Speedyfold Poker Blog

One thing I found interesting recently was seeing that in the Full Tilt store you could get a car (a Mini) for 6 million points, but you could get a customised avatar (a unique picture for your ID) for 1 million points.  

What sort of vain person would spend 1/6 the cost of a car on a personlised avatar?  Bizzarre to even contemplate it.  But I bet someone has.

Tim West (aka Tmay420) is one of the best young talents in online poker.  Last night he added to his increasing number of impressive tournament wins, by taking down the weekly PLO on PokerStars.  It is a $215 buy-in and 111 entrants fought it out.

1st Tmay420 $6,660
2nd Summit $4,440
3rd Afferrare $2,541.80
4th Spokey $1,776
5th RandALLin $1,443

This takes Tmay420’s tournament winnings on PokerStars up to an impressive $1,188,306 ($289,240 of which is profit).  Keep up the good work Tim.

An interesting (and large) pot just went down between David Benyamine and Durrrr (Tom Dwan) on Full Tilt.  Both very successful high stakes cash players.

They were playing $200/$400 PLO

The money went in on a flop of Td 2c 4s

Benyamine held a not so strong Qh Qd 2h 4c (Bottom 2 pair, with draw possibilities to a spiked set, or to a boat)

Durrrr held a nice looking draw-only hand of Ad 5s 3s 6d (a wide wrap for a straight draw)

I ran the odds here :

Odds of the hands

Basically its a 50/50 coin flip, with durrrr actually a very marginal favourite

The turn came 8d, the river came Qc, and Benyamine scooped a very nice $375,240 pot

Not me unfortunately

KingBenno (aka Lord_Opeth on Full Tilt Poker) ran a $332 balance up to $51,598.50 in a small matter of 180 hands.  Amazing stuff (not jealous at all!). 

He had started off with $1200, and lost some getting down to $332, then the comeback started.   Over the course of the next couple of hours, Lord_Opeth levelled up the tables from 10/20 Omaha to 25/50 Omaha and eventually all the way to the dizzy heights of 200/400 Omaha.  His balance at the end was $51,598.50, following a session of just 180 hands!

All his coin flips came good, and certain hands just fell well.   For example, with his balance at about 11 or 12K he flopped 2 pair Queens and Eights, with his opponent doing the same (also Queens and Eights). All the money went in, but rather than him splitting the pot, he redrew to a better 2 pair (Aces and Queens), spiking an ace on the river.

It was basically a lot of balls, and a good chunk of luck.  Well done KingBenno!

I have been lucky enough to make a few final tables recently, which got me thinking more and more about final table bubble play. 

Way too often you will see players shying away of everyone at the table except the shortstack.  The shortstack by his very nature is forced into getting his chips in to stand much chance of getting to the final table.  Often they’ll end up doubling up by those too liberally playing at the shortstack, thinking shortstack = fold; and all too often coming unstuck with calls by the broadest range of hands.

Really the players you want to pick on around the final table bubble are the middle/bigger stacks.  If there are one or more really shortstacks at the table, very few middle/big stacks are reluctant to take any chances at all when they are in that nice and cosy/safe mid-stack position.  As a consequence they are much more likely to fold than the shortstacks.   Not enough players capitilise on this.   Huge chip advantages can be accumulated around the final table bubble, so dont be afraid to play tough with the non-shortstacks

Setting yourself personal challenges as a poker player is important.  And forfilling the more ambitious of the ones you set can be a great display of discipline and focus.  Some might even refer to it as bloody mindedness or shear will power.

So, on that note, I suppose I better set a few challenges for myself

Before I get down to the nitty-gritty of specifics, I am going to mull over where to take on these challenges.  I am thinking possible a new site for a bit of a change.  Quite possibly Carbon Poker, as I have heard good rumors about that.   I will post at some point soon, where I will be playing for most of the challenges, and I will of course keep you updated of my progress (aka impending doom ;))

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen someone cursing their luck at the poker tables and attempting to prove how unlucky they are.  Often the general thing which they try to prove is that they get way more bad beats inflicted upon them than the other way around.  Poor sods?  Do you have any sympathy with them yet? 

Well, lets analyse that a little, and show that you should always in fact suffer more bad beats than you dish out.   Seems illogical sometimes at first, but that is the way it should be, rather than having anything to do with being cursed at the tables.

Suffering a bad beat is a direct reflection of getting the chips in with the best hand.  By it’s very nature it cant be a bad beat unless you do this.

Inflicted bad beats upon others is a direct reflection of getting the chips in with the worst hand.

Therefore if you are 50:50 in terms of beats suffered and beats inflicted on others, it doesnt mean you have average luck, it just means you are an average player.

If the ratio is 90:10 that doesnt mean your the unluckiest guy on PKR Poker or wherever you are playing, it just means that in 9 out of 10 occassions you are getting your chips in with the best hand.  You are not unlucky as such, you are just a good player!

So in summary, the bad beat equation should be unbalanced, and that imbalance that seems like awful luck compared to others is actually a direct reflection that you are doing the right thing.  So chin up, and try to just shrug off those beats once and for all.

Strange flat raise by chef on the river here.  I’ll attempt to explain why. If he is beaten (eg by me holding a 10, or an 8 or something) he has either just lost himself an extra 400 for nothing, or he has opened himself up to a reraise, where he could lose even more than the extra 400 if he feels obliged to call at value.

You are unable to justify this risked loss with any potential gain, as no legitmate scenario exists where he could actually gain 400 from the bet.  Every hand worse than his bare ace kicker is going to fold to the raise.

Basically, calling on the river is the one and only option for villain.  I didnt have the heart to box-his-ears and point this out to him though

Seat 1: ghost (8176 in chips)
Seat 2: tron (6536 in chips)
Seat 3: Flouder (8540 in chips)
Seat 4: BlueS (6165 in chips)
Seat 5: OTIS (1625 in chips)
Seat 6: ONLYINA (5450 in chips)
Seat 7: “Speedyfold” (10909 in chips)
Seat 8: chef  (14915 in chips)
Seat 9: asif (8304 in chips)
50 ante each
“Speedyfold” : posts small blind 200
chef : posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to “Speedyfold” [4c Ah]
Folded around
Speedy: calls 200
chef: checks
*** FLOP *** [Jd Tc 8h]
Speedy: checks
chef: checks
*** TURN *** [Jd Tc 8h] [Jh]
Speedy: checks
chef: checks
*** RIVER *** [Jd Tc 8h Jh] [Ts]
Speedy: bets 400
chef: raises 400 to 800
Speedy: calls 400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
chef: shows [As 4s] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)
Speedy: shows [4c Ah] (two pair, Jacks and Tens)

It can often be annoying if a player at a cash table plays a couple of hands and leaves.  A ‘hit and run’ in other words.  It is seen as poor etiquette and should be avoided.  However sometimes someone’s intentions are so evident from the get-go that you cant really be annoyed, but merely amused.  Here is one such occasions with a rather audacious attempt to get rich quick off a 5 big bet buy-in.

PokerStars Game #17457174707:  Hold’em Limit ($200/$400) - 2008/05/15 - 20:30:57 (ET)
Table ‘Mora II’ 6-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: AleHan ($18874 in chips)
Seat 2: aXeroX ($9880 in chips)
Seat 3: arbianight ($24440 in chips)
Seat 4: tiger76 ($11343 in chips)
Seat 5: TopDog1 ($4000 in chips)
Seat 6: OMGBradPitt ($2000 in chips)
TopDog1: posts small blind $100
OMGBradPitt: posts big blind $200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
AleHan: folds
aXeroX: folds
aXeroX said, “5 bb”
arbianight: folds
tiger76: folds
TopDog1: folds
Uncalled bet ($100) returned to OMGBradPitt
aXeroX said, “gl pitt”
OMGBradPitt collected $200 from pot
OMGBradPitt: doesn’t show hand

—

aXeroX said, “whats ur goal?”
TopDog1 said, “hit and run”
OMGBradPitt said, “i play 36/60 just a gamble”
aXeroX said, “but for how much?”

—

It started ok for him…

PokerStars Game #17457204946:  Hold’em Limit ($200/$400) - 2008/05/15 - 20:32:23 (ET)
Table ‘Mora II’ 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: AleHan ($18074 in chips)
Seat 2: aXeroX ($9880 in chips)
Seat 3: arbianight ($25535 in chips)
Seat 4: tiger76 ($13138 in chips)
Seat 5: TopDog1 ($15319 in chips)
Seat 6: OMGBradPitt ($1400 in chips)
tiger76: posts small blind $100
TopDog1: posts big blind $200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
OMGBradPitt: raises $200 to $400
AleHan: folds
aXeroX: folds
arbianight: folds
tiger76: folds
TopDog1: calls $200
*** FLOP *** [3h 8d 3c]
TopDog1: checks
OMGBradPitt: bets $200
TopDog1: raises $200 to $400
OMGBradPitt: calls $200
*** TURN *** [3h 8d 3c] [2h]
TopDog1: bets $400
OMGBradPitt: calls $400
*** RIVER *** [3h 8d 3c 2h] [Jd]
TopDog1: bets $400
OMGBradPitt: calls $200 and is all-in
Uncalled bet ($200) returned to TopDog1
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TopDog1: shows [4d 4h] (two pair, Fours and Threes)
OMGBradPitt: shows [6s 6d] (two pair, Sixes and Threes)
OMGBradPitt collected $2895 from pot

—

But 24 hands and 1 rebuy later it was all over.  Farewell $4K

PokerStars Game #17457329515:  Hold’em Limit ($200/$400) - 2008/05/15 - 20:38:27 (ET)
Table ‘Mora II’ 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: AleHan ($21349 in chips)
Seat 2: aXeroX ($10475 in chips)
Seat 3: arbianight ($26925 in chips)
Seat 4: tiger76 ($10938 in chips)
Seat 5: TopDog1 ($13405 in chips)
Seat 6: OMGBradPitt ($2195 in chips)
tiger76: posts small blind $100
TopDog1: posts big blind $200
*** HOLE CARDS ***
OMGBradPitt: raises $200 to $400
AleHan: raises $200 to $600
aXeroX: folds
arbianight: folds
tiger76: folds
TopDog1: folds
OMGBradPitt: raises $200 to $800
Betting is capped
AleHan: calls $200
*** FLOP *** [4c Tc 8d]
OMGBradPitt: bets $200
AleHan: calls $200
*** TURN *** [4c Tc 8d] [Kd]
OMGBradPitt: bets $400
AleHan: raises $400 to $800
OMGBradPitt: raises $395 to $1195 and is all-in
AleHan: calls $395
*** RIVER *** [4c Tc 8d Kd] [Ac]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
OMGBradPitt: shows [7c 7d] (a pair of Sevens)
AleHan: shows [Jc Kc] (a flush, Ace high)
AleHan collected $4685 from pot

aXeroX said, “gamble no good”

I guess there is a lesson in bankroll management and/or discipline in there somewhere.  I just hope the 4K gamble (66.6 Big Bets at his normal level) wasn’t too much of a high percentage of his total roll

In the style of all good blogs lets start with a little intro.  speedyfold.com is a poker blog primarily about my adventures, trials, and tribulations in the world of online poker.   I’ll probably expand the blog out to include any interesting poker related news, and some live poker stuff as well. I play an insane amount of poker, and am passionate about it to the core….the rest I guess we will find out in due course.  Welcome to the blog.