Four Four

Well, I have been pretty busy and playing lots of poker. I went to Siloam Springs last Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I went to Downstream Casino for the MSPT near Joplin, MO Friday and Saturday. Then after not making Day2 I went back to Siloam Springs for the Main Event Sunday. I won the Tuesday tournament but did not do any good in the others. I do feel I am playing well and have been enjoying my time at the tables.

I have also been very busy giving lessons. I gave three lessons today and enjoyed spending some time with my quickly improving students. One of my newer students is improving so quick it is amazing. He actually has been hitting score after score since we started and I expect him to have a killer 2013. Good luck to all of #TeamVariance101 and make sure your IBR is on point and keep improving.

Now I am going to share a hand from the Wednesday night tournament at Siloam Springs Cherokee Casino. In this hand I make a mistake and leak off some chips early and would like to share my mistake to help all of you.


It is 100/200 no ante but there is a catch. It is actually 100/200/25 but our table had a mishap and we paid 25 ante for 15 minutes at 100/200 so we are now playing 15 minutes with no ante at 100/200/25. Nevertheless I am Hj+2 at an 8 handed table and I 2.5x open to 500 with 44 and about 18,000 behind. The cutoff is a decent internet players 3bets to 1275 with 21,000 behind. It then folds around to me and I call with the intention of set mining. In this scenario we need to either fold or set mine if we know we are paying 5% or less of the effective stack size. I have the effective stack at 18,000, so I can afford to call 900 here to hit my set. The call was for 775 more so it was within the price range for a +EV set mine. 

The flop came out 973 rainbow, I checked and the villain bet a curious 1325 into about a 3k pot. I had been playing with this villain for over an hour and I noticed his sizing was smaller than normal. I truly felt his bet size may be due to the fact he was polarized with either a big hand or a missed AK or AQ type hand. My intentions where to fold the flop if a 4 did not land, but after his bet size I decided to float with a plan to check/reevaluate his play on the turn. I thought that I had some showdown value and could have the best hand a decent percentage of the time.

The turn was an 8 and I checked. The villain then bet 2200 into a 5700 chip pot. Again, I felt I had some showdown value and could have the best hand a decent percentage of the time so I chose to call with a plan to check/call most rivers while sticking with my plan to get to showdown as cheap as possible. Obviously I am leaving some room to adjust my plan and reevaluate if his bet sizing or action throws me for a loop.

The river is a J completing a rainbow board of 9738J. I check and the villain bets 4200 into a 10k+ pot. Now I am wanting to sigh fold and am thinking that the J is not a great card and his bet felt like it could be for value as much as it could be a last ditch attempt to win the pot with an overplayed AK or AQ. My plan was to check/call but I am second guessing the decision and thinking about folding. What would you do? Would you have played other streets differently?

Honestly, I think I just got a little to fancy in a spot way to early with no ante. The play is to set mine and fold almost every time we do not hit a set. The only other times we continue should be on other decent flops like 235 for example. I think the play is to fold the flop, and in some cases I am okay with folding pre if we think the villain is good enough to not give us value when we hit a set.

Good luck to everyone, keep improving!

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information visit http://variance101.com/# or email me at variance101@gmail.com. #TeamVariance101 

Siloam Springs

Took a trip over to West Siloam Springs, Ok to the Cherokee Casino for a $100 re-entry with 1k added last night. I arrived about 40 min late but there was two hours of late registration. My first buy-in lasted about an hour but I ended up losing AJss to 99 aipf. So I re-entered and was lucky enough to go all the way through and win the tournament with no chop for a little over 2.3k. There was 72 entrants and it paid 8 places. It was also a kind of fun final table as two of my friends from Tulsa was there finishing 3rd and 5th, good job guys!

Tonight I am heading back there to play a $125 with $20 rebuys. Should be a decent MTT and I am hoping for another deep run. Good luck to all my friends grinding, I hope we all have a great weekend.

Variance101 is going well. I have picked up a few new students and have been giving several lessons. If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information visit http://variance101.com/# or email me at variance101@gmail.com. #TeamVariance101 

Clustered Weekend

Sometimes it amazes me how so many casino's with in two hours of each other can have a tournament series at the same time. Starting last weekend through this weekend Downstream Casino near Joplin, MO is having a MSPT. Their series is mostly just satellites into the $1100 main this weekend, but the main is decent. At the same time Cherokee Casino is West Siloam Springs is having a series as well. And this weekend Creek Muskogee is having their first ever decent tournament with a $100 re-entry with two day1s friday night and saturday day playing into Day2 Sunday.

Truly I would play all these events if they were staggered and not at the same time. Who comes up with these dates? It happens all the time too. Several times I have seen Choctaw and Winstar hold events at the same time for reasons unknown. I would think someone in the higher ups might contact someone at the other casino and try to mutually decide they would be better better off if they didn't run events at the same time. Anyway, end rant!

Post Ok State I have played a couple cash sessions that went pretty good and then yesterday I played a $125 NL MTT at Hard Rock with no success and then went to Downstream to play a $260 satellite. Hard Rock always has a decent turnout for their Friday 7pm $60 mtt and the Saturday $125 so I play them occasionally. At Downstream I was truly surprised that the turnout was so small and that the structure was a little turbo-ish. The satellite had 30min levels but there was no green chips in play. The satellite started at 100/100 and at level  5 the antes kicked in at 500/1000/100. By the 4th level the average stack was a little over 10bbs. Meh.

I am not 100% sure of what is in store for me this weekend. I am probably going to play the MSPT and if I do not make day 2 I will probably head to West Siloam for the Main. Nevertheless it is good to be grinding some and I hope to continue on a decent 2013.

Variance101 is going well. I have picked up a few new students and have been giving several lessons. If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information visit http://variance101.com/# or email me at variance101@gmail.com. #TeamVariance101 

Lets Ketchup

So let's get caught up! My last blog was after winning the partners tournament, since then I played a few more tournaments and was lucky enough to have some more success. The partners tournament was Wednesday and the 150k Day1a was Thursday at 10am. We played until about 3am Thursday morning so even though I had every intention to make Day 1a it just didn't happen. Instead I slept all day and went and played a mega satellite that night. The satellite was a bust and I managed to get back home and get a little rest for Day 1b. Friday 10am came pretty fast but I was ready to build a chip stack. We started with 10k and I peaked at 80k at dinner break after 6 hours of play.

After dinner I made it another couple hours but was sent to the showers when my Q10 lost to K8 in a wild hand around 7:15pm and play was ending at 9:30pm. In the hand UTG+1, a weak middle age fish with about 60k opens to 5k at 1k/2k. The loose calling middle aged woman in UTG+2 with about 100k calls, fold, fold, and a very solid grinder calls 5k out of a 45k stack. I am next to act and have 27k and move all-in expecting to get through if I get past the first guy. Well, the first guy calls with K8o and the other two fold. The flop is 9J3 flopping me an open ended straight draw, but then it comes brick, brick and I am out. I was kind of surprised at the guy calling with K8. I had not been at the table all that long and did not have the best read on him. I simply could not resist a spot where I felt I had just enough fold equity to shove and pick up a nice pot. Oh well, cant win them all. I went on home and got some rest and was prepared to try again the next morning.

Saturday I was able to make it through with 127k and we would be coming back to a 4k big blind on Sunday. There was 54 players returning and we were ITM. I feel I really played well and got my stack up to about 400k when I lost a 800k chip pot for the chip lead and went out 19th. In this pot I was on the Button and an aggro player was in the big blind. I have history with this player as we played together Saturday and in other mtts. He had recently been moved to my table and had won about 8 out of 10 hands in a row and had 3bet me off two opens. At the time I had a very nice stack compared to the field with 390k but the big blind was 16k so truly I had 24bbs. I had A5cc and opened with a plan of shoving all my chips in if he 3 bet me again. I open to 35k, he 3bets to 95k, and I shove. He tank calls and has QQ and flops a Q. Good game me. I am not upset with my play I just feel as if the scenario played out perfect for the villain.

I busted around 1:30pm and the main event started at 4pm. Me and a friend went to the buffet and toyed around the casino and then I got myself ready to attack the last event of the series. The Main Event was a $550 offering a 15k starting stack and 40min levels. The mtt got 70 players and paid 7 spots with bottom money being $1400 and top money being a little over $12k. I went into the final table with the chip lead but lost a few hands and got unlucky verse a couple short stacks and was quickly 10 of 10. I got back to the grind and got down to 3 handed when the other two players wanted to chop 3 ways. I am not the biggest fan of chopping and asked who would get the ipad that goes to the winner and the chip leader said he wanted it. I said I wouldn't do that and offered that we all take 2nd place money and play for the remaining about 2k and the iPad. They both agreed and then I got 3rd. Shortly after they chopped the remaining money and the MTT was over.

It truly was a great series for me as I managed two 3-way chops, two outright wins and a 19th place in the 150k. I feel as I am playing well and I am excited to keep tackling 2013. I was also lucky enough to pick up a few new students and have been busy with Variance101 too.

Since the series I have played two 3 hour sessions of 1/2 NL at Riverspirit and managed to win two buy-ins each day. It sure is nice when things are going well, I do not plan on taking it for granted but instead to worn harder and be smarter. Good luck to all the grinders, make sure your IBR is on point!

If you are interested in taking poker lessons or would like any information visit http://variance101.com/# or email me at variance101@gmail.com.