Poker Blog

I was playing a freeroll satellite tournament on Poker.com, and I finished a respectable 13th. I made some key moves, and some key errors. During this tournament the blinds go up pretty fast, and it is important to play as many hands as possible. When the blinds are going up that fast, you can not sit on a large chip count, because within 20 minutes, that large amount of chips is now a short stack.

When I go back and analyze my play, I can point out one spot where I screwed up. When we were down to less hen 20 players, I was moved to a table with a player who had over 100 000 chips. The blinds were 6000 and he would ALWAYS raise double the big blind before the flop. 80% of the time he would steal the blinds. This player also would raise after every flop, and force a fold. He was playing super aggressive and cause me to fold some hands that would have secured my place at the final table.

The other players at this table also caught on to his aggressive bluff behavior. His 100 000 chip count increased to about 130 000 at the beginning of this aggressive play, but once everyone at the table caught on, he was getting called, and shortly went to 40 000 chips. What I learnt was it is important to isolate aggressive players, and to not be weak. The blinds go up so fast in these types of tournaments, you need to make a move near the end. I also recommend that you switch up your play, and not always be aggressive or slow. The player was caught being aggressive and the style of play was no longer working.

Here are my screens from the event. The first screen show my position before folding a major hand, the second screen shows my exit from the tournament. I ended up going all-in with AJ when I was down to 2 big blinds, the other player had pocket 8's and they held up. I am happy with my play and hopefully my next post will be of my excitement for winning a WPT satellite, knock on wood.

Last night I feel victim to the ultimate bad beat. I ended up 33rd out of 1500, and all this occured when I was in 12th place, and in great position to make it to the final table, and take the win.

What happened was I was waiting for a while to double, if not tripple up to put me into first, which is always a gamble. I was dealt pocket kings, and I felt this was my chance to take it. I was about to slow play it, but 2 other people went all-in preflop. I said I'm taking this triple up, and that would have put me into 1-3rd place, and sitting pretty for the final table competition.

Right before I went all-in, I said to myself the only thing that is better then my poket kings is the bullets (poket aces). I said the chances of this are small so I went all-in.

What I did not know was that I was at a 1% pot odd of winning.

After the cards were turned, one of my opponents also had pocket kings, and the other had pocket aces. The chances of something like this happening are so small, and it knocked me out of the tournament. I was drawing dead from pre-flop, and it was the ultimate bad beat. The player with pocket aces now had over 250 000 chips, 61 000 of them being mine.

When one lives in the online poker realm, they tend to fluctuate between software. At the moment I have latched myself upon Poker.com. I find the software to have the best user interface I have seen yet.

The "graphics" and sound effects are top notch. It really makes a difference that the fine details have been addressed in their interface. Take a look at the screen shot below, they have chosen to use a white racetrack for the poker table. The WPT final table always has a white racetrack. Also look at the hardwood floor. The seemingly high resolution touches really spice up the interface. I have not seen a nicer interface but feel free to direct me towards them.

They also have emoticons, and who doesn't love emoticons. They are humorous, and help me get over bad beats.

Another detail that has enhanced my online poker experience, is the ability to only show one card. I like that little feature, as sometimes I tease my opponents (yes I know your not supposed to show but I can't resist).

These little details that I have mentioned make Poker.com feel like more luxurious software, and its a pleasure to use it. They also have a WPT freeroll on August 28, and entry can be made from a first time $50 deposit. That's a deal I can't resist.

I've been extremely busy lately, but I would like to mention that I am writing a "how to build a poker table" tutorial to add to the great collections of tutorials on the internet.

Here is a sneak peak...

The usual SNG (Sit and Go) on poker software consists of a table, where first, second and third get paid. Everyone who plays SNGs knows how heart breaking it is to finish in 4th place. This is also exaggerated by the bulls-eye that is painted on you as soon your chips did to that dreaded short stack.

When there are 4 people left, and your short stacked, the 3 other players start to team up and try to knock you out. They do this to ensure that they get paid. This is a form of non-pre-meditated collusion, and I see it happen almost every time. No one talks about what there doing, but watch any game when it gets down to 4 people, and you will see that the 3 chip leaders all bully the last place contest.

I guess there is nothing you can do about this except smash your keyboard, but you must always try to stay away from 4th place. When you see there are 5 people left you need to make move, steal some blinds, do anything that will ensure your not that target in the next round. Once everyone is aiming for you, it is extremely hard to succeed, unless of course you have the better hands.

Yesterday was a national holiday in Canada to celebrate Canada's 139th birthday. I was going to post this then, but was a little occupied with everything going on. It was a good day of fireworks, barbecuing, and ice cold beer. It's a good excuse for everyone in the country to party all day.

Happy (late) Canada day everyone.

Short term memory is the part of the brain that remembers events that have occurred within extremely recent intervals. An example of short term memory is if someone has called 411, recieved a phone number, and instead of writing it down, they hung up and tried to re-dial it.

Short term poker memory occurs in multiple places. For me the most recursive place to where short term poker memory occurs is when you fold before the flop, and then try to remember what cards you had. This can be extremely annoying for poker players, and even more frustrating. Full tilt poker lets you remind yourself of what you had, but this is rare. Not many versions of online poker software allow you to remind yourself of what you had before you folded. Forgive me if I am wrong, I haven't checked out every single version out there.

Short term poker memory can be manipulated, and this is seen through people repeatedly checking there cards. People can pretend they have horrendous cards and repeatedly check them, as if to say, "My cards are not good enough to bother trying to remember." This is a trick often seen at the poker table, and watch out for it.

There is also long term poker memory. Many of us try to create this memory at the table, so after a long period of play, players believe they have a grasp on poker styles. The memory of peoples tells, betting patterns, and quirps are associated with long term poker memory. This is an area in the game where players try to manipulate the memory of others. Through repeated bluffs, fake tells, and sporadic betting, they can create an illusionistic impression on the memory of the other players.

Poker is a game where we sit and have fun, but it is also fun to think about what is really going on in our heads.

I would also like to remind everyone that our Poker Face Contest is still running. Submit your listings to facecontest@pairofkings.net and you could win $50, maybe even $100 USD.