Pokerpops ponders poker

[pokerpops]

I"ve been following a thread on another poker forum which has so much good stuff in it from so many deep thinkers that it deserves a wider audience.
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=59492.0

Hope the link is acceptable mods?

Some great stuff about the impact of variance on live MTT results and why they may never reflect a players" true abilities and then today, Richard "Action Man" Trigg posted this...

hhaha, this is an article i wrote on my blog over 6 years ago. still think its of use here.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2006

Have You Got Lucky?
it is important after a win in an Multi-tourney or Sit & go, to evealuate your game, and realise the pots which you won, could have gone the other way.
On very few occasions is it possible to win a, say 100 runner tourney without winning at least one coin flip (50-50) and a lot of the times you may be forced to put your chips in with say KQ v A10 where u are a 60/40 dog.
Often it can be easy after winning a tournament to feel like you have played very good poker and have deserved your win. At times like these you have to remember he times you have been lucky in a single pot and realise that this won"t happen in every tourney. My own opinion is that you have to have luck on your side to win a tourney. The differnce between the good players and just the average players is that the good players give themselves the best possibe chance to get lucky by only getting involved in very few showdowns per tournament, this way they may only have to win say 3 coinflips per tourney as opposed to other weaker players who may need to win a lot more, due to their inabilty to steal pots and become more aggressive in the latter stages. I have seen many players who at one time were winning tourneys left right and centre, and they were last seen entering $2 bonus freerolls.

It is very naive to disregard luck in poker. But for a good player the luck comes, in that they may be lucky not to get unlucky....

Ie they will go into a pot with AK v AQ in a showdown obviously the AK is about 73% favourite but if you are involved in 4 of these coups, you are favourite to lose your stack by the 4th time...

They say that good players don"t understand how much luck is in the game and bad players don"t realise how much skill is in he game. This is probably right, however bad players often endeavour to learn more about the skill in the game. It is also important for the good players to not learn but understand luck and don"t get blinkered into thinking you are invincible, and never forget the times when you get lucky as this will help you take the beats that other players inflict on you.... because as they say "what comes around, goes around".........

I think it"s safe to say that he "got it" a long time ago.

I knew I had "run good" in that first GP this year, and I managed to repeat that in July. I just hope that in both I managed to apply the second half of my mantra for wishing anyone well in a tournament

"run good, play better"

[pokerpops]

So, today is my last day at work before I jet off to St Kitts tomorrow.

It all still feels unreal to me. I played the satellites for that Grand Prix back in March because it was a cheaper way to enter the tournament and had no thoughts of any "added value" when I did so.
I played the tournament with no sense of fear that busting close to the FT would be worse for me than for someone without a golden chip. The very idea of me winning a trip to the Caribbean barely entered my mind over that weekend. My focus was on winning the tournament, which I was getting into position to do when the poker Gods decided to deliver AA to my opponent when I held AJ.
I picked up some $$$ over the weekend, thought that would make it feel more real, but US$ look like Monopoly money and thus still unreal.
Maybe, by this time tomorrow when I"m at Gatwick it will all sink in.

Whatever else happens over the next 8 days I will expose my poker game to a serious level of scrutiny vs some of the best of the UK"s live tournament players. I"m really looking forward to that.

[Curlarge]

So, today is my last day at work before I jet off to St Kitts tomorrow.

It all still feels unreal to me. I played the satellites for that Grand Prix back in March because it was a cheaper way to enter the tournament and had no thoughts of any "added value" when I did so.
I played the tournament with no sense of fear that busting close to the FT would be worse for me than for someone without a golden chip. The very idea of me winning a trip to the Caribbean barely entered my mind over that weekend. My focus was on winning the tournament, which I was getting into position to do when the poker Gods decided to deliver AA to my opponent when I held AJ.
I picked up some $$$ over the weekend, thought that would make it feel more real, but US$ look like Monopoly money and thus still unreal.
Maybe, by this time tomorrow when I"m at Gatwick it will all sink in.

Whatever else happens over the next 8 days I will expose my poker game to a serious level of scrutiny vs some of the best of the UK"s live tournament players. I"m really looking forward to that.

Hope the both of you have a great trip and a very successful one. Good luck

[PHIL_TC]

Hope the both of you have a great trip and a very successful one. Good luck

+1 Dave hope you both have a fantastic time, look forward to hearing about all the success. But just enjoy it, soak it up, enjoy every single minute. Its been a long time coming x

[AAroddersAA]

I"ve been following a thread on another poker forum which has so much good stuff in it from so many deep thinkers that it deserves a wider audience.
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=59492.0

Great link. Everybody should read the above thread. There is some GOLD in it by some of the best in the country.

Still following it with interest. Reminds you that anybody who has done well in APAT events for example up until now may still be an expected loser against the field. It is so easy to think you have a big edge on the field (I will admit to having made this mistake a few times) then you get reminded that the reason you have done well is more down to luck (running good) than anything else. That"s the reason why I spend a fair bit of time reading Blonde it reminds you not to get above yourself and keeps you feet on the ground.

[Fatcatstu]

The title of that thread sums up me at the minute. When I get in, I"m reading the whole thing to see of it can help!!

[pokerpops]

The title of that thread sums up me at the minute. When I get in, I"m reading the whole thing to see of it can help!!

It"s interesting. Not sure if it"s specifically "helpful" other than as a reality check for those of us who have had moments of success.

[AMRN]

Hope it goes well David - I know you have the game to mix it up out there!!  Hope you are able to keep your blog updated with progress - looking forward to reading it already!

[pokerpops]

[Fatcatstu]

Glad to hear you are enjoying yourselves, give lucy a big hug from me xx

[pokerpops]

Mini bink report

$200 Win the Button
Played as a warm up for tomorrow"s Day 1 and managed 8th for $630

Happy Days

Not posting too many blinds because generally the two seats to my right were occupied by passive players helped, as did flopping a set with KK and turning one with 66 when the BB had flopped 2 pr but checked ...
Good fun tourney.

Tomorrow we have plans to go sightseeing in the morning and then chill ready for a 5pm start. Chilling here is so easy!

[duke3016]

Onwards and upwards - now for the big one  

[AMRN]

In the zone!!

[pokerpops]

CPP MainEvent

Please excuse typos, I may have had a drink. Or two...

We played six 1 hr levels today and for five of the I was securely in the zone. None of the superstars to worry about and a couple of really good spots. The Brazilian satellite winner, opened lots of pots, folded to lots of 3 bets, or occasionally flatted them and then folded the flop. The guy sat to his right liked to flat the raise and would either lead out when he hit or fold to the c-bet.
They weren"t the only spots  either.
My progress was assisted by having a few bits of run good. Here"s two...
We"d been joined at the table by Peter "The Bandit" Evans. He min raises utg at 150/300 and I and two others make the call, me from the BB with 33 A J high flop is checked round and a rather pleasant 3 arrives on the turn. I lead out for 1100 and my Brazilian friend calls.
He calls the river is another 3 and I get another 2850

Two. --  I check my option in the BB with Q6 and we see a flop of Q3Q. It"s checked to Peter Evans who bets out for 600 which the SB and I both call.
The turn is a 6  - thank you lord and this gets checked round
River is a 10 and SB bets out, and calls my chunky raise with the other Q

So at the final break I have somewhere north of 60k and we"ve reached the heady heights of 200/400/50
And then the wheels fall off ...
I ended Day 1 with 31k and return Saturday at 250/500/50

It"s not bad, but could have been so much better

It"s coming up to 3am here and I need sleep now. I"m not as young as I was....

More when I"m refreshed!!

[DodgyEnd (Tom APAT.be)]

Take it down David!!