Don't forget to over bet

I would be remiss not to at least suggest that at some point in any tourney that a healthy over bet is worth while. Now every once in a while some straggler will struggle but will eventually call and look you up. Just make sure you have at least a hand that is capable of breaking a far superior hand. I like to choose suited connectors in those situations. The cool part about a couple overbets is that when you go have the buts, there is a good chance that Someone will call and pay you off big time!

First 2015 Tourney Win

So, " everyone" knows how one has to have a slew of hands that they have to win but are not supposed to in tournament play. Meaning your Ace/Queen beats out an A/K in a showdown to the river, or something similar where you were the underdog by a wide margin pre flop. This last weekend at   Encore Poker club was no different. I won at least three memorable hands that were showdown where I made a move and my lesser hand won out.  Example near the final with 15 left I shoved low stack with A/8 suited against  A/J and smacked the 8 taking down the pot to stay alive.

I also won an earlier showdown on an all in with K/J against A/Q and hit the Jack...

Setting all that aside, There was some post flop play that i don't count as part of the action that does not fit the above showdown preflop category... Like bluffing the river inducing a fold twice and also floating second pair to smash two pairs or trip up.... All that to say this. I had a couple of  hecklers at the other end of a table I was at. One of which I played against in a Deepstacks WPT event on the Oregon Coast at Chinook Winds Casino. There was a hand that I severely crippled him as a final table player with A/7 against his A/J all in preflop. I got lucky when I made the wrong move against him there. A Bad move that ended up sending him home several hands later...tilted.

Suffice it to say he was one of the ones at the other end of my table when I floated a second flopped pair against him to nut up... His tilt behavior was fine, (note; I actually like the guy) but I am sure he has no love loss for me. But what I didn't like was him employing the guy next to him to join in the banter.... "keep on playing like that and see how far it gets you" he would say.  Needless to say, I did keep to my strategy and it paid at the end and neither of them were in sight to see it... Long gone before that as my poker Karma kept finding ways to take advantage and knocking them out in one heroic hand with flopped nuts and them hitting the bottom end with second best... Sorry bud! You gotta know thats how this thing works... Best pre flop hands are not always winners.

I so much wanted to tell the banter partner that what he was saying in a nutshell- is that I would win with his starting hands and he would be losing with mine if he played them differently...? Sorry but you do the best you can with what you are delt my friend, and if you would be the folder in my situations.....You would of went out sooner than you already did.....

Until next round_

You know who-

Floating bottom pair

I wanted to write about floating with bottom pair and the brilliance of getting paid big when you hit that second pair by the turn it river.,. I have been able to do it successfully many times since starting my serious circuit play. However, poker karma seemed to catch up to me at encore the other day. I was utilizing this a bit to much the last time out. The floater got floated and I ended up with second best a few to many times. Lower two pair against a bigger two and even sets. Not good! There is always a danger floating, even more so if your second card is also your opponents...

Portland Oregon poker clubs

Encore poker club in Portland Oregon is one of my favorite places to play tourney games. Usually I have to get there an hour earlier than I want to because parking is among the worst of any club I have ever played at. It is more of a logistical city issue than the clubs fault. The city used to give passes that you could buy for the two hour parking zone so you could pArk the whole day. The city stopped giving the club passes... They probably found out that they make more money just giving tickets while peoe try and play musical chairs trying to move cars to different blocks...makes total sense.. 

Other than that, the club has the most guarantees of any club in portlandia.

Another, cool club feature is their full service bar and food menu. To date it hasn't been topped at any other club yet.. ( clubs take note) being that food and drink is every clubs main income over door fees that barely keep the lights on at most clubs.  Design a club around the money maker for success obviously.

There are a couple beneficial upgrades needed, aside from parking. The shoot out tables and final table need the best chairs they can find... Just me, but that is a huge deal to most people thT play regularly. Next would be a small bar charging station for wireless devices. Players utilize those a lot.

Encore also has really big weekly guarantees that dwarf the smaller clubs..

Yeah the comp is much stronger, but the value is there( if you make the final table) otherwise the hour shootouts are best bet....

Time passes again

Three month into 2015 and no big tourney wins.. What's up with that? Oh well,the cash game has been strong and mist pros build their stacks to play the occasional mine field of tourneys and sneak out a win or two..,

WSOP or bust...

I'm raising money for WSOP Travel or bust. Click to Donate: http://www.gofundme.com/mlr7z0 #gofundme

One of my favorite Video clips