The Poker Aquarium

The rules, we're using Pokerstar's TLB formula to determine points (minus the 15% rule) for those that cash WSOP events. If you go here you'll find an Excel sheet to calculate TLB points. All WSOP events count except the super satellite, employee, media and ladies events.

You will pick 30 players and split them into three tiers of 10. The top tier will earn you 100% of their TLB points The second tier: 85% and the third tier: 70%. After everything it tallied, highest point total per team is the winner.

IM me with your lists and I'll tell you where to email them. I prefer the lists in Excel or Word but that's not required. I'll try to update things regularly on here.

No stakes, just a lot of bragging rights.

I predict WSOP Champion in 2030: Charlie Dunn

I'm up against a maniac and think I have him trapped. He probably has AK... Nope. I actually have to suck out on him to win a pot. Funny thing is he thought awhile on the call and then said "i had to call" as if he might've folded his monster.

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=67151

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=66930

The guy had a set of treys and intended on calling, just as he talks himself into it... time runs out and party forces a fold. sigh.

BTM

I got allin preflop with JJ vs AKs and he hit a K. We then had this conversation:

purtyinpink: I'll take that matchup any day
jimbobjunior: me too
purtyinpink: really?
jimbobjunior: yep
purtyinpink: why would you?
jimbobjunior: cause phil helmuth would also
purtyinpink: silly me

http://www.pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=64372

I decided I'd play in the $22 stud h/l tourney tonight on stars, and 5 minutes after it started a $3 NL tourney also started so I figured I'd hop into that, too. I don't think I won a single pot in the stud and was out 152 of 160. Pretty much my worst showing ever. I honestly didn't really feel like messing with the $3 tourney but stuck it out for no apparent reason. I had AA double against JJ then I pulled off a huge bluff about an hour into the tourney and I was upto 12k chips.

Things went pretty smoothy for an hour or so and I was upto about 25k chips. Blinds were 1000/2000 and I was in SB with 92o. The BB was sitting out so his 2000 chips were up for grabs. It folded around to the button who limped and I thought and pushed in wiht my mighty 92o. He called, having me covered by a few hundred. Crapola, he turns over A8. I had the 9 of spades and he had the 8 and when the board came with 4 spades I won with the bigger flush. I feel I played pretty solidy after that for another hour. From about 50 players down to 9 I was in the top 5 almost the entire time. With about 18 players left I was involved in the biggest pot of the tournament. I raised the button with 87 of clubs, the SB called allin and the BB also called. The BB had a decent stack and had been playing pretty aggressive towards me. The flop was 5c6cJs giving me an open ended straight flush draw. The aggressive guy went allin for a big overbet of the pot. I said "I'm playing to win the whole thing" and called. He had AJ, SB had 66, and I hit my flush on the turn and the board paired on the river giving the 66 a boat but giving me the side pot worth 350k chips. At this point I had 350k and 2nd place had 260k. I should mention that at one point I raised the BB allin from the SB when I had 92o and he called with A7 and I made a pair of 2s to win. 92o is my lucky hand now.

I fluctuated as far down as fifth, but ended up making the final table in good shape with about 400k chips and in a solid 2nd place. I was first one eliminated from the final table.

The killer hand happened when I raised 73 soooooted in position and got one caller. Flop was something like J87 and I bet half the guy's stack and he raised back pretty much allin. I was forced to call 80,000 to win 550,000. I called, he had AJ and it held up. Next hand I moved in with A5 for like 4x the BB and the chip leader called with AJ. Flop was 9J5Ax and I'm out 9th for a $65 payday when first payed over $1000. Oh well. Live with raw aggression, die by 73 soooted.

I was pretty bummed at first, and still am, but I don't think I can question my play. I was truely aiming for the top four of spots and had to stay aggressive. The blinds were 10k/20k soon to be 15/30 with the average stack being about 10 BB's whoever wins the post blinds and antes will rule the table. I could probably have sat on my hands and let a few of the smaller stacks bust and guarantee 6th or 7th, but I would rather stay nice and aggressive and try to finish first. C'est la vie (which is french for poker sucks). I outlasted 1585 of 1594 players and I'm proud of that, but not pissing off my stack would have been much nicer.

At least I got a ton of TLB points out of it AND an entry into the $150 freeroll this weekend! Woot.


Tad

We're three handed in a 12+1 six seated PS SNG. When we're four handed I've already told Tad I'm the favorite to cash... even tho I've got less chips than anyone else (but not short stacked.) I've edited out some of the filler hands where I folded or the other two butted heads. From the time this "discussion" started until the end, we played 24 hands.

Seat 3: Insayn69 (2605 in chips)
Seat 7: masaville (3515 in chips)
Seat 8: BoBtheMule (2880 in chips)
Insayn69: posts small blind 75
masaville: posts big blind 150
Dealt to BoBtheMule [As 4s]
BoBtheMule: raises 350 to 500
Insayn69 said, "u will get busted bob"
BoBtheMule said, "why cuz you're gonna suck out vs. my hand?"
Insayn69 said, "no becaouse no 1 has that many good handsin a row"
BoBtheMule said, "cards are random... they don't remember what I had last time around"

Dealt to BoBtheMule [8h 8c]
masaville: calls 150
BoBtheMule: raises 600 to 750
Insayn69 said, "lol"
BoBtheMule said, "do it!"
BoBtheMule said, "come on"
BoBtheMule said, "look me up"
Insayn69: folds
Insayn69 said, "u have a small pair"
masaville: folds
BoBtheMule: doesn't show hand
Insayn69 said, "lol"
masaville said, "or 72?"
masaville said, "hehe"

Dealt to BoBtheMule [8d 9h]
masaville: folds
BoBtheMule: folds
Insayn69 collected 150 from pot
Insayn69 said, "come on"
Insayn69 said, "i had u then"
BoBtheMule said, "my hand was no good"
Insayn69 said, "lol"

Soon after this, Insayne got the upper hand over masaville by about 500 chips. I'm not really sure who was worse. masaville rarely challenged me and when he did, he rarely suceeded in stealing my blinds. They both weren't willing to raise often or call a bet.

Dealt to BoBtheMule [Js Ac]
Insayn69 said, "lol"
masaville: raises 1740 to 2540 and is all-in
BoBtheMule: calls 1740
BoBtheMule said, "see"
masaville: shows [9c Kc] (a pair of Eights)
BoBtheMule: shows [Js Ac] (two pair, Aces and Jacks)
BoBtheMule collected 5180 from pot
Insayn69 said, "that's junk"
BoBtheMule said, "yeah, three way that's junk"
Insayn69 said, "not even suited"
BoBtheMule said, "hahahahhah"
BoBtheMule said, "what a jopke"

--------------

MEANWHILE ON AIM WITH TAD

davidreich y2k: I'm gonna raise the next 5

ebay tad: nice

--------------

Dealt to BoBtheMule [7c 8h]
BoBtheMule: raises 500 to 700
Insayn69: folds

Dealt to BoBtheMule [9c 6s]
Insayn69: folds
BoBtheMule collected 200 from pot

Dealt to BoBtheMule [2s 8d]
BoBtheMule: raises 500 to 700
Insayn69: folds
BoBtheMule collected 400 from pot
BoBtheMule: shows [2s 8d] (high card Eight)
BoBtheMule said, "pwned"

Dealt to BoBtheMule [8d As]
Insayn69 said, "i know"
Insayn69 said, "like i said u will get busted"
Insayn69: calls 100
BoBtheMule: raises 1200 to 1400
Insayn69: folds

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to BoBtheMule [4h 6c]
BoBtheMule said, "or you'll get blinded off"
BoBtheMule: folds
Insayn69 collected 200 from pot

Okay, so I only made it four. So sue me.

Dealt to BoBtheMule [Qc Ks]
BoBtheMule said, "hah"
BoBtheMule: raises 600 to 800
Insayn69: raises 800 to 1600
BoBtheMule: raises 800 to 2400
Insayn69: calls 780 and is all-in
BoBtheMule said, "gl"

*** FLOP *** [9c 7d Qh]
BoBtheMule said, "boom"
*** TURN *** [9c 7d Qh] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [9c 7d Qh Jd] [As]
Insayn69 said, "lol"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Insayn69: shows [4d 4h] (a pair of Fours)
BoBtheMule: shows [Qc Ks] (a pair of Queens)
BoBtheMule said, "later"
BoBtheMule said, "gg"

As most of you have probably witnessed I havn't been playing my best poker lately. And when you aren't running well $100 NL can get expensive, so I havn't been playing much. I brought up stars to see if there were any good tourneys getting ready to start, but I struck out. So I sat at an empty $2/$4 limit table at stars and waited for someone to join me. My first table filled up quickly with 2/4 regulars I remember (and who probably have me on their fish finders) from years past, and I left up $10 after a few minutes. I sat at another 2/4 table and struck gold. The guy I was playing against was a real jopke. I busted him twice for $40 in about 10 minutes. He was 3 betting the river with missed draws, etc like I'd fold for one more bet at that point.

So I had about $115 when he rebought for his entire roll... like $461. I'm thinking cool! If I can keep this table empty I'll bust this guy. But the table quickly filled up. I lost a decent pot and almost left the table up like $70, but I decided to stay for a little longer. Good Choice. I was getting good cards, making good hands with crappy cards, and getting action on everything. Before I knew it I had broke $200. The bad player was losing pots to me regularly but winning them from other people. A typical pot he was it would be $40 and he'd call down with JQ and no draw and river a Jack to win. I kept winning getting action left and right. At one point I got AA UTG, raised and had the entire table call. AA held somehow. The idiot called with J5, flopped a 5 and called me down. Soon I was upto $250 then $300. I couldn't believe it and things were still running well.

I peaked at about $420. At this point variance caught up to me and my top pair big kicker got outdrawn on river by a guy calling down with bottom pair and making a crazy two pair, AK not hitting, SF draw missing in 4 way capped pot, etc etc. I was getting a little steamed (or as steamed as you can get being up 75 BBs in less than an hour and a half) so I left, taking exactly $340 with me, for a nice even $300 profit.

Right before I left (and probably afterwards) the idiot went on raging tilt. He at one point was upto $600 and then like 15 minutes later was down to about 300 when I left. He was raising/3 betting almost everypot preflop and after. He capped the turn and 3 bet the river with 96 clubs when the board had AKxx all hearts. Fun stuff. I looked him up later and he was playing a $55 sng and was doing decent in the $215 sunday tourney. BUT he went on tilt there too.

http://pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=63453
http://pokerhand.org/index.php?page=view&hand=63452

With the average stack at about 4500 he went from 7200 to broke in two hands. Big surprise.

Also today, I cleared a bonus at stars and had two more winning sessions. Very good feeling to add over $500 to your bankroll in one day playing a couple hours of 2/4.

--Tad

No doubt that our little crew has went from playing a lot of tournaments to rarely playing them due to the high variance but they are great for breaking up the monotony of the party cash games.

After months of not playing in any MTT, I played in a 40 fpp tourney last night and finished 12th (top two pay). Not the finish I wanted but definately a satisfying result considering the ghetto play.

A few days back, bjy unfortunately bubbled in a 20$ Stud tourney... 17th. Obviously it sucks bubbling in any tourney but considering he's got an insane rate of cashing and making final tables in stud tourneys... I think he'll survive.

And finally, today JM just missed out on making a final table in a 5$ turbo MTT.

My lasting impression about my tournament was the quality of play was nearly ridiculous. People calling bets on the river with the nuts instead of raising, pushing in tens of thousands of chips to open the pot when the pot is relatively small and of course the overplay of AK and small pairs. If it wasn't so difficult to wade through this ghetto consistently, there might be some regular money in it.

I've heard a lot of people talking about how online poker is rigged lately. Personally, I've played a lot of hands. Probably somewheres between a quarter and half a million or more. I've played both live and on the internet, and I can honestly say that you'll see the big hands and the beats equally between genres of poker.

Last week I played 2 sessions of $100 Buy-In Live NL Holdem at an indian casino by my house. I did ok, winning $70 and $101 respectfully, playing about 6 hours total. You wouldn't believe some of the hands that hit. Or maybe you will if you've played as much as me. Here are a few samples that stuck in my head.

SB is $1 BB is $2 most preflop raises were $7-12, but only about 25% of hands were raised preflop.

One hand the UTG player moves allin for $23. He got called in 4 spots. Flop was all diamonds 862. An old guy, I'll call him oldfart bets $50 and everyone folds but the allin guy. Allin guy turns over AQo no diamonds, oldfart (who called a $23 allin preflop) had 86o no diamond. Turn was Queen of Diamonds, river was Ace of diamonds. Oldfart swore and slammed the table. The dealer brought all the chips in and began pushing them to the AQ guy. I announced 'split pot' and oldfart turned at me and swore and gave me a dirty look. The dealer looked at me like I was crazy, as did the ENTIRE table. Nobody but me realized that all 5 board cards were diamonds so the flush played for both players.

Oldfart had doubled me a few hands prior. I raised AA to $10 UTG. Oldfart called and a super aggressive idiot made it $20 to go on button (he said later he had A7). I reraised to $60, oldfart called and the aggressive guy folded. I had $130 to start the hand, and when the board came T93 I moved allin for $70. Oldfart thought awile and said something like, "well I can win..." and called. The turn was a scary ten and river was a 4. I showed the bullets and oldfart looked at his hand.. then the board... hand... MY hand... his hand.. .board... went to muck his cards, pulled them back at last second... finally after like 30 seconds a guy next to him says "just turn them over and we'll tell you if you won" oldfart turns over KJo and I win a huge pot with aces against king high.

A little later an older lady sits down at the table and starts by getting involved in a bunch of big pots. She quickly trippled her buyin with IMO sub-par play when this hand came up. A couple limpers including me and oldfart in SB limp in to oldlady's bb. She raised to $10 and just oldfart called. I tell you what they hand now. From BB oldlady made it $10 to go with 86o and Oldfart called with 74o. Flop was 568. So two idiots playing horrible hands for raises both flop monsters. Oldfart of course only bets like $5 on the flop and the oldlady gets another 8 on the turn and they get allin for something like a $375 pot.

One hand I limp with ATo. Flop is T35. The aggressive player I mentioned earlier who reraised with A7 bet $5 saying he had a good feeling about his hand. I raised to $15 and just the two of us saw the turn which was another ten. I bet $25 and he called instantly. River was a brick, a 6. He checks to me and I bet $25 again. He calls with 74o and shows the straight. I almost checked here thinking what can he call me with that I can beat, but I'd seen him make huge calls with 22 on ace high flops etc, so I figured I was valuebetting him all the way. If he had made a pair of 7s on the end instead of hitting his straight I'm sure he'd have called $25 without hesitation.

Now for my favorite hand of the weekend. It was also pretty much the last hand I played. I have black 66 on the button and $97 in chips. Oldlady makes it $4 to go UTG (min raise means what? I dunno), a seemingly tight player makes it $10 to go behind her. I call and so does oldlady. Flop is pretty sweet, A62 with two diamonds. Oldlady bets $10, next guy raises to $20, and I call and so does oldlady. Turn is a 2. Oldlady checks, other guy bets $20, I raise to $50. The oldlady gave me SUCH A NASTY LOOK, you have no idea then finally folds. Other guy calls. I was potcommitted at this point regardless of what came on the river, but when I rivered the 4th 6 giving me quads it made my actions that much easier. I went allin for my last $17 and he called right away. His hand? AJo.

The moral of the story is that poker is a game that attracts action junkies. Most people don't understand why a move they made was wrong or why the math was against them. Today playing online a guy made a bad call and told me it was because he was angry that he lost a big pot so he decided to go for broke with his straight draw. Some people treat poker like a slot machine. Pull the lever, go allin and see where the reels stop. Every once in a while you'll get lucky and win a big pot and leave ahead, but in the long run the house (other players) will just wear you down. Online poker is not rigged, though you could make an argument that the game of poker in general is.

Just something to chew on.

Tad

Brian sat down last night targeting a guy named chuck on his fish-finder only to find that he had entered a hornet's nest. Along with his fish, the 4th seat was a major bluffer that had sucked out a few times and ran his stack up to 70$ (starting at 25) while the 6 seat had run 10$ up to 52$ through several questionable plays. After and while this is all happening, Brian is CARD DEAD and when he's getting some good starting hands... they aren't turning out well. As hands go by, people sit down and the bad players do what they always do... start to bleed chips and all the big money on the table leaves as the fish frop from 70 down to 30 and 50 down to 12.

Brian is stuck something like 10-12$ and I'm just sitting here watching... knowing he's gonna be fine. Finally the 6th seat fish busts and I take his seat. I've got position on chuck (who's had the same type of rollercoater ride as the other fish) and the big bluffer. Immediately, I start hitting good cards A9 suited flops a flush draw but I win w/ a rivered Ace (Incidently, this was a tough hand for Brian as he was drawing pretty dead but did manage to really lose the minimum). Then KK beats out AQ, then AQo hits top pair and turns a flush draw... allowing me to shove out the bluffer when he bets big into me on the turn. I've run my 25 up to 71$ and... well I run... I've taken my pound of flesh and don't want to risk giving any of it back.

By now most all of the table has turned over... except for the bluffer in seat 4 who has about 20 left (down 5 overall and down 50 from his peak). Brian now hits a rush that rivals my quick one. He starts nailing hands in quick succession... even busting the bluffer in a big hand where he had two draws. He goes from 12$ down to 43$ up.

Two polar opposite experiences but pretty much the same outcome. Nothing like a hyper aggressive table to get your heart pounding.

Poker is all about timing, and today I hit a rush just at the right time.

I added a guy to my fish finder on party after he was playing way too aggressively. There would be a $2 or $3 raise preflop and he'd go allin for $80 on the flop when the pot was only $12 or so.

I followed him to a table where he had about $160 and after playing for awile I was stuck about $20 and he was upto about $260. He was playing pretty fast and I decided to make a stand. I raised 99 on the button and everyone called. Flop was Ace high with 2 diamonds and the aggressive guy bet into me. I called with the intent of taking the hand away later. The turn was a blank and he bet about the same amount which made me feel he was on a draw. I raised it up quite a bit and he called. River was a brick and I moved in after he checked. He thought for awile and folded. I showed my bluff and he said he folded AK.

The very next hand I limp with 44 and flop is something like T43. I bet and he calls. Turn is a 2 and he bets into me. I raised him up to $20 just like the previous hand and he called. River was a blank and I bet $50 trying to represent the same bluff I made the previous hand. He called with 23o and I won a massive pot.

Over the next three or four hands the same guy dropped a few more bucks and he was down to about $90 when I raised AQ clubs on button. He called and flop was As Ad 9s . He checked and I bet $4 and he called pretty quickly. Turn was 9c and he checked but I had already clicked the check button so it checked for me instantly. I love this fast check play as it looks like you are super weak, not having the nuts like I did. River was a small spade. After I did the fast check two people at the table were telling the other guy that he had me and should go allin and make a stand against me, etc etc. And thats just what he did. He moved allin for about $70 with Q4 spades for the 2nd nut flush on a double paired board. I beat him into the pot with my full house.

After busting him he says 'I'm going to leave with my black eye now' and left the table. It was such a great rush. I felt tingly afterwards. Sessions like that make up for long spells of boring grinding. The guy went from $260 to bust in about 5 minutes. Yummm.

-bjy

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