40 Games in (about) 50 Hours

[LinusKS]

Is there any way to play this one differently?

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20 (9 handed)

CO (t1500)
Button (t1490)
SB (t1480)
Hero (t1530)
UTG (t1500)
UTG+1 (t1500)
MP1 (t1500)
MP2 (t1500)
MP3 (t1500)

Preflop: Hero is BB with K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img], K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img].
UTG folds, UTG+1 calls t20, MP1 folds, <font color="CC3333">MP2 raises to t40</font>, MP3 folds, CO folds, Button calls t40, SB folds, <font color="CC3333">Hero raises to t200</font>, UTG+1 folds, MP2 folds, Button calls t160.

Flop: (t470) 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img], A[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] <font color="blue">(2 players)</font>
Hero checks, <font color="CC3333">Button bets t1290 (All-In)</font>, Hero folds.

Final Pot: t1760

[willie]

sure, throw a bet out there like you have an ace and fold if he comes over the top.

you might have let qq jj or tt steal this from you by checking the flop.

[tubbyspencer]

My first instinct was to agree and say bet the flop, maybe about half pot.

But the problem is, what to do you do when just called? Bet the turn? River?

Position Position Position.

I think you played it right.

[LinusKS]

Anything less than a pot-sized bet seems like an admission of weakness, after the large pre-flop bet. I can afford to lose the 200, but throwing another 500 in would be painful if I lost it.


My stats so far:

20 games
45% ITM
37.5% ROI
$202 profit
$10/game

[Augie]

If your opponent knows that you usually Bet the Pot, on a made hand or a bluff, then I would definately check with your KK (but it is the 1st level, have you played with him before?).

However, there is a lot to be said for betting about 2/3 the size of the pot, say 250-300 here. This often prevents the pot being taken from you. And if he stays in the hand, you still have enough chips to give you a shot in the tourney (or even, if your lucky, really make him pay if you spike a K on the turn).

In fact, this is just one of the reasons that my standard flop bet is 2/3s pot size. Unless the pot is small compared to stack sizes, then I bet the pot.

Besides allowing you to make these feeler bets/bluffs; when you do have a hand, you often get people playing with you with hands they are incorrect to call/raise with. Whereas, most players recognize pot size bets as a sort of commitment to playing the hand through.

Just some thoughts.

Augie

[LinusKS]

Last game completed.

40 games
$225 profit
20.83% ROI
42.5% ITM
$5.63/game

This is the second time I've done a weekend challenge. (The first time I did 50.)

1. Doing 20 games or more in a day is hard. When I first started this, I figured 2 games/hour, two tabling = 4 games per hour = 5 hours per day. Maybe it's my style of play (I'm not two-tabling enough) or maybe the average game is closer to 45 minutes (quite possible), but I'm definitely not getting 4 done an hour. It's closer to 2. And ten hours a day is too much - at least for me. I'm thinking 15/day is a more reasonable number.

2. It's amazing how much your mood affects your play, and how much your luck affects your mood. Lose two or three three-outers in a row on all-ins, and it's hard to stay positive. Then you find yourself doing things you know you shouldn't be doing, and you have to take a break -another reason 15 is a better number than 20.

3. Patience and discipline. It's amazing how often I've seen players who have been playing well suddenly make absolutely awful calls at or near the bubble. Those two things are more important than all the rest. (If anybody ever makes a decent bot, it will absolutely annihilate the human competition.)

4. I may need some help on my heads-up play. I need to figure out exactly what kinds of hands I need to be pushing with at different levels and stack sizes.

5. I need to move on soon, either to the 6-handed $38 Turbos, or the Party $55's.

[PrayingMantis]

[ QUOTE ]
2. It's amazing how much your mood affects your play, and how much your luck affects your mood. Lose two or three three-outers in a row on all-ins, and it's hard to stay positive. Then you find yourself doing things you know you shouldn't be doing, and you have to take a break -another reason 15 is a better number than 20.

3. Patience and discipline. It's amazing how often I've seen players who have been playing well suddenly make absolutely awful calls at or near the bubble. Those two things are more important than all the rest. (If anybody ever makes a decent bot, it will absolutely annihilate the human competition.)

[/ QUOTE ]

These are great points. We usually discuss here very specific hands, technical aspects of tactics and strategy, but IMO, the psychological aspect of this game (NL tournies, in this case), is many times the more important thing. People can play rather OK, making good decisions for 95% of the time, and then just make some completely foolish move, which will hurt their ROI on an SNG very significantly. The ability to manage frustration, AND to be able to exploit others' weaknesses (like tilting because of bad-beats), is one of the less-discussed topics, but it is extremely important, on every level and of buy-in.

And regarding patience and discipline - they are often much more relevant to this game than any standard "poker knowledge". They are not enough, of course, but sometimes that's where you find the difference.

[mikey checks]

[ QUOTE ]
My first instinct was to agree and say bet the flop, maybe about half pot.

But the problem is, what to do you do when just called? Bet the turn? River?

Position Position Position.

I think you played it right.

[/ QUOTE ]

I sincerely agree! [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

[rachelwxm]

These are good results. Congrats! Do you play 20s? Your ROI and $/game suggest that you are paying $27 per game? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]
I spent my weekend wasted in terms of poker. Actually shopping a lot with the money I made recently. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[viennagreen]

i'm wondering about the $27 lay-out per game as well--- are these all at the Turbo 25+2 at Stars?

i 4-table at Party, and average around 20-25 SNGs per day--- but i can never play more than 4 or 5 hrs/day.... i think that everyone is different, but it's important to recognize your limits in terms of concentration and fatigue... in NL, one little lapse can ruin a tournament for you

i would love to be able to play 8 hrs/day, but i'm just mentally unable to..