Mad Man Poker

Yesterday, for the first time ever, I went to a casino! I actually have been dying to enter one, but since I’m only 18 years old, I can’t visit the Belgian casinos. But now I’m on vacation in Dublin, where the age limit for casinos is 18! I was really excited to enter the card club.

Even though the tournament I wanted to play in wasn’t until that evening, I went by in the afternoon to get my membership done. Upon registering, I even recieved a €10 free bet. Pretty nice! And it really felt good to have an actual casino chip in my hand. My club of choice: Fitzwilliam Card Club (link). It’s not that big of a casino, but it has a friendly atmosphere and seems to be perfectly what I expect from a casino.

In the evening, I went by again, now to actually play the tournament. That evening they were hosting a 20+5 rebuy tournament. I’ll show you the details:

Wednesday €20+5 No Limit Holdem Rebuy Tournament.

Usually between 35-50 players. Players start with 2000 chips. There are rebuys available for 1 hour. Rebuys cost €20 and players can have up to 3 rebuys. The first rebuy is worth 2000 chips, the second is worth 3000 chips, and the last rebuy (or add-on) is worth 4000 chips. Blinds go up every 20 minutes. Bonus chips 500.

You get your bonus chips if you are in your seat by the time the tournament starts. So we started off with a 2500 stack, the blind level was 25/50 and levels would go up every 25 minutes. I had a rather slow start, getting utter garbage hands. This made that I could watch my fellow players a bit, and especially in the first few levels I was baffled at the play! However I did think there would be some fishes at the table, this was even better than I hoped for. I think about 3 of the 9 players at the table – myself included – had some idea about pot control, stack sizes, bet sizes and whatnot. The others just played like they felt like. Really, if you have played TPC before, TPC has a way harder field than the one I encountered yesterday.

Sadly it is hard to exploit weak loose calling stations if you never have a hand to play with yourself, so my stack dwindled down quite a bit. By the end of level three, after which the rebuys would stop, I found myself having only 1,3K in chips! But when I finally got a somewhat decent hand, 7 7, I put all my chips in and got called by 10 6 cc. The flop was a worrying 7d 8c 5c, but my hand did held up. After the level I bought my add-on of 4K chips and was ready to start level 4 (blinds 100/200) with 6,6K in chips.

During the break that followed level 3, I went upstairs, where I saw we could have some free food! French fries, chicken nuggets and sandwiches were at our disposal. Mind you, drinks were free as well. Not that’s treating your players the way you should!

I kept pretty quiet during level 4, but level 5 introduced ante’s, which made me come to live! I’ll go over a hand from level 5.

I have a rather tight image, and only showed winners at the showdown. The blinds are 150/300 with a 25 ante and we are playing 8 handed. A player in middle position (MP) limps in. His stack is 13K at the time. I raise it up from the button with J10 of diamonds to 1100, my stack is 7200. The MP calls. Flop: KQ3. MP fires out 1600 and I call. Turn 7c. MP thinks for a little while then bets 2000. Once again I call. River brigs the 8c and MP checks. I go all in for 3,5K more and MP folds. I’m up to nearly 11K.

After that hand, I knock out 2 short stacks and run my stack up to about 16K. By this time we have reached level 8, blinds 400/800/50. I lose a huge pot with AK to a young Frenchman who rivered a flush, leaving myself with only about 3K left. I put those last 3K in UTG with J9, get called by QJ and I’m out.

Of the 5 tables that starting playing, we were only 2 when I got knocked out, so I guess I ended up like 16th out of 45 players, not even close to the money (I had no idea about the payouts). I did have a great time though! It was very nice that I finally didn’t have to deal myself in a tournament and later on in the tournament I got to talk a bit with the fellow players at my table. I had a long chat with like the funniest Turkish guy I ever met. This guy is like 70 years old, but a decent poker player. He spends his time at the tabling singing, swearing at dealers and finding nicknames for his tablemates. He named himself Ribery, by the way. The young Frenchmen I talked about earlier became Sarkozy.

I am planning to play about 20 tournaments this month, hoping to end up with positive ROI. Next tournament is coming up Friday, a 40+10+5 with scalps. I have played a ton of knockout bounty tournaments on full tilt, so I feel ready! I do think I will be playing way better than I did yesterday, because it wont be as new and intimidating anymore. Wish me luck!

Hey guys, I know it’s been a while, here’s a quick summary of what I’ve been up to:

I’ve cashed out my account at pokerstars and am currently not funded on any poker website. I decided to do this because a) I had a huge blow after some pretty good weeks and I feel like tilting, b) I’m having examinations over the coming 3 weeks, C) I’m pretty tired of the hours of grinding. I’m a person that really gets sick of things fast and so did I with internet poker. Expect no graphs or screenshots from me in the following 2 months at least. Whatever happens next, I’ve got no idea.

This doesn’t mean I’ll play less poker though. Once my examinations are over I am leaving for Dublin and looking to hit some casinos there. Come find me at the Fitzwilliam Card Club. Possibly I’ll keep a blog with my day-to-day adventures, but I’m not sure about that yet. Should I decide to do so, you’ll be able to find updates here.

I did play some live poker over the past few weeks, including TPC VII. I played great, got bored, took unnecessary risks, busted and played even better in some side games. So all in all I’m pretty happy about that day, but I’ll need to work on focus. Our home games have been rather great for me as well lately, I do think this has a lot to do with the different way I handle them, after my last losing session. It won’t work forever, but as long as it does I’m perfectly happy with it!

I found myself having a lot more spare time since I quit playing poker on the internet, which I filled up mainly by reading more books. A suggestion for all of you is the Tommy Angelo book, Elements of Poker. It’s a great work on tilt and how to avoid it, but it goes further than that. Just look into it.

The WSOP has kicked off and what a start it was. I was really looking forward to the 40K no limit hold ‘em event and so far I’ve read some amazing stuff about it. The event will be aired on ESPN the 16th of July. I can’t wait.
My fantasy wsop team has been doing ok, with Justin Bonomo at the final table in the 40K. I need him to cash big, because he is one of the few guys that no one else has in his team. I’m pretty confident though.

Next time I write, I’ll make sure to have some concrete topics to talk about, but don’t expect anything too soon.

There is a very important aspect in poker that many people neglect. It is the fact that you built history with players, which goes way beyond tagging someone as a loose or passive player. When you consistently beat the same games online, you will run into regulars. This is where the metagame kicks in. Let’s say you are in a pot with a regular. You call his Cbet and now he checks when a blank turn comes off.

Normally, you will fire here, as it is the best play in most of the cases. Now, if you consider metagame, you may opt to check behind, even though you think you are ahead and thus missing out on value. The reasoning behind this is; if you always bet in this spot, your opponent will expect you to bet and adapt. There for, it will become pretty easy for him to trap you. However, if you mix it up and check behind on a couple of occasions, your opponent will be reluctant to check his monsters to you, fearing you may check behind. This way, in future endeavours, your opponent will be more “honest” on the turn: checking when he is giving up and betting when he has it.

Another example: if you play a lot with the same people, it is correct for you to make hero calls on the river every now and then. Even though you will be wrong most of the time, you teach your opponent that they can’t just bluff you off on the river. This may look like a bad short-term move, but it’s very helpful in the long term.

My past poker week hasn’t been too great. IN the search of why this was, I settled on my metagame. Some players play totally different against me than against someone else and often I fail to adjust. This really shows in cash games. Luckily, I had some time to think this over now and came up with a totally different gameplan. I am looking forward to our NL Hold’Em session this Thursday!

We also had our HSOP #4: Omaha 8. We played 4 handed and I thought that I played rather well. I didn’t catch a lot of cards but was able to put the pressure on when needed. However, I nearly lost my entire stack in a hand I played like a beginner. I really am disappointed in myself for that hand. I managed to make a little comeback, but still went out in 3rd. At least I’m still leading the player of the year list, my main goal.

Hopefully I will have better news next week, see you then!