Saturday, April 26, 2008

$50-No Limit event

309 players
Bummer--because I was in 3rd place at the final table.
Got rivered and knocked out in 8th place.
All that work for a net win of $250. Awful.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

No-Limit Poker Event: $50-$50,000 guarantee event

I entered an $8 satellite to the Fifty fifty on Full tilt. Won a seat...with 30 minutes to go.

984 players
Ended up 45th
Net winnings of $150 or so...6 hours (including the satellite)...for $150...good grief.

I made all the right plays...

At the start, I built chips quickly on two hands:

1. I had 10-10..A player under the gun raised the $30 BB to $270...a huge raise. I called. The flop was Q-4-2. He bet $385 into the $585 pot. I figured he either had top pair with A-Q, J-J, or A-K. I called to see what would happen on the turn. On the turn, the 6 hit. He bet the pot or $1,170...but, the bet was too fast. I called.
The turn was a 5. He moved in. Again, it was too fast. You have to at least think that the card may have helped me. I called. He had A-K and was gone.

2. A-A....A player limped in, so I raised 4 times the BB. I got 7 callers! Oh no...too many opponents. I was ready to fold. The flop came 9-7-4 with no flush draw. I bet the pot which was $300. One player raised me to $600. I just called. The pot was the size of both of our chip stacks. The turn paired the 7. He moved in. I called. He had 9-8 and got knocked out.

So, after the first hour I was up to $7,000...that's where I stayed for almost the next two hours. I finally got a couple of good wins...which put me in a good chip position with $27,000...I was at the lead at my table.

But, one hand cost me...I raised in middle position with A-5 of hearts. SB called.

Flop was 6-7-2 with one heart. Both of us checked.

Turn was the 4 of hearts. He checked. He had $6,000 left. I had an inside straight and a flush draw. I figured he was weak since he checked twice...I bet $3,000...and he moved all-in. I had to call, of course. He slowplayed pocket Q's--talk about playing backwards.

If I hit on the river--I'd have $41,000 and be in the top 10. However, I got no help...oh well. Went down to $13,000.

I built it back up to $18,000...and with 90 players left, I got moved to a new table.

The seat was card dead...and slowly but surely the chips bled with no opportunity to steal or make a play.

With $8,000 and the BB at $1,200..I moved all in with 3-3 and ran into 7-7. That's poker.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Razz Poker Tournament-$5,000 Guarantee

Finished 9th which was on the bubble....took four hours to lose $75.

Tournament Poker: No Limit results not Razz

Since I had recently completed the draft of my new No-Limit tournament book, I decided to put what I learned into action.

Sunday: Oaks Card Room--hadn't played at a live club in over 6 months. Ended up making a mistake near the end--I decided to set up a trap and check the turn, hoping my opponent would bet. He didn't and the river card resulted in a chopped pot. I finished 4th out of 132 players..winning about $1,200. (Overall, I got lucky and unlucky at that event.)

Monday: Full Tilt--$20,000 guarantee, rebuy event. Finished 4th here as well. Last hand was my A-Q versus 5-5. In retrospect, I should have used a "Stop-and-go" move. Won about $1,900. (Overall, I had a lot more luck than usual to finish 4th. For a long time, it seemed the software was helping me out.)

So...while I'm getting lucky at no-limit and in that mindset of "Risk is good," I'm holding off on Razz.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Rounders Radio, Lou Krieger and Razz Poker interview

I was interviewed by Lou Kreiger on Thursday to talk about Razz and my Razz poker book. He has a weekly show on www.roundersradio.com every Thursday night from 6-7 pm Pacific.

It was very nice of him to invite me to his show and allow me an hour of time. Outside of a silly call upfront from "peeps," the interview went well. We talked about the new information in the book that is based on probabilities from hand simulations. He plugged the book a lot. The only thing I should have done is set the show up better and explained the game at the start since I'm not sure people know much about Razz poker.

He also suggested that I do a signing at Gamblers Book now that they have my book in stock.

At the end, I talked about the new No-limit tournament reference book and asked for poker bloggers to contact me regarding feedback. I got a few takers to help out...I don't know if any really had a blog though.

Looking forward to the new book, as I've received some positive feedback so far, and the FTOPS events in early May. I haven't played any Razz for some time now...I am totally out of practice. One thing I'm going to be tested is the concept of EV--I don't think Expected Value has much of a role in tournament play.

www.roundersradio.com will have the Razz poker interview posted as a podcast so anyone can listen.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Back to Razz Poker

$8/$16...Won over $200....yes, the book system does work. I played one hand I shouldn't have been in and lost 8-7-5-x-x to my 8-7-6-x-x. I deserved to lose.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

No-Limit Rebuy event-$150 entry...

Since I just finished the first draft of the No-Limit book, I had to put it into practice...But only Finished 15th...Net win $90.

Made a couple of mistakes and two big laydowns.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

$5,000 Razz Guarantee....

I tried way too many steals, with inferior starting hands. I guess I got a little over anxious. next time I'll have to tighten up a little. Heck, I should have used the Razz strategies in my book....Doh!

Monday, April 7, 2008

Play Razz Poker to Win: Razz player Book reviews

I was happy to find that the two best Razz blogs gave my book great reviews. Check out www.bickmat.com and www.brickinthenutz.blogspot.com (April 6, 2008).

I was even happier to see that Bickmat's Razz Poker Journey got a financial boost from reading the book, as he made some slight adjustments in his Razz game and as a result won over $300 in a few days at the $1/$2 and $2/$4 tables!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

From Razz to No Limit...

I've been too busy working on another poker book to play Razz poker. This new book is about something called No-limit tournament poker. Not sure it's as popular as Razz, but I haven't been able to find much on the topic...well, outside the 2.8 million search results when I Google it.

With so much material on No-limit, what could I add to the market?

Stay tuned...the ebook should be ready in 2 weeks, and I should have my book on amazon starting March 1st. When you buy Gus Hansen's new poker book on amazon you'll need to buy another no-limit book to get free shipping, right? That's how mine will be a best seller...

What's Your Poker IQ?