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Sunday, Sunday
Monday, November 21, 2005 I hadn't done the Sunday online tournament thing in a few weeks, for various reasons. But that didn't stop me from making some runs yesterday. I busted quickly on Stars after trying to run AA through 88 and AK through AQs. What was I thinking? I went on my usual chip-collecting spree on Dise and was among the chip leaders with 20 players left. Then I opened on the button with KK, and got called by a tight player in the SB. He made a big bet on the AQx flop and I just mucked. You know what happens when you lose a hand in a Dise tournament? All-in next chance, baby!! I moved all-in UTG with AA and ran into TT. That's where I went broke, in 17th place. I was fortunate a few times on Party, winning two key coin tosses to put me in real good position. From that good position, I stole stole stole. I stole this one guy's blind a few times and he typed in "one more time, bud." He then proceeded to fold the next three times I went after his blind. Finally I was one of the chip leaders with 36 players left (more than 3000 started). But then it all went to hell. I reraised a guy who had been playing lots of hands with AQ. He moved in and I was completely pot-stuck so I called. He had AK, it held up, and I was down to a slightly-below average stack of eight big blinds. The next hand I got 77, moved in, and ran into 99. Now I was down to one big blind. I folded one hand, then tripled up with AQs (I made a straight). I moved in the next hand with K4s, ran into JJ, spiked a king, and got back to 7 big blinds or so. I got it to ten blinds, but then one of my steals went really bad and soon I was down to four blinds again. I moved in on the button with A2, got called by KQ, and lost the flip. And that was that. I finished 32nd or something. So I made about $2,000 playing the tournaments, and I guess that's good. But I had a real shot to win both Dise and Party, and didn't even get to either final table, so that's annoying. Also on the plus side, however, I won my weekly football pool for the first time this season! Now, I'm no expert. If I'd been flipping a coin all season, my expected point total up to this point would be 115.5. I have 107 points. As I said, I'm no expert. But I won this week, and part of what happens when you win a weekly football pool is that you get to pretend you know what you're talking about for a week. So here goes. I won in large part because a ton of people had the Jags (-4) or the Panthers (-3) in their top three picks. I thought the Jags were a good pick, so I can't criticize that one. But the Panthers, giving three points on the road to a 6-3 Bears team? No 6-3 team should get points at home in the NFL, unless they're playing the Colts or something. The Panthers are not the Colts. Maybe people got confused by the Panthers' performance against the Jets last week. Games against the Jets shouldn't count. Bear that in mind the rest of this football season. One last note. People seemed to really enjoy the quiz I posted recently, so I'll try to do things like that more often. In my opinion, a lot hands from these Sunday tournaments aren't all that interesting to post because the blinds get so big so fast. But here's a good quiz hand from yesterday. Blinds are 500-1000. I'm the big blind. I have T34,947 in my stack before posting. Folded to the button, who has T25,356 in his stack. The button makes it T2,000. Small blind folds. I call. Flop T83 rainbow. I check. Button bets T2,500. I make it T5,500. Button calls. Turn ace. Board is a badugi (complete rainbow). I bet T7,000 into the T15,500 pot. Button has T17,856 in front of him. What's my range here? What should my opponent call with? What should he raise with? Send responses to jacksup@mattmatros.com. And if I don't post again before then, everyone have a Happy Thanksgiving. Quiz Responses, Hands, Revealed Thursday, November 17, 2005 I received 22 responses to my quiz of hands from the $5,000 NLHE World Poker Finals event (posted earlier this week). Thanks everyone for taking the time to read the journal and respond! I tallied each response to each question. Below, I'll reveal the responses and what I actually held. But first I'll try to come up with my own answers to the questions, trying as hard as I can not to be influenced by the results. I'll also recognize what I think were some of the best answers. And by the way, I'm not claiming to know exactly what my range SHOULD be in each instance, but I do have a pretty good idea of what my range actually is. OK, here we go. Q: Blinds T25-T50. Four limpers and I limp in the small blind. Flop comes Q52 with two hearts. Checked to the button who bets T300. I make it T600. All fold to button, who calls. We each have about T4000 left. The turn is the nine of hearts. I bet T800. What do I have? What should the button play on with? My answer: I could've limped with anything preflop. I don't read the button's bet as any particular sign of strength, as I expect the button to bet when checked to here more often than not. I have four other people behind me, however, so I don't just have a random hand. But I don't have to have much. The raise size doesn't tell me much either. With so many people to act, I'm not going to want to expose too many chips if I run into a set. The minimum raise is a plenty good show of strength, and if the button decides he's priced in, I can always deal with that on the later streets. I hit a scare card on the turn, which means I'm pretty much obliged to bet. The bet (at just over half the pot) is slightly smaller than it might normally be, but I wouldn't read anything into that either, as I might just be trying to see how small a bet I can get away with. I give myself anything from one pair (any pair, all the way down to deuces) with or without a heart, to a set or flush here. I really have a pretty wide range. The button should play on with any queen, and possibly even middle pairs higher than fives (although those feel like the borderline hands to me). Your answers: This is the one you guys missed by the widest mark. 17 of you gave me credit for a pretty strong hand here--two pair or better. And almost all of those 17 respondents thought I was most likely to have a set or a flush. Come on guys, I don't get dealt hands like that. :) Only three people gave what I considered to be a good answer. Here's the best one, from a guy who calls himself slart: "With four limpers to you, you're surely limping from SB with any two cards. Depending on your impression of the button player, you could be check-raising his bet there with anything from almost any two to, say, any queen, any pocket pair down to sixes, any two pair, and possibly any two hearts or fives/deuces. I would expect you to most often lead out with the stronger part of that range, so I would lean a little weaker. Your half-pot lead on the heart turn seems similarly vague and nearly obligatory after your check-raise. I would say the button should continue with pairs down to eights or nines, or the ace of hearts, or obviously anything better." That's pretty much what I was looking for. What I actually had: 8c5c. My opponent said "I know you have a set," before he mucked. Q: Blinds T50-T100. Early position limper, and the next seat raises to T300. Fold to me in the big blind. I call, limper calls. Flop 996 with two diamonds. Checked around. Turn is the three of diamonds. I bet T600. Limper folds, preflop raiser calls. River is a six. I bet T1,100. What do I have? What is the minimum hand my opponent should call with? My answer: The small raise after a limper prices me into the pot with lots of hands--any pair, connectors, big cards, etc. After the flop gets checked around, I'm liable to take a stab at the pot with anything. And when the raiser just calls the turn, I think his most likely hand is the naked ace of diamonds. So on the river, I could be bluffing or value betting, as I really don't know if he's the kind of player who will call with just an ace. Depending on what I have, I may or may not want him to call with an ace. :) But since there's a pretty good chance I'm bluffing, and since he's getting 3-1 on his money, I think he should call with any ace-high. Your answers: You did a little better on this one, although quite a few of you correctly said that I could just have an ace, but then recommended that my opponent fold an overpair. I didn't really understand that. But 14 of you said there were lots of hands I could have here. Good job. 7 of you, however, still had me pretty squarely on a full house or a flush. Remember guys, I bluff. The best answer here came from a Joey Romano, "This hand is weird. I can't tell if you are value betting hoping that ace high calls or trying to make ace high fold. It's hard to imagine that your opponent has much of a hand here so I will say that you have a busted draw of some sort and our opponent should call with any reasonable hand." That's basically right. What I actually had: 22. I was ready to say, "I play the board." But then my opponent mucked. Q: Same blinds. I open for T225 in early position. A tight player calls, as does a loose player in the small blind. Flop comes QQ8 with two clubs. I bet T450. Tight player calls, loose folds. Turn is an offsuit jack. Check, check. River is a blank. I bet T850. What do I have? What is the minimum hand my opponent should call with? My answer: I'm raising from EP, so my range is tight. My bet on the flop eliminates maybe the bottom third of my opening hands. The check on the turn doesn't say very much, as I'll be check-raising my strong hands there quite often, but check-folding my weakest ones. So we're down to the bet on the river. I could be trying to get my tight opponent to muck 99-TT, or even to muck an ace-high flush draw. Or I could be value betting an overpair or a queen. It feels to me like my opponent should call with a pair of jacks or better. Maybe even tens or nines. Your answers: You guys did well on this one, although you were still a bit too quick to give me credit for a hand. Four of you had me pretty squarely on a bluff. That's not a good read. Based solely on the fact that I raised from EP, you should know that I have big pairs in my range. But five of you got this pretty much exactly right, saying that I was most likely to have either an overpair or ace-high. I liked Michael O'Brien's answer, "I think you could reasonably have AA/KK/TT/99, JJ, AJ, or AK." Yup. What I actually had: KK. My opponent called the bet on the river with KcJc. I got a little lucky here, in that he had one of the few worse hands he would call me with. Q: Blinds T100-T200, T25 ante. Loose/tricky (LT) player limps in early position. I make it T900. Good player two to my left calls. LT calls. Flop comes 842 rainbow. LT checks, I bet T1,700. Good folds, LT check-raises to T4,600. I reraise all-in for T2,500 more. What do I have? What is the minimum hand my opponent should call with? My answer: This one was a gimme, and I think I posted it just so I could have a tricky way to tell my bad beat story. When I put in an additional 7,100 chips knowing my opponent is not going to fold, I pretty much have to have an overpair or better on that board. My opponent should call with anything at this point. I mean, if he found himself holding 93o, he should muck, but assuming his flop play was reasonable, he should call with whatever he has getting 6-1 on his money. I guess he could fold 33,55-77, since he's only got two outs. Your answers: Everybody got my hand right. Strangely, though, some people messed up the other half before I gave the pot odds hint. No way can he fold any hand with a four, eight, or deuce in it. No way can he fold a straight draw, or even two overcards. The pot is just too big. No winner for this question, everybody's answer was good. What I actually had: TT. My opponent called with Ac4c and spiked an ace on the river to bust me. Thanks for playing, everybody! Frustrating Day at Foxwoods Tuesday, November 15, 2005 I won almost every hand I was involved in for the first level and a half and got my stack up to T28,000. Along the way, I'd lost a coin flip for T9,000 pot (88 v AQ, AQx on the flop). Then I lost a coin flip for a T15,000 pot (AQ v 33, board 3KJAQ). Down to T17,000. Some steals go bad, I get down to T13,000 in the last level, and lose one last coin flip (TT v AKs, ace on the flop) to go bust. I did everything I could out there--it just wasn't meant to be today. I'll hold off on quiz answers until I get some more responses. A couple of hints: 1) For some of the questions, there are lots of different hands I could have, and it's OK to say so in your response. 2) When deciding what hands my opponent should call with, remember to consider the pot odds. 3) I won three of the four hands, one by showdown, and two with no showdown. Keep the responses coming. Ready for Tomorrow Monday, November 14, 2005 I've been a slacker once again with the blog updates. Sorry folks, lots of stuff going on. But I'll try to update everything now. First, let me give you a few hands from the $5,000 No Limit Hold 'Em event. And for fun, let's do it in the form of a quiz. Blinds T25-T50. Four limpers and I limp in the small blind. Flop comes Q52 with two hearts. Checked to the button who bets T300. I make it T600. All fold to button, who calls. We each have about T4000 left. The turn is the nine of hearts. I bet T800. What do I have? What should the button play on with? Blinds T50-T100. Early position limper, and the next seat raises to T300. Fold to me in the big blind. I call, limper calls. Flop 996 with two diamonds. Checked around. Turn is the three of diamonds. I bet T600. Limper folds, preflop raiser calls. River is a six. I bet T1,100. What do I have? What is the minimum hand my opponent should call with? Same blinds. I open for T225 in early position. A tight player calls, as does a loose player in the small blind. Flop comes QQ8 with two clubs. I bet T450. Tight player calls, loose folds. Turn is an offsuit jack. Check, check. River is a blank. I bet T850. What do I have? What is the minimum hand my opponent should call with? Blinds T100-T200, T25 ante. Loose/tricky (LT) player limps in early position. I make it T900. Good player two to my left calls. LT calls. Flop comes 842 rainbow. LT checks, I bet T1,700. Good folds, LT check-raises to T4,600. I reraise all-in for T2,500 more. What do I have? What is the minimum hand my opponent should call with? Hope everyone enjoys that. Email answers to jacksup@mattmatros.com. Hands will be revealed soon. I played an Act Three last night and finished 24th. They gave away 21 seats. Bah. I hate the endgame of those things. I moved in with 76s, and if my two opponent had mucked I would've been virtually assured of a seat. Unfortunately, a big stack decided to call with AQo (for some unknown reason), and I didn't improve. I didn't play the online stuff today. Instead I watched football and soccer and hung out with a bunch of poker buddies on our collective off-day. It was fun. I start the $10,000 buy-in main event tomorrow. I look forward to this event all year--as it's the premiere tournament at what I consider my home casino, and it gets a spectacular field to boot. It's one long poker game and you never know what's going to happen, but I feel really good about my chances to make a run at this thing. Wish me luck. Again, an apology Thursday, November 10, 2005 Sorry once more, that I have not been updating this frequently enough. Here's the short version. I promise a longer post soon. 1. Didn't play the online stuff on Sunday, personal reasons. 2. Played an Act Three Monday night. Opened in cutoff for T1,300 with QTs. Small blind moved me in. I call T3,250 more getting a little over 2-1. He says, "Good call." I say, "I don't think so." He has QJo and I'm out. 3. Played the $2,000 No Limit Hold 'Em at World Poker Finals yesterday. Loose limp, I limp with KJs, next guy limps (all for T50), loose-v aggressive on the button makes it T375. Loose limp calls. I jam for T2150. Limp behind me folds, raiser folds, first limp calls with AQo and I'm out. The more I think about it, the more I like my play here. 4. Played an Act Three tonight. I post T2400, ante T400, and have T6900 behind. On the next hand, the blinds go up to T1500-T3000 with a T500 ante. Folds to Paul Darden on the small blind who also has a short stack. He moves in. I call with 32s. Paul has 87o. The board comes Q3TKA and I double up. I go on to win. 5. Playing the $5,000 No Limit Hold 'Em tomorrow. Going in with positive swing thoughts. 6. That's it. World Poker Finals, $1,000 No Limit Hold 'Em Saturday, November 05, 2005 Got aces cracked. Got the rest in with AQ vs. AK. That is all. Next event: $2,000 No Limit Hold 'Em on Tuesday. Final Table Report Saturday, November 05, 2005 I lost some ridiculous number of showdowns and finished sixth. I'd chronicle them here, but they're just a bunch of bad beat stories and not very interesting. Brutal. Oh well, that's poker. World Poker Finals, $1,000 Limit Hold 'Em Friday, November 04, 2005 161 entrants in this event today. I started slow. I had increased my starting stack of T2,000 to only T2,375 at the first break. By the second break I had built up some chips, and then I caught a rush and got to about T8,000. At that point, a new player came to my table and raised the first hand he got from the cutoff. I reraised from the SB with 99. He called. The flop came ten-high. I bet, he raised, I called. The turn was an ace. Check-check. The river was a blank. Bet-call. He wins with T5o. Fast forward a couple of orbits. Same player raises in the cutoff. I call in the SB with 87o. The BB (loose-ish, often passive) calls. The flop comes 234. Check, check, bet. We both call. The turn is a five. Check, check, the cutoff bets. The big blind rechecks his hole cards, and I'm very confident that means he has nothing. I raise. The big blind folds, and the cutoff instantly folds behind him. I get it to T16,800, but I'm down to T13,200 by the dinner break. (Par at that point was about T11,000.) I lose a few hands after dinner and I'm down to T7,000 or so. I get lucky a few times and work my chips back up to the T15,000 level. As we get close to the money, I'm able to chip up to over T20,000 (which was aboout the average stack when we hit the money). I had T23,000 or so when we got to the money. I chipped up a little bit, and then I was the beneficiary of a monster cold-deck: AA vs AK vs QQ, I had the aces and they held. I chipped up some more as a lot of people went into a shell trying to make the final table. When we finally got to ten players, I found myself the chip leader with T76,000. And that's where I sit now. The final table begins at 4 p.m. Two other players have decent chip stacks (T61,500 and T54,500), and the other seven players are all below average (T32,200), and most are way below average. Dick Cook, one of my best friends in poker, is at the final table with me (he's one of the shortish stacks). This marks the second time that I've made the final table of a major tournament with a fellow member of the Washington D.C. home game I used to play in. The blinds are T1,000-T1,500 for nine minutes, and then they go up to T1,000-T2,000 (and the limits obviously go to T2,000-T4,000). First place is $61,000 and change, and I guess the other places have associated payouts as well, but I'm not so interested in those. I didn't draw the greatest seat, as one of the guys with chips is two to my left. But truth be told, I couldn't really ask to be in a better position. It's poker, and absolutely anything can happen (for example, there's a definite chance that I finish tenth), but I like my chances. Wish me luck. World Poker Finals, $500 No Limit Hold 'Em Thursday, November 03, 2005 A few interesting hands from this one. Blinds 25-25. UTG limps. He hasn't played many hands to this point. I limp in MP with KTo. LP limps. Blinds check. 125 in pot. Flop KT3 rainbow. Checked to me, I bet 75. All muck to UTG, who calls. Turn 9, bringing a two-flush. UTG checks. I bet 150. UTG makes it 300. I call. River offsuit ace. UTG goes all-in for 800, and I have him covered by 700. I muck. Blinds 25-50. Folded to me in the SB, I make it 125 with A2o. BB, an aggressive-but-not-crazy player from Ireland, calls. Flop comes ATT. I bet 125. BB makes it 325. I call. Turn 7. I check. BB bets 325. I move all-in for 1100. BB has me covered by about 1000. He mucks. Blinds 25-50. Two weak-tight limpers. I make it 225 in MP with KK. An LP player, tightish solid but not weak-tight, cold-calls. Both limpers muck (bahahahahahahaha). Flop comes QQJ. I bet 300. LP calls. Turn is a blank. LP has 1350 left and I have him covered by 1500. I check. He jams. I call. He has AQ. I don't improve. I end up busting in the 50-100 level. I think this was the last $500 Brick-and-Mortar tournament I'll ever play. The opportunity cost, considering how much time, travel, and effort it takes (do people know these things start at 10 a.m.? that's damn early for a poker player), is just way too high. I could earn my EV from a $500 B&M tournament in less than two hours online--and that's not factoring in all the expenses associated with the B&M tournament (including the usurious juice). When I think that just two years ago, a $500 tournament was a pretty high-stakes event for me, I really understand how fortunate I've been in this game. In a way, this is a sad day. Thankfully, the $2k+ events should be well worth my time for a long while. :) $1,000 Limit Hold 'Em tomorrow. World Poker Finals, $500 Limit Hold 'Em Tuesday, November 01, 2005 I played the online stuff this weekend, didn't do anything. Today I was back here at Foxwoods for the $500 Limit Hold 'Em event. I couldn't get much going early on, and my starting stack of T1500 had only improved to T2175 after the first four levels. Then the snack bar lost my order during lunch break, and I had missed my T150 big blind by the time I got back to the table. The first hand I actually saw after the lunch break was 85o for an unraised pot in the small blind. The flop came 764 and I capped it with the UTG limper. The turn was a four, UTG got all-in with sixes full, and I was down to T1,025. That was about the time my rush started. I ran my chips up to almost T11,000 by hitting a bunch of hands and making some thin value bets. But then I lost a whole bunch of pots in a row and I was back down to T1,600 at the dinner break. I got that up to about T7,500 before I lost another pot. I started my final hand with T4,000. With seven people to act behind me, I opened for T1,200 with 88. The Village Idiot (VI) called, as did the big blind. The flop came 554, two hearts. I bet, VI raised, BB folded, I three-bet, VI called. The turn was an ace and I went all-in for T1,000. VI had AJo. I finished somewhere around 65th (470 starters, 40 paid). Oh well, $500 No Limit Hold 'Em tomorrow. Poker very much took a backseat today. Right before the dinner break, my friend Matt Maroon learned that his mother had passed away. Matt was staying with me and a few others in the house we've rented here. Now he's on the next flight home. My deepest sympathies to Matt and his family.  September 2004 | October 2004 | December 2004 | January 2005 | February 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 | May 2005 | June 2005 | July 2005 | August 2005 | September 2005 | October 2005 | November 2005 | December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | May 2006 | June 2006 | July 2006 | August 2006 | September 2006 | October 2006 | December 2006 | January 2007 | April 2007 | May 2007 | June 2007 | July 2007 | October 2007 | January 2008 | |
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