Wednesday, December 06, 2006

No milk please

Best wishes to all of you heading off to the big blogger extravaganza in Vegas. I'm off tomorrow to swelter through Christmas in Queensland, and won't be back until the new year. Internet connectivity will be sporadic and poker almost certainly non-existent during that time, so this little dwelling in the blogging community will probably be dark for the next month or so.

If anyone is reading this by directly clicking through, I admire your dedication, but for heavens sake, get an RSS feed reader (e.g. bloglines) and subscribe that way. Then you'll know when the lights have been turned back on, and won't waste your time checking.

Happy holidays of one sort or another to all, and hope to see you (in the virtual sense anyhow) in 2007.

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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

The other card game

I played some bridge last night for the first time in ages, and was pleased to find that I wasn't too rusty. I did have to fight the urge to lay out my hand as if playing Chinese Poker though ... hey perhaps there's a good combination game there, first play a hand of bridge and then use the same cards for Chinese Poker.

Weird as it might seem, I actually think that "duplicate poker" could work too. A pure version would have two teams of two players, playing two heads up matches. Each match would get the same hole cards/flops etc. but the teammates would be in opposite seats. A less pure version, intended more to provide food for analysis by onlookers would simply have a MTT where the cards at each table were duplicated.

I just realised that the casual reader may not know about the duplicate principle by which almost all competitive bridge is played. Briefly, the idea is that the entrants (either pairs or teams of four) play the same hands as their competitors (i.e. the hands are "duplicated"). Rather than scoring up by total points, your results are compared to those of your competitors who were playing the same cards as you. This doesn't entirely eliminate the luck factor as of course you have different opponents on those hands, but it goes a long way towards eliminating the "luck of the deal".

I had been planning a long post about transferable skills between bridge and poker, until I realised that there don't seem to be any. I know that's not really true, since reading tells is certainly important in bridge (not as much as in poker, but important none the less), but as my poker play is entirely online that doesn't count.

You need to know and understand some probabilities in bridge, but most people get by with general guidelines. These are most interesting when spectacularly misapplied. Of course card memory is very important in bridge, and also important in stud style games. But, I've never been able to link the two. The systems or structures that I use to remember cards in bridge have a lot to do with integrating information about the entire hand, and simply don't translate into "the following cards are dead". If I plan to take up stud games seriously, I'll need to work on that aspect of the game.

Anyhow, we won, and, more or less as you'd expect in a 20 player bridge event, the reward was a $1 lottery ticket. Each!

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Sunday, December 03, 2006

Six, or is it seven, hours I won't see again.

On Friday, flushed with my enormous success in the $24+2 (and also with some Allanmere shiraz, and a bit of Jameson's) I was looking around for new worlds to conquer, and (remarkably sensibly) settled on a few freerolls.

One of them was a first round, 10FPP, "Moneymaker millions". Circa 12:30 am local time (6:30 am Eastern), I was through to round 2. Unfortunately, I'd never managed to build up a big stack, so I actually had to sit around and play, rather than going to bed in "sit out" mode. The last few eliminations were painfully slow, as we played hand for hand once 59 players were left (50 to qualify). It seems to me that there must be some way to speed these things up -- one thought that came to mind was some sort of schedule where the top five stacks (or something) at various level changes, are removed from the game and qualify automatically.

Round 2 was at 0800 today (Sunday) for me, not a problem, since I'm that rarest of academic species, an early bird. Anyhow, with 240 to qualify, I exited with about 320 left, when my 9BB push with AQ ran into AA. Probably just as well as, had I qualified, and then, improbably, qualified again in the third round, I would have had to start negotiating with PokerStars, since I don't think I could actually be in the Caribbean on January 6.

In the other big news of the day, I ran over 10km for the first time since restarting my running this year. In fact, it was closer to 11km (about 6 2/3 miles for the metrically challenged). Google Earth is such a great tool. Aside from driving around in a car (not always possible), it used to be really difficult to measure running routes -- usually you had to work backwards from time to distance.

Now it's time to start working a bit more on speed -- my default pace at the moment seems to be about 5:30/km, where I used to feel that 5:00 was a pace I could run at forever. Of course two decades have passed since then, and perhaps I should allow for inflation ...

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Quiz discussion


Fuel55 no doubt scared all my loyal readers away from this quiz with his early, concise, unarguably correct answers. Go read the comments for those, or stick around for the long versions below. Anyhow, he wins a chocolate fish for his efforts, which he can pick up next time he's in Dunedin.

Q1 Early, blinds 15/30. On the button you(2500) have Q♦Q♠. Surprisingly, all fold to you. You bet 90, and the SB(1300) and BB(2500) both call. Flop is 8♠5♦2♠. Both blinds check and you bet 150 into the 270 pot. The SB calls, and the BB folds. Pot is now 570. Turn is 8♣. The SB checks. What's your plan?

At the table I put in a bet of 480 to the 570 pot. The SB went all in. I folded.

Discussion An elementary error in pot management. This tip came a day too late. What hands can the SB hold for the call of the continuation bet? He must either have an eight (e.g. A8 suited, 98 suited etc.), or a big draw (flush plus OESD or gutshot). Sure it's not much fun to be giving a free card to the latter but I think that discretion is the better part of valour here. If one must bet, then something like 1/3 pot, i.e. 200 seems more sensible (good draws will be getting correct odds to chase, but marginal ones won't). This is a repeated leak in my game (failing to keep pots small with decent but not monster hands) and I hope that by repeatedly drawing attention to it, I'll eventually get it plugged. In other words, check the turn, and call (most) river bets.

Q2 Somewhat later, blinds 200/400/25. On the button again you(4200) have K♦8♥. All fold to you. The SB has 17,000, and the BB has only 200 chips remaining after posting. Do you make a move? If so, what?

At the table I raised to 1200, the BB called (oops!) and the SB went all in. The flop contained a king, so I pushed over the BB's check, he folded, and I won both the main and side pots.

Discussion I don't think there's anything terribly wrong with a simple fold here. K8, aka "the shrew", is hardly the nuts after all. On the other hand, it is 56% against a single random hand, so if we could get heads up with the BB, we'd be happy about that. Having decided to act, should we go all in or make a normal raise? Obviously, I decided that with this particular stack size the former looked stronger than the latter -- Fuel55 suggests all in instead. I don't think there's a "right" answer here.


Q3 Still 200/400/25. In the cutoff, you(6200) have 8♦8♣. All fold to you (what kind of micro MTT is this?) and you bet 1200. Only the BB(10,000) calls. Flop is A♦Q♥4♦. The BB checks. What do you do? For bonus points: what would you have done over a 2/3 pot sized bet?

At the table I bet 1800 into the 2800 pot, and the BB folded.


Discussion Fuel55 raises the possibility of going all in ab initio. I must confess that I hadn't really considered that, but it would certainly eliminate this annoying sort of postflop problem. Still, in the problem at hand, since I would never be comfortable calling any bet from the BB, it seemed that there were only two ways I might win the pot: checking down to the river and winning a showdown, or putting in a bet now and getting a fold. The former seemed a bit unlikely, while the latter might well work, both against hands that I was currently ahead of, and conceivably a few that I wasn't. This time it was successful.

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Friday, December 01, 2006

Delayed coverage

We present delayed coverage of the Full Tilt Poker $25K guaranteed, November 30. I'm in this because I picked up a random token in some S+G, and am about to head off to (probably pokerless) Brisbane in a few days, so need to use it up. Friday afternoon for me of course, and it seemed like Thursday night might be one of the looser/better games. Random comments from the second Ashes test, which is playing in the background, interspersed. Iakaris was also in this, and a few notes about him too. Times are from the start of the tournament, since I can't deal with converting the timezones all the time, and if I tell you what time it is here, that would be too confusing. Minimal editing has been carried out on the notes below.

Just to be perfectly clear though -- every hand where I voluntarily put money in the pot is mentioned. Squeak, squeak.

(0m) 1581 runners.
(10m) First elimination at my table.
(15m) Second elimination at my table.
(20m) First hand where I voluntarily put chips in pot. In MP(1395) after 1 limp, I limp with 22. Three to the flop of KK8. Check-check to me, I bet 100 into 140. All fold. Very few limped hands at this table.

(27m) Blinds 25/50. A5o on button. I raise to 150. Called by BB(4700). Flop A97. Bet. Win. Iak doing well (3600). England failing to score any runs in Adelaide.Table quite tight. I find the short levels/small increases at Full Tilt annoying.
(35m) 37o, 38o in the blinds. Whee. At least it's hard to make mistakes. Back to 1500.

(38m) 1hobojo tries, but fails to successfully drop the hammer from UTG. He kept trying, but a set of Qs was not buying it. England scoring a few runs.
(40m) 1hobojo rewarded for his faith by getting all in with AK, and getting a call from AT presumably thinking he was on tilt. He's still only at 750.
(42m) I cravenly fail to raise with the hammer UTG. Hand develops into a three way all in. QTo (1hobojo), JJ(2000), 85s(1600)???? J's hold.

(44m) Complete from the SB with A2o (1 limper). Fold to 2/3 pot bet from limper on Q86 flop. Down to 1350. Blinds 40/80
(46m) In cutoff, call EP min raise with AJs. Both blinds call. Flop A53, initial raiser bets 1/2 pot. I go all in, blinds fold, he calls with AT. I win. Up to 3000. Iak hovering.
(50m) Blinds 50/100. Table seems to be loosening. Iak up to 4600 (all in over a bet on QJ98 board)
(53m) KJs on button. Pick up/steal the blinds.

(55m) Big pot for Iak. He bets 300, called, then an all in(790). He calls, but next player goes all in for 1800. Iak folds. AQ and 99. 9's hit a set and win. He's down to 3850. Wonder what he had (checked by email ... 88) lots of paint was on the board (QJT92). Collingwood scoring runs, Bell imitating a lamp post.
(1h0m) Break time. 680 remaining. Average stack 3500, I'm on 2880.

(1h16m) AKo in cutoff. Pick up the blinds.
(1h18m) Steal with KJo from MP. 3000.
(1h21m) AA in SB. All fold to me of course. Min raise, BB folds. Sigh.
(1h22m) KK on button. All in from MP for almost exactly my stack. Call. He has A5. Ks hold. 6200! Ahead of Iak for the first time (knock on wood).

(1h27m) UTG+1, raise to 400 (BB 160) with KQo. Pick up the blinds. Image must be good -- it bloody well should be.
(1h36m) Table tightening again. Just sat through an orbit with utterly no cards, and no opportunities. 420 left, average 5600. I'm on 5800.
(1h40m) Iakaris gone. Hits a straight and a flush, but unfortunately, opp, who made a dubious call of Iak's all in, has better flush.
(1h45m) AA in SB. Bet of 780 from MP who began with 2200. I pot. He folds. Rats. Should have min raised? However, any raise from me pot commits him. Up to 6600. Still below average (7000).

(1h50m) AA UTG+2. UTG+1 bets 900. I min raise, he goes all in (3000). He has KK. Poor fellow. Over 10K. 88 next hand, and I pick up the blinds.
(1h54m) K7o on the button. Pick up the blinds.
(1h58m) Bugger. Just got moved. No more image, and the stack arrangements at this table aren't as favourable. Nice while it lasted. Time to fold a while and build up image again.
(2h3m) Stupid! Over limp with KJo from LP and get into a big pot on QJ4 flop (early limper had a Q of course). Down to 2000. Stupid, stupid, stupid. ATs next hand. All in with 2 others. Hit the nut flush. They had QQ and AQ. Back to 7000. I don't deserve it. My image now? Heeeeee Hawwwww.

(2h7m) Second break. I'm on 6500. Average is 9500. I'm 146 of 246 left, 216 get paid. Time for a glass of red wine to calm the nerves. Collingwood gets his half century just before tea. England lose no wickets this session. Not a lot of runs. Bell just got his half century too. When was he scoring runs?
(2h14m) Back to work. Blinds 250/500/50 so M is under 10. Fold Q8o in SB after raise from big stack in cutoff. Two stacks about my size to my immediate left, then a big stack, then a small one, then three more big ones, and one medium one. Awkward.
(2h19m) One of my neighbours just knocked the other out. Seat filled with a small stack. 223 left. Can't pretend that my first priority at this point isn't to get in the money.
(2h20m) 88 UTG+2. Standard raise picks up the blinds. Phew. Back to 7000.

(2h24m) Suspicious limp UTG+1 gives me a free play in BB with K4o (SB completed). Flop of AQ3 all check. Turn 5, limper bets min, SB calls. I fold. UTG+1 takes down pot with a bet on the river 3. Just noticed we're in the money. Time to play poker again.
(2h27m) Try a steal from cutoff with QJo (should have gone all in). Tiny all in raise from small stack BB with K6. Straight on the board splits the pot. Image gets even worse if that's possible. M = 4.
(2h30m) Cricketers back from tea. I know you think that's very important.
(2h32m) QJo in SB. I'll push if it's folded to me. Nope. Limp and raise. Fold. We're into the next money level. Wheee. 5000 chips left, blinds just went up to 400/800/100. Where are those AA hands now?

(2h37m) A7o in the cutoff. One limp in front. I push. Called by limper's AA. I finish 161st.

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Quiz time

Feel free to comment on earlier decisions as well as the highlighted ones. Heck, just feel free to comment. I won't provide any reads, because it's a monster micro MTT and you're watching sport, reading blogs, playing other games etc. at the same time.

Q1 Early, blinds 15/30. On the button you(2500) have Q♦Q♠. Surprisingly, all fold to you. You bet 90, and the SB(1300) and BB(2500) both call. Flop is 8♠5♦2♠. Both blinds check and you bet 150 into the 270 pot. The SB calls, and the BB folds. Pot is now 570. Turn is 8♣. The SB checks. What's your plan?

Q2 Somewhat later, blinds 200/400/25. On the button again you(4200) have K♦8♥. All fold to you. The SB has 17,000, and the BB has only 200 chips remaining after posting. Do you make a move? If so, what?

Q3 Still 200/400/25. In the cutoff, you(6200) have 8♦8♣. All fold to you (what kind of micro MTT is this?) and you bet 1200. Only the BB(10,000) calls. Flop is A♦Q♥4♦. The BB checks. What do you do? For bonus points: what would you have done over a 2/3 pot sized bet?

Edit Changed the conditions to the actual ones in Q2. By the way, the opponents in Q3 are different to those in Q2 (you've had a table change)

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