So you want to win a satellite ...

Last night I played 2 more satellites and won them both, so I figured I'd just make a strategy post about it in case some of you are wondering how I keep winning sats. I think theres 3 stages in a multitable satellite tourney with multiple seat giveaways. For a one seat sat, just play it like you should in a winner take all tourney. Lets call it the beggining, the middle, and the end. A typical satellite should average around 2hrs. Anything more than 3 is just too long, and probably not worth it.

The Beginning - 1st 1/2hr - 45min
Remember how you were taught never to underestimate your opponent. Well throw that away in this case, satellite players are typically baaad. Theres a good chance that you are the best player at that table, so take advantage of it. See a lot of flops, play it hard when you have it, fold if you don't. No tricky plays, no real bluffs, just build your stack as much you can, you'll need it.

The Middle
I don't know what to really say about this section. I think playing tight aggressive is the way to go here. A lot of players still take a lot of chances here, so there will probably be a few suckouts. Thus the need to build a nice stack from the 1st stage. Stay away from the monster stacks unless you have a real hand. Its easy to take $ from them if you do, but if you don't no reason to try. Same thing with the smaller stacks. Unless you are a monster stack, no reason to eliminate the smaller stacks, let the big guys do the work for you. Just play smart poker here, and prepare for the finale.

The End - Final Table
Usually the final table, or the bubble area. Play this like you would in a bubble stage in a normal mtt. Not the pansy way of just trying to make the $, but the play to win way (except not that aggressive). Once again stay away from bigger stacks, if you don't need to pass them in position, don't battle with them. The player(s) to target are the ones sitting on the last few positions for seats. ie) If 4 seats are given, target the guys in 3rd or 4th. Don't play too many hands though, let others make the mistakes, let others be the hero. There are sometimes when I feel invicible, but end up losing valuable chips when I find out I'm not. If you are one of the short stacks, then just go ahead and target anybody with allin moves with decent holdings. Big stacks will be willing to call you with average holdings so it can be a easy double up. The most important thing in satellites is to know how many seats are awarded, and make sure you play for those seats. You don't need to play for 1st, remember that!

I'm not too good with strategy posts, pretty much just rambling off the top of my head. Good luck though, and hopefully you'll be playing on Sunday!

Right now my weekend tourney schedule looks like this:

Friday
UB Online Championships Event #1

Saturday
Poker.com BPT event (Probably won't end up playing again, saturday is my day away from poker)

Sunday
Sun Poker $50k added
Mansion Poker Dome
Booya Poker CPT Satellite ($1 + WSOP added sats)
UB Online Championships Event #3

Play Update

Just an update on what I've been playing lately. Haven't really been into poker this week at all. Mainly just small tourneys and cash games. Playing some Eurolinx, Ladbrokes, and Sun Poker (Pretty much just to get in the monthly $50k added tourney). Playing 2/4 to 5/10 limit, whatever tables are available, just to keep my limit game sharp. Came out ahead for the week, nothing special though. Didn't cash in any of the tournies I played in, though as I mentioned earlier, my mind just wasn't in it. If your not focused, better off just not playing, its cheaper that way.

What I have been into lately is Final Fantasy XII for the playstation 2. Now I haven't played an rpg or a final fantasy game since probably the playstation 1 one. I can't even remember if I enjoyed rpgs or not. All I can say is that this game is amazing! The graphics can rival any xbox360 game right now, and the storyline has been pretty cool so far. Its a nice change from Gears of War and Splinter Cell that I was playing on the xbox360 before. But my xbox is now a brick, and sent it in for repairs. Should get a replacement back this week sometime. Some stupid fall update microsoft sent out corrupted about 1% of xboxs out there. Mine just happened to be one of them. Why couldn't I have won the lottery instead? Oh wait, lemme check my Super 7 ticket.

A satellite entry = $? WTH is going on?

Finally broke my long draught of not being able to turn hard earned satellite entries into significant cashes. Full Tilt FTOPS Main Event. $500 buyin. approx 2500 entries, 1st place paid out $220k. I played 3 satellites to try to get in, all turbos, and all today. A $4, a $100, and a $24. I got in with the $24, though I played good enough to get in all 3. Bubbled both the 4 and 100, the 100 I took some nasty beats.

Onto the main event. I thought I would finish early. Crippled early when EP min raises, i'm on the BB with K6s. I call. K6J flop. I actually put him on aces after but tried to get him to go over top of me. Didn't work and the river was a J, wasting my top and bottom pair.

Got as low as 1500 and was around 2k by the 1st break. Starting was 3k. Gradually built it up, but my biggest chip gainer was 99 vs AJ on a A9x flop. I played differently this tourney, pretty much just solid poker. Didn't play as many hands as I've been playing lately, but I just didn't get any of those suited connectors that I like.

The rest of the tournament I was what Kugr called "The Dominator" Everytime all my chips or all somebody elses chips went all in, I had them dominated. The only hands where i had to play catchup was AQs vs JJ (smaller stack) and my eventual out hand.

Once I got deeper into the $, I ran out of hands to play. When I got placed at a table with a bunch of big stacks, I became hesitant to steal, pretty much just waiting for hands. Never ended up doubling up again, and eventually lost AKs vs 33. Flop came 33x, and i said good night.

Shipped $1,346 though, which is now my highest online cash winning. I'm still noticing flaws in my game though, especially during late stages if I don't have a nice stack. I guess i'll have to practice making it deeper in more big tournies!

Thanks to the railbirds!

GSP = Ship It!!!

George St. Pierre owns Matt Hughes!
Complete destruction. Can't believe Hughes goes down twice cause a toenail flicked his balls. I don't think anybody can take the belt away from GSP!

This Sunday, I Vow to ...

Win or Big $ in one of these ....

1) Poker.com $20k
2) Mansion Poker Dome Seat
3) PokerStars Million
4) Full Tilt Ftops Event #2
5) Some other tourney > $10k prize pool

Time to step it up, I don't want to be satellite king / big game choker anymore. Last night I won 2 out of 5 tournaments I played. Sounds good, but my take home was 0$. Yeah. As much as I hate spending hours and hours playing an online tourney, I do much better in deeper stack tournies with good blind structures. I can't play Tribecca style tournies at all. Big aggressive moves cost all my chips. Last night in the Booya NHL ticket giveaway, headsup was sick. My buddy was I dunno 15:1 underdog. He came back to take the chip lead, then lost it. Eventually was knocked out TT vs Q8 even though he flopped a set!!!

Tonight or tomorrow i'll post up a Casino/Poker hot bonus post, haven't done that in a while.

And before I go I have to do a quick plug for Poker Source Online. On the service/support side, you just can't compare. If you want a good laugh, go read the eCasinoDeals forum, its a complete joke. That scumbag owner has outstanding orders from like May. He barely responds to support posts. But I think this is the jewel. Those who ordered something simple such as an amazon gc have been surprised to see a poker table top show up at their door instead of their gift card! Talk about cocksucking, this guy instead of spending $ to order gcs, he's unloading his excess inventory. Man this guy fattened his wallet the past few months and is going to bail!! I like taking care of my peeps, pso is the same way, this guy is scum. Spread the word!

One good thing about the ban ...

It looks like Poker Source Online is now opening up the FREE MONEY - NO DEPOSIT REQUIRED promotion to many new INTERNATIONAL customers!




Need to build a bankroll, have never played on Party Poker, do this now!!!

You must live in one of the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden, or the United Kingdom to qualify for this offer.

Showing your hand, sometimes it works!

Last night in the FullTilt $10k, which ended up being almost $20k, I got my ass worked, big time. Nice stack, 2nd highest on the table, about 30/200 at this point, I decide to tango with the table chip leader, Canadian poker pro Lynette Chan.

Blinds 200/400
Lynette raises to $1k in MP.
Me in SB with KQs reraises to 2500.
BB Folds.
She Calles.

Flop: Axx

CB of 2500, she calls.

Turn: Q

I play like whats in between her legs and give up on the hand and check the turn, even though it improves my hand. She bets out, I fold. She shows T9.

That puts me in a sour mood, and I lose my aggressiveness which got me all those chips. Had to settle for bottom level money. Screwed up my Stars 180 games as well which I felt I could have one, settled for 4th. Not very Booya!

Razor Collectables Poker Cards

I dunno why, I bought a box of these off of eBay. Collectable I guess. Not sure why I like to collect things, I just do. Ended up with a Josh Arieh and Chris Moneymaker autographed cards. Yeah.

Collecting sports cards was fun as a kid. Opening these packs up brought back memories.

Dry Action?

How is everybody's experience playing on sites without Americans? Played some Sun Poker cash games, and I thought it was much looser before, even with all the bonus whores. I couldn't get that much action even on the $200nl SH tables. I guess that was a good thing for me though, I ran into 4 sets and a straight flush (with me hold A high flush, a made straight, and a Royal draw). Ended up down for the night, after several consecutive positive cash game results.

Was also hoping that guarantees tournies would stay at the same levels for a bit longer, they havent. Party big sunday is down to $200k, The Sun daily $5k is now $2k, Titan has cut most of their guarantees in half. Not too happy with titan right now, they removed their 8pm est tourney that qualifies for the tournament titan. Now the only weekday tournies are in the afternoon. I complained to them and they said they would put it back, but that was last weekend, and I haven't seen an update to their site yet. Plus their jackpot sitngos take foreever to fillup now, and they've gotten tighter. I think I"m done with those.

Continuing to build my stack

Played some more tourneys last night, but still looking for some good results. Building my stack doesn't seem to be a problem, I guess I'm trying to hold hit. At one point I was in the top 3 in chips in 4 out of 5 tournies. Taking some beats to bring me down though.

Me 10k, Villian 8k. AQ. Flop Axx. Check, Continuation bet, allin. I fold as I'm new to the table. I'm pretty sure I did have the best hand though.
A few hands later, same thing happens with the same villian. Except flop is Qxx. This time I call and he flips over TT. Runner runner flush kills my stack.

So out of the 5 tournies I played, could only cash 2 of them, and only 1 FT worth $200 for my 7th. I'm still sucking in the pokersourceonline league. Omenic won last night. I think I saw every flop last night but couldn't hit a single one.

BTW, got a RAF bonus for Jerry H and Ganesh G for the BetWWTS bet last week. Message me your picks.

Beta Blogger is cool. Instant publishing. My cookies aren't working properly though, so I have to relogon each time.

Attacking the weak during late stages

I haven't done an analysis/strategy post in a while, so here is one and let me know what you think.

My recent chip building tournament strategy has been working pretty good lately. I've had good early success and pretty often have held the chip lead in early to mid stages of an mtt. I'm noticing that my current struggles are in the late mid stages, which I would describe as pre-bubble. Not quite the bubble period, but the portion right before it. Final 3rd table, or if 20 pay, in the 40s, etc...

The hands I'm getting burned on is when I'm being overly aggressive preflop. When I'm sensing weakness in position, with almost any 2, I've been unleashing my fury upon their limped biscuits. Often times I'm fighting weakness with weakness. Normally they fold, but sometimes they call. And lately, they've hit their flops. Perhaps I'm doing it too much, and should be more selective as to hands to do it with. One thing I know I shouldn't be doing but still do it is with Ace rag. I would much rather being doing it with a connected that a hand that I will most likely be dominated if called.

One hand I remember from the weekend, 30 left, and I'm somewhere 5-10th in chips. 2 limpers and I'm on the button with A3. I pop it to a big number (can't remember the exact number but it was more than 2xpot). 2nd limper calls, which tells me most likely holding is a small pp. Flop comes 245, jackpot! Limper bets out, I push, he calls. He had 66 and rivers a 3. Am I making the right reads? yes. Am I playing a good aggressive game? yes. Should I be playing big pots like this to continue building my stack? I dunno, discuss.

Blogger Poker Event#2 Results

Congrats go out to Natsdad and the rest of the $ winners on event#2 of the Blogger Poker Tour Season 2.

Bad Beat Thursday

Wow this night sucked.

Paradise WPT Niagara final, finished in 19th. 1st gets seat, next 3 get 1-5k. I play a pretty good game, have about average stack. Raised preflop the last 2 hands, and then I get JJ. www.ihatejacks.com Regular raise, i get reraised about to about 3x my bet, and I push. He thinks about it for a while, then calls. I hold the Black Jacks, he holds the Reds. Flop = 2 hearts, Turn = Heart, do I even need to tell you the river?

Game #1753334747 - Tournament WPT Niagara - 200/400 No Limit Texas Hold'em - 2006/10/05-22:47:38.2 (CST) Table "WPT Niagara 11" (MTT) -- Seat 9 is the button Seat 1: JINXY_MONKEY (17,585 in chips) Seat 2: actyper (11,401 in chips) Seat 3: ZIGS N ZAGS (17,212 in chips) Seat 4: hobo! (10,034 in chips) Seat 5: Cucumber3 (3,640 in chips) Seat 6: honey earl (9,438 in chips) Seat 7: RIVERYOURASS (28,927 in chips) Seat 8: cannon9ball (6,181 in chips)
Seat 9: big Jim (11,005 in chips)
Seat 10: D SANDT 1 (9,372 in chips)
actyper : Ante (25)
ZIGS N ZAGS: Ante (25)
hobo! : Ante (25)
Cucumber3: Ante (25)
honey earl: Ante (25)
RIVERYOURASS: Ante (25)
cannon9ball: Ante (25)
big Jim: Ante (25)
D SANDT 1: Ante (25)
JINXY_MONKEY: Ante (25)
D SANDT 1: Post Small Blind (200)
JINXY_MONKEY: Post Big Blind (400)
Dealing...
Dealt to actyper [ Jc ]
Dealt to actyper [ Js ]
actyper said, "how u know? :)"
actyper : Raise (1,200)
ZIGS N ZAGS: Fold
hobo! : Fold
Cucumber3: Fold
honey earl: Fold
RIVERYOURASS: Raise (3,000)
cannon9ball: Fold
big Jim: Fold
D SANDT 1: Fold
JINXY_MONKEY: Fold
actyper : Raise (10,176)
RIVERYOURASS: Call (8,376)
Cucumber3 said, "LOL"
actyper said, "nh"
*** FLOP *** : [ 8h 4d 5h ]
*** TURN *** : [ 8h 4d 5h ] [ Ah ]
Cucumber3 said, "UHOH"
actyper said, "no"
Cucumber3 said, "NCIEEEEE"
actyper said, "wtf!"
*** RIVER *** : [ 8h 4d 5h Ah ] [ 4h ]
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: 23,602 | Board: [ 8h 4d 5h Ah 4h ] JINXY_MONKEY lost 425 (folded) actyper lost 11,401 (showed hand) [ Jc Js ] (two pair, jacks and fours) ZIGS N ZAGS lost 25 (folded) hobo! lost 25 (folded)
Cucumber3 lost 25 (folded)
honey earl lost 25 (folded)
RIVERYOURASS bet 11,401, collected 23,602, net +12,201 (showed hand) [ Jh Jd ] (a flush, ace high) cannon9ball lost 25 (folded)
big Jim lost 25 (folded)
D SANDT 1 lost 225 (folded)


Then I try out Eurolinx Tain network, and I loved pokershare. 100% max $200, 4x pp. Use signup code WHORE and account transfer code OCTOBER. I get AA one hand, 2 callers. CB, and I get reraised on a rainbow flop, so I call. He bets out the turn, a 5, I pop, he calls. AA vs 56s. River 5. Another hand I raise with QQ, BB reraises, I push. QQ vs JT. Turn J, River T. Tain is rigged, fuken swedes. -$300 for the night.

Tried a Dise $15r to get into the $500 wpt. Made it far, but no dice.

3rd in my Fort Knox.

Shitty shitty night.

Sept in Review

So Sept is done, and I guess I did ok. I still fell short in my $8k in 2 months target. To be on target I needed to make $3,934. I made $3,544. -10%. I blame a lack of playing time though, as I still had a good $62/hr in 57 total hours. What was disappointing was my MTT figures. A bunch of cashes, final tables, a 2nd, a win, but no major wins. Couldn't break 4 digits in any of them. The good thing was that I was a plus on all the categories, cash games, sit n gos, mtts, casino, and others. I guess extra $ for sportsbetting helped!

Do I think I'm going to hit my target, I dunno. I don't think I'm going to be able to play today, none next sunday for sure (Thanksgiving), and not too sure about the following sunday as well. Might have to play some bigger friday tournies instead then.

Good luck gambling in October, and a big FAWK YOU to all republicans who are backing this ban!

Weekend Update

Big Sunday Tournament day was pretty much a disappointment

Results
1) PokerShare $25k $100 - Busted when Ace high flush chased a runner runner.
2) Paradise $40k $30R&A - Busted short of $. 1 Beginning rebuy, 1 addon.
3) PokerShare $5k $50 - Busted out 8th. JTs vs J9. I went allin with with 2 ragged flop and 2 diamonds on the board. Didn't improve.
4) Titan $3k $10 - Busted out 15th. Should have had my 2nd straight Final Table for that Titan Tournament promotion. AK vs AT, all in preflop. I was 14/15 but everyone was pretty close. 4 to a flush did me in. This pissed me off.
5) Mansion Poker Dome Final - Busted out 36th. No hands to talk about, I just never hit any flops.
6) Dream Poker Cash - I suck, lost $100. Never again will I play a Prima cash game, I promise this time. Only reason I did this time was for that $15k freeroll.
7) Pinnacle - $50 on the Giants +3. Eli pulls it off in the 4th qtr!

Good and bad results, was about -$115 on Sunday. With regards to my $8k 2 month target, I'm still slightly ahead. Actually doing pretty well considering all the days I haven't been playing. Only played 4/7 days this week. On a $36/hr rate. I still need a nice tourney win though.

1 Down 2 to Go

Titan Poker has a promo right now, if you Final Table 3 of their specified tournies in a row, you are entered into a $1million 20seat tourney with $25k guaranteed. Interesting promotion, though I think it may take a while for the 20 seats to fill up. Well I played my 1st one tonight, finished a nice 2nd for $400ish. It was only a $10 $2k guaranteed. I think I was the best player at the final table, I kept mixing it up. Would have had a commanding chip lead if dude had not decided to call my allin preflop with his KTs against my JJ. That put me at the low range of stacks, but I fought back up. The eventual winner was Mr. A Rag, I dunno how many times he got lucky with that. When it came to headsup he had a 3.5:1 advantage. My eventual outage was K8 vs AK. K8x on the flop, slowplayed it to the river. River produced an A. I'm out, oh well.

Also managed to qualify for the Mansion Poker Dome Final again this sunday. My PokerStars WCOOP qualifiers were a different story though. Busted out in 3 of them, including one rebuy one which I thought would be a cinch. I was doing pretty good, but then I realized it was a turbo one. I had a nice stack after the addon, but didn't realize how fast the blinds were moving up. Was playing 4 other tables at that time, and I just screwed it up. I don't think I'll be playing WCOOP this year. Not ready to directly buyin to the events, hopefully next year.

Duck, Duck, Duck, Goose!

Actually it was more like, Bubble, Bubble, Bubble, Win! for me last night.

Bubbles
1) WPTOnline Canadian Poker Open satellite (stt). Top 2 move to the next stage, 3rd gets $ back. I came 3rd. No biggie, went in with short stack, outkicked with Qx.

2) Bluffers League (small mtt). Top 3 pay. Came in 5th. Big hand, AK lost to KJ when KJ flopped broadway. Next hand pushed with QJ, called with 98s. Flopped an 8.

3) Poker Savvy Freeroll (small mtt). Top 3 pay. Came in 5th. KQ vs K2s. Buddy calls my pf raise, Q high + 2 hearts on the table. He pushes, I call. River Heart. GG

Wins
1) Poker in Canada WPT Niagara satellite (stt). Won, moved on to stage 3 ($210). I had 1 suckout TT vs QQ. Most of the other times my better hands held up.


I should have cashed in those mtts though, was playing well enough to.

The Good and the Bad

Here is my weekend recap

Good
MTT play: Played in 6 mtts over the weekend and cashed in on 4 of them.
- Empire $20k - 200ish/2500. Bottom of the $
- PokerShare: $10 rebuy. Finished 11th. $80
- Mansion Poker Dome Final: Finished 7th. $144. Top 2 would have gotten seats.
- Stars WCOOP sat (limit): Busted midway
- Paradise WPT Qualifier - won rebuy mtt
- Paradise WPT Final - Finished 90th

I started to get into rebuy tournies, and so far im 2for2. Not going to try out the big ones yet as I don't think I've played enough yet, but I'm liking them now. I think the key is to pickout the crazy rebuyers. Those who are going to always rebuy, and for some reason only rebuy the 1 buyin. I think I knocked out the same guy 5 times to build up my stack. Was calling and pushing him with garbage where I knew I would still have the edge. Ace rags, or if I made a pair on the flop I would still push him as I knew he would call with nothing.

I also played a couple home games on saturday at a friends BBQ. Won both of those! :)


Bad
So I've gone pretty deep in my mtts lately, problem is I'm not winning. Making good decisions and picking my spots. Dissappointed in my mansion result, considering the field I should have won a spot on the show. Crippled myself early, then got back up, then back down with TPTK when I tried isolating the opener, and last to act pushed with his set. Odds forced me to call. One of the eventual seat winners was a donkey. He was my doubleupper. Though he was also the one who decided to call with his 66 underpair with 5 overcards and I was playing like I had paired my Ace.

With the Paradise event, I just couldn't hit any flops. The only big hand I would have won is with TT. EP standard raise, I call in MP, LP big raise, EP push, I fold, LP call. AA vs KK. T on the flop. I eventually went out AKs vs TT. 2 hearts on the flop, but I couldn't hit either the turn or the river. Goodbye. I think this tourney started too late, 10pm on a Sunday night.

The PokerShare rebuy tourney I felt I should have won as well. Was playing good, but the blinds just got too high. Was a turbo game. Lost 1/2 my stack with TT vs AK (weird, I lost on both sides of this scenario). That left me with 2M. Tried to steal with someone who just had me covered, didn't work.

Conclusion
I'm planning to play some Real $ events this week. My plan is too only Sat into "Live events" and buy directly into $ events to save time. Other than big $ events, $500+. I'll still play Pokerstars Double Shootouts though, I think they are still worthwhile. I decided not to play the Stars 1mil this week just due to the start time of the Paradise WPT. 4pm was my Pokerdome and 10pm for the WPT event. I'd be playing all day and would be worn out at 10. Will definately be playing more Rebuy events as well. Try it out, I used to hate them, but they are growing on me.

Hopefully all the emails of encouragement will help me out ...

"Good luck actyper!" - stupid spammers

RIP Steve Irwin

RIP Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter. Crikey thats some terrible news, I enjoyed watching his programing. I think that if I grew up in Australia, I'd be very much like him. I'm an animal lover, especially the dangerous and reptillian variety. At least he left the earth doing something he loved.

I shouldn't have played yesterday. 4-5hrs of pretty much wasted time. Finished at break even, +/-$5 or so. What a waste of time. Should have stuck to playing some new xbox game I picked up, Saints Row. Supposed to be some Grand Theft Auto clone/killer. Pretty cool so far, just finished stealing ho's from other pimps. My character doesn't really look like me though, not like Tiger Woods where I could make it pretty close.

Minor Day 2 & 3 + Ben's out!

Not much play the last 2 days, had stuff to do. About 2 hrs alltogether. -$43 in cash games, +$72 from 2 Titan Rios, and +$70 from InterCasino.

$351 Total
$393 Target
-11% to Target. Not playing hurts.

On a side note, get your hedges in for the Mansion bet. Ben Roethlisberger is going to miss the season opener! Unless you have faith in Charlie Batch. :)