Twitter Poker Tour #TPT

Last night I was able to play in the #TPT (www.twitterpokertour.com). I had not played for a very long time because of work or being at the lake. The TPT is a weekly poker tournament that was started by a group of poker players and blogers. It has grown from the first one that I believe had about 20 players to a regular weekly group of about 40. They alternate between Poker Stars and Full Tilt online sites. The cost is $5 plus .50. Standings are kept on the website from above. I really enjoy these tournaments. The players over all take them very serious. The play is as close to live play as you can get online. Of course you still get all the usually online shake your head hands. Last night was a classic example of online at it's best. I started the night playing very tight. I was working on my standings for my bar games and playing a free roll stud hi-low at the same time. More about the freeroll later. I started with 1500 in chips and soon had it up to 3000. I finished all my work and my freeroll and started to pay more attention to the TPT. I hit that point in online when my big hands were not hitting flops and players were reraising me. I was now down to 2000. I don't remember the exact hands but soon I was down to 300 chips and was on my way out. We were down to three tables at this time. I got K-10 offsuit two hands before I was big blind, so I pushed in. I ended up with 3 callers. Flop came out 10-10-something. Nice! River was the fourth 10 so end up back above 1500. I then go on a monster card rush and win the next 5 hands in a row and move to second in chips on the table. We are now down to two tables and I get pocket 10's. I raise and am called. Flop comes A-10-5. I check hoping the other person has an ace. Sure enough they go all-in with A-K and I turn another 10 for quad 10's again. That's twice in less then a half hour with quad 10's. It is now the final table and the top 5 of 9 get paid. I am 5th in chips. I go card dead for a while. It's ok as I have enough chips to last for a while. We are now down to 6 (bubble time). My cards pick up again and I notice that everyone has really tighten up. I decide to get more aggressive. I am not playing junk hands, but I am raising with less then premium hands. It's a combination of good hands and tight play by the other players but I am able to double my chip stack by playing aggresive at the bubble. I did finally take out the 6th place person when I got top pair and he caught 2nd pair and called my putting him all-in. He must have thought I was bluffing. I am know in the money. The next two short stacks go fast once we hit the money. Down two three with one big stack and me and the other about even. Talk about a long three way. LOL! Blinds are getting high and the chips are passing back and forth. I go back and forth between 2nd and 3rd in chips. I lose most of my chips when I am forced to fold to what I am pretty was a staright on the river to beat me. I push all-in with ace small card and am called by big slick and lose. Out in third for a profit of $20. That is two stong showings in a row in TPT events. It's good because my Full Tilt account was getting low. Congrats to @widmayer on the win and to @General_pain on second. Well played to both. If you play online poker and belong to twitter come and play with us thursdays 8pm central time. Next week on Poker Stars. Now the freeroll, I normally don't play freerolls, but could not find another tournament to play. I like to play more then one tournament at a time. It forces me play tighter in th eearly rounds. I decide to play a 7 card stud hi-low on Stars. I remember why I don't play them. They are crazy. People sign up and play every hand in hopes that they get a big stack or they get knocked out right away. On top of that it is stud and half don't even know how to play. Needless to say I didn't last very long, but it did pass the time and help with my other tournament. It also reaffirmed what I have always thought. Lesson of the day! Don't play freerolls unless they are private!!!! LOL! Going to the lake this weekend with family more next week. Haved a great weekend all!

Post Memorial Weekend

I had to work the whole Memorial weekend. It's ok because my wife did also. It looks as if my new job will let me have everyother weekend off so my schedule will match my wifes. Yea! Just got back from a day at the lake yesterday. All weekend it was sunny and in the 70's yesterday it was cloudy and a high a 52 and very windy. The only good thing is the fish have finally moved into the shallows and I caught a lot of fish. I did have to wear a sweatshirt and an over coat to do it, but it was a good time. The good thing about post hoilday weekend is that we pretty much had the lake to ourselves. I will add some photos to the side wall for you to see some of the fish we caught or all of them are posted on my facebook account. I did get to play poker on Sunday. I was a half hour late because of work, but in my bar game that is ok. I laughing told the table that this was the most chips that I ever had after a half hour. I usually lose part of my stack trying to grow it. As usual I became a short stack right away and then managed a nice come back to finish 5th. Points but short of the prizes. I pushed in with a short stack in early position with K-Q suited and had 4 others go all-in or call behind my. LOL just what I wanted!!! The funny thing is I was ahead of two players who had K-9 and Q-9 offsuit and the other short stack with less then me had A-5 suited. Flop came out with a 9 and I did river a King to have the second best hand. LOL! That is what I get for pushing with a weak hand in early postion even when short stacked. Next chapter later this week.

Chapter IV Types of Players in Bar Poker

Types of players Bar poker draws a wide variety of players. From beginners to long time poker players, you will see it all if you play enough bar poker. These are of course generalizations and not always true. You will have to use your own powers of observation to see where someone falls. Beginner – Most beginners will tell you very quickly that they don’t know what they are doing. Most have basic poker knowledge, but have probably only played with people that they know. It is important that you are patient with them and make them feel welcome. You may even have to explain things to them. They will appreciate it and may come back again. They will tend to call with any hand and not raise when they hit a big hand. You must be very careful how you play against them. You want to acquire as many of their chips as possible without risking too many of your own. Remember they could have a big hand! They will tend to over play bad kickers, bottom or middle pair or straight or flush draws. Bluffing usually doesn’t work against beginners. You don’t need the nuts to play against them, but you should have at least a pair or a good draw to play with to be in a pot with them. If they ever raise, they most likely have a big hand so proceed with caution. Don’t be afraid to lay down a hand to a beginner. There will be other chances to get their chips. Seniors- Senior citizens tend to fall in one of two categories when it comes to bar poker. If they have grown up playing home games they tend to want to play a lot of hands and chase their draws. Most of the home games of the past were played as dealer’s choice with many of the games requiring more luck then skill. Players tended to stay in hand to hope and win a big pot. These players want action and will play a lot of hands. They will call bets until they hit a hand and then will raise. They are not afraid of calling off all their chips on a draw. If they are calling your bets and suddenly raise, unless you have the nuts, you are most likely beat. You must lay down big hands at this point or risk elimination. The other type of senior is very conservative. They tend to only play big hands. They have come to bar poker for socialization and want to play as long as possible. They will fold a lot pre-flop. When they do get a big hand they will tend to raise into an unraised pot or call if someone has already raised. If they hit the flop, they will bet or call a raise. Unless, you have a big hand, you must play very cautiously if this player is in the pot and be prepared to fold. You don’t want to risk your tournament to this type of player. This player is someone that you can get to fold their hands by being aggressive towards them. You should always raise their blinds if no one is in the pot before you. They will fold unless they have a big hand. You should always put out a continuation bet to this player. If they call, you must check the next card unless you improve your hand. Most times they will check and give you a free card. If you do not steal chips from this type of player someone else will. Women players (sorry ladies) Women bar poker players usually are there because of their spouse or significant others. Many times they only play to not be left out. They tend to fall into either the beginner or the conservative senior category. One thing to always be aware of is if their significant other gets knocked out. This will change how they play. They will be come more aggressive and even start to give chips away because they are also ready to go. They are good women bar poker players out there, so you need to determine quickly where she falls as a player and adjust your play accordingly. Intoxicated players – This may be the toughest player to play against. They tend to be hyper aggressive and annoying. They will play any cards. They will make outrageous bets and raises. They usually are the first ones knocked off of the table. You need to play hands with them and win get their chips before someone else does. Call the over bets with any pair. Get them all-in if you can. You will lose sometimes, but you will be rewarded more often. The only exception to this is once in a while this type of player will go on card rushes and catch with their any two cards. Then you must only play with big hands. This type of player is best dealt with in the early blind levels. That way you risk less by trying to knock this player out. Loose aggressive players – Every bar has a few of this type of player. These players believe that they can outplay you on any given hand. They rarely call and usually raise pots. They tend to bluff a lot and will show you that they bluffed. They make you want to call them, because you don’t believe they have a hand. This is a very difficult style to deal with because sometimes they do have a hand. You must be very careful with this player. They tend to accumulate a lot of chips early and then use their stack against you. They are also not afraid of being knocked out of tournaments and will make loose calls based purely on pot odds. They get themselves into this position, because they play a lot of pots. You only want to play big hands against this type of player. It is better to reraise this player preflop to let them know you believe you have a better hand then they do. You want them to fold. The longer the hand is played the more likely they are to improve their hand and beat you. They tend to go along way or get knocked out early in tournaments. This style allows a player a chance to win tournaments. The biggest downfall of this style is that if this player don’t change gears (their style of play) near the end as the blinds get high they will get knocked or crippled out by an all-in by a big hand. Tight aggressive players – this type of player is your average bar poker player. They have read a few poker books and play for the love of the game. They tend to not care as much about what they are playing for and more to improve their poker game. They tend to raise with big hands and call with lesser hands. They rarely play junk hands except in the blinds. They play solid position poker. They will always put out a continuation bet after raising. This player will fold their draws and their bad kicks. You can get this player to lay down winning hands. You must play aggressively against this style of player, yet you must know when to fold. If you don’t believe that this player has hit a flop and you are late position you should reraise this player to find out where you are in the hand. If they have nothing or a draw, most times they will fold. If they call you, you know that they have a good hand and you will probably have to lay your hand down. If they go all-in they probably have the best hand. They are not risk takers, so beware. This type of player makes it a long way in most tournaments. They usually make it close to what ever the prizes are. If they don’t change gears late in a tournament, they will rarely win.

Tuesday Poker and Fishing

I bubbled in my tuesday night game! LOL. It's only the second time that I have ever done that. I played well all night. Won the pots that I should have. Made the moves at the right time. Made the final table with about middle stack but still somewhat short as blinds are high.. One player to go to make points and the whole table has tighten up. There are two short stacks left and I am trying to ride it out but I am getting good cards and people are folding. I end up doubleing up the smallest stack , I called with suited connectors when I know it will be a check down. It is checked down only problem short stack #1 had best hand and won a big pot. Everyone folds to my big blind. I raise in small blind and BB folds. On button I have K-Q suited. BB is the next short stack. He has less then half a bet left. He will be all in as a fold will not give him enough for small blind next hand. Everyone folds to me.I am going to make a bet to put BB all-in but don't want SB to be in hand, so I push all-in. Small blind insta-calls. Damn!!! BB now folds as he make the money if I am knocked out. Small blind has KK. I am knocked out on the bubble. I was worried about getting heads up that I wasn't paying attention to SB. She has many tells and I would have easily known she had a big hand if I had been paying attention. Did I play the hand wrong? Yes and no. I wanted heads up but I should have paid more attiention to the other players. I just didn't think I would be knocked out. Lesson learned at least it was only for points in a bar game instead out at the casino for money, but I don't think I would have made the same mistake if it were for money. Went fishing yesterday (thursday). Damn I missed the #TPT again! What a beautiful day. 70 degrees and sunny with the fish bitting. I caught over 100 crappies and most were nice size. No big ones but several close to 1 pound. Poeple can be very rude when it comes to fishing. There are several boats around and I am catching more crappies then most. They are fishing with live bait and I am using tube jigs. Well pretty soon he come a boat. they pick up and move right to where I am casting. I feel like yelling what in the hell do you think you are doing! I am almost ready to go so I just cast someplace else and not worry about it. The funny thing is I kept catching fish and they caught hardly any. It was time for me to go, so I pulled up the anchor started the motor and drove right though where they were fishig. I hope they got the message. LOL

Great Weekend

It was a fun weekend. Went to the lake on Friday night after Debbie got off work. Saturday it was very cold, but we did manage to get our big boat in and the topper on our boat lift. Both were an adventure. Got to the boat landing and it didn't start right away. Just about had it and then battery went dead. I had brought a second so I hooked it up and it did work either. Went back to recharge the dead battery and then realized I had hooked the second one wrong. Went back to the landing and got boat in. Decided to put the cover on lift. It was very windy so I should have waited but did get it on. Took Debbie to town and went shopping. That always make her happy. It warmed a little during the day so I went fishing in the evening. I noticed a lot of baots all the way across the lake so I made the trip. Finally caught some fish. Sunfish were biting. Watched a guy hook into a big muskie with a fly rod. He fought it for about 15 minutes and called out if someone would come and help him. I was getting ready to pull the ancjor and go help him when his line broke. Fish was over 40 inches, a big fish. Sunday I got up early and headed across the lake again and found the crappies to be biting. I caught 7 to keep and threw back many more. It was a much warmer day, in fact it got to be close to 70 degrees. Debbie and I went out after lunch and she caught a crappie that was over a pound and a half. Nice Fish! I called a few people to see if anyone would run my Sunday night poker, but everyone was busy. We headed home about 4pm. It was a fun time at the lake, unfortunatly I forgot to bring my camera, so no photos. Sunday poker- I had a big turnout considering the weather. It was one of those nights for me. I was card dead the whole time. My two biggest hands were 3-3 and a-j and I was on a table with a lot of preflop action. It was a night for the chasers and the donkeys as the final table was full of players that are usually the first ones out. It did help to make the final table go fast because they don't know how to change their play when the blinds get high. The guy that won the casino buy didn't think he would be able to go, so I will buy it from him for half price. It will save me some money when I have to go and buy people in. I hope the people at the casino appreciate all the dead money that I bring to the tournament every 8 weeks. LOL! Chapter 4 later this week.

Busy Week

It's been a busy week. Week two of my new job. It is going better this week as I am learning how their system works. They open on Monday next week, so that will bring new challenges. I have had a good week of poker. Yesterday (Thurs.) I played in the #TPT and #TPT Europe. I won the #tpte tournament in the afternoon good for $27. I ran into a big hand in the evening was nocked pretty early. Tuesday in my live game I made the final table with 4000 in chips and blinds at 2000-4000. Lucky I drew the button and soon doubled up two hands in a row and then went on a heater and ended up 2nd. I lost patience in the heads up. I would win several small pots and then lose a big one. I finally called an allin with suited connectors knowing I was behind but live. I even caught but still lost. This moved me into the top 10 on tuesdays and that it what really matters on Tuesdays. I am heading to the lake after I play in my Friday bar game. I am goiing to take some more pictures this weekend. I hope the fish are biting. It's been a long spring with the cool weather. My new job is going to cut into the live poker playing. I should be able to play on Tuesdays, but the other two don't look good. Not only do I lose out on poker playing, but also the money from running them. Oh well. More next week!

Chapter III Rules of the game

House Rules Now that you have chosen your game and signed up to play, it’s time to get your chips and your seat. Most tournaments will have a random draw for seating and give you chips as you are being seated. If you are not sure ask when you sign up. Things to be wary of: Places that give you chips when you in sign or extra chips before seating. This is a place for cheating to take place and believe me cheating happens a lot in bar poker. Players may be able to bring in extra chips or chips they have saved from another week. If a player seems to have too many chips don’t hesitate to question someone. Places that allow you pick your own table. This can be especially tricky because you don’t want to be stuck on a table with a group of people that came together or play together regularly. It increases the change of cheating or calls made because it was you kind of situations. Look for a table where people are not talking to each other or just sitting quietly. Playing cards. Many establishments use the same equipment week after week. Make sure someone at the table either counts the cards or better yet put them into suits to make sure they are all there. Cards will become marked. If you notice a bad card, ask for a new deck. Most tournaments follow the TDA (tournament directors association) rules. You can find a copy of them online. Many of these rules maybe interpreted differently by different directors. If you ever have a questionable incident, call the Tournament Director over to make a ruling. Whatever they decide will stand whether right or wrong.

Online poker

I have not played any online poker for about 3 or 4 weeks. I needed sometime off and had not been doing well lately. I also wanted to test the theory that if I didn't play for a while that I would win when I returned. I started with a sit & go tournament on Absolute. It was a $2 - 10 person table. I pretty much ran over the table and won the tournament winning $9. I had big cards the whole time and hit most flops. Next I went to Poker Stars and played the $50,000 K rebuy tournament. It cost $5 plus .50. I didn't rebuy or add on. Start with 1500 in chips. It was incredible. I doubled up with in 3 hands when I caught a set with a small pocket pair. The rebuy period lasts for 1 1/2 hours. At first break, end of rebuy I had 15,000 in chips. I peaked at 50,000 in chips. It seems that as soon as you get a big chip stack that they break your table and you move to a table where you are third or fourth in chips. It is now getting close to the money. They paid 485 places with first place $7000 and cashing gets about $25. As soon as I hit the 50,000 my hands turned. I started not catching flops and having to fold to big raises or being out drawn by lesser hands. I managed to make the money and won $41. I guess that I had better take a few more weeks off and see if I will win money again. It helped me to reaffirm what I have always thought. If you play a lot of low limit online poker that you will at best break even over the long run or slowly lose your bank roll. I wish I had more money to test if it was the same if you played the higher limits. Well maybe someday. On a lighter note, it was a beautiful day yesterday, so i decided to do yard work. Mow and spray for weeds. My wife was working yesterday and wanted a treat when she got home so I decided to make cookies. So I put the cookies in set the timer and then outside to work on yard. One hour later I went on and remembered that I had put in cookies. LOL! It took me 4 hours to get rid of burnt smell. Oh well better luck next time!

Weekend

It was opening of the Walleye fishing season in MN this weekend. Millions of people hit the water and go fishing this weekend each year. I headed to my place on Lake Miltona. I went up on Thursday after work. It was a nice day, so I was hoping the panfish would have moved into the shallows. Unfortunatly it was still too cold for that. I fished for a couple of hours and then decided to go into town and see X-men. I thought it was entertaining, as good as the others. I could have went to Star Trek, but my son Kyle told me to go to X-men. When I got up on Friday it was raining and cold and the forcast was for more rain. I decided to go back to St Cloud and run my Friday bar game. The crowd was small because of fishing opener so I decided to play. I had never played in this game before. It is a crazy bar poker game with many bad poker players.On third hand of tournament, I took one player out and got most of anothers to almost triple up when I hit the nut flush and got a caller of my all-in bet. Blinds on Friday start at 25-25 with 5000 starting chips. The average preflop raise on my table was 500. LOL. The table I am on breaks and I head to my new table. I have won two hands in a row and am on a little heater. I am under the gun with 6-8 off and decide to limp in. I had just taken most of the chips from someone who only has 900 left with blinds at 300-600 and I think he will push all in. Two people behind me call. Short stack pushes all-in for 900. Small and big blind calls. Flop is 6-8-Q two hearts. Under the gun bets out for 2000. BB a loose player calls. I push all-in and have everyone covered. Two folds to original better, who thinks a long time and calls. Loose player wants to call but eventually folds. All-in has A-Q. Turn gives me a full house and I win a monster pot. I don't understand why A-Q didn't reraise to try and get heads up with other all-in. I would have folded. Thanks for the cheap flop and for being a bad poker player. I ended up 3rd and won a gift certificate. Then I headed back to the lake for the rest of weekend. Saturday was a better day weather wise but still a little cold. I didn't catch anything but didn't fish too hard. There were lots of boats out and they were all moving a lot so no one was catching naything. Went to bed early hoping Sunday would be warmer. Sunday was a nice day (Happy Mothers Day), but still no fish. I went to lunch with my mom and dad and then packed up to go home. It was early so I drove over to my parents house and took my dad fishing in his neighbors small inlet. I caught a few small sunfish and one crappie. At least I wasn't shut out for the weekend. Sunday is another bar poker game night. The quality of players is much better and I drew a table full of good players, as good as you get at bar poker anyway. It was an up and down night as the table was aggresive. There was a lot of reraising. I got put to the test a couple of times early. I limped in on the button with 7-9 off. I knew that the small and big blind would check. They always do. Flop was 6-7-8 rainbow. I floped middle pair with an open ended straight draw. It was checked to me, so I made a pot size bet. I got one caller. Turn was a five to give me a straight. Other guy bets out, I push all-in he calls. He has J-9. It looks like a split pot. I say no 10 as the dealer puts out a ten to give the other guy a higher straight. LOL. So ends my night of poker. it's too bad because I was playing well and think I would have went a long time in this tournament. Sorry for not playing the #TPT on thursday last week. Going to lake sounded better then playing online poker on such a nice weather day! Next chapter later this week.

Chapter II Choosing a game

Choosing a game Choosing where you play can be an important factor in bar poker. Do you want to get points to advance to another tournament or are you just looking for a one night evening out. If you choose to play in a league game, you will see smaller prizes, but with the chance of a bigger payoff later. Players tend to be playing to gain points so play will be much different then a non league game. Play will be aggressive early but will tight up as you get near the points. League games are the best for honing your skills and learning to read people because the same people tend to play each week. A weekly game with no points tends to have higher prize payouts, because they are not paying towards a bigger prize. These games can be very loose because you are only playing to win that evening. People will try and win a lot of chips early with the win big or go home attitude. The other important factor is blind schedule and lengths. Are you looking to play for the whole evening or just a couple of hours. Bars that run two games in one evening tend to have much shorter blind levels and start with fewer chips. In order for a bar to run a good game you need to start with at least 5000 chips starting at 25-25 or 25-50 if blinds levels are 15 minutes. If 20 minutes then 3500 chips should be enough. Many bars will offer incentives to players such as purchase minimums for extra chips or for arriving early. It is important that you try and take advantage of these incentives as you don’t want to start out short stacked on your table.

Back from the lake

I had a nice week at the lake. The weather was kind of cool most of the time and the fish have yet to move into the shallows, so this was more of a work trip then a fun outing. When I got there I soon realized that almost every one of last years cattails ended up on our property. LOL. Most people on the lake that I am on just wait until the wind is blowing a different direction and then just push them out. The problem with this is that they usually end up back on your shoreline. We have a small gully near our shoreline that we put them into as fill. Thay are not that hard to rack so I spent most of the first cleaning the shoreline. I have the blister to prove it. It was raining a lot the first night so I decided to drive to town and see if I could find a bar poker game to play. It was Wednesday and I used to run one at the Bowling Center bar Fat Daddy's so I tried there first and sure enough they still played. I had a beer signed up and waited to play. It was to start at 7pm. By about 7:15 I was wondering if it was every going to start but soon did. They used to play with the Free Poker Network, so I was familar with the blind structure. I got my 3000 in chips and headed to my table which was a round Sam's Club plastic table. No they didn't use poker tables. It sucks. It's hard to pick up the cards when playing like this. This blind structure requires you to accumulate chips fast. After a few hands I knew that it would be difficult. It was call, call and check. most hands had everyone on the table in preflop. I decided that I needed to raise a hand to see what would happen, I rasied to 4 times the blind and everyone on the table called, so raising was useless. I played almost everyhand the first hour and watched my stack go up and down. It was fun but not much poker was being played. I knew one guy on the table because he is a freind of my cousins. He got there about 45 minutes late and wa sposted and folded until he arrived. Lucky him! Anyway when I was getting my chips I noticed that some names had stars behind them on the sign up sheet. Then at the table I noticed that some people had ticket in front of them. I figured it was a bar thing and didn't think much of it. Then my friend arrived and he had gotten a drink at the bar but had not gotten his change. The tournament director brought it over to him and said not worry he had keep $5 and handed him a ticket. Ah ha! I never asked but did finally figure out that for $5 you could be part of a bounty that was run my the director. This is very illegal in the state of MN. You have to love small town bars why not just play for a buy-in. LOL. I did finally start to accumulate a few chips and then my kings got busted by 6-7 when he hit a staight on the river with me betting big all the way. That pretty much finished me off. I had a good time. It is always fun playing with new players. Back to the lake. I love this time of year. It is cool out and all the wild life is moving though. I will try and post some of the picture I took. There were pelicans, lots of different ducks, loons, birds, woodpeckers, wild turkeys and deer. The coolest thing is that we have a beaver on our proprerty this year. It was fun to watch as it would chop down small popple trees and strip the bark off the branches. I hope it hangs around for a while. Came back on Sunday to run my bar game. I am getting really tired of playing bar poker. It isn't the playing of poker, it's the playing poker with dumb people. I know that a little harsh but for those of you that play bar poker you understand. I guess I just need to go to the casino and play again but it's hard this time of the year. Go to casino or go to the lake? Lake usually wins out. I will put out the next chapter of my book later this week. I hope someone is reading it!