Wow what a sick hour of poker. I am usually pretty sure I will make it to day 2 of the WPT events at Bellagio simply because you start ouf with 600 bbs and it is pretty tough for me, being fairly nitty, to blow through 600bbs. Once I got sat down though, my table was filled with 7 players I knew and one I didnt.
The table included Jason Mercier, Mike Watson, Soheil Shamseddin, Glen Chorny, Eugene Katchalov and others I forget now, making it one of the toughest tables in the field. About 20 minutes in, Jason raised from 1st position and an old man that had played no hands made it 1200.
I called in the bb with JJ and Jason called. It came Txx. We both checked to the old guy and he quickly bet 2000. I folded, which I think is probably good. A round later I picked up AA in the small blind. It was folded to me and I raised to 350 into Mike Watson's big blind. He made it 1050. I made it 4000 and he called. It came K42ss. I bet 5500 and he called. The turn was a T. I checked, planning to call down most likely. He bet 11000.
I really thought he either had something like a flush draw or KK, as I didnt think he would bet AK here, as I know if I was in that spot, I would take a free card and then valuebet the river. Him having exactly KK seemed unlikely so I called. The river was a K, which made top set very unlikely. I checked and he bet 22000. At this point, the only hands I lose to in my mind are AK, which I basically ruled out, KK, and maybe 44 or 22, which I dont really think he would reraise with preflop.
I called and he showed me AK, whixh put me down to 15000, still at 50/100 blinds. A round later, Soheil made it 250 utg and I called on the button with 97cc. Jason called in the bid blind and it came 972hh. Soheil bet 700 and I made it 2000. He quickly said all in and I snap called. He showed K9hh and I lost to his rivered flush. All in all, I am ok with the way I played. Im just very sad with the result.
There isnt really much more to say about it. I am going to Pensacola for Christmas on 12/23 for a few days, so that should be nice. After that is the PCA in the Bahamas then the Biloxi WPT event. Hopefully I can last more than an hour.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Pretty Bad Week of Poker (Hold 'Em and Pot Limit Omaha)
Simply put, the last week has been brutal, at least at the cash game tables. Over the last 4 days, I have dropped a nice $13000 playing 10/20. I am pretty sure I could have found folds on two hands but apparently I was on tilt or just didnt listen to my brain.
Thankfully, I won $10000 in one day right before the downswing, so really, it isnt that bad. I am just going to keep my head up and keep on grinding. Hopefully I will learn how to listen to what the other players are telling me.
I played a $500 and $1000 poker tournament at Bellagio so far. In the $500, I busted on the 3rd hand when I ran JJ into 22 on a 322 board. $500 mtts are neat because I have no clue what level people are playing at. This hand is a great example. Someone who was clearly new raised from the cutoff to 200 at 25/50 and I made it 600 from the button with JJ. He called.
It was clear to me at this point that he thought he had a decent hand fwiw. It came 322 and he check raised my cbet of 1000 to 3000. At this point I thought he thought he had a good hand. The only problem is I didnt really know what he defined as a good hand. I assumed he would have rerasied me with AA, KK and QQ preflop so the only hands I lose to are 33 and 22.
I thought he might think a hand like 66 is the nuts, as it is an overpair etc etc. I decided to call. The turn was a blank and he pushed. I called and lost. In the $1000 tournament, I made a straight flush draw and got again, which was pretty standard.
Today is a $1500 pot limit omaha with rebuy tournament. I played a bit of plo a week or so ago in the casino in a 1/2 plo, 1/2 nlhe game. I felt pretty comfortable so I am most likely going to play it. Hopefully I dont go off for numerous buyins.
In other news, I went to church for the first time in a few years on Sunday. I had a strong calling to go on Saturday night, so I made it happen. The pastor was giving a sermon on the bibles views on current events every Wednesday, so I checked that out last night. It was basically about the government. It turns out I agree with basically everything stated in the bible, such as you should work hard and keep what you deserve, give to those that cant work, dont give to those who can work but are lazy, make the government accountable to the people, etc etc. All in all, it has been a great experience so far.
Over the next month, I will be playing lots of tournaments at Bellagio. Hopefully I will cash for another $100,000 this series like I did in the last one.
Thankfully, I won $10000 in one day right before the downswing, so really, it isnt that bad. I am just going to keep my head up and keep on grinding. Hopefully I will learn how to listen to what the other players are telling me.
I played a $500 and $1000 poker tournament at Bellagio so far. In the $500, I busted on the 3rd hand when I ran JJ into 22 on a 322 board. $500 mtts are neat because I have no clue what level people are playing at. This hand is a great example. Someone who was clearly new raised from the cutoff to 200 at 25/50 and I made it 600 from the button with JJ. He called.
It was clear to me at this point that he thought he had a decent hand fwiw. It came 322 and he check raised my cbet of 1000 to 3000. At this point I thought he thought he had a good hand. The only problem is I didnt really know what he defined as a good hand. I assumed he would have rerasied me with AA, KK and QQ preflop so the only hands I lose to are 33 and 22.
I thought he might think a hand like 66 is the nuts, as it is an overpair etc etc. I decided to call. The turn was a blank and he pushed. I called and lost. In the $1000 tournament, I made a straight flush draw and got again, which was pretty standard.
Today is a $1500 pot limit omaha with rebuy tournament. I played a bit of plo a week or so ago in the casino in a 1/2 plo, 1/2 nlhe game. I felt pretty comfortable so I am most likely going to play it. Hopefully I dont go off for numerous buyins.
In other news, I went to church for the first time in a few years on Sunday. I had a strong calling to go on Saturday night, so I made it happen. The pastor was giving a sermon on the bibles views on current events every Wednesday, so I checked that out last night. It was basically about the government. It turns out I agree with basically everything stated in the bible, such as you should work hard and keep what you deserve, give to those that cant work, dont give to those who can work but are lazy, make the government accountable to the people, etc etc. All in all, it has been a great experience so far.
Over the next month, I will be playing lots of tournaments at Bellagio. Hopefully I will cash for another $100,000 this series like I did in the last one.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Texas Trip
I was debating what all I should say in this because it could either be long or short. I decided to go with somewhere in the middle, as some of the details are very blurry. About 3 months ago me and my closest group of poker friends decided to go to Texas, where Adam Geyer lives, for a belated bachelor party for Cody Slabaugh. It just so happened that the dates fell perfectly before the Bellagio prelims. After we scheduled, Commerce and Taj in AC decided to add decently big mtts, which wasn�t too nice, as I would have liked to play one of them.
Ohh well. It should also be noted that I was convinced to pack very light for this trip, taking only one carry on and no computer, which is something I have never done in my life. Justin Young and Cody picked me up from my house fairly early on Friday to head to Austin, where Adam lives. We flew on South West and they couldn�t save me a seat, so I ended up sitting by myself. Apparently some 50 year old drunk lady kept trying to hit on Cody. It was a bit sad. Once we landed, we took a cab to the Omni Hotel, which is apparently the nicest hotel in Austin. We found some of our friends, Mike Katz and Jesse Nagamua (sorry, don�t know how to spell at all) at the lobby bar already getting their drinking shoes laced up.
We ran up to our room to put our luggage away then headed back down to join in. We were later joined by our other friends, Shannon Shorr, Zach Clark, and Adam, and then headed out on the town. Apparently they are bars everywhere in downtown Austin. Our first stop was this place called Buffalo Billiards, which was basically a bar with lots of games like pool, darts, and shuffle board. Having never played, I was quick to get into the action. Shannon and Mike had played before, while myself and Justin had not, so I teamed with Shannon and Justin with Mike. I must have ran hot because I pwned, as did Shannon.
We switched for me to be with Mike and Mike played quite bad, giving our team the loss. I ended up winning something like $1000 on the transaction though, so it was all good. From there, we headed to an upscale Mexican place, which was delicious. It wasn�t so good though when I ended up losing a flip + $100 to each player +$600 to one other guy when we flipped for dinner. Baaad beat. We drank lots and eventually some bartender told me I was too drunk so I made my way back to the hotel and fell asleep around 3am. Everyone else decided to come wake me up around 4am when they decided to call it a night. I don�t remember much of what happened and fell back asleep.
The next day, Adam made plans for us to go to some famous BBQ place. I was thinking it would be a 5 minute car ride. We ended up driving around 30 minutes into the middle of nowhere to this place called �Salt Lick BBQ.� Since it was a BYOB place, we decided to stop at Bubba�s Country Store to get some drinks. Seeing as I was feeling quite sick, I decided to try to throw up while everyone else was inside. I have never thrown up from drinking and that didn�t change that day. I ended up feeling pretty sick for the rest of the day. There were tons of cars parked in a giant pit of mud.
All our clothes got quite dirty just trying to get to the check in area, which was basically a covered shed outside of the actual restaurant. It was BYOB (which I didn�t plan on having any of anyways) and some guy came up and offered to buy 2 of our beers for $10. I bet if someone set up a little underground shop there, they would make a killing. Since we had reservations, we got to skip the multihour wait. We entered the actual building where you eat and were surprised to find a giant pit full of numerous types of meat.
They had a �family style� meal where they brought us lots of ribs, sausage, beef, potato salad, baked beans, and a few other things I forget. It was basically the nuts. We left there and went to Adams house to chill. I wish I could trade my 3 houses for one like his. It was super balla. We hung out there for a while before heading to the Texas vs Kansas football game. The line on the game was -21. I think they ended up winning by 28 or something silly. We all bet the game against one of our friends that was too busy playing mtts to come on the trip. Skill game. Apparently Kansas is only good at basketball. I also lost quite a few other prop bets to break even on the day.
Everyone wanted to go out to some clubs so I was forced to tag along. We went to a few trendy places, which I hate with all my heart. It was much too loud to actually do anything, so we decided to head to some Irish pub type place. I eventually got bored of sitting around so walked 15 blocks back to the room in the middle of the night. It probably wasn�t a very +ev decision, but it didn�t cost me that time. We had to be up and on a party bus to Dallas by 6:30am. I think I was the only person who actually felt ok, as I had no drinks on the previous day. We drove for a while before stopping at some weird place to get gas and food. They had all kinds of weird foreign foods.
I stuck with a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant. It was pretty good. Zach ordered 4 things and ate one bite of each. That�s fairly balla imo. We were almost to the stadium when Cody decided he had to get off the bus and throw up. Bat beat. We arrived at the new stadium at Dallas, only to find tons of traffic. We decided to wait in the bus though and let him drop us off at the front door. We had one extra ticket because Marco Johnson pulled out at the last minute so we scalped it for � price. The Cowboys played awful but ended up lucksacking their way to a win by 1 point at the end of the game, which wasn�t nearly the spread, costing us the entire amount we won from our friend the previous night. We also bet on the checkerboard squares like people do on the superbowl.
I ended up winning the last one for a nice $3000 profit. Seeing as everyone was hung over except me, we went back to the hotel. We found a nice little food place next door and watched the afternoon NFL games. Everyone is super into fantasy sports except me, so they were all super interested. I just like watching football. Our hotel, W, was right next to where the Dallas Stars NHL team plays. I decided to look them up to see if they were playing that night. I announced to everyone they were and everyone got excited. I checked to make sure and it turns out they played on Monday, not Sunday. Everyone was mad at me. I had a club sandwich with mac n� cheese.
It was just ok at best. After that, we all decided to go take a nap. We woke up a while later and decided to just chill and watch football and movies. Around midnight, we all got hungry to we ordered room service. Katz lost the flip and had to fork out $400 for numerous plates of food and smoothies. It was good. We also had to figure out who had to pay for all the expenses. I decided it would be fun for someone to name a card and we peel cards from a deck until someone pulls the card. That person would have to pay. We had to pay for the W ($700) the Omni ($1500) the party bus ($1000) the Texas tickets ($1800) and the Cowboy tickets ($3000.) I suggested we just do one round for everyone, that way, as Shannon says; someone would get stung on the trip.
There were only 51 cards in the deck, so there was a chance we could pull all the way to the end and still not find the card. On the first round for the W, we got around 40 cards into the pile before Justin, who was already the biggest loser on the trip, found the bad card. On the 2nd round for the bus, we pulled down to the last 2 cards. It was between me and Shannon. I pulled the safe card then it was up to Shannon to see if the one card left was the one that made him pay.
Lucky for us, it was and he got feel a little pain. I don�t remember who lost the next round. Just as I thought I was going to run hot and stay clean, I lost the $1800 round for the Texas tickets. On the last round, poor Justin lost again for another $3000. I think I ended up losing $500 on the trip, which is a value, considering we probably spent $2000 each. Justin, Cody, and I boarded a flight back to Vegas the next day around 2pm. We had an uneventful flight back home. All in all, it was a pretty great trip. I think we all agreed to go to someone�s home town every year around this time. Sadly, I�m not too sure there would be enough in Pensacola to keep them all entertained.
I guess I will find out at some point. Since I�ve gotten back, I have been taking care of Float The Turn and playing a bit at Bellagio. I am going skiing on Thursday for the first time in my life, which will either be super fun or just kinda fun. On Friday, the Bellagio tournaments start. I haven�t played a tournament in quite some time now. I am really looking forward to them. Hopefully I can improve on my 2 2nds last time and maybe take down a title.
Ohh well. It should also be noted that I was convinced to pack very light for this trip, taking only one carry on and no computer, which is something I have never done in my life. Justin Young and Cody picked me up from my house fairly early on Friday to head to Austin, where Adam lives. We flew on South West and they couldn�t save me a seat, so I ended up sitting by myself. Apparently some 50 year old drunk lady kept trying to hit on Cody. It was a bit sad. Once we landed, we took a cab to the Omni Hotel, which is apparently the nicest hotel in Austin. We found some of our friends, Mike Katz and Jesse Nagamua (sorry, don�t know how to spell at all) at the lobby bar already getting their drinking shoes laced up.
We ran up to our room to put our luggage away then headed back down to join in. We were later joined by our other friends, Shannon Shorr, Zach Clark, and Adam, and then headed out on the town. Apparently they are bars everywhere in downtown Austin. Our first stop was this place called Buffalo Billiards, which was basically a bar with lots of games like pool, darts, and shuffle board. Having never played, I was quick to get into the action. Shannon and Mike had played before, while myself and Justin had not, so I teamed with Shannon and Justin with Mike. I must have ran hot because I pwned, as did Shannon.
We switched for me to be with Mike and Mike played quite bad, giving our team the loss. I ended up winning something like $1000 on the transaction though, so it was all good. From there, we headed to an upscale Mexican place, which was delicious. It wasn�t so good though when I ended up losing a flip + $100 to each player +$600 to one other guy when we flipped for dinner. Baaad beat. We drank lots and eventually some bartender told me I was too drunk so I made my way back to the hotel and fell asleep around 3am. Everyone else decided to come wake me up around 4am when they decided to call it a night. I don�t remember much of what happened and fell back asleep.
The next day, Adam made plans for us to go to some famous BBQ place. I was thinking it would be a 5 minute car ride. We ended up driving around 30 minutes into the middle of nowhere to this place called �Salt Lick BBQ.� Since it was a BYOB place, we decided to stop at Bubba�s Country Store to get some drinks. Seeing as I was feeling quite sick, I decided to try to throw up while everyone else was inside. I have never thrown up from drinking and that didn�t change that day. I ended up feeling pretty sick for the rest of the day. There were tons of cars parked in a giant pit of mud.
All our clothes got quite dirty just trying to get to the check in area, which was basically a covered shed outside of the actual restaurant. It was BYOB (which I didn�t plan on having any of anyways) and some guy came up and offered to buy 2 of our beers for $10. I bet if someone set up a little underground shop there, they would make a killing. Since we had reservations, we got to skip the multihour wait. We entered the actual building where you eat and were surprised to find a giant pit full of numerous types of meat.
They had a �family style� meal where they brought us lots of ribs, sausage, beef, potato salad, baked beans, and a few other things I forget. It was basically the nuts. We left there and went to Adams house to chill. I wish I could trade my 3 houses for one like his. It was super balla. We hung out there for a while before heading to the Texas vs Kansas football game. The line on the game was -21. I think they ended up winning by 28 or something silly. We all bet the game against one of our friends that was too busy playing mtts to come on the trip. Skill game. Apparently Kansas is only good at basketball. I also lost quite a few other prop bets to break even on the day.
Everyone wanted to go out to some clubs so I was forced to tag along. We went to a few trendy places, which I hate with all my heart. It was much too loud to actually do anything, so we decided to head to some Irish pub type place. I eventually got bored of sitting around so walked 15 blocks back to the room in the middle of the night. It probably wasn�t a very +ev decision, but it didn�t cost me that time. We had to be up and on a party bus to Dallas by 6:30am. I think I was the only person who actually felt ok, as I had no drinks on the previous day. We drove for a while before stopping at some weird place to get gas and food. They had all kinds of weird foreign foods.
I stuck with a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant. It was pretty good. Zach ordered 4 things and ate one bite of each. That�s fairly balla imo. We were almost to the stadium when Cody decided he had to get off the bus and throw up. Bat beat. We arrived at the new stadium at Dallas, only to find tons of traffic. We decided to wait in the bus though and let him drop us off at the front door. We had one extra ticket because Marco Johnson pulled out at the last minute so we scalped it for � price. The Cowboys played awful but ended up lucksacking their way to a win by 1 point at the end of the game, which wasn�t nearly the spread, costing us the entire amount we won from our friend the previous night. We also bet on the checkerboard squares like people do on the superbowl.
I ended up winning the last one for a nice $3000 profit. Seeing as everyone was hung over except me, we went back to the hotel. We found a nice little food place next door and watched the afternoon NFL games. Everyone is super into fantasy sports except me, so they were all super interested. I just like watching football. Our hotel, W, was right next to where the Dallas Stars NHL team plays. I decided to look them up to see if they were playing that night. I announced to everyone they were and everyone got excited. I checked to make sure and it turns out they played on Monday, not Sunday. Everyone was mad at me. I had a club sandwich with mac n� cheese.
It was just ok at best. After that, we all decided to go take a nap. We woke up a while later and decided to just chill and watch football and movies. Around midnight, we all got hungry to we ordered room service. Katz lost the flip and had to fork out $400 for numerous plates of food and smoothies. It was good. We also had to figure out who had to pay for all the expenses. I decided it would be fun for someone to name a card and we peel cards from a deck until someone pulls the card. That person would have to pay. We had to pay for the W ($700) the Omni ($1500) the party bus ($1000) the Texas tickets ($1800) and the Cowboy tickets ($3000.) I suggested we just do one round for everyone, that way, as Shannon says; someone would get stung on the trip.
There were only 51 cards in the deck, so there was a chance we could pull all the way to the end and still not find the card. On the first round for the W, we got around 40 cards into the pile before Justin, who was already the biggest loser on the trip, found the bad card. On the 2nd round for the bus, we pulled down to the last 2 cards. It was between me and Shannon. I pulled the safe card then it was up to Shannon to see if the one card left was the one that made him pay.
Lucky for us, it was and he got feel a little pain. I don�t remember who lost the next round. Just as I thought I was going to run hot and stay clean, I lost the $1800 round for the Texas tickets. On the last round, poor Justin lost again for another $3000. I think I ended up losing $500 on the trip, which is a value, considering we probably spent $2000 each. Justin, Cody, and I boarded a flight back to Vegas the next day around 2pm. We had an uneventful flight back home. All in all, it was a pretty great trip. I think we all agreed to go to someone�s home town every year around this time. Sadly, I�m not too sure there would be enough in Pensacola to keep them all entertained.
I guess I will find out at some point. Since I�ve gotten back, I have been taking care of Float The Turn and playing a bit at Bellagio. I am going skiing on Thursday for the first time in my life, which will either be super fun or just kinda fun. On Friday, the Bellagio tournaments start. I haven�t played a tournament in quite some time now. I am really looking forward to them. Hopefully I can improve on my 2 2nds last time and maybe take down a title.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Coaching a November 9 Player
I think we did a fairly good job keeping it quite that myself and Ylon Schwartz had been coaching November 9er, Steve Begleiter. I guess I will start this 3 month journey together when we first got in contact. Steve played in a poker league in his home town and won his seat through that. One of the members just happened to be a 2+2er and knew me from doing well in sngs as well as big mtts.
Steve knew he wanted to hire a coach, as he didn�t see how it could hurt and he would hate himself if he simply did nothing then showed up at the final table then busted early. Anyways, Steve interviewed around 20 people and it came down to me and Ylon. I didn�t know Ylon at all but after talking to him, he seems to have a solid grasp of the game. He also happened to live in the same area as Steve whereas I live in Vegas.
I thiiiink he was going to go on Ylon (I guess only Steve know this) but I did some hard bargaining at the end to get the job split between the two of us.
I ended up flying out to New York 3 times, once for an initial interview and two other times to have weekend long coaching sessions where we talked about and played poker constantly. Steve is a super busy guy with a very full life. Despite that, he always worked hard and took in everything I said very quickly. Most people, especially when it comes to poker, are simply stuck in their ways and refuse to believe they might be bad. Steve was basically the opposite, realizing I am one of the best mtt players in the game and that he could learn a lot.
After our first meeting in NY, we decided it would be good for him to fly to Vegas and then drive together to play the WPT event in LA. I ended up basically bubbling the event but Steve took 9th, which was really good, considering it was a tough field and we were still working hard on his game. He claimed the advice I gave him prevented him from getting broke twice in the tournament, so that�s good. I feel a lot of my game is simply controlling the pot and letting my opponents stack off to me in spots where the only way to maximize value is to bluff catch.
I also learned that most amateur players simply do not pay attention to stack sizes. You have to play hands totally different if a guy has 10, 20, 30, 50, or 100bbs. We worked hard on these things and many more and I think he became a better player because of it. He was sad to take 9th but at the same time, realized it was a great accomplishment.
We worked hard in NY, running numerous simulation games where we would set up the same chip stacks as the final table and try to fit players that had similar playing styles as the actual November 9 guys to the correct stacks. Steve did fairly well in most of these, so that was good. Steve later went on to play WSOP Europe and was one of the chip leaders early in the day before getting cold decked twice to bust.
I think Steve was already taking care of this, but I wanted to make sure he was in good shape. There is nothing worse than being technically good at the game but crashing late because you are simply out of shape. He worked out much harder than I ever hope to, so I was happy with that. I also made sure he got on a good sleeping schedule so he could go late into the night if it came to it. Enough with the preparation. On to the final table.
Steve had one of the worst seats at the table, having Eric Buchman, the only other good deepstacked player on his left, followed by Cada, who we assumed would push well. We assumed Saout, Schulman, Schaffel, and Moon would play tight. We assumed Akenhead, Ivey, and Cada would look to mix it up and try to double their short stacks. We assume Buchman would try to go after Steve with numerous calls and reraises. We were right about all of these except Saout wasn�t too tight and Ivey was super tight.
Early in the day, it looked like Schaffel was going to double through Buchman, which would have made the table much better for us but sadly, his AA couldn�t beat KK. That was the first crushing blow to our day that no one seemed to even realize. It really is bad when a spewtard on your left gets chips that he will use to constantly try to outplay you, unless of course, you make a hand, which is tough to do sometimes.
As for the hands at the final table, I liked every play Steve made except two that came near the end of his day. On one hand, he raised with 87c and Saout, who was for sure playing the best out of anyone else at the table reraised from the big blind. Saout had been going after Steve a little, although not too much. I don�t remember the exact stacks but I think Steve had 50M and Saout had 25M. The blinds must have been 250/500, so it probably went 1.25M, 4M preflop. The flop came 9h8h3c. Saout checked and Steve bet 7M. I reeeallly hated this bet, as if you get pushed on, you are getting decent odds to call. The only problem is the only thing you are happy for him to turn over is a flush draw and even then, you are usually a small dog.
That�s just what happened. Steve bet, Saout pushed and Steve made the crying call with the middle pair. The turn was another heart. If you watched the WSOP, you know Steve loves calling reraises with hands like 87s. I worked hard on cutting this out of his game, especially against good players that won�t stack off when you hit but he still decided to do it against Saout here. We talked the hand over a bit and both agreed it was bad on many levels.
Even though he got it in �good� here, it was still bad. However, if he holds here, he would have been up to 70M, which would have been a pretty large chip lead. This was the 2nd bad thing that happened.
The next hand Steve lost was fairly minor, although still a leak that he didn�t learn from me. Cada raised to around 2.5bbs out of his 20bb stack utg and Steve called from the sb with A3s. It came AJ5 and Steve lead into him, which I hate. I would have much rather seen a checkpush. Cada just called. The turn and river were blanks and they checked it down, giving Steve the pot.
The final bad thing that happened to him was actually a pretty standard hand. Steve raised with QQ to 2.5bbs out of his 35bb stack and Moon pushed from the big blind with AQ. Steve snap called and it came xxxxA to bust him and end our pretty cool trip together.
Steve was an absolute joy to work with. I don�t think anyone else at the final table could have been a better student. Even though he made a few mistakes, I firmly believe he made many less than he would have. I also think he is a much better poker player now than when I first started working with him. If I had to rate him 1-10, 1 being the same as when we started and 10 playing like I would play, I would give him an 8, simply because he still likes to splash around a bit too much with semiweak hands. I am sure he will see this leak and plug it in the future. If Steve chooses, I am confident he could make it on the poker circuit, not that he would need or want to, as he has a great life at home.
To sum it up, I was happy at first to just get the job but now I am happy to know I have a friend for life.
As for the rest of the final table, I will tell you how I think everyone played. I think Moon played awful up until Steve busted. There was one hand where Saout raised J2 from the button into Moons big blind, which was fine, considering how tight Moon had been. Moon called and it came KJ2. Moon checked and Saout bet around 2/5 (I think) of his stack. Moon instapushed with A4. Wow..that is all.
Akenhead got it in a few times, once with KQ against AK and peeled, and if he didn�t run KK into AA, he would have had a decent shot to win.
Ivey�s play shocked me the most. Simply put, he played like a super nit and I have no clue why. It was clear most of the table feared him, as they folded to basically all of his raises. He ended up blinding off before getting 3 outered by Moon.
Schaffel got beat around a quite a bit, raisefolding a ton. He eventually got AA vs KK back to back bout couldn�t fade the 2nd one.
Buchman played well up until Steve busted, I thought. He raised basically every hand that was folded to him and reraised quite a bit too. All in all, I thought he played well, although he did hit a 2 outer early for most of his chips.
Cada played pretty well I thought too. He got down to 3bbs at one point then pushbotted the table to death. Currently he is 2nd in chips with 5 people left. I was shocked at how Schulman and Moon simply let him get back in the game and if he wins, it is because these guys gave it to him.
Saout shocked me the most, but in a good way. I assumed he would play tight and eventually get it in with a decent hand and lose. He actually mixed it up very well and I think he played the best of anyone at the table, at least while I was there. It would not surprise me at all if he won, which is why he is my pick to win at this point.
Schulman was apparently coached by Hellmuth and it showed, in very bad ways. He was raising to 3.5x-5x preflop, which is awful. He also reraised to 1/3 his stack then folded a few times, which is never really good. All in all, he seemed to play as if he was trying to give it away. I would be a bit surprised if he won unless he totally changes his game.
Well, that�s it. It has been a great 3 months. Hopefully someone decides they want my help next year and I can take the ride again. Better yet, I will just final table it myself.
Steve knew he wanted to hire a coach, as he didn�t see how it could hurt and he would hate himself if he simply did nothing then showed up at the final table then busted early. Anyways, Steve interviewed around 20 people and it came down to me and Ylon. I didn�t know Ylon at all but after talking to him, he seems to have a solid grasp of the game. He also happened to live in the same area as Steve whereas I live in Vegas.
I thiiiink he was going to go on Ylon (I guess only Steve know this) but I did some hard bargaining at the end to get the job split between the two of us.
I ended up flying out to New York 3 times, once for an initial interview and two other times to have weekend long coaching sessions where we talked about and played poker constantly. Steve is a super busy guy with a very full life. Despite that, he always worked hard and took in everything I said very quickly. Most people, especially when it comes to poker, are simply stuck in their ways and refuse to believe they might be bad. Steve was basically the opposite, realizing I am one of the best mtt players in the game and that he could learn a lot.
After our first meeting in NY, we decided it would be good for him to fly to Vegas and then drive together to play the WPT event in LA. I ended up basically bubbling the event but Steve took 9th, which was really good, considering it was a tough field and we were still working hard on his game. He claimed the advice I gave him prevented him from getting broke twice in the tournament, so that�s good. I feel a lot of my game is simply controlling the pot and letting my opponents stack off to me in spots where the only way to maximize value is to bluff catch.
I also learned that most amateur players simply do not pay attention to stack sizes. You have to play hands totally different if a guy has 10, 20, 30, 50, or 100bbs. We worked hard on these things and many more and I think he became a better player because of it. He was sad to take 9th but at the same time, realized it was a great accomplishment.
We worked hard in NY, running numerous simulation games where we would set up the same chip stacks as the final table and try to fit players that had similar playing styles as the actual November 9 guys to the correct stacks. Steve did fairly well in most of these, so that was good. Steve later went on to play WSOP Europe and was one of the chip leaders early in the day before getting cold decked twice to bust.
I think Steve was already taking care of this, but I wanted to make sure he was in good shape. There is nothing worse than being technically good at the game but crashing late because you are simply out of shape. He worked out much harder than I ever hope to, so I was happy with that. I also made sure he got on a good sleeping schedule so he could go late into the night if it came to it. Enough with the preparation. On to the final table.
Steve had one of the worst seats at the table, having Eric Buchman, the only other good deepstacked player on his left, followed by Cada, who we assumed would push well. We assumed Saout, Schulman, Schaffel, and Moon would play tight. We assumed Akenhead, Ivey, and Cada would look to mix it up and try to double their short stacks. We assume Buchman would try to go after Steve with numerous calls and reraises. We were right about all of these except Saout wasn�t too tight and Ivey was super tight.
Early in the day, it looked like Schaffel was going to double through Buchman, which would have made the table much better for us but sadly, his AA couldn�t beat KK. That was the first crushing blow to our day that no one seemed to even realize. It really is bad when a spewtard on your left gets chips that he will use to constantly try to outplay you, unless of course, you make a hand, which is tough to do sometimes.
As for the hands at the final table, I liked every play Steve made except two that came near the end of his day. On one hand, he raised with 87c and Saout, who was for sure playing the best out of anyone else at the table reraised from the big blind. Saout had been going after Steve a little, although not too much. I don�t remember the exact stacks but I think Steve had 50M and Saout had 25M. The blinds must have been 250/500, so it probably went 1.25M, 4M preflop. The flop came 9h8h3c. Saout checked and Steve bet 7M. I reeeallly hated this bet, as if you get pushed on, you are getting decent odds to call. The only problem is the only thing you are happy for him to turn over is a flush draw and even then, you are usually a small dog.
That�s just what happened. Steve bet, Saout pushed and Steve made the crying call with the middle pair. The turn was another heart. If you watched the WSOP, you know Steve loves calling reraises with hands like 87s. I worked hard on cutting this out of his game, especially against good players that won�t stack off when you hit but he still decided to do it against Saout here. We talked the hand over a bit and both agreed it was bad on many levels.
Even though he got it in �good� here, it was still bad. However, if he holds here, he would have been up to 70M, which would have been a pretty large chip lead. This was the 2nd bad thing that happened.
The next hand Steve lost was fairly minor, although still a leak that he didn�t learn from me. Cada raised to around 2.5bbs out of his 20bb stack utg and Steve called from the sb with A3s. It came AJ5 and Steve lead into him, which I hate. I would have much rather seen a checkpush. Cada just called. The turn and river were blanks and they checked it down, giving Steve the pot.
The final bad thing that happened to him was actually a pretty standard hand. Steve raised with QQ to 2.5bbs out of his 35bb stack and Moon pushed from the big blind with AQ. Steve snap called and it came xxxxA to bust him and end our pretty cool trip together.
Steve was an absolute joy to work with. I don�t think anyone else at the final table could have been a better student. Even though he made a few mistakes, I firmly believe he made many less than he would have. I also think he is a much better poker player now than when I first started working with him. If I had to rate him 1-10, 1 being the same as when we started and 10 playing like I would play, I would give him an 8, simply because he still likes to splash around a bit too much with semiweak hands. I am sure he will see this leak and plug it in the future. If Steve chooses, I am confident he could make it on the poker circuit, not that he would need or want to, as he has a great life at home.
To sum it up, I was happy at first to just get the job but now I am happy to know I have a friend for life.
As for the rest of the final table, I will tell you how I think everyone played. I think Moon played awful up until Steve busted. There was one hand where Saout raised J2 from the button into Moons big blind, which was fine, considering how tight Moon had been. Moon called and it came KJ2. Moon checked and Saout bet around 2/5 (I think) of his stack. Moon instapushed with A4. Wow..that is all.
Akenhead got it in a few times, once with KQ against AK and peeled, and if he didn�t run KK into AA, he would have had a decent shot to win.
Ivey�s play shocked me the most. Simply put, he played like a super nit and I have no clue why. It was clear most of the table feared him, as they folded to basically all of his raises. He ended up blinding off before getting 3 outered by Moon.
Schaffel got beat around a quite a bit, raisefolding a ton. He eventually got AA vs KK back to back bout couldn�t fade the 2nd one.
Buchman played well up until Steve busted, I thought. He raised basically every hand that was folded to him and reraised quite a bit too. All in all, I thought he played well, although he did hit a 2 outer early for most of his chips.
Cada played pretty well I thought too. He got down to 3bbs at one point then pushbotted the table to death. Currently he is 2nd in chips with 5 people left. I was shocked at how Schulman and Moon simply let him get back in the game and if he wins, it is because these guys gave it to him.
Saout shocked me the most, but in a good way. I assumed he would play tight and eventually get it in with a decent hand and lose. He actually mixed it up very well and I think he played the best of anyone at the table, at least while I was there. It would not surprise me at all if he won, which is why he is my pick to win at this point.
Schulman was apparently coached by Hellmuth and it showed, in very bad ways. He was raising to 3.5x-5x preflop, which is awful. He also reraised to 1/3 his stack then folded a few times, which is never really good. All in all, he seemed to play as if he was trying to give it away. I would be a bit surprised if he won unless he totally changes his game.
Well, that�s it. It has been a great 3 months. Hopefully someone decides they want my help next year and I can take the ride again. Better yet, I will just final table it myself.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Went on a family vacation
The last week has been filled with no poker at all. After the Bellagio WPT, where I dont even remember how I busted, I flew to Orlando to watch my brother compete in weight lifting at the special olympics. He did well and got a gold medal, so that was good.I did have a few complaints about the set up though. First off, Disney World didnt even comp the athletes a day at Disney World.
Most of the guys had little or no money, so they couldnt pay to get in. Because of this, they got to go to Disney World to play but they didnt actually get to go to Disney World. The food situation was fairly brutal as well. They fed most of us in a giant tent that took about 15 minutes to walk to. Some of the guys cant walk too well and some where in wheelchairs, which made getting to the tent fairly tough. I have a few more complaints that I cant remember now. I just wish they thought about who was going to be coming to the games. Hopefully they will get their act together next time.
My fav part of the trip was going to the food and wine festival at Epcot. For those that dont know me, there isnt much I love more than good food and fine wine, both of which were scattered around the park to enjoy. I bought my family food as well for my dad's birthday, so we all enjoyed the goods. My fav was some delicious steak skewer with some great sauce and then some shrimp gumbo.
Once I got back to Vegas, I hopped right back into the $10/20 games that I have been playing lately. I recently had a nice 6 buyin downswing, which sucks but most of the money was lost to fairly bad beats so I didnt really care. On the first hand, there were 2 limps, a raise to $200, a call, then I picked up QQ. I shipped me whole $2000 stack and got called by the caller. It ran out AJT83 and I assumed I lost. He turned over QQ though and we chopped it up.
The next hand, I somehow got it in with AK vs QJ on a AJ board and he peeled a Q to stack me. Around 30 minutes later, a pretty cool hand came up. I had rebought for $2000 when I picked up 86s on the button. There were 4 limps then a raise from the same guy in the first hand to $100. I called on the button and everyone else called. The flop came 962. We all checked to the bettor who made it $320. I was just going to fold when I saw the person to my left fold out of turn, followed by all the other players in the hand pick up their cards as if to muck. Because of this, I decided to ship it in. The raiser snap called me, so I assumed I needed to get lucky this time. The board ran of 4Q and I turned over my bad pair. He turned over 44 to bust me again. I decided to just pack it up and go home.
I have noticed I get a little annoyed when I get stacked back to back to dumb situations and because of this, I have decided that when I lose 2 buyins, I just quit for the day. This goes against basically everything I have ever done in online poker or live, as I dont think I really tilt, so I should be +ev to play whether or not I am winning or losing. After going off for 6 buyins a week earlier, I decided losing $12000 didnt make me feel good, so I was going to make sure it didnt happen. I reeallly hate quitting a good game though. I am going to try this quitting after 2 losses thing for a while but if I see that variance makes for tons of short sessions, I will probably give it up.
Besides all of that, life is grand. Everything I am trying to do is coming together to hopefully create a nice living situation for me. Hopefully I can run hot at the cash games and win all the dollars.
Most of the guys had little or no money, so they couldnt pay to get in. Because of this, they got to go to Disney World to play but they didnt actually get to go to Disney World. The food situation was fairly brutal as well. They fed most of us in a giant tent that took about 15 minutes to walk to. Some of the guys cant walk too well and some where in wheelchairs, which made getting to the tent fairly tough. I have a few more complaints that I cant remember now. I just wish they thought about who was going to be coming to the games. Hopefully they will get their act together next time.
My fav part of the trip was going to the food and wine festival at Epcot. For those that dont know me, there isnt much I love more than good food and fine wine, both of which were scattered around the park to enjoy. I bought my family food as well for my dad's birthday, so we all enjoyed the goods. My fav was some delicious steak skewer with some great sauce and then some shrimp gumbo.
Once I got back to Vegas, I hopped right back into the $10/20 games that I have been playing lately. I recently had a nice 6 buyin downswing, which sucks but most of the money was lost to fairly bad beats so I didnt really care. On the first hand, there were 2 limps, a raise to $200, a call, then I picked up QQ. I shipped me whole $2000 stack and got called by the caller. It ran out AJT83 and I assumed I lost. He turned over QQ though and we chopped it up.
The next hand, I somehow got it in with AK vs QJ on a AJ board and he peeled a Q to stack me. Around 30 minutes later, a pretty cool hand came up. I had rebought for $2000 when I picked up 86s on the button. There were 4 limps then a raise from the same guy in the first hand to $100. I called on the button and everyone else called. The flop came 962. We all checked to the bettor who made it $320. I was just going to fold when I saw the person to my left fold out of turn, followed by all the other players in the hand pick up their cards as if to muck. Because of this, I decided to ship it in. The raiser snap called me, so I assumed I needed to get lucky this time. The board ran of 4Q and I turned over my bad pair. He turned over 44 to bust me again. I decided to just pack it up and go home.
I have noticed I get a little annoyed when I get stacked back to back to dumb situations and because of this, I have decided that when I lose 2 buyins, I just quit for the day. This goes against basically everything I have ever done in online poker or live, as I dont think I really tilt, so I should be +ev to play whether or not I am winning or losing. After going off for 6 buyins a week earlier, I decided losing $12000 didnt make me feel good, so I was going to make sure it didnt happen. I reeallly hate quitting a good game though. I am going to try this quitting after 2 losses thing for a while but if I see that variance makes for tons of short sessions, I will probably give it up.
Besides all of that, life is grand. Everything I am trying to do is coming together to hopefully create a nice living situation for me. Hopefully I can run hot at the cash games and win all the dollars.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
2nd again
2nd in a $5000 event for $66000.
10-20-2009
A lot has happened since I last blogged. Ill start off with the cash game stuff first, as it is the most boring. I had a nice 6 winning sessions in a row only to be followed by 2 sessions that basically wiped out all the profits, which is kinda saddening. I ended up losing a $14,000 pot where I was 100% sure a guy had a flush draw...he did and peeled it with one card to come. Had I have won that, this would just be a sick brag post, but I lost, so it is a sad post now.
As for tournaments, I took 2nd out of 55 in the latest $5000 tournament, cashing for $66000. I had Michael Mizrachi and Christian Harder at my table when we were down to 4 people. I was chip leader for a few moments once we were 3 handed but then lost a flip vs the short stack, then lost with 2 pair vs Mizrachi when he rivered the flopped bottom pairs twin to make trips(granded, I was trying to let him hang himself, so I really only have myself to blame).
Those 2 hands happened basically back to back to knock me down from chip leader to short stack. I also raised and cbet quite a lot but sadly, missed every flop except the one where I made the 2 pair. I did steal quite a bit to keep my afloat though. I ended up outlasting the other short guy and got heads up with 1/8th the chips, which was around 15bbs. I got it in with 97 vs A9 and lost, although I probably didnt have much of a chance, being so short.
For those keeping count, of the last 4 tinal tables I have made at Bellagio, I have taken 4 2nds. The previous 3 were all lost to coin flips, which feels unavoidable and I had no chips in this one, so that seems like I just autolose too. I guess taking 2nd just makes me sad, although 2nd is better than 3rd.
Tomorrow is the $15,000 main event. I dont think there is anything else I would rather be doing than playing a WPT tomorrow, so hopefully I play my best and do well. I was reading twitter tonight (for those that dont follow already, add jonathanlittle and floattheturn) and I saw a new blog post by Negreanu talking about stats. Stats are cool (but usually irrelevant) so I checked it out.
Turns out I have the 2nd highest ROI of anyone that has played over 30 WPTs. Also rather cool, I have 25% higher ROI than anyone that has never won the WPT main event. Hopefully I knock off this event here and take the lead. Link below. http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-journal.php?subaction=showfull&id=1256088304&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&
10-20-2009
A lot has happened since I last blogged. Ill start off with the cash game stuff first, as it is the most boring. I had a nice 6 winning sessions in a row only to be followed by 2 sessions that basically wiped out all the profits, which is kinda saddening. I ended up losing a $14,000 pot where I was 100% sure a guy had a flush draw...he did and peeled it with one card to come. Had I have won that, this would just be a sick brag post, but I lost, so it is a sad post now.
As for tournaments, I took 2nd out of 55 in the latest $5000 tournament, cashing for $66000. I had Michael Mizrachi and Christian Harder at my table when we were down to 4 people. I was chip leader for a few moments once we were 3 handed but then lost a flip vs the short stack, then lost with 2 pair vs Mizrachi when he rivered the flopped bottom pairs twin to make trips(granded, I was trying to let him hang himself, so I really only have myself to blame).
Those 2 hands happened basically back to back to knock me down from chip leader to short stack. I also raised and cbet quite a lot but sadly, missed every flop except the one where I made the 2 pair. I did steal quite a bit to keep my afloat though. I ended up outlasting the other short guy and got heads up with 1/8th the chips, which was around 15bbs. I got it in with 97 vs A9 and lost, although I probably didnt have much of a chance, being so short.
For those keeping count, of the last 4 tinal tables I have made at Bellagio, I have taken 4 2nds. The previous 3 were all lost to coin flips, which feels unavoidable and I had no chips in this one, so that seems like I just autolose too. I guess taking 2nd just makes me sad, although 2nd is better than 3rd.
Tomorrow is the $15,000 main event. I dont think there is anything else I would rather be doing than playing a WPT tomorrow, so hopefully I play my best and do well. I was reading twitter tonight (for those that dont follow already, add jonathanlittle and floattheturn) and I saw a new blog post by Negreanu talking about stats. Stats are cool (but usually irrelevant) so I checked it out.
Turns out I have the 2nd highest ROI of anyone that has played over 30 WPTs. Also rather cool, I have 25% higher ROI than anyone that has never won the WPT main event. Hopefully I knock off this event here and take the lead. Link below. http://www.fullcontactpoker.com/poker-journal.php?subaction=showfull&id=1256088304&archive=&start_from=&ucat=&
Thursday, October 8, 2009
2nd in 1000 at Bellagio
Life has been pretty cool lately, with lots of minor highs and lows. I ended up taking 2nd in the first $1,000 event at Bellagio for $27,000. I ended up getting all in heads up with AK vs 66 and lost. I reeallly wanted to win as they are giving the winner of every event a Rolex, which would be neat I busted from that event at around 4:30 pm then registered in the $500 event that started 4 hours earlier. I had a nice 12bb stack but somehow ended up busting in 9th when I ran my AK(again) into AA. I only won $1500 for that one.
The next day, I ran my AK (3rd time in a row) into QQ in the $1500 event. It was fairly sick, as the kid that busted me slowrolled me hardcore. I raised from early position to around 2.5bbs out of my 30bb stack. The kid made it 7.5bbs and I obv pushed. He tanked for around 3 minutes, which had me thinking I was in great shape. He sighed, cried, etc, then called with QQ.
It came QTx and I was 100% sure I was going to win, as it clearly wouldnt be right for me to bust to some slowrolling kid, would it? I didnt peel and busted. I busted the $2000 event somehow...I forget. Today, I played the $3000 event and got most of my stack in with AA vs QQ when we were down to around 16 people out of the huuuge 32 person starting field. After the AA lost, I got the little pile I had left in with AJ vs AK. Ohhhh well. All in all though, final tabling 2 tournaments in the same day was fun.
As for cash games, I have been playing a lot. I am up just a little despite losing a $8000 pot where I had my QcJc all in against JTo on a Jd4c2cTc board. He peeled his 8%er like a pro to make me sad. Good thing I was already up around $5000 that session. I have still been playing at hard rock and made the mistake of having 2 coronas last night.
The only reason I had them in the first place was because the hostess at Pink Taco said they were having happy hour and I could get 1/2 price food if I ate at the bar. I am obv not going to be the only person at the bar without a corona, so I had me 2 for 1. Anyways, I got it in with 75s vs A9 on a As9s5d board. I missed. A while later, I had 9h7h on a Th8hXx and missed. I then did the tilt repush with A8s and ran into AA to end the short session down 2 buyins.
I wont be making the drinking mistake again for a long long time. I have actually been making a little list of my life leaks and am working hard on plugging them. I played today at Bellagio but wasnt focusing (one of my leaks on the list) at all. I ended up QJs into 99 on a Ts9sXx board. He boated the turn and I missed. I then had 87d on a 9d8x2d board...he again had 99. I need to stop running into sets...or better yet, have some of my draws miss. Despite running into all these monsters and losing, I am only down 3 buyins in the last 2 days, so I should be happy about that.
I have had the chance to talk to lots of cash game players and they all seem to think about the game very different than I do. First off, they dont understand how I can take a game seriously when the money doesnt really mean anything to me. I have never been one to really care about the money, even when I didnt have any. What I care about is winning and losing.
When I got my head beat in at hard rock, I was unhappy, not because I lost $2000 but because I had lost. Most of the players also dont understand how I can be ok with not playing the biggest game in the casino against the best players. Call me crazy, but I dont really want to play against Icey and Durrr, and really, im not rolled for it.
It seems to me like most of these guys have huge ego problems. I am playing these mid stake cash games simply to get live poker experience, which I feel like I have missed over the last few years, as I spent most of my time online. I feel like I have a pretty solid game and now just need to find those few extra spots where I can really exploit the live players. All in all, I am happy with the results and I am finding flaws in myself that I am quickly correcting, which s the whole point of this. So...I am happy.
The next day, I ran my AK (3rd time in a row) into QQ in the $1500 event. It was fairly sick, as the kid that busted me slowrolled me hardcore. I raised from early position to around 2.5bbs out of my 30bb stack. The kid made it 7.5bbs and I obv pushed. He tanked for around 3 minutes, which had me thinking I was in great shape. He sighed, cried, etc, then called with QQ.
It came QTx and I was 100% sure I was going to win, as it clearly wouldnt be right for me to bust to some slowrolling kid, would it? I didnt peel and busted. I busted the $2000 event somehow...I forget. Today, I played the $3000 event and got most of my stack in with AA vs QQ when we were down to around 16 people out of the huuuge 32 person starting field. After the AA lost, I got the little pile I had left in with AJ vs AK. Ohhhh well. All in all though, final tabling 2 tournaments in the same day was fun.
As for cash games, I have been playing a lot. I am up just a little despite losing a $8000 pot where I had my QcJc all in against JTo on a Jd4c2cTc board. He peeled his 8%er like a pro to make me sad. Good thing I was already up around $5000 that session. I have still been playing at hard rock and made the mistake of having 2 coronas last night.
The only reason I had them in the first place was because the hostess at Pink Taco said they were having happy hour and I could get 1/2 price food if I ate at the bar. I am obv not going to be the only person at the bar without a corona, so I had me 2 for 1. Anyways, I got it in with 75s vs A9 on a As9s5d board. I missed. A while later, I had 9h7h on a Th8hXx and missed. I then did the tilt repush with A8s and ran into AA to end the short session down 2 buyins.
I wont be making the drinking mistake again for a long long time. I have actually been making a little list of my life leaks and am working hard on plugging them. I played today at Bellagio but wasnt focusing (one of my leaks on the list) at all. I ended up QJs into 99 on a Ts9sXx board. He boated the turn and I missed. I then had 87d on a 9d8x2d board...he again had 99. I need to stop running into sets...or better yet, have some of my draws miss. Despite running into all these monsters and losing, I am only down 3 buyins in the last 2 days, so I should be happy about that.
I have had the chance to talk to lots of cash game players and they all seem to think about the game very different than I do. First off, they dont understand how I can take a game seriously when the money doesnt really mean anything to me. I have never been one to really care about the money, even when I didnt have any. What I care about is winning and losing.
When I got my head beat in at hard rock, I was unhappy, not because I lost $2000 but because I had lost. Most of the players also dont understand how I can be ok with not playing the biggest game in the casino against the best players. Call me crazy, but I dont really want to play against Icey and Durrr, and really, im not rolled for it.
It seems to me like most of these guys have huge ego problems. I am playing these mid stake cash games simply to get live poker experience, which I feel like I have missed over the last few years, as I spent most of my time online. I feel like I have a pretty solid game and now just need to find those few extra spots where I can really exploit the live players. All in all, I am happy with the results and I am finding flaws in myself that I am quickly correcting, which s the whole point of this. So...I am happy.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Trash Talking Tuesday
At the Hard Rock Casino, they have been running a pretty cool game a few nights a week. I kept hearing at this game when I played at Bellagio so I decided to check it out. First off, I have been trying to play more and more live poker lately, as it feels a lot less stressful, at least to me, than online.
Plus, online keeps getting tougher and tougher. If the UIGEA thing doesnt get repealed by the end of the year, expect things to get even tougher. I guess I always prepare for the worst possible situation, which would be online poker being totally banned at some point, which will probably never happen. However, if it does, I want to be well ahead of the curve when it comes to all the online kids transitioning to live poker. Also, assuming online poker stays fine, I can write off the time spent as another way to improve my game, as if I do lack in any area, it is deep stacked play.
On to the game...it is a $500 - $3000 buyin game with $2/5 blinds and a mandatory $10-$100 straddle on the button. The way this works is first position goes first, then it goes around to to the cutoff like normal. The button, who has a straddle out, then gets skipped and the blinds act.
After they act, the button has the option to check or raise. Basically, it makes the button 10x more powerful. There is one little catch in that if there is a raise and a reraise before the action gets to the button, the button then acts in turn.
One more thing about the game, if you win a hand with 7-2, reguardless of whether or not it is shown down at the river, everyone at the table has to give you $10. People are usually fairly transparent when they have 72, making 10x the blind preflop raises and 3x potting the flop. There was one player at the table last night that raised to 6x preflop then made it 3x pot over someones lead on some random flop. He showed the 72 and we paid him off.
A little while later, he made it 6x preflop with QQ and got some callers so I called with QJ on the button. It came Q73. He bet around 2x pot and I called, assuming I was just going to call down. The turn was a J and he 2x potted it again. I called. The river was a 9 and he 2x it again. I snap called and he showed me the QQ. I was sad. All in all though, I think against weak players that really are transparent, it is good for the game. You just have to man up and get it in there with A7o preflop.
As for my results in the game so far, they havent been too good. I am down like $500 over 12 hours of play. I have made the 2nd nuts around 5 times and every time they had the nuts, so I am not too concerned about the results although I would obviously rather do better. Both nights I have played, someone has been at my table just dumping away money. Last night some super hot girl that couldnt have been older than 26 came and dumped off $10000 over an hour.
The night before an old guy gave away $5000 pretty fast, calling a guy down on a AKT42 with 4 spade board. The other player, who was also semicrazy, showed T6 with no spade and took down the $6000 pot. Just looking back over the last paragraph, this game sounds like the best ever. The only problem is that there are usually 7 other players at the table that play fairly well. Because of this, I may check out Bellagios games on a random Tuesday to see if there are no pros there, as I assume they are all at Hard Rock.
All in all, the game is fun. It is a cool social thing with a decent amount of action. I am just hoping I have one of the people that show up to give it away give it to me next time. Bellagio prelim events started today. I will be playing most of them starting tomorrow. The winner of each event gets a $5500 rolex. That would be nice.
Plus, online keeps getting tougher and tougher. If the UIGEA thing doesnt get repealed by the end of the year, expect things to get even tougher. I guess I always prepare for the worst possible situation, which would be online poker being totally banned at some point, which will probably never happen. However, if it does, I want to be well ahead of the curve when it comes to all the online kids transitioning to live poker. Also, assuming online poker stays fine, I can write off the time spent as another way to improve my game, as if I do lack in any area, it is deep stacked play.
On to the game...it is a $500 - $3000 buyin game with $2/5 blinds and a mandatory $10-$100 straddle on the button. The way this works is first position goes first, then it goes around to to the cutoff like normal. The button, who has a straddle out, then gets skipped and the blinds act.
After they act, the button has the option to check or raise. Basically, it makes the button 10x more powerful. There is one little catch in that if there is a raise and a reraise before the action gets to the button, the button then acts in turn.
One more thing about the game, if you win a hand with 7-2, reguardless of whether or not it is shown down at the river, everyone at the table has to give you $10. People are usually fairly transparent when they have 72, making 10x the blind preflop raises and 3x potting the flop. There was one player at the table last night that raised to 6x preflop then made it 3x pot over someones lead on some random flop. He showed the 72 and we paid him off.
A little while later, he made it 6x preflop with QQ and got some callers so I called with QJ on the button. It came Q73. He bet around 2x pot and I called, assuming I was just going to call down. The turn was a J and he 2x potted it again. I called. The river was a 9 and he 2x it again. I snap called and he showed me the QQ. I was sad. All in all though, I think against weak players that really are transparent, it is good for the game. You just have to man up and get it in there with A7o preflop.
As for my results in the game so far, they havent been too good. I am down like $500 over 12 hours of play. I have made the 2nd nuts around 5 times and every time they had the nuts, so I am not too concerned about the results although I would obviously rather do better. Both nights I have played, someone has been at my table just dumping away money. Last night some super hot girl that couldnt have been older than 26 came and dumped off $10000 over an hour.
The night before an old guy gave away $5000 pretty fast, calling a guy down on a AKT42 with 4 spade board. The other player, who was also semicrazy, showed T6 with no spade and took down the $6000 pot. Just looking back over the last paragraph, this game sounds like the best ever. The only problem is that there are usually 7 other players at the table that play fairly well. Because of this, I may check out Bellagios games on a random Tuesday to see if there are no pros there, as I assume they are all at Hard Rock.
All in all, the game is fun. It is a cool social thing with a decent amount of action. I am just hoping I have one of the people that show up to give it away give it to me next time. Bellagio prelim events started today. I will be playing most of them starting tomorrow. The winner of each event gets a $5500 rolex. That would be nice.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Basically Bubbled AC
After finishing in a good but disappointing 8th place, I came to Atlantic City hoping for another deep run. I think I played fairly well although I did get a decent amount of money in with 25% equity twice when I flopped a pair in a reraised pot two different times. I couldn't peel either time and the last one did me in. All in all though, I am happy with the way I am playing.
I had planned to go to LA for their poker tournaments but my sleep schedule is so messed up, I feel like my time would be better spent just getting back in the swing of things. There are lots of Bellagio events in October so I want to be ready for them. I also just want to get home and sleep in my own bed for a week.
I had planned to go to LA for their poker tournaments but my sleep schedule is so messed up, I feel like my time would be better spent just getting back in the swing of things. There are lots of Bellagio events in October so I want to be ready for them. I also just want to get home and sleep in my own bed for a week.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
www.FloatTheTurn.com is now live
I am very pleaseed to announce, that after numerous delays, which I am quite sorry for, btw, www.FloatTheTurn.com is live and ready for everyone to check it out. We have added two new multitable sng pros, partyhair and ibluffheaps. They each have a new video uploaded already. I also added a 4 part video of myself playing a $10,000 and a $1,000 online tournament. In the near future, I will be uploading a $500 mtt replay that I final tabled as well as a 3 part video of a satellite where I won a WSOP seat. That sounds like a lot...and thats just from me. You can still expect frequent updates from all your other favorite sngicon coaches.
In around a week or so, I am going to be closing sngicons.com for good. I suggest that if you have a blog or hand histories stored on the site, get them off asap as I would hate for anyone to lose items that are important to them.
If you are a paying member, you should have gotten an email with your new sign in name and password already. Please dont hesitate to ask or suggest anything, as I am here for you guys and am doing everything in my power to give everyone the tournament poker training site they deserve.
In around a week or so, I am going to be closing sngicons.com for good. I suggest that if you have a blog or hand histories stored on the site, get them off asap as I would hate for anyone to lose items that are important to them.
If you are a paying member, you should have gotten an email with your new sign in name and password already. Please dont hesitate to ask or suggest anything, as I am here for you guys and am doing everything in my power to give everyone the tournament poker training site they deserve.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Off to AC
Obviously as soon as I post on my blog that I am doing well in a mtt I snap bust in it. I ended up taking 8th in the WPT event here, giving me 2 1sts, a 2nd, a 5th, a 7th, and an 8th in WPT events, which I think is pretty decent for 3 years worth of playing. I just need to crack off one more to be in the record books. I made one semiloose call down in the tournamant based on an incorrect read, which is never fun. Besides that, I think I played about as perfect as I know how.
Last night I somehow ended up playing a $2000 8 person sng against a bunch of semidrunk semiprofessional poker players. I chopped it with Kelly Kim, bringing in $7000 profit for me. Too bad I lost $5000 in Chinese poker to them shortly after. It is amazing for sickly hot I ran in the sng and how bad I ran at Chinese. I guess thats just how poker works. Anyways, that +2000 put me even on the trip (not counting the WPT cash) so I am happy to leave with as much as I brought.
I am flying back to Vegas in 10 hours or so. I am dreading the 24 hour flight, considering I have finally got myself back on USA time. I am sure the flight will basically ruin that though. As soon as I get back to Vegas, I will have one day to pay bills and do laundry before flying to Atlantic City for their WPT event. It is only a $3500 but I expect it to get around 1500 people. It feels almost dirty to fly that far for a $3500, but maybe they have the right idea. Hopefully I can make my 4th deep run in WPT events in a row and make something nice happen.
Last night I somehow ended up playing a $2000 8 person sng against a bunch of semidrunk semiprofessional poker players. I chopped it with Kelly Kim, bringing in $7000 profit for me. Too bad I lost $5000 in Chinese poker to them shortly after. It is amazing for sickly hot I ran in the sng and how bad I ran at Chinese. I guess thats just how poker works. Anyways, that +2000 put me even on the trip (not counting the WPT cash) so I am happy to leave with as much as I brought.
I am flying back to Vegas in 10 hours or so. I am dreading the 24 hour flight, considering I have finally got myself back on USA time. I am sure the flight will basically ruin that though. As soon as I get back to Vegas, I will have one day to pay bills and do laundry before flying to Atlantic City for their WPT event. It is only a $3500 but I expect it to get around 1500 people. It feels almost dirty to fly that far for a $3500, but maybe they have the right idea. Hopefully I can make my 4th deep run in WPT events in a row and make something nice happen.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Cyprus
I guess ill start when I left Vegas. I was totally unaware it was going to take 24 hours to fly from Vegas to Cyprus. I figured it would be something like 18 hours. It was 30 minutes to LA, lots of hours to London, then around 6 hours to Cyprus.On short flights, I usually spend the $100 to get moved to business class.
On the flight to London, I decided to splurge and spend $800 for business class. Honestly, it wasnt worth it, as the service was ok at best and the food was just decent. On the flight from London to Cyprus, they would give you all the drinks you wanted and the food was great. It kinda makes me want to upgrade on that flight going back just to see how much better it can get, as that flight was basically the nuts.
Cyprus is a weird place. First off, there are two sides to this country. The Greek side, which is actually known as "Cyprus" and the Turkish side, which isnt recgonized by any country as a country. Because of this, you cant fly into the Turkish side of Cyprus, Turks have 2 letters on their liscense plates whereas Greeks have 3, and you have to go through an odd looking boarder to get to the north side, kinda like you would see in Iraq.
Despite this, Turks and Greeks get along just fine in the casino. The land is a mix between rocky mountains and green valleys. It is also very humid. All in all, it is very pretty. Before this trip, I had no clue what jet lag felt like. I used to start getting on whatever sleep schedule I needed to be on for a tournament around a week in advance, either staying up or going to bed an hour earlier each day so that by the time I actually had to play, I would be on the perfect schedule.
Apparently I forgot to do that this time, as I havent been out of North America in quite some time. I think I slept around 18 hours on the flight then around half the time since I have been here. I played a $500 and $1000 tournament so far, and while I played technically sound, it was impossible for me to make any reads at all. I knew both times around 30 minutes into the event that I should not be playing.
Ohhhh well. After busting from the $1000, I went to sleep for around 6 hours then woke up around 10pm. I played some $10/20 plhe last night, which is in the low limit section of the poker area, and won a decent amount. The play is awful. There are basically no pros, probably because of the 3%, uncapped rake. The largest pot of the night was rakes something like $175. It was pretty sick. Also, they allow smoking in the cash game area (but not the tournament area, which is in the convention center) although most people stopped smoking around midnight for some reason.
The casino does not keep $1 bills or have $1 chips. I was talking to a Greek guy with perfect english that lives here now but lived in america for 10 years, and he said that the players requested to not have $5 chips, as they were all mostly rich people anyways and there was no use for them. Because of this, dealers get tipped $5 min, pots are raked in $5 increments and I have to tip a guy $5 to get me a green tea. Because of this, I order 2 green teas and a bottle of water, obv to get value from my $5. Does that make me cheap?
Food here has been pretty good so far. They have a buffet full of mostly european type food. For breakfast, they have a nice molet station and also my favorite, seedless oranges but up with no skin on them, just like they have at Atlantis. I think I have went through around 10 oranges each day so far. At night, they have lots of veggies and fish, which is right up my alley. One cool thing is that instead of birds begging for food, there are numerous stray cats. They are really sweet and cute.
I imagine they are all diseased up though, as I doubt they have had their shots. I guess the cats ate all the birds. The main event starts in 2 hours. I feel pretty good and am expecting good things. Even if it goes bad, I can just put in lots of hours at the cash tables and give the house $100 in rake per hour.
On the flight to London, I decided to splurge and spend $800 for business class. Honestly, it wasnt worth it, as the service was ok at best and the food was just decent. On the flight from London to Cyprus, they would give you all the drinks you wanted and the food was great. It kinda makes me want to upgrade on that flight going back just to see how much better it can get, as that flight was basically the nuts.
Cyprus is a weird place. First off, there are two sides to this country. The Greek side, which is actually known as "Cyprus" and the Turkish side, which isnt recgonized by any country as a country. Because of this, you cant fly into the Turkish side of Cyprus, Turks have 2 letters on their liscense plates whereas Greeks have 3, and you have to go through an odd looking boarder to get to the north side, kinda like you would see in Iraq.
Despite this, Turks and Greeks get along just fine in the casino. The land is a mix between rocky mountains and green valleys. It is also very humid. All in all, it is very pretty. Before this trip, I had no clue what jet lag felt like. I used to start getting on whatever sleep schedule I needed to be on for a tournament around a week in advance, either staying up or going to bed an hour earlier each day so that by the time I actually had to play, I would be on the perfect schedule.
Apparently I forgot to do that this time, as I havent been out of North America in quite some time. I think I slept around 18 hours on the flight then around half the time since I have been here. I played a $500 and $1000 tournament so far, and while I played technically sound, it was impossible for me to make any reads at all. I knew both times around 30 minutes into the event that I should not be playing.
Ohhhh well. After busting from the $1000, I went to sleep for around 6 hours then woke up around 10pm. I played some $10/20 plhe last night, which is in the low limit section of the poker area, and won a decent amount. The play is awful. There are basically no pros, probably because of the 3%, uncapped rake. The largest pot of the night was rakes something like $175. It was pretty sick. Also, they allow smoking in the cash game area (but not the tournament area, which is in the convention center) although most people stopped smoking around midnight for some reason.
The casino does not keep $1 bills or have $1 chips. I was talking to a Greek guy with perfect english that lives here now but lived in america for 10 years, and he said that the players requested to not have $5 chips, as they were all mostly rich people anyways and there was no use for them. Because of this, dealers get tipped $5 min, pots are raked in $5 increments and I have to tip a guy $5 to get me a green tea. Because of this, I order 2 green teas and a bottle of water, obv to get value from my $5. Does that make me cheap?
Food here has been pretty good so far. They have a buffet full of mostly european type food. For breakfast, they have a nice molet station and also my favorite, seedless oranges but up with no skin on them, just like they have at Atlantis. I think I have went through around 10 oranges each day so far. At night, they have lots of veggies and fish, which is right up my alley. One cool thing is that instead of birds begging for food, there are numerous stray cats. They are really sweet and cute.
I imagine they are all diseased up though, as I doubt they have had their shots. I guess the cats ate all the birds. The main event starts in 2 hours. I feel pretty good and am expecting good things. Even if it goes bad, I can just put in lots of hours at the cash tables and give the house $100 in rake per hour.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Busy Times
I feel like I havent had a moments rest in the last few weeks. As soon as I got home from the WPT event in LA, I went to my good friend Cody's wedding in North Dakota. It was basically a 3 day party where lots of fun took place. Somehow a few of my friends ended up jumping on the hood of one of our rental cars multiple times (see my pic on twitter) and are now having to pay lots to get it fixed even though we took it to a body shop that got most of the dents out.
All in all though, it was a fun time. I have also been playing a decent amount of live cash games. I was doing pretty well until yesterday when I took a little shot at 25/50-100 where there were two weak players and 3 strong players. I ended up losing like $2500 in that but really, I am fine with it, as I played as well as I could and $2500 is basically nothing for that game.
I am leaving for Cyprus in less than 24 hours. I am fairly excited about this trip as I havnt been out of North America in a fairly long time. I was thinking this tournament wasnt going to break the 100 entrant mark but I was talking to Mrs Libby (tournament cashier at Bellagio) today and she said they have over 200 registered already. Hopefully it isnt a field of 200 pros. Be sure to check my twitter for up to the minute updates about the trip and tournament at jonathanlittle.
All in all though, it was a fun time. I have also been playing a decent amount of live cash games. I was doing pretty well until yesterday when I took a little shot at 25/50-100 where there were two weak players and 3 strong players. I ended up losing like $2500 in that but really, I am fine with it, as I played as well as I could and $2500 is basically nothing for that game.
I am leaving for Cyprus in less than 24 hours. I am fairly excited about this trip as I havnt been out of North America in a fairly long time. I was thinking this tournament wasnt going to break the 100 entrant mark but I was talking to Mrs Libby (tournament cashier at Bellagio) today and she said they have over 200 registered already. Hopefully it isnt a field of 200 pros. Be sure to check my twitter for up to the minute updates about the trip and tournament at jonathanlittle.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Out in 44th place 08-25-2009
Today was pretty bad. Actually, it wasnt much worse than any of the other days except for today was more like a wsop prelim event, as if you won no hands for two levels, you just lose. Well, I didnt win any hands for two levels so I lost. I eventually got down to 25bbs and got lucky enough to get AJ in on a A85 board. Sadly, I ran into 88. As soon as I get back to Vegas, I will be leaving again to go to my good friend Cody's wedding. That should be fun times. After that, it is more live tournament action. I like being back in the swing of things. Hopefully I get back in the swing of winning.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Legends of Poker Update
The last two days have been rough. I am having one of those tournaments where I just never get good cards. Sadly, I dont really have any big hands to report. I could have went broke on day one multiple times where I made top pair but decided to play them all slow and lose the minimum to multiple two pair and sets. I also had the nut flush draw plus overs once and also lost the min.
I feel like I am playing really nitty, but really, I have just been card dead. We play from 70 people down to 27 tomorrow, which will be in the money. Really though, I am keeping my eye on 1st place.
I feel like I am playing really nitty, but really, I have just been card dead. We play from 70 people down to 27 tomorrow, which will be in the money. Really though, I am keeping my eye on 1st place.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Busy and Unfocused
Poker has been rough lately. Actually, it hasn't been bad. It just hasn't been what I wanted. I decided a while back that I was going to learn PLO, as everyone seems to agree it is the future of poker. So, I have been 6-9 tabling $2/4 and $3/6. I ran at 4ptbb/100 over 20,000 hands, which seems good, but when I am swinging 5 buyins either way every session, if I run bad for 2 sessions, I will be back at 0/100.
It seems like a sick degenish game where you will only know your true winrate after 1,000,000 hands. Because of this, I am in the process of deciding if I want to keep up the learning about PLO or if I am just going to put that on hold and focus on tournaments. The main problem with tournaments is that you basically never get a break throughout the day and you tend to have a lot of losing days and a few winning days. After a while, that starts to wear on you.
Granted, 10 buyin swings at PLO every day will wear on you too. I think I am most likely going to go down to 4 tables of PLO and focus on just getting good instead of trying to grind out a little money, as I have no need for money right now. I just want to be good. Speaking of getting good, www.FloatTheTurn.com is almost ready to fully launch. We are in the process of uploading all the older videos right now and transfering the member database, which pretty much means the site will be ready very soon. Hopefully everyone likes the new site design as much as I do. One last thing. I am going to LA for their WPT event in a few days.
This specific event always sticks out in my head for two reasons. First, it was the last time I stuck my whole stack in on a total bluff. It worked, but looking back, it was probably bad. Since then, I have bluffed a ton but I make a point to always have some equity. Secondly, their chips have two random guys faces on one side of each chip. Since I dont like looking down and seeing random guys on my chips, I have to turn them all over so their faces are towards the felt. I hope I can get over that this time and focus on playing poker.
It seems like a sick degenish game where you will only know your true winrate after 1,000,000 hands. Because of this, I am in the process of deciding if I want to keep up the learning about PLO or if I am just going to put that on hold and focus on tournaments. The main problem with tournaments is that you basically never get a break throughout the day and you tend to have a lot of losing days and a few winning days. After a while, that starts to wear on you.
Granted, 10 buyin swings at PLO every day will wear on you too. I think I am most likely going to go down to 4 tables of PLO and focus on just getting good instead of trying to grind out a little money, as I have no need for money right now. I just want to be good. Speaking of getting good, www.FloatTheTurn.com is almost ready to fully launch. We are in the process of uploading all the older videos right now and transfering the member database, which pretty much means the site will be ready very soon. Hopefully everyone likes the new site design as much as I do. One last thing. I am going to LA for their WPT event in a few days.
This specific event always sticks out in my head for two reasons. First, it was the last time I stuck my whole stack in on a total bluff. It worked, but looking back, it was probably bad. Since then, I have bluffed a ton but I make a point to always have some equity. Secondly, their chips have two random guys faces on one side of each chip. Since I dont like looking down and seeing random guys on my chips, I have to turn them all over so their faces are towards the felt. I hope I can get over that this time and focus on playing poker.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Busy Life
(From 8..8.9)
Life has been busy lately. I think ive played around 8 hours of poker in the last week, which is super low for me. wwwFloatTheTurn.com is finally getting ready to be live. It is much harder to get everything up and running than I thought. I am happy to say though, that it is on its way to being ready. I have been on my normal work out schedule for a long time now and I am finally starting to see results. I go 4 times per week for 1.5 hours. It is tough, but starting to become "normal."
Anyways, I dont even know why I brought that up, but I am happy with it. Sadly, life hasnt been too exticing lately. I havent been doing much besides making videos, trying to get the new site up and running, and playing Oblivion. I think I am going to have a few people over tonight to watch UFC. I have bets on Riddle, Almedia and Griffen.
I got a pretty good line on Griffen to win (+320) although I still imagine he is going to lose unless he can grind out a decision victory. I also wanted to get some serious money down on Penn ar around -200 but he is now -260 in Vegas, so its a no bet. Hopefully all the guys I bet on wreck the opposition. I am off to put in a little PLO session I think.
Life has been busy lately. I think ive played around 8 hours of poker in the last week, which is super low for me. wwwFloatTheTurn.com is finally getting ready to be live. It is much harder to get everything up and running than I thought. I am happy to say though, that it is on its way to being ready. I have been on my normal work out schedule for a long time now and I am finally starting to see results. I go 4 times per week for 1.5 hours. It is tough, but starting to become "normal."
Anyways, I dont even know why I brought that up, but I am happy with it. Sadly, life hasnt been too exticing lately. I havent been doing much besides making videos, trying to get the new site up and running, and playing Oblivion. I think I am going to have a few people over tonight to watch UFC. I have bets on Riddle, Almedia and Griffen.
I got a pretty good line on Griffen to win (+320) although I still imagine he is going to lose unless he can grind out a decision victory. I also wanted to get some serious money down on Penn ar around -200 but he is now -260 in Vegas, so its a no bet. Hopefully all the guys I bet on wreck the opposition. I am off to put in a little PLO session I think.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Rough Few Days
The last few days have been rough. Poker has been going fairly bad online and life has been a mess. All in all though, I am ok. FloatTheTurn.com, which will basically be the new sngicons, will be up soon, so thats great.
I am going to be making a news feed there, where I will be posting what I believe to be the top poker news each day. Check it out once it is up and let me know what you think. Besides that, there is a WPT event at the Bike in a month. Til then, I will probably just relax and work on my online game.
I am going to be making a news feed there, where I will be posting what I believe to be the top poker news each day. Check it out once it is up and let me know what you think. Besides that, there is a WPT event at the Bike in a month. Til then, I will probably just relax and work on my online game.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Out in 30th
Damn today went bad. Not much happened until I raised utg when we were 7 handed with KTo. Mimi Tran never showed up, so there was no big blind. Vivek pushed on me for 200k more, giving me like 1.3:1, so I folded. A few hands later, this euro guy, who had raised from the button when I was in the big blind on the previous orbit (mimi was in the small blind) raised again.
I picked up A9 and decided to reraise. He thought for a while then pushed. At this point, I was getting around 1.8:1 to call. He displayed a few tells, some of which I took as fake strong tells and some I thought were weak tells. It turns out, he was just a tellbox and he had AK. I missed everything on the flop when I flopped a gutter and runner runner flush to chop and I was out, just like that.
This summer has been the worst of my life. I cashed in 0 out of around 40 tournaments, despite thinking I am playing fairly well. The only saving grace is that online is going well. Hopefully I can win lots of money online over the next month, while there are no live mtts, and come back refreshed and ready to go.
I picked up A9 and decided to reraise. He thought for a while then pushed. At this point, I was getting around 1.8:1 to call. He displayed a few tells, some of which I took as fake strong tells and some I thought were weak tells. It turns out, he was just a tellbox and he had AK. I missed everything on the flop when I flopped a gutter and runner runner flush to chop and I was out, just like that.
This summer has been the worst of my life. I cashed in 0 out of around 40 tournaments, despite thinking I am playing fairly well. The only saving grace is that online is going well. Hopefully I can win lots of money online over the next month, while there are no live mtts, and come back refreshed and ready to go.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
WPT update
Today was rough. My starting table, which I ended up staying at all day, was full of big names but they somehow wernt playing too crazy early in the day and let me chip up to around 80,000 chips with no showdowns. Around 3 levels into the day, at 800/1600-200 (i think) Justin "Boosted J" Smith raised under the gun.
He had been fairly tight but mixing it up well so far. He had around 130,000 chips. I called on the button with 22 and I thiiiink someone else called in the blinds, although I dont really remember. It came Ah 3h 2s. Justin bet 7000 and I made it 20000. He thought for a while before making it 37000. I would have around 40000 left if I just called and decided that even if he had a flush draw and he hit, id be ok with it. I had the 2h, so if he did have a set, runner runner heart might actually save me.
I also wanted to give him every chance to bluff, as I basically had the nuts. The turn was Jh. He thought for a while before checking. I decided that another heart would be bad, so I pushed. He thought for forever before calling with what he later claimed was KJ.
He mucked once my hand was turned up, so he obviously didnt have a heart. He later told me, all things considered (who I talk to about poker, the way I play, the way we havent tried to outplay each other much, but knew were were capable of it, the fact that it was the last hand before a break and he had raised every previous last hand, etc) made him call. He said he was just calling with K high, so he must think I am super sick, whereas in reality, I am only mildly sick.
I fluctuated between 160000 and 100000 for the rest of the day and finally ended around 153000. Towards the end of the day, the table got filled with numerous high stakes cash game pros and they were just going nuts.
Sadly, I really didnt have much in terms of good starting hands again today and mainly just tried to pick my spots well. Tomorrow we start playing 1500/3000-400, so hopefully I can get a good table that doesnt make me gamble and lots of hands in case they do make me gamble.
He had been fairly tight but mixing it up well so far. He had around 130,000 chips. I called on the button with 22 and I thiiiink someone else called in the blinds, although I dont really remember. It came Ah 3h 2s. Justin bet 7000 and I made it 20000. He thought for a while before making it 37000. I would have around 40000 left if I just called and decided that even if he had a flush draw and he hit, id be ok with it. I had the 2h, so if he did have a set, runner runner heart might actually save me.
I also wanted to give him every chance to bluff, as I basically had the nuts. The turn was Jh. He thought for a while before checking. I decided that another heart would be bad, so I pushed. He thought for forever before calling with what he later claimed was KJ.
He mucked once my hand was turned up, so he obviously didnt have a heart. He later told me, all things considered (who I talk to about poker, the way I play, the way we havent tried to outplay each other much, but knew were were capable of it, the fact that it was the last hand before a break and he had raised every previous last hand, etc) made him call. He said he was just calling with K high, so he must think I am super sick, whereas in reality, I am only mildly sick.
I fluctuated between 160000 and 100000 for the rest of the day and finally ended around 153000. Towards the end of the day, the table got filled with numerous high stakes cash game pros and they were just going nuts.
Sadly, I really didnt have much in terms of good starting hands again today and mainly just tried to pick my spots well. Tomorrow we start playing 1500/3000-400, so hopefully I can get a good table that doesnt make me gamble and lots of hands in case they do make me gamble.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Main Event Bustout
I must say I am fairly shocked to be out of the main event. For some reason, I really felt like I was going to do well in this tournament. Obviously I was delusional. I started day 2 with around 55,000 chips and got it up to 100,000 after winning lots of small pots and one big one with KK vs 77. I got moved to another table where the average stack was around 150,000, which was quite a change from my first table where average was around 50,000. Because of this, I figured I would either get lots of chips or bust somhow. I played around an hour at the table before I raised KQs and got reraised to 5000 by a kid that had already reraised me once. He had me covered.
I decided to call and planned on owning him somewhere in the hand. It came Jc Ts 3d. I checked and he bet 7000. I called, planning on checkraising lots of turns. I got one of the best nonnutmaking turns, the 5s, giving me overcards, a flush draw, and a straight draw I checked and he bet 20000. At this point, I actually thought he had a pretty strong hand but it didnt really matter, as I know I have around 40% equity against everything.
I went all in for around 70000 more into the 60000 chip pot. He tanked for around 3 minutes then called with KJ. I really wasnt too worried, as that is one of the best hands I can expect to be up against. It just sucks that I had the absolute bottom of my range for pushing there. The turn was the 2d and I was sent home.
On the drive home, I couldnt help thinking "I should still be playing right now." This is the kind of thought that breaks people, im my opinion. If I was supposed to still be there, I would still be sitting there right now with around 200000 chips. Instead, I was supposed to lose. Simple as that. Ive already had time to accept it and change my irrational though, so I think I am all good. Thinking you "deserve" to win is clearly a big no no in poker.
Anyways, while I am sad I lost, I am glad the WSOP is over for me, as it tends to be some of the darkest days of my year. Hopefully the upcoming WPT season will be as kind to me as the last two.
I decided to call and planned on owning him somewhere in the hand. It came Jc Ts 3d. I checked and he bet 7000. I called, planning on checkraising lots of turns. I got one of the best nonnutmaking turns, the 5s, giving me overcards, a flush draw, and a straight draw I checked and he bet 20000. At this point, I actually thought he had a pretty strong hand but it didnt really matter, as I know I have around 40% equity against everything.
I went all in for around 70000 more into the 60000 chip pot. He tanked for around 3 minutes then called with KJ. I really wasnt too worried, as that is one of the best hands I can expect to be up against. It just sucks that I had the absolute bottom of my range for pushing there. The turn was the 2d and I was sent home.
On the drive home, I couldnt help thinking "I should still be playing right now." This is the kind of thought that breaks people, im my opinion. If I was supposed to still be there, I would still be sitting there right now with around 200000 chips. Instead, I was supposed to lose. Simple as that. Ive already had time to accept it and change my irrational though, so I think I am all good. Thinking you "deserve" to win is clearly a big no no in poker.
Anyways, while I am sad I lost, I am glad the WSOP is over for me, as it tends to be some of the darkest days of my year. Hopefully the upcoming WPT season will be as kind to me as the last two.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Main Event Coming
I dont know why, but I havent blogged in around a week. I guess I have just been busy trying to take care of all the stuff that will be happening with sngicons over the next few months. I also had Katy's and my dads in town as their Fathers Day gift. We went to see David Copperfield, shot some guns, drove some go karts (where my dad got his so hard his helmet flew off) and worked out. We also went to eat at the M buffet twice, which is delicious and also tried a place Victor Ramdin told me about, called Hot and Juicy Crawfish. It was also the nuts.
I had Bfizz11, who is fresh off a $100,000 win in the Sunday Warmup, over to my house yesterday and we ended up making a 7 part video of him playing mtts and mttsngs. We ended up winning around $700 despite running semibad in my opinion. Basically, we bricked around 20 tournaments but ended up winning 2 $12 180 man sngs over the course of the day. The last part of the video was basically a 1 tabling video of one of the final tables. We paid attention to all the little spots, like I would do in a live mtt, and we totally wrecked it. Look for that 6 hours of footage to go up over the next few months here at SngIcons.com.
The main event of the WSOP is tomorrow. I havent really played any live poker since the wsop prelims ended, so I am ready to go. Actually, I havent played a deepstacked event in ages, so I am greatly looking forward to that. Honestly, I am tired of being forced to win a coin flip at some point during day one of every tournament and hope I can actually just grind this one out and make something happen.
I was also on the All In poker radio show again this week. You can check it out here:
http://allin.podomatic.com/
All in all, I think I am ready to do well in the WSOP main event. I think you should be in a good mental place when it comes to poker to do well and I think I am there. Hopefully it works out.
I had Bfizz11, who is fresh off a $100,000 win in the Sunday Warmup, over to my house yesterday and we ended up making a 7 part video of him playing mtts and mttsngs. We ended up winning around $700 despite running semibad in my opinion. Basically, we bricked around 20 tournaments but ended up winning 2 $12 180 man sngs over the course of the day. The last part of the video was basically a 1 tabling video of one of the final tables. We paid attention to all the little spots, like I would do in a live mtt, and we totally wrecked it. Look for that 6 hours of footage to go up over the next few months here at SngIcons.com.
The main event of the WSOP is tomorrow. I havent really played any live poker since the wsop prelims ended, so I am ready to go. Actually, I havent played a deepstacked event in ages, so I am greatly looking forward to that. Honestly, I am tired of being forced to win a coin flip at some point during day one of every tournament and hope I can actually just grind this one out and make something happen.
I was also on the All In poker radio show again this week. You can check it out here:
http://allin.podomatic.com/
All in all, I think I am ready to do well in the WSOP main event. I think you should be in a good mental place when it comes to poker to do well and I think I am there. Hopefully it works out.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Taking a Vacation
The last month has been fairly rough. I have cashed 0 out of like 20 wsop events, which is never fun, although it isnt a first for me. If it wasnt for winning $15,000 at PLO online, it would have been a pretty awful month. Katy came up with the bright idea of going to LA for the next 3 days, as there are no wsop events I am actually excited for and I want to be in top playing condition for the main event and then the bellagio WPT tournaments.
Speaking of the wsop events, I was actually excited for the $10,000 pot limit holdem tournament, which doesnt happen too often for me, especially for the first day of an event. I went into the event fully expecting to do well. I ended up not winning many hands, thanks mostly to a sick lucky french guy that lucksacked everyone at the table for the 4 hours I lasted. I eventually ran my AQ into his KQ to bust. It is tough to say that I think I played well, despite losing basically every hand I played, but I think I could have lost a lot quicker if I tried.
Anyways, I will be out of town for a few days. I dont expect that I will take my computer or check my email, so I will be out of touch, which is a good thing from time to time. Hopefully I will be back and ready to close out my last 5 wsop events.
Speaking of the wsop events, I was actually excited for the $10,000 pot limit holdem tournament, which doesnt happen too often for me, especially for the first day of an event. I went into the event fully expecting to do well. I ended up not winning many hands, thanks mostly to a sick lucky french guy that lucksacked everyone at the table for the 4 hours I lasted. I eventually ran my AQ into his KQ to bust. It is tough to say that I think I played well, despite losing basically every hand I played, but I think I could have lost a lot quicker if I tried.
Anyways, I will be out of town for a few days. I dont expect that I will take my computer or check my email, so I will be out of touch, which is a good thing from time to time. Hopefully I will be back and ready to close out my last 5 wsop events.
Friday, June 19, 2009
"Nice Hand"
I have seen people abuse the way "nice hand" is said over and over throughout this world series and I have decided to write a little bit about it to hopefully help everyone that reads this not make a huge breach in etiquette.
I just got moved to a table in yesterdays $1500 WSOP event when I saw a guy get it in with AQ vs AK, hit a Q to win a big pot, wrap the table (which is basically knocking the table like you would someone's front door) as he was collecting his pot, then he told the guy that just lost 2/3 of his chips "Nice Hand." This guy basically did everything he could to rub it in the losing players face that he just won most of his chips.
So, what did he do to make him look like a total jerk? First, he wrapped the table. In general, I think wrapping the table is a semifishy thing to do under all circumstances. The one time it is ok is when you are on the losing end of a pot. Basically, wrapping the table is a way of saying "Nice Hand" without actually saying it.
Now that we know that, why don�t you say nice hand once you win the hand? Because you don't want to discourage people from playing again in the future by making them embarrassed/mad and you also don't want to make people feel bad, unless of course you are an absolute horrible person. I am not really sure if this is clear enough to make the point that it is a huge douche to say/do these things. Trust me though, just don't do it.
One other thing that is a HUGE no no that lots of clueless players do is to say "thank you" to the player that you just won a big pot off of, especially if what they did was a little spewy or if you lucksack them. Say someone gets it in with T4 on a 743 and you have 77. You double and win a huge pot. The last thing you want to do is tell the losing player "thank you" as you are basically saying "thanks for being an absolutely terrible." We can all look and tell that just isn't nice. Simply put, every time you win a big pot off someone, you should keep your mouth shut unless you are spoken to, and even then, keep talking to the minimum.
Now that I had that little rant, how has poker been for me? Playing the smallest stake tournaments in any tournament series is always a little like pulling teeth for me because no one really knows what they are doing. The actual flow of the game is so much slower in a small stake tournament than the highest buyin tournaments. Also, the bad beat stories fill the air like love on Valentine's Day.
Despite all of this, I have constantly gotten my money in good over and over. In yesterday's event I eventually busted in a pretty cool spot where I knew a European kid was about to try to outplay me. If you pay very close attention, it is usually clear who is getting fed up with me raising over and over. You will usually seeing them eyeing you, trying to sense weakness or something like that. What usually happens though, is they end up spewing their chips off.
In this specific hand, the young guy had been watching me lots and doing a few other things, making it clear to me he was about to spew off his chips. I raised 55 from the button and he looked like he wanted to reraise. Instead he just called. We both had around 25bb stacks. Had he reraised right there, my money would have snap been in the pot. Instead, it came 743. He checked and I made a normal continuation bet. He thought for around 30 seconds and pushed. I basically snap called and he showed the QJo. Sadly for me, he peeled the J like a pro and I was out right after dinner break, once again.
All in all, I am very happy with my play and very disgusted with my results. There are only around 10 more events left for me to play. Hopefully I can have some hands hold up and I can make something happen.
I just got moved to a table in yesterdays $1500 WSOP event when I saw a guy get it in with AQ vs AK, hit a Q to win a big pot, wrap the table (which is basically knocking the table like you would someone's front door) as he was collecting his pot, then he told the guy that just lost 2/3 of his chips "Nice Hand." This guy basically did everything he could to rub it in the losing players face that he just won most of his chips.
So, what did he do to make him look like a total jerk? First, he wrapped the table. In general, I think wrapping the table is a semifishy thing to do under all circumstances. The one time it is ok is when you are on the losing end of a pot. Basically, wrapping the table is a way of saying "Nice Hand" without actually saying it.
Now that we know that, why don�t you say nice hand once you win the hand? Because you don't want to discourage people from playing again in the future by making them embarrassed/mad and you also don't want to make people feel bad, unless of course you are an absolute horrible person. I am not really sure if this is clear enough to make the point that it is a huge douche to say/do these things. Trust me though, just don't do it.
One other thing that is a HUGE no no that lots of clueless players do is to say "thank you" to the player that you just won a big pot off of, especially if what they did was a little spewy or if you lucksack them. Say someone gets it in with T4 on a 743 and you have 77. You double and win a huge pot. The last thing you want to do is tell the losing player "thank you" as you are basically saying "thanks for being an absolutely terrible." We can all look and tell that just isn't nice. Simply put, every time you win a big pot off someone, you should keep your mouth shut unless you are spoken to, and even then, keep talking to the minimum.
Now that I had that little rant, how has poker been for me? Playing the smallest stake tournaments in any tournament series is always a little like pulling teeth for me because no one really knows what they are doing. The actual flow of the game is so much slower in a small stake tournament than the highest buyin tournaments. Also, the bad beat stories fill the air like love on Valentine's Day.
Despite all of this, I have constantly gotten my money in good over and over. In yesterday's event I eventually busted in a pretty cool spot where I knew a European kid was about to try to outplay me. If you pay very close attention, it is usually clear who is getting fed up with me raising over and over. You will usually seeing them eyeing you, trying to sense weakness or something like that. What usually happens though, is they end up spewing their chips off.
In this specific hand, the young guy had been watching me lots and doing a few other things, making it clear to me he was about to spew off his chips. I raised 55 from the button and he looked like he wanted to reraise. Instead he just called. We both had around 25bb stacks. Had he reraised right there, my money would have snap been in the pot. Instead, it came 743. He checked and I made a normal continuation bet. He thought for around 30 seconds and pushed. I basically snap called and he showed the QJo. Sadly for me, he peeled the J like a pro and I was out right after dinner break, once again.
All in all, I am very happy with my play and very disgusted with my results. There are only around 10 more events left for me to play. Hopefully I can have some hands hold up and I can make something happen.
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