Just a brief update on the State of the Bankroll......
Total Bankroll: $814.47
consisting of
Cash: $746.62
Non-Cash: $67.85
The breakdown is:
Bonuses: $571
$75 - Instant Bankroll Promotion
$25 - Party Poker signup bonus
$50 - Golden Riviera signup bonus
$81 - Party Poker reload "Triple Bonus"
$90 - Poker Rewards signup bonus
$25 - River Belle "spot bonus"
$100 - Poker Rewards reload bonus
$125 - River Belle signup bonus
Freeroll Tournaments: $114.40
$1.40 - Golden Riviera freeroll (87th out of 3000+ (a lot) )
$8.00 - Poker Rewards $1K freeroll (18th out of 650)
$100.00 - Poker Rewards $1K freeroll (1st out of 59)
$5.00 - River Belle $1K freeroll (33rd out of 499)
Limit Ring Game Play: $61.22 (0.98 BB/100)
Pending bonuses
None
Non-cash:
$60.00 (6000 PSO points)
$7.85 (785 Poker Rewards VIP points)
It has been a wild, wild ride over the last month in terms of bankroll swings - less than 3 weeks ago I was down $65 in limit ring game play.
In terms of basic statistics, in the 2.5 months I've been doing this, I have just short of 15,000 hands. I have played an (estimated) 105 hours over this time, which is about 10 hours per week - about what my intial "target time investment" was. In terms of dollars per hour, it looks like I'm making somewhere around $7.75 / hr - not exactly enough to quit the job, but better than minimum wage for the same amount of time.
Never did I think I'd be approaching $1,000 in less than three months starting from absolutely zero money. Next up - how fast can I get to $10K? :-)
Next post - some basic Poker Tracker statistics about the first 15,000 hands.....
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Bankroll Requirements
A while back, I mentioned an upcoming post on bankroll requirements. Since I haven't written in a while, it seems as good a place as any to start, especially since I have existing material to work with.
First of all, what is the purpose of a bankroll? At its most basic level, the purpose of a bankroll is to help you survive the short-term fluctuations inherent in poker or any other game of chance. I have already written about how big some of these fluctuations can be in the short term, and your bankroll needs to be sized to absorb these types of blows.
Problem is, there is no bankroll big enough to protect you with 100% certainty. Even if you started out with $1,000,000, played $1/$2 limit, and played a winning poker game, there is a non-zero chance that you will go bust. That chance is very, very small for the numbers I picked, but non-zero. This risk is called your Risk of Ruin (RoR). In general, you want your Risk of Ruin to be as small as possible without having to have a hugely oversized bankroll to do so.
Luckily, the formula for an appropriate bankroll size has been derived quite some time ago by Mason Malmuth, and it depends on 3 parameters:
BR = -ln(RoR)*(SD^2)/(2*WR)
Looks somewhat complicated, but nothing that a calculator or Excel can't handle. Poker Tracker (or equivalent) can give you both WR and SD. Your RoR is a personal decision, or you can just plug different numbers in to see what your bankroll requirements would be. Cue the below table, which was done at a SD of 16 BB/100):
He had one single 125 BB downswing at the beginning, but has had no downswing greater than about 35 BB since. Amazing - I need to ask what his hourly rate is for lessons......
Anyways, if you plug his numbers into the above formula, you get some crazy numbers:
First of all, what is the purpose of a bankroll? At its most basic level, the purpose of a bankroll is to help you survive the short-term fluctuations inherent in poker or any other game of chance. I have already written about how big some of these fluctuations can be in the short term, and your bankroll needs to be sized to absorb these types of blows.
Problem is, there is no bankroll big enough to protect you with 100% certainty. Even if you started out with $1,000,000, played $1/$2 limit, and played a winning poker game, there is a non-zero chance that you will go bust. That chance is very, very small for the numbers I picked, but non-zero. This risk is called your Risk of Ruin (RoR). In general, you want your Risk of Ruin to be as small as possible without having to have a hugely oversized bankroll to do so.
Luckily, the formula for an appropriate bankroll size has been derived quite some time ago by Mason Malmuth, and it depends on 3 parameters:
- your Winrate (WR)
- your Standard Deviation (SD)
- your desired Risk of Ruin (RoR)
BR = -ln(RoR)*(SD^2)/(2*WR)
Looks somewhat complicated, but nothing that a calculator or Excel can't handle. Poker Tracker (or equivalent) can give you both WR and SD. Your RoR is a personal decision, or you can just plug different numbers in to see what your bankroll requirements would be. Cue the below table, which was done at a SD of 16 BB/100):
For example, if you are a 1 BB/100 player and desire a 5% RoR, you will need 383 BB. If you play with a BR of any less than that and your RoR exceeds 5%.
A few things about this table:
- As you become a better player (increase your winrate) your bankroll requirements go down - this is common sense. This relationship turns out to be linear - if you become twice as good a player (e.g. 1 BB/100 to 2 BB/100), you need half the bankroll (383 BB to 192 BB) for a given RoR.
- If you wish to decrease your risk of ruin, your bankroll requirements go up - this is also common sense. The "surprise" is that a slight increase in your bankroll reduces your Risk of Ruin substantially. For example, take the 1 BB/100 column. To decrease your RoR by a factor of 5 (from 5% to 1%) your only need to increase your bankroll by 54% (from 383 to 589). In fact, to go from 20% RoR to 0.1% RoR (a factor of 200!) you only need to increase your bankroll by a factor of 4.
As a sidenote, you may have heard the "300 BB bankroll" metric tossed around, including in one of my previous posts. You can see (about) where that comes from - a person with (about) a 2 BB/100 winrate, desiring a RoR of (about) 1%.
Your personal risk tolarance may vary, and may also vary depending on whether your bankroll is a few hundred dollars (and thus replaceable) vs. a few thousand (and thus more painful to lose). I know personally my risk tolerance will go down as my bankroll grows for thsi very reason, so my desired bankroll size (in BB) will likely go UP as I increase in levels.
As one more example, I'd like to use my brother's (QuadMan) actual numbers over his first 11,000 hands or so. He has been playing some incredible poker, and is sitting at 3.21 BB/100 for these hands. Very nice, but more incredible to me is his (lack of) variance: only 12.11 BB/100. Here's what that looks like:
He had one single 125 BB downswing at the beginning, but has had no downswing greater than about 35 BB since. Amazing - I need to ask what his hourly rate is for lessons......
Anyways, if you plug his numbers into the above formula, you get some crazy numbers:
- for a 1-in-1000 chance of going broke (0.1%), he only needs 158 BB
- for his actual bankroll (estimated at 800 BB at the level we are playing), his RoR is 0.00000000000006%
I am envious.
In other random news, I received my Poker Rewards hat and golf shirt for winning their freeroll a while back. I'm sure I will wear these to the next home game and get a lot more respect. :-)
Next blog update will probably be a bankroll update after I finish clearing both my Poker Rewards reload bonus and my River Belle signup bonus. Unless something better comes along in terms of reloads, my next step may be to Paradise where the signup bonus is not that great, but with the PSO points I can get through pokersourceonline.com and the Refer-a-Friend bonuses it may be worth my while.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Variance, on a personal basis
This seems like as good a time as any to talk about variance in less of a theoretical / math sense and in more of a personal / psychological sense.
At this time, I'm going through a 125+ BB downswing at the same time I've increased the level that I'm playing (I have jumped to $0.50/$1.00 almost full-time) and to use a phrase coined by poker1eh, its starting to hurt.
In ring games, I have gone from a rate of 1.5 BB/100 with $45 of profit to a rate of 0.35 BB/100 and a loss of over $50 in ring game play (a swing of $95) in the span of about 1300 hands. At River Belle alone, I am down $86 in the midst of trying to clear my $125 bonus.
This wouldn't be my blog without a nifty graph, so here goes. As always click for a larger version, but you may want to avert your eyes first:
The self-doubt that has crept into my game is amazing, to the point that I get a sinking feeling everytime I see a premium hand. I honestly don't think I have become weak-tight, as I don't think I have backed down on the aggression with the premium hands. However, I either seem to win a small pot or lose a big pot with them recently - it seems to be a "steal the blinds or get sucked out on" situation.
I am in the process of reviewing my play, looking for leaks. In general, I feel I may be calling down to the river a bit too often lately, figuring that people are trying to run me over. But I suppose that is a vicious cycle - if I start folding to raises late in the hand, then people WILL start taking shots at me. I am also conscious of not becoming weak-tight, so need to make sure I'm betting for value where appropriate.
Let's look at some PT stats:
For my first 9800 hands, my VP$IP / PFR / W$WSF / WtSD / W$SD was:
16.41% / 5.96% / 30.5% / 34.0% / 50.5%
For my (1400-ish) hands since then, those same stats are:
15.29% / 6.7% / 30.0% / 27.0% / 40.3%
For my last 700 hands (the last half of the downswing), they are:
14.77% / 5.9% / 30.6% / 30.6% / 40.5%
So, I seem to have tightened up a bit preflop. All other stats seem to be within a reasonable range of each other, except WtSD and W$SD. W$SD is (quite obviously) lower in the midst of a downswing. What is reassuring (at least at this "100,000 foot view") is that I don't seem to be chasing more than I used to - in fact, if anything, WtSD shows I'm folding more often than I used to. Perhaps that is the leak - I'm actually letting people take me off hands. More detailed analysis of individual hands is surely needed.
In looking for the bright spots:
At this time, I'm going through a 125+ BB downswing at the same time I've increased the level that I'm playing (I have jumped to $0.50/$1.00 almost full-time) and to use a phrase coined by poker1eh, its starting to hurt.
In ring games, I have gone from a rate of 1.5 BB/100 with $45 of profit to a rate of 0.35 BB/100 and a loss of over $50 in ring game play (a swing of $95) in the span of about 1300 hands. At River Belle alone, I am down $86 in the midst of trying to clear my $125 bonus.
This wouldn't be my blog without a nifty graph, so here goes. As always click for a larger version, but you may want to avert your eyes first:
The self-doubt that has crept into my game is amazing, to the point that I get a sinking feeling everytime I see a premium hand. I honestly don't think I have become weak-tight, as I don't think I have backed down on the aggression with the premium hands. However, I either seem to win a small pot or lose a big pot with them recently - it seems to be a "steal the blinds or get sucked out on" situation.
I am in the process of reviewing my play, looking for leaks. In general, I feel I may be calling down to the river a bit too often lately, figuring that people are trying to run me over. But I suppose that is a vicious cycle - if I start folding to raises late in the hand, then people WILL start taking shots at me. I am also conscious of not becoming weak-tight, so need to make sure I'm betting for value where appropriate.
Let's look at some PT stats:
For my first 9800 hands, my VP$IP / PFR / W$WSF / WtSD / W$SD was:
16.41% / 5.96% / 30.5% / 34.0% / 50.5%
For my (1400-ish) hands since then, those same stats are:
15.29% / 6.7% / 30.0% / 27.0% / 40.3%
For my last 700 hands (the last half of the downswing), they are:
14.77% / 5.9% / 30.6% / 30.6% / 40.5%
So, I seem to have tightened up a bit preflop. All other stats seem to be within a reasonable range of each other, except WtSD and W$SD. W$SD is (quite obviously) lower in the midst of a downswing. What is reassuring (at least at this "100,000 foot view") is that I don't seem to be chasing more than I used to - in fact, if anything, WtSD shows I'm folding more often than I used to. Perhaps that is the leak - I'm actually letting people take me off hands. More detailed analysis of individual hands is surely needed.
In looking for the bright spots:
- I have the self-awareness and diligence to go back and review my game to see if there are leaks instead of just raging about my bad luck (although poker1eh and QuadMan may differ on this opinion of complaining!)
- I have people that can (and will) review my play
- I have the sense (mostly) to get away from the tables if I feel like I'm tilting. If I'm completely honest with myself, I need to work on this a bit more strongly though.
- I have the bankroll to absorb this variance - in the grand scheme of things, 125 BB is a reasonably small bit of variance, and need to remind myself of this. There is a reason why our bankroll needs to be 300+ BB, and this is it. A look back at my very own variance post "proves" this.
- My bonus clearing almost covers this loss, which is a testament to the HUGE power of bonus chasing. I am 555 hands through my bonus, which means my bonus cleared "so far" is (555/875) * $125 = $79.29. So in a very real sense, I'm "only" down a little over $6 in real money. Simply amazing.
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Journey through a Freeroll, Part II
Quick recap: I've entered into a $1000 freeroll with only 59 people playing. I was extremely short around the bubble (525 chips with the blinds at 100/200), but have since come back to take the chip lead at the final table with 7 people remaining.
The play is tight - amazingly tight considering that 7th place pays $65 and winning it all only pays $100. There's really not much difference in payout for anyone else. Weird payout structure, but oh well. I take advantage of this tightness and use my new-found chip lead to steal a bit more than my fair share of blinds.
Then the following gift from the heavens occurs with the blinds at 500/1000:
Stack sizes:
Button: $10970.00
Hero: $23680.00
Hero is BB with 5s Jc
Pre-flop: (7 players)
4 folds, Button raises to $2000, SB folds, Hero calls $2000.
Flop: 7c 5d 5c ($4500, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button is all-in $8970, Hero calls $8970.
Button shows 4d 4c
Turn: Qc ($22440, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $22440)
River: 7d ($22440, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $22440)
Results: Hero wins $22440 with fives full of sevens.
He raises more preflop and I lay that hand down. I was planning on check-raising the flop, but didn't expect him to push. I'll take it, though. I bust out a player and now we're 6-handed. I have twice the number of chips of second place, and over 40% of the chips in play. Very next hand I bust out the short stack to my left who can't even complete their BB. 5 handed now. A few hands later:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $37720.00
BB: $8690.00
Hero is SB with 8c 5s
Pre-flop: (5 players)
3 folds, Hero raises to $4800, BB calls $4200.
Flop: 7d 6s Ad ($9000, 2 players)
Hero bets $3600, BB raises all-in $5690, Hero calls $5690.
BB shows 7h Ac
Turn: 5h ($20380, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $20380)
River: 9c ($20380, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $20380)
Results: Hero wins $20380 with a nine high straight
Redemption - the exact same situation I got sucked out on before: top two pair vs open ended straight draw. This time I did the sucking out, but I figure this is karma working to balance out the other one. The only disappointment is that it wasn't the against the same guy that sucked out on me. This busts out another player, and we're down to 4 handed. I have a 3-1 chip lead on second place, and over half the chips in play.
I keep using my chip advantage to put the pressure on the small stacks. I get rockets in the BB for the second time in the tournament, but it is folded around to me. Damn. A few hands later, I take a chunk out of the second place player's stack:
Stack sizes:
UTG: $10400.00
Button: $14975.00
SB: $41905.00
BB: $19420.00
Hero is SB with Th 9h
Pre-flop: (4 players)
2 folds, SB calls $1200, BB checks.
Flop: 9d Kd 8c ($2400, 2 players)
SB bets $1855, BB calls $1855.
Turn: 2c ($6110, 2 players)
SB bets $3155, BB folds.
Results: Hero wins $9265 without a showdown
The stack is growing bigger. Someone else busts out, and we're three handed. I catch a few hands where I come over the top of an initial raiser (including a QQ that I was begging for a call), but all fold to me. I am stealing with abondon now, and my stack is over 60K. Then:
Stack sizes:
Button: $10565.00
SB: $17775.00
Hero: $57760.00
Hero is BB with Js Kd
Pre-flop: (3 players)
Button raises all-in $10565, SB folds, Hero calls $10565.
Button shows 6h As
Flop: 6c 6d Kh ($21930, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $21930)
Turn: 7d ($21930, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $21930)
River: 10s ($21930, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $21930)
Results: Button wins $21930 with trip sixes.
Oh well - thought it was a good opportunity to get rid of someone. On the very next hand, the guy that won that pot eliminates the other player, and we're heads up. I have a slight chip lead (48K to 40K), but not the dominating lead that I seem to have gotten used to. :-)
We trade some blind steals and re-steals back and forth, and every once in a while play a small pot on the flop. Then:
Stack sizes:
SB: $49595.00
BB: $36505.00
Hero is SB with Tc Td
Pre-flop: (2 players)
SB raises to $6400, BB raises all-in $36505, SB calls $38105.
BB shows Ac 3c
Flop: 9s 4h 2s ($74610, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $73010, Sidepot 1: $1600)
Turn: 2h ($74610, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $73010, Sidepot 1: $1600)
River: 5d ($74610, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $73010, Sidepot 1: $1600)
Results: BB wins $74610 with the wheel
Ouch. OUCH. OUCH! 70% preflop to end the tournament right there. Even after the flop, he had 7 outs twice, and managed to hit one of them on the river. This quite obviously cripples me. I am down to 12290 with the blinds at 1000/2000. and outchipped 7-1. I actually get as far down as 7290 (less than 4 BB, and outchipped 11-1).
Time to grind and hope to get lucky. My blind steals start working. As my stack starts getting a bit higher, I open up the luxury of a limp in the SB, but most of these are punished by a raise from my opponent - far more often than he can have a hand with. Remember this - it will come in handy later.
Then, another gift from the heavens:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $13290.00
BB: $72210.00
Hero is SB with Kc Kh
Pre-flop: (2 players)
Hero calls $2000, BB checks.
Flop: Jc 10c 9c ($4000, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $22000, Hero calls all-in $12290.
BB shows 2h Jh
Turn: 4c ($28580, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $28580)
River: Js ($28580, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $28580)
Results: Hero wins $28580 with a King high flush.
I'm coming back. I have a nice pot when I hit an Ace on the flop to match my one in the hole and then this very fun hand went down:
Stack sizes:
SB: $55920.00
Hero: $29580.00
Hero is BB with 4s 2h
Pre-flop: (2 players)
SB calls $2000, Hero checks.
Flop: 2c 8d 7h ($4000, 2 players)
SB bets $2000, Hero raises to $6000, SB calls $6000.
Turn: 7d ($16000, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $7555, SB folds.
Results: Hero wins $16000 without a showdown.
Now we're getting somewhere. Two more blind steals and a small pot and I regain the chip lead!
We trade another bunch of blind steals, and raises of completed SBs. We trade the chip lead around for a bit, but never get that far from each other. Just jabbing at each other, pretty much, even post flop. Kind of like this:
Stack sizes:
SB: $45365.00
BB: $40135.00
Hero is BB with Td Js
Pre-flop: (2 players)
SB raises to $5000, BB calls $4000.
Flop: 8s 7d 3d ($9000, 2 players)
SB bets $2000, BB raises to $6000, SB folds.
Results: Hero wins $13000 without a showdown.
Cool - the chip lead again. Next hand:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $47135.00
BB: $38365.00
Hero is the SB with Kd Ks
Pre-flop: (2 players)
Hero calls $2000, BB raises to $18000, Hero raises all-in $46135, BB calls all-in $24365.
BB shows 9h Kh
Flop: Qs 9c Ah ($84730, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $84730)
Turn: 4c ($84730, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $84730)
River: 6h ($84730, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $84730)
Results: Hero wins the tournament with a pair of Kings.
As I had mentioned, the SB complete was nearly guaranteed to get raised by him, so I decided to trap him. I'm shocked he called my all-in with K9s, especially given this was the first time I'd come back over the top of one of his BB raises. You can argue I should have either flat called his raise or perhaps raising him less than all-in, but I guess all the chips wound up in the center anyways.
Well, that was a blast, and reminds me why I love the MTT format. I honestly think this is the best tournament I have ever played in terms of moving chips with a variety of hands, based on what I thought my opponents would do in response. As anyone who plays with me knows, I'm not used to playing the big stack, especially not a dominating big stack, and I think I did pretty well with it. I am also proud of the determination I had to come back from the two big setbacks. It was obviously a lot of luck as well, but it would have been easy to "give up" and just go all-in every hand when heads-up and outchipped by 11-1. As I've said before: it is cliche, but true - all it takes is a chip and a (virtual) chair.
Perhaps I will seek out more opportunities to play MTTs again in the future - I truly enjoy the format but don't usually have a 3+ hour whack of time I can devote to playing. But givien my results in both the free ESPN MTTs and the freerolls I've played for money, I may make it a goal to play in a few of them per month, either true freerolls or small-buyin MTTs. After all, if I'm going to make it to the Main Event, I better get some MTT practice in, no? :-)
The play is tight - amazingly tight considering that 7th place pays $65 and winning it all only pays $100. There's really not much difference in payout for anyone else. Weird payout structure, but oh well. I take advantage of this tightness and use my new-found chip lead to steal a bit more than my fair share of blinds.
Then the following gift from the heavens occurs with the blinds at 500/1000:
Stack sizes:
Button: $10970.00
Hero: $23680.00
Hero is BB with 5s Jc
Pre-flop: (7 players)
4 folds, Button raises to $2000, SB folds, Hero calls $2000.
Flop: 7c 5d 5c ($4500, 2 players)
Hero checks, Button is all-in $8970, Hero calls $8970.
Button shows 4d 4c
Turn: Qc ($22440, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $22440)
River: 7d ($22440, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $22440)
Results: Hero wins $22440 with fives full of sevens.
He raises more preflop and I lay that hand down. I was planning on check-raising the flop, but didn't expect him to push. I'll take it, though. I bust out a player and now we're 6-handed. I have twice the number of chips of second place, and over 40% of the chips in play. Very next hand I bust out the short stack to my left who can't even complete their BB. 5 handed now. A few hands later:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $37720.00
BB: $8690.00
Hero is SB with 8c 5s
Pre-flop: (5 players)
3 folds, Hero raises to $4800, BB calls $4200.
Flop: 7d 6s Ad ($9000, 2 players)
Hero bets $3600, BB raises all-in $5690, Hero calls $5690.
BB shows 7h Ac
Turn: 5h ($20380, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $20380)
River: 9c ($20380, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $20380)
Results: Hero wins $20380 with a nine high straight
Redemption - the exact same situation I got sucked out on before: top two pair vs open ended straight draw. This time I did the sucking out, but I figure this is karma working to balance out the other one. The only disappointment is that it wasn't the against the same guy that sucked out on me. This busts out another player, and we're down to 4 handed. I have a 3-1 chip lead on second place, and over half the chips in play.
I keep using my chip advantage to put the pressure on the small stacks. I get rockets in the BB for the second time in the tournament, but it is folded around to me. Damn. A few hands later, I take a chunk out of the second place player's stack:
Stack sizes:
UTG: $10400.00
Button: $14975.00
SB: $41905.00
BB: $19420.00
Hero is SB with Th 9h
Pre-flop: (4 players)
2 folds, SB calls $1200, BB checks.
Flop: 9d Kd 8c ($2400, 2 players)
SB bets $1855, BB calls $1855.
Turn: 2c ($6110, 2 players)
SB bets $3155, BB folds.
Results: Hero wins $9265 without a showdown
The stack is growing bigger. Someone else busts out, and we're three handed. I catch a few hands where I come over the top of an initial raiser (including a QQ that I was begging for a call), but all fold to me. I am stealing with abondon now, and my stack is over 60K. Then:
Stack sizes:
Button: $10565.00
SB: $17775.00
Hero: $57760.00
Hero is BB with Js Kd
Pre-flop: (3 players)
Button raises all-in $10565, SB folds, Hero calls $10565.
Button shows 6h As
Flop: 6c 6d Kh ($21930, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $21930)
Turn: 7d ($21930, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $21930)
River: 10s ($21930, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $21930)
Results: Button wins $21930 with trip sixes.
Oh well - thought it was a good opportunity to get rid of someone. On the very next hand, the guy that won that pot eliminates the other player, and we're heads up. I have a slight chip lead (48K to 40K), but not the dominating lead that I seem to have gotten used to. :-)
We trade some blind steals and re-steals back and forth, and every once in a while play a small pot on the flop. Then:
Stack sizes:
SB: $49595.00
BB: $36505.00
Hero is SB with Tc Td
Pre-flop: (2 players)
SB raises to $6400, BB raises all-in $36505, SB calls $38105.
BB shows Ac 3c
Flop: 9s 4h 2s ($74610, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $73010, Sidepot 1: $1600)
Turn: 2h ($74610, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $73010, Sidepot 1: $1600)
River: 5d ($74610, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $73010, Sidepot 1: $1600)
Results: BB wins $74610 with the wheel
Ouch. OUCH. OUCH! 70% preflop to end the tournament right there. Even after the flop, he had 7 outs twice, and managed to hit one of them on the river. This quite obviously cripples me. I am down to 12290 with the blinds at 1000/2000. and outchipped 7-1. I actually get as far down as 7290 (less than 4 BB, and outchipped 11-1).
Time to grind and hope to get lucky. My blind steals start working. As my stack starts getting a bit higher, I open up the luxury of a limp in the SB, but most of these are punished by a raise from my opponent - far more often than he can have a hand with. Remember this - it will come in handy later.
Then, another gift from the heavens:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $13290.00
BB: $72210.00
Hero is SB with Kc Kh
Pre-flop: (2 players)
Hero calls $2000, BB checks.
Flop: Jc 10c 9c ($4000, 2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets $22000, Hero calls all-in $12290.
BB shows 2h Jh
Turn: 4c ($28580, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $28580)
River: Js ($28580, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $28580)
Results: Hero wins $28580 with a King high flush.
I'm coming back. I have a nice pot when I hit an Ace on the flop to match my one in the hole and then this very fun hand went down:
Stack sizes:
SB: $55920.00
Hero: $29580.00
Hero is BB with 4s 2h
Pre-flop: (2 players)
SB calls $2000, Hero checks.
Flop: 2c 8d 7h ($4000, 2 players)
SB bets $2000, Hero raises to $6000, SB calls $6000.
Turn: 7d ($16000, 2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $7555, SB folds.
Results: Hero wins $16000 without a showdown.
Now we're getting somewhere. Two more blind steals and a small pot and I regain the chip lead!
We trade another bunch of blind steals, and raises of completed SBs. We trade the chip lead around for a bit, but never get that far from each other. Just jabbing at each other, pretty much, even post flop. Kind of like this:
Stack sizes:
SB: $45365.00
BB: $40135.00
Hero is BB with Td Js
Pre-flop: (2 players)
SB raises to $5000, BB calls $4000.
Flop: 8s 7d 3d ($9000, 2 players)
SB bets $2000, BB raises to $6000, SB folds.
Results: Hero wins $13000 without a showdown.
Cool - the chip lead again. Next hand:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $47135.00
BB: $38365.00
Hero is the SB with Kd Ks
Pre-flop: (2 players)
Hero calls $2000, BB raises to $18000, Hero raises all-in $46135, BB calls all-in $24365.
BB shows 9h Kh
Flop: Qs 9c Ah ($84730, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $84730)
Turn: 4c ($84730, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $84730)
River: 6h ($84730, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $84730)
Results: Hero wins the tournament with a pair of Kings.
As I had mentioned, the SB complete was nearly guaranteed to get raised by him, so I decided to trap him. I'm shocked he called my all-in with K9s, especially given this was the first time I'd come back over the top of one of his BB raises. You can argue I should have either flat called his raise or perhaps raising him less than all-in, but I guess all the chips wound up in the center anyways.
Well, that was a blast, and reminds me why I love the MTT format. I honestly think this is the best tournament I have ever played in terms of moving chips with a variety of hands, based on what I thought my opponents would do in response. As anyone who plays with me knows, I'm not used to playing the big stack, especially not a dominating big stack, and I think I did pretty well with it. I am also proud of the determination I had to come back from the two big setbacks. It was obviously a lot of luck as well, but it would have been easy to "give up" and just go all-in every hand when heads-up and outchipped by 11-1. As I've said before: it is cliche, but true - all it takes is a chip and a (virtual) chair.
Perhaps I will seek out more opportunities to play MTTs again in the future - I truly enjoy the format but don't usually have a 3+ hour whack of time I can devote to playing. But givien my results in both the free ESPN MTTs and the freerolls I've played for money, I may make it a goal to play in a few of them per month, either true freerolls or small-buyin MTTs. After all, if I'm going to make it to the Main Event, I better get some MTT practice in, no? :-)
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Journey through a Freeroll
For a little variety, I decided to do a freeroll MTT this afternoon. My brother (QuadMan) seems to be able to find these short-field freerolls that seem to almost be guaranteed money. Today's event was a $1,000 freeroll with only 59 entrants, paying the top 25. Nice, eh? As he likes to point out, that's the equivalent of a $16.95 entrance fee MTT, based on the amount of prize money. Sign me up.
Everyone started with 1500 chips so there was 88500 chips in play. Blinds started at 10/20, so everyone started out with 75 Big Blinds. A tad bit shorter than I like to start, but the blinds rose reasonably slowly after that, leaving some play in the tournament.
I picked up a few medium sized pots early on with some top pair /decent kicker hands, and one with a straight with a possible flush out, so I couldn't push it too hard. Up to a bit over $2000, then the following nice hand:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $2050.00
MP3: $2142.50
Button: $1135.00
Hero is UTG with Qd Td
Pre-flop: (9 players)
Hero calls $50, 3 folds, MP3 calls $50, CO folds, Button calls $50, SB folds, 2 folds.
Flop: 6c 8s Ts ($225, 3 players)
UTG bets $105, MP3 folds, Button calls $105.
Turn: 2d ($435, 2 players)
UTG bets $175, Button calls $175.
River: 3c ($785, 2 players)
UTG checks, Button checks.
Results: Hero wins $785 with top pair.
Nice - increased my stack by almost 40%. That'll do. The tables are quite tight, and I'm taking some small pots and even blind stealing every once in a while, which balances the small losses. Then this went down:
Stack sizes:
UTG+2: $1505.00
Hero (BB): $2155.00
Hero is BB with Kc 10d
Pre-flop: (10 players)
2 folds, UTG+2 calls $150, 6 folds, 6 folds, Hero checks.
Flop: Kd 3c 10c($375, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+2 bets $300, Hero raises to $955, UTG+2 raises all-in $1055, Hero calls $1355.
Hero shows top two pair. UTG+2 shows Qs Js for open-ended straight draw.
Turn: 7s ($2785, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2485, Sidepot 1: $300)
River: 9d ($2785, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2485, Sidepot 1: $300)
Results: UTG+2 wins $2785 with king-high straight.
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. That knocks me down to 800 chips, with the blinds at 75/150, and I have to post 75 as SB. I fold it, and am down to 725 chips. At least that makes my strategy easy - with less than 5 BB, I'm all-in or fold. If I recall correctly, we are just outside the money at this point (30 or less people left).
The big blind comes around, and....
Stack sizes:
MP1: $2935.00
SB: $4065.00
Hero: $525.00
Hero is BB with Qc 9c
Pre-flop: (8 players)
2 folds, MP1 calls $200, 3 folds, SB calls $200, Hero checks.
Flop: 2s Qd Qs ($600, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP1 checks.
Turn:10h ($600, 3 players)
SB bets $200, Hero raises all-in $525, MP1 folds, SB calls $525.
River: 2c ($1650, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1650)
SB shows Qh 8s
Results: Split pot ($825 apiece) with Queens full of Twos.
OUCH. Friggin board pair on the end. Had his trip queens out-kicked and everything. Oh well, at least got some dead money out of the whole thing. I pass through the next blinds with nothing.
Stack sizes:
Button: $4625.00
Hero: $425.00
Hero is SB with AhAs
Pre-flop: (10 players)
7 folds, Button raises to $400, Hero raises all-in $425, BB folds, Button calls $525.
Button shows Ad 7h.
Flop: 7c 4d 10d ($1150, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1050, Sidepot 1: $100)
Turn: 6h ($1150, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1050, Sidepot 1: $100)
River: 6c ($1150, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1050, Sidepot 1: $100)
Results: Hero wins $1250 with Aces and sixes.
My first rockets in the tourney, and they couldn't have come at a better time. But I'm still short stacked - still about 6 BB. Back to work. My BB is folded to me (would have been all-in push anyways with KQ). In my SB, I steal a small pot from QuadMan who happens to be in the BB. Very next hand:
Stack sizes:
MP2: $6242.50
Hero: $1715.00
Hero is Button with Jc Jd
Pre-flop: (8 players)
3 folds, MP2 calls $300, CO folds, Hero raises all-in $1715, 2 folds, MP2 calls $1715.
MP2 shows 3d 3s
Flop: Kc 6h Qd ($3880, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3880)
Turn: 6d ($3880, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3880)
River: 8h ($3880, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3880)
Results: Hero wins $3880 with Jacks and sixes
Whew. Little bit of breathing room now - about 12 BB. Don't pick up anything for abit to be able to call the onslaught of all-ins before I act. Howeverm for whatever reason both of my BBs in this time were folded around to me. Thanks! Picked up a significant chunk of change (about 50% of my stack) on this one with the blinds at 200/400:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $3730.00
BB: $3630.00
Hero is Button with As 6d
Pre-flop: (6 players)
3 folds, Hero raises to $855, SB folds, BB calls $855.
Flop: 6c Ks Kc ($1910, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $855, BB folds.
Results: Hero wins $1910 with no showdown
I do a blind steal or two and bust a small stack all-in with my TT, which puts me up to around 6300 - about 10 BB at 300/600. Amazing to me, as I was down to 525 not that terribly long ago. Somewhere in here, we get down to 10 people. Woooo hooo - final table time! I do an appropriate amount of blind stealing. Then comes the hand that was (essentially) the Hand of the Tournament for me:
Stack sizes:
UTG+1: $2850.00
Hero: $4670.00
BB: $10555.00
Hero is MP1 with Tc Th
Pre-flop: (9 players)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises all-in $2850, Hero raises all-in $4670, 5 folds, BB calls $4670.
BB shows 9c 9d
UTG+1 shows 6s 6h
Flop: Qd 4s Kc ($12590, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $8950, Sidepot 1: $3640)
Turn: 7h ($12590, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $8950, Sidepot 1: $3640)
River: 7c ($12590, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $8950, Sidepot 1: $3640)
Results: Hero wins $12590 with tens and sevens
Wow - way to dodge the two underpairs. This puts me in 4th chip position out of the 8 people left, although the leader only has about 17500, so he's by no means a dominant leader. Few hands later:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $11090.00
BB: $19912.50
Hero is SB with Th Tc
Pre-flop: (7 players)
5 folds, SB raises to $5000, BB raises all-in $19912.5, SB calls all-in $7090.
BB shows Ks Qd
Flop: 4c 2h Ah ($24180, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $24180)
Turn: 3c ($24180, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $24180)
River: 7h ($24180, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $24180)
Results: Hero wins $24180 with a pair of tens
Welcome to the chip lead! I have about a quarter of the chips in play with 7 players left.
Well, this seems like as good a place as any to end this tale for the night. The post is long enough, and I will finish the rest of it soon. Cliffhanger? Likely not, as the only two people who read this blog already knows what happened in the end.....
Everyone started with 1500 chips so there was 88500 chips in play. Blinds started at 10/20, so everyone started out with 75 Big Blinds. A tad bit shorter than I like to start, but the blinds rose reasonably slowly after that, leaving some play in the tournament.
I picked up a few medium sized pots early on with some top pair /decent kicker hands, and one with a straight with a possible flush out, so I couldn't push it too hard. Up to a bit over $2000, then the following nice hand:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $2050.00
MP3: $2142.50
Button: $1135.00
Hero is UTG with Qd Td
Pre-flop: (9 players)
Hero calls $50, 3 folds, MP3 calls $50, CO folds, Button calls $50, SB folds, 2 folds.
Flop: 6c 8s Ts ($225, 3 players)
UTG bets $105, MP3 folds, Button calls $105.
Turn: 2d ($435, 2 players)
UTG bets $175, Button calls $175.
River: 3c ($785, 2 players)
UTG checks, Button checks.
Results: Hero wins $785 with top pair.
Nice - increased my stack by almost 40%. That'll do. The tables are quite tight, and I'm taking some small pots and even blind stealing every once in a while, which balances the small losses. Then this went down:
Stack sizes:
UTG+2: $1505.00
Hero (BB): $2155.00
Hero is BB with Kc 10d
Pre-flop: (10 players)
2 folds, UTG+2 calls $150, 6 folds, 6 folds, Hero checks.
Flop: Kd 3c 10c($375, 2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+2 bets $300, Hero raises to $955, UTG+2 raises all-in $1055, Hero calls $1355.
Hero shows top two pair. UTG+2 shows Qs Js for open-ended straight draw.
Turn: 7s ($2785, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2485, Sidepot 1: $300)
River: 9d ($2785, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $2485, Sidepot 1: $300)
Results: UTG+2 wins $2785 with king-high straight.
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. That knocks me down to 800 chips, with the blinds at 75/150, and I have to post 75 as SB. I fold it, and am down to 725 chips. At least that makes my strategy easy - with less than 5 BB, I'm all-in or fold. If I recall correctly, we are just outside the money at this point (30 or less people left).
The big blind comes around, and....
Stack sizes:
MP1: $2935.00
SB: $4065.00
Hero: $525.00
Hero is BB with Qc 9c
Pre-flop: (8 players)
2 folds, MP1 calls $200, 3 folds, SB calls $200, Hero checks.
Flop: 2s Qd Qs ($600, 3 players)
SB checks, Hero checks, MP1 checks.
Turn:10h ($600, 3 players)
SB bets $200, Hero raises all-in $525, MP1 folds, SB calls $525.
River: 2c ($1650, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1650)
SB shows Qh 8s
Results: Split pot ($825 apiece) with Queens full of Twos.
OUCH. Friggin board pair on the end. Had his trip queens out-kicked and everything. Oh well, at least got some dead money out of the whole thing. I pass through the next blinds with nothing.
Stack sizes:
Button: $4625.00
Hero: $425.00
Hero is SB with AhAs
Pre-flop: (10 players)
7 folds, Button raises to $400, Hero raises all-in $425, BB folds, Button calls $525.
Button shows Ad 7h.
Flop: 7c 4d 10d ($1150, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1050, Sidepot 1: $100)
Turn: 6h ($1150, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1050, Sidepot 1: $100)
River: 6c ($1150, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $1050, Sidepot 1: $100)
Results: Hero wins $1250 with Aces and sixes.
My first rockets in the tourney, and they couldn't have come at a better time. But I'm still short stacked - still about 6 BB. Back to work. My BB is folded to me (would have been all-in push anyways with KQ). In my SB, I steal a small pot from QuadMan who happens to be in the BB. Very next hand:
Stack sizes:
MP2: $6242.50
Hero: $1715.00
Hero is Button with Jc Jd
Pre-flop: (8 players)
3 folds, MP2 calls $300, CO folds, Hero raises all-in $1715, 2 folds, MP2 calls $1715.
MP2 shows 3d 3s
Flop: Kc 6h Qd ($3880, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3880)
Turn: 6d ($3880, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3880)
River: 8h ($3880, 1 player + 1 all-in - Main pot: $3880)
Results: Hero wins $3880 with Jacks and sixes
Whew. Little bit of breathing room now - about 12 BB. Don't pick up anything for abit to be able to call the onslaught of all-ins before I act. Howeverm for whatever reason both of my BBs in this time were folded around to me. Thanks! Picked up a significant chunk of change (about 50% of my stack) on this one with the blinds at 200/400:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $3730.00
BB: $3630.00
Hero is Button with As 6d
Pre-flop: (6 players)
3 folds, Hero raises to $855, SB folds, BB calls $855.
Flop: 6c Ks Kc ($1910, 2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $855, BB folds.
Results: Hero wins $1910 with no showdown
I do a blind steal or two and bust a small stack all-in with my TT, which puts me up to around 6300 - about 10 BB at 300/600. Amazing to me, as I was down to 525 not that terribly long ago. Somewhere in here, we get down to 10 people. Woooo hooo - final table time! I do an appropriate amount of blind stealing. Then comes the hand that was (essentially) the Hand of the Tournament for me:
Stack sizes:
UTG+1: $2850.00
Hero: $4670.00
BB: $10555.00
Hero is MP1 with Tc Th
Pre-flop: (9 players)
UTG folds, UTG+1 raises all-in $2850, Hero raises all-in $4670, 5 folds, BB calls $4670.
BB shows 9c 9d
UTG+1 shows 6s 6h
Flop: Qd 4s Kc ($12590, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $8950, Sidepot 1: $3640)
Turn: 7h ($12590, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $8950, Sidepot 1: $3640)
River: 7c ($12590, 1 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $8950, Sidepot 1: $3640)
Results: Hero wins $12590 with tens and sevens
Wow - way to dodge the two underpairs. This puts me in 4th chip position out of the 8 people left, although the leader only has about 17500, so he's by no means a dominant leader. Few hands later:
Stack sizes:
Hero: $11090.00
BB: $19912.50
Hero is SB with Th Tc
Pre-flop: (7 players)
5 folds, SB raises to $5000, BB raises all-in $19912.5, SB calls all-in $7090.
BB shows Ks Qd
Flop: 4c 2h Ah ($24180, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $24180)
Turn: 3c ($24180, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $24180)
River: 7h ($24180, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: $24180)
Results: Hero wins $24180 with a pair of tens
Welcome to the chip lead! I have about a quarter of the chips in play with 7 players left.
Well, this seems like as good a place as any to end this tale for the night. The post is long enough, and I will finish the rest of it soon. Cliffhanger? Likely not, as the only two people who read this blog already knows what happened in the end.....
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