Archive for March, 2009
Everestpoker.nl – My Recent Tournaments
29 March 2009
Everestpoker.nl – My weekly live tournament last time around was a truly memorable occassion as I came back from the brink of elimination early on to win. This week I hoped to even come close to emulating my success last week, but playing a final table of an Omaha tournament online just before I left for my local Holdem tournament did not help me much.
When I began playing, I found myself in a rather different, high tempo frame of mind, and made a bad read to bluff off 2,000 of my 6,000 chips in the first three hands. After taking a little while to settle down and stop throwing chips around, I realised I had only 2,800 left with a field of 21 players still intact. After seeing my big blind flat called by three players I managed to double up after trying to pick up the blinds by moving all in with a small pair, and being called by two overcards. From there I started playing better poker and my chipstack soon began to grow.
Before I knew it I had made it to the final table, although I wasn’t a particularly big stack with 11,000. After a good fold when I had 5,000 already commited to a hand, I made an all in move with (Kd,10d) from late position, walking into (Ad,Ah) in the small blind. My luck saved me though, as my flush draw on the flop was completed on the turn, and I continued to get busy from there until we were 3 handed. I had to find some luck again when one of my blind steals went awry with (9s,2s) and my opponent quickly called with (A,K) but a (9) on the turn eliminated him to take us heads up.
After a drawn out heads up battle, I eventually lost after getting it all in with (Ac,Qc) against (5,5) and my opponent flopping his set. I had a chance to win it early on if I had called an all in with a very small pair, but a second place following a first place last week, certainly isn’t anything to complain about. www.everestpoker.nl
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Betsson.com – Enjoying Playing Poker Too Much
16 March 2009
www.betsson.com – For most of us, including myself, there is simply no such thing as sitting down and playing poker too often, however there is certainly some points to be made about wanting to get involved in pots and play too much.
There is a great deal of patience involved in playing solid poker, and for some players like me, that in itself isn’t the real problem. I can be patient when I need to be, but particularly in the early stages of a tournament I find myself keen to take flops and try to play some good poker on the flop. I suppose this is partly to get myself in the frame of mind where I am reading situations and making decisions. I suppose you could say that it’s easier to make a mistake in the first hand of a tournament than after being involved in several hands.
However, in my most recent live event, I made a decision beforehand to play tighter in the early stages and only get involved when I had some strong cards to back myself up. This worked a treat especially considering my reputation as an aggressive player who likes to bluff. This sudden change of results has made me think more carefully about my early play in tournaments, and how it is too easy to think it is very cheap to see a flop from late position. This doesn’t seem to be conducive to good results though, at least for me, and so next week, I shall be sticking to the tighter play and hopefully continuing to see better results. betsson.nl
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Titanpoker.com – Turning Battles into Skirmishes
11 March 2009
www.titanpoker.com – When examining my recent tournament play in detail, I felt I could accurately pinpoint problems with my past struggles in the earlier part of MTT’s and reasons for success in my most recent game.
There were one or two aspects of my game that I approched differently, and upon thinking carefully about what had unfolded during the game, I realised that I hadn’t been all in against a bigger stack until there were only 4 of us left. I had made one excellent call for most of my chips earlier on, but the point was, I was taking care not to risk all my chips or even half of my chips to any hand I wasn’t certain I was winning. I made only one sizeable bluff all night (only because I had a tell), and when I got involved in a hand I made sure I had good cards to play with.
It isn’t always easy to keep pots from escalating, as your opponent can push all in whenever they please, but what you can do is make sure that you are cautious enough to only call when you are sure of your hand.
The key point to remember is that no matter how strong a player you are, you should always try and leave yourself room for error where possible. As long as you have chips in front of you, there will always be another chance to double your stack, and there is no shame in waiting until a better chance presents itself.
I certainly know that the next time I play, I will adopt a careful approach to the earlier part of the tournament, and look to slowly build my stack rather than get dragged into big pots when I am not completely certain of the outcome. Titanpoker.nl
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Everestpoker.nl – Reasons to Love Omaha
4 March 2009
Everest Poker – Whilst you cannot completely throw caution to the wind in Omaha, there is certainly room to see far more flops and get much more fun for your time. It is nice to make money while playing poker, but if you are not enjoying playing too, then I don’t really see that there’s much point playing.
If you have spent too much time watching Holdem hands go by one after another with no hole cards of interest, give yourself a break from this cycle.
As long as the stakes are fairly low, you can play a game of Omaha feeling a great deal less stressed or bored. If you are already a player who plays lots of Omaha, you will understand the next reason to love the game. The Holdem players who sit down and play like they are still in a Holdem game.
These types of players do not care what cards come out on the board, if they have a pair of Queens, Kings, or Aces in their hole cards they will not fold. Ever.
My third favourite reason to love Omaha, is that the potential nuts can change on the flop, turn, and river, often leaving a lot of players very frustrated when they get outdrawn. Most of these players do not understand that you had a total of about 16 outs and the pot odds were correct for you to call of course, they simply see themselves get outdrawn and then start telling you how much of a fish you are.
Generally amusing fun all round then, and as much as I love Holdem, Omaha is always a welcome change when the going gets tough. Everestpoker
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