Royal Poker Blog

I'm now the young age of 30 and there are no plans for a reflection post. Joe Speaker taught me that one. Over the weekend we had a few friends over for party. I'm really not sure about anyone else, but I had a great time. Good friends + good food + alcohol = good times!

Once again it's been a rather slow poker week. Here's a couple links for your enjoyment.

Bill Ivey's (rather sucessful online player) quest to make $200,000 in 100 days.

The parody site.

Not much to report on the poker scene. I think I only played four tournaments all week.

-$26 10K Guaranteed event on Full Tilt
-$20 20K Guaranteed event on PokerRoom
-$33 Rebuy on Party
-$39 Sunday Million Sat on Stars

I was shutoff with the exception of winning a seat in the Stars Million. So for back-to-back Sundays I'm playing a major. How about another cash?

I've also played a few NL Ring game sessions with slightly positive / mostly flat results.

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A little live blogging while I'm at it.

2nd Hand limp from middle with 66 and my left makes it 80. I call and we see a heads-up flop of 292. I check call his con't bet and see a 9 on the turn. Check / check brings a river 5. I value bet 150 and get paid off by AQ.

4th hand AKo UTG. I raise to 60 and get called by MP and button. The flop is 234 and BB bets out 80. I fold and middle raises to 160 which is called. The 6 on the turn and 2 on the river bring more bets and calls. The BB has a very expected TT and the MP has a more surprising A5 for a flopped straight.

14th hand A9o in the SB. I limp and win a small pot with a turned Ace.

Blinds at 15/30 - no hands, not suited 3 gappers...

33rd hand 88 in LP. call a 3x raise to 90 with one other player. The flop is J53. The raiser checks and other caller bets 150 which we both call. I'm probably better off raising here to find out if my 8s are good...

Turn is a 2 and they both check. I bet 400 to take it away and flop better calls. Out of position player check calls with no real draws...yeah I'm beat. He insta-pushes the river 3 which smells like a steal and I fold.

I needed to raise or fold the flop and when I call a turn check is probably best. Dammit Royal, play small pots with small hands!

Blinds at 25/50

Hand 41 AA in SB. LP goes 3x to 150 and I re-raise to 350 which is called. I bet 400 into a flop of Qh 9h 4h which is not called.

Hand 52 AKo in LP. MP goes 3x and I just call. Heads-up to a AT8 flop (2 hearts). He con't bets 250 and my raise to 600 brings a fold.

I toyed with just calling, but there are a lot of potential turn scare cards. Against a bad player with AQ or AJ I'm going to get their chips most of the time either way. Against the good players my flop raise almost looks more like a steal whereas the call seems strong.

Blinds at 50/100 - T2820 (2268 / 4818)

Break - blinds moving to 75 /150 - T2470 (2738 / 4195)

Moving to the laptop. It's time to start the grill!

Out in 23xx.

I made a nice run up to over T6000 using AK to 2X vs. A5 and AQ to out race a shorter stacked 33.

With blinds at 150/300 the button pushed for 7000K and I woke up with KK in the SB. My kings were no match for his A2 after he flopped an ace.

Damn, now I have to mow!

Last night a few friends stopped by our place. The girls fired up a Jane Austen flick while Joe and I hit up a few tournaments. I was already into a few events by the time they arrived. We eventually settled down and both played the $30 R+A 80,000 guaranteed on Paradise. With about a 150 left (90 cash) Joe made the correct "I'm behind, but need to call" play on a re-steal and busted. I got a key win with AQ vs. KK right before the bubble and ended up in solid 20th place. 20th pays decent, but it's not the real money.

I've played this tournament the last two weekends with cashes in 21st and 20th places. That feels pretty good considering the field was ~1000 players both times.

Here are the results from my other Saturday tournaments:

Non-Cashes

Party $33 NL
Full Tilt $24 NL - 12K Guaranteed
Full Tilt $24 NL - Avatar Race
Pokerroom $30 R+A - 50K Guaranteed
Pacific $18 - 20K Guaranteed
Stars $10 Turbo R+A - Sunday Million Sat.

Cashes

Party $6 Speed - $21.30
Paradise 80K guaranteed - ~$530
Full Tilt $24 NL FTOPS Event 1 Sat - $216 Seat

I'm currently playing Event 1 of the FTOPS on Full Tilt and sucking ass. I've run trips into a flush and into a set turned boat. In both cases I suspected a big hand and could have checked to keep the pot smaller. Joe and I had that very discussion last night and I do not think enough about whether I want to play a big or a small pot. That's a leak and it needs fixing...

I think the biggest problem I have is adjusting to the different levels of competition. In most of the satellites I play it makes no sense to get tricky. The play is generally poor and the players are not bluff-able.

There's quite a few of those players in this event too, but there's also many much more solid pros. The key is figuring out which is which!

UPDATE:

I'm well into the money...46 players left!

Out in 38th...no complaints.

It looks like there's a decent chance we'll be returning to Vegas in October. Tentatively it would be the weekend of the 20th. The WPT Festa Al Lago final table is on the 19th and hopefully there will still be some surrounding excitement. Nothing in concrete just yet. We should know for sure by next week.

Is anyone else going to be in town? Damn you for leaving Grubby! :)

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From the previous post I ended up bubbling the Pokerroom event and make a nice run on Dise finishing in 21st for a 4X payday. My AQ from the BB got all-in against AJ from the SB and fell to trip jacks. If my hand holds up I'm 4th in chips. Everyone at the final table made a grand...that would have been nice.

Of course my giant stack mid tournament came courtesy of a KK vs. AA vs. 77 all-in preflop where I made a set of kings. It's so easy to forget the suckouts and focus on the bad beats.

I played a few ring games Sunday and ran horrible. Besides that no other poker. Possibly a game or two tonight, but I'm really tired so hopefully not too much.

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We've got a large capital expansion going in at work and my job has shifted to pretty much completely focusing on that effort. We have a rigorous and almost unachievable construction schedule and it looks like we'll actually meet the deadline. Then we just have to make good material...and that's going to be even more challenging.

It's been a Block Party: Silent Alarm week.

So after a valiant effort Joe falls victim on Day 2B. Here's his recap of the crippling hand:

I'm in middle position blinds are 500/250 +50. I have A7 and raise to 1750. Three people call. The flop is Q77 with 2 clubs. The small blind moves in for around 25k (I have them covered). I call and they flip over QQ. I busted a few hands later.

I'm not sure the SB could have played this worse except Joe had one of the few hands that had to pay her off.

The PF call is okay at best, but mostly likely bad. You don't want the Hilton Sisters in a 3-way (wow, did I really just type that!) with a relatively short stack. A re-raise seems much more prudent.

The all-in on the flop is horrible though. I mean what hands could really pay off QQ on a Q77 board? AA and KK maybe? AQ or a really loose QK. And a 7. You're just missing way to many of the pre-flop raisers hands if you move in here. Maybe a smallish bet or a check is a much better play.

The end result was fantastic for the SB and very bad for Joe. Excellent anyway run bro!

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Not much poker for me lately. I've played a few tournaments with nothing exciting to report. Right now I'm playing the 80K guaranteed on Paradise and the 40K guaranteed on Pokerroom. Hopefully a couple of deep cashes will be coming my way!

Currently I'm 15/241 on Dise and 68/248 on Pokerroom.

Joe has moved on to day 2 with a just below average stack of 20K. He's got a decent M of right around 20 and will need to make some moves during the first level or two. He's playing tomorrow so stop by and wish him luck!

Thanks to Dr. Pauly for the excellent coverage.

Here's to doubling up!

2X
2X
2X

Go Joe!