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I will look for you on the final table of the WSOP 2009
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GL, I'm going to try to do same thing in summer (playing massively MTTs) but for that I think I need $1000-$2000 BR (I would like to play up to $33 regularly and sometimes will try daily 80k). We'll see how I will do.

Anyway good luck to you and nail those final tables. Also 20 hours of play a week is really decent amount of poker time.

$10,000 GTD Freezeout Result: 1012 entries - finished 450th

I was knocked out in 450th place 2 minutes before the first break. I had only played 3 hands in 57 minutes of play and wrongly decided to try stealing a pot with my remaining $1700 in chips with 2nd top pair on the flop. Unfortunately for me the other player had the top pair, and I wasnt lucky enough to suck him out on the turn or the river. Bad decision cost me. Not the best of starts...Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Guess I shouldnt have pressured myself to hit a double up before the break? :-)

$6000 GTD Freezeout Result: 1327 entries - finished 755th

Suckout time for me here 36 minutes into the tournament. I was holding QJo and limped in with 3 others. The flop was Ks 10c 9s thus giving my the K high str8. I put in a bet 2x the pot and was taken allin by someone holding K 10o...turn was an A, the river...10!!!! Aaaargh!! Left me with $165. My very next hand was A 10o, so I push allin only to be called by K5o, the flop hits A 2 3 rainbow, the turn K, the river K!! LOL I had to smile...These Mansion suckouts seem very frequent...I might take the advice of another PS member and take my BR to PokerStars!!

My BR is now $528.05

Im going to leave it for tonight and Im off on a date tomorrow with some hot Macedonian chick, then working tomorrow night so I will be having a break for the day. I pick my daughter up on Friday but when I get her down to bed at around 7.30pm I will hopefully try the $6000 GTD freezeout again. Im on a losing run on MTT's at the moment but the suckouts will turn the other way soon, this is where I have to capitalise. Im going to be focussing on at least a Top 20 finish on Friday night.

Great blog citytrader, will save as fav and pop back regularly to see how your doing.

Just wanted to wish you all the best in your quest.

Bart.

p.s. Your nickname on Mansion rocks!

Ok Im going to squeeze in a $5+$0.50 30 seater at Auckland...My lil' lady is busy watching Pingu, so maybe I will get through uninterupted..Haha, fat chance!

Result: 30 entries - Finished 4th

The thing I like about this level of SNG is the amount of donks that play. This is great for the tight-aggressive style as it allows you to pick them off one by one barring any suckouts. If you reach the final table you really need a minimum of $5000 as the blinds are quite high at this stage. Generally there are still normally around 50% donks so playing selectively is my approach. In this case though I reached the final table with only $2000 so I was in push fold mode. I managed to steal the blinds each round and the donks were eventually picked off...not by me though. 6 players left and Im in last place still holding my $2k but the blinds were up to 400-800, managed to do 2 steals to put pressure on the other short stack, who was constantly complaining about his trash hands. Of course he goes all-in with trash and gives me guaranteed 5th. Then another donk bites the dust to leave me with 4th place min and I have half the chips of my nearest opponent, those blinds were coming round fast. I hit QQ and naturally hit the allin button only to be confronted with KK...Lol, no suckout for me so 4th place for $18...not bad considering Pingu had long finished and my daughter was bang on my case for some attention!!

Hopefully I will get on the tables tonight for the $6k Guaranteed :-)

Bankroll now stands at $540.55.

Happy pokering all :-)

I'm back a bit sooner than expected...Just got the lady of the house ready for a spot of shopping, arrived at Sainsburys and she was zonked! Abruptly done an about turn and here I am with an hour or so on my hands and what better way to spend it...another $5 SNG at Auckland:

Result: 30 entries Finished: 13th

Wow, what a crazy start to this one...nothing involving me but I had to feel for some of the others. 2nd hand I saw AA v KK and in true IPoker fashion KK hit his flush on the river...Then 2 hands later it was AKs v QQ, AKs hit his flush on the river!! Hand 22 saw QQ v AA...the flop hit QQ6, I had AJs but it was an easy lay down...Certainly made for some conversation at this table though!!
Interestingly in this game I had a player directly to my right who I had made some notes on in a previous game..basically this guy has a habit of going all in with hands like K5o...So I thought I would be patient and hope he tries it on with me for a sure fire double up...it turns out he must have joined PS in between our last game as he had definately improved from our last encounter.
This game was proving difficult for me as I was getting dealt nothing, then when I hit the final 20 I was double blinded which didnt help my cause. I was already in the push fold stage with the blinds at 50/100 and my stack at 862.50...Now I was praying for a monster before I got swallowed up! I thought that maybe a change of tables would bring me some luck but within 5 minutes the blinds had hit 100/200 and still nothing playable after 41 hands. I was finally put out of my misery when I got Q10s and called a bet of 600 (which was me allin) and was up against AJo...The flop hits AJ8, the turn a 10..but the IPoker suckout didnt give me a well needed K on the river...!! Must be something up with the software..LOL

Bankroll: $535.05

Happy pokering all :-)

*Oooh just spotted the qualifier for the $150k R/A that takes place tonight. Its a $10+1 R/A with 100 seat GTD...Its starting in 20 mins and the little lady is still asleep. Ok, I have talked myself into it...When Lilly wakes I will get the playdough out for her which will hopefully keep her entertained for a while :-) *

$10+1 Friday $150k GTD Qualifier result:

Entries 318 Finished: 264th

I am happy to make 1 rebuy or addon, whichever comes first. One third of the field would gain qualification so the plan was to hold very tight and wait for the right openings.
As it turned out I made a complete donk of a move and found myself rebuying quite early into the tournament...I was thinking at this point I shouldnt have entered really as Lilly had woke and she wasnt liking the idea of the playdough, so my concentration was at rock bottom. To put it politely I resigned to donking out in non-spectacular styleplayin all-in with pocket 4's against AQo...the Q hit on the turn and so I went back to the original plan of shopping. A costly mistake for me there and a lesson to be learnt: If you cant concentrate 100% dont play or you'll pay.

BR: $514.05

Happy pokering all :-)

enjoyable read - GOOD LUCK

Punta

You should always and then I mean always rebuy at the start so you have a deep stack and then ALWAYS addon... if you don't you should stick to freezeouts...

you gotta use your rebuy and addon while playing rebuy tourneys anything else is -ev obv.

Nice blog and good luck in the future

I didnt get to play last night as my wonderful neice asked if she could stay over, how could I say no to such a sweet request?
I normally get to play a tourney most mornings when I have Lilly as she is quite content to watch Milkshake for a couple of hours, so there is a $10+1 $4000 rebuy about to start. I understand the concept of rebuying at the start to have a deepstack, but my choice is to get lucky early on and double up to avoid having to spend an extra buy-in. Please, I am not ignoring the advice some players have given on this site, its just the way I have played these types of tournaments for a long time and I have had relatively good success using my own strategy. Hopefully I will get the opportunity to make up for my donkey play of yesterday afternoon..?

Result: Entries - 141 Finished - 56th

Its quite interesting to note that only 20 players made a rebuy at the very start. Im assuming that most of the players here have the same idea in mind as me, to get that double up. None of the players at my table made a rebuy so it doesnt make sense to make one just yet anyway, and really, if I can get away with it I would rather not make one at all. Only 20 places in the payout structure so this could make for an extremely good value tournament.
I hit pocket A's on hand 8, pushed allin, got 2 callers, and got a nice treble up. Things are going better than I had planned so far then :-) In an ideal world I will have my stack up to around 12k before the add-on period. If this is the case then I most definately will not add-on, but any less than the add-on makes perfect sense to me.
50 minutes into the game Im UTG with AJo.. 2 before me limp in so I complete and BB checks. J J 7 flops, so I check hoping for someone to put in a big raise which didnt happen but there was one bet for half the pot so I called and the other two fold. Turn shows a 3 so again I check but so does my opponent. An 8 on the river but this time I put in a half pot size bet and my opponent folds leaving me with $5200 going into the break so an add-on is definately in order for me here, putting me just over $1k over the average. 87 players are left in at this point, Im sitting in 19th place, so just over a 1 in 4 chance of making the money....
2 hands into the 2nd hour I get 10 10 in the pocket. A small stack pushes allin with his $1500, I call, he has AKs and the flop hits A 5 2, then a welcome 10 hits the turn and its curtains for my opponent. Upto a more healthier $9000.
By the time the next hour is out we should have hit the money, so my plan is to play ultra tight, unless Im in a good position to bully those short stacks around a bit.
Hand 51 and only 10 mins into the second hour Im dealt QQ in EP1, these hands are sent to test us Im sure! I put in a bet of 2xBB with 1 caller. The flop hits a very nice 6 J 3, so I put in a pot sized bet. My opponent calls so Im putting him on the J's...The turn is very kind and hits my 3rd Q so Im all in in the hope my opponent thinks Im on the steal...He takes all his time to decide to fold...So up to 11k and 16th place with 72 players left..nice :-)
Hand 62 and my first mistake. Im SB with A8o..4 limpers and the flop hits A 3 J...EP2 puts in a pot sized bet which I call, putting him on A with a low kicker a bit like my self. The turn hits a 10 and a quarter pot bet from my opponent, which I call. Then the river gives me my 8, and there I am thinking Im ahead so I call the allin from my oppenent only for him to have 3 3 in the pocket...Damn, down to $3900.
Hand 66 Im holding KQo...In a good position, I put in a standard raise and the flop hits 3 Q 7 rainbow, I go all in and my opponent calls. He has 3's in the pocket!! Then the turn and river both throw up 8's!! Those damn 3's catch me out twice in quick succession so its game over for me and Im left scratching my head and thinking it doesnt matter how well you think things are going, it only takes one bad hand to mess it all up! Its a bit of luck I have been in this type of position many a time and I never allow this sort of thing to put me on a downer. Thats poker...Ok its time for Lillys bath and I think my neice wants to stay round again tonight so I will probably be back on the tables tomorrow morning.

BR: $493.05

Happy pokering all! :-)

but my choice is to get lucky early on and double up to avoid having to spend an extra buy-in.

Imagine how much more fun it would be to double up with a double stack...

Imo when you register for a rebuy you should always just look at a $3 rebuy as a $9 tourney.... since it's 1x Rebuy and 1x addon every time... If not your giving away your edge over the opponent...

Its quite interesting to note that only 20 players made a rebuy at the very start.

That means if you had made a rebuy at the beginning you would've had so big edge over everyone else

In an ideal world I will have my stack up to around 12k before the add-on period. If this is the case then I most definately will not add-on, but any less than the add-on makes perfect sense to me.

I don't understand.... It doesn't depend on your stack if you make a addon or not.... The addon are 20bb and damn I love to take a extra 20bb so I can abuse those 20bb deep shortstacks later on...

All points taken from the last post of Hlynkinns...This is probably why there should be some MTT and R/A MTT strategies on this site :-) I guess I had created my own strategy which by all accounts is NOT the way to do it!! LOL Im wondering if Hlynkinns methods are tried and tested...Im sure they are and Im sure I will find out!?!

Well I have been away from the tables for a few days due to having my lil'un and my neice staying for an extended weekend..but Im back tonight and hoping I can make some money!!

Im starting with a $5000 GTD Speed R/A with a $2 buyin. Im going to limit myself to a rebuy at the start, 2 rebuys before the break (if needed) and an add-on, thus following the advice from Hlynkinns...albeit with my own added twist of extra rebuys as Im budgeting for no more than $10 on this. Lets see how it goes. I will not be doing a running commentry on this one just the result.

Entries: 863 Finished: 206

Two things to say about that...fcuking madness!! lol :-) It was fun though. I needed top 100 for the money and top 80 to break evenish, close but no cigar. I will admit to going $2 over budget here...naughty me!!

Next, I moved onto the $10000K GTD Freezout with a $10 buyin. Definately my kind of tournament.....:

Entries: 1002 Finished: 492

Didnt play very well at all there...I think that rebuy tourney I just played didnt set my mind up too well for this one...So no excuses, I played like a complete DONK! Im just hoping lots of players made notes on me here as it wasnt really me paying that game, I think it was some crazy maniac thinking he was still in a rebuy tourney...LMFAO

Ok its bonus time!! I qualified for the 10k Freerolls on Mansion. Ok, I need to shake myself off from the last 2 disasters and really knuckle down and play some GOOD poker for the 1st time in a week!!! There is good money up for grabs here and I want a slice of it...A bit MORE payback for the time I have invested in this site, if you like!? I cant say money as I havent put a single bean of my own hard earned cash into Mansion yet, and I dont intend on doing so. I can guarantee I will never give Mansion my money because if worst comes to worst and I lose my bankroll I will be playing my cards at PokerStars from then on knowing that I have had fun with the $3000 I withdrew from my account last month :-) (he says smuggly)

Entries: 284 Finished: 54 Places paid: 30 Winnings: $0

It was top 30 for the money starting at $75 for 21-30th place which would have more than made up for my failings of the last few tournaments, but then this crazy thing happened...The Macedonian lady I went on a date with last week decided she wanted to drive 2 hours from London to my place to see me! You might think this sounds a little far fetched but it was absolutely the truth...She text me 39 minutes into the tourney giving me 2 hours to sort my shit out!! Now I wasnt going to say no to her, she is HOT!! This naturally put my concentration all over the place. I was thinking shit I need to get myself sorted, get the house in shipshape etc etc...Not only that but I have a 13 hour shift to do at my betting shop tomorrow!! So it was a case of multitasking...a thing I get much practice at, being a single dad and having shared custody! Obviously I am sacrificing getting any reads at my table, but hey, its a freeroll afterall :-)
Considering all said I didnt do too badly and finished just out of the money, and at least it gave me some time to sort myself out. All over body massage was playing with my mind too much!!

It has to be said that Im on a bit of a losing run at the moment with my MTT play, but this is what comes with this style of poker and that fact that I havent been able to take the game serious enough, due to one thing and another. But it only takes 1 good placing to make it all worth while, and so my crusade, and my brushing up on PS articles continues...

BR: $469.85

Happy pokering all :-)

ul you didn't find any money finishes in the last 3 tourneys....

But back to the rebuy tourneys you might want to read this guide to rebuy tourneys written by a super moderator Chiller3k: Rebuy tourneys

And also if you got any time on Friday you should try to watch the mtt coaching

Goodluck on the tables and with the Macedonian lady

Nice blog I'll keep reading it

I must admit I had always thought the same way as City in that if you can double and maybe double again, would be a cheap tourney, but I can see the logic in what you are saying Hlynkinn. Probably just one of many reasons why I could never profit from rebuys in the past.

It's excellent advice and discussion like this from both of you that I love about this site, learning so much.

Still loving the blog City, keep it up mate (the blog I mean ;))

Bart.

Well its been a long week at work and I have just finished my last 13 hr shift. As I havent been able to play for a while I have decided to play in a higher buy-in tournament tonight. Its a one-off, and as I am promised no distractions Im feeling very confident of getting some success here.

$25 Double Stack Freezeout
Entrants: 109
Payout: Top 20
Finishing position: 42nd
Earnings: $0
BR: $442.35

I had to wait until hand 23 before I got my 1st opportunity to play some cards. I made a nice pot after getting dealt JJ UTG1 and as my position wasnt to healthy I simply limped in and hey presto the flop gave me my trips. One player was trying to bluff the pot resulting in me gaining $1100 of their chips, which was nice :-)
Hand 27 dealt me AA on the button. There were 3 limpers so I raised the pot by 4 big blinds and got 2 callers. The flop was 4 2 2 rainbow and the 2 players checked, so I put in a half pot sized bet...both players folded. I was just off the $5000 mark at this stage in 22nd position with 76 players left, and 20 minutes until the first break.
I only played one other hand before the break which I promptly folded holding KQo UTG. I had hoped to limp in but when MP2 raised 4xBB I folded. So Im in 34th place with 61 remaining and I have $4300. I was $1000 down on the average stack and the blinds were 100/200 going into the second session.
Hand 62 and Im dealt AKo UTG...I raised the pot 3xBB, no callers...I hate playing that hand from such a bad position, you never know what monster is lurking to swallow you up, but a caller would have been nice to see if the flop would have been kind to me.
After 68 hands I was moved table. Maybe my new seat would bring me some well needed luck?? LOL, well firstly it moved me virtually on top of the big blind so it wasnt a great start. Im holding 3900k in chips and the blinds are now 150/300 with 48 players remaining. If something doesnt happen real soon its all going to be over. Well the blinds passed and all I got were horrible cards so Im all of a sudden into to push or fold mode...So its basically a case of double up or die!!!
Hand 74 Im MP2 with AKs so I push only to be called by 88...No luck for me and Im down and out in 42nd place...

Well tomorrow I have all for myself and I will definately be playing plenty of poker. Im overdue some prize money and Im forever optimistic so I remain confident of my chances of bolstering my bankroll!

Happy pokering all :-)

Had a nice lay-in today, didnt crawl out of my hole until 11.30am. My first lay-in for nearly 2 weeks and it was nice. Ok, well I really need to start managing my bankroll a bit better and Im suprised no-one has mentioned anything yet, so I will be restricting myself to a max of $5 buyins until I get the bankroll up to $700. First up is a $1 rebuy so will rebuy immediately and give myself a max of 2 rebuys in the first hour and then add-on regardless of my stack size. I will not be partaking in any rebuy tourneys over this buyin limit until I have reached the magic $700.

$2000 GP Rebuy - $1 buyin + 3 rebuys + 1 add-on
Entrants: 731
Payout: Top 80
Finishing position: 361
Earnings: $0

Got through the 1st hour on target but with only $8500 in chips. I didnt last long after the add-on though. My all-in with QQ was toppled by a big stack holding KK.

$1250 GP Freezout - $5 buyin
Entrants: 313
Payout: Top 40
Finishing position: 41st (aaarrrgghh!!!)
Earnings: $0

Gutted here as I was sucked out on the river right on the bubble. Painful but life goes on heh? {:-(

$2000 GP Freezeout - $3 buyin
Entrants: 684
Payout: Top 80
Finishing position: 269th
Earnings: $0

Just before the end of the 1st hour I was holding AQo. I only had $1300 and was in BB...There were 2 limpers so I pushed all-in only to be confronted by AK held by one of the limpers. He hit his K on the flop so tough luck for me, the wrong time to try steal some chips I guess.

$3000 GP Freezeout - $5 buy-in
Entrants: 732
Payout: Top 80
Fin. Pos: 364th
Earnings: $ 0

Hand 32 and 40 mins into the game I only had $1400. I got AKs diamonds and was busted by AKs clubs when the clubs hit the flush on the turn. My push for a well needed double up foiled.

$2000 GP Freezeout - $5 buy-in
Entrants: 462
Payout: Top 50
Fin Pos: 124th
Earnings: $0
BR: $417.45

Well so far its been a downward slope on the MTT's so I will be playing some STT's over the coming mornings...Hopefully I can start building the old bankroll up a bit?

Happy pokering all :-)