Let's Talk Poker

April is off to a fantastic start on the poker tables. I still haven't fixed my Holdem Manager because to be honest, it's been refreshing to not have to constantly think about what my results are during a session. I think that not being able to check HEM while playing has probably had a positive impact on my game, though any impact likely hasn't been drastic. The drawbacks to having a "broken" HEM are that I'm not getting accurate HUD info on some of my tables (I think the hands that aren't importing properly are isolated to 400nl/600nl tables) and the bigger drag is that I don't have any graphs to show you guys. I've also been recording my results by pen and paper each day and while this is kinda lol it's actually the most accurate way of doing it.

That said, I do plan on fixing my HEM in the near future-likely after I go on my next downswing. For now, things have been going very smoothly online and I've been running exceptionally well having earned over 8 stacks already this month. I put in some fairly heavy volume April 1-5 and averaged over $1K each day and then took a 3 day weekend. I put in around 4K hands on Saturday and then another 4.5K hands today and won a bit over $3k in the process so things are obviously going wayyyy better than normal. I've been playing well but haven't radically changed anything in my game since the start of the year so most of my upswing can just be chalked up to variance and running well. I expect a downer in the near future but hopefully I can ride the heater out a little longer!

I've taken a bunch of ugly beats this month but I've been running pretty "pure" for the most part. Most of my rungood up to this point has just been centered around being on the good end of cooler situations (ie. sets holding vs. draws, draws getting there when they need to, AA vs. KK a lot etc.) Of course, hands like this help!

No-Limit Hold'em, $2.00 BB (8 handed)
UTG($218)
UTG+1 ($88)
MP1 ($214)
MP2 ($80)
CO ($216.20)
Button ($155.20)
SB ($201)
Hero (BB) ($200)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A, A
3 folds, MP2 bets $5, CO raises $18, 2 folds, Hero raises $54, MP2 raises $75 (All-In), CO raises $100, Hero raises $144 (All-In), CO calls $82

Flop: ($481) 10, Q, 9 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: ($481) 4 (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: ($481) 8 (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $481

Results:
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
MP2 had K, K (one pair, Kings).
CO had K, K (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: Hero won $478

Always nice to fade the Jack.

Usually, every Sunday I try and play the 2500 FPP VIP satellite to the Sunday Million that runs at 11:30 PT. I'd say I normally wake up on time to play it about 60% of the time and cash in it about 30%-40%. Last week, I also discovered another high value satellite to the "Mill," the 1500 FPP round 4 hyper-turbo satellite that runs around 12:30 PT I think. If you win the round 4 satellite (which pays 1 seat per every 3 entrants) then you move on to the 4500 FPP round 5 satellite, which again grants entry for 1 person to the Sunday Mill for every 3 entrants. Anyways, all I'm getting at is that for 4000 FPP's (valued at $64) you can have a very inexpensive and probable way of playing the Sunday Million (or any Sunday major, for that matter). I would assume that I have about a 50% chance of cashing in at least 1 of these satellites every week, although that number may be a bit high. Regardless, I'm going to try and continue to invest in both of these satellites every week because not only do I enjoy playing in such a potentially life-changing tournament each week, I also think that it will be profitable in the long run. Even though at this point I have a big enough bankroll to be adequately rolled for most tournaments online, I just think that there can always be more value added from satellites. I also find it more exciting to play knowing that even a min-cash will earn me a profit of around $300 instead of around $100 (if I just bought in). Anyhow, I just thought that I'd bring this to the attention of other high volume players that may be interested in dabbling in high-value tournaments for a minimal cost.

Today, while I had my 24 cash tables up and running I was also playing in the Sunday Million after gaining entry through the before mentioned round 4, 1500 FPP satellite (and of course winning round 5 as well). Things started out fine and I won a couple of small pots by isolating and then value-betting against a couple of weak players bringing my starting stack up from 10K to 12K. I went pretty card-dead for a while after that until I got my then 10K stack in the middle against my opponents 7K stack holding AQ vs. AT on a Axx board and held. Things went pretty quiet for a while...I called one opponent's small bluff with 4th pair and won a couple of uncontested pots pre-flop moving my stack up to 20K. I eventually doubled up again with KK vs. 67 on a 456 flop and was sitting on 40K. I opened a couple of pots but was met with some 3bets and had to fold, dropping my stack back down to 30K. My tournament ended 195 people away from the money when it folded around to the button and he opened to 6K at 1k/2k blinds and had me covered. I looked down at ATo in the SB and had a decision to make. Even though the button had been playing pretty tight up to this point, re-shoving ATo with 15 bb's here is obviously profitable as it should be well ahead of the btn's opening range. That said, folding here basically locks up $300 for me as I would probably have to wait about 1 more orbit until the money bubble bursts. I think if you have a small bankroll or satty'd into the tournament and the $300 means a lot to you then folding these +EV spots is fine...I couldn't bring myself to do it, however, as losing another orbit of blinds combined with the ever increasing blinds would greatly diminish my chance of a deep run/higher cash in the tournament. Having said that, I shipped my 30K stack and got called by 77 and lost the flip to bust me out of the tournament. There's always next week!


With the SCOOP upcoming in May, now seems as good a time as any to work on my tournament game. I plan on playing in many SCOOP events, although I haven't made a schedule for myself just yet. I'll likely be making a detailed post about the SCOOP in the near future and I'd be interested to hear what you guys are planning on registering in as well...maybe we can get some friendly/low stake last-longer bets or competitions going if there's enough interest.

gl at the tables!