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=&
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
2nd in 1000 at Bellagio
Life has been pretty cool lately, with lots of minor highs and lows. I ended up taking 2nd in the first $1,000 event at Bellagio for $27,000. I ended up getting all in heads up with AK vs 66 and lost. I reeallly wanted to win as they are giving the winner of every event a Rolex, which would be neat I busted from that event at around 4:30 pm then registered in the $500 event that started 4 hours earlier. I had a nice 12bb stack but somehow ended up busting in 9th when I ran my AK(again) into AA. I only won $1500 for that one.
The next day, I ran my AK (3rd time in a row) into QQ in the $1500 event. It was fairly sick, as the kid that busted me slowrolled me hardcore. I raised from early position to around 2.5bbs out of my 30bb stack. The kid made it 7.5bbs and I obv pushed. He tanked for around 3 minutes, which had me thinking I was in great shape. He sighed, cried, etc, then called with QQ.
It came QTx and I was 100% sure I was going to win, as it clearly wouldnt be right for me to bust to some slowrolling kid, would it? I didnt peel and busted. I busted the $2000 event somehow...I forget. Today, I played the $3000 event and got most of my stack in with AA vs QQ when we were down to around 16 people out of the huuuge 32 person starting field. After the AA lost, I got the little pile I had left in with AJ vs AK. Ohhhh well. All in all though, final tabling 2 tournaments in the same day was fun.
As for cash games, I have been playing a lot. I am up just a little despite losing a $8000 pot where I had my QcJc all in against JTo on a Jd4c2cTc board. He peeled his 8%er like a pro to make me sad. Good thing I was already up around $5000 that session. I have still been playing at hard rock and made the mistake of having 2 coronas last night.
The only reason I had them in the first place was because the hostess at Pink Taco said they were having happy hour and I could get 1/2 price food if I ate at the bar. I am obv not going to be the only person at the bar without a corona, so I had me 2 for 1. Anyways, I got it in with 75s vs A9 on a As9s5d board. I missed. A while later, I had 9h7h on a Th8hXx and missed. I then did the tilt repush with A8s and ran into AA to end the short session down 2 buyins.
I wont be making the drinking mistake again for a long long time. I have actually been making a little list of my life leaks and am working hard on plugging them. I played today at Bellagio but wasnt focusing (one of my leaks on the list) at all. I ended up QJs into 99 on a Ts9sXx board. He boated the turn and I missed. I then had 87d on a 9d8x2d board...he again had 99. I need to stop running into sets...or better yet, have some of my draws miss. Despite running into all these monsters and losing, I am only down 3 buyins in the last 2 days, so I should be happy about that.
I have had the chance to talk to lots of cash game players and they all seem to think about the game very different than I do. First off, they dont understand how I can take a game seriously when the money doesnt really mean anything to me. I have never been one to really care about the money, even when I didnt have any. What I care about is winning and losing.
When I got my head beat in at hard rock, I was unhappy, not because I lost $2000 but because I had lost. Most of the players also dont understand how I can be ok with not playing the biggest game in the casino against the best players. Call me crazy, but I dont really want to play against Icey and Durrr, and really, im not rolled for it.
It seems to me like most of these guys have huge ego problems. I am playing these mid stake cash games simply to get live poker experience, which I feel like I have missed over the last few years, as I spent most of my time online. I feel like I have a pretty solid game and now just need to find those few extra spots where I can really exploit the live players. All in all, I am happy with the results and I am finding flaws in myself that I am quickly correcting, which s the whole point of this. So...I am happy.
The next day, I ran my AK (3rd time in a row) into QQ in the $1500 event. It was fairly sick, as the kid that busted me slowrolled me hardcore. I raised from early position to around 2.5bbs out of my 30bb stack. The kid made it 7.5bbs and I obv pushed. He tanked for around 3 minutes, which had me thinking I was in great shape. He sighed, cried, etc, then called with QQ.
It came QTx and I was 100% sure I was going to win, as it clearly wouldnt be right for me to bust to some slowrolling kid, would it? I didnt peel and busted. I busted the $2000 event somehow...I forget. Today, I played the $3000 event and got most of my stack in with AA vs QQ when we were down to around 16 people out of the huuuge 32 person starting field. After the AA lost, I got the little pile I had left in with AJ vs AK. Ohhhh well. All in all though, final tabling 2 tournaments in the same day was fun.
As for cash games, I have been playing a lot. I am up just a little despite losing a $8000 pot where I had my QcJc all in against JTo on a Jd4c2cTc board. He peeled his 8%er like a pro to make me sad. Good thing I was already up around $5000 that session. I have still been playing at hard rock and made the mistake of having 2 coronas last night.
The only reason I had them in the first place was because the hostess at Pink Taco said they were having happy hour and I could get 1/2 price food if I ate at the bar. I am obv not going to be the only person at the bar without a corona, so I had me 2 for 1. Anyways, I got it in with 75s vs A9 on a As9s5d board. I missed. A while later, I had 9h7h on a Th8hXx and missed. I then did the tilt repush with A8s and ran into AA to end the short session down 2 buyins.
I wont be making the drinking mistake again for a long long time. I have actually been making a little list of my life leaks and am working hard on plugging them. I played today at Bellagio but wasnt focusing (one of my leaks on the list) at all. I ended up QJs into 99 on a Ts9sXx board. He boated the turn and I missed. I then had 87d on a 9d8x2d board...he again had 99. I need to stop running into sets...or better yet, have some of my draws miss. Despite running into all these monsters and losing, I am only down 3 buyins in the last 2 days, so I should be happy about that.
I have had the chance to talk to lots of cash game players and they all seem to think about the game very different than I do. First off, they dont understand how I can take a game seriously when the money doesnt really mean anything to me. I have never been one to really care about the money, even when I didnt have any. What I care about is winning and losing.
When I got my head beat in at hard rock, I was unhappy, not because I lost $2000 but because I had lost. Most of the players also dont understand how I can be ok with not playing the biggest game in the casino against the best players. Call me crazy, but I dont really want to play against Icey and Durrr, and really, im not rolled for it.
It seems to me like most of these guys have huge ego problems. I am playing these mid stake cash games simply to get live poker experience, which I feel like I have missed over the last few years, as I spent most of my time online. I feel like I have a pretty solid game and now just need to find those few extra spots where I can really exploit the live players. All in all, I am happy with the results and I am finding flaws in myself that I am quickly correcting, which s the whole point of this. So...I am happy.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Trash Talking Tuesday
At the Hard Rock Casino, they have been running a pretty cool game a few nights a week. I kept hearing at this game when I played at Bellagio so I decided to check it out. First off, I have been trying to play more and more live poker lately, as it feels a lot less stressful, at least to me, than online.
Plus, online keeps getting tougher and tougher. If the UIGEA thing doesnt get repealed by the end of the year, expect things to get even tougher. I guess I always prepare for the worst possible situation, which would be online poker being totally banned at some point, which will probably never happen. However, if it does, I want to be well ahead of the curve when it comes to all the online kids transitioning to live poker. Also, assuming online poker stays fine, I can write off the time spent as another way to improve my game, as if I do lack in any area, it is deep stacked play.
On to the game...it is a $500 - $3000 buyin game with $2/5 blinds and a mandatory $10-$100 straddle on the button. The way this works is first position goes first, then it goes around to to the cutoff like normal. The button, who has a straddle out, then gets skipped and the blinds act.
After they act, the button has the option to check or raise. Basically, it makes the button 10x more powerful. There is one little catch in that if there is a raise and a reraise before the action gets to the button, the button then acts in turn.
One more thing about the game, if you win a hand with 7-2, reguardless of whether or not it is shown down at the river, everyone at the table has to give you $10. People are usually fairly transparent when they have 72, making 10x the blind preflop raises and 3x potting the flop. There was one player at the table last night that raised to 6x preflop then made it 3x pot over someones lead on some random flop. He showed the 72 and we paid him off.
A little while later, he made it 6x preflop with QQ and got some callers so I called with QJ on the button. It came Q73. He bet around 2x pot and I called, assuming I was just going to call down. The turn was a J and he 2x potted it again. I called. The river was a 9 and he 2x it again. I snap called and he showed me the QQ. I was sad. All in all though, I think against weak players that really are transparent, it is good for the game. You just have to man up and get it in there with A7o preflop.
As for my results in the game so far, they havent been too good. I am down like $500 over 12 hours of play. I have made the 2nd nuts around 5 times and every time they had the nuts, so I am not too concerned about the results although I would obviously rather do better. Both nights I have played, someone has been at my table just dumping away money. Last night some super hot girl that couldnt have been older than 26 came and dumped off $10000 over an hour.
The night before an old guy gave away $5000 pretty fast, calling a guy down on a AKT42 with 4 spade board. The other player, who was also semicrazy, showed T6 with no spade and took down the $6000 pot. Just looking back over the last paragraph, this game sounds like the best ever. The only problem is that there are usually 7 other players at the table that play fairly well. Because of this, I may check out Bellagios games on a random Tuesday to see if there are no pros there, as I assume they are all at Hard Rock.
All in all, the game is fun. It is a cool social thing with a decent amount of action. I am just hoping I have one of the people that show up to give it away give it to me next time. Bellagio prelim events started today. I will be playing most of them starting tomorrow. The winner of each event gets a $5500 rolex. That would be nice.
Plus, online keeps getting tougher and tougher. If the UIGEA thing doesnt get repealed by the end of the year, expect things to get even tougher. I guess I always prepare for the worst possible situation, which would be online poker being totally banned at some point, which will probably never happen. However, if it does, I want to be well ahead of the curve when it comes to all the online kids transitioning to live poker. Also, assuming online poker stays fine, I can write off the time spent as another way to improve my game, as if I do lack in any area, it is deep stacked play.
On to the game...it is a $500 - $3000 buyin game with $2/5 blinds and a mandatory $10-$100 straddle on the button. The way this works is first position goes first, then it goes around to to the cutoff like normal. The button, who has a straddle out, then gets skipped and the blinds act.
After they act, the button has the option to check or raise. Basically, it makes the button 10x more powerful. There is one little catch in that if there is a raise and a reraise before the action gets to the button, the button then acts in turn.
One more thing about the game, if you win a hand with 7-2, reguardless of whether or not it is shown down at the river, everyone at the table has to give you $10. People are usually fairly transparent when they have 72, making 10x the blind preflop raises and 3x potting the flop. There was one player at the table last night that raised to 6x preflop then made it 3x pot over someones lead on some random flop. He showed the 72 and we paid him off.
A little while later, he made it 6x preflop with QQ and got some callers so I called with QJ on the button. It came Q73. He bet around 2x pot and I called, assuming I was just going to call down. The turn was a J and he 2x potted it again. I called. The river was a 9 and he 2x it again. I snap called and he showed me the QQ. I was sad. All in all though, I think against weak players that really are transparent, it is good for the game. You just have to man up and get it in there with A7o preflop.
As for my results in the game so far, they havent been too good. I am down like $500 over 12 hours of play. I have made the 2nd nuts around 5 times and every time they had the nuts, so I am not too concerned about the results although I would obviously rather do better. Both nights I have played, someone has been at my table just dumping away money. Last night some super hot girl that couldnt have been older than 26 came and dumped off $10000 over an hour.
The night before an old guy gave away $5000 pretty fast, calling a guy down on a AKT42 with 4 spade board. The other player, who was also semicrazy, showed T6 with no spade and took down the $6000 pot. Just looking back over the last paragraph, this game sounds like the best ever. The only problem is that there are usually 7 other players at the table that play fairly well. Because of this, I may check out Bellagios games on a random Tuesday to see if there are no pros there, as I assume they are all at Hard Rock.
All in all, the game is fun. It is a cool social thing with a decent amount of action. I am just hoping I have one of the people that show up to give it away give it to me next time. Bellagio prelim events started today. I will be playing most of them starting tomorrow. The winner of each event gets a $5500 rolex. That would be nice.
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