Karma's Sweet Kiss
Party Poker $1K added $6 limit tourney
3rd/926
+$444.40
I started Team Floppy today when I stabled my first two players. I got sick of watching my girlfriend and brother continue to spend $1 juice on every $5 SNG over at Paradise and begged them to join Poker Stars, at least until they move up to $10 SNG's. Neither of them had any money available to throw at another site, so once they set up accounts, I transferred $100 to each of them. I mentioned that I expect 20% of their winnings for life but judging by the laughter that suggestion received, I don't think I'll be seeing much back, which is cool.
Setting up multiple accounts all at once turned out to be a bit of an issue as Poker Stars has a security feature in place to prevent multiple accounts from being set up on the same computer. A quick email to support straightened everything out, once again impressing me with Stars support which is top notch.
I stayed away from limit ring games today and stuck to my plan to have some fun with a few small tourneys. I played in a $3 limit hold 'em tourney at Poker Stars and finished 152nd out of 315. Then my brother and I both played in one of the Paradise Million qualifier free rolls. I outlasted him but I still didn't make it much past the final 1,000 out of the 3,000+ entrants.
While we were playing the freeroll at Paradise, I started up a $1K added $6 limit tourney at Party which ended up with 926 entrants. In the matter of two hands in the early going (AA and AK) I eroded my stack down to 1/3 of what I started with and sat tight waiting for good opportunities to chip up. Eventually those opportunities came and I started working my way back up. I did catch AA three times in the first two hours and KK at least twice as well, which certainly helped a lot - when they held up.
Before I knew it we were approaching the bubble for the final paid 100 and I was sitting on an above average stack. I had been enjoying tables where I was chip leader and was able to steal blinds without opposition fairly regularly until I ended up at a table with the two chip leaders. From about 110 players to 45 players, I went completely card dead but managed to stay afloat with the odd steal here and there.
Eventually, a key hand happened which saw me taking down a massive pot. I actually botched the hand on every street when I called a pre flop raise with pocket tens from the button and ended up with an open ended straight draw with two overcards on the board. I kept meaning to raise to find out where I was in the hand, but I ended up just cheaply and weakly calling down. I found myself headsup at the river with a massive pot with too many overcards to my Tens against a pre flop raiser who had continued to bet throughout the hand. The pot was too big and I was already kicking myself for how I played the hand but I felt I had to call for one more bet and was very pleasantly surprised when the whole bundle of chips slid my way and gave me a very nice cushion to work with.
The cards dried up again and as the final table approached I was hovering just above the average stack. I just hunkered down and waited the bad run of cards out, slowly getting blinded down. As I had tightened up so much, with my squeaky image I was able to steal some blinds now and then but I had the chip leader on my immediate left making it tough. Eventually I busted the short stack and made it to my very first final table in an MTT with an average stack.
The bad cards kept coming and I went clam tight. I lost a small chunk unsuccessfully defending my blinds and for a while I never got anything even worth trying to defend with, let alone open a pot with. We played ten handed for quite a while when finally two people went out on the same hand, further inflating pile of chips in front of the big stack. Shortly thereafter the big stack knocked someone else out by which time I was the small stack. I was short to the point where I had to commit to a hand and just push it for all I could as soon as I caught something worth playing when I caught a run of pocket pairs. I pushed hard pre flop and pushed hard on the flop and took a couple decent sized pots without showdown.
After opening a couple pots in a row I raised 1st in from the small blind with pocket threes and the massive stack smooth called from the big blind. The flop came down with a very juicy 33A and I bet out on the flop while my girlfriend screamed at me to check it. On many steal attempts I had put a continuation bet out on the flop and checked the turn if I didn't improve only to have the big stack stuff bets in my face and take the pot right there. So, I was pretty certain my flop bet wouldn't scare him away, especially seeing as though he had a 6 to 1 chip advantage. I checked the turn, knowing he would bet at the pot at which time I raised and he called down from there. The blind level at this point was high enough that in just a few short hands I had quickly gone from short stack to second in chips.
That hand was pretty much the highlight for me and the cards dried up on me again but people quickly got bumped off from this point. I slid into 6th, then 5th and on and on until it was just three handed. I was severely outchipped but did what I could, which eventually saw me hitting the road with a set running into straight.
So, I made my first final table in a paid multi-table tourney. And even better, I made my first final three at the same time! I made some mistakes along the way but one thing I managed to do very well was stay patient when I needed to. I basically patienced my way from the final 100 all the way to third, not panicing when I was getting dealt orbit after orbit of crap. Of course, I was also very lucky to catch some hands when I did. Third place paid $450, so this was a pretty serious score for me and an incredibly huge bonus as I was just hitting up some tourneys for fun and a change of pace. I know a lot of it was luck, but this sure does give me some hope for future tourneys and was nice timing after the several bubble finishes recently in addition to the horrible losing streak I had been on.
I am relieved to now know exactly how to turn around a big losing streak. Just give away a couple hundred dollars and hit the money in a multitable tourney.
3rd/926
+$444.40
I started Team Floppy today when I stabled my first two players. I got sick of watching my girlfriend and brother continue to spend $1 juice on every $5 SNG over at Paradise and begged them to join Poker Stars, at least until they move up to $10 SNG's. Neither of them had any money available to throw at another site, so once they set up accounts, I transferred $100 to each of them. I mentioned that I expect 20% of their winnings for life but judging by the laughter that suggestion received, I don't think I'll be seeing much back, which is cool.
Setting up multiple accounts all at once turned out to be a bit of an issue as Poker Stars has a security feature in place to prevent multiple accounts from being set up on the same computer. A quick email to support straightened everything out, once again impressing me with Stars support which is top notch.
I stayed away from limit ring games today and stuck to my plan to have some fun with a few small tourneys. I played in a $3 limit hold 'em tourney at Poker Stars and finished 152nd out of 315. Then my brother and I both played in one of the Paradise Million qualifier free rolls. I outlasted him but I still didn't make it much past the final 1,000 out of the 3,000+ entrants.
While we were playing the freeroll at Paradise, I started up a $1K added $6 limit tourney at Party which ended up with 926 entrants. In the matter of two hands in the early going (AA and AK) I eroded my stack down to 1/3 of what I started with and sat tight waiting for good opportunities to chip up. Eventually those opportunities came and I started working my way back up. I did catch AA three times in the first two hours and KK at least twice as well, which certainly helped a lot - when they held up.
Before I knew it we were approaching the bubble for the final paid 100 and I was sitting on an above average stack. I had been enjoying tables where I was chip leader and was able to steal blinds without opposition fairly regularly until I ended up at a table with the two chip leaders. From about 110 players to 45 players, I went completely card dead but managed to stay afloat with the odd steal here and there.
Eventually, a key hand happened which saw me taking down a massive pot. I actually botched the hand on every street when I called a pre flop raise with pocket tens from the button and ended up with an open ended straight draw with two overcards on the board. I kept meaning to raise to find out where I was in the hand, but I ended up just cheaply and weakly calling down. I found myself headsup at the river with a massive pot with too many overcards to my Tens against a pre flop raiser who had continued to bet throughout the hand. The pot was too big and I was already kicking myself for how I played the hand but I felt I had to call for one more bet and was very pleasantly surprised when the whole bundle of chips slid my way and gave me a very nice cushion to work with.
The cards dried up again and as the final table approached I was hovering just above the average stack. I just hunkered down and waited the bad run of cards out, slowly getting blinded down. As I had tightened up so much, with my squeaky image I was able to steal some blinds now and then but I had the chip leader on my immediate left making it tough. Eventually I busted the short stack and made it to my very first final table in an MTT with an average stack.
The bad cards kept coming and I went clam tight. I lost a small chunk unsuccessfully defending my blinds and for a while I never got anything even worth trying to defend with, let alone open a pot with. We played ten handed for quite a while when finally two people went out on the same hand, further inflating pile of chips in front of the big stack. Shortly thereafter the big stack knocked someone else out by which time I was the small stack. I was short to the point where I had to commit to a hand and just push it for all I could as soon as I caught something worth playing when I caught a run of pocket pairs. I pushed hard pre flop and pushed hard on the flop and took a couple decent sized pots without showdown.
After opening a couple pots in a row I raised 1st in from the small blind with pocket threes and the massive stack smooth called from the big blind. The flop came down with a very juicy 33A and I bet out on the flop while my girlfriend screamed at me to check it. On many steal attempts I had put a continuation bet out on the flop and checked the turn if I didn't improve only to have the big stack stuff bets in my face and take the pot right there. So, I was pretty certain my flop bet wouldn't scare him away, especially seeing as though he had a 6 to 1 chip advantage. I checked the turn, knowing he would bet at the pot at which time I raised and he called down from there. The blind level at this point was high enough that in just a few short hands I had quickly gone from short stack to second in chips.
That hand was pretty much the highlight for me and the cards dried up on me again but people quickly got bumped off from this point. I slid into 6th, then 5th and on and on until it was just three handed. I was severely outchipped but did what I could, which eventually saw me hitting the road with a set running into straight.
So, I made my first final table in a paid multi-table tourney. And even better, I made my first final three at the same time! I made some mistakes along the way but one thing I managed to do very well was stay patient when I needed to. I basically patienced my way from the final 100 all the way to third, not panicing when I was getting dealt orbit after orbit of crap. Of course, I was also very lucky to catch some hands when I did. Third place paid $450, so this was a pretty serious score for me and an incredibly huge bonus as I was just hitting up some tourneys for fun and a change of pace. I know a lot of it was luck, but this sure does give me some hope for future tourneys and was nice timing after the several bubble finishes recently in addition to the horrible losing streak I had been on.
I am relieved to now know exactly how to turn around a big losing streak. Just give away a couple hundred dollars and hit the money in a multitable tourney.
posted by FloppyJT at 9:49 PM
2 Comments:
Great job, floppy!
Hey Michael,
Thanks a lot!
I need to drop you a line and pick your brain on limit tourneys sometime soon.
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