A chip and a chair - that's all you need. Oh, and a lucky shirt. That's what host B.D. aka bdd67 needed to put on his SnG clinic, coming back from a meager 175 chips to take down first place with his lucky shirt hanging in the backdrop. Kudos to him for keeping up with the laundry and kids while his wife tends to business. B.D. went on to take a second and another chopped first, continuing the trend of first time hosts dominating all three games and sending his so-called welcomed guests home with nothing. bdd67 is also a multi-table SnG specialist online and continues to post a nice ROI on the virtual felt. He recently launched a monthly private tournament on PokerStars dubbed the Super Bowl of Poker (SBOP). When he's not pilfering blinds and antes, he can be heard on his weekly sports podcast at http://www.dilsmusings.blogspot.com/.
I'm happy with my results, although I can't take much credit for them. I was the underdog in some key showdowns that propelled me ITM, helping me take a first place and a chopped first. J.S. aka daozi cashed twice, and I.B. and S.H. cashed once each. The results for all three games are as follows:
Game #1: 1) B.D. 2) J.S. & I.B.
Game #2: 1) R.W. 2) B.D. & J.S.
Game #3: 1) B.D. & R.W. 3) S.H.
Next up is the SBOP on May 7. I'm 0-fer-3 but have a few tricks up my sleeve for this one. Come rail KingPrussia.
4/24/08
after a bit of a dry spell on PokerStars, I return to my home felt and cash two for two in some late night action.
5/45 ITM
24/434 ITM - a deep finish for me, but i gave it away on an overly-aggressive stand. unfortunate after having achieved 4th place on a major luckownage suckout:
4/14/08 Home Game
I arrived in time for games 2 & 3. We strayed from Holdem tonight. Game #2 was called Omaha Hi-Low. This was a blast and we got some good instruction from resident pro M.B. on starting hands and showdown rank. Down to 3 I was chip leader but we chopped due to the prolonged length of the game. Somehow I got the same as second place (a 25% reduction in payout) and short-stacked third got a 33% premium. In general I'm opposed to chopping, but at a home game I'm in favor due to those waiting to play the next game. However that said, I believe chopping should be fair, and only done heads up. The third game was an unknown variation in which you only need to use one hole card. Don't know the name for this but I bubbled. Fortunately the social aspect makes up for the money lost.
4/13/08
busted 2 tourneys deep set over set. bleh.
4/8/08
3/9 ITM nothing noteworthy here
31/1885 ITM my best MTT finish to date, will write more later.
no forum railbirds
I became aware of the few hands I was playing and started to wonder about my tournament statistics. Here are some notes I made during the session:
1885 entrants, pokerstars 10pm $11. i rebuy when i busted on a bad beat, 1 add on after first break.
my stack 200,052. blinds going to 3000/6000/600 Stack: largest 284680, smallest 9450, average 90560
Your current position is 12 out of 182
Time bank balance is 60 seconds
During current Hold'em session you were dealt 190 hands and saw flop: - 10 out of 22 times while in big blind (45%) - 8 out of 22 times while in small blind (36%) - 10 out of 146 times in other positions (6%) - a total of 28 out of 190 (14%) Pots won at showdown - 9 of 11 (81%) Pots won without showdown - 15
2:20am me 379,016 blinds going to 10,000/20,000/2000 Stack: largest 1293012, smallest 66888, average 374590
Your current position is 18 out of 44 During current Hold'em session you were dealt 270 hands and saw flop: - 12 out of 32 times while in big blind (37%) - 8 out of 31 times while in small blind (25%) - 16 out of 207 times in other positions (7%) - a total of 36 out of 270 (13%) Pots won at showdown - 12 of 14 (85%) Pots won without showdown - 21
Here is a read-specific play I made late:
PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t20000 (8 handed)
MP2 (t267410)
CO (t840033)
Button (t287258)
SB (t614470)
Hero (t417016)
UTG (t375672)
UTG+1 (t266108)
MP1 (t799012)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 6d,6h .
6 folds, SB completes, Hero raises to t65000, SB raises to t614470, Hero calls t350016 (All-In).
Flop: (t1041486) 5s, 7h, 9h (2 players, 1 all-in)
Turn: (t1041486) 6c (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: (t1041486) Kd (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: t842032
SB has 3d Ac (high card, ace).
Hero has 6d 6h (three of a kind, sixes).
Outcome: Hero wins t842032.
I busted with this hand, a good play but unlucky to run into a monster behind me:
MP1 (t232388)
MP2 (t935033)
CO (t213258)
Hero (t519838)
SB (t574672)
BB (t809548)
UTG (t999505)
UTG+1 (t744358)
Preflop: Hero is Button with 7s, 7h.
4 folds, CO raises to t210258, Hero raises to t516838, 1 fold, BB calls t486838.
Flop: (t1231934) 4s, Ad, Jd (3 players)
Turn: (t1231934) Ac (3 players)
River: (t1231934) Kh (3 players)
Final Pot: t1231934
BB has Qd Qh (two pair, aces and queens).
CO has 5d 6d (one pair, aces).
Hero has 7s 7h (two pair, aces and sevens).
4/3/08
7/27 busted on a retarded move http://www.pokerhand.org/?2380056 after having achieved second place. i could have picked a much better spot against a weaker stack. it would have been easy to finish ITM in this one. i fit the definition of an idiot: someone who does the same thing over and over yet expects different results. i keep whining about how i'm just as good as these guys, but when it comes time to make good decisions, i blank. i'm just not a good player and that's the way it's gonna be.
2/8 ITM luskeament. it was student against teacher HU when I ran JJ into A4 and, well, gg NYRambler.
4/1/08
SBOP III private tourney had 26 entries - a very nice showing. Some players got off to great starts due to donations being made via all-in bluffs. Only one MLPC member at the final table, daozi, who finished 7th. SBOP I champ VCDuke ran QQ into KK, and SBOP II champ njnick busted relatively early. Host bdd67 finished 10th on the TV bubble. BulletsBL made an early exit despite admitting "i love my seat". 11:37pm idog27 took it down.
I frantically pulled things together to sit down for the earlier start time after a brutal day at work. I finished 13th after getting some strong hands down the stretch, but ran into better hands (KQ vs QQ, KQ vs AK, AJ vs JJ, 66 vs 99). The last three were against the same short-stacked opponent, so he benefitted greatly from my aggression. I couldn't get anything going in the middle levels, but I think I played well otherwise.
It was good to chat with the homeys since we missed our home game last month. Kudos to M.B. who dialed in from Puerto Rico to play.
I don't think this tournament is +EV for me, so I have to figure that into how I use my online time. Might feel differently if I play at Stars more and bump up the BR.
The next morning I noticed an extra bounce in my step due to the extra 15 minutes of sleep, so who knows, after three more of these tourneys I should recover all that I lost to daylight savings time.
