I have no real complaints with my play today at all. In fact, I think there is only 2500 in chips that I left out there on the table one hand when I bluffed at the turn when I felt like it wouldn’t work. Other than that, I can’t think of a mistake I made today. I didn’t have a ton of good situations come up today, but I held my fair share of hands that saw my stack increase a little over 50%. My goal for the day was to get to about 40,000, but at the same time would have been ok with getting through the day with my 20,000. I ended the day with 32,375 and my peak on the day was 35,000. It was steady sailing really, with the exception of losing 8000 with JJ to a wild player that had my stack dip to 14,400, there wasn’t much movement with my chips. Hey, if the situations don’t come you just have to get through them without panicking. I never panicked for a second today. I never had my chips all in, in fact I never dipped into my last 12,000 at any point. If you’d like a more in depth look at some of the hands from today, go to the General Forum at www.fullcontactpoker.com for the updates. In fact, check out that forum tomorrow also as I’ll be providing updates at least every hour and a half at the end of the levels. It’s strange, very little went wrong today. My mind felt fresh and I wasn’t fatigued at all. Other than a slightly upset stomach, I felt fantastic. I went back to something I’d gotten away from and started listening to “massage music” again. My I-POD must suck or something, though, as it only lasts for about 4 hours. After that, I keep the headphones on to block out the noise. I kept my mind on poker about 80% of the time which isn’t too bad. Watched hands, picked up tells, and overall had a fun day and felt really hungry. All in all, a very positive start, but there is work to be done. Tomorrow we will be playing seven levels so it will end up being about a 14 hour day. My goal is to continue to chop away and have faith in my reads. If I can do that, and avoid any unlucky breaks, I’ll get there… ]]>
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AK vs AQ: LOST
QQ vs AQ: LOST
That’s just poker and didn’t discourage me so I played another sit n’ go, this time a one table for $100.
This time I let the FCPer’s in the forums at www.fullcontactpoker.com know that I was playing and had them sweating me.
I was in a goofy mood, and was typing in all kinds of Ali G like silliness into the chat box while posting my hands in the General Forum.
No one at the table knew it was me, but the observers did. I went on to win the sit n’ go which again, puts me in the right confident frame of mind in preparation for Tuesday.
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On another note, I wanted to explain something to all of you once and for all. Many people are very confused in thinking that buying in for more chips than the table has is an advantage all by itself. Let me explain for you all what you are not seeing:
If a bad player bought in for $1,000,000 in a $1-$2 NL game and you bought in for $200, would this bad player have an advantage over you now? Of course not.
All that would be relevant to you, is that when you put your $200 in against him you’d get full value against him and likely have +EV. If $200 is too much for your bankroll, than you could do the same thing with $60. The point is, if you are a better player than him he wouldn’t all of a sudden be better than you because he has more money in front of him!
True, you are more likely to go broke than he is, but you are still a favorite to make more money than he does. I would happily, and I mean happily, play a bad player heads up where I risked only $5000 in a 10-20 blind game where he risked $1,000,000. Are you kidding me? The most I could lose is $5000, but I get the chance to knock off a guy for a million if he doesn’t quit!
Too many of the people in the FCP forum are missing the bigger picture in regards to my last blog. Even if I went all in blind every hand for $100,000 to win the $15 in the pot, that would NOT be advantageous for ME. It would however, be an EXCELLENT opportunity for the other players to get great value on their good hands.
If you are sitting down in a NL game with $1000, but can’t afford to lose it in one hand- you simply shouldn’t be playing, period. Instead, you should be buying in for maybe $100 and protecting the rest of your bankroll.
Another poster in the forum used an analogy that went something like, “It’s as if you went into a tournament as a massive chip leader, it wouldn’t be fair.”
Well, there are several holes in that argument:
1) In a cash game you can quit anytime you like.
2) In a cash game, the blinds don’t go up.
3) In a tournament, the goal is to end up with all of the chips, while in a cash game it’s all about getting +EV when you play.
The only thing that buying in for the most money would ensure you is that it would be less likely that you went broke than someone who bought in for much less. But at what cost? If the guy with $60 goes broke, he loses $60! If the guy who buys in for a $100,000 goes broke, wow, the dude loses $100,000!
When you play poker, you should think in terms of hourly rate, even when playing no limit hold’em. If a guy buys in to your $1-$2 NL game for $100,000 and goes all in blind every hand, ask yourself what that will do to your hourly rate? Do you think this would hurt you somehow? Do you think this player with $100,000 is on to some hidden strategy that has escaped all of the great poker minds in the world?
If you are the best player in your game and have a sufficient bankroll then you should have the table covered. Why? Not because it is in any way some unfair advantage, but because you don’t want to have to go all in. The more play there is, the better it is for a good player. Having said that, if the other players at the table all buy in for a small amount, it won’t make much difference anyway in how much play there is to the game.
When you buy in to a game YOU have the choice to decide how difficult you want the game to be. If you buy in for the minimum, it makes the correct strategy very simply. If you buy in for the most, it will force you to make more difficult decisions. An example:
You raise to $30 with AA and get three callers. The flop comes 9c 6d 2s and you bet your last $50. That’s a no brainer right? Well, what if you had $20,000 in front of you? You bet the $50 and a player raises you $200 more. Now what do you do? It’s more difficult isn’t it?
You aren’t going to stick the whole $20,000 in are you? No, you might raise to $1000 or so. Say you do, and now your opponent raises you back $5000 more? Do you fold? Do you call? Tough isn’t it?
No limit hold’em, in it’s purest form is a game in which no player would go all in. A game with extremely deep stacks that allow for more pure decisions.
If a bad player buys in for more chips it will actually be a much bigger DISADVANTAGE for him. If a bad player bought in for the minimum every hand, he would lose less money over the long run. His hourly rate might go from -$2000.00 an hour to -$100.00 an hour depending on how bad he plays.
So I hope you all understand now that buying in for more money isn’t in itself an advantage at all. It’s a BIG disadvantage for a bad player, but will increase a good players hourly rate to have the table covered.
Now if a good player decides to goof around and play recklessly, well he wouldn’t be playing very good now would he?
The greatest thing about allowing no maximum buy in is that it gives YOU more options. If you want to buy in cheap and take a shot- you can. If you want to buy in for a ton and go after a sucker, you can do that to.
Finally, if you buy in for $200 and run it up to $1000, but don’t feel comfortable losing $1000 in a hand, you can quit!
The reason a casino puts a max buy in on their tables isn’t to help YOU at all. It’s in their best interest to have LESS fluctuation so that players don’t go broke as quickly. Casinos do that to protect THEIR interests of keeping the games going so that they can keep dropping rake. I mean, do you really need someone to hold your hand and tell you how much you can buy in for? “No sir, you don’t want to buy in for that much. That’s a lot of money sir, please don’t gamble that much, we are worried about you.” Yeah right!
I have to say, that reading all of those posts about how buying in for a gazillion was an advantage was getting annoying! This concept isn
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I also called up Corey Perry and Raffi Torres up to the team. As it was a day of multi-tasking for me, I also decided to play an online tournament at the same time. I could use the practice, as most of you can see I haven’t played much poker lately… calling all challengers!!!!! 🙂 I got lucky on my first double up calling a raise with Qh Jh and hitting a flop of Kh-10-3. My opponent bet the flop and I moved in. He called with K-Q and I hit the 9h on the turn and an ace on the river. I hit the straight twice. From there I played a few coin flip situations. The first one I raised from late position with Ad Kd and the big blind moved all with Qc Qs- I called. The flop came Qd Jd 6d giving me the nut flush and my opponent top set. The turn was a Q giving him quads and I was thinking, “Will my first ever royal flush be up against quads?” Nope. The nest hand I played was Qh Qs and again the big blind moved all in on me. I called, and he had Kc Ks. This time the flop came Ac 10c 3c giving me one out in the deck. The turn was the Qc! Now I needed the board to pair but it wasn’t meant to be. To stay afloat I took advantage of a weak player on my right, making this same play a few times: He limped for 400 from the SB and I checked with Jd 8h. The flop came 10d 7d 7c. He bet 400 and I called. The turn came another 10 and he bet 400 again. I didn’t think he had any of that, but rather than raise him now I wanted to see what he’d do on the river so I just called. The river was the Qs and he bet 400 again! “No way this guy has a full house,” I thought, and raised him 2000 more. He thought for a few seconds and mucked. I did that same thing to him like three times! With over 3000 players in the event I was able to make the money, but lost the key hands that I needed to win to make a run at it. I think I played “ok”, but frankly, I wasn’t exactly too focused on giving it my absolute best. Not with the fantasy football and fantasy hockey stuff I was working on. So now I’m left with one sweat on the day, my football game. I’m down 80.76 to 77.41 with five minutes left in the third quarter. It’s going to be close, but I like my chances. Later tonight I think Lori and I are going to check out a move that I’m excited to see. It’s called Two for the Money and it’s all about sports betting and stuff like that which is right up my alley. Anyway, back to the game…]]>
The Nakum tribe is far superior and I predicted that with my pool picks. Yes, I’m actually in a Survivor pool too! This is the first year I’ve done it and it’s been fun.
The rules are simple. At the beginning of the season you rank all of the survivors from 1 through 16. Each week you get points for the survivors that remain on your team. So obviously you are hoping to lose your #16 seed early and have your #1 seed at the end.
I loaded my team up top with a Nakum alliance I thought may form. I have Brandon, Blake, Danni, and Brooke as my final four and feel pretty good about that prediction.
So far we’ve lost Jim (8), Morgan (15), and Brianna (10). Lydia almost went two weeks in a row and she was my #16 pick. She is 4′ 10″ and a Fish Monger. That would be very valuable on most seasons of Survivor, but this season there is no ocean to fish from. They are inland and the waters are infested with crocs.
After Lydia goes I need Margaret to go, then Judd. I think I have a shot with Margaret as she’s been too bossy, but I think Judd might end up doing much better than I thought.
So there you have a glimpse into my life. Basically, me taking a glimpse of other people’s lives by watching Reality TV!
I live vicariously through many of them and have lots of fun watching. Survivor, with all of it’s difficulties is actually a show I would do. I love the poker aspect of it. There are so many twists and turns and being the most physically threatening player isn’t a good thing so I’d do ok there.
The whole food thing would be a problem. I’m a vegetarian, but man, if I was on that show I’d be one fish eatin’ son of a gun I’ll tell you what! Bring on the chicken and ribs and bring me a side of bacon! LOL. I can’t imagine going on that show without eating meat.
It’s crazy, but I actually think I could win. If I made the final two, my speech would be so moving that they would HAVE to vote for me. I have one luxury in that I wouldn’t be playing Survivor for the money. Therefore, I could pull a Barry G. and win em’ over by telling them that if they vote for me, I’d donate all of the million dollars to the charities of their choice. Every penny of it.
Heck, I think even the person I was at the jury with would want me to win right?
So anyway, it’s a thought. After watching the first episode this season, though, I had to seriously reconsider. I mean, Bobby Jon, who is supposed to be a tough dude gets paralyzed from the first walk and his eyes are rollin’ back in his head like he’s dying or something! That’s crazy.
I definitely think a poker player is going to do that show eventually. It makes so much sense to have a poker player on the show. The value of money, the people reading skills, etc. I think it would be intriguing, but I don’t think it’ll be me. Dude, could you picture Phil Hellmuth on Survivor? LOL. How high would you put him on your pool!
Or how about a guy like Gus Hansen? He’d make for a really big threat in more ways then one. Phil Ivey? He’d be gambling at who’ll catch the most fish, or who can chuck a grain of rice closest to a tree. His tribe would hate him because he’d been winning all of their share of food and clothing.
Oh, wait a minute… how about Mike Matusow! LOL. We have to get him on the show! Seriously, everybody should send a letter to CBS and see if we can get the Mouth on the show. He wouldn’t last two days without a plate of Chicken n’ Ribs or a Filet Mignon. I think Mike would be an absolute lock to be the first one out.
Ok, one more: how about Paul Phillips? We all know he can carry a beard and that he can find ample ways to amuse himself without very much to work with. I would pay to watch him explain game theory to Bobby Jon, LOL. “Huh? But I done did voted already for the other guy. Now you done want me to vote for hee’m? Okaay.”
I’m having too much fun with this idea. What about “Celebrity Survivor?” Do they do that yet? You could throw Omarosa out there in the hopes that someone drowns her!
Or how about a Michael Jackson? He already has the physique?
Maybe Brittany and Kevin Federline. I don’t know why I threw that one in there, but they would seem to fit in. He doesn’t shave and she goes to the bathroom at gas stations in her bare feet. Dirt doesn’t seem to bother them much.
Gary Coleman. I’d just love to watch him try and get through the challenges.
Lindsay Lohan, Cameron Diaz, Angelina Jolie, and Carmen Electra… cause why not right?
Ok, I better go to bed, I’m getting to be goofy. ]]>