So I went to my first live SNG last night. It was an 8-man $20 buy-in tournament with a pay-out structure that matches most online 9-man SNG.

For the hand in question, blinds are $150/$300. There are 5 players left. I don’t know the exact details, so please forgive me.

UTG: unknown medium stack size. (bigger than hero’s)
MP: unknown medium stack size. (bigger than hero’s)
Button: exactly $1200
SB: unknown stack size, but has moderate chip lead
BB (HERO): about $2300.

HERO is dealt K10o.
Action: Folded to the short-stacked button who pushes all-in, SB folds.

What do you do?

My thought process: The game is a typical buddy type of game. It’s a weekly game that a friend of mine hosts with a bunch of college buddies. They’ve been playing for years, but they are not the type of players that sit and anaylze their games, or read much about theory, etc. Basically – they are casual players, but years worth of experience against each other. The button is the host and sits next to me at work. He knows that I play a lot online, and we have discuss the SNG’s I played the night before on a daily basis. He knows I’m at least a moderately knowledgeable SNG player.

Button recently lost his chips. He had been accumulating chips for a while, but was dealt a blow a few hands earlier. I don’t know his pushing range, but I know he’s not a student of SNG strategy. I say this not to denegrate his play, but to say that I’m not convinced it’s an ATC situation. (FWIW I think it’s a fairly easy call online where I have no read on anyone). I’m not sure that he’ll push 100% of his range, especially with the big-stack yet to act. I was short stacked for a while and was able to steal the blinds when I pushed, but I did get called once by K6s. So I’m not sure if that means the table’s calling range is tight or loose… either way, I don’t know whether he’ll push with enough of his range for me to call with K10o… especially for pretty much half of my chips. But I do have two fairly strong cards, and my equity against a random hand is pretty good…. if it holds up, I’m in contention for the money going into the bubble… but I can’t make up my mind.

What do you say?

I’ve been messing around with some different structures lately. I started out with the standard speed Poker stars 9-man single table tournaments. I’ve been pretty successful with these, at least at the $3 level. I’ve won some at the $5 level too, but my bankroll doesn’t really support me playing at the $5 level, so I don’t do it anymore.

I’ve also tried the double or nothing SNG’s and the heads up SNG’s. My problem with these are the same – you can’t really get ahead unless you cash much more than you don’t. When you play two and win only one, you’re a net loser. I think that’s pretty retarded. I ran pretty good on the heads up for a while, but then I cooled off and stagnated, so I went back to the 9-man.

I tried the 9-man turbos. They seem to go too quickly, and you end up waiting until you have a monster and push. That’s not that fun, and you don’t end up getting very many hands before you’re forced to start pushing with crap like any suited king. Not a huge fan.

I tried 6-max turbos. I liked these for a while. The nature of the turbo in the 6-max is a little easier to take because the blinds aren’t going crazy as early it seems. I find myself playing the same type of game as with the standard speed 9-man, which I’ve said I’m pretty good at, so I ended up winning at a pretty good clip with these too. The problem I have with these is similar to the DON or the HU, though – you really have to win in order to make these profitable. Just placing doesn’t do too much for your bankroll. It’s not like the 9-man where you win one and net almost 4 buy-ins, or even place in second and net 2 buy-ins. The bankroll stagnates when I play these without going on winning streaks, so I don’t play them anymore.

I just deposited some money on full tilt so I could unlock some bonuses and get some rakeback. I tried the matrix, but my game is NOT suited for this. I don’t know how you all multi-table. It completely throws my game. When I’m playing one table, I can focus on what people are doing and adjust accordingly. When I’m playing the matrix – I can’t keep track of ANYBODY and end up just playing the cards. I don’t know how online players play like that. Maybe they can concentrate better than I can. Who knows, but I can’t play like that. If you see me sitting down at more than one table at a time, you probably want to sit down at that table, because you’ll be able to stack me in no time.

Ironically, I stumbled upon the 9-man super turbos. I bought in for one without realizing that it was a “super” turbo and not a normal turbo. These are the ones that are 3 minute blinds, but you only start with 10BB. I thought I’d hate these, but they are pretty freaking exploitable at the $3 level. People don’t understand SNG strategy in these things, and think limping and raising 3BB for 3/4 of their stack are good plays. I just find myself waiting to be in position when a bunch of people have limped and push with Ace-high or a pocket pair. Granted, this is very variance-driven … IF CALLED. But I’ve found that aggressive play in these things can take down the blinds more often than not, and once you accumulate some chips, look the F out. You hookup one all in and some blind steals, and you’re on your way to dominating these things. The payout structure can grow your bankroll pretty fast… and they are super quick, so I can play a lot of them quickly, which will unlock my bonus (and give more rakeback) faster than if I were to play standard tournaments… but in the end, it gets kind of boring playing these games….

I’ve also tried MTT, but I’m not sure if I dig those too much. 1.5 hours is about my tolerance for playing poker, so if I play a standard speed MTT I get bored. If I play a turbo, it really sucks because it is a pure donkament. Not very fun…

Maybe I just need to build my bankroll as quickly as possible and get myself to cash games. Maybe that’s where I’ll find the reach opportunities that I’m looking for. What do you like to play?

(And for those following along – I’m taking time off from playing right now because I’m realizing I’m not in a good state of mind. I took my initial $75 to $100 in a few days on Full Tilt when I was able to focus properly. But I didn’t sleep well and I’ve just lost two SNG’s. Rather than try to play my way out of it, I’m stepping away to write this post. I’ll take a shower, maybe eat some lunch and see how I’m feeling later. Maybe I won’t play again today; we’ll see. Either way, I’m trying not to play on tilt anymore. So far, it’s been pretty effective).

So, as I’ve mentioned, I play mostly SNG’s. I’ve had the free trial of Hold’em Manager back before I started playing SNG’s. I haven’t used it since. I don’t really play cash games anymore… would it be useful to get for SNG’s? I don’t play many people more than a couple of times. I won’t have a good sample size against most people I play, so I’m wondering how useful it could be. What stats would you use for SNG’s? Would you use it to play against people, or would you use it to analyze your own game?

So here is my SNG graph for the time since I’ve started playing back in November:

What you’ll notice is that I’ve never been negative, and that’s awesome. At the same time, you’ll also notice that I’m very streaky. I’ll go on an amazing run, winning a couple in a row or cashing in 8/10 or something like that. Then, the world will fall out beneath me and I’ll go on a run of losing 7 in a row. (Right now, sharkscope has me on super tilt. It’s not the first time!)

So what’s going on? Is it variance? I wish it were that easy. But I can’t blame it on luck, and I can’t blame it on other players. I can put the blame squarely on my shoulders.

The difference between the times that I’m on the way up and the times I’m on the way down is simple – it’s my state of mind. When I’m on my way up, I’m conservative. I’m not a complete nit, but if I’ve got a marginal hand, or a top pair type hand on a draw-heavy board and am getting a lot of resistance, I lay the hand down. When I’m facing an UTG raiser, and a guy in middle position who 3bets the UTG raiser – I tend to think my AK is no good. I lay it down. I’m usually in a good mood, and I can focus on what I’m doing. I’m paying attention to the uber-aggressive donk that keeps 3betting me post flop with air, and I realize I can make a move on him if I’ve got a monster. The house is usually quiet – the kids are in bed, and the wife has left to go to the gym. I’m in my poker haven, in tune with the game. When all of these things happen, I EXPECT to cash, if not win, any SNG I sit down at.

So what happens when I’m on my way down? Well, first, I think I’m invincible. I get in this “well, I’ve won 3 in a row, so if I play 10 more, I’ll be up another $50-100! Let’s keep playing!” regardless of what’s going on in the house. The kids will be running around, asking me for snacks or lunch. I’ll have the laptop on the kitchen counter while I’m making a sandwich, 3betting preflop with A9s OOP. Or, I’ll be on life tilt with some random fight I’ve had with the little woman. I’m not paying attention to what’s going on in the game, and I don’t realize that the guy that’s 3betting me post flop hasn’t played a hand in the last 3 blind levels. I’ll convince myself that my Jacks are good on an ace high flop, and I’ll push all in when he 3bets my flop bet because I think he’s “just playing back at me because he thinks I’m just CBET’ing.” In short – my mind isn’t in the game, and I’m not paying attention to what I’m doing.

The thing that sucks is that I KNOW that this is the case. I KNOW that if I play when I’m not in the right mood I will lose. I can’t say that I can’t stop myself from playing – because that would make me sound like I’m addicted. But at the same time – why can’t I stop myself from playing when the situation isn’t right? I like playing this game. It’s a game to me. I’ve only deposited $75, and am still playing with house money, so it’s not like I have a gambling problem… at least I can realize what’s contributing to my downfall.

Today, I resolve not to play a single hand of poker unless the conditions for play are perfect. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Ok, EB. I’m with you on overpairs. I got crushed tonight on overpairs. Check out these two hands:

PokerStars Game #26186990648: Tournament #149555605, $5.00+$0.50 Hold’em No Limit – Level III (25/50) – 2009/03/21 0:07:10 ET
Table ‘149555605 1′ 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: vike92000 (1495 in chips)
Seat 3: nevoldfart (1410 in chips)
Seat 4: WEEEE (1135 in chips)
Seat 5: HERO (2160 in chips)
Seat 6: Zoopimp (2610 in chips)
Seat 7: pterkim (1515 in chips)
Seat 8: niceandtidy (1260 in chips)
Seat 9: ella126 (1915 in chips)
nevoldfart: posts small blind 25
WEEEE: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Qd Qh]
HERO: raises 100 to 150
Zoopimp: folds
pterkim: folds
niceandtidy: folds
ella126: calls 150
vike92000: folds
nevoldfart: calls 125
WEEEE: folds
*** FLOP *** [Ts 4c 8h]
nevoldfart: checks
HERO: bets 300
ella126: folds
nevoldfart: raises 600 to 900
HERO: raises 1110 to 2010 and is all-in
nevoldfart: calls 360 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (750) returned to HERO
*** TURN *** [Ts 4c 8h] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [Ts 4c 8h Td] [5h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
nevoldfart: shows [Tc Th] (four of a kind, Tens)
HERO: shows [Qd Qh] (two pair, Queens and Tens)
nevoldfart collected 3020 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3020 | Rake 0
Board [Ts 4c 8h Td 5h]
Seat 1: vike92000 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: nevoldfart (small blind) showed [Tc Th] and won (3020) with four of a kind, Tens
Seat 4: WEEEE (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: HERO showed [Qd Qh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Tens

And here’s another after I just doubled up with AKo:

PokerStars Game #26187201830: Tournament #149555605, $5.00+$0.50 Hold’em No Limit – Level IV (50/100) – 2009/03/21 0:16:42 ET
Table ‘149555605 1′ 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: vike92000 (1345 in chips)
Seat 3: nevoldfart (3120 in chips)
Seat 4: WEEEE (1685 in chips)
Seat 5: HERO (1950 in chips)
Seat 6: Zoopimp (2120 in chips)
Seat 7: pterkim (1765 in chips)
Seat 9: ella126 (1515 in chips)
Zoopimp: posts small blind 50
pterkim: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Kc Kd]
ella126: calls 100
vike92000: folds
nevoldfart: folds
WEEEE: folds
HERO: raises 400 to 500
Zoopimp: folds
pterkim: calls 400
ella126: folds
*** FLOP *** [2c 4d Th]
pterkim: bets 200
HERO: raises 300 to 500
pterkim: calls 300
*** TURN *** [2c 4d Th] [3s]
pterkim: bets 600
HERO said, “don’t tell me you flopped a set of 10’s too”
HERO: raises 350 to 950 and is all-in
pterkim: calls 165 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (185) returned to HERO
*** RIVER *** [2c 4d Th 3s] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
pterkim: shows [2d 2s] (three of a kind, Deuces)
HERO: shows [Kc Kd] (a pair of Kings)
pterkim collected 3680 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3680 | Rake 0
Board [2c 4d Th 3s 7h]
Seat 1: vike92000 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: nevoldfart folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: WEEEE folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: HERO (button) showed [Kc Kd] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 6: Zoopimp (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: pterkim (big blind) showed [2d 2s] and won (3680) with three of a kind, Deuces
Seat 9: ella126 folded before Flop

I’m playing a $5 SNG. If I’m getting this type of resistance – should I be putting these guys on a set? I put the first guy on something like A10, thinking that he was going to take me down by check raising a CBET. The second guy – I should have known something was up when he called my raise on the flop and then led out again on the turn.

To finish off my bad beat story of the night, check out what ended my tournament. (I’m not faulting the guy for calling – he obviously is getting the odds to call. But what cruel twist of fate is that flop?!?!?!).

PokerStars Game #26187284380: Tournament #149555605, $5.00+$0.50 Hold’em No Limit – Level IV (50/100) – 2009/03/21 0:20:33 ET
Table ‘149555605 1′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: vike92000 (1445 in chips)
Seat 3: nevoldfart (3920 in chips)
Seat 5: HERO (185 in chips)
Seat 6: Zoopimp (3055 in chips)
Seat 7: pterkim (3780 in chips)
Seat 9: ella126 (1115 in chips)
HERO: posts small blind 50
Zoopimp: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to HERO [Qs Jh]
pterkim: folds
ella126: folds
vike92000: folds
nevoldfart: folds
HERO: raises 85 to 185 and is all-in
Zoopimp: calls 85
*** FLOP *** [Qh 5h 5c]
*** TURN *** [Qh 5h 5c] [6s]
HERO said, “wow”
*** RIVER *** [Qh 5h 5c 6s] [9h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
HERO: shows [Qs Jh] (two pair, Queens and Fives)
Zoopimp: shows [5s 2h] (three of a kind, Fives)
Zoopimp collected 370 from pot
HERO said, “my luck is great today”
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 370 | Rake 0
Board [Qh 5h 5c 6s 9h]
Seat 1: vike92000 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: nevoldfart (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: HERO (small blind) showed [Qs Jh] and lost with two pair, Queens and Fives
Seat 6: Zoopimp (big blind) showed [5s 2h] and won (370) with three of a kind, Fives
Seat 7: pterkim folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: ella126 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

Ok, now someone tell me how to beautify my posts I don’t have a membership to cardrunners or anything, so I can’t do that. I tried using the twoplustwo.com hand converter before, but that didn’t turn out so well.

So, I’m playing a $5 Poker Stars SNG tonight, and the following hand transpires:

Poker Stars $5.00+$0.50 No Limit Hold’em Tournament – t25/t50 Blinds – 7 players – [url=http://www.thehandconverter.com/hands/57234]View hand 57234[/url]
The Official [url=http://www.twoplustwo.com/]2+2[/url] Hand Converter [url=http://www.deucescracked.com/?referrer=converter_2p2]Powered By DeucesCracked.com[/url]

BB: t1475         M = 19.67
UTG: t2890         M = 38.53
UTG+1: t3880         M = 51.73
MP: t1970         M = 26.27
[b]Hero (CO): t1610         M = 21.47[/b]
BTN: t970         M = 12.93
[b]SB: t705         M = 9.40[/b]

[b]Pre Flop:[/b] (t75) Hero is CO with 8:diamond: J:diamond:
[i]3 folds[/i], [color=red]Hero raises to t150[/color], [i]1 fold[/i], SB calls t125, [i]1 fold[/i]

[b]Flop:[/b] (t350) T:club: J:club: 6:spade: [color=blue](2 players)[/color]
[color=red]SB bets t555 all in[/color], Hero calls t555

[b]Turn:[/b] (t1460) K:club: [color=blue](2 players – 1 is all in)[/color]

[b]River:[/b] (t1460) 7:diamond: [color=blue](2 players – 1 is all in)[/color]

[b]Final Pot:[/b] t1460
Hero shows 8:diamond: J:diamond: (a pair of Jacks)
SB shows 4:diamond: 4:club: (a pair of Fours)
Hero wins t1460

Now, let me get something straight – I am not a total nit when I play SNG’s, at least not at the $3 and $5 that I’ve started out at.  I don’t think it’s profitable to be too nitty at these tables.  You lose out on a lot when you sit on the sidelines and watch players donk off large portions of their stacks with marginal hands.  Also, in a SNG, you have a lot of implicit fold equity since there are no re-buys.  When you push people to make decisions for large portions of their stack, they might lay down hands that have you beat if they were to call all the way to showdown.  You can’t be passive in a SNG… you have to raise preflop, and continue the aggression representing a strong holding even when you don’t have much.  That’s just my philosophy when I’m playing, and this hand is an example of that.

The other thing is, you can’t only play your cards.  You have to play to the situation.   This is not rocket science people.  I was on the button, and the big blind was short stacked.    I make a standard 3BB raise, knowing that the shorter stacked villain should only call when he’s got a reasonable hand.   If he calls, I C-BET the flop and put pressure on him for the rest of his tiny stack.  If he folds, I pick up the blinds.  If he plays back at me aggressively, I’ve only put 3BB into the pot, so I can muck and look for another opportunity to steal some blinds.

This joker decides to call with pocket 4’s and acts first, so he doesn’t even let me C-BET.  He goes with a stop-n-go by donking into me and pushing on the flop.  Not a bad move, but the fact of the matter was that I knew what he was doing, and I happened to catch top pair.  No chance he pushes in this spot if he had top pair beat, as he would have simply check-raised me all in when I C-BET the flop.   I knew I had him, so I insta-called.  As you can see, it held up and I knocked him out in 7th place.

So what does this donkey proceed to do?  Sit there for the next 20 minutes telling me how terrible that play was, how he’s made $45K online last year and that I should shut up and listen to him since he’s been at this for years and I’ve only been playing since November.   I’m sorry you made a poor choice to flat call me preflop.  I’m sorry that you made a poor choice to push all in on the flop with an underpair to the board.  It’s not my fault you don’t recognize the need to play situations and position rather than simply waiting for Aces or Kings.  (This is the same guy that sat there and talked trash about someone at the table for aggressively playing AJo when he hits TPTK and eventually hits a set of Jacks to knock out a guy that had Kings).   He actually told me that a jack shouldn’t be in somone’s raising range.  Are you kidding me?  If I only played hands where I had an ace or a king, I wouldn’t ever be in a pot.  I’d be blinded away before I ever won one chip.  And if I did catch some cards – everyone would know since I sat there folding the previous 100 hands.

For fuck’s sake – when you lose, get the fuck up from the table and walk away. Otherwise, you just end up being another example proving the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory:

Am I the only one that seems to find these fuckwads at the poker tables???

As another blogger mentioned, I want to support Bret and EB, so here goes.

Before I get too far – for all of you poker junkies that don’t know anything about the morning show – start podcasting now.  You’ll love what you hear.  Well, maybe not JP, but he’s part of the experience so I’ve learned to live with him   Seriously, though – the guys are hillarious and I listen to every segment they post.  I’ve pretty much given up on non-sports/UFC related TV because what they offer is much more entertaining than anything you’ll find on TV.

Quick poll – who thinks the Mediocre Poker intro is the best thing ever?  If you disagree, go kill yourself.  I don’t want you reading my blog anymore.

A little about me – I’ve only started playing poker recently.  I was hooked ever since Rounders, but never had the cirlce of friends to play.  I was messing around with free play on Bodog, but that’s nothing but “no-fold’em hold’em.”  After lusting after the online game for so long listening to EB talk about it, I finally deposited $75 on PokerStars.

I started playing cash games at t$.01/.02 table, and was break even for about two months.  Then I decided to try a $3.40 SNG, which I won.  Then I proceeded to cash in the first 5 of 7 or something like that.  The next thing I know, I ran my bankroll up from $75 to $200.

Well, then life hit me in the face.  I don’t need to go into what happened, but I played on tilt for essentially all of December.  I regressed back down to about $120.  I took a week or so off to collect my head, and came back.  It was a slow grind, but after a phenomenal week, I’m back up to $216.  I’ve moved up to the $5.50 tables and have cashed in 4 of my last 7.  Throw in a few wins at the micro-stakes HU SNG’s, and we’re rocking and rolling.

So, what you’ll get out of me – probably all SNG talk.  I haven’t done well in the cash games, so I tend to steer clear of them.  Once I figure out how to post some hand histories, we’ll see what kind of strategy talk we can get going.  Let’s see what you guys can do to help me improve my 20% ROI at the microstakes STT

Peace!