Tag: poker

Marching Slowly

Aside Nick MomrikLeave a comment

March is going to be a slow month for me playing poker, so I won’t be posting much here. Thursday through Sunday is pretty much out of the question over the next two weeks since I’ll be watching March Madness all day. I love it! Hopefully I’ll get time to play on Monday, Tuesday, and […]

Full Tilt Affiliate

Aside Nick Momrik1 Comment

Tonight Henry, who works for Full Tilt asked if I wanted to be an affiliate. Since the Empire signups have really fallen off the charts I decided it was time for something new anyways. If you don’t have an account at Full Tilt sign up now, because there isn’t a site out there that can […]

Feeling Good

Nick Momrik2 Comments

When I got home from work I saddled up for some online play. With three tables of $0.50/1 going I played pretty well. I managed to get in just over 460 hands and take down almost $40. What’s more important than the win is the fact that I’ve played good poker for my last two sessions, dating back to last week.

Early on I was flopping sets left and right. Of course I lost 3 of them to 2 flushes and a gut-shot straight. I didn’t waste extra bets though, which is a good sign. I saw it coming and just called the river bet. I got sucked out on a few times, but I make a few suckouts myself when I originally thought I was ahead, only to spike my long-shot on the river for the winning hand. Some days it just all evens out. This was one of those days and I took advantage of it.

I’m getting better at laying down a hand when it’s clear I’m behind. A few weeks ago I was playing all of my monsters to showdown and it was costing me precious bets. I still caught myself doing it a few times, but I’ve improved 200% in this area already.

I can’t say enough good things about the Poker Tracker Guide though. Before purchasing the book I had no clue what to look at when evaluating my play. Now I simply spend a few minutes after a session reviewing some key hands. It’s really helping my game. Today I only cold-called a raise twice pre-flop, with 44 once and 99 the other time when several players had already called the raise. I ended up flopping a set of 4s, which paid off nicely. It’s simply amazing how well the concept of odds works in limit poker. Let keep it our secret though…don’t tell the fish!

Review: ESPN's TILT

Nick Momrik9 Comments

Last night was the final episode of ESPN’s original series TILT. I had watched every episode of the series and I have to be honest; I thoroughly enjoyed every episode of TILT.

A lot of people have bashed the series, but I think they were expecting something different. I wasn’t expecting any poker lessons or any deep looks into the poker world. I was looking for an entertaining TV series that involved the game of poker and that’s exactly what the worldwide leader in sports delivered.

I tuned in each week wondering what would happened next. I became more interested in the overall plot and side stories than I was in the poker aspect of the show. I think this is what ESPN was going for and simply used poker as their lure to reel us all in. After all, I would have never watched the series if it involved blackjack players instead of poker players.

Some of the arguments against TILT I’ve read are justified. I’ll be one of the first to agree the producers did make mistakes, but what show on TV doesn’t? Too often we look for the negative things about a show, movie, or book and fail to appreciate the work for what it is. I highly doubt the producers ever planned to make this series a realistic look at the high stakes poker world or else they would have included a lot more of the high profile players and they wouldn’t have made some of the mistakes they did.

TILT was meant to be an entertaining tale of poker, gambling, love, friendship, murder, and corruption. That’s exactly what it turned out to be. I commend ESPN on a job well done in that department.

Now, I must say that I was disappointed in how the series ended. In my opinion, there are too many unanswered questions, but maybe we’ll see TILT 2 in the future. What happened to the court case against Everest? Did Eddie and Dee hook back up? What about Miami and Clark…where did they go?

Overall I’d have to give TILT a B+.

56th

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Tonight’s WPBT HORSE event was interesting. I only play hold’em, so I had no clue during the ORSE part of the tournament and finished 56th out of 93. Since Full Tilt doesn’t do a good job with hand histories I don’t have the info to post about any hands. Besides, it’s hard to remember since every 10 minutes or so we were switching to another poker variant. I should have really won the hand I went out on, but this player just wouldn’t fold. It was in Razz and I had A2/5, so I completed the bet and he called. I got an A on the next card, which should have made his K5 look dominated, but he called anyways. I had no choice but to bet the whole way hoping he’d fold since I was severely short-stacked, but he called me down and ended up with a 97 low or something like that. When he called with K5, he had 97 hiding. WTF! Why did he even call the flop with 97/5?

Oh well, I’m sticking to hold’em.

Another Bubble Finish

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Yesterday I played a home tournament with my brother and his friends for a full table of ten players. I’ve played with about half of the guys before, but the other half were new faces.

I don’t remember a tournament where my cards have been as cold as in this one. As a result, I wasn’t involved in very many hands. I picked up KK in late position, re-raised the pot, and everyone folded. I had QJo in the blinds and flopped two pair. I had 4 callers on the flop and also on the turn. On the river I hit my full house and no one hit their straight of flush, so they all folded to my bet. I knew they were all drawing or had one lousy pair. Maybe I should have checked since I was first to act, but I don’t think anyone would have bet out with such a scary board.

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Bring on the Tilt…Full Tilt

Nick Momrik3 Comments

Tonight I installed Full Tilt and deposited $50 just in case I feel like playing the WPBT HORSE event on Sunday. I figured I might as well check out the interface, so I signed up for a $5+0.50 SNG.

Minimum raises were the norm and it was a rather tight table for the most part. I didn’t pick up any steal hands in position, so I just waited for some monsters. My first winning hand was 43o that flopped two pair. No one called my pot bet. I couldn’t slow play it because there was a flush draw on board and I needed to make sure nobody had the odds to call. Soon after I found rockets and doubled up. Not too many hands for the next few orbits and then I get QhTh in the big blind with a limper and the small blind. The flop gives me top two pair, so when it’s min bet by the small blind I bet pot. I didn’t realize it, but this left him with 50 chips and he of course bet out on the turn, which brought another queen, filling me up. He turns over Q5o. The only cards that can help him are the two tens, which would give us a split pot. Do I even need to say what the river is? A fucking ten. The player survives to live another day. I was the chip leader at that point and I could have really used that pot, but instead I run into runner runner. Maybe I used up my bad luck though.

I take a few pots here and there without any showdowns and then with 5 players left comes this hand…a loose player min raises UTG. He’s been calling all-in bets with hands like QTo and QJo. My AsQs on the small blind is looking good, so I push in. He calls of course and flips over two tens. He actually has a hand this time but it’s a race. I’m loving the flop which brings an ace and a queen. I only needed one, but that’s fine. The turn is a blank and I bet you can’t guess the river. Yup, another 2 outer on the river beats me when that fucking ten comes again.

As I look back at this hand I didn’t give the guy a chance to fold. I should have just called his pre-flop bet and he would have had an easy fold on the flop when two overs hit. Do you agree? How would you have played the hand? This just goes to show my inexperience in tournament poker.

I didn’t mind Full Tilt’s interface and after my deposit I have $50 in bonus cash calling my name. From what I’ve seen it isn’t worth my time though. Empire should have a reload bonus coming up in a few days.

A Fresh Start

Nick Momrik5 Comments

I hadn’t played poker since the 28th and my sister is coming to visit for a few days so I figured tonight was my best chance to play some poker. I’m glad I played. After a few hours of play at the Party Poker .50/1 tables I got in 300 hands and lost 8.5 BB. It was the greatest poker I’ve played in quite some time.

You might be wondering how I can you lose and say I played my best. My VP$IP was less than 12.5% and my W$WSF was less than 17%! That’s just the cards I was getting; not many premium hands and not many flops hit my hand. I only cold called a raise pre-flop once in 300 hands. I had Ac4c and three other players had already cold called the raise so I figured I was getting some good odds if I nailed a flop. If I didn’t catch on the flop, it was an easy fold. Looking back I should have probably even folded that one.

I just wasn’t getting any quality hands or hitting any kind of flops. A week ago I would have been frustrated, giving away bets. Today I was patient. I was aggressive when I hit and my big hands paid off for the most part. There were only two hands where I lost more than 2 BB and one of them was only 2.5 BB. The other hand cost me 5.5 BB, which is about 3 more than I should have. I found AhQh in early position, so I raised it. Everyone folded around to a tight player on the button who re-raised me. I called. The flop came queen high so I bet my top pair top kicker and was raised. I told myself he had rockets or cowboys, but I re-raised and then the pot was capped. I knew I was beat, but I check-called the turn and river anyways. The player showed KhKc for a big surprise. In the future I’d like to be able to fold after the flop raise. I fell in love with my hand even though I called his hand. Bad play.

I reviewed my 10 biggest losing hands (most were in the 1-2 BB range) and I only made that one mistake I just went over. After looking over my 10 biggest winning hands I couldn’t see any place where I could have extracted another bet out of my opponent. I’d say that’s a pretty good day at the tables, even if it was a losing day.

How do I know all of this? Well, when you combine the information gathered by Poker Tracker with the great advice in the Poker Tracker Guide, you have an easy and effective way to review your online poker play. I wish I had this a few months ago when my game went down the shitter.

I know I’m only 300 hands in to my new start, but with the new auto rate rules from the guide book, Poker Tracker has me tagged as a Good Player (Tight Aggressive Solid). That must mean I’m doing something right so far. Let’s hope it continues and the cards improve. If so, my bankroll will quickly build back up and I’ll be sitting at the $1/2 tables again in no time.