September wrap-up....

I’ve been playing a bit, lately trying really hard to build back my bank roll that I have blown away over the last couple of weeks after an incredible month of September. I cashed in over $1100 from stars only to put another  300 back on it… my balance is now sitting at $75 after placing a few times in some recent sit and go’s. Unfortunately I bubbled out in a $3+ tourney when I shoved my BB with 8 3 off, when the SB limped only to be called by A 2 and the board bricked out. It was a great call by him, but I think it was also a great shove by me, as we both had very short stacks, bubble factor was high, and just picking up blinds and antes added 1.5x your stack. I was shocked that he didn’t shove it with A2 there, as I would have been able to chuck my 8 3, but when he limps he could have any 2 so its on me to put maximum pressure, as I expect him to fold there about 80% of time given the circumstances.

I have been doing pretty well in 45 SNG’s as of late with $7 buy in being my money maker, I can’t wait to build up my bankroll a bit more to get back into the $15 game, as I love the results of adding a 1^st,2^nd or 3^rd prize to your chip count from that game. It’s now just a matter of finding the time to put back into my game to get it where it should be.

Unfortunately my scheduled turbo tourney’s have not been providing me with the results that I have been justified, where I’ve failed to defend people from getting lucky on me in crucial spots. One spot in my usual $16.50 4k turbo on stars, About 10 off the money and the Button open shoves my BB, for about 30 BB having my stack well covered (20 BB) only for me to wake up with QQ. I obviously, call and he exposes A10.  Only to spike the 3 outer on the flop.

There was one stupid mistake that I did make, I was running great in another 6 max, with about average chips, we were down the final 7 for the SB to open shove my BB, and I have A4, we both had around 30 BB, and I mis-clicked and called – he exposed AJ and the board bricked out – I went from hero to zero. This at 30 BB to me is a fold, and was probably only of the silliest things I have done of late.

The STUPIST thing that I have done was, when I did not see that one of my opp’s had opened the button, when we were 5 players left of a 45 SNG, I thought I was Open Shoving my 8 BB stack into a 9 BB stack, but I was blinded by a tournament pop up! I felt like the biggest idiot when he had AQ and snapped my shove.  Of course my 8 5 did not hold.

I’ve been practicing a lot of my end game, where I typically find myself in a spot where I’m face with a tough decision for all of my chips, where I think it is right to both call and fold. But that’s poker, and winning the battle of mistakes usually comes down to making your opponents make them.

Other parts of my life have been going pretty well too, work is going good, I’m enjoying two books at the moment; a great Australian novel called The Slap – which is soon to be a hit TV show on ABC. I suggest any one to read it… I’ve also been reading Prodigal Father, Pagan Son. This book is pretty gruesome and definitely not for the faint heart, it’s an autobiographical account of an outlaw bikie from the US charter of the notorious Pagans. Like I said – definitely not for the faint hearted but its worth a read.

My sporting world is going great, however I injured my knee in my warm-up game of football(soccer for those Aussies out there!) last week, so I missed out on last weeks game, which unfortunately for our team we lost our first game of the season. We play again tonight, it’s a great game the old 6 a side, like 6 max pokers, it’s a faster more aggressive game of football. So I’m looking forward to that and my first weekly game of basketball with the ITS crew. Also great news for all of you eastern Australian’s out there… its Daylight savings, so its time to dust off those surf boards, summer’s coming! O yea... I went to Parklife, Diplo was amazing the rest sucked... 

Speak soon...

SS

September... feeling good looking better

Hey guys,

I have had some very good results lately and am very impressed where my game is going. I have final table 3 MMT’s over the past month and have profited over $800 this month playing. This brings my total profit to over $2000 for the year with over $7,150 in prizes.

 I fell to some pretty bad beats one in 3^rd  on my fav $16.50 turbo MMT when I got in it with Q6 on a 6 5 3 board against my opponents 10 6 only for him to spike the 10 on the turn. I also came 5^th in a 6 max $8 for a nice pay day by was extremely disappointed when my KK was crushed by my opp’s A9 when we got it in pre-flop and he spiked the 3 outer. I believe that this game was probably my most strongest overall performance throughout the entire tournament, where I did not give my opponents an inch.

I had a loosing day on Friday which was unfortunate, and I played the BIG $55 only to turn the nut straight with 10♠ 8♠ when my opp called my all in for 4k with A 7, on a 9♣ A♠ 6♠ 7♣, board only to spike the only 7 in the deck that could help him, the 7♦ to fill up to knock me out, I would have been looking pretty as one of the chip leaders at that point.

 I have had a few SNG wins and final threes to go with these good results. I have also landed a deep run in a $3.30+ PLO tournament which I was pretty happy about as I would love to improve my game here as I find PLO becoming ever more popular with loose players. 

I have an ITM of 16% which I am still trying to push to 20% by the end of the year and I want to make a realist goal of clearing $5000 worth of profit by then too.

Here are my results for September thus far:

Looking forward to the monthly re-cap... 

SS

Let kick start this shit!

Whats up guys, 

Its been a long time between drinks/blogging. I had a bit of an up and down couple of months. No good results at the Sydney Champs which was pretty up setting but I’ve made a couple of final tables online. I’ve been playing in the standard daily $11, $16.5 turbo, $3+re-buy and have had some interesting results. My by far best result was a couple of days ago where I came 3^rd for $959. Copped a bad beat to get eliminated where I had a my opponent crushed 3 handed where we got it all in on 6 5 3 board, hold Q6>610. For a 10 to turn up on the turn to gg me out.

I also brinked out in a same tournament a week before in 8^th  with K♠Q♠ only  to be called by AJ, and the board to brick out.

I’m very happy with how I have been playing lately, since my coaching session with Watto my game has improved 10 fold. I played a lot yesterday but did not cash once, which was pretty disappointing. So for the year online I have made $1800 profit, not anything that I can retire on just yet but still it is some positive EV, which is good.

I’ll be looking to boost my ITM finishes from 15% to 20% over the 6months, and concentrating on some solid bankroll management. But this 900 is going to do me good, put some money on the loan and keep 400 in my bank and leave the rest on there, I slowly donked off around $80 yesterday with some unfortunate beats.

On the other side of things, I’ve finished Devilfish’s auto biography, and Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Both were great reads that were slow to get starting but amazing from the middle onwards. I’ve also finished Game of Thrones season 1 and can’t wait for season two. But what I am really hoping for is Breaking Bad season 4 to finish so I can take a day off work and just watch the whole thing!

Good luck on the tables,

SS

Time to chill...

Ok So I haven't been playing all too much lately, unfortunately I have lost my bankroll at the moment, I juggled with some higher buy-ins online after being under the influence of Devilfish's book. My $300 bankroll quickly went to zero after entering one too many $50 - $30 tourney's. I entered a few $15 turbo SNG's and was successful in one, but then boom, crash n burn to Smokinsam69.... I'm probably not going to play too much until the Sydney Champs, even though I would love too, I just have a fair bit of stuff on my plate with work and a new exercise routine I have in place.

I am loving this sunny weather, it has given me a lot more motivation to spend time outdoors and be physical. I went for great ride around Centennial Park with Stef last week on our day off, I know you guys are probably say ooo how sweet. But it was great, I highly recommend it if you want to impress a chick on a nice day. you can hire bikes at a shop near there, and also inside the park too.

So I'm taking some time out to recoup, analyse my game again and work up my bankroll. I can't wait to get back on the tables and play some cash games, fuck I love spotting the fish, and taking their money... will keep you all posted. Its not long till Sydney Champs, I will play the Opening, and I will also probably play the main if I can get enough people to stake me... drop me a line if interested... as I am an establishing player I am offer a much better deal for potential backers than a usual 50/50. Would be fantastic to have you guys on board...

SS

Nice little afternoon...

I had a bit of a gruelling day on the grind on Friday afternoon, while waiting for Stef to finish work, I was depleting my bankroll away and not getting very lucky, I came close to making the money in quite a few tournaments but getting nailed near the bubble in the few MTT’s that I went in. I was a bit peeved until I entered a $15 turbo 45 man SNG, only to make the final table coming 4^th in chips, I lately I have really been improving my final table play and I have had some good results when making final tables.

We got down to 5 players when I ran 99 > AK of shorter stack and for him to hit an A on the flop and for me not to improve. I did however manage to play my short stack incredibly and finally make it to heads up when one of my opponents from Switzerland, pokegrandma was pulling some amazing beats, in fact he got a back-door runner-runner straight to knock out the 3^rd place and put us heads up.

Pokergrandma had everything going for him luck and a massive chip stack, he was over a 5:1 advantage with me have around 14k. I slowly stole blinds and reluctantly folded a few hands until I get dealt a beautiful starting hand for heads up, 9♥ 9♦. And thought this is it, he calls his small blind an I min-raise my big blind to 4k and he calls,

The Flop come J♦ 10♦ 4♥, I open shove for the remainder of my stack and he calls, turning over 10♣2♠, the board ran 6♦2♦, completing my flush and doubling me up. It seemed the luck had turned.  

And it was time to battle!

I had now just above 23k in chips and my opponent had over 40k,

My next big hand is A K, and I was limping a bit, so not to get rid of this monster I limp, he 3x I call, knowing I’m not folding any flop, with position – as he has to act first, he indeed does and shoves on a 10 high board, and I snap and my A K holds against his Q J.

I am now chip leader, and funny enough I can’t remember the last hand, I’m pretty sure he open shoved me pre-flop and I was holding an A, and I called and he didn’t connect. It was a nice win, it boosted my bankroll $192.26 – to well over $230 and making my much earned profit of $50 for the few hours that I spent. I left to pick up Stef with a smile on my face and we enjoyed a nice evening out with a few friends on the town.

I didn’t screen shot, as I know they look better, but here is my history:

PokerStars Tournament #414863423, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $13.78/$1.22 USD
45 players
Total Prize Pool: $620.10 USD
Tournament started 2011/07/15 17:43:24 AEST [2011/07/15 3:43:24 ET]
Tournament finished 2011/07/15 19:09:15 AEST [2011/07/15 5:09:15 ET]
 1: smokinsam69 (Australia), $192.26 (31.004%)
 2: pokegrandma (Switzerland), $133.32 (21.499%)
 3: 3rd Bro (Netherlands), $102.31 (16.498%)
 4: alexisdonk (Canada), $77.51 (12.499%)
 5: Mastamaschek (Germany), $55.80 (8.998%)
 6: blowflyz (Australia), $37.20 (5.999%)
 7: ozzieowen (United Kingdom), $21.70 (3.499%)
 8: sayago1962 (Spain),
 9: morrri (Poland),

You finished in 1st place.

Now I have to continue to build my money that I lost so I can hit Crown Casino next weekend with confidence. Will keep you up dated through the week… 

Coaching, Wins looses, etc...

Whats happening party people. So after a coaching session with a good mate of mien Andrew “higgerwattage” Watson, I have plugged a few leaks in my tournament game and have over the past few weeks managed to have a couple of deep runs and win a couple of nice SnG’s. My First deep run was in a $2.2 $4k Gt, and I place 5^th out of 5000, which was actually a bit of a let do as I went into the Final table as the Chip leader, I remember one had where I made a call of the short stack holding A5 and he had AA. And then I lost a had with AK > AQ with Q hitting the Board, after all in Pre Flop. And then Finally pushing my Button with K♠7♠ and running into K 10, and of course the board bricked out.

But that gave me over $400, bucks that I took out and paid for a few things with that week and put $200 into my bank roll. Lately I have been doing great with my normal SnG’s with a couple of 1^st, in $7/45 man ones, on Monday I played 4, cashed in 3 with one 1^st, boosting my online roll up to $160. So that should keep me a float for a few days.

My work friends decided to go for a casino run, last night and I had an arrangement to get staked by my mate into the $500 cash game, but when I rocked up he had blown over 600 on BlackJack and was not in the mood any more. So I took that $200 out and played the $1-$2 blinds, $200 NLH table and was off to a rocky start with trying to bluff this guy out after about sitting there for an hour card dead, of course this bluff didn’t work and I was down to $140.

On the button I was dealt K♠ 4♠, and made it $8 with a couple of limpers, and got 4 callers the board came:

K♥ J♥ K♦,

Everyone checked to my button and I bet out $16, the SB called and everyone folded.

I’m putting him on any J, or Flush draw, with may be QT and aswell.

The turn brought a 3♣, and he checks. And I bet out $35. He calls.

I think now based on his play that QT is gone, and flush draw is not that likely unless is is like A♥ 10 ♥ or something like that, so most likely he has a J with good kicker like Q, as I he likes to call his top pairs down.

The turn brought a 10♠. And he checks again, I push my remaining $85 into the pot, and he calls. And mucks when he see’s my 3 K’s.

K♥ J♥ K♦ 3♣10♠.

My hand: K♠ 4♠ oppents hand ? ? Pot $280+.

A few more hands go by and I manage to build over $300. When I get dealt the 3♣ 4♣, and make it $8.

I grab 4 callers again, this time I am UTG with two early position callers and, the BB tag along.

Flop brings:

5♣ Q♣ 2♣

Bingo Flush, ok now how do I get the money in? I continue again for $16, and get one caller, and  the same guy from my last big pot makes it $50. The SB gets out of the way. Now I go through my head as what this guy could have and of course I think yea he could have a bigger flush but – lets face it, this is Hold’em not Omaha, it is unlikely, so I’m more likely putting him on a set, or a really good Q with a Club in his hand, Like K♣ or even A♣, remembering he doesn’t really like raising me pre-flop without big pairs in his hand. And if he has the bigger flush, I don’t see myself folding anyway.

I made my decision and I grabbed a pile of chips, and pushed them in the middle, the dealer counted out $175 total. And he starts to literally shit himself, scratching himself, thinking what to do, like he has never been re-raised before. But to my surprise he goes all in and I instantly call and he turns over A♣ Q♦.

The turn brought the 10♣, I still have the 6♣ for a straight flush but the river brings a J and my hand goes dead.

Pot was over $600, my hand was a big favourite to win. Would have been nice, when I was up $100, I was thinking of how good it was to shout Stef, but then the $600 pot came along and all I was thinking about was how good it would be to pay a chuck off my loan, and take Stef out for dinner. I still took Stef out for a great meal at our favourite Japanese restaurant. Back to the online grind for a few weeks.

Lately I have been reading DevilFish’s auto-biography and it has been pretty interesting so far, there a good quote that I like from it that should sum up a poker player’s feeling about money and the ability to cope with bad beats, “As long as you realise the money means nothing, then your ahead”. And lets face it, you are ahead– well 80% of the time at least.

I’m looking forward to the Sydney champs coming up in September, with a few backers still needed, so get in touch if you are interested!

Been a while...Nice little win

Hey guys, its been a while, I have competed in the Queens Birthday tournament and bummed out around 21st when my pocket 1010's got cracked by AK, when the river brought that dreaded Angel Ace of Spades... they did not have anywhere near the amount of players that they were expecting, and only the top 14 got paid... So I feel short and left with 3 tables to go. I did however play the best that I have ever played I can confidently say, making reads and plays that I would have never done previously. And if it wasn't for my open-ended straight flush draw falling to a couple of bricks on the turn and river, this would have been a completely different blog entry.

Had some very interesting hands though that I would like to discuss with you over the next couple of posts, but first lets celebrate today with a little win! :)

Yep that's me, so far I have won a couple of these $2.5 180 sit n go's since playing online, so I think they are definitely my game at the moment. I will be a bit more aggressive with my bank roll, now try to boost it up a bit. I bummed out of a few $16, turbo's and $11 one today unfortunately. Where I think I play a bit too tight and exploited by the ever increasing blinds. When My shark scope updates, I'll put that up here too.

Adios for now my dear readers! On a personal note, I've been playing a social game of soccer at the Camperdown Oval on Monday and Thursday nights with some die hard football addicts, so if you are free come on down! 6pm, Camperdown Memorial Oval..

Cheers,

SS

SharkScope... where have you been my whole life?

I can not believe that I have just found SharkScope, here I am tracking my games and data like a sucker, making mistakes and all when there is a software that does it for free!

Lets have a look to see where I have phased out:

Looking at the graphs above these are pretty similar to my graphs below, so I have done a good job of recording. Looks like my best game on ROI is the $2 games, but I have no idea how this data is correlated as has not put in my $55 results from the DNG's that I have entered, and I have had a decent cash in one.

So this is only from my data PokerStars as I mainly play in Stars, here is my data from Fulltilt:

As you can see, no where near as impressive. So these are obviously my results as a hole, it would be interesting to see my results from the start of the year and over a month, like how I segregate it. 

May Wrap up?...

After a fantastic win, I have yet to improve at all over the last week. I have now had 50 straight games without a cash and have depleted around half of the money that I have won from that $15 game and now sit on a bank roll of around $400. I have had some crushing  beats at crucial times of the tournaments that I have been playing and it has been very unfortunate. Well I think I will be closing the month of May now, with only a few days left I can't see myself playing too much over the next couple of days. Being pretty sick doesn't help either.

I can not wait for some live action and the Queen's Birthday Long weekend tournament... For all of those who a buying a piece of my action I salute you, and look forward to bringing home the bacon!

Out of the 111 games that I played, I finished in the money 14 times, with five 1st's, three 2nd's, one 5th and other notable finishes in larger MTT"s. With a rate of about 10% ITM, and roughly 50% of my ITM finishes are 1st I am happy about my performance this month, but there is definitely room for improvement. I will aim to get up 20% of ITM finishes.

I didn't play in a Satellite for the NPL/Full Tilt 500 this weekend as planned because of being sick, I would love to get there so I will probably be looking at them next weekend.

Well my plan of working out and taking it easy got thrown out the door when I got sick, but hopefully this week is looking up! See you all next month!

SS

Unfortunate string of losses...

Been running pretty bad over the last couple of days. Since that win, I've been taught a lesson in variance once again. So I'm taking the next couple of days off playing and will work out, eat sleep and relax. I'm going to play in a Satellite NPL500 event over the next week and hopefully win a seat. Few of my mates are playing in it and First prize is pretty juicy! I'm also going to be playing in the Queens Birthday event at Star City... Click Here.

Looks like a good event, so these are some great tournaments to get excited about over the next month! Will keep you all posted...

SS

I won...

Today I dropped Stef off to work at 6 am and hit it online pretty early. It paid off massively, I won a $15, 180 player turbo tournament on Stars to chalk up $750! Boosted my bankroll a fair bit and now I'll be able to pay off my Credit Card! Lol. Check out my graph for this month:

I played around 14 games afterwards and didn't place, which I was pretty upset about as that has been the worst run this month, but hey I'm stoked with my performance in that game. I folded AJ with 4 people left to a big stacks all-in, the forum boys for Pokernetwork.com were hatting it, and I was too. But hey I won the tourney.

Mid April Games

So I have been hitting the online felt pretty hard lately, with dedicating at least 2 afternoons and a Friday. Last Friday I played in the SCOOP event 22. I hit a Flush on the turn and got it all in only for the player who called me to hit the set, and the River paired to knock me out, I was pretty devo'd as I was looking good for a deep run on my first online Major.

I've just downloaded the HD Cash game from the Aussie Millions from Pokerbay.com and it is phenomenal quality. I'm so surprised with it.

I have also been playing Omaha Hi/Lo recently with pretty good results out of my first 4 games I have placed 2nd and 3rd. The green dots on the graph represent these Omaha Hi/lo wins. I look forward to May being a lot better than April, however I have copped a few Bad beats a crucial stages of the last couple of tournaments that I have played - such is life! Will keep you all updated:

Fiji

Hey guys. Over the past week I've taken a bit of time of from playing because I was part of the grooms party at a wedding I attended in Fiji! It was amazing. The wedding was that is; my girlfriend and I hired our own private villa and had ocean front views at the Naviti Resort on the coral coast. The resort was packed with Families and kids - way too many kids which almost ruined the trip, lucky we had the Villa to escape it all!

My one main regret for the trip was I didn't get to surf anywhere near as much as I would have hoped. I scored HideAway's once and it was shit. I even took my surf board on the Bucks party cruise in hope to surf Friggets but we were about 30 clicks east of it!

Apart from that it was a great relaxing trip and I highly recommend Fiji if you are a surfer as there are plenty of waves there for the experienced surfer. Nothing like Indo but, which can cater a lot more for intermediate surfers - like me, as well.

On my next post I'll put up my performance form my MTT's sit n go's since I have been back. So far I have had a lot better results than April, with a couple of wins and some good places. I've even started to venture in a new game Omaha Hi/lo NL. With 2 games and one 3rd place finish I'm off to a good start. Will keep you all up dated, but please have a look at my Girl Friend's blog for pictures form Fiji, she is an amazing photographer and some of them turned out insanely beautiful!

Click here For more great pictures! 

SS

April Wrap Up

Apart from playing in one of the biggest poker tournaments of my life so far, April hasn't been much of a success story. I started off the month incredibly well, with 3 Big cashes to boost my bankroll. However I also suffered the longest run of losses in playing this game of my life. Almost 40 straight games with out a cash. I have only be mainly playing small stakes since putting all of my funds into my buy-in for the ANZPT main event and lead up event. And my profit and losses for my games are as follows:

As you can see I started the month going great and then continued pretty standard, but right about half way I got smoked with a run of bad luck, I could not win any flips and at the rate I was going I was sending myself broke. However now April is over, and the month of May has begun!

This month I have a lot to look forward too, Fiji with my Girl and a bunch of mates, for Scotty Flo's Wedding and then plan to hit this online scene pretty hard. I've got one more real session on Friday before I go and so far my month of May looks like this, after playing 7 of these these crazy $2 hyper turbo tournaments tonight on Stars because their server was getting reset:

I hope to send the graph well into the 4 figures this month, so be sure to watch this space!!!

Today I also went surfing for the first time in two weeks hoping to score some nice barrels, unfortunately  I paddled out a day late and missed on of the best days of the year to catch some 4ft onshore sloppy waves, that was down right hard work! Going out again on Sat so hopefully it will prove to be a bit better, until next time...

Cheers,

SS

Implied odds, a re-cap off a hand from last year...

I was browsing through my computer at work and discovered some old files that I used to document my playing history when I was only working part time and playing a lot more poker... over the next couple of weeks I'll release them all. Today we are going to learn about Implied odds. 

A lot of people talk about pot odds in poker, what this means is what are the odds of you hitting your hand in relation to the bet size that you are faced with to call, in relation to the pot that you can win, because you can only win what is in the pot. For example you have a flush draw and are faced with a $50 bet on the flop into a $75 dollar pot. You are get the odds of 1.5:1 to call the bet to win 125 pot (75pot+ 50). You will hit your hand roughly 1/3 times, needing the bet you have to call to be 25 or less to make it profitable for you to continue with the hand. So you should fold. 

What implied odds relate to in the poker world, attaches a little bit of game theory to this equation, because it is taking into consideration of if I hit my hand can I get my opponents' stack into the pot to win the his whole stack? And if I do will it be worth it (His/her stack size/bet size/ will he call an all in, will he bet an all in, etc)? 

With hands like Flush draws, they are bit harder to get your opponents whole stack into because they are so obvious to them, but they also create bluffing opportunities as well. 

Here's a story to out line this factor of the game, that I reluctantly folded... 

$200 buy in No limit, blinds are $5 and $5

Implied odds calculating the correct odds.

The table is some what loose aggressive with, a couple of tight players and a couple of VERY loose players.

I’m dealt 8♣ 5♣ in the small blind.

With no raise preflop and 4 other limpers involved including the BB.

Flop comes:

8♥ 7♣ 5♥

I lead out 15 BB calls, UTG calls, cut off Calls, Button raises 55 all in.

I reasiase 155.

Bb folds, UTG after a  question of how much is it? He calls. Cut off folds.

The pot is now $165 in the main pot and $200 in the side. 

Total pot of $365

Turn brings 3♥

The board looked like this:

8♥ 7♣ 5♥ 3♥

I check, he bets out $175.

Now this is question on whether or not he has the hearts and the way he played the hand I believe he not only had hearts, but had the A♥ in there as well. So I’m getting a just under 2:1 on the main pot. If he has a flush I’m drawing slim, 4 outs, with one card to come, looking at about 8%. And for those odds it definitely not worth calling for. As if I call this bet I have to call a river bet, even if I don’t hit my Full. But this is of course he has a Flush.

So what I have to establish my implied odds, is if his stack is deep enough to see if I DO hit my full house whether its worth calling this $175 now only to get his whole stack in the middle.

“How much do you have behind?”

“Around $300” He answers. I have around 450 in my stack.  Ok now for the math.

There is 365 in the pot + 300 behind that I can win = 665

It’s going to cost me another $175 to win $665 total. And I’m only going to hit my hand roughly 8% of the time. So I will need about 10 : 1 odds to call this.

175/665 = 0.26315 or about 4:1. So, if he has the flush, it’s not the right call even if I were to hit. After a long debate about this I fold, believing that this guy had the nuts, and he wasn’t capable of this move if he didn’t.

The river brought the 5♦, I kick myself for throwing away the 5’s full. The all in player turns over AK, and the other player turns over A♥ 9♥ for the nut flush. My read was spot on and that’s about the only solace I take from the hand.

I would have won a nice pot, but I would not have won a big enough pot for me to make it worth it to call in the long run, because poker is a long term game, you want to be the player who feeds of the short term players. Looking at this hand a year on makes me still think I made the right lay down, of course if my read was off and the guy turned over a pair or something I would have been furious, but it was correct, he had the nuts, and I was drawing pretty slim against the high hand. 

A couple of hands later I picked up A♠ 9♠ on the button and rivered Aces up to clean up a $500 pot.

I left the night about $1400 up, form my initial buy in of $200. One of my best nights during this year. I have now had 11 straight cashes from playing this table (200 buy in- 5/5 blinds). This has happened during the month of April 2010 and have made over $7000 for a months part time work. If I can keep this up, who knows where it might take me. 

ANZPT Day 2

So I made to day two... Day 1 was a nightmare I finished with a very short stack of $13500, very short considering we all started with $20k. I was in long ball mode and I psyched myself all night to be going all in or folding. The very first hand I get dealt is AQ and it is my big blind. I'm happy, 3 limper's, I shove it in and rake in a nice little pot. I gave the big stack, who was also the small blind a lot of stick for not calling my shove with an Ace in his had, he had over 100 k, and my shove for the pot was well worth a call with an Ace in his hand for a chance to knock me out and rake in the pot.

This table is relatively soft, its been an orbit now and its only the short stacks that are creating the action, I've won another pot and I've built my stack up to a bit over 20k and I am pumped. I start to relax I've got 20 BB (big blinds) again, I can breath a sigh of relief!

I actually start to steal blinds and make a couple of plays with 3 bets (For those of you who do not know what a 3 bet is, it is a poker term the  Big blind is the first bet, a raise pre-flop is the second bet, and a 3 bet is a re-raise pre-flop, this can also lead to a 4, 5 bet as well). I three bet my QQ's but do not get called by an early position raiser.

A young player who was on my table on day one, leads out for a slightly smaller raise than the BB, I look down at KcJc, and stupidly I 3 bet an extra 2k on top, he shoves it on me. I can't believe I just wasted a pretty good hand, but hey he could of had AK there. I fold.

So my image at the table has been built up to be pretty aggresive, and now I'm waiting for the perfect spot when I actually get a hand. The blinds have just been bumped up to 500 - 1000 with a 200 ante, and I look down to A♠K♣ in my hole and from a middle position I sneakily make it 3 k to go.

The player on the dealer button, thinks for about 2 seconds and shoves his entire stack in for around 28, 000. Everyone folds back to me. I have about 27,000.

What can he have? AA, KK? Why would anyone in their right mind want to get me off the hand in a tournament worth over 200K when they are holding such a good hand pre-flop. They don't. No one who know's how to play poker would make such a silly raise there. Which means he hasn't got AA or KK. But does he have a pair? Quiet possible, and very likely.

The thing about AK, pre-flop usually when facing an all-in you are either a massive favourite, against any other AQ, AJ type of hand, or only a slight dog, against a pocket pair. In a tournament situation where chips are god, and utility of these chips are as well, when you are holding AK you should call. But quite often it take A LOT of balls to do so, when your tournament life is on the line, it can be quite daunting. What am I thinking of doing, calling with not even a pair?

I think this guy doesn't have a big pair at all, shoving all his chips in is pretty weak here. Trying to bully me out of the hand. I should call, so I did....

He rolls over A♣Q♣, I smile, a guy next to him says "Unlucky man, what a cooler."

It sure was, I'm a 70% favourite going into the hand. The pot is over 50,000 making whoever wins a nice size stack for the table that I was on.

The flop:

K♦J♥10♠

He just flopped the nuts. The absolute freaking NUTS! I go into the hand a massive favourite and he just hits a 1 in 98 hand.

The Turn:

J♦

Gives me some life.... I can now win with a K, or a J, or tie with the 3 remaining Q's that are left in the deck.

but the river brings the ultimate brick: 2♠, and I am out of the tournament.

Thanks for coming, see you later. Well it was a great experience, and I walk away pissed off for getting out. But I really can't be, I was in a situation where I needed chips, and was presented an opportunity to grab them, I took it. And got smacked down by lady luck for doing so, all part of the game. Roll with the punches.

A big thanks goes out to the guys that staked me and gave me this opportunity to play, hopefully next time we get a bit more luck on our side. Watch this space for more updates about my poker career in the future.

Cheers - SS

ANZPT Part 2: Enter Joe Hachem

So thats right Joe Hachem just sat down. No big deal, get over it. Its not as if you are playing against the best in the world, only one of the best! Any way, things end up being kinda cool he exchanges a bit of banter with the rest of the players and sure enough a hand comes along and its my Big Blind and he opens form middle position for 525. everyone has folded to me and I look down at J 9 off suit. The blinds at this stage are 100/200 with 25 ante, so there is enough in the pot to put up resistance and HELLO, I get to play heads up against Joe Hachem!

I call, he hasn't said much. Not yet anyway and the Flop brings 9♣ 8♠ 2♥.

I lead out, after a slight pause for 1050, about 2/3rd's of the pot, just to see what he does. He thinks and calls.
The turn brings the 10♣.

Pretty good card for me giving me an up n down a pair, I check with the intention of calling any bet, bit of pot control. He Checks behind

The river brings the ultimate scare card A♣. So the board reads 9♣ 8♠ 2♥10♣A♣. not the best board for my pair of nines.

Before I even think about acting Joe speaks, "You know kid, if you check I'm gonna bet right?" I simile I don't even think about my reply, all those years being a smart ass has finally paid off;
"Well you know if you bet I'm probably gonna call?" I reply.
"You do what you gotta do kid." He answers. I grin.

So I check, fun times ahead.

And sure enough he bets, 1500. Good bet, representing that Ace.

"I would never lie to you kid" he says in that high pitch voice, sort of a cross between Mike Tyson and Guido Hatiz, with a smile that makes me believe he's up to something. After about a minute of thinking what could he have, I call. He didn't bet the 10, and if he has an ace, whats he doing on the flop? Didn't make sense, and usually in poker if it doesn't make sense it ain't.

He turns over Q 7 off suit, complete air ball. And his check on the turn also made sense - having the double gut shot!

Calling Joe Hachem with a pair of nines with an Ace high board, 1500. Making him turn over the Air Ball and listening to him say: "You got it" - Priceless.

"I do, Joe - now pass that sugar!"

It was only a small pot, but probably one of the greatest poker moments in my life. It gave me the confidence to survive the day, trust my instincts and move to Day 2.

Joe eventually got out, he stayed short stacked the whole day trying to make some good plays but nothing seemed to go right for him.

He eventually ended up getting it all in on a flop of J♦ 5♦ 2♥, holding a pair of 10's in the hole. The small blind a guy to my left, I don't think he even knew who he knocked out, he check raised all in with his J 7 off suit. They were both short stacked and probably the right play was made by each seeing that draw heavy flop. But seeing a world champ go down to such a shit hand, really does confirm how much of a sick game poker can be. And in the words of Joe Hachem, "Poker is probably the only game where you can do everything right and still loose". Which leads me to my next post.... Day 2 stay tuned.....

ANZPT 2011 - Day 1 = the table of Death, Day 2 Heater and a Cooler part 1

Hey guys,

So you all might not of known this, but I competed in the ANZPT  during the past week. A bunch of guys, including my dad Simon Elderfield, and I all threw in a bunch of cash to put up the tournament entry. With around 400 entrants we always knew it was going to be a bit of a crap shoot. I ended coming 127th and only out due to a cooler of a hand. However, nothing could prepare me for what a nightmare day one turned out to be.

All I was thinking before getting on the tables was I really hope I don't get put on Jonathan Karamalarkis' table. And sure enough after sitting down Monster Dong himself takes a seat in position 10. Not only that but we were also accompanied with 2010 Sydney Champ and proclaimed online poker phenomenal Daniel Nielson.  As the play began I knew I was going to be in for a roller coaster of a first day. But I could not let these aggressive player's run over me and the only way I was going to do this was by making a stand. Play kicked off, but there was one seat remaining, seat 9.

I managed to successfully bluff Jono, the hand went like this. I had be quiet for a few rounds pretty card dead only defending blinds when someone else had entered the pot. Any way it was Jono's BB and I thought fuck it lets see what he has got. So I raised it, at this time the blinds were 75/150. I made it 450 from middle positon, One person had limped in front of me and both him and Jono called. The flop cam 2♥ 5♦ 6♥.  and Jono leads out 600. Pretty standard I thought, he's playing his position, the limper folds, and I'm thinking there could be a strong possibility he has a 6 but he could also have nothing. Lets see what a raise does to him. I make it $1725, he thinks for about 5 seconds and mucks. Pulling that bluff gave me a lot of confidence to continue my game.

My next big hand, I had to fold. It was probably the biggest fold of my life top 2 pair on the flop. People thought I was mad, but I was later confirmed by Daniel Nielson that I had made the right fold even though it might not have been correct. The blinds were 100/200. I'm in middle position and get dealt J 10 off suit, with one player also limping in front of me I also limp as does Daniel, two to my left in the high Jack, every one else folds back to the BB, who raises is to 550, the early position calls, I call so does Daniel.

The Flop: 5 J 10 rainbow

Both the BB and the early position check, I lead out to 1100, roughly half the pot, J 10 on the board always makes it pretty draw heavy, even through I have top two pair. After about a 30 seconds of thinking Daniel, who is next to act raises my bet to 3200. Both the BB and the early position, get out of the way quicker than lighting. And I feel my heart beating, finally I got this guy. I'm about to pick up a stack of 8 thousand, but I pause and look over at him. He's not giving much away, what do I know about this guy, why would he raise me there? Surely he has an Up n down and is trying to buy the pot. But just a second, think about it, he limped from a late position with KQ? That's not his style, that's not any aggressive player's style.... and what does he put you on? Maybe he is putting you on an up n down like KQ and thinking YOU are trying to buy the pot.

I repeat to myself, What do I know about this guy?  I had just played a hand with him where I continued on a Q high board from my pre-flop raise and he only Flat called me with QJ in his hand. We both checked when a K hit on that turn and he value bet his Q on the river, he doesn't know I called him down that hand with Ace high - just to see his cards. So he's not into raising with just top pair - not at this stage of the tourney at least.

What sort of hands do good players limp with and call raises with pre-flop? Pairs, little pairs. He could also have Q9 suited, that would make sense with the hand. I don't think he has the KQ there, not with the limp pre-flop. And for him to raise me, he either has Air or I think he has a monster. He could also have J 10 as well, but, because I've got J 10, this is the least likely scenario.

I flat call his raise. It may be telling him that I have a hand and I'm not going down with out a fight, it may just be telling him that I do not like to be bluffed. The turn brings K♣ but puts 2 clubs out there. If he did have the Q9 he just got there. If he has the set, he needs to bet more now to protect his hand. If I bet here, and he has the set, I think he'll shove it on me. If I check and he check's I could spike the J or 10 for my boat. Not knowing what to do, and beginning to think that this is more and more fishy I check. After a long minute Dan bets 4500. That's about 2/3 of the pot. He wants my chips, I don't think he is bluffing here.

I fold. That's right I folded top two pair. WTF? I didn't feel it, and I went with my gut.

I later became good friends with Daniel Nielson, and he confirmed he indeed did have 55 (the set of 5's), but also thought I was mad to fold top two there. Jono, knowing what we both had, thought, Dan's bet was a bit much getting me to fold. And it was, but only against me. Anyone else, I think, it wouldn't of gotten to the turn, all the chips would have gone in on the flop. Which is what he wanted. I gave myself a pat on the back for making the perfect play, even though it might not have been the correct one.

Enter Joe Hachem.... that's right Joe "I'm mother flipin World Champ" Hachem. Like it was scripted Joe sit's down in Seat 9....

Day on the Grind

Day on the grind, I was going to play in a NPL tourney today however I sprained my ankle yesterday playing basketball and am finding it difficult to walk! I went in a few two many tournaments today an blew a good $50. I'm pretty dirty was doing great in $24 buy in on Full Tilt, Mega stack(5000 start) when after a good 5 bets before the flop I had AK and my opponent  had A9, he Drags a 9 on the turn to ship half of my stack and then I run into Pocket KK with AQ, so spewing was going great till then! Came 4th in a $2.20 turbo on stars to chalk up an easy $25, however would have been better if I could of folded my AJ and I knew I was behind when the bloke reraised me, LAB he had AQ. O well, better luck next time, I think I have found my favourite Tourneys the $24 buyins are great as I can afford and am better than most on these tables. Till next time... did you check out leopard specs? Do it!!!

Ok so I bombed in that tourney, however I have switch to becoming an online grinder these days, having not the best year last year, only 4k profit. I've since been playing PLO Rush poker 10/25c. and with some good results. Slowly building up a bankroll, roughly around 400 at the moment. But trying to dedicate a little more to tournaments. But yea keep tabs on me on Pocket 5's! And will keep you posted with more news! Check out my Girl Friend, Stef's blog at http://leopardspectacles.blogspot.com/ its awesome so much more cool stuff than mien!