MTT's update

As mentioned in my last update, I've spent the last few weeks playing MTT's rather than cash/ring games on PokerStars.

Some time back I stumbled across the website, Official Poker Rankings which tracks your online tournament results in games with over 11 players (for PokerStars, they track other games for other websites).

Checking my numbers from last month you can see things were going well:

In The Money 26% (29/113)
Finish late 15%
ROI 152%
Profit $211

I had 2 first place finishes, 6 seconds and 10 fourth to tenth places.

My In The Money was down from 56% the month before but my ROI was up from -7%.

According to the site, my tournament stats now rank me just outside the top 5% of all online tournament players. My aim is to get in to that top 5% and from there the top 2.5%.

I'm off to a slow start in May with a 3rd (in a 90 man tournament) being my top finish so far. I need to get a few more wins on the board in the near future and hopefully I can have another solid ROI month.

‘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.'