Sensei’s Poker Dojo

Its that time of year again, when every poker player’s dreams turn to Vegas. Fish as far as the eye can see, big piles of cash, and chips stacked so high you can hardly see over them. I am getting excited myself, on account of the first event¹ starting today and my own trip coming up soon. I’ve got a house with WiltonTilt and jk3a and a few other folks from June 8 to July 8, so I’ll probably be spending much of June down there.

The tournaments I’m likely to play include:

• Event 19: 2500 NLHE 6max, June 8
• Event 30: 2500 PLO, June 14
• Event 35: 5000 PLO, June 17
• Event 40: 10k PLO championship, June 20
• Event 55: 2500 TripleDrawLowball, June 29
• Event 56: 5000 NLHE 6max, June 30
• Event 57: 10k NLHE main event, July 3

I’ll be posting updates and whatnot as they come, of course.

1. The 40k high rollers NLHE. I’m not playing it, of course, but I’ve got some friends who are and I’m rooting for them from my computer [↩]

Yo, I know its been a while since I rapped at ya, but I’ve been putting in some pretty solid hours at work on my new DC series, aptly titled ‘Ringmaster‘. Its a movin-on-up style series about midstakes full ring NL. Most players these days hear ‘full ring’ and are immediately averse to it, but there are actually some pretty nice benefits of playing FR games that stand in stark contrast to PLO: The variance is much lower, perhaps among the lowest of any popular form of poker. Of course, the maximum winrates attainable are lower as well (or are they?!?) but its somewhat made up for by the fact that you can play many tables at once. I normally don’t play more than 6 tables of most games, but I’ve been playing 9-12 fullring games comfortably. Partially due to the challenge I’ve laid out for myself in the series, and partially because I’ve found it reasonbly easy to do so, I’ve been putting in some pretty solid sessions the last month or so. Multi-hour, several-thousand hand sessions, the likes of which I haven’t played in a long time!

I won’t spoil the results of my progress, on account of it featuring in the series itself, but I’ll post a few entertaining hands I’ve encountered so far along the way:

Party Poker $400.00 No Limit Hold’em – 8 players

The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
MP2: $400.00
Hero (CO): $623.20
BTN: $841.50
SB: $776.20
BB: $413.10
UTG: $400.00
UTG+1: $124.00
MP1: $727.00

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is CO with T T
2 folds, MP1 calls $4, MP2 raises to $16, Hero calls $16, 3 folds, MP1 calls $12

Flop: ($54.00) K 6 T (3 players)
MP1 checks, MP2 bets $40.00, Hero calls $40, MP1 raises to $140, MP2 calls $100, Hero raises to $340, MP1 raises to $711, MP2 calls $244 all in, Hero calls $267.20 all in

Turn: ($1652.40) 6 (3 players – 2 are all in)

River: ($1652.40) 4 (3 players – 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $1652.40

MP1 shows 6 6
MP2 mucks KK
MP1 wins $342.60
MP1 wins $1203.00

Party Poker $400.00 No Limit Hold’em – 8 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter
Hero (BTN): $413.60
SB: $414.00
BB: $412.00
UTG: $233.00
UTG+1: $755.40
MP1: $183.10
MP2: $297.05
CO: $603.90

Pre Flop: ($6.00) Hero is BTN with 4 6
5 folds, Hero raises to $12, 1 fold, BB raises to $42, Hero calls $30

Flop: ($86.00) 2 T 3 (2 players)
BB bets $50.00, Hero calls $50

Turn: ($186.00) 8 (2 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $140.00, BB raises to $320, Hero calls $180

River: ($826.00) T (2 players)

Final Pot: $826.00
BB shows 9 7
BB wins $823.00