I'm playing the best online tournament of my life right now!
in Online Poker
$10+$1 buy-in, $3K Guarantee prize pool at Royal Vegas Poker.
I applied some of the concepts I learned from Sklansky's Tournament book.
I'm currently 3rd out of 17 players, and we're all in the money already.
I'll post the big hand I played later. Come watch if you're on RVP!! I'm at Table 1.
I applied some of the concepts I learned from Sklansky's Tournament book.
I'm currently 3rd out of 17 players, and we're all in the money already.
I'll post the big hand I played later. Come watch if you're on RVP!! I'm at Table 1.
Comments
ScottyZ
Just started the final table 3rd in chips. 8)
I like to think it is those tips that I gave you that is helping you win, and not Slanksy
Here are some hands that I remembered:
Blind are 25/50. Pick up AdQd in middle position. It's folded to me and I raise to 250. One call and then BB puts us all-in and we fold. He shows KK. Good laydown. 8)
I sat on a stack of 1,100 (started with 1,500) for a couple of levels, and got blinded down to around 800.
I'm around 100 out of 115 players, so I need to make a move. I push it all-in with 88 in mid-late position, win the coin flip and double up.
I pick up Ad9d and limp in from the cutoff. The flop comes T high with two diamonds. I call a bet. The turn is a diamond, and I raise the bet and get called. The river is a rag diamond. It's checked to me and I push it all-in, no callers. I still pick up a nice pot.
I pick up JJ in the SB. Someone in middle position makes a small raise, it's folded to me so I re-raise, and he calls. I sensed weakness since he didn't re-re-raise me if he had QQ, KK or AA. The flop comes JT6. YES!! I check, he bets double the minimum, and I just smooth call. The turn is a rag, I check, he bets the minimum, and I go over the top all-in. He calls with QT, so he's drawing dead. I'm up to around 6K now, the average is just under 8K.
I pick up KQ in mid position and limp in. One of the blinds raises 3x the BB, I call and we're heads up. The flop comes KQx. He bet, I call. The turn is another rag. He bets, I raise, and he calls. The river is a blank. He checks, I push it all-in feeling that I have him beat. He mucks. I'm up to over 10K now, and above the average.
I pick up AKs in middle position and raise it up 5x the BB, the BB calls. The flop is K92 rainbow. He goes all-in, I feel that I have to call and do so. He has KT, and gets no help. I'm around 15K now; in the top 20 out of 60 players.
I pick up AA on the button, perfect cards in perfect position. A couple limpers and I raise 5x the BB. One of the limpers raises, it gets to me and I push it all-in, he calls with AK. I double up huge there. I'm in the top 5 with around 30 players left now.
From then on I just played it cool until the final two tables. At my table, there were a few short stacks which I stole blinds from. They got busted out later on by other players. The last hand before the final table I make a nice score with AA. I made the final table 3rd in chips. I waited for a couple short stacks to get busted before playing any hands.
I busted a guy with KK vs my T2 from the BB. It was folded to the blinds, so he just called and I checked. The flop came two T's and a rag. He bets and I call. The turn is another rag. He bets and I call. The river pairs one of the rags, he goes all-in and it's over for him. If only he raised preflop, he would've still been around and got a higher placing.
I pick up ATs in the cutoff and call a small raise from the player on my right. There's a couple more callers too. The flop is AAx. The raiser bets a moderate amount and I call. The turn is a T, sweet. I raise his bet and he calls. The river is a rag. He goes all-in with A9s and busts out.
Here's a hand that I dislike how I played it and got lucky:
I pick up KK in late position, raise it 4x the BB, and get one caller. The flop comes J high, two suited. Checked to me, so I make a moderate bet to get a call. The turn is an A that makes a three card flush on the board, crap!! Checked to me, so I bet out about 1/3 of his/her stack representing a flush/ace. He/she folded. I got lucky there...
Now we're three handed and I'm third in chips. Here's a bad chase/bluff hand:
I pick up 7d6d in the BB and call the minimum raise by the SB to defend my blind. The flop come two diamonds. SB bets and I cold call. The turn is a rag, same betting and calling as before. I don't hit my diamond on the river. SB checks, and I push my last 50K all-in on a 7 high bluff. He folds. WHEW!!!
I pick up AQs on the button and raise. The SB puts me all-in, and I call since I'm too invested and just hope he doesn't have a pair in the hole. He has AT. I hit a Q and take the chip lead.
Next time I'm on the button, I pick up AT and raise. The SB goes all-in, and I call to knock him out. He has my AQs from before and doubles up. Now we're all sitting with around 200K each.
I wait until one of those guys busts the other, and we're heads up. He has a 2 to 1 chips lead on me. Here's a hand I could've taken the lead with:
I pick up 97s and call the BB. He raises the minimum and I call. The flop comes JT8. I check-call. The turn is a rag. I check-raise and he calls. The river is a 7. I push it all-in knowing full well he didn't raise with Q9. He calls with K9, and we chop. Damn river!!
I didn't get a hand to call his preflop raises with and got blinded to a loss. When I had any decent ace and ready to push it all-in, he folded his SB. I pushed it all in with 66 and nailed a 6 on the flop, but he made a straight on the turn/river.
Comments and opinions are welcome...
Very nice man, $870 is a great payout obviously. I will now fear you next time we sit across from each other at the poker table. Call me up sometime and we'll play
ScottyZ
I would play those 3K tourneys too, but I hate the rebuys and addons. I prefer a 3K freezeout tourney!
Scotty, or anyoen else, could you critique my play when you get a chance? I would like to read your outlook on my no limit tourney playing. Thanks.
Here are a few points to think about.
" I pick up Ad9d and limp in from the cutoff. The flop comes T high with two diamonds. I call a bet. The turn is a diamond, and I raise the bet and get called. The river is a rag diamond. It's checked to me and I push it all-in, no callers. I still pick up a nice pot."
" I pick up KQ in mid position and limp in. One of the blinds raises 3x the BB, I call and we're heads up. The flop comes KQx. He bet, I call. The turn is another rag. He bets, I raise, and he calls. The river is a blank. He checks, I push it all-in feeling that I have him beat. He mucks. I'm up to over 10K now, and above the average."
without knowing what the stack sizes and blinds are here I can only make a general comment.
- with these hands I want my river bet to be at least called. Dont push all in(assuming you have a decent amount of chips) sell your hand for a price that will be called.
-in online tournaments with small buyins and large fields a player that pushs all in after the river card is rarely bluffing. ( I noticed that you did bluff in this way later)
"I wait until one of those guys busts the other, and we're heads up. He has a 2 to 1 chips lead on me."
Why are you waiting?
Get involved, play some hands, steal some pots, do something and you could be heads up with the 2-1 chip lead.
Also, with the 3 handed situation, when all players have about equal stacks, I agree that there's no reason to go into a shell and wait for a player to bust out. There are some situations where you *can* do this, but this is generally only done if someone is on a very short stack.
As for heads-up, I am trying to read *way* between the lines here, but if I had to guess, I'd say that you probably got run over when it was heads-up because you didn't loosen up your starting requirements enough. Sklansky has a pretty good description of heads-up strategy in "Holdem Poker for Advanced Players".
You seemed to indicate that you were waiting for a hand like a "decent Ace" to enter a hand. Your starting requirements heads-up have to be much broader than this.
Also, saying that you "didn't get a hand to call his preflop raises" indicates that you may have been playing too passively. In addition to defending your blinds by calling more liberally when it's heads-up, you are also going to have to be *re-raising* those pre-flop raises quite a bit more than usual. And you certainly don't need to wait for a good starting hand to re-raise pre-flop with.
In the hand where you had KK and the turn was a 3-suited Ace, was one of your Kings the flush suit? If so, I like checking the turn. If not, I'm not sure about betting 1/3 of your stack (depending on the exact pot size and stack sizes). I don't mean to imply shouldn't have done this; I mean I'm literally not sure what a good play there is.
ScottyZ
Also, it is not like the jump from 3rd to 2nd in the payout will change your life, so in this case I may step up my agressiveness to take advantage of those who want to get the top 2 payouts. This would obviously work better on the bubble.
Well, Dick Hertz made that particular comment so he should get credit for it... I just swiped it from him.
ScottyZ
In the KK hand with 3-suited Ace on the board, neither of my kings was of the suit.
My playing three-handed and heads up game still needs lots of work, I already knew that from before. The difference between 3rd and 2nd place was like $300, so I didn't mind kind of waiting for one of them to bust out. But then again the difference between 2nd and 1st was almost $500. Oh well...
Playing heads up: When he had anywhere from a "5-to-8" to 1 chip lead on me, I was looking for any decent ace/strong king to push it all-in preflop. I'm sure that's not good strategy, and I really need to re-read Sklansky's book on that section.
Thanks for all of the comments and suggestions, they're helping me learn...
Me too.
I've found that the $5 + $0.50 one table Sit-n-go's at PokerStars to be great for practising final table play, especially 4-, 3-, and 2-handed. (You've already made it to the final table just by entering the tournament.) 8)
ScottyZ
Well done
Congrats Jay!
w00t w00t