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Week 1 on sky poker - How I've lost most of my £25
yetigas1
Member Posts: 8
Good afternoon all
Some of you will recall my post last week. The jist being that I'm going to try sky poker for a period of time and see how I get on. I consider myself your average good player with a decent understanding of the game. (Live anyway I may have to reconsider my online abilities!)
Since depositing my £25 last week, the only proper amount of time I had available for poker was yesterday. However I'm sure some of you will sympathise, that when I had a few spare hours on friday, purely out of boredom I decided to play a £5.50 Bounty hunter - £500 guarantee. Now I really shouldn't enter these tournaments because if I see there are over a hundred entrants and the first prize is only about £100 I immediately lose enthusiasm and don't play as I should. I can't even remember how I exited, think it was a standard flip about halfway through.
More importantly to me was yesterday, my first serious day on sky poker. And I had the hearty sum of £19.50 available. So I decided to play a satelite for the £22 BH starting at 9. I bubbled the money on this which was frustrating, but decided to try two more satelites for that same tournament and the 8pm £22 double stack. I succesfully satelited in both and was chuffed with the opportunity to sample two new tournes.
I'll start with the 9pm BH. At this stage I was multitabling the double stack. I can't say I was a huge fan of this tourne, I really don't think 2000 starting chips gives you much play at all. It seems you need to double up early. I was lucky to get a lot of value with trips early on when getting a low pair and open ended staright draw to call me on three streets including a sizeable value bet on the river. However I completely dwindled chips, until eventually shovving with kq and being called by an ace 7 to be eliminated about halfway through. I must say at this stage I was running well on the double stack so wasn't concentrating fully on this tournament, but I didn't enjoy the structure that much at all. I can imagine though that these bounty hunter's are great fun if you run well and start collecting a few bounties and hit some cards!
Now on to the double stack, this really is my type of tournament! Great structure which allows a lot of play, especially at the early levels. With a juicy prizepool if you final table. I got off to a steady start bluffing quite a few pots with standard ABC poker and maintaining a stack of 4000 - 5000 for the first 30 - 45 mins. I looked down at aces after playing the previuous hand aggressively, so ideal timing. I bet the same pre flop as the hand before and was delighted when I was re raised, I considered slowplaying but thought I'd shove all in, his stack was about 2800 and he'd already invested 800 so thought I would get called by a fairly wide range of hands. However he did have kings so it was a cooler and I doubled up. A few hands later it was my turn to have kings, there was an under the gun raiser and a caller so I bumped it up and the big blind jammed all in with ace king suited fortunately I avoided the ace and chipped up.
I was 13/100 and feeling confident of making the money at least. As the blinds went up, and probably as a result of some of the weaker players being eliminated, I became unstuck. A couple of three bet bluffs met resistance and I was forced to fold, within half an hour I was 60/90 with no momentum. I was in the big blind in a limped pot with JK, just myself, the little blind and an under the gun limper. The flop came 33 5 , I decied to rep the 5 and bet under the gun folded I was surpised to be called by the little blind. The turn was a jack, I bet again and though if he has a big hand I will be re raised, he again called, I'm now putting him on a pair of 5s and think I can bluff him off this. The river is an ace I again bet and he calls and turns over Ace 4 - which I was pretty fuming about, as he seemed to be calling for the gut shot and not because he felt his hand was good!
After staeling a few pots I had 8bbs and shoved buttong with 10 j suited and got called by the BB with jq. I thought this was a really bad call considering this was for about 40% of his stack. I finised 73rd. I was disapoointed with this finish considering the position I found myself in with a 100 runners left.
I have identified where it went wrong this time and would be interested to see if fellow forumeres feel the same, or have any advice. 3 Points this week...
1. MOMENTUM - When I get off to these good starts I am obviously delighted. However I often find it's a bit of a double edged sword. As Tikay has eluded too poker is a difficult game when you have 20 - 30 big blinds.
2. Raise folding - This is linked to how momentum changes. When you have these big stacks I often find I lose momentum raising the cut off with premium hands like jk and then folding to a shove from the blinds.
And as my momentum turns my 3 bet bluff radar soon goes down the pan, and I again get shovved on or meet resistance on the flop and am forced to fold. I lose a lot of chips like this.
3. Eliminated shovving on button - When I had 8 bb's and found myself with J10 suited on the button I thought it was a no brainer to shove all in and try to pick up the blinds knowing it's a decent hand if I do get called. However would it have been better if I had min raised and bet the flop, may have looked stronger rather than a pure shove which looks very bluffy from the button?
I'd be interested on your thoughts on any of the above ladies and gents and if you share these same problems...
Regards
Dave
Some of you will recall my post last week. The jist being that I'm going to try sky poker for a period of time and see how I get on. I consider myself your average good player with a decent understanding of the game. (Live anyway I may have to reconsider my online abilities!)
Since depositing my £25 last week, the only proper amount of time I had available for poker was yesterday. However I'm sure some of you will sympathise, that when I had a few spare hours on friday, purely out of boredom I decided to play a £5.50 Bounty hunter - £500 guarantee. Now I really shouldn't enter these tournaments because if I see there are over a hundred entrants and the first prize is only about £100 I immediately lose enthusiasm and don't play as I should. I can't even remember how I exited, think it was a standard flip about halfway through.
More importantly to me was yesterday, my first serious day on sky poker. And I had the hearty sum of £19.50 available. So I decided to play a satelite for the £22 BH starting at 9. I bubbled the money on this which was frustrating, but decided to try two more satelites for that same tournament and the 8pm £22 double stack. I succesfully satelited in both and was chuffed with the opportunity to sample two new tournes.
I'll start with the 9pm BH. At this stage I was multitabling the double stack. I can't say I was a huge fan of this tourne, I really don't think 2000 starting chips gives you much play at all. It seems you need to double up early. I was lucky to get a lot of value with trips early on when getting a low pair and open ended staright draw to call me on three streets including a sizeable value bet on the river. However I completely dwindled chips, until eventually shovving with kq and being called by an ace 7 to be eliminated about halfway through. I must say at this stage I was running well on the double stack so wasn't concentrating fully on this tournament, but I didn't enjoy the structure that much at all. I can imagine though that these bounty hunter's are great fun if you run well and start collecting a few bounties and hit some cards!
Now on to the double stack, this really is my type of tournament! Great structure which allows a lot of play, especially at the early levels. With a juicy prizepool if you final table. I got off to a steady start bluffing quite a few pots with standard ABC poker and maintaining a stack of 4000 - 5000 for the first 30 - 45 mins. I looked down at aces after playing the previuous hand aggressively, so ideal timing. I bet the same pre flop as the hand before and was delighted when I was re raised, I considered slowplaying but thought I'd shove all in, his stack was about 2800 and he'd already invested 800 so thought I would get called by a fairly wide range of hands. However he did have kings so it was a cooler and I doubled up. A few hands later it was my turn to have kings, there was an under the gun raiser and a caller so I bumped it up and the big blind jammed all in with ace king suited fortunately I avoided the ace and chipped up.
I was 13/100 and feeling confident of making the money at least. As the blinds went up, and probably as a result of some of the weaker players being eliminated, I became unstuck. A couple of three bet bluffs met resistance and I was forced to fold, within half an hour I was 60/90 with no momentum. I was in the big blind in a limped pot with JK, just myself, the little blind and an under the gun limper. The flop came 33 5 , I decied to rep the 5 and bet under the gun folded I was surpised to be called by the little blind. The turn was a jack, I bet again and though if he has a big hand I will be re raised, he again called, I'm now putting him on a pair of 5s and think I can bluff him off this. The river is an ace I again bet and he calls and turns over Ace 4 - which I was pretty fuming about, as he seemed to be calling for the gut shot and not because he felt his hand was good!
After staeling a few pots I had 8bbs and shoved buttong with 10 j suited and got called by the BB with jq. I thought this was a really bad call considering this was for about 40% of his stack. I finised 73rd. I was disapoointed with this finish considering the position I found myself in with a 100 runners left. I have identified where it went wrong this time and would be interested to see if fellow forumeres feel the same, or have any advice. 3 Points this week...
1. MOMENTUM - When I get off to these good starts I am obviously delighted. However I often find it's a bit of a double edged sword. As Tikay has eluded too poker is a difficult game when you have 20 - 30 big blinds.
2. Raise folding - This is linked to how momentum changes. When you have these big stacks I often find I lose momentum raising the cut off with premium hands like jk and then folding to a shove from the blinds.
And as my momentum turns my 3 bet bluff radar soon goes down the pan, and I again get shovved on or meet resistance on the flop and am forced to fold. I lose a lot of chips like this.
3. Eliminated shovving on button - When I had 8 bb's and found myself with J10 suited on the button I thought it was a no brainer to shove all in and try to pick up the blinds knowing it's a decent hand if I do get called. However would it have been better if I had min raised and bet the flop, may have looked stronger rather than a pure shove which looks very bluffy from the button?
I'd be interested on your thoughts on any of the above ladies and gents and if you share these same problems...
Regards
Dave