Single Table SNG's vs. MTT's why I chose MTT's

I have been playing MTT's just about every night, and I try to make sure I play at least 1 per night, but end up with usually 3 or 4 under my belt. I am doing small field sizes 45 or so players, and once I get efficient and proficient at that I will move up to larger fields. I have made 3 consecutive final tables in these 45 person tournaments, I have scored a 1st place finish yet because I still need to figure out how to get more chips going into the final table. The competition in these lower limit MTT's is relatively weak, wild, and unpredictable which actually makes them quite interesting at times. I am anxious to get up a few levels though.

The reason I chose MTT's over SNG's is that SNG's are not real poker, and what I mean by that is SNG's have a set strategy there are hundreds of articles published about how to win at a 1 - table SNG. Basically it comes down to blind stealing, and pushing all in when they get big enough to make it worth it. You have to change gears at the right time in SNG's, and for the most part the biggest skill to have in SNG's is chip management, and there are ICM calculators out there to help you make the correct decisions based on stack size. The main reason for this is there are a fixed amount of chips in play since it's one table, so you aren't going to get a guy moved to your table with a large stack there are only X number of chips in play period. Once the blinds get big it becomes a crap shoot even if you are the chip leader, that's why the all-in play late in SNG's is so powerful.

I am eventually going to be playing everything again from cash games, SNG's, and all variants of poker, but focusing on tournament strategy is big for me right now. I already play SNG's fairly well when I don't get bored with them, and I am decent at cash games. MTT's have always been up and down for me (Like they should), but I feel I have left some decent cashes on the table by making stupid mistakes, so I am out to iron out those glitches.

I continued playing my 5 table tournaments last night and I cashed in 4th place in the only one I played. The tournament was interesting because there was about an Hour delay because of network problems in the middle and it threw off my rhythm a little bit. Here are a few blogworthy hands:

This is an example of taking pots down with continuation bets:

nuttygoon posts the small blind of 250
Templeformer posts the big blind of 500
The button is in seat #9
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to The-Marksmen
sucat folds
BIMH folds
SDPlayboy folds
gottadance71 folds
The-Marksmen raises to 1,000
nuttygoon folds
Templeformer calls 500
*** FLOP ***
Templeformer checks
The-Marksmen bets 1,000
Templeformer folds
Uncalled bet of 1,000 returned to The-Marksmen
The-Marksmen mucks
The-Marksmen wins the pot (2,250)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2,250 | Rake 0

Seat 9: The-Marksmen (button) collected (2,250), mucked




Here is an example of how I slow played a good flop from the small blind:


The-Marksmen posts the small blind of 60
The Random posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to The-Marksmen
Yatesermeister calls 120
ALAMO14 calls 120
secho99 calls 120
glasscards1965 calls 120
Golden Toe2 calls 120
The-Marksmen calls 60
The Random checks
*** FLOP ***
The-Marksmen checks
The Random checks
Yatesermeister checks
ALAMO14 bets 120
secho99 folds
glasscards1965 has 15 seconds left to act
glasscards1965 folds
Golden Toe2 calls 120
The-Marksmen raises to 360
The Random has 15 seconds left to act
The Random calls 360
Yatesermeister folds
ALAMO14 calls 240
Golden Toe2 calls 240
*** TURN *** []
The-Marksmen bets 1,100
glasscards1965: Damm
The Random folds
Thinman68 (Observer): talk to me
ALAMO14 has 15 seconds left to act
ALAMO14 folds
glasscards1965: 10-Q
Golden Toe2 calls 1,100
*** RIVER *** []
The-Marksmen bets 120
Golden Toe2 calls 80, and is all in
Uncalled bet of 40 returned to The-Marksmen
*** SHOW DOWN ***
The-Marksmen shows three of a kind, Eights
Golden Toe2 mucks
The-Marksmen wins the pot (4,640) with three of a kind, Eights
Golden Toe2 stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 4,640
Seat 4: Golden Toe2 (button) mucked [Qd 5d] - a pair of Eights
Seat 5: The-Marksmen (small blind) showed [7c 8h] and won (4,640) with three of a kind, Eights


Those two hands are an example of how I have been getting my chips as of late, finding a few cheap situations to limp and flopping monster, and surviving by blind stealing and stealing orphaned pots on the flop. In the past few tournaments I have played in, I have also gotten a lot of chips from players who call all-ins with flush draws and they don't hit. I didn't realize so many players can't get away from a flush draw on the flop especially early in a tournament.

Well that's all for now, thanks for the comments Zeke I am glad someone can enjoy this blog other than me.

New Focus!!!!!

My poker "career" for lack of a better term has been break even for the most part, I haven't had to invest a lot of my own money into it to keep playing. I have been fortunate to score enough wins here and there where I could keep playing, but I am not satisfied being "break even". I have been wanting to move up in levels for a long time, but can't sustain a big enough bank roll to do so.

Since, I got back from Vegas I have been reading some poker books, consulting a few of the poker communities I am a part of, and analyzing my stats and hand histories as much as possible. I figured out that I have been trying to learn Cash Games, Tournaments, Single Table SNG's, and a little bit of Omaha and Stud mixed in. That is way too many disciplines to try and learn at one time, so for the time being I am going to primarily focus on Multi-Table tournaments almost exclusively. I think my cash game play is okay enough for trips to Hard Rock, Derby, and the Tampa Dog Track where I can play and not go broke, and maybe make an okay return if things roll my way.

My tournament play has been slowly getting better, but not at the rate I would like it too. So I have been playing $5 - $20 MTT's lately online, and I have been happy with my play even though I haven't cashed much in any of them. A funny thing happened in one of them I played in I was moved to a table and I noticed a player with the name USF-Grothe, and the reason it was funny is the guy plays quarter back for the school I graduated from LOL. Here he is on Full Tilt playing a MTT on a Tuesday night, I was hoping to get in a pot with him and re-raise him just for the hell of it, but he got eliminated shortly after I got to the table. Here are some screenshots below, and the hand he went out on.







As for my results in that tournament I ended up finishing 10th, I was a bit pissed at myself because I had played really well the entire tournament and one mistake put me out of the tournament. Here is the hand I went out on:

Blinds: $200/$400

The-Marksmen (Button) -

The-Marksmen raises to $800
SB Folds
BigdogJack (BB): raises to $1200
The-Marksmen calls

The Flop:


The-Marksmen raises all in $3700
Bigdogjack calls

Bigdogjack shows:

Turn:

River:





I went broke with a pair when I didn't even need to take the risk, I had targeted bigdogjack as one of my blind stealing targets because I had stolen from him in the past. I should have trusted my instincts when he re-raised me, but he didn't re-raise me all that much and for some reason I thought I was up against Ace King. But when I pushed all-in something told me he had an over pair, it took him a long time to call which was surprising once I saw what he had. I had enough chips to last until the final table, but I was a bit to aggresive. Lesson learned.

Back from Las Vegas!!!

So, I am back in Tampa after a fun time in Vegas. Reflecting on the last few days I can only come up with positive experiences.

I found my Blackjack stride (Thanks to Adrian/Monica), and the one time I played cash I came out in the Green. A big difference between the Pocket Queens debacle last year where I lost $140 bucks in 1 hand. I think I am now addicted to Roulette even though I don't win much at it lol. I think the thrill of watching the ball roll around and come to a stop provides a rush.

After I made that deal in the 1-table satellite I bum rushed a guy holding $500 dollars in his hand, which was the exact amount of the tournament chip in my pocket. I ran up to him and said hey you buying into a tournament? Cash my chip out, and I started grabbing for the money and handing him the chip. It was a short asian guy and he was kind of mumbling and grumbling then he handed over the cash and took the chip. I said thanks and was off to count my new found green. I was walking back towards Adrian and he was looking at my like WTF??? He said do you know who that was? I was like no. He said that was Can Kim Hua a pro poker player, he made several WPT final tables and a few WSOP final tables. I was like really? I didn't even notice all I saw was the money. I looked the guy up online, he is a good damn poker player LOL. Thanks Can Kim!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.cardplayer.com/players/results/Can-Kim-Hua/176


On the last night before I was leaving for the airport, we all went to Planet Hollywood to eat at Pampas one of those Brazilian Skewer places the food was good. Then we hit the tables again for one last round of Blackjack, but we played Roulette first and didn't hit anything LOL. I was up about $75 at Blackjack and Adrian said last hand because we had to leave for the airport. Both him and Monica said put it all in, me being a little bit tipsy from drinking Adios's said what the hell and pushed all my money on the circle. There was about $175 or so in there, and the dealer starts dealing, I believe I got a 10 with the first card, and a 9 with the second one. The dealer had a Queen showing, and I was like "s*it" she's going to have 20, but she flipped over a 6 she hit and busted WOOT!!!!!!!!!! Then on the real last hand LOL, I put in $100 bet, and the dealer dealt me a 10 and a King, I thought the $100 was a lock until she flopped over a 10 and a 4 then hit and got a 7 for 21!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I flipped her 5 bucks collected my chips and left lol.

It kind of sucks to be back, and at work, but I guess all good things come to an end. We had so much fun, you guys can ask Adrian about his lasting memory of me and Blackjack from this trip LOL.

My First WSOP Tournament!!!

Well my WSOP experience lasting all of about 40 minutes, and for the most part I feel I played well, but things did go my way.

I arrived at the Rio, and proceeded to head for the poker room I wasn't all that nervous or anything, it was more excitement than anything else. Me, Adrian, and Mark are walking talking poker, and Adrian gives us some tips on the rules and how to try and play the first couple of hours. We were comparing seat cards and what not, and I was at table 109 while Mark and Adrian's tables were in the 200's. We go to find my table and discover it's outside in the "heat tent" which was this make shift tent that Harrah's had setup a large section of tables outside in this tent with portable AC units. Well that's all fine and dandy, but it's Las Vegas with it's 106 degree heat and a tent room, not enough AC in the world is going to cool that place off!!! So we go back into this loading dock area, and Mark wants to Video Blog us before the tourney, so we went to the loading area because we didn't want to look like newb tourists LOL. After the "Vlog" we wish each other luck and I head off to my table.

I sit down in seat 9, and is a British dude to my left and then some dude who thought he was a rapper sitting to my right. The table fills up except one player and the tournament director starts the tournament. I look around to see what Pros are near me (there are none at my table), and I see Andrew Black walk in about 4 tables over. Then J.C. Tran walks in and comes towards my table and I am like that will be interesting, but he walks past and sits at the table next to mine. My table is full of amateurs and wannabe's for the most part, and I have learned if you listen to people talk they can tell you all you need to know about how they play LOL.

The guy in seat 1 gets aces on the first hand and takes about $1000 chips from this Swedish guy in seat 2, I think I have found the ATM at the table. So I get dealt in the cutoff seat. The action wasn't raised to me just a four limpers, so I pump up the 25/50 blinds to $200 (overbet I know). Everyone folds except the "Swedish ATM", he calls and the flop comes he checks to me and I lead out with a continuation bet of about $200 he calls!!!!! The next card is a he checks to me. At this point I am not sure if I should fire again or just check, I don't feel he is on a flush draw, I start to think that he may have a small pair. So I fire out again with a bet of $200, he calls!!!!! The river card and I say bingo in my head, and of course he checks and I over bet $400 so he thinks I am bluffing, but he folds to me and I take down about a nice pot early.

So I am off to a decent start, I am up to about $4500 early ($1500 over the starting amount), which is good. I called a few small raises to see if I could catch something, but nothing came of it. Then I was dealt while I was on the button. Seat 5 raises to $250, I call with jacks of course, but I don't feel good about it because I prefer to be the initial raiser. The flop comes me and Seat 5 are heads up and he checks to me, I lead out with a bet of $250 as sort of a feeler bet, he calls. The next card is he checks to me again and I lead out with a "Strong" bet of $600 hoping to take the hand down right then, he ho's and hum's and calls. The last card making a flush which I don't think he has, and he immediately pushes all in for his last $900 (F*CK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). There is almost 3000 in the pot, and if I call I will be down to about $1675 in chips. I don't think the flush is likely, the only think i can think of is he had the 10's the entire time and was slowplaying them. But it was just wierd so I folded after a lot of thinking. He didn't show, so I will never know what he had.

The infamous last hand I was dealt and everyone limped it came to me and I pumped it up to $300 (the blinds were 50/100), and this Canadian lady re-raised me to $600 I just call (which was probably a mistake). The Flop comes making a top set of kings with my hand. Since I was acting first I lead out with a bet of about $400, I intentionally underbet the value of the pot so it would give her a reason to call. She calls and the next card is I am thinking about the range of hands she may have and I thought maybe she had Ace King with the way she played things so far. I lead out with a bet of $1000 in order to see how serious she was, and I only had $625 left after that. She asks how much I have left and she puts me all-in, I gladly call and the river card is and I show my set of kings and ask her if she has a jack (which crept into my mind as the last card was being flipped), and she says yes and turns over which gave her a 1-Card straight, and it knocked me out of the tournament. I wasn't mad about it, but I wished I was able to stay in a bit longer and see how things would have gone.