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.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Out in 30th
Damn today went bad. Not much happened until I raised utg when we were 7 handed with KTo. Mimi Tran never showed up, so there was no big blind. Vivek pushed on me for 200k more, giving me like 1.3:1, so I folded. A few hands later, this euro guy, who had raised from the button when I was in the big blind on the previous orbit (mimi was in the small blind) raised again.
I picked up A9 and decided to reraise. He thought for a while then pushed. At this point, I was getting around 1.8:1 to call. He displayed a few tells, some of which I took as fake strong tells and some I thought were weak tells. It turns out, he was just a tellbox and he had AK. I missed everything on the flop when I flopped a gutter and runner runner flush to chop and I was out, just like that.
This summer has been the worst of my life. I cashed in 0 out of around 40 tournaments, despite thinking I am playing fairly well. The only saving grace is that online is going well. Hopefully I can win lots of money online over the next month, while there are no live mtts, and come back refreshed and ready to go.
I picked up A9 and decided to reraise. He thought for a while then pushed. At this point, I was getting around 1.8:1 to call. He displayed a few tells, some of which I took as fake strong tells and some I thought were weak tells. It turns out, he was just a tellbox and he had AK. I missed everything on the flop when I flopped a gutter and runner runner flush to chop and I was out, just like that.
This summer has been the worst of my life. I cashed in 0 out of around 40 tournaments, despite thinking I am playing fairly well. The only saving grace is that online is going well. Hopefully I can win lots of money online over the next month, while there are no live mtts, and come back refreshed and ready to go.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
WPT update
Today was rough. My starting table, which I ended up staying at all day, was full of big names but they somehow wernt playing too crazy early in the day and let me chip up to around 80,000 chips with no showdowns. Around 3 levels into the day, at 800/1600-200 (i think) Justin "Boosted J" Smith raised under the gun.
He had been fairly tight but mixing it up well so far. He had around 130,000 chips. I called on the button with 22 and I thiiiink someone else called in the blinds, although I dont really remember. It came Ah 3h 2s. Justin bet 7000 and I made it 20000. He thought for a while before making it 37000. I would have around 40000 left if I just called and decided that even if he had a flush draw and he hit, id be ok with it. I had the 2h, so if he did have a set, runner runner heart might actually save me.
I also wanted to give him every chance to bluff, as I basically had the nuts. The turn was Jh. He thought for a while before checking. I decided that another heart would be bad, so I pushed. He thought for forever before calling with what he later claimed was KJ.
He mucked once my hand was turned up, so he obviously didnt have a heart. He later told me, all things considered (who I talk to about poker, the way I play, the way we havent tried to outplay each other much, but knew were were capable of it, the fact that it was the last hand before a break and he had raised every previous last hand, etc) made him call. He said he was just calling with K high, so he must think I am super sick, whereas in reality, I am only mildly sick.
I fluctuated between 160000 and 100000 for the rest of the day and finally ended around 153000. Towards the end of the day, the table got filled with numerous high stakes cash game pros and they were just going nuts.
Sadly, I really didnt have much in terms of good starting hands again today and mainly just tried to pick my spots well. Tomorrow we start playing 1500/3000-400, so hopefully I can get a good table that doesnt make me gamble and lots of hands in case they do make me gamble.
He had been fairly tight but mixing it up well so far. He had around 130,000 chips. I called on the button with 22 and I thiiiink someone else called in the blinds, although I dont really remember. It came Ah 3h 2s. Justin bet 7000 and I made it 20000. He thought for a while before making it 37000. I would have around 40000 left if I just called and decided that even if he had a flush draw and he hit, id be ok with it. I had the 2h, so if he did have a set, runner runner heart might actually save me.
I also wanted to give him every chance to bluff, as I basically had the nuts. The turn was Jh. He thought for a while before checking. I decided that another heart would be bad, so I pushed. He thought for forever before calling with what he later claimed was KJ.
He mucked once my hand was turned up, so he obviously didnt have a heart. He later told me, all things considered (who I talk to about poker, the way I play, the way we havent tried to outplay each other much, but knew were were capable of it, the fact that it was the last hand before a break and he had raised every previous last hand, etc) made him call. He said he was just calling with K high, so he must think I am super sick, whereas in reality, I am only mildly sick.
I fluctuated between 160000 and 100000 for the rest of the day and finally ended around 153000. Towards the end of the day, the table got filled with numerous high stakes cash game pros and they were just going nuts.
Sadly, I really didnt have much in terms of good starting hands again today and mainly just tried to pick my spots well. Tomorrow we start playing 1500/3000-400, so hopefully I can get a good table that doesnt make me gamble and lots of hands in case they do make me gamble.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Main Event Bustout
I must say I am fairly shocked to be out of the main event. For some reason, I really felt like I was going to do well in this tournament. Obviously I was delusional. I started day 2 with around 55,000 chips and got it up to 100,000 after winning lots of small pots and one big one with KK vs 77. I got moved to another table where the average stack was around 150,000, which was quite a change from my first table where average was around 50,000. Because of this, I figured I would either get lots of chips or bust somhow. I played around an hour at the table before I raised KQs and got reraised to 5000 by a kid that had already reraised me once. He had me covered.
I decided to call and planned on owning him somewhere in the hand. It came Jc Ts 3d. I checked and he bet 7000. I called, planning on checkraising lots of turns. I got one of the best nonnutmaking turns, the 5s, giving me overcards, a flush draw, and a straight draw I checked and he bet 20000. At this point, I actually thought he had a pretty strong hand but it didnt really matter, as I know I have around 40% equity against everything.
I went all in for around 70000 more into the 60000 chip pot. He tanked for around 3 minutes then called with KJ. I really wasnt too worried, as that is one of the best hands I can expect to be up against. It just sucks that I had the absolute bottom of my range for pushing there. The turn was the 2d and I was sent home.
On the drive home, I couldnt help thinking "I should still be playing right now." This is the kind of thought that breaks people, im my opinion. If I was supposed to still be there, I would still be sitting there right now with around 200000 chips. Instead, I was supposed to lose. Simple as that. Ive already had time to accept it and change my irrational though, so I think I am all good. Thinking you "deserve" to win is clearly a big no no in poker.
Anyways, while I am sad I lost, I am glad the WSOP is over for me, as it tends to be some of the darkest days of my year. Hopefully the upcoming WPT season will be as kind to me as the last two.
I decided to call and planned on owning him somewhere in the hand. It came Jc Ts 3d. I checked and he bet 7000. I called, planning on checkraising lots of turns. I got one of the best nonnutmaking turns, the 5s, giving me overcards, a flush draw, and a straight draw I checked and he bet 20000. At this point, I actually thought he had a pretty strong hand but it didnt really matter, as I know I have around 40% equity against everything.
I went all in for around 70000 more into the 60000 chip pot. He tanked for around 3 minutes then called with KJ. I really wasnt too worried, as that is one of the best hands I can expect to be up against. It just sucks that I had the absolute bottom of my range for pushing there. The turn was the 2d and I was sent home.
On the drive home, I couldnt help thinking "I should still be playing right now." This is the kind of thought that breaks people, im my opinion. If I was supposed to still be there, I would still be sitting there right now with around 200000 chips. Instead, I was supposed to lose. Simple as that. Ive already had time to accept it and change my irrational though, so I think I am all good. Thinking you "deserve" to win is clearly a big no no in poker.
Anyways, while I am sad I lost, I am glad the WSOP is over for me, as it tends to be some of the darkest days of my year. Hopefully the upcoming WPT season will be as kind to me as the last two.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Main Event Coming
I dont know why, but I havent blogged in around a week. I guess I have just been busy trying to take care of all the stuff that will be happening with sngicons over the next few months. I also had Katy's and my dads in town as their Fathers Day gift. We went to see David Copperfield, shot some guns, drove some go karts (where my dad got his so hard his helmet flew off) and worked out. We also went to eat at the M buffet twice, which is delicious and also tried a place Victor Ramdin told me about, called Hot and Juicy Crawfish. It was also the nuts.
I had Bfizz11, who is fresh off a $100,000 win in the Sunday Warmup, over to my house yesterday and we ended up making a 7 part video of him playing mtts and mttsngs. We ended up winning around $700 despite running semibad in my opinion. Basically, we bricked around 20 tournaments but ended up winning 2 $12 180 man sngs over the course of the day. The last part of the video was basically a 1 tabling video of one of the final tables. We paid attention to all the little spots, like I would do in a live mtt, and we totally wrecked it. Look for that 6 hours of footage to go up over the next few months here at SngIcons.com.
The main event of the WSOP is tomorrow. I havent really played any live poker since the wsop prelims ended, so I am ready to go. Actually, I havent played a deepstacked event in ages, so I am greatly looking forward to that. Honestly, I am tired of being forced to win a coin flip at some point during day one of every tournament and hope I can actually just grind this one out and make something happen.
I was also on the All In poker radio show again this week. You can check it out here:
http://allin.podomatic.com/
All in all, I think I am ready to do well in the WSOP main event. I think you should be in a good mental place when it comes to poker to do well and I think I am there. Hopefully it works out.
I had Bfizz11, who is fresh off a $100,000 win in the Sunday Warmup, over to my house yesterday and we ended up making a 7 part video of him playing mtts and mttsngs. We ended up winning around $700 despite running semibad in my opinion. Basically, we bricked around 20 tournaments but ended up winning 2 $12 180 man sngs over the course of the day. The last part of the video was basically a 1 tabling video of one of the final tables. We paid attention to all the little spots, like I would do in a live mtt, and we totally wrecked it. Look for that 6 hours of footage to go up over the next few months here at SngIcons.com.
The main event of the WSOP is tomorrow. I havent really played any live poker since the wsop prelims ended, so I am ready to go. Actually, I havent played a deepstacked event in ages, so I am greatly looking forward to that. Honestly, I am tired of being forced to win a coin flip at some point during day one of every tournament and hope I can actually just grind this one out and make something happen.
I was also on the All In poker radio show again this week. You can check it out here:
http://allin.podomatic.com/
All in all, I think I am ready to do well in the WSOP main event. I think you should be in a good mental place when it comes to poker to do well and I think I am there. Hopefully it works out.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Taking a Vacation
The last month has been fairly rough. I have cashed 0 out of like 20 wsop events, which is never fun, although it isnt a first for me. If it wasnt for winning $15,000 at PLO online, it would have been a pretty awful month. Katy came up with the bright idea of going to LA for the next 3 days, as there are no wsop events I am actually excited for and I want to be in top playing condition for the main event and then the bellagio WPT tournaments.
Speaking of the wsop events, I was actually excited for the $10,000 pot limit holdem tournament, which doesnt happen too often for me, especially for the first day of an event. I went into the event fully expecting to do well. I ended up not winning many hands, thanks mostly to a sick lucky french guy that lucksacked everyone at the table for the 4 hours I lasted. I eventually ran my AQ into his KQ to bust. It is tough to say that I think I played well, despite losing basically every hand I played, but I think I could have lost a lot quicker if I tried.
Anyways, I will be out of town for a few days. I dont expect that I will take my computer or check my email, so I will be out of touch, which is a good thing from time to time. Hopefully I will be back and ready to close out my last 5 wsop events.
Speaking of the wsop events, I was actually excited for the $10,000 pot limit holdem tournament, which doesnt happen too often for me, especially for the first day of an event. I went into the event fully expecting to do well. I ended up not winning many hands, thanks mostly to a sick lucky french guy that lucksacked everyone at the table for the 4 hours I lasted. I eventually ran my AQ into his KQ to bust. It is tough to say that I think I played well, despite losing basically every hand I played, but I think I could have lost a lot quicker if I tried.
Anyways, I will be out of town for a few days. I dont expect that I will take my computer or check my email, so I will be out of touch, which is a good thing from time to time. Hopefully I will be back and ready to close out my last 5 wsop events.
Friday, June 19, 2009
"Nice Hand"
I have seen people abuse the way "nice hand" is said over and over throughout this world series and I have decided to write a little bit about it to hopefully help everyone that reads this not make a huge breach in etiquette.
I just got moved to a table in yesterdays $1500 WSOP event when I saw a guy get it in with AQ vs AK, hit a Q to win a big pot, wrap the table (which is basically knocking the table like you would someone's front door) as he was collecting his pot, then he told the guy that just lost 2/3 of his chips "Nice Hand." This guy basically did everything he could to rub it in the losing players face that he just won most of his chips.
So, what did he do to make him look like a total jerk? First, he wrapped the table. In general, I think wrapping the table is a semifishy thing to do under all circumstances. The one time it is ok is when you are on the losing end of a pot. Basically, wrapping the table is a way of saying "Nice Hand" without actually saying it.
Now that we know that, why don�t you say nice hand once you win the hand? Because you don't want to discourage people from playing again in the future by making them embarrassed/mad and you also don't want to make people feel bad, unless of course you are an absolute horrible person. I am not really sure if this is clear enough to make the point that it is a huge douche to say/do these things. Trust me though, just don't do it.
One other thing that is a HUGE no no that lots of clueless players do is to say "thank you" to the player that you just won a big pot off of, especially if what they did was a little spewy or if you lucksack them. Say someone gets it in with T4 on a 743 and you have 77. You double and win a huge pot. The last thing you want to do is tell the losing player "thank you" as you are basically saying "thanks for being an absolutely terrible." We can all look and tell that just isn't nice. Simply put, every time you win a big pot off someone, you should keep your mouth shut unless you are spoken to, and even then, keep talking to the minimum.
Now that I had that little rant, how has poker been for me? Playing the smallest stake tournaments in any tournament series is always a little like pulling teeth for me because no one really knows what they are doing. The actual flow of the game is so much slower in a small stake tournament than the highest buyin tournaments. Also, the bad beat stories fill the air like love on Valentine's Day.
Despite all of this, I have constantly gotten my money in good over and over. In yesterday's event I eventually busted in a pretty cool spot where I knew a European kid was about to try to outplay me. If you pay very close attention, it is usually clear who is getting fed up with me raising over and over. You will usually seeing them eyeing you, trying to sense weakness or something like that. What usually happens though, is they end up spewing their chips off.
In this specific hand, the young guy had been watching me lots and doing a few other things, making it clear to me he was about to spew off his chips. I raised 55 from the button and he looked like he wanted to reraise. Instead he just called. We both had around 25bb stacks. Had he reraised right there, my money would have snap been in the pot. Instead, it came 743. He checked and I made a normal continuation bet. He thought for around 30 seconds and pushed. I basically snap called and he showed the QJo. Sadly for me, he peeled the J like a pro and I was out right after dinner break, once again.
All in all, I am very happy with my play and very disgusted with my results. There are only around 10 more events left for me to play. Hopefully I can have some hands hold up and I can make something happen.
I just got moved to a table in yesterdays $1500 WSOP event when I saw a guy get it in with AQ vs AK, hit a Q to win a big pot, wrap the table (which is basically knocking the table like you would someone's front door) as he was collecting his pot, then he told the guy that just lost 2/3 of his chips "Nice Hand." This guy basically did everything he could to rub it in the losing players face that he just won most of his chips.
So, what did he do to make him look like a total jerk? First, he wrapped the table. In general, I think wrapping the table is a semifishy thing to do under all circumstances. The one time it is ok is when you are on the losing end of a pot. Basically, wrapping the table is a way of saying "Nice Hand" without actually saying it.
Now that we know that, why don�t you say nice hand once you win the hand? Because you don't want to discourage people from playing again in the future by making them embarrassed/mad and you also don't want to make people feel bad, unless of course you are an absolute horrible person. I am not really sure if this is clear enough to make the point that it is a huge douche to say/do these things. Trust me though, just don't do it.
One other thing that is a HUGE no no that lots of clueless players do is to say "thank you" to the player that you just won a big pot off of, especially if what they did was a little spewy or if you lucksack them. Say someone gets it in with T4 on a 743 and you have 77. You double and win a huge pot. The last thing you want to do is tell the losing player "thank you" as you are basically saying "thanks for being an absolutely terrible." We can all look and tell that just isn't nice. Simply put, every time you win a big pot off someone, you should keep your mouth shut unless you are spoken to, and even then, keep talking to the minimum.
Now that I had that little rant, how has poker been for me? Playing the smallest stake tournaments in any tournament series is always a little like pulling teeth for me because no one really knows what they are doing. The actual flow of the game is so much slower in a small stake tournament than the highest buyin tournaments. Also, the bad beat stories fill the air like love on Valentine's Day.
Despite all of this, I have constantly gotten my money in good over and over. In yesterday's event I eventually busted in a pretty cool spot where I knew a European kid was about to try to outplay me. If you pay very close attention, it is usually clear who is getting fed up with me raising over and over. You will usually seeing them eyeing you, trying to sense weakness or something like that. What usually happens though, is they end up spewing their chips off.
In this specific hand, the young guy had been watching me lots and doing a few other things, making it clear to me he was about to spew off his chips. I raised 55 from the button and he looked like he wanted to reraise. Instead he just called. We both had around 25bb stacks. Had he reraised right there, my money would have snap been in the pot. Instead, it came 743. He checked and I made a normal continuation bet. He thought for around 30 seconds and pushed. I basically snap called and he showed the QJo. Sadly for me, he peeled the J like a pro and I was out right after dinner break, once again.
All in all, I am very happy with my play and very disgusted with my results. There are only around 10 more events left for me to play. Hopefully I can have some hands hold up and I can make something happen.
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