After the world series I didn't play much poker at all in July partially because I some things to do in different places, and partially because I wanted to take a little break. I thought to myself that maybe I had gotten a bit burned out for the first time, but then I realized that it's pretty natural to not be as enthused to play after playing in the WSOP. Analogy: After the Rockies finish playing in the World Series (of baseball), they probably wouldn't play as well a week later in an exhibition game. It doesn't mean that they don't love playing baseball, they just don't need to get their work in the week after playing at the pinnacle of their profession. (I'm glad I could get that Rockies analogy in because I probably won't be able to use it after this season.) Anyways, I also knew I'd be running around the country for a couple of weddings and to go back to Denver for a while. My brother got married in Cincinnati and one of my best friends got married in the twin cities area. They were both unbelievably amazing weddings as everything went perfectly in both and all guests, family, and brides/grooms had great weekends. I was the best man at my bro's, so I gave a toast at the reception which I thought I wasn't nervous for until I couldn't eat the meal they brought out because my stomach was full of butterflies.
Between the weddings I went to Denver for a couple weeks and played golf a ton and just relaxed. I played in the member/guest golf tournament at my dad's golf club and obviously won it out of 72 teams. It was really fun to win it with him for a lot of reasons with the most prevalent being that he LOVED watching me compete in anything, especially baseball, but I had never really competed on the same team as him.
I guess I also moved after my bro's wedding and before I went to Denver. I really like my new place compared to the old place, and I like the location better too. Since getting back here about two weeks ago I've really been in "health mode." This pretty much just means getting good stuff from whole foods and eating a lot of healthy food and smaller portions when at home. I've also been working out almost everyday including doing cardio everyday which I've never done before. Needless to say, this is a good thing to be doing, especially after a summer full of eating, drinking, traveling and thing of that nature that probably weren't the healthiest. I've also been playing poker a lot.
It really took me a long time in this post to start talking about poker which is kind of unusual for a blog about poker, but I'm not a good blogger (we went over that a couple posts ago) so I'll give myself a pass. I've only been to Commerce once in the past couple weeks, but I've really been getting after it online with quite a bit of success. Two sundays ago I decided to play tournaments for the first time since the big score in the Full Tilt tournament. I played about 8, and cashed two while winning one of them. I actually didn't win the whole thing, I chopped it with the guy when we got heads-up because I had played with him before and knew he was a good player. I was pretty proud of doing so well in this tourney because it was a heads-up tourney where you play one guy heads-up and then the winner goes on to play someone else. It's kind of like the NCAA basketball tournament except we were playing poker instead of basketball and it wasn't run by the NCAA. there were like 350 players, so I had to win 8 matches to get to the final match where we chopped. The reason I was proud of this one is that the field was stacked with top online pros and guys that usually play huge buy-in heads up cash games. I've been playing a lot of heads-up cash games and this pretty much verified that it's getting pretty good. First and second place were like 10k and 18k, so we chopped it for 14k. Other than that, cash games have been going well too and I've had two of my biggest online cash game days ever in the past couple of weeks, and also one of the worst. I don't really have any plans for tournaments or anything in the near future, but I'll probably try to get to Commerce more often to play live.
One thing I almost forgot that I might make another post about in a week or so, but don't hold your breath. Someone with the film production company that produces the world series of poker called me and asked me some questions and told me that I will be on the show on Sept 16 at 9pm eastern time. It should just be for one or two hands, but still the most TV time I've ever gotten.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
World Series Main Event
I got knocked out in 571st place out of 8500. Not exactly what I was looking for, but it was worth 23k, which is nice. I never really got anything going, and was below average chips for a lot of the tournament until I went all in preflop with QQ and ran into AA and KK. I was very happy how I played because I really got way less big hands than I should have in three days, so I had to earn chips the hard way for the majority of the tournament. I was involved in about 4 hands that were filmed by ESPN and significant for different reasons, so I'll be interested to see if any of them get televised.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Bad Blogger
For the past couple of weeks I have been thinking to myself that I am a really bad blogger. Not just due to the fact that I've been like a once every 3-4 weeks type of guy, but mainly because I make claims that I don't follow through with. Like, it's completely unacceptable to say in a post something like "ok I need to rest up for some huge world series of poker event where millions of $ will be on the line, and if I bust out early I'll go play some big cash games," and then not post a word for the next three weeks. If I were someone who tries to read my blog, I would at least one of the following: 1) unbookmark my blog (if it ever was) and never check back ever. 2) text or e-mail me telling me how bad I am at blogging/life because I never update during the WSOP which is basically the only poker event that anyone cares about. 3) Cut the internet at my house because I obviously don't know how to use it. 4) Stop being friends/family members/acquaintances/strangers with me.
I had been planning on making this my retirement post, but then I decided that I don't really need to retire the blog. However, from this point on, I am not going to claim to be a guy who is going to post everyday or even every week or every month. When I was in vegas from the end of may to June 18, I had the internet in my room for about 5-7 of the days, and the last thing I wanted to do at 3am after playing 14 hours of poker was to log on and write about the bad play I made to bust out of the tournament and the following 10 hours of cash games I played. I really thought that I'd be able to make posts from my iphone, but I don't think I can which made it tougher. Had I been able to do that, I could have posted every day after a tournament something like "all in preflop with JJ against someone who overplayed 99. 9 on flop, good game me." or "tried to bluff someone cuz I thought he was bluffing me. Turns out he wasn't. Back to the cash games."
With this in mind, I will now try to recap the last 3ish weeks. I already posted about my first 3 WSOP events. After that, I played in three more of those, 3 $550 tournaments at Venetian and a $1060 at Bellagio. I didn't cash in any of them, leaving me 0-10 in tournaments on the trip. I did have decent stacks in the last 2 WSOP events, the Bellagio, and a massive stack pretty late in one of the Venetians. I started to really feel like I was playing well in tournaments toward the last five after feeling like I played below my A game in 2-3 of the earlier ones. 0-10 might sound bad, but it's actually very easy to do. Since about 10% of players get paid any given tournament, an average player would cash in 1-10 that he/she played in. Given my history, I would generally cash in about 2-2.4 out of ten. I could bust out some statistics and figure out the chances that I could go 0-10 with a sample size of 10 to show the large variance, but I don't feel like it and would probably screw it up anyway.
WARNING: This post is about to take a 180 from negative to positive :)
If you had told me that in my 20 days in Vegas in June I would play in 6 WSOP events ond go 0-10 in tournies altogether, I would have thought it would surely be a losing month, and probably by a lot. In actuality, at the end of each night I was there, I was up for the trip. I absolutely killed the cash games like I never have before for this long of a time. I wasn't playing very high stakes, 5-10 and 10-20 only, while 10-20 has been my game of choice for the past several months. I ended up coming home with the amount I brought+my main event buy-in (10K)+another good chunk of cash. Considering the fact that tournament results were so poor, I was elated to have such a good trip.
I had a lot of fun there too. I went golfing once, went to the pool several times (I love the Wynn pool, even if it is 105 degrees outside), ate good food, watched a lot of sports, and played a lot of poker.
I got home on Friday the 20th I think and decided that I was just going to relax and not play any poker until I returned in early July for the main event. Sunday morning rolled around and I had nothing to do and the house was vacant. I decided that I may as well try to win a seat to the main event as I did last year so I don't have to pony up the 10k myself. I signed up for 2 WSOP satellites and I also decided to play in the big sunday tournaments on each site as I do most sundays. I got very close to a WSOP seat when I took 5th in a tournament that gave seats to the top 2. I had a nice stack, but was forced to get it all in preflop with AQ vs. a maniac with KJ. Of course I didn't win as a 62ish% favorite in that hand. I would have had a massive stack and been all but a lock for one of the two seats. Literally about 5 minutes before that hand I had busted out of the stars sunday million when I ran QQ into a guy's AA that he played very well and I busted out of that after having a very promising stack. Although that was worth $1400 (1st place was like 160k), my blood was boiling after the two consecutive bustouts from tournaments that looked so promising about 10 minutes before. I went from being on the brink of a big score to below even on the day in about ten minutes. To my credit, I took a lap around my room, kept my composure and focusing in on the one lonely table remaining on my screen: The Full Tilt 750k guaranteed (their big sunday tourney). This tourney was still quite early, not even to the money yet. I went from a decent stack as we entered the money, to a very short stack, to top 10 in chips with 200 people remaining. We widdled ourselves down to the final table where I stood 2nd or 3rd in chips. Quickly I became the chip leader and stayed that way until we were 7-handed and I got a guy all-in with 66 vs. my KK. Nothing is easy, so the 6 on the flop left me just below the middle of the pack. As blinds and antes escalated and 3 more players got eliminated, I became the short stack. At this point I was guaranteed 30k with 50k going to third, then 80k, and 132k. I got all in twice (and way behind) within about 20 minutes, but they say luck evens out and my A3 sucked out on A10, and my A10 sucked out on JJ. Now all of a sudden I was back to above average. I now started picking on one played who was obviously scarred to bust out and my stack continued to grow until I was heads-up and about even in chips. I immediately started playing very aggressively, and took a 7 million to 3 million chip advantage. My opponent was a very good player from Sweden, so I knew that he was going to try to make a move soon. After his preflop raise (which was not uncommon, he was probably raising about 30% of the hands) the flop came J 6 3 and I had J8. After he bet around 700k, leaving himself with about 1.5 mil, I really thought he would be calling my all-in raise and I would be two cards away from the win. He ended up having AA and now he had a 6-4 advantage. I got down to 7-3, battled back to even, lost 1.2 million bluffing, and then this hand came up as he was ahead 6-4. He raised, I called with 96s. flop was 9 7 3. I had raised him about 3 times on the flop after he had raised preflop so I figured that at some point he would think I'm full of it. With that in mind, flopping top pair heads up made me believe that I had the best hand here about 90% of the time. So he bet the flop, I made a small raise hoping that he thought I was full of it, and he shoved all in for what little I had remaining. He had 10 10 this time, and he held up to win the tournament.
I was very happy with how I played heads-up. I really controlled the match and I feel that it would have been over much sooner had I not been the won picking up the majority of the pots. It was fairly unlucky of me to flop top pair when he had overpairs twice, but in heads-up against a good player with blinds so high, there's no way I'm ever folding either of those hands. I would have liked to win, but I have no regrets and 80k.
I'm leaving for vegas again tomorrow to play in a free tournament that the Wynn is having for all of their players that played for 50 hours in their room in June. The top 10 players each get 10k. I don't know how many players qualified, but I hope it's not very many. After that, the main event of WSOP starts July 3. There are four day 1's, so I will play one day between July3-6 and then again on the 7th or 8th if I'm still in. For the players still remaining, everyone continues on the 9th.
PS- I know I'm supposed to spell out numbers instead of using the actual numbers, but I didn't. If it bothers you, you can cut and paste it onto word and change tham all before reading it.
I had been planning on making this my retirement post, but then I decided that I don't really need to retire the blog. However, from this point on, I am not going to claim to be a guy who is going to post everyday or even every week or every month. When I was in vegas from the end of may to June 18, I had the internet in my room for about 5-7 of the days, and the last thing I wanted to do at 3am after playing 14 hours of poker was to log on and write about the bad play I made to bust out of the tournament and the following 10 hours of cash games I played. I really thought that I'd be able to make posts from my iphone, but I don't think I can which made it tougher. Had I been able to do that, I could have posted every day after a tournament something like "all in preflop with JJ against someone who overplayed 99. 9 on flop, good game me." or "tried to bluff someone cuz I thought he was bluffing me. Turns out he wasn't. Back to the cash games."
With this in mind, I will now try to recap the last 3ish weeks. I already posted about my first 3 WSOP events. After that, I played in three more of those, 3 $550 tournaments at Venetian and a $1060 at Bellagio. I didn't cash in any of them, leaving me 0-10 in tournaments on the trip. I did have decent stacks in the last 2 WSOP events, the Bellagio, and a massive stack pretty late in one of the Venetians. I started to really feel like I was playing well in tournaments toward the last five after feeling like I played below my A game in 2-3 of the earlier ones. 0-10 might sound bad, but it's actually very easy to do. Since about 10% of players get paid any given tournament, an average player would cash in 1-10 that he/she played in. Given my history, I would generally cash in about 2-2.4 out of ten. I could bust out some statistics and figure out the chances that I could go 0-10 with a sample size of 10 to show the large variance, but I don't feel like it and would probably screw it up anyway.
WARNING: This post is about to take a 180 from negative to positive :)
If you had told me that in my 20 days in Vegas in June I would play in 6 WSOP events ond go 0-10 in tournies altogether, I would have thought it would surely be a losing month, and probably by a lot. In actuality, at the end of each night I was there, I was up for the trip. I absolutely killed the cash games like I never have before for this long of a time. I wasn't playing very high stakes, 5-10 and 10-20 only, while 10-20 has been my game of choice for the past several months. I ended up coming home with the amount I brought+my main event buy-in (10K)+another good chunk of cash. Considering the fact that tournament results were so poor, I was elated to have such a good trip.
I had a lot of fun there too. I went golfing once, went to the pool several times (I love the Wynn pool, even if it is 105 degrees outside), ate good food, watched a lot of sports, and played a lot of poker.
I got home on Friday the 20th I think and decided that I was just going to relax and not play any poker until I returned in early July for the main event. Sunday morning rolled around and I had nothing to do and the house was vacant. I decided that I may as well try to win a seat to the main event as I did last year so I don't have to pony up the 10k myself. I signed up for 2 WSOP satellites and I also decided to play in the big sunday tournaments on each site as I do most sundays. I got very close to a WSOP seat when I took 5th in a tournament that gave seats to the top 2. I had a nice stack, but was forced to get it all in preflop with AQ vs. a maniac with KJ. Of course I didn't win as a 62ish% favorite in that hand. I would have had a massive stack and been all but a lock for one of the two seats. Literally about 5 minutes before that hand I had busted out of the stars sunday million when I ran QQ into a guy's AA that he played very well and I busted out of that after having a very promising stack. Although that was worth $1400 (1st place was like 160k), my blood was boiling after the two consecutive bustouts from tournaments that looked so promising about 10 minutes before. I went from being on the brink of a big score to below even on the day in about ten minutes. To my credit, I took a lap around my room, kept my composure and focusing in on the one lonely table remaining on my screen: The Full Tilt 750k guaranteed (their big sunday tourney). This tourney was still quite early, not even to the money yet. I went from a decent stack as we entered the money, to a very short stack, to top 10 in chips with 200 people remaining. We widdled ourselves down to the final table where I stood 2nd or 3rd in chips. Quickly I became the chip leader and stayed that way until we were 7-handed and I got a guy all-in with 66 vs. my KK. Nothing is easy, so the 6 on the flop left me just below the middle of the pack. As blinds and antes escalated and 3 more players got eliminated, I became the short stack. At this point I was guaranteed 30k with 50k going to third, then 80k, and 132k. I got all in twice (and way behind) within about 20 minutes, but they say luck evens out and my A3 sucked out on A10, and my A10 sucked out on JJ. Now all of a sudden I was back to above average. I now started picking on one played who was obviously scarred to bust out and my stack continued to grow until I was heads-up and about even in chips. I immediately started playing very aggressively, and took a 7 million to 3 million chip advantage. My opponent was a very good player from Sweden, so I knew that he was going to try to make a move soon. After his preflop raise (which was not uncommon, he was probably raising about 30% of the hands) the flop came J 6 3 and I had J8. After he bet around 700k, leaving himself with about 1.5 mil, I really thought he would be calling my all-in raise and I would be two cards away from the win. He ended up having AA and now he had a 6-4 advantage. I got down to 7-3, battled back to even, lost 1.2 million bluffing, and then this hand came up as he was ahead 6-4. He raised, I called with 96s. flop was 9 7 3. I had raised him about 3 times on the flop after he had raised preflop so I figured that at some point he would think I'm full of it. With that in mind, flopping top pair heads up made me believe that I had the best hand here about 90% of the time. So he bet the flop, I made a small raise hoping that he thought I was full of it, and he shoved all in for what little I had remaining. He had 10 10 this time, and he held up to win the tournament.
I was very happy with how I played heads-up. I really controlled the match and I feel that it would have been over much sooner had I not been the won picking up the majority of the pots. It was fairly unlucky of me to flop top pair when he had overpairs twice, but in heads-up against a good player with blinds so high, there's no way I'm ever folding either of those hands. I would have liked to win, but I have no regrets and 80k.
I'm leaving for vegas again tomorrow to play in a free tournament that the Wynn is having for all of their players that played for 50 hours in their room in June. The top 10 players each get 10k. I don't know how many players qualified, but I hope it's not very many. After that, the main event of WSOP starts July 3. There are four day 1's, so I will play one day between July3-6 and then again on the 7th or 8th if I'm still in. For the players still remaining, everyone continues on the 9th.
PS- I know I'm supposed to spell out numbers instead of using the actual numbers, but I didn't. If it bothers you, you can cut and paste it onto word and change tham all before reading it.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Quick Update
I have not been able to update as much as planned because I can't figure out how to add new posts from my phone which I thought should have been very easy. I am leaving right now to play in a WSOP event right now after not playing since wednesday because my brother's bachelor party was in town last weekend. I played in two more events last week that I haven't posted about. I busted very early in both. The first one I was all in with AA vs. QJ on a J55 flop (I was 90% to win), but a jack hit the river to send me out. The other one I got all in with 66 vs. AA on a 8 6 3 flop. Again I was about a 90% favorite in the hand, but the turn and river were both diamonds to give him a flush, and I was left with almost no chips.
Cash games on the other hand have been going very well, and I have to leave right now.
Cash games on the other hand have been going very well, and I have to leave right now.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
WSOP event #2
I played in the second event of the 2008 World Series of Poker yesterday. It was the largest non-main event in WSOP history, and the 4th largest live poker tournament in history. It was a $1500 no-limit hold 'em event, which is the smallest buy-in at the WSOP. I busted out about 3 hours which was fairly standard because you only start with 3000 chips and the blinds start at 25/50 (you don't start with many chips). I wasn't unhappy at all because I thought I played well and just didn't make any hands and ran into some hands when I tried to make moves.
However, I jumped right into the cash games at the Rio and played for about 8 hours with a break in the middle to eat dinner with a friend of mine that lives in Vegas. I ended the night up 5600, which is an excellent start to the trip. I am currently in the hotel room playing in the big sunday online tournaments, and then I might go play some cash games later tonight.
However, I jumped right into the cash games at the Rio and played for about 8 hours with a break in the middle to eat dinner with a friend of mine that lives in Vegas. I ended the night up 5600, which is an excellent start to the trip. I am currently in the hotel room playing in the big sunday online tournaments, and then I might go play some cash games later tonight.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Off to Vegas
It's Thursday morning, and I'm going to be driving out to Vegas in about an hour. I'll be there until June 18 mainly playing poker. My dad is out there now for work, so I won't be playing until Saturday and I won't be playing next weekend because my brother is having his bachelor party. Other than that, I will be trying to play as much a I can handle. On Saturday I will be playing in a World Series of Poker event, and probably about 5-8 other WSOP tournaments including the main event. I will do my best to update frequently when I'm out there.
May has gone pretty well so far. After finishing up coaching in early May, I got to play live at Commerce a couple of times. Both times I had very good sessions culminating with the largest cash game pot I've ever won in my life.
Last weekend I went on a trip with 7 friends from college and had a great time. Aside from that I've been trying to get various things done because I won't be home much in the next couple months. I'm very excited for this trip, so hopefully it goes well.
May has gone pretty well so far. After finishing up coaching in early May, I got to play live at Commerce a couple of times. Both times I had very good sessions culminating with the largest cash game pot I've ever won in my life.
Last weekend I went on a trip with 7 friends from college and had a great time. Aside from that I've been trying to get various things done because I won't be home much in the next couple months. I'm very excited for this trip, so hopefully it goes well.
Thursday, May 8, 2008
April
I guess I know I haven't been updating very much when my titles are just months. I've been playing almost exclusively online for the past couple of months due to coaching baseball everyday in Laguna. I usually get somewhere between 0-3 hours per night in, but I've been spinning my wheels a bit. It's not bothering my at all like a 2+ week breakeven/losing stretch would which I'm proud of. When I decided to take the coaching job, I decided that I was ok with three months of 0 income. I knew that I would be able to play some, but not a whole lot. I guessed I got what I asked for, netting $3200 in online cash games, but I gave a lot of it back in tournaments.
I did have another close call for a seat in the WSOP main event. This time I was the chip leader with 4 left when I got it all in with 88 vs. AQ and lost. I liked my chances when we got to 4-handed, but I would have loved it if I could have gotten 3-handed with a huge chip lead. I haven't played a whole lot of qualifiers, but hopefully I'll score one before they stop running on June 22.
Speaking of June, I booked my rooms in Vegas up until the main event this week. I'll be out there May 28-June 18, then July 2-???? I'm getting pretty excited for playing in the WSOP events, and just playing a lot of live poker. I had a blast last year during this time, so hopefully I will again this year.
May has started out promising. I played 3 online tournaments on Saturday and cashed in 2 of them for a profit of 1200. I took 4th in one of them which seemed like the first final table I've made in years. However, I went 0 for 5 the next day for -1500. Cash games are going well, as I am up close to 2000 early in May. It feels like it could be significantly more, as I have gotten pretty unlucky in some big pots. It would be nice to have a good May to allow me to head to Vegas with some momentum (and money, jk).
On a non-poker related note: I have really enjoyed coaching this year. Our team started the year horribly with an 0-3 record losing all three games by over 10 runs. Since then we have turned it around and we are 10-6, and have won our league title. More important than the record is that they have gotten so much better as a team, and now instead of coming to the field everyday expecting to lose, or being indifferent, they come with a desire to win. It's tough to break a culture of losing, but these kids are going in the right direction. Also, the Laguna Beach varsity team finished at 14-15, which isn't great, but with one winning season in the last 25 years, the program appears to be on it's way up. I'm going to get some food, then head down to Laguna for our last game of the year. Hopefully we can finish it off strong.
I did have another close call for a seat in the WSOP main event. This time I was the chip leader with 4 left when I got it all in with 88 vs. AQ and lost. I liked my chances when we got to 4-handed, but I would have loved it if I could have gotten 3-handed with a huge chip lead. I haven't played a whole lot of qualifiers, but hopefully I'll score one before they stop running on June 22.
Speaking of June, I booked my rooms in Vegas up until the main event this week. I'll be out there May 28-June 18, then July 2-???? I'm getting pretty excited for playing in the WSOP events, and just playing a lot of live poker. I had a blast last year during this time, so hopefully I will again this year.
May has started out promising. I played 3 online tournaments on Saturday and cashed in 2 of them for a profit of 1200. I took 4th in one of them which seemed like the first final table I've made in years. However, I went 0 for 5 the next day for -1500. Cash games are going well, as I am up close to 2000 early in May. It feels like it could be significantly more, as I have gotten pretty unlucky in some big pots. It would be nice to have a good May to allow me to head to Vegas with some momentum (and money, jk).
On a non-poker related note: I have really enjoyed coaching this year. Our team started the year horribly with an 0-3 record losing all three games by over 10 runs. Since then we have turned it around and we are 10-6, and have won our league title. More important than the record is that they have gotten so much better as a team, and now instead of coming to the field everyday expecting to lose, or being indifferent, they come with a desire to win. It's tough to break a culture of losing, but these kids are going in the right direction. Also, the Laguna Beach varsity team finished at 14-15, which isn't great, but with one winning season in the last 25 years, the program appears to be on it's way up. I'm going to get some food, then head down to Laguna for our last game of the year. Hopefully we can finish it off strong.
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