Never play out of desperation or need. And Never play Catchup..
I've been reluctant to post on here or do a podcast in awhile... But one of the reasons I have this site is so you can learn from me (even though I was hoping you'd only learn from my success and PAST mistakes) Although I went from 0 to 800 (actually closer to $850)... I also went on a trip to Vegas and I won $300, in a $60 poker tournament. However, since the buy in was $60, this win shouldn't count towards my challange... If I wanted to consider part of it towards the challenge, I could count maybe $15 of my buy in towards the challange, and I could just say that the remaining $45 was from an outside source (from my bank account, whic can support a $60 buy in.. If $15 represented 25% of my buy in, I could count 25% of the win (the exact number was $348), which would give me $87 then subtract the buy in, and I'm up $72. Even so, I cant really post about my "0 to $1000 success, if I lost most of it shortly after. See when I got home from Vegas, I felt like I really wanted to get the challenge over with. and I was in the gambling mood, so I did some sports betting, and some blackjack, but mostly some blackjack. I decided that I would spend around $200, which was a mistake because if you're going to set a number it should be specific and exact. But anyways, I went from $700 to $850, then all the way down to $500... I continued to play and although I caught a sick run of bad beats, I still didn't reevaluate the bankroll situation. I was still sitting with $30 and $40, as if my bankroll was still 800. $25 should have been the max. I wanted to play "catch up" and make everything back. This is a big mistake and I'm kind of suprized I didn't recognize what I was doing earlier than I did... It's definately something I should have done the first time. I have freerolled my way from 0 to $1000 twice (and a half if you count this time) but the first time I prroceeded to lose it all, and ereally I gained it all because of risk taking and overextending my bankroll, and I had no concept of bankroll management. The 2nd time I properly managed my bankroll and built it up to $1000, and cashed out..
After that point... I realized the other options as far as playing poker online goes, and realized that many online sites were still working. I had seen a few videos about Daniel Negreanus, ordered his game stacked and learned the small pot poker concept a little more (previously I just thought it was minbetting in late position and betting the pot on the flop). Once I started to get that concept down, I felt like I could really play and then decided to test out my skills via frerols. If ound it amazing at how much better I was able to get my money in, and I actually had to learn to start folding hands to all ins that I almost never would have folded preflop (AK, TT, AKs, etc). I cfind myself in big 5000 person fields actually only having to get my money all in a few times the entire touranment, and I qualified for events a few times. It was then I decided to create a "freeroll challange". At first It was just going to be a challange to prove to everyone that freerolls were EASIER, not harder (like most people say) to win...But I also wanted to prove to myself that I could do well without getting all of those poker bonuses, and rakeback. I wanted to prove that you could build a bankroll safely, in conditions even if you had a fulltime job, along with several things on the side.
Then I learned about Chris Ferguson's 0 to 10,000 challange, and decided to do something fairly similar. Only a couple weeks into it, I had a couple cashes, followed by a HUGE cash the next week. Those of you who have been following my 0 to 1,000 tracker, know that I earned quite a bit of money, pretty quickly, and was quickly on my way to 1000... but then I went to Vegas, felt like If I could win live tournaments, that I could play around a little, felt like I wanted to get the 0 to 1,000 challenge done in one day, doing something other than what got me to that point and suffered the consequences. I didn't want to make the post that I overextended my bankroll slightly from the requirements, and that I played blackjcak because I want to teach everyone that playing solid, at affordible stakes can still get you a pretty good amount of money, pretty quickly. But I decided to post it because regardless of how well you play in the past, a couple losing sessions followed by poor decisions, can ruin your bankroll.
So managing your bankroll is much more than a set of guidelines, it's a mentality of disapline, and consistancy. Sometimes the best thing you can do is just take a couple weeks off. Looks like I'm back close to where I started now, with under $100 dollars in my account. I'm probaably just going to take a little break for awhile, I apologize for those of you following the challange I want to eventually build this site to be the place, where everoyone comes to for learning about how to play poker, and excell from total amature to a professional, but I still need some work on my own emotional control, even though I have previously been pretty emotionally stable and disaplined, one 24 hour period could mean your whole entire stack. Developing the awareness to recognize your emotional status, and how you are feeling now, as well as how you will be feeling, and how that feeling relates to your poker game is a very important skill as well. If you have complete emotional control, and awarnesss of your state of mind and emotions, you could be a break even player, but along the way chase bonuses, and play freerolls and tournaments with added cash, and you would be ahead of 99% of all players.
The disturbing fact is that 99% of all players lose their entire bankroll at least once at sometime. and of the 1% that don't, maybe half of them don't play poker very often and when they do they play super conservative with their money, and super tight with their style of palay. The other .5% might have half of them be players who have been playing for less than a year... and/or players who have run extremely well in the right situations. But the remaining .25% might not even be among the best in the world, because even the greatest players go broke... but they are the best in terms of having the best combination of disapline and overall play. They are winning players WITH disapline, and even if there skill level is lower than the best players in the world, these players most likely will be the ones with 80% of the money. Mike Matusow has gone broke 6 times he has said. He is one of the greater players in the world and perhaps THE greatest poker player whwhen he's on his game. As great as he is, without disapline, and bankroll management he is going to keep going broke... but at least he is smart enough to invest most of it, so when he does, he's got more in investments than anyone. He's often asset rich, cash poor. A great strategy to preserve your bankroll, is to withdraw your bankroll and invesst it.
At this point, I'm basically starting over. I have a long ways to go once again. from my experience of going broke before, I was at least able to use that information to recognize what was happening before it did, and I stopped myself from continuing to put my bankroll at risk, and I finally cut back. Unfortunately since I am certainly not in a position of "need" like some people, and since it is certainly not going to be my primary income, I still didn't really care to play disaplined, I could recognize the signs, but I didn't really stop to take a second and think it over. The decisions you make in poker to play or to stop, to go higher or not, they will always be there tommorrow. But if you make a decision, the next decision will be harder to make... don't get sucked in! One day of playing isn't going to be enough to shoot your bankroll up overnight, but it is however enough for you to lose it all. Take a deep breath, sleep on it, and live to fight another day... It's just like in a tournament, if you know you're probably beat, keep the pot small if you can, otherwize, live to fight another day.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Episode 4 Installing a BS detector Part 2
Due to the popularity and demand for more information on the "poker bs detetor", I have created another episode with one more on the way.
Click here for Episode 4: Installing a BS detector Part 2
Click here for Episode 4: Installing a BS detector Part 2
Sunday, October 7, 2007
How to factor in "tournament credits" in bankroll management techniques
Tournament credits are the equivalent of cash, except that it can't be used in regular ring games or sit N gos, and you can't cash out... However, you can use it to buy into tournaments. So how do you factor in "tournament credits" when determining how to manage your bankroll? Bodog recently ran 3 separate $5+.50 buy ins "qualifiers" for the 100k guaranteed tournament. Since this qualifier actually paid in tournament credits, I bought in for all 3, and won 1 out of the 3, crediting $109 tournament credits to my account.
Now if you are building your bankroll and you qualify in one of these tournaments, what do you do with your tournament credits?
The general response is to bet it all and buy in for a $100+9 tournament. This is exactly what the casinos want. The reason they do "$100k guarentees" is because they want to get people playing high limits. But they also want players that play a lot to get a chance to get a lot of money. By having big guarantees like this, and a bunch of tournaments allowing a win into the entry, they're trying to get as many people in the tournament as possible, they want you to play in the higher games so they get the maximum tournament fees.
It's very tempting when you have a chance to buy into one of these $100 events and no have a noticeable hit to your bankroll, but it's just the same as if you had $109 more in your account and buying in for $109 tournament. Consistent accumulation at safe stakes is the way to do it. Even if you're a winning player, the law of averages say that there will be long periods of time where you will get unlucky, just as there will be long periods of time when you don't sometime in your poker career.
Based on the amount alone, you should just use your tournament credits just as a supplement to your normal bankroll. If your bankroll is $200 and you have $100 tournament credits, treat it as if you have $300, IF you are a winning player. There fore buying into MTTs with the rule, you should have 2% at stake. so 2% of $300 would be $6. I like to the qualifiers because often they'll allow maybe 3 people to qualify. The reason this can be to your advantage, is because you don't have any specific amount of chips to win. You certainly need to accumulate chips, but you can usually just pick your spots well, avoid confrontation even more than usual, and basically you get rewarded for other people knocking themselves out. These tournaments are very profitable because it's like this: In a winner take all tournament, it's essentially just a series of cash games where you move higher and higher up in stakes, until one person has it all. You might buy in $15 to get 1500 in chips, however that doesn't change the fact that it's basically a cash game with escalating blinds, except that $100 in chips represents $1. The only difference from a cash game is in this cash game you are forbidden to cash out. In normal tournaments, there's an advantage for playing to survive since you get paid for surviving, but not as much... essentially the winner who takes all the chips has to forfeit his winnings. It's basically like an agreement that the winner must forfeit a large portion of his winnings to the players who finish in a certain place. So at a certain point players actually earn money by folding. So the question becomes which is more valuable folding and finishing getting a small to decent cash out, or do I need to make a move to try to be in a position to finish in the top 5 spots. The player who finishes 2nd by just surviving is rewarded more so than the winner who must get every chip, but only gets rewarded as if he won 25% of them.
But in tournament qualifiers, even more advantage is to the player who finishes 2nd. He gets paid as if he finished first. The tournament is actually stopped at a certain point (although some play it out even though it is irrelevant), and if you're still alive, you're rewarded the same with 2 chips as the person with 20,000 chips. To keep the cash game analogy, this would be the equivalent of playing a cash game, and then at a certain point after all but whatever amount of people it pays out are eliminated... after everyone is gone EXCEPT you and the players who "qualify" all the money at the cash game would be equally distributed. So if someone survived with $1 worth of chips, and the first place person had $30,000 and 2nd had $29,999; they would all get 20,000 in chips... Of course if this was a $15 buy in, and they started with 1500, that 1500 would be worth $15 and the 20000 would be worth $200. In normal tournaments the third place might get 50, the 2nd place might get 150, and first place might get 400. But nowhere else can you get that kind of return with virtually nothing. You can actually be losing money in the long run in cash games, and play that kind of style in these qualifiers just a sort of survive style and actually do very well in the long run in these qualifiers. In addition, these tournaments often have a specific guarantee. They might award 3 "$100+9 tournament buy ins" regardless of the number of entrants. They can do this because they're not really giving the player money. They're getting people to buy in for maybe $5, and then all of that money won't go to people who can cash out, it will go towards people that can only enter another event, guaranteeing that a certain amount of that money goes back to them in "fees". These events also attract new players, but it's an advantage to you if there's 40 players playing a $5.50 buy in, and 3 109 payouts, or $327 guaranteed.
I think you would be wise to actually use your "qualifier money" or tournament credits to enter in additional qualifiers. If you play these right, and adapt your game based on the payout, you can do pretty well. However, at some point you will need to turn your tournament credits into actual cash, depending on if you're in it for the long run, or the short term. It's probably more valuable to just keep building up your tournament credits, especially since there's often extra money in there, and especially if you're a conservative tournament player, who doesn't get in a lot of all in confrontations, and who passes up small edges, but still is aggressive and steals pots at the right time. You will still be entering in other tournaments, that are under the total 2% of your bankroll as well.
HOWEVER, the 100k guaranteed tournament often has a lot of extra money in there. Since a winning player, and (any player) will have a higher expected value if there's extra prize money in there, they can risk slightly more... how much more depends upon how much extra money is in play... The problem with this is that the moment you calculate how much extra money is in the tournament, several more players will join, and there will be less additional money. Many players also wait for the last second and then join the tournament, probably making sure there is extra cash in the pot... so there is a flood of players at the end. But you'll have to just estimate HOW many players there are available... then calculate the extra money.
Lets say at the 100k guarentee you estimate that 600 players will be signed up. That means that at $100 there will be $60,000 in the prize pool.. but since it's guarenteed to have 100k there's an extra 40,000 in the pot. Now divide this number by the number of players which is 600. 40000/600=66.6... Subtract this number from the $109 buy in. You'll get 42.33. Now the buy in should be treated as if it's 42.33... If this surpasses 2% of your bankroll, you shouldn't join it. Put another way, take that 42.33 and multiply it by 50 and you get 2116.5... If your bankroll is this amount or greater, you can join this tournament... however your win rate isn't going to be any greater, in fact, if you're used to $10 buy ins, it's probably going to be less.
Now if you are building your bankroll and you qualify in one of these tournaments, what do you do with your tournament credits?
The general response is to bet it all and buy in for a $100+9 tournament. This is exactly what the casinos want. The reason they do "$100k guarentees" is because they want to get people playing high limits. But they also want players that play a lot to get a chance to get a lot of money. By having big guarantees like this, and a bunch of tournaments allowing a win into the entry, they're trying to get as many people in the tournament as possible, they want you to play in the higher games so they get the maximum tournament fees.
It's very tempting when you have a chance to buy into one of these $100 events and no have a noticeable hit to your bankroll, but it's just the same as if you had $109 more in your account and buying in for $109 tournament. Consistent accumulation at safe stakes is the way to do it. Even if you're a winning player, the law of averages say that there will be long periods of time where you will get unlucky, just as there will be long periods of time when you don't sometime in your poker career.
Based on the amount alone, you should just use your tournament credits just as a supplement to your normal bankroll. If your bankroll is $200 and you have $100 tournament credits, treat it as if you have $300, IF you are a winning player. There fore buying into MTTs with the rule, you should have 2% at stake. so 2% of $300 would be $6. I like to the qualifiers because often they'll allow maybe 3 people to qualify. The reason this can be to your advantage, is because you don't have any specific amount of chips to win. You certainly need to accumulate chips, but you can usually just pick your spots well, avoid confrontation even more than usual, and basically you get rewarded for other people knocking themselves out. These tournaments are very profitable because it's like this: In a winner take all tournament, it's essentially just a series of cash games where you move higher and higher up in stakes, until one person has it all. You might buy in $15 to get 1500 in chips, however that doesn't change the fact that it's basically a cash game with escalating blinds, except that $100 in chips represents $1. The only difference from a cash game is in this cash game you are forbidden to cash out. In normal tournaments, there's an advantage for playing to survive since you get paid for surviving, but not as much... essentially the winner who takes all the chips has to forfeit his winnings. It's basically like an agreement that the winner must forfeit a large portion of his winnings to the players who finish in a certain place. So at a certain point players actually earn money by folding. So the question becomes which is more valuable folding and finishing getting a small to decent cash out, or do I need to make a move to try to be in a position to finish in the top 5 spots. The player who finishes 2nd by just surviving is rewarded more so than the winner who must get every chip, but only gets rewarded as if he won 25% of them.
But in tournament qualifiers, even more advantage is to the player who finishes 2nd. He gets paid as if he finished first. The tournament is actually stopped at a certain point (although some play it out even though it is irrelevant), and if you're still alive, you're rewarded the same with 2 chips as the person with 20,000 chips. To keep the cash game analogy, this would be the equivalent of playing a cash game, and then at a certain point after all but whatever amount of people it pays out are eliminated... after everyone is gone EXCEPT you and the players who "qualify" all the money at the cash game would be equally distributed. So if someone survived with $1 worth of chips, and the first place person had $30,000 and 2nd had $29,999; they would all get 20,000 in chips... Of course if this was a $15 buy in, and they started with 1500, that 1500 would be worth $15 and the 20000 would be worth $200. In normal tournaments the third place might get 50, the 2nd place might get 150, and first place might get 400. But nowhere else can you get that kind of return with virtually nothing. You can actually be losing money in the long run in cash games, and play that kind of style in these qualifiers just a sort of survive style and actually do very well in the long run in these qualifiers. In addition, these tournaments often have a specific guarantee. They might award 3 "$100+9 tournament buy ins" regardless of the number of entrants. They can do this because they're not really giving the player money. They're getting people to buy in for maybe $5, and then all of that money won't go to people who can cash out, it will go towards people that can only enter another event, guaranteeing that a certain amount of that money goes back to them in "fees". These events also attract new players, but it's an advantage to you if there's 40 players playing a $5.50 buy in, and 3 109 payouts, or $327 guaranteed.
I think you would be wise to actually use your "qualifier money" or tournament credits to enter in additional qualifiers. If you play these right, and adapt your game based on the payout, you can do pretty well. However, at some point you will need to turn your tournament credits into actual cash, depending on if you're in it for the long run, or the short term. It's probably more valuable to just keep building up your tournament credits, especially since there's often extra money in there, and especially if you're a conservative tournament player, who doesn't get in a lot of all in confrontations, and who passes up small edges, but still is aggressive and steals pots at the right time. You will still be entering in other tournaments, that are under the total 2% of your bankroll as well.
HOWEVER, the 100k guaranteed tournament often has a lot of extra money in there. Since a winning player, and (any player) will have a higher expected value if there's extra prize money in there, they can risk slightly more... how much more depends upon how much extra money is in play... The problem with this is that the moment you calculate how much extra money is in the tournament, several more players will join, and there will be less additional money. Many players also wait for the last second and then join the tournament, probably making sure there is extra cash in the pot... so there is a flood of players at the end. But you'll have to just estimate HOW many players there are available... then calculate the extra money.
Lets say at the 100k guarentee you estimate that 600 players will be signed up. That means that at $100 there will be $60,000 in the prize pool.. but since it's guarenteed to have 100k there's an extra 40,000 in the pot. Now divide this number by the number of players which is 600. 40000/600=66.6... Subtract this number from the $109 buy in. You'll get 42.33. Now the buy in should be treated as if it's 42.33... If this surpasses 2% of your bankroll, you shouldn't join it. Put another way, take that 42.33 and multiply it by 50 and you get 2116.5... If your bankroll is this amount or greater, you can join this tournament... however your win rate isn't going to be any greater, in fact, if you're used to $10 buy ins, it's probably going to be less.
Developing a "poker BS detector" - Zero to a thousand podcast episode 4
Learn about how to develop a "poker BS detector" Do you want to learn to absolutely intuitively know your opponent is full of it? Then this podcast is a must... 2 podcasts in the same week due to me missing last weeks episode. When do you trust your read, and when don't you, when do you trust your "BS detector". This one goes into a great detail about a concept of when to rely on your "read" when it defies pot odds. When to bet on what your opponent DOESNT have when you have a marginal hand. Often times it's said that great players rely on their read, not mathmatics... However, there can be a lot more math involved, but that math is in your human brain, your subconscious calculating what's known from experience. But there's an example by actually knowing a little bit about the math, about the accuracy of the "BS detector", where even if your BS detector is only right 30% of the time where it can still allow you to make a profitable call that it wouldn't normally. I liked the way this podcast went so I might go into more detail about this next week.
Zero to a thousand podcast episode 3
Click here's for episode 3
If you only listen to one of the podcasts this one has to be it. In today's episode I talk about lots of strategy, in the first part of the podcast I briefly review the only tournament I had a chance to play in like a week or maybe it was 2... I talk about a play I made late that I believe was a slight mistake. On the second part I go into cash game strategy, and why you should do a lot of the OPPOSITE strategy online by buying in for the minimum rather then buying in to have everyone covered. (however you are leaving immediately after winning a big pot). I go into specific hands that I play in a tight aggressive strategy, and I introduce a loose aggressive strategy, but I don't go into the specifics of it.
Then I go into strategies I talk about playing different games and expand on how to play draws
out of position and in position, how to buy pots, and how you can play "phantom outs" and represent draws. This podcast is a MUST see.
If you only listen to one of the podcasts this one has to be it. In today's episode I talk about lots of strategy, in the first part of the podcast I briefly review the only tournament I had a chance to play in like a week or maybe it was 2... I talk about a play I made late that I believe was a slight mistake. On the second part I go into cash game strategy, and why you should do a lot of the OPPOSITE strategy online by buying in for the minimum rather then buying in to have everyone covered. (however you are leaving immediately after winning a big pot). I go into specific hands that I play in a tight aggressive strategy, and I introduce a loose aggressive strategy, but I don't go into the specifics of it.
Then I go into strategies I talk about playing different games and expand on how to play draws
out of position and in position, how to buy pots, and how you can play "phantom outs" and represent draws. This podcast is a MUST see.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Zero to a thousand podcast episode 2 tournament summary
Episode #2 has been completed... It's pretty much just a tournament summary. It can be found here
I talk about all 4 of my tournament cashes and summarize my play. Next episode (episode 3) we're going to talk about flat calling your opponents and trapping him, we're going to talk about limping. And we're going to talk about strategies for the loose and aggressive opponents
I talk about all 4 of my tournament cashes and summarize my play. Next episode (episode 3) we're going to talk about flat calling your opponents and trapping him, we're going to talk about limping. And we're going to talk about strategies for the loose and aggressive opponents
Friday, September 21, 2007
Podcast #2 today!!!
Saturday... 9/22 I plan to do podcast episode number 2.. haven't been able to play a lot of poker lately, between work and other things I've been busy, but I played a cash game and made up for some lost ground from me getting beat a little overall in the sitNgos.
MTT with fields over 100 and actually over 1000 definitely are my best game and I missed out on a $3500 guarentee for only $7 an there were like 400 entries only. Lot of extra money in these so I'll be looking to play this maybe tomorrow if I remember, but otherwize probably not until next week. I think the more entries the greater my Return on my investments tends to be since more players= more money, and since I play a game where I accumulate chips and avoid getting all my chips as much as I can, all the chip accumulation from small pots adds up so much, and then on the bubble I steal, and when I finally do get all my chips in it's either with a hand where my opponent has very little chance of winning, or very late in tournament when I'm near or on the bubble or in the money.
I'm experimenting with a BIG pot BIG stack poker style where I'm REALLY overbetting a lot and using the all in move if the pot is right, it's another style that looks like a maniac style, but late in the middle stages of tournaments when I have a lot of chips it really gets me set up to get paid off since I know which opponents are likely to call and when they're strong... and I've done a lot of work with the mathematics of it, and I tested it at an ultimate bet qualifier... went from 20k to 65k back to 50k back up to 70k and then decided to go to bed, nearly autofolded into the money... I still want to do a lot of work with this method before I can actually explain it to you and tell you the "correct" way to play it and the correct situations. You really have to know your opponents and make a lot of tough decisions just like small pot poker, but it's exploiting when your opponent is too tight postflop and too loose preflop, or if it's someone that you can get a good read on you do it with position.
MTT with fields over 100 and actually over 1000 definitely are my best game and I missed out on a $3500 guarentee for only $7 an there were like 400 entries only. Lot of extra money in these so I'll be looking to play this maybe tomorrow if I remember, but otherwize probably not until next week. I think the more entries the greater my Return on my investments tends to be since more players= more money, and since I play a game where I accumulate chips and avoid getting all my chips as much as I can, all the chip accumulation from small pots adds up so much, and then on the bubble I steal, and when I finally do get all my chips in it's either with a hand where my opponent has very little chance of winning, or very late in tournament when I'm near or on the bubble or in the money.
I'm experimenting with a BIG pot BIG stack poker style where I'm REALLY overbetting a lot and using the all in move if the pot is right, it's another style that looks like a maniac style, but late in the middle stages of tournaments when I have a lot of chips it really gets me set up to get paid off since I know which opponents are likely to call and when they're strong... and I've done a lot of work with the mathematics of it, and I tested it at an ultimate bet qualifier... went from 20k to 65k back to 50k back up to 70k and then decided to go to bed, nearly autofolded into the money... I still want to do a lot of work with this method before I can actually explain it to you and tell you the "correct" way to play it and the correct situations. You really have to know your opponents and make a lot of tough decisions just like small pot poker, but it's exploiting when your opponent is too tight postflop and too loose preflop, or if it's someone that you can get a good read on you do it with position.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
bubble play 3rd cash
only recorded part of this bubble play... actually there was one hand that you'll probably see in the 2nd cash video with 88...
I caught the end of my KQs call all in from the big blind from someone trying to push me around.
Moved tables and folded a couple hands noticed one person trying to dominate the table, everyone else was tight. Raised with 78 and he tried to check raise me... Very unlikely that a J72 flop hit him, and who knows, he might give me way too much credit for a hand, if I get called I've got outs, but I really felt he was trying to bully me, so it was more of a reresteal than me thinking my hand was good there, although it probably was. He could have had AK, AQ, TT 99 88, J with bad kicker or nothing at all. As I've stated before I don't mind taking risks on the bubble to accumulate chips. the bubble came MUCH quicker than I wanted though, and I didn't really get a chance to steal the blinds. If I would have recognized it was approaching the bubble sooner I could have made some plays earlier, and then just stolen the blinds for a couple rounds. Flat called an early position raise with AQ... knew he was strong, a fold wouldn't be a bad decision, but I had position on him, and I felt he had like JJ,AK,AQs. I felt at this stage of the tournament he might try to limp with AA or KK. I figured a king comes he's going to lead out and I'm going to come over the top and win, but if a queen comes or an ace comes I'm going to win a decent pot. He bet less than a third of his stack so if he didn't have KK or AA it was an easy call... It would be a bad decision to push all in preflop because he could be strong, and if the flop misses, I get more information and a chance to outplay him. As it turned out I hit the queen, and he shoved... Well, to lay down to a bet in a pot like this when I HIT a pair I felt was playing too weak. He could have AK, he could have JJ and either felt to deeply invested into it and pot committed, or maybe he also has AQ, or maybe I gave him too much credit and he was just raising with KQs or KJs or rags intending to push. I figured I was beat about half the time here, but I could be beat and still win if I called and I was getting like 2 to 1. I was wrong, he had KK, but I got lucky and hit my ace and won.
--
post video I made a play on a guy who had raised a lot and gotten caught and raised the next hand. I had A3 and came over the top. It was bad timing and he went all in for like 1000 more chips so I had to call, he had 77, I hit my ace. played a little impatiently but it worked out okay, although I won't do that again. Then I had a flushdraw and gutshot draw and chose to checkraise the player all in, He had a set of 10s, I hit my flush, then he paired the board and won with a fullhouse and I was out.... I failed to gear down enough after the bubble.. I slowed down a little bit, but I was still over aggressive, and getting too involved in too many big pots with marginal hands and draws.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Zero to a thousand Poker Challenge Podcast ep 1
Click here to listen to the first episode of zero to a thousand poker challenge podcast
I finally figured out how to upload this podcast. I only have one made, but there will be more to come.
I would love your feedback.
I finally figured out how to upload this podcast. I only have one made, but there will be more to come.
I would love your feedback.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Zero to a thousand? OH BABY that helps!
Just ran REALLY well and got lucky as hell when it mattered most to win. I certainly played well up until the final table, but I took risks. Although my QQ got ran down by A6 in the biggest pot of the night multiway, I ended up shoving in with JT and picking up blinds, winning a coinflip with JT the next hand, then coming back and picking up aces to 2 limps and a raise, and finally going headsup down to one on one at the final table aginst the same guy who took all my chips with A6 vs QQ... But this time I would get my revenge...
It's funny because I teased him telling him to consider my chips a loan to him, telling him I'll get them all back... plus interest. I figured if I ran into him again, I would pick up a hand and let him try to keep running me over and bluffing away as he did whenever people called him . I met him again at the final table.
The final table was quick as hell. There were a few people a bunch of limpers and me completing on the SB and the BB raising. he raised pretty big, and i figured he was making a steal, or had a low pair, but I opted for the stop and go with AJ. On low card board I didn't shove all in so I made his decesion a little tougher, but I committed 3/4 my stack on the raise so basically was all in. The chips were right for this move, especially since I figured him for a pair which I have 6 outs, rags which he'll fold but if I push preflop he might be less likely to giv it up. or an ace with me either being dominated, or him dominating me, but if this was the case, I think he'd have to fold because he knows I could have hit. When he said "no way do you call there" either before or after I called, I knew that he was angry about it and didn't want me to call. This meant he probably didn't have AK or AQ because he wouldn't be so angry about it. he could have KQ, but my initial read could have been right, minus AK and AQ. I pushed and he said "no way you have anything" but he folded anyways. Not only do I get him to fold more often this way, but If I flop something big, I can lead out with a very small bet and he'll feel like calling will commit too much, and the bet is too small to fold to, so he'll probably push and I can get more when I hit. It was a very bold move to make, but at the final table you're not playing for second, you've done that all tournament, you gotta play to win, or to place top 5. The move was made a little earlier than I needed to, But I just felt like the guy was on a steal from the BB... his raise was a large portion in relationship to the chipstacks, which screamed "please fold!" He knew that people PROBABLY wouldn't want to commit a large amount of there stack. He actually raised in a position where if he gets called he can push all in. He has a lot of ways to win the pot, so if he's a maniac style player, he's raising with any hand there. I know how much people get aggressive at this stage of the table, and I really felt I could take it awy from him. I was getting just over 2 to 1 here. I actually felt like my hand might be best here, but it wasn't that big of dog with all the money in the pot, and I had a chance that I'd be a coinflip to the river, but had a large chance that my aggression would in anyways, or have 6 outs if not at least a large enough of the tim where it was the right move in the long run in terms of chips. In terms of survival it's a horrible move, and thus should never be done early on in tourneys or even in the middle part. But if you want to play for the win, it should be done. I think the above example is basically the perfect example of a stop and go. Ideally you'd do it with AQ. Some say hands like 88 or 99 are good hands too, but it depends, how likely you are to get called with 2 overcards to the board. Personally I'd rather be the one pushing with 2 overs, and if my oponent calls with a pair I got outs, but it does make some sense because a pair from preflop to the river is only a slight favorite, a pair to the flop is like a 70% chance of being best. However, you're probably only going to get called with a hand that has you absolutely crushed to 2 outs. Personally I'd rather push with outs, and be able to extract value if I hit.
So I took that pot down and jumped up from like 380K to 600k
it was a hell of a tournament and I outlasted over 4200 players and took down the win...
$222 baby!
I had no idea the challenge would get going as quickly as it did... nor did I think such a large portion would come from freerolls alone, but it did, and now I can play with some bigger cash. I'll do all the math and put up final table and stuff this weekend, and I'll try to get my other videos too
4th freeroll cash, I've just been on FIRE lately.
This was the luckiest I got in awhile... my opponent was raising every single hand, i opted to limp push him representing a monster hoping he would allow me to play some small pots. He couldn't have a hand everytime, but he happened to have one that time.. he flipped AA over but I caught a 4card flush with my Q7.. that's DAMN lucky. Then A5 the next hand I was raised and pushed and he had 55 and I hit my ace and won it. It was pretty rediculous, but I got him back for busting my Queens and THEN some.
anyways I got work early tommorrow, and I gotta get some sleep so moreto come later!
It's funny because I teased him telling him to consider my chips a loan to him, telling him I'll get them all back... plus interest. I figured if I ran into him again, I would pick up a hand and let him try to keep running me over and bluffing away as he did whenever people called him . I met him again at the final table.
The final table was quick as hell. There were a few people a bunch of limpers and me completing on the SB and the BB raising. he raised pretty big, and i figured he was making a steal, or had a low pair, but I opted for the stop and go with AJ. On low card board I didn't shove all in so I made his decesion a little tougher, but I committed 3/4 my stack on the raise so basically was all in. The chips were right for this move, especially since I figured him for a pair which I have 6 outs, rags which he'll fold but if I push preflop he might be less likely to giv it up. or an ace with me either being dominated, or him dominating me, but if this was the case, I think he'd have to fold because he knows I could have hit. When he said "no way do you call there" either before or after I called, I knew that he was angry about it and didn't want me to call. This meant he probably didn't have AK or AQ because he wouldn't be so angry about it. he could have KQ, but my initial read could have been right, minus AK and AQ. I pushed and he said "no way you have anything" but he folded anyways. Not only do I get him to fold more often this way, but If I flop something big, I can lead out with a very small bet and he'll feel like calling will commit too much, and the bet is too small to fold to, so he'll probably push and I can get more when I hit. It was a very bold move to make, but at the final table you're not playing for second, you've done that all tournament, you gotta play to win, or to place top 5. The move was made a little earlier than I needed to, But I just felt like the guy was on a steal from the BB... his raise was a large portion in relationship to the chipstacks, which screamed "please fold!" He knew that people PROBABLY wouldn't want to commit a large amount of there stack. He actually raised in a position where if he gets called he can push all in. He has a lot of ways to win the pot, so if he's a maniac style player, he's raising with any hand there. I know how much people get aggressive at this stage of the table, and I really felt I could take it awy from him. I was getting just over 2 to 1 here. I actually felt like my hand might be best here, but it wasn't that big of dog with all the money in the pot, and I had a chance that I'd be a coinflip to the river, but had a large chance that my aggression would in anyways, or have 6 outs if not at least a large enough of the tim where it was the right move in the long run in terms of chips. In terms of survival it's a horrible move, and thus should never be done early on in tourneys or even in the middle part. But if you want to play for the win, it should be done. I think the above example is basically the perfect example of a stop and go. Ideally you'd do it with AQ. Some say hands like 88 or 99 are good hands too, but it depends, how likely you are to get called with 2 overcards to the board. Personally I'd rather be the one pushing with 2 overs, and if my oponent calls with a pair I got outs, but it does make some sense because a pair from preflop to the river is only a slight favorite, a pair to the flop is like a 70% chance of being best. However, you're probably only going to get called with a hand that has you absolutely crushed to 2 outs. Personally I'd rather push with outs, and be able to extract value if I hit.
So I took that pot down and jumped up from like 380K to 600k
it was a hell of a tournament and I outlasted over 4200 players and took down the win...
$222 baby!
I had no idea the challenge would get going as quickly as it did... nor did I think such a large portion would come from freerolls alone, but it did, and now I can play with some bigger cash. I'll do all the math and put up final table and stuff this weekend, and I'll try to get my other videos too
4th freeroll cash, I've just been on FIRE lately.
This was the luckiest I got in awhile... my opponent was raising every single hand, i opted to limp push him representing a monster hoping he would allow me to play some small pots. He couldn't have a hand everytime, but he happened to have one that time.. he flipped AA over but I caught a 4card flush with my Q7.. that's DAMN lucky. Then A5 the next hand I was raised and pushed and he had 55 and I hit my ace and won it. It was pretty rediculous, but I got him back for busting my Queens and THEN some.
anyways I got work early tommorrow, and I gotta get some sleep so moreto come later!
Monday, September 10, 2007
My 2nd cash pic
Here's a pic of my 2nd cash, my biggest cash, and my first win. $25. This tournament had under 500 players and the field was pretty weak at the right times. I didn't play as many hands as usual, and it was more of a helmuth style small ball (playing much fewer hands), but it was effective. I picked it up a little bit at times, and that's around when I had my first all in when I hit a set and my opponent pushed all in with a flushdraw. That was the only time I was all in other than the final table with a significant amount of my stack at play.
Once I got to the final table I opted to shove all in with 88 on the BB hoping that people would just fold and if they did fold I'd probably get people folding to my big blind. But I was called by AJ and managed to win. The only other time I was all in was when I was headsup with my opponent drawing dead. he had me covered by 1.5k so the next hand he was done.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
it was bound to happen
If you read the last post, you know that I said how well I played, and I just had to be playig more often so I could qualify/win more... that maybe when I start running well I'll get the big one...
Well I decided to multitable a little bit so I could play more. And Not only did I place in the money in one, but I won the entire thing... $25 Cash! Now that's enough to get my bankroll started... ESPECIALLY at world poker exchange where it's "no rake" you get all your rake back.
I was all in once before the final table with bottom set against a flushdraw...
I would have preferred to get it all in on the turn or just played a small pot UNTIL the turn, and if i had to check the turn to induce a bluff I would, but when your opponent shoves all in you don't have too much of a choice. So I took it down there. I'm not even positive it was all my chips at risk, but if it wasn't it was significant enough where I'd have a slim chance of advancing. I had quite a few people move in on me, but all my chips weren't at risk. I had a few flushes but there wasn't an all in it was just big bets. On the final table I shoved all in because I was the 2nd shortest stack about 6-7 handed. I got called by AK and won the coinflip and doubled up. So I had my money in as a 74% (set vs flushdraw) a 55% and finally headsup I was a 100%. So really based on when my money was all in on the line, I was about 40% to win.
That's not all... I just so happened to make it in the money at the bodog $1000 I'm guarenteed $2 at this point but I'm still playing and first place is $220...
Not bad considering I had to autofold quite a few hands to focus in one winning.
I got a portion of the final table 3 handed recorded that I'll get up for you soon so you can see a little bit how I play... Unfortunately you don't get a chance to see how tight I was playing before hand, but you do see what the effect of playing tight as well as realizing your opponents aren't calling stations or anything. I had to cut the vid short.. I was hoping that if I made it headsup I would have the video recording software done compiling it so I could record it it but I didn't get a chance to. Basically I tightened up within 2-3 mins before the next blind raise so I could steal again. With that done, I ended up grinding my way up until I got headsup. Once headsup I kept stealing pots until we were about even in chips. Then I had 45 on the button/SB raised it I hit the 5 on the flop and bet and my opponent called. Then I hit a 5 again and I bet and was raised pretty big. I called and I basically checked quickly the same way I did when I was on a draw earlier and decided to fold... My opponent shoved all in and I called and he had ace high and was drawing dead.
At Bodog's $1000 gaurentee I actually had to fold a lot more hands then I wanted to because of the autofold feature and laggy software... I played a AP tournamnet (to which I came in 444th) and tried to play an UB qualifier again, but I got too distracted so I put that one on autofold so i could play the others came back with 1100 with 150/300 blinds and basically checked down 83 BB vs SB and won, but after that my 88 lost to 44... I didn't have too much of a shot at comming back unless I won a big pot so I just flat called a raise inviting anyone and everyone in the pot. The flop came J42 and there was an initial bet and a raise and I pushed and the first bettor folded and the guy called with 44 and I was done. All these tournaments were difficult to keep track of, but I was still doing well.
Unfortunately I missed the part where I realized the bubble was comming up, but I did catch it towards the end of it, so I got to make an aggressive call when a guy shoved all in on my big blind. I had KQ and he had KJ. I took him out, but unfortunately couldn't run over that table because i moved tables right after that. I folded the first hand to make sure there were no maniacs at the table, but the next hand I got 78off and played... you'll have to see the video when it's done to check it out. an UTG raised and this was after the bubble so I had to just call with AQs. the flop came Q86 and the guy check raised all in. I knew he was strong, but he could have AQ, AK, JJ, or TT and I have all those hands beat so I had to call since I was getting nearly 2 to 1 on my money. He turned over KK but as I was saying Nice hand the ace peeled off. I'd like to raise right now but I have a loose player who occasionally plays like a maniac on my right, so I'm blinding down waiting for a hand, and Bodog's structure doesn't allow for too much waiting at this kind of table.
29 players left... fortunately blinding down to a short stack doesn't hurt me too much since there's 18k dead money in the pot and everyone's short stacked in relation to the blinds... so if I manage to pickup a hand and there's a limper or two whether double up or get away with the steal, I'm pretty much right back in it.
I'm going to try to be as conservative as the blinds allow me right now until I get a stack I can play around with. I might have to push from the button or small blind or big blind one of these times, but if I only get 1 caller I'm still going to have so much dead money. I'm just waiting to set a trap, but sometimes that hand doesn't come and you have to create profitable situations. I have the same guy minraising my blind every time, but others are calling behind him so a push from there would be a good spot.
As I was typing this I got lucky and beat a guy with A3 vs 77, I tried to resteal and he pushed but it was only like hardly a big blind more... but he just called someone down with pocket 2s after the flop, and he raised the next hand he was crippled I figured it could easily be a tilt situation so I thought my ace high could easily be the best hand and I was looking for a spot to resteal. On the big blind I picked up a pair with a flushdraw and decided to check raise all in. The guy had a set of tenss and although I hit my flush on the turn, the board paired on the river and I went out 20th place. Bodog claims to pay 6.40 to 20th, but it says "you finished 20th and recieve $3.04 so I'm not sure what's up with that... but between the software lagging, the lack of time to decide, the too fast blind structures, that's yet another reason why I don't like Bodog very much.
Results so far
Pokerstars: $0.15 in account, can't use to play anything.
Bodog: 3.04.. wait $6.40 I guess the message was wrong but they transfered it right.
World Poker Exchange:$25
Total Bankroll: $31.55 from freerolls alone and it's been less than a month since the challenge. When it comes to freerolls, Chris Ferguson ain't got nothing on me! :)
So far I've placed in the money or qualified in about 25% of my tournaments by my estimate... Which is good, but considering how well I've got my money in, it could be better.
I think picking up the Micon System Secrets helped me realize some things that may help me get a few more pots... For example: there's a lot more value than I realized in making moves with A5 and stuff mid-later on against opponents who like to steal with KQ and defend the blinds with KJ.
Certainly don't spend the money on the Micon Secrets if you are just freerolling yourself for fun, but realize that once you have the money, just being able to win a pot or two more every hour in a tournament could be enough because then your double ups will mean more, and you'll be able to sit around a little longer without making a move and be able to pickup that hand you need. It could mean the difference between making the money and not, and over every tournament you play in your career, it will make a huge difference.
For now you might just want to sit at a Barnes and Nobles or a library and read Dan Harrington's books Harrington on holdem, or Daniel Negreanu's Power Holdem Strategy, Or Brunson's Supersystem I and II.
But if you can afford it, audio programs like the Micon Secrets offer the benefit of being able to listen to it at night with the lights off before you go to sleep or to listen to it while you play, you can pause it without losing your spot, and for some people audio is much easier to follow. It also gives you "video lessons" with Gank, so you can watch him dominate the tables and see his hole cards. If you think watching me at the freeroll tables is valuable, you have to check this out.
He also offers a 100% money back guarantee, so You can always try it out for 60 days and send him a message back and dump it.
Anyways, I've made the mistake of cashing in one of these bodog events then proceeding to play and dump off the money, so I'm going to bed and I'll grind my way up in the "beginner sitNgo's" or cashgames... Based on my bankroll I can only sit with about $1.6 for sitNgos and cash games and .63 for MTTs. However, I'm allowing myself to play the "minnimum" games while I'm starting out since the only alternative is more freerolls.
Now that I got my cashed rolling in, I'm going to figure out this podcasting thing and get it set up. I'm going to load up the videos, and if I can, I'll see if I can use ourmedia.org to load videos larger than 100MBs. If I can and actually am able to link to them, I'll actually record entire tournaments with audio to them.
I got a lot planned, hopefully I can get to it all fairly quickly.
seeya next time
-Mike
Well I decided to multitable a little bit so I could play more. And Not only did I place in the money in one, but I won the entire thing... $25 Cash! Now that's enough to get my bankroll started... ESPECIALLY at world poker exchange where it's "no rake" you get all your rake back.
I was all in once before the final table with bottom set against a flushdraw...
I would have preferred to get it all in on the turn or just played a small pot UNTIL the turn, and if i had to check the turn to induce a bluff I would, but when your opponent shoves all in you don't have too much of a choice. So I took it down there. I'm not even positive it was all my chips at risk, but if it wasn't it was significant enough where I'd have a slim chance of advancing. I had quite a few people move in on me, but all my chips weren't at risk. I had a few flushes but there wasn't an all in it was just big bets. On the final table I shoved all in because I was the 2nd shortest stack about 6-7 handed. I got called by AK and won the coinflip and doubled up. So I had my money in as a 74% (set vs flushdraw) a 55% and finally headsup I was a 100%. So really based on when my money was all in on the line, I was about 40% to win.
That's not all... I just so happened to make it in the money at the bodog $1000 I'm guarenteed $2 at this point but I'm still playing and first place is $220...
Not bad considering I had to autofold quite a few hands to focus in one winning.
I got a portion of the final table 3 handed recorded that I'll get up for you soon so you can see a little bit how I play... Unfortunately you don't get a chance to see how tight I was playing before hand, but you do see what the effect of playing tight as well as realizing your opponents aren't calling stations or anything. I had to cut the vid short.. I was hoping that if I made it headsup I would have the video recording software done compiling it so I could record it it but I didn't get a chance to. Basically I tightened up within 2-3 mins before the next blind raise so I could steal again. With that done, I ended up grinding my way up until I got headsup. Once headsup I kept stealing pots until we were about even in chips. Then I had 45 on the button/SB raised it I hit the 5 on the flop and bet and my opponent called. Then I hit a 5 again and I bet and was raised pretty big. I called and I basically checked quickly the same way I did when I was on a draw earlier and decided to fold... My opponent shoved all in and I called and he had ace high and was drawing dead.
At Bodog's $1000 gaurentee I actually had to fold a lot more hands then I wanted to because of the autofold feature and laggy software... I played a AP tournamnet (to which I came in 444th) and tried to play an UB qualifier again, but I got too distracted so I put that one on autofold so i could play the others came back with 1100 with 150/300 blinds and basically checked down 83 BB vs SB and won, but after that my 88 lost to 44... I didn't have too much of a shot at comming back unless I won a big pot so I just flat called a raise inviting anyone and everyone in the pot. The flop came J42 and there was an initial bet and a raise and I pushed and the first bettor folded and the guy called with 44 and I was done. All these tournaments were difficult to keep track of, but I was still doing well.
Unfortunately I missed the part where I realized the bubble was comming up, but I did catch it towards the end of it, so I got to make an aggressive call when a guy shoved all in on my big blind. I had KQ and he had KJ. I took him out, but unfortunately couldn't run over that table because i moved tables right after that. I folded the first hand to make sure there were no maniacs at the table, but the next hand I got 78off and played... you'll have to see the video when it's done to check it out. an UTG raised and this was after the bubble so I had to just call with AQs. the flop came Q86 and the guy check raised all in. I knew he was strong, but he could have AQ, AK, JJ, or TT and I have all those hands beat so I had to call since I was getting nearly 2 to 1 on my money. He turned over KK but as I was saying Nice hand the ace peeled off. I'd like to raise right now but I have a loose player who occasionally plays like a maniac on my right, so I'm blinding down waiting for a hand, and Bodog's structure doesn't allow for too much waiting at this kind of table.
29 players left... fortunately blinding down to a short stack doesn't hurt me too much since there's 18k dead money in the pot and everyone's short stacked in relation to the blinds... so if I manage to pickup a hand and there's a limper or two whether double up or get away with the steal, I'm pretty much right back in it.
I'm going to try to be as conservative as the blinds allow me right now until I get a stack I can play around with. I might have to push from the button or small blind or big blind one of these times, but if I only get 1 caller I'm still going to have so much dead money. I'm just waiting to set a trap, but sometimes that hand doesn't come and you have to create profitable situations. I have the same guy minraising my blind every time, but others are calling behind him so a push from there would be a good spot.
As I was typing this I got lucky and beat a guy with A3 vs 77, I tried to resteal and he pushed but it was only like hardly a big blind more... but he just called someone down with pocket 2s after the flop, and he raised the next hand he was crippled I figured it could easily be a tilt situation so I thought my ace high could easily be the best hand and I was looking for a spot to resteal. On the big blind I picked up a pair with a flushdraw and decided to check raise all in. The guy had a set of tenss and although I hit my flush on the turn, the board paired on the river and I went out 20th place. Bodog claims to pay 6.40 to 20th, but it says "you finished 20th and recieve $3.04 so I'm not sure what's up with that... but between the software lagging, the lack of time to decide, the too fast blind structures, that's yet another reason why I don't like Bodog very much.
Results so far
Pokerstars: $0.15 in account, can't use to play anything.
Bodog: 3.04.. wait $6.40 I guess the message was wrong but they transfered it right.
World Poker Exchange:$25
Total Bankroll: $31.55 from freerolls alone and it's been less than a month since the challenge. When it comes to freerolls, Chris Ferguson ain't got nothing on me! :)
So far I've placed in the money or qualified in about 25% of my tournaments by my estimate... Which is good, but considering how well I've got my money in, it could be better.
I think picking up the Micon System Secrets helped me realize some things that may help me get a few more pots... For example: there's a lot more value than I realized in making moves with A5 and stuff mid-later on against opponents who like to steal with KQ and defend the blinds with KJ.
Certainly don't spend the money on the Micon Secrets if you are just freerolling yourself for fun, but realize that once you have the money, just being able to win a pot or two more every hour in a tournament could be enough because then your double ups will mean more, and you'll be able to sit around a little longer without making a move and be able to pickup that hand you need. It could mean the difference between making the money and not, and over every tournament you play in your career, it will make a huge difference.
For now you might just want to sit at a Barnes and Nobles or a library and read Dan Harrington's books Harrington on holdem, or Daniel Negreanu's Power Holdem Strategy, Or Brunson's Supersystem I and II.
But if you can afford it, audio programs like the Micon Secrets offer the benefit of being able to listen to it at night with the lights off before you go to sleep or to listen to it while you play, you can pause it without losing your spot, and for some people audio is much easier to follow. It also gives you "video lessons" with Gank, so you can watch him dominate the tables and see his hole cards. If you think watching me at the freeroll tables is valuable, you have to check this out.
He also offers a 100% money back guarantee, so You can always try it out for 60 days and send him a message back and dump it.
Anyways, I've made the mistake of cashing in one of these bodog events then proceeding to play and dump off the money, so I'm going to bed and I'll grind my way up in the "beginner sitNgo's" or cashgames... Based on my bankroll I can only sit with about $1.6 for sitNgos and cash games and .63 for MTTs. However, I'm allowing myself to play the "minnimum" games while I'm starting out since the only alternative is more freerolls.
Now that I got my cashed rolling in, I'm going to figure out this podcasting thing and get it set up. I'm going to load up the videos, and if I can, I'll see if I can use ourmedia.org to load videos larger than 100MBs. If I can and actually am able to link to them, I'll actually record entire tournaments with audio to them.
I got a lot planned, hopefully I can get to it all fairly quickly.
seeya next time
-Mike
Saturday, September 8, 2007
running bad when it matters in tournaments
I can't tell you how many times I've been in dominant position late in tournaments only for the guy to suck out after all my money is in. It can be very frustrating at times when you play so good, but its not enough
Recently there were about 140 players left in a qualifier needing to get top 30 to qualify. I was about in 100th place but still had plenty of chips. I had been playing really tight, but I made 1 steal from the SB after a limper and one small raise and on the flop steal after it was folded to me. People were respecting my raises, but I felt like I probably had gotten a little more respect than I should and that someone was going to catch on.
I pick up KK after a limper and so I raised it the exact same amount as I did before from the SB after a limper and I got called. I knew he must have figured that I couldn't have a good hand all of those times... I had about 13000 in chips and I raised to about 3400 at 300/600 blinds. I was called from the button and the flop came 346 with 2 spades. I could have shoved all in right here and take it down, but I elected to bet small to try to extract value rather than protect my hand ... The reason being that taking down an extra 4500 probably wouldn't give me enough to make it into the top 30 without having to take a coinflip... Getting all of his chips meant I was going to have over 30k and be able to coast into the top 30 with an occasional steal and a small pot played with a big hand allowing me to get all my chips. I also couldn't see him folding AK here anyways, and if he had a weaker ace he's only going to hit on the turn 6% of the time, and if it doesn't come I'm getting all of my money in. So I bet nearly half my chips and he after thinking forever decides to call. The turn is a queen and I shove in. He calls turning over QJ! what he was doing in the hand preflop I really don't know other than he had position and I may have been stealing, but calling on the flop there is nuts. But I have no problem with him playing like that... I know in freerolls you expect this kind of thing so you can't be too suprized... But having 1/4 of my money in preflop as an 80% fav a third of my money in on the flop as an 95% fav, and the rest on the turn as an 88% favorite, the river queen sure suprized me.
I don't know in this situation if there was anythign I could have done better this tourney. The only other time I was all in is when I limp then a guy raised and someone else called in EP I raised with 9s midway through trying to represent a big hand like AA or Kk. The guy called with the EP player still left to act letting him in the hand and I knew I was beat. But I only had 1/9th of my stack in preflop so I was going to fold if I missed. But a 9T3 flop hit and the EP player lead out and so I shoved all in knowing they both were really strong and the other guy pushed over the top causing a fold and I had a set vs KK. I was If you consider that my chips were in preflop as a 20% dog, but I got 90% of them in as a 90% favorite. So you can say that overall I was about an 85% favorite with my money in here. Now the KK vs QJ hand I was an 86% fav a 95% fav and a 88% fav, so lets just say about a 90% fav based on overall what I was when I got my money in...
So 90% chance to win and an 85% to win. Of the 90% that I survive, I'm going to survive again 85%... If you could say with certainty that I would make the money from there, I had An overall chance of 76.5% chance to make the money. I can't say I've been in a better spot. I wouldn't say it was absolute certainty though... I'd say there was about a n 88% chance that if I win that hand I go on to qualify. If I get stuck at a maniac table, or if everyone left plays really conservative and I'm card dead I might have to take a chance. I also might have to play aces all in preflop at a maniac table, but I'm NOT going to have to take a coinflip unless I get really card dead at a maniac table. So given that I'm 88% to win if I win that hand I'm still 67.3% to qualify.
Previous to this tournament, since the challenge the best I've been to qualify has been about 30%. I flat called a raise with JJ and had to dump it after an AK flop and he shoved in. I played QQ to the river twice and won a pretty decent sized pot but wasn't all in. I wasn't even at very weak tables so I actually had to selectively play small pots, more like Helmuth does than Daniel Negreanu. I made a pretty good bluff firing two bullets on the flop and turn with 94. After playing really tight I opened up under the gun with 94 on a good player's BB (that was capable of folding). After being checked to on an AJ4 flop I bet and my opponent just called. J hit the turn making a third heart on the board. If my opponent had a small pair or a weak ace which was the most likely, he'd be out to even a small bet. I bet like 1/3rd of the pot on the flop and 40% of the pot on the turn, so I only needed to be right on the turn 40% of the time for it to be a good bet. I showed my bluff so I could have someone call me down when I had a set or big pair but the table broke up. Other than that I didn't make any big moves. I played position and chopped small pots but really didn't get a chance to very often. I played really rock like, limping with AK AQ and AJ and folding if it missed and there was bets. There were just a couple people betting huge on the flop. In the past I'd play small pots preflop with drawing hands, but I really didn't have that many chips to try to hit something big at that time, and there was usually only 1 or two in the pot so if I hit a pair with a flushdraw, it might not have been good, and I wouldn't have that many people in the pot to get paid off. Once I picked up the hands, I was just called down so I didn't have to be all in, but I could still commit a large enough amount of my chips for me to accumulate chips with lesser risk. When the blinds and ante got involved I was waiting for a chance for it to fold toe me so I could try a 2.5X big blind to either take it down preflop or on the flop. But that never happened, so i ended up stealing from SB with KJ and from CU with T9s both after limpers... Sure, had the QQ gotten rivered I would've lost a fairly significant amount, but had the flop come AK3 I could fire out a small bet and see where I'm at get away with the hand fairly cheap. The JJ most likely DID get cracked, but I only lost a couple big blinds because I played a small pot. Maybe my opponent had TT, but there's no reason to extract value at risk of elimination until it gets later, the blinds get significant and pot gets big and conditions get tough.
It's not that suprizing that I've only qualified once, because I've been a 20% and 30% and 25% and now about 70%... But it's certainly frustrating to have it be late in the tourney when my moneys in so good and I'm only 1 double up away from being in such good position to qualify and not winning. I guess I have to just start playing more. Hopefully when I start running good, I'll qualify, and then place deep in the money of the BIG 1k tourney. If that happens... watch out, my journey to 1K should be just around the corner.
Recently there were about 140 players left in a qualifier needing to get top 30 to qualify. I was about in 100th place but still had plenty of chips. I had been playing really tight, but I made 1 steal from the SB after a limper and one small raise and on the flop steal after it was folded to me. People were respecting my raises, but I felt like I probably had gotten a little more respect than I should and that someone was going to catch on.
I pick up KK after a limper and so I raised it the exact same amount as I did before from the SB after a limper and I got called. I knew he must have figured that I couldn't have a good hand all of those times... I had about 13000 in chips and I raised to about 3400 at 300/600 blinds. I was called from the button and the flop came 346 with 2 spades. I could have shoved all in right here and take it down, but I elected to bet small to try to extract value rather than protect my hand ... The reason being that taking down an extra 4500 probably wouldn't give me enough to make it into the top 30 without having to take a coinflip... Getting all of his chips meant I was going to have over 30k and be able to coast into the top 30 with an occasional steal and a small pot played with a big hand allowing me to get all my chips. I also couldn't see him folding AK here anyways, and if he had a weaker ace he's only going to hit on the turn 6% of the time, and if it doesn't come I'm getting all of my money in. So I bet nearly half my chips and he after thinking forever decides to call. The turn is a queen and I shove in. He calls turning over QJ! what he was doing in the hand preflop I really don't know other than he had position and I may have been stealing, but calling on the flop there is nuts. But I have no problem with him playing like that... I know in freerolls you expect this kind of thing so you can't be too suprized... But having 1/4 of my money in preflop as an 80% fav a third of my money in on the flop as an 95% fav, and the rest on the turn as an 88% favorite, the river queen sure suprized me.
I don't know in this situation if there was anythign I could have done better this tourney. The only other time I was all in is when I limp then a guy raised and someone else called in EP I raised with 9s midway through trying to represent a big hand like AA or Kk. The guy called with the EP player still left to act letting him in the hand and I knew I was beat. But I only had 1/9th of my stack in preflop so I was going to fold if I missed. But a 9T3 flop hit and the EP player lead out and so I shoved all in knowing they both were really strong and the other guy pushed over the top causing a fold and I had a set vs KK. I was If you consider that my chips were in preflop as a 20% dog, but I got 90% of them in as a 90% favorite. So you can say that overall I was about an 85% favorite with my money in here. Now the KK vs QJ hand I was an 86% fav a 95% fav and a 88% fav, so lets just say about a 90% fav based on overall what I was when I got my money in...
So 90% chance to win and an 85% to win. Of the 90% that I survive, I'm going to survive again 85%... If you could say with certainty that I would make the money from there, I had An overall chance of 76.5% chance to make the money. I can't say I've been in a better spot. I wouldn't say it was absolute certainty though... I'd say there was about a n 88% chance that if I win that hand I go on to qualify. If I get stuck at a maniac table, or if everyone left plays really conservative and I'm card dead I might have to take a chance. I also might have to play aces all in preflop at a maniac table, but I'm NOT going to have to take a coinflip unless I get really card dead at a maniac table. So given that I'm 88% to win if I win that hand I'm still 67.3% to qualify.
Previous to this tournament, since the challenge the best I've been to qualify has been about 30%. I flat called a raise with JJ and had to dump it after an AK flop and he shoved in. I played QQ to the river twice and won a pretty decent sized pot but wasn't all in. I wasn't even at very weak tables so I actually had to selectively play small pots, more like Helmuth does than Daniel Negreanu. I made a pretty good bluff firing two bullets on the flop and turn with 94. After playing really tight I opened up under the gun with 94 on a good player's BB (that was capable of folding). After being checked to on an AJ4 flop I bet and my opponent just called. J hit the turn making a third heart on the board. If my opponent had a small pair or a weak ace which was the most likely, he'd be out to even a small bet. I bet like 1/3rd of the pot on the flop and 40% of the pot on the turn, so I only needed to be right on the turn 40% of the time for it to be a good bet. I showed my bluff so I could have someone call me down when I had a set or big pair but the table broke up. Other than that I didn't make any big moves. I played position and chopped small pots but really didn't get a chance to very often. I played really rock like, limping with AK AQ and AJ and folding if it missed and there was bets. There were just a couple people betting huge on the flop. In the past I'd play small pots preflop with drawing hands, but I really didn't have that many chips to try to hit something big at that time, and there was usually only 1 or two in the pot so if I hit a pair with a flushdraw, it might not have been good, and I wouldn't have that many people in the pot to get paid off. Once I picked up the hands, I was just called down so I didn't have to be all in, but I could still commit a large enough amount of my chips for me to accumulate chips with lesser risk. When the blinds and ante got involved I was waiting for a chance for it to fold toe me so I could try a 2.5X big blind to either take it down preflop or on the flop. But that never happened, so i ended up stealing from SB with KJ and from CU with T9s both after limpers... Sure, had the QQ gotten rivered I would've lost a fairly significant amount, but had the flop come AK3 I could fire out a small bet and see where I'm at get away with the hand fairly cheap. The JJ most likely DID get cracked, but I only lost a couple big blinds because I played a small pot. Maybe my opponent had TT, but there's no reason to extract value at risk of elimination until it gets later, the blinds get significant and pot gets big and conditions get tough.
It's not that suprizing that I've only qualified once, because I've been a 20% and 30% and 25% and now about 70%... But it's certainly frustrating to have it be late in the tourney when my moneys in so good and I'm only 1 double up away from being in such good position to qualify and not winning. I guess I have to just start playing more. Hopefully when I start running good, I'll qualify, and then place deep in the money of the BIG 1k tourney. If that happens... watch out, my journey to 1K should be just around the corner.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Poker Secrets
I'm constantly trying to learn how to improve my game. As a poker player, you play the game to make money. If you want to earn money playing poker, every bit of information you can gain, every book you read, every program or coaching service you download is so important over the course of your career. 1 extra big bet per hour, one extra move in tournaments that help you get to the final table even 5% more often, all of that just compounds on itself because everytim you get enough to move up in cash, that 1 big bet per hour is THAT much more important. That extra 5% of final tables is HUGE. That's the ultimate goal in poker, to make as much per hour, whether you play tournaments, cash games, or sigNgos as possible.
Also very important is bankroll management. It doesn't matter HOW much money you make with your style, if you play with too much of your bankroll and lose it all and don't have other income to quickly regenerate your bankroll, everything is done, and all that you made is useless... On the other hand, if you don't play with enough of your bankroll, you're limiting how much you can make.
Throughout the course of your career, there's nothing better that you can do than to dedicate some of your money andinvest it in the development of your game.
There are many great books out there in poker, but many of them everyone seems to impliment. But you see poker is a game where there's always some sort of counter strategy. That's why so many people are willing to give most of their strategy. The pros really learn at a faster rate than everyone else. They adapt, they take risks, they read books, they talk with another among the poker community. There's always something more to learn, and as a poker player who wants to make money, you're going to have to do something to get that edge over all the casual gamblers, as well as learning how to beat the experienced veteren.
There's nothing that will help your game quicker than learning from someone that already has ammassed years of experience. Whether it's watching them, talking with them, listening to them, or playing with them, or reading a book by them. By far the best way to learn is by watching the great players play as you see their hole cards, and hear them explain every move. Many people say there's no better way to learn then by experience, but that's simply not true.
Experience certainly is a must, but the amount of experience you need can be shortened So very quickly. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "practice doesn't make perfect, PERFECT PRACTICE makes Perfect"
You can take years and years and loads of cash to learn how to "practice perfect" (or play close to perfect as you can based on the information you know), or you can dramatically shorten the time that it takes to learn, and learn from someone who's already had thousands upon thousands of multitabling hours both live and online experience.
So study whatever information you can find available, and take your game to the next level.
Update: Micon Reveals poker secrets
Also very important is bankroll management. It doesn't matter HOW much money you make with your style, if you play with too much of your bankroll and lose it all and don't have other income to quickly regenerate your bankroll, everything is done, and all that you made is useless... On the other hand, if you don't play with enough of your bankroll, you're limiting how much you can make.
Throughout the course of your career, there's nothing better that you can do than to dedicate some of your money andinvest it in the development of your game.
There are many great books out there in poker, but many of them everyone seems to impliment. But you see poker is a game where there's always some sort of counter strategy. That's why so many people are willing to give most of their strategy. The pros really learn at a faster rate than everyone else. They adapt, they take risks, they read books, they talk with another among the poker community. There's always something more to learn, and as a poker player who wants to make money, you're going to have to do something to get that edge over all the casual gamblers, as well as learning how to beat the experienced veteren.
There's nothing that will help your game quicker than learning from someone that already has ammassed years of experience. Whether it's watching them, talking with them, listening to them, or playing with them, or reading a book by them. By far the best way to learn is by watching the great players play as you see their hole cards, and hear them explain every move. Many people say there's no better way to learn then by experience, but that's simply not true.
Experience certainly is a must, but the amount of experience you need can be shortened So very quickly. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "practice doesn't make perfect, PERFECT PRACTICE makes Perfect"
You can take years and years and loads of cash to learn how to "practice perfect" (or play close to perfect as you can based on the information you know), or you can dramatically shorten the time that it takes to learn, and learn from someone who's already had thousands upon thousands of multitabling hours both live and online experience.
So study whatever information you can find available, and take your game to the next level.
Update: Micon Reveals poker secrets
Monday, September 3, 2007
end of first cash video
Ok so I managed to record a brief bit.. Hopefully as I figure things out, I'll be able to actually get more footage, and I'll have me explaining my thought processes behind my moves and I'll be able to get the entire tournaments on tape (minus the whole waiting thing)
anyways here it is enjoy.
Update: I sat down with the .28 cents at .02/.04 limit, the only game I could sit at.
Unfortunately I failed to realize that if it got below 20c it wouldn't let me at a table. But after playing AK and missing the flop, I was down to 19c. I then after a rotation relized that the table had gotten short handed. With a limited bankroll the last thing you want is to pay blinds every 5 hands, so I left. I went to sit down elsewhere having 15c and it wouldn't let me because it said "you must have 20c to sit down...
So basically my first freeroll win got me nowhere and I'm stuck with .15c that I can't do anything with.
anyways here it is enjoy.
Update: I sat down with the .28 cents at .02/.04 limit, the only game I could sit at.
Unfortunately I failed to realize that if it got below 20c it wouldn't let me at a table. But after playing AK and missing the flop, I was down to 19c. I then after a rotation relized that the table had gotten short handed. With a limited bankroll the last thing you want is to pay blinds every 5 hands, so I left. I went to sit down elsewhere having 15c and it wouldn't let me because it said "you must have 20c to sit down...
So basically my first freeroll win got me nowhere and I'm stuck with .15c that I can't do anything with.
First CASH!!!!
I finally did it guys... 2weeks into the challenge (and 4-5 tourneys I believe)I posted my first cash.
So How much bling did I cash?
haha, ok so not much. Probably not enough to get my bankroll going... I can't sit in on no limit tables unless I have $1 so it's .02/.04 limit with 14 big blinds and only 7 big bets or more freerolling. I'm going to kind of give it some time before I just jump into it.
I really didn't play well I figured two people were strong because there was a raiser under the gun... a caller in early position so I flat called with 58suited hoping to hit... I hit the 8 and they bet out too strong, and I shouldn't have called but the UTG checked and the caller bet. I figured the caller could have just AK or something and he was bluffing though so I called knowing if I hit, I'm getting it all... basically then I called but didn't anticipate a check raise and got trapped between. Proabbly didn't QUITE have the odds to call, but there was enough of a chance that they were both bluffing or had a weaker hand... Plus if I folded now I would have to take a bunch of risks to get back in it, so although it may be considered a small mistake, I think folding would put me in a position where it would significantly limit my play, and force me to have to get in very iffy all in situations and I may have a chance to find profitable situations. It was also not worth my time to keep trying as a short stack as I really wouldn't gain much experience as a short stack, and the overall value I was playing for... So I got lucky once there... Then Didn't catch a hand for ever... and it wasn't a table for me to be able to see flops... It was aggressive with re-aggression raising and reraising and some calling.
There were a few loose calls as well. I think I called a couple raises hoping to hit and get it all but for the most part I didnt pick up a hand. I finally managed to inch my way in. I finally was moved tables, but it was pretty late by then, I was at a point where I really didn't have enough chips to make anyone in there right mind fold. So I was stuck waiting blinding down. So in the big blind I was raised and forced to either check or go all in. I figured there was at least a chance that if I checked I could check it down and stay in for one more hand in which I'd have even BETTER pot odds, and someone just might raise after a bunch of callers and isolate me headsup in which case I'd septuple up or something. Anyways I checked and flopped a fullhouse. I could have checked figureing somone might bet, but they might bet big and scare away people... so I pushed getting 1 person to fold and like 3 others to call. After this I had a couple of rotations go by... I probably passed up a steal opportunity when it folded around to me with 2 spots away from the button and I had 79, but if I were to steal it would have to be all in and I just didn't trust the big blind not to call. I folded like crazy again and then I had 27 on the big blind after raises and then only like 3X on the small blind on the next hand. I had 48 and I could fold and give up good pot odds (antes were in) move in and get called 90% of the time, or complete the big blind and move on the flop and my opponent will miss the flop a third of the time, making him much more likely to fold. As it was my opponent decided to min raise me. At this point it was useless to move in on the flop or after the flop as I would not only have enough for a min bet so I just moved in. My opponent had T8 and we ended up both hitting our 8s and the board paired and a jack hit so we split. The next rotation on the big blind I picked up K2 and it was me and the small blind. I moved in and got called by T8 again! I won the hand again. I managed to move in on the big blind the next hand and pick it up, and then I got AT and moved in and got called by two players and won. Anyways. I basically was in survival mode the whole time, but managed to survive much longer than I thought. The blinds were huge after that last triple up (they moved up again) and I checked the big blind, and then somehow the small blind put me all in.
Might not be a big cash, but it's progress.
The hands might not be in order. I have the end part on video ( after I was near or in the money). I kept it restricted to only the hands I played. I didn't set up the microphone commentary.
So How much bling did I cash?
haha, ok so not much. Probably not enough to get my bankroll going... I can't sit in on no limit tables unless I have $1 so it's .02/.04 limit with 14 big blinds and only 7 big bets or more freerolling. I'm going to kind of give it some time before I just jump into it.
I really didn't play well I figured two people were strong because there was a raiser under the gun... a caller in early position so I flat called with 58suited hoping to hit... I hit the 8 and they bet out too strong, and I shouldn't have called but the UTG checked and the caller bet. I figured the caller could have just AK or something and he was bluffing though so I called knowing if I hit, I'm getting it all... basically then I called but didn't anticipate a check raise and got trapped between. Proabbly didn't QUITE have the odds to call, but there was enough of a chance that they were both bluffing or had a weaker hand... Plus if I folded now I would have to take a bunch of risks to get back in it, so although it may be considered a small mistake, I think folding would put me in a position where it would significantly limit my play, and force me to have to get in very iffy all in situations and I may have a chance to find profitable situations. It was also not worth my time to keep trying as a short stack as I really wouldn't gain much experience as a short stack, and the overall value I was playing for... So I got lucky once there... Then Didn't catch a hand for ever... and it wasn't a table for me to be able to see flops... It was aggressive with re-aggression raising and reraising and some calling.
There were a few loose calls as well. I think I called a couple raises hoping to hit and get it all but for the most part I didnt pick up a hand. I finally managed to inch my way in. I finally was moved tables, but it was pretty late by then, I was at a point where I really didn't have enough chips to make anyone in there right mind fold. So I was stuck waiting blinding down. So in the big blind I was raised and forced to either check or go all in. I figured there was at least a chance that if I checked I could check it down and stay in for one more hand in which I'd have even BETTER pot odds, and someone just might raise after a bunch of callers and isolate me headsup in which case I'd septuple up or something. Anyways I checked and flopped a fullhouse. I could have checked figureing somone might bet, but they might bet big and scare away people... so I pushed getting 1 person to fold and like 3 others to call. After this I had a couple of rotations go by... I probably passed up a steal opportunity when it folded around to me with 2 spots away from the button and I had 79, but if I were to steal it would have to be all in and I just didn't trust the big blind not to call. I folded like crazy again and then I had 27 on the big blind after raises and then only like 3X on the small blind on the next hand. I had 48 and I could fold and give up good pot odds (antes were in) move in and get called 90% of the time, or complete the big blind and move on the flop and my opponent will miss the flop a third of the time, making him much more likely to fold. As it was my opponent decided to min raise me. At this point it was useless to move in on the flop or after the flop as I would not only have enough for a min bet so I just moved in. My opponent had T8 and we ended up both hitting our 8s and the board paired and a jack hit so we split. The next rotation on the big blind I picked up K2 and it was me and the small blind. I moved in and got called by T8 again! I won the hand again. I managed to move in on the big blind the next hand and pick it up, and then I got AT and moved in and got called by two players and won. Anyways. I basically was in survival mode the whole time, but managed to survive much longer than I thought. The blinds were huge after that last triple up (they moved up again) and I checked the big blind, and then somehow the small blind put me all in.
Might not be a big cash, but it's progress.
The hands might not be in order. I have the end part on video ( after I was near or in the money). I kept it restricted to only the hands I played. I didn't set up the microphone commentary.
Friday, August 31, 2007
The Challenge
This post is always on top
(Challenge started on 8/31/07 but to keep this post on top the date will change)
Recently Chris "Jesus" Ferguson had a freeroll Challenge...
The Goal?
To Turn $0 into $10,000. This is something he had accomplished before, only I believe he started with nickle and dime limits or something and he had a limited bankroll. So How did he do it? He played freerolls, Once he won the freeroll he made sure to manage his money extremely well.
Here's the guidelines he used.
-Never buy into a cashgame or sitngo with more than 5% of your bankroll at stake
-Never buy into a multitable tournament with more than 2% of bankroll... However due to it being tough to play games when you only have a small amount, you are allowed to play $1 multitable tournaments.
-If at anytime in a cashgame you lose enough money so that you have more than 5% of your bankroll at risk... LEAVE IMMEDIATELY, and play lower stakes.
The tough part of the challenge is first you must win a freeroll... Depending on the fieldsize and payouts, this can be a fairly difficult task, especially if you aren't used to playing big fields against players that are willing to risk it all way too often. If you don't know how to make the adjustments against people that will call just about anything you will have troubles.
The second hardest part is accumulating enough cash in your account for it to mean enough. It took Chris Ferguson a LONG time before he even got aboven $100. (7 months, and he puts quite a bit of hours in).
$10,000 is a little unrealistic for me, however $1,000 on the other hand is very doable. In fact, I've been through this all before... TWICE... Two times I've gone from nothing to $1000.
The first time, I knew a little about poker, but not too much. I knew that tight aggressive was the best strategy against random opponents, and I took that to the extreme. After winning a 10 person freeroll I entered the cash games. I just shoved all in with Aces Kings queens jacks tens 9s or 8s, AK, and AQ and folded everything else. I didn't want people to realize how tight I was so I moved tables every rotation. Unfortunately I knew NOTHING about bankroll management. So After earning $1000 I blew it all on about 4 bad beats, and once when my kings ran up against aces.
But then I started to play at Ultimate Bet, The tournament structures were made for advanced players, it was fairly deep stacked tournament early, but the blinds escalated, the ante kicked in, and the blinds got higher and higher. Waiting around for aces just didn't work. Even when I was catching them, I would blind down so far that I was ALWAYS at risk of survival. I learned that aces all in, although was 80% favorite, was only going to give you about a 50% of survival if you were all in 4-5 times. So before I really learned about poker, I just thought it was more of a crap shoot. I just tried to double up earl, well I soon found out that didn' work. I began to learn more and more about poker.
After having a taste of what it's like to go on a rush from 0 to $800 in a couple weeks, I was determined to win it back.
So I finally decided to check out some other freerolls, and Absolute Poker had quite a few going. So I won a dollar or something, won a sit N go, then played at the .05/.1 limit games,
I was much more cautious about bankroll management... I ran it up to about $70
Then someone I found had a sweet offer where you not only got a deposit bonus, but you also get his instructional ebook... SO I found a neteller account, I transfered $50 over, had $20 in my other account, gained a $25 deposit bonus, and a great ebook that taught me on style of poker that worked pretty well. Well I ran that money up and took some money and tried some different sites out, played a lot of sitngos, turbo sitNgos, played some cash games, played limit. I read books and ebooks, articles, I watched poker. I loved it. I learned so much, I won 1st and 2nd in $5 and $1 buy ins with a pretty big field. It took WAY longer for me to work my money up to $1000 this time, but I was a lot smarter about it. Unfortunately Congress attached a clause on a port secuirty bill that said banks weren't allowed to use transactions between overseas online gambling sites. Well Party Poker ditched out, I tried to withdraw all my money and neteller froze the account. So I was stuck with no money (except a little bit that I kept in my account), and no way to play poker.
Perhaps you can relate, perhaps you freerolled your way to some cash, perhaps you made a deposit ran it up then went broke, perhaps you've never really made that much, or maybe you just like the thrill of the challange. Maybe you just want to prove you're good enough, or maybe you just like FREE money! (who doesn't)
Well whatever it is I can help. I've been there before, I've grinded it out, I've read books, I've studied poker theory, I've used various software, I've watched videos, I've created my own theorys and mathematical formulas. I know how hard it is to have your aces cracked and think "there's got to be an easier way!" Well there is, and I'm going to prove it to you.
2 years ago to this date I won my first thousand starting from nothing... 2 years ago I lost it all because I didn't know how to manage it.
18 months ago I started all over from nothing, again I made it to the thousand mark, this time I did it the right way, safely cashing out.
And Now, I begin my journey again, starting my bankroll from scratch... And I'm not going to stop until I'm back to the quadruple digits again...
And this time YOU get to see EXACTLY how I do it. Not only am I going to tell you what stakes I am at, what hands I played that stick out, and various strategies, but I'm going to SHOW you. I'm going to let you "watch over my shoulder" I have screen capture software and a Microphone and I literally will show you exactly what cards I play and when. You'll hear EXACTLY why I layed my pocket tens down in one situation, but pushed with pocket 7s in another. Why i fold a raise with AK all in, but then call an all in with KQ. Why I won't even CONSIDER taking a coinflip for my tournament life early, and won't even take a situation where I'm 60/40, and sometimes even 70/30, but I'll be willing to call an all in on the BUBBLE when I could easily be a 40% dog! I'll even explain to you why mathmatically I am making the correct play. In fact, just now I finished top 30 in a qualifying tournament n a field of 3500. I folded AK TWICE, once early, just after I folded TT, I got down to a third of my starting stack, but then I got it all in with a set of 8s when my opponent was DRAWING DEAD. I then got it all in with ACES with my opponent only having 5 outs. I got it again all in with ACES preflop .... Other then these hands, and me being all in with 99 towards the end when the blinds were huge, I was NEVER all in and I seemed to hardly ever pick up any other hand then I listed. But I was robbing people blind, and hardly risking ANYTHING. Given that I got it all in as a 100% favorite, a 80% favorite, a 80% favorite and a coinflip, I had about a 30% chance of beating a field of 3500 and qualifying. that means every 3 tournaments I enter and play like that I'm cashing.
I'm not telling this to brag... It's a freeroll for goodness sakes, But I'm saying it because I want you to know what I can do for you, I want you to know that you, like me, can also learn from people who have been there before, just as I have learned from those before me, dramatically shortening the amount of hands I need to play to learn.
Now I'm going to walk you step by step on exactly what I do and how. Look there's plenty of pros that will tell you a certain way to play tournaments, but first of all, not all pros have made the adjustment to people who play as aggressively, they're only now starting to learn the secrets to success in these HUGE fields. PLUS, everything changes in freerolls and low stakes tournaments with thousands of entries... bluffing is pointless, you're going to get called... Blind stealing is pointless you're going to get called or raised. Restealing is out, if they're raising with a hand, they're usually calling all in with it. 70% of what the pros do is read players, they can't do so online, so they can get away with not having a perfect technical game to them. Beleive me, I've tried LOTS of strategy, I've changed my game so many times, only to find that they ALL have their weaknesses, and strengths, it's up to you to KNOW which style to play and when... When I finally added Daniel Negreanu's Power Holdem Strategy to my game, and then saw how Phil Helmuth had finally made adjustments to play these big fields and watched what he changed, EVERYTHING changed.
For the past month I've played nothing but low stakes tournaments and freerolls. I won a couple dollers here and there, I won a few qualifiers (and most of the time I slept in or forgot about playing in them) but I couldn't get that small amount of cash into a meaningful amount to the point where I could play without risking a large amount of my bankroll. I was mostly just "experimenting". But after reading about Chris Feguson's journey to $10,000, even watching him play in a tournament on Full Tilt, and after finally getting my money back from Neteller, I was inspired, determined to do it all over again. All that learning I've done has Compounded, all the styles and things I've learned have clicked together, I don't know what it is but my game has clicked, I KNOW I'm going to get back to $1000, and when I hit that mark, watch out, anything could happen.
So Come Join me on my quest.. Watch how I do it, and go out and do it yourself, using my techniques and strategies as a guide. Heck, beat me to my goal if you can go ahead and try... Maybe you can apply some of my strategies with your own and you can become even better than me. It'd be hard to believe that anyone could dominate the freerolls like I can, but then again, I'm basically teaching you everything I've learned and not only that but I'm SHOWING you HOW I impliment those techniques to dominate the freerolls and low stakes tournaments as I build my bankroll up to a thousand.
Stay Tuned for the videos!
(Challenge started on 8/31/07 but to keep this post on top the date will change)
Recently Chris "Jesus" Ferguson had a freeroll Challenge...
The Goal?
To Turn $0 into $10,000. This is something he had accomplished before, only I believe he started with nickle and dime limits or something and he had a limited bankroll. So How did he do it? He played freerolls, Once he won the freeroll he made sure to manage his money extremely well.
Here's the guidelines he used.
-Never buy into a cashgame or sitngo with more than 5% of your bankroll at stake
-Never buy into a multitable tournament with more than 2% of bankroll... However due to it being tough to play games when you only have a small amount, you are allowed to play $1 multitable tournaments.
-If at anytime in a cashgame you lose enough money so that you have more than 5% of your bankroll at risk... LEAVE IMMEDIATELY, and play lower stakes.
The tough part of the challenge is first you must win a freeroll... Depending on the fieldsize and payouts, this can be a fairly difficult task, especially if you aren't used to playing big fields against players that are willing to risk it all way too often. If you don't know how to make the adjustments against people that will call just about anything you will have troubles.
The second hardest part is accumulating enough cash in your account for it to mean enough. It took Chris Ferguson a LONG time before he even got aboven $100. (7 months, and he puts quite a bit of hours in).
$10,000 is a little unrealistic for me, however $1,000 on the other hand is very doable. In fact, I've been through this all before... TWICE... Two times I've gone from nothing to $1000.
The first time, I knew a little about poker, but not too much. I knew that tight aggressive was the best strategy against random opponents, and I took that to the extreme. After winning a 10 person freeroll I entered the cash games. I just shoved all in with Aces Kings queens jacks tens 9s or 8s, AK, and AQ and folded everything else. I didn't want people to realize how tight I was so I moved tables every rotation. Unfortunately I knew NOTHING about bankroll management. So After earning $1000 I blew it all on about 4 bad beats, and once when my kings ran up against aces.
But then I started to play at Ultimate Bet, The tournament structures were made for advanced players, it was fairly deep stacked tournament early, but the blinds escalated, the ante kicked in, and the blinds got higher and higher. Waiting around for aces just didn't work. Even when I was catching them, I would blind down so far that I was ALWAYS at risk of survival. I learned that aces all in, although was 80% favorite, was only going to give you about a 50% of survival if you were all in 4-5 times. So before I really learned about poker, I just thought it was more of a crap shoot. I just tried to double up earl, well I soon found out that didn' work. I began to learn more and more about poker.
After having a taste of what it's like to go on a rush from 0 to $800 in a couple weeks, I was determined to win it back.
So I finally decided to check out some other freerolls, and Absolute Poker had quite a few going. So I won a dollar or something, won a sit N go, then played at the .05/.1 limit games,
I was much more cautious about bankroll management... I ran it up to about $70
Then someone I found had a sweet offer where you not only got a deposit bonus, but you also get his instructional ebook... SO I found a neteller account, I transfered $50 over, had $20 in my other account, gained a $25 deposit bonus, and a great ebook that taught me on style of poker that worked pretty well. Well I ran that money up and took some money and tried some different sites out, played a lot of sitngos, turbo sitNgos, played some cash games, played limit. I read books and ebooks, articles, I watched poker. I loved it. I learned so much, I won 1st and 2nd in $5 and $1 buy ins with a pretty big field. It took WAY longer for me to work my money up to $1000 this time, but I was a lot smarter about it. Unfortunately Congress attached a clause on a port secuirty bill that said banks weren't allowed to use transactions between overseas online gambling sites. Well Party Poker ditched out, I tried to withdraw all my money and neteller froze the account. So I was stuck with no money (except a little bit that I kept in my account), and no way to play poker.
Perhaps you can relate, perhaps you freerolled your way to some cash, perhaps you made a deposit ran it up then went broke, perhaps you've never really made that much, or maybe you just like the thrill of the challange. Maybe you just want to prove you're good enough, or maybe you just like FREE money! (who doesn't)
Well whatever it is I can help. I've been there before, I've grinded it out, I've read books, I've studied poker theory, I've used various software, I've watched videos, I've created my own theorys and mathematical formulas. I know how hard it is to have your aces cracked and think "there's got to be an easier way!" Well there is, and I'm going to prove it to you.
2 years ago to this date I won my first thousand starting from nothing... 2 years ago I lost it all because I didn't know how to manage it.
18 months ago I started all over from nothing, again I made it to the thousand mark, this time I did it the right way, safely cashing out.
And Now, I begin my journey again, starting my bankroll from scratch... And I'm not going to stop until I'm back to the quadruple digits again...
And this time YOU get to see EXACTLY how I do it. Not only am I going to tell you what stakes I am at, what hands I played that stick out, and various strategies, but I'm going to SHOW you. I'm going to let you "watch over my shoulder" I have screen capture software and a Microphone and I literally will show you exactly what cards I play and when. You'll hear EXACTLY why I layed my pocket tens down in one situation, but pushed with pocket 7s in another. Why i fold a raise with AK all in, but then call an all in with KQ. Why I won't even CONSIDER taking a coinflip for my tournament life early, and won't even take a situation where I'm 60/40, and sometimes even 70/30, but I'll be willing to call an all in on the BUBBLE when I could easily be a 40% dog! I'll even explain to you why mathmatically I am making the correct play. In fact, just now I finished top 30 in a qualifying tournament n a field of 3500. I folded AK TWICE, once early, just after I folded TT, I got down to a third of my starting stack, but then I got it all in with a set of 8s when my opponent was DRAWING DEAD. I then got it all in with ACES with my opponent only having 5 outs. I got it again all in with ACES preflop .... Other then these hands, and me being all in with 99 towards the end when the blinds were huge, I was NEVER all in and I seemed to hardly ever pick up any other hand then I listed. But I was robbing people blind, and hardly risking ANYTHING. Given that I got it all in as a 100% favorite, a 80% favorite, a 80% favorite and a coinflip, I had about a 30% chance of beating a field of 3500 and qualifying. that means every 3 tournaments I enter and play like that I'm cashing.
I'm not telling this to brag... It's a freeroll for goodness sakes, But I'm saying it because I want you to know what I can do for you, I want you to know that you, like me, can also learn from people who have been there before, just as I have learned from those before me, dramatically shortening the amount of hands I need to play to learn.
Now I'm going to walk you step by step on exactly what I do and how. Look there's plenty of pros that will tell you a certain way to play tournaments, but first of all, not all pros have made the adjustment to people who play as aggressively, they're only now starting to learn the secrets to success in these HUGE fields. PLUS, everything changes in freerolls and low stakes tournaments with thousands of entries... bluffing is pointless, you're going to get called... Blind stealing is pointless you're going to get called or raised. Restealing is out, if they're raising with a hand, they're usually calling all in with it. 70% of what the pros do is read players, they can't do so online, so they can get away with not having a perfect technical game to them. Beleive me, I've tried LOTS of strategy, I've changed my game so many times, only to find that they ALL have their weaknesses, and strengths, it's up to you to KNOW which style to play and when... When I finally added Daniel Negreanu's Power Holdem Strategy to my game, and then saw how Phil Helmuth had finally made adjustments to play these big fields and watched what he changed, EVERYTHING changed.
For the past month I've played nothing but low stakes tournaments and freerolls. I won a couple dollers here and there, I won a few qualifiers (and most of the time I slept in or forgot about playing in them) but I couldn't get that small amount of cash into a meaningful amount to the point where I could play without risking a large amount of my bankroll. I was mostly just "experimenting". But after reading about Chris Feguson's journey to $10,000, even watching him play in a tournament on Full Tilt, and after finally getting my money back from Neteller, I was inspired, determined to do it all over again. All that learning I've done has Compounded, all the styles and things I've learned have clicked together, I don't know what it is but my game has clicked, I KNOW I'm going to get back to $1000, and when I hit that mark, watch out, anything could happen.
So Come Join me on my quest.. Watch how I do it, and go out and do it yourself, using my techniques and strategies as a guide. Heck, beat me to my goal if you can go ahead and try... Maybe you can apply some of my strategies with your own and you can become even better than me. It'd be hard to believe that anyone could dominate the freerolls like I can, but then again, I'm basically teaching you everything I've learned and not only that but I'm SHOWING you HOW I impliment those techniques to dominate the freerolls and low stakes tournaments as I build my bankroll up to a thousand.
Stay Tuned for the videos!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
zero to a thousand update
First entry: I qualified in a tourney placing top 30 out of 3500 but the recording software got goofed up so I was unable to load it up. I believe the problem is resolved. I limped with a few pairs early, and it wasn't until I had only 1000 in chips when I hit my set, but that double up got me to 2400 and I was able to accumulate chips from there, getting it all in with aces on the turn with my opponent virtually drawing dead (two outs). I made a lot of sick laydowns. I folded pocket tens twice. The first time was very early to an all in, and those of you that read the Power Holdem blog know my disdain for taking a coinflip early, it was worse than a coinflip because two players had gone all in in front of me... I also layed down pocket Tens to a tight player who only played all in or fold at the time and he showed pocket Qs. Even later on I folded AK suited which was probably the sickest laydown I made the entire tournament, given the timing of it. It was pretty late in the tourney, the period of time that you'll want to take a coinflip. I had about 20000 in chips my opponent had about 18000, However, he hadn't ever moved all in, I felt he had a pair and I was a slight underdog, but most of all I was just confident enough that I was going to be able to squeak into the top 30 anyways. Later on I was getting short and picked up pocket 9's and had to make a move so I shoved all in after a guy who had been raising more than his fair share raised it up in early position (he almost had to have had a hand that was good enough to make it a coinflip). Well I had all my chips at risk for only the third time... The first time my opponent was drawing dead, the second time I had aces built a big multiway pot and flopped the top set. and Now I had 99 and he had AQ and I was a 56% favorite.
I had to make a couple blind steals by making a 2.5X raise and a minraise with basically nothing to kind of tread water. I was in 26th place with 35 left, and just kind of managed to stay afloat as I had to fold 77 and AJ to an all in, knowing I would probably still make it without taking that risk. I was at some tables that it wasn't very easy to accumulate chips at because they were so loose aggressive that I just had to sit back and wait for a hand, and even when I had a hand I had to fold a lot of them.
Qualifier: Now that I qualified, In a field of over 2000 people, all that are top 30 qualifiers in their fields of 3500, I was unable to cash but managed to do very well early accumulate chips before I got distracted and lost focus making a bad play risking my chips from the big blind with A6 on a 623 flop. Opponent had 45 suited. I didn't need to get involved in a big pot against someone who had me outchipped at the time, I had plenty of chips and there were less than 600, maybe even less than 300 at the time.
First documented entry: You should be able to see this soon if I can get the video upload to work. It doesn't seem to want to upload to google or youtube at the moment... the file size might be too big... I'll look for an alternative video source, if any one knows of any let me know. The blinds get big and I come up short again losing with AQ against AA... You hear me talk about how playing AQ in early position is a little bit of a questionable play at that stage in the game, and I almost folded it preflop... The guy played the hand well preflop, but basically gave me a chance to get away from the ace high flop, but I just didn't want to believe that he had me. After that I was short stacked and forced to make some moves two hands later from the BB I shoved in on a minraise and a caller in late position and the small blind, knowing the person always bet his good hands strong, and a minraise to me meant he didn't have it, and the guy that called tended to see a lot of flops. The small blinds calling range was pretty wide for a raise like this. I shoved in with JT suited and it just so happens the smallblind made a trap with AA. I hit a J and a T, however with a pair on board my two pair weren't as good as his two pair and I was out. The funny thing is I was good enough to recognize that the table was good enough to make these sort of traps, and I mentioned when I first sat down how much trapping was going on, but I still wasn't able to identify it and get away from it, an error in judgment on my part.
I think from the video, you'll be able to see how I accumulate chips early without taking much risk (although before I started recording a little early I shoved in with AK and got called by 88 but doubled up). If nothing else it should be a good lesson on risk management and chip accumulation. If anyone knows of a video site where I can upload videos that are above 100M, let me know so I can get this video up and running. No cash yet, but it's still only a couple days into the challenge, and cashing first and getting the money up to a bankroll where I can afford to safely play in games are the most difficult things about the challenge.
I had to make a couple blind steals by making a 2.5X raise and a minraise with basically nothing to kind of tread water. I was in 26th place with 35 left, and just kind of managed to stay afloat as I had to fold 77 and AJ to an all in, knowing I would probably still make it without taking that risk. I was at some tables that it wasn't very easy to accumulate chips at because they were so loose aggressive that I just had to sit back and wait for a hand, and even when I had a hand I had to fold a lot of them.
Qualifier: Now that I qualified, In a field of over 2000 people, all that are top 30 qualifiers in their fields of 3500, I was unable to cash but managed to do very well early accumulate chips before I got distracted and lost focus making a bad play risking my chips from the big blind with A6 on a 623 flop. Opponent had 45 suited. I didn't need to get involved in a big pot against someone who had me outchipped at the time, I had plenty of chips and there were less than 600, maybe even less than 300 at the time.
First documented entry: You should be able to see this soon if I can get the video upload to work. It doesn't seem to want to upload to google or youtube at the moment... the file size might be too big... I'll look for an alternative video source, if any one knows of any let me know. The blinds get big and I come up short again losing with AQ against AA... You hear me talk about how playing AQ in early position is a little bit of a questionable play at that stage in the game, and I almost folded it preflop... The guy played the hand well preflop, but basically gave me a chance to get away from the ace high flop, but I just didn't want to believe that he had me. After that I was short stacked and forced to make some moves two hands later from the BB I shoved in on a minraise and a caller in late position and the small blind, knowing the person always bet his good hands strong, and a minraise to me meant he didn't have it, and the guy that called tended to see a lot of flops. The small blinds calling range was pretty wide for a raise like this. I shoved in with JT suited and it just so happens the smallblind made a trap with AA. I hit a J and a T, however with a pair on board my two pair weren't as good as his two pair and I was out. The funny thing is I was good enough to recognize that the table was good enough to make these sort of traps, and I mentioned when I first sat down how much trapping was going on, but I still wasn't able to identify it and get away from it, an error in judgment on my part.
I think from the video, you'll be able to see how I accumulate chips early without taking much risk (although before I started recording a little early I shoved in with AK and got called by 88 but doubled up). If nothing else it should be a good lesson on risk management and chip accumulation. If anyone knows of a video site where I can upload videos that are above 100M, let me know so I can get this video up and running. No cash yet, but it's still only a couple days into the challenge, and cashing first and getting the money up to a bankroll where I can afford to safely play in games are the most difficult things about the challenge.
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