Is it really possible to lay down AA PreFlop?

Needless to say, this was initially a painful spot, but ultimately an "easy" lay down on the bubble of a satellite into the $535 Full Tilt $1M Guarantee tourney. I was #2 in chips of the remaining players. Even though this guy had shoved All-in several times in a row, I couldn't risk bubbling with such a deep stack knowing that there were plenty of 4k-ish short stacks. As I've shown in a previous post, AA in not invincible.

For the record, this is the first time that I've folded AA preflop, live or online, in my poker playing career. I've always wondered if I would have the discipline to make the correct decision. I guess I do.

FYI, I won a seat after the bubble burst five hands later.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 2: TheJunkie ($18,017) -
Seat 3: jvcuevas ($4,411) -
Seat 5: ShipITUPS ($14,447)
Seat 6: Rich Craft ($7,819)
Seat 8: juliotrimmer ($26,637)
Seat 9: StoliMan ($9,676) -


PRE-FLOP:

TheJunkie posts small blind $300
jvcuevas posts BIG blind $600
Dealt To: TheJunkie


ANTE TheJunkie ($75)
ANTE jvcuevas ($75)
ANTE ShipITUPS ($75)
ANTE Rich Craft ($75)
ANTE juliotrimmer ($75)
ANTE StoliMan ($75)
FOLD ShipITUPS
FOLD Rich Craft
RAISE juliotrimmer ($26562)
FOLD StoliMan
FOLD TheJunkie
FOLD jvcuevas
UNCALLED juliotrimmer ($25962)
MUCK juliotrimmer

juliotrimmer collected $1950 from main pot

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $1 Rake: $0

Seat 2: TheJunkie small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-375)
Seat 3: jvcuevas big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-675)
Seat 5: ShipITUPS folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 6: Rich Craft folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)
Seat 8: juliotrimmer collected 1,950, mucked - Net Gain/Loss: ($1275)
Seat 9: StoliMan button folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-75)


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

New Poker Rule

There should be a rule that certain hands cannot win vs. AA when the money goes all in PreFlop. LOL. Here's a hand on the bubble of a satellite into Full Tilts Monthly $1M Guarantee. We are down to 14. 13th gets $380 and the rest get the $535 buy-in.

Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Seat 1: UMWolverines ($12,107)
Seat 2: TheJunkie ($3,095)
Seat 3: get moola ($17,298)
Seat 4: BluEsq ($8,996)
Seat 5: bayne_s ($8,434) -
Seat 6: haveaniceday04 ($16,655) -
Seat 8: ChanH415 ($15,970) -


PRE-FLOP:

haveaniceday04 posts small blind $250
ChanH415 posts BIG blind $500
Dealt To: TheJunkie


ANTE UMWolverines ($50)
ANTE TheJunkie ($50)
ANTE get moola ($50)
ANTE BluEsq ($50)
ANTE bayne_s ($50)
ANTE haveaniceday04 ($50)
ANTE ChanH415 ($50)
FOLD UMWolverines
RAISE TheJunkie ($3045)
FOLD get moola
FOLD BluEsq
FOLD bayne_s
FOLD haveaniceday04
CALL ChanH415 ($2545)


FLOP:

Pot: $6690
   



TURN:

Pot: $6690
     



RIVER:

Pot: $6690
      



SHOWDOWN:
TheJunkie:

ChanH415:


ChanH415 collected $6690 from main pot with a full house, Fours full of Sevens

SUMMARY:
Total pot: $6 Rake: $0

Final Board:
     

Seat 1: UMWolverines folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 2: TheJunkie showed [Ah As] and lost with two pair, Aces and Sevens - Net Gain/Loss: ($-3095)
Seat 3: get moola folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 4: BluEsq folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 5: bayne_s button folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-50)
Seat 6: haveaniceday04 small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-300)
Seat 8: ChanH415 big blind showed [8d 4c] and won 6,690 with a full house, Fours full of Sevens - Net Gain/Loss: ($3595)
  


Free hand converter brought to you by CardRunners

Three New Additions to my Poker Library

This post is from my old blog back in March 2008:

If there was a competition for the largest library of unfinished poker books, I would win it, hands down. Over the years, I have accumulated a good number of "must read" poker strategy books, but have not completely read any of them. I have started most of them, but have rarely read past the first chapter or two.

Well, it has been a while since I have bought a poker book. There are a few on the horizon that I plan on adding to my collection. For example, Rizen, PearlJammer and Apestyles are working together to write a potential classic about online tournies. Daniel Negreanu is releasing "Power Hold'em Strategy" and Dan Harrington is releasing a couple of cash game books.

Recently, I decided that it was time to add to my collection. I settled on the three books that are listed below. The Sit'n Go Strategy and Professional Hold'em books are published by 2+2. They have a long history of producing very good poker books and both of these have good reviews. Professional Hold'em is a cash game book. I enjoyed the Kill Bill book and based on some good reviews, I expect Kill Everyone to be just as good.

Ideally, I would post my own review of these books, but given my history, it may be a while before I finish them. With that said, I have been reading the Sit'n Go Strategy book and really enjoy it. This will probably be the first book that I read from start to finish. I am about half-way through it. There are many good hand examples and a lot of good strategy discussion. Some of the strategy I have known based on instinct, but with the explanations in this book, I should be able to make the better decision more times than not. Hopefully after reading this book, I will be able to fine tune my style so that my results are less like a roller coaster and more of an upward climb.

Better Bankroll Management for 2008

This post is from my old blog back in February 2008:

One of the drawbacks that I have had in the past due to having a good paying job, is that I've developed EXTREMELY poor bankroll management discipline. I look at the big payouts of the bazillion MTTs available on Stars and FullTilt, then just buy-in or play many satellites without taking into account how the buy-ins effect on my bankroll.

"I can just reload if I hit a bad stretch."

Fortunately, I haven't had to reload often over the past 3 years or so, but that mentality is detrimental to building any kind of significant bankroll that makes all of this time that I spend playing poker, worth it. So, my #1 News Year's Poker Resolution is to develop and maintain sound bankroll management discipline.

The guidelines that I have adopted are those used by Chris Ferguson in his project to start with $0 and build it to $10k. Here are his rules:

* Never buy into a cash game or a Sit & Go with more than 5 percent of my total bankroll.
* Don't buy into a multi-table tournament for more than 2 percent of my total bankroll.
* If at any time during a No-Limit or Pot-Limit cash-game session the money on the table represents more than 10 percent of my total bankroll, I must leave the game when the blinds reach me.

Nothing ingenious, but very good rules to keep me out of trouble. I have actually used these rules for the past couple of months and it has worked out thus far. Along with following these rules, I have created a spreadsheet that tracks the fluctuations in my bankroll and the acceptable buy-ins. I update it after every day of playing poker and get a good visual of the changes in my bankroll.

If you have similar issues with bankroll management, I recommend that you try out Ferguson's rules, or something similar. And maintain some sort of spreadsheet to track your bankroll. Email me if you want a copy of mine.

I want to be a Sit-n-Go King

This post is from my old blog back in February 2008:

I think that I have found my poker niche, Sit-n-gos. Cash games are too boring for me and MTTs, which I love, are hard to maintain any kind of stable profits without winning. SnGs are relatively quick, I can gain a decent ROI and they allow me to use my favorite NL Hold'em weapon, "All-in", to beat on people. We'll, I have been reading a lot of posts on the major forums and watched a bunch of SnG videos from Cardrunners and PXF. All of this has taught me a lot, but I know that I have a lot of room for growth. Currently, I am grinding out the $11 turbos on FullTilt. I love turbos because we get into push/fold mode pretty quick. I am making money, but not nearly as much as I think that I can make. My goal is to be a regular $200+ buy-in SnG player by the end of 2008.

Well, I have decided to take my training a step further and hire a coach. I've bit the bullet and decided to work with Jennifear from pocketfives. She is a winning and respected low stakes SnG teacher. I contacted her the other day and we are scheduling my first lesson. She sent me an email that kind of blew my mind. She was able to dissect a lot of my known SnG leaks based on the stats from my play. I was impressed with her analysis. Anyway, here is a quote from the end of her email. Not sure if it was just her sales pitch, but I'll take it. LOL.

"I'm really looking forward to this. It's obvious to me that

- you love this game
- you are very good at this game
- you want to get better so you seek help
- you have the potential to be very very very freaking good

I can't wait to help you get there.

Jen"

That's 3 very's and 1 freaking, but who's counting.

Hello Poker World

Well it's time for me to take part in one of my other online joys that doesn't involve seeing flops, Blogging. I intend to keep this blog up-to-date as much as possible. Given that I play poker on almost a daily basis, I should have plenty of interesting hands and stories to share. Hopefully, you will be able to follow me as I successfully pursue my goal to get paroled from my cubicle prison.

Here is a scene from the best poker movie ever made, that summarizes the joy that you can only get from the felt.