Won a 45-Man SNG

So after a couple nights with my new strategy and cashing in about 4 SNGs for a small amount(not much more than the buy-in, or twice it), tonight I won a 45-person SNG for $13.50. I will contribute much of it to the amazing hands that I got for my last 10 or so hands. In the last 10 hands I was dealt AK twice, AQ twice, A9s, A8s, KK, JJ, 98s, and 44. I took the last 4 people at the table out in just those last 10 hands as well. It was working to my advantage as I was constantly betting 4xBB with every hand and they would push thinking I was just doing my regular raise and my hands would hold up(held up against trip Jacks, QQ, and a straight which I beat with the boat). I have lost a couple SNGs as well that my little strategy wasn't obviously working with, but I have won more than lost, so that is good. Well, keeping it short tonight, busy day tomorrow. Peace out.

It's My Birthday

So today is my birthday, but it kind of sucks. It is raining outside and I am at work. I have never worked on my birthday. The last 5 years of it I was at Purdue, partying my ass off, before noon usually... this whole working on my birthday thing sucks, I wish April 21st was permanently on Saturday every year(I wonder if there is a way I could work that out with the world?) Anyway, the woman I work with is going to get a couple of us Hooters for the B-Day for lunch, then tonight Allyson(my girlfriend) is taking me to Lawry's downtown for some steak, I am going to be stuffed by the time I fall asleep. No poker today, but I cashed in a couple SNGs yesterday, but I will comment on those later. Peace out fellas.

Finally!

So tonight I finally cashed in one of the bigger SNGs, it was a 45-person, and I won $4.05 so the new strategy that I was saying I was going to try worked(at least for today). I know you probably want to know what that strategy is, but I am going to hold it to myself for a while, both because it needs to be improved upon, and because if you know my strategy and you are playing against me, well....obvious. I ended up busting out having an M of ~2.5 and went all-in with pocket 66, to get called by the other short stack at the table(had me covered barely) with K10off(I thought that was dumb, but whatever). He caught a 10 on the flop and I never progressed, getting out in 5th.

I also cashed in the PokerSpace FullTilt $100 freeroll, for .24c, which was kind of a surprise, because I was playing in it until there were about 120 people left in it, then I had other things to do. 102 places were paid out and I ended up blinding out at #65, so people must have been dropping left and right once the bubble bursted, because my stack was just average. Oh well though, That's an extra quarter(almost) that I have on FullTilt now. Hopefully I will be able to win one of the FT freerolls that CardsChat sets up, because those pay out so much better. Well, that is all I have for tonight. Have a good one.

Post From Work

So last night I went on a spree. I was bound to play some $1+.10 45-90 person SNGs on UltimateBet because I am sick of the 9 person ones(I find people don't care as much, therefore will go all-in with a wide range of hands and it is driving me nuts, and the payout for a win doesn't always justify all of the B.S.). But I found out something pretty important, people don't change their ways of playing just because of how many people are in the SNG, they still play like they don't care at all. I am not sure on the exact hand history as I am at work, and my PokerTracker is at home, but I will try...

45 person SNG, about 25-30 people left, so still pretty early, not even first break yet, blinds are about 50-100 and I have 2750 chips.
Dealt JhJs under-the-gun at a full table, so I raise it to 600(6xBB is a big raise, but in early position with JJ, I didn't want too many callers) and it folds around to the Cut-Off, who calls, everyone else folds, pot is now $1350.
Flop is 3c7sJc, good for me, so I lead out with a smaller continuation bet of 1/3 of the pot with 400, and the other guy pushes all in and has me covered by about 40 chips! So I am thinking either he has a smaller set(which didn't seem likely since he would have been calling a big raise with a pocket 3s or pocket 7s), a Ace(King, Queen, Ten) high flush draw(which I thought was most likely), or maybe a higher pair like Aces or Kings, which I had dominated right now. So I of course called, and what does he show?5c 8c?!?!
First....what the fuck were you calling a 6xBB bet preflop with that for, and second, why would you push with an 8 high flush draw??? Needless to say, he got his other club and beat me and I could have punched someone. This happened a couple more times last night on different tables in other ways, I think there was only one game where I just didn't get any good cards and just had to go in with 88 and got busted out, which is fine, it happens, but the other games pissed me off.
Tonight I am going to try to play in the CardsChat FullTilt Member's Freeroll if I can get out of work a little early, otherwise I might play some SNGs again tonight, but I am going to try to apply a different strategy. I will try to keep you posted. Take it easy.

Quick Update

So the 45 man SNG, didn't notice it was a damn Ultra-Turbo...I hate that damn format. I love Turbos, just not the Ultras. Anyway, got 10th in it and only paid out to 7, so I lost .60c, but learned to never play a UT again, lol. Blinds were 600/1200 and my stack was about 3700 and I went all-in preflop with KK. Guy with A4s calls and hits an Ace on the flop and holds up. The whole time people were calling with damn near anything, because you had to otherwise, by the time the damn blinds got back to you, it was already two more blind levels ahead. Some skill with a lot of luck involved there. Well, now I am just waiting for midnight. Take it easy fellas.

No More Step Tourney

So UltimateBet has had these Step to the World Series Tournaments that have the basic idea that you can start with a 9 person SNG for .10c, and that would be Step 1. 1st and 2nd place from that get to move on to Step 2, and 3rd and 4th get to replay Step 1. And that keeps going on as you move up the ladder, all the way to Step 10, which is a $2250+100 buyin, and the winner of that gets a seat to the WSOP and spending money.

Well, these tournaments are fun, and I have gotten up to Step 5 about 4 or 5 times now, but the problem is, that unless I make it all the way, I get no money(with exception to 2nd place on Step 10, they get $3550). So really, it is fun, but it is a waste of time. So as soon as I lose all of my coupons for those, I am done with them. Kind of sucks though, because most people are only playing those and not the regular SNGs, oh well.

So right now I am playing a .50+.10 45 person SNG, which is the first time I have played one on here that was bigger than 18(SNGs, I have played thousands of MTT Tournaments), so we shall see how this works out. Seven places pay out, and #1 gets $6.75, which isn't much, but I am really only playing down here because none of the other ones were even close to filling up. And I would normally be going to bed about now, but I wanted to be a good boyfriend and call my girlfriend at mindnight as her birthday is tomorrow.... how sweet, right? Well, I will keep you posted on how this SNG goes. I have only been playing about 10 minutes and already at the 6th blind level, they are increasing every 2 minutes. So I need to go so I can pay attention. Cya

Slump on FT

So I went on a bit of a slump on FT last night. I was playing on the .01/.02 tables and lost my buy-in of about .30c due to someone calling my preflop bet with QQ and he had J10. The flop came Q98 rainbow, so I bet, then he raised, I re-raised all in and he obviously had the straight and I didn't pair the board for the boat, so my buyin was gone. I played again later on, and I just wasn't having any good cards, and whenever I would try to make a move, someone would come over the top of me.

Then, I was wanting to play some tourney action on FT, so I bought in to the $10,000 Daily for $1.00. There were ~6,000 people who entered, which was fine. The only thing I didn't like about the tourney was that it was a rebuy, I hate rebuys. But anyway, I was doing fairly well, without being able to rebuy. I made it past the first break and then went out with AhQh. A guy in front of me bet 5xBB pre-flop, so I just flat called. Flop came 5hAs9h. So I had top pair, high kicker and nut flush draw. So the other guy bet out a pot sized bet, I raised him all-in and he called with AsKc and I ended up not getting my last heart and he out-kicked me, so there went my $1. I went out in ~2000th place, and I think it was up to 1,100th place gets paid or something like that. So they pay out a lot of people. It would be a good tourney to play in and have a good chance of getting into the money, I just need to get my bankroll up so I can play it a little more often.

Tonight I won't be playing any online, but I might play a home game over at my buddie's house, so I will post on that tomorrow if we end up playing. Til later, good luck on the felt.

One Little Tidbit

Forgot to put this in the last post. But this is another reason that I am going to try to play more MTTs, because I feel like a lot of the people that are playing the 6-10 person SNGs will go call all-ins with such a wide range of hands that it sickens me, because they can just go right back to the lobby and play another one if they lose. While with a larger SNG or bigger MTT tourney, they can still go to the lobby and wait for one, but it will take longer, so they may be less likely to make some of their stupid calls.

For instance, Tuesday, I was playing a tourney on UB and was chip leader by about 150 chips and bet out 5xBB with pocket AA in early position, and it folds around to a guy on the button(2nd in chips), and he raised me about the size of the pot. The blinds folded back to me and I hesitated and then pushed all-in and the guy immediately calls with 33!!! What the hell kind of strategy is that? He was going up against the chipleader, the ONLY person in the game that could knock him out in one swoop and calls an all-in with a pair of 3's. Stupid...But of course, he gets his trips on the Turn and beats out my rockets to cripple me.

Just wanted to talk about this hand.

Too Late For April Fools....

So I had a plan for a decent April Fools trick for the blog, but I was busy as hell yesterday and by the time I got home and had time to write something up, it was already after midnight....so blame my busy day for that.

I have been playing a little bit of poker the past couple days, but not a whole lot since I have some projects due and have had a lot of appointments, but they are thinning out a little bit more, so no worries.

I cashed in a couple U/B SNGs for minimal payouts and they are starting to annoy me, so I think I am going to set aside some more time and go for the bigger MTTs. If I do some SNGs, then no more of this 6-10 person crap, I am going to try to get some bigger payouts with the 18-45 person SNGs, make my time a little bit more worth it.