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Yesterday PokerStars smashed the previous World Record of the biggest tournament organized.
The previous record was 35000 people, where people had to pay an $11 buy-in to join.
The new record set yesterday had a smashing 65000 people in the tournament. You could join for a buy-in fee of $1, that’s it. Or you could play in a freeroll satellite tournament to get in for free.

I managed to do just that.  I a satellite where 25000 people registered, they awarded 1000 tickets to the World Record attempt. So all you had to do is beat 24000 others, simple as that
Well at the beginning I had 2 bad beats when I got rivered against a straight and a higher pair, but after that I managed to crawl back into the lead slowly. With the blinds getting higher every 3 minutes, I had to push myself all in a couple of times to get some needed chips. But I was wisely enough to only do it when I thought I had a 80% chance of winning the pot. I won my all-in times 100%.
As we got closer and closer to the last 1000, I stopped taking some risks I did take before. Others did the same, at the time I got pocket Aces, I raised to 4 times the big blind, to see everybody folding. I did win the pot, but it wasn’t that much.
Not that long after I ended up in the first 1000 and won my ticket to PokerStars World Record attempt.

So yesterday I started playing against 64999 others hoping to end up high. There was $130000 to be divided over 16250 players. $13000 was for the winner! The smallest price was $2.
After 5 minutes of playing (started out with 2000 chips), I got the big blind and holding 910. With another 2 10’s on the flop I made trips and made a big raise. One guy followed. On the turn I made another big bet, just leaving me 600 chips, to see what he would do. Again he called, leaving him just 100 chips. I went all-in on the river, and saw my trips beaten with a straight he made on the river. Damn I hate those river players! With only 500 chips left, my chances for ending up high where very small. But after 30 minutes of playing I did manage to hang on, but still with a small amount of chips.
One time I went all-in and won, but another player who had lesser chips than me won from me, so in total I just won 100 chips more than what I’ve put into the pot.

After1 hour, the first break came up, I was still in play, but in the last 1000 places of the 40000 people left. Just a few hands after the break, I got pocket 8’s, and made raise. I got re-raised to an all-in, so I called. 88 against AK. With a king on the flop I needed a 3rd 8 to stay in the tournament, but I knew my chance of cashing big was over. The turn gave me nothing and the river dropped me out.
Too bad, If I hadn’t got rivered early in the game, I think I could had a better chance in finishing high.

Anyway, congratulations to PokerStars for the new record, I’m proud I was one of the people that attended the event.

Did you play in the tournament? Won any money? Do you also think they should organize another attempt in a few months?

The last 2 days I played some cash games instead of freeroll tournament.
And I must say it’s paying off.

Yesterday I played about 20 hands of the 50 I’ve gotten. In the first hand I made the highest pair on the table with my king and with a Queen as kicker I was pretty sure I won the pot. So on the river I made a 10 cent bet hoping to get called, but my opponents folded one by one. Winning me 4 cents.

A bit later after that small win I got rivered against a guy holding 3 8 with a set of 3’s against my 2 pair from the flop with 10 J, costing me around 20 cents.

I managed to cut my losses bit by bit and with a Full House on the flop (QQ9, holding Q9) I slow played till the river and then I made a value bet hoping someone would call the Ace on the river for the highest pair.  One player made the call, costing him an extra 8 cents.

After I left the cash game yesterday, I was 24 cents up.

Today I also played in a cash game. I did a $1 buy-in and waited to start playing till the big blind got on my spot, giving me time to observe my opponents.
I quickly managed to see 2 fish at the table. They only raised when having very good odds. And they both folded when having nothing. From the 8 opponents, I thought there’s one guy that knew how to play. The others played on luck.
Example, holding 89 suited with a flush draw on the flop and a pair of nines, I made a good bet. But I got called by a guy who holds 3K. On the turn a 4 of clubs came, not helping me. This time I doubled my initial bet, but again I got called. On the river he paired his king giving me no chance of winning. A very costly game.
With a few other hands like this, I started to see my $1 buy-in shrink to only 20 cents. Then I played 35 suited against one of the fish who made a raise pre-flop. I called. With a 489 flop, I made nothing. But knowing he’s going to fold if he didn’t paired anything, I made a small bet. I also can’t imagine he would make a raise pre-flop holding 89 or 910. My prediction came true, he folded, probably something like QK or AJ.
Almost back at half my buy-in.

The other fish I played similarly, me checking constantly and just calling his bets, earning me even more as I had trips and he 2 pair. On the river I re-raised him to call my all in. He did and I was back where I started.
So at the time I left the table I got back from an 80 cent loss to a 44 cents win. If I didn’t got rivered early in the game, I suppose I could ended up more, but I’m quite happy with the result of today’s play.

Tomorrow I’m taking a day off, got some other more important stuff to do, but Thursday or Friday I’m back at the table

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!!!

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!!!

Every player who plays in a tournament will be playing with a short stack once in a while.
Too often I see other players going all in after a big loss. Don’t do that, poker is also all about patience.

Go all in when you think you can win, not when you’ll have to play 5 other players also. Chances that you win are very small pre-flop or you must be having a killer hand like AA or KK.

In the tournament yesterday where I finished on the 6th place out of 800 players, I played a short stack 3 times during the whole tournament.
Very early in the game I lost a game with two pair, aces and queens, against 3-of-a-kind 6. From my 1500 starting chips, only 210 were left. Because this happened a few minutes after we started, the blinds were still small, so I didn’t worry much about it. The immediate hand after this beat I got KJ suited. Not bad, but very dangerous to play. I was in late position and had a nice view at the table. 1st player called, 2nd player called, 3rd, 4th and 5th player also. When it was up to already 5 players joined the game, so I folded my KJ suited.
Why the hell should I fold King Jack suited in late position I hear you thinking?
Well, chances are very high that one of the 5 players has an ace or a queen. Or one of the 3 remaining kings or jacks are playing along also? If the flop turns an ace or a queen, I can pretty much throw my cards away. Even with a raise pre-flop Chances are great that 4 out 5 players call me, being short stacked. So in my eyes I made the best decision I could at that time. BTW, flop was 4 8 Q, turn was a J and river a 10. A good fold I made!

For the next seven or 8 plays I folded also until I got AK. 2 players in the game and I made raise to see the flop and will decide to go all in or not after the flop. Luckily for me only 1 player calls my raise. Flop paired my King which made me go all in on my turn. Other player called to see my pair and Ace kicker. After the river my stack doubled. I could play a few extra hands now and that made sure I went up in the rankings also.

True, luck is also in play, but if you lack the patience part, luck doesn’t always has a chance to reach you

For the next 2 hours I kept playing a lot of cards, even J4, 10 3 and cards like that. So I was very loose.
The thing is when you play lots of hands, your opponents don’t know if you’re bluffing or not. You’ll just have to make sure that at the time they call you, you aren’t.
Once I failed this and was a short stack again. With 50 players left in the tournament and 27 places paid, a money finish was far away.
This time the blinds where higher also and the ante’s made my stack smaller and smaller every game. Action was required. With everybody folding pre-flop I went all in with A4 suited. The big blind called me and it was a showdown. The flop gave me the advantage as I paired my Ace, but my opponent made a pair with his Jack. He didn’t hit a card on the turn or the river, so I doubled up again.
At this time I felt it was time to stop playing loose and start playing very tight. The money was a bit closer now, but not completely there. With KK just a few hands later I went all in pre-flop and luckily for me a player who lost a serious amount of chips the game before called me. He showed AQ. Paired his Ace on the flop and his Queen on the turn. Only a 3rd King could save me, but it showed a 4. Because he was very short stacked I got back almost 1/3rd of my chips and wasn’t out of the tournament.

But my luck changed into the good way now. The next 5 plays I received JJ, KQ, 46 (which I folded), AJ and QQ. The 4 games I played I won. With my pocket queens I won a monster pot. Nobody believed that I again received good cards in this short time, so almost everyone called my pre-flop raise. With a 3rd queen on the flop, I started slow-playing my trips. The player in front of me made a bet, I called and 1 player went all in. I and the initial raiser called. I won and was pretty sure to end up in the money now.

Whit some decent play the hands after, I even made it to the final table where I lost with my straight against a flush and ended up on the 6th place.

Like I said, be patience, play the cards you think you’ll have a decent chance of winning. If there are too many other players in the game, even fold good hands.  Good luck!!!