Pokerstar's Sunday Football Tournament

I just played in one of the Pokerstar's Sunday Football Tournaments. Free entry with a reload deposit. It was A $11 buy-in and 5118 entrants and $51,180 prize pool. On top of that the winner receives 2 foot ball tickets to the biggest game on earth and $1000 for travel expenses.



I picked up some huge hands early on and was 2nd place in chips for most of the tournament. I bullied a lot of the table with my big stack and by the time they called I could take a hit to my stack or I had a good hand! Like in this hand, this guy finally took a stand with J9 suited but I had pocket rockets!



Then I have problems with my wireless internet connection, it kept cutting out every 2minutes for 40 seconds. I think the card was overheating so I'm trying to cool it down by blowing on it. That didn't help much. On 2nd break, I unplug the computer and take directly to internet router and try to plug it in but it doesn't work, break is over and continue to use wireless. It's working a little better..

With about 200 players remaining, I lose a coin flip, AK vs QQ. Then I win a big pot when I double up with 99 vs. AK. On third break, I clicked reset "repair internet conection" or something like that and now my wireless doesn't work either! I have something like 120k chips, in a good spot, blinds at 4k/8k. I turn off router and internet, it takes 15 minutes to get it working again..At this point I'm so mad because I had a good chance at a few thousand, if not 9k and 2 football tickets. When I log back in I have just over 16,000 chips. I triple up to 50k and next hand I pick up AJ. I go all in and instantly get called by QQ and I don't hit. If I win that hand, I'd have $125k and be in a good spot to win it.



So, I'm not really happy with 56th place for $84.44 when 7th place broke the $1k mark..But it was nice to play because I haven't played in a while. Maybe next time.

Anyway, here are 3 interesting hands:

First hand, two guys are always limping in so I go for the squeeze play with Ace 6 suited. I raise pretty big too, to 900 when they limped in for 200. They both call and I hit a nice flop! I go for a small continuation bet of 1200 hoping they reraise. I get 1 caller. Great turn card and I bet 2500 he goes all in with just a gut shot.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 11 Tournament, 100/200 Blinds (9 handed)

saw flop | saw showdown

UTG (t1225)
UTG+1 (t5275)
MP1 (t1757)
MP2 (t4630)
MP3 (t2910)
CO (t8390)
Button (t3500)
SB (t1800)
David (BB) (t12760)

David's M: 42.53

Preflop: David is BB with A, 6
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t200, 3 folds, CO calls t200, 2 folds, David bets t900, UTG+1 calls t700, CO calls t700

Flop: (t2800) J, A, A (3 players)
David bets t1200, 1 fold, CO calls t1200

Turn: (t5200) 9 (2 players)
David bets t2500, CO raises to t6200, David raises to t9900, CO calls t90 (All-In)

River: (t17780) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t17780
Main pot: t17780 between CO and David, won by David

Results:
David had A, 6 (three of a kind, Aces).
CO had K, Q (one pair, Aces).
Outcome: David won t17780


--------------------------------------------------------


I just won the last two pots by raising 1800 and I do it again with KQ suited. I get called this time and he bets out into me on the flop. I hit top pair of queens, great flop. I call because I have position, it's possible he has a better hand than me and I want to see what he does on the turn. On the turn he checks so I check to for pot control, I don't really want to bet and get check raised all in. And if I check the turn he may think I think I'm a lot weaker than I am. On the river he bets out 3000 and there is no reason for me to go all in because he's usually only calling with a better hand.



PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 11 Tournament, 300/600 Blinds 50 Ante (9 handed)

saw flop | saw showdown

MP1 (t7995)
MP2 (t4476)
MP3 (t15723)
CO (t1280)
Button (t6985)
SB (t14866)
BB (t6160)
UTG (t19464)
David (UTG+1) (t34450)

David's M: 25.52

Preflop: David is UTG+1 with K, Q
1 fold, David bets t1800, 5 folds, SB calls t1500, 1 fold

Flop: (t4650) 6, Q, 9 (2 players)
SB bets t2400, David calls t2400

Turn: (t9450) 8 (2 players)
SB checks, David checks

River: (t9450) 5 (2 players)
SB bets t3000, David calls t3000

Total pot: t15450
Main pot: t15450 between SB and David, won by David

Results:
SB had A, J (high card, Ace).
David had K, Q (one pair, Queens).
Outcome: David won t15450


---------------------------------------------------------------


Here's another interesting hand. I should have check raised all in on the flop..Maybe he would have folded.


PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, 11 Tournament, 1000/2000 Blinds 200 Ante (8 handed)

saw flop | saw showdown

UTG (t19647)
UTG+1 (t21310)
MP1 (t27677)
MP2 (t51148)
CO (t25920)
Button (t28734)
SB (t35128)
David (BB) (t77265)

David's M: 16.80

Preflop: David is BB with 5, 4
2 folds, MP1 bets t5000, 4 folds, David calls t3000

Flop: (t12600) 7, Q, 4 (2 players)
David checks, MP1 bets t6000, David raises to t14000, MP1 raises to t22477 (All-In), David calls t8477

Turn: (t57554) A (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t57554) 3 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t57554
Main pot: t57554 between MP1 and David, shared by MP1 and David (t28777)

Results:
David had 5, 4 (one pair, fours).
MP1 had 5, 4 (one pair, fours).
Outcome: David won t28777, MP1 won t28777



Bonuses:
- Free $100 Bankroll at Pokerstars
- Free $150 Bankroll at Titan Poker

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I finally bought the book Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen. I wanted to read it for a long time (I haven't received it yet, it's still in the mail). I also bought The Picasso Flop, co-writtened by Vince Van Patten (Co-host alongside Mike Sexton on WPT Tour).



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Bonuses:

- Free $100 Bankroll at Pokerstars

- Free $150 Bankroll at Titan Poker











Bonuses:

- Free $100 Bankroll at Full Tilt Poker

- 378% Rakeback at Full Tilt Poker

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Rush Poker At Full Tilt Poker

An interesting new style of poker is "Rush Poker". It seems to be quite popular







Here is how it works:

Unlike a standard ring game, when you play Rush Poker you’ll join a large player pool and face a different table of opponents every hand you play. When you fold your hand, you’ll immediately be moved to a new table for your next hand.

“Rush Poker is the greatest innovation in online poker since poker started on the Internet,” said Team Full Tilt member Chris Ferguson. “Rush Poker is an amazingly fast-paced game. You always have a decision to make; you’re never waiting for other players to finish the hand.”



Multitaqbling is





Now, the problem with this is that there's a new table everyhand with different players so you can't really get a read on your opponenets. Another problem is the blinds are all over the place, for example, one hand you may be under the gun, the next hand you may be cut-off position but I'm sure Full Tilt has made a system where you averge out the 1.5 blinds every round.

















Bonuses:

- Free $100 Bankroll at Full Tilt Poker

- 378% Rakeback at Full Tilt Poker

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Cake Poker Buys T.J. Cloutier’s WSOP Bracelet On Ebay

One of the team members at Cake Poker bought T.J. Cloutier 2005 World Series of Poker $5K No Limit Bracelet for $4006 on ebay. There were 8 bids on the bracelet, starting at $2999 and finishing at $4006. The Cake Poker member put an auto-bid on the item so it looks like they were willing to pay a lot more than $4000 for it. There is a post on Cake Poker Blog about Cake Poker buying the bracelet: Cake Poker Discovers the Joys of eBay. They do not directly say they bought the item but there are enough clues including the Tags on the post "Tags: ebay, wsop, tj cloutier".

T.J. Cloutier confirms the bracelet is indeed from his 2005 WSOP win. He told this to Hardcore Poker Show

“I don’t want to talk about it… Yeah its mine… I was short… I pawned it…. I tried to get it back with my ticket but i was too late”

I feel kind of sorry for Cloutier but he shouldn't be pawning his WSOP bracelet(s)..I just noticed this is on the auction page:

"Please see our other auctions for another one of Mr. Cloutier's Championship Bracelets!"

I wasn't able to find the other auction. Here is a link to the original 2005 World Series of Poker $5K No Limit Bracelet auction on Ebay. Note: The auction is private so you need an ebay account to view it. I took a screenshot of the auction(Image to the left)



Bonuses:
- Free $100 Bankroll at Pokerstars
- Free $150 Bankroll at Titan Poker

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Funniest Poker Quotes

Here are some of my favourite poker quotes from some of my favourite poker pros!

Sam Grizzle: "You can spend your money the way you want to and ill spend somebody else's money the way I want to"

Gus Hansen: Clonie: "I have an above average hand" Gus: "I have an above average something too" Gus: "Do you know that good old saying?" Daniel Negreanu: "Which one?" Gus: "F*** you"

Mike Matusow: "Only a donkey would make that call" "poker 101 - never bluff to an idiot" "Just call me Bossman"

What are your favourite poker quotes?


Bonuses:
- Free $100 Bankroll at Pokerstars
- Free $150 Bankroll at Titan Poker

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Seventh Street Decisions in Seven-Stud - Keith Sexton

A few weeks ago, I offered some pointers for playing fourth steet in Limit Seven-Card Stud. For this tip, I'm going and show how you might improve your play on seventh street.

My first suggestion for playing on seventh street is that you need to look at your pot odds when facing a final bet. When playing $5-$10 Stud, for example, you'll often need to call a $10 river bet while looking at a pot of $70. In this spot, where you're getting 7:1, if you have any suspicion that your hand is good, you really ought to call. The odds are so favorable that throwing away a lot of marginal hands would be a mistake. This is very different from no-limit poker, where you'll need to make some big laydowns late in a hand. If you're making the transition from No-Limit Hold 'em to Limit Stud, keep this very important point in mind.

Some of the tougher decisions on seventh street arise when you're holding one pair. Let's say you start with a pair of 6s and your opponent open-raises with a King as his door card. He bet all the way, representing a pair of Kings, and you called. Neither of you seemed to improve on fourth, fifth or sixth streets, and he bet out on the river.

At this point, you can be fairly certain that he doesn't have a pair of Kings. Most people don't have the heart to bet one pair on the river. So, in this case, you're likely up against something like Kings up, some sort of hidden hand, or a total bluff. Given this range of hands - and knowing that a bluff is a possibility - you should make the final call. You'll pick off a bluff enough of the time to make the call profitable.

I want to point out here that, since it's proper to call with a lot of marginal hands, betting with one solid pair on the river is often a good idea. If you start with something like a pair of Kings and your opponent doesn't seem to catch anything, don't be timid on the river. Oftentimes, you should bet, knowing that a lesser hand is likely to call.

Now, let's look at another river situation. Let's say that after the river has been dealt, you have Q 10 9 8 with three clubs showing. You made a straight on the river after your opponent has been aggressively betting his hand the entire way, showing Ad Kd 9s 6h.

After betting into your hand on sixth street, he again bets into your hand on seveth street. In this situation, you have to think about what your opponent is betting into. Most players will not bet into such a scary board with one pair or even two pair.

We have to assume that our opponent is either bluffing with a weak hand and is unconcerned with our hand, or has a huge hidden hand and is hoping to get three bets on the river. This could be a situation where you might just call, especially if there is a third hand behind you who might over-call with a marginal hand that he would fold if you had raised.

When playing Limit Stud, be sure that you're making enough value bets and crying calls on the river. Keep the pot odds in mind and you're likely to make the right play.

Bonuses:
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Major Flaw at Lucky Ace Poker/ Pacific Poker Network

A while I posted about how Lucky Ace Poker/ Pacific Poker Network takes money from inactive accounts, which they call "administration" fees. To make things worse, they also take your bonus dollars (Money which you have to wager before withdrawing) and they make you work off the pending bonus before you can withdraw even though they took the bonus dollars.

For example:

I had $25 bonus dollars in my Lucky Ace Poker account. $20 of it was taken for "administration" fees while I was inactive. Now, before I withdraw, I have to wager enough to clear the $20 but when I complete the requirements, I do not get to keep the $20..

No pokerroom should be able to do this, it's just plain wrong. I suggest everyone stay away from Pacific Poker Network... you can see what network pokerrooms are on at http://www.pokerscout.com/PokerSites.aspx

Bonuses:
- Free $100 Bankroll at Pokerstars
- Free $150 Bankroll at Titan Poker

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