Happy Birthday, Roland!

I'm sorry to miss Saturday's fun (it's my better half's birthday this time of year too so we'll be at the Kennedy Center for Romeo and Juliet -- poker or ballet, tough choice that!).

Here is a selection of hands from a $13 6-max. During the second hand, I thought of you guys and our earlier discussion about calling all-in with low cards. I actually win a hand with pocket threes for a change but lose an amusing clash of Klokkhammer's favorite hand pitted against itself. Should have just pushed pre-flop on the KQo hand but I didn't think it through. Lost the HU battle and finished second.

Deja Vu All Over Again....

I'm starting to sour on king high flushes!

Thoughts on Roland's Home Game

Hi guys

I'm preparing for my next home game. It looks like we are going to be 12 players of which 3 0r 4 are pretty inexperienced. I can run my standard set up, but am considering a few changes and have a few questions on which I'd like to hear your thoughts.

1. With 12 we need to start with two tables of 6. This seems ok, people will be able to play a lot of hands and playing out of position will be less severe than at a 9 man table. I'm leaning toward combining players at the final table when we get down to eight. This seems the best balance between all the various factors.

QUESTION: Should I move to one table when we get down to 9 players, wait until we are down to 6 or something in between?

2. Payout With 12 players we can either go top 3 ITM or to 4 ITM (40%, 30%, 20%, 10%). I'm leaning toward top 4 since it seems a bit more friendly and social.

QUESTION: Top 4 or top 3 ITM?

3. Starting stack (length of tourney). We can start with our standard 1500 chips or we can double the starting stack to 3000K. This will make it a deep stack tourney. There will probably be slightly fewer rebuys and the tourney will last about an hour longer. I have enough chips to comfortably do this if we want. I don't really have a preferance on this point yet.

QUESTION: 3000 chip or 1500 chip starting stack?

4. MrSmith, do you have a folding table readily available that we can use as the second table, or should I borrow one from my neighbor. This isn't a problem either way.

In case you are curious, I'll be the table in charge of one table and MrSmith will be the boss at the other. I've already got all the ingredients for the chili too. This is looking to be a fun evening!

Roland

Curse of the Private Game

Before last Sunday's private game, I had four straight cashes. Afterwards, four straight busts. Coincidence? I think not! Here is the final hand of my latest effort. On the bubble, should I flat call or reraise all-in on the river with the second nut flush?

Roland's Sunday Million Attempt

I survived for 4 hours in the Sunday Million yesterday, unfortunately that was about 15 minutes too little. There were about 8700 entries in the tourney with the top 1260 getting itm. I busted out around nr 1400. No suckout losses the whole tourney, but card dead the second half of the game.

Things started out well with this hand nr 47:

I got into another confrontation a bit later in hand 67. I would appreciate any thoughts on this one:

After this hand I was seriously card dead. I'm sure I missed spots but... Here are my final 100 hands. I fold more or less all:

I'll review these later. It was a long night with nothing to show.

Roland

Private Game January 10

Thanks for a great game everyone! It sure was aggressive right from the first hand! Here's my hand history:

Roland

Endless Bubble

This 3-handed bubble lasted from Hand 50 to Hand 159 and then the heads up portion was over in an instant. Thought the bubble would burst on Hand 146 but had my aces cracked by kings.

Private Game on Sunday

I've set up our next Private Game. The details are in the upper left.

We played 7 private games in 2009 (if I remembered to register them all). Thanks for turning out and congrats to us all! Here are the final standings:

This system corresponds with the actual profit rankings for the top 3 spots, but doesn't work as well for the lower spots. I'll see if there is a better way of doing this.

Roland

Good Luck in 2010!

I hope everyone has had a pleasant holiday. All is well here.

I have been playing a fair amount of $10 single tables and 6/18 turbos lately. There is less variance in these and people are not forced to call with trash as in the 45 mans. I was getting a bit sick of all the right move, wrong result losses. Although, the 45's have taught me how to be an agro pushbot! My bankroll is now growing again, but luck is and always will be a huge factor in the short term. As an example I can mention the Daily 50K $3 rebuy tourney that I played yesterday. There were 8000 players and the top 1170 are itm. 10 min blinds, so these take a while.

My standard line with these rebuys in to buyin only once and see if I can catch some hands. The minimum payout if you get itm is usually 18 bucks. Things started well yesterday, I regged late into the game and doubled within the first 15 minutes. Wash, rinse and repeat 5 times and I was up to 45K when the rebuy period ended with a Q of 2. I hadn't played many hands, but was getting paid off on the few I did play.

After the break the game tightened up a bit and MrSmith showed up. I got very lucky in one situation in which I shoved pocket 10s right into a bb holding KK. I flopped a set and kept my stack healthy. I was still playing few hands, but hand an average stack right as we approached the bubble. 1300 players left and less than 10 minutes before the bubble will burst. A midposition player limps to me in the CO. I have 1010. I didn't want a repeat of the 1010 vs KK hand so close to the bubble. So, I flat called from position hoping to see a cheap flop. This strategy worked perfectly as the bb checked. The flop came A410 rainbow - oh yeah! I flopped a set and hopefully one of the other guys has an A. It checked to me and I shoved in the rest of my chips. The bb calls showing A4 for two pair and the other limper folded.

Notice that if a 4 comes it will give me a better house than his. His only hope is that one of the two remaining As drop (or runner, runner 4s). Pokerstove gives me a 92% likelyhood to win the hand and put me in good shape to get deep in this one.

The turn and the river ran A4! giving him the win with house over house - ouch!

I'm still the Bubble Boy King - LOL!

Note: I was playing it safe by limping preflop in order to get itm. Now, the bb was holding A4o and a stack equal to mine. Would he have folded had I simply shoved preflop...? Sometimes safe isn't so safe after all.

Roland