December 20, 2008 by Dango.

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

The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.

Registration code: 935544

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December 20, 2008 by Dango.

Well, the Fall leagues are all but done and I thought I’d give you a rundown of various stats for the two leagues.

Fall Flush League
10 NL hold’em games, 5 Random “other” games. Cost of each game $5.50
Top 6 HE + top “Other” count toward the final standings
I ended up playing all 10 HE and 4 of the 5 “Others”
During these matches, I managed to cash in 4 tourneys.
5th
2nd
1st
3rd in Omaha H/L

This put me in 3rd place, down 1 from 2nd place with one game to go. The only way to move up was to win the last tournament, unfortunately, it was Heads Up Omaha, and I lost in the first round, it was a good match, a lot of back and forth, ultimately, my flopped set of 10s ran into his flopped set of 8s, and after we both go all in on the turn, the river gives him his straight, and I’m done.

Total cost to play – 14 games x $5.50 = $77
Total cash winnings (approx.) — $135
Total PSO points earned
1 Bounty –2000
Tourney finishes - 8000
3rd place overall - 10000
Total PSO points earned 20000

Fall Full House League
10 NL hold’em games, 5 Random “other” games. Cost of each game $5.50
Top 6 HE + top “Other” count toward the final standings
I ended up playing 9 of the HE and 2 of the “others” with one “other” game left this Wednesday.
During these matches, I managed to cash in 5 tourneys
1st
2nd
2nd
2nd
4th

This put me in second place going into the last game, which was a NL HE game.
Because it was only the top 6 finishes that count toward your standings, here is the scenario.
My 6th best finish so far was a 20th, Wungee (currently in first place) had a 11th as his sixth best finish.
I was 4 points behind in the standing.
This meant that I needed to finish at least 15th, and Wungee to finish 11th or worst to win.
OR
If Wungee passed the 11th spot, I needed to stay in and NOT finish more than 5 spots behind him. (if I finish 5th, Wungee can’t beat me even with a 1st place finish)

Game was on, 33 players, I managed to get up to around 3000 chips early on, but once the tables merge, Wungee comes to my table, and he has 5600 chips, crap. We hit the first break, and Wungee goes into sitting out mode. And that’s where he stayed. I guess he decided that he had enough chips to outlast me to a Full House League win.
We keep playing, I never really pass the 3000 chip mark, we are down to 15 players, and I have around 2000 chips. Wungee, still sitting out, still has 4800.
14 players – Dango 2000 chips
13 players – Dango 1400 chips
12 players – Dango 1500 chips
11 players – Dango 1300 chips
10 players – Dango 1300 chips, moves all in with A7, gets called by Jeff’s good buddy Potripper who holds 44, I don’t hit, and I’m out in 10th spot. This means that Wungee needs to finish 5th or better, and he wins.

9 players – Wungee 4400 chips (still sitting out)
8 players – Wungee 3800 chips.(still sitting out)
7 players – Wungee 3300 chips (still sitting out)

With 8 players left, blinds are 100/200 with 25 ante. Wungee, sitting out, is 6th in the standings. Short stacks are around 2300 each.
Chips keep moving around, a short stack goes all in and wins, Blinds move up to 200/400, 50 ante. Wungee still has 1800 chips, Chips move around the table, a few rounds go by, 7 players left, Wungee has 175 chips. He is SB, he is all in, he loses, he is out 7th spot.

Not sure if I agree with his strategy, or if something happened that he could not play anymore, but he is out in 7th, and that means that I beat him by 3 points in the standings. His best “other” game is a 2nd, so on Wednesday; he can only gain 1 point.

Down to the wire for this one, but in the end, I managed to pull out a win.

Total cost to play – 11 games x $5.50 = $60.50 (add $5.50 if I end up playing on Wed.)
Total cash winnings (approx.) — $200
Total PSO points earned
2 Bounty – 4000
Tourney finishes - 11000
1rd place overall - 20000
Total points earned - 35000

First place also gives me a Sunday Millions Ticket ($215)

Probably the best deal in the PSO store is $100 Best Buy Canada Gift Card for 8200 PSO points. With a Best Buys opening up in Moncton soon in the Trinity area, I think this is what I’m going to get.

Both league stats
Total buyins $137
Total Cash win $335
Total PSO points won 55000
Total BB GC available to purchase $650
Sunday Million Ticket $215

Total profit $1063

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

May 15, 2008 by Dango.

Went to the May 2008 finals at Dooly’s Elmwood Drive,

We had 164 runners, and managed to finish 9th. (see detail at http://nevertilt.com/teamnevertilt/?p=594 )

Congrats to Jeff for taking my chips and getting a cool 2nd place finish.

Posted in Dooly's Tournaments | 1 Comment »

November 22, 2007 by Dango.

Last Saturday was the 3rd game of season 3, and my last live tourney was at doolys over a week ago, where I played one hand, where my AK was beaten by 10 3, anyway, to the tourney.

Lise had decided to let me drink tonight and she would drive, so I brought a mix of beer, Smirnoff Ice and Sour Puss, and sat down to play.

For the first time this season, I was not at a table with Jeff and Scott, but Tim, Annie, Angie, Tina and Shane were all at my table, once again, a tough table to be at to start a tourney.

Played a normal game at first, saw a few flops, won with a few bets, never involved in a big pot or anything like that, witnessed the first LPT Royal Flush over Annie’s flopped straight.  First big hand I played, I called Angie’s all-in with a short stack with AK, Angie had KQ, flop comes up 5 A A, but the turn and river are J and 10 for Angie’s straight, I lose 700 chips, but still over with close to 2000.

The table breaks up and I’m now sent upstairs.  Normal play continues until this hand.
Blinds 100/200, I’m in the BB, 5 callers to me, I look down and find AA, so I raise 1500 more, this eliminate 4 of the five limpers with only Patsy calling.
Flop 8 K 8, 2 clubs,
I am first to act, and the pot is 4000, and I have 1700 left, I move all-in, If Patsy has the K, she will call, if she has the 8, oh well, that’s life, anything else, she folds, and I win a big pot.
Patsy calls, and turns over Ah 10h, wow, oh well, that’s even better for me, turn and river don’t help her, and I win a huge pot.

A few hands later, Blinds are 150/300, I raise to 900 with JJ
I get 2 callers, and the flop is J Q 5, I’m first to act, and with just about 3000 in the pot, I bet out 2000. I get one caller.
Turn is an Ace, and I move all-in. Jeff, who is still in the hand has a little bit less chips than me, but if he wins this pot, I will be left with under 1500 in chips.
Jeff thinks about it, analysing everything, at this point, I know i’m ahead, because if he had the straight, or even a set of Aces or Queens, he would have already called. But depending on what he has, he could still draw out on my, so if he folds, I’m ok with that too, this is already a very big pot.
He then asks me if he folds, will I show my hand, I say yes, then immediatly say no, in all honesty, I would have shown him if he folded, but he ended up calling with KQ for a pair of Queens and a straight draw. He doens’t improve on the river, and I eliminate Jeff and take down a huge pot. He later told me that my Yes then No answer actually made him call, if I would have just said yes, he probably would have folded knowing I had a great hand and would be willing to show it.

A few hands after this one, we eliminate a few people and we are now down to the final table.
I sit down with Tim to my left, the only guy at the table with more chips than me. Everyone else has about half my stack, I feeling very confident at this point, I feel i’m at the top of my game, and this in my tournament to win, nothing can stop me now.

Then this happened.

Blinds are 400/800 I think at this point, but I raise 1500 more, Tim, sitting to my left re-raises 2000 over my 1500, everyone folds back to me, and it cost me 2000 in a pot of over 6000 and I have 88.
Flop comes up A 8 X, and I’m first to act, seeing that Tim re-raised me pre-flop, I’m sure if I check, he will bet, and I can trap him with a re-raise.
I check, Tim bets out 4000, I quickly move all-in, another 7000 over his bet, Tim insta-calls, at first, I put him on AK, AQ, maybe even KK or QQ something like that, all those hands, he would have probably played the same way pre-flop and post flop, but with the insta-call, I knew he had more than top pair…..
once again, flopped set for me, against flopped set of Aces for Tim.

That one hurt…one unlucky hand, and I come tumbling down the mountain.
Oh well, if it’s any silver lining, I still feel my game was good, and the last hand couldn’t have been played out any differently.

Final table keep playing, players getting eliminated, Lise gets eliminated on the bubble, Serge beats out Tim heads up to take his first ever LPT championship.

Congrats to Serge for his victory.
See you all in December.

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November 6, 2007 by Dango.

Dooly’s held their big finals for the Elmwood Drive, Mountain Road, St Stephens, Oromocto doolys this past Saturday at the Elmwood drive location, and me and Lise decided to go.  Here are some details.

Cost $70
Players : 104
Starting stack :4000
Blinds:
25/50 - 1 hour
50/100 - 30 minutes
100/200 - 30 minutes (the rest are all 30 minutes)
200/400
300/600
400/800
500/1000
600/1200
700/1400
800/1600
1000/2000
1500/3000
2000/4000
3000/6000
4000/8000
5000/10000
etc.

With 4000 in starting chips and the blinds at 25/50, you’d think that people would be playing tight at first, with low blinds and a big starting stack, but no, people see the big starting stack and decide that it means that they just need to raise more preflop, kinda defeats the purpose of a big starting stack and small blinds, but whatever, so in the first hour, the minimum raise preflop is 250, 5 times the BB, so you get 3 other callers, you now have a 1000 pot preflop, which is 25% of your stack, and the blinds are only 25/50.

Anyway, I played it really tight / aggressive to start, never really getting involved in many pots, and winning a few blinds along the way. By the time we get through half the field, I have yet to pass the 4000 starting chip count, but i’m still ok with around 3000 chips and the blinds at around 200/400.

Lise gets eliminated around 40th spot, and I actually for the first time pass the 4000 chip count and bring it up to around 8500 by the time the chips get to 500/1000.

This next hand happened when I was in the BB with 66. Everyone folds to the button who raises to 3000, SB calls, and I call.
Flop = A K J
SB check, I check and the Button Checks
Turn = 6
SB checks, I push my remaining 5500.
After a few minutes of guessing my hand, “he must have 2 pairs…..I don’t think he would have called my preflop raise with a 6, he must have flopped 2 pairs…..or the straight……” the button folds, and the SB folds, and I bring my stack up to around 15000.

The next few rounds, I pretty much hit everything I need, steal a few blinds, call the short stack push on my BB with 86os cause it was only 1500 more to call and hit my 8 on the river, and after all it said and done, i’m up to around 30 000 chips, and chip leader at the table.

The next couple of hours go by, and we get down to top 18, and I’m sitting with around 40 000 chips, and one of the chip leaders. The field keeps thinning out, but I don’t get too many good hands along the way, we end up at the final table, top 10 players and I still have around 50 000 chips (top 10 places pays) so now we are all in the money.

With blinds at this point 4000/8000, and most people with 30000 to 50000 chips, it’s pretty much all-in or fold. Not a good time to be card dead, but there I was, card dead at the final table. After a few rounds of folding, we lose 3 players, and I’ve pretty much been blinded out, having only 13000 chips left, blinds are at 5000 / 10000. I finally get my first good hand, AQ, I push, and everyone folds to the BB, only 3000 to call, or course she calls, J2os
Flop 2 8 2 ouch….I’m done.

7th place, out of 104 players, my best ever live finish by far. $350 prize for my troubles.

Here are the top 10 finishers and their payouts.

1- Diane Landry Elmwood Drive $1000 cash + Trip (Airfare, Hotel + $1000 Seat in tournament)
2- Ashley Atwin Oromocto $600 cash + Trip (Airfare, Hotel + $600 Seat in tournament)
3- Deanna Richardson St. Stephen $1000
4- Patty Reade Amherst $800
5- Marc Gallant Elmwood Dr. $600
6- Melodie Dufour Mountain Rd. $400
7- Dan Goguen Mountain Rd. $350
8- Jennifer Hargreaves Amherst $200
9- Julie Pham Mountain Rd. $150
10- Ray Rouse Sussex $100

Posted in Dooly's Tournaments | 3 Comments »

October 12, 2007 by Dango.

Went to Dooly’s last night for my weekly poker fix, we had a field of 36 people.  Both me and Lise went to this weeks tourney.  There will be 10 weeks in this leg of the weekly standings, and we are at leg 8.  The finals were posted yesterday, and it will be on Nov 3, at the Elmwood Doolys, top prize, is a trip to Regina to play in a CPT tournament the following weekend.  Personally, I think 5 days between knowing you won and leaving on your trip is a little short notice, but hey, I don’t make the rules.  As far as the standings, I and sitting in the top 10 having missed 2 games, and Lise is in the top 15 having missed 4 games.

I sit at my first table, and don’t get too many good cards, until the following hand:
Blinds 25/50
I’m in the BB, everyone folds to the button, who calls, SB call, so I look down, and see AA.
What to do, Check or raise. Well, with the button and the SB, who could both have anything, andd I don’t feel like getting beat against a crap hand, but, I also want some action, so I think a raise of 100 more should do the trick.
Button calls, SB folds.

FLOP : A J 7 (Bingo…)

I’m first to act, I don’t want to check and hope he bets, so with $350 in the pot, a continuation bet of $200 seems about right, to my opponent, it would seem like a normal continuation bet that I would make whether I hit the flop or not. Button calls.

TURN : 4

Well, he called my first bet, so if he thinks I missed the flop, I’m sure he doesn’t think the 4 made my hand. With $750 in the pot, a $400 bet seems about right. He takes about 7 seconds, and then says “All-in”, Inside i’m as giddy as a schoolgirl, I insta call, he has about 250 more chips than me, he turns over A4 for two pair, and he’s drawing dead. I double up, and I’m sitting with almost 4000 chips early in the tourney.

After that hand, I get a lot of 45, 63, j2, k5, and don’t play too many hands. After eliminating another player when his AQ ran into my KK preflop, and then a couple of blind steals along the way, I’m sitting with approx 10 000 chips when blinds reach 400/800. 11 players left. Then came the hand that could have decided my tournament.

I’m in the BB (10 10)
Button (very tight player) raises 1600
SB Insta pushes all in for 2000 more.
then it comes to me, it cost me 3800 to call (the Button has 2200 more chips) and I on a decision. Here is my thought process. 1) raise from the button from a tight player, then an insta push from another player. If they don’t have a pocket pair, i’m probably up against three overcards (AK vs AQ, or something like that) 2) if one of them has a pocket pair, then I’m probably up against two overcards and perhaps a pocket pair higher than mine. 3) I have already inversted 800 in the pot, and if I call and lose the pot, I’m am left with under 3000 chips, with blinds at 400/800, if I call and win, I’m sitting with just over 15 000 chips and in the chip lead. Tough decision.
I decide to fold. Button calls the all-in, and turns over 66, the SB turns over AJ.

FLOP : J 10 6 (wow….)
TURN : K
RIVER : 7

Well, in hindsight, a call might have been the best play, but let me know what you think, what you would have done, and why.

So with the SB out, we move to the final table, and I have an average stack compared to everyone else with over 7000 chips. Lise is also at the final table, with approx the same amount.

A few hands in, I have Q9 in the SB, blinds are still 400/800, a wild/loose UTG calls the blind, everyone else folds, I call, BB checks

FLOP: K 7 5
I check, BB checks, UTG checks
Turn : 9
I check, BB checks UTG bets moves all-in for 5500
I have a little more than 5500, but not much, now I have a pair of 9, and having watched this player for the last couple of hand, add that to the over bet to the pot, I figure I got the best hand, and call, BB folds
UTG turns over 10 J with the gut shot straight draw, and doesn’t hit, I take the pot and double up.

A few hands latger, I have around 13000 chips, and UTG +1 I have 55, with blinds at 500/1000, I raise to 3000, everyone folds to the SB (same tight player with the 66 in the previous hand) he pushes all-in, an extra 5000 chips over my 3000 raise. BB folds, and once again, a decision. Here is the details. 12000 in pot, 5000 for me to call. Now if I put him on AK, AQ or any other over cards, I pretty much have to call with my slightly favorite hand, if he has a pocket pair, it will definitly be better than 55. Now maybe the fact that I folded my winning 10s earlier to the same guy played a factor, but I call. He flips over KK, ouch, I lose a big pot, and I’m now short stacked with 7 players left.

I manage to hang around till we are down to the bubble (5 players left) blinds are 1500/3000, and I have 2700 chips UTG+1.
UTG calls the BB, I look down and have AJ, I push my 2700, Button folds, SB folds, BB checks, we are 3 handed, and I either triple up or leave on the bubble.
FLOP : A 8 7 - everyone checks
Turn: A - everyone checks
River 10 - everyone checks

I turn over my trips, and BB turns over Q high and UTG turns over K high, I triple up.

So still 5 handed (both me and Lise are still in it) and I’m still the short stack with 7200 chips with blinds at 2000/4000.
I look down at A9 the button, and push, I get called by the SB, and the BB folds. SB turns over AQ

FLOP : 9 3 K
TURN : 7
RIVER : Q (ouch)

Oh well, the best hand ended up winning, but still, why give me that glimmer of hope with the flop. So I bubble, and Lise managed to finish second.

Looking back, I feel I played a good game, my AA hand I feel I played it perfectly, and I still think that the 10 10 hand, although calling would have been OK, folding was the right move at the time. The only one I wish I could take back is the 55 hand.

Oh well, the last time I bubbled at a doolys tournament, I managed to win the week after. So hopefully next week will be the same.

Posted in Dooly's Tournaments, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

October 6, 2007 by Dango.

Went to Dooly’s Mountain Road on thursday night for their weekly tournament, and some nights, you just have no luck at all.

First off, the tournament.

36 players registered this week, 29 left.

Blinds 50/100, I’m on the button with AQos

There are 2 limpers and I decide to just call as well, the SB folds, the BB checks.

Flop  Qh 7h 10h,

BB - check

UTG -Bets 200

Next guy, folds, I raise 500 more

BB - folds

UTG, goes all-in.  Now I’ve seen this guy go all-in about 5 times in the last 15 hands, sometimes preflop, sometimes after the flop, although I don’t have a heart in my hand, I’m pretty sure I have the best hand right now, and since these dooly’s tournament is comparable to a turbo tourney, folding will leave me with only 1100 chips, so I call, he turns over Kh Qd, I was right, I was ahead.

Turn 5c

River 9h

He gets his flush on the river, and I’m done.  Although i’m done, i’m happy with my read, and played the odds, just came up a bit short.  Oh well, there is always a cash table, let’s try my luck at that.

I buy in for $20, and a few hands in, I have AJos, one guy raises to $1.25 preflop, I call, along with a few others.

Flop A Q 3 rainbow, he bets out $2, I call everyone else folds.

Turn 10, he checks, I check.

River 7, he checks, I bet $3, he calls, and turns over A7…..nice, rivered again.

A few hands later, someone makes it $1.25 to go preflop, I call with 22

Flop, 5h 2h 9c Initial raiser bets $2, I raise $3 more.  Raiser goes all-in for $1.75 more, of course, I call.

She turns over 10h, 6h, Turn Kc, River, heart….nice, rivered again.

Well, I have $3.75 left to my stack, I really don’t feel like buying in anymore, really not my night.

I push all in with KcQc for my last hand of the night, of course the flop comes with 2 clubs, but do I get lucky and catch a river, nope, I’m done…..

Oh well, sometimes it just doesn’t work out….I’ll try it again next week.

Posted in Dooly's Tournaments | 1 Comment »

October 6, 2007 by Dango.

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: 7556093

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

October 6, 2007 by Dango.

After busting out in my first “Dango Challenge”, and taking some weeks off, I’m ready to start again.  2007/2008 will be my most successful poker season to date.

 Let’s get it on

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

June 13, 2007 by Dango.

I am now in week 3 of my Dango Challenge, playing mostly $3 SNG (I have played a couple of $2 MTT, one $7 MTT) and my bankroll up 150% ($125)

Here are few things i’ve noticed and the way I play.  As Phil Gordon states many times in his Little Green Book (great read if you have yet to read it), I don’t pretend to say this is the only way to play $3 SNG, but this is the way i’ve been playing lately, and it’s been working so far.

Early Stages

Very Tight - Low stakes SNG bring in a lot a loose players, or players that want to double up in the first hand or go broke, so I let these people fight it out and wait for a good hand.  I will rarely call and all-in with anything less than QQ in the first few rounds of the game.

Will call 300 or 400 raise with any pocket pair - Reason is if you do hit your set, the initial raiser will pretty much go all-in after the flop, whether he hits or not, very profitable.  BUT… if I miss the flop, will almost always fold if a face cards hits the flop.

 Middle Stages - Hopefully by this time, i’ve at least doubled up and I’m sitting there with at least 3000 chips, at this stage, I play a tight aggressive game, play premium hands, and raise when I go in.  If I get re-raised on a hand like A-10, I will usually fold and wait for another chance.  The nature of the Low Stakes SNG is that most people won’t remember during this game, let alone any future game I play against him.  Usually I’ll fold, he’ll be happy that he won I bigger pot with his AQ or AK and then forgets the hand.

Bubble - If I have a big stack, I keep my tight aggressive play, win lots of blinds and keep building my stack, I watch out for the short stack, he will push with almost anything decent, and I don’t want to double him up.  I will often fold medium hands if the short stack is BB.

If I am Short stack at the bubble, I play super tight, and push when I have a pocket pair, are A10 and up, I will usually either win the blinds, which is good, or get called by a mediocre hand, which I should be favorite to win.

After the bubble, I’m in the money and continue to play tight aggressive.

Thats’ it for now, please feel free to post if you agree and disagree, or how you play .

Posted in Dango's Poker Challenge | 2 Comments »