SNG Fest - Final Numbers

Well, another month of SNGs is in the books. As with the last time I did, I really enjoyed it. So much so that I will probably continue it into January. I was able to reach Iron Man Level on FTP. They are expanding the Iron Man Challenge with additional features in 2007 so I will probably continue to try to attain Iron Level. I haven't really thoroughly read the details but will do that in the upcoming days. It is obviously takes more time to do this on a daily basis playing SNGs as opposed to ring games; but I will give it a go.. I did end up around 215th on the SNG High Leaderboard; but that doesn't get you anything... you need to finish in top 100.

Anyway, I played 35 SNGs since last update. Here's how it went:

SNGs: 35
ITM: 40%
ROI: 10.79%

1sts - 5
2nds - 4
3rds - 5
4ths - 6

So again, 3rds and 4ths outweighed 1sts and 2nds so things could be much better. I will definitely try some training materials. As stated, I will have a review of a video training site and will also look at some others. I have downloaded SNG Wiz for their free 30 day trial. I'll have more on this as well as a deeper look at the month of SNGs a little later in the week.

Overall Standings:

SNGs: 253
ITM: 39.13
ROI: .76% (so pretty much break even for the month... disappointing)

1sts - 29
2nds - 24
3rds - 46
4ths - 37

Day 24

1. 7th - Q6 lost to 99
2. 5th - 65s lost to 79s

Day 25

1. 1st - AQs beat Q7
2. 5th - T6 lost to J6s.. short
3. 4th - A6 lost to QQ
4. 3rd - A9s lost to 88 on river
5. 4th - A4 lost to A7
6. 6th - 77 lost to A7
7. 6th - K3s lost to QJ
8. 6th - A6 lost to K7
9. 2nd - J3 lost to J6 allin on 452J board
10. 5th - QQ lsot to KQs on river

Day 26

1. 5th - AJ lost to A6
2. 5th - A4 lost to AA and QQ... oops
3. 5th - AJ lost to JJ
4. 4th - 87 lost to K8... short
5. 1st - JJ beat 74
6. 1st - 72 beat AA... BOOOYAH... click here for the hand. this wasn't final hand; but it was the one that really crippled him.

Day 27

1. 9th - AA lost to QQ.. nice start ... NOT!!!!
2. 7th - AQs lost to AA.. Q high flop... this was really a brain fart on my part.
3. 2nd - 86 lost to AQ... AQ again... what were the odds.
4. 3rd - K6 lost to KQ
5. 1st - A3 beat A3s... this was bad but I have been on the other side too many times... I obviously got a 4 flush

Day 28

1. 6th - JTs lost to AJ... pushed OESD
2. 2nd - J8 lost to K9
3. 3rd - A8 lost to A9
4. 4th - J7 lost to 77
5. 2nd - A3 lost to QT
6. 7th - J5 lost to AT... short
7. 3rd - 88 lost to 99... went from huge chip lead with 4 left to 3rd place... last few hands... A9 split with A9... AK lost to A8.... 88 lost to 99
8. 4th - AK lost to 77
9. 3rd - AA lost to 87

Day 29

1. 6th - KQ lost to AJ and AJ... all in preflop... I had to like my chances... didn't hit
2. 1st - K3 beat J8
3. 4th - J2 lost to 87... this bubble went on forever and I would say at least 10 all in underdogs won... unfortunately, I came in on the short in of the stick... Kind of fitting way to end.

So there you have it and there you are... I hope your 2006 was great and that your 2007 will be even better!!!

Hand Of the Day - Hammer Style

No explanation necessary.... HU in $33 Turbo on a 9 person FTP SNG ..

Full Tilt Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t400/t800
2 players
Converter


Stack sizes:
SB: t7800
Hero: t5700


Pre-flop: (2 players) Hero is BB with :2s :7h
SB calls t400 (pot was t1200), Hero checks.


Flop: :2d :qd :5c (t1600, 2 players)
Hero bets t1000, SB raises to t2000, Hero calls t1000 (pot was t4600).


Turn: :kc (t5600, 2 players)
Hero is all-in t2900, SB calls t2900 (pot was t8500).


River: :7c (t11400, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: t11400)



Results:
Final pot: t11400
Hero showed 2s 7h
SB showed As Ad


Somewhere in the blogger world, people are smiling :-)

I am SO Done With......

One radio show that I listen to when I go out to lunch on is Fox Sports Radio on my XM Satellite. Steve Czaben out of DC runs the show. Anyway, one of the bits they do every week is.... I am SO Done With.....

Well, I made a small list... and to top it off

• I am SO Done with... Terrell Owens. Obviously I am a Dallas Cowboys Fan and this guy continues to make a total jerk out of himself. So again this week, he starts complaining about not getting the ball early and often. Newsflash to TO... start catching some balls and perhaps they will throw them to you.. understand the bigger picture and get with the team concept. Perhaps talking out against the coaching is not the best way to get into the gameplan.
• I am SO Done with... Fair Weather Fans. And this goes both ways... The people that jump on the bandwagon when things are going good and especially the people that jump on the nay sayer bangwagon when people are losing. This really goes out to my father in law who watched one half of one game that the Rams played. I live in St Louis so naturally I root for the Rams (when they are not playing the 'Boys). Newsflash... Watch some games and then maybe I'll listen to some of your unsubstaniated opinions. Anybody can plagerize what the media says and for the most part, most of the media doesn't get it right. They just want the ratings so they bring up controversy. For the same reason that I don't nay say too much about politics since I don't really follow that. I do vote; but am not well informed on all the issues.
• I am SO Done with... Gutshots. Especially, the runner, runner variety. I can't tell you how many times I've run into these LAGs catching their gutshots this week. Enough Said.
• I am SO Done with... Reality Shows.... OK, not really as I do watch Survivor, Apprentice. Heck, I remember watching one of the first reality shows... Real World on MTV... Anybody remember Puck? I probably caught the first 4 or 5... but some of these are just ludicrous and it just shows the lengths that the networks will go to get viewers. Obviously, it works, but it doesn't mean that I like it.
• I am SO Done with.... Deal or No Deal... Now, I like a good game show as much as the next guy... but picking numbers and making an entire show about it is boring. I was able to get through one of these shows. I can't even rationalize DVRing this and just fast forwarding to the end; but it is every where... You can even buy the board game. Boy, that must be a real hoot.
• I am SO Done with.. Gas Prices... Not so much the prices themselves... but the fact that they go down a few cents every week and them BOOM!!!! up a quarter. Of course, the day I need gas typically is the day of the price hikes.

OK, so there you have it and there you are....

SNG Fest - Day 23

I hope everybody's Christmas went well!!!

SNG Good.... Ring Bad...

I had another ring game session where my won $ at SD was under 40%. It is simply amazing the amount of people that will call down to the river on gut shot straight draws (Including cracking my KK that turned a set and then lost to a rivered runner, runner gut shot. It is what it is; but unfortunately, it wiped out whatever gains I did get back on the SNG side. Of course, this was all predicated on my trying to get my allotted amount of points to qualify for Iron Man.

On that day, I knew I wasn't going to get enough points playing SNGs (because I started too late in the day... so I fired up one 5/10 table. Funny thing, with about 5 minutes left to go until midnight Eastern, I really had to go to the bathroom. I didn't think I was close to the needed 200 pts, so I sat out and did my business. I went back and checked and I actually ended up with 197 pts... Doh.... I would have obviously received 3 pts in 5 minutes.. Bad Beat.... self inflicted...

Anyway, back to the SNGs..

I have played 38 since last update...

ITM - 44.72%
ROI - 25.92%

1sts - 7
2nds - 3
3rds - 7
4ths - 5

Much better as the ratio between 1st and 2nds to 3rds and 4ths is much better. Also, 1sts are better than 2nds and 3rds are better than fourths. Much nicer, but as always, could have been better. I've actually started keeping track of my allins and what the odds were when the money went in and then the results.. .more on that in a later post; but I plan to incorporate more of those stats on the occasional updates.

Here are the overall stats..

218 SNGs
ITM - 38.99%
ROI - -0.85%

1sts - 24
2nds - 20
3rds - 41
4ths - 31

Better, but not yet to the positive with only a few days to go.

Day 20

1. 5th - A5 lost KJ
2. 5th - AT lost to JT
3. 1st - A2s beat KJ
4. 2nd - 98 lost to 98s on 75838 board
5. 5th - 99 lost to AJ
6. 3rd - KJs lost to 99.. .isn't it funny how I lose with one hand and then the next game I lose to the same hand... yeah, funny alright... funny, peculiar
7. 6th - KT lost to 98
8. 1st - A7 beat J2s
9. 3rd - AK lost to A8

Day 21

1. 9th - AK lsot to 33 on A high flop. He hit his set and went all in. I didn't think he would do that right on the flop betting in EP... on second thought, it makes sense...
2. 6th - T9 lost to K2s
3. 3rd - AK lost to 44
4. 2nd - Q7 lost to KT
5. 8th - 77 lost to AJ
6. 5th - Q3s lost to KJ
7. 7th - AK lost to AQ... foreshadowing... I still really hate AQ... btw.. we were all in preflop
8. 1st to AK beat KQ
9. 5th - A6 lost to 55
10. 4th - A5s lost to A9s
11. 4th - K6 lost to J7
12. 3rd - A3 lost to K6... right b4... JJ lost to AQ
13. 1st - QJ beat Q4
14. 1st - K5 beat Q9 ... nice finish to set

Day 22

1. 6th - A8 lost to 88 on river... Ace on flop and 8 on river gives me 2 pair... oops gave him a set
2. 5th - Q8 lost to A7
3. 5th - 33 lost to 87 on river
4. 4th - A7 lost to KQ
5. 3rd - KQ lost to AJ (again... lose with and lose against...)

Day 23

1. 4th - 53 lost to Q2s on river
2. 3rd - AT lost to TT
3. 3rd - 33 lost to 64s... right b4... AJ lost to T9
4. 1st - AQ beat KJ... wahoo... AQ actually came through
5. 4th - K8 lost to Q9
6. 7th - AQ lost to KJ on JAQ board... T on turn... yep I love AQ
7. 1st - JJ beat A7
8. 6th - A3 lost to A7
9. 2nd - Q7 lost to 66
10. 5th - AQ lsot to KJ on turn... Q high flop... nice... again he hit his str8... love the AQ

So like I said... could have been better... I will finish out the month and see where I land. I will also review a video training site so come back a little later in the week.

SNG Fest Day 19 Another Broken Record

Swimingly... That is the word that I would describe how things are going... NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've run bad before; but man oh man....

I few tidbits before I get into SNG results...

I did play in the mookie and while things went pretty good as I finished in 3rd out of 37 or 38. I went out when KK lost to 52. I was 3rd in chips and I believe I slow played it a bit and let the aggressive big stacks dictate the pace. Prophesy hit a two on the flop and pushed and I insta called only to see a 5 hit on the turn and IGHN. Not a very good birthday present from Tommy2Tone.

I would be interested to see a YTD results of this thing... You know if there was 35 players and you finished first, you get 35 pts kind of thing. I didn't get to play in many; but I would be interseted to see how things fared for the years. If somebody has the summarys, I can do the figuring. I have my ideas of who would be on top.


While playing the mookie and my SNGs, I also had a 5/10 table going (42 VPIP 10 PFR). It was a nice juicy table which of course these days means that it is a great opportunity to leak some cash. I was seeing about the same amount of flops and raising about what I normally do. Typically, you want to win $ at showdown at least around 50% of the time. My glorius number was 34%. Simply amazing... I played a little ring today... First hand QQ... lost to KT... Next hand... AA lost to 65... Next hand AK (yes, my first 3 hands)... chopped on river against A5... Maybe sometime I will look back and laugh...

OK, the SNG numbers.... And yes, they continue to bad...

I've played 29 SNGs since the last update

ITM - 31.03%... just brutal
ROI - -17.50%

1sts - 3
2nds - 2
3rds - 4
4ths - 3

Overall:

180 SNGs
ITM - 37.78... 40% should be the lowest that I can live with
ROI - -6.50%... obviously want this over 10%

1sts - 17
2nds - 17
3rds - 34
4ths - 26 so 53% in top 4... not terrible... 55% is probalby about right.

The 2 to 1 ratio of 3rds and 4ths to 1sts and 2nds continues to be the reason for the results.


Day 16

1. 5th - J4 lost to J8 on a 4J8 board... flopped 2 pair no good
2. 3rd - QT lost to KQ
3. 7th - AA lost to J9
4. 2nd - KJ lost to AQ
5. 1st - 95 beat 88

Day 17

1. 8th - QTs lost to ATs
2. 4th - JTs lost to T5s
3. 4th - Q8 lost to KJ
4. 6th - A4s lost to TT
5. 5th - T9s lost to 87... my flopped 2 pair no good against his flopped str8
6. 3rd - A7 lost to A8 hand b4... AQ lost A5
7. 1st - AJs beat 87
8. 5th - A9s lost to 77

Day 18

1. 8th - KK lost to JJ... DQB
2. 7th - 77 lost to 88 and QJ
3. 3rd - KJ lost to A7
4. 6th - QT lost to 88
5. 1st - ATs beat K5s
6. 6th - A7 lost to AT
7. 5th - J9s lost to KQ
8. 5th - 99 lost to A8
9. 9th - AK lost to A5s... flopped flush.. brain fart on me.. bad push
10. 6th - A9s lost to 76s... str8 flush
11. 4th - A5 lost to AK

Day 19

1. 6th - KQ lost to AA
2. 1st - KK beat 62
3. 5th - KT lost to 92 all in preflop
4. 3rd - Q7 lost to Q9.. bad stop and go move
5. 3rd - K8 lost to 75
6. 8th - AA lost KK... .ON river of course lost all but 300 chips.. next hand my KJ lost to AA.. now ain't that a kick in the butt
7. 8th - KQ lost to 54
8. 2nd - QJs lost to 65 on T68 flop 2 of my suit.. he called my all in with bottom pair.. good call, I guess.. I only had a ba-jillion outs
9. 6th - 98 lost to 82
10. 2nd - A3 lost to T6

SNG Fest - Day 15

Unfortunately, more of the same. My bubble play is gone real, real bad. As I mentioned, I did win some money on a NFL eliminator pool, so I think I am going to take some of that money and purchase some kind of SNG tool. If anybody has used anything like SNG Power Tools, or SNG Wizard, or donkit.com or sngicons, please let me know as I need to decide.

So I have played 44 SNGs since the last update. Here are the numbers from those:

44 games
38.64 ITM
-10% ROI

1sts - 3
2nds - 5
3rds - 9
4ths - 8

Meaning 56% in the top 4. My 3rds and 4ths continue to double my 1sts and seconds... OK overall:

146 SNGs
38.36 ITM
-6.76 ROI

1sts - 13
2nds - 14
3rds - 29
4ths - 23

Breakdown:

Day 13

1. 2nd - T4 lost to KQ short
2. 3rd - K8 lost to JT
3. 1st -Q3 beat 84
4. 6th - J6s lost to QJ
5. 6th - JJ lost to QQ
6. 8th - QJ lost to KJ
7. 7th - KJ lost to 88

Day 14

1. 6th - 87 lost to QT... right b4 99 lost to AT
2. 4th - 86 lost to K2... short
3. 4th - ATs lost to QQ
4. 3rd - A5s lost to A9
5. 2nd - 76s lost to Q6
6. 3rd - Qgs lost to A8... right b4... AK lost to Q4
7. 5th - J9 lost to JT
8. 3rd - AQs lost to JJ
9. 3rd - K3 lost to A7
10. 6th - AK lost to TT
11. 6th - J9 lost to AA and AK... oops
12. 1st - 86 beat QJ
13. 4th - A7 lost to AQ
14. 2nd - T9 lost to KT
15. 2nd - KT lost to 28
16. 6th - A8 lost to 33... Ace high flop lost to DQB
17. 4th - A3 lost to 63... on river str8
18. 3rd - 65 lost to 75 on 6 high flop.. turned str8
19. A6 lost to JQ on turn
20. 6th - A6 lost to 75s.. he flopped str8
21. 5th - J7 lost to KJ.. battle of blinds
22. 2nd - Q6s lost to QJs
23. 3rd - 85 lost to JJ
24. 7th - J8s lost to KT
25. 5th - 22 lost to AJ
26. 7th - A7 lost to QJ on river

Day 15

1. 8th - TT lost to JJ on all in on 367 flop
2. 4th - AK lost to A5
3. 4th - KK lsot to A8... he hit trips on turn... all on flop
4. 5th - K3 lost to KJ on K high flop
5. 6th - JTs lost to Q2.. J high flop... lost to runner, runner 4 flush
6. 3rd - KK lost to AJ
7. 3rd - A8 lost to AK on A high flop
8. 1st - Q3s beat 44
9. 5th - AJ lost to AQ
10. 4th - K5 lost to 88

So there you have it and there you are. Hopefully things will change.

SNG Fest - Day 12

I'm going to take a look at how things started again with a little more detail.

We are already know:

35 games
51.43 ITM
24.93 ROI

1sts - 4
2nds - 5
3rds - 9
4ths - 3

Let's now contrast that to where I am now.... YIKES!!!!!

102 Games
38.24 ITM
-5.37 ROI

1sts - 10
2nds - 9

and now the brunt of the problem

3rds - 20
4ths - 15

I guess the good news is that I have more 1sts than 2nds and more 3rds than 4ths which is always a goal; but don't like a 2 to 1 ration of 3rds to 1sts. Hopefully, we're calling it variance; but there is a good chance that I just suck at poker.

Here are the results:

Day 12

1. 7th - 87 loses to 65 on K78 board ( money in as 70% fav)
2. 6th - AT loses to 44
3. 3rd - A8 lost to T5 ... runner runner str8
4. 7th - AT lost to 44... got my pair.. he got his set
5. 6th - TT lost to 43s.. money in preflop... he got trips on turn
6. 5th - KK lost to AA... figures
7. 6th - K8s lost to JJ
8. 2nd - A9 lost Q6
9. 5th - AQs lost to AK
10. 5th - Q2s lost to 76
11. 3rd - A4 lost to 99
12. 1st - KK beat Q6s
13. 3rd - A9 lost to AJs

So, for now, I will keep on going and see where it leads me.

-----------

Something pretty interesting came up yesterday and it definitely seems to be a regional difference of how things are done. I played in one of those Elimantor pools. These are where you make one NFL pick and if the team wins you keep going to the next week. If your team loses, you are out. This turned out to be a fairly large pool with around 550 people in it at $20 a pop. Obviosuly, with a pool this big there are groups of guys that get together and I was no different. We had five guys get together with the intention of if any one of us won we would split it 5 ways. No big deal, it was obvious by the usernames that lots of people did this.

Fast forward to yesterday and it is down to 3 people. We are one of them so we offer to split most of the pot 3 ways (and then play out the rest for the remaining portion). No different than chopping a poker tournament. The admin got ahold of the other two and they agreed. Now, here is the funny part or should I say the difference of opinion. The admin then asks us how much we want the check made out for? Huh???? What do you mean.... The deal was that we were going to take 3K each and play for the rest. The admin goes, yes, but it is customary to tip the admin.. AGAIN>>> HUH??????? I have run tons of pools (including my Eliminator pool this year... albeit not near as big... around 150 people) and I NEVER, I say NEVER ask for anything. We said.. OK.. we'll give you $50 for your trouble. The admin writes back on how much time it takes to run these things. Now, let me say this. Running big pools is never easy; but this pool was all done via the web. The only thing the admin did was collect the money which I definitely know to be a pain. Anyway, the admin want 10%... WHAT!!!!!! That would be over $1,000 for running the pool. That is RIDICULOUS.

There are so many things wrong with that. The admin could obviously play numerous times (over 20.. or more) if he/she expected to get that much back at the end.

So my question out to the masses, is this customary in the region that you live?

Oh, well, live and learn

Have a good day!

SNG Fest Update - Cold Decked

What goes up, must come down.... and in a hurry. Unfortunately, I don't have updated stats as the program I used for creating tournament summaries quit working when Full Tilt updated their software. The program was updated and now works; but I have not taken the time to go back in and manually create the tourney summaries. I will try to do that soon.

Suffice it to say, that things started of great and I knew that it was unattainable; but what I didn't expect was to blow through the whole profit and then some. So after almost 90 SNGs, I am setting about down 3 buyins (around $100). I wasn't going to list the tourneys themselves as there is pretty many of them and as you know, when you are running bad, you tend to not update things as quickly.

I do want to add that as bad as I have been running in SNGs, it has been much, much worse in ring play. Typically, I see about 25% of flops in a short handed 5/10 game and raise preflop about 15%. Now, this is neither aggressive/loose or passive tight. Now here is the stats from the other night after about 50 hands. VPIP (flop) 65%... Preflop Raise (45%)... W$SD (Won $ at showdown) 0%. My first few starting hands were 66, AQ, Q2, AK, 87, 96o, A3s, AKs, A9, Q9o, AQ, 63o, AK, A6, KK, 63o, K3s, JT, 66, 84o, J5, 76o, TT, Q9, KK, JJ. I think you get the idea. Some of them aren't great hands but were in the BB and were good enough to defend... especially when multi handed. I went on to lose about 4 or 5 buyins as the table was a good table (45 / 10).

Anyway, here are the SNG results... pay particluar attention toward the end.

Day 5

1. 6th 77 lost to AK... all in preflop .. board J88J... counterfieted again.. Dang!
2. 6th A9 lost to AK... oops.
3. 4th AK lost to KQ on river.. 80% loser.... good times
4. 1st T5 beat 75.. He had a huge lead on me and then got disconnected. Do you stall or push? I pushed. With the blinds going up so fast, I can't wait. I waited a little (2 or so hands)

Day 6

1. 6th - A6 lost to A5 should I keep count of these 4-1 losers? Nah..
2. 5th - 33 lost 95
3. 6th - AT lost to QQ
4. 6th - 99 lost to AA... bad decision on resteal attempt
5. 6th - QQ lost to K9... OK not 4-1; but it still hurts
6. 2nd - A6 lost to J9
7. 6th - A8 lost to QT on board of 8TJ89... on river... all in on Turn
8. 4th - A2 lost to K8
9. 4th - A8 lost to 99... bubble, bubble
10. 1st - AQ beat T6
11. 4th - A7s lost to 66.. I can take a bath with all of these bubbles.
12. 4th - Q9s lost to AA.. short stacked...
13. 3rd - J9 lost to 99 on JK594 board
14. 6th - At lost to AQ short
15. 5th - Q9s lost to 88

Day 7

1. 7th - 44 lost to 66
2. 4th - AT lost to TT.. bubble
3. 6th - AT lost to JT... 80%er
4. 3rd - 62 lost to KT.. short
5. 3rd - A4 lost to 33
6. 4th - AT lost to AQ.. I can't believe I lost being a 4 to 1 dog.. that's poker

Day 8

1. 9th - AQ loses to AK and KQ.. KQ scooped the huge pot.. figures
2. 9th - AKs loste to KK.. what can I say, I'm not afraid to put my chips in the middle.
3. 5th - AJ lost to KQ.. .right before... 99 lost to AQ.. I was chip leader to out in 2 hands.
4. 6th - A9s lost to KJ
5. 4th - A9 lost to JTs
6. 3rd - K9 lost to A5... 2 pair counterfeited on river
7. 4th - QQ lost to AK... all in on JJJ flop... went south from there... Turn K... River K.. overkill, don't you think? lol

Day 9

1. 4th - ATs lost to 99. BUBBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
2. 2nd - AJ lost to AA.. what can you do?
3. 3rd - TT lost to J6.. typical
4. 2nd - J3 lost to TT.. is that a jab for the FTP gods?
5. 1st - A6 beat T8
6. 4th - AT lost to KK start and end with BUBBLES... More Good Times.

Day 10

1. 3rd - AA lost to AJs... runner runner straight. oh boy, here we go again... at least it wasn't a bubble
2. 5th - AT loses to AQ
3. 4th - K6 lsto to K8s... hand b4... KJs on K high flop lost to 33 on a 4 flush board.
4. 6th - AJ lost to AA on J high flop
5. 3rd - A6 lsot to A5 on 85A flop... figures
6. 3rd - and finally to really rub my face in the mud... KQ loses to...... KQ 4 flush board.

Day 11

1. 6th - JJ loses to AK where I flopped set... he gets runner, runner FLUSH... 4 flushed again.
2. 5th - 33 loses to T2 where he gets runner runner str8... 4 board straight... What have I done to upset the SNG gods?
3. 1st - AT beats QTs
4. 1st - K7 beat QJ.. got extemely lucky on this one after Aces were cracked four handed.

So there you have and there you are... You are caught up. We'll see where it goes from here. I do plan on taking the night off tonight and getting back into it tomorrow. I obviously need to turn some of those bubbles into money.

Easy Fold or Easy Call (cont)

OK.. Let's look at what I did...

Here is where we started

FullTiltPoker Game #1341154365: $33 + $3 Sit & Go (Turbo) (9433297), Table 1 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 14:48:02 ET - 2006/12/02
Seat 1: Button (5,375)
Seat 3: SB (1,525)
Seat 4: willwonka (735)
Seat 5: UTG (1,200)
Seat 6: UTG+1 (1,900)
Seat 9: CO (2,765)
SB posts the small blind of 80
willwonka posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willwonka [5h 6h]
UTG folds
UTG+1 folds
CO raises to 650
Button calls 650
SB raises to 1,525, and is all in
willwonka ??????


Here are some of the things that went through my head:

First. These guys are a little loose so my range for these guys are pretty wide. Ultimiately, I'm looking for them to be sharing some Aces and/or Kings thus reducing their outs; but realistically, somebody may have a pair bigger than sixes.

Second. Like I said I am playing in a Full Tilt Turbo and beleive it or not the blinds move up every 3 minutes. If I fold I will have about 3.5 BBs left to push in the next hand or two.

Third.. It's going to cost me 575 chips into at least a 2885 chip pot (possible more if there are some calls behind me) giving me at least 5-1.

Fourth.. My mid suited connectors are most likely live against any non pair that they might have... not to mention the flush and straight possibilities

Fifth. I hate blinding out tournies.

I guess you can see where I am going with this.

I called and one person said Wow and folded and the next guy called. Mr All in turned over AQs and the last caller turned over KQ. Nice... Just what I was hoping for... Now, I just don't want to see a face card.

Flop... 9h4s2d rainbow... Nice.... I need hearts, a 3 , a 5 or a 6
Turn... 7d.... Outsanding... 3, 5, 6 or 8
River... 5d.... BOOK IT!!!!


OK, OK.. maybe not the best decision; but it worked out.

Any thoughts?

----

In other news, I lost a good battle to Fuel55 in the HUC . We went the full 5 games. The best person definitely lost... HA.. I kid.. I did get a bunch of second best cards that ending up costing me such as JJ vs AA and and flopped trips vs flopped full house. That's the way it goes. Nice match. I'll try to get a more detailed write up later.

Easy Call or Easy Fold

I want to throw out a hand that I had recently and wanted to get the opinions of you tournament experts. About Midway through a $33 SNG and I am the low man on the totem poll when the following hand came up.

Is it an easy call or an easy fold?



FullTiltPoker Game #1341154365: $33 + $3 Sit & Go (Turbo) (9433297), Table 1 - 80/160 - No Limit Hold'em - 14:48:02 ET - 2006/12/02
Seat 1: Button (5,375)
Seat 3: SB (1,525)
Seat 4: willwonka (735)
Seat 5: UTG (1,200)
Seat 6: UTG+1 (1,900)
Seat 9: CO (2,765)
SB posts the small blind of 80
willwonka posts the big blind of 160
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to willwonka [5h 6h]
UTG folds
UTG+1 folds
CO raises to 650
Button calls 650
SB raises to 1,525, and is all in
willwonka ??????

Not many reads but this is what I do have:
CO is a littly LAGY (40/20)
Button (34/13)
SB (30/21)

What do you do? I won't post what I did or what the results were until tomorrow. I kind of got some mixed reaction when talking to some people.


One quick not on Full Tilt Support. I emailed them this evening on some Full Tilt Points questions that I had and I received an email back within 15 minutes probalby. Very Nice. In case anybody is interested, my question was concerning when you receive your full tilt points when playing tournaments. This becomes relevent if you are trying to qualify for the Iron Man Freerolls. Anyway, here is the response that I got back:

Hello Willwonka,

Thank you for writing to Full Tilt Poker.

If you entered a tournament since the inception of the Iron Man
promotion, you may have experienced an apparent discrepancy between the
number of Full Tilt points you expected to accumulate for a given day
and the actual number of points attributed that day. This apparent
discrepancy arose because of the manner in which Full Tilt points are
added to your account.

Players accumulate Full Tilt points through real money play, based on
the raked portion of a cash game pot, or the tournament fee that is paid
in addition to the buy-in.

The actual time that Full Tilt points accumulated on tournament fees are
added to a player's account has caused some confusion. Full Tilt points
are not awarded at the time of registration, nor are they awarded at the
completion of the tournament; players will see their point total update
immediately after they bust from any tournament or SNG.

What does this mean in relation to the Iron Man promotion? If you
registered for a tournament at 9:00 PM ET on a Tuesday, and busted at
1:12 AM ET Wednesday morning, the Full Tilt points added to your account
would count towards the total for Wednesday, not the Tuesday total. We
apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused by this
confusion.

So Again I say.. Thanks for Full Tilt for the quick and complete answer to my question.

I look forward to some of the responses on the Easy Call or Easy Fold.

December SNG Fest - The Beginning

A few notes before I get into my SNG numbers.

Boy, is everything good with the weekend when the Cowboys beat the Giants. Tony Romo continues to impress even with a less than spectacular game, he hung in there and led the team to a game winning FG drive. So far, so good with Martin Automatica. He missed his first one and the ulcer came back to me; but he steadied the ship from there. Plus, add in 3 Fantasy victories and also add in the Missouri Valley Basketball Conference doing well. Everything is good in the sports world. I will say, however, that I think a Ohio State / Michigan rematch was the best matchup; but I'm not too overall upset with OSU and Florida. I'm pretty sure that I know someone that might be rooting for the Gators so that is good enough for me... GO GATORS !!!!!! I don't really like the Big Ten so it was an easy choice for me.

OK.. The SNG numbers. I didn't make up a template just yet so the number may not be presented too pretty. I'll try to get that going next time. I am going to do it a little different this time. I am going to try to post my numbers at least once a week and then do a couple of interesting hand posts to get some opinions on how to play it.

I'm not going to subscribe to sharkscope. Perhaps, if I could get stats for games that are going on I would do it; but you can't do that with Full Tilt. I did download the SNG Power Tools; but haven't really looked at the tutorials just yet. Per some reviews I've read, I'm sure that it would help as the fold/push game is vital during the end game of a SNG.

OK Numbers (Note... as of right now, I am playing $33+3 Turbo SNGs on FullTilt):

SNGs Played: 35
ITM (In the Money): 51.43%
ROI: 24.93

These could have been so much better; but lost some 80%ers yesterday. I can handle the 60/40 losses; but those 4-1 beats hurt. Of course, I had some 3 outers come in as well so what am I complaining about.

Here is a quit recap of the games:

Day 1: ( SNG/ITM/ROI 13/38.46/14.23)

1. 1st - K7 beat A5
2. 5th - 55 lost to AQ on river
3. 7th - A4s lost to JJ and AA... oops.. I was short
4. 7th - Q9 lost to 87s on turn. crippled hand before with TT to someone that obviously called with an OE Straight Flush Draw.
5. 6th - KT lost to QQ.. No cards
6. 2nd - A5 lost to 67 on Q8A95 board. don't you lover runner, runners.
7. 7th - T9 lost to 99.. short again
8. 8th - 77 lost to QQ
9. 5th - AK lost to AT on river
10. 3rd - K8 lost to Q9
11. 5th - TT lost to JJ on QATK7 board.. .Doh!!! Who said sets are golden
12. 2nd - A3 lost to K7
13. 1st - 98 beat 76. QQ on 2nd and 3rd to last hand helped her... ;-)

Day 2: (6 / 33.33 / 37.50%)

1. 9th - AQ lost to K7s on turn. All chips in as 65/35 fav.. what can you do?
2. 8th - Q9s lost to JTs... at least it was on flop
3. 1st - K5s beat JTs
4. 7th - TT lost to 86o on river
5. 9th - QQ lost to AK on turn
6. 1st - KTs beat A2

Day 3: (16 / 68.75 / 28.91 %)

1. 4th - Q7 lost to 96s. Hand B4... AQ lost to T9s on river. I hope AQ isn't bad to me like the last challenge
2. 3rd - 95s lost KTs... win some blind steals... lose some blind steals
3. 3rd - AJs lost to KT
4. 6th - J5 lost to AA... oops
5. 4th - A9 lost Q5
6. 3rd - TT lost to K7 on KATJQ.. 4 flush board... agains.. Sets aren't golden
7. 2nd - T5s lost to K9.. pushed on Flush Draw board... he called with K high and it held up.
8. 3rd - 64s lost to J6s.. pushed OESD he called with flush draw that held.. not to mention he was ahead anyway... DOH!!!
9. 3rd - AK lost to KQ.. These are the ones that hurt
10. 3rd - AK lost to A6... ibid
11. 5th - AT lost to AK
12. 2nd - TT lost to A6.. I've been noticing that pairs haven't been winning the races (not that this was a race... but just general comment)
13. 3rd - J7 lost to A8
14. 3rd - KQ lost to 77 on Q high flop; but he hit his set on flop.. OK sometimes the pairs hold up... maybe sets are golden... for other people
15. 2nd - 99 lost to 44.. 4 flush board
16. 4th - A9 lost to AJ.... right before... AK lost to J8... 4 straight board

There you have it and there you are..

Have a good day!!!