There is a rather short cameo appearance from me in one of the most recent PKR TV uploads:
http://www.pkr.com/en/community/news-events/pkr-tv-28-01/
I was sceptical when they first mentioned they were going to show the final table of a Gold Rush tournament as I didn't think it would make for particularly great viewing. They just about get away it as there is the intrigue of whether or not flo1223 can manage ridiculous back to back wins in it. The following are some of my thoughts on this tournament structure and on rebuys in general.
First off the chances of winning this $2 rebuy on just $2 are virtually non-existant. A single buy in doesn't even cover the big blind by the end of the rebuy hour and the add-on is so big you would be a fool not to take it. The turbo nature of this tournament makes it massively swingy and often sends you on devastating runs of rebuying. This is especially true when in this particular tournament you get 1,000 chips per buy in and can rebuy up to a cap of 9,000 chips. As a general rule of thumb I wouldn't enter any rebuy tournament I wasn't able to cover at least 20 rebuys for. Clearly in an a normal structured rebuy 20 buy ins would constitute a particularly bad day at the office, 5 to 10 rebuys would be much more standard. In the Gold Rush I have certainly gone over 20 rebuys on a number of occasions though.
The biggest error any player can make in a rebuy is to buy into one then quit it before the end of the rebuy period. Once you have put money into a rebuy tourney you are committing equity suicide by doing this. You might be on a hideous run but putting in 10 rebuys and quitting is doing you way more damage than hanging on into the end of the rebuy period and doing another 5 rebuys. Staying in is the only way you stand a chance of seeing a return on your investment.
The turbo nature of the Gold Rush means you can pretty much forget about seeing flops after the first hour unless you find yourself on a super bad limpy table. Most of the time even a slightly above average stack will leave you in shove/fold territory. Under these circumstances forget about speculative holdings unless you are short enough to open shove them. There are virtually no implied odds spots to set mine or speculate with connectors or gap connectors. Conversely big broadway hands like K J and A 10 go up in value massively as people are put in spots where they are forced into calling much lighter.
Getting an idea of the players at your table is essential. Late on in this tournament you can find that open shoving to steal the blinds/antes will add 10/15/20% to your stack without going to a showdown. The more passive the table you are at, the tighter the players are, the more you need to be using your stack like a cudgel and shipping it in to pick up the chips. I believe my record for open-shipping in the Gold Rush once in the money stands at 8 consecutive hands. Some of those I had something, some of them I had nothing. The circumstances and players present dictated that this was the best strategy so that is what I did. There were 5 other players at the table so over 8 hands 40 pairs of cards were folded to my naked aggression.
At the final table you need to be willing to be aggressive but you need to keep the ladder principle in the back of your mind and be aware of what the short stacks are doing. There is no point shipping junk if the short stack is going to end up getting doubled through.
The final thing to say about the Gold Rush is that the format is a lot of fun. It is fast paced and exciting. It is also very short. You can win over a $1,000 but you do not have to be up to 2am in the morning to get to it.
Showing posts with label Scott Shelley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scott Shelley. Show all posts
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
Saturday, 14 January 2012
PKR Cash Game TV 8th November 2011
Ahhhh PKR Cash Game TV. The eternal wonder of what Ashley Hames is on about and whether he will get sued by the end of the episode :) ... Once again the hand selection taunts me by missing out the three hands I played extremely well and showing the one I spent the most time questioning myself about following the end of the session...
http://www.pkr.com/en/community/news-events/pkr-tv-14-01/
This was an interesting session for a number of reasons. You can sit down with a starting stack of 250 big blinds on the the Cash Game TV tables which makes for a much more interesting game and allows for more complexity of play. I sat down with the standard 100 as the table was full of tricky opponents and I didn't want to go nuts, especially as I was in a lot of tournaments at the time. The table dynamics were interesting as in Destacker and ForFoxSake you have two excellent tournament players who play very little cash. mudbone is awkward and tricky at the best of times. Elz442 is dangerous regardless of the format. PokerrPro is one of the most solid low stakes cash gamers on PKR.
Clearly there are often shenanigans present in these TV games that don't exist at a table normally but some very interesting hands came out of this session. The mudbone/Destacker hand is a corker for teaching purposes. There are very strong cases to be argued that both players played the hands brilliantly and that both played terribly. Neither line is something you would suggest a beginner to be taking with 4 2 and A K but neither of these players are beginners. They end up in a spot where you either look like a genius or a donkey depending on the outcome. If Destacker folds on the river then Mudbone has the moral victory. If Destacker calls the river bet and it turns out he has the worst hand then his line looks a bit silly. Destacker ends up looking like a genius in the hand but on the flop and turn he really could be anywhere. The turn bet is quite small though so having called the flop bet it is difficult to not call the turn one. Then the river doesn't really change a lot so I think it makes the call easier. I do wonder if Destacker finds a fold if Mudbone shoves the turn or the river? I think definitely so if done on the turn. I think Destacker might still call if it was done on the river.
The hand between myself and Destacker is an intriguing one. I have raised A Qo and Destacker has flatted 10 7 in the blinds. On the K 6 A flop he has flopped the flush and I have top pair, top kicker, with the nut flush draw. Both hands are monsters at this point. Normally I would be quite happy to get a lot of chips in on this sort of flop but the whole hand became unusually interesting. When Des leads out I know that I am either way in front or way behind. I don't think raising achieves much for me. He is likely to fold out worse aces and worse flush draws, and definitely all his air ball bluffs, if I raise, but he is going nowhere if he has flopped the flush or a set of sixes. The turn card is an absolute brick and changes nothing so again I flat the bet. The river is the best spot. It is another brick... and then he over bets the pot. I don't think he did this at any other point in the two hours. It absolutely polarises him between bluffs and made hands he is turning into a bluff versus a super strong monster hand. On reflection I think the over bet puts it more firmly in his value range than his bluffing range so I dislike the call. It is a tough one though. Either he is trying to extract value from sets, two pairs and smaller flushes or he is turning a hand like A 10o with the ten of diamonds into a bluff. I don't hate the call as the strength of my own hand has been somewhat hidden but I do think I should have erred on the side of caution. This hand also shows exactly how a session can revolve around one hand. I finished with a $14 loss and if I had found the river fold I would have finished with a $74 profit for the two hours.
These sessions are good to play once in a while, they get you thinking to a degree you often do not have to bother with in a standard low stakes cash game. It isn't profitable playing good players all the time but in small doses it is beneficial to your thought process.
http://www.pkr.com/en/community/news-events/pkr-tv-14-01/
This was an interesting session for a number of reasons. You can sit down with a starting stack of 250 big blinds on the the Cash Game TV tables which makes for a much more interesting game and allows for more complexity of play. I sat down with the standard 100 as the table was full of tricky opponents and I didn't want to go nuts, especially as I was in a lot of tournaments at the time. The table dynamics were interesting as in Destacker and ForFoxSake you have two excellent tournament players who play very little cash. mudbone is awkward and tricky at the best of times. Elz442 is dangerous regardless of the format. PokerrPro is one of the most solid low stakes cash gamers on PKR.
Clearly there are often shenanigans present in these TV games that don't exist at a table normally but some very interesting hands came out of this session. The mudbone/Destacker hand is a corker for teaching purposes. There are very strong cases to be argued that both players played the hands brilliantly and that both played terribly. Neither line is something you would suggest a beginner to be taking with 4 2 and A K but neither of these players are beginners. They end up in a spot where you either look like a genius or a donkey depending on the outcome. If Destacker folds on the river then Mudbone has the moral victory. If Destacker calls the river bet and it turns out he has the worst hand then his line looks a bit silly. Destacker ends up looking like a genius in the hand but on the flop and turn he really could be anywhere. The turn bet is quite small though so having called the flop bet it is difficult to not call the turn one. Then the river doesn't really change a lot so I think it makes the call easier. I do wonder if Destacker finds a fold if Mudbone shoves the turn or the river? I think definitely so if done on the turn. I think Destacker might still call if it was done on the river.
The hand between myself and Destacker is an intriguing one. I have raised A Qo and Destacker has flatted 10 7 in the blinds. On the K 6 A flop he has flopped the flush and I have top pair, top kicker, with the nut flush draw. Both hands are monsters at this point. Normally I would be quite happy to get a lot of chips in on this sort of flop but the whole hand became unusually interesting. When Des leads out I know that I am either way in front or way behind. I don't think raising achieves much for me. He is likely to fold out worse aces and worse flush draws, and definitely all his air ball bluffs, if I raise, but he is going nowhere if he has flopped the flush or a set of sixes. The turn card is an absolute brick and changes nothing so again I flat the bet. The river is the best spot. It is another brick... and then he over bets the pot. I don't think he did this at any other point in the two hours. It absolutely polarises him between bluffs and made hands he is turning into a bluff versus a super strong monster hand. On reflection I think the over bet puts it more firmly in his value range than his bluffing range so I dislike the call. It is a tough one though. Either he is trying to extract value from sets, two pairs and smaller flushes or he is turning a hand like A 10o with the ten of diamonds into a bluff. I don't hate the call as the strength of my own hand has been somewhat hidden but I do think I should have erred on the side of caution. This hand also shows exactly how a session can revolve around one hand. I finished with a $14 loss and if I had found the river fold I would have finished with a $74 profit for the two hours.
These sessions are good to play once in a while, they get you thinking to a degree you often do not have to bother with in a standard low stakes cash game. It isn't profitable playing good players all the time but in small doses it is beneficial to your thought process.
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Fear and Loathing in Locke Vegas 2010: Part 3
This series of blogs first appeared on the PKR Forum in June
and July 2010. I won a WSOP Experience Package worth $4,000 through a
PKR Road To Vegas Tournament League that ran for several months. Most
players are referred to by their PKR user names.
Part 3
'It won't be long before they tear us to shreds.'
The PKR welcome party is at the Deuce Lounge, one of the many separated areas on the main floor of the Aria. The PKR staff posse are all present as are some of the qualifiers. More turn up as the evening wears on but not everyone makes it due to flights and other annoyances. Everyone is is in good spirits. Most of the staff have already been out for a few days or more. For the most part they actually got a few days off of work to do this rather rather than spend these hard days by the poolside Cabana on the blag. PKR_Jake, the VIP Manager, doesn't seem to have had more than one hours sleep a night for about a week. This is never a good sign. Beyne has been on psycho blackjack swings all week. Reports have him from anything to up $50k to down $100k in the space of the same evening. Bellagio comp room buddy James666 shakes his head whenever the subject comes up. Suddenly at 24 James is looking like the sensible and mature one on Team PKR Pro - how on earth did that happen? PKR_Jake is having his own table games rollercoaster and from here on in I think should be known as Mini-Beyne.
Jabba explains PKR V2.0 has been delayed by a few
weeks and assures me fun and exciting ideas are coming soon for the
tournament section, subject to 'patent approval'. Being starving myself
and Jabba order some snack food from the menu. You know you are in VIP
land when 4 mouthfuls of food set sets you back $20. Also at some
point during the evening a smart toilet attendant appears as happens
at some posher clubs in Britain. Some things I don't mind tipping for,
but seriously, don't expect a dollar when I am perfectly capable of
reaching for the paper towels all on my own TYVM. This is probably a
recurring theme from our VIP week. I'm sure these places have staff
that are used to big tippers in their VIP areas, I bet none of them
counted on stingy tight ass poker players.
At about
midnight I put in a couple of hours at the 1-3 NL cash tables before
heading off to bed. Reported sightings place some of the more hardcore
members of the staff heading back out of the Aria at 5am in the morning
having already been out to a club inbetween. Hardcore degens.
I wake up after 4 hours in bed once again. Still, I need to get to the Rio to preregister before the event so this is not a bad thing. I stuff myself silly at the gorgeous Aria buffet so I will not need to eat for a while once the nerves kick in. The buffet is just awesome, stuff from all over the world, lots of things that just do not belong on a help yourself line. I get a taxi to the Rio. As I walk from the main casino through to the convention centre it slowly becomes more WSOP orientated. Giant banners of past players of the year fill the hallway. After registering I dawdle around. At the moment barring a few cash tables the two halls are empty. Tables are everywhere. The scale is immense but not as intimidating as I expected. I sit in the Poker Food Hall with DWH103and another qualifier With 20 minutes to go the nerves start kicking in. At this point I just want to start playing. Not playing is now worse than playing could ever be. I pace around for the last ten minutes and find my chair.
I don't recognise anyone at my
starting table. With my fairly deep knowledge of poker this is a good
sign. After the immortal 'Shuffle Up and deal' I am suddenly playing in
the WSOP... /OMG. First hand I am in the big blind. A few players
limp in and I look down to see K 9o. I check the option and am rewarded
with a K 9 3 rainbow flop. I check, as does everyone else. I bet
small on the turn and everyone folds. I have won the first hand, not a
big pot, but it makes me feel better. I pick up and lose a few small
standard pots but am glad to see I am fast picking up a strong read of
the table. In the first big hand on the table I put both guys on their
exact hands. There is such a thing though as concentrating too hard
however as my first key hand showed. This is probably the most
embarrassing hand of poker I have ever played. A guy raises in late
position who has been more active than most and I look down to see 10 6
of clubs. I decide to flat call and screw with him a little if the
opportunity presents. The flop comes low with 2 spades. He fires a
standard small continuation bet. I decide as a lot of hands he has here
will be two big overs to try and raise him out. If he jams I know he
has the big overpair. If he calls I know he has a likely weak overpair
and I can then check the turn and try and represent the spade draw if it
lands on the river or bet it if the spade hits the turn. He calls and
the turn is a brick. He checks, I check. The river is not a spade. He
checks again though... suddenly I feel like bluffing again may take the
pot anyway. I fire out a decent bet into the pot. He calls pretty
quickly and I just want to muck my 10 high. As experience has taught
me that weird things happen in poker I show my cards face up after
looking like I want to muck them. When the dealer says flush I almost
fall out of my seat. I have been so intensely concentrating on my bluff
line that I clean failed to notice that I had runner runnered a club
flush. The other guy is of course disgusted that his pocket 10s
(exactly the sort of hand I put him on after he just called the raise!)
have been beaten by some donk who doesn't even know when he has a flush.
This table image would have been perfect for exploitation though sadly
they break this rather soft starting table just fifteen minutes later.
My 2nd table seems okay to start with and I am up 1K on my 3k starting stack after close to 2 hours. After the 2nd level we break. The trick to finding a toilet during a WSOP break is to start walking to the far end of the Rio as fast as possible. The queues are actually bearable down the far end. I run across a few people for a quick update but it is straight back into action. No PKR staff are anywhere to be seen after the particularly heavy night they had. In quick succession the 3 guys at my new table I marked as idiots bust out... none of them throwing chips my way. In the most annoying fashion possible each is replaced by an obvious online Pro. To my left sits down a Russian guy, not one of the top tier of superstars, but some one who I recognise. He strikes up a conversation with the guy to my right who he knows about how well all the guys he is staking (thousands of dollars worth) have done during the last couple of weeks. He knows the guy to my right because he is being staked by Timoshenko. I buckle my seat belt and prepare to dig in. I of course go card dead at this point and get played back at constantly in the sort of ugly spots you just can't do a lot about. After 3 and a half blind levels I am down to 1.8k from the 3k starting stack and take a stand with pocket 6s against an obvious big ace. He turns over A Q and the flop of course drops A Q x on me. You have to win flips to win bracelets and I haven't in this one. I spend the next few hours catching up with who is in and who is out. I spotted Gavin Griffin and Kara Scott playing but then in quick succession saw most of the rest of the poker world. Moneymaker, Dennis Phillips. Going into the other room were some sick tables, especially in the $25K six max event. At one table is Greenstein, Seidel and Sam Trickett. On the next one over Phil Ivey is drawing a huge rail as always. At a feature table is John Juanda, and at the main flashy TV table sits John Duthie. Elswhere is Juha Hellpi, Barney Boatman, Vanessa Rousso and on and on it gos.
At this point
Pirate Nation arrives having only just got into Vegas. We head back to
the Aria and hit the NL tables. I have an annoying session where I
can't win a flip. Despite that I am only down about $100 dollars. I
spot a super soft table nearby and ask to go on the waiting list. As
this happens I see a player get up and Japete gets the seat before I get
a chance, damn you Spaniard! I wait 90 minutes dying a slow death at
my nitty table watching the drunks dumping their their cash off left
right and centre. When a seat finally opens the game has broken up
within 10 minutes. FML. I think about sleep, it now being about 1am
but instead take a seat at the $4/8 limit game where PKR_Danski,
PKR_Jake, PKR_Scott and PKR_Harry are engaged in psychotic action with
an uber-donk and a couple of spewtards. 4 or 5 players are regularly
seeing the 5 bet cap putting $100 dollars into most pots preflop. As a
guy who plays a lot of $3/6 and $5/10 limit the scale of the action is
mind blowing. Being rivered in a $300 pot at $4/8 limit is just not an
average occurrence. Sick beats go down left right and centre. Insults
and banter fly. A really nice guy joins the table who claimed to be 54
but looked about 35. The PKR posse took to calling him Peter Pan for
the rest of the night, when Dan wasn't calling him his 'Dawg'
in a really bad American accent. The game broke at about 6am in the
morning by which point Danski was pre tipping every dealer and taking
the piss out of their names ('Ping' being the favourite) and tipping
everyone at the table each time he won. Somehow I ended up stuck about
$200 dollars despite being the least drunk whilst Scott and Harry walked
off with about $600 a piece.
Stay tuned for the truth about
Waswheelchairgate, which PKR Pro spent the morning in a Las Vegas jail
drunk tank and more exciting adventures!
Part 3
'It won't be long before they tear us to shreds.'
The PKR welcome party is at the Deuce Lounge, one of the many separated areas on the main floor of the Aria. The PKR staff posse are all present as are some of the qualifiers. More turn up as the evening wears on but not everyone makes it due to flights and other annoyances. Everyone is is in good spirits. Most of the staff have already been out for a few days or more. For the most part they actually got a few days off of work to do this rather rather than spend these hard days by the poolside Cabana on the blag. PKR_Jake, the VIP Manager, doesn't seem to have had more than one hours sleep a night for about a week. This is never a good sign. Beyne has been on psycho blackjack swings all week. Reports have him from anything to up $50k to down $100k in the space of the same evening. Bellagio comp room buddy James666 shakes his head whenever the subject comes up. Suddenly at 24 James is looking like the sensible and mature one on Team PKR Pro - how on earth did that happen? PKR_Jake is having his own table games rollercoaster and from here on in I think should be known as Mini-Beyne.
 |
| PKR Welcome Party |
 |
| Beyne and Danski |
I wake up after 4 hours in bed once again. Still, I need to get to the Rio to preregister before the event so this is not a bad thing. I stuff myself silly at the gorgeous Aria buffet so I will not need to eat for a while once the nerves kick in. The buffet is just awesome, stuff from all over the world, lots of things that just do not belong on a help yourself line. I get a taxi to the Rio. As I walk from the main casino through to the convention centre it slowly becomes more WSOP orientated. Giant banners of past players of the year fill the hallway. After registering I dawdle around. At the moment barring a few cash tables the two halls are empty. Tables are everywhere. The scale is immense but not as intimidating as I expected. I sit in the Poker Food Hall with DWH103and another qualifier With 20 minutes to go the nerves start kicking in. At this point I just want to start playing. Not playing is now worse than playing could ever be. I pace around for the last ten minutes and find my chair.
 |
| WSOP at the Rio |
My 2nd table seems okay to start with and I am up 1K on my 3k starting stack after close to 2 hours. After the 2nd level we break. The trick to finding a toilet during a WSOP break is to start walking to the far end of the Rio as fast as possible. The queues are actually bearable down the far end. I run across a few people for a quick update but it is straight back into action. No PKR staff are anywhere to be seen after the particularly heavy night they had. In quick succession the 3 guys at my new table I marked as idiots bust out... none of them throwing chips my way. In the most annoying fashion possible each is replaced by an obvious online Pro. To my left sits down a Russian guy, not one of the top tier of superstars, but some one who I recognise. He strikes up a conversation with the guy to my right who he knows about how well all the guys he is staking (thousands of dollars worth) have done during the last couple of weeks. He knows the guy to my right because he is being staked by Timoshenko. I buckle my seat belt and prepare to dig in. I of course go card dead at this point and get played back at constantly in the sort of ugly spots you just can't do a lot about. After 3 and a half blind levels I am down to 1.8k from the 3k starting stack and take a stand with pocket 6s against an obvious big ace. He turns over A Q and the flop of course drops A Q x on me. You have to win flips to win bracelets and I haven't in this one. I spend the next few hours catching up with who is in and who is out. I spotted Gavin Griffin and Kara Scott playing but then in quick succession saw most of the rest of the poker world. Moneymaker, Dennis Phillips. Going into the other room were some sick tables, especially in the $25K six max event. At one table is Greenstein, Seidel and Sam Trickett. On the next one over Phil Ivey is drawing a huge rail as always. At a feature table is John Juanda, and at the main flashy TV table sits John Duthie. Elswhere is Juha Hellpi, Barney Boatman, Vanessa Rousso and on and on it gos.
 |
| TV feature table |
 |
| Fixed Limit degeneracy |
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