Poker Night Recap

It was poker night at Nikita and Robbie Robb's house again last night. There were ten of us in total. Mostly the regulars, but there were a couple new players. Denise was able to come down from Windsor and she brought a friend. And Rob invited someone from work that also plays poker online. There were a few regulars missing, making for a different game last night. Mooney and Liz both couldn't make it. The are donkeys when it comes to poker. Well, with neither of them playing, the tournament moved a little... slower. Slower is not a bad thing. Mooney likes to go all in. This means he usually gets himself or someone eles eliminated very quickly, usually during the first bling. Last night, I think it was something like 3 or 4 blind increases before anyone was eliminated. And bets and raises definitely received a little more respect.

Rob ended up being eliminated in 8th? He can correct this if I'm wrong. His pocket tens ended up getting in against pocket Kings. My stack was up and down. Early in the game, I start out short. I was dealt KJ in the BB and when I catch a King on the flop, I play it aggressively. I raise the SBs bets on both the flop and the turn when he bets into it. On the river we both check. I have TP middle kicker. I know if he has a King, I could have a better kicker, but he is also capable of betting out on middle or bottom pair and that's why I was raising to hopefully get him out of the hand. But at showdown, it turns out he has hit his set on the flop. He had 66 and a 6 had flopped. My hand is no good.

I don't play too many hands after that. I was at best getting limpable cards. I was still in the game for final table. I did end up building up a decent stack once at final table though. I completed in the SB when I had 55. I get an amazing flop 757. I just pray one of my opponents has a seven. I check and there is a bet into the pot. I'm pretty sure he's got that seven, this works for me. I call and the turn comes a Q. I check again and when my opponents bets again, I go all-in. He calls and turns over that seven.

I doubled up again after that, but it was as exciting, it was just an all-in push pre-flop that held up against a caller. Finally, I have a decent stack. It doesn't last long though. The blinds have increased to a point where they are starting to hurt even the chip leader. My chips start getting whittled down again. There are five of us left and it there are two of us who are fairly short. Based on the blinds, I'm in push or fold mode again. Finally in the BB I have Q2s. It folds to the SB who just calls. Well, here is my chance to steal, so I push. No good, the SB calls and flips QTo. Ouch, that is not good for me at all. And I am out in 5th. Mike soon goes out after that. The final three are Adam (Rob's friend from work), Tim and Jason. Adam is the next to go out, after taking two bad beats. He gets all in with the best hand and he's out drawn by a flush both times. Then Tim and Jason are heads-up. I didn't end up seeing any of this. Alex had woken up and was screaming. We had Rob's mom taking care of him, but she was struggling to get him calmed down. So I head upstairs and help her. When I finally get Alex back to bed, the game is over. Jason takes down the tourney!

UB kinda SUX now

Ok, so I logged into UB today to play a little at the ring tables. I start up Pokertracker and PokerAce, find a table I like, sit down and open up the hand histories. What's this? I get an error. I've reached the maximum hand histories I can load. Huh, what is going on here?

Well, it turns out the last update UB did, put a restriction on the HHs you can load. This makes it hard to import data into Pokertracker. I didn't even bother playing once I figured that out. I'm going to wait for a bit then check the Pokertracker and the PokerAce forums. Hopefully, one or the other will come up with a fix.

Some new Micro MTTs at Stars

So, I haven't been playing much at PokerStars. I really only log in to play league games and that one +EV tournament. But last night after work, I opened it up to see what type of tourney I might get into. The cash games are getting to me again, so I figured a switch for a while would do me good. Well, when I log in, I notice a couple of new micro tourneys. Yay, for me! There was a $0.50 and a $0.25-$100 added, showing on the list. The 50 cent one was already registering. Both are sure to be donkaments, but they are both better than the dime tourneys.

I register for the 50 cent one and keep the 25 cent one open. There ended up being just over 1900 people registered when it finally gets going. I didn't want to play both tournaments, but I wanted to see how the prize pool ended up for each. Turns out for a micro grinder, first place in either of them is a decent boost. The 50 cent tourney first was $198 and the 25 cent tourney ended up at $168 (over 2500 players in that one though).

Well, as for the tournament I was playing. It was decent. By the first break only about 600 or 700 people were left. I was still in with a 4600 stack. And that was with playing only about 3 hands. These tournaments are definitely great for opponents pushing you all in when you have a great hand. It was about another 45 minutes before the money bubble broke. Unfortunately, I didn't last much longer after that. I ended up at a table of loose callers. Everyone limped into the pot and a raise received absolutely no respect. I was dealt JJ in MP, I raise and as expected get 3 callers. Then the next guy goes all in. He has me covered. I'm happy to push since 90% of the time, JJ is the best hand in tournaments of this level. Not sure if this was a surprise, but after I call, there were 2 other callers. So there are 4 of us all in. So, we all flip over our cards. The guy who pushed all in first has AA, OH OH. Then there is another JJ, CRAP, and then the last guy has 23s--BWAHAHAHA. But he was the worst player at the table and the only reason he was still in the tournament was due to luck. Anyway, since it was almost impossible for me to win the hand with no Jacks as outs. I was eliminate. I made a cool 30 cents ;).

I'm seriously considering grinding these two tourneys and the dollar tournaments until I get a big win and boost my roll again. I think for a player like me, they are definitely +EV.

So, out of curiosity, I added a screen shot of the odds of that hand. I knew I had a slim chance of winning and it was actually better than I thought. At least I was better off than than the other JJ guy.

+EV Tournament

The +EV comic has been having weekly tournaments at Pokerstars. Rob and decided to join in at the last minute. Besides, one of my goals from this month was to play in more tournaments, so this was the perfect opportunity.

There ended up being seventeen players. There was a bounty on Snagglefood's head (the comic creator) and first place would also get a copy of his comic.

So the game starts of mostly uneventful, especially for me. CARD DEAD. I was not getting dealt anything, not even limpable hands. Then in the SB, when the blinds are 15/30 I'm dealt 9Ts. It's folded to me, so I raise. The BB calls. I catch a nine on the flop, but there is also an ace. I CB 3/4 of the pot and he calls. The turn is a rag card. I bet out again and get raised. I fold. My stack is down to just under 700 chips. Finally, four hands later, I'm dealt QQ. Well, let's see what I can do with these. I raise and get a re-raise from the BB. I don't have much of a stack, so my choices are limited. I go all-in. He flips over AA. I don't catch another queen and I'm out in 15th place. Well, at least, I wasn't the first one out.

Some Poker at Ultimate Bet

So I've been playing the micro limits ($2NL) at UB a lot lately. When I had taken the break from poker, I had withdrawn all but a couple dollars from the site. Since I don't have any bonuses on the go right now, I figured I work on getting some of my bonus dollars from UB. I did start out at the limit tables seeing as my "bankroll" could easily disappear after one bad beat at the NL tables (I have more money elsewhere, but I don't want to deposit into UB unless they are offering a reload and even then, I withdraw right away so I have the funds available if another bonus comes up). Anyway, with the combination of winning and earning ultimate points (which convert my bonus money to real money) I get up to almost $10. This is around the time I'm getting sick of limit. It was a long slow grind even getting that far. So, I decide to risk it at the NL tables. I start out on a sick run. Any table I join I win a couple bucks pretty quickly. At one table, an all-in maniac joins. Every hand he goes all-in. I doubt I'd see this very often even at the $25NL tables, but it's not too uncommon at the penny tables. So, I wait while others call him with mediocre hands and end up doubling him up several times to about $11. Finally, I get the Kiss of Death, KK. Well, it's time to press my luck. I have about $3 in front of me, I call his all-in and surprisingly, the hand holds up! Even more surprisingly, I wasn't the only caller. There were four people in this pot and the Kings survive against all of them. So, just from that hand alone, I get a huge boost to the bankroll on UB. Of course, since it's only $2NL, it's went from $12 to about $22. Unfortunately, variance has now kicked in. My bankroll seems stuck around the $25 mark at the site. I will have a few winning sessions, then next session, I'll lose several buy-ins equaling about what I won in the previous sessions. Bah, stupid poker. I just have to remember to stay patient and wait for variance to once again be in my favour.

Poker Coming to a Cab Near You

Not that I take very many cabs, or even live in the UK, but this is a very cool thing. Why talk to your driver when you can watch poker instead? Check out this link here.