Heads Up SNGs
I still haven’t been playing much poker, but wanted to write something, so here you have it.
Once a week or so I get the urge to play for a quick hour or so and my game of choice has been heads up sit ‘n go tournaments on Noble Poker. I like the blind levels and the different buyins they have available. Rarely does it ever take more than a minute or two to get a game started no matter which buyin I choose to play. For the most part I’ve been playing from $20-$50 games and winning more than I lose. Last week I even took a shot playing an Omaha HU SNG and won! I’ll be the first to admit I had no clue what I was doing. Either I made the right moves at the right times or got extremely lucky. If I was a gambler I’d bet on door #2.
The reason I like the HU SNG so much is because they’re fast, yet still provide a nice challenge. You have to constantly monitor your opponents betting patterns and it’s not too tough to figure them out after a few hands. One of the toughest calls I have is calling a big raise on the river with a medium pair even though I think my opponent is simply following through with a bluff. I always like to have the chip lead and end up thinking I could find a better spot to take advantage.
Even though I’m rarely playing (but enjoying everything else about life a LOT more) I learn each time I play these. I try to take the upper hand by being aggressive right from the start, but I find the most challenge when I run into the same type of player. Just typing this makes me want to run home and jump in a game right now. I still enjoy playing poker, but have come to realize I’ll never be a great player in any of the games, so it’s a lot smarter to spend my time doing other things.
Super Bowl Weekend
I played a little poker over the weekend. I also played a little poker about as bad as I could.
Before the Super Bowl we ran a couple of mini $5 tournaments. In the first tournament I was the first one out of 4 people. It only took two hands. The second time around I was second to go out of 5 people. Never bluff a calling station.
Later after the game… By the way, that had to be one of the worst all-around Super Bowls I can remember. The national anthem sucked, the refs sucked for the millionth time in this year’s playoffs, the half-time show sucked, and the game was rather boring. So later that night I fired up Party Poker and saw the Bad Beat Jackpot was over $250,000. Might as well play for a couple of hours. I donked off somewhere between $100 and $200. The next morning I woke up and the BBJ still hadn’t hit so I said why not and played again. There went another $250 or so.
My poker game isn’t running well at all this year. It might be time to switch it up and learn Omaha 8/b for a change of pace.
2005 WSOP on ESPN
I finished watching the the broadcasts of the Main Event of the 2005 World Series of Poker a couple of weeks ago. I was only 3 months late, but that’s the beauty of having a DVR.
I enjoyed the coverage more than the last two years and I’ll even admit that I enjoyed watching Mike Matusow. When he and the Sheik (sp.?) went at it, it make for great entertainment. I really wish Steve Dannenmann could have pulled out the win. He was a class act and thoroughly enjoyed the game.
Can’t wait to see what kind of characters come out for the 2006 WSOP. Will we see 10,000 players?
No Time for Poker
I still haven’t been playing any poker lately. In fact, I haven’t played at all since my Xbox 360 arrived. Yes, it’s that great of a video game console! I’m hoping this nice little break will renew my focus and I can get back to beating the limit games. I’ve had some recent success with the two big tournament finishes, but I think in the end I’m a better limit player. I just don’t have the balls to play a great game of no-limit. Hopefully I’ll be back to the tables this weekend.
Edit: I should have titled the post “Not Making Time for Poker” because it’s my choice.
Live Again
I didn’t play much poker in the last week. Only one session on Party Poker for a few hours and a $1.50 loss.
Yesterday I headed over to the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant for some live action. I walked into the poker room at about 11:15 and was seated at a $3/6 table in less than 15. I sat in the same seat for ten and a half hours and saw the table makeup change quite a bit. At first the table was extremely loose passive. When someone raised preflop everyone else kind of game them the look. After a few hours the table tightened up quite a bit as players came and went. As the night went on the table got a little looser, but overall it wasn’t a good table to be play at.
I ended up losing $124 on the night. There were some bets I should have saved, but I’ll account that to not playing in a live game in months. I’ll definitely never be a live tournament player. I must have tells up the ass that any real players would catch onto in a heartbeat. I just don’t understand how I can be down to the final table in an online tournament with thousands on the line and my heart doesn’t skip a beat. In a live cash game when I check-raise with the nuts get the shakes. What is wrong with me?
Another Runner Up
Another 2nd place finish in a $50+$5 on Party Poker. Those are my new favorite tournaments. The buyin attracts a little better crowd of poker players and the size seems to work well for my game. This one had 530 people and paid $3975 for 2nd place! (Click the photo for a larger view)
I didn’t get much to play throughout the tournament, so I was careful to pick my spots. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, and AQ were a combined 22 for 23 which always helps! I was under the average chip stack during the entire tournament and even survived a big storm that rolled through the area. Lights were flickering, but my power stayed on. The player I wanted to get heads up against came through. He had me out chipped about 3-1, but I was confident I could pick a few spots and take him. I had him with 33 against K9, but a 9 on the flop ended it. All you can do is go in with the best hand in a situation like that. Once of these days I’ll win one of these tournaments, but I’m not going to complain about taking the 2nd place prize money. This surpasses the 2nd place a couple of weeks ago for my biggest cash to date.
2 New Books
A couple of new books came in from Amazon today…
- High-Low-Split Poker, Seven-Card Stud and Omaha Eight-or-better for Advan (Advance Player)
- Harrington on Hold\’em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments: Endgame, 2
I’ve been enjoying tournaments lately so HOH2 was a no brainer buy, especially after I liked Volume I so much. Hold’em gets boring at times so I figured I’d try to learn a little O8 on the side. Al, the expert O8 blogger told me HLSP was the bible, so that’s what I bought.
Poker Podcasts
On my rides to and from work each day I’ve been listening to poker podcasts. Listening to poker discussions keep my mind off the traffic. In the mornings the poker talk gets my mind thinking and after work it helps to relax me after a long day.
My favorite poker podcast without a doubt is Card Club on Lord Admiral Radio. Cincinnati Sean, Brent Stacks, and everyone else who contribute to the show to an excellent job. Congrats on your 1 year anniversary guys!
Another poker podcast I started listening to is Rounders. It’s actually a poker radio show that they turn into a podcast. The radio station is Team 1040 AM out of Vancouver, Canada. My favorite part of the show has been the interviews with some of the top names from the poker world.
What do you know…my two favorite poker podcasts are both from Canada…eh! As a lifetime Michiganer I’m glad to finally find something good to come from our friends across the lake. 
Another popular poker podcast is Poker Diagram by Henry and Zog. It comes all the way from London. Each week they play some kind of online poker and discuss their play and other things poker. I listened to a couple of episodes and it was put together well.
I’m sure there are many other podcasts out there related to poker. Do you have some I didn’t mention? Leave a comment because I’d love to check them out.
Taking a Break
Lately I have been taking a break from all types of poker, online, casino, everything. The only poker in my life as of now is the WSOP on ESPN. Even though I already know what happens and who makes it how far, I still need to watch and enjoy the plays being made. I’m sure poker will be coming back into my life very soon, but for now, there isn’t much going on.
Poker Stars Deep Stack Tournaments
No matter how tempted you might be to join one of these…DON’T DO IT!!
I made the first mistake and didn’t realize it was a limit tournament. Talk about dragging out online poker play. I just busted in 48th place out of 664 after 7 hours of play! Seven fucking hours! It was $20+2 to enter and I was paid $33.20. A whole fucking $11.20 for 7 fucking hours! It was not even close to being fun.
Don’t touch these tournaments with a 10 foot pole. Warn your friends, family, and neighbors.
On the bright side I made another cash finish in a big field tournament.
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