from "Tweets from @CharlesHORSE"

CharlesHORSE Lukas aka LasagnaRIP

Playing in FeltStars WSOP Grand Final: 70 entries = 2 Main Event packages + 3 cash awards. "You don't say good luck / You say #dontgiveup" http://fb.me/RMuL28ai

10 hours ago via Facebook

Lukas aka LasagnaRIP 

@CharlesHORSE  Skid Row, Montreal

Wading through streams of consciousness, on the unrelenting pursuit of unthinking fish. Life can be understood as 1 long gamble 2 gain immortality... #POKERTIPS

http://charleshorse.wordpress.com/

Pulled an Oberstad: won HU SNG mavericking my holecards!

http://charleshorse.wordpress.com/2011/03/05/pulled-an-oberstad-won-hu-sng-mavericking-my-holecards/

Minefield Dilemma

http://charleshorse.wordpress.com/2011/04/03/minefield-dilemma/
Everest 50K Freezeout, approx 440 entries. Busted out in approx 200th place. Details:

Blinds 150/300. This table has not broken since play began: I have reads on all my opponents. Most are passive and seem like satellite entrants. For most of the tournament, the loosest one at the table was a fish on my immediate left; he recently busted out (giving his chips to the tricky player on my right) and was replaced by a new player. Over a very small sample, I have already observed him defend his BB and stick around vs the button on a “raisers flop”, as well as float another flop with only backdoor draws, barrel a blank turn into multiple opponents and check back river when he caught showdown value with a pair: This player, who unfortunately covers my chip total by a small margin, seems to be aggressive and understand position. The player in the BB is very tight and more than doubled me up last orbit when I limp-called his late position all-in squeeze from UTG, holding QQ vs AK; he is now the table shortstack.  I have shown very few hands, mostly premiums, so I should have a rather tight image. (It may be relevant to note that I had also doubled up on the first hand of the tournament by limping UTG with 65s.)

I am dealt QQ. The bigstack folds UTG and I am next to act. My stack contains approx 32BB, which is above average for the table. In a “minefield format” competition such as this, I always feel a dilemma when holding a big hand in early position. I tread a fine line between sticking to the standard opening strategy for value (this works best vs the decent players) and setting traps for the volatile and/or inexperienced players who are willing to pay me off with their dead money. Several stacks are currently in the 12-20BB range and probably looking to shove over a raise or a limp. I feel that if I limp, feigning weakness, it is possible that someone may try to isolate me from the consequent parade of limpers-behind (maybe even the shortstack BB player); however, the fact that I just executed that move makes it less likely to catch anyone by surprise this time. It would also be a tragedy if no one takes the bait and the action is never opened.

I decide to raise to 900, hoping to confuse my observant opponents by playing it straightforwardly. This way I can still get all the chips in against anyone who spastically shoves an ace or a pair in an attempt to double up. To my surprise, the new guy on my left reraises all-in for just over 10K chips (from UTG+2); placing everyone else all-in who still has cards. The action folds around to me. Not believing I am beat, but somewhat upset at having passed up the chance at a lower-variance outcome, I make the call for my remaining ~8700 and lose a race for approx 20th place chips. Safe flop, killer turn.

What happened in the Mutiverse… He might conceivably have folded if I had elected to limp-reraise, though probably not. I would never have merely limp-called if he had made a standard raise, so we would still have raced. The only other way to win the pot was if my open had been cold-called, allowing me to c-bet my overpair; but not even that is guaranteed since some players never fold Big Slick post-flop.

"Story of My Life"

Richie is Montrealed out!

Here's a post I made on P.Savvy and 2+2 titled Chronic C-betting

Chronic C-Betting

Hi my name is Jungstar and I have a C-betting problem. When playing MTT's I used to C-bet almost 100% of the time against up to 3 callers. Recently I have toned it down a bit and I obstain from C-betting on middling flushy flops; ex:9T7 as I reali'ze that this type of flop hits so many hands that would call a raise in the 1st place. Any flush or str8 draw can check raise me off my hand. I've been known to raise pre-flop a fair bit especially if I have 50+ BB's in which case I will raise 2-2.5x w a pretty wide range of cards from any position. At the stakes I play (20-30$ buy-ins) if my table is overly tight and get scared once I continue raising and C-betting It seems they're strategy is to wait for a big hand to flat with, knowing that I will C-Bet. In this case I proceed very cautiously and check back a lot more flops especially broadway cards. Plz. note that I play on a lot of European sites; Ongame, Ipoker etc. where ppl. call pre F. pretty wide so C-betting and second barreling often becomes more advantageous as opposed to say Full Tilt or Pokerstars. If I raise w/ Ax from the High Jack on FullTilt and I get called by two ppl. should I check the flop if it comes say:KJx

orKQx? when should I try a delayed C-bet on the turn? When should I be checking my A down for showdown value? What if I raise w/ a speculative hand like67 and the flop comes:TA2 or should I just give up? I kow that every situation is unique, but generally speaking what is a good percentage to C-bet? I'm sure I C-bet 90+% (no exact stats), I believe somewhere closer to 80-85% would be better. When I watch the P.Savvy pros playing Mtt's it seems they talk a lot about pot control and while they often raise it seems that they don't C-bet unless they have good reason i.e.the fl op only has one high card or they have some type of draw, or a specific read, or HUD stat.

I need to exercise better pot control, PLZ HELP!

P.S. I also like to lead out with draws , when should I check and see a free card as to avoid getting raised off my hand.

Jungstar

Percent chance of no overcard, flop:

• K,K – 77%

• Q,Q – 59%

• J,J – 43%

• T,T – 31%

• 9,9 – 21%

• 8,8 – 13%

• 7,7 – 08%

• 6,6 – 04%

[Ed. note: In other words, chance of holding top-set or an overpair, after flop.
Never hurts to keep these numbers in mind]

from "Tweets from @CharlesHORSE"

@CharlesHORSE Lukas aka Coolhands

Came ridiculously close to my largest score yet http://fb.me/RMuL28ai

30 Jan via Facebook

Lukas aka Coolhands

 @CharlesHORSE Casino de Montreal

...Wading through streams of consciousness, on the unrelenting pursuit of unthinking fish. Life can be understood as one long gamble to gain immortality...

Nasty river: 15K GTD final table

This guy Vanje was the only LAG left in the final few tables. He had accumulated tons of chips, raising close to 50% of hands, against an extremely tight field comprised mainly of Broomcorn's Uncles.

When he limped in, I elected to complete my SB with J♦T♦; then immediately shoved around Quadruple-Pot, preferring to take it down on the J♦9♥8♥ flop than to race. My holding was favored against almost all plausible holdings (even big overpairs, in case Vanje happened to be trapping). 

True to a loose nature, he tanked briefly and called with K♥5♥, the very top of his "limp/chase-down" range. It turns out to be nearly a perfect break-even chip decision: calling off ~20K to win ~28K is equivalent to 42.2% pot odds. Whether or not it was a smart move to jeopardize so many chips on a draw - that is a question I leave to the endgame theoretical gurus... He decided to "roll the dice" with his chip leadership and 43% equity in the hand, hoping (possibly praying) to destroy me, which I will take as a compliment.

Just another one of those nasty rivers!

A week in the life of a low stakes tournament player pt. 2

P. Stars, Ongame and Everest

(these tourneys were also played during the week of Jan. 6th-13th )

hrs. played: roughly 35


P.Stars: 12$ (45 man turbo) 6.50$ (45 man turbo) 12$ (180 man turbo)

23 games played 20 games played 2 games played

276$ in buy-ins 130$ in buy-ins 24$ buy-ins

wins: 32$ wins: 0$ wins: 0$

profit: -244$ profit: -130$ profit: -24$


Total profit on P.Stars: -418$
...........................................................................................................................................................................

Ongame: 54$ (ticket) Aussie Daily 3,000$ gntd. (76ppl.) X

8$ rebuy turbo qual. to 54$ ticket (15$ spent) X

11$ qual. to 108$ tick. X

11$ 2,000$ gntd +9$ W

11$ turbo 30 man X

11$ turbo 30 man X

11$ turbo 30 man X

8$ qual. to 54$ tick. won a 54$ tick. W

22$ doublestack SH 4,000$ gntd. X

6 x 11$ turbo 10 man: +2$ W

54$ (tick.) 1,600 gntd (37ppl.) X

10$ rebuy 31$ (3,000$ gntd) X

11$ qual. to 108$ tick. X

8$ qual. to 54$ tick. X

22$ turbo (210 ppl) X


Total buy-ins: 238$ Total wins: 11$ Total profits: -227$
...........................................................................................................................................................................

Everest:

11$ 1,000 gntd. +130$ (3rd place) W

22$ 1,000 gntd. X

11$ qual. to 108$ tick ( 50,000$ gntd.) +108$ tick. W

Total buy ins: 44$ Total wins: 130$ and a 108$ tick. Total profit: +86$ and a 108$ tick.

............................................................................................................................................................................

Total profit for all sites ( refer to pt.1 ) Merge, P.Stars, Ongame, and Everest: -473$ + a 108$ tick.

A week in the life of a low stakes tournament player

Jan. 6th-13th

I tried to keep track of the # of hours I played during this week, but unfortunately I forgot to log this info on a session or two. I did however record every single tourney that I played during this week.

-Estimated # of hours played: 35hrs
-# of times I felt sick to my stomach as a result of screw ups: roughly 4

OK here's my list of tourneys played and subsequent results ( I will make different posts for each network)

Merge: Nightowl 22$ (145 ppl) 3rd place (+278$)
Nightowl 22$ (151) X
5$ rebuy 15$ (227)X
10$ turbo rebuy 30$X
16$ bounty (+24$)
16$ 1,250$ gntd. X
16$ 1,500$ gntd. SH X
16$ 2,750$ gntd X
22$ Nightowl X
11$ rebuy 3,500$ gntd. 41$ X

Total buy-ins 196$ Total profit: 82$

He had a good point

[You see Hubert, there's an unnaturally jubilant muppet hot on your tail.]

He had a good point - Don't Worry About The Mule...

PHRGuySmiley123:

yall dodged a massive bullet tonite

imME7227:

later bum

PHRGuySmiley123:

til next time. again - AA and disconnect . discuss

imME7227:

theres a reason ur out dont lose ur money save it 4 ur crap connection

PHRGuySmiley123:

i love you

imME7227:

sweet

PHRGuySmiley123:

This typical Merge Network USA-resident dingle-dick with the scientifically-engineered tilting avatar made a good point and received his syrupy reward.

Earlyish-on, with 1200ish chips, a loose image, 5 limpers and a raiser to 155, having woken up with AA in late position and tanked while deciding whether to make it 420 or 500ish; with a streaming Kaytradamus high-quality MP3 coming to completion thus necessitating a switch, having decided on the former bet size - and clicked - precisely then, with 40% of my stack committed and the action unclosed, did my computer crash.

After rebooting, immediately upon my re-seating, I received the above saltiness, following a scolding from "imME7227" for typing during a hand. (He'd already folded, I might add.) I promptly shoved 750 chips over some limpers, got called by some hero's 9♣7♣, and was rudely forced out of the 3K NightOwl in my attempt to climb somewhere above the starting chip amount...

¡That table dodged a massive bullet, by Great Odin's bearD!

2011.01.11 1:35am

1st would have been nice...but 3rd is better than a kick in the teeth....

Hubert Selby takes 3rd again in Merge's 3k gtd Nightowl