‘Face the Ace’ Poker Show

After I mentioned last month about the upcoming Australian poker show "The Poker Star", it seems NBC in the US have just announced a new show of their own. I think I prefer the format and the concept behind the Australian show, but more poker on TV, I'm certainly not going to complain.

Click on the title below to read the full story or click here to visit the official website.

NBC’s New ‘Face the Ace’ Poker Show Debuts in August | PokerNews.com

Adding to its roster of poker-themed shows, NBC has announced plans to air a new poker game show called “Face the Ace”. Hosted by 'The Sopranos' actor Steve Schirripa (below), the show will give contestants the opportunity to play no-limit hold’em against famous poker pros for a chance to win big prize money. “Face the Ace” will premiere on Saturday, August 1st at 9 pm ET, and will receive one more airing in primetime the following week, before moving to its regular timeslot on Saturday afternoons.

The theatrical premise will place contestants in front of four smoked-glass doors, each concealing an “Ace” in the form of a professional poker player. Once the contestant has chosen a door, he will play a heads-up match of no-limit hold’em against that poker pro. If he defeats the poker pro, he will then be given the choice to either walk away and keep the money he has won, or risk his winnings and choose another “Ace” to compete against for even more lucrative prize money. And if he wins that match, he will again be faced with the decision to either quit while he’s ahead, or put everything on the line to compete against a third pro – this time for a chance to win the tidy sum of $1 million. Full Tilt pros are expected to be the contestant’s opponents, with the new facetheace.com website prominently displaying a studious Phil Ivey.

2009 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final

I was checking out Poker News today to see what was going on around the place and saw that they have already finished day 2 of the Pokerstars EPT Grand Final.

I have been reading Daniel Negreanu's blog and his twitters so I knew his tournament was over but I'm glad to see that Aussie and one of the faces of PokerStars, Joe Hachem is doing well. Check out the front page of Poker News for a quick interview with Joe. After my last post, I see that Annette Obrestad is smashing up the field in 2nd place.

There are just 149 players left out of the 935 starters. From an Aussie point of view it would be great to see Joe continue on and finish deep.

Annette Obrestad's blind win tourney

I was looking for some good poker blogs yesterday afternoon (yes, it was a quiet afternoon at work) and stumbled across young female poker pro, Annette Obrestad's blog. I remember watching her win the WSOP event in Europe a year or two back. I was in Sydney at the time on business and had some time before I flew out so I was watching it in the club lounge of the hotel. She was only 19 at the time and from my perspective she was very aggressive and seemed to getting extremely lucky with some of her showdown situations (going in well behind but sucking out).

I read a few of her blog posts yesterday and actually like her story. She started from nothing when she was 15 by winning money from an online freeroll and built her way up playing tournaments to become one of the top rated online poker players. Impressive!

One story that I found about her is how she won a 180 player tournament without looking at her hole cards (except for maybe one hand she said). I play a lot of 90 and 180 tournaments and that is quite a feat. Click on the title below to read the full story and see her in action!

Betfair | A look at Annette's blind win tourney

A forum poster recently asked how Annette could have won a 180-player online tournament without looking at her cards.

'With a Post-it Note', came the amusing and only response.

It was probably not the answer the poster was looking for and they were just marvelling in the fact Annette could win a tourney without looking at her hand in her hole cards.

She has since explained that it was an exercise in the importance of playing in position and the videos below shows how she demonstrated this as she folds KK in the first few hands.

Speaking about why she did 180-player tournament blind challenge she said. 'To show just how important it is to play position and to pay attention to the players at the table. Like, if you knew that someone was weak you'd attack them.'

Breakthrough tournament

Its been a good week of poker for me. First I win my first 90 man tournament after finishing runner-up a handful of times. Then last night, I have my first final table of one of the big field tournaments.

These big field tournaments are found on the tournaments page of the PokerStars site and usually have between 1000 and 5000 players. My best finish so far had been 61st in a field of 2600 which quadruples your buy-in but when you're only playing 50c, $1 or $2 tournaments, that's not a great return/result. Final table is where the money is at and I was keen to get deep.

Playing last night, $1 buy-in and 2133 players, my first aim in a tournament like this is to make the money. The first pay out essentially doubles your investment and its obviously good for your tournament stats. There's nothing worse than finishing just out of the money. So with the blinds going up and me with about ten blinds left, I get pocket jacks in early position. Not wanting to over-commit myself I just flat call. Two other callers and we see a flop, top card out is a jack, perfect ... but, there are two clubs on the board. Someone bets at it, I don't have enough chips to push him out by re-raising so I just call hoping he'll slow down or hoping I can see the board pair on the turn to give me my full house so I have nothing to worry about. The next card out isn't a club but the other person in the hand puts me all in. I know I'm of course ahead and I'm pretty sure I'm up against a flush draw so I call, praying for no club. Cards are shown, he's flush drawing so I have to sweat out a river but thankfully its not a club and I win. Bubble bursts, I make the money, phew.

I chip up a bit but am essentially waiting for a decent hand. With about 15K in chips and the blinds at 1K, someone raises my big blind, I have aces, shove and he calls showing ace queen off. Win that and double up. Shortly after, someone in early position doubles the blind and I just call with ace king in middle position. There are two other callers and we see a flop of 8, ace, 8. The big blind who's first to act bets but not strongly, the initial raiser thinks for a little while and calls also. By the time it gets to me, I don't think I'm up against an 8 and I'm pretty sure I'm not up against aces. I'm thinking someone has pockets and someone has a weaker ace, I'm willing to take a stand here so I shove to try and shut it down. The person yet to act folds and after a little while the big blind calls and the initial raiser folds (apparently lay down ace jack, nice fold). Big blind turns over ace 7 ... (really, you called me with that??) he's drawing slim and a king on the river essentially ends it.

A little later a short stack in the small blind shoves my big blind and I have him well and truly covered. I have ace king and just call and someone else calls as well. Flop comes king, king, jack with two diamonds on the board. I check to just knock out the short stack ... but the other guy bets. I'm quite sure he doesn't have jacks and to reveal the full strength of my hand I shove it all-in to get him off his. He has a massive stack and calls!! He shows jack 9, ace on the turn for my full house and the hand is over, the short-stack had nothing.

That hand takes me in to the top 10 chip stacks in the tournament with less than 100 players left and I'm starting to confidently think I can go very deep. I have the chip leader on my table and basically if he's in a hand, I make sure I'm not unless I have something strong or unless I really connect with a flop. It takes a while but we slowly drop players off and we get down to the final 3 tables. I'm keeping an eye on the payouts for each position and my aim after making the top 60 (my previous best finish) was to make top 18 which is about $10 and a better return. Being chipped up I do this quite easily and am then pleased to make top 12 which is an $18 pay out. I really want final table and the only major showdowns I have is my pocket queens vs ace ten suited and my pocket kings on the button vs pocket jacks in the small blind. I win both of those and proceed to the final table.

The final table forms and there are some massive stacks on it, I'm sitting in about 6th or 7th place and really want to stay out of trouble and just move up in the money. I get a few hands early but have no showdowns so just chip up gradually. It takes a while but we lose our first player and then even longer before we lose another. When we're down to 6 there's some massive stacks and there's myself and a Tasmanian as the short-stacks. Thankfully they have less of a stack than I do and by this stage I'm just eyeing off 5th which is the first of the 3 figure pay-outs. Things go my way, they get knocked out and shortly there after I do too.

Final result, FIFTH place and a $102 payout!! Very happy to breakthrough in a large tournament and make final table ... even tho I had to stay up until 3:30am to do so. Really happy with the way I played, obviously no suck-outs or bad beats which make it easier to go deep in such a game. I could've played it differently and tried to win the final table but that was a longshot with my stack and I really just wanted to put this result on the board ... and in the account.

Bankroll now at US$245 as I also 2nd placed another $1 90 man game last night.

APL and online poker update

Yesterday was the Regional APL poker tournament. I haven't had a good result in one for a while so I was determined to do well. I've seen "card dead" before but yesterday was ridiculous! My table was loose and had a number of weak players playing rubbish hands, I just needed something semi-decent to take advantage of this.

Anything playable that I had wasn't connecting with the board and it took me an unbelievable EIGHT levels or roughly two hours before I won my first hand. With the blinds at 1000/2000 and my stack down to just 1600, the blinds would hit me soon so I took my chances with king 8 suited. Hit two pair on the flop and quadrupled up. I then got ace ten off and with a break in 3 minutes I decided to starting moving and pushed all-in. I got called by the big blinds pocket 7's and hit a ten and an ace high flush to double up again. Last hand before the break, pocket tens in the big blind. I thought about it for a while and decided to push it all-in again. Big blind considered it but then folded. I go to the break with 17,000 in chips but the blinds are about to go to 2000/4000.

I got moved to another table that I knew a few people at and didn't get any hands or hit any flops. Having just gone through the blinds and on the button with 6000 left, I (stupidly looking back) decided to call/all-in with pocket 2's. Big blind hit a ten, took down the pot and I was gone in about 20th place, final 3 tables. Looking back, I should've waited for something a little stronger, after all I was through the blinds and would've had 4 or 5 more hands to choose from. Oh well, lesson learnt.

Now to my online poker play at PokerStars. After my last update about playing MTT's, I have been playing a lot of tournaments and almost no cash games. I really do enjoy the tournament format more so than cash/ring games. I've been continuing to play the 90 man games at mostly the $1 buy-in but with a few $2 non-turbo's thrown in as well. After 4 agonising 2nd place finishes I finally broke through last night and won one! I went to the final table in a strong position, got some hands at the right time and watched as players knocked each other out and took a few out myself. We got to heads up (where I have not been doing well) and I had a commanding chip lead. My winning hand was king 3 off and in an unraised pot I had two pair on the turn but there was possibly a flush out there. My opponent tried to represent the flush but with my chip lead I was willing to take my chances and pushed him all-in. It turns out he had bottom pair no kicker so I won in a very short heads-up contest (possibly just 5 hands). It was only a $1 buy-in so the prize was $25 ... still, a nice return and good to get a 1st again.

Last night I also played in the large $1.10 entry tournament. There were 2700 starters and I finished 81st. With about 100 players left I found myself in 50th position and doing quite nicely. I called a raise and a call from the bb with ace king suited. The flop came down 7, ace, king with maybe 2 clubs out there. Small blind checked, I bet and the initial raiser called. Next card out 7 so I bet solidly again and called. By now I'm really hoping its a split pot to the same hand or that he's calling with ace queen. As the pot was so large already and with my stack covering the caller/initial raiser, I decided to put him to the test on the river when the ten of clubs came. He called and turned over pocket aces! I couldn't believe my bad luck, not only hitting the last ace in the deck but I also hit a king to give me two pair on the flop yet I was infact drawing dead. If you didn't know, I'm not Phil Hellmuth, I can't dodge bullets (baby). See video footage below if you don't know what I'm referring to.

I was left with less than 20K in chips and the blinds moving up quickly. Under the gun, with only 3 times the bb left, I decided to push in with ace 4 off. I only got one caller, pocket 2's. I liked my chances in that race, ace comes on the flop ... and you guessed it, 2 on the river. OUCH

Bankroll update ... I'm up to $136 and almost 700 in FPP's. I'm wondering whether I should use my points for a PokerStars t-shirt or use it for buy-ins to tournaments. I'm guessing I'll go with the latter but I would like to grab one of those t-shirts.

Assassinato sets sights on EPT San Remo - Poker News

As you can see from my poker blogs links on the left hand side, there are only a couple that I really follow. I've mentioned before about Assassinato and how much I enjoy reading his blog.

At the moment he's in San Remo playing in the EPT event. He's well known as an online player and has done well in a couple of live event but is yet to make a final table ... until now that is. I've followed his progress through the live tournament reporting on PokerNews as well as updates on the PokerStars blog.

Going in to today they were down to 32 players left in the field and it was actually quite tense reading through the updates (I can't follow them live due to the time difference) this morning to see how Alex got on. He had a bit of luck in coinflip situations and was fairly aggressive down the stretch. Despite being short-stacked for much of the last 2 days, he finds himself in 5th place.

Click on the title below to read the full story. Good luck tonight Alex!!

Assassinato sets sights on EPT San Remo - Poker News

By Owen Laukkanen

It's final table time in San Remo on the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour and on Thursday afternoon eight lucky finalists will face off for more than €1.5 million.

At first glance, it's a final table devoid of star power, but there's no shortage of exciting finalists here on the Italian Riviera.

Among the final eight is 21-year-old Alex Fitzgerald, a Seattle-based online pro who has become a staple on PokerStars-run tournaments around the world.

Fitzgerald, who goes by 'Assassinato' on most online sites, has qualified into tournaments on the European, Asia Pacific and Latin American Poker Tours but hasn't managed any major scores as of yet.

He comes into play on Thursday fifth in chips with 721,000.

'I feel great,' he told PokerListings.com. 'I really didn't feel like I played that well today.

'I've bubbled a lot of final tables where I felt like I was playing my best, but today I felt like I got pretty lucky.'

MTT's

Over the last week or two I've started playing some of the Multi Table (sit'n go) Tournaments on PokerStars. Since I made my cash deposit a few months ago I have predominantly been playing cash/ring games with a few of the large tournaments thrown in to try for a big score.

Having played APL for the last 2 years (almost), I enjoy the structure of tournaments and enjoy the thrill of taking on so many players ... as opposed to the grind of ring games. I came across the 90 man games on PokerStars and even tho the $1 level is a turbo, I thought I'd give it a go as the payoff is more worthwhile time-wise than the 45 man games. Whether it was beginner's luck or not, I finished my first tournament in second place pocketing $17. Since then I've had another 2nd place and a 7th.

I've also played in a few of the $2 90 man games that is not a turbo format, but hadn't done very well until last night. I was virtually out of the tournament half-way through but fought my way back to be chip leader when we were down to 2 tables left. Things seemed to be working for me and I comfortably made it down to the final 3 and had a good chip lead. I made a couple of mistakes that cost me dearly but still finished 2nd (I'm good at 2nd, not so good at first) and took home $33.

The costly "mistakes" were:

1. With about 7 players left on the final table, under the gun (who was short-stack) pushed all-in and another re-raised over the top for about half my stack when I was a blind. I had pocket queens, ummed and ahhed for a minute and decided to stay out the way. Under the gun turned over rubbish, the re-raiser turned over pocket 8's and the rubbish won. I could've taken them both out and chipped right up.

2. Three handed, I had ace 8, ace came on the flop so I bet, got one caller. Ace on the turn, I bet and get called, 8 on the river for my full-house, I bet and get re-raised. I think for a second and instead of pushing all-in which would knock out the smaller stack, I just call. He turns over 2nd pair for two pair. That player who likely would've called my re-raise and lost went on to win the tournament.

3. Heads up against the above player he raised strongly from the small blind. I have ace ten and just call. 3 diamonds come on the flop and I have the ten of diamonds. Being first to act I bet steadily on the first 2 streets and re-raises on the river. I have hit nothing including the flush draw so I have to fold. He turns over middle pair with suited 7, 8. I realise now that I should've either pushed all-in pre-flop and he likely would've given it up or I should've not got involved in the hand at all. Just calling was the weakest/worst play.

Still, lessons learned and happy with the $33 cash.

One final note, I was checking out the PokerStars blog to see how the EPT San Remo was coming along. If you don't already envy the life of the top poker stars, check out Maya the wife of Patrik Antonius ...

The Poker Star

I came across an e-mail from PokerStars today about a new show coming to One HD called "The Poker Star". Being a big fan of shows live Survivor and The Apprentice a similar show about poker with Joe Hachem would be awesome (to be in, it probably won't rate well)!

I'm sure there will be a huge number of people auditioning but I'll definitely be playing in the freerolls trying to qualify for the tournament in Sydney.

To read more about the show, click on the title below.

One HD - The Poker Star - About the Show | Channel Ten

New to poker or been playing for while? It’s time to bring your poker face to the table as a new reality show is coming your way. The first series of The Poker Star launches soon, but the search for eleven contestants starts here.

It’s a journey beyond the table with World Series of Poker Champion, Joe Hachem where you will be challenged to see who really has what it takes to sky rocket to stardom as The Poker Star.

The winner will not only take home $100,000 in cash, but have a money can’t buy experience living as a poker pro – the right to participate in 4 multi-million dollar global tournaments, in places such as Monte Carlo and Las Vegas all sponsored by PokerStars.net and mentored by Joe Hachem.

There will be only ONE winner – The Poker Star.

Online poker update

Earlier in the week I updated you on my APL progress, so today seems like the right time to update on my online progress. Last year I blogged about how I was trying to turn the $5 credit I won on PokerStars in to a bankroll. I played a couple of cash/ring games but mostly I was playing micro-stake tournaments. I built the credit to over $90 which was great, but then I started just playing 45 man turbo games because the games were quicker and the payouts were better. Unfortunately the turbo format doesn't really suit my tight style of play and a run of bubbles and non top 3 finishes meant that I wasn't getting the better returns anymore. Needless to say, the run ended and the credit was soon gone.

After a while of not playing as much online and then reading about Daniel Negreanu's personal micro-stakes challenge I decided to give it another go. I deposited AU$20 on to PokerStars which at the time gave me a starting point of US$12. Rather than playing tournaments, I decided to follow Daniel's advice/challenge and stick to cash games. Being more of a tournament player it took me a little while to adjust to the differences in the games, but I guess that was why I started at 1c/2c blinds. The micro-est of micros.

Once I got my account to $25, I moved up to the 2c/5c games. Now 3 days past 2 months since I first deposited the US$12, I have grown it to US$100 ... well, $99.36 to be precise. Its now time to move up to the 5c/10c games which I could've done a while back but felt that I still had more to learn. I got the account up to $90 a few weeks ago but after some poor sessions it was under $50 again. I've now built it back up and feel better about how I'm playing and the decisions I'm making.

Some of the lessons I've learnt from the lowest of micro-level online poker levels are:

• You have to be able to fold strong hands (overpockets, straights, etc)
• Unless you have a read on someone, if you get re-raised (especially on the river) you're likely beaten unless you have the nuts or close to it
• Most people will play any suited cards, so there's usually someone chasing a flush or if there are 3 suited cards on the board, most of the time there's a flush out there
  
• The best way to make money and get paid is to hit a set ... most players find it very hard to fold top pair
• Many players don't worry about position, they're more concerned about the cards they have
• Take notes on players at your table, they come in very handy (if not that game or that day, down the track)
  

I've also been playing a few of the lower limit large field tournaments. These are usually 50c or $1 tournament buy-ins and have anywhere from 1000 to 4000 players. Roughly the top 20% of players finish "in the money" but you have to make the final table to see a really good return on your investment.

My best result so far is a 61st placed finish in a field of 2600. The buy-in was only 50c so my "winning" was an unspectacular $2.08. As well as this, I think I've finished top 100 another 2 times. I looked up my stats on one of the poker websites and in the month of March I had a very good "in the money" rate of 56%. The return on investment was still slightly negative because I didn't get deep enough to get a good payout but that's something I can work on as I continue to build the bankroll higher.

So ... bring on the 5c/10c games.