In 2 ways, bloggin here and crushing some MTTs online. As most of you know, during the world series I was blogging for www.pocketfives.com. That period has ended and my blog is returning here. I'm currently working on a blog of my recent WPT victory at the Bellagio Cup, but that will be released in the near future.
As for online, to say I've been in a drought between pokerstars and fulltilt the last 2 months would be an understatement. Thankfully I had some success on UltimateBet and Absolute to keep me from completely drowning both mentally and financially. That all changed Monday, as I had one of my best days online in months. I gained dominating stacks in most everything I played, made 4 FTs with a win in the Tilt 50 rebuys, 3rd in stars 100 rebuy, 3rd in stars 30 rebuy 6-max, and 6th in Tilt 75nl after losing a big race 6-handed to get short. In addition, I also bubbled 2 more final tables including the Stars nightly 100k. The ironic part is of all the tournaments I played, the 50 rebuy win was definitely the one that I played the worst in. It was my last tournament after busting from the stars 100k, and I seriously think I voluntarily put chips in the pot pre-flop on something like 60 consecutive hands, folding "occasionally" to a few shoves after I had raised, called a raised, or just limped. It was completely insane, and in all honesty I got really lucky to win.
After my big live win, I took a week away from poker for a few reasons. As far as poker goes, I wanted to make sure I was completely focused when I returned online playing my usual tournaments after making such a large score live. I am confident I was completely focused when I returned, but I have been running bad and it was taking a toll on me mentally. Again last Wednesday, I took a 4-day break, returned Sunday refreshed and focused and it showed. I also took a chance to hang with some friends and family during my 1st week back from Vegas, which felt good as I usually don't have a ton of time away from my usual poker schedule. I've decided to stick to taking Thursdays and Fridays off from poker to enjoy other aspects of life more (of course exceptoins for FTOPS/ WCOOP).
In conclusion, FTOPS V starts tomorrow, and like I was saying last Monday night "MY TURN". This is my new slogan, kind of like that KenneyBrynn guy and his "all it takes is confidence." I feel a big series coming up, and it all starts tomorrow. I bettter get some sleep.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
World Series blogs on Pocket Fives...
After talking things over with Adam Small from www.pocketfives.com I have decided to do a series of blogs for their site while I am out here in Vegas. Part 1 of the series was released yesterday and the following parts will be released in order. You can find the blog on the front page of their site.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
One week down, but still one more ahead
So I got out here last Monday and played my 1st event on Tuesday, which was the 1k rebuys. Sorry I haven't given any write ups in the last week but I have spending alot of time over at the rio. Unfortunately more of my time has been spent railing friends and observing the play late in these tournaments then actually playing myself.
Tuesday- Played the 1k rebuy and Imper1um was at my starting table. LOL @ him wanting to go all-in blind 1st hand. I told him I wasn't going to go all-in blind but I was going to be willing to gamble if I picked up a hand like QJs, 10Js, suited Ace, pairs, etc. 1st hand he shoves blind 35o and I wake up to AK and double after somehow dodging his 46Q flop. Up to 8k and wide-eyed at the prospects of a large stack if I found some hands and Sorel decided to run bad for the 1st time in his life, after Sorel's 57o cracked JJ he shoved 5k or so with 22 and I called with AK again. He flops a set, let the rebuying begin. The rest of the rebuy period, which was 2 hours long, did not go very well and I ended up with just over the minimum of 8,400 and I was in for 10k, 7 rebuys and 2 add-ons which was 2k over the budget I set for myself. Oh well.
After the rebuys were over I dipped down to 5,500 then started to gain some momentum and was back to around 11k when I picked up AdKd in the SB. The worst player at the table opened to 700 @ 100-200 25a from MP, I made it 3500 he shoves for 6,200 and I turn a flush draw but miss for 13k pot vs his KK. Left with about 5k, I pretty much folded and the 1st hand after the break I shoved 4,200 utg+2 with JJ and Imper1um called with AQ in th SB. The blinds were 150-300 25a and my stack was very odd to play so I just decided to ship and see 5 cards. He flopped a Q and GG me.
So I move onto the 1,500 Omaha hi/lo which I won 1 complete pot the entire tournament and I was eliminated shortly into level 3. This wasn't originally on my schedule but I felt it was worth playing since they had around 700 entrants. My desire to win my 1st bracelet definitely influenced this decision.
Wednesday was the 2,000nl which also had a huge field. My 1st table had David Williams and a couple other players who I recognized. I started out pretty aggressive and had chipped up around 5,000 when I 3-bet an 8c2c2h flop with 8h4h (I raised pre-flop) and ran into KK. The pot was about 7,500 with 2 others who had seen the flop also, and I went running hearts for my 1st suckout...oops?
That table broke with about 15 minutes left in the 50-100 level and my new table was very different. I didn't recognize anyone and everyone was between 2k and 4k (we started with 4k) except for the 2 players who were seated to my immediate left. They both had around my 9k give or take a thousand. Seeing as I was fortunate to have the 9k stack I was holding, I decided to establish a tight image and proceeded to only play 5 or 6 hands over the next hour and fifteen minutes until the 100-200 25 ante level. Then the plan was to get aggressive once the antes kicked in.
This pretty much worked and I was up to aroound 15k when I attempted my 1st official blow-up of the tournament. I say official because I know had a great stack where as early I was willing to be aggressive to get a stack. Chris McCormick had been moved to my table a little bit earlier and he opened utg+1 for 650. He had about 13k and I decided to just call utg +2 with 99 and see the flop. The flop came down KK10 w/ 2 diamonds which I really felt was a good flop for me and I called his 1,200 bet on the flop. The turn was awful...another 10 now giving me 9 high. He checked and I decided I was going to try and make it look like I was trying to get value with my king betting 1,400 on turn with plans of betting 3,500-4,000 on river as long as a baby came. I really felt like he would look me up on turn with Ace high but fold on river. Instead he check-raised with his ace high to 3,200 and I folded immediately. So now I feel outplayed having to fold the best hand bc of the board and he limps utg for 200. This is where I decide to get retarded and make it 900 w/ 10d4d utg+1. He calls and I bet 1,500 on KdQd4h flop, which he raises to 5,000 and I end up shipping for 7,500ish more. He calls with KhQh and I river the 8d for a pot worth something around 26k.
Right here I should have gone back to being tight after what the table had just witnessed and waited for some good hands to play or the blinds to get even higher and worth stealing but no, of course I couldn't do this. I had to try and win the tournament in the next 2 hours of course. Long story short, I got chopped back to 15k before the 200-400 50a even started and proceeded to yo-yo between 9k and 15k playing way to many hands when I raised to 1,350 from MP w/ K7cc and the BB shoved for about 4,500 more. Everyone was shoving on me, and I was getting a little frustrated and knew the BB was capable of shipping it in light so I decided to call hoping I was a 40/60 at worst vs a hand like AQ or AJ and maybe even a 60/40 favorite vs QJ or something like that. He ends up having QQ and I lose a race chopping me down to 8k. After paying the blinds and seeing a flop on the button I had 6,100 at the last hand of 200-400 25a.
I opened with Ah10s from the c/o for 1,300 and this old guy in the BB asked me what I had behind and then proceeded to shove about 20,000 chips in the middle very forcefully. I could tell he was faking his strength, and he wanted to show me a wild bluff but I'm to proud for that. I called and he flipped over 2c3d and the board came out QhJh6x4h...river off suit 5 NH sir GG me?
Thursday/Saturday- Thursday was the 1,500 short handed event and Saturday was the 1,500 NLHE, which I decided to group together because they went the same way. Both were crap shoots and I didn't make the 1st break of either one, end of story.
Friday was the 5k pot-limit hold 'em event and after my blow-up in the 2k NL I was really psyched for this. PL strategy is so different then NL strategy and since there is never an ante the play is much much tighter. I knew this and I really needed this tournament to get back in the right mindset of playing tighter then I had been. Early on I played a few pots but never committed a lot of chips during one single hand when I was sitting slightly above the starting stack of 10,000 chips. At 50-100 I raised to 250 from MP with 9h7h and got called by John Hennigan in position, the small blind and John Gale in the BB. The flop came down Q96 with 2 diamonds and I bet 600, to which Hennigan and the SB folded but John Gale raised to 1,800. This board was so draw heavy that I really thought I might be ahead so I decided to call and re-evaluate on the turn. The turn was a complete brick and Gale lead for 2,200 with about 3,200 behind and i decided I likely have the best hand given how wild he plays, and my line would likely make him fold any queen. I was wrong, he called with 96 for 2 pair and I was left with about 2,000 chips.
I grinded so hard from here, playing only 3 or 4 hands the entire 75-150 and a few minutes into the 100-200 levels when I finally doubled up. Sitting on 2,700 chips I decided to raise to 550 from the c/o with A5 and the BB called. The flop was A high, the BB check/called my 800 bet and check called my shove of 1,300 on the turn. Slowplayed KK is no good son....5,500 for me! I get up to 6,400 when this very loose player opened for 700 from UTG+2. This was the 4th or 5th he raised my BB and I looked down to AQ, so I contemplated my options considering my sack and decided to make it 2,200 with 4,200 behind. The LAG player called very quickly and I was somewhat concerned. I decided I could still check/fold the flop if it wasn't a good flop for me, but when the flop came Q97 rainbow I moved all-in for just under a pot size bet. I have never seen anyone call so quickly, I surely thought I was dead to 99 for a set or slow-played KK/AA...but I was wrong, he flipped over the oh so powerful K10 off for a gutty and 1 over, and proceeded to spike a king on the river. I stormed out, didn't say goodbye to 3 friends at the table, didn't wish the players GL like I normally do, didn't attempt to say goodbye to Bax who was on the table behind me either. I was trembling with anger, confused as to what the heck had just happened.
Bax saw me storm out and came after me and asked me what happened, and I told him I'd tell him later but I couldn't talk about it. I got all the way to the taxi stand when I remembered that I had my ticket for Saturday's 1,500 NL in my back pocket. I decided to head back in and un-register, un sure if I wanted to stay here or head home on the next flight out. Fortunately for me the line was a gazillion people long since alot of people were registering for the 5 P.M. stud that was starting in less then an hour so I decided to go talk to Bax and a few others while they were on there break. I managed to cool down a bit and made it back to my hotel room in time to play all the nightly's online.
Every story has a happy ending. My game has been pretty sloppy that few weeks online, and I brought that into the live arena which can get very expensive very quick. So I ended up firing up 7 tournaments for the night and I was completely focused. I ended up bubbling the 100 rebuy on stars for a chip lead pot in a complete cooler hand, but managed to stay focused and not tilt out of the 3 tournaments I had left. I had been grind a 15-20 BB stack for some time in the FTP 30r, a tournament I normally don't play and ended up finishing 12th when my AcQc lost to AsQs all-in pre-flop....such a fun game I know. No worries, I was still grinding the UB bounty with about 30 people left I had just over 10 BB's and I was just reaching the final table of the 100 rebuy on which paid the top 5. I ended up crushing the 100 rebuy, taking it down for 6k with pretty much no resistance at all. I ended up getting a stack on the $ bubble of the bounty, and getting to the final table 2nd in chips. I also crushed this final table until I got heads up vs a complete moron who should probably with draw the 7,800 he got for beating me. I wasn't bitter, still +10k or so online for the night, not to mention a ton of confidence in my game that I regained that night.
I didn't have my usually bloody Sunday, and actually ended up making 2 final tables in Major events today. I took 3rd in the UB 200k for 18k, which was really disappointing but not as disappointing as taking 9th in the 200 rebuys on stars for just under 3k. I got retardedly un-lucky in that tournament and really feel like I should have at least ended up getting short handed if not winning the damn thing....oh well, fun game we play.
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week here in Vegas. Tommorrow I'm playing the 2,500 NL, Tuesday I will likely be online if I don't make day 2 of the 2,500 as I don't care to play the 1,500 shootout and Wednesday is the 5,000 NL which is my favorite event of the series, just ahead of the 1k rebuys. thursday is a 1,500 PLO, Friday 2k NL, Saturday is another 1,500 NL circus, Sunday is a 3,000 NL which I think will end up being a pretty good tournament despite being on Sunday, and Monday is my last event for this trip the 2,500 NL short handed and of course I may play the 1,500 razz on sunday if I bust from the 3k NL event.
I feely really good about my game right now, better then I have since December probably. I was extremely focused today online and plan on having a great tournament tomorrow focusing on playing mistake free poker and switching gears when I need to. Good luck to everyone else playing in Vegas, hopefully I will have good news to report very shortly.
Tuesday- Played the 1k rebuy and Imper1um was at my starting table. LOL @ him wanting to go all-in blind 1st hand. I told him I wasn't going to go all-in blind but I was going to be willing to gamble if I picked up a hand like QJs, 10Js, suited Ace, pairs, etc. 1st hand he shoves blind 35o and I wake up to AK and double after somehow dodging his 46Q flop. Up to 8k and wide-eyed at the prospects of a large stack if I found some hands and Sorel decided to run bad for the 1st time in his life, after Sorel's 57o cracked JJ he shoved 5k or so with 22 and I called with AK again. He flops a set, let the rebuying begin. The rest of the rebuy period, which was 2 hours long, did not go very well and I ended up with just over the minimum of 8,400 and I was in for 10k, 7 rebuys and 2 add-ons which was 2k over the budget I set for myself. Oh well.
After the rebuys were over I dipped down to 5,500 then started to gain some momentum and was back to around 11k when I picked up AdKd in the SB. The worst player at the table opened to 700 @ 100-200 25a from MP, I made it 3500 he shoves for 6,200 and I turn a flush draw but miss for 13k pot vs his KK. Left with about 5k, I pretty much folded and the 1st hand after the break I shoved 4,200 utg+2 with JJ and Imper1um called with AQ in th SB. The blinds were 150-300 25a and my stack was very odd to play so I just decided to ship and see 5 cards. He flopped a Q and GG me.
So I move onto the 1,500 Omaha hi/lo which I won 1 complete pot the entire tournament and I was eliminated shortly into level 3. This wasn't originally on my schedule but I felt it was worth playing since they had around 700 entrants. My desire to win my 1st bracelet definitely influenced this decision.
Wednesday was the 2,000nl which also had a huge field. My 1st table had David Williams and a couple other players who I recognized. I started out pretty aggressive and had chipped up around 5,000 when I 3-bet an 8c2c2h flop with 8h4h (I raised pre-flop) and ran into KK. The pot was about 7,500 with 2 others who had seen the flop also, and I went running hearts for my 1st suckout...oops?
That table broke with about 15 minutes left in the 50-100 level and my new table was very different. I didn't recognize anyone and everyone was between 2k and 4k (we started with 4k) except for the 2 players who were seated to my immediate left. They both had around my 9k give or take a thousand. Seeing as I was fortunate to have the 9k stack I was holding, I decided to establish a tight image and proceeded to only play 5 or 6 hands over the next hour and fifteen minutes until the 100-200 25 ante level. Then the plan was to get aggressive once the antes kicked in.
This pretty much worked and I was up to aroound 15k when I attempted my 1st official blow-up of the tournament. I say official because I know had a great stack where as early I was willing to be aggressive to get a stack. Chris McCormick had been moved to my table a little bit earlier and he opened utg+1 for 650. He had about 13k and I decided to just call utg +2 with 99 and see the flop. The flop came down KK10 w/ 2 diamonds which I really felt was a good flop for me and I called his 1,200 bet on the flop. The turn was awful...another 10 now giving me 9 high. He checked and I decided I was going to try and make it look like I was trying to get value with my king betting 1,400 on turn with plans of betting 3,500-4,000 on river as long as a baby came. I really felt like he would look me up on turn with Ace high but fold on river. Instead he check-raised with his ace high to 3,200 and I folded immediately. So now I feel outplayed having to fold the best hand bc of the board and he limps utg for 200. This is where I decide to get retarded and make it 900 w/ 10d4d utg+1. He calls and I bet 1,500 on KdQd4h flop, which he raises to 5,000 and I end up shipping for 7,500ish more. He calls with KhQh and I river the 8d for a pot worth something around 26k.
Right here I should have gone back to being tight after what the table had just witnessed and waited for some good hands to play or the blinds to get even higher and worth stealing but no, of course I couldn't do this. I had to try and win the tournament in the next 2 hours of course. Long story short, I got chopped back to 15k before the 200-400 50a even started and proceeded to yo-yo between 9k and 15k playing way to many hands when I raised to 1,350 from MP w/ K7cc and the BB shoved for about 4,500 more. Everyone was shoving on me, and I was getting a little frustrated and knew the BB was capable of shipping it in light so I decided to call hoping I was a 40/60 at worst vs a hand like AQ or AJ and maybe even a 60/40 favorite vs QJ or something like that. He ends up having QQ and I lose a race chopping me down to 8k. After paying the blinds and seeing a flop on the button I had 6,100 at the last hand of 200-400 25a.
I opened with Ah10s from the c/o for 1,300 and this old guy in the BB asked me what I had behind and then proceeded to shove about 20,000 chips in the middle very forcefully. I could tell he was faking his strength, and he wanted to show me a wild bluff but I'm to proud for that. I called and he flipped over 2c3d and the board came out QhJh6x4h...river off suit 5 NH sir GG me?
Thursday/Saturday- Thursday was the 1,500 short handed event and Saturday was the 1,500 NLHE, which I decided to group together because they went the same way. Both were crap shoots and I didn't make the 1st break of either one, end of story.
Friday was the 5k pot-limit hold 'em event and after my blow-up in the 2k NL I was really psyched for this. PL strategy is so different then NL strategy and since there is never an ante the play is much much tighter. I knew this and I really needed this tournament to get back in the right mindset of playing tighter then I had been. Early on I played a few pots but never committed a lot of chips during one single hand when I was sitting slightly above the starting stack of 10,000 chips. At 50-100 I raised to 250 from MP with 9h7h and got called by John Hennigan in position, the small blind and John Gale in the BB. The flop came down Q96 with 2 diamonds and I bet 600, to which Hennigan and the SB folded but John Gale raised to 1,800. This board was so draw heavy that I really thought I might be ahead so I decided to call and re-evaluate on the turn. The turn was a complete brick and Gale lead for 2,200 with about 3,200 behind and i decided I likely have the best hand given how wild he plays, and my line would likely make him fold any queen. I was wrong, he called with 96 for 2 pair and I was left with about 2,000 chips.
I grinded so hard from here, playing only 3 or 4 hands the entire 75-150 and a few minutes into the 100-200 levels when I finally doubled up. Sitting on 2,700 chips I decided to raise to 550 from the c/o with A5 and the BB called. The flop was A high, the BB check/called my 800 bet and check called my shove of 1,300 on the turn. Slowplayed KK is no good son....5,500 for me! I get up to 6,400 when this very loose player opened for 700 from UTG+2. This was the 4th or 5th he raised my BB and I looked down to AQ, so I contemplated my options considering my sack and decided to make it 2,200 with 4,200 behind. The LAG player called very quickly and I was somewhat concerned. I decided I could still check/fold the flop if it wasn't a good flop for me, but when the flop came Q97 rainbow I moved all-in for just under a pot size bet. I have never seen anyone call so quickly, I surely thought I was dead to 99 for a set or slow-played KK/AA...but I was wrong, he flipped over the oh so powerful K10 off for a gutty and 1 over, and proceeded to spike a king on the river. I stormed out, didn't say goodbye to 3 friends at the table, didn't wish the players GL like I normally do, didn't attempt to say goodbye to Bax who was on the table behind me either. I was trembling with anger, confused as to what the heck had just happened.
Bax saw me storm out and came after me and asked me what happened, and I told him I'd tell him later but I couldn't talk about it. I got all the way to the taxi stand when I remembered that I had my ticket for Saturday's 1,500 NL in my back pocket. I decided to head back in and un-register, un sure if I wanted to stay here or head home on the next flight out. Fortunately for me the line was a gazillion people long since alot of people were registering for the 5 P.M. stud that was starting in less then an hour so I decided to go talk to Bax and a few others while they were on there break. I managed to cool down a bit and made it back to my hotel room in time to play all the nightly's online.
Every story has a happy ending. My game has been pretty sloppy that few weeks online, and I brought that into the live arena which can get very expensive very quick. So I ended up firing up 7 tournaments for the night and I was completely focused. I ended up bubbling the 100 rebuy on stars for a chip lead pot in a complete cooler hand, but managed to stay focused and not tilt out of the 3 tournaments I had left. I had been grind a 15-20 BB stack for some time in the FTP 30r, a tournament I normally don't play and ended up finishing 12th when my AcQc lost to AsQs all-in pre-flop....such a fun game I know. No worries, I was still grinding the UB bounty with about 30 people left I had just over 10 BB's and I was just reaching the final table of the 100 rebuy on which paid the top 5. I ended up crushing the 100 rebuy, taking it down for 6k with pretty much no resistance at all. I ended up getting a stack on the $ bubble of the bounty, and getting to the final table 2nd in chips. I also crushed this final table until I got heads up vs a complete moron who should probably with draw the 7,800 he got for beating me. I wasn't bitter, still +10k or so online for the night, not to mention a ton of confidence in my game that I regained that night.
I didn't have my usually bloody Sunday, and actually ended up making 2 final tables in Major events today. I took 3rd in the UB 200k for 18k, which was really disappointing but not as disappointing as taking 9th in the 200 rebuys on stars for just under 3k. I got retardedly un-lucky in that tournament and really feel like I should have at least ended up getting short handed if not winning the damn thing....oh well, fun game we play.
I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week here in Vegas. Tommorrow I'm playing the 2,500 NL, Tuesday I will likely be online if I don't make day 2 of the 2,500 as I don't care to play the 1,500 shootout and Wednesday is the 5,000 NL which is my favorite event of the series, just ahead of the 1k rebuys. thursday is a 1,500 PLO, Friday 2k NL, Saturday is another 1,500 NL circus, Sunday is a 3,000 NL which I think will end up being a pretty good tournament despite being on Sunday, and Monday is my last event for this trip the 2,500 NL short handed and of course I may play the 1,500 razz on sunday if I bust from the 3k NL event.
I feely really good about my game right now, better then I have since December probably. I was extremely focused today online and plan on having a great tournament tomorrow focusing on playing mistake free poker and switching gears when I need to. Good luck to everyone else playing in Vegas, hopefully I will have good news to report very shortly.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Such an Obvious Day...
Another Sunday Bloody Sunday for me, but fuck me and my obvious Sunday Suicidal Moments (this is a joke family) for right now. It took 7 hours, but the inevitable happened and online phenom MrSmokey1 won his 1st ever WSOP bracelet in his 1st ever WSOP event ever played, event #1 of the 2007 series the 5k 1/2 NLH 1/2 LHE which concluded this afternoon just 10 days after he turned 21. Clearly one of the sickest online players around, Smoke has always been a good friend to me and huge influence on my own game. This couldn't have happened to a sicker poker player, more less a better person.
Quick story about MrSmokey1. He's a Chicago boy like me, yet I met him through online poker. Two years ago a bunch of us online players met for the first time at Turning Stone Casino. I headed out to Rochester, New York a week before the tournament and was staying with a friend who was to accompany me for the entire trip. One day in, I was stranded and at the end Smokey drove me 2 hours back to Rochester to catch my flight. That's good people.
Quick congrats to TheWacoKidd, cashing in his 3rd straight WPT Main Event taking 2nd place for close to 450k. I know it wasn't the title you wanted, but winning 3 of your last 4 heads-up matches live ain't too bad. Just make sure you shipped Kimberely ;-).
As for me, I haven't been able to post much the last few days. I took Thursday and Friday off, went out with my Father and Step-Mom for dinner Thursday night and my friend Robby was in town town and we went out drinking followed by the mandatory "Forest Park House Game" between us and my friend George. Let's just say we started with $5 tournament with 3 maximum rebuys of $5 the last one getting you double chips. Robby won, I didn't bother re-buying as I was lacking focus on the game, which then turned to .25-.50 NL cash and ended around 9 A.M. at 1-2 NL cash. I also took a few days to prepare for vegas, as my flight leaves tomorrow afternoon. I obviously had some errands to run but I also wanted to take a few days away from poker as I will be completely focused on poker through the next two weeks live. After last summer I look to this series as being my redemption summer, and I won't be satisfied if I don't make at least one final table giving me a shot at my first live tournament win.
All I've heard and read about is that the 1st few days of the series have been an absolute mad house, which is to be expected and why I chose to stay home for the few days. I'm not a big fan of crowds and chaos, and even once the Rio people get their shit together and run things at the ability that is expected I still feel it is all a little overwhelming for me. That's just who I am, oh well I think it's a little too late and a little less profitable to switch professions now :-P. My 1st event will be the 1k rebuys, and I'm really excited about them giving us double the starting chips this year. I figure I will budget around 8k for this event like I did last year. I've promised myself that I will be 100% focused on the WSOP this year, on and off the tables, unlike last year when I was hopping from casino to casino looking for the next tournament. No second chance tournaments for me this time.
As for blogging during the series, I'm not sure if I am going to post here as Cardplayer has asked to speak with me once I get to vegas about blogging for their site. I may end up posting in both spots but we will have to see. I will let everyone know obviously. As far as following coverage online from home this weekend, Cardplayer and pokerwire have been a mess and I actually have found the coverage of WWW.worldseriesofpoker.com, which is powered by pokernews.com to be the best by a long shot. They also provided live radio feed of the final table at http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/bluffmedia.asx which I found to be an awesome way to follow Smokey's win, even if the broadcaster were a couple of blubbering idiots. Time to tighten up things for vegas......
Quick story about MrSmokey1. He's a Chicago boy like me, yet I met him through online poker. Two years ago a bunch of us online players met for the first time at Turning Stone Casino. I headed out to Rochester, New York a week before the tournament and was staying with a friend who was to accompany me for the entire trip. One day in, I was stranded and at the end Smokey drove me 2 hours back to Rochester to catch my flight. That's good people.
Quick congrats to TheWacoKidd, cashing in his 3rd straight WPT Main Event taking 2nd place for close to 450k. I know it wasn't the title you wanted, but winning 3 of your last 4 heads-up matches live ain't too bad. Just make sure you shipped Kimberely ;-).
As for me, I haven't been able to post much the last few days. I took Thursday and Friday off, went out with my Father and Step-Mom for dinner Thursday night and my friend Robby was in town town and we went out drinking followed by the mandatory "Forest Park House Game" between us and my friend George. Let's just say we started with $5 tournament with 3 maximum rebuys of $5 the last one getting you double chips. Robby won, I didn't bother re-buying as I was lacking focus on the game, which then turned to .25-.50 NL cash and ended around 9 A.M. at 1-2 NL cash. I also took a few days to prepare for vegas, as my flight leaves tomorrow afternoon. I obviously had some errands to run but I also wanted to take a few days away from poker as I will be completely focused on poker through the next two weeks live. After last summer I look to this series as being my redemption summer, and I won't be satisfied if I don't make at least one final table giving me a shot at my first live tournament win.
All I've heard and read about is that the 1st few days of the series have been an absolute mad house, which is to be expected and why I chose to stay home for the few days. I'm not a big fan of crowds and chaos, and even once the Rio people get their shit together and run things at the ability that is expected I still feel it is all a little overwhelming for me. That's just who I am, oh well I think it's a little too late and a little less profitable to switch professions now :-P. My 1st event will be the 1k rebuys, and I'm really excited about them giving us double the starting chips this year. I figure I will budget around 8k for this event like I did last year. I've promised myself that I will be 100% focused on the WSOP this year, on and off the tables, unlike last year when I was hopping from casino to casino looking for the next tournament. No second chance tournaments for me this time.
As for blogging during the series, I'm not sure if I am going to post here as Cardplayer has asked to speak with me once I get to vegas about blogging for their site. I may end up posting in both spots but we will have to see. I will let everyone know obviously. As far as following coverage online from home this weekend, Cardplayer and pokerwire have been a mess and I actually have found the coverage of WWW.worldseriesofpoker.com, which is powered by pokernews.com to be the best by a long shot. They also provided live radio feed of the final table at http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/bluffmedia.asx which I found to be an awesome way to follow Smokey's win, even if the broadcaster were a couple of blubbering idiots. Time to tighten up things for vegas......
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Finally something good to talk about......
Well there have been 2 things that my game has been missing that last few weeks that I have talked about here, a big performance in a huge tournament and and a win. Last night I got them both, finishing 4th in the FullTilt 1k for 26k and following that by winning the Pokerstars 10 rebuy marathon known as the 55k guarantee for about 13.5k. Both tournaments felt really good, and though I was a little disappointed with my performance at the 1k FT I do feel like a monkey was some what lifted off my back.
Like most tournies for me, the mid stages were a roller coaster for me. With like 5 minutes left @ 100-200 level, I had a very good stack around 12k when everything started going crazy. 1st A_Junglen shoves 1,900 from the button w/ 56o, I make a good call in the SB w/ A6cc thinking I was likely ahead of his range and to my delight he was dominated. Turn 5 no problem. No big deal, but then the guy to his immediate right raises to 720 @ 120-240 25a on the button with 2300 behind, I shove him with QK and he instacalls with Q10o. AKx flop, turn a J and instead of 18k I had 7.5k and was a little frustrated. 2 levels later, 140-280 25a and the cut-off opened for 800 or so, A_Junglen had just been abusing the fuck out of this player and made it 2300 w/ about 5k behind. Given how weak the c/o was in general, I knew AJ's range wasnt really tight and I re-shipped from the SB w/ JJ, losing 16k pot to AJ's KK. :( I still had about 4k and went into grind mode, eventually getting to the 15k mark when we hit the 250-500 50a level with about 50 people left.
Paying 27 spots, I just started going nutts attacking the bubble with very little restraint from any of the players at the table. I was actually pretty suprised by this, but who am I to complain? With 36 left and the official bubble arriving I was sitting top 5 in chips with 40k and blinds of 600-1200 with a 150a. My favorite time in poker is a bubble in a tournament with a large ante when I have a stack, and FullTilt is the best site online for this. When we hit the money at 27, I had gone from my 40k or so w/ 36 left to over 85k and I was the chip leader. I had almost no resistance on the bubble, though I did double a guy who had about 12k with A7 vs AQ. From 27 to the final table of 9 was alot of the same and I entered the final table as the chip leader with over 200k.
Playing for such big money, the final table play was very tight and the other big stack was 2 to my left and kept re-popping the fuck out of me. He was clearly going after me, and I had decent hands but never had anything I could 4-bet him pre-flop, and every decent hand I had when we would see flops would completely miss me. I don't think he was very good necessarily but he was fortunate to have picked his spots well. I spewed my way down to about 100k with 2k-4k when I lost a very key showdown. With 6 or 7 left and the blinds 2k-4k, a shorter stack how had just lost 1/2 his chips moved all-in for 42kish 2 off the button and I had A10 in the BB. From what I had observed, this player had been pretty tight, but I also felt he had to push alot of hands from this spot and at the laast second I decided to call. He flipped K9o, 1067 flop was good for me, turn brick, river 8 :(. If I win the pot I'm over 150k, instead I had to go into grind mode with 60k or so.
Fortunately for me, with 5 left the guy to my immediate left just kept folding every time I shoved his BB. This guy was a complete nit, folded his way down to 22k @ 4k-8k blinds before picking up AK and doubling. As you could imagine, I was not thrilled to look down to 88 in the BB when this player shoved my BB for like 45k. I had him covered barely, by like 3k, and with these blinds I couldn't fold 88, but I thought I was racing at best. He ended up flipping up 66, I held and 4 handed I had about 105k, vs 3 other guys who were between 220k-300k. NP, I've been here before and I know I will have to gambol soon and I'm generally good at picking my spots to steal while chipping up my short stack. Unfortunately I shoved 74k on button w/ J8hh at 4k-8k and missed vs SB's KK on Q10xA board, out 4th for $26,325. Disappointing considering the chip lead I brought to final table no doubt, but it felt good to have my 1st 5-figure score in a tournament with a buy-in greater then $20 since January.
After I busted in FTP, I was still in UB 11pm 100nl, the 55k and stars 100nl @ 1am. I made a really poor shove pre-flop of a chronic limper w/ 88 for 22 BBs at 200-400 from the c/o with 88 and only the SB having having me covered and of course he woke up to 1010. I finished like 17th in the UB which was good enough to make the $, all be it I probably cashed for like $150 bux only. Then there was the 55k domination, which I am going to write about later because I don't feel like putting forth the effort I'd like at this time while playing. Lastly, really looking forward to the 1k Super Tuesday on stars tonight...one time be the suck out god that you are in a big buy-in on stars BeL0W.
Like most tournies for me, the mid stages were a roller coaster for me. With like 5 minutes left @ 100-200 level, I had a very good stack around 12k when everything started going crazy. 1st A_Junglen shoves 1,900 from the button w/ 56o, I make a good call in the SB w/ A6cc thinking I was likely ahead of his range and to my delight he was dominated. Turn 5 no problem. No big deal, but then the guy to his immediate right raises to 720 @ 120-240 25a on the button with 2300 behind, I shove him with QK and he instacalls with Q10o. AKx flop, turn a J and instead of 18k I had 7.5k and was a little frustrated. 2 levels later, 140-280 25a and the cut-off opened for 800 or so, A_Junglen had just been abusing the fuck out of this player and made it 2300 w/ about 5k behind. Given how weak the c/o was in general, I knew AJ's range wasnt really tight and I re-shipped from the SB w/ JJ, losing 16k pot to AJ's KK. :( I still had about 4k and went into grind mode, eventually getting to the 15k mark when we hit the 250-500 50a level with about 50 people left.
Paying 27 spots, I just started going nutts attacking the bubble with very little restraint from any of the players at the table. I was actually pretty suprised by this, but who am I to complain? With 36 left and the official bubble arriving I was sitting top 5 in chips with 40k and blinds of 600-1200 with a 150a. My favorite time in poker is a bubble in a tournament with a large ante when I have a stack, and FullTilt is the best site online for this. When we hit the money at 27, I had gone from my 40k or so w/ 36 left to over 85k and I was the chip leader. I had almost no resistance on the bubble, though I did double a guy who had about 12k with A7 vs AQ. From 27 to the final table of 9 was alot of the same and I entered the final table as the chip leader with over 200k.
Playing for such big money, the final table play was very tight and the other big stack was 2 to my left and kept re-popping the fuck out of me. He was clearly going after me, and I had decent hands but never had anything I could 4-bet him pre-flop, and every decent hand I had when we would see flops would completely miss me. I don't think he was very good necessarily but he was fortunate to have picked his spots well. I spewed my way down to about 100k with 2k-4k when I lost a very key showdown. With 6 or 7 left and the blinds 2k-4k, a shorter stack how had just lost 1/2 his chips moved all-in for 42kish 2 off the button and I had A10 in the BB. From what I had observed, this player had been pretty tight, but I also felt he had to push alot of hands from this spot and at the laast second I decided to call. He flipped K9o, 1067 flop was good for me, turn brick, river 8 :(. If I win the pot I'm over 150k, instead I had to go into grind mode with 60k or so.
Fortunately for me, with 5 left the guy to my immediate left just kept folding every time I shoved his BB. This guy was a complete nit, folded his way down to 22k @ 4k-8k blinds before picking up AK and doubling. As you could imagine, I was not thrilled to look down to 88 in the BB when this player shoved my BB for like 45k. I had him covered barely, by like 3k, and with these blinds I couldn't fold 88, but I thought I was racing at best. He ended up flipping up 66, I held and 4 handed I had about 105k, vs 3 other guys who were between 220k-300k. NP, I've been here before and I know I will have to gambol soon and I'm generally good at picking my spots to steal while chipping up my short stack. Unfortunately I shoved 74k on button w/ J8hh at 4k-8k and missed vs SB's KK on Q10xA board, out 4th for $26,325. Disappointing considering the chip lead I brought to final table no doubt, but it felt good to have my 1st 5-figure score in a tournament with a buy-in greater then $20 since January.
After I busted in FTP, I was still in UB 11pm 100nl, the 55k and stars 100nl @ 1am. I made a really poor shove pre-flop of a chronic limper w/ 88 for 22 BBs at 200-400 from the c/o with 88 and only the SB having having me covered and of course he woke up to 1010. I finished like 17th in the UB which was good enough to make the $, all be it I probably cashed for like $150 bux only. Then there was the 55k domination, which I am going to write about later because I don't feel like putting forth the effort I'd like at this time while playing. Lastly, really looking forward to the 1k Super Tuesday on stars tonight...one time be the suck out god that you are in a big buy-in on stars BeL0W.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......
Most people reading this know that I have a permanent chat ban on Poker Stars. This morning I woke up to find out that Full Tilt has taken my chat away for the next 3 months. I find this kind of funny in a way, well I guess you could say ironic. Everyday playing on Full Tilt I see railbirds spamming advertisements for websites or scams to sell various tournament seats at a huge discount. Well, since I can no longer respond I guess I have a reason to turn off observer chat permanently since that has always annoyed me. The biggest annoyance with no chat is that I can't change the expression of my avatar, which is one of the coolest features exclusive to their site. Whatever......
Another awful weekend of running miserably followed closely by awful play for me. When players run bad, they often take a negative approach at the tables and are hesitant to commit chips in a hand. I do this a lot when I'm running bad. I'm very cautious putting all my chips in pre-flop, even on the flop to an extent and it leads to me leaking chips pre and post flop which is just awful poker. I'm going to try to put forth extra effort towards taking a more positive approach towards poker. I will run good today!!
Real quick congrats to Atimos for making the final table of the million on Pokerstars for the 2nd time yesterday, taking home close to 60k for his 5th place finish. He won this tournament back in November which was good for 250k. Also congratulations to Four6suited, also known as badbeatslayer, and JohnnyBax who finished 1/2 in the Full Tilt 400k guarantee last night. I think this is where I lost my chat, lol. Dana defeated Cliff heads up for her 1st win in a sunday major and 95k to go with it. Cliff earned almost 60k for his 2nd place finish, and they both played an excellent tournament, and had a tough final table to fight through that included 2 other ranked players, one who was going for his 2nd win in this tournament.
Time to win me some monies~
Another awful weekend of running miserably followed closely by awful play for me. When players run bad, they often take a negative approach at the tables and are hesitant to commit chips in a hand. I do this a lot when I'm running bad. I'm very cautious putting all my chips in pre-flop, even on the flop to an extent and it leads to me leaking chips pre and post flop which is just awful poker. I'm going to try to put forth extra effort towards taking a more positive approach towards poker. I will run good today!!
Real quick congrats to Atimos for making the final table of the million on Pokerstars for the 2nd time yesterday, taking home close to 60k for his 5th place finish. He won this tournament back in November which was good for 250k. Also congratulations to Four6suited, also known as badbeatslayer, and JohnnyBax who finished 1/2 in the Full Tilt 400k guarantee last night. I think this is where I lost my chat, lol. Dana defeated Cliff heads up for her 1st win in a sunday major and 95k to go with it. Cliff earned almost 60k for his 2nd place finish, and they both played an excellent tournament, and had a tough final table to fight through that included 2 other ranked players, one who was going for his 2nd win in this tournament.
Time to win me some monies~
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Yet another weekend ahead......
Back to the grind today after taking a few days off and and also playing just the evening tournaments a couple nights the last few days. Taking a few days away from the game is almost always a good thing for most players, at least I know it is for me. I find that I usually comeback a little more focused mentally and tend to put up some better results. Thats not saying playing a ton of hours over a short period of time is a bad thing, I also find I do well during these periods too. We all just need to take a break at some point.
So yesterday was my birthday, and last night we went out for my birthday. Jason and his girlfriend arranged for Grandma to watch Jr. and along with my roommate Mike, his girlfriend Patria and George we had a few drinks at my apartment before finally hitting Madison street about 11. When Mike and I were apartment hunting last spring one of the most attractive things about our apartment was the location. We literally walk out of our apartment and take about 10 steps and we are on Madison Street in Forest Park, which has a strip of about 15 bars in a 3 week run at our disposal where a lot of people we know from the surrounding suburbs go to hang out. It's great being able to go out and have a few drinks and not have to worry about how you will get home, and Madison street is usually pretty hopping.
This was not the case last night. Perhaps because of the memorial day weekend the usual suspects decided to go down town to party, but Madison was pretty dead and after just a couple beers at 2 different bars we found ourselves calling it a night and I was at home and in bed by 1:30 or so. I don't know why this is, but a weird thing has happened when I've attempted to sleep after a night of drinking the last 2 times out. Most who know me know I have very weird sleeping patterns, usually not falling a sleep before 6 A.M. and most nights only sleeping 5 or 6 hours. Last night I was out cold by 2 A.M. but woke up at 5 A.M. and I was not able to get back to sleep. I layed in bed for about 30 minutes before finally turning the T.V. on and flipping through the channels for a couple hours before I got back to sleep. At least I was able to get another 4 hours of sleep before having to play today, and I don't feel tired really. Last Thursday was different when I went out to the bars and got home around 1 A.M. I was a sleep by 2 A.M. and again woke up at 5 A.M. This time I wasn't able to get back to sleep until after 10 A.M. and I ended up sleeping all afternoon missing the afternoon tournaments. Lying in bed last night, I was fearing I was going to repeat this. I'm not quite sure why these almost identical situations took place, and I have only had a "weird" sleeping experience after a night of drinking 1 other time, and that was after the only time I ever drank vodka-redbulls last summer in Vegas.
Real quick I wanted to congratulate a couple of friends of mine, Cory "UGOTPZD" Carroll and Darrell "gigabet" Dicken on finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Mirage WPT 10k main event. Nice job, great playing guys.
So yesterday was my birthday, and last night we went out for my birthday. Jason and his girlfriend arranged for Grandma to watch Jr. and along with my roommate Mike, his girlfriend Patria and George we had a few drinks at my apartment before finally hitting Madison street about 11. When Mike and I were apartment hunting last spring one of the most attractive things about our apartment was the location. We literally walk out of our apartment and take about 10 steps and we are on Madison Street in Forest Park, which has a strip of about 15 bars in a 3 week run at our disposal where a lot of people we know from the surrounding suburbs go to hang out. It's great being able to go out and have a few drinks and not have to worry about how you will get home, and Madison street is usually pretty hopping.
This was not the case last night. Perhaps because of the memorial day weekend the usual suspects decided to go down town to party, but Madison was pretty dead and after just a couple beers at 2 different bars we found ourselves calling it a night and I was at home and in bed by 1:30 or so. I don't know why this is, but a weird thing has happened when I've attempted to sleep after a night of drinking the last 2 times out. Most who know me know I have very weird sleeping patterns, usually not falling a sleep before 6 A.M. and most nights only sleeping 5 or 6 hours. Last night I was out cold by 2 A.M. but woke up at 5 A.M. and I was not able to get back to sleep. I layed in bed for about 30 minutes before finally turning the T.V. on and flipping through the channels for a couple hours before I got back to sleep. At least I was able to get another 4 hours of sleep before having to play today, and I don't feel tired really. Last Thursday was different when I went out to the bars and got home around 1 A.M. I was a sleep by 2 A.M. and again woke up at 5 A.M. This time I wasn't able to get back to sleep until after 10 A.M. and I ended up sleeping all afternoon missing the afternoon tournaments. Lying in bed last night, I was fearing I was going to repeat this. I'm not quite sure why these almost identical situations took place, and I have only had a "weird" sleeping experience after a night of drinking 1 other time, and that was after the only time I ever drank vodka-redbulls last summer in Vegas.
Real quick I wanted to congratulate a couple of friends of mine, Cory "UGOTPZD" Carroll and Darrell "gigabet" Dicken on finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively in the Mirage WPT 10k main event. Nice job, great playing guys.
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