Robert Eckman's Personal Blog - Poker

Tournament Poker is a godsend

nospam@example.com (Robert Eckman) — Wed, 15 Jun 2005 01:56:20 -0400

first some other news

Been a while since I've made an entry... That's because I've been sort of busy and sort of inbetween things. First of all, I moved. I no longer live in that cramped room called an apartment. No longer do I hear fire trucks racing by at 3 in the morning with their lights and sirens on. No longer do I feel the desire to avoid inviting friends to my place. Instead, I live in a five bedroom home. All by myself, with an exception to Ricky (my cat) of course! So far, it's great! I can play music loud. There are no paper thin walls. I can stretch my arms out and not always knock something over. I can even invite people and have a party (like I did last friday), and not be so crowded that I'm bumping into everyone when I reach over to grab a drink. No... apartment life is now a part of the past. Hello Home style living! Oh yeah, that reminds me. I've got a real kitchen. It has a dishwasher, a big fridge, and a great oven/range cooker. There's places to put my dishes, and there's places to put my food. In the basement, there's an actual washer and dryer! Plus another fridge (dedicated to coke and booze of course). So... How did I get all this? Well, it's actually my dad's place. He decided to pack up and get a taste of the slow life in the country 25 miles out. He asked me to come in and take over the place and watch over it as if it was my own. "Someday Rob, this may be your house, so watch over it like it is yours." "Yes sir!" In the meantime, I'll eventually be getting roommates and collecting rental income for my dad, but for now, it's great to have the place to myself.

Now to the topic at hand... Tournament poker. I've been playing it very strong lately. After having an absolutely horrid month in May where I lost several hundred dollars, I was approaching a point where I felt like everything was going wrong in my life. Finals... Deadlines... Term Papers... All of those things were hanging around my head in May and it totally affected my game. In fact, I shouldn't of played at all, because I really didn't have time to be fooling around with poker when there were so many other pressing issues on hand, but I was looking to escape, and that did not translate well on the tables. Fortunately, as I got school behind me, I entered in a $5000 guaranteed tournament on Empire ($25+2) and did extremely well. Finishing 4th overall out of a field of 219 players. It helped salvage my draining bankroll by providing $438. Finally, my faith in poker and my abilities was restored.

I entered in a few more guaranteed tourneys on Empire, and did well, but fell short and made a few really bad moves. With no more wins, I took my money to the NL tables. Limit is my game, but after having a talk with Hopy (a friend), I realized I could probably play NL more profitably. With his help, I started to understand and get a good feel for the NL $25 tables. I also went ahead and opened my Party account and cleared the deposit bonus. No sooner had I cleared that deposit, I received another bonus opportunity at Party, and I went on to clear that too. Having always been an Empire player (party skin), I was used to smaller tournaments of around a few hundred players. But on Party, I saw there were tournaments with over a thousand players, and in some cases more than two thousand players. With elusive prizes for those lucky enough to make the final table, I wondered if it was ever possible for a player like myself to wade thru such a field and finish high in the money to make the whole effort count.

So I compared my buy in fees... Empire had 5k and 10k tourneys that charged between 25 to 100 for entry, while Party had 18k and 30k tourneys that charged between 20 and 50 for entry. I decided enough of paying 25+2 for a chance to win a part of 5k, and yes to paying 20+2 to win a part of 30k. The field would be large, but if I stuck to my game, avoided making mistakes, I could easily make it to the money which usually started around 220 or 180 places. Carefully, I selected my tournaments and bought into them. I didn't win the first 3 or 4 tournaments, nor did I place real far, but I watched and got a feel for the game. I noticed an interesting trend:
Large field tourneys take about the same amount of time as a smaller field tourney. About 1/3 to 2/3 the field will drop out every hour. Meaning, if you started with 1800 people, by the end of the first hour, you will probably have about 900 people left. At the end of the second hour, there will be about 400 players left. If you can make it past the third hour, you're pretty much guaranteed in the money as only 200 players or less should remain.

June 13th 7:45pm... The cable guy finally arrives at my house and hooks up my internet. 8:15pm, I browse over to party poker and see they have their 30k guaranteed starting in 30 minutes. 8:43pm, I register for the tournament with two minutes to spare. I'm in good spirits, and I'm just hoping to make it far in the tournament, but the 7.8k first prize looks good. I keep the prize amount in my head to remind me what I'm shooting for. 1872 players sign up. After two hours, I realize I'm getting very close to making the money. I'm doing okay, but I'm not a dominate chipstack. All this will change in the third hour as I finally get the cards and the calls I need to make my way up the ladder. Hour 4 rolls in and I'm already guaranteed $200, but I set my sights on making the final table which will pay $374+ minimum. Hour 5, and I finally arrive at the final table. There's an Aura of excitement, a Zen feeling of control. Here's how the first hand went down. blinds 7500/15000. I have a stack of 233,000 chips. I look down in my position of UTG+1 and see 88. I do my standard raise of 3x BB (45,000). folds to CO, who is chipleader and very unpredictable. It's my first time at the table with him. He pushes his whole stack in the pot, and the rest of the table folds to me. Decision time. Inside, I'm annoyed that this jerk has pushed on me. It almost looks like he's totally stealing and trying to push me around. However, I take a quick look at the payout, and the chipstacks on the table. Since I'm the 4th largest stack... there no reason I should risk my whole stack on a pair of 8s. Even if he has a crapshoot hand like J9, it's still a coinflip that I may win. Folding is the best option in this position since the pay out between the different places of 10th to 1st are so dramatically high. If I win, I'm in a good position to win the tourney, but if I loose, I'm out in 10th, and only collect about $374 where if I just wait for some of these smaller stacks to bust out, I can make much more money. So, I fold. My opponent tells me he had AQ. If he's telling the truth, then it is a coinflip just as I imagined. Why risk 100% of your stack on a 50/50 shot, when you can fold now, and wait for a much stronger advantage while you progress the money ranking ladder? I don't bother to tell him what I had... Final table was nuts, with all-in being made by just about every player. Nobody was willing to call any of these, until 30 minutes later when a short stack made an all in with 55 and got called by a big stack's AJ and got busted. Finally, I could feel the money coming closer... soon someone fell in 9th and 8th and 7th.
Took a while for 6th and 5th... Then 4 handed... I'm guaranteed $2240.60 now, and I feel very comfortable and in control. I open up and make more loose and aggressive plays. My 55 beats a AJo call, I have about 600,000 chips. I do a few plays, but can't get much going. Then this hand... K6o I open up for about 228k. I get called by chipleader. flop is J65. I have middle pair. I check (probably a big mistake now that I look back at it), and big stack pushes. I quickly call, because 4 handed, you can win with crap like K6 2nd pair or even Queen high junk. He shows QT for no pair and a runner runner straight draw. I'm ahead, and I'm happy as hell for making the call. Turn comes out an ugly ten. I hold my breath as I chant "King or six!" But no dice... river is a queen, and my fate is sealed as 4th place. I gasp in a muttering "No...." and then this window pops up. "Holy shit!", I exclaim as the realization of 6 hours of poker has earned me enough money to allow me to buy a brand new state of the art computer or state of the art large screen HDTV if I wanted to. In which I immediately begin to smile and dance around my room.

Thanks Poker!

freeroll tourny

nospam@example.com (Robert Eckman) — Mon, 08 Nov 2004 23:55:00 -0500

Came 8th out of 367 in a $250 freeroll texas hold 'em limit game. won $7.5 Didn't care if I won or not, in fact, didn't really want to play, but I kept winning My Stats: Hands Played: 165 Hands Won: 18% Showdowns Won: 77% Flops Seen: 34% Win% if Flops Seen: 50%

a little poker luck

nospam@example.com (Robert Eckman) — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 00:09:00 -0400

I went to the $.50/$1.00 tables with $25 and doubled it in an hour to 55 dollars. Played smart, and had some nice breaks. What got me going was a pair of red fives in EP. I decided to call... , got raised late by a habitual raiser. Called, and saw the flop, 4,3, 8 rainbow. I felt like I had the best hand at the point, so I bet it out. a couple fold, and the turn is a 10, putting a heart draw on the board. I bet again, and get callers... now I'm worried that someone has me beat with an 8 or a 10, however my fears are rested as a 5 comes on the river, giving me a set. I all I have to worry about now are those playing a bigger set like 8s or 10s, but there wasn't any raising, so I'm pretty confident. someone raises, and I reraise. they drop out, and it goes into showdown with one opponent all in early. and I take the pot... about 15 dollars. The other great hand I had was the A/2s hearts. Again I'm in EP, and even though this isn't a good call in EP, I have a feeling I should play it because of the suited ace. It gets raised late, and I put him on A/K or A/Q and call the reraise. as we go into the flop there are 5 guys seeing it. Flop comes out 6s 6h Kh. I know I'm up against two pair at this point, but I have a heart flush draw. there's action, and I call the double bet, one folds. Turn is a 7c... Again, there is betting action, and I wearly call, hoping I'll get the flush and that it doesn't flop a heart 7. River is a 3h, and I am confidnet that nobody has a boat. Someone bets, I reraise. they call. I win 20 dollars with my ace high heart flush. and so ended my rush, as I decided it was time for bed. 30 bucks for less then an hour's worth of work isn't bad. In short, I got lucky on some hands and did some major suckerage to some players, but I've been way over due to win some big suckouts.

Poker books and luck

nospam@example.com (Robert Eckman) — Sun, 11 Jul 2004 19:23:00 -0400

So... Friday night, with nothing to do, I went to Fo-Du-luth Casino in downtown Duluth, and played some poker. Won a 120 dollars, and ran into my mother by chance. She was surprised, but asked for some money, which I gave.

so far, I'm feeling pretty good about poker, with 200 dollars in winnings for the week. So I decide to buy a poker book... "Winner's guide to Texas Hold 'em Poker".... I've read more then half of it so far, and it doesn't seem much help, since most of it seems to be common sense stuff...

But so, I decide to test my new founded knowledge this afternoon. This time, though, the tables were running higher stakes then before... (3-6$ instead of 2-4$ which I played). I don't like risking a whole lot. I didn't feel comfortable at the table either, and no matter what I did, I couldn't get a good hand. I folded on a Q-3 pre-flop, and then on the flop, a Q and 3 came up. a final 3 came up on the turn, and I realized I would of had a full house. Normally, I don't fold a high card, but the book I've been reading says I should never hold on a card less then say... a T, T. True, it's right, but flops don't Always have high cards in them. If I had stayed, I probably would of won a 50 to 60 dollar pot. Instead, I lost all my money (60 dollars)... and on my "all in" hand, I was holding an unsuited Bigslick (King diamonds, and Ace spades)... flop came up with three diamonds, and then the turn was a diamond, so I had the flush, King high. I went all in.... and the pot got up to about 100 dollars, but when I watched this guy call my bet, and raise.... I realized he must have the Ace of Diamonds.... and he did. He was holding pocket aces, with the diamond. Ace high flush beats a King high flush, and that was the end of the game for me. I played maybe for an hour, and didn't get a single pot. How frustrating! But, it's only a temporary set back, I'm still up 140 in winnings, and next time, I'll go ahead and be pacient, and wait for the 2-4 tables instead of going to a higher limit table when I'm just starting out my night.