Well the NPC was pretty much a fail in a nutshell. I was very pleased with how i played throughout the series but unfortunately only managed to scrape to break-even for the series.
I did however manage to grab a win in the teams event (Event 6), playing with Nathan Ruprecht and Glenn Randell. Was a fun event and very cool to get a win but the profits were obviously small from that event. I played the 'Pineapple' leg of the event, with the 3 legs being NLHE/PLO/Pineapple. Even though i had contributed throughout the tournament in building our stack, it was the final PLO leg with Glenn getting it in on a 99TJ board on the turn holding J9KQ against a naked AJXX which really got us in there. I was next up and preceded to try to lose the tournament with around 50% of the chips in play 4 handed. Fortunately, after i had dumped off 1/3 of my stack, Nath jumped back in and got it done.
Even though we won this tournament, it kinda highlighted the week for me. I was having no troubles at all building my stack and playing a lot of small pots. However, as soon as it came time to play the big pots i found a way to lose. As frustrating as this is it is a part of poker in general and is why the economy continues to remain relatively stable. The mere fact that random donks can get lucky a few times and take down these tournaments drives the economy.
I also Final Tabled the Deepstack event (Event 8), finishing 6th. Was also a fail given that i really hadn't had to play any major pots but when i finally got my stack in and got called i come up short against run good child Ken Curry (who ended up winning the main event, big congrats!).
When it came to the ME, it resulted in another fail. I built my stack up very easily from the starting 30k to 70k before i took a massive nosedive in the evening session resulting in the first time i've genuinely tilted in a long time. Getting run down by stations always seems so much more brutal in live MTT's because you play so few hands per hour with the following hand a prime example.
My Stack: 65k
Villain: 50k
Blinds 300/600, I am in MP1 holding AcQs.
UTG+1 (villain) limps, I raise to 2200, folds around to villain who calls.
Flop ~ QcTc3h (pot:5300)
Villain checks, I bet 4200, villain calls.
Turn ~ 5c (pot:13700)
Villain checks quickly, and i decide to fire out a big bet of 11000, villain calls quickly.
At this point in time he never has me beat and im pretty sure he has a draw or a pair + FD type hand.
River: Ah (pot:35700)
Not the best card in the deck. But in saying that, it improved our hand strength and only completed one draw. Albeit that it was the only genuine draw out there. Villain checks pretty quickly and I contemplate a bet. If he really had KJ here I cannot understand how he can be c/c and potentially not getting any value when he gets there so i decide to go for a small VB to try to get calls out of his one pair type hands that missed the FD.
Villain checks, I bet 6500, villain instantly announces raise and makes it 15000.
I sigh and feel retarded for betting. I really cannot fold my hand for 8500 into like 60k with top2. So i tell him to show me his KJ as i toss me chips in and obviously he obliges.
That was just a premium example of what was to come in the ME for me. I definately regret V-Betting the river in that hand, but in the same sense I don't feel like it can ever really be that bad.
Anyways, I'm very much looking forward to getting back into the online grind. Hopefully things will start looking up for me. Im contemplating playing maybe the opening event and the HU event at ANZPT Sydney coming up in April, and would love to be in a position by May to think about getting to the WSOP.
For now though im just going to focus on grinding out a ton of games online and spending time with my new family...
GL in all your games~!!!
Matt
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Long time no blog.
Hey guys,
Long time no blog! Yeah ive been very busy/lazy. But I am sitting here waiting for action at 1am and figured what better to do than do a SHORT update. A LOT has happened in the last few months that i have been awol and i will try to cover it as best as i can, as well as cover something I have been thinking about in light of the upcoming NPC.
Last few months in poker:
- have been an epic struggle. I don't really want to go into this too much but lets just say it hasn't been pretty at all. I don't want to go on about running bad etc etc because no one wants to hear about that, so let's just leave it at things have been rough. Results from December onwards are below.
On Redback
On FTP
As you can see they're very disappointing and im really hoping things turn around soon.
In Life:
Real life has been great. As has been mentioned in previous posts we were expecting a baby... He arrived on February 10th 2010, 8lb 8oz, named Madden. He has certainly been a handful but we are really loving every minute of it. Its amazing how time flies by without you realising and we're seeing changes in him every day. I find myself watching him just doing nothing and being utterly consumed/fascinated by it, its quite a strange feeling. Oh and he actually is cute ;)
Everyone thinks their own kids are quite, its just a given. We said all along that if this kid is ugly we will know it :p We think he's adorable (objectively obv;) ) But you can decide for yourself. Dont tell me if u think hes ugly!
Anyways...
I have been playing a few live ANZPT qualifiers of late, partially to get back into playing live again with the NPC coming up. To be honest im not sure yet whether im going to have another crack at the player of the year at NPC this year as i do have a one month old baby at home... I guess i will just see how i start the series and take it from there.
One thing i have found very interesting in the tournaments i have played has come when eff stacks begin to get shallower. I have had absolutely no trouble getting my stack right up, however, when it has come to playing with 25BBs or less i have found myself in some difficult spots. And i don;t mean difficult spots as in people are crushing me or anything, its more an internal battle between what i know should be correct and what is actually correct situationally.
People in these types of live games have no idea about stack sizes and fold equity,nor do they understand how to assign handranges. This is in no way meant in a derogatory manner, most of them will freely admit this. But due to this, things have to change in our games to adjust properly to it. Im still yet to be able to put my finger on the precise adjustments i need to make to people's absurdly tight handranges for both jamming and folding shallow stacks.
One thing i am considering is the possibility of being able to 3x/fold with like 10-15BBs (something i would NEVER do online). Generally speaking i have just been open jamming these stacks which is pretty std in my eyes. However, when people are calling so so tight regardless of whether i am jamming or 3x it is likely going to be mroe profitable for me to just open 3x at these stacks (or potentially 2.7x). Thing is, people are very few and far between that are capable of 3bet jamming anything other than nut hands, so dopting a strategy where i can actually open with the same FE but save an extra 7BBs or so when i get jammed on is obviously very enticing. Its just very hard for me to get this into my mind because i feel so retarded open/folding at them stacks. Hopefully i can keep my discipline and not get too antsy during the NPC and do anything out of line which i have a habit of doing in MTT's in general.
I am probably too loose in general and it is something i certainly need to reign in if i want to do well in the NPC this year. When stacks are deep i feel i have a massive edge on these guys so just need to hang in there when pus comes to shove and exploit the tendancies that a lot of these guys have!
Anyways, this got longer than i wanted. Will try to blog more frequently from now on!!!
GL in your games!
Matt
Long time no blog! Yeah ive been very busy/lazy. But I am sitting here waiting for action at 1am and figured what better to do than do a SHORT update. A LOT has happened in the last few months that i have been awol and i will try to cover it as best as i can, as well as cover something I have been thinking about in light of the upcoming NPC.
Last few months in poker:
- have been an epic struggle. I don't really want to go into this too much but lets just say it hasn't been pretty at all. I don't want to go on about running bad etc etc because no one wants to hear about that, so let's just leave it at things have been rough. Results from December onwards are below.
On Redback
On FTP
As you can see they're very disappointing and im really hoping things turn around soon.
In Life:
Real life has been great. As has been mentioned in previous posts we were expecting a baby... He arrived on February 10th 2010, 8lb 8oz, named Madden. He has certainly been a handful but we are really loving every minute of it. Its amazing how time flies by without you realising and we're seeing changes in him every day. I find myself watching him just doing nothing and being utterly consumed/fascinated by it, its quite a strange feeling. Oh and he actually is cute ;)
Everyone thinks their own kids are quite, its just a given. We said all along that if this kid is ugly we will know it :p We think he's adorable (objectively obv;) ) But you can decide for yourself. Dont tell me if u think hes ugly!
Anyways...
I have been playing a few live ANZPT qualifiers of late, partially to get back into playing live again with the NPC coming up. To be honest im not sure yet whether im going to have another crack at the player of the year at NPC this year as i do have a one month old baby at home... I guess i will just see how i start the series and take it from there.
One thing i have found very interesting in the tournaments i have played has come when eff stacks begin to get shallower. I have had absolutely no trouble getting my stack right up, however, when it has come to playing with 25BBs or less i have found myself in some difficult spots. And i don;t mean difficult spots as in people are crushing me or anything, its more an internal battle between what i know should be correct and what is actually correct situationally.
People in these types of live games have no idea about stack sizes and fold equity,nor do they understand how to assign handranges. This is in no way meant in a derogatory manner, most of them will freely admit this. But due to this, things have to change in our games to adjust properly to it. Im still yet to be able to put my finger on the precise adjustments i need to make to people's absurdly tight handranges for both jamming and folding shallow stacks.
One thing i am considering is the possibility of being able to 3x/fold with like 10-15BBs (something i would NEVER do online). Generally speaking i have just been open jamming these stacks which is pretty std in my eyes. However, when people are calling so so tight regardless of whether i am jamming or 3x it is likely going to be mroe profitable for me to just open 3x at these stacks (or potentially 2.7x). Thing is, people are very few and far between that are capable of 3bet jamming anything other than nut hands, so dopting a strategy where i can actually open with the same FE but save an extra 7BBs or so when i get jammed on is obviously very enticing. Its just very hard for me to get this into my mind because i feel so retarded open/folding at them stacks. Hopefully i can keep my discipline and not get too antsy during the NPC and do anything out of line which i have a habit of doing in MTT's in general.
I am probably too loose in general and it is something i certainly need to reign in if i want to do well in the NPC this year. When stacks are deep i feel i have a massive edge on these guys so just need to hang in there when pus comes to shove and exploit the tendancies that a lot of these guys have!
Anyways, this got longer than i wanted. Will try to blog more frequently from now on!!!
GL in your games!
Matt
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