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I finished 2010 with a goal accomplished. I'm #12 on the Sharkscope Leaderboard for NLHE Turbo 9 Man $2 or less. It's only the micros but, I've always wanted a star on Sharkscope. TBH I never thought I could do something like that. I played just over 2000 tournaments at this level with a 9% ROI. I think that's good especially considereing the rake at these low levels. 20% rake for the $1s and 12.5% rake for the $2s. I'll be looking forward to the $6s because the rake is just under 9%. My bankroll is at $1051. I'm way overrolled for the $6s but, I'm working my way up the limits. Just hope the $6s treat me as well as the micros.

3 handed tough decision

Villain is a good regular. I didn't know if I should push or fold on the turn. I actually thought he was very strong when he limped. I thought about shoving pre flop but, I was worried about my instinct that he had a huge hand. Guess I should have gone with my gut. Any ideas here?

Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t250/t500 Blinds - 3 players

Hero (BB): t5110 10.22 BBs
BTN: t3180 6.36 BBs
SB: t5210 10.42 BBs

Pre Flop: (t750) Hero is BB with 9 Q
1 fold, SB calls t250, Hero checks

Flop: (t1000) Q K T (2 players)
SB bets t750, Hero calls t750

Turn: (t2500) 6 (2 players)
SB bets t1750, Hero raises to t3860 all in, SB calls t2110

River: (t10220) T (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: t10220

Hero shows 9 Q (two pair, Queens and Tens)
SB shows A A (two pair, Aces and Tens)
SB wins t10220

SNG Grinders

This website rocks! I always wanted to sign up for one of these training sites but, just never got around to doing it. I improved my game tremendously because of SitnGoGrinders.com. There are videos to watch of some of the best online players in the world and you get to look over their shoulder to see how they play. They discuss what they're doing and why they do it.

There's a forum to post hand histories and ask questions. Regular forumers will give good advice and the instructors monitor the forum to answer any questions. If you have a question about one of the videos, post in the forum and the instructor who made the video will answer for you. That's awesome! Also, there's articles written by these top online players.

They have 11 instructors and some guest instructors too. Each instructor teaches a specific type of NL Holdem. Whatever your game, they teach it. From HU, 6, 9, 18, 45, or 180 man. Low, medium, high stakes. Turbo or Non-Turbo. They don't have an instructor that does Super Turbos. They do have one that does DONs.

I did some searching on the internet about training sites and this one fit my game the best. Other training sites concentrated on cash games or some were more well known for large MTTs. If you're looking for STT or smaller MTT instruction, this is the place for you.

I could go on and on about how great SitnGoGrinders.com is but, you'll have to find out for yourself.

SNGwiz

This is a great tool for all SNG(Sit N Go) players. The end game or short stack play is so critical in SNGs. This little device is used after you have completed a tournament and you want to review your shoves(all ins). Did I make the right shove here? Did I make the right call there? Fire up SNG Wiz and this computer program will tell you what you did right or wrong.

I've played over 4000 tournaments and I wish I knew about SNG Wiz earlier. I could have saved tons of money. Oh well. I've used it my past 2000 tournaments and my results speak for themselves. I was ranked #12 on the sharkscope leaderboard for 2010 and one of the reasons is SNG Wiz.

SNG Wiz teaches you proper ICM play. Simply put, ICM is a way of representing your equity in a tournament based on the remaining stack sizes and the payout structure. Essentially, it calculates what your chips are worth in a dollar value based on how your stack and the payouts would influence your finish on average. In practice, ICM calculations will allow you to to compare the amount risked by making a specific play to the potential reward.

If you want to learn how to shove properly, give SNG Wiz a try. You won't regret it.

Desperation move

I was getting very short and had to do something. I checked SNG wiz and I actually made the right play. I came back to win this one. Sweet!

Full Tilt Poker $2 + $0.25 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t120/t240 Blinds - 6 players

UTG: t1880 7.83 BBs
MP: t3060 12.75 BBs
CO: t4930 20.54 BBs
BTN: t1080 4.50 BBs
Hero (SB): t720 3 BBs
BB: t1830 7.62 BBs

Pre Flop: (t360) Hero is SB with 7 8
3 folds, BTN raises to t1080 all in, Hero calls t600 all in, 1 fold

Flop: (t1680) 2 7 3 (2 players - 2 are all in)
Turn: (t1680) 9 (2 players - 2 are all in)
River: (t1680) J (2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: t1680

BTN shows Q K (King Queen high)
Hero shows 7 8 (a pair of Sevens)
Hero wins t1680

AKs facing re raise shove from TAG

Still early and not sure if I made right decision. 1200 to call to win a 2000 pot. If I lose, I have 5BBs left. I've played some with this guy. He's a bad player but, really tight.

Full Tilt, $2 Buy-in (40/80 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Sit'n'Go, 8 Players

Hero: 1,900 (23.8 bb)
tilda88: 1,575 (19.7 bb)
Deganel: 1,410 (17.6 bb)
Aegis HK: 2,065 (25.8 bb)
Stam31: 1,260 (15.8 bb)
SBerlynas777: 2,300 (28.8 bb)
prado cash: 1,570 (19.6 bb)
KS KS KS KS: 1,420 (17.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is CO with A K
Stam31 folds, SBerlynas777 calls 80, 2 folds, Hero raises to 320, tilda88 raises to 1,575 and is all-in, 4 folds

Results:

Spoiler:

840 pot
tilda88 mucked and won 840 (520 net)

SNG Suckout- ouch

Full Tilt, $2 Buy-in (250/500 blinds) No Limit Hold'em Sit'n'Go, 3 Players


Hero: 5,080 (10.2 bb)
lumpy605: 2,510 (5 bb)
popeweb: 5,910 (11.8 bb)

Preflop: Hero is BB with A K
lumpy605 folds, popeweb raises to 1,000, Hero raises to 5,080 and is all-in, popeweb calls 4,080

Flop: (10,160) Q 2 Q (2 players, 1 is all-in)
Turn: (10,160) 3 (2 players, 1 is all-in)
River: (10,160) 8 (2 players, 1 is all-in)

Results:

Spoiler:

10,160 pot

Final Board: Q 2 Q 3 8
Hero showed A K and lost (-5,080 net)
popeweb showed A K and won 10,160 (5,080 net)

Vegas Trip and HU SNGs

It's been awhile since I made a post. I'm back from Vegas and we all had a great time. I played in 3 tournaments and did well in all 3 but, only cashed in one. I played 2 at Caesar's and one donkament at O'sheas. I cashed in the O'sheas tourney. These people had no idea how to play poker. We were down to the final table and half the table has between 5-10BB and no one is pushing. Well we get down to 4 players and I have about 6BB left. I've been pushing a good bit and I look down at A9 UTG. Well, no thought here, I push. The BB is the chip leader and to call it would be about 25% of his stack. He says, "I can't let you continue to do this." He calls with K2 and I'm delighted until a K hits the flop and I'm out. Wish I could play with that dude every day. I would win a ton of money.
I've started to play HU SNGs. I was looking on Sharkscope and all the guys who make money play HU SNGs. I decided to give this a try. So far so good. My bankroll is climbing in the right direction again. I plan on starting at the $5 Turbo HU SNGs and progress from there. I think it's great because of the number of tournaments you can play. If you hit some bad variance, you can always fire up another tourney and get started on a hot streak. Here's a great website I found with some great information about HU SNGS: HoldemForaLiving

BrainMc and I went over to the RIO to watch some of the WSOP Main Event. I've always had a crush on Isabelle Mercier and who do we see at the entrance? Yep, the beautiful Isabelle. I'm drooling all over myself and get the courage to ask her for a picture. She looked like she was in a hurry and was nice enough to pose with me. Also, got a picture with Scotty Nguyen. No beating off to the Isabelle pic.

Taking a Break

I've lost a little more than 1/3rd of the profit I made on Full Tilt. So, I'm taking a break for about a week. I'm studying Colin Moshman's Sit-n-Go strategy book. I don't want to tilt more than I already have and I think it's a good idea to take a break and do some studying. I probably don't do enough of that so, this should be good for my game. I'll return to poker next week and continue my quest for the $10,000 bankroll.

I have a good streak going here

My last 10 online tournaments have been good. I've cashed 8 out of the last 10 tournaments:
1/118
1/9
4/9
3/9
1/9
2/9
2/9
10/716
4/9
3/9
It sure would be nice to do that well at the Main Event. Just happy to be going.

I'M IN THE MAIN EVENT BABY!!!!!!!

I still can't believe I'll be playing poker with the best in the world. I went to dinner Friday night with some friends. When I got home, I decided to play some online poker. I've always wanted to play poker at the WSOP(World Series of Poker) but, never tried. The buy-in for the Main Event is $10,000. I wouldn't even think about spending that kind of money on a tournament buy-in. So, I played a WSOP super satellite 9 player single table Sit-n-Go, the buy-in was $13, winner take all. The winner received free entry into the Saturday night Mega Satellite($108 buy-in) for the Main Event. I won the Sit-n-Go so, my next hurdle was the 118 player Mega Satellite. The tourney paid the top 6 places but, I didn't care about 2nd. I told myself before the tournamnet that I was playing to win this thing. I could care less about the $320 2nd place finish. I played tight at the beginning of the tourney, picked up some cards and kept my chip stack at the average tourney chip stack. When there were 20 players left, everyone started to play super tight. So, I thought here's my chance to win this thing. I began raising about 30% of the time. I relied heavily on my notes, the pokertrackker software(thanks Brian), and I took advantage of the weak players and stayed away from the other big stacks. At the final table, I was slightly above average chip stack and after 2 people were knocked out, play tightened up even more. So, naturally I became more aggressive. There was one guy at the table that was pissed because of my aggression and he says, "someone call this guy!" Of course, he never did. Basically, I ran over the rest of the players to win. Victory!!........sweet. Man, I just turned $13 into $11,000. Wow!

Absolute poker should be in contact with me in the next few days and I should have more details. It's odd to see so much money in my account. I heard that the poker websites aren't allowed to buy seats any more to the WSOP so, if you win, the website will give you the money and it's up to you to take care of the registration.

The Main Event begins July 6th and ends July 17th. The first round is on the 6th, 7th and 8th so, I'll be playing on one of those three days. It will be televised on ESPN a few months after the tournament ends. There will be around 9,000 people playing and the chances of me getting on TV are slim. But, you never know.
I'll be updating this as I learn more information about the tournament and I'll of course update for as long as I'm in the tournament. Wish me Luck!