Speedyfold Poker Blog

Event 5 - $1000 rebuy NLHE - 776 entrants
1 $ 636,736 Michael Banducci
2 $ 406,330 Jeff Williams
3 $ 245,997 Peter Gould

Event 6 - $1500 LO8 - 833 entrants
1 $ 243,356 Thang Luu
2 $ 156,343 Spencer Lawrence
3 $ 93,806 George Guzman

Event 7 $2000 NLHE - 1592 Entrants
1 $ 550,601 Matt Keikoan
2 $ 349,141 Shannon Shorr
3 $ 228,897 Carter Gill

Event 8 $10,000 Mixed Event - 192 Entrants
1 $ 483,688 Anthony Rivera
2 $ 297,792 James Mackey
3 $ 184,992 Matt Glantz

Event 9 $1500 NLHE Six-handed - 1236 entrants
1 $ 372,929 Rep Porter
2 $ 231,981 Nathan Templeton
3 $ 151,842 Devin Porter

Event 10 $2500 Omaha/7-Card Stud Hi-Lo - 388 entrants
1 $ 232,911 Farzad Rouhani
2 $ 142,784 Tom Chambers
3 $ 86,117 John Cernuto

Event 11 - $5000 NLHE Shootout - 360 entrants
1 $ 477,990 Phil Tom
2 $ 298,638 Greg Mueller
3 $ 187,812 Leo Wolpert

Event 12 - $1500 Limit Holdem - 880 entrants
1 $ 257,105 Jimmy Shultz
2 $ 165,165 Zac Fellows
3 $ 99,099 Vinny Vinh

The Learn-Forget-Relearn Tournament Necessity

For many ambitious lower limit players in online poker there is a big problem with the learning curve of advancement. Part way through the curve, you really need to forget a lot of what you have learnt and start over. This can be very confusing for many, especially if you need to level down again after leveling up. But why is this?

The essential reason is that at lower limits bluffing is rarely needed due to a predominate style of play by many opponents of little fear, high risk, and bad draw evaluation. Many bluffs will get caught out, and many high-side value bets with made hands will get paid.

However once you cross a certain threshold in terms of buy-in this all changes. If you play in the same manner you will go no-where fast. You need to forget your previous style of play, and start a new style. The main source of chip gains is no longer the excess looseness and poor hand evaluation of your opponents. The main source is now from the tightness of your opponents. There is more fear and tightness in the average opponent. Many are under-rolled emphasising this tightness. Forcing players to fold suddenly becomes much easier and more fruitful.

Of course at times you may find yourself at an unusually loose table of maniacs in high limit, or conversely unusually tight at lower limits, but these are exceptions not the rule.

So, are you capable of the evolvement of play from low to high limits? Ditching your successful style of play and switching to a new style? Many cant grasp the need to change and will become frustrated with lack of success. Others will grasp some change is needed, but wont adjust quick enough, and others will grasp it, but overdo it by ditching some fundamentals. Many others will also encounter a related problem, and will float in the grey area between the buy-in levels and be lost in a mixmatch of a constant wide opponent-diversity way way in excess of what you would ever see elsewhere. Getting a long-term successful style in those levels is probably the most difficult task of all.

Good Luck. If you can at least grasp the need for the different styles, you are part way there.

Lost nearly 3 buy-ins in one session, and grinded it back up to about $5 down in the next session. Then in the final session I managed to get back into profit

Current Balance = $205.09. Total Challenge Profit = $5.09. Total hands played = 326

Here’s a few hands from the last session

1. Lucky river for me

Game #7381981494: Omaha PL ($0.15/$0.25) - 2008/06/09 - 15:55:33 (DST)
Table “Tasmania” Seat 9 is the button.
Seat 1: xxsandixx ($12.33 in chips)
Seat 2: Baggy60 ($9.49 in chips)
Seat 3: Ralmu ($9.75 in chips)
Seat 4: 4914 ($23.94 in chips)
Seat 5: rufckev ($22.50 in chips)
Seat 6: crazytilt ($35.56 in chips)
Seat 7: sunnyred ($10.39 in chips)
Seat 8: nottsboy ($5.68 in chips)
Seat 9: 4le4tor ($23.75 in chips)
Seat 10: Lisa191 ($3.58 in chips)
Lisa191: posts small blind $0.15
xxsandixx: posts big blind $0.25
—– HOLE CARDS —–
dealt to sunnyred [Ah Jc Tc Ad]
Baggy60: folds
Ralmu: folds
4914: calls $0.25
rufckev: folds
crazytilt: calls $0.25
sunnyred: raises to $1.40
nottsboy: folds
4le4tor: folds
Lisa191: calls $1.25
xxsandixx: folds
4914: calls $1.15
crazytilt: folds
—– FLOP —– [3s 2s 7h]
Lisa191: checks
4914: checks
sunnyred: bets $4.70
Lisa191: folds
4914: raises to $18.80
sunnyred: is all-in $4.29
Returned uncalled bets $9.81 to 4914
—– TURN —– [3s 2s 7h][Td]
—– RIVER —– [3s 2s 7h Td][3c]
—– SHOW DOWN —–
4914: shows [Ks 2d 7d Kd] (Two Pairs, Kings and Threes, Ten high)
sunnyred: shows [Ah Jc Tc Ad] (Two Pairs, Aces and Threes, Ten high)
sunnyred collected $21.55 from Main pot
—– SUMMARY —–
Total pot $22.68 Main pot $21.55 Rake $1.13
Board [3s 2s 7h Td 3c]
Seat 1: xxsandixx (big blind) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: Baggy60 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: Ralmu folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: 4914 showed [Ks 2d 7d Kd] and lost with Two Pairs, Kings and Threes, Ten high
Seat 5: rufckev folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: crazytilt folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: sunnyred showed [Ah Jc Tc Ad] and won ($21.55) with Two Pairs, Aces and Threes, Ten high
Seat 8: nottsboy folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: 4le4tor (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 10: Lisa191 (small blind) folded on the Flop

2. Aces get busted

Game #7383182504: Omaha PL ($0.15/$0.25) - 2008/06/09 - 17:18:52 (DST)
Table “Tubeless4″ Seat 4 is the button.
Seat 1: Nicla0905 ($8.51 in chips)
Seat 2: Mick_it ($7.56 in chips)
Seat 3: LangeGeep ($34.98 in chips)
Seat 4: sloppy2nd ($28.62 in chips)
Seat 5: sunnyred ($16.81 in chips)
Seat 6: MasterG7 ($6.24 in chips)
sunnyred: posts small blind $0.15
MasterG7: posts big blind $0.25
—– HOLE CARDS —–
dealt to sunnyred [Ah 7h 3s Ac]
Nicla0905: raises to $0.90
Mick_it: calls $0.90
LangeGeep: calls $0.90
sloppy2nd: folds
sunnyred: raises to $4.75
MasterG7: folds
Nicla0905: raises to $8.51 and is all-in
Mick_it: is all-in $6.66
LangeGeep: folds
sunnyred: calls $3.76
—– FLOP —– [3c Tc 9c]
—– TURN —– [3c Tc 9c][5c]
—– RIVER —– [3c Tc 9c 5c][Jh]
—– SHOW DOWN —–
Nicla0905: shows [Th 3h Qs Js] (Two Pairs, Jacks and Tens, Nine high)
Mick_it: shows [Qc Ts Kd As] (A Straight, King high)
sunnyred: shows [Ah 7h 3s Ac] (A Pair of Aces, Jack high)
Nicla0905 collected $1.81 from Side pot #1
Mick_it collected $22.64 from Main pot
—– SUMMARY —–
Total pot $25.73 Main pot $22.64 Side pot #1 $1.81 | Rake $1.28
Board [3c Tc 9c 5c Jh]
Seat 1: Nicla0905 showed [Th 3h Qs Js] and won ($1.81) with Two Pairs, Jacks and Tens, Nine high
Seat 2: Mick_it showed [Qc Ts Kd As] and won ($22.64) with A Straight, King high
Seat 3: LangeGeep folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: sloppy2nd (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: sunnyred (small blind) showed [Ah 7h 3s Ac] and lost with A Pair of Aces, Jack high
Seat 6: MasterG7 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

3. Useful pot with aces again

Game #7383184044: Omaha PL ($0.15/$0.25) - 2008/06/09 - 17:31:40 (DST)
Table “Tubeless4″ Seat 4 is the button.
Seat 1: Nicla0905 ($23.17 in chips)
Seat 3: LangeGeep ($36.74 in chips)
Seat 4: sloppy2nd ($27.27 in chips)
Seat 5: sunnyred ($11.72 in chips)
Seat 6: MasterG7 ($2.92 in chips)
sunnyred: posts small blind $0.15
MasterG7: posts big blind $0.25
—– HOLE CARDS —–
dealt to sunnyred [Th Ac 5d As]
Nicla0905: folds
LangeGeep: calls $0.25
sloppy2nd: folds
sunnyred: raises to $1
MasterG7: folds
LangeGeep: raises to $1.75
sunnyred: raises to $5.50
LangeGeep: calls $3.75
—– FLOP —– [Ts Jh Ad]
sunnyred: bets $6.22 and is all-in
LangeGeep: folds
Returned uncalled bets $6.22 to sunnyred
sunnyred: doesn’t show hand
sunnyred collected $10.69 from Main pot
—– SUMMARY —–
Total pot $11.25 Main pot $10.69 Rake $0.56
Board [Ts Jh Ad]
Seat 3: LangeGeep folded on the Flop
Seat 4: sloppy2nd (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: sunnyred (small blind) collected $10.69
Seat 6: MasterG7 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

I booked a huge first session of 19 hands

Total profit $1.54. Running Balance $201.54. Hands 19/20000

A bit of a problem with tracking the number of hands, as it isnt listed in the stats box. I will attempt to find an easy way to retreive that for long sessions, short of counting the hands from the hand history client

This was the very first hand of the challenge. Very eventful. Aces spiking a set, getting outdrawn on the turn, and then filling up on the river with a boat

Game #7370390984: Omaha PL ($0.15/$0.25) - 2008/06/08 - 14:36:33 (DST)
Table “Monopoly4″ Seat 5 is the button.
Seat 1: pelosi111 ($4.75 in chips)
Seat 3: sunnyred ($10 in chips)
Seat 4: AKSUITED1 ($25 in chips)
Seat 5: Maria005 ($22.41 in chips)
pelosi111: posts small blind $0.15
sunnyred: posts big blind $0.25
AKSUITED1: posts big blind $0.25
—– HOLE CARDS —–
dealt to sunnyred [8h Ah Ad 8c]
AKSUITED1: checks
Maria005: folds
pelosi111: calls $0.10
sunnyred: raises to $1
AKSUITED1: calls $0.75
pelosi111: calls $0.75
—– FLOP —– [Ac 3d 4c]
pelosi111: checks
sunnyred: bets $3
AKSUITED1: folds
pelosi111: calls $3
—– TURN —– [Ac 3d 4c][2d]
pelosi111: bets $0.75 and is all-in
sunnyred: calls $0.75
—– RIVER —– [Ac 3d 4c 2d][3s]
—– SHOW DOWN —–
pelosi111: shows [9c 6d 5c 8s] (A Straight, Six high)
sunnyred: shows [8h Ah Ad 8c] (A Full House, Aces full of Threes)
sunnyred collected $9.98 from Main pot
—– SUMMARY —–
Total pot $10.50 Main pot $9.98 Rake $0.52
Board [Ac 3d 4c 2d 3s]
Seat 1: pelosi111 (small blind) showed [9c 6d 5c 8s] and lost with A Straight, Six high
Seat 3: sunnyred (big blind) showed [8h Ah Ad 8c] and won ($9.98) with A Full House, Aces full of Threes
Seat 4: AKSUITED1 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 5: Maria005 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

Just 2 hands later, that guy reeped his revenge with flopped quads. An eventful start indeed!

Game #7370391164: Omaha PL ($0.15/$0.25) - 2008/06/08 - 14:38:29 (DST)
Table “Monopoly4″ Seat 3 is the button.
Seat 1: pelosi111 ($5 in chips)
Seat 3: sunnyred ($15.91 in chips)
Seat 4: AKSUITED1 ($23.25 in chips)
Seat 5: Maria005 ($22.41 in chips)
AKSUITED1: posts small blind $0.15
Maria005: posts big blind $0.25
—– HOLE CARDS —–
dealt to sunnyred [3c Qd 7d Qs]
pelosi111: calls $0.25
sunnyred: raises to $1.15
AKSUITED1: folds
Maria005: folds
pelosi111: calls $0.90
—– FLOP —– [Tc Th Td]
pelosi111: checks
sunnyred: bets $1
pelosi111: calls $1
—– TURN —– [Tc Th Td][7s]
pelosi111: checks
sunnyred: bets $4.70
pelosi111: is all-in $2.85
Returned uncalled bets $1.85 to sunnyred
—– RIVER —– [Tc Th Td 7s][Kc]
—– SHOW DOWN —–
sunnyred: shows [3c Qd 7d Qs] (A Full House, Tens full of Queens)
pelosi111: shows [6s Ac Ks Ts] (Four of a kind, Tens, Ace high)
pelosi111 collected $9.88 from Main pot
—– SUMMARY —–
Total pot $10.40 Main pot $9.88 Rake $0.52
Board [Tc Th Td 7s Kc]
Seat 1: pelosi111 showed [6s Ac Ks Ts] and won ($9.88) with Four of a kind, Tens, Ace high
Seat 3: sunnyred (button) showed [3c Qd 7d Qs] and lost with A Full House, Tens full of Queens
Seat 4: AKSUITED1 (small blind) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: Maria005 (big blind) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

I eventually decided on SunPoker for a few challenges as I liked the bonus on offer. I have set up an account with ID sunnyred. I am not sure why I choose that, it just popped into my head.

To start off I have made a $200 deposit. Not exactly setting the world on fire, but it will do for the purposes of my challenge

I’ll start off with a double-my-money challenge. I’ll buy-in for a sensible BRM amount of 1/20th of the roll, ie $10. My aim is to achieve the double-my-money challenge in 20,000 hands. God that sounds a daunting amount of grinding. I’ll post all updates in the ‘My Cash Games’ category of this blog

Wish me luck!

Event 2 Result ($1500 NLHE)

1 $ 831,462 Grant Hinkle
2 $ 520,219 James Akenhead
3 $ 388,287 Chris Ferguson

Event 3 Result ($1500 PLHE)

1 $ 214,131 David Singer
2 $ 136,643 Jacobo Fernandez
3 $ 82,725 Gregory Alston

Event 4 Result ($5000 Mixed Holdem)

1 $ 374,505 Erick Lindgren
2 $ 230,159 Justin Bonomo
3 $ 144,337 Andrew Robl

Are WSOP Events Speed Tourneys?

WSOP Tourney

If we take a standard $1500 NLHE Event as a comparison.

Starting Chips = 3000, Blind Levels = 60 mins

1 $0 Ante $25-$50 Blinds
2 $0 Ante $50-$100 Blinds
3 $0 Ante $100-$200 Blinds
4 $25 Ante $100-$200 Blinds
5 $25 Ante $150-$300 Blinds
6 $50 Ante $200-$400 Blinds
7 $75 Ante $300-$600 Blinds
8 $100 Ante $400-$800 Blinds

Standard Online Tourney Structure

3000 Chips, 15 min levels (eg $11 NLHE $20K Guaranteed at 19:00 ET on PokerStars)

1. $0 Ante 10/20 Blinds
2. $0 Ante 15/30 Blinds
3. $0 Ante 25/50 Blinds
4. $0 Ante 50/100 Blinds
5. $0 Ante 75/150 Blinds
6. $0 Ante 100/200 Blinds
7. $25 Ante 125/250 Blinds
8. $25 Ante 150/300 Blinds

A reasonable translation between live and online events is to multiply by 3 to translate online into the equivalent live blind speed (due to standard things like shuffling time, physical chip counting, manual split pots, longer time banks for thinking, etc etc)

So, on this basis, the WSOP is running at equivalent of 20 mins “online blinds”

Both are 3000 starting stack, so we just need to look at the cost of a rotation as the tournament progresses. So if we look at a point 2 “online hours” deep we will be at Level 8 online, and Level 6 in the WSOP. This leads us to:

Online Cost of Rotation = 9×25 + 150 + 300 = 675 chips
Live Cost of Rotation = 9×50 + 200 + 400 = 1050 chips

Which means that the WSOP is a faster structure than a standard online tourney. Welcome to the World Series of (Speed) Poker!

A bit of a catch up with the WSOP latest from Las Legas

WSOP Event 1 Result

1 $ 794,112 Nenad Medic
2 $ 488,048 Andy Bloch
3 $ 306,064 Kathy Liebert

Chip Leaders WSOP Event 2

Aaron Coulthard 1327000
Theo Tran 1199000
James Akenhead 1039000
Matthew Kearney 1024000
Josh Engerdahl 930000
Eric Hicks 703000
Melvin Jones 660000

Chip Leaders WSOP Event 3

Robert Workman 146800
Philip Yeh 143000
David Singer 123600
Bobby Law 85500
Scott Seiver 71200
Jacobo Fernandez 69100
Ryan Fair 67700
Al Barbieri 63500

ChipLeaders WSOP Event 4

Jon Turner 100200
Ariel Schneller 99500
Ron Kevin Haeri 92300
Adam Westell 82800
Justin Bonomo 73900
Jay Rosenkrantz 72500
Jason Dewitt 70100
David Williams 67000
Gavin Griffin 65800

Some of the top young talent there, with Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Justin Bononmo, and Gavin Griffin all amongst the leaders