FT Double Guarantee's week

Wouldn't you know it, but this week Fulltilt is doubling the guarantee on all it's guarantee dollar tournaments, and of course, I had to go out of town on business. Got back today however, and certainly am jumping in, starting with this one:

Nice little cash, but man did I get screwed down the stretch by the "Asian jew"! First, this donk shoves his SB into my BB, an having AJ, I knew I was way ahead:

Then the final blow now holding the mighty AJ:

That's freaking poker I suppose.

So far from what I've observed, FT seems to be hitting these double guarantee's. Partly, there are a hec of alot more players playing the site, and I'm sure this is attracting some new blood into these tourney's. As of this post, over 104K players are on right now! When did they go over 100K? Man I have missed that boat!

They are also seemingly holding the registration open until they hit that guarantee too! I saw one tournament where the registration was still open 40 min past the starting time! Thats one way to make sure you hit it!

So with many more players than usual, YMMV as the donks are out to play in these...and I use the term 'play' very loosely of course.

If you've venture into these waters, good luck, and hopefully the carnage won't be too bad!

2BA

Finally!!!

After all those close finishes, I was able to win this $20 6 max rebuy last night on Fulltilt. When we got heads up, my opponent from Cyprus had me at a 1Million to 400K chip disadvantage. He said he was going to be late to work, and wanted a deal. Even though I was a little tanked myself, after enjoying a few Hendricks, I tried to finagle the situation, but dealing with that guy proved to be a pain. In the end, I agreed to 3400 (my chip equity put it a little over 3K) and we left 200 on the table to play for.

When we got back to playing, I think it took me all of 15 min or so to mount the comeback, overtake and finally win the match, and take the 200 we left on the table plus the victory title.

I'm happy to finally take a MTT down, although old employee #45 must have been out to lunch, as in other tournaments I'm still getting hammered by the impossible cards hitting the Turn/River. You all know what that's like.

But in this one, 45's replacement took pity on my soul. Check these out:

Of course, you have to win your flips. This one rocketed me the chip lead:

Also helps to win (Suckout) your 70/30's too....when this one went my way, to say I was shocked would be an understatement:

These were the stack sizes heading into the Final table, with me in 3rd:

Seat 1: ModusAgendi (76,973)

Seat 2: twoblackaces (326,444)

Seat 3: etrainrollin (102,288)

Seat 4: dcookie (232,143)

Seat 5: Round42 (399,006)

Seat 6: MYspearGUN (353,146)

Seat 6 MYspearGUN wound up taking out most of the players, which was great for me. Here he starts off with Dcookie, someone I know to be a good player:

Here the shorty's clash and were down to 4:

Round42 is a Helmet Head (FTOPS winner), and had become very active since moving to 4 handed. He was raising alot, and I had played back a few times, forcing a fold. So he was perfectly setup here, as I held bullets:

Around this time, Myspeargum starts pushing for the deal:

MYspearGUN: in 50 min i must be in office

etrainrollin: let's deal it out

MYspearGUN has 15 seconds left to act

Orrin1988 (Observer): start pushing them.

etrainrollin: it's been 6 hours

MYspearGUN: it is 8 morning in cyprus

The helmet head and I held out though, and play moved on, and he got spanked hard on this hand, and we were down to 3:

Then Speargun and Etrain start a stronger push for a deal, but I'm holding out. I fail to take out Etrain here, and I'm not happy about it:

This of course now brings on this ridiculous banter :

etrainrollin: phew

MYspearGUN: hahahh

etrainrollin: deal now?

MYspearGUN: deal?

Shabazz Jenkins (Observer): blech

Fellow blogger Shabazz Jenkins looped in for some appreciated support at this time too.....I still held out.

Finally, I take out etrain to get us headsup:

After the deal was done, we left 200 bucks on the table to play for as I mentioned at the beginning. After some back and forth heads up, i take the lead for the first time here:

And the final hand:

There you have it, the elusive win after all those final tables the last 3 months finally hit. Here's to hoping #45 takes some more lunch breaks!

2BA

Yuk

Just an example of how it's been going:

I think I win that hand, and pretty sure I make the FT. Talk about a ball buster, but pretty much standard since this crappy run started.

2BA

Tides have turned

It's funny how cards run in the virtual world, in this 'long' poker session we are constantly running. The fact that in the long haul, things are what they are statistically is very true. But that doesn't take away from the fact that there are no rules about how things run in the short term.

You got through month's sometimes where you seem to hit everything, and your opponents never get there. Then the absolute opposite is also true. Then there are periods of neutrality, where it seems your just running in place.

Well needless to say, the tides have turned, and my good run seems to have come to a major halt. The spots haven't changed that I'm picking, just the results.

I'm sure this will pass again, I think I'm better equipped to handle when the cards don't seem to cooperate.....but I'll hang in there. It's what I do best.

2BA

Major WTF!!!

2BA

Aid For Haiti

From Al's Poker From The Rail article, a great way to help out from our little part of the world:

- Running throughout the weekend and running every hour on Saturday will be a series of “Aid for Haiti” tournaments where the entire entry fee will be donated. You can find buyins in every range and expect to see many members of Team Full Tilt out for the cause.

- The easiest way to donate to the cause, you can now do a Player to Player fund transfer to user “Aid for Haiti” with a minimum amount of $5. If I may suggest, this is a great way to donate the money you win the “Aid for Haiti” tournaments above.

- “No Play” Tournaments. This is a great way to donate a portion of your bankroll and show your support at the same time. The donation amounts are anywhere from $1 to $500. These are not real tournaments, just simply a way to donate.

2BA

6 Max 14K FT

I don't recall for certain, but this may be the first time I final tabled a 6 max tournament with > 100 runners. I've been dabbling in them of late, especially the rebuy's, since they don't get huge fields, and you get to play deepstack for some time.

Once again I couldn't close it out. Being the shortstack when down to 4, and having established a somewhat tight image, I was staying afloat by stealing, as my raises got respect. In fact, I when over the top at least 3 or 4 times, and they folded each time. On the final hand though, I did it again with a legitimate hand, AQ from the BB, was happy to get called as I was way ahead. That is until the river:

I've had a few other FT's in the 90/45 man SNG's, but nothing to really record, so to a certain degree, the 'jet's' have cooled down some. But that's always to be expected, esp in MTT's.

2BA

Stars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This PokerStars tournament is a No Limit Texas Hold’em event exclusive to Bloggers, you too can take part by registering on WBCOOP

Registration code: 555532

RIP Amir Vahedi

http://www.markseif.com/2010/01/pro-poker-player-amir-vahedi-dies-in-las-vegas/

This is very sad news. I remember watching him in the 2003 WSOP, and consequently met and played with him at Commerce back in 2005.

Very sad. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

Update - http://www.markseif.com/2010/01/update-regarding-amir-vahedis-passing-and-funeral-info/

2BA

Another good day

I played a 45 man $75 SNG that I noticed was just about to start up, and was in fact the last one to sign up. Sure glad I got in:

I also am taking some shots at bigger buy-in tourney's, and had my first final table in a $150 buy in:

Sadly, I lost a key hand on the FT bubble, when I raised from the Button with AT sooted, and the SB woke up with KK. That crippled me, and when the bubble finally busted, I was the shorty at the Final table. I had to shove Presto, and was called by 88, and that was that. I wasn't looking at the payouts, as is my custom, and at was pleasantly surprised that I got a 4 figure payout for 9th.

2BA

2BA muy Caliente!!!

Well.....I came one river card away from finally claiming a victory. Nevertheless, I had a pretty good day. I wish they can all be like this one:

And this was the $3100 river:

They all wanted to chop at 4 players, but I held out. I'm glad I did, as I made some more dough....but still....flipping river!

I also final tabled this one:

I didn't save the screen shot of the bustout, but suffice it to say that the donkey who finished 2nd, raised 30K from the hijack, I shoved KK from the button. Mainly because this moron would stack off with any ace rag hand....and I was right. He binked an A right on the flop, and that was that.

Not complaining mind you...just stating the facts! ;-)

2BA

2nd Banana

We actually were pretty even when it got Heads up. I had him by about 100K or so. Given he was a pretty good player, and the blinds were pretty high, I accepted a deal where I got 2 benjys more than he at the time of the deal, and we left 2 benjys to play for, plus the winner's brag.

Sure enough, on about the 3rd hand, we get it in with my AQ sooted vs his TT, and his TT held.

This hand would have played out differently, had the full prize amounts been still at stake. I also picked up 12 scalps along the way.

Still happy with the results, and hopefully I can keep the rush going for a little while longer.

2BA

1K Satty winner

I have already unregistered and will gladly take the cool T$1060. As I mentioned the last time I won this satty, the lineup in this tournament is probably one of the toughest on FT. Taking the dough is definitely +EV.

2BA

First win of new Decade

90 man SNG FTW!!!...it's still a win!

2BA

Happy 2010!

I'm back people! Hope you all had a great time during the holidays, and it's back to the grind!

I was able to play a bunch of super turbo sng's during the offtime, and ran pretty decent. I have a post on that subject, which I'm still tinkering with, so look for that in the near future.

While I was out in L.A., I did manage one day of live poker at the Commerce Casino. Along with my brother in law, we played both the noon and the 6pm tournament daily tournaments. Sadly, neither of us made any $$, but as always it was a good time. Live poker at the Commerce is something that I look forward to every trip to L.A., esp since where I live, the options are very few and limited.

By the way, the Commerce will be starting up their "LA Poker classic", which will include a bunch of new events, such as, high rollers event, heads up championship, Badugi, Iron Man,etc.

Fulltilt is also running satty's into the main event for the classic (or Bay101).

I know many folks put up goals for the new year, but I as always, I really don't ever have any. However this year, I'm going to try and make a focus run at winning a seat to the WSOP main event. Last year, I managed to win a seat into the 1K stimulus, although I wasn't able to attend.

Other than that, I'll continue to run the MTT's that I like, and hopefully have a few wins this years, while also taking shots at the higher buy in tournaments.

Here's hoping 2010 is a great year for all!

2BA