Realistic Goals

I know I posted some goals and I would love to hit them. I decided to do some math and figure out if they are attainable. I will need to run really well and to win a lot of tournaments in order to make $50k. It's not impossible as I think if I maintain my discipline, I can beat the game up to $5/10.

I figured I will be playing about 2k hands per week which should account for about 96k hands. I am back grinding 2 tables at $2/4, but I know I need to move up in limits if I want to make more money. I know I can probably play more tables, but I want to concentrate and beat the tables I am playing at. Table selection is also something I have been improving and it should translate into more bb/100.

In the past 3 days after reading Low Limit Holdem by Lee Jones, I have been looking at the game a bit different and after 1k hands I have won 5bb/100. I know it's not enough, but I just feel different about the way I am playing, my reads are better and I am no longer a tight aggressive overplayer. I am still tight agressive, but changed to solid. This is very good.

So to start the year I will be playing mostly $2/4, grinding about 12k hands. I have close to 20k hands I winning about 1bb/100 which sucks. I feel like I was over aggressive and attempted to make many plays that players in this level don't grasp. In any case, I will use this as a basis to all my calculations, thus making goals that I can achieve. I want to keep on grinding and move up in limits. I plan to finish the year at $5/10. Here is the breakdown:

$2/4 - 12k hands(1bb/100) + (.5bb/100 in rakeback) = $480 profit + $240 rakeback
$3/6 - 50k hands(1bb/100) + (.5bb/100 in rakeback) = $3000 profit + $1500 rakeback
$5/10 - 34k hands(1bb/100) + (.5bb/100 in rakeback) = $3400 profit + $1700 rakeback

In all my goal should be to make about $10.3k and move up to the $5/10 tables. Ideally I will earn more, and be happy with my play. At the end of each amount of hands that I play I will post how much I won, charts etc.

I have to figure out when I will be playing tournaments as the schedule above is a tough schedule to keep and also play tourneys. I think I can play every other saturday. In addition I will continue to play sgns to make the free rolls for the website Clube do Poker. I think the 50k is possible, if I can make some final tables and win them. In all I would also like to earn 2bb/100 instead of the 1bb/100 which should put me at about $21k and much closer to what I really want to make for the year.

My next post will be on the first with my charts and numbers for sngs, mtts and cash games.

2006 Rules and Goals

First of all, I want to be as disciplined as possible about my game in 2006. It will be the year, where I will make or break playing poker. I plan to use my 2006 stats to figure out the type of extra income I can extract from poker. So far whenever I won a big tourney, I take money out, or when I have an extra 1k sitting there I extract. This will be a year to grow my bank roll and to also determine if I am a winning player.

Since September I have had 2 winning months and 2 losing months. My overall winning percentage has staggered around 1bb/100 and although I don't think that's great, I am glad I am still a winning player. Tourney wise I have been able to get about 30% ROI. I will have a post in the beginning of the year with the post about my abilities.

Now I will be setting some rules:

Rule #1:
I will play consecutive days on whatever I did well on the day before, whether it is NLHE Cash, LHE Cash, PLO8 Cash, O8 Cash, SNG or Tourney.

Rule #2:
I will play NL and Limit, never both on the same day. Never play more than 2 tables. This has in mind improving my return.

Rule #3:
Unless in a tourney, never play more than 2 hours. I tend to make a lot of silly mistakes at the end of a session. I seem to lose focus.

Rule #4:
I will play 15 tourneys per month. I need to be selective and play those well. Sometimes I get busted early by another player's luck or by a bad play and I tend to start a new one quickly.

Rule #5:
I will play no more than 2 tournaments per day. This also allows me to concentrate on them and improve my reads. I tend to make a bad play if I am not concentrating or taking notes on the players.

Rule #6:
I will play only 2 tables SNGs at a time. I am not good enough to 4 table or 6 table. When I did try it hurt my ROI.


If I think of anything else I will update these rules later. Now let's set some goals.

* Make $50k overall, but breaking down about $25k in cash games and $25k in tourneys.

* Play 3k NLHE hands per month for a 4bb/100 profit

* Play 3k LHE hands per month for a 1.5bb/100 profit

* Play 1k LO8 hands per month for a profit

* Play 1k PLO8 hands per month for a profit

* Play at least 10 tourneys per month

* Play 30 SNG per month for more than 20% ROI

I think this is very reasonable, if I am capable of abiding by the rules. I will try to become more disciplined and focus on ameliorating my game by sculpting my skills... I hope my game is not as bombastic as this last sentence.

I am not sure whether I am moving my money out of my Party Poker account into Poker Stars. The new player VIP program is quite interesting and I would probably be inclined to play in it. My biggest problem is how to separate my bankrolls for tourneys and cash games since I like to play the $3Rebuys and 180Sngs there. I have to think about that. I like being an all around player in the types of the games that I described and for me this is also an important goal.

Color Up Chips - Racing (Portuguese)

Num torneio live longo com a subida dos blinds, algumas das fichas que voce iniciou comeca a acumular muito e eh recomendavel troca-las por fichas de valores maior.

Vamos dizer que voce esta num torneio de 200 pessoas onde cada jogador comeca com 5000 em fichas.
4 cores diferentes:
branca $25,
verde $50,
vermelha $100,
preta $500.

Os blinds sobem da seguinte maneira:
nivel 1
25/25
25/50
50/100
100/200 - color up branca

nivel 2
150/300
200/400
300/600
400/800 - color up verde

nivel 3
500/1000
etc...

Se comecou com 200 jogadores, depois do primeiro nivel metade deve cair, e mais metade depois do outro e assim em diante. Isso eh a natureza de um torneio, sempre acontecerah assim...

O que importa eh que quem vai ficando vai acumulando as fichas de quem vai saindo. Entao eh necessario que em alguns niveis as fichas com denominacoes menores sejam retiradas da mesa para acabar com o acumulo. Como que isso eh feito?

Vamos supor q numa mesa de 10 jogadores, quando chegasse no fim do primeiro nivel os jogadores estivessem com os seguintes stacks.

J1 - 22525
J2 - 18250
J3 - 3850
J4 - 33050
J5 - 5575
J6 - 9000
J7 - 13425
J8 - 20025
J9 - 7050
J10 - 550

No fim desse nivel fichas de cores amarelas com denominacao 1000 irao ser adicionadas. Entao eles fazem o seguinte: eles comecam a trocas as fichas maiores por fichas de denominacoes menores. Se ele tem 201 brancas, que equivale a 5025 em fichas, ele ira receber 5 fichas amarelas e uma sobrara que participara da corrida. Eu vou demonstrar como eles ficariam. O mesmo vai acontecendo com as outras denominacoes. Os proprios dealers vao fazendo essa troca durante o torneio para agilizar mais o processo.

J1 -
15 fichas amarelas
10 fichas pretas
20 fichas vermelhas
10 fichas verdes
1 ficha branca

J2 -
10 fichas amarelas
12 fichas pretas
20 fichas vermelhas
5 fichas verdes

J3 -
4 fichas pretas
15 fichas vermelhas
7 fichas verdes

acho que voces ja entenderam mais ou menos...

O que importante eh quando fica fichas sobrando. No caso do jogador 1, 5, 7 e 8.

Nesse caso eles tem 1 ficha cada sobrando. Entao acontece a corrida pela ficha de denominacao maior. Essas 4 fichas de $25 sao trocadas por uma de $100. O dealer solta uma carta para cada jogador e quem tiver a maior carta entre os 4 jogadores fica com a ficha de $100.

Isso que eh color up e race the chips durante um torneio. No caso de fazer os color up das fichas de $100 eh possivel que um jogador tenha mais de uma ficha para ser trocada por uma denominacao maior. Exemplo 2:

J2 50300
J3 61100
J4 75700

vamos dizer que todas as fichas dos outros jogadores foram divididas corretamente. Mas esses jogadores nao puderam fazer essa divisao desde que tem umas denominacoes que nao quebram bem. Entao faz-se o seguinte:

J2 tem 3 fichas de 100, j3 tem 1 ficha de 100, e J4 tem 2 fichas. Nesse caso duas fichas de 500 seriam introduzidas. Os jogadores iriam correr por essas duas fichas. O dealer distribui 3 cartas consecutivas para o J2 e 1 carta para o J3 e duas cartas para o J4. O primeiro jogador com a maior carta recebe uma ficha e o segundo recebe a outra.

4 Final Tables

You would think someone would be happy that they made 4 final tables in one week. I am not, I played about 34 tourneys this week, and I only made it to the money 20.5%(7). I am not down any money, but I would hope I could place more often. I have about 6 or 7 tourneys where I came 15 places or closer to the money. The reason I am upset is that my best tournaments I didn't make the money or when I did I got horrible beats. I know it's the nature of the game, but it has become so frequent I don't know what to think.

I am not proud of my first place finish. Although I played very well up to the final table, I made a huge mistake with 6 players left. Ran my KQ into AK and luckily with the blinds 1.5k and 3k, with a pitiful short stack 2.6k my T6 beat A5 to double up. By the way, the reason I won this hand is because the big stack raised instead of limping and giving other the chance to beat me. Next hand JT vs A9 and I double up again. Two hands later AJ vs KK and I flop two Jacks. Like I said I can't be proud of that. That put me in the chip lead, and then the cards fell into place. I got AA and KK in the big blind to take short stacks all in. Heads up I got lucky once again. About 15 hands into the match I raise with Q4s and I got called. Flop comes 244. Beautiful flop for me. He checks and so do I. Turn is the Q. He checks and so do I. River is a 9, he bets pot size. I raise half of his stack, he pushes all-in. He had A4. Now I was destined to win this, how many times did I get lucky???

Sometimes is not how well you play, is how lucky you get. You need luck in this game no matter how skillful you are. My 5th place I took a horrible beat. The player pulled a Kanter on me. Five-handed and blinds 1k-2k, he limps and I raise to 6k with AdJd on the button. He is the only that calls. Flop comes Ac 9x 3c. He checks and I bet pot (16k). He cold calls. The turn is 8x. I push all in for 31k. He has 32k and calls my all-in. He has Tc 8c. The river brings Th and just like that I lose a big chance to win a big one. By the way I did get lucky in the final table with 9 players. I pushed UTG with Ac 6h and I was shortstacked. The same player called me with Ah 9h. I rivered a four-flush to double up, getting very lucky. Maybe his calls were based on that. I am not sure. I just dislike that I got unlucky like that.

The 7th place I was shortstacked and there was nothing I could do. The party poker 8th place was bad because I misplayed AK. blinds 1k/2k, I had 20k and there was only the big blind as the sb had just been eliminated. I don't know what went through my head, but since this guy was the chip leader and was getting lucky left and right, i decided to mini raise to 5k, to attract action. He calls. Flop comes J 5 5. He bets into me and I jam. He had Q 5. I should have pushed preflop. Big mistake on my part, can't blame the player.

I know this has been a bad beat post, but I need to vent. I had several tournaments where I was doing well, and I would take horrible beats. Some of the hands:

PP $5 Rebuy - I was playing well, but dumped 75% of my stack on a bluff. I have to work on this, my reads online are not as good as live, and I have to learn to bluff less when opponents bet into me or call my continuation bets. This leads me into becoming a rock for the next 30 minutes. Until I see QQ in the big blind, and I have 2 limpers with good sized stacks, blinds are 200/400. I push all-in, one folds and the other thinks. I start saying call me with your lower pair... Yippie he did call me with 88. $@#%%@#%$ he flops the set!

6k FT Guarantee - I was controlled and playing extremely well. Blinds are $120/240 and I have JJ in the small blind. I had about 4.5k in chips and to my right there was this player who survived many all-ins in the past 40 minutes. He was super aggressive, but always seemed to hit the hand that doubled him up and got him back. He had about 3.2k in chips. Player before CO, raises to 540. Aggressive player reraises to 1.2k. I call and the other guy fold. I put him on AK and I figured if the A or K didn't flop I would move all in. flop comes all rags. I push and he thinks for a long time and calls with AQo. No draws!!!! Rivers Q. Unbelievable.

Two PS 180 Hands. 12 players left before the money, one player min raises UTG. I push all in with JJ. I needed to double up to make it to the money. He ponders and calls. He called 3/4 of his stack with QJo. But he flopped the Q. Great call buddy!

In the money, I have a quick problem thinking straight and dump 4k to a short stack with QJ. The min raise preflop was the correct call. The check call his all-in was horrible. I had nothing and he didn't have much either K9. but nothing came through. So I have 9k in chips, my M is of 5 and everyone folds to me and I have AQs. I really want a call from the chip leader who is on the big blind. So instead of auto move all-in, I let the time request pop-up and then I push all in. He thinks for a good 15 seconds and calls. I loved it... QT. Flop comes AKx -x - J. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

There are 2 things I need to improve. I need to let go of hands on later streets if my continuation bets didn't work. I am 90% of the times beat. Improve my reads on hands that I raise and then get bet into. Learn when to let go of the hand or reraise is a crucial skill.

Poker Stars SNG (180)

I just wanted to note I came in 6th on Monday night for one of these SNGs. I played really well, and I only sucked out once in the middle of the tourney when I was shortstacked and pushed all in with A8s and got called by the BB with AQ. I turned an 8 and won the hand. After that I had a nice rush and moved to the top 5 in the tourney to stay there until I moved all in in the final table with A7 and got called by the BB.

I want to thank my friend Leo who was there to sweat me. ;)

Portugues

Eu esqueci de escrever aqui que na Segunda a noite eu cheguei em sexto lugar num desses SNGs. Eu joguei muito bem, e tive so dei sorte uma vez no meio do torneio quando estava com poucos fichas e empurrei all-in com A8 e o bigblind tinha AQ. O turn trouxe um 8 e eu ganhei a mao. Depois disso fiquei quente e subi para ficar entre os 5 primeiros. Nao sai de la ate a mesa final. Faltando 6 eu estava com poucas fichas e empurrei com A7 e outro jogado pagou com AQ.

Quero agradecer ao amigo Leo que estava la para dar um secada!!! ;)

Review of the Month - Part 1 (SNGs)

I have been playing a lot of SNGs lately, and I wanted to report my December play as I believe I will continue to play in the upcoming months. First, I will set some goals, and then I will talk about where I stand in this month and show some of my stats.

As you know I have been playing NL Holdem, PL Holdem, Stud Hi/Lo and Omaha Hi/Lo. I think this will give me the chance to improve my overall game, and it makes me think a lot more about every play since it doesn't become "boring". I am currently playing the $10 SNGs at Party Poker. I am very excited to report that I am building my bankroll from a $50 deposit, which now stands at around 29 buy-ins.

I have played a total of 69 SNGs and I want to get to at least 150 before moving to the $20s. I guess that is my first goal. My second goal is to get closer to placing in the money (ITM) 48% of the times. I think it's very capable at the $10s. Most importantly I want my Return on Investment (ROI) to be between 33% to 40%. I am not sure whether that's possible, but I think I can do it and it's a nice goal.

Here are my stats for the month of December.

NL Holdem
Number of Tournaments 34
1st Place 2
2nd Place 5
3rd Place 4
4th Place 5
5th-7th 9
8th-10th 9
ITM 32.3%
ROI -13.3%
Return $ -44

I am not happy at all with my NL play. I have to improve several aspects of my game at No-Limit. I have to move a lot of the 8th-10th into 5th-7th places and most of those to 3rd through 4th. My stats show how horrible I am playing, but I think it's just lack of concentration and sometimes what I call "I'M TOO GOOD" syndrome which makes me play any 2 cards.

I think my results for the other 3 types of tournaments are much better, just because they are new to me and also because I haven't played enough, so I am just more careful with my starting hand selection. I am also very aware this is not enough tournaments to really have any realistic read into the numbers. But I want to do this to encourage some of my friends who are not doing it for themselves and they should.

PL Holdem
Number of Tournaments 13
1st Place 5
2nd Place 0
3rd Place 2
4th Place 0
5th-7th 6
8th-10th 0
ITM 53.8%
ROI 50.7%
Return $ 144

Omaha Hi/Lo
Number of Tournaments 11
1st Place 0
2nd Place 1
3rd Place 4
4th Place 1
5th-7th 3
8th-10th 2
ITM 45.5%
ROI -10%
Return $ 10

Stud Hi/Lo
Number of Tournaments 11
1st Place 3
2nd Place 2
3rd Place 1
4th Place 0
5th-7th 5
8th-10th 0
ITM 54.4%
ROI 34.2%
Return $ 63

Overall
ITM 42.4%
ROI 20.4
Return $ 155

This tells me I am playing a good tight game in Stud and PL Holdem, but not so in Omaha and NL. In NL, I have a tendency to push with AK and AQ and these hands are burning me a bit in the early parts of the tourney. In Omaha, I think I played well, but I am too loose early on which shows in the stats. There is no reason I shouldn't be able to place in the top 5 in Omaha Hi/Lo.

I am doing this to set goals for myself, and to show some players what they should be doing. I hope it helps as I know it helps me.

Review of the Month

The end of year is coming and my next 3 posts will be on my recent play at the NL1-2, SNG and some free rolls that I participated over the weekend.

I would also like to review my goals, and reevaluate what I want to do going forward. Today I am taking the day off. Yesterday was 2-3 outer day against me. The most important thing is that I didn't tilt once. I am getting much better at controlling my feelings. I know I am putting my money in when I have the best hand and that's the best I can do.

Portugues

O fim do ano esta chegando e os meus 3 proximos posts serao sobre o meu jogo de NL1-2, SNG e dois free rolls que eu participei no fim de semana.

Eu tambem vou revisar minhas metas, e decidir o que eu quero fazer nos proximos 4 a 6 meses. Hoje estou tirando o dia de folga. Ontem eu perdi varias maos para 2-3 outers. O mais importante eh que eu nao perdi o controle nenhuma vez. Estou conseguindo me controlar muito melhor. O que importa eh que estou colocando o dinheiro dentro quando tenho a melhor mao, e isso eh tudo que eu posso fazer.

SNG

I have been playing 4 SNGs per day and after starting with an awesome run. I had about 17 where the most I was able to do was get into 3rd place about 2 times. This was very frustrating. I lost many races where I was ahead and I had one or 2 beats where there were pp confrontations and I lost(AA vs JJ and QQ vs 88). I had only $25 left, so I sat down at the NL25 shorthanded. I had a really good run and got my money back to $100. This was fun. Back at the SNGs.

So I played about 8 in the past two days. 2NL Holdem, 2PL Holdem, 2Stud8 and 2Omaha8. The cards have been doing justice to my game. I came in first 3 times, and 2nd twice, and that's really good. I am very excited about Stud8 and Omaha8. It's a game that certainly awards good tight play early on and aggressive short handed play which is my strength in tourneys.

I have said before that I am doing this mostly because of the free-roll that Clube do Poker gives every month. There is a very good post on that site and another very good one at the Brazilian Circuit Blog Site. Must read if you are trying to improve your game.

Portugues

Eu tenho jogado 4 Sng por dia e logo que eu iniciei eu tive bom sucesso. Mas nos ultimos 17 eu nao me dei muito bem. As melhores colocoes foram terceiro 2 vezes. A falta de resultados foi muito frustrante. Perdi varias corridas onde eu era o favorito, alem de algumas maos onde eu era o favorito com o outro jogador, mas a mao deles melhoraram (AA vs JJ e QQ vs 88). So me faltavam $25 dos $50 que eu havia depositado. Sentei numa mesa de NL25 com 6 jogadores e transformei esse dinheiro em $100. Foi divertido e la estava eu de volta aos SNGs.

Nos ultimos dias joguei por volta de 8. Uma mistura de NL Holdem, PL HOldem, Stud8 e Omaha8. As cartas me ajudaram muito e eu cheguei em primeiro 3x e segundo 2, fui muito bem. Estou gostando de jogar Stud8 e Omaha8. Eh um jogo que remunera o jogador bom e agressivo quando esta perto as ultimos 4, o que eu considero um dos meus fortes.

Eu ja falei que estou fazendo isso simplesmente por causa do free-roll mensal do Clube do Poker. No site deles tem uma materia muito boa sobre SNG e tambem uma outra no site do Circuito Brasileiro. Leitura obrigatoria para quem quer melhorar o jogo neste estilo.

Last 2 Weeks

The last 2 weeks I have been quite busy. I went to Brasil and had a really awesome time. I met someone who I plan to visit again when I go back in January and February. I played some poker while hanging out at my aunt's house drinking a few beers with my cousins and uncle. Basically, I set up an account with party poker through Clube do Poker so I can participate in their monthly 5k free roll. I can say that making the money is not hard, although the last 3 tables normally consists of solid good players. I got my $50 roll up to $200 and that was fun. In this account I play mostly SNG$10, as they also have a ranking system attached to Party Poker that only the top 200 players can play in the free roll. If you place in first 5 times you will definitely be in the top 200. I qualified easily in November and I only had a few days. The tournament will be this Sunday.

With my full-tilt account I have not moved anywhere after going through that hot streak. I have had some good days, but also some bad days. Actually I was close to topping my chart yesterday when my AA ran into a passively slow played KK and I lost about a buy-in and half. Tough one as the board at the end read K 5 3 3 3. Nothing I could do.

On the other hand I had a great time last weekend at the Borgata. I made about $700 in cash plus $500 at the blackjack tables... Pretty good weekend. I rarely play blackjack. I wasn't really going there this weekend to play poker, mostly meet with 3 friends from work. Since they play blackjack I decided to play too and it worked out for most of us. I made $500, a friend $200 and another $100. One of them sat down with only $100 and his money vaporized quickly at the $25 table.

I played 5 hours of poker on Saturday before they got there, and my tight aggressive agressive style (bluffs at opportunistic times + show) throws these players out. I love playing live as I am a very good opponent reader. I pride myself in that. I think I played very very well although I walked out losing $135. No bad beats as I made all the right plays at the right times, and I only walked out a loser because my friends arrived and I decided to call it. I pretty much had the whole table staked out.

On Sunday, my friends left and I headed over to the poker room at 11:30. Played until 7pm. I cashed in $800. Again the $1/2 are very passive, with a lot of limpers, players giving a lot of tells. I played my A game, and also managed to dodge a big hand. I had AA vs TT. The guy was a good player and I was hoping he had QQ or KK. But he had TT. The flop was Th9h8 . The pot was $150 so I potted. He had $200 and pushed all-in, I called his last $50 and managed to catch my A on the river. It was a big hand. Again overall I played very well, and I think I made all the right calls and plays. I will back again this weekend and next weekend I head to Vegas.

Portugues

Eu estive muito ocupado nas ultimas duas semanas. Eu fiz uma visita ao Brasil e me diverti muito. Eu conheci alguem que estou planejando visitar novamente quando voltar em Janeiro e Fevereiro. Eu joguei um pouco de poker enquanto me recuperava da noite e bebia com meus primos e meu tio. Eu criei uma conta com o Party Poker pelo site Clube do Poker para eu poder participar no free roll mensal deles. Chegar no dinheiro nao eh muito complicado, mas as ultimas mesas contam com jogadores de altissimo nivel. Eu inicei com $50 e ja estou com $200, jogando na maior parte SNG$10. Eu nao jogo cash games porque tenho que pontuar nos rankings deles para participar no torneio. Somente os 150 ou 200 primeiros poderao participar do free roll. Se chegar em primeiro 5x isso te colocara entre os 200 com certeza. Eu me classifiquei com facilidade em Novembro, ja que soh joguei no fim do mes. O torneio sera nesse Domingo.

Na conta do full-tilt eu nao ganhei quase nada. Estou ganhando e perdendo e nao tenho capitalizado. Eu cometi dois erros, um dia joguei demais (por volta de 2000 maos - 4 mesas) e isso prejudicou o meu empenho. Ontem depois de ter bebido umas dpeois do trabalho, novamente joguei demais da conta... Ja havia jogado por 1 hora e tava batendo um sono e nao fui dormir. Eu estava perto de bater o topo do meu grafico que contem as flutuacoes do meu jogo. Com AA eu perdi um buy-in e meio por causa do jogador que jogou KK passivamente. No fim o board lia K 5 3 3 3 e eu nao consegui colocar ele num full-house melhor. Nada que poderia ter feito.

No entanto eu nao posso reclamar do meu fim de semana no Borgata. Eu nao fui para jogar, fui mesmo para me divertir com os amigos do trabalho, mas acabei fazendo $700 jogando e $500 no blackjack. Raramente jogo blackjack, mas por estar com meus amigos acabei fazendo. Nao foi ruim ja q somente um nao ganhou dinheiro. Eu fiz $500, um amigo $200 e outro $100. Um perdeu $100, mas tambem sentou na mesa de $25 e em 4 maos frias perdeu a grana.

Sabado antes deles chegarem eu joguei 5 horinhas de poker. Meu estilo faz com que os jogadores nao fiquem com medo contra mim. Isso eh otimo. Fiz alguns blefes oportunisticos e joguei muito bem. Nao cometi nenhum erro que eu me lembre. Jogar ao vivo eh muito bom, porque me ajuda com as leituras dos jogadores. Eu acredito ser um otimo leitor de jogadores. No sabado eu perdi $135, mas foi por causa meus amigos chegaram e eu estava acabando de perder uma mao. Nao me preocupei em recuperar.

No Domingo, meus amigos foram para casa e eu parti para jogar um pouco as 11:30 da manha. Fiquei jogando ate 7 da noite. Eu ganhei $800. O jogo $1/2 eh muito passivo e tem um monte de gente jogando muito muito "loose". As pessoas fazem caras entre outras coisas. Dificil de nao ganhar. Eu tambem contei com a sorte quando meu AA encontrou um TT q tinha no flop Th 9h 8. A trinca dele foi foda desde q eu tava pot committed e eu tinha colocado ele em QQ ou KK ja que era um jogador bom. No turn veio outro coracao o q me deu outs para fazer o flush, e no river veio o A. Me livrei bem. De qualquer maneira eu joguei muito bem, nao cometi erros e eh isso que eu tiro deste jogo. Esta semana eu volto para la, mas somente para jogar e na proxima semana eu sigo para Vegas.

Good Week + Plans

I am posting again, since I will be out of it for a while. I have had a serious good run this week. I have played over 4k hands of NL$1/2 and I have come out ahead about 13/100. This is really sick and I am not sure if I am just having a good run or what. I know I made 3 big mistakes, and this confuses me because I should be at least 10bb/100 higher if they weren't accounted for. I think I am certainly hitting a good streak, but I was also able to extract the most out of my opponents when I have been ahead. I hope this streak continues and is here to stay.

The following 4 weeks I have plans to travel around. I will go to Brazil this week leaving on Wednesday and coming back red-eye on Monday. I am probably going to take Friday off and head to AC to play the WSOP Circuit at the Show Boat - Event 5. I am meeting some of the guys from work on Saturday and we will be staying at the Borgata. I will probably play a few hours, just so I can continue to get the poker rate rooms which are really awesome ($125).

On the weekend of the 10th, I had back to the Borgata with my buddy DS and maybe JF and his friend. This will be a day filled with poker. I plan to stop around midnight to hit the club, and test my other game skills.

Today I booked a trip to Vegas for the weekend of the 17th. Hopefully my friend DS will go too and we will be able to stay at his brother's place. If not, I will probably get a cheap hotel room. I have not played poker in Vegas yet, so that should be an experience.

In the meantime, I want to continue killing the tables at Full-tilt and I have to clear some bonus at Poker Stars and Party.

Home Game (co-workers)

Last Wednesday, I went to play some poker with people from work. I have posted here before that the play is below avegare. There are a few players who venture online, and they are the only ones who display any sort of knowledge of the game. The other playes have no clue, plus they think I bluff a lot due to my super aggressiveness. I had told a few of the guys I would at least make the money, and I made a few side bets. With 9 players, we decided the money would be 3 people($40 buyin). These are friendly games so it's best that a bigger than usual share win something.

There is one player who is a good friend and understand the game. He is the only player I knew I would have to beat to take down this tourney. Every other one would require a lot of luck to actually beat me. I know it sounds cocky but the play is really bad.

The biggest calling station in our office goes on a rush early in the tournament and eliminates 2 or 3 players. He had good hands and they held up. I knew I had to pick my spots, and I managed to stay out of trouble most of the tourney. The calling station kept calling other player's huge bets. They didn't understand that they value of the bet didn't matter to this guy. He always thought he could get lucky, or people were trying to bluff him. They didn't succeed and he continued to win everyone else's chips. My friend and I took shots at him with real hands, my friend doubled up, and I tried twice to do it, but was not successful. He couldn't manage to make the call.

I doubled up through another player and that gave me more chips that I could throw around being aggressive. This hand came up. Blinds were 50/100 and I had A3o in the button and I raised to $250 (this was my normal raise, which I did with any two cards). The Calling Station calls and we see this flop: 5 4 4 rainbow. He checked to me and I fired 300 chips and he called. The turn is a deuce and he again checks. I had 3k in chips left and he had about 4k. In any other scenario, with any other player, I would bet an amount I think the player would call. The difference is I had gone all in twice before with the nuts and he didn't call. This time I think I sold a little bit better. I double checked my cards, and I looked him straight in the eyes and said "Okay, I am all-in". I think he bought that I was bluffing and my good acting paid me off. He had KQ, so even if that card doesn't hit, I still manage to win the hand.

Then I eliminated my friend. He was playing a solid tourney at this point. We were down to 4. I had him covered, but he was definitely in second. He was switching up aggressive with passive, and getting the other guys confused. The other players had no clue what he was doing, or I was doing. Many blinds were stolen. So he decided to limp in when I am in the big blind. Here is the hand:

He limps and both player call. I looked down at 3 3 and tell everyone that I was thinking about this hand and that it normally breaks me. The flop comes Qh 9x 3h. JACKPOT!!! I bet $300 as people expect me to bet like that. My friend smooth calls me, and calling station calls. The turn brings us a 9x. I tell my friend his AQ is not good, as I bet another $600. He doesn't think and pushes all-in. The other player folds and I call. He show Jh 9h for 3 of kind straight flush draw. The river is the Kh, and I win the pot. We have talked about this hand and the outcome would all have been the same unless he folds it preflop.

I went on to win the tourney (+200). We played a 4 handed tourney for $10, and my friend got unlucky as his AA vs 99 vs JT couldn't manage to hold up with all 3 players all-in pre-flop. The board at the end read J 5 3 9 J. Too bad. So I am heads up against this other player and we played for about 25 minutes. He didn't have a clue what I was doing. I managed to get to $1700 in chips against his $2300. Then the following hand came.

I was in the small blind and the blinds were $100/$200. I call with K K and he checks. I had mixed up the game and I thought this was an opportunity to get it all in on the flop. I think he was getting impatient and would see my all-in bet as weakness as I had shown him a few bluffs. The problem was that the flop came Kc Qx 7c. He bets $200 and I decided to raise him small, hoping he would bluff all in and i would call. But he only called the bet. The next card was a club. He goes all in and after 10 seconds I called. He showed Qx 2c. The river was another club and he won the tourney. More importantly I am feeling great about the way I am playing.

800 Badbeat.com

Friday night, I went out to play poker at one of the NYC poker rooms. I left work a little earlier than usual and headed over there. I was looking to play a $1-2 game with buy in at about $200. There are a lot of solid players at this club. I get there and the main table is full, which I am somewhat glad. They are playing $1-2, but they have stacks ranging from $400 to 2 grand. I think they play $1-2 more like $2-5. They do this because the time (rake per half hour) is $6 for the $2-5 game while $5 for the $1-2 game. A short handed game is ready to start with 4 players, including me. I hate playing short handed, since my aggressiveness and inability to let go of hands get me in trouble.

In the first 2 hands I dropped about $150. My two pair ran into straight and my top pair lost to three of kind made on the river. I bought another $200 and slowly built my stack back to about $500. There were 3 very interesting hands:

Hand 1
I am the bb with KhQh, and we have one guy straddle for $5. Button and small blind calls, and I raise to $20. Straddle raises to $40. I am the only caller. Flop comes QQx. I check he bets $30 and I call. Another blank hits, and I check, he checks behind me. I put him on AK or better. Another blank and I bet $50. He thinks and calls. He had AA.

Hand 2
I am again in the big blind. The same player straddles again. One caller. I call "blind" and I announce that. The straddle raises blind. The other caller, calls and I call. Flop comes Q 8 4. I check blind and he bets $20 blind. Callers folds and I announce that I have to look at my cards. I have Q5. So I raise him another $20, making it $40. He calls. The turn is a 5. I bet $45. He thinks about it and goes all in. I have another $95 to call. I think about it and call. The river is a 3 and I win the hand. He said he had some draw.

Hand 3
Huge pot that I lost, but I feel I made the right play. We were still four handed and I am in the button with 5d 7d. UTG raises to $10. I call, sb and button calls. The flop comes 6d 4x 2x, I really liked this flop, but I feel like I wasn't aggressive enough. The guy in the sb, bet $10 (this is the same guy that bluffed me in hand 2), bb calls, utg raiser calls and I call. (I should probably have raised here but I wanted to get another card, and build the pot a bit) The next card is a Qd. Check, Check and initial raiser goes all in for $55. I think about it. I put him on KQ or AQ and I am not sure what to do here. I decided to call the $55. Small blind goes all in for another $78, in addition to the $55. I call. The river is 2. Small stack wins with AQ and small blind wins side pot with 43.

We move to the main table after a few spots open up. The stacks range from $200 to about $1700 and this is a $1-2 game. I have about $500. Here is pretty much my reads from previous experiences at this game. Seat 1 is neutral aggressive solid player, Seat 2 I don't recognize, but is in the first few hands, makes solid decisions and has about $1300 in front. I guess he is solid. Seat 3 is super loose super aggressive player, he is the player you don't want in the pot. He will normally bet you out of hands and give you solid bad beats. His style however is one that has huge swings. Currently he has about $1700 in front of him... must have had a good run. Seat 4 is one of the players who was playing in my table he has $500 in front of him. Seat 5 is a local pro who is always at this club, and has about $1600 in front of him. I am seat 6. Seat 7 and 8 are the other guys from our table, 7 is the guy who won the hand with AQ and 8 is also a local pro that is always around. He only has $300 in front of him. Seat 9 is another local professional with about $1400 and seat 10 is the loosest player, has money italian guy who has watched a lot of poker on tv and is trying it out.

First hand, seat 10 and 1 limps, 2 raises to $20, 3 calls, 4 raises to $120. Everyone laughs and asks why so much. Everyone folds and seat 10 says "Let's crack thoses aces", and pushes all in with about $180 in front of him. Everyone folds, and seat 4 calls and shows aces. Seat 10 has QJ. The flop comes QQx and he wins the pot, putting seat 4 on tilt.

We play for a while and I build my stack to about $750. I see seat 8 doubling up through seat 3 with quad queens and seat 3 tried to bluff him out on the river. That must be a good feeling. He leaves and the guy who bluffed a bit in the short handed game takes his seat. Seat 5 is a funny player and started talking about creating a business called 800 badbeat.com. It was hilarious, mostly because of the cracked aces hand. In all, we weren't read for what was about to come.

I am UTG with JJ and I raise to about $12. Solid tight player raises to $30. Next guy calls, seat 9 calls, seat 10 calls, seat 3 calls. Shit, I didn't want all these players behind me. So I thought about putting in another solid reraise. I reraise to $120, but it doesn't work and everyone calls me. OMG, WTF???? The pot is now around $720+. This is no joke. Flop comes Td 4d 2x. I think for a while and make the mistake of betting $200. I was second to act, if I was going to make that move I should have just moved all in and hoped for the best. Guy next to me moves all in with $590, seat 8 calls with $400 and everyone thinks hard about laying the hand down. Seat 3 decides to call and I fold knowing I either beat by an over pair or a set and in the worst case I am racing against the flush draw, so I folded. I am really pissed about my $200 bet, and the huge pot made me bet that much since I had over cards, but in that case I should have just let go, or not even make the reraise preflop. Playing and learning.

Seat 7 has KK
Seat 8 has 44
Seat 3 has xd xd for the flush draw

Flop is Td 4d 2x
Turn 2h
River is the K

The final pot turned out to be $2700 or something around that area. If you ever take a bad beat, you may call 800 badbeat-dot-com.

Going on a Rush...

I was playing $2-5NL for about 9 hours now. I felt I had a good read on all the players, and I was making some good decisions. I had about 1.3k in front of me and I had shown down some big hands in the past hour. There was about 4 players in every flop, sometimes even 6 mostly limpers. I was playing very well in position and I was observing every players and I usually made the right guesses of hands they were playing when I was out of the hand.

I was feeling really good. I had a local professional playing to my right and he was the only real solid player in the table. Another old guy who was playing since I got there was fuming a bit and although I thought he was good, he definitely was trying to get even after he lost a few big hands. Anyways, here is an interesting hand I played. One I normally wouldn't even think about, but that I decided I wanted to give a shot and try to outplay my opponents. I knew I couldn't take the hand to showdown and even more so, I needed to hit the flop and hope for the best.

UTG limps, UTG+1 limps, MP limps, CO (local pro) limps. I look at my cards and Ks 2d. I got this itch and decided I was going to raise. I raised to $25. UTG calls (he has about 800 in front of him), UTG+1 folds, MP folds and CO calls ($1.1k). The flop comes Kh 9c 4h and it gets checked around to me. The pot now has about $100. For some reason, I felt that some trap was coming and I wanted to keep the pot small. So although I knew I had to finish the hand right there, I also knew I didn't want to be overly committed. I bet $50.

UTG calls, and I immediately put him on the flush draw. Now comes the twist, CO raises $100 more for a total of $150. I stopped and thought about what I wanted to do here. I would either be done with my hand or I would reraise to continue to show strength. I thought about what possible hands he could have. I decided he would have either a set or a K with a better kicker. The only way to know was to reraise him to find out. If he pushes, I lay my hand down knowing he had a set. I decided to play the hand, so as you know I raised another $100. So my total bet was $250 ($50 bet + $100 call + $100 raise). UTG gives out a big tell by saying "Oh well, we only leave once!", to me this spelled out flush draw all the way. I was hoping to see what CO was going to do. He thinks for a while, and I thought that was a good sign and calls.

The turn brings the 2s. They all check to me. I bet $500. This would put UTG all in. He thinks and folds. CO also thinks for a while and says "I think this is a case of set over set" and folds.

I mucked my hand and took this huge pot.

Portugues

Eu estava jogando $2-5 no limit por volta de 9 horas. Eu estava jogando bem, fazendo boas leituras dos jogadores e suas maos. Eu tambem estava tomando decisoes corretas. Eu tinha por volta de 1.3mil na minha frente, e na ultima hora tinha ganho varias maos mostrando cartas fortes. A mesa era bem solta e tinham normalmente 4 a 6 pessoas por flop, a maioria dando limp. Eu estava jogando em posicao muito bem e normalmente enquanto eu ficava fora da mao, eu fazia observacoes corretas sobre as maos que os jogadores tinham.

Como eu ja disse eu estava jogando muito bem. Um profissional local estava a minha direita e era o unico jogador que era solido no seu jogo. Um outro jogado que estava la desde quando eu cheguei a mesa, estava tiltando e apesar de eu achar que ele era bom, ele estava tentando recuperar o dinheiro perdido e tomava decisoes incorretas. De qualquer maneira aqui vai uma mao super interessante que eu joguei. Esta eh normalmente uma mao que eu nao jogo, mas que eu decidi jogar porque eu achava que poderia jogar a mao melhor que os meus adversarios. O mais importante eh que eu sabia que eu nao podia ir ate o river com essa mao e que o flop tinha que me ajudar muito, e esta teria que ser jogada fora.
UTG paga, UTG+1 paga, MP paga, CO (pro local) paga. Eu olho para as minhas cartas e tenho Ks 2d. Eu decidi que iria jogar esta mao forte e aumentei para $25. UTG paga (tem $800 na sua frente), UTG+1 e MP jogam as cartas fora e CO paga ($1.1k). O flop vem com Kh 9c 4h e todos passam para mim. O pot tem por volta de $100. Por alguma razao eu senti que alguem estava preparando uma armadilha. E por isso eu queria manter o pot pequeno. Apesar de saber que eu tinha que terminar a mao ali, eu decidi que precisava de mais informacoes. Entao eu apostei $50.

UTG paga, e eu imediatamente coloquei ele num flush draw. Agora vem a parte interessante, CO aumenta mais $100. Eu parei e pensei em como eu deveria prosseguir. Eu tinha na realidade duas opcoes com esta mao: jogar ela fora ou reaumentar mostrando forca. Antes de agir eu pensei em quais maos ele poderia ter de acordo com as acoes dele: 44, 99 veio a mente, mas o mais provavel era algo com K e um kicker melhor que o meu. Eu queria saber se ele tinha o trio. Decidi jogar forte e sabia que se ele fizesse reraise eu ia ter que largar a mao. Eu reaumentei mais $100 para um total de $250. UTG da uma respirada, pensa e fala "Bem, nos soh vivemos uma vez!", e para mim ele tava correndo atras do flush draw. Minha ansiedade era para ver o que o CO ia fazer. Ele pensou muito, e para isso era otimo sinal, e pagou.

O turn eh um 2s. Todos passam para mim. Eu aposto $500. Isso colocaria o UTG all in. Ele pensa e joga fora as cartas. CO tambem pensa por um bom tempo e fala "Eu acho que isso eh um caso de set contra set" e joga as cartas fora.
Eu entreguei minha mao ao dealer e ganhei esse grande pot.

Atlantic City Trip Report

I have a few hands that I want to talk about that came up in the trip. But I will leave that for tomorrow. I just wanted to post that my trip was a success and live playing is just more complete and fullfilling. I love it and I just couldn't stop playing. The interesting part is that there are a lot of bad players and it helps your pockets.

On the first day I played $6-12 limit and it was very interesting. No raise was respected and there were at least 4-5 players in every hand. That really made me think of 1-2 limit at Party Poker. I made a few mistakes early on and I was stuck for $150, but I managed to adjust to the styles on the table and I made a few very good reads. My last 30 minutes I went on a great rush and won 4 hands in a row. That put me back in the black and I was up $25 for the night. Played from 11:00 till 3:30.

The second day I went shopping in the AC mall area. I went to the boardwalk and and played some miniature golf. The weather was beautiful. Got back to the hotel, and headed to the poker room around 3pm. I wanted to play till 10pm. I decided to play NL2-5. Again, I had a real hard time adjusting early on. I lost a big hand to a draw, and I was stuck $250. I rebought another $200. I had my T high straight lose to a J high straight when the river brought a gut shot nine. So I was down to about $275. Let me paint the picture. The table was super loose and passive preflop. Even when someone made a 5bb raise, mostly everyone called. There were around 4 to 5 every hand. I am on the bb with QT and the flop brings QQJ. I check, someone bets, and this loose deep stack player (who I thought was really good with his reads) calls. I decided to shove all of my chips in right there. I got one caller. The player had flush draw and never got there.

I didn't look back, and I ended the night up $1330 ($2030 - $700 being mine). It was a good night and I played really well. I made a few mistakes, and I think I misplayed a few hands. So I will post them here and maybe get some opinions.

Portugues

Titulo confuso eu sei, so queria uma maneira para organizar tudo que tenho para escrever hoje. Para comecar, eu joguei 4 SNG180 nos ultimos dois dias. Eu me coloquei em trigesimo, nono, trigesimo primeiro e 169 (nao sei escrever - q feio) por causa de um bad beat dois outs que o cara conseguiu no river. Eu estou jogando torneios bem, e provavelmente teria ido mais longe no torneio que fiquei em nono se o meu all-in com KJ nao tivesse sido pago por um cara com 33 no big blind. Entendo que 33 eh favorito a KJ, mas quem paga quase que 90% dos seus chips na mesa final com 33? Bom para ele que ganhou, mas nao estou infeliz com a jogada. Hoje chegando perto do dinheiro minha AQs nao conseguiu ganhar de 77. Novamente estou feliz com minhas jogadas.

Decidi tentar jogar PL Omaha 8 hoje a noite e eu ganhei essa mao linda.

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=160304

Eu tinha cometido um erro contra um cara com menos chips pagando o all in dele com um draw para o low e tinha dois pares, mas eu tinha certeza q ele iria ganhar o high. Isso criou uma imagem ruim de mim. Esses caras nao acreditaram que eu tinha a melhor mao e todas as maos deles eram segundas para mim. Eu joguei muito agressivo e cometi alguns erros onde achei que minha posicao era melhor, mas nao foi tao ruim ja que eu acabei dividindo os pots. Ele poderia ter ganho a mao ja que estava com melhores draws que eu.

Eu quero comentar sobre duas maos que eu cometi erros. Uma num jogo short-handed NLHE $2-4 e outra num torneio. Vamos a primeira.

Eu tinha 9h9d na primeira posicao e aumentei para $15. O big blind que eh um jogador bom e agressivo, mas algumas vezes paga com umas maos nao tao boas, pagou para ver o flop. O flop veio 8s 5s 2s. Ele fez check. O pot tinha $32. Eu apostei $30. Ele ja tinha feito check raise 2 vezes, e fez novamente. A aposta dele foi $80. Ele tinha mais dinheiro que eu, por volta de $10 dolares a mais. Eu tinha por volta de $330 no inicio da mao. Meu pensamento foi que ele tinha o A de espada e estava querendo me empurrar da mao. Eu deveria reaumenta-lo para tirar as chances dele de fazer draw. Foi o q eu fiz. Apostei $170. Ele fez o all-in. E eu paguei. Ele mostrou o A de espada e outro A. Minha mao nao melhorou e eu perdi todo o meu dinheiro. Licoes desta mao: fazer o reraise algumas vezes elimina jogadores fracos de algumas maos que eu tinha colocado eles (claro q AA nao), mas pagar o All-in foi um erro imenso. O que eu nao sabia e gostaria de compartilhar eh que ele com o A de espada e qualquer carta (K-Q-J-T-8) eh of favorito para ganhar a mao. Entao eu deveria ter esperado uma oportunidade melhor.

Outra jogada minha foi durante um torneio. Joguei essa mao completamente errada. Nao sei porque cometo esses erros de vez em quando. Tenho que aprender. Inicio do torneio, eu ainda nao joguei nenhuma mao. Blind eh $10-20 e o primeiro a agir paga $20. Eu tenho AKo, o outro jogador tinha soh 900 chips na frente dele. Eu aumentei para $100 e ele pagou. O flop veio Q Q 2 de cores diferentes. Ele fez o check. Eu pensei, vou apostar o pot aqui e pegar o pot ja que ele nao acerto esse flop. Duhh erro numero um. Ele vai all-in e eu pago. Duhh erro numero dois. Vamos aos erros: o primeiro eh um erro porque a unica maneira que ele me pagaria eh se ele tivesse um par ou uma dama. No qual ele seria favorito. Apostar metade do pot seria o suficiente para pegar informacao sobre o que ele tem. O segundo erro nem preciso explicar.

Meu aniversario esta chegando nesta Terca, entao hoje eu vou para Atlantic City comemorar um pouco. Quero ir a algumas boites e aproveitar para jogar poker. Eu tenho que jogar umas 10 horas para receber o preco promocional do hotel. Nao sera dificil... Segunda vou ver o jogo de futebol americano com meus amigos e beber um pouco... e terca comemarei em estilo jogando beer pong e enchendo a cara... Depois do fim de semana nao devo jogar ate quarta. To ficando velho - 27.

SNG180 9th Place, PLOmaha8, Expensive Mistakes, Borgata Trip, Birthday

Confusing title I know, yet I am just trying to organize everything I want to talk about tonight. To start, I have played 4 SNG180 in the past few days. I have placed 30th, 9th, 31st and 169th in a bad beat 2 outer. I feel very comfortable with my game, and I probably would have gone further had my KJ all-in held up vs a guy calling close to all his stack with 33. I just don't know who makes that play. Good for him I guess, and I wasn't unhappy about my play. Tonight as I was winding down I couldn't get my AQs hold up vs 77. Tough one again.

I was trying PL Omaha 8 tonight and I won this beautiful hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=160304

I made some small mistakes pushing some hands, but I managed to split the pots. Later I saw that I was ahead only to win the high, and he certainly had many outs to scoop.

Two of the hands I want to talk about is a NLHE$2-4 Shorthanded and a tournament hand that cost me a lot of chips. The shorthanded hand first.

I had 99 UTG and I raised to $15. The big blind who is solid aggressive but makes some loose calls, cold calls. The flop comes 8s 5s 2s. The pot has about $32 and he checks. I bet $30. He had check raised me on two other occasions, and he did it again. The bet was about $80. He had me covered, and I had about $330 in front of me at the beginning of the hand. My thoughts were, he has the As and is trying to push me off my hand. I should reraise him as not to show weakness and to not give him this draw. So I reraised to about $170. He pushed all in. I called. He showed the As and another A. My hand didn't improve and I lost all my money. Here are two things to think about and the lesson I learned playing my hand: Making the reraise was a perfectly normal play and I will sometimes force weaker hands to lay down, in any case, I was not the favorite to win the hand. If my opponent held As and K-Q-J-T of any other suit, he would still be a favorite. Had I known that I would have probably folded to the all-in bet and I should have. Yet somehow I thought I was ahead with the hand I had put him on.

Here is the tournament hand: I have AKo in the Cut off position with all my chips, it is pretty early. UTG limps for $20 chips and he has about $900 in chips. I raise to $100 and he calls it. Flop comes Q Q 2 rainbow. He checks. My thoughts were: he missed the flop and I will bet pot size to take this down. I bet pot sized, he reraises me all and in an instance I clicked the call button. Big mistake, and here is what I should have been thinking: Bet half the pot, if he moves on me he probably hit his Q and I should be done with the hand. The reason you ask??? Only way he calls any bets here is if he has the Q or one of the deuces. By pushing he probably had the Q and I should have just folded, instead I called. Sometimes I make these dumb mistakes, but it's good to reflect on them.

My birthday is coming up next Tuesday, so tomorrow I am going to Atlantic City to play a bit at the Borgata. I am hoping to get at least 10 hours since I got the room at the poker rate. I plan to enjoy the clubs and some good meals. On Monday I will spend MNF at a friends house drinking and on Tuesday I plan to either get really drunk playing beer pong or just plain get really drunk. I will be turning 27.

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math

Weekend + Past Month Review

I didn't play much on Saturday. Yesterday I played some Omaha8 before the Horse tourney at Full Tilt. I lasted through the first hour, after I raised in the CO with 77 and a donkey called me down. The flop came AK4 rainbow, I bet he called, 9. I checked, he checked and then a river 3 which I bet and he called. He shows Q9. GRRRRR

Anyways, I played 4 180SNG and placed in one. It was my best showing at the final 2 tables. I had about 18k in chips. But I got over aggressive with AK expecting someone to fold, after I moved all in. Both players had me covered. The early raiser called and so did the other one. Flop comes Q high, early raiser checks and calls other player all in. The other player had a set of QQ and the earlier player had AK. I know I made a mistake but if he was willing to call all in with A high, why not just push all in preflop?

This month was not that good money wise, but I think I am doing really well understanding this variance and learning to keep my cool most of the time. In addition, I have been playing much better. I understand what it means to be tight aggressive now, at least I think so.

SNG180 Tourney and Omaha 8

PokerStars Tournament #14396542, No Limit Hold'emBuy-In: $20.00/$2.00180 playersTotal Prize Pool: $3600.00Tournament started - 2005/10/29 - 00:43:36 (ET)Dear pkrPlayerBR,You finished the tournament in 16th place.

PokerStars Tournament #14351999, No Limit Hold'emBuy-In: $20.00/$2.00180 playersTotal Prize Pool: $3600.00Tournament started - 2005/10/27 - 23:15:56 (ET)Dear pkrPlayerBR,You finished the tournament in 13th place.

I feel really good about my play recently. The cards certainly haven't helped as much and I haven't had a good chance to make a run at the final table since I don't have enough chips, but I feel confident and I want to continue trying. I will probably play another 2-3 tourneys before Monday.

On the Omaha front I feel really like I found a game I can play well. I have been doing a lot of reading in the forum (2plus2) and also this website http://www.o8poker.com. It has great advice and it has helped me already in the few (3) I have been playing. I am still grinding 1-2 tables of HE 2-4 at Party.

Tomorrow I plan to play again in the Full Tilt HORSE tourney and a few other SNG.

Portugues

Em cima esta os resultados dos meus ultimos dois SNG de 180 pessoas ($20+2). Eu tenho jogado muito bem ultimamente, apesar das cartas nao estarem me ajudando. Por esta razao, nao tenho conseguido muitos chips para fazer uma tentativa a mesa final. Tenho jogado com uma paciencia muito grande e estou mantendo meu estilo bem agressivo. Nao estou feliz com algumas jogadas quando chego na duas ultimas mesas. Vou ver se encontro as maos e coloco ela aqui.

Em relacao ao Omaha 8, eu acho que eu realmente encontrei um jogo que eu jogue bem. Eu tenho lido varios foruns e um site que eu encontrei que tambem eh muito bom ( http://www.o8poker.com). Tem varios conselhos otimos e eu ja noto uma grande melhora no meu jogo em apenas alguns dias. Eu continuo jogando HE 2-4, mas agora soh 1 ou 2 mesas.

Another huge swing the other night. I am really getting frustrated. My confidence is a bit shake this month. In order to improve I posted a few hands at 2plus2 and I hope to get some good opinions from it. Here is the link if you want to give your opinion (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=3803438&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=14&fpart=1)

After my HORSE final table finish, I have decided to try playing Omaha 8. I have been giving it a shot at the 3/6 level and I am doing quite well. I think because of the permutations and because I don't think there is wide spread knowledge of the game, people get caught overplaying their hands many times.

I also finished in the money for the 180 SNG at Poker Stars last night. My goal is to win one by the end of the week, the level of play is average.

Portuguese

Um outro colapso algumas noites atras. Estou ficando muito frustrado. A confianca no meu jogo esta meio que abaixo do normal. Por isso eu decidir postar algumas maos no forum 2plus2, com a esperanca de receber algumas boas recomendacoes. A link esta ali em cima e nao vou postar de novo.

Depois que cheguei em segundo lugar no torneio de Horse no domingo passado, meu interesse pelo Omaha 8 aumentou bastante. Eu comecei jogando 3/6 e estou tendo muito sucesso. Eu acredito que por causa das muitas permutacoes que podem existir, algumas pessoas nao jogam corretamente, sem contar que existem dois pots, o high e o low. Eu vejo muitos erros.

Tambem tenho jogado o torneio de 180 pessoas do Poker Stars. Na minha segunda tentativa eu cheguei em decimo terceiro lugar. Eu cometi um erro na ultima mao, mas mesmo assim acredito que ate o fim de semana eu ganhe este torneio. A competicao nao eh muito forte.

Last Night

I finally signed up for a Party Poker account with rake back last night. I am very excited, as I will be playing $2/4. I played in a $10 Poker Stars SNG (27) last night, and took a very big bad beat and I was out early. I didn't let it get to me, and with $50 chips I almost made a come back if it wasn't for another river beat. While I was playing the tournament, I was playing $2/4 at Full-tilt, and I did very well. I will post a hand later from a fish who I sucked out for his lack of aggressiveness, and show why you should never slow play big hands. Overall I was happy with my play, since I made a lot of good decisions.

Here is the hand that removed my chances from winning the SNG.

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=153525

I am a very aggressive player, so I don't mind raising after a limper in MP with 77. I could see this was a good table since I had 4 callers. Pot was around $410 and the flop came T 4 4. I wanted to know where I was and I bet half of the pot. I was ready to lay down the hand to a raise or not go any further in betting in the next rounds. I get one caller. I figured he had the T, so I was not going to bet it anymore. However, I turned the 7 for a full house. I decided to make a weak bet, to induce another raise and then I was going to push all in. I bet about 1/3 of the pot, and the player miniraised, so I definately knew he had the 4. So I bet almost all of his chips and he pushes the rest in. I called and the river brought the case 4 for a four of a kind. Most important is that I didn't lose my cool, and managed to get back to 500 chips to lose a race between A9s vs KT where I turned the 9 and he rivered the T. Unfortunate, but as another blogger (http://bettingforvalue.blogspot.com/) puts it, making the right decisions is what matters most, since on the long run the outcome with be more positive than negative.

FT HORSE Tourney!!!

First I want to share I came in second last night in my first HORSE tourney at Full-Tilt. I really shouldn't be playing tournaments at full-tilt, but at around 8:25pm last night I checked the tournament tab, and there it was - Horse @ 8:30pm. I thought about it since it was $30 to sign up, but I had decided I wanted to try it out. I had been talking to a coworker about the game. There were around 105 players signed up. I managed to play well the first hour staying around the average. I told my girlfriend that if I wanted to make money I need to do well in the second hour. The blinds increase fairly quickly and people get impatient and get knocked out quickly. I thought Hold-em would be my strength, but I guess I was cold carded for those rounds. I took advantage of the high/low games where the players make a lot of mistakes, sometimes being over aggressive with their highs. I managed to reach 18k in chips and stick around the top 5. Around the end of the second hour, I took the chip lead and never looked back. I lead the tournament by about twice as many chips as the second place until we got to 5 player. I made a few blunders being over aggressive and gave away my chips. It was a great fight when there were 3 of us left. Everyone had the same amount of chips (54k). But in the end I was outplayed by my opponent and finished in second, cashing about $624. My first tourney, it was great. This means I have about enough to go back to 2/4, and go back to 2/4 I will!

I have been doing well with my cash games, played a bunch this weekend and squeezed a small profit. I didn't do well at all in my satellite nor the Blogger tournament, but it was cool to be in it. I managed to place in a few of the SNGs. Tomorrow I plan to try out the 180 SNG at PokerStars. I am also creating a new account at Party Poker to get some rake back, finishing the account with Empire.

It has been a while since I last posted. I had a normal week and I didn't play as much as I normally do. I have been testing a few different things such as only playing tournaments in Poker Stars and in the other sites playing cash games. This will enable me to better understand what is making me the most money. I played a total of 9 tournaments this week and I placed in 3 ITM in 3 of them, winning one and coming in 4th in another. It was not bad. My ring game play has not been as good but I didn't lose any money which was a positive sign.

Today I will be playing in 2 tournaments. The Monte Carlo Satellite, only pays first place out of 126, and later on I will be playing in the Poker Stars Blogger Tourney. I don't have much else to report.

Weekend review

Overall it was a very successful weekend. I managed to make 7.5bb/100 over 1k hands, I cleared $170 worth of bonus (PS+FT) and I feel that I am back playing good poker. The Deep Stack tourney is cool, but it was the only negative play of the week. I played out of my style which normally gets me in trouble. The huge stacks got me playing a bit loose scared and obviously I managed to tilt and make dumb calls. Since I played well after I was quickly outted from the tourney, I don't want to keep talking about it. I should just play my tight aggressive style, that's what I did.

I played the WSOP Satellite (Full-tilt), and I was doing decent due to cold cards. I didn't get any action from my AA which is too bad. UTG I didn't play my 33 which flopped a set and would have trippled me up, very understandable. Blinds are 100/200 and in the very next hand I hold K7o in the BB. UTG calls, MP big stack calls, I check. Flop comes T 7 7. I tell my girlfriend "I am going to double up", oh oh I think to myself "I hope the gods don't punish me for getting excited so early." UTG bets 480, big stack calls, I jam all in. UTG calls, big stack folds. UTG shows AT, and I am a 90% favorite, only 2 cards can help him. As you probably know, the river brought a T and I was out of the tourney. He only had about 100 chips left after calling my all in. In any case, I made the right play and I was playing a good tourney up to that point.

I have been doing a lot of datamining which I really think helps my game. I play no more than 3 tables now. I seem to do better with 2, but with 3 I am making a bit more an hour.

Portugues

Revisao do Fim de Semana

O fim de semana foi muito bom em geral. Eu consegui fazer por volta de 7.5bb/100 no $1-2 depois de mais de 1000 maos, e terminei de conseguir o bonus do Pokerstars e mais $20 do FullTill. Eu estou sentindo que meu jogo esta de volta essa semana. O torneio Deep Stack e bem legal, mas foi o unico lado negativo do meu fim de semana. Eu nao joguei no meu estilo e como sempre me encontrei cometendo erros. Por ser um torneio onde comecamos com $5k chips, eu achei que deveria jogar mais solto, o problema eh que nao sei jogar assim, e normalmente me encontro cometendo erros e pagando para ver na hora errada. Mas ja que eu joguei bem depois de ter sido eliminado cedo, eu nao vou continuar conversando sobre isso. Eu deveria ter jogado o meu estilo, e foi o que eu fiz no torneio do WSOP.

Domingo eu participei do WSOP Satellite no Full-Tilt, e eu estava indo mais ou menos por causa das cartas frias. Na minha mao boa AA, todo mundo passou, e eu nao consegui nada. Jogando UTG (under the gun - primeiro jogador a agir preflop) eu recebi 33 e passei. Essa mao teria conseguido um three of a kind e depois um full house, ganhando de 2 outras maos que se confrotaram num all-in. Eu teria ganho e triplicado. Logo depois desta mao eu fui elimando. Os blinds estavam 100/200 e eu estava com por volta de 1500 (depois de ter postado o blind). UTG paga a aposta, um cara com um stack grande paga tambem e eu peco mesa ja que ja estou na mao. O flop eh lindo... T 7 7. Eu disse a minha namorada: "Vou dobrar agora...", ai ai ai, pensei comigo "Espero que os Deuses do poker nao me castiguem por estar comemorando tao cedo." UTG aposta 480, o outro paga e eu empurro todos os meu chips. UTG calls e o outro passa. UTG mostra AT, e eu sou favorito 90%, e somente duas cartas podem ajuda-lo. Provavelmente voce ja sabe o resultado, no river (quinta carta comunitaria) veio um dos T e eu fui eliminado do torneio. Ele teria somente 100 chips na frente dele caso ele perdesse. De qualquer maneira, eu joguei corretamente e estava jogando um bom torneio ate aquele ponto.

Eu tenho acumulado muitas estatisticas sobre outros jogadores no full-tilt e no party poker. Acredito que isso ajuda muito o meu jogo. Tambem tenho limitado a 3 mesas, apesar de jogar melhor com 2, por hora eu ganho mais com 3.

Live Blogging the Poker Stars $3 rebuy

8:15 I rebuy for $3 for a total of $6 spent and starting 1500 in chips.

8:16 I get AK in UTG + 1 and I push all in. I get called by two players. QQ and 77. I manage to hit an A at the river and I triple up. Looking at 1st place early.

8:19 I limp and the same guy that called with 77, pushes all in. I have As9s, and I fold. Someone else calls. He had AKo, the flop is all spades and I would have tripled up again. Too bad I folded.

8:22 I have pocket 8s and I raise to $160, and I get 2 callers. The flop shows an A, so I check. They bet the turn and I fold.

8:29 I limp with 6s. Two players move all in and I fold. They both show AQo. My 6s would have held up.

8:33 I have about 8445 chips. Average is about 4k.

8:39 I am in the bb and I see a free flop. It doesn't hit me. Someone pushes all in and as I move my mouse to fold, I misclic and call. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! A total of 7k+ in chips. I am so retarted. Next hand I push with 94s and i get 3 callers. I hit a 9 on the flop to win the hand. I also had rebought. So now I have 4.1k chips, but average is about 5k.

8:48 I haven't gotten any good cards and I am just watching the all-in rebuy fast at my table. Just not my style.

8:50 I am in the big blind and everyone folds to the cutoff who pushes all in. I have Ad8d and choose to call. Loose yeah, but I think he is either on a steal or it's a race. I am wrong as he shows AT. We split the pot since the board paired our aces and had another pair with J kicker. Phew!

9:00 I can't catch any cards to make a move...

9:01 I have A7o and 3 limpers, I decide to push... big blind calls and one of the limpers call. A7 vs TT vs A5. I rebuy one more time and another rebuy addon.

9:02 I got the Hiltons (QQ) and I pushed all in hoped to get called due to my loose all in prior to this hand. I get a caller and they hold-up. I have not 6k.

9:03 I have KcQc I raise 4x bb and I get 2 callers in LP. Flop is J 4 3 and I make a size pot bet, they both fold.

9:09 I call a 3bb raise with AcTc the flop is Kc Q 9. It gets checked around to me, I bet half of the pot and get miniraised. I decide to call. Qc hits the turn and the guy pushes all in. I make the retarded call and I am down to 1.6k. He had the straight.

9:13 I have Ah8h. I decided to push allin so I can rebuy. I ran into QQ and I don't improve. I rebuy 2x. Now I will wait for the add-on. I think I rebought too many times... i think I would have done better had I not misclicked. Tournement will commence soon.

9:15 Add on of another 2k in chips, average should be about 10.5k... That's not good for me. Had not misclicked I think I could have done much better. I spent about $24... 9 more than I would have liked.

9:24 Tournament restarts.

9:27 UTG+1 KsJs, I raise 3bb and everyone folds.

9:30 I raise 3bb in the SB after everyone folds to me. BB calls. I bet half the pot and win.

9:30 Next hand everyone folds to me I bet 4bb and bb pushes all in. I think and fold.

9:33 I have KsQs and I raise 3bb. BB calls. I miss the flop but he checks to me and I make a pot size bet to take it down.

9:36 Pay structure is good... Top 135 players will make the money, but I really need top 100 to make my money back. Top 5 pays over 1k. About 870 left.

9:43 Blinds $100/$200, one limper, and I have AK in EP. I raise to 1k. Guys who protected blinds goes all in. I know I should fold, but I decide to gamble. I flop an A and they had 99 and TT. I win and manage to go to 14k in chips. Average is now 13.6k.

9:44 A brazilian guy from Rio de Janeiro (carioca) named Morfina just set on my table... making good conversation.

10:04 I have been cold carded for a while... just folding away. Any reasonable drawing hand either I am not in position or there is too much action before my move.

10:07 I have AcQc. Blinds are $100/200 $25ante. http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=146882. Nice win.

10:10 I double up again. But I did get lucky. http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=146884

10:12 Tried to protect my blind, but it didn't work. http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=146888

10:14 Tried to steal a blind and called all in and won again. http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=146889

10:23 I bluff at this guy who wants to protect his blind. http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=146892

10:25 Break. Blinds will be 300/600 with $50 antes. Average is about 20k. I have 42.4k. Nice hour for me. I hope I keep my luck up. I know it means nothing but I am 39 out 533.

10:39 Cold carded for a while. Raised with 9s and everyone folded. http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=146907

10:44 Cold call 3bb raise from EP in BB with AKo. No improvement, I fold to continuation bet.

10:50 Cold cards... UTG+1 Ad9d. I raise to 2k ($400/$800). One caller. Flop is 2 diamonds, I semibluff with a pot size bet and the oponent folds.

11:11 Another bluff that works. http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=146916

11:18 I protect my blinds with JTo. SB checks after K Q x flop and I bet pot size and he folds. I think my tight image helps since I have only played about 13% of the hands.

11:22 I raise in early position with 9s and everyone folds.

11:29 I tried to steal the blinds from cutoff with weak Ace but, get reraised. I fold preflop.

11:33 Another break. Blinds will be $1k/$2k with $100 antes. Gotta win a few races... Avg is 50k and I have about 43k.

11:40 Gutsy play... Another bluff. http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=146929

11:44 Chip leader just moved to my table $250k in chips. I have about 62k.

11:47 One of the bad players just eliminated someone and doubled up to about 106k in chips. I like that since I have a good read on him. He is to my right and will attempt to steal my blinds... Has done that before. I hope to catch cards... not many so far.

11:50 He steals my blinds and I warn him against it.

11:58 I win a hand with AQs with a positional raise.

12:02 Lost a race with AK to QQ in the button.

12:03 Pocket 2s in the cutoff. Make the same raise as AK and everyone fold and I get the blinds. Currently seating at 42k in chips. Average is 74k and i have the 4th lowest stack on the table. Table avg is about 100k in chips. 7 more people till the money. But that's not enough, I need to come in top 99 not to lose money since I made more rebuys than I should have.

12:09 I made the money. I managed to steal a few blinds and I still have 41.5k in chips. I need some good cards and to win a few races to make a run. I will start loosening up a bit.

12:14 Played this hand against the Brazilian. I thought he would lay his hand down, but he didn't. This time my semibluff didn't work. http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=146941. Out in 129th and I won $20.25; however I lost about $3.

Worth my time, I think I played well with the bad cards I was dealt.

Poker Online e algumas dicas do que esta sendo falado na mesa...

Se voce nao fala ingles de vez em quando fica dificil jogar ja que tudo esta em ingles.

Aqui vai algumas dicas...

SB = SMALL BLIND = APOSTA DO 1º JOGADOR (MENOR)
BB = BIG BLIND = APOSTA DO 2º JOGADOR (MAIOR)
BET = BET = APOSTAR
RAISE = AUMENTAR
CK = CHECK = PEDIR MESA
CK R = CHECK, RAISE = PEDIR MESA, COM A INTENÇÃO DE AUMENTAR
FOLD = FOLD = SAIR DA JOGADA
CALL = CALL = PAGAR A APOSTA
DA NUTS = THE NUTS = A MELHOR MÃO POSSÍVEL
AL = ALL IN = APOSTAR TUDO
TILT = TO TILT = PERDER O CONTROLE

Comentarios nos chats...

NH = NICE HAND = BOA MÃO
VNH = VERY NICE HAND = ÓTIMA MÃO!!
NF = NICE FOLD = BOA SAÍDA
GG = GOOD GAME = BOA JOGADA
WP = WELL PLAYED = BEM JOGADO
LOL = LAUGHING OUT LOUD = RINDO ALTO
GLA = GOOD LUCK TO ALL = BOA SORTE A TODOS
TY = THANK YOU = OBRIGADO

Os nipes...

D = DIAMONDS = OUROS
S = SPADES = ESPADAS
H = HEARTS = COPAS
C = CLUBS = PAUS

Eh importante aprender isso para agilizar mais o seu apredizado quando voce estiver lendo o meu blog ou quando estiver jogando online.

Bad run continues...

Last night I had another negative session. I played over 600 hands (2 hours 4 tabling) and nothing to show for. Although I have to say that I was not dealt good cards at all. I had a total of 1 AA and 1 KK for the whole session and they won me a considerable $8. I received 13 KQs for the session and lost an amazing 10 out of 13. I made one bad play trying to steal the blinds.

I had Ah5s and I raised on the small blind. The big blind reraised and I called. The flop was Ts Tc 4d. I checked and he bet, I reraised trying to make a play and he reraised. I should have let go of the hand right there. Instead I chose to see another card. The turn brought me 5d I felt I had something good, so I bet it out, he raised, I called. I checked and called the river bet. He had Aces and I my 2 pair was no good. I lost 6bb trying to steal $2. Isn't that great? In any case I don't think I played bad at all. It just seems like I am going through a very bad streak. I have been much better in controling my aggressiveness. I am exporting the notes generated by Pokertracker, this should improve my decisions since I have seen the same players hanging around the tables.

I played a $24 satellite at full-tilt to the WSOP circuit on Sunday. I am very excited about that, and it's awesome that I came in first. I played really well, and other than the final hand of the tourney I was always correct at my decisions. Playing heads up I did a very good job maintaining my lead. I had about 2 to 1 of chips and the blinds were 250-500. He limps in with KK and I had 8s 4s. the flop comes 9 5 4 rainbow. He bets 500 and I call. The turn brings an 8. He bets 2k and I push all in. He calls and shows the pair of Kings against my 2 pairs. The river brings a K. Ouch!!! Two outer... thank God I didn't let that play hurt me. I kept my cool and kept fighting back. This guy was not the best heads up player, so I took good advantage of that. He had 8k in chips and I had about 4k when I get KK and he mini raises and I reraise all in. He calls with A7o and my Kings hold up. I took the lead and gave him a bad beat when I hit a 2 outer on the river in the last hand against his top pair.

Portugues

Ontem a noite eu tive um outra sessao negativa. Eu joguei por volta de 600 maos (2 horas de 4 mesas) e nao consegui ganhar nada. No entanto eu tenho que dizer que as cartas estavam frias. Eu tive 1 par de ases e reis na sessao inteira e estes soh me ganharam miseros $8. Eu recebi por volta de 13 KQs nesta sessao, e perdi 10 das 13 vezes. Eu tambem fiz uma pessima jogada tentando roubar o blind (aposta do segundo jogador - aposta maior).

Todo mundo saiu da jogada e eu estou no small blind (primeira posicao e posicao q paga a aposta menor) e tenho Ah5s. Eu aumentei para tentar roubar e o jogador reaumentou. Eu pensei que ele estava protegendo o blind. O flop (as 3 cartas que aparecem) tinha Ts Tc 4d. Eu pedi mesa e ele apostou. Eu reaumentei tentanto fazer o famoso check raise (pedir mesa, com a intensao de aumentar para mostrar forca), mas ele me reaumentou. Eu deveria ter jogado minha mao fora aqui. Ao inves, eu optei por pagar e ver uma outra carta. O turn (a quarta carta que aparece) trouxe um 5d, eu pensei que isso teria me ajudado, entao eu apostei e ele aumentou, entao eu soh paguei a aposta. O river trouxe uma outra carta, eu pedi mesa, ele apostou e eu paguei. Ele mostrou um par de ases e eu tinha soh o segundo melhor dois pares. Eu perdi 6bb(apostas altas de acordo com o nivel que voce joga, no meu caso $2-$4 a aposta alta eh de $4) tentando roubar $2. Parabens Michel!!! De qualquer maneira, eu nao joguei mal. Soh que estou passando por um fase ruim. Eu tenho controlado melhor minha agressividade. A noite irei exportar os notes do Pokertracker para o Pokerstars o que ira me ajudar em certas decisoes desde que eu tenho visto os mesmos jogadores nas mesas todas as noites.

Eu tambem joguei um torneio satelite de $24 no full-tilt para o WSOP Circuit satellite no domingo ($200+). Eu estou muito entusiasmado, e foi otimo que eu ganhei o satelite. Eu joguei muito bem, a se nao fosse pela ultima mao todas as minhas decisoes foram corretas e eu sempre estava na frente! Jogando heads-up (um a um) eu fiz um bom trabalho ao manter minha lideranca. Eu tinha duas vezes mais chips que ele e os blinds estavam em 250-500. Ele limp in (= call= pagar a aposta) com KK na tentativa de colocar um trap (armadilha) para mim depois. O flop traz 9 5 4 rainbow (= arco iris = naipes diferentes). Ele aposta 500 e eu pago a aposta. O turn traz um 8. Ele aposta 2k e eu vou all-in (apostar tudo). Ele mostra o par de KK e eu tenho dois pares. Desde q eu ele nao recebe 2 reis, 3 cincos e 3 noves, eu termino o torneio ali. com 8 outs (cartas que podem melhorar a sua mao), o rei bate no river e eu perco a lideranca. Ultimamente isso teria me colocado em til (perder o controle), mas mantive a postura e continue jogando o meu jogo. Esse cara nao era muito bom em heads up play, entao eu tirei um bom proveito disso. Agora ele tinha 2 vezes mais do que eu e um par de reis aparece na minha mao. Ele fez um mini raise (aumento da aposta minima). Eu reaumentei fazendo um all in e ele pagou. Ele tinha A7o, mas meus reis se mantiveram a melhor mao. Eu tomei a lideranca e dei um bad beat (melhorar a mao com chances minimas) quando no river eu consegui 1 das 2 cartas que poderia melhorar minha mao contra o melhor par dele.

Eu vou colocar uma tabela de jargoes no qual eu uso muito. Prefiro manter o poker americanizado entao eu vou colocar aqui e de agora em diante vou esperar que voces ja saibam do que estou falando. Isso eh importante porque demorou quase 15 minutos para eu escrever essa parte em portugues, o dobro do tempo que eu tenho para fazer isso. O posto dos jargoes ficarah unico para que eu possa postar em alguns sites.

Bad Run, PS Blogger Tourney and Multilingual blogging!

I have had a bad run of cards lately, but because of it I continue to make mistakes. Sometimes I play weak tight, sometimes I get overaggressive and it's becoming costly. I was two tabling $2-$4 last night at Pokerstars to clear their bonus and in one table I just couldn't win a pot. I played close to 250 hands and finished - $120 in one table and up $45 in another, for a negative day of about $75. That's close to 20bb and it's pretty annoying. I will 3 table tonight and play a bit tighter and I promise "I will not bluff"...

Last night I checked if I made the cut for the Poker Stars Blogger Tourney and my name was there... I am very excited. I will have to work that weekend, but I am hoping I am free that Sunday afternoon. I will probably live blog it.

I will attempt to make this blog bilingual since a lot of my friends only speak or write Portuguese. Most of the posts will start in English and then follow with the Portuguese version. I think it will be good for all my friends who read this and also for me to keep my Portuguese writing skills sharp, so here I start...

Portugues

Recentemente eu nao tenho tido muita sorte com as cartas, e eu acredito que por causa disso eu tambem nao tenho jogado o meu melhor jogo. Continuo cometendo alguns erros de novato. Algumas vezes eu jogo preso mas sem agressividade, e outras vezes sou super agressivo. Isso nao eh uma boa receita e esta me custando um dim dim. Ontem eu estava jogando duas mesas de $2-4 no Pokerstars para receber o bonus que eles estao dando. E numa das mesas eu nao consegui ganhar nenhum pot. Joguei por volta de 250 maos e sai das mesas perdendo em uma $120 e na outra ganhando $45 para um saldo negativo de $75. Isso eh por volta de 20bb e esta me deixando muito puto. Hoje vou jogar 3 mesas e jogarei um pouco mais preso e eu prometo "Nao irei blefar!"

Ontem tambem olhei no evento de Bloggers do Pokerstars e meu nome estava inscrito la. Estou muito entusiasmado. Eu trabalharei no fim de semana do torneio, mas espero estar livre no domingo a tarde. Eu provavelmente irei postar ao vivo minhas jogadas durante o torneio.

O ultimo paragrafo relata que eu vou fazer uma tentativa de colocar todos os posts em Ingles e em Portugues. Desculpe os erros de Portugues ou a falta de acentos.

Since last post

I have been playing a lot of limit lately (1-2, 2-4) but I have had to deal with a lot of swings due mostly to bad play in my part. I have been 6 tabling and this certainly kills my concentration. Since I don't have enough reads on certain players, I have a tendency to pay them off if I have a good hand. In addition, some of my plays (check-raise, etc) are badly timed. This translates into losses. In my saturday and sunday sessions I was down early in a mix of bad plays and due to the bad plays some bad beats since players just didn't believe I had a good hand. I think this is very important to note that the first image is the one that stays when you are playing online or anywhere, but very important online since you normally don't seat in a table with the same players for more than one hour.

I played some tournements and missed the money in all of them. I played well in two, but managed to lose a few races and that was that. I have the rake back program in Empire going for me and that has added a few nice dollars to my account. I will concentrate in clearing the full-tilt bonus which has been the hardest and also the Pokerstars bonus they just offered which is very very nice and easy to clear. After doing all of this, I am hoping there will be a Party Poker bonus since I will try to start another rake program there.

First Royal Flush

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=139599

I just got my first royal flush that I can remember. Here it is.

Playing above your roll

This has to be one of the most common mistakes beginners make. Most of the times they just don't have enough money to play where they decide to start. Yesterday I couldn't find a good game on FullTilt so I decided to play NL $2/4 (400) buy-in. That was close to 80% of my roll at full-tilt. That alone should have been the reason for not playing, however I let my stubborness decide for me. It cost me $215 after 35 hands. I started well flopping a set of 6s and soon after I had kings and flopped kings full of sixes. I loosened up too much and after 35 hands I had played more than 30% of my hands. In one case losing with my dreaded QJo to KQs. I was outkicked and outplayed.

Unfortunetely I was playing above my roll and now I have to work my way back to where I was. Another important factor I didn't mention is that I was certainly playing in a game I cannot beat. I have a hard time playing NL 50, what was I thinking when I decided to play NL 400? Bad bad move.

On a good note I finished September up 1.71bb/100 over 7.3k hands. On the other hand, I started the month -$215. Back to work.

These were a few goals I set out a few weeks ago, and since I didn't want to lose track of them I am posting here to explain where I am.

1. Build my poker stars roll to be able to play 3-6
2. Qualify for a live event before the end of the year
3. Make a final table in Party Poker every month till the end of the year (10-30 tourneys)
4. Play 25k hands by the end of the year and show profit.

Let's start from the end and move up. First and foremost, I am almost a third of the way there with my hands. At this rate I should be able to top 30k hands. I am playing about at least 400 hands per day for 5 days of the week. I am showing a little profit, but I am working on analyzing my game to determine where I can be. Hopefully I can finish the year with a profit, and set goals based on what I have learned by playing: financial and moving up goals. For now I will continue to play the $2/4. I just want to accumulate as many tracked hands as possible, in order to be able to move levels comfortably.

I opened up my requirements, and I don't think I am sticking to the PP tourneys. Recently I have been playing at Full-tilt and its guarantees have less players which makes it a faster tourney. I shall also attempt a few Poker Stars Tourneys.

I haven't decided which live tournement I will start playing satalletites for, but I am leaning towards playing in the WPT event at Foxwoods in late November. I will probably be playing the satellites at Full-tilt.

I haven't really logged many hours of play in Pokerstars to increase my roll there which is unfortunate. I will probably play $1/2 there for a while and see how I do. Since I am trying to clear the Full-tilt sign up bonus most of my playing occurs either there or at Empire where I have a rake back program.

Today my new Dell computer arrived and it comes with a 24" widescreen monitor... I can't wait to get home!!!

Tilt Recovery

I have to say I was very upset five days ago when I tilted and dropped about 70bb. I decided I wouldn't play cash games for one day. Instead I was going to play the tournement and take some time to analyze my game. As you have read, I have played the tournements and I feel I have been playing well. In analyzing my cash games, I feel that when I tilt is because I am playing a lot of hands or "trying" to outplay my oponents. Outplay my oponents not having the goods is one of the biggest mistakes I was making. I used pokertracker to see some of my biggest losing hands and they were QJo and a few others. After speaking to a friend he told me, how most of the times this hand is easily dominated. So I am droping out of hands I am playing, especially when I am 4 tabling. If I play, I will only play in the button looking to flop straight or OE draws. Tighting up alone has helped greatly.

Since the tilt session I have gained 138bb and I am moving in the right direction. I believe I am playing well in every aspect and I haven't had a losing session for the past 3 days playing 4 tables of $2/4.

I just started using the pokertracker feature that allows me to collect data on players while I am not playing. I am hoping this will increase my earnings by 1bb/100 hands.

I have registered to play in the
Online Poker Blogger Championship!

This event is powered by PokerStars.

Registration code: 6478023

Full-tilt 10k Guaranteed (10pm)

I played again last night. I didn't make the money, but I believe it was mostly because I never caught any good cards. I took the time to take notes on a lot of the players, since I ran into a few from the night before. I am thinking of playing this tourney 4-5 times a week. I like the field and the level of play. There are not a lot of donkies and I think although there are good players, it helps me improve my overall play since I am playing with better than average players. Not to say there aren't weird plays.

I couldn't catch any cards, but I was able to use my "tight" image to steal some blinds, and double up once. I lost to QQ with AhKh in the BB. Here is the hand: Blinds were $100/200, cutoff has 4800 and i only have about 1.2k left. He makes it 800 and I shove all my chips in. He calls and his Quens hold up. I am very happy with my play. I finished around 175th, and 45th paid.

I was also able to get back on the green track playing $2/$4 short handed. I played 2 tables and I was much more in control and didn't really venture in making "bluffs" which usually gets me in trouble. I played about 380 hands and I was up about 25bb. Not bad at all. One of the things I am trying to keep under control while playing short handed is the number of flops I see. I think a good range is between 28% - 35%. The nights I tilted I was at about 40% and that's way too many since I normally get involved in hands where I endup being second best.

Full Tilt 10k guaranteed (10pm)

I played this tournement last night. I placed in the money and I believe I made many good plays. I was card dead most of the tournement, but I managed to make good plays at the right times with some value hands, and my tight image helped me steal a few pots down the stretch. I have to express I am little disappointed with the Full-Tilt tournement software. At the end players got moved out and into my table in random. Most importantly players with bigger stacks were brought in while others with smaller stacks got moved out. I say this because at one point I was the third biggest stack in the table with 13k in chips and the other bigs stacks were to my right 3 positions. This is great because if they are not that close to me, I can certainly steal some blinds since the smaller stacks are playing so tight. On the other hand, 2 short stacks to my right got moved to another table and 2 big stacks (2x my stack) were moved to my right. So when hands were folded around one of the two would put in a raise and I couldn't steal the blinds. Very annoying!

I believe I played a solid tournement. I made 2 mistakes, one great read, and there were 2 interesting hands. I will start with my mistakes. I doubled up a few times and i was seating aroudn 9k in chips. I had just been moved to this new table and I had seen this player move all in. I pick up 99 in the seat before the cut-off and it gets folded to me. I raise 4xbb to about 1300. Gets folded to the player who had just made the all in move and he pushes all in. At that time, I stopped and thought about what hands I thought he had. I could easily put him on AK or AQ which I would be a favorite, but I could also think that he had a slower pair and didn't want to play me, and was trying to scare me off the pot. In any case, I called. He showed AA and I lost the hand getting me to 2.8k in chips.

I waited around for some cards and a position where I could move all my chips in and hopefully double up. The two interesting hands were that I moved all in 2x with AQ, to get called by people with AQ and split the pot. I hated it, but I guess it is better than losing to a worst hand. The great read came early in the tournement. I think the blinds were 30-60 and I had 66 in the button. Someone in MP raises to $180 standard raise. I call hoping for a 6. The flop comes rainbow T 5 2. I really didn't think this was a scary flop. In any case if my oponent hit his hand he would make some sort of bet. He checked. I put him on AK immediately. So I wanted to buy this pot right there. I bet about $600 which is $120 more than the pot size. He and I have the same stack sizes about 1600. He actually had $60 more chips than me. He thinks and pushes all in. I called. He showed AK and I manage to dodge aces or kings in the turn and river.

My bad play came as we got into the money. I was seating on a decent stack of $13k and the blinds were 500/$1000 with $75 antes. I was really looking to make a move and double up soon so I can either contest for the final table or go to bed and sleep. It was about 12:40am. This player with about 20k had been a bully in the table. If people limped in from the small blind when he was the bb, he would shove all his chips in. He did that in several occasions. Everyone folds around to him, and from the cutoff seat he pushes all in. I have KsQs and I am in the big blind. I think about it and this is the situation: 54 players get paid and we are at 55. Someone in another table is the bb with all their chips and I am about to make the money (I am watching the other table and I see that this person loses). Since I have more chips than the person who got blind out, if push all in and lose, I will still be in the money. I decided to make a stand and I called. He showed AKo and my hand didn't improve. I came in the money at 54th place. Not bad, but I was hoping for more.

I can't say it was a big mistake, normally I like going with my reads and I constantly do that. My reads were good, but these players just don't fit correctly in my profiles hehe.

Good tourney though