OK, Need a Bit of Help in These Rebuys
I have to be doing something wrong at this point though I am baffled what if anything I can do about it. So far this year I have participated in the Pokerstars 10+1 rebuy 18 times. I have made it into the money 2 times, had a very bad tournament once (even forgot to add on in that one) and the other 15 times I have finished between 100th and 250th just out of the money. I have over 1000 tournament points so far this year and about 75% of them are from tournaments where I did not finish in the money :rolleyes: .
My chip counts at various times have ranged from low to very high but when push comes to shove bad things start happening when the blinds hit 1000/2000 (usually 250-300ish left when that blind level starts) even though I am usually in a very dominating position when I play a hand.
I play very few hands after the rebuy period - 15% at most. I will sit and wait for the right hand or right chance against the proper opponent. I win few pots after the rebuy period but they are almost always healthy pots, however I do find that unless I hit multiple big hands it is hard for me to have a HUGE stack as opposed to an average or often slightly below average. Many times I do get somewhat blinded out though it seems whenever I try to steal blinds (even if I barely play any hands) I will run into players who will reraise or call with KJ, A7, 22 and unless I hit a flop it is hard to know where I stand against these loose players.
And that is the problem I am beginning to sense. Yes, I am the dominant favorite most of the time due to my selective tight play, but the problem is if you rely on that situation to earn your chips on the 5-6 hands an hour you play it is unlikely you will win them all as even the odds of winning two 3-1 favorite situations in a row are only a bit better then 50/50.
I apologize if this is a bit rambling. This has been an insanely long bubble streak I am on (it is even worse if I include some of the other tournaments I have played in). While I do have confidence in my general skill, I can't help but wonder if I am trapping myself in a bubble boy style of play where I always make it to the top 20% or so but not much further past.
I will present some of the key hands for me in this rebuy tonight, maybe they can help shed some light and general feedback on this bubble syndrome is appreciated as well.
The rebuy period had me gaining few chips though it featured the strangest style of play I have ever seen. Just when you think you have seen it all - here comes a player who limps in every hand, will fold to a raise preflop and will literally bet or raise all in post flop every time. Was seriously the strangest thing I have ever seen, he got me when I limped in with QQ he called flop J 9 2 I bet 30 he shoves, I call and his 35 hits runner runner. I don't mean that to be a bad beat story so much as it was bizarre seeing someone doing that POST flop over and over and actually winning (he was almost never a favorite when called though ended up the rebuy period with 17,000 chips with 0 rebuys - he did not make it to the next break though).
Sorry for that sidetrack, it was truly bizarre to watch. After the rebuy period I have 5500 chips and about 6500 after the 2nd hour .
After hour 2 is when I seriously look for the breaks as that is when many start getting much more agressive as the blinds increase. I was well below average on chips when I got this break blinds were 300/600
Dealt to Monteroy [Ks Kh]
all fold to SB
John3:16: raises 8905 to 9505 and is all-in
Monteroy: calls 5368 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [9d 4c 9h]
*** TURN *** [9d 4c 9h] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [9d 4c 9h Jc] [Th]
John3:16: shows [2h Kc] (a pair of Nines)
Monteroy: shows [Ks Kh] (two pair, Kings and Nines)
Monteroy collected 12386 from pot
Was a nice gift.
Literally the very next hand I faced this and I think this is where I potentially made an error. I took a while to fold this hand. Keep in mind the table was very tight up to this point.
Seat 1: mikejg (6105 in chips)
Seat 2: harleybum68 (6446 in chips)
Seat 3: deadeye35 (22358 in chips)
Seat 4: seaplayer (11162 in chips)
Seat 5: lakefront (14274 in chips)
Seat 6: deileon (3478 in chips)
Seat 7: John3:16 (3537 in chips)
Seat 8: Monteroy (12386 in chips)
Seat 9: KingKong28 (13234 in chips)
antes of 50
Monteroy: posts small blind 400
KingKong28: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monteroy [Qd Qs]
mikejg: raises 5255 to 6055 and is all-in
harleybum68: raises 341 to 6396 and is all-in
deadeye35: folds
seaplayer: folds
lakefront: folds
deileon: folds
John3:16: folds
Monteroy: folds
KingKong28: folds
*** FLOP *** [4h 3h Js]
*** TURN *** [4h 3h Js] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [4h 3h Js 2c] [8c]
mikejg: shows [Ts Ad] (high card Ace)
harleybum68: shows [As Kh] (high card Ace - King kicker)
harleybum68 collected 13760 from pot
Obviously I felt stupid after, very stupid, but these were two fairly tight players up to this point.
The table closed after that hand and I got moved. I did not play a hand for about 15 hands when I tried my first blind steal attempt of the night
PokerStars Game #1176098891: Tournament #4953291, Hold'em No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2005/02/06 - 00:57:42 (ET)
Table '4953291 79' Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: TylerK (36402 in chips)
Seat 2: DarkTremor (57487 in chips)
Seat 3: hoss4321 (16553 in chips)
Seat 4: Opc101 (31744 in chips)
Seat 5: Monteroy (8636 in chips)
Seat 6: Schism (9110 in chips)
Seat 7: COMP46 (31715 in chips)
Seat 8: ready4action (20050 in chips)
Seat 9: cejones (4368 in chips)
antes of 50
COMP46: posts small blind 400
ready4action: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monteroy [7h 8h]
cejones: folds
TylerK: folds
DarkTremor: folds
hoss4321: folds
Opc101: folds
Monteroy: raises 1600 to 2400
Schism: folds
COMP46: folds
ready4action: raises 1600 to 4000
Monteroy: calls 1600
*** FLOP *** [4d Td 4c]
ready4action: bets 16000 and is all-in
Monteroy: folds
ready4action collected 8850 from pot
It did not go as planned. The reraise hurt because it was hard to fold 1600 more with 7000+ in the pot. I am not an expert as to when to steal blinds,so I can't help but wonder if I blundered here (ie: should have folded or shoved)
Needless to say I was fairly crippled at this point. I then faced the thrill of having 2.5 BBs worth of chips posting a BB staring at 2 8 off and facing an all in raise. I sort of had pot odds to call but I folded and maybe that is a mistake as well.
Nonetheless tonight I did get a few miracles sort of when blinds moved to 1k/2k with 2400 I went all in with JJ and got 1 caller and the BB to call so that put me up to 9k chips or so which was nice then I took my chances with this
Dealt to Monteroy [9h 9c]
stjm64: folds
wreks: calls 2000 (30k stack)
mm-nh: calls 2000 (100k stack VERY loose player)
Monteroy: raises 7688 to 9688 and is all-in
BIGDADYG: folds
fisherman T: folds
twonohitters: folds
RiverRattler: folds
wreks: folds
mm-nh: calls 7688
*** FLOP *** [4h Ts 9d]
*** TURN *** [4h Ts 9d] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [4h Ts 9d Kh] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mm-nh: shows [Js Qs] (a straight, Nine to King)
Monteroy: shows [9h 9c] (a full house, Nines full of Kings)
Monteroy collected 19224 from side pot
omwttt: shows [5h 8s] (a pair of Kings) (forced all in BB)
Monteroy collected 4840 from main pot
I knew the very loose player would call, and he may have been right in calling (though I am not a fan of the QJ limp).
My stack was a better 24k or so after this with about 200 people to go and money for 135 and the table had a very loose player and another that my notes were CALLING STATION (and I rarely use all caps).
It was against the calling station that I played my final hand
PokerStars Game #1176201051: Tournament #4953291, Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (1000/2000) - 2005/02/06 - 01:21:56 (ET)
Seat 1: Monteroy (20464 in chips)
Seat 3: fisherman T (64868 in chips)
ante of 100
twonohitters: posts small blind 1000
RiverRattler: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monteroy [Qd Ac]
justbeatit: folds
stjm64: folds
wreks: folds
mm-nh: folds
Monteroy: raises 4000 to 6000
BIGDADYG: folds
fisherman T: calls 6000
twonohitters: folds
RiverRattler: folds
*** FLOP *** [7c Qc 5s]
Monteroy: bets 2000
fisherman T: calls 2000
*** TURN *** [7c Qc 5s] [9h]
Monteroy: bets 4000
fisherman T: calls 4000
*** RIVER *** [7c Qc 5s 9h] [Th]
Monteroy: bets 8364 and is all-in
fisherman T: calls 8364
twonohitters said, "damn, KQ"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Monteroy: shows [Qd Ac] (a pair of Queens)
fisherman T: shows [Jh Kh] (a straight, Nine to King)
fisherman T collected 44628 from pot
In many ways I hate the way I played this and in others I like it. Against an unknown player I would just shove on that flop and be happy to take my 10k winnings (or hope he had KQ), but I knew this guy would call with almost nothing if I did not force it which is why I bet smaller hoping to milk more from him. Oops. The annoying thing is I think my bets actually allowed him to make technically the right calls (assuming he tought a K was an out) post flop there as he was only a 6-1 underdog at any given time (well actually a bit worse as another player folded a K). Oh, he also let his timer go down 45 seconds after my all in bet on the river before calling with the nuts - classy.
I apologize if this post comes accross as whiny or bad beatlike, as that is not my intent. I admit I am at my wits end with the endless run of bubbling and I am trying to figure out a way to break through it. My chips are in when I am a favorite nearly every time but that by itself is not enough it seems as I am wondering if there are just too few times per tournament where I do that.
Anyways, any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.
My chip counts at various times have ranged from low to very high but when push comes to shove bad things start happening when the blinds hit 1000/2000 (usually 250-300ish left when that blind level starts) even though I am usually in a very dominating position when I play a hand.
I play very few hands after the rebuy period - 15% at most. I will sit and wait for the right hand or right chance against the proper opponent. I win few pots after the rebuy period but they are almost always healthy pots, however I do find that unless I hit multiple big hands it is hard for me to have a HUGE stack as opposed to an average or often slightly below average. Many times I do get somewhat blinded out though it seems whenever I try to steal blinds (even if I barely play any hands) I will run into players who will reraise or call with KJ, A7, 22 and unless I hit a flop it is hard to know where I stand against these loose players.
And that is the problem I am beginning to sense. Yes, I am the dominant favorite most of the time due to my selective tight play, but the problem is if you rely on that situation to earn your chips on the 5-6 hands an hour you play it is unlikely you will win them all as even the odds of winning two 3-1 favorite situations in a row are only a bit better then 50/50.
I apologize if this is a bit rambling. This has been an insanely long bubble streak I am on (it is even worse if I include some of the other tournaments I have played in). While I do have confidence in my general skill, I can't help but wonder if I am trapping myself in a bubble boy style of play where I always make it to the top 20% or so but not much further past.
I will present some of the key hands for me in this rebuy tonight, maybe they can help shed some light and general feedback on this bubble syndrome is appreciated as well.
The rebuy period had me gaining few chips though it featured the strangest style of play I have ever seen. Just when you think you have seen it all - here comes a player who limps in every hand, will fold to a raise preflop and will literally bet or raise all in post flop every time. Was seriously the strangest thing I have ever seen, he got me when I limped in with QQ he called flop J 9 2 I bet 30 he shoves, I call and his 35 hits runner runner. I don't mean that to be a bad beat story so much as it was bizarre seeing someone doing that POST flop over and over and actually winning (he was almost never a favorite when called though ended up the rebuy period with 17,000 chips with 0 rebuys - he did not make it to the next break though).
Sorry for that sidetrack, it was truly bizarre to watch. After the rebuy period I have 5500 chips and about 6500 after the 2nd hour .
After hour 2 is when I seriously look for the breaks as that is when many start getting much more agressive as the blinds increase. I was well below average on chips when I got this break blinds were 300/600
Dealt to Monteroy [Ks Kh]
all fold to SB
John3:16: raises 8905 to 9505 and is all-in
Monteroy: calls 5368 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [9d 4c 9h]
*** TURN *** [9d 4c 9h] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [9d 4c 9h Jc] [Th]
John3:16: shows [2h Kc] (a pair of Nines)
Monteroy: shows [Ks Kh] (two pair, Kings and Nines)
Monteroy collected 12386 from pot
Was a nice gift.
Literally the very next hand I faced this and I think this is where I potentially made an error. I took a while to fold this hand. Keep in mind the table was very tight up to this point.
Seat 1: mikejg (6105 in chips)
Seat 2: harleybum68 (6446 in chips)
Seat 3: deadeye35 (22358 in chips)
Seat 4: seaplayer (11162 in chips)
Seat 5: lakefront (14274 in chips)
Seat 6: deileon (3478 in chips)
Seat 7: John3:16 (3537 in chips)
Seat 8: Monteroy (12386 in chips)
Seat 9: KingKong28 (13234 in chips)
antes of 50
Monteroy: posts small blind 400
KingKong28: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monteroy [Qd Qs]
mikejg: raises 5255 to 6055 and is all-in
harleybum68: raises 341 to 6396 and is all-in
deadeye35: folds
seaplayer: folds
lakefront: folds
deileon: folds
John3:16: folds
Monteroy: folds
KingKong28: folds
*** FLOP *** [4h 3h Js]
*** TURN *** [4h 3h Js] [2c]
*** RIVER *** [4h 3h Js 2c] [8c]
mikejg: shows [Ts Ad] (high card Ace)
harleybum68: shows [As Kh] (high card Ace - King kicker)
harleybum68 collected 13760 from pot
Obviously I felt stupid after, very stupid, but these were two fairly tight players up to this point.
The table closed after that hand and I got moved. I did not play a hand for about 15 hands when I tried my first blind steal attempt of the night
PokerStars Game #1176098891: Tournament #4953291, Hold'em No Limit - Level X (400/800) - 2005/02/06 - 00:57:42 (ET)
Table '4953291 79' Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: TylerK (36402 in chips)
Seat 2: DarkTremor (57487 in chips)
Seat 3: hoss4321 (16553 in chips)
Seat 4: Opc101 (31744 in chips)
Seat 5: Monteroy (8636 in chips)
Seat 6: Schism (9110 in chips)
Seat 7: COMP46 (31715 in chips)
Seat 8: ready4action (20050 in chips)
Seat 9: cejones (4368 in chips)
antes of 50
COMP46: posts small blind 400
ready4action: posts big blind 800
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monteroy [7h 8h]
cejones: folds
TylerK: folds
DarkTremor: folds
hoss4321: folds
Opc101: folds
Monteroy: raises 1600 to 2400
Schism: folds
COMP46: folds
ready4action: raises 1600 to 4000
Monteroy: calls 1600
*** FLOP *** [4d Td 4c]
ready4action: bets 16000 and is all-in
Monteroy: folds
ready4action collected 8850 from pot
It did not go as planned. The reraise hurt because it was hard to fold 1600 more with 7000+ in the pot. I am not an expert as to when to steal blinds,so I can't help but wonder if I blundered here (ie: should have folded or shoved)
Needless to say I was fairly crippled at this point. I then faced the thrill of having 2.5 BBs worth of chips posting a BB staring at 2 8 off and facing an all in raise. I sort of had pot odds to call but I folded and maybe that is a mistake as well.
Nonetheless tonight I did get a few miracles sort of when blinds moved to 1k/2k with 2400 I went all in with JJ and got 1 caller and the BB to call so that put me up to 9k chips or so which was nice then I took my chances with this
Dealt to Monteroy [9h 9c]
stjm64: folds
wreks: calls 2000 (30k stack)
mm-nh: calls 2000 (100k stack VERY loose player)
Monteroy: raises 7688 to 9688 and is all-in
BIGDADYG: folds
fisherman T: folds
twonohitters: folds
RiverRattler: folds
wreks: folds
mm-nh: calls 7688
*** FLOP *** [4h Ts 9d]
*** TURN *** [4h Ts 9d] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [4h Ts 9d Kh] [Ks]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
mm-nh: shows [Js Qs] (a straight, Nine to King)
Monteroy: shows [9h 9c] (a full house, Nines full of Kings)
Monteroy collected 19224 from side pot
omwttt: shows [5h 8s] (a pair of Kings) (forced all in BB)
Monteroy collected 4840 from main pot
I knew the very loose player would call, and he may have been right in calling (though I am not a fan of the QJ limp).
My stack was a better 24k or so after this with about 200 people to go and money for 135 and the table had a very loose player and another that my notes were CALLING STATION (and I rarely use all caps).
It was against the calling station that I played my final hand
PokerStars Game #1176201051: Tournament #4953291, Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (1000/2000) - 2005/02/06 - 01:21:56 (ET)
Seat 1: Monteroy (20464 in chips)
Seat 3: fisherman T (64868 in chips)
ante of 100
twonohitters: posts small blind 1000
RiverRattler: posts big blind 2000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monteroy [Qd Ac]
justbeatit: folds
stjm64: folds
wreks: folds
mm-nh: folds
Monteroy: raises 4000 to 6000
BIGDADYG: folds
fisherman T: calls 6000
twonohitters: folds
RiverRattler: folds
*** FLOP *** [7c Qc 5s]
Monteroy: bets 2000
fisherman T: calls 2000
*** TURN *** [7c Qc 5s] [9h]
Monteroy: bets 4000
fisherman T: calls 4000
*** RIVER *** [7c Qc 5s 9h] [Th]
Monteroy: bets 8364 and is all-in
fisherman T: calls 8364
twonohitters said, "damn, KQ"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Monteroy: shows [Qd Ac] (a pair of Queens)
fisherman T: shows [Jh Kh] (a straight, Nine to King)
fisherman T collected 44628 from pot
In many ways I hate the way I played this and in others I like it. Against an unknown player I would just shove on that flop and be happy to take my 10k winnings (or hope he had KQ), but I knew this guy would call with almost nothing if I did not force it which is why I bet smaller hoping to milk more from him. Oops. The annoying thing is I think my bets actually allowed him to make technically the right calls (assuming he tought a K was an out) post flop there as he was only a 6-1 underdog at any given time (well actually a bit worse as another player folded a K). Oh, he also let his timer go down 45 seconds after my all in bet on the river before calling with the nuts - classy.
I apologize if this post comes accross as whiny or bad beatlike, as that is not my intent. I admit I am at my wits end with the endless run of bubbling and I am trying to figure out a way to break through it. My chips are in when I am a favorite nearly every time but that by itself is not enough it seems as I am wondering if there are just too few times per tournament where I do that.
Anyways, any suggestions are appreciated. Thank you.