Beating the Home Game - Part 2

So I finally broke in the new poker table last night. It was a smaller turn out than I had hoped, and the prize pools were pretty low. Still lots of fun though. There was myself, a former coworker, and two guys from school and one of their friends (who got significantly intoxicated over the course of the evening thanks to a 2-4 of Cap'n Morgans.

We had a warm up game waiting for one guy to show up, and that ended relatively quickly when I got it in with A2 against Q4 and the board ran Q7228. There weren't many huge pots. Almost everyone had a style that was hugely chip-bleeding, and just by playing top pair fairly hard, I got paid off huge. We ended up heads up with me having a 5-1 chip lead or something to that effect.

The second game was much more intense. The prize pool was only 70$, but it was enough for us starving students to put up a good fight for. I got on the ropes twice, running flopped trips into a flush and the same trips with a better kicker. The flush holder and my other school friend were sitting on almost all the chips in play. I rebought and managed to pick a few spots to win big pots .. AT helped me out on a T-high flop where I had massive bets called on the flop and turn and finally folded him on the river.

At one point I actually had a slight chip lead, only to run AJ and AQ all in preflop. That put me brutally short. Fortunately, one of my friends was keeping up his horribly bleeding ways and he bled a lot of chips in my direction. Finally I had him slightly covered and he went all in with K8 and I called with KJ and held. I actually went over the top with my other friend (the monster stack) still to act. He thought for a while and folded A4 face up. He would have won it right there.

Heads up lasted fairly long. I got pretty aggressive and did a lot of shoving over the top of his raises.

The key hand was me holding Ah7h and the flop came something like 6h 5h 3c. My friend lead out with a pretty big bet and I shoved. He called almost instantly and showed 54. The turn bricked, but the river brought the beautiful 3rd heart and I was chip leader.

It ended about 10 hands later when I shoved A7 and he called with QT.

The next game will probably be in a couple of weeks. And if I want people to keep coming, I'm going to have to teach myself the way of losing. Still lots of fun!

That's all for now.

It was bound to come around...

Finally! Phew. Feels good to have that behind me. Just finished a ~short session of 500 or so hands. Won back 4 buyins at 10NL from my mega-slide of the previous few days. Here's a particularly gross hand vs a station.


PokerStars Game #14172636364: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 04:55:27 (ET)
Table 'Ehrdni' 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: hubmaster ($9.55 in chips)
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP ($26.75 in chips)
Seat 3: iron_arm1 ($9.65 in chips)
Seat 4: Qvaff ($5.85 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($20.90 in chips)
Seat 6: Lestardt ($2.10 in chips)
hubmaster: posts small blind $0.05
PUKERCHAMP: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Jc Th]
iron_arm1: raises $0.10 to $0.20
So when a station (he runs 70/0/0 over 80) makes a minraise UTG, u gotta wonder...
Qvaff: folds
crushmastac: calls $0.20
Implied odds since he'll probably let me do it cheap
Lestardt: folds
hubmaster: folds
PUKERCHAMP: folds
*** FLOP *** [Js 6d 3s]
iron_arm1: bets $0.10
crushmastac: raises $0.40 to $0.50
In hindsight, I'm not sure why I raised here. I was fairly certain I was up against JJ+ here.
iron_arm1: calls $0.40
*** TURN *** [Js 6d 3s] [Jd]
iron_arm1: bets $0.10
From a station this just screams monster ... what a freakin' card for me though.
crushmastac: raises $0.90 to $1
iron_arm1: calls $0.90
*** RIVER *** [Js 6d 3s Jd] [4h]
iron_arm1: checks
crushmastac: bets $2.50
I probably coulda got more outta him. Actually pretty disappointed.
iron_arm1: calls $2.50
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Jc Th] (three of a kind, Jacks)
iron_arm1: mucks hand
crushmastac collected $8.15 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $8.55 Rake $0.40
Board [Js 6d 3s Jd 4h]
Seat 1: hubmaster (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: iron_arm1 mucked [Ac Ad]
Well played, sir...
Seat 4: Qvaff folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: crushmastac showed [Jc Th] and won ($8.15) with three of a kind, Jacks
Seat 6: Lestardt (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)


Here's the other big hands of the day, from smallest pot to biggest.


PokerStars Game #14172344140: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 04:18:36 (ET)
Table 'Apus' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: skädä ($4.50 in chips)
Seat 2: jtk1113 ($5.85 in chips)
Seat 3: klitschko ($6.65 in chips)
Seat 4: Dudeman IV ($9.80 in chips)
Seat 5: robertateIV ($8.55 in chips)
Seat 6: crushmastac ($10 in chips)
Dudeman IV: posts small blind $0.05
robertateIV: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Jc Js]
crushmastac: calls $0.10
skädä: folds
jtk1113: raises $0.10 to $0.20
klitschko: calls $0.20
Dudeman IV: calls $0.15
robertateIV: calls $0.10
crushmastac: raises $1.80 to $2
jtk1113: calls $1.80
klitschko: calls $1.80
Dudeman IV: folds
robertateIV: folds
*** FLOP *** [Kd Kc 8h]
crushmastac: bets $4
Naaah, nobody's got no K. Proceed with cbet.
jtk1113: folds
klitschko: raises $0.65 to $4.65 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls $0.65
*** TURN *** [Kd Kc 8h] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [Kd Kc 8h 8c] [Td]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Jc Js] (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
klitschko: mucks hand
crushmastac collected $14.95 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $15.70 Rake $0.75
Board [Kd Kc 8h 8c Td]
Seat 1: skädä folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: jtk1113 folded on the Flop
Seat 3: klitschko (button) mucked [7s 7c] Solid... Thanks!
Seat 4: Dudeman IV (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: robertateIV (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: crushmastac showed [Jc Js] and won ($14.95) with two pair, Kings and Jacks



PokerStars Game #14172563965: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 04:46:10 (ET)
Table 'Ehrdni' 6-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: hubmaster ($9.45 in chips)
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP ($23.30 in chips)
Seat 3: el errante ($7.90 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($12 in chips)
Seat 6: Lestardt ($4.20 in chips)
Lestardt: posts small blind $0.05
hubmaster: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Js 9s]
PUKERCHAMP: folds
el errante: calls $0.10
crushmastac: calls $0.10
Lestardt: calls $0.05
hubmaster: checks
*** FLOP *** [6s 2c Qs]
Lestardt: bets $0.10
hubmaster: folds
el errante: raises $0.30 to $0.40
crushmastac: calls $0.40
Lestardt: calls $0.30
*** TURN *** [6s 2c Qs] [Jc]
Lestardt: checks
el errante: bets $1.10
crushmastac: calls $1.10
Lestardt: folds
*** RIVER *** [6s 2c Qs Jc] [8s] Holy hell I actually made a flush draw??
el errante: bets $1.30
crushmastac: raises $5.70 to $7
el errante: calls $5 and is all-in Snap-call, of course waiting until he was beat to get most of the money in.
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Js 9s] (a flush, Queen high)
el errante: mucks hand
crushmastac collected $15.60 from pot
Qvaff joins the table at seat #4
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $16.40 Rake $0.80
Board [6s 2c Qs Jc 8s]
Seat 1: hubmaster (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: el errante mucked [Ad Ah] Another freakin' AA genious. These guys are showing me major love tonight.
Seat 5: crushmastac (button) showed [Js 9s] and won ($15.60) with a flush, Queen high
Seat 6: Lestardt (small blind) folded on the Turn




PokerStars Game #14172467286: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 04:33:48 (ET)
Table 'Apus' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: Cestades ($7.35 in chips)
Seat 2: jtk1113 ($1.95 in chips)
Seat 3: sxfactor ($10.60 in chips)
Seat 4: Dudeman IV ($13.45 in chips)
Seat 5: robertateIV ($4.95 in chips)
Seat 6: crushmastac ($17 in chips)
sxfactor: posts small blind $0.05
Dudeman IV: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Ah Th]
robertateIV: folds
crushmastac: raises $0.30 to $0.40
Cestades: folds
jtk1113: folds
sxfactor: raises $1.10 to $1.50
Dudeman IV: folds
crushmastac: calls $1.10 Very loose call, I know. Villain was on the aggressive side and was tilting a bit from getting thrashed in a set over set hand a little earlier.
*** FLOP *** [Ad 3h Qd]
At first I think this is a good flop for me, if he's got KK, JJ, or TT. AK/AQ/QQ has me in a bind though.
sxfactor: bets $2.10
crushmastac: calls $2.10
*** TURN *** [Ad 3h Qd] [Td] Bingo? I think?
sxfactor: bets $7 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls $7 I actually had to ponder for a second here before I made the call. I was praying to see AK and not AQ.
*** RIVER *** [Ad 3h Qd Td] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
sxfactor: shows [Kh As] (a pair of Aces) Yesssss!
crushmastac: shows [Ah Th] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
crushmastac collected $20.30 from pot A ~ poorly played hand by me, but I'll take it.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $21.30 Rake $1
Board [Ad 3h Qd Td 9h]
Seat 1: Cestades folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: jtk1113 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: sxfactor (small blind) showed [Kh As] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: Dudeman IV (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: robertateIV folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: crushmastac showed [Ah Th] and won ($20.30) with two pair, Aces and Tens




PokerStars Game #14172780542: Hold'em No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/29 - 05:14:05 (ET)
Table 'Ehrdni' 6-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: hubmaster ($15.70 in chips)
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP ($14.60 in chips)
Seat 3: BloodyyGood ($29.30 in chips)
Seat 4: Qvaff ($4.40 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($24.35 in chips)
Seat 6: Targeteer ($6.35 in chips)
PUKERCHAMP: posts small blind $0.05
BloodyyGood: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Qd As]
Qvaff: folds
crushmastac: raises $0.30 to $0.40
Targeteer: folds
hubmaster: folds
PUKERCHAMP: calls $0.35
BloodyyGood: folds
*** FLOP *** [Js Ad Qs] I tell ya, PStars has been making up for the fact that I've whiffed 90% of my flops the last 3 days.
PUKERCHAMP: checks
crushmastac: bets $0.70
PUKERCHAMP: raises $1.80 to $2.50 Ohhhh my. I've run two pair into straight twice already today (smallish pots)
crushmastac: raises $21.45 to $23.95 and is all-in Fugg it. I kick the crap outta AK, spade draw, AJ, QJ, etc.
PUKERCHAMP: calls $11.70 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [Js Ad Qs] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [Js Ad Qs 7c] [5c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
PUKERCHAMP: shows [Qc Jh] (two pair, Queens and Jacks) Poor guy got thrown in front of the dump truck
crushmastac: shows [Qd As] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
crushmastac collected $27.85 from pot Shhiiip! Nice pot for 10NL.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $29.30 Rake $1.45
Board [Js Ad Qs 7c 5c]
Seat 1: hubmaster (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: PUKERCHAMP (small blind) showed [Qc Jh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Jacks
Seat 3: BloodyyGood (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: Qvaff folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: crushmastac showed [Qd As] and won ($27.85) with two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 6: Targeteer folded before Flop (didn't bet)


That is all!

Sick Variance Continues

Yesterday I had a 2 hour session where in the first 50 hands I ran KK into AA ai preflop, and QQ into AA ai preflop. Spent the rest of the session slowly grinding out to get some of it back, only to run AKs into JJ on a Axx flop to get a J on the turn. Poker really hates me right now. The difference yesterday was it didn't tilt me. It sucks how when you get into a horrendous (11 buy-in) slide that you sort of expect these things to happen.

Bllleeeehhljdkghakgjha WTF

Holy hell the last two days have been positively gnarly. And not in the good way. Almost every hand I played today made me feel dirty.

It's bad enough that I got JJ twice, and both times ran it into QQ, but the 2nd time I turned a J only for my opp to river a Q. I mean seriously, why put me through that? I get AQs and raise, see an A high flop, and some twit has smooth called me pre with AK and he lets me bet into him on every street and I kiss another buyin goodbye. Over and over again it was me running good into better, and 2nd best into best.

What REALLY started getting me tilty was the fact that I got AA 3 times and KK twice and ALL 5 TIMES I was in the SB or BB and it folded around. ALL FIVE TIMES. WHAT THE HELL.

So, eh hem, it was a bad day. Thank goodness I (mostly) play within my BR.

I need a shower...

Merry Christmas and such

Hope Santa's good to all of ya this year.

Final Tabled it again .. but ugh

So last night started much like the night before - a rough run on the cash tables with hands that were close and ended up costing me a lot of money, for the most part. There were still a few big pots I took down and good plays I made based on reads that worked out. Either way, I ended up down 40 bucks, so it was MTT time again.

Again, started strong in all 3. I don't remember how I went out on the first two, but I seem to remember one cooler and one suckout and then a tilt shove and blah blah blah. Good times.

Once again, the 3rd one I signed up for was the big weener.

I actually got off to a rough start when I raised AK behind a MP limper and ended up blowing almost 1/4 of my stack trying to convince him his 33 was no good. It didn't work :/

Then I got some help from KK UTG+1 and took it down on a 7 high flop.

The very next hand, I get 88 UTG.

PokerStars Game #14020064678: Tournament #71163600, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level II (15/30) - 2007/12/22 - 03:55:54 (ET)
Table 71163600 7 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: RAYHOVA83 (1820 in chips)
Seat 2: crushmastac (1330 in chips)
Seat 3: SwitchMan70 (9605 in chips)
Seat 4: newp05-33 (4050 in chips)
Seat 5: Tinlizzy49 (1190 in chips)
Seat 6: Love_Juanda (2800 in chips)
Seat 7: StEal LoOt (670 in chips)
Seat 8: textilex (1470 in chips)
Seat 9: Big Dave B (1465 in chips)
Big Dave B: posts small blind 15
RAYHOVA83: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [8d 8h]
crushmastac: raises 90 to 120
SwitchMan70: folds
newp05-33: folds
Tinlizzy49: folds
Love_Juanda: folds
StEal LoOt: folds
textilex: folds
Big Dave B: folds
RAYHOVA83: calls 90
*** FLOP *** [9d 5s 3s]
RAYHOVA83: bets 1700 and is all-in
Um, wtf? This has got to be weak.
crushmastac: calls 1210 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [9d 5s 3s] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [9d 5s 3s Qc] [Qs]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
RAYHOVA83: shows [5c Kh] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
Well played sir.
crushmastac: shows [8d 8h] (two pair, Queens and Eights)
crushmastac collected 2675 from pot

Then this hand really got me rolling.


PokerStars Game #14020086101: Tournament #71163600, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2007/12/22 - 03:58:31 (ET)
Table 71163600 7 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: crushmastac (2600 in chips)
Seat 3: SwitchMan70 (9060 in chips)
Seat 4: newp05-33 (4050 in chips)
Seat 5: Tinlizzy49 (1190 in chips)
Seat 6: Love_Juanda (2750 in chips)
Seat 7: StEal LoOt (1880 in chips)
Seat 8: textilex (1470 in chips)
Seat 9: Big Dave B (1400 in chips)
SwitchMan70: posts small blind 25
newp05-33: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Kh Ad]
Tinlizzy49: folds
Love_Juanda: folds
StEal LoOt: folds
textilex: folds
Big Dave B: calls 50
crushmastac: raises 150 to 200
SwitchMan70: calls 175
newp05-33: folds
Big Dave B: calls 150
*** FLOP *** [8h Jh 3c]
hootagh is connected
SwitchMan70: bets 150
Big Dave B: calls 150
crushmastac: calls 150
No way I'm raising here. But he's priced me nicely for my draw.
*** TURN *** [8h Jh 3c] [Ts]
SwitchMan70: bets 300
Big Dave B: calls 300
crushmastac: calls 300
I call this somewhat reluctantly. I was getting almost 7 to 1 I think (too lazy to do math right now)
*** RIVER *** [8h Jh 3c Ts] [Qd] ZING!!!
SwitchMan70: bets 800
Big Dave B: calls 750 and is all-in
crushmastac: raises 1150 to 1950 and is all-in
SwitchMan70: calls 1150
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Kh Ad] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
SwitchMan70: shows [8c 9d] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Interesting...
crushmastac collected 2400 from side pot Ship
Big Dave B: shows [Th 9h] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
Thankyou for not raising the turn.
crushmastac collected 4250 from main pot Shhhhhiiiiiiiip!


I then proceded to go completely card dead for several orbits, but I still managed to stay in the top 20 for chips.

Finally I pick up KQo in mid position and raise it up getting called by the BB. Flop comes A high with 2 hearts (I have the K of hearts). He checks, I cbet, he calls. Uh oh. Turn comes Jh and all a sudden I have a big draw. He checks, I check behind opting for the free card since I'm pretty sure I'm in a bad spot here where bluffing is a bad idea. The river brings the beautiful 7 of hearts, he checks again, I make a fairly small valueish bet, and he takes his time to fold. That was a T4000 pot that took me close to 5 figures and into the top 5 for chips.

The next 40 hands were awesome. Players started falling left right and center and I ran completely dry. I kept picking spots and watching for the players that didn't defend their blinds and managed to actually chip up to 13K despite being completely card dead.

Then I got a bit lucky when a shorty shoved into me in the SB and I snap-called with A7. He had AJ but I ran a flush on him to take a nice pot and move to 14K.

The very next hand I bounce another shorty when I put him in from the SB with AK and he calls with AQ and I hold. 16K

Then AK whiffed in a massive pot and I dropped 7K to 10K.

At this point I was at a very tight table with nobody having a vpip higher than 30, and most players ran something like 20/5/0.5. Yeah... Unfortunately for me, during the next 10 orbits I didn't pick up one attractive hand with the exception of JJ. But with the table being so tight, I was able to steal and resteal with abandon, chipping back up to 20K without showing a single hand.

The JJ hand happened with about 12 people left.


PokerStars Game #14021196219: Tournament #71163600, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XI (500/1000) - 2007/12/22 - 06:19:22 (ET)
Table 71163600 7 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 2: crushmastac (22501 in chips)
Seat 4: Gooseters (9640 in chips)
Seat 5: maryo124 (55013 in chips)
Seat 6: Love_Juanda (13041 in chips)
Seat 8: ImSoLow (34811 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: mars411 (11911 in chips)
crushmastac: posts the ante 100
Gooseters: posts the ante 100
maryo124: posts the ante 100
Love_Juanda: posts the ante 100
ImSoLow: posts the ante 100
mars411: posts the ante 100
Gooseters: posts small blind 500
maryo124: posts big blind 1000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Jd Jh]
Love_Juanda said, "one more?"
Love_Juanda: folds
ImSoLow: folds
mars411: raises 10811 to 11811 and is all-in
He'd been opening into panic mode with his M getting low
crushmastac: raises 10590 to 22401 and is all-in
Gooseters: folds
maryo124: folds
*** FLOP *** [7d 6h 6d]
*** TURN *** [7d 6h 6d] [3s]
*** RIVER *** [7d 6h 6d 3s] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mars411: shows [4s Ah] (two pair, Sevens and Sixes)
crushmastac: shows [Jd Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Sevens)
Love_Juanda said, ".."
crushmastac collected 25722 from pot <------- Ship!


This was by far the tightest final 20 I'd ever had to endure. So when we finally got to the final table, we were well past the blind levels from the tournament I won the night before. Everyone's M was low, but I went on a heater at a good time.

When we got to the final table everyone had 10-45K in chips. I was sitting on 40K with 3 other stacks around mine, and a couple shorter (but not unplayable) stacks.

In my heater I knocked out 3 of the first 5 to go.

First player out was a shorter stack that open shoved A5 into my QQ which held.

A couple eliminations later, I get it in with 88 preflop and win a race vs AJ.

After this we had the tightest final 4 I'd seen in ... ever. I felt great because I had good reads on all 3 of them, and the stacks looked like this:

Me: 125K
ELSO: 62K
Maryo: 45K
LoveJuanda: 36K

Then all hell broke loose.

Every freaking hand I had a top 20% hand. A8, AT, AJ, 88, 55, KJ, etc. I even got JJ, KK and AA. Every time I raised, and every time I wanted to get played back at, I didn't. When I didn't want to get played back at, I did. I ran AJ into AK, A8 into AT, and a bunch of other bad spots. I don't think I got my money in good once.

So in the period of only 20 hands I went from in good shape to win the whole thing again, to being crippled.

The hand that did me in was T7 soooted. Getting a bit tilty, I checked in the BB and saw a 726 flop with 2 spades. He min bet, I raised the pot, he called. Turn was the 3s. He checked, and I decided there was no flush and I didn't want to let him draw with a hand like As Kx, As Qx, etc... So I made a tilty jam that was probably a bad idea, and of course he had As4s for the made nuts and IGH in 4th place and a headache.

I spent a lot of time thinking about my play, and I can only pick out two hands I played badly. I just got unlucky to keep getting top 20% hands and run them into top 10% hands over and over again. It was sickening because all throughout the time I'd spent with these guys in the last 80 hands I had them totally under my thumb.

Bleh.

The 60$ cash was a small consolation prize. I shoulda won the damn thing.

Cya later.

Big Spike, 3rd win in the 4$ 180 man MTT

Yehaw. Today was fun. It started with a rough run on the cash tables where I dropped two buyins. It basically consisted of me making moves with reads that were correct reads, but in 3 cases the aggro-donk had pulled a hand out of their ass. A guy who had been open shoving his 50BB stack with T4, 82, A2, etc made another jam, and I snap called with jacks. He, of course, had red Aces this time and I don't catch up. Similar hands where I ran TPTK into middle set and so on and so forth.

So I decided to go back to my roots and fired up 3 4$ 180-man SNGs. These babies used to be my bread and butter when I had more time to play, and I've won twice, made 2nd twice, and 3rd a few more times for a disgusting lifetime ROI of well over 100%. They've always been the most beatable game I can find.

I started off all three pretty hot. I was above average in chips until about a half hour in when two of the tournaments sucked me out in 60/40's and a 70/30. Oh well. That can be expected in these mine fields. The last tourny was a different story. I started hot and continued to run well for the first two hours.

Early on I coolered KK with my AA. After that QQ won a huge 3-way pot and I was top 10 in chips only 20 minutes in. I stayed there until the final 30 where the game usually gets a little wild. I ran into a bit of a slump getting confused (outplayed) by some guys I shortly found out to be donkeys. I was originally the CL at the table until two players got moved in that both had me covered. One directly on my left, the other directly on my right. I missed a couple spots where I could have won big pots by giving them a little too much credit. The first hand I saw the bigger of the two (on my left) play was KK where he got it in with AQ, A5, and JJ. He held and won a massive pot and I instantly labeled him as a good player.

Wrong. The hand I figured it out on was me holding 77. I forget the details but we ended up in a 3-way pot with a shorty all in. There was 4000 in the pot (2000 main, 2000 side). The flop came something like QJx. I checked, he bet 1000. I was a bit confused, and in a little bit of frustration, folded. He ended up having Ace high and I would have won the side pot (shorty wound up with trip Q's) but it just seemed like a really bad play to me. After that he donked off good chunks of his stack with subpar holdings and more bad plays. He gave me a courtesy double up that put me in the tourny CL just before he busted when my AK cranked his AQ all in preflop.

After that I went a bit cold and lost a few medium sized pots to drop fairly close to the bottom of the pack. Then, with 13 left, I went on a heater.


PokerStars Game #13997455768: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2007/12/21 - 00:48:15 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: bafoon_58 (12039 in chips)
Seat 2: BRICK_ONE (21218 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (10255 in chips)
Seat 6: silent kr (17755 in chips)
Seat 7: jerdood (7495 in chips)
Seat 8: blamallama (35191 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (20740 in chips)
bafoon_58: posts the ante 75
BRICK_ONE: posts the ante 75
ButchBova: posts the ante 75
silent kr: posts the ante 75
jerdood: posts the ante 75
blamallama: posts the ante 75
crushmastac: posts the ante 75
bafoon_58: posts small blind 400
BRICK_ONE: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [As Ad]
ButchBova: folds
silent kr: folds
jerdood: calls 800
blamallama: raises 2700 to 3500
crushmastac: raises 17165 to 20665 and is all-in
bafoon_58: folds
BRICK_ONE: folds
jerdood: folds
blamallama: calls 17165
*** FLOP *** [5d Jh 6h]
*** TURN *** [5d Jh 6h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [5d Jh 6h 2h] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
blamallama: shows [7d 7h] (a pair of Sevens)
crushmastac: shows [As Ad] (a pair of Aces)
crushmastac collected 43855 from pot
blamallama said, "nh"


At this point I was getting pretty aggressive. I always smell blood at the final tables and love to play medium aces since a lot of people end up jamming K-high or with baby aces or worse...

I got lucky here...

PokerStars Game #13997853258: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XII (600/1200) - 2007/12/21 - 01:17:42 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (32144 in chips)
Seat 2: BRICK_ONE (15336 in chips)
Seat 3: joe sam1 (24121 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (46990 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (48134 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (13198 in chips)
Seat 7: jerdood (20702 in chips)
Seat 8: elmago (29440 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (39935 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 125
BRICK_ONE: posts the ante 125
joe sam1: posts the ante 125
ButchBova: posts the ante 125
imilku: posts the ante 125
gofrank150: posts the ante 125
jerdood: posts the ante 125
elmago: posts the ante 125
crushmastac: posts the ante 125
sayahh: posts small blind 600
BRICK_ONE: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [8s Ac]
joe sam1: folds
ButchBova: folds
imilku: folds
gofrank150: folds
jerdood: folds
elmago: folds
crushmastac: raises 2400 to 3600
sayahh: folds
BRICK_ONE: raises 11611 to 15211 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls 11611
*** FLOP *** [7c Tc 5c]
*** TURN *** [7c Tc 5c] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [7c Tc 5c 7s] [Kc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BRICK_ONE: shows [9c As] (a flush, King high)
crushmastac: shows [8s Ac] (a flush, Ace high)
gofrank150 said, "nh"
crushmastac collected 32147 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 32147 | Rake 0
Board [7c Tc 5c 7s Kc]


I'm not sure about my call here. For me at these final tables, it would be pretty standard. But villain was tighter than usual and I doubled him up earlier when he woke up in the BB with AA when I had 8's OTB.

A while later a similar hand comes up against an almost identical opponent.

PokerStars Game #13998076913: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/12/21 - 01:36:08 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (20944 in chips)
Seat 3: joe sam1 (16196 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (78142 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (39609 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (52936 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (62173 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 150
joe sam1: posts the ante 150
ButchBova: posts the ante 150
imilku: posts the ante 150
gofrank150: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts the ante 150
sayahh: posts small blind 800
joe sam1: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [6c Ad]
ButchBova: folds
imilku: folds
gofrank150: folds
crushmastac: raises 3200 to 4800
sayahh: folds
joe sam1: raises 11246 to 16046 and is all-in
crushmastac: calls 11246
*** FLOP *** [Ks Jd 8s]
*** TURN *** [Ks Jd 8s] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Jd 8s Kc] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
joe sam1: shows [Tc Th] (two pair, Kings and Tens)
crushmastac: shows [6c Ad] (two pair, Aces and Kings)
crushmastac collected 33792 from pot
gofrank150 said, "nh"


I was calling for the J on the river, but an A works too :) This is another call I'm not sure about in hind-sight.


After that I kept getting nothing but medium-good aces and pocket pairs.

Here's a nice pot...

PokerStars Game #13998104436: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/12/21 - 01:38:31 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (17794 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (79742 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (36459 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (56086 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (79919 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 150
ButchBova: posts the ante 150
imilku: posts the ante 150
gofrank150: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts the ante 150
sayahh: posts small blind 800
ButchBova: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [4c 4d]
imilku: raises 1600 to 3200
gofrank150: calls 3200
crushmastac: calls 3200
sayahh: folds
gofrank150 said, "all skate"
ButchBova: calls 1600
*** FLOP *** [9c 4s Qc]
ButchBova: checks
imilku: checks
gofrank150: bets 4800
crushmastac: raises 10200 to 15000
ButchBova: folds
imilku: folds
gofrank150: calls 10200
*** TURN *** [9c 4s Qc] [Th]
gofrank150: checks
crushmastac: bets 37736
gofrank150: folds
gofrank150 said, "nice bet"
crushmastac collected 44350 from pot
crushmastac: doesnt show hand


After this, the rest of the table really rolled over. I stole pots everywhere until this hand came up.


PokerStars Game #13998179951: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIII (800/1600) - 2007/12/21 - 01:44:58 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (25538 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (65642 in chips)
Seat 5: imilku (35759 in chips)
Seat 6: gofrank150 (25336 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (117725 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 150
ButchBova: posts the ante 150
imilku: posts the ante 150
gofrank150: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts the ante 150
crushmastac: posts small blind 800
sayahh: posts big blind 1600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Qs Ad]
ButchBova: folds
imilku: raises 34009 to 35609 and is all-in
gofrank150: folds
crushmastac: calls 34809
sayahh: folds
*** FLOP *** [Qc 6h 8s]
gofrank150 said, "<---- playing this ft like a donkey"
*** TURN *** [Qc 6h 8s] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [Qc 6h 8s 3c] [8c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Qs Ad] (two pair, Queens and Eights)
imilku: shows [Kd Qd] (two pair, Queens and Eights - lower kicker)
crushmastac collected 73568 from pot


This was an easy call because villain in this hand had open jammed a lot worse than KQ in the last couple orbits.


Then I get lucky again...


PokerStars Game #13998230126: Tournament #71035454, $4.00+$0.40 Holdem No Limit - Level XIV (1000/2000) - 2007/12/21 - 01:49:19 (ET)
Table 71035454 4 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: sayahh (32388 in chips)
Seat 4: ButchBova (79678 in chips)
Seat 9: crushmastac (157934 in chips)
sayahh: posts the ante 200
ButchBova: posts the ante 200
crushmastac: posts the ante 200
ButchBova: posts small blind 1000
crushmastac: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [9c Ad]
sayahh: raises 30188 to 32188 and is all-in
ButchBova: folds
crushmastac: calls 30188
*** FLOP *** [5c Qd 9h]
crushmastac said, "hah now youre the rack"
*** TURN *** [5c Qd 9h] [8s]
*** RIVER *** [5c Qd 9h 8s] [7d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [9c Ad] (a pair of Nines)
sayahh: shows [Ah Kc] (high card Ace)
crushmastac said, "sry dude"
crushmastac collected 65976 from pot


3 handed and with my monsterous stack, I figured I was ahead of his jamming range. I still make this call every day I think.


So then I was heads up with a 3-1 chip lead over Butch. He had been playing super-tight and hadn't put up a fight once for the dozens of times I targetted his blinds at this FT. I figured it would be a pretty simple match. He raises, I fold anything but top 10. He calls, I raise. I get first action, I raise. If he raises, easy toss.

We bounced around a lot with me holding ~190K to his 70K. I was bullying him pretty good and figured he'd hit his breaking point sooner or later. I had to think about calling this one, but I'd never seen him make a limp/jam kind of play, so I figured it was frustration and he thought he was ahead.


PokerOffice always loses the HH's before a table breaks or a tourny ends, but I had A9, he completed, I made my standard 4x raise (3x when I open, 4x behind a complete) and he jammed pretty quick. It was 60K to call and I decided to look him up, and despite him flopping an OESD + his K and T being live, I hold it off and take the whole thing down.

It always feels good, don't it. Historically when I win these things or come in 2nd / 3rd it's because plays like the ones I made here result in me getting it in ahead, and staying ahead. I don't usually have to suck out that often. Hence my concern with my play. The hands will show up on CardPlayer, so I guess I'll find out what the masses think.

Good night!

BR Over 100, Table Selection

I love donkeys. Sure, they suck out on me from time to time, but man, you stick around long enough and they try to unload sooo much of their money on you.

Table selection is something I now realize is a huuugely important skill. Knowing when to leave a table is pretty important too. The last couple days I've ripped up over 50$ of profit and sit at a somewhat decent 10NL BR of 10.5 buyins. I'll admit it, I just finished dabbling in 25NL after 10NL got me up to 85$ yesterday. I decided I'd play one buyin on one table and see what happened. Poker's about having fun, right? Haha... Well, long story short, I picked the perfect table and had aggro-donks everywhere raising their K-high backdoor flush into my A-high backdoor flush, or jamming their 2nd pair into my top set, and so on. Within 30 hands I was sitting on 60$ at that table.

But slowly but surely, the megadonks left, and I found myself sitting with 5 people all running 22/10/1. I packed it in pretty quick after that, after getting whittled to 51$ by playing hands I had no business being in.

This is something I didn't used to do. I loved sitting on a big stack, and it didn't matter who came to replace the donks, I would keep on playing. More often than not I'd leave with a little less than the original buyin I started with, other times I'd leave bust. I'm a stubborn motherfucker. I learned that a while ago.

So now I always look for tables with at least one person running with a vpip over 50, or even better, someone running 60/20/5. I'm surprised at how often I find these people now. And so far almost every one I've run into, I've taken at least half their buyin. There was the one exception from my last post where the 7s2s caught a spade on the turn after getting all in with my AA, but overall, these fishies are paying me off gooot.

I'll return to 10NL after my little bit of fun in 25NL. I actually have enough to take some variance now, which is bound to come around sooner or later. I'm making 22BB/100 hands right now, and that can't last.



Top 5 monies winners
#1: AQo
#2: AKs
#3: Q9s (BB special with an aggrodonk)
#4: AKo
#5: KK

Top 5 monies losers
#1: 84o (flopped straight, ran it into an aggrodonk with flush)
#2: AJs (got overzealous with TPTK vs set)
#3: A9s (tptk into QQ)
#4: AA (hahahaha...7 high flushes rock)
#5: J9o

10NL Exploits - BR is all over the place!

So as lloyd said, I, being the degenerate that I am, have returned to playing poker online .. it's not very often. Maybe once or twice a week. But when I do sit down, I feel like I'm playing well and making good moves, and more often than not, I come away with more money than I sat down with.

I put my usual buyin of 50$ in a month ago. I started with 5$ SNGs, but I just don't think I'm cut out for those things. I got down to 30$ and thought it would be fun to play some NL. Me, being the wreckless fool that I am, took my 3 buyins to 10NL, and very quickly turned it into 60$. Then I was playing yesterday, and these 3 hands happened within the span of 3 minutes.

PokerStars Game #13801628075: Holdem No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/11 - 19:54:52 (ET)
Table Centenaria 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: PedritoRico ($7.10 in chips)
Seat 3: IsaW ($12.10 in chips)
Seat 4: DiamondEater ($13.45 in chips)
Seat 5: Noldonur ($11.50 in chips)
Seat 6: crushmastac ($9.85 in chips)
DiamondEater: posts small blind $0.05
Noldonur: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [Jc Ac]
I dunno what people think about raising AJ UTG, but I definitely include it in my opening range there at a 6-handed NL table.
crushmastac: raises $0.30 to $0.40
PedritoRico: folds
IsaW: calls $0.40
DiamondEater: folds
Noldonur: calls $0.30
*** FLOP *** [4s Jd 5h]
Noldonur: checks
crushmastac: bets $0.70
IsaW: raises $0.70 to $1.40
Hmm. Rainbow flop. Min raise. Another AJ? KJ? QJ? Couldn't be QQ+ because with my stats on this villain he'd be repumping me pre. Maybe a baby set?
Noldonur: folds
crushmastac: raises $8.05 to $9.45 and is all-in
This was probably unwise. He had a pretty high VPIP, so I decided he had a weaker J. With that in mind, I thought I could stack him right here.
IsaW: calls $8.05
*** TURN *** [4s Jd 5h] [2h]
*** RIVER *** [4s Jd 5h 2h] [8h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [Jc Ac] (a pair of Jacks)
IsaW: shows [5s 5d] (three of a kind, Fives)
Hmm. NH.
IsaW collected $19.15 from pot


And then this .. Because I was 3-tabling I actually didn't notice the chips hadn't come to me until 2 hands later and I was like "WTF I thought I had 20 bucks here!"


PokerStars Game #13801620175: Holdem No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/11 - 19:54:27 (ET)
Table Alzirr V 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: soss ($5.50 in chips)
Seat 2: donivan72 ($4.35 in chips)
Seat 3: DaneW ($11.10 in chips)
Seat 4: M3n70r ($9.35 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($13.65 in chips)
Seat 6: Aceium ($14.65 in chips)
crushmastac: posts small blind $0.05
Aceium: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [9s Jh]
soss: folds
donivan72: calls $0.10
DaneW: folds
M3n70r: calls $0.10
crushmastac: calls $0.05
Aceium: checks
*** FLOP *** [9c 7h 7c]
crushmastac: checks
Aceium: checks
donivan72: checks
M3n70r: bets $0.30
crushmastac: calls $0.30
I was thinking about raising the turn, depending on what it came.
Aceium: folds
donivan72: calls $0.30
*** TURN *** [9c 7h 7c] [9h]
Nice turn
crushmastac: checks
donivan72: checks
M3n70r: bets $0.70
crushmastac: calls $0.70
I don't want people to think I have the full house ... next time I'll be raising here.
donivan72: calls $0.70
*** RIVER *** [9c 7h 7c 9h] [8h]
Looks like a pretty harmless river...Oooh, someone could have made the flush! I might get some monies out of this!
crushmastac: bets $1.50
donivan72: raises $1.50 to $3
M3n70r: folds
crushmastac: raises $1.60 to $4.60
Extract from flush
donivan72: calls $0.25 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [9s Jh] (a full house, Nines full of Sevens)
donivan72: shows [5h 6h] (a straight flush, Five to Nine)
Oh. Snap.
donivan72 collected $9.45 from pot


And then this. I was just about to leave this table because we were down to 3 players, but then I find Aces and the aggro-donk on my right gives me play.



PokerStars Game #13801988720: Holdem No Limit ($0.05/$0.10) - 2007/12/11 - 20:13:22 (ET)
Table Alzirr V 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: cazpa82 ($5.80 in chips)
Seat 4: M3n70r ($12.55 in chips)
Seat 5: crushmastac ($9.45 in chips)
crushmastac: posts small blind $0.05
cazpa82: posts big blind $0.10
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to crushmastac [As Ac]
M3n70r: raises $0.30 to $0.40
DTBM joins the table at seat #3
crushmastac: raises $0.90 to $1.30
Playing them like a man. I guess I could have raised a bit more.
cazpa82: folds
M3n70r: calls $0.90
*** FLOP *** [5s 2c 4s]
Pretty safe flop... I'll lead, half expecting aggro-donk to raise (he was running like 70/40/10)
crushmastac: bets $1.70
M3n70r: raises $9.55 to $11.25 and is all-in
Snap call + fist pump
crushmastac: calls $6.45 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [5s 2c 4s] [9s]
Would he make this move with the FD??
*** RIVER *** [5s 2c 4s 9s] [3h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
crushmastac: shows [As Ac] (a straight, Ace to Five)
M3n70r: shows [7s 2s] (a flush, Nine high)
Ohhh the 7-HIGH FD! Wow. I guess he had a pair too .. i dunno. Pretty gross.
M3n70r collected $18.10 from pot


That last one put me into a tilty mindframe, so I went out for a smoke, jumped up and down a bit, and thankfully it was -20 (C) outside, so I cooled off pretty quick. I didn't hate the way I played any of those hands (if anyone disagrees, let me know), so I came back in set on sticking to my game and extracting more from the donks.

The hands above (with some other 2-3$ pots lost) dropped me to just over 30$ again. Playing my game I managed to drive it back up to 55$ before the ladyfriend demanded attention. NL is where I think I'll be playing from now on, until I have the time availability to spend 5-9 hours playing MTTs. The feeling of stacking someone is so invigorating.

Flopping / turning sets is gold in 10NL. It seems like it wins you a stack every time.


On a side note, the ladyfriend got me an early christmas present in the form of a 10-seater poker table. I've got it set up in the back room and just need to go buy some chairs before I can call my friends and tell them to come out. Those games will be regularly documented on here. I'm pumped!

That's all for now.