Little Thoughts

Lots of Changes..

2011-05-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

Quite a bit has happened since I last posted a blog here. As many of you can tell, I post numerous per times per day on twitter, which has almost taken place of this blog. Despite that, I would still like to give everyone a little summary of what I have been up to.

As everyone now knows, online poker has taken a huge hit in America. I was really lucky that I only had around $15,000 online, most of which was on pokerstars, which is the only site that has allowed players to cash out. Most of my play was in the live poker arena, which basically means Black Friday will have little impact on my actual poker play.

As for FloatTheTurn.com, it will have an effect on the videos we provide at the site. I currently have two coaches, Jeremy Yip and Alex Tipper, which isn�t American, so they will continue to make live videos. Most of the other coaches will be making either review or concept videos in the near future. I actually think review and concept videos are better than live sweat videos to help you develop as a poker player.

Seeing as most Americans can no longer play online, I suggest everyone use this time to learn the game, as you won�t be distracted by actually playing poker. There are around 500 hours of content on FloatTheTurn.com, which I suggest you all go through. If you study hard while everyone else is taking a vacation, you will be well ahead of the curve when online poker comes back to America.

I firmly believe online poker will be back in America sometime in the future. I can�t really give any sort of time table, but it simply has to happen. When it does, we will see a poker boom similar to 2003, when Moneymaker won the wsop as poker will be 100% legal. Sure, it may be taxed or raked higher, but it will be legal, which is what most amateurs care about. If you study now, you will be able to crush them.

Speaking of studying, my book, Secrets of Professional Tournament Poker: Volume 1, is now available on Amazon and most major book stores. I firmly believe the book is the best information about how to crush tournaments on the market. Use this down time from online poker to pick up the book and study hard. In Volume 1, I will teach you the fundamentals of the game as well as how to play with numerous different stack sizes.

I will teach the fairly loose and aggressive style I play on a day to day basis. Volume 2, which will be out sometime later this year, will discuss how to play in each stage of a tournament, how to learn to improve your game over time, which tells I think are most important, proper tournament behavior, how to control your emotions, and how to be a professional poker player. I suggest everyone order both volumes and study hard.

About three weeks before Black Friday, I took 2nd in a huge $1,000 buyin event on Full Tilt, cashing for around $317,000. Something in my mind told me to cash out asap, so I did. This was an extreme case of running hot, as I have very little of it currently locked up. I will be putting the video out somewhere in the future. Please make sure you are on my mailing list by emailing support@jonathanlittlesecrets.com or support@floattheturn.com and asking to be included.

My upcoming plans include the $5,000 and $25,000 events at Bellagio in a week, being best man in by best friend�s, from high school, wedding, and a ton of events at the wsop. Seeing as I can�t play online, I plan to grind either the satellites or cash games a lot when I am not playing in the tournaments. I have to make the most of the wsop, which I haven�t done in the past. I suggest every professional poker player get out there and grind up a bankroll. Good luck!!

Poker for a Good Cause...

2011-02-02T08:57:00.001-08:00

I’ve heard that poker players should have empathy, but not necessarily sympathy. It makes sense at the Texas Hold'em poker table because you’re trying to take your opponents’ money. But away from the Holdem poker table, it’s good to have both. And if that’s the case with you, then hopefully this blog post will resonate with you.

My girlfriend Amie got inspired to run the NYC Half Marathon in March to raise $1,500 for the ASPCA. The ASPCA is a great organization that works to prevent cruelty to animals.

Watch this short clip to see the bad beat that our society has imposed on these poor animals:

DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE VIDEO! SEE DONATION INSTRUCTIONS BELOW!

DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK IN THE VIDEO! SEE DONATION INSTRUCTIONS BELOW!

I want to help Amie DOUBLE her goal and raise $3,000 for the ASPCA! To do that, I’m going to do 2 things:

First, I’m going to run the half marathon with her!

Second, I want to help you with your poker game by inviting you to take part in a Video Watching Marathon if you make a donation to the ASPCA.

NOTE: If you want to help, but don’t wish to make a donation at this time, you can tweet or post on Facebook and I’ll invite you to play in a private tourney on Poker Stars where you can win some cool prizes. See below for details.

Here are the 5 ways I can help you with your poker game:

Option 1:

Donate $25 to the ASPCA, and you’ll be invited to take part in the Weekend Watchathon, where you’ll be able to watch all the videos from Jonathan Little Secrets 1 and Jonathan Little Secrets 2 over a period of 48 hours.

Date of the Weekend Watchathon: Saturday February 12 – Sunday February 13.

Option 2:
Donate $50 to the ASPCA, and you’ll be invited to take part in the 9-Day Watchathon, where you’ll be able to watch all the videos from Jonathan Little Secrets 1, Jonathan Little Secrets 2, and my Poker Video Vault.

As a bonus, you’ll also get invited to play in a $1 private tournament on Poker Stars to win some cool prizes (see below).

Date of the 9-Day Watchathon: Saturday February 12 – Sunday February 20.

Option 3:

Donate $100 to the ASPCA, and you can own Jonathan Little Secrets 1, Jonathan Little Secrets 2, and my Poker Video Vault. Watch the videos anytime you want or download them for later. If you were to buy these video courses separately, it would cost you $455.

As a bonus, you’ll also get invited to play in a $1 private tournament on Poker Stars to win some cool prizes (see below).

Option 4:

Donate $250 to the ASPCA, and you’ll get to own Jonathan Little Secrets 1, Jonathan Little Secrets 2, my Poker Video Vault, and my Extreme Video Vault. If you were to buy these video courses separately, it would cost you $652.

Plus, you’ll get a 2GB MP3 player loaded with the MP3s from the first 3 video courses. That’s 36 MP3s! Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.

As a bonus, you’ll also get invited to play in a $1 private tourney on Poker Stars to win some cool prizes (see below).

Actual MP3 player may differ from MP3 player shown.

Option 5:

Donate $500 to the ASPCA, and you’ll get to own Jonathan Little Secrets 1, Jonathan Little Secrets 2, my Poker Video Vault, and my Extreme Video Vault. If you were to buy these video courses separately, it would cost you $652.

Plus, you’ll get a 4GB MP3 player loaded with the MP3s from all of these video courses. That’s 116 MP3s! Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery.

Finally, you’ll get a hand history review from me. This can be a hand history from a sit n go, multitable tournament, or a cash game session. This is one of the best ways to identify your biggest leaks so you can eliminate them from your game once and for all.

As a bonus, you’ll also get invited to play in a $1 private tourney on Poker Stars to win some cool prizes (see below).

Actual MP3 player may differ from MP3 player shown.

If you’re not familiar with my video training courses, here’s a short description of each:

Jonathan Little Secrets 1 – 9-video series where I play a marathon online session of $11 180-person sngs, as well as some heads up games. I play for just over 6 hours and cash for over $1700.

Jonathan Little Secrets 2 – 7-video series where I play in 2 deep stacked multitable tournaments. The first mtt shows how I played through a field of over 32,000 players all the way down to 22nd place. The second mtt shows me making the final table in a $11 rebuy tournament.

Poker Video Vault – 20-video series where I coach my students 1 on 1.

Extreme Video Vault – 80-video series where I coach my students 1 on 1.

Private $1 Tournament on Poker Stars (Great Prizes Added)

Date: Saturday February 5, 2011

Time: 11:00am PT

Tournament ID: 358036750

Anyone who donates $50 or more will also be invited to play in a private $1 tourney on Poker Stars. There are some great prizes up for grabs, including:

1st Place Prize: – 4GB MP3 player loaded with audio library + 1 month free access to my poker training website, FloatTheTurn.com, where you can watch hundreds of poker training videos. Please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery of the MP3 player.

2nd Place Prize: – A hand history review from me + 1 month free access to my poker training website, FloatTheTurn.com, where you can watch hundreds of poker training videos.

3rd Place Prize: – 1 month free access to my poker training website, FloatTheTurn.com, where you can watch hundreds of poker training videos.

To play in this private $1 tourney, you must donate $50 or more to the ASPCA. Then, reply to this blog post by Thursday February 3 with the following information:

Your name

How much you donated

Your Poker Stars name

Your Twitter name (if you tweeted a link to this page)

Your Facebook name (if you posted a link to this page on Facebook)

All donations will be verified, and invitations will be emailed out on Thursday February 3. If you haven’t received your email invitation by Friday February 4, email support [at] jonathanlittlesecrets.com.

Twitter/Facebook $1 Tournament on Poker Stars (No Donation Necessary!)

Date: Saturday February 12, 2011

Time: 3:00pm PT

Tournament ID: 358037501

I am running a separate $1 private tournament on Poker Stars and adding some great prizes… and you don’t even have to make a donation to be invited to play in this tourney!

Simply tweet or post on Facebook a link to this blog post, I will invite you to play in this tourney!

Here is a shortened link you can use in your tweet or Facebook post: http://bit.ly/pokerASPCA

Here are the prizes up for grabs:

2nd Place Prize: – A hand history review from me + 1 month free access to my poker training website, FloatTheTurn.com, where you can watch hundreds of poker training videos.

3rd Place Prize: – 1 month free access to my poker training website, FloatTheTurn.com, where you can watch hundreds of poker training videos.

To play in this bonus private $1 tourney, simply tweet a link to this page, or post a link to this page on Facebook by Thursday February 3.

Here is a shortened link you can use in your tweet or Facebook post: http://bit.ly/pokerASPCA

Then, reply to this blog post by Thursday February 3 with the following information:

Your name

How much you donated (if any)

Your Poker Stars name

Your Twitter name (if you tweeted a link to this page)

Your Facebook name (if you posted a link to this page on Facebook)

Your tweet or Facebook post will be verified, and invitations will be emailed out on Thursday February 3. If you haven’t received your email invitation by Friday February 4, email support [at] jonathanlittlesecrets.com.

How To Donate

Go here to make your donation to the ASPCA: http://bit.ly/h3Ju33

Click on “SUPPORT ME!”.

On the option that says “Do you want to donate anonymously”, choose “No” so I can verify your donation.

After you make your donation, reply to this blog post with the following information:

Your name

How much you donated

Your Poker Stars name (if you will be playing in either of the private tourneys on Poker Stars)

Your Twitter name (if you tweeted a link to this page)

Your Facebook name (if you posted a link to this page on Facebook)

I will email everyone with instructions on how to participate in the “Watchathons” or access your videos if you donate enough to own them. I will also email instructions on how to register for the private tourneys to the people who should be invited to play in them.

If you haven’t received your email by Friday February 4, email support [at] jonathanlittlesecrets.com.

We are raising money for a great cause, and I hope you’ll be a part of it.

Thank you very much for your support, and good luck if you’re playing in the private tournaments!

I won the 5k MTT for 150k

2010-10-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

Life has been swingy lately. I chopped the $1,000 PLO rebuy tournament at Bellagio for $18,000, which was nice. It only had around 25 people I think but a win is a win. I bricked off the rest of the tournaments, including the main event.

I decided to gamble and play some semi high stakes cash games on Victory Poker and did poorly, losing $8,000 in one night, which is a decent amount for me, as I have been playing fairly small online lately. I was feeling a little depressed about it and alllmost decided to skip the last $5000 Texas Holdem poker event at Bellagio. Good thing I didn�t.

I sat around most of day 1 with no chips. After around 6 hours of the poker tournament, I picked up AA when there was a raise, call, and reraise in front of me. I pushed and the small blind cold called with AK. I won that and from there won 4 more coin flips to end the day as the chip leader with 18 people left out of the 90 or so that started. Only 9 people got paid, so we would finish the tournament the next day.

Today, I ran pretty hot right out of the gate, knocking out a few short stacks. I had one lucky hand where a tight aggressive opponent raised and I called in late position with QsJs. The flop came JcTs8s. We got it all in and he was drawing almost dead with 7s6s. From there I ran over everyone for a while before we got down to 10 players.

There were around 4 online guys and 4 older amateurs left in the tournament. Oddly enough, 4 online guys were on my left and 4 amateurs were on my right. The online guys were going nuts trying to outplay each other so I just say around for waited for good hands. It was kinda funny because two of the online guys went on monster tilt for no reason at all.

I got up to around 500,000 chips out of the 1.6 million in play when we were down to 7 people when I lost a pretty big flip. I raised to 9000, one of the lag kids reraised to 26000 and I went all in for 270k or so. He snap called with AQ to knock me back to average. Personally, I think his call was terrible, but what can you do. Lucky for him, I had the bottom of my range.

From there I won with JJ vs AT when one of the other tilters pushed over me. Once we got 3 handed, the short stack, who is a high stake cash game regular, pushed for 15bbs, around 165k, the other player, a very good amateur from Europe called and I picked up AK. I pushed and the amateur folded. I beat hid A5 to enter heads up with 1.3 million to 300k. From there, I won a flip and the $150,000 first prize.

I decided to celebrate by eating Chipotle, one of my favorite meals, and playing Fallout New Vegas. I actually haven�t started eating or playing yet, as I just walked in the door. Im excited about both. All in all, this has been the nut day.

I am learning more and more about myself that I hate losing much more than I like winning. I feel so much more pain about losing the $8,000 online than I feel joy from winning the tournament today.

I realize this makes no sense at all. Clearly this is something I need to work at. I think I am also going to make a point to just grind mid stake cash games online for a while and not take any shots. I hhaaattttteeeee losing online. Life is ok for some reason.

I am going hiking with Hoyt Corkins and Tony Grappo tomorrow here in Vegas, which is always fun. A few days from now, I am heading to Chicago to play the $10,000 WSOP circuit event. They are getting large turn outs, so hopefully it will be a good tournament. Ok, video game time. Thanks for reading. Be sure to follow me, JonathanLittle on twitter.

Check out more of Jonathan's interests here:

http://www.jonathanlittle.net

http://www.FloatTheTurn.com

http://www.sngicons.com

A (poker free) Week in Utah (Part 2 of 2)

2010-10-13T07:45:00.001-07:00

Gulf Coast Poker.NET blogger Jonathan Little discusses his week away from Texas Hold em poker
in this second of two posts. Course he went maybe 12 days away from the game but on the last day of his trip couldn't resist the urge to get back into things. The next day promised a Pot Limit Omaha tournament. But back to...

Day 5: We drove to Capitol Reef National Park, which is basically a big fold in the earth�s crust. We went on a 2 mile hike then a 4 mile hike. They were both just ok. We stayed at the Lodge at Red River Ranch. It is a super nice giant log cabin a few miles from the park. It was the nuts. Every room had a fire place, which we used later that night. We went to eat at Caf� Diablo, which is the stone nuts. It is a southwestern restaurant that has loads of delicious food. I would for sure go back. This place rivals places like Mesa Grill. It was delicious.

Day 6: We drove to Zion National Park to do the Angel�s Landing trail. Amie got scared because the last .5 miles of the 2.5 mile trail are up a very steep mountain with drop offs on both sides. They actually had to put a chain throughout most of the hike because it was so steep. I thought it was awesome. I was surprised to find a mixed bag of people at the top of the hike. There were all sorts of people, including photographers and a tiny 65 year old Asian lady.

It was fun. I was quite proud of Amie because she is a little afraid of heights. She made it with no problems. We went to our campground and decided to eat at a place called Whiptail grill. A review online said it was Asian food so I was looking forward to some noodles. It turned out to be Mexican food. While the food was delicious, the service was terrible. Not just the standard bad service, but terrible service. Ohhh well. By the time we were finished eating, it was dark and very cold. Amie jokingly said we should sleep in the car and it sounded like a good idea to me, so we sleeped in the car.

Day 7: I woke up at 4am probably because my car wasn�t built to be slept in and decdided to drive back to Vegas. Amie wanted to see the sun rise all trip and we had yet to make it happen so I figured I would make it to Vegas in time to see it. I drove all around trying to find a great place to watch it and finally stumbled on a place on the outskirts of town near the 515 and the mountains. It was great.
All in all, this was by far one of the best trips of my life.

Interestingly , this enough might have been longest stretch of time I have gone since going pro without playing poker. I am pretty sure it was a solid 12 days. Because of this, I decided to play a $500 tournament at Bellagio today, electing to skip the Sunday mtts. I lasted around 6 hours before 3betting A6s to 1/3 of my 27bb stack and then pushing on a T62 board. I lost to T7. The fields in Vegas are still alive and well. There is a $1000 PLO rebuy tournament tomorrow, so that should be fun.

I am pretty convinced very few people know how to play PLO tournaments so I try to play every one I can. Hopefully I can be in for the minimum of $4,000 and don�t go off for $16,000. That is never fun. I put in a short $5/10 session on Victory Poker tonight and won $2,000 in an hour, so that�s nice.

I am going to make a point to play a little more for my bankrollbuilder challenge soon, which if you haven�t checked out can be viewed at bankrollbuilderseries.com. I have played around 14 hours so far and am up 8 buyins, which is right around where I expected to be. Some players are commenting that it will take a while to build a bankroll at this rate. All I can say to that is poker is a slow game. If you only play one hour per week, things will go slow. Luckily for everyone, you can play much more than one hour per week!

Life has been fun. I am looking forward to more of it

A week in Utah (1 of 2)

2010-10-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Little discusses life on on the Texas Holdem poker tournament trail and away from it. Speaking of trails Little took a break from crushing high stakes mtts and Sit'n go tournaments
to actually go hiking:

Life has been grand lately. Amie and I went on a weeklong trip to southern Utah to go hiking. I will give a quick summary of each day.

Day 1: We drove from Vegas to Bryce Canyon, which is a canyon full of hoodoos. We went on a short hike where we saw a cute little chipmunk get gobbled up by a raven. We ate at the Bryce Canyon lodge, which is also where we stayed. The food was just meh and overpriced. There were lots of deer walking around the area that clearly wernt scared of humans. It was cool.

Day 2: We drove to Moab and went hiking in Arches National Park. We went on the Devil�s Garden trail where we got to see 7 giant stone arches. While we were walking the trail, a snake attacked a chipmunk right in front of us. It strangled it and eventually ate it. It was wild seeing it happen right in front of us. Apparently chipmunks don�t live long. We ended up hiking the full 8 mile trail. When we had around a mile left, it started pouring down rain. We were supposed to stay at a campground in a tent while in Moab but we decided to get a hotel room because we were soaked and it would be no fun setting up a tent in the dark.

I called La Quinta Inn and they said they were out of regular rooms but they could give us the Jacuzzi suite for less than a regular room so I obv booked it. It was a nice room but was seriously lacking in the details department. It could have been really nice. We ate at a place called Bucks Grill house. Again, it was meh and overpriced.

Day 3: We went to Canyonlands National Park, which is also near Moab. We wanted to go on a 9 mile hike around Upheaval Dome but were advised against it by a ranger because it is a tough trail and it was going to rain soon. We instead went on an easier 6 mile long hike which was ok. We got rained on a little but it wasn�t too bad. We ate at Jay�s Pasta. My dish, some baked linguini in a sausage marinara sauce, was the nuts. Amie had stuffed shells which were not nearly as good. Bad beat. We walked around town a little and stayed in the tent. It was coooooold.

Day 4: We had booked a rafting trip but decided to skip it because it was raining. Sickly enough, they refused to cancel the trip despite a tornado warning being in effect. I am still a little pissed about that. We went to the Delicate Arch, which is on Utah�s license plates. It was at the top of a semitough 1.5 mile hike. Despite a fairly tough hike, there were tons of people at the top. Amie and I got some pics under the dome, which was cool. It was pretty hot on the trail, probably because there was no shade.

I got a little sun burnt, which isn�t surprising. After that, we decided to check out a short version of the Upheaval Dome trail. By the time we got out there, it was about to rain. The temperature went from pretty hot to very cold almost instantly. We saw the dome then ran back to the car. We were driving out of the park when hail started pounding the top of my car. It is crazy how it went from hot to cols so quickly. Utah weather is weird. We ate at Jeffery�s Steak House, which was very good. I would for sure visit it again.

To be continued...

At ESPN studios

2010-10-06T07:01:00.000-07:00

The last week has been hectic but fun. I finished up the rough draft of Secrets of Tournament Poker Volume 1, which is a very good thing. I am going to start working on putting together Volume 2 this week. I got to go to the ESPN Studio to record an episode of Inside Deal, which is the ESPN poker news show. It was a lot of fun and I got a great tour of the studio from Andrew Feldman. I also walked by Michael Chiklis twice, which was cool cause I loved The Shield. I also saw Kenny Chesney although I don�t know anything about him. You can check out the episode here:

http://espn.go.com/video/category?id=4376734

Amie and I are going on a weeklong trip to Utah in a few days. It should be a nice relaxing week before a solid month of tournaments in Vegas, Hammond, and Foxwoods. While everyone else has been in London going broke and getting burnt out, I have been spending my time relaxing and loving life. I am looking forward to making a solid run over the next 3 months. I feel like I have been playing great poker. I feel like in the last few tournaments I played, I simply lost one too many flips. Hopefully I can win 40% of them and can bring home a title.

I am writing a Poker Book

2010-10-02T12:39:00.000-07:00

Life has been fun lately. I have been playing a decent amount of Holdem poker on Victory Poker, which has been going great. Since they moved to the Cake network, there have been a lot more games. Also, the new poker program doesn�t limit you to playing 8 tables which is both good and bad for me because I tend to just load up as many tables as possible, which isn�t always a good thing. Today I ended up 20 tabling 1/2 � 5/10 6 max cash games until I started timing out. Timing out is ------EV.

I am going to try to figure out a way to limit myself. I have been staying in NYC with Amie. I like it here. We have gone to two Giants games, which has been a lot of run. She is balla enough to have some great season tickets, so that�s very nice. I really like how all the food places deliver here. I love yummy food and NYC is apparently the capitol of yummy food. Live tournaments have been going decently well.

After I took 12th place at the Bike WPT poker tournament I took 25th or so out of 100 people in Biloxi. I ended up losing a flip when I was probably 1st in chips against the guy that was close to me. From there I lost two more flips to lose. I have been very happy with the way I have played the last two events. I have had people just trying to hand me money.

When you get it in with 80% equity though, 20% of the time you lose. Hopefully I can fade the beats and bring home a title. I�m feeling good about both poker and life. When that is the case, I tend to run pretty hot.

I am currently staying with my girlfriend, Amie, in NYC. The city is fun. There is lots to do and somehow, despite all the people running around, it is peaceful. I am currently working on a poker book.

I am actually almost finished with the rough draft. It is going to be called something like �Secrets of Professional Tournamet Poker� or something like that. If anyone has any suggestions for topics to put in the book, please let me know. I have racked my brain and am pretty sure I have already covered every aspect of tournament poker in the book but I miiiiight have missed something.

Besides that, life has been nice. I have also started working on a Bankroll Builder video series. I am asked fairly often what I would do if I only had a small amount of money to my name and had to start over today. Well, I am going to show you. I am going to start with a $300 bankroll and will play .05/.10 6 handed no limit cash games until I get around $600, which is when I will move to $.10/.20. The cool part about this is I am going to record every hand I play so you can actually see how it is done.

This special, maybe never ending, video series will be sold through www.JonathanLittleSecrets.com. Check there often because the first few people to subscribe will get a nice discount. At www.FloatTheTurn.com, we recently hired a new coach, Allan �Demystify727� Bendall. He plays mostly mid stake mtt sngs and mtts. He will be a great addition to our ever growing team of coaches dedicated to bringing you the best mutli table tournament and sit n go tournament instruction on the web.

Life is Good

2010-09-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

Life has been fun lately. I have been playing a decent amount on Victory Poker, which has been going great. Since they moved to the Cake network, there have been a lot more games. Also, the new poker program doesn�t limit you to playing 8 tables which is both good and bad for me because I tend to just load up as many tables as possible, which isn�t always a good thing. Today I ended up 20 tabling 1/2 � 5/10 6 max cash games until I started timing out. Timing out is ------EV.

I am going to try to figure out a way to limit myself. I have been staying in NYC with Amie. I like it here. We have gone to two Giants games, which has been a lot of run. She is balla enough to have some great season tickets, so that�s very nice. I really like how all the food places deliver here. I love yummy food and NYC is apparently the capitol of yummy food. Live tournaments have been going decently well.

After I took 12th place at the Bike WPT I took 25th or so out of 100 people in Biloxi. I ended up losing a flip when I was probably 1st in chips against the guy that was close to me. From there I lost two more flips to lose. I have been very happy with the way I have played the last two events. I have had people just trying to hand me money.

When you get it in with 80% equity though, 20% of the time you lose. Hopefully I can fade the beats and bring home a title. I�m feeling good about both poker and life. When that is the case, I tend to run pretty hot.

3rd Place in WSOP final table and a wrap-up

2010-07-08T10:41:00.000-07:00

The WSOP has been kind to me this year. I cashed 5 times, which is a record for me and also made my first WSOP final table. I always feared my first final table would be in a game besides No Limit Texas Hold'em.

Sure enough, I got to play the $1500 limit holdem shootout for my first chance at a bracelet. My table was no cakewalk either, as it had Mike Schneider and Terrence Chan at the table, who are both certainly amongst top 10 limit poker players in the world. Despite this, I liked my chances, as I used to play a decent amount of heads up limit on Full Tilt before people stopped giving me action, which was around 2.5 years ago.

I quickly lost � my stack, which was no fun. I had AK 4 times in the first 2 hours and lost with all of them. Eventually though, I went on a heater and got up to 1,000,000 chips. We all started with 450,000 and there was 3.6 million in play total, as it was an 8 handed table. Luckily, Terrence and Mike both busted fairly quickly. Things were looking good until I ran AA into J8 twice.

Both times, the pot was huge and they rivered me, so that was no fun at all. I pot controlled wonderfully a few times where I could have lost a lot of bets, like with AJ on a 988J3 board where I lost to T7. I certainly had my fair share of luck. I know I rivered Mike once early in the day with 55 when I bet the flop and turn and rivered a set.

I also made 2 flushes throughout the day and got paid off. Sadly though, the two huge losses with AA did me in. One great thing that happened was I took 3rd place despite having only 200k when we were 4 handed. The other stacks were 1.6 mil, 900k, and 700k. The player with 600k decided to try to push around the big stack with A4s and flopped a flush draw only to get all the money in and lose to a pair, so I lucked out and got $25,000 more than I normally would.

Limit is a swingy game. In my 2nd round match, I was down to just 3bbs when we were 3 handed and came back to win. Both the 1st and 2nd place player at the final table were both very short. Then again, each one of them had the J8 against my AA to come back. Also, against the guy that won, I had KK vs his QQ in a spot where I left him with 2 bets where I probably could have gotten them in if I wasn�t playing to conserve chips.

He raised the cutoff and I reraised with KK on the button. He 4bet and I just called. I could have capped it at 5 bets but I basically never cap it because it turns your hand fairly face up. It came Axx. He bet and I called. The turn was another A, which looked good for me, but I figured he would only call down with an A or a big pair, so I just called his bet again. The river was a blank and he checked. I bet for value and he called, leaving himself with 2bbs. Had I capped it preflop, I probably would have gotten another bet in, leaving him with half as much as he had. Ohhhh well. Cant cry over spilt milk. All in all, I think I played some great limit holdem over the last 3 days.

Since I learned to play PLO pretty well over the last year or so, I decided to play as many PLO events as I could. I made it really deep in the $1500, losing a huge coin flip when we were down to 30 people or so. In the $5000, I got it in once with A986 vs AJ86 on a 8869 board only for him to spike an A to chop a huge pot and then later with AAJ4 vs KK82 on a 543 board only to lose to a K on the river. Simply put, since I now know how to play the game decently well, I see that most other people have no clue how to play.

This has motivated me to learn all the other games so I can play all the random mixed game events. I have decided to spend around 2 months on each game, which should hopefully be enough time to get me to a competent level. I don�t need to be world class. I only need to be ok. For example, I figure I am about a 95 out of 100 at no limit holdem. I imagine the average player is around a 50. In PLO, I am probably an 80 or so where the average player is around a 25. So, I actually think I have a larger edge at PLO than at no limit holdem. Expect me to be in lots of random game events next year.

I am flying to NYC to visit my girlfriend to relax before the main event. I will be back in action on 7/8, playing day 1d. I am going to play as perfect as I know how and make a point to make no mistakes. I have vowed to myself to play great poker and I think I am doing just that. I think I lost the drive to destroy everyone over the last year or so. Now I have it back. I am fully expecting huge things from me in the future. Im coming for the main event belt.

Thoughts on the WSOP so far...

2010-06-23T20:00:00.001-07:00

Jonathn Little is a young star who made his name playing Texas Hold'em Poker both live and online. He's a former Pensacola native and one of the best Sit and go players in the world.

So far my WSOP feels like it is going pretty bad but in reality, it isn�t going too terrible. I have made 2 deep runs and have 3 cashes, which is better than any other WSOP performance by me half way through the series. I have had a 30th and a 46th place, both in $1500 events, which while they didn�t pay much, gave me a bit of confidence, especially seeing as I lost flips in both of them to be chip leader. At least I am getting in good spots.

Today a fun hand came up against Shawn Keller, who I assumed was a reasonable guy but turns out he has no clue how to act at the table. This happened in the $10,000 pot limit holdem tournament. It is day 2 and we were playing 600/1200 blinds. I had around 60,000. I had already cold 4bet him once (he was on my direct right) and check called down with A7 on an Axxxx. Anyways, he raised from the button and I reraised AQs to 10,000.

He made it 30,000 and I decided to go all in, as he had been super active so far and I assumed I had way the best hand. He tanked for around 4 minutes then finally called with AK, getting 3:1. He then celebrated like a maniac, which seems out of line, especially when you get it in good and win.

It is pretty cool, I think, that even in a pot limit tournament, where nitty play is rewarded because there are no antes, I think it is perfectly fine to get in for 50bbs with AQ. When you are raising and reraising a lot, like both me and keller were doing, you have to be happy to get in with hands like AK or AQ.

His tank call was ridiculous in my opinion because he was playing around 50% of the pots for the first 30 minutes of the day. Anyways, besides the WSOP, life is going fine. My mom and dad have been staying with me for the last few days and my aunt and cousin arrive today. I will have a full house. I have been working out hard and feel like I am getting in good shape.

I am starting to realize that my body isn�t built to run marathons though, as I get tired of running after around 30 minutes. I am going to keep trying though. There are still 14 WSOP events I plan on playing. Hopefully I can find one of them to run hot in and bring home a bracelet.

Gulf Coast Trip Report

2010-05-27T21:19:00.000-07:00

Last week has been one of the greatest weeks of my life. Amie and I decided it would be +ev for me to take a nice relaxing vacation before the WSOP, so we decided to visit my parents in Pensacola for a few days then to head to New Orleans for a few days. I guess I will just summarize everything by day.

Thanks for Amie for help with this, as my memory is awful and I would have a tough time recalling all the great times, as there were a lot of them. We landed in Pensacola on Tuesday. My parents picked us up from the airport and we went to eat at Shrimp Basket, one of my favorite places. My mom, dad and brother were met there by my Aunt Lisa and cousin Morgan. They had all you can eat boiled shrimp so I got that. They were a bit dry though, so I wasn�t too big of a fan. Amie had blackened shrimp and fish but I don�t think she liked it too much because it was really salty. Bad beat.

As a side note, my dad cooks great blackened fish. Sadly, we didn�t have a chance to get any. After we filled ourselves, we went back to my parents� house. Amie came up with the great idea to get my parents some Godiva truffles. I think they were a big hit. I also gave my Dad the Rolex I won from the $1000 rebuy tournament I won at Bellagio a while ago. I think he liked it. We ended up sleeping in my parents camper outside. I kinda like staying in the camper. It is like a mini house. On Wednesday, we ate breakfast with my mom, dad, and brother at Waffle House. I don�t much care for Waffle House but it was good that day.

After that, Amie and I went to Wal-Mart to get camping stuff. We planned on going to Fort Pickens, an old fort on Pensacola Beach, to camp for a day. We ended up with a tiiiny tent. It was kinda fun, as I couldn�t even stretch out in it. On the way to the camp ground, someone suggested we go by this pecan shop. They had basically every kind of nut you can think of covered in every topping you can think of. We bought some regular roasted/salted pecans, some sugar coated pecans, and some key lime pie pecans. They were good. We finally made it out to the campground and set up camp. We walked around the fort area for a while, which was a lot of fun.

We went to eat at Peg Leg Petes. We had an oyster sampler and other goodness. Afterwards, Amie wanted Ice Cream so we went to the boardwalk to get some. The lady in the shop acted confused when she asked for 2 scoops on a cone. It turns out their cones were tiny and one scoop would barely fit. Two was a balancing act. It turns out the ice cream girl actually broke the cone while trying to put them all on and Amie was left eating a scoop of ice cream out of her hand. It was quite funny. We already had bought smore stuff so we went back to the camp site and made a fire.

We had a few smores then fell asleep. On Thursday, my dad took the day off and we met him at the Naval Aviation Museum to watch the Blue Angels practice. We had to wake up early and pack our camp up, as we were staying at a hotel on the beach for the next two days. We figured one night of camping would be enough for us. Somehow our lines got crossed and the Blue Angels weren�t in town. We toured the museum, watched an IMAX film on the Hubble telescope, and then climbed to the top of the Pensacola light house.

After all of that, we ate at Golden Corral, which is the nuts. After that, Amie and I headed to the hotel. The weather was pretty hot but the beach was amazing. We walked along the beach and watched the sun set. After that, we ordered sickly overpriced room service and watched Lost from Tuesday. Sleep time after that. Friday was a big family day. We woke up and had breakfast on the beach.

My mom, dad, brother, aunt, Morgan, and my other cousin, Priscilla all headed to the beach. We rented a little sailboat and sailed around for a while. After that, we went to eat at Flounders. It was great. We went out swimming in the big waves on the beach. It was awesome to just be out there in the water. I hope the oil doesn�t mess it up. After that, my mom, dad, brother, myself, and Amie went to a wine festival/art gallery festival in downtown Pensacola. It was pretty fun. We had dinner at a little place downtown. I had a fish sandwich that was just ok but Amie had a fried green tomato BLT that she loved. We finished off the night by meeting my Aunt, a police officer, at one of her off duty jobs on the water.

We sat by the pier and talked a lot. It was a great day. Saturday was the day we left Pensacola. We had breakfast on the beach again. We also took one more swim in the Gulf. We returned all the stuff we borrowed from my parents and had a farewell red velvet cake my aunt bought. We drove from Pensacola to Biloxi and ate at Mary Mahoney�s. After that, we went to see David Copperfield. I love good magic shows. His is a good one. On Sunday, we woke up, had a couples massage, and then ate breakfast at the Beau Rivage caf�We then headed to New Orleans. We decided to stay at Ashton�s, an awesome bed and breakfast.

We asked our host, Patrick Ashton, what was going on in town. We decided to go to a little food/art festival called the Bayou Bugaloo. Amie and I ended up getting matching paintings by an artist from Pensacola. We had all kinds of food. My favorite was a great little dish of grits with shrimp poured on top. After that, we watched the Lost finale. Amie liked it. I didn�t much like it, although it is starting to settle better in my head. Monday we had a wonderful breakfast at Ashton�s. We had bananas foster waffles with sausages. We spend the day walking around the garden district, Magazine Street, which was supposed to have great shops but I didn�t much care for, and the French quarter.

We ate dinner at John Besh�s Restaurant August. The food was great but the portions were small. We headed to Caf�u Monde for dessert then slept. Tuesday was the day we had to say bye to each other for a while. Those days are always sad. We had breakfast at Ashton�s again. We had fruit salad with a cheesy cream pastry. After that, we had a crepe filled with egg and spinach topped with a great hollandaise sauce and crab. We went to the aquarium and then to eat at Drago�s.

They had some great grilled oysters. We headed to the airport, cried a bit because we were going to miss each other, then boarded out planes. All in all, this was one of the best weeks of my life. I hope there are many more in the future. The WSOP starts in a few days. I am going to the Rio to sign up for events later today. I feel like I am playing my A game. I just need to win some hands. I am going to try to take the next few days easy and get fully rested up for the next 2 months of solid work. Fun times ahead!

2010-05-21T21:22:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been great. I have been staying with Amie in NYC and have had lots of fun. We are leaving tomorrow to go to Pensacola, then Biloxi, then New Orleans for a short little vacation. Ideally, it will get me nice and ready for the 2 month grind at the WSOP. I haven�t been able to play too much on Victory Poker lately.

I�m not too sure where my bankroll was at last time I posted, but it is at $10200 at the moment. It was up to $12000 but I had a nice little downswing on Sunday. Speaking of Sunday, I think I lost something like $17,000. There were lots of big mtts, including a $10,000, 2 $2,000�s, and a $1,000 on Stars.

Obviously I bricked them all. I fully plan on playing 0 hands of poker over the next week, so that should be nice and relaxing. Well, maybe not. I love playing poker, so I will probably end up missing it. For those that don�t know, I have a few tv shows I watch all the time. Survivor is one of them. I was pretty sad that even the �pros� at the game couldn�t put their hurt feelings aside and award Russell the win. I feel like I would probably play a fairly similar game as he did if I ever got on the show and I realize that clearly wouldn�t win you the game, as people like to think they are special and don�t like their feelings hurt.

If I was on the jury during this season, Russ would have gotten my vote for sure, mostly because I probably would have hated getting pwned by him. I sure wouldn�t have given the win to the person that did nothing. Anyways, the game that must be played is one where you wreck everyone without ever letting anyone know you are wrecking them. Sort of a Parvati/Sandra mix. It would be tough to pull off, but it is probably doable.

Lost is ending soon. That makes me sad and happy at the same time. I initially loved the show but now, I am just ready for it to be over with. Hopefully they end it well. I am looking forward to the WSOP. I hope I don�t get burnt out. There are a few weekends where I could get away if necessary. I also fully plan on going hiking every few days in the mountains, which should help. What I don�t want to do is grind poker for 2 months straight, like I have done the last 4 years. I have finally learned that happiness is what is important.

Sunglasses at the Table

2010-05-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of talk about sunglasses over the last week or two since a lot of the people playing High Stakes Poker brought up the topic. I will be the first one to tell you that I think sun glasses are good for the game and if banned, just might push poker back in the dead age of the 1980�s.

The first and main reason sunglasses are good for poker is because it gives new players confidence to hop into games they normally wouldn't play. Being stared down by Phil Ivey is tough even with glasses. If they told me I couldn't wear glasses, I simply wouldn't play with him. If you check out most major tournaments, most of the weaker players will be wearing sun glasses. If you ban sun glasses, I bet half of those poker players simply would not play because it would make the game unenjoyable. If you take half of the weak players out of major tournaments, especially in the hurting American poker tournaments, you would be left with a bunch of pros paying the rake.

In addition to boosting confidence, sunglasses help players reduce their tells. Some players like to think poker is a game about staring down people, getting a read on them, then going with it. Some people think poker is about math and using logic to figure out what is going on. The math guys tend to prefer sunglasses because they don't rely on tells, as they don't find them as useful as common sense. The feel guys want to cry about sunglasses because they know it cuts down on their edge. I like to think of myself as a mix of both players. Having common sense though, I choose to wear sunglasses in every major tournament I play.

If you give me a weapon that will cut my opponents edge in half, I will use it. It really is as simple as that. Most online players that have moved to live poker wear sunglasses because they realize not wearing the glasses can only be -EV. I like making +EV decisions, so I wear them. Not giving off tells to the guys that have no clue how math applies to poker makes me happy. Simply because the feel players realize their edge is diminishing is not a reason to give them what they want. Maybe they will be forced to become better players.

Sunglasses also help you observe a player without them knowing it. When you are playing poker, you should rarely be looking at the person who is thinking about making a big call on the river, which is where most people look. You actually need to be looking at the guy that made the big bet. One sure sign of a good player is they will be looking at the bettor. If you are a weaker player, or even a good one, you don't want to let the bettor know you are trying to pick up tells. You don�t want them to know you are constantly gathering info about their tells. If you are forced to start right at them though, they will realize this, and then do things to throw you off.

A lot of players, especially older players, complain about sunglasses hurting their eyes because they are so dark. Thankfully in the world we live in today, sunglasses don�t have to be dark. You can pick up a great pair of basically 100% see through glasses from www.BlueSharkOptics.com. They are pretty inexpensive and work very well.

Another major gripe I have with banning glasses is where do you draw the line? Next year are you going to be banning iPods? Maybe the next year, you won't be able to order drinks at the table because they get spilt from time to time. Maybe you will be forced to wear a suit and a tie to make the game feel more formal and reputable. Taking away the players� right to do something is rarely a good thing as the powers that make the rules rarely know when to stop.

The idea of cheating with sunglasses has also been brought up. Honestly, if someone is dumb enough to use invisible ink to mark cards that can only be seen while wearing sunglasses in a casino, there the penalty is jail time, they have pretty big issues. If you think someone is cheating with their glasses, ask them to try them on and see if you see marks on the cards. As far as I know, I have only been cheated in a poker game once, and that was in a private home game. Cheating simply does not go on in high stake poker games because the penalty for getting caught is much too high.

The last thought about sunglasses is that they are bad for tv. I think this simply isn�t true. Weak players play in televised events because they have a chance to do well. If weak players stop making final tables because they have huge eye tells, that will diminish the concept that anyone can win a major tournament. If you want the general public to watch and play poker tournaments, you have to let the general public make the final table.

That�s all the things I can come up with off the top of my head. If you guys have comments or suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Won the 100k rebuy

2010-04-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

The last few days have flown by. I arrived back in Vegas late Tuesday night and decided to play the $1000 Texas Holdem rebuy tournament at Bellagio the next day. I don�t remember much about the tournament except every time I made the nuts I won a lot of chips and every time I had something like middle pair I bluff caught for a lot of chips. I guess I will mention some hands that I thought were fun.

I raised 22 under the gun to 6000 at 1200/2400-300. Alex Gomes, who plays well and constantly tries to outplay me called on the button. The big blind, a tight old guy, made it 8000 more. Alex had around 150k behind and I had around 200k behind. The tight guy had us covered. I called but kinda feared a weird squeeze by Alex. He just called though and it came KJ2dd. The tight guy checked. I decided to go ahead and bet 20000 for numerous reasons. Alex went all in fairly quick. I called and lost a big pot to his 73dd. Up until then, I was cruising nicely but that quickly put a stop to that.

There was another hand a little while later against my good friend Justin Young, who also constantly tries to outplay me. I raised T8o from 2nd position. He reraised to around 1/4th of his stack in 3rd position. They folded around to me and I decided to push on him even though this was the first time he 3bet me today. He thought for a while and folded. He claimed to have 77�I don�t think I believe that.

The final table was fairly stacked, with Justin Young, Alex Gomes, Rene Angelil, Shawn Cunix, Joe Beavers, and a few others. I really don�t remember much of what happened except that if flew by. I think it took around 3 hours for me to get heads up with Rene. He had around 1.4 million and I had 600k. I stole loads of pots to get to around 1.2 million to his 800k then lost a decent pot with AK to put us back even. Near the end, he raised and I reraised 85dd. I had reraised maybe 5 times over the 4 hour heads up match and he folded all but the last 2 times, once when I had AK and lost. I think he made it 50k, I made it 150k, he made it 250k. I cried and called. It came KJxdd, giving me a flush draw. I had around 700k left and the pot was 500k.

This isn�t the best spot because if I check, I fear that he will just push on me, putting me in a rough spot. He could bet like 200k and fold to a push though. I could open push and hopefully fold out small pairs and also just never fold my hand. It is usually and to fold a flush draw. Anyways, I decided to push and he called with AK and I hit.

He had around 200k left after that, which was 10bbs The next hand, I had Q2 in the sb and pushed and he snap called with J8 and I won. Interestingly enough, that flush draw was the only time I got it in for my stack during the entire tournament I think. I ended up winning $67,000, which is a nice little payday.

There is a $5,000 poker tournament today and the $25,000 main event on Sunday. These are both usually super tough fields but ill still be there.

I have been playing a little on Victory Poker when time permits. I think I had something like $2000 in my account about a week ago and am sitting at $3800 at the moment, so that�s good. Hopefully I can keep running well and putting in lots of hours.

Life is Fun

2010-04-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

The last week has been quite hectic despite not really doing much of anything. I have been staying with Amie in NYC a lot lately and was there when the NAPT at Mohegan Sun rolled around. It turns out there isn�t really an easy way to get there from NYC besides to take the bus, which costs a whopping $20 but takes 5 hours. I decided to gamble and do that. I mostly hibernated and watched poker videos. On both the ride there and back, some little gangster kid would blare rap music out of their cheap cell phone.

It was quite annoying. All in all though, it wasn�t that bad.
The NAPT went pretty well on day one, with me ending the day with a little more than average. Day two didn�t go quite so well. I had some lag kid on my right that 3bet me every time I raised. I eventually picked up QJ and raised, fully expecting him to 3bet. That is what happened, so I shipped it in and he basically snap called with A8s. I got there and doubled.

A few hours later, the same thing happened again, but this time I had 98s. Looking back, I should have raised then just called the 3bet or maaaaybe limped. I hate limping though. Anyways, I raised, he reraised and I shipped. This time he called off with A3o and knocked me out. I am pretty sad with that. I should have just nitted it up and waited for AT or some monster like that to get in with. Lesson learned.

I am spending one more weekend with Amie in NYC before heading back to Vegas for the WPT main event at Bellagio. I have played this event twice in the past and both times got sucked out on right before the money, so hopefully I can change that
trend. After that, there is a $5000 at Caesars which is always decent.

I have been playing a lot on VictoryPoker.com lately. I have decided to sort of challenge myself to start at the low stake games and grind up my bankroll. I currently have $2700 in there, so I am going to stick to $.50/$1 and $1/2 until I get around $8000 in there, I think. It is fun to sometimes go back to the basics and just grind online. I have been getting a little fried from all the swings at high stakes PLO so I think this will be a nice way to spend the months before the WSOP where the big swings happen.

As for FloatTheTurn.com, I think I have nailed down all the details to get a new coach that has around $4 million in winnings., mostly online, so that will be great if that holds up. I am also strongly considering doing a tv show that will be posted on the site during the WSOP. It will basically be myself and my poker friends talking about life and poker, but mostly life. It should be fun. These are all in the works, so hopefully everything falls into place.

As for JonathanLittleSecrets.com, I am going to be starting a new private coaching program in the near future. If you want one of the spots to be coached by me, check it out.

That�s pretty much it. My life is the nuts right now. I wouldn�t change much of anything. Hopefully I can win my 3rd WPT title next week. That would really make it the nuts.

Victory Poker

2010-03-31T20:33:00.000-07:00

First off, I am pleased to announce that I am now part of team Victory Poker. I love everything they are doing with the site and look forward to working with them in nnumerous ways. I have been playing cash games on Victory Poker for the last few days and things have been going well. I have played a few tournaments as well on the site and those have went poorly. Bad beat. Anyways, check it out and keep an eye open for loads of great new features soon to come.

I am currently staying in NYC, which has been lots of fun. I had the pleasuer of meeting Amie's parents a few nights ago (hi Orit!) which was a lot of fun. Amie and I walked across the brooklyn bridge to a great pizza place. It has been cold here for the last few days but I imagine the weather will get nicer eventually.

I am leaving for Mohegan Sun in a week or so. I skipped the first NAPT to play the WPT celeb invitational. I plan on playing the main event as well as the sat to get into the 25k, although I may just skip that. After that, I will be back in Vegas for a while for the $25000 WPT main event. This is the first year I didnt win my seat into it, so thats no fun. Theres always next year.

I have decided to offer private coaching. You can check it out at www.JonathanLittleSecrets.com. Simply put, you will get access to over 40 hours of past one on one coaching I did with my first batch of students plus your own private coaching sessions. If you are looking to seriously improve your game, you should check it out.

Life has been nice lately. I really have no complaints or worries in the world. Hopefully all this life greatness can translate over to poker in the near future.

Finally An Off Week

2010-03-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

I am finally home for a week. Yay! Before this week, I have been at my home for a whopping 2 days this year. I met a wonderful woman in the Bahamas and have been staying with her in her in NYC during most of my time when there are no tournaments. She is coming to visit me this week in Vegas. I have lots of fun stuff planned for us.

The Bay101 WPT didnt go as planned. On day 3 (out of 4) I showed up and instantly doubled up with AK vs QQ. From there, I ran into Phil Hellmuth's nuts 3 times. The first time was the hand after I doubled. I raised QT from the sb and he called. It came J93. I bet and he called. The turn was the K. I bet and he instantly raised me. I pushed and we chopped it.

A few hands later when I was in the big blind, he limped from the cut off, the button limped, and I checked A8o. It came A98hh. I checked, fully expecting Hellmuth to bet as he had done the limp bet a few times so far. They both checked. The turn was a 3. I bet 4/5 pot and Hellmuth instanty potted it. I decided to just call, as he could have a monster. The river was 4h. I checked and he bet 1/2 pot and I lost to his K5hh. Also in this flurry of hands, I raised KJ from the cutoff and the button, a good young online guy, called. It came Kxx. I bet and he called. The turn was a blank and I check called. The river was a Q and I check called again and lost to his KQ.

My bustout hand was a little odd. I raised AJ from the button and Hellmuth called in the big blind. It came KTx. We both checked. The turn was a K and he bet 1/2 pot and I called. The turn was the beautiful Q. He bet around pot, which was half my stack. For some reason, I was actually considering just calling here then I realized that was dumb and pushed. He had KQ for the nuts again and I was out. All in all, I am pretty happy it took three semi set up hands to bust me. I cant be too sad with that. Taking 21st place is always tough.

As for online poker, it has been super swingy. I have been playing a decent amount of plo, usually short stacking 25/50 - 100/200. At the start of the year, I used basically all my online money to buy into the PCA, leaving me with $1000 online, which is the least I have ever had. Since then, it has been all over the place. I am currently sitting with $26000 online, which is decent, I guess.

I cashed out $8000 last night, which was clearly a mistake. After that, The $46000 I had online magically became $26000 when I lost every hand I touched for 4 hours. I was playing mostly 100/200 nl and plo. In the no limit match, I had the guy all in about 6 times and I lost every one of them, which is never fun. It feels a bit dumb saying this, but I see I am clearly running bad at the moment.

Because of that, losing 20k last night doesnt really bother me. I had another -24k day about a month ago, mostly at 100/200 plo. I lost every hand I played there too. All things considered though, I should be happy. Actually, I am happy.

My next stop on the tournament circuit is the WPT event in Indiana. Actually, I dont know where it is. All I know is I fly into Cincinatti and tell them I want to go to Hollywood casino. After that, I am going to NYC for a while then to Mohegan Sun for the NAPT event.

Apparently there was supposed to be a $10,000 "high roller" event there but they have instead changed it to one of those invitational only tournaments, which I think is fairly bad for the game. That being said, I think the NAPT in general is super good for poker as long as Stars doesnt get in trouble with the law, which I have heard could be a big issue. Apparently online sites arent aloud to buy people into events in America. We will see I guess.

All in all, life is good. I am going to spend my next week here chilling. I am going to try to stay away from online poker for a week. I am not much a fan of playing after really bad days. Yay for an off week!

Rough Last Few Weeks

2010-03-03T11:50:00.001-08:00

The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster. I was wrecking everything in Jan only to lose most of it back in Feb. I guess that happens when you play big cash games. I am in LA and have yet to make anything happen. I did have a cool hand in the Celebrity Invitational that I guess I will talk about. I raised QT from middle position into a guys big blind who has called 3 times and checkfolded every time so far. He called again and it came KJ9ss. At this point, I considered checking behind when he checked to me but then figured he had to be getting tired of me cbetting eventually. I went ahead and bet around 1/4th of his stack and he called. This tournament had a super fast structure.

I doubled through Brian Townsend earlier so I had around 2x average at this point and the other guy had about average. The turn was a 4s. He checked and I went all in for around 2/3 pot. I had the Qs so I figured I probably had either a backup if he did have a flush or a blocker, so that if he did have the nuts, I got a little more unlucky than it appeared. He snap called with A5s to put me back to the average of 15bbs. I later pushed KTdd and ran into AK to lose.

I got on the perfect sleep schedule to play the ironman tournament today. Basically, it is a tournament with no breaks. I was totally ready to win this event. I played well early and made everything I was spewing around. Somehow, at 25/50, I got 12000 chips in the middle with KK vs AK. Sadly, he rivered an A and I was out, just like that.

I normally play 10/20 no limit at Bellagio when I play, as the 25/50 games are tough but the 20/40 nl games at commerce looked super soft so I took a few shots. Every time I got it in good yet somehow lost all 5 times I got all in, which is no fun. That being said, I am only down $12,000 in the game, so that is good. It could be much much worse. I have done ok at 10/20, so I will probably just stick to that for the rest of the trip.

I am looking forward to the main event here. This is always a great event with lots of weak players. I took 20th or something like that in this event a few years back, so I will be looking to improve on that. They always give away a cool trophy with a guy that looks like he riding and beating a horse. It is pretty wild. I want one. I plan on making it happen.

no good at Borgata main event

2010-02-03T12:01:00.000-08:00

Borgata's main event went pretty poorly for me. The day started off well, with me getting my stack from 30,000 to 33,000 with no showdowns at 25/50. About an hour into the day though, we took a limped pot where I had 88 in the small blind, 5 ways.

It came 854. I checked, most likely going for a check raise. The button made a decent sized bet and I figured he would fire the turn again, so I just called. MAybe he bet 225 or something into the 250 pot. The turn was a K. I checked, he bet around 800 and I made it 2200. He thought for a while and made it 5200.

At this point, alarm bells are going off in my head. This guy didnt look at all like the type of guy that would try to outplay me. The only problem was I was worried that he had a lower set and thought it was the nuts. I called and the river was a blank. I checked and he bet 8000 pretty quickly. He looked really calm. Again, the problem was that I thought he might think a lower set was the nuts.

I really really wanted to fold though. I then remembered I had the 2nd nuts and was in Borgata, so I called and lost to the flopped straight. A little while later, this little italian (most likely) guy raised to 325 at 50/100. I made it 1200 on the button with AA, assuming he would call with any 2. He did and it came 7s5s5c. He checked and I bet 2000 or so. He thought for a while and called.

The turn was an 8h. He checked and I bet 6000. He thought again and called. The river was the 9s. Yuck!! He instachecked and I check lost to KJss, putting me down to around 8000 chips. Toward the end of that level, I raised to 300 with 88 from middle position, 2 people called and Cornel Cimpan made it 2000 from the big blind. He had been super lagging it up and we had played a few small pots together so far.

I decided to just push cause he seemed like he was trying to outplay everyone. He thought for a while before calling with AQ. It came Axxxx with 4 spades. Luckily I had a spade and was back to 20,000. I won a few more pots at 75/150 to get up to around 25,000, which was almost back to my starting stack after a horrorific start. Cornel raised from middle position and I decided to just call with AQs in the small blind.

I would normally reraise here against standardish players but my poker strategy against someone that constantly tries to play back, I think it is better to play it slow so they dont rereraise you. Also, I try to play small pots out of position. Anyways, it came Qh5h5d. I checked and he bet maybe 800 into the 1000 pot. I decided he thought I would be likely to try to outplay him here so I made it 2500.

He tanked for a while then made it 7500. I was pretty sure he didnt have much so I shipped it all in for another 15000 or so. He snap called with A6hh. The turn was a 4h and I didnt hit on the river. That was it for me. I have been learning a lot about myself when it comes to winning and losing lately. I honestly dont mind losing at all when I get it in good over and over. When I win and get it in bad though, I am usually not too happy with myself. I think it is important to not be result oriented.

Obviously me getting it in good or bad has a lot of variance involved as well. I just try to play my best and am usually happy with the result, win or lose. I am going back to NYC for a few days then heading to Vegas for a week before going to LA for the LAPC. I may or may not go home before going to San Jose then Indiana for their new WPT event. Life has been busy but fun lately. Hopefully it keeps up.

Won a 776 Max Tournament

2010-01-26T08:02:00.000-08:00

Last night I was playing a few random tournaments and trying to take care of some stuff online. I somehow found myself in a $77 6 max turbo tournament with 311 people. I can remember 3 times in the tournament where I had 30% equity or less but sucked out. Most of the spots were pretty standard though, like KK vs AA. I ended up shipping the title and $4200 or something like that, which is nice because live poker has been going terrible. I havent made it past the 2nd break in any event so far this year, as far as I can remember.

Actually, that may not be true. My memory is terrible about these kidns of things. All the tournaments get muddled together in my head. Still though, I do know I have cashed for $0 and have invested something like 30k which is never fun. Thats ok because the Biloxi WPT main event is tomorrow. This tournament is always a great one. Sadly, there are lots of regulars here. I remember the first year they had this event there were maybe 20 people I knew in the field. there will probably be 60 this time. I suppose ill be updating again rather shortly after Biloxi is over. Good luck to everyone.

The Latest From the Gulf Coast

2010-01-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

The last week has went by pretty quick. After PCA, which didnt go too well, I came back to Pensacola and have been living in my parents camper, spending time around down and trying to relax. I took 15th in a $50 tournmanet with 1500 people 3 nights ago and 7th in a $150 tournament with 800 people 2 nights ago. Look for videos from those in the upcoming months.

I have also been studying 6 max nlhe cash games a little over the last week. I played a whopping 4000 hands at .5/1 and am running at a nice 15ptbb/100. Clearly I run hot for small stakes. I am going to Biloxi tomorrow for their WPT events + prelim events. They have a few smaller nlhe events and a $5000 plo event. Hopefully I can crack off one of those.

After that, I am going to NYC for Steve Begleiters charity tournament. After that, I am going to AC for the $3500 tournament at Borgata, which should draw a huge field. Sadly, there isnt too much going on in my life to blog about. I am just chilling and relaxing, enjoying life as much as I know how. Being happy is fun. If you are a poker player and are unhappy, learn to be, cause life is much better happy than sad. I used to be sad. When I was 18 - 22 or so, I was pretty sad cause all I did was play online poker. Get out and enjoy the world. Life will be better. I promise. Good luck.

sunglasses, charity, coaching, and leagues

2010-01-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

Quite a bit has been happening in my life lately. First off, I have signed a deal with Blue Shark Optics, http://www.bluesharkoptics.com/. They will be making a custom line of sunglasses bearing my name, which is pretty cool. I have been wearing their glasses since Kathy Liebert turned me on to them and I am quite happy with them. I got tired of looking through dark sunglasses. These were the prefect solution. I am sure everyone that buys a pair will agree.

I am also in the early stages of planning a $5,000 charity tournament for Special Olympics on Pensacola Beach sometime in May. The $5,000 package will include a 3 nights in a high end hotel on Pensacola Beach, a tournament with big prizes, like $50,000 cars, A poker pro at every tournament table, and basically whatever else we can fit into the weekend. If we can pull it off, I think it will be a big deal for poker. The initial plan is to have 5 pros and 45 other people, with one pro at each table. I will post more about this as I get the details taken care of.

At www.JonathanLittleSecrets.com, I am launching my first one on one, private coaching package. Basically, I will watch you play online and tell you where I think you are making mistakes. I will also review numerous hand histories from you and hopefully drastically improve your game. The price is going to be fairly steep but I think it should be well worth it. Email support@jonathanlittlesecrets.com if you have any questions.

I have also finialized the details for the www.FloatTheTurn.com league. This 6 month league should be a lot of fun, plus it will hand out some great prizes, like a $1,000 seat to a WSOP event, 3 nights at the Rio, coaching from me, and a few other prizes. If you arent a paying member of Float The Turn yet, now is the time to join.

As for life in general, I have been staying in my parents camper in their back yard since 12/23. It has been a nice, relaxing time. I am flying to the Bahamas on Monday for the PCA, which is always great fun. I was actually considering skipping the event this year, as the rooms and food are really expensive but they added numerous tournaments, making it a sin to miss out. After that, I am going to come back to Pensacola for a few days before heading over to the Beau Rivage in Biloxi for their WPT event. These two events are usually two of the best of the year. I plan on starting 2010 off with a bang.

Out of WPT in one hour

2009-12-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

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.

Pretty Bad Week of Poker (Hold 'Em and Pot Limit Omaha)

2009-12-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

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.

Texas Trip

2009-11-29T23:23:00.000-08:00

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.

Coaching a November 9 Player

2009-11-08T23:02:00.001-08:00

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.

Went on a family vacation

2009-11-06T14:18:00.001-08:00

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.

2nd again

2009-10-22T22:57:00.001-07:00

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=&

2nd in 1000 at Bellagio

2009-10-08T23:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Trash Talking Tuesday

2009-10-05T08:37:00.001-07:00

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.

Basically Bubbled AC

2009-09-24T23:34:00.001-07:00

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.

www.FloatTheTurn.com is now live

2009-09-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

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.

Off to AC

2009-09-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

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.

Cyprus

2009-09-07T22:35:00.001-07:00

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.

Busy Times

2009-09-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

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.

Out in 44th place 08-25-2009

2009-08-25T09:23:00.001-07:00

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.

Legends of Poker Update

2009-08-24T09:26:00.001-07:00

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.

Busy and Unfocused

2009-08-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

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.

Busy Life

2009-08-15T07:15:00.001-07:00

(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.

Rough Few Days

2009-07-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

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.

Out in 30th

2009-07-19T20:27:00.001-07:00

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.

WPT update

2009-07-16T11:57:00.001-07:00

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.

Main Event Bustout

2009-07-13T07:09:00.000-07:00

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.

Main Event Coming

2009-07-06T22:53:00.001-07:00

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.

Taking a Vacation

2009-06-29T22:02:00.001-07:00

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.

"Nice Hand"

2009-06-19T23:07:00.000-07:00

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.