Last night I played in a $1 multi table tournament on Poker Champs, small stakes I know but I was really just there for some experience (my MTT history has been less than great).

Going into the final break I was in outright last place, I hadn’t really played that many hands but my stack had been whittled away to below 1K and with the average around 3-4K I was thinking it would be another early exit.

After the break though things started to turn around, it started with a bit of luck:

On the button I was dealt:

:Tc::Ts:

and with only one caller around to me I raised up 3XBB (about half my stack at this point), the blinds folded and the limper called to see a flop:

:2d::7c::9h:

My opponent min bets and I decide it’s time to push all-in for my remaining chips. He calls and flips over:

:Jd::Jh:

Damn! I show him my tens and we see the turn:

I breathe for the first time since going all in and pray for a kind river:

Very lucky, I double through and am no longer in last place. Over the course of the next hour or so I steal a few blinds and win a few pots without showdown with some reasonable hands (mostly top pair). Finally just before the second break I catch a nut straight on the turn heads up against an opponent who caught a smaller straight, we end up all-in and into the break I’m sitting on 6K of chips (about average).

Down to the final two tables things are getting very tight and the blinds are starting to kill people off, I get dealt some reasonable cards during this period (AKs, QQ and KQo are three hands that won me a little cash) and into the final table I’m sitting on around 10K and looking quite well placed.

Then, with 8 remaining stupidity strikes. I’m dealt the following in middle position:

:Ks::Qd:

and I min raise (the BB is 1600 at this point so my raise pushes it up to a reasonable 3200), everyone folds except for the big blind (1st position player) who calls. We see a flop:

:4d::Kc::Th:

My opponent min bets and I raise, he then raises all-in.

I think you know what happens next but let me justify myself a little by saying I’d seen this player use his big stack to push people out of large pots with nothing more than a bluff.

I call.

He flips over:

:4c::4h:

He’d hit a set and I was in big trouble, just to rub some salt into my wounds the turn brings him quads:

I’m drawing dead and exit the tournament in 8th place, in the money but absolutely kicking myself for playing that hand so badly.

In the end it was nice to finally play well enough to make a final table, I think I’m starting to realise what’s required to make it deeper into these tournaments. So disappointing though to go out in 8th on a hand like that when I had really set myself up for having a go at first.

At least I can say I went out to quads :).

After not cashing in 10 SNGs in a row (my worst run in these ever, including a number of very frustrating 4th place finishes) last night I broke the drought by placing second in a $2.50+0.25 game on Poker Champs.

After a very rough start I was lowest chip stack into the final 5 and the blinds were starting to bite. I managed to get myself heads up with decent cards against some of the more passive players at the table and within a few hands I had doubled myself up without showing my cards, the player to my left had gotten tired of me stealing his big blind when action was folded to me on the SB so when I was dealt:

:Kd::Jd:

on the SB and raised, he decided he hand a hand to take me on and called (for the first time in about 5 orbits). The flop could not have been better:

:Th::Kc::Js:

I hit top two pair, there are a couple of straights on the board but my thought here was that he may well have hit the K, I really doubted AQ or Q9. I check. He bets and I call. The turn is fairly harmless:

I decide to bet, around half my stack and he calls. The river is:

and I push all-in, he’s obviously sick of me taking pots without a showdown and calls me (he has me slightly covered). I flip up my top two pair and he mucks his cards. My guess is that he probably did have AK.

I’d now over tripled up in very short time and was chip leader. In the next orbit the shortest stack was put all in by the blinds and the next time the player to the left was on the big blind I bet enough to put him all-in with a fairly weak K6 off-suit, he called me with J4 off and my king high held up to leave us with three players.

The third place player was knocked out by the eventual winner putting me at a slight chip disadvantage heads up and I was forced to push and steal blinds/pots whenever I had slightly good cards. In the end I pushed at the wrong time and had my bluff called when my opponent had paired an unlikely jack on the flop, I didn’t improve and it was all over.

All in all I believe I played a solid game, I changed gears and the right time and really set my self up to win. My heads up play definitely needs some work though and I think experience is the answer, if I can just stop dropping out of these things in 4th place then maybe I can get some more experience in heads up situations.

Henry and Zog have released part #2 of their third listener tourney.

Will Zog make the final table?? Find out here!

It’s hands like this that make me realise what a joke micro limit poker can be, moving up the limits soon!

2c/4c table on the button I’m dealt:

:Jc::Jd:

A player in middle position raises 3XBB and two players call, I call and the blinds fold. The flop comes:

:9d::8c::5h:

So I’ve got an overpair and a gutshot straight draw, a pretty strong hand. The original bettor checks, a player to my left min bets and I decide on a pot sized raise. The orignal bettor reraises all-in (about another 5XBB), the player yet to put any money in on the flop folds and the min bettor calls for his entire stack.

This is a curious situation, I have a strong read on the player who check-raised here from previous sessions: MANIAC! I put him on AK trying to buy me out, who knows what the other guy has but it’s irrelevant anyhow as my original bet would already have put him all in.

I decide my hand is too strong to fold (especially against this player) and call.

Turn and river come:

:9d::3c:

and everyone mucks their cards at showdown to give me the pot with two pair, jacks and nines.

The only unfortunate thing about this hand is that I didn’t get to see what crazy cards my opponents were playing with. I’d bet (I guess I did bet) that the check-raiser had AK maybe with a backdoor flush draw, what the other guy had will have to remain a mystery.

Good times, surely this doesn’t happen in the medium limits… right?

Inspired by my readings of “Small Stakes Hold’em” by Miller et. al. I decided last night to test some of my new knowledge at one of the Poker Champs 5c/10c limit tables. I really wanted to play a little higher but there was a grand total of 3 limit tables playing and this was the highest limit I’m bankrolled for.

Anyway, I bought $5 worth of chips and sat down ready to crush this expectantly loose game as per Miller’s instructions… a couple of orbits later I’d dropped half my stack and had pretty much forgotten everything Miller and co. had said except for the following:

“Small stakes games tend to feature players who play far too many hands and almost automatically go to the later streets with them.”

The reason this quote sticks in my mind… I was one of those players!

I was playing a reasonably tight game preflop, my NL play has taught me how to pick a good starting hand, but I wasn’t properly paying attention to raises and even reraises and quickly fell into the trap of “it’s only a 10c, why not call?”. BIG MISTAKE!

Take this poorly played hand as as an example:

Dealt in middle position:

:Kd::Kc:

A player before me raises, I re-raise and get 4 callers. The flop comes:

:Jh::7c::Th:

Straight possibilities and a flush draw put my kings in a very vulnerable position, first player to act bets, I’m up second and raise, 2 players fold and the last position calls. Turn comes:

First to act bets, I raise, last position re-raises and first position calls.

It should be obvious that I’m beaten here, with this much action on a previously quite passive table it should be obvious that someone is holding the flush. I fall for the “it’s only 10c more” trap and call.

River comes a rag and first to act bets again, I call, last to act raises, first to act re-raises and I (for some inexplicable reason) call as does the last position who shows the flush, first to act shows the flopped straight and I sheepishly muck my kings.

All up this hand cost me 7.5 big bets when really it should have cost me 2.5 or 3.5 as I should have folded on the turn. Admittedly this was the most costly mistake I made for the session, I did calm down a little and start to remember some of the things I was supposed to be doing and ended the session only slightly down. Even so I was kicking myself for making such a stupid play!

I’m not going to be discouraged by one bad limit session, but it certainly did open my eyes to the fact that it’s not as easy as it looks and although in hindsight it can be easy to pick my mistakes only practice and experience is going to have me making the correct plays in the heat of battle.

For now though, it’s back to the books…

Though I’d share some of my fave poker blogs from around the ‘net:

Pauly’s “Tao of Poker”
Poker Professor’s “Las Vegas Poker Blog”
Columbo’s “Poker Wannabe”

These are just a few, I have a lot more currently sitting in my RSS aggregator that I love reading… will share those with you later.

Happy reading!

Through a combination of bad play and bad luck I’ve finished my last three SNG’s in 7th, 6th and 9th respectively.

On more than one occasion I have crippled myself early by taking my good preflop hands too far post flop, it seems continuation bets don’t really get much respect at these lower buy in tables and out of position they can be especially costly. You have to pick your moments to make these sorts of moves and lately I’ve only been picking bad moments!

It hasn’t all been bad play on my part, however, take the following two hands where I was short stacked and had to make my move. When I’m the short stack at the table and the blinds are about to eat me up I like to try and get heads up with some decent cards (two royal cards or a medium to high pocket pair). In both of the following I was the slight favourite preflop but got out drawn through the streets:

Hand #1:

I’m dealt:

:8c::8s:

I push all-in for my stack of around 2.5BBs and am called by the big blind with:

:Kh::4h:

He hits his first two hearts on the flop and a third on the river to beat me with a flush.

Hand #2:

Went out in a very disappointing 9th place with this hand, action is folded around to me on the button where I have been dealt:

:7h::7c:

With just the blinds left to play I raise it up 3 x BB (my entire stack) with the idea that I’ll be happy to take the blinds on this occasion. SB calls, BB folds and the SB shows:

:Ks::5s:

We see the flop:

:Jc::Kh::Kd:

He hits trips on the flop and only a 7 can save me now, the turn is:

followed by the river:

Full house for the small blind!

So after being a little over a 67% preflop favourite to win both of the above hands I instead exited the tournament on both occasions, not to worry though because my aim is always to get my money in while I’m ahead, which I did on both of those hands.

All I need to do now is reduce the times when I’m getting my money in behind and I should be playing a solid SNG game…

A couple of days ago I was playing at a micro no-limit table on Poker Champs and while sitting in the BB I was dealt:

:Qs::8s:

2 callers around the table and I check to see a free flop:

:9s::Js::6c:

I’ve flopped a gut shot straight flush draw and a high flush draw and figure it’s worth a bet, the pot is small (3 big bets) so I bet the pot. The opponent directly to my left raises and everyone else folds. At this point I put him on the jack and decide it’s worth a call (you could argue to re-raise at this point, but he had me out-stacked and I didn’t want to risk him coming back over the top) to see the turn:

If my read that he’d hit his jack on the flop was correct I really didn’t see him having the ace also (why limp preflop?) so I decide to push him a little more here and bet the pot again.

He folds.

This is where I make my only mistake of this hand, I flip over my cards to show him my semi-bluff and I immediately regret it.

In the heat of the moment with that “Show Cards” button in your face it can be so easy to click, but what does it achieve really? In this instance it achieved nothing for me, but revealed a great deal to ALL of the players at my table. They now knew I would possibly raise UTG on a draw, they knew I was likely to cold call a re-raise and they knew that I may try and push out of position without a made hand.

I’d let them have all of this information for nothing. If I had just mucked my cards they all would have been guessing and hopefully guessing wrong.

Truth is by showing my cards and then realising the amount of information I’d given away my game play actually suffered because of it, I stopped betting my solid draws/strong hands hand started waiting for monsters. My table image had gone from tight to loose and I was struggling to get respect from my opponents. In the end I had to leave an otherwise profitable table due to the games I played on my own mind!

Upon reflection of this little mistake I’ve come up with the following guidelines for showing your cards on-line:

• In general don’t show your cards after a bluff unless you are 100% sure it will put your opponent on tilt. Don’t forget you are showing the whole table your cards and the people that didn’t play the hand won’t care that you bluffed someone out of a pot. On the flip side this can be a good way to setup your table image as a loose player, which can work to your advantage in some circumstances. Use your best judgement.
• Don’t show your cards when you win with a made hand, keep them guessing… you want them to think you’re bluffing here.
• Don’t show your cards on a semi-bluff, as I wrote above you are just giving away too much information.
• You may show your cards when you make your monster hand (straight flush or quads), the awe factor alone is enough to make these worth showing.
• If in doubt, check the “Muck all losing/uncalled” button and simply never show. That will keep ‘em guessing!

In summary keep ‘em guessing and they’ll never know what you’ll be up to next and you’ll never be giving away more information than you intended.

Henry and Zog over at Poker Diagram have just released the latest episode of their podcast.

This one is a commentary of a recent listener tourney they held over on Poker Room, I haven’t heard it yet (saving it for Monday morning) but these guys never fail to entertain. Go check it out!

An oldie but a goodie, I saw this one doing the rounds on the ‘net this week:

The Leprechaun

A guy was playing 10-20 holdem and was stuck about 300 dollars when he looked down beside the table and saw a little green leprechaun.

“Quit playing poker forever right now and I’ll give you a pot of gold worth a million dollars.”, said the little fellow.

The player replied, “Let me get even first.”