PanAsia Poker Tour?

Been a slow and relaxing weekend for me so far and might play a few Online MTTs today. Been surfing the Web and I saw this:

http://panasiapokertour.com/

Read through he details but in a nutshell:

On Nov 3-5, 2006
PAPT is proud to announce "The PAPT Philippines Open" held at the Airport Casino Filipino in the Philippines. The tournament is open to players from all over the world. The main event will be taped and produced for a future televised broadcast.

24 hrs Live action and sit & go !

Nov 3 12 pm Registration opens
3pm $500 NL Hold'em Tournament
8pm $275 Super-satellite for the main event

Nov 4 12 pm Registration opens
2pm $2500 Main NL Hold'em Tournament 2-day event
8pm $500 NL Hold'em Tournament
10pm $10,000 Baccarat tournament

Nov 5 1 pm Registration opens
12pm the final table of main event start
2pm $500 NL Hold'em Tournament

Why haven't there been any big announcements on this (Or have there?) I mean I have heard about the WPT, the PPT but not this and this one is already in November! The buy-ins are a bit steep but it seems to be a world-class tournament geared at tournaments in Asia!! I see myself forming a team and competing in these tournaments all over Asia now!!

Truly great things are in store for Poker in our humble country. Time to hone our skills and show the world how good we can be.

When You Get Hit By A Bad Beat...

... take a look at this photo of my friend. Major tournament and they got in all their money on the flop. Perfect runner runner to kill his chances.


So when you're feeling down that you got a bad beat... just remember it happens when you play well and get it in with the best hand.

That... and some other people will have it worse then you did!! 

Limit Poker Strategy

Well I havent played poker in the last 5 days due to hell week at work. Been working 16 hour days and I think all those early days when I was slacking off is finally catching up with me.

Well am playing my first tourney since last weekend so wish me luck!

One thing I wanted to talk about though is Limit Poker. For those og you not familiar with how it goes, basically there is a maximum bet and raise allowed. So if the blinds are $1/$2 then the SB is 50 cents and the BB is $1. From there people can only raise $1 and so fourth up to a maximum of 4 raises per betting round. On the turn the bets double to $2 as well as the river.

So why am I dabbling into this rather then sticking to No Limit? The reason being is that it allows you to gain so much points, bonus dollar clearance and rakeback!! When you sit in a limit poker game, most players will limp in because there is no risk of being priced out by a large raise. This allows you to sit back with big pots being played and gaining all the rakeback and bonus points in the shortest time possible!

A key strategic change here is the starting hands you should play. Bluffing and aggressive play is not too rewarded here and its all about hitting the nuts. With this in mind the starting hands I play are:

AA, KK, QQ - obviously
Ax suited - flop a flush or flush draw on the flop. If you don't you're done.
Any pocket pair - flop a set or you're done.

The great thing about limit poker is due to the limited raises you are almost always getting correct odds for yor straight or flush draw. Its just important to know when you are high carded on your flushes and not to draw to the idiot end of a straight.

So to the new starting players in online poker, I suggest you give the $1/$2 limit tables a try. It doesnt work for everyone and you will have bad days where you don't seem to hit a single flop but statistically speaking, it is the best possible way of earning rakeback, bonus dollars and frequent players points.

Lastly, the moves become very automatic since reads and bluffs arent as important as in NL. Due to this fact, multi-tabling is a lot easier to do. Heck I bet you could even teach your maid to do it when you go to sleep hehe.

My Thoughts On The Upcoming PPT

I was reading through Nick's blog and I realized I havent really posted anything community related. Well here is one thing I feel strongly about. Let me know what you think.

The 3 Million PPT. I took a look at their site and the payout is once again a vague system:

Prize Structure
1. The Philippine Poker Tour (PPT) is putting up guaranteed prizes as follows:
a.) Guaranteed Minimum Champions Prize - P1,000,000.00 plus Champion's Bracelet. PPT, may at its discretion, increase the total amount of Champion's Prize. PPT, however, cannot reduce the above minimum guaranteed prize regardless of total number of participants in the Grand Finals.
b.) Total Amount of Three Million Pesos will be distributed to the TOP THIRTY (30) players provided total number of participants in the Grand Finals reaches One Hundred (100). Distribution of prizes is as follows:
CHAMPION
c.) In case total number of participants in the Grand Finals is below 100, PPT may at its discretion adjust the above prize amounts and number of winners. The minimum guaranteed prize for the CHAMPION remains at P1,000,000.00 plus Bracelet and will not be reduced.

if you guys didn't know I was a victim of the epic screw job they did the first PPT. There were over 160+ players who played the P21K buy-in resulting in a pot of over 3.2M. Assuming they take 10% that is still roughly 2.9M pot but they only paid out 1.6M.

Now I feel we have another thing like that in the making and in my firm belief that if Poker is to be a good thing in our country then we should set things straight. If you notice the BOLD text they are already implicitly stating that they do NOT have to increase the payout if there are more then 100 players. They have the authority to take the excess from the pot again since they stated quite clearly on their site.

Now I don't know about that but ignorance is no excuse. I will probably call them and give my opinion on this matter when I come back but I do hope they understand the consequences of what they are doing. I WAS a naive poker player then.... not too good and was looking to get lucky. I am more informed and aware now and I understand what happened previously. It's a shame if history repeats itself.

Its sad as well because it all ties in to the crackdown of the NBI. One legal poker room, very few legal tournament organizers. What is a poker player to do but be robbed in broad daylight or face the prosecution of the NBI.

Thank god for online poker eh?

After 60 Days of Online Poker....

Well today marks my 60th day playing online poker. I was playing a 994 man MMT and I was hoping to have a final table picture to go with this post but no such luck as I finished 59th.

So far it has been a great experience. It almost seems like a distant memory when I loaded in my first $200 in Pacific and was so eager to play that I woke up at 4 AM to start playing before I went to work. That first bankroll lasted me 3 days which really goes to show that you have to pay some learning fees when you start. I wasnt accustomed to the speed of online play and was tilting too much when I lost a big hand. With the next game just a click away, it is indeed a perilous place.

I almost immediately put in another $400 at Full Tilt this time and lost 50% of that in one day. Things were looking bleak and I admit I felt like this wasnt working out. I stopped and thought about what I seemed to be doing wrong. I sat down and thought about the leaks of my game and tried to improve on them. Then came 10 straight days of winning in the cash games and I was soon even again.

The turning point of my online success, (though not really very impressive compared to others) was when I remembered I had $21.25 in bonus dollars in my Pacific account. I saw a Guaranteed 10K tournament for 18+1.80 and thought this was a good way to close this account. I have always played better at tournaments but I was intimidated by the number of players in MTTs online.

I placed 4th in that tournament and won over $700. I just doubled my bankroll in 4 hours! I then started looking into MTTs more and have started playing them. I bought more then half a dozen poker books and improved my game from the sound advice on some of them.

I started getting ITM pretty often on the big tournaments but couldn't seem to win the championship. One tournament saw me bust out of the bubble at 10th and was not able to make the final table due to a mistake. I was devastated and took a break. I consoled myself thinking that there was another tournament just 30 minutes away.

THAT tournament I won.... for $3,680.

I was ecstatic!! I called up room service and ordered the largest steak they had with a bottle of wine. Cost me $110 but with no one with me here so I just felt I had to be good to myself.

The next weeks gave me more ITMs and one 4th place finish for $1,970 but no big wins until exactly 30 days after my first win. I won the $26 MTT out of 600+ players for my biggest win of $3,945!!!

60 days of online poker brought me....

- 40+ ITM finishes in MTTs
- 7 Final Tables
- 2 Championships

As of this moment.... Total Profit of $7,450

And most importantly, a lot of new friends that I have met online. MnlGrind, Maverick, Nickg, Erick, 11Finger, JPT, Nuts and everyone else that I failed to mention.

It's been a blast and I enter the final stretch before I finally head back home.

Cya guys in 30 days!!

-Richie

Why Doing Pot (Odds) is Good

I have been reading blogs, giving advice in some and answering questions in others. I realized that most new people are grappling with one aspect of poker that I had a hard time digesting at first too. Pot Odds

For the advance players, usually pot odds is just a basis of whether they should call a drawing hand but in reality pot odds allow you to control the probabilities and put them in your favor.

So here is my take on the topic. Take note there may be errors and I am not going through the nitty gritty exact calculations. I am just going to tell you how I calculate pot odds and how I use it.

Pot Odds is basically the comparison of how much you need to bet to win a pot versus the odds of you making the best hand. So for example there is 1000 in the pot and you have a flush draw. Only one person in the hand and they bet 500 (pot now at 1500) . You need to call 500 to potentially win 2000 (total pot) so you are getting 3 to 1 on your money. It is 3 to 1 because:

3 (P1500) to 1 (P500)

Should you call?

You now calculate how many outs you have. Assuming you are only hoping for the flush then you have 9 outs. Lets say the you also have top pair along with your flush draw and feel if you hit trips you'd win the hand. In that case you have 11 outs (9+2). Once you have the outs you simply multiply it by 2 and you get a rough % of hitting it on the turn. For the flush draw you have 18%. Now remember!!! You need to calculate PER CARD and not assume you have 36% to hit the flush until the river because there is another betting round after the turn. The ONLY time you can calculate your odds by multiplying by 4 (2 more cards and what your chance of hitting your draw until the river) is when you are ALL-IN.

That 18% translates to 5 to 1 odds but you are only getting paid 3 to 1 on the odds. It is incorrect for you to call because in the long run you would lose money. However, lets say the bet was only 200... You are now getting 7 to 1 odds for a 5 to 1 chance of making it. You call.

Everyone with me? Now people say thats it's a bit hard to figure all this out in the heat of a match. Its also a classic tell because when I see someone look up and look like they are calculating, I now have information that if I bet on the turn ABOVE the pot odds they will fold. It also tells me this person knows a bit of poker strategy and I will play him accordingly.

So you need to be able to calculate odds fast and not LOOK like you're doing it. Here's how to do it in 2 SECONDS FLAT (ahem trade secret hehehe)

One question should be enough.... how much is the pot? From there you start counting bets as fractions of the pot. 1890 pot someone bets 400 that is automatically somewhere around 1/5 of the pot. If there are callers just add 1 to the denominator so 2 callers (and you) means you automatically get 8 to 1 odds. If someone bets the pot (1/1) and get no callers then add one to the denominator and you get 2-1 odds. Dali noh??

Ok so now you know how to easily calculate odds.... but how to use it? The easiest way of course is to know when to call with your drawing hands. But if you reverse the situation you are armed with the information on how to make the drawing hands get bad odds for their calls!! The general rule of thumb is a pot bet will give almost all drawing hands bad odds.

The final thing here is Implied Odds. Its really this simple: Implied odds is how much you THINK you can win if you make the draw. So for example if a person bet 50% of his stack (Betting 500 of his last 1000 on a 1500 pot) You are getting 4 to 1 on your 5 to 1 flush draw. However, since he put it 50% of his stack it is safe to assume he is now POT COMMITED and will push his remaining chips afterwards so you can go ahead and calculate the pot at 2000 (instead of 1500) essentially boosting your odds to 5-1 and getting the correct odds to call your flush draw.

I hope that is an easy and quick reference to the confusing world of pot odds. Lemme know if you have questions or corrections.

Burned Out Again...

Hmmm played a heck of a lot of poker this weekend (about 5 MTTs each day) and got ITM on about 4 of them. No big wins and some heartbreaking beats were the climax of the day. I have read through blogs and stuff and have seen that in order to play pro poker for a living you gotta have a bread and butter format. The MTTs are just a big bonus...

However, for my case the MTTs ARE my bread and butter. I attribute 95% of my total profits to them. The only problem is they take too looooong. Its like playing a computer game where you couldn't save your game. You play smart, keep your health bar up and a small misclick kills your character steps away from the Big Boss.....

So all those time wasted... spent without anything to show for it. I guess this is one of the key reasons for my burnout. The big wins more then make up for it though and the anticipation of winning my next big MTT is what drives me to keep playing.

I got a pretty good bankroll remaining with locked profits that should be enough for 6 months of reckless partying hehehe. I will hit a few MTTs here and there and try my hand at 4 tabling ring games at PokerStars (I don't like their MTTs too much). I have also learned quite a few things while reading and playing and I will share them sometime this week.

Cya people

Work Blues...

No updates these past few days as work has been crap. 16 hours days and I usually come home minutes late from the tournaments which rubs more salt. This is my first night I was actually able to play poker and things were so-so.

Place ITM on a $26 and a $75 but no big win. Went 16th on the $75 and was a bit dissapointed to have missed my 5th final table. Howell, I expect to play a bunch of poker this weekend so you guys stay tuned.

I am also loading $200 at PokerStars just for fun and I'm going to see if I can play 4 MTTs at the same time hehe. If I feel like its affecting the quality of my game then I am cutting back down to 2 or 1.

Will let you guys now. Have a blast on the weekends!

Ship It Baby!!

So what happened? Did GameFrog squander away his chips? Did he tighten up and get deep in the Final Table? Did he take calculated risks and won the tournament?

I can't remember.... I was too wasted from 8 bottles of Corona hehehe. But I remember taking a screenshot and was happy to see this....

$3,945!! SHIP IT BABY!!! Hehehe that felt good to say.

With 671 entries and only a 1,500 starting stack I told myself I will be willing to gamble a bit more then usual. I didnt want to cling on for hours on a short stack without a real chance at winning this.

The first big hand I had was when I held QJs in late position. There were several limpers and I bring it in for a 4X raise. Since the blinds were small everyone called and flop comes QJ9. I got 2 pair but there is a straight draw possibility. I bet the pot and got 1 caller. River was a blank and I bet the pot again... other guy raises me and I push all-in. He had AQ and a Jack came on the river to seal the deal.

I was playing another small tournament at the same time so that kept my patience in check. After awhile I held A9s and raised in late position. got a flush draw and massively overbet the pot hehehe. Guy calls and I hit the flush on the turn. Since he was committed to the pot it was easy enough to get all his chips in.

After the first break I was up around 6K. I was able to get full price on my AA and was able to outplay some opponents on the flop with risky all-in raises.

I just realized one good thing about online poker over live games... I get to scream "FOOLLLDDDD!!!!" over and over and they can't pick it up as a tell hehehe.

ITM came by with me being aroun 40K stack. Had one hand where I had the guy dominated KK vs QQ. Flop comes K83 all hearts. No worries he didnt have a heart too and my trips made sure he was drawing almost completely dead. Turn was J of hearts.... wait a minute.... River 6 of hearts. In the name of everything holy.... a SPLIT POT???? crap.

However, being a nice and polite player I say "nice hand" and he apologizes on the major suckout. It happens I guess. However, I think that lit up my good karma and went on a tear with successful blind steals and resteals. I always showed my strong steals. AK, AQ, medium PP. I showed them all while chatting with the table. I wanted people to cement my image that I am nice... but when I raise get the hell out of MY pot.

2 people didn't listen and when I had AQs I reraise a raise. The flop comes A8Q and guy goes all-in. I call in a heartbeat and he show A-8. I now have 230K in chips and was in the final table.

The second guy was from my screenshot where I held KK. Raise on my blinds and I put him all-in. His A10 doesnt draw his 3 outer.

From there it was blind steal, wait, more blind steals and a successful takeout when my pp held up on the coin flip against a short stack overcards.

I had a 4-1 chip lead when I got heads-up and pushed when I got AK. He had 99s and it was a classic coin flip for the championship.

X - X - X - K - X

Pass the sugah!!!!!

They Say A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words....

Finally got my fourth Final Table at FTP. Went in as the chip lead and had a monster hand to start things off!

My strategy seems to be working since I was able to pad my small roll with tokens providing me with enough ammunition to grind the MTTs.

So what happened at this Final Table?? To Be Continued!!!!!!!! 

Token Update and Party Plans

Well things are going OK. It seems I won't be able to post actual values anymore since they are time consuming (yes I am that lazy) and I have been using FTP as a fund transfer method to my friends hehehe.

However, the interesting thing is I have gained two $26 tokens by going 2/3 in 6 handed small tournaments and two $75 tokens by going 2/3 from the 18 man SnG. Overall the satellite method seems to be working with regards to padding my role but of course its too early too tell. One thing that is certain though is that due to the very flat payout structure this is definitely a good investment since I am primarily a MTT player.

However, I of course wont be able to earn any true cash unless I make some money of the MTTs. Well at least I am stretching my remaining bankroll.

I seriously can't wait to get back home. I've been drinking and playing poker tonight, alone on a Saturday night. God I never thought things could get this boring. I think I am going to blow some serious cash partying when I come back. That reminds me too.... you guys want to have a Blogger eyeball at GameFrog? My thoughts is that we can have a simple P150 entry for drink all you can all night. Since the beer costs P30 each then just make sure you can drink up by 5 bottles and you're fine. Complimentary ice tea for any ladies who dont drink. I will shoulder anything that goes beyond and may foot some food bills (as long as there arent 200+ people) You guys can bring along +2 friends as long as they are poker addicts as well (Hey we all need something to talk about)

And I will have to ask eash person to come to me and introduce themselves with their blogger nick. Just so I can introduce everyone to each other (and verify those who are coming are bloggers I know!)

Anyway just something I'm thinking of. Lemme know if you guys are interested. Afterwards if everyone isnt so stoned maybe we can have the Blogger tournament afterwards!! (Sorry we can't hold it at the frog though)

Post and lemme know. tentative date would be sometime Octoberish

MTT > SnG

No I didn't win a MTT which made me say the bold statement on my title. I have however been grappling with a winning strategy on my remaining roll. I did a little bit better on Day 2 placing 2/4 ITM on the turbos for a net gain of $40.

After that I proceeded to play 2 hours of DOTA and this game actually showed me something interesting about my type of play. I seem to excel at single player perspective games. I used to be pretty good at counterstrike, I am a good player at DOTA and I used to be an excellent Magic player. I also crushed all single player RPG games that I played. Ok I better stop since I'm beginning to sound like a dork.

But the important point is that when I am concentrating on a single task I do well. I am great at micromanaging but was incompetent with macromanaging.

The point? I don't think I am doing well at multi tabling. I don't have the hand and eye coordination for the popping tables and I cannot make the perfect decision if I need to make 4 of them at the same time. However, single tabling SnGs is a losing proposition since I agree with the SnG players that its all about volume. I can play 2 tables at most well and that doesnt work with SnGs.

However, its perfect for the MTTs. Additionally, I was doing some thinking (which led me to the statement on my title). If I was playing a SnG and I won the tournament I would get about 4 times my buy-in. If I went ahead and played a second one and won that consecutively I would have made 8 times my buy-in.

Now in a 100 player MTT if I survive the ITM cutoff of 10% then I would make roughly 2 times my buy-in. But in essence if I win the "next" round I will win about 30 times my buy-in!

32 > 8

Of course I know its not that simple but then again experience shows me that I am right. I am probably a lesser player then the other SnG players here by sheer experience. I have played online for less then 2 months and occasionally at live games. Others have played for months or years showing consistent and undeniable proof that their system works. But I was fortunate enough to win 15 times my initial bankroll within a short time due to wins at the MTTs.

So now I need to figure out how I can afford to play those HIGH RISK MTTs at minimum expense. Reading through the other blogs I saw the answer, Satellites! (11finger and Erick proves they are the key to cheap main events) and looking through the game list at FTP I saw an 18 man SnG that pay outs a $75 token for 1-5 and $48 for 6th. All for a $22+2 entry fee. This may be the winning strategy I may be looking for. I need to play the 75s because that where I excel but my bankroll can only take the $26s. This allows me to rack up 75s for multiple shots at the big event. Additionally, since 1st to 5th get the token, the payout is very very flat allowing CONSISTENCY and PATIENCE to win out.

My roll allows me to take about 22 shots at this event. If I can really concentrate and get a token 50% if the time I would have 11 shots at the big MTT. Compared to only 6 if I just went ahead and paid for the entries. I would have padded my buy-ins by almost 100%. Of course the tokens are non-convertible to cash hehehe so there is no backing out after I embark on this quest.

Its a logical and valid gameplan that is based on the skillset that I have pegged myself to possess. I'd say it will take me less then 6 days to find out if I'm right hehehe.

If I'm wrong...... REBUY!!!!!!! LOL

Day 2 Update

Running Count - +$40
Bankroll - $465

$75 TOKENS earned = 0