T7o, cutoff, folds

break is comign soon, thank god, I have to pee :P

74s, cutoff-1, folds
87o, MP, folds

Level 9 - 200/400 blinds

ahhh, much better.

120 remain. 12 tables left. 80 places pay. I have 3927 in chips, the average stack is up to 5833. I am 6th in chips at my table. There are going to be a ton of stacks around my size. Everyone gets timid around this phase. I know I can't fold my way into he money, not 40 places as fast as the blinds come around. I have to open it up a little bit and steal the blinds a few times.

Now, that I know I need to do that, will I actually have the balls to go through with it and do it.

T3o, MP, folds - eatbullets has gone all in the last two hands in a row now(for 3000 chips). This time he's called by TwinkleBone out of the SB. the BB thinks a long time(or is still afk, just after break). JJ vs 77 and twinklebone gets a 3000 chip gift. eatbullets is gone.

72o, UTG+1, folds
T7o, UTG, folds
J5o, BB, I fold to a 2700 chip all in.
T5o, SB, folds

down to 3327 after the blinds hit me. 114 remain, 34 more to go out before the money.

J9o, button, folds to a raise before me. So much for everyone being passive and not risking anything going into the money.

JTo, cutoff, fold to a 1500 big stack raise(JJ). short stack to my left goes out w/ 88.
Q5o, cutoff, folds

110 remain. 30 more to go out before the money. I still can't fold my way there, and wouldn't want to.

There's a 1000-1500 raise *every hand*.

84o, MP, folds.
74o, UTG+2, folds
T6o, UTG+1, folds
J2o, UTG, folds

I'm now half of the average stack, before the blinds hit. only 2 are shorter than me at the table.

87s, BB - a hand i like, but not for 1700 chips. So I fold. AK and QQ all in before me. QQ wins.
62o, SB, folds (2500 raise before me).

I now have 2727 chips. 6666.66 is the average at the second I'm looking :D

103 remain.

A5o, button - I fold to an all in and a call of that all in before me. KJ vs AQ. Sheesh.
K8o, folds to a raise before me

Do I just have to go all in with an average hand here? how logn do I let myself get blinded out before I go on my first Ax or K8+ or whatever?

K5o, cutoff-1, folds to 1000 raise.
T8o, MP, folds

AKs, UTG+2, I open-raise to 1200. I steal the blinds.
AKs, UTG+1, same suit even. That was weird. I open-raise to 1200. I steal the blinds again.
T4o, UTG+1 (empty seat to my right filled), folds

99 remain. 19 left until the money.

82o, UTG, folds


Level 10 - 300/600 blinds

Ugh, right as my BB hits.

A2o, BB. The SB goes all in. He has me covered. I have no idea if I should call or not. He's brand new to the table. I let him have it.

QTs, SB - I fold to another all in, this one for 3100.

After my blinds I am down to 3027.

15 spots til the money.

crap, button, folded to a 1200 raise/call
78o, cutoff, folded

AQo, cutoff-1, my turn to all-in before teh flop, like everyone else has been doing. BB thinks about it for a long time(he has 10K and has it covered easy). He folds and I steal the 900 in blinds.

K6o, MP, folds
95s, MP, folds AA vs QQ all in. QQ wins. QQ guy had 900 three hands ago, doubled up then tripled up to get up to 7532.
Q5s, MP, folds

Now it's 11 til the money.

Now it's 10 til the money as an all-in on my table busts 1 guy. And partypoker hangs.

6 players left til the money.

I make a raise to 1200 with KJo, habs4ever goes over me all in, and I wuss out. I fold. I leave myself UTG with 2700 in chps, with the blinds coming, to try to limp into the money.

With only 86 left, and 80 getting paid, we have gone hand to hand.

83o, UTG, folds.
ugh. T2o, BB - I gotta fold if anyone plays at me. No one does. i win the blinds. RARR.

3027 chips.

The shortest stack in the tourney has 1180 in chips.

A9o, SB - here's a very tough decision. 5 spots out of the money. Button goes all in for 2000 chips. Do you call or fold? He is a short stack, he has to have a hand there IMO. both of us had him covered, and the guy to my left by a lot. I let him have it, clearly now just playing to make the money.

housewolf doubles up on JQ to 10,000 chips, beating habs4ever's TT. Both of them were willing to take the risk!

Level 11 - blinds 400/800


85 remain, 5 more have to bust out befoer we're in the money. I can likely fold my way in now and unless I get a monster will probably try to do that, just to have something to show for my nearly 3 hours of play here.

42s, cutoff, folds

1 busts out, 84 remain, and there are 3 sub-1000 stacks in the tourney.

86o, cutoff-1, folds
K9o, MP, folds

Now down to 83.

92s, UTG+2, folds

Down to 82.

Just watched a 7000 stack go down, going all in on top pair + 4 flush, getting caleld by a giant stack w/ 2nd pair, and catching omore.


It looks like 80 remain, though PP is still going hadn to hand. I think I have made the money.

Key Hand
UTG+1 - AA - all in, easy. OH NO. called by QQ, and a queen hits. UGH. That was my chance to double up to over 5000 and have a chance at minimum of surviving a few levels in the money, and hopefully pushing my way up much higher. Wow. I am crushed. I cannot believe that just happened.


I have 405 chips left and will be all in on the BB in two hands.

Key Hand

I am all in with 54o. I don't hit. WOW haha. People got so nuts after the money was made, that in the two hands at my table, 10 went out.

I place 70th, bumped up to the next money level. (to think what I could have done if I'd won my AA vs QQ).


I make $105, a profit of $50 in the tourney.


I am consistantyl placing well in the top half in these, but I figure a well-trained monkey could do that just by folding every hand.

I have some things to work on but am happy enough with my finishes so far that I think I can cut down on the mistakes and be a little bit more of a threat in these. Certainly pleased with the $50 profit tonight given how much I have to work on.

After some more success in the ring games today(2 positive ring game sessions) I join a $30+$3 multi table tourney.

1031 people enter, and we're on 103 tables to start. I am on table #78, so over 200 people have to go out before I get moved. 110 places pay. 1st pays $6495 and the top 6 all pay over $1000.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

I fold crap the first two hands while I'm setting up the PC (I registered on the laptop and hopped over here just in time to start the tourney).

42o, UTG+2, folds
66, UTG+1, I attempt to limp in, but fold to a big raise pre-flop - 2 guys end up all in on the turn(Q4T9 double duited board). tigerz(I played with him last night) had two pair, star143 had pocket jacks and a straight draw, he hits his straight.
xx, UTG, folds

star143 now has 2875 in chips.

K7o, BB, free flop, J72 board. I fold to a bet double the size of the pot.
K5o, SB, i complete for 5 chips. I miss and fold to a bet.
43o, button, folds

ESPNguy_ has gone all in against star143, and again he's betting hard into about 4 people. a four flush on the board, 4 ppl in a 965 pot. espnguy bets 800, risking nearly his entire stack on the 3rd straight hand. He wins another big hand this way and has 2215 in chips.

K2o, cutoff, folds


Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

893 remain, well over 100 gone in the first level.


44, i again try to limp and have to fold to a big raise, not a passive enough table to try to catch a set with that junk
J9o, MP, folds

Key Hand
JJ, MP, I open-raise to 3x the blinds, to 60. Only the BB calls. flop comes AA2. blind checks, time to find out if he has an ace or not. I bet the pot, 130, and he folds. I am back up to 1005 in chips.

K9o, UTG+2, folds

TT, UTG+1, I open-raise to 60 again. An ace hits again, but this time I got 3 callers on my raise. I'm not nearly as happy with this. I fold to a 250 chip bet from a blind.
K9o, UTG, folds

T3o, BB, folds to a raise to 80.
K7s, SB, folds to 125 bet.
A4s, button, folds to pre-flop raise
K6o, cutoff, folds
87o, cutoff-1, folds
I just pick the worst times to play a hand: A6s, MP, limp and ready to call a small raise, but a guy with 520 ends up all in. Oh well! 99 vs 55 all in.

Key Hand
JJ, MP, another raise hand here. star143 raises to 65 chips, and I re-raise him to 150. ESPNguy calls, as does Fischi... maridavid goes all in for 633. I think I'm either building my stack up big or going into the ring games. Another caller here. there is a short stack who has less than me that also calls. Short stack has QQ, I have JJ, the middle guy has AJ. None of us hit a thing, and I am left with 528 in chips after that weirdness.


I am moved to table #37.

Level 3 - 15/30 blinds

KK, first hand at new table. I raise to 90, and get one caller. I bet the pot on the flop and win it there.

I now have 663 in chips. Back to the JJ hand. With 5 callers for 150(including me) and a shorter stack going all in, I just decided this was a chance to hit a huge score or go back to the ring games. Now that I lost that hand and end up short stacked I will try not to do anything stupid, but I saw that as a good double up or not waste a ton of time in this thing opportunity.

Q6s, UTG, folds
K8s, BB, I call a raise to 80 after 4 others have already called... another call tht stands to make me a ton if I hit right, though certainly an overly loose one too. I have to fold when I miss totally.
76o, SB, folds

709 remain in the tourney.

K4o, button, folds
K6o, cutoff, folds

Key Hand
AA, cutoff-1, lets see if I can get some action on this one... 4 very good hands so far and I've gotten no action on 2 and a loss on the 3rd. One limper, I raise to 80. SB calls. BB calls, limper calls. 320 in the pot, I have 488 left. Q72, two spades flop(I do have a spade). There's a 30 chip bet, two calls, and the pot is big enough for an all in here. I all in for 488. One call. The caller has QJ, and catches a 2nd queen on the turn to knock me out.



I am out a disappointing 664th. I had 4 great hands in only 30 dealt. I figure most of the time you get JJ/JJ/KK/AA in the first 30 hands you either get out to a very nice chip advantage or get busted. I got busted.

After destroying partypoker's 2/4 yesterday, i got my ass kicked tongiht, very very badly. The swings are insane, and I let myself tilt a little before I left tongiht which didn't help.

PokerStars: $93
Neteller: $1221
PartyPoker: $1180
InterCasinoPoker: $101

total: $2595

Blech, a losing week. I had signifigantly more losing sessions at 2/4 than i had winners, though the $300 win I had yesterday certainly helped balance things out a little... hand update as soon as pokertracker finishes reading in the hands.

~5000 hand 2/4 update

After 3000 hands I was on a cold streak and only up $51.07, making $3.53/hr.

Current:

4838 hands
Up $280.31
0.93 BB/hr/table
1.45 BB/100 hands (what the 2+2 multi-tablers prefer to use)
$12.49/hr.

I have never been down but i've been all over the map here. I was up as much as $25/hr at about 3800 hands, and the cold run tonight dropped it back down to $12/hr.

My biggest hand tonight was a KK hand, I lost an $80 pot to 63o, two pair on the river. i lost AA twice tonight as well, and had a set of jacks busted on the river, I got down via a bunch of bad beats, I fought my way back up to almost even(from down $150) and then never got ahead and finished down about $175 on the night... It wasn't until the very end of the long session tonight where I really felt I was on tilt though, I probably gave away an extra $30 b/c of the tilt factor, after that it was just a bad session.


More later, I don't expect to play any multi-table tourney's during the week, if I do well they just take too long to waste an entire work night, but I hope to get in a couple thousand ring hands.

I think limping and taking the implied odds is the right thing to do. You seem to have good, steady, advancement in the tourney and if you could add in a couple of big hands to double up I think that would help a lot. Hands like this are a perfect for that. Love the tourney reads so hopefully you can keep up the good play in them.

Thanks for the comments :) I have been thinking about this a little(ok, a lot) and have come up with a plan of action I think.

My bread and butter will continue to be the 2/4 games(and the 3/6 games I plan on moving up to, but I am planning on putting down at least 10,000 more hands at 2/4 before I consider moving up at any of the tables), and I still intend to cash out profits every month and just use the tourneys as a distraction when the 2/4 grind gets to me, but instead of plopping down $20 in a random partypoker tourney I'm going to change my strategy.

i'm going to deposit some additional money on pokerstars and work on the satellites into their monster weekend tourneys. Pokerstars is just a better site for tournaments, and though the players are better in general, but I'll become a better player playing there and learn more about real tourneys. So my multi-table action will at first be the satellites into the $200 weekend tourneys and things like that.

The other goal I have is to play in all four September partypoker million semi-finals. They have $29 sit n go's that qualify you for a partypoker million semi. The next 4 semis are around labor day weekend. I have to double check with oliegirl on the schedule(kiddo's birthday is right after that weekend so I don't want to plan something during a birthday celebration). My goal is to get into all 4 semifinals. That gives me four looooong shots at winning the cruise.

Now, the caveat to this is, my bread and butter is the ring games. But that does get to be a grind and I need something to do when I need a break from the grind. I have to be careful though, and not dump too much of my profits into these MTT's while I realize that I am still dead money for the most part(though I do expect to improve that over time). If I'm running bad and am down in the ring game action I may just play some cheap sit n' gos instead of these slightly more expensive tourneys when I need that distraction.

Continued thanks to everyone that's reading, posting the detail here definitely makes me a better player, and it makes me more accountable for my poker actions.

I enter a $53 satellite to try to get into the big end of month tourney on pokerstars this weekend. There are some big names in this, at least, 55lucky55 is a name I recognize. 37 people enter. 3 will get entry into the $500 tourney and 4th gets $371.



Level 1 - blinds 10/20

On stars, I get 1500 chips to start and levels go up every 15 minutes.

One player goes out on another table in the first hand. 36/37 left heh.

I fold my first two crappy hands in near UTG positions.

52o, UTG, folds
T3o, BB, free flop 3-way. I hit bottom pair but decide not to get involved this early, I'm out.
A3s, SB, I fold to a raise to 40 and a re-raise to 60 pre-flop. Not strong raises but there's two of them so I'm out.
AQs, button - there's a limp, a raise to 40, a call. I call as do 3 others, this is a 6-way pot here. I go ahead and get out of the way, a bet of 80 on the flop, I have inside straight/backdoor flush possibilities and that's all(KT3/1 of my suit). Good thing, a raise to 300 comes behind. T3 vs 33 all in on the turn, and a DrSessions has a huge chip advantage now, 3990 chips.
J3o, cutoff, folds
95s, cutoff-1, folds
K4o, UTG+2, folds
94o, UTG+1, folds
A2o, UTG, folds
A3o, BB, free flop, folds to a bet on a 567 flop.
Q2o, SB, folds to a raise to 90 pre-flop



Level 2 - 15/30 blinds

3 are gone, I'm in 21st in chips out of the remaining 34 with 1400.

J8o, button, folds
K2o, cutoff-1(new guy moved here after a 2nd is lost) folds
44, jetskill raises to 150, fold
K5o, utg+1, folds
A7o, BB, free flop 3-way, flop comes T73, all hearts. With two limpers I decide to pick this one up, I bet 90 on the flop and take it down, up to 1445.
K5o, SB, folds to big raise pre-flop
32o, button, folds
94o, cutoff, folds

31 remain at this point, I'm in 17th.

Q7o, cutoff-1, folds
53o, MP, folds
J5o, UTG+1, folds
A3o, UTG, folds (should i be trying to play this out of position? I don't think so but I know I need to get more agressiv.e.. but I think that's just way too loose for this early)
64o, BB, free flop, folds to a 180 bet when lots of high cards come out
83o, SB, folds
72o, button, folds
J2o, cutoff, folds


We merge to 3 full tables and I get moved to table #1, UTG+1

84s, UTG+1, folds


Level 3 - 25/50 blinds

27 remain, I have 1400 chips exactly still, and am in 18th place still.

84o, UTG, folds
64o, BB, free flop 3-way, flop comes AQT and I fold to a bet of 150 on the flop.

99, SB - SquareDeal raises to 100 pre-flop, I re-raise to 200. A short stack is allin for 15 also. Square calls. Flop comes Jack high, and I bet out 400 into it, squredeal folds, the short stack has J5 and ends up with trip jacks. I win most of the money though and get up to 1520.

A2o, button, folds to a 200 raise, ends up 4-way and the raiser had KK, he loses to K4s, flush.
93o, cutoff, folds

ATo, cutoff-1 - two limp and I raise it up to 200, gotta get a bit more agressive here I think. short stack calls all in, UTG calls, and Scan goes all in for 1000 more. I fold that one of course. He has KK and finally knocks out the short stack. I am down to 1320.

33, cutoff-1 - I fold to a 150 raise before me

74o, UTG+1, folds
72o, UTG, folds

Key Hand
A5o, BB, E Vail, a short stack, raises to 100. I defend and re-raise to 200, he call. Flop misses me, but it doesn't look pretty, I decide to test him for all his chips. He calls with a four flush, and of course hits it. He had Q2s, so I was at leat right in my estimation that he was stealing.

crap folded in SB/Button/cutoff.

I am not long for this tournament without a double up or two.


J5o, cutoff-1, folds

Level 4 - 50/100 blinds

21 remain, and I am the dead smallest stack.

Key Hand

QQ, UTG - I go all in, as the shortest stack i figure someone will call... no one does and I steal. I needed a call to get a shot at doubling up with that didn't I?

Well, I have 725 chips after my BB, which is 83o and folded on the first opportunity.

Key Hand
A3s, SB. I call the min raise by E_Vail on the button. Flop come A99. I go all in with my pair of aces, and neither calls. I take the pot and am up a bit htere.

Key Hand
66, button, folded to me, I open-raise to 300, and I steal the blinds.


I am now up to 1275, 15th out of the 21 remaining, but I clearly still need to make a big move to have a shot in this thing.

95o, folded
76o, folded UTG+1
64o, UTG, folds
63o, BB, gotta fold if there's a raise. there is and i'm out
J8o, SB, again folds to a large steal raise
J2o, button, folds
T3o, cutoff, folds
62o, MP, folds

18 remain and we've merged down to 2 tables. I'm 16th in chips out of the 18 left.

A9s, UTG+2, I open-raise to 300 and get a call from a big stack in cantrel1. The pot contains a heart, and that's all I need at this point. I just have to hope he missed and will fold. I go all in, he calls with AJ, he hit a pair and I need running hearts. They don't come, and I'm out 18th.

I probably misplayed a few of those hands, but I am ever improving. On the last hand i had 875 chips left after my raise. The flop came jack high with one heart. Any stack at the table was bigger than me, but this one was 5000+, so the 875 bet wasn't much of a threat at all. I would have had to all in on any playable hand after that, as the blinds were about to go up again.

My first hand back over at ring games, AA is busted by J9o. The frustration when this kind of shit is happening is amazing(was happening for a solid hour straight before tourney as well, I played 150 hands, winning 1)

I fell behind as much as $140 on the night between the before/after sessions of that tournament, and that AA hand I bitched aboutdidn't start the nigthcap so well, but, two of my tables went shorthanded and I started running over both of them. One of them went heads up and I took $60 off a guy in 5 hands, at my other table I played a great short-handed game and then the table went full and I continued to play very well... net result, up $40 on the night. I am more relieved than excited.

After playing that tourney tonight, i am *DONE* with multi-table tourneys until this weekend. I had fun w/ them for a few days but leaked away most of my profits during those few days and still sit at ~$2590. Getting good at MTT's is a long term goal. I can't sacrafice my 2/4 profits to do it all at once. I need to get up a few hundred more before I try out any more MTT's, and play them consistantly, but in moderation(instead of 5 or 6 of them over a weekend, etc).

Ok, I'm done lecturing myself :)

Now, a question on hand distribution. I know you get a pocket pair once every ~220 hands. What are the stats on a specific suited connector, or a specific off-suit hand?

I want to see exactly how cold my cards are running, if at all.

I have 5,214 hands in pokertracker at 2/4.

Each poket pair would ON AVERAGE have been received 23.7 times.
I need to look up the other hands to see for sure.


Here's my distribution on Sklansky's group 1/2 hands:

AA - 18
KK - 14
QQ - 27
JJ - 15
AKs - 19

TT - 25
AQs - 14
AJs - 22
KQs - 19
AKo - 49 (and barely winning, $25.50 or .13 BB/hand... a hole of mine for sure, I have been overplaying AK when it misses I know).


So, how am I running over 5214 hands?

AA and KK are coming in low, KK very low. If I had gotten each of those 24 times I would expect an extra $80-$100 in profit at least. But what about the rest, am I running cold overall or just with those top two?

I'm winning almost exactly 1BB/hr/table. I want that to be 1.5 BB/hr/table over the long run definitely. 5K is a short run, so I'm not worried or anything, but 5K hands seems a good time to stop and do just a little analysis and see if there's anything obvious, like my problem with AKo, I hope to improve on that greatly over my next 5K hands.

Radii -

First off, I just wanted to mention how much I am thoroughly enjoying the retelling of your multitable experiences. Great detail, great writing style, great self-examination. I could care less about ring games - I loathe them - but I find your hand analysis using poker tracker really fascinating.

As you have alluded to in your writing, I think your biggest problem right now in the tourney play is lack of aggression. While I am not getting a sense of the playing styles of your tables, it seems that it might suit you to play more suited connectors and one-gappers out of position. Your tourney style is so tight it seems almost self-defeating at times.

Anyway, take those comments for what they are worth, as I am a marginal on-line tourney player at best. Whatever you do, keep up the great work!

I am going to run through my calculations for getting JTs in case I made a mistake someone else can correct. The first card can either be a J or a T of any suit(8 choices). Then the second card must be the other one of the same suit(1 choice). So I think it's 8/52 * 1/51 or about 0.3% or once in 332 hands. If you consider playable suited connectors as JT, T9, 98, 87, 76, 65, and 54 you get a suited connector 2.1% of the time or once every 48 hands.
I am not exactly sure what hands you want to look at for the off suit but I'll run through AQo. 8 choices for the first card(All A or Q's) then 3 choices for the second card since you want not suited. That is 8/52 * 3/51 or about 0.9% or once every 111 hands.

Did you think about reraising here? You might have been able to thin the field a bit and make it too pricey for DrSessions to try to flop his set(not to mention the T3 guy). Also, you might have gotten off with a cheap flop if the players remaining had checked to you(the reraiser). Were you worried that because the tourney had just started that everyone would have just called or were you trying to hide your strength?

You're definitely right. I have started reading the 2+2 multi-table tourney forums and should be learning a lot there.

A lot of times I know I have to make a move, have to steal, have to make some loose calls to try to hit a big hand. And a lot of times I see the right cards or the right time to do it and I still don't pull the trigger with the raise.

Glad you're enjoying the read, hopefully down the line there will be some major successes to report on, I just have to dig in and find the right style for me to succeed in these things.

I dont think there was anything to say about this one except I played it very very weakly and have got to play better with good hands in position like this. :)


Thanks for the odds stuff in your other post, that looks right to me.

Ok, here's another question for the masses. 1 limp, a raise to 40, a call to me, blinds still to act. First level of the tourney. I have AQs on the button. 130 in the pot at that point.

I have very little read on anyone at this point. DrSessions seems to play a fair number of hands cheaply and he's taken a lead at the table early on.

If I'm going to re-raise, what do I raise to? Is 150 a strong enough raise?

Lets say I raise to 150 now, and two people call me.

The flop comes KT3, one of my suit. The pot is now ~550 in chips. And again lets say its checked around to me. First round of a tourney, do you bet this even though you haven't hit? Or do you look at the fact that its still early and that there's two high cards on the board and check, hoping to hit your 4-outer straight, an ace, or get out?

And to go on a flurry of dynasty posts when i'm nowhere near the poker table... it looks like I've gotten AA/KK/JJ signifigantly less than 'average' in my first 5000 hands, but the rest of the cards are coming at a pretty steady rate. I'll just have to get AA 30 times int he next 5000 hands to make up for it ;)

My biggest hold over those 5000 hands was my AK play. The one hand I push too hard with I think, as its a very very small winner so far. Over the next 5K hands I intend to be a little more selective about when I jam with AK (real small post-flop fields/non scary boards etc) and will see if I can make a bit more with it.

I think with two folks checking to you (assuming neither was the pre-flop raiser) that a big bet here - maybe 250 - and you are likely going to buy the pot right there. Most of the time folks don't want that kind of action early in a tourney (of which you are an example ;))...

So by my math you should be getting a group 1 hand every 2.1% of the time or once in 46 hands. That means you should have gotten 110 group 1 hands but you only got 93. That difference of 17 seems a lot(15% low) but I'd have to do some messy stats to see just how bad that is. You should get a group 2 hand every 2.2% or 118 times and you got them 129 times. That's mostly due to excess of AJs. So maybe the lower group 1 numbers don't look that far off after all.

That was what I came up with too. AA and KK win so dramatically much more BB/hand that I think it's noticible, but probalby not worth the amount of time I've put into figuring it out :) I am going to set up a filter in poker tracker for this stuff, I like that idea I read on 2+2 about using that as a quick first glance about how the cards are running.

Ok. One flat calls. The turn doesn't help you any. Check/fold now? Seems like now you've invested a lot in this hand for the first round, if you get out of it now you still have 1000 chips or soto work with... or do you keep pushing under any circumstances considering you really don't know the player and what type of hands he plays yet?

Now, I'm not very good/wise about this stuff at all, but with AK, the goal (and I have no idea if this is right) in ring games is to win almost every time the flop hits you.

It's value isn't in missed flops, but rather in hit ones? As such, your analysis seems reasonable.

Just wanted to remark how much I enjoy reading this dynasty...

I love the shape it's taking of summarizing the ring games and going into detail on multi-tables - your tales of those are just so... gripping.

Keep up the great work!
~rpi-fan

You have position so unless he bets into you I think you have to keep betting. You raised preflop, bet on the flop, and he has checked the flop and the turn to you. If the turn is a rag he probably wasn't helped and it's very unlikely you will be check-raised. I would guess that he is on a draw or maybe holding middle pair good kicker or top pair bad kicker and a bet might get him to(finally) release the hand. If he bets into you on the turn and it's a reasonable sized bet then lay it down. You have a four outs for sure and an Ace might be good as well.

I think that is a great idea. Group 1 or 2 hands should come by every 4.3% or once every 22 hands so you could just use something simple like that as a quick glance.

It depends on the situation, as always. At the 5/10 shorts I would push rather hard with AK. It's a good hand and at a short table it will hold up enough unimproved that it can be pushed through the turn with consistancy.

At a 2/4 full game this just isn't true. It's worth a raise in any situation, but I push with it too often, too far when it misses. I have to remember that at 2/4 I have to show down the best hand more often than not to win the hand. If I get 2 or less opponents I'll bet with it on the flop, and possibly the turn if I think there is any chance my opponent will fold. With more opponents than that I need to let it go quicker if I miss. With KQs and AJs I've got this down, but AKo looks much better than it is to me I think.

of those group 1/2 hands, AKo is miles below my other hands. I am even doing well with TT, compared to AKo.

Perhaps I will use the magic of pokertracker and start posting a few AKo hands in retrospect to see how I do with it.

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it :)

Worst 2/4 session ever:

330 hands, down $300.

QJs, lost $30 - filled a straight on the turn, other guy had bottom pair flop/2 pair turn/boat river

AKo, lost $48 ($20 on a pair of aces, lost to a rivered straight, $20 on kings that lost to a rivered flush)

AKs, lost $10 (gave it up ont eh turn)

AA, lost $20 (pocket tens hit set)

AJo, lost $18 (flopped ace+four flush, lost to 2 pair)

Q3o, BB, flopped two pair, lost to straight, lost $20

JJ, lost $14, J23 flop, 4 turn, 5 river. Lost to a naked ace.


of course the blinds eat up a lot over 320 hands


The kicker about the session? I flopped quads TWICE. pocket 4s ad pocket 3s. Neither got any action despite extreme slowplaying.



(tells self, it's all one long session, all one long session, all one long session, all one long session).

Radii: Take 48 hours away from the poker table, stat.

You are on mega tilt.

Agreed. Honestly, I meant to quit at $200, to have that as a stoploss, I won a hand right as I hit that $200 loss limit and went back under it and convinced myself it was about to turn around.

We had our dance classes(see the weight loss dynasty) right after poker so I got far away from it and got my head totally wrapped around other things.

The last two nights of limit poker the bad beats have been hitting me rather hard(I have lost the last 4 AA hands in a row, for example, when they're coming), but tonight there were just no wins to offset it and clearly I bled away more than necessary, where, on Monday night, I actually recovered *really* nicely and never went on tilt and played a very solid game and ended up profitable.



This is a very good example of why I'm not moving up to 3/6 even though i have the bankroll for it. I can still win a very solid amount here when I'm playing well, and I can learn the lessons I need to about multi-tabling limit games(hell I played 5,000 hands at .5/1 just to get the hang of it, even though I had a bankroll of $1800 at the time) for a lot cheaper than it would be at 3/6.

To sum up. Very sound advice, thanks ;)

i didn't read some of the intervening posts, but....

there are 6 ways you can find a pocket pair, and 4 ways you can find a suited connector. So if you know the odds on the pair......

I have played a bunch today and am not tilting at all, I'm actually up a touch(about $30). I don't want to go dump money into a multi-table now but I want a break, so I sign up for a quick $10+$1 NL SNG(single table).

Everone starts with 800 chips.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds


Q3o, UTG+1, folds - guy out on hand 1, woo!
75o, UTG, folds
K5s, BB, folds to a 50 chip raise
85s, SB, I limp and we have a 3 way pot. The flop misses me badly and I fold.
T2o, button, folds
63o, cutoff, folds
94o, cutoff-1, folds
crap, UTG+2, folds
K8o, UTG+1, folds

Level 2 - 15/30 blinds

Level 1 was exciting, no? Everyone is playing pretty tight.

69o, UTG, folds
K8o, BB, free flop 4-way. Flop comes KT4, two hearts. I bet 90 into the 120 pot and I take it down. Up to 845.
55, SB. 5 limpers to me, I limp, we have a nice 7 way flop. It comes very well coordinated w/ lots of high cards, I fold at first chance.
93o, button, folds
Q2s, cutoff, folds
52o, cutoff-1, folds
Q7o, MP, folds
AJo, UTG+2, I open-raise to 85 (because I hate this laptop's mouse). I win the blinds. Geeze.
T7o, UTG+1, folds - now there's some actionwhoa, 4 people all in on the flop. JT/AJ/AA on a jack high flop. A jack on the turn kills the aces and hoose67 had the AJ for the win.
86s, UTG, folds

Level 3 - 25/50 blinds

84o, BB, free flop, I flop an inside straight draw but the bet gets way too big on the flop for me to draw for it.

8 remain, TomVeil is crippled(95), JuebOne has 430. Only two guys have made any serious progress.

K6o, SB, folds - TomVeil is out, JuebOne is up to 525, busting him
73o, button, folds
75o, cutoff, folds
A2o, UTG+2, folds
J3o, UTG+1, folds - Vegas311 busts out juebone and we're down to 6.
Q4o, UTG, folds

Key Hand
KJo, BB - folded to the SB, sgak raises to 100 chips. I call. He bets a small 50 on the ace high flop. I smell weakness and raise to 200. He goes all in over me and I have to fold. Good play by sgak.
86o, sb, folds
J2o, button, folds

Level 4 - 50/100 blinds

85o, cutoff, folds

6 left so I am all in real damn soon with 475 chips.

77, UTG+1. Like now. I am all in, I win the blinds and have 625 chips.
96o, UTG, folds
93o, BB, I get a free flop when SB limps to me. I catch 2nd pair, a 9 on the flop and I go all in and win it.
KQs, SB - I raise to 200 pre-flop and go heads up vs the BB. I catch a king on the flop and go all in and win it there(525 into a 400 flop).
A8o, button - I limp here, a mistake I am sure after a limper before me. we are 4-way and i get out of there on the flop when a bigger stack pushes.
34s, cutoff, folds
T8s, UTG+1, folds
93o, UTG, folds

A9s, BB - free flop 3 way. I flop a flush draw and bet the pot, I win it there.

Level 5 - 100/200 blinds

95o, SB, folds

I have 925 in chips. No one is in very good shape, chipleader has 1800.

hawaplop busts up sgak28(he still had 35 chpis), hawaplop has 2740 now.

AA vs 88 on the next hand teras up the chip leader.

QJo, BB - down to 5 now as sgak busts out. I fold to an all-in, leaving me w/ 725.

TT, SB - shot stack all in. I go over him all in. I win the hand and am up to 1295.

4 remain, two of us are around 1200/1300. hawaplop has 3000+, vegas311 2130.

I fold through my blinds and have 995.

Q3o, button, folds - the big stack/2nd stack go all in and the big stack is down to 1700.

A2o, UTG, all-in wins blinds
AQo, BB, raise pre-flop, short stack all in, I just call. We check to the river when hawaflop goes all in on me. I fold, 44 vs 77, jeff doesn't bust out.

blinds are up to 150/300

I double up on k6s, back up to about 700. I fold through my blinds with 4 high both times

I go all in on ATs. Called by 94. a 9 hits the flop by I hit my flush! I'm up to 1130.

More crap in my BB and I fold it to a big raise.


blinds up to 200/400

All in on ATs from the SB, I double up again and have 1460 now.

A8s, BB - folded to me.
KJo, SB - I steal the BB
K4o, button - I fold this one

I make the money as the short stack busts out

I raise with Q4s on the button, I'm called by vegas. FLop comes Ax2, two diamonds. Opponent goes all in. I have more than the odds to chase my flush, and I call(a fold leaves me very short stacked). He has A2 for two pair, and I hit a queen but that's it, no flush.


I make a profit of a mighty $9. Those small SNG's go FAST. The end got a little hectic w/ oliegirl and I chatting for a minute before she went to bed, so I lost quite a bit in the writeup quality in those last few rounds.

The total ass-beating I took yesterday kills these results, but here they are, gotta post when I'm not happy about the posts as well:


6440 hands at 2/4
Won $90.06
won 0.23 BB/hr/table
BB/100 hands: 0.35
Overall win rate: $3.02/hr

Very annoying. And despite keeping my head above water it has been annoying in the past 4 or 5 days having noticibly more losing sessions than winners.

As I have started reading 2+2 more often, I have pumped up my agression a bit, and I have to wonder if that is just increasing my variance and the $300 winning sessions are right around the corner, or if I am being too agressive or am pushing in the wrong spots.

I found a hand I was frustrated with tonight, in a $40 pot with an inside straight draw on the turn(total rainbow board) I folded to a bet. I was getting 10:1 on that. 42:4 or 10.5:1 to hit, I really should have called that bet, since it was a draw to the nuts. Of course, I only noticed it because it did, indeed hit.

I think where my extra agression may be hurting me is with overcards when I've raised pre-flop. Anyway, I am still ahead here, so I have a hard time saying I need to do anything drastic, but I may play a few one-table sessions and write them up if i hit 7500-8000 hands without any sort of a breakout here, and see what kind of holes people point out.

7000 hand update

The last 700ish hands since that $300 loss have been good to me.

7136 hands at 2/4
Won $233.06
won 0.53 BB/hr/table
BB/100 hands: 0.82
Overall win rate: $7.01/hr


I'm playing in a cheap $5 rebuy satellite to the big Sunday tourney right now, and am also playing a $15 double-shootout with two guarenteed seats to one of the WCOOP events a little later tonight, so expect two tourney updates tonight.

I join the midnight $5+$0 (+rebuys) satellite to the $300 Sunday tournament on pokerstars.

This gives me a cheap way to get a little more tourney experience, and some practice on not being such a pussy in NL tourneys ;)

Level 1 - 10/20 blinds

96o, UTG+1, folds

385 have entered. A full 108 have rebought already. I have not rebought.

75s, UTG, folds
QJo, BB, folds to a raise to 80 - 3 go all in on the K66(two spades) flop. Ax spades, KQ, and A6. A6 holds up, the othre two rebuy and 4126(that's his name) has 6340 chips.
54o, SB, 7 way flop, I'll play that for half a bet. I'll fold on the flop too.
Q8o, button, folds

4126 seems willing to gamble even with 4x the starting chips. Called off about 500 on god knows what(no straight/no flush possible board) to see aces/deuce kicker beat him down.. 500 on 2nd pair?

83o, cutoff, folds
T3o, cutoff-1, folds
xx, MP, folds
86o, MP, folds

Level 2 - 15/30 blids

Hands take awhile with all of the rebuy action going on.

87s, UTG+1, I limp, then call the min raise. Flop comes A73, 1 heart. I call the min bet of 30 there. Turn is another ace, and this isn't going to do, I fold to a bet, two aces end up all in, one has an 8 kicker the other a 2. FFBBDD has rebought many times.

33, UTG, another limping hand. 8 of us see the flop, I fold when it doesn't have a 3 and someone bets.

Key Hand

AA, BB - now, it shouldn't be too hard to get all in here in this rebuy period right? That's certainly the goal. And of course, only 4 limpers before me. I raise out of the BB to 150, only one guy calls. I bet 150 on the flop(underbetting the pot by quite a bit), and he calls. It was king high rainbow. The turn I bet out about 500 chips into the 680 flop, and he folds. So much for easily getting all in. I do pull down a 690 pot and am up to 1715 in chips.

crap, SB/button, folded
K8s, cutoff, folded to 330 raise
AJo, cutoff-1, limp/fold to a 330 raise
94o, MP, folds

4126 now seems to be taking great advantage of others looseness here, he's stil taking quite a few risks but he's up over 10K now and is 4th in the tourney.

A7s, MP, limp, 6 way action for the min raise as 4126 raises out of his BB. Flop misses totally, two diamonds, J62, I fold to a bet.
T6o, UTG+1, folds
T4o, UTG, folds

level 3 - blinds 25/50

93o, BB, folds to the first bet

30 minutes til the rebuy period ends now, and the blinds will start to eat at those who have been rebuying multiple times trying to hit monsters, lets see if our total drops a lot here.

60 have given up so far, 329 out of 385 remain.

Key Hand
QJo, SB - 6 way flop for the min bet. Flop comes J98, and I will bet the pot there, 300 chips. Two call, one has rebought 3 times already and seems willing to call with very little. Turn is a 3. Now I have to decide if I am willing to rebuy or not. I decide I am, and I go all in (~1200 in a ~1200 pot). I don't have to worry about it though, both fold to me and I am up to 2425 now.

A4o, button, folds (with that kicker, I'll chase if I'm suited only) - of course, a 4 on the flop and another on the turn and two all in with top pair tells me... well, don't be results oriented right? :)

96o, cutoff, folds

The number of rebuys have now surpassed the number of entries. 385 entered, 398 rebuys.

Quindel, the better top pair in my A4 hand, just went all in with two pair on the flop(A9x, two hearts), called by AK and A3, each with runner runner flush draws only. He busted both and is up to 13,000+. Both rebuy.

T3o, MP, folds - AA/A5/77 all in pre-flop, 6850 pot. Ace hits the flop, the A5 almost htis a straight but no.

FFBBDD finally gives up. HE rebought at least 5 times. Now he's out.

KQo, UTG+1, I limp, and call a min raise to 100 chps total. 4 way action. I make a very loose call of 300 chips with an inside straight draw+ backdoor flush draw. I miss it and decide to get out of the hand. HAH. KJ and K2 went to the river. K2 had a pair of deuces so I didn't fold the best hand. But of course the limp was pretty weak.

64o, UTG, folds
J5o, BB, folds to pre-flop raise - the same guy that raised K2 just raised Q3.

Key Hand
JJ, SB - I limp, and we see a flop 6 handed. The maniac bets 250 on the flop, K85. He bet huge on nothing before, do I call? Two others call, and I am looking more and more like I'm willing to rebuy here. I call. Another low card on the turn, and I call a 150 bet. On the river its checked around, and I'm amazed to see my weak tight bullshit has netted me a 1600 pot. Two of the three in the pot were playing like maniacs, so I don't think it was terrible of me to be in the hand, but it was terrible of me to be a calling station in the hand. Raise or fold, baby.


Level 4 - blinds 50/100

I now have 3375 chips, the blinds are 50/100 and the low stacks will pobably go rebuy crazy this round. I've doubled my stack without any rebuys. This level I plan to play rediculously tight, but will take a shot to score big off a rebuy-happy short stack if I get a great hand.

A8o, cutoff, folds


Key Hand
JTs, cutoff-1. See that speech above? Ignore it. I limp here in a 7-way pot. I call the min bet when I flop 2nd pair with 1 diamond on board. QJ5 flop. On the turn I hit the king of diamonds. 3rd pair but straight flush draw... Pot is already 1700. web.geek bets 200, callers abound. Jesus this is insane. Please hit. 6 of us call. Ace/9/diamond. River is a 9. AT does beat me but I'm paying that off if its there. web.geek bets 400. I re-raise him all in(only 435 more). He calls and shows AJ. My straight nets me a 4370 pot, WOW.

There were about 6 people calling that 100 flop bet and 200 turn bet. No raises.


I am now 64th out of 284, without any rebuys :P

K2o, MP, folds
T2o, UTG+1, folds
65o, UTG, folds
T2o, BB, folds

4 minutes until the break, and the end of the rebuy period. 520 rebuys so far.

Q8o, SB, folds
Q6o, button, folds (flop Q66, turn 6, TEEHEE)

WhiteHawk01 has rebought 3 times in the last 5 minutes.

Lady LG has somehow amassed 42,000 in chips. That's 14,000 more than 2nd and double 3rd.


Level 5 - blinds 75/100 - 1 hr break - add-on period/end of rebuys

I decide to add-on. I am 1000 chips above the avg stack, I think I'm in a position where the add-on will signifigantly help me against the rebuy monkeys who have 3000 chips right now(there are 4 at my table between 2000-3000 in chips).

rebuys get us up to 10 seats into the $500 tourney. We get very close to 11 seats but I think we're going to come up short. Nope, it comes through at the end, 11 seats available!

Ok, 264 of the original 385 remain after the hour. 385 entries, 576 rebuys, 206 add-ons, all for $5 each.

I am 73rd out of 264 at the hour break, I have 8360 in chips. That's good for 4rd at my table. Quindel, chipleader at the table, has 14,360.

52o, MP, folds
75o, MP, folds
K2o, UTG+2, folds

STRIKER and whitehawk_01, two fo the worst rebuy monkeys at my table, are playing most every hand. Looks like I need to stay beginning-of-tourney-ultra-tight for 1 last level to let some of the crap weed itself out.

T5o, UTG+1, folds
74o, UTG, folds
32s, BB, button limps, SB limps and come on A45 diamonds flop! KKJ, two diamonds. I decide to bet the pot, and I win it right there.

74o, SB, folds - spinster(the button last hand) and STRIKER seem to play lots of hands against each toher. Lots of 150 min betting. striker calls down KJ5 flop, K turn, T river, calling spinster's all in on the rive.r Striker has? A5o. spinster has KT for the doubleup.
A2o, button, folds - this is a 5 way pot - viking18 underbets the pot the entire way, including the river, with overcards(KJs) on a ten high board. He had no draw, just overcards. 4126 calls him down. With middle pair on the flop. A6o.

crap, cutoff, folds - 5 way action, 450 bet on the flop, followed by a 300 bet on the turn. all 5 are in til the river, another 300 bet on the river by our fearless chpleader quindel is called down(NOT RAISED). When running queens give 4126 trip queens/ace kicker. quindel had top pair on the flop with an 8.

J8o, cutoff-1, folds 4 way action this time.
K6o, MP, folds


My double-shootout is starting. 81 people, 9 single table SNG's. The 9 winners are the 'final table' ... at that table, 3-7 get their money back, 1st and 2nd get a $530 entry into the WCOOP. I of course can't write both up. I'll move to the shootout for awhile should I win the first tourney and actually have a shot.

Q6o, MP, folds
83o, UTG+1, folds

Level 6 - 100/200 blinds

I have 8585 chips, having increased my stack by about 300 chips in the last 15 minutes. I sit 85th out of the 230 remaining and still 4th at my table.

76o, UTG, folds
J5o, BB, folds to min raise from quindel (he has AKo)

TT, a trouble hand of mine(and most I assume) - Quindel raises to 800. spinster48 calls. With 1 to act still and one caller already I decide I'm playing for a set there and fold. an ace hits and quindel bets 3000 chips, spindel folds. Does anyone do anythign different here?

K2o, button, folds
86o, cutoff, folds
A8o, cutoff-1, folds to a raise to 600.
K4o, Mp, folds
72o, MP, folds

shootout note - 3 are out in 10 minutes at my table. I won a very small pot with JTs. My 1560 chips(from starting chips of 1500) is 2nd in chips, guy to my left just knocked out 2 in one shot and has 7000 almost.

K9o, UTG, folds

New guy, powerdave, has joined the table to my right. 12,000 in chips and in a big pot against quindel on the first hand. quindel calls all in from powr dave and dave now has 29,000. His A6 hit two pair and crushed quindel's KK.

Key Hand
KJo, BB - 3 way free flop for me. Flop comes KT3, two hearts. powerdave(actually it's pawner dave as I read more closely) bets 200, I raise to 800, and only he calls. The turn brings the flush. I bet the pot, 2000 chips, ready to fold if he comes back at me, but he folds, and I take it down. Only a small gain really but a very helpful one.

crap, SB, folds
T5s, button folds
K3o, cutoff, folds

AKo, cutoff - 1, with one limper I raise to 800. pawnerdave is that limper. A king hits the flop(KT4 rainbow), I bet the pot(1800) and he folds.

Level 7 - blinds 100/200 - ante 25


shootout update - down to 1435 as the blinds go up to 15/30. 6 of us left still.

I have bult my stack up over 10K, 10,460 to be exact. The antes mean there's 525 in the pot before anyone acts.

I am 68th out of the 193 remaining. I am 3rd at our table. pawnerdave has 24K, 4126 has 18K.

84s, MP, folds
Q4o, MP, folds
95o, UTG+1, folds
97o, UTG, folds - 3 in for an 1800 raise. 6200 pot pre-flop. zeroexp, the raiser, has AA, he busts out whitehawk, and he's 3rd at the table w/ 15K now.


A5o, BB - pawner dave raises the min pre-flop. I call as does spinster. The flop comes AJ8, two spades and he immediately bets 1800. I fold with my weak kicker. Good bet by him if he bluffs me out. Does anyone else put 20% of their stack in here?

crap, SB, folds

A4s, button - folded to me, I open-raise to 600. A short stack, STRIKER4969, calls me. He goes all in for 1600 on the flop, 789 all hearts(I'm spades), and I fold. I've dropped about 1K in chips here real fast.

crap, cutoff, folds

I note that a 600 raise isn't 3x the blinds with the antes involved. Wonder what my standard open-raise should be?

94o, cutoff-1, folds
A2o, MP, folds
T4o, UTG+2, folds

new guy bigsherman has caught 3 huge hands real fast, full house, flush on the flop, and pocket aces to go from 6K to 22K in 3 hands. Nice run.


shootout update - down to 5, and I'm down to 1100 in chips after pushing a bit with A9s(decent hand 6 handed) but coming up empty.

crap, UTG,

Level 8 - blinds 200/400 - ante 25

KQo, BB, I make a bad move calling a raise here, and have to fold on a bad flop.
Q5o, SB, folds

I now have about 20x the big blind, not low enough to all in/fold by any stretch, but enough to start all-in'ing on any flops that I like that I'm in on a raise for.

shootout update: I catch two pair on the river with A5. Too bad the card that gave me two pair gave my opponent a straight. I am out.

I am down to 7835 here as the blinds pass me. I am about 90th out of 150 remaining.

72o, button, folds

Weirdest thing ever
K7s, cutoff, folds to a raise - raise to 800, call, all-in for 2700, call, alli n for 12900, call. WHOA. 3 all in here. 36s, KJ, 99. 63s!?!?!? That's the 12,900 stack. What'd he know that we didn't? 3 clubs flop. AMAZING. And the other big stack at the table calling off over half his stack with KJ? Insane. quindel(now at 30K) says he was ready for bed and trying to give his chips away.

crap, folded a couple of times.

iamlucky all in for 5120. zekgb calls 1900 all in. quindel all in... quindel has JJ this time. zek has KK, iamlucky has A4. an ace hits and all 13,387 is his.

73o, UTG+1, folds
J7o, UTG, folds

a guy going all in and losing lets me skip my BB.

85s, SB, I limp for 200 to see a 3-way flop. IamLucky says I don't thoughand raises to 3200. 4126 calls, and I have to fold. iamlucky all in on the flop for 22K, and he wins the pot.

I am down to 7260. Needing to make a move stage.

J2o, button, folds, and the worst part of my tournaments generally. People have gotten so loose here that I just don't know how to play it right.

Q2o, cutoff, folds
the mighty 63s, folded(how could I?)(it missed)

Key Hand
KTo, MP, 4126 calls, I raise it to 1200. jamtech calls and 4126 calls behind him. I miss totally, 4425 in the pot, am I in or do I give this up? I have to finish in the top 11, I'm not leaving myself with 4500 chips here. I push all in. jamtech thinks long and hard, requests time, and calls. I'm screwed. 4126.... he won't call too will he? No. HAHA. same hand. KTs. But, jametch has the flush draw. Luckily, it doesn't hit. I am back up to 8100 with that bullshit.

Too loose? OK but too loose if it wasn't a winner take all gotta make a final table tourney?

K8o, MP, folds
T2s, UTG+1, folds

Level 9 - blinds 300/600 - antes 50 - 2 hour break

Now with 8K in chips, I am getting pretty low. I am 90th out of 126 remaining at the 2nd break, basically the same # of chips I had left at the first break.

Q8o, UTG, folds

With 1350 in the pot from blinds and ante's, I am getting very close to a push/fold situation here. In fact after the blinds pass me I'm there. Push/fold.

82o, BB, I get a free flop which comes AKQ and I have to fold at the first opportunity.
Q8s, SB, 4126 limps, plibby goes all-in for 3200 chips, and I have to fold. 4126 folds too, giving plibby the 2550 pot.

7023 chips for me. push/fold.

76o, folds
K4o, folds
52o, MP, folds

KJo, UTG+2, all in. Blinds stolen, up to 8123.
J4o, UTG+1, folds
T5s, UTG, folds

Q7s, BB, 4126 is all in for his last 1500 or so in chips. I decide I have the odds to call that here with the dead money + he's desparate + I'm already in for 600. No luck, he has AJo and I don't hit anything.

crap, SB, folds - 4126 gets AQ this time, doubles up again, right back to 8300. Nuts.

J7s, button, folds

I have 6200 after the loss + blinds

62o, cutoff, folds - 4126 busts out, JJ vs I'll Be Back's QQ (throw in Quindel's KTs, he still wants to sleep) - I'll Be Back just won a 43,900 pot there.

crap, cutoff-1, folds
JTo, MP, folds (should I push here? Hmm, a little low I think for now).
T2o, UTG+1, folds
T5o, UTG, folds


A5o, BB - 5287 left after my BB, I think I have to go here. Quindel raises to 1800, I push. He shows me A4s. no flush for him, he needs a 4 on turn/river. it doesn't come.;.. oh wait. The board just paired. kickers don't come into play(and there was a deuce on the board, so they could ahve)

A5s, SB - I push again. I open-raise here though... this time i'm called by JJ. Ugh. I flop an ace, but, he flops a jack. That's the end of my day. I am out 94th.


Comments are always welcom, I opened it up a bit here but I might have done it at the wrong times against the wrong players.

Updating my bankroll since I haven't in awhile now. I've been treading water, floating between $2400 and $2600. Right now I'm almost even.


PokerStars: $502
InterCasino: $101
Neteller: $382
PartyPoker: $1514

TOTAL: $2499.

That's after quite a large win in ring games today, I was down below $2400 a little bit earlier today(Still playing and still winning, but that's the current snapshot).

Dealt to radii [ 6s 5s ]
Grendel_II folds.
teleblue folds.
tcprince calls [$2].
Frankdadank folds.
ElHombre folds.
biffster82 calls [$2].
JGlass02 folds.
radii calls [$1].
Angigallo checks.
** Dealing Flop ** [ 4s, Jc, 2s ]
radii checks.
Angigallo checks.
tcprince bets [$2].
biffster82 calls [$2].
radii calls [$2].
Angigallo calls [$2].
** Dealing Turn ** [ Ac ]
radii checks.
Angigallo checks.
tcprince bets [$4].
biffster82 calls [$4].
radii calls [$4].
Angigallo folds.
** Dealing River ** [ 3s ] :D:D:D
radii bets [$4].
tcprince calls [$4].
biffster82 calls [$4].
radii shows [ 6s, 5s ] a straight flush, six high.
tcprince doesn't show [ Jd, Js ] three of a kind, jacks.
biffster82 shows [ Ah, Qc ] a pair of aces.
radii wins $38 from the main pot with a straight flush,


Thought about check-raising the river, but alas.

Again, god bless partypoker weekend play. Seriously, the night play is drastically worse than the afternoon play(or the when I play for an hour when I get home at 5pm), and the weekend play makes the evening weeknight PP players look like poker gods. Not b/c of this hand, just how much I've won in general during the weekends lately.

8000 hand update

I am very, very pleased with my turnaround in ring game play, things are looking solid here.

8029 hands at 2/4
Won $518.06
won 1.06 BB/hr/table
BB/100 hands: 1.61
Overall win rate: $14.14/hr

I would not be unhappy to just sustain this rate at 2/4 for some time, though I think 2 BB/100 hands is reasonable. I am nowhere near thinking about 3/6 yet. I don't have a set timetable, but I suspect that at maybe 20,000 hands I'll go from 4 2/4 tables to 3 2/4 tables and 1 3/6 tables, and do that for a few thousand hands, and slowly work my way up to full 3/6 action.

Tomorrow may well be my last night playing poker for a week or more, Tuesday nigth we have dance classes, and Thursday we are getting up very very very early to drive to chicago for abotu 5 days.

I would love to have a solid day tomorrow and to be able to cash out just a couple hundred in "profit" (over my $2500 baseline) for the month. I'm at about $2590 right now. Given how often I strayed into dead money tournament land I think that would be quite the feat.

A slow, uneventful marathon session. Down as much as $70, up as much as $80, finished up about $20.

9000 hand update

I am very, very pleased with my turnaround in ring game play, things are looking solid here.

9008 hands at 2/4
Won $532.44
won 0.95 BB/hr/table
BB/100 hands: 1.48
Overall win rate: $12.98/hr


Not bad at all.

Radii,
Just wondering why you aren't playing more $30+3 tourney's when you get sick of limit? Seems like you were getting a much better ROI on that than these other larger tourneys. Have fun on your trip.

They disappeared from partypoker for awhile and that's when I started trying out some of the cheaper MTT's. Since then I think its the allure of going for the big score. It would seem to reason though that improving at the 3-table tourneys would be a start to improving at some of the different stages of big MTTs as well, so that seems like a pretty good idea to me :)

I enter a $30+$3 3-table tourney, and get seated at table 2. I open up in the cutoff.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

JTs, cutoff, folds to 50 raise
53s, cutoff-1, folds
Q3o, MP, folds
53o, MP folds
AKo, MP, raise to 50, a short stack of 15 calls all-in, and a limper before me calls. I bet 70 into the pot on the flop(TTx) and the other caller folds. The short stack has 54o, and a 5 hits the turn, so I basically win a net of 20 chips.
44, UTG+1, limp/fold to a raise

Key Hand #1
AA, UTG - I open-raise to 50 chips, and one caller(same guy from before, musicmachine). Flop 983, two hearts. I bet 75 chips and musicmachine calls. Turn completes the flush, I bet half the pot, 150 chips, and he folds. I take down 410 and am up to 1125 after my BB.

97o, BB, folds to a raise
42o, SB, folds to raise
Q2o, button, folds


Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

T2o, cutoff, folds

28 players remain, I have 1115 in chips.

A7o, cutoff-1, folds
T8o, cutoff-1 (after the guy 2 to my left gets knocked out), folds
KTo, cutoff-2, folds
J6o, UTG+2, folds - the guy w/ 15 chips left after about 4 hands, FINALLY goes out
85o, UTG+1, folds

AJs, UTG, I open-raise to 60, and musicmachine calls. FLop comes KQ6, I bet half the pot, and he folds on me. He plays too many hands, and is down to 345 chips. I wanted to bet big enough to get him out, but small enough I could fold to an all-in, I didnt want to throw in 300 more there. Worked!

Q9s, BB - I get a free flop, and it's a beauty, A63 all clubs(my suit). I am going to take my chances against the king here. I check and then call a 50 chip bet from UPS_Grundle. The turn sets free any feras I had, it's the king. I check, he checks. River a blank and he folds to my bet.

Q5s, SB - I limp and we're 3 handed. Another great flop, Q54, two clubs though, I bet the pot(60 chips) w/ my 2 pair and take it down.

44, another limp/fold to a raise (very few raises so far, only when I have 44)
A4o, cutoff-1, folds

Wish I coulda gotten more on the flush but I have increased my stack.

Level 3 - 15/30 blinds

I have 1315 in chips, about average and 5th of the 8 left at my table.

23 people remain in the tourney.

J4s, UTG, folds
KJo, BB, the SB goes all in for 185. If it was heads up I might think about calling, but there's other limpers involved. A7 for SB, AK for wiener_dogs, good fold.
32s, SB, folds

A3s, button, 3 limpers before me, so I go ahead and limp too. So do both the blinds. Flop comes KQ4, two of my suit. I'll call a 75 bet on the flop. Ding! I make my flush on the turn. I again just call a 100 bet. The board doesn't pair on the river, so I've got the nuts. opponent checks to me, and I bet 225 into the 530 pot, hopefully a small enough amount to be called. He doesn't call me though and I'm getting some great hands but haven't been able to get great action yet.

I am up to 1595 and pleased w/ my stack so far.

crap, cutoff, folds - UPS grande and pokerputte, the two short stacks, end up all in on the river, 2nd pair vs top pair. UPS is almost out.

TT, UTG+1, UPS all in for 37 chips. huckdog calls. I raise to 100 chips - folded back to huckdog(a bigger stack than me by a bit). Flop comes ace high w/ 2 diamonds. We check it around. Turn makes the flush. huckdog bets the min, 30 chips. And I call that one. The river is a king and we check it, I beat huckdog but lose to UPS's two pair.

I am up to 1651 chips after that moderate win.

97o, UTG, folds
Q6o, BB, folds to 100 raise
Q6s, SB, folds to all-in 115 raise from UPS(who wins and stays alive)

Level 4 - 25/50 blinds

I am up to 1606 in chips, still slowly rising.

K5o, button, folds

21 remain, down to two tables on our next exit.

K6o, cutoff, folds
T7o, cutoff-1, folds
AJo, UTG+1, folds to UTG raise - raise with it but be wary of calling raises with it -
85o, UTG, folds
96o, BB, UPS hanging around, he raises all in for abougt 375 and wins the blinds
33, SB, folded to me, I raise and win pokerputte's BB

crap, folded on button/cutoff
J6o, cutoff-1, folds

UPS steals again to go up to 523 in chips.

QTo, UTG+1, folds

And UPS finally goes out, all in with 36o, called by QT.

crap, BB, raised out of it

32s, sb, folds

18 remain, a few went out real fast there, and we're down to 2 tables.

I'm an avg stack, but still 6th at my table out of 9.

63s, cutoff-1, folds
32o, cutoff-2, folds

Level 5 - 50/100 blinds

20 minutes til the break, very often we fall to 1 table by then, lets see what happens here. 18 left, my 1581 stack is just slightly under average.

crap, UTG, folds - two big stacks, huckdog and spook18 build up a 3300 pot... spook18 had nothing, huckdog bet hard w/ bottom pair(on the turn, he had nothing on the flop either)... weird, a HUGE pot between two big stacks for that?

T7o, BB, free 5-way flop but i can't play it

17 remain, one gone on table 1

note to self, huckdog will bet hard w/ pretty much anything.

Key Hand
AKs, SB - three limp, I raise to 500, with that many limpers a 3x raise is inviting people to play. spook18 goes all in for 695 more. I call, hoping he's got an ace. He does. AQo. Queen on the flop and I am utterly fucked.

286 chips left.

Key Hand

A2o, I'm all in open-raising on the button. august0000 calls out of BB with QJ, I hold up.

Key Hand

QQ, cutoff, short stack allin for 300, I am also all in for 622. short stack has A6, QQ holds up.

I am up to 1020 in two hands after losing that AK v AQ hand.

Key Hand
KTs, MP, one limper, I raise to 300, and limper+1 more calls. hit my king on the flop, but there's an ace and I am put alli n with a big bet.

720 chips remain.

76s, UTG, folds

J3o, BB, folds to raise

Level 6 - 75/150 blinds

16 remain, I am very short stacked in relation to blinds.

74o, SB, folds

I am left with 545 chips.

Q7o, button, I seriously consider going all in when folded to me... but I fold, I'll get something better in the next 6 hands.

J4s, cutoff, folds

Key Hand

QQ, cutoff-1, I raise all in behind a 500 raise from spook, my chance to get even? Of course not. He has KK.


I am out 16th.


All I have to say about that is, Fuck AQ.

I join another 3-table tourney before bed, lets hope my hands hold up when I dominate others this time :)

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

A9o, UTG+2, folds

I am at table 3

crap, UTG+1 and UTG, folded

J9o, BB, free flop 4-way, two aces and i'm out of there fast.
22, SB, certainly worth 5 chips... but not 140, folded.
98o, button, folds

99, cutoff, I open-raise to 50 chips(with other limpers I'd just call here but...) - of course, all 3 behind me call. The flop comes T74 rainbow, and checked to me, I'll throw half the pot out there, 100 chips. It works, and I take it down. I rise to 1125 with that one.

54o, cutoff-1, folds
72o, cutoff-2, folds
94s, MP, folds


Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

only 1 gone. I have 1125 chips.

QTo, UTG+2, folds
J4o, UTG+1, folds
A7o, UTG, folds - I'll skip my BB with a guy going out two to my right i believe.
K9o, SB, fold to a 100 chip raise - AT/KJ end up all in, KJ wins and 2 from my table are gone quickly.
K9o, button, folds
J9o, cutoff, folds
A6o, cutoff-1, folds
62o, UTG+2, folds

Level 3 - 15/30 blinds

AKo, UTG+1, I open-raise to 90 and steal the blinds.

AFter that I have 1160 in chips. 26 people remain. I am 3rd at my table but aside from the two 2000+ stacks we're all about the same.

Q4o, UTG, folds
82o, BB, free flop which does contain a 2 but not enough for me to play for more than the pot(100 bet on the flop)
64o, SB, folds to raise

89s, button, I limp and then call the min-raise out of the blind for a 5-way flop. It misses though so I'm out.

Key Hand
TT, cutoff, one limps, I raise to 90 chips. two call. Flop comes AJ3. The big stack checks, I bet 150, the most i'm willing to put into this hand w/o the miracle ten, but its' enough, i take it down.

J2o, cutoff-1, folds
KJo, MP, folds
43o, UTG+1, folds
32o, UTG, folds
93o, BB, folds to raise

Level 4 - 25/50 blinds


I have 1250 in chips, suprisingly still average as there are 24 people left.

K8o, sb, folds
T7s,, button, folds
64o, cutoff, folds
K4o, cutoff-1, folds
89o, MP, folds
Q4o, UTG+1, folds
JTo, UTG, folds
crap, BB, folds to first bet
Q9o, SB, folds
T9o, button, folds

some attrition finally, including "mrpoopyhead" going out 22nd from another table

75o, cutoff, folds
A6o, cutoff-1, folds to raise
43o, UTG+1, folds
43o, UTG, folds
K6o, BB, big stack raises 250, SB all in... JJ vs AKs... and we're down to 20 on that one.

I move to table #2, a full table, as we drop to 20 and as the blinds go up.

73o, cutoff, folds
J3o, cutoff-1, folds


Level 5 - 50/100 blinds

Q5o, MP, folds

18 remain, and I have 1100 in chips, 500 below average and next to last at my table. The cards were just total shit that last round.

AQo, UTG+2, finally a solid hand, Ax is going all in like crazy here the past few hands. I raise to 3x the blind, big stack calls me(sharpy33). Flop comes AJ9. sharpy bets 100, I re-raise all in. Sharpy calls and has AK. GOD. amazing.

The hand before mine A8 vs A8 all in on the flop. The hand before that AJ, AT and QJ all in pre-flop.

The hand before that JJ vs 66 all in.

I get AQ, hit an ace and run into fucking AK?

I'm out 18th. There's something just not funny about going out in one tourney with AK vs AQ(not OUT but that is what killed me), and in the very next one with AQ vs AK.

That's it for poker tonight, with tomorrow's plans weirded out I may play some tomorrow before the tirp, not sure yet. Tonight was very, very, very annoying. I got my chips in with very good hands, played pretyt solid agressive poker I believe, and just ran into walls. Shit happens though.

I retract my suggestion. Seriously, that AK v AQ really hurt what looked to be a very nice run.


It looked like you had some success taking a stab at the pot on the flop a couple of times. That could be helpful once the maniac players are weeded out at the beginning.

Hah, no biggie. In the first tourney, the deck ran over me but i couldn't get enough action to make a big gain(perhaps I should have just played my flushes fast and hoped to get some action on them?). Then the AK hand hit and I was pretty screwed.

In the 2nd tourney, it had quickly turned into an all-in fest and against hands this guy I was up against had been calling all-ins with i figured to be no worse than 50/50. I was very suprised to see AK, but that's poker.




Was reading some 2+2 stuff talking about making half-pot sized bets in a lot of situations. Seems to be working so far, and when someone fires back I haven't crippled myself.

Another $30+$3

going to limit it up tonight but right after work when the good players are still playing in the ring games I'm just going to risk my $33

I get sent to table #1, so I will not be moving most likely unless there is some serious attrition at an individual table.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

J8s, UTG, folds - KK/TT all in on hand one pre-flop. Whee.
62o, BB, folds to min raise
J9o, SB, folds
Q8o, button, folds

Key Hand

AA, cutoff - folded to me, I open-raise to 45. both blinds call me. SB leads out for 60 on a Q73 board. flush draw. BB calls. I re-raise to 275, about the size of the pot. He calls. pot is about 700 at that point. I go all in on the turn, I can't let a flush draw see that last card for anything less than all his chips. He tells me he has QJ and ponders and lays it down. I am up to 1400 on the win.

crap, cutoff-1, folds
33, MP, folds (no one had limped yet, i'm not gonna raise and not gonna get odds to play for a set)
Q2o, MP, folds
86o, UTG+1, folds
Q6o, UTG, folds
T9o, BB, folds to raise
Q9o, SB, folds to raise

Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

72o, button, folds

I have 1375 chips after level 1.
T2s, cutoff, folds
A6o, cutoff-1, folds
87s, MP, folds
83o, UTG+2, folds
52s, UTG+1, folds
75o, UTG, folds
K6s, BB, folds to raise+lots of calls

Key Hand
97s, SB - I limp for 10 chips. Flop top pair with a 9 (954 flop, rainbow) - I bet 75 chips and the BB calls me. Turn is a 7. I've got top two but i'm against a BB that got a free flop. i bet 125 chips, half the pot. He re-raises me to 700. I'm going all in if I play here. 97, two pair, with 9754 on the board and... i fold. He had me outchipped, and I feel like I'll have a better shot later, I could easily be drawing to 4 outs there.

Level 3 - 15/30 blinds

I'm at 1135 chips now, 27 still remain, tough tourney.

A4o, cutoff-1, folds
98o, MP, folds
crap, MP, folds - AA/99 all in. Ace and 9 on the turn. zschneider is up to 2400, sawneybean is out
83o, UTG+1, folds
54s, UTG, folds

AQo, BB, I call the min raise from tejasbabe, bet the flop (which had a backdoor flush draw for me and that's it) but fold to a large re-raise.

TT, button - coreryan raises to 90 pre-flop, I re-raise to 225. He calls, and folds to my flop bet on 3 undercard board.

crap, cutoff&cutoff-1, folds

Level 4 - 25/50 blinds

K4o, UTG+1, folds

7 left at my table. 21 remain total, almost down to 2 tables.

I have 1195 chips after 1 big loss and 1 big win last level.

96o, UTG, folds
Q5o, BB, fold to a raise

Dwon to 2 tables now - 20 remain exactly - 34 minutes in

K9o, SB, folds to raise

Key Hand
KJs, button, with two limps before me I go ahead and limp as well, the blinds come along too. Flop comes J95, two clubs - there's a bet of 100, and a raise to 200... that puts a fair amount in the pot, 550 chips. If I play, I have to go all in here. And I do, everyone folds, and I take it down.

crap, cutoff & cutoff-1, folds

Key Hand
A6s, MP, I open raise to 150. a short'ish stack calls me on the button. Flop comes T84, two spades. I have 1400 left, he has about 800. I bet 150, and he calls. The turn is a 6. Now I've got 3rd pair and flush draw, best kicker. I push all in, too agressive? with fold equity+flush draw+ maybe having the best hand anyway and in the lead the whole time(of the betting, that is) I figure it's an ok push. He calls and shows me the other two sixes in the deck, for trip 6s. The river makes up for yesterday's beats, it brings the flush without the boat. I pull down the pot.


crwp through the BB, fodled

Level 5 - 50/100 blinds

I have 2330 in chips. 15 people remain. I'm right in the middle. 4th out of 7 at my table, 3 of us are real close tho

44, SB, folds - two all ins, 65s vs AA. The 4 on the flop makes me cry, until I see the running aces on the turn and river(I couldn't call the 800 anyway but damn). quad aces for tomkivlehan.
84o, button, folds
85o, cutoff, folds
A3o, MP, folds

ATs, UTG+1, I open-raise to 300 and win the blinds

T5o, UTG, folds
QTo, BB, fold to 550 all in bet
73o, SB, folds
T2o, button, folds
Q4s, cutoff, folds
Q6s, UTG+1, folds - down to 5 at my table
94o, BB, folds to 400 raise
T9o, SB, folds
crap, button, folded to raise
62o, cutoff, folds

66, UTG, I open-raise to 300, called by tomkivelan - We check the flop, AT5. Turn is another 5, I bet 350 and he folds.

Q5s, BB, I call the min raise from zschneider - flop a flush draw and I bet into it 250 chips. flop is 776, hopefully an ugly flop for him. My play works and he folds to me.

Level 6 - 75/150 blinds


Those wins I just picked up push me up to 2655 chips. 11 still remain.

crap, Sb, folds
AJo, button, I steal the blinds
Q9o, cutoff, folds
72s, UTG, folds
K4o, BB, folds to raise
J8o, SB, folds

down to 10 as I fold my crappy button hand.

I have 2655 as we drop to 1 table, with 75/150 blinds for 7 more minutes.

T3o, cutoff, folds

I am 5th out of the final 10 in chips. Short stack has 760, then 1545/1500. The 3 biggest stacks surround me, 5725/4330 to my left, 4790 to my right.

crap, cutoff-1, folds - Mean_Foot(790) all in, crazzychet calls(he has 4000 left) and joeystew also calls. AK/AQ/99... AK/AQ end up splitting when the board puts up trips and an ace. Down to 9. I remain 5th in the mix.

crap, MP, folds - WOW, the two biggest stacks go all in against each other... full house vs flush. Down to 8, the #2 stack is gone. tejasbabe to my left has 12582 chips now. I am 4th out of 8 remaining.

TT, UTG - I open raise to 450 - zschneider re-raises to 1900. he's played very well all tourney. I say in chat "no way I'm beter than 50/50 here" and fold. He shows aces.

K8s, BB - free flop 4 way - flop misses me terribly and I don't fight it. Q-high flop, AQ ends up taking down a big one

J3s, SB, folds


Level 7 - 100/200 blinds - 1 hr break

The UTG loss and the blinds passing me knock me down to 1980 in chips w/ 200 BB coming up. I like the setup though, one giant stack, two big stacks and 5 of us fighting it out for the other money spots. I feel I play well in this situation. Not as well as if I'd won that TT hand or won the blinds or whatever, but still.

Chipcount/table order(starting to my left):

TejasBabe - 12,657
zschneider - 5680
Hollywood14 - 4405
joeystew1 - 1843
tahoeDog24 - 1185
ZekeT11 - 930
easyfold - 1320
radii - 1980 - I remain 4th, but not feeling great about that itself.

tejasbabe and zschneider were at my table the whole time. TejasBabe played a lot of hands, played agressively but knew when to get out of the way. zschneider was pretty tight/very agressive, had the best hand most every time he played. He's the one that layed down top pair vs my AA very early on.

K3o, button, folds - joeystew setals the blinds to go up to 2143

77, cutoff - easyfold goes all in befoer me... I'll raise w/ 77 but od I call an all-in with it? 50/50 at best right? Not good enough for a call. I fold

K6o, cutoff-1, folds
83o, MP, folds
74o, UTG+1, folds

Key Hand
AQs, UTG, I open-raise to 700. Big stack calls me. I flop a four flush and that's good enough for me. I'm all in. I get called by pocket Jacks, and I am out 8th



Bad move on a draw? Or with AQs vs JJ late at the final table am I just doomed there? If I check, he goes all in and I think I have to call w/ overcards and flush draw.

It took another 10 minutes before they got into the money, the blinds were 150/300 when it happened, it turned into a crapshoot between the small stacks.

Also, looking at the odds, I was still 50/50 on that flop w/ the flush darw and overcards... in that chip position, wanting to get in a position to win and not just hope to limp into 5th, I'd make that move again.

I'm happy with my play in all 3 of these, it'll come. playing one more tonight.

Yeah you were the favorite there and I think you had good reason to count the ace and maybe the queen as good as well so that combined with the chance that he is going to fold if you push make good sense. Good laydowns with the TT and 77 BTW.

Ok, one last try, probably my last poker before the trip. A top 2 finish puts me above $2500 on the month, anything less and I'm down a bit I believe.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

K6o, cutoff-1, folds
T9o, cutoff-2, folds

one guy is having lots of lag problems. Lets home he goes out early. 4 minutes in we're on our 2nd hand.


A4o, MP, folds
92o, UTG+2, folds
Q4s, UTG+1, folds
K5o, UTG, folds
A5o, BB, 4-way action, I fold on a bad flop

Key Hand
KK, SB - one limp, then a min-raise to 30. I re-raise to 100 chips. the limiper calls, the raiser folds. Q46 flop. I bet 300 chips into the 245 pot. Opponent goes all in. Here's hoping he has AQ and not a set. Even better. He has 65. The turn? a 5. Oh man. That is so painful. The board doesn't pair for me, I don't hit a king. I'm over 3:1 to win on that flop.

I'm down to 185 chips after that.

94o, button, folds
crap, cutoff/cutoff-1, folds

Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

A4s, MP, folds

now after that beat I need the disclipline to try to wait for a hand to dobule up on and not to go all in on A4 on a full table.

52o, MP, folds
A9o, UTG+2, folds
42o, UTG+1, folds
Q6s, UTG, folds

Key Hand
AJs, BB - the same guy that broke me with 65 raises to 60. I re-raise all in and we are heads up for all my chips pre-flop. He shows? 97o. The flop? 955. No help to me and I am out 30th.


Holy shit.

End of July Update

I'm away from poker until next Monday night, so this is it for the month.

In July I got in a large number of 2/4 hands, and feel I can be solidly profitable multi-tabling limit poker at a level that, while not world-beating, noticibly helps me out financially. If I had the straight out disclipline to play 10 hours a week, nothing but 4 2/4 tables, the potential is there to pull in $500/mo extra money on an average month.

I also got bit hard by the multi-table tourney bug, and that is not something that is profitable for me right now. I would like to have/develop the disclipline to only play things that are either a) profitable now (single table sit n' gos really is it outside the ring games) or b) are a very minimal hit to my bankroll with the potential fora large payout($11 rebuy satellites into the big Sunday pokerstars tourneys). I need to buckle down and not give away as much in these things as I did this month.


Another change is coming in August. Kiddo starts school again. That changes everyone's schedules. Last school year I got up at ~6:45 w/ oliegirl and kiddo and played poker until about 8:45 when time to leave for work. I intend to do that again this year. I hope I find that the limit games are suitably juicy at that time oft he morning. That is something that will start up in the 2nd week of August.

Current Bankroll UPdate

InterCasino: $101
PokerStars: $364
Neteller: $382
PartyPoker: $1478

NET: $2325

Cashed Out: $100

It leaves me a little low this month, since I ended up waffling so much and not ending up ahead of my $2500 baseline, but I transferred some money to RPI-Fan through pokerstars and he paypal'd me the cash. I'm not going to bother putting that back into the poker account, it's going towards a bill.


August's goal is very, very clear. Give back a bare minimum of my profits in multi-table tourneys. I wanna play them, and I think it's +EV in the logn run to play them and get better at them, but it makes no sense whatsoever to make $50 at ring games and then lose $30 in a MTT. I have OOTP :P If the ring games get tiring I need ot just log off if I'm not way ahead and can really, really afford to take a shot at a small MTT.

I think a fair goal is hoping to have $3000 by the end of August, and to be playing 1 3/6 table amongst my 4 tables that I play. But poker happens in runs, and if I'm not on a good enough run to get to $3000, Im' not going to worry, as long as I'm playing well, and not giving money back.

Radii - what is your overall record/stats in tourney play now (including single table)? Seems like you have just had a few bad beats lately, but overall have been playing strongly...

Here's the 3-table results, I hadn't played any in awhile so I had to go back and find my last update on them.

Updated Stats

Entered: 20
Entry Fees paid: $660
1st: 1
2nd: 0
3rd: 1
4th: 2
5th: 2

ITM%: 30%
Money Won: $900
ROI: 36%


That's after not making the money any in my last 4 tourneys.


I've also picked up the occasional $10 SnG, but i usually play a couple of those at a time and don't write them up. but I do load them all into pokertracker.

$10+$1 SNG:

28 entered

2 first
5 second
7 third

Entry Fees paid: $308
In the Money: 50%
Money Won: $390

ROI: 27%


The single table SNG's were driving me crazy yesterday. I had a stretch of 5 straight 2nd place finishes. In every single one of them I had the chip lead at some point during heads up play. KK losing to QJ when we were 50/50 in chips was the highlight of that. From my reading on the 2+2 board I see people talking about having a lot of 1sts and a lot of 3rds and the fewest seconds... basically, once inthe money, going for the win, and never just trying to survive til 2nd. I put myself ina great position to do just that but didn't get the wins.


Anyway, the single and 3-table SNG's I'm comfortable with for sure, and you're right, it does seem like in the past few 3-tables I've played well and gotten my money in as big favorites and taken a bad hit.


The multi-table tourneys are where I haven't kept good enough records, and have been losing a lot. I made the money in only 1 MTT during July, and I probably entered 10-15 of them, some of them as high as $50(but only 1 or 2 or those), many of them in the $5-$20 range. That is clearly a very, very, very negative return. That's where I have to control my leaks in the coming months. That is why I'm trying to set a specific goal in the MTT field. Play cheap satellites into the big Sunday pokerstars tourney. I'm outlaying as little money as possible, and the payoff should I have a good showing is huge.

I'll continue to update my stats on any tournament I play in from here on out, not keeping track of the MTT's obviously let me leak out more than I would were I recording exactly how much money I was putting into them.

Aside from the bigger prize money, it just seems that there is too much of a random element to the multitable tourneys. You have a nice earn rate with the 3 tables and single table tourneys - unless you are just bored out of your mind, it seems like they are the most profitable.

I also wanted to thank you, because as a result of your dynasty I have tightened up a bit and stopped playing Axo so much during my single table play. Those hands are rarely profitable during the large part of the tourney and have really been eating me up. I also tried the "betting half the pot" strategy and came away with some success last night.

Thanks!

who knows, really. Clearly, I go all over the map in terms of the games I play, but I really feel at this point I'll always come back to the multi-tabling limit games. I think a part of me badly wants to be able to enter a $200 entry fee tournament, or to win an entry, and have a shot at placing well in the money and taking home thousands. The lure of the big score, etc. I am consciously willing to sacrafice a little EV in the short run to see if I can improve to the point that I am a threat in these types of tournaments.


And thanks to you and the other readers for keeping me accountable for my play and helping me improve my tournament game ;)

Ax was one of the first things I fixed in terms of my limit play, i've viewed A9o and below with serious disdain ever since. They just get me in too much trouble. I don't like them even in the middle/late stages or a tourney but I'm learning to suck it up and get my money in anyway b/c it's very likely the best hand.

the half the pot strategy is something I'll toy with more. On Party 800 chips in a SnG or 1000 chips in a 3-table or MTT just doesn't go very far. Raise to 60 pre-flop, bet the pot on the flop and if more than 1 person has called and you don't have the best hand you're in serious trouble.

There are defintely people who see the less than the pot bet as a weak bet and play back with nothing, but I think most people will still fold to your agression if they haven't hit something they like.

I read about that on 2+2, I read the limit holdem section, then i read either the SNG or MTT sections, I read someone talking about how much more precious chips are in a tournament, saying that he felt in most cases you don't have to bet the entire pot,b/c the other person values his chips a lot more as well.

If I do have a legit hand, and there's a draw on the board, I'll bet bigger, I don't want anyone feeling like they've got the odds to try to draw out on me, but in most normal situations where I'm the agressor, I think I'll keep trying the half-pot bet and see how it works for me for awhile.

Too tired to play when I got home tonight, but, I have a $100 bonus at partypoker waiting for me, and a $90 bonus at intercasino Poker for August waiting for me, so I should get into the black early in the month with those two. I have tomorrow off work, and have a couple of things to take care of but am looking forward to a couple solid 4-tabling sessions on partypoker to get back into the swing of things.

After getting my ass beat for about 400 hands earlier in the day(played well, good hands just got crushed repeatedly), I took a break and am going to now play a 3-table tourney to get back into the action, I'll finish up my bonus in ring game play later tonight most likely.

I notice that they've added $50 2 table tourneys and $5 3-table tourneys on top of the $30 3-tables that I've been playing for awhile... for now I'm sticking with the $30 3-tables though.

Level 1 - 10/15 blinds

I open up at table #2.

J8s, cutoff, folds after just 1 limp and a raise(not enough people coming along for those implied odds)
53o, cutoff-1, folds - someone bluffs all in with AQs(ace high) on the river and is called by J2o(top pair on a scary scary board with the jack)... interesting hand. BunBoy1 called with the jack and has 2100 chips to my direct left.

crap, MP, folds. bunboy loses a ton when he flops 3 3's with J3o, ends up all in with ldmouth who has JJ... a jack comes on the river and ldmouth hit is single out.

crap, MP, folds - bunboy wins a big hand with K4(king high) against EZisBACK's J7(jack high)... I dunno what is happening here but I'm playing tight and letting these fish amass chips. Should be able to take them the first time i have a hand.

72s, UTG+1, folds

75o, UTG, folds

with 3 people berating each other's play, incision said "finally I can talk again, after having been muted by partypoker for 5 days" or something to that effect. can't wait to hear what he has to say, assuming he got banned from chat for something for a time.


42s, BB, fold on the flop

QTs, SB, limp into a 5 way pot. Flop comes Q94, two diamonds. I lead out for 75 chips, the pot size, and 2 of hte arguing fish are in the hand with me. I get 3 callers. The turn is another 9, and I bet 150 chips. I am called by tjworth. The river is a blank, and I decide to check, and call a small bet but fold to a large one. tjworth checks and has T5s, he rivered bottom pair on me... WTF? he didn't have the flush draw.

Level 2 - 10/20 blinds

5 are out, I have 1420 in chips.

KTo, folded to all in(300 raise)

AQo, cutoff, incision limps and I raise to 60(3x the blind). bunboy, ldmouth, and incision call. Flop comes Q87, two clubs. I have the ace of clubs. ldmouth bets out 50(he seems a decent player, but I would be surpised if I don't hve him beat). incision calls, 360 in the pot. I raise to 400. That's enough to take the pot. Bunboy has been playing like shit and I hoped I could get him all in there. (he called that all in raise last hand with 82o).

I am up to 1720 with that hand.

when questioned on his 82o play he says "dont no what was going on kinda out of it. Sorry"

interesting.

KQo, with limpers before me I just limp, not wanting to push this hard, I'll flop something big or fold. HMMM. bunboy raises to 85. everyone folds to me, I can call for 65 chips and kill the betting. If he has a good hand I could be in trouble though if I hit. I call. The flop misses me totally and I have no interest in this hand anymore. 865, two diamonds. Bunboy shows A6 diamonds.

QQ, UTG+1, I open-raise to 80 chips. the 3 right behind me call. AJ8 flop. I bet 200 into the 350 pot, the last chips I'm putting into this hand unless I catch a queen. The turn is a 9, and we check it around. The river is a 2nd ace. TJworth bets 600 chips, and I yield to him. ldmouth re-raises all in... A4 vs A7, they chop.

down to 1355 on those two hands.

Q4s, UTG, folds

Key Hand
Q3o, BB, free flop 6 handed. flop comes Q83 rainbow. A very good hand for me but a dangerous one too. I bet 75, 2 call, incision goes all in for 355 more. do I call or re-raise myself? I call. the other two fold. Incision shows QT, I have a lead but he's got outs. He hits, but not the way I expect... running j/9 for a straight...


Level 3, 15/30 blinds

crap, SB, folds

I have 890 after I fold my SB. 22 remain.

incision says "sorry" for putting the bad beat on me with that straight, and people ask why he's sorry, he won! interesting table really. Not that I'd say sorry necessarily, or care if he didn't say anything, I'm not the chatty type at the table, but the way people comment is weird here.

T7o, button, folds

AJo, cutoff, EZisBACK raises to 125, and while he's done some questionable things before he's played very well to get back up to 1000+ chips, I don't want to call a raise from him with AJ, I fold this one. EZ wins w/ a big flop bet

K2o, cutoff-1, folds
54o, UTG+1, folds

7 people at my table now, dropping to 2 tables any minute now.

T2o, UTG, folds

down to 2 tables. 19 remain.

64o, BB, folds
87o, SB, folds
Q5o, button, folds
K2s, cutoff, folds

Level 4 - 25/50 blinds

A8s, cutoff-1, folds

19 remain, 10 at my table. I'm one of the short stacks, one guy has 560, 5 including me have in the 800 range, and a couple are over 2000.

T4o, MP, folds

EZisBack raises bunboy all in, K9o vs 66... EZ either sucks or let bunboy tilt him to death. EZ is gone either way.

17 remain, 8 at my table now after EZ goeso ut and one gets moved.

A2o, UTG, folds
83o, BB, fold to a 400 chip raise.
Q6o, SB, folds

770 after those blinds


Tough decision
A very tight player in acorn9187 raises to 200 pre-flop. I haven't seen him play many hands, and when he does, he plays them hard. I have AJs on the button. What to do? I figure I can't cold-call this and I didn't want to re-raise a tight player all in here... so I folded. turns out(as someone else called and went all in on the flop) that he also had AJs, other guy had 88. a jack hit and acorn knocks him out. Thoughts on this hand? Acorn got moved from table 3 here when we dropped to 20 so I haven't seen him too often, but he's been selectively agressive from what I can tell.

crap, cutoff, folds
98s, cutoff-1, folds
K3o, MP, folds
54o, UTG+1, folds
Q3o, UTG, folds

Level 5 - 50/100 blinds

Q5o, BB, fold to800 pre-flop raise
93o, SB, folds

Now I'm in trouble. 620 chips left after the fold. 15 remain still, 8 at my table. I am getting to all in/fold pre-flop time now, knowing that 1 double up won't even get me to the final table.

97o, button, folds
64s, cutoff, folds

Key hand
A6s, cutoff-1 - kevdoggy raises to 200. blinds coming in 3 hands, this is an all in situation for me I believe... if I fold I get too short stacked to do anything when the blindshit. He has AT, but I hit a 6, and I survive.

Key Hand
AKo, MP - I raise to 300 pre-flop. acorn calls me. Flop comes 886. He checks, and I go all in. 1000 into a 700 pot. He waits, waits, waits, types in "overcards?", I say nothing. Waits, waits, time running down. "you're on overcards" ... "but I can't risk 1K" and folds. I don't show, I say "small pair?" he says "of course" and I say "good fold :)" and that was that. :D

couple of crap hands folded, BB/SB

Key Hand
AJs, MP - kevdoggy all in for 230 pre-flop. I call as does murdock24. Flop is very pretty. Jxx, two fo my suit. I go all in, murdock folds. kev shows A4s and doesn't his his miracle running 4s... I win the pot.

another BB folded, flying by now.

K8s, folded to all in raise. AQ vs AQ, I woulda won on a king but alas.

A3s, button, I open-raise to 300 and steal the blinds

Level 6 - 75/150 blinds

J4o, BB, folds

A9o, SB, I raise to 300, bunboy comes over the top all in and I give it up. BLEH.

50/100 was very good to me. 12 remain starting this level, 6 at each table, and I have 1860 chips after the blinds pass me.


1860 is below average but enough to live on for now.

85o, UTG, folds
86o, BB, folded to me, hooray
64o, SB, folds

few hands folded as we finally fall to 10 people, one guy going all in 4 straight hands before getting busted finally.

FINAL TABLE

I skip my SB and will start in the cutoff as 10 remain.

avg stack is 3000, my 1710 is good for next to last at the table. Blinds go up to 100/200 very soon and I think these are mainly solid players, I'm going to need a lot of luck to cash here.

A5o, cutoff, folds
K7o, cutoff-1, folds

Level 7 - 100/200 blinds - hour break


table starting to my left:

sundreammer - 5322
capper84 - 2757
acorn9187 - 4173
bigjake10 - 2564
bhoward19 - 2530
GLG1954 - 2508
bunboy1 - 2252
joshisgood - 4622
princeisiah - 1562
radii - 1710

Key hand

first hand back:

Let me look back a few posts. How long ago was it that I lost AK vs AQ to a straight to go out of a 3 table? I raise to 500 with AK. re-raised all in by acorn. I say "coin flip? GL" and call. He shows AQ. board comes 789TJ. I play the board, his queen gives him a higher straight. Motherfucker. Again.

I go out 10th instead of doubling up + some to a very playable 3800ish chips. Fucking amazing. Just fucking amazing.


Entered: 21
Entry Fees paid: $693
1st: 1
2nd: 0
3rd: 1
4th: 2
5th: 2

ITM%: 28.5%
Money Won: $900
ROI: 29.8%


cannot believe I went out that way again.

big losing day so far today, but a $100 bonus on party and an upcoming bonus on intercasino will help out soon.

I think you made the right play here. If I read TPFAP correctly, Sklansky thinks that AJ is a great hand to raise with, but a bad hand to call a raise with...what was his stack in comparison to yours? Were you ahead of him at that point? I guess if he was short-stacked it might be worth putting him all in, but I am guessing he wasn't.

I don't see the point on risking a sizeable percentage of your stack on calling a big pre-flop raise with AJ. Especially at that point in the tourney.

Tough beat on the final table...those will eventually swing your way, though.

IIRC, I had about 750 in chips, the blinds were 25/50, the other guy had me severely outstacked.

I felt at the time it was a pretty easy fold, but after the fact I wondered since the blinds were 25/50 and going up to 50/100 shortly and I was down to about 750... wondering if that was my best shot.


I wasn't too annoyed about going out of the tourney yesterday, after the intial cussing at how it happened. But it was on top of a pretty big losing session at 2/4 (down about $170, was getting a lot of hands that you either win a lot with or lose a lot with, and I was losing... trips losing multiple times, etc).

I closed the night last night messing around with 7 card stud on intercasino, and won about $15 in addition to getting pretty close to the $90 bonus I can pick up there. In the next couple of days I will finish the intercasino bonus and the partypoker bonus, which, if I can win just a little on top of that, should put me back over $2500.

Done with the InterCasino bonus for the month. I deposited $200 Tuesday, I just cashed out $397.

My first day back on partypoker was so bad that I think I am still down in the early stages of the month despite that. But it's probably close enough that the $100 bonus I need to finish at party will push me ahead. Of course, it's only August 4th, but its always nice to be ahead :) (neteller is slow right now so I can't get an exact count)

How does the InterCasino bonus work? Is that the place that pays you to play a certain number of raked hands each month?

Intercasino now provides a 100% match up to $90, which you have to play 5 x raked hands in order to unlock it (so 450 for the $90).

What malificient said. I don't really like the site very much, but $90/month in a fairly easy bonus to work off is just too easy and too good to pass up no matter what. It's certainly a better site than Pacific and some of the other crappy ones I've earned bonuses on.

This statement was exactly correct. Still down a little bit on the month but the $100 bonus at party combined with not losing money at the tables will push me back ahead :P Not a very good start to the month, but nothing at all that can't be overcome. Oliegirl is going to a concert tonight and I'm on babysitting duty for kiddo and one of his friends, but once I corral them and get them into bed I should be able to work off most of what I have left of the party bonus at the 2/4 tables, time to get in the black, and stay there for the month :0

I also have a $120 bonus at pokerstars looming. Still debating whether to go after that hard at the ring games, or just eventually get it w/ the tournament fees I pay here and there(I have had a bad history with pokerstars ring games, but I am a much better player now than I used to be).

I join a $5+$0.50 NL Multi-table tourney, obviously not to strike it rich, but just to get some practice cheaply, I don't really feel like a lot of limit right now. There's a $11 rebuy tourney w/ $20K guarenteed later, I'll either play that or play some limit assuming I don't last a looong time in this one.

1500 chips per person, 15 minute levels. 1500+ entrants, info after late registration closes

Level 1 - 10/20 blinds

A8o, MP, fold
75o, MP, folds

1515 people have entered. 135 places pay. 100-135 pay $7.57. First pays $1742.

J9s, MP, I limp hoping to get in cheap, and fold to a raise pre-flop to 200.
62o, UTG+1, folds
92o, UTG, folds
J3o, BB, folds to raise pre-flop - debwad all in w/ A7 when an ace hit. called by AK. 7 on the river.

Key Hand
AKo, SB - one limp, a min raise, one caller to that - and I re-raise to 160. two call. Flop misses totally. Txx. I lead out betting 300 into the 520 pot, the last money I'll put in. both my opponents fold.

I have 1820 chips after that, a nice win for level 1.

K7o, button, folds
J6o, cutoff, folds
T4s, cutoff-1, folds
32o, MP, folds
K8o, MP, folds
84s, UTG+1, folds
98o, UTG, folds

Level 2 - 15/30 blinds

I have 1820 after the first level. 1335 of the original 1515 remain, and its dropping every second.

J8o, BB, free 3-way flop, I don't play at it when i miss.
96s, SB, wanted to see a flop for 1/2 a bet, but there's a raise to 120. Fold.

77, button - I limp and we're 5 way. The flop is interesting. 689, all hearts. I have a heart. A made flush may be slowplaying me, and I'm not 100% sure of the right play here when it gets checked to me. I decide to bet the pot, I bet 150 chips. I win the pot right there.

42o, cutoff, folds
52o, cutoff-1, folds

87s, MP, I limp after a couple before me also limp, and we get 6 way action. I flop an inside straight draw only, and I fold to a 60 chip bet(with 180 in the pot).

K9o, UTG+2, folds

Key Hand
JTs, UTG+1, another limp on my part, and another cheap flop. Flop comes Q58, two clubs. This time I call the 60 chip bet on the flop. I miss my draw, and I make a pretty dumb mistake. I decide to call a 120 chip bet on the turn. I fold when I miss my draws on the river, and regret the turn call. My opponent was too short stacked to make that gamble worth if, and chips in a tourney are precious. I know this. I just don't play like it sometimes.

T2s, BB, fold to a raise pre-flop.
J9s, SB, I limp and then fold to a 300 chip raise from the BB

I am down to 1595 in chips after the key hand above and the blinds.

A3o, button, folds
J6o, cutoff, folds

87s, MP, limp into 5-way action. These hands are good to play for cheap early on right? flop comes 256, one of my suit. straight draw/backdoor flush. There's a min bet I'm happy to call, then a 250 chip raise I'm happy to fold to.

K5s, MP, folds
76o, UTG+2, folds

Level 3- 25/50 blinds

The misplayed JTs and a few limps that go nowhere drop me to 1565 as the blinds increase going into level 3.

I am 640th out of 1082 going into the level, no problems but I need to improve some by the break.

K5s, UTG+1, folds
74o, UTG, folds
87o, BB, folds to a PF raise

Key Hand
AJs, SB - a guy that just took a bad beat raises all in for $315 more of my chips. Do I call this? I do. Guess he wasn't tilting. He shows AA and wins. I wouldn't have even considered it had he not just lost a big hand on a pertty bad beat.

I fall to 1175 chips after that loss

JTo, button, folds
95o, cutoff, folds
53s, cutoff-1, folds ricky_jsmes goes all in again(with a lot more chips this time) and shows A9o(against AKs). Oh well.
K2s, MP, folds
T2s, UTG+1, folds
64s, UTG, folds
93o, BB, free flop, comes A94. 4 others in the hand. I don't think I can play for this out of position with 2nd pair/ass kicker. I check/fold to a large bet.
74o, SB, folds
Q9o, button, folds
Q7o, cutoff, folds

Key Hand
TT, cutoff-1 - there's a min raise by debwad(to 100), I re-raise to 300 chips. Debwad in the early levels was playing all kinds of crap, so I don't know what to put her on here. debwad is the only caller to my raise. Flop comes 234, two hearts. debwad bets the minimum, and I go all-in for my remaining 800 chips. debwad calls quickly. AQo, with one heart. a 5/queen/ace/running hearts beat me. Turn is a 6, river a ten. I hit trips and double up!

xx, MP, folds
xx, MP, folds

QQ, UTG+1, I open-raise to 200 chips. I steal the blinds.

J5o, UTG+1, folds

Level 4 - 50/100 blinds

I have 2350 in chips when the level goes up, 404 out of the 860 remaining.

A6o, BB - free flop heads up w/ the button. Flop comes 789, 250 in the pot, butotn has 250 left. I bet enough to put the button all in. he folds.

crap, SB, folds

88, button, 3 limp before me... do I raise/call/fold this? with 3 limpers I decide I'm going to play this for a set and I just call. Flop comes T75, and I get 10:1 odds on a 100 chip bet, I make another call. The turn is an ace and I fold to a large bet. 57 and A7 all in against each other there.

Key Hand
AJs, cutoff - I open-raise to 300 chips. The button is my only caller. Flop comes 3 low cards, 2 diamonds(my suit). He has me outstacked by just a bit. What do you do? I bet the pot, well, 700 into the 750 pot. He folds. Too much? Good move on a crappy board when I took the lead pre-flop?


Key Hand
AKs, MP - I open-raise again to 300 chips. I steal the blinds.

K6o, MP, folds


I am moved to table 145(from table 8, they don't systematically break down tables like on partypoker).


85o, BB, fopld to 3x raise.

4 4000+ stacks at this table. Not much weakness here.

Jto, SB, folds
T6o, button, folds

ATs, cutoff - A big stack UTG makes a 3x blind raise. The table seems overly agresive but this is just my 4th hand... I decide to fold to him. He ends up winning on the turn w/ a nice bet.
K7o, cutoff-1, folds
J5o, cutoff-2, folds
J2o, UTG+1, folds

about 5 minutes til the break, which is good b/c I have two very anxious children in the apartment waiting for me to set up the tent they are sleeping in tonight.

82s, UTG, folds
T6o, BB, free flop heads up, which comes AK8, I am more than happy to fold that.

Key Hand
88, SB, I limp when two big stacks limp bfore me. THe flop comes 456, and I bet the pot(400 chips) and win it there. Should I raise pre-flop?

Key Hand
76s, button. Folded to me and I open-raise to 300. The BB calls(doh). Flop comes T42, we both check. The turn is a quene. BB checks to me, and I bet 500 chips, a pretty big bluff here, hoping it comes off and glamgrl(BB) folds. He thinks for quite some time, and finally does. A nice win for me at the break.


Level 5 - 75/150 blinds - 1 hr break

668 remain at the break. Avg stack is 3401, and I have 3250. I am 364 out of the 668 that remain. I am 5th out of 9 at my table.

I have to sit for an orbit to get the munchkins into bed. I miss a BB/SB while I'm sitting and come back with 3025 chips on the button.

44, button, fold to large PF raise.
T9o, cutoff, folds

Under 600 remain. I am 322nd out of 592.

QJo, cutoff-1, folds

Key Hand
AKo, MP - I open-raise to 450. a short stack re-raises all in, 675 more for me. I gotta call that. He turns over ATo. J53 flop. 2 turn. (no 4 plz). Oh bullshit. Come on. COME ON. 4 on the river. I guess it's better than a 10. We split the BB.

I have 3100 chips still. You have to get lucky to place well in MTT's right? That is decidedly not getting lucky. Ugh.

crap, MP, folds
96o, UTG+1, folds
T7o, UTG, folds
J8o, BB, folds to raise
T5o, SB, folds - a 3K stack raises the min, a 2K stack is all in... call, and AT vs AK again. AK sucks, remembeR? Ten on the flop.

Level 6 - 100/200 blinds

I have 2875 chips now after 1h 15m of play. I am 325 out of the 536 remaining, and 1500 under the average stack. I had one great chance to increase my stack last level. I need to find chances to increase it this level too.

82o, button, folds
J6o, cutoff, folds
94o, cutoff-1, folds

Key hand
A3s, MP - it's not great position, but I go ahead and raise with this one(too early to raise out of position w/ ace/bad suited?) - I certainly don't intend to show down that I'm willing to raise out of position with A3s. That idea goes out the window when a short stack calls me. He has 86o(very short stack in the SB). I flop an ace and win the pot, up to 3320 in chips before the blinds hit.

crap, UTG+1 and UTG, folded

K9o, BB - folded to a large raise pre-flop

a guy w/ a Teddy KGB icon sits next to a guy w/ matt damon's icon. The rounders quoting begins. Big time, dear god. :)

T5o, SB, folds

KQo, button - I fold to a pre-flop raise.. I have the guy outstacked but not by enough, if I call there (even tho the raise was just 3x) I feel like I'm committing 1800 of my 3000 chips.

Key Hands
AKo in the cutoff. Two big stacks limp. 900 in the pot now. I raise to 1000. I win the pot.
99, cutoff-1, I open-raise to 600 chips. I win the blinds.


Those two are nice, gaining me 1000 chips. Up to 4020. 250th out of 441.

crap, folded
JTo, UTG+2, folds
Q9o, UTG+1, folds

aannnnd, fittingly, teddyKGB knocks out matt damon. A7 vs KQs pre-flop, neither improve.

Key hand
QTo, BB - free 4-way flop. Hrrm. KJT flop. bottom pair/straight draw. I bet the pot, 800 chips. The big stack at the table, teddyKGB comes back at me all in. I think for a long time, 3000 chips is still enough to do damage. I fold. Bad play? Too agressive on that flop? don't bet the draw if I'm not willing to go all in on it? I'm unsure here.

crap, SB, folds

Level 7 - 100/200 blinds - 25 antes

2895 chips remaining. After the loss on the last hand I am now 302nd out of 399 remaining.

95s, button, folds

Key Hand
A6o, cutoff - I open-raise to 600, hoping to steal. glamgrl goes all in over me. I have to fold. glamgrl shows me QQ.

crap, cutoff-1, folds

After those two laydowns I now have 2245 in chips left. Bleh. Now I'm low enough that any pot I enter pot commits me.

J7o, MP, folds
Q9s, UTG+2, folds
Q4o, UTG+1, folds
Q8o, UTG, folds
65s, BB, folds to a raise pre-flop
84o, SB, folds

1795 after the blinds+antes lately.

T2s, button, folds
97o, cutoff, folds
54o, cutoff-1, folds
A3o, MP, folds - anyone go all in here? 1695 left, blinds 4 hands aawy and will be 200/400.

Key Hand
A5o, UTG+2 - all in. 1670 left. I'm likely to only get called by better hands here, but I'm out of time to make anything meaningful happen. If I let the blinds hit, I have 1000 chips left. ANyone not go all in here?

Anyway, I get called by AK. A fleeting high as a 5 hits on the flop, crushed by a king on the river. I am out 317th. Thoughts on any and all key hands are much appreciated. I feel there were 3-4 hands I played dead wrong, would like other thoughts from those that take the time to read the whole thing.

longest post ever incoming.

I fall to the lure of the MTT, wanting another reasonably cheap tourney to enter tonight, I want to play better here than I did in the last one.

This is a $10+$1 rebuy NL tourney. $20,000 guarenteed. That's 2000 entries+rebuys+addons. Getting upwards of 700 players I suspect we will have more than $20K by the time we're done rebuying anyway.

Yeah, 20K will be no problem here. 1000ish with late registration still going on, and lots re-buy right away.


Level 1 - 10/20 blinds

Remember, we have an hour til the end of the rebuy period.

Key Hand
KTo, SB - I limp and we are 3-handed. Flop comes KQ4. I bet the pot and get raised to 120 chips. I call. Turn is a 9. I call a 120 bet. River another 9. So many people go crazy here in a rebuy tourney. I may well get called by a large # of hands I can beat. I represent the 9 and go all in. I'm called by pocket 4s, that's a full house for him. I rebuy. Whee.

KQo, button - I limp/fold to a terrible flop and a big bet.
97o, cutoff, folds
KQo, cutoff-2, I limp again and we see a flop 8 handed. Yup, 8. Flop misses, I'm gone.
K3o, MP, folds

1036 entries. 533 rebuys already.

A6o, UTG+1, folds
87o, UTG, folds

Key Hand
TT, BB - I figure I have a chance to win big here... if I catch a ten. but nope, no 8 handed pot this time. I bet a little(80 chips) into a 246 all diamonds board, but fold when there's a large re-raise behind me. And one of the guys was just hunting the big payday... A6o. The other? flopped the flush. Glad I got out.

J6o, SB, folds
75o, button, folds
92o, cutoff, folds


Level 2 - 15/30 blinds

K2o, MP, folds

I sit with 1350 chips. 877th out of 989 remaining. 732 rebuys have occured. I would really like to make a big hand or two before the rebuy monkeys can't rebuy anymore.

Key Hand
J8s, MP - I'll limp with this 5-way and try to hit big. Flop comes KT9, two of my suit. Not bad at all. We check the flop around. Turn makes my straight, and puts two of a different suit out there. I bet the pot, 150, and all four fold. OH COME ON. First I hit top pair and am up against 1 of the 2 at the table that isn't a rebuy monkey? And now I hit a straight and have a flush draw and can't get any action from 5 players? Arrrr.

A9o, UTG+1, limp then fold to a 1500 all in.
K7o, UTG, folds
K9o, BB, folds to 300 raise PF
T2o, SB, folds
crap, button/cutoff, folded
Q4o, cutoff-1, folds
K9o, UTG+2, folds

Key Hand
JTs, UTG+2 - i call the min raise from UTG. we somehow get heads up on the flop(where are my 5 way pots?) flop comes T87, all diamonds, not my suit obviousyl. i bet the pot and win it. Back to 1500 even before the blinds come around.

Q8o, UTG, folds
53o, BB, folds to raise

Level 3 - blinds 25/50

1470 before the SB hits here, not very good out of the 850ish left, but this is a weird rebuy tourney, I have 30 minutes and can easily make something big happen yet.

K5s, SB, folds to big raise PF.

Key Hand
75s, button - 4 limpers before me, I limp too. Hmmm. I flop 2 pair. 765 flop, two diamonds. Someone immediately goes all in in front of me. He has me covered, but there's many ways I might have him beat. Gotta call. And, I suppose sometimes, you have the same hand. split pot.

54s, cutoff - another big limpy pot. I limp too. This one I'm not going any further in. 3 queens flop.

Key Hand
KTs, cutoff-1 - 3rd limpy hand in a row. well, just 5-way action this time. And this looks familier... KJ6 flop. Top pair, eh kicker. I bet 200 when its checked to me. one calls me. turn is a 9, I bet 350 chips into the 700 pot. River makes the flush, first to act checks, and I check behind him. He had me destroyed on the turn. QTs, and even worse on the river. QT of the flush suit.

Key Hand
QQ, MP - a few limp, and I raise to 300ish in chips. 3 call me. Flop comes 632, two spades. I go all in on the flop. Two call me. I'm playing for 3060 in chips. Turn is another two. More all-ins. I see ace-deuce. Oh man... that's what I wanted to happen on that all in on the flop, and he catches trips? Other guy has T3 for middle pair. river? QUEEN. RARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrraslj;feioa;f hahah. All bad beat stories on hold for awhile. A2 guy, who has rebought at least 4 times, says "nice catch" I respond "you too on the turn there"

I triple up + some to 3060 in chips.


crap, UTG+1, folded
J3o, UTG,folds

A8o, BB - two all ins before me, and I want to call but I of course can't. 99 vs K2. An ace hits the flop and I sigh, knowing I still couldn't call. A king on the turn and a 2 on the river, well, that's the A2 guy from eralier. He loves his 2s.

J8s, SB, folds


BTW, we are well over the $20K guarenteed now. 1036 entries + 1267 rebuys and counting very fast still. $23,000 in the prize pool now.

72s, button, folds

QJo, cutoff, I limp but fold to a re-raise from the SB (who eventually shows QJ unimproved to win the pot)

64s, I'll call that 5 handed(make it 4, BB sitting out folded). I flop a flush draw, and its checked to me. Both of these guys are morethan willing to rebuy so I'm not doing anything against them on a draw if I don't have to. We check it all the way to the river and my flush never comes.

Level 4 - 50/100 blinds

I have 2885 chips at the start of this level. The last rebuy level, with a 2K addon after this. I really don't want to rebuy again, but I don't want to go into the break with a lot less than average chips either. I think I have to be selective this round, but willing to take a risk too, b/c people will be going nuts to try to build their stacks before the break. The average stack will likely be 4500 or more by the break, and most will use their add-on.

After one hand, I get moved and no longer have any idea who the rebuy monkeys vs the guys playing "normal" now are...

J9s, UTG+2, folds
Q7s, UTG+1, folds
Q9o, UTG, folds

K8s, BB, UTG raises to 300. I'll call if lots before me just call, but there's a 2000 raise before me. So I'll fold. AQs vs 99. 99 doubles up.

Key Hand
66, SB - one limps, I raise to 500. I am called by a stack smaller than me. I don't really like the flop much but I am not going to back away from this one when it won't bust me(giving me additional chances to make a move and pick up some more chips). So I put him all in for 1000 more. He folds, pushimg me back up to 3400.

Key Hand
A9s, button - we see a flop 3 handed for the min bet(shoulda raised pre-flop in rebuy mode here?) - flop comes 975, all spades, I of course have no spade. checked to me, I bet the pot, and both players call. The turn is a blank, and I go all-in again here. Both players fold and my two risky moves have paid off in a very nice way.

I have 4435 chips now, just 250 chips or so under the average.

crap, cutoff, folds
83o, cutoff-1, folds
T6o, MP, folds


1 minute until the break/next level. the T6o hand is probably it, and if not it'll take a monster to get me to risk big on the final hand before the break. a 12,000 pot builds here and 3s full of 6s on a 66322 board beats pocket 7s.

Q4o, MP, folds


Level 5 - 75/150 blinds - hr break

With an average stack and a 2000 add-on I feel like I pretty much have to add-on here, and I do, now having put $30 into this tournament. There were over 1700 rebuys between 1036 entries. Off to hang up clothes and see what the avg stack is when I get back.

65o, UTG, folds

I have 6435 chips. Avg is 6800ish. I am 349 out of 802.

K2o, BB, heads up free flop, but i miss the flop, he has me covered, and I'm just not interested.
J3o, SB, folds
73s, button, folds
J3o, cutoff, folds
Q7o, cutoff-1, folds

Key Hand
AA, MP - I open-raise to 450. I am called by WIZ69, a bigger stack than me. KT9 flop. I bet the pot, 1100 on the flop. Decent chance it hit him and I don't want him picking up another card, that's a reasonably scary flop. He does indeed fold and I'm up to 6885 in chips.

crap, UTG+2, folds

A9s, UTG+1, UTG limps and I hope to create a limping chain-reaction. Doesn't work. All-in for 1500 from someone behind me and I can't call 1500 more. fold that pre-flop? raise it? Anyone call the all in? Would leave me w/ 5200 if I lost.

A5o, UTG, folds
87o, BB, fold to a raise
95o, SB, folds

by the way, 1036 entries, 1755 rebuys, 667 add-ons. All for $10 each.

1st = $8645.

Top 99 pay. 82nd-99th pay $51.

Q7o, cutoff, folds
J6s, cutoff-1, folds
97o, MP, folds
K3o, MP, folds
53o, UTG+1, folds

99, UTG, raise 3x to 450 chips, steal the blinds

Level 6 - 100/200 blinds

I have 6735 chips starting the level, but my BB is coming up.

74o, BB, free flop/fold to first opportunity
A4s, SB - folds to a 1500 raise

I am 372nd out of the 688 that remain. Avg stack is 8000. This is where I need the most work in these tourneys now. Finding positions to exploit advantages and making tough decisions in the middle stages after a signifigant portion of the field is gone.

crap, button, folds

Key Hands
A8s, cutoff, 1 limper, I raise to 600 chips. flop comes Q76, I bet 800 into the 1500 pot and win it right there.
A5s, cutoff-1, I open-raise again to 600. The same guy calls as last hand. Flop comes AQJ, I bet the pot(1300) and win it there.

I move tables. There are a lot of stacks in the 7000-9000 range here. One guy three to my left has 14,000 chips. One guy has 3500. The rest are 7K-9K.

J4o, UTG, folds

J8s, BB, folds to raise to 600.
83o, SB, folds

Two guys at this table are talking up all of the times they've made deals at final table, beating their chests quite a bit. WorkingHard and 20nCrAzY.

A4o, button, folds to raise
96o, cutoff, folds
72o, cutoff-1, folds
K9o, MP, folds
J5o, UTG+2, folds

Key Hand
33, UTG+1 - I open-raise to 600. A good enough sized stack calls on the button. I try to bet half the pot on the flop, and he goes all-in on me. I fold and am left with 6300 in chips. I don't like 33. Too early to try this?
crap, UTG, folds

K5s, BB, folds to 600 bet.

Antes starting soon.

T3o, SB, folds

Level 7 - 100/200 blinds - 25 antes

I have 6060 in chips, avg is 9452, I am 382nd out of 584.

With all the rebuys I am still in fine shape, 30x the BB in chips.

crap, button, folds

Key Hand
AKo, cutoff - one limp, I raise to 800 and get called. Flop comes QTT, and we both check. Turn is a queen. If he has a small pocket pair he won't call anything, if he has better he'll come over me like crazy... I check. River a 4, we check and he shows me pocket 8s. Shoudl I be more agressive there?

I am back up to 7335 chips with the win.

crap, cutoff-1, folds

62o, MP, folds

AJo, UTG+2, I open-raise to 700 chips and win the blinds/antes.

74o, UTG+1, folds
94s, UTG, folds
J9o, BB, fre flop heads up w/ SB - I flop a straight draw, T8s flop. Call a min bet for 200. Turn is another 8 and we check. River is another ten. I fold to a bet, now I just have a jack kicker to my 2 pair. Considered a bet on the turn butdidn't.

crap, SB, folds

Key Hand
AJo, button - two limp before me. I raise it up to 1000 chips. Both limpers call quickly. Flop comes AKx. DarthVader folds out of turn. other guy bets 400, making the pot 3900 chips. I immediately put him all in, he has about 4000 chips remaining. He calls, and I fear AK/AQ like you wouldn't believe, but, it's AT! I hold up and nothing pairs the baord to force the split, I win a large pot and am up to 14,100 in chips!

crap, cutoff/cutoff-1, folded.

I am up to 128th out of the 520 remaining, and am the chipleader at the table by a very small amount. 4 of us between 10K-14K, one at 8K and the other 4 4K and below.

Q8o, UTG+1, folds
Q5o, UTG, folds

this guy to my left, 20nCrAzY plays in this 20K guarenteed $10 rebuy tournament a lot(do they do one every night?) and is showing off his knowledge repeatedly "usually only pays 81, ya'll are lucky for 99 tonight boys" etc etc.

62o, BB, folds to 3x raise
J8o, SB, folds
K4o, button, folds

KJo, cutoff, I open-raise to 600 and win the blinds

Level 8 - 200/400 blinds - 25 ante

T4o, cutoff-1, folds
A4o, MP, folds
A5o, MP, folds
T2o, MP, folds

break after this level. I'm currently 135th out of 490 remaining. I'm 2nd in chips at the table, 4 of us stil between 10.5K and 14.5K. I have 13,860 at this second.

K2o, UTG, folds

Decision
A8s, BB - big stack raises to 1200. Here is a situation where I don't know how to play at this level of a tourney. I decide that I don't want to get involved with a stack as big as mine, and I fold it. If it was a 5K or less stack I think I'd call. Thoughts? do I need to open up and play there?

Q9o, SB, folds to 2000 raise
T8o, button, folds

A3o, cutoff, I open-raise to 1200 and am very pleased to steal the blinds

A4o, cutoff-1, folds

ATo, MP, I call an all-in by a very short stack (1014) - two others call as well. Flop comes 357. we check around. Turn is a 6, and I fold to another all-in, this one for 1751.

J9s, UTG+1, folds

a monster stack is moved to my right. 26,912. Nono. Make that 34,000 as his JT beats A3 all in.

J4o, UTG, folds

My 12,821 is about 100 chps away from the average stack size at present time.


92s, BB, folds to raise pre-flop

Oof. another big stack across the table. marcus7az has 40,000 chips. These two are 5th and 16th in chips in the entire tourney(411 left still).

crap, SB, folds
T8o, button, folds

wntsumgetsum is the 33,000 stack. He plays his big stack very well from what I've seen early on, he'll push you around with it big time.

J7o, cutoff, folds

99, MP, one limper and I raise to 1600 chips. I win the pot right there. $1200 is nice to pick up like that.

crap, MP, folds - wntsumgetsum pushes all in again on a scary board against a guy w/ 5K chips. he has a flush draw, called by AK. down to 29K for wntsumgetsum. 20nCrAzY gets back up to 14K.


Level 9 - 300/600 blinds - 50 antes

Average stack is 14,155. I have $13,296. I am 173rd out of 390 remaining. I am 5th out of 9 at my table, with the two giant stacks, two guys w/ 14.8 and 15.2K. The others are all between 6500 and 9900.

Two hours in, I've never lasted this long in a big rebuy tourney before(haven't played too many of them really). I need to improve a ton still to make the money. Average stack in the money w/ 99 left will be 55K in chips.

K6o, UTG+2, folds
98o, UTG+1, folds
K3s, UTG, folds
64o, BB, the big stack limps to me and we see a free flop. QQ2. I fold on the flop.

KQs, SB - I open-raise to 1800 after its folded to me. I win the blinds.

76o, button, folds

Key Hand
KQo, cutoff - two stacks larger than me limp, and I limp as well. we're 4-way. Flop comes KJ8. wntsumgetsum bets 600 on the flop. I raise to 3600, and am called. The turn is a queen. wntsumgetsum bets out 600 again, and I go all in for 9000 over him. My heart is racing :P He thinsk, thinks, thinks, and calls. He has KT. 9/ace and he wins. The river is a 3, and I double up + some to 28,650 in chips!!!

I'm now a dominant 2nd in chips at the table. marcus7az has 38,400. I have 28,500. TheSmitty 18,500. wntsumgetsum 14,500.

I now sit 39th out of 335.

Ok, enough excitement. Now I've got to play well with one of the larger stacks. Again something I have little experience with.

crap folded a few hands.

J6o, BB - fold to 2400 raise. wntsumgetsum goes all in over the shorter stack. A8 vs K9(wntsum is a little agressive there eh?) king hits and he wins.

Table Change
Blah. Just when I'm getting used to the table... I'm moved. Ok, raptor19 3 to my left has 56K. randwick 2 to my left has 25K. davetex across from me has 22K. Kidkwik directly to my left has 32K. Yikes.

A3o, cutoff, folds
J6o, cutoff-1, folds

blinds going up in the next 3-5 hands depending on how many of these are steals

K6o, MP, folds
K5o, UTG+2, folds
A3o, UTG+1, folds

I am assuming with so many big stacks I need to increase my steal requirements just a bit here? We are seeing flops on most hands here, despite a lot of pre-flop raises.

Level 10 - 400/800 blinds - 50 antes

This puts 1650 into the pot before any action. The standard 3x raise becomes 2400, 10% of my stack.

I have 27542 before the blinds hit. 56th out of 293 left.

63o, BB, the glorious free flop. not even close. A82. I fold the first time someone lets me.

QJo, SB - A raise to 2400 from UTG. A re-raise to 5000(all-in)... I can't call of course. TT vs QQ. QQ was the short stack, doubls up to 11K.

J5s, button, folds
T3o, cutoff, folds

70th out of 276. Avg Stack 20K.

Q6o, cutoff-1, folds - 3-way pot, 50K stack goes all in on the A52 flop after about 12K had already been put in, amkes a big move up there.

K8s, MP, I haven't touched my chips in quite awhile. I try to open-raise here to 2400. I hope people are noticing by now. BB thinks for quite some time and folds. wonder what made him think for a good 40 seconds?

I steal the blinds, signifigant at this level.

42s, MP, folds - 3 short stacks all in, AT/K3s/JT. AT wins a 23K pot and knocks two out at once.

71st out of 253 now.

That lets me skip my BB, whee.

97o, SB, folds
74o, button, folds

a small 5K stack and a not small 48K stack replace the two guys that were recently all in.

A3o, cutoff - folds to a raise before me.

Key Hand
22, cutoff-1 - 2 limp before me and I try to limp too. I get a 5-way flop, and it's pretty friendly, 345... we check it around. Now... a 6 hits the turn. I check. The river is a 3, pairing the board. marcoray bets 2400. Underbetting the pot a lot. How do I do this? If I make a signifigant raise he can cripple me if he has a 7. I decide to just call, and I win a 9K pot with my low straight. With 4 limpers and me, does anyone play this harder?


61st out of 233 now, avg stack 24000, I have 33000.

couple of crap hands folded.

Level 11 - 600/1200 blinds - 75 antes

Moving up fast now.

T2o, UTG, folds
T7o, BB - I fold to a raise PF
A4o, SB, I fold to a 3000 raise PF.
T2o, button, folds
J6o, cutoff, folds
Q2o, cutoff-1, folds

70 out of 220 remaining, avg up to 25K

87o, MP, folds
K8o, MP, folds
K4o, UTG+1, folds
A5o, UTG, folds

too passive on that? UTG that seems a bit much to push with.

82s, BB - folds to raise - UTG raise to 2400, UTG+1 calls. short stack calls. Giant stack calls. TT9 flop 4-way(17K pot) - chcekced to short stack, he bets all in for 7K more. big stack folds. PF raiser calls. AJ vs 77. short stack has AJ, nothing on the flop. Catches a jack on the river. 29K. grats pretty much quadrupling up.

J3o, SB, folds

28,367 after blinds - 83rd out of 203. avg is 28K

A8o, button - cruz18 limps, I raise to 3600 on the button. folded to limper, he calls. Flop is a beauty. AT8. I bet 8K on the flop and win the pot there.

34K now.

K8s, 6K stack all in before me. I fold.
K2o, folds
KTo, MP - folds

AJs, UTG+1 - I open-raise to 4000. I steal the blinds/antes


Level 12 - 1000/2000 blinds - 100 ante

blinds flying up now, and I've heard this as a complaint about pokerstars tourney, lots of play early/blinds flying up late. 1500/3000 atfter this.

I have 36,367 in chips. Avg stack is 29.5K. I am 58th out of 187. I expect a ton to go out this level, and with BB at 2000 I'm certainly not safe myself.

84o, BB, folds - AJ/KK all in, AJ knocks out KK.

Table Change

I skip my SB, heh.

lazarus_gs across the table has 56K. texasvanman two to my right has 67K. I'm 3rd after them. 4 other stacks in the high 20s/low 30s though, we're very close.

95o, cutoff, folds
J7s, cutoff-1, folds
42o, MP, folds
K8o, UTG+2, folds

69 out of 169 left. 3 hour break + 1500/3000 blinds soon. AK vs AQ all in. AQ hits a flush.

J5o, UTG+1, folds
A5s, UTG - another hand I don't know about. UTG, table has gotten very agressive. I don't like this enough UTG, despite how fast the money disappears now. good thing too. raise to 6000/45K all in behind me. 23K stack thinks down to 30 seconds on time bank, folds. 71K stack thinks for a good 15-20 seconds, folds. 50K all in pot. AQ vs 99. AQ hits, 99 busts. lazarus_gs has 67K now.

a 43K stack is moved into the empty spot.

QJo, BB - fold to 20K all in.

Decision
99 in the small blind - The big stack at the table(75K) raises to 11K... I am a coin flip at best, right? I let this one go and wonder if tht's too weak.

87o, button, folds
T3o, cutoff, folds
J8o, MP, folds

this should take us up to the break.

Level 13 - 1500/3000 blinds - 150 antes

Well, I had one hand I could have played, but decided I wasn't ready to risk it all against a giant stack that would almost certainly call my all-in. As a result, I blinded away 6K in the level.

At the break, I have 30,167 in chips. The average stack skyrocketed to 38336. I sit in 85th place out of 144. I have 10x the big blind. Any pot I play after the break will basically pot commit me. I am in no position(nor do I have any desire) right now to try to limp into the money. I would like to make a move that gives me a chance to get deeper into the money if I make it. I probably won't seriously worry about cashing until there's 110 left. At least that's what I'm telling myself. We'll see what happens.

Here we go.

42o, MP, folds
97o, UTG+2, folds

Key Hand
A6s, UTG+1, I open-raise to 9000. I'm re-raised all in by a 17K stack. All in over that by a 20K stack. Called by the monster stack. Yeah. I'll fold. AJs vs TT vs 77. 77 hits a four-flush to win. (that's the monster stack).


Table Change

I drop to 20K with that loss.

I move to a table of a few stacks my size and a few bigger stacks... I no nothing about any of these, I just know I need to make some big gains pretty badly.

105th out of 128 remaining.

Q7o, MP, folds
54o, UTG+1, folds

5800 in the pot before the action starts. Most definitely all in/fold time :(

Q5o, UTG

Key Hand
JJ, BB - SOMEONE TRY TO STEAL PLEASE(with TT please)

BOOOOOOO, I win the blinds, folded around.

Key Hand
AQs, SB - folded to me, I open-raise to 9000. Why not go all in? I really don't know, I probably should, huh? Either way, i win the blinds.

26K. 88th out of 122.

K8o, button, folds to a raise.
84o, cutoff, folds
Q7o, cutoff-1, folds
Q7o, MP, folds
KTo, MP, folds (all-in this? baaaad news if anything has something worth calling) 66 vs 77 vs 44 all in. a 6 hits the flop. short stack busted.

J8o, UTG+1, folds

2 minutes til the blinds skyrocket again.

64o, UTG, folds

Q2s, BB - freeflop? ooo, 3 way free flop. COME ON FLUSH. Oh well. I fold to a 963 flop.
94o, SB, folds


Level 14 - 2000/4000 blinds - 200 antes

i have 21K in chips. 98th out of 117. Two great hands w/ no action kept me alive last time. I need good hands w/ some action this time(or a lot of luck).

87s, cutoff, folds

MAXPOWER29 goes from 40K to bust with JJ, then TT on consecutive hands. Losing to KQ and AK, two coin flip losses. Oof.

J9o, cutoff-1, folds

And now there's 113 left. I am 94th out of 113. I can maybe fold into the money but I'll be crippled. I still have to go if I get a hand to play.

T4o, MP, folds
J3o, UTG+1, folds
T4o, UTG, folds two limp, one goes all in for 12K. This has the potential to get interesting. oh well. One folds. Oof. AA for short stack, KK for big one. No king and short stack is 35K stack now(still short heh).

come on, AA in the BB for me plz.

72s, BB, folds big stack raises 8000, AA from last hand all in for 35K. big calls. QQ vs AQ. no A for the big stack, he's hurt now.

K4s, SB - rare 5-way pot here, I limp with this. I wish I woulda hit too. Oh well. J96 flop. free turn, jack. now i fold to a bet.

very very crippled. 11.5K left. I am 103rd out of 108 :(


Key Hand
K6s on the button. It's folded to me. Neither of the blinds are massive stacks. I decide to push all in here. I'm the 5th smallest stack in the tourney right now. I'm called by the big blind. He only had to call about 7500 more, he only had 35K though, that was reasonably signifigant. He has Q9s, same suit as me. Flop comes 99x. I am dead. 108th.


top 99 pay, I go out 108th.

Ok, congrats to anyone who read all that. That is a shitload. 3+ hours of writing.

I stay long enough to see how long it took to make the money. With 101 left I would have been in my big blind. on my SB they would have gone hand to hand. Assuming I had just folded my way around, that's 7600. I would have been down to $4000 in chips.


Now, my thinking at this second, sitting here watching 9 hands go by as we get into the money, is that I made a terrible, terrible raise all-in. Sure it was folded to the button, but 11K wasn't enough to garner any respect for my raise. I got called by a guy who only had 3x more than me, and even though I was a favorite, it wasn't even 60/40.


I want to say I made the best play that gave me the best chance to make it further up into the money. But at the moment I just feel a little sick that I played for 3 hours 45 minutes and came away with nothing, 8 out of the money.

And they finally make the money. had I literally folded my way in, i'd be the single shortest stack in the tourney. Of course, who knows, I might have gotten a better hand to push with.

Well, that's a wrap. Again, comments are appreciated, not only on the last hand but anything along the way. I think I made signifigantly fewer mistakes in this tournament than I did in the first one.

Yea, they have those 11+Rebuy 20k Guaranteed tourneys every night... Most of the time if I am free I join up in them...The first hour is the least skillful hour of any tournament ever, all you do is try to build your stack as high as possible before the break, most I have had is 15K, then you are set for after the break where you actually have to play. Best I've gotten is 13th in one of these, you have to have a lot of luck to do real well in these though, nice job, tough going out so close to the money though.

Thanks for the comments RGunner. How do you play the first hour? Do you ever rebuy if you bust? Or do you just hope for a great hand against some people rebuying multiple times to double you up?

What do you think about that first hand I played, going all in on top pair on the very first hand... it made sense to me at the time and I was prepared to rebuy, but I wonder what those that play rebuy tourneys like this more often would do.

I rebuy most of the time, but only rebuy alot if you are confident that you can make it to the money area and make up the money you put into the tournament...
The last 5 of these I have done I have spent at least 50+ on, I've made it to the money and made that much up every time so I am confident in myself.. As for the first hand play I think you played it well, I would have done the same in your situation, just got unlucky with the fours.
I've seen people spend over 200 bucks on this tourney and not even place in the money, that must be hard but I guess if you got the bankroll to do it without it hurting you, then more power to you..As for more the most I've spent on one of these was 70 bucks, and it was the one I ended up getting 13th in and winning almost 300 bucks so it was a good profit.

Nice writeup. Sorry you didn't end in the money but you played well getting up to the end. I haven't ever played a rebuy tourney so that some of this with a grain of salt.


I don't think that you could call the all in here. There was a lot of limping going on and you had a hand that would have played well multiway so I think limping/folding made sense.


I don't like playing really low pairs from early position. If you are though you should raise and once you were heads up I think it was the right play to take a stab at the pot.


With your good kicker I think betting on the turn makes sense. He could have a straight draw or if he does hit his pocket pair on the river you could lose a lot of chips. It's doubtful that he would play back at you with the board the way it was.


With him under betting the pot I might have just called as well. Certainly could have been trying to trap you into raising there. I am a bit curious why you didn't bet on the flop or turn. Lot's of players and you might have been able to thin the field.


The best you probably could have hoped for was to win the blinds with that all in. While the blinds were high a steal there probably wouldn't have helped your chances of getting to the second level of the money. I think you were right to not go into a shell and just try to fold to the money but you probably needed a better hand to hope for a double up and then make some noise. If that hand doesn't appear then take the low level money. Getting in the money is a nice feeling but $51 from the $30 you put in for several hours of work isn't what you should be shooting for. Trying for the big money at the final table makes a lot of sense when you find yourself in that same position next time. You played really well getting to that point though and soon you could become a factor in these MMT.

I am running terrible terrible terrible in ring games right now. Down about $300 in about 850 hands.

AA 1 time, lost $16
AKs 0 times
AKo 8 times, lost $38 (won twice)

AQo 7 times, lost $67 (running up against AK once, and losing two pair to a flush).

KK 3 times, lost $34 (won blinds/lost big twice)
QQ 3 times, lost all 3, lost $40

And so on. So basically I'm signifigantly down to begin the month. Winning at intercasino helped, and the $100 party bonus will help. Hopefully the weekend action will be as good as usual and I can clean up there.

250 more raked hands til I finish off the bonus.

I've noticed a pattern of me losing when I play between 4:30-7pm in the ring games, and winning mainly on nights and weekends. I have seen discussions on this elsewhere and wonder if there is really something to the signifigant difference in the level of play between 6pm and 10pm on a week night? Or maybe a combo of bad cards and not playing my best is causing it and I shouldn't look for excuses :)

Hopefully I can start playing my way out of this after dinner tonight.

Other players drink at nights and week-ends whereas they don't between 4.30 & 7. At least, that's an explanation.

Don't know if i have chimed in on this thread before, but I have really enjoyed reading your "dynasty". It has helped me take a look at some of my play and be a little more patient in tournament play.

On a related note, I qualified on AP tonight for a WSOP qualifier (9+1 to get into $100 entry tourney) later this month. I'm a little worried because it falls on the same day as my fantasy football tournament ... might need to recruit a pinch-hitter for poker or drafting ... decisions, decisions.