Update from the last week

Since my last post things have been a bit more consistent for me. Thankfully no really bad days, just break-even or winning ones which makes a nice change.

Day 1 was profitable on the back of the satellites to the Sunday Quarter Million as I cashed in 2 out of 3 of them and the next day I cashed 3 out of 8 of them. My concern over those few days is that I was just managing min-cashes and of course bubbles in the other tournaments I was playing.

On Monday I played in the Guiness World Record Tournament on PokerStars against almost 150,000 other players. With 5 minute levels the structure certainly didn't suit my style of play and I never managed to build a big enough stack to stay ahead of the blinds. I finished in the top 25,000 players which wasn't the min-cash but the level or two above that.

As I was playing in the above event and it was an early start on the Monday I decided to also play in the Sunday Quarter Million rather than just converting the buy-in in to tournament dollars. Again, it was a massive field of 33,000 players and I was disappointed to finish just outside of the money. I'm yet to cash in this tournament and I had a good stack for much of it and was feeling good about my chances. I think I tried once or twice to get people off hands which didn't work and getting close to the bubble I ended up shoving under-the-gun with ace 9 suited. Normally its a move I wouldn't make but if I had stolen the blinds I would've been securely in the money ... not normally a concern but when I qualify through this game using FPP's any cash is a bonus. So I shove ace 9 suited and get flatted by someone in midposition and not surprisingly he turns over aces and although I have outs on the river I don't find any and fall agonisingly short.

I decided to spend the rest of the day playing and just took a break for lunch, dinner and a nap in the afternoon (because of the early start time of the first tournament). A couple of bubbles and a couple of min-cashes later and my bankroll was under $300 for the first time in ages which was a bit of a concern. Its not that I need the money its just that I'm not moving forward but feel like I've been playing well without reward.

I was just playing the $3.25 45 man tournaments and a few $2.20 180 mans. After short-stacking my way in to a final table I got some cards 4-handed and managed to survive the eliminations and get heads-up. I faced a huge chip deficit and large blinds compared to my stack so got it in first hand with king jack off ... unfortunately he had ace jack and I couldn't find a king or a ten on the river to improve. The $30 for second was a nice upswing tho especially since I was happy just to cash and surprised to make it as far as I did.

I had a few cashes around that one, felt I was playing well and near the end of the session got a win in one of the 45 mans. I went to the final table with a good starting stack and played well getting to the heads-up with a 3:2 chip lead. It was a quick heads-up battle that was over on the 3rd hand when I called a min-raise with 9, 10 off, 9 was the top pair on the flop, he shoved I called he turned over king high and my hand held.

I finally managed to final-table one of the 180 mans after bubbling or min-cashing them for seemingly so long. I often just get blinded out in these situations so I wanted to play for the win in this situation. I got pocket 7's in the hijack first hand and when it folded around to me I shoved for 4 or 5 times the blinds and was snap-called by a big stack on the button. He turned over aces and I was done, out in 9th.

So bankroll over US$360. I didn't play today and am not sure when I'll be playing next but hopefully the decent form will continue.

Bond18 runs good

There are a few online players that I rail/follow on PokerStars when I'm not actually playing. Most of them are because I read their blogs or they're well known on the Two Plus Two poker forums. The main ones are Alex Fitzgerald (Assassinato), Tony Dunst (Bond 18), Nick Rainey (MI_turtle) and Shaun Deeb (shaundeeb).

Its been a relatively quiet last few weeks as Alex has been back visiting his family in Seattle and Shaun Deeb is on hiatus from poker for a while.

Most of the focus has been on Nick as he has been grinding like a madman over the last few months in his quest for TLB points and the chance to be the first player ever to win consecutive monthly leaderboards on PokerStars. He's currently sitting in second place behind Simonator who came out of nowhere after coming 3rd in the Turbo Takedown.

Today tho was all about Tony Dunst. He hasn't had the best year on PokerStars being down around 15% according to OPR. Since I'm not on any other sites I don't bother tracking how players do on anything else but Stars. Bond18 has a reputation for running good, whether it be with the ladies, in life itself or at the tables. Today, he ran particularly well taking down one big field MTT and coming second in another.

I was following both Nick and Tony's progress as I watched the NFL and the cricket on TV. Tony tho was on fire final-tabling the 2 MTT's and cashing a few others. The two top results was a 2nd (out of 1250 players) in an $11 rebuy which earned him over $3.5K and then he outlasted 500 players in a $22 rebuy tournament to win almost $6K. The win was no doubt more sweet for him as at one stage during the heads-up battle he faced a 5:1 chip deficit but managed to fight back and take it down.

A spectacular return on the buy-ins paid and even better when you consider I think he played just 9 tournaments on PokerStars and cashed 6 of them. Congrats Bond on a MASSIVE day!

The ups and downs

The last week or two has been a roller-coaster in terms of results. Up one day, down the next ... feel like I'm playing well but either go card-dead at the wrong time or just get sucked out on.

I started playing the $3.25 45 man's again and got off to a good start with them recording a 2nd a 3rd and a min-cash within my first 6 games. The next day tho ... just 2 cashes in 25 or so attempts. What tends to happen in stretches like that is I have at least half a dozen bubbles and near misses, just a winning flip away from going deep.

Next day, a 1st and a 3rd and a few other cashes and the bankroll was on the way back up again. And unfortunately yesterday was back down again, maybe 25 or so tournaments and just 2 min-cashes to report. Of course, another half dozen costly bubbles. Add to that we had a storm roll through while I was playing and lost power 2 or 3 times for more than 5 minutes at a time.

So today I feel lost not knowing what to do to turn it around. Come back tomorrow and I'll likely be back on top of things for the moment.

I actually played a little bit of cash the other night, just killing time on .02/.05 tables and did well. I had aces against kings to double me up on one table and similar luck on another one. Maybe that could be the answer to current woes ... play more cash. Who knows ... might be best to just stay off the tables over Christmas and come back refreshed.

Pass the Sugar

I finished reading Joe Hachem's "Pass the Sugar" autobiography last night. I'm happy to admit I'm a fan of Joe and what he's done for the Australian poker scene. I enjoyed The Poker Star and I enjoyed reading his book, its a good insight in to the man, where he came from and what happened to his life after winning the WSOP Main Event.

One of my favourite lines from the book comes from the co-author Peter Ralph. In the Afterword, he tells a story about how Joe explained the skill level in poker:

"Pete, if we played a hand now you could beat me, and you may even get lucky over fifteen minutes and if you got really lucky you might even be ahead after half an hour. However if we played for four hours I'd own your house, your car and all of your bank accounts"

LOL, typical Joe confidence ...

Best win

November was a crap month for me online. My bankroll which had been up over $600 earlier in the year had plateaued for a while and was now dwindling ever lower. When looking at my OPR stats, they weren't that different to my good months, the only things were that I wasn't getting quite the same late % and wasn't getting the same number of wins. I had just one win in October and none in November.

Thankfully, the drought broke for me last week when I won a 45 man game. It was only a $1 buy-in so the cash pay-out wasn't that great but it was a win nonetheless and it was nice to win a heads-up battle again. Not just that, this win was special for the way it happened.

At level 9 with the blinds at 300/600 my stack had dwindled down to just 1800 and basically on life-support. Our table was down to just 5 players and we had a chip-monster who was basically just doing as he wished. He limped from early position, I had ace queen and shoved and with his stack he had no problem calling, turning over 7, 8 suited. He flopped a flush draw, I thankfully found an ace on the turn and just had to fade another diamond on the river which I did. I didn't know it at the time but this monster would be where all my chips would come from.

I survived through to the final table but had just 5 big blinds and there was just one stack shorter than mine. I needed to make top 7 to get paid and if I didn't get a hand quickly I had no shot of winning and I would have to just focus on cashing. I was however completely card-dead and rarely saw picture cards let alone something I could push or even take in to a race vs a raise. My stack was gradually disappearing so with jack ten off under-the-gun I had to push all-in and hope for the best.

My "push" (which was only just more than the big blind) got isolated and then further isolated. I was racing against king jack off and pocket aces ... uh oh. My prayer got answered tho when I hit a gutshot straight draw on the river and more than tripled up.

From there, I continued to get dealt nothing but happily watched on as players fell by the wayside. Down to just 4 players left and my stack was again on life-support and I was eventually forced all-in on the big blind with 2 5 suited ... groan. The chip-monster from earlier in the tournament had 4 times more chips than anyone else at the table, isolated with queen jack off and I was lucky enough to flop two pair and survive.

Shortly after, I called an all-in with ace jack off and the big stack came along for the ride. The initial all-in turned over pocket 7's, the big stack had ace ten, I flopped two pair which was better than the big-stacks two pair and the 7's were eliminated and we were down to just 3 players. I OPR'd the big-stacks form and frankly he was a donkey so I felt confident that if I could get a hand or two he would chip me up.

I got dealt ace king, raised all-in and wasn't surprised to see the big-stack call me but was surprised when he turned over pocket jacks. Classic race scenario but thankfully I flopped a king and held on for the win which got me level in chips with the player in second. A few hands later the big-stack sucked out on him with 5 7 off against pocket 8's and we were heads up. To say that I was in trouble would be an understatement as the chip count was him 59,370 me with 8,130. I needed hands and I needed them quick.

I got a suited ace first hand, had to push and did. I got called by rubbish, flopped two pair and quickly doubled up. Shortly after, he raised solidly from the small blind and I had re-shoved with ace ten off. He called turning over queen 4 suited and I flopped a ten, held up and doubled up again to now be level. It was also good to see what he was raising with and saw that he was doing it light so I knew I could shove any 1/2 decent hand and get paid off.

After I folded a few hands either on the flop or pre, I took a stand with ace 4 off and held up against his king 9 and now had a more than 2.5 chip advantage. From there, I got queens and won a raised pot and then trapped him with kings and the game was over.

I was pumped to get the win and even more pumped to fight back from the depths so many times and take down the victory. There's nothing I hate more than losing to a bad player heads-up so it was nice to get the win despite facing a huge chip deficit at the start of the battle. Sure, I had plenty of luck along the way ... but frankly, its about time.

The win drought is over and I look forward to having a few more in the very near future.

APL - Broadway Hotel

Its been a few weeks since I've blogged and its a mixture of tilt, busy being and falling out of the habit. I'll start getting back in the rhythm with an APL update from the Broadway Hotel venue.

Last Monday I got a text from a friend who was having dinner with the TD and said that it was the last night of the venue for the quarter because the Broadway had functions for the weeks leading up to Christmas. I checked the leaderboard and after a few weeks of not getting deep I was still clinging on to 3rd place which meant if I could make it through the night without getting passed I would be off to the State Finals. There were 3 or 4 people who were within reach so I knew who I needed to worry about.

The night started off well for me with an early chip-up but after that it all went downhill. The key hand for me was when I limped from the hijack with ace 3 suited (spades) and it folded round to the big blind who just checked. The flop came 9 spades, 8 spades, rag so I had the nut flush draw. The big blind led overbet the pot so I was either all-in or fold and needing to double-up I pushed. He was committed to the pot and ashamedly turned over jack ten off and was chasing the straight but liked that I was chasing too. Unfortunately for me an 8 came on the turn to give him the straight and my hand didn't improve. I was out shortly after when my ace king didn't hold up in a multiway pot.

I had a second chance on the turbo table but didn't win that either. When I left the turbo table I scoured the room to find out that just one player who was a chance to knock me off was left in the tournament. It was one of my friends so he was well aware of the situation that he and I was in and he needed to make final table to knock me off. After sweating his table for another hour or so he almost limped on to final table with just one 100 chip left (the blinds were 4K by this time) but he ended up bubbling. I felt bad for him because he was so close to making it through, but obviously relieved that I had secured 3rd and would again be off to States having just watched and played the freeroll last time.