Archive for February, 2008

Please stop the suckouts

Friday, February 29th, 2008

Seems like I’ve been focussing on suckouts on this blog way too much — sorry about that — but I’m going to try one more time, the last time for February, I PROMISE! :D

Anyway, 24$ 6-seater S&G, Full Tilt Poker, No Limit Hold’em — I get dealt KK in the very first hand. I raise 4BB, one call, SB Villain re-raises minimum, I shove in half my stack — he calls. Flop AJ4 rainbow. SB shoves, I fold. Villian shows A9.Blergh.

QQI’m now the short stack. Hand #8 and I pick up QQ. I’m under the gun after the blinds, and shove right away. One caller in the BB, shows JJ. The turn brings the jack. Tourney finished.

Played two hands.

Oh the beautiful game of poker, especially with me on tilt. :D

3-Card Omaha Poker

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

I’ve had the best poker night EVER yesterday — not quite because I won a lot of cash (I ended up about $200 in the game, enough to cover about 20BB on my usual levels hehe), but because of the 3-Card Omaha poker variant we played. I’m converted, it beats Texas Hold’em with a pineapple (pun intended).

Anyway, pretty much a table full of people playing 3-card omaha for the first time resulted in loose play, and a lot of people seeing flops. I decided early on that I would focus on playing hands with Omaha-value — raising big with pocket pairs too, though. What really seemed to work were the pocket pair + suited connector hands… One killer was when my friend picked up KKQ with KQ suited. He flopped a set of kings, but ended up winning with the nut straight. Lovely! :)

Anyway, 3-card omaha is a great poker game. Remember: if you don’t use two hole cards, you’re playing pineapple, and it’s a lot less of an action-game. :)

Liz Lieu (and Isabelle Mercier) talking to Pokernews

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Two pokerbabes talking to pokernews. One drunk, one not so much. Liz Lieu, the pioker diva (who looks stunning AND appears to be single — or at least WAS) talks a little poker but mostly stands there being supercute. She’s got great sunglasses too, by the way — what a woman!

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Heads-up tournament strategy: 2-to-1 chip lead, low blinds

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

If you play a lot of online heads-up sit & go tournaments, you’re in this kind of position quite a lot of the time. You’ve developed a reasonable chip lead over your opponent, even though the blinds are still at level one or two. You’ll be faced withj one of two kinds of opponent:

1. The aggressive type – he pushes in a lot in this spot, one-double-up away from the chip lead.

2. The cautious one, understanding that his tiournament life is at stake at this point.

The first type is the easiest to play, and the most dangerous one. After some time, you will stop putting this kind of player on a hand, resulting in mediocre calls because you’re sick of the the steals. Don’t fall for it! His steals are worthless with the blinds at these levels. Be patient. Don’t raise too much, see flops, wait for top pair/two pair, let him push into you. Your 2-to-1 chip lead will dwindle, but you’ll have a good chance of taking him out if you have the patience to wait.

An example of his not to play: You: 2105 chips – opponent 895 chips. Blinds are 5-10 chips. Opponent has pushed 8 times in the last 10 hands. You pick up A4os on the button, and your opponent shoves again. You call. He flips over 77.

You fell for it. A4os is not a calling hand for THAT many chips. You are looking for a reasonable two overs to a pair, or two higher live cards i.e. A9 vs K7. Don’t worry about him holding 74os and you folding A4. Be patient, picking your spot more carfully will allow you for a much better chance when you do decide to call him down.

How to play: lay down the A4os. Lay down the K8’s. Wait for A10  AK – AA  22.
Good luck! ;-)

Damn suckouts! :D

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

Okay, I asked for it right here didn’t I? :D

Went out in fifth place taking home a good amount of cash, but still feel kinda stupid, as going out was……… with QQ. Was second shortstack, got called by A5os by the big stack on the BB — and he made the ace high flush (I had the Q flush too). :D

Oh well, can’t complain someone calling with A5os when you’ve got the queens, aye.

Yay suckouts!

Tuesday, February 12th, 2008

I feel invincible. Just sucked out badly in a $50 buy-in freeze-out, and am now in first chip position with about 50 people left from 290 starters…

Fingers crossed — when Kings crack Aces, you’re ready to take down a tournament, right? :D

WAZZAAAAAA!!

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KK vs. KK vs. TT

Monday, February 11th, 2008

This is funny stuff. You would probably think the TT has a much better shot against TWO kk’s, but that’s not really the case — it’s still about 4/1. Why? Because it probably needs a T to improve…

Well, when that T hits the flop, you do have a pretty good shot at winning the hand — like this one…. :D

KK TT KK

Knocked out with JJ vs. A8

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

POCKET JACKSAwww — just got home after being knocked out of my first live tournament of ’08. Was playing aggressively throughout the first 3 hours, accumulated quite a good chip amount, got crushed when my aces were cracked by a set (got to hate those hehe), and finally went out when my pre-flop all in worth only 15BB got called down by the chip leader with A8.

No escape — flop was 4-8-10, so it’s not like my money wasn’t going in anyway. Eight on the turn pretty much ended it for me — but I had fun…

Finished in the money, buy-in+30%… Better than my stock is doing… :D