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Bond18
Arrangements have been made
by Bond18 on 04/12/08
Now that the around the world schedule has been finalized I’ve had to go through the process of creating arrangements for everything outside just playing the poker. The flights are now all booked and paid for, and the Vegas house is booked in as well. The flights ended up being very reasonable, totaling about $3000 AUD each including taxes. Now I have to call hotels in Venice, Paris and Barcelona and after that all logistical issues of the trip are solved. I’m going to get out and get one of those Ipod’s that can play movies since the airlines have a very careful screening process to select the man with the worst taste in the world who will have the job of deciding which films air on the flight. I’m going to start easing off the online volume a little bit leading up to the trip so I’ll feel pretty fresh. I’m not running quite as incredible as I was before (winning nine of ten coin flips, never losing a 70/30, always finding a bigger over pair) I’ve still been able to have a pretty successful week. Monday I won the Bodog winners choice package for $12,000, then the Tilt $50 rebuys the next day for $5,400, then the UB Aruba package the next day, which is likely about $10,000. I’m not sure, I haven’t really bothered to look into it since it’s so far off and UB likes to provide as little information as possible in their tournament lobbies.
Live poker is difficult in a much different way than online poker. Compared to the players in the high stakes tournaments online, the competition is often considerably softer and full of fundamental leaks. However, live tournaments last for days and require an enormous amount of focus for hours after hours and days after days if you go deep. They also require a pretty massive shift in strategy and needing to adjust to vastly different ranges than you’re used to. The variance is also enormous on a scale that can completely do an online players head in since you can’t just jack up the volume by firing up more tables or putting in more hours to even it out. Factor in all the distractions of a live tournament; people going partying, media, massive first place pay day, travel complications, language barriers, and jet lag and you have a whole different kind of poker. Just to get an idea of how much variance is involved in live poker, in the upcoming trip I’ll be playing roughly 50 tournaments in about 3 months time. That’s the equivalent of only 3 days of my online tournament volume. Factor in that most of the WSOP tournaments I’ll be playing in will have massive fields and the potential for a massive downswing is quite realistic.
Let’s not keep Timex up at night with that thought though.
The people I don't know
by Bond18 on 04/10/08
The blog entry I made about the poker players around me was polite and complimentary, and I'd really hate to get in the habit of that. Today I'd like to put down a list of name players I've run into; how they play, what kid of personality they are, and any other anecdotes from my experiences with them.
Scotty Nguyen: Scotty is just the most fun you'll ever have at the table. He's pretty much the best ambassador for poker ever. Highly outgoing, friendly, and often drunk with a laugh that can be heard for miles. I used to think Scotty was the ultimate poker playing machine until I actually played him. Unfortunately, Scotty has absolutely atrocious pre flop leaks and tends to make his raise size based on the strength of his hand with way too much consistency. He also slow plays in some pretty absurd spots, which I found out the hard way. Still, of all the pros I've played with, Scotty is my favorite to see across the table.
Phil Gordon: Over at 2+2 Phil Gordon is considered the anti Christ. When I played with him in a WSOP prelim event I ended up being seated directly on his left. We struck up a conversation about my suit and then about Australia, and he seemed like a really nice guy who was perhaps misunderstood. Then he made a mistake where he flat called a crazy aggressive guys raise, I shoved as a squeeze knowing the psycho would isolate and Phil would fold. I showed up with AJ, the psycho with QJ, and Phil had folded AQ, which would have won. Phil lost his shit. “You guys are crazy! That's just stupid! That's suicidal! What are you doing?!?!?!” Phil spent the next 45 minutes complaining about this almost nonstop, until online player ‘Mr.Timcaum' sitting across the table finally said “Are you STILL complaining about that hand Phil!?” When he busted out he asked if he could have email to invite me to his 4th of July party, which I gave him. I never got the invite. Opportunity to get drunk for free and behave like asshole; lost.
Chris Moneymaker: Chris just looks exhausted. When playing with him I just get the sense that he's a little over it all. I watched him stack off to Pearljammer in the most “LOL I MUST NOT FOLD ACES EVEN THOUGH HE OBVIOUSLY HAS IT!” spot ever. I remember seeing him wander around Star City casino by himself in Sydney back in December late at night. I kind of wanted to go bug him and be like “Wow! Chris Moneymaker! You made all this possible!” but I decided to let him be.
Amnon Fillipi: Or however you spell it, I'm sure as hell not bothering to look it up. Amnon seems to think he can play 75% of hands in hold'em, no matter his position, the amount of the reraise, who the player is, or what the stack depths are. Folding is a sin, and Amnon is a pious man.
Ted Forrest: I used to think Forrest was a very good player since he'd been around for over a decade and seemed to do real well at tournaments. Then I played with him in the WSOP 5k 6 max event. I still think he's a… very nice guy. Forrest tends to call way too much pre flop and make way too many spewy bluffs post flop.
Erik Seidel: I remember almost nothing about playing with Seidel in regards to his playing style. I remember him being a very polite and quiet man, who I witnessed play some hand poorly and then watched in amazement as the guy he sucked out viciously berated him. How do you berate Erik Seidel?
Kathy Leibert: I played with Kathy in some such hold'em event in last years WSOP. I remember she played this absolutely retarded hand where she bet everything but one green 25 chip, which the other guy thought was an all in, which she insisted it wasn't, which he questioned as to the purpose, which she took super fucking personally and resulted in the whole table arguing and the floor getting called while I stood above the table rambling “Jesus Christ live poker is so fucking stupid, this is just ridiculous” to anyone who'd listen to me.
Kenna James: A super nice guy who is fun to have on the table if you don't mind the feeling that someone turned a radio to max volume then threw it in the middle of the table to sit there and insisted nobody turn it off. I only played limit with Kenna, and his limit game was way too loose and pretty disastrous, but then so is mine.
Phil Hellmuth: I played with Phil the day after he won his 11th bracelet. He was super smug and happy, and walked around the table introducing himself to each player with a hand shake with a big grin on his face. He then proceeded to play the most limp/call/fold happy poker I've ever seen. I've criticized Phil's play a lot, and having played with him he didn't do anything to change that image. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'd sooner light my cigars with 100 dollar bills than back Hellmuth in a 20 dollar tournament online.
Jon-Robert Bellande: Massive value in the majority of poker tournaments. There's a reason there's a ton of rumors about this guy being broke.
Joe Hachem: Last I put in serious hours in a tournament with Hachem he played better than I thought he would. His pre flop game at mid sized stacks was pretty solid, and he was capable of aggressive pre flop 3 bet/folds. Still, if you watch some of his footage on TV he has the tendency to see too many flops out of position and make the most hilariously obvious value bets. Joe is a real nice guy in real life and handles the celebrity factor very well. I've been talking to him a few times in Australia and random people will come up and blurt “Hey wow you're that poker guy arentchya!?” and he's always been receptive. He has the strange habit of talking like he runs bad, which I think we all know can't be true.
Jeff Lisandro: Is a pretty quiet guy on the table. He pulled the most absurd float out of position against me with Q high, but then didn't even bluff at it after I checked back the turn and the river blanked. He has the tendency to do a lot of acting with his big hands and like so many of the other live pros I've mentioned plays way too loose out of position. People have the most amazing tendency to just throw chips at him like the fucking things were on fire.
Evelyn Ng: Semi-berated me when I moved all in with QQ, she called, and I said “I have a pair” about half a second before I tabled my queens. She claimed it was kind of a slowroll, and I later claimed that she was kind of a bitch. Then I played with her again in another tournament and she gave me a free cookie from the bag she had with her, so my opinion of her has changed. When I played with her I was so terrible I have zero business describing the quality of her play and I really don't remember it.
Barry Greenstein: Seemed to play very well when I played with him in the WSOP 5k mixed event, outside one limit hand that he played awful preflop that he later won. The guy who ran the second nuts into his nuts as a result of the hand spent the next 5 minutes berating Barry, who didn't come anywhere close to losing his cool.
David Grey: The worlds single biggest nit. I'm told he once raised kings pre flop. He was likely drunk.
Hevad Khan: Is one of the nicest and most modest guys I've met in poker. All anyone talks to him about is how different he is in person compared to his TV persona. I played with him only briefly, and he tried to spew into Adanthar but ended up sucking out in one hand, but other than that his game seemed solid.
Chad Brown: Actually seemed like a nice guy when I played with him, and not bad at poker either. I know he's kind of a psycho given the Aaronbeen incident (Aaronbeen told his girlfriend Vanessa Russo she played a hand terrible after she called some guy an idiot on the table and Brown lost his shit and threatened to kick his ass in the hallway of the Rio) so I guess he remembered his medication that morning.
Shannon Elizabeth: An evil bitch and a horrible poker player. That's about all.
Lee Nelson: The best live tournament pro I've seen in action. He's very aggressive, fully understands ranges, and knows how to adjust to live players expectations really well. He's also as classy as they come in the poker industry. One amusing detail about Lee is that he won't play any poker in the United States despite originally being an American (he now lives in New Zealand.)
Jeff Shulman: I remember him getting a ton of chips in a NL tournament then spewing them off in horrible fashion, though I don't remember any specific hands. More amusing though is that I remember Brandon Adams coming up to him before Brandon had ever done anything in the poker world with a book in his hand. He reached it out to offer to Jeff, who looked at him confused
”What's this?”
”It's a book. It's for you. Let me know what you think.”
Brandon had written a poker novel about his experiences and politely handed it to Jeff, then walked off. When Jeff later busted his book was sitting on the floor and as he stood up to leave the player next to him picked it up and said “Don't you want your book?”
”Psssh, no!” he replied and walked off. The other guy kept it.
Humberto Brenes: A massive nit who bases the size of his raise on the strength of his hand. He spent his time singing whatever Spanish music he had on his CD player into my right ear while he folded hand after hand after…
Dave ‘Devilfish' Ulliott: Is pretty much an asshole who spends 100% of his free time scrounging around the casinos for women to hit on in the sleaziest manner possible. He has the subtlety and charm of a massive fart at a formal dinner.
Roland De Wolfe: I didn't get to see him play much but I got to watch him berate Kwob20 after he sucked out with a flush draw that he check shoved the flop with in a totally standard spot during a Bellagio $2,500 event (outside Kwob's terrible pre flop call, but the flop was standard.)
Toto Leonidas: Seems to think you can bluff people in limit. Every hand. For those of you who haven't played limit, that's throwing money away faster than betting on Gary Coleman vs Mike Tyson at even money.
That's all I can remember for now. Hopefully they'll be some more good ones after this trip, which has changed matter of fact. It turns out going to LAPT Costa Rica was a logistical nightmare, so I've replaced it with WPT Barcelona. I'm finishing the booking tomorrow morning with the travel agency and the new (and likely final, no seriously this time) itinerary looks like this:
April 30, leave Melbourne to Venice. Stopovers in Bangkok and Frankfurt.
May 3-10, Party Poker Million Cruise.
May 11 depart Venice for Paris, stopover in Zurich.
May 11-19 Grand Prix de Paris
May 19 depart Paris for Barcelona, stopover in Zurich.
May 19-28 WPT Barcelona
May 28 depart Barcelona for Las Vegas, stopover in Philadelphia
May 28-June 27 WSOP of poker
June 27 depart Las Vegas for Milwaukee
June 27-30 see friends and family in Wisconsin
June 30 depart Milwaukee for Las Vegas
June 30-July 18 WSOP and Bellagio Cup III
July 18 depart Las Vegas for Fresno
July 18-21 Hang out in Fresno and bother Kyle at work in his cardroom
July 21 depart Fresno for Melbourne, stopovers in LA and Sydney
July 23 Arrive Melbourne Australia. Kill self.
Scotty Nguyen: Scotty is just the most fun you'll ever have at the table. He's pretty much the best ambassador for poker ever. Highly outgoing, friendly, and often drunk with a laugh that can be heard for miles. I used to think Scotty was the ultimate poker playing machine until I actually played him. Unfortunately, Scotty has absolutely atrocious pre flop leaks and tends to make his raise size based on the strength of his hand with way too much consistency. He also slow plays in some pretty absurd spots, which I found out the hard way. Still, of all the pros I've played with, Scotty is my favorite to see across the table.
Phil Gordon: Over at 2+2 Phil Gordon is considered the anti Christ. When I played with him in a WSOP prelim event I ended up being seated directly on his left. We struck up a conversation about my suit and then about Australia, and he seemed like a really nice guy who was perhaps misunderstood. Then he made a mistake where he flat called a crazy aggressive guys raise, I shoved as a squeeze knowing the psycho would isolate and Phil would fold. I showed up with AJ, the psycho with QJ, and Phil had folded AQ, which would have won. Phil lost his shit. “You guys are crazy! That's just stupid! That's suicidal! What are you doing?!?!?!” Phil spent the next 45 minutes complaining about this almost nonstop, until online player ‘Mr.Timcaum' sitting across the table finally said “Are you STILL complaining about that hand Phil!?” When he busted out he asked if he could have email to invite me to his 4th of July party, which I gave him. I never got the invite. Opportunity to get drunk for free and behave like asshole; lost.
Chris Moneymaker: Chris just looks exhausted. When playing with him I just get the sense that he's a little over it all. I watched him stack off to Pearljammer in the most “LOL I MUST NOT FOLD ACES EVEN THOUGH HE OBVIOUSLY HAS IT!” spot ever. I remember seeing him wander around Star City casino by himself in Sydney back in December late at night. I kind of wanted to go bug him and be like “Wow! Chris Moneymaker! You made all this possible!” but I decided to let him be.
Amnon Fillipi: Or however you spell it, I'm sure as hell not bothering to look it up. Amnon seems to think he can play 75% of hands in hold'em, no matter his position, the amount of the reraise, who the player is, or what the stack depths are. Folding is a sin, and Amnon is a pious man.
Ted Forrest: I used to think Forrest was a very good player since he'd been around for over a decade and seemed to do real well at tournaments. Then I played with him in the WSOP 5k 6 max event. I still think he's a… very nice guy. Forrest tends to call way too much pre flop and make way too many spewy bluffs post flop.
Erik Seidel: I remember almost nothing about playing with Seidel in regards to his playing style. I remember him being a very polite and quiet man, who I witnessed play some hand poorly and then watched in amazement as the guy he sucked out viciously berated him. How do you berate Erik Seidel?
Kathy Leibert: I played with Kathy in some such hold'em event in last years WSOP. I remember she played this absolutely retarded hand where she bet everything but one green 25 chip, which the other guy thought was an all in, which she insisted it wasn't, which he questioned as to the purpose, which she took super fucking personally and resulted in the whole table arguing and the floor getting called while I stood above the table rambling “Jesus Christ live poker is so fucking stupid, this is just ridiculous” to anyone who'd listen to me.
Kenna James: A super nice guy who is fun to have on the table if you don't mind the feeling that someone turned a radio to max volume then threw it in the middle of the table to sit there and insisted nobody turn it off. I only played limit with Kenna, and his limit game was way too loose and pretty disastrous, but then so is mine.
Phil Hellmuth: I played with Phil the day after he won his 11th bracelet. He was super smug and happy, and walked around the table introducing himself to each player with a hand shake with a big grin on his face. He then proceeded to play the most limp/call/fold happy poker I've ever seen. I've criticized Phil's play a lot, and having played with him he didn't do anything to change that image. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'd sooner light my cigars with 100 dollar bills than back Hellmuth in a 20 dollar tournament online.
Jon-Robert Bellande: Massive value in the majority of poker tournaments. There's a reason there's a ton of rumors about this guy being broke.
Joe Hachem: Last I put in serious hours in a tournament with Hachem he played better than I thought he would. His pre flop game at mid sized stacks was pretty solid, and he was capable of aggressive pre flop 3 bet/folds. Still, if you watch some of his footage on TV he has the tendency to see too many flops out of position and make the most hilariously obvious value bets. Joe is a real nice guy in real life and handles the celebrity factor very well. I've been talking to him a few times in Australia and random people will come up and blurt “Hey wow you're that poker guy arentchya!?” and he's always been receptive. He has the strange habit of talking like he runs bad, which I think we all know can't be true.
Jeff Lisandro: Is a pretty quiet guy on the table. He pulled the most absurd float out of position against me with Q high, but then didn't even bluff at it after I checked back the turn and the river blanked. He has the tendency to do a lot of acting with his big hands and like so many of the other live pros I've mentioned plays way too loose out of position. People have the most amazing tendency to just throw chips at him like the fucking things were on fire.
Evelyn Ng: Semi-berated me when I moved all in with QQ, she called, and I said “I have a pair” about half a second before I tabled my queens. She claimed it was kind of a slowroll, and I later claimed that she was kind of a bitch. Then I played with her again in another tournament and she gave me a free cookie from the bag she had with her, so my opinion of her has changed. When I played with her I was so terrible I have zero business describing the quality of her play and I really don't remember it.
Barry Greenstein: Seemed to play very well when I played with him in the WSOP 5k mixed event, outside one limit hand that he played awful preflop that he later won. The guy who ran the second nuts into his nuts as a result of the hand spent the next 5 minutes berating Barry, who didn't come anywhere close to losing his cool.
David Grey: The worlds single biggest nit. I'm told he once raised kings pre flop. He was likely drunk.
Hevad Khan: Is one of the nicest and most modest guys I've met in poker. All anyone talks to him about is how different he is in person compared to his TV persona. I played with him only briefly, and he tried to spew into Adanthar but ended up sucking out in one hand, but other than that his game seemed solid.
Chad Brown: Actually seemed like a nice guy when I played with him, and not bad at poker either. I know he's kind of a psycho given the Aaronbeen incident (Aaronbeen told his girlfriend Vanessa Russo she played a hand terrible after she called some guy an idiot on the table and Brown lost his shit and threatened to kick his ass in the hallway of the Rio) so I guess he remembered his medication that morning.
Shannon Elizabeth: An evil bitch and a horrible poker player. That's about all.
Lee Nelson: The best live tournament pro I've seen in action. He's very aggressive, fully understands ranges, and knows how to adjust to live players expectations really well. He's also as classy as they come in the poker industry. One amusing detail about Lee is that he won't play any poker in the United States despite originally being an American (he now lives in New Zealand.)
Jeff Shulman: I remember him getting a ton of chips in a NL tournament then spewing them off in horrible fashion, though I don't remember any specific hands. More amusing though is that I remember Brandon Adams coming up to him before Brandon had ever done anything in the poker world with a book in his hand. He reached it out to offer to Jeff, who looked at him confused
”What's this?”
”It's a book. It's for you. Let me know what you think.”
Brandon had written a poker novel about his experiences and politely handed it to Jeff, then walked off. When Jeff later busted his book was sitting on the floor and as he stood up to leave the player next to him picked it up and said “Don't you want your book?”
”Psssh, no!” he replied and walked off. The other guy kept it.
Humberto Brenes: A massive nit who bases the size of his raise on the strength of his hand. He spent his time singing whatever Spanish music he had on his CD player into my right ear while he folded hand after hand after…
Dave ‘Devilfish' Ulliott: Is pretty much an asshole who spends 100% of his free time scrounging around the casinos for women to hit on in the sleaziest manner possible. He has the subtlety and charm of a massive fart at a formal dinner.
Roland De Wolfe: I didn't get to see him play much but I got to watch him berate Kwob20 after he sucked out with a flush draw that he check shoved the flop with in a totally standard spot during a Bellagio $2,500 event (outside Kwob's terrible pre flop call, but the flop was standard.)
Toto Leonidas: Seems to think you can bluff people in limit. Every hand. For those of you who haven't played limit, that's throwing money away faster than betting on Gary Coleman vs Mike Tyson at even money.
That's all I can remember for now. Hopefully they'll be some more good ones after this trip, which has changed matter of fact. It turns out going to LAPT Costa Rica was a logistical nightmare, so I've replaced it with WPT Barcelona. I'm finishing the booking tomorrow morning with the travel agency and the new (and likely final, no seriously this time) itinerary looks like this:
April 30, leave Melbourne to Venice. Stopovers in Bangkok and Frankfurt.
May 3-10, Party Poker Million Cruise.
May 11 depart Venice for Paris, stopover in Zurich.
May 11-19 Grand Prix de Paris
May 19 depart Paris for Barcelona, stopover in Zurich.
May 19-28 WPT Barcelona
May 28 depart Barcelona for Las Vegas, stopover in Philadelphia
May 28-June 27 WSOP of poker
June 27 depart Las Vegas for Milwaukee
June 27-30 see friends and family in Wisconsin
June 30 depart Milwaukee for Las Vegas
June 30-July 18 WSOP and Bellagio Cup III
July 18 depart Las Vegas for Fresno
July 18-21 Hang out in Fresno and bother Kyle at work in his cardroom
July 21 depart Fresno for Melbourne, stopovers in LA and Sydney
July 23 Arrive Melbourne Australia. Kill self.
Hand History Links
by Bond18 on 04/05/08
I have very little clever on my mind to write about today. There was a request in the comments about getting more HH links up, so I think this might be a good time to put a bunch of quality HH links in one place. So here’s some more:
Tilt $30 rebuy win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA121755/Tilt%2030r%20win%20master/8550
Tilt $109 6-max win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA121754/Full%20Tilt%20109%206X%20win/8550
Tilt Winners Choice win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA120884/Winners%20choice%20win/8550
Stars 50/50 3rd
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA119914/Stars%2050-50%203rd/8550
Stars $109 FO win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA118833/100%20Stars%20FO%20Win/8550
Tilt 100r 6-max win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA117689/100r%206%20max%20win%20master/8550
You might have to copy/paste those into your browser to view them. As I’ve said before you don’t actually have to purchase a membership, just need to create a log in to view them. I’m willing to answer any questions you guys come up with, but sifting through can be a little slow so might take me a couple days to have a look at them all.
Outside this my girlfriend and I were looking into perhaps buying an apartment before I leave on the trip. We’re not really sure. Either way I’ve decided for the next month to go absurdly balls out with volume and start putting in 9-12 hour days (my current ones are normally around 7) and see just how much money I can work up towards making that a reality.
Tilt $30 rebuy win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA121755/Tilt%2030r%20win%20master/8550
Tilt $109 6-max win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA121754/Full%20Tilt%20109%206X%20win/8550
Tilt Winners Choice win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA120884/Winners%20choice%20win/8550
Stars 50/50 3rd
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA119914/Stars%2050-50%203rd/8550
Stars $109 FO win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA118833/100%20Stars%20FO%20Win/8550
Tilt 100r 6-max win
http://www.pokerxfactor.com/HA117689/100r%206%20max%20win%20master/8550
You might have to copy/paste those into your browser to view them. As I’ve said before you don’t actually have to purchase a membership, just need to create a log in to view them. I’m willing to answer any questions you guys come up with, but sifting through can be a little slow so might take me a couple days to have a look at them all.
Outside this my girlfriend and I were looking into perhaps buying an apartment before I leave on the trip. We’re not really sure. Either way I’ve decided for the next month to go absurdly balls out with volume and start putting in 9-12 hour days (my current ones are normally around 7) and see just how much money I can work up towards making that a reality.
It’s a lock
by Bond18 on 04/04/08
Party Poker locked me into their cruise today. I spent quite a bit of time on the phone with Party Poker and Moneybookers support and am happy to say both were quite useful and accommodating. My next move will be to book plane tickets and hotel for the trip. I also found out my friends Timex and Pacman are locked in as well, so I’ll have two really good targets to make fun of in my writing. I also found a place and am filling out the reservation papers for our stay in Las Vegas, the pictures can be found here: http://pacificinter.com/realestate/l...cationhome.htm
I made a deep run in the Full Tilt $150 today and came painstakingly close to a 5 figure score, but fell short and finished 3rd for about $7,500. My last hand seems like a questionable spot that I’ll likely go post in HSMTT. Speaking of, I’ve been pulling some weird and somewhat experimental type of plays recently. I’m writing the next portion of the ‘things it took me a while to learn’ series with NoahSD about ‘putting the pieces together in a hand’ and the process that goes into that. That aside, I thought I’d put a couple of the more weird hands I’ve played recently here and see what people thought. The first came from Full Tilt’s $33 rebuys today which I got 14th in:
Villain is an unknown player. I've been somewhat quiet lately, though with some LP raising but not a ton since it's often opened in front of me. I haven't played in big pots in quite some time.
I wrote recently that when people bet like 40% pot it's often a sort of blocking/value bet that we shouldn't be calling down as often as we do. Obviously we're never calling here, but what about taking that read and turning it into a bluff. Even though I don't think i'm necessarily representing much, I don't really think rando tournament players will sit there, put all the pieces together, then make a hero call.
FWIW I think this is absolutely horrible vs a thinking villain. Also as you can tell from some recent posts I'm trying some new stuff and might be doing it real wrong, but we'll see what you think.
Full Tilt Poker $22,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t240 Blinds + t25 - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com
UTG: t14411
UTG+1: t5570
UTG+2: t4720
MP1: t14625
MP2: t15696
CO: t21890
Hero (BTN): t11060
SB: t26860
BB: t7324
Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with 9d Th
6 folds, Hero raises to t625, 1 fold, BB calls t385
Flop: (t1595) 7h 2h 3h (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks
Turn: (t1595) 4d (2 players)
BB bets t600, Hero calls t600
River: (t2795) 3s (2 players)
BB bets t1200, Hero raises to t9810 all in
It’s quite rare for me to pull big and creative bluffs, so I thought it would be a good spot to post. The second hand is a hand Noah and I will be analyzing in the article, the thread of which got very interesting as several posters I respect argued back and forth over the merits of the call, it’s from the Full Tilt $109 6 max tournament:
Alright so villain seems a bit loose as many unknowns are in the late tournaments, defending the BB too wide. That said I don' think there's a ton of hands with a 4 in his range. On the river a number of draws have whiffed and I highly doubt he's good enough to value bet A high. Therefore I get to click my favorite button, right?
Full Tilt Poker $30,000 Guarantee No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50/t100 Blinds - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com
SB: t11170
BB: t8702
UTG: t7025
MP: t4110
Hero (CO): t4990
BTN: t3660
Pre Flop: Hero is CO with Qc Kc
2 folds, Hero raises to t300, 2 folds, BB calls t200
Flop: (t650) 7c 4d 7d (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t400, BB calls t400
Turn: (t1450) 3h (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks
River: (t1450) 7s (2 players)
BB bets t1200, Hero calls t1200
Any strong opinions or thoughts on these hands guys?
I made a deep run in the Full Tilt $150 today and came painstakingly close to a 5 figure score, but fell short and finished 3rd for about $7,500. My last hand seems like a questionable spot that I’ll likely go post in HSMTT. Speaking of, I’ve been pulling some weird and somewhat experimental type of plays recently. I’m writing the next portion of the ‘things it took me a while to learn’ series with NoahSD about ‘putting the pieces together in a hand’ and the process that goes into that. That aside, I thought I’d put a couple of the more weird hands I’ve played recently here and see what people thought. The first came from Full Tilt’s $33 rebuys today which I got 14th in:
Villain is an unknown player. I've been somewhat quiet lately, though with some LP raising but not a ton since it's often opened in front of me. I haven't played in big pots in quite some time.
I wrote recently that when people bet like 40% pot it's often a sort of blocking/value bet that we shouldn't be calling down as often as we do. Obviously we're never calling here, but what about taking that read and turning it into a bluff. Even though I don't think i'm necessarily representing much, I don't really think rando tournament players will sit there, put all the pieces together, then make a hero call.
FWIW I think this is absolutely horrible vs a thinking villain. Also as you can tell from some recent posts I'm trying some new stuff and might be doing it real wrong, but we'll see what you think.
Full Tilt Poker $22,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t240 Blinds + t25 - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com
UTG: t14411
UTG+1: t5570
UTG+2: t4720
MP1: t14625
MP2: t15696
CO: t21890
Hero (BTN): t11060
SB: t26860
BB: t7324
Pre Flop: Hero is BTN with 9d Th
6 folds, Hero raises to t625, 1 fold, BB calls t385
Flop: (t1595) 7h 2h 3h (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks
Turn: (t1595) 4d (2 players)
BB bets t600, Hero calls t600
River: (t2795) 3s (2 players)
BB bets t1200, Hero raises to t9810 all in
It’s quite rare for me to pull big and creative bluffs, so I thought it would be a good spot to post. The second hand is a hand Noah and I will be analyzing in the article, the thread of which got very interesting as several posters I respect argued back and forth over the merits of the call, it’s from the Full Tilt $109 6 max tournament:
Alright so villain seems a bit loose as many unknowns are in the late tournaments, defending the BB too wide. That said I don' think there's a ton of hands with a 4 in his range. On the river a number of draws have whiffed and I highly doubt he's good enough to value bet A high. Therefore I get to click my favorite button, right?
Full Tilt Poker $30,000 Guarantee No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t50/t100 Blinds - 6 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com
SB: t11170
BB: t8702
UTG: t7025
MP: t4110
Hero (CO): t4990
BTN: t3660
Pre Flop: Hero is CO with Qc Kc
2 folds, Hero raises to t300, 2 folds, BB calls t200
Flop: (t650) 7c 4d 7d (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets t400, BB calls t400
Turn: (t1450) 3h (2 players)
BB checks, Hero checks
River: (t1450) 7s (2 players)
BB bets t1200, Hero calls t1200
Any strong opinions or thoughts on these hands guys?
I’m as high as I’ve ever been
by Bond18 on 04/03/08
I just having a talk with my friend Corey-Ann online and she did one of those things mid conversation where whoever you’re talking to says ‘how are you anyways’ despite your already been several minutes into the conversation and talking being fairly regular. I knew I was running good lately, but how am I? I’m fucking awesome, that’s how, why you could even say, I’m high as a kite!
Over the last three months I’ve seen my bankroll go on a constant soar, getting higher and higher. It has increased nearly 1.5X fold, reaching an all time high, which for those of you who don’t know was also the title of one of the Bond theme songs sung by some broad whose name I have totally forgotten. Not only that, but I think through talking and picking the brains of the excellent group of poker minds around me I’ve taken my game to it’s highest level. With my upcoming trip and my teaming up with Full Tilt, my writing is set to reach its highest number of audience members ever. It’s the kind of thing you just want to high-five your friend about and then say “BOO-YAH!” as I so often do at my highest moments. I’m not especially looking to those plane rides, sitting around bored for hours in a flying tin can so high in the sky, but I think the purchase of an Ipod movie-playing-so-futuristic-it-kind-of-freaks-you-out-device will ease my 35,000 foot burdens. I’ll just lean back in my airplane seat and slid it to its highest degree of decline, and zone out for hours to the little screen in front of me.
I think when I finally get a chance to play on the live felt again I’m really going to start accumulating some massive stacks, stacks that will tower in an enormous pile, highest of the table and whole room. Hell, I’m so high on myself right now I’m willing to say you can 100% bet on me making a final table in one of those high buy in events. Go find whatever friend will take your action on that and bet as high as you can. I’m going into this with high expectations and I don’t intend to let myself off the metaphorical hook. If everything goes according to plans then my ‘Around the world in 90 days story’ won’t end with two Italians with a wad of Timex money in their pocket throwing higher and heavier amounts of dirty on my poorly covered body that is still barely alive despite the vicious bat beating it just took a la Joe Pesci in Casino. And when it’s all over and done with I’ll be back in Melbourne free of make up and living the high life.
Also, for those of you who are a fucking moron, I’m rather high on marijuana right now.
Over the last three months I’ve seen my bankroll go on a constant soar, getting higher and higher. It has increased nearly 1.5X fold, reaching an all time high, which for those of you who don’t know was also the title of one of the Bond theme songs sung by some broad whose name I have totally forgotten. Not only that, but I think through talking and picking the brains of the excellent group of poker minds around me I’ve taken my game to it’s highest level. With my upcoming trip and my teaming up with Full Tilt, my writing is set to reach its highest number of audience members ever. It’s the kind of thing you just want to high-five your friend about and then say “BOO-YAH!” as I so often do at my highest moments. I’m not especially looking to those plane rides, sitting around bored for hours in a flying tin can so high in the sky, but I think the purchase of an Ipod movie-playing-so-futuristic-it-kind-of-freaks-you-out-device will ease my 35,000 foot burdens. I’ll just lean back in my airplane seat and slid it to its highest degree of decline, and zone out for hours to the little screen in front of me.
I think when I finally get a chance to play on the live felt again I’m really going to start accumulating some massive stacks, stacks that will tower in an enormous pile, highest of the table and whole room. Hell, I’m so high on myself right now I’m willing to say you can 100% bet on me making a final table in one of those high buy in events. Go find whatever friend will take your action on that and bet as high as you can. I’m going into this with high expectations and I don’t intend to let myself off the metaphorical hook. If everything goes according to plans then my ‘Around the world in 90 days story’ won’t end with two Italians with a wad of Timex money in their pocket throwing higher and heavier amounts of dirty on my poorly covered body that is still barely alive despite the vicious bat beating it just took a la Joe Pesci in Casino. And when it’s all over and done with I’ll be back in Melbourne free of make up and living the high life.
Also, for those of you who are a fucking moron, I’m rather high on marijuana right now.
