PlauZee's HU SNG Poker Blog

March 2010: Sickest month of all.

I really don’t know what happened recently. Some months ago I was proud to survive the $115 HU SNGs, but was pretty sure there was just no need to play higher than $230 buyins. I couldn’t imagine the $115s would ever become boring for me and was pretty sure there was not much money to make for me on higher stakes. Today, the $115s are like playing $11 matches. Not only cuz I don’t care much about $115, but because of the opponents’ strength as well. I played a couple of them recently and I’m very sure I can win more than 60% pretty easily nowadays. Last days I took a step back from the nosebleeds to the $115 to $345 Heads-Up matches. I was able to reach my goal I set just some days ago: reaching $40,000 this month.

Some days ago I changed my Pokerstars avatar and hope you’ll like it. Update for the blog-header is coming soon.

When I review my posts from beginning of March, I realize that the big MTT-winnings weren’t in March, but in February. I made a nice second place at a 6max MTT for $3,500 just at the beginning of March, but couldn’t reach the money in any Sunday Major. That’s why I’m pretty much evenish in MTTs this month. Oh.. well.. not to forget the 2nd place at the Satellite where I almost won a EPT MonteCarlo package.

March was all about pure grinding. I played from $115 to $1,130 regularly depending on the action and my mood and collected 176,000 VPPs this month. There were some $2250 HU SNGs to add where I lost pretty much every match and was very unlucky (against guys like “i.o.s.” – see “Raise-and-Fall of a gambling Fish”). Additionally to that I played 8 of those $5,600 death-matches. I won the first right at the beginning of March when I found the huge fish who I could take $11,000 against. Afterwards I played 5 of these games in total against a maybe even bigger fish, but wasn’t able to win any money from. I lost 2-3 against him after he has hit a one-card 2outer and 3outer. And just some days ago I found a $33 average player sitting at 5k non-turbo Heads-Up I was able to crush easily, as well as another guy who was giving his money with A-high on 449-flop away. So in the end I’m 5-3 in those deatch-matches and I’m even more than happy that I still stick to my game-management. Beside the real pro’s who play $2,250+ regularly there are a lof of good players like me who could easily crush the 115s-345s but who are just too ego-driven and need the thrill to play $2,250 and up regularly. Today, I count me to one of the best at my stakes and love to take shots at the nosebleeds whenever a fish is sitting, but for me there’s just no need to battle someone I know who’s better than me at $5,600s. I saw enough generally skilled HU SNG players who destroyed themself.

I’m not a big fan of goals which are win-related and therefor there are just three goals for me:

• Stick to my game-management crushing the 230-1ks (def most important!)
• Reach “Supernova Elite” this year (with 350,000 VPPs so far it’s not that unlikely anymore, even though there are only about 209 Elite’s worldwide)
• Try to beat the rake (no matter how much rake I’ll pay to Pokerstars this year – my goal is to win more money than they make with me, atm I’m about $2,500 ahead)

March 2010: In the end it’s sick to say, but I don’t think I ran that great or something. I lost a lot of nosebleeds by sick badbeats (especially the $5,600s) and took a very unlucky 2nd place for the EPT Monte-Carlo package (worth $18,000). I could have run way worse, but way better as well. I guess with $40,000 winnings I’m very close to EV.

Thanks a lot to everyone who is following my blog! More than 3,000 visitors in March motivates me a lot to keep on writing.

Yesterday evening UB (UltimateBet) ran a $1,000 buy in HU MTT. I don’t have an account there so I didn’t play it. I just read at the 2+2 forum about a pretty funny bug in the tourney:

As usual some people had a free ticket in round 1 while other had to beat their opponents to make it to the 2nd round. The starting chip stack was 3,000 for everyone. In the second round ppl with a free ticket had still their 3,000 while the survivors of round 1 doubled their stack to 6,000. In round 2 some ppl played 3,000 vs 3,000, some 6,000 vs 3,000 and the rest 6,000 vs 6,000. So in round 3 some people still had only 6,000 chips after they had beaten another player with a free ticket while other already got 12,000… Pretty funny bug! In the end they cancelled the tourney and paid the entrance fee to all players back. A tourney with $1,000 entry fee. I couldn’t imagine things like this still happen. Was it the first time they ran a HU MTT?! xd
HU SNG with different starting chip stack sounds pretty funny, but the comment of Annie Duke about it was even better:

"2 on 1 chiplead = fair" by Annie Duke (PokerPro...)

I didn’t play a lot last days, but increased my monthly profit to a sick number of $39,000. The following week I will play very rarely and will just give it a try to reach the $40,000. I normally never have such goals, but in this case.. well.. $40,000 would be sick! So let’s do it! 8)

Gl guys, keep crushing!
Chris

Allan Baekke, “Sifosis”, well-known HU SNG highstakes pro, is at the FinalTable of EPT Snowfest, 4 players left atm.

Livestream:
http://www.pokerstars.tv/poker-video-5156-eptlive.html#

Edit:
That was so much fun to watch him crushing the table when they were shorthanded. Damn, what a beast! Allan Baekke, “Sifosis”, took it down and seemed very comfortable all the time pushing his opponents around. Gratz man and thx for the show!
Read at the PokerStars-Blog about the win of Baekke.

Today, just one day after publishing part 1 of the story, I can already present you part 2 of the fish who had the sickest run in HU SNGs I’ve ever seen. It was pretty obvious he would go broke very soon, but I didn’t think he would bust that fast! In the end, playing 2ks wasn’t enough anymore, so he jumped into the 5ks. He was up to $37,000 after his sick run and now, his stats are down to $1,500. At least – still in the black…

Part 2: The Fall

He lost it all against “pistons87“, so they are both about even I guess. They played a lot yesterday and I saw a LOT of weird matches today again, huge suckouts and a ton of mistakes – of both players. To call A4 preflop allin against a fish who shoves so wide isn’t the way to reduce variance imo. Neither seems it to be smart to call KQ, 22 or 44 preflop allin at first blindlevels. But I’m not in the position to criticize anybody, I still make too many mistakes as well. Just want to share some thoughts about how to play a hyper-aggro fish.

Edit:
Some minutes ago I saw a guy waiting at 5k non-turbo HU SNG. I’ve never seen him before and his average buyin was $33 for HUs, so I obv insta-sat him. Btw: It was my FIRST non-turbo HU SNG at stakes higher than $23. I have to admit, it’s really a lotta fun to have sooo much time to outplay scared opponents… 8)
I only sold 30% of the action, so it was a pretty nice win to zero some recent losses. Here’s the most interesting hand of the match (T8 for me) when we both slowplayed flopped strong hands until river xd.

5k non-turbo HU SNG

… well, at least – ALMOST.

I made it into the HU and pwned my opponent pretty hard even without catching any cards. Guess he was little scared when he realized we were playing for 13,500 Euro, so he folded to my 3rd bullet on K53TK board after thinking for hours. Just a little 3-bullet bluff when playing Turbo HU for $20,000. I have to admit I was little thrilled in that hand, but still pretty sure he wouldn’t call me with 54 and obv didn’t have the K. So, I can’t complain about the decisions I made, I was just pretty carddead all the time.
I had him down from 2,2m to 1,5m and we were almost even when he min-raised his button and I shoved 65s to get insta-called by AJ. It’s sick to run like god all the time in such a hyper-turbo Satellite only to find somebody who runs even better.
I won 500 Euro. Yeha! MonteCarlo would have been so sick…

Really sux to lose a match for $20,000. But, well. Enough negative stories – Poker is a game for optimists! So, forget about it and let’s have a look at the following:
Yesterday a huge fish started to play 1ks almost regularly, if it’s really possible to say so. I know him from lower stakes where he did pretty well. He never played great, but he was ok, enough to beat 115s imo. Now, he plays 1ks and 2ks from time to time and shoves a LOT preflop. He plays complete different from he did on lower stakes. When blinds are at 10-20 he prefers to just shove small pocketpairs from BB to a button-minraise nowadays. And ofc he does the same with small Ax as well. Yesterday I had the chance to play some games against him as well. In the end he ran away when it was 2-5. He obv “crushed” me. Really hard to imagine it’s possible to survive just one day at the nosebleeds playing the way he does, but he could even increase his winnings today A LOT while playing and sucking out at 2ks. His graph is definitely the most rigged result I’ve ever seen!

Welcome to part 1 of the story “Raise-and-Fall of a gambling Fish”:

Part 1: The Raise

… to be continued. Any prop bets for part 2 of the story? 8)

Some days ago, I bought a “Mac Mini” and finally have a desktop PC running now. Playing at my laptop all the time was really uncomfortable. I definitely don’t wanna reach “Supernova Elite” playing at a laptop all the year. Additionally to that I bought a new keyboard, the “Logitech Illuminated” which is just awesome! I made some photos of my actual desktop with the “Mac Mini” and my dual screen system.

On the right screen you may see “dougthehead9” playing against one of those players who makes HU SNGs so juicy and profitable. Just see his graph, including a nice MTT win – he wants to give it all away some hours later. Thx dude!

Some days ago a pretty huge fish was sitting at 5k HU SNGs just waiting for me to join. He only played me two games in row and always declined just to come back some hours later again. I played five games in total against him and could only win 2 of them. As usual I sold some action, so I didn’t lose that much money, but I still lost. I think I owned him pretty much and he needed to suck me out in two games for stacks. In one match I slowplayed KK on the button against his early 3bet and could manage to commit him for all his chips on a J-high board. He was in with AQ on the turn, but caught a pretty beautiful Ace on the river. I guess I don’t need to tell ya that I don’t like 3-outers on one card that much when I’m playing for $11,000 bucks… Nevertheless I was still playing my best game afterwards and didn’t tilt at all. And 3-outers on one card seems to be frustrating when there is so much money to play for. But, I hate to say so, it can be even worse: Two games later I slowplayed AA (almost the same way as I played KK before) and was allin on the turn on a 4478-board against his tens.. and.. nah, no need to say more. I hate badbeat-stories.
So, that’s it. My short story of five 5k HU SNGs. In the end I have to say I’m glad I could crush him so bad that he needed to hit sick miracles twice. I still won 2 of 5 games. Not that bad. Hope he will be back very soon. I’m waiting for him and ready to fight! 8)

Last Sunday I got my first chat ban within 6months. Only for one day, so it’s not that much worth writing about. But the story behind is pretty funny:
I was playing the weekly HU MTT and made it to round three without any problems, where I was playing a pretty weak fish.
I didn’t see a lot of showdowns so far and had the feeling he was bluffing very much. The game situation was very interesting when I got dealt 55 in the BB. Against him I don’t like to 3bet it preflop, but prefer to outplay him in a smaller pot postflop. He only minraised preflop what he only has done with weaker hands so far and I really don’t expect him to mix his preflop game up. One of the most important aspects why I made a sick call later.
The flop came JT2 rainbow and he c-bet as he always does. So it’s a clear call with my 55. The turn is an Ace and just when the Ace popped up I decided to check-call him again expecting he would try another bluff as a lot of those unexperienced fishes does when they see the chance to bluff once again. Additionally to that, the river might bring a lot of cards I could bluff if I sense that my 5s are beat. It’s tough to bluff the river out of position at those boards, but still possible against those kinds of players. Now, the river brings another 2. In this situation maybe the most interesting card in the deck which gives me several possibilities, especially to guess which hand he most likely has if he bets the river as well. He did. He fired the third bullet and he did it quite fast and very high, one of the reasons I called after over thinking the hand for 20 seconds.
He has never just a Jack here. Neither just a ten or JT. Nevertheless he c-bet the flop and bet the Ace on the turn as well. Cuz of his preflop play I’m very sure he has no AJ, AQ, AK, JJ, TT or AA here. KQ is one of those hands which could be possible and maybe makes sense, but I would still expect him to raise it higher preflop. Sure, he could bet the Ace for value on the river. But considering how fast he bet the turn after he needed quite long on the turn to bet I really don’t give him an Ace here. I wouldn’t give much credit to those timetells against skilful players, but against fishes I do. So, I’m very sure he has no A here and the one and only Ax hand I have to be afraid of is A2.
The only hands which makes sense and I have to be concered about are A2, J2, T2 and: 22. J2 and T2 is even for him a fold preflop most of time imo. A2 would make a lot of sense as well as 22. But do I really think I am beat by quads or a boat in this game situation? Not really. He was so aggressive all the time before that I’m about 85% sure that my 55 is good in this spot (hand replay).
Afterwards he shoved any2 preflop. It’s a long time since I saw anybody tilting that much. He shoved any2. All the time. He sucked me out twice when I called with TT first time and with AK second time (even after first double up he kept on shoving any2). So, he won the match – he really deserved to win. So I wrote in chat: “gg, just little too easy. fkn fishy“
Cuz of the last two words I received a chat ban for 24 hours what makes me laugh a lot when I received the mail.

Gratulation to “la_gâchette” who became 2nd in the HU MTT and could cash pretty nice once again after he has done it just some weeks before. Well done!

Here is another HandHistory I want to write just some words about:
I was teaming up with “PrimordialAA” in $570 4man and was playing the semi-finals against a guy I was playing a lot before including some decent notes. One of those notes: He always trys to trap me and slowplays strong hand almost always until the river.
I had KT in one of the first hands and 3bet against him as I always do to benefit from his tight and passive play. He called and the flop came A94 – 2 hearts. An obvious c-bet which he called pretty fast. On the turn another Ace shows up and I’m ready to give this hand up, cuz he never makes any moves in those spots against me without a decent hand. I just check and prepare to instant fold. But: He didn’t bet or check behind. He just jammed it in. I didn’t expect that and did not instant-fold my hand as I has planned to do. I was writing to Primo that I’m almost 100% sure he would NEVER shove an Ace there. Would he really shove a 9 there? No, it’s very unlikely that he would play it that way. I told Primo that I’m about 90% sure that my opponent has just a flushdraw and that I want to call with K high. As usually he just told me to believe in my reads and so I did.

At the moment I’m up about $27,000 this month, already including the 300k VPP milestone bonus, but I’m glad that I didn’t lose more last days with some ugly beats in the higher stakes. I’m on my way to Supernova Elite. I have 310k VPP so far, I’m up more than I ever could imagine I would win just within one month. No, I definitely don’t wanna complain about the sick beats at nosebleeds. It’s part of the game.

You want to gamble on 40% chances and less? Great, come and invest your money. Let me be your bookie. 8)

Sunday, my one and only evening when I almost only play MTTs I got sucked out of all ten tournies. Ugliest hand of the evening was to lose a pre allin with AA vs AK in the Sunday Million when I already had a big stack, but lost to an even bigger stack who couldn’t wait to call an allin with AK in position. Hope I will run better in a Sunday Major soon, they are so much fun if you can make it little further.

The miniFTOPs HU MTT on FullTilt was little frustrating. With 4,000 registered player I couldn’t wait to outplay some fishes. But I busted already in hand three, when fishy called my 4bet-shove with AJ and won vs my AK. Nothing special, just sick how bad some players are. He instant-called 75 BBs with AJ in hand three. So Sick! Hope those fishes will never stop playing poker, especially HU SNGs. 8)
I wanted to watch some running HUs of the mini FTOPs, but gave it up when I realized that some player were sitting out. First round of the tourney needed more than THREE hours to finish, until blinds finally increased to 1500/3000!

Saturday I started to play 1ks regularly! I finally found a way to reduce the variance of this sick buyin a lot and feel very comfortable now not risking too much money each game. Even though I don’t care that much about money I was little shaking when I played 1ks or 2ks months ago. Now, I’m totally focussed on my opponent and get more and more used to the these sick buyins. There aren’t a lot of regs who still sit me. None at 570 and only very very few at 1k I’m ready to play against if needed. I’m very sure there isn’t much edge if any for them anymore. And if I lose a couple of 1ks in a row I’m ready to go back to 230s and 345s. I feel very comfortable with my game-manegement at the moment and love to jump through the stakes from 230-1k a lot (no 115s anymore) and still feel some improvements almost every week in special aspects.

I was down from 28k to 20k profit in March, had some more swings in the higher 20k’s and reached the 30k yesterday (+$500 staking for “Siervos” EPT mainevent). I’m very glad my SharkScope-Graph is blocked, my mum would get sick seeing the swings while I’m risking $570-$1,130 in every single match.
I don’t care much about swings lately. Even if I run very cold soon and was down to 15k in the end of March I’m very sure I could handle it pretty easily. I still don’t care much about “running bad” or “running hot”. I love my chances for the long run, that’s all what counts.

Gl guys!