Predator314's Poker Journal

PokerStars Tournament #14392162, No Limit Hold'em
Buy-In: $20.00/$2.00
180 players
Total Prize Pool: $3600.00
Tournament started - 2005/10/28 - 22:57:53 (ET)

Dear Predator314,

You finished the tournament in 4th place.
A $288.00 award has been credited to your Real Money account.

You earned 154.72 tournament leader points in this tournament.
For information about our tournament leader board, see our web site at
http://www.pokerstars.com/tlb_tournament_rankings.html

I forgot to mention that on Wednesday I bowled a 607 series. I bowled 185 in game 1, 224 in game 2, and 198 in game 3. That's my highest series of the year and my 2nd highest series ever. The only other time I broke 600 was a 636 I bowled this past summer in a mixed gender league. But that was on a very easy oil pattern, plus I probably figured bowling a 600 series would impress the chicks :)

Last night made 3 days in which I have not been a single hand. I feel rested and relaxed. In my last post, I mentioned taking the rest of the month off. However, I think I'm ready to play some again.

I'll just play it by ear this evening to see how things go. I'd prefer getting a few friends together and playing some donkey poker, but if I can't swing that, then I'll probably play in some cash games online and get started on next Month's nut.

It's kind of hard to take these breaks, but I think an occasional break is important. Even when things are going well. My advice to the grinders out there is to give yourself a day or 2 breather every now and then. Don't just wait for the bad times and then walk away.

I had a few movies to watch during my break. I mentioned Starsky and Hutch. Last night's feature was Sin City. I have subscribed to Netflix (for the 3rd time). I love the Netflix service. Some of my coming movies that I'll be excited to get in the mail are all music related: Eric Clapton: Unplugged. The famous concert where he put the MTV Unplugged series on the map. Alice in Chains: Unplugged. AiC is one of my favorite bands. Cut down in their prime by our friend, Mr. Heroin. Lastly is Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble: Live at Montreux 1982 & 1985. SRV is hands down the greatest guitar player of all time. The man was a genius.

Nothing much to report. I have now gone 2 days in a row without playing a single hand. Yesterday was bowling followed by a screening of Starsky and Hutch. The movie was pretty damn funny. I know it came out a long time ago, but I don't watch that much TV or movies.

I had a really good Month of October and that's the biggest reason for my breather. I've already cashed out my money to pay bills, so I'll probably ride out the rest of the month without playing. I feel more rested mentally when I don't play poker. It's weird.

I didn't play a single hand yesterday. Just took a break from poker. I finally got setup with rakeback at Party. I'm going to make my deposit on there and cross my fingers.

I've also withdrawn a bit out of my bankroll to help cover some expenses for next month. I had a very good month. Hopefully November will be better.

I took a break from poker yesterday. I played very little. I played a $16 sit n go on Stars and won it. Then I played about 20 hands at a single table while waiting for qualifier on Empire. In those 20 hands, I won about 10BBs which was nice. The qualifier blew goat butt though. I had one good hand where I flopped quad 6's and won a nice pot. But that was early and this was a limit tournament. Then I met my demise on the following hand:

I'm dealt AJ suited UTG. I raise and I get 3 callers including the big blind.

Flop comes A,J,2 rainbow. I bet and all 3 call.

Turn comes a blank. I bet and the big blind calls.

River 2. I'm check raised by the big blind, I call, he turns over 6-2 offsuit and takes the pot from me. Bah.

I chose not to play in the deep stacks tournament yesterday. When I went to register, I saw there were going to be over 1000 entries. That makes for an awesome prize pool. However, it makes for LONG tournament. It was a work night and I just didn't want to risk it. I check this morning. The tournament started at 6:15pm yesterday. It ended at 7:03 am this morning. Just in time for me to leave for work :)

I'll play these bad boys on a weekend when I don't have any plans.

Tonight, I think I might take another break and just watch poker on TV. With the string of beats I took this past weekend, I think I need a break.

I've been thinking about the structure of these internet tournaments. It's horrible. Everyone talks about Pokerstars and the great tournament structure they have. In my opinion it's no different from Party. The blinds escalate too quickly. You don't start with enough chips either.

I was surprised to see a starting chipstack of 2,000 yesterday instead of the normal 1,500. That helped a little bit, but after the 2nd break, it's pretty much a dice shoot unless you have a humongous chipstack already. 1 bad beat and you're to the felt. It's a shame really. However, it's in the best interest of the sites to get these tournaments over with ASAP.

So, I'm logged into Poker Stars this morning just checking out the tournaments they are having this weekend and I see something that catches my eye. It's a $30+3 tournament called "Deep Stacks". I start looking into it further and notice that you get a starting chipstack of $5,000 and the blinds increase every 30 minutes. That's what I'm talking about.

So at 6:15 this evening, I'm gonna give this one a shot. I'm not sure how many entries there will be. If there are a bunch of entries, this thing could go a long time.

The slower structure gives me a chance to actually play. I don't have to sit on my ass and push with the first Ace that comes along. Also, if I get that big chipstack and some asshole wants to put all his money in the pot with KJ offsuit (see yesterday's post) and he cracks my Queens, I still have an opportunity to rebuild without having to go into push mode.

Some may disagree with me and I'm not basing this on first hand experience, but the WSOP main event has a kick ass structure. Watch the episode where Negreanu and Farha are at the same table. Danny busts out, but he took some beats in that tournament that were hideous. However, I noticed that he never busted out and in fact had enough chips left to play around. I know it's edited and he probably won some hands we didn't see, but the good structure allowed for the better player to stick around longer.

I hope these deep stack tournaments catch on with the other sites as well. I'm willing to pay just a little extra in tourney fees to have that structure. I would think a $30+4 Deep Stack tournament would be +EV over a $30+3 regular tournament.

Results of the official blogger tournament:

Lee Jones: 2
Me: 0

I bubbled out of the prizes taking 138th place. I started off well at my first table. I was fortunate enough to get a table where nobody knew what they were doing. One guy was king donkey and I put my sights on him. I ended up taking 3 big pots off this guy. Here are the hands:

Hand #1:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t30 (9 handed) converter


Button (t1805)

SB (t1900)

BB (t1680)

Hero (t1620)

UTG+1 (t1670)

MP1 (t1890)

MP2 (t1615)

MP3 (t2220)

CO (t3600)


Preflop: Hero is UTG with As, Qd.

Hero raises to t120, 4 folds, CO calls t120, 2 folds, BB calls t90.


Flop: (t375) Ad, 5h, Ts (3 players)

BB checks, Hero bets t300, CO raises to t600, BB folds, Hero raises to t1500, CO calls t900.


Turn: (t3375) Tc (2 players)


River: (t3375) 8s (2 players)


Final Pot: t3375


Results in white below:

Hero has As Qd (two pair, aces and tens).

CO has Ac 2d (two pair, aces and tens).

Outcome: Hero wins t3375.

Here's the 2nd nice pot:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (9 handed) converter


UTG+1 (t1820)

MP1 (t1870)

MP2 (t1740)

Hero (t3510)

CO (t2820)

Button (t3387)

SB (t1725)

BB (t1985)

UTG (t2783)


Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 2s, 2c.

UTG calls t50, 3 folds, Hero calls t50, 3 folds, BB checks.


Flop: (t175) Th, 2d, Jd (3 players)

BB checks, UTG bets t50, Hero raises to t250, BB folds, UTG calls t200.


Turn: (t675) Qc (2 players)

UTG bets t500, Hero raises to t3210, UTG folds.


Final Pot: t4385


Results in white below:

No showdown. Hero wins t4385.

And finally hand #3 where I put him out of his misery:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (9 handed) converter


BB (t1820)

UTG (t1870)

UTG+1 (t1965)

Hero (t4385)

MP2 (t2820)

MP3 (t3237)

CO (t1700)

Button (t1910)

SB (t1933)


Preflop: Hero is MP1 with Ks, Kh.

2 folds, Hero raises to t250, 4 folds, SB raises to t450, 1 fold, Hero raises to t4385, SB calls t1483 (All-In).


Flop: (t6368) 7c, 8d, 2d (2 players, 1 all-in)


Turn: (t6368) 5h (2 players, 1 all-in)


River: (t6368) 5d (2 players, 1 all-in)


Final Pot: t6368


Results in white below:

SB has Th Ad (one pair, fives).

Hero has Ks Kh (two pair, kings and fives).

Outcome: Hero wins t6368.

Here's my next important hand. I had a lot of outs on the river to take a nice pot:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t50 (9 handed) converter


Button (t1540)

SB (t1490)

Hero (t5293)

UTG (t5945)

UTG+1 (t1515)

MP1 (t4685)

MP2 (t1505)

MP3 (t1535)

CO (t3700)


Preflop: Hero is BB with 9s, Qs.

UTG raises to t200, 7 folds, Hero calls t150.


Flop: (t425) Td, 6s, As (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG bets t300, Hero calls t300.


Turn: (t1025) 8d (2 players)

Hero checks, UTG bets t400, Hero calls t400.


River: (t1825) 7h (2 players)

Hero bets t1450, UTG calls t1450.


Final Pot: t4725


Results in white below:

Hero has 9s Qs (straight, ten high).

UTG has Qd Ac (one pair, aces).

Outcome: Hero wins t4725.

I forgot to copy the hand history, but my only mistake of the tournament which I have a hard time playing differently is when I raised pre-flop, cold called by the small blind. flop came A,K,Q. We get it all in and he turns of AK for top two pair.

The next pot was only a couple hands later. I had tried stealing on this table a few times and each time, the guy on my left came over the top on me. I figured he was bluffing, but I couldn't call. I had also seen him bluff at a lot of pots by check raising the flop. Now lets see the hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t400 (9 handed) converter


MP1 (t34811)

MP2 (t3740)

MP3 (t5720)

Hero (t6668)

Button (t8595)

SB (t4520)

BB (t2020)

UTG (t6040)

UTG+1 (t10280)


Preflop: Hero is CO with 5h, Ah.

5 folds, Hero raises to t1200, 1 fold, SB calls t1000, 1 fold.


Flop: (t2400) Qd, 5s, 9h (2 players)

SB checks, Hero bets t1200, SB raises to t3295, Hero calls t2095.


Turn: (t8990) 4s (2 players)


River: (t8990) 2d (2 players)


Final Pot: t8990


Results in white below:

SB has Ac Tc (high card, ace).

Hero has 5h Ah (one pair, fives).

Outcome: Hero wins t8990.

I thought that was a pretty sick read to call that all in on the flop. I was pretty much putting the whole tournament on the line with my read.

Then started my demise. I got put at a table with one of the chip leaders. He was an aggressive donkey raising every other hand. I patiently waited for a hand, but it never came. Then Lee Jones apparently showed up to work, saw me prospering, proceeded to kick me in the nuts:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t600 (9 handed) converter


CO (t34986)

Button (t5200)

SB (t2495)

Hero (t11563)

UTG (t15000)

UTG+1 (t3998)

MP1 (t4560)

MP2 (t18855)

MP3 (t8380)


Preflop: Hero is BB with Qs, Qc.

UTG calls t600, 2 folds, MP2 raises to t2400, 2 folds, Button raises to t5150, 1 fold, Hero raises to t11513, UTG folds, MP2 folds.


Flop: (t19963) 8c, 9d, 7h (2 players)


Turn: (t19963) Tc (2 players)


River: (t19963) Th (2 players)


Final Pot: t19963


Results in white below:

Hero has Qs Qc (two pair, queens and tens).

Button has Kd Js (straight, jack high).

Outcome: Button wins t19963.

However, 2 hands later, I got this hand:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t600 (9 handed) converter


UTG+1 (t36136)

MP1 (t13900)

MP2 (t3945)

Hero (t5913)

CO (t13300)

Button (t2298)

SB (t3760)

BB (t17605)

UTG (t8180)


Preflop: Hero is MP3 with 7d, 7s.

4 folds, Hero raises to t1800, 1 fold, Button raises to t2248, 2 folds, Hero calls t448.


Flop: (t4846) Kh, 9s, Qs (2 players)


Turn: (t4846) Qc (2 players)


River: (t4846) 7h (2 players)


Final Pot: t4846


Results in white below:

Hero has 7d 7s (full house, sevens full of queens).

Button has Ah Ts (one pair, queens).

Outcome: Hero wins t4846.

However, it was not to be. I got cold decked and blinded down from there. I made my final stand and was shot down as a 4 to 1 favorite:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t1200 (8 handed) converter


UTG (t48526)

UTG+1 (t13075)

MP1 (t11244)

Hero (t4836)

CO (t13350)

Button (t13715)

SB (t19230)

BB (t27195)


Preflop: Hero is MP2 with 7s, 7d.

3 folds, Hero raises to t4761, 3 folds, BB calls t3561.


Flop: (t8847) Ah, Kh, 5d (2 players)


Turn: (t8847) 8h (2 players)


River: (t8847) 6h (2 players)


Final Pot: t8847


Results in white below:

BB has 5s 5h (flush, ace high).

Hero has 7s 7d (one pair, sevens).

Outcome: BB wins t8847.

Basically, I played near perfect poker. The best I've played in a while. However, Lee Jones loves to torture me.

I really wanted an Xbox 360.