I run GOOT!!!!

Well I took another tourney down, but this time on stars. I really have not had great luck on the site, but this was not a regular tourney. It was a $5+.50 turbo (5 min rounds) and had over 1700 runners. It was a gamblers paradise...push push and push.

I got to the final table of nine as the 3rd chip leader.
Blinds started at 25K/50K with 2500 ante
The stacks were between 600K - 110K, so let the fireworks begin.

3rd hand of the final table, the low stack moved in first to act, and I am sitting in the SB with
5c 5h. I have him covered by 100K and decide to gamble since: I cannot go broke and the payout at 5-9 are not very big, and it is a turbo with quick rising blinds. I want to have a decent stack when it gets down to 4 or go bust trying.
He turns over K8, but flops an 8. I am looking at 2 outs and hit the miracle 5d on the river to bust him and boost my stack over 400K.

The following hand, I get AA on the button, folded to me so I put in a small raise hoping to get a caller, but they don't fall for it. I still pick up the blinds and antes and get my stack to over 520K.

The pushing started, and I pretty much stayed out of the way. We got to 4 handed and I was now going to get a pretty decent pay day for $5 that is.
Chips stacks:
me with 530K, 1 guy over 1 million, other guys had 667K and 397K.
Blinds now at 30K/60K with 3000 ante
I find As Qc on the button and push, I get called by the short stack who is in the BB. He has
7c 7h, and we are racing.

flop and turn come rags, but the river is a miracle Ace and I bust the guy. Now over 992K and 3 handed.

2 hands later we lose the other short stacked guy, when the chip leader bust him with and AJo vs 88 when he flopped an Ace.

I am now getting a 4 figure pay day. I want to win this, but I am down almost 3/1 and in my opinion, HU is not my best game. Lucky for me I double through him with TT vs 55, so now I have a slight chip lead. 1.6M vs 1m. There was never talk of a chop since it was only a 800 difference. I wanted to play it out in my mind and I think he did also.

We took jabs at each other back and forth trading chip leads, but we were never that far apart. I finally got the lead back and was able to finish him off with the following hand:
He raises to 120K from the SB and I find 88 in the BB. I think he has an ace and decide to put him to the test. I move all in. He thinks for a bit and then calls with A4c. He flops a 4, but no other help and I am victorious. Has been a pretty good couple days and a decent month.

Well I will be taking some time off to go skiing with the wife, and be back in force come March.
Until next time....

Quick Update

I played in the Bodog qualifier to try and get into the WSOP semi final. It is a 27+2 with a decent structure and bodog does not have alot of traffic yet, so winning a seat there might be easier then anywhere else.

Anyway, it started with 52 people, and 5 seats got paid. We got down to 10 and the blinds were
150/300 and I had 1775 and jam the pot with AKo and get called by A3s.
Flop, 6 9 7 with 2 spades
turn 5
River is a 4 so he pulls a straight....gg me.

Thats the quick update...lol

Best Weekend ever Online !!!

Well the poker gods have once again smiled down on me and evened things out for me.
I was able to take down the $55 on Party on Sunday and also now have 6 straight winning sessions at $5/$10 Limit. Things are definitely looking up!!!

I will attempt to write a hand summary of the final table, hope you enjoy.

I reached the final table with some solid play and was in 4 chips position at 130K.
We had one big chip leader coming in with 572K and the rest of us had between 166K - 31K.

The Blinds and antes were high, but I could still afford to pick my spots.
6000/12000 antes 200.

I won a 52K pot on the second hand of the final table which gave me even more breathing room.
I completed the 6000 from the SB with Kh Qd and there was only 1 limper so we saw the flop 3 handed.

It came down As, Kd, 4d and it was checked around.
The turn was the 5d, so I decided to make a feel bet with 14K with second pair and a flush draw, they both folded.

I pretty much played the take the blinds and give up the blinds along with some other steal moves for the next 60 hands. I did not want to play a really big pot though unless I had the goods. In the meantime, we were losing players so it was good for me.

We got down to 5, so I was already assured a 4 figure pay out but I was low man on the pole now, and I was desperate.

Level is 10K/20K with 500 antes.
Chip Counts were:
me with 84K the other players were: 961K, 225K, 172K, 100K.

If I double up, I can get into good contention for 2nd. There is no way I thought the chip leader could mess that up unless he played like a maniac. Good thing for me/us, that's exactly how he played.

I was in the BB with Kc Tc and the maniac chip leader just min raises, he has been doing that through out and showing garbage. I know KTs is not a great hand, but I can not wait any longer.

After he min raised, it is folded around to me and I push 44K. It was an easy call for him (pot odds), but I was happy at what I saw. He showed J8o and I double through and I am in 3rd position with almost 180K.

For the next 30 hands, it was alot of pushing and folding between all the players, as there was not too much flop play, and we lost another player so we are down to 4.

Blinds are still 10K/20K with 500 antes.
Chip Counts were:
me with 115K the other players were: 782K, 359K, 288K so I am low staked again, but I do not worry as I play a pretty good game of short stack poker.
Lots of practice....LOL

I am in the SB and pick up 5h 5c. Folded to the button who raised to 65K, I am willing to play a coin flip at this point and push for an additional 50K. He calls and turns over Ks, Qh.
I win the flip and I am now at 252K and back in contention.

4 hands later at the same level, I win another huge coin flip against the same player:
I had TT and he had AKo. That pot was 250K and I move into second place with 481K.

3 hands later we lose the guy who lost both of his flips to me as he was very short stacked, so we are not 3 handed.

Level 15K/30K and antes 700
Chip stacks are me 412K and maniac 984K and other player 148K.

I lost a big pot here to the short stack, but I had the right read.
He was in the SB and I was the BB. He moved in for his remaining stack. I thought he could do that with a wide variety of hands and though that my A7o was the best hand, so I called.
He had K6o and spiked a King on the flop. That got us pretty even and the game was on again.

I lost a bunch of hand after that and was again the short stack when the following hand came up.
Same blinds as before and I pick up 9c 9d on the button and move in. The maniac calls, but I am not too worried as he has called with garbage before, until he turns over Kh, Kd. GG me, I thought. Then I say to myself, maybe he can get those cracked. Many of you know, I do not like KK very much as I have lost so many tourneys with that hand.
The little prayer must have worked as I spike my 2 outter in the flop and I am back in the game.

In the next 3 hands I move in with KTo, K4s, and ATs. I work my stack up to 2nd place with 411K.

After a bunch of blind stealing I was able to win a 3 way pot QTo when we all saw the flop and it was Qh, Jd, 6d. Maniac led out and I went over the top and he folded.

I was now chip leader at 709K, maniac 624K and other player 210K.

Blinds are still 15K/30K and 700 antes.
I was on the button with 6d, 6c and I raise to 75K. The maniac folds and the short stack moves in for 135K more. So it is a pretty easy call for me. I am just hoping for a flip and not to be a 4/1 dog. Much to my surprise, I was actually the 4/1 favorite as he had 5c, 5h and he got no help.

I was now HU with the loose/maniac, but I had the chip lead. 936K to 608K.

5 hands later, we traded some jabs and were about even I had 821K and he now had 723K.

My dream scenario came up on the final hand of the tourney,
And here it is:
***** Hand History for Game 3585706821 *****NL Texas Hold'em Trny:20308774 Level:20 Blinds-Antes(20000/40000-1000) - Sunday, February 19, 19:06:42 ET 2006
Table Multi Table(604930) Table #1 (Real Money)
Seat 8 is the button
Total number of players : 2
Seat 1: Beater77 ( $764002 )
Seat 8: siberianex ( $780998 )
Trny:20308774 Level:20
Blinds-Antes(20000/40000-1000)
Beater77 posts ante [1000].
siberianex posts ante [1000].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to siberianex [ As Ad ]
siberianex calls [20000].
Beater77 raises [105047].
siberianex raises [210094].
Beater77 is all-In.
siberianex calls [512908].
** Dealing Flop ** [ 8d, 3d, Ks ]**
Dealing Turn ** [ 9c ]**
Dealing River ** [ 9h ]
siberianex shows [ As, Ad ] two pairs, aces and nines.
Beater77 shows [ 7h, 7s ] two pairs, nines and sevens.siberianex wins 1528004 chips from the main pot with two pairs, aces and nines.
Congratulations to player siberianex for winning tournament Multi TablePlayer Beater77 finished in 2 place and received $3862.50
Player siberianex finished in 1 place and received $6180.20

Hope you enjoyed the read, until next time...

Good and Bad

Well...I am starting to crush the $5/$10 games on party, but the MTT have been kind of frustrating. I have cashed in 4 tourneys in a row that had over 1000 people, but once we get down to around 40 people or lower, I seem to get hit with some really bad beats.

Here is an example from tonight.

Blinds-Antes(2000/4000-100)
I am sitting in the BB with 23812. Guy UTG raises to 12000, it is folded around to me and I push, well he has to call and does. He has AQs.

** Dealing Flop ** [ Td, Kh, 2c ]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 5c ]
** Dealing River ** [ Jc ] GG...me

Gus64 shows [ Qd, Ad ] a straight, ten to ace.
siberianex shows [ Ah, As ] a pair of aces.

Well thats my rant for the night, until next time...

Busy Times

Well, I have not updated this in about 10 day, it is mainly due to work and family things, I have been kind of busy. We had a huge blizzard here on the east coast and along with Valentines day, I have had to schedule alot of things around. I guess it does not really matter, as I do not think anyone reads this anyway. :-)

Well I got into playing on Monday night in my live home game. There were only 7 starters and it was pretty east to get the top 2 spots, when we split $400 each.
I have played one tournament which was a speed tourny on stars and as most tournaments, I keep placing in the 20ths and just cant seem to make the final table.
Blinds were huge 15K/30K and it was folded around to me in mid position. I have K2s and I decide now is the time to move, so I push for 74K. The SB with 130K decided to call with QJo and spikes a Jack on the flop..gg me.

I have also been playing my usual $5/$10 Limit. Things have been doing pretty well on that front as I have won 7 of the last 8 session. At this limit, I am winning 56% of my sessions, but some of the swings have been rough. I have been playing this limit since October 2005 and have only reached 1/2 of my goal at this limit. I am up around 130BB, but I want to be up at least 300 BB before I jump to the next level, which doubles on party, $10/$20. Needless to say it has been a grind after 5 months and almost 13K hands. I do have enough of a bankroll to play the bigger games, but I want to do it the right way in grinding it out and also getting more experience before playing with the sharks at the next level.

Till next time....

Another Final Table

Well I manged to get another final table at Party using the new system I have been trying, but this time I made a few minor adjustments that worked for the 1500TC tourney. Now this is just one tournament, but I will keep playing with this so I can try and cash at a regular basis and keep the aggressive part of the game going.

I have also tried this at the Party $100 max NL ring games and have had a profit of close to $500 for about a week playing only about 1 hour at each session.

Lets hope I have found some answers.

Until next time...

Good Start

Well I said I would be trying a new strategy in trying to loosen my game up. This seem to work at Bugsys where they start you off with 10K in chips and 10 minute rounds. My results speak for themselves, 4th place finish on Wednesday night and a win last night.
This style does seem to be working, but I see that so far it works for 10K tourneys and not the 1500K tourneys. I may have to adjust a little for those, but 4 tournaments is not enough of sample data to just abandon it.

Until next time.

The month of January

January was a pretty good month where my bankroll has grown to a nice comfort zone for me.
The last 1/2 of the month was a little discouraging in the fact that I have suffered some sick beats and its starting to affect my game. I just have to keep reminding myself to stay focused and not to tilt money away and it will balance out in the end as it usually does.
I am experimenting in a couple things that will open up my game a little more. I find myself getting to the money with a short stack and it does not give me the flexibility to do some things on the bubble. Other than that, I am pretty happy with all my games. I have won at all the things I tried: multi, SNG, and rings.
Lets hope it continues in Feb, the wins not the bad beats.

Till next time...