Thursday, November 19, 2009

Update: Day 1

I was home with a sick kid yesterday. We aren't sure if it is a cold or swine flu, but things seem fine. Being home allowed me to get in a few sets at least. Up to now I have played 68 games. All have been 18 man $1.50 buy in + .25 fee.

Playing 10 - 15 tables is surprizingly easy, but it doesn't allow for much if any player reads until the bubble. These tourneys fill up in about 15 seconds and I start all the games at the same time. This way the blinds are pretty much the same on all tables allowing me to more easily keep track of Ms. I've played ABC poker. When a table pops up, I first look at my position which sets my possible hand range. Then I look at the action before me this adjusts the range one way or the other. Then I look at the stack sizes, especially my own thus further adjusting my range. And finally I look at how my cards stack up to my range. This usually only takes a second and you are on to the next table.

There is a lot of passive play. So I always raise my premium starting hands to get value. More importantly, there is a lot of passive post flop play. If the flop gets checked a small bet on the turn will often win the hand and firing a second barrel small bet works too. I always assume that limpers have weak hands. I also assume that mini raises on the flop followed by a check on the turn are also failed weak steals. In other words passive play is typically a sign of weakness and can be abused.

The only problem I have had is getting the board to cooperate. My desperation shoves short stacked on the bubble have rarely caught a card and my premium hand shoves have rarely held up as you can see from my previous post.

Right now my results are dismal due to way to many 4th and 5th place finishes. Let's hope the remaining games go better. Here are my results thus far:

ITM 29%
ROI -18%

finishes
1st 2
2nd 3
3rd 4
4th 11
5th 10
6th-9th 19
10th-16th 19

Here was one interesting end game. The replay starts at hand 68 at the final table. Notice my stack size after the first hand:

Chip and a Chair

2 comments: