2010 off to a positive start

Happy new year!!

The last week or so has been a solid one for me at the tables. Nothing spectacular to report, just good positive days, regular final table action. Not sure of exactly the number of tournaments played and conversion rate etc as OPR is a bit behind from today but the bankroll is steadily climbing in the right direction again (over US$420).

I smashed up the Sunday Quarter Million satellites today, cashing I believe in all but one of the games I played. I like playing them on the weekend because they run every 30 minutes or so during the day (Aus time) rather than hourly which they do midweek.

Other than those, I've been sticking to the $3.25 45 man games with the occasional $2.20 90 man non-turbo thrown in. Annoyingly today the one tournament of the latter I played today I bubbled, coming 13th with 12 places being paid. I was short-stacked, shoved on the button with king queen and the small blind looked me up with pocket 3's and I failed to improve.

I caught up on Daniel Negreanu's blog the other day and he had a video blog where he recapped 2009 and talked about his goals and plans for 2010.

Watch Daniel Negreanu's 2009 Recap on RawVegas.tv

I'm a fan of Daniel's ... but all I could think of while watching this video is that he's playing online while lying on the couch, doing a video blog, texting and worrying about his dog running around. Not the best way to concentrate. It reminds me of a scene from the show 2M2MM, I think it was maybe the lockdown episode where Brian gives Dani a hard time for slouching while he's playing. Brian's an advocate of all-out focus and concentration and believes your posture reflects that. I know Daniel one-tables online but not surprisingly by the time he finishes with the blog he questions why his position is so bad and where his chips went. Something to think about ...

Daniel Negreanu finishes 2nd at the WSOPE

Playing until 5:15am London time, Daniel Negreanu has just finished 2nd in the WSOPE Main Event. It would have been great to see him get the win but half a million pounds isn't too bad for the runner-up. Here are the final two hands:

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:15:29

O. M. G.

Our final two saw a flop and Shulman bet 300,000. Negreanu responded by raising to 900,000. And Shulman responded to that by moving all in. Negreanu turned to the rail in the hope that they might help him with his decision. "So you all wanna go home, right?" he asked them. "I'm not saying I'm gonna lose..." "Ah, I shouldn't listen to the rail. I call." On their backs. Negreanu: Shulman: Oh dear. But wait! Turn: to massive screaming from the suddenly very awake crowd -- But wait some more! River: ... ... ... ! The noise was deafening. In what we are confidently declaring the Hand Of The Day, Shulman doubled to over 8 million, and Negreanu is right back down to under 2 million. Extraordinary. We play on.

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:19:45

Daniel Negreanu finishes as Runner Up (£495,589)

So, all in preflop, pair vs. pair, as one might expect, Daniel Negreanu, having come full circle back to short stack, had his tournament life on the line one more time. Negreanu: Shulman: The straight out on the flop brought a groan from the Negreanu supporters, and the rest of the board got him drawing dead by the turn: . But both players were thoroughly applauded as the final hurdle was leaped.

2009 WCOOP: Sick! ElkY scores 2nd bracelet in Event #43, $215 NLHE - PokerStars Poker Blog

I've been taking an interest in the WCOOP this year as I get more and more involved in the poker world. With work not being overly busy all the time, I log on to PokerStars during the day just to rail some of the big name players. I tend to watch the big name pros such as Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker plus some of the bigger name online players such as Shaun Deeb, Tony Dunst and Alex Fitzgerald.

As the work day was winding down, I ended up watching Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier take down his 2nd bracelet of the series. As we speak, he's down to the final 12 of a second chance event where the first prize is over $130,000. Run better ...

Here's the story of how he got his 2nd bracelet, click on the title to read the full story.

2009 WCOOP: Sick! ElkY scores 2nd bracelet in Event #43, $215 NLHE - PokerStars Poker Blog

Event #43, the last of the $215 buy-in no-limit hold'em events in this year's WCOOP series, drew a whopping 9,220 entrants, making for a $1,844,000 prize pool. That was well beyond the $1 million guarantee, and the eighth time during the series we've seen a prize pool of greater than $1.5 million. (There'd be one more WCOOP event with at least a $1.5 million prize pool, of course -- the Main Event, with more than $10 million up for grabs!) The top 1,350 finishers would be cashing in this one, with first place scheduled to earn a nifty $263,323.20.

After nine-and-a-half hours of play, the field had been whittled down to 250 players, with Team PokerStars pros Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier in 12th, Victor Ramdin in 22nd, and Barry 'barryg1' Greenstein in 90th. At that point, 0926ricsi held the chip lead with 683,105, followed closely by LakersGTD, kezug, ångvälten, and HN Kakaroto.

At the 11-and-a-half hour mark, they were down to 100 players. Greenstein had departed in 203rd, followed by Team PokerStars Holland Pro Lex 'RaSZi' Veldhuis in 152nd. But Ramdin was still there in 42nd, and Grospellier had chipped all of the way up to second place, just behind LakersGTD who was nearing the 200,000 mark.

ElkY would soon overtake LakersGTD and claim the chip lead. With five cashes already this WCOOP and a bracelet in Event #38 (NLHE $530 + 1R1A), the London-based French pro appeared to be gearing up for yet another deep run in an WCOOP event. (Click here to read ElkY's reflection on his WCOOP win for the PokerStars blog.)

Top 2009 WSOP Performances

I came across this great summary on PokerNews this morning about the top performances so far from the World Series of Poker. Not surprisingly "Aussie" Jeff Lisandro (pictured below) leads the way with his ridiculously good form this series with 3 final tables which he converted in to 3 bracelets.

Once day 2b finishes this afternoon, I'll update you on the Main Event.

The PokerNews Top 10: Top 2009 WSOP Performances | PokerNews.com

It has been a summer full of amazing individual achievement at the World Series of Poker, with no less than four players winning multiple bracelets, and several others with five or more cashes and several deep runs. With only the Main Event to go, it’s a good time to look back and consider the top ten performances from this summer. It should be noted that the following list does not strictly mirror the points model employed by the WSOP to determine its player of the year, although many of the names on this list appear at the top of the POY list as well. Nor does the list rate players strictly according to the number of cashes a player has accumulated or total winnings earned, but rather the overall consistency of a player’s achievements at this year’s WSOP, with added weight given to those who managed to realize the goal of every poker player who enters a WSOP event by capturing the bracelet.

10. Barry Greenstein -- 7 cashes, 2 final tables, total winnings $161,243; Daniel Negreanu, 8 cashes, 2 final tables, total winnings $331,860

Both Greenstein and Negreanu came up short this summer in their quests for bracelets, but both once again ably proved themselves as belonging among poker’s elite. Greenstein’s seven cashes came in a variety of games (limit hold’em, mixed hold’em, pot-limit Omaha, seven-card stud hi-low 8-or-better, H.O.R.S.E., no-limit 2-7 draw lowball). The California resident made two final tables this year, finishing ninth in the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha event (No. 40) and fifth in the $2,500 Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No-Limit) event (No. 47).

Negreanu’s eight cashes also came in many different varieties of poker (limit hold’em, mixed hold’em, PLO/PLH, seven-card stud, seven-card stud hi-low 8-or-better, Omaha hi-low 8-or-better, 2-7 triple draw). Toronto’s most famous poker player managed a fourth-place finish in the $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better event (No. 18) and had a near miss by finishing runner-up in the $2,500 Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event (No. 14).

9. John Juanda -- 4 cashes, 4 final tables, total winnings $170,745

The 2008 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event winner had a stellar 2009 WSOP, making no less than four final tables. Born in Indonesia and now residing in California, Juanda finished fifth in the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event (No. 16), fourth in the $10,000 World Championship No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball event (No. 23), ninth in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event (No. 30), and fourth in the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Limit event (No. 55).

8. Steve Sung -- 2 cashes, 2 final tables, 1 bracelet, total winnings $883,380

Sung earned his first ever WSOP bracelet in the so-called “Stimulus Special” $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event (No. 4) during the first week of the series. That meant he bested the largest field in any event this summer -- 6,012 -- outside of the Main Event itself. The native of South Korea, who now makes his home in California, followed up on his Event No. 4 victory with an impressive third-place finish in the $10,000 World Championship No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw event (No. 23).

7. James Van Alstyne -- 3 cashes, 3 final tables, 1 bracelet, total winnings $519,080

Van Alstyne’s summer just kept getting better as it went along, with three final tables all in mixed-game events. Born in Georgia and currently residing in Las Vegas, Van Alstyne finished sixth in the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event (No. 12) in which players play eight different games (the H.O.R.S.E. games, plus 2-7 triple draw, pot-limit Omaha, and no-limit hold’em). Then he finished as the runner-up in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event (No. 21). Finally he broke through and won Event No. 31, the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, thus capping off a remarkable WSOP.

6. Greg “FBT” Mueller -- 3 cashes, 3 final tables, 2 bracelets, total winnings $709,635

After taking seventh in the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud event (No. 6), Mueller came back two weeks later to win another of the $10,000 World Championship events, the Limit Hold’em event (No. 33). Then the one-time professional hockey player from Vancouver turned around and became the fourth player this summer to win multiple bracelets when he took another limit hold’em event, the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout (No. 50).

5. Ville Wahlbeck -- 6 cashes, 4 final tables, 1 bracelet, total winnings $1,082,176

Not only did all of Wahlbeck’s cashes this year come from deep runs, but five of the six came in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship events, the only exception being his 12th place finish in the $2,500 Razz event (No. 44). During the first week of the Series, the Finnish pro took third in the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud event (No. 6), first in the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event (No. 12), and 13th in the $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better event (No. 18). He then nearly won the $10,000 World Championship No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball event (No. 23), finishing runner-up. Wahlbeck then capped off his WSOP with a sixth place in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event (No. 49).

4. Brock Parker -- 4 cashes, 2 final tables, 2 bracelets, total winnings $806,870

Along with Wahlbeck, Parker was the talk of the WSOP in the early going after he became the first player this summer to win two bracelets. In fact, the Maryland native’s victories came in two consecutive events, as Parker entered the second the day after winning the first. Both were also in short-handed events, the first in the $2,500 Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event (No. 14), and the second in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event (No. 19). Parker would additionally cash in Events 29 and 50, both also hold’em events.

3. Phil Ivey -- 5 cashes, 3 final tables, 2 bracelets, total winnings $356,994

Ivey added to his already formidable stature in the poker world by capturing two more bracelets this summer, bringing his overall total to seven. Ivey won the $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball event (No. 8), then also landed the $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better mixed event (No. 25). The native of California and New Jersey resident would additionally final table the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout (No. 41), as well as cash in another hold’em event (No. 13) and a pot-limit Omaha event (No. 30).

2. Vitaly Lunkin -- 4 cashes, 3 final tables, 1 bracelet, total winnings $2,696,385

Lunkin ends the summer as the highest earner over the first 56 events -- by a long shot -- having started off the Series in grand fashion by winning the prestigious $40,000 buy-in 40th Annual No-Limit Hold’em event (No. 4). After scoring a modest cash in the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event (No. 12), the Russian would come close to winning a second bracelet on two more occasions, finishing runner-up in Event No. 40, the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha event, then taking fourth in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event (No. 49) after having had a sizable lead at the final table.

1. Jeffrey Lisandro -- 6 cashes, 3 final tables, 3 bracelets, total winnings $807,521

Lisandro tied an all-time WSOP record this summer by winning three bracelets, taking down the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event (No. 16), the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better event (No. 37), and the $2,500 Razz event (No. 44). The native of Australia who now makes Italy his home just missed another final table, finishing ninth in the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud event (No. 6), and additionally cashed in a pot-limit Omaha event (No. 35) and a pot-limit Omaha hi-low event (No. 27).

World Series of Poker update

Its been a week or so since I've updated this blog but seeing as tho only a few people read it at the moment, I don't feel quite so bad. Like my poker game, this blog is a work in progress so its early days.

As mentioned in a previous update, I've really taken an interest in the early events of this year's World Series of Poker. As I have only played no-limit and limit hold'em, I don't fully understand what's going on in games like omaha and razz but I'm getting an idea.

Since I've been playing more online poker recently and checking out blogs and forums, I'm tracking other players not just your big names (Negreanu, Ivey, Hellmuth, etc). Not that any of the bloggers I follow (Bond 18, Assassinato, etc) have had any great results as yet but there's still time and of course the main event yet to come.

Over the last week, the main stories have been about the double-bracelet wins by Brock Parker, Phil Ivey and then (Aussie) Jeff Lisandro. Here's the current Player of the Year Standings:

Player of the Year Standings

View All-Time WSOP Player Stats

Name	WSOP POY Points	Bracelets	Cashed	2009 WSOP Earnings
Jeffrey Lisandro	255 pts	2	5	$619,131
Ville Wahlbeck	255 pts	1	4	$849,785
Phil Ivey	225 pts	2	4	$340,255
John Brock Parker	220 pts	2	5	$802,514
James Van Alstyne	220 pts	1	3	$519,080
Roland De Wolfe	195 pts	1	5	$410,063
Angel Guillen	180 pts	1	3	$846,238
Pete Vilandos	175 pts	1	2	$1,080,538
Daniel Negreanu	165 pts	0	5	$316,190
Daniel Alaei	165 pts	1	3	$587,102

As we speak, I'm following the live updates on Poker News as Phil Ivey goes for his 3rd bracelet of the series in event 41, the $5000 no-limit hold'em shootout. I didn't know what a shootout event was before this series and for those who don't, you have to win your table to make it through to the next round where you have to do the same thing again. When it gets down to the final few in the tournament they play 6-handed.

Phil Ivey has just been knocked out in 8th place so he will have to wait a while longer for another bracelet. The points will certainly help in the Player of the Year race tho.

World Series of Poker update

In previous years I really haven't taken much notice in the early events of the World Series of Poker. This year tho I've been following on Poker News and the official World Series of Poker website.

Today I also watched a bit of the live coverage from ESPN and Bluff TV. Coverage today was the final table of the $5000 no-limit hold-em event.

Of note from the first few events is how the cream of the poker world is already rising to the top:

• Phil Ivey has already picked up his first bracelet (event # 8, $2500 no-limit deuce-to-seven lowball), cashed another time and is 3rd in the Player of the Year standings
• Daniel Negreanu has a 2nd placed finish (event #14, $2500 6-handed limit hold-em), two other cashes and is 7th in the standings
• "Aussie" Jeff Lisandro won event # 16: $1500 seven card stud

Phil Ivey wins WSOP bracelet #6

Friday night poker

I'm really liking quiet Friday nights with no plans. Firstly, you have the NRL double-header on TV and now that I have OneHD there is 2 hours of poker on as well! Last night was the High Stakes Poker episode where they're basically playing a sit'n go where Daniel Negreanu is busted early when he runs bottom set in to top set. Unlucky

I haven't really played too much poker this week. After a big weekend on PokerStars last weekend, I made sure I didn't play on Monday, instead just watched TV and read a book. Wednesday I had a pretty solid night, playing 13 games and getting in the money in 6 of them. Unfortunately I didn't get really deep in any, the best being an 8th in a $2 180 man turbo tournament. I mentioned last month that I noticed I wasn't doing well in these but I'm giving them another shot and am doing much better.

So last night, I was playing a couple of $1 90 man turbo's but I concentrated mostly on the $2 90 man non-turbo's and the $2 180 man turbo's. Things started off slowly for me getting nothing out of my first 6 games. Nothing was going right for me and I was a tad frustrated at running in to bigstacks who were playing junk but kept sucking out on me (mostly when they were dominated pre-flop). I then managed to final table one of the 180 games but finished 9th. That started a string of in the money's without getting deep.

It was getting pretty late so I decided to finish with two 180 games and then I'd call it a night. I made the money in both and hoped I could make both final tables but finished 11th in one when the big-stack limped in from middle position, I shoved all-in with ace king but I didn't have enough to make him fold. He turned over king 8, I have ace king, first card out 8 (and my hand doesn't improve) ... frustrating.

On the other game I started to get a few things going my way, hitting 2 sets prior to the final table to chip me back up from short-stack. With the blinds already high on the final table I pushed all-in with pocket 8's and got called by ace queen in the big blind. First card out ace (groan) but the rest of the flop and turn formed to give me outs on the river of any 7 for a straight or an 8 for the set. 8 on the river, bang, another set!! This win put me in to 3rd place and I essentially cruised through in to the final 3 from there. Three-handed went for a while and stack sizes continued to fluctuate. Eventually the short-stack got knocked out and I was heads up but facing more than a 2 to 1 chip deficit. I knew I was in trouble but the chip leader was fairly loose aggressive so I figured one good win and I'd be right back in it. I can't remember the hand itself but before I know it I hit the chip lead. Things were going well until he took down a couple of raised pots post-flop when I had nothing. The final hand he doubled the blinds and I re-raised all-in with king queen off. He called with jack 9 off and rivered the 9 ... ouch. Heads-up I kept getting it in with the better hand the cards just didn't hold up, so I'm happy with the way I played and the $72 second prize is niiiiice.

Bankroll now US$404.

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.

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.