Virgin Festival and Poker Tracking

Tried to qualify for the Virgin Poker Festival in London. I've played a few satelites, mostly to large sunday tournaments, but this was the closest I've come...

22 runners, top 3 qualify, started well, as this was a larger buy in (25 euros) than i normally do you could see that everybody was playing a tighter. I picked up a few pots by raising then cbetting. One "creative" player made me a chip leader by calling my raise in the blinds then calling my flop and turn bets. My pocket pair of 7s beating his 3s. One thing to note was the timing tell, he quickly called my flop bet which shows he was weak trying to act strong. He then called my raise with AQo from the blinds then proceeded to call my cbet again but fold the turn (i hit my ace on the flop). From that it was just a case of stealing until i limped with ATs from UTG+1. This is a bad limp but id been raising a lot and i thought people would be scared of the limp (nobody raised). The blinds limped and the flop of 2JA rainbow was checked to me. I bet 2/3 pot and got min check raised by the big stack sb. I read this as weak and pushed all in. I read this as having a high chance of being weak because Id been stealing alot already and his bet was very slightly bigger than twice my bet, so that he still had enough of a stack behind to fold. He eventually called with A3 ha! This gave me a massive chip lead of around 12000 chips (the average needed to qualify). Two people went out soon after leaving 3 big stacks and 2 people on around 4BB. Then it all went wrong.

The short stack button pushed and i called with Ad8d, he turned over Kd3d. I hit a nut flush draw on the flop only to see K and 3 fall on the turn and river. I was so close to getting it down to 4 people and having a dominating chip lead! The stacks evened out and the short stacks doubled up. I managed to sustain my stack around 10-12k by stealing and called the same short stack (4BB) with 22 vs A9o, then an ace fell on the turn. Later on, same guy, again he dropped short as he never stealed, my KQo vs his A3o. QT2 flop, J turn - one card away to qualify, 4 outer, K falls on the river! OMFG! This puts me down to about 8BB and one of the 2 short stacks. Very next hand in the SB i get dealt 66. Cut off raises - as he has done in the same position every round for the last 2. I push, and he calls with KQo (alot stronger than i was hoping!). Q falls on the fucking RIVER! If i'd won that i would have been back up to 13k in chips! So annoying i felt like crying! Was 1 card away from qualifying twice and 2 cards away twice! There probably isnt another chance to qualify now as im in france soon, so i guess i saved myself some money on train fares. O what could have been! I had started picturing myself on the way to London after i doubled up with ATs...

Anyway, i found coming 5th gave me my buyin back, so at least that soul destorying tournament didnt cost me anything. I've brought PTO and PAH and i am trialing Eyepoker which collects hand histories and can be used for table selections. Have to say im amazed and cant believe i didnt use these tools eariler. I havent really used PTO that much other than to display stats in PAH, but i have been reviewing and making notes about my sessions which is very useful. Eyepoker is great and think i will have to buy it when i get back from france. I've got about another 1500 hands to go before applying with badbeat. Im about $14 down, which IMO could be the other way. I've been 2 outered three times which has cost me at least $20. The other $20 i lost was when i flopped the nut straight with no redraw to the flush draw showing. Three of us went all in, all with the nut straight, but only one with the flush draw. Of course it hit on the turn and the guy turned 3 buy-ins up! Ive also got StoxPoker access which has been amazing. I've seen a few videos on 6 max. Ribbo is crazy agro! I've seen how to play loose and had a fair amount of success the first time i tried. Im itching to start playing again, but im stuck at Charissa's, then we go to France, so after we get back im going to the hit the tables hard!

I do however think i should play some tournaments, both NLHE and PLO as i was very happy with my satelite play. Apart from the call with KQo which put me short stacked (even though i got the right odds) i think i played it pretty perfectly and definately should have qualified. This leads me to believe i should try and qualify for the Everest sunday tournament (only $100 buyin) and maybe play a few more tournaments.

Cant wait to hit the tables again!

Decisions Decisions!

Been back from Australia for just over a week now. Spent a bit of time playing poker, but mainly been having fun with friends, family and Charissa. I read Pot-Limit Omaha Poker by Jeff Hwang and Secrets of Professional Pot-Limit Omaha by Rolf Slotboom while on my travels. PLOP gives a firm grounding in solid Omaha play and certainly gave me a greater knowledge of starting hands and enforced the advantage of position. From this book i learnt which starting hands are playable and why and the fact i should really tighten by in early position. These things i did know, but i dont feel i was putting them into practice. This is something i wish to correct. PPLO was less useful. It has great information on short stacked play and even though i had a quick go using it and lost $30 i can see why this approach would work in the long run. I feel my ability calls for a big stacked approach and this play will improve my play rather than a simple push/fold short stack play. I will however, use it to great effect in tournaments I'm sure. So now im a bit more clued up on Omaha strategy, what now?

I signed up for lucky ace poker to get 6 months free at Stox Poker for their Omaha videos, which i should get in the next few days. I want to finish making notes on PLOP the book and from the 2+2 discussions. I think my main need is to play some poker! When playing NLHE 5/10 cents cash i felt my game had improved from the knowledge i'd gained over the last few months, but i simply need to play more hands. I was planning to buy PT Omaha and PAH to monitor my play, so will be doing that shortly and was going to play on Party Poker. I have now been distracked by BadBeat Poker who provide bankrolls for winning players. This requires you to play on the iPoker network and a minimum of 3000 hands. With that you can get a maximum loss limit of $50 or up to $500 per day, depending on limits/ability etc. So i may in fact play on this network rather than party and see how it goes. Having this extra roll would allow me to maybe move up limits with less restricitons. There is also the Virign Poker festival coming my in London at the end of September, so i am thinking of trying to qualify for that.

So things to do:

Finish my studying of PLOP.
Get access to Stox and start studying the material.
Buy PTO and PAH and get these setup.
Play 3000 hands and apply to Badbeat.
Qualify for Virign Festival.