Shadow's Hold'em Challenge @ FullTilt

Every reader of this blog is invited!

Buy-In $10+1
July 5th at 2pm EST
(9 player minimum requirement otherwise the tourney is voided)

Guaranteed prize money with 9 players:

1. place: $45
2. place: $27
3. place: $18

You will find the tournament in the "Private Section" with the number 860682.
As the tourney is for all readers of this blog - here's the password: shcj05-0
(0 = Zero!)

If it's a success we will do this more often.

If you don't have an account at FullTilt you can make me happy by signing up with the link on the left side! ;-))

Shadow aka ShadowBJ21 @ FullTilt

Read more...

My first live limit tournament

Played my first live limit tournament and I liked it - despite the fact that I didn't made it into the money.
I was able to keep an average stack around the first 2 hours until the break. I played exactly four hands in that time. Won two (a big pot and a small one) and lost two (a big one and a small one). The big loss was JJ vs. QQ. The small loss resulted in a fold on the turn. Good fold as I was running into Quad-Aces.
At the break I checked the other tables and as expected there were a lot of short stacks around (even 4 eliminations so far).
I played very tight in the early stages but hoped for some more premium hands. But with an average stack it was still o.k.
After the break it was time to add some more action to to my play as the blinds started to hurt a little (I hadn't played suited connectors, low pairs etc. in the first levels). Unfortunatly I wasn't able to catch anything playable for the next 90 minutes.
After they broke another table there was some confusion due to the fact that 2 players next to the button on our table got busted in the same round (and two new players came in just before the other table broke). They told me to move to another table at a positiion were I had to pay the big blind one round later. As I already paid my blind on this table I complained and was allowed to keep my seat. Bad mistake!
The next round I was dealt AJs with an J43 on the flop. I was up to only one opponent which was a decent player but made a lot of fancy plays with his big stack. I was sure he hadn't anything on the flop. The turn was blank and I had to go all-in to make a bet. As it turned out I was partially right. He hadn't much at this time (56s) but the 7 of spades on the river ended my night giving him a straight flush.
Too bad, that pot would have more than doubled my stake and I was sure I would have made it to the money as people continued to drop out quite fast.

Limit tournaments are slow in the beginning and you need patience. But they also need a lot more skill than no-limit tornaments.

Read more...

Running dry

I am on an amazing bad streak since May. I evaluated and re-evaluated my play but I always end at the same conclusion:

I still have to learn a lot and I still make to many mistakes. But beside that my results are worse due to the fact that I get awful bad cards for a long time.
I had similar times in BJ and I know these bad streaks can last for months. But it's hard if you try to build up your poker bankroll.

Yesterday was such a typical day: The first almost two hours I would have gotten the same results if I just had been sitting at the bar and just payed my blinds. No hands at all. Note even those dangerous J,8s or such stuff. But 7,2 or 6,3 (unsuited of course). After that I lost 3 major pots by a coinflip. Queen Kicker vs. King Kicker and similar stuff. Then I went on a very small rush to get at least some money back. At the end the table went shorthanded and the pot sizes became small.

My result was o.k. for such a horrible night but I was still down.

Well at least it looks like there may be a possibility to play once a week from now on (if you are in the Munich, Rosenheim, Austria Area check the german formum for more information about the venue).

Read more...

My first straight flush and a strange hand

I played an internet tournament yesterday and made my first straight flush (8 to Q of spades). This was like you read it in the book. I already had Q,9 being the big blind. The flop brought 10,J,x. It was checked around, the turn was blank and some bets were made. With probably enough outs for a straight or flush I had sufficient pot odds to make the call. River: 8 of spades :-))) Nice medium size bet, got one caller and took the pot. Now that was great!

About an hour later this remarkable hand happend:
Short stacked with AQo I had somebody going all-in. As this was my best hand for a while I gave it a shot and went all-in, too. Two more went all-in for a total of four people (one had us covered slightly - so technically he wasn't all-in). The guy who went all-in first showed 88 (all that happend pre-flop!) the other two showed AQo (uups). Looked like 88 would take down a monster pot. But no, poker is a real beast. We made it to a three way tie by rivering an A high straight. The poor 88 got busted. This guy was really #$%&. And I can understand him. Never seen that before.

Read more...

Fun with Poker and a new casino

Just came back from a strange weekend full of poker. The first two days were "business like usual". Breaking almost even with some 3/6 and 5/10 Hold'em. Nothing special. But on the last they I played a 17 hour game with more fun I ever had before. It was just a nice crowd that played together in that 2/4 game. Full table in the beginning, short handed for the last 10 hours. I suffered some bad beats in the first hours and would have quit on any other occasion. But this crowd was just hillarious.

Beside the great fun it was a great learning experience. Not that it was all really good and experinced players. But it was a bunch of players that were aware of things that happend around. So instead of just folding, calling and raising by the book you could really "play" with them (and sometimes they played with me of course). I know the money is were you play those without any good sense for the game. But playing with this crowd was a mental challenge. Can you imagine ... a 2/4 game with people that can be challenged? I lost some money due to the bad beats but this was of course the cheapest lesson in some different aspects of the game of poker.

Later in the evening we got joined by a guy who never looked at his cards before the flop (sometimes later) and raised (or made live straddles) every time. This guy was hard to play as he was extremely lucky. But after we adjusted our play somewhat we could take his money quite fast. Another medicore player who tried to play by the book (but made several mistakes) quit frustrated after losing his money.

It was an interesting experience to sit on the other end of the table and try some crazy things (compared to the book). I definitly got a better understanding of crazy play now. The point is that most crazy players are just maniacs (they play without any real sense). But there are a lot of crazy players (to name two top players: Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu) that have a deep knowledge of the game and know exactly what they do. Those people are really hard to play. I don't think you can play them plain by the book - you have to adjust. General rule: The looser the table the tighter your play should be. On the other hand play more loose if you play tight players.

It all comes down to the fact that the books are only the basics. But from that point you have to adjust to your own style and the other players.
It's like dancing. You have to learn the proper steps and rules first but to become a real great dancer there is a point were you have to throw away (some) of those rules and build it your own way. But don't throw the rules too early or you will fail without doubt.
Another similarity to dancing: If you learned it once you will be able to do it even if you didn't do it for a long time. But to stay top notch you have to practice as often as possible!

The next day I visited the new casino in Bad Wiessee (near Munich). It's a nice and modern place. Much nicer than the old one from the 60's. Big panoramic windows with a great view over Lake Tegernsee.
They now offer Poker - but only Stud with a €5-25 spread-limit.
They have quadrupled the number of slot machines and created a nice slot place that gives you some kind of "Little Vegas" feeling.

They doubled the number of BJ tables and of course I took a look at the game (and had some money with me to play). But I never played a single hand. Why? Well, I had no interest in it. I watched the game for a while (btw, it's still hand shuffled) and saw a lot of those bad beats I experienced myself in the past. I know there are bad beats at poker too but they don' feel that frustrating. Imagine this is a €10 min. game. So by playing just the minimum you are betting €300 per hour. Ever experienced bad streaks that lasted half an hour or longer? No? Then you haven't played enough BJ in your life. Counting cards at that level you play sometimes €200 per single hand.
Compare this to Poker. Let's take a 10/20 Split-Limit Hold'em which should be equally to that BJ game. With 30 hands per hour you have to post 3 big and three small blinds per hour. So the minimum risk is €90 instead of €300. Take the other extrem with raises to the cap in every round you may risk up to €240. The big difference: By playing a good game of poker you have a big opportunity to win this pot (otherwise you wouldn't be involved). In the game of BJ you know (due to card counting) that you have positive expectation but you still have to make a "blind post" before you see the first card. Even worse: You can win just the posted amount (or a little more in case of a BJ). In Poker you will quite often make much more in a single pot due to the fact that you don't just play heads up or at least have several people that added money pre-flop, on the flop and the turn.

As said in older blog entries I think it still will be fun to play BJ in places like Vegas were you can earn great comps (but I still consider craps equal but more fun). But I don't think I get much from BJ without comps or good promotions in the future...

Read more...