Adapting to Different Poker Sites

There are a lot of online poker sites available nowadays, most of us start out on one site and learn the game there but sometime later we invariably look elsewhere for whatever reason. One factor that I think a lot of players fail to fully appreciate and understand is that there are often a number of differences in playing styles between these sites, which may require adjustments to our game (i.e. A certain way of playing on site A may not be suited to site B). This blog entry will look at why there are differences but I want to stress a word of caution here; this is my own personal opinion of some of the sites I have played based on the games I have played there, but I have very limited experience on some and the games I have played may not match those that you may play, so I am not going to talk about specific details but try and help give some concepts to think about if you are trying to adapt to new sites. 

Different demographic of players

Different poker sites and networks may well attract different markets of players, they may be targeting specific countries, or age ranges or abilities etc and as such if there is a substantial demographical difference this may well lead to different tendencies in play (For example Scandinavians are generally thought to be more aggressive).

Different software capabilities

Some software is easier to multi-table on than others, for example features such as 4 colour decks, resizable windows, ability to tile / cascade windows all help players to multi-table, the more of these features that a site has the more multi-tablers there are likely to be on that site. As a rule the more tables someone is playing the closer to standard ABC poker they are likely to be playing. Another good example of how the platform software can affect play is evident in PKR. On older versions of PKR the preset bet size buttons used to be 2xBB, 3xBB, 4xBB and 8xBB for every street regardless of the pot size, generally players are more likely to use the preset buttons than manually type bet amounts in and on the older versions it would be a common occurrence that a player would bet 8xBB into a 50bb pot on the river, now PKR have changed these preset buttons to 1/2 pot etc and so the same player might now bet ¾ pot (37.5bb) on the same 50bb pot. A more common difference is open bet sizing, where again the preset buttons often determine open raise sizes rather than player preferences (Stars allows customisable buttons so players can configure their own open raise sizes). Playing on party for example, I often see either a min raise or a 3x as an open, but less frequently 2.5xbb. These are just some examples of how playing styles can be dictated by the software alone.

Differences in MTT structures

Sites all have their own MTT structure; with differing starting stacks and increases in blind levels, some sites have smaller starting stacks, but gentler increases in blinds that generally means more room for play in the middle stages while not being extremely deep in the early levels. Also a subtle difference if you play full ring games is some sites have 9 seat as full ring and others 10 and this alone should have an effect on hand ranges.

Player Pools

If you play on Stars you will usually be sat a table full of random unknown players due to the huge playerbase, which can make it a lot harder to know what to do in certain situations, whereas on sites with much smaller player pools you will often seem familiar faces and if you take notes can make more informed decisions against players, these smaller sites will often have players taking unusual lines in order to deceive regular opponent’s whereas on Stars the most profitable line is usually the best to take as players are less likely to know you well enough to be able to adapt.

Player Tendencies

Different sites tend to yield players with different tendencies, for example a lot of online bookmakers now have poker sites and these players generally seem to call and gamble a lot more than on traditional sites. You can be sure that a lot of the players on Pokerstars will be multi-tabling and are using tracking software. Also Pokerstars is frequently full of players who will 3 and 4 bet a lot lighter than on PKR for example. This last point may well be because PKR has a higher proportion of recreational players. Knowing the generally tendencies of players on a site can help you make better decisions against unknowns.

Range of Stakes and Qualifiers

The range of stakes that a site offers can affect the way opponents will play, if $100 MTTs are the norm then the standard is usually going to be more aggressive and tougher than if a $100 MTT is dubbed a monthly high roller event. In addition to this generally the more qualifiers there are in an MTT the tighter the play will be, particularly around the bubble. If you are playing a MTT at a new site it is worth having a quick look beforehand at what satellites are offered and how many players are winning a seat and hence more likely to be playing tighter.

Associated Forums

If a poker site has a closely associated forum with it then this can heavily influence playing styles, particularly if there are one or two dominant posters on the forum. This is because their own playing style will come out in replies to posts and other people reading them will absorb this knowledge and are more likely to introduce it into their own game. If you are playing at a site you are unfamiliar with it is often worth browsing any forum they may have first and looking at strategy replies to see if there are any clues as to general playing styles, all this information may help you when making a marginal decision against an unknown.

Loyalty Program and Bonuses

A site is more likely to have a higher number of ABC grinders if it is has a good loyalty scheme and offers regular bonuses to players. These players will frequently be multi-tabling and are more likely to be playing as many hands as possible, often resulting in more basic poker in order to clear bonuses. It is always worth being aware if there are any big bonuses currently running on a site as this may have an impact on playing styles (although this is probably more common in cash games than MTTs).

So there are a few reasons why there might be differences in playing styles at different sites, how you personally identify, adjust and ultimately take advantage of these differences will be down to your individual circumstances, such as which site you are moving from and to and what games you are playing, your own playing style etc. so I cannot give a nice easy formula to adapting to a new site, however the first step should be to consider the reasons above and any others you can think of, see which apply and to what degree and then decide in advance how you are going to adapt and then after a period of playing assess how this has or hasn’t worked, and re-evaluate frequently until you feel you have adjusted as well as you can.

I will finish by giving you one example of how I might play differently on PKR to on Pokerstars, let’s say we are deep in an MTT and on the button with 18bb and both blinds have 15bb and are complete unknowns to us. It is folded to us and we look down to see 22, now on Stars I would usually shove here as I expect random players on Stars to 3 bet jam a wider range than on PKR and I will be forced to call, however on PKR I may well elect to min raise and then fold if they jam as I believe they will fold enough to the min raise to make this the best play, clearly if I suspect the players on PKR to be aggressive and capable of 3 bet shoving a wider range than I will usually elect to open jam the deuces.

I hope this entry has given you some food for thought in differences between sites and I wish you every success no matter where you are playing!

Poker Rants - What's the Point?

Online poker has been around for years now but in more recent times social media has expanded, most players now have a Facebook and / or a twitter account and follow their peers, often providing updates on tournaments and giving support to others, however it appears that the vast majority of updates from amateurs are invariably rants about a lost hand or a particularly player being a ‘donkey’.

I see people constantly post one sided posts, such as “I just lost a huge pot with KK into AA I run so bad” yet the same person might have won a massive pot with aces versus kings earlier in the MTT to put them in that position, yet they don’t post this…why is that? I think it is mainly because we are less likely to accept good luck in our favour than bad luck that goes against us, we like to believe when we win it is mostly because of skill, but when we lose it is down to bad luck, we don’t need to post when we flop a set of deuces and stack AA but when we are on the reverse end we bemoan our luck and proclaim it as a cooler. I also see people continually post beat after beat after beat, claiming they are the unluckiest player in the world, yet they can’t all be the unluckiest can they!

I have been guilty in the past of posting bad beats and whinge posts, both on twitter and within forums, this is an area where I feel I have improved, certainly the number of these posts has dropped, but there is still room for improvement. To help me cut these posts out I have been thinking about why we, as poker players, post these type of posts at all and the reasons behind them and what benefits and drawbacks they may have. 

Venting

Sometimes we suffer a bad beat or a cooler in a crucial hand and we just want to get it out of our system, this is seemingly a natural human instinct, but it does not change the events of said hand and can only act as a reinforcement of the negative outcome which may lead to us making poor decisions later on during the session or subsequent sessions if we have a build up of these type of posts. It is usually better to try and push the hand out of your mind and focus on the current hands with a clear head in order to maximise your play in them and avoid making mistakes and / or going on tilt. 

Ego

The poker world is quite competitive and when we take a beat it is easy to feel hard done by, that our skills have not yielded the result they should have so we might make a post to make a statement that our results are not as good as they should be through no fault of our own, e.g. “I Just lost with AK to AQ for a massive pot on the FT bubble, I was going to crush for sure”. Again this only has negative impact; we cannot control the luck and should not be focused on short term results, only that we are playing hands as well as possible. Even if we have a long string of results and are going weeks or months of bad luck then posting about this run serves no productive purpose, it can only harm our mindset and focus for the sessions ahead, hence damaging any prospects of overturning the poor fortunes. 

Sympathy

We all joined social media sites to be able to interact with friends, so it is only natural to seek attention and sympathy when hands don’t go our way, sometimes it is good to share experiences and provide encouragement to each other, however overdosing on hands of a similar nature any may lead to indifference from our friends, after all they are probably playing themselves and are probably suffering similar woes. In my opinion it is more constructive to spend this time discussing hands where we might improve with each other rather than merely posting a beat looking for a simple “Unlucky” reply from a friend.

Another common occurrence I see is players berating another players’ play at the table, it may be that an opponent misplayed a hand and got lucky, so the loser of the hand (or even a third player not involved) will abuse the player and criticise their play. I can’t express how idiotic this is on so many levels in my opinion, any poker player who wants to be successful at the game should never criticise or abuse another player. Generally in a hand a player will have either made a good play or have made a mistake, neither of which should lead us to abuse a player as  I will briefly outline below.

If our opponent has made a mistake, either knowingly or not there is no reason to rub this fact in their face. Poker is about taking advantage of our opponent’s mistakes, the less errors they make against us the harder it us for us to make a profit, so by telling players they have made a mistake we give them the opportunity to learn and this will diminish our long term profitability in the game. They have paid their entry fee and they can play how they wish within the rules, it is our job to take advantage of opponents playing styles to maximise our edge on them. Sometimes their bad play will cut short our tournament but that is the nature of poker, anyone with any skill level can get lucky and beat anyone else. If you want to play a game where the best player wins everytime then go and play chess, otherwise accept the inevitable beats with good grace when they happen.

It might be that our opponent actually made a good play and we do not understand why it was a good play, in this case we are likely to think it was a mistake, although we may not be sure it was, in which case we should use the same common sense in the previous paragraph but also attempt to use it as a learning exercise to see why it might be a good play to help improve our own game.

It may also be that our opponent made a good play and we know it was the correct play, but we just happened to get unlucky (or maybe made a mistake ourselves which the villain took advantage of) in this case it is no fault of our opponent and so there is no need for any abuse either.

I don’t believe there is ever a justifiable reason for abusing players, further to this, new players can be immediately put off by getting their play ridiculed and this will cut the number of new players entering the poker economy, which is bad for us all in the long term, we need all the players we can in the current economic climate! Poker rants and abuse are indicative of leaks in our own game and usually do far more harm than good, try to spend that energy on something positive, like reviewing hands or doing some exercise (going to the off license definitely classes as exercise in my opinion!). Thanks for reading, as ever feedback and comments are welcome! J

Vegas

First off, apologies for a lack of any posts since June, I have been a little busy and haven’t had much time to dedicate to writing, but finally I have finished a short account of my Vegas voyage from a few weeks back (although it seems years ago now!)

I was hoping to be able to write a blog about some successes during my recent trip to Vegas, but alas there were none, I had a solitary cash in the all tournaments I played during my 12 day stay, this was a 9^th place in a $125 re-entry tournament at the Aria which only yielded a min cash. I took a notepad with me hoping to jot down some notable hands for inclusion in this blog but quite frankly there were none and any that were vaguely interesting would involve a bad beat story, I am not one to encourage the posting of bad beat stories anymore so will not discuss any specific hands in this blog in any great detail.

I will however give a typical example of the kind of play I found myself up against, this happened in the WSOP Event # 53, a $1500 buyin with a starting stack of 4,500 chips. We were in the 1^st level so the blinds were 25/25 and I get dealt JTcc in mid position and open to 75 and pick up two callers, at this point we had only played an orbit or two and this was only the 2^nd or 3 hand I played. The flop comes down with a rainbow 2 3 9, the SB checks and I bet about half the pot and get one fold behind but the SB calls, I had seen him call continuation bets before then give up on the turn so I planned to fire any turn which was a 7 giving me a gutshot. He checks and I bet around half pot again and he calls me again, the river brings an ace and he checks to me, I think at this point I should have given up but I bet another half pot and he called and showed K3 and I lost a chunk of chips triple barrelling into a calling station.

As we played more hands it became apparent that the 3 guys to my immediate left were good but the rest of the table was weak but it was difficult for me to isolate the weak players and I was out of position in pots with substandard holdings so I quickly decided that I was going to have to play value hands only, which was a distinct problem as I had very few hands at all, while I looked on in horror as opponents failed to value bet 3 streets with hands such as 2 pair and sets against the calling stations. I eventually bust in level 5 losing AK to AQ and 88 to AJ, both were standard plays for both players due to the short starting stacks, most players were by this time having to 3 bet shove. The other WSOP event I played in (59b, a $1000 buyin which I qualified for via PKR) followed a similar pattern.

The standard of play throughout my trip was pretty poor, with the majority of players being calling stations and very little 3 betting going on. This means it can be difficult to put players on a range of hands a lot of the time but in general against stations the best approach is usually to bluff infrequently and value bet thinly. The main problem I had here was that I rarely had any hands to value bet with, in the middle of my trip I went over a week without seeing AA or KK, and only had queens once, the times I had medium type hands I often ended up value owning myself by betting 2^nd pair for example against a calling station who happened to have top pair, or who rivered a second pair and checked / called the river. I could count the number of flopped sets I had out there on one hand so I found a lot of my time was spent folding which invariably left me having to play shove / fold poker a lot of the time and the various races I got into rarely fell my way.

During the latter part of the trip I picked up a cold and this put me off playing some of the bigger events at the Venetian (by this time it was apparent that the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza was better value than the shallow stacks at the WSOP) so my poker plans didn’t go to plan. Regardless of this (and feeling under the weather) I still had a great time and am eagerly looking forward to returning again but with more of a focus on some of the deep structured games that allow some play early on without putting a large proportion of your stack at risk.

Aside from the poker I had already done the tourist side of Vegas but still enjoyed evening walks and watching the Bellagio fountains and the like. I attended PKR parties and met friends, both old and new, although I didn’t feel up to a couple of them and had to miss them out I did catch the latter part of the Wet Republic Pool Party, I was delayed due to railing Eleanor on the final table of the Venetian $1,100 Deep Stack, which she finished 8^th for a very tidy $9k, well done Elz J.

Overall, despite the poor results on the poker tables and my cold, I enjoyed myself and hope to return next year, in the meantime the online grind is my main focus with some live tournaments thrown in during the year.

Running Bad or Playing Bad?

The astute readers amongst you may have noticed that I have not posted a review of May, well frankly there wasn’t much to report on and I don’t intend to post a monthly review as I think that would make for a boring blog. Suffice to say I ran pretty dry, not getting many good hands, hardly flopping a set and when I had a hand I was getting little action, when I tried to make a move I was frequently getting played back at. Destacker, Lugfest, LockeLamora and myself played in a WSOP Team Championship event at Ladbrokes, which consisted of the 4 of us playing 12 MTTs with points based on finishing positions. After the 12 games we scored 810 points which finished 1 point off 2nd place, which would have been worth a 3,500 euro WSOP Package for us all, this was very disappointing for all 4 of us as we were probably the best team in the championship but we all got numerous instances of bad luck in different tournaments that we couldn't overcome, we could easily have finished 1st and scored a main event package, but it wasn't meant to be. May ended bad but in the first week in June I managed a good score on PokerStars, I got to the final 4 of 1222 runners in a $33 buyin MTT, I ran fairly well to get there, winning most of the races I got involved in. When we got 4 handed we agreed to do a deal where we all got $4k each and 1st would get the extra $900. Considering I was 3rd in chips and a way behind the leader, 4th place was $2.5k and 1st was $6.3k I was happy to make this deal, I was surprised the chip leader agreed to it as he had a nice chiplead, but of course that could all have changed on a flip.

That MTT aside I have ran pretty poorly in recent weeks, but this isn’t going to be a whinge blog, I have spoken before about how running bad can lead to playing bad without the player even noticing, when running bad marginal decisions are much harder and can be affected by factors outside of the current dynamics. A good example of this is when you are in a MTT and have been card for a long time and haven’t won a pot when you get dealt a good hand, say JJ on the button. You have 30bb but before the action gets to you there is an UTG raise and a 3 bet shove from a tight player, now if you were ‘running well’ then this hand is probably an easy fold but if you have been card dead then sometimes you might be tempted to call because it is the best you have seen for sometime, which is clearly something that should never be considered when deciding an action, historic hand distributions should always be irrelevant when making a decision.

I am going to highlight a recent hand I played in Welllbet’s Home Game which on the surface looks like run bad but in fact I played it poorly and I think it is a good hand to learn from. In this hand I am currently 2^nd in chips with 25bb and there are 12 left out of 91 runners, 10 get paid so we are near the direct bubble:

Blinds are now 600 / 1,200

Seat 1: ForFoxSake - 30,485

Seat 3: Seat 3 - 22,472

Seat 6: Seat 6 - 10,975

Seat 7: Seat 7 - 35,854

Seat 8: Seat 8 - 17,516

Seat 9: Seat 9 - 22,877

Moving Button to seat 6

6 x posts ante of 150

Seat 7 posts small blind (600)

Seat 8 posts big blind (1,200)

Dealing [6 h][6 s] to ForFoxSake

Seat 9 folds

ForFoxSake raises to 2,750

Seat 3 and 6 fold

Seat 7 calls 2,750

Seat 8 folds

Pot sizes: 7,600

Dealing Flop [4 c][9 c][K d]

Seat 7 checks

ForFoxSake bets 3,425

Seat 7 calls 3,425

Pot sizes: 14,450

Dealing Turn [J d]

Seat 7 checks

ForFoxSake checks

Pot sizes: 14,450

Dealing River [6 d]

Seat 7 bets 8,400

I make a standard size open and get called by the small blind, I make a c-bet and get called, the turn goes check check. The river gives me a set and the villain leads out, although the river also brought a back door flush draw I don’t think there are many combinations of diamonds he would have here, especially with the top pair on the flop being a diamond, a hand like QTc is possible but I think sets are unlikely here, so the vast majority of the time my set is good here. Due to not running too good in recent times and not hitting many sets I make a knee jerk reaction and shove:

ForFoxSake raises to 24,160 (all-in)

Seat 7 calls 24,160

Pot sizes: 62,770

ForFoxSake shows [6 h][6 s]

Seat 7 shows [A d][9 d]

I get snap called by the nuts, the villain had in fact hit runner runner flush. At the time I was annoyed with my poor luck, the river card is the only card in the deck that will bust me here but shortly after and on review I shouldn’t have busted in the way I did. Sure it is likely I have the best hand, but we are 2^nd in chips v 1^st and when I raise the river here there aren’t many hands that will call that I have beat and there are no hands that beat me that will fold to the raise, as such I think calling is the best option, in other words there are no river cards that should bust me in this spot if I am playing well. I bubbled the MTT from 2^nd and blamed it on bad luck when I could (and should) have realised that calling the river was the best play, I would have been left with around 13bb which would give me a chance to play shove fold poker.

Morale of the story is to check your play in hands and don’t always assume you have been unlucky with the cards and that the hand was out of your control, you might find spots where you had some bad luck but you compounded the misfortune with poor play. It is all too easy to put these kind of hands down as coolers but good players will save chips in some of these spots, weak players will instead go bust and then bemoan their luck without reviewing to see if they made a mistake.

I will be heading to Vegas on 27^th June so I won’t be blogging for a while, although I hope to have a few interesting things to write about when I return, until then good luck at the tables!

Winning the Masters Part 2

Final Table

In my previous entry I briefly described my route to the PKR Masters FT in July 2010, in this entry I will bring the MTT to a conclusion. The final table starts as follows:

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $166,884
Seat 2: xxSOLxx - $500,338
Seat 3: barx1210 - $247,303
Seat 4: BigbackMatty - $316,386
Seat 5: gowser4 - $234,036
Seat 6: hubalex - $70,763
Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $139,130
Seat 8: Dutchpower99 - $265,276
Seat 9: tsuga - $171,658
Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $168,226

The blinds are $5,000/$10,000 so I only have 14bb which isn’t great but if I can get one or two good spots then I can hopefully at least better my previous best finish in the masters, which was a 7th place. 4 hands in UTG opens to 3x with a 9bb stack, I am UTG+1 with 13.5bb and see AJo and fold, UTG range is pretty narrow here I am not in good shape versus their range, added into the fact there are still 8 other random hands to act this is a comfortable fold in this spot, it turns out UTG had AQ and one of the random hands was AK.

The next few hands are rags, I then pick up AQ and shove and get called by AQ and we chop, so my stack is around 10bb, a few hands after this it folds to the SB who min raises, I have 10bb and see KQo so 3 bet shove and the SB folds. I pick up a few small pots and chip up nicely when this hand develops:

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $190,247

Seat 3: barx1210 - $142,903

Seat 4: BigbackMatty - $322,586

Seat 5: gowser4 - $115,636

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $293,530

Seat 8: Dutchpower99 - $350,276

Seat 9: tsuga - $736,196

Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $128,626

Moving Button to seat 4

NoWayKK posts ante of $1,600

barx1210 posts ante of $1,600

BigbackMatty posts ante of $1,600

gowser4 posts ante of $1,600

ForFoxSake posts ante of $1,600

Dutchpower99 posts ante of $1,600

tsuga posts ante of $1,600

ShrpFeather posts ante of $1,600

gowser4 posts small blind ($8,000)

ForFoxSake posts big blind ($16,000)

Shuffling Deck

Dealing Cards

Dealing [Qh Jh] to ForFoxSake

Dutchpower99 folds

tsuga folds

ShrpFeather folds

NoWayKK folds

barx1210 folds

BigbackMatty folds

gowser4 raises to $114,036 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $114,036

gowser4 shows [Qd Kh]

ForFoxSake shows [Qh Jh]

Dealing Flop [3h Qs 5c]

Dealing Turn [Th]

Dealing River [Kc]

gowser4 has Two Pairs: Kings, Queens

gowser4 wins $240,872 with: Two Pairs: Kings, Queens

I was expecting an open shove from the 7bb SB here with a wide range and had already decided to call if he open shoved, but in hindsight given it’s a fair size of my stack and losing drops me to 12bb, I think a fold here is slightly more preferable. In fact I do lose and end up short, so I then have to pick my spots for a while and shove to pick up blinds and keep a stack that has some fold equity.

Playing to Win and Getting Some Luck

We get down to 5 handed and I am now firmly in win or bust mode, when I get ATo in the cutoff:

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $172,094

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $234,694

Seat 8: Dutchpower99 - $195,831

Seat 9: tsuga - $1,101,099

Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $576,282

Moving Button to seat 8

NoWayKK posts ante of $2,000

ForFoxSake posts ante of $2,000

Dutchpower99 posts ante of $2,000

tsuga posts ante of $2,000

ShrpFeather posts ante of $2,000

tsuga posts small blind ($10,000)

ShrpFeather posts big blind ($20,000)

Dealing [Tc Ad] to ForFoxSake

NoWayKK folds

ForFoxSake raises to $232,694 (all-in)

Dutchpower99 folds

tsuga has requested more time

tsuga is using the time bank

tsuga has 76 seconds remaining in the time bank

tsuga folds

ShrpFeather calls $232,694

ForFoxSake shows [Tc Ad]

ShrpFeather shows [As Kc]

Dealing Flop [Qc 8s 9s]

Dealing Turn [Jc]

Dealing River [8d]

ForFoxSake has Straight, Queen high

ForFoxSake wins $485,388 with: Straight, Queen high

This is one of the few hands I have had at the final table and it is a clear shove IMO, I get unlucky to run into a better hand but then get lucky when I suckout, I don’t think there is any other way to play this though and I get a much needed double up. I promptly lose a big pot check raising a flop as a bluff then barrelling turn and so drop to 12bb again in short time, I shove the next two hands with 77 and T9h and try to put pressure on where I can, while having very few hands to work with. I get lucky again when I shove 10bb with KJ and get called by A7d but I river a straight. Another player gets eliminated and 4 handed is quite cagey for a while, I pick up pots here and there and lose some too so don’t make much headway, then this hand is dealt:

Blinds are now $15,000/$30,000

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $289,854

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $355,276

Seat 9: tsuga - $989,382

Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $645,488

Moving Button to seat 10

NoWayKK posts ante of $3,000

ForFoxSake posts ante of $3,000

tsuga posts ante of $3,000

ShrpFeather posts ante of $3,000

NoWayKK posts small blind ($15,000)

ForFoxSake posts big blind ($30,000)

Dealing [Ad 5h] to ForFoxSake

tsuga folds

ShrpFeather folds

NoWayKK raises to $90,000

ForFoxSake raises to $352,276 (all-in)

I get A5o in the BB and the SB opens, I only have 12bb and the effective stacks are 9.5bb so I have to decide whether to raise or fold, as I am playing to win I decide to shove and get the bad news....

NoWayKK calls $286,854 (all-in)

NoWayKK shows [Qd Qh]

ForFoxSake shows [Ad 5h]

Dealing Flop [Jh 7d Kd]

Dealing Turn [9s]

Dealing River [Ac]

....only to hit a miracle river card.

This luck allows me to pick up some more small pots (again without cards) and then this hand develops:

Blinds are now $15,000/$30,000

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $905,130

Seat 9: tsuga - $902,382

Seat 10: ShrpFeather - $472,488

Moving Button to seat 10

ForFoxSake posts ante of $3,000

tsuga posts ante of $3,000

ShrpFeather posts ante of $3,000

ForFoxSake posts small blind ($15,000)

tsuga posts big blind ($30,000)

Dealing [8h 8c] to ForFoxSake

ShrpFeather raises to $469,488 (all-in)

tsuga shakes her head.

ForFoxSake has requested more time

ForFoxSake is using the time bank

ForFoxSake has 98 seconds remaining in the time bank

ForFoxSake calls $469,488

ForFoxSake shows [8h 8c]

ShrpFeather shows [Ah Jh]

Dealing Flop [9h Js Ts]

Dealing Turn [8d]

Dealing River [6h]

ShrpFeather has One Pair: Jacks

ForFoxSake has Three of a Kind: 8s

ForFoxSake wins $977,976 with: Three of a Kind: 8s

Shrp shoves all in, I think I have about 55% equity against his likely shoving range (I don’t want to discuss his shoving range here as I feel that it is unfair to disclose my thoughts on specific opponents in frequent spots in an open blog) even if I lose I am not out and I would rather player Tsgua heads up than Shrp and as I am playing to win I make the call. We flip and although he hits the flop I redraw on the turn and go into HU with a chiplead.

Heads Up

I get the better of the opening exchanges and this is the first major pot of the heads up battle:

Blinds are now $20,000/$40,000

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $1,468,618

Seat 9: tsuga - $811,382

Moving Button to seat 9

ForFoxSake posts ante of $4,000

tsuga posts ante of $4,000

tsuga posts small blind ($20,000)

ForFoxSake posts big blind ($40,000)

Dealing [9c Qh] to ForFoxSake

tsuga raises to $80,000

ForFoxSake calls $80,000

Dealing Flop [3h 5c Qd]

ForFoxSake checks

tsuga bets $80,000

ForFoxSake raises to $240,000

tsuga raises to $727,382 (all-in)

ForFoxSake has requested more time

ForFoxSake is using the time bank

ForFoxSake has 84 seconds remaining in the time bank

ForFoxSake calls $727,382

Q9o is a decent hand heads up and I call the min raise, I decide to check raise the turn and Tsuga shoves over the top. I break down the likely hands here and decide to discard KK or AA or sets as Tsuga had a tendency to slow play these, this left better Queens that I was losing to, but Tsuga had seen me check raise before so I decided there might be a lot of air here or mid pairs that might be ahead, in the end I feel I am getting the right odds here to make the call:

ForFoxSake shows [9c Qh]

tsuga shows [Kh As]

Dealing Turn [4d]

Dealing River [2s]

tsuga has Straight, 5 high

tsuga wins $1,622,764 with: Straight, 5 high

I get some bad luck and lose to a runner runner straight, the very next hand I get QQ and double through AK. A few hands later and I get dealt a less than premium hand:

Blinds are now $20,000/$40,000

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $1,270,472

Seat 9: tsuga - $1,009,528

Moving Button to seat 7

ForFoxSake posts ante of $4,000

tsuga posts ante of $4,000

ForFoxSake posts small blind ($20,000)

tsuga posts big blind ($40,000)

Dealing [2c 5h] to ForFoxSake

ForFoxSake raises to $90,000

tsuga calls $90,000

Dealing Flop [7d 4c 9s]

tsuga bets $80,000

ForFoxSake raises to $200,000

I open here with position postflop, my opponent donk leads which immediately rules out strong hands so I decide to rep a hand and raise:

tsuga calls $200,000

Dealing Turn [Qc]

tsuga bets $80,000

ForFoxSake raises to $240,000

I get called and once again Tsuga puts out a donk bet, it is so small that I am almost certain that it is a draw, maybe 56, T8 or JT, with the villain’s style of play it is either a draw or a set here. It felt too weak to fold to the min bet so I continue my line of representing a big hand:

tsuga calls $240,000

Dealing River [3d]

tsuga checks

ForFoxSake bets $320,000

tsuga folds

ForFoxSake shows [2c 5h]

ForFoxSake has High Card: Queen

ForFoxSake wins $1,068,000

I actually disliked the river as it meant one of the draws got there but I fire a small bet feeling that almost everything bar 56 was going to fold although at the time I was quite nervous due to the nature of the situation. Tsuga folds and actually had JTc, which I was surprised played the turn that way. I breathed a sigh of relief when the fold came and now had a commanding lead in the heads up. I soon doubled my opponent with A6o v ATo when they had less than 10bb but the final hand soon came:

Blinds are now $20,000/$40,000

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $1,428,944

Seat 9: tsuga - $851,056

ForFoxSake posts ante of $4,000

tsuga posts ante of $4,000

ForFoxSake posts small blind ($20,000)

tsuga posts big blind ($40,000)

Dealing [6d 4c] to ForFoxSake

ForFoxSake calls $40,000

tsuga checks

Dealing Flop [6s 4h 7h]

tsuga checks

ForFoxSake bets $80,000

tsuga raises to $807,056 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $807,056

ForFoxSake shows [6d 4c]

tsuga shows [7s Jh]

Dealing Turn [Ad]

Dealing River [Kh]

tsuga has One Pair: 7s

ForFoxSake has Two Pairs: 6s, 4s

ForFoxSake wins $1,702,112 with: Two Pairs: 6s, 4s

I limped in, which I rarely do but get lucky to flop two pair versus my opponents top pair, we get it all in and I hold to take victory in PKR’s biggest guaranteed event.

Summary

Undoubtedly I got some luck in this MTT, some of it fairly obvious like winning flips or sucking out, but here is a quick overview of a few statistics:

I was involved in 40 all in hands, this is where either I was all in or I had called an opponent’s all in, of these I won 22 without a showdown, of the 18 that went to showdown I had an average of 57% equity (some of these were against short stacks hence equity is a little low), an average of 70% of my stack was at risk during these 22 all ins, I won 11, split 2 and lost 5 of these so clearly I won more than would be considered normal.

I got dealt 152 hands at the final table, of which I have classified them into premium hands, good hands and the rest, here is the breakdown:

Premiums 1

AA 0

KK 0

QQ 1

JJ 0

AK 0

AQs 0

I only got dealt 1 premium during the final table, and this was QQ and it was actually heads up!

Good Hands 23

TT 0

99 0

88 2

77 2

66 1

55 1

44 0

33 1

22 1

AQo 2

AJs 0

AJo 2

ATs 0

ATo 2

KQ 2

KJ 3

KT 2

QJ 2

QTs 0

TJs 0

So 23 of my starting hands I would consider good, although this obvious depends on the position I was in when getting dealt those hands and other factors, but it gives a brief illustration of the fact that I didn’t have a lot of hands so I as I was playing to win I was forced to play inferior holdings and as such I lucked out more.
Remember also that I lost with AA to 89c and to a runner runner straight when heads up. Overall I got lucky, but it isn’t really different to when you get a stream of good hands on a FT and win lots of pots from in front. You have to play with the cards and spots that arise, it is impossible to win with AA if you never get dealt it! I was happy with my play in most hands and was also overjoyed to have lady luck on my side in a big MTT. I haven’t been close to winning it since, but that doesn’t stop me trying!

Winning the Masters - Part 1

In July 2010 I won the PKR Masters, a $270 buyin MTT with $100,000 guaranteed prizepool. As this is PKR’s headline MTT and it is almost 2 years since I emerged victorious I thought I would write a separate blog entry about my win. This blog will list some key hands I played and my thoughts were applicable. but if you are hoping to read an entry on how to win the Masters then you are in for a big disappointment, as with any MTT you need a fair amount of luck in order to win and there is no sure fire recipe to guarantee a win.

As this is $270 buyin event, you may not be properly rolled to buyin directly, in which case you may decide to try and qualify via satellites. I want to mention briefly that while taking shots at qualifying is all well and good, satellites can be very damaging to your bankroll. The main reason for this is you have to win the satellite you are playing AND cash in the event you qualify for to see any return on your investment, this adds another layer of variance into the game, this is increased the more stages you have to go through before qualifying for the event. As such if you are just rolled say for $20 MTTs then you shouldn’t be buying into $20 satellites, you need to have stricter BRM rules when considering qualifiers. Exactly how tight these rules should be depend on how many stages you have to go through and also how confident you are of your chances of winning a ticket in the satellite. Some players are adept at qualifiers and expect to win a ticket a lot more often than the average, these players can be a bit more relaxed towards satellite BRM, those who struggle to win tickets, need to be a bit more careful otherwise their bankroll can reduce substantially with no cash return.

MrKeema's photoshopping skills in the PKR forum after my win

Early Game

The Masters has a 5,000 starting stack and 20 minute blinds, the first level is 10/20 so there is some room to play early on and you can play tight early or try and be a bit more active and win a number of small pots. I played a tight game early on and managed to win a few small pots in the first hour before this hand developed:

Blinds are now $30/$60

Seat 1: ThaPAbbot - $6,329

Seat 2: Ravenfeeder - $6,859

Seat 3: wesam1971 - $2,629

Seat 4: philguilli - $6,255

Seat 5: giorgit - $4,450

Seat 6: ForFoxSake - $5,424

Seat 7: xoxmanonxox - $5,495

Seat 8: thesaintsback - $4,860

Seat 9: brian27 - $4,110

Seat 10: piisaa114 - $3,589

Moving Button to seat 7

thesaintsback posts small blind ($30)

brian27 posts big blind ($60)

Dealing [8s 8c] to ForFoxSake

piisaa114 folds

ThaPAbbot folds

Ravenfeeder folds

wesam1971 folds

philguilli folds

giorgit folds

ForFoxSake raises to $180

xoxmanonxox folds

thesaintsback folds

brian27 raises to $540

ForFoxSake calls $540

I open from late position and the big blind 3 bets me, he has seemed fairly tight up till now so I put him on a big hand, there is potential for me to win a big hand if I can hit a set v an overpair, or if he has 2 overcards he seems likely to check low flops and I can win without hitting my set. Note here though that my initial raise of 3x has made the size of the 3 bet bigger which makes it a more marginal call with the 8s, if I had opened to 150 then I might have been 3 bet to 450 which makes it a much easier call.

Dealing Flop [Qd 8d Qs]

brian27 has requested more time

brian27 is using the time bank

brian27 has 118 seconds remaining in the time bank

brian27 bets $565

ForFoxSake raises to $1,695

I hit my set, but the pair of queens may hamper my chances of getting paid, but as he leads out I put him on a big hand, the only hand that he has here that I think he folds to a raise is AK, but I don’t think he would c-bet AK that often so I decide to raise

brian27 has requested more time

brian27 is using the time bank

brian27 has 116 seconds remaining in the time bank

brian27 raises to $3,570 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $3,570

ForFoxSake shows [8s 8c]

brian27 shows [Ah As]

Dealing Turn [5s]

Dealing River [3c]

brian27 has Two Pairs: Aces, Queens

ForFoxSake has Full House, 8s over Queens

ForFoxSake wins $8,250 with: Full House, 8s over Queens

We get it in as I had expected and I win a nice big pot.

A Nice Donation

After that hand nothing much happened for a while I won and lost small pots while generally playing tight and picking my spots. I hovered between 10bb and 20bb for a while, I 3 bet shoved QQ and got called by pocket 3s and doubled up and a while later I get another double up 3 bet shoving AJ v A4. The following hand then develops:

Blinds are now $2,000/$4,000

Seat 1: RINGOSTAR6 - $40,952

Seat 2: thesaintsback - $13,179

Seat 3: poloxon - $47,121

Seat 5: VKyller - $125,244

Seat 6: mcoupar - $55,787

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $80,238

Seat 8: xxSOLxx - $66,379

Seat 10: dremelole - $60,598

Moving Button to seat 1

8x ante of $400

thesaintsback posts small blind ($2,000)

poloxon posts big blind ($4,000)

Dealing [Ac 7c] to ForFoxSake

VKyller folds

mcoupar folds

ForFoxSake raises to $10,000

xxSOLxx folds

dremelole folds

RINGOSTAR6 calls $10,000

thesaintsback raises to $12,779 (all-in)

poloxon folds

ForFoxSake calls $12,779

RINGOSTAR6 calls $12,779

Dealing Flop [3c As Ah]

ForFoxSake checks

RINGOSTAR6 checks

Dealing Turn [6d]

ForFoxSake bets $16,000

RINGOSTAR6 has requested more time

RINGOSTAR6 is using the time bank

RINGOSTAR6 has 99 seconds remaining in the time bank

RINGOSTAR6 raises to $27,773 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $27,773

RINGOSTAR6 shows [Ks Qs]

thesaintsback shows [4s Ad]

ForFoxSake shows [Ac 7c]

Dealing River [Td]

RINGOSTAR6 has One Pair: Aces

ForFoxSake has Three of a Kind: Aces

ForFoxSake wins $55,546 from side pot #1 with: Three of a Kind: Aces

thesaintsback has Three of a Kind: Aces

ForFoxSake wins $45,537 with: Three of a Kind: Aces

I get a nice gift as the guy bluffs with no fold equity and after a long while of playing shove/fold poker I have some room to manoeuvre. 

Aces Cracked

That room doesn’t last long though as I get aces cracked:

Blinds are now $2,000/$4,000

Button is at seat 10

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $89,267

Seat 2: xxmarkyxx - $135,365

Seat 3: ljfAces - $54,044

Seat 4: SideyBurns - $11,982

Seat 5: Greatfish - $91,426

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $131,569

Seat 8: marcelluswa - $97,551

Seat 9: doudou972 - $65,799

Seat 10: poloxon - $43,521

Moving Button to seat 1

9x ante of $400

xxmarkyxx posts small blind ($2,000)

ljfAces posts big blind ($4,000)

Dealing [As Ah] to ForFoxSake

SideyBurns folds

Greatfish folds

ForFoxSake raises to $11,000

marcelluswa folds

doudou972 folds

poloxon folds

NoWayKK folds

xxmarkyxx folds

ljfAces raises to $53,644 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls $53,644

ljfAces shows [9c 8c]

ForFoxSake shows [As Ah]

Dealing Flop [Qc 4c 2c]

Dealing Turn [3h]

Dealing River [2h]

ljfAces has Flush, Queen high

ljfAces wins $112,888 with: Flush, Queen high

This beat puts me back in shove or fold mode but at least I still have a stack. 

Flipping

I manage to get some shoves through and keep my stack limping along until this hand on the final table bubble:

Blinds are now $5,000/$10,000

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $187,884

Seat 2: xxmarkyxx - $31,282

Seat 3: barx1210 - $226,303

Seat 4: BigbackMatty - $313,096

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $80,992

Seat 9: tsuga - $201,804

Moving Button to seat 9

6x ante of $1,000

NoWayKK posts small blind ($5,000)

xxmarkyxx posts big blind ($10,000)

Dealing [Ks Ad] to ForFoxSake

barx1210 folds

BigbackMatty folds

ForFoxSake raises to $79,992 (all-in)

tsuga folds

NoWayKK folds

xxmarkyxx calls $30,282 (all-in)

xxmarkyxx shows [3c 3d]

ForFoxSake shows [Ks Ad]

Dealing Flop [3s 5c 9c]

Dealing Turn [6c]

Dealing River [8d]

ForFoxSake has High Card: Ace

xxmarkyxx has Three of a Kind: 3s

xxmarkyxx wins $71,564 with: Three of a Kind: 3s

This was the first flip I got involved in during this tournament (I class a flip as anything that is 60-40 to 40-60) unfortunately I lose it. It is important to try and avoid flips wherever possible in MTTs and I have gone several hours before getting into my first one, this is partly due to me picking my spots well and open shoving rather than standard raising (shoving 15bb often helps avoid flips as players are more likely to fold a hand such as 44 for example, whereas if you open to 2.5x they may shove 44 as they think that they have fold equity). Avoiding flips has also been luck of course, the times I have 3 bet shoved I have had my opponents dominated, but when I shoved QQ for example I could have been up v AK, regardless of this my route to the final table was lower on variance due to this. 

Triple Up with AA

3 hands later I pick up AA:

Blinds are now $5,000/$10,000

Button is at seat 2

Seat 1: NoWayKK - $179,884

Seat 2: xxmarkyxx - $19,564

Seat 3: barx1210 - $229,303

Seat 4: BigbackMatty - $366,096

Seat 7: ForFoxSake - $47,710

Seat 9: tsuga - $198,804

Moving Button to seat 3

6x ante of $1,000

BigbackMatty posts small blind ($5,000)

ForFoxSake posts big blind ($10,000)

Dealing [Ad Ac] to ForFoxSake

tsuga raises to $20,000

NoWayKK folds

xxmarkyxx folds

barx1210 folds

BigbackMatty calls $20,000

ForFoxSake raises to $46,710 (all-in)

tsuga calls $46,710

BigbackMatty calls $46,710

Dealing Flop [4c 5c 5d]

BigbackMatty checks

tsuga checks

Dealing Turn [6h]

BigbackMatty checks

tsuga checks

Dealing River [3c]

BigbackMatty checks

tsuga checks

ForFoxSake shows [Ad Ac]

ForFoxSake has Two Pairs: Aces, 5s

tsuga mucks

BigbackMatty mucks

ForFoxSake wins $146,130 with: Two Pairs: Aces, 5s

I was short so the 2 callers could have a wide range and the board is not great but I managed to get a triple up and I make the FT with a short stack and this is where part 2 will pick up the action.

April Review

March had proved to be a successful month for me, turning around some bad fortune in previous months. April 1^st was a Sunday and I registered for the Sunday High Roller on PKR, this attracted 144 runners and had over $5k for 1^st place. Things started off reasonably well with me winning small pots and after about 3 hours I won a flip with AK v 99 to double up and this allowed me some room to play, I was sat with Beyne and Jake Cody at different points during the game but didn’t get involved in any big pots with either. I won some medium pots to keep my stack increasing at a good rate and we made the money and soon after we were down to 12 runners, this moved me to a new table where I had Destacker on my direct left and Jake to his direct left, I had 25bb at this point and they had around 35bb so it was going to be difficult for me but I was playing for the victory and so was determined not to get run over by these MTT machines. A few hands into this table the following hand develops:

Blinds are now 2,000 / 4,000

Seat 1: Destacker - 143,003

Seat 2: JakeCody - 137,684

Seat 3: pinkywinky77 - 61,656

Seat 4: kian6 - 177,265

Seat 5: zacs100 - 132,627

Seat 6: ForFoxSake - 94,980

Moving Button to seat 5

6 x antes of 400

Pot sizes: 2,400

ForFoxSake posts small blind (2,000)

Destacker posts big blind (4,000)

Dealing [9 h][K h] to ForFoxSake

JakeCody raises to 8,157

pinkywinky77 folds

kian6 calls 8,157

zacs100 calls 8,157

ForFoxSake calls 8,157

I decide to call here as my hand is reasonable even though I am out of position I feel I can call with the value I am getting:

Destacker calls 8,157

Dealing Flop [8 c][A c][3 s]

Everyone checks

Dealing Turn [8 d]

ForFoxSake checks

Destacker bets 16,889

JakeCody folds

kian6 folds

zacs100 folds

ForFoxSake calls 16,889

Everyone checked the flop and Destacker bets out on the turn and everyone else folds, I only have K high but we have a lot of history together and I feel there is a good chance I am ahead so decide to call:

Dealing River [J s]

ForFoxSake checks

Destacker bets 38,995

ForFoxSake has requested more time

ForFoxSake calls 38,995

I was planning to call any safe looking river card (otherwise I wouldn’t call the turn) however Destacker bets more than I was anticipating, I use my timebank  as I am getting 3 to 1 on the call, he only needs to be bluffing 25% of the time for it to be a profitable call in terms of chips but if I call and lose I am left with a short stack, however as he is on my left he can do me a lot of damage later on so I need to try and get the advantage over him. In the end I weigh all the factors up and decide it’s a profitable call in terms of $ as well as chips:

Destacker shows [7 d][5 h]

ForFoxSake shows [9 h][K h]

ForFoxSake wins 154,953 with: One Pair: 8s

He shows 75o and my K high wins a nice pot.

A few hands later I get AJ and race Destacker’s 99 for his 14bb, I catch a straight on the river to bust him and I propel to a 50bb stack and a good lead over the table. A few hands after this Jake opens utg for just above a min raise, I am in the BB and put him in with AJ (he had about 20bb at this point) he called with KQd but the board bricked and I eliminated another dangerous opponent and I get a nice chiplead with 10 players left and my eyes are firmly on victory. A short while later the following hand develops:

Blinds are now 2,500 / 5,000

Seat 3: pinkywinky77 - 126,212

Seat 4: kian6 - 178,409

Seat 5: zacs100 - 82,170

Seat 6: ForFoxSake - 360,424

Moving Button to seat 3

4x posts ante of 500

kian6 posts small blind (2,500)

zacs100 posts big blind (5,000)

Dealing [J c][K c] to ForFoxSake

ForFoxSake raises to 10,000

KJc is a worth a raise 4 hand and both blinds call:

pinkywinky77 folds

kian6 calls 10,000

zacs100 calls 10,000

Dealing Flop [Q h][T c][K d]

kian6 checks

zacs100 bets 71,670 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls 71,670

The donk shove surprised me somewhat and I called fairly quickly with my top pair and open ended straight draw:

kian6 raises to 167,909 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls 167,909

This was a surprise but I was committed by now so called:

kian6 shows [A c][J d]

zacs100 shows [K h][A s]

ForFoxSake shows [J c][K c]

Dealing Turn [K s]

Dealing River [9 d]

kian6 has Straight, Ace high

kian6 wins 192,478 from side pot #1 with: Straight, Ace high

kian6 wins 247,010 with: Straight, Ace high

This hand annoyed me, neither blind 3 bet with their AJ or AK, considering we are 4 handed I would have expected one of them to 3 bet which would have saved me half of my stack. However on the flop I maybe could have folded and not taken the chance as the BB could have had KT or QT, however I still had 36bb so all was not lost.

I gain a few chips back before we reach the FT where I enter 3^rd in chips with 35bb. The first few hands are cagey but I manage to pick up a decent sized pot with a check raise. Soon after I eliminated WongaMan when he flopped top pair against my nut flush draw with one over, I spike my ace on the river to give me a slight chiplead with 5 left. The final table was long and I lost a few hands where I got it in in good shape or flipping, but eventually I managed to get HU with Jaymz84, I continually put pressure on and was winning a lot of uncontested pots but everytime we were both all-in he would win the hand so I couldn’t deliver the killer blow. Then the following hand developed:

Blinds are now 20,000 / 40,000

Seat 2: Jaymz84 - 752,726

Seat 6: ForFoxSake - 687,274

Moving Button to seat 6

2x ante of 4,000

ForFoxSake posts small blind (20,000)

Jaymz84 posts big blind (40,000)

Dealing Cards

Dealing [4 h][K h] to ForFoxSake

ForFoxSake raises to 80,000

Jaymz84 calls 80,000

I make a standard raise with my suited King, he continues to play passive and just calls:

Dealing Flop [7 s][7 h][5 c]

Jaymz84 checks

ForFoxSake bets 60,000

Jaymz84 calls 60,000

He check calls:

Dealing Turn [T s]

Jaymz84 checks

ForFoxSake bets 80,000

Jaymz84 calls 80,000

I decide to double barrel but he calls again:

Dealing River [J h]

Jaymz84 checks

ForFoxSake checks

ForFoxSake shows [4 h][K h]

ForFoxSake has One Pair: 7s

Jaymz84 shows [9 s][8 d]

Jaymz84 has Straight, Jack high

Jaymz84 wins 448,000 with: Straight, Jack high

I was ahead all the way until the river, there is no point in me leading the river, he isn’t calling with worse than K high and he is unlikely to fold anything better, unfortunately for me he hit one of his outs and I lose a big pot again, if he misses the river I have the 2-1 lead instead of him, his passive play is working as he is getting the run of the cards, but I still believe I can over run him if he doesn’t continue to hit the cards well. This gave him the lead and although I battled back somewhat, this was the final hand:

Blinds are now 20,000 / 40,000

Seat 2: Jaymz84 - 800,726

Seat 6: ForFoxSake - 639,274

Moving Button to seat 2

2x ante of 4,000

Jaymz84 posts small blind (20,000)

ForFoxSake posts big blind (40,000)

Dealing [Q h][A s] to ForFoxSake

Jaymz84 calls 40,000

ForFoxSake raises to 120,000

Jaymz84 raises to 796,726 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls 635,274 (all-in)

Returning 161,452 to Jaymz84 uncalled

Jaymz84 shows [A h][3 c]

ForFoxSake shows [Q h][A s]

Dealing Flop [2 s][8 d][A c]

Dealing Turn [3 s]

Dealing River [A d]

Jaymz84 has Full House, Aces over 3s

Jaymz84 wins 1,278,548 with: Full House, Aces over 3s

He limps the SB again, I have a hand and raise as I have been doing most the time he limps, he shoves and I snap call and have him totally crushed, if I dodge the 3 outer I have him down to 4bb and am virtually guaranteed to win the $5.6k first prize, but luck is on his side once again and he hits the 3 to win and leave me with $3.3k for 2^nd place. Overall I played well despite not winning a showdown for a long period I kept competitive, but I couldn’t win a single all in v Jaymz and that’s how MTTs go sometimes. I was pleased with my play and there was nothing else I could do.

I played the London Calling Main Event at the Fox club but ran really dry, getting very few playable hands, I managed to chip up to around 35k from 22.5k starting stack but ended up 5 bet shoving AK into a good loose opponent who had KK and I didn’t improve and busted midway through day 1.

Online, aside from the HR 2^nd I was struggling for any notable results, I was playing the WSOP Vegas Nights MTTs on PKR, which allow entry into a ‘freeroll’ for a $4.5k package to play in a WSOP Side Event. I played 35 of these in total for a total outlay of $770, I managed to win a couple of these along with a few other cashes for a total of $126, which gave me a profit of $476 and more importantly a good starting stack in the ‘freeroll’. There was a total of 3 packages up for grabs but hundreds of runners, although most had below 1,000 chips to my 11.5k starting stack. I chipped up slowly to 15k and remained around that level for a while as the players dropped like flies, I got TT cracked by 34 when the SB open shoved and hit but I managed to get my chips back not long after with AQ v QJ. This was the final hand and is a good example of good satellite play:

Blinds are now 2,500 / 5,000

Seat 3: MrMetzger - 8,828

Seat 5: ForFoxSake - 62,938

Seat 6: Weazel666 - 149,964

Seat 8: DaveCoffee3 - 111,170

Moving Button to seat 6

MrMetzger posts ante of 500

ForFoxSake posts ante of 500

Weazel666 posts ante of 500

DaveCoffee3 posts ante of 500

DaveCoffee3 posts small blind (2,500)

MrMetzger posts big blind (5,000)

Dealing [A s][9 h] to ForFoxSake

ForFoxSake calls 5,000

Weazel666 calls 5,000

DaveCoffee3 calls 5,000

MrMetzger checks

Pot sizes: 22,000

Dealing Flop [A d][6 s][8 s]

DaveCoffee3 checks

MrMetzger bets 3,328 (all-in)

ForFoxSake calls 3,328

Weazel666 calls 3,328

DaveCoffee3 folds

Pot sizes: 31,984

Dealing Turn [9 s]

ForFoxSake checks

Weazel666 checks

Dealing River [6 c]

ForFoxSake checks

Weazel666 checks

Pot sizes: 31,984

MrMetzger shows [5 h][7 c]

MrMetzger has Straight, 9 high

ForFoxSake mucks

Weazel666 shows [6 h][8 h]

Weazel666 has Full House, 6s over 8s

If I had raised the A9o preflop chances are Weazel folds and the BB would have won the hand and who knows what would have happened there, satellites are all about securing the ticket and not going for the win. Needless to say I was absolutely delighted to win a package and I am now eagerly looking forward to travelling to Vegas. We will be staying in a Bella Suite in the Palazzo hotel and I will be playing Event 59 of the WSOP, I will probably play some others while out there but have yet to analyse the schedule and make up my mind, at the very least I will play some other tournaments that the other hotels are hosting around the WSOP.

I ended April with a PKR Open win, the final table was very passive allowing me to win lots of uncontested pots, this is my kind of dream final table, one where everyone else is playing tight looking to ladder, but I continually lost a lot of all in races and at one point was down to 22k with the bb at 16k, but I got my turn of luck and won a couple of hands and resumed pushing my opponents around and ended up claiming my first weekday open victory.

Despite running fairly mediocre during April I managed to record a profit and win a WSOP package, so the month definitely goes down as a good one, my short term goal now is to continue getting results and play more live tournaments in the run up to Vegas, where hopefully I can go deep in some events!