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.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The Latest From the Gulf Coast
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.
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.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
sunglasses, charity, coaching, and leagues
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.
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.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Out of WPT in one hour
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Pretty Bad Week of Poker (Hold 'Em and Pot Limit Omaha)
Simply put, the last week has been brutal, at least at the cash game tables. Over the last 4 days, I have dropped a nice $13000 playing 10/20. I am pretty sure I could have found folds on two hands but apparently I was on tilt or just didnt listen to my brain.
Thankfully, I won $10000 in one day right before the downswing, so really, it isnt that bad. I am just going to keep my head up and keep on grinding. Hopefully I will learn how to listen to what the other players are telling me.
I played a $500 and $1000 poker tournament at Bellagio so far. In the $500, I busted on the 3rd hand when I ran JJ into 22 on a 322 board. $500 mtts are neat because I have no clue what level people are playing at. This hand is a great example. Someone who was clearly new raised from the cutoff to 200 at 25/50 and I made it 600 from the button with JJ. He called.
It was clear to me at this point that he thought he had a decent hand fwiw. It came 322 and he check raised my cbet of 1000 to 3000. At this point I thought he thought he had a good hand. The only problem is I didnt really know what he defined as a good hand. I assumed he would have rerasied me with AA, KK and QQ preflop so the only hands I lose to are 33 and 22.
I thought he might think a hand like 66 is the nuts, as it is an overpair etc etc. I decided to call. The turn was a blank and he pushed. I called and lost. In the $1000 tournament, I made a straight flush draw and got again, which was pretty standard.
Today is a $1500 pot limit omaha with rebuy tournament. I played a bit of plo a week or so ago in the casino in a 1/2 plo, 1/2 nlhe game. I felt pretty comfortable so I am most likely going to play it. Hopefully I dont go off for numerous buyins.
In other news, I went to church for the first time in a few years on Sunday. I had a strong calling to go on Saturday night, so I made it happen. The pastor was giving a sermon on the bibles views on current events every Wednesday, so I checked that out last night. It was basically about the government. It turns out I agree with basically everything stated in the bible, such as you should work hard and keep what you deserve, give to those that cant work, dont give to those who can work but are lazy, make the government accountable to the people, etc etc. All in all, it has been a great experience so far.
Over the next month, I will be playing lots of tournaments at Bellagio. Hopefully I will cash for another $100,000 this series like I did in the last one.
Thankfully, I won $10000 in one day right before the downswing, so really, it isnt that bad. I am just going to keep my head up and keep on grinding. Hopefully I will learn how to listen to what the other players are telling me.
I played a $500 and $1000 poker tournament at Bellagio so far. In the $500, I busted on the 3rd hand when I ran JJ into 22 on a 322 board. $500 mtts are neat because I have no clue what level people are playing at. This hand is a great example. Someone who was clearly new raised from the cutoff to 200 at 25/50 and I made it 600 from the button with JJ. He called.
It was clear to me at this point that he thought he had a decent hand fwiw. It came 322 and he check raised my cbet of 1000 to 3000. At this point I thought he thought he had a good hand. The only problem is I didnt really know what he defined as a good hand. I assumed he would have rerasied me with AA, KK and QQ preflop so the only hands I lose to are 33 and 22.
I thought he might think a hand like 66 is the nuts, as it is an overpair etc etc. I decided to call. The turn was a blank and he pushed. I called and lost. In the $1000 tournament, I made a straight flush draw and got again, which was pretty standard.
Today is a $1500 pot limit omaha with rebuy tournament. I played a bit of plo a week or so ago in the casino in a 1/2 plo, 1/2 nlhe game. I felt pretty comfortable so I am most likely going to play it. Hopefully I dont go off for numerous buyins.
In other news, I went to church for the first time in a few years on Sunday. I had a strong calling to go on Saturday night, so I made it happen. The pastor was giving a sermon on the bibles views on current events every Wednesday, so I checked that out last night. It was basically about the government. It turns out I agree with basically everything stated in the bible, such as you should work hard and keep what you deserve, give to those that cant work, dont give to those who can work but are lazy, make the government accountable to the people, etc etc. All in all, it has been a great experience so far.
Over the next month, I will be playing lots of tournaments at Bellagio. Hopefully I will cash for another $100,000 this series like I did in the last one.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Texas Trip
I was debating what all I should say in this because it could either be long or short. I decided to go with somewhere in the middle, as some of the details are very blurry. About 3 months ago me and my closest group of poker friends decided to go to Texas, where Adam Geyer lives, for a belated bachelor party for Cody Slabaugh. It just so happened that the dates fell perfectly before the Bellagio prelims. After we scheduled, Commerce and Taj in AC decided to add decently big mtts, which wasn�t too nice, as I would have liked to play one of them.
Ohh well. It should also be noted that I was convinced to pack very light for this trip, taking only one carry on and no computer, which is something I have never done in my life. Justin Young and Cody picked me up from my house fairly early on Friday to head to Austin, where Adam lives. We flew on South West and they couldn�t save me a seat, so I ended up sitting by myself. Apparently some 50 year old drunk lady kept trying to hit on Cody. It was a bit sad. Once we landed, we took a cab to the Omni Hotel, which is apparently the nicest hotel in Austin. We found some of our friends, Mike Katz and Jesse Nagamua (sorry, don�t know how to spell at all) at the lobby bar already getting their drinking shoes laced up.
We ran up to our room to put our luggage away then headed back down to join in. We were later joined by our other friends, Shannon Shorr, Zach Clark, and Adam, and then headed out on the town. Apparently they are bars everywhere in downtown Austin. Our first stop was this place called Buffalo Billiards, which was basically a bar with lots of games like pool, darts, and shuffle board. Having never played, I was quick to get into the action. Shannon and Mike had played before, while myself and Justin had not, so I teamed with Shannon and Justin with Mike. I must have ran hot because I pwned, as did Shannon.
We switched for me to be with Mike and Mike played quite bad, giving our team the loss. I ended up winning something like $1000 on the transaction though, so it was all good. From there, we headed to an upscale Mexican place, which was delicious. It wasn�t so good though when I ended up losing a flip + $100 to each player +$600 to one other guy when we flipped for dinner. Baaad beat. We drank lots and eventually some bartender told me I was too drunk so I made my way back to the hotel and fell asleep around 3am. Everyone else decided to come wake me up around 4am when they decided to call it a night. I don�t remember much of what happened and fell back asleep.
The next day, Adam made plans for us to go to some famous BBQ place. I was thinking it would be a 5 minute car ride. We ended up driving around 30 minutes into the middle of nowhere to this place called �Salt Lick BBQ.� Since it was a BYOB place, we decided to stop at Bubba�s Country Store to get some drinks. Seeing as I was feeling quite sick, I decided to try to throw up while everyone else was inside. I have never thrown up from drinking and that didn�t change that day. I ended up feeling pretty sick for the rest of the day. There were tons of cars parked in a giant pit of mud.
All our clothes got quite dirty just trying to get to the check in area, which was basically a covered shed outside of the actual restaurant. It was BYOB (which I didn�t plan on having any of anyways) and some guy came up and offered to buy 2 of our beers for $10. I bet if someone set up a little underground shop there, they would make a killing. Since we had reservations, we got to skip the multihour wait. We entered the actual building where you eat and were surprised to find a giant pit full of numerous types of meat.
They had a �family style� meal where they brought us lots of ribs, sausage, beef, potato salad, baked beans, and a few other things I forget. It was basically the nuts. We left there and went to Adams house to chill. I wish I could trade my 3 houses for one like his. It was super balla. We hung out there for a while before heading to the Texas vs Kansas football game. The line on the game was -21. I think they ended up winning by 28 or something silly. We all bet the game against one of our friends that was too busy playing mtts to come on the trip. Skill game. Apparently Kansas is only good at basketball. I also lost quite a few other prop bets to break even on the day.
Everyone wanted to go out to some clubs so I was forced to tag along. We went to a few trendy places, which I hate with all my heart. It was much too loud to actually do anything, so we decided to head to some Irish pub type place. I eventually got bored of sitting around so walked 15 blocks back to the room in the middle of the night. It probably wasn�t a very +ev decision, but it didn�t cost me that time. We had to be up and on a party bus to Dallas by 6:30am. I think I was the only person who actually felt ok, as I had no drinks on the previous day. We drove for a while before stopping at some weird place to get gas and food. They had all kinds of weird foreign foods.
I stuck with a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant. It was pretty good. Zach ordered 4 things and ate one bite of each. That�s fairly balla imo. We were almost to the stadium when Cody decided he had to get off the bus and throw up. Bat beat. We arrived at the new stadium at Dallas, only to find tons of traffic. We decided to wait in the bus though and let him drop us off at the front door. We had one extra ticket because Marco Johnson pulled out at the last minute so we scalped it for � price. The Cowboys played awful but ended up lucksacking their way to a win by 1 point at the end of the game, which wasn�t nearly the spread, costing us the entire amount we won from our friend the previous night. We also bet on the checkerboard squares like people do on the superbowl.
I ended up winning the last one for a nice $3000 profit. Seeing as everyone was hung over except me, we went back to the hotel. We found a nice little food place next door and watched the afternoon NFL games. Everyone is super into fantasy sports except me, so they were all super interested. I just like watching football. Our hotel, W, was right next to where the Dallas Stars NHL team plays. I decided to look them up to see if they were playing that night. I announced to everyone they were and everyone got excited. I checked to make sure and it turns out they played on Monday, not Sunday. Everyone was mad at me. I had a club sandwich with mac n� cheese.
It was just ok at best. After that, we all decided to go take a nap. We woke up a while later and decided to just chill and watch football and movies. Around midnight, we all got hungry to we ordered room service. Katz lost the flip and had to fork out $400 for numerous plates of food and smoothies. It was good. We also had to figure out who had to pay for all the expenses. I decided it would be fun for someone to name a card and we peel cards from a deck until someone pulls the card. That person would have to pay. We had to pay for the W ($700) the Omni ($1500) the party bus ($1000) the Texas tickets ($1800) and the Cowboy tickets ($3000.) I suggested we just do one round for everyone, that way, as Shannon says; someone would get stung on the trip.
There were only 51 cards in the deck, so there was a chance we could pull all the way to the end and still not find the card. On the first round for the W, we got around 40 cards into the pile before Justin, who was already the biggest loser on the trip, found the bad card. On the 2nd round for the bus, we pulled down to the last 2 cards. It was between me and Shannon. I pulled the safe card then it was up to Shannon to see if the one card left was the one that made him pay.
Lucky for us, it was and he got feel a little pain. I don�t remember who lost the next round. Just as I thought I was going to run hot and stay clean, I lost the $1800 round for the Texas tickets. On the last round, poor Justin lost again for another $3000. I think I ended up losing $500 on the trip, which is a value, considering we probably spent $2000 each. Justin, Cody, and I boarded a flight back to Vegas the next day around 2pm. We had an uneventful flight back home. All in all, it was a pretty great trip. I think we all agreed to go to someone�s home town every year around this time. Sadly, I�m not too sure there would be enough in Pensacola to keep them all entertained.
I guess I will find out at some point. Since I�ve gotten back, I have been taking care of Float The Turn and playing a bit at Bellagio. I am going skiing on Thursday for the first time in my life, which will either be super fun or just kinda fun. On Friday, the Bellagio tournaments start. I haven�t played a tournament in quite some time now. I am really looking forward to them. Hopefully I can improve on my 2 2nds last time and maybe take down a title.
Ohh well. It should also be noted that I was convinced to pack very light for this trip, taking only one carry on and no computer, which is something I have never done in my life. Justin Young and Cody picked me up from my house fairly early on Friday to head to Austin, where Adam lives. We flew on South West and they couldn�t save me a seat, so I ended up sitting by myself. Apparently some 50 year old drunk lady kept trying to hit on Cody. It was a bit sad. Once we landed, we took a cab to the Omni Hotel, which is apparently the nicest hotel in Austin. We found some of our friends, Mike Katz and Jesse Nagamua (sorry, don�t know how to spell at all) at the lobby bar already getting their drinking shoes laced up.
We ran up to our room to put our luggage away then headed back down to join in. We were later joined by our other friends, Shannon Shorr, Zach Clark, and Adam, and then headed out on the town. Apparently they are bars everywhere in downtown Austin. Our first stop was this place called Buffalo Billiards, which was basically a bar with lots of games like pool, darts, and shuffle board. Having never played, I was quick to get into the action. Shannon and Mike had played before, while myself and Justin had not, so I teamed with Shannon and Justin with Mike. I must have ran hot because I pwned, as did Shannon.
We switched for me to be with Mike and Mike played quite bad, giving our team the loss. I ended up winning something like $1000 on the transaction though, so it was all good. From there, we headed to an upscale Mexican place, which was delicious. It wasn�t so good though when I ended up losing a flip + $100 to each player +$600 to one other guy when we flipped for dinner. Baaad beat. We drank lots and eventually some bartender told me I was too drunk so I made my way back to the hotel and fell asleep around 3am. Everyone else decided to come wake me up around 4am when they decided to call it a night. I don�t remember much of what happened and fell back asleep.
The next day, Adam made plans for us to go to some famous BBQ place. I was thinking it would be a 5 minute car ride. We ended up driving around 30 minutes into the middle of nowhere to this place called �Salt Lick BBQ.� Since it was a BYOB place, we decided to stop at Bubba�s Country Store to get some drinks. Seeing as I was feeling quite sick, I decided to try to throw up while everyone else was inside. I have never thrown up from drinking and that didn�t change that day. I ended up feeling pretty sick for the rest of the day. There were tons of cars parked in a giant pit of mud.
All our clothes got quite dirty just trying to get to the check in area, which was basically a covered shed outside of the actual restaurant. It was BYOB (which I didn�t plan on having any of anyways) and some guy came up and offered to buy 2 of our beers for $10. I bet if someone set up a little underground shop there, they would make a killing. Since we had reservations, we got to skip the multihour wait. We entered the actual building where you eat and were surprised to find a giant pit full of numerous types of meat.
They had a �family style� meal where they brought us lots of ribs, sausage, beef, potato salad, baked beans, and a few other things I forget. It was basically the nuts. We left there and went to Adams house to chill. I wish I could trade my 3 houses for one like his. It was super balla. We hung out there for a while before heading to the Texas vs Kansas football game. The line on the game was -21. I think they ended up winning by 28 or something silly. We all bet the game against one of our friends that was too busy playing mtts to come on the trip. Skill game. Apparently Kansas is only good at basketball. I also lost quite a few other prop bets to break even on the day.
Everyone wanted to go out to some clubs so I was forced to tag along. We went to a few trendy places, which I hate with all my heart. It was much too loud to actually do anything, so we decided to head to some Irish pub type place. I eventually got bored of sitting around so walked 15 blocks back to the room in the middle of the night. It probably wasn�t a very +ev decision, but it didn�t cost me that time. We had to be up and on a party bus to Dallas by 6:30am. I think I was the only person who actually felt ok, as I had no drinks on the previous day. We drove for a while before stopping at some weird place to get gas and food. They had all kinds of weird foreign foods.
I stuck with a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant. It was pretty good. Zach ordered 4 things and ate one bite of each. That�s fairly balla imo. We were almost to the stadium when Cody decided he had to get off the bus and throw up. Bat beat. We arrived at the new stadium at Dallas, only to find tons of traffic. We decided to wait in the bus though and let him drop us off at the front door. We had one extra ticket because Marco Johnson pulled out at the last minute so we scalped it for � price. The Cowboys played awful but ended up lucksacking their way to a win by 1 point at the end of the game, which wasn�t nearly the spread, costing us the entire amount we won from our friend the previous night. We also bet on the checkerboard squares like people do on the superbowl.
I ended up winning the last one for a nice $3000 profit. Seeing as everyone was hung over except me, we went back to the hotel. We found a nice little food place next door and watched the afternoon NFL games. Everyone is super into fantasy sports except me, so they were all super interested. I just like watching football. Our hotel, W, was right next to where the Dallas Stars NHL team plays. I decided to look them up to see if they were playing that night. I announced to everyone they were and everyone got excited. I checked to make sure and it turns out they played on Monday, not Sunday. Everyone was mad at me. I had a club sandwich with mac n� cheese.
It was just ok at best. After that, we all decided to go take a nap. We woke up a while later and decided to just chill and watch football and movies. Around midnight, we all got hungry to we ordered room service. Katz lost the flip and had to fork out $400 for numerous plates of food and smoothies. It was good. We also had to figure out who had to pay for all the expenses. I decided it would be fun for someone to name a card and we peel cards from a deck until someone pulls the card. That person would have to pay. We had to pay for the W ($700) the Omni ($1500) the party bus ($1000) the Texas tickets ($1800) and the Cowboy tickets ($3000.) I suggested we just do one round for everyone, that way, as Shannon says; someone would get stung on the trip.
There were only 51 cards in the deck, so there was a chance we could pull all the way to the end and still not find the card. On the first round for the W, we got around 40 cards into the pile before Justin, who was already the biggest loser on the trip, found the bad card. On the 2nd round for the bus, we pulled down to the last 2 cards. It was between me and Shannon. I pulled the safe card then it was up to Shannon to see if the one card left was the one that made him pay.
Lucky for us, it was and he got feel a little pain. I don�t remember who lost the next round. Just as I thought I was going to run hot and stay clean, I lost the $1800 round for the Texas tickets. On the last round, poor Justin lost again for another $3000. I think I ended up losing $500 on the trip, which is a value, considering we probably spent $2000 each. Justin, Cody, and I boarded a flight back to Vegas the next day around 2pm. We had an uneventful flight back home. All in all, it was a pretty great trip. I think we all agreed to go to someone�s home town every year around this time. Sadly, I�m not too sure there would be enough in Pensacola to keep them all entertained.
I guess I will find out at some point. Since I�ve gotten back, I have been taking care of Float The Turn and playing a bit at Bellagio. I am going skiing on Thursday for the first time in my life, which will either be super fun or just kinda fun. On Friday, the Bellagio tournaments start. I haven�t played a tournament in quite some time now. I am really looking forward to them. Hopefully I can improve on my 2 2nds last time and maybe take down a title.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Coaching a November 9 Player
I think we did a fairly good job keeping it quite that myself and Ylon Schwartz had been coaching November 9er, Steve Begleiter. I guess I will start this 3 month journey together when we first got in contact. Steve played in a poker league in his home town and won his seat through that. One of the members just happened to be a 2+2er and knew me from doing well in sngs as well as big mtts.
Steve knew he wanted to hire a coach, as he didn�t see how it could hurt and he would hate himself if he simply did nothing then showed up at the final table then busted early. Anyways, Steve interviewed around 20 people and it came down to me and Ylon. I didn�t know Ylon at all but after talking to him, he seems to have a solid grasp of the game. He also happened to live in the same area as Steve whereas I live in Vegas.
I thiiiink he was going to go on Ylon (I guess only Steve know this) but I did some hard bargaining at the end to get the job split between the two of us.
I ended up flying out to New York 3 times, once for an initial interview and two other times to have weekend long coaching sessions where we talked about and played poker constantly. Steve is a super busy guy with a very full life. Despite that, he always worked hard and took in everything I said very quickly. Most people, especially when it comes to poker, are simply stuck in their ways and refuse to believe they might be bad. Steve was basically the opposite, realizing I am one of the best mtt players in the game and that he could learn a lot.
After our first meeting in NY, we decided it would be good for him to fly to Vegas and then drive together to play the WPT event in LA. I ended up basically bubbling the event but Steve took 9th, which was really good, considering it was a tough field and we were still working hard on his game. He claimed the advice I gave him prevented him from getting broke twice in the tournament, so that�s good. I feel a lot of my game is simply controlling the pot and letting my opponents stack off to me in spots where the only way to maximize value is to bluff catch.
I also learned that most amateur players simply do not pay attention to stack sizes. You have to play hands totally different if a guy has 10, 20, 30, 50, or 100bbs. We worked hard on these things and many more and I think he became a better player because of it. He was sad to take 9th but at the same time, realized it was a great accomplishment.
We worked hard in NY, running numerous simulation games where we would set up the same chip stacks as the final table and try to fit players that had similar playing styles as the actual November 9 guys to the correct stacks. Steve did fairly well in most of these, so that was good. Steve later went on to play WSOP Europe and was one of the chip leaders early in the day before getting cold decked twice to bust.
I think Steve was already taking care of this, but I wanted to make sure he was in good shape. There is nothing worse than being technically good at the game but crashing late because you are simply out of shape. He worked out much harder than I ever hope to, so I was happy with that. I also made sure he got on a good sleeping schedule so he could go late into the night if it came to it. Enough with the preparation. On to the final table.
Steve had one of the worst seats at the table, having Eric Buchman, the only other good deepstacked player on his left, followed by Cada, who we assumed would push well. We assumed Saout, Schulman, Schaffel, and Moon would play tight. We assumed Akenhead, Ivey, and Cada would look to mix it up and try to double their short stacks. We assume Buchman would try to go after Steve with numerous calls and reraises. We were right about all of these except Saout wasn�t too tight and Ivey was super tight.
Early in the day, it looked like Schaffel was going to double through Buchman, which would have made the table much better for us but sadly, his AA couldn�t beat KK. That was the first crushing blow to our day that no one seemed to even realize. It really is bad when a spewtard on your left gets chips that he will use to constantly try to outplay you, unless of course, you make a hand, which is tough to do sometimes.
As for the hands at the final table, I liked every play Steve made except two that came near the end of his day. On one hand, he raised with 87c and Saout, who was for sure playing the best out of anyone else at the table reraised from the big blind. Saout had been going after Steve a little, although not too much. I don�t remember the exact stacks but I think Steve had 50M and Saout had 25M. The blinds must have been 250/500, so it probably went 1.25M, 4M preflop. The flop came 9h8h3c. Saout checked and Steve bet 7M. I reeeallly hated this bet, as if you get pushed on, you are getting decent odds to call. The only problem is the only thing you are happy for him to turn over is a flush draw and even then, you are usually a small dog.
That�s just what happened. Steve bet, Saout pushed and Steve made the crying call with the middle pair. The turn was another heart. If you watched the WSOP, you know Steve loves calling reraises with hands like 87s. I worked hard on cutting this out of his game, especially against good players that won�t stack off when you hit but he still decided to do it against Saout here. We talked the hand over a bit and both agreed it was bad on many levels.
Even though he got it in �good� here, it was still bad. However, if he holds here, he would have been up to 70M, which would have been a pretty large chip lead. This was the 2nd bad thing that happened.
The next hand Steve lost was fairly minor, although still a leak that he didn�t learn from me. Cada raised to around 2.5bbs out of his 20bb stack utg and Steve called from the sb with A3s. It came AJ5 and Steve lead into him, which I hate. I would have much rather seen a checkpush. Cada just called. The turn and river were blanks and they checked it down, giving Steve the pot.
The final bad thing that happened to him was actually a pretty standard hand. Steve raised with QQ to 2.5bbs out of his 35bb stack and Moon pushed from the big blind with AQ. Steve snap called and it came xxxxA to bust him and end our pretty cool trip together.
Steve was an absolute joy to work with. I don�t think anyone else at the final table could have been a better student. Even though he made a few mistakes, I firmly believe he made many less than he would have. I also think he is a much better poker player now than when I first started working with him. If I had to rate him 1-10, 1 being the same as when we started and 10 playing like I would play, I would give him an 8, simply because he still likes to splash around a bit too much with semiweak hands. I am sure he will see this leak and plug it in the future. If Steve chooses, I am confident he could make it on the poker circuit, not that he would need or want to, as he has a great life at home.
To sum it up, I was happy at first to just get the job but now I am happy to know I have a friend for life.
As for the rest of the final table, I will tell you how I think everyone played. I think Moon played awful up until Steve busted. There was one hand where Saout raised J2 from the button into Moons big blind, which was fine, considering how tight Moon had been. Moon called and it came KJ2. Moon checked and Saout bet around 2/5 (I think) of his stack. Moon instapushed with A4. Wow..that is all.
Akenhead got it in a few times, once with KQ against AK and peeled, and if he didn�t run KK into AA, he would have had a decent shot to win.
Ivey�s play shocked me the most. Simply put, he played like a super nit and I have no clue why. It was clear most of the table feared him, as they folded to basically all of his raises. He ended up blinding off before getting 3 outered by Moon.
Schaffel got beat around a quite a bit, raisefolding a ton. He eventually got AA vs KK back to back bout couldn�t fade the 2nd one.
Buchman played well up until Steve busted, I thought. He raised basically every hand that was folded to him and reraised quite a bit too. All in all, I thought he played well, although he did hit a 2 outer early for most of his chips.
Cada played pretty well I thought too. He got down to 3bbs at one point then pushbotted the table to death. Currently he is 2nd in chips with 5 people left. I was shocked at how Schulman and Moon simply let him get back in the game and if he wins, it is because these guys gave it to him.
Saout shocked me the most, but in a good way. I assumed he would play tight and eventually get it in with a decent hand and lose. He actually mixed it up very well and I think he played the best of anyone at the table, at least while I was there. It would not surprise me at all if he won, which is why he is my pick to win at this point.
Schulman was apparently coached by Hellmuth and it showed, in very bad ways. He was raising to 3.5x-5x preflop, which is awful. He also reraised to 1/3 his stack then folded a few times, which is never really good. All in all, he seemed to play as if he was trying to give it away. I would be a bit surprised if he won unless he totally changes his game.
Well, that�s it. It has been a great 3 months. Hopefully someone decides they want my help next year and I can take the ride again. Better yet, I will just final table it myself.
Steve knew he wanted to hire a coach, as he didn�t see how it could hurt and he would hate himself if he simply did nothing then showed up at the final table then busted early. Anyways, Steve interviewed around 20 people and it came down to me and Ylon. I didn�t know Ylon at all but after talking to him, he seems to have a solid grasp of the game. He also happened to live in the same area as Steve whereas I live in Vegas.
I thiiiink he was going to go on Ylon (I guess only Steve know this) but I did some hard bargaining at the end to get the job split between the two of us.
I ended up flying out to New York 3 times, once for an initial interview and two other times to have weekend long coaching sessions where we talked about and played poker constantly. Steve is a super busy guy with a very full life. Despite that, he always worked hard and took in everything I said very quickly. Most people, especially when it comes to poker, are simply stuck in their ways and refuse to believe they might be bad. Steve was basically the opposite, realizing I am one of the best mtt players in the game and that he could learn a lot.
After our first meeting in NY, we decided it would be good for him to fly to Vegas and then drive together to play the WPT event in LA. I ended up basically bubbling the event but Steve took 9th, which was really good, considering it was a tough field and we were still working hard on his game. He claimed the advice I gave him prevented him from getting broke twice in the tournament, so that�s good. I feel a lot of my game is simply controlling the pot and letting my opponents stack off to me in spots where the only way to maximize value is to bluff catch.
I also learned that most amateur players simply do not pay attention to stack sizes. You have to play hands totally different if a guy has 10, 20, 30, 50, or 100bbs. We worked hard on these things and many more and I think he became a better player because of it. He was sad to take 9th but at the same time, realized it was a great accomplishment.
We worked hard in NY, running numerous simulation games where we would set up the same chip stacks as the final table and try to fit players that had similar playing styles as the actual November 9 guys to the correct stacks. Steve did fairly well in most of these, so that was good. Steve later went on to play WSOP Europe and was one of the chip leaders early in the day before getting cold decked twice to bust.
I think Steve was already taking care of this, but I wanted to make sure he was in good shape. There is nothing worse than being technically good at the game but crashing late because you are simply out of shape. He worked out much harder than I ever hope to, so I was happy with that. I also made sure he got on a good sleeping schedule so he could go late into the night if it came to it. Enough with the preparation. On to the final table.
Steve had one of the worst seats at the table, having Eric Buchman, the only other good deepstacked player on his left, followed by Cada, who we assumed would push well. We assumed Saout, Schulman, Schaffel, and Moon would play tight. We assumed Akenhead, Ivey, and Cada would look to mix it up and try to double their short stacks. We assume Buchman would try to go after Steve with numerous calls and reraises. We were right about all of these except Saout wasn�t too tight and Ivey was super tight.
Early in the day, it looked like Schaffel was going to double through Buchman, which would have made the table much better for us but sadly, his AA couldn�t beat KK. That was the first crushing blow to our day that no one seemed to even realize. It really is bad when a spewtard on your left gets chips that he will use to constantly try to outplay you, unless of course, you make a hand, which is tough to do sometimes.
As for the hands at the final table, I liked every play Steve made except two that came near the end of his day. On one hand, he raised with 87c and Saout, who was for sure playing the best out of anyone else at the table reraised from the big blind. Saout had been going after Steve a little, although not too much. I don�t remember the exact stacks but I think Steve had 50M and Saout had 25M. The blinds must have been 250/500, so it probably went 1.25M, 4M preflop. The flop came 9h8h3c. Saout checked and Steve bet 7M. I reeeallly hated this bet, as if you get pushed on, you are getting decent odds to call. The only problem is the only thing you are happy for him to turn over is a flush draw and even then, you are usually a small dog.
That�s just what happened. Steve bet, Saout pushed and Steve made the crying call with the middle pair. The turn was another heart. If you watched the WSOP, you know Steve loves calling reraises with hands like 87s. I worked hard on cutting this out of his game, especially against good players that won�t stack off when you hit but he still decided to do it against Saout here. We talked the hand over a bit and both agreed it was bad on many levels.
Even though he got it in �good� here, it was still bad. However, if he holds here, he would have been up to 70M, which would have been a pretty large chip lead. This was the 2nd bad thing that happened.
The next hand Steve lost was fairly minor, although still a leak that he didn�t learn from me. Cada raised to around 2.5bbs out of his 20bb stack utg and Steve called from the sb with A3s. It came AJ5 and Steve lead into him, which I hate. I would have much rather seen a checkpush. Cada just called. The turn and river were blanks and they checked it down, giving Steve the pot.
The final bad thing that happened to him was actually a pretty standard hand. Steve raised with QQ to 2.5bbs out of his 35bb stack and Moon pushed from the big blind with AQ. Steve snap called and it came xxxxA to bust him and end our pretty cool trip together.
Steve was an absolute joy to work with. I don�t think anyone else at the final table could have been a better student. Even though he made a few mistakes, I firmly believe he made many less than he would have. I also think he is a much better poker player now than when I first started working with him. If I had to rate him 1-10, 1 being the same as when we started and 10 playing like I would play, I would give him an 8, simply because he still likes to splash around a bit too much with semiweak hands. I am sure he will see this leak and plug it in the future. If Steve chooses, I am confident he could make it on the poker circuit, not that he would need or want to, as he has a great life at home.
To sum it up, I was happy at first to just get the job but now I am happy to know I have a friend for life.
As for the rest of the final table, I will tell you how I think everyone played. I think Moon played awful up until Steve busted. There was one hand where Saout raised J2 from the button into Moons big blind, which was fine, considering how tight Moon had been. Moon called and it came KJ2. Moon checked and Saout bet around 2/5 (I think) of his stack. Moon instapushed with A4. Wow..that is all.
Akenhead got it in a few times, once with KQ against AK and peeled, and if he didn�t run KK into AA, he would have had a decent shot to win.
Ivey�s play shocked me the most. Simply put, he played like a super nit and I have no clue why. It was clear most of the table feared him, as they folded to basically all of his raises. He ended up blinding off before getting 3 outered by Moon.
Schaffel got beat around a quite a bit, raisefolding a ton. He eventually got AA vs KK back to back bout couldn�t fade the 2nd one.
Buchman played well up until Steve busted, I thought. He raised basically every hand that was folded to him and reraised quite a bit too. All in all, I thought he played well, although he did hit a 2 outer early for most of his chips.
Cada played pretty well I thought too. He got down to 3bbs at one point then pushbotted the table to death. Currently he is 2nd in chips with 5 people left. I was shocked at how Schulman and Moon simply let him get back in the game and if he wins, it is because these guys gave it to him.
Saout shocked me the most, but in a good way. I assumed he would play tight and eventually get it in with a decent hand and lose. He actually mixed it up very well and I think he played the best of anyone at the table, at least while I was there. It would not surprise me at all if he won, which is why he is my pick to win at this point.
Schulman was apparently coached by Hellmuth and it showed, in very bad ways. He was raising to 3.5x-5x preflop, which is awful. He also reraised to 1/3 his stack then folded a few times, which is never really good. All in all, he seemed to play as if he was trying to give it away. I would be a bit surprised if he won unless he totally changes his game.
Well, that�s it. It has been a great 3 months. Hopefully someone decides they want my help next year and I can take the ride again. Better yet, I will just final table it myself.
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