We have come to the end of an eventful month. Despite spending a lot of time on tournaments, and a lot of money on the EPT, I still came out of February with a tidy profit from cash games. Ironically, my cash game earnings exploded when I started to focus more on tournaments. Possibly part of the explanation for that is that I played fewer tables and fewer hours, but I am sure most of it can be attributed to simple luck.
While it hasn't been a very profitable experience, playing tournaments has simply been a lot of fun, and I intend to continue for a while with those, still mixing it with cash games. The worst part of tournament poker is that the bad beats you take are really devastating, both in terms of money and hours spent. The second worst thing is how you feel you are slowly bleeding to death in the periods where you don't make that one big pay-out. On average you only make the money in roughly 15% of the tournaments you play. So on my tournament days, a typical scenario is that after 4-6 hours and playing as many as 10-12 tournaments, you are sitting with your whole investment gathered on just that one or two tables where you have gone deep. That's when you really appreciate aces in the hole, and that's when a suckout for your tournament life hurts the most. The value of those stacks deep in large tournaments is huge, and that is the curse and the charm of tournaments.
The main advantage of tournament poker is that you never lose more than your initial investment, so even after a completely failed tournament session, you are never down more money than you can win back with a decent cash game session. This provides some extra motivation, and takes away that special tournament pro feeling of bleeding to death.
In March, I have a bet with some guys at the office on who will play the most cash game table hours. I hope this will provide further motivation to put in a decent work effort. I am allowed to play a cash game or two table along with tournaments, so the tournament hobby should not interfere. Funny how a bet for a stake dinner provides more motivation than an expected hourly rate that is probably worth more than the dinner.
I wish us all a profitable month!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
EPT Day 2.
It's over. I finished in 60th place out of 460, prizes for 40. A harsh landing to be sure, but that is the way it usually is with tournaments.
The typical question after such a bust is: How do you feel? Are you just completely devastated? Actually I am not. I am quite at ease with the fact that sometimes the cards just aren't there for you to advance further. It would have really ruined my week if I busted out on a big mistake, but that wasn't the case. So yesterday I was fine with it, and hung out with the guys I know until the bubble burst. My friend Thomas Christiansen is still in it in 12th place, and I have 10% of him, so the EPT is not completely over for me yet. If he wins it all it will be my biggest poker win ever :). But after spending the last couple of days with green felt, colorfull chips, cameras rolling and 7-figured prize money, I must admit the day seems a bit grayer than usual today. It is a typical overcast danish winter day, and I wouldn't mind sitting in Casino Copenhagen among the last 40. I wouldn't mind it one bit.
I don't have lot of interesting hands to report, since I think the last 4 hours every hand was finished preflop. But here is a summary of the action.
I started the day as chip leader of the table, a status I quickly lost for good. The player to my right had a stack roughly equal to mine, and just a few hands in, he raised UTG. We both have about 50k chips, blinds are 400/800 - 100 ante. I call with AQo, all fold, pot is about 8k. The flop is QT5 with two spades, I have no spades. He checks, and I bet 5k, he calls. Turn is the 8 of spades, and he bets out 4.5k, a definite underbet that I can't really tell the meaning of. I consider raising, but elect to just call with the completed flush fraw on the board, with the intention of getting a cheap showdown. The river is another ugly spade, he shoves and I must fold.
I lost about 25% of my stack on that hand, and after that nothing went right for a while. The few raises I made was reraised, or I had to fold on the flop. I am down to 21k, when it is folded to me in CO, and I raise with AJ. A sweedish professional Bengt Sonnert raises me from the button which he has done before, and I am forced to put my foot down and shove. He calls with KQs. The flop is exciting with two of his suits, but I win the coin flip for my tournament life, crippling Bengt.
The rest of the day was back and forth between 25k and 55k, not a lot of big hands to report.
In my bust out hand, it was raised from UTG by an active player. Blinds 1200/2400 - 300 ante. He raised to about 6600, I am in UTG+3 and I look down on 88 with 40k in my stack. Calling is out of the question with my smallish stack, so it is push or fold. I shove due to the loose/weak image of UTG. Unfortunately I am called by no less than two players in late position, who wake up with AK and QQ, while UTG folds. There are about 100k in the pot, and I have 19% equity. The prize money equity of the entire pot is a staggering $100k. Unfortunately no help arrives, and I am out in 60th place. Bummer.
The typical question after such a bust is: How do you feel? Are you just completely devastated? Actually I am not. I am quite at ease with the fact that sometimes the cards just aren't there for you to advance further. It would have really ruined my week if I busted out on a big mistake, but that wasn't the case. So yesterday I was fine with it, and hung out with the guys I know until the bubble burst. My friend Thomas Christiansen is still in it in 12th place, and I have 10% of him, so the EPT is not completely over for me yet. If he wins it all it will be my biggest poker win ever :). But after spending the last couple of days with green felt, colorfull chips, cameras rolling and 7-figured prize money, I must admit the day seems a bit grayer than usual today. It is a typical overcast danish winter day, and I wouldn't mind sitting in Casino Copenhagen among the last 40. I wouldn't mind it one bit.
I don't have lot of interesting hands to report, since I think the last 4 hours every hand was finished preflop. But here is a summary of the action.
I started the day as chip leader of the table, a status I quickly lost for good. The player to my right had a stack roughly equal to mine, and just a few hands in, he raised UTG. We both have about 50k chips, blinds are 400/800 - 100 ante. I call with AQo, all fold, pot is about 8k. The flop is QT5 with two spades, I have no spades. He checks, and I bet 5k, he calls. Turn is the 8 of spades, and he bets out 4.5k, a definite underbet that I can't really tell the meaning of. I consider raising, but elect to just call with the completed flush fraw on the board, with the intention of getting a cheap showdown. The river is another ugly spade, he shoves and I must fold.
I lost about 25% of my stack on that hand, and after that nothing went right for a while. The few raises I made was reraised, or I had to fold on the flop. I am down to 21k, when it is folded to me in CO, and I raise with AJ. A sweedish professional Bengt Sonnert raises me from the button which he has done before, and I am forced to put my foot down and shove. He calls with KQs. The flop is exciting with two of his suits, but I win the coin flip for my tournament life, crippling Bengt.
The rest of the day was back and forth between 25k and 55k, not a lot of big hands to report.
In my bust out hand, it was raised from UTG by an active player. Blinds 1200/2400 - 300 ante. He raised to about 6600, I am in UTG+3 and I look down on 88 with 40k in my stack. Calling is out of the question with my smallish stack, so it is push or fold. I shove due to the loose/weak image of UTG. Unfortunately I am called by no less than two players in late position, who wake up with AK and QQ, while UTG folds. There are about 100k in the pot, and I have 19% equity. The prize money equity of the entire pot is a staggering $100k. Unfortunately no help arrives, and I am out in 60th place. Bummer.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
EPT Day 1.
I am very much alive in the EPT after a great first day for me. 174 players are left out of 460 starters, and I am in 17th place.
Here is a small recap of the big hands of Day 1. I will fill in the details freely when I can't remember the exact ones.
Half an hour in, blinds 25/50, effective stacks 10.000. UTG limps, UTG+2 raises to 200, two callers, I call from BB with 86 of clubs and UTG comes along. I can't complain when the flop comes 2c 4c 5c. I check/raise the preflop raiser to 2.000. UTG surprises everyone and possibly himself by reraising to 6.000. He is greek, and after making the raise he tries unsuccesfully to convince the dealer he wants to raise 'three'. Preflop raiser lays down aces (that's what he said, and I believe him), and I have a choice to make. I am very much afraid he has a bigger flush, but I feel he could also make the raise with a set. Since I have the 8c, that takes away several of his possible flush hands that he would limp UTG, and I thought a set was more likely. My speculations prove worthless as I push, he calls and shows 63 of diamonds for the flopped straight. He is clearly not the kind of player to worry too much about preflop ranges. He is also drawing absolutely dead, and I double up.
Last hand before the first break two hours in, blinds 50/100 (my stack is 20k), early position raise to 400, CO+1 calls (12k stack), and I 3-bet to 1500 from the button with AQo. CO+1 calls. Flop comes A97 with a flush draw. I c-bet 2.8k, and he checkraises me an amount that makes my decision a push-or-fold. I have very little fold equity. If I push and lose I am left with about 8k. My read is that he limp/calls a lot preflop, and that he has check/raised me once before in a smaller pot, but this is the first time he has put this much at stake. I make a good laydown IMO. Everyone has gone to the break, and he tells me privately he had 777. I certainly could not have made this laydown in a cash game (3-bet preflop 110BBs), so my mission to think more like a tournament player was succesfull in this case.
Shortly after the break, blinds 75/150, all folds to CO who steals, I 3-bet with AJ of diamonds, I forget the bet sizes, but I guess the pot is around 2400, and our stacks are both around 15k. The flop comes AhQd4h. He checks to me, and I creatively check behind. The pot is plenty big enough already IMO. Turn is 5d, and I pick up a flush draw. He bets the pot strongly, and I call. I consider to use my flush outs as an excuse for a raise, but I don't see him folding better hands, and I am not really scared of the heart draw. River is a blessed 8d, he bets 5.5k, and after a good show of thinking I obviously shove the nuts. He is shaken up by this and after significant anguish he makes a good laydown with 444. My stack is now 24k.
I then stack a poor guy with a set of kings over a set of sevens, giving me a stack of 34k.
After this, a long period of nothing special happened, until 40 minutes before the end of day 1. Blinds are 300/600 - 75 ante, I have about 28k chips. UTG raises, UTG+2 reraises to 4k, I am in the SB and look down on the sweet aces. I 4-bet to 12k, and UTG+2 who is a talker, talks for about 5 minutes about his decision before calling. He has me covered, but only by about 6k, so this is serious business for him also. I REALLY don't wanna bust 30 minutes before the end of day 1, so when I see the low flop, I am very relieved and shove after making another good show of thinking. I guess I could have slow played it since he seemed to have a good hand, but I just wouldn't be able to bear it if he picked up a set on the turn on that account. After another 5 minutes of talking he folds, and my stack is now 41k and regain the chip lead at the table. The last 20 hands, nobody wants to bust, allowing me to run over the table and bring my stack to 50.7k, which is what I will start with in a few hours.
Now that my focus has moved from just making it a good experience to actually making some money, I must admit I am strangely less excited about my situation. The payout structure is so top heavy, that even after a great day one it is extremely unlikely I make a big pay day. Even if I take 10th place, the prize money is little more than another big tournament entry after my backers have taken their share. Conclusion: Full speed ahead, skipper. Crawling into the money holds no interest for me, its do or die. I play for the win now!
Here is a small recap of the big hands of Day 1. I will fill in the details freely when I can't remember the exact ones.
Half an hour in, blinds 25/50, effective stacks 10.000. UTG limps, UTG+2 raises to 200, two callers, I call from BB with 86 of clubs and UTG comes along. I can't complain when the flop comes 2c 4c 5c. I check/raise the preflop raiser to 2.000. UTG surprises everyone and possibly himself by reraising to 6.000. He is greek, and after making the raise he tries unsuccesfully to convince the dealer he wants to raise 'three'. Preflop raiser lays down aces (that's what he said, and I believe him), and I have a choice to make. I am very much afraid he has a bigger flush, but I feel he could also make the raise with a set. Since I have the 8c, that takes away several of his possible flush hands that he would limp UTG, and I thought a set was more likely. My speculations prove worthless as I push, he calls and shows 63 of diamonds for the flopped straight. He is clearly not the kind of player to worry too much about preflop ranges. He is also drawing absolutely dead, and I double up.
Last hand before the first break two hours in, blinds 50/100 (my stack is 20k), early position raise to 400, CO+1 calls (12k stack), and I 3-bet to 1500 from the button with AQo. CO+1 calls. Flop comes A97 with a flush draw. I c-bet 2.8k, and he checkraises me an amount that makes my decision a push-or-fold. I have very little fold equity. If I push and lose I am left with about 8k. My read is that he limp/calls a lot preflop, and that he has check/raised me once before in a smaller pot, but this is the first time he has put this much at stake. I make a good laydown IMO. Everyone has gone to the break, and he tells me privately he had 777. I certainly could not have made this laydown in a cash game (3-bet preflop 110BBs), so my mission to think more like a tournament player was succesfull in this case.
Shortly after the break, blinds 75/150, all folds to CO who steals, I 3-bet with AJ of diamonds, I forget the bet sizes, but I guess the pot is around 2400, and our stacks are both around 15k. The flop comes AhQd4h. He checks to me, and I creatively check behind. The pot is plenty big enough already IMO. Turn is 5d, and I pick up a flush draw. He bets the pot strongly, and I call. I consider to use my flush outs as an excuse for a raise, but I don't see him folding better hands, and I am not really scared of the heart draw. River is a blessed 8d, he bets 5.5k, and after a good show of thinking I obviously shove the nuts. He is shaken up by this and after significant anguish he makes a good laydown with 444. My stack is now 24k.
I then stack a poor guy with a set of kings over a set of sevens, giving me a stack of 34k.
After this, a long period of nothing special happened, until 40 minutes before the end of day 1. Blinds are 300/600 - 75 ante, I have about 28k chips. UTG raises, UTG+2 reraises to 4k, I am in the SB and look down on the sweet aces. I 4-bet to 12k, and UTG+2 who is a talker, talks for about 5 minutes about his decision before calling. He has me covered, but only by about 6k, so this is serious business for him also. I REALLY don't wanna bust 30 minutes before the end of day 1, so when I see the low flop, I am very relieved and shove after making another good show of thinking. I guess I could have slow played it since he seemed to have a good hand, but I just wouldn't be able to bear it if he picked up a set on the turn on that account. After another 5 minutes of talking he folds, and my stack is now 41k and regain the chip lead at the table. The last 20 hands, nobody wants to bust, allowing me to run over the table and bring my stack to 50.7k, which is what I will start with in a few hours.
Now that my focus has moved from just making it a good experience to actually making some money, I must admit I am strangely less excited about my situation. The payout structure is so top heavy, that even after a great day one it is extremely unlikely I make a big pay day. Even if I take 10th place, the prize money is little more than another big tournament entry after my backers have taken their share. Conclusion: Full speed ahead, skipper. Crawling into the money holds no interest for me, its do or die. I play for the win now!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Getting excited.
I am following the live updates from day 1A of the EPT, as I look forward to tomorrow. Two friends from the office where I play are in action now, and Matthias Andersen is one of the chip leaders near the end of day 1A. Go Matthias!!!
Yesterday I went home and made about $6000 in cash games after my early tournament exit, so despite dismal tournament results since Friday, I am quietly confident for tomorrow. I am already up a healthy amount for the month, so I am calmly prepared to meet the destiny dished out by the poker gods. My first modest hope for the tournament is simply to get in the game with some decent cards, and not be forced to sit and fold for hours. But all I can do now is relax, wait, and cheer for Matthias!
Yesterday I went home and made about $6000 in cash games after my early tournament exit, so despite dismal tournament results since Friday, I am quietly confident for tomorrow. I am already up a healthy amount for the month, so I am calmly prepared to meet the destiny dished out by the poker gods. My first modest hope for the tournament is simply to get in the game with some decent cards, and not be forced to sit and fold for hours. But all I can do now is relax, wait, and cheer for Matthias!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Live tournaments are rigged.
In preparation for the EPT Main Event, I played a warmup tournament at Casino Copenhagen this evening, a 5000kr. (~$1000) event with 100 players. The tournament lasted 20 minutes for me, then I called an early position raise with AQ from late position. The board came QT7 with a flush draw that I had none of. We were 50BBs deep, and I raised his c-bet. I now had 20 BBs invested, and he 3-bet, effectively putting me all-in. My reads were limited after only 20 minutes. He had been active early on, 3-betting from the blinds and then folding to a 4-bet, and limping with 58s from early position (he flopped a straight and stacked a donk).
I called and he showed QQ.
It is not a bust I am particularly proud of, but as a cash game player, getting away from TPTK 50 BBs deep is just against my nature :). I have no doubt that it is situations like this that seperate the great live players from the good ones. Making the correct decision is so dependant on physical reads and subjective opinions of your opponent.
The cash game/online player will typically focus on the given pot odds of a situation like this. He will focus on the fact that he is getting 7 to 3 on his investment, knows little about his opponent and he will assume there is always a decent chance of a bluff or draw. The live tournament expert will focus on the physical tells of his opponent. He will have studied an opponent and have an impression of his demeanor with strong and weak hands. If he knows he is beat by an overpair or set, well then 7 to 3 pot odds aren't good enough for a call, and it is not close. With the rock solid reads that are sometimes available live, you will see fantastic calls and folds that would be huge mistakes online, due to the anynomity of opponents and inherent uncertainty of their skills.
If you read my WSOP entries from last summer, these thoughts are not new to me, and it is clearly the area where I have my largest deficiency compared to the tournament pros. Technically and strategy wise I can always get better of course, but I believe I am much closer to the top in these areas. When it comes to reading people and putting an opponent on a hand, there are players in the field that are in a completely different class than myself and my fellow online pros.
In my opinion, the most important issue for me right now is not to develop better reads, that is something that can only be done through lots and lots of playing hours at the green felt. What I need to focus on is the mind set that reads are in fact very important when playing live. Once I have that focus, I will trust my reads more, make better use of my eyes and ears, and start to make decisions that are not always founded in solid cash game strategy.
I am playing Wedensday at 2pm local time, channel your luck my way!
I called and he showed QQ.
It is not a bust I am particularly proud of, but as a cash game player, getting away from TPTK 50 BBs deep is just against my nature :). I have no doubt that it is situations like this that seperate the great live players from the good ones. Making the correct decision is so dependant on physical reads and subjective opinions of your opponent.
The cash game/online player will typically focus on the given pot odds of a situation like this. He will focus on the fact that he is getting 7 to 3 on his investment, knows little about his opponent and he will assume there is always a decent chance of a bluff or draw. The live tournament expert will focus on the physical tells of his opponent. He will have studied an opponent and have an impression of his demeanor with strong and weak hands. If he knows he is beat by an overpair or set, well then 7 to 3 pot odds aren't good enough for a call, and it is not close. With the rock solid reads that are sometimes available live, you will see fantastic calls and folds that would be huge mistakes online, due to the anynomity of opponents and inherent uncertainty of their skills.
If you read my WSOP entries from last summer, these thoughts are not new to me, and it is clearly the area where I have my largest deficiency compared to the tournament pros. Technically and strategy wise I can always get better of course, but I believe I am much closer to the top in these areas. When it comes to reading people and putting an opponent on a hand, there are players in the field that are in a completely different class than myself and my fellow online pros.
In my opinion, the most important issue for me right now is not to develop better reads, that is something that can only be done through lots and lots of playing hours at the green felt. What I need to focus on is the mind set that reads are in fact very important when playing live. Once I have that focus, I will trust my reads more, make better use of my eyes and ears, and start to make decisions that are not always founded in solid cash game strategy.
I am playing Wedensday at 2pm local time, channel your luck my way!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Gearing up for the EPT.
After the holiday it's time to get serious again. Going on a safari is a very expensive vacation, my bank accounts are hungry, and the European Poker Tour is coming up next week in Casino Copenhagen close to my home. I will probably be one of the select few players in the tournament arriving on a bicycle.
As you know, I am not a tournament expert, so a bit of preparation is in order. As you may recall, I played 3 WSOP events last summer, but unfortunately I haven't been able to follow that up with more live tournaments since then. The biggest difference between tournament play and cash game play is the stack sizes. For most of the tournament, players are struggling to stay alive as the blinds grow, so efficient stack sizes quickly dwindle far below the 50-200BB starting stacks. The small stack sizes, or rather the huge blinds have a significant impact on the dymamics of the game, for example there will often be little or no post flop play. Back in the days (a little over one year ago) I was purely a Sit'n'Go tournament player, so I believe I still have a good feel for the tournament dynamics. The last year as a cash game pro should be more than adequate to handle the first levels of deep stack poker. In this event starting stacks are 200BB.
What I need now is to get it all together and improve my sharpness and feel. I am dedicating this week to playing as many multi table tournaments as I can cram into it. On Monday I am playing a $1000 warm up event live at Casino Copenhagen. Tuesday I will just relax and maybe drop by the casino to view the Day 1A action, and by Wedensday I should be prepared to kick ass. As some of you may know, I carry a good mental baggage from when I won the Partypoker Sunday tournament a while back for $95k. Although that experience is far behind me, I know from personal experience that it is possible to go far, and I am not afraid of choking come crunch time.
I got a head start last night as I played my first two MTT's in a while. Both were $55 tournaments, one on Party (~500 players) and one on Crypto (~250 players). That experiment was a success to put it mildly. I took 21st on party for $150 and I won the Crypto tournament for $3600! Those were both extraordinary results, and quite a way to start my MTT experience. Meanwhile I also destroyed two tables of 1000NL and pulled home $7500 on 550 hands. Of course I don't need to tell anyone how disgustingly lucky I was on both accounts, but who am I to complain? What a 'welcome back' that was.
As you know, I am not a tournament expert, so a bit of preparation is in order. As you may recall, I played 3 WSOP events last summer, but unfortunately I haven't been able to follow that up with more live tournaments since then. The biggest difference between tournament play and cash game play is the stack sizes. For most of the tournament, players are struggling to stay alive as the blinds grow, so efficient stack sizes quickly dwindle far below the 50-200BB starting stacks. The small stack sizes, or rather the huge blinds have a significant impact on the dymamics of the game, for example there will often be little or no post flop play. Back in the days (a little over one year ago) I was purely a Sit'n'Go tournament player, so I believe I still have a good feel for the tournament dynamics. The last year as a cash game pro should be more than adequate to handle the first levels of deep stack poker. In this event starting stacks are 200BB.
What I need now is to get it all together and improve my sharpness and feel. I am dedicating this week to playing as many multi table tournaments as I can cram into it. On Monday I am playing a $1000 warm up event live at Casino Copenhagen. Tuesday I will just relax and maybe drop by the casino to view the Day 1A action, and by Wedensday I should be prepared to kick ass. As some of you may know, I carry a good mental baggage from when I won the Partypoker Sunday tournament a while back for $95k. Although that experience is far behind me, I know from personal experience that it is possible to go far, and I am not afraid of choking come crunch time.
I got a head start last night as I played my first two MTT's in a while. Both were $55 tournaments, one on Party (~500 players) and one on Crypto (~250 players). That experiment was a success to put it mildly. I took 21st on party for $150 and I won the Crypto tournament for $3600! Those were both extraordinary results, and quite a way to start my MTT experience. Meanwhile I also destroyed two tables of 1000NL and pulled home $7500 on 550 hands. Of course I don't need to tell anyone how disgustingly lucky I was on both accounts, but who am I to complain? What a 'welcome back' that was.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Back from Africa.
I am back from a spectacular vacation in Africa. The first week we toured Tanzania. The main goals were the Serengeti National Park and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. It was a spectacular safari, in which we saw all of 'the big five' (the big five includes the lion, buffalo, elephant, leopard and rhino), and many other beasts, often close up. I never expected to get so close to so many wild animals, but it turned out to be a regular National Geographic experience, live. I do think we were very lucky with the animals on this safari, though, such a success is not standard. I just run good on safaris.
Here is a video of a lunch break in the Ngorongoro crater. This is my first attempt at sharing a video with you, I hope it works. To top it all off, quite litterally, we went on a balloon safari over the Serengeti plains. A fantastic experience seeing the sunrise over the plains from above. We flew right over a big herd of buffalo. Not sure what they thought of us, but they ran away when we went down to a few meters above them. We had a ton of other great experiences, but I am sure everyone has better things to do. We finished off with a week of beach and sun in Zanzibar.
Now it's back to business. Next week the European Poker Tour comes to town, and I am in it. I will update very soon on my ideas on how to handle that.
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