Starting the weekend off…
Posted on 2 February 2008 at 9:53 am EST by Monty3038 | Permalink
Friday night I came home from work, was sitting around after going out to dinner with my family and decided to play a $1.00 SNG on FTP, so I got into one, 9-handed Turbo. Started off ok, folded bb hand and sb hand with crap. Next hand…
Dealt 7d Qh in Button position, I call with three others in calls also (two ahead, bb behind me). So I’m just looking for a good flop. Flop is 2c 3h Ts, so I’m not sitting with anything but a Q high. Everyone else bets or calls, I fold out. So now I’m position 8, dealt 4c Ad and a MP calls, so I call also… SB calls, BB checks. Flop comes 6h Th Ac so I’m sitting on top pair, crappy kicker. SB bets 3x BB and I fold out. Might have been worth it to stay for another card, but I think I made the right move there. You can’t lose what you don’t throw in.
I’ll stop with the play by play, will post history if interested. Anyway, the result of this tourney was I folded a bunch of hands, checked into a showdown with another player and he bet big, so I folded. After that, a few more folds and checks to folds until this hand came up:
Blinds 25/50, Seat 1: joernsbuell (1,580), Seat 2: Monty3038 (1,345), Seat 3: SpaceYourFace (1,315), Seat 6: botemuyi (1,130), Seat 7: chitytitz (1,330), Seat 8: johncruise19 (3,905), Seat 9: bryson124 (2,895)
Monty3038 posts the small blind of 25
SpaceYourFace posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monty3038 [Ah As]
botemuyi folds
chitytitz folds
johncruise19 calls 50
bryson124 folds
joernsbuell folds
Monty3038 has 15 seconds left to act
Monty3038 raises to 300
SpaceYourFace raises to 1,315, and is all in
johncruise19 folds
Monty3038 calls 1,015
SpaceYourFace shows [Ad Jh]
Monty3038 shows [Ah As]
*** FLOP *** [Ks 3h 9c]
*** TURN *** [Ks 3h 9c] [Th]
*** RIVER *** [Ks 3h 9c Th] [7d]
SpaceYourFace shows Ace King high
Monty3038 shows a pair of Aces
Monty3038 wins the pot (2,680) with a pair of Aces
SpaceYourFace stands up
So I busted out a player with my pocket rockets…. good result. I think I made the right move there… on we go….
A couple more folds then this hand:
Blinds 30/60 - No Limit Hold’em - 20:12:56 ET - 2008/02/01
Seat 1: joernsbuell (1,580)
Seat 2: Monty3038 (2,710)
Seat 6: botemuyi (1,180)
Seat 7: chitytitz (1,280)
Seat 8: johncruise19 (3,855)
Seat 9: bryson124 (2,895)
botemuyi posts the small blind of 30
chitytitz posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monty3038 [3s Ah]
johncruise19 folds
bryson124 calls 60
joernsbuell calls 60
Monty3038 raises to 120
botemuyi folds
chitytitz folds
bryson124 calls 60
joernsbuell calls 60
*** FLOP *** [2h 3h 2s]
bryson124 checks
joernsbuell checks
Monty3038 bets 240
bryson124 folds
chitytitz is feeling angry
joernsbuell folds
Uncalled bet of 240 returned to Monty3038
Monty3038 mucks
Monty3038 wins the pot (450)
This made me feel pretty good, like I was playing strong. Anyone have any concerns on this one?
Next hand I think I played wrong… shouldn’t have checked after the flop, should have bet. Here it is:
Blinds - 30/60 - No Limit Hold’em - 20:13:44 ET - 2008/02/01
Seat 1: joernsbuell (1,460)
Seat 2: Monty3038 (3,040)
Seat 6: botemuyi (1,150)
Seat 7: chitytitz (1,220)
Seat 8: johncruise19 (3,855)
Seat 9: bryson124 (2,775)
chitytitz posts the small blind of 30
johncruise19 posts the big blind of 60
The button is in seat #6
chitytitz: i hadca 2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Monty3038 [Qd Ah]
bryson124 folds
joernsbuell folds
Monty3038 raises to 120
botemuyi folds
chitytitz folds
johncruise19 calls 60
*** FLOP *** [5h Kh Kc]
johncruise19 has 15 seconds left to act
johncruise19 checks
Monty3038 checks
*** TURN *** [5h Kh Kc] [Ks]
johncruise19 bets 270
Monty3038 folds
Uncalled bet of 270 returned to johncruise19
johncruise19 mucks
johncruise19 wins the pot (270)
Now he mucked, so I don’t know if he had the K or not. But I assume he did, which stone cold beat me. Maybe I played it ok.
Anyhow… next few hands, raised a EP caller, he folded. I folded K9o in UTG +1, didn’t like odds based on who was left. Next hand for some reason felt better, Called Th Qc and had a late position stay in, he mucked when I raised on the flop. Folded two more hands, then dealt Kh Td on the button, called UTG and BB checked, UTG bet low and I called, BB folded. Flop comes Qs Qh Ts so I got two pair, King kicker. UTG bets 3xBB and I called, probably should have thought about that more, but called. Turn is 6s and UTG bets pot. I folded, figure he had 3 queens.
So what do you think of my play so far?
I fold a hand, fold on the flop (was hoping to see something match KT), folded a couple more, called one guy who was all in at 120 chips, I was already 100 in on BB, no other callers, but had 23off, lost of course.
Anyway, fast forward to the end… down to me and another player, probably the best at the table. He and I showdown for a little while, about 5 hands, and I notice he is calling crap and is showing me everything. I figure he is trapping me, but can’t hold off when I get a Q/8 off suit, since he has been calling everything, even with crap. I go all in and he sets with 3s. Beats my queens. So I took second.
Saturday morning I played two games, got dumped from one on a flush draw against my pocket rockets all in too early, and the other I won straight up playing properly.
Please post comments, I want to know if you all are interested in this or not….
February 5th, 2008 at 10:51 am
Hey Monty. I see no one else has left a reply so I didn’t want your stuff to seem like a waste of time. You seem to be playing pretty good ABC poker. My soon to be wife is in the same boat as you as far as playing the $1 s&G’s and I try coaching her when i can. Low stakes S&G’s are really wierd because people just aren’t very good. They will call with anything and piss you off alot because they make stupid plays then suck out. I am no expert for sure. I play $5.50 S&G’s right now. I strated with $40 bucks and am just over $280 right now. When I hit $350 or so I’m moving up to the $11.00 S&G’s. The best advice I can give you is be patient, especially in the early stages of the tournie. Position is play is so important, I can’t stress that enough. I noticed in one of the hands you posted that you raised out of position with an A-3 off. I am going to use this hand as an example. First off, A-3 off should be mucked in that position most times, especially when there are big stacks ahead of you left to act. what if the next person to act bumps it up to 600 or so? Are you really gonna call off 1/5 of your stack with ace-rag? No, so you fold and waste 120 chips. Thats why position is SO important. Now say nobody raises and the flop pairs your ace. Now what? You gotta think there is a chance someone is holding an Ace and your kicker sucks so you can’t get to deep in anyway, so why bother AT ALL??
That is such a big part of S&G stategy. Don’t even be in hands that you shouldn’t be in. It saves ALOT of small loses and some big ones as well. Honestly in early position I will muck A-J or even A-Q if the table is really aggressive. I just don’t want to even get into those type of situations. It’s a different matter in late position because you get to see what everyone else is going to do and that helps alot.
Also, at these low levels patience is a virtue because the donks will knock each other out rather quickly. Play your strong hands aggressivly and leave the trash alone. Let the donks play for stacks with top pair and stuff. Wait for those sets and flushes and do damage.
Also, the value of pots in the early stages is so minimul that the risk usually isn’t worth it. Think about a pot in the early rounds. Even if you take 1 guys whole stack its like 1500 chips. Later when the blinds are in the 100 range you can take that plus much more pre-flop if you got a strong hand. All those 30 and 45 chip bets that you toss around early for little reward are alot more valuable when you can hit some serious pots.
Play position and be patient. Just experiment once with only playing in very late position ( unless of course you get pocket Aces or Kings LOL ). But seriuosly, only play hands in the last 2 or 3 spots, then only paly GOOD hands. Pocket pairs, A-J+, or A-X suited. If you fold the first 50 hands so be it. I can almost promise you that by doing that you will make it into the money 80% of the time just because the players are so bad. Just try it on 1 tourney and see what I mean.
I would be more then happy to check out some more hands and I want to hear about how you tryed what I said and you were AMAZED. LOL
Really, I’m no great player but you can check me out on sharkscope. Deuce Blue and I play on Sportsbook. Hell, you ain’t gonna get any of the big rollers to coach ya so I’ll try. LOL
Talk at ya later and feel free to private message me if you want.
DO THE EXPERIMENT!!!!!
February 5th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
If I can, I’ll try it tonight and let you know how it works out. I’ll try 4 or 5 games with it.
Other question, should I be looking at other SNG’s that maybe are not Turbo or otherwise, like $4 or ^$6 buy ins to get rid of the ‘crashing all-in donks’ that seem to be so prevelant?