So I jumped back into the poker pond last weekend.

PokerStars is having an interesting promotion for the World Series of Poker.  You can win a seat to the Main Event ($10,000 Buy in)  plus $2,500 spending money, and hotel accomodations during the event, for as little as $7.50, or even free by using 500 FPP’s (Frequent Player Points).

It works by playing in a series of single table sit-n-go’s. (9 players)

You start at step one (With the $7.50 or 500 FPP buy in).  If you take first or second place, you proceed to step 2,  then if you take first or second on step 2, you proceed to step 3, and so on.   Eventually, if you can make it, you’ll get to step 6.

At step 6, first place (again a single table, so we’re talking 9 players) wins the package.  2nd & 3rd place win $1,500, 4th & 5th place $1,000  and 6th pays $500.

The steps are explained in the graphic below, and there’s more information on how it works on the poker stars website here.

So far the best I’ve done is step 3,  that’s where I am as of this writing, if I make it to step 6 I’ll be sure to post it on the blog. 

Sometimes you need to step away from the game and take a break, and that’s what I’ve been doing.   I’m using this time to clear my head, do a little reading, and come back to the game with a fresh start in another few weeks.

Until then I’ll post an article or two about some interesting books and other promotional events going on in the poker-sphere.

I played in a $33 buy-in event,  198 players.

I was almost knocked out in the first 10 mins when some bozo sucked out on me with pocket 8’s.  Putting me in dead last place with 186 left, and leaving me with 295 chips.

Somehow I held on,  and about an hour later had the pleasure of taking the very same bozo out when the flop came down with Q-10-2.  I had Q-10, giving me two pair.  He bets large,  I think about it,  and push all in.   What did he call with?   4-5 off suit.   i.e. ZERO.. nothing.  Not a raise (bluff) with nothing, but a call with nothing.   It’s astonishing how bad some players online are. 

After that I was able to stay in the top 20 the rest of the tournament.

I make it to the final table,  (top 9)  top prize in this one is $1,782, and I reach the final table in 6th place.

Alas, it was not mean’t to be as I made a move a pot and a guy makes a very questionable call that takes me out of the tounament:

I had Ace-Jack spades,  I raise pre-flop, he calls.

The flop comes down Q-spades, 7-spades, 2-hearts.

I push All in… and he Calls….

WITH NOTHING.   A-K offsuit,  No spade.

I couldn’t believe it,  again some guy risks the entire tournament with Nada, at the final table even!

With 2 cards to come, and 12 outs that can win it for me,  I of course get no help.  neither a jack or spade came on the turn or river, and the guys Ace-King held.   I could have a pair of 2’s, and he would have been out,  unbelievable.

So I take 10th, and $100 bucks.   Just out of the big prize money again.

I’m coming close, and soon hope to have a report with some good news.  

I also think I may be playing these things a little too tight. 

At the final table everyone was folding, it was super tight.  And there was one large stack stealing blinds right and left. 

It’s a fine line between using leverage, and playing too laggy (Loose-Aggressive),  I believe my game has drifted a bit to the tight-tight side of the isle, so I’ll try to leverage a few more hands in the next tournament.

Note: I’m not going to post the $100 win in the $300 challenge,  since I’m no longer doing the sit-n-go challenge, it’s pretty meaningless (see the “I’m not a grinder post below”)  I’ll try to come up with a better metric to gauge my progress soon.

Another tough session in Sit-N-Go Hell on Poker Stars tonight.

After all was said and done, I ended up down $66.15 for the night.

I took a few 3rds, and a 1st in the single table $6.50 Turbo Sit-N-Go’s,  and didn’t finish in the money in a few 3 and 5 table Sit-N-Gos.

It was the same old story,  I played well, and time and time again I was either sucked out on,  or would make moves and get called down by clueless players.  

The suckouts started fast and furious,  three times in a row I lost with KK,  twice to lower pairs,  and once to some bozo calling with K-10 off who hits a straight.   I also lost quite a few hands where the players were calling down boards they had no business being in,  situations where some guy is holding pocket 77’s, and with a flop of something like K-Q-9,  will call my big continuation bets,  totally oblivous to my what I might have, or even be representing.

As the evening wore on, my game got worse.  I started limping more,  bluffing more, etc. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not a grinder.   I already knew I wasn’t a cash game grinder.  You know, those guys who play at a $2-$4 table all night, hoping to squeeze out some kinda edge after an 18 hour session.   Sure its fun to play in cash games every once in awhile with your friends, or if you’re at the Bellagio in Vegas or something,  but night in, and night out,  no thanks.

And it turns out,  playing in these rinky dinky 9 player turbo Sit-N-Go’s,  that’s also grinding.  Just a different form of grinding,  you’re grinding away hoping for those top 3 finishes and a good ROI.

Not for me,  I just can’t take the statistically expected swarm of suckout after suckout that’s required to play like that,  sure others can,  (Congrats Beanmo)  but it’s not where I’ve had success, and it’s not my style of play.   I think my game actually gets WORSE grinding in these Sit-N-Gos, not better.   And the players, especially at the $6.50 level are terrible,  they are almost all gambling Donks.

I know I can do well in the larger fielded tournaments, with larger buy-ins,  larger starting chip stacks, slower blinds.  That’s where I’ve done well in the past,  and it’s where the heart of my game is, so that’s what I’m going back to.

It pretty much invalidates the entire idea of the $300 challenge though,  So I’m not sure what to do about that, I suppose I’ll keep the counter on there just so people can track my progress as I ease back into the real tournaments,  however it’s going to be more erratic,  and baring a lucky win the next time I play, I’ll have to reload pretty soon.

So back to the real tournaments,  with the non agressive blind schedules, better players,  less hectic play,  and lucrative payout structures. 

What a strange evening.

For the first time ever,  Pokerstars crashed on me while I was playing online.

I had (3) single table Sit-N-Gos, and a 45 player tourmanet going at once, when BLAMO…  frozen tables… no connection.

I tried for 30 mins to reconnect,  I couldn’t even log onto the Pokerstars website from either of my two machines.  Everything else worked, email, the web, IM, but Pokerstars was down.  However, my brother was able to log on from Chicago,  so I knew it must of been some sort of west coast issue.

As I frantically tried to get back onto my tournaments, I get an email from PS telling me I took 3rd place (and $10 bucks) in one of my single table Sit-N-Gos.  not bad for not playing!  hmmm maybe I should give this strategy a shot.

The real bummer was that in the 45 player tourney, I had just doubled up before I lost connection with around 40 players left.

FINALLY… after about 30 minutes I’m able to get back on.

The other Sit-N-Gos are history,  however the 45 player tournament is still live,  and there are 15 players left,  and I’m in 15th place.   I wasn’t blinded out!

Almost immediatly I get AK, push all in, and double up against some Donk calling with A-7.  (You should never call a push with Ace trash, the reason being the person pushing almost always has a pair over your trash card, or even worse, Ace 10 thru Ace King).

The double up keeps me alive, and by some miracle I make it to the final table,  then to the money (top seven),  then to the final three,  then heads up, and then… 

I win it!  

Woot!   Ok it was just $70 bucks,  but not bad for a guy who didn’t even play in the tournament for 30 minutes.

While it wasn’t a lot of money, it was one of my more satisfying wins of late.

The evening started out well enough,  I did very well in the $6.50 turbo Sit-N-Gos,  taking two 1sts, two 2nds, and a 3rd out of 8 tournaments.

But then I pressed my luck, in the search for the Big Enchilada again.

I entered the $109 Buy-In event,  500 players this time, $8,000 for first place,  and did horrible,  I think I finished around 425 or 420.

That, followed by taking 6th in a 45 person $33 buy-in Sit-N-Go  (top 4 paid), put me at a big negative for the evening.

I’m going to have to get back to basics, and just stick with the single table cheapy Sit-n-Gos,  they bore the heck out of me, but if I’m going to do this, and prove it can be done,  it’s time to start being more disciplined about the tournaments I’m choosing to play in.

So I jumped back into the poker pond this weekend and resumed the $300 challenge.

However I really wasn’t in the mood to grind it out playing dozens of tiny turbo sit-n-gos.  I know that’s the mission of the $300 challenge, to try to have long term gains based on positive ROI,  however I believe if you’re not in the mood to grind, then you shouldn’t play them on a particular session.

I was in the mood to play in a longer, slower, bigger tournament for a large cash payout,  so I played in the $55 Buy-In event at 2pm Sunday on Poker Stars, and decided to take a shot at the BIG ENCHILADA!

I love this event, first, I won it almost a year ago in early May of 2007, my biggest tournament win ever ($11,280),  and second, you start with twice the normal stack, $3,000 in chips,  this combined with the slower blinds (every 15 minutes) really allows for skillful play for a good portion of the tournament.

We started with 1,520 people,  with the top 252 players making the cash, and first prize paying $13,000.

The first hour was pretty uneventfull, I played it really tight, but then right before the first break I got, well, a break;   I was dealt 6-9 offsuit on the big blind,  a few players limped in, the button min raises, the blinds were still very small, I believe $25-$50,  so throwing in another $25 on the BB was worth it.  

The Flop comes up…

7-8-A  rainbow.

I couldn’t ask for much better considering my garbage hand.     I check the flop, everyone else folds,  the min-raiser makes a small raise, $100 chips.   I figure the pot odds are pretty good so I call, everyone else folds.

The Turn was my bingo card,  a beautiful 5 of clubs,  giving me (so far) the nuts.

I check,  min raiser bets $500,  I re-raise $1000,  he goes all in, I call.

Predictably, he had an Ace,  Ace Queen, he never saw the straight coming.    The river was a useless deuce, and I double up right before the break.    It’s rare that you get a hand like that,  but when it happens you usually double up on someone.  However, he should have known I had something by the mere fact that I was on the big blind, and the flop was raggy.   Always be aware of BB or SB limpers when raggy flops come up,  odds are they hit a piece of it, or maybe even a monster with some sort of goofy straight like I had.

The next hour or two were uneventful,  I bluffed a few pots,  and was the benefit of a small suckout when I called a short stacks All In with 77.  It was only 20% of my stack so I figured it was a good call,  he shows 88,  but I river the 3rd 7. 

I make the money (Top 252) in around 150th place.  

From here on out it gets into push/fold territory for most of the stacks,  If you’re sitting on less than 10 big blinds, it’s really the only move you have.   

When it gets down to the top 100,  I’m in trouble.  A few times I push all in, and win the blinds on some cold stone bluffs,  one in particular was a situation where a large stack was trying to push me off after limping in the BB with 55.  The flop comes up A-K-K.   He bets,  I push All In.  he thinks.. and thinks.. .and thinks.. and folds.   Even though if he had called, he would have been ok,  I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a damn thing and was just trying to bully me out of the pot.   The reason I pushed All In is because of a lesson I’ve learned about a flop like tht,  if it’s down to you, and one other player,  and you see a flop with 2 high pairs, such as AA thru 10-10, or even 9-9,  if someone has the 3rd card to make the set, they NEVER.. EVER…NEVER…EVER bet the pot.  99.9% of the players you face will slow-play that hand,  so a bet is a sign of a pure bluff.   I’ve re-raised these bluff attemps maybe 100 times since I figured this out, both online and in real life, and only ONCE did the other guy have the set.

I make it to the top 60, but in big trouble,  I’m right around the bottom, in 57th or 58th, and down to 5 Big Blinds,  finally I had to make a stand with Ace-3 Clubs,  I push all in, hoping to steal the blinds.  All fold around to the big blind, who calls with King-King.  I don’t pop an ace, and finish in 51st place, for a cash payout of $130.98.    I think I made the right choice on pushing with the Ace-3 Cubs,  I suppose you can debate that, however I was on the verge of being blinded out,  and it was just bad luck that the BB picked up KK.  Had he he not, I’m pretty sure I could have stolen the blinds there, and gained some ammunition to survive another orbit.

So I ended up around $75 for the day.   A good day for the $300 challenge,  however a very disappointing end to the tournament.  I know finishing 51st out of 1,500 people isn’t bad,  however the real money ($1,000 and up) started with the top 18.    Over the past year I’ve come so tantalizingly close to the big money,  I would guess this is about the 10th time I’ve finished just out of reach of the final table in one of these big multi-table tournaments.

The Big Enchilada will have to wait for another day,  meanwhile, the $300 challenge awaits.

If you play a lot of poker, sooner or later you come to aquire a lot of URL’s to helpfull websites, I thought I would share three usefull sites with you, hopefully you’ll find these pretty usefull.

Sharkscope

By far one of the best player databases online.  Here you can search players on a number of sites to see how they do in Sit-N-Gos.  You can see historicial graphs, their most recent tournaments, ROI, avg buy-in, and more.   There are also some really good instructional videos you can “purchase” (or unlock) by some of the better online players,  I’ve watched four of “Beanmo“’s videos on single table Sit-N-Gos, and they’ve been a huge help.

Las Vegas Poker Tournaments

Are you going to Vegas, and you want to play in a tournament?  Maybe it’s a small $40 buy in event,  or perhaps you want to play in the big $500 event at the Venetian on Saturday?.   Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to see a master list of every poker tournament in Las Vegas?   Well that’s what this site is about.  Instead of spending hours going to individual Casino websites, you can quickly see every tournament on any particular day,  with buy-in amounts, player skill levels,  chip levels and so on.   If you’re going to Las Vegas to play in some tournaments, I highly recommend printing this guide out for the days you will be there.

Full Tilt Poker Pro Tips Archive

Full Tilt is a poker site, but on their site there’s a wealth of information from many of the big pro’s.  Chris (Jesus) Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, Jennifer Harman, Andy Bloch and many more.   The tips are updated constantly,  it’s almost like a mini blog of tips from some of the best Pros in the game.  Good reading to pick up some tips here and there and improve your game.

I hope you find these sites usefull,  there are many more good ones out there that I’ll be highlighting on Poker Adept from time to time.

Well on my 2nd night, the $300 challenge almost came to a screeching halt.

I started on the $6.50 single table Sit-N-Go’s, as planned,   and after a few hours was only able to get a few 3rd places and I think one 2nd.   I took a break, and then played some more,  and then… it happened.

The Meltdown.

This has been happening a lot to me,  and it’s always caused by a stream of bad beats.

Not one bad beat, not two,  not even three,  but four…five…six in a row.   By the sixth or seventh suckout I’m steaming, on mega tilt,  and am playing in larger stakes games chasing my losses, which is stupid, and totally against my plan.

I don’t know if I’m the unluckiest person in 2008, or if Pokerstars is rigged, or what the hell, but I swear to god I get way…waaaay…waaay more than my fair share of bad beats.   Sure, I expect to be sucked out on once in awhile,  and sure,  I even benefit from the bad beat sometimes as well.   But in the past 3-4 months, I’ve had over a dozen sessions where the bad beats come in an endless stream, hour after hour, and this is what happened last night. 

Here was a classic Hand,  this illustrates what I had to deal with, and keep in mind this hand, was after a half dozen or so other bad beats very similar to it.

I’m in a NL Texas head-head tournament,  I win round one.   and this is DESPITE surviving a few bad beats by the other guy in the first round.

So here I am,  final round of the head-head.  Winner takes All.

I get KJ off suit,  I limp in.  

The Flop…King-7-2  Rainbow.

I bet large,  other guy calls.

The Turn….Jack.

I now have 2 pair,  KK and JJ.    I bet large…  the other guy?  GOES ALL IN.

I think about it, and call.

What does the Genius have?  can you guess?   I’ll tell you.   He had Queen - 7 offsuit!

That’s right, this idiot goes ALL IN with a pair of sevens, even though there is a King and a Jack on the board.

Now the best part… can you guess the river?      yes… another Seven,  giving the genius 7-7-7 and the tournament and the cash.

When this sort of thing happens to me, it just drives me insane.  Again, I understand that bad beats are part of the game,  in fact, we WANT people to call with garbage, and part of the price of doing business is to lose some to some of those crappy crappy hands.   But 6…7…8 times in a row?     That’s enough to put Ghandi on tilt.

Anyways,  I got stupid last night, chased my losses,  jumped up to higher priced tournaments and lost pretty large (-$170.55).   Leaving me with just $155.71.    This means that I’ll have to drop down to even smaller Sit-N-Gos to stay below the 5% of bankroll for any buy in rule.   Sigh, it’s going to be a long hard climb to the top.

I’m going to take a week or so off from the Challenge, and just write about some cool Poker books and web sites I’ve found.   Once the steam has worn off,  I’ll jump back on and try to get back on track.

I only had time to play for an hour or so,  so I played in 5 Turbo $6.50 Sit-N-Go’s on Poker Stars.   I finished 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 4th, and 7th,  cashing three times for a grand total of +$26.90 for the night.

I’m going to stay at the $6.50 level, keeping within the Chris Ferguson money management parameters (no more than 5% of your bankroll on any one single table sit-n-go).    If I break $400,  I may move up to the $16.00 Turbos,  maybe $450.

So not a bad start,  I’m realistic, I realize not every night won’t be a night in the postive column, but it’s nice to get out of the gate with a lead.

Note:  you can see the progress in the sidebar to the right,  also I won’t be creating a post for the blog after every single session,  usually just as an update every once in awhile, or unless something interesting or unusual happens.