A couple days ago, I was doing some griping about how bad I was running. Well, I'm not sure if PokerStars reads my blog (unlikely), but the software, which had been utterly luck-screwing me, made a 180-degree turn in terms of how it was treating me.
Over my next six sit 'n go tournaments (four $30s and two $60s), I cashed four times, including three wins. To say I ran good would be an understatement. Certainly, I played well, adhering to my earlier position that I was making good decisions but just needed the cards to turn slightly in my favour. But I also found myself in some lovely spots. For instance, in one of the $60 SNGs, I had a medium-stacked opponent decide to shove from the small blind into my big blind. I had aces, he had QTo, and I held. Later in the same tournament, I made a raise, and found myself committed when a short stack shipped it behind me. He had AK, I had KhQh, but I flopped a queen and hung on for the knockout. I went on to amass a stack of over 10k before the money bubble burst, and I cruised to the win.
I finished second in the other $60 SNG, but I played well/ran well to get there. On the bubble, I was the short stack, with two medium stacks and one massive stack. First, I shoved a few hands in succession to get out of the danger zone. Then, I was mildly chagrined when one of the smaller stacks doubled up when his AK held against the big stack's QJ, all in preflop. But I was the recipient of some luck on the very next hand, when the other shorter stack got it all in with TT vs. the big stack's A3o. The shorty was safe through the flop and the turn, but the river was a lovely ace to get me into the money.
I was third in chips, but maybe three hands later, the medium stack ran KK into the chip leader's AA. I was at a 10-1 chip disadvantage when heads-up play began, and I busted in short order. But I basically had $150 gift-wrapped thanks to a bit of luck.
So, no more whining from me. I'm playing well and running well. Hopefully it continues.
Bankroll: $7,250
Showing posts with label pokerstars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pokerstars. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Monday, August 1, 2011
Why am I on tilt if I'm winning?
I'll admit it. If I'd written this post a week ago, it would have been a bit more of a brag.
One month after returning to the online poker world, I'm up $500. But after the roller-coaster it's been, and the amount of money I probably should have made, I'm fairly discouraged.
In lieu of a chart, here's a sentence summary of my bankroll adventures. I was up $400, down $300, up $800, down $600, up $400, and finally down $200 to land at +$500 for the month.
I've had countless periods of re-evaluation during this stretch. I began the month playing a much more aggressive style than I was used to, and I made it work for me. But playing that high-variance style, combined with playing too many tournaments, caused a nosedive. I decided I needed to get back to using the game plan detailed in Collin Moshman's book, Sit 'n Go Strategy, which is essentially solid early, aggressive late. I also decided I needed to play no more than three tourneys per day, so that I valued each buy-in to a greater degree. I was throwing some of them away on reckless plays.
That shift in focus spurred a huge hot streak, and I was up $900 for the month in a huge hurry. I was doing so well, I was actually on pace to turn in a solid score for PokerStars' Battle of the Planets promotion. Basically, the way it works is, you can win some nice cash prizes if you have the best results over a block of 20 sit 'n gos. I needed to complete 11 on a Saturday morning – an obvious deviation from my three-tourneys-per-day regimen. I did not fare well, playing four at a time as I was. I usually only play two at a time, and though I went on a $200 downturn chasing the Battle of the Planets, I wasn't too perturbed. It was a risk worth taking, and the reasons for my struggles were fairly cut and dried.
The thing was, what I thought would be a short stretch of suckitude endured and became an epic $600 downswing. So discouraging. I gave myself a pep talk and briefly righted the ship, but then PokerStars just decided to rape me repeatedly in the luck department. I hate to tell bad beat stories, but here are some of the beats I've taken on the money bubble over the past week:
KK < QQ
AK < AQ
TT < 33
Each of those beats literally took money out of my bankroll, and that's just a sampling. Here's one that happened tonight, on the bubble of a $60 SNG:
-- First, the pre-beat. I'm second in chips with just north of 3,000, when the short stack ships all in on the button. The small blind is the chip leader, and he calls. I fold the big blind. Shorty shows J5o, chip leader shows KJ. Flop comes QTx, giving the chip leader an open-ended straight draw in addition to his dominating hand. Turn is a blank, and the river is a 5. So freaking gross. I relay this hand because my bubble beats are often preceded by a filthy short-stack double.
-- A couple orbits later, I've chipped up slightly to about 3,500. The chip leader has 6,000ish, and the other two have just north of 2,000. With the blinds at 100-200 with a 25 ante, I raise under the gun to 500 holding Qh8h. I'm on a steal. It folds around to the big blind, who calls. The flop comes QT6. He checks, I bet 600. He insta-shoves. I should add at this point, the dude had been playing extremely aggressive, and had authored some monster suckouts in order to have his stack. With about one-third of my stack already invested and a fairly solid read he was on a bluff, I called. He showed Ac6c for bottom pair. Turn was a blank, river was a 6. I would have been a dominating chip leader; instead I'm out the door. So upsetting to be attacked by a donkey like that. Thanks a million, PokerStars.
So that's where it's at. I've actually been playing really well over the past week; it's just a matter of running a little bit better. I've had a few nice moments during the month – a deep run in a multi-table tourney, and a win at a live game at a friend's house. But I feel the month could have been so much more profitable. But that's poker, as they say.
Bankroll: $6,900
One month after returning to the online poker world, I'm up $500. But after the roller-coaster it's been, and the amount of money I probably should have made, I'm fairly discouraged.
In lieu of a chart, here's a sentence summary of my bankroll adventures. I was up $400, down $300, up $800, down $600, up $400, and finally down $200 to land at +$500 for the month.
I've had countless periods of re-evaluation during this stretch. I began the month playing a much more aggressive style than I was used to, and I made it work for me. But playing that high-variance style, combined with playing too many tournaments, caused a nosedive. I decided I needed to get back to using the game plan detailed in Collin Moshman's book, Sit 'n Go Strategy, which is essentially solid early, aggressive late. I also decided I needed to play no more than three tourneys per day, so that I valued each buy-in to a greater degree. I was throwing some of them away on reckless plays.
That shift in focus spurred a huge hot streak, and I was up $900 for the month in a huge hurry. I was doing so well, I was actually on pace to turn in a solid score for PokerStars' Battle of the Planets promotion. Basically, the way it works is, you can win some nice cash prizes if you have the best results over a block of 20 sit 'n gos. I needed to complete 11 on a Saturday morning – an obvious deviation from my three-tourneys-per-day regimen. I did not fare well, playing four at a time as I was. I usually only play two at a time, and though I went on a $200 downturn chasing the Battle of the Planets, I wasn't too perturbed. It was a risk worth taking, and the reasons for my struggles were fairly cut and dried.
The thing was, what I thought would be a short stretch of suckitude endured and became an epic $600 downswing. So discouraging. I gave myself a pep talk and briefly righted the ship, but then PokerStars just decided to rape me repeatedly in the luck department. I hate to tell bad beat stories, but here are some of the beats I've taken on the money bubble over the past week:
KK < QQ
AK < AQ
TT < 33
Each of those beats literally took money out of my bankroll, and that's just a sampling. Here's one that happened tonight, on the bubble of a $60 SNG:
-- First, the pre-beat. I'm second in chips with just north of 3,000, when the short stack ships all in on the button. The small blind is the chip leader, and he calls. I fold the big blind. Shorty shows J5o, chip leader shows KJ. Flop comes QTx, giving the chip leader an open-ended straight draw in addition to his dominating hand. Turn is a blank, and the river is a 5. So freaking gross. I relay this hand because my bubble beats are often preceded by a filthy short-stack double.
-- A couple orbits later, I've chipped up slightly to about 3,500. The chip leader has 6,000ish, and the other two have just north of 2,000. With the blinds at 100-200 with a 25 ante, I raise under the gun to 500 holding Qh8h. I'm on a steal. It folds around to the big blind, who calls. The flop comes QT6. He checks, I bet 600. He insta-shoves. I should add at this point, the dude had been playing extremely aggressive, and had authored some monster suckouts in order to have his stack. With about one-third of my stack already invested and a fairly solid read he was on a bluff, I called. He showed Ac6c for bottom pair. Turn was a blank, river was a 6. I would have been a dominating chip leader; instead I'm out the door. So upsetting to be attacked by a donkey like that. Thanks a million, PokerStars.
So that's where it's at. I've actually been playing really well over the past week; it's just a matter of running a little bit better. I've had a few nice moments during the month – a deep run in a multi-table tourney, and a win at a live game at a friend's house. But I feel the month could have been so much more profitable. But that's poker, as they say.
Bankroll: $6,900
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Taking a shot
It’s been a while since I posted to this blog, and that negligence reflects a sharp downturn in the amount of poker I’ve been playing. When writing a poker blog, it generally helps to play a bit of poker, you see.
The reason for my absence from the online tables is, my aging six-year-old laptop kicked the bucket. This was about a month ago. So I pulled out an even more ancient laptop, a 10-year-old Dell that was collecting dust in my garage, and wouldn’t you know it, the machine works. One problem – the only application it can’t seem to run is PokerStars. For whatever reason, it won’t connect to the server.
It’s been a somewhat annoying turn of events, but at the same time, I’ve been busy at work and felt I needed a break from the game anyway.
But last Sunday, I felt a burning desire to play the PokerStars’ Sunday Million. Now, I’ve never played the Sunday Million before (its $215 entry fee is generally too rich for my blood), but last week’s event was different. In celebration of the tournament’s fifth anniversary, PokerStars boosted the prize pool guarantee from $1 million to $5 million, with a minimum of $1 million and a Lamborghini Gallardo (pictured right) to first place.
Now, if those sums don’t get your juices flowing, I don’t know what would. So I borrowed a buddy’s laptop and entered the event.
The final numbers associated with the tourney were mind-blowing: 59,128 entries generated an $11.8 million prize pool, with both first place ($1.6m) and second ($1.1m) earning seven-figure payouts.
In the end, the players at the final table settled on a nine-handed chop that saw payouts ranging from $263k to $844k. Regrettably, I was not at that final table, though I did make a decent run and managed to finish in the money.
I had an excellent start. After chipping up steadily over the first hour, I won a huge pot against an aggressive big-stacked player seated two to my right. He’d been raising my big blind from the button every single lap, so when I found AQ in the big blind, I re-popped his opening raise of 450 to 1100. He called, and we saw a QQ9 flop. I bet out, he raised, I reraised all in, and he called with KQ. I held up, and took nearly his entire stack. At that point, I had over 40,000 chips after starting with 10,000.
I continued to build my stack, peaking at 108,000. Along the way, I won another huge pot when my QQ held up against AJ after we got it all in on a jack-high flop.
Two bad beats crippled my chances of making a truly deep run. After moving tables, I found a very aggressive player to my left. On one occasion, it was folded around to me in the small blind, and he shipped all-in after I limped. The very next lap it was folded around to me again, and this time I raised to 3,000 (blinds 500-1,000). It definitely looked suspicious, given the action in that same spot the previous lap. He apparently felt it was a good time for a re-steal, and shipped all-in once again. I had trapped him with AK, but he sucked out with his raggedy Q3 offsuit. That chopped my stack in half.
Later on, just before the money bubble (at 7,450 players), I had 99 in the small blind and called a middle-position raise. The big blind came along for the ride, and we saw a 764 flop. I elected to bet 12,000 (about half the pot) to see where I stood, and the short-stacked big blind shipped it for about 30k. The initial raiser folded, and the pot odds were far to compelling for me to fold. My opponent showed 73o for top pair and a gutshot straight draw, which he filled when a 5 hit the turn. Gross. Losing that pot knocked me down to about 34k, and I was resigned to limping my way into the money.
Once the money bubble burst, I grinded my short stack for another 20 minutes, before shoving in late position with A6 and running into the big blind’s AK. Oh well. I finished in around 5,000th place for $354, which was a min-cash. Obviously it would have been pretty sweet to make a deep run, but I was proud to have cashed in one of the biggest tournaments in history. Good times.
Playing at all was a novelty in itself – I hadn’t played for the three weeks previous, and I haven’t played since. One of these days, I’ll get that big score. As soon as I get a laptop.
Oh, and my bankroll? $6,300 at the moment.
The reason for my absence from the online tables is, my aging six-year-old laptop kicked the bucket. This was about a month ago. So I pulled out an even more ancient laptop, a 10-year-old Dell that was collecting dust in my garage, and wouldn’t you know it, the machine works. One problem – the only application it can’t seem to run is PokerStars. For whatever reason, it won’t connect to the server.
It’s been a somewhat annoying turn of events, but at the same time, I’ve been busy at work and felt I needed a break from the game anyway.
But last Sunday, I felt a burning desire to play the PokerStars’ Sunday Million. Now, I’ve never played the Sunday Million before (its $215 entry fee is generally too rich for my blood), but last week’s event was different. In celebration of the tournament’s fifth anniversary, PokerStars boosted the prize pool guarantee from $1 million to $5 million, with a minimum of $1 million and a Lamborghini Gallardo (pictured right) to first place.
Now, if those sums don’t get your juices flowing, I don’t know what would. So I borrowed a buddy’s laptop and entered the event.
The final numbers associated with the tourney were mind-blowing: 59,128 entries generated an $11.8 million prize pool, with both first place ($1.6m) and second ($1.1m) earning seven-figure payouts.
In the end, the players at the final table settled on a nine-handed chop that saw payouts ranging from $263k to $844k. Regrettably, I was not at that final table, though I did make a decent run and managed to finish in the money.
I had an excellent start. After chipping up steadily over the first hour, I won a huge pot against an aggressive big-stacked player seated two to my right. He’d been raising my big blind from the button every single lap, so when I found AQ in the big blind, I re-popped his opening raise of 450 to 1100. He called, and we saw a QQ9 flop. I bet out, he raised, I reraised all in, and he called with KQ. I held up, and took nearly his entire stack. At that point, I had over 40,000 chips after starting with 10,000.
I continued to build my stack, peaking at 108,000. Along the way, I won another huge pot when my QQ held up against AJ after we got it all in on a jack-high flop.
Two bad beats crippled my chances of making a truly deep run. After moving tables, I found a very aggressive player to my left. On one occasion, it was folded around to me in the small blind, and he shipped all-in after I limped. The very next lap it was folded around to me again, and this time I raised to 3,000 (blinds 500-1,000). It definitely looked suspicious, given the action in that same spot the previous lap. He apparently felt it was a good time for a re-steal, and shipped all-in once again. I had trapped him with AK, but he sucked out with his raggedy Q3 offsuit. That chopped my stack in half.
Later on, just before the money bubble (at 7,450 players), I had 99 in the small blind and called a middle-position raise. The big blind came along for the ride, and we saw a 764 flop. I elected to bet 12,000 (about half the pot) to see where I stood, and the short-stacked big blind shipped it for about 30k. The initial raiser folded, and the pot odds were far to compelling for me to fold. My opponent showed 73o for top pair and a gutshot straight draw, which he filled when a 5 hit the turn. Gross. Losing that pot knocked me down to about 34k, and I was resigned to limping my way into the money.
Once the money bubble burst, I grinded my short stack for another 20 minutes, before shoving in late position with A6 and running into the big blind’s AK. Oh well. I finished in around 5,000th place for $354, which was a min-cash. Obviously it would have been pretty sweet to make a deep run, but I was proud to have cashed in one of the biggest tournaments in history. Good times.
Playing at all was a novelty in itself – I hadn’t played for the three weeks previous, and I haven’t played since. One of these days, I’ll get that big score. As soon as I get a laptop.
Oh, and my bankroll? $6,300 at the moment.
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