tournament win Stars $2.20/90

My recent hot streak continues. I managed to take down another 90 man tournament recently. This time it was the Stars $2.20/90 event.

The 90 man MTTs have a great structure. It seems to work well for me. That said I was pretty lucky and running well especially on a couple of key hands to take this event down. But the competition is weak in this event and I felt I played pretty well. I managed to get a rush late going from 30th with 30 people left to 4th entering the final table to 1st by the time 8 were left. From there I hung around close to the top and eventually took it down.

So now I've now won a $2.20/90 MTT to go with my earlier $0.25/90 event. The win was worth a cool $50 for my bankroll. This is my biggest tournament score ever. It took a tick over 4 hours to get there. And it brings my bankroll back to a new all time high. So that's all good. Nothing like running well at this game.

The next logical step is to take a shot at the next level, the infamous $4.40/180. However I'm still just a bit light on bankroll to start playing there. So it looks like I'll work the $2.20 a bit more to try to grind up some more bankroll.

$20 pot

I was involved in a $20 pot recently. Most of my cash game play has been $0.25/$0.50 limit hold'em. Still working off a bonus on UltimateBet. So I don't get into pots this size very often. In this case I'd played a couple of $2.20/90 on Stars and busted out. I didn't quite feel like quitting yet so I sat in a $10 NL game. Then this happened.

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $0.10 BB (9 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

BB ($12)
UTG ($5.40)
UTG+1 ($6.10)
MP1 ($5.10)
MP2 ($7.45)
Hero (MP3) ($10)
CO ($10.35)
Button ($5.65)
SB ($2.55)

Preflop: Hero is MP3 with A, A
UTG calls $0.10, UTG+1 calls $0.10, 1 fold, MP2 calls $0.10, Hero bets $0.70, CO raises to $2.45, 6 folds, Hero raises to $10 (All-In), CO calls $7.55

Flop: ($20.45) 8, 4, Q (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($20.45) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($20.45) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $20.45 | Rake: $1

Results:
Hero had A, A (one pair, Aces).
CO mucked J, J (one pair, Jacks).
Outcome: Hero won $19.45

Yay for me. Nothing like getting it all in preflop with Aces for 100bb.

read theory of poker again

It's been a few months so I thought a refresher in Theory of Poker might be good for me. So I read it for the second time. I'm hoping to try out live poker at the casino some time this year so it seemed a good idea to read ToP again before hitting the felt.

I got quite a bit out of it on the second read. I had forgotten or not really absorbed a lot the first time through. So much of it sunk in a bit better. It is a difficult book and a bit slow reading but worth working through. It definitely helps to understand bluffing and how important understanding bluff is, both using bluff and semi bluff for profit and countering the bluffing of your opponents.

I've got one more poker book to read before I hit the felt. I still need to save up some more bankroll anyway so it fills in the time pretty well. Since the game at the local casino is $1/$2 no limit hold'em I'm going to read an NL cash book.

won a tournament Stars $0.25/90

Last night I did something I'd never done before. I won a multi table tournament for the first time.

It wasn't much of a tournament. PokerStars $0.25/90. So only 10 tables. It took a little over 3 hours to take it down. Mostly I ran well against bad competition and caught some big hands at good times like a huge AA hand at the final table for a $100K pot. I cruised from there. Plus flopping sets and winning big with them is as valuable in tournaments as it is in the NL cash game.

I wasn't even trying to play in that tournament. I meant to register in a $2.20/90 but I wasn't paying attention and ended up in the $0.25 tournament. A good accident as it turns out since it turned out to be my first real MTT win. I've taken down real money 2 table tournaments before but this was a bigger event with all the real tournament stages of early play, the bubble, final table, last 3, and heads up.

Of course the competition is weak in this event, and the $6.20 award for winning isn't impressive, but still I'm glad to know now I can win. I'm done with the $0.25/90 and will be playing $2.20/90 which I'm bankrolled for. Hopefully I can run well there. I've got some unfinished business at the $2.20 as I lost heavily in the $2.20/180 turbos. I think the 10 minute blinds and 2000 starting stack is better suited to my style.

wish me luck - UB WWE WrestleMania freeroll final

That was about the easiest satellite in history. It was round 2 of the UB WrestleMania freeroll this evening. I sat down to play at 8:30 Eastern. Under the rules the top 200 advance to the final on March 16. Round 2 is filled from the daily round 1 satellites where the top 100 from each daily sat advance.

However when play began there were only 98 people registered! 10 minutes later and late registration closed and still only 98 people. 98 people competing for 200 seats in the final of course means that we all advance just for registering. That was pretty easy.

So onto the winner take all final on March 16. The winner is going to WrestleMania in Houston. It looks right now like there will be around 400 people in the final. So of course my chances aren't very good. The competition is mostly play money and very bad. So that helps my chances. I'd estimate my chance at winning is around 1%. But it's great to be there and have a shot.

Freerolls

Spring is the season for freerolls. On UltimateBet I'm playing in a WWE WrestleMania 25 freeroll. I cleared round 1 pretty easily and onto round 2 Sunday. The top 25% from round 2 get to the final round 3 for the big prize. My chances aren't good of course but it is fun trying. I hope I can at least reach the round 3 final.

Also on UB you can qualify for the WSOP main event for only 10 cents. But you have to win like 10 steps tournaments so I'll pass on that. I don't really care for sng anyway.

Last year PokerStars had a WSOP ME freeroll so I hope they do it again this year. Also on Stars the blogger freeroll should be coming up pretty soon. That's a good tournament to enter so I can hopefully play in that.

Freerolls are good fun. Some normally proper players choose to be silly in them. Plus of course the fields are dominated by play money people, people with bankroll in the single digits, and generally bad players. But I do try to play properly.

The competition tends to be weak. If you can catch some cards then usually you can do quite well against the many clueless and the donators. It's nice to experience some success even on that UB WWE round 1. I've been in a downswing for a while so a positive result is nice.

In addition to freeroll I've noticed some near freeroll Stars SNGs. There's a $0.10/360 turbo sng. I played a handful of them to work on some new turbo strategies. I cashed in about my 5th attempt and realized I still really don't enjoy turbos.

While I was scrolling to the bottom of the list I noticed a $0.25/90 and $2.20/90 sngs on Stars with 10 minute levels. That looks more interesting. A low buyin event with reasonable rake that has enough time to play properly and can finish in a good amount of time.

I'll give the $0.25/90 a try until I cash in one. It's a bit easier to cash than the $4.40/180s as 12 of 90 cash instead of 10% in the $4.40s. From there I plan to work the $2.20/90 until I can ever get my bankroll up to being able to play in the $4.40/180s. I'm glad Stars added these tournaments.

Plus as part of trying to break out of this blah downswing/break even spell I might try some more $10 NL on Stars. I had some success there in the past. Over on UB I'm still playing $0.25/$0.50 LHE trying to clear the bonus and bankroll remains precarious. I'm trying to think of some contingency plans for there if things don't start to turn around.