Absolute 100K Pro Bounty Tournament

What a ride. I'm not sure where to begin. I won the $200 + $16 buyin to this tournament by winning the Poker Source Online Fall League. This tournament starts with 5,000 Chips and you get $500 plus for knocking out 1 of the 4 pro's.

I fired up the computer and opened Absolute Poker and the PSO online Chat about 4:00, the Tournament started at 4:30. I went thru the Tournament Lobby, and recognized a few names of people that I had played with in the Absolute Poker Forum Tournaments.


Early on, in about the first 20 hands, I got AA in early position. I raised 4 BB's and got 1 caller. Flop came down AAJ. What a flop, but wasn't sure how to extract the most. I checked and the caller bet 1/2 the pot. I took some time and called. The turn was a Q. I checked again and he again bet 1/2 the pot. I called, the turn was a 10. I wasn't sure what to do, there were 4 to a straight on the board. I prayed that he had a K, or pocket 10's, J's or Q's. So I bet out 1/2 pot, hoping that he would reraise. He thought for along time and folded. I made about 1,000 chips on the hand, taking my stack to 6,000. I might add that this didn't even make me the leader at the table, as I had watched 2 people call off 2500 chips with the almighty miss of K10 and J8. And I mean a total miss, no draws, pairs, or anything. Why are people calling preflop raises and Flop, Turn Bets with air and these hands? I could have possibly understood betting them, but what thought process allows them to call off so many chips so early. I wanted to target both of them.

My next meaningful hand was against the K10 caller from above. He was down to 2000 chips, and he raised to 400 from early position. I reraised to 1400 with JJ from the button and he called. Flop was A79, and he went allin for his last 600. I cussed myself for not putting him allin preflop, and made a crying call. Of course he had the powerful A4 and I doubled him up.

The next memorable hand, I had 3875 chips. One limper and I raised from late positon to 4BB with 1010. Limper calls. Flop was 279, he checks and I bet the pot. He minraises---dammit, I smell a set. My brain tells me to fold as I click the call button. The Turn is a Q, and we both check. River is a 10, and he bets 1,000. I push allin for 1800 more and he flips over 77, so I double up with set over set. If he bets the pot at the turn I would have gone away, I guess that if he put me on a big ace he needed to slow play to let me catch up. I could my 2 outer though or I would have been severely short stacked.

Next memorable hand, I raised from MP with 22, 1 caller from the button I hit a set on the flop, I bet the pot on the flop and turn, he calls. On the river I bet 1/2 Pot, and he folded.

I finished the first break with 11,510 chips in 32nd place. 402 out of 500 people still remain, average stack is 6188. I'm feeling pretty good as the table I'm at is donkish, I felt that only 2 people at the table were very good at all.

On the first hand after break, I get 33 in late position and limp after 3 limpers. Button with a starting stack of 4600 and 1 of the 2 people at the table that I semirespect, limps and small blinds complete. Flop comes A, 3, 4. Checked to me, I bet pot, the button is the only caller. I bet the pot at the turn, which was 9, and the button reraises me double pot. I push allin, and he thinks into his timebank and finally calls. He flips over A4 and I eliminate him. I now have 16,570 in chips and am in 6th place. And then boom, I am moved from this table to another one.

I trust that Absolute is totally legit, but I have noticed this phenomen happen before in MTT's there. The new table has the tournament chipleader with 31,000 chips, the second place chipleader with 29,000 chips, and me in sixth place with 16,500 chips. the average stack was around 6500. How in the world do all the chips end up on the same table. I've seen it before and always wondered, but it doesn't seem random the way big chipstacks get moved to tables with other big stacks. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I stated this in PSO chat, and UPay4College told me that it was OK, it was what I wanted. Maybe, but I would have rather been a big table stack and just pushed around the small/medium stacks. Oh well, it is what it is.

I play 20 or so hands at this table, and accumulate a few more chips before "The Hand" comes down. Chipleader "IRABOMB" at 34,000 chips raises 4BB's UTG, and I reraise with 19,000 chips from UTG+1 to 4 times his bet with KK. Folds back to him, who calls. I am deathly afraid of AA, or an Ace with a big kicker. Pot is 8,000, I have 15,000 behind. Flop comes 568, and he bets 4000, I just call fearing AA yet. Turn is a 7. IRABOMB pauses for a short time, then pushes allin for 26,000. I have 11,000 left and go into the think tank. I don't believe he has either a 9 or 4 for the straight or he wouldn't have pushed. I don't believe a set pushes on this board as my reraise has to mean either a big pocket pair or a big Ace. So that rules out 55,66,77 and 88. I'm still behind to Aces, but I think "If he has AA then so be it". I figured he pushed this with AK or QQ or JJ or 1010, or a total bluff. So I hit the call button. I believe that this was the hardest hand that I've played in a long, long time. IRABomb flips over JJ and I'm the new chipleader with 38,000 chips. And then "BOOM" I'm moved to another table before the next hand.

Another thing that I've noticed in MTT's at Absolute that doesn't quite seem random is how often the winner of a big hand is moved at the end of that hand. I've noticed it before in other tournaments, but I've played 3 huge hands now in this tournament and have been moved to a different table after 2 of them. Again, maybe I'm just paranoid.

The new table that I'm at has Sean McCabe at it, one of the $500 Pro Bounties in the tournament. I know that some people open up the tables with the Pro's on it and rail them, but I never have. And I probably never will now because OMG what a zoo. There were probably 15 to 20 people trying to have conversations in observer chat, talking about the most bizarre stupid things, like who's house he stays at in vegas, are online tournaments harder than live ones, etc. etc. UPay4College suggested that I turn off observer chat, and I wish that I would have. But I didn't, because I am an idiot and because it was like watching a train wreck. I knew that it was wrong, but I just couldn't stop from reading it. I have learned my lesson for the next time, but I highly advise anyone who gets on a table like this to disable Observer chat to get rid of the distractions. Also, I was emotionally spent after the KK vs JJ hand that gave me the chip lead. I have played over 100,000 hands of online poker now, and while I like to think that I've seen most everything, that was individually the hardest hand that I've played to date. I really don't think that I fully recovered from being mentally and emotionally spent after that hand for the rest of the night. I quit smoking back in September, but I'm pretty sure that if there were any cigarettes around that I would have started again right there.

So I fold for the next 20 hands to observe the table and calm down a little. I am still the chipleader in the tournament, and the next biggest stack at this table has around 10,000 chips. I finally decide that my image is tight enough and my stack size is big enough, so I proceed to begin making mistakes. I get A8 and raise From Mid/Late Position to 4BB's. The button is the only caller, and the flop is 248. I bet the pot, and the button min reraises allin. I figure that I'm beat, but I call as the pot odds are huge and I'm pot committed. He flips over JJ and I double him up. I lost 7000 chips on this hand and I NEVER should have even been in it.

Fnally at the end of the second hour, I am in 11th place with 30,770 in chips. There are 214 people left with an average stack of 11,737.

This is when I began to play switch tables. Over the next 70 minutes, I was moved to 7 more different tables. I think that 20 hands was the most that I was ever left at the same table, some of them were as quick as 4 or 5 hands. So my reads/image for the rest of the tournament were pretty iffy at best. I made a few mistakes here and there, but the bigest one that I made consistently was raising with medium/small pocket pairs, and getting myself pot committed against the small stack with a coinflip. I never one a single coinflip. The blinds were too huge at this point and in looking back, if I would have just folded anything 99 or smaller during this stage it wouldn't have hurt me much. But I also needed to steal blinds to keep accumulating chips, so I don't know.

One great hand for me was when I had around 17,000 chips. UTG+1 with 19000 chips raises to 4,000, it is folded to me in the Small blind. I have AK of hearts and decide to push allin. He thinks for a while, and calls, flipping over AQ. I chant "no queen, no queen, no queen" and win the hand without even realizing until later that I had turned the heart flush. So I'm back to 34,000 chips when I make a horrible mistake.

I raise as first in with 55 to 4XBB. 1 caller, who I had pegged as fairly decent from the BB. Flop came 223 with 2 clubs. He checked and I checked. Turn is the 9 of clubs, and he bet the pot. I called, river was a 7, and he bet 1/2 pot. Like an idiot I called and he showed JQ of clubs and I was crippled. I was told in the PSO chat that I should have bet the flop, and of course I know that I should have. I think that with his flush draw and 2 overs he would have called anyway, but the correct move would have been to bet out. And while this mistake saved me some chips this time, it was still a huge mistake. I was left with around 12,000 chips after this hand, but if I had bet out like I should, I probably end up going broke on this one. Or maybe I could have gotten away, if he checkraises the turn, I am not sure.

I finally busted out in 79th place fairly early in the fourth hour. The tournament paid down to $350 for 54th place, so MEH. I did bust out allin preflop with 2 overs versus a pair of 9's, but didn't win the coinflip. My M was down to 2 at that point and I was just desperate. I never won any coinflips, either with a smaller pocket pair or with 2 overs all tournament. I believe that when the slugfest starts (with about 1/2 to 1/3 of the field left) you have to get lucky and win some of them to get to the money.

All in all, I thought that I played pretty well. I still, as I've talked about in the last couple months, am overvaluing medium pocket pairs as the tournaments get late. I am going to do a lot of thinking about that, as when the blinds get huge those are the hands that I've been using to semi bluff to steal the blinds. But then I get Pot committed with a marginal hand way too often. Maybe suited connectors would be better for me at this stage as I could get away easier.

PSO free buyin to the 100k

One of the perks of winning the PSO league was the $200 + $16 buyin to the Absolute 100k Pro Bounty Tournament. I'm playing in it today January 13th at 4:30. I'll also be in PSO chat during the tournament. I'll post updates later.

Absolute Poker Forum Tournament

Wow, it's been a while since I updated, I guess a blog takes much more effort than I thought.

I won the Absolute Poker Forum Tournament again on January 4th. I had a couple suckouts early, but I think that with 15 people left I was at the top of my game. I did some trapping late and was able to play the big stack and position pretty well. Of Course the main benefit of this $1 buyin Tournament is the Free $200 +$16 buyin to the Absolute 100k.

I played in the 100k on Jaunuary 6th. I noticed TieGuy from Poker Source Online was also in, so I fired up PSO chat. For me, it's a lot more fun and I play better when I have someone to talk to about a tournament, especially when the buyin and payouts for this are significant for me. There were other people also in caht that followed along, which I appreciate.

I lost a few chips early, and finished the first hour with about 3300 in chips (starting stack sizes were 5,000) The table that I was at was pretty tight and it seemed like all we did was trade chips back and forth. TieGuy was doing pretty well, his stack was about 9,000 at the end of the first hour.

I started the second hour card dead and I don't think that increased the chips at all for the first 45 minutes. I finally started getting some hands and positions, and finished the second hour around 7,000 in chips, while TieGuy finished around 19,000. His table had much more action, and someone in PSO chat recognized 1 of the names at his table as ranked #1 on Pocket Fives, BeLoWaBOVe . It was impressive watching TieGuy totally own and finally eliminate him.

Right After the third hour started, my table finally broke up. Thank God, because we still had 8 of the original 9 that started at the table, and we needed an "influx of chips" as the blinds increased. I increased my stack at the new table to 18,000 chips as I had a sick run of cards against some second best hands. I finally made my first huge mistake when I reraised allin a medium stack (About 6,000 chips) who had raised 4BB from Early position. I had JJ and he flipped over QQ, no improvements and I was down to about 10,000 in chips now, but not panicked yet.

The hand that knocked me out was a heartbreaker. UTG limped, and I limped with AA, hoping for a reraise so that I could push. It folded to the button, and I was saying raise--raise---raise to myself. He raised 4BB's. Both Blinds and the first limper folded, and I pushed allin. He took forever, but finally called (he had me covered by a few hundred chips) He flipped over pocket 7's and I couldn't have been happier with my AA. There was a 7 on the flop, I didn't improve, so that ended it. I finished 150th, but the chips from that last hand would have easily put me into the money without much effort as the blinds were huge now. I watched TieGuy, who busted ut in 120th. We were both dejected as it looked for sure that at least 1 of us was going to cash. All in all I was pretty happy though, as my only mistake of the whole 3 1/2 hours was pushing with JJ against QQ.

Full TIlt Poker Crooks

I shamelessly stole this from RiverRun and JL514, it's very Interesting as I've interacted with DuggleBogey on PSO. I have pulled all of my money out of Full Tilt.

This is a public service announcement from the poker blogger community. While this may be an isolated incident, it gives a red flag warning about the potential dangers of your bankroll on Full Tilt Poker. Dugglebogey from Go Be Rude just posted an entry entitled Your Money is NOT SAFE at Full Tilt Poker. Please go read it. Apparently his account was cleaned out from Full Tilt Poker from someone using a foreign IP address and Full Tilt is NOT going to do anything about it. Please show your support for Dugglebogey and spread the word about Full Tilt. We cannot stand for this kind of response from Full Tilt. So be warned and take appropriate action if you feel so inclined. This is NOT the kind of thing that the online poker industry needs right now.

Losing with Quads

Been Playing NL 100 on Poker Stars this week, still seeming to get thumped. Here's an example of wishing there was a bad beat jackpot or something

PokerStars Game #7255244248: Hold'em No Limit ($0.50/$1.00) - 2006/12/01 - 16:09:01
(ET) Table 'Lesya' 9-max Seat #8 is the button
Seat 1: devinr12 ($100 in chips)
Seat 2: slickster998 ($90.50 in chips)
Seat 3: ShiftB ($79.15 in chips)
Seat 4: Ross1948 ($32.25 in chips)
Seat 5: J_Money001 ($86.80 in chips)
Seat 6: GenghisCM ($97.90 in chips)
Seat 7: amazinmets73 ($124 in chips)
Seat 8: jchi8 ($56 in chips)
Seat 9: deadmeat65 ($131.25 in chips)
deadmeat65: posts small blind $0.50
devinr12: posts big blind $1
*** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to deadmeat65 [2s 2d]
slickster998: folds
ShiftB: folds
Ross1948: folds
J_Money001: folds
GenghisCM: raises $3 to $4
amazinmets73: folds
jchi8: calls $4
deadmeat65: calls $3.50
devinr12: folds
*** FLOP *** [2c 8c 7c]
deadmeat65: checks ***I check here to see whats out, probably a mistake***
GenghisCM: checks
jchi8: bets $5
deadmeat65: calls $5
GenghisCM: folds
*** TURN *** [2c 8c 7c 10c]
deadmeat65: checks ***I'm Done with the hand now unless the board pairs******
jchi8: checks
*** RIVER *** [2c 8c 7c Tc 2h] **Allright, now to extract money*****
deadmeat65: bets $12
jchi8: raises $20 to $32****Hoping he has the Ac or maybe just got a FH
when the board paired***
deadmeat65: raises $20 to $52
jchi8: calls $15 and is all-in ***Hurray***
*** SHOW DOWN ***
deadmeat65: shows [2s 2d] (four of a kind, Deuces)
jchi8:shows[Jc 9c](a straight flush, Seven to Jack) ***WTF, why are the chips
sliding away??***
jchi8 collected $114 from pot
*** SUMMARY *** Total pot $117 Rake $3 Board [2c 8c 7c Tc 2h]
Seat 8: jchi8 (button) showed [Jc 9c] and won ($114) with a straight flush, Seven to Jack Seat 9: deadmeat65 (small blind) showed [2s 2d] and lost with four of a kind, Deuces


This pretty well describes my PokerStars experience so far....

I did finally sign up for Rake Back with Ultimate Bet through PSO. Have played a few hands, it is taking me awhile to get used to this software. Why in the world do you have to open and close the hand history window every 5 hands?? I finally found a fix for that on the PokerTracker Forum, but I don't understand why they programmed it that way. I did play some .05/.10 Fixed Limit for the first time in a long time just to get Poker Ace HUD setup. I made $2.70 in about 1/2 hour, I Should have kept playing that instead of finding such unique ways to get thumped at Stars.

I played in the Absolute Poker Forum Tournament again Thursday Night. On about the 15th hand I got JdJh and called a raise. Flop was AdJc6d. I checked, then check raised with 1 caller. Turn was 7d, and I pushed allin. My opponent chatted "This is a short tournament for me" and Called With AsJs. River was another diamond, and my hand held up. I then doubled up a couple more times, and I had a 2-1 chiplead over second place from the beginning of the second hour all the way through. I ended up losing a couple of coinflips in the middle of the third hour and finished around 7th or 8th (I think, not 100% sure where I finished) I played well enough though, need to catch the breaks later to win though.

I also played a couple tournaments on Absolute Friday Night. The first one was the slowest table I've ever been on. I think that we got in about 3 or 4 hands every 15 minutes. I busted out in the middle of the second hour in about 100th place (300 started) I had forgotten how the slow play on Absolute during tournaments could sometimes be.

In the other Tournament was a $5.00 buyin $1000 guaranteed. I was the 150th to sign up with 15 minutes before it started, so I was thinking thee may be an overlay. But the tournament started with 350 people, I can't believe how late people in these tournaments sign up. I got cold decked for the first hour, and never could seem to hit a flop. At the first break I was at 940 in chips. Second hour began the same way, and I am pretty sure I never won a hand for the first hour and 20 minutes. Finally, in desperation because I was down to 450 chips, I tripled up with AJ offsuit. 20 minutes and a few doubles later, I was third in the standings. At the end of the second hour I was still 5th in chips. This tournament paid down to about 36th, and there was no hand for hand when we got close. My luck finally broke when, for some Reason, with the blinds at 600 /1200 with a significant ante, I decided that my 33 was a push allin hand when it folded to my button. The small blind woke up with 1010, and had me covered. I had 16,000 chips at the beginning of this hand, and there was no reason to push to steal the blinds. Sometimes I overvalue small pairs too much when I still have a healthy M in the early late stages of tournaments. I still finished in the money, but I have been playing good enough lately that I should have done better. Hopefully by writing about it I can change something. I feel pretty good right now as my tournament game is going pretty well. I can't complain about my cash game either, but I haven't went through a string of such horrible beats for a while. (See Losing with Quads above for just 1 example)

I did post on PSO about Detroit/Windsor area casino's, and KUGR84 gave me a lot of information, which I really appreciate. It looks like he suggests MotorCity so away we go (still not sure when, but soon) My wife also wanted to go to the Indian River Casino, but when I called about getting a room there for December 10th, they said they were all sold out. WTF, why would all the rooms be booked??? I asked the guy on the phone, and he thought that it was the end of 1 promotion and the beginning of another. Hmmm, maybe I should still go and find a different hotel in the area??

Kind of a blahh week

I've been playing at PokerStars $100 NL this week. Negative Variance has reared its ugly head on Stars and I can't remember seeing so many sets against me. It seems like every decent starting hand, AA, KK, etc. has been downed by a set or some junk two pair (96 offsuit calling my 5XBB Raise and flopping 2 pair vs my KK was notable) I guess that I could be playing overpairs a little aggressively, it just kinda sucks right now. Also, getting stacked twice by pushing the flop with open ended straight and flush draws and having 15 outs twice not hit in either hand doesn't help. I still think that I had enough fold equity to make them the correct play. Luckily I cleared 2 $120 bonuses, so I'm still ahead after the bonuses, and when the negative swing ends it'll be OK. I also didn't play as much as I'd like to because of Thanksgiving and deer hunting this week.


I did play in the Absolute Poker Forum $1 buy in tournament again. I finished 16th, I made a huge mistake pushing into the chip leader when he happened to have AA vs my AK after he raised from early position preflop. Oh well, live and learn, I had enough chips to hurt him if he had wanted to coinflip with an underpair or figured that I had him dominated with another Ace. I also figured that he would have limp reraised with AA or KK. I also figured that my fold equity probably made this a +EV play, maybe not.

One thing that I have changed in cash games is with my mid pocket pairs. I'm raising them from any position if first in, and calling a raise with them if raised before the action gets to me. I figure that I need to make sure that the pot is raised one way or another. This varies from my usual PF mid pocket pairs limping and then calling for implied odds if raised. I haven't played enough hands to know for sure yet, and these hands aren't the ones I've been getting killed with. It does seem sweet when you raise with 66, have 3 overs come on the flop, continuation bet and take down the pot.

I still need to sign up with Ultimate Bet from PSO Frequent Flopper Rakeback this week. I shoud have last week, but I'm a procrastinator. I also haven't heard back from Mike or Dan from PokerSource Online about my Absolute Tournament 100K buyin, I should probably send them another e-mail.

I won the Absolute Poker Forum Tournament

Thursday was the second time that I had played in this tournament. It costs $1, and has had around 40 people in it. I finished 5th the first week for $2.67. This week I won, coming from the shortstack with 8 to go. I won a whopping $12 and change. But, the Winner also got a buyin to the 100K Guaranteed $200 + $16 buyin on Absolute. Allright, only problem was it was for Saturdays event and of Course I didn't want to miss the Buckeyes.

I went to my stepsons for his OSU / Michigan Party, but I left before the first quarter was over. I rushed home and fired up the computer and was ready to play at 4:29, a whole minute to spare. I had PM'd DRTJR earlier, as I had noticed that he was also playing this tournament. We decided to Meet at the PSO chatroom.

The First hour of the 100K was kind of blah, I think that I had around 5700 in chips (Starting stacks in this tournament were 5,000) I was chatting to DRTJR on PSO, and also SYPHOS joined us in chat as he was playing also. WANDKRULES from PSO was playing also, I opened up his table and talked to him a couple times, but he didn't respond.

There were 520 players in this event and, in the end, I finished 126th, and DRTJR finished 94th (SYPHOS had busted out before that, and WANDKRULES had busted out before him, both to the same lucksack ironically). It was kind of nice having their tables open and chatting with them during the tournament. I had talked to DRTJR on Absolute a couple of times at the cash tables, and he seems genuinely nice.

I thought that I played pretty decently, but was horribbly card dead. The only pocket pairs I had were 44, 77, and QQ all tournament.I also didn't have too many suited connectors or many playable hands for that matter. I had wanted to play loosely during the beginning, but didn't really have that opportunity. So I made the most of my Tight Image, and stole the blinds a few times when I could, and also Limp Reraise Bluffed preflop for about 1500 chips once.

With about 200 people left in the tournament, my table broke up and I got moved to a semi-insane allin preflop table. I had 17,000 in chips, which was about the average stack. I lost 3 Coinflips in a row to eliminate me (my QQ vs AK allin, My AK vs 44 allin, My 99 vs AJ Allin)
If 1 of these had held up I might have been OK, but I lost 5,000 7,000 and 4000 chips on them repectively.

One thing though, the blinds and antes are huge in this tournamnet. I stayed past the third hour, so all in all I was happy with the results. I only had a few hands that I questioned.

Blinds were 25/50, all the players in the hand had similiar stack sizes, 5,000. I was Dealt 1010 in the Cutoff. 1 Limper (whose VPIP was 55%) to ME, and I raised to $250. Everyone folded to BB, who reraised to $2,000. The first limper folded, and I couldn't figure out for sure what to do. I couldn't figure out why he would reraise that much with AA or KK, maybe QQ, JJ, or 99 or AK or AQ. I folded because he hadn't seemed to be an idiot at the time. (He was the first to bust out at the table though and regularly got his money in with the worst of it, I found out later, so maybe he had a broader range of hands than I had thought)

One other mistake I made early was betting the flop of 3 hearts, with the lone King of hearts, turn was a fourth heart, I bet again and was called by the 55% VPIP player from the earlier hand. River didn't pair the board, he checked and I should have checked behind, as what was calling a bet except for the ace?? I instead made another Pot Sized Bet and was checkminraised. I knew then that he had the Ace, but I called to make sure because I'm an idiot. Yep, I was an idiot. This took me from 5700 in chips to 4,000 in chips, but I was able to overcome this mistake. I should have kept the pot smaller, I knew it and it cost me. POT CONTROL POT CONTROL POT CONTROL.

The other mistake that stands out for me, I was Dealt KQs in MP. I raised and the 55%VPIP player from above (I guess that he was my nemesis ) limped, called. The flop came AAK. He checked, I checked. Turn was another Ace, he checked and I bet the pot, he called. The river was a 6, and he bet 1/2 the pot. I called, hoping to split, but of course he showed A4 for quads. At least I kept the pot smaller this time.

I still felt allright about the way I played mostly. I had thought that since this was such a big $$ event that the players would be better. I don't think that I was outclassd all that much, and was able to make some moves even without the cards. Position is the key, and I really don't believe that most people realize how valuable that position is. I know that I've read it a thousand times in books and internet forums, but its like a light clicked on a few months ago for me. POSITION, POSITION, POSITION, POSITION.