After months of playing I have finally won my first MTT. For those not with da lingo, that’s a Multi-Table Tournament.  It was a 90-man SNG, starting with 10 tables of 9 players. As players get eliminated the number of tables in play decrease and, sometimes, you have to move table to balance the numbers.

I’ve been playing a few of these lately. Not big money, as you know, merely a 25c buy-in.  The total prize fund is $22.50 (90 x 25c) with first place winning $6.23 which is a ROI of nearly 2,500%.  There have been a couple of money finishes in the last week or so, with fourth my previous best.

It started badly with about 400 of my chips in a 3-way pot. I had AJ off-suit and had gotten top pair on the flop. However, the turn brought the possibility of a flush.  A pot-sized bet was put in by one of the other players.  This would have committed 75% of my chips in there. The bet size suggested to me that this player had a flush, so after a period of consideration, I folded. The other player called. And, would you believe it, neither had a flush. Pocket 4s that missed the set and a pair of tens. I’d have won that one. People say you shouldn’t be results oriented, and that, under the circumstance, they could have easily folded.

I sat quiet for a few hands. Nicked some blinds and small pots, keeping me in the game. I suppose I built quite a good table image for myself because every time I raised, it got folded down. Even stole the blinds with 27o, the worst possible starting hand, from under the gun (UTG).

The key pot that really put me in contention was this…

I have an average stack, but stuck on a table with the top 3 in chips and find AA UTG. Now, I can steal the blinds with a raise, but I want to get paid on it, so I limp in. Basically putting the absolute minimum in the pot. Folds round to get a 3xBB raise from the villain on the button. I call, leaving just the 2 of us playing.

The flop comes 10d, 5d, Ac giving me a set. The villain checks.  Again, there is the option to close this down quickly. But I want to get the maximum for it, so I also check.  The turn card brings 7s. This is good as it reduces the chance of a flush.  Villain bets 600.  I raise to 1,500 total.  He thinks for a while and puts in a bet that will set me all in. Even if he’s got a flush draw, the odds are that he won’t make it, so I call.  What does he have? An ace and a four, off suit. I have the stone cold nuts, he’s drawing dead, its all good.

From there it was up and down a little, but mainly up. Made a bad call for 1/3 of my stack on the final table for a flush draw on the turn which didn’t materialise. Apart from that it was, in my less than humble opinion, strong aggressive play which allowed me dominate the game. OK, I will admit to being a luckbox on a couple of occasions, but it was balanced out with missed draws.  Final hand, heads-up, saw me with pocket 6s which held up against Q4 hearts.

As you see from previous post, I’ve taken down 1-table tourneys before, but this was my first multi-table win. It feels good. Even more so that I’ve moneyed in 4 out of the last 6 I’ve played. There is definite improvement in my game now. Onwards and upwards from here.

To withdraw money from Tilt you need at least $50 in your account.  As of this morning I had $39.41.  So I needed to win some big bucks and fast.  Going against bankroll management, I decided to play at higher stakes.  I also went against my better judgement and played Rush Poker at 5/10c.  Buying in for 1/4 of my bankroll ($10) I sat down.  Win a couple of small, lose a couple of small.

Here I am with $12.32, in the big blind with Q-10 of clubs.  UTG+1 (second player to act) raises to 35c total.  The button calls.  I think about it for a moment.  This is one of those hands.  Strong, but not so strong.  Its 25c into 80, so I call.  Flop comes…

9-J-8 of clubs

Straight flush.  The absolute, stone cold nuts.  This hand cannot be beaten.  Usually when you get a hand like this, its difficult to get paid out.  So the plan is to play it easy.  I bet two-thirds of the pot to the tune of 65c.  Both my opponents call.  Turn card next…

6 of spades

…not that it makes any difference.  A small taster bet of $1.25 goes in.  Once more, both men call.  River card now…

4 of clubs

Time to shut it down.  I bet the pot.  $6.80.  Fully expecting both to fold at this point, but no.  The next player to re-raises all-in.  To my astonishment, there is a second call.  Now, this is the kind of situation you dream about as a poker player.  An unbeatable hand and people want to put more money in the pot.  Snap call from me.

After Tilt take their cut from the rake, I’ve made $17.63 profit from one hand.  Also, I unlocked the next stage in my deposit bonus offer, giving me an extra $3.  All in all, a pretty good 5 mins of poker.

As a note to Full Tilt.  I have really enjoyed playing on your site and its a shame I won’t be able to do so for a while.  I’m hoping to be up and running on an Intel machine, at least, in time for the next Hendon Mob league.

To be fair, I don’t have a problem with Auto Tune, per se. It produces a unique sound that, if used creatively, like how Daft Punk or Danny Byrd do, it can sound amazing.  Also, if you are just using to tweak the vocals so they are ‘perfect’ for a recording, that’s ok.  When I say tweak, I mean the odd flat note here and there, not the whole song.

It’s when producers use it because the artist simply can not sing.  If you can’t do it live, you have no business in a recording studio.  The whole T-Pain thing felt like a gimmick, much like all that chipmunk shit Kanye came out with.  If you’re going to use it, be creative or be subtle.

Auto Tune is not evil, it’s a tool. In their day, bands like Sabbath and Zepplin were criticised for their distorted guitar sounds. In the 1970s, France tried to ban the synthesizer. At the time, it was because they were different, and people don’t like different.  But it’s nothing more than a tool of the trade. Bands protesting at its use and looking to get it banned are ridiculous.  It reminds me of the early 90s, when the whole anti-sampling campaigns started.  Similarly the, quite frankly, racist ‘disco sucks’ movement in late 70s USA.

Like every fad in popular music, it will run its course.  The cyclic nature of the music industry will return to ‘proper’ live music soon, then back to bubblegum pop or hip-hop/R&B.

So, I sat down at the $0.02/0.05 table, fully loaded. About 3 hands in I limped with A2 suited. No raise so it was a cheap flop with 3 in. Board comes up 22A, giving me a tasty full house. The A would, almost, guarantee me a caller, so I made a pot sized bet of $0.17. I want to get paid on this. The next player folded, but the short stack pushed all in for about $1.50. If he’s got AA, then I’m toast, but that would have raised pre. So I call. AK. Nice. Blank, blank and it’s a nice pay day for me.

Then… a mini disaster, of sorts. Over the course of the next 30 hands I had AA on, no less than, 3 occasions. Big raise pre-flop on all three. Short stacks pushed and I called. On all 3, I got busted. AK made trips by the turn. A2 suited made a flush on the river. Kojack made 2 pairs. It left me wounded, but nowhere near out as luckily they were really short stacks, and I’d picked up a few small pots along the way.

I was able to claw my way back though. A few decent sized pots, a couple of steals with air, and a very nice bottom straight, again from a limp with A2. I had been as high as $9 and knocked back just below $3. I ended my little session up $1.29 from my $5 start.

I think I’m beginning to like this Rush Poker.

The big players in the online game all have places you can learn.  Poker Stars have Intellipoker and Full Tilt have their Academy. Then, of course, you get Black Belt Poker, set up with the sole purpose of helping people get better at their game.

One thing I’ve picked up is that if you’re not doing so well, change your game.  Well, I’ve had a bad run on 2/5c no-limit hold ‘em, losing a few buy-ins.  Some down to sheer bad luck, and some to bad play.  So I’ve decided to play limit for a while.  Instead of being able to spunk off your entire stack you are, as the name suggests, limited to the amount you can bet each round.  This means that you are less likely to ‘go broke’ by pushing all your chips when you have a marginal hand.

So far, so good.  I have not lost money since switching.  In fact, I’ve left the table in profit every time*.  OK, some of the people who play at the levels I do are ‘calling stations’, in that they call and don’t fold.  You can still play tight aggressive in limit, but with less risk of losing.

* Spoke too soon.  Just had a bit of a bad run on a 5/10c table.  After being nicely up, I ended up losing well over $1.50.  Managed to pull it back to my original buy-in though, give or take a few cents. This is the joy of a fixed limit table.  Not so easy to go broke.

*** TURN *** [Qh 3h 5d] [3s]

*** RIVER *** [Qh 3h 5d 3s] [6c]

joksob shows two pair, Sixes and Threes
kant_films shows a pair of Threes
joksob wins the pot ($2.92) with two pair, Sixes and Threes

*** SUMMARY ***

Board: [Qh 3h 5d 3s 6c]
Seat 4: kant_films (big blind) showed [Ks Ac] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 6: joksob showed [9s 6s] and won ($2.92) with two pair, Sixes and Threes

Sick! Truly sick. Getting rivered by a donk.  I can laugh about it now, but at the time.

I enjoyed doing this, being donk’d aside, as it helped me get better at cash games. Originally, I was only going to do the 5 days. I mean $5 for, pretty much, nothing is a good deal any day of the week. But then I got thinking… if I’ve done OK over the 3 days so far I can do all 9. Only problem was that to achieve 5 points from ring games took grinding the tables for around 90 mins each day. To do all 9 would take Rush Poker. Now, I hate Rush. I always seem to get outdrawn everytime I play. But I thought, y’ know you’ve gotta be innit to winnit.

Fast forward to today. Sunday, the last day of Take2 biznizz. I have done it. Successfully. But am I in profit? Just about. A couple of lucky breaks at Rush this morning now means I’m roughly $6 in profit. Was it worth it? I spent $19 to win $6, which in betting terms is pretty crap odds, just under 1-3. I’m glad I did it though. I’m getting to grips with my game a little more, which should, hopefully, stand me in good stead for my BBP belt run.

]]> http://lifeasalowroller.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/take-2-no-wait-take-more/feed/ 0 The Benj http://lifeasalowroller.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/yellow-belt-blues/ http://lifeasalowroller.wordpress.com/2010/04/09/yellow-belt-blues/#comments Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:30:50 +0000 The Benj http://lifeasalowroller.wordpress.com/?p=91 ]]> Last night I did my first Yellow Belt Freeroll at Black Belt Poker. Now, usually I’m doing my Latin/Ballroom tings on a Thursday night but seeing as my dance partner was in Belfast for a conference… I could play.

And boy did I play. For the first time since the ill fated THMF freeroll, I was playing against people I would conisder my peers. Needed my proper game face on. I chose to play in my signature style… passive aggressive. Going from everything I’ve learned to date, the gameplan was;

• Only play when you need to. Looking to be invloved in approx. 20% of hands dealt within reason. I mean, if you get AK every hand, you’re gonna play it, but the principle is sound.
• Don’t limp if you’re the first to act. Raise and raise by the same amount every time. Smart money is on 3 or 4 times big blind, but you all know me. I’m a little different. I like 2.5xBB for my raises.
• Bet if you hit the flop.
• Check a hand down if you feel your hand could be beaten.

I did all of this. And, would you believe, on my first attempt I made the final table. I know, get me. So here I am, the shortest stack at the final table, 2 places off the money. 9 people stand between me and 1st place. First hand and I get AT of clubs in mid-position. Decent hand so I put in my usual raise. I get 1 caller. The flop comes down Q9A. I make a bet of $700. My opponent raises to $2,100… and I push… and get called… with AK! I’m now I need a runner runner for a straight or another 10 to win. 6 of hearts. Now its 10 or nothing… Queen of spades. Bollocks. So close yet so far.

Gutted to be so near, yet so far. It was a great tournament though. It cost nothing to play, and I was against people who actually know how to play. No donks allowed. The best thing about it, however, was the sense of community at the tables. All the chat was matey, not mean spirited as it is at UK based freerolls at FT and Stars. Everyone was spuring each other on to do well. Almost felt bad taking their money. I say almost. After all… this is poker.

1: Renegades of Funk – Rage Against the Machine (original by Afrika Bambaata)

Early 80s electro-funk becomes a 90s rock out.  I have to say that, IMHO, Rage’s version is an improvment over the original.

2: Breathe - Open Door (orignal by Pink Floyd)

Forget the atrocious, appalling Comfortably Numb by the Scissor Sisters.  This is how you cover da ‘Floyd.  They’ve jazzed up and funkified track 2 from Dark Side of the Moon.

3: Way Down in the Hole – The Blind Boys of Alabama (original by Tom Waits)

First known to me as the theme song to season 1 of ‘the greatest TV show of all time’ The Wire.  There is a different version, including Waits’, for each season of the show but this one always stood out.  High concept work from Waits becomes a stripped down blues number.

4: Naima (4Hero version) – 4Hero (Original by John Coltrane)

Strictly speaking, this maybe should fall into the remix category rather than cover.  But the revitalisation of Coltrane’s melancholic 50s number into a swinging beat filled jazztravaganza is inspiring and uplifting.

5: All Along The Watchtower – The Jimi Hendrix Experience (original by Bob Dylan)

Now this is how you do it.  In this day and age, not many people actually know Dylans version because Jimi made it his.  The song is now synonymous with Hendrix.  Everyone knows Dylan wrote it, but the genius that was Hendrix transformed it into the song we all know and love today.

I know its not all bad play because over at Full Tilt* I’ve been succesful in ring games but not tourneys.  Twice now I’ve entered the Daily Dollar and gone out on the first level with AA, busted by one of those pesky all-in every hand bastards with a vastly inferior hand.  Gone out on the bubble countless times.  I can’t seem to win… until now.  For tonight I broke my tourney voodoo hoodoo at FT.  At a $1.00 6-man, single table SNG, I finally won.  OK, its only $3.90 meaning a profit of $2.70 but as is my mantra… a win is a win or all profit is good profit.  I won’t bore you with hand specifics this time**.  And there’s not much to learn about my game from tonights play, apart from the fact you need to be a little more aggressive in FT tournaments compared to Stars.  Time to push on up to MTTs (Multi-Table Tournaments) me thinks.

* I finally got sick of trying to get something for nothing and made a small deposit at FT.  I got so close so many times, but failed to make even a few cents off those freerolls.
** I am planning to do a post entitled ‘Analysis of a Hand for the Layman’, for all you none poker players.

So, here we go, waiting for a challenger.  It took about 4 secs for someone to accept.  Meet Planschi51 from Germany.  Planschi51… meet aggressive Benj.  I was ruthless, in a way thats very unlike me.  Firing out pre-flop raises, flat-calling in the Big Blind and making fair sized bets with hot air, I was in proper control of this one.

The chips are $1,650 to $1,350 in my favour, blinds are only $10/20 and I find pocket 9s in the small blind.  Pre-flop raise to $50.  He calls.  Flop turns out 4h, Ac & 2s.  Action is on him and he bets $20.  The minimum raise.  Now, I’m getting much faster with these thinking processes and I can’t see much to scare me, so I raise to $140.  He calls pretty quickly.  Next card… Ah.  He bets $20.  OK.  This gives me 2 pair, but if he’s got an ace in the hole I’m screwed.  But if I had 3 aces, I’d fire out a much bigger bet than that.  I think he’s got an ace, but not totally convinced.  This time its a flat call.  Next card comes…

9c.  Full house for me.  He bets $120. 

Time to pause for a moment.  If he’s got A with a 2, 4 or 9 I’m done.  Statistically, he won’t have a 9.  Though not impossible, the odds are too great for all 4 to be in play.  So, eliminate that.  That leaves the possibility of A2 or A4.  He could be slow playing a full house, aces high, but judging by his playing style so far I don’t think he has that skill in his arsenal.  Apart from that there are no flush draws, no straight draws, which I’ve got beat anyway.  So that leaves Ax.  If I am beat, I still have 15BB left.  I can claw back from that with a few good hands, but I know I’m ahead.

Unpause.  Its taken about 10secs to think all this through.  I re-raise to the value of his stack $1,120.  He calls quickly.  He has A of diamonds and 7 clubs.  My full house,  9s over A, was more than enough to trump his 3 aces.  Roles reversed I could have folded this quite easily, and put my opponent on a better kicker, maybe AK, AQ or even AJ.  A7 off suit is not so strong, especially with the way I was betting.

Well, I was triumphant winning the $4 prize.  Thats $1.80 profit (after the 20c ‘house charge’ for playing).  Its all good.  Might do another one later.