Playing online for a living week 19

[davidross]

Kids are back at school and life is returning to normal. I had to get up to make breakfast though so the sleep patterns need adjusting. The week has started really well at Paradise, and so so at Party. I’ve won $750 in 2 nights at Paradise, giving me 6 straight winning session ssince I returned to the 5/10 games. I had a small win on Sunday night at Party, but had my worst day ever at Party on Monday. I was a victim of 2nd best-itis. I dropped $473, $350 in the afternoon. It was like the horrible run I had many weeks back where I would hit the flop with AK, get called and raised on the turn. Again and again. I flopped 4 sets in 20 minutes and lost all of them to rivered flushes or straights. Most of the time it wasn’t even bad players chasing, just one of those things. I tilted for a short while, but overall I think I handled it better than I did last time. Then Tuesday afternoon I ran well and made back $385 of it. So Tuesday at dinner time I’m up $750 for the week.

I’ve got the tournament bug all of a sudden. I discovered Monday I was eligible for a free-roll tournament, but I signed up too late and missed it. SO this morning I entered a $25 satellite for the Party Poker Million tournament. The winner gets a seat in the semi-finals this weekend and the 2nd and 3rd finishers get another satellite for free. The tournament was No Limit and I made a flush on the 1st hand, and a set on the 3rd and took a commanding lead. I played pretty conservatively for the next 45 minutes, just picking my spots. I had 2 3/6 games going, but when we got down to 4 players I sat out on the ring games. I had almost ½ the chips when we got down to 3, but the short stack made 3 huge hands in a row to put me out. He beat my JJ with AA to double up, then beat my KJ with KQ when K flopped, and finally I had J7 on a board of J7xxx and he had JJ. So I gat a free play and entered a Limit tournament. I was a low stack early, then hardly played a hand for 4 rounds. Then I won a huge pot with a set of Q’s and cruised to the last 2 again. We played heads up for about 20-25 hands before the rising blinds made it a crapshoot. I had Ac 9c and he had 88 on a board of Kc Qc 8c 5c 5s and his boat beat my flush. Ugh. I entered another no-limit tourney and again got down early. I just sat out and watched them knock each other out and I limped into 3rd by default in only the 3rd round. I then doubled up twice and actually took the lead for a short while, but went card dead again. I took a chance with J9 and ran into QJ leaving me drawing thin. SO I have yet another free play I’ll try tomorrow. I’m having so much fun with it that I entered a $10 satellite for a $100,000 guaranteed tournament they are having Sept. 19. That’ll be tonight. 1 seat for every 32 entries.

I don’t think I really have the game for tournament play. I think I’m too cautious and am well suited to surviving until the last 3 in single table tournies, but I’ve never done very well in a multi-table tourney. I’ll need to work on that.

I made a royal flush yesterday, my 3rd ever. No one called my river bet unfortunately. I couldn’t resist showing it though. I had Jc Tc and the final board was Ac Kc Qc 9c x. Not too many hands would call that bet I guess.

I think there was a full moon on Tuesday night. Weirdest night I can remember. I got 3 bet with 74o, and had the guy pound every street with nothing. I chopped 4 pots with identical hands. And for about 2 hours I lost at a horrible rate. I was down 300 at Paradise, and 200 at Party. Then in keeping with the trend of the night this hand came up.

I limped in EP with 22 (I know but I just like doing it). CO poster checks, button calls and both blinds play.

Flop 8d 2s 9h.

SB checks, BB bets and I just call. CO and button call too.

Turn [8d 2s 9h] 5s.

BB bets again, and I just call once more hoping to keep the other 2 in for 1 more bet. CO calls and now the button raises. BB calls and I jump in with a raise. CO calls 2 cold and button just calls. BB calls as well. Still 4 to the river.

River [8d 2s 9h 5s] 2c

Well isn’t that special!! BB checks, I bet, CO raises!!. He hasn’t done anything but call until now, and he jumps in now. You’ll never guess his hand. Button 3 bets (remember it’s a full moon, but I think you can guess his hand). BB folded and I capped it. They both called, and I won a 28 BB pot.

Button had 55 and had turned his set. CO had KK. Remember he posted and didn’t raise pre-flop. He didn’t raise the flop or the turn, but jumped into it on the river?????

Anyhow, that hand seemed to turn around my night. I got back to even eventually on paradise and I posted a $400 + win putting me up over $800 for the day.

Wednesday was a great day. I won $320 at paradise, and $150 at Party, almost all of it due to AA. I got rockets 8 times in the evening, winning 7 of them. But more importantly I won my seat in the PPM semi final, and I also won a satellite for a seat in the $100 K Tournament on Sept 19th. I thought the Tournaments would be a nice distraction to help keep poker fresh, and I’ve really gotten the bug. It’s such an adrenaline rush.

The single table tournament I got the PPM seat in was very strange. It was No Limit and at the end of the 3rd round we were down to 3 players. Usually that takes 6 rounds, but there were all-ins all over the place. I was the short stack at 3 left (I hadn’t played many hands, just watched as everyone went out) but got AA 3 handed and tripled up. It was over pretty quickly. I knocked out 1 guy and on the 1st heads up hand the other guy went all-in with T4s and I had KT to dominate him.

I entered the satellite late last night on a bit of a whim. It started at 12:30 AM, cost $30 +2 and provided 1 seat for every 10 people entered. It was no limit also. I had a decent 1st hour keeping ahead of the average st the 1st break, playing very few hands and (I hope) developing a tight image. I then built my stack nicely with a QQ hand that I raised and had a loose player on the button go all-in. I had about 4,000 at the time and he had 2400. him and he had A7. No ace came and I was in a good position. At the2nd break we were down to 60 players, (35 would win seats), and I had 7,600 in chips. There were 19 people ahead of me and 40 behind me. I was trying to decide if I needed to play any more hands. I got pretty lucky actually. I didn’t get anything I wanted to play on the next orbit, and everyone folded to my BB so I stayed even. The next time around I folded everything including my blinds, but got KQs on the button and raised and won the blinds to keep me even again. We were now down to around 40, and it was clear I could get in without playing a hand. The pace of play was terrible. Everyone took the maximum time on each decision and then folded, waiting for another table to put someone out. They need to go to hand to hand play when you’re that close to the bubble. We took 45 minutes to eliminate the next 3 players. And the guy who went out on the bubble needs his head examined. He started the hand with 20,000 and got into it with someone with 30,000. There were 3 people under 1,000 at this point. He pushed all-in on the river with an unimproved QQ and lost, and we all had our seats.

I folded AJ, AQs and KTs on the button during this stretch, and I got KK in the BB and was prepared to fold it too, but no one bet that hand. I’m looking for ward to the tournaments now, but I really need more practice. I think I’ll try to qualify for one more semifinal of the PPM today.

Well, it was a great week for ring play, and a disappointing one for tournaments, although I think I played better and show some promise in them.

First, my bread and butter. I’m still hot at Paradise, up $1,450 for the week without a single losing session since I started there again last week. And at Party I won $1600 for a $3,000 + week. So far the 4 table nights are working really well. It’s amazing to me to look at the stats after a session though. I don’t change my opening requirements at all, but a lot of hands I play I will only play if I have limpers in front of me, or if there is no raise. At paradise I’m seeing 23% of the flops, and at Party I’m seeing 28%. Clearly there is less raising and more limping going on at Party, as we all know is true.

I played the 3rd King Of The Zoo tournament on Thursday night. I started 45 minutes late because my PokerStars password was wiped out when the latest upgrade loaded and I couldn’t remember the password. I use the same password for everything except Stars, they insist on a number and 8 characters. So I had to email for a reset and of course that got sent to my hotmail account which I no longer use (Can you tell I haven’t played at Stars for a while?). Anyway, I wasn’t in last place when I started and I went on a heater right after starting. The calibre of play was excellent as always, and although I hung in for a while (It was limit hold’em, the only game I have any chance at against these guys), and my old nemesis, MS Sunshine did me in again. Everytime I go up against him I seem to be dominated. It was KK vs AA last tourney, and he got me 3 times on Thursday again. I find it interesting that he considers me a very “tight” player when my ring game reputation is a little too loose. Anyway I survived 5 all-ins, before going out around 17th I think.

Then the highlight of my week had to be the PPM semi-final I just finished. 1020 players started, and it was uneventful for the first hour. I built my stack up to 3500 (3000 to start) at the first break without anything eventful happening. Shortly after starting though I got the AA hand I posted in the tournament section. I 3 bet an UTG raiser and we were heads up. The flop came 888 and he check called my bet. When a K turned he bet and I raised. Another K rivered and he bet again and I folded. In a ring game I would never fold this hand for a pot that big, but I was down to my last 1290 and faced with calling 300 more and I was 99.9% sure I was beat. If he bluffed the turn then he picked the absolute best time to do it, but he sure seemed like an ABC player to me. Anyway I got lucky and tripled up shortly afterward and limped to the 2nd break with 2955 left. In the 3rd hour I got hot. I hit almost every flop I saw and ran my chips up to 19,155 at the 3rd break. In the 4th hour I think I played very well. Stealing enough blinds and winning pots without showing down. Then I took on 2 all-in players and won both of those pots and after 4 hours I had a very healthy stack of 28,931. Right after we started I flopped an up and down straight draw against top pair and a set. I rivered my straight and the set took it to 4 bets against my nuts. Suddenly I had 36,604 and I was in 11th place with 180 players left. Unfortunately I never won another pot. Not a blind, not 1 more chip. In 45 minutes I was out in 83rd place. I was very disappointed. I don’t think I could have played any better. I was the raiser on 4 of my last 6 hands with AK, JJ, 99 and 99 from the button or cutoff first in, and lost them all, and in the BB I had AQs and AJs and lost to AK and another AJs who made his flush.

Oh well back to the drawing board. No news on the Job front, but the Party games are as good as ever, and I’m running well on Paradise. Lets hope it lasts another week.

[jasonHoldEm]

David,

Congrats on a super week, if you could have made the PPM it would have been one hell of a story (I kept slowly scrolling down hoping there would be big finish...bummer).

I saw your name in the $300 tournament...I was wondering how you got in...maybe you'll win that one instead, granted the payout isn't as nice as the PPM, but you don't have to be bothered with that all expense paid cruise this way.

Hope your success continues next week. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Good luck,
jHE

[lefty rosen]

Hey David have you bothered to tighten your game up at party, I noticed that really bad players have probably been cleaned out at the 3/6 level as the table avg's now are in the low 40's, instead of the high 40's + . Also how many party and paradise tables do you play at once, thanks.

[davidross]

I got a seat through a satellite. 1 in 10 made it I think. I'm really looking forward to it.

[davidross]

Lefty,

I haven't intentionally tightened up, but my game is geared to table conditions. THere are lots of hands I'll play if there are no raisers, or if enough people limp, so when the game gets tougher I tighten up, but I've found the evening Party games as loose as ever. THe daytime games are a little tougher. Of course sometimes I look around and there are 5 2 + 2'ers there.

For the last 2 weeks I'm playing 3 Party(3/6) tables in the afternoon, and 2 Party, and 2 Paradise (5/10) in the evening.

[Hawkeye27]

Hello David,

Congrats on another successfull week. I've been rooting for you, and have put in a substantial amount of time against you on the Party tables. Wishing continued good luck and solid play for you.

I also play multible 3/6 games although I dont put in near the hours you do. As winter nears and my work slows I will probably be playing closer to full time hours and am interested in your opinion on bankroll considerations.

Up to this point I've only played up to and including 5/10, with the majority of my hours at 3/6. I cash out the first of every month and leave around 200 big bets ($1200) to play with.

Am wondering what you've used for your bankroll, and if its felt threatened (I know you've had at least one bad run).

Thanks,

Hawkeye27

[davidross]

The worst run I've had was almost exactly 200 BB's so you're probably safe with that. I'm sure I way overdo it, but I've got about 250 BB's in my paradise account and usually 1,000 BB's in my party account.

[eMarkM]

Good to see you're still doing well.

On tourney play. As you know I watched you on and off when you were playing the PPM semi. One thing to remember when the blinds get large and just about any hand you come in with has the potential to decimate your stack or eliminate you is don't come in without a hand that you aren't willing to go all the way with if the flop hits you (save steals, or course). As I recall--correct me, I may be wrong--you had about 3500 left, 1000/500 blinds, and you made your final stand with J9o from EP/MP, raising after someone had already limped. Another called the raise, you flopped middle pair and all your chips went in and you busted to top pair, I think. I definately would have waited for a better spot here. J9 is not a hand to go to war with, especially after a limper. When you did that I expected to see at least a middle pair or A high. I think you could have waited another round for a better hand before getting blinded off.

This goes for other limping hands you posted a question on recently at the Tournaments board. KJ is automuck in EP. If raised by LP and you flop a K, would you be willing to go all the way with it? I didn't think so. And don't build drawing hands out of position once the blinds are significant. Medium suited connectors are a big no-no, except maybe on the button if you can get in cheap. Pairs, OTOH, I will always limp in with or even call a limit raise. Flopping a set is certainly a hand you'd go all the way with and is a prime double through hand.

[davidross]

Hey eMark,

I think there were only 2 hands I played that I shouldn't have in the tournament, and both because I had lost my cool. My stack had gone from 36,000 to 3,000 in about half an hour and I played J9s on that last hand. I actually made 2 pair when the 9 rivered but lost to Q9 who had a better 2 pair. THe other one was right after my horrible AA beat whenI played T9s against a raise and a cold caller from the button (This one isn't as bad as the J9 hand) and flopped trip 10's and rivered a full house. Amazingly the original raiser called my turn raise and river bet with AKo unimproved.

I agree with all the points you made. I just didn't walk the walk on that last hand. Thanks for stopping by at the table too. It was great to have a friend pop in. It was a real eye opener in how much has to go right to place in one of those tournaments. When the limits get high you sure can't go raised pre-flop hands without winning a pot.

[trillig]

Hi david, first time reader of your poker pro exploits.

I had to laugh, I got myself knocked out of my last of 3 NL Tourney's last night with J9s.

88 and AJs were the knock punch hands I held on the other 2.

My J9s went something like this, 2 callers to ALL-IN show: AJ and TT, but of course a 9 hits the flop and no help on the turn & river so I am dead except for a third 9. I was a bit tired after going out 161st out of 1243 on the 2nd tournament and just decided to go for it, especially because I got knocked out of that tournament by::::: yes of course J/9 suited!

Best of luck!

-t