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Survived Day 1 of Aruba 5k Main…
I made it to day 2 of the Aruba Poker Classic. I currently have about 65k in chips and I believe the average is probably around 25-27k. We go into 200-400-50a (I think) on day 2. I was up to 73k-75k but lost a decent pot where I triple barreled with like 5 minutes left in the night. I had a pretty tough table all day. The three seats to my left were mostly occupied by Internet players and it was tough. I did well though and won a couple key pots and was able to acquire a nice stack. I wrote down some keys hands from today and let me tell you, there are some pretty amazing and intriguing hands! I won’t post them yet because it could definitely hurt me in the tournament with players having extra information like that. It will be a great read when I get to write it all up.
Other than that I am just going to enjoy the island tomorrow. I will probably lay out in the pool or head to the beach or something. I want to relax. I didn’t get much sleep last night and woke up at 10am on about 4 hours of sleep. I wanted to play today so I am glad I woke up and got over to the Radisson.
When I bought into the tournament Ultimate Bet gave me a bag full of goodies. In this bag there was a very strange item. Located in what looked like an over sized match pack was a condom. Now the last thing I would do would be to trust an online poker website to provide me with sexual protection. I don’t know where UB got this idea from but the condom definitely doesn’t look safe haha. Maybe just a practical joke on their part somehow. You open it up and it’s bubble gum or something!
Anyways enough of that rant I just thought it was crazy that they gave something like that away. I would like to say all the dealers we had today were really good. The structure of the tournament is alright. I will have to see what the levels look like for the future days. I think we only got around 180 players today and there were roughly 110 left. I am predicting tomorrow gets 300-350 players hopefully. They said they were going to get about 500 for the main event. It won’t be a million to first but it should be nice. Another thing that I thought was crazy is the fact that UB pays you through your UB account if you win and they don’t give you cash. I don’t know if that’s really fair but that’s how it is I guess. If you win their 10th Anniversary Main Event I doubt you will have trouble trying to get the money off their site but you never know.
That’s all I will say for now. I can’t wait to talk about this tournament. There have been some great hands for discussion. Hopefully I survive the Main Event 5-6 more days and can write one big summary about how I won the tournament! Wishful thinking but I will do my best. If I think of anything else to say I will update the blog.
Been In Aruba Two Days…
This was officially my second day in Aruba. I didn’t do anything but catch up on some sleep and then play online poker all day. I didn’t play too many tables but I got a good amount of tournaments in and played the bigger tournaments. It wasn’t a very good day online and I only got deep in one $100 freeze out but no final table/win/anything.
Tomorrow I will most likely play in the $5k Aruba Poker Classic Main Event hosted by UlitmateBet. I haven’t bought in yet. It’s about 11:30pm and it’s too late to buy in tonight. I haven’t had a full meal since yesterday afternoon either lol. I woke up late for breakfast at the resort today and jumped right into poker. I bought snacks from a grocery store on the Island yesterday and that’s all I ate so far. I ate yogurt, granola bars, peanuts, and some cookies the chef here made which were amazing. They were cranberry and coconut cookies and they were delicious. I also had about 5 vitamin waters. I wouldn’t call a yogurt and vitamin water a good meal lol. Hopefully someone comes back to the resort soon and we can go get a bite to eat somewhere.
I’m currently staying at this private resort called Club Arias (http://www.clubarias.com) It’s really neat. There are about 10 rooms and it’s on the other side of the Island from the casino where the poker tournament is being held. That’s the only negative thing I can say about this place. The whole staff, the owner, everyone involved in this place (like 3-4 people) are awesome. They have shown us around the country and taken great care of us. There is breakfast every morning and a 4pm snack (the cookies I ate earlier were the snack the chef made today.) The compound has one lounge pool that’s really neat, a big jacuzzi, and a normal pool. They also have a lounge where I played poker all day today. If you go to the website you can see the pictures. The owner, Arias, has done a great job showing us around and teaching us about Aruba and everything that goes on around here. There are about six other poker players staying here too.
Yesterday Arias took us to San Nicolas where we ate at this local restaurant. It was great. It was a small restaurant with about 4-5 tables but the food was awesome. I had some chicken/rice dish and the chicken was seasoned really well and just the whole meal was great. I need to brush up on my Spanish though! I really see how important it is to know some of the native language in other countries. Of course some people know English to an extent but it’s always important to be able to communicate if nobody can speak the language you speak. I am such a gringo here but it’s alright lol. I also went over to the Radisson where they are holding the poker tournament. I ran into a couple poker players I know and got to see the resort and the other side of the Island a little bit. I watched the UM game at the outside bar and just hung out around the casino until everyone was ready to leave.
I don’t have any other plans other than playing this $5k and winning it. There are a couple other side events. A 1k NLH, 2k NLH, and 2k NLH 6max. Those tournaments aren’t even on my mind right now. So that’s all I will say about Aruba/Aruba Poker Classic and everything else for now.
I will keep everyone updated on my progress through the 5k Main Event. I probably won’t post any hands until the tournament is over because I wouldn’t want any of my opponents to get any extra information. Talk to you guys later.
Off to Aruba…
It’s almost 6am in the morning and my flight leaves to Aruba at 11:15am. I am going to go play in the Aruba Poker Classic that is hosted by Ultimate Bet. A couple of my friends from Florida are going. Steve, Adam, Matt, etc.
They have a $540 nightly tournament and some other real good tournaments. There is a $5k Main Event, a 2k NL, a 1k NL, and a 2k 6max tournament. The goal is to only play one tournament, the 5k Main Event and not have a chance to play any other tournament because I will be too busy playing the Main Event. It runs the whole week and the final table is played Saturday, so that is my plan. The other tournaments seem like they will be good, especially the 2k 6max, but I have only one tournament I am worried about at this point. As far as I’m concerned it is a one tournament trip.
I should be able to get on my computer and get on the Internet and blog a little and stay connected to the world. I haven’t heard much about Aruba so I don’t really know what to expect. I’m pretty focused though and ready to go play a big live tournament. The 4th place the other day that I got was a nice warm up for what I’m about to encounter so hopefully I can have another good showing.
Yeah so I will be getting into Aruba around 3pm tomorrow so if anyone is going/knows anything about Aruba/or you run into me say whats up. Goodnight.
$550 Isle Live Tourny Summary…
I took a little over a week off and yesterday was my first day playing. I decided to play a $550 buyin tournament at the Isle Casino in Pompano Florida. It had 162 entrants and was 25.5k to first place. The levels were 30 minutes long and everyone started with 10k in chips with a 2k addon for $20, so 12k in chips.
I played a couple pots early and my stack went up a down a little. The first real big pot I got involved in came down at 100/200. I made it 500 preflop with AKo in early position and got 3 callers. The flop came AJ5dd and I bet 1250. This tight kid that I’ve played with a bunch flats me and everyone else folds. The turn comes 6s and I decide to bet 2100. He snap shoved for like 5k more. I tanked it for a little bit and decided to muck. He’s pretty tight and with his timing and everything I felt like it was JJ/55/AJ. I really didn’t think he would shove combo draws on the turn and felt like he would get in KQdd on the flop, etc. He later told me he had AJ so hopefully I made the right fold there. I was down to probably 8k after this hand.
A couple hands later a guy limps UTG the button limps and I check 63s in the big blind. The flop came KJ2dd and we all checked. The turn comes 6s putting two spades out there and I lead for a little bet of 300. They both call. The river is the 6c and I bet 1k. The button who was pretty fishy made it 3k and I knew I was beat unless he was turning some missed flush draw into a bluff, which is possible but he was just so bad, so anyways I had to call and he had A6o and I was now down to 3300. Rough.
I shove my 3300 stack into the fishy limper from above and the blinds and everyone folds. The very next hand he limps UTG and I pick up AKo in mid position. I shove 3800 all in and the small blind calls with 1100 behind and the UTG limper moves all in. The sb calls all in with A7ss and the UTG player has JJh. Board runs out K93hhQh river bricks 7d and I am back up to 12k after a nice triple up.
I get moved to a new table and I blind down to 7500/8k. UTG limps for 400 and 2nd position makes it 2700. I move all in with KcKh and he calls with ATss. The flop was scary Q86ss and ran out 8h 5h and I doubled up to 16k.
Another hand came when this player who limped like 30% of hands in late position (remember him for the future of this post) limps at 300/600/50a and I raise the cutoff with AThh he calls and the flop comes 678hh and I bet 3250 with 12k behind, he thinks with his gutshot and decides to muck. I’m up to about 20k at this point.
A mid position player makes it 1500 who is semi active, the guy above calls in the cutoff and I call in the sb with 89dd. The bb calls also (who has all the chips like 80k-100k at this point) and the flop comes 674d. I check and the bb leads out for 2500. I decide to move all in for 15k more because I know the player and play with him a lot and he will think my shove is stronger than a raise and he will definitely peel a lot with his stack any hands he’s betting the flop to see if turn improves him. I figured he’s mucking here like 95% of the time to me since he had noted how tight I had been playing this particular tourny and along with his bet sizing on this flop. I’m now up to 27k.
I raise KK UTG to 2100 at 400/800/100a and a mid position player shoves in 9k with ATcc and it runs out Q93dd7d8 to put me up to 37k.
A pretty interesting hand that came up happened at 400/800/100a where I raise the button to 2100 and this younger guy shoves all in in the big blind for 50k. I had about 30k or so behind and tanked it for a little while. His shove is really weak in my opinion and I thought he was doing it with hands he wouldn’t know how to play to a 4bet if he did 3bet. He wasn’t an advanced player or anything so its either like AK or like 22-55 or something. So I decided to muck although I think it’s an interesting spot and he showed me a deuce. So he obviously had 22.
I raise hijack to 3100 at 600/1200/100a and the sb short stack shoves in 7k total with AT. I have AJo and he wins with KT6xx and I’m at 30k.
Blinds are now 1k/2k and guy shoves hijack for 12k. I call with ATo in the big blind and he has Q8cc. The board runs out QT7J….Ace! I scoop the pot on the river and move up to 40k going into 1.5k/3k when the average is about 45k.
I have about 55k and the cutoff shoves in 10k. I reshove the button with QTdd and he flips over A7o. The board runs out K55dJdA on the river and I’m up to 66k.
Here is definitely one of the most interesting spots I have been involved in in a live tournament. I am up to about 95k or 100k and the blinds are 3k/6k. There are 20 people left and 17 people get paid. I make it 14.5k in third position with 8s8c. The big blind calls with 36k behind. This is the same guy who would limp all the time in late position and everything. The flop comes Q93ss and he shoves all in for 36k. Initially I was like dang.. I’m in trouble here. Last time he moved all in (preflop) he had AA. He was pretty spewy/loose but when he typically but his chips in he had a hand. So I went into the tank. I ruled out JJ/TT because I thought he would shove them preflop. He also commented earlier about me not being scared to raise in early position and someone else at the new table we were at asked if I was an internet player, etc. So people were noting to me raising preflop. I also didn’t think he would shove a Q or 9 because he would like to get value from me considering I’m either going to call his shove or fold anyways, so I felt like his shove didn’t include those type of hands either. Now JT/KJ/KT/A4ss type hands are all in his range. I then tried to think a little deeper inside of his head. I knew he was just a live guy from playing with him and he wasn’t that deep of a thinker, so I also decided to include all small pocket pairs in his range like 22-77. I ruled out him having a set since he would definitely check or not move all in at least, and I can see him doing a stop and go with those type of hands since there is only one overcard (the queen) he’s concerned about in his mind. He was also getting a massage and had his eyes closed the whole time during the hand. I thought that was a sign of weakness from him as well. I feel like I can read body language fairly well so I told him “I think I’m ahead here, my gut is telling me to call you.” He didn’t flinch and I stacked the chips to call. If I made the call I had 43k chips remaining at 3k/6k. I counted out the 36k and put it into the pot. He turned over 77 and I was ahead. The turn came the 3 and the river was a 7!!!!! Noooooooooo!!!! Rivered for 120k pot on the bubble!!!
Two hands later I’m not in the big blind and the hijack makes it 20k preflop. I look down at AJhh and shove in my last 43k chips. He calls with KJo and I hold. I get back up to 120k and we are still left with 20 players with 1`7 being paid. Average stack is 92k.
We have 20 people left still and a tighter short stack player raises to 16k with about 40k behind. It folds to me in the big blind and I look down at AA. I decide to flat. The flop comes 834cc and I check. He bets out 15k with about 25k behind and I move all in. He doesn’t take much time to fold. Very next hand button makes it 20k with about 40-45k behind. He had been open shoving so him raising here on the bubble was suspicious. I looked down at A7o in the small blind and moved all in. He mucks and I was now up to 185k.
I raise to 21.5k preflop at 4k/8k/500a with AKhh and the guy with 77 from hand earlier defends his big blind again. Flop comes AQ7r and I bet 26.5k He mucks. Next hand I raise A8o UTG 6 handed and they all muck. 19 Players left.
It folds to the button and we are 6 handed 2 away from the money. The button is the guy from the 77 hand earlier and he moves all in for 69k total. I look down at K8cc in the big blind and go into the tank. I tell him “I’m pretty bitter about that 77 hand.” and he starts responding all nervously. He’s basically trying to talk me into a fold I can tell. He was notorious the whole tournament for limping in late position/button/etc with his whole range and since I was putting so much pressure on the bubble I figured he had to shove and that was his only play in his mind to win any chips. He seemed nervous enough that his range would be wide enough to make my K8cc a profitable call, so I decided to call. He turned over 33 and it came KK4JA. I was now up to 310k on the stone bubble with 2 tables left.
I chilled at the new table 9 handed and didn’t do anything on the bubble except raise a couple hands since it was a new table and I had a lot of chips. Image/etc plays into that and people love to play back at you so it was best to just relax now. The bubble burst and two hands later I look down at KK in 2nd position and make it 21.5k. Guy in 4th position moves all in for 64k and the big blind reshoves for about 80-90k. I know one of them has to have aces so I decide to fold. Hahaha, just kidding! Was just seeing who actually reads this thing lol, of course I called. First shover has 99 and the big blind has AQo. Board runs out 346KJ and I am up to 475k with 15 left when the average is 110k.
The immediate hand before break (before it goes to 6k/12k) the button shoves all in. He’s an older guy but he only has 50k and he has moved in quite a bit in late position. I look down at Q9o in the big blind. I tanked for a little bit and everyone in the tournament had left to go on break. Nobody from my table was still there or interested in what was going to happen. Since it wouldn’t affect my image at all with the table aside from the button shover, and the fact that I had a ton of chips/decent price/blinds going up/etc I decided to call. He turned over AKo and the board ran out KJxxx and he wins the pot. I am now down to about 420k where the average is 130k.
I raise ATo UTG at 6k/12k to 29k. I get two callers and the flop comes AJ3cc. We all check the flop and the turn comes the Th. It puts out two clubs and two hearts. I lead out for 50k after the big blind checked to me and the mid position caller calls my turn bet. The river is a nice brick 2s and I don’t think he ever has QK here without shoving the turn with all those draws and put him on like QJ/KJ or maybe AQ. I decided to bet 120k on the river (he had about 260k total.) I probably should have bet the river for like 80k but I went for a bigger value bet he ended up folding and I was up to 565k. Same guy from above raises UTG to 30k with 250k behind and I shove JJ in the sb he mucks.
UTG moves all in for 38k and I call in the bb with QTo he has K8o and I lost at 6k/12k. Cutoff shoves all in for 64k I reshove in the sb with KQdd. He has A9o the board runs out K753 Ace on the river and I am down to 480k with 11 left.
With 10 players left a guy is all in for 3k in the small blind. I raise the button to 38k at 8k/16k. The big blind calls. The flop comes QT4r and he leads for 25k into me. I thought this was pretty weak and I thought a raise looked strong here with an allin player before we made the final table of 9..so I raised to 63k or so and the guy shoved in QK on me and beat the allin player who was all in for like a 15k side pot. I am down to 320k now and we are at the final table.
At the final table a guy makes it 50k in 2nd position. This guy already made like a 4x on the hijack and folded AKo to a sb shove (they both had decent stacks) and said we probably have the same hand. I wish that hand would have ran out really I cant imagine how these guys are mucking AK there but anyways, He makes it 50k and I look down at KK on the cutoff. I have 320k and I really thought about flatting here but the players behind me definitely would never squeeze and there is just so much money out there already I decided to move all in. The small blind called all in with JJ for about 80k and the other guy who made it 50k folds AQ and the board runs out QK9KQ and I have 445k with 8 left.
There is a guy who was just crippled the hand before with Top pair vs. set and he has 10k now on the button. I raise in 2nd position with A6cc to 48k at 10k/20k/2k. There is a player in the big blind who has 34k. I figured he would fold here and try to outlast the other guy who was shorter but apparently not. He ended up calling all in with J9o and I win the pot with T62Ax board. The guy who has 10k is now paying a 2k ante every hand and folding still so I raised the next couple of hands since people were scared to lose since he was about to be knocked out lol.
Guy to my left raises the cutoff to 54k and I shove AQo on button. He has about 400k I am up to 630k 6 handed with 1.9m in play. I probably should have cheese 3bet here to like 128k but I screwed up and just shoved on him. With so much money in the pot already and the structure the way it is I really don’t mind taking 100k and putting it into my stack every time in these spots but If someone would shove light I should be taking those edges. Oh well.
I raise cutoff with AQo, button reshoves all in for 54k with JJ. I call his allin for 6k more (I made it 48k) and it comes Qxxxx and I win another hand. I raise AKo on button to 48k the older guy who was 2nd in chips calls in the big blind. The flop comes out J72r and he check folds to my 56k cbet. I am up to 750k now.
The button moves all in for 95k I look down at AQo in the small blind and call vs. his 77. Oh what do you know? I won another flip on a T83A4 board and am up to like 850k.
We are now 4 handed and this is where it gets super interesting so pay attention. It folds to me in the small blind, I shove all in with QTo. The bb has 140k and calls with K8o. He wins the pot and I am down to 715k.
At this point there are 4 of us left and the blinds are about to go to 15/30k/3k which means there is basically little room for play left. It is about 12:30AM and the casino closes at 1AM. We either have to finish the tourny tonight, chop it, or we have to come back and finish it tomorrow (on a Thursday.) I had no problem with any of the options and we started discussing a chip chop deal. I had about 40% of the chips in play and I would have taken a little over 20k with a deal. The original payouts were 6.1k to 4th, 9.3k to 3rd, 14.3k to 2nd, and 25.5k to 1st. The short stack saw he would only get 2k more than 4th and was on the phone with his backer and said no to the deal. Now let me explain some more. The guy to my left has been pretty straight forward with me the whole time. I had shown him some of my hands, he just wanted to get short handed and chop. I was cool with that too. The structure is pure bananas. Once the short stack said no to the chop the guy to my right got pretty upset because he wanted to chop. The short stack then proceeded to double up to 600k through the older guy at the table and wanted to chop. Now the guy to my right is like oh now you want to chop hell no blah blah blah… F this we are playing I am going to win this tournament now I am not chopping unless we chop even (which I wasn’t going to do at this point in time) and saying all this stuff. He was obviously frustrated.
So now he raises to 65k in the small blind at 15/30k/3k and I shove on him in the bb with K3ss. He had some betting tells that I picked up on so I felt like I knew when to shove on him light. He ends up mucking he had about 400k. I am up to about 760k now.
The kid to my left has 600k and moves all in on the button. The older guy in the small blind tank calls with 55 and the guy to my right almost calls with A7ss saying he wants to end the tournament and probably has the best hand etc, he was frustrated like I said. The button has AA and the older guy has 55 and the guy with 55 hits a set on the flop and doubles up to about 500k. The kid to my left is now down to about 350k.
The sb guy who is frustrated shoves all in for about 500k. I look down at A2o. This is one of those spots where I know its most likely I am ahead but I decided to pass up on this small edge to take a bigger edge. The other stacks both had about 300k and I had about 750k at the time. I figured it would be best to wait because they got pretty crazy after we said no chop and they were all moving in a ton. I shoved him my hand in hopes he would show me his but he mucked fast. I told him I know I had the best hand but he can have it and he replied with “You were ahead but I was live.”
The very next orbit the kid to my right had just reshoved all in vs. the old guys UTG raise and now it folds to him again in the small blind. He has about 680k at this point and moves all in. I look down at A7o and have about 700k. I decided to call and he turned over ATo he wins on a T6JJx board and I am left with 15k in chips and lose the very next hand for a very disappointing 4th place.
I’m not sure about the A2 fold, although I’m pretty sure its correct, and the A7o call was super tough spot for me. These guys were going absolutely crazy since we were on a time limit or had to come back and play/not chopping too. It was just a crazy dynamic and I told myself I would just relax and wait for the bustouts and wait for some hands. It’s pretty frustrating to get in a spot like that where it’s real hard to fold. I think a fold would have been alright though, it probably is a fold actually. But that’s always easy to say after the fact. It’s too bad none of my friends were sweating so I could have some input on the dynamics. It really was crazy to see these guys just shoving every hand. If I win that pot I have 1.4mil in chips and the tournament is over. Like I said, it was rough and I probably could have folded but I was thinking about how I just showed the A2 the orbit before and how he seemed tilted and wanted to just end it and he was being overly active after the chop fell through. I mean it might be the right call given his range. He was not an internet player or anything. He was just a normal live casino player who was younger. I don’t think he was real advanced or anything so I really think he could just be shoving any two there and it’s possible I got unlucky. I will never know but I am still pretty bummed a day later.
All comments welcomed and appreciated. Goodnight.
Vacation In Orlando…
I’ve been on a little vacation for about the past week. I have been in Orlando hanging out with a bunch of my friends and just taking some time away from poker and the other stressful things in life. I haven’t spent too much time on the Internet and I don’t think I’ve played a hand of poker since last Sunday after I busted the $5k buyin WCOOP.
I will be getting back down to South Florida in the morning and I heard there are two live tournaments coming up at the Isle casino. I will most definitely be playing these tournaments on Wednesday and this weekend. They aren’t huge tournaments but I have been desperately wanting to play some live tournaments lately. I am really excited and am looking forward to Wednesday. I will log my hands so I can write up some good tournament reports when I have won/busted.
I’m excited to get back to playing poker online too. A week break was nice. I got to relax and not really think about poker too much. Some of my buddies came up this weekend to Orlando and I celebrated a couple of birthdays. Went out to downtown Orlando and then another club in West Orlando last night. I had a good time but I’ve been a bit bored going out lately. I’m still NOT DRINKING. It’s been over 2 months now with no liquor and it’s not bad at all. It’s only bad when it’s time to go out or other people around me are drinking. Hopefully I don’t come off sounding like an alcoholic lol. I definitely can live without drinking but if you are in a social environment where all your friends are drinking then it can get boring. I have my doctors appointment at the end of October to see if my liver function levels have decreased due to no liquor consumption. It will be interesting to see what the next step is in the process if liquor/diet had nothing to do with it. I’m pretty sure they don’t have anything to do with it but only time will tell.
I also got to play some basketball this weekend with the UCF team. They have a new practice facility and I have been in there almost everyday since I have been in Orlando shooting and working out with one of my buddies who used to play for them and now plays overseas. Michael Jordan’s son plays on the UCF team. MJ was actually at their practice and watched them play on Monday but unfortunately I wasn’t in there that day. That would of been crazy to play in front or actually play with Michael Jordan haha. I saw MJ my first or second year I was in Vegas for the WSOP. We were eating at FIX at the Bellagio and he was eating a couple tables behind us with friends. I didn’t go up to him or anything. He was eating and I am not really one of those people who get starstruck (after all he is just famous for throwing a ball in a hoop, right? =)..) He’s just human and I wouldn’t want to invade his space like that. It was crazy to see everyone attack him and run up to him as soon as he left the restaurant. He is by far one of the best, if not the best basketball player to have ever played. His son wasn’t playing in the runs the other day so I can’t comment on his play although I’ve heard some nice things about him. I watched some of his high school games and he looked good. Hopefully the UCF team does well this year.
I will update Wednesday or Thursday hopefully I will have some good news about the Isle tournaments! Night.
Double C’s…
The double C’s… Congratulations and Coaching. Congrats to one of my first students that I’ve been coaching. His name is Eugene. He final tabled a $500 Borgata tournament that had roughly 1000 players. He busted 10th but he was very short stacked and card dead. He did a great job.
He emailed me today and told me the good news and I was really excited about it. I just started coaching and taking on students. I had some people approach me about it. I figured since there was enough interest I would try it out and see how it went. This really makes me feel good that someone I have been helping out in poker has had some immediate success already. Eugene is already a good player so I don’t know how much I contributed but I am very happy for him none the less.
I have a couple other students and people that I’ve been coaching and it’s pretty fun. I take for granted some of the things I know in poker that come second nature to me. Even the basics of the game can be forgotten and coaching helps me get back to the basics and refine my game. If anyone is interested in coaching email me at “Cre8iveCoach -AT- gmail.com” (Replace the -AT- with @ of course.)
Aside from that I had a decent day today. Had a couple bubbles, a final table, and almost a final table. I got deep in the 100r 6max on Full Tilt and got pretty unlucky in two big pots, then lost a huge flip AK vs JJ in the end for almost 100bb pot with 10 left or so. This was the worst beat I took with 3 tables left. It was a huge pot at the time.
Full Tilt Poker Game #14750692360: $100,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) (105271463), Table 43 – 1200/2400 Ante 300 – No Limit Hold’em – 2:20:24 ET – 2009/09/17
Seat 1: elanor (51,983)
Seat 2: gboro780 (171,960)
Seat 3: einstein007 (23,550)
Seat 5: Cre8ive (233,572)
Seat 6: THE_GOLDMINE (90,241)
elanor antes 300
gboro780 antes 300
einstein007 antes 300
Cre8ive antes 300
THE_GOLDMINE antes 300
Cre8ive posts the small blind of 1,200
THE_GOLDMINE posts the big blind of 2,400
The button is in seat #3
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [2h 2d]
elanor folds
gboro780 folds
einstein007 has 15 seconds left to act
einstein007 folds
Cre8ive raises to 7,200
THE_GOLDMINE calls 4,800
*** FLOP *** [9s 6c 2s]
Cre8ive checks
THE_GOLDMINE bets 7,999
Cre8ive has 15 seconds left to act
Cre8ive raises to 18,465
THE_GOLDMINE has 15 seconds left to act
THE_GOLDMINE raises to 82,741, and is all in
Cre8ive calls 64,276
THE_GOLDMINE shows [9c Td]
Cre8ive shows [2h 2d]
*** TURN *** [9s 6c 2s] [7c]
*** RIVER *** [9s 6c 2s 7c] [8d]
THE_GOLDMINE shows a straight, Ten high
Cre8ive shows three of a kind, Twos
THE_GOLDMINE wins the pot (181,382) with a straight, Ten high
ROUGH! I also lost AKcc vs his A3o for a 40bb pot before this hand took place. I came back from it though and really liked how I played this tournament/felt I played really well.
I have actually been staying at my buddy Jason Mercier’s condo the last couple of days grinding WCOOP with him. He won the WCOOP 2nd Chance PLO 6max tournament yesterday, so congrats to him on that! We’ve had some decent results the last couple of days and I think I might stay one more day and play here until I head back home. He only lives about 40 minutes away from my house so he’s not that far away. It’s a pretty comfortable poker environment and I have a nice setup to play on. We’ve just been playing poker all day everyday and haven’t really done anything else. I need to workout again cause I’ve already missed two/three days. I have been doing push ups and stretching in between breaks but I miss hitting the gym and the basketball court. I’ll see how I feel in the morning if I decide to stay another day.
I guess that’s all for now… Goodnight guys.
Bloody Sundays…
I awoke from my sleep this morning surrounded by fog and loud gunfire. I could hear screams of horror, moans of death. I couldn’t see anything. I stayed low to the ground to avoid the stray bullets. I was unharmed at the present time but still feared for my life. I couldn’t see three feet in front of me. “Where am I?” I asked myself. I crawled through the grass while bullets whizzed by my ears. I could hear people around me. They were everywhere. I was on the battlefield.
I made my way over to a wounded soldier. I don’t know what they were fighting for or who they were fighting against, but it was a massacre. I grabbed his gun and started firing at the enemy. BAM. BAM. BAM. I let shots unload out the rifle without knowing who I was aiming at or what we were fighting for. All I knew was I was fighting for my life. I had to get out of there immediately. The next thing I knew… I was hit. A bullet cut through my flesh right into my abdomen. I couldn’t move, I could hardly breathe. It was the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced. At this point I just wanted the pain to go away. I wanted to be back in my bed, asleep. Welcome to the game of poker and welcome to my Sunday.
Haha.. guess I was a little bored and felt like that little story would appropriately fit my Sunday today. I felt like I got beat up. Well I did get beat up. I probably didn’t play so well and the deck was not favoring me either for the most part. I still am probably playing too many tables on Sundays. It’s hard not to play all these good tournaments but it definitely has to be hurting me in the long run, hell even short run. Who knows. What I do know is that I did horrible today. I probably played bad too. I am going to look over some hands but I know I wasn’t playing my best for the most part. I had the life sucked out of me in a couple tournaments.
Early on in the 1k this hand came up..
PokerStars Game #32807554662: Tournament #200909028, $1000+$50 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level II (30/60) – 2009/09/13 18:05:03 ET
Table ‘200909028 102′ 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: TheProphesy1 (14425 in chips)
Seat 2: KKgeoroAA (31527 in chips)
Seat 3: SOXFAN83 (13574 in chips)
Seat 4: GotURead (17615 in chips)
Seat 5: marmoottin (15115 in chips)
Seat 6: qjuice14 (15925 in chips)
Seat 7: Cre8ive (12370 in chips)
Seat 8: TimDawg888 (15909 in chips)
Seat 9: CPT CRUX (13540 in chips)
TimDawg888: posts small blind 30
CPT CRUX: posts big blind 60
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [Kd 9d]
TheProphesy1: folds
KKgeoroAA: folds
SOXFAN83: folds
GotURead: folds
marmoottin: folds
qjuice14: raises 120 to 180
Cre8ive: raises 300 to 480
TimDawg888: folds
CPT CRUX: folds
qjuice14: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [Qh Tc Jd]
qjuice14: checks
Cre8ive: bets 650
qjuice14: raises 1125 to 1775
Cre8ive: calls 1125
*** TURN *** [Qh Tc Jd] [Qs]
qjuice14: bets 2895
Cre8ive: calls 2895
*** RIVER *** [Qh Tc Jd Qs] [4c]
qjuice14: checks
Cre8ive: bets 2220
qjuice14: calls 2220
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Cre8ive: shows [Kd 9d] (a straight, Nine to King)
qjuice14: shows [As Kc] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
qjuice14 collected 14830 from pot
I probably played the river bad. I had 7220 and there was about 10k or so in the pot. I definitely didn’t think he would check river with full houses or better than K9. But it was hard to put together a hand he would c/r the flop with and fire the turn and then check the river. I think QK still bets any Qx combo bets still so I was thinking he might of had like JK or JT and the turn counterfeited his two pair so I decided to throw a small bet out there for value. I definitely didn’t think he would flat a button 3bet with AK. After this pot I lost the last of my chips with AA all in pre. I wasn’t running real good today but no complaints, that’s just how it goes.
Tomorrow is another day and another WCOOP event. The WCOOP has been draining me out but I’m going to try to refocus and play better. For those who saw the hand in the last blog I will copy/paste some stuff that I posted on pocketfives about the hand. Here are the results (taken from pocketfives blog post):
“Alright.. Some good comments here. Now let me give you my two cents. We are very deep stacked. He raised under the gun. I have played with moorman a bunch and know he’s really good. His range for raising under the gun is pretty loose, so me 3betting him out of position is tough because he can flat call me and I’m out of position vs one of the best in the world, or he can 4bet me and my hand might be in trouble. Although against a moorman 4 bet in this spot I probably wouldn’t fold but that’s another discussion and irrelevant here.
Anyways, given the stacks, I am not trying to play a 200bb pot all in preflop with AK vs an UTG raise, because typically AK won’t be in good shape. He would never get it all in with AQ against me. So I decided to just flat call and disguise my hand.
On the flop it is a good flop for him to bet. I assume he is betting with his whole raising range so I decided to call here, to see what develops.
The turn is another 5. Flush draws are now no good if he has a pair and I would not continue the turn with a flush draw for the most part. I’m pretty sure he knows this and this is why he decided to fire the turn again. I am basically folding out more of my range which would be all flush draws and maybe smaller pairs, so he decided to second barrel. It’s still a good card for him to bluff but it’s still a good card for me because It doesn’t really change the board for my hand.
Now to the river. The river is a relatively safe card as well. The flush draws missed and the board is pretty dry still. I decided to check again and he bet 9k into about a 6k pot. I thought about it for a while before I decided what to do. First, I know his preflop raising range from UTG is really wide. I know he’s betting the flop and turn a bunch as well. Now the river bet is what makes the hand so interesting to me.
Someone above said my hand looks like 99-JJ and I completely agree. I thought he thought that was what I had. He was putting me on a TT type hand and felt that I would have to fold the river to an overbet 3rd barrel. I don’t think moorman overbets the river for value with JJ/QQ and I have AK which has blockers against him having AA or KK. I am not saying he can’t have AA/KK but the chances are lessened. So I thought for a while and decided this was just a bluff, with a hand that he felt didn’t have showdown vs my range that I get to the river with. He could make this bet with 88/77 or 5x but like I said, I feel like he would of went for a smaller value bet… so after thinking for a little while I decided to call.
*** RIVER *** [5h 5d 8h 5s] [7c]
Cre8ive: checks
Moorman1: bets 9000
Cre8ive: calls 9000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Moorman1: shows [Tc Ad] (three of a kind, Fives)
Cre8ive: shows [Kd Ac] (three of a kind, Fives – Ace+King kicker)
Cre8ive collected 24430 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
I’m not trying to brag about making a good call vs. moorman or anything. He’s a great player and very tough to play against. I’m just showing an interesting hand I played and my thought process behind it. I really like this hand because I thought it out well and he also was thinking pretty deeply too.
Any other comments are welcomed.”
That’s all I got for now. Goodnight guys.
I Got Crushed…
I got crushed on Sunday for the most part. The whole first 2/3s of my day I was getting demolished. Just losing, getting coolered, getting put in tough spots, all around it was a typical Sunday where nothing was going right. I was down probably 5-6k at one point because there were a lot of big tournaments going on and such. The best thing was I didn’t give up. Poker has it’s ups and downs and you cant stop fighting. There is luck and you have to be able to control your emotions and try to play every hand perfectly. Luckily I kept fighting and made a run in the 1k second chance and got 27th, and I also had a 20 something in the 200r. So I ended up making some money back but it still was a pretty rough Sunday.
I played some real crazy pots throughout the day. I will show you a pot vs. Moorman1. He’s a real good player and real tough to play against. This is a hand from the 1k second chance WCOOP.
$1000+$50 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level V (75/150) – 2009/09/06 19:22:05
Table ‘192210576 13′ 9-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 1: The-Toilet 0 (20862 in chips)
Seat 2: Slambamiel (3262 in chips)
Seat 3: Pokerccini (5349 in chips)
Seat 4: Cre8ive (17580 in chips)
Seat 5: MONSTER_DONG (10360 in chips)
Seat 6: Moorman1 (21206 in chips)
Seat 7: bonya37 (12835 in chips)
Seat 8: WestMenlo92 (4315 in chips)
Seat 9: sunf204 (18331 in chips)
The-Toilet 0: posts the ante 20
Slambamiel: posts the ante 20
Pokerccini: posts the ante 20
Cre8ive: posts the ante 20
MONSTER_DONG: posts the ante 20
Moorman1: posts the ante 20
bonya37: posts the ante 20
WestMenlo92: posts the ante 20
sunf204: posts the ante 20
Cre8ive: posts small blind 75
MONSTER_DONG: posts big blind 150
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [Kd Ac]
Moorman1: raises 300 to 450
bonya37: folds
WestMenlo92: folds
sunf204: folds
The-Toilet 0: folds
Slambamiel: folds
Pokerccini: folds
Cre8ive: calls 375
MONSTER_DONG: folds
*** FLOP *** [5h 5d 8h]
Cre8ive: checks
Moorman1: bets 800
Cre8ive: calls 800
*** TURN *** [5h 5d 8h] [5s]
Cre8ive: checks
Moorman1: bets 1800
Cre8ive: calls 1800
*** RIVER *** [5h 5d 8h 5s] [7c]
Cre8ive: checks
Moorman1: bets 9000
Cre8ive: ??
So basically I just flatted his UTG raise with AKo from the small blind. We are really deep and I decided I would play a pot out of position with him. The flop he cbet, the turn he fired again, and on the river he bets about 3k more than the pot which is about 6k. Maybe I could have folded the turn, maybe I didn’t have to call. What do you guys think about the hand so far and what do you think of his river bet? Is it always the nuts and a nice value bet? Let me know your opinions and I’ll tell you what I think.
I took yesterday off. There were only a couple of good tournaments and I was real tired from a good workout I had earlier in the morning. I worked out this morning again and am feeling really good. My knee is probably 100% I just need to strengthen the muscles around it, which I have been doing lately. I started jumping a lot more and trying to dunk again. I almost got a couple down today so hopefully by the end of the month I can have some more leg strength. Other than that I’m just at home trying to do something in the WCOOPS.
Today hasn’t been going so well either. I tried to play real aggressive in the WCOOP 6 handed mix and it bit me in the butt in two hands. I had KJdd on a K78hhh flop and check/called a bet from the table nit and on the Kc turn he bet again and I either had to shove/fold. I could have called since I think its highly unlikely he bombs the river again as a bluff, but I shoved the turn and he had 77. I think I played this hand real bad and if anything should just call the turn. I don’t know. My hand is pretty disguised but I just don’t think hes bluffing the turn too often, but I could be wrong if he has the Ah or something. Oh well. I will be playing a session tonight if I don’t last in my afternoon tournaments.
Everyone should also go buy the Jay-Z CD Blueprint 3. It’s a little different style but I really enjoy it. There’s a lot of hidden stuff in the lyrics so you might have to listen to it a couple times. I didn’t like some of the songs but the whole album has really grown on me and I really like it overall. I think it’s some of his best work. I’ll leave you guys with a quote from a new Drake song called Fear, that is also an amazing song he did…
“But yall the reason for a lot of my devotion. You know I spend money because spendin time is hopeless. And know I pop bottles cause I bottle my emotions. At least I put it all in the open…”
It’s a song about his friends and his life. It’s pretty deep and the song is really good in my opinion. Check it out here.
Good luck in the WCOOPS for everyone who is playing. I’ll be blogging.
Lots to Talk About…
Hey everyone. Haven’t posted in a while because I didn’t think I had anything to post about. I took a little time off and only played here and there and was doing a bunch of other things as well. The FTOPS ended and I didn’t play too many events like I talked about before. So I was in a little slump after that and last weekend I had a decent weekend. I won a tournament on Saturday and then got a 4th in another tournament on Sunday. I had some other random cashes and shots in tournaments but
they didn’t go so well.
First place in the cubed turbo. Of course you have to get lucky to get far in this tournament and luck was on my side this day.
This tournament was really frustrating. I was on a huge roller coaster ride with a few tables left until I finally got my stack and kept it. I was a big chip leader going into the final table and really felt in control the whole tournament. I lost a flip 8 handed which knocked me down from 1.6m to 1.2m or so. Then we got down to 4 handed play (which I felt really comfortable to have a chance to take the tournament down) and this hand came up.
PokerStars Game #32253767869: Tournament #188959520, $100+$9 USD Hold’em No Limit – Level XXVII (12500/25000) – 2009/08/30 20:21:23 ET
Table ‘188959520 48′ 9-max Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: bobboufl11 (536792 in chips)
Seat 7: WestMenlo92 (941259 in chips)
Seat 8: Ice-F1968 (2404598 in chips)
Seat 9: Cre8ive (1175351 in chips)
bobboufl11: posts the ante 2500
WestMenlo92: posts the ante 2500
Ice-F1968: posts the ante 2500
Cre8ive: posts the ante 2500
Ice-F1968: posts small blind 12500
Cre8ive: posts big blind 25000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [Jh Jc]
bobboufl11: folds
WestMenlo92: raises 32880 to 57880
Ice-F1968: raises 2344218 to 2402098 and is all-in
Cre8ive: calls 1147851 and is all-in
WestMenlo92: folds
Uncalled bet (1229247) returned to Ice-F1968
*** FLOP *** [4h Qh Th]
*** TURN *** [4h Qh Th] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [4h Qh Th Kc] [3s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Ice-F1968: shows [Ah As] (a pair of Aces)
Cre8ive: shows [Jh Jc] (a pair of Jacks)
Cre8ive said, “gg”
Ice-F1968 collected 2413582 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 2413582 | Rake 0
Board [4h Qh Th Kc 3s]
Seat 1: bobboufl11 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: WestMenlo92 (button) folded before Flop
Seat 8: Ice-F1968 (small blind) showed [Ah As] and won (2413582) with a pair of Aces
Seat 9: Cre8ive (big blind) showed [Jh Jc] and lost with a pair of Jacks
This was a very rough hand. The blinds were 12.5k/25k and I had almost 1.2 million. The chip leader had 2.4 million, which was about 100 big blinds. The button made it about 60k, the chip leader moved ALL IN for 2.4 million, and I snap called with JJ in the big blind. I literally thought his range was 22-88 and at BEST AK. The only other information I had on the player was at the final table when he 3bet a UTG raiser 3x the initial raise and the UTG raiser shoved in JJ and the villain called with KK. So in that instance he 3x’d 3bet/called and didn’t just jam in. So when we are 4 handed and he just jams for 100bbs JJ is supposed to be a huge favorite over his range for shoving.
AA isn’t supposed to be in his range. AA is such a monster of a hand, not just No Limit Holdem in general, but especially 4 handed. I say this because other people’s ranges open up considerably in 4 handed play rather than in 9 handed play. So same goes for my situation having JJ. JJ is a monster hand 4 handed play considering the action in front of me too. I really felt in control for the end of this tournament and losing this way really bothered me. It bothered me the most because the villain played his hand in a matter in which he is ONLY getting called by other monster hands, and I happened to wake up with one of those hands I would call him with. To me this is way more unlucky than a KK vs AA situation. For this hand to go down this way: Button raising, small blind chip leader moving in for 100bbs, me having JJ in the big blind (with the information I have on the villain — I knew he was splashing around a lot and pretty loose [he defended an early position raise at the final table with 67o and was playing a bunch of pots out of position] and also the 3x 3bet he did earlier with KK) there is no way I could get away from this hand. It’s really one of the unluckiest spots I’ve been in deep in a poker tournament.
Hopefully that’s not too much ramble and you guys can understand what I’m saying. Just the way the hand played out sucks. As far as ICM is concerned, it’s very close. I talked to some people about the hand, not about the call (because I think it’s an easy call with given information) and ICM factors might play into maybe possibly folding this hand. I didn’t really even consider ICM when I was playing especially when this spot came up. Maybe next time I will take a little time and remember this situation and run some ICM calculations before I make a hasty decision.
I played the first WCOOP 6max tournament and got pretty far. About 8-9 hours in with 200-300 people left I played a hand really bad. I was pretty tired and just made a really bad play vs. a non-thinking player. With that one bad played hand it really ruined my momentum. I had a ton of chips the whole way through the tournament and this killed it all. I was a big stack then went to a short stack, chipped up, and then played another bad pot which knocked me out. That was pretty frustrating as well. The WCOOP has some great structures for their tournaments but I saw that the tournament lasted til 7am. It started at 2:30pm est and finished at 7am. So that is almost 17 hours of poker!!! That is really crazy for someone to sit in front of a computer for 17 hours straight. I think stars should do something about having their structures like this for single day tournaments. 17 hours of online poker has to be equivalent to about 3 days of poker for a live tournament.
I guess I have said enough for this blog. I have a lot more to talk about and will be updating the blog a few times this week. Hopefully can have some WCOOP success to talk about.
Another FTOPS, No Jersey…
I missed a lot of the FTOPS events this time around. I had a lot going on and didn’t get to play as many as I would have liked to. Oh well. I did manage to play this weekend including the $2500 6max Event. I was up to 8k early from 6k starting stack then ran a bluff that was picked off on the river. My last ~3k got all in preflop AA vs KK to get back to starting stack.
Full Tilt Poker Game #14050012220: FTOPS Event #22 (96538219), Table 72 – 25/50 – No Limit Hold’em – 15:42:26 ET – 2009/08/15
Seat 1: TheZadester (4,425)
Seat 2: TorontoToro (3,330)
Seat 3: liverpoolfc0985 (11,610)
Seat 4: Haidarych (15,780)
Seat 5: Thalai (4,125)
Seat 6: Cre8ive (2,730)
Cre8ive posts the small blind of 25
TheZadester posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Cre8ive [As Ac]
TorontoToro folds
liverpoolfc0985 folds
Haidarych raises to 130
Thalai raises to 300
Cre8ive has 15 seconds left to act
Cre8ive raises to 2,730, and is all in
TheZadester folds
Haidarych has 15 seconds left to act
Haidarych folds
Thalai calls 2,430
Cre8ive shows [As Ac]
Thalai shows [Ks Kd]
*** FLOP *** [Kh 9c 6s]
*** TURN *** [Kh 9c 6s] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [Kh 9c 6s Kc] [8d]
Cre8ive shows two pair, Aces and Kings
Thalai shows four of a kind, Kings
Thalai wins the pot (5,640) with four of a kind, Kings
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 5,640 | Rake 0
Board: [Kh 9c 6s Kc 8d]
Seat 1: TheZadester (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: TorontoToro didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 3: liverpoolfc0985 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: Haidarych folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Thalai (button) showed [Ks Kd] and won (5,640) with four of a kind, Kings
Seat 6: Cre8ive (small blind) showed [As Ac] and lost with two pair, Aces and Kings
Now that the FTOPS is over I have to gear up for the WCOOP which will be coming up shortly. I’m still looking for a 6 figure score online. I will get back on the grind shortly I just have a lot going on at the moment. But I am excited to get back on schedule with life and playing and back to work improving my poker game.
My buddy actually won the FTOPS Main Event for ~450k so congrats to him for that. He’s put in a couple of sick months at the WSOP and online racking up some big scores so congrats to him.
Yesterday I put in a full schedule online and got deep in the 163r on FTP. I lost with 28 left when I raised to 10k at 2k/4k UTG with AKo with a 120k stack and the button shoved 85k with KJhh. He spiked a jack and I was about crippled and lost the tournament. I had a couple other shots in some tournaments but nothing big. I took the day off today and MIGHT play tomorrow but I’m not sure yet.
My Sunday’s haven’t been going so great and I’m trying to figure out why that is. Maybe I’m not playing my best, playing too many tables, not focusing, etc. I might cut down on some of the tables I play and just focus on a couple tournaments on Sunday and see how it goes. It’s tough to do that since there are so many good tournaments to play but it might be more profitable to play on Sundays that way. I guess I might experiment with some things and see what works best. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. Other than all that news I don’t really have much else to say. I’ll keep everyone updated. Goodnight.