Februarys 5 Card Draw Playing
Feb, Week 1:
After my last post in the January section, covering my near miss with cashing in the battle of the planets $50k triple shootout, the first week of February got off to a slow start. Perhaps it was the feeling of having the wind taken out of my sails somewhat with the triple shootout, or the fact I had an excellent but tiring January contributed, but I just couldn't find my motivation.
regardless of this I did have four sporadic attempts at the $500 guaranteed 5 card draw event during this quiet week, attaining two results worthy of a mention. I placed 5th and 8th out of a couple of hundred runners in two of these attempts, which brought in $67 to at least ensure I had something to show for the week financially speaking.
My next post will detail a much fuller week, as I have already decided to shake myself out of my lethargy and put in a lot of work next week.
***The graph below shows results over the last 2 weeks in Feb***
Comments
Week 3:
Well i'm a bit late with this update I know, and had to check back over my results to remind myself of what had happened. I was surprised to find a 4th out of 105 runners in the $500 guaranteed on Feb 15th, because I dont even remember it. The reason for which, is probably Feb 17th, but more of that in a minute.
At the end of last weeks post I spoke of two things which were on my mind for both week 3, and Feb in general. Working away at making another couple of final tables (or even victories) at the $500, and the BOP ticket being all locked up for this month. Week 4 will cover the BOP triple shootout and its bearing on my week, but for week 3, I well and truly lived up to my hopes.
The 17th of Feb began in pretty dull fashion, i had taken a shot at the $500 guaranteed at 11.50am, busting iin 55th. I realised i just about had time to register late for the 13.50 tournament, but was soon down to 1,000 chips after having not much cards followed by trips against bigger trips.
This hand is interesting because my opponent had limped in from late position and drawn 3 cards - I had been in the big blind with QQ, drawn 3 and hit QQQ. I put in a small raise to extract value, only to see a strong reraise appear in front of my opponent. From my observations of this player so far in the tournament, I knew they were fairly tight about starting hand requirements, and could be passive with hands that they should be betting with. If I called I'd leave myself about 1,000 and I know many players who hadnt been paying close attention would have shoved, blinded by the strength their QQQ. In fact I wasn't ever pondering that, it was call or fold - because my opponents potential range could never really justify anything else. My first question to myself in this situation is always going to be "could he have limped here predraw with JJ or 1010?". Its possible, but from what i've seen so far, it looks unlikely from this player. I can safely say that no bluffs make sense, partly because i'm unlikely to lead unless i've improved, and many hands I improve to from a 3 draw will call a reraise. Apart from anything else it just wouldn't fit with the tendancies my opponent has shown so far. We can consider that he may have 2 pair, but I immediately disregard this. If you have a decent 2 pair in his position your reraise would force everything weaker to fold (tens up or jacks up two pairs in my hand would probably be folding) and most potential stronger holdings of mine (trips, primarily) you would expect to call and so reraising decent 2 pairs would accomplish nothing - you'd only ever call, at most.
It's these points that cause me to immediately skip to the question about limping with 1010 or JJ because trips pretty much makes up the entireity of his range, and so if I dont think he ever limps with JJ or worse, I need to fold.
I conclude he probably doesnt, but allow the fact I havent seen enough of his play yet to be certain, and a little frustration at not having had any cards up til now to force me into making an error. I call - he shows AAA.
I put some of my thoughts in that hand in, as feel it shows a few things about thinking and acting on your reads with clarity, regardless of what has come before. Also, when a hand that looks huge it's size is only ever relative to your opponents potential range.
but anyway, I made a few aggressive played to work my way back to 2,000, doubled through and got all the way to 31 out of 141 left. I then fell back to the shortstack from 21,000 to 5,000 after trying to make a tricky bluff against a player when I really should have known better. I had been bullying him with some success up to that point, but on the previous ocassion had been aggressive on his big blind, he had defended it a little light - which should have told me my table image in his eyes was in transition, and I needed to tighten up against him immediately. I highlight this one again as a mistake, because theres really no point me thinking over or discussing hands I think I played great. You should always examine the ones that went wrong if you want to improve, I find.
Fortunately this hand didn't spell the end, and I rallied once more managing to battle through to the final table, where I was second in chips with around 70,000. A rollercoaster of a final table which saw me down to shortstack again 5 handed and back up again eventually ended with me defeating a known rival of mine heads up when he went crazy with 2 pair, post draw, making an all in reraise when he should have just called. QQQ was the hand that won it - funnily enough the very same hand that could have ended my tournament a few hours previously, if i hadn't been watching the players at my table and their tendancies very carefully.
My second victory of the year in this event was a great feeling, and the $164 was nice too, helping me to finish at a very respectable +$186 for the week.
Week 4: After the pleasing result of winning my favoured tournament last week, i had no clear plan for this week other than to play some $6 sit n gos, and in typical post-big win syndrome style, I couldnt get into focussing on it, and didnt have the enthusiasm for playing little sit n gos much.
Before I knew it the week had almost passed me by in a blur of dvds, relaxing and the odd irritating 3rd place in a $6 sit n go. I was -$30 for the week and in danger of having my first losing week for a long time. My final hope to save my week was the BOP triple shootout tournament which I'd already won my ticket for earlier this month.
For someone who doesnt play much holdem, sitting down against some of the most successful Holdem sit n go players on pokerstars is always a daunting prospect but after 2nd place on my first table last month meaning I narrowly missed out on $195, I desperately wanted to achieve my goal of cashing in this tournament. I knew id need some luck in the process, and as I hit top pair on a couple of flops and called down some maniac with king high on a 3,A,Q,3,5 board the tournament was off to a great start. as we dropped to 4 players I had the chiplead and was fortunate to pick up AA in the BB, with the small blind maniac guy having 99. Three handed my fortune held up, as with a 6,500 stack i called the 900 all in from the button with Kc,10c. They showed Kh,10s and i promptly hit a turn and river club,club to make a flush -ouch.
Heads up with a huge chip lead i only had one thing on my mind, to apply pressure and hope. My shove to try and steal his BB while holding 8d,10d had seemingly backfired a bit when he made the call with A,3 off, and whilst hoping for a pair on the flop that I could pray to hold out on the turn and river - the poker gods blessed me once more as I flopped the stone cold nuts (7d,Jc,9d) with a redraw to the diamond flush. Nice time to have an opponent drawing dead on the flop.
So by playing my best and being helped along by some good fortune i managed to cash in the BOP tournament, which i'm dlighted with, considering I don't play much Holdem.
I didnt have any success n the second table, but $195 had rescued my week - and with a 17th out of 205 in the $500 guaranteed a few days previously I ended up +$168.
Feb:week 2
Aware that I needed to get myself back into the day to day fight in order to put this month back on track, I decided the best way to do this was to run the gauntlet of the Mercury high orbit leaderboard on pokerstars. This involves 100 sit n gos over the week, and to all those multi tablers out there thinking 'hey, thats nothing' I'm not one that can maintain close to maximum talent output when i have two or three tables open. Maybe it's something I can practice at but currently it makes a big difference when im not focussed 100% on each table. Even if I drop my winning capacity by 10% that would probably make the difference between finishing in the top ten or finishing 30th, so it really isn't worth it to try and save some time.
Put simply, in order to give myself the best shot at placing in the top ten and earning a BOP ticket for this months triple shootout, I play them one at a time, meaning about 60 hours playing across the week.
The week began successfully, with steady accumulation of cash and points, reaching a pinnacle in midweek where I managed to turn over $45 in one day. Leading up to the final day I had put myself in an excellent position to challnge for 1st place in the mercury high orbit leaderboard. I needed just an average final day to post a score of 1,850+ but after only two 2nds in the first 6 games of the day I began to get a little concerned. After a break to compose myself I came back firing on all cylinders, and despite not having a great run of the cards as such, I found myself with 90 played, 10 to go, and still a decent chance at top spot after picking up a couple more results.
At the best moment possible, i then went on a great run of results notching up five 1sts and three 2nds in my final 10 games.
I finished with 1,920 points, 66 points ahead of the closest challenger for a much needed 1st place $150 to add to my $167 id made through the week by playing.
All in all, a week to be proud of, and my monthly triple shootout ticket all locked up too. Back to the $500 guaranteed tournaments next week I think, to see if I can add a couple more final tables (or even victories) to my year so far.