Only played 13 today, I'm a bit confused to why Party doesn't have a better function for joining these SnG's. The way it is it is hard to get a table quickly. At one time I ended up playing 4 tours at the same time. 2 PL Texas, one NL and one Fixed Limit Omaha eight-or better, but usually I just play two total.
Here are the two worst hands I played today:
Worst Played Hands
I have AJ and limp in in EP. BB checks. Flop comes AQ6, I bet pot, he calls. Turn is a 2 I btp again and he calls. River is another 6. When he called the turn bet I figured he had a weak Ace and I was ahead with my kicker. The damn 6 on the river messes that up obviously. I decide to try and push him off his Ace rag and bet the river, he pushes (not much left) and I call. He's got 65 and drags the pot. Even though he was an idiot for calling the whole way I'm being a moron betting that river. If he has called that far with Ace rag he's not folding here. Super bad play by me.
Second mistake is so obvious. Late in the tour, I'm a bit above average. A semi-shortstack has started pushing a lot preflop. I pick up 44 in LP and this time he just miniraises. For some reason I take this as a sign of weakness and pushes. How stupid is that? Anyone can figure out that when he stopped pushing and did a miniraise he WANTS action. He flips JJ.
New Move
I also came up with a new move. I call it the safe-and-sound-isolation-miniraise. UTG who is a BIG stack limps, a shorty goes all-in behind him and it is folded to me in the BB. I have 99. Here I decide to mini-reraise and this is how I'm thinking:
There is NO WAY I am playing for my stack with 99 against the Big Stack, but I want him to think I have a huge hand so he will fold anything that isn't a premium hand. By mini-re-raising I make it VERY expensive (like 16bb) for him to call but I can EASILY get away from the hand if he pushes, in case he limped something lik QQ+ or AK. BB folds, muppet shows Ace rag and I win.
Welcome Back Hands
I took a break after a while and played some Patrician III, a trading/resource managment game. When I came back I fired up 2 tables and here are the first two hands I get:
AA in LP. A few limpers. I raise it big, BB and UTG calls. Flop comes QQx. BB bets small, I flat call. Turn is a brick, BB bets a little bigger, I call and river is another Q. Here he pushes his stack in. When he bet into me on the flop there is NO WAY he has a Q. EVERYBODY slowplays trips on the $10 SnGs, so I make an easy call with my nut full and he shows AK. Ka-ching.
66 in EP and I limp it. BB decides to miniraise and UTG and I call the raise. Flop comes JJx with two hearts. Now BB checks... I small something... I'm thinking AJ is a pretty likely miniraise hand. UTG checks and I check behind. Turn is a 6, the money card. BB bets small, UTG calls, I make a 3x raise and BB pushes. Of course I call and he has J3s, I double up here too.
Nice way to start the new session. Unfortunately I suffer some awful beats on the 66 table and bust out, but win the AA one. I think a lot of people will bet their 6's on the flop in that hand but I really think that is a mistake. When a muppet miniraises then checks the flop you should become suspicious. If he had bet the flop there is a goods chance I would have raised him.
Biggest Mistakes Of The Fishes
There are just so many mistakes these guys make it is hard to count them. Getting stacked with TPNK however seems to be the most leathal one. Blinds at 50 and UTG miniraises, I call OTB with KQ. Flop comes Qxx with two clubs. He bets and I push, he calls with QT. If there is a flush draw out they will almost always call with TPNK because they always think you're on the flush draw.
The preflop miniraises are pretty bad though but never worse than when they do it with AA, get busted by my 65o and whine about it. When they have a good hand they are often so afraid of getting action that they're just ASKING to get drawn out on. HU my opponent limps on the button, I have 65o and check (suspiciously). Flop comes 357 and he bets smallish. I figure that with middle pair and a gut shot I can take one off. Turn is another 5, he bets, I push and he calls with his AA. yesterday someone miniraised UTG with it, I caught a straight on the flop and busted him.
Not adjusting to the game structure is another huge mistake. Loose players are loose all the time and tight players very often fail to loosen up when it gets short handed. People seem to only have one strategy and stick to it no matter what.
Nice Call!
Miniraise to me with a caller inbetween, I have KQ and see the flop. It comes KTx. Preflop raiser bets, other guy calls and I check/raise all-in. BOTH players call and I'm thinking "What the hell..." then I see their cards:
Raiser - AJo, for a gutshot (+overcard)
Caller - QTo, for middle pair
Funny thing is that I am blocking BOTH hands and win a monster pot
The Horror
That's the well played, funny and not so well played hands. Now for the compulsory whining. It felt like I was getting sucked out on a lot and not winning any coinflips, so I started taking notes. I only counted the ones that took place early or in the middle of the tours since there is too much action late for it to be practical. I only count all-in preflop with pairs against overcards as coinflips, and a bad beat is when someone is at least 70% favorite to win the hand:
7 coinflips, I won 1
5 Bad Beats
2 Suckouts
I can accept that I get much more bad beats than suckouts because usually I am in there with the best hand, but ONE out of SEVEN coinflips?! And that's just AFTER I started counting!! Come on!! The one that felt the most was when I bet my turned nut straight (KJ on a QT9x board), get it all in against QT and he rivers a Q. Had I won that one I would have had a huge chip lead... I can't blame him for playing it that way though, even though I wouldn't have slowplayed the flop.
Final results for day 1:
Texas:
4 first places
3 5:th
1 6:th
1 8:th
4 9:th
Total played: 13
ITM: 30%
ROI: 40%
Fixed Limit O8:
2 first places
1 6:th
1: 8th
Total played: 4
ITM: 50%
ROI: 127%
Total profit: $113
Evaluation:
Not completely happy with the Texas results. I played badly for the first few SnG's but considering the quality of my game later I should have made it to the money more often. I tend to bust either really early (which is good) or right before the bubble (which is very bad). Of the 4 early bust outs most were bad beats, some were bad luck and one was bad play.
I am really happy about making first place the 4 times I was itm though, I contribute that to having a chip lead every time and being much better at changing gears and exploiting marginal situations than my opponents. I'd obviously like to make it ITM more often but not at the expense of arriving there short and desperate, I don't think everyone realises how big the difference is between 1:st, 2:nd and 3:d place in profit. If you win 1 and bust out in 2, you're better off than if you finish 2:nd once and 3:d twice.
I'm slightly shocked at the quality of play in the FL08 tours. By no means am I a proficient player in that game, but damn... at the 4 tables I have played I have either been the best or among the top 3 players. There seems to be a lot of +EV to get here and it is a fun game to mix it up with. I'll be back.
Ps. Hope you can read this huge-ish post
