Poker

[Infinite Jest]

Good luck...what are the prizes/how many places paid? (And can we watch? What site?)

 

[fozzy nutz]

Originally Posted by zzITCHY420zz
flop comes 9c, 2d, and 4d.

which hand would u prefer? ace of diamonds and a 3 of diamonds, or a 3 5 of diamonds?


peronally i'm taking the A/3 every single time. why? because with it there are 10 cards that gives you the nuts plus you have 3 aces out there that could help you. if you are playing the 3/5 you have 2 cards that gives you the nuts and 6 cards that gives you a great hand problem is if you hit the straight on the turn you have to worry about someone drawing out on you with a higher flush on the river. things like you opponents being pot commited, pot odds or facing the chip leader may make it impossible foryou to stop them from seeing the river. plus what the fuck do you do if any other diamond hits but the a or 6. playing the 3/5 in that spot is a good way to lose all your money.


limping in with a monster is a risky moving. usually i'm doing in two spots and only if the table is short handed. the first one is if i short stacked, first to act and going all-in no matter what. i'll limp hoping someone puts me all-in if not after the flop i push. i will also do this if i'm the chip leader late in the hand looking at the button, sm and bb if its a un-opened pot i'll limp (trying to show weakness) hoping someone pushes.

 

[alasdairm]

Good luck...what are the prizes/how many places paid? (And can we watch? What site?)

thanks. i play at ultimate bet.

it's nearly over - 42 left, i'm in 7th. it pays 60 places and 1st place is over $400. buy-in was only $3.

later...

finished in 15th place out of about 600. not bad. last hand sucked of course...

alasdair

 

[Blowmonkey]

lol, I finally figured out how to play tournaments on pokerstars and played 2 yesterday. Finished 456th out of 10.000 in my first and 50th out of 5000 IIRC in my second. Not too bad if I say so myself.

I got dealt a shitload of pocket queens and only won one out of 5 times heads up, that's what killed me both times, pretty frustrating really.

2 royals and 3 four of a kinds though.

 

[thizzSantaCruz]

Can you describe the hands that you lost with pocket queens heads up? If you are only winning 1/5 times you might have a leak in how you play large pocket pairs.

 

[Raving Loony]

I play a fair bit regional free rolling tournament poker and I consistently last a long time. But I never do well at the final table. The reason being is that the blinds are killers. You may start out with 30 times the BB, but by the end your stack is only 3x the BB (on average) during the midway point of the final table with the big stack probably 6-7x. So the problem is that there are just all ins coming in all over the place on A3, QJ before the flop. I do my pot odd calculations on a A7 and it's like GTFO of this one. So basically I get muscled out even if I am stacked quite well. Any ideas?

 

[thizzSantaCruz]

You need to work on accumulating a big stack before the final table. I like to start playing hyper-aggressive right before the money because a lot of people are trying to finish in the money and will not risk getting put out on the bubble. As long as you have a decent sized stack going into the final table you should be in good shape.

As a rule of thumb if my stack is 10 big blinds or less I only have two moves, all in or fold. When the final table is dwindling down you really need to widen up your range of playable hands and play very close attention to how your opponenets play. You will need to pick up tendancies on opponenets betting patterns and use that to your advantage. Steal blinds from weak players, check-raise overly aggressive players.

I hope this will help you out a bit.

 

[Infinite Jest]

I seem to do OK in those situations. As thizzSantaCruz says: all-in or fold. You have to consider whether the pot is unopened or not. e.g. if I have A7 and no-one has bet yet, I'm all-in. I'm probably a slight favourite, unless someone has a high pocket pair or a bigger ace, in which case, that's my bad luck. But it's usually worth the risk.

If someone else has bet, I probably fold, unless I'm short-stacked and in the blinds, in which case I might call.

 

[Blowmonkey]

Can you describe the hands that you lost with pocket queens heads up? If you are only winning 1/5 times you might have a leak in how you play large pocket pairs.

Nah, that wasn't it. I made one wrong decision, I decided to slow play the queens a bit, everything was fine untill the river when a king came. I got one call with 2 aces, nothing wrong there either, but 2 times I got screwed over with 57 and 79 or so. I don't know why people decide to call a massive (all in) raise with low unsuited connectors. It really irks me.

 

[Blowmonkey]

Apparently I stink at Omaha. But it still recognizes me as a skilled player. :D

 

[Infinite Jest]

Awesome

I feel like my play is getting better, but my results aren't. But I've worked out what the problems are:

1. Playing too many big(gish) tournaments. I'm doing OK, but not cashing, and it's costing me too much money. I don't have a big enough bankroll to spend on the big tournaments, even though I'll double or triple my bankroll if I win.
2. Need to concentrate more, and not go broke on weak hands, or where I'm obviously (or probably beat). For example - had 85s in the SB. Limped (I had 4 limpers before me). Flop was 875. I led out. Someone re-raised me all in. I figured him on A8 or something and called. Of course he had 64 for the straight and knocked me out. No need for me to be in the hand. Same thing when I had TT and two 8s came on the flop and I lost to J8.

So my next game I tightened up. I lost a few hands to bluffs or quasi-bluffs, but ended up taking the guy down by playing back at him when I finally caught a hand.

Concentration and (thanks Alasdairm, your comments above were very helpful) patience

 

[Mehm]

^^I don't think calling an all in with two pair on the flop is that bad. You will beat the straight draw about 2 out of every three times.

 

[Infinite Jest]

^
True true - in this case he already had the straight, so I was drawing to 4 cards (for the full house). I was behind to a set, as well, of course. I guess I figured I would have slowplayed in his position (he basically had the nuts, it was a rainbow flop so he was only losing to 96, or someone hitting runner-runner flush or drawing out to a higher straight). So I assumed he would have slowplayed if he really had me beat.

Thanks for your comments though

 

[Blowmonkey]

You will beat the straight draw about 2 out of every three times.

That's a little optimistic. I dunno the maths, but to me it seems it's more like 1 out of 6 times you beat the straight with 2 pair on the flop, unless they're suited and you've got one or two cards of the same suit on the flop as well, then it's a different story.

Same thing when I had TT and two 8s came on the flop and I lost to J8.

How did you play that? Looks like your bet wasn't strong enough before the flop to get called by J8..(?)

 

[Infinite Jest]

How did you play that?

Moronically

Was on the button. 2 limpers before me, so I limped thinking to either hit a set or an overpair, and otherwise lay it down. I did have the overpair, but with two 8s on the board, I should have just stopped when he bet postflop.

Of course, I should have definitely bet out preflop, J8 would probably have folded (if he didn't, then I would have outplayed him and he would have got lucky). I should have just gone for it, and if someone had a higher pair, or outdrew me with AK-AJ, so be it.

 

[Yippee Skippy]

That's a little optimistic. I dunno the maths, but to me it seems it's more like 1 out of 6 times you beat the straight with 2 pair on the flop, unless they're suited and you've got one or two cards of the same suit on the flop as well, then it's a different story.

Yo, if you don't know the math, get Pokerstove - it's free and invaluable. Also, there are tools that will count outs and give you odds while you play. Not using them is like throwing money away. And you'll get a better feel for the math off the top of your head when you play live.

 

[Yippee Skippy]

1. Playing too many big(gish) tournaments. I'm doing OK, but not cashing, and it's costing me too much money. I don't have a big enough bankroll to spend on the big tournaments, even though I'll double or triple my bankroll if I win.

Just kinda jumpin' in here, but why not try the multi-table Sit n Go's? I didn't see what site you're playing on, but Stars has 2-3 and 5 table SnG's that are very beatable at all buy-in levels (down to $1.50+.25!) and are a good way to build a roll. Full Tilt has some similar ones as well.

I'm up for swapping hands and referrals, so feel free to get in touch. I play for a living (but not a good living! )

 

[thizzSantaCruz]

Yippe you play ring, SNG's or donkaments?

 

[Yippee Skippy]

Yippe you play ring, SNG's or donkaments?

I play mainly multi-table SnG's. I stay away from the HUGE field MTT's. I won't fuck with a tourney with more than 300 people unless it's got a sick overlay or some other very special reason.

I play some ring games too, mainly to clear bonuses (I whore a bit, so that's usually the only/fastest way to get that $$). I play a bit of Pot-Limit Omaha when I can, but only in cash games, I haven't quite got the knack of how it translates to tournies yet.

I hit a horrific downswing in about the last 10 days of December, but I had just picked up a part-time job to help w/holiday expenses, so it was good timing (if there is such a thing). I just finished the job last Friday, so I'm back to the grind.

I play mainly lower stakes because it's hard to keep building a roll when you're constantly withdrawing to buy stuff like food, gas, cable (gotta keep the 'net on ya know!) but I keep my head above water. I think I'm gonna start dabbling in some more satellites so I can get into some bigger games with minimum investment. Hollywood Poker had a pretty good satellite system I was just starting to exploit pretty well before they banned US players. I haven't found a similar deal yet.

So, that's me. Thanks for asking!

 

[thizzSantaCruz]

Yea no problem. Do you know what your ROI is for SNG's?

Also a hint try bonus whoring bodog. 50 dollar max bonus is not that imressive but its very easy to clear and bodog is very soft. The only problem is poker tracker won't work with it unless you purchas a 3rd party program called dogwatch hand grabber. If you are bonus whoring it is not worth buying but it might prevent you from running multiple tables efficiently.