FTP WSOP 1k Qualifier satellites and cash games

i've been trying to get into Full Tilt's 1k Qualifier for the WSOP the last few weeks through their $69+6 and $100+9 satellites without much luck. i've probably dumped about $300 in satellites to 1k Qualifier so far.

so, i fired up a couple of cash tables to recover my satellite losses. it took me about an hour running two 2/4 tables to win over $300. i lost one big pot with AQ vs AK to a shorty who only had about $200 at the table. then, i won two big pots with 7c8c on a flopped straight/flush draw board and pocket QQ against AK on an AQT flop. it all went in on the flop in both hands.

here's the 7c8c hand. this guy had no business calling my all in on this flop. all he had was overs. no pair and no draw.

FullTiltPoker Game #2097273566:
Table Wetlands Park - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em -
20:08:12 ET - 2007/03/29

The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to smokkee [8c 7c] (in the cutoff)

UTG calls $4
SB calls $2
BB raises to $15
UTG calls $11 (cold calls)
smokkee calls $11 (a good hand to call a mult-way pot raise with in LP)
SB folds

*** FLOP *** [9c 6s 3c] (huge flop for my hand)
BB bets $26 (this is a weakish c-bet and smells like AK to me)
UTG calls $26 (cold calls another bet)
smokkee raises to $153 (neither one of these clowns hit this flop. there's no way i'm getting away from this hand.)

BB calls $122.75, and is all in
UTG folds
smokkee shows [8c 7c]
BB shows [Qs As] (i put him all in and he donkey calls off all his chips with just overs)
Uncalled bet of $4.25 returned to smokkee

*** TURN *** [9c 6s 3c] [8h] (BOOOOM!)
*** RIVER *** [9c 6s 3c 8h] [9d]

smokkee shows two pair, Nines and Eights
BB shows a pair of Nines (BUSTOOOO!)

smokkee wins the pot ($369.50) with two pair, Nines and Eights
BB is sitting out

on my other table, there was some chick who was overplaying sooted paint. she called an all-in preflop with Ks8s and caught a King on the river to stack some shorty. later she got all in with Q-2sOOted on a Q-high flop and no flush draw. unfortunately, i wasn't able to get involved with any good hands against her. some other guy to her right got to be the benefactor of her stack.

for those of you who are cardrunner subscribers, there's a new video of Brystmar running over two 6-max tables (50NL & 100NL). he's raising or reraising almost every hand with rags and tilting other players into pushing all in with air. he finishes the session up almost 2 buy-in's on the 50NL table and 1 buy-in on the 100NL table after less than an hour of this.

it's pretty hilarious.

Casino Royale

fair warning: if you haven't seen it yet and don't want me to spoil any of it for you, don't read any further.

i stopped by Best Buy yesterday to pick up the new James Bond movie. i couldn't wait for it to come out on DVD. but, i guess i wasn't in that big a hurry. cuz, it came out last tuesday.

i'm so lazy.

anyway, the move starts off with a kick ass chase scene. then, slows to almost a crawl. they finally show a poker scene with Bond and a bad guy at Atlantis. Bond busts him, by slow playing a flopped set of Aces when bad guy rivers a set of K's. bad guy even throws his car into the pot when he hits his set on the river. then, Bond drives up to the valet in his new car and picks up bad guy's smokin' hot wife.

starting to get a bit rediculous.

he takes her back to his room. they start going at it and it looks like Bond is gonna get freaky deeky with this chick. but, no. he finds out her husband (bad guy) is headed to the airport. so, he ditches her to chase the bad guy.

i figured at least a gratuitous boob scene.

he catches up with bad guy, kills him with this own knife and chases down another bad guy who's off to do some terrorist type shit.

there's a pretty good chase scene where Bond is hanging on to sum fuel tanker to try and stop this donkey from blowin up a HUGE prototype aircraft complete with innocent bystanders. obv, he stops bad guy. then tricks him into blowin himself up. sheesh

he gets back to Atlantis to find out the guy's wife is now dead (dude, you shoulda banged her when you had the chance). anotha wasted opportunity for Bond. he finds out about some big stakes poker game. 10million buy-in with 5m rebuys. winner take all.

SWEET

he meets up with sum acct chick who's going to back him for the game. she's avg looking to me. nothing spectacular. anyway, they pose as husband/wife, check in to the hotel and head to the big game.

now we're talkin'

they draw for the button and it goes to "Gallardo" (yep, i'm in the movie). Bond gets involved in a pot with the villain, loses it. but, picks up a bluff tell. dumbass shares it with the acct chick and some other guy who's supposedly on his side.

he goes busto shortly after when the villain gives off a false tell with DQB vs. Bond's full house. Bond begs acct chick to let him rebuy. she blows him off and one of the other players backs him so he can get back in and take this mutha down.

Bond gets into a pretty good fight with some bad guys during the break. one of 'em is wielding a sword. but, of course Bond prevails. he gets back to the game and gets poisoned sipping some concoction he came up with. he goes back to his car to try and get some remote support from HQ. Bond ends up trying to defibulate himself. but, passes out. acct chick shows up just in time to reconnect a wire on the defibulator and zap him back to life. WTF !?!?!

he gets back in the game and after several hours, he gets involved in a HUGE pot. 4 guys are all-in when the board pairs on the river with 3 spades on board. i won't ruin what the winning hand was. but, this showdown was freakin rediculous. Bond takes down a 120m pot. game over

you'll never see a showdown anything like this in a 4-way pot EVER.

he and acct chick get kidnapped and tortured by the bad guy who lost the poker game. Bond takes some serious junk pummeling. another bad guy shows up. kills off the guy torturing Bond and let's him live (swollen junk tho).

so, Bond ends up with the loot. decides to retire and swoop the acct chick. so freakin ghey.

they're all in luv and shit on the beach with their 120m. then, a twist. turns out acct chick had a BF who got kidnapped and has to turn over the loot to the bad guys. Bond finds out about the exchange and heads off to cap this chick and get his $$$ back.

a big ass fight scene breaks out. bullets flying, bldg's tumbling underwater (they're in venice). the acct chick decides to go down with it after trying to give Bond's money to the bad guys. Bond even tries to save her. but, no. she wants to be fish food instead.

Tina pauses the movie and asks:
"Why is she killing herself? How come she won't let Bond save her???"

Smokkee: "cuz she's a dumbass ho. now restart the movie."

Bond slips on a banana peel catches up with the money and all is well with the world.

summary: the movie's got some good chase and fight scenes. the Bond junk pummeling was pretty sick. no gratuitous sex scenes and the poker game was totally unbelievable. overall, i still think it was an ok action flick.

Donkin' around at 2/4 NL

i played a bunch of tournaments and satellites yesterday and over the weekend. won some satellites. but, not much came of that. went deep and cashed in some tournaments. but, not much to speak of. i probably, cashed approximately $600 or more total in my MTT's over the last few days.

started donking around the cash games to clear my $300 FTP bonus. i've cleared $120 so far and have until 4/2 to clear the rest.

there are sum serious donks in the cash games. here are two hands i was involved in that were horribly played.

how to fuck up pocket Aces 101:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2078624715:
Table Canyon Run - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:42:53 ET - 2007/03/27

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to smokkee [Jh Kh]
UTG calls $4 (limps with AA utg)
UTG+1 folds
UTG+2 folds
smokkee raises to $12 ( obv, i must raise the Super Donkey from LP)
Button folds
SB folds
BB folds
UTG calls $8 (smooth calls with AA utg)

*** FLOP *** [7h 3s Ks] (TPGK *gold*)
UTG checks (checks his AA)
smokkee bets $20 (i must bet TP)
UTG calls $20 (smooth calls AA for the 2nd time)

*** TURN *** [7h 3s Ks] [Jc]

UTG checks (is this clown for real?)
smokkee bets $48 (obv, i'm betting my 2p)
UTG calls $48 (donk smooth calls his AA a 3rd time)

*** RIVER *** [7h 3s Ks Jc] [Td] (i don't like this river)

UTG checks (again?)
smokkee bets $64 (i was born to bet)
UTG raises to $128 (donk finally raises me, a minreraise tho LOL)
smokkee calls $64 (insta-call)

*** SHOW DOWN ***
UTG shows [Ac As] (a pair of Aces)
smokkee shows [Jh Kh] (two pair, Kings and Jacks)
smokkee wins the pot ($419) with two pair, Kings and Jacks


sOOted connectors are *gold*:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2071104764:
Table Copper Crest - $2/$4 - No Limit Hold'em - 23:34:19 ET - 2007/03/25

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to smokkee [Qh 7c]

Everyone folds to the SB
SB calls $2
smokkee checks

*** FLOP *** [Qd 7s 4c]
SB checks (he hit bottom pair)
smokkee bets $8 (i bet pot with top 2p)
SB calls $8 (smokkee must be bluffing)

*** TURN *** [Qd 7s 4c] [Jd]
SB checks
smokkee bets $24 (i bet pot again)
SB calls $24 (WOWZA! i got bottom pair and picked up a flush draw, i must call.)

*** RIVER *** [Qd 7s 4c Jd] [9d]
SB checks (he checks his flush. lololol)
smokkee checks (there's a possible straight and a flush out there now)

*** SHOW DOWN ***
smokkee shows [Qh 7c] (two pair, Queens and Sevens)
SB shows [5d 4d] (a flush, Queen high)
SB wins the pot ($69) with a flush, Queen high

he hit bottom pair on the flop, called a pot sized bet. saw a flush draw on the turn. called another pot sized bet as a 3-1 dog with 1 card to come. hits his flush on the river and checks it. in the chat i said "you forgot to bet the river".

crickets

anotha final table in the 18k on Full Tilt

but, i went out on the very first hand at the final table as a shorty. i took a couple of bad beats along the way (KK vs. AQ all in preflop and QQ vs. AJ all in on a J-high flop) and still found a way to make it there.

on my last hand, it was folded to me in the SB. i pushed with AJo and got called by KQo. he catches a boat. i still cashed over $400 and i'm very happy with my MTT play.














this is the HH for the last hand:
Full Tilt Poker Game #2049847512: $18,000 Guarantee (14964675), Table 5 - 1000/2000 Ante 250 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:34:03 ET - 2007/03/23
Seat 1: The_Dean221 (117,930)
Seat 2: trickybstrd-1 (25,470)
Seat 3: gboro780 (82,828)
Seat 4: Cat Woman 2006 (41,910)
Seat 5: bossmanisme (56,596)
Seat 6: Zappabertie (25,157)
Seat 7: SCONCAT (68,422)
Seat 8: smokkee (14,430)
Seat 9: andrew1971 (41,257)
The_Dean221 antes 250
trickybstrd-1 antes 250
gboro780 antes 250
Cat Woman 2006 antes 250
bossmanisme antes 250
Zappabertie antes 250
SCONCAT antes 250
smokkee antes 250
andrew1971 antes 250
smokkee posts the small blind of 1,000
andrew1971 posts the big blind of 2,000
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to smokkee [Js Ad]
The_Dean221 folds
trickybstrd-1 folds
gboro780 folds
Cat Woman 2006 folds
bossmanisme folds
Zappabertie folds
SCONCAT folds
bossmanisme is feeling angry
smokkee raises to 14,180, and is all in
The_Dean221: lets just chop now
andrew1971 calls 12,180
smokkee shows [Js Ad]
andrew1971 shows [Kh Qc]
The_Dean221: give Gboro and i 1st and 2nd
*** FLOP *** [Kd 5c Kc]
*** TURN *** [Kd 5c Kc] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [Kd 5c Kc Th] [Td]
smokkee shows two pair, Kings and Tens
andrew1971 shows a full house, Kings full of Tens
andrew1971 wins the pot (30,610) with a full house, Kings full of Tens

smokkee is BUSTOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

i prefer 1st. but, 2nd's not so bad....

i lost a HUGE coin flip with 9-9 vs AJo heads up. otherwise, i woulda finished in 1st. thx to Big_Bobo, Roddy_AA and SLB for railin.

HOLLA !

i just finished 4th in Full Tilt's 14k guaranteed for $1400 cash. it felt good to final table a large MTT again. thx for the support on the rail Don, Lucko, SLB, Dwal and anyone else who i mighta missed.

a good day at the office

i just got back from Ocean's 11. i played their 10am $65 buy-in tourney and busted out just after the first break. i lost a big pot just before the break when i rivered a boat. but, another guy rivered a bigger boat. so, i picked up A8o pushed and prayed. got called by the BB who had KQo and a King hit the flop.

so, on to cash games.

they changed the blind structure again in the 300 NL cash game back to 2/3. i guess there were a bunch of players complaining about the 2/5 blinds. so, i sit down at a table that has some big stacks already. 2 players have over $1k and another guy has doubled up. this doesn't really bother me much tho.

a few hands in, i pick up QQ on the button, pop it to $25 after there are 4 limpers and take it down. a little while later, i pick up AA in the cutoff. again, there are 4 limpers. i pop it to $20 and get one caller. flop comes Qh-Jh-X. i have the Ace of hearts. he checks, i bet out $50 and he calls. turn brings 5d. he checks and i go all-in. there are two big draws out their and i have to protect my hand. he ponders for a while and dumps it. now i've got a little over $400 at the table.

i limp behind a couple of limpers with Qs-Ts. the BB raises it up to $20. one guy calls and i call. flop comes 9-high with 2 spades. BB bets out $40. we both call. turn brings a Q and BB immediately goes all in. the other guy folds and i think about it for a long time. i tell him i have a Q and he quickly says "i got you beat". this guy pulled a squeeze play from the BB in the last orbit and showed down 9-2o after everyone folded. i don't give him credit for much and finally call. there are just too many outs for me to fold. the river brings a spade and i take it down. he says he flopped a set. but, i think he's full of it.

now i've got over $700 at the table in a little over an hour of play. i pick up pocket 4's. limp/call a preflop raise. flop a set and take down another pot. putting me right around $800. later, i pick up QJo from the SB and call a $15 raise behind a couple of players. flop comes Js-Ts-X. i have no spade. i bet out $15 and get one caller. turn brings a blank, i bet out $25 and he calls again. the river bricks. but, i'm a little concerned about the two smooth calls. so, i check. he bets out $50. this is less than half the pot and looks a lot like a value bet. but, he's making this bet on the button after i showed weakness on the river. so, i call and flip my hand. he say's i'm good and mucks it.

so, i play a few more hands until the blinds hit me again and i call it a day. i cashed out $920 for a $620 profit in a 2hr session. a good day for me.

Splashin' around

yesterday, i decided to head down to my local casino, Ocean's 11 to play some cash games. other than going to the gym, i haven't been out much this week.

ya, i'm a degenerate.

they run a 300 NL game there i'm very comfortable with and they recently bumped up the blinds from 2/3 to 2/5. this helps the action. $20 preflop raises are standard now.

i wait around a bit and they open a new table. i luv starting on a fresh table. i get dealt the BB on the first hand (already unlucky) and it gets worse. i pick up J-6o and check the blind with 2 limpers. flop comes J-3-x. i bet out $10 and get one caller. turn brings a 2. i bet out $15 and get called again. river is a 5. i bet $25, get minreraised and call. he flips A-4o for the wheel. he caught a runner/runner gutshot. no pair and no draw on the flop. but, he called the $10 anyway. then picks up the gutshot draw on the turn, hangs around and gets lucky. i drop $80 on the first hand.

not off to a good start.

the table turns out to be pretty lively. i bleed off almost all my chips trying to hit flops with no luck. i haven't played cash games in a while. so, i told myself i'd play one buy-in and leave if i didn't do well.

i get down to my last $33 pick up Ah-5h and limp in EP. this is the best hand i've seen in a while and i'm willing to push with it if there's any preflop action. there's a $20 preflop raise with three callers. so, i push into a 5-way pot with incredible pot odds and hope to get lucky or go home.

flop comes 8-2-3 with two diamonds.

it checks around. another 3 hits the turn and all hell breaks loose. some guy bets out $50, gets reraised and pushes. the other guy folds (????). i guess he had a pocket pair. who fuckin knows. anyway, we're heads up now and i'm praying for a 4 to come. sure enuf it hits the river and i scoop over $160 from the main pot. the other guy had A-3o. that's right folks. cold calling $20 preflop raises with A-rag at this table was not uncommon. i knew if i could catch some cards, i'd get paid.

later, i pick up everyone's fav, AA and limp UTG. i rarely do this. but, i KNEW there was gonna be some preflop action. sure enuf, the button bumps it to $20 and the SB calls. i reraise to $60 which obv commits me. the button calls, SB folds.

flop comes A-2-3 rainbow.

i check and he checks. turn brings a 5. i'm not worried about the straight at all. i know he has a pocket pair. he's been raising every pocket pair he gets in LP and has had trouble folding after the flop. i push the rest of my chips in and say " i don't think you have the Ace". he calls, i show down my set of Aces and he insta-mucks. i double up and get back to even.

then, i go back into chip bleeding mode. i get a lot of good starting hands. but, have to fold to the post flop action after i whiff. after about 3 hrs of this, i run my stack back down to about $160.

i pick up QsJs and limp in MP with two other limpers. normally, i would raise this. but, i was tired of donating to the pot after missing the flop.

flop comes Jc-7h-6h

a player in EP bets out $20 and i smooth call. turn brings a blank and he bets out $50. i knew he had a J and was trying to protect top pair from the flush/straight draw. since there was no preflop raise, i couldn't put him on AJ or KJ. i normally don't like to push with just a pair and no draw after the flop. but, i've seen him play sooted Jacks all day (J-T thru J-8). so, i felt i was ahead and pushed it in. he insta-calls, shows J-T and i double again.

i play a few more orbits and decide to call it a day. i cash out $271 for -$39 on the session. i played over 5hrs and didn't make any money. but, it felt good to splash around in live cash games again.

hopefully, just a speedbump and not a wall

EDIT: (7:55pm EST) i've cashed in 5 of my last 9 $25+2 sng's. so, i'll be hanging there a little longer. i also won a seat into tonight's nightly $100k on Stars ($163 buy-in) through their $11r turbo. i'm in for $41 net.

EDIT: (9:55 pm EST) i just got donkeypunched out of the Stars 100k with AsQs vs. AdTd all in preflop. . . standard














my results after seventy (70) $25+2 turbos are not pretty. i got off to a good start last Thursday, cashing in 6 of my 1st 10 at this level. including, two 1st place finishes.

then, the wheels came off.

Friday and Saturday was horrible. i only cashed 5 times out of the 38 sng's i ran those two days. i had an insane number of 4th and 5th place finishes. they are definitely playing more cautiously at this level (expected). this means, we end up with 1 or 2 guys who have doubled or better, a few who have roughly the same amt of chips and a shorty or two when we get down to 6-7 players. then, it all comes down to timing. when i pushed, i either got called and was dominated or got sucked out on. if i was lucky my hand held. many times, i got it all in as a 60-40 favorite and lose. i felt more like i was the dog when i ran into those situations, knowing they were gonna catch.

i only played 9 sng's on Sunday. but, i cashed in 6 feeling like i was turning it around. then, cashed only 3 times in the next 12 i ran yesterday.

:(

here are my stats:


WTF!




pathetic


lolololol












my charts are a lollercoaster.

















i'm gonna play five (5) more at this level. if i don't cash at least twice in the next five, i'm moving back down to the $15+1's and run 50-100 to rebuild so i can try these again. i've been running some tourneys and taking short breaks in between so these don't get monotonous.

aint no thang

as my buddy Chad suggested, i ran through fifty (50) $15+1 turbo sng's today. i got off to a rough start cashing only once in the first six (6) i ran. then, cashed only three of my next twelve (12). but, had two 1st place finishes.

yeehaw!

then, i went on a tear. cashing 19 out of the next 32 including, nine (9) 1st place finishes. i finished the day with $350 net profit, playing just $15+1 turbos.

here are my stats after (100) $15+1's:













and my favorite chart (profit after 100 $15+1's):









i'm still bubbling too much. but, i think this is due to playing for 1st instead of just to cash. i like to accumulate chips on the bubble so i'm in good shape 3-handed. most of the time i'm pushing in LP when everyone folds to me. sometimes these donks wake up with a hand in the blinds. sometimes, they just get tired of me pushing into them, call with mediocre shit and hit. :P

next up, $25+2's

after almost 2 weeks and 300 sng's...

here are my overall stats. these numbers include (200) $10+1's, (50) $20+2's and (50) $15+1's turbos.













this is my finish detail through 300 sng's.


















after finishing 200 $10+1's, i moved on to $20+2's. the difference is night and day. it wasn't uncommon to go 30-40 minutes before losing the first player at the table and it took forever to get through the bubble, when it got short-handed with 4-6 players. most of the $20+2's took 75-90 minutes to finish. i bubbled way too much trying to force the action with marginal hands. i would just get impatient trying to get ITM. so, i decided to move to $15+1 turbos.

these rarely take an hour to finish. on average, you're done in 45 minutes. the turbos fit my playing style better and i can get through more of these in a shorter amt of time. it took approximately 16 hrs of playing time to get through 50 $20+2's and only 8 hours of playing time to get through 50 $15+1 turbos. i was almost break even at the $20+2's and i'm 16% ROI in the $15+1's after 50. i'm still bubbling way too often. that's something i need to work on.

here are my numbers after the first 50 $20+2's and $15+1 turbos.

$20+2's (SNG4) and $15+1's (SNG5) comparison:













i'm gonna run through another 50 $15+1's. which, should only take a couple of days. then, i'm moving up to $25+2's.

SOLD !

the 1st guy that looked at it, snatched it up for $16,500. i cleaned out the last of my things, told him to take real good care of it and waved goodbye to my black beauty.

i'm selling one of my favorite toys.

http://adcache.collectorcartraderonline.com/10/7/2/87882172.htm

Tina tells me it's time to grow up.