Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Victory Poker

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.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Finally An Off Week

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!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Rough Last Few Weeks

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.