Friday night poker

I may have mentioned this before, Friday night is a great night for staying at home. Back to back games of NRL and two consecutive hours of poker on OneHD. That's some quality TV time if you ask me.

Another very quiet day at work yesterday and while I was productive for most of it, I finished the day with two quick sit'n go games. I loaded up a $3.40 18 man turbo and despite playing well ended up a very frustrated bubble-boy. I was fairly card dead on the final table and ended up pushing all-in as short-stack from the button with ace 7 off-suit. The big blind thought for a moment and then called turning over king 2 suited. First card out ace, GREAT ... but it was the ace of clubs, another club on the flop and then one more on the turn and I was done. Top 4 get paid, I finished 5th.

The next sit'n go didn't go anywhere near as well and I was sent packing fairly early on. I planned on going to the gym last night but it was way too cold so that idea got vetoed and I ended up playing more poker.

The night didn't get any better from home as I failed to cash in the next 5 games. I was playing a mix of $1 90 man turbos, $2 90 man non-turbos and $2 180 man turbos. I was hoping I could overcome my recent poor form in the $2 games but that wasn't the best start. Suck-outs all over the shop and I wasn't getting close to the money at all.

Thankfully my luck turned half-way through and I managed to scrape in to the money of a 180 man tournament finishing in 16th. $2 drought over!! And from there, the floodgates opened ... somewhat. I final tabled the next 180 man finishing a frustrating 7th and got in to the money again on the next 180 man finishing in 10th (bubbling the final table).

The night ended with a strong performance in a $2 90 man game. I chipped up early and maintained and built my stack throughout the tournament. I was never in trouble and stayed in the top 10 stacks down to the final two tables. I took a beat inside the top 16 but quickly got back in to the top stacks heading to final table.

I played a really good final table and felt in control. I made one mistake when I raised with ace jack in early position, got called by the big blind and when first to act he shoved all-in on a low board. I felt it was a move but still folded ... he showed ace ten off ... groan. I recovered from this miss-step and sat in the top 3 stacks as players were getting knocked out. In the big blind I had ace king suited when the short-stack shoves from early position. I played on this guy's table for the last hour so I knew I would be in good shape. He turned over ace 5 off but the first card out was a 5 and while I hit an ace it of course did me no good. That hurt and I found myself in trouble for the first time but I managed to take down a few pots and fought back up to a reasonable level. The player to my right who had just taken a bad beat shoved from the button and I called all-in from the small blind with ace queen suited. He had me covered but I knew I was ahead and wanted to take a shot at the win and couldn't wait for a better situation than this (as the blinds were already high). He turned over king ten off which was what I expected ... unfortunately the first card out was a king and my hand didn't improve. Gone in 4th spot which was disappointing as I knew I was the best player at the table, things just didn't go my way.

So after a horrible start to the night with the $3.40 sit'n go's and then failing to cash in my first 5 MTT's, i finished the night cashing in 4 of my final 5 tournaments, final-tabling 2 of them. I didn't managed to get a win or a top 3 finish but the bankroll still improved to US$380. The best news tho was that my $2 drought was over!

I've mentioned it before but I tend to find the weekend games particularly ugly on PokerStars and my bankroll grows midweek and falls on the weekend. So with this in mind I'm likely not going to play this weekend ... plus I have work to do. We'll see how I go tho ...

Short night

I got home and watched the replay of game 3, Magic vs Lakers in the NBA Championship Series on One HD. I also had a DVD to watch before I have to take it back tomorrow, "Yes Man" with Jim Carrey ... meh, I've seen worse. I even laughed a couple of times, although mainly at Rhys Darby (Murray from "Flight of the Conchords"), I'm not a fan of Carrey. Anyway, by the time that was finished I had an hour or two to kill so loaded up PokerStars.

I only had time for 3 $1 90 man turbo games and although it got off to a slow start, some well-timed hands and I was continuing on the good form from last night. I got in the money in two out of the three, the first two games I final-tabled finishing 7th and 5th respectively.

The first final table I made with a solid chip stack but wasn't getting any decent cards in position. I probably should've taken a stand with pocket 6's at one point but folded to an early position raise. I ended up pushing from under the gun with ace jack but ran in to pocket queens in the small blind and couldn't outrun them.

The second table went a little better. Again I made the table with chips and waited for hands. I ended up taking a stand with ace jack (funnily enough) in the big blind against an early position raise. I pushed all-in and was called, he turned over king queen off and I flopped a jack to take down the pot. Shortly after I called the small stack push with pocket 7's in the small blind, he turned over ace 9 off and hit two pair. Next hand I had 7's again and thankfully they held up this time for me to double up. I ended up pushing with pocket 2's in the small blind but was called by the big blind who was chipped up. He called with king 8 off and rivered an 8 to knock me out. Looking back I probably should've just raised and then pushed the flop ... not sure he would've folded, but who knows.

Bankroll now just over $370.

PokerStars update

With so many pro poker players in Vegas at the moment for the early events of the World Series of Poker, most of the poker blogs are relatively quiet at the moment. There is essentially a new event starting every day so that doesn't give them much time to sit in front of the laptop and update the world about what's going on.

I haven't been playing as much as usual in the last week or so. I really need to get moving with a few business things so this will be my focus over the next few weeks. Saying that tho, I played cash games at PokerStars for a few hours on Saturday and decided to play some tournaments last night. The work will have to wait until this weekend.

Last night I felt I was playing really well. I didn't play too many games, just ten and I final tabled 3 of them. It could've actually been more but there were the usual suck-outs along the way.

Kings losing to king queen suited when they chased down the flush to the river. That was bad ... and there were others, but the worst was an unraised pot where I have king five suited in the big blind. Board comes 5, 6, 5 ... lovely! Small blind checks, I check, early position bets min and both blinds call. Next card out is a queen, small blind checks, I check, early position bets min, small blind calls. I decide its time to get some more out of this pot so I raise a couple of times the min blind, nothing excessive. Early position then shoves massively all-in, small blind umms and ahhs and calls and I reshove over the top and small blind still calls. What do they have you wonder? Early position turns over queen ten off, small blind turns over ace 6 off ... I'm in shock that either of them are still in the pot but know they're both drawing very thin (queen or a six). And the river ... a six of course ...

As mentioned tho, I made three final tables finishing 3rd, 4th and a 6th. So a profitable night and good for the stats but nothing too exciting.

My real concern at the moment is my horrible performances in anything other than the $1 90 man games. Every time I play the $2 90 man non-turbo tournament or even the $2 180 man turbo, I'm doing no good at all. Compared with my success rates at the $1 game, the next level up is a real struggle right now. I don't think its any tougher, I'm just running bad. Sure, I don't play as many of those tournaments as I do the $1 games but in the last 2 weeks I have essentially not cashed ANY of them and bubbling the money twice is as good as it gets. Over the next week or two I will be playing more of these tournaments and hopefully this trend will not continue!

Anyway, bankroll is now at $363 ... yes, I'm plateauing at the moment.

Adapting from online poker to playing live

I came across the following article on the PokerStars blog this morning. Its written by Greg Raymer and is a good read about converting from online play to live.

Click on the title below to read the full story.

How to adapt from online winner to live champion, by PokerStars' Greg Raymer - PokerStars Poker Blog

Many of our PokerStars players coming over to Las Vegas for the WSOP will be playing live tournaments for the first time. While the rules of the game are the same, playing online and live are two very different animals.

So who better to ask for some sound advice on how to adapt from online play to taking a shot at mega bucks at the Rio than Greg Raymer, who won the Main Event in 2004 and has got $6.8million in live winnings to his name....

by Team PokerStars Pro Greg Raymer

So, you've been playing on PokerStars.com, and doing well, and now you want to take a shot at the live games. What should you do? Well, the good news is you've already accomplished the hardest part, so the rest will probably come relatively easily. Here's some advice to make it even easier yet.

I've been playing poker seriously since 1992, so I started out as a live player, and only became an online player when it became available years later. Wherever you play poker, the hard part is learning how to play poker well. If you're winning online, then you've already done that. In 2004 when I won the Main Event, and prior to then, we used to make fun of the online players, and how bad they were. And for the most part, we were right. However, in today's poker world, it is the winning online players who have the most talent and knowledge, as compared to the live players. More importantly, the bad online players are nowhere near as bad as the bad live players.

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

May numbers and June goals

Here's a quick review of my Official Poker Rankings numbers from the month of May:

In The Money 23% (88/378)
Finish late 14%
ROI 13%
Profit $70

I had 3 first place finishes, 3 seconds, 4 thirds and 52 fourth to tenth places.

My In The Money was down from 26% the month before and my ROI was down from 152%. I think this has more to do with the extremely good April I had more so than a poor May. I played a LOT more games than the previous month (378 up from 113) but didn't have a great result in the big field tournaments.

According to the OPR site, my tournament stats now rank me just outside the top 4% of PokerStars tournament players for 2009.

I'm not sure if I'm going to play quite the number of tournaments I did this month but my goals are:

In the money: 25%
Profit: $150
Wins: 6

I'd also like to get my ranking in to the top 2.5% of PokerStars players. Let's see how I go!

World Series of Poker

With the 2009 World Series of Poker getting underway last week, I came across the article below that covers the history of the event. Its a good recap of some of the highlights for those that haven't done their homework.

I've been following the updates for the last few days on Poker News's Live reporting pages. The highlight so far was former main event champion, Greg Raymer's (pictured right) 3rd place finish in event # 2, the $40,000 no-limit tournament. It would have been great to see him take the title but it was not to be.

Click on the title below to read the full story.

40 years of the WSOP: The new millenium

By Shari Geller

With the World Series of Poker approaching its 40th anniversary in just days, PokerListings has been looking back in a series of articles at how the event has evolved. This fifth and final part looks at the new millenium.

Back in 1991, Jack Binion was asked to look into the future and see where the WSOP might go.

Jack had no way of knowing how the WSOP would explode in popularity, bringing thousands to his casino in search of fame and fortune and said he expected a slow, steady 10 to 15 percent growth rate.