Bluff Poker Tour Event #11 & Local Poker Activity

On Wednesday I played in the 11th event on the Bluff Poker Tour, it was at http://www.checknraisepoker.com , it's one of those Java based sites that don't require you to download any software. I was hoping for a low turnout just like everyone else, but when I came home on Wednesday and logged in there were 101 people signed up for the tourney. I have been checking this site several times over the past few weeks to see what their traffic was like, and the most players I had ever seen online at the same time was 91, so the tourney almost doubled their traffic. Frankly it sucked, I don't think the site can handle 101 people in a tournament at the same time, I was getting lockups and freezes during the tournament. For example I raised pre-flop on a hand and I got a caller, the flop gave me an open ended straight draw, the person in the hand bet 800, since I started with 5000 chips I decided to call, well I tried pressing the call button and 30 seconds later it said my hand was folded because I didn't act in time. So I was fairly pissed off, and I was tired of dealing with the site, so I pushed in with AK after about an hour of play because we went up 3 blind levels, and each blind level we got to see maybe 5 -10 hands because of the problems with the site. Well when I pushed in some guy had 7 7 and I didn't catch anything and was eliminated in 82nd place, most of the top 50 went out without any points as well, so I didn't feel to bad. The tour is scheduled to go to check 'n' raise at least one more time I don't know if I can play in it then.

I noticed there are a lot more players joining the tour every week, I checked my ranking and I am in 60th place after 2 events which isn't that bad considering there have been 11 events already. The tour stop next week is at interpoker so it should be much better.


8/13/2005 - Went over to my usual poker hangout spot, it was kind of thrown together at the last minute, and since I purchased some new poker chips I was anxious to play with them LOL. I don't know what it is about new poker chips, but for some reason they make you want to play. Well we played a few games of poker, I didn't do to well in the first game I went out first actually I made two pair on the flop, but the dragon made a better 2 pair, so there wasn't much to talk about in the first game, except to say that it was quick.

We started the second tournament a little bit later, and there were more people this time becuase everyone had come back. I played better this time, the funny thing is no matter how many times I play over there, and how much I know about how people play it never makes it easier to win. I actually had a few decent hands early, and I won a few smallish pots, I made sure to avoid the aggressive people at the table, my goal was to get them out of the hand pre-flop because they could just about any type of hand. I varied between playing loose and tight this time, I was really just making sure I had fun being the loud guy at the table, I think I have a little John Rober Bellande in me LOL. I usually remember a lot of hands, but for some reason a lot of the hands are escaping me because a lot of the pots I won were uncontested raises before the flop (just how I like it). One hand of note I was sitting in the small blind and the blind were a decent size $200/$400 I think, I was dealt * * off suit which I used to think was a monster hand, but really it's almost marginal in my book now. There were a lot of limpers in the pot 5 or so I think, so it comes to me and the pot odds are looking great, and the strange part was no one seemed inclined to raise, so I figured I was dealing with a lot of drawing/marginal hands J 9's, Q 10's, 6 7's, so I took my time to think about what I wanted to do, I didn't think anyone was slow playing a monster, so I decided to raise to $2800 the reason for this raise is that I wanted to determine if anyone had a real hand, it was a bit of a risky play since I only had about $9000 chips. Everyone folded after some posturing and looking me up, I actually wasn't nervous about it though, one thing I picked up from Harrington on Hold'em is when you make risky plays try to make sure it's a hand you can win with if you get in a bind. Raising with 7 2 does not really give you many chances to win, you are in essence hoping that your raise scares everyone away. With * * you have some options, and you will be ahead in most hands except against pairs or higher kickers. I don't raise with hands that I can't win with, 5 6 suited I can win with that and I may raise with it, but 10 4 off suit is almost a waste of time. So, I managed to take down several pots with a few semi-bluffs after the flop and winning an all-in or two.

Hand of note: By now if you have heard me talk poker or read this blog, pocket pairs have been responsible for me losing about $4000 in prize money that I could have won in tournaments had I thrown them away. So, pockets are really falling out of favor with me, well I was dealt 6 6 and I raised to $1000 this was relatively early in the tourney, Monica came over the top with an all in for another $5k, heck I only had about $6k left, she does bluff from time to time, but when she is putting all her chips in pre-flop I have never seen her have just rags. I knew she didn't have a pair for sure but I knew I was dealing with at least 1 over probably 2, so I knew I was in a race situation which for me I don't usually win, the funny thing is I almost look at J J and 6 6 the same way, they are susceptible to so many hands that there isn't much you can do. So I elected to fold, she had A K which I figured, and I rabbit hunted the cards and she would have caught a K on the river, so I made the proper laydown. I would call in that spot sometimes if I feel like gambling, but I didn't feel like I would win the hand, so I folded.

I ended up busting out of the tournament in 6th place, I made an effort to Bluff FDR out of a pot, the funny part about it is at the time I felt I was in the lead. FDR called my pre-flop raise, and when I called I knew he had a fiarly week hand probably something suited, or something he could make a straight off of. I had K J and felt it was probably the best hand at the time pre-flop, when the flop came it was all clubs and low cards. FDR checked and I checked right behind him, there was something suspicious about his check, and since I knew he was playing a bunk hand I knew he could have very well caught a piece of it. The next card was a Queen, FDR bet $4000, which was his standard bet that day, I knew he didn't have a queen, for him it was a semi-bluff, a part of me still felt my King high was good, and I knew he didn't have Queen even though he tried to act like he had one, so I immediately pushed all-in, he then had a hard decision to make. The all-in play accomplished a few things, it verified to me that he didn't have a Queen, or he had a Queen with a weak kicker, he didn't have a big pocket pair, he didn't have a set, and he didn't have the flush, just like I figured he played a bunk hand and now he was in a bind. One other thing is just the fact that he was considering calling also verified that he had at least a pair, which meant I was in trouble if he did call. Eventually he called and he made a pair of 6's on the flop, and I received no help on the river.

Some people may say what the hell were you thinking? I have made that play in several tournaments and it works most of the time, and it works well against people who play bunk hands. The funny thing is next time we are in that situation I may have him beat already, there is no way he can know what I have. The thing about it is when you enter a pot with a marginal hand even if you catch a piece of it your hand is susceptible to a variety of beats that can trump it. The agony you have to go through when someone puts you to the test, and you are holding low pair on the board is a tough thing to deal with, but that's what makes this game great.

Bluff Poker Tour Event #10 - Doyle's Room Poker Site

I was reading the Bluff Magazine website and I came across a section talking about the Bluff Poker Tour, I started reading and it is a series of online poker tournaments at different poker sites on the net. The buy-in for each tournament is $30 + $3, they are held weekly, so I got excited and spent the next 2 hours signing up at the 15 or so online poker venues where the tournaments are held. The best part is you accrue points for finishing in the money, and at the end of the tour the top 2 players get free buy-ins to 4 WPT events next season. Also the winner of each tournament wins a Bluff Poker Tour chip protector from nutzchips that is worth $1000.



So the tournament this week was at Doylesroom.com, I missed the first nine events so unfortunately I have a lot of work to do, but there are still over 20 events left to go, so there is still a chance. Anyway I was excited in the days leading up to today, I was looking forward to playing some meaningful poker to see how I would do.

The first mistake I made was I got home with a foot long sub at 8:35pm, and I needed to take a shower, so once all that was done I was in front of the computer eating the sub and I hadn't given a thought to poker the entire day. So I wasn't in the right frame of mind, and on top of that I had never played on doylesroom.com before so I wasn't familiar with the interface.

The tournament starts and there are 120 players in the tourney, early on I tried to make a few plays with bluffs and semi-bluffs to get a chip lead, but bad timing and no chance to setup the bluffs made it difficult, so I was down early. The table was fairly tight then I was dealt, 10 8 suited hearts in the big blind with the blinds $30/$60, it was raised to $120 (which shows no particular strength), and there were 2 callers of the raise, so I called as well. The flop came 10 8 10 SB checked I checked someone bet $240, I waited and called everyone else folded the turn 6 he went all in I called he shows J 8, and he is drawing dead against my boat. I go up to $3500 in chips, and looking to finally be in good shape.

The tournament goes on and I get whittled down to $2000 (the starting chip amount) and I am BB, everyone else folds the SB raises to $1200 I figure he is trying to steal my blinds, so I re-raise alin and he calls showing Q Q I have AK, I catch an A on the turn to take the hand, boy was that lucky. I felt I needed to make a stand with a decent hand, and with AK the only thing I was scared of was a pair which he had, but a lucky catch saved me this time.

I then managed to increase my chip stack through a few all-ins against shorter stacks, I was behind in a few of them and I managed to win the hand. I worked hard to focus this tournament and I was playing well, I did get lucky a few times, but I went in with quality cards. I had about $8000 chips which was healthy at the time, and I managed to steal the blinds a few times because it was getting close to bubble time. Then I put a bad beat on one of the Bluff Magazine Editors (bluffmag1) he raised me and I went over the top with K 8, he called and the flop came K 8 7 he pushed all in I called and he turned over JJ I crippled his stack and he ended up being the bubble man.

I worked hard and increased my stack to $28,000 which was 4th in chips with 10 people left, I was overjoyed I made my first "Final Table", it's something I have longed to accomplish and it finally happened. I decided to try and go for the win, I was dealt 5 5 the chip leader tekhead raised in 1st position to 4500 the blinds were $600/$1200, I re-raised him to $10,500 he called, I re-raised because he built his chip stack through playing crap hands and getting very lucky on All-In calls. The flop came Q, 7, 9 tekhead immediately pushes all-in, I had seen him make that move several times with nothing, I thought about it and I felt I was in the lead still, so I called. He turns over A 5, I was correct he was bluffing (just playing horribly), well the lucky bastard caught an A on the river, if I could have won that hand I would have been in the drivers seat to win the tourney. I finished in 10th place, but I did get 51 points in my first Bluff Poker Tour Event, and some cash. Here is a link to the tournament results:

http://www.bluffpokertour.com/scheduleresults.asp?schedID=10

My first experience with the BPT was a good one, I am hoping to climb up the points scale it will be hard to catch Quackpot (the current leader who I knocked out in this tourney), but I think my game is getting better even though I am getting a bit tired of getting knocked out late in tourneys holding a pocket pair and getting beat by people catching cards. Next weeks BPT event is at http://www.checknraisepoker.com this is a very small site with not a lot of traffic, the tourney will be small, so maybe I can win one of those nutz chips.