Deposit on Titan

I deposited a little bit on Titan Poker last night. Did this for two reasons

1. To get Hold Em Manager for 'free'
2. To take advantage of their sign up bonus

I don't know if you guys know that Hold Em Manager will give you credit towards their program if you deposit onto their site and use their referral code. All you have to do after you deposit is make about 500 player points and you're set. Also, you can use HEM on any other site when you get it. Pretty awesome bonus if you ask me. Titan has these 'Jackpot' sit and goes where if you win 4 $2, 5 $5, or 6 $20 in a row you get a jackpot bonus of $2000, $53,500, and $75000, respectively. So I decided to try out a few of these, and the play is pretty ragged. Lots of fish making terrible plays. Knowing this I figured it wouldn't be super hard to come close to getting the bonus. The blind structure in these, however, is insane. Near the end of the sit and go it's pretty much just a crapshoot. I think I'm going to continue to have a go at them and see what I can muster together.


Kyle
Sit and Go Expert

Custom Table Mod

So I tried my hand at doing a custom table mod for Full Tilt. I'm doing a Vancouver Canucks theme and it's going pretty well. I've gotten the lobby and tournament windows down, just having a little trouble with getting the actual table sized correctly. Once I'm done I'll post it on the blog and the Full Tilt Forums so you can check it out...

Kyle
Sit and Go Expert

Bankroll Update

My bankroll is doing a bit better now. After losing that $120 in the past week I took a break and am ready to come back strong. I made about $50 back of the $120 I lost. The main thing though is that I've been playing really solid. This is a little timeline of how my bankroll has gone

Feb. 14 -$10
Feb. 21 - $150
Feb.28 - $260
Mar. 7 - $560
Mar. 14 - $440
Mar. 23 - $214 (after withdrawing $450 to pay some bills)

Bankroll management, in my opinion, is probably the most important discipline any poker player needs to learn. Check out Chris Ferguson's rules on bankroll management at
http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/chris-ferguson-challenge

cheers boys

Kyle
Sit and Go Expert

Back on the Grind

I decided to hit up a few sit and go's today after my final midterm was over (such a relief). Anyways I played pretty well in both of them, made one really bad read though and busted out pretty early in one of them. The hand was pretty peculiar but I'll let you guys decide what the best play is.




Full Tilt No-Limit Hold'em, 5.5 Tournament, 20/40 Blinds (9 handed) - Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

Button (t1440)
SB (t1955)
BB (t1155)
Hero (UTG) (t1545)
UTG+1 (t1480)
MP1 (t1740)
MP2 (t1155)
MP3 (t1730)
CO (t1300)

Hero's M: 25.75


Preflop: Hero is UTG with Q, Q

Hero bets t140, 1 fold, MP1 raises to t240, 6 folds, Hero calls t100

Flop: (t540) 3, 9, 10 (2 players)

Hero checks, MP1 bets t1500 (All-In)

Total pot: t540

Your Play?

I put him on a big ace because the overbet was weird. He turned over KK though making me wish I reraised him preflop or at least bet out on the flop so I could make an easy laydown after....


Kyle
Sit and Go Expert

Disgruntled

So I've been on a bit of a dry spell for the past couple days, lost $100 playing $5 and $10 sit and go's. I admit my play hasn't been good but the cards have been kicking me in the you-know-what a bunch. I busted on the bubble when my Kings got cracked by 89o. I think I lost 9 straight until today which I came third in one. I'm pretty upset about it considering the money means a lot to me. Anyways, I'm gonna take a break for a week or so. Just gonna play FTOPS event #20 on Friday and then study over the weekend for my midterm. I think that's the best way to cure the poker blues; just move away from the game for a bit and come back with a fresh mindset. Cheers guys,

Kyle
Sit and Go Expert

Sit and Go Madness Tourney Result

I just finished playing the Sit and Go Madness and I finished 54th out of 16047. Pretty good result although the payout structure was really weird. I only got $70 from it. ITM started at 3600 which is way too much of the field in my opinion. Anyways, I played pretty well, definitely caught some cards when I needed to. Busted out from losing a coin flip, AQ>77. Not much I can do about it but get lucky next time. Anybody else play in it? I'd like to hear how you did.

Kyle
Sit and Go Expert

Goals for March and April

So I've been running pretty the last little while. I've built my bankroll from $10 to $500 in the past month or so and because of this I've set myself a few goals. I think it's always important for a serious poker player to set goals for himself, because without goals there isn't that much drive, and without drive comes bad play and making stupid calls. So with that being said here are my goals for March and April.

1. Play in at least one MTT each week. As you know I am a student which makes it hard to find time to play, but hopefully I'll be able to get into one at least once or twice a week.

2. Play a minimum of 25 sng's a week. Once again time constraint is a problem.

3. Work on my reads and stop making really bad calls.

4. Build my bankroll to over $1500

I think these are some pretty realistic goals, I'd also like to here some of your goals as well. Let me know what you think about them and if I should add any more.

Kyle
Sit and Go Expert.

MTT Today

I registered into a $5 MTT today. There were 478 players total. I played some of the best poker I've ever played before. Only a few minor mistakes here and there but I'm really proud of the way I played. I finished 4th after being the shortstack for most of the final table. I made some key steals and all in pushes that helped keep me in there. We were four handed and I was just about to double up and take a huge chip lead when this happened...

BB (t69736)
UTG (t217603)
MP (t103581)
Hero (Button) (t181244)
SB (t144836)

Hero's M: 14.22

Preflop: Hero is Button with K, K

UTG bets t18000, 1 fold, Hero raises to t44000, 1 fold, BB raises to t68986 (All-In), 1 fold, Hero calls t24986

Flop: (t162722) 7, 10, 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t162722) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t162722) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t162722


After playing so good and for so long my efforts weren't paid in full. It was pretty upsetting to have gone so far only to be sucked out on. But that's poker I guess. Anyways, I just thought I'd share this with you guys. I plan on playing more MTT's in the near future. WSOP here I come!

Kyle
Sit and Go Expert

Online Poker Tells Part 2

Just two more things to discuss for Online Poker Tells. First, is a player breaking from auto play mode, and second, the dreaded min-raise or the check min-raise.

1. When a player breaks away from their auto play pattern and comes in with a raise they most likely have a really big hand, Aces, Kings, or big slick most likely. Take extra caution if you have a HUD and their VPIP and PFR are really low.

2. You've all experienced someone min-raising or check min-raising you. It's one of the most dreadful plays to be up against in online poker, and it can throw you off quite a bit. Does he have top pair, or better? Is he on a draw? Is he just taking advantage of my tight play? These are all questions I've asked myself and have come to a  few conclusions. 1) he probably does have top pair, an over pair, or better, depending on the texture of the board. 2) if the board is low and has two-to-a-flush, he probably has the nut flush draw, possibly with two over cards, or top pair with the nut flush draw. 3) if you've been playing tight and your read on your opponent is that he is a solid player, he could be taking advantage of your tight play. So if you have top pair top kicker or a really good draw, don't be afraid to play aggressive and re-pop them. 

Note: I wouldn't suggest coming over the top of them if it is early in the tournament. One things I advocate (and will be something I'll go over in a little while) is to not get all your chips in the middle early in a sit and go. If the blinds are still small and your getting good odds, just call, don't raise. You can peel off another card and see how he reacts. Otherwise you might regret that re-raise.

Kyle

Sit and Go Expert

Sit and Go Madness

Most of you probably know that Sit and Go Madness is running on Full Tilt right now. I've been hitting it up a bit lately, but not doing so well. I registered into 15 yesterday ($5) and only managed a profit of about $9. It's pretty sad because I played fairly well and either made the wrong play at the wrong time, or just didn't get the cards. I managed to make it into the freeroll however, hopefully I'll see some of you there. If you got any stories or anything you want to share about the Madness let me know.

Cheers guys,

Kyle
Sit and Go Expert