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Virgin Freerolls report

December 4th, 2005  |  Published in No Limit Holdem, Online Poker, Tournaments

It’s about time I posted my report on the five $1000 freerolls that Virgin Poker ran to celebrate their re-launch last weekend. Those five nights reminded me just how baffling and frustrating and exhilarating tournament poker can be. In a way, I was kind of glad when the five nights were over so I could go back to what I was doing, which was working hard to improve my limit game, but this was an enjoyable little diversion for a few days. It’ll be interesting to see if Virgin can hang on to a lot of the players who came to these tournaments. I saw a lot of different names from one night to the next, and probably about 99% of them were British too. The number of players involved each night varied from 230 to 295, which isn’t too shabby. I was impressed by the fact that each player started with 2000 chips rather than 1500 (or the 800 you get at some places), so I may stick around and play a few more cheap tournaments there.

Things started really well for me in the first freeroll on Thursday. For the first time ever, I got myself into the late stages of a tournament and into a position where I actually felt that I had as good a chance as anyone to win it. It was very rewarding to see evidence of the work I’ve put into learning to play no-limit tournaments paying off. I comfortably managed to survive that tricky first hour which often trips me up; where the lunatics who call all-in bets with bottom pair get weeded out. I managed to stay just ahead of the average stack by mixing up my play and picking my victims carefully. As the bubble approached I began to steal as much as I could if I could get in first – often asking the medium stacks whether or not they wanted to play for all their chips, particularly the ones who were shopping themselves by chatting about how tense things were getting – the prize money for 11th to 20th place was just $10 for heaven’s sake! I got myself as high as 7th place with 31 players remaining. I was pleased that I didn’t need to come from behind in a hand at any point, but I didn’t have anybody get lucky against me either. Only once did I get involved in a race (with my TT against KQs), otherwise I was always ahead when the cards were on their backs. After two and a half hours of play, I eventually finished 20th out of a field of 242, finishing just in the money after some cold cards and bad position ended my night. As I said, this was the best I had ever done in a field of this size and I felt like I’d proved something to myself. It’s fantastic to see your own good play rewarded with solid results (and cash too, even if it’s only $10) so I was really enthusiastic about the next four nights.

In fact, I gave the Friday freeroll a miss, but I was back on Saturday only to go out after getting appalling cards dealt to me for fifty minutes. There wasn’t a lot I could’ve done about this one. There were too many people willing to call with anything for me to try making any moves. Monday was much the same, although I stayed afloat a little bit longer with some very selective aggression against a half-decent table. Eventually I had to push with an ace and lost a race.

But it was Sunday night’s exit that provided the biggest lesson. I’m conscious of not going into too much detail with hand histories, so I’ll try to just stick to the facts with this one. Anyway, I re-raised with 99 from middle position after the player on my right raised to double the big blind. Everyone else folded. The original raiser called. The flop came a beautiful 953 rainbow and I had a great chance to double through and get myself over that “first sixty minutes” hurdle once again. My opponent bet the minimum 150 into an 1100 pot. I called. The turn brought a 3 to give me a full house. Again there was a minimum bet of 150 into what was now a 1400 pot. Once again, I called, sensing a chance to take all her chips. The river brought a K. This time the bet was 450 into a 1700 pot, leaving her just 400 more. Convinced I had this won against an A9, or a K5, I went all-in for my last 1100, knowing that my opponent was pot-committed, only to be called and shown pocket Ks to lose to a bigger full house. Nooooo!

Okay, so it was a two-outer, but I think a big bet from me on fourth street could’ve ended the hand right there – the pot was big enough at that point to justify doing that and the weak bets coming from my opponent meant that I was unlikely to make significantly more than was already in the pot. Of course, the other possible holding from a weak opponent was a big pair and it’s not out of the question that I would’ve had a big bet called on fourth street with two pair (Ks and 3s) against my full house either, which arguably would’ve been a mistake at that point. Essentially, I got caught trying to extract the maximum from a very strong hand. I took a chance and lost, so no complaints. Next time I’m in a similar situation, I’ll be paying less attention to the “ching ching” noises in my head and thinking instead about how much more I can win from the hand and whether I need to end things quickly and decisively with a big bet.

So that was it – the freerolls were over. What started off very promisingly ended as a bit of a disappointment. Still, I was up $10. Now where did I leave my copy of “Small Stakes Hold’em”??

Sit ‘n’ go success

May 1st, 2005  |  Published in No Limit Holdem, Online Poker, Tournaments

I’d had an up and down kind of day playing the NL tables at Full Tilt when I decided on impulse to enter my first sit ‘n’ go – the first real money tournament I had ever played in.

It was quite exciting to actually be part of a tournament for the first time. In proper Jim McManus style, I had practiced beforehand with turbo texas hold’em (and another program DD Poker) so I knew what I was doing – enough for a $5 buy-in table anyway.

My strategy was pretty simple – very tight at the beginning (as is traditional), look to steal blinds on the bubble and (if I got that far) play super-aggressive heads-up and raise almost every time, as Howard Lederer suggests. There was one little twist I wanted to add though. I wanted to look for one big hand early on that could win me some chips and make me look like someone who would ask you difficult questions if you tried to mess with me. My chance came on the second level with a pair of black queens. I had one caller for a bet around 4x the big blind. The flop was king high, and my opponent took a long time thinking about calling the bet I had made to find out where Istood. In fact, he raised me a little, but I got the feeling he didn’t really want to be in this pot even though he may very well have been ahead – (I put him on a weak king). Had he raised me much more, I may have been forced to throw the queens away, but I sensed he didn’t want to risk that many of his chips this early on and was hoping his little raise would make me fold, so I made a pretty bold move to come over the top with a large re-raise. I was hoping to make him think I had made two pair. Over half of my chips where now in the pot. He waited until the last second before folding. I was now the clear chip leader, having increased my stack by 50% and I had made a statement that raising me could mean having to make a big decision. Okay, I’d taken a gamble, but the table had been pretty cautious so far and I didn’t
feel as if my opponent in this hand was prepared to risk many chips so early on, and I got it right. My plan then was to coast for a while and just play big hands.

Eventually though, I felt as if I needed to make another move. My chips had dwindled badly after a couple of aborted attempts to steal blinds and some stone cold cards. I ended up all-in with AJs, only to be shown a pair of jacks. Only an ace was going to stop me going out 6th, but one of them arrived just in time on the river to put me in great shape as chip leader again. I half-heartedly apologised to the guy I’d sucked out on, who then dejectedly threw away his remaining chips on the next hand but one. I busted another player then waited for the others to squabble for 3rd place while stealing pots with very little. By the time we were down to the three money places I had 10k in chips and the other two had around 2k each. I continued to wittle them down slowly, forcing them into having to committ most of their chips pre-flop, knowing that they both were looking to take the other one out then take me on with only a 2 to 1 chip deficit. I was careful not to let either of them double-up, knowing that the increasing
blinds would put more and more pressure on both of them to play sub-standard hands. The eventual heads up contest didn’t last too long. My opponent was far too passive, clearly feeling as if I would force him all-in if he raised at all. It ended when he found a pair of nines and made a stand, only to see me turn over jacks.

I was delighted, because for all of the practice I’d done with offline software, I’d never actually won a tournament before.

Simon ‘Aces’ Trumper and Vinny Vinh

April 18th, 2005  |  Published in Live play, Tournaments

I’ve been following Simon ‘Aces’ Trumper’s diary recently on the Sporting Life website.

A few days ago he wrote about an extraordinary argument he got into in a Super Satellite at the Bellagio with Vinny Vinh, involving sulking, swearing and chip-throwing:

http://poker.sportinglife.com/News/story_65563.shtml

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