Poker has been rough lately. Actually, it hasn't been bad. It just hasn't been what I wanted. I decided a while back that I was going to learn PLO, as everyone seems to agree it is the future of poker. So, I have been 6-9 tabling $2/4 and $3/6. I ran at 4ptbb/100 over 20,000 hands, which seems good, but when I am swinging 5 buyins either way every session, if I run bad for 2 sessions, I will be back at 0/100.
It seems like a sick degenish game where you will only know your true winrate after 1,000,000 hands. Because of this, I am in the process of deciding if I want to keep up the learning about PLO or if I am just going to put that on hold and focus on tournaments. The main problem with tournaments is that you basically never get a break throughout the day and you tend to have a lot of losing days and a few winning days. After a while, that starts to wear on you.
Granted, 10 buyin swings at PLO every day will wear on you too. I think I am most likely going to go down to 4 tables of PLO and focus on just getting good instead of trying to grind out a little money, as I have no need for money right now. I just want to be good. Speaking of getting good, www.FloatTheTurn.com is almost ready to fully launch. We are in the process of uploading all the older videos right now and transfering the member database, which pretty much means the site will be ready very soon. Hopefully everyone likes the new site design as much as I do. One last thing. I am going to LA for their WPT event in a few days.
This specific event always sticks out in my head for two reasons. First, it was the last time I stuck my whole stack in on a total bluff. It worked, but looking back, it was probably bad. Since then, I have bluffed a ton but I make a point to always have some equity. Secondly, their chips have two random guys faces on one side of each chip. Since I dont like looking down and seeing random guys on my chips, I have to turn them all over so their faces are towards the felt. I hope I can get over that this time and focus on playing poker.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Busy Life
(From 8..8.9)
Life has been busy lately. I think ive played around 8 hours of poker in the last week, which is super low for me. wwwFloatTheTurn.com is finally getting ready to be live. It is much harder to get everything up and running than I thought. I am happy to say though, that it is on its way to being ready. I have been on my normal work out schedule for a long time now and I am finally starting to see results. I go 4 times per week for 1.5 hours. It is tough, but starting to become "normal."
Anyways, I dont even know why I brought that up, but I am happy with it. Sadly, life hasnt been too exticing lately. I havent been doing much besides making videos, trying to get the new site up and running, and playing Oblivion. I think I am going to have a few people over tonight to watch UFC. I have bets on Riddle, Almedia and Griffen.
I got a pretty good line on Griffen to win (+320) although I still imagine he is going to lose unless he can grind out a decision victory. I also wanted to get some serious money down on Penn ar around -200 but he is now -260 in Vegas, so its a no bet. Hopefully all the guys I bet on wreck the opposition. I am off to put in a little PLO session I think.
Life has been busy lately. I think ive played around 8 hours of poker in the last week, which is super low for me. wwwFloatTheTurn.com is finally getting ready to be live. It is much harder to get everything up and running than I thought. I am happy to say though, that it is on its way to being ready. I have been on my normal work out schedule for a long time now and I am finally starting to see results. I go 4 times per week for 1.5 hours. It is tough, but starting to become "normal."
Anyways, I dont even know why I brought that up, but I am happy with it. Sadly, life hasnt been too exticing lately. I havent been doing much besides making videos, trying to get the new site up and running, and playing Oblivion. I think I am going to have a few people over tonight to watch UFC. I have bets on Riddle, Almedia and Griffen.
I got a pretty good line on Griffen to win (+320) although I still imagine he is going to lose unless he can grind out a decision victory. I also wanted to get some serious money down on Penn ar around -200 but he is now -260 in Vegas, so its a no bet. Hopefully all the guys I bet on wreck the opposition. I am off to put in a little PLO session I think.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Rough Few Days
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.
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 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.
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