So having watched Jackal's Step 5 video I wanted to play my Step 5 tickets. However, I didn't really get the chance to play over the weekend but now I'm in Zurich on work so I've got some free time. The only problem is I've just got back from dinner (2 beers, bottle of wine, vodka and tonics) so I'm probably not in the best state to play poker. Anyway, that said I saw a step 5 about to start so I jumped in and we'll see what happens...

Well, 3rd hand in I get AQs and see a A93 flop. Bet out and get 2 callers. Turn 7 I check and call (still 3 in the pot). River a J and someone bets and gets raised all-in, so I give it up and they flip over 99 and AJ. I guess I got away lightly but now am down to 1000 chips. Sigh.

FFS - now I get 88 and 77 so raise, get called and then have to give up to action on the flop, down to 850. This isn't going as planned.

99 - down to 650.

88 - out.

Not quite sure how else I should have played these hands other than just fold them?

Those of you with a long memory will recall some blog posts where I played a bunch of sit-n-goes and was going to compare the results with playing an "equivalent" level cash game. Here's a recap of the SNG results:

Played: 100
Buy-in: $600
Rake: $50
Won: $691.20
Profit: $41.20
ROI: 6%

that took 5,388 hands, so I played the same number and the summary is:

Played: 5,388
Level: $10NL
Rake: $58.36
Profit: $152.20
bb/100: 28.3



I was a bit suprised that the amount of rake was so similar - I'd always assumed that cash games made a lot more money for the sites, but at least at this level it looks kind of the same. Anyway, it was nice to get a decent win rate and so it looks like cash is more profitable at the donk level!

To be honest there we lots of spewy things I was doing (limping too much, defending blinds too often, opening weak hands in EP too much etc.) which could have made it even better - here are my stats:



Now all I need is a new project!

Just watched Jackal's Step 4 video so decided to play...came 3rd for a repeat of step 4 then came 1st! In the one I won I was down to 350 chips early on so it wasn't looking promising.

Greetings from hot and humid Philadelphia. Really, coming here from Toronto is going from the sublime to the rediculous...maybe there's somewhere half way where the weather is warm but not sticky.

There didn't seem to be any Step 5 games running when I logged on earlier so I played a couple of Step 3s and won both of them! I played a Step 4 but busted out in 9th place when my QQ didn't hold against AK. Hopefully tonight there'll be a level 5 game I can play. I also played a few (5 I think) $12 180-man sit'n'gos on Stars. Didn't get far in 4 of them but came 6th in one for $99 which covered my expenses. I think if you bulk play these they are fairly soft fields so should be profitable.

One slight issue with trying to qualify for the WSOP is I don't think I can actually make those dates...I've just found out my son has a part in his school play (Bugsy Malone - should be messy) and the performances are 8th/9th July. Now, realistically that's the end of day 2 so I would almost certainly have busted out by then, but I guess that's not the right mindset to be entering a tournament with!

Greetings from sunny Toronto. Ok, scratch that. Greetings from windy, rainy and cold Toronto.

I'm here on work (what else) and just got back from dinner so I decided to use my step 4 ticket since I'm not sure if I'll get to play one of the weekend step 4A qualifiers. Anyway, an early double up with AK vs AQ and it was plain sailing until the final 5 where I got card dead for ages and anted down from the lead to 4th in chips. A few judiciuos steals kept me alive, then I called a sb min raise and called 3 streets of value, if you see what I mean. All the other players decided to knock each other out until we were 3 handed and someone got crippled open shoving the button for 14bb with T7o (am I too tight? I don't do that sort of thing) and next hand he was out.

So now I have a Step 5 ticket and there's no choice but to play the step 5 STT which I'll probably do in the next couple of days assuming I don't go out for too many beers after work...

One step 5 = $700 = 833% ROI !

In the Stars steps I have one life left at level 4:

Try 1: 3rd - step 1 - 6th - out
Try 2: 6th - out
Try 3: 3rd - step 1 - 4th - $1.50
Try 4: 2nd - step 2 - 2nd - step 3 - 7th - out
Try 5: 7th - out
Try 6: 3rd - step 1 - 3rd - step 1 - 1st - step 2 - 1st - step 3 - 9th - out
Try 7: 1st - step 2 - 2nd - step 3 - 5th - step 3 - 1st - step 4
Try 8: 3rd - step 1 - 1st - step 2 - 4th - step 2 - 5th - step 1 - 9th - out
Try 9: 3rd - step 1 - 1st - step 2 - 5th - step 1 - 8th - out
Try 10: 4th - $1.50

I now have some options...
- Carry on with the steps and play the regular step 4
- Take a buy-in for the Sunday major, which would mean I've turned my $75 into $215
- Go for step 4A which is to a $650 WSOP MTT...

Quick update on how my 10 goes at the WSOP steps on Stars has been getting on:

Try 1: 3rd - step 1 - 6th - out
Try 2: 6th - out
Try 3: 3rd - step 1 - 4th - $1.50
Try 4: 2nd - step 2 - 2nd - step 3
Try 5: 7th - out
Try 6: 3rd - step 1 - 3rd - step 1 - 1st - step 2
Try 7: 1st - step 2 - 2nd - step 3
Try 8: 3rd - step 1 - 1st - step 2
Try 9: 3rd - step 1 - 1st - step 2
Try 10: 4th - $1.50

So I'm at 3 x step 2 + 2 x step 3 + 2 x $1.50 = 3 x 27 + 2 x 82 + 3 = $248 from an investment of $75, or a 231% ROI.

I'm still in Australia at the moment on work and here in Sydney is the Star City casino, which has a reasonable poker room. Ok, it's pretty poor to be honest but there are around 25 tables and they spread some decent games. Plus the internet connection in my hotel was flakey so live poker seemed like a good option.

On my first visit - midweek when I couldn't sleep due to jet lag - I played in a $500 buy-in 5-5 NLHE game and won around $225 in a couple of hours (see last blog post). Later in the week I went back and everything seemed to go wrong. I don't think I had too many bad beats - a couple of people sucked out on me for sure but nothing horrendous - I just think I played badly, and for too long so got tired. I ended up losing 3 buy-ins so was now $1,275 down for the trip. The fact that there was rake (10% up to $10 per pot) and an hourly charge of $15 seemed a bit steep, and certainly meant that playing too tight was expensive.

The next day I decided to start off in the $200 buy-in game only to discover that it too was a 5-5 blind structure with a $10 hourly charge, which meant that you started off with 40bb so were playing short stack poker quite often. I got AK all-in pre-flop vs AA, and then a bit later made a cutoff raise to $25 after 3 limpers with 4c5c. The 4s6cTc board looked pretty good to me so when the big blind led I shoved over the top - they called with JhJc. I hit a club on the turn, but another club on the river saw them redraw! It continued in that vein, and I knew I was tilted when I called a $105 pre-flop 4-bet with 53o! I ended up dropping $1,200, which for a $200 buy-in game is pretty horrible. This made my running total for the trip negative $2,475 :-0

So to tonight, my last night in Sydney and the final chance to salvage something. I bought into the $500 game and won a couple of medium pots with QJ when a short stack decided to shove on a Q62 board with TT, and then opening 75 and making a flush on the turn when the 3 heart flop got cheked round, and getting a value bet called by 2 pair on the river. Then came my first big pot of the night (and of the trip). I was in the cut-off and UTG posted a $25 straddle. A middle position player bumped it up to $80 and I looked down to see 88. Since the MP raise could just be trying to steal the straddle I decided to raise to $200, only for it to fold to the UTG player who moved all-in for $435. The MP raiser then called (he was covered) so it was $235 more for me to call. Now the straddle could have any random hand, but he seemed like he wouldn't do this with garbage. There's over $1,000 in the pot and I'm getting 4:1 on a call so I think I have to just go with it. As it turns out they both held AQo so I was in great shape, and my eights held up for a nice $1,250 pot.

I built my stack up to around $1,800 when a 5-5 PLO game started up, so I decided to give that a go. I bought into the game for $700 only to find myself the short stack by some considerable margin, with several played sitting on $3k or more. Still, that's more targets to attack in my book. Early on I open UTG with JJ77ds and 5 callers see the KdJd7c flop. I bet pot and get two callers. The turn is a blank so I fire pot again, which only leaves me $90 behind. I get one caller so I bet the last $90 in the dark. The river pairs the board and my boat is the winning hand. I win a few more medium pots but aren't really getting any hands until near the end, when I make a big mistake. I open 88TJ and get the usual 5 callers and we get the interesting 982r flop. With my middle set and OESD I bet the pot and get two callers, one from the big blind and one from the most aggressive player at the table who has the button for this hand. The turn brings a very nice Q giving me the nuts with a redraw to a boat. The big blind checks and I decided to check along trying to get the aggro player to take a shot at the pot. Sadly this doesn't work and we then see a 9 river. So I've made my boat, but in PLO if a lot of money goes in now I'm probably in trouble so the hand gets checked down. It turns out the big blind had JT and was also looking for a check-raise on the turn, except he didn't have any redraws! Aaarg. That cost me $600 in missed value.

Still, at the end of the evening I was $2,905 up for the evening bringing me into the black for the trip to the tune of $430 in profit. Phew.

The only real downside now is I have around $4k in aussie dollars which I'll get clobbered on for the FX when I change it back into sterling - that'll probably be around 10% which is around the same as my entire winnings! Still, given where I was earlier I'm booking this as a win.

I'm in Sydney on work at the moment and went along to the Star City casino and played in a very lively 5-5 NLHE game. The buy-in was $200-$500 but there were several $1500+ stacks at the table and chips flying around. The only downside was most everyone else knew each other - a fact confirmed by the guy next to me who said there were only two other "tourists" at the table!

My first $250 went when I opened UTG with KK and got 4 callers. I lead the 963r flop and got raised by a big stack on the button. I thought briefly and then came over the top, and he calls with 78 and gets there on the river. That's how he got his big stack I guess!

I pulled up another $250 and a little while later call on the button with QJ and saw a J93 flop. The original raise leads out (it was the same guy as the KK hand) and I come over the top. He tanks for ages and then says the fateful words "ok, let's gamble" whilst flipping over KJ - ups! I was saved when the board ran out J93T8!

Not much else to report other than getting the Gutshot Powerhouse (52o) UTG and opening for 25. This gets 3 callers and then a shove from a short stack for 45 total, which we all call. The flop comes 346 and I lead 50 (to look fishy) which is shoved over for 180 more. I of couse call and scoop a very nice pot!

Not sure really how to play this type of game. Even a 6x open gets 4-5 callers so big pairs can be a death trap, but calling $25-$30 with speculative hands can't be +EV and makes a big dent in your stack if you miss a few.

I tried out some of the PokerStars WSOP Steps tournaments this morning - I played 10 at level 1 and here's how I got on:

Try 1: 3rd - step 1
Try 2: 6th - out
Try 3: 3rd - step 1
Try 4: 2nd - step 2
Try 5: 7th - out
Try 6: 3rd - step 1
Try 7: 1st - step 2
Try 8: 3rd - step 1
Try 9: 3rd - step 1
Try 10: 4th - $1.50

So I "made" 5 x step1 + 2 x step 2 + $1.50 = 5 x 7.5 + 2 x 27 + 1.5 = $93 from an investment of $75, or a 24% ROI.

I then played some of the next steps I'd qualified for as follows:

Step 1 - 6th - out
Step 1 - 4th - $1.50
Step 1 - 3rd - step 1
Step 2 - 2nd - step 3

So I have left 3 x step 1, 1 x step 2, 1 x step 3 and $3.00 cash for a total of $134.50, or a 79% ROI.

However, looked at another way I have 5 "lives" out of my original 10, which is a pretty high attrition rate!