SAT 14th OCT - UPDATE

Well, there has been some really interesting happening since last time I updated. No more US players at Party, cancellation of Party's "MONSTER", some intriguing hands and some poker theory attempted by yours truly. Firstly, latest results.

NL CASH - $25NL

Hands (Total) : 1226 (4657)
$ won (Total): +$84.99 (+$398.33)
Current BR: $898.33

Had some interesting hands this week....

Best played hand

I really think I played this hand well. Slightly unorthodox, but my thinking was, in my opinion, spot on. Preflop, al1971 wasn't raising a great deal, but I thought that I could easily define my hand with the re-raise as he would only call with 99+, AQ+. That was my read on him anyway. When he did call, and I caught a beautiful flop, I thought I would see how he approached it. If he bet, I was pretty sure now that he must have an overpair. He duly bet, and I flat called. Not sure why I flat called here. I guess a re-raise would have been just as good as if he had QQ-JJ, an A or K would slow him down. The turn was an obvious blank, and by betting I was trying to make my opponent think "how could the deuce have helped him?". Again, I guess checking would have been OK here, as he is probably shoving an overpair anyway, but I didn't want to give him another chance to hit a card to get away. He pushes and I duly call. Shame about the result, but think I played the hand well to stack him (95% of the time - lol).

Worst played hand

Too often, my mind just goes blank. After he flop I put him on AA-JJ or AK. He probably would fold KK on the turn, but the flop call meant he didn't have JJ. Also, I thought that he would fold AK to my push, but obviously he was getting good enough odds (and not savvy enough) to lay it down, which I should have realised. I am unnecessarily losing big pots that I don't need to be, and this is really cutting into my win rate. At $25NL, there really is no need to make these fancy plays. Just wait for AQ/KQ in this situation and get paid off.

However, my win rate currently stands at about 35BB/100 so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. But, one should always strive to improve, however well they are doing.

Biggest idiot opponent

Turns out Party Poker isn't getting any less fishy now the Americans have left.

Unluckiest hand

I won't lie to you, this pissed me off.

STTs - $11s

Games (Total): 0 (24)
$ won (Total): $0 (+$22)
Current BR: $572

Didn't fancy playing any of these this week due to the party problem (which I shall go into further later).

MTTs - $11s

Games (Total): 21 (56)
$ won (Total): -$15.04 (+$129.49)
Current BR: $679.49

Played quite a few of these. Got cold-decked in quite a few. Most annoyingly was a Party Poker $11, for which 1st paid $1100. I took my 3000 chips to 12000 before we entered the bubble (which was about average stack), with only 3 showdowns, two of which I lost. I was making all the right plays at all the right times. By the time the bubble burst (almost an hour later), the average stack was 20000 and I had got my 12000 upto 35000. Immediately after the bubble with the blinds at $1200/$2400, BTN raises to $4800 and I re-push from the SB with JJ. Easy call for his whole stack (about another $15000 on top) with A6. Easy A on the river. Then KK is beaten by a short stack's QJ and I'm down to 5000. A push from the BTN with A8 and BB wakes up with AK. Hero to zero in an orbit and a half. I think I'm beginning to understand the term LOL_donkaments.

Total BR: $2149.82

Can't complain. However, my week was much more profitable than this. About 3 weeks ago, I decided to see what the fuss was about and entered one $5 stt where the winner got an entry to a weekly satellite for the party poker monster. I won it. Lovely. So I register for the weekly monster freeroll, but forget about it. I get blinded away into 1945/4250. Luckily though, top 2000 get entries into the monthly freeroll. Bonus.

A few days after I see an advert on party poker called "back to school" or something. Answer 10 questions about the monster and win a prize, either partypoints, cash or a monster monthly entry. 10 easy questions, 30 seconds, 1 monster monthly for me.

However, Party Poker decide that because of the new legislation, they are forbidding all US players from playing at the site. Bad news. Well, usually it is. But, because of this they were forced to cancel the monster and in compensation have paid a certain amount of EV for each ticket.

To my surprise, a monthly freeroll ticket was worth $350. Two of them and that's $700 in the bank. Thank you PartyPoker. Then, to keep me playing there, I also get a 50% upto $150 reload bonus. This is all very kind of them. And for now, they still have my custom. However, an issue involving rakeback for September may or may not change that shortly. We shall see.

Now, finally, I did a lot of thinking about late game strategy this week, with some pretty long winded calculations. If you are interested in STTs, I really do think that this could be an interesting post for you to read. Additionally, I would like to ask you to respond to the question I posed about your range or re-raising hands. You will know what I mean when you have read the thread.

I'm going to do a little more work on this next week, and see what I can come up with. Although, many argue that STTs are a "solved game", I do not believe this to be the case. I think with ICM and pushing has taught us how to significantly beat the game, but do not think that the game cannot be beaten by a greater degree. Anyway, here's the thread. Enjoy.

I think I'm going to update this more frequently now, maybe 3 times a week, so next post should be on Tuesday night. Until then.

skegvegaspoker