Pokerstars needs to run more $100 rebuys says Wretchy

May 3, 2009 saw Wretchy dominate some of the largest no limit hold em tournaments on the web, the $100 rebuy tournaments on PokerStars. In the first $109r, $300,000 guaranteed, Wretchy finished second after getting heads up for the title. There has been a lot of discussion in the poker forums about the chop talk after Wretchy and Mogilni were the final two. There is a lot of dispute regarding the Stars chop procedure and whether chat chop talk is binding without support present and whether the faillure to sit out voids any agreement to chop. Wretchy earned bringing in $52986.15 for finishing 2nd out of 1089 entrants. If you would like to read more about the controversy, you can read more at pocketfives.com and twoplustwo.com. Also, here is a thread by Wretchy explaining his point of view at P5s.

Wretchy bounced back from the set back to win the late PokerStars $109+R NL Hold'em tournament, $150,000 guaranteed, on 05-03-2009. Wretchy won $36518.00 for beating 539 other entrants.

Congrats Wretchy. Great play sir!

When to walk away and when to stay

Tuesday even I bled money at the tables and was crushed in the tournaments and sit-n-gos. I was really frustrated and discouraged and was looking forward to a fresh start on Wednesday.
Wednesday started off the same way. I lost half my cash game buy in what seemed like two hands but was really a couple of rounds. So I signed up for a couple of sit-n-gos. In less than two minutes time, my flopped two pair was drawn out on to elimate me.
I turned off the computer and walked away. Briefly I understood the reason why people believe internet poker is rigged. Tuesday's bad beats made the feeling exponentially worse. I turned on the TV. I tried not to think about it. But, I couldn't.
I hate to lose. Bad results bother me. Then it dawned on me, bad play should bother me. Bad results shouldn't be a problem that lingers. I thought back to Tuesday's blood bath. Cash game. Cut off tried to steal my big blind. I flopped good and re-raised him. Flop missed him. I put him in. He called. I was right he had a bare ace and a gutshot. I was right, the river was wrong. Ace for the joker.
Bad result is not the same as bad play. Now tilting off another buy-in after that was wrong. Aggressive for aggressive's sake won't usually get the job done. I thought about the plays that busted me out of the sit-n-gos. Kings ran up against Aces.
Bad luck, not a bad play.
AK all-in vs A9. 9 hits the flop.
Bad luck. Bad result.
When the breaks go against you, it is hard to believe that the breaks will even out or that good play will eventually make up the difference. But I remembered some pretty good advice I read, don't quit playing because you have lost or are down, quit playing because your play is off. Looking at my play, the last half of the cash game was poorly done but the tournaments were played well. I was doing a good job of deciding where I was in the hands. Playing more wouldn't be an invitation to diaster, it is what I should be doing while playing well.
Good things happened. I final tabled a sniper tournament to end the night due to a mixture of good cards, good luck and good decision making.
I really think that this is kind of a milestone in my development by consciously shifting my focus to analyze my play from a decision making perspective rather than simply looking at the results.
I hope I remember and that maybe others will get it quicker than I did.

Good luck at the tables.

FTOPS

May will see me enter my first FTOPS event. I entered a seven card stud high low tournament earlier. I didn't realize it was a satellite event for the FTOPS. There weren't many entrants in the tournament but I was able to win one of two satellite entries. I am pretty happy to say the least.

Congrats to Tranquil Chaos and WVUManiac2

Congrats to Jacob,who playing as wvumaniac2, made the final table in the FullTiltPoker $35,000 Guarantee on 04-07-2009. Jacob won $2922.24 for finishing 4th out of 1522 players. Extremely well played sir!


Congrats also go out to Devin "TranquilChaos" Porter. Devin playing as "tobias fuke" on Pokerstars, final tabled the PokerStars $109 NL Hold'em [|$50,000 guaranteed|] on 04-07-2009. Mr. Porter won $1620.00 for finishing 8th out of 720 runners. Great job Devin!

Great night for members of Pocketfives.com

Another great evening for members of the Off Topic section of Pocketfives.com on the virtual felt.

Agriffrod made the final table in the PokerStars 25K guaranteed $109 NLHE. He took home $916.50 for finishing 9th out of 611.

Wein, playing under his screen name of ChasingIdiot at FullTiltPoker, finished 4th of 248 in the $33K $50 + 1 rebuy +1 addon. Wein took a horrible beat when his AQ lost to A7 all in pre-flop or it is the reporter's opinion he would have won the tourney.

Mathclub final tabled the UltimateBet Bounty 10K Guaranteed. He won $850.00 for finishing 4th out of 199.