6:10pm: Ever play poker for 24 hours straight, with only breaks for bathroom and food? That’s exactly what I did from Friday at 5:00pm until Saturday at 5:00pm. I will have a full report of the session, but as you can imagine I need to get some rest first (and then watch the Kimbo Slice fight).

Until then, enjoy the daily hot chick and the daily videos. Good luck to everyone playing tonight as well.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

Keep HFL Free

1:39pm: (PN) Just as the World Series of Poker is gearing up, PokerStars has announced it will be awarding at least 200 seats to the 2008 WSOP Championship, all on one night. On June 15th, PokerStars will host a $370 buy-in super satellite with a guaranteed $2.5 million prize pool. The estimated 200-plus winners will be awarded a $12,500 prize package that includes a coveted $10,000 buy-in to the 2008 WSOP Main Event, $2,500 in spending money, round-trip airfare to Las Vegas, and hotel accommodations for the two-week Main Event.

Last year 7,377 players entered the online super satellite tournament, trying to win their way into the 2007 World Series of Poker. Players from around the Pokerstars world battled for a guaranteed 150 seats. The event quickly turned into the largest WSOP satellite in history and ended up awarding 220 seats. This year, PokerStars is hoping to make history again and beat that number.

PokerStars has already awarded 1,200 seats to this year’s WSOP and guarantees that for 2008, at least 2000 players will win WSOP Championship packages. At last year’s Main Event, Team PokerStars players Tuan Lam, Raymond Rahme, and Hevad Khan all made it to the final table, earning a combined $8,845,249.

Tomorrow the first “Shuffle up and deal!” of the WSOP will resonate throughout the Amazon Room, signaling that players have only a few more weeks to qualify for the 39th World Series of Poker Main Event.

Start a Clean Slate at a New Room, a New Sharkscope, and Keep HFL Free in the Process

1:07am: Well, the bad news is that I keep getting rivered over and over again. The good news is that I’m still even at 7-7 (minus rake) on the night. More good news is that in order to get rivered, you have to be ahead in the first place, and that’s the only thing that counts. People keep putting their money in behind, however as some of you know often is the case, PokerStars insists on bailing them out. Here are a few key hands to put the situation into perspective:

Seat 1: trujm (1120 in chips)
Seat 2: mahorn23 (1880 in chips)
mahorn23: posts small blind 10
trujm: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ah Th]
mahorn23: calls 10
trujm: raises 40 to 60
mahorn23: raises 140 to 200
trujm: calls 140
*** FLOP *** [7h 4h Ts]
trujm: checks
mahorn23: bets 1680 and is all-in
trujm is disconnected
trujm is connected
trujm: calls 920 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (760) returned to mahorn23
*** TURN *** [7h 4h Ts] [6s]
*** RIVER *** [7h 4h Ts 6s] [Jc]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Ah Th] (a pair of Tens)
mahorn23: shows [Jh As] (a pair of Jacks)
mahorn23 collected 2240 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2240 | Rake 0
Board [7h 4h Ts 6s Jc]
Seat 1: trujm (big blind) showed [Ah Th] and lost with a pair of Tens
Seat 2: mahorn23 (button) (small blind) showed [Jh As] and won (2240)
with a pair of Jacks

Seat 1: unglee (2350 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (650 in chips)
trujm: posts small blind 15
unglee: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ad Ah]
trujm: calls 15
unglee: raises 930 to 960
trujm: calls 620 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (310) returned to unglee
*** FLOP *** [Qd 8h 9c]
*** TURN *** [Qd 8h 9c] [2s]
*** RIVER *** [Qd 8h 9c 2s] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
unglee: shows [Qc 2h] (two pair, Queens and Deuces)
trujm: shows [Ad Ah] (a pair of Aces)

Seat 1: unglee (2350 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (650 in chips)
unglee: posts small blind 15
trujm: posts big blind 30
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [Ac Js]
unglee: raises 60 to 90
trujm: raises 560 to 650 and is all-in
unglee: calls 560
*** FLOP *** [6s Kc As]
*** TURN *** [6s Kc As] [6d]
*** RIVER *** [6s Kc As 6d] [7h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [Ac Js] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
unglee: shows [Ad 9d] (two pair, Aces and Sixes)
trujm collected 650 from pot
unglee collected 650 from pot

Seat 1: unglee (2070 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (930 in chips)
unglee: posts small blind 10
trujm: posts big blind 20
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [9d 8c]
unglee: raises 40 to 60
trujm: calls 40
*** FLOP *** [7h Td 9s]
trujm: checks
unglee: bets 80
trujm: calls 80
*** TURN *** [7h Td 9s] [6d]
trujm: bets 200
unglee: calls 200
*** RIVER *** [7h Td 9s 6d] [7d]
trujm: checks
unglee: bets 940
trujm: calls 590 and is all-in
*** SHOW DOWN ***
unglee: shows [8h Kd] (a straight, Six to Ten)
trujm: shows [9d 8c] (a straight, Six to Ten)
trujm collected 930 from pot
unglee collected 930 from pot

Seat 1: bessie007 (1090 in chips)
Seat 2: trujm (1910 in chips)
bessie007: posts small blind 25
trujm: posts big blind 50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to trujm [9s Qs]
bessie007: raises 50 to 100
trujm: calls 50
*** FLOP *** [9h 8c Ts]
trujm: checks
bessie007: bets 990 and is all-in
trujm: calls 990
*** TURN *** [9h 8c Ts] [Jd]
*** RIVER *** [9h 8c Ts Jd] [Qd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
trujm: shows [9s Qs] (a straight, Eight to Queen)
bessie007: shows [Kh Kd] (a straight, Nine to King)
bessie007 collected 2180 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2180 | Rake 0
Board [9h 8c Ts Jd Qd]
Seat 1: bessie007 (button) (small blind) showed [Kh Kd] and won (2180)
with a straight, Nine to King
Seat 2: trujm (big blind) showed [9s Qs] and lost with a straight,
Eight to Queen

Those are just a few of them. I can recall 2-3 more, but can’t find the hand history for them. On the last hand, if you’re wondering what the hell I was doing, the player was either shoving or folding preflop and on the flop. I told myself I would wait for middle pair/good kicker or better in order to justify a call because there’s no possible way the player could have hand a hand all 30+ times he went all in.

I don’t need to tell you that’s how it goes sometimes, as I’m sure you’re already aware. In a way, I’ve ran so bad when ahead tonight that I feel fortunate to have put myself in a position to still finish in the + with the next win.

More later…

*EDIT*, 1:43am: Just took a shower, and picked up a slight headache so I have decided to call it a night, and will resume play tomorrow. I will play a couple of heads up matches from 12pm-3pm before I leave for my live 2-5 NL session tomorrow night.

Good luck to everyone playing until then!

1:17pm: Last night was an interesting night, and serves to show that even if you run bad in the small hands, as long as you run good in the big hands you can still turn a decent profit. I was telling my friend Joe, who was sitting next to me in the 2 seat, that last night was as bad of a run with cards preflop as I have ever seen. I couldn’t recall a single night where I picked up 10x (where x < 7) so many times. It seemed like an endless string of 10 4 off, 10 6 off, and 10 2 off. Even when I picked up hands like KQ, QJ, KJ, and J10, the board still held nothing interesting for me — absolutely no draws or pairs. On top of that, every time I was dealt a pocket pair, I missed my set and the board was to high and I had to abandon the hand.

That is, until this hand: I picked up 99 in middle position. I decided to call because I knew someone was going to raise. I was right, as someone on tilt tried to “sweeten the pot” by making it $15 to go preflop, and was called by 7 people. When the action is on me, I contemplated trying to take the pot down right there with a huge raise, however I decided that I was probably going to get called in more than one spot (as everyone in New Orleans loves to gamble), and I didn’t want to make things tough on myself if the board wasn’t to my liking. Consequently, I decided to just call and set mine, or if the board came low I would lead out/raise strong on the flop.

The flop: 9h8s4h

Needless to say, my hand at this point is the nuts. The odds of someone not having flopped a flush draw with this many people in the hand was slim, so I knew I was going to have to play this hand strong and make people pay to draw. The small blind leads out for $60. Everyone folds to me, and I make it $160 to go. The guy who initially raised, who I’m sort of friends with (but not close) goes all in for about $535 and is visibly aggravated with the way his night is going, so I put him on some sort of flush draw or straight draw. The guy who initially led out for $60 thinks about calling for a good 2 minutes, but then decides to fold. Right before I called, the guy that I knew told me, “I got the last thing you wanna see if you have a set”, so I knew I was going to have to dodge some bullets. He said he had a combination straight/flush draw.

The turn was a complete dagger: Kh. When it hit, he was like “you’re behind now.”

Although he hadn’t turned his hand over yet, I knew he was good on his word, and I knew the board had to pair for me to win the hand. Much to my delight, the river was a 4 and I breathed a sigh of relief and dragged a pretty sizable pot. After counting my chips, this hand had put me up $400.

This hand was followed by about 3 more hours of being card dead, and was slowly dwindled down to -$50 from +$400. Then, in middle position with a straddle on the board, I picked up AA. 3 people called, and when the action was on me I made it $50 to go. 2 people called, including the tightest old man at the table - who had about $500 in front of him to start the hand. When he called, I immediately put him on JJ because I felt like he would have re-raised me with QQ or KK to find out where he was at because he knows I play solid. The other guy that called was $3,000 deep and had me covered by a good bit. For the duration of the hand, I would be in the middle of these two guys, which doesn’t make my situation any easier.

The flop: 10c8h10s

The really tight man leads out for 150, which was actually ideally what I wanted to happen. This spot is a little tricky, but actually kind of plays itself if you’ve got your thinking cap on. A lot of people would make the mistake of raising here. I call it a mistake because if I raise, and the deep stacked guy that is left to act after me caught a 10 OR if he just felt like making a strong move to take the hand down, there’s no way I can felt this hand for my whole stack ($1,200). Being as such, I decided to just smooth call and see what the deep stack did, hoping for a fold and to be heads up with the man who I knew had a pair lower than mine. The guy to act after me decides to fold, and now I’m heads up with Mr. tighty.

The turn is 3d, and once again the man leads out for 150. At this point, I figured the money is getting in regardless, so I figured I might as well let him do the betting, and if the man decides to check the river, i was going to put him all in.

The river is another blank: 5s. The man goes all in for his remaining $250. I call instantly, and the man flips over QQ and I drag the pot. A few hands later I decided to call it a night, and finished +$550 on the day.

1:21am: I am operating on two hours of sleep, so I will fill you guys in on the complete details first thing in the morning when I wake up. Basic summary of the night was that I made a great comeback from -$350 to finish +$550 in my live 2-5 NL session, and I also played 3 heads up matches before I left for Harrah’s tonight — and finished 2-1.

Good luck to everyone tonight, and tomorrow as well. I will be putting in an extended heads up session tomorrow, as I have to wait for furniture to be delivered to my new home and have no clue what time the delivery men are getting there.

10:36am: If you’ve emailed about tutoring or any inquiries in general over the last 72 hours, I did not receive it due to an internal error that has been fixed. I’m extremely sorry for the inconvenience but would love it if you guys could re-send any pending inquiries. I respond to all inquiries usually within 1-2 hours, but if not — always within 24 hours.

-trujm

Keep HFL Free

12:55am: My confidence is definitely peaking right now, as I am now 9-1 over the last 10 matches. My time has been split this week between shopping for furniture for the new house (we move in on the 1st), heads up matches, and doing some internal coding/maintenance for HFL.

What’s more gratifying for me than the money is that in this 9-1 run I’ve defeated some quality opponents. It’s amazing how everything comes together when your game is clicking on all cylinders. Of course, I’m not going to lie: I’m running pretty good right now. It seems like every single time I raise lately, I’m connecting with the flop in some way, shape or form.

I’ve got too much experience to be naive, and I realize at some point the cards are going to turn south. What I can do, however, is be prepared for that time, and to realize that it’s prospering times like these that pay for all the times where things seem hopeless.

The main thing is not to panic when times get rough. If you go back a few posts, you will see the post from the night I lost $800+ playing 2-5 NL live. Because I didn’t panic and held my composure, I was able to prevent the loss from turning into a losing streak. While losing streaks are unavoidable in NLHE, you can cut down on the number of them by simply playing your A-game whether you’re up $500 on the week, or down $1,000. The more robotic your play, the better — that is, unless you’re playing the same opponents all the time — in which case you will be forced to mix up your play a bit more. If you play on Stars of Full Tilt, that most certainly won’t be the case, however.

Keep HFL Free

1:14pm: There’s this feeling you get every now and then. Actually, there’s two of them. The first of which is the sickness that overcomes your body when you’re caught in a thick, complicated situation. The second is the feeling of not knowing what to do in this event. There are so many things to take into account in each individual case, and the answers are often more subjective than anything. So how do you know when it’s time to lay the cards down, and when it’s time to call?

First, it’s time to determine whether or not your holding is strong, marginal, or weak.

In the case that it’s weak, then there’s a pretty good chance that folding is the best option — unless you have a solid read, in which case you don’t need to be reading this. Every now and then you can play the hero and make a call with ace high and have it be the best hand, but these times are few and far between. If you get some evil pleasure by calling someone down light in an attempt to make a statement, then you’re playing for the wrong reasons. The majority of the time you should fold in this spot, although there are a few exceptions — and I do mean a FEW.

If your holding is marginal and you’re faced with this decision, the first thing you need to know is that you got yourself into this mess by playing a large pot with a marginal hand. Therefore, you’ve just made your decision a lot harder. This may sound overly simplistic, but the best thing you can do is play small pots with weak hands, medium sized pots with moderate strength hands and large pots with strong hands. The decision to call or fold with marginal hands isn’t easy, but in my experience, calling with them ends in bloodshed more often than it ends well. That being said, take a second to think about a few things: has your opponent built up enough credibility to this point? what hand strength does your opponent usually showdown? what does his sharkscope look like? If the opponent is a winning player and hasn’t given you no reason to think he is lying up to this point, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t let the hand go until he’s proven otherwise. It is only if the player has no credibility that the situation becomes complicated. If this is the case, then it’s usually correct to go with your first instinct. A wise person once told me, “If you think long, you think wrong”. This advice has proven itself accurate on more than one occasion in the game of poker. The voice in the back of your head is sometimes more logical than the other one, listen to it.

If you hand strength is strong, your problem is more minuscule than you think. In the same way that calling with weak hands isn’t profitable in the long run, folding strong ones will equally eat away at your bankroll just as fast. Once in a blue moon, you will know your opponent well enough to justify folding top two when there’s a straight on the board. However, if you’re consistently laying down top two, sets, or even any two pair than you may be playing the wrong game. Hands of this strength don’t come around often enough in hold em for you to be making these laydowns UNLESS you’re better than 80% certain that you’re beat. Once again, that begs the question: “how do I know when I’m beat?”, and again the best answer I have for you is to use the information at your disposal and piece together the puzzle. Replay the hand in your mind. If you believe your opponent has a straight, did he play the hand the way someone on a straight draw would (until he hit it)? If you believe your opponent has a flush, did he do like most, and call until the club hit on the river? Depending on the limits you’re playing and the skill level of the players, sometimes the answer is as easy as that. If you believe your opponent is deceptive, then this is where experience comes into play. Think about the other 500, 1,000, 2,000, or 5,000 heads up matches you’ve played in your life. How does it normally end when you call someone in this situation, given your hand strength, the deceptiveness of the opponent, and this type of flop/board? If you can recall more times that you’ve lost by making this call than times you’ve won, then it’s time to lay the hand down. On the other hand, if you’ve seen this situation time and time again, and more often than not your hand is usually the winner, then what are you waiting for?

One thing is certain, it’s easier on the brain to call than fold. If you call, you can be 100% sure to know the truth of the matter, whereas if you fold you may be left wondering forever. You have to resist this urge to constantly know the truth, and as many wise people before me have said: “just let it go”. Poker is a game of uncertainties and you have to embrace this fact alone, and move on to the next hand. The second you let curiosity eat away at you, your opponent has already won. Making great laydown is an art, not a science — so be an artist today and fold if your gut feeling tells you that you should.

2:35am: (PN) Full Tilt’s first-ever $25,000 Heads-up Championship, featuring the largest buy-in ever for an online heads-up tourney, saw a familiar name take the title on Sunday. Full Tilt pro David Singer claimed the title after defeating Emil “whitelime” Patel to win the the $560,000 first-place prize. Patel’s runner-up showing was worth $320,000.

The semifinals and finals of the heads-up event were head on Sunday after four rounds of play on Saturday’s Day 1 trimmed the starting field from 64 to four. Singer defeated Brain Hastings in one of Sunday’s semifinals, while Patel held off recent NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship finalist Andy Bloch in the other. Hastings and Bloch both received $168,000 for their showings.

The four other quarterfinalists who cashed in the event were Dani “Ansky451″ Stern, “mischiefofmagic”, “mastrblastr”, and “FinddaGrind”, an account frequently rumored on poker forums and unofficial sites to be played by Patrik Antonius. The event boasted plenty of star power, with Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Erick Lindgren, Cory Carroll, David Benyamine, Tom Dwan, Isaac Baron and Chris Ferguson, who also hosted the event, among those taking part.

The event serves as a major bridge between online series for Full Tilt, which recently wrapped up its popular FTOPS VIII series and next week will launch its new Mini Series of Poker.

3:55am: As per the request of you guys, both through email and through various comments, I will begin a series of “mini video tutorials” that will cover my thought process through single hands from video tutorials that have not been posted yet. I have decided to do it this way because I find that visual learning is the best way to communicate, and tone of voice is very important when trying to get a point across.

These videos will concentrate on hands that are debatable in nature, and those that involve solutions and situations with a high degree of difficulty. All members will be able to comment, as usual, on each video and hopefully we can generate some intelligent discussion and perhaps bring some new angles to the table.

These mini tutorials will be posted on YouTube, and uploaded and embedded here as regular posts at random times throughout the week. If all goes as planned, you guys should have 2-3 of these coming your way per week from here on out, in addition to the full length tutorial that I do once every two weeks — so keep checking this week for the new additions to HFL.