Hand History 1

Finally I have found a hand converter that lets me show the Ipoker hand histories in a workable format. The first example sees me treble up in the first hand of a Maui that I go on to win. If only all games and flops could be like this. The hand went as follows:     BetFred Poker Maui "Jackpot Sit N Go" 5/10 saw flop | saw showdown Button bargutt (1000) SB Megabollen (1000) BB demolisher1959 (1000) UTG 4in1 (1000) UTG+1 Inegeni123 (1000) MP 0rangeJuice (1000) MP xxShitOutxx (1000) MP oakesz (1000) CO-1 WViking (1000) CO Kartajana (1000) Preflop: Kartajana is in the CO with Q Q 1 fold, Inegeni123 calls 10, 2 folds, oakesz calls 10, 1 fold, Kartajana raises to 70, bargutt calls 70, Megabollen calls 65, demolisher1959 calls 60, 2 folds. Flop (300) Q T T Megabollen checks, demolisher1959 checks, Kartajana bets 100, bargutt calls 100, 1 fold, demolisher1959 calls 100. Turn (600) A demolisher1959 checks, Kartajana checks, bargutt bets 300, demolisher1959 raises to 830, Kartajana moves all-in for 830, bargutt moves all-in for 530. River (3090) 2 bargutt shows J K demolisher1959 shows T 9 Kartajana shows Q Q Kartajana wins 3090 with A full house, Queens and Tens   Despite the quality of my initial flop bet and subsequent slow play, overall it would be very hard not to win this hand in this way and there is not a great deal of criticism for either victim. Certainly it would be very hard for either to lay down post flop for Demolisher1959 and post turn for bargutt. However in the first hand I would not play either of their hands following my raise. This is my keep out of trouble approach in the early levels. The specific area I want to consider is the size of the pre-flop raise I made at the 5-10 level. Is it enough? In this case it does not matter but as I rule with premium hands I try to raise so that pocket pairs are not priced in, which would mean a raise to at least 120 in this case. I really only want one loose caller in this situation, who might be prepared to commit all their chips with top pair or worse. It does not get better than this. Ironically the reality of this game was that I still needed more luck later on to cash and ultimately win.   I will try to look at more hand histories in the next few months and will focus on mistakes and good play rather than just good fortune.   Your comments on this and future hands would be much appreciated.

Sunday Million Satellite Win

My good run in June continues as I took down an $8 satellite to the Sunday Million on Pokerstars worth $215. I had no intention of playing the big one so I have cashed in. Generally things have not gone well on Pokerstars this year but there have now been a couple of highlights to keep me on top on this site. This particular game has been a money spinning one for me in the past and can generate some weak opponents. The downside is that the games don't fill up that often. I will be trying to play one again soon! PokerStars Tournament #405649691, No Limit Hold'em Super Satellite Buy-In: $8.00/$0.80 USD 36 players Total Prize Pool: $288.00 USD Target Tournament #425020010 Buy-In: $200.00/15.00 USD 1 tickets to the target tournament Tournament started 2011/06/18 19:09:02 ET Tournament finished 2011/06/18 20:01:09 ET   1: Kartajana (United Kingdom),  (qualified for the target tournament)   2: gn4ppa (United Kingdom), $20.00   3: IHATEKOPS (Canada), $20.00   4: BlåPolly (Sweden), $20.00   5: pimskiegrunn (Netherlands), $13.00   6: R0bHal (Canada), I have been struggling a little this month to find my form on the Maui games. Despite my recent holiday I am a little jaded with the Maui games and have had a recent poor run of luck. Maybe I am just a little too focused on my results rather than the quality of my play.

The games on Pokerstars and Full Tilt serve, I think, as a positive distraction from my Maui grinding. I certainly have a lot of respect for those playing a lot more Maui games than I do.

For the rest of June I play well........ win or lose. Good luck.

The Maui Mantra

Without giving too much away about my Maui strategy I try to follow this poetic approach:     STAY OUT OF TROUBLE     GO FOR A DOUBLE       MANAGE THE BUBBLE       BE LUCKY LIKE BARNEY RUBBLE (His wife Betty is hot!)

Full Tilt Pro defeated

I play occasional sit n gos on Full Tilt and when I get the opportunity will test myself against the sites pros if they play at the lower value games. In a recent $11 game a was sat to the right of South African Pro Ryan Dreyer and managed to win with the pro knocked out on the bubble. To be fair he outplayed me significantly on one hand but I played it safe (retreating in the face of strength) and fought back well in later hands.     Full Tilt Poker Tournament Summary $11 + $1 Sit & Go (Turbo) (240034847) Hold'em No Limit Buy-In: $11 + $1 Buy-In Chips: 1500 9 Entries Total Prize Pool: $99 Tournament started: 2011/06/06 18:48:47 ET Tournament finished: 2011/06/06 19:26:19 ET 1: Kartajana, $49.50 2: jimmyforreal, $29.70 3: break_evan, $19.80 4: Ryan Dreyer 5: Maria_Lupita 6: calmon 7: Logonat 8: Vins10 9: leo452 Kartajana finished in 1st place Following my recent holiday I have started June well. My Maui progress is somewhat volatile as usual but heading in the right direction.

$500 Freeroll Win

As part of a Betfred May sit n go promotion I qualified, along with only twenty nine others for a $1000 freeroll which was based on playing over 150 sit n gos in May. The payout structure was very top heavy which initially was a concern with only the top three getting paid. On finding myself at the final table with an average stack I needed to get lucky to be in the money. And I did. I hit a flush with an aggressive semi-bluff move against kings and more critically on the bubble won a 99 v AA battle by hitting a flush on the river. Once in the money I played really well and held my nerve to take the first prize.

 

Sit N Go Chase $1000 Freeroll 2011-06-05

 

1. Kartajana $500

2. Eviit $300

3. Zufallsgenie $200

 

Significantly I have now won nearly the same playing freerolls as I have playing the Maui games themselves. Of course without playing the Maui games I would not qualify for the freerolls. I should play the higher value ones as often as I can. This particular type of opportunity is rare but there is a weekly £1000 freeroll that attracts a couple of hundred players. I should play this game as often as possible to boost my Poker earnings. 

 

Long live the freeroll!

May Result: +$430, YTD: +$1136

Hola,    My May result includes year to date rakeback as per my last post and was generally a better month. It ended with a week of no poker as I did not play whilst on holiday in Majorca (though I did win a sit n go on the outbound flight via interactive in flight entertainment software - if only my Maui opponents were that passive late on!) If anyone wishes to discuss Maui games on an ongoing basis and perhaps improve each others games as a result please contact me via my profile e-mail. The advantage of sharing information, experiences and hand perspectives is significant I believe. Good Luck Jason