Tournaments
WSOP Horse
As most of you know already, ESPN this past Tuesday aired 2 hours of the 50k Horse event. I was eagerly awaiting this show because I love it when they show something other than No Limit Holdem and I wanted to see this star-studded packed final table. Also, horse is an amazing game and my favorite form of poker to play. When this final table was happening I had heard about the raucous atmosphere going on but what I saw on ESPN blew me away and shocked me.
Utter Poker Devastation
Ok so the title may be a little dramatic but what I experienced tonight will haunt me for some time. It has been a long time since I posted. I have had little time for poker due to grad school which started in June. I’ve deposited a few times on Star’s for the sole purpose of trying to get a seat in the LAPT event at Uruguay. This event has been my focus for the past few weeks but with no luck playing in some $8.80 rebuys. This was the only LAPT event I tried for because it fits my school schedule the best. So yesterday, I played a Sunday million $8.80 6 max double shootout with one $215 seat guaranteed. I won that seat, unregistered from the Sunday mill (won a 2nd DS and played in massive Sunday mill tourney but busted in less than an hour when I ran QQ into KK) and registered for the Sunday $215 LAPTLa Punta de Este event. 1 seat guaranteed and for every 5k in the prize pool another seat guaranteed. Well we ended up getting 52 players which was enough for 2 seat plus 3rd and 4th getting some cash.
A Couple of Final Tables
Have had a couple of decent runs in the weekly Saturdays with Pauly tourney (a $10+$1 PLO event on Stars) the last two weeks. Was runner-up a week ago (out of 29), nursing a short stack for pretty much the entire tourney in order to survive to the end. Yesterday I finished 6th (of 23), unfortunately missing the cash as only the top three spots paid.
Last week I spent pretty much the entire tourney in near-desperation mode, having made a boo-boo early on that kept me at the bottom of the leaderboard for most of the way. Wasn’t quite as bad this week, though by the time we reached the final table I again found myself with one of the short stacks.
Some Good Points from Kid Poker
Some perspective from Daniel regarding the WSOP changes.
http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-journal.php?subaction=showfull&id=1209797015&archive=
It’s official, WSOP ME Final Table Delayed
What was speculated a few weeks ago is now official, ESPN and Harrah’s Caesar’s will delay the final table till November 9th, almost 4 months after it is played down to the final table. This is bad for poker in my opinion but probably a boon for ESPN and Caesars.
They will play down from 9 to 2 on the 9th and then the HU finale will be played in the evening of the 10th and it will air on the 11th but they are only doing a normal 2 hour show. You would think they can do more than 2 hours…hopefully that will change. Not sure if they will do the PPV like they have done the last 2 years.
Skill + Luck = A Successful Tournament
Today I headed out to the Bike for their monthly Ladies Tournament. My plan was to raise preflop whenever I wanted to be in the pot when in a good position. I wanted to pick up a lot of small pots early on in order to build my stack. I didn’t want to find myself stressing over the antes and blinds as they began to increase. My starting table (which did not break until we were down to 2.. which was great) included a lot of tight play. Myself and 2 other women picked up on this fast and took down many small pots… and in my case with marginal hands…
“Tournament poker isn’t real poker…”
It looks a lot like it but its not the same thing.” I wish I could remember which pro said this. I think it was either Barry or Doyle, but it has been a few years. At the time I really didn’t understand. Everyone I knew had caught the poker bug from watching the WPT or WSOP and all they wanted to do was play tournaments. The first time I ever played Texas Hold’em was a tournament in my brother-in-law’s garage (which I managed to bubble after playing for seven hours.) When I started playing online I spent about 90% of my time playing tournaments and SnG’s and when I did play cash games it was PLO8 because the play was so weak it was like printing money. How could anybody say that a tournament isn’t real poker? Of course it is real poker, right?
Ups and Downs.. a few days of poker
I’ve been playing live poker a lot lately- which is great. Of course, this is coming with some ups and downs. I played a NLHE 1/2 game on Wednesday and posted about my success. I went back to Commerce again on Friday and had another winning session. Friday night was filled with a lot of calling stations and players there “just for fun!”. I hit a lot of flops early on and was up $100 after the first hour. It was easy extracting the most amount from the weak players at the table (ah, I’m missing that hour of play)… Here’s an example of a hand from that night where I felt I dodged a huge bullet…
Micro NLHE Cash Games
I’ve been playing a lot online during the week.. since my weekends are usually spent at Commerce in some 1-2 NLHE cash games, I decided I should take a break from the SnGs and practice cash games online. I buy-in for the max $10 in the mirco $.05-.10 NLHE games on Full Tilt. In my last 7 consecutive sessions I’ve left up 1-2x my buy-in. Am I running well or am I on to something?
Anyone Want to Be A Tournament Reporter?
The WSOP is coming up sooner than ever this year and all the major media outlets are looking for seasonal help. If anyone is interested in tournament reporting, now is the time to apply.
I’ve done freelance work and tournament reporting for the past two years during the WSOP. I even covered one of our bloggers at a final table! The job has its perks and downsides, including:
Pros:
-Get to meet all the fake poker celebrities
-Get to experience living in Vegas and playing lots of poker
-Experience firsthand the madness that is the WSOP
