Wed

Event #11 Monday August 11th 14:00 ET	Andy Bloch	$200 + $16 Limit Hold'em	$200,000

I decided to take Monday night off entirely (really, WTF?!) But got Rich to play this event for me. He's as good a limit player i know with 10,000s of more hands played then me so why not? It wasn't to be though in the end...stupid limit.

Event #13 Thursday August 14th 15:30 ET	Max Pescatori	$200 + $16 HA (half PL Hold 'em, half PL Omaha)	$200,000

Was really looking forward to this event but Full Tilt crashed and it will be the only FTOP that gets cancelled.
To make matter worse I blew a 21k stack after the rebuy period, convincing me that big stacks after rebuys effects my focus. I go from very hot with all the action to very cold in the next 4 (non ante) levels. You then have to get yourself moving again which can be hard.

Actually shit i've just noticed its been rescheduled to Thursday so i'll still get to play it. 8.30pm start but i'm off for a week so thats ok.

Event #16 Wednesday August 13th 14:00 ET	Scott Clements	$200 + $16 Omaha/8	$200,000

Ok so Wednesday has been good in general but could have been better.

1. I made it to EPT step 6 Final but busted like 10th hand. I had Q9ss in pos....maybe to a min raise. flop T87ss.
I 2bet early pos only to get 3 bet by blind. I decided that I have enough equity to gamble here....its basically a winner takes all format so I think thats a fair attitude....alot of scared money in there so I can exploit that with chiplead if i do double through: giving me a strong chance to win the seat.
It sucked a bit cos I'm stacking off here and expecting him to show me J9.
He shows me 8T which I am shocked and pleased to see.
I don't hit obviously and I think i cud of played a smaller pot but for the reasons above I'm pretty happy with my line.

2. I had a good session at 10-20 and felt I played very solidly for 3hrs on a table containing one very good player. I was never allin and found I was gambling less, just playing the player more than the cards. Although I did hold the deck for the first hour so i was definately playing the cards too!
My most interesting hand was a hand where I made Aces full when I just flat called preflop:

PokerStars Game #19584394786: Omaha Pot Limit ($10/$20) - 2008/08/13 - 10:24:23 (ET)
Table 'Porzia' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: < ($2000 in chips)
Seat 2: jessica88 ($1660.50 in chips)
Seat 3: JohnSmiley1 ($3928 in chips)
Seat 5: Bhoth ($2638 in chips)
Seat 6: Bassysaffari ($4245 in chips)
Bhoth: posts small blind $10
Bassysaffari: posts big blind $20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Bassysaffari [4c Qd As Ad]
<: folds
jessica88: folds
JohnSmiley1: raises $40 to $60
Bhoth: folds
Bassysaffari: calls $40
*** FLOP *** [8h Ac Kh]
Bassysaffari: checks
JohnSmiley1: bets $100
Bassysaffari: raises $180 to $280
JohnSmiley1: calls $180
*** TURN *** [8h Ac Kh] [8d]


I cut off the rest of hand to post in a thread but I ended up betting turn and 1/3 pot on river which I first saw as too small but it was also to induce a value reraise/call against my opponents trips/FH range. My opponent had KKxx for 2nd nut house. We discussed my best line wud have been to flat both flop and turn and CR river to stack him. I felt like 90% of my opponents would stack off with KK in that spot seeing as my hand was a little unrepped. I think CR is the best line with my hand if I'm looking to win maximum in longrun. He's going to have draws alot of the time which I have to protect against/make him pay for.
Thing is we are both 200 deep and if he was the type of player to stack of with QJThh then we are playing an 8,000$ flip. Looking at it now I could have slow played the flop inline with my preflop call with AAxx.
I wonder if he is good enough to fold KK on 8KA8 turn to a CR given that I had played solidly infront of him for 30 mins and he can only beat A8???
A real interesting hand given that the way i stack him is by playing a small pot and hoping that turn fills/blanks so that the trap is set for turn/river. Like i said most players at this limit play pretty bad and I would take them to value town as soon as I put them on KKxx. I may CR river EVEN after I have took a betting lead on the last 2 streets.

3. The 2 MTT's I played on stars went well. No cashes but I left each one thinking I couldn't have played much better. I am going deep in the 100r now but more importantly wth Average+ stacks. So when I have busted out it has been in good positions to actually win the thing.

It was a real shame however that I did not make the money in the FTOP event. $ wise its fine but I played so very very patiently before getting a run of 2-3 pots which left me on 17k to 11k average.
I discussed in an earlier blog that I thought FLO8 is a better game than PLO8 and I stand by it. I could actually go as far to say it is one of my strongest.
Is that because I went deepish in a tourney?
Probably Will I ever play it again? No

The sickest hand was when I had A43xdd on a 259d flop. I 2 bet flop and then flatted a Jd turn in pos. Needless to say I missed every Diamond, 3,4,A,6 or Diamond not to mention any 7,8 as extra outs to my nut low draw.....just the 24 cards to hit. The donk probably sccoped with KKT9....so sick.
Thats shit thing about all FL limit games is its totally about playing cards....yeah bluffings important...but the real skill seems to come in extracting maximum value from your hands. You have to stay very patient and not lose your head when your miss every fucking flop.