Snafzg's Rabbit Hole

So close to my first league title (a bad beat story)

So our main event game took place on Saturday and I finished in 3rd. In the money? Yes. All the glory? No. I was so close to finishing 2nd at least, but I suffered two bad beats when we were 3-handed and I got knocked out.

Let's quickly recap how the game went: almost perfectly!

I started the game with 60,500 chips. This amounted to a 10,000 chip lead over the second place stack and a 25,000 lead over most of the other stacks. I dominated the two short stacks by 40,000.

At one point I was up to 140k. How did I get there? Two monster pots!

Pot 1

I'm sitting around 65k with A3 of spades on the button (blinds 1,000/2,000). Two other players and myself limp and the BB raises to 6,000. Both others fold and I call. The flop comes rag-rag-rag with two spades. The BB bets out 6,000 and I call. The turn pairs the board (8s). He bets out 3,500 (weird...) and I call. The river is a blank, busting my flush draw. He bets out 6,500. Slowly and calmy I play with my chips and announce a 12,000 raise.  He hums and haws a sec then folds. The table starts chirping how I obviously had it and that it was a good fold so I show my busted flush draw bluff. I got a bit of respect after that one.

Pot 2

I'm at around 85k with K-10 of hearts and we get four limpers in a pot (1,500/3,000 blinds). The flop comes rag-rag-rag with two hearts. I'm under the gun, and bet out 6,000. UTG+1 raises to 18,000. Both others fold. I call on the draw. The turn comes a K. I bet out 6,000 again because my outs just got better. The guy raises 6,000 more. Why do these guys bet smaller on the turn? No idea! Obviously, I call. The river comes a heart, making my K-high flush. I check like a sneaky little bugger and he bets out 10,000. I put him all-in and he folds two-pair face up with over 3/4 of his chips in the pot. Yowzers.

So, I maintained my lead until we got 5-handed, playing very few pots unless I was in good position. At that point I took my first big hit. A short-stack shipped it preflop with 77 and I called with 55. Hilariously, someone with 10-10 folded and would have hit quads. She was actually supposed to act before me, which was annoying because I wouldn't have been in that pot if she'd called first. Gutless! That one cost me $25,000.

I maintained a slow and steady pace winning and losing small pots until we got 3-handed. Sadly, I was in 3rd place.

I took down a 35,000 pot with a middle pair all-in semibluff, which put me into second place.

We entered a 3-way family pot. The flop came K-8-5 with two hearts and all of us hit a piece! The short stack bet out 12,000 on the flop and I folded my 8-9 offsuit. The chip leader went all-in with K-2 and found himself up against A-5 offsuit when the short stack called. K-2 was ahead and in great shape until a heart came on the turn... and another came on the river. The short stack hit a runner-runner straight. I gagged almost as loudly as the chip leader who was now bumped down to 3rd place.

Here's where my first of two bad races happened.

I got K-J in the small blind and pushed the short stack all in. He called with K-6 offsuit and hit his own four-card flush. Brutal.

Then I got A-3 in the small blind again and pushed all in against him again. He called with K-4 offsuit and hit a ****ing 4. And with that, I was out of the main event in 3rd place.

Five hours of gruelling poker to have it end like that was a bit disheartening but what can you do? Bad beats happen and I guess that's what makes the game exciting. It was a great season, and at least I can claim back-to-back season champion status.

Our next season starts on Wednesday, so we'll see if I can make it three in a row!

And your season 4 chip leader is...

None other than yours truly!

After 11 games, I finally managed to win our poker league's 4th regular season last night. Week 9 I finished 6th (of 13), week 10 I finished 3rd (of 11), and week 11 I finished 3rd (of 14). My total chip stack going into this Saturday's main event is 60,500. I'm over 10,000 chips ahead of 2nd place, 16,000 ahead of 3rd and 4th, and the rest are 20,000-40,000 behind me. So basically, I'm in pretty good shape.

On top of making a pretty healthy regular season profit of $250 over 11 games, I won another $50 prize for finishing first place overall. $300 over 11 games is roughly $30 profit per game. That's not so great when you break it down hourly (each game is about 4 hours), but at least I can consider myself a "winning" player.

Our main event takes place this Saturday. We've been collecting $5 per player per regular season game in a side pot for this game and now we're up to $700 total prize money. To beef that up even more, there's an additional $30 buy-in to play the main event and we've got 11 people confirmed so far, which brings our grand total up to $1030.

If we split that 3 ways, the payouts will be $530 for 1st, $300 for 2nd, and $200 for 3rd.

I feel pretty confident in my chances, but I can't ignore the fact that the regular season champion has never won a main event; even with a commanding chip lead. I won last season and only managed to finish 3rd in the main event (out of 18). It was a cash, but still...

I really don't want to change what's been working for me all season long. That said, the main event is a different kind of monster because the blinds are 33% longer and everyone starts with vastly different stack sizes. And of course the stakes are a lot higher, so people tend to bring their A-game.

The short stacks are generally looking for a double-up and putting pressure on the big stacks. The big stacks are often a lot more loose with their money trying to bully people around but sometimes they tighten right up, afraid to take reasonable risks. Even though you're starting at 100-200 blinds, those early pots tend to get big due to the larger amount of chips in play than in a normal game. A typical raise is 3x the big blind. These main event raises are usually 4-6x the big blind.

The dynamic is just much different and you need to shift your gears properly or you'll be left in the dust. While I'm mentally preparing myself for the challenges ahead, I'm not formulating much of a gameplan because I want to remain flexible to whatever comes my way.

About the only thing I'm going to try to avoid is bleeding away my chip lead early because I feel like gambling. I've seen it happen too many times and it just doesn't work well for chip leaders in our main events. Wish me luck! :)

Quick poker updates

Ack, I just realized I haven't written up my weekly poker summaries (not that any of you probably care, hehe). Here's a quick two-for-one covering the past couple games, both of which were awesome!

Last week: I ended up placing 2nd of 13 with a pretty basic "fold to the money" strategy. I had a couple ups and downs but didn't really get going until we were 5-handed. At that point I managed to win a couple nice pots. The first was a 33% stack increase with trips and the second was a call of the short-stack's all-in with pocket queens that held up that nearly doubled me up.

By the time we were three-handed I was the short stack with about 25% of the chips in play. Fortunately, the two big stacks kept going after each other and I sat back and watched patiently. They eventually had an all-in moment and the shorter stack of the two was eliminated in 3rd place.

I was now at a chip disadvantage but a single double-up would get me even with him. Rather than doubling up through an all-in I did it by winning several modest pots instead. Ultimately, it didn't matter much as I ended up pushing all-in on a flush draw when he had top pair. His hand held up and that was all she wrote.

This week: I managed to take 1st place of 12 this week, which makes me tied for 1st place overall in our league with only three weeks left in the season! This game went much much different. I got huge early and stayed huge the whole game.

If someone had a flush, my flush was better. If someone had two-pair, my two-pair was better. If someone had a straight, I had a flush. If someone had trips, I had a straight.  I literally came out ahead in 90% of the pots I played and when you're on that kind of roll, you're unstoppable.

The sickest hand of the night? The BB goes all-in blind for 2,700 at 400/800 blinds, which technically isn't allowed but we let it slide. I called with A-10 suited and three other callers came along. The flop comes A-10-10, which gave me a monster! I check, the guy to my left goes all-in for 26,000, the next guy folds, the last guy calls and has about 30k back.

Here's where I made an error. In my pant-peeing excitement, I instantly pushed all-in, which put him all-in. His face dropped, he gave me a suspicious look, which I can only expect revealed my glee, and he folded.

The initial guy had nothing, the flop pusher had Q-10, and the guy I pushed out had A-Q. What came on the turn? A queen. If I had just called on the flop and checked the turn I think the other guy would have shipped it and I would have won all his money too. Oh well, I still won an 85k pot there and had almost half the chips in play.

When I got to heads up, my opponent was up about 40k in chips (140k to my 100k) but over the next 25 minutes of patient play with small ups and downs I managed to cripple him with a straight. I put him all-in for 25k with J-8 offsuit against his pocket 4s and hit another straight to win it.

So, with 3 weeks left in this season I am tied for 1st place with 44.5k points (points convert to chips in the main event game). The 3rd place person is sitting 10k behind us at 34k, so we have a very nice lead. My main goal now is to outgrind my co-leader and earn my second straight 1st place season finish.

The prize? A huge stack for the main event game and a free buy-in. Woot.

Week 1: 3rd place of 12 ($15 profit / 6,500 points)
Week 2: 9th place of 12 ($15 loss / 1,000 points)
Week 3: 7th place of 13 ($15 loss / 2,000 points)
Week 4: 3rd place of 13 ($15 profit / 6,500 points)
Week 5: 1st place of 12 ($75 profit / 10,000 points)
Week 6: 11th place of 11 ($15 loss / 500 points)
Week 7: 2nd place of 13 ($50 profit / 8,000 points)
Week 8: 1st place of 12 ($85 profit / 10,000 points)

Total profit: $195
Total points: 44,500

Hold 'Em or Fold 'Em? S04E06

Fun story: My friend calls me at work on Wednesday morning asking if I'm excited to play poker tonight. I tell him, "Not really. I just feel like chilling at home tonight. Oh well, I'll just show up and play super aggressive. It will either work out well or it won't."

It didn't.

I promised myself I would ship it on any board that isn't too frightening with a trips or better. I got busted out 5th hand of the night with a flush.

So I'm dealt 10-7 of diamonds in the small blind. UTG smooth calls (he had QQ), the cut off calls (he had A9), I call 100 more (blinds 100/200), and the BB checks. The flop comes A-9-4 with two diamonds. I bet 600, the BB folds, UTG calls, and so does the cut off. Turn comes another A. I bet out 1200 and both call. River comes Q of diamonds. I bet 1600, UTG raises to 3k, and the cut-off raises to 9k.

Okay... let's stop to analyze, which I should have done more thoroughly at the time! What should I do here? Probably fold! The most aggressive thing I should do is call to see if my hand is good, but I should never ship it unless I was absolutely certain they had NOTHING.

Why should I fold? Well, there was a raise and a re-raise on my initial bet on a paired and flush board. Most of the time I'm way behind here. Their bets are telling me I'm way behind. Why should I call? If I'm behind most of the time in this situation, a call is much better option on the rare chance that I'm good.  At least I won't blow through my entire stack. I would have had about 7k left.

But hey, I made myself that promise earlier in the night. I didn't want to be there and I actually really just wanted to be at home. An all-in here should tell these fools I have the nuts, right? There's a good chance I could make them fold with a four-bet.

Unless of course one of them had the nuts.

Oops.

Got caught.

I shipped it, the UTG hummed and hawed but he called it, and so did the cut-off with the ACTUAL nuts. He must have been giddy as shit seeing us count up our chips for him.

My 10-7 flush was crushed by UTG's queens full house, which was crushed by the cutt off's aces full house.

Stupidly aggressive play, but hey, that's what I said I was going to do, right?

I should have stayed home and saved myself the 30 minutes of driving and $20 cash. Next time I don't feel like playing, I won't. Lesson learned.

Week 1: 3rd place of 12 ($15 profit / 6,500 points)
Week 2: 9th place of 12 ($15 loss / 1,000 points)
Week 3: 7th place of 13 ($15 loss / 2,000 points)
Week 4: 3rd place of 13 ($15 profit / 6,500 points)
Week 5: 1st place of 12 ($75 profit / 10,000 points)
Week 6: 11th place of 11 ($15 loss / 500 points)

Hold 'Em or Fold 'Em? S04E05 (First place, baby!)

I finally took it down this week, finishing 1st out of 12 players! This netted me a cool $75 and, most importantly, 10,000 points to add to my league season total. As of right now I'm sitting pretty in 2nd place in league standings, a mere 500 points behind the front-runner.

The game!

Things were going so-so for me until we got 7-handed, which is when things really started happening. Up until that point my stack was fluxuating between 20 and 35k chips (starting with 20k as always). My first big hand went like so:

I was dealt 77 and limped from early position at 800/1,600 blinds. The person to my left min-raised to 3,200 and there were was a flat call from the chip leader plus the free money from the SB and BB who folded before it got back to me.  Obviously I called the 1,600 more.

The flop came down 4-5-6 rainbow. I bet out 4,000 and the guy to my left shipped it for about 16,000 more. The flat caller pre-flop was really thinking about making the call or shoving himself but eventually folded. I pretty much snap-called with an over pair and open-ended straight draw. He turned over A-K suited. Luckily, nothing came for him and I took a huge pot. He was eliminated.

Nothing too interesting happened until we got 4-handed. There was a huge chip leader with about 50% of the chips in play, a short stack with about 5%, and two of us with pretty even stacks at 22.5% each. We were on the bubble and I was feeling pretty confident that I would at least cash.

Here's how my most important pot of the night happened. I was dealt Q-6 of hearts in the SB at 1,500/3,000 blinds. Both guys to my right flat called, so I figured I might as well come along too. The BB was the chip leader and I was fearing a big raise to punish our weakness but he checked. Family pot! :)

The flop came down 9-Q-5 with two hearts. I had top pair with a flush draw. I bet out 4,500 and the two guys to my left folded. The dealer pushed all-in and I snap-called again thinking I was huge. Unfortunately, he turned over 9-9 for trips and a number of my outs were no good! I could no longer hit a Q or 6 and only a heart with no paired board would give me the win. Luckily, the turn was a 4 of hearts and the river didn't pair the board, which would have given him a full house. I just had him covered for chips, so it was a near double-up and elimination victory.

The bubble was burst and I was almost even with the chip leader!

It didn't take long for the two of us to call the short stack's all-in and check it down for the easier elimination. The chip leader won the pot giving him a slightly bigger lead with 55% of the chips to my 45%.

We played small-ball poker back and forth for about 20 minutes and the chip lead exchanged hands several times. Eventually, he started whittling me down and it wasn't looking very good. The lowest I got was about 25% of the chips in play to his 75%.

I took a stand calling one of his frequent all-ins with 6-7 of diamonds hoping my cards were live at the very least. It turns out my hand was dominated against his 9-6 off-suit (no diamonds). This is when lady luck struck again and the flop came with two diamonds giving me flush potential. Hilariously, there were 5 diamonds on board by the river and I made a straight-flush.

Double-up ftw! We were pretty much back to even again. He won the next couple blinds, putting him slightly ahead but fireworks happened soon again.

Blinds were 5,000/10,000 and I was dealt J-8 of diamonds. I called from the small blind and he checked. The flop came 10-4-2 all diamonds, which made my flush. He bet out 15,000 and I re-raised another 15,000. He re-raised 20,000 more on top and I shoved it all in. He made a sour face and called saying he was pot committed. I didn't think he was, especially when he turned over 10-3 offsuit with no diamonds and was drawing pretty much dead. He could only win with a runner-runner full house and it didn't come (what are the odds there, like 2%?).

This left him with a mere 20,000 chips to my 220,000. A couple hands later I pushed with J-7 offsuit and he called with K-10 offsuit. I hit a lucky 7, he missed, and that was all she wrote.

It's nice to get my first big win of the season and I'm pretty pumped for next week. I'm neck and neck with the league-leader and there are a couple people behind us in close pursuit. The race is on!

Week 1: 3rd place of 12 ($15 profit / 6,500 points)
Week 2: 9th place of 12 ($15 loss / 1,000 points)
Week 3: 7th place of 13 ($15 loss / 2,000 points)
Week 4: 3rd place of 13 ($15 profit / 6,500 points)
Week 5: 1st place of 12 ($75 profit / 10,000 points)

Total profit/loss: +$75
Total points: 26,000 (2nd place in league standings)

Hold 'Em or Fold 'Em? S04E04

Sorry for the delay on this week 4 wrap-up. There won't be any hand replays this post mostly because there weren't many interesting hands to share! I ended up finishing in 3rd place out of 13.

A few big pots were won, mostly just by having the goods against people bluffing into me. I didn't make any hero calls or put too much pressure on others. I was sitting in pretty good shape with 6 players left, but the blinds started getting very large and I went card-dead. By the time we were 4-handed, there were two large stacks and two short stacks (myself included in the latter).

At this point I'd like to write a little bit about bubble mentality. The bubble occurs when there is one more player than there are places played. For example, if you're paying out 3 places, then 4-handed is "on the bubble." The first player to go out 4-handed becomes the bubble-boy (or girl), because they finished one place out of the money.

Generally, players tend to tighten up when they're on the bubble because they don't want to play marginal hand that might get them eliminated. A player might raise with a weak ace or connector on the bubble but he's probably not going to call a raise in front of him.

As the chip leader, it's your duty to exploit this tightness. How many monster hands are usually dealt out 4-handed? Not too many. In fact, the fewer players in the game, the lower the chance a big hand will be dealt out. Aggressive play is rewarded the most on the bubble because the blinds are big, people are less likely to have a calling hand, and they're playing much tighter because they don't want to be eliminated from the prize money. It's unlikely you'll pick up a caller let alone a re-raise, so why not chase that free money?

This is basically what happened to me in this game. Blinds were 2500/5000 and two of us were on the short stack with about 35k chips (the others around 80k and 110k). Neither of us wanted to get cracked first, so we were playing just to outlast each other and get into the money (and earn more league points in this case). Our blinds were raised every single time and we couldn't call because our hands were just brutal.

I managed to get a big ace on the button, so I went all in. The two chip leaders folded, earning me both blinds.  I was now a little bit ahead of my short stacked compadre. On her next big blind the small blind chip leader put her all in. She called with J-9 suited because she had to (she only had 4 BBs left). He had Q-3 offsuit and ended up tripping his queens. I was in the money!

I got absolute crap the next two rounds and eventually pushed my miniscule stack with 10-5 offsuit. I ran into A-K suited and neither of us hit, so he won with bigger high cards. This game was a good reminder of how paralyzing it can be when you're the short stack on the bubble. Against better judgement you tighten up and eventually get burned down even more.

Week 1: 3rd place of 12 ($20 profit / 6500 points)
Week 2: 9th place of 12 ($15 loss / 1000 points)
Week 3: 7th place of 13 ($15 loss / 2000 points)
Week 4: 3rd place of 13 ($20 profit / 6500 points)

Hold 'Em or Fold 'Em? S04E03

(Warning, you need to visit my site to see the hand replays).

Things started off so well last night. I really felt like I was zoned in and managed to build my stack up to 43k (from its 20k start) before a single person was eliminated. I actually did it playing crappy cards too (95 offsuit, 86 offsuit, 97 suited)!

In one big pot I made a pretty loose call against the chip leader on the flop. He'd been extremely aggressive all night turning over bluff after bluff, weak holding over weak holding. At this point I just wasn't giving him credit and knew that if I made my hand I'd get paid off big time. It was still early game with 13 players total and our table had 6 people.

I was pretty happy with that one. His 1200 bet and Leeanne's call into a 3200 chip pot was definitely worth calling to see if I could hit a 9, 6, or heart on the turn. I could get away from the hand cheaply if I didn't hit, but at this point I was getting almost 5 to 1 on my money and had a 1 in 4 (28%) chance of hitting at least a 9 or 6. I knew I'd get paid if I hit my 9, 6, or flush (by the river), so the implied odds were even greater.

Winning this hand made me the chip leader at my table, so I shifted gears to bully mode. The very next hand I picked up 7200 more chips with an AJ offsuit bluff on a raggedy flop that paired on the turn. Too bad I got cocky and showed that bluff... that's when things started going down hill! I almost never show my hand unless I have to and I recommend you don't either!

I quickly doubled up the two short stacks at my table when they reraised me all-in, draining 13k from my holdings. Both calls were somewhat loose (KJ/QJ), but I had a 40% chance to win each of them preflop. I just couldn't get lucky.

Also, the guy to my right annoyingly raised from the small blind on my big blind every chance he got. Each time I had calling hands (K10 suited, QJ offsuit). Hilariously, I never saw him look at his cards preflop... he'd just raise in the dark. I should have re-popped him because each time the flop came I wouldn't connect and he'd make an automatic continuation bet.

So anyway, I went to final table with about 24k chips from my high point of 43.2k. I won a couple small pots and then this hand happened. I was BB with 43 offsuit and two limpers came along. The guy in late position had about 13k in chips and the SB had me covered. The flop was 425 rainbow making me open-ended with middle pair.

I don't want to say DONKEY here... but the guy is pretty short stacked and he limps with AQ suited? He misses the flop yet calls a $3000 bet (~30% of his stack) with only over cards and a gut shot? At best he thinks he has 10 outs (3xA, 3xQ, 4x3). In reality, he has 6 outs or less. His ace is dead because pairing it would give me a straight and I have one of the 3s he needs for his gut shot. Who knows who else folded a 3 or Q.

So this hand kind of pissed me off. I would have respected a shove instead of a call on the flop, which I still would have called because I'd have so many outs. But just a call? That just shows how weak he was playing and how lucky he got.

One round and a few hands later I get QQ when he's in the BB. "Time for a little revenge" I think, so I raise 3x the BB hoping for a caller and pick up two, including him. As long as I don't see an ace, king, or 3-card suited board that I don't have a piece of I'm going to ship it on the flop. Grrr...

So what could I have done differently there? I guess I should have shipped it all in pre-flop been happy with the blinds. I mean, I was pretty short stacked at the time (7BB) and I really don't think anything but A10 or higher would have called me. I could have actually beaten A10 or better...

But I made it cheap enough for Paul D to defend his BB with K10 suited. I can't fault him for that because I would have done the same. I probably would have called the all-in too with an over and a flush draw. The hand was basically 52% to 48% in my favour (36% for his flush draw + 12% for his king), which isn't really how you want to get it all in. Having a heart in my hand gave me a small glimmer of hope, having taken away one of his outs but the coin landed in his favour.

I'm not really displeased with how I played last night. I think I did very well actually, but you can't always count on the cards to come your way. In the three hands I went all-in against Paul D I was a huge favourite (75%+), tiny favourite (52%), and small dog (40%). He won every single time.  Not much you can do about that but hope for better luck next time...

Week 1: 3rd place of 12 ($20 profit / 6500 points)
Week 2: 9th place of 12 ($15 loss / 1000 points)
Week 3: 7th place of 13 ($15 loss / 2000 points)

Hold 'Em or Fold 'Em? S04E02

FYI - I wrote a post showing how our poker league is set up if you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about here...

Last night didn't go so well due to a few misplays. I was too tight when I needed to be looser and too loose when I needed to be tighter. It only takes a few bad hands for things to spiral out of control. So it goes...

As always, we started with 20,000 chips and I was down only a couple big blinds early in the game when this hand happened.

I'd seen him play a pretty wide range of hands and didn't really give him credit for an ace. A few hands earlier he preflop raised with 8h 5h and spiked two 5s on the flop. That's where most of his chips came from. Anyway, I just tried to play it safe and ended up misreading him. I could have gone broke here, but I maintained my stack of 25 big blinds.

I managed to get myself back up to 19,000 chips heading to the final table, but that's when things went downhill. Blinds were 500/1000 at this point.

I was dealt pocket 6s two hands in a row and played them badly each time. Both times I limped hoping to spike trips (not a horrible strategy but a bit more aggression could have taken at least one of the pots preflop). The first flop came with three overs [J Q A]. I bet out and got raised (lost 3400 that hand). The next flop came [5 5 8]. Instead of betting I check-called 2000 (weak). I then check-called another 2000 on the turn (weaker). Finally, I check-folded to a bet of 4000 on the river (lost 5000 that hand). I should have simply played those sixes to see trips and got the hell outta dodge when I didn't.

My last hand of the night was a bit of a doozy. I was dealt Ks Js in the small blind (blinds were 600/1200). Two people limped making the total pot 4200 with action on me. I had 600 in and should have shoved my remaining 11000ish to increase my stack by 40%. Instead, I limped too and went up against 4 people. Stupid stupid stupid.

As you can see he hit a runner-runner straight flush.  I can't be mad about how the hand played out because it went exactly like I would have wanted it to. I had squadoosh on the flop and everyone checked around. I finally picked up a decent draw on the turn (I figured any K, J, 10, or spade was good), not knowing that he had an open-ended straight flush draw. If we rivered a blank, I might not have had the guts to pull the trigger again and it would have been up to him. If he checked I would have won, but he had enough chips to make a fair sized bluff if he wanted to.

You can't really complain about losing to a straight flush in my opinion because it's just such a rare premium hand. When he called I was actually worried he had an ace-high flush (As 3s) and I still would have lost.

So yeah, not the best night on my part. I picked up a whopping 1000 points for finishing 9th, which brings my season total up to 7500. My guess is this leaves me somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Week 1: Finished 3rd (6500 points)
Week 2: Finished 9th (1000 points)

Here's hoping I do better next week!

How to run a poker league (tournament style)

Introduction

Random sit n' goes and cash games can be great adrenaline rushes and learning experiences but if you really want to step up your game, why not start a poker league? A poker league is really similar to any sports league: You play a number of games against a number of opponents and your "season" record carries over into the playoffs. You earn points depending on what place you finish in, and those points translate into bonus chips for your season's final game.

I hope this guide will provide a comprehensive overview of how to set up your very own tournament style poker league. I'll tell you exactly how our poker league is run to give you some ideas on how to create your own. Feel free to make any modifications to fit your own play style.

What you will need

Players

You're going to need a group of regular players if you want your league to be successful. In our current season, we have 16 players. Last season we had 10. The previous season we had 27! Most professionals say the perfect number of players for a non-cash game table is 9 to 10, so I wouldn't recommend dipping too far below that number. It's also good to have extras in case some people can't make it to a game. If you only have 8 people on your list and 3 people can't make it one week, that's going to make for a sorry game and it may drastically effect the regular season standings.

Cards

Our league uses two decks per table so we always have a pre-shuffled deck ready for the next hand. We found this necessary to speed up our games during the season we had 27 people signed up. Any old cards will do, but if you want high quality cards that can stand up to lots of abuse (e.g., marks, bends, liquids, etc.), I recommend plastic (cellulose asetate) playing cards such as KEM or Copag brand.

Chips

Poker chips are another must have for league play. They come in plastic, ceramic, and "clay" (compression composite) qualities. Like cards, you don't need to get too fancy here, but a decent chip is definitely more fun to play with. Our league uses very affordable 14 gram compression composite chips bought online (about $35 for 500 chips in a case). You can usually find basic plastic sets at your local Walmart or hobby store but I'd really recommend searching online because you'll get better quality chips in your preferred denominations.

You'll want to put some thought into denominations/colours and the number of chips you'll need.  Our starting stacks are 20,000 chips split into ten 100s (black), ten 500s (maroon), nine 1000s (yellow), and one 5000 (pink). Just multiply your starting chip counts by the number of players you expect to play in your league to figure out how many of each colour chip you need. We can seat 15 players per 500 chip set (150 black, 150 maroon, 150 yellow, and 50 pink).

Timer/stop watch

Because our league is a sit n' go structure, we have timed blinds. We start out at 100/200 and the blinds increase every 12 minutes. Our main event blinds are a little bit slower (16 minutes) because we don't want to rush that final game along too quickly. We usually try to end our Wednesday night regular season games by 11:30pm though, so 12-minute blinds are perfect when we start at 8pm.

Our blind levels are: 100/200, 200/400, 300/600, 400/800, 500/1000, 600/1200, 800/1600, 1000/2000, 1500/3000, 2000/4000, and 2500/5000. Our blinds cap out at 2500/5000 so as to maintain some level of skill for the remaining few competitors. We don't really like playing shove or fold poker.

Table and seating

Most 9-man games can be played around a dinner table. A cheap way to dress up your table is to go to the fabric store and buy some felt that can easily be turned into a table cloth. Alternatively, you can buy fold-out playing surfaces with molded plastic chip and drink holders. If you're handy like a few players in our league, you can build your own custom poker table by following these plans. You'll probably want to set aside $300-400 for building materials as well as a few weekends.

Score sheet

You'll need some way to track scores, right? Take a look at this template I set up that's very similar to the one we use for our league. You get points depending on which place you finish in and everyone gets 500 points for just showing up (incentive to not miss games). Points are added up over the season and your main event chip stack becomes however many points you end up with at season's end. Some players might be new, learning, or just have bad luck, so we top up the main event stacks to 20,000 chips minimum. As you can see by the place/point rewards, you'd have to do pretty badly or miss a lot of games to need a top up.

Time

Our regular season games usually run 3-5 hours depending on how many people show up. The main event usually runs 5-8 hours because the blinds are 25% slower, stacks are bigger, and people are playing a lot more cautiously because it's for the big bucks and bragging rights. Our main event usually starts at 4pm on a Saturday, whereas our regular season games are Wednesdays at 8pm.

Payouts

You can set buy-ins, payouts, and carry-overs to whatever you prefer.  Our regular season buy-ins are $20 per player per game. Of that, we put 75% ($15 per player) into the nightly pot and carry-over 25% ($5 per player) to the main event. Our nightly pots usually pay out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers at a rate of 50%/30%/20% respectively. If we have 18+ people showing up, we usually pay out a 4th place too.

Our seasons are usually 10-13 weeks long, so those $5 carry-overs can really add up. On top of that, we charge an additional $20 buy-in for the main event game, which really increases the payouts.

Here's an example from last season that will break it down for you:

• 10 players per night @ $20 per player
• $150 to the nightly pot and $50 carried over to the main event
• Nightly winners get $75 (1st place), $45 (2nd place), and $30 (3rd place)
• Ten weeks later the main event pot is up to $500
• Main event buy-in is another $20, adding $200 to the main event pot ($700 total)
• Payouts for the main event are $350 (1st), $210 (2nd), and ($140)

What we've also done in the past is give the 1st place season finisher a free buy-in to the main event game as props for doing so well over the previous 10-13 weeks.  We don't do this anymore, but it's an idea you might like.

Miscellaneous advice

Make sure you set ground rules so everyone is on the same page. For example, we have 5 minute smoke/washroom breaks every three blind levels. We also have etiquette rules like no nasty criticism, name-calling, or flipping over of someone's mucked hand. Our league has played enough together that we sometimes bend certain rules, but we make an effort to treat new players with respect and decency and we expect the same in return.

Posting and folding of late players is something you might want to discuss before the game starts. We'll usually post and fold someone who is going to be late for the first blind level or two but after that he or she is out. We made the mistake of letting someone buy in to our main event game and he got called away for a work emergency. He was in and out of the house a lot over three hours and was mostly just posting and folding as other players were getting eliminated. He returned with about 4 others left in the game, got a couple double ups and finished in second place for a $350 payout. That ruffled a few feathers.

We've gotten into the practice of making people pay the $5 carry-over for any missed games if they want to play in our main event. This is mostly an incentive for people to show up, but it also keeps the math consistent throughout the season. This also allows friends who couldn't commit to regular season buy in to our main event. They pay the $20 buy-in and $5 per missed week (e.g., $70 total for a 10-week season) and get topped up to the minimum 20,000 chips .

Poker games can be held at one person's home on a regular basis or you can rotate houses. However, the "house" should never collect a rake for hosting duties (i.e, a percentage of the nightly buy-in) because that's a quick way for your league to become illegal. All players should be urged to bring their own refreshments so the host doesn't have to collect a rake to pay for all the drinks and snacks. Of course, cleaning up after yourself goes without saying.

Conclusion

Well, that about covers it! Poker league is one night per week that I get really excited about. I get to hang out with friends and engage in a match of guts, grit, and a little bit of luck. You'll learn a lot about people the more you play with them -- you'll pick up their tells -- and that really changes the dynamic of the game. Though sometimes they'll surprise you. If you aren't constantly shifting gears and paying attention to your own body language, your game can get exploited too.

In the four seasons I've been a part of poker league we've had four different season and main event winners. My personal best finish was last season, where I finished first in the regular season and third in the main event. That's a vast improvement from my first season where I finished nearly 18th of 20 and needed a chip top up to play in the main event where I finished 8th.

Hold 'Em or Fold 'Em? S04E01

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For those who don't know, I participate in ranked home games of Texas Hold 'Em every Wednesday. Hold 'Em or Fold 'Em? will be a weekly feature on this blog recapping my good plays, bad plays, desperate plays, suckouts, and bad beats!

I'll write up a post about how we organize our "league" shortly, but here's how things went down last night.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010 (S04E01): Twelve players showed up to to our fourth season opener, so we split into two tables of 6 and combined to one table once we were down to 9 players. I made it to the final table with about $24,000 in chips, a mere $4,000 above the starting stack. The cards were pretty dead for me in the early goings and any hand I played just couldn't connect with the board. I managed to steal one modest pot just before we merged with a nifty bluff on the river. If I hadn't done that, I would have been pretty short coming onto the final table.

However, once we merged things went from "meh," to "bleh." My stack was dwindling because of ill-timed bluffs or simply not having the goods. I managed to make it to six-handed with only $7000 left. Here's my first desperate maneuver to double-up. I didn't want to make the move here, but I kind of had to with the BB coming to me in the next hand.

I was actually ahead Paul in this hand even though he had a pocket pair. Suited 9-10 is a slight favourite because of the flush and straight potential, not to mention they were also over-cards. So yay me! Double-up.

Several hands later as the big blind (BB) was also key for me. Blinds were up, there was lots of pre-flop limping action, and I was dealt a monster. I would have preferred isolating one player here preflop but I was actually lucky that the chip leader decided to make a somewhat loose call in the hopes of bouncing us both. My two callers were sharing some outs!

Things went smoothly for me after that. Glen and Jessica were quickly bounced and Jesse made a play at Paul that didn't work out too well for him. Eventually, Neil's pocket 3s held up against Jesse's AQ offsuit and we were down to three-handed with somewhat balanced chip stacks.

At this point I thought I had a pretty good read against Neil, who was the chip leader with over $100k in chips. I made a standard raise against him pre-flop to 3x the BB from the small blind with AQ offsuit. He quickly announced his re-raise. "I raise... all-in," he said with a bit of a cocky smirk on his face.

I was pretty sure he had a low pocket pair at best, but I didn't even give him credit for that. He'd caught a ride to the game with Glen who was now out of the game waiting around for Neil to finish up. Neil had made several all-in re-raises in the last 15 minutes and I'd seen the wide range of cards he was playing. My gut told me, "This guy has a big stack and wants to push you around. He's pretty sure you'll fold but wouldn't care if you called and won either because he doesn't want to keep Glen waiting around forever."

On top of that I felt AQ offsuit was a monster three handed -- and it is. The only hands that have me crushed are AA, KK, QQ, and AK. A pocket pair JJ or lower is a race, and I'm heavily favoured to win AJ or lower. Any two cards that aren't an ace or queen has me a roughly 1.5:1 favourite.

So I made the call and he chuckled turning over A3 offsuit. Here's how the cards landed...

Doh! Even though I had him dominated he still sucked out on me, LOL. As Doyle Brunson would say, "That's poker folks." I wasn't too pissed because he did make the move back at me hoping I would fold and even so, A3 is a pretty good holding three-handed.

So, I finished in 3rd place last night, which puts me 3rd place in the league after week one of this season. I also placed in the cash which paid 1.5x my buy-in. Not great, but at least I walked away with something. See you next week!

As a special bonus, here was my hero call of the evening!