Welcome to Thunderdome

Posted: **Fri Mar 09, 2007 12:57 am**

$25 game, 70 players, top 5 paid.

Not only were my buddy and I seated at the same table, he was placed to my right.

He had warned me before the game that these people play every week and wouldn't be pushovers. They might play better than the Full Tilt freerollers, but they're in no way advanced players.

I don't think my buddy and I ever tangled.

I made a conscious effort to look for tells. And let me tell you, there were tells galore! When I saw weakness I stole pots. When I saw strength I mucked my cards. One player was pretty good, so I marked him as bluffable, and made a lot of money of him. I could have played a lot of hands without ever looking at my cards.

I made a few noobie mistakes due to nerves, like mucking a hand when I was the big blind and people only called me, having trouble figuring out raises, etc. But despite that, I was dominating. In fact, except for one time when I raised when I didn't notice that anybody else had raised, none of my goofs hurt me. In fact, I think they might have helped paint me as a fish.

Most of the time I was the chip leader at whatever table I was at.

When I got to the final table I was in terrible position, even though I was #2 in chips The good player who I had rock solid tells on was on my right, so I couldn't see him. The chip leader (who had twice my chips) was seated directly to my left. Oh, and I started out as the big blind.

In the first hand at the final table I had A/10 spades and when two people called I made a big raise. A caller went all-in and I called. She had 10/10, and I failed to connect with an Ace, so I lost a bunch of chips.

In the very next hand I had A/8 clubs, the deadman's hand. Three people called, including the good guy on my right. I called as well.
The flop was Kd/8s/2s. I could tell that the two to my left failed to connect, but I couldn't see the good guy on my right. I made a big bet. The two people who I knew didn't connect folded. The guy on my right went all-in. I had been pushing him around all night so I called, figuring he was pushing back with a just a flush draw.
He had K/9 of spades. Top pair with a great flush draw.
The turn and river were no help to either of us, so his Kings won, crippling me.

I had less than a big blind at that point, so I waited for a chance to go all-in. During that time two people got knocked out. Just before I was big blind I had K/6 so I went all-in, and lost to someone who flopped a pair of sixes, putting me out in 7th place.

Game over. Since they only paid to 5th place I didn't win anything.

I played correct poker at the end. I would do the same thing over again. I know if I just folded every hand at the final table I would have finished in the money, but I was aiming for first place.

Edit: I think I can turn a profit if I that game if I play it consistently. I heard that 70 people is a small crowd for that weekly game. Had there been 75 people the payout would have changed and I would have finished in the money.
The players were incredibly easy to read. Seriously. I can't emphasize this enough. Plus I did a little acting (like acting weak when I was weak... because people act strong when they're weak) and pretty much everything went my way.
I didn't bad-beat anybody, and nobody had a bad beat against me. I lost a few 60/40's when small stacks went all in pre-flop and I called, but those aren't bad beats. All in all it was a really satisfying game.
If I can cut down my stupid mistakes I think I can get in the money fairly consistently.

Edited By Paul on 1173447205

Posted: **Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:52 pm**

I'm going back to that game tonight.
With the NCAA shtuff happening tonight I'm not sure what the crowd will be like. I hope it breaks 75, so more positions pay out.

My friend told me he wanted to go because he though he was on a hot streak. To me, that's a lousy reason to go, but I probably won't go next month (because of another game) so I agreed to go tonight.

I've been giving him advice and if he sticks with it I think he has a good chance of making it to the final table. I give an 85% chance that he's going to bust out and come up to me with an, "I was doing great, then got cocky and..." sort of story.

I'm really hesitant about going tonight. I feel like I have to improve on what I did last time, and being 2nd in chips going into the final table is a tough mark to beat.
It's so easy to get a bad beat mid-way through and get knocked out.

I'm pretty sure that barring a bad beat, I can make it to the final table again. I don't expect that I'll blow up or make stupid moves.

I give myself a 30% chance of making the final table, assuming 70 players. I have a 60% chance of running into a bad beat that leads to my downfall, and a 10% chance of doing something unjustifiably stupid.

I'm a little afraid that I'm placing too much confidence in reading tells. All day I've been training myself to for discipline. I do everything the way I'm supposed to, from driving the speed limit to washing my hands in hot water for 30 seconds.
I bought a Sobe energy drink that I'm going to hit in a few minutes and I'll have a PayDay in my pocket in case I need a pick-me-up. I doubt I'll even think about it though.

After work I'll go home to change. I always wear a nice, long sleeve shirt to serious poker games. It's part of my ritual. Long sleeves hide my arms, and in a way offer a bit of psychological protection.
Plus, dressing nice sets up the image that I'm trying to convey. Image is a great tool.

Wish me luck, though I hope I play in a way that I don't need it.

Posted: **Thu Mar 22, 2007 9:28 pm**

60% it is.

Bad cards all night. I folded a K/10 pre-flop that would have given me the nut full house. The pot ended up being a monster too... and totally loading up the guy directly on my right.

I folded my way down to 420 in chips (from a thousand), then got A/A. Lots of money in the pot so I went all-in. One guy called with K/J off suit.
When we revealed cards the guy on my right said he folded K/10.

The flop was K/10/5.
The turn was a Jack.
The river was an Ace, giving him the Ace high flush.

Crap!

Edit: I did have a suck out earlier in the night. I played A/10 (a hand I normally don't play early on) and the flop was A/A/5. I raised and the aggressive woman to my right (who was playing all sorts of crap) called.
The turn was a Queen and I went all-in.
She called, showing an A/J.
Doh! My A/10 was dominated.
Luckily the river was a King, counterfeiting her Jack high, so we split the pot.

Edited By Paul on 1174654434

Posted: **Sun Mar 25, 2007 3:56 am**

Back from Vegas! On Monday I won $140 at the Excalibur. On Tuesday I lost $220 at the Luxor, then went back to the Excalibur and won $180 of it back.

I used to think that complaints about never being able to catch decent cards was a bit of a copout. Not anymore. Wednesday and Thursday I spent 10 hours bleeding money to blinds and pre-flop bids. During that entire time, only twice did I fold a winning hand (both were small cards, one that would have caught a straight and one that would have caught a flush). I played solid on the few good hands I did get and drew in the maximum possible amount of money into the pot. But it wasn't enough, and I ended up bleeding off enough money to put me $500 down for the trip.

I still had a good time. But next time won't be my first poker trip, and I'll be more willing to walk away and catch a show when things are going wrong for too long.

Posted: **Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:17 am**

If you don't catch cards, there's not much you can do. That sucks.

At least you had two profitable days.

Where did you play Wednesday & Thursday? Different people at the table each day?

There's a $1/$2 cash game at the tournament I go to. I watched it before the tournament, to see if it was beatable. I don't want to play in a game where I'm outclassed.
They were better than the tournament players, but I was able to pick up some tells in the 15 minutes that I watched the game.
I even pointed out a guy to my friend and whispered, "he just got trips on the flop." He went all in, was called, and showed his winning hand, trip 6's. He had a *classic* tell.

I gave my friend a bunch of advice. He's a so-so player, who I convinced to tighten up, raise to drive limpers out, and look for certain tells. I groomed him all week. He even printed out some emails I sent him to read over.

He ended up winning! I left early, but the next day he showed me the $100 bills they gave him.
I told him, "I told you that tournament was beatable."
I'm so proud of the guy... and quite a bit jealous.

Edited By Paul on 1174832864

Posted: **Sun Mar 25, 2007 1:11 pm**

Wed & Thu I was back at the Excalibur, a little $1/$3 No Limit but mostly at the $2/$4 Limit. I did see a couple of players around every day, but mostly it was new people. And I could tell who had thought they had the best had on the flop 9 out of 10 times. It was just almost never me.

Posted: **Sun Mar 25, 2007 10:55 pm**

TPRJones wrote:Wed & Thu I was back at the Excalibur, a little $1/$3 No Limit but mostly at the $2/$4 Limit. I did see a couple of players around every day, but mostly it was new people. And I could tell who had thought they had the best had on the flop 9 out of 10 times. It was just almost never me.

I'm not as good at Limit.
The price of stupidity isn't as steep and a lot more people see the flop, so prospectors get rewarded more.

It's great being able to know when people think they have the best hand after the flop. Was I any help on that?

Posted: **Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:00 am**

Absolutely! And not once did I ever see anyone doing it back at me, either, which was a little surprising.

Focused like laserbeams, evrey one of them.

Posted: **Mon Mar 26, 2007 2:56 pm**

Sweet!
It's an awesome little tool to add to one's arsenal.

Someone did it back to me last Thursday and it disturbed me a bit. It was uncomfortable.
But he didn't do it consistently. I think it was mainly because he caught me doing it and thought I was being a bully instead of trying to get a read, so he was being aggressive back.

It ends up he was trying to make fight back and challenge him, because he flopped trip 10's.
I got out cheap considering though.

Posted: **Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:14 am**

Last week I played a tournament on Full Tilt with 1,200+ people. I was tired, the game started late, and it only cost 250 chips to play, so I though about quitting after 40 minutes.
Then I became the chip leader, and decided that I couldn't quit.

Hours later I finally got knocked out, in 22'nd place. I had trip 4's, and the guy who beat me had a full house. Oh well.

It was a miserable experience. I wanted to quit and go to sleep, but I was dominating the field so badly that I couldn't just walk away.

---------

Two nights ago I played in another of those big tournaments. I think I folded every hand but one during the first 45 minutes.
But I eventually started building chips.

After the third break we were down to three tables. The tournament leader was at my table, and I was second in chips. I had 130k and he had 475k. But I kept stealing money from him. I brought myself up to 250k in ten minutes by taking his bets, never having to show down a hand. He had to be steaming.

Then he bet, nobody before me called, so I called to challenge him with my 8/J suited (hearts).
The flop was A/J/A rainbow, giving me top two pair.
He made a medium bet and I re-raised. He called (just like he always did).
The turn was a 4d. I hoped he hit that. But he checked. (With two diamonds, I thought maybe he had a 2 diamonds in his hand was was seeing if he could get to the river). I raised and he called.
The river was an Ace. He went all-in.

I had the highest possible full-house on the board.
At this point, three things could beat me:
1. The one remaining Ace.
2. Pocket Kings.
3. Pocket Queens.

I thought for a minute, then called his all-in.

He had K/K, giving him a bigger full house. Doh!

The stars aligned to take me out of that game:
1) If someone else had called his raise before me I'd have folded my 8/J.
2) If that Jack didn't come on the flop I would have folded.
3) If I hadn't been taking a ton of his chips in the last few hands without showing (so he thought I was steaming) I would have folded early, putting him on an Ace.
4) If it was against any other player in the tournament I'd still have a at least 100k in chips (average chip stack was only 65k I think).
5) If it was against any other player at my table I'd have most of my chips remaining.
6) If he had anything but the one remaining Ace, or KK, or QQ, I couldn't lose.

Oh well.

------------

Last night I tried to play some Sit & Go's online and got tromped, early on too. I kept getting really good hands that ran into great hands. In the last game, I got A/A on the first hand, went all-in (because some people go all-in with anything on the first hand, so people respond by claling with less-than premium hands themselves) and was beat by a guy with 8/4 suited when he hit two pair.

----------------

Tonight I'll be going to the big $25 live tournament. I'm hoping for 80 or so players. It'll be my friend Chris' first time there. If he plays really tight I think he'll do well.

I'm trying to get myself psyched up but it's difficult.

Posted: **Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:49 am**

I had a good time at the tournament.

I played super-tight. I was active in two hands up until the first break. In the first hand I was the big blind, it was checked to me, and I hit top pair on the flop (9's) so I bet and everyone folded.
Then, I raised with 6/6 just as they announced the break. (This is my favorite hand by the way.) I raised 300, and I think the blinds were 100.
A lot of people called me.
The flop had my third 6. The other two cards were a rainbow, I think maybe a Jack or Queen high, with a rag.
Anyway, I bet again and everyone called.
The flop was the fourth suite/rag.
I bet again and only the newbie at the table called. (An old lady who had never played a tournament before).

Now, this lady had made a comment a few minutes earlier, something along the lines of, "It seems like all you have to do in this game is bet at the end and everybody folds to you." So, I checked the river. I was pretty certain he just had something like Ace high, and was pretty sure she'd follow her own advice.

She did.
She put me all in, and I raked in the chips. I went from 720 or so chips to 2,400 that hand.

The guy across from me said (in front of everybody). "I've been watching you. That's the first hand you've played all night, huh?"

I smiled and told him it was the second. I smiled because, that comment of his was going to beat "don't mess with this guy" into even the thickest of heads.

Even luckier for me. my two friends were on break and were behind me, watching me rake in the huge pot.

When we got back from break I went on a bluffing streak that tripled me up. On the second hand after the break I was able to isolate the newbie old lady, firing away each time. I was bluffing all the way. When the fourth diamond hit I could tell she missed it (as did I) so I bet and raked in another big pot.
She asked, "Did you have it?" and I just shrugged. I worked hard to get to the point where I could steal, so I wasn't going to admit to any bluff.

The crucial hand of the game was maybe 10 or 15 minutes before I got knocked out. I was dealt King/King and only called. (The blinds had just doubled, so I thought I was raising... doofus!)

The I-watch-too-much-TV-poker guy on my left thought my call was weakness, and moved all in for an additional 2,200. Everyone else folded.

I always lose with "Ace Magnets." Whenever I have A/A or K/K I always lose to a straight. Not trips, not a flush, a straight.
Thinking about logically I knew I had to call. He wouldn't have bet like that if he wanted to be called, so I was guessing A/J or A/J.

I called.

When he showed his King/Ten I was relieved. I was 90% to win!

The flop was a 2/9/Q.
On the turn he shouted, "Jack!" but it was another 9.
On the river he shouted, "Jack!" and it was the %$#! Jack, giving him the straight and the $6,200 (or whatever) pot.

If I would have won that hand I'd have gotten to the final table (barring any other bad beats).

Shortly after that the blinds went up to 400/800 and I couldn't catch any cards. I was down to 1,500 when I was the big blind. Normally I'd go all-in but I had 8/3 off suite. Bleh!
When I was small blind I had 10/4 off suite, so I went all-in. A few people called, but I didn't hit anything and was out in 18th (or so) place.

We were down to two tables at that point and people were dropping like flies. Pretty much if you were in, you were all-in.

Again, if I had that additional 6,200 in chips I could have stolen, easily, another 2,000 chips.

I'll get'em next time.

Edited By Paul on 1177077388

Posted: **Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:44 pm**

I just won one of those 315 player sit-n-go tournies on Full Tilt for entry into another tourney of 5000 players in which the top 9 players win entry into another 5000 player tourney in which the top two winners gain entry into a 3600 player tourney in which the top 15 winners get seats at the WSOP.

Okay, when you write it all out like that it doesn't sound all that impressive. But it's the first step, eh?

EDIT: On a more technical note, I've finally learned to stay tight and not blow up near the end of the tourney. And I had quite a few very beautiful slow plays that were just awesome. I can't recall one time I didn't just check or call after the flop - even when I was sitting on four fours - and they all just kept falling for it.

Edited By TPRJones on 1177555647

Posted: **Thu Apr 26, 2007 9:00 am**

Good job on the win. 314 down, 13,574 more to go.

I keep trying to enter those, but I'm too slow. I got in one once, but lost to a larger full house early on.

How often do those things start? They come up randomly, right?

A free $10k entry into the WSoP would be awesome. But it's still cost thousands to fly out there and stay in a hotel for a week.
Every February there's a $150 tournament by my father-in-law's house, where the 1st place prize is a seat at the WSoP Main Event, plus $9k in spending money. If I do well this year at my monthly 80-player tournament, I'll probably hit it next year.

Posted: **Thu Apr 26, 2007 10:01 am**

Oh, sorry, I meant to say WSOP Entry Package - it includes airfair and hotel. I think.

They seem to start pretty regularly, usually popping up every five to ten minutes or so. I've not tried to time it, but I don't think it's a time thing ... maybe when one ends they start another one of that type then? Not really sure.

But yeah, you do have to be quick. I usually get in by clicking on the tourney before it's had the chance to get off of "0" registrations, then it's click, tab, tab, space, enter and you're in.

Posted: **Thu Apr 26, 2007 11:35 am**

I did your tab-tab-space-enter trick to get into that one I mentioned earlier.

I'll keep an eye out for those. Right now I'm playing on PokerStars for a bit. My friend played on PokerStars for a few days, then left for FullTilt. Then PokerStars emailed him and put a $5 credit into his account to get him back.
It worked... for the 4 or so days it took him to blow $5 in the penny games. Now he's back on Full Tilt.

Since I play free games for fun anyway, I'd love for them to try to lure me back with $5. Playing for rel money would just be icing on the cake.

Posted: **Thu Apr 26, 2007 1:04 pm**

Oh! I forgot to mention that I tossed $50 at Full Tilt and am now plaing penny cash games. No real news yet though, good or bad, just win a few bucks lose a few bucks, right back to where I started. So far.

Posted: **Thu Apr 26, 2007 2:53 pm**

You get a deposit bonus on that?

Posted: **Thu Apr 26, 2007 3:04 pm**

Yeah, 100% match slowly earned as I play money pots. I think I've earned $5 of it so far.

Posted: **Thu Apr 26, 2007 3:58 pm**

This site has the "houry rate" you earn on your signup bonus.
http://www.bonuswhores.com/full-tilt-poker.php

Looks like you have 120 days to put your hours in.

Posted: **Thu Apr 26, 2007 4:12 pm**

TPRJones wrote:Oh, sorry, I meant to say WSOP Entry Package - it includes airfair and hotel. I think.

I'm pretty sure that Full Tilt rents an entire floor of a hotel during the WSoP. Full Tilt will be free rolling a lot of people in the main event, both amateurs and professionals, and I think that's standard practice now for online sites.