Poker Updates

Haven't updated much poker in a long time. I'm still grinding away at 2/4nl, with a little 3/6nl and 5/10nl once in a while.

The 64 man HU tourney I ended up losing in the 3rd round to the worst player I had played yet, so that kinda sucked. He was gloating after winning hands, etc... He ran hot and played poorly, but winning confuses some people into thinking they are playing well. This is why poker will ALWAYS be profitable no matter what.

I played in the WCOOP(world championshop of online poker) event Friday. It was the HU event. I think I played pretty well for the most part. I was happy with my play. Some people ask me to include some strategy in my blog so they can see some of my thought process. Here is one hand people might find interesting:

PokerStars Game #12189581795: Tournament #70000010, $300+$20 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round II, Level II (100/200) - 2007/09/21 - 17:18:42 (ET)
Table '70000010 249' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: snowbank (16054 in chips)
Seat 2: BREAKURFACE (23946 in chips)
BREAKURFACE: posts small blind 100
snowbank: posts big blind 200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to snowbank [As 7h]
BREAKURFACE: raises 288 to 488
snowbank: calls 288
*** FLOP *** [Jd 7s 3c]
snowbank: checks
BREAKURFACE: bets 538
snowbank: raises 906 to 1444
BREAKURFACE: calls 906
*** TURN *** [Jd 7s 3c] [Qd]
snowbank: checks
BREAKURFACE: bets 1946
snowbank: raises 3053 to 4999
BREAKURFACE: folds
snowbank collected 7756 from pot
snowbank: doesn't show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 7756 | Rake 0
Board [Jd 7s 3c Qd]
Seat 1: snowbank (big blind) collected (7756)
Seat 2: BREAKURFACE (button) (small blind) folded on the Turn

The player seemed like he knew what he was doing. I have never heard of him before, but seemed solid enough. (he was stalling every hand though, kinda weird. not sure if he wanted blinds to increase so it could turn into a variance fest or what. that kind of made me seem like he might not be that good of a player, but that was my only read on him- had nothing else to go on) Anyways, for the hand: He raises pre-flop, and I call with A7o. I hit 2nd pair on the flop. I check and let him cbet, and then I raise. He calls on a board that isn't extremely draw heavy. The turn is a Q. There are no draws that could have hit. I check, and he bets again. I go for the double check raise, essentially changing my hand from what may have been the best hand, into a bluff. My analysis was that he would not be betting the turn there with many hands better than mine, since he will often want to get to a cheap showdown if he has 88, 99, TT, or a J. It looks to me like he is betting the Q as a scare card to the flop of J high where I show weakness by checking the turn, making him think I might be giving up and a bet will take the pot away from me. By raising him here, I think he will probably only be able to bet this turn, and call a raise with JQ. All other hands fold for the most part. A set is the only other hand that should continue.

A little bit later this hand went down:

PokerStars Game #12190006816: Tournament #70000010, $300+$20 Hold'em No Limit - Match Round II, Level IV (300/600) - 2007/09/21 - 17:42:21 (ET)
Table '70000010 249' 2-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: snowbank (21794 in chips)
Seat 2: BREAKURFACE (18206 in chips)
BREAKURFACE: posts small blind 300
snowbank: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to snowbank [8s 5s]
BREAKURFACE: raises 872 to 1472
snowbank: calls 872
*** FLOP *** [5c Qd 8c]
snowbank: checks
BREAKURFACE: bets 2042
snowbank: raises 18280 to 20322 and is all-in
BREAKURFACE: calls 14692 and is all-in
*** TURN *** [5c Qd 8c] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [5c Qd 8c Jc] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
snowbank: shows [8s 5s] (two pair, Jacks and Eights)
BREAKURFACE: shows [Kc Ks] (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
BREAKURFACE collected 36412 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 36412 | Rake 0
Board [5c Qd 8c Jc Jd]
Seat 1: snowbank (big blind) showed [8s 5s] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Eights
Seat 2: BREAKURFACE (button) (small blind) showed [Kc Ks] and won (36412) with two pair, Kings and Jacks

This hand obviously pretty much crippled me, and a few minutes later I was out. Ahh well. Tournaments= life tilt
So, I was out in the 2nd round, in 610th place out of 1,886 people. On the bright side, I did finish higher than new PokerStars posterboy RaiNKhaN. He got 1,886th.

I rarely play tournies, just kind of do it for a change of pace once in a while to have fun. I did have a good result a few weeks ago in one that I played. I ended up getting 3rd in a 6 max tourney and it paid like $4.7k or something like that. Small payout for that high of a finish, but was a pretty small field of only like 350 people or something, so I was happy.

One update that I told one of my students I would do was from this post(last paragraph):

http://snowbank23.blogspot.com/2007/06/move-up-to-big-games.html

I forgot to update how he ended up doing for the month. He ended up making $13,000 for the month, which was impressive, more than doubling his previous best month. He put in a lot of effort and has become a very good player. Congrats again.

As far as how I'm doing in my games, I'm still doing well, just pretty much grinding when I can. I'll update more tomorrow.