Heartland Poker Tour Upcoming Events & they're coming 2 Denver area 2!

[Bluegrassplayer]

Thanks a ton for the info!

So what amount do you think is enough to start just folding everything?

[CincyLady]

Good for you, Dog boy! I will tell all the two plus two'rs here, play quality hands, and play tight and you'll get your seat to the ME.

I was at table 12, Seat 1, and that's where I stayed all night.

I was at for the most part, a very tight table, and most of the players respected each other.

The exception was the calling station donkey in seat 4. He would call just about anything, with just about any ace.

One word of warning here, you need to be sure you raise larger than you normally do, preflop. IE: Instead of 3 times the blind preflop, you should go 4 or 5 times the blind. This because in another hand, this other quality player raised with his A/K preflop only 2 or 3 times the blind, and got called by someone (other than the donkey) with Ace/4 suited, and almost got felted when the guy got quads on the turn. I later told Mike (the Quality player, if it had been me, he would of been felted, because I could see Mike was ready to put in all his chips and call anything.

As for me, I also was card dead most of the night, but alas, I went out just after it got down to 5 tables (the final 3 tables will qualify for their ME seats each night). This one play is what started my downfall.

I'm in the BB, the blinds are 400 and 800, with the ante 100, and the donkey in seat 4, raises it up to 2500. Mike the quality player, who only 2500 left, goes in for that.

Now, I know that Mike has a hand, he's a really great player, and I've played up against him before. He in turn knows he's in deep dodo if I call this.

I look down and find A/K o/s, and since this will knock a player out if I win, I simply call.

Flop comes, all cards lower than 9, and rainbow, but higher than 3.

I check, Donkey now goes all in (with a dry pot no less), and he has me covered.

I have no pair and no draw, I have to fold.

Donkey turns over his pocket pair of 3's, Mike turns over pocket jacks.

Turn comes, it's an ace (of course), Mike thanks the donkey for protecting his hand (donkey goes out about 1/2 hr later btw).

In the meantime, this put a dent into my stack, and I know I'm going to have to work it to get it back up again.

I am able to take down a few small pots, but I'm short stacked.

Finally with the blinds at 1k and 2k, and the ante at 200, I am down to just around 8k.

I look down (gawd I wish I hadn't or had been in the big blind instead of the UTG), and see pocket 2's. I've been card dead for over an hour here, and decide like it or not, I've got to go with my baby pair.

Just my luck, the guy next to me wakes up with A/K o/s, and calls, flop brings an Ace, turn a king, and river another ace, and I'm out.

I still have 3 more chances, tonight, Wednesday night, and Thursday night.

[jackhigh]

Won my ME seat last night! Definitely tougher than the Sit n Go's. I would shoot for about 50k in chips before putting it on cruise control. If you are shortish in stack (15-20k) and you make it to about 40 players - try to steal from the BIGGER stacks because they pretty much stop playing unless they have aces (I folded alot of quality hands that I would normally would have played).

GOOD LUCK!
See ya on Saturday, PM slot. [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[DanielleRB]

Thanks for the updates Cincy and Jackhigh - I appreciate the player insight.

A couple of questions:

Did people play the satellite structure theory as it got close?

How long did it take to get from 40 to 30 players?

What time did the "money/30 ME seats" hit?

Any other word on how the other qualifiers are selling?

[CincyLady]

Danielle, not sure what you mean by "satellite structure theory".

As for question #2, alas, I was gone by then. While I was very proud of myself for getting that far (out lasting 100 other players) I went out when we had less than 50 players.

When I went out, it was about 11:15 pm, and we had a late start (we started at about 7pm), as IMO, the room underestimated how long it would take players to be registered. This as you had to sign away your image rights to play.

FYI, they told us to be there 45 minutes early, but IMO, they really need for ppl to be there 1 1/2 hrs early to get everyone checked in and so on.

Also, a disturbing thing as well here, the room was NOT checking picture ID's, only players cards, plus they were NOT checking names against the list of players already signed up.

As a result, if someone wanted to, they could of had a friend play for them, and simply used their players card.

We even had some players try to sit down with their certs, who had not signed up for Sunday nights play. The room had to make an announcement telling players that if they had not pre-registered for that night's qualifier they couldn't play because it was sold.

Luckily the (extra) players got up and handed over their seats to registered players, or else it would of been a mess.

Currently, Qualifiers seem to be selling out the day before, but that could change as we get closer to the wire.

I'd also like to know from dogboy and Jackhigh what time the whole shabang ended.

I was also impressed by how seriously most of the other players were taking these qualifiers.

You could of heard a pin drop for the first hour of play, because almost everyone was so concentrated on playing good.

[DanielleRB]

Thanks Cincy! I by satellite structure play, I mean did people get that they didn't need to "win" the whole thing, but just play get to 30 - I would bet things slowed down dramatically when it got to 40 players.

I will plan on getting up there a little earlier than originally planned - thanks!

[Dog Boy]

<font color="red"> If anyone wants a ticket to the Main Event PM me today! </font>

[CincyLady]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Cincy! I by satellite structure play, I mean did people get that they didn't need to "win" the whole thing, but just play get to 30 - I would bet things slowed down dramatically when it got to 40 players.

I will plan on getting up there a little earlier than originally planned - thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, I noticed that many players didn't 'get it' that this isn't your standard poker type of tourney.

They tried to play poker like you were going to get money, instead of just a seat.

Where I lived for 15 years, in Cincinnati, they had an event called the Reeses Charity Events, where the GP was 10k, but you had to get intp the ME via qualifiers much like this is, so I have lots of experience playing in these types of qualifiers.

I had warned Dog Boy ahead of time not to fall into the trap of playing poker, when it got close. That if he had the chips to coast, that he should do so, to win his seat.

Number one rule in Qualifiers (or in reality, any poker event), is to remember why you are there in the first place.

However, most up there in Blackhawk are not used to playing in qualifiers like this, so they'd try to play poker, and play their quality hands and get knocked out just short of the seat (gawd I wish I'd of folded those duces, preflop, but in my situation, I wasn't getting cards, and I knew 8k just wasn't enough to coast to wait for 2 more tables to collapse either).

Forget this lesson, and boom, you've just wasted your time.

I find that once you get to 'flight level' where you can coast, where according to Dog Boy seems to be about 50k with 4 tables left, don't even look at your hands, just fold them.

This because I don't know too many players out there, if they get pocket aces, who instead won't play them no matter what.

[jackhigh]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the updates Cincy and Jackhigh - I appreciate the player insight.

A couple of questions:

Did people play the satellite structure theory as it got close?

How long did it take to get from 40 to 30 players?

What time did the "money/30 ME seats" hit?

Any other word on how the other qualifiers are selling?

[/ QUOTE ]

In the beginning play good solid straight up poker. There are still donkeys around so its very hard to use any fancy moves - they will call you down with 1 pair etc. Identify the good players at your table so you know who will lay down to your bluffs. At my first table (maybe the same for others) there was a non-local "hotshot" who was re-raising all the time and thought he could run over us "mountain hayseeds" - he was the first one out! Bu-Bye- go back to Vegas!! Another non-local "superstar" took his chair - tried to do the same thing - he doubled me up and was gone the next hand - Bu-Bye!!!

*Note to the out of town "superstars". There are several VERY GOOD local players who play 3-4 NL tourneys a week up there. Trust me, you ain't gonna waltz in and take over the table.

Not sure what the "satellite structure" is but almost all stacks in the 40-50k range played super tight when it got down to 40-45 players. Don't let your stack dwindle past 15-20k in hopes of squeaking in - you'll just run up against another short stack "going for broke" after you blind down. Push all in against stacks in the 35-45k range - they will avoid a 15-20k push like the plague! (I saw AK and Queens folding to big bets!)

It got down from 40-30 pretty fast (maybe an hour?) as the big blinds and antes starting eating the short stacks.

It ended around 12:30ish - we waited another 20-30 minutes to do our ME registration.

My best advice: Don't try and squeak in with a micro stack - a guy at my table blinded down from 15K to about 4k! Of course when he went all in he had 3 other callers and my 8-3 beat his A10! Start pushing with 15-20k against the super tight 30-40k stacks. Just stealing a few blinds and antes will keep you very healthy.

Hope this helps. Good Luck! [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[DanielleRB]

Thanks Jack - good info!