Hey guys!
Not sure how long this will be because not sure of the plans today but will try to do the best i can to re-cap some of what's happened so far.
So i arrived in London a bit over a week ago now and enjoyed my time in London. It's a really nice city but everything is so god damn nitty. Like i arrived at 8am and all i wanted was a big breakfast. I went to look for cafe's etc to get a big breakfast around 10am when i got into the city but apparently everywhere stops serving breakfast at around 10am, they're such life nits. I met up with Radeh for dinner in the evening and i was extremely jet-lagged but he was such a cool and intelligent dude, and i swear i could have talked to him all night, he has an extremely good knowledge of a lot of topics. So we had dinner then went and got a few drinks but all the pubs also close at 11pm in London, haha. But had a cool time with him and grateful for him showing me around some of the baller shopping in and around Picadilly circus as well! =)
I caught the train from London to Belgium which was pretty cool, but the last part of the journey was certainly interesting. I had to change train's from the high speed train to a regular public train and I was under the impression that a lot of people in Belgium spoke English but apprently not as on my train from Brussels to Namur (during peakhour) i was getting yelled at by old ladies because the train was sooooooo packed and i was taking up too much room with all my luggage. The thing was i couldn't understand what they were saying to me haha. So after a very awkward 40 minute train ride i finally arrived in Namur.
Basically, since i have been here i have had an amazing time with Bryan (PrimordialAA), Spamz (mientjeuh), and Ben (pokiethepanda). We haven't really had the results in live poker reflect how badly we have crushed people here but i guess that's just the nature of the game. We have had some sick results online though, and last night i had very close to my biggest winning session ever. The room (was Bryan, Spamz, and I) made about 35k between us which was a pretty sick session for HUSNGers. It's been really cool to meet up and be able to talk to people better than myself about strategy and watch what they do and be able to learn from it. I have learnt a TON from Spamz and Bryan even though we haven't really sat down and done a coaching session or anything like that, i think you can learn a lot more just by paying attention and listening to them in general. I have also learnt how bad Bryan and Spamz fail at CC roulette, since i haven't paid for a meal since i've been here ;) But everyone i have met here has been extremely cool and the group has just got along really really well.
I have a few days left here and not sure exactly what the plans are for the next couple of days, but i intend on writing a poker re-cap on my flight from Frankfurt to Singapore with the re-caps of the tournaments i have played and some of the crucial spots, as well as a little more detailed trip report. In the meantime, good luck in all of your games!!!!
Talk soon!
Matt
Friday, November 27, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Melbourne re-cap part 2.
Hey guys,
Going to go over my second match in the Hachem Deepstack HU event, which unfortunately was my last match for the tournament. I had no idea who my opponent was in this case although it become quite clear he was a local regular. To be perfectly honest I thought he was pretty bad overall, but props to him because he got the win.
The first match I decided to come out pretty hard and test him out early, which worked perfectly as I 3bet him twice out of the first 5 hands and got folds and had taken down every pot in position either pre-flop or on the flop. He then did something weird and raised 5.5x on the button as well as 3betting me to 1600 over my 300 open. So at this point in time I basically knew that I had someone who wasn’t particularly familiar with HU play. The first hand of real interest came up at 50/100 level, and was the first real time that we had ran a whole board out.
Blinds: 50/100
My Stack: ~11700
Villain: ~8300
Pre-Flop: I raise Jd8d to 300 and he calls. This was pretty standard as he had been flatting an increasing % pre and c/f a lot of flops.
Flop ---> Ts8s5d
Not the best flop ever but certainly not the worst. I definitely can bet my hand for value vs him at this point in time which I did, c-betting 400. He calls really quickly.
(Pot = 1400)
Turn ---> Ac
This is a good double barrel card if I had air here, but in this case I much prefer to check back my showdown value, and make an informed decision based on the river (to be honest, I intend to call a pretty large % of rivers anyway). He checks, I check back.
River ---> Kh
He thinks for a quick second picking up several grey chips (1k chips), then casually flicks one of them into the pot. Basically every draw had missed and I really wasn’t sure if he was ever floating Kx, although it was likely he floats Ax on that board. I decided to call in the end, and he rolls over Js3s. He then gives me a glare and says “very interesting” in an extraordinarily condescending tone. Haha.
The next hand was about 15 hands later, and not much had happened in the meantime except me raising all of my buttons and mostly taking it down, and him limping most of his and taking it down on a lot of flops.
Blinds: 75/150
My Stack: ~15k
Villain: ~5k
Pre-Flop: I raise 7c9c to 400, and he flats from the BB.
Flop ---> 9dAh5d
He leads out at the flop for 525. He had done this once before and I had raised and taken it down. This time I decide to just flat obviously.
(Pot = 1850)
Turn ---> 6s
He checks pretty quickly, and I decide to just check back as I think he has air a pretty large % of the time, and is folding and furthermore, I have a pretty decent showdown hand anyway. (fwiw, not sure if a bet was more appropriate here, would love to hear thoughts).
River ---> 5h
This card really sucks in hindsight, but at the time I kinda thought it was pretty good. More so because I didn’t really expect him to lead bottom pair on that flop, given that I had raised last time he lead and it sucks to build a pot with bottom pair obviously. But apparently it was good for him as once again he very casually flicks in one grey chip. I don’t think for long before calling given that the FD missed and I really expect him to fire all of his A’s on a relatively harmless turn. He rolls over Q5o for rivered trips and I feel pretty stupid.
Not much really happened for the rest of the match, with the chips basically going back and forth right through to 300/600. By the chips going back and forth I mean we really didn’t play a pot of any significance. The dynamics were pretty passive as he reverted to limping a large % of his buttons, but seemed to like to raise directly after I had made aggressive plays post-flop the hands before. I had established pretty early on that when he limped he was almost always limp/calling. In the end we got it in flipping with relatively close stacks (he had me by about 800 chips at the time), he min-raised and I 3bet shoved KQo, he called 77 and held to take down the first match.
The second match went very similarly to how the first one had ended. Basically he began limping a ton of buttons and flatting a lot OOP. To a degree I felt I lost control of this match pretty early on, partly due to the fact that I had been playing live poker for around 6 hours with basically no break and on very little sleep. Generally speaking I feel my endurance for grinding is great, and I have ground out super long sessions online on a regular basis. But for some reason I really lost my focus in the second match and probably didn’t play as well as I would have liked. It wasn’t so much that I made any significant mistakes in this match, but more I lost the focus that I think you need to pay attention to your opponent when playing live poker. To a degree I went on auto-pilot and didn’t push the edge as much as I would have liked. In the end the following hand took place that saw the end of the tournament for me.
Blinds: 150/300
My Stack: ~9k
Villain: ~11k
I have the button and made a standard open to 800, with 89hh. He flats from the BB (he had actually been folding a TON in the BB in the previous 10 minutes or so).
(Pot = 1600)
Flop ---> Td7h2d
He checks pretty quickly, and I fire out a c-bet of 1000, he c/c and we go to a turn.
(Pot = 3600)
Turn ---> Th
Pretty sick card. He checks after thinking for a brief moment, and I decide to check back. The reason for my check is that I hate my life if he c/shoves on me on this turn, and even though I have a monster draw, i’m essentially behind his range for getting it in on that turn. I hadn’t seen him play one draw aggressively and don’t really expect him to start now. So in the end I decide to check back and see if I can get there on the river.
River ---> 6c
*Bink* I feel really good about my hand obviously, he thinks again before checking (this time for much longer)... I think for a brief moment (deciding on betsize), and end up firing a bet of 2700. He instantly announces “All-In”, and looks ridiculously excited. I tank for a long time because I just felt beat so often, nothing really made much sense besides T7, 66, or 22, but even then I have no idea why he was c/c such a wet flop. In the end I have to call 4500 into a pot of 18000 I think, and the odds were just way too juicy, even though I really really wanted to fold. I told him I thought I was beat and announced call. He stands up and yells out “nuts”, as he rolls over T7o, and gg me.
So that was it for me for Melbourne. I now really look forward to getting over to Belgium and seeing how we go. I’m currently on my flight from Sydney to Singapore. I managed to score myself a Business class ticket on the A380, and I must say that this plane is really the nuts. I have wanted to do a trip on the A380 ever since Qantas first purchased them, but haven’t had the opportunity yet. The take off was one of the most unbelievably smooth flying experiences I have had. Being upstairs obviously helps a lot, but not hearing landing gear or anything like that even, just made the whole take off seem effortless. We have been in rough weather for the large majority of the flight, yet strangely even the turbulence doesn’t seem what it should be, lol. The only concern I guess is the baby crying non-stop about 5 rows in front of me, but that is something I have to get used to anyways. The space in the aircraft is amazing, and with dinner coming soon I guess I should wrap this up. Let’s hope that the next few take-off’s and landing go as smoothly as the first one.
I will be trying to get some more update type blogs done whilst I’m in Belgium, hopefully with better news than I had in this one.
Good Luck in all of your games!
Matt
Going to go over my second match in the Hachem Deepstack HU event, which unfortunately was my last match for the tournament. I had no idea who my opponent was in this case although it become quite clear he was a local regular. To be perfectly honest I thought he was pretty bad overall, but props to him because he got the win.
The first match I decided to come out pretty hard and test him out early, which worked perfectly as I 3bet him twice out of the first 5 hands and got folds and had taken down every pot in position either pre-flop or on the flop. He then did something weird and raised 5.5x on the button as well as 3betting me to 1600 over my 300 open. So at this point in time I basically knew that I had someone who wasn’t particularly familiar with HU play. The first hand of real interest came up at 50/100 level, and was the first real time that we had ran a whole board out.
Blinds: 50/100
My Stack: ~11700
Villain: ~8300
Pre-Flop: I raise Jd8d to 300 and he calls. This was pretty standard as he had been flatting an increasing % pre and c/f a lot of flops.
Flop ---> Ts8s5d
Not the best flop ever but certainly not the worst. I definitely can bet my hand for value vs him at this point in time which I did, c-betting 400. He calls really quickly.
(Pot = 1400)
Turn ---> Ac
This is a good double barrel card if I had air here, but in this case I much prefer to check back my showdown value, and make an informed decision based on the river (to be honest, I intend to call a pretty large % of rivers anyway). He checks, I check back.
River ---> Kh
He thinks for a quick second picking up several grey chips (1k chips), then casually flicks one of them into the pot. Basically every draw had missed and I really wasn’t sure if he was ever floating Kx, although it was likely he floats Ax on that board. I decided to call in the end, and he rolls over Js3s. He then gives me a glare and says “very interesting” in an extraordinarily condescending tone. Haha.
The next hand was about 15 hands later, and not much had happened in the meantime except me raising all of my buttons and mostly taking it down, and him limping most of his and taking it down on a lot of flops.
Blinds: 75/150
My Stack: ~15k
Villain: ~5k
Pre-Flop: I raise 7c9c to 400, and he flats from the BB.
Flop ---> 9dAh5d
He leads out at the flop for 525. He had done this once before and I had raised and taken it down. This time I decide to just flat obviously.
(Pot = 1850)
Turn ---> 6s
He checks pretty quickly, and I decide to just check back as I think he has air a pretty large % of the time, and is folding and furthermore, I have a pretty decent showdown hand anyway. (fwiw, not sure if a bet was more appropriate here, would love to hear thoughts).
River ---> 5h
This card really sucks in hindsight, but at the time I kinda thought it was pretty good. More so because I didn’t really expect him to lead bottom pair on that flop, given that I had raised last time he lead and it sucks to build a pot with bottom pair obviously. But apparently it was good for him as once again he very casually flicks in one grey chip. I don’t think for long before calling given that the FD missed and I really expect him to fire all of his A’s on a relatively harmless turn. He rolls over Q5o for rivered trips and I feel pretty stupid.
Not much really happened for the rest of the match, with the chips basically going back and forth right through to 300/600. By the chips going back and forth I mean we really didn’t play a pot of any significance. The dynamics were pretty passive as he reverted to limping a large % of his buttons, but seemed to like to raise directly after I had made aggressive plays post-flop the hands before. I had established pretty early on that when he limped he was almost always limp/calling. In the end we got it in flipping with relatively close stacks (he had me by about 800 chips at the time), he min-raised and I 3bet shoved KQo, he called 77 and held to take down the first match.
The second match went very similarly to how the first one had ended. Basically he began limping a ton of buttons and flatting a lot OOP. To a degree I felt I lost control of this match pretty early on, partly due to the fact that I had been playing live poker for around 6 hours with basically no break and on very little sleep. Generally speaking I feel my endurance for grinding is great, and I have ground out super long sessions online on a regular basis. But for some reason I really lost my focus in the second match and probably didn’t play as well as I would have liked. It wasn’t so much that I made any significant mistakes in this match, but more I lost the focus that I think you need to pay attention to your opponent when playing live poker. To a degree I went on auto-pilot and didn’t push the edge as much as I would have liked. In the end the following hand took place that saw the end of the tournament for me.
Blinds: 150/300
My Stack: ~9k
Villain: ~11k
I have the button and made a standard open to 800, with 89hh. He flats from the BB (he had actually been folding a TON in the BB in the previous 10 minutes or so).
(Pot = 1600)
Flop ---> Td7h2d
He checks pretty quickly, and I fire out a c-bet of 1000, he c/c and we go to a turn.
(Pot = 3600)
Turn ---> Th
Pretty sick card. He checks after thinking for a brief moment, and I decide to check back. The reason for my check is that I hate my life if he c/shoves on me on this turn, and even though I have a monster draw, i’m essentially behind his range for getting it in on that turn. I hadn’t seen him play one draw aggressively and don’t really expect him to start now. So in the end I decide to check back and see if I can get there on the river.
River ---> 6c
*Bink* I feel really good about my hand obviously, he thinks again before checking (this time for much longer)... I think for a brief moment (deciding on betsize), and end up firing a bet of 2700. He instantly announces “All-In”, and looks ridiculously excited. I tank for a long time because I just felt beat so often, nothing really made much sense besides T7, 66, or 22, but even then I have no idea why he was c/c such a wet flop. In the end I have to call 4500 into a pot of 18000 I think, and the odds were just way too juicy, even though I really really wanted to fold. I told him I thought I was beat and announced call. He stands up and yells out “nuts”, as he rolls over T7o, and gg me.
So that was it for me for Melbourne. I now really look forward to getting over to Belgium and seeing how we go. I’m currently on my flight from Sydney to Singapore. I managed to score myself a Business class ticket on the A380, and I must say that this plane is really the nuts. I have wanted to do a trip on the A380 ever since Qantas first purchased them, but haven’t had the opportunity yet. The take off was one of the most unbelievably smooth flying experiences I have had. Being upstairs obviously helps a lot, but not hearing landing gear or anything like that even, just made the whole take off seem effortless. We have been in rough weather for the large majority of the flight, yet strangely even the turbulence doesn’t seem what it should be, lol. The only concern I guess is the baby crying non-stop about 5 rows in front of me, but that is something I have to get used to anyways. The space in the aircraft is amazing, and with dinner coming soon I guess I should wrap this up. Let’s hope that the next few take-off’s and landing go as smoothly as the first one.
I will be trying to get some more update type blogs done whilst I’m in Belgium, hopefully with better news than I had in this one.
Good Luck in all of your games!
Matt
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Hachem Deepstack Event 7
Hey guys,
Im very tired after a long day but want to get this written down while its still reasonably fresh and because i don't think i am going to have much time in the next few days to put pen to paper, well fingers to keyboard...
As previously mentioned i headed to Melbourne this morning to play the HU event in this series. I really didn't get much sleep the night before and had a reasonably early (early for me) flight leaving Sydney at 9am. Didn't feel particularly great on the flight and had some pressure/sinus problems on the descent that was pretty aggrevating. First time this has ever happened to me so hopefully i don't have any problems on the upcoming flights. Melbourne is a really nice city overall, and Crown Casino is thoroughly impressive. Anyways to the poker.
In my first round i drew a really tough opponent. He was a HUSNGer and i really didn't expect for there to be any HUSNGers in the field. Besides myself this guy and his mate were both in, the other guy was Oasis00 from FTP (he was also on "the Poker Star - the Australian reality TV series). My opponent was fundamentally very very solid and i found it hard to find a significant edge on him, if anything i thought he gave me a little too much respect and probably folded a little too tight in some spots. The format was such that it was best of 3 matches in every round, so we were going to have to play at least 2 matches and obviously there would be some meta involved vs this thinking player.
The first hand really of note:
Blinds: 75/150
My stack: ~11k
Villain: ~9k
We definately had a 3bet dynamic at this point in time and the first level had basically been a raise/3bet/fold fest. I raise A9o otb to 400, and he flats from BB.
Flop ---> 9c4s6d
He checks, i bet 550, he thinks for a second and raises to 1300. At this point in time he can definately have a ton of air in his range and i figure my hand to be best a large %. However, this was his first c/r (i had c/r him maybe once only before this), and i expect him to be 3betting a lot of his high cards and high pairs, if i were to raise here i think his range for actually getting it in here is pretty strong because i didn't really expect him to get it in with TP hands really. So i flat his c/r.
Turn ---> Kh (board had no FD's)
He checks the turn and i decide to check back because i think he's c/f all his air but i can possibly get a small VB in on river or bluff catch if he bets certain cards, obviously he may also now VB worse 9x hands on the river.
River ---> 6s
Interesting card, i don't ever expect him to be c/r a 6 so it's actually a really good card for me. The pot was 3400 on the river, and when he checked i had to decide on a betsize. I decided to bet 1200 and try to get value out of all of his 9x hands and possibly some random hero calls. I'm still unsure if this bet was a little thin, but i don't really like checking back because it seems so nitty. He calls the 1200 and rolls over AA and i am thoroughly confused.
This match went for a long time and basically i had control for the rest of the match, we managed to get to 200/400 before we played a decent sized pot again which he took down giving him a slight advantage and pushing me down to the 15BB mark. I then re-shoved A9o on him over a 2.5x and got a fold, and the very next BB i once again re-shoved, this time with QQ and 19BBs and he tank-called KQdd. He missed and i took a large chiplead to take the match down.
The second match i was much less in control and he blew out to a big early chiplead after i played a hand like a bit of a donk, and got pretty owned to be honest.
Blinds: 50/100
My Stack: ~8300
Villain: ~11700
Pre-flop: He raises 300 and i decide to flat A2o. This was pretty close at the time because he had been folding/limping a few buttons, but i decided to flat and see what we could conjure up. This match had been played more post-flop thus far and once again there was a very aggressive dynamic.
Flop ---> Jd8h6h
Obviously a horrible board for my hand, but also a board that definately hits my percieved range. Furthermore, a lot of the c/r had been going on with dry boards and he had recently 3bet me when i c/r a K35 flop. He cbet 400 and i decided to give it a shot and c/r this board even though it kinda sucks and isn't a board that is necessarily ideal for bluffing on, however i genuinely thought i could get him to fold a ton of his range either on the flop or with another bet on the turn and possibly river if i got good cards. So i raise to 1250 and he tanks for a long time before calling.
(Pot= 3100)
Turn ---> 3h
This card was one that i still don't know what to think about it. He can definately have FD's here given his line, but it's also extremely feesible for me to have turned a flush. I planned on bluffing any heart turn and after thinking for a second i decided to bet 2200, and he instantly shoved. *sigh* Obviously i snap-folded. (he told me after the match that he had 88).
Three hands later:
Blinds: 75/150
My Stack: ~3800
Villain: ~16200
He limps and i check A2o away in the BB.
Flop ---> AAK, i think for a second and fire out 200 after he saw me see him go to fold his cards (he clearly made a motion to fold his cards and i thought this was actually pretty strong at the time but there was no way i was folding here anyways and if he did have Kx then i really didn't want to c/r him off his hand). He calls my bet on the flop pretty quickly.
Turn ---> 8 (pot= 700)
I think for a second again and lead out 500 and he calls instantly.
River ---> 3 (pot= 1700)
At this point in time it's a pretty easy shove. It's basically a case where i don't want to check and give him the chance to check back Kx, but i think if i bet here he's calling Kx regardless of my betsize. So i shove pretty quickly, and he basically snapcalls K8. Fwiw, i think his call is actually pretty bad, he doesn't really beat anything but air here because he even chops any worse Kings. I'm never triple barreling this board vs him with air so i'm not really sure why he called the river.
But anyways, this got me back to the better part of 8k and i held onto this and got as high as 11k up until we got to 300/600. At this time i basically went card dead and had to raise/fold twice in a row putting me back down to around 6k, when the next notable hand happened.
Blinds: 300/600
My stack ~6k
Villain: ~14k
We had been limping/shoving/folding for the most part, with a little min-raising when we were slightly deeper and a ton of 3bet shoving.
He raises to 3k, which was LOL insanely strong and I look down at AhJh, and i'm not folding no matter what so i just shove, he snaps AKo. The board rolls out:
---> Qh7h4c Qd Th... And i run good to get the double.
About 5 hands later we get it in again;
Blinds: 300/600
My stack: ~14k
Villain: ~6k
He open shoves and i call KhTh. He rolls over A8o for the lead. Then the board rolls out:
---> 7h8c2d Jh 3h... and *bink* i run good and move on to the round of 16.
The match went for over 3 hours and he was certainly a very good tough opponent. I definately got my fair share of run-good in the second match, but i really felt i got the toughest draw in the tourny.
Anyways, I am insanely tired right now so will re-cap the rest of the tournament tomorrow possibly on my flight i will write it out because this took longer than i thought and i need to sleep so bad so i can get out and see Melbourne tomorrow.
Will finish this in another entry tomorrow~!
GL in your games!
Matt
Im very tired after a long day but want to get this written down while its still reasonably fresh and because i don't think i am going to have much time in the next few days to put pen to paper, well fingers to keyboard...
As previously mentioned i headed to Melbourne this morning to play the HU event in this series. I really didn't get much sleep the night before and had a reasonably early (early for me) flight leaving Sydney at 9am. Didn't feel particularly great on the flight and had some pressure/sinus problems on the descent that was pretty aggrevating. First time this has ever happened to me so hopefully i don't have any problems on the upcoming flights. Melbourne is a really nice city overall, and Crown Casino is thoroughly impressive. Anyways to the poker.
In my first round i drew a really tough opponent. He was a HUSNGer and i really didn't expect for there to be any HUSNGers in the field. Besides myself this guy and his mate were both in, the other guy was Oasis00 from FTP (he was also on "the Poker Star - the Australian reality TV series). My opponent was fundamentally very very solid and i found it hard to find a significant edge on him, if anything i thought he gave me a little too much respect and probably folded a little too tight in some spots. The format was such that it was best of 3 matches in every round, so we were going to have to play at least 2 matches and obviously there would be some meta involved vs this thinking player.
The first hand really of note:
Blinds: 75/150
My stack: ~11k
Villain: ~9k
We definately had a 3bet dynamic at this point in time and the first level had basically been a raise/3bet/fold fest. I raise A9o otb to 400, and he flats from BB.
Flop ---> 9c4s6d
He checks, i bet 550, he thinks for a second and raises to 1300. At this point in time he can definately have a ton of air in his range and i figure my hand to be best a large %. However, this was his first c/r (i had c/r him maybe once only before this), and i expect him to be 3betting a lot of his high cards and high pairs, if i were to raise here i think his range for actually getting it in here is pretty strong because i didn't really expect him to get it in with TP hands really. So i flat his c/r.
Turn ---> Kh (board had no FD's)
He checks the turn and i decide to check back because i think he's c/f all his air but i can possibly get a small VB in on river or bluff catch if he bets certain cards, obviously he may also now VB worse 9x hands on the river.
River ---> 6s
Interesting card, i don't ever expect him to be c/r a 6 so it's actually a really good card for me. The pot was 3400 on the river, and when he checked i had to decide on a betsize. I decided to bet 1200 and try to get value out of all of his 9x hands and possibly some random hero calls. I'm still unsure if this bet was a little thin, but i don't really like checking back because it seems so nitty. He calls the 1200 and rolls over AA and i am thoroughly confused.
This match went for a long time and basically i had control for the rest of the match, we managed to get to 200/400 before we played a decent sized pot again which he took down giving him a slight advantage and pushing me down to the 15BB mark. I then re-shoved A9o on him over a 2.5x and got a fold, and the very next BB i once again re-shoved, this time with QQ and 19BBs and he tank-called KQdd. He missed and i took a large chiplead to take the match down.
The second match i was much less in control and he blew out to a big early chiplead after i played a hand like a bit of a donk, and got pretty owned to be honest.
Blinds: 50/100
My Stack: ~8300
Villain: ~11700
Pre-flop: He raises 300 and i decide to flat A2o. This was pretty close at the time because he had been folding/limping a few buttons, but i decided to flat and see what we could conjure up. This match had been played more post-flop thus far and once again there was a very aggressive dynamic.
Flop ---> Jd8h6h
Obviously a horrible board for my hand, but also a board that definately hits my percieved range. Furthermore, a lot of the c/r had been going on with dry boards and he had recently 3bet me when i c/r a K35 flop. He cbet 400 and i decided to give it a shot and c/r this board even though it kinda sucks and isn't a board that is necessarily ideal for bluffing on, however i genuinely thought i could get him to fold a ton of his range either on the flop or with another bet on the turn and possibly river if i got good cards. So i raise to 1250 and he tanks for a long time before calling.
(Pot= 3100)
Turn ---> 3h
This card was one that i still don't know what to think about it. He can definately have FD's here given his line, but it's also extremely feesible for me to have turned a flush. I planned on bluffing any heart turn and after thinking for a second i decided to bet 2200, and he instantly shoved. *sigh* Obviously i snap-folded. (he told me after the match that he had 88).
Three hands later:
Blinds: 75/150
My Stack: ~3800
Villain: ~16200
He limps and i check A2o away in the BB.
Flop ---> AAK, i think for a second and fire out 200 after he saw me see him go to fold his cards (he clearly made a motion to fold his cards and i thought this was actually pretty strong at the time but there was no way i was folding here anyways and if he did have Kx then i really didn't want to c/r him off his hand). He calls my bet on the flop pretty quickly.
Turn ---> 8 (pot= 700)
I think for a second again and lead out 500 and he calls instantly.
River ---> 3 (pot= 1700)
At this point in time it's a pretty easy shove. It's basically a case where i don't want to check and give him the chance to check back Kx, but i think if i bet here he's calling Kx regardless of my betsize. So i shove pretty quickly, and he basically snapcalls K8. Fwiw, i think his call is actually pretty bad, he doesn't really beat anything but air here because he even chops any worse Kings. I'm never triple barreling this board vs him with air so i'm not really sure why he called the river.
But anyways, this got me back to the better part of 8k and i held onto this and got as high as 11k up until we got to 300/600. At this time i basically went card dead and had to raise/fold twice in a row putting me back down to around 6k, when the next notable hand happened.
Blinds: 300/600
My stack ~6k
Villain: ~14k
We had been limping/shoving/folding for the most part, with a little min-raising when we were slightly deeper and a ton of 3bet shoving.
He raises to 3k, which was LOL insanely strong and I look down at AhJh, and i'm not folding no matter what so i just shove, he snaps AKo. The board rolls out:
---> Qh7h4c Qd Th... And i run good to get the double.
About 5 hands later we get it in again;
Blinds: 300/600
My stack: ~14k
Villain: ~6k
He open shoves and i call KhTh. He rolls over A8o for the lead. Then the board rolls out:
---> 7h8c2d Jh 3h... and *bink* i run good and move on to the round of 16.
The match went for over 3 hours and he was certainly a very good tough opponent. I definately got my fair share of run-good in the second match, but i really felt i got the toughest draw in the tourny.
Anyways, I am insanely tired right now so will re-cap the rest of the tournament tomorrow possibly on my flight i will write it out because this took longer than i thought and i need to sleep so bad so i can get out and see Melbourne tomorrow.
Will finish this in another entry tomorrow~!
GL in your games!
Matt
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Super Turbos?
Hey guys!
Just opened up 2+2 to see that they have added super turbo HUSNG's. I mean this is exciting for everyone and all but personally I'm not really in love with it. To be perfectly honest I think they're really bad for the economy, especially as a reg speed player because now all the degen's have much sweeter options than playing 75BB deep HUSNG's. Redback Poker recently added super-turbos, but i think their structure is much more reasonable and almost equivelant to FTP normal turbos.
So the FTP structure looks like this:
- 300 starting chips
- 3 minute blinds (15/30, 20/40, 25/50, and to be honest it really doesn't matter past there because i doubt a match will ever go beyond the 9 min mark).
- 2.5% rake.
Redback on the other hand:
- 1500 starting chips
- 2 minute blinds (15/30, 20/40, 30/60, 40/80, 50/100, 60/120 etc)
- 4% rake.
I mean the Redback are very comparable to FTP turbos though one level faster for every 3 levels. And even with rake a fair bit higher than FTP, i believe they are actually beatable. I genuinely don't believe that the super-turbos are all that beatable even with 2.5% rake, and if you were to play them i expect the variance to be absurd. I don't really want to make huge judgements one way or another until i play some or see some decent sample's from some good players (which i'm sure we will be seeing very shortly).
In other news, things have been flat out at the moment. Organising my trips to London/Belgium/Singapore (19thNov- 3rdDec) was quite an effort as well as getting everything booked for my short trip to Melbourne on the 17th. As well as this making sure i'm well prepared for the trip in terms of clothing (for cold weather) and ensuring i have everything booked/confirmed has been interesting. Usually when i travel i have my fiance with me so this will be my first time without her so determined to make sure i know shit before i go because usually i can depend on her to know i have to be in X place at X time. I'm not very good at getting my shit together in general, i much prefer the take it as it comes approach, however she is very organised and thank god for that. So instead i got her to help me organise my trip ;) and seems I'm all ready to go now.
Also went and looked into renewing gym membership. We went out to health centre to register Nat for her pre-natal yoga classes, and was looking to do it then but didn't carry my bank details with me so will likely do this when i get back from my trip. Really need to get back into shape as i've definately gotten lazy this year in general. I plan on quitting smoking after my trip and hopefully get myself back into shape as well. Plan on doing a fair bit of swimming, it's something i've always really enjoyed and is great thinking time + great exercise.
Finished my final University exam today (for the moment) so that's a huge load off. In saying it's done, i began my studies at around 11pm last night and slept for about 3 hours before heading off for a 9am start =P
Poker has been very meh. Very very swingy and that's mostly due to me playing $360 turbo 4-mans and myself + partner's running pretty horrendously overall. Still started the month ok (better than last month lol), even though i obviously feel like i should be doing better. I think that's all for now gonna go watch the degen's blow all they're money in super-turbos.
GL in your games~!!
Matt
Just opened up 2+2 to see that they have added super turbo HUSNG's. I mean this is exciting for everyone and all but personally I'm not really in love with it. To be perfectly honest I think they're really bad for the economy, especially as a reg speed player because now all the degen's have much sweeter options than playing 75BB deep HUSNG's. Redback Poker recently added super-turbos, but i think their structure is much more reasonable and almost equivelant to FTP normal turbos.
So the FTP structure looks like this:
- 300 starting chips
- 3 minute blinds (15/30, 20/40, 25/50, and to be honest it really doesn't matter past there because i doubt a match will ever go beyond the 9 min mark).
- 2.5% rake.
Redback on the other hand:
- 1500 starting chips
- 2 minute blinds (15/30, 20/40, 30/60, 40/80, 50/100, 60/120 etc)
- 4% rake.
I mean the Redback are very comparable to FTP turbos though one level faster for every 3 levels. And even with rake a fair bit higher than FTP, i believe they are actually beatable. I genuinely don't believe that the super-turbos are all that beatable even with 2.5% rake, and if you were to play them i expect the variance to be absurd. I don't really want to make huge judgements one way or another until i play some or see some decent sample's from some good players (which i'm sure we will be seeing very shortly).
In other news, things have been flat out at the moment. Organising my trips to London/Belgium/Singapore (19thNov- 3rdDec) was quite an effort as well as getting everything booked for my short trip to Melbourne on the 17th. As well as this making sure i'm well prepared for the trip in terms of clothing (for cold weather) and ensuring i have everything booked/confirmed has been interesting. Usually when i travel i have my fiance with me so this will be my first time without her so determined to make sure i know shit before i go because usually i can depend on her to know i have to be in X place at X time. I'm not very good at getting my shit together in general, i much prefer the take it as it comes approach, however she is very organised and thank god for that. So instead i got her to help me organise my trip ;) and seems I'm all ready to go now.
Also went and looked into renewing gym membership. We went out to health centre to register Nat for her pre-natal yoga classes, and was looking to do it then but didn't carry my bank details with me so will likely do this when i get back from my trip. Really need to get back into shape as i've definately gotten lazy this year in general. I plan on quitting smoking after my trip and hopefully get myself back into shape as well. Plan on doing a fair bit of swimming, it's something i've always really enjoyed and is great thinking time + great exercise.
Finished my final University exam today (for the moment) so that's a huge load off. In saying it's done, i began my studies at around 11pm last night and slept for about 3 hours before heading off for a 9am start =P
Poker has been very meh. Very very swingy and that's mostly due to me playing $360 turbo 4-mans and myself + partner's running pretty horrendously overall. Still started the month ok (better than last month lol), even though i obviously feel like i should be doing better. I think that's all for now gonna go watch the degen's blow all they're money in super-turbos.
GL in your games~!!
Matt
Friday, November 6, 2009
Sick crazy tilting day.
Hey guys. Today was one of the sickest days i have endured ever. It started off so very well, and then turned more brutally then a day has ever turned on me. I started the day 10-0 to be +$2k in the blink of an eye and i ran really well. I began playing some 4mans for FTOPS event 9 with deedoubleu a good mate of mine and overall we ran like trash... From that time onwards i just ran worse than i probably ever have for the next 20 or so games, and im saying this after a 60BI downswing. I went from having a really good day, to being stuck around $1200 on FTP.
Im swear im destined to fail in anything above the $200 level because everytime i have sat down to play $300s it becomes impossible to win. Feeling pretty shitty and demoralised at the moment as y month had started well and it seemed i had overcome the downswing. Anyways whining is probably not something anyone wants to read so ill leave it at that for now, just needed to get out some frustration... Thanks for reading, talk soon! Graphs attatched below!
FTP
REDBACK
Im swear im destined to fail in anything above the $200 level because everytime i have sat down to play $300s it becomes impossible to win. Feeling pretty shitty and demoralised at the moment as y month had started well and it seemed i had overcome the downswing. Anyways whining is probably not something anyone wants to read so ill leave it at that for now, just needed to get out some frustration... Thanks for reading, talk soon! Graphs attatched below!
FTP
REDBACK
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
