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Thursday, January 19, 2006

No more luck

No luck with the satellites.

But fortunately they allow you to use your $500 token to buy-in the other players in the SnG and get their cash. So I got the full value for my token :-))

Played some 1/2 NL. It was interesting even without winning :-(( but it continued my thoughts about tournament and cash play.
There's much more strategic play involved in a tournament than in real money games. I know that I win a lot money from calling stations in the long run but it needs a lot of money and a lot of patience. There's not much pressure you can put on people in limit games and this seems to be simmilar in NL. You never know if you play somebody with an "infinite" bankroll who has no problem to dig back into his pockets. Those guys can be either a great payday or your worst nightmare - but you can only get them if you are tight enough. And if you are the shortstack you can't put pressure on anybody.
This is totally different in tournaments. Nobody can dig back into his pocket. Every decision is crucial for your tournament live. And even the shortstack is able to put pressure on other players if he uses his stack in the right way.

More differences for me: I tend to play looser in cash games than in tournaments. For the above reasons I'm much more aware what to play and when to laydown. I'm chasing far too much in cash games. I don't have the patience to wait hours for a good hand but I love the increasing tension from the increasing blinds in a tournament. Those 5,5 hours yesterday had been pure fun and total excitement.

I tend to agree that due to those differences some players are made for tournaments and other for cash. And only a small number will be successfull in both.
Looks like I am made for the tournament thing. Still thinking and evaluating...

I will quit for now and relax a little. Maybe I go down later for some 4/8 limit - we will see. For tommorrow I plan to play another $65 satellite for a token. If I get it I will see another "Second Chance Tournament" for free in the afternoon. Otherwise I will buy-in for the $200 and try it for a last time as I have to leave Tunica on Friday.

More and more of the "big guys" come into town as the WPT $10,000 main-event starts Thursday at noon. Saw Padraig Parkinson (you may have seen him on the cardplayer.com show with Jesse May during the last WSOP) and heard that Annie Duke came to town today. Daniel Negreanu was still in Australia but planned to play the WPT event.
They have a "Welcome Reception" for the players. Unfortunatly it's only for invited guests :-(

Before I forget - here's a little story from one of my satellites this morning:
We had one asian guy at the table - full poker gear (oakley sunglasses, hat and iPod). He played somewhat decent but something smelled a little wrong. At one point he raised and another player went all-in. The all-in-guy was shortstacked and I had him covered. I had AJs and decided to call the all-in. I had some fear that the asian guy would raise me all-in but hoped that he would fold to let us handle the thing. He folded indeed and showed two jacks. Wow! I didn't put him on that kind of a hand (his original raise looked more like a steal). And I never would have folded that J's. I busted the short stack with Ace high as he had 9Ts.
The asian guy was really upset and angry on himself for folding that J's. He was picking on me how I could call that all-in with those cards! Well, I was sure that the other guy didn't had a made hand and I was dominating him. More important: with the blind level we reached I was due to some movement. And, yes I was wrong about the possible hand of the asian guy (but right with my estimation that he would fold). Later we talked somewhat and it turned out that he was an online player that played his first ever live tournament. Didn't I say something smelled wrong with that guy?
That's one of the reasons I love the live experience of a tournament so much more than online play. There's so much more information to gather.

While I'm sittting in the lobby of the Grand to write this there is another guy sitting here with his laptop. After a while I heard some well known sound from his computer - he obviously is playing online poker! Hell, I don't get it - how can you play online poker in a hotel lobby with a casino just around the corner that offers almost every game you could get. That's really bizarre...

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