CARDRUNNERS

10 down, 1 to go, today started awfully and ended on an alright note. Still finished down a decent amount, but ended up winning the 109 turbo on Stars to roughly halve my losses. At the final table I decided to make a video. Unfortunately, I won it in only 16 minutes so I doubt you guys will ever see it, maybe I could just host it on youtube or something for people who want to see how awesome I ran.


Today I busted the 5k PLO pretty early geting it in with an overpair, pair, gutshot and bdfd against top and bottom pair(was a 40/60) and got fairly somewhere in the 50 PLO and 500 LHE. I swapped with a friend whose still in the LHE, so if wins that, it will be a winning day, but I came up short in each. I also played a decent number of satelites today, but couldn't really but anything together in any of them.

Overall today, was nothing too special, I more or less just didn't have that many close spots, didn't have that many big hands, didn't take many bad beats, didn't dish many out either. Just kind of minded my own business while my stack shrunk.


The last part of my video series came out, I've got something new coming out after that which I plan on working on this week once SCOOP is over(apparently no one has done a video like this on CR, so it should be interesting). Also, I got some other pretty good news recently which I should be posting about in the next week or so. Sorry for all the secrets, I just want more people to read the blog, and if popular television has taught me anything, its that this is how to keep peoples interest.

Tomorrow I'll be playing all the SCOOPs except the 25k, and hopefully can run super hot and put me in the black.

Wow, tournament buyins sure do add up. Today I didn't even play the $5,200 o8 and I still managed to only breakeven despite over 20k in cashes.

I played a ton of the 109r hyper-turbo satelites and although I think  I can have a decent edge, I probably won't play too many in the future since I almost feel bad. The areas where I get my edge are soooo far from "good poker" that its ridiculous. I have no problem with killing these tournaments so here is how you beat them(this is assuming the buyin you are trying to satelite into is about 20-50x that of the cost of a rebuy).

1) In a poker game with an ante, you have an edge by being shortstacked. The simplest example is if you have 1 chip at a 9 handed table with a 1 chip ante, you will 9x your stack much more than 1/9th of the time(since people fold). So in these tournaments since the antes are absurdly high, doubling your stack never quite doubles your value. So what this means is you should be pushbotting a little bit tighter than what ordinary CEV would suggest
2) A lot of your value comes from the fact the addon is bigger than the rebuy. Make sure you last to the addon, and play in such a way that you minimize the expectation of what you are in for without it affecting your CEV too significantly(in other words, SINGLE REBUY, DON'T DOUBLE REBUY, this is one of the biggest mistakes people make).
3) And this is the main reason I feel bad about playing these tournaments. STALL STALL STALL. Learn how to stall such that you get the button after the addon as frequently as possible. Stalling every hand during the rebuy period is probably correct since it likely cuts down the number of hands you play which in turn means that the other tables will be spending more money per chip than your table will(since a higher % of the money your table contributes will be in addons). Also try to learn when which tables break so you can hopefully dodge the BB whenever possible(I don't know this, so the "good regs" probably have an edge over me).

My problem with these tournaments is its all a "hustle" more or less, some guys know a few more tricks than other guys(I'm sure some people have a bunch of things figured out that I didn't in the 2 times I've played them), but these are really dumb based on the fact that you can probably triple your ROI through effective stalling.

Anyways, I won 4 $2100 seats in these and broke about even in them. Across other MTTs, I won entry into the 10k again(got 3rd in another satelite to it) and bricked all the SCOOP events today. I made decent runs in 3 of the 5 events I played(22r, 2100r, 530 o8). I was like 7 from the money in the o8, had 25k chips for a good amount of the 2100r before getting it in nut flush draw against a set, binking and then having him rebink, and also finished like 100 from the money in the 22r.

Guess today wasn't a bad day considering I bricked a $6,100 tournament, tomorrow I'm likely going to just play the mid and low buyins, but may play the 5k PLO if the field looks at all soft.

Just 2 more days to go!

Alright, so today I didn't play a ton today, played all 6 SCOOP events and 8 more tournaments. Didn't really have anything go well today, I was 1st/40 in the 216 turbo on FTP but came like 22nd, was in alright shape with 11 left in a satelite with 2 WSOP seats, and ran KK into QT and AQ into QQ and was out, but the main disappointment was a satelite to the SCOOP main event.

It was one of those ridiculous $33 rebuy tournaments, and I was in for $333(a little under average for people who make it to break I think) and it gave 2 packages, and paid 5. With 6 left I was double average and got it in KK against JJ, even if I just got the blinds with the KK I likely would have had enough chips to push every hand and win, but lost this, but was still in fairly good shape. I then lost QQ to K4o, and then Q9 or K6s or something and was out in 6th. Meh, that was the difference between a marginally winning day and significantly losing day.


I also have a decent piece of someone still in the 5k SCOOP(have bought very few %'s of people this SCOOP, but this was a fairly solid opportunity), lets hope he can take it down and cover all my SCOOP losses.

Oh, today something kinda funny happened, in Canada apparently they give checks to people who earn low incomes since the government believes sales tax is unfair to them. Its nothing significant, but apparently I've been getting like $92 every 3 months or something like that since I have no "real" income. My mom has just been putting them in my bank account, but my dad and I were laughing at how unfair that is, I'll probably give them to some charity since despite my low income, there may be people even more deserving than me out there.

Tomorrow is 8 game and stud, I think I'll probably pass on both high buyins, in fact if I wanted to take a day off tomorrow would probably be the best day. I might watch some mixed games videos and see if I really feel like playing 11 days straight.

As of last update I was into round 3 of the 162 HU SCOOP, I made it to round 5 and lost to the worst opponent I had faced all tournament, so that was kind of disappointing.

After more or less taking it easy yesterday I decided to grind hard today. Played 41 tournaments, had 7 or 8 cashes, 3 final tables and lost mid 4 figures. I didn't play the high buyin stud8 event, but kind of feel like I should have, I felt that I had a very big edge in the small and mid buyins but didn't cash either of them or any of the 3 mixed holdem events. I watched a LHE video here and reread part of "Winning in Tough Hold'em Games" as preperation, and I'm not sure whether that preperation was any good. I guess part of it was probably my opponents were cardracking really hard, but in general I just had the worst hand so much, and was often trying to value bet it.

Today felt like 2 different days, the euro/afternoon tournaments I basically bricked everything(mincashed a 109r and FTed the 50 cubed)  and lost almost every important pot. The nightly tournaments I had stack in everything(was 13 tabling for like an hour without busting a tournament) and cashed like 50% of the tournaments. I got final 4-5 tables in the 7:00 109 FO, FTP 163, Stars 162, and got deep in 2 satelites on FTP. I got 3rd in a WSOP satelite for 2k when 1st got a package, and got 7th in a satelite where 6 paid and 3 got seats. I forget how terrible people are at satelites but wow  satelites are frustrating sometimes. Made a satelite related rant recently, so I'll spare you guys. I've been sleeping at like 530 and waking up past noon, which doesn't really leave me time to jog or lift in the morning, so I'm gonna try correcting that a little bit today. Heres a hand which happened earlier today, found it pretty funny. Tomorrow is razz and 6max NLHE, both games which I think I have a pretty large edge in, maybe tomorrow will be my day to win one of these things


Full Tilt Poker $21,000 Guarantee (1r+1a) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t40/t80 Blinds - 9 players
The Official 2+2 Hand Converter Powered By DeucesCracked.com

UTG: t15755 M = 131.29
UTG+1: t8826 M = 73.55
UTG+2: t6135 M = 51.12
MP1: t15071 M = 125.59
MP2: t5980 M = 49.83
CO: t6434 M = 53.62
Hero (BTN): t7215 M = 60.12
SB: t1260 M = 10.50
BB: t8230 M = 68.58

Pre Flop: (t120) Hero is BTN with 9 9
3 folds, MP1 raises to t240, 2 folds, Hero calls t240, 2 folds

Flop: (t600) A K A (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks

Turn: (t600) T (2 players)
MP1 checks, Hero checks

River: (t600) 9 (2 players)
MP1 bets t600, Hero raises to t1600, MP1 raises to t5400, Hero requests TIME, Hero Folds

Villain shows QJ and says he knew I had the A all along

Think I spent the most I've ever spent on tourney buyins in a day today(actually 2nd to WCOOP ME last year), cashed for 9k throughout the day and still finished down

I was pretty tilted today, I got deep in 2 tournaments, one the 1575 DSO, the other an $800 satelite to the Monte Carlo PLO event. The PLO sat, there were 3 packages, with 5 left, this hand happened.

PokerStars Game #26729261081: Tournament #151878348, $760+$40 Omaha Pot Limit - Level XVII (600/1200) - 2009/04/04 19:07:28 ET
Table '151878348 4' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 2: M.O.P. (32240 in chips)
Seat 4: RandALLin (23821 in chips)
Seat 7: Norm427 (29777 in chips)
Seat 8: oerockets (47108 in chips)
Seat 9: Tîmex (31054 in chips)
M.O.P.: posts small blind 600
RandALLin: posts big blind 1200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Tîmex [Ad 7s 4s Ah]
Norm427: raises 1700 to 2900
oerockets: folds
Tîmex: raises 7600 to 10500
M.O.P.: folds
RandALLin: folds
Norm427: raises 19277 to 29777 and is all-in
Tîmex: calls 19277
*** FLOP *** [Qh 4d 6c]
*** TURN *** [Qh 4d 6c] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [Qh 4d 6c 8c] [Qc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Norm427: shows [Kc As 7c Kd] (a flush, King high)
Tîmex: shows [Ad 7s 4s Ah] (two pair, Aces and Queens)

Basically avg stack is 33k,  and average stack gets in the money 60%. Villain is a little under average, but since stacks aren't evenly distributed a 33k stack gets ITM a little >60% of the time, so he probably gets in 55-60%

Also, if he wins hes not guaranteed to get in, probably gets in well less than 95% of the time, so he probably wants around 65% equity to get it in. His hand is 64% against a range of any 4

But the same type logic can be applied to almost any hand which is why PLO is a retarded satelite game, opening AAJTds is likely a mistake in a large number of situations, often a fairly big mistake I think

Anyways, I lost that, but was still in the 1575 DSO. I ran quite good, got HU with Neon Pills with a 4-1 chiplead, lost a flip, lost some pots, ran AJ into AA and was a 4-1 dog in chips. I then cardracked my way to winning. We were the last table, so I didn't get a break between that and the final table.

The final table had a lot of good players, but a lot of them were playing pretty terribly. I was carddead and my VPIP was 0 until  the 45th hand. I played my 2nd hand on #61, and ran QQ into AA to get down to 12k.
I then trippled up with AK in a hand where I'm pretty sure both sixthsense19 and PeterEastgate misplayed. Meh there are hands Peter could have had such that I think he played it correctly, but the vast majority of them aren't good.

I then opened A3s 35BB deep in the HJ, BB called with ATs and since hes an expert, I only lost 1/2 my stack on the AA6 flop

Then I shoved the  CO 15BB deep and ran A6 into JJ

I made a video of the FT, but I don't think anyone wants to see it since I didn't do anything. I could comment on how badly other people at the table spew, but I'll pass on it.

Also, while I'm ranting, whats up with the comments on my videos. I'm likely not as good at poker as I think, and probably not as good at making videos as I think, but a few of my friends who have watched them and I are convinced that they just get low ratings because I'm me. Not saying people hate on me, just saying that people expect something more since I run better than most other people who make MTT videos and if I put a different name on the video it would get better ratings. MTTs are pretty simple, and the vast majority of the time you see someone who did something that you think looks really good and you want to add it to your game, its probably a mistake.

Some of the reasons I've had low ratings:

1) I got a low rating because someone didn't read the name of the video or the description of the video(both which implied the tournament doesn't end this video) and deducted points because the tournament didn't end
2) Lower rating because I cardrack too much
3) Much lower rating because I didn't shove a close spot where I discussed the merits to shoving and admitted it was a close spot, and the person who commented on it mistook stack sizes by >30%
4) Play less tables in your videos
5) Play more tables in your videos

I guess I shouldn't expect everyone to like them, and they likely aren't as good as I think, but this is kind of ridiculous. Although the money from cardrunners is nice, the main reason I make videos is to get feedback and hopefully improve my play. its quite a bit to ask, but I definitely wouldn't mind if people wrote more detailed comments on my videos, and wouldn't mind seeing comments even if you don't want to leave a rating. Even if its "your video is bad for the following reasons" thats fine, I just place too much weight on how my videos do and hate to see my videos being lower-rated than the April fools joke video and virtually no constructive criticism for me to improve from. I care a lot more about the comments than the ratings, but since the comments are virtually nonexistent, I end up caring about the ratings.