Back from Italy

Well,

the last 2 weeks I spend my days in Italy, near Venice. I had lots of fun, good weather and food. So a great holiday.
that’s also the reason why there’s no update on this blog for the last 2 weeks.

Since my departure to Italy I didn’t played a game of poker but I’ll be playing the tables pretty soon.

Tomorrow I also can start playing soccer again after I broke my nose 8 weeks back. I could start playing 2 weeks back, but because our trip to Italy was that close I didn’t risk playing.

So see you at the tables!!!

Victory !!!

After I got beaten in the $1000 Sunday freeroll on PokerStars, I tried my luck on the regular $100 freeroll on Full Tilt.

I had to fight my way up the leaderbord early in the game, but once I was ranked pretty high, I never lost my grip on the top 20.

Every table I moved to I ruled after 5 or 10 hands. With aggressive play other players started folding one by one. I picked up the signs I needed to make the right decision at the right time.
Like folding Q5 with QQA on the table. One player made a small bet, I called him. A third player re-raised to be re-raised himself by another player to an all in.
I wasn’t afraid of the player in front of me, neither from the first re-raiser, but I was very afraid of the last guy. Should I call or not? I had trips, but a low kicker. If he has a Queen also, chances are that his kicker will be higher than me. Or he already has a Full House, with AA or AQ. With some regret I folded my Queen Five, but what a relief to see he did have AQ in his hands. There was no chance I could have won the hand if I made the call.

When we got to the last 27 players and in the money, people stopped folding and in no time only 15 players where left. I was playing around the 10th place. After 30 minutes I reached the final table for the 2nd time in 2 days time, me on the 9th place.

After around 10 minutes I won a decent pot and got ranked 6th. Then I won a monster pot and was on top of the table with 50k chips ahead of the number 2. But not for a very long time, about 15 minutes later, with only 5 players left I made a bad call. I had AK in my hands and an ace on the board after the flop. I made a small bet to see what the other players will do. 2 players just called. I was pretty sure I got the win. With a 5 on the turn, I again made a small value bet, but got re-raised by an all in. If I called this, I lost about 65% of my chips. I made the call to see he had 2 pairs (5’s and 10’s).
The river put me down to the last place once again.

At the time I played heads-up for the tournament victory, I was about 200.000 chips behind my contestant. The first 10 to 20 hands, we remained to stay status quo, but somehow I got down to only a mere 150.000 chips. Much if you compare it to the 1500 starting chips, but very little if you know the other player is playing with around 800.000 chips.

Instead of going all in pre-flop with good hands,  I limped in and raised to an all-in on my turn if I paired something. All or nothing with pocket 2’s at one time, but luckily he folded.

Then with KJ in my hands, I raised to 24000 chips. He re-raised me to 75000 chips. I immediately went all in, hoping to steal a big pot, but he called with his pocket 10’s.
With a King on the flop I won the hand and left him with a bit more than 70000 chips. He started to go all in hand by hand. Because I didn’t have the cards to call him I folded and folded.
But I knew it was just a matter of time.

At the time he had around 120000 chips, I was holding AK and prepared myself to call him. I was the small blind and just called to see the flop, so I didn’t show him I had good cards. He went all in as expected and I called him.

His A5 against my AK. I was leading. With nothing useful on the flop, turn or river for him or me, I won the tournament!!!

After winning a few qualifier tournaments to another tournament, this was the first tournament I really won.
Man that felt great! I want more!!!

So close to victory

Yesterday I finished 2nd in a freeroll tournament, earning me another $12, which brings me a step closer to the $100 mark.
At starters I manage to keep my chips around the average chipcount until I got pocket Kings. After some re-raising I went all-in and took home the pot, placing me on the 24th place. Not long after this I got a bad beat on the river with two pair, aces and ten’s against trips 2.

In that hand I almost lost all of my chips, I had only 540 chips left. So tournament was as good as over for me, but with a big blind of 100 I could play some more hands, waiting for the cards I needed.
With pocket Jack’s I went all-in in mid position. 3 players called (A10, A7 and 88). Luckily for me the ace didn’t show up on the board and neither did the eight. I won a 2000 chips pot. Immediately after this hand I got AK suited (spades). The guy in front of me went all-in so I called. The blinds folded and I saw my AK suited against AK suited (clubs).
Before the flop, it was almost certain this was going to be a split flop, but with two spades on the flop my chances of winning increased. The turn came, but nothing and the river sealed my win with the 5th spade. I made a flush Ace high and doubled up my chipcount again.

In the next 10 hands everything went my way. I even didn’t have to bluff as I got a straight on the flop one time, me holding A5. I checked being in first position to see what’s going to happen. A big raise by the big blind made sure most of the players folded. 1 player called and I re-raised after taking some time to let them believe it’s a hard decision. The BB re-raised me and the other player went all-in with the few chips he had left. Then I went all-in and got called by the BB.
I showed my straight, the BB had three of a kind with 4’s and the 3rd player could make the flush if another diamond is drawn. So far I was in the lead, but a flush and a Full House would beat me easily.
But it didn’t happen, I won the pot with my flopped straight and almost tripled my chips. I was once again playing above average now.

After this I played very well, making the right decisions time after time. It wasn’t hard to fold good hands like pocket Queen’s with 5 players in the pot pre-flop. One of them went all-in, which could cost me all my chips if I called. I folded because I was damn sure one of them had an ace or a king and only a queen on the board could save me if they paired. Flop turned 4 10 A.  2 Players had an Ace and no queen turned up on the turn and the river. I was thinking in myself: “Thank God I folded my queens”. 

With only 500 players or so left, I played myself into the top 20 for the rest of the tournament.
I made the final table and managed to knock out the number 7, 6, 5 and 4. Only three players left now. We were playing with almost equal amount off chips for around 30 minutes.
Then I got A2 and checked on the big blind. The flop made me trips wit 2 3 2. The SB checked, I checked, the chip leader made a 4 times the BB raise and got called by the SB. I re-raised and they both went all-in. With my trips I made the call and saw I was playing against pocket 3’s and 45.
The card on the turn I can’t remember anymore because I made my Full House on the river with a second ace. I thought I’d won, but then it hit me, the pocket 3’s made a Full House with 3’s.
Game over and the end of the tournament. I finished 2nd because my cards beat the 3rd players cards.

Too bad I didn’t won, but I had lots of fun and I was happy about the way I played.
Next sunday I’m playing in a $5000 freeroll tournament, hopefully I’ll be playing as well as yesterday

Follow me on twitter to get live updates on how I’m doing there.

Passing the $50, up to $100 now.

Just a few days back I talked about how close I am to breaking the $50 starting from scratch in just a bit more than 2 months. Well yesterday I’ve won myself another $2,80 in 2 freeroll tournaments.

$2 with a 20th place on Full Tilt and 80 cents on another site.

My first tournament of the day was a $1000 freeroll tournament with 342 paid places out of more than 3000 players.
I was very unlucky here as I could end up much higher if I just didn’t came out against pocket Aces with my pocket Kings. At that time I was constantly playing around a top 100 position.
With my pocket kings I made a bet 4 times the big blind and got called by 2 people. With that much money in the pot and a really bad flop for everyone unless you had 2 pair, I checked on my turn, planning to re-raise the first one to bet. The pocket Aces dude raise about half the pot size and I made it a full pot size. He called immediately.
With a Queen on the turn I was a bit afraid, but didn’t expect him to call my all in, which he did off course. Only a king could save me, but it wasn’t meant to be, I finished around the 300th place with 80 cents added to my account.

At Full Tilt later that night, I continued to play this well. I didn’t got that much good cards than earlier that day, but by playing very tight, I won about 89% of the hands that I played.
True, after they start to notice this, they all folded whenever I made a good bet or re-raised, but that was part of the plan. At one table where I played for something more than 1 hour, this was very useful. After making a bet, a continuation bet on the turn and on the river, they all folded before the showdown. And I played hands like 4 9, 3 6, 5 10, … with very good flops if you had an Ace, King or a Queen, etc…
The slogan from a commercial on TV fits this well: “In Poker it’s not about the cards you have, it’s about the cards your opponent thinks you’re having”.

Very early in this game I took my spot in the top 20 with an all-in with pocket jacks, to never get out of the top 20 during the whole tournament. Once I was sure I was in the money, I played very loose, as it was late already and was is desperate need of sleep . I told myself, that whenever somebody made a big raise, I was going all-in, no matter what cards I was holding. 2 times It worked, but the third time when I was on the big blind my all-in got called by AQ, me holding J7. I lost, finishing on a 20th place and earning me $2.

With this $2 I passed the $50 mark, one goal achieved.
Next goal is $100, hopefully in less than 2 months time.

Bankroll management

One of the important things you need to do is make sure you create your own bankroll management scheme and FOLLOW it!!!

After earning some cash in the freeroll tournaments I searched for some tips about how to control your bankroll without going broke.
Time after time I ended up with the tips from Chris Ferguson, a Poker Pro from Full Tilt who made $10.000 out of $0.

His rules are pretty simple:

1. Never buy into a cash game or SnG with more than 5% of your bankroll.

So if your bankroll is $50, your max buy-in is $2,5. If you loose 10 times, you still have $25 left.

2. Never buy into a multi table tournament with more than 2% of your bankroll.

Tournaments are tricky and you should be very careful with them. The problem is that the most money is in the Top 3 to 5 places. Finishing in the money isn’t an option as it will only earn you back the money you’ve put into it.
So a top 5 finish every 4 to 5 times you play a tournament is needed to stay playing tournaments.

That’s why you better don’t join tournaments that have a buy in more than 2% of your bankroll. ($50 bankroll = $1 buy-in)

3. If at any time in a no-limit or pot-limit game the money on the table represents more than 10% of your bankroll, leave the game when the blinds come to you.

Another thing on how to protect your bankroll is leave when you’re up. If at any given time your money on the table is more than 10% of your bankroll, LEAVE the table and collect your winnings.

Which cash games to play?
Some pro players say that you should be able to at least bet x-times the big blind before moving up a level.

This is something you have to decide for yourself.

When you’re playing the micro tables, 500 big blinds is enough to use as a multiplier.

Level 1: $0,01/$0,02 > Minimum bankroll needed = $10 ($0,02 x 500)
Level 2: $0,02/$0,05 > Minimum bankroll needed = $25
Level 3: $0,05/$0,10 > Minimum bankroll needed = $50
Level 4: $0,10/$0,25 > Minimum bankroll needed = $125

At the low tables, you can increase this number to play a bit more safer and allowing you to play more hands.
For example 600

Level 5: $0,25/$0,5 > Minimum bankroll needed =  $300
Level 6: $0,5/$1 > Minimum bankroll needed = $600

Medium tables
Level 7: $1/$2 > Minimum bankroll needed = $1200
Level 8: $2/$4 > Minimum bankroll needed = $2400

...

Currently I’m playing in Level 2 at the moment and I am just a bit more than $1 away from starting in Level 3.

Whenever your bankroll goes under the minimum amount needed you have to GO BACK to a level lower an build up your bankroll again.

Following these rules will guarantee you could become the next Chris Ferguson.