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Tuesday, July 24, 2012

It Was A Good 24 Hours

Grand Sierra is currently running it's quarterly tournament series, Summer Pot Of Gold. I went up there on Sunday to sign-up for whatever tournament was running at noon. It ended up being a $240 NLHE tourney with a $15k guarantee (that's 75 players) They had no problem with the guarantee, as they had 96 runners with re-entries.

It wasn't planning on doing any blogging for this one, either a Live Blog or a Running Log. I got off to a slow start, and I was down to 5100 at the first break. (10k starting stack). However, I doubled up twice in the first orbit back from break, and got to just over 20k. First one was me raising with ATo, and shoving on the T-high Flop. The other player didn't believe me, and called with Bottom Pair. The next double-up was with a Set of Tens vs Nut Flush Draw on the Flop.

After that, I never looked back. I had good table draws, good cards, and good timing when I made the occasional move. When we got to Dinner Break. there were 20 players left, and I had a Top 3 stack of 96k.

Since I wasn't doing any blogging, I decided to use my Twitter account to document the rest of my tournament. You can check it out for the details, as I'm not gonna repeat them here.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Hand Of The Day #97

$1/$2 NLHE ~ Peppermill ~ 07.18.12

So far, a typical Wednesday afternoon table in Reno. UTG limps. I'm next, and limp with 32s. I've been mixing my limps with my $5 raises. Now, I'm just hoping to hit a Bonus Hand. (Yes, I'm playing Bingo with this hand.)

Five players see a Flop of Ks Qc 6s. BB bet $8. I call with my mini Flush Draw. Button raises to $15, but has to make $16. He's a 70's Asian gentleman. I could say that he's a Super-Nit, but that's probably redundant. BB calls, and so do I.

Turn [Ks Qc 6s] 4d. BB checks. I bet $10 with my Flush Draw and Gutshot. This is what they call a Post Oak Bluff, or a Donk Bet. Naturally, I don't think anyone will fold to a $10 bet. Actually, I'm expecting to get raised by the Button.

So why do it?

Because Super-Nits tend to min-raise a bet, rather than shove All-In. I expect him to raise in the $20 - $30 range. If I just checked to him, he could easily bet $50 or more, as I'm sure he's scared of the Flush Draw.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Working In The Rock Garden

1:20 - I arrive at the Peppermill on Sunday afternoon as they are opening up their second table. Unfortunately, that table is full, and I'm first on the list after two phone-ins.

1:30 $300 - They call me and one other player, and we both get seated at the new table. How are there two open seats a table that's been running for ten minutes?

I'm the youngest player at this table by at least ten years. Two of the players are waiting to get on the $2/$3 ($5 to go) table. Since it's a new table, nobody has over $300. Most players are in the $150 - $200 range.

2:00 $353 - As expected, this is a Super-Nit table. I've already seen a guy call a small preflop raise, call a Flop & Turn bet on a Q-high board, and check the River with KK. After all, you can't be too careful.

So far it's been all small-pot poker for me, and that's how it will be with this line-up. The only way I will win a big pot is to cooler someone; like Two Pair vs Top Pair, Set vs Overpair, or Full House vs Nut Flush. I need to be careful not to get over aggressive, and be selective about picking my spots. Super-Nits love to slowplay, and don't play hands properly, like the KK I already mentioned.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

July News & Notes

- If I had to use one word to sum up my WSOP '12 experience, it would be "disaster". In addition to airballing my two $1500 WSOP Events, I also went 0/8 in Single Table Satellites ranging from $125 - $325. Even though those were winner-take-all, there is usually a deal when it gets to heads-up. However, I never got to heads-up, as the best I did was 3rd place twice.

In other larger tournaments over $100, I went 1/8, with my min-cash at the Golden Nugget HORSE tourney being my only cash. For my last three days in Vegas, I played in three of the $235 Daily Deepstacks at the WSOP. In my first one, I couldn't get anything going, and basically ran out of chips before the second break. In the last two, I was out just before the first break when my Two Pair ran into a Straight. The first one was on the Flop, and the second one was on the Turn.

I played a few cash games, but they went just as well. Overall, I was -$353 in eight session of either NL, Omaha-8, or Mixed Games. On Sunday night, I went back to the Imperial Palace for the $3/$6 Mixed Game. Unfortunately, things didn't go as well as they did in my first visit, and I lost $95.