Poker Progress Update; My longest SNG.

Things have been going quite well for me in January.  Not including a $100 reload, my overall poker bankroll has grown above $100 in pure poker winnings.  I’m feeling very confident.

 

I am currently on an SNG roll.  I’ve been doing quite well at that definitely cashing more than losing.

 

I want to talk about yesterday’s SNG.  It was probably the longest SNG I’ve played in for quite a while.  It saw me at one point being the chip leader on the bubble and then drop to a very low stack on the bubble as well.  Here’s the story:

 

Hand 2: It was a $5 SNG.  My plan was to play tight.  Second hand, I’m dealt AQo on the button.  I’m not a big fan of AQ so I decide to limp in with this hand and see a flop cheap. 

 

THE FLOP: Ks-Td-Js

OMG, I just flopped the nut straight and I’m in position.

 

Seat 5 comes in for a minimum bet of 30.  Seat 8 makes it a standard raise of 90 and I flat call and so does seat 5.  Seat 5 comes in for a minimum raise of 60. I feel like I can do a little trapping here, my only concern is the flush draw, but only mildly concerned.  What I like is that I have two players who are battling and I’m just in for the ride.

 

THE TURN: 7c

Great card because it helps no one and makes the flush draw more difficult to call.

 

Seat 5 bet 2/3 the pot to 360. Seat 5 folds (probably the flush draw).  I make a minimum raise to 720, just to say that I’m playing this hand.  Seat 5 calls.

 

THE RIVER: Ac

This card is a little frustrating because if he has a Queen we split the pot and a lot of hard work come for nothing.

 

Seat 5 immediately put me all in for my remaining 555.  I call of course, because I have the nuts.  Seat 5 shows JTo.  He flopped two pair and overvalued his hand.

 

He was very embarrassed.  I made a few comments to help him get over the trauma but I didn’t care.  He was left with 90 and out shortly after.

 

THE BUBBLE

By the 37^th hand we reach the bubble.  This games goes on for another 92 hands before it ends.  This is how frustrating things got.  Here’s the chip stacks:

Humble Guy (me): 4060

tripJJJ: 2675 – Passive player, easy to push around.

bh4500: 3525 – Passive player, easy to push around.

big ed k: 3140 – Often overplays hands, very aggressive (try not to give him your chips)

 

I have the chip lead, but not by much.  Everyone is playing relatively tight. My strategy is to use my chip lead to whittle down my opponents.  I will come in with standard raises whenever I can and fold to an all-in if caught.

 

This pretty much worked for the next 52 hands.  Over the 52 hand span, I won 19 hands, lost 2 hands, lost 2 hands because I gave up the small blind.

 

At hand 89 here are the chip stacks:

Humble Guy (me): 5950 (+1890)

tripJJJ: 2620 (-55)

bh4500: 1815 (-1710)

big ed k: 2665 (-475)

 

The blinds are now at 150/300, meaning everyone but me is short stacked and I’m going to have to call some all-ins.  My strategy is to call an all-in when I think I have the best hand going in.

 

Hand 90:  ATo (big blind)

This is a great hand to shove in.  tripJJJ is under the gun and makes a standard raise.  I’m going to reraise all in naturally.

tripJJJ calls with J9d.  I have the best hand.

 

FLOP: 9h-6d-2s

Not a good flop. tripJJJ now has a flush draw and top pair.

 

TURN & RIVER: Qh & 8s

That was a big hit, but no worries, I’m still in it.  I’m down to 3180 chips.  Still playable.

 

Hand 91: As-Ad (small blind)

Great hand for an all in.  Bh4500 goes all in for 2265.  I call.  He shows 8d-8h.  I’m a 5:1 favorite to win.

 

FLOP: 4s-2c-8c

No freakin’ way. And the trip hold up.  I’m now down to 1065 will only 3.5 big blinds.

 

Now, I’m looking for opportunities to steal blinds and double up.  The players to my left are very passive and I know I can push them around.  I’m expecting big ed K to call me, so I want to have a strong hand with him.

 

Hand 92: 9h-8h (dealer)

I fold this hand pre flop because don’t want to go all in with a mediocre draw hand.  Ironically, I would have flopped the nut straight.

 

Hand 95: KTd (small blind)

Big ed k goes all in and I’m calling.  He shows pocket queens.

 

BOARD: Ks-8s-Ad-4d-Kc

It was right for both of us to come all-in this hand.  My hand holds up and I double up.  Big ed k is out and we’re in the money.  I’m still not out of the water yet, but I have chips to play with.

 

The funny thing is that big ed k takes the next 10 minutes to grumble about my call.  He’s calls me a donkey and can’t believe I play the way I do.  He doesn’t understand basic short stack play.  I really love putting guys on tilt.

 

The SNG continues.  I wind up busting tripJJJ.  Just as that happens, I hear a crash in another room of my house. And my wife and I investigate.  So basically I’ve abandoned my keyboard and start getting blinded off.  Bh4500 does something stupid and realizes that I’m not at my keyboard, so he goes all in at every hand.  He’s putting himself in danger, because when I return I could have had pocket Aces and busted him. 

 

That didn’t happen and I wound up winning.

 

I hope this was insightful and entertaining for you.

 

 

The Classic Slowplay

If you're up against an overly aggressive player, I have the best slowplay story to tell you.  I'm "Humble Guy" the aggressive player is collette0725 and this is the second hand of the game.

 

Full Tilt Poker Game #1544170196: $5 + $0.50 Sit & Go (11179929), Table 1 - 15/30 - No Limit Hold'em - 12:49:01 ET - 2007/01/06
Seat 2: Sheila Noya (3,090)
Seat 3: DarthSushi (1,500)
Seat 4: Ravenous (1,500)
Seat 5: Humble Guy (1,500)
Seat 6: SPOTLGHT (1,500)
Seat 7: softailman_2 (1,500)
Seat 8: LJ Postman (1,410)
Seat 9: collette0725 (1,500)
Sheila Noya posts the small blind of 15
DarthSushi posts the big blind of 30
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Humble Guy [Kc Kh]
Ravenous folds
Humble Guy raises to 120
SPOTLGHT folds
softailman_2 folds
LJ Postman folds
collette0725 calls 120
Sheila Noya folds
DarthSushi folds

 

So I'm dealt Pocket Kings in early position and I come in for a standard raise.  Basically I'm feeling pretty good about this hand and I'm willing to fold cheap if an ace hits the board.  Collette calls my raise.

*** FLOP *** [Kd 7d 8h]
Humble Guy bets 120
collette0725 raises to 510
Humble Guy calls 390

 

I just hit trip Kings.  Now's my chance to slowplay and win big.  Because this is only the second hand, no one knows me or my playing style, so I'm going to portray myself as someone who's not very experienced.  I bet the standard raise of 120.  The reason is that that appears to be a continuation bet as opposed to someone who hit big.

 

Collette reraises me, which is great.  I pause a little and I call the bet.

*** TURN *** [Kd 7d 8h] [Ac]
Humble Guy checks
collette0725 bets 870, and is all in
Humble Guy calls 870, and is all in
collette0725 shows [Qd Jc]
Humble Guy shows [Kc Kh]

 

An ace hits the turn.  The ace can appear to be a scare card.  So I continue to show weakness by checking and Collette overplays her hand and goes all in hoping to scare me out of the pot.  Of course, I call. 

*** RIVER *** [Kd 7d 8h Ac] [8c]
collette0725 shows a pair of Eights
Humble Guy shows a full house, Kings full of Eights
Humble Guy wins the pot (3,045) with a full house, Kings full of Eights
collette0725 stands up

 

And as you can see Collette was bluffing with no hand, made a horrible read of my cards and I doubled up.  I wound up coming in 2nd in this tournament. This is why I love this game of poker.

 

 

Alan Ng

 

www.mypalal.com

www.themeparkshopper.com

 

 

Poker Progress Chart

I didn't want my entry be about a big loss.  I've played a couple of SNG's and have made the money a few times.  Here's your chance to see my progress so far.  My progress chart is at this page - http://www.mypalal.com/poker/ProgressChart.cfm.

 

Alan Ng

 

www.mypalal.com

www.themeparkshopper.com

 

 

My first big loss

I could blame the fact that I'm sick, but I just got unlucky and I played badly.  I had recently won about $30 in $.50/$1 limit.  I played again.I began to lose and lose fast to the point that I almost lost what I had won previously.

 

Three factors to my losing.

 

1.  Draws that didn't pay off.  This happens a lot in limit, but I just couldn't convert a draw.

2.  Suck outs for my opponents.  I would have top pair with highest kicker and my opponent pairs his kicker on the river.

3.  Too aggressive with aggressive players.

 

Factors 1 and 2 I can live with.  That's the problem with limit and you'll win hopefully more than you'll lose.  Aggression is my problem at the moment.  I seem to take raises personally and I just need to muck when trying to be overly aggressive with my losing hands.

 

Alan Ng

 

www.mypalal.com

www.themeparkshopper.com

 

 

My Second SNG

Game Summary:

Full Tilt Poker

$5 SNG

Finished 2 out of 9

Gain: $8.00

 

The best way to sum of this game was scratch and claw your way to second place.  I was basically short stacked and battling it out with my third place opponent to make it finally to second place.

 

DON'T GO BROKE WITH TOP PAIR. Early a player was dropped because he overplayed his pocket aces.  He raised under the gun raising 9x the BB.  He's called by a guy with pocket 6's.  I probably would have folded this hand so early in the tournament.  Anyways, pocket 6's flops trips and pocket Aces will not fold but to go all in.  I'm not sure that I could fold Aces, but maybe I should learn.

 

I took a hit on the third level.  I was dealt A7s in the small blind.  3 limpers. The flop comes 8-8-7.  I have two pair.  I get to see where I stand.  I'm reraised just a little by the button.  The turn comes and I check the dealer bets all-in.  He's short stacked, I call because of odds and lose when he shows his 8.  I should not have been so aggressive because I misread the guy and I priced myself into call his all-in.

 

I'm now left with only 750 in chips and I'm approaching the short stack.  I need to find a moment to double up, which means pocket pairs or overcards.

 

5 hands later that opportunity comes.  I'm dealt KQo and I go all in.  I'm actually hoping to pick up the blinds, but I have a caller with KJ and I double up and find myself back to where I started.

 

I was a little handcuffed for the rest of the came.  It was a game of who can find themselves in second place.  Not the best game I've played but second ain't bad at this point.

 

 

Alan Ng

 

www.mypalal.com

www.themeparkshopper.com

 

 

The First Game of the Year

Game Summary:

Full Tilt Poker

$2 SNG

Finished 1 out of 9

Gain: $6.75

 

It's January 1.  2007 is only 2 hours old.  I just got back from my improv show (www.nationalcomedy.com).

 

Let's dive into a game.  I log into Full Tilt and find a $2 SNG to play.  The other games were just not filling up at the time and I wanted to get into any game ASAP.

 

I decide to use my regular SNG strategy.  Play tight in the first few level and hope to get lucky.  Then look for double up opportunities and get the medium stacks to fold.  Then play aggressive when 4-5 handed play.

 

I think the key to my success here was patience.  I was running pretty card dead the first few levels.  I maybe won only two hands and not for much.  You don't want to give up a lot of chips on mediocre hands.  Let the aggressive players win these small pots because you can use it against them later on.

 

Mistake people made.  Very quickly we lost three players.

 

Two players decide to try and double up fast in the second level.  With two limpers, the button goes all-in with 1,120 with KQo.  The big blind calls with pocket 7's.  King on the turn give it to the button and 7's are knocked out.  The problem - we have gamblers and they overplayed their hands.  KQ  wanted to steal the pot, they could have done that with a small raise.  Pocket 7's is a low to medium pair, the likelihood was that they were up against two overs.  It's just too soon to put your tournament at risk.

 

Turning points.  Throughout this game, I'm basically just trying to stay alive and look for moments to earn some chips.  It wasn't until the 10th level that things turned around.  Blinds are at 120/240 and I have 1500 in chips.  I'm battling a passive player, slowly building a pot until I finally the river hits my hand and I win a 1040 pot.  Later I'm dealt AK against the chip leader.  I go all-in against his pocket Jacks and double up with a King on the flop.

 

You've got to win races in order to win tournaments.

 

When I'm head to head, my strategy is to figure out how the other person is playing.  My opponent was playing tight.  I basically stole whenever I could and fold under aggression.  We played for almost 30 minutes, because I didn't want to go all-in with him unless I felt I could beat him.  And I finally did.

 

Finally, I'm dealt KQo and I'm faced with a large raise.  I figure I'm against a low pocket pair so I call and I'm up against 6's.  Queen on the flop and I will 90% of the chips.

 

Last hand I have A8o and I'm raised all-in again.  I call against Q-10 and I win the tournament.

 

Good start to the year.

 

Alan Ng

 

www.mypalal.com

www.themeparkshopper.com