Blog
Not Much New…
There isn’t much going on around here. I’m in Florida and have been playing poker here and there. I’m gearing up for the FTOPS/SCOOP/WSOP. I’m really excited and trying to get mentally and physically prepared.
Last night I went to the Drake concert in Orlando. It was held at my old stomping grounds, UCF. I miss that place and I miss the college experience. The concert was pretty good. The negative to it was that it was general admission and I wasn’t trying to fight thousands of people waiting in line for good seats. I decided to just sit up at the top where I had a good view of everything and that was the right play. The opening act was a hip-hop guy from Canada named K-os. I’m sure less than 5% of the people in the building had heard of him. He performed for about 45 minutes, then we waited for what seemed like another 45 minutes, and Drake finally came out.
There’s a story behind my appreciation towards Drake. I stumbled upon his music one day on myspace years ago before anyone else had heard of him. I told a couple of my friends about him and they all basically laughed at me and said he was alright but nothing special. I’m really into music (in my own way) and saw the potential in him. Well down the road he ended up making a mixtape and getting some support from Lil Wayne and others and look where he’s heading now… straight to the top. If only I had a record label a couple years ago lol. Anyways, that is my quick story behind Drake and how I discovered him. Haha, I hardly discovered him but that’s how I make the story out to be.
Regardless of all that, I had a good time at the concert. He didn’t perform as many songs as I would have liked but he did a good job. I’m pretty excited for his first official album to come out in a couple months. I’ve heard a couple songs from it and I’m impressed.
Before
After
Enough of the music talk. Everything else has been pretty low-key. As I said above I am ready to get back into the online poker grind and sharpen my skills for the WSOP. I went to a home cash game the other night and had a good time and a winning session. It’s always fun to switch it up and play live poker. It helps when you win too. I wish there were more places to play live cash games but I hear that Florida is removing the $100 max buyin limit from their cash games. As soon as that happens you guys better watch out. Poker will boom here I guarantee it. There’s another thing for me to look forward to.
I’ll just keep this one short. I feel like I haven’t had much to write about lately anyways. Suggestions anyone? Good luck to everyone playing all the big online tournaments coming up. I’ll see you guys at the tables.
NAPT Tourney and Last Week…
Last blog I updated quickly before I left to head to Connecticut. Let me continue off of that post.
I arrived to the airport in the morning and immediately ran into my buddy Matt Waxman. He was already in line to check in. A couple minutes later Jason Mercier showed up and we started to check in and try to get seats together so the flight wouldn’t be so bad. We were chatting it up and along came another person we all are familiar with, Mike Beasley. Beasley was one of the first people getting on the flight so he said he would save us some seats. I ended up sitting next to him and Matt, but I was stuck in the middle seat. I don’t know anyone who likes sitting there lol. We played some Chinese Poker and talked the whole flight. Beasley is a good guy and pretty infamous in South Florida.
We arrived to CT and all jumped in a van to head to Mohegan Sun. I was really impressed with the casino/hotel. It was very nice. I will definitely be going back there in the future for poker tournaments. I took a nap and later that night headed to the PokerStars party. There were a lot of people down there and I hung out for a couple of hours and talked with Beasley. He ended up heading to bed and then me and some other guys went to Bobby’s Burger Palace and ate dinner. I must say, that place is delicious. I recommend anyone who goes to Mohegan Sun to eat at that place for a quick meal.
Let me get into how the tournament went. My starting table was very good. I didn’t recognize a single person. There was only one other younger looking guy and all the other players were middle aged or older. I started off with my typical min raising blind under the gun strategy for the first couple of levels. I do this to generate action and give me a looser image. The first interesting pot I got involved in was actually one of those pots.
I blind raised UTG in the second level of play at 75/150 to 300. I received four callers and looked down at AsAd. I thought for a second and wished I had an option lol. The flop came QT7ss and I decided to check. The last player in position bet 800, I called, and one other player thought for a little bit and called. The turn brought the Ah, giving me top set. I noticed the other player in the pot who called jump a little and get excited. I wanted to see how he would react and checked. He also checked and the third player bet 1725. At this point the other guy was looking very uninterested in the pot. I read it as strength or ultimate weakness (he’s folding) and just called. When the action was on the other player he immediately made it 10k. The player in last position folded and I thought for about 20-30 seconds before I mucked my AA face up. My stack was now at 28.5k from the 30k starting stack.
I showed my hand for a couple different reasons. Some of the players went crazy and commotion insued. I then got into a bet with another guy at the table who gave me 2-1 odds after almost getting 3-1 odds. I said that the player had KJ and he was allowed to have every other hand in the deck. We booked the bet, the other guy agreed to tell the truth, and I won the bet. He admitted he had KJ and turned the nuts. My fold was correct and I felt good about it.
Later on in the level I 3bet an aggressive player who was opening a lot of pots. He made it 800 and I 3bet to 2250 with A9o in position. He called and the flop came Q25cc. He check called my bet of 2850 and we saw the turn which was the 6h, putting two hearts on board. I fired 6425 and he mucked. My stack grew to 32k.
I opened to 800 with KhJc and the small blind and big blind called. The big blind was the aggressive/loose player from above. The flop came AcJdTd and we all checked. The turn was the 9d and the big blind led for 2400. I raised to 6800 and he called. The river was the 2d and he checked again. I bet 8300. He tanked for literally 3-5 minutes before having the clock called on him. He said he flopped the nuts and eventually folded the Qd. I did not see his hand but I wouldn’t doubt it here. I’m up to 40.5k
I also ran one more big bluff where I floated a flop and barreled the turn and river to win a sizeable pot. My image was very good because I hadn’t been in any showdowns and people perceived me as tight. I also realized that by winning these pots without showdowns people would start getting suspicious.
The aggressive/loose player opened the button and I looked at ATo in the big blind. I previously only 3bet him once with the A9 and figured since he was opening so light here 3betting would be the best option. He flat called me and I checked a J53 board. He checked back and I check folded to the 9 on the turn. The very next hand I had AJo in the big blind and he raised again to 1525. I 3bet him for the second time in a row and he actually folded which was surprising to me.
The very next orbit when I was in the small blind again he opened to 1525. I looked down at AJss and decided to flat call. With our recent history and me 3betting him often, I wasn’t comfortable getting all in preflop with this hand, although I definitely think 3betting was an option with the plan on 5betting all in. The big blind also called the raise and the flop came AT6 rainbow. We checked to him and he bet 2525. We both called. The turn was the 3d and we both checked. He fired a second barrel and bet 7350. I flat called again and the big blind folded. The river was the Qh and we both checked and he said I got it. I was now up to 57k in chips at the 300/600 level.
I finished day 1 with 58.5k after being moved to a new table with about 30 minutes left in the day. I was happy with my Day 1 performance considering I only hit one set and had to fold it. I didn’t hit any flushes/straights/etc either. So definitely a good finish to Day 1 when the average stack was around 45k.
I went into day 2 feeling great. I recognized one player at my table, Mike Martin (Martine23) he was to my right. This table had a couple younger players so I was pretty sure some of them were online players. Mike is a nice guy and we chatted it up for a bit. The first interesting pot I was involved in was vs him. He raised from the small blind to 2800 at 600/1200/100a and I defended with J6hh. We both were about 60k deep at this point. The flop came 823 rainbow and he bet 3300. I decided to float the flop. The turn was another 8 and the board was absolutely rainbow. He checked and I b et 5500. He called and the river came the Q. He checked again, I bet 9300 and he called with 89dd. I like my bluff here although I ran into the top of his range.
I mixed it up in a couple pots after that bluff. I limped with 33 in the small blind with about 32 big blinds. The big blind raised me a real small amount. He was definitely an internet player and I jammed on him, having him covered barely. He folded fairly quickly and I showed a 3. A couple orbits later I raised the button with KJo to 3k. He 3bet to 8300 from the small blind with about 25k behind. Given the couple of pots we played I thought he could fold here in real time, although thinking back on it its probably unlikely. I 4bet shoved on him and he called with TT. I was in a race situation and I failed to improve my hand. I was now down to about 11-12 big blinds.
I shoved K3hh UTG for 11800 at 600/1200 and one short stack isolated me. He had QQ. The flop came 864 and the turn was the King of spades. The river bricked and I was back up to 20bbs. A couple players busted from the table and new players sat down. The very first hand this one guy got to the table he raised, and I shoved KJo on him from the button for about 15k more. He thought for a little bit and folded. Immediately after that hand I picked up 22 on the cutoff and shoved for 19bbs. The small blind reshoved immediately with AKs and I lost another flip when the board came K97xx. I busted a couple hours into day 2. Bummer.
Overall I felt like I played real well. My two shoves on day 2 are pretty marginal although I was flipping. The table had gotten considerably tougher so I don’t mind making some higher variance plays, but I probably could have waited for better spots. Trying to play perfect in an imperfect game is tough though so I won’t beat myself up too much. I really want to do well in the next months leading up to the WSOP. I’m trying to clean up everything and make my game as sharp as can be.
After I busted the NAPT Main event I got on a flight to LA with Roothlus, who is also a DeepStacks Pro. Although he lives out in LA we both were going to teach a camp at the Commerce. We first flew from Connecticut to Washington DC then from DC to LAX. We had exit row seating on the flight from DC to LAX and nobody came and sat in the middle seat. That was good for us as we had a little extra room. We talked and played some Chinese poker. I was able to win a little money off of him. The flight went by fast and we were in California in no time.
Let’s see.. California was a little different this time around. The first night I stayed at the Commerce and didn’t leave the casino. I actually didn’t leave the casino/hotel the whole time. Mike Matusow played a $200 NLH Tournament someone asked him to play (and to take seriously) and he final tabled it. He ended up getting 3rd place and some of the DeepStacks guys and I stayed up and watched him til 3am. It was pretty fun and exciting to sweat it. Mike could have won it but he screwed around a couple of hands and didn’t seem to care too much about it in the end. It was a good time though.
On Saturday/Sunday I taught at the camp and met a lot of interesting and good people. The students seemed to enjoy it and got a lot out of it. Scott Huff from PokerRoad came through on Sunday and I somehow managed to get on the radio show once again. I don’t know how I’m so lucky but here is the link. Poker Road Radio – Scott Huff/Mike Matusow/Roothlus/Me
On Monday I flew back to Florida and here I am now. I grinded online a couple of tournaments tonight and got deep in the $100r 6max on FTP and the $300NL. I cashed in both but had a couple rollercoaster hands in the 6max tournament. I was trying to push the envelope tonight and play a couple hands differently. I haven’t played online in a week so I was mixing it up. I busted 18th in the 6max and 67th in the $300 NL.
I’m excited to grind online for the FTOPS/SCOOP and get my game prepared for the WSOP which starts at the end of May. That’s it for now. It’s 4:40am. Gotta get to sleep. Goodnight.
Real Short Update…
It’s almost 5am and I have a 9am flight to Connecticut to play in the NAPT Mohegan Sun. I’m flying with my friends Matt Waxman and Jason Mercier. Should be a fun flight if we can get our seats next to each other. It’s only a three hour flight so it shouldn’t be that bad. You can check my updates for the NAPT Main Event on my twitter account www.twitter.com/tristancre8ive I will be updating it frequently.
If that tournament doesn’t go my way I will fly back out to LA this weekend to teach the main poker camp for DeepStacks Live at the Commerce. I am hoping that I don’t have to go to LA this weekend and I will be deep in the NAPT and hopefully at the final table. That is the goal. I am really excited to play this tournament. I missed out on NAPT Venetian and heard a lot of good things about it.
I still need to get packing but I just wanted to give a quick update. Haven’t done much else. I played a little online poker here and there with a couple shots but nothing panned out. I feel really good about my game, especially live poker, and I can’t wait to sit down at the tables on Wednesday. Check out my twitter and I will update the blog as well. Goodnight.
Week in LA…
I am back in Florida. I haven’t been on the computer much. I went to LA from Thursday to Tuesday. The Internet there was really slow and I was busy the whole time.
My flight was really early on Tuesday morning. The plane left at 7am and I arrived in Los Angeles at around noon. Later than night I went to a sushi place in Hollywood called Geisha House. It was pretty good. I really liked their Red Samurai sushi rolls. After dinner I headed back to the Commerce where I was staying and played some poker. I was pretty confused with their buyin rules. The 2-5 game had a 200 max buyin and the 5-10 game had a 400 max buyin. The next night I found out that they had a 5-10 game with a $1500 max buyin. Me and Mike Matusow played in that game on Saturday night and it was pretty fun/decent game. I only played for a couple hours before I decided to head to sleep.
On Saturday and Sunday I taught a couple courses for DeepStacks. We did two small courses on each day. It was pretty fun and informative. Although it was only a couple hours and a “preview” everyone enjoyed it. The instructors were Mike Matusow, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Matt “MattG” Graham, Tom McEvoy, Justin “BoostedJ” Smith and myself. We went over some of the basics of the game and other things we picked up that the players were doing. I had a good time and so did everyone who showed up.
I got to see a lot of California and the LA area on Monday. I rented a car and drove around. I went to the Grove, Santa Monica Pier, Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, Korea town and even up to the Hollywood sign up in the hills. It was cool seeing a different city and actually being able to explore it a little bit. Sometimes when you travel a lot and play poker you don’t really get to see the cities you are in. I’m sure there is a lot more to Los Angeles but it was good that I got to do as much as I did. I will actually be going back there next weekend if I am still not in the NAPT Mohegan Sun.
That’s basically my schedule for the next couple of weeks. I am heading up to the NAPT at Mohegan Sun for the main Event in a little under a week. If I bust the tournament early then I will fly back out to LA for the DeepStacks Live weekend camp going on that weekend. I’d like to go back to LA but if I’m still in the NAPT Main Event I would much rather that lol.
I also did another cool thing while I was out in LA. I appeared on PokerRoad.com radio with Mike Matusow. You can listen to it here — PokerRoad Radio – Tristan Wade/Mike Matusow. We played a fun game that was called Back, Bunk, or Book. Basically what they asked us is who would we back, who would we bunk with, and who would we cross book against. It was a fun time and I’m glad I got to be on the show.
I’m about to head to bed but I will be online this week grinding and also back on the computer/blogging a little more frequently. I’m kind of out of it tonight. Need to get back on routine with everything. Workout in the morning. Goodnight.
Oh.. quick story. Driving from Orlando to South Florida tonight I was on the turnpike and saw a state trooper with his lights on. He had pulled over a car about a half a mile ahead of me. I know the law in Florida is to get over in the left lane to protect the trooper. I put my blinker on and moved into the left lane. I drove by, saw the trooper near the drivers side window of the Rav 4 and passed the scene. I put my blinker back on and moved back into the right lane. No more than 30 seconds later I see the red and blue lights in my rear view mirror. I didn’t think I was speeding and I had just passed the trooper. How did he come after me so quickly? Was it another officer?
He came up to the car and handed me a piece of paper that was a flyer for the Florida law of moving into the next lane when a trooper/cop has someone pulled over. I was aware of this law and followed it. He then asked me why I didn’t pull into the other lane. My passenger started to explain that we had moved over until I told him to not say anything. I told the officer “Excuse me sir but I am 100% sure that I passed you in the left lane.” The officer then went off on me saying that he knows I didn’t and he felt the car fly by him and that he saw the spoiler and it was definitely me. He even said “You were in the same right lane when I pulled you over.” I immediately thought… “Well Duh. Slow traffic stays right, the left lane is for passing, of course I was in the right lane! What kind of logic is that?” but I bit my tongue. I decided to try to explain once more that I was sure I followed the law. I repeated “I am 1000% sure that I was not in the right lane when I passed you sir.” He interrupted me and said “Well I was going to give you a warning but now give me your license!” This can’t be happening. I don’t have the best luck when it comes to this stuff.
He went back to his vehicle, ran the license, and came back about 5 minutes later. This guy really was positive that it was my car that had passed him. What obviously had happened was that there was a car before mine 15-30 seconds or however long that had a spoiler and flew by him in the right lane. He then proceeded to finish his stop and track down the closest car with a spoiler, being the car I was driving. In his mind he couldn’t be wrong. This is the typical experience I have had. I was once pulled over by 3 cops at gunpoint lol. That’s another story. Anyways… I just wished this officer would look at his security footage from the traffic stop and see that it wasn’t my car. He didn’t seem like the type to admit guilt. He came back to my car and said “Well I’m going to do what I said I would do and give you a warning but I am sure it was you that flew past me.” I shook my head and he went on his way. I learned a lesson a long time ago to never argue with officers, but it’s hard to not argue when you didn’t do anything wrong. Luckily I didn’t get a ticket or I would have went crazy..Hopefully he checks his camera or something. I want him to admit his guilt lol.. Okay goodnight!
Bubbled…
Yeah. I just about bubbled the money in the $1k Hard Rock. There were I think 23 people left with 16 getting paid. I had a very good table and I thought I had a very tight image. I had about 130k stack at 1.5/3k (the structure goes bad after this level really) and opened to 7k in 3rd position with KQo. A regular from the Rock called in position. The flop came 862hh and I bet 9500. She grabbed a stack of 20 1k chips and slid them into the pot. I was almost certain her range here was 77-99-TT and JJ at best. I had a really good read on how she played all her hands/sets/flush draws. I tanked for a little bit and thought I could get her to fold. I shoved 95k on top of her raise, she thought for a little bit and called with TT.
She screamed that “She knew I had nothing! LOW CARD! LOW CARD!!!” and the next two cards were indeed low, lol. Just like my spirits when I lost the tournament and had to listen to someone scream for cards/celebrate my loss. Haha just kidding, but I was pretty annoyed. I really thought I had a great image. I played with her a lot on day 1 as well and played solid. I guess I just have to have it at some point.
I was happy overall with how I played but can’t help to think about what could have been. The prize pool wasn’t as big as I had hoped. It only got 157 total entrants and was just under 50k to first. It still would have been a nice score.
After I lost I came home around 2:00pm and laid in bed. I was going to play online poker but my sister and my nephew came by and we ate dinner. I was too tired and decided to take a nap and missed all of the good tournaments. It felt good not being confined to my computer on a Sunday but I really wanted to be at the Final Table of the Hard Rock tournament.
Today I came up to Orlando. I played a night session and was lucky enough to get 3rd in the STT on Full Tilt Poker. I had a really interesting spot 3 handed.
Full Tilt Poker Game #19488565043: $30K Super Turbo Knockout (147044812), Table 13 – 2000/4000 Ante 500 – No Limit Hold’em – 2:16:41 ET – 2010/03/23
Seat 1: jbkvoeg (136,339)
Seat 3: Johan Storakers (20,228)
Seat 9: Cre8ive (19,833)
jbkvoeg antes 500
Johan Storakers antes 500
Cre8ive antes 500
Cre8ive posts the small blind of 2,000
jbkvoeg posts the big blind of 4,000
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [9h Kh]
Johan Storakers raises to 19,728, and is all in
Cre8ive has 15 seconds left to act
Cre8ive has requested TIME
Cre8ive
I’m pretty sure with ICM this is a fold. The big blind is almost always going to call and I have a chance to move into 2nd place without playing the pot. On the other hand I feel I am ahead of the buttons shoving range and I want to play for the win. What would you guys do? I’m going to keep this post short and sweet and I’ll most likely post again before I leave to LA on Thursday.
Advanced to Sunday…
Hey guys. I played the Hard Rock $1k yesterday. There were two starting days. Friday and Saturday. If you lost on Friday you could buy back in on Saturday. Fortunately for me I didn’t lose and have to play again on Saturday. I ended the day with 123k going into blind level 1k/2k. The average stack is probably right around 100k.
I played a couple really interesting pots. I was going to do a write up for this tournament but I played against a lot of good players and I don’t want them to know about some of the hands I played against them.
At my first table I had Hayden “Nipsman” Fortini (who is another DeepStacks pro) and my friend Hans. They were both to my left, Hayden being to my direct left. I stayed at this starting table about halfway through the day before I was moved to a new table. I took my seat in the nine chair and recent PCA Main Event Winner Harrison “Gibler321″ Gimbel was two to my left. We played a couple interesting pots. There was one really crazy hand where he thinks I might have mucked QQ. I’ll talk about it.
We were playing 7 handed I believe, I opened for a raise to 3800 at 800/1600/200a. I was in 2nd position. He called two to my left and Eddie Jones called in the big blind. The flop came Ac9d9h and we checked to gibler. He bet 5400 and I called. The turn was the Qh putting two hearts I checked again and this time he bet 10.4k. I raised to 24.6k and he tanked for a while and called. He had me covered. He started with probably 180k and I had about 90k to start the hand. After the turn bet I think I had about 55k behind. The river came the As and I tanked for a while before I checked, gibler moved all in, and then I tanked and folded. I didn’t tell him what I had yet but he thinks I might have folded QQ. Pretty interesting hand, and I think I’m going to wait for a while before I reveal what I had, if I ever decide to do so.
I doubled up right before play ended. One of my friends opened to a 4k raise in middle position. As soon as I looked down at my AKo in the big blind the tournament director announced 5 hands left until we were done for the night. I 3bet to 11600 and my friend thought, stacked his chips, thought some more, restacked his chips, and moved all in on me. I called. He turned over 33 and we were off to the races. The board came QT5TQ and I won the pot. I had him covered by a couple thousand chips and ended the night with 123k. Gibler is the chip leader with over 300k. I think he might have 350k. Another good player has about 250k as well.
It’s going to be a tough tournament still but I like my chances. I figure there will be 30-40 players tomorrow left. The top 18-20 will probably be paid and hopefully it is a decent prize to first place (70k+) I’m hoping some things can go my way tomorrow and I can spend my whole day winning that live tournament and avoid playing online tomorrow. I will be updating my twitter account (TristanCre8ive) so check out all the updates there.
A couple days ago I went to Sonic one late night with some friends. My buddy recently came back home after playing professional basketball in another state. We were all hanging out at my house (There were five of us.. my two friends, one of their girlfriends and their girlfriends cousin — not so confusing lol) We decided to go get a snack from Sonic and I drove us there.
Once we parked I noticed a guy trying to enter Sonic. If you don’t know about Sonic it is a fast food place where you park and they deliver your food to you. You can’t actually go inside but they have tables to eat outside and a bathroom near the back.
The design of sonic. One way road that goes around until you go out the exit.
It was weird seeing someone try to go inside and I became suspicious. My friend Brian told me I’m always suspecting something (KNOW YOUR ENVIRONMENT!) and I kept observing. I placed our order and we were sitting there waiting when the guy approached the car. I locked the doors and the guy approached the driver’s side back window. He was mean mugging my buddy in the back. He had dropped a box of cigarettes and started going back a couple feet to get them. I thought my friend in the back was going to get out of the car so I backed the car up a little bit so I could get out. The place where you order the food was blocking my car door from opening all the way. I started backing out a little bit in case I had to open my door and the guy started coming toward my window, looking like he was going to smash my window. I backed out quickly and he was running up to the car and I peeled off as he swiped at my car.
Where we were parked originally when the guy came up to us..
I stopped at this corner inside the Sonic area and waited to see what the guy was doing. Obviously he was on something and not in the right state of mind. I saw him grab at something in his pocket as he approached the car so I wasn’t sure what he had on him. He started running after the car once I stopped here.
I took off to the left and stopped by the Sonic and honked my horn while the guy was chasing the car lol. I tried to get their attention so they would call the cops but they didn’t notice. My friends thought I was antagonizing the guy LOL. He was about to catch up to the car and I drove off and out the exit.
I pulled off into a parking lot right near Sonic and waited to see if the guy came lol. I tried to decide if calling the cops would be the best solution right now. I knew this guy was really messed up and obviously out of his mind. I was trying to avoid a situation where something bad happened. Like I said I wasn’t sure what the guy had in his pocket or what he was capable of. You never know. We didn’t want to leave our food there so we decided we would go back and be a little more careful lol. It was a scary situation but everyone else didn’t seem too worried about it. I was a little more worried since I was driving and I didn’t want anything to happen to the car.
We pulled back into the entrance/exit part (The exit actually is an entrance/Exit — so they have two entrances) and the guy was hiding in the back and noticed our car. I am pretty sure he was sniffing a paint spray can or something. He saw us and I pulled up to the side so we could try to get our food.
He started running at the car with what appeared to be a paint spray can to me (some of my friends say otherwise.) I took off again and saw him cut through Sonic to block me off on the other end of the road. Luckily I had already prepared a getaway plan which was going out the one way entrance.
I went through the one way entrance and left the area and looked back and saw the guy in the middle of the road of Sonic with his can. I would of had to run him over. He seemed pretty disappointed lol. He got severely outplayed. At this point we had enough and decided to call the cops so they could handle it. He ended up getting on his bicycle and the leaving sonic. We were stopped in the main street watching and the cops picked him up on the corner. We went back and got our food. It was the end of a pretty crazy night.
That’s it for now haha. Hope you guys enjoyed the story. We all made it out safely, nobody was hurt, and nothing bad happened. Hopefully the visuals helped. I’ll update again in a couple days and hopefully I win the Hard Rock Tournament. Check out my Twitter for updates! Goodnight.
The Last Week…
I’ve been real busy the last week or so. It started with me going up to Orlando on Wednesday to do some DeepStacks videos. I spent about 8-9 hours and shot a bunch of modules for the site. After that, the plan was for me to go to Daytona Beach for Mike Skinner’s (used to be a Nascar driver/now drives in a different league) Charity Poker Tournament.
Mike Skinner and his people had two days of festivities planned. Thursday and Friday. A big storm hit Orlando and all of Florida on Thursday. DeepStacks and I decided it was best to not drive through the storm and I didn’t make it to Daytona on Thursday. The next day the weather had cleared up a bit and I drove up to Daytona in the afternoon and played in their charity tournament. I was at the “celebrity table” with a bunch of Nascar/Napa/other league drivers. To be honest, I didn’t know any of them lol. Some faces looked familiar though. Also, the runner up to Carrie Underwood on American Idol (Bo Bice) was playing too <<< I didn't know who he was either until someone told me.
The guys didn’t know much about poker but I was helping the people I was sitting inbetween. Since it was for charity there were unlimited rebuys and then an addon at the end of the hour. I ended up losing AKcc vs K9 vs 55 vs 24cc for a huge pot after the rebuy period when I moved all in and got called in 3 spots lol. I flopped an ace but the turn brought a five and that was that. They were giving a first place prize of 1k to a charity for whoever won the Charity SnG so that would have been cool. I had a fun time and it was nice meeting the guys. They were all friendly and pretty rowdy. It was a great experience.
Once that was done I headed back to Orlando and then drove back to South Florida. It was now Friday night and on Saturday I was playing the Isle $900 Main Event Tournament. It started at 2:30pm and 22k starting stacks. The blind levels were an hour long and I had a great starting table. I recognized one or two faces and didn’t exactly know anyone, which is awesome. The table had a couple soft spots and I had position on the looser players. I was doing my typical blind raise under the gun for the first couple of levels. I was playing a lot of pots early because the table was so soft.
One of the players at the table got into a little verbal altercation with me and questioned my ethics. He limped I raised JTo and he called. The flop came A9Tdd and we both checked. The turn was 5s he bet I called, the river was another T and he bet the pot, 1400. I thought for a little bit and decided to just call. He had been pretty tight postflop and I thought he could have a better kicker. Once I called he said “You win I missed.” and motioned to muck his hand but didn’t actually throw his cards in the muck. I asked the dealer if he mucks am I allowed to muck without showing? The dealer said no a winning hand has to be shown. I told the guy he has to muck his hand or show his hand. He started getting upset with me and then the dealer told him to show his hand. He tabled 24dd and then I showed my JTo. The guy then made some comments about how that was bad etiquette on my part, etc… He was pretty annoyed with me. I tried to explain to him that his hand wasn’t mucked nor dead and if he had the best hand he would have won but he wasn’t listening.
Later on in a pot he bet the river with a flush and a guy just called with two pair. When the player saw the guy had the flush he threw his cards into the muck but the guy asked to see him. The dealer turned over his two pair. After the hand I asked him “Isn’t that the bad etiquette thing you were talking about? That’s what you meant right? That seems like quite the contradiction.” He mumbled something under his breath that I asked him to repeat. “Did you say something rude?” I asked. He mumbled it again but I couldn’t hear over the loudspeaker at the casino. The kid to his left motioned that he said something questionable and the guy told me “If I say something rude you will know.” I told him “Thanks, I appreciate it.” and continued to play. I was nothing but a gentleman and always am at the tables. People just dislike me at times.
The first big pot I got involved in was against the guy to immediate right. He was tough to play against because he would bluff with hands that had value and value bet hands that didn’t have much value. You never really knew if he was bluffing or what. He limped the lowjack for 150 and I isolated with 9To from the hijack. Everyone else folded and the flop came AQhh9c he lead for 550 and I called. The turn was the 5d and he bet 1100 this time. I called again. The river was the 2c and he bet 3200. I had a feeling he wasn’t that strong, along with what I thought was a bet sizing tell, and I tanked for a little bit before I decided to call. The player said “Nine.” and didn’t show his hand. Uht oh.. he could easily have a better kicker than me. The situation from the previous paragraphs made me tell the guy “Well if you don’t think you can win you can muck your hand.” The player then showed 97ss and I won the pot with my ten kicker. My stack was now at 24.5k
My next pot was against the same player. I raised T6cc UTG and got called by the button and the big blind. The flop came AQKr and I bet 650. The big blind called (Same guy who never knows where he’s at etc.. I think he’s just learning the game or just has a very unorthodox style.) The turn was the J still making a rainbow board. He led out for 1200 and I just called. The river was another Q and he bet 3300. I called and he showed A4o. This is what I mean. Was he value betting or bluffing? I really don’t think he was capable of folding top pair.
I lost a big pot to the guy who was upset at me. He opened UTG for 425. It was literally one of his first raises all day. The blinds were 100/200. I didn’t think he had a real big hand here due to his bet sizing and how he played. He got 5 callers and I called in middle position with A6cc. The flop came J74cc and he bet 2500 which was about the pot. With 12k behind. I called. Everyone else folded. The turn was the Ac and he jammed for 12k. I didn’t think he had AA/KK/QQ/JJ (he shoved 5k all in pre about with JJ at 75/150 into my 350 UTG raise.) So I thought his range was AJ/KQcc/etc. Basically there was no way that ace helped him unless he held exactly AJ. I thought for a while and since I thought AJ was the only hand I couldn’t beat in his range decided to call. He had limped ev ery hand previously, so that’s where I got most of my info from. He did in fact have AJ and I bricked the river and doubled him up. I told him “Nice hand.” and moved on to the next pot.
A couple orbits later at the 150/300 level he opened to 725 and I made my first 3bet of the day to 2425 with AKo and 9k behind. He asked how much I had behind and called. The flop came 954ccc and I didn’t have a club. He checked and I thought and checked as well. He put me all in on the 6h turn and I folded. I then blinded down to about 7k and got moved to a new table where fellow deepstacks pro Hayden “Nipsman” Fortini was sitting. This table had a few more familiar faces.
A couple hands into the table the guy to my right limped with a shortstack and I shoved all in for 6k at 150/300/25a with AKdd. The big blind tanked it and folded and the limper folded. About an orbit later I was in the small blind and the hijack opened to 750. Hayden called 750 (They both were deep) and I shoved TT in the small blind for 6500. The opener folded and Hayden snap called. I showed TT and he said “Wow you have Tens?” I thought he was going to show me 77-88. Instead he turned over AKhh.. What a slowroll! lol Just kidding Hayden. I won the flip and was now up to about 14k.
A few hands later Hayden opened in early position to 800 and I looked down at KcKh. I thought about 3betting but decided against it and just flat called. We were heads up to a flop of JTcc4h and he checked. I bet 1225 and he raised to 4500. I moved all in for about 9k more and he called fairly quickly. I turned over my KK and he showed J9 of spades. The turn was the 8 giving him eight more outs and the river was the 7 giving him the straight and knocking me out. Shucks. I wished everyone good luck and told Hayden to take it down.
On Sunday I played online poker and it didn’t go so well again. I played real good in some tournaments and then made a couple mistakes in others. I didn’t run the best either and that made for a losing Sunday. Sundays are always frustrating. You are going to lose more times than you win.. But I’m still convinced I might not be playing my best overall. With the fields being so large there is a ton of luck and variance. I guess as long as I play my best I will be happy but I’m not sure I’m doing that. I have a lot to learn still and need to continue to always improve my game. That’s where I’m at right now. Sometimes I feel like I have it figured out, but I am always thinking of what I need to do to improve.
On Monday I decided I would play an all out grind. I played a ton of tournaments and had a lot of close calls. I finished 4th in one tournament during the day and got deep in the $1k Monday before I busted about 20-30 out of the money when I slowplayed top set and my opponent rivered a gutter straight draw. I check shoved the river and I was on my way out. It was a pretty big pot.
Later in the night I was lucky enough to get to the final heads up match of the $100 Heads up Super Turbo tournament. My opponent in the finals: Hayden “Nipsman” once again! We decided to chop it even and then he proceeded to beat me. I shoved J7o and he called with K4o and he held. The odds of us both advancing all the way to the end and playing each other in the FINAL match is astronomical. It was a good way to end my Monday night.
One last thing before I wrap this blog up… A couple months ago I talked about my buddy Amir’s website, PokerWit. He just added a Pro Section to his website. If you want to discuss hands with poker professionals then you can sign up for $5 a month in the Pro Hands section.
If you haven’t signed up for his website yet (which is free to be a member of – just no access to the Pro Hands section) and you sign up now, put me in as a referral when you sign up (“Cre8ive”) He said he will give a FREE WEEK of access to the Pro Hands section for all the readers of the blog who put me as their referral. That’s pretty nice of him. Check out his site though it is the next step in online poker discussion. PokerWit Signup Page.
I have a couple interesting stories that happened this week but I will save them for the next blog Saturday/Sunday. Tomorrow I am going to play the Hard Rock $1k Tournament. They are having two Day 1’s again. If I lose tomorrow I can buy back in on Saturday and we finish playing on Sunday. It should be a good tournament. Until then…
Art Winner/Poker…
First I would like to say Congratulations to the winner of the art contest, Chris (ChrisA69 on pocketfives.) I will be sending him his prize money after I am done writing this blog. Thank you everyone who participated, I appreciate it. Chris sent me a few submissions and his stood out the most. Thanks again everyone.
I’d like to send another congratulations to one of my students, Nick, who just placed 10th in the Chicago Poker Classic. He started receiving my coaching about a week ago before he went to play in the poker tournament. It was pretty exciting sweating him. He would send me text message updates and call me on breaks. I was hoping he would take it down but 10th place is a great showing and a nice cash for him. He wanted to win as well but he admittedly still has a lot to learn. He could have avoided his bustout hand if we were able to go over some more fundamentals of late tournament strategy. Still an awesome finish and I’m happy for him.
Let’s see… I played the Isle $575 Heads up Tournament on Friday. I won my first match. My opponent was fairly tight and didn’t make many mistakes. He made a couple big folds where most people would have went broke and I eventually beat him AK vs TT when he had about 10bbs left.
My second opponent played every single hand of the match. It was frustrating because the first match we started with 70bbs and the second match we started with 50bbs. It was a really bad structure. I ended up getting in a pot where I raised with Q6s on the button, he defended and the flop came KcJc7s we both checked. The turn was Js and he checked. I bet 550, he made it 1100. I was fairly certain he had Jx here and I decided to call. The river was the 3s. He bet 2k into a 3100 pot and I had 8k behind. I had him covered barely. I decided the best play was to move all in and he called with J7dd. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t fold any Jx on the river, but it was a tricky spot regardless. His min raise is pretty strong on the turn and can be interpreted a couple different ways. I was pretty disappointed losing the second match, but the structure was really bad. Oh well. Next time.
On Saturday I played online poker and it didn’t go so well. I think I got deep in a couple tournaments but nothing panned out. Today was just absolutely horrible. I think I lost my first 20 flips. I’m not exaggerating either lol. I decided to follow up my best Sunday ever with my worst Sunday ever. I don’t want to cry too much but it was a pretty painful day haha. Luckily I kept smiling all day but the poker gods had it out for me. I cashed in only one tournament, the Second Chance, where I lost AJ vs AT and then 33 vs A2. Let me just leave it at that. There wasn’t much hope for me today. I don’t think I’ve ever ran worse in a day of grinding online poker than I did today. It will all even out though and hopefully next Sunday I run scorching hot!
I have a pretty busy schedule ahead of me. I am going to Orlando early this week to shoot some videos for DeepStacks and then I am playing a Charity Poker Tournament in Daytona. The tournament is Friday. I will most likely be coming back down to South Florida to play the Isle Main Event on Saturday. Towards the end of the month I will be going out to LA for a DeepStacks Live camp. Some of my friends were talking about heading to the Wynn so maybe that will substitute the Isle Main Event.
I had another article in the Ante Up magazine. In the March issue I talk about defining ranges. You can look at the article on page 49 here: Ante Up Magazine March Issue Page 49. There was also a nice article about my third place finish last Sunday in the Sunday 500 on Pocketfives. Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade final tables Sunday 500.
I guess that’s all for now. I will probably be grinding online Monday/Tuesday before I head to Orlando. Signing out…
Biggest Online Score (Barely)…
I will start off by saying that I hit my biggest online score this weekend on Sunday. I finished 3rd in the $500 NL On Pokerstars for $47,500. I just edged out my previous best online score of 46k which was a couple months back in the Full Tilt Poker $1k Tournament.
This tournament has been my unicorn in the past. There was a month period where I made it to the final two tables (10th-18th) without making the final table three times in a four week period. I was pretty unlucky in those finishes. It was very frustrating. I guess I broke the streak even though I didn’t win. I was very lucky to get third in this tournament. I had a couple suck outs on the way to the final table and then one suck out at the final table. It was probably the worst final table I’ve ever played. I was totally card dead and handcuffed. I had a couple loose/aggressive opponents to my left, but for the most part I had absolutely zero hands at the final table. Again, I was super lucky to finish in third place. I’m happy about the score but I still have a lot more to accomplish.
Like I said in the previous blog I went and played the Hard Rock $1k on Saturday. I had a really crazy table to begin with and it seemed like the field was extra soft. A lot of the regulars didn’t show up. There were four or five people to every flop and nobody was folding to 7x-8x isolation or anything. It was a great table to be at. My stack fluctuated down then up. I lost a couple unlucky pots where I had to make some big folds. They all turned out to be the right fold.
In one pot I was down to about 35bbs and held QTdd on a Q56hh board. A player who had just called led into three of us. I was in a pretty tricky spot but my read on the player was that he had a set or a straight flush draw. I know it seems crazy for me to call out an exact range like that but from playing with the guy for 3 hours I was pretty sure these were his holdings. I decided to fold and he ended up showing 78hh. My read was spot on and avoided getting in a bad spot vs. his range. I then raised AA to 525 and got five callers preflop. I had about 6300 behind. The flop came 235 rainbow. I bet 1250 and the big blind called. The turn was the 8s completing the rainbow board and he checked to me. I didn’t think I could get value from hands like A3/A5/66/77/56/etc so I decided to check back and let him fire the river. The river was the Ts and he put me all in for about 5100. I called and he turned over 55 and I was done. That’s just how my day went. I played fairly well I believe and just got put in some unlucky situations.
After that I made it home in time to play a couple online tournaments. They didn’t go so well for me either. Here’s one of the hands from Saturday.
Full Tilt Poker Game #18821784514: $100,000 Guarantee (130362564), Table 2 – 20/40 – No Limit Hold’em – 15:25:40 ET – 2010/02/27
Seat 1: cocoa_butter111 (3,675)
Seat 2: gretko (3,035)
Seat 3: Flaanders (1,840)
Seat 4: Cre8ive (2,880)
Seat 5: TAKETHECAN0LLIS (2,950)
Seat 6: philbort (3,650)
philbort posts the small blind of 20
cocoa_butter111 posts the big blind of 40
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [Kc Ac]
gretko has 15 seconds left to act
gretko has timed out
gretko folds
gretko is sitting out
Flaanders folds
Cre8ive raises to 120
TAKETHECAN0LLIS folds
gretko has returned
philbort has 15 seconds left to act
philbort raises to 360
cocoa_butter111 has 15 seconds left to act
cocoa_butter111 folds
Cre8ive has 15 seconds left to act
Cre8ive has requested TIME
Cre8ive raises to 780
philbort has 15 seconds left to act
philbort raises to 3,650, and is all in
Cre8ive calls 2,100, and is all in
philbort shows [8s 7s]
Cre8ive shows [Kc Ac]
Uncalled bet of 770 returned to philbort
*** FLOP *** [8c 5d 5h]
*** TURN *** [8c 5d 5h] [2d]
*** RIVER *** [8c 5d 5h 2d] [Js]
philbort shows two pair, Eights and Fives
Cre8ive shows a pair of Fives
philbort wins the pot (5,800) with two pair, Eights and Fives
Saturday just wasn’t my day. I couldn’t win a pot. Some days are like that. Luckily I was able to make a deep run on Sunday and have a very successful weekend.
I still need more submissions for the art contest. If you think you are “Cre8ive” enough to design some artwork, check out the last blog and shoot me an e-mail. The contest ends Thursday night so you better hurry up and get the artwork to me as soon as possible!
Here’s an interesting spot from early on at the final table in the Sunday 500. What would you guys do here?
PokerStars Game #40492645246: Tournament #286020018, $500+$30 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level XXIV (12500/25000) – 2010/03/01 2:22:49 ET
Table ‘286020018 50′ 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: ANIMAL5050 (1651889 in chips)
Seat 2: tabzzy (2309715 in chips)
Seat 3: jdtjpoker (414640 in chips)
Seat 4: HundoFight (390978 in chips)
Seat 5: Cre8ive (1111675 in chips)
Seat 6: shampusik (1046500 in chips)
Seat 7: leoe29 (1190151 in chips)
Seat 8: BoldNutz (968585 in chips)
Seat 9: badbeatman06 (895867 in chips)
ANIMAL5050: posts the ante 2500
tabzzy: posts the ante 2500
jdtjpoker: posts the ante 2500
HundoFight: posts the ante 2500
Cre8ive: posts the ante 2500
shampusik: posts the ante 2500
leoe29: posts the ante 2500
BoldNutz: posts the ante 2500
badbeatman06: posts the ante 2500
Cre8ive: posts small blind 12500
shampusik: posts big blind 25000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [6c 6h]
leoe29: folds
BoldNutz: folds
badbeatman06: folds
ANIMAL5050: folds
tabzzy: folds
jdtjpoker: folds
HundoFight: folds
Cre8ive: raises 50000 to 75000
shampusik: raises 969000 to 1044000 and is all-in
Cre8ive: ?????????
Lastly congrats to my buddy Steve Karp for a deep run in the LAPC, finishing 27th for about $50k. Also good luck to Jason Mercier who just final tabled the LAPC High Rollers event where first place is 425k. Steve wanted me to fly out to LA today but I declined. I wish I was out there now… Oh well. Goodnight.
Art Contest! Win $50…
I am doing a contest. I need some artwork done. It doesn’t really matter the size of the artwork. I guess somewhat good resolution is good but not too small. Basically here’s what I want. I need a “Cre8ive” logo made. I want the C capitalized and all other letters/the 8 used in some way. Be CREATIVE/use your imagination/make it interesting and exciting but don’t go too overboard because it still has to be visually easy on the eyes. It doesn’t have to be just “Cre8ive” across .. as long as it is easy to read “Cre8ive” then anything is possible. Like I said, have fun with it, make it cool. I will pick a winner and the one I like best will receive $50 on FTP.
I would just focus on making a LOGO. Remember it doesn’t need background art, it’s just a LOGO. So make sure you follow LOGO standards when submitting your artwork/doing your artwork.
Some examples of some Logos.. I’m sure you graphics/art people will have a better idea of what is supposed to be done than me so I will leave it up to you. Just make it interesting and be creative. That is the whole point of the name, creativity. I will probably post all the submissions on my blog as well. I think having everyone judge them would take too long so I am just going to pick the one I like the best. If there are a couple really nice ones maybe I will give out some other prizes or something but as of now there is just one winner. Contest will be over Thursday at midnight EST. Not sure what else to say about that, so if anyone has any other questions let me know.
Submit your artwork to my email Cre8iveCoach ~-AT-~ Gmail ~-DOT-~ com.
1) Logo
2) Reasonable size/not too small
3) Submit to my email
4) Capitalize the C and use the rest of the letters/number in “Cre8ive”
5) Contest ends Thursday at midnight EST.
6) Be Cre8ive!!!!
Other than that.. let’s see. I have been grinding a little online poker. Have been close to a couple nice scores. I made a final table on Tuesday in the $162 on Stars and got 5th. Played pretty well in that and just lost a monster coin flip for a big chip lead at the final table. Tomorrow I am going to play the $1k at the Hard Rock. It’s always fun playing a nice live tournament so I am looking forward to that. I will probably be grinding a little more online this coming week. I didn’t go as hard as I could have this week so I expect I will step it up this week!
That’s it for now. I wanted to throw this blog up for the weekend so if anyone has some free time and wants to earn $50 for an hour of work or something they have the opportunity. I will do a tournament summary from the Hard Rock if it goes well and I will also post soon when I can do a group free coaching session on some Super Turbo Strategy like I promised a couple months ago. I should be able to get to that this week. Goodnight.