Game Scheduled

This game will be hosted by one of the previous winners, Dan H.

Start at 6 pm on Saturday the 17th. Same rules apply for the start of this tourney as with the previous two. We will begin the dealing at 6:00 pm sharp. We are limiting the field at 32 for this stop. So, obviously, the more the merrier.

The game looks like this:

35 minute rounds.
Blinds will start at:
50/100
100/200
250/500
Add-ons can be purchased again, but only at the conclusion of round 3. Round 3 will, also, mark the end of the rebuy period.
Blinds will begin to double after this point.

Just to change things up a little bit, we will have a final table of ten players.

A side note, I do have a dog, so those who may have allergies, should consider taking whatever meds will keep them in the game.

For information on exact location e-mail me at: trew_eveal@hotmail.com.

Saturday the 17th

Looks like we have the beginnings in place for a game Saturday the 17th of September in Cedar Grove. Post if you're interested in attending and we'll make sure you get updates on more concrete plans.

Results of the 8/19 Tourney

We chopped up the pot at 1:00 after the 4k/8k blinds before they went to 8k/16k.

Winners:
1st - Ben, Scott, Dez 180 "points"
4th - Aaron - 80 points
5th - Tim - 30 points

Final Table:
6th: Mike
7th: Karen (she also got the 11 point bounty on Dan, the previous winner)
8th: Jamie

Dumb Bet?

Blinds are 300/600, will be 400/800 by the time I'm in big blind (6 minutes left in the 40 minute round). I have 4800 in chips (8x BB, or 6xBB once the blind flips). People usually say short stacked is less than 10x the big blind.

The guy in 1st position (chip leader with 29,000) raises to 1600, it comes around to me. I had AJ, I thought about folding it since the other guy might have a pair, but since he's a chip leader he could afford a raise with any two paint. I know he'll call if I go all-in so I just called the 1600 (possible mistake). The guy acting after me, who was also short stacked, went all in for about 8k. The chip leader folded and it was to me. I called the last 3200 worth of chips since I know the guy who went all in and he said during the last break that he's going all in on Ax next time he gets it since he didn't want to get blinded out and wanted to go out with a bang instead of dying slowly.

Was it wrong to just call when on short stack? I figured that if an A, a J, or 3 rags hit on the flop I could go all in and feel against the chip leader and feel secure in my bet. If a K, Q, or T hit I could fold to his bet or check it down and still have 3000 left to play with if I lost. I wanted to only call him since I thought for sure he would call me and why spend more than I have to in order to see the flop first? I didn't think anyone else would go over the top. I was right in my reads, chip leader had KQ and the reraiser had AT. However a T hit on the river and I lost the rest of my chips. I feel good about my reads, but wasn't sure if I should have bet more or if I was in a hopeless position. In this case I would have lost either way, but in the long run the cards will come up different.

So next time should I push all-in right away or try to see the flop on the cheap again.

Tournaments

So my Brother and I were talking and he said it was hard to run the tourney because he spent a few hours getting tables, chairs, cleaning the garage, and picking up beer bottles on the lawn. He didn't want to charge a rake though or anything because that seems kind of bad. I suggested that he just say that if there are more than X people that he gets to buy-in for free. I think this would be fair (and I know I don't have to worry about Tim winning my money!), anyone else have an opinion on this?

Rebuys and Results.

I had a lot of comments Saturday about rebuys. Now that some of you have played in the tourney do you still dislike them as much?

One thing I didn't like was people just going all in on the hand before rebuys stopped in order to get back up to 5000 chips. That bothered me a little bit. Yet with people driving in from all over the state I felt like we owed it to them to let them play a bit longer if they busted out early.... Opinions?

1st: Lord Ben, me
2nd: Nate, the Mouth.
3rd p: Chris, Mr Lucky
4th: Dan, the only rebuy to win money.
5th: Scott, my brother in law.
6th: Jamie? The only girl to win money in a VIBE game.

Both Sams went out without money but made it to the final table.

Call or Fold?

I am dealer, I look down and see KK on the 4th or 5th hand of the game (4000 starting chips). Limp, limp, limp goes the betters. Not wanting the A3 limpers to suck out on me I raised to 200 (4x the big blind). 1-3 people called me, I forget.

The flop comes up 9 7 5 rainbow, the first to act bets 100, everyone folded to me, I raised to 500 (pot sized or so), the raiser called.

Turn comes up another 5, I'm worried a little bit. He just checks, which could mean he's slowplaying trips so I didn't want to get trapped and I checked also.

River comes up a 3. The other guy leads off with a 1500 chip bet. Was he slowplaying his trip 5's and now trying to capitalize? Or was he trying to push me off the pot hoping I'd be afraid he had 5's?

I called him and before I reveal what he had I wanted some people to guess if my call was a good call and what he might have had, I don't want to pollute the thinking. I think I covered all the possible hands in my head. To make it clear it was the 4th or 5th hand of the game and the player was an unknown. So was I, it was the 1st pot we both played.

Winnings

When is it time to build a bankroll? In the games since I started recording I've won several games. Before then I took 3rd once and lost a bunch of other games, I think I was even or maybe down 20-40? I can't remember, but I was just playing from the gut. The first game I recorded was before I studied the game at all, it was just after watching on TV a bazillion hours.

All the following are NL hold'em tourney games. I separated the more "professional" type ones from the home games. All the home game buyins were $20, losers game was $5, the tourneys were $30.

+60 - 1st in an 8 player home game.
+150 - 1st in a 13 player tournament.
-20 - 5th in an 8 player home game.
+10 - 4th in a 20 player home game.
+10 - 1st in a 3 player losers game (same evening).
-30 - 27th in a 43 player tournament.
-20 - 7th in a 18 player home game.
+125 - 3rd in a 32 player tournament.

Adding it up I'm +245 in tournaments (with $90 worth of buyins), and +40 in home games with $85 in buyins. The numbers may be skewed a bit due to a small sample size. But I think it shows what I believe anyway. In home games I'm a bit more relaxed, I'm not as aggressive because I just like to see cards and play with friends. I'm not out to eliminate them. I'm busy telling and listening to stories.

So now when do I stop using "spending" money for the buyins and when do I start to actually have a bankroll that I can draw from and add to? I can afford to lose the buyin typically, but not if I lose three or four times in a row, that's nearly $100 even if I'd still be up money long run. So it'd be nice to have a bankroll to smooth out the lumps. But then again by having a bankroll it seems like I'm taking the game more seriously and I've always enjoyed the recreational aspects of it more than winning money.