Friday, November 30, 2007

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Czech it down

Nope, no trip to Prague. Twelve participants, one prize, and I finished seventh.

A pair of eights with three big blinds left, calling an all in and getting called behind. Last caller had AQ and two Queens on the board equals Goodbye.

In other news: I saw a new thing in Full Tilt Poker's plethora of tournaments, Knockout. A bounty on every player! A portion of the buy-in goes to the bounty, the rest to the usual prize pool. Knock a player out, and you get his bounty. Knock five or six out and you're freerolling.

I played one and made it to the money. $3 buy-in, 50 cent bounty. I kept a careful count of how many I knocked out and it sums up to: 2. I called an all in with JJ, he has 33, haw haw. A 3 on the flop and I'm out. $5.21 prize plus $1 in bounty, minus $3 buy-in and 30 cent rake. Uhm, a neat little profit of almost $3. Go me!

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Have quads, might travel

Man, I've neglected my blog for ever. I'll have to make an über-post where I dump all of the good and bad plays I've made. I do keep a poker diary, of sorts.

In earlier blogs, I wrote a little about tournaments with monthly ranking points at a site where there is a kind of rakeback, you get shares. 50% of the shares will be given out over a two year period according to how much you rake compared to other players, and you also can win shares in tournaments and by being an affiliate.

Anyhow, twice I qualified by points to a monthly Sit'n'Go final (10 seats) where first place gave you a place in the site team and you would go to EPT Barcelona to play in a rebuy satellite to the main event. I didn't win in the finals...

But now I'm up again. In the Halloween weekend, they had a promotion. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, you got the buy-in refunded if you played in the "EPT Frenzy" tournaments. It was 10+1 Euro, so in essence you only paid the rake.

I played the Saturday tournament. There were 32 participants, and here I wonder if that's good or bad. You see, there was a prize for every eleven participants. So if there would've been 33 participants, there would be three prizes. On the other hand, maybe it's good if there aren't many prizes. You see, the prize(s) was a seat in the final. The prize(s) in the final is... a place in the rebuy satellite in EPT Prague in December.

So how did it go? 32 participants, two seats in the final and some Euros to third place.

The first hour went well, bouncing around in the top-5 and my AK hitting a K gets me to first place in stack-size out of ten remaining when the first hourly break gets closer. The good run continues and I have a bit over 13000 in chips while second place has 7000. Six players left. Second place with five players left.

Boom! I hit four Aces, quads, AAAA, and against the chip lead as well, so now I have 18000 against second place 9000. It didn't go to showdown, but I had to show it.

Chip lead with four players left, the stacks are evening out, at least among the top-3. More hits, and I'm chip lead with four players left, I'm the first player over 20000 in chips.

First break. Four players left and three places "paid", this is a nailbiter.

Break ends. And what's the very first hand I'm dealt after the break. AA! And what's on the flop? Ace, rag, rag. And here follows a complicated move, the checkrereraise. I have the best set and there are no good draws (flush or straight) available.

The turn is... A. Boom! Another four Aces, quads, AAAA. And it's against the same player I had the previous AAAA against. I get paid as much as possible on that one, I think, he has about 3-4 big blinds left when it's over. He must have hit a full house or something (two pair with KK?), thinking I had Ace-something for a set or was semi-bluffing.

Earlier there had been one quad Kings and a straight flush. Lots of high hands.

He's out a while later and now we're in the money. I have 37000, the two others about 5000, but let's not get to carried away. I want one of the two seats in the final, not the 100 Euros for third place. If one of the short stacks manages to double up twice, it's a whole different situation.

The waiting is over and we're about evenly stacked. Both places give a seat in the final, so it doesn't really matter. I make some half-hearted attempts to nail first place, betting on any hit, however small, but no. "Second" place.

So, tomorrow Thursday 15th I'll play in the final. Right now, there are seven qualifiers and one package (travel, accomodation, satellite entry and rebuys) for EPT Prague up for grabs.

One can also buy in to the final directly, with 100+10 Euros and it's "One seat for every 20 players". I don't think we'll reach 20+ players.

But, well, basically I freerolled into the final, and it will probably be a Sit'n'Go, a single-table tournament. And in my experience, there's always one or two that can't make it and will be sitting out. And one who will play wildly even in the first levels, doubling up or busting. I think I have a good shot at this.

Got into WSOP 2006 via a freeroll, had a one in ten shot at EPT Barcelona twice and now a shot at EPT Prague. And if that doesn't work out, there's always next year.

Funny concidence: A friend of mine, who's now a Ph.D., has in his programme been to conferences and such (guest researcher for example) in Barcelona, Prague and Bologna. Bologna, Italy, is not that far (at least on a map, if you squint a little) from San Remo, where there will be an EPT stop in April 2008. Am I following in his footsteps?