Heads Up SnGs

Well, I suffered back to back losses in the Double or Nothing Tournament. I'll still play in these eventually, but I'm finding these games very boring now. 

I browsed around to see which MTTs I should play and settled on a $5, 90 player SnG, top 12 places paid. I played well and at one point I was 15th. During the middle stages, I lost hands with AK and Pocket Fives, and eventually bounced out in 38th place. 

After that tournament, my BR was down to only $6. I contemplated what to play with my last remaining dollars cuz I'd rather not have to deposit and reload. So.....I finally settled on the HU NLHE(Heads Up No Limit Hold 'Em) SnGs. 

I played against a player that was fairly tight; he would fold his little blinds often even though he had the button. So I made it a habit to raise aggressively to pick off his blinds. I'll also win the occasional pots by making the c-bets. A couple of important hands. So I was in the lead when this hand occured....

Hand 10

rnl27 (1740 in chips)

carbide77 (1260 in chips)

I'm dealt Ad 9c. I min raise to 40. He min raises me back to 80. I reraise 220. He goes All-in. 

Analysis: The old me would have called hoping he was bluffing, but I knew he had the goods. I knew I was the better player and would be able to outplay him later on. I folded. Our stacks became even after that. 

Hand 37

rnl27 (1090 in chips)

carbide77(1910 in chips)

I'm dealt Js Jh. Villain raises to 60. I call to disguise the strength of my hand. 

Flop [8s 7c 5c] 

I check. Villain bets 60. I call. 

Turn [8s 7c 5c] [3d]

I bet 120. Villain raises All-In. I call for my last 850. 

River [8s 7c 5c] [3d] [As]

Analysis: Villain shows Qc 6c for a missed flush draw and missed open-ended straight draw. I definitely dodged bullets there. I didn't know he had such a strong draw and with 18 outs. I take a 2-1 chip lead. 

Hand 51

rnl27 (2165 in chips)

carbide77 (835 in chips)

I'm dealt Kh 9c. Villain raises to 60. I call. 

Flop [Kc 7h 6d]

I bet 60. Villain calls.

Turn [Kc 7h 6d] [9s]

I bet 120. Villain calls again. 

River [Kc 7h 6d] [9s] [Ac]

I check. Villain goes All-in. Insta-call. Villain shows Jc Tc. Game over. 

So my first HU NLHE match was a success. I was feeling pretty good about myself so I decided to play another. It was I think the shortest Heads Up match I've ever played; it took one hand to decide the outcome. 

Hand 1

rnl27 (1500 in chips)

OhFaSho20's (1500 in chips)

I'll disclose our hole cards at the bottom. Try to play along and guess if you want. 

So I'm the button and I min-raise to 40. He min raises me 80. I three bet him 240. He calls. 

Flop [2d 5s 3h]

Villain bets 1140 and is All-in. I call. 

Turn [2d 5s 3h] [Js]

River [2d 5s 3h] [Js] [6d]

So what do we have? And who wins the tournament. 

A

N

S

W

E

R 

I

S 

I do with Pocket 10s. Villain shows Pockets 8s. 

So after these two wins, my BR is up to $16. I find that I really enjoy playing these HU NLHE matches. They're not as boring as the Double or Nothings. I can focus on one opponent and immediately know their playing style within a few hands. I see way more flops, so I can practice post flop play. And I can make the same amount of money in a shorter time. I think the HU NLHE games are definitely my preferred game at the moment. (Its where Dario Minieri got his start a couple years ago at Pokerstars. Lets see how far I can take it!)

My 30K Challenge

It seems everyone has heard about Daniel Negreanu's challenge to turn $10 into $100,000 playing the micro limits and working his way up to the high limits. It's a well thought out plan, and I hope Daniel succeeds. Ever since I heard about it, I've been trying to watch him play on Pokerstars and maybe learn alittle, but he's hardly on. Who knows? Maybe I'll even sit down and try to bust him. LOL!

In my own mind, I've always envisioned doing something similar, except I'm not as ambitious as Daniel. For me, I'll be trying to build a $10 bankroll into $30,000(or 3 stacks of high society). Now rather than play the cash games tho(which really isn't my strength), I'll be mostly playing tournaments - SnGs and MTTs. By avoiding the ring games, I hope to avoid the variance that comes from a bad session where multiple buy-ins and a huge chunk of the bankroll can be lost. With tournaments, I'll control my stake, and hopefully hit it big with a high finish here and there.

It'll be a long road ahead to reach my goal, but I know it is possible. About 6 months ago, I followed this formula and built my stack up to $260. But then I squandered it away by playing in the WSOP Main Event Satellites. Nothing wrong with being ambitious, but I dreamt too big envisioning WSOPs, WPTs, EPTs, APPTs, and LAPTs when it wasn't really realistic. From now on, I'm gonna first firmly establish online success and a bigger bankroll before I think about playing in the big live tournaments. 

Double or Nothing

Lately, I've been trying my hand at the $5 Double or Nothing SnG Tournaments on Pokerstars. 10 Players sit at a table; Top 5 double their money and other 5 get nothing. 

I've done fairly well in these types of tournaments. My first try didn't go too well, but I blame the structure being a turbo tournament where blinds go up every 5 minutes. The next three I played, the blinds went up every 10 minutes, so I was able to play poker and be more patient. So far, I've been able to double my money everytime with the better structure, so I'm going to stick with that. 

Harrah's

Not much has gone on recently with me and poker aside from the small tournament we entered at Harrah's. I busted out really early, somewhere in the second level I think. I can't even remember, partly cuz its been so long, and partly because the entire time the tournament was going on, I was kinda in a tired and dazed state. 

I can only remember two hands of interest that I was in. Villain raises(can't remember exact amount or from what position).  I look down at AJs and decide to call his raise, hoping to outplay him after the flop. Flop comes 9 4 3 I think. He checks to me, and I'm thinking he has AK or AQ, or some broadway cards that missed him completely. I lead out hoping to take the pot down, but he calls. I can't remember what happened in between, but at showdown he shows Pocket Nines for trips. Oh well, no way I could have played it differently to win that hand. 

The other hand I remember was the one that knocked me out. Blinds were 25/50 I think.I was pretty short stacked with about 900. Action folded around to Joe who was on the button. LB limps, and I look down at T2 on the BB. I decide to check and see a flop. In retrospect, I could of made a raise to 125 and taken the pot right there preflop. The LB would have folded for sure, but I can't say for sure whether Joe would have. He had a lot of chips to play with and I would be out of position for all the betting rounds. So flop comes and I hit a set of deuces. I open for 100 and Joe raises me 300 with his top pair. I insta-call. We both check the turn. River comes and I check it. Joe bets enough to put me all in( I only have about 500 behind). Not looking at the board or anything, I call thinking my set was good. Joe turns over the flush that he caught runner runner. 

Maybe I could have laid down my set after thinking everything through and seeing the board, but that would have been hard to do. I would not have given him credit for a runner runner flush at all. Not seeing the flush potential on the board, my thinking was that he caught two pair on the river. Either that or he wanted to push me out of the pot with a overbet thinking I had nada when I showed weakness by checking the turn and river. Either way, I lost.