This post is a little late I guess, but I busted out of the main event on Sunday. Somehow I managed to make it thorough the minefield that was Saturday with about 11,000 chips from my starting stack of 20,000. We only played for just under 10 hours on saturday which is less than I thought because I was very tired. I was involved in many interesting hands on saturday and unfortunately I only won a couple of them. I was in many tough spots, and just kinda ran bad in general. I was missing flops, my opponents were hitting flops, I had bad tables and seats, and I didn't pick up enough big hands. Overall, I was lucky to get through day one, but as a short stack I only lasted about 1.5 hours on Sunday.
Usually at a starting table of these events you will have a couple very good players, a couple solid players, a couple decent players and at least one or two pretty awful players that are very good to pick up ships from. However, my starting table had to be the toughest in the tournament. Here is the lineup:
Seat 1) Brett Jungblott (Part of "the crew" from the early 90's, a known live and online player)
Seat 2) Erik Lindgren (one of the top 20 most know pros, millions in career earnings)
Seat 3) Josh Ariea (more than one WSOP final tables)
Seat 4) Jennifer Tilly (actress, wasn't great but she finished 12th in this tourney)
Seat 5) Vanessa Selbst (online instructor and very good player, at least one WSOP final table)
Seat 6) Juan Carlos Mortenson (2006 WPT champion, 8.2 million in career earnings)
Seat 7) Me (some guy who looks like he got lost on the way to the library)
Seat 8) Nenad Medic (Full Tilt poker pro, won the world poker tour at Niagara Falls, etc.)
Seat 9) Some guy who was a world poker open bracelet on and was a good player
So basically I had an all star table even though there are many younger internet type players that are sharper than some of these guys right now. I felt very comfortable among this group and after playing at this table for 8 hours before we broke, I definitely feel that I would be a long term winner against this lineup although it is full of big name pros. All in all, I enjoyed the tournament, it was a good experience, but nothing really went right, which can happen in any given tournament.
On a positive note, I've been doing very well online playing 6-handed and especially heads up. This short month is going to end up being my best to date as I expect to finish the month up in online cash games and tournaments as well as live cash games and tournaments.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Weekend poker
On Saturday I went to Commerce around noon and played 10/20 NL. It went well, there wasn't really a whole lot of action, but I felt like I played well in a few medium sized pots and I ended up $1100 in about 5 hours.
Today (sunday) there was a very good lineup of online tournaments. I played in 9 and cashed in 4 of them. I got pretty deep in the poker stars $100 with unlimited rebuys, but busted out in 16th when I got AA all in preflop vs. KQ. That really sucked. 1st place was worth 51k, and 16th was $2200. Even more disappointing was the ending to the Full Tilt $2 million tournament. This is one of the biggest online tournaments of the year where the winner gets about .5 million, 2nd in 276k, and so on. I busted out around 140th out of 6000 or so. When the chip average was about 80k I got all in with QQ vs. AK for 300k in chip. I lost that coinflip and was left with like 90k in chips. I still had a decent chance, but if I had won that and had 400k in chips I would have been 2nd in chips with about 200 left and I would have really liked my chances. Instead, I went through the blinds a couple times and then went all in when everyone folded to me on the button with 99. The small blind woke up with QQ, and I cashed for about 2k.
I netted about 2500 today and was pretty close to a big score in 2 of my 9 tournaments. I think I'm playing well right now and having a very good month so far. I am about 90% sure that I'm going to play in the LAPC main event next saturday. This is a World Poker Tour event and first place is always well over $1 million, and I'm pretty sure it's over $2 million. I think it will be a fun tournament so why not give it a shot.
Today (sunday) there was a very good lineup of online tournaments. I played in 9 and cashed in 4 of them. I got pretty deep in the poker stars $100 with unlimited rebuys, but busted out in 16th when I got AA all in preflop vs. KQ. That really sucked. 1st place was worth 51k, and 16th was $2200. Even more disappointing was the ending to the Full Tilt $2 million tournament. This is one of the biggest online tournaments of the year where the winner gets about .5 million, 2nd in 276k, and so on. I busted out around 140th out of 6000 or so. When the chip average was about 80k I got all in with QQ vs. AK for 300k in chip. I lost that coinflip and was left with like 90k in chips. I still had a decent chance, but if I had won that and had 400k in chips I would have been 2nd in chips with about 200 left and I would have really liked my chances. Instead, I went through the blinds a couple times and then went all in when everyone folded to me on the button with 99. The small blind woke up with QQ, and I cashed for about 2k.
I netted about 2500 today and was pretty close to a big score in 2 of my 9 tournaments. I think I'm playing well right now and having a very good month so far. I am about 90% sure that I'm going to play in the LAPC main event next saturday. This is a World Poker Tour event and first place is always well over $1 million, and I'm pretty sure it's over $2 million. I think it will be a fun tournament so why not give it a shot.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Good Week
As I mentioned in my last post, I would be attending another LA Poker Classic (LAPC) event on Thursday. This was a $1500 buy-in no limit hold em. I ended up playing for 12 hours on Thursday until 13 of us were left. We then broke for the night and play resumed on Friday at 7 pm. I went into Day 2 3rd in chips behind David "Dragon" Pham and someone else. Pham was named the 2007 player of the year for the second time is his career, so he was obviously a good player. Also remaining was Men Nguyen who has been the player of the year 3 times in the past 10 years as well as some other good players.
After we got to the final table of 10 players I doubled up the short stack of the tournament when my 66 fell to his 1010. then after going through the blinds a few times and the one blind level jump, I found myself short stacked. I moved all in with 3 players left to act with A8. Pham had 99 in the big blind, and I was eliminated in 9th place. I was pretty disappointed for a while with this result because I questioned how I played the 66 hand and because I had my eye on the $71,000 first prize, or even the 40-some for second or 30-some for third. I ended up winning 5400 for ninth, which was still good.
I also played cash games for like 2 hours on Thursday before the tourney and made like $2500.
Yesterday (Sunday) I decided to play in the $330 with unlimited re-buys LAPC event. For the first two hours, players were allowed to re-buy at any point that they were under 1000 in chips, or double re-buy if they had 0 chips. So I double rebought to start the tourney, then busted and double rebought 3 times in the first two hours. One time I lost a coin-flip (AK vs. QQ), another time I got a guy all in on the flop with 44 when I had JJ, and he made a flush, and last I gambled with J8 suited all-in preflop against two other players. At the first break they also give you the option to add-on or double add-on. I of course chose to add-on twice which is pretty much a must in these tourneys. After all was said and done, this 330 tourney was actually a $3030 for me. I knew that 1230 was the bare minimum that I would use, and 3030 was the top end of what I felt I should be using on this tournament. Anyways, it worked out because I made it through Day 1 again and into day 2 where 18 players remained out of the almost 800 that entered. This time I was 14th in chips and quite short stacked to start day two. There were many interesting hands along the way, but in the interest of keeping this post a reasonable length I made it to the top 4, where we decided to chop the prize money. I was 3rd in chips at the time and I ended up getting $87,660. This was close to second place money with was fine because the blinds had gotten very high, and soon we would all be forced to gamble a lot. I generally don't like to chop, but 4th place was 42000 and 3rd was 64000 while 2nd was 99000 and 1st was 167000. I felt that I was better than my opponents, but they were all willing to gamble, which was not good because I would have to be attempting to steal blinds very frequently. Since they were all that type of player, I didn't see an easy was to accumulate chips at this stage, so I felt that a chop was a good choice. Also, $87,660 is more than double and other single day win in my life.
All in all, it was a great day and week, but my brain is complete mush right now, as I just got back about an hour ago, and I am falling asleep. I may or may not post more about this win, but if you'd like me to post some interesting hands or anything else, just leave a comment on here, or contact me however you'd like.
After we got to the final table of 10 players I doubled up the short stack of the tournament when my 66 fell to his 1010. then after going through the blinds a few times and the one blind level jump, I found myself short stacked. I moved all in with 3 players left to act with A8. Pham had 99 in the big blind, and I was eliminated in 9th place. I was pretty disappointed for a while with this result because I questioned how I played the 66 hand and because I had my eye on the $71,000 first prize, or even the 40-some for second or 30-some for third. I ended up winning 5400 for ninth, which was still good.
I also played cash games for like 2 hours on Thursday before the tourney and made like $2500.
Yesterday (Sunday) I decided to play in the $330 with unlimited re-buys LAPC event. For the first two hours, players were allowed to re-buy at any point that they were under 1000 in chips, or double re-buy if they had 0 chips. So I double rebought to start the tourney, then busted and double rebought 3 times in the first two hours. One time I lost a coin-flip (AK vs. QQ), another time I got a guy all in on the flop with 44 when I had JJ, and he made a flush, and last I gambled with J8 suited all-in preflop against two other players. At the first break they also give you the option to add-on or double add-on. I of course chose to add-on twice which is pretty much a must in these tourneys. After all was said and done, this 330 tourney was actually a $3030 for me. I knew that 1230 was the bare minimum that I would use, and 3030 was the top end of what I felt I should be using on this tournament. Anyways, it worked out because I made it through Day 1 again and into day 2 where 18 players remained out of the almost 800 that entered. This time I was 14th in chips and quite short stacked to start day two. There were many interesting hands along the way, but in the interest of keeping this post a reasonable length I made it to the top 4, where we decided to chop the prize money. I was 3rd in chips at the time and I ended up getting $87,660. This was close to second place money with was fine because the blinds had gotten very high, and soon we would all be forced to gamble a lot. I generally don't like to chop, but 4th place was 42000 and 3rd was 64000 while 2nd was 99000 and 1st was 167000. I felt that I was better than my opponents, but they were all willing to gamble, which was not good because I would have to be attempting to steal blinds very frequently. Since they were all that type of player, I didn't see an easy was to accumulate chips at this stage, so I felt that a chop was a good choice. Also, $87,660 is more than double and other single day win in my life.
All in all, it was a great day and week, but my brain is complete mush right now, as I just got back about an hour ago, and I am falling asleep. I may or may not post more about this win, but if you'd like me to post some interesting hands or anything else, just leave a comment on here, or contact me however you'd like.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Feb 6
Today I went to commerce to play in the $540 6-handed Turbo No limit tournament in the LA Poker Classic. I knew that this would be a good tournament because the majority of players would have no clue how to adjust to a 6-handed turbo structure (assuming the had a clue to begin with). This turned out to be true and in the early stages I increased my chip stack from 2500 to 10,000. Then after all of the original players from my starting table had busted, I knew the new players would be trouble. They were 3 older men who were pretty much there to gamble. These guys pretty much put the clamps on my aggressive play which is essential in this structure with their "oh what the hell, I guess I'll call" type of thought process. I lost a couple small pots and the blinds escalated very quickly until I was short stacked and went all in after everyone folded to me in the small blind with A4. Of course the big blind had AQ and I got saddled with my second straight late but not late enough finish. I was somewhere in the 40's out of 260 and 18 got paid. Oh well, I guess I'll just win the $1560 buy-in tomorrow.
The good news is that I got there a couple hours early and won 1800 at the 10-20 NL cash game. I played really well and made a couple hands and I didn't really want to leave, but the tournament started and I had to go.
When I got home I watch Juno which was very unique and good. I then played for an hour and a half online and made $300. After I stopped I put the new update on my iphone and wrote a blog entry at the same time.
The good news is that I got there a couple hours early and won 1800 at the 10-20 NL cash game. I played really well and made a couple hands and I didn't really want to leave, but the tournament started and I had to go.
When I got home I watch Juno which was very unique and good. I then played for an hour and a half online and made $300. After I stopped I put the new update on my iphone and wrote a blog entry at the same time.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
December and January recap
I guess it's really been a while since I have posted on here, so sorry to anyone who counts on it to maintain stability in their life. I guess I'll just use this post to kind of give a catch up summary.
During my last post I was in the middle of the worst downswing of my life. On all of the forums and blogs that I read, there are always a few very good players talking about downswings, but I had never really experienced one for as long as this one. It only lasted for about the first 10 days of December, but I put in a large volume of hands, so it was probably about equivilant to how many hands I usually play in 20 days or so. It was pretty tough some of the time, but I was very proud of how I responded. By Dec. 20 I was back to even for the month, and then ended up actually having a very solid month.
I continued to play very well in January and had an excellent month. I played live 6 times and the rest was online, and I played very little the last week or so of Jan. I am going to be coaching the Laguna Beach HS JV baseball team, so I had a bunch of stuff to do for that, and I had friends visiting. I also got an XBox 360 and I've been playing a lot of Madden against my friends and online. It's nice to start the year off well.
The LA Poker Classic is going on right now at Commerce Casino and I have played in 3 of the events so far. This is one of the top 10 tournament series of the year worldwide. Like other tournament series, they start with smaller buy-ins, and end with a main event, which is a 10K buy-in for the LAPC. I played in two $540 buy-ins and a $1070. I haven't cashed yet, and the closest I came was last night in the 1060 when I busted 43rd or so and 27 places paid. The two times that I had a lot of chips in the pot were when I had AA vs. KK all-in preflop and a K flopped, and my final hand when a big stack raised preflop and I went all-in with AQ. He called with J10, which was borderline only because I didn't have a ton of chips, otherwise it would have been horrendous. Obviously a jack on the flop sent me packing. I feel like I've been playing well and I'm a break or two away from making a run at one of these. One cool thing about yesterday was that I sat next to Hevad Khan for a couple hours. He took 4th or 5th in the main event of the world series last year which was good for a million+ dollar payday. He got the most camera time of anyone by far because he acted very boisterously to put it mildly. He was actually a very cool guy and I was surprised that he instantly knew who I was when I told him my online name. Despite losing in all of these tourneys, I have been doing well in the cash games that I have been playing before and after the tourneys. I have been playing 10-20 No limit which is new to me in the last few months. I have been doing well, and feel that I'm always in the top 1-3 players at my table. With any jump in stakes you have to get used to the increase in variance. For example, one day I lost a $7100 pot and a $4600 pot and left that day up $300. Another day I went from up 1200 to down 3600 and left up 1400. these swings are the nature of the game and I know that I am not maximizing my potential is I do not play these games that I have a large edge (advantage) in. I have hardly played any online this month, so I am up a little bit for the month despite not cashing in a tourney yet.
More updates to come...
During my last post I was in the middle of the worst downswing of my life. On all of the forums and blogs that I read, there are always a few very good players talking about downswings, but I had never really experienced one for as long as this one. It only lasted for about the first 10 days of December, but I put in a large volume of hands, so it was probably about equivilant to how many hands I usually play in 20 days or so. It was pretty tough some of the time, but I was very proud of how I responded. By Dec. 20 I was back to even for the month, and then ended up actually having a very solid month.
I continued to play very well in January and had an excellent month. I played live 6 times and the rest was online, and I played very little the last week or so of Jan. I am going to be coaching the Laguna Beach HS JV baseball team, so I had a bunch of stuff to do for that, and I had friends visiting. I also got an XBox 360 and I've been playing a lot of Madden against my friends and online. It's nice to start the year off well.
The LA Poker Classic is going on right now at Commerce Casino and I have played in 3 of the events so far. This is one of the top 10 tournament series of the year worldwide. Like other tournament series, they start with smaller buy-ins, and end with a main event, which is a 10K buy-in for the LAPC. I played in two $540 buy-ins and a $1070. I haven't cashed yet, and the closest I came was last night in the 1060 when I busted 43rd or so and 27 places paid. The two times that I had a lot of chips in the pot were when I had AA vs. KK all-in preflop and a K flopped, and my final hand when a big stack raised preflop and I went all-in with AQ. He called with J10, which was borderline only because I didn't have a ton of chips, otherwise it would have been horrendous. Obviously a jack on the flop sent me packing. I feel like I've been playing well and I'm a break or two away from making a run at one of these. One cool thing about yesterday was that I sat next to Hevad Khan for a couple hours. He took 4th or 5th in the main event of the world series last year which was good for a million+ dollar payday. He got the most camera time of anyone by far because he acted very boisterously to put it mildly. He was actually a very cool guy and I was surprised that he instantly knew who I was when I told him my online name. Despite losing in all of these tourneys, I have been doing well in the cash games that I have been playing before and after the tourneys. I have been playing 10-20 No limit which is new to me in the last few months. I have been doing well, and feel that I'm always in the top 1-3 players at my table. With any jump in stakes you have to get used to the increase in variance. For example, one day I lost a $7100 pot and a $4600 pot and left that day up $300. Another day I went from up 1200 to down 3600 and left up 1400. these swings are the nature of the game and I know that I am not maximizing my potential is I do not play these games that I have a large edge (advantage) in. I have hardly played any online this month, so I am up a little bit for the month despite not cashing in a tourney yet.
More updates to come...
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