STP on FTP

STP in the world of finance means "Straight Through Processing", a holy grail that is often sought and rarely achieved. The same acronym has no standard usage in poker as far as I am aware, but I am going to invoke it for "Straight Through Poker" ..... read on to find out what I mean.

FTP means "File Transfer Protocol" I suppose, in common internet usage but in poker it stands for "Full Tilt Poker", the second big beast in the online world behind Pokerstars.

I have had a Full Tilt account for a while but hardly ever use it, so I did not expect to see it figure in the most significant event of my poker year.

I was chatting with a friend (from poker and finance) who had just won a seat to the Main Event of the World Series through a qualifier on Full Tilt.

I was already musing on whether to make a serious qualification attempt. I knew that I definitely would not go unless I qualified cheaply, and I had played a few freerolls. But I thought a plan was needed if I was to stand a chance.

Jonny recommended the $216 Double Shootout that had been a route to success for him.

In that format, 81 players play on 9 tables of 9. Each table plays to a single winner, then those players play a final table to take the main prize.

I thought I would give it a try but I didn't have $216 available in my account, so I registered for an $8 tournament of the same format. The winner of this (actually the top 2) would get a ticket to play the $216 game.

I didn't have any great expectations, but it was just one of those days when things go right !

Before long, I had won my first table in the $8 event. The tournament wasn't full so I only had to finish in the top 2 of 6 to win a $216 ticket. I duly managed that. Part one accomplished. It wasn't particularly tough but, then, there wasn't much on the line - only $8 invested.

Now for the real deal. What happened at our table was that one player quickly hoovered up a substantial portion of all the chips. With 3 of us left, I was in 3rd place with 2,900 chips;2nd had 5,700 and the leader had nearly 10,000. Now a couple of crucial hands.

On the BB (50/100) with 9h7h I face a min-raise from the button. I call. The flop is A-7-7. Bingo. I check and he bets 600 into 450. I flat call. The turn is a horrible Ace. Now my hand, which was massive on the flop, has turned into a bluff-catcher.

I decide to await developments, and check. He checks behind. The river is always going to be pretty irrelevant unless it is a 7 or an Ace; in the event it is a 6. I can see no benefit to betting here, so I check and it's always in my mind that I may be faced with a big call.

I am never going to be raising whatever bet he makes and as it is, he puts me all in, which is a bet of 1.5x the pot but only 1/4 of his chips.

This is it. His hand is pretty much the nuts or nothing, and for whatever reason I decide to call his bluff, literally. He shows Q8o and I double up.

A few hands later I am in the SB with JTo vs the same player. I call and then call his min raise from the BB. The flop is 7-8-9 with two clubs, making me the nuts. I lead out for 600, he raises to 1,900. I riase all in and he calls with K-6. He has a draw to the low end of the straight (that draw is dead to my hand), and a backdoor club draw. From his perspective he may think his overcard King is relevant.

As things stand, he is in very bad shape (<5% to win). The Qc on the turn improves him to a 1 in 5 chance, but the river is safe. I cover him by just 30 chips, so we're heads up. Heads-up lasts 25 hands, of which I lose just 3 hands. The end comes when I raise on the button with pocket deuces. He instantly shoves for 25 big blinds so I am sure he is on Ace-X.

I have a 3-1 lead so if I lose we will still be even in chips and I am confident I can grind him back down again. So, knowing I am winning now, I call. He shows A-5 and when the flop comes T-3-2, my set is miles ahead although he does have a gutshot 4 for a straight. My set holds and we are on the final table.

My first table was over so quickly that of the 54 starters, 29 are still in action ! I have to wait a fair while before the final table can begin.

It dawns on me that so far I have effectively turned $8 into $2,000 - a 250x return. It's a bit moot as I cannot cash out, but I now have a 1 in 6 chance of taking down a $12k package !

We all start with 18,000 chips and blinds of 120/240 so it is pretty deep-stacked poker. No need for shove-or-fold any time soon.

Things start rather well. I fold a couple of junk hands, and then pick up QQ on the small blind. I face a raise to 600 from the cut-off and I straightforwardly raise to 2,150. He calls.

Flop: Queen-Ace-Queen!! OMG. Quads. Of course I check, and he checks.

The turn is a King, putting 2 hearts on board. I venture a small bet of 2,400. He calls.

The river is an offsuit 9. I consider my options. I could make the all-in overbet and hope he has a hand and thinks I am making a desperation shove. I could check and hope he bluffs at it. On the whole, I think I have been failing to make enough value bets so I think I need to make a bet. I opt for 2,400 again hoping he might see it as weakness and play back.

He flat calls. Of course I win (with the nuts!) but I possibly missed out as he held JT for the turned straight. He wisely opted to just call down. He is losing to so many hands -- AA KK QQ AK AQ KQ -- that could have reraised preflop. It can never be right for him to raise the river, but he will probably call a bigger bet.

Still, a great start and for a long time it is plain sailing. I scarcely lose a hand. TT - I reraise and flop top set. QQ - I raise and take it down preflop. I do give up a pot with AK, but otherwise I march on. The deck is hitting me in the face and the others seem reluctant to take me on.

I take out the first player when I raise with AQs UTG. The BB shoves and I instacall, to face A7. The turn brings him an open-ended straight draw but tonight I seem to have a protective shield from outdraws.

1 down.

After winning a big pot with Aces -- I reraise preflop and bet the flop and move in on the turn -- I have half the chips in play.

Shortly after that, the shortest stack moves in with pocket 2s and I call for less than 10% of my stack with pocket 5s. Two down.

3rd man down when I flop top pair and a flush draw with QdTd on a QJ7 board. I check to the short stack who moves in. There is a call before me and now I shove. The other caller folds a higher flush draw, whilst short-stack shows QT but no flush draw. I am freerolling and hit on the turn.

Now 3-handed and I have 77k out of the 108k chips in play. It should be a formality.

However, I nearly blow myself up when I pick up QQ (again) on the button. I believe the short stack on the SB will push, so I limp intending to isolate after a shove and a call. However, the SB folds and we see a flop.

It is 5-4-2 with 2 clubs. The big blind leads out and I raise. Now, the BB re-raises and I should probably abandon ship. Of course it is true that my hand is greatly under-represented but I must see that I am probably losing.

However, with my massive chip lead I see the possibility to effectively end the tournament here and I raise all in. He insta-calls with 6-3 for the nuts.

I am drawing dead, basically.

I lose the lead for the first time, and the short stack also stages a recovery so that he moves into contention as well.

However, it is to be my night. I win a crucial race with AKs vs QQ to eliminate the shortest stack and take a 60-40 lead into the heads up.

HU lasted 20 hands, of which I lost only 3 despite having really no cards at all to speak of. The other player was pretty solid but was far too timid at this stage. Presumably he didn't pick up much in the way of hands himself but he allowed me to dictate events.

I had advanced my chip lead to a 2-1 advantage when the following hand developed. The blinds are 800/1,600. I have red deuces on the button and raise to 3,300 (my standard opening). He calls. He rarely re-raised pre flop.

The flop was 8-5-3 all diamonds. He bets 3,200; I call. The turn is a black Ace. He bets 8,000 into 13,000 leaving him with 22k behind.

I see a real opportunity to put pressure on here. I do not put him on a really strong hand, but I doubt I am winning with a pair of 2s. I doubt he has an Ace but I feel he is inclined to fear the worst, and will not want to call off his tournament life. I move all in.

If he does call, he is likely to be winning (although he might call with KXdd) but either my flush draw or my gutshot should be live and another deuce would also be a winning card.

He folds and with a 4-1 lead now I really do not think I can be caught.

He does not win a single hand from here on, and in the end he shoves with QT and I snap call with A7. An Ace on the flop nearly kills it although he did pick up some chances with a Queen on the turn.

However, my golden form saw me through.

All told: 302 hands, 5h27min elapsed time, 3h20min of actual play from $8 to $12k. One shot. Straight through to the main event !

If you really want to see the gory details, I have uploaded the hand histories onto the gutshot replayer here and here.

Vegas ahoy !