You know we’re doing the new challenge stuff. I’m not that of a writer as the other two guys, but I can tell you I still have 0 points. Just as Mr. Blue.
But I can show you some hands from a tournament I played last week, the $4,40 one with 180 players. I made a deep run in that tourney, but didn’t make it to the final table. I was one of the shortstacks when I finally decided to stop folding some strong medium hands and made this move:
From that moment on, I had a little more breathing space and was able to play some more hands. I was moving up in chips and won some quality pots with some premium hands:
Getting Kings once is already nice, but another time during the same blinds level? Yes, but with a classic slowplay:
I think win the maximum in this hand playing it this way. Unfortunately my tournament ended shortly afterwards, but I’m warming up for those final tables. Till next time.
Submitted by Mr. Orange
It’s been a while since we had another challenge. With Mr. White having won our first two challenges, online as well as live, we thought the time has come to challenge him for a third time. Contenders this time: Mr. Blue and Mr. Orange.
Because the other players don’t have enough time at this moment to participate in our new challenge, it will be just the three of us. Just like the first one, this one concerns online poker again, tournaments of course. We’ll all play at Pokerstars and it will be limited to the ‘big’ tournaments.
So here’s the concept: the goal is to become the first player to attain 15 ‘points’ or more. How do you attain these points? By reaching the final tables in some large field tournaments (no freerolls, min. buy-in: $2). This is how the points are awarded:
Tournament with 90 or more players:
1 st place: 7 points
2 6
3 5
4-9 2
Tournament with 150 or more players:
1st place: 10 points
2 8
3 6
4 5
5-9 3
Tournament with 240 or more players:
1st place: 15 points
2 12
3 10
4 7
5 5
6-9 4
As you see, the winner of a big tournament with 240 or more players will immediately claim victory in the challenge. But as it’s not about small sit and go’s anymore, the very best tournament player among us will be the one who wins this thing. Some rules: only freeze-out tournaments (no rebuy) and minimum 6-handed tables (no heads-up tournaments). I wish my two opponents the best of luck and we’ll keep you updated!
Submitted by Mr. Blue
I’m gonna teach you an important poker lesson today. We’ve been talking a lot about tournament poker here lately. One of the most important things you have to master when you want to be a profitable tournament player is how to play a final table. Listen poker ladies and gentlemen: the final table is another game of poker.
Everybody is under great stress in those situations. The message: don’t go with the flow, but make use of this situation. Don’t try to end up with a sweet price, try to win the thing. A hand from Cake Poker I played last week (their hand histories are even worse):
Hand#19725CE2A5001695 – Tournament Table 8 T6087333 — Table 8 — $100/$1.000/$2.000 NL Hold’em
Seat 1: chic***1 ($24.293 in chips)
Seat 2: dian***2 ($28.411 in chips)
Seat 5: White***5 ($25.481 in chips)
Seat 6: home***6 ($6.778 in chips)
Seat 7: UNDe***7 ($91.095 in chips) DEALER
Seat 10: theo***10 ($32.442 in chips)
chickgirl75 posts ante of 100
dianzor21 posts ante of 100
WhiteWidower666 posts ante of 100
homez20 posts ante of 100
UNDeSAZAR posts ante of 100
theodotca posts ante of 100
chic***1: posts small blind 1.000
dian***2: posts big blind 2.000
Dealt to WhiteWidower666 [8h,9h]
WhiteWidower666: calls 2.000
home***6: is all in 6.678
UNDe***7: folds
theo***10: folds
chic***1: folds
dian***2: folds
WhiteWidower666: calls 4.678
WhiteWidower666: shows [8h 9h]
home***6: shows [Jc Ts]
*** FLOP *** [7c,Td,Js]
*** TURN *** [4s]
*** RIVER *** [9s]
***SHOW DOWN***
WhiteWidower666: wins 16.956 with Straight, Jack high
So there’s clearly one big chip leader and one shortie. So I know it’s gonna be pretty tensed fight between us to play heads-up against the chipleader. So I call the BB with 8 9 suited and I already decided I’m gonna call the shortie’s all-in when necessary. You definitely must decide to play your live cards in this situations and try to cumulate chips. I flop a straight and it holds up: excellent result. I ended up third in the tournament. Till next time!
Submitted by Mr. White
After that miserable piece of poker knowledge that Mr. Blue dropped here last time, I will show you something today that you can really use to improve your own game. It’s all about certain moves you can make on the river.
I stumbled upon this subject because I was involved in a specific situation this week during a tournament on FTP:
I like my hand a little more because I’m on the button here. I could have raised, but try to see a flop cheaply here. Now the Ace flops with a pair of threes and the small blind leads out: always risky. However, I’m not folding of course and try to see what he’ll do on the turn. He bets the same amount on the turn which could be a sign of having a three: there’s a small chance that I’m going to outdraw that hand on this board. When he bets small on the river again I have enough information and I make a raise for two reasons.
First of all I was playing fairly loose-aggressive on this table and he could call me here with a medium pocket pair because of my image. And second, he might have a smaller Ace and pay my value raise. I think he had like 55 or something and he folds. Btw, if you would like to read more of my plays and the terrible beats I have to face now and then in specific, you can visit my own very interesting poker blog!
Submitted by Mr. White
Every poker player will have its own different tactics to play the big pocket pairs from let’s say Queens to Aces. Hand like Jacks and Tens are known as ‘problem-hands’, as people are often dragged into big pots with those hands. But how to play the small pocket pairs preflop?
The great part of all poker players agrees on how to play them in early and middle position: just limp when possible and try to flop your set. Of course, in late position you can be a little more creative and try to win the pot preflop or acquire pot control. I have a little expample from a tournament I played this week, where I had 33 in early position:
Now this is a relatively weak raise on the button: three times the big blind with already two callers in front you. Maybe I should have bet the flop with the paired board but in the end I’m still able to pick up the pot with a good bet.
Mr. Brown has also sent me an interesting hand from an heads-up game he played on Full Tilt:
Apparently he’s playing Pot Limit Omaha for the moment and apparently he made a royal flush 
. Now I don’t know much about this game but the pot looks nice ^^.
Submitted by Mr. Blue
Hello folks, I’m finally getting back into poker again. I didn’t play for a couple of months after the challenge, but I decided to deposit a small amount of money in my Pokerstars account and play some sng’s without much stress. And there you go: I won a tourney with 45 players .
I even saved some hands to show you. The first hand shows that it’s possible to win a nice pot with the magnificent Eight-Deuce:
The turn is a beauty for me and I offer the two drawers the wrong price to chase a flushdraw or gutshot with a 9 or a Jack. When the river comes the Ace of hearts I know I’m good and make a value bet in case somebody had a pair with his draw. Some moments later I make an excellent read as far as that’s possible in online poker:
Having AK on the button is of course perfect, your hand is always disguised. I also check the flop and bet the turn when I hit toppair. Now what you don’t see in the replay, is that my opponent took a long time before making the call. That’s why I check the river and notice my opponent made his flush on the turn. It are those hands and moments which determine if you’ll reach the money in a tournament, not the big pots that you win. Well of course, they are also important .
Yes it’s all over . I made a big cash-out of $351 just a few hours ago and that resulted in a bankroll of $1102, being the first one to pass the 1k-border! At that moment, Mr. Blue had $886, ending up as the runner-up, and Ms. Pink finished third with $202. They have the honour to deposit me $100, together with the 200 Mr. Brown-dollars^^.
So what happened? I decided to play a $24+2 Knock-Out sit and go with 90 players. KO means $20 of your buy-in goes into the prize pool and the other $4 is a bounty everybody receives each time he eliminates another player, so 90 in total. I played a very solid tourney and ended up heads-up, which was the point I knew I was gonna win the battle . Anyway I deserved to win the $576 for first place instead of the $351 for runner-up.
My final opponent played very loose-aggressive and I was just waiting for the right moment to trap him. This moment finally arrived on the next hand:
So I flop quads, which is nice , and I immediately knew I would be able to extract some chips from my aggressive opponent here. This happened right away on the turn when he moved with his flushdraw. Unfortunately, the moron got lucky a few minutes later:
I just move all-in for all my stack because I knew he would prolly call any lower raise and then I would have to make a decision on the flop if I wouldn’t hit. Of course he calls right away with AQ and catches one of the three Queens… Anyway, I’ll go treat the other players on some beers, I think I have some pocket change left 
.
Submitted by Mr. White