Lisandro's Three-peat

Hello,

I feel compelled to comment on Jeff Lisandro's three-peat. I have always liked Lisandro as people who know me can attest. I was very happy for him when he won his first bracelet in 2007 even though it was against the very tough and well-respected stud specialist Nick Frangos. That year, Lisandro was heartbroken only a couple of weeks prior to winning his bracelet when he lost to Allen Cunngingham in the PLH Championship. As readers of my blog well know, I am a big fan of stud games and limit poker in general so I really enjoy watching learning from the better stud players. Lisandro is one of the better stud players as is clearly evidenced by his four stud bracelets. He is the only players to win bracelets in all forms of stud: stud 8/b, 7-stud and razz. I just wanted to acknowledge this sweet three-peat which hasn't been done since Phil Ivey did it back in 2002. So, I wanted to take the time to congratulate a player for whom I have great respect. After watching him feel crushed after coming so close when he lost to Cunningham (he could not hold back the tears), it was nice to see him finally win one shortly thereafter. I suppose that to Lisandro, that moment seems worlds away now that he has four bracelets and has solidified himself as a great player. We all know that while one bracelet can be a fluke (I'd love a fluke like that), nobody can deny that winning four—including three in one year—is pure skill. This kind of thing is very good for poker.

See you on the felt,

Almost Back in the Blogosphere

Hello,

It has been nearly four months since my last blog post and I haven't played online poker in that same span of time. I have played only three sessions of live poker since then and they were friendly, microstakes home games. I did, however, play really well in those sessions.

I miss the game terribly but I cannot seem to find the time to play, even for fun. I have a lot on my plate now with graduate school, work (and work and work), the kids, etc. and poker has taken a back seat to everything else. I have been trying my best to keep up with the goings-on of the game. I still read my Cardplayer (although I am a few issues behind) and am currently watching the Poker After Dark series.

I hope to get back into blogging some time soon even if I don't start playing again. I have been wanting to comment on a lot of hands that I have seen on TV and in other blogs and magazines but it is difficult to find the time to do so. I don't even have the time for this post but I felt compelled to get something up just so I can keep the blog "open." So perhaps when summer comes along I will have more time. I will have a break from both school and my main work (teaching) and will be able to focus on my private work (web development) and possibly some poker playing and writing.

See you on the felt,

Why I Win at Poker

Hello,

This is why I am a long term winner at poker. I know this is only a penny game but it illustrates the point that most people really suck at this game. This guy called all-in on a bluff. How a play like this got rewarded is beyond me. I am still in shock, particularly at how he won the hand. No wonder I took a break. This was only the second time I played in over two months. But I suppose I have something to look forward to when I return to the game. Enjoy this one. (It's should be no surprise that he ran as fast as he could after this hand not even playing his small blind.)

Full Tilt Poker Game #8664843109: Table Stanley (6 max) - $0.05/$0.10 - No Limit Hold'em - 3:27:38 ET - 2008/10/26
Seat 1: jpetty75 ($12.70)
Seat 2: Tom Jefferson ($6.90)
Seat 3: Kittiebooboo ($12.55)
Seat 4: iverson2k2k ($8.80)
Seat 5: fune_radikal ($2.65)
Seat 6: Piramida1 ($10)
Tom Jefferson posts the small blind of $0.05
Kittiebooboo posts the big blind of $0.10
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Tom Jefferson [Kc Kd]
iverson2k2k folds
fune_radikal folds
Piramida1 folds
jpetty75 folds
Tom Jefferson raises to $0.30
Kittiebooboo has 15 seconds left to act
Kittiebooboo calls $0.20
*** FLOP *** [Jd Tc 7c]
Tom Jefferson bets $0.60
Kittiebooboo raises to $1.20 (see if I'm for real)
Tom Jefferson raises to $6.60, and is all in (why not just shove it all in?)
Kittiebooboo calls $5.40
Tom Jefferson shows [Kc Kd]
Kittiebooboo shows [8s Ad] (seriously!?)
*** TURN *** [Jd Tc 7c] [Qc] (give a two take several)
*** RIVER *** [Jd Tc 7c Qc] [Ks] (of course!)
Tom Jefferson shows three of a kind, Kings
Kittiebooboo shows a straight, Ace high
Kittiebooboo wins the pot ($12.45) with a straight, Ace high
Tom Jefferson adds $2
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $13.80 | Rake $1.35
Board: [Jd Tc 7c Qc Ks]
Seat 1: jpetty75 (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Tom Jefferson (small blind) showed [Kc Kd] and lost with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 3: Kittiebooboo (big blind) showed [8s Ad] and won ($12.45) with a straight, Ace high
Seat 4: iverson2k2k didn't bet (folded)
Seat 5: fune_radikal didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Piramida1 didn't bet (folded)

See you on the felt,

Back to Back Monster Pots on RailHeaven

Hello,

So even though I am not playing at the moment, every once in awhile I log on to watch some of the high stakes games online. Well, this was a good night to be watching. The game was $500-$1000 NLH and the players included durr, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Urindanger and someone I didn't know who was down about $150,000. Anyway, this game had been playing like a penny stakes game for the hour I had been watching leading up to these two hands. I had seen almost every player five bet pre-flop at least twice and four betting was standard. But there weren't many flops with those big raises. The stacks were anywhere from 200 to 400 BB deep so it was possible to four or five bet pre-flop and take down the pot. According to highstakesdb.com, which tracks all the high stakes cash games online, the biggest single pot ever was $618K. Perhaps it was or perhaps they missed a bigger one. Nonetheless, these two hand topped it. The first was all in pre-flop. Nice river for Juanda as he took down a $678K pot. It took him all of 20 seconds to give it back on the very next hand when he called all in for about $200K more on the flop to Ivey. Juanda held the nut flush draw to Ivey's set of tens but Juanda missed and Ivey took down a $687K pot. At the time of those posting, durr was stuck almost $600K at this table. I don't feel too badly for him. According to highstakesdb.com he is up over $2 million this month alone. He also has over $1.5 million spread across FTP now. Here are the screen caps. I will post the raw HH following the screen caps for those who care to analyze the betting. It's worth reading how the hands were played, particularly the Ivey/Juanda hand. Juanda lost way too much on a hand he should never had played. Ivey set a nice trap on the flop too but once that flop came downt he money was destined, at least at that time in that game, to go in the center.





And here is the raw text.

Hand 1:
Full Tilt Poker Game #8663401189: Table RailHeaven (6 max) - $500/$1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:56:34 ET - 2008/10/26
Seat 1: elmariachimacho ($26,397)
Seat 2: John Juanda ($336,036)
Seat 4: durrrr ($338,503.50)
Seat 5: Phil Ivey ($341,778.50)
Seat 6: Urindanger ($259,719.50)
John Juanda posts the small blind of $500
durrrr posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Phil Ivey folds
Urindanger raises to $3,000
elmariachimacho calls $3,000
John Juanda has 15 seconds left to act
John Juanda raises to $14,500
durrrr has 15 seconds left to act
durrrr raises to $43,800
Urindanger folds
elmariachimacho has 15 seconds left to act
elmariachimacho has requested TIME
elmariachimacho folds
John Juanda has 15 seconds left to act
John Juanda has requested TIME
John Juanda raises to $137,400
elmariachimacho adds $58,177
durrrr has 15 seconds left to act
durrrr raises to $338,503.50, and is all in
John Juanda has 15 seconds left to act
John Juanda: so sick
John Juanda has requested TIME
John Juanda calls $198,636, and is all in
durrrr shows [Ah Ac]
John Juanda shows [Kc Ks]
Uncalled bet of $2,467.50 returned to durrrr
*** FLOP *** [Qc 6d 4s]
*** TURN *** [Qc 6d 4s] [Jc]
*** RIVER *** [Qc 6d 4s Jc] [Kh]
durrrr shows a pair of Aces
John Juanda shows three of a kind, Kings
John Juanda wins the pot ($678,069) with three of a kind, Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $678,072 | Rake $3
Board: [Qc 6d 4s Jc Kh]
Seat 1: elmariachimacho (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: John Juanda (small blind) showed [Kc Ks] and won ($678,069) with three of a kind, Kings
Seat 4: durrrr (big blind) showed [Ah Ac] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 5: Phil Ivey didn't bet (folded)
Seat 6: Urindanger folded before the Flop

Hand 2:
Full Tilt Poker Game #8663430189: Table RailHeaven (6 max) - $500/$1000 - No Limit Hold'em - 0:59:05 ET - 2008/10/26
Seat 1: elmariachimacho ($81,574)
Seat 2: John Juanda ($678,069)
Seat 4: durrrr ($2,467.50)
Seat 5: Phil Ivey ($341,778.50)
Seat 6: Urindanger ($256,719.50)
durrrr posts the small blind of $500
Phil Ivey posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Urindanger folds
elmariachimacho calls $1,000
John Juanda: wouw
John Juanda has 15 seconds left to act
John Juanda raises to $4,500
durrrr calls $1,967.50, and is all in
Phil Ivey raises to $16,967.50
elmariachimacho folds
John Juanda has 15 seconds left to act
John Juanda has requested TIME
John Juanda raises to $54,370
Phil Ivey has 15 seconds left to act
Phil Ivey calls $37,402.50
*** FLOP *** [Ac 5s Ts]
Phil Ivey checks
John Juanda has 15 seconds left to act
John Juanda bets $112,207.50
Phil Ivey raises to $287,408.50, and is all in
John Juanda has 15 seconds left to act
John Juanda calls $175,201
Phil Ivey shows [Td Th]
John Juanda shows [Ks 8s]
durrrr shows [Qc 7c]
*** TURN *** [Ac 5s Ts] [3c]
*** RIVER *** [Ac 5s Ts 3c] [9h]
Phil Ivey shows three of a kind, Tens
John Juanda shows Ace King high
Phil Ivey wins the side pot ($678,622) with three of a kind, Tens
durrrr shows Ace Queen high
Phil Ivey wins the main pot ($8,399.50) with three of a kind, Tens
durrrr adds $200,000
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $687,024.50 Main pot $8,402.50. Side pot $678,622. | Rake $3
Board: [Ac 5s Ts 3c 9h]
Seat 1: elmariachimacho folded before the Flop
Seat 2: John Juanda (button) showed [Ks 8s] and lost with Ace King high
Seat 4: durrrr (small blind) showed [Qc 7c] and lost with Ace Queen high
Seat 5: Phil Ivey (big blind) showed [Td Th] and won ($687,021.50) with three of a kind, Tens
Seat 6: Urindanger didn't bet (folded)

See you on the felt,

Full Tilt Poker Player Notes File

Hello,

While I am still on a poker break, I recently treated myself to one night of online poker for working so hard on my thesis research. I used my Iron Man medals on FTP to buy a $26 token. I played a NLH 6-Max KO tourney and finished 19th or 20th for a total of a little more than $100 with the several KOs that I had (each worth $4). I will leave it in there and treat myself here and there to a small game when I have some free time (which isn't all that often these days). I did play one of those Matrix tournaments which I found really awesome. If you haven't tried them, it's four SNGs for the price of one and if you are a half decent player, your risk of ruin in those is minimal and the profit can be decent too. But most of all, it's a nice bang for your buck if you just want to kick back an entertain yourself. For $1 you can play four SNGs. Not too bad.

Anyway, this post was about something that I found amazing about the new player notes file format on Full Tilt Poker. They have converted to an XML file format (it's about freakin' time). What this means is that you can now transfer your player notes from one computer to another with ease and even from one account to the next. I can also see them being posted online which may not be so great. All I need is the whole world to have a note on me saying how badly I played that 6-2o from OOP all-in. But the benefits outweigh the possible downsides. While I play more than 95% of my poker on my laptop, I occasionally play on my desktop and now I can finally transfer my notes. Also, my main laptop was out of commission for some time and I used a temp. I built up a lot of notes over the two months that I used the temp so now I can transfer those over. I suppose one can even trade notes with friends as well as others online and build up a notes database that can potentially give you information on tens of thousands of players. To see the file, check your Full Tilt Poker install folder for a file that is your user name and ends in .xml. For example, mine is located in the folder C:\Program Files\Full Tilt Poker\Tom Jefferson.xml.

Update: ohcaptain commented that FTP may have protections against editing the XML file. After reading his comment I began to wonder. I had not actually tried editing the XML before writing this post. So, test I did. Here's how it's done (it really isn't complicated at all). After locating the XML, open it in an XML editor or other HTML specific editor (not Word, Wordpad or Notepad). If you don't have one you can download some freebies on online (search xml editor or html editor). When you open the file you will see the following text.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Do not edit this file -->
<PLAYERDATA version="1.0" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/schemas/client http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/schemas/client/PlayerNotes.xsd" xmlns="http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/schemas/client" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
NOTES>
<NOTE PlayerId="Player1" ColourIx="4" Text="Loose-aggresive player." />
<NOTE PlayerId="Player2" ColourIx="7" Text="Tight player." />
<NOTE PlayerId="Player3" ColourIx="7" Text="Newb." />
<NOTE PlayerId="Player4" ColourIx="7" Text="Overbets river when bluffing." />
</NOTES>
</PLAYERDATA>

Each <NOTE> "tag" had a PlayerId attribute. All you have to do is add new lines to the file. Make sure that you type the lines exactly as is. If you are not XML savvy it would be best to copy an existing line and simply update the attributes with new data. The ColourIx attribute is used for the color that you assign to each type of player. I don't know what number represents each color but if I am really bored one day I will test it out and post it. Don't keep your hopes up though. The Text attribute is the note itself. You can write whatever you wish here. There is one caveat, however. Certain characters need to be represented by their hexadecimal codes. For example, you can't simply use the "&" symbol. You must use &amp; to represent it. There are many such examples and you can look this up online. A good basic resource is http://www.w3schools.com/xml/default.asp.

And the kicker (no pun intendted). You must have the FTP software closed when you are updating the file. If FTP is open it will erase all your updates when you close the software and reopen it. There is a reason for this but it's probably pretty boring to most people reading this. So remember, close FTP if it is opened (that includes the lobby not just game windows) and edit away. Enjoy! Hope this helps. If you have any questions, shoot me a comment.

See you on the felt,