Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Added money, small buy-in, big prizes

Chance to win big for a small entry fee

$22 buy-in, $350 added to the prize pool.

Whats more if you sign up via reading this blog, you can get your buy-in back.

Steps:
1) Download Pokerstars via any of the special links on Poker Verdict.
2) Open your account and deposit. Use the deposit bonus code "First2007" for a 100% bonus up to $50.
3) Email tourney@pokerverdict.com stating your new Pokerstars username and that you came via this blog. Customer service will give you the password to enter the tournament and will credit back your buy-in after the tournament is completed.

This only applies to new Pokerstars players

David aka "thekid08"

17 Jan 2007

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David Gross is the co-founder of Easyodds and the Managing Director of Poker Verdict. He is also a frequent online poker tournament player playing as thekid08.

Poker Verdict is a free service catering for the online poker community. It offers a unique and powerful tournament search tool as well as news and views from online poker experts.

Easyodds is a free service that compares odds from over 20 big name online betting companies (ladbrokes, betfair etc) to allow users to find the best price for any bet.

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Monday, January 15, 2007

Non poker stuff

I've been pretty much taking a break from poker in recent weeks. Truth is my results suffered badly in the second half of last year and I lost focus. I went into overdrive, stopped listening to my own advice and crossed a few bankroll boundaries I knew I shouldn't have. Worse than that I was pretty burnt out - working hard in the day and then grinding away at the poker in the evening. I wasn't winning and my health and the things I hold dear like time with my family and friends were suffering.

So I started to ease up in mid Dec and on 24th I travelled to Eilat for a week's holiday with a group of 170 other 20-30 somethings. The laptop stayed in my case, I forgot about poker and work for a week, a met a whole bunch of new people and I partied and had a great time.

Re-invigorated, I have continued to go easy on the poker since my return in early Jan. I have played a few Sunday MTTs. I haven't had any joy, but thats no big shakes. The stakes are smaller, the game is fun, I'm playing good and my life is back in perspective.

Altogether I'm a much happier bunny. I'm sure the poker results will return as and when the time is right but I'm quite content with life right now :-)

For those of you wanting to read a more poker-centric blog, have a read of my recenlty posted verdict on playing internet winning machine Annette_15

Until next time,

David aka "thekid08"

15 Jan 2007

______________________________________________________

David Gross is the co-founder of Easyodds and the Managing Director of Poker Verdict. He is also a frequent online poker tournament player playing as thekid08.

Poker Verdict is a free service catering for the online poker community. It offers a unique and powerful tournament search tool as well as news and views from online poker experts.

Easyodds is a free service that compares odds from over 20 big name online betting companies (ladbrokes, betfair etc) to allow users to find the best price for any bet.

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Playing Annette_15

This is a recent blog of mine, first published on Poker Verdict about playing against young internet phenom Annette Orberstad aka Annette_15:

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Playing as dg8888 in the weekly $1K satellite on UltimateBet, there were 25 runners meaning two people would win a $12K package to a WPT event of choice and the 3rd place finisher would get his/her $1k buy-in back. No prizes for guessing who finished 4th then.

However along the way, I had the chance to log my first real playing session against one of internet poker's rising stars - Annette Obrestad, aka Annette_15.

By way of a background, since we profiled Annette on Poker Verdict, she and I have struck up some dialogue off the tables. As a result, I think she knows I am better than the average 'tournadonk' and she also knows that I know she is a top player and hold her game in high regard. I don't know if this background was relevant to how things played out - but I thought I 'd let you know so you could judge for yourself.

Annette first joined my table when we were down to 10. The average chips were 6,250. I had around 7,800 and she also had a decent stack of over 7,000 chips. As with all UltimateBet tournaments, the structure was excellent and blinds were still at a level that allowed for some play. Annette was sat two to my left.

With blinds at 100-200 I raised to 600 from the button with Jh-9h. Annette smooth called in the big blind. The flop came down 9-2-4 with two diamonds and Annette led out for 900. With this flop, against any strong opponent, I knew that this bet could mean anything. She could have a 9 with a better kicker or a flush draw or a straight draw, or very possibly nothing as this looked like a good flop for the big blind and a bad flop for a button raiser. I thought that the latter situation was most likely, but wanting to keep the pot managable, I decided to call (rather than raise) and to keep her guessing I decided to call very quickly.

The turn now came down a 6 and Annette quickly checked. Wanting to take control but continue to manage the pot size, I led out for 800. Quick as a flash Annette moved all in for another 5,000 odd chips.

Dazed and confused, I struggled to decide what to do. I had played my hand very deceptively and I thought there was every chance that she put me on a much weaker hand - probably 2 overs or a flush draw or both. At the same time, she acted so quickly and decisively, it seemed possible that she may have turned a set or 2 pair (less likely) or a huge draw.

Had I trapped her or had she trapped me?

Crucially, having just joined her table, I had no previous hand analysis to compare this move with. This fact was playing on my mind. My instinct told me I had trapped her, but I also knew that if I committed and was wrong (or got outdrawn) I was pretty much out whereas if I folded I would still have a very decent stack and could try to pick some better spots later on.

With a very limited amount of thinking time, my hand was eventually folded after I timed out.

Once the tournament was over, she told me she was playing 10-8 - nothing but a gutshot straight draw.

With more thinking time I may well have made the call. Granted another minute or two I think I would have had sufficient time to go through the whole range of possible genuine hands she might be holding and analyse each one against her actions. But even with more time, I don't think a fold would have been a bad play as the fact was that I was acting on very limited information due to a lack of history against the player in question.

Either way you have to credit Annette for a gutsy, strong play. I think she probably misread my hand, and she too was making this play slightly in the dark (having no real histroy of my play) but she read the tournament situation perfectly knowing that anyone with my chip stack would be likely to lay down anything but a very strong hand.

In the following two hours prior to her eventual elimination in 5th and mine in 4th, she gave plenty more examples of the reasons why she is so successful at such a young age.

Her situational awareness was outstanding. Her play was aggressive and fearless but always calculated and never reckless. Much to my chagrin, her player analysis was also spot on. She soon spotted my reversion to tight aggressive poker and she targeted me for special bullying.

While it is never great to have a strong player like Annette to your immediate left (as she soon became), the one benefit tends to be that they are first to speak when it's your big blind and unlikely to attack it as a result. Not a bit of it with Annette. Having pegged me as the tightest player left, six- and seven-handed, from UTG, she open raised over 50% of the pots on my big blind!

I was more than aware of her tactics and I chose two opportune moments to come back over the top. She duly passed and I managed to hold my own without getting any strong cards. But she made life very uncomfortable for me, far more so than any other player left in.

In the end she made one move too many and got caught, and while it was a move she did not need to make, it is clear that it is this type of fearlessness that allows her to dominate and conquer even when she is card dead (as she was here) for the vast majority of the game.

As for me, its been a dreadful couple of months in poker terms. I have been multi-tabling on Sit+Gos and coming out the worst of it. Granted I have suffered some bad beats (last night I played just two and got my Aces cracked by 9-9 and K-4 respectively) but if I am brutally honest, I am playing against the toughest opponents on the net and I am losing because I am aware my strategic play is below the game average.

I continue to play well in the MTTs (although below my peak) but I have had at least five really disappointing finishes when close to a really big pay-day.

All this means that the year since I won the Pokerstars Million is threatening to end with a net loss despite my $34K win in April.

Time for a break I think. At the very least I'm going to re-read and try to follow my own advice on running bad.

Until next time,

David aka "thekid08"

15 Dec 2006

______________________________________________________

David Gross is the co-founder of Easyodds and the Managing Director of Poker Verdict. He is also a frequent online poker tournament player playing as thekid08.

Poker Verdict is a free service catering for the online poker community. It offers a unique and powerful tournament search tool as well as news and views from online poker experts.

Easyodds is a free service that compares odds from over 20 big name online betting companies (ladbrokes, betfair etc) to allow users to find the best price for any bet.

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