Obviously as soon as I post on my blog that I am doing well in a mtt I snap bust in it. I ended up taking 8th in the WPT event here, giving me 2 1sts, a 2nd, a 5th, a 7th, and an 8th in WPT events, which I think is pretty decent for 3 years worth of playing. I just need to crack off one more to be in the record books. I made one semiloose call down in the tournamant based on an incorrect read, which is never fun. Besides that, I think I played about as perfect as I know how.
Last night I somehow ended up playing a $2000 8 person sng against a bunch of semidrunk semiprofessional poker players. I chopped it with Kelly Kim, bringing in $7000 profit for me. Too bad I lost $5000 in Chinese poker to them shortly after. It is amazing for sickly hot I ran in the sng and how bad I ran at Chinese. I guess thats just how poker works. Anyways, that +2000 put me even on the trip (not counting the WPT cash) so I am happy to leave with as much as I brought.
I am flying back to Vegas in 10 hours or so. I am dreading the 24 hour flight, considering I have finally got myself back on USA time. I am sure the flight will basically ruin that though. As soon as I get back to Vegas, I will have one day to pay bills and do laundry before flying to Atlantic City for their WPT event. It is only a $3500 but I expect it to get around 1500 people. It feels almost dirty to fly that far for a $3500, but maybe they have the right idea. Hopefully I can make my 4th deep run in WPT events in a row and make something nice happen.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
Cyprus
I guess ill start when I left Vegas. I was totally unaware it was going to take 24 hours to fly from Vegas to Cyprus. I figured it would be something like 18 hours. It was 30 minutes to LA, lots of hours to London, then around 6 hours to Cyprus.On short flights, I usually spend the $100 to get moved to business class.
On the flight to London, I decided to splurge and spend $800 for business class. Honestly, it wasnt worth it, as the service was ok at best and the food was just decent. On the flight from London to Cyprus, they would give you all the drinks you wanted and the food was great. It kinda makes me want to upgrade on that flight going back just to see how much better it can get, as that flight was basically the nuts.
Cyprus is a weird place. First off, there are two sides to this country. The Greek side, which is actually known as "Cyprus" and the Turkish side, which isnt recgonized by any country as a country. Because of this, you cant fly into the Turkish side of Cyprus, Turks have 2 letters on their liscense plates whereas Greeks have 3, and you have to go through an odd looking boarder to get to the north side, kinda like you would see in Iraq.
Despite this, Turks and Greeks get along just fine in the casino. The land is a mix between rocky mountains and green valleys. It is also very humid. All in all, it is very pretty. Before this trip, I had no clue what jet lag felt like. I used to start getting on whatever sleep schedule I needed to be on for a tournament around a week in advance, either staying up or going to bed an hour earlier each day so that by the time I actually had to play, I would be on the perfect schedule.
Apparently I forgot to do that this time, as I havent been out of North America in quite some time. I think I slept around 18 hours on the flight then around half the time since I have been here. I played a $500 and $1000 tournament so far, and while I played technically sound, it was impossible for me to make any reads at all. I knew both times around 30 minutes into the event that I should not be playing.
Ohhhh well. After busting from the $1000, I went to sleep for around 6 hours then woke up around 10pm. I played some $10/20 plhe last night, which is in the low limit section of the poker area, and won a decent amount. The play is awful. There are basically no pros, probably because of the 3%, uncapped rake. The largest pot of the night was rakes something like $175. It was pretty sick. Also, they allow smoking in the cash game area (but not the tournament area, which is in the convention center) although most people stopped smoking around midnight for some reason.
The casino does not keep $1 bills or have $1 chips. I was talking to a Greek guy with perfect english that lives here now but lived in america for 10 years, and he said that the players requested to not have $5 chips, as they were all mostly rich people anyways and there was no use for them. Because of this, dealers get tipped $5 min, pots are raked in $5 increments and I have to tip a guy $5 to get me a green tea. Because of this, I order 2 green teas and a bottle of water, obv to get value from my $5. Does that make me cheap?
Food here has been pretty good so far. They have a buffet full of mostly european type food. For breakfast, they have a nice molet station and also my favorite, seedless oranges but up with no skin on them, just like they have at Atlantis. I think I have went through around 10 oranges each day so far. At night, they have lots of veggies and fish, which is right up my alley. One cool thing is that instead of birds begging for food, there are numerous stray cats. They are really sweet and cute.
I imagine they are all diseased up though, as I doubt they have had their shots. I guess the cats ate all the birds. The main event starts in 2 hours. I feel pretty good and am expecting good things. Even if it goes bad, I can just put in lots of hours at the cash tables and give the house $100 in rake per hour.
On the flight to London, I decided to splurge and spend $800 for business class. Honestly, it wasnt worth it, as the service was ok at best and the food was just decent. On the flight from London to Cyprus, they would give you all the drinks you wanted and the food was great. It kinda makes me want to upgrade on that flight going back just to see how much better it can get, as that flight was basically the nuts.
Cyprus is a weird place. First off, there are two sides to this country. The Greek side, which is actually known as "Cyprus" and the Turkish side, which isnt recgonized by any country as a country. Because of this, you cant fly into the Turkish side of Cyprus, Turks have 2 letters on their liscense plates whereas Greeks have 3, and you have to go through an odd looking boarder to get to the north side, kinda like you would see in Iraq.
Despite this, Turks and Greeks get along just fine in the casino. The land is a mix between rocky mountains and green valleys. It is also very humid. All in all, it is very pretty. Before this trip, I had no clue what jet lag felt like. I used to start getting on whatever sleep schedule I needed to be on for a tournament around a week in advance, either staying up or going to bed an hour earlier each day so that by the time I actually had to play, I would be on the perfect schedule.
Apparently I forgot to do that this time, as I havent been out of North America in quite some time. I think I slept around 18 hours on the flight then around half the time since I have been here. I played a $500 and $1000 tournament so far, and while I played technically sound, it was impossible for me to make any reads at all. I knew both times around 30 minutes into the event that I should not be playing.
Ohhhh well. After busting from the $1000, I went to sleep for around 6 hours then woke up around 10pm. I played some $10/20 plhe last night, which is in the low limit section of the poker area, and won a decent amount. The play is awful. There are basically no pros, probably because of the 3%, uncapped rake. The largest pot of the night was rakes something like $175. It was pretty sick. Also, they allow smoking in the cash game area (but not the tournament area, which is in the convention center) although most people stopped smoking around midnight for some reason.
The casino does not keep $1 bills or have $1 chips. I was talking to a Greek guy with perfect english that lives here now but lived in america for 10 years, and he said that the players requested to not have $5 chips, as they were all mostly rich people anyways and there was no use for them. Because of this, dealers get tipped $5 min, pots are raked in $5 increments and I have to tip a guy $5 to get me a green tea. Because of this, I order 2 green teas and a bottle of water, obv to get value from my $5. Does that make me cheap?
Food here has been pretty good so far. They have a buffet full of mostly european type food. For breakfast, they have a nice molet station and also my favorite, seedless oranges but up with no skin on them, just like they have at Atlantis. I think I have went through around 10 oranges each day so far. At night, they have lots of veggies and fish, which is right up my alley. One cool thing is that instead of birds begging for food, there are numerous stray cats. They are really sweet and cute.
I imagine they are all diseased up though, as I doubt they have had their shots. I guess the cats ate all the birds. The main event starts in 2 hours. I feel pretty good and am expecting good things. Even if it goes bad, I can just put in lots of hours at the cash tables and give the house $100 in rake per hour.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Busy Times
I feel like I havent had a moments rest in the last few weeks. As soon as I got home from the WPT event in LA, I went to my good friend Cody's wedding in North Dakota. It was basically a 3 day party where lots of fun took place. Somehow a few of my friends ended up jumping on the hood of one of our rental cars multiple times (see my pic on twitter) and are now having to pay lots to get it fixed even though we took it to a body shop that got most of the dents out.
All in all though, it was a fun time. I have also been playing a decent amount of live cash games. I was doing pretty well until yesterday when I took a little shot at 25/50-100 where there were two weak players and 3 strong players. I ended up losing like $2500 in that but really, I am fine with it, as I played as well as I could and $2500 is basically nothing for that game.
I am leaving for Cyprus in less than 24 hours. I am fairly excited about this trip as I havnt been out of North America in a fairly long time. I was thinking this tournament wasnt going to break the 100 entrant mark but I was talking to Mrs Libby (tournament cashier at Bellagio) today and she said they have over 200 registered already. Hopefully it isnt a field of 200 pros. Be sure to check my twitter for up to the minute updates about the trip and tournament at jonathanlittle.
All in all though, it was a fun time. I have also been playing a decent amount of live cash games. I was doing pretty well until yesterday when I took a little shot at 25/50-100 where there were two weak players and 3 strong players. I ended up losing like $2500 in that but really, I am fine with it, as I played as well as I could and $2500 is basically nothing for that game.
I am leaving for Cyprus in less than 24 hours. I am fairly excited about this trip as I havnt been out of North America in a fairly long time. I was thinking this tournament wasnt going to break the 100 entrant mark but I was talking to Mrs Libby (tournament cashier at Bellagio) today and she said they have over 200 registered already. Hopefully it isnt a field of 200 pros. Be sure to check my twitter for up to the minute updates about the trip and tournament at jonathanlittle.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Out in 44th place 08-25-2009
Today was pretty bad. Actually, it wasnt much worse than any of the other days except for today was more like a wsop prelim event, as if you won no hands for two levels, you just lose. Well, I didnt win any hands for two levels so I lost. I eventually got down to 25bbs and got lucky enough to get AJ in on a A85 board. Sadly, I ran into 88. As soon as I get back to Vegas, I will be leaving again to go to my good friend Cody's wedding. That should be fun times. After that, it is more live tournament action. I like being back in the swing of things. Hopefully I get back in the swing of winning.
Monday, August 24, 2009
Legends of Poker Update
The last two days have been rough. I am having one of those tournaments where I just never get good cards. Sadly, I dont really have any big hands to report. I could have went broke on day one multiple times where I made top pair but decided to play them all slow and lose the minimum to multiple two pair and sets. I also had the nut flush draw plus overs once and also lost the min.
I feel like I am playing really nitty, but really, I have just been card dead. We play from 70 people down to 27 tomorrow, which will be in the money. Really though, I am keeping my eye on 1st place.
I feel like I am playing really nitty, but really, I have just been card dead. We play from 70 people down to 27 tomorrow, which will be in the money. Really though, I am keeping my eye on 1st place.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Busy and Unfocused
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.
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.
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.
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