Bonus unlocked

I've spent the last 4 or so hours grinding the $3.40 18 mans in order to get to 2500 FPP's and unlock the $40 40 billionth hand bonus. What sucks is I ran like shit so by the time I got the FPP's I was basically breaking even for the night. Yipppeeee ... groan.

I won one of the games early and then went on a baron stretch where I basically couldn't even cash. Maybe I was playing too many tables, maybe I was just running bad.

The last three games kind of summed up the night for me. One table I had a massive chip lead with four players remaining and had at least a 2:1 chip lead when heads-up rolled around. I dominated the battle early until I raised with pocket 8's and got re-raised all-in by queen ten suited and of course he flops a queen and wins the race. A couple of hands later he limps the small blind, I push with 6's in the big blind and he calls with 2's. Flop of course has a 2 and I finish second in a game I thought I was sure to win. On the other tables I re-raise all-in with queens, original raiser turns over jacks and spikes one on the turn and on the final table I raise 1/2 my stack in the small blind with ace king when folded to. The big blind who is a terrible, loose player calls, I shove on a low flop because I was never folding and he turns over 5 9 off and has hit the 9 ... greaaaat.

In other PokerStars news, its only a matter of hours before the magic 40 billionth hand is dealt. I won't be sticking around for the festivities as its past midnight and I'm off to bed.

Bankroll $920, FPP count 8.

The up and up

I really didn't plan on playing last night as work has been so busy and I had so much to do. I got caught up on a number of things so decided to log on to PokerStars.

Things started very slowly for me as I failed to cash my few games. I started playing $3.25 45 mans as well as some 18 mans to chase after the 25oo FPP's I need for the $50 40 billionth hand bonus. I failed to cash the first 5 or 6 and loaded up a couple of $6.50 45 mans.

I got a 3rd in an 18 man but the turning point came when I won my first $6.50 45 man for $84. Its not that much but to put it in perspective its 10% of my bankroll so its handy. I remember I tripled up very early when I flopped top set in a 3 way pot and we got it all in on the flop and the board paired on the river to give me the full house vs an overpair and an underpair. I remember the heads up was a solid battle against a decent player but I began to pull away and was happy to get the win.

Tonight I've mostly been playing the 18's to get the FPP count up. I'm now just 75 off my target so hopefully I can knock over the goal by Saturday or Sunday, just in time to get the bonus which ends on Monday night my time.

I have played a couple of $6.50 45 mans with my best/only cash being a 3rd place. The 18 mans have been going ok, I tend to break even or be slightly profitable in them and that has continued tonight. I'm down to my last game and sitting 4th of 7 after shoving 3 hands straight and then turning quads in a multiway unraised pot.

So after winning the $6.50 45 man and a few of the 18 mans, my bankroll is now $916 (I just came 4th in the last 18 man) and I can almost taste 4 figures.

The flaw in OPR

As I've started playing different games and satelliting in to a few larger tournaments, I've found the flaw in Official Poker Rankings.

Other than the fact that it doesn't record stats for tournaments with less than 45 players, the two problems I see with it are:

1. Satellites - When I use FPP's to satellite in to a larger buy-in tournament, OPR records the fact that I've played in the bigger event as a buy-in I've paid. This happened on the weekend when I satellited in to a $10+1 rebuy tournament using just 70 FPP's. However, OPR just lists my records like I've just paid the actual buy-in.

2. Rebuys - Following on from the first flaw is the way OPR handles rebuy tournaments. Since they can't track how many rebuys each individual player has, it gives each player the average number of rebuys for that event. Now, if I've satellited in to a $10 rebuy tournament using FPP's, rebuying is obviously not an option for me with my roll. But, on my OPR record it considers that I've infact paid $33 for that tournament (buy-in and re-buys) when infact I've spent nothing.

Now these are not major dramas by any means but its something I picked up on the weekend. Yes, my record on there isn't as pretty as it once was ... ha ha ha

The Poker Star

Well, not too much to report from the PokerStars $50K, or at least nothing exciting for me anyway. I didn't realise but the tournament I had qualified was in fact a rebuy tournament and my first time in it the $10 rebuy didn't interest me too much when I had satellited in using FPP points.

I played fairly tight early, took down some small pots and avoided some of the rebuy madness that was going on at the table. I virtually tripled up at one point with top pair king kicker on the flop managed to outrun top pair midkicker and flush draw in a raised pot. So I survived through until the end of the rebuy and add-on period and got to see that there was a first prize of over $10K up for grabs. Shortly after tho I had ace ten in the big blind and in a multiway unraised pot the flop came 10, 10, 6 ... hello!! It checked around to the button who bet smallish so I called and figured I'd lead out on the turn which I did, I got re-raised and hoped I was up against a worse ten, flush draw or bottom pair. Unfortunately the button had pocket 6's and I was needing help on the river but it didn't come and I was gone midfield.

Other than that tournament tho, my early morning good form continued as I got a 3rd in a $3 45 man, min-cashed a 180 and then won a $3 45 man, all in my first couple of games. From there tho I failed to cash in the next 11 games, bubbling 3 (frustratingly). Happy with the way I played tho and a profitable day overall.

As I mentioned, I missed Joe Hachem's The Poker Star last night but you have to love YouTube for having it on there already. I've just finished watching it and its great to see that the episodes are an hour long, unlike 2M2MM which is just 30 minutes and is drawing heat in the forums for being too short. The city of Melbourne and Crown Casino make a great back-drop for the show and its good to see Lee Nelson involved as well. Week 1 was very much a getting to know the contestants episode so we'll see how the show develops from here.

Good start to the day

I just got up an hour or two ago, didn't feel like breakfast as I ate a lot yesterday. I went to the gym in the afternoon, had a couple of sandwiches when I got home and then went to a friend's place to watch the AFL Grand Final, NRL Semi-Final and I was hoping to catch the first episode of Joe Hachem's The Poker Star but unfortunately that last one didn't happen. As soon as I walked in the door, the beers were cracked and the food started flowing and really didn't stop.

Anyway, I like playing poker on Sunday mornings because its the one chance I get to play in a number of the big MTT's. I late registered for one about 50 minutes late, normally I wouldn't but there was over 6000 players in it and it was only a $1 buy-in. Nothing exciting to report there, registered for another $1 buy in one and didn't do much better there either.

I've been wondering what to do with my FPP's and decided to play in a satellite to the nightly 50K guaranteed (normally an $11 buy-in). It was only 70FPP's and it was a turbo satellite which I really didn't take in to account in the early rounds. Thankfully I got some hands at the right time, picked a few other good spots and was right back in the game. There was 190'ish runners, 19 of which would qualify for the 50K. Being a turbo the blinds were high late and an ace high shove from the small blind held up and I was well in contention. The table was very tight unless they had a big hand so I was pleasantly surprised when everyone folded to my blind instead of making me taking a stand around the bubble. I used my time bank in the right spots to slow our table down and it worked well enough to get me through. The 50K starts in just over an hour so hopefully I can do something in that.

While playing that I also won a $1 45 man game. I was in a good position all the way through and despite being last in chips with about 4 to go, got some hands, took down some blinds and got out of the way when the big action started. I went in to heads-up facing a large deficit but took down a big hand or two to even the ledger. We then went back and forth for a while until he went card dead and got too passive. He was folding way too many hands when short-stacked and I was able to take advantage of it.