No Sweat-er

Two or three weeks before my trip back to Philippines, I decided to exchange my thousand-plus FPPs on stars for some of their merchandise. I number of them interested me, but what really caught my attention was the nice looking black sweater with their logo. I had seen a couple of players on TV wearing them to WSOP events and thought to myself, "this is probably the closest I am ever going to get to going there". Hehe. So I exchanged them and got them just last tuesday. Delivered by DHL express and it is friggin sweet.

Thanks stars. We'll always have a sweater to remember the good ol times. Hahaha.

The $26 satellite token I won last sunday was put into use the very next day. I got pretty deep into it. Just outside the money, I make it 3xbb with an ATo in cut-off seat. BB calls and flop is 9-3-10 rainbow. BB checks and I bet 2/3 pot. BB reraises me all in. Now I understand at around this time, people are making plays, stealing, re-stealing and all that jazz. Its almost like a dance to me at this point. I bet, someone raises, do you push back? do you fold? do you call? People could be reraising me with 8s or 7s or a straight draw, or overcards or whatever junk they call their "favorite hands". I reluctantly call and bb flips over 9s for a set. Turn and river no help and I am gone. At hindsight, I should have folded. He could have been playing jacks or queens the same way. Our stacks were almost the same, both average, and he wouldnt make a play that would damage his chances of making the money with some stupid steal play. Live and learn.

I bubbled out of an $11 tourney on tuesday when I pushed for 10-11xbb on a middle position raise with A7o when I was in the SB. Raiser of course flips over Queens and board does not provide assistance. I was the bubble boy. Not a good feeling. The table did thank me though for bubbling. Lol. Also, I got first in11fingers online tourney after delivering a bad beat to barb heads-up. I, apparently, had to beat her otherwise we would have to call the tourneys the barbiemanila online oker league according to adversary. Hehe

Last night, I decided to take another shot at the guaranteed tourneys at FTP and joined a 6.60 6-handed satellite. Like the 9-handed 4.40, 1st gets a token and 2nd gets $10. I was quite fortunate to hit flops quite hard early on and busted 2 players to get a commanding lead. Now, my tendency before was to just push the table around, since the blinds were still low and didnt hurt my stack each time I saw the flop, but I noticed that I lost bigger pots this way because I usually had the 2nd best hand. So I decided to continue playing TAG and won the token 30 min later. I also played a 5.50 sng and just made the money there. I signed up for another 5.50 tourney and while waiting, played a 3.30 MTT on Poker.com. After having a dismal 1st hour, I started catching some cards and got my stack way above the average. I found myself on the final table with a healthy stack and played ABC FT poker. Steal, re-steal, re-raises with big hands preflop. Finished at 3rd for a $45 payday.

The $5.50 MTT I joined had a few of the regular micro grinders and tourney experts. As usual, was not able to catch any cards early but made up for it. An interesting hand came up in the middle stages. I had gotten some good flops and was in the top 10 in chips. A middle position person raised 3xbb and I called on the button with 78 clubs. Flop came 4-5-10 with 2 spades. Middle position bet 50% of pot and I flat called my inside draw. Turn was a rag and he checks. I check as well. River is my gin card and hit my six to make a really deceptive straight. Weird thing is that the initial raiser pushes all-in. The river put a heart flush on board. That would have been a really funky way to play it. I could not put him on a backdoor flush and call. He shows pocket 7s and I double up. He just remarks, "omg". A couple of prelfop raises and steals later, I am overall chip leader and pick off middle stacks. I get resistance once in a while but not really hurt by them. I get outdrawn by a set on the turn in one hand near the bubble but thankfully lose the minimum as player was slowplaying them hoping I would raise. When I did make the money, I was in 3rd and fairly comfortable with around 30-40xbb. An hour later I make the FT. The first few hands were not kind to me and because of bad timing, my steals get picked off by really big hands and I am down to 6 of 8 in chips. Down to 6 players a little while later and just 10xbb with one limper, I push with A7o. Limper thinks a long time, as calling would mean almost 40% of his stack. He flips over 6s and we race. Flop is Q-K-Q. Not good at all. Turn is an 8 though, giving me more outs. Any K, 8, A or 7 wins me the pot. The river is a K for a sick beat which more than doubles me up and a message of "what a $%#$@%" from the limper. A couple hands later, I get the obligatory "nh" from the limper. Hehe. I am now 3rd in chips and poised to take it down. Unfortunately, my internet connection had other plans as my Full Tilt client froze and I got flashed the connection dialog. "Not now! Not fucking now!". When I did resume, I had just lost the blinds. On the button I make the standard raise with Q10o and BB calls. Flop is 10-10-x. BB checks, I bet like I normally do, BB raises, I reraise, BB re-reraises. Now normally I would flat call. But flat calling would indicate a very strong hand at this point and I dont think he'll be putting any more money in on the turn, even if he hits the flop. So I re-re-reraise (is that even a word?) and before his timer runs out, he folds. I show him my hand out of respect for him. He was a pretty solid player and did not want him to run me over anymore. Then the connection to FTP got cut again. I was able to surf online, but not connect. As a last resort, i restarted my machine. When I did connect, I was heads-up with CL who had a 100 to 1 chip advantage. LOL. Busted out a couple hands later in 2nd for a payday of $154. Chaching. Hehe. Not bad. I probably would have gotten less If I had actually played any of the hands when we were down to 4 players.

Hopefully my good run at MTTs wont end soon. Im really looking to cash in the $500++ ranges in the next couple of days.

For everyone watching High Stakes Poker Season 3, Ivey, Antonius, and Ferguson next week. Friggin sweet to watch. Finally get to see how those minds work in cash games.

Best of luck to everyone else.

Back here

Well, im back here at Singapore. I had a blast in the Philippines. Really felt like a vacation went I visited. Never had to move a muscle except to eat, sleep, and well, eat again. LOL. Had loads of fun with my family and especially with my girlfriend. You really dont realize how much a person means to you until you spend a day without seeing them. Definitely working on a plan for my gf to move here. :)

Once I moved back I started playing more on Poker.com. I had been playing a few of the 2.20 SnGs and cashed quite often. I finally ended up putting my BR up the $40 mark. Got it down a bit and tried a 2.20 MTT. After a huge suck out, I found myself back in the tourney and in the money. Played solid in the final table, raising a lot in position and catching good hole cards. Finished in 2nd for an $86 payday. Not bad.

From the winnings I got on Full Tilt, I decided to play a few of the SnGs and cashed in some of them. Seem to be running into sharks and micro grinders who always seem to know what I was upto. Hehe. Then I decided to try my luck at 5.50 MTT that happened to start in 5 minutes. What a tourney that was. The table I got into was tighter than (insert your own comparison here). I just kept raising with junk in middle and late position and making continuation bets with little or no resistance. When someone would look me up, I would flop two pair or a set. It was insane! I also ran into players trying to make plays on me when I hit the flop, with one guy literally bluffing all his chips away when I hit a boat with my 57o on the flop. He had K3. Hehe. I had the chip lead within the 2nd hour and never looked back. I just kep pushing people around and no one ever pushed back. I stayed clear of short stacks and kept picking on the middle stacks that could afford to fold. When I reached the FT, I was still in first but was in tough company. Looking up their stats on www.officialpokerrankings.com, I found myself with guys who regularly cashed in micro MTTs and were quite aggressive. I decided to just sit back and let the cards come to me, since I could afford to wait with my huge chip lead. After my Aces were cracked by K9 on the river, hehe, I lost the chip lead and got 3rd for a payday of $112. Chaching, as I told jonard. Hehe. It was a good learning experience. I got a little cocky and decided to play an $11 tourney that was about to begin. I just got ITM, getting $18. LOL. Something better than nothing, right? Hehe

I remembered this one post from gamefrog about how satellites are the key to maximum profit potential, or something to that effect, for cashing in the guaranteed MTTs at full tilt. So then I tried my hand at the 4.40/9 that gave one seat and 6.60/18 that gave 4 seats. I was unsuccesfull at both, alot. Never even cashing. I then played again late last night, and saw I was beside a guy named jonpokertour. I gave me a message to jonard on YM and he confirmed that was him I was playing with. I busted out early in that SnG, but jonard stayed him, but unfortunately just took 2nd for $10. Both he and I want a $26 satellite token to one of em big tourneys. I noticed how he played and why he was successfull at SnGs of late. It was because he wasnt forcing things to happen, at least not early on. He was just waiting for cards to come and rarely raised in the early and middle stages of the tourney. And whenever he did, the table showed him respect. I applied this, and whaddaya know, I got a token an hour later on the 6.60 SnG I was playing. When I play MTTs, people are usually so tight in the beginning that its easy to pick up the dead money and slowly build your stack. But in SnGs, people are so bad that they are willing to call any raise no matter what position with any Ace X, King X or face card combination. So its very easy to get unlucky or for your opponent to get lucky when they hit the flop, then call you down with any pair. In one SnG, in the middle stage of the tourney where I had played quite tight, I had raised all-in to 750 with ATo on 30-60 blinds in middle position with 3 limpers. One of the limpers called for almost 50% of his stack with K8o! My hand held up and I was in awe. "He must have thought I was really weak. Putting me on K7 or K6." I would rather bluff my chips off with K8 than call with them.

With things looking up for me on the online gaming front, Im quite happy. I feel that I have improved my game somewhat and am confident to cash in more MTTs in the future. Those guaranteed tourneys look really nice with first to third place usually in the thousand dollar ranges. That would be so friggin sweet!

One thing Im looking into improving is restealing. One way of building my stack either approaching the bubble or ITM is raising in middle and late position with a wide range of hands, but restealing has been a skill that has always eluded me. Maybe someone out there can give me some tips or pointers or guidelines or rules of thumb. Much appreciated, thanks.

Thats all for now. Thanks for reading.

Good luck at the felt, both online and live!