Finishing off the month

Had a tournament and a cash game tonight at my house. The tournament ($20 buy in) was won by Fesi and Smitty came in second. After the tournament we had a cash game. For the first hour I sat out and just dealt. After we had food I sat into the game and took my $50 to $260 in a little over an hour.
Had a good run of cards and was able to get the most for my money. Once I got up big I was able to make some more moves that are just not able to be made with $50. One of these moves is the straddle. The straddle is when you double the big blind and your bet becomes live. This means that while other players still get to act you have the option to check or raise when the action gets back to you.

Anyway, tonights $190 win puts me out of the hole of that $240 loss and puts me at $560 even for the month. Easily my best month of the year. I can only hope that December brings more opportunity (as I am sure it will) and that I can cash in not only the TOC but the first events of Season Two.

Main Event Final Day

Congrats to Tom Ford for winning the main event. A second congrats to mike smith for being someone who went from not even playing in the tournament to showing up as a last minute replacement and coming in second.

There were many notable hands, most of which I can mention tommorow in another update, I am kinda tired right now...

One hand I must mention before I go to bed has to be the bluff into the empty pot by Dave Spector against moose.......

PURE INSANITY....

we obviously dont need to get into that...


Anyway the whole substitute thing worked out i guess and became much less of a problem compared to what it could have escalated too.

Anyway the TOC is set and I will be writing up on that soon..

As far as me playing in cash games I have played in 3 since the last update. First night I lost $240, second night I won $60, and the third night I won $100. more on this later...

Im tired so im gonna sleep now

What bulls poop out...

Six tournaments.
Six well planned well run tournament.
and now this.
Before you continue reading this I am going to mention that I am bitter about not being in the tournament, but it has no effect on the following. I also want most of you two know I speak this because no one else will (and believe me many share my opinions) and because no one else is a bigger loser enough to have a blog.

First lets talk about the situation, then we will get to the facts.
The situation is that Moose is still in the Main Event. He signed up for the main event knowing that if he made it to day two he would have to be ready by 3:00 to play. He asked off work early(2:00) so he could be ready for it. Now he comes to find out that the tournament is at 12 on friday. On the other side of the situation. Brandon signed up for the tournament knowing he would not be able to play friday. Brandon makes it to friday and has a sub. Chris Kelly is the sub. This has nothing to do with brandon actually, it has everything to do with Frank. The problem here is that while Brandon has a sub(of his choice), Moose does not get to have his first choice sub(Me). Why?

Why?
The reasoning here is obviously influenced by skill of the substituion, but first we will get into the excuse.
The excuse is that since Chris Kelly had not participated in the tournament he is a usuable sub.
First off, there is no such thing as a sub.
But if it should be allowed, the only person not able to sub would be someone IN the tournament. Not someone knocked out of the tournament.

Here is the influenced reasoning.
1. Brandons stack isnt that big so it wont matter.
2. Chris Kelly isnt that good of a player so it wont matter.
3. Greenbeans are cool, Chris Kelly might possibly like them so he can sub. Thats right, green beans are cool.
4. Mesisca is too good, so he cant play.
5. Since mesisca is too good, god forbid he gets a second chance in the tourny since we screwed mooses schedule over.

So, all in all we have bullshit bullshit bullshit.

Here are the facts.
Moose got screwed
Mesisca is good
Chris Kelly is bad
Tournament is fuckkkkkkked
Mesisca is still bitter about JJ vs 66
Mesisca has a problem with poker


IF YOU AGREE WITH THIS POST AND THAT I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PLAY UNTIL MOOSE SHOWS UP (IF CHRIS KELLY PLAYS) I want you to respond to this with a comment that says HELL YES MESISCA and your name

Main Event Day 1 take

11 for 16 isnt that bad?
Anyway, my take on day one was that mostly everyone was playing extremely tight.
I guess the fact that it was franks biggest tournament with the biggest buy in and biggest prize pool got everyone to try and play tight. Anyway, I hung around 5000 after i lost with a straight to a higher one. After that my AK hit nothing three times and i was lingering around 3000. Blinds got bigger quick and went all in and doubled up twice to up over 10000. Lost two big hands and dropped back down to around 3000. When I finally decided to go all in with JJ my stack was at 3400. Lost to 66 and there goes the tournament. Another couple of All in stories I heard were Goldbergs KK all in preflop loss to Brandons AA. As well as Fesi's A9(?) loss to mooses Queen Ten...
Suprise of the day:
easily is Smitty going from not even in the tournament to showing up and playing his game taking the day 1 chip lead.
Since i dont feel like seriously considering anything..
My pick for the final FOUR is:
Two Favories: Randy and Mike
Two Sleepers: Cook and Nick

Main Event Predictions

After looking at both heats I see that as far as playing styles are concerned they have been well spread throughout each heat and table.
In this post I am going to analyze each table by player types as well as my predictions for who will advance to the final day...

HEAT ONE
Table 1.
Jon Kilgus, Matt Mesisca, Bill Augustine, Matt McGovern, Nate Bucther, Tim McGovern, Matt Dariao.
In my opinion this is definitly the hardest table of the 4. The reason for this is 4 of the 7 players have been playing together for years. This table is probably also the loosest table as well. My predicitons for the players who advance(ordered based on chip stack at end of heat)
1.Matt Daraio
2.Matt McGovern
3.Matt Mesisca
4.Tim McGovern

Table 2.
Frank Busillo(?),Jason Ronka, Mike Amoriello, Brandon McDonald, Randy Singer, Steve Goldberg, Pat Russo.
This table is difficult as well showing that Heat One is definitly the more difficult heat. This table is loaded with post-flop players, where as table 1 is more pre-flop players. By this I mean that this table will have much more action post flop, while there will be much more raising pre-flop at table 1.
My predicitons for the players who advance(ordered based on chip stack at end of heat)
1.Randy Singer
2.Frank Busillo
3.Brandon McDonald
4.Steve Goldberg

That ends heat one and now onto heat two.

HEAT TWO
Heat two looks much more aggressive than heat one.
Table 1.
Tom Ford, Dirk Convery,John Gladden,Rob Fesi,Rob Groves,Pat Tadley(Mike Smith?),Sean Cunningham.
For me I dont know two of the seven players but I do think this table will be aggressive. Especially if Mike plays in Pat's spot.
My predicitons for the players who advance(ordered based on chip stack at end of heat)
1.Rob Fesi
2.Dirk Convery
3.Pat Tadley
4.Rob Groves

Table 2.
This table means more about position play than any other in my mind. On one hand you have the tightest player in the tournament, and on the other you have the most aggressive player in the tournament both at the same table. Thats right, Rick Finner and Chris Cook....

Ok you know who I am really talking about but here are my predicitons.
My predicitons for the players who advance(ordered based on chip stack at end of heat)
1.Nick Formelio(yes he is my cousin, but I think he will win because of his position)
2.Chris Cook
3.Dave Spector
4.Dustin Nolan

Those are my predictions and you can catch all the live updates from The Main Event
HERE = http://s14.invisionfree.com/Franks_Poker_League/index.php?showtopic=9

Finally, a Real Cash Game in Jersey

So last night we got a 5-handed game together of $1/$2 NL Hold'em. Everyone at the table bought in for $50. Took me about 1 hour before my stack really changed. I was down to $15 and got all the money in with 66 and more than doubled up. After that I started a "rampage" of sorts and got my stack up over $200. I won $200 on the night and can only recall one hand worth talking about. There was one hand on the night where I think I made two big mistakes. I in the Big Blind with A5hearts. Fesi raised it to 7(or 8) and I called. Someone else called so now there is around 21 in the pot. Flop comes T 9 4 hearts. I check to Fesi who bets 7. Now its just me and him heads up. I call. Turn comes Ten, I check and Fesi checks. River comes blank and I check again and Fesi checks.
My first mistake in this hand was not checking the flop, but failing to raise Fesi's bet when only me and him were in. Min-raising his bet here is not a bad play. This was my biggest mistake. On the turn when the ten hit my check was OK because i was hoping the Ten gave him trips and he would bet it out. I figured he did not flop two pair or a set because he only bet $7 so when the Ten hit I was not afraid of the full house. Fesi checked behind me. This is where my next big mistake comes. Checking behind me obvioulsy meant he didnt hit the ten. He wouldnt have given me a free card with three hearts on the board if he had hit trips. So when the river comes and its not a heart, and I dont check, thats big mistake number two. I should either sucker-bet the river or make a pot sized bet to make it look like I may have missed my flush draw and now am left with A-high.
That win puts me up over $600 in the past 30 days. I am on a great run and can only expect to cash in Franks Main Event on Wednesday.

Drexel poker and upcoming Tournaments

On Wed. night I played in the .25 .50 game at Van R. I was thinking about playing at the $1/$2 but i didnt get my project done till 10 and that game started at 9. Since I didnt want to be short-stack($100) and i didnt feel so great I decided not to go. Thats one of the key things I have learned. Pick your spots. If you dont feel well or your tired, or maybe you have a headache, why bother trying to play if your going to be playing under 100%. So I went to the .25/.50 and decided to play my game, none of that calling preflop with 86o because "Dust would play it".
I won $25 in that game but the only reason I want to bring it up is one hand came up where it was three way and I had AA and another player had JJ and another player had KK. We were 9-handed and the KK eventually won hitting a K on the turn. But that isnt my beef, in fact, I dont have a beef at all.
The reason I bring this up is because sometimes people are afraid in a tournament to call two all-ins in front of them with KK. So I have a little number for you. That number is 22. I say 22 because it takes 22 times for you to be dealt KK that another player at a 9-handed table will have AA. 22:1 is the odds for that. Thats just my number of the week/or day/or month or basically until i have another number for you guys.
I also plan on responding to situational questions for any hand situation you may have played. Meaning, if you played a hand and remember it and want to know if you played it right or could have done better either post it in the strategy section of the South Jersey Poker Forum, email it to me maheha@comcast.net or leave a comment on my most recent post with the question. I will respond to questions immedietly and hope i get some good ones.

"Caught By The Dog Catcher" and Losing the Tourny

First, the new poker quote as you rake down a pot...
"Caught by the dog catcher"
thats right, instead of "pass the sugar", use that.
The story behind it is simple, it was a cash game (Omaha hi/lo) and Smitty and Dustin went all in no look preflop for somewhere around 10-20 bucks. Dustin had all low cards and mike had JJQT. The flop comes A 4 9 and dustin starts the verbal assault on mike, "all the low cards" "i got the low cards", the turn is a T and the river is a K and mike makes the nuts and there is no low. Dustin, stunned, just sits back into his chair and mike starts shaking his hands around the chips in the pot and rakes them in saying "Caught by the dog catcher, dustin got caught by the dog catcher"

Second, Saturday cash game results and Franks Poker Tournament #6.

On saturday we had a short handed holdem game going at dustins, four handed and it lasted about two hours. I lost $50. Then we went to mikes and I won $140 ending up $90 for the night. Sunday was franks tournament. I was excited going into the tournament because I enjoy short-handed play and it was the largest field frank has ever had.
I hung around 7000 in chips after getting up to 10000 early on while there were still 4 tables. I hadnt made a move at all really until i picked up my first big pocket pair (AA) and got a caller (Frank) and the flop comes 8-high, Frank goes all in and I call almost instantly and he shows 99. After that I steamrolled my way to the final table. I had over 100000 in chips before i even got to the final table. At the final table to my suprise were 5 people (two people went out on same hand before we merged), and 4 of them came in my car. I drove Dustin, Fesi, and Tim and all four of us ended up at the final 5. Pretty amazing I think. Anyway, it ended up being me and Dustin in the final two. So we made a deal. Since i had him over 2:1 in chips i would get first place money(210) and he would get the second place money(118) and then we would proceed to play all-in no look face up until one of us won. The winner of this all-in blind finish would win 1st Place/TOC entrance/Player Points. Dustin won twice in a row and took down the tournament. I was extremely pleased with my play as well as the rest of my car. I feel bad that all three sharks didnt make the final table, but Dariao drew a tough card by having to sit immedietly to my right twice in this tourny.

ALSO.
I want to make note of a rule that I made a decision on today that now i find out was wrong. It happened when kilgus called a penalty on Dave Spector(? i think) when Dave showed both of his cards heads up when Kilgus was not all in. My ruling was that while you are allowed to show one(Taj rule) you are not allowed to show both cards unless the tournament is heads up, or the tournament is a winner take all tournament, or if no more moves can be made and a player is all in. However, when I checked the "apparent" poker rulebook, the ruling is that there is a penalty but the hand is not declared dead. What this means I assume is that the penalty would be decided upon by the tournament director(and/or assistant director) Since there are no time penalties in franks tournaments the penalty I decided was that the hand is dead. Now that I think about it I dont think I was wrong in my decision considering that that is really the only penalty, and since he didnt call the bet yet he wasnt losing his call and then his cards were dead... Now the real question is in the rulebook it says there is a penalty for showing one or all cards. Maybe I should have been penalized for showing one card as many times as I did. But since frank is the tourny director and he doesnt have a problem with it I still dont see a problem with it.

After franks I played a couple small $5 tournies at mikes and won the one of them putting me up $90(mike cash game SAT.) + $190(franks tourny) + $30(mikes tourny) = $310 for the weekend. Not bad at all.

Right now I feel I am playing some really good poker and I expect to cash in Frank's Main Event.I hope the Stratford Sharks have another strong showing there as well. Dustin's first weekend as a Stratford Shark brought him in over $250 as well, and im sure there will be more where that came from.

The Empty Pot Rule

Most experienced poker players already know about this rule, its just that they don’t see it as a rule, they see it as common sense. The reason for this is because most “seasoned” poker players are always aware of pot odds and the size of the pot.
Here is where the empty pot rule comes into play. We have all been in the situation before, its 3-handed or more and the shortest stack in the hand is all-in. Now after the players have called the all-in, the main pot I separated because there is no more money that all-in player can win. This creates a side pot. More times than not, this side pot is empty.
This is where the pot odds come in. Say there are 3 people in the hand, one guy is all in for $25 bucks. You have $50 left in front of you and the other guy in the hand has $50. The flop comes K J 4 rainbow. You hold QT. Your opponent bets into this empty pot $20 dollars. What do you do… Fold, even if you hold AJ, fold. Even if you hold a four flush, fold. You opponent obviously has a strong hand (or a mental difficulty) because he has just made a $20 bet into an empty pot. Your “pot odds” are 1:1 in this empty pot meaning you must be %100 sure to make money. Of course, if you beat your opponent and the all-in guy you make more money than your odds told you, but you cannot have the best hand with a medium pair or draw. There are three possible reasons that your opponent is betting into the empty pot.
He is trying to get you to fold to improve his odds against the all-in guy.
He is bluffing and doesn’t realize what he has done.
He has a legitimate hand and wants you to call his bet.
The chance of #2 being a reason decreases with the experience of your opponent.
The chance of #1 being correct obviously depend on the reading ability of your opponent and the size of the main pot.
The chance of #3 being correct are much more than #1 or #2 because of the fact that he bet to win no guaranteed money.
So next time you have to decide if your pocket Jacks are good on the flop of K 4 5 and your opponent has just bet into an empty pot, lay it down…

-Matt Mesisca

Long time.....

since my last update. Anyway, alot has happened but as far as large sums of money are concerned, I have really only played once for over $20 buy in. The ending result is down $20. This was a small cash game with 5 of us playing holdem and some S.H.O.E. towards the end, i took some bad beats and eventually lost my buy in.
A couple of weeks ago I played in franks 5th tournament. It has been awile since frank has had a tournament so I was pretty excited. Frank had changed up the game this time, we played Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. Going into the tournament I was pretty confident that I would cash based on my experience playing Hi/Lo as compared to the rest of the players. We got a total of 11 players and I scooped enough pots to get me to the final table. At the final table of 8 players Pat Russo ran the entire table over taking out 4 players on his own. After Pat took out three players that left 4 of us in the tournament with 3 getting paid. Me, Rob Fesi, Pat, and Brandon. Rob was the short stack and ended up nearly blinded out, when he went all in Pat, with his huge stack managed to make an easy call and take him out. Me and brandon had close to the same amount of chips and Pat had a pretty big lead. Pat was playing pretty tight but took some beats in very large pots where he had a straight and lost to a flush or had a flush and lost to a full boat. Me and brandon chopped away at Pat's stack until he was out of the tournament.
The one key hand I remember from heads up play is when I called a pot raise from brandon pre-flop with A24T double suited. The Flop Came A 5 3 and i checked and brandon bet the pot, i reraised the pot, and he called... The turn was a 9, and there is no flush possibility. I bet the pot instead of checking and brandon had to fold. Despite me not making the most money this was the cruicial hand that left brandon crippled and he was unable to make a comeback.
I won the tournament securing me a seat in the Tournament of Champions. Not only that but the win puts me atop the player points leaderboard(not that it matters that much). I think frank's tournaments are great and I am glad he is so commited to running them.
I am excited for the next tournament on the 13th because it is short-handed holdem 6 man max tables, and there will be 4 tables. I am happy to see this event filled up so quick and I am excited to see the turnout for the main event.

Well thats all for now, until my next large cash game i probably wont update until after the tournament on sunday.

P.S. click on that google link and help me make some money...