Stars $4 180 man sng report

I haven't play much of these this month but i'd say i'm having better results in them this month than last. I've made four final tables so far, 1st,2nd,5th, & 3rd tonight. All of these in the last few days.

This report is for the 3rd place finish tonight


HOUR ONE - -Strategy

My strategy during the 1st hour is to play basic abc poker... for the most part. Be aggressive in any pot i get involved with. Basically i'm looking to double with my big hands. My motto you will find is raise or fold. although i will limp behind if table conditions dictate. I like to end this hour with around 3500 chips

1st hand of the tourny some guy in MP opens to 25xbb... BTN shoves he calls its MP AK vs BTN's JTs... I loled. MP wins. I have a good feelin inside about this one :)

Hand 1
I get cold called after reraising (rr) a min raise, then a short stack shoved AI. The guy was not short at all compared to the blinds, but players tend to panic if they get behind early. I was not concerned about the cold caller, at best i put him on 22-99 or AT-AQ. TT vs. A8o vs. KJo...I hold. chip stack:$3590

Hand 2
KK On the button (OTBN) and Villian with above average stack makes rediculous open raise.hmm, I doubt AA, so my goal here is to stack him. I probably could've shoved right here, since he was not laying down AK, JJ+... but i decide to smooth call. flop comes Q high, villian bets half pot and i put him in for less than 1k more... My stack:$6140

So 18 hands in, having played only 3 hands i have a huge stack, I decide to tightened up since there was no real reason to get involved.

Hand 3
KK about 6 hands later in BB this time, utg limps, utg+1 min r, MP cold calls, Sb calls. I make it $240, I think this was too little now perhaps $300 would've done it. I get 3 callers and flop come A high, i chk call a weak bet, then fold to utg shove... Chip stack:$5525


HOUR TWO -- Strategy

Usually there are between 68 - 78 players left at the end of the first hour. I think there were 74 left in this tourny. I have a above average stack, I'm looking to accumulate, apply a little pressure, try to figure out my table but not get too involved.

Hand 4
1st hand out of the break, i'm at a new table. huge stack limps utg and i have Ad7d in the HJ position. I usually like to punish limpers but because of his stack size i decide to just limp behind, hopefully getting great implied odds if he has a good hand... flop comes Ace high and four to the flush... SB leads for 2/3 pot, utg calls and i call behind... no need to shove the nutflush drw here. Turn gives me my flush and i manage to extract nicely on river. chip stack: $9805

Hand 5
I have a nice stack and i'm beginning to get really active. I lose one hand and take down four small pots when we come to this blind vs. blind situation with QJs in the SB. Pulled a stone cold bluff... very dangerous... but the way the hand played out, especially with the min raise on the turn, I knew villian would be hard pressed to call me with anything other than a 7 or the boat. And the way it played i felt like he was just being stuborn with something like TP. stack:12780

After this hand i mix it up quite a bit, basically bullying the table and taking down blinds,there is about 22 players left it think. i lose a few pots but chip up nicely by the break. Stack:17K

HOUR 3 -- Strategy

By this time we're usually on the right before the bubble or it has burst already. During this time i try to get really active, playing position, taking down the blinds occasionally, targeting the medium stacks... generally just looking to take down pots and continue to accumulate.

Hand 6
A few hands out of the break its folded to me ontb with A7s... raising and then folding is out of the question so i shove... sb wakes up with 99.. bb is sitting out. stack:9702

I shove with A8o in bb when chipleader just completes in SB... he types that he was just checking to see if i know how to play :) stack:10102

blinds come around again and i have A8s in SB, loose player limps in utg+1, chip leader calls ontb... I shove... they both fold. stack: 12452

I steal blinds with 54s in MP... tables seems to have tightened up alot.

In bb again this time with ATo... same player from last time limps in in MP chipleader completes again in sb... I shove... they both fold :) stack: 15902

Hand 7
short stack is now put all in by BB and limper from last two blinds min raises utg... by now i know this guy sucks... I call with T8s ontb... I bet half pot on flop and he folds. stack: 18422

Hand 8
New table, made ill advised blind defence. called btn 3xbb raise and had to chk fold river after firing two bullets on flop and turn. stack: 13927

My 'M' drops to 8 and i get really active again taking down a few uncontested pots. But i really had a great run of hands

Hand 9
I've been really active so i get calls like this.

Hand 10
And this.
edit: viewing this hand again, i realized that i shouldve just shoved flop... an A or K turn would have been a disaster. And he's more likely to call with a weaker hand like AK/AQ on the flop than turn i think.

Hand 11
This is former same chip leader who kept completing his small blind when i was short stack. Taking notes and having software are important becuase u never know when they will come in handy. Earlier in the tourny i saw this guy bluff raise a scary river after villian showed weakness... when he made this river bet, i wanted to kick myself for slow playing.But i chked the note then i check his stats which had unusually high river aggression...then called. stack: 65477

Hand 12
I pick up 66 in BB and villian from last hand opens utg for 3xbb... we're basically even in chips, I call. I flop set and lead right out for 4k, little more than half the pot. He reraises to 9k... ididn't think he would call a shove because of how much he had behind and i didn't want to call on such a dangerous flop... so i decided to 4bet taking it up to 20k. He then types something in the chat like "are you sure?" then shoved for 31k more. I briefly considered JJ or TT, but decided there were just too many other hands he could have here and called. He showed J9clubs. stack:114978

FINAL TABLE
Few hands later I reached the final table as a HUGE stack, having an almost 3:1 chip lead over the 2nd place player.

its 2am here now and i have work in the morning. So i will go through the final table another time. If you have any questions or anything to say, just leave a comment and i will try to answer asap.

$4 180 sit n go win!

I went jogging for the first time in years and it felt great. I was really energized and started two tournaments soon after i reached back home. I think i played some of my best poker during this tournament and made some nice plays.

My strategy in these small stakes tournaments is really very simple; i wait for hands and then play them very aggressively. I open a wide range if its folded to me in HJ to SB including any two. As a result i get played back at often. Most opponents don't seem to be able to adjust to this style. My biggest problems is knowing when to slow down.

Hand 1
Villian in this hand was somewhat loose and i had seen him win a few pots with moves like this. I think he had a weak ace, a busted drw, 2nd pair type hand or air.

Hand 2
Nice chip up before the break... I was among the chip leaders early in this tournament.

Hand 3
Villian had moved to the table about 2 orbits and had been limping alot. I pegged him as a weak player. After just calling my flop bet and checking behind on the turn i thought he was weak and called despite the possible straight out there.

Hand 4
Didn't like this play even though it turned out that i was ahead here. But generally i'd expect to be called by AK and QQ+... still with my aggressive image i guess AQ is not folding...

Hand 5
Push any two. These levels are usually where i seperate from the pack or get busted. people tend to tighten up too much.

Hand 6
Hand 7
My constant pressure usually gets paid off like this

Hand 8
OR had only been at table for about 1.5 orbits and had been opening alot of pots, i had also watched him on another table since we were down to 2 or 3 tables. So i knew he had nothing and the BTN shove likely had a weaker hand also

Hand 9
Short handed at the final table i'm going with A9s vs. a LP raise

Hand 10
A really weak opponent he basically telegraphed what he had all the time

Hand 11
taking advantage of the bigstack

Hand 12
Terrible slow play... still i should've gotten away on the shove

Most opponents seem to be weak at the final table... they just don't play enough hands and i was able to steal with impunity. But sometimes i go overboard and hurt myself.

download entire file here; 1st_20080204.txt