Denver Poker Tour: Oriental Theater 5/30

The Place
This week we played in the Oriental Theatre itself. The new owner replaced
the theater seating with box seats. Three of these box seats had a poker tables set up in it. The Oriental Theatre hosted three tables and the waiting list had about ten folks on it. I called before hand on the day of the tournament to put my name on the list. The game started at 7PM. As usual two smoking table and a tight non-smoking table.


My Play
I played for about three and a half hours and got out of there at about 10:30. I made it to the final table and was out at about 8th place. I played well during the first levels, but I didn't get any cards. The best hand I had was a pair of Ten's.

This hand got me thinking. I was in mid position and I raised three times the BB. The person on the button raised and the BB went all in. I call and the button called. The flop came JTx, I checked and the button went all in. The turn came X and the river came a K. The button turned over KK's and I lost. He was about a 10% chance to pick up one of those two kings. I was thinking about the hand, perhaps if I went all in on the flop, I could have forced the button (with KK's to fold), it's unlikely, but a show of strength could have forced him out.

The mistake I really made was that I waited until my stack became really short before attempting to make a move. By the time I went all in with 89o, my bet was really weak versus the blinds. I could have pick up a few blinds by raising a few times pre-flop.

Denver Poker Tour: Table Steaks East 5/28

The Place

Table Steaks East is located on South Parker Road just north of the I-225 exit. Look for the Taco Bell on the West side of South Parker Road.

The poker games are played on the patio. There were 5 tables with about 10 people on the waiting list this Sunday night. According to the recent DPT calendar, they play several times a week there including Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Monday night. I've played on the Friday night games before and the Patio can be full of tables. They don't accept phone in sign ups, but the sign up sheet is available in person two hours before the starting time of the game.

My wife and I arrived there a little after 5pm. We played pool and hockey for a hour and half and had a good time drinking some beers. They have a good selection of beer. They have full size pool tables along with standard bar pool tables. They also have darts, some video games, air hockey, and various other bar games. They have a full kitchen and I've had the buffalo burgers there once.

My Play

There were 5 starting tables. I played pretty well and was able to put pressure on other players. I loosen up my game but when I hit the near nuts I was very aggressive and portrait a very tight aggressive image. I didn't get called when I had the near nuts. I hit a straight with a 3 flush on board, trips with a 3 flush on turn. I showed it once to show that I play the nuts, but never got called mid-way in the game.

The play started very aggressive and I just sat back and waited for them to beat up on each other.

I lasted for 3 hours and was up to about 1500 in chips. I made it to the 100/200 level. I had A2s and raised three times the blind to try to steal the blinds and the BB went all in. By his aggressive bet, I though he was weak so I called. He had KK, and I hit a Ace on the river, but he made a straight. One mistake I made is that I could have raised 2XBB and bailed when he reraised.

I didn't have any high pair (JJ, KK, QQ, AA) all night, but I was happy with my play.

Denver Poker Tour: Oriental Theatre 5/23

The Place

The Oriental Theater is located in Northwest Denver at 4335 W. 44th Ave near Tennyson. The Tennyson district is an up and coming neighborhood. There are lots of shops and new development along Tennyson. The Elitchs Gardens development site, which was an old amusement park is located at 38th and Tennyson. Elitchs moved downtown and that area was re-developed. This caused a lot of satellite development around that area. The Oriental is just one of the re-development projects in this area.

The Oriental started hosting Denver Poker Tour a few months ago and judging by the number of tables (3) and the number of people on the waiting list (11). It looks like it gaining popularity. The place has a small bar with beer and liquor. Usually the game is in the theater itself, but last night we played in the lobby. The Oriental theatre was hosting a Dylan Birthday Tribute for the Denver Public School Foundation Music programs. So we got the hear the sound check all night. The noise and the bands were not too bad.

Apparently when they host the poker tables in the theatre, they will play movies on the big screen. One night they played Rounders. They are considering hosting the regional DPT events at this theater. It's a good location and I'm considering making it my weekly game. I'm going to play there again to see what it's like to play inside the theatre.

My Play

Awful awful awful. Tight Passive. I think my cash game play leaked into my tourament play and I didn't play as many hands or raised when I should have. The table was very weak, and I was playing very tight and passive. I managed to play for 3 hours and get down to the final two tables, but I was just awful. I needed to open up my game and play more marginal hands (eg J7s, 9To) in late position when people were limping in. I also didn't see any pairs or aces all night.

Two hands I think I should have played better are:

I was in late position and woke up with J7s. I thought about it for a bit and folded. The flop game J73 and everyone just checked around to the river. I think a pair of nines won. I should opened my game especially early on to build my chip stack.

The final hand I played awfully. I was really disgusted with myself. It was late into the second to the final table and we were down to 6 players. The BB was down to 1/2 BB so she was all in. I was in MP and I had 44's. I limped in and the SB called. Right there I should have raised.

The flop came 237 with two spades and I bet out 2BB. The SB called. At this point I put him on either two over cards or he hit a two or three. He would have raised with the 7 and I think the spades scared him.

The turn was a blank and it was checked around.

The river came a spade and he fired at the pot, I didn't think he had the flush, but was trying to steal the pot. I reraised with my remaining chip (<1BB). He mentioned that I probably hit the flush. He turned over 23 with two pair and took down the pot.

My mistakes were that I should have raised to isolate preflop.. Even gone all in with the pair of fours, just to pick up the pot. The only calling hands for the SB would have been two overcards or a high pair. I was attempting to trap and got retraped. At that point just picking up the blind would have been a good option for me.

Bankroll Update 5/23/06: Taking a shot.

I've updated my basic bankroll strategy. I was getting sick of grinding it out on micro limits and I wasn't seeing any big movement in my bankroll. I knew that if I played like a rock, waited for cards, bluffed very rarely I could beat the higher low-limits games.

So this weekend I've adopted the following strategy. I would start on a low limit game with 40 BB. Once I've made a enough for the next level's minimum buy in, I would move up and take a shot at a higher limit.

On Full Tilt Poker, I started with a $4 buyin on the 0.05/0.10 NLHE. I played very patiently and was up to $16. I tried the next limit 0.10/0.25 NLHE with a buyin of $10 and quit when I was over $30. I eventually had enough for the $0.50/$1.00 NLHE on FTP with a buyin of $40 and I left this game ahead. I won my biggest online pot of over $40.

I really had fun with this strategy. I didn't quite succeed at Pokerstars, because I got drawn out(AQ vs AT flop AKx with a T on the river). But I'm sure I can increase my BR there. I especially like the fact that I can take a shot at the higher limits and still maintain my bankroll.

Current bankroll
Full Tilt Poker: $246.75 + 1/$26 satellite token
Pokerstars: $95.84
Live: $300.00

Poker Stars Blogger Tournament. June 18th, 2006 - 4:00pm EST / 1:00pm PST

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

Bankroll Update: April 16, 2006

My downturn continues. I haven't quite plateau out yet, but I'm really not bother. I haven't been tilting, but I have made several bad calls.

NLHE

I was in the small blind with Q8s, It folded around to me and I raise 3xBB. The BB re-raised to 6xBB. I called

Flop: 8x2s5s

So I had top pair with a flush draw. I bet, and got reraised.

Turn: 7d

At this point I was getting 4 to 1 on my money and I went all in. I figured I had 15 outs ( 9 spades + 3 q's + 3 8's ). 32%

River came a blank.

Analysis: The reraise preflop by the bb indicated a strong hand and the reraise on the flop should have indicated a trip's or a overpair.

The reraise pre-flop indicated a big hand, if I didn't hit exactly on the flop. Since I was betting on the come, I should have checked and see what he did.

Micro-limits psychology

Sometimes when the stakes are really low, the money doesn't mean as much and you call just to see what the other person is playing. I've been trying higher limits like .10/.25 NLHE and playing Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. It's more money that I'm risking so I play more scared. It's a game I'm not familiar with so I play more conservative.

Current bankroll
Full Tilt Poker: $132.95 + 1/$26 satellite token
Pokerstars: $113.91
Live: $300.00

April 8 Bankroll update

I played a bit online this weekend. Although it doesn't look like it from my bankroll I did pretty good. I'm getting my control back: I'm folding to re-raises, I'm not calling to see what the other player has, and I'm tightening my hand selection so I'm not playing every suited connector out of position.

I also did some multi-playing between NLHE and Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo on Full Tilt Poker. That was a lot of fun, I can see how people get into muli-tabling. I haven't read much on Omaha Hi-Lo, but I like playing it. Because I didn't know how to play omaha I had to tighten up a bit. In the Omaha Hi-Lo game, people were playing anything because they didn't know what hands were good and the player were just interested in seeing flops. I figure, I'm going to need the nuts to plays, so I waited for A2 or A3 suited, high pairs or connectors to cheaply see the flop for flushless straights.

My favorite hand of the night was when I started the hand with TTAQh in late position, I raised it to .30 and got four callers. The flop came:

ThJsKh

I had the the nut straight with a full house draw but I didn't have the flush draw. I reraise the pot and got called. The other player also had the straight, but with the nut flush draw. The turn came the flush, but the river came the K which gave me a full house. That was cool. I need to figure out if I was ahead or behind. I sense I was ahead because he need the flush to win (9 outs) 32%, but half of those combinations would have given me the fullhouse.

Current bankroll
Full Tilt Poker: $141.30 + 1/$26 satellite token
Pokerstars: $119.28
Live: $300.00

April 2 2006 Bankroll Update: Plateau?

I've hoping I've plateaued out. This week, I've was down to $119 on Full Tilt Poker but I've managed to build it back up to $141.

On Pokerstars, I made it to 7th place in a $1.00 45 player sit and go. It wasn't a win, but psyche-ly, it was a big win for me. I have been playing awfully and I needed to prove that I'm not that bad. I was playing depressed and weak. This is really bad. you need to be strong and believe in your ability to play poker.

I made some good plays the last few days. I've stopped playing too loose. I've stopped playing every suited connector in early position. I've folded when I've been re-raised when I was weak. I've also called off bluffs correctly when I suspected the player was weak. I'm also thinking more about the hands and how they have played out before I play out.

Current bankroll
Full Tilt Poker: $141.90 + 1/$26 satellite token
Pokerstars: $119.28
Live: $300.00