TT Deep in the Sunday Million…

Let me preface the hand with how things have been going and my reads:

I know SHANI as a cash game player. He plays a fairly tight/aggressive game, but I don’t know what his tournament style is exactly. I moved to his table about 20 hands ago and he has opened a couple pots and made a re-shove once against a LP raiser.

I have been playing aggressive and raising the blinds a lot. I haven’t 3bet or shown down many hands from what he has seen.

PokerStars Game #11972650643: Tournament #59843192, $200+$15 Hold’em No Limit – Level XXIX (50000/100000) – 2007/09/10 – 00:32:34 (ET)
Table ‘59843192 534′ 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: skrr (3824828 in chips)
Seat 2: $harKK (3427696 in chips)
Seat 3: sandler1860 (2915000 in chips)
Seat 5: MVPAT (894747 in chips)
Seat 6: Bill Ivey (2840000 in chips)
Seat 7: SHANI (2322107 in chips)
Seat 8: stones99 (4014994 in chips)
Seat 9: falkeye (2339694 in chips)
skrr: posts the ante 10000
$harKK: posts the ante 10000
sandler1860: posts the ante 10000
MVPAT: posts the ante 10000
Bill Ivey: posts the ante 10000
SHANI: posts the ante 10000
stones99: posts the ante 10000
falkeye: posts the ante 10000
stones99: posts small blind 50000
falkeye: posts big blind 100000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Bill Ivey [Td Th]
skrr: folds
$harKK: folds
sandler1860: folds
MVPAT: folds
Bill Ivey: raises 175500 to 275500
SHANI: raises 2036607 to 2312107 and is all-in

What do you think?

Sample HH for Disucssion Request email

Hey zona crew, here is hand that i recently played in a $525 turbo 9 man sng on FTP. As you can see i had a dominating chip lead on the bubble, but im not sure if played this hand correctly. Would it have been better for me to just call and kill the bubble?

I obviously have a rediculously loose image. DHB4043 is a winning regular player and muffry and snuppi seem to be weak players.
Full Tilt Poker Game #3268573054: $525 + $30 Sit & Go (Turbo) (24991851), Table 1 – 150/300 – No Limit Hold’em – 6:52:09 ET – 2007/08/16
Seat 2: bdubs3737 (9,905)
Seat 5: DHB4043 (2,545)
Seat 7: Muffry (615)
Seat 9: snuupi33 (435)
snuupi33 posts the small blind of 150
bdubs3737 posts the big blind of 300
The button is in seat #7
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to bdubs3737 [4h 7h]
Muffry: lol?
DHB4043 folds
Muffry folds
snuupi33 raises to 435, and is all in
bdubs3737 folds
Uncalled bet of 135 returned to snuupi33
snuupi33 mucks
snuupi33 wins the pot (600)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 600 | Rake 0
Seat 2: bdubs3737 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: DHB4043 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 7: Muffry (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 9: snuupi33 (small blind) collected (600), mucked

Thanks,

Brent

Hand Analysis

We’re hoping to develop a specific Hand analysis section so that readers can submit their own Hand histories by emailing it to zonacrew@gmail.com along with a little bankground information on the players in the hand if possible (include as much info as possble).  And then every few days we will select a HH or two and post them on the site and then try to create a discussion among members about the hand hopefully getting numberous opinions from all differnt types of players.

If we get no reader participation then im sure we can find HH’s of our own to spark discussion.

I will try to post a sample of what an email should look like next.

One on One with The Leaf

Name: Mike Vann, The Leaf (stars), ownfest2k6 (ftp)

ZCB (zonacrewblog): How long have you been playing poker seriously?

The Leaf : About 2 years ago when i began talking strategy with bdubs3737 online.

ZCB: What did you play when you first began online?

The Leaf: bdubs had me grind the $5.50 9 man sngs until i had a bankroll to work with, so i did that until i had $300 behind and then was fortunate to “luckbox” a 5th in the $3 Rebuy….from there a lengend was born…..(j/k)

ZCB: Whats a normal day usually contain for you?

The Leaf: I play mostly mtts, ocassionally you can find me in any of the 180 mans on stars. I stick to lower limits although with recent success, i have been playing the $55 mtts regularly on stars and tilt

ZCB: You speak of your recent sucess, mind sharing some of your latest scores and a possible explanation for why you seem to finally be getting the $$$$$ you deserve?

The Leaf: I took 2nd in the 10$ 20k gtd for about 3k, 2nd in the $8.80 on stars for 1k, 5th and 1st in the $55 7.5k gtd on ftp in the same week for 500 and 3k, followed by a 32nd in the ftp 750k for 2.2k and a 1st in the ftp 24k gtd for 5k. I think my recent success is due to some major adjustments i have made in my game. In this agressive world of poker we compete in, the open raise/c-bet is a vital tool: however now that the lag, or agressive style has been adapted by so many players I realized it was time to re adjust my play to explot the agression. I do this by restraining my open raises to hands I am most willing to call a re shove in that given situation, instead of trying to chip up using the open raise w/semi moderate hands. However I find my image is considerably tighter when I play like that, so to further use that to my advantage, I re shove/raise moderate hands on agressive open raises. I believe w/my tight image players have to give my shove more respect.

ZCB: What has been you’re greatest poker achievement?

The Leaf: I would have to say my recent trip to TurningStone ( a casino in New York for 18+) where i was able to play and discuss poker with some of the best poker minds in the game. I also was able to final table my first major live tourny there, a $300 buy with over a hundred people.

ZCB: Do you have any poker goals you’re aiming for?

The Leaf: For some time now I’ve made it my goal to reach the top 150 on the Pokerstars TLB of the Year (im floating between 180-250 now). But my main goal is to become a winning enough player online to live and support a myself in a comfortable lifestyle.

ZCB: And finally, any advice for others who grind the mid stakes mtts?

The Leaf: although it is frustrating playing torunies with hundreds to thousands of people for minimal payouts…..well just look at aconsuma today. I guess that’s all i really need to say.