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I Can’t Predict The Future…
Well apparently I can not predict the future. I said I was going to win the Hard Rock “Big Slick” $1k Tournament and I just busted in it about an hour ago.
The tournament didn’t go so well. You start with 5k in chips with blinds at 25/50. I won the very first pot of the day and went up to about 6200 and I was feeling good. I played around in some pots here and there and got down to about 5k and realized I needed to just be patient and tighten up. The table was pretty loose and a lot of people were seeing flops.
I hung around and hung around picking up no hands and watching the table play. I saw some monkeys lose some huge pots and do some other crazy plays and I was just waiting for my opportunity to win a big pot and get rolling. I had just1cool to my right and he is a nice guy. His name is Patrick, we chatted during the whole tournament until I busted. Hopefully he takes it down, he plays pretty well.
Anyways, I wasn’t picking up any hands and then I have about 4k at 150/300 25a and the button (an old guy limps) andjust1cool limp. I have A2hh in the big blind and I have a very good image I believe. I’ve been real tight and the older guy has been real tight. I decide to try to pick up the pot here and raise to 1300. The old guy on the button calls with about 5k behind and just1cool folds. The flop comes QJK with one heart and the old guy starts grabbing his chips like hes going to move them in. I say to him OUTLOUD THREE TIMES “Its not your turn.” and he proceeds to put his chips into the middle of the pot before I act. After he pushes them in the middle he thinks for a couple seconds and everyone is like its not your turn to act! He then is like “Oh! Sorry.” I see a lot of older guys angle shoot shit like this and try to act like they don’t know what they are doing and it really pisses me off. I try not to cuss in this blog but fuck you to all the older guys who do dumb shit like this. It really is horrible and its just fucking bullshit. So I bitch at the guy for a minute he tries to act like he doesn’t know what he just did. I decide instead of me moving in for my last like 3k I just check and then he moves in and I fold. I can’t stand people who do shit like this and it seems like older guys (like 60+) are always doing this shit and pretending like they don’t know what they are doing.
Enough complaining. I stay around 3-4k by shoving all in with AJ and 55 and then I am down to about 3300 and a guy who had been actively limping/raising limps in early position. He limped an orbit or two earlier with KK and won and showed and commented “I was hoping someone down there would shove” directed at me. Well he limped in and I looked down at QJo and thought about it and thought I would pick up the pot a lot here, since the guy limped a lot and my image was relatively good/tight. It got back to him and he called with AQ and I lost.
Just prior to this hand just1cool had asked me if it was anxious and I told him definitely not, I can still get hit by the blinds and have enough to shove. Well, I don’t think this shove is bad, because I didn’t have many chips and I thought most of the time I would get folds; but I could of waited a little longer to get my chips in the middle where it is just vs the blinds and not against a random limper who MIGHT have a hand. Oh well. I could of taken down the pot and then this hand wouldn’t even be an issue.
Overall I think I played very patiently and survived level after level in the tournament with no cards and no good spots. I actually did lose one pot when I limped with KTdd at 100-200 with like 4-5 other limpers and the flop came Q83dd and it checked around to the button who bet 400 (table chip leader), the small blind moved in for 1650 and it got to me and I moved in for 6k (I was to the right of the table chip leader) or so. I knew the CL didn’t have a big hand he had very bad betting tells and I figured 1650 for a 5k pot when I have 9 outs hopefully and maybe more with the K or T. The guy had Q9 and I had 12 outs and bricked for a 5k pot, which put me down to like 4k at 100-200. That’s really the only other significant pot I was in.
The Hard Rock is having a tournament series come up soon so I will be playing in that and it should be a lot juicier and better.
I went to the Marlins game the other night with Stu and Hans and some other people and it wasn’t that good. The Marlins got blown out by the Braves 9-0. It was fun though, we had a skybox and had a good time watching the game. Stu bet me 20k that I couldn’t run from first base all the way around the bases to home plate without getting caught/arrested by security. He knows my knee isn’t 100% yet and he didn’t think I could do it. If my knee was 100% I think I would be able to make it past all the security (about 10 or so) — if they even notice. Well since my knee isn’t 100% and I didn’t want to go to jail I had a different plan. I told him I would do it. Sometimes when I went to Marlins games they would let kids run the bases after the game, so this was my edge. I was going to run the bases with the kids at the end of the game and collect 20k, since Stu never specified when I had to run the bases, etc. Well unfortunately his brother heard of my master plan and ratted me out and Stu called off the bet =(
I’m excited about the WCOOP and FTOPS coming up and hopefully I can pull a Halfrek and win a couple tournaments and bracelets and a million dollars or something =)
Alright guys, its Saturday. Maybe I will relax tonight and get ready for tomorrow. I will keep you guys updated with everything hopefully I can have some good news after tomorrow like I won the Sunday Million or something.
David “Chino” Rheem Final 9 of ME and Other Stuff..
Yeah, that’s right! My buddy Chino has made the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event. It’s a pretty sick accomplishment. He was one of the chip leaders after day 1A and just cruised to the final table from there. He stayed with Stu for a couple days before Stu ended up leaving Vegas. Stu wanted to make sure Chino would stay out of trouble and have a clear head to continue to do well in the Main after his day 1 accomplishment. I think Stu was talking about going to watch the final table in November to sweat Chino, so we will see what happens with that. Everyone is pretty excited for him and we all want him to win it. He lost a huge pot TT vs 99 with I think eleven players left to be the commanding chip leader (with ten left.) Chino held his composure and battled back to make the final nine luckily after that. Too bad he didn’t win that pot because he would have the chip lead, but oh well, its poker.
I’ve been putting off writing this blog. I keep editing it and writing it piece by piece and never publishing it. Not much is going on around here. I am back home in South Florida and have just been working out and playing poker. I’m about to get on a legitimate schedule for playing poker and I’m going to try some different things in terms of what games I decide to play, strictly MTTs or what. I might try to start multi tabling SNGs and see how that goes for a while. This Saturday there is a big tournament at the Hard Rock Casino in South Florida that is called the Big Slick. It is a 1k buyin and it gets about 160-200 monkeys and is always a great time. I always seem to do well in it and I definitely plan on final tabling this tournament and taking it down. I wont make any guarantees but I will do my best. I love playing this tournament it is a great time.
Tonight I’m going to the Florida Marlins baseball game with Stu, Hans, and some other people. It should be a good time as long as the weather doesn’t screw it up. It was storming pretty hard at my house in the morning but it looks like its getting sunny outside once again which is good for my plans for the night. I used to play baseball when I was younger and used to enjoy going to the baseball games but I haven’t gone to a game in a long time. Hans and I went about a year ago and other than that I can’t really remember when I’ve been.
Speaking of more sports there is a basketball tournament called “The Roots” that is coming up in the next couple of weeks. Last year I played with some of my buddies from the UCF Basketball team and other guys we played with in High school and we ended up winning the tournament. This year unfortunately I cant play because of my ACL injury. It’s pretty disappointing because everyone was telling me to be better for the roots but I’m still not healthy yet to play. I will be on the bench coaching or something and hopefully we can win the tournament again. It’s a pretty big deal down here in south Florida and there are a lot of good players that play in it. A lot of college players and overseas guys and even some NBA players come and play in it. As defending Champions we better win it again.
Poker has been pretty uninteresting. I made it deep in a couple tournaments, couple little scores here and there, nothing too exciting. I might start a challenge or something soon for motivation. I tried to have a PLB challenge with Hans but he would never play enough to have a shot so I guess I cant do that. I will probably think of something for motivation to play and then write about it in here.
That’s about it I guess. I will update more frequently when I have some more to talk about.
Home In Florida and Hand With Krantz…
Well, I’m home in Florida. I am missing Vegas a little bit. Just the fact of being able to wake up and play in a big tournament everyday is pretty exciting. Now It’s back to the grind of online poker and the Hard Rock Casino Crap. I’m going to take everything in a more professional way in the next couple of months. I think I learned a lot in Vegas from other people and just different ways of thinking about the game. I learned a lot out in Vegas in general about poker and life. Hopefully I can implement everything I have been thinking about and learned.
My sleeping schedule is pretty messed up. I woke up at 5:45am this morning and went and worked out at 7am til about 9:30am with my buddy Brian. Brian is one of my best friends and has been living with me and my family since about December. He’s about to go overseas and play professional basketball which will be good for him. We played ball together in high school and that’s how our friendship started. It’s good to workout with him. He works out hard. He probably goes to the gym three times a day to lift and work on basketball drills.
About eight months ago I had ACL surgery. I completely shattered my ACL and tore both my meniscus’s. This happened last September, and I had surgery November 14th. I am still rehabbing my knee and it is still not 100%. I think one of the rehabbing places I went to down in South Florida (when I moved home from college) messed up my rehab. When I was rehabbing in Orlando for a month they were doing a lot more with me. Then I came back home and went to this rehab place here and I think they just treated me like a normal person instead of an athlete trying to get back in the game. I am going to go to the doctor soon and get it checked out again and then go to a different rehab place. I am dying to get back on the basketball court and be 100% healthy again. This injury has really taken its toll on me since the basketball court is the one place I am genuinely happy at. It is definitely my sanctuary when everything else is going wrong.
I just woke up about two hours ago. I started taking a nap around 3pm and woke up at about 10:30pm. Hopefully I can get out of the funk and start having a normal cycle which involves me waking up around 8am and going to bed around 1-2am.
I talked to Stu a little while ago and he is in Pensacola. He drove out to Vegas and is almost home from driving back from Vegas. I cant imagine driving to and from Vegas but somehow he is managing to do it. We have some work to do with poker and some other things we need to figure out when he gets back, so I’m excited to be back at home with all my friends around too.
Good luck to some of my friends that are still in the main event. Specifically Adam Levy (Roothlus online) and David Rheem (Chino). I hope they both make the final table. Adam is probably one of my best friends through online poker. I never really talked to many people from online poker but he was the first one really. I always thought trying to make friends in the online poker community would be a tough process. When you are a winning player, or winning at the time, everyone wants to be your friend and know the key to success. I have never really tried to become friends with people because I didn’t want them to think I was just after their winning poker information. I have never really been a big winner myself and a big known player in my opinion, so it’s tough to try to make friends (and just friends — not wanting anything) in the online poker community when most of the time people want something from you. I hope that wasn’t too confusing.
Anyways, I haven’t played poker in the last couple of days and will probably play tomorrow (Sunday) but I’m not sure about that either. I’ll keep you guys updated.
I guess I will introduce this hand I played over the summer with Krantz (pr1nnyraid) in the $1500 6max event. My table started with Mimi Tran and Krantz was moved to the table and HoosierAlum was there as well. Pretty tough table. Krantz had shown some bluffs when I thought it was pretty obvious he was bluffing in certain hands. I felt I had a good read on him and I didn’t know who he was at the time. He was super aggressive and I knew I had to relax since he had position on me. I had about 12k (from 3k) and he had about 15k in chips when the hand took place. I was playing tight at this point because he was squeezing often and reraising. I raised to 300 at 50/100 on the cutoff with QQ and he called on the button. The big blind called also. The flop Came Jh8c3d This flop was a good flop for me and I continuation bet 450. Krantz called and the big blind folded. The turn came the Qh and I checked to Krantz. At this point I have the second nuts. Only 9T (open ended flopped straight draw) beats me and I have no clue what he has at this point, although I know his range is huge for floating the flop. He bet 1400 into me on the turn and I decided to just call to see what he did on the river. The turn brought a flush draw as well which I knew Krantz was able to have backdoor hearts, but I wanted to see a river. The river came 2s and I was left with the absolute 2nd nuts. I checked to Krantz and he thought for a minute before saying “I guess I’m all in.” Wow. He had moved in a couple orbits before on a bluff and I went into the tank for about 30 seconds. I still had 9k behind and I know Krantz was definitely capable of having the nuts here. I wasn’t slowrolling here, but I am never folding vs this player. I just wanted to let everything sink in. I didn’t think he would fire another huge bluff into me so I thought he could definitely have it here. I figured he might play a set or two pair the same way for value, and my hand is completely disguised at this point checking the turn and the river. I decided no matter what I can never fold this and if he has it, he has it. I called and he said nice call. I turned over my top set and he mucked, saying he had outs going into the river. He commented how it was pretty advanced me checking top set twice and so forth, but I honestly don’t think there is any other way to play this hand.
Given he is capable of floating the flop with any two cards I think I have to give him the option of bluffing the turn. I could check raise the turn but I don’t necessarily want to kill my action and I don’t have the nuts. The river I was going to decide if putting in a raise for value (if he just bet) was worth it or not, but he moved in, so that killed that thought process. I didn’t think this player would run another huge bluff after he already showed a pretty big bluff, so that is why I decided to check the river. I guess in his eyes I looked like I had a very weak hand and he thought he could put me to the test with an all in bet. Given the way he had been playing I doubt I fold any sets here or two pair. He probably gets me off hands like AJ or AQ. Like I said, his all in on the river seemed very strong given he had shown a bluff earlier and we were both over 100bbs deep. It’s a pretty interesting hand and if anyone has any questions or comments just add them and I will respond. I have another sick interesting hand I have been meaning to discuss that I will post in the future too.
I Can’t Close. 80th Place At Caesar’s…
I’m writing this post as the sun is rising from my bedroom back in South Florida. It’s good to be home but its disappointing that I didn’t win any tournaments while I was out in Vegas. Being out there for the WSOP and other tournaments which have big prize pools and big money to be won is exciting because there aren’t many other places in the world where you can win money like that. It’s hard to find live tournaments that offer 100k+ to first place. Oh well. Let me first start off this blog by talking about Day 2 of the Caesar’s tournament.
Like you guys know I started Day 2 with 70k above average chips with 180k going into 2k/4k 500a. We all had new tables and my table seemed pretty good. The chip leader was two to my right and nobody looked like they would be trying to mix it up too quickly. I folded for about two orbits until the guy in second position looked like he was going to fold his hand for a while then decided to make it 12k. It folded around to me in the big blind and I looked down at A6dd. Normally this is a fold all day until I die, but like I have said in previous posts, I like to go with my reads and I decided to make it 42k. I am priced in to call his all in at this point because he has about 65k-70k behind. He thinks for a couple seconds and mucks.
A couple hands later the chip leader raises in late position and I’m one off the button and reraise his 11k raise to 33k with QKo. He thinks about it for a minute and makes it 105k and I muck. I decided to raise the chip leader because 1) He was a tight player, he wasn’t one of those chip leaders who was going to mess around and mix it up. He just played ABC poker basically. 2) I thought I had a read on him when he was raising that he didn’t really like his hand. Guess I was wrong. He said he had QQ which I believe and I kind of kicked myself after for not just seeing a flop in position, so that was my mistake.
I got moved to a new table and the blinds are now at 3k/6k. After about 4 hands I am dealt AQo in the sb and the cutoff makes it 20k. I have 140k and shove all in for 120k more. Although I am new to the table I just have to assume given the position of the raiser and my stack this is an easy shove. He mucks. The very next hand the table chip leader with about 400k-500k raises in mid/late position and I have AKdd on the button and shove for 150k more. I think the second shove looks weaker because the first guy was saying I didn’t have anything, blah blah. The chip leader thinks for a little bit and then says 150k is too much to gamble and folds AKo face up. Wow, what a great table you’re at when the chip leader is mucking AK preflop =)
I end up shoving on the button’s raise of 14k (he has 80k behind) at 3k/6k from the big blind with A4o. He tanks it for a while saying he has a “real hand raising the button” although I know this player from the day before and know his 14k raise is garbage. He shows K9hh saying if it wasn’t me he would call, lol. So apparently our history of playing the day before got me the tough K9hh laydown!
I finally pick up a monster when I look down at KK under the gun. I have been pretty tight and haven’t lost a pot yet at the new table. The table is pretty tight as well and nobody is getting too out of line. The guy to my right (in the big blind) is the most active player at the table but he has shown some hands. I raise it to 21k at 4k/8k UTG and the bb calls. The flop comes Q93 rainbow and I bet 27k, praying he has QJ or even better QK. He mucks. I almost checked this flop to get action on the turn because I don’t think he needs a strong hand to call my raise from the big blind for 13k more. I think hes in there with almost any two decent cards and he might fire the turn if I check.
Two hands later a player limps, I’m in the big blind with 8d4s and we see a flop of J23ss. We all check the flop and the turn comes the Ts. I decide this is a good pot for me to stab at and bet 13k on the turn into the two players. The first limper calls and the small blind folds. The river is the Th. At this point I’m pretty confident the limper wanted to see another spade fall on the river, and I don’t feel like he can have much here. I think he bets the flop with any piece and the only real hand I’m worried about is some random T. I bet 25k on the river and he instantly mucks. Phew. This pot was a pretty nice takedown although it was a small pot.
I don’t pick up absolutely any hands. I have a couple bad spots where I have ATo on the button and the CL is raising late position and it’s a bad spot for me to move in on him considering he has had some hands and hes raising it pretty big preflop. I also muck QK to him one time when I could of shoved, but I gave him respect as he wasn’t too active and his raises priced him in. I get down to about 100k at 8k/16k 2k ante and shove J9ss next to the cutoff. The button reshoves and turns over AsKh. The board runs out AQKddd2d6d giving us both a flush and we chop the pot.
I fold a couple more orbits and the blinds are really eating me alive. Taking 44k from my stack an orbit. I just need an unopened pot so I can shove my chips in and hopefully take the blinds and antes. It folds around to me in the hijack and I shove 85o for 91k total. The big blind has about 200k and calls instantly with A6 and I see my way to the payout table after a AK2A8 board. I received about $1500 for my cash in 80th place.
It appears like I keep getting deep in some of these tournaments but just cant seem to get on the rush or get deeper. I don’t know if I have some issues in my game in the later stages or what.
ONE INTERESTING THING ABOUT MY TIME IN VEGAS FOR THE 6 WEEKS is that I NEVER COOLERED ANYONE ALL IN PREFLOP! I never once got it in AA vs AK or AA vs KK, KK vs QQ or anything like that all in preflop in any tournament I played in. I think this statistic is pretty ridiculous and I don’t really know what to say about it. The only time I was ever all in preflop with aces the whole time I was in Vegas was the main event where I got it all in preflop AA vs …. AA! When you think of tournament poker and you are not getting in big pots with your big hands, I really think its almost impossible to win a tournament. Maybe I’m doing everything I need to do I just need some more things to go my way, or maybe I need to pick some more spots where I shove lighter over raises when my stack is getting lower or something. I will definitely be thinking my late tournament strategy play over and trying to come up with some answers.
After I finished the Caesar’s tournament, which was supposed to be my last tournament in Vegas, my buddy Steve convinced me to come to the Bellagio and play the Mega Satellite to win a seat to the Bellagio Cup 15k entry tournament. He said it started at 7pm and when I arrived around 6:50pm he told me it didn’t start til 10pm. I hung around, talked to one of the dealers who was interested in becoming a full time poker player. She lives in France but comes back and forth to the U.S. and she had a bunch of questions about being an Internet/poker professional. She was very interested and she feels like it is her time to try to make a living off poker. Good luck to you! She was a nice lady and she helped me kill about an hour while I was waiting to play in a $350 SNG to win a seat to the Mega.
The SNG was probably one of the softest SNG’s I’ve ever played in my life. Some of the players had absolutely no clue about SNG strategy and I got pretty unlucky and lost the SNG to some idiot. From then on I bought into the $1600 Mega. It had about 80 players and my table was unbelievable.
When I sat down at my table I think 4 of the players were drinking alcohol, and it was just madness. In the 50/100 level a player to my right (who said he won a million dollars in a tournament — who was a complete monkey) was calling 4k allins with A5 on QT5 boards vs QK and hitting two pair on the river. Then he would double someone else up the next hand and just shove in 2k-3k preflop. He shoved in AJ after a raise and a call and the initial raiser called off with KJ. This table was just absolutely bonkers. I ended up getting it in with KJdd on a K74dd board when one player led for 275, one of the monkeys made it 1700, and I shoved my 4k stack over his raise. The first bettor had 77 and the monkey folded 56o he said, which he would of won. I rivered a J but I needed a flush and I lost a huge pot at 50/100 that would of definitely pushed me into contention for the seat. After all of this I went home and prepared to head back to Florida.
I want to thank Steve “The Sleeze” for helping me out when we were leaving Vegas. He found a great cheap flight the night before we were leaving and helped me return my rental car and get everything else situated. When I was returning my rental car the lady inspected the car and said “Tristan what is this?” While she was back near the trunk. Now I stayed in a gated community and parked my car in a garage attached to my condo every night, and didn’t get in an accident or anything the whole summer. I am very good keeping things in good condition, especially if they aren’t mine, so my heart jumped a bit when I started to walk to the rear of the car.
I looked at the trunk and etched in the back of the car was “PANTIES OFF!!!” Someone keyed my rental car. What the hell? I flipped instantly. I was very upset. I cant believe someone would vandalize a car like that. The biggest thing that bothers me was that this company allowed me to rent a car from them without giving me a daily surcharge fee (For being under 25 which is normally like $25 dollars A DAY.) The company gave me a break when I was renting the car and saved me a ton of money and now I return it with damage. I wish I would of spotted it on my own so I could of called and told them myself, but I genuinely had no clue it happened. Now I have to pay for some idiot’s pleasure. I hope whoever keyed my car gets what they deserve since I can’t be the one to do that for them. Karma, please take care of that for me.
Here’s a picture of it. It’s hard to see from the reflection of the sun…
After I returned the rental car and that drama ended, I couldn’t wait to get out of Vegas. Me and Steve got to the airport about 45 minutes before our flight was leaving but there was literally nobody waiting to go through security and we made it well before we started to board. When we booked our flight we both got row 4, him getting the window seat, me the aisle, and the middle seat was not booked. The guy at the airport told us it was still not booked. When we were sitting on the plane we had to sweat every passenger that walked by for about 30 minutes, waiting to see if they were going to sit down in the seat. Lucky for us, we run good at anything non poker related and nobody had purchased the seat!
About an hour or so into the flight I am sleeping and some moron jumps over me and asks Steve if anyone is sitting there. Steve says “No.” (???????????????????) and the guy proceeds to sit down. What the hell Steve? You are supposed to say we bought the damn seat for extra room so nobody sits there! The guy sits down and I immediately hear some beeping. I am not stereotyping here lol, but this guy was either some Latin Origin or Middle Eastern and all of a sudden I hear this beeping. I can’t say thoughts of suicide bombings didn’t run through my mind. Haha just kidding. It was just a weird coincidence I suppose. (Him moving to our seat, then the random beeping from the row behind me or somewhere, and the mystery behind the guy who came.) This guy is obviously rude and taking up all the elbow room and his shoulders and my shoulders are touching. He jumped over two elderly people who were in the aisle about to go to the bathroom to get into the seat. My blood is boiling at this point and I’m about to flip on this guy. I wouldn’t mind if someone had a reason to try to come into the seat. It’s not like it’s my seat, so I can’t really say I should have rights over it over someone else who bought a ticket on the flight, but to move from your old seat to sit in between two people is pretty weird.
So instead of me flipping out on this guy asking him why the hell he is sitting here, I decide to make him uncomfortable so he cant sleep and I start talking really loud to Steve. He finally gets the hint and we start conversing, passing shit over this guy, I keep nudging this guy (really when he sat down I became so uncomfortable. The guy just made it seem like he was going to take the territory of all three seats and i wasn’t cool with that) and then I went up to get to the bathroom. When I got back the guy was gone. Thank god.
We landed, got out stuff, and Steve’s girlfriend picked us up and drove us home. Thanks again. Now I’m back in Florida and have a lot of work to do with poker. I have to make up for the losses over the summer in Vegas and get the ball rolling again. Stu will be back in Florida in a couple days. He drove out to Vegas so he is driving back and probably wont be home for 3-4 more days. Hopefully everything is safe with his drive back. My other buddy Hans came home the night after he lost the Main Event so I’m sure I’ll see him soon too.
It was another interesting summer at the World Series. I am disappointed I didn’t make any final tables and lost money on the trip. It was nice seeing everyone again and meeting new people and making new friends. Hopefully we all keep in touch until we are back in Vegas for next summer. I don’t know how the blog is going to operate now that I don’t have daily things to update about the poker lifestyle. Maybe I will add some more personal content or just talk about random things and hands. I have some pretty interesting hands from some events in the World Series I think I am going to talk about in future posts. One hand between me and Krantz (Pr1nnyraid) that is pretty sick that I think will make for good conversation. Til next post…
180k Going Into Day 2 At Caesar’s…
I have 180k chips going into Day 2 at Caesar’s tomorrow. It’s the Championship Event of their Mega Stack Series. The average stack is 110k and the blinds will start at 2k/4k 500a. I played very well today, kept my composure, and picked up some pots when I needed to. I guess I have some time and I’m not tired so I will write about what happened today.
We started with 25k in chips at 25/50 which was awesome. I won some pots here and there and then lost some pots and had about starting stack when I got in this big pot at 50/100. A player raised in 2nd position and I called right behind him with 99. The flop came 977dss and he bet 700. I called and the turn came the 6d. He checked and I bet 850. He called. The river came the Td and he bet into me for 1k. The flush gets there and the one card straight. I didn’t like him leading into me on the river but decided to put in a raise for value. I made it 3200. He thought for not too long and made it 7k. Immediately I know he doesn’t have quads because he wouldn’t of bet in my opinion, and he cant have 89dd for the straight flush since I am holding the 9d, so its either TT or the flush or 66. Well anyways, I know he has TT. I tell him “I Know you have pocket tens what a sick river… But I cant fold” and I throw in my chips knowing he has me beat. He turns over TT and I lose the pot and lose about 10k in chips.
I was just going to call his 1k river bet but with these players you just never know if they will pay you off with the nut flush or anything, so I wanted to raise for value. I even told myself, if he reraises me again I have to fold, but still called. I really need to work on folding big hands when I know I’m beat. Players like that will never bluff there although he said he would of done it with the flush lol. Anyways.
An orbit or so later I pick up KK and raise a limper to 400. I get reraised by a guy in the small blind or big blind to 1150 and decide to just call. I have about 15k he has 30k+. The flop comes 963 rainbow and he fires 1500. I just call. The turn comes the Th putting two hearts up and he checks. I decide this is a good spot to just pick up the pot or put in an extra bet and bet 2200. He instantly moves in and I tank it for a while and muck. This guy wanted to play back at me all day and was talking about how bad and aggressive young Internet players are and this and that. He was a pretty miserable guy at first saying people didn’t know how to play this and that. He had a bunch of Ultimatebet stuff on I told him I would never play on their site again because of him!!!! Hahahaha… I’m funny. I could go on about this guy and our banter but I’ll leave it at that.
I’m down to like 13-14k and one guy limps for 200 at 100/200. One guy limps for 200 and I look down at AKcc and decide to mix it up and I limp as well. I was hoping someone would reraise preflop so I could get in a 3rd bet. Theres about 4 to the flop and the flop comes Q84cc and the initial limper bets 1200. I figure my hand is pretty disguised and huge here and I want to take control of the pot to maybe get a free card on the turn if needed so I make it 3600. The guy who bet instantly moves in! Wow. I have about 10k behind and I’m not folding. I call. He flips over QK!!! He just snap moved in with QK not even thinking if he could be behind. If he had QJ I would be about 50/50 but I’m a dog on the flop vs his QK. The turn comes the Jh giving me 4 more outs and I river the 7c for the flush. The guy is steaming and cant believe it and moves all in blind the next hand for 6k before the table breaks. It felt good to double up back to an above average starting stack. I was now at about 30k.
I get moved to another table and am up to about 34k when an asian lady made it 3200 at 200/400 I look down at QQ and just call in middle position. The cutoff calls too and the flop comes 783. The asian lady checks (which is what I wanted to see) and I bet 4400. The old guy calls and the other lady folds. The turn comes the 9 and I feel like I either need to shove all in or check, betting just wont cut it with about 27k left and already 20k in the pot. I decide I might be beat here so I check to him and he instantly checks too. The river the comes J and I check again. At this point I cant beat anything he could call with on the flop and he instantly bets 10k and I instantly fold and he shows TT. Nice hand. I don’t think I played this hand bad, just careful. Who knows if he folds the turn but it just ran out bad for me I suppose.
At 300/600 I raise to 1600 with AJdd in middle position. The button makes it 4k after contemplating just calling with about 16k behind. I had one of those feelings I get at the poker table where I just cant fold and decide to call. The flop comes 856 with one diamond and I check to him. He bets 5700 with 10100 behind. He seems really nervous and he is practicing some tells that I realized I do when I’m bluffing. So I go with my read and move all in on him (putting him all in) and he mucks pretty quickly, so that was a nice pickup.
This pot is probably one of the sickest of the day. Fratboy 24/7 is two to my right but he was playing pretty straightforward at the time and he limps in middle position for 800 and i limp for 800 with 66 along with 2 other limpers. The flop comes T86ss and the sb leads for 3300. I make it 7500 and the guy to my left instantly moves in for 11k. The sb tanks for 2-3 minutes and sticks in his 12k. I get counts and obviously I cant ever fold, although I think the guy to my left flopped a set, and I call. The sb flips over JTdd for top pair, the guy to my left flips over 67ss for a pair and a flush draw. Wow, awesome! Pair the board!!! The turn comes the 5h giving the guy to my left straight/flush draws and the river comes the Jh and I scoop a 35k or so pot to move up to 78k.
Another guy gets moved to the seat to my left and he gets down to 10k when this hand comes up. I look down at JJ and he moves in for 10k before its his turn to act. I decide to still raise and make it 2200. He still moves in for 10k with 67hh and I hold up to win a nice pot.
Probably the worst pot of the day comes up at 800/1600 when fratboy raises to 4200 the guy to his left (my right who was tight calls) and I look down at KK. I make it 14200 and fratboy tanks it for a little bit and calls 10k with 50k behind. I have about 70k behind at this point. The flop comes AQJss and he checks. I get in this situation a lot and sometimes I bet but any hand he could possibly call my reraise with HAS TO HIT THIS FLOP. I could represent AA and bet like 8k something small that seems weird but I check. The turn comes the 3d and Fratboy instantly moves in for 50k. I instantly fold. This is another one of my mistakes. I don’t think about the hand and what he could have I already assigned a range and saw what a horrible flop I received for my KK and gave up on thinking out the hand. He showed the 6s and mucked the other card. So I’m assuming he called with like 67ss or 69ss something like that and bluffed shoved the turn with the flush draw. Would he really move in with AA QQ or JJ there on the turn? Definitely not. I think I should of thought about it and called or folded, but at least thought about it. His play just makes no sense for a made hand especially if I could have AA but I guess he just assumed since I’m an Internet player I was squeezing with air, but I played pretty solid and tight at his table so he got rewarded for a bad play (calling preflop.)
I brushed that hand off and got moved to another table and managed to go from like 65k to 45k and then down to 33k at 1k/2k. I played some standard hands where I shoved 33k on the button with 44 into the blinds and picked up 6k. Then another reshove when a guy limped under the gun, a shortstack moved in for 10k and I reshoved 45k with KTo and the utg limper folded. The shortstack flipped over KT and we chopped and the UTG limper had 55 which he would of flopped a set so he got pretty steaming since I shoved (realistically 8k to win 30k) all in over his limp.
So I am pretty short at about 45k or so and raise the hijack with KJo (black.) The button, sb and bb all call. I made it 5300 at 1k/2k. The flop comes J46dd and sb and bb check and I bet 12k with 27k behind. The button immediately calls (like he did in an earlier hand with a flopped set) and the blinds fold. The turn sucks. Its the 7d and its up to me to act. I decide there is already too much money in the pot and the fact that he could have JT, QJ or an underpair are still there and I cant give up and shove. The guy tanks for literally 5 minutes, and Im talking trying to get a call, although I don’t want to sweat a diamond. He is about to muck he extends his hand to the dealer and I tell him “You show me your hand I’ll show you mine” and he immediately says he didn’t muck! And he thinks for a little bit more. I call the clock on him and he ends up folding what he said was 99 or something, no diamond. He said he had 2 outs. Oh well, almost got a call!
So I worked my stack up to about 80k and I’m feeling a lot better. I pick up a couple hands here and there and I’m raising a little more and then I get JJ on the cutoff. I go to raise and the sb comments about how I’m always raising the cutoff. I kind of smirk and just go on with my raise to 5300. The big blind doesn’t really think about it and makes it 42k (4 orange chips on top of his 2k blind.) This is a huge reraise, I talked about these earlier in a previous blog but this isn’t the same situation as a guy making it 10x the bb with KK or AA preflop. I don’t really think I have fold equity but I think my hand is good and I decide to move in. He calls with AK and the door card is the Ace of spades. Man, it sucks to run bad in huge pots… But luckily I ran good in this flip since the Jc was the 2nd card on the flop! He’s drawing dead on the turn and I win a 160k flip, YES!
After thinking about this hand a little more I think I should fold. He said he didn’t think I was that big with my hand but that’s irrelevant although it was in my mind at the time. I think this is a fold because I am only ever racing. I doubt he ever ever ever does this with TT but definitely QQ-AK so therefore I got lucky and won the flip. I have to be better than that to get 80k in at 1/2k better than 50/50. But luckily I won this flip and will have to rethink my thoughts on this hand later.
I won a couple small pots here and there and ended the day at 180k. The average is 110k and there are like 230 players coming back tomorrow where I think we will play down to the final table. First place is around 270k I believe. I need to win this tournament. Hopefully everything goes my way and I can avoid any huge suckouts. I got screwed in a couple pots where I had huge hands today so hopefully it works out the opposite tomorrow. Although I got unlucky in some pots I always lost the minimum which was nice.
Anyways I’m about to go to sleep and get some rest and try to take tournament down tomorrow. I’ll keep everyone updated.
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One more thing last minute. An Internet player who I believe is AllinAt420 was making a pretty big jerk out of himself tonight. He was at the table behind me and I heard him arguing with the dealer, which is no problem. Maybe something happened at the table. He said something like it was the third or fourth dealer mistake, OK. I don’t really know him at all aside from a chat in a tournament online but what really bothered me was when we finished the night. Everyone was up from their seats and causing a lot of noise and the floor was telling everyone to sit down and shut up so we could go over the bagging process. This is a $1k tournament. I’m sure some people are amateurs and never bagged their chips before.
Well the guy who I believe (which I think I just confirmed by googling his name) starts flipping out that the floor shouldn’t be taking this long to get the bags to the tables. Someone from my table screams at him and they scream back and forth for second and the floor gets on the PA and tells us what to do. After the floor tells us the instructions Matt screams “GET A BETTER SYSTEM!” or something along those lines. He just seemed like a total idiot and I felt bad for him.
Like I said, I don’t know him personally, he might be a good guy, but tonight he made himself look bad. If he had a problem he could professionally talk to the floor afterwards and maybe help them devise I better strategy. I just think its stupid to try to single yourself out in a situation like that. It just looked really bad for him to me at least and I don’t know if maybe that’s one reason some of us Internet players get a bad name for actions like this. Maybe if I see him or we are introduced or something he can explain himself. I’m not sure exactly what went on previously with the floor or anything so maybe he has a good explanation. Anyways, I just thought that was pretty crazy and couldn’t believe he was acting like that. He had chips it appeared so maybe that had something to do with it =)
Okay I’m done now, I could write some more about all this but that’s good. Goodnight.
Tristan Must Wade ‘Til Next Year
Tristan Must Wade Til Next Year was the title of an article on pocketfives explaining my bustout hand and Hans and Stu thought it was hilarious, so I decided to share it with everyone haha. It’s pretty disappointing when you go over to your friends house after you lose the biggest poker tournament in the world and he is laughing at you saying you must WADE TIL NEXT YEAR! (Thanks a lot Hans…) It’s alright though.
I played alright, I cant say I played great. One thing I discussed with all my friends who played already was the fact that you don’t have to bluff. These guys are very inexperienced for the most part in this tournament and they will give you their chips in spots where they shouldn’t even be involved in. So having said that, I decided to run a big bluff.
Two players from the table had already busted. One guy put in about 17k on a flop of T62dd with A4dd vs TT and the TT held up. I was so shocked the guy just moved in for 17k at 50/100 after facing a 3300 bet with just a flush draw. Another hand a guy put it in with AK on a KQJ9ccc board vs AKcc. The guy with AK no clubs bet 7k on the turn (into like a 5k pot) and called off his last 12k with AK drawing dead. Jeez.
So after seeing these players make some horrible plays, this hand comes up. I am up to about 23k in chips and the blinds are 50/100. I raise the hijack with AsKd and the cutoff calls, the sb calls, and the big blind who just knocked a player out earlier (the guy who had AKcc) raises to 1500. I think for about a minute, think about just mucking, but decide if I call I will probably be heads up with position and I can re-evaluate. His raise was pretty big and I didn’t think he would raise that much with such a strong hand like AA or KK. I figured he had JJ, QQ or AK and decided I can beat all those hands with position and call. The flop comes JTss7d and he leads for 3k. I decide to peel a card and see what he does, considering if he has AK he will have to check a bad turn. The turn is the 2d and he decided to check. I don’t think there is much value in me betting here or bluffing on this card, and I think if he had KK or AA the turn is a safe card for him to fire again, as most inexperienced players might bet again. I check as well and the river comes the 9s. Basically everything gets there on the river. I have the Ace of spades, an 8 makes a straight, QK makes a straight, and the flush gets there. He checks again and I think about what I should do. I wasn’t in the pot initially to bluff, but after he checked the turn and river I didn’t want to check and maybe split the pot with AK. I have the nut blocker and I decide to bet 7k, thinking he really cant call here since I have only shown down the nuts so far.
The guy goes into the tank and starts saying he knows I have it. Great. Of course I have it! He says he has a set and he starts thinking about it more. In reality a set here is the same as QQ, KK or AA because the hands I’m representing can all beat a set or just one pair, so that is irrelevant if he has a set or not. Apparently he didn’t know this and decided to call after thinking for a couple minutes. I said nice call, showed my hand, and he said Wow! Great bet. I almost folded!!! Almost doesn’t count in poker and he raked in the pot.
I went down to about 12k and was pretty sickened at this point. I had just gotten caught in a bluff for a big pot and I had discussed already NOT TO BLUFF! Oh well. I felt like at that given point in time I had to stab to win the pot, and I was wrong. It’s poker. I then lost two big pots to runner runner flushes who got there and was down to about 2400. This brought me back to my main event two years ago when I was down to 3k at 100/200 and panicked. I got up to 7k and then shoved 67o from the big blind after 8 people limped (to pick up the 2k dead out there or so with antes) and one limper had AK and called. That’s how I lost two years ago because I panicked and shoved in 7k at 100/200. That was horrible.
This year I decided to keep my composure and battle. At 100/200 UTG raised to 600 and got two callers. I made a comment that this might be my hand to shove in here with so much money in already and looked down at AA. Wow, what a gift! I shoved in for 1800 more and UTG reraised to 6k almost immediately. ****NOW Let me tell you guys something really quickly. THIS WHOLE TIME I HAVE BEEN IN VEGAS I HAVE NOT GOTTEN IT IN PREFLOP WITH AA AND WON! I have not coolered anyone AA vs AK or AA vs KK or anything like that, its been pretty sick. I have either never gotten action with AA preflop or I lost with it preflop.**** Anyways, it is isolated and UTG flips over…. AA! Wow, great we have the same hand! We end up chopping the pot and I go up to about 3k or so.
I grind and grind, I double up TT vs 99 and grind some more. I then get shortish again and get it in AJ vs 66 after 3 people limped and I shoved AJss in the sb at 150/300 for 3400 more and won the flip. I’m feeling good now I’m up to about 8k and then go back down to about 5k after this one guy couldn’t fold on an air flop to my reraise when I held AQss. He put me all in on the river and showed a card that didn’t connect, so that hand didnt make much sense and I’m not sure what the guy was doing, but he was trying to outplay me every hand I was in.
I got back up to about 9k and was feeling good since I had 30 bbs now approaching dinner break. I raise with A9dd to 800 at 150/300 and the button calls. The flop comes QQ8dd and I decide to bet 1200. He instantly makes it 3k. This guy got caught in a bluff earlier when he bet 3k and I decided to reshove my last 5450 thinking he can fold almost anything that’s not a Q. I shoved and he had QJ and I bricked. I turned the As and had 2 more extra outs going into the river but I didnt hit. That pot would of gotten me back to starting stack with refound life and I probably would of been able to make a good comeback but it wasn’t meant to be.
So that’s my main event this year. There were some other hands but I’m pretty disappointed. I had been playing awesome up until the main event and was really excited coming in but I blew it. I’m not sure how much longer I will be staying in Vegas. There are still some good tournaments going on in Vegas so I will see what I’m going to do. I am ready to head back home but I still want to win a big tournament while I have a chance to out here. I’m going to go to the gym and work out some stress. Good luck to everyone else who is still in the Main Event. Hopefully one of my friends I have a piece of can win it and save me haha.
The World Series is Summer Camp for Grown Men…
The World Series of Poker is summer camp for grown men. You can quote that from nobody else but Stuart Paterson. He is the best, honestly. There aren’t many people in life that have a sense of humor like him. If you don’t know him personally and haven’t hung out with him its hard to catch onto his humor. Once you get to know him he will attack you, so be careful giving him too much material. I give him a ton of material so he always cracks on me pretty well.
Anyways, He is completely right in his statement. Stu, Hans, David “Chino” Rheems, and I were all hanging out at Stu’s and he said that no matter what, every summer we will be back in Vegas playing in the WSOP. I’m pretty sure he’s right. Even if we aren’t all still playing poker full time I think we will always make it back to play some events, the main event, or just to meet up with everyone again like last summer. Some of our friends live in different parts of the country but we all make it back to Vegas when the time comes for the WSOP.
It has been pretty exciting living out in Vegas for the last 5 weeks. I take everything for granted sometimes and wish I didn’t. It’s hard to be positive and happy all the time and realize how lucky you are when you play a game that has so much disappointment. Realistically you aren’t supposed to win in poker. That bothers me because I always want to win. I will continue to do my best with my chosen occupation and try to come to terms with the game and accept everything involved in the poker lifestyle. I think that is one of the biggest factors in being successful. You have to realize what you are involved in and keep a level head.
I played the Bellagio Cup 2k and played good once again. I got pretty deep being shortstacked the whole way and lost a flip nearing the bubble. It feels good to be playing well and getting deep consistently in tournaments. I think I had to adjust to the live pace and that is why I have played better than I was playing when I first got out here. I am definitely more confident as well. The blog also helps because I have to come back and face the world in what I do right or wrong in any given tournament.
Aside from the Bellagio Cup I dedicated a day to playing SNG’s and played three and didn’t do very well in any of them. I lost a couple flips and then bricked a 17 outer in my last one. I probably should of played the hand differently but I had been running pretty bad in the previous two SNG’s having no chips. I decided to gamble with my open ended straight flush draw to win a huge pot and lost. I think it was bad SNG strategy but If I would of won the pot I would of been able to get heads up pretty easily probably.
The Main Event is here and the buzz is crazy. I remember last year being pretty exciting getting deep in the Main, but I think this year its going to be even more insane. I am playing tomorrow and went to the Rio tonight to register and the Rio was packed. It could just be because it is Saturday, but regardless it was pretty hectic in there. I am excited for the poker to be played and am going to stay positive and hope I can outdo my performance from last year. It would be pretty exciting making the final table and being able to dwell on that for three months before you had to play it. I disliked the idea of postponing the final table but you have to adjust to the rules and the tournament and still try to win, even if it would be three months later. It seems pretty interesting how much marketing and advertising you might be able to sell if you are one of the final nine and have a shot to win the Title.
The goal is to go into the final table with the chip lead and make a million off advertising. I would wear a million patches like Nascar drivers, and maybe even sport a face tattoo like Mike Tyson if a company paid me enough. =) Just kidding. The main event is a marathon not a sprint, I learned that last year. I will take it one day at a time and hopefully I can be fortunate enough to have a shot to get deep and maybe make the final table. That would be awesome.
I just got out of the gym and its about 3am. I might wake up and work out before the main event I’m not sure yet. I need to do well in this tournament. I will probably head back to Florida if this doesn’t go well. I don’t know if I will stay and play the Bellagio tournaments or what.
Other than poker, Hans and I went out last night for the 4th of July and relaxed a little. It was nice to go out since he hasn’t really gone out and not many of my friends like to go to clubs and relax. Its pretty amazing to stand on the top of one of these buildings like the Rio and look out over on Vegas. Some of my poker friends have left Vegas or were leaving last night, so it was also good to meet up with them and see them before they left.
Alright guys I guess I’m going to try to get to sleep and get ready to make a run in the main event. I will update the blog throughout the days with hands and other interesting tidbits of information. Hopefully I have a lot to write about over the next week or so =)
WSOP Ending…
I played the $1500 Horse and the $1500 Limit shootout and the fields were horrible in both. The horse people had no clue how to play some of the games and in the limit shootout people didn’t know how to fold, bet, or anything. One guy was trying to bluff at every pot lol. Its limit, are you a moron? The same guy was 3 betting me on flops with gutters and getting there. Good job kid.
Those events didn’t go so well. I played good in both of them but with the small stacks and aggressive blinds, losing a couple pots hurt. Horse I got screwed in a couple big pots to monkeys and the same thing happened today in the limit shootout. I typically don’t play limit but I think I had a HUGE edge over my table today. The only one who played good at the table was Cyndi Violette. Hopefully she won the table and advanced because it would be a disgrace if she didn’t make it. I busted 4th at my table after losing a couple brutal pots. I had KK get cracked twice, JJ cracked, A5 vs KJ on a 33T3 board after I fire the flop and the turn, cracked. It was just a weird tournament and I didn’t pick up the pots where I was a big favorite in. Oh well. That means all the luck is being saved up for…. THE MAIN EVENT!!!
I have just been hanging out besides playing poker here and there. One of my friends from Florida is in town for a couple days on business, so I got to hang out with him a little bit and show him parts of Vegas I have been familiar with. He said he wanted to eat some Italian food, so I took him to Cafe Martoranos and he really enjoyed it. Hopefully some of my other friends can make it out here sometime before I leave. If I make the final table of the Main Event I will get all my friends and family out here for a huge party. You can take me up on that lol.
Tomorrow I will probably be playing the $2k Bellagio Cup Event at the Bellagio Casino. Hopefully that goes well and then I will play the Main Event on Friday, or Saturday. I’m pretty sure they will have three day 1’s this year but I’m not sure. If I win the Bellagio 2k I will party the night of the win, take the next day off, and play the main event. That’s the plan. That’s whats going to happen.
Congratulations to Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson for 2nd in the WSOP 2k I got deep in. He got screwed heads up all in preflop AA vs AT for the bracelet and then lost QJ to AK. I felt pretty bad when I heard how he got it in to knock the guy out and win the bracelet. Anytime you get it in with aces and you lose sucks, but heads up for a bracelet and 300k more, that must really hurt. I cant imagine how that would feel. If I never have to experience losing a tournament heads up all in preflop with aces I will be a happier person lol. But I guess there is a flip side to that, if you get heads up enough you are bound to lose with aces, so maybe I want that to happen sometime =)
Also Congratulations to Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi for 3rd place in the 10k PLO Tournament that Rob Mizrachi won last year.
I will write a better blog when I have a specific topic to talk about and I don’t ramble on. Poker, poker, poker. That’s all that I’ve been up to. I’m still at the gym everyday and hanging out with the friends so those things haven’t changed. We are all ready to go back home after giving these tournaments a last effort. Hopefully the good play continues on and i can finally piece together a full tournament. Goodnight everyone.
46th Place In The WSOP 2k.. =(
Alright, first off, let me say I think I played awesome. I came into the day at 24,000 in chips with the blinds being 800,1600 200ante for the first 30 minutes. I immediately started chipping my way up when I had an online player with 90k to my right. He raised on the hijack one time to 4400 and I shoved 88 for about 20k more and he was forced to fold. I worked my stack up to about 60k from winning pots without showdowns and then I lost a 30k flip when a player moved in for 12k at 1000/2000 200ante and I called in the big blind with AJ and he had A5 and turned the 5. After this pot I was back down to about 40k or so.
Now at 1k/2k blinds I definitely wanted to have more than 40-50k in chips. I was down about not having 90k (if I would of won the AJ vs A5.) I tried not to let it bother me and then this hand came up. It folded around to me in the small blind and I raised with 99 to 5200 at 1k/2k. The big blind called (I had been active all around the table so I didn’t think he would give me credit for a hand here.) The flop came Q35ss and I bet 6600. He called and then turn came the 4d. I don’t like when he calls the flop but my hand is pretty strong in this spot, considering he thinks I have nothing in my opinion, and I think he raises the flop with a Q. I check to him and he instantly bets 8k. I have about 27k total at this point and go into the tank. My feel for the situation is basically this guy doesn’t have anything, and I decide to shove in for 18k more. He folds pretty quickly and I chip up again with no showdown.
A couple hands later I am faced with a tough decision when Kirill Gerasimov makes it 5500 preflop in third position at 1k/2k and the guy next to him moves all in for 31k total. I am on the hijack and look down at JJ. The guy who moved in moved in pretty fast and had been moving in a couple times but I didn’t think he would do this really weak. If I called his all in I would be left with about 25k or 20k. So basically it was a huge call/shove if I was going to play the hand I had to be absolutely sure I wasn’t crushed. Well, since I wasn’t sure, I decided to muck. It got back to Kirill after I thought for a couple minutes and he thought and mucked a smaller pair. The guy went to muck and flashed an ace that Kirill saw. Its most likely this guy had AQ or AK but he might of had Aces as well. I’ll never know and I don’t care.
I get moved to a new table and the table seems alright. I sit around and watch for an orbit or so and realize its a pretty easy table. I open a couple pots and then this hand comes up. UTG Raises to 9k at 1500/3k (this is the first hand this guy has played in a couple orbits) and I look down at QQ on the button. I think about it for a while and no way I can ever fold here or just call, so I shove all in for about 50k more. He tanks it with AQ and mucks.
Just a couple hands later an online player shoved in 23k in 3rd position and it got to me in 6th position and I looked down at ATdd. I thought about it for a while, and with 4 people still to act behind me, I figured this guy had to shove a lot of hands, and I decided to call. He had QTo and I won and moved up to 120k.
I get blinded down a little bit and have about 110k to start this hand where I raise to 7800 on the button with 33 (blinds 1500/3000.) The small blind thinks for a little bit and makes it 20k. It gets back to me, I ask him how much more he has, he has 71k for 91k total and I started the hand with about 105k. I have him covered by like 15k and I shove on him. He folds pretty quickly. This hand was a huge turning point for me because I went with my read and wasn’t scared to lose. I need to follow through with my instincts more because they are normally right in these situations (Like with the 99 earlier.)
I get moved to another table once again with Akat11 and g0lfa (online guys.) In my first couple of orbits I pick up AA, KK, and QQ with no action. Wow. I still have yet to cooler anyone this whole trip, like AA vs KK all in preflop. Oh well. I am about 160k at 2k/4k when the cutoff makes it 14k with 38k behind. I look down at KJo in the big blind and decide to shove on this guy. I definitely thought he could fold and I honestly didn’t think he was that strong once I asked him to count out his remaining chips. He called pretty quickly. Uht oh. I turned over my KJ and he turned over 22. Wow. How did he call? The board runs out QQ38A and he doubles up and wins about a 120k pot. I go down to about 110k after this and I was shocked that he called/I didn’t win with that flop/situation. Oh well.
Roothlus (another good online player) is then moved to the table and all three of them are on my left, ouch. I just hang around with nothing interesting and make it to the dinner break. Roothlus, Akat, and I all went to eat dinner on the dinner break at this BBQ at the Rio. We talked about some poker and just the table and how things would play out when we got back from break when the blinds went up to 3k/6k 500a. Me and Roothlus both had about 100k and Akat had 350k because he coolers the shit out of people religiously. Honestly, lol. UTG raises, he calls on button with KK, big blind shoves AKdd, UTG Reshoves QQ and Akat calls and wins a huge pot and eliminates two players to get all his chips (He plays well too =).) Anyways, we eat, Akat loses Credit card Roulette, and we go back to the tournament.
A couple hands back I raise to 14.5k on the cutoff with AJ and g0lfa shoves on me for 90k. Roothlus then reshoves in the big blind instantly. Wow. I muck and g0lfa flips over Ad9h and Rooth has AKcc. The flop comes K63dd and Roothlus is in sick shape to win a pretty big pot. The board comes running diamonds and g0lfa doubles up and sucks out nasty on roothlus. Roothlus was pretty upset, because he knows I’m not raising light there with my stack, and was pretty pissed g0lfa shoved in a9 there and sucked out obviously. Roothlus busts the next hand on a steal and now both the guys to my left have chips.
I hang around, shoving here and there, picking up zero hands and no chips. I blind down to about 80k at 4k/8k 1k ante with about 50 players left. I’m picking my spots to stay above 80k and I get down to about 60k and it folds to my sb. I look at the Ah and don’t bother looking at my other card and move all in. g0lfa shows the 3c and mucks. I look at my other card and it was the Ks, for AKo. Ouch. I wish someone would have raised.
I still have 80k in chips and we are playing 7 handed. I look down at ATo in the hijack and shove all in. It folds to the small blind and he instantly calls. Shit. There is 0 chance I am ever good here. I thought he was going to flip over QQ for sure. He turns over 88 and I’m in a great spot to double up to about 180k chips and have a shot to compete for this title. The board comes K25K6 and his 88 holds and I am knocked out in 46th place, for $11,400.
It’s really frustrating when you play really well, make a ton of correct decisions, and lose a couple flips. I don’t mind losing one flip if I win the next one. They are called coinflips for a reason, right? But oh well. You cant lose coinflips late in a tournament like that and expect to have a shot. You can lose one but you cant lose a couple if you don’t have the chips to support it. I was pretty handcuffed after I became a shortstack, because I couldn’t really splash around and chip up and the KJ vs 22 pot really hurt because that took away all my leverage.
OH WELL. OH WELL OH WELL OH WELL~!!!!!!! I am sick of being a failure, haha. Just kidding, its just the nature of tournament poker. You fail forever and then finally win.
After I busted I went to PF Changs with Stu and his mom and that was awesome. I had lettuce wraps which is by far my favorite thing there. I wanted to go out tonight but nobody really wanted to do anything so I’m just going to finish this blog and then goto sleep. Last night I went to Kaizen (sushi place) with Roothlus and his 2 friends. Stu, Hans, Rob Miz, Louie and some others met us at Kaizen and we had a lot of fun messing around and talking crap. Slowly one by one Stu, Hans, Louie, Me and others left the table and went outside and left Rob with the bill. LOL. He had absolutely no clue we were just leaving one by one and he was there alone with one of his buddies and realized we all left and he had to pay. Hahahahahahaha. It was pretty messed up what we did but Rob is the man so he wont mind.
I might play the $1500 Horse event tomorrow. I really enjoy horse but I don’t know If I will pass up playing online to play it. I’m pretty pooped from the 2k and every time I start a new tournament it seems like forever until you get deep into it. I was really hoping to make the final table but it wasn’t meant to be.
Alright, I think I’m about done writing. This blog has gotten pretty long. On an ending note we had the creator of the Television shows “Moment of Truth” and “Next” at our table (when it was Akat, me, g0lfa, and roothlus) and I got involved in a pretty serious discussion about him and his show. I remember watching it a couple of times with my family and realizing how loaded the questions were such as: “Do you think you are a better father than your father?” I basically got on the guy about having questions with no distinct answers and he argued that people over complicate things when they are really black or white. I told him that’s not really true, such as you could have a question: “Do you think you ever cheated on your wife?” If I think cheating is intercourse, and someone else could think going on a date with a co-worker to dinner while there is an attraction is cheating, the question has different meanings.
We discussed back and forth, he commented that he can READ people VERY WELL IN REAL LIFE and he started telling me about myself. Like the fact that I enjoy arguing with authority. I don’t really know how he is an authority there, but whatever. First Impressions and assumptions are funny. I was just interested in his show and the reasoning behind it and everything. I also discussed the validity of Lie detectors and one of the players talked about how he had to take a lie detector test before and completely told the truth and it said he failed. -Shrug- You could tell the creator of the show was offended at first I think, but I was more interested about the show and talking to him about it than trying to attack him. Psychology is a great thing. On the flip side we talked about how the show could destroy relationships and then to make the guy feel better I said that the show could help a couple financially if they win money and also allow them to clean the slate and possibly mend a broken relationship.
Okay lol, I’m done. My mind wanders sometimes so I will really end this post here. Workout tomorrow, win a poker tournament, write a new blog (trying to update daily) — all on the agenda for tomorrow.
Short Going Into Day 2 of the WSOP 2k..
Basically I have 24k going into Day 2 of the WSOP 2k event that started today. It started with 2300 players and we played down til the money tonight (198 left.) It’s cool to make the money but ONCE AGAIN I LOSE A HUGE POT ON THE BUBBLE!!! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME/THE BUBBLE? This hand I probably misplayed, well most definitely, but at the time I thought I was playing it how I should. Anyways…I just got back from dinner at Kaizen with Roothlus (adam), stu, hans, Rob Mizrachi, Louie, and a couple other people we know. Kaizen is always awesome and its great to have a spot you can go to at just about anytime during night or day and get a good meal.
I would write about some of the hands and the bubble hand and everything but I am dead tired and am going to get some rest. Going to wake up early to work out and get a haircut since I don’t have to play til 2. Hopefully I get hot and double up and CRUSH!!! I need to make my first final table and win my first WSOP bracelet, so everyone root for me!! Law of Attraction! Look it up if you don’t know what I’m talking about =) Ill update everyone tomorrow on the hands and hopefully I am chip leader going into the final table when I post again.
To my family and friends who are trying to keep up with all the progess, check out www.pocketfiveslive.com. It’s event #48. They will cover me if I get deep in a tournament like I am today. They have some tidbits from today which is neat if you guys want to check it out.