Rollin, Rollin, Rollin...

[eMarkM]

Another night, another finish in the money with some final table action. After I busted out of the Zoo Tourney (my short stack ATs met AJ), I headed over to the 10PM ET $50 Limit on Stars. 126 players. I'm not too fond of limit, but that's what they were offering at the time. A few hands. Any comments would be appreciated.

Hand #45 100/200 - I've played only a few hands to this point that saw a flop, TT twice where I raised, was called by mulitple players and folded to bets when overcards appeared. KQo where I limped and didn't hit the flop. And QcJc where my club draw didn't come through. In my usual early tourney hole with T750. Get AsQd UTG with blinds threatening to take half my chips. Raise UTG called by a loose player. Ace flops and he folds to a bet. T1050.

#70 150/300 - A few blind steals and flop bets that take down pots and I'm up to T1750. I get QQ in EP and raise. Called by SB. Flop comes

8d 4h 3d

check, bet, call. Turn is 7d. Check, check. In a ring game, I bet here, but I don't want him check-raising me. River 4c. Check, bet, call. I may have induced a call witht the turn check here and I go to T2650.

#81 200/400 - Short stack T565 raise all-in UTG. Folded to me in the BB with A4s. I reraise to get him all-in. He has 88. Ace flops and I go to T3090.

#82 200/400 - very next hand. EP raises and I call with 99 from the SB. HU to flop of

3h Jh 7d

I check, he bets, I raise, he reraises, I muck. T2290 left.

#97 200/400 - Just wait around long enough, hang in there and someone in one of these tournaments will do something moronic that gets you right back in it.

I pass on 44 and 55 from EP when this hands comes up. I have T2590 and I've been switched to a table with a complete maniac. This guy's cappin every hand he's in. When he open raises with T2473 I gladly reraise from the SB with AsKd. He calls. Flop comes

4h Ad 4s

I bet and we end up capping it. Turn is Kc. Bet, raise, reraise and he's all-in. I laugh out loud in my office chair when he turns over JTo!! Thanks, buddy. River is a harmless 7c and I nearly double up to T5263. I'm just off average stack now. Right where I want to be.

#141 600/1200 - Down to T1733 after many folds in the blinds and some raises where I was called and folded to a flop bet. I get 77 on the button and have a round before the blinds swallow me up. T6712 open raises CO-1, CO calls, I raise all-in with my middle pair. We're near the final table, the only one that pays and I need a win here. Board comes

5s Kd 5h 4d 4c

And the other two check it down trying to lose me. But their A8o and AQ don't hit and I'm still alive with T5199.

#162 800/1600 - final two tables, only final table pays. We're close now and I'm hanging on around 12 out of 13 with T5999. I raise from MP with 88. BB with T9691 calls. Flop comes

3c 7h 9s

Check, bet, call. Turn is 8c and I smile. Check, bet, call. River is Ad, check, bet, call. I'm at T11999 and can now sit back a bit and wait for the small stacks to bust and get to the money.

#180 800/1600 - Very close now, only a couple of small stacks to go. T7999 and I get Qd7s in the SB. Folded to me and I try a steal to give myself a cushion. Doh, he calls. Flop comes

9d Jh Ac

Check, check. Turn is Qs. He bets. I think I'm ahead here since I think he'd bet an A on the flop. But I just call. River comes an ugly Tc. Check, check. He rivered a two pair with JsTs and I've put myself in jeopardy a bit down to T4799. But I have round before I have to sweat the blinds and there's stacks smaller than mine. Just a couple to be eliminated before the money.

#189 1200/2400 - After posting blinds I have T1999. Two to go now for the money. And I'm the bubble boy with the smallest stack now. On the other table the then small stack had to go all-in in the blind with something like 52o against a mid pair. Flops a 2 and rivers another to stay alive.

I get 99 UTG before the blinds come and take me away. I raise all-in, get called by a larger stack happy to take a shot at busting me out with A7o. No A and I go T5198.

#194 1200/2400 - still in jeopardy with T3398 and the others a stubbornly staying alive. Once again the blinds loom and I raise to 2400 with A4s. BB reraises me to get me all-in. He has Q9o, no one gets a pair and A-high wins. Back to T7396.

#209 1200/2400 - J9o raise results in blind steal on the button. T9196, I'm not the wimpy stack any longer.

#238 2000/4000 - Final table! I survived with T9196. There's a T54K stack leading, a 42K, 28, 17, 17, 9, 9, 4, 4. We've gone a couple of orbits when this hand comes up. From CO-1 and T9346 I raise with TT. CO (T27K) reraises and BB calls all-in with T4096. Flop comes a stupendous

3c Th 3d

I check, CO bets, I raise all-in. He turns over JJ. I take it down and move to T25778. CO mentions that's the same hand he lost to be eliminated 6th in the WPT championship! I'll have to tune into that one on the 25th to see what he looks like.

#241 7 handed now, Folded to SB who completes. I check KQo. Flop comes

Kd Td Jh

check, bet, call. Turn is Kc. Check, bet, call. River 7d. Check, bet, call. I go to T37788 to move to 2nd.

#249 3000/6000 - 6 handed. Open raise K9o from SB. WPT guy in BB calls. Flop comes

5d 9h 6c

Bet, call, turn 2c, bet call and he's all-in. River is Qs, he has 98o and I bust out WPT guy and take the chip lead with T59068.

#277 3000/6000 - It's been 4 handed for awhile and we're sparring back and forth. Currently 2nd with T39380 behind a 82K stack. Then this regretable hand came up. I get 88 in the BB. Button calls, SB completes, I check. Flop comes

Ts 6h 6d

Check, bet, call. Turn is 2h. Check, bet, call. River is 2d. Check, bet, call. I got sucked right into his trap as he shows down JJ. Down to T18380 calling off my chips.

I went out with a wimper a couple hands later to take 4th and $630. I was dead tired by the end of this. After the Zoo and staying up until 1AM the past 3 nights getting deep into tournaments has taken its toll. For those keeping score at home, the tally for the week so far:

Mon $50 HE PL - 194 players, 3rd place, $1164, 217 "leader" pts
Tue $30 HE PL - 303 players, 11th place, $110, 130 pts
Wed $50 HE NL - 230 players, 18th place, $138, 97 pts
Thu $30 HE PL Zoo - 48 players, 38th place, $0.
Thu $50 HE - 126 players, 4th place, $630, 151 pts.

Not a bad ROI, I'm sure I can expect these kinds of results regularly /forums/images/icons/crazy.gif. I have a total of 595 of these "leader" points. I guess that would put me on their board, but I don't think I'll qualify to play McEvoy. But there's still the rest of the weekend.

I haven't received too many comments on my hands, but I have received a couple of PMs saying they enjoyed these posts. I like writing these, it forces me to really review my play in the whole tournament. But I don't think I can keep it up much longer. Obviously, I'm not going to have exciting results like this everytime out. But I'll post as long as I keep the "streak" alive. Be in the tonight's $50 HE NL at 10PM CST looking to extend to 5 money finishes. See ya there.

[balt999]

Keep up the good work...eMarkM....

"Dis Pokker Ting dis eazzzy"

/forums/images/icons/grin.gif

[Al_Capone_Junior]

Another enjoyable post. Hope you keep winnin.

hand #97: please PM me and tell me who this was! It's got to be worth at least a couple hundred just to know his name! I'll mail you cash!

See you next month at king of the zoo (I'm in!).

al

[sam h]

Nice job with this and the other tourneys.

#70

I would be more liable to check here if I held the Qd because there are far less free cards to beat you. The other factor is whether you think this opponent could bluff or semi-bluff here. If not, then bet.

#97

Don't you just love poker sometimes?

#141

Definitely the right risk to take here.

#180

I would have bet out instead of check-calling the turn, but OK.

#277

I'm a little confused about who's doing the checking and who's doing the calling here. Either way, it's tough to put your opponent on JJ in this situation.

Again, nice work.

[davidross]

Well done.You seem to have found a new passion. I'm curious what adjustments you make when playing these multi-table tournaments. I've played about 10 of them so far and haven't had a sniff of the money. I do ok on paradise 1 table tournies but nothing even close at Pokerstars. How is your game different from a normal ring game?

[eMarkM]

Very different.

This board, of course, helps tremendously with strategy adjustments. I went and read about six months worth of archives on this board after the first Zoo tourney and tried to absorb all the subtlties.

Get Sklansky's Tournament book, it helped me understand the differences between tourney play and ring play. I'm studying it intently now. The main concept in the book is the "gap concept", which explains the gap between what you would open the betting with and what you would call someone else with who opened the betting. So I may open raise with something like QTo as a blind steal, but I often will toss something as good as AQs against a raise. The gap really widens in NL since a called raise could ulitmately put you to the big question of calling off all your chips. So powerful is this concept that I can't remember ever calling a raise cold in these tournaments outside the blinds. Either your hand is good enough for a reraise (with your willing to go all-in or fold to a reraise) or it's a fold.

Play real premium cards in EP. AJo and KQo are auto-muck in most full table situations. Don't dick around and get trapped with these hands (as I did in the last Zoo tourney).

Chip conservation is all important (Sklansky: You're Broke--You're Done) as I hope I've shown in my three posts. In every tourney I was bottom of the barrel in chips and waited for the right hand to go all-in with. I virtually never bluffed when short stacked, and never against a power stack.

Pocket pairs are big in NL. Look at ohKanada's post on "middle pair mania", these are often all-in hands. When short stacked, go all-in with a pair and if you do get called by overcards, you're a slight favorite. You have to take that chance when short. The big danger is a bigger pair, where you're basically screwed.

Having two monitors really helps come bubble time. Only in tourneys are you so affected by hands that have nothing to do with you. You have to monitor other bubble-boys to see where you're at. You have to throw away some decent hands just trying to wait out the bubbles. Rarely do you want to take any chances so close to the money.

P.S., I finished 35th in tonight's NL tourney on Stars. Short stacked (as usual) with four tables left, 3 paying, and my all-in raise with 77 met AK from a big stack and he flopped a A. So the streak ends for me. But once again, I had my shot very close to the money.

[yct]

eMark, congrats on the excellent tourney result. I enjoy reading your detailed key hand reports as I'm also trying to improve my own game. Keep them coming.

[Magician]

eMarkM,

How do you define 'short-stacked, I need to go all-in'? How many times the big blind (or the pot if it's rolling antes)?

Seems to me that if you are short-stacked you just wait for a pocket pair, AK or AQ, go all-in, and pray.

[JayKon]

The problem with waiting for a big hand is that they can be hard to come by. You'll go broke waiting.