First and foremost i would like to congratulate Mike “thebigsicko” Guzzardi on his epic win in the Sunday Warmup for $132,910.50. a writeup of the win can be found here for those playing at home
Sickos writeup
While his ability to make more in one day then most people make in several years in a day is impressive enough. whats infinitely more impressive to me was his comment immediately after his victory …. ” time for bed guys ttyl” …. while i have never won 132k before i guarantee i would not be sleep for at least 5 days and with due deliberation i have come to the conclusion that Micheal Guzzardi is actually ISILDUR1 and Chuck Norris’ Love child.

gg sir…..

Well, i played my week of 135man Rush MTTs (as i said in my last post i said i would try it for a week and see how i go.)

I think i am going to stick to these little gems a little longer as my ROI in the smaller ones ($4.40) is hovering around 65% over 43 Games which is a great start.
I havent had any luck in the bigger ones so i am going to concentrate on the smaller ones for a while and grind them out.
They fit perfectly into my lifestyle atm as with work commitments it would be impossible for me to play MTTs at normal speed so this allows me to play a MTT like play (which what i enjoy most) in a 3rd of the time which is always fantastic. Plus the competition is weak to say the least. The jams are too light and the bets are too big. and to be honest, the only time i actually feel Rushed is final 3 when we are all sitting at 10BBs otherwise its reasonably easy to keep your stack at around 30 – 40bbs

And me lol,

Didn’t have a huge amount of time today so i decided to flash up a couple of  1/2 LIMIT on the old faithful FTP…. thanks to a couple of cowboys i ended up +$150~ which im very happy about.

A lot of ppl ask why i play limit, the majority of the time i enjoy it more then NLHE as there is a lot more emphasis on odds and hand reading then the raw aggression of NLHE anyways heres a couple of beauties from today

A Picture of todays Holdem Manager Graph

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One of the biggest pots of the day… LOL

Full Tilt, $1/$2 Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG folds, Hero calls $1, CO calls $1, BTN raises to $2, SB calls $1.50, BB folds, Hero calls $1, CO calls $1

Flop: ($9) (4 Players)
SB checks, Hero checks, CO checks, BTN bets $1, SB folds, Hero raises to $2, CO folds, BTN raises to $3, Hero raises to $4, BTN calls $1

Turn: ($17) (2 Players)
Hero bets $2, BTN raises to $4, Hero raises to $6, BTN raises to $8, Hero calls $2

River: ($33) (2 Players)
Hero bets $2, BTN raises to $4, Hero raises to $6, BTN raises to $8, Hero calls $2

Results: $49 Pot ($1 Rake)
Hero showed and WON $48 (+$26 NET)
BTN showed and LOST (-$22 NET)

This hand is an interesting one but with is Eq i was getting its pretty standard, notice how the two players left in the pot went hypo on the river, i knew i was good, i just had to try and get the $$$ in

Full Tilt, $0.50/$1 Hold’em Cash Game, 6 Players
LeggoPoker.com – Hand History Converter

Pre-Flop: dealt to Hero (MP)
UTG raises to $2, Hero calls $2, 2 folds, SB calls $1.50, BB calls $1

Flop: ($8) (4 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG checks, Hero checks

Turn: ($8) (4 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets $2, Hero calls $2, SB calls $2, BB calls $2

River: ($16) (4 Players)
SB checks, BB checks, UTG bets $2, Hero raises to $4, SB folds, BB calls $4, UTG raises to $6, Hero raises to $8, BB calls $4, UTG calls $2

Results: $40 Pot ($1 Rake)
BB mucked and LOST (-$11 NET)
UTG mucked and LOST (-$12 NET)
Hero showed and WON $39 (+$27 NET)

Well im off to bed gearing for a big next couple of days on the virtual felt

GL at the tables all

Gbmitch

I played the FTOPS Main Event the other day and played well up until my brain decided to not work correctly. I was able to double up rather early on after building my stack to just fewer than 9,000 chips in the first few levels from the starting stack of 7,500. Here is the hand I played to double up, which I thought I played very well and was on point with my read in the hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #23115359574: FTOPS Main Event (167300260), Table 45 – 60/120 – No Limit Hold’em – 19:47:43 ET – 2010/08/15
Seat 1: hustla16 (18,435)
Seat 2: Andyamo (8,859)
Seat 3: GulahPapyrus (2,465)
Seat 5: GutshotManiac (8,825)
Seat 6: Alexandr1110 (4,695)
Seat 7: Andy Bloch (16,735)
Seat 8: eatschips (9,321)
Seat 9: LuvYouLongTime (5,665)
GulahPapyrus posts the small blind of 60
GutshotManiac posts the big blind of 120
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to GutshotManiac [Kd Ac]
Alexandr1110 folds
Andy Bloch has 15 seconds left to act
Andy Bloch folds
eatschips folds
LuvYouLongTime raises to 240
hustla16 calls 240
Andyamo folds
GulahPapyrus folds
GutshotManiac has 15 seconds left to act
GutshotManiac raises to 875

I actually debated whether or not to three-bet in this spot. LuvYouLongTime had been somewhat active with his preflop min-raising and the flat-caller was hustla16, who I recognize and is a regular in MTTs. He was by far and away the toughest competition at the table.

There were a few spots prior to this, the made me question three-betting. Earlier, hustla16 opened twice and was three-bet from one of the blinds. Both times he flatted in position and opted to take a flop with our deep stacks. Another time he three-bet a player and then flatted a four-bet in position. And one other time he flatted a raise in late position before one of the blinds squeezed. The original raiser folded and hustla16 once again flatted in position. Each time he flatted in position, he was able to win the pot post flop without going to a showdown.

That said, there was an extremely large chance that he’d be flatting if I three-bet here. He’d probably be doing so 100% of the time if LuvYouLongTime called before him and then something like 80% of the time if I didn’t make it an absurd amount and LuvYouLongTime folded.

I also had to take into account that LuvYouLongTime was fairly active preflop with coming in for min-raises and I didn’t want to really play this hand out of position with three players knowing LuvYouLongTime’s opening range could be fairly wide here. Not only would I be out of position without a made hand already against a preflop raiser with a wider opening range in my opinion, the toughest opponent at the table would then have position on both of us, making things even more difficult.

I took my time and weighed the options. My decision was to three-bet and knock out LuvYouLongTime, who had been folding to three-bets every time he opened with a min-raise. That’s another reason why you can give him a wide opening range.

If you remember my last blog post (which was coincidentally my first with this site), I talked about having a plan. First, I had planned that LuvYouLongTime would fold and hustla16 would call. I then planned to not be continuation betting a lot of flops. Most dry flops I whiffed completely, but still held ace high, I planned to attempt to keep the pot size small and just check to hustla16. I wouldn’t want to fire a continuation bet on these types of flops and have him raise me. There’d be a good percentage of the time that I’d be folding the best hand. Flatting a raise out of position would bloat the pot without a made hand in this spot against a very tough opponent, putting me in a lot of tough spots on following streets. Even if I were to pair on the turn, I’d still only have one pair.

If I smashed the flop, I planned to barrel for value and hope hustla16 tried to get cute with a flat and then maybe raise me on the turn. If I hit a top-pair hand on a pretty dry board, I was going to check to hustla16 and let him barrel away. He’d be bluffing here a lot of the time and wouldn’t go too crazy with bet sizes. He was a solid player and often bet 40-60% of the pot when he was betting, never close to pot, which was good for me, as I didn’t want to not go nuts. In my opinion, a top-pair type hand would get me at least two streets of value from me barreling and maybe even three if he didn’t improve to any showdown value.

LuvYouLongTime folds
hustla16 calls 635

As expected, LuvYouLongTime folded and hustla16 flat-called.

*** FLOP *** [4d 7c 2s]
GutshotManiac has 15 seconds left to act
GutshotManiac checks
hustla16 has 15 seconds left to act
hustla16 bets 875
GutshotManiac has 15 seconds left to act
GutshotManiac calls 875

This flop was exactly what I just talked about when making my plan: dry and completely missing my hand. Even so, I still held the nut no pair and wouldn’t want to bet-fold the best hand if raised.

I think it’s extremely important to note the hands that I’m representing here. Yes, AK is in my range here after I check the flop, but I would also take this same line against this player with my big pairs that I’d be three-betting from the big blind preflop. My QQ+ hands can essentially play the same as an AK that flops top pair. My plan with top pair was to check-call for value knowing he’d attempt to represent something on one or two streets, making this check in line with my plan ahead of time.

I’m not sure what hustla16 thought about me or my play or what he thought I held here. I felt that he’d probably figure that I three-bet the big blind with AQ-AK and am giving up on the flop. That said, I’m not just going to check-fold against a competent opponent who would just take advantage of most players check-folding this flop having missed.

If hustla16 felt I could be under-repping my hand here with a check of a big overpair, he’d probably only be betting a polarized range. The one hand I was aware to look out for on this flop was 6-5, which now held an open-ended straight draw along with two live cards versus my hand. When I check to him, he’d more than likely check behind with his one-pair hands that have showdown value. Those include any pair on board and some overpairs. I didn’t feel he’d be flatting a preflop min-raise with a monster, as he’d be letting others in for really, really cheap and wouldn’t want to play them multi-way. He’d also be more inclined to four-bet me after I three-bet if he had flatted with a monster preflop.

*** TURN *** [4d 7c 2s] [4h]

This turn card pairing he board doesn’t change much. If I was ahead on the flop, I’m still ahead on the turn. If I was behind, I’m still behind. I didn’t plan to check-raise as I felt I’d only be getting called by hands that beat me. I didn’t have much room to do anything but shove if I was going to check-raise. If he bet here, he’d be bluffing most of the time. Checking behind would be his play most of the time if he did indeed have some showdown value in the hand, but just wanted to attempt to take it down on the flop with a bet.

GutshotManiac checks
hustla16 has 15 seconds left to act
hustla16 bets 1,675
GutshotManiac has 15 seconds left to act
GutshotManiac has requested TIME
GutshotManiac calls 1,675

I called knowing the worst river card for me would have been any 3, 5, 6 or 8 as the 65 that I mentioned earlier now there. I was also worried about any T, J or Q as those would hit his bluffing range a lot of the time. There also wasn’t a flush draw present so those backdoor cards were ruled out. As I mentioned in my first post, I had a plan for almost every river card that fell. It just turns out, the one that hit was one of the best ones for me.

*** RIVER *** [4d 7c 2s 4h] [Ah]

Yes, I paired on the river and some would say I have to go with the hand now for sure. Some might even just shove here hitting a pair, but what hands call you that you beat? Given my read on hustla16 that he was a solid player, he’ll probably be folding all aces that I am ahead of, even AQ. He’d really only be calling me here if he had me beat.

I thought about possibly firing a blocking bet, but I didn’t like the idea given my stack size. He could successfully raise me and force me to fold if I bet too little, because I don’t think he would raise a bet here without a hand. Checking also induces a lot of bluffs to continue their story and barrel again to get me to fold. My hand right now looks like a pair around TT or JJ, maybe even QQ and he might feel he can represent the ace on the river, but not much of his range has aces in them here.

That said, I wasn’t planning to fold at all. The ace was a very safe card for me and I didn’t want to just bet out here and let him get off the hand. He had already committed a good amount of his stack and knowing he’s a good, aggressive player wouldn’t just give up if he felt I’d fold a decent percentage of the time. The only hands I was really worried about now were hands that had flopped a set. I felt with those though that he’d have checked either the flop or turn, seeing as hands like AQ and AK are in my range where I have yet to improve. He wouldn’t get value by betting both flop and turn against those hands. He might not even get value from TT or JJ as well in some cases.

GutshotManiac checks
hustla16 has 15 seconds left to act
hustla16 bets 5,400
GutshotManiac has 15 seconds left to act
GutshotManiac has requested TIME
GutshotManiac calls 5,400, and is all in

Notice here that I requested time. I wasn’t second-guessing myself. Planning throughout the hand allowed me to play things out in a controlled manner, but I still needed to take a few moments to review everything as it had worked out.

*** SHOW DOWN ***
hustla16 shows [Qs Ts] a pair of Fours
GutshotManiac shows [Kd Ac] two pair, Aces and Fours
GutshotManiac wins the pot (17,950) with two pair, Aces and Fours

As you can see, I was pretty spot on in this hand with my read of his hand range, the player and the situation. I’m extremely happy with the way I played this hand and it’s one of the best ones I’ve played ever pertaining to me being on point at all instances.

After 500 games @ 5 and 10 sng to be in profit – Fail
Study 5+ hrs a week  – 4 hr of 5

Watch At least one training video a  week  –Completed

Post on blog at least twice a week – Completed

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Well what an interesting week, i didn’t get to play much during the week, work work work lol. I did get 2 solid sessions in this week on Saturday and today (Sun) Saturday was pretty good, i decided to give Ultimate Bet a try and made about 60 dollars on there.  There is so much difference between UB and FTP when it comes to sngs .

Firstly the games on Ultimate bet are Alot fishier. I think this has alot to do with the amount of euros that frequent the site, it seems solid SNG play is the trick on UB low to mid sngs. so for the next week i intend on SNGs solely on ultimate bet.

Today i tried something different, a mate of mine kept raving about these 135 man Rush MTTs on full tilt poker, so i gave into him and gave them  a crack…. im hooked lol.

There is so much dead money in these its unbelievable, some of the plays being made border on retarded.  People seems to panic and play these things like the god damn re buys. i must admit it can get a tad hairy around the 10 – 15 BB mark but i feel that i have an significant edge in these .  So for the next week i am going to be playing these in conjunction to SNGs and i will decide after that whether to pursue them further..

Gbmitch

After 500 games @ 5 and 10 sng to be in profit – 422 games @ -294 profit
Study 5+ hrs a week  –2 hr of 5
Watch At least one training video a  week on – Not Completed
Post on blog at least twice a week -1

of 2

i tell you there is nothing better then getting up early on a saturday morning and flashing up 6 tables and seeing this

6 tables of losing players, (as shown by the red text underneath names).  It always gives my a little tingle in my pantalooms when simple table selection pays off with sitting on tables with a 40 odd  monkies

Unfortunately Saturday ended up being a losing day, on reflection i played for a little too long and should of taken a break or two between my sets. Lesson learnt and from now on i am going to take at least a 20 min break ever 2 hours.  I am alsospending all of tomorrow night working on my game and leaks as  i am duty (with the military and will not have access to the net). I have downloaded a couple of vids to watch and also going to spend an hour or two on HEM. ill keep you update with my findings.

I also aquired myeslf a bitching keyboard and mouse setup It suppose to stop RSI in the wrist that can’t be a bad thing can it?

All hail the baseball shaped mouse

Gbmitch

Welcome to www.insanepokercrew.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

After 500 games @ 5 and 10 sng to be in profit – 301 games @ -201 profit
Study 5+ hrs a week  – 1 hr of 5
Watch At least one training video a  week on cardrunners or SNG Grinders  – Completed
Post on blog at least twice a week -1 of 2

Friends, they seem to be a necessary evil weather you love them or hate them friends are friends

I have amate and im sure everyone has a similar friend who is right about everything, you can try everything in your power but they will never accept the fact that they are wrong.

Fortunately poker is one of those games in which no one is really right as there are so many ways to play the game.
Today this particular mate and I were discussing poker as we normally do daily as he is a avid fan also and we got on to the topic of ROI’s which eventually lead to this quotable remark. Mate “I think it would eb easy to get an ROI of over 20% in sngs” … Automatically my prop bet senses were tingling which led to a prop bet of 500 on him not getting a 20% @ $1 sngs over 1k games. While it is very possible to get a 20% roi at these stakes there are 3 things that make this easy money for me, ill let the court decide weather my money is safe or not

Exhibit A: he only 3 tables so I figure he is going to get board of grinding and give up- I feel the chances of this are about 70 – 80 %

Exhibit B: his blatant refusal to learn about the game and take advice (he is a very good tournament player but as I found out you cannot play sngs like MTTs) I feel this is going to be his undoing and this is where the lock is

Exhibit C: His tendency to tilt badly (I have seen him go from playing a couple of 10 and 20 dollar MTTs and then proceeds to fire up a  $109 MTT because he copped a massive beat on one of the other ones and wants to get his money back)

While I hope he does succeed as its always nice to see a mate do well, I think he has bitten a Tad more off then he can chew.

As it stands he has played 21 games and is currently sitting on a -11% roi  J

You can follow his progress on sharkscope – top fi5ve on pokerstars

Gbmitch

I think if you ever want to achieve you need goals and milestones to keep you motivated and focused so I decided it was appropriate to make some goals for the short medium and long term. I will be keeping a track of the progress every time I post at on the blog

Now to the goals

Short term: next 2 months

After 500 games @ 5 and 10 sng to be in profit

Study 5+ hrs a week

Watch At least one training video a  week on cardrunners or SNG Grinders

Post on blog at least twice a week

I feel to be profitable and make decent cash playing online I need to be ahead of the game so to speak. Which means study study study. I feel 5 hrs is achievable and if it means sacrifices an hour or 2 of game time so be it. I also feel I have to add the blogging goal as I am a tad lazy when it comes to writing and I know I can achieve it if I put my mind to it.

Medium term Next 6 months

Play 1000 games @ $10 with an roi of over 9%

Cash over 1k in  a single MTT

Take shots at 20BI sngs

Long term Next year Onwards

Play $50 BI MTTS and have be +roi

Have an roi of 20+ on $10+ Sngs

Make the top 50 in Australia on pocket fives

Play one major live Main Event

I feel the majority of these goals I should be able to achieve comfortably, there a couple that are a stretch but hey should you gotta aim big .

GBMITCH