Stepping My Way To The WSOP

Full Tilt recently introduced their "Steps" SNGs whereby you work your way up seven different steps with the ultimate goal being to win a Step 7 SNG and shipping a 12K WSOP Main Event prize package.

Phew, what a mouthful.

It's all right here actually if you don't know/want to know how it works.

So basically I've gotten pretty excited about this. I love the idea of starting at a small level and working your way up using nothing but your initial equity and equity you accumulate. It's the very foundation of how I approach poker tournaments. I start small, follow BR management, and work my way up through time and effort. 

Obviously I have a plan of action for my Steps approach. I mean, that's pretty much what I do with my life... I sit around and I plan things out and try to figure out the safest/most efficient way to do things.

Anyway, here's what I'm thinking:

Fact One: Full Tilt will be running this promotion until June 27th. This gives me 66 days (and ten Sundays).

Fact Two: The closer we get to the start of the Main Event (on July 5th) the more +EV these steps will be.

Fact Three: All Sundays between now and the end of this promotion will be very +EV for these Steps.

With these three facts in mind, I've tentatively formulated the following plan:

Every night when I start my session I'll load up one Step 4 SNG. I will play until one of two things happen:

1) I win a $640 Step 6 Ticket or
2) I have no more Steps Tickets to play from the initial Step 4 Ticket.

I will save any Step 6 Tickets for Sundays.

On Sundays, if I have any Step 6 tickets, I will use them. If I didn't start the day with any Step 6 Tickets (or if I bust any Step 6 Tickets) I will play Step 4.

I may or may not play multiple Step 4s if I bust, depending on what else is happening with my Sunday.

So that's it. Oh and also there is the 150-Seat Tourney ($640 or Step 6 Ticket) on Sunday, June 20th. I'll probably be in this whether I have won a seat by then or not (it's just so +EV). After all, I have to defend my win in that from last year ;)

K so I'll obv track all my Steps data and post it every now and then on my blog.

Also I've recently become aware of Liv Boeree, winner of EPT San Remo and 1.25 Million Euros.

I'm already a huge fan of Brains AND Beauty but when they come in one incredible, poker-skilled package I lose my mind.

This British girl, in addition to already being a model and skilled guitarist, has a degree in Astrophysics from The University of Manchester in England. That's right, she's a scientist.

At just 25, she has a very promising life ahead of her.

Best of luck to her as she has a house built in Vegas and proceeds to crush poker here in the States. Hey, maybe while she's at it, she can figure out what all the fuss is over Dark Matter :)

First UB Win

Last night I made my first final table on UB and shipped it! It was the 8pm $66 Deepstack 10k Guarantee.

My AKo lost to QJo on the FT bubble and I limped into the FT with 7 BBs and 9/9. I had very little expectations obv.

Once again, it just goes to show you never know in this game and you just gotta keep making good decisions.

I'm really excited about the nightly midstakes schedule on UB and I think I'll be shipping several tourneys over there with the fields being pretty small.

I'm up to just under 24K profit on the year right now.

Sunday $3r Chop

In my last post I threw out my new Sunday schedule. Today I played it but I also added the 11:30am $10c and 12:30 $3r.

It's a good thing too cause my day was awful except for chopping the $3r.

It was a crazy tourney and there's much I don't remember but I do remember that there weren't many weak players down the stretch. I remember being really patient and picking my spots.

When we got to four players the eventual winner had a massive chip lead. We played four-handed for a long time, all four of us being quite savvy in tourney play.

My patience paid off though and I entered heads-up play with 4.8 million chips to his 6.6 million. I still can't believe how many chips were in play.

Anyway we played a few hands then I decided to take a look at some numbers. 1st paid 4.6k and 2nd paid 3k. Being as this guy was pretty good and taking more risks I decided to ICM chop it for 3.6K and leave $100 in the prize pool (exactly like my $10r chop a few days ago). The only difference was I lost in heads-up play.

No regrets though.With almost 2,400 players in the field and being 705 hands and eight hours into the tourney I opted for the nice 3.6k payday.

I also went pretty deep in the Daily Ninety Grand on Stars but ran my A9o and 7ish blinds into AA. Oh well. I'll hit something there someday.

The good news is I finally broke over the 20K profit hump for the year!

I'm sitting at 21.1k profit after 1,051 tourneys so far this year. I'm pretty happy with where I'm at right now in terms of my 100k profit goal.

More to come.

$10r Chop/Win

I ICM chopped the 10r HU on Full Tilt last night as a 1.5:1.1 underdog in chips. We played it out for an extra $100 and for PLBs and I shipped it after my AQo outdrew his 99. I felt he was a good enough player that chopping was a smart move and indeed it did come down to flippage.

I picked up $3,232.50 total, my first decent score in quite some time.

I also ran real deep in the 50/50 last night and had a good stack at a couple points but busted 25th after dual blows of running 1010 into KK then AQo into QQ. Sigh. You need to hit some of those two or three outers down the stretch sometimes to win MTTs.

Last night was my first real night back at MTTs in a while actually. My comp went busto and basically had to be rebuilt which took a few days.

In my last post I mentioned how excited I was about my new Sunday Midstakes Schedule. Here it is:

Noon    $109
Noon    $26
1:00pm $75 6max
2:00pm $26
2:30pm $20r
3:00pm $163
3:00pm $26

3:00pm $55 (Daily Ninety Grand on Stars)

3:30pm $55 Satt to 750K
4:00pm $75
4:22pm $22 Double Deuce

It's about a $715 schedule and while it doesn't contain any of the $200 Majors it certainly is crammed with plenty of 'Midstakes Majors' imo. I played it last Sunday and was overwhelmed with how fishy it was.

So I continue on this year. Hopefully soon I can break over this 20K hump I've been stuck at for a awhile.

Gl out there.

March Recap

In my last post I said I wanted to have 350 MTTs in for March.

Ironically I got in exactly 350 MTTs. I hope to be able to put in this kind of volume every month.

The month ended at +$4,847.01

I FTd the 10r, 20r, both late $75s, and the $30c along with several non-guarantee $11 tourneys. Pretty decent month overall and just goes to show that when I put in the volume good things happen.

I've come up with a midstakes Sunday schedule that I'm really excited about.

I'll get more into it later cause I'm really tired right now.

Keep your heads up out there guys, good things happen to ppl who work for them :)