Blog
Change of Plans…
Last blog I talked about how I would be playing poker this weekend. Well that was somewhat true. I got invited to the Jay-Z concert at the last second by my buddy Stu. I made it back to South Florida late Saturday afternoon and headed over to his house. Instead of playing all the Saturday tournaments I was now on my way to the concert. (Sidebar real quick – my buddy Raj won the $2600 FTOPS outright, so congratulations to him!)
Stu and I got to the Bank Atlantic Center at around 7:00pm. The concert was supposed to start at 8:00pm. We got some food and then I thought it was best to get down to our seats before the place went crazy. It was pretty mellow and everyone was just hanging around.
We had good seats on the floor probably 30-40 yards away from the stage. I ran into a couple friends who were also sitting close by. I knew a lot of people going to the concert. The opening act surprised me. It was Trey Songz. He’s an up and coming R&B guy I’m pretty familiar with his music, but he’s more so for the ladies. He just put out a CD a couple months ago (which I’ve listened to) and most of those songs are directed towards his female fan base. He sang a couple of those songs and warmed the crowd up. It was alright, but I was there for Jay-Z.
I went to get a drink and ran into my other friend Tim (cane3418.) He told me that Jeezy was also going to be performing. Wow, pretty sick lineup for one concert. I wasn’t even aware of the other acts. I hadn’t even thought about it. I like Jeezy too but like I said before; Jay-Z is probably my favorite rapper/hip hop artist. I also think he is one of the best, if not the best ever. I won’t touch too much on that, but I am definitely a fan of good music and Jay-Z is my favorite.
It was a pretty cool setup they had on the stage. They had good visuals. I tried to get a decent picture but the Iphone camera isn’t too good. During the performance the crowd started screaming a little louder around me and P. Diddy walked by with Cassie. Stu and I were in the front row of our section and everyone who was sitting in the special middle section had to walk by us. So Diddy walked by a couple times with Cassie, A Rod, and even Beyonce. She is beautiful lol… I actually got to snap a picture of her on her way out of the concert. It’s a little blurry but I did my best.
All in all I had a great time at the concert. Jay-Z’s performance was awesome. Jeezy did a good job as well. I’m really glad I got to go. I don’t think I’ve been to a concert since a Green Day concert when I was in middle school. I was disappointed I missed out on all the good tournaments on Saturday but it wasn’t a big deal. Who knows when I will/would have another chance to go to a concert like that. I missed out on a Jay-Z concert over the summer in Vegas so I was definitely happy that I didn’t miss this one too.
Today I played my typical Sunday schedule. I got deep in the Sunday Million, Sunday 500, FTOPS 6max, and the Mulligan. I might of had some other cashes but that’s what I remember off the top of my head. I played really well today (I believe.) I just didn’t have everything fall in place to win a big one. I just have to run a little better to make a big impact on a Sunday. Sunday’s are rough, period.
I’m gonna get to bed. I gotta wake up early tomorrow to run some errands and then I will be grinding the typical online schedule. It sucks that the FTOPS is over and I missed so many events, but oh well. Still no gold jersey. Maybe next time. Goodnight.
Poker and Poker Coaching…
I have been pretty busy over the last week or so. I spent some time away from my computer over the weekend and didn’t get to play poker once again. At the beginning of the week (Last Monday/Tuesday) I grinded online and had a couple sweats/Final tables. Nothing too huge though. I came up to Orlando on Wednesday and then was expecting to go to Tampa on Friday for a DeepStacks poker camp.
On Friday I was asked to help out Mike Matusow with a one day poker camp he was running in Daytona. I drove from Orlando to Daytona, which was about an hour drive, and met up with Mike and the rest of the DeepStacks crew. He had 20 people come to his one day camp and we both instructed the people and taught them cash game and tournament strategy. Everyone really enjoyed it and it was fun teaching them the basics and some advanced things in poker.
After the camp we sat down and played some 1/2 no limit. You can only buy in for $100 in Florida cash games. I ended up winning about $90 in an hour. We ate at the casino and then I came back to Orlando to get my things and head off to Tampa.
I got to Tampa at around midnight and went to sleep. I had to be up early in the morning on Saturday because we had a bunch of students coming in for the weekend camp. I taught poker from 9am-8pm on Saturday. We had a turbo bounty tournament at the end of the day where all the DeepStacks pros had prizes you could win. I ended up making the final table but busting in 7th place when I was really short on chips. I tried to win the tournament, but it was nice that someone won the bounty as well.
That night Adam Levy (roothlus), Alex Outhred, and I went to dinner at the Palm Restaurant right across the street from the hotel we were at. We watched the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest and 3 point contest. I was pretty disappointed with the overall dunk contest. I know it’s tough to be creative and come up with new dunks that people haven’t seen but I think you should have some good dunks planned ahead of time. The dinner was awesome and Adam ended up losing credit card roulette which is always nice too. Sorry Adam.
After dinner we headed back to the hotel. I was super tired and tried to fall asleep but couldn’t. I ended up watching TV for a couple hours til I finally fell asleep around 3:30am. I woke up at 8am again and headed down to the conference room to teach some more poker. On Saturday we went over cash game strategy and on Sunday we did tournament strategy. Everyone learned a lot and a lot of good things were said about the camp. I was happy that all the students enjoyed their time hanging out with us and learning a little bit about poker. They played a championship tournament that night where first place won a trip to California for one of our later camps and second place won a free entry to a camp TJ Cloutier is hosting in Tampa in a couple weeks. Some more prizes were given out and everyone had a blast.
Since I was doing all that work for Deepstacks I didn’t get to play poker this weekend. It’s going to be tough to balance out my time between playing poker and coaching. I’m still getting my schedule straightened out and seeing when I will be doing what.
I played the 1k FTOPS last night along with all the other decent tournaments. I got deep in a couple but nothing developed. I made a couple silly mistakes and need to fix some of the things I am doing. Overall I feel like I know what I need to be doing and most of the time I am doing what I’m supposed to. I know that sounds pretty vague but I know what I’m talking about! I basically feel like I have a really good grasp on tournament strategy. If I don’t make mistakes and run good at certain points than I will definitely have a shot to get deep in tournaments/win tournaments. I have been cashing a fairly good percentage as of late and need to continue to play well and put myself in a position to win those tournaments.
I was supposed to be going to the Jay-Z concert in Miami this weekend. A couple months ago a friend said he was getting the tickets and something fell through and we didn’t find out until it was too late. I tried to get tickets but all the good tickets were sold out and I didn’t want to sit so far away from the stage where I wouldn’t be able to see anything, so I decided not to go. It might actually be a good thing because now I will be able to play poker this weekend. There will be some really big poker tournaments and I’m looking forward to it.
Tonight I will be playing the FTOPS turbo and probably some other good tournaments. We will see which one’s I feel like playing. Definitely at least the turbo FTOPS if not anything else. I am about to get a workout in and then get ready for poker. I will update more frequently just haven’t been around a computer too often.
Crazy Hand…
I was supposed to do something really cool this weekend on Saturday for the Super Bowl. It fell through and I ended up playing poker instead. Oh well. I bubbled both $300 NLs on Stars and FTP. I cashed in a couple and bubbled a couple other. I have one pretty interesting hand I’ll post here.
Full Tilt Poker Game #18240396543: $100,000 Guarantee (130357892), Table 81 – 120/240 Ante 25 – No Limit Hold’em – 17:19:49 ET – 2010/02/06
Seat 1: SavePluto9 (1,765)
Seat 2: uRuGwa1 (12,682)
Seat 3: Cre8ive (13,325)
Seat 4: Drewby17 (11,301)
Seat 6: gusavo (9,516)
SavePluto9 antes 25
uRuGwa1 antes 25
Cre8ive antes 25
Drewby17 antes 25
gusavo antes 25
uRuGwa1 posts the small blind of 120
Cre8ive posts the big blind of 240
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [5s 3c]
Drewby17 folds
gusavo has 15 seconds left to act
gusavo raises to 650
SavePluto9 folds
uRuGwa1 folds
Cre8ive has 15 seconds left to act
Cre8ive raises to 1,800
gusavo has 15 seconds left to act
gusavo calls 1,150
*** FLOP *** [9c 2h 6d]
kasper74 sits down
kasper74 adds 18,398
Cre8ive has 15 seconds left to act
Cre8ive checks
gusavo has 15 seconds left to act
gusavo checks
*** TURN *** [9c 2h 6d] [9s]
Cre8ive has 15 seconds left to act
Cre8ive bets 1,500
gusavo has 15 seconds left to act
gusavo calls 1,500
*** RIVER *** [9c 2h 6d 9s] [5d]
Cre8ive has 15 seconds left to act
Cre8ive has requested TIME
Cre8ive checks
gusavo has 15 seconds left to act
gusavo has requested TIME
gusavo bets 5,150
Cre8ive has 15 seconds left to act
Cre8ive has requested TIME
Cre8ive: lol this is sick
Cre8ive calls 5,150
*** SHOW DOWN ***
gusavo shows [Td 8d] a pair of Nines
Cre8ive shows [5s 3c] two pair, Nines and Fives
Cre8ive wins the pot (17,145) with two pair, Nines and Fives
It was from the $300 NL 6max on FTP. It’s just a crazy hand all around but I think the river call is pretty easy. Poker at it’s finest.
Well let’s see about Sunday… I debated if I should play or not. The Superbowl was going on and I had family over. I decided to play just a couple tournaments today. I played the Sunday Million, FTP 750k, 100r, 100r turbo, Second Chances… I think that was about it. A couple other small super turbos too. I tried to keep the volume low today to see if I had better results. I got deep in the FTP 750k and cashed but other than that no dice. I made a couple good bluffs in some tournaments where I knew what the opponents had that didn’t work out. Happens.
I will probably be grinding this whole week and them I’m back up to Orlando/Tampa for the actual DeepStacks camp. The one last week was just the free preview. So I will be missing poker next weekend. The FTOPS starts on Wednesday so I want to have a lot of time for those and try to win one. We’ll see how it goes, maybe I can get lucky enough.
The Saints won the Superbowl if you didn’t know! I wasn’t rooting for anyone in particular. I was indifferent. I thought Peyton couldn’t lose. He is probably the best QB ever. I really thought they would win so I guess I was rooting for them, but it was a good game and I was happy that the Saints won too. I really could have cared less lol, but if I said I was rooting for the Colts I guess I cared? I just thought they would win (if all that makes sense.)
That’s it for now. Just wanted to throw something up real quick. It will feel good to get back on the online grind. I have been slacking lately. With the exception to next weekend I should be playing a lot online. I’ll let everyone know if anything exciting happens. Goodnight.
Let’s Slow It Down…
It feels like I’ve been all over the place lately. I have been out of my comfort zone which is typically attached to the computer. I normally spend the majority of my days on the Internet. That hasn’t been the case lately. In the last week I’ve been to Orlando, Tampa, Atlantic City, Orlando, and now back to South Florida. Let me touch on all of that.
Like I stated in the last blog I went to Tampa to a DeepStacks workshop. That ended around 9pm on Sunday night and I had a 8:30am flight out of Orlando to Atlantic City for the Borgata Winter Open Main Event. I only got about an hour of sleep on Sunday night. I packed and went to bed at around 4:45am and woke up at 6am to make it to the airport for my flight.
The flight to Atlantic City went well. I slept most of the way there. I wouldn’t actually call it sleeping. I guess it was fading in and out of sleep while bobbing my head around the headrest. I’m sure everyone knows what that is like. It’s hard to sleep comfortably on a flight. Regardless, I got a little rest on the plane and made it to the Borgata at 11:15am. The tournament had already started (11am) and I quickly bought in.
I went to my table and seat and someone was already sitting in it. I grabbed a hold of the floor and we tried to figure out what was wrong. Apparently the guy in my chair was at the wrong table (table 29) and should have been at table 28. They told me I had the option to pick either table. I could pick my original seat, or I could take the guy’s original seat. I surveyed both tables and decided to take his seat at table 28. At moment’s like this I always wonder if destiny runs it’s course. Did I alter my destiny, or was this a curve ball to have the stars align for me this tournament? That’s what I asked myself after I sat down at table 28. Did I make the right decision?
The starting stacks for the Main Event were 30k. The blinds started at 25/50 and the levels were 75 minutes long. I was sitting in the nine seat and the table looked good. Irv Gotti was in the two seat, and the table was mostly middle aged men. Eric Buchman (who finished 4th in the WSOP Main Event) was in the five seat. I thought this player looked familiar, but I didn’t recognize him at the time.
I started min raising blind UTG. Every time I was UTG at 25/50 and 50/100 I min raised blind. It generated some good action and gave me a nice, loose image. I typically do this in some deep stacked live tournaments and see how my opponents react.
The first interesting pot I got involved in was actually at 75/150. The small blind made it 700 with about 5k behind. I had QThh in the big blind and called. I wasn’t really worried about his 4x+ raise. The flop came T99r and he checked to me. I bet 1k, he shoved all in, and I called. He turned over A4o and rivered an ace for about a 12k pot. I didn’t let it phase me. On to the next hand.
At 75/150 UTG made it 700. He had been fairly active and his opens were always large, in the 4x area. I called in 3rd position with QQ and two more called. Eric Buchman moved all in from the small blind for 10.5k. The UTG raiser thought for a little bit and folded. He was the only one I was worried about in this hand having me beat, aside from the all in player. I thought about it for a little bit, got a read on the player, and moved all in myself. The other two players folded. Eric turned over AQo and I held to go back up to about 35k.
This next hand is a tricky spot but it was a fairly easy fold. It was the hand before break and I opened to 400 with 66 in 2nd position. The button called as well as the sb and the bb. The flop came A86r and I bet 900. The sb called and the big blind made it 1300 more. The sb was a very tight/straightforward player and the big blind was an active, more aggressive player. I didn’t think I would get much action from the sb if I just flat called so I put in a small reraise to 4700 total (2500 more.) The small blind thought and he made it 5k on top of that. The big blind mucked and I thought about it for a little bit. Obviously I could rule AA out of his range. So therefore his range was… well he had no range. His hand was exactly 88. I didn’t think this was a spot where this player would ever try to bluff or take this line with two pair. I still thought about it for a little bit and told him he had to have 88 here. I mucked bottom set and he showed me 88, for middle set. I made the correct fold, but it was an easy fold. If the sb would have flatted my reraise on the flop I think I would have shut down as well. It was just a player dependent situation. Down to 28.5k
Mike Gracz was moved to Eric Buchman’s seat and made it 600 UTG at 100/200. The tight player from above called in 2nd position and I made it 2200 with KKs in middle position. Gracz flat called with 10k behind, the other player called too. The flop came AQJsss and they checked to me. I bet 3300 and they both folded. 43k now.
Hijack opened to 625 and the cutoff called. I made it 2125 with AA on the button. The hijack folded and the cutoff called. The cutoff was the same player with the A4o vs my QT and he only had about 5.5k behind after calling. The flop came T75r and he checked to me. I bet 600 and he called. The turn was a Jack and he moved all in. I snap called and he turned over AJ and I held. My stack had grown to 51k.
A couple hands back from break the blinds are now 150/300. I open AcQh in 2nd position to 800. A short stack player called to my left and the big blind called as well. The flop came TT9cc and I bet 1600. The big blind raised 2500 more. He was by far one of the most active players and was also a thinking player. At this point in time my image was really good. I had stopped min raising blind and all of my showdowns I was involved in were good for my image. I won’t explain too much thought process but I thought there was a chance he was on air and I could float for clubs. The turn brought the Kc and he checked to me. I bet 5600 and it looked like he wanted to fold, but he decided to call. The river was the 8h and he lead for 8500. I thought about it for a little bit. I was fairly certain he did have a ten at this point and was trying to block bet the river. I took everything into account and made it 15k more on top of his 8500 bet. He tanked for a little bit and folded. It was a little risky bluff but I knew what he held, knew my image, and knew he was capable of folding. I was now up to 69k.
The very next hand I get AKo and make it 800 again. The short stack player to my left made it 2k with about 8kish total. It got back to me and I put him all in. He called with TT and won the race. I was down to 60k.
Nothing too interesting went on throughout the night until one hand before we were about to end for the night. The online player “AreTheseUtz” came to my right. I wasn’t sure who he was. At first I thought it was him because he chopped the Aruba tournament that I played at the end of 2009. I just thought he was shorter. We started chatting and turns out it was him. Anyways…he was playing well. Playing pots in position, didn’t build any unnecessary pots, hadn’t 3bet yet. I pick up QQ UTG and they announce we have 3 more hands until the end of Day 1. So 3 hands after this hand. I make it 1300 at 250/500. The most aggressive/active player at the table calls in 3rd position and AreTheseUtz makes it 5100 from the big blind. I was really in a tough spot. He had 37k behind and I had him covered, having about 65k. The other player had probably 80k or so. I knew that if I flatted the other guy would flat too. I thought and thought. I can’t remember the last time in my life I folded QQ in this spot to a single 3bet, in position, semi deep stacked. I decided I didn’t want to call (which is my norm here) and play a 16k pot three ways, so I folded. The flat caller said he would have called if I did (which I already knew) and I told AreTheseUtz to tell me what he had when the last 3 hands were finished. He later told me he had AA. I am not sure if this is the truth or not, but I do believe him. Either way it was a pretty insane spot and I am happy with how I played it. I obviously had more information than just what I wrote, but I thought it was an awesome hand regardless.
We wrapped up play for the night and I finished with 62k. The average was about 49k. I was happy with my performance and felt like I made minimal mistakes. I was also excited that I got through Day 1 on so little sleep. That was my goal. Get through Day 1, get some sleep, and kill it on Day 2.
When I woke up for Day 2 I tried to take a shower and the water was absolutely freezing. I am not even talking about COLD water. This water was FREEZING water. I can’t operate being dirty and decided to get my hair wet so I could wash it. I stuck my head in the water for 3 seconds and it was immediately frozen. My head was hard as a rock and colder than ever. I washed my hair real quick, rinsed it off with another 3 seconds of freezing water and decided to wash the rest of my body with a wet rag and soap. It wasn’t the best time getting clean but it worked out. I made my way to the tournament area and found my seat.
I only had about three hands to talk about from Day 2. There was one guy who was really spewy/loose. He played a couple pots early and bluffed off about half his stack. For example he called an early position open with K6o on the button which got to showdown. Remember him for later.
Anyways, the first fun pot I played was when a player limped for 600 in second position, the cutoff limped, the sb called, and I checked my option with ATo. The flop came J33r and I bet 1100. The first limper called and the other two folded. He had been pretty solid so far and I felt his range was pretty polarized at this point. The turn was the 3c which brought two clubs. I fired again, 3300. He called once again. Now there was about 12k in the pot. The river was the 4s. I thought for a little bit, he started chatting it up, and I bet 20k. He ended up folding rather quickly, saying he had KJdd, and saying that he would have called up to 8k and didn’t want to call more to chop or run into quads. They asked me to show it but I declined for obvious reasons lol. I know this bluff seems suicidal, because nobody is probably folding a Jack here ever, but hey… it worked.
The next spot I was involved in was when the cutoff limped in for 600. He actually threw out one black (100), one purple (500), and two greens (25 each.) He quickly grabbed the green chips back, so it looked like his intentions were to limp. I picked up 99 on the button and the player who limped only had 27k behind so I made it 2600 so he could call without having to make change. This is probably a stupid thought but something I do every now and then. It folded back to him and he thought about calling, and made it 4k more to 6600. He had about 21k behind and I went into the tank. He had been pretty snug but I really thought he meant to limp. His reraise sizing was pretty small too and typically these type of players would re-raise larger with their big hands here. I decided to move all in and he snap called with KK. I didn’t get lucky and lost a big pot to go down to 40k. I went with my read and really thought the player meant to limp since he grabbed his greens back so quickly. His sizing was good and he said after the hand he had meant to raise. Oh well.
The last hand of the tournament happened after I had been fairly active and it was my second hand raising in a row. I made it 2100 at 400/800 with AKo. The guy I 3 barreled with AT earlier (who had commented on my play/wanting his chips back/almost called in the big blind when I made it 2600 with 99 with 46o so he said) made it 7k in middle position. The button (who was the crazy loose spewy player I first talked about) flat called the 7k. It got back to me and I moved all in for 30k on top. With all the dead money out there and me being about 99% sure the flat caller doesn’t have KK/AA it’s an easy shove. The 3bettor called and the flatter folded. He turned over KK and I didn’t get lucky and was eliminated.
I immediately booked the next flight back to Orlando. I was pretty happy overall with my play but of course disappointed. I still made mistakes and messed up in certain spots I shouldn’t have. It happens.
I got on the flight and it took a little bit until we got on the runway. They said we had weight distribution problems. We finally got ready to take off and the engines cranked up. We started moving and after gaining some speed, the plane started swerving left and right. Holy crap. We ended up coming to a stop, which is exactly what I was hoping for! The pilot got on the intercom and said the engines didn’t balance out together and we were going to go to the end of the runway and try it again. Uht oh. I sent out a last second Tweet in case I didn’t make it lol. We ended up taking off and I made it to Orlando safely.
I relaxed for a day in Orlando then played some online poker Wednesday night. I got deep in the 100r 6max on Stars but didn’t close it out. I made a 4bet bluff shove and didn’t get lucky to bust in 33rd. It will be nice to get back to grinding online. Like I said earlier I have been on the go and haven’t been by the computer too much.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do tomorrow. I have to do some things and definitely hit the gym. I wrote an article for Ante Up Magazine in their February Issue. It’s on page 52. Check it out here Ante Up Magazine Cre8ive Article Page 52. That’s it for now. I’ve been writing for a while with interruptions here and there. Hopefully this blog came out alright. Will update again soon. Goodnight.
Rush Blog…
I will try to make this update quick, but decent (notice the spin off of the newly formed rush poker!) It’s 2:40am right now and I am in Orlando. I have a flight to Atlantic City in 6 hours at 8:30am. I arrive in AC around 10:40am to play in the 11am Borgata Winter Open Main Event (Day 1B.) I am pretty pooped. I just got back from Tampa as well. I was with DeepStacks University/DeepStacks Live doing a free preview workshop for people in the Tampa area.
It was a good time. We had a lot of people come through the doors who were interested in poker and wanting to improve their game. We offered a couple free, quick lessons and some people were interested enough to sign up for the camp we will be hosting in two weeks at the same location. It was fun meeting everyone and I had a great time. It was a long weekend though and I am pretty tired. I didn’t get much sleep throughout the entire weekend.
Unfortunately the downside to hosting a workshop this weekend was the fact that I didn’t get to participate in the Saturday/Sunday poker tournaments. Full Tilt Poker doubled all their guarantee tournaments and PokerStars doubled the Sunday Million to the Sunday Two Million. Ultimate bet was also hosting their UBOC. I came to the conclusion that today was the sickest Sunday for poker in the history of online poker. I just had to look at the Sunday Million lobby. It got almost 20k players with a first place of 550k. Wow. I won’t even dare load Full Tilt Poker because I will be absolutely tilted to see the prize pools and all the crazy tournaments I missed this weekend. I am pretty sad to miss such an amazing day in online poker but I had a commitment and had to stick to it. Hopefully the sites continue to do things like this. It really shows the interest level in poker and it is an amazing thing to see that they could generate prize pools like that.
On the next note I am hoping that since I missed so much poker this weekend that I will be fresh for the Borgata Winter Open Main Event tomorrow. I am trying to just get a quick blog out so I can catch a couple hours of sleep before I have to catch this flight. I haven’t played much poker in the last week. I feel really good and am super excited to play this tournament.
I will just leave it at that for now. Thanks to everyone who came through to the workshop this weekend. Also I am super jealous of everyone who was able to play poker this weekend and the whole week! I normally end my Sundays hating poker and I’m not sure today would have been any different. Haha.. the only thing I can say is I didn’t play so I will never know. Sorry if this blog is really sloppy. I’m super tired, gotta sleep. I will have some good blog/Twitter updates while I’m in Atlantic City. Goodnight.
Weeks Worth…
**I started this blog on Saturday night… and didn’t finish it. So the first part will be from Saturday**
I just finished playing MTTs for the day. I had a 20th in the $300 6max on FTP. I was near the top of the leader board the whole time until a couple big pots in the end when I busted. I made one borderline call where the opponents range was really polarized and I was wrong. It was a really big pot and I could have folded the river but I thought I had a good read, which apparently I didn’t. I bubbled both 100rs today on FTP and Pokerstars. Oh ya also got deep in the 100 cubed turbo again but that didn’t work out either. I had a couple other deep runs but I still have to play better, still making mistakes. I’m still trying a lot of new things though too, so it’s tough to play flawlessly doing that.
Let’s see… I went to Orlando to do some DeepStacks University work on Monday and Tuesday. I should have some modules up on their site within the next week. Lol… funny sidetrack story.
I was just writing the blog and saw white shoes outside in the dark run by my window. I got a flashlight went outside and didn’t see anyone then I saw 2 kids take off from a couple houses over. I shouted “Hey what are you kids doing?!” and they kept running, so I ran after them lol. I haven’t ran than fast in years. Luckily I had socks on and I caught up with them down the street and they told me they were just playing man hunt. Haha.. I used to do the same thing. I just wanted to make sure what was going on though. Me and all the neighbors have fences so it was weird noticing someone outside but they seemed legit. I have heard some kids have tried to break into houses around here so that’s why I tailed them.
Anyways. Yeah I did some videos for DeepStacks University. It took a little bit to get comfortable and understand what was going on but it wasn’t bad at all. I got the hang of it and pumped out a couple modules on Super Turbo Strategy. I will see how they turn out. Hopefully it’s not too embarrassing being in front of the camera and I can get 100% comfortable to doing it. I’m excited to see how the finished product looks.
On to the Isle tournament… My buddy Steve Karp, who was featured in my last blog explaining how to beat live poker must really know what hes talking about lol. He went on to win the Isle Tournament for about $45k!!!! Congrats again to him!!! I’m not sure how many times he closed his eyes praying for his gutter or had to beat glow in the dark opponents but he did it lol… He’s a pretty funny guy. Don’t take anything he said too seriously, he knows what he is doing.
Steve “The Sleeze” Karp
What else is there to say.. Hmmm… On Thursday/Friday I will be going to Tampa for a DeepStacks Live workshop. With DeepStacks University we also run live camps around the country. We have a FREE preview workshop that is taking place in Tampa on Saturday. The location is at the Embassy Suites at 555 N. Westshore Blvd. The times are both Saturday and Sunday 10am, 3pm, and 7pm. If you want to go register at DeepStacks.com. I will be in Tampa until Sunday and then I am going to hop on a plane out of Orlando and head to Borgata in Atlantic City for the Winter Open $3k Main Event. Hopefully everything works out according to plan.
I booked my flight for early Monday morning and I will be arriving in Atlantic City around 10:40am. The tournament starts at 11am. Hopefully I can get settled in and everything and not miss too many hands. I wanted to leave Sunday night but as soon as I went to book this one flight, it was filled. I ran really bad today lol. It was a 9:20pm flight out of Orlando on Sunday. It would have fit my schedule perfectly. I wanted to get there the night before and settle in but oh well. Maybe traveling to the tournament the day of will be good to switch it up.
As far as poker goes today I didn’t do very well. I probably wasn’t playing my best and didn’t run the best either. Those two factors combined never make for a good Sunday. I got deep in the 100r Turbo on FTP and ended up busting 14th by losing a flip. That tournament has a lot of luck involved but it was nice to be deep and have a shot at the 44k first place. I wish I could have done better.
I also might play in the Stars Blogger COOP thing… so let me post that link now.
I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.
Registration code: 044890
That’s about it for now I guess. This blog has been all over the place. I haven’t forgot about the free coaching and I plan on doing that in the next couple of weeks when I get some more down time. Pretty sure FTP has double guarantees this week so I will be grinding online the days I can this week. Goodnight.
Back Home but Busy…
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.
Busted Two Live Tourneys Same Day…
This morning I woke up and decided to play the $1100 PLO 6-max tournament at the PCA. I registered and got to my table. I had a pretty good seat. I had position on the better players I believe. I only played one big pot really.
At 25/50 UTG made it 150, the cutoff made it 525 and I flatted in the big blind with T9cc67dd. We started with 10k in chips and 50 minute levels. My hand plays really well post flop so I think it’s an easy call, especially since the UTG raiser will not be 4betting here much. The UTG raiser did actually 4bet to 2125. The cutoff called and I was priced in as well. The flop came QcTd2c and there was about 6400 in the pot. I had around 8k and decided potting it and going with this flop was the best play. It is obvious the UTG raiser has AAxx and I figured he would have to fold dry aces here on this well connected board assuming he didn’t have clubs along with his AA. He ended up tank calling with AcAhQh9d for dry aces. He flopped top pair as well but my hand had 57% equity vs his hand, so I was actually a favorite. The turn and river bricked and I was down to about 1200 in chips.
I doubled up and then 3bet Nam Le’s open with AKQTds. He flat called and I had 700 chips behind. The flop came J82ddd and I didn’t have diamonds. This is one of the only flops I would ever check fold here with my remaining stack of about 700-800. I check folded and eventually got my stack in having to fade 8 outs and he hit. On to the next tournament.
The 5k 8 handed tournament started at 4pm. The PLO started at 2pm. I registered for the 5k after relaxing for about an hour and eating lunch. I got in the 5k at around 5pm and was moved to a tough table. Here was the seating assignment:
Seat 1: Roothlus
Seat 2: Busto_soon
Seat 3: ToeTagU
Seat 4: GotURead
Seat 5: Me (Cre8ive)
Seat 6: Angel Guillen (Stars pro)
Seat 7: BigEgypt
Seat 8: Danny Wong
I will talk about some really interesting hands but I don’t know how much I want to go into detail. The first big pot I got involved in was at 75/150. I raised UTG with A7hh. Angel called in 2nd position and Roothlus called in position. ToeTagU 3bet to 1600 from the small blind. I wanted to put him in a tough spot with Ace blockers and 4bet to 3250. I was about 15k deep and everyone was around the same. I really like my 4bet sizing here. Angel and Rooth folded and ToeTagU called. Uht oh. The flop was A63 rainbow. He checked, I checked. The turn was another 3 and it went check check. The river was a 5 and he bet 4600. I made a really easy call in my mind and he showed me AA. Ouch. I was now down to about 7k in chips.
Since I was at such a tough table I decided to mix my play up and step outside the box a little. I took some different lines and played some different spots than I usually would. I got in one big pot with Roothlus when he raised the hijack to 525 at 100/200 and I defended my big blind with 64cc. The flop came J44ss and he bet 550 after I checked. I check raised to 1450 and he called. The turn was the 2h putting two hearts and two spades and I bet 2450. He called once again. The river came the Jc and I hated the river. I don’t think he has too many jacks in his range, I really thought he had an over pair like AA/KK and I thought this card would kill my action. I bet 5k leaving myself with about 2-3k. He thought for a while and ended up mucking.
Another big pot I got involved in was when GotURead opened the cutoff to 525 and I called with KQo. Angel called in the sb too. The flop came Q74r and both me and Angel called GotURead’s flop bet of 900. The turn brought Qs putting two spades on board and they both checked to me. Normally I bet here but I wanted to get more value and disguise my hand to both opponents and I checked as well. The river wasn’t the best card, it was the Ad. Angel checked, GotU bet 2200 and I raised to 5700. Angel folded and GotU made a great fold showing a Q (Q6 he said) and I won another pot.
I was playing pretty weird but aggressive. I liked how I was mixing it up a lot. I grew my stack up to about 22k and picked up AQo a couple hands into the 150/300/25ante level. I opened to 800 on the hijack and Danny 3bet from the small blind to 2500. He had about 7k behind and I moved all in. He tanked for a long time and really wanted to call but ended up folding what he said was AJ. Oh well. I was very active and was playing a ton of pots. I won a couple nice pots off Danny. Two hands after the AQ I picked up another real hand AKcc. I made it 800 from 2nd position and Danny moved all in for 7k. Roothlus tank folded and then it got to ToeTagU in the big blind. He instantly moved all in for around 30k. I was pretty surprised to see a snap shove by him. I thought he would of tanked for a little bit with QQ/KK/AA so with that thought process coupled with my image, I thought this was an easy call although it was a huge pot. I called all in with my 25k stack. Danny turned over 55 and ToeTagU turned over AKdd. I had AKcc and the board ran out 6d7d3h8dx and ToeTagU hit a flush to win a monster pot. I think it would be hard for ToeTag to just flat there with a lot of his range because I could put him in tough spots by shoving over his call with a wide range. I think it’s an easy call for me.
So today I was pretty unlucky and that’s the theme of the trip. I have been playing really well in the bigger events and I really like where my game is heading. I still have a lot more to learn and practice but I’m getting there. It was nice playing against great players today to test where I’m at. It was a fun challenge. I’m not sure what I’m going to do for the next couple of days. I leave here on the 12th.
That’s it for now. Will update later. Goodnight.
Eliminated From PCA Main…
I feel like I did everything I could. I am back in my hotel room right now. The feeling of losing a big tournament is horrible. Nothing else matters except the tournament. When you lose you just wish there was a way you could jump back in there. It’s more of a lost feeling I suppose. The tournament was your home and now you’re homeless, lol. Enough of the woe is me. I played really well today and I am not upset with myself, it just didn’t go my way. I’ll talk about a couple of big pots I played today.
I started with an average stack and looked up my table draw in the morning. I had 4 other HSMTT regulars on my starting table. Jcarver, Kleath, Allanon, and DaBears87 (puffinpurp, gimmeda1time.) I chipped up good throughout the day at this table with not many showdowns. In the first couple hours of play I think I won all but one pot without a showdown. My first interesting hand was against JCarver.
I raised the lowjack with AdQs to 2400 at 500/1k/100a and he called from the small blind. The flop came QJ9hh. We both checked. The turn was the Jd putting two diamonds up. He lead for 4200 and I called. The river was the Td. He bet 8500, I made it 19.8k and he folded. My stack grew to 61k.
I was up to around 80k when Allanon raised to 2700 utg with a little over 30k stack. I had 99 in 2nd position and called. The chip leader at the table called as well as JCarver. The flop came 658ss and we all checked. The turn was the 7d giving me the straight. Me and Allanon checked again and the chip leader bet 12k. Everyone folded to me and I decided smooth calling was best. The river brought the Ac and I decided to check again. He bet 19k, I called and he mucked his hand. I was now up to 139k.
At 800/1600 I made it 4k UTG with JJ. The player in 2nd position called and kleath shoved in late position for 22k. I reshoved when action got back to me and the 2nd position player folded. Kleath showed 88 and the board ran out A76A river 8. I couldn’t fade the 2 outter for a ~55k pot and I was down to 122k.
I make it 4800 UTG at 1k/2k and a player who was new to the table but had 3bet earlier before we went on break made it 13k. I didn’t have too much information on him and felt like calling preflop was the best plan of action. The flop came T84r and I check called a 15k bet. The turn came a 6 and we both checked. The river was a beautiful card, a Q. I had top set. The player had about 70k in chips and there was about 60k in the pot. He had 40k in blue (5k) chips so I bet exactly that. He called and showed KK when he saw my QQ. I was pretty lucky in this pot but I would have folded the turn if he fired again. I was up to about 190k now.
That table broke and I was moved to a new table with Vanessa Rousso and some other Internet players. One guy two to my right had about 500k in chips and was playing every pot. He played one pot where he opened the button to 5500, the small blind 3bet to 18k (with about 115k stack — he would never fold here in his life) and the button moved all in with K9ss. The small blind called with JJ and the guy flopped a flush with K9. He was overly aggressive and getting hit with the deck.
I was just getting used to the new table and seeing how everything was. I opened to 6100 in 3rd position with KQo. The button, who was an Internet player (JBT449 I just found out) made it 15.3k. I was pretty sure this was a 3bet bluff so I decided to 4bet to 33.6k. In hindsight I should have made a larger 4bet but I don’t mind it when I do have monsters. He decided to flat call me. He was probably 250-300k deep and I was about 180k deep. I priced him out to set mine but still put myself in a rough spot out of position. The flop came 952r and I bet 42k with about 110k behind. He thought for a while and just decided to call. The turn was a 7h bringing two hearts. I decided to check. He bet 20k into a pot of about 155k. I thought long and hard about this one… I’ll just keep my thoughts to myself. I wont comment on his play or my play. Ultimately I ended up folding after about 5 minutes of thought and he showed K5o, for the best hand. My stack was now at 110k.
I raise QJo in 2nd position at 1.5k/3k/300a. Everyone folds. The very next hand I pick up QQ and make it 7200 UTG. It folds to CrazyMarco who moves all in for about 50k. I call and he tables ATss. The flop came Txxxx and I was up to about 165k.
Here is my bust out hand. Vanessa Rousso was very short and moves all in for about 26-28k preflop in middle position (at 1.5k/3k.) The crazy/loose/overly aggressive chip leader calls her all in next to act from the hijack. Her range is huge here as well as his. I look down at AQo on the button. With over 70k in the pot already, this is a super easy shove. I move all in. The chip leader calls with AK. I table AQ. Vanessa turns up 44. The board runs out 96362 and Vanessa triples up and I am eliminated around 300th place.
225 players made the money in this tournament. I played real hard and have that feeling that there’s not much else I could do. I didn’t let the K5o hand affect me and I think the AQo hand is just a huge cooler, So I’m not mad, just disappointed like usual. I was about 45 minutes away from Day 3 and only 80 or so players away from making the money. It was definitely a grind but I was getting more comfortable the deeper I got. My instincts were spot on today and I wish I could have done better. I just have to keep playing and hopefully one of these big tournaments works out in my favor. Good luck to everyone who is still in. Hopefully one of my friends will win it.
Survived Day 1 of PCA Main Event…
I survived day 1 today. We played for 8 hours. I have a stack of 46k with the average being around 47k. I’m not in bad shape. I played a couple real interesting pots today. I won a lot of small pots after winning one big pot and found myself at 70k in chips before the last two levels of the day. I couldn’t hit a flop or win a pot for the last two levels and finished with 46k. I played well though for the most part. I don’t think I spewed off chips or anything. Just standard hands with continuation bets, etc. I avoided a couple of marginal spots which I’m not sure how I feel about yet. I had a pretty tough table with a lot of good players.
I didn’t really get to touch too much on the DeepStacks University deal. I just want to say once again I’m really lucky and thankful for something like that. I’m sure there are a lot of poker players and people that are more deserving than me. In this industry it seems pretty hard to get yourself in a position for an opportunity like the one I have. They have a bunch of awesome players signed to their site already and I’m sure it will be a blast working with them as well as all the other guys involved with DeepStacks U.
The weather in the Bahamas has been a little chilly and windy. I had a few days off before I had to hit the tables. On Tuesday I tried to fight the cold weather and hit the pools/slides/beach. It wasn’t so bad until the wind started blowing and the sun was stuck behind the clouds. It would have been nice to relax on the beach for a couple of days before playing. That’s the least of my concerns at this moment. I want to stay inside as long as possible for the Main Event now!
I’ll post one Interesting hand I had today. A good cash game player who was playing pretty solid at the time made it 500 in 2nd position at 75/150. The button, who was a loose player (but a thinking player) from Greece called. I called in the small blind with black JJ. We all had around 25-35k in chips. The flop came J97hhh. We all checked. The turn brought the 3s. I bet 850 and the Greek guy called. The other opponent folded. The river brought the 7d, pairing the board. I thought this was a good card for my opponent and the way the hand played out I felt like a check raise was best. I checked, he bet 1850, and I made it 6450. He then reraised me 6k more.
What do you guys do? I probably had a little over 20k facing his raise of 6k. Do you call or do you move all in?
Pretty interesting spot considering how the hand played out and what hands he can turn over on the river. I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress. I will be updating Twitter every now and then. Follow me on Twitter to see the updates.