Sometimes it's bad luck, but sometimes you're just playing terrible, let me show you 2 examples, my last hands in the Party and Stars $150 today.
This is bad luck:
Party $150+12:
With blinds 150-300, somebody miniraised to 600 in MP and a 11k stack, SB called and I decided to call with JT and a 3k stack. Flop came T73, SB checked, I thought about pushing here, but by checking I may win some more chips from the original raiser, so I checked, he didn't disappoint and bet 1800, which I didn't like since now he had to call my all in, SB folded, I went all in for 2600 or so, he called with 75c and I lost the 80% when a 7 came in the turn.
This is bad (terrible) play:
Stars $150+12
I was in the SB with A9 and a 2365 stack with 75-150 blinds. BT raised to 600 with a 3400 stack, I was going to push, but the raise to 4x made me think that he kind of liked his hand, so I decided to go for the stop and go, this is to call and then push in the flop, I called and the BB called. Flop came Q98, BT bet 750, I pushed, BB called with 98 and raiser called with QQ and I was out. Looks like my plan and play was ok, and it was just unfortunate they had a hand but here is the problem. Guy in the BT, was not BT, he was in the SB !!!, I wasn't in the SB, I was in the BB !! and guy in the BB wasn't in the BB, he was a limper UTG !!!
So, preflop, the original raiser was in the SB, so my plan does not make any sense, since the guy is raising without position versus a limper UTG and my A9 belongs to the muck. It was a terrible mistake because I didn't pay attention. But then in the flop, he bet first, obviously now I know he's not in the button since he's first to act, I realized my mistake, but still, despite the terrible flop for my hand, the action preflop and with still one person to act I decided to push; this play is gonna work once in a while when UTG has 77 and SB AK, but I think the play is bad in general. So I just played terrible this hand, I made 2 inexcusable mistakes.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
Reno WPT
Here we go again, I'll be at table 44 seat 5.
If you're in Reno feel free to introduce yourself and say hi.Buy in is $5000+$100, blinds start at 25-50 with 80 minutes levels. First day will be 7 levels.
If you're in Reno feel free to introduce yourself and say hi.Buy in is $5000+$100, blinds start at 25-50 with 80 minutes levels. First day will be 7 levels.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
ITM: Good, Average finish: Excellent, but where is the money??
Well, this past week I played 15 tournaments, just 15 !!!
Tournaments played Monday 13 - Sunday 19
Monday:
PS $150+12 / 22 out of 566 / Won $509.40
PP $150+12 / 120 out of 1062 / Won $159.30
Para $30 / Rebuys 37 out of 873 / Won $255.25 (I spent $90)
Tuesday:
PS $150+12 250 out of 556
PP $150+12 679 out of 1004
Para $30 Rebuys 18 out of 943 Won $522.09 (I spent $180)
Thursday:
PS $150+12 68 out of 461
Para $30 Rebuys 27 out of 894 Won $364.39 (I spent $90)
Saturday:
PS $300+20 / 9 out of 215 / Won $1106.70
PP $300+20 / 36 out of 219
Sunday:
PS $200+15 / 5123 out of 5427
PP $200+15 / 141 out of 2620 / Won $335.36
Para $200 / 225 out of 769
UB $500+30 / 196 out of 220
Bodog $100+9 / 250 out of 773
First, the good news, I finished in the money (ITM) in 7 of them, this is a 47% ITM and my average finish was a whopping 28/100. To give you an idea of these numbers, based on data from the excellent site thepokerdb excellent players in the long run have ITM numbers of 15-20% and 40/100 average finish. My own numbers in the long run should be around 17% ITM and 38/100 (Not my numbers in thepokerdb site, since they track only PokerStars tournaments) .
The bad news is that even the numbers above are nice, they are not really that important, the statistic that really matters is ROI; basically how much money are you making per tournament. This last week I spent $3079 in tournaments and I won $3342.49; so, for the week I won $263.49 for a very disappointing $17.57 per tournament.
Of course this is a small sample, but my numbers for the year have been pretty similar. Barring the luck factor, these number help you to analyze which parts of your tourney stages play may need a tune up.
Tournaments played Monday 13 - Sunday 19
Monday:
PS $150+12 / 22 out of 566 / Won $509.40
PP $150+12 / 120 out of 1062 / Won $159.30
Para $30 / Rebuys 37 out of 873 / Won $255.25 (I spent $90)
Tuesday:
PS $150+12 250 out of 556
PP $150+12 679 out of 1004
Para $30 Rebuys 18 out of 943 Won $522.09 (I spent $180)
Thursday:
PS $150+12 68 out of 461
Para $30 Rebuys 27 out of 894 Won $364.39 (I spent $90)
Saturday:
PS $300+20 / 9 out of 215 / Won $1106.70
PP $300+20 / 36 out of 219
Sunday:
PS $200+15 / 5123 out of 5427
PP $200+15 / 141 out of 2620 / Won $335.36
Para $200 / 225 out of 769
UB $500+30 / 196 out of 220
Bodog $100+9 / 250 out of 773
First, the good news, I finished in the money (ITM) in 7 of them, this is a 47% ITM and my average finish was a whopping 28/100. To give you an idea of these numbers, based on data from the excellent site thepokerdb excellent players in the long run have ITM numbers of 15-20% and 40/100 average finish. My own numbers in the long run should be around 17% ITM and 38/100 (Not my numbers in thepokerdb site, since they track only PokerStars tournaments) .
The bad news is that even the numbers above are nice, they are not really that important, the statistic that really matters is ROI; basically how much money are you making per tournament. This last week I spent $3079 in tournaments and I won $3342.49; so, for the week I won $263.49 for a very disappointing $17.57 per tournament.
Of course this is a small sample, but my numbers for the year have been pretty similar. Barring the luck factor, these number help you to analyze which parts of your tourney stages play may need a tune up.
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Mejor ni escribir
Estos dias no he escrito porque no hay nada bueno que contar, solo bad beats y mas bad beats. Jugue 6 torneos entre lunes y Martes, en 4 de ellos llegue al dinero, pero a pesar de esto quede muy desilusionado. El miercoles me puse a jugar cash games para variar, jugue 15-30, 20-40 y 30-60 y pues no vario nada, la racha infinita sigue. Nada bueno que contar, me va a venir dando una ulcera de tantos corajes, jejejeje. Bueno, espero contar cosas mejores los proximos dias. Si no se puede de poker, pues les contare de los pinguinos en Kenia o del alto nivel de estres de los marineros bolivianos. Algo se me ocurrira.
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Tournament Sunday
The lineup for today is:
All times are MST
12:00 Bodog $100+9
14:30 PokerStars $200+15
14:30 PartyPoker $200+15
15:00 Paradise $200
16:00 FullTilt $200+16
Other tournaments I may play
12:00 PokerRoom $300+20
13:00 UB $500+30
19:00 UB $200+15
17:30 PS $100+9 Rebuys
20:00 PP $150+12
I have like 20 mins to decide if I want to play the PR tourney. I'd like to play the UB tourneys, but the site is a mess these days, so they're a long shot; the $100R at Stars is a good tourney, but I want to study something I read from Gambling Theory about rebuys, so the chances of playing this are 50-50. The Party $150+12 looks like a good tourney, if I'm not on tilt by then, chances are 80-20 I'll be playing it.
Updates coming !!
1:00PM I decided to play the UB $500 and skip the PR $300. I'm still alive in the Bodog one, I made a good fold in the river with T9h and a KT9 flop, the guy showed me QJ after my fold.
1:30PM Double up in UB, some raiser in UTG+2, I called with AQs in UTG+3, flop came AA8, he made a continuation bet of 200, I just called, J in the turn, he bet like 380, I called again, Q on the river and he bet 1100 and have another 900 left, I put him all in and he called with KT. You never know if you really want to hit the river :)
2:10PM Lost half my stack in UB. 20-40 blinds, UTG raises to 80, EP raises to 300, LP calls, I have JJ in the button and decided to find out where is everybody and raise to 1000, UTG folds, EP folds, but LP decided to go all in for 1100 more, I know he does not have AA-QQ, his most possible holding is AK and of course I called. He had indeed AK, and I lost the race.
2:30PM Out from Bodog, I open raise in the CO with KT, button called, flop came K73 and that was it, he had KJ. Almost out from UB also, I lost another chunk with AQ on a Q23 flop versus another guy AA. I call this, "the bad luck of the marginal holdings".
2:40PM Double up early in the Stars 1 Million, after some limpers, I called with K4s, like 5 people to see the flop. Flop came KhJh3s , checked to me, I bet 100, button and BB called. 2s in the turn, I bet now 320 and button called. River was the 7s and I have the 2nd nut flush, I bet 1000 and he went all in !!!, I called and he had KJ. He played that hand pretty bad.
2:50PM Out from UB, went all in with TT versus AK and I lost yet another flip. I think sometimes the difference between being a good player and a great player it's just your "ability" to win coinflips.
3:30PM Out from Stars, Blinds 50-100, I raised in the CO to 300 with JTh, button called, he has been pretty active, playing a lot of pots. Flop came KsJc2c , I ckecked, I knew he was betting, he bet 500 and I went all in for 2700 more. He tought for a while and finally called with AJ !!! . Nice call I guess, the kind of play you don't know if the guy is a genius or a lucky guesser.
3:30 PM Exactly at the same time I went out in Stars, in Paradise I raised t0 120 with 66 in the button, guy in the SB reraised to 300 and he had like 700 more, I called. Flop came AK6, nice, but he checked, mmmm, I was worried he had QQ-TT and folded if I bet here, so I checked behind, 9 on the turn and he went all in and I called, no problem, he had 99, arghhhh.
4:00 PM Not playing the FullTilt, still in the Paradise and Party ones, I have a good stack in Party with 24k.
4:40 PM Down to 2k in Paradise after losing another flip AQ-99. Up to 32k in Party.
5:00 PM Out from Paradise, and yes, you guessed it, I lost yet another coin flip, this time I reraised preflop with AK, was called by 55 and that was it. The only tournament I've had more than one all in preflop today was the bodog one, I think I won there a flip A9 versus 88. Down in Party to 25k but still in good shape.
6:10 PM Out from Party, I made the money, but this variance is just brutal. I went out AI preflop QQ-JJ. It's been like 3 months now, looks like every Sunday I'm just reporting bad beats in my blog. Oh well, this is the business we have chosen.
All times are MST
12:00 Bodog $100+9
14:30 PokerStars $200+15
14:30 PartyPoker $200+15
15:00 Paradise $200
16:00 FullTilt $200+16
Other tournaments I may play
12:00 PokerRoom $300+20
13:00 UB $500+30
19:00 UB $200+15
17:30 PS $100+9 Rebuys
20:00 PP $150+12
I have like 20 mins to decide if I want to play the PR tourney. I'd like to play the UB tourneys, but the site is a mess these days, so they're a long shot; the $100R at Stars is a good tourney, but I want to study something I read from Gambling Theory about rebuys, so the chances of playing this are 50-50. The Party $150+12 looks like a good tourney, if I'm not on tilt by then, chances are 80-20 I'll be playing it.
Updates coming !!
1:00PM I decided to play the UB $500 and skip the PR $300. I'm still alive in the Bodog one, I made a good fold in the river with T9h and a KT9 flop, the guy showed me QJ after my fold.
1:30PM Double up in UB, some raiser in UTG+2, I called with AQs in UTG+3, flop came AA8, he made a continuation bet of 200, I just called, J in the turn, he bet like 380, I called again, Q on the river and he bet 1100 and have another 900 left, I put him all in and he called with KT. You never know if you really want to hit the river :)
2:10PM Lost half my stack in UB. 20-40 blinds, UTG raises to 80, EP raises to 300, LP calls, I have JJ in the button and decided to find out where is everybody and raise to 1000, UTG folds, EP folds, but LP decided to go all in for 1100 more, I know he does not have AA-QQ, his most possible holding is AK and of course I called. He had indeed AK, and I lost the race.
2:30PM Out from Bodog, I open raise in the CO with KT, button called, flop came K73 and that was it, he had KJ. Almost out from UB also, I lost another chunk with AQ on a Q23 flop versus another guy AA. I call this, "the bad luck of the marginal holdings".
2:40PM Double up early in the Stars 1 Million, after some limpers, I called with K4s, like 5 people to see the flop. Flop came KhJh3s , checked to me, I bet 100, button and BB called. 2s in the turn, I bet now 320 and button called. River was the 7s and I have the 2nd nut flush, I bet 1000 and he went all in !!!, I called and he had KJ. He played that hand pretty bad.
2:50PM Out from UB, went all in with TT versus AK and I lost yet another flip. I think sometimes the difference between being a good player and a great player it's just your "ability" to win coinflips.
3:30PM Out from Stars, Blinds 50-100, I raised in the CO to 300 with JTh, button called, he has been pretty active, playing a lot of pots. Flop came KsJc2c , I ckecked, I knew he was betting, he bet 500 and I went all in for 2700 more. He tought for a while and finally called with AJ !!! . Nice call I guess, the kind of play you don't know if the guy is a genius or a lucky guesser.
3:30 PM Exactly at the same time I went out in Stars, in Paradise I raised t0 120 with 66 in the button, guy in the SB reraised to 300 and he had like 700 more, I called. Flop came AK6, nice, but he checked, mmmm, I was worried he had QQ-TT and folded if I bet here, so I checked behind, 9 on the turn and he went all in and I called, no problem, he had 99, arghhhh.
4:00 PM Not playing the FullTilt, still in the Paradise and Party ones, I have a good stack in Party with 24k.
4:40 PM Down to 2k in Paradise after losing another flip AQ-99. Up to 32k in Party.
5:00 PM Out from Paradise, and yes, you guessed it, I lost yet another coin flip, this time I reraised preflop with AK, was called by 55 and that was it. The only tournament I've had more than one all in preflop today was the bodog one, I think I won there a flip A9 versus 88. Down in Party to 25k but still in good shape.
6:10 PM Out from Party, I made the money, but this variance is just brutal. I went out AI preflop QQ-JJ. It's been like 3 months now, looks like every Sunday I'm just reporting bad beats in my blog. Oh well, this is the business we have chosen.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Happy Birthday Niels Derek !!!!!
Ahora es el primer cumpleaños de Niels Derek en este planeta, ya empezo a caminar, tiene muy buen apetito y a pesar de su corta edad se puede notar facilmente su caracter fuerte. Su presencia se nota a todas horas del dia. Su hermano David Iran, solo 2 años mayor, ha tenido que aprender a lidiar con esta fuerza de la naturaleza. Sus padres lo adoran incondicionalmente, aunque seguramente apreciarian menos llantos durante la noche y una actitud menos desafiante. La vida comienza, has pasado un muy buen primer año y te esperan grandes cosas por delante .....
Not working enough
It's a fact, I'm lazy; that's one of my problems. Let's analyze the hours I worked during my 3 week traveling adventure;
Cash games:
# hours in 21 days, grand total of 0
Tournaments:
# days out of the 21 I played at least one tourney: 4
# tournaments I played per site while traveling:
Party - 7
Stars - 6
Paradise - 4
Bodog - 1
PokerRoom - 1
UB - 0
FullTilt - 0
These following 3 weeks, I'm going to catch up, before traveling again to Reno.
Cash games:
# hours in 21 days, grand total of 0
Tournaments:
# days out of the 21 I played at least one tourney: 4
# tournaments I played per site while traveling:
Party - 7
Stars - 6
Paradise - 4
Bodog - 1
PokerRoom - 1
UB - 0
FullTilt - 0
These following 3 weeks, I'm going to catch up, before traveling again to Reno.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Back home !! Hogar, dulce hogar !!!
Por fin estamos en El Paso otra vez, despues de andar de viaje mas de 3 semanas. Viajamos El Paso-Los Angeles-Las Vegas-Anaheim-Ventura-San Jose (San Frascisco area)-Manteca-Three Rivers-Blythe-El Paso. Menciono los lugares donde estuvimos al menos una noche. Fui con toda la familia, es un poco dificil viajar en automovil con 2 bebes, sobre todo un viaje tan largo, pero en terminos generales los bebes se portaron muy bien y "sobrevivimos" el viaje. Mi hermana y mi sobrina nos acompañaron en la primera parte del viaje, hasta antes de Ventura. El viaje lo hicimos preferentemente para jugar 3 torneos, el WPT LAPC en el Commerce Casino, el WPT Invitational en el Commerce Casino y el WPT Shooting Stars. La razon por la cual fuimos a Las Vegas fue para pagar el WPT Championship $25,00+500 que se llevara a cabo el proximo Abril, no que necesitaramos ir hasta el Bellagio para hacer eso, pero pues a Diana y a mi nos encanta ir a Las Vegas. Los torneos de poker pasaron sin pena ni gloria, el highlight fue el bounty que gane en Bay 101 por eliminar a Mike Matusow; sin embargo pese a estos $5000 que gane, el viaje termino en numeros rojos, pues gaste $20000 en los torneos. Voy a escribir sobre los detalles mas importantes del viaje, conforme me vaya acordando; debi de haber hecho mas updates en el blog, pero pues mis "organization skills" no son precisamente los mejores. Ahorito solo puedo decir que estoy muy contento de estar otra vez en casa, los niños estan muy bien y Diana y yo ya tambien queriamos regresar. Viajar nos encanta, pero es algo cansado, especialmente cuando manejas largos trayectos. Ademas ya es tiempo de ponerme al dia con mi trabajo en Internet, en todo este tiempo casi no he jugado nada en internet y necesito poner horas, a trabajar ...........
Saturday, March 04, 2006
One hand in the offense: Bay 101
Variance has too many ways to show up, having too many second best hands and rarely being paid off when you have the best hand is just one way to do it. My WPT events have had a lot of this, seems like I'm always playing on the defensive side, I can't remember the last time I made a set, straight or flush in a WPT; less alone being paid off.
In the WPT Bay 101; the only hand I made and I was paid off was the following one:
Blinds 150-300 and 50 ante; I'm in the BB with AJ and a 21k stack; Edward Moncada with a 60k stack raises to 900 and I call. Edward and I have some history, we played together for 2 days in the WSOP $2k Pot Limit Holdem 2005; we both made the Final Table, I got 3rd and he won the tournament. I respect his game a lot; he's a very good player.
The flop came J35, and I decided to go for the check-raise; maybe this was a mistake because Edward has a good mix of doing continuation bets, this time he checked.
The card in the turn was a good one, an A, and now I lead the 2400 pot with a 2000 bet, he called fairly quick.
The river card was a 7, that does not scare me much, I was almost positive he had an A; so I decided to make a good value bet; the maximum he was willing to call, so I bet 5000, he called and I won with my 2 pairs; he showed AQ.
For me the best play I made in this hand was the last 5k bet, I think for a player like Edward it's pretty hard to get maximum value for your hand; and with the 2k bet in the turn and the 5k bet in the river I think I did it. A case can be made about a check raise in the turn or river, but he's folding for sure and I don't get maximum value.
In the WPT Bay 101; the only hand I made and I was paid off was the following one:
Blinds 150-300 and 50 ante; I'm in the BB with AJ and a 21k stack; Edward Moncada with a 60k stack raises to 900 and I call. Edward and I have some history, we played together for 2 days in the WSOP $2k Pot Limit Holdem 2005; we both made the Final Table, I got 3rd and he won the tournament. I respect his game a lot; he's a very good player.
The flop came J35, and I decided to go for the check-raise; maybe this was a mistake because Edward has a good mix of doing continuation bets, this time he checked.
The card in the turn was a good one, an A, and now I lead the 2400 pot with a 2000 bet, he called fairly quick.
The river card was a 7, that does not scare me much, I was almost positive he had an A; so I decided to make a good value bet; the maximum he was willing to call, so I bet 5000, he called and I won with my 2 pairs; he showed AQ.
For me the best play I made in this hand was the last 5k bet, I think for a player like Edward it's pretty hard to get maximum value for your hand; and with the 2k bet in the turn and the 5k bet in the river I think I did it. A case can be made about a check raise in the turn or river, but he's folding for sure and I don't get maximum value.
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