Miscellaneous Stuff

I have a lot of stuff floating around in my head, but I don’t think any of it justifies a whole post on its own, so I combined a whole bunch of crap ideas into one for your reading pleasure.  Enjoy.

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FullTilt has these new tiered SNGs.  At least partially new.  I think.  You can start with a $4+$0.40 single table tourney where the winner gets a $26 token and runner up gets $10.  Or you can join in a $6+$0.60 two table tourney where the top four get a $26 token and fifth gets $4.  There’s also an $11+$1 that gets a $75 token for the winner and $24 for second place.  

The $26 token or a $24+$2 buy in gets you into a two table tournament where the top 5 get a $75 token and sixth gets $57.

Finally, there is a $69+6 or $75 token single table tourney paying out $310, $186, and $124 to the top three spots.

You can also use the tokens for any of the other mutli-table tournaments.

Confused?  I would post a diagram, but I can’t seem to find it on their site, and I’m too lazy to put any more effort into searching.

Anyway, I’ve been wanting to play in some of the $24 +2 daily guaranteed tournaments, so I thought I would try to win a token rather than buying in directly.  Coming in the top 4 out of 18 didn’t seem that hard so I tried the $6+$0.60.

I had an interesting table.  It started out being an all-in push fest with players going all-in early and often.   Once they had gotten that out of there system, it turned into the tightest table I’ve ever seen.  When we were down to six players it was just folded around to the big blind probably four out of every six hands.  That worked out well for me because I was the short stack when we got to six, and after four or five orbits I had stolen my way to the chip lead.  

I got lucky and knocked out the fifth place finisher’s KK when my AKo made a flush on the river.  That saved the uber short stack who had survived being all-in in the big blind two hands earlier.

I’ve tried a couple more since and haven’t been able to get the token.  In fact I just got busted in 7th place when I made two pair with KQo in the BB.  I tried to bet just enough to get a call which turned out to by my undoing as a ten on the turn gave him an ace high straight.  Oh well.


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I tried  $2/$4 again this afternoon and my results were considerably better this time.  It was a bit of struggle early on in the session, but I managed to hang around and then finally started getting some cards.  I think I’m about even now.  

I think one of the biggest leaks in my game might be maximizing my profit when I win a hand.  I’m always afraid that some moron is going to suck out on me so I’m content to check down the river rather than risk a check raise.

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I realized something this week. It’s a lot easier to be a winning poker player when you just flop the nuts.  There are few things better than having your connectors in the big blind give you the nut straight on a rainbow board.  I really need to work on doing that more often.  

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I’m a big fan of PokerStar’s new 180 player SNG’s.  When they first came out I was confused.  What’s the point of a 180 player SNG?  Why not just have a regular tournament?  Then I realized that unlike PokerRoom, and FullTilt where I usually play tournaments, there aren’t too many tourneys on Stars that have less than 300 players.  Or even 500 for that matter.  I love playing on Stars and all, but I don’t have the time for that.  I would think 180 players is just about right.  Of coarse I have only played in one so far, and didn’t do very well, but I’m still a fan.


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I swear a disproportionate number of times that I get KK, I am in the blinds.  And then I can never get them to hold up because there’s already 14 people in the pot and one of them inevitably hits something better than my pair.  It’s like the random generator and his pals are messing with me.  “Hey you know what will be funny?  Lets keep giving Mike KK, but in situations where he isn’t a favorite to win the hand vs the rest of the table. It will be great.  Then we can give him aces in the big blind and just have everyone fold before it gets to him.  Hee hee”  


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Well, my $26 token just earned me 247th place out of 643 in the $14,000 guaranteed.   I raised with AKs and then pushed when I was re-raised.  I was hoping he had a smaller ace.  He had wired eights, and I didn’t improve.  I probably could have played that better.