Hundreds and Thousands

I have not played live at all this past week (which I think is the first time that has happened for a while). But I have played a lot online.

I had decided that I ought to be able to beat the low limit cash games so I was giving that a go. I thought I should be able to win a little, or at least lose rather slowly in the meantime before I spend some more time to enhance my skills with study. I would learn as I went along.

Well, I got off to a good start initially, up a few hundred. Then I blew all my gains and my initial stake pretty quickly by means of the classic combination of playing aggressively, taking a bad beat, then going on tilt.

My attempts to recoup my losses foundered as I chased my losses. I hardly dared look at my tracking stats because I knew I had been playing very badly. However, I did, and looking at the data and some exchange of views on the gutshot forum enabled me to clarify some thinking.

Since then I am playing better and more soundly - showing good gains in the later part of the week. What is interesting is that even with major flaws still in my game, I can win.

Of course, these recent wins might be just statistical variance.

In any case, this particular post is really about tournaments. I have played the 10pm $20 rebuy on gutshot.com a few times - the field there is really bad so it's a very good +EV tournament I think. No result however, so far.

Additionally, I have continued to dabble in the pokerstars Steps.

Lastly, I continue to try to qualify for the Sunday Million. Yesterday I extended my 100% failure record in satellites.

However, I decided that my near-term cash form was good enough to justify buying in direct ($215) and I also bought into the Sunday Hundred Grand which - as the name suggests - is a tourney with a guaranteed $100k prize pool.

The Hundred Grand (there is a daily version as well) attracts over 20,000 players so statistically it is a huge obstacle to get into the money let alone into the heavy-paying places. On the flip-side, some of the play is simply appalling which is partly a reflection of the rather modest $11 entry fee.

The Sunday Million attracts a slightly smaller, but still enormous, field (usually around 7,000 players). With the entry at least $215 (more some weeks) you would expect a higher quality of player. Many excellent players are competing (and indeed it is almost a compulsory event for all the internet pros), but the fact is that there are also hundreds of really terrible players in this tournament as well.

Well, good news !

Firstly, one of those horrendous players was sitting on my immediate left in the Million. Over the first 90mins he pretty much gave me all his chips. Terrible calls pre-flop and on the flop, turn and river. Pointless bets, and a total inability to read the situation were some of his failings. Seemed a nice fellow though and his 10,000 chips gave me a solid base.

Secondly, I was going well in the Hundred Grand. I was playing very tight in both events, but in the HG, I was much more willing to jam all my chips in with a good hand - the blinds start to go up rather quickly and although they pay 3,375 places, the first 1,000+ paying spots yield less than $10 profit !!

To cut a long story short (this seems a long post already):

- in the Million, I hung on to pass the bubble for the first time ever. 1,080 of the 6,856 runners were paid and once I had got into the money (I simply folded everything once we were within 100 places of the money) I had only 5BB and pushed it in as soon as I had a playable hand (A9-suited - called by 77. An even race, which I lost but I hardly cared !)

- in the Hundred Grand, a combination of tight play and pushing my good hands (which generally held) saw me into the top20 at one stage. I played pretty well (if I say so myself) but I did make a big error in the end which saw me exit ultimately 65th of 20,257.

This paid a not-to-be-sniffed-at $222.83 although having got so far I should have done better. The prize curve is really steep with nearly $20k to the winner. I should have given myself more of a chance.

But, to be fair, 65th and 1,032nd for two cash finishes is easily my best in these huge-field events and I was really pleased, notwithstanding the mistake in the HG.