Catching up on some poker, WSOP, etc.
It's been quite a while since I posted last. I've been so busy between work, home, and poker. The 1st 4-5 months have been pretty good in terms of consistent success. While Cake Poker had decent volume at the higher limits I was probably one of the most successful Double or Nothing SNG players in the world, but they have lost some traffic recently and I started grinding those Ultra Turbo 300-500 chip SNG's on Full Tilt and Stars. I had some great success for a while, but the amount of luck and variance is so high on those games it is really hard to plug leaks and study the game. Just to get an idea my normal amount of Double-up sng's I get knocked out with the best hand is around 20% and it is almost 40% for Ultra turbo 300-500 chip tourneys, which you can easily lose 10-15 in a row. I eventually jumped back into Multi-table tournaments in preparation for my trip to Vegas for the World Series and hit a few final tables.
I actually just returned from Vegas a couple days ago. It would be considered a successful trip by most amateurs after probably making $1500-2000, but subtract out travel, shows, hotel, etc. and I still finished a few hundred ahead, but that's not what I hoped for. I did play pretty well. I actually won a small 30 player tourney at Harrahs the 1st night, bubbled a 180 player tourney at Caesers, and took 7th in a 400 player tourney at the Rio for about $2400, but brutally got dealt 2nd best hands early the $1,500 event I played on wed. and was out within 1 hour, which somehow was the only tournament I didn't get reasonably deep. The 1st hand I got K9s in the SB and it was limped around and I flopped top pair, turned top 2 pair, and rivered a flush only to be sucked out by the Ace high flush. Then a couple hands later I was in the SB again with 108s and limped around and I flopped a flush. No other cards of my suit hit the turn or the river but my opponent also flopped an Ace high flush and I was busto!!
The trip overall was pretty exhausting. I almost never get sick and I was coughing up a storm. I actually had one hand which I rarely steal with complete junk and was greeted with an immediate bloody nose during the hand. Talk about a tell James Bond style?!!! My wife met me down there half way through and we had a good time doing couples stuff the rest of the trip during the evenings after playing.
It seems like the SNG scene is pretty competitive these days and I really enjoyed playing the multi's so I might keep playing them for the next month or so and see how it goes. I have already had some ridiculous call downs by bad players and suckouts ruin a few big final table runs, so we'll see how long I can deal with putting in so much time and getting screwed over.
I actually just returned from Vegas a couple days ago. It would be considered a successful trip by most amateurs after probably making $1500-2000, but subtract out travel, shows, hotel, etc. and I still finished a few hundred ahead, but that's not what I hoped for. I did play pretty well. I actually won a small 30 player tourney at Harrahs the 1st night, bubbled a 180 player tourney at Caesers, and took 7th in a 400 player tourney at the Rio for about $2400, but brutally got dealt 2nd best hands early the $1,500 event I played on wed. and was out within 1 hour, which somehow was the only tournament I didn't get reasonably deep. The 1st hand I got K9s in the SB and it was limped around and I flopped top pair, turned top 2 pair, and rivered a flush only to be sucked out by the Ace high flush. Then a couple hands later I was in the SB again with 108s and limped around and I flopped a flush. No other cards of my suit hit the turn or the river but my opponent also flopped an Ace high flush and I was busto!!
The trip overall was pretty exhausting. I almost never get sick and I was coughing up a storm. I actually had one hand which I rarely steal with complete junk and was greeted with an immediate bloody nose during the hand. Talk about a tell James Bond style?!!! My wife met me down there half way through and we had a good time doing couples stuff the rest of the trip during the evenings after playing.
It seems like the SNG scene is pretty competitive these days and I really enjoyed playing the multi's so I might keep playing them for the next month or so and see how it goes. I have already had some ridiculous call downs by bad players and suckouts ruin a few big final table runs, so we'll see how long I can deal with putting in so much time and getting screwed over.