buffyslayer1

Jan in review - students crushing :)

2012-02-01T11:09:00.000-08:00

Hi all

Jan was not a bad month in the end, I didn't play a ton surprise surprise but made around 10-11 final tables along with my deep run in the million meant I managed to sneak a $5 ish month again which was nice

This combined with coaching, RB, Bonus prob puts me at $6k ish for Jan which is not bad really considering the number of days I played. Pretty happy with how I am playing in the main, really its about time I started playing higher tbh

Now I have my life roll put aside for the next year, I am going to be taking shots at some of the tougher rebuys and $109+ MTT that I only occasionally play. I need to put in some proper volume at these states to get a idea of if I am a winning player (at those levels).

So in Feb I plan to push on and play the Big $109, $162, 33r and maybe the 55r on Stars, on Stars.fr the night on stars which is a 100 euro daily and we are 6 max a 150 euro 6 max which actually is super tough, and on 888 there are a couple of daily $109 and the big Sunday 'high roller' deep stack I plan to play

In other news some of my students are really starting to play well, my man 'fluffykiller' after a lot of hard work is starting to come good.

SNG graph before we started to work together basically a 1% roi over a 3k sample

Since October we have been working hard on 180 mans and MTT games and this is now his 180 man graph since then

Really pleased with his progress which has been tough at times, but the hard work is paying off and the icing on the cake is his now starting to beat MTTs as well. resulting in a sweet $6.5k win in the massive 3r last week

After lots of deep runs and near misses its great to see this score, fluffy and I will be reviewing it and recording the session for sng protege this coming weekend so hopefully we will see some really good poker and thought processes

gl to everyone for Feb and I am gonna try and update the blog a little more this month :)

2011 in review, 2012 here we come (Deep Sunday million run)

2012-01-03T06:08:00.000-08:00

Well 2011 has been a odd year all in all

Started off poker wise pretty bad, I was self doubting at every corner about my game. I started to work even harder on my game and started to work with Andres.

Something clicked, I am not sure what but thinking deeply about the most minute aspects of the game helped a ton. Throw in some run good and boom I started FT things all the time, and hit a few good scores and everything seemed set.

My wife (most amazing woman ever) sat me down early April and said look, your obviously good at this, you love it and I know you would like to do it full time. Well you can, I wont stop you I will support you. All you have to do is make sure you have 1 years life expenses put away and a back up plan should it not work out.

2 weeks later whilst in china with work black Friday hits and the world as I knew it changed. Funnily enough 3 days after this I shipped a MTT in my hotel on my day off hungover after the legendary macua night with Derby (he shipped 4k euro mtt).

Anyway post BF my backing deal ended, I was back playing micro stakes and getting low on bankroll and even started playing $2 180 mans to get me back on track. I really thought maybe this poker gig was dead!

Then randomly a old contact from a cash game study group messaged me on Skype asking if I was still looking for backing (it was on my profile). I said yes we talked, he started backing me for av buy in of $20. I did well made the monies, and actually put him in touch with andres who was starting another project.

Skip forward a few months, I was crushing hard building a roll and actually giving in notice at work to play professionally. I joined Sng protege a great site that I had long admired, private coaching took off as well with a number of students really starting show solid improvement and results.

Funny old year really and I can only see it getting better next year. My wonderful wife is pregnant with our second child and my little girl is growing up to be super cute so it shoudl be even better!

So above is the graph for 2011, its missing about 8k from FTP post BF about 1k on UB and also about 1k on 888. So prob around 50k this year from mtt's, throw in the 5k or so i made live and also 6k i made in cash games and its been pretty good at around 65k. I don't track RB (I prob should) but I guess that's added another 20% at least to my bottom line.

So for a low volume part time player I am pretty happy with it.

2012 I am very optimistic, in fact the very first Sunday of playing I had a super deep run in the Sunday million finishing 19th for 3.5k. At the time I was gutted to go out when I did, but I had been the short stack from 30 players down and just didn't get any spots to chip up. In fact with 100 or so left I ran pretty badly actually, so on another day maybe I would have gotten a shot at the $200k+ for first.

But with two 13th places, a 5th place and 19th all in huge Field mtt's on a Sunday definitely feel like getting back to my best.

2012 goals, well I dont set money goals I think its a bad idea but here's what I posted on sng protege. Maybe ambitious (cash goal for sure) but aim high and work hard!

Consistently beat mid-high stakes mtts
start playing more cash - get up to NL600 and beat it
Put in 80 hours a week into poker from march when i play full time
have one of my student hit a 5 fig score
Learn 2-7 triple draw for 'fun"
Find a new hobby as poker was it, possibly learn to cook some fine dining classics
play cricket/football during the summer
get more exercise in general
play in UKIPT
give up drinking (not to sure about this one!)

gl all for 2012 especially my american freinds, really hope online poker comes back for you

November review

2011-12-03T05:11:00.000-08:00

So Nov has now ended and its been a decent month

Prob close to 10k with RB, bonus and coaching etc so I am pretty happy. Especially as I think I played pretty badly in a couple of sessions where I ended up having decent scores, If I run as well as I did in Nov and sharpen my game in December I think it can be a pretty good month

Plus super excited about the pokerstars 10th Anniversary million, which falls on my birthday so in my mind I will be shipping it as a birthday present to myself!

Gl all for December

One month later - 3 stacks of high society

2011-11-23T08:39:00.000-08:00

So a month later and several reminders to update here we are toward the end of November

quite a bit has happened, had a awesome night or two out in Manchester with Dieter the legend Derby (Deurdy on 2+2), Neil (NJD1977) and some Irish luckbox called tim (entim) now known as mr bink due to having a decent % of a November 9er!!!!

We also meet up with sng protege member Puyan who also did a trip report here, and after plenty of drinks we ended up doing a £10nl home cash game. Balla I know, the irony is that Tim took this game far more seriously than $100+ heads up super turbo sit and go's he was grinding.

Needless to say the game descended into a two man show, i think Derby played something like 90% of pots and typically action went.Derby opens, Puyan folds everything but QQ+, Tim 3 bets with napkins and a cocktail stick, I sigh fold, Neil (who was not a nit for once!) laughs at Derby hysterically before folding.....

It was prob one of the funniest poker nights I have ever had and Derby was on cracking form needling perfectly at every opporutnity. I can't really do justice to how funny he was, and I dont think I have laughed that much in a long time!

In poker news welll things are going well, I have won a bunch of MTT's made some huge runs and some decent final tables but not hit a 5 fig score yet. Started mixing in some softer higher buyin stuff and so far making plenty of runs so pretty happy.

Updated graph from the last time I posted, and a year to date graph

In my last news, well I am finally at a years worth of expenses behind me, crushing pretty well the low and mid stakes and really starting to enjoy coaching (my students have started winning yeah!)
So with that in mind, yesterday I actually gave in my notice!!!! So in the new year I will be playing full time :o However, because I am a life nit and tbh pretty good at my day job it looks like I can actually take a 1 year 'sabbatical' from work and go back should it not work out. Also really helps that my boss is actually a really nice woman and good to work for and her boss (our director) is a super smart guy who actually plays poker (a little) and it really good friends with a bunch UK players including a couple of bracelet winners. I was pretty shocked when I found that out actually....

So I am taking my 3 stacks of high society (funnily it is exactly this amount I have put away) and making a run at this funny little game

For what its worth I played Chan in Macua, spent a hour trying to steal his blinds just to use these line!

New MTT SNG protege coach! (me ldo :D )

2011-10-21T08:17:00.000-07:00

hi all

Well I have been holding off this update, until an exciting new project I have been working on comes to fruition.

I am really excited and pleased to announce that I have just signed up as the new MTT coach at sng protege. It's a great staking/coaching site that's been going for little over a year now. To date they have been pretty successful with MTT sngs, and as a result are now branching into reg MTT's

I started talking a while back with Matt (Glitlr online,head coach and owner) of the site quite a while back about the possibility of this. I have massive respect for him and his game having played with hundreds of times back when I played 9 man STT.

He crushed the game back then, and was also hugely successful pre black Friday in mtt sngs as well. He makes vids I believe for sng grinders and from the few I have seen, his one of the few quality SNG vid makers out there.

Since then I believe he has been working on and developing the site, and so far I am pretty impressed with the set up. Students are staked and coached for a fixed contract with the normal profit splits etc being applied.

Not only do they get their own dedicated mentor (there is a pretty sick list of mentors actually) who provide coaching and support, but full access to a video libary (which looks pretty good as far as I can tell), forum (which actually gets traffic unlike some sites) and also they have a weekly webinar which all students can attend which is also set up well.

I am pretty excited about it to be honest, and have loads of ideas and stuff I want to try out to add some valuable MTT content to the site. I have a few students signed up already, but plenty of room for more, so if your interested in learning from some of the best then its definitely worth looking at.

So apart from this exciting development, poker has been going ok. My volume totally sucks, but with being away due to work, my grandfather passing away etc finding time to play has been tough.

Also in my real life job one of my assistants is off for a month, plus Christmas just launched (i work in retail) and we are planning for next Autumn winter (a year ahead I know seems crazy). So I have been unusually busy at work as well and having to put in some long hours there

When I have played, I have played really well for the main. I halved my number of tables pretty much and have given myself a max of 14 up at one time, mainly to get more focus especially at the higher buy ins I am starting to mix in.

Its resulted in lots of deeps runs with a few small scores. I got a 4th (or 5th not to sure) in the giant 3r on stars for little under 3k and a few super deep runs. Plus a few days ago had a baby win on 888 for 1k which was nice as a bankroll builder.

So for the rest of the month (once my weekend of fun in Manchester with poker buddies is over) I am going to try and put in some real volume and also up my av buy in as I am playing really well at the mid/upper stakes now

I will update on the weekend of drinking and poker early next week. If we play it's going to be pretty -ev for all as no one really has a edge on the others. So it could come down to who handles their alcohol the best!

gl at the tables all

Its been a long time!

2011-09-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

Hi all

well its been quite a while since my last post back in Aug, I have been pretty busy and between work, family and poker not found to much time to blog. I write this as I am up a a ridiculous early time of 5.30am. I got back from a work trip to Asia yesterday morning and am still not quite back to the UK time zone.

Since August a few things have changed, my 500 game stake came to end and was pretty profitable for my backer. I think we made about 6k over the period which they were pretty happy with.

We talked about renewing it and to their disappointment I have decided to play on my own (in the main). To be honest I was quite lucky in that I had 4 separate offers for when my stake came to a end. Some of them had pretty good terms for me with 60/40 split my way etc, so i could pick and choose what I wanted to do.

That said I am a pretty good horse to stake, I am pretty good (I think :D, but not without leaks of course), I am older than a lot of guys, married with a little girl (maturity/no degening!), I have a full time well paid job (won't scam for life expenses), and have been around poker for a few years now and pretty well known across a few forums now.

Anyway on balance I felt that with the exception of stars I should really be playing on my own, the other sites are pretty soft, the fields are so much smaller which means that variance is a lot lower so I don't need the safety net of a huge bankroll. So giving up 50% is to much for me now I have a roll on these sites.

So I now have a deal for stars only, pretty much any stakes I want as long as I am not in make up. Which something else my backers like is that I rarely get deep in make up, and manage the stake more like i would my own roll. Nothing more demoralizing than winning a MTT and knowing all its doing is reducing make up....

As a added bonus I am still working with Andres and his groups, which I am enjoying immensely as I am pretty sad, and just love to go through HH look for leaks and spots, whether they be my own or other players. We have had a few already and its shaping up pretty well, some of the players are a little bit raw but there is some potential there for sure.

So below is the year to date graph, as you can see I have a pretty long b/e stretch on stars but have been crushing the smaller sites pretty hard.

Next year I am seriously considering playing full time based on how things have been going. Given the limited amount I can play, my volume is really low for the year so even if I up it slightly its going to be worthwhile financially.

My wife actually suggested this to me (I knew I married this woman for a reason) which was a surprise and together we worked out a pretty solid plan. Essentially I will save 1 years current salary plus $5k for a car, mainly for a back up should anything go wrong and to cover the inevitable variance of poker.

Poker winnings in the UK are not taxed either so this should/could be very lucrative for me, plus although it seems like madness to walk out on a well paid job I think now is the time do try this if I ever do.

I have advanced pretty well in my career, I am fairly senior now with 10 years experience and pretty good at my job. The industry is actually crying out for good buyers at the moment and not a week goes by without a head hunter calling. I am 100% certain that if poker did not work out I could walk back into a job in a matter of weeks as well.

In fact my only 'concern' is that my employer will off me a extra £15k to stay (I am pretty underpaid for my level of ability and they admit this!) which is $24k a year more.

So quite a lot in the pipeline with things going well, as always I just need to find time to work, spend time with the family, play poker and study poker.

Hopefully in the next update I can show some images of my new grind station. I decorated the spare room on condition that I could set up a office in there, yesterday finally got my desk which was the last piece of the puzzle so I shall be building this over the weekend and putting up pics soon

gl at the tables all

PS new pic of my little girl to the right!

Double bink and year to date

2011-08-05T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hi all

So things are going pretty well, I am going deep a ton and I can feel a huge score coming soon. In the last 2 weeks I have 4 top 40 finishes in the big 55 alone, and numerous other super deep runs in big field big payout MTT's. A touch of run good/not getting coolered and I am pretty sure another massive score is coming

In the meantime my new backers are pretty happy with how things are going, we are adding in some higher (soft ish) MTT as well as discussing adding in the majors. As a added bonus via me they have hooked up with my old backer/mentor Andres and are in talks with him to coach their stable.

I am super pumped at the prospect of this, and actually was planning on working with Andres again anyway in a group of his better players from before. I really used to look forward to our sessions, they helped me keep sharp and discuss new ideas with good solid players.

In other news last night I had a double bink on 888 poker in total for about 2k. One was the $3k turbo and I must admit I ran supremely well late on. Including the below Royal flush versus top full house for the chip lead!

In the second bink of the evening in a $3k reg speed I crushed pretty hard down to around 5 players I had 50bb to the other stacks of 18bb, 15bb, 10bb, 10bb. By the time we got heads up I had approx 80bb to the villains 8bb! It didn't last long HU to be honest!

So overall year to date we are doing ok now, after a couple of shaky months post black friday due to lack of volume and grinding micro's I am back on track. My main aim is to grind harder and put in more volume, its tough as I work full time and am not a great masstabler.

My yearly volume as you can see is achieved by some grinders in a month, if I could match this volume but maintain results well I would be a rich man!

gl at the tables all

3 Final tables on bink and one bubble

2011-07-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

So my strategy posts will have to wait a bit.....

In the meantime, I got a new short term backing deal for 500 MTT across stars, 888 network and a small separate on on Ipoker

So far they have gone pretty good, with smaller fields and definitely softer fields I have been playing well and going deep. Plus I have upped my average buyin back to what it was when I as backed, which again means generally smaller field sizes.

On Sat I came 43rd in the big 55, played really well and lost two huge flips versus a Russian maniac. if I had won them I would have had approx 70bb with 40 left and I am certain I could have final tabled this and who knows shipped it.

Then Monday night, having got used to the poor software on the two networks (88 and i poker), got HEM running properly on them and also cut down the number of tables slightly. I started a very profitable session.....

On Ipoker I cam 23rd in the 11r for about $60, I came 10th (FT) in a 5 FO as well with a sick beat AK v A9 though I was kinda short everyone was. Followed by a 6th in a 10FO with Aks where I jam a UTG limper with 20bb and the btn wakes up with KK. Average stack was only 18bb as well!

Then on 888, I played really well and bubbled the final table of the $5 6k guarantee with AA versus 55 all in pre, he runner runner a str8 :(

Finally, in the $22 10k guarantee after about 45 min's HU where villain had 120bb to my 20bb I finally got my stack to about 50bb and double with AA versus JJ all in pre. He flops a set on a club monotone flop, the river brings a beautiful 4th club giving me the nut flush, river does not pair.
Very next hand I pick up TT and tilty villain jams 45bb over my raise with Q8s, I snap call and he flops a Flush draw, however his drawing dead as I flop quad tens FTW!

Nice little score for 2.7k and a +3.5k day overall

Think I am going to like these sites

Micro grinding

2011-07-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

Hi all

This is just a small update rather than my normal massive updates :)

So back on the micro grind, and I am crushing still and have quadrupled my meagre BR from $500 to $2k in about 3 weeks. A few final tables, including the massive $3 (5k plus runners) for about $700 and also my fav $4 quad on stars which I think I have FT about 15 times now :D

Massive fields and relatively small payouts for wins means variance is high, so thanks to some advice of friends of mine i started playing 180 mans on stars. Not to many to be honest as I use them to fill screen space when I am down to a couple of MTT but I have binked a couple and FT a few so far so that helps.

Apart from this I have been working on my game, thinking about quite a few theoretical situations which I will blog about shortly. This keeps my game sharp and hopefully keeps my ahead of the meh regs :p

Last thing is I have a very small backing deal for ipoker, which includes coaching of sorts (well access to a forum and some basic vids). I have only played one session so far and there are not many MTT on there. All said though the site is super soft, and once I have got over the really bad software and got some AHK scripts running I think I will crush

gl all and hopefully I can blog some of these articles I am working on

Back on the grind

2011-06-27T10:35:00.001-07:00

Hi all

its been a while since I updated, in the main I haven't played much poker. My day job is taking up a lot of time since I got back from the Far East and my little girl is growing up so I am spending more quality time with her.

Also factor in black Friday means my bankroll is not fit to play mid/low stakes anymore and I have to go back to grinding the low/micros. In principle I have no problem doing it, I am not to proud to drop down or anything. I have just found it hard to get motivated playing an average buy in of $10 or less.

That said I am trying to put in more volume from this week on really. There are a ton of high variance good value micro/low turbos that I have added in to my schedule. I have already had a few super deep finishes (13th in 5k runners) though being a micro only final tables/top 3 bring home any decent money.

I am also going to try and generally cut down the number of tables I am playing and focus on quality poker. So at maximum I will be playing 15 tables and most of the time under 10 (previously I 15-20 tabled the main part of my session). When I am only in a few I am going to mix in some $2 180 mans to help variance and the BR.

I played a handful of these and shipped a couple already and a few top 3 finishes, so hopefully they will be profitable for me. I also hope they stop me getting to bored when I am in that zone of 5 MTTs left last 150 ish players but far from real money and when it starts to get interesting (last 30 ish).
In the past I have tended to spew a little in those stages trying to build a huge stack when I dont need to.........

I have a had a decent response regarding coaching and quite a few interested parties as well as a few sessions here and there. Really enjoyed the ones so far and hopefully the guys got a lot out of the ones we have done.

In other news, in the short term (just to build a roll again really) I am still looking for backing/high stakes mentor. I think I might be working out something with Andres and a new UK stable but its kinda on hold until after the WSOP as they are all there.

Last note on post black Friday, I can honestly say I have noticed the difference in playing skill overall, but its probably not that huge.
Now I have had time to reflect on it, without the US players (who on the whole were a little better imo) we obviously just have euro, s. America and a smattering of asian/aussies. The problems is that the games are so much more aggressive which means you have to widen value ranges and flip more.
In turn this leads to higher variance in the short term but longer term should be more profitable (in theory). However, it is disheartening to get deep a ton have to run like god even more than usual (which you always do in a MTT anyway). If you run bad a lot of the time you start to make adjustments you dont need to and actually start to play a little bad.

I have noticed this in my game a touch and need to stamp it out........

anyways gl at the tables all

The month of May - coaching gettting coached and the search for a new backer

2011-05-27T10:13:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a relatively quite month so far on the poker front. Volume this month has been kinda of slack to be honest.

Couple of reason's it was my wife's birthday on the 14th so we went away for the weekend with some friends which was great fun but obviously I did not play at all.

Also post black Friday I am not playing on UB (cheating scum bags obv) and have still only managed to get $250 off so far.
It's my previous backers money and once I have managed to get it all off on to netellar paid a vig for exchange to £ from $ and then sent it through to them via what ever means we managed to they will prob lose close to 10% from charges back and forth.

Lastly, I felt like I have not been playing my A game and am missing out on the 8 hours or so of group review I was doing every week. I shipped a small MTT on stars for about 1.6k early in the month and since then barely had a deep run.
In the last few days I have been getting back to my A game and felt a lot sharper. I must admit it's also been a slight struggle to get motivated to mix in a ton of lower stakes MTT when I was starting to move up to $109 FO etc.

Anyways, I have been searching for a new coach (on some kind of profit deal) and or backing (struggling on this due to lack of stables now). I had a few options on coaching although none are that keen to take a profit split which is my preferred option due to BR constraints.

I did have one session with a potential long term coach. It went well and he loved my game and felt I could easily be beating $150 FO and had potential to beat higher limit's.
Also he wanted to back me for these stakes, but due to Black Friday it's not really possible which is a shame as his a sicko and I could learn a lot i think.

Anyways, I am exploring the 3 or 4 coach options I have but WSOP is coming up and interferes with pretty much June/July so it's on hiatus until then.

In other news I am starting to coach myself, I have a couple of students already. One of which (is a sick good player anyway and only needed some help in moving to MTT's) already final tabled a $2k scoop! and won a few smaller MTT's after my sessions with him. The other one has come on leaps and bounds and FT a few small MTT already but, not quite binked yet.

Long term I may well be getting involved with a site as well as one of the low/mid stake MTT coaches so watch this space!

Anyone who is interested in some sessions, mail me at buffyslayer1@live.co.uk, I feel like I have a real aptitude for teaching. Especially since I have had so much exposure to both good and bad coaches. I particularly enjoy winning SNG players and showing them the necessary adjustments for MTT....

gl at the tables all

April - Macua TR, post Black friday and month in review

2011-05-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

WOW

What a month for online poker, obviously the world was shocked by the news of Stars, FTP and AP/UB.
For those living under a rock you can pick up most of the details from these links -

DOJ screws US

Well during this time I was actually on a business trip to china, hence my pitiful volume this month and I didn't really understand the impact of what was going on (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, E-mail, Forums all are restricted in china)

One good thing did happen whilst I was out there, my friend Dieter also known (in)famously on 2+2 as Duerdy also happened to be in Hong Kong the same time as me on a business trip. Coincidentally he is a buyer in Holland (I am a buyer if you didn't know) and he was on a similar sourcing trip

So we decided to meet up and hop over to Macau which is the Vegas of Asia. So after a bit if back and forth we opted to stay there the night in a really sweet hotel, the grand hyatt. Which had really good facilities and web.

For some reason the pics I took have deleted off my phone, so here's a artistic impression

So having settled on a sweet little pad, we set off from HK to Macua along with a Hong Kongese friend of mine and Deurdy's mate. Who it turned out forgot his passport, so had to go back and join us later....

So after settling in to our 'balla pad' and a few beers we headed down to the Grand lisboa

To play some poker at pokerstars very own pokerstarsmacau.com/. We opted to play the Deep stack MTT there which got about 35 runners. It turned out that the structure was a complete crapshoot and blind levels were skipped. so what was a 'deep stack' played more like a turbo MTT

Anyhow after duly busting with QQ v JJ aipf to a total donkey, I watched Dieter totally crush the field, I mean it was super super soft and with our SNG background both Dieter and I were hugly +ev. But, some of the play was beyond bad....

On his way to crushing the MTT and shipping a cool 30,000 HKD (about 3k Euro) of which I had 10% as we swapped before hand.
Even though he was clearly shipping any two (or close to it) when folded to him on the final table (stacks were super shallow and he was chip leader) people were folding Ax to his btn and BvB shoves and showing.

In fact one guy tank called in the end BvB for about 10bb with AK and said he really wanted to fold, Deurdy obviously wins the 40/60 :p

Funnily enough 3 handed he opens the btn, the BB is short with about 5bb and the SB (same AK guy) has about 15bb, Dieter has god knows how much but double at least the SB. The SB reships KTo with basically no FE dieter snaps TT and obviously the fish flops a K.

After grinding back his stack and outclassing the two guys, finally he busts this guy who walks away from the table moaning to me how lucky my friend is! lol live fish :D

After this stunning victory we went out to party (which I don't do often now I am a married man with a little girl) until 7 am and had a awesome time which I felt massively the next day, mainly in my head from far to many Jack Daniels and cokes

So after this little jaunt, we settled down to realise the real impact of black Friday.
Which personally for me means the end of my backing relationship, which is a shame because its been profitable and not lasted long. Plus I think I benefited a lot from being in a group and chatting for 8 hours every week about hands etc.

I still need to work out how I am going to pay back the money I have in my account to the backers, currently waiting for FTP to complete the withdrawal i did last week. The I guess a check or bank transfer to the states is the way to go.

So onto my performance, well I had cashed out a ton after my 11r win and some small wins I previously blogged about. So with not to much in my accounts I decided to play a bit smaller to start, and include a 2 rebuy rush MTT as one of my scheduled MTT's

I have not played many rush MTT's as they are prob the equivalent of 4/5 normal MTT's and take up to much attention, but looks like it was a good decision as I chopped up the first one i played :D

The sheer number of hands I got to play was huge obv, and I dont think I was below 100bb until the final table which I cruised along nicely in and still had like 45bb HU.
Where the chip leader had gone on a huge rush limp calling a 90bb shove pre with AKs and flopping a str8 versus AA, with 5 left along with numerous other flips and suckouts.

So he has a 3.5-1 chip lead on me and asks if i want to deal, so I click yes on the deal btn and propose a deal. Given I am a buyer a negotiate for a living I though I could prob grab more than my share of equity. So I proposed 3.8k for me and 4.1k for him, it was my first offer and I expected and was aiming for 3.5k.
He SNAP accepts lol so I can't complain but I wonder if he would have gone for 3.9/4k :D

The rest of the month has been ok (ish), I shipped 3 small MTT's on UB fwiw (not that I will prob get my money) and had some deep runs all over the show. Building stacks for fun it seems, but not really getting to FT on stars and tilt. (Another 3 on UB though)

A little frustrated actually, felt like my game has slipped in the last couple of days. Got coolered a bunch of lost big flips when it matters and as a result I think I have played a touch spewy last few nights.

Below is April graph hopefully I can pull together a few more of these 10k+ months

gl at the tables all

Shipping small

2011-04-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

So since my 11r I think I played a little below par the last few days. A habit I noticed after the 20c score a few weeks back.

I got 2 particularly bad beats really deep in the FTP 80k with 30 left for the chip lead where someone 3 bet and called my 4 bet shove for 50bb with K4 and got there v my JJ

Literally 3 minutes later in the UB $50 15 players left I 3 bet QQ on the btn to the chip leaders open. He has 180k I have 150k, 3rd place has 60k for what its worth. he 4 bet jams AQo and rivers it. This kinda put me on soft tilt I think for like 3 days :D

So I put in a few extra hours study looking at some spots where I feel like I spewed a little, also checked out a mates HH which was kinda good as well. Looking for someone's leaks also helps with your own game for sure.

I need to write some notes for him as well, but I think is a mutually beneficial exercise. More so because when I played my session yesterday I was back on my A game and focused. I went semi deep in everything I played (except FTP FU) and ended up shipping the Stars $22 5k and took 2nd in the UB $50 5k for a little under 3k in total.

A little annoyed with how I played HU in the UB one, but the villain played well heads up and made some tough calls under a ton of pressure from me. Calling down 3rd pair in a 3 bet pot where I triple barrel!

So this little scores help keep ticking along and ride out variance, and build confidence.

Before I go I need to give a shout out to joe shipthisplz, part of our group who chopped the Sunday Million last week for 120k. Guy is a great player and nice guy to boot.

you can read about it here from Andres

http://www.pocketfives.com/blogs/andressoprano/

gl at the tables all

11r win (finally)

2011-04-02T04:33:00.001-07:00

So I finally shipped a 11 rebuy weeeeeeeeeeeeeee

This MTT along with the 3 re buy, daily 40k and the daily 90k are the ones I have always really wanted to win.

It was a pretty fun MTT, and I played pretty well except one epic misclick where I jammed 100bb in a limped pot on the flop that I checked in the small blind, big blind bets pot and mid position limper flats and I jam with no FE.

Somehow they both folded lol and I got lucky that this didn't cost me huge. A few other small mistakes which I was not happy about, and one in particular when head up where I made a 3 bet way to small.

The final 2 tables were pretty tough and every time I opened the only 2 decent players who were big stacks and to my left made my life hell. Pretty sure I missed a 4 bet jam spot as well when deep with them.

Final table was pretty standard to be honest, we got down to heads up and the villain had 90bb to my 25bb. Didn't last long as he was not very good heads up and I crushed him pretty hard including a A high call for half his stack where he bluffed the river.

Obviously pleased with how things are going, but its important not to get complacent and also ship something on FTP.
Dam multi entry week makes it so tough to win when deep, even the $26 are full of them as regs prefer taking 4 bullets at 26 than a $100 FO. I did some math on it as well and I am 90% sure that they are -ev unless you have a 50% or greater roi in the games (assuming you take 4 shots)

anyway gl at the tables all

Small win

2011-03-30T18:18:00.000-07:00

Quick update had a small win on UB it was only for $625 but nice to win one outright :D Its also my first win on UB as I cant play to many MTTs there due to the horrible schedule for Euro

Which is a shame as this was pretty much the softest MTT I have ever played. 3 handed we all had approx 80bb, I managed to won roughly 60% of the pots 3 handed leaving my two opponents with 15bb and 8bb and me with a whopping 150bb in about 25 minutes!

The score

2011-03-21T06:42:00.001-07:00

As you can see last night I chopped the $22 1r1a on Stars for a little under $15k.

Obviously I am pretty over the moon, and a large score like this feels like justification for all the hard work that I have put in over the 18 months or so I have been playing MTTs.

Let me put in one caveat, about this performance. I played well, yes I played really well.
But, I ran even better throughout the whole MTT in lots of ways that are not even tangible.

Whether it be really early when some guy bluffs 3 streets with a river shove with Ace high into my flopped set, or be it with 40 or so left where I was 3 bet by the button and I 4 bet TT into KK and flopped a T.
Or at the final table being lucky enough to have position on deoxyribo who is a beast and was bullying the table. Even more lucky with 5 left and a super short stack (3bb) and he shoved 25 BB into me blind versus blind (pretty sure his on any two there as well) and I had Queens.

Don't get me wrong I didn't win all the flips and had a few huge brutal set backs on the FT bubble. But, my new mental game approach really brought me through

However, I think I held my own in what is (in my opinion) one of the toughest mid stakes MTT on stars. A combination of the super deep starting stacks and Add on's, and the huge number of regs, when you get deep there are not that many soft spots at all.

The final table was really tough, the short stacks just kept surviving and the chip lead was going back and forth between Deoxy, Makeit Reign and me. Which meant when we finally got down to 4 handed effective stacks were not much more than 20bb.

3 of us wanted to look at the numbers and take the variance out of the occasion, but Crackerball a well known pocket fiver and very good player wanted to play on feeling he had a skill edge. After encouragement from his mates on the rail :D

It's obviously his right to play on, but I think with stacks that shallow there is a ton of variance and I think although he may have had the best 'stats' at the table he may have overestimated his edge. Both myself and reign are decent players and whilst we don't necessarily have the results he does we have both played thousands of MTT's and more than handled ourselves at the FT.

Shortly after this hand comes up which was really brutal, and perhaps again shows some run good. I make a huge fold here but, the correct one I think versus the ranges. Cracker had only 3 bet solid hands from what I saw and i dont think his ever that light here given he has to call off versus me or the blinds.

Similarly Grekos is not going to be light here either, so puts me in a really tough spot. I was probably jamming on cracker as well given stack sizes and TT is huge 4 handed.

PokerStars Game #59543440435: Tournament #412010537, $20+$2 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXVI (90000/180000) - 2011/03/21 4:14:43 WET [2011/03/21 0:14:43 ET]
Table '412010537 136' 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 3: MakeItReign (5569644 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 5: buffyslayer1 (3701452 in chips)
Seat 7: cracker9ball (5162496 in chips)
Seat 8: grekos1981 (2648408 in chips) is sitting out
MakeItReign: posts the ante 18000
buffyslayer1: posts the ante 18000
cracker9ball: posts the ante 18000
grekos1981: posts the ante 18000
grekos1981: posts small blind 90000
MakeItReign: posts big blind 180000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to buffyslayer1 [Td Tc]
grekos1981 has returned
MakeItReign has returned
buffyslayer1: raises 216000 to 396000
cracker9ball: raises 414000 to 810000
grekos1981: raises 1820408 to 2630408 and is all-in
MakeItReign: folds
buffyslayer1: folds
cracker9ball: calls 1820408
*** FLOP *** [7s 8s 2h]
buffyslayer1 said, "folded TT"
*** TURN *** [7s 8s 2h] [Ah]
*** RIVER *** [7s 8s 2h Ah] [9c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
grekos1981: shows [Ad Kd] (a pair of Aces)
cracker9ball: shows [Jd Jc] (a pair of Jacks)
grekos1981 collected 5908816 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5908816 | Rake 0
Board [7s 8s 2h Ah 9c]
Seat 3: MakeItReign (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: buffyslayer1 folded before Flop
Seat 7: cracker9ball (button) showed [Jd Jc] and lost with a pair of Jacks
Seat 8: grekos1981 (small blind) showed [Ad Kd] and won (5908816) with a pair of Aces

So this crippled cracker and soon after we discussed numbers and I locked up second place money and we played for points.

gl at the table everyone, and thanks to those who railed me at the FT much appreciated to have some support along with the big ranked players who had all there buddies there.....

The mental game

2011-03-20T01:36:00.001-07:00

Well I seem to have a issue with this. I don't know what the F it is, but I have made 5 final tables, 4 final 2 tables and around 15 top 50 finishes this month.

I seem to have a mental problem closing for some reason when it gets down to the last 50 players or so. I have read a couple of articles and listen to a podcast which talks about the mental aspect a bit (something I have never really thought about).

A couple of practical suggestions seem to have helped over the last few days. One is don't look at the lobby when your deep. I realised I am somewhat obsessive about checking the lobby when super deep.

I always thought I did it to see where the next payout jump was or how close we are to the FT to be able to put pressure on players etc. Thinking about it's probably unconsciously damaging my chances.

The other one, is simply taking 4 or 5 deep breaths after either a beat or a play that doesn't go to plan. The idea is that the increased oxygen to the brain helps to refocus the mind and put it behind us and the process itself distracts from the initial bad feeling.

Well both seem to be helping, with the final table of the UB 4k (9th fml) and also a decent 7th in the FT 40k Knockout for 1.7k. Which I was devastated about at the time where first place is $12k
At the final table the average stack was about 20bb, so it was always going to be tough to prove a skill edge. I was particularly disappointing though as this is a really tough MTT as its multi entry and normally you get a ton of regs at the FT. This one was really fishy though in the scheme of things with only one decent size winner.
Lost a standard flip AJo v 66 for 12bb effective, though I was a little surprised that villain called as I had tightened up a lot.

Anyways definitely on the right track, I am building stacks and going deep a ton. Making some mistakes along the way but I think spotting that I have made them is half the battle. Doing 8 hours of critical analysis with a group is really paying dividends.....

Well overall I shouldn't complain as this finish is my biggest cash of a disappointing year so far but week by week I feel I am getting back to my best and even better

gl at the tables all

Making progress

2011-03-06T04:13:00.000-08:00

Hi all

March has been going well, looking through my records this month I have made 6 final tables (including 3 in 3 days) so far. I playing probably the best poker I have ever played if I am honest, and have never felt so confident in my game and that if I play like this consistently it only a matter of time before I crush (even harder).

I put it down to a number of things actually. One I am playing more sites than just stars and when I do play on stars I am making sure I play a lot of small field MTT. Outside of stars fields are smaller and so soft in comparison. In fact I would say personally that full tilt is way softer than stars so far and about 1/3 of the size.

The benefits of this are obvious, we are going to go deep final table and won more often which not only help variance but also confidence. There is nothing more sapping that playing for 8 hours in a big stars MTT and then losing a flip early in the FT (or just before) it can really get you down. All these little success's help a ton in maintaining sanity.

That said the majority of my schedule is still stars due to the other sites not having a great MTT schedule for a Euro. But, I am adhering to the plan and playing a lot of the early $33 which get like 4000/500 runners and the $22/27 cap mtts.

Again I have been pretty successful in these so far and managed a 2nd for about $1k a couple of days ago. After I was actually very disappointed not to have shipped it, nothing to do with the money which was only like $800 more.

I have never felt like I crushed a MTT so hard and owned players in it, especially the few good regs that were left at the end. I maintained a massive chip lead all the way through the later stages of the MTT and reached HU with a 4-1 chip lead and 100bb versus a whale.

I had owned this guy at the FT (he was second stack), and to be honest I think he was scared to play with me so he developed a interesting tactic. If I raised he shipped 35bb over my raise, if he raised and I 3 bet he shipped again. If we got to the flop and I bet he shipped!

So after about 5 hands I end up min raising AJs on the button he ships again I snap and his KTo turns a T, now we are level in chips. He starts to play normally for a few hands and I chip a little bit, then we return to the shipping this time 50bb etc etc, blinds go up I lose a few hands and suddenly I am 25bb and get it in with KQs versus his Ax and he holds....

All very weird imo!

Well the other reason I am playing so well is the group coaching for the stable, its not that I am learning anything revolutionary. In fact some of the players do some things I consider pretty spewy and some are just not that strong (yet).
But, talking and discussing poker for 8 hours a week with a group of players and a coach (who is a very good player) opens your eyes to lots of little things. Hell even just discussing poker this much makes you think about the game a lot and keep ahead of the curve.

I have started to mix in one or two little things, that are not 'training site' standard etc to exploit certain types of plays and it is working so well. Although I think its a by product of really just adapting my line I take to suit the fish I am playing. In fact my new mantra is 'know your fish!'

Well here's to the rest of March and hopefully I can continue to play very well go deep and with a little run good (and maybe skill) some 10k plus scores will come my way!

gl at the tables

The deal

2011-02-19T10:06:00.001-08:00

So I accepted the backing deal I alluded to in my last blog post. It's early days and its going quite well to start with.

The freedom associated with not having to worry constantly about BR just allows me to play in MTTs that I am +ev in.
With this plus some extra volume and a couple of realisations about my game means I am playing well and going deep again like I should.

Since we agreed the deal I have made 7 top 50 finishes and one final table already in 3 days. Yesterday (18th Feb) I made the final 2 tables in the stars 4 cubed, 5k guarantee and 10k guarantee. Plus I final tables the FTP super stack $18k guarantee as well.

Whilst playing I also came to a couple of realisations of minor leaks that had that had appeared in my game but I had not realised and are not hugely obvious imo.

I guess in the main I owe these to a training vid I watched by Alex 'assainanto' Fitzgerald. Its a pretty basic video available at poker pwnage.com. (Where I renewed my sub for a month just to see my backers vids as he just became a site pro)

The video was somewhat basic and was about opening theory, I normally wouldn't watch such a basic vid but I had time on my hands and its always worth listening to what Alex has to say.

Anyway it brought home maybe the realisation that I wasn't maintaining my stack enough through the mid stages of a MTT. Now this isn't as straightforward as just outright stealing, its also things like calling re shoves a little bit lighter (especially with the re jam monkeys around today) or raising in spots where it maybe +ev to ship

To clarify what I mean let me give you a example:

Say we are on the btn with 30bb, BB has 12bb and then SB has 15bb. Now its plus ev to shove the btn here, and something I have done as standard for a while. Now really this is lazy playing and although +ev not optimal.

Lets min raise in this spot and let the SB jam his A8o into us, if he has a stronger hand well his calling the shove anyway so lets give him a chance to reship. Many examples of this type of thing that I realise I have been doing that are +ev but, not optimal.

NINJA EDIT: someone pointed out to me, I dont mean we should be raise/calling our whole range, I mean our relative value range. So for example in the above we might shove JTs but raise call QQ as an example.

Or for example we have 19bb on the CO with 2 tight regs in the blinds, call them poker X factor 2007 (they watched a vid in 07 and think they know how to play). They see you raise a 19bb stack and think oh his never raising fold that stack size so they just fold out nearly all there range.
If you ship sure they fold out all the same hands (probably) but now we have managed to steal for a lot cheaper.
Sure we cant overuse this play and need to pick the right players, but MTT are not like a cash game they are so situational and we don't run into the same reg's enough to be exploited.

In essence I was making a lot of +ev plays I think, but not always the most optimal.
The other thing is of course when we maintain our stack at at least 30bb we become so much more difficult to play against, it makes our skill edge more visible as well.

Think about how many time have you been on a table with a good big stack who raises and raises and raises and makes life hell for the shorter stacks between 10-25bb. they have one choice jam for all the chips.
Give me a 40bb stack to his left now we can flat in position, take a flop versus his wide range and play well post flop versus him, we can 3 bet light and fold and of course we can 3 bet for value when we have annoyed him enough :D

So back to the actual little run I have had, I made the final table of the full tilt 18k super stack last night (well 5 am this morning).
I don't play much on FTP but as part of the deal, I backed for this site so I may as well play on there.

Safe to say I will play there more now :D

This MTT in particular was very soft compared to a stars MTT. The field is alot smaller and the payout is more top heavy all which is good.
In general the MTT was pretty uneventful, I played pretty well though and had a 40bb stack pretty much all the way to the final table.

At one point I felt like I almost bent the table to my will, getting walks in the BB every orbit and folds to my min raises every time I opened. I 3 bet well, hand read well where I needed to and kind of cruised to the FT.

So we get to the FT and two mildly annoying things happen, first my HUD stops working. Well since looking into it (for posting it in this blog), it seems that my HH stopped saving to my PC when I hit the final table.

The other is that I lost a huge pot to go out for the chip lead :( I would post the hand but the HH is not there.
Essentially we have 40bb effective stacks and the btn opens, I 3 bet AQ in the BB. Previous orbit I 3 bet the exact same spot (with air!).
Btn flats, flop is Q89dd I cbet he jams and I snap call. Villain shows Q8s for flopped 2 pair.
GG me :D

I am happy though, I get a spot for chip lead with 6 left where I make the btn make a huge spew pre.

Overall I am pretty happy with how things are going. Now I just have to make sure I get in some 6 max hands this month as well :)

Gl at the tables all

Back in the grove (kind of)

2011-02-12T05:28:00.000-08:00

So I am in back in the MTT grove for sure, but not exactly killing it.

I had a session with a DC pro just to do a check and tune up really on my game, make sure I haven't sprung up some big leaks.

A couple of small things came up, mostly around betting to big in a few spots (cash game habit) but, overall he loved my game (heard that a ton still haven't shipped huge though :D) and put it down to variance and then offered me a backing deal :)

IDK I still wasn't feeling to great about me game, no deep runs at all really despite some reasonable (for me Mr low volume).
In fact i struggled to find some HH that I went deep in to go through.....

Anyways, I know I can beat this dumb game and have doubled my resolve to crush MTT's. I put in some hard study time and got myself thinking about a lot of spots (mainly pre-flop) where I was maybe either spewing a little or missing to chip up without showdown.

Last night played a lot more volume and prob a touch above my strict BR guidlines. but, I wanted to put in a full schedule with a lot of volume. It went ok I had some semi deep runs, 35th/1200 in the $20 1r1A $60k guarantee which is prob one of the hardest mid stakes MTT's around. I went out on a stupid hand where I 2.5x AA utg and the BB reshoves for 20bb with 33 and catch's a 3 on the flop.
The beat is fine, I mean i had a couple huge suckouts myself (in standard spots) shoving 18bb from the CO with 33 v 99 all in pre and AJs to the SB QQ earlier.
Its more that for a winning reg (100k profit this year) I am surprised at this terrible reshove, my image was tight and I had only shown down aces and kings.

Also went deep in a 8k guarantee and a 10k (last 100 in both 5k+ runners) so a little bit happier, though I made some annoying hero calls post flop in spots where I should be able to get away in the early/mid stages. I hate folding though, as do most good players to be honest. But, in these cases I should have been able to get away (one pair hands mainly) from.

So in other news, I think I am going to take a backing deal. I have 3 offers at the moment, and am weighing them all up. One of them I have to give up 5% to its a 45/55 split with make up + coaching but I get to keep all FPP, RB and bonus. I am just running the math's on it but I think this is more profitable than a 50/50 split with make up.

Especially when in make up at least there is a steady stream of revenue. Also I am free to play cash still on euro sites which is great as I just got myself a 60% RB deal and am looking forward to putting in some volume 6 max wise as well. I don't want to go stale on the cash side of things and its nice low variance money. Plus I am developing my game a ton playing them.

2011 update

2011-01-30T06:45:00.000-08:00

hey all

This is not a huge update pokerwise (though it wont stop a huge essay!), part of the reason for the lack of updates is that I have barely played since November.

My 9-5 job is taking up a lot more than 9-5, my daughter is growing up fast (we had her first birthday yesterday already). I have been pretty unwell through most of December and with the Xmas holidays barely played.

So when I have played its been kinda bad as well, I am basically break even for the last 2 months though that is only about 20k hands in total. I moved across first to i poker to take advantage of rakeback with victor chandler, I did pretty well on i poker.
But, the skin moved across to Entraction and man does it suck. The main reason is the software, its just so bad. No timebank, no selecting seat, no hot keys or scripts, the layout of the table is terrible and your HUD can't fit on it, worst of all if you get heads up on a Full ring or 6 max table then the software has a glitch which means the BB and btn are the wrong way round.

All this taken into consideration you can barely play even 4 tables without timing out. So I hate the site pretty much despite the nice RB i get. Throw in some huge coolers, run bad and a little bit of 'soft tilt' and we are breakeven.

So I am switching back to i-poker for Feb, its a decent site in all. Sure the software is not of stars or FTP quality but its bearable at least plus the regs are worse than on entraction and still has a decent player pool.

In the meantime I have been playing some mtts again, part of the reason for playing some cash amongst lower variance, easier hours etc. I wanted to get better post flop....

Well week one of mtts pretty much showed this building up some huge stacks early on and outplaying the mtt donk that are out there pretty easily. However, I did not cash once! Thats right I didn't get deep or even cash once. Now granted I lost some huge flips coolers. bad beats blah blah blah.
After about 5 days of this something was not right... So I re-examined how I was playing and my play with 30-40bb sucked.
Missing spots to chip up, missing re-steals, squeeze spots and I was barely 3 betting both for value with slightly more marginal hands (in spots where it makes sense to do it) and as a bluff.

I think that when playing a different discipline, it takes a while to adapt. It certainly did when I switched to cash and was getting it in far to light with 100bb stacks. So being used to 100bb deep, I wasn't making the necessary adjustments being shorter.

Certainly postflop I think different lines work better in a mtt than cash games. For example in a cash game, bet flop check turn and bet river doesn't get called down light that much. In a MTT its a golden line for fish to pay off with weak top pairs and even 2nd pair hands or even to induce bluffs from air.

Plus, thinking through it I was not playing my A game looking for all these little spots and read based moves that allow us to chip up in mtt's so that when the beat/cooler happens we are not dead and when we win it we get huge dominating stacks.

Anyways after doing this, I played 2 great sessions at the back end of last week, getting super deep in some big fields again and playing good poker. I think i got like a 30th in a 6k runner MTT and 11th in a 500 runner.
But, most importantly I got back in the groove and played how I know I can. Added with somewhat better postflop skills hopefully this bodes well for my mtt game!

I am doing a bit of a tune up session with top class mtt player this week. Being out of the poker mind set for a while (not really reading forums, discussing hands, watching vids) means I feel like I have picked up a couple bad habits so I want to make sure my thought processes are spot again......

All in all though I certainly remember why i love mtts, and am going to making sure I split my schedule between mtts and cash going forward.

gl at the tables everyone, and thanks to all those who have pestered me to update!

can i call myself a cashgame player?

2010-11-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

well can I? :D

I have made my first 1k playing cash, well actually about $1400 now....

Having started to mix in some 50nl as well as some hard work (well not that hard) at improving my game, its started to click in 100bb poker.

Still have a ton to work on and I have been running quite well (coolered a couple people) and been table selecting/bum hunting ;)

But the good thing is I seem to get the better of a lot of the regs in these games so far, I mean they are not great or anything anyway but I have managed to get quite a few to spew into me.

This reg has been a touch unlucky and looking through my database I have won a ton off him but pretty much always had the nuts (and not shown it down) so he prob feels a bit tilted when playing me

PokerStars Game #53314871702: Hold'em No Limit ($0.25/$0.50 USD) - 2010/11/26 21:03:23 WET [2010/11/26 16:03:23 ET]
Table 'Mabella III' 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: l2o07 ($55.65 in chips)
Seat 3: I'veGotFlash ($50 in chips)
Seat 4: dw2006 ($50 in chips)
Seat 5: Odmincheg ($55.50 in chips)
Seat 6: buffyslayer1 ($54.05 in chips)
Odmincheg: posts small blind $0.25
buffyslayer1: posts big blind $0.50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to buffyslayer1 [Kh As]
l2o07: folds
I'veGotFlash: folds
dw2006: raises $1 to $1.50
Odmincheg: folds
buffyslayer1: raises $3.50 to $5
dw2006: calls $3.50
*** FLOP *** [4s 2c 7d]
buffyslayer1: bets $5.75
dw2006: calls $5.75
*** TURN *** [4s 2c 7d] [Kd]
buffyslayer1: checks
dw2006: checks
*** RIVER *** [4s 2c 7d Kd] [3d]
buffyslayer1: bets $14
dw2006: raises $25.25 to $39.25 and is all-in
Prapaja joins the table at seat #2
buffyslayer1: calls $25.25
*** SHOW DOWN ***
dw2006: shows [Qs Ad] (high card Ace)
buffyslayer1: shows [Kh As] (a pair of Kings)
buffyslayer1 collected $98.25 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $100.25 | Rake $2
Board [4s 2c 7d Kd 3d]
Seat 1: l2o07 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: I'veGotFlash folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: dw2006 (button) showed [Qs Ad] and lost with high card Ace
Seat 5: Odmincheg (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: buffyslayer1 (big blind) showed [Kh As] and won ($98.25) with a pair of Kings

gl at the tables

been a while

2010-11-13T05:23:00.000-08:00

so what have I been up to...

well no mtts at all since i went to china unfortunately I just have no time to play them even though they are my first love

so i have been grinding a ton of 6 max cash and slowly feel like i am getting better. At 25 nl I am crushing the game it feels like, still make mistakes at times but overall pretty good since I am well below ev as well

mixing in some 50nl at the moment only like 2k hands where I have run like shit, but from what I can see the play is very similar with maybe a little more 3 betting pre flop

here's a little graph to show ya how the grind is going

thing is i am not even running well in ev so deffo gonna be moving up and mixing in some hands at 50nl over the weekend......

great thing about cash is that when you get a whale or fish at the table you have a deep enough stack and (usually) a decent amount of time to exploit them. With a mtt/sng its tough to do this when effective stacks sit at 40bb max (though obviously you can do this) but its all about preflop equities.

the other great thing is that I think I have improved a ton already and hardly watched any vids or really discussed that many hands yet. I have just put in a little volume and spent some time working through the problems and basically when I get stuck asking for advice.

Hopefully soon I can start to look at more advanced concepts and get out of noob cash game status. Also really desperate to play some mtts at some point as although a little rusty I think I could crush even harder now as even regs are terrible post flop in mtts (well maybe not at higher stakes than i play)

oh when i said I had not played a mtt I lied, i played a live £50 freezeout at my local casino. I final tabled it and busted one from the bubble jamming 9bb utg 7 handed with ATs and getting called my KJo which to be honest I was pretty shocked at.

Not because its a bad call (although it probably is versus my range there) but because normally live is so dam tight. This mtt was an exception with alot of players (who were also really bad) getting it as light as i see online a ton.....

The other thing that stood out for me was lol 'live tells', now normally when i hear some of the donkey pro's talk about how they got a live read blah blah I switch off. But in this mtt i picked up a ton (perhaps i never looked before) which really made a huge difference

First there was a guy 2 to my right (so he had btn on my BB) who looked at his cards as soon as they were dealt and then cut out chips immediately if he wanted to limp or raise. To start this means he was never stealing on the btn without a hand unless he only cut out chips and raised when it was folded to him.

So I exploited this 3 times where it folded to him and he then cut out chips and limped or raised where I re popped it. Further when a fish in Mp limped and he iso raised only because the fish limped and I cold 3 bet (or 4 bet not sure :D) the btn

I picked up another huge read on a guy in the BB when we were 6 handed on the FT bubble, folds to me on the btn with 13bb and I have A3s which normally I would jam here. I looked up and see the BB (different player) look at his cards and he just seemed really happy about it. it was odd because he didn't like scratch his ear lobe or any of the casino royale lol stuff. 'I just knew'

So I fold, the Sb limps and he jams his 9bb stack and shows kings :D

Last one I pick up is I raise UTG with 99 BB (MP fish from earlier) flats flop comes J66 I c bet and he jams approx 20bb over my c bet. So I sit there thinking about it and trying to work out if I am ahead of his range. Now my read on him was he was loose weak, so to see this move was surprising (I would snap call against alot of players here obv))

I had got him to fold Ato with a T66 flop where he donk lead 3 ways in the Sb, I raised (I had 78s with a Backdoor flush draw) he flatted my raise and then check folds to a 2/3 pot bet on a 5 which also now gave me a flush and st8 draw and he showed.

Anyway i am sitting there and I happen to glance at him, he looks a little nervous. So I continue to give him the old stare down. Suddenly the guy seems to loose control all the colour drains form his face and his chest his heaving. I mean his really sucking in the oxygen and looking distressed. So I spend about another 30 secs just to make sure and solidify my read and I call

He flips over T8o and the table was like omg how can you call (pretty standard prob even without the read).

All i can say is lol live players

gl at the tables buffy

When September comes....

2010-09-24T08:37:00.000-07:00

love greenday :D

so whats been going on since my last very close MTT scores, well not to much I have played like no volume for me at all.

Literally just got back from a 9 day (maybe it was 10 day lost all track) trip to Hong Kong and China with work.

Sounds pretty glamorous but its not its bloody hard work. 12 hours at a minimum most of the time in a Car or plane. Visiting factories in god forsaken provinces of china, bad food (well not in HK but everywhere else).
Hell we even got offered snake at one of our factories and its kinda rude to decline as you are guest of honour as the buyer.

Oh for those who don't know in my real job I am a buyer and essentially its my job to source and buy the products that the retailer i work for sells. We happen to be the largest 'mass merchandise' (means general products outside of food) in the UK. So its a pretty big deal for alot of the suppliers and factories when we visit.

So to get round this I always maintain I am a vegetarian so I just get fried rice at the factory.... I learnt the hard way on my first trip a few years ago now when I was given roast dog and expected to eat it!

Anyways all in the trip was ok and I saved the company some $700k in negotiating new prices etc. Sounds impressive but its not really, the previous buyer was pretty rubbish to be honest so it was easy to get some improvements.

One thing the trip did hit home to me is just how lucky I am, I have a beautiful little girl, a fantastic wife (who is pretty hot imo) and good job and financially secure.

Walking round some of these places seeing guys (and women) literally who work 12 hours a day 6 days a week for around 900-1000 RMB a month. Which is about £90-£100 a month or $150 ish if your US

The jobs they do are pretty mind numbing, one guys job was to walk around with a watering can watering the floor of the factory as it served as a cheap way to prevent dust (from sawing) blowing all over the factory (there is alot of saw dust in wood factories obv)

Well onto poker, I did manage to play one day out there and I must say playing on Asia time is awesome. not only were there overlays on a ton of MTTs but the standard of play is a lot weaker. Far more passive and less reshipping, lots more calling down OOP etc and over valuing marginal hands.

The other great thing was the size of the mtts, for example I played a 5r which I came like 14th in (went out reshipping to light and was pissed off but w/e) which had approx 1300 runners. To put in to context the 3r which I normally play gets around 6k runners.

Obviously you need to run far less well in a MTT like this, and I played a bunch of mid stakes with less than 500 runners and went super deep a ton, coming 3rd in one. Which I pretty much crushed until 3 hands the SB limped re shoved 30bb with J5o!!! And of course got there ;)

What this has hit home to me (obviously I should know this) is that I need to play a ton more MTTs with under 500 players to help in those lean spots, so in the coming weeks I am going to be having another look at smaller sites. FTP seems to have smaller fields with a better payout structure so i have a few $$ on there and may try a night just grinding everything in my range on that site....

In other news the other main reason I have been going so deep so often is that I am playing more and more 6 max cash. I have watched a few vids and plugged a few fundamental leaks I had playing 100bb poker, and I really an enjoying it and on the whole crushing at 25NL.

I hope to move up to 50NL shortly I just want to log 50k hands at 25NL first to make sure I am really crushing. It's still prob to small a sample but I am beating 25NL for 18bb/100 over (I am actually like $500 below ev as well) about 20k hands so I am pretty sure I am a winning player, even if not to the extent of 18bb/100.

One thing that may hold me back is that I have discovered that in cash games I can tilt! Its so weird I can lose thousands in equity in a MTT on a beat or flip and just carry on fine on other tables. But, when a tard at 25NL limp calls and then ch/calls 3 pot size bets with 3rd pair and trips up on the river I lose it!

Reading Tommy Angelo's book at the moment and he has a series on deuces cracked I am going to watch which is starting to help. The other good thing about cash is I can reload and win it back from the fish.....

Anyways this has been a huge update so gl at the tables

buffy

ugh

2010-09-02T13:22:00.001-07:00

6th in the 20k turbo for $900 and 14th in the DNG for $600 last night

sigh sigh sigh is all i can say 1st in the 20k was $4.4k and in the DNG was $17k

feeling sick (literally)

2010-09-01T04:05:00.001-07:00

so I have been off work the last day and half

I am bored and ill, not a good combo. You know sometimes you think it would be nice to have the odd day off ill. well it sucks when you actually realise its not nice (obvious)

I may watch some poker vids but cant concentrate, my boss is pissed i think that I am off but w/e I will deal with that tomorrow (if I feel better)

random moan over

Analysis of a hand

2010-08-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Ok so I came up against a really odd spot recently that I grossly misplayed and I thought i would share as I have not put up any hands or strat so much recently.

I posted this on a couple forums so I will just post the hand in that form, then my response and lastly a couple of very good HS pro's responses....

No real reads on villain, he is running 18/13 with 4% 3 bet over 85 hands ihs a slight losing player over 500 mtts

in this spot his bascially he only one at the table that can hurt my chip stack, is jamming 90+bb spewy here? his 3 bet is largish so i dont think i can flat OOP here very prfotably

Poker Stars $3.00 No Limit Hold'em Tournament – t600/t1200 Blinds + t200 – 9 players
Hand Conversion courtesy of Tournament Poker Edge

pelousesf (BTN): BB = 90.6, t108711
Warpgs (SB): BB = 20.5, t24618
Elviski24 (BB): BB = 27.1, t32560
buffyslayer1 (UTG): BB = 109.2, t131085
SpOs Im GoOd (UTG+1): BB = 36.7, t44017
acehole67 (UTG+2): BB = 44.6, t53524
stackshady (MP1): BB = 7.6, t9108
10YURA10 (MP2): BB = 26.3, t31543
Colombian_Us (CO): BB = 9.8, t11795

Pre Flop: (t3600) buffyslayer1 is UTG with K A
buffyslayer1 raises to t3000, 5 folds, pelousesf raises to t13200, ????????

so lots of replies stating that flating or 4 bet/fold are best. both are really bad to me intutively so I did some math on it....

I agree shipping in 90bb here is kinda gross, but if we 4 bet and he ships we are crushed and have turned Ak into a bluff

flatting is really akward stackwise and playing it OOP is gonna be really difficult, which is kinda why the hand is akward. I am pretty sure that flatting will show a a marginal expectation overall at best. However I think its better than 4 bet ship still as below

flat pre

I made it 3k pre he now makes it 13.2k which is pretty large, if i flat there the pot on the flop is 28k and villain has 95k behind.

Flop comes xxx he c bets to say 17k (60% pot) the pot is now 42k with the villains having 78k behind, now I have 2 options shove or fold with effective stacks

a) 66.66% the time we lose 13.2k = -8.7k

b) 30% time we hit the flop, against his 3 bet range of say TT+/AK

c) 3% of the time we hit the flop and he flops a set

a = -8.7k

b = +18k

3 hands we beat from 7 (assuming he c bets all hands that 3 bet pre) c bet fold and we win 43% of the time = +18k

2 hands beat us from 7 29% of the time but they stack us for = -57.4k (198k*.29)

2 hands chop from 7 29% of the time = +57.4k

c = -6k

total = +3k

4 bet/call or ship

shows a -3k expectation versus a range of 3 betting TT/AK and calling KK+/AKs

overall i think FOLD is actually best to the 3 bet!

I am not 100% sure on the math, but it looks right enough

and lastly here is some of the pro's reposnse to the hand

'Fold pre. Put him on a range for this huge of a 3bet, you can't flat OOP vs it profitable, and 4bet shipping is hugely spew. You have plenty of chips, this spot is not going to come up often at all unless you view him as a monkey. Just fold and move on, you opened UTG, he has no reason to 3bet you this huge on the button without a monster trying to get it in. Flatting oop looking for an A or K is going to be very -ev.'

'this spot is not going to come up often'

"is really important.

i know you're never supposed to fold AK preflop, and in general that is true, but there are spots and this is one.

nothing here is working for us. given the positions and stacks, there is really no reason for him to be light, his sizing is huge and we're OOP. if we were in posittion, his 3bet wasn't so big or stacks were shallower then something other than folding becomes a better and better play."

anyways enjoy i spew monkey jammed 95bb into AA! I still went super deep actually kinda anoyed as all those chips would let me be super aggressive....

gl at the tables buffy

update finally

2010-08-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

Ok so didnt get a chance to update at weekend.....

Been so busy with work, wife and baby not had a ton of time for poker but still got in some decent volume.

So since last heater update, I have been playing well and making on average a FT once a week. Not binked yet which is kinda annoying as I close pretty well normally.

But MTTs as we all know are variance feasts and when you 15-25bb deep at a FT its pretty hard minimise variance.

I have also upped my average buy in a touch as well over the last 3 weeks (in part by selling off action) and I am pretty much a low/midstakes guy rather than micro/low stakes. I still play the micro's just cos its another table and the ROI if you bink is still decent.

So overall its going well, and tbh I feel like I should be shipping some decent size MTTs soon. A lilttle bit of run good at the right time and I will get in a position to crush a FT.

Actually I was thinking about this on my way home tonight, last night I went deepish in both the Daily 40k and Daily 90k. Both had about 5k runners in them and i finished like 100 ish, both MTTs I ad decent stacks (45-55bb) lost flips in both for 30bb total.

So for example in the Daily 40k a guy jams 15bb in MP and I iso shove with AK, he flips up JJ and holds. No big deal totally standard..... So now i have 30bb raise up TT in LP and get shipped on by JJ for 13bb and call. Totally standard again....

So now I have about 17BB and go out shortly after with Kk v AA aipf... win these two flips though and I have about 75bb!!! I am one of the top 10 stacks and in great shape to go real deep......

This is basically what I mean, with 50 left rather than losing that flip with my 40bb stack I win it and now have a real shot and going to the FT and crushing......

Anyways its stuff we all know but worth baring in mind when we go through those barren spells.....

full update soon

2010-08-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

hi guys (and girls)

I am going to update in full soon I know its been a age. Had a few requests so I promise some stuff will be out in full at the weekend!

Life has been so busy outside poker with my new job and little on, that I barely get time to play at the moment let alone blog!

gl at the tables buffy

Heater

2010-07-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

So I am on a huge heater, playing well getting chips. still run bad at times, but the difference is I am holding for big pots when deep and winning flips.

So in the last week I have had 3 more very decent results

Stars $12k turbo Guarantee - 1st place for $2k

This one was a turbo, and I just played my standard game. I think my jamming and rejamming have really sharpened up a ton which helped me to chip up.

I pretty much crushed it and on the FT really abused the bubble to chip up from about 1m in chips to over 4m. We went into the final table and I had half the chips in play.

3 handed was pretty straightforward as well (its a bit of a blur now), I stole a ton and then got rejammed on light and snapped off and held. Heads up lasted like 4 hands as well, I doubled up villain twice. Got it in bad next hand with T7o and won versus some random Qt type hand cant remember exactly.

Next hand got AK and won a flip to take it down

1 hour later result no.2

Stars $12k Guarantee - 2nd Place $1.8k

This one I am more happy with more play (not the result) I pretty much crushed and card racked it the last few tables. Again doubled my chip lead on the bubble, and luckily when i got played back at I had huge hands that held.

At the FT I a actually ran really bad, K6dd on a K5d4d flop and got it on the flop versus a tard limper with K5. Lost 77 to Ak for 19bb a few hands later, and Ak to Qjo as well for about 17bb.

So got really short having gone into FT as huge chip leader. Somehow kept calm and got myself back in it and then crushed it 5 handed until heads up.

I botched a few hands 3 handed and HU, trying to pressure the second stack a run a bluff where he wouldn't fold 3nd pair.

HU lost running another buff, villain 3x btn (his opening about 90% hands) I flat J9s in the BB. Flop is KcJhXc, he c bets I check raise to pot, he flats. Turn is a Tc and I jam for pot, turning my hand into a bluff but i check raised to I coull shove the turn. He snaps and had AcQo for turned gutshot.

Result number 3

Stars $5k Guarantee - 1st place $1.1k

Again played pretty standard, and with about 2 tables to go increased my chip lead from about 700k to near 2m in chips and pwned the FT bubble.

Final table didn't do anything amazing simply opened a ton of pots in LP to maintain my stack and let the shorties bust.

3 handed, got AA cracked by K9o which cost about 2/3 my stack, but the players were so weak I was able to steal, 3 bets and bluff to get the lead back in 8 orbits (this is 26 hands).

Busted the third place (cant even remember how!) and then got heads up which lasted 4 hands. Villain as about 20bb effective, I steal 2 twice from the button. He now has 18bb and 3x raises, I ship 88 from the BB and he snaps with K5o and I hold

gg me

so I am really pleased that after 3 months of no final tables I make 10 in a month, ship 3 of them get second in one, third in another.

time to work hard a now bink a big buyin mtt!

gl at the tables buffy

ship it!

2010-06-27T00:38:00.000-07:00

so i finally won one outright!

took down the $42r1a a couple night ago for a princely $600 lol. well I am happy to ship one (other big wins all chops so far).

I played pretty decent, ran like god at one point where i 2 outed someone on the river when we got it all in on the flop for about 17bb and he had a better kicker. The won 3 30/70 in a row where i raised and got shipped on by 10bb stacks

Few hands later I get a huge cooler, after being active and raising a ton and as chip leader UTG raise 7 handed btn flats I ship is in with JJ in the SB for about 17bb effective. BB wakes up with aces and his second in chips.....

down to 5bb and somehow I steal a couple times get back up to 9bb and double through. got back in it and never looked back really.

FT played pretty patient actually made a bad fold where I raised TT UTG shorty ships for 13bb and the SB a total lagtard cold 4 bet ships 25bb. I tank fold and pretty much only folded as his range has to be strong right, especially sine his going to showdown. mmm well no ATo is good enough there lol.

Funny enough the same guy 3x opens a 11bb stack and fold to my ship a orbit or two later. In fact i must have reshipped in the FT about 15 times and not got looked up once. got to love a table like that!

Got down to 3 handed and I really crushed tbh, very happy with how i played picked my spots really well, 3 bet well and switched gears pretty nicely at one point.

HU lasted one hand we both had about 25bb effective he opens button, I 3 bet to 1/3 stacks with A4 he jams I call getting 2-1. He has A3, flop is 4xx and I hold.

All in all, obv happy with how I played but what I really found encouraging is that I played with such focus. Getting deep a huge number of times now, means that all pressue of being on a FT bubble or at a FT is not there and I just focused on the moment.

I know we all try and do this anyway, but IDK this one felt different maybe its just experience. I am getting onto 9 months of playing MTTs (Nov Start) and I am getting here so often now it feels natural.

Hopefully this is the start of me closing all these deep runs more often.

Again had some great railers which I really appreciate, couple guys on skype and MSN

gl at the tables

june update

2010-06-20T00:58:00.001-07:00

so its been a few weeks since my last post. since then things been going pretty well on the poker front.

Not played as much volume as i would like due to the world cup (f**ck England) which looks like I won't have to follow shortly and started my new job at work so having to put in some ours getting up to speed....

What I have played has been going well, I got 18th in the DNG sunday special which was a marathon which went on till 5am! I got up for work the next day at 6.45am lol I was not in great shape :)

As for the MTT I didn't do anything particularly special, just picked alot of good rejam spots to chip up without showdown and won some flips... This is what had been missing from my game (re jamming light enough that is in certain spots).

In the end I went out in a fairly standard hand where i raise the btn, flopped 2 pair and the BB who defended turned a str8 and crai. Wasn't to sure if I played the hand bad (due to the late hour). I think it was ok, but I would have preferred checking it back on the turn and flatting a river bet as the turn hit alot of the BB range (AQ/AJ/KT).
There is a diamond draw out there that could have been played weird like Adxd, or even KQ might do this so i am pretty meh about it....

PokerStars Game #45483145117: Tournament #315010577, $50+$5 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXIV (10000/20000) - 2010/06/14 5:19:02 WET [2010/06/14 0:19:02 ET]
Table '315010577 158' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 (565602 in chips)
Seat 2: gboro780 (1544110 in chips)
Seat 3: dal_elama (882598 in chips)
Seat 4: psycho0 (909108 in chips)
Seat 5: MrCashew55 (842127 in chips)
Seat 6: otto (731292 in chips)
Seat 7: lekkins (409458 in chips)
Seat 8: PLUNDERGUY (781371 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 9: Rozhnie (550976 in chips)
buffyslayer1: posts the ante 2500
gboro780: posts the ante 2500
dal_elama: posts the ante 2500
psycho0: posts the ante 2500
MrCashew55: posts the ante 2500
otto: posts the ante 2500
lekkins: posts the ante 2500
PLUNDERGUY: posts the ante 2500
Rozhnie: posts the ante 2500
gboro780: posts small blind 10000
dal_elama: posts big blind 20000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to buffyslayer1 [Js Qh]
psycho0: folds
MrCashew55: folds
otto: folds
lekkins: folds
PLUNDERGUY: folds
Rozhnie: folds
buffyslayer1: raises 25000 to 45000
gboro780: folds
dal_elama: calls 25000
*** FLOP *** [Qc 4d Jd]
dal_elama: checks
buffyslayer1: bets 60000
dal_elama: calls 60000
*** TURN *** [Qc 4d Jd] [As]
dal_elama: checks
buffyslayer1: bets 130000
dal_elama: raises 645098 to 775098 and is all-in
buffyslayer1: calls 328102 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (316996) returned to dal_elama
*** RIVER *** [Qc 4d Jd As] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
dal_elama: shows [Kd Tc] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
buffyslayer1: shows [Js Qh] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
dal_elama collected 1158704 from pot
buffyslayer1 finished the tournament in 18th place and received $750.00.
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1158704 | Rake 0
Board [Qc 4d Jd As 5h]
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 (button) showed [Js Qh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Jacks
Seat 2: gboro780 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: dal_elama (big blind) showed [Kd Tc] and won (1158704) with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 4: psycho0 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: MrCashew55 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: otto folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: lekkins folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: PLUNDERGUY folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Rozhnie folded before Flop (didn't bet)

oh and i like betting the flop more as well about 2/3 pot rather than half pot.... Interesting to have a class player like gboro on my left and you can just tell the guy reeks excellence, he pwned me twice and never put a step wrong

So that was a nice little score for $750, and its the only time i play the DNG as the structure is decent on a Sunday. In the other daily, the daily 40k I came 9th last night from 6k runners for about $500.

Again didn't do anything special, in fact from about 60 players onwards i only had 8-22bb (av stack was like only 23bb though) so was pretty short like the rest of the field. The one thing i did do is keep patient, as the av stack was so short i still had a lot of FE even when down to 8bb or so.

I had a great rail again, couple of 2+2ers who cheered me on, I did get some comments actually about missing a bunch of BvB shove spots so gonna look at that. But, pretty sure for 15bb effective when the av stack is 21bb i can pass up T4o? be interested to here peoples thoughts....

PokerStars Game #45738016162: Tournament #316010496, $10+$1 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXIX (25000/50000) - 2010/06/20 2:10:31 WET [2010/06/19 21:10:31 ET]
Table '316010496 3' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 (1087938 in chips)
Seat 2: flandy77 (883768 in chips)
Seat 3: Boddysurfer (697500 in chips)
Seat 4: sarahbangs (921260 in chips)
Seat 5: fbluke14 (1287727 in chips)
Seat 6: TGMember (1304031 in chips)
Seat 7: JDAWGXCT (1302110 in chips)
Seat 9: Creative 309 (903117 in chips)
buffyslayer1: posts the ante 6250
flandy77: posts the ante 6250
Boddysurfer: posts the ante 6250
sarahbangs: posts the ante 6250
fbluke14: posts the ante 6250
TGMember: posts the ante 6250
JDAWGXCT: posts the ante 6250
Creative 309: posts the ante 6250
buffyslayer1: posts small blind 25000
flandy77: posts big blind 50000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to buffyslayer1 [Ts 4h]
JDAWGXCT said, "lived in Kreuzberg"
TGMember said, "wooohooo"
TGMember said, "damn"
TGMember said, ":D"
Boddysurfer has timed out
Boddysurfer: folds
Boddysurfer is sitting out
sarahbangs: folds
JDAWGXCT said, "mit der Turkish"
Boddysurfer has returned
fbluke14 has timed out
fbluke14: folds
fbluke14 is sitting out
fbluke14 has returned
TGMember: folds
JDAWGXCT: folds
Creative 309: folds
buffyslayer1: folds
Uncalled bet (25000) returned to flandy77
flandy77 collected 100000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 100000 | Rake 0
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: flandy77 (big blind) collected (100000)
Seat 3: Boddysurfer folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: sarahbangs folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: fbluke14 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: TGMember folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: JDAWGXCT folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Creative 309 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

this was pretty much the spots that came up, i think folding is fine but shoving is prob thinly +ev as the guy was pretty tight

Had some run good and held in a bunch of spots, got blinded down to 7bb just as the FT started (bubble lasted forever as some guy literally tanked his whole timebank every hand) and called a 8bb ship with AK. He had TT and flopped a set, I turn a gutshot str8 but didn't get there.

overall another FT (6 this month) in large field MTTs and looks like I am set to have my first winning month since March! (was b/e may weeeee!)

anyways gl guys see ya at the tables, and always nice to hear from peeps on the rail, on my twitter or mail

buffy

party time

2010-06-06T02:54:00.000-07:00

well i finally put some $$ on party poker. Only a small amount like $200 to see if i like the site.

so far its paid dividends, I final tabled the $33 5k guarantee for about $510 earlier in the week. To be honest though the structures on party are terrible, i literally never had more than 30bb all the way through the MTT.

At the final table i lost 7 flips where i was a 70/30 favourite lost a decent chip lead as a result and ended up busting in 3rd with K8s v J5s where the Sb jammed 13bb into me. To be honest though everyone was so short (av stack 20bb!) that alot of flips where gonna happen.

in other news last night managed to spew a big chip lead in the stars $20k guarantee with about 150 left. finished off about 90th,

I lost about half my stack in a 3 bet pot shoving on a weak players bluff into me. trouble is he called off on a flush draw which was better than my 8 high! Lost 3 flips all in pre flop 77 v A5 for 20bb, 99 versus KTs where guy re jams for 25bb (a known squeeze monkey) and then shove 7bb UTG to get called by AKs.

gg me! not to concerned actually as pretty sure i played all the hands correctly even the J8s handed where I 3 bet on the button and and lost a good portion of my stack. My read and line of play was correct versus his range, i had fold equity (well i should have done :) ) and was playing to crush so i am happy with it!

gl at the tables guys, and i have been getting a ton of railers wishing me good luck lately from blog readers so thanks for that really appreciate the support!

final table times

2010-06-03T10:28:00.000-07:00

last night crushed pretty good in the stars $5k guarantee

really happy with the way i played and sure it was low stakes, but man i feel like i crushed it.

From about 100 players out i was chip leader and piled on the pressure at every opportunity. I was the huge stack at my table for a long time and got away with opening about 40% pots at one point. I had a great rail as well fwiw which helped me keep focus down to the last few tables.

Picked up some great spots to open and 3 bet and even 4 bet light on the FT bubble, and it was pretty plain sailing.

At the FT i picked up about 50% of all chips in play when i raised AA utg got flatted by MP who shipped about 20bb over my c bet on a King high two tone flop. I snap called and he flips over KK for a flopped set. My run good was with me as I rivered Ace for my two outer and a great stack.

So we get down to about 5 handed and i make probably one mistake, at the time it felt like a cooler I 3 bet AQo in the SB to a btn raiser who was opening like 50% btn's when folded to him. I had 3 bet him probably about 7 times so far so when he 4 bet (bout 30bb effective stacks) i snap get it in. Run into KK and he holds for about half my stack.

At the time, discussed it with my buddy on skype and it looked like a standard cooler, but from later action where the guy just never 3 bet once when he had the perfect opportunity to do it. I think that he ws not capable of 4 betting light there ever.

Anyways, got my stack up to about 35bb again and managed to knock out a player, one more goes and we are 3 handed about 30bb effective. Lots of play 3 handed with the other stacks going at it quite a bit with raises and 3 bets.

I end up reshipping QJs to a btn open for 22bb and he snap calls 99 and I don't get there.

so $750 for the third place, would have been good to ship this one for the third time but anyway gg me.

back in the zone for sure and looking forward to playing as much as possible

gl at the tables and follow my sweats at http://twitter.com/Buffyslayer1

goin deep :) analysis of a hand

2010-05-26T10:44:00.000-07:00

this should be my user name, going deep never getting there

after my last post i continued to play the $52r1a and got all the way down to the last 19. It was 4.30am UK time when i busted and i had to get up for work at 7.30am

i know i am a idiot :) but what can u do when you love to play. the bust out hand actually kept me awake for another half hour so i didn't sleep until five

I am planning on starting my session as well tonight, but in retrospect this may not be a good idea. I play bad when tired and actually the last few days good runs have alot to do with me being sharper at the table

well i should post the bust out hand, at the time i thought i played it horrible. and could have been due to the early hours of the morning

I have spent the past hour running some numbers and basically its not truly horrendous. based on villains 3 bet range which is about 17% (he was 3 betting 20% from a big sample) and calling off top 8% (88+,ATs,AJo+,KQ+) which is actually pretty wide. the 4 bet has a ev of +.05bb which is super thin. And actually i don't like it at all, but its not as truly terrible as i thought.

fwiw if my hand is sooooooted the added equity makes this a +2bb ship and i am much more happy to make it tbh

tbh in game i would not have thought he would call off KQs here and if i had known this i would not shove (my range here not my hand obv as that's crushed).

Maybe my image was crazier than i thought, but versus my actual range at this precise moment its a good call by the tard. Pretty sure though villain is just clicking buttons and has no idea of a range :p

so here's the hand... and i am still a little pissed tbh as this is one of the few times i think 'waiting for a better spot' applies. Its all hindsight though as in game it felt like a good spot

PokerStars Game #44624113313: Tournament #313010672, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXV (15000/30000) - 2010/05/26 4:20:58 WET [2010/05/25 23:20:58 ET]
Table '313010672 226' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: Mazapisa (275784 in chips)
Seat 2: DealMeAce821 (370515 in chips)
Seat 3: pirus68 (258050 in chips)
Seat 4: mastiff 67 (1174737 in chips)
Seat 5: Baggio3386 (661451 in chips)
Seat 7: buffyslayer1 (1011401 in chips)
Seat 9: grbc333 (1381326 in chips)
Mazapisa: posts the ante 3750
DealMeAce821: posts the ante 3750
pirus68: posts the ante 3750
mastiff 67: posts the ante 3750
Baggio3386: posts the ante 3750
buffyslayer1: posts the ante 3750
grbc333: posts the ante 3750
buffyslayer1: posts small blind 15000
grbc333: posts big blind 30000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to buffyslayer1 [Ts Qd]
Mazapisa: folds
DealMeAce821: folds
pirus68: folds
mastiff 67: folds
Baggio3386: folds
buffyslayer1: raises 52500 to 82500
grbc333: raises 127500 to 210000
buffyslayer1: raises 797651 to 1007651 and is all-in
grbc333: calls 797651
*** FLOP *** [Tc Ac 5c]
*** TURN *** [Tc Ac 5c] [5d]
*** RIVER *** [Tc Ac 5c 5d] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
buffyslayer1: shows [Ts Qd] (two pair, Tens and Fives)
grbc333: shows [Qh Kh] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
grbc333 collected 2041552 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2041552 | Rake 0
Board [Tc Ac 5c 5d Jd]
Seat 1: Mazapisa folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: DealMeAce821 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: pirus68 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: mastiff 67 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Baggio3386 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: buffyslayer1 (small blind) showed [Ts Qd] and lost with two pair, Tens and Fives
Seat 9: grbc333 (big blind) showed [Qh Kh] and won (2041552) with a straight, Ten to Ace

killer river obv, and fwiw the guy took the chip lead and I checked today and looks like he shipped it. pretty sure without this J on the river I ship this MTT

gl at the tables guys and if any of you want the math detail behind this hand let me know

oh and I like this twitter business, give me a shout out on it if you can....

another FT

2010-05-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

well a few more really deep runs, came 14th out of 4k runners on Sunday on the 25k guarantee to lose on a flop about 39bb effective was pretty hacked off afterward as yet another deep run was scuppered.

tonight though another FT came 5th in the $4 cube on stars, yes then one i have got to the final 2 tables like 19 times now and I have 2 FT in a week!

Went out in some pretty standard shove spots 5 handed KJs CO for 15bb into AJ and QJo utg 6bb into AK. SO gg me but this smaller feild lower variance MTT is proving most helpful to the BR and confidence.

Next month I ma putting some $$ onto Party to try and cash in on this a bit more. I think the results I have had in this MTT which get like 500 runners max shows a big part of the large variance MTT fields. Sure I know is a small sample size, but u really don't have to run so hot to get all the way through these smaller ones....

anyways still in the $5 cube as we speak approaching money bubble so better get back to it....

oh and I finally gave in and joined twitter... be cool to here from anyone on there I am of course buffyslayer1 on twitter as well

gl at the tables

Final table at last

2010-05-18T16:54:00.001-07:00

well the MTT they should name after me the $42r1a finally bore some fruit.

I ended up taking 4th, overall losing blind versus blind AJ v JT for about 14bb.

Overall though I will take the $350 (i know that's all it it) and the final table, which is my first one for 2 months. God has it been a drought.....

Overall played pretty solid throughout, the final 2 tables the av stack was only 22bb so it really was about shipping and reshipping. And in fact i went into the FT with only 9bb and sitting 9/9.

I had a couple of pretty nice ICM results when the chip leader got it all in pre with AA versus QQ and AK and held to take us from 6 players to 4.

Anyways this is the start of the up and up...

Also found out today that I was successful for a promotion. Ship it! :)

gl at the table

close again

2010-05-17T04:51:00.000-07:00

So as per usual i feel like i am back playing well. sure small mistakes here and there which I am working on but overall playing a lot better.

picking my jam and rejam spots really well to chip without showdown, prob the only thing is that i still find it hard to give up on a pot once I am in there its mine and i want it :) sometimes results in bluffs that look really bluffy! Got time banked called by 3rd pair in one spot so got to work in this aspect for sure.

Apart form that going deep again consistently, top 100 finishes in god knows how many tournaments. Went super deep in the 11r last week, interestingly 'Iamdanuts' who is a top reg was on the same table as me and had 5bb and gambled in a 3 way pot with QJo tripled up and ended up taking it down. He also came second in the same mtt the night before! Sicko for sure....

Also manged to bubble the FT of the $42r1a this is the 5th time i have done this :( Pretty standard spot AKs to a raise and a flat with 20bb. Funny thing is guy who called (the flatter) berated me and told me this is what happens when you dont see a flop and play poker!!!

Of course I told him wholeheartedly that he is correct and I am a donkey....

Had a decent Sunday, actually made about $300 playing satellites for the scoop ME (and unreg) as well as deep runs in the Sunday 250k (600/28,000) and again in my favourite MTT the 3r I came 30/8962.

It was kind of a weird one in that from about 150 players left i never had more that 19bb for more than a couple hands. Every time I got to about 30bb i either list a flip or had no spots to open and drifted down to 20bb. The last hour was spent finding jam and rejam spots to chip up.

Eventually busted, with 8bb (i know but i had no spots to get it in at all) and jammed QTo in the CO 7 handed. SB rejams 33 and despite have a flush draw (mono flop) a gut shot and two overs i miss.
So finished Sunday about +$500 which is not much but, hell i will take a winning Sunday for once!

another deep run

2010-05-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

this is ridiculous

out in 103rd of the $5 2r1a nearly 3k runners, literally just busted out for a top 3 stack with AA versus KJ all in on the flop, binks a river J.....

i am playing well again, so frusturating, deep runs but just not getting there.... pretty fed up right now.

Up and down week

2010-05-08T01:15:00.001-07:00

ok odd week really

Up until yesterday I was playing really well, getting deep on numerous occasions. Not making any mistakes, timing my 3 bets well, making thin value bets etc.

Finished something like 20th in the $20k guarantee, 35th in the $15k guarantee on Wednesday. Both MTTs had 4k plus fields. Also had a couple of top 100 finishes as well, both in small buy in MTTs but still 10k guarantee's with 4 runners plus. And also some deep finishes in this new $4 2r1a that stars is running, hopefully they will add it to the schedule and add a guarantee

Then some monkey tilt seems to have kicked in, it all started where once again i ran terrible in the daily 90k. Its the only $55 i am playing at the moment due to this 'downswing' (god i hate that word), where i lost a 50k pot all in pre AA v KK. Blah blah blah I run so bad, i know u don't give a shit.

Hell no one cares about anyone bad beat stories, i mean i don't. Someone starts to talk to me about a beat and I switch off immediately or tell them about the time i lost a 3k equity flip with KK v JJ on the bubble of the daily 40k. If it wasn't for luck I would win then all blah blah Helmuth bullshit.

Anyways, since then i seem to playing really spwey and in fact going through my HH I am a little embarrassed. Just playing hyper aggro when i don't need to, or assuming every time someone 3 bets me from the btn or blinds they are playing back at me. I mean come on Jamie your playing a $11 mtt, they aren't 3 betting light (well maybe there just clicking buttons :) )

So last night I spewed off 3 stacks of near 50k (and 100bb) just playing some bad poker I think. I mean we all spew stacks at some point its part of the learning process. But, I let the aggression get out of control and got it in spots where I prob have alot less fold eqiuty than I thought. Or I shipped it into the nuts (which happens).

Anyways, I am off for some rest and review. I am doing some work on a schedule for other sites with somewhat smaller feilds like UB, Party and I poker.
If anyone knows any MTTs that they particularly like across some of these sites let me know and I will return you a favour (i dunno like look over a HH or something).

gl at the tables

update, scoop and other things...

2010-05-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

Ok its been a long while since me last update and I am gonna try to update more often but not so lengthy

well what i have been up to, well pretty much bubbling final tables. I think I have made the last 2 tables about 15 times since my last update and its just not happening.

Happened again last Sunday ran Aj in AQ for 17bb effective and he held so GG me. I mean my game has been a little up and down i feel, a bit of run bad knocked my confidence a bit. Which equalled me playing a bit tighter and not so aggressive i feel, which in turn meant i didn't build as many stacks etc etc

anyways, i have been mixing in some STT nights on those i cant play MTTs just to help the variance, along with some 45 man regs speed and other reg speed games. So far those are going really well, and its nice actually as the 45 mans fit in nicely with MTT's if i only have like 2 left or something.

Last night actually was a good example where i played the scoop 2 day low event. 10k starting stacks 15 mins blinds and a dam good structure.
Well the structure ment that i had plenty of play, and was pretty much a 50bb+ almost the entire MTT. I think i got short once to about 16bb and reshipped a active raiser with KJs and sucked out versus his JJ. Apart from that it was plain sailing.

After 9 hours play and it being 7am uk with no sleep for 24 hours, i was hallucinating and feeling really wierd. I eventually bust out in 311th for a measly $210. 50bb deep I 3 bet call for 25bb effective with AK v TT and dont get there.
Get blind down a bit and then rejam 66 to a guy who opens 60% of hands (over a 300 hand sample lol) and get time bank called by A9 for a 800k pot. He binks a 9 on the flop and holds gg me.

seriously don't ever do this to yourself, day 1 of this event was far to long, they now have only 25 runner coming back for day 2. it would be far better to finish it after say 8 hours and then have a decent number for day 2.

on other news i decided not to do any backing, basically the cons outweigh the pro's for it and i think i can improve my development enough at this point without taking it

Easter time

2010-04-05T04:26:00.000-07:00

Well its been a little while for me since i updated last, number of reasons really. Mainly as I haven't managed to get in that much volume. Funnily enough my little 2 month old girl takes up quite a bit of time :)

I have been studying a ton actually as since the last update I felt I have not been playing that well and only gone deep a handful of times. Anyways I am not sure if its the negative side of variance or i am spewing sometimes. I defiantly feel that on a couple of occasions a horrific beat has made be play badly in another MTT which is never a good thing.

So not only have I watched a ton more vids, I have another HH with mlagoo who is a exceptional player and coach who is also a mod at 2+2. The session was really good, and at the wrap up i was already feeling good about my game when i got some glowing feedback about the strength of my game.

One thing he did mention which was not a leak but made a whole lot of sense is that sometimes i am to willing to take marginally +ev spots. But, I am a good enough player that actually i can let these go from time to time (especially at the stakes i play) because I can use that skill advantage later.

I also had a another session with tony geurra also know as killerEV hhe does a show on rounders radio called killer poker analysis which is a great show imo so check it out. we actually just gas bagged poker for a hour which was really cool and he has a similar outlook to poker as me. We also talked about 6 max cash as well.

I have started to play a bit (only like 3k hands so far) as I believe post flop is the next part of my game that can really benefit from some work, a lot of mtt'ers even high level pro's suck post flop as its become a pre flop game. Plus its a great way to get some poker in but without being held to a schedule.

So far its being going really well and i am running well above expectation

So lastly one of the guys i help out in the 1.5k post on 2+2 mailed me today to tell me he has just moved up in stakes and is running at 12% roi over 1k games (Peter Johnson) which is great news and really pleased I could help the guy out and get started in sngs.

well I am off to try and grind out some mtt's today after a really frustrating Sunday where i played really well and went deep a number of times making the final 3 tables 3 times.

Edit: One hting I forget to mention is that I got a offer of backing last week as well. I am going to look into it really not sure how +ev backing is. The one thing is that I would be a stable of horses who get regular coaching from top player and although i have a ton of contact on my skype i dont use them enough.

If anyone has any good advice drop me a mail, its in the profile piece

Happy Easter :)

what a difference a hour makes!

2010-03-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

US daylight saving came into force and its helped a ton with my schedule on stars in the evening. I have like 5 or 6 tourneys that become realistic for me to play more in the evening

this week i have taken advantage somewhat:

6pm $3 - 1.5k gar
6pm $10 - daily 30k
6.15 pm 3r - 50k gar
7pm $55 - daily 80k
7.15pm $11 - 15k gar
7.40 - $2 - 1k gar
8pm - $8 - 5k gar
8pm 11r - 60k gar
8.35 $52r1a - 10k gar
9pm - $55 - 40k gar
9 $2 - 7.5k gar
9.15pm - $17 360 cap - 1.5k gar

plus i have been playing some sattys to the $162 which are super soft. i unreg from these (the torney is filled with high stakes regs) and make about $400 this week from them

Results wise i have played well this week again, built up a lot of big stacks and got semi deep a lot only to get coolered or take some beats. pretty standard all round to be honest and i cant complain cause i run dam good sometimes to.

the one mtt i am really enjoying is the $52r1a, with two really deep finishs this week 45th and 16th Thursday night. Got coolered with flush over flush in the 16th one so can't complain but deffo playing well.
Also managed to explain away the following gaffe!!!

PokerStars Game #41369521326: Tournament #302010674, $5.00+$0.50 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXIX (5000/10000) - 2010/03/19 2:13:03 WET [2010/03/18 22:13:03 ET]
Table '302010674 19' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 (557713 in chips)
Seat 2: GrindHard81 (525812 in chips)
Seat 3: Gilgamesh10 (136841 in chips)
Seat 4: mattie_666 (374367 in chips)
Seat 5: uma675 (171909 in chips)
Seat 6: Anspi (443908 in chips)
Seat 7: Ferrarylover (330575 in chips)
Seat 8: Dr_Kobold (255108 in chips)
Seat 9: malesko (423750 in chips)
buffyslayer1: posts the ante 1250
GrindHard81: posts the ante 1250
Gilgamesh10: posts the ante 1250
mattie_666: posts the ante 1250
uma675: posts the ante 1250
Anspi: posts the ante 1250
Ferrarylover: posts the ante 1250
Dr_Kobold: posts the ante 1250
malesko: posts the ante 1250
mattie_666: posts small blind 5000
uma675: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to buffyslayer1 [4h 6s]
Gilgamesh10 said, "now i have to adjust"
Anspi: folds
Ferrarylover: raises 10000 to 20000
GrindHard81 said, "i hear ya"
Dr_Kobold: folds
malesko: folds
buffyslayer1: raises 38500 to 58500
GrindHard81: folds
Gilgamesh10: raises 77091 to 135591 and is all-in
mattie_666: folds
uma675: folds
Ferrarylover: folds
buffyslayer1: calls 77091
*** FLOP *** [Kh 2s 2h]
*** TURN *** [Kh 2s 2h] [Jh]
GrindHard81 said, "nh"
*** RIVER *** [Kh 2s 2h Jh] [Kd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
buffyslayer1: shows [4h 6s] (two pair, Kings and Deuces)
Gilgamesh10: shows [Kc Ah] (a full house, Kings full of Deuces)
Gilgamesh10 said, "ty"
Gilgamesh10 collected 317432 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 317432 | Rake 0
Board [Kh 2s 2h Jh Kd]
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 showed [4h 6s] and lost with two pair, Kings and Deuces
Seat 2: GrindHard81 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: Gilgamesh10 (button) showed [Kc Ah] and won (317432) with a full house, Kings full of Deuces
Seat 4: mattie_666 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: uma675 (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Anspi folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: Ferrarylover folded before Flop
Seat 8: Dr_Kobold folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: malesko folded before Flop (didn't bet)

the opener was opening hugely wide, guy wakes up with AK and i have pot odds to call. table went wild 'omg 46 you donkey' etc etc

I told them 'misclick then i have to call... so annoyed blah blah blah' luckily they believed me. Good thing is they are all so bad they don't understand you can 3 bet light :)

And Poker players never lie obviously!

Anyways no poker for me Fri night or tonight, got a deal with the misus which lets me do a full Sunday session.

Oh and just got sign off on taking a weeks holiday to play the SCOOP which I am really psyched about. Its gonna be huge imo...

check it out at SCOOP

March oh march

2010-03-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

well this month has been really really frustrating.
I have been playing some really solid poker and going deep 5 or 6 times this week in some huge field stars MTTs.

50th in the dail 30k > 7,00 entrants
24th in the 3r > 7,000 entrants
top 100 15k garuntee > 2,000 entrants
109th 11r > 3,000 entrants

a few other top 150 scores in the 3r,11r and daily 80k and then last night

9 hours play in the 3r i eventually finish 14th out of 9,000 entrants.

Poker is a cruel game sometimes, I did run good (i am actually going over the HH later today) and sucked out with about 50 left for a huge pot with QQ versus KK (rivered Q) for a 1.3m pot. EDIT: doing the review and its more like 900k pot but w/e

But I did run bad when it really mattered as CL 25 left UTG who was this somewhat spazzy losing supernova player shoves 25bb UTG with TT and rivers a T for a 2.5m pot. It was a one outer as well as I had a 4 to flush FML.

Anyways I dont want to turn this into a bad beat blog, as I did card rack it and run pretty dam good. After this pot it took the wind out of my sales and I was slightly tility for a bit but calmed down and got back to playing poker.

With 2 tables left I just got short, a few smallish pots lost BvB the blinds go up and few opportunities to re steal or open and I have a shove stack. 14 left shove Ak vTT and TT holds gg me.

The one thing that frustrates me is that I was by far the best player left (OPR FTW), and if I had even a 25bb stack going into the final 2 tables I think I could have taken it down.
Oh and as an aside we got down to the final few tables and a guy starts chatting to me, his form the same town as me and turns out he lives in the next street from me!!!!!

9 hours is a long time, and i was physically and emotionally drained after this but actually couldn't get to sleep (5am uk time) as I was so wired after the torney.
Then my daughter woke up (shes 4 weeks old) at 6am and needed feeding and it was my turn as my wife had done the 3am feed.....

However, i have to feel good that despite no volume this month I seem sot be playing well and going deep consistently. I had 2 lessons last week both with poker pwnage pros chardrian and cardsfan04. Both who thought I have a pretty solid game and play somewhat similar to them. Which considering they are both amazing players I am pretty satisfied with.

As Chardrian reminded me in our HH review, sure u ran good at this point in the MTT but to win it u really do have to run good late. And a reminder its all about volume which both he and I do not do enough off!

On another note my brother took down a $100 freezeout on FTP for nearly 8k. And although I am happy for him, I cant help but be a little jealous. I am pretty sure he is a losing player still but his binked a few biggish scores over the last year and then just spewed his roll playing high buyin torneys. I have not seen the HH yet but, pretty sure he nits it up and runs good basically.

Well my Sunday session is due to start soon, not sure if I can play or what I can play tbh as its mothers day and my wife is somewhat annoyed I came to bed at 5am (which is to be expected).

So I may actually take one off (I know I am supposed to be getting in volume!), and watch a couple of vids and go over this 3r HH. I also got another lesson coming up in the next week or so, so this may be a good opportunity to go over it.

gl at the tables guys

buffy

Big score....... so close but so far

2010-03-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

Quick post

played the 3r last night and finally went deep in this again. Played my socks off some real good controlled aggressive poker got me to this point

There were about 40 left at this point, unfortunately i got moved to a new table with a good solid player to my left who reshipped the hell out of me. I had to tighten up a ton blinded out a bit and ended up shipping A6o into his kings for 15bb.

Out in 24th, but to get through a field of nearly 7k players and be doing this consistently makes me fell like my game is coming along nicely.

I have a couple lesson's owed to me from winning subscriber torneys so I will be going through this one for sure and it should through up some interesting spots that I will update you guys on.

gl luck at the tables guys

Feb in review

2010-02-28T07:05:00.001-08:00

Apologies if my blogs seem to be one long incoherent up and down rant that goes on to much. I am one of those people that doesn't talk much, but when i do i don't shut up.
My blog is obviously just like me!

So overall a pretty up and down month......

Month started off amazing on a personal note with the birth of my little girl (28th jan) and a couple weeks paternity leave gave me a opportunity to watch a ton of vids, review a shed load of hands and fix some leaks.

Shortly after I had my biggest score which was a 4.5k chop, followed by a pretty poor few weeks.
Its weird the mixed emotions MTTs can give you, you bink a big score and think ur finally crushing this game yet 2 days later of playing like a complete spewtard, add in a little run bad and some fancy play syndrome and you hate your game!!!!

Anyways after a couple of weeks of playing like a moron, mainly thinking everyone is playing back at me and getting it in way to light, and also making some plays based on reads deep in tourney's and running into the top of peoples ranges. I took a little bit of a break, and tried to put in some of the time i promised in the free HH reviews I offered.

So one of my last sessions in these was with custo80 (see his blog in my list), and it went pretty well. He sweated me for about 2-3 hours whilst I finished up a session. What I found is that having someone watch me was actually pretty beneficial as I have to explain and justify every play. This stopped huge amounts of potential spew and meant i played really solid.

So I was playing the 11 rebuy, daily 50k, the $5 1r1a and also a lol $3 2k garauntee which I just play cos its there and i have a affection for it having final tabled it 5 times!

Anyways with some good play and a some run good I actually final tables the $3. With a few interesting hands based on reads in the midgame got me a nice big stack to cruise to the final 2 tables.
This was a pretty nice one i think, standard CO opens btn 3 bets in the world most obvious spot so i just decided to shove it in his face

PokerStars Game #40372108193: Tournament #244776243, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XX (700/1400) - 2010/02/26 22:39:43 WET [2010/02/26 17:39:43 ET]
Table '244776243 162' 9-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 (44653 in chips)
Seat 2: zotyityu (83112 in chips)
Seat 3: MiNoSwe (67630 in chips)
Seat 5: PowellJam (17869 in chips)
Seat 6: dutchopen (16994 in chips)
Seat 7: ANNEPALMER (37325 in chips)
Seat 8: wiziza (10183 in chips)
Seat 9: JacksAll (62479 in chips)
buffyslayer1: posts the ante 175
zotyityu: posts the ante 175
MiNoSwe: posts the ante 175
PowellJam: posts the ante 175
dutchopen: posts the ante 175
ANNEPALMER: posts the ante 175
wiziza: posts the ante 175
JacksAll: posts the ante 175
MiNoSwe: posts small blind 700
PowellJam: posts big blind 1400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to buffyslayer1 [Kc 7d]
dutchopen: folds
MALEHAN is connected
ANNEPALMER: folds
wiziza: folds
JacksAll: folds
buffyslayer1: raises 2400 to 3800
zotyityu: raises 5150 to 8950
MiNoSwe: folds
PowellJam: folds
buffyslayer1: raises 35528 to 44478 and is all-in
zotyityu: folds
Uncalled bet (35528) returned to buffyslayer1
buffyslayer1 collected 21400 from pot
buffyslayer1: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 21400 | Rake 0
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 collected (21400)
Seat 2: zotyityu (button) folded before Flop
Seat 3: MiNoSwe (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: PowellJam (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: dutchopen folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: ANNEPALMER folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: wiziza folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: JacksAll folded before Flop (didn't bet)

4 betting like this scares people, i was able to run over this table pretty good after that!

So when u get down the final 2 tables its helps to un like god and pick up KK,QQ,JJ, and AK in about 7 hands and all of them hold up as well.

This one set up me up nicely for the FT - Quad kings really helps

PokerStars Game #40379418789: Tournament #244776243, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XXXV (12500/25000) - 2010/02/27 1:20:01 WET [2010/02/26 20:20:01 ET]
Table '244776243 129' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: bitbot2008 (344591 in chips)
Seat 2: MiNoSwe (474470 in chips)
Seat 4: jo7700 (288487 in chips)
Seat 5: buffyslayer1 (523292 in chips)
Seat 7: 777timyr (381520 in chips)
Seat 8: nikhsame (388516 in chips)
Seat 9: HobbitNL (760229 in chips)
bitbot2008: posts the ante 3125
MiNoSwe: posts the ante 3125
jo7700: posts the ante 3125
buffyslayer1: posts the ante 3125
777timyr: posts the ante 3125
nikhsame: posts the ante 3125
HobbitNL: posts the ante 3125
bitbot2008: posts small blind 12500
MiNoSwe: posts big blind 25000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to buffyslayer1 [Kc Kd]
jo7700: folds
buffyslayer1: raises 37500 to 62500
777timyr: folds
nikhsame: folds
HobbitNL: raises 87500 to 150000
bitbot2008: folds
MiNoSwe: folds
buffyslayer1: raises 362500 to 512500
HobbitNL: raises 244604 to 757104 and is all-in
buffyslayer1: calls 7667 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (236937) returned to HobbitNL
*** FLOP *** [Ks Td 5h]
*** TURN *** [Ks Td 5h] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [Ks Td 5h 2c] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
buffyslayer1: shows [Kc Kd] (four of a kind, Kings)
HobbitNL: shows [Qs Qc] (two pair, Kings and Queens)
buffyslayer1 collected 1099709 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1099709 | Rake 0
Board [Ks Td 5h 2c Kh]
Seat 1: bitbot2008 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: MiNoSwe (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: jo7700 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: buffyslayer1 showed [Kc Kd] and won (1099709) with four of a kind, Kings
Seat 7: 777timyr folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 8: nikhsame folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: HobbitNL (button) showed [Qs Qc] and lost with two pair, Kings and Queens

Final table went ok, until QQ lost to AJo in a 25bb preflop race. But, oce we got down to 3 handed i managed to build up my stack relentelsly 3 betting both the other players who were opening loose but just not calling my reships. I think theres a bit of fear factor there, top prize is $1200 and after I OPR these guys they both didn't have a score over 50 bucks.

Eventually one of the guys flips out and calls my 3 bet shove with A5o 22bb effective and my JJ holds.
So with custo cheering me on we get heads up with a 2-1 chip lead but were only 30bb effective. The this hand happens which pretty much ended it for me

PokerStars Game #40382430237: Tournament #244776243, $3.00+$0.30 USD Hold'em No Limit - Level XLII (50000/100000) - 2010/02/27 2:43:14 WET [2010/02/26 21:43:14 ET]
Table '244776243 168' 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 (4779161 in chips)
Seat 3: MiNoSwe (2876839 in chips)
buffyslayer1: posts the ante 12500
MiNoSwe: posts the ante 12500
MiNoSwe: posts small blind 50000
buffyslayer1: posts big blind 100000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to buffyslayer1 [Js As]
MiNoSwe: calls 50000
buffyslayer1: raises 300000 to 400000
MiNoSwe: calls 300000
*** FLOP *** [7h 6c 8h]
buffyslayer1: checks
MiNoSwe: checks
*** TURN *** [7h 6c 8h] [Ah]
buffyslayer1: bets 550000
MiNoSwe: calls 550000
*** RIVER *** [7h 6c 8h Ah] [Qd]
buffyslayer1: checks
MiNoSwe: bets 1914339 and is all-in
buffyslayer1: calls 1914339
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MiNoSwe: shows [Th 9c] (a straight, Six to Ten)
buffyslayer1: shows [Js As] (a pair of Aces)
MiNoSwe collected 5753678 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5753678 | Rake 0
Board [7h 6c 8h Ah Qd]
Seat 1: buffyslayer1 (big blind) showed [Js As] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 3: MiNoSwe (button) (small blind) showed [Th 9c] and won (5753678) with a straight, Six to Ten

still not sure about the river, i checked with the intention of letting him bluff shove the river, or vaule towning himself. anyways gg me few hands later i run KQ into AQ where we both got trips

So overall a decent month $4.8k profit with sunday session to go. Sharkcope doesnt show chops so its undercooked by 1k!

Free coaching review update

2010-02-28T06:34:00.000-08:00

Something I have come to realise is I love coaching, I mean I really just enjoy 'talking the pokers' with people. I love to me able to share a little bit of the knowledge I have gained and think I have a bit of a knack for it (well I hope).

So first up I do a 3 back to back sessions one with Illa who is a low stakes 9 man sng player from Europe (Russian i think i forgot to ask him, my bad). it was a pretty good session and he played ok for someone playing the micro's but there were a ton of fundamental leaks we picked up on.

I really tried to stress is that this game isn't easy anymore, you have to work at it. There are a ton of tools (some listed in the resources on the right of this blog) that you can use and I tried to point him in the right direction.

Unfortunately Illa contacted me a few days later and thanked e for the session, but he has decided to give up online poker. I think the combination of seeing just how far he had to go and maybe that its bloody hard work. Plus I don't think he has ambitions to really do anything in this game meant that he realised maybe his just better off playing a bit of 1/2 in his local casino for fun at the weekends or whatever. That's fine, but I am a little disappointed that the first session turned out like this.

Nest session was with mike from the US goes by couriermike on 2+2, and I think this session went really well and I enjoyed it a lot. Mike was playing slightly higher ($6.50's) and already had a lot of the basic concepts down already and playedok . Again a lot of endgame errors, over shoving when raising is a option and being to tight in certain spots and missing opportunities to shove. We nailed what seemed to be the error here i think pretty good, which was giving randoms way to wide calling ranges in certain spots.
Mike also seems to have the ambition and work ethic which could see him become a solid player with some work. I have already seen quite a few 2+2 posts from him so I am pretty happy with that.

Last session of the day was with James also from the states and it was like 7am his time so he was definitely keen! James plays the 10 max 3.40's on stars and again i think we got a lot out of the session. Similar story some endgame leaks along with some post flop spots to work on. Something that seems to be a common theme actually, and its probably due to experience and the nature ofsngs. But, all the guys I worked with were not comfortable post flop unless they had the nuts.

I really think playing like 500 HU sngs or some 6 max cash, is really beneficial to your post flop play and is going to give you a big edge at these stakes over what quite frankly was some crazy bad play I saw. Its something i did off the back of my big break even stretch and actually facilitated the move tomtt's where i would have more opportunity to use some of these skills.

Back to the sessions, also did one with a 6 max player JPII, and as I am not a 6 max player i did quantify that my 'advice' would be tailored more around low blind play as I am not as familiar with bubble play in a 6 max.
Well JP plays reg speed sngs, and we got a ton of spots in the low blind play to work on which was great, as well as some really good HU spots to work on. And did some work using Nash (well SAGE actually).

All the guys gave me some good feed back, with a few mentioning that if I turn pro I could prob do a bit of coaching on the side for a little income. Hope theydon't mind but I am gonna post some of the feedback I got from them just cos it made me feel warm and fuzzy inside!!!

Courier mike

'I just did a sweat session with BuffySlayer. He spent over an hour going through a tournament hand history with me and made alot of really good comments. I definitely learned some things. Whenever I get a chance to talk to good players, I'm always impressed by how situational their thinking is, how many more options they consider, and how accurate their range estimations are, something to aspire to. So thank you, BuffySlayer, that was very generous of you to do this.'

James

'Had my sweat session with Buffy early this morning. Hugely helpful! He went through an old tourney of mine...one that i bubble busted on ahead after a shove. He definitely showed me some big leaks and gave me a general strategy to keep improving and building my BR. Really nice guy too.

Thanks Buffy!'

Marcel
(who I forgot to talkk about) - we did a review via msn cos he doesnt have mic and it went well execpt i had to break off halfway through trying to play mtts, feed my girl and do a HH review was to much!

'Had a HH review with BuffySlayer today.

Very good review and great guy as well !Showed me some of my leaks and spots I should exploit more in low-stakes STTs.

Thanks a lot !'

Lastly JP

'Thanks again Jamie. Very smart guy. That was very informative and extemely generous of u. Really enjoyed that alot. Good luck w/ poker and life in general. U could prob make some good money as a coach in the future btw. God bless and take care.

James'

Well I am going to keep a eye on these guys and hopefully they will start to see some good results. I really hope they can use some of the stuff I went through with them and become solid winning players. It does take hard work, some determination and a little bit of talent as well. But all the guys are smart enough to do it, so its just the hard work part!

I still have a couple left to do, custo who is gonna sweat me playing MTTs annd ragnor who i think is a 9 man player.

thats all for now gl guys hope feb has been kind to ya

The start

2010-02-20T07:20:00.000-08:00

hi guys

so this is my blog, to follow the trials and tribulations of a low stakes poker 'semi grinder' who hopes one day to jack it all in and play this wonderful game

So little introduction for those that don't know me that well.

I am a little older than your typical online player, 30 years old (omg how the hell did i get so old!). been playing for a couple years now started off playing low stakes 9 man sit and gos. In September 2007 i deposited $10 on pokerstars after many ups and downs I have managed to build that up to around $14,000 without depositing.

Below is my lifetime graph from sharkscope, its undercooked by about 1.5k to a few chops I have had in MTTs but overall I am very happy with it and if the last few months are to go by I think i have a future in this game.

So in brief this is my 'career' so far.
Up to point 1 is my start in poker, grinding $1 (lol at the rake, i didn't know any better) to $5 and then $6.50 turbo's
I switched to 16s turbo's after this and went on a huge heater :) and played well obv (to point 2) followed by 6 months of hellish variance, tilt, poor play and run bad (to point 3). I recovered somewhat and fixed a ton of leaks, improved vastly my heads up and post flop play which can be seen up to point 4.

However since November last year I pretty much switched to MTTs, it had always been my plan to do this. Sngs are somewhat a grind, the play has improved a ton over the last year even at the low stakes 16s and 27s. In fact i would estimated the level of play in a 16 turbo is equivalent to that of a $60 from 2 years ago (so i have been told anyway).
So I signed up to a couple of training sites, and over the last few months worked the hardest I have ever worked on my game. luckily i won quite a few coaching sessions as well from top mtt pro's and the result it that fundamentally my mtts game is pretty solid now.
I still have leaks, certainly with shoving and re stealing (using cEV instead of the normal sng $ev) but i am getting there.

The result of all this is that I have taken down about 5 mtts since i switched with a huge number of deep runs. The biggest was a chop last week for 4.5k on stars, and despite low volume I am happy with my progress as a mtt player.

More and more I feel that I am and can be good enough to actually play this game for a living. I have a good bankroll which with to give this a shot and hopefully this blog can document my progress.
I have a very set plan to work to before I can consider giving up my real life job (I am a buyer), as agreed with my wife who is amazing and is encouraging me to try and give this a realistic go.

First I need to have 1 years salary put aside in poker winnings as back up. With a wife and a new born child this is not the time to take huge risks.

After tax and benefits etc I need approx £2k per month to cover our expenses which equates to $3.3k per month or nearly $40k for a year to cover me. Luckily poker is tax free in the UK which helps a ton with this.

On top of this I need 2 consistently be winning the equiv lent of this again at least every month (obv some months will be $0 and other months be larger)

So where am I am now, well I have approx $22k in the fund so to speak so I need another $18k or so. In terms of the consistent winnings, well December was 1.8k, Jan was 1.6k and Feb so far is 3k. So we are starting to get there.....

Lastly, before I sign off from this rather long initial post. As I have been so lucky to have had a ton of help so far. I have offered to try and give 5 low stakes players some help to get them off to a start. So I offered help in a thread on 2+2

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/36/stt-strategy/1-5k-post-giving-back-2-2-ers-free-hh-reviews-sweats-715806/

to 5 players of a HH review and sweat session. I have had a ton of interest and actually think I have agreed to help out about 9 players in total.
If they agree I will publish the names of those that were 'chosen' and hopefully I can help out some small stakes guys to get there start

buffyslayer1