Online Poker Forum - A public challenge to myself (FINISHED!! ALL WHO POSTED PLZ. SEE PG.1)

jaejaejae · Last edited by jaejaejae on Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:09 pm; edited 18 times in total

Now that I'm back from my mini vacation and have had some time to think about my game I've decided to publicly challenge myself. Thanks in part to most of the regulars on here Smile

(TY) I've been able to find a couple leaks in my game... I've learned a few things and it's time to start putting this all together and start playing better poker. So my thought is to put out this challenge to myself so that I play knowing people might be paying attention to this thread and I will want to save face and play better. I find I play for "fun" too much and don't focuss as much as I should.

So here is my challenge:

(15) games of 9 man sng @ the $2.25 level. No Turbo's
I will post some questionable HH on this tread to see if I played it correctly or if I blew it... I think this might help improve my game as well.
I only get a few hours a night to play so I'm not sure when I will be able to complete this challenge but I plan on only playing these's games until it is done. (except for the "team thingy" thing.) Smile

Anyways I will start out with a BR of $33.75. I look forward to any advise as this progresses...

Thanks,
Jae

Games:

1 3/9 for $3.60 was drawing dead and was always playing from behind. Was happy with 3rd due to the fact that I wasn't catching much.

2 4/9 for -$2.25 "was drawing dead again... table was wicked aggressive with good hands and very few folds to a raise... "frustrated"

3 2/9 for $5.40 Finally got cards to play but was always short stack and only came in 2nd because of an all-in between chip leaders. 11,500 vs. my 1500... needed to double up a bunch to make it a win. Happy with my play and didn't have any real questionable hands to post. But starting to see pattern of being short stacked most of the time. On to my next SNG

4 2/9 for $5.40 Over all I think I played well... got out to an early chip lead for once. Game was crazy long and each time all-ins were called the short stack won. Final three went on FOREVER like this! Finally my 22 got beat by his 88 in final hand. Posting (2) HH from this game that I question. Done for the night.

5 4/9 for -$2.25 Started out hot and jumped out to a nice chip lead... lost 1/3 of my chips when I pushed with my 88 vs 55 when the flop didn't produce an over card... he caught a 5 on the flop. Sad

6 3/9 for $3.60 Not happy with my play.

7 7/9 for -$2.25 Played badly and basically donked my stack away.

8 1/9 for $9.00 Finally won one. Played pretty good... may have folded more than I should have HU but was drawing dead... 3/10 2/9 things like that... sucked out HU to get control of the chips and took a few hands to finish him off. Like to say thank you to goomlah for visiting me at the table... was nice to have support... Thats how team The Royal We roles!!! Very Happy

9 1/9 for $9.00 Played very loose at times trying to bust a person who was driving me nuts with his calls and min. raise on almost every hand...he was a very bad player...but I let him dictate how I played and looking back at my hands I played some of them pretty poorly. I believe I sucked out big time and caught trips to keep from busting out... anyways I finally was able to put him away and started playing what I think to be better poker. goomlah has my HH for that game so I'm sure to get an ear-ful... which is welcomed...

10 3/9 for $3.60 made the mistake of starting another game when I was tired and should have just went to bed. To tired to look at HH now but will probably post some tomorrow. short stack most of the game... final hand was my JJ vs. his AK... caught an A on the flop.. otherwise we are looking a a 2nd place for sure.

11 1/9 for $7.40... interesting game. I was talking with drkato earlier in the day and he gave me some advice... something stuck that was pretty simple... "keep practicing"... so I decided that I've been real tight lately and wanted to practice openning my range just a bit. This allowed me to take an early chip lead and pretty much dominate this game. Unfortanatly I had to leave ....wife wanted to go to the movies and I had to GO! So I was 11,000 chips to his 2,500. He wouldn't spit using chip ratio and I really had to go so I had to split 50/50 "bastard".. so even tho I didn't finish him off I was confident I would have and so I've given myself a 1st place for this game. Smile

12 2/9 for $5.40 Was down to 800 chips in 4th possition and managed to take second... worked it to just about 50/50 on chips when I slow played K/10 vs K/8 K on flop and an 8 on the river... Need to stop with the slow playing I think if I pushed hard he would have folded... oh well I got what I wanted... all his chips in but he had a better hand... Considering I was so low in chips I'm happy with 2nd and I'm happy that I was able to battle back to even chip count.. Smile

13 2/9 for $5.40 was short stack at final 3... managed to work my way to 60/40 chips in my favor at HU... but probably played the worst HU of this challenge so for... He was a real loose player and I was having a hard time reading when he had something and when he didn't... he was playing everything....I just played awful. Sad

I have 2 more games to go to finish this mini challenge. I will have them done tomorrow so you guys won't have to see this thread to much longer. Smile

thanks for those of you keeping watch and giving advice...

14 3/9 for $3.60 Played games 14/15 at same time so I could get this over with for the sake of the forum...lol was short stacked out of 3. Really wanted to stick around because the big stack was talking crap and acting like he was all that. Would have like to have tried to put him in his place... didn't happen he busted me out 66 vs his A/J os. OH well

15 2/9 for $5.40 Was chip leader 60/40 at HU but played 2 bad hands that crippled me... wasn't happy with my play... I think maybe I could have done a little better had I not played the last 2 games at the same time... it got a little busy at the end when it was final 3 on both tables... as well as my 7 year old looking over my shoulder letting me know everytime I was a dealer... Shocked

So I started this challenge with a BR of $33.75 and finished with a BR of $66.80 for a profit of $33.05. This breaks down to $2.20 a game. Ea game was taking me about an hour. So I will only look at this as me doubling up my BR and not how much I was making an hour. LOL

I feel I've learned a few things from this and I look forward to the help from all of you as I continue to bother you all about this or that. I realize this thead is getting a little old and some of you might be getting tired of it. Smile

So to see this thread off I would like to say thank you one more time for everyones help and input. To show my appreciation I would like to do the following thing for all of those who have posted in this thread:

Because I was able to make a profit with this I'm going to take $8.80 and play an 18 man SNG for a $26 token. (I'm 2 for 2 in these token SNG's so hopefully I can make it 3 for 3) Anyways if I'm able to get a token I'm going to enter into a game of my choice... might be 45 man ... maybe 90 KO... Not sure as of yet but if I make it in the money in this tourny I will split it evenly with the following people.

bigpairde
drkato
fat rugger
francois8
cubbies760
Ozzy52
dcdoorknob
goomlah
WPTfuji
bleffo19[/b]

EDIT:
Well don't get to excited everyone... finished 9th in the SNG for the chippy... was short stacked on the button no action up to me A/9s got called by SB with A/K
Not happy cause I really wanted to win the chip for you guys... Ok well Thank you all and this thread can finally be put to rest. [/i]

bigpairde · Chipluder Joined: 26 Apr 2008 Posts: 8906

gl jae.
i bet you will find your thread moved though Wink

drkato · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:21 pm Post subject:

Best of luck to you jae. I will follow your progress, and if you need any help, feel free to AIM me.

fat rugger · Royal Flush Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 789

GL Jae. How many are you going to play at a time?

I play mostly 9 man non turbo's so I look forward to seeing how you roll

jaejaejae · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:30 pm Post subject:

Thanks guys... I'm looking forward to it.

@ Mods.
Sorry I posted in wrong thread... I realize now it shouldn't be here but not sure where else it should have gone...
Please move and should I start doing Poles now??? Confused

jaejaejae · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 2:54 pm Post subject:

francois8 · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 3:03 pm Post subject:

jaejaejae · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:08 pm Post subject:

Ok I just finished my first game and wanted to post a few HH and get some advise. If this ends up being TLDR I understand but if you have the time I'd appreciate your thoughts..

Up to this point I have been drawing dead but managed to buy pots due to poss and continuation bets... Never caught a flop to this point but no one called any of my continuation bets...

the first HH is my first real action. My thoughts going into this hand were 1: This guy had a huge range and seemed to call people up to the 4th street or river where he would then fold. With him being short stack I figure his range is even wider and with me being second short stack I needed to make a move...

My question here is did I make the mistake with the all-in here? I feel I either have to fold or push... Am I correct in this thought.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 2.25 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (5 handed) - Converter Tool from

MP (t4065)
Button (t1035)
Hero (SB) (t1610)
BB (t2910)
UTG (t3880)

Hero's M: 5.37

Preflop: Hero is SB with J

, A

2 folds, Button bets t400, Hero raises to t1610 (All-In), 1 fold, Button calls t635 (All-In)

Flop: (t2270) 5

, K

, J

(2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t2270) 6

(2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t2270) 8

(2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t2270

cubbies760 · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:17 pm Post subject:

jaejaejae · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:21 pm Post subject:

1st game still: Made it ITM with the following stacks: 7200, 3500, 2,300 )(me)

My question here is how do I play at this point? I played push or fold but it got me thinking at what point do I stop pushing and start playing 3 or 4X bb?

Below is a HH just to confrim my play was bad. Neither player was pushing off limp calls so I thought I would try with this hand... Obviously I folded... I should either fold or push correct?

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 2.25 Tournament, 150/300 Blinds (3 handed) - Converter Tool from

Button (t5345)
Hero (SB) (t2595)
BB (t5560)

Hero's M: 5.77

Preflop: Hero is SB with K

, 7

1 fold, Hero calls t150, BB bets t900

Total pot: t600

jaejaejae · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:35 pm Post subject:

Ok this is my final hand of the sng and it leads me to a question I had earlier... should I still be pushing or folding at this point? When do I go back to playing the 3 or 4Xbb? When this hand played out I thought right away I played it wrong and should have just pushed... Am I correct? I just feel I played this hand wrong

Finished in 3rd and will update page 1.

Thanks everyone for any advise.

Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 2.25 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds (3 handed) - Converter Tool from

Button (t5295)
Hero (SB) (t2645)
BB (t5560)

Hero's M: 4.41

Preflop: Hero is SB with 7

, 7

1 fold, Hero bets t1200, BB calls t800

Flop: (t2400) 5

, Q

, 9

(2 players)
Hero bets t1445 (All-In), BB calls t1445

Turn: (t5290) A

(2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t5290) 2

(2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t5290

Results:
Hero had 7

, 7

(one pair, sevens).
BB had A

, 6

(one pair, Aces).
Outcome: BB won t5290

francois8 · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 12:24 am Post subject:

jae,

I'm by no means a SNG expert, so take this with a grain of salt... but similar concepts can be applied to MTT's when some people are trying to move up in the money. Most SNG's pay out on the 5:3:2 scale. When you're at 4 people left, everyone wants to be in the last three since the difference between 4th and 3rd is 2 units of $. A strange thing happens once you get to 3 left though. Everyone gets 2 units right there. Going from 3rd to 2nd gets you only one additional unit; while winning gets you 3 more over 3rd plac. So once you get into the top 3, forget about 2nd place, and go for the win. Most SNG strategy is based on this payscale imho.

In MTT's big difference between 0 and something, but once you break the bubble, moving up a few spots doesn't really matter at all until you're down to last 2-3 tables... in reality you want to be in top 6 imo. I'm more of "go hard or go home" person... so I tend towards the MTT's, as my personality isn't optimal for SNGs. In MTTs, I'll gladly have a dozen apparently-stupid, bubble blow ups which could easily have been min cashes in exchange for one FT. In SNGs... this doesn't really work since you don't get enough $ for winning them to make this smart.

Best of luck to you,
Fran

Ozzy52 · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 5:15 am Post subject:

Hi jae.

Your Q about shoving/ raising -

Personally I'm shoving everything until I'm no longer 3rd place, even then I'm prolly shoving. it's all about pressure, put as much pressure on your opponents as possible make them make the mistakes.
If my M gets above the 10 mark then I MIGHT settle down again, no point spewing chips if there is no need and you have the lead. Saying that tho, if you're leader then you can use your stack as a weapon, anyone calling your all-in faces being put out and if you lose the hand then you're still in with a sporting chance of recovering.

After the bubble you should have a soild read on your remaining opponents, use this info and play accordingly. In the final stages of an SnG it's as much about playing your opponents as it is about playing your cards. Pick on the weak.

Your M is ~5 in both the hands up for disscussion, any raise of 2.5x - 3x is most of your effective stack so get it in. It amounts to the same thing really.
My reason for this is if you raise and miss you might feel compelled to c/f to any aggression, this is a tough decision you don't want, so get rid of the tough decision and put it on your opponent.
If they fold so be it, blinds are significant enough to be sufficient at this point.
Only shoving when you're first to raise the pot tho, shoving over a raise you need to have a great hand. Shoving over the limpers is fine...it would be rude not to really.

I think I know why you are asking. Sometimes when I'm in shove mode I feel a little bit....donkish, like I should be playing proper poker with teh raises and such. Don't worry about this.
A lot of people are not so aware of the prize structure and its relevance (as stated above by francios) so they will happily play for 2nd place and the extra 10% that it offers. Sod that, we want the 50% so play hard for the win or go down in flames trying.

Cash first, then win.

Good luck with your challenge dude. I hope it goes well.

Although... if you are in the forum team thingy I would suggest limping as much as possible with rubbish hands, esp if I'm playing.

fat rugger · Royal Flush Joined: 06 Feb 2009 Posts: 789

Hand 1) shove
Hand 2) shove- fold to his raise after you limped
Hand 3) shove

jaejaejae · Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:23 am Post subject:

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