Hi all.
Welcome to this week's letter.
No live poker for me this week meaning I got in good volume online, the highlight was winning the €7500 gtd on Irish Eyes one night. I will have some exciting news in the next letter on the online tournament front on Irish Eyes coming in May.
This week I'm playing two end of month tourneys: the Fitz (on Thursday night) and an addition to the calendar, in Jokers Casino in Mullingar on Sunday at 6 PM. This is a $150 +10 freezeout, and I hope to see some of you there.
I'm starting to look forward to Vegas. My original plan was to only go for 2 or 3 weeks this year, but the guys I'm going over with wanted to be there for a bit longer so I'm going for a month now, flying out the 15th of June. I'm planning to play the WSOP main event and a bunch ofno limit holdem side events.
The topic of this week's strategy section is pot control.
Pot control is a concept all top players understand but a lot of amateurs have no real clue about. Imagine you pick up AK on the button and there's a raise before you. You reraise and the original raiser calls. The flop comes K82 rainbow, you bet and your opponent calls. The turn is a queen, you bet again and get called again. The river is a five, your opponent checks again, and thinking you have the best hand you bet again. Your opponent now check raises all in.
You're now faced with a horrible decision:
(i) you either call really only beating a bluff, or
(ii) you fold (and you might be getting bluffed off the best hand).
How could or should you have played this hand differently?
Betting the river is a mistake since while you may have the best hand, it's
unlikely your opponent will call if you have. His call on the flop suggests he has something. With no obvious draws, this could be a
worse king, a pair (lower than kings) or a set. Your opponent's call on the turn suggests it's unlikely he has just a pair lower than
kings. He might call one bet with nines or tens but he's unlikely to call two unless he's very stubborn. So it's more like he has the king, or a set. If it's just the king, then it's probably either AK (which you chop with) or KQ (which you're now losing too).
Therefore when he checks the river, you should check behind.
Another way to play the hand, and one I prefer, is to check behind on the turn. The queen may have improved him so it's prudent to be
cautious and wait to see what he does on the river.
If he bets, you can call (he might bet KJ or tens or jacks thinking he has the best
hand), and if he checks, you can bet (and you're more likely to get called by worse kings or jj/tt type hands).
By checking the turn,
you're controlling the size of the pot, and you may induce him to bluff or value bet hands you beat on the river.
On the promotions front, Irish Eyes Poker are still running Iron Man VIP point freerolls with the next ones on 25th and 29th April. After these five more VIP point freerolls will run between the 1st May and 17th May. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 in each freeroll. Each package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winners' poker account. Join me in the Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria between 28th May - 3rd June.
The WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. Lets meet up in Vages!
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
The Hive Poker, Instadeal Poker, Casino, Sports Betting, on your PC, Laptop, Smartphone or Tablet.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Letter from Doke (News and Promotions 18th April 2012)
Hi all.
Welcome to this week's letter where I have news on the UKITP in Nottingham and an interesting strategy section from a hand I played in the Irish Open against Kevin Vandersmissen, plus some great promotions coming up online including WSOP Express, EMOP Bulgaria, Crazy freerolls and tonights Irish Eyes Facebook €100 freeroll.
My trip to Nottingham for the latest UKIPT was a pretty miserable one. I made a reasonably promising start to day 1B having worked my way up to 20k from 15k starting, but then lost a race on the river in a 15K pot. As the blinds climbed I survived a few allin shoves preflop before running into aces and not getting there. In the 300 side event, usually a good one for me (I final tabled it in Manchester last year and won in Galway), I made a good start before losing most of my stack having gotten in with a straight versus two pair. The only other event I played was the Sunday charity event, which ended in similar fashion to my Irish Open: losing a race to Jude Ainsworth.
I got back to the hotel in time to do a bit of a Sunday grind. I had a few deep runs in the Sunday majors including the €35k on Irish Eyes but busted them all four or five tables out. A profitable day overall but still the main feeling was what might have been. After a few weeks where the focus has been on live poker, I'm looking forward to getting back to grinding online before I head to Vegas for the WSOP in mid June.
In last week's strategy section, I talked about a hand I played in the Irish Open against Kevin Vandersmissen where my opponent's bet sizing led me to draw several conclusions about his hand at different points. Most players are aware of physical tells which can be important in live poker, but bet sizing tells are at least as important. Pay attention to opponents bet sizing when you're not involved in pots, as this information can be useful if you do end up in a pot with them. Some players bet bigger when they're bluffing and smaller when they think they have the best hand and are trying to get value. Other players do the reverse. Of course good players will mix it up, so you have to be careful not to be too definitive. Just because a guy bet big on a bluff once doesn't mean he's bluffing every time he overbets.
When sizing your own bets, first consider what you are trying to achieve with the bet. In general, there are three good reasons to bet:
(1) To get called by worse hands (value betting)
(2) To get a better hand to fold (bluffing)
(3) To protect what you believe is to be the best hand right now from being outdrawn (this obviously doesn't apply on the river)
When your primary purpose is to protect your hand, select your bet size so that your opponent does not have the correct odds to call if he is on a draw. For example, if you get to the turn and you believe your opponent to be on a straight or flush draw, then with either 8 or 9 outs from the remaining 44 cards that could hit the river, he's either just under 4 to 1 to hit (a flush draw) or 9 to 2 if he's on a straight draw. If you bet half the pot, you are laying him odds of 3 to 1, so he is making a mistake if he calls. If, on the other hand, you bet only quarter the pot, you are pricing him in to call laying him 5 to 1.
If you think you don't have the best hand, you have two options: either give it up, or try to bluff. The usual recommendation on sizing bluffs is to bet the smallest amount you think you need to bet to get your opponent(s) to fold. This is why it's so important to pay attention to opponent's tendencies when not in a hand. Some players will call with marginal hands up to a certain bet size: for example they'll keep calling if you keep betting half the pot, but fold to a pot bet or bigger. Others may chase draws to the river but then give up to very small bets if they miss (tiny bets of 20% or less can be profitable against these players on draw heavy boards where the draws don't fill by the river).
If you believe you have the best hand, the traditional advice used to be essentially the reverse of when you're bluffing: bet the most you think will get called. This has been stood on its head in recent times by aggressive Internet players who will bet a bigger amount than they expect to get called so long as there's a reasonable expectation of being called. For example, say the pot on the river is 10k and you want to bet for value (you're confident you have the best hand), and:
(1) You think if you bet 3k, your opponent will always call
(2) You think if you bet 7k, he will call half the time
(3) You think if you move all in for 20k, he'll only call a quarter of the time
In this case, we can work out our expectation for each bet (how much we will make on average):
(1) If we bet 3k, we win an additional 3k 100% of the time, so expectation is 3k
(2) If we bet 7k, we win 7k half the time, and nothing the other half.
Expectation is 7k divided by 2, or 3500
(3) If we shove, we win nothing 75% of the time, and 20k 25% of the
time. Expectation is 20k divided by 4, or 5k
So even though the shove is the bet that will get called the least, it has the highest expectation.
On the promotions front, Irish Eyes Poker are still running Iron Man VIP point freerolls with the next ones on 19th, 25th and 29th April. After these five more VIP point freerolls will run between the 1st May and 17th May. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 in each freeroll. Each package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winners' poker account.
Join me in the Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria between 28th May - 3rd June.
The WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. Lets meet up in Vages!
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
Welcome to this week's letter where I have news on the UKITP in Nottingham and an interesting strategy section from a hand I played in the Irish Open against Kevin Vandersmissen, plus some great promotions coming up online including WSOP Express, EMOP Bulgaria, Crazy freerolls and tonights Irish Eyes Facebook €100 freeroll.
My trip to Nottingham for the latest UKIPT was a pretty miserable one. I made a reasonably promising start to day 1B having worked my way up to 20k from 15k starting, but then lost a race on the river in a 15K pot. As the blinds climbed I survived a few allin shoves preflop before running into aces and not getting there. In the 300 side event, usually a good one for me (I final tabled it in Manchester last year and won in Galway), I made a good start before losing most of my stack having gotten in with a straight versus two pair. The only other event I played was the Sunday charity event, which ended in similar fashion to my Irish Open: losing a race to Jude Ainsworth.
I got back to the hotel in time to do a bit of a Sunday grind. I had a few deep runs in the Sunday majors including the €35k on Irish Eyes but busted them all four or five tables out. A profitable day overall but still the main feeling was what might have been. After a few weeks where the focus has been on live poker, I'm looking forward to getting back to grinding online before I head to Vegas for the WSOP in mid June.
In last week's strategy section, I talked about a hand I played in the Irish Open against Kevin Vandersmissen where my opponent's bet sizing led me to draw several conclusions about his hand at different points. Most players are aware of physical tells which can be important in live poker, but bet sizing tells are at least as important. Pay attention to opponents bet sizing when you're not involved in pots, as this information can be useful if you do end up in a pot with them. Some players bet bigger when they're bluffing and smaller when they think they have the best hand and are trying to get value. Other players do the reverse. Of course good players will mix it up, so you have to be careful not to be too definitive. Just because a guy bet big on a bluff once doesn't mean he's bluffing every time he overbets.
When sizing your own bets, first consider what you are trying to achieve with the bet. In general, there are three good reasons to bet:
(1) To get called by worse hands (value betting)
(2) To get a better hand to fold (bluffing)
(3) To protect what you believe is to be the best hand right now from being outdrawn (this obviously doesn't apply on the river)
When your primary purpose is to protect your hand, select your bet size so that your opponent does not have the correct odds to call if he is on a draw. For example, if you get to the turn and you believe your opponent to be on a straight or flush draw, then with either 8 or 9 outs from the remaining 44 cards that could hit the river, he's either just under 4 to 1 to hit (a flush draw) or 9 to 2 if he's on a straight draw. If you bet half the pot, you are laying him odds of 3 to 1, so he is making a mistake if he calls. If, on the other hand, you bet only quarter the pot, you are pricing him in to call laying him 5 to 1.
If you think you don't have the best hand, you have two options: either give it up, or try to bluff. The usual recommendation on sizing bluffs is to bet the smallest amount you think you need to bet to get your opponent(s) to fold. This is why it's so important to pay attention to opponent's tendencies when not in a hand. Some players will call with marginal hands up to a certain bet size: for example they'll keep calling if you keep betting half the pot, but fold to a pot bet or bigger. Others may chase draws to the river but then give up to very small bets if they miss (tiny bets of 20% or less can be profitable against these players on draw heavy boards where the draws don't fill by the river).
If you believe you have the best hand, the traditional advice used to be essentially the reverse of when you're bluffing: bet the most you think will get called. This has been stood on its head in recent times by aggressive Internet players who will bet a bigger amount than they expect to get called so long as there's a reasonable expectation of being called. For example, say the pot on the river is 10k and you want to bet for value (you're confident you have the best hand), and:
(1) You think if you bet 3k, your opponent will always call
(2) You think if you bet 7k, he will call half the time
(3) You think if you move all in for 20k, he'll only call a quarter of the time
In this case, we can work out our expectation for each bet (how much we will make on average):
(1) If we bet 3k, we win an additional 3k 100% of the time, so expectation is 3k
(2) If we bet 7k, we win 7k half the time, and nothing the other half.
Expectation is 7k divided by 2, or 3500
(3) If we shove, we win nothing 75% of the time, and 20k 25% of the
time. Expectation is 20k divided by 4, or 5k
So even though the shove is the bet that will get called the least, it has the highest expectation.
On the promotions front, Irish Eyes Poker are still running Iron Man VIP point freerolls with the next ones on 19th, 25th and 29th April. After these five more VIP point freerolls will run between the 1st May and 17th May. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 in each freeroll. Each package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winners' poker account.
Join me in the Crystal Crown Casino, Sunny Beach, Bulgaria between 28th May - 3rd June.
The WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30. Lets meet up in Vages!
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
Friday, April 13, 2012
Letter from Doke (News and Promotions 13th April 2012)
Hi
This week was all about the Irish Open, which was a bit of a disaster for the Doke bankroll. Including myself I had an interest in a dozen players and despite selecting only what I considered the best we all bricked. A few had big stacks at different points but got unlucky.
My starting table featured a pretty sick lineup that included Faraz "The Toilet" Jaka, EPT runner up (and eventual winner) Kevin Vandersmissen, Nicky Power, Marty Smyth and Aussie beast Daniel Neilson.
I didn't get much to play with all day so i was pretty happy to escape having increased my 20k starting stack to just under 30k. I managed to lose most of my "profit" in my new table which featured Phil Hellmuth, Toby Lewis, Anton Wigg, Ger Harraghy, Sean Prendiville and Donnacha O'Dea. It was a pretty surreal experience sitting across the table from Hellmuth. I ended with just over starting stack so needed to get busy early on day 2.
Card death and another tough table draw (Xuan Liu, Jude Ainsworth, Barry Hand, Byron Kaverman and Donal O'Connor who went on to chop the sole survivor) didn't exactly help my cause. I survived a few hours thanks to a few reshoves and open shoves before I finally picked up a hand, queens. My shove was called by Jude's ak and I lost the race. Well done to Donal on his deep run and chopping the sole survivor.
Normally I'm not a betting man but Paddy Power had a few interesting markets. I backed myself in my matchup against Peter Murphy, and myself and Jason Tompkins in a five man group that also included Peter, John O'Shea and Dermot Blaine. Dermot was the justified favourite but was too short a price to back, and I felt the rest of us were pretty evenly matched, so as joint outsiders I thought myself and Jason were the value. Things looked very good for my bets after Pete busted day 1 and the other two went early on day 2 leaving just me and Jason. Someone told me that someone had to cash in the group for it not to be a push but this wasn't stated explicitly on the PP site and fair play to Paddy, they paid out on me when I outlasted Jason so that was at least some consolation.
The most interesting hand I played in the Irish Open was blind on blind against Kevin Vandersmissen, the eventual winner. He raised from the small blind and I found AJ in the big blind, way ahead of his range. Despite this, I elected to call rather than raise for a number of reasons:
(1) Because Kevin is an aggressive player, he's going to be raising a lot of junk. Reraising will just fold out a lot of this and win me a very small pot
(2) By not reraising, I'm disguising my hand. He'll find it very hard to put me on such a strong ace. If an ace flops he will almost certainly try to represent it, or if he has a weaker ace, bet for value thinking he's good
(3) Early on in tournaments, I err on the side of caution and pot control.
By not reraising, I keep the pot small til we see the flop.
The flop came AJ8 and Kevin fired for two thirds pot. I figured he was doing this on most flops and particularly ones with an ace which he will try to represent as the preflop aggressor. It's possibly but unlikely he has the ace, so I just called again to make my hand look weaker so he'll keep firing with his bluffs. With no flush draws and an unlikely T9 being the only legit straight draw, I saw no real reason to protect my hand here.
The turn was a 4, which changes nothing. He fired for two thirds pot again, and I called again, for much the same reasons as on the flop. The river was a queen which meant that T9 had now got there (or a more unlikely KT), and he fired for pot. I quickly called. Even though I was almost certain I had the best hand, there's no point in raising here, as he won't call with any worse hand. His river bet indicates he has either a very strong hand that beats me or a very weak one that won't call a raise. As it happened, it was the latter, 97o (ironically this was the hand he ultimately won the Irish Open with a few days later in another blind on blind battle).
I also saw Per Hildebrand at the IO. Per is a Swedish player who was one of the founders of Entraction, the network Irish Eyes Poker is on. Per is now heading up Terminal Poker, (a form of rush poker online), and he gave an interview to Poker Tube when in Dublin. An interesting interview about where poker online started, how he was involved, the US market, and Terminal Poker, which can be seen online by clicking the link below.
This letter is being written on the plane on the way to Nottingham for the UKIPT. There's a very large travelling group of Irish so hopefully one of us will run well and bring home the bacon.
On the promotions front, the WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30.
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
Join Team Irish Eyes Poker on Facebook - click here
Join EMOP Ireland on Facebook -- click here
Keep up to date on Doke's blog - click here
Interview with Per Hildebrand - click here
Play Fast Online Poker on your Mobile or iPad on Terminal Poker. For Signup Offer - click here
Play live poker with the Celtic Poker Tour. For next events and news - click here
This week was all about the Irish Open, which was a bit of a disaster for the Doke bankroll. Including myself I had an interest in a dozen players and despite selecting only what I considered the best we all bricked. A few had big stacks at different points but got unlucky.
My starting table featured a pretty sick lineup that included Faraz "The Toilet" Jaka, EPT runner up (and eventual winner) Kevin Vandersmissen, Nicky Power, Marty Smyth and Aussie beast Daniel Neilson.
I didn't get much to play with all day so i was pretty happy to escape having increased my 20k starting stack to just under 30k. I managed to lose most of my "profit" in my new table which featured Phil Hellmuth, Toby Lewis, Anton Wigg, Ger Harraghy, Sean Prendiville and Donnacha O'Dea. It was a pretty surreal experience sitting across the table from Hellmuth. I ended with just over starting stack so needed to get busy early on day 2.
Card death and another tough table draw (Xuan Liu, Jude Ainsworth, Barry Hand, Byron Kaverman and Donal O'Connor who went on to chop the sole survivor) didn't exactly help my cause. I survived a few hours thanks to a few reshoves and open shoves before I finally picked up a hand, queens. My shove was called by Jude's ak and I lost the race. Well done to Donal on his deep run and chopping the sole survivor.
Normally I'm not a betting man but Paddy Power had a few interesting markets. I backed myself in my matchup against Peter Murphy, and myself and Jason Tompkins in a five man group that also included Peter, John O'Shea and Dermot Blaine. Dermot was the justified favourite but was too short a price to back, and I felt the rest of us were pretty evenly matched, so as joint outsiders I thought myself and Jason were the value. Things looked very good for my bets after Pete busted day 1 and the other two went early on day 2 leaving just me and Jason. Someone told me that someone had to cash in the group for it not to be a push but this wasn't stated explicitly on the PP site and fair play to Paddy, they paid out on me when I outlasted Jason so that was at least some consolation.
The most interesting hand I played in the Irish Open was blind on blind against Kevin Vandersmissen, the eventual winner. He raised from the small blind and I found AJ in the big blind, way ahead of his range. Despite this, I elected to call rather than raise for a number of reasons:
(1) Because Kevin is an aggressive player, he's going to be raising a lot of junk. Reraising will just fold out a lot of this and win me a very small pot
(2) By not reraising, I'm disguising my hand. He'll find it very hard to put me on such a strong ace. If an ace flops he will almost certainly try to represent it, or if he has a weaker ace, bet for value thinking he's good
(3) Early on in tournaments, I err on the side of caution and pot control.
By not reraising, I keep the pot small til we see the flop.
The flop came AJ8 and Kevin fired for two thirds pot. I figured he was doing this on most flops and particularly ones with an ace which he will try to represent as the preflop aggressor. It's possibly but unlikely he has the ace, so I just called again to make my hand look weaker so he'll keep firing with his bluffs. With no flush draws and an unlikely T9 being the only legit straight draw, I saw no real reason to protect my hand here.
The turn was a 4, which changes nothing. He fired for two thirds pot again, and I called again, for much the same reasons as on the flop. The river was a queen which meant that T9 had now got there (or a more unlikely KT), and he fired for pot. I quickly called. Even though I was almost certain I had the best hand, there's no point in raising here, as he won't call with any worse hand. His river bet indicates he has either a very strong hand that beats me or a very weak one that won't call a raise. As it happened, it was the latter, 97o (ironically this was the hand he ultimately won the Irish Open with a few days later in another blind on blind battle).
I also saw Per Hildebrand at the IO. Per is a Swedish player who was one of the founders of Entraction, the network Irish Eyes Poker is on. Per is now heading up Terminal Poker, (a form of rush poker online), and he gave an interview to Poker Tube when in Dublin. An interesting interview about where poker online started, how he was involved, the US market, and Terminal Poker, which can be seen online by clicking the link below.
This letter is being written on the plane on the way to Nottingham for the UKIPT. There's a very large travelling group of Irish so hopefully one of us will run well and bring home the bacon.
On the promotions front, the WSOP Express promotion continues on Irish Eyes with €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money. All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30.
Freerolls: Don't forget to 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password to the Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
Click on the links below for details on all Irish Eyes Poker Promotions, Blogs, and News.
Irish Eyes Poker Promotions - click here
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Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Letter from Doke (3rd April 2012)
Hi all
My EMOP Lisbon main event was basically a great day one followed by a miserable day two. I hit the ground running and chipped up steadily to hold the chiplead for much of the day until my travelling companion and roommate David Lappin surged by me late in the day after I was rivered late in the day in a 30k pot. Still, I was very happy to bag up over 90k in chips and was in a great position for day 2.
Day 2 started well when I won a race blind on blind against a short stack to break the 100k mark, but thereafter I barely won a pot. Card death didn't help. Almost every time I opened light to take advantage of not having opened in ages I got three bet. My first three bet got four bet shoved on, and my first three bet shove over a loose button raiser ran into queens. Just one of those days. There was better luck for some of the other travelling Irish: Kevin Spillane was unlucky to go out on the bubble, but Connie O'Sullivan notched up his second consecutive cash, and David was very unlucky not to lead tape to tape.
He was in great shape until he lost a huge pot for 40% of the chips in play five handed, his jacks getting cracked by eights. He exited in fourth, a disappointment to him and me (I had a sizeable chunk of his action) but a great performance nonetheless from an online beast who has made the transition to live play.
While railing him on the final table, I jumped into the PLO side event. Perhaps a little foolhardy as PLO is probably my weakest game and I have probably played less than 10 hours of it in my lifetime, but God love's a trier, and I do believe that in tournament poker, a good knowledge of general tournament strategy is at least as important as poker knowledge. It was quite an interesting experience and I found myself unsure of my likely equity in a lot of spots and trying to work things out from first principles, but somehow I muddled my way through to headsup and was a little unlucky not to win in the end. I committed pre flop with KcKx9c6c, potting over a button raise to get almost half the stacks in, and then shoved a safe looking Tc4c2x flop. My opponent called with Ac6x5c5x and hit the nut flush on the turn to claim the title. Still, I can't complain too much in a tournament where I should probably have been wearing L plates. Don't expect to see too many PLO hands in the strategy section any time soon.
This week's strategy section looks at one of the more interesting hands David Lappin played on his way to the chiplead on day one in Lisbon. Early on, an aggressive German opened in early position. David called on the button with sixes. He covered the German so his stack, about 100 big blinds, was the effective one. This deep, it's profitable to flat medium pairs. There's the chance to set mine and possibly win a big pot if you hit a set, and you can also win in other ways since you're in position and can control the pot size. Sixes is not a hand that can comfortably call a four bet, so against an aggressive young opponent flatting is the best option.
The flop came q77, and David called a 40% pot continuation bet. This is pretty standard as the villain won't normally have hit that flop (he has some queens in his range, but it's very unlikely he has a 7). David's plan now is to bet the turn if checked to, as most opponents will check once they get called. David's perceived range here is much wider, he can certainly have a queen and even a 7 (he might call with hands like A7s, 87s, 76s) so if he fires after the opponent checks, this puts the opponent in a very tricky spot even if he can beat sixes(with something like 88-jj) as he has no way of knowing if his hand is good, and if it isn't he'll face a bigger river bet. The turn comes a three and the opponent bets again. At this stage, his range now appears to be either queens or air. Queens would fire again for value, confident they're the best hand. Air would fire knowing that the only way to win the pot now is to bluff and hope David folds something like sixes. More marginal hands that are winning like AA, KK, and AQ would normally check call the turn for pot control and to get maximum value if David is floating (calling with nothing intending to bluff if weakness is shown). David decided there was far more air in the range
than made value hands so he quickly decided to call. However, he didn't call quickly: he tanked to make it appear like he was making a crying call to induce his aggressive opponent to continue the bluff on the river. The river came a king, his opponent fired a third barrel for 80% of pot, and David called instantly. The opponent had fives.
As a general rule, aggression in poker is a good thing, but here the opponent overplayed his hand with a line which made no sense unless he had a house or quads. Because of this, David rightly deduced he was most likely bluffing. By playing the hand passively, David maximised the amount he would win if his opponent was bluffing (if he raises on any street post flop his opponent folds) and minimised his loss in the unlikely event that his opponent did have the monster his bets were trying to represent. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the hand is David taking a long time to call the turn despite having quickly decided he was calling. Amateurs often call quickly in these spots with marginal hands hoping to appear stronger than they are to discourage their opponent from bluffing, but if the only thing you are beating is a bluff then the last thing you want to do is to discourage your opponent from betting his bluffs.
Next up is the Irish Open. While it's never a great idea to get too emotionally invested in any one tournament, I would love to do well in this one. I feel I'm playing more or less at the top of my game at the moment after a bit of a slump in the first few weeks of the year, so fingers crossed.
The Celtic Poker Tour €120 F/O with €25,000 Guaranteed is on this Easter Saturady in the Clonmel Park Hotel. Reg at 12 noon with a 2pm sharp start. 15K starting stack. This is a one day event. If you are interested in playing and to hold your seat text 0852453679 as the game has limited availability.
A great turn out last Sunday night on Irish Eyes for the Joker's Casino live satellite. 102 runners with player wsop10 winning the live event buy-in. There is a €10 online satellite on Irish Eyes for the Joker's live event every Sunday at 8pm. So if you want to satellite you way into the €160 buy-in main event in Joker's Casino Mullingar on Sunday April 29th make sure to play the online sats.
There was a lot of interest in the WSOP Express promotion on Irish Eyes in March, and I have now learned that this will be repeated in April.
The WSOP EXPRESS has €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money.
All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30.
Lastly, Freerolls: Don't forget the Easter Freeroll is on Irish Eyes on April 5th. There is no buy-in and no VIP requirements needed for this freeroll which will take place on the 6th April. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 added. The package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winner's poker account. Max number of participants is 2000 and registration opens 18:30 on the 5th April
There is now a Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night that is password protected. But all you need to do is 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password every week. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
My EMOP Lisbon main event was basically a great day one followed by a miserable day two. I hit the ground running and chipped up steadily to hold the chiplead for much of the day until my travelling companion and roommate David Lappin surged by me late in the day after I was rivered late in the day in a 30k pot. Still, I was very happy to bag up over 90k in chips and was in a great position for day 2.
Day 2 started well when I won a race blind on blind against a short stack to break the 100k mark, but thereafter I barely won a pot. Card death didn't help. Almost every time I opened light to take advantage of not having opened in ages I got three bet. My first three bet got four bet shoved on, and my first three bet shove over a loose button raiser ran into queens. Just one of those days. There was better luck for some of the other travelling Irish: Kevin Spillane was unlucky to go out on the bubble, but Connie O'Sullivan notched up his second consecutive cash, and David was very unlucky not to lead tape to tape.
He was in great shape until he lost a huge pot for 40% of the chips in play five handed, his jacks getting cracked by eights. He exited in fourth, a disappointment to him and me (I had a sizeable chunk of his action) but a great performance nonetheless from an online beast who has made the transition to live play.
While railing him on the final table, I jumped into the PLO side event. Perhaps a little foolhardy as PLO is probably my weakest game and I have probably played less than 10 hours of it in my lifetime, but God love's a trier, and I do believe that in tournament poker, a good knowledge of general tournament strategy is at least as important as poker knowledge. It was quite an interesting experience and I found myself unsure of my likely equity in a lot of spots and trying to work things out from first principles, but somehow I muddled my way through to headsup and was a little unlucky not to win in the end. I committed pre flop with KcKx9c6c, potting over a button raise to get almost half the stacks in, and then shoved a safe looking Tc4c2x flop. My opponent called with Ac6x5c5x and hit the nut flush on the turn to claim the title. Still, I can't complain too much in a tournament where I should probably have been wearing L plates. Don't expect to see too many PLO hands in the strategy section any time soon.
This week's strategy section looks at one of the more interesting hands David Lappin played on his way to the chiplead on day one in Lisbon. Early on, an aggressive German opened in early position. David called on the button with sixes. He covered the German so his stack, about 100 big blinds, was the effective one. This deep, it's profitable to flat medium pairs. There's the chance to set mine and possibly win a big pot if you hit a set, and you can also win in other ways since you're in position and can control the pot size. Sixes is not a hand that can comfortably call a four bet, so against an aggressive young opponent flatting is the best option.
The flop came q77, and David called a 40% pot continuation bet. This is pretty standard as the villain won't normally have hit that flop (he has some queens in his range, but it's very unlikely he has a 7). David's plan now is to bet the turn if checked to, as most opponents will check once they get called. David's perceived range here is much wider, he can certainly have a queen and even a 7 (he might call with hands like A7s, 87s, 76s) so if he fires after the opponent checks, this puts the opponent in a very tricky spot even if he can beat sixes(with something like 88-jj) as he has no way of knowing if his hand is good, and if it isn't he'll face a bigger river bet. The turn comes a three and the opponent bets again. At this stage, his range now appears to be either queens or air. Queens would fire again for value, confident they're the best hand. Air would fire knowing that the only way to win the pot now is to bluff and hope David folds something like sixes. More marginal hands that are winning like AA, KK, and AQ would normally check call the turn for pot control and to get maximum value if David is floating (calling with nothing intending to bluff if weakness is shown). David decided there was far more air in the range
than made value hands so he quickly decided to call. However, he didn't call quickly: he tanked to make it appear like he was making a crying call to induce his aggressive opponent to continue the bluff on the river. The river came a king, his opponent fired a third barrel for 80% of pot, and David called instantly. The opponent had fives.
As a general rule, aggression in poker is a good thing, but here the opponent overplayed his hand with a line which made no sense unless he had a house or quads. Because of this, David rightly deduced he was most likely bluffing. By playing the hand passively, David maximised the amount he would win if his opponent was bluffing (if he raises on any street post flop his opponent folds) and minimised his loss in the unlikely event that his opponent did have the monster his bets were trying to represent. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the hand is David taking a long time to call the turn despite having quickly decided he was calling. Amateurs often call quickly in these spots with marginal hands hoping to appear stronger than they are to discourage their opponent from bluffing, but if the only thing you are beating is a bluff then the last thing you want to do is to discourage your opponent from betting his bluffs.
Next up is the Irish Open. While it's never a great idea to get too emotionally invested in any one tournament, I would love to do well in this one. I feel I'm playing more or less at the top of my game at the moment after a bit of a slump in the first few weeks of the year, so fingers crossed.
The Celtic Poker Tour €120 F/O with €25,000 Guaranteed is on this Easter Saturady in the Clonmel Park Hotel. Reg at 12 noon with a 2pm sharp start. 15K starting stack. This is a one day event. If you are interested in playing and to hold your seat text 0852453679 as the game has limited availability.
A great turn out last Sunday night on Irish Eyes for the Joker's Casino live satellite. 102 runners with player wsop10 winning the live event buy-in. There is a €10 online satellite on Irish Eyes for the Joker's live event every Sunday at 8pm. So if you want to satellite you way into the €160 buy-in main event in Joker's Casino Mullingar on Sunday April 29th make sure to play the online sats.
There was a lot of interest in the WSOP Express promotion on Irish Eyes in March, and I have now learned that this will be repeated in April.
The WSOP EXPRESS has €14,000 added and a total of four packages to WSOP Side Event 56 that is held 2nd to 4th of July in Las Vegas can be won. The package includes: $1,500 tournament entry to Side Event 56, Seven nights stay at a Palazzo Hotel Luxury Suite, $1,740 for travel and spending money.
All a player needs to do is make 1 VIP that is earned in last 72 hours prior to the tournament and use this to buy-in to the first level game. There will be two tournaments per day starting at 17:30 and 19:30.
Lastly, Freerolls: Don't forget the Easter Freeroll is on Irish Eyes on April 5th. There is no buy-in and no VIP requirements needed for this freeroll which will take place on the 6th April. There is one package to EMOP Bulgaria worth €1,650 added. The package consists of a tournament buy-in of €770, accommodation for seven nights and €350 in travel contribution which is credited to the winner's poker account. Max number of participants is 2000 and registration opens 18:30 on the 5th April
There is now a Weekly Facebook €100 Freeroll every Wednesday night that is password protected. But all you need to do is 'Like' our Team Irish Eyes Poker page on Facebook and you can get the password every week. Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/pages/Team-Irish-Eyes-Poker/112290065454803
And for every Tuesday and Friday between the 10th April and 4th May on Irish Eyes there will be eight surprise freerolls with €500 in each prize pool. These will be announced in the poker client about 50 minutes before the start of each freeroll so watch out for them. The notification about the freeroll will be dispatched in the poker client. Any player with running poker client or open table will receive an invitation in a small envelope.
Good luck at the tables - unless I'm at the same table :)
Doke
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