I’ve been back home for a couple days now. It’s good to be back. I am trying to remember what I’ve been doing the last couple of days. I went to the gym a couple times, hung out, played a little poker today. I saw “The Book Of Eli” last night and enjoyed it a lot. I liked how the whole movie was done and thought they did a great job. The story and acting was good as well. Some people say they don’t like it but I thought it was an awesome movie all around.

I played in a live tournament at the Isle yesterday. The buyin was $900. It is a three day event having two day 1’s and a final day 2. I didn’t survive the end of day 1. I played for about 9 hours before I busted. I DEFINITELY didn’t play my best. I did make some good plays but overall I need to play better. I think I have realized what my live game has been lacking and I think I am ready for some live success in the near future. I feel like my live game has always been real good but I also have patched up some leaks I believe too. I guess I can write some of the biggest hands of the day from that…

I basically donked around with my 22k starting stack. Getting down to about 12-13k after getting in a couple normal pots and having to bet/fold the river twice in decent sized pots.

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Sorry I had a skype video call for a second with my buddy while I was writing this blog..

Steve Karp on what it takes to win live tournaments: “Live…Hang around until the end. Win your three big pots in a row at the end. And then get really aggressive short handed. P.s. Hopefully you can get your over pair in against the 19 year old kid who glows in the dark because he hasn’t left the house for two years and when he has to math call you with two unders, you hold. The reason I wear glasses when I play live is so I can close my eyes and pray I hit my gutter on the turn. I just cbet the gutter and close my eyes and pray.”

LOL. This guy is the best. Anyone who knows Steve will agree with that statement. He’s a hilarious South Florida poker player who has some of the best one liners I’ve ever heard. Definitely a good guy. He’s actually the one who told me to start this blog years ago. Anyways…
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The blinds are 75/150. I raise to 400 with KK. The button, Scott, a good player from South Florida calls and the big blind calls. The flop comes KJJdd I check call a 700 bet from Scott. The turn is the 6h and I check. He bets 1100. At this point I am about 99% sure he has a Jack here. I raised to 3200 and he put me all in. I called, he had AJ and I faded to double up to 25k.

Again I open to 400 with KK. A regular, younger kid from South Florida 3bets me to 1100. He has about 11k in chips. I 4bet to 2200 and he instajams all in. I call. He turns over J9o and the board runs 2349T and I am now up to 37k.

I raise A9ss in mid position to 525 at 100/200. The button flats and the bb calls. The flop came TT3dds and I bet 825. Button floats, bb folds. The button was a player who floated me with AQ on an 893 flop and then bet a K turn. So he wasn’t too experience but definitely capable of messing around. The turn was the Ks and I turned a flush draw. I thought about betting but decided checking was best. He bet 2k with about 7k behind. This line was similar to the one he had taken bluffing before. I decided to semi bluff shove the turn with my flush draw. He called with QThh and I hit the 5s on the river to go up to 54k.

The third hand back from break at 150/300 I open the lowjack to 800 and the cutoff makes it 1600. It was a pretty cheesy 3bet by this player and I didn’t give it much credit. I called. The flop came KT6r I checked and he bet 1100. His bet was weak to me and I made it 3200. He called. The turn was the 2 and I decided to check here. He checked back pretty quickly. His range was pretty narrow at this point in the hand. The river came a 7 and I decided to move all in. I figured he couldn’t call off his tournament at this point and he folded.

Lost a small flip AhKs vs JJ for like 10k pot. Came hhxhx and doubled him up.

This active aggressive player opened to 1150 at 200/400 and the player to my right called. I called with 63dd. The flop came 345d. The opener bet 1600, other player to my right shoved 10.5k and I reshoved for about 45k (I had lost chips at this point.) I bricked this pot and was down to about 31k.

Scott opened to 1200 preflop, the button flatted and I flatted with 66 in the small blind. The flop came 67ss4d. I checked, Scott bet 3500, button folded, and I moved all in. Scott called all in with his last 12k or so with 89ss. The turn was the Tc and river was the 8d and he hit his straight to double up and I was now down to 13k.

I had about 15k a couple minutes before we moved to 400/800. I was now at a new table and trying to get a feel for it. The table was full of amateurs and lots of people making crazy plays. I was excited about this table. There were three limpers and I had 66 on the button. With about 3k+ out there, I decided to move all in. I’m sure this play is profitable but I don’t know if its optimal. If I think the limpers are folding that often then it is super profitable with a wide range of hands but with 25bbs (going to 18bbs) I think I could “pick a better spot” possibly. Anyways, the UTG limper had 99 and snap called my shove and I was out.

I didn’t play my best that is for sure. Luckily it’s always a learning experience and I think I have figured out some things I have been doing wrong in a live setting.

Today was my first day back on the online grind. I bubbled two big PLO tourneys today. I had stacks in both of them and got unlucky in a couple huge pots. I also made two final tables. One was a 400 player Aid For Haiti tournament. It was a $5+5 tournament and I ended up losing in 7th place. I like that the sites are helping players donate money to the relief in Haiti. They need it. The second final table I made was a 2nd place finish in the 100 cubed turbo on Stars for 12k. I made a really silly mistake heads up and shoved on an open. I didn’t realize how deep we were. I had the chip lead and the raiser had about 30bbs+ We had just gotten off break and I thought the blinds were higher/stacks shallower. Oh well, stupid mistake. It happens.

I am going to Orlando in the morning. I will play a full schedule online and I have some stuff to do on Monday for DeepStacks University. It’s a great thing that they have people located in Orlando. It really works out to see everyone in Orlando and spend time up there as well as in South Florida. I will be back home Tuesday night from Orlando. That’s about it for now, hopefully I can get deep in some tournaments tomorrow. I think I’m due on a Sunday. Good luck everyone.