World of Warcraft

Been playing this game quite a bit recently. Certainly a good stress reliever whacking people over the head with axes =) My character is a Level 29 Warrior at the Chromaggus server on the European Realm. My nick is "Tiller" on there!

Merry Christmas!

Sorry for delay but it is CHRISTMAS! =)

I described the action slightly wrong but it wouldn't have affected the answers really. Instead of them having limped in middle position and my friend calling on the button, one of them completed the SB and one of them checked the BB. I don't know why my friend didn't raise the button, strange action. My friend is also an excellent player which I failed to mention in the first post.

Answers :-

1. Flop - Call (Raise will you get you into trouble a lot of the time on this flop as players will rarely want to continue without something really good in a 3 way limped pot. So you will probably just be getting action from AXc, a set or 2 pair. You also might get completely shut out by a set. It does however get good money in the pot with position when you are vs a lower flush draw or vs bad players who can continue with just a pair here. On balance, call is best here).

2. Turn - Call (This is the cautious sensible play vs 2 good players especially in a limped pot and I believe the long term most positive ev play here. If anything had been slightly different, for instance raised pre or bad to average players then I would go with a raise on the turn. The first player looks incredibly strong here and I would be thinking he had a flush 100% here. AXc, JXc seem most likely but he would clearly have completed the SB with 67c etc so on balance you will still need to call and see what develops on the river. Remember, if you raise this turn vs these players, you will only be getting called by AXc and perhaps occasionally a lower flush as it will be super obvious you have a flush to them. The BB is worrying but he can clearly still have a lower flush or perhaps trying to fill up a slow played set on the flop).

3. Scenario 1 - Fold (Both players absolutely must have flushes here, your decision is to work out if they have AXc here. This is quite interesting but if you think about it carefully you will get a pretty clear picture of what is going on. I would have put the first player on AXc here as anything else is a bad move in my opinion and he is usually good. If he has JX of clubs or less then I don't see what he expects to get called by except KXc or AXc. So for that reason I would give him credit for AXc and fold knowing I am beating the second player who is probably calling with JXc. If the first player is making a bad move on the river with JXc then you have to put the the second player on an even lower flush and I just don't see that as being at all likely because he would have to put the first good player on AXc or KXc so how can he possibly call especially with further action behind.)

4. Scenario 2 - Marginal Call (It is now clear that the first player doesn't have AXc so the second player may push with JXc or a slightly lower flush here. It is more likely he has AXc than anything else but probably not so much that you wont at least break even in the long term. There is also the small possibility you will get an overcall from the first player).

5. Scenario 3 - Fold (This is also reasonably close but it seems unlikely for a good player not to have at least the AXc here, it is slightly to big a bet to call on the river here. The reason why he can't easily bet the river like this with JXc or lower is because he knows that the first player will check AXc or KXc a good amount of the time on the river and probably make a crying call of this bet. Also, he would have to be very worried that my friend cold called with 2 pair or a set on the turn and has now filled up on the river).

So what really happened???

The first player had J9 and the second player had A3. My friend called the flop and turn, he then folded correctly on the river.

The first player did make a surprisingly bad move on the river but perhaps he didn't know my friend at all and thought he could get a call from a lower flush and just didn't give credit at all to the second player for KXc or AXc. My friend made an excellent fold on the river with the second nuts and saved himself $3500.

A lot of players who watch the big games sometimes confuse the extreme aggressiveness and sometimes odd looking plays with "bad play". These same players who you sometimes see calling an all in with second pair are also the same players that are sometimes folding sets and the second nuts. It is just you never get to see that usually!

Poker Question

This hand happened at 25/50 (NL $5000). My friend and I were discussing the hand, (he was in the hand not me).

Everyone folds to my friend who calls on the button with K8, the SB completes to $50 and the BB checks.

His two opponents are both good/solid players.

The flop comes Q74.

There is $225 in the pot.

The first player bets out $220 UTG and the second player calls the $220. Fold isn't an option, so you just have to decide to call or raise?

My friend called. All players had around $5000 in their stack at the start of the hand.

The pot is now $885.

The turn comes the 2 giving my friend the second nut flush.

His first opponent now bet $885, a full pot sized bet. His second opponent called this $885 bet and it was now up to my friend to act.

There is $2665 in the pot now. You have $4730 left. Do you call, raise or fold?

Now 3 scenarios :-

1. You call, the river comes a blank giving you still the 2nd nuts. There is $3540 in the pot. The first opponent pushes all in for around the size of the pot and the second opponent also calls. Do you call or fold?

2. Same as the first scenario except the first opponent checks the river and the second opponent pushes all in for around the size of the pot. Do you call or fold?

3. You call, the river comes the Q pairing up the board. The first player checks and the second player bets $1600 (slightly less than half the pot). Do you call, fold or push all in?

That is five different questions. Look for the question marks! I'll tell you my friends actions and the results of the hand after enough people have commented. I will also give my own thoughts too. Analysis/Reasoning along with the answers in your comments please.

Bellagio Five Diamond Poker Classic

"Rehne Pedersen takes the bracelet!
Rehne Pedersen has just won the 2005 WPT Bellagio Five Diamond Poker Classic taking with him a gold and diamond Championship bracelet and a cash prize of $2,078,185.

Patrik Antonius has just finished in second place with a cash prize of $1,046,470." - Source - http://www.pokerwire.com

Patrik Antonius is a well known high stakes cash game player on the Internet called "I_Knockout_U" or variations of it. He can be seen regularly playing in the 300/600 Limit games and occasionally the big 200/400NL heads up cash game at Prima.

He got unlucky at the end heads up. They were both even in chips with 8.5 million and the following hand happened.

IKU posts the SB of 300k and his ante of 50k and Pedersen posts the BB of 600K and his ante of 50k.

Antonius picks up AK and moves all in for 8 million. Pedersen calls with A4.

The flop came 765.

The turn came the 3. This gave Pedersen the straight but left IKU with some flush outs.

The river came the T and IKU was crippled with only about 150k in chips left. He lost those soon after!

So congratulations to both. I don't feel too sorry for IKU and his $1,000,000 though, especially when it is laid side by side his other millions =)

On another note, new teaching DVD out - Tex-Ass Hole'Em - Not sure if this features Howard Lederer or not. Let me know =)

$10,000,000 Buyin Tournament?

"LOS ANGELES - Six players will compete in a winner-take-all $60 million televised poker tournament next summer."

"Phil Ivey, considered among the world's best Texas Hold 'em players, will be in the field. The other players will be announced later, Greenberg said."

The above quotes come from this Yahoo Article.

Unreal? All Hype? I don't know, it really is hard to tell from this but Fox Sports Net does run that really crappy Poker Superstars Series. So it could be a huge let down in the end =) I do not understand how a fledgling poker site that hasn't even opened is going to generate $20,000,000 for two internet qualifiers? I have never even heard of Mansionpoker.net. They are going to have to go a long way to get the necessary player base together in time to generate that kind of money. Slated to start in July of next year? Something is not adding up here. Hehe!

They have some more info on their site about this site/tv deal - Press Release

Some nice quotes from it :-

"The MANSIONPOKER.NET POKERDOME SERIES is slated to debut on Sunday, May 15, 2006 (11:00 PM-1:00AM local) on FSN owned-and-affiliated regional sports networks, and continues for 43 consecutive weeks. The series' multi-faceted tournaments originate inside a remarkable, high-tech soon-to-be-built arena called the "Pokerdome."

"Plus, medical teams will be standing by, monitoring each of the players' heart rates in the event that pushing $1 and $5 million chips into the pot causes a player's heart to race faster than Schumacher." - LOL!

"The tournament also features the biggest starting blinds of any sanctioned poker tournament in history."

All sounds pretty nuts to me! Thoughts? If it is real, the poker pros will obviously pool behind each other just like they did vs Andy Beal. So Phil Ivey in the end will be backed anyway I'm sure, probably selling many many little blocks of himself to the other big time players who can't get a spot in the game.

Failed Again

I failed my driving test again. This is getting old! Three times now. I thought third time was meant to be lucky? =) I have rebooked it for the end of January... Sigh. I have moved test centers too, this one is the 3rd worst pass rate in the UK according to a newspaper article headed "The Test Center Lottery". Lol. That didn't fill me with confidence =)

At $80 a pop, they are getting rich off of me.

Poker was slightly below average last month but I had a mega month before that so all is fine. Started off great for December too, I was playing only two tables then eventually only one at 20/40 NL. I won three $8000+ pots in about 15mins of playing. Which is super rare to say the least.

One I had JJ and called a raise in middle position from an early position raiser. One further person called the $160 raise behind me.

The flop came J97.

The original raiser bet out $440 and I cold called taking a risk to get action on the turn if the draws miss. Unfortunately the person behind me cold called the $440 bet also. At least the original raiser can have no clue as to the strength of my hand here as he would expect a raise on this scary board from a set or 2 pair especially 3 way.

This idea worked out perfect as the A hit on the turn which left all potential draws uncompleted. The original raiser suddenly moved all in for $3200 and I pushed all in for $3600 to try and block the player behind me. He did fold so that worked out nicely. All I have to fear now is if the original raiser has AA but that is nearly impossible after he went all in so quickly. Cards were turned face up and he only had AK. Oops? Drawing dead. Slow playing worked for once =)

Another hand was when I had 45. It was a 5 way limp and I had position on the button.

The flop came AK8.

Everyone checked to me and I bet $200. The first 3 limpers folded and a (what can only be described as a fishy player) check minimum raised me to $400. I called and the J hit on the turn. The check raiser checked to me and I also checked taking the risk of getting counterfeited by a river diamond to disguise my hand.

The river was the 9.

He bet into me for $600 creating a $1600 pot. I was sure I had the best hand and minimum raised him to $1200. He shocked me by moving all in for $3000 more. It was just too impossible to fold a flush vs him even though it looked exactly like a bigger one. I called and he turned over A9 for 2 pair. Lol, guess he was getting annoyed at me winning a bunch of huge pots in a row.

I started a new regime for updating my poker stats. I stopped updating every day/every session and now just keep track of hours played instead and then check to see how much I made or lost after 20 hours or so. There is less pressure and emotional ups and downs with this method but you might be in a for a nasty shock if you leave checking too long :) You also risk the very slight chance that someone hacks your accounts and you don't notice for a few days =)

A missing episode from Season 3 of the WPT has appeared as a torrent. It is the WPT invitational featuring Chris Ferguson, Bruce Buffer, Chau Giang, Tom Everett Scott, Alex Brenes and Johan Storakers. I hadn't seen it before so it is probably new to some of you too.

x3 Reunion has delayed their patch. I was getting into that for a while but the bugs and stuff are just too annoying to play it without any patch. I will just stick to Civilization 4 for now whenever I need my gaming fix.

If you are bored check out Bunny Suicide Thanks Groin.