Misc poker update

Last time I wrote was last Monday and I was leaving early to go home and play the FTOPS PLO8 (Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better Hi-Lo) that day. I did, in fact play though nothing great really happened though I did sneak in the money in 84th place. 135 cashed and with 150 left I had a top 10 stack. At this point I went card dead, missing a few flops, etc. and basically never had anything good happen. Was down to about 7 BB and put it in but missed and that was that.

Wednesday I ran up to the Taj for their $560 O8 tournament. Only ~100 people showed up and top 9 were to be paid. First was $16k. Had a very tight aggressive solid woman on my left. She and I and another woman were far and away the best 3 players at our original table and felt I could easily get chips from the rest of the table. We were to be the last table broken before the final table so we would be playing quite a bit together. Anyway limit tournaments are really boring until the limits get way up. So I chipped up very easily from original 6500 stack to abt 12.5k when a really bad hand came up. Limits are 300/600. I limped the cutoff with 9TJK single suited. Flop comes 99Q. Pretty good flop giving me a big str8 wrap and bottom trips. Checks to me and I bet. 2 callers including very bad spewy player in early position. Turn is a T giving me 9s full. Checks to me and I bet. First player folds and spew player check raises. I am ready to puke but he is really bad and only hands that beat me are QQxx or TTxx. His range includes a str8 and a bare 9. So I am ahead of most of his range. I call. River was a meaningless low card. He leads and I make a crying call to see QQxx. So as bad as he was he played that hand very well and got max value. Bit later a huge hand occurs. Limits were 400/800 and I was back down around 6000. Raise up front to 800 and 3 callers. I call button with 99JJ double suited. With the raise and the callers my guess is that a lot of low cards are out and the flop is coming with high cards. Sure enough the flop is QT3 rainbow. Spewy guy earlier leads and gets 2 callers plus me. (Pot 6k at this point). Turn was a low blank that gives me a Q high flush draw to go with my up and down str8. I have him on QQQ at this point. He bets again and all fold but I call with my 8 clean outs and likely 7 additional hearts. (Pot 7600) River is pure gold K! He bets I raise and he reluctantly calls with....you guessed it...QQQ. So that was a nice pot and gets me back up to around ~14k if I recall. Finally last hand before the dinner break was huge. UTG was the tight agressive woman to my left. She raised at 600/1200 to 1200 and found 2 callers. I am in BB with 4559 double suited and call purely for pot odds. In fact, I warned the players that "I apologize for the bad beat I am about to put on you"...lol. Flop comes A2Q with 2 spades. I have 94 spades. This is a pretty good flop for a rag ass hand. I check to her and she bets and get 2 callers. I choose to just smooth call here. I am virtually certain she has AAA. Turn was 7s. I lead for turn bet of 1200 and get 2 callers. I have 9 hi flush and A2457 low. When no one raises I am pretty sure I am good both ways at this point. With all the chips in the middle anyone with a better flush likely raises me given that her hand is pretty much face up at this point. River was a brick and I bet, she tanks for a while and shows a weaker low to go with her AAA. Spewtard then tanks and he finally calls. I have no clue what he could be possibly calling with. That got me up to 25-26k at dinner break with average stacks of abt 13k.

Come back from dinner and my stack fluctuates between 20k and 40k. Finally I am down to abt 25k when the biggest bonehead play I have ever made comes up at 1500/3000. I raise in late position with A357 with A3 of diamonds. Woman on left 3 bets me and BB comes along as well. I call. (Pot 10k with SB) Flop is gin 346. BB checks I bet and she calls, BB also calls. (Pot 14.5k). Turn was a 7. Counterfeits my str8 but unlikely I am no good here. I bet and get 2 callers. (Pot 23.5k). So before the river I basically do not want to see any diamonds or clubs as they both would have made a flush or a paired board. I also am not thrilled if a 5 comes as it counterfeits my str8 and puts me in a weird spot if I get raised. Well the river was a red 5 and I thought diamond. I check to woman who bets and BB calls and I angrily muck my cards. Literally as they are reaching the muck I realize "Oh shit it is a heart!!" But once my cards hit the muck the hand is dead. She scoops with A2 for a rivered A-5 wheel. God I was so pissed. Basically gave away ~14k in chip equity with just a retarded play. I actually had to get up and walk around I was so phucking angry with myself. That puts me down to around 16k vs. roughly 30k if I make the call. Wow really hard to believe.

In any event I had to try and get back into it but now I am shortstacked. We redraw now for new seats as we are down to 18 players. I get seated next to "Miami" John Cernuto a well known limit game pro with 2 or maybe 3 WSOP bracelets including 1 or 2 in O8. First hand I play at new table I raise AA55 double suited. He calls. Flop comes 468 which is really shitty. I check call. Turn is an 8 of diamonds giving me a nut flush draw to go with my AA and weak low. I check call. RIver was a blank. I check, he bets and I can't imagine I am ever good here. I fold and he shows me A238. Yuck. last hand I am down to 3 BB and I put in a raise with 2346 single suited. Find one caller. Flop is awful JTT. I stick my last chips in and he tanks and has to call with A2Kx. Turn is an A and I am out in 18th.

Very disappointing. I can't help but think that folded hand really killed me. If I don't muck that I don't put anymore chips in with "Miami" John once the board pairs and I obviously don't stack off with the final hand. Really just killed me. But hopefully it will just be a learning lesson and move past it.

Online has been so-so. Still playing cash pretty aggressively though I took some brutal beats over the weekend so I am slightly better than break even over 20k hands since my coaching session. I did play some tournaments this weekend to mix it up a little but found no success. Bubbled the 30 rebuy on Stars on Saturday night for a massive pot. I raised SB with QQ. Aggressive monkey shoves 40BB on me and I snap call to see A7. Obviously he turns an A and I am out for a top 3 stack. Alternatively in a $75 tournament on Tilt sat night I 3 bet a late position raiser with AKdd. He shoves and I call to see TT but of course I miss.

Then last night I played the FTP 6k guarantee Omaha Hi-Lo and reach the final table. 6 left and I am the shortstack when this happens:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4894831

His turn raise is just so gross. If I am deeper stacked I might be able to find a fold or at least not keep raising but with the shortstack I just don't think I can fold the full house. One of these days I will run better in a big spot. As is I am out with another bullshit $400 cash.

November

Playing a lot of poker this month and will probably try to for the remainder of the year. I am attempting to achieve Supernova status on PokerStars by 12/31. I need to play a ton of volume for the remainder of the year to get there but I think I can do it. Unfortunately, I really did not play much at all on Stars over the summer other than miscellaneous tournaments and so I have a lot of making up to do. Getting to Supernova is worth about ~$4,500 for me between cash bonuses along the way and frequent player points so it is worth it I think.

I actually hired a guy to look at my on-line cash play and see where he could discover my weaknesses (leaks) and help me plug those up. Basically he asked me to drop down a level and play WAY more aggressively pre and post flop. So I have done that over the last week or so and the results have been mind blowing. Want to get a lot more hands in before I go back up but if early results are an indication this more loose aggressive style (LAG) is more fun to play and muchmore profitable. Here is a good example (just playing NL$50 in this case):

Me (cutoff) ~$100 stack- raise to $1.75 with T5suited
Button-also ~$100 reraises to $6.00
Folds back to me and I 4 bet to $17.50 (I will fold to a 5 bet)
Button thinks and thinks and finally folds (claims he had JJ)

Now in this case the button was a spewy player who had 3 bet me once or twice before and had commented in the chat that I was playing too many hands. Obviously against a tighter more solid player this is an easy fold. This play was not in my arsenal on-line 2 weeks ago (live maybe but not on-line).

I actually have the theory that on-line games are the same as live games if you multiply the big blind by 10. S0 for example .25/.50 on-line is roughly the same as 2/5 live and .50/1.00 on-line would equate to 5/10 live. This seems to be accurate for me as I pretty much have no trouble beating 2/5 when I play and have mixed results at 5/10. Hopefully this new approach will translate to better live results too.

Speaking of which I am heading to the Taj for the USPC Omaha Hi-Low (O8) on Wednesday. I have heard that the turnouts have been OK so hopefully there will be a decent number for this event. Don't get to play much tournament O8 so this is always fun. Live players in this game are soooooo bad. Of course I probably just jinxed myself and won't even make it to the dinner break...lol.

I am actually leaving at lunch today to play the FTOPS Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo which starts at 2. I won 15 seats to this event so feel like I should give it a go. I really have played NO tournament poker on-line in a good while so we shall see. Will update if anything interesting happens.