Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Back in Action

Well for awhile during football season Poker took a backseat. I have started playing more regularly again. I had my account up to a little over $180 but last around $6 last night playing various tournaments.

I have recently discovered a new bankroll builder. Pokerstars has added "recently" some double or nothing sit and gos. The structure is pretty simple, if you finish in the first 5 you double your money if not you lose. I have a very high cash rate in these tournaments. It seems for the most part people don't really know how they are supposed to play them. In this type of tournament, there is very small incentive to accumulate chips. Survival is paramount. I generally play very few hands especially early on because the risk of losing chips far outweighs my chance of winning a lot of chips. As the tournament gets closer to the bubble anyone below 5th place has to try to steal some blinds to stay alive. I play at pretty low stakes $5.00 right now and at that level people simply play too loose go crazy and knock themselves out. Patience is a big key at this level.

My wife and I recently played a live Jack and Jill tournament at Cherokee Casino here in Tulsa. This tournament is part of their Oklahoma State Poker Championship series. This was only her 2nd time to play in a live tournament but she did very well. In fact, she played far better than I did. The biggest issue that I had is I failed to adjust for all the weaker players that were in this event. The players on a whole were the weakest bunch that I have ever seen. A ton of call stations. Note to self: Do not try to bluff call stations! I eventually busted us when I pushed AKo on a Queen high flop and got called by KQ. I should have pushed pre-flop, but in this particular instance it wouldn't have mattered. I would have been called anyways.

On a happy note, my co-worker has a son that plays poker pretty seriously. The player's name is Noah Nodine. Congrats to him on winning the $340 NLH event and getting close to a $20k payday!

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