Monday, March 24, 2008

Time for an entry about some other people

So I gotta give some props to my boys. FLB-PUNKER as some of you from http://www.pocketfives.com/ know, is my roommate Ian. On February 11th, he deposited $25 on Poker Stars. 6 weeks later he has just over $400. There are a couple things I think that have contributed to this sweet little micro run. I used to try to give him advice and he'd say something to the effect of "It's cool man, I got it." He wouldn't listen. Now he listens, we discuss hands, we help each other. He rarely visited P5s. Now he's been posting more there, although mostly in OT, but being involved in the community, railing other P5ers and talking to some of them via AIM has certainly helped.

As for how that roll was built, he's won 21 seats to the Sunday Hundred Grand in sattys for those. He got 1oth place in a $3 MTT with 1,455 people. Final tabled a $3 HORSE tournament. Final tabled a $4.40 180-man. Final tabled a $1 RAZZ tournament. He also has been doing very well in $1.10 and $3.25 45-man SNGs. He basically just playing good all around poker.

Now on to someone you guys probably don't know. Ryan Snyder A.K.A. SQUADFATHER. For some reason when he signed up for P5s a few months ago he put his screen name as Ryan Snyder. Oh well, we'll see if we can have Adam switch it. Anyways, Ryan has been best friends with me and Ian forever. Ian and Ryan knew each other since they were like 3 years old. Went to school together, played little league baseball together, yada yada yada. Well they got separated from schools in high school. That is where I met Ian, we joined the golf team and became very good friends. Well, one day whilst playing against Ryan's school, Ian introduced us on the driving range and a trio was formed.

SQUADFATHER has been playing online for a couple years now and he's one of those guys we all know who had bad bankroll management. The classic shot taker. He had some decent scores but always lost his roll. About two months ago I transfered him $25 on Poker Stars. That is now just over $300. We had him join P5s, put him on a bankroll management plan, although once in a while he steps a little bit outside it but not much. He's been pretty good about it. He's been killing the $4.40 180-mans. He has a 1st, 2nd, 5th, 7th and 8th in like 20 tries. In one of his "shots" he played the $5 rebuy on Stars. He got 60th in a field of 2,912 for $86.

The three of us have called ourselves the LBC Squad for a while now. We play HORSE home games and a variety of other games at my house. We are all commited to learning and getting better and I think the 3 of us are playing the best poker we've ever played right now and we expect it to only get better.

SHIP THE YAMS

pz,

ST311

Friday, March 14, 2008

Balls deep

So I've been getting deep in some big fields lately and just overall in general. I used to get a lot of min-cashes and not reach the good money very often. I think a lot of it has to do with my play when I'm shortstacked and also when I'm in between 10 and 20 big blinds. When I have between 10 and 20 big blinds, I'm generally not raising preflop unless I'm really committed to going all the way with the hand. If I fall below 10 big blinds, well then it's time to find a good hand in a good spot and just stick it all in.

If the antes haven't kicked in yet and I'm down to 7-8 big blinds, I'm not shoving crap. You can still be patient, there isn't as much in the pot to win. Once the antes kick in and you are 10 BBs or less, I'm just looking for any spot that I think has potential for one reason or another. Maybe the BB is a nit, maybe you have 2 limpers, maybe it folds to you in middle position and you have J-10ss. Whatever it is, try to find a spot where when you shove, you have a reason for doing so. Don't just blindly shove because you are short. Have a reason for every play you make.

If I'm above 20 big blinds I will make calculated steals based on who is in the blinds and my postition. I'm not going to raise stacks who are very short. I'm looking to pick blinds of the medium stacks. Stacks whos sizes are such that you can fold to a re-raise if you were raising with air. If a shorty shoves and you are priced in it's just spew to be raising their blinds with junk.



Date Buy-in Tournament/Event Place Entrants Winnings
3/3/08 $3.30 NL Hold em 20 1338 $14.05
3/3/08 $1.10 Razz 14 216 $3.56
3/4/08 $4.40 NL Hold em 180 5 180 $46.80
3/4/08 $0.50 NL Hold em 16 3652 $5.48
3/4/08 $2.20 NL Hold em 21 2087 $10.44
3/10/08 $11.00 NL Hold em 6 621 $263.93
3/14/08 $4.40 Pot Limit Omaha 7 463 $70.38
Those are my deep finishes for the month. Hopefully I can keep it rollin.
F beanie

Monday, March 10, 2008

One of the most screwy tournaments I've ever played

Tonight/this morning I played the $11 NL on Stars at 0300. I had only 1,670 at the first break. Barely more than my starting stack. Then in the 75/150 and the 100/200 levels I went on a nice run and got up to 12,000. When we were approaching the money bubble (top 90 paid, we were down to about 105) I got disconnected from Stars. My internet was working. I was posting on www.pocketfives.com. I don't know what the hell happened but 30-40 minutes later when it finally let me back on I had blinded down to 4,600 at the 400/800 level and we were in the money with 53 people left.

Well, I tripled up shortly after and then doubled that on the next orbit. Before I knew it I was in 4th with 22 remaining. I went pretty card dead and my steals weren't working and I started getting short again. I made it to the final table in 8th place out of the 9.

On the 3rd hand of the final table I get disconnected again. This time for only about 10-15 minutes. When I got back on we were 8 handed and I had 20,000 chips at the 2000/4000 level. I doubled that and doubled again later and somehow managed to take 6th place for $264.

Who knows what would have happened had I never got disconnected. Maybe I take a bad beat somewhere along the way and never make the FT. Maybe I make the FT with a lot more chips. I'll never know but it was an interesting ride for sure.


Later days