Drewkamm Poker Blog

Got the Itch

2009-10-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I've really had the itch, but for some reason I really wanted to play some cards this weekend. I flirted with driving to Foxwoods, but laziness prevailed and I decided to just deposit some money on Full Tilt instead. So far so good as I'm up about 5 buy-ins since I got going yesterday afternoon. I've been playing mostly 10/20 NL in the full ring and heads up games (it's been tough to get action at the 6-handed tables). I am loving heads up. I've heard many people argue that heads up is the purest form of poker, but I've never really bought in. Still not there yet, but I at least understand the argument. There is just so much more subtlety to the game. You literally have to be able to play any two cards in any situation, and pot control and contingency planning are critical on every street. I don't have a ton of experience, but I feel positive EV at 10/20 (tough to tell since volatility is so high - hopefully not just deluding myself).

My discipline regarding game selection has been fair at best. I've already jumped into juicy 25/50 NL games twice even though I told myself I wouldn't play higher than 10/20. I also put in a long session when I was losing and a short session to protect a win (the opposite of what I should be doing). Going to start playing 500-hand sessions, regardless of how I'm doing. This way I can just focus on playing every hand well, and not worry about playing long enough to get back to even.

A couple of hands from the session:

The Nuts: 3-bullet Value

Against good players, who are capable of snapping off big bluffs, playing big hands fast is the best way to go. Flopping the nuts obviously helps, but pot betting the turn and river makes it look like I'm on a move here as two overcards hit and I'm not value betting the turn and river if I back into top pair. Still, pretty aggressive call here on the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4751745

POSITION!:

I think this hand is a great illustration of the power of position. I call a pf reraise light here with K10s, because my opponent was repopping a lot and we were both fairly deep (and I'm in position). With 4 diamonds on board, my opponent's $300 bet on the turn looks a lot like a defensive bet/bluff, but it could also be a value bet if he does have the diamond. The beauty of position is that I can smooth call the turn and my opponent will reveal his hand on the river. He can't lead out on the river without a big diamond, because he could be betting into the nuts. Thus, if he bets I know to fold, but if he checks, I know I can take the pot away from him.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4751793

Should Have Folded:

These high stakes heads up matches are hyper aggressive, so my call here is not ridiculous. Still, with no flush draw on board, his all-in check raise is pretty strong - he could have had A8, 89, 910, or a big bluff with AK/AQ, but a big overpair is certainly more likely. It's painful, but sometimes you just gotta fold. Definitely still my biggest weakness.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4751803

37th

2008-07-13T21:10:00.000-07:00

I got cracked during Level 3 today in 37th place. It is obviously super disappointing to go this deep in the main event only to come up short, but I have to admit, I had a lot of fun while the run lasted.

Z and I have to catch an 11:30 flight back to ctown, so I have to keep this super short, but I just wanted to quickly thank everyone who was rooting for me and sweating my chip stack online.

Quick update of today's action: I was on the feature table for the first two levels, because Phil Hellmuth was at my table. Overall, I played pretty well at the feature table (despite being super uncomfortable at first), but I did get lucky with 77 (rivering a 1-outer, but then getting max value) against 99, after I called a cb on a 6-high flop. I also bluffed off almost a million chips with AdQd on a 10 high board, but I really thought the guy had a small pair, and I am happy living and dying with my reads. I also cracked a guy (for about 1.5 million chips) when I trapped him with AA and he flopped an open-ended straight draw. We got it all-in on the flop and the bullets held up. The last big hand I played at the feature table was probably the highlight of the day, despite it being a very straight-forward hand. Phil open raised all-in for 400k under the gun and I called him with JJ. He flipped up AQ and we were off to the races. He picked up a flush draw and a gut shot straight draw on the turn, giving him 17 outs total on the river, but the river was a black rag and the jacks held up. I didn't get a classic Hellmuth speech or anything, and he was actually pretty classy about it, but it was definitely a lot of fun to play with the guy (and to knock him out).

On my bust hand, I reraised a hijack raise to 140k (from a strong/agressive player) to 440k with AdJc from the small blind. I was hoping to take it down preflop obviously, but the raiser called and I thought that he most likely had a fairly big ace or a mid pair, but not a truly premium hand. The flop came down Jh,10h,9h and I was honestly not sure how to proceed in the hand. I had about 2.2 million more chips, and with 900k in the pot, it was a very tough spot. If I led for 700k I would be giving him the fold equity to jam with the Ace or King of hearts with a pair or straight draw. I felt like check folding was way too weak, because I did not give him a big pair. I decided the best option was to jam all-in to protect my hand. Unfortunately, I got insta-called by AhQh and was drawing close to dead. I turned two pair with a 9, and actually had a few outs on the river, but the river was a 2 and I was out. Certainly not my best played hand of the tournament, but you have to stay aggressive in tournaments, and I am not that unhappy about the way I played the hand. Getting 37th was definitely annoying, as the pay scale increased by 40k at 36th place, but with 9 million on the line, it only makes sense to play to win.

Probably going to take it easy on the poker front for the rest of the summer and just relax and enjoy before school starts. Thanks to everyone who has been keeping tabs on me and reading the blog.

Down to 79

2008-07-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

I survived the day and we are now down to 79 players. I had an up and down day, getting my stack up to a peak of 2.7 million early, but I unfortunately ended the night on a big down swing finishing with 1.593 million. The average stack is right around 1.75 million, so my stack is still totally healthy, and it's like starting a whole new tournament today with essentially an average stack.

I built my stack early cracking a short stack with AA, making a 3rd raise preflop with KK, and then picking off smaller pots with well-timed aggression. I also flopped a full house against Victor Ramdin, holding 44 on a 994 board. I led for 100k on the flop and he quickly called. I checked the 10d turn and when Victor checked behind I was pretty sure he had either 77 or 88 and I knew that I was getting looked up on the river. The river was a 2 and I decided to overbet for value, making it 375k to go, and Victor insta-called (claiming he had QQ). Thirty minutes or so later, I took an identical line against him with 33 on a J104 (two hearts), 6c, Kh board and he mucked on the river (I was pretty sure he was trying to call me down light based on his call on the flop, and the river was a great card to bluff as hearts, AQ, and even AK got there, and he knew that I would play a flopped set the same way).

And then things starting moving in the wrong direction. I lost all the chips I had gained on the day (and a bit more) in three contested pots. The first, I reraised a fairly loose player with AdQd from the button. He made it 65k to go and I repopped to 205k. He called and the flop came down KJ4 rainbow. He checked and I thought about checking behind and giving up, but I couldn't tell how strong he was, so I decided to fire a cb instead, and led for 300k. He called and now I had completely given up on the hand unless I spiked a 10. The turn and river were blanks and the action went check check and he showed AJ (such a terrible call preflop out of position). Pretty unlucky flop for me as he can literally only win the hand by flopping a J, but the hand ended up costing me about half a million.

The second hand I badly misplayed. I raised from the cutoff with KsQs and a loose/aggressive Russian player called from the big blind. The flop came down 9d,4s,2c and he checked to me. I typically cb here, but because I raised from the cutoff I looked weak and didn't want to get check raised off the best hand, and I knew that he was very capable of check raising me here with air. I checked behind and the turn looked like a good card for me, the 10s, giving me a gut shot and a back door flush draw. My opponent led for 100k and I decided just to call, figuring a J,Q,K or spade were all good enough for me on the river. The river was a blank and he checked to me. I almost checked behind (knowing that was the right play), but the 350k pot was too enticing so I tried a value bet bluff and led out 150k on the river. My opponent called with Q10, which was a frustrating hand to see, because I could have taken the pot down with a cb on the flop, and because he spiked his three outer on the turn. Still, I played this hand very poorly.

The last pot I lost a lot of chips, but it could have been much worse. I had KK heads up in a raised pot and I led the flop for 100k on a board of 8d,7c,4h. I was hoping to get raised so that I could stick it in on the flop, but instead my opponent smooth called. The turn was the 6c, which looked harmless enough, and I led again for 250k. This time, my opponent shoved all-in for 1.1 million total. I tanked for a couple of minutes, but staring at the kid, I knew for sure he was not making a move. The cameras were there and this was not the type of player who is capable of making a bet like this with 8c9c or something. I mucked and lost another 400k or so on the hand. My brothers Zachy and Danny (who surprised me by showing up yesterday), told me that they overheard the kid talking to his boys on the rail that he misplayed the hand and should have smooth called the turn and then he would have won the rest of my stack. Z thought he said he had 55, which makes sense. If he does smooth call the turn, I probably have to check call up to 500k on the river, so I'm glad he played the hand the way he did. Still, pretty annoying that he hit his gut shot on the turn.

Action starts up today at noon, which is in two hours. I got a good 6/7 hours of sleep last night, and I'm feeling good heading into today.

On to Day 5

2008-07-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

I survived a shortened Day 4 (I guess we are well ahead of schedule), and we are now down to 189 players. I ended the day with 1.7 million in chips, a little more than twice the average stack of ~750k. It is still very early as it will take a good 15 million chips to be average at the final table. My sole focus is on playing each hand as well as I can.

Some highlights from today:

The Good:
1. I flopped top and bottom pair in a three way limped pot with A6. I think I extracted maximum value against a tough Swedish pro by smooth calling the flop (heart draw on board), betting the turn, and overbetting thin on the river. I did my best to feign weakness like I missed my flush and he looked me up for 110k on the river.
2. Making a big call on the flop and river with A2 on a board of 8,9,2,9,Q (no flush). I almost raised the river in case my deuces were no good, but after studying the kid for a long time, I was sure he had absolutely nothing.
3. Aces versus kings. Timing is everything in poker. A tight/aggressive player open raised to 36,000 at 4k/8k under the gun and I knew he had a big hand. I looked down at bullets and decided to repop since we were both deep and I sensed his strength. I overraised a bit, making it 160k to go, trying to sell AK as best I could. He pretty much insta-shoved after that and I quickly rechecked my hand and then called. The aces held up (despite a queen in the window which I thought was a king) and I was up to over 1.5 million.
4. I called a late position raise from the big blind with 44. The flop came down 3,4,5 and I led for 30k, hoping to get his whole stack of 300k or so if he had an overpair. He raised to 100k and I shipped it all-in. He called with 99 (which is a pretty terrible call) probably because just a few hands earlier I got looked up bluffing with a gut shot on the turn against AA.

The Bad:
1. Terrible bluff with K10 referenced above. Bluffing a short stack is a bad idea to begin with and more than that, I knew he had a big hand. Overall, I have done a great job at trusting my instincts this week and going with my read, but this was one spot where I just didn't take my time, and made the wrong play.
2. I opened up my game a bit more than I should have in the last level of the day, forcing things a bit, but nothing egregious.
3. I folded AQ to an early position raise and a call even though I thought I was good (I was right). It was just easier to play it safe (which isn't a terrible way to play), but again, I am best when I am trusting my reads.

The action starts back up tomorrow at noon. I really need to get a good nights sleep tonight as my body is kind of in shambles right now. I seem to be getting like 5 hours a night (I can't sleep past 9 for some reason), and I have been living on water and coke at the tables.

Survive and Advance

2008-07-11T02:59:00.000-07:00

I survived Day 3 and we are now officially in the money. 666 players cashed from the 6,800+ starting field and we are now down to 479 players. I have 465,000 in chips heading into tomorrow, which is a bit above the average stack of ~300k.

I can't see straight right now and play starts tomorrow in 9 hours, but a few quick highlights from today:

High points:
1. Playing KK very well to extract maximum value from what I thought was QQ (actually JJ). I checked the flop and got paid nicely on the turn and river.
2. Big call with KdQd when a short stack reraised me all-in from the small blind. He had a large enough stack that I was not pot committed, but I was pretty sure he was on a move. I called and he showed 95. Nice when the best hands hold too.
3. 5 betting preflop with 9d10d and taking it down. The hijack, a super aggressive player, open raised to 6,000 and I made it 21,000 to go from the small blind. He then reraised 20,000 on top and I was absolutely sure that he was weak despite the 3rd raise. I then put in the 5th bet, raising another 100,000 or so and committing myself to the hand. He insta-mucked and I showed the 10 high, which paid huge dividends for me 6 hours later. He was literally talking to himself for a good half an hour afterwards, and it definitely showed the rest of the table that I was not someone to be bluffed.
4. Three levels later, the same player raised from the cutoff to 10,000. The small-blind called. I made it 45,000 to go from the big blind with JJ, intentionally overraising a bit to give the impression I was on a steal. The cutoff then insta-shoved for another 175,000. I took my time as I only had JJ, but the more I talked to and studied my opponent, I was sure I had the best hand. I called (I only had another 30,000 or so) and he flipped over 55. He had 6 outs heading to the river, but again, the best hand held up.

Low points:
1. Limping with KQ from the cutoff and then making a terrible cb on the turn after getting called on the flop.
2. Pretty pathetic bluff with ace high on the river against a calling station who looked me up with third pair.
3. Playing poorly for most of level 3. I just opened up my game too much as the bubble approached and it totally destroyed my image. I kept getting reraised and had to fold time after time. I bled from 250k down to 200 just by forcing the action and not letting things come to me.

Action starts up tomorrow at 1pm. This thing is a marathon, but just focusing on playing one hand at a time.

Quick Main Event Update

2008-07-09T14:12:00.000-07:00

Apologies for the lack of updates, but my laptop has not been working, and I am now back in Las Vegas (after a long July 4th weekend in Chicago) without a computer.

Anyways, just wanted to let everyone know that I am still alive in the Main Event. After Day 1, I had 54,050 in chips (20,000 starting stack) and now after Day 2, I have 133,300. Day 2b is going on right now, so it is a little unclear where this puts me in regards to the average stack going into Day 3 tomorrow. My best guess is that the starting field of 6,800+ will be down to about ~1,000-1,500 tomorrow, giving me a slightly above average stack.

I have been happy with my play overall, grinding, picking my spots, and adjusting my play to my opponents and my image. The Main Event really is a marathon. We have already put in two 12 hour days, and heading into tomorrow there will still be another 1,500 people to outlast.

Overall, I am running pretty well. My biggest hand yesterday was queens, which I picked up twice, only to run them into the kings and aces of the same player, (I lost the minimum against kings, but more than I should have against aces when I called a cb on a jack high flop even though I knew I was beat) which was pretty unlucky. I have also lost two big flips so far, one on Day 1 and one yesterday, but I won a big pot sucking out with 99 against KK, and my AQ held up all-in preflop against K10.

I have the day off today and then the grind gets going again tomorrow afternoon. Only 1,500 more people to outlast before I ship $9.1 million.

Out on Bubble

2008-06-26T15:53:00.000-07:00

I finished in 89th, just outside the money, and it was a pretty miserable day for me from the start. Definitely not my best poker as everything I tried to do seemed to backfire. Just one of those days I guess.

During the first orbit of the day, I open raised to 4,800 (blinds at 800/1,600, 200 ante) with 88 from early position. The button, a European player with a healthy stack, smooth called and we took the flop heads up. The flop came down Kd,9h,5s. I probably should have continuation bet here, but decided to check instead, hoping to get a read from my opponent's action. He delayed and then checked behind, and I immediately thought to myself, he has AQ. Sure enough, the turn was a Q. Rather than check and go with my read, however, I led for 6k (hoping instead that it was AJ), but my fears were comfirmed when my opponent smooth called. The brick river went check check and my opponent tabled AQ and shipped the pot. I misplayed this hand pretty badly (first by not leading on the flop and second by betting the turn) and it cost me as I was down to 41k after the first orbit...The next hand I played, still in the same level, I had AdQd in middle position and open raised again to 4,800. This time, the cutoff smooth called, and then the small blind made it 14,000 to go. I really thought about reraising all-in here as I have played with the small blind before and he is a tough/aggressive pro whose range in this spot definitely includes air (as well as KQ and any pair). I decided to muck instead as he could also easily have AK (or AA-QQ) here and I would be drawing thin with my tournament life on the line (really not sure if this was the right decision). After a few more orbits, the blinds and antes had widdled my stack down to 32k, and I again tried raising to 4,800 from middle position, this time with KcQc. It folded around to the big blind, a super tight player who I played with for much of the day yesterday, and continuing the trend of the day, he reraised me, and I had an easy fold. And just like that, after the first level, my stack was cut in half down to 27k.

With the blinds and antes going up (1,000/2,000, 300), it was time for me to shift into all-in preflop mode. Early in level 2, I won just my second pot of the day (the first was a blind battle) when an aggressive player made it 5,000 to go in middle position and I reraised all-in from the button with AK. The original raiser mucked and I was back up to 38k. I couldn't find a good spot during the next orbit to do anything besides fold, and when I found myself back on the button I was down to 33k. The action folded around to me and I looked down at KQ. The small blind had ~35k and the big blind had ~150k. Given that I was making a button raise, I thought that if I raised small (to 5k or so), a resteal was likely with a wide range of hands from either player (in which case the pressure would be on me to make a big call for my tournament life). Not particularly liking this contingency, I decided instead to put the pressure on my opponents, and I shoved all-in despite the fact that I was 17bb's deep (and I definitely did not care that we were down to 89 players). The small blind folded, and the big blind tanked and called with A10s. I saw an ace in the window, and I didn't get any help. I was drawing dead by the turn, and like that, I was gone.

Another disappointing Day 2, especially considering how good I felt about the way I played yesterday. Really felt like this was going to be the one. I guess I'm just saving up for the Main Event.

There is not a lot left on the schedule that excites me (except for the Main Event of course), and with my brother coming in town this weekend, I might skip a few of the smaller buy-in remaining events. I will most likely play one more preliminary event before the main event, which starts next Thursday.

Still Alive in the Rebuy

2008-06-26T01:44:00.000-07:00

I took Monday and Tuesday off and was definitely ready to play today's event, the 1k No Limit Hold'em Rebuy. I rebought once (lost 88 against A10, all-in pf on the very first hand of the day) and added-on.

879 people entered and there were an additional 2,508 rebuys and add-ons, making the average stack after the rebuy period ~8k (total prize pool ~$3.2 million). From the original 879 players, we are down to 115 after Day 1. The average stack heading into tomorrow is ~59k and I have 54,100.

81 players (standard 9% of the player pool at WSOP) will make the money, but I have every intention of staying aggressive (especially early), and if I bubble as a result, so be it.

The biggest hand of the day for me occurred in Level 10, 30 minutes before the end of the night. I started the hand with 24,600 in chips and with blinds at 600/1,200 and antes of 100, I open raised from under the gun with 8c9c to 3,600. I had a fairly tight image at the table at this point, and I was trying to steal the blinds from under the gun (knowing that the other players would have to respect my raise from out of position). The button, who had recently gone on a rush from 30k to over 110k, smooth called. This was definitely unusual at this point of the tourney (it was normally either raise and win the blinds, or get reraised), but I didn't sense from his body language that he was trapping me with a big pair. Instead, I thought he likely had a hand like AJ,KQ or a mid pair, and wanted to see a flop in position. As such, my intention was to stay aggressive post flop and try to force him off his hand. The flop came down Jd,9s,3d, giving me midpair. I shuffled my chips for a good 90 seconds and was considering making a continuation bet. The stack sizes, and the fact that I had flopped midpair, however, made checking the better move. If I led for 6k, and he had nothing, he would just fold and I would get no value for my hand. If he got a piece of the flop (or sensed weakness), he would raise me all-in and I would have to fold. Whereas if I checked, I knew that he would lead with a wide range of hands, many of which I was ahead of, and if I thought that he was weak, I could check raise all-in, getting value and protecting my hand...I checked and I could tell that he was a little bit surprised, as he was definitely expecting me to fire out. In a lot of ways, it looked like I had given up on the hand with a hand like AK or AQ. He waited another 2 or 3 seconds, and then announced all-in (a 21,000 chip bet into a 9k pot). Not exactly and ideal spot for me with midpair and my tournament life on the line, but everything about his body language suggested to me that he already regretted his bet. It could have been him protecting his hand with AA or Jx, but it felt more like KQ (gut shot and two overcards), a flush draw, or a medium or low pair...I tanked for a good minute or so, but ended up going with my gut and made the call. He flipped up 44, and I faded his two-outer on the turn and river to double up. Hands like this are why I love poker. In one situation, top two pair is no good and you have to make a big lay down, but in another, mid pair is good, and you have to make a big call with your tournament life on the line.

The tourney gets going tomorrow at 2, which means I will unfortunately miss the 5k 6-handed event.

AK < AQ

2008-06-21T15:47:00.001-07:00

I finished in 60th, getting cracked within the first orbit at the table. I still had 21,600 when I looked down at AK on the button (had a walk in the bb and folded my sb). A young European player (who started the day with about 25k and already was up to over 60 after rivering a straight and then doubling through with Aces), open raised to 5,400. It folded around to me and I reraised the pot making it 18,600 to go. He shoved and I obviously called. He flipped up AQ, which is exactly what I wanted to see. The first card off the deck, however, was a Q and I was quickly drawing slim to three outs. The turn and river were blanks and I was out. Just so sick. I would have been up to 45,600 and been in real contention, but I just can't seem to win 70/30's right now let alone flips. Really really frustrating as it is really tough to go deep in a tourney and have a real chance to make a final table. My luck has to turn eventually.

I have a friend in town so my schedule is kind of up in the air. Definitely taking the rest of the day off, but I might play the mixed hold'em event tomorrow at 5. I have Monday and Tuesday off as well, so might not have a lot to report over the next few days.

Hanging Around

2008-06-21T01:44:00.001-07:00

Still alive in the Pot Limit Hold'em event. 600+ entrants and we played down to the money (looong bubble) and there are now 63 people still in. The average stack is about 38k and I have 21,600. Action starts up again tomorrow at 2.

Lots of interesting hands, but I actually have a friend in town (Sinead) and we're off on a 1:45am run so have to keep this brief. Quick summary is that I nursed a short stack pretty much the whole day after I folded QQ pre in level 1 with about half my stack in the pot (guy told me later he had bullets). I grinded from there and just refused to quit. Probably my best all around day of poker (took a sick beat with AJ against KJ all-in pre, but again refused to give up) since I've been out here. I did misplay QdJd in the last level when I bet myself off of a big draw, which I am still frustrated about.

Blinds start at 800/1,600 tomorrow so I have about 13 big blinds to work with. Feeling good about the way I'm playing and I just hope that I run well tomorrow.

Poor Tournament Showing, Big Cash Win

2008-06-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

I had a mixed day today, which started with a very weak tournament showing, but ended with a big win playing cash games.

The tournament was particularly frustrating, because it started off so well. Within the first 45 minutes, I doubled up to 6k when I flopped the nut flush with AdQd and let my opponent bet it the whole way. It's pretty interesting. In cash games, I like to play very aggressively, keeping the pressure on my opponents, and assessing my next move based on how they react to my aggression. In these smaller buy-in tournaments, however, I have found that trapping (slow playing big hands) can often be more effective. Weaker players tend to overplay their hands, and due to the short starting stacks, commit themselves with hands like top pair. This isn't to say that being a calling station is good/solid play, but the occasional trap early in a tournament can be very effective.

After my double up, I just did not play good fundamental poker. There were 2,400+ entrants and I knew that I would have to accumulate chips quickly in order to stay ahead of the pack. I gave myself goals, like having 8k at the first break, and 15k at the second. Setting goals for where you'd realistically like your stack to be at certain points in a tournament is fine, but forcing the action and not waiting for opportunities to come to you is always dangerous. I artificially pressured myself to build my stack too quickly, and as a result, I lost my patience and started getting involved in pots I shouldn't have. One example, which ended up crippling me, occurred early in level 2. I raised with KJ from early position and ended up losing more than half my stack when the flop came down JJ2 and my opponent looked me up with AJ. It was a very unlucky flop for me, for sure, but the point is that I never should have played the hand to begin with. I lost a few more pots (making one terrible call), got super short, and ended up losing with A3 against K10 all-in preflop. I was out before the second break, and was extremely disappointed as I only had myself to blame.

I was frustrated enough at myself that I wanted to play more cards and redeem myself (always a dangerous thing to do, but I didn't feel like I was on tilt). I watched the cash games for a while, and there was an action-packed 25/50 NL game going, which had a mandatory straddle making the game 25/50/100. The average stack at the table was a bit over 20k and the typical preflop action was raise to 300, call, reraise to 1,100, call, call. The action at the 10/20 game looked good as well, but I thought that buying in short at 25/50 and playing a squeaky tight/aggressive game would be my most profitable strategy. I bought in for 5k, by far the shortest stack at the table, and literally folded and folded and folded. I decided to use the strategy I employed when I first started playing in the loose/passive games in NYC. I would only raise with A's - 10's, AK and AQ, and limp call with any other pair, hoping to flop a set. This strategy is normally not profitable, because people notice how tight you are playing and you get no action when you do pick up a hand. In a game with this much action preflop, however, I knew that I had to just wait around and pick up a hand in the right spot. In addition, my narrow starting range did not hurt me postflop, because my stack was not deep enough to allow opponents to force me off of hands. Not exactly the most interesting poker I've ever played as there was very little subtlety to it. Preflop reads were still important, but basically, it was wait around for a big hand and then shove a bunch of chips into the pot.

I ended up picking up two big hands in good spots, and ended the session up $9,200, one of my largest cash game wins ever. The first hand occurred about 45 minutes into the session. The player under the gun open raised to 300 (25/50/100), and the next player called. It then folded around to the cutoff who made it 1,300 to go. I looked down in the small blind at AA and shipped in my 5k stack after thinking for a good 15 seconds. Everyone folded and just like that I picked up 2k. Then, about an hour and a half later (I was up to about 7,200), I woke up to KK on the button. This time, the action started on the 4th player to act who made it 400 to go. The cutoff reraised to 1,500 and the action was on me. Both the raiser and the reraiser had deep stacks and had been playing quite aggressively preflop. I thought their ranges were pretty wide here, and I wanted to both get action from a smaller pair and at the same time protect my hand from Ax. As such, I tried to represent AK by making a big reraise all-in. I thought that this might induce action from a hand like JJ or QQ, and it would obviously get a hand like AQ or AJ to fold, which could easily outflop me. The original raiser folded and the reraiser tanked for a good 3 minutes. He finally called, and although we didn't have to, we flipped our hands face up and he showed AK. I am actually only ~72% favorite in this spot and I have a terrible history of losing huge pots with KK. Nevertheless, the cowboys held up on a J high board and I shipped a massive pot. I nitted it up for another two hours or so, not playing any sizable pots, and then ended the session.

Short-stacking is a highly volatile cash game strategy (because you have to reraise all-in a lot), but given the right table and a few starting hands (Aces and Kings helps), it can be a very effective strategy and one that is very frustrating to play against, because it disrupts the normal flow of the game (which is why there are minimum buy-ins to begin with).

I believe the tournament tomorrow is a Pot Limit Hold'em event, which should be fun. I have had some success with Pot Limit tournaments in the past which I hope to continue tomorrow.

Nice Cash Game Session

2008-06-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

I put in a 5-hour cash game session today at Rio, which was my first cash session since I've been out here. I have been avoiding cash games intentionally, focusing my energy on the tournaments instead, but decided that I needed a change of pace to get excited about poker.

I sat in a 10/20 NL game and bought in for 4k, which was about average at the table. It was definitely nice to be sitting with a deep stack for a change, 200 big blinds to work with. I played pretty tight my first two hours, as I eased into the game, but opened up my game as I felt out the table (and readjusted to cash game play). There were three players who were pretty weak at the table (two of which were on my right), and I made a point of trying to play as many pots with them as possible (especially when in position). The game was particularly soft, because the highest stakes cash game pros were playing 100/200 NL with an average buy-in of over 50k.

I ended up booking a nice win of $3,800 during the session. The largest and most interesting hand occurred after I had been playing for about 3 hours. I was up to about $4,800 and one of the weaker players, two to my right, was bleeding chips from his $2,500 stack.

He open raised to $70 from the cutoff, the button called, and I looked down at QdJd in the small blind. In a tournament, QJ is an auto-fold in most situations, but in a deep stacked cash game, it can be a nice speculative hand worth playing in a multi-way raised pot. I called and the big blind called and we took the flop 4-handed. The flop came down Ah, 10h, 8d, giving me a double bellybuster straight draw to the nuts (either a 9 or K would give me the nut straight) and a backdoor flush draw. The action checked around to the preflop raiser who made it $200 to go. I thought that he likely had a big ace and would likely pay me off if I hit my draw. I called and we went to the turn heads up. The turn was the perfect card, the Kd, giving me the nuts and a redraw. This card looked harmless enough to my opponent (not a heart), and if he had a big ace like AK, AQ or AJ, it actually would have improved his hand. I checked, knowing that my opponent would do the work for me. He led for 550 (leaving himself another $1,700 behind), and I decided to smooth call once again, wanting him to think I was on a heart draw. I knew that as long as the river was not a heart, he would almost definitely fire again on the river, commiting his stack to the pot. The river was the 2s and I checked again using all of my acting abilities to feign that I had missed my draw. My opponent bet $1,100 on the river and I check raised him all-in. He took a good two minutes, but eventually made a crying call for his last $600 and I quickly flipped up the nuts. He mucked face down, but later claimed that he had AA (which is possible, but I think he had something more like AQ).

It definitely feels good to book a win (I had almost forgotten what it feels like), and I am excited to get back to the tourneys tomorrow at noon. There is another $1,500 NL Hold'em event tomorrow, which means a short 3k starting stack (first two levels are key), and lots and lots of bad players (hopefully anyways).

Bubbling Sucks

2008-06-18T00:45:00.000-07:00

I just went for a post-midnight sprint workout: nothing quite like bubbling for motivation.

I played for 11 hours today and outlasted 2,000+ people, just to get cracked right before the money. There were 2,304 entrants (paying 198 places) and with 230ish players remaining, I looked down to see AK on the button. I had 24k in front of me (average was about 30k - 3k starting stacks) and I made my standard open raise of 3,000 (500/1,000 blinds, 100 ante) when everyone folded to me. The small blind folded and the big blind, who started the hand with about 55k, shoved all-in and I snap-called, knowing that he was trying to force me off of my hand (because we were on the bubble - and I had been playing hyper agressively). Unfortunately, he had a small pair and flipped over his 66. I actually felt good after the J1010 flop (needing any J,Q,K or A), but the board bricked out 42 and I was out. I could have easily folded my way into the money, but due to the steep payout structure of tournaments (especially at the WSOP), I will always play to win (at the expense of cashing less).

Despite the extreme frustration of bubbling, it was actually a very enjoyable day of poker. My starting table draw was amazing (by far the weakest table I have been at), and despite a setback early, I felt comfortable from the start. My 3k starting stack dropped to 2,400 when I paid off a flopped flush (who slow played) when I turned a set (my river call was pretty bad as he bet 125% of the pot and I knew he wasn't bluffing). I continued to play agressively, however, and the deck finally cooperated. I rivered a full house with 1010 (my opponent slow played trip 7's on the flop) and was able to double up to almost 5k. From there, I just ran over my table, as I felt like I could hear my opponents thinking while playing against them. I was probably playing 5 hands every rotation. After the first hour, I was up to 6k, and two hours later, I was up to over 11k without playing a large pot (besides the 1010 hand early). It was so nice to build a stack early and have the chips to play my game.

After three hours, our table broke and I was moved to a much tougher table. I stayed agressive, but fluctuated up and down over the next couple of hours as my timing was just a little off. I open raised with KQ, 88 and 66 and got reraised by tight players and had to release my hand each time. I managed to keep my stack steady by picking off pots whenever I could. Then, early in level 5, I finally won a big flip. I reraised from the button with 1010 and was pot-committed when my opponent shoved all-in. He showed AK, but after a J6642 board, his 8k stack was shipped over to me and I was up to about 19k. From there, I tried to stay agressive, but the big blinds and short average stack made it an all-in fest and I went a bit card-dead for the next couple of levels. My stack continued to fluctuate winning pots with AA and J10, but losing with 99 and KQ. When the field got down to 250 players, I started to play hyper-agressively, raising 3-4 times per rotation, with very little resistance. I built my stack from 17k to 24k simply by stealing blinds. And then, in the midst of this agressive rush, I woke up to AK and it was all over.

I really want to play more poker tomorrow as I felt like I was really on my game today (I might even hit up the cash games). Unfortunately, there are only Omaha and Stud events tomorrow, which although tempting, I will stay away from. Will just have to gear up for the next event Thursday at noon.

Level 2 Bust

2008-06-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

I played the 6-Handed No Limit event today and my fate came down to one critical hand early in level 2. My table (Nam Le and 4 internet pros) had been very agressive in Level 1 and I had built my stack to 5,600 from 5k with two well-timed reraises.

The player to my immediate right was particularly agressive and he had raised my big blind every time it folded to him in the small blind (probably 4 times in level 1). Ten minutes into level 2, the table folded around to him again and he made his standard raise to 275 (50/100 blinds). I looked down to see JcJd and I made it 850 to go. I watched my opponent closely as he decided what to do next (it was clear he was not folding). He shuffled his chips for a good 30 seconds and then reraised to 2,350 (he had over 10k in chips already), putting the pressure back on me. Typically, when there is a re-reraise preflop early in a tournament, QQ is rarely good (let alone JJ), but this was an unusual spot, because it was a blind battle in a 6-handed tournament against a hyper-agressive player.

Not an easy decision for me, but my instincts were telling me I had the best hand. First of all, as I watched my opponent contemplate what to do next (after I reraised to 850), he seemed to be genuinely thinking (which is often not the case), and he did not seem rock solid to me. In addition, the size of his re-reraise (to 2,350) and the fact that he raised at all (could have easily trapped here with AA or KK), all suggested to me that he wanted to win the hand preflop. As such, I was pretty confident that he did not have AA or KK, and thought that his likely range was AK-AJ and QQ-99, which I was well ahead of. Based on this read, I reraised all-in for another 3,250 and my opponent reluctantly called showing AQ.

We were off to the races and the flop came down KQ10. I still had life with a two-street 7-outer, but missed on the turn and river and was out just like that.

This is the 4th or 5th time I have flipped for the bulk of my chips at the WSOP. In general, I try to avoid flips (especially given the way I'm running right now), because I believe that over the course of a tournament, there will be better expected value spots to invest my chips. That said, given the small-starting stacks and agressive play in many of these tournaments, flipping is sometimes an unfortunate necessity. I will never fold a substantially positive expected value position (like today with JJ), just to avoid the possibility of a flip. As long as I am putting the pressure on my opponent, and not making desperation calls, I am ok with getting my chips in with a pair or two overcards...But god damn, I gotta start winning them on occasion.

Tomorrow at noon is a $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Event, which would be a good event to make a deep run in, because I am off on Wednesday either way.

Half Time

2008-06-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

I have taken the past few days off to spend time with the rents (who are headed home tomorrow morning), and I have to admit, it was a well-timed and much needed break. Frustration can definitely build after playing so many tournaments day after day, and it was great to just take a few days and not even think about poker.

I have been in Vegas for two weeks now and am pretty much at the midpoint of my trip. After just one min-cash in my first 7 events, it has definitely been a disappointing start. I feel like my play has been solid for the most part (a few poor decisions here and there have cost me - and learning how to win a flip occasionally would help as well), but I'm feeling reenergized and am ready to step it up to the next level over the next two weeks.

I took a look at the remaining schedule tonight, and although there are 10 remaining events (including the main event) which I have an interest in playing, I realistically only expect to play 7 or 8 more events given the multi-day scheduling conflicts. The second half starts tomorrow at noon with the $2,500 6-Handed No Limit Hold'em event.

Running Bad

2008-06-13T00:16:00.001-07:00

I played the noon event today and was out of the tournament within the first orbit. Of the 1,200+ players in the tournament, I must have been one of the first ten out of the tournament.

I open raised three of the first five hands with AQ, AJ, and 99, winning the blinds twice and winning the third with a continuation bet on the flop. My 4k stack was up to 4,400 and I had established a nice agro-maniacal image, which I was hoping to exploit later on in the tournament. Then, just two hands later, I woke up to KK in the small blind. The player under the gun limped for 50 (25/50 blinds), the next player (a tourney pro who I've played with in AC and Foxwoods) limped, the cutoff limped and the big blind limped. It looked like a classic steal situation so I overraised to feign weakness. I made it 475 to go, hoping to get called or reraised by someone who just didn't believe me. The player under the gun called, and then the next limper (the east coast pro) made it 1,875 to go. This was exactly the move I was hoping for, because I knew that there was no chance this guy had limped behind the under the gun limper with Aces. I thought he probably had a hand like 77-99 or A10-AQ. I also noticed the under the gun limper grimace when the second limper raised, which was nice to see as I could now be sure that he did not have bullets either. The hand played itself at this point and I moved all-in for another 2,500. The under the gun limper quickly folded and the east coast pro called (as he was pot committed) with AQ. The flop came down A,J,4 and I never caught up...Obviously, it would have been nice to start the tourney with a 9k stack when the rest of the table had 4 (especially because I finally got a pretty good table draw), but instead I was cracked within the first twenty minutes.

My parents are in town (arrived last night), and they can attest to the fact that I was in a terrible mood for a good hour or so after the tourney ended. Still, by 2pm I put the beat behind me, and had a nice rest of the day with the rents. Having a short memory is definitely key as a tournament player, because failure is the norm (~91% of the time), and recent failures can cause you to question yourself and your instincts. As long as you play your best every day (assuming you are a skilled/winning player to begin with), and you do not allow recent failures to affect your decision making in future events, the results will be there in the long run.

The rents are in town until next Monday, so I am not sure of my schedule over the next few days.

Could Not Escape Bullets Twice

2008-06-11T23:59:00.000-07:00

I took the day off yesterday and felt fresh and ready to go for today's NL Hold'em event which started at noon. The field was surprisingly large (731 players), but I managed to keep up my streak of terrible table draws: I was in seat 1, Kenny Tran in seat 2, Eric Cajelais ("straight or nothing") in seat 3, Layne Flack in seat 5, Scotty Nguyen in seat 7 and Huck Seed in seat 8.

I ended up getting cracked right before the end of Day 1 (around 215th out of 731), when I reraised all-in from the small blind with 99 and the open raiser from the cutoff insta-called with AA...I was a bit card dead on the day, but the table was playing squeaky tight (except for Huck), and I probably missed a few chances to pad my stack with just sheer agression.

A couple of really interesting hands from early in the day. I had KcKd in the cutoff and was facing an under the gun raise to 600 (100/200 blinds, 25 ante). I made it 2,000 to go (I had about 14,000 before the hand started) and Kenny Tran cold called my reraise from the button. The utg raiser called as well and we took the flop three handed. The flop came down 10c,10d,4c. The first player checked, I led for 3,000, and Kenny shoved all-in for 15k or so. I put Kenny on a huge hand preflop based on several factors: a) I had been playing super tight, b) I reraised an under the gun raiser, c) he had been playing super tight, d) he just smooth called, e) everything about his body language suggested strength...I was certain that Kenny would not make this move with QQ or JJ, and the only two hands I could put him on were AA or a big club flush draw. The key to the hand was the fact that I had the Kc, ruling out AcKc. I didn't think Kenny would call preflop with AcQc, so I decided it had to be Aces and I mucked...Kenny showed the Ac, and I am 90%+ confident that he had bullets, but I guess I'll never know.

During the same level, Layne limped for 200, the cutoff raised to 700, I called from the button with 6d6h and Layne called as well. The flop came down 10c,7d,4c and the preflop raiser made it 1,200 to go after Layne checked. I could tell from his body language that he was weak and I decided to call the flop with the intention of taking the hand away on the turn. To my surprise, Layne overcalled and we went to the turn still three-handed. The turn was the 2s and it checked around to me. This was the critical moment in the hand. I knew that the preflop raiser was done with the hand, because if he had a real hand (like an overpair), he would bet strong on the turn after getting two callers on the flop. The only question was Layne. I was pretty sure that Layne would not trap with a set on the flop, because he was up against two players and there was a flush draw on board. Instead, he would almost definitely go for a check raise. As such, I was pretty sure he had either a weak 10 (910 or J10), a mid pair (most likely higher than mine) or perhaps a flush draw. All hands which cannot stand much pressure on the turn. I didn't think Layne could call a big bet on the turn and it was highly likely that I would lose at showdown (or get bet off the hand on the river) if I checked. I made it 4,000 to go. Layne tanked, and folded and the preflop raiser mucked as well. I showed the bluff (to loosen up my image a bit) much to the frustration of Layne.

Another crazy hand, which I was not a part of, went like this: Layne open raises to 700, Scotty min reraises to 1,200, Huck tanks and folds, and Layne calls. The flop comes down 8,8,7. Layne takes a while and says something like, "against anybody else I would trap", and then shoves 10k plus into the middle putting Scotty all-in. Scotty insta-folds AA face up and Layne shows 77 for the flopped full house. The best part of the hand is that Huck folded 88 preflop to Scotty's min reraise. So, on the flop it would have been AA against 7's full against quad 8's.

I am playing the No Limit event tomorrow at noon.

Gave Myself a Shot

2008-06-09T18:13:00.000-07:00

I gave myself a shot in the $1,500 NL Hold'em Shootout this afternoon, but in the end I lost a big flip and ended up coming in 3rd at my table.

I have very mixed feelings regarding the $1,500/$2,000 buy-in events in general. On the one hand, the structures are absolutely terrible (very short starting stacks, fast escalation of blinds) and the fields are huge and difficult to outlast. At the same time, however, the fields are incredibly soft with lots and lots of dead money. Thus, it is harder to win these events (why the name pros mostly play the 10k events), but the expected return is much much higher.

Anyways, the Shootout was capped at 1,000 people (to ensure three even rounds of 10-handed play), and in this type of tournament, I was not expecting to recognize a single player at my table. Instead, my table looked more like a 5k buy-in event, as I recognized 6 of the other 9 players including Pat Pezzin, Dan Shak, Chad Brown, and two other guys I only know as Persian Steve and Phil Onion.

Chad Brown is a world-class tournament player, but his head just wasn't in the tourney today. He doubled up early (knocking out one of the players I did not recognize) by calling an all-in raise on the flop with AQ on a board of 7,6,4, rainbow. The other player had JJ and Chad spiked an A on the river to scoop the pot. He then tried to run over the table and people picked him off one by one. He doubled up Dan Shak with A4 against QQ on a board of J,4,2 rainbow and doubled up Pat with AJ against AK, all-in pre.

I played squeaky tight the first two levels trying to feel out the table. I won a small pot with AA and 99 and a decent sized pot when I flopped trips with J6 (in the big blind) and turned a full house (I got Persian Steve to bluff the turn and river with 5 high). At the end of level 2, I had worked my stack from 3k to 4,100 and we were down to 7 players. During level 3, I opened my game up a little bit and stole a few pots preflop and on the flop when I sensed weakness. Then I really chipped up when I got my AK all-in preflop against Steve's AQ (he only had about 2k). My big slick held up and I was up over 7k. Dan Shak then won a monster pot, knocking out two players, with KK against AQ and JJ and we were down to 3 players, myself, Dan, and a young internet pro who I have played with before. We stole blinds back and forth for a while, occasionally seeing a flop, but rarely a showdown, until Level 5 began when play became much more agressive with the larger blinds. The internet pro open raised from the button (300/600 blinds, 75 ante) to 1,700 and I moved all-in from the big blind with KsJs for just over 7k. He thought for about a minute before calling with 55 (probably a good call against my range in this spot). I saw a king in the window, but my excitement was short-lived as the 5 of hearts was the second card off the deck. The board paired on the turn, but I missed my two outer on the river and was out in 3rd.

I played much much better than in the previous shootout and am happy about that. I feel like I probably gave myself ~1 in 4 chance of winning the table (rather than the 1 in 10 I started with), but still, there are no points for 2nd or 3rd place.

Not sure my deal for tomorrow. I might take the day off, but I am considering playing the 2k Limit Hold'em event at 5pm. If not, I will definitely play the No Limit Hold'em event Wednesday at noon.

76th

2008-06-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

I finished in 76th in the Limit Event holding on just long enough for my first cash (81 spots paid). Not a bad showing and nice to get a cash under my belt at the WSOP, but always frustrating to get deep in a tourney and not capitalize. Still, the fact that I have gone deep in 3 of 4 tourneys is a pretty positive sign overall. Just need to keep grinding and hope that things come together at the right time in one of these events...

I had a rollercoaster day today with a big upswing in Level 1. I hit a huge rush of cards in the first 45 minutes of play, picking up three big pairs, and hitting trips twice with KQ and AQ. I had to fold KK on the turn, but I won the other 4 pots and got paid off nicely. After Level 1, my stack was close to 35k and I was probably in the top 20-25 stacks at the time. Unfortunately, as well as I was hitting flops in Level 1, I could not make a hand in Level 2 or 3. I three-bet an early position raiser once with JJ and another time with 99, bet the flop, and ended up losing to A8 and KQ when the turn brought an A in the first pot and the river brought a K in the second. Still, I stayed agressive and picked up a few uncontested pots and managed to keep my stack right around 30k through level 3.

Level 4 was a nightmare. With blinds at 800/1500 (betting rounds of 1,500/3,000), and the average stack below 30k, every hand was literally critical to every player. I lost two large pots and that's all it took to take my stack from 30k and in contention to 7k and on life-support. In the first hand, I 3-bet an agressive young online French pro who had been raising a lot of pots with 88. He called and the flop came down 10h,10d,2h. He led, I raised, and he called. Limit is a crazy game because his range in this spot is literally anywhere from quad 10's to two overcards. I thought his most likely hand, at this point, was a mid pair lower than mine or a flush draw. The turn was a 4d and he checked again. Normally, I would bet again here (for value and to protect my hand from overcards), but I really felt (based on his quick check and body language) that I was going to get check raised. I checked, and the turn was another 2, putting two pair on board. He led on the river and I have to admit, I wasn't sure where I stood in the hand. My check on the turn kind of made it look like I had given up on the hand, and I thought he could be value betting any pair (or even A high), or bluffing with a missed heart draw. I wasn't thrilled, but given the 7:1 pot odds, it was kind of a no-brainer call. He showed A10 and my stack was down to 18k. In the second pot, I open raised from the cutoff with AQ and the big blind called. The flop came down A,J,6 rainbow. The big blind checked, I led, and he called. After my opponent just smooth called, I felt very comfortable that he had a weak A or a decent J and was trying to show the hand down thinking I was making a move. The turn was an 8 and again it went, check, bet, call. At this point, I thought my opponent most likely had A10 or A9 and I had decided to value bet any river unless my opponent led into me in which case I would just call. The river was a 2, and for the third time, it went check, bet, call. I turned over AQ quickly (confident that I was scooping a big pot), but my opponent tabled AK. I am still shocked by how this hand played out. To not see a raise preflop or on the flop or turn is unbelievable. To be honest, I probably got off cheap in this pot, but it still crippled me. After the hand, I had 7k in chips, and with 90+ players left, I was in real jeopardy of not even cashing. The game slowed down a lot during the bubble, and despite being card dead, I hung on just long enough to sneak into the money. After the bubble burst, I ended up getting my super-short stack all-in 3 ways with 10d7d against 66 and 84. The 6's flopped a set and I missed my gut shot and was cracked.

Tomorrow I have the day off and my next event will most likely be the $1,500 NL Hold'em Shootout starting Monday at noon.

Grinding the Limit Event

2008-06-07T03:08:00.000-07:00

It is past 3am here and I literally played 14+ hours of poker today, so I am going to keep this update short.

I played the noon No Limit Hold'em Shootout (Single Table Satellite Structure), and was not very happy with the way I played. According to CardPlayer, my table (along with many others) was stacked: John "craniac" Kranyak (1), Vivek "psyduck" Rajkumar (2), Jennifer Tilly (4), Burt Bouton (5), Shawn Deeb (6), Harry Demetriou (8), Rafe Furst (9). I was in the 7 seat and only recognized psyduck, Burt, Jennifer and Rafe and I actually thought that I had a fairly good table draw considering the event. Anyways, I kind of forced the action a little bit early and didn't let things come to me. I still grinded and fought hard, but this was definitely the worst event I've played in terms of the quality of my play. I ended up getting cracked in a pretty tough spot with Aces. Burt Bouton button raised to 600 (100/200 blinds) and I woke up to AA in the big blind and made it 1,700 to go. I started the hand with just over 8k in chips (starting stack of 10k) and was desperately hoping for Burt (who already had over 25k) to double me up. He called and the flop came Jh,7h,4d. I led for 2,200 and Burt smooth called. I did think his call was a little fishy, but given the button raise, big blind reraise structure of the hand, I thought he might just be trying to slow me down with a mid-pair, any J, or even AK or AQ. The turn was a blank 2d and I jammed for my remaining 4,500 or so. Burt insta-called with JJ and I was drawing to two outs on the river which I missed. I finished in 7th, 4 hours into the event, just in time to sign up for the 5pm $1,500 Limit Hold'em tournament.

After the first 8 levels of the Limit event, the 880 person field is down to 181 players and I have grinded my way up to 13,000 in chips (average is just over 14,000) from a starting stack of 3,000. I was up over 16k at my peak but I missed a big draw in the last level which cost me. The event picks up tomorrow at 3pm, and although I essentially have an average stack, I only have 10 big bets with the blinds at 300/600 and betting rounds of 600/1,200, so the first level will be critical. Hopefully I will go on a rush early and have good news to report tomorrow.

Shut Out

2008-06-05T13:13:00.001-07:00

So frustrating. I showed up at the Registration Cage at 11:45am ready to buy into the $1,500 6-max event. I typically register the night before events, but since no WSOP event has sold out in the past two years, I felt comfortable showing up morning of for this one. Sure enough, the event sold out while I was standing in line. Apparently the Rio only has 206 tables for the WSOP, and because this was a 6-max event, they capped the event at 1,236 players. I feel like they could have allowed alternates as 25%+ of the field will be gone in the first two hours, but they decided not to...I certainly won't make this mistake again and will register for all events the night before.

Out of the 2k

2008-06-04T17:33:00.000-07:00

I played the 2k No Limit Hold'em event today and it was downhill from the start. With only 4k in starting chips, the pressure is on from the very first hand and there is very little room to maneuver.

About 15 minutes into the event, I played my first meaningful hand. An agressive young player open raised from under the gun to 200, and three players called the raise in front of me. I looked down to see JJ on the button and decided to try to win the already sizable pot preflop. I made it 950 to go, knowing I only had to sweat the original raiser. The original raiser tanked for about 3 minutes before shoving his starting stack all-in. I felt like his range at this point in the tourney was AA,KK,QQ, and AK and it was a fairly easy fold. He told me later that he had QQ and I believe him. So right from the start, I was down to 3,000.

Over the next 90 minutes, I had only three playable hands (besides a couple of steals and limps from late position) and all three were very difficult to play. I had 9's twice and 8's once, and each time there was a standard early position raise in front of me. These are very difficult hands to play in a short-stack event when there is a raise in front of you from early position. No option is ideal as the stacks are not deep enough to just call for a set, reraising exposes much too much of your stack, and folding mid-pairs to one raise makes your overall play too tight and weak. As a result, the proper play is highly read dependent. I reraised with 9's once (sensing weakness), called with 9's the other time, folding to a cb on a 10 high board (sensing strength), and called with 8's, raising the cb on the J high flop (again, sensing weakness). After these three hands, I was back to my starting stack of 4k, and felt like I had a pretty good read on the table and just needed a few hands to do some damage. Finally, just before the end of level 2, I woke up to AdAh under the gun. I limped (as the table had been very agressive) and the player immediately behind me made it 450 to go (blinds of 50/100). My plan was to trap with a smooth call preflop and a check raise on the flop, but the small blind reraised to 1,200 before the action ever got back to me. I didn't want to play the pot 3-handed so I reraised all-in. The original raiser folded and the reraiser insta-called. I turned up my bullets and he said "no good", showing the AcAs. Ridiculous. I turned a diamond flush draw, but missed on the river and we chopped it up. At the first break I had about 4,500, which was a bit below average as we had lost almost 400 players from the original starting field of 1,600 (which is a good indicator of how much pressure there is right from the start).

Level 3 was tough for me as I couldn't buy a hand, and when I did try to make something happen (with AQ once and 8d9d another time), I ran into real hands and got reraised. My stack dwindled back down below 3,000, but I was determined to tighten up and keep fighting. I built some momentum during level 4 as I semi-bluffed a weak lead in a 4-way limped pot and then reraised an early position raiser with QQ, taking both pots down without resistance. I started attacking limps and weak raises more agressively, and by the end of level 4, I had built my stack up to 5,800 without showing down a single hand. I took a look at the tournament board and noticed we were already down to ~700 players (average stack of around 9k), but I felt good about where I stood heading into the second break. Unfortunately, my second break was a bit extended. In the last hand of Level 4, I had AK in early position and made a standard raise to 650 (blinds of 100/200, 25 ante), and it folded around to the sb who went all-in for about 7k. I called pretty quickly as I didn't think he would overraise so much with A's or K's, and I felt like I was way ahead of his range. He sheepishly showed 55 (a pretty terrible play in my opinion), and we were off to the races. He flopped a 5 and I was drawing dead on the turn. The unfortunate reality about tournament poker is that you have to run well to go deep against good players (especially if you can't build a big stack early). I never really got things going today (as my high point was 5,800 before getting cracked), but I was proud that I didn't give up with my short-stack, which dipped below 2,500 on two separate occasions. Two pros at my table (one online and one live), essentially gave up after losing most of their stacks in tough pots. The online pro reraised his remaining 2k all-in with J9 (knowing he was going to get called), and the live pro shipped it in with AJ over a reraise (not as bad, but still bad) and was insta-called by KK. It is very easy to make plays like this after losing momentum in a tournament, but every time you do, you lower your long-term expected return (which is why mental focus is so key).

Next up is the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 6-handed event. The good news about this event is that I feel very comfortable playing 6-handed, and believe I have a bigger edge against my opponents in this structure (my standard online cash games are 6-max). You have to open up your game in this format and weaker players will make more mistakes as a result, which can be capitalized upon. The bad news is that the starting stacks are even shorter tomorrow with 3,000 chips from the get-go, so the play early will be critical once again.

Short Day 2

2008-06-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

The day started off well with the button being placed in the 9 seat, which is where I was seated after the redraw. Looking around my new table, I only recognized Ted Forrest in the 8 seat and Michael Binger in the 2 seat.

Unfortunately, my good fortune did not last long. On the very first hand of the day, it folded around to me in the button and I open raised to 3,000 (800/1,500 blinds) with Qs9s. The small blind folded and Binger 3-bet from the big blind. Obviously, I was hoping just to take down the blinds or get a passive call from the big blind, but I knew that Binger's range was quite wide here and I was happy to play the pot against him in position. I called the additional 1,500 and we saw a flop of Qd, Jh, 6s. Binger led (for 1,500), which I knew he would on almost any flop, and I raised knowing that I was well ahead of his range. Binger's tentative call of my raise confirmed my read that I was ahead. I thought his most likely hands at this point were AK, A10, 910, a mid pair, or some big J. The turn was the Jd and Binger checked. It looked like a weak check to me, and I led again (for 3,000) to protect my hand. Binger smooth called again and I was now convinced that he was drawing. The river was the Ac, a very ugly card for my hand, and Binger led right out. I knew that I was likely beat on the river, but the pot was now laying me 24,800 to 3,000 to make the call, and I thought that Binger could possibly be leading out with a Q or even making a desperation play with 910. I made the crying call and Binger flipped up A10. Stupid limit poker. The crazy thing is, looking back over the hand, I actually think that both of us played the hand exactly as we should have. That's just the way limit poker goes. You need to pound away when you have the best of it and hope that your hands hold up. If Binger had missed his 7-outer on the river I would have been up to 30k and well on my way. As it stood, I was down to 3,600 and on life-support. The very next hand, it folded to me in the cutoff and I decided to raise with A7 off as I figured this was going to be my best opportunity to get it in there with the best of it. Binger 3-bet from the small blind putting me all-in for my last 600. I called and he showed KQ. The flop of A, J, 5 rainbow looked promising enough, but the 10 on the turn sealed the deal, and I was done after just two hands.

Very very disappointing to say the least. I'm not unhappy with the way I played in this event, but I was all ready to put in a long day today and make a deep run in my first event, but it just wasn't meant to be I guess. Due to the 3pm start, I missed the noon $1,000 rebuy NL Hold'em event, which would have been a fun event to play with guys like Negraneau and Ivey just spraying chips everywhere. I almost bought in to the $1,500 5pm Omaha event, just because today was so unsatisfying, but I exercised a little self-control and thought better of it. I am definitely negative expected value against the best Omaha players in the world. Next up is the 2k NL Hold'em event tomorrow at noon. This should be a large and relatively weak field and I will most likely employ a solid/straight forward approach in this type of event. Unfortunately, the starting stacks in the noon tourneys are substantially smaller (in order to cut down the large fields), which makes the first few hours of play critical. I will keep the updates coming and hopefully will have a deep run to report some time soon.

Day 1

2008-06-03T02:57:00.000-07:00

I arrived at my condo/apartment in Vegas a little late this afternoon, and had no choice but to play the 5k Mixed Hold'em event at 5 rather than the noon pot-limit tourney (I was leaning that way anyways). The field was very tough (as I expect all of the 5pm tournaments to be) and I literally drew the worst starting seat in the entire tournament. To my immediate left, Phil Ivey, to his left, Hasan Habib, and to his left, Gavin Smith. Brandon Adams, Doug Lee, and a couple of tough online pros were also at the table. After 4 hours of play our table broke and I moved to another table, which included Phil Hellmuth, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, David "Devilfish" Ulliot, Hoyt Corkins, and Humberto Brenes. Needless to say, terrible terrible table draws (at least from a poker perspective - both were highly entertaining tables to play at).

Despite the two tables of death, I managed to survive the day. After 8 hours of switching back and forth between limit and no-limit, the starting field of 332 is down to ~95. I have 17,100 chips heading into day 2, with the average stack right around 35k. Unfortunately, limit is first and with small and big bets of 1,500/3,000, I will have to be very selective and likely commit myself to any hand I play.

Overall, I felt like I played good/solid poker today. I made a few poorly timed moves, but overall, my instincts were on target. Limit hold'em was an interesting challenge, as I have not played it with any consistency since I was 21 years old, playing 3/6 at the Taj Mahal. Knowing my limitations, I employed a tight/agressive approach which worked surprisingly well for me. It didn't hurt that I was hitting flops early. There were many many interesting hands from the 8 hours of play, but I am too exhausted to review them right now (I have been up for 23 straight hours and can barely see straight). I will give the full update when I'm done playing tomorrow.

Gearing up for the WSOP

2008-05-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

I apologize for the lack of posts over the past month, but I have intentionally played very little poker since the WPT Championship as I want to be as fresh and motivated as possible for the long grind that is the World Series of Poker. Many people have asked me what I am doing to prepare for the WSOP, and the honest answer is, staying away from the game.

The official WSOP schedule begins tomorrow with the 10k pot-limit championship. I have my mom's birthday tomorrow and a wedding this weekend, but I am planning to arrive in Las Vegas on Monday morning in time to play in either Event #3 (1,500 PL Hold'em) or Event #4 (5k Mixed Hold'em). From there, my schedule may change depending on how I fare in earlier multi-day events, but I am planning on playing ~23 events in 34 days with a total buy-in of just over 60k.

This may sound ridiculous, but I expect this 5-week stretch to be one of the most physically, mentally, and emotionally taxing experiences of my life. That said, I could not be any more excited. I feel very confident in my game and I know that if I keep my focus, and play tough every hand, I am capable of making some real noise.

I will update on Monday when I arrive in Las Vegas and my plan is to update daily with rants and tournament results throughout the WSOP.

Great Level 1, Short Level 2

2008-04-21T16:00:00.001-07:00

I made a big comeback during Level 1 today going from 13,900 to start the day to 84,500 by the end of the level. I doubled up on the 4th or 5th hand with KQs against 22 all-in preflop (I thought this was a pretty terrible call btw as he is dominated a lot in this spot and I shoved with almost 15 big blinds). I spiked a king on the river, which made it that much sweeter. I then made a big fold with A10 in a 4-handed raised pot when the flop came down 10, 4, 2 rainbow. The preflop raiser checked, the first limp-caller led for 5k and the next limper made it 14k to go. I thought about shoving but mucked instead. The hand got showed down and 22 scooped the pot against J10. After blinding down to about 22k, I raised to 2,400 (400/800 blinds, 100 ante) from mid position with 1010 and got reraised from the small blind to 8k. I took my time as I was essentially making a decision for my tournament life. I decided my opponent was pretty weak and was likely on a resteal so I reraised all-in. He reluctantly called with 33 and my tens held up and I was up to 45k and feeling good. I made two resteals from the blinds during the next two orbits and broke the 50k starting mark for the first time. A few hands later an agressive player open raised to 2k from under the gun. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier smooth called and I reraised to 10,500 with AK. The under the gun raiser folded and ElkY surprisingly shoved all-in for another 25k. ElkY had a very unusual line in this pot and could have easily been trapping the first agressive raiser with AA or KK. At a minimum, he had to have a big hand here. I considered folding, but was getting too good a price considering my hand. I called and he flipped up QQ. I continued to run well as I won the flip, spiking an ace on the turn. I was up to ~85k and a few hands later the level ended and I was at 84,500. After level 1, the field was down to 360 players (from a starting field of 545), so I was about 10k above the average stack of 75k. Not a bad place to be considering where I started the day.

I came back from the break feeling good, ready to grind and hopefully make a deep run. The very first hand in level 2 (500/1000, 100 ante), I woke up to KK under the gun. I had been raising to 3 times the big blind during level 1, so I made it 3,000 to go. It folded around to the small blind (a tough solid pro with about 100k in chips), who reraised me to 13k. He has to give me credit for a real hand here since I raised from under the gun, and I know that he is only reraising me here with a big hand from the small blind. The large reraise, however, immediately led me to think he had either AK, 1010, JJ or QQ (Real, reraising hands, but hands that you want to take down preflop, especially out of position). I considered coming over the top, but decided that smooth calling and trying to win a big pot made more sense since I was in position and he would likely cb on almost any flop. I was taking a substantial risk, because he could easily have AK or AQ in this spot and could outflop me, but I thought it was worth the upside of potentially doubling up against a hand like 1010 or JJ if the flop came rags. The flop was perfect, 742 rainbow. My opponent led for 25k (which I read as a I want to take this pot down now type of bet) and I was pretty confident that he had 1010-QQ. I took my time, hollywooding a bit, because I wanted to get called by QQ or JJ. I shoved all-in for another 45k or so and my opponent insta-called with AA. The board bricked out and I was out that quickly. I'm not unhappy with the way I played the hand, and I just have to give my opponent credit here for outplaying me. I'm not sure if he was intentionally trapping me with his large reraise preflop and bet on the flop, but he played the hand well and sold me on a smaller pair.

The rollercoaster ride this morning made it that much tougher to swallow, because I let my hopes get up just a little after rebuilding my stack. Tournament poker is really really tough. You have to focus every hand, look hard for weakness and opportunities, and care a lot to be a top player and you will still lose your buy-in at least 80-85% of the time. I firmly believe that at the highest levels, the right mental approach to the game is as important as talent in deteriming long term success.

Anyways, the timing worked out well as I was able to catch an afternoon flight back to Cleveland. I just finished watching the Cavs game on DVR, and was pleasantly surprised all around. LeBron and Z carried us to victory in Game 1, but the whole team played ridiculously well (especially on D) today. It will definitely be tougher in Washington, but it seems like we are in Washington's head at the moment. Going to try and make it to Game 4 on Sunday if I can get a ticket.

Not My Day

2008-04-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

I had a really really frustrating day today. My table draw was excellent considering the field: no big name pros and two very weak players at the table: an asian woman three to my left and an older gentleman on my immediate right. The rest of the table was filled with tough, action players who created lots of action at our table all day long. My 9 hour day came down to two big pots, which bookmarked the day, one ten minutes into level 1 and the other the second last hand of the night.

The first hand was eerily similar to a hand I played almost 3 years ago in the $2,500 WSOP in which I managed to bust on the second hand of the event. Anyways, we started with 50k in chips and the blinds were 5o/100. The asian woman limped under the gun and sort of did a lookaway while doing it. I immediately put her on a big hand (AA or KK) and was hoping I could outflop her and win a big pot. Four additional players limped and I completed the small blind with QJ offsuit. We took the flop 6-handed and it came down QJ6 rainbow. I checked, the big blind checked, and the lady led for 500. It folded around to me and I check raised her to 1,700. The big blind folded and she reraised me to 5,500. At this point in the hand I was quite confident that I had the best hand. I smooth called and the turn was a 3. I decided to lead on the turn for 8k, expecting her to call, but instead she raised me to 20k. Typically, this early in a big buy-in tourney, top two is not good in this spot. Still, after studying my opponent for a good three or four minutes, I was pretty sure that she was just overplaying her big pair. I almost shoved (I had another 24k), but decided to just call, planning on check calling on the river if the board did not pair. The river was a 6 completing a board of QJ636. I checked and she flipped up AA for aces up. Pretty sick. I was down to 24k (rather than up to 76k) within the first ten minutes. From there, I grinded away playing pretty tight/solid the whole day, picking my spots well. I avoided big pots the rest of the day, grinding my stack back to 36k (only showing down one or two hands the whole day) by the end of level 5. On the second last hand of the night, at 300/600 blinds with a 75 ante, it folded around to the button (a solid, straight forward player) who had about 22k in chips. He open raised to 2,800 and I looked down to see AKs in the big blind. The small blind folded and I decided just to shove (I didn't want to make a small reraise giving him the option of shoving on me). He called quickly with 99 (little suspect he called so quickly, but I don't blame him for calling) and I lost the flip (you have to run well to win tournaments). So, at the end of day 1 I was officially at my low point for the day with 13,900. There were 535 entrants (3.4 million for first) and we lost about 100 players yesterday and today, so the average stack is just above 60k. Blinds tomorrow will start at 400/800 with a 100 ante, so I will be losing 2,200 each rotation. I am officially on life support, but the good news is if I can double up twice, I will be right back to average. I hate being in this position coming into day 2, but I am certainly going to give it my all tomorrow.

Vegas, Round 3

2008-04-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Arrived in Vegas yesterday mid-day (after taking the previous week off in Cleveland), and after crashing by the pool for a couple of hours, I put in an evening session playing 10-20 at Bellagio. I played well overall, but made two BIG mistakes in the two largest pots of the night. I folded the best hand once (I had top and bottom pair and the guy re-reraised me with a flush draw and a gut shot on the flop) and stuck it in drawing to 13 outs against a made hand. Fortunately, I rivered my opponent (SUCK OUT CITY), hitting my flush and ended up on the session just over 5k. The result was certainly nice but not exactly my best poker. (I can explain the two key hands in more detail later, but I have to be brief right now as the tourney is starting shortly).

The Bellagio main event starts in 15 minutes and I'm feeling pretty good. I worked out this morning (which I want to do every morning during the WSOP) and am feeling pretty sharp. 50k stacks and 90-minute levels means lots and lots of post flop play. My guess is with such a steep buy-in people will be playing squeaky tight, scared to go broke on day 1. It will obviously depend on my table draw, but I have a feeling that I will be quite active today. I just checked the board and it was at 500 total entrants, way above my expectation. Nothing like a 12 million + prize pool to get you motivated. Hopefully, I will continue running well.

I will update later, but cardplayer and other sites may have live updates.

SHIP IT!

2008-04-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

I ran very well at the final table, picking up several big hands early and having them hold up. Within the first half hour, I doubled up three times: my A9 outflipped 77, then AK held up against J10s (all-in pre), and then I played a huge pot with AA, getting it all-in on the turn against 89 with a board of K,10,8,6. I faded his 9 outs on the river, and my starting stack of 28,500 was up to well over 200,000. From there, I grinded away and after about two more hours, I found myself heads up with Toto Leonidas (http://www.pokerpages.com/players/profiles/12900/toto-leonidas.htm).

He started with a 2:1 chip lead, but after about 4-5 hours of play we were essentially even (I had 700k, he had 640k). I proposed a chop and he agreed (initially, he was adamantly against any kind of deal). I let him have the bracelet (and the card player points for 1st), and I took an extra 10k in exchange. We split the rest and I grossed 176k (after a 3k tip) in cash plus a $25,500 entree into the Bellagio main event next weekend.

I feel like I played well both yesterday and today, but you obviously have to run very very well to win a tournament. Definitely feels good when the cards fall the right way though.

Final Table, Super Short Stack

2008-04-11T02:50:00.000-07:00

I final tabled the 5k preliminary WPT event at Bellagio. There were 134 entrants and they paid 18. 9th place is 10k (5k profit) and 1st is ~250k. Unfortunately, I am super short stacked with 28,500 with blinds at 2k,4k and antes of 500. I had around 100k at my high point, but ran into two tough hands towards the end of the night.

The average stack is ~140k, so if I can double-up twice, I'll be right back in it. The good news is I'm starting the day tomorrow in the cutoff. Definitely going to keep fighting, but I need to pick up a hand in a hurry and I need to run well when I do.

We resume play at 3pm tomorrow. Will give a full tourney summary once it is over and I am less exhausted.

Back in Vegas

2008-04-09T23:21:00.001-07:00

I arrived back in Vegas Monday mid-day (gotta love those 7am Southwest flights) and went straight from the airport to Bellagio. I decided not to play in the tournaments on Monday and Tuesday as the fields were very small and very tough. I played cash games instead and ran well playing 10/25, winning just over 4k. I only put in about four hour sessions each day as I have been exhausted. I have literally been traveling non-stop for the past four weeks and it is finally catching up with me.

I gave back $2,500 today as I played in the super satellite this afternoon for the main event (Bellagio's main event has a 25k buy-in, which is becoming more and more typical). My first table draw was excellent. I was literally the youngest player at the table by more than 25 years. There were two or three sharp players, but overall, the table played very tight/passive (older players are stereotypically calling stations), and I was able to play agressively and chip-up without showing down any hands.

The conversation at the table was very interesting. Several of the gentlemen were apparently quite wealthy and were openly discussing their experiences staking various tournament professionals. Their staking proposition seems ridiculous to me: if they put a player into a tournament and the player cashes, the buy-in is taken off the top and then profits are split 50/50. If the player busts, the loss is on the backer with no retribution from future tournaments or winnings. So, if a player loses a backer 30k (busting from three main events) and then wins 60k in the fourth, the backer breaks even and the player is up 30k. I honestly just can't imagine how this arrangement is profitable for the backer. It was also very interesting to hear the list of names these guys have and are still backing. Many big name pros who apparently have terrible money management skills.

Anyways, I left my original table with just over 8k in chips (starting stack of 5k) and was moved to a much tougher table. At 100/200 blinds, I open raised to 600 from mid-position with 9c7c (a marginal play at best, but I hadn't played a hand in my 30 minutes at the new table and felt like I would get no action once I did wake up with a hand). The button called (~20k) and the big blind called (~6k) and we took the flop three-handed. The flop came down Jc,10c,4h, giving me a flush draw and a gut shot straight draw. If the stacks were deep, I would lead in this spot, looking to 3-bet all-in if I got raised on the flop. Unfortunately, given my 7-8k stack, I felt like a raiser would be pot-committed to calling me, taking away the real strength of the hand (fold equity). I checked (hoping the button would bet), and the button led for 1,200. The big blind called (I didn't give him much of a hand), and I thought this was an ideal spot for a check raise. I raised to 4,000, slightly more than half of my remaining stack, clearly committing myself to the hand. I wanted to indicate that I was playing this hand for my entire stack if necessary, but I chose not to shove, because I thought that would look more like a flush draw and I didn't want to get called light (by AJ or something). Anyways, I thought I represented a pretty big hand like a set of J's or 10's. Apparently not. The button tanked and shoved, the big blind folded, and I obviously called. He showed Jd9d and we were basically flipping for my stack. I hit a 7 on the turn, picking up two more outs, but I missed on the river and was out. I said something like, J9, wow, thought you would fold a weak jack. He responded with, I was just playing big stack poker. I'm not even sure what that means. I guess he thought I might fold after putting in 60% of my stack on the flop. I guess by big stack poker he meant terrible poker (yeah, I'm still a little bitter). In retrospect, a check raise all-in (or a call) would have been a better move against this player, but I had only been at the table for 30 minutes, and he hadn't gotten out of line. I guess the lesson is get to know your opponents before making moves. Still, can't believe he reshoved with J9 there.

Big decision for tomorrow is whether or not to play the 5k tournament. It is very tempting to play, but I honestly think my expected value is probably slightly higher playing in the 10/25 cash games. I'll probably see how many people sign up and go from there.

Strike Out

2008-04-02T21:50:00.001-07:00

I struck out this week, failing to cash in either the 3k or 5k preliminary events. I ran a little bit better in cash games, but still dropped a little over 8k on the week. Not my best week financially, but tournament poker is going to be very very volatile. I have been trying to focus on the quality of my play, as the results will naturally follow from solid play over the long run. I feel like I played very fair poker (C- grade) on Tuesday in the 3k event, but I really brought my A game today in the 5k.

I drew a terrible table in the 3k event. Victor Ramdin was on my immediate left and Cliff "Johnnybax" Josephy was on his immediate left. Six of the other seven players were solid, full time tourney pros. Fortunately, there was one weak player at the table who was on my immediate right. Due to my table draw, I probably played a bit tighter than I should have. Playing ABC poker is just not going to work in this type of field as good players will not pay you off with QQ (when you have AA or KK) if you are only playing one hand every three rotations. Still, I went fairly deep as I used my tight image to my advantage, picking up several small pots with strong bets and raises preflop and on the flop. With about 50 players left (130 entrees), the cutoff made it 2,400 to go at 400/800 blinds with a 100 ante. The button called and I woke up with AQ offsuit in the small blind. I shipped my 15k stack into the middle and got insta-called by the cutoff who had AK. AK held up and I was out in 50th. This was a pretty standard move given the situation, but I needed to build my stack more rapidly to avoid this type of situation.

On the bright side, I did pick up 500 bucks from Victor Ramdin. He had about 5,500 in chips and I had 8,500 early in the tourney. He said he needed motivation and asked the table if anyone wanted a straight up last longer bet. I shipped it immediately for 500. I don't care how good a player is, I will take that bet every time when I have a 3:2 chip lead. Victor got cracked less than an hour later. Both he and Johnnybax were very friendly and enjoyable to play with.

The 5k field was by far the toughest tournament field (live or online) that I have ever played in. There are no satellites for 5k events, so everyone is putting up the money themselves. Of the 72 entrees, I would guess that 60 were full time tournament pros. Eric Lindgren, Victor Ramdin, Kenna James, Kathy Liebert, John Phan, Amnon Fillipi, Bernard Lee, Michael Binger, and Bill Gazes were just a few of the name pros in the field. My table draw, however, was excellent considering the field. Almost everyone was tight/solid and I felt very comfortable playing agressive poker. I employed a Gavin Smith strategy of frequent, small raises. At 25/50, I was raising to 125, at 50/100, to 250, etc. I was looking for callers as I wanted to see a lot of flops early with a wide range of hands. I demonstated to the table that I was capable of making moves (showing two big post-flop bluffs), so people stayed out of my way for the most part. I felt like my reads were very sharp today, raising successfully when I sensed weakness and folding at the right times. Unfortunately, I did not pick up any big hands in the right situation to win a big pot, but I managed to more than double my stack winning several small (relatively uncontested) pots over the first four levels. My table got tougher as players were eliminated (Eric Lindgren and Bill Gazes got moved to our table), but I continued to grind away until we were down to 21 players (only the final 9 cashed). I had ~40k in chips (average was about 50k), we were playing 7 handed, and the button (~55k) open raised to 6,000 at 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante. I had KQ of spades in the big blind. Typically, this is a fold or shove situation, but the button was one of the weaker players at the table, and I felt like I might be able to outplay him after the flop. I smooth called and the flop came down Q33, two hearts. I checked hoping to check shove, but my opponent checked as well. The turn was the 9 of hearts (three hearts on board), and I led for 10k. The button then insta-shoved, putting me all-in. Typically, this is a pretty easy fold as a pre-flop raise followed by a check on the flop and a raise on the turn normally equals a monster. Still, I felt like he might be making a move and I tanked for at least five minutes. I asked the guy if he had something stupid like QJ, J10, KJ, K10, x9 with one heart. He wouldn't talk to me, but finally muttered something about having me beat and being willing to show if I decided to fold. I wasn't buying it, but I had a hard time pulling the trigger as I could easily be drawing dead. I finally decided to go with my read and I made the call. He flipped up Ah,Kc for no pair, the nut flush draw and one over card. He had 12 outs (9 hearts and 3 aces) of 44 total cards on the river. River, ace of diamonds. CRACKED. I handled it well, lightly tapping the table and saying nice hand. Lindgren, Gazes and the rest of the table complimented me on the "sick call" and on my overall play. Obviously, this did not make me feel any better. After 10+ hours of play, you get emotionally attached to these stupid tournaments. I paced the Foxwoods halls for a good half hour, grabbed some food, and felt fine an hour later. Reflecting on it now, I am just glad that I played well today after a disappointing performance in the 3k yesterday. Gazes, Fillipi and Bernard Lee all went on to final table. Would have been a fun final table to be at. Will just have to ship the next one.

Foxwoods

2008-03-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

I ended up staying in Vegas 24 hours too long. During my last day, I managed to get sick (still recovering) and drop almost 5k (playing poorly) in the 10/20 NL game at Bellagio. Still, I had an awesome time during my extended week in Vegas (I highly recommend skydiving to all) and it was a successful trip on the poker front as well. I was up ~8k in cash games, which combined with my tourney cash made for a very nice week. In addition, the whole week reminded me how much I enjoy playing live poker and made me that much more excited for the World Series this June.

I arrived in Foxwoods yesterday afternoon after a very brief weekend in Chicago for a family wedding. I registered for the 2k tourney and immediately sat down in a 10/25 game with Kenna James, Kathy Liebert and Al Krux. The game was full of action and I felt short stacked after buying in for 4k.

After playing in the game for about an hour, I was dealt 4d,4c on the button and I smooth called a raise from late position to 125. Kenna called the raise from the big blind and Al called after limping under the gun. We took the flop 4-handed and it came down 10d,8c,4h. Kenna and Al checked and the preflop raiser led for 400. Kenna and Al were both fairly short stacked and looking to gamble so I decided to play the hand deceptively and just smooth called. Kenna then check raised all-in for ~2,100. Al quicly mucked and the preflop raiser tanked before calling. I shoved over the top confident that the preflop raiser had an overpair. The preflop raiser mucked A10 face up. We didn't flip the hands, but Kenna muttered something about probably drawing dead and Kathy said something about hearts. Turn Ah, river 9h, and Kenna turns over Kh10h for the runner runner stone cold nuts. OBVIOUSLY! I was probably 96% to win after the flop, but that is poker I guess...I grinded back to almost even before giving a little back before the end of the night and ended the session down about ~1k.

I got cracked early in the 2k tourney this morning. There were about 180 players and we started with 8k in chips and 25/50 blinds. I just never got anything going and probably only won two or three small pots the whole tourney. I lost three critical hands and that was it...First, I raised with QQ from under the gun to 300 at 50/100 blinds and got three callers. The flop came down 9c,5h,4h and I led for 875. The one solid player in the hand made it 2200 to go and I thought for a while before folding. Against a solid player early in a tourney (especially given my read that he was strong), this is a pretty standard fold as he most likely has a set or two big hearts. He told me later that he had 55 and I believe him. Next, down to about 6,500 in chips, I checked in the big blind with Js,7h and we took the flop 5-handed at 100/200 blinds. The flop came down Jd,4d,3h. The small blind (kind of a maniac) led for 650. I felt like he was weak and decided to raise small to 1,650. He smooth called and then led 1,400 when the turn came 10s. This bet seemed very very strange to me and I decided that my opponent most likely had diamonds (I also thought he may have turned two pair and just decided to play it weird). I almost raised but decided to call instead. The river came down with the 4h and my opponent checked. I checked behind and my opponent showed Kh,4s for trip 4s on the river. Well played sir! I especially liked the check on the river. In all seriousness, I misplayed the hand on the turn and should have gone with my read and raised. A crippling river nonetheless. Down to about 3,800 in chips, I trail limped with As9s from the button and we took the flop 5-handed at 100/200. The flop came down 8s,7s,3h giving me two overs and the nut flush draw. An agressive player from early position led for 700 and I made it 1,800 to go, committing myself to the hand. The original better shoved in and I called knowing I was behind. He showed 8,7 for top two. The 10d on the turn gave me six more outs, but the Qc on the river missed them all. I misplayed this hand from the start as I probably should have either folded or raised preflop. My read on the flop was poor as well, but when I am short stacked I am looking to gamble and this seemed like a good opportunity. Overall, I feel like I played ok and getting cracked early is not the worst thing (bubbling is much more painful).

My table had two solid pros and several weak players. It may have just been my table, but I was surprised given the 2k buy-in and more importantly, the 10am, Monday morning start time. Still, I expect the 3k and 5k fields to be smaller and much much tougher. Off to grab some lunch and then back to the cash games.

Nice Score

2008-03-23T16:51:00.000-07:00

I played the Bellagio 1k weekly tournament on Friday (81 entrees, $1,080 buy-in) and cashed for just over 11k. With 6 players left, we chopped 80% of the prize pool (~63 k) based on the stack sizes and left 20% (~15k) for 1st place. Typically I wouldn't agree to a chop, but the blinds were so large that it seemed silly to essentially flip a coin for thousands of dollars. Plus, based on my stack size, I was able to lock up better than 3rd place money. I ended up finishing 5th when my AQs lost to 88 all-in preflop.

Vegas

2008-03-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

I have been in Vegas since Tuessday morning and have been having a blast. I am here with my brother and a bunch of his bschool friends who are highly entertaining. Between pool time, sweating tourney games, and giving my money away playing blackjack, I have been grinding the 10-20 NL games at Bellagio. I have to say, I enjoy myself much more playing live than I do multi-tabling online. Playing fewer hands is frustrating, but the banter between players and the ability to make live reads more than makes up for it.

The Bellagio regulars (probably ~70% of the players in the game) are very tough and I feel like my live instincts are getting sharper just playing in this tough a game for a few days. Like all big games, though, there are still some weak players and the game is very beatable. I have made quite a few mistakes, mainly calling guys on the river too light (live players don't bluff nearly as much as online players), but overall, I have been very happy with my play. I am up just over 4k in the game, but have given back 650 playing in two smaller tourneys.

Folding KK pre: one of the reasons I really enjoy live play is because the stacks are so deep relative to the blinds...I had more than 5k in front of me when I woke up to KK under the gun. I made my standard raise to 80 and it folded around to the small blind, a tight/solid local pro who had 6k in front of him. He made it 380 to go and I immediately put him on a very big hand (either QQ or AA). Online, with only 2k behind, this is a great spot to trap as I have position and can raise my opponent all-in on the flop (and losing 2k is fine if he does have AA). With over 5k in front me, however, I have to think about protecting my stack. If I smooth call the reraise and the flop comes rags, my opponent will lead for 600, I will have to raise to about 2k and I will probably have to call if he reshoves on me. Given my read and the size of the stacks, I decided that reraising preflop was my best play to figure out where I stood. I made it $1,280 (900 on top) to go and after much deliberation (very obviously acting in my mind), my opponent shoved all-in. I insta-folded my kings face up and my opponent quickly mucked his cards. He never told me if he had bullets, but I am confident that he is only capable of making that move with one hand. Losing the $1,300 hurt, but I like the way I played the hand.

Sorry for the long break in posts. I have not played online in about two weeks and before coming to Vegas there was very little to report on the poker front. My live poker schedule will be very busy over the next few weeks (Vegas and Foxwoods), I will be posting much more regularly.

West Palm

2008-03-08T12:43:00.001-08:00

Arrived in West Palm this morning and have been hanging out by the pool all day. I really should move somewhere warm. It is only like 70 degrees here, but sitting in the sun is so energizing. About to go for a run.

Not much to report on the poker front as I have not played in the past two days, and will likely not play again until after my interview on Wednesdday. One scheduling note, I am planning on playing the 2k, 3k, and 5k preliminary WPT events at Foxwoods March 31st-April 2nd (Monday-Wednesday), if anyone feels like hitting up Connecticut with me. The timing actually works perfectly for me as I was planning on being in NYC that Thursday and New Haven the following weekend.

One of my opponents posted a hand involving me below. We were playing 2.5/5 deep stacks NL. I enjoy playing deep stack play online as the action is much more similar to live play.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=147864

My opponent looked me up on the river here and I shipped it with 99.

Getting in Shape

2008-03-06T11:32:00.001-08:00

After getting back from London, I decided there is really no excuse for me not to take this opportunity (i.e. not having a job) to get into great shape. I am off to a good start as I have run the past three days, and I shipped a 5.2 mile run this afternoon in and around DC. I jogged at a slow pace (49 minutes), but felt good about doing 5+ miles, which I have probably only done 3-5 times in my life. The first few days are always easy though. I know that I will need to use sports to supplement my runs, because running alone is just too painful to sustain when the motivation starts to wane.

On the poker front, I have decided to take a couple of days off to mentally regroup. I have lost ~60% of my profits in the past week, and I just don't feel like my head is in the right place to play well. I am too focused on recouping my losses right now, which is a good sign it is time to take a break. Forcing myself to play when I really don't want to is a recipe for disaster. Instead, I am focusing on getting in shape and prepping for my bschool interview next week.

World Series of Poker

2008-03-05T17:22:00.001-08:00

I took a look at the World Series of Poker schedule this afternoon and made a tentative list of events I would be interested in playing. The WSOP starts on May 30th and ends with the Main Event on July 3rd. In that 35 day stretch, I am seriously interested in playing 21 events with a total buy-in of $56,000. I only included Pot Limit and No Limit Hold'Em events and excluded both rebuy events and the heads up championship. Still, this is probably too many events to reasonably play in and maintain my sanity. I will probably trim my schedule down to about 15-18 events total.

http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/tourneyDetails.asp?groupID=411

I also need to start thinking about lodging while in Vegas. I will likely be heading out there in mid-May as there are two WPT events in the last two weeks of May in Vegas as well. Renting a condo near the strip with high-speed internet and pool access for 6-weeks would be ideal. I'd rather not live out of a hotel room for that long. Let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

AC: Decided not to go to Atlantic City this weekend. I had to schedule a business school interview last minute for next Wednesday, which is interrupting my trip to West Palm Beach. I am going to push my Florida trip up by two days to compensate and head down there Saturday morning.

Three in a Row

2008-03-05T17:09:00.000-08:00

Put in a short 300 hand session today and posted my 3rd consecutive losing online session. I started off playing very well, took a bad beat, and played marginal poker for the rest of the session. I did not do anything egregious, but I was looking to gamble and not playing as sharp as I would be when winning. I am happy that once again I kept the session short when I did not feel I was playing my best. I was down 1 buy-in at 10/20 on the session.

Running poorly: this was the 3rd hand of the session. You know you're running poorly when you shudder to see that you are only 75% to win when the money goes in. This hand played itself out very straight forward. Despite how it feels at the moment, these will even themselves out in the end.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2219600

AQ: This was a tough spot with AQ. In retrospect, I probably should have checked the turn to control the size of the pot. I felt that a fold on the turn was too weak heads up, but perhaps that was the best option after leading on the flop and turn. I was hoping my opponent would weakly call my turn reraise and then check the river allowing me to show the hand down.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2219608

AK: a fairly straight forward hand with AK. I check the flop because there are very few bad cards for me and I wanted my opponent to bluff at the pot on the turn. Turns out, my opponent flopped top pair as well, and the money was going in regardless.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2219613

Running Poorly

2008-03-03T16:04:00.001-08:00

I dropped 1.5 buy-ins at 10-20 in less than 100 hands tonight. I lost half a buy-in making the 3rd raise with QQ from the button against a standard reraise from the small blind who had a shortish stake (~1k). Unfortunately, he insta-called with KK and I did not improve. Then I got my money in good with AQ in a reraised pot on the turn, but lost a 4k pot when my opponent rivered a spade.

Bad beat: I make a standard reraise here with AQ against a button raise from Checkmate. After flopping a Q, I make a standard continuation bet. I checked the turn to trap and got it all in with 68% equity. Not the worst beat in the world, but I feel like I played the hand very well and the spade river was tough to take.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2206915

The good news is that I ended the session after just 100 hands rather than playing poorly after taking these hits.

I Miss Live Action

2008-03-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

Last night, Trills, Aaron and I decided to check out one of the larger casinos in London. We played blackjack briefly (I lost 100 pounds), and then hit up the poker tables upstairs. I decided to take a seat at 10/25 (1 pound = 2 dollars) as the lineup did not look that tough (two kids under 21 who I could tell were super tight and two older gentleman, one of which appeared to be a stereotypical calling station). I bought in for 3,000 pounds and quickly realized that I was short stacked as people were straddling almost every hand making the game 10/25/50 (just a huge game which apparently gets off every night - maybe I should move to London). Rather than get more money (not really an option), I was forced to play squeaky tight and pick my spots. Fortunately, the game was very loose passive, which is perfect for a tight/agressive player such as myself. Unfortunately, the first big pot I played I lost with KK (playing it strong the whole way) to a river flush (from the calling station who showed me his 9 outer after I folded on the end). I hovered around the 2k level for the next several hours, playing very few pots. I then made a nice river call (against an opponent who bluffed his missed draw), picked up some momentum, and propelled myself up over 4,500. The rollercoaster ride continued, unfortunately, as I then made a mistake with AK (perhaps the toughest hand for me to play in cash games). I raised from early position and got 3 callers including one short stack who had about 1,300 total. The flop came down Ac,9h,8h and I led 200 into the 600 pound pot (trying to feel out if one of the larger hands flopped a set and at the same time wanting action from any big ace). Everyone folded to the short stack who quickly shoved all-in. Online, this is an easy call as his range includes AK-A10, any two hearts, two pair, and a set. Live, I am not so sure (as players play much more passively and rarely raise with just a flush draw). I called and my opponent flipped over A9 for top two pair. I did not improve on the turn or river and lost a large pot I probably did not need to lose. I played for another hour or so and ended the session up 80 pounds. It was very enjoyable to put in a live session as I have not played live in several months. It took me about an hour or so to get comfortable, but once I got settled, I felt like my reads and overall feel for the table was sharp. I am hoping to make it to Atlantic City next weekend for some more live action.

Feeling good about my live session (despite the breakeven result), I took a shot tonight playing an online session at 10/25. I grinded, but overall, I played too conservatively and several of my opponents took advantage of my hesistance to go broke. I badly misplayed one hand which cost me. I raised from the button with JJ and called a standard reraise (resteal) from the small blind. The flop came down 10 high and the sb fired a continuation bet. At this point in the hand, I need to fold or shove, but for some inexplicable reason I just flat called (trying to slow down my opponent and protect my stack if he did have AA, KK, or QQ). The turn was a Q and we both checked, and the river was a K, and we both checked again. My opponent showed AQ and I lost a substantial pot. On the session, I lost just over one buy-in, and playing too passively was the major reason why.

Blog update: I have decided to no longer publicly post my exact financial results on this blog due to a specific concern that has been brought to my attention. I will still certainly give an indication as to how I am doing, but I will not be posting numbers.

London Mini-Sessions

2008-03-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

I have put in a few mini-sessions since I've been here as we have been hanging out before dinner and watching episodes of The Wire (which I highly recommend to all).

I have won big at Full Tilt, just over 5k in ~1,000 hands, and lost big at Poker Stars, around 4k in ~500 hands. I do not have Poker Tracker installed yet on my lap top, so I do not have hand histories or exact results (I have detailed records on my desktop at home and will update my results when I get back to DC) to share.

The majority of the win came from one sick hand. I had 77 around back, called an under the gun raise, and then a reraise from the blinds (after the original raiser called). The flop came down A,10,7 rainbow. The reraiser insta-shoved and the original raiser insta-called. I thought through my decision (as the pot was very large), and decided neither were likely to have AA (the original raiser probably repops with AA and why would the reraiser insta-shove with the nuts). The caller certainly could have had 1010, but AK or AQ seemed more likely. I called and both players showed AK. Gotta love getting it all-in against two players on the flop when combined they are drawing to runner-runner. My losses on Stars came from two large hands: one was a standard bad beat as I got it all in pf KK against 99 and my opponent spiked a 9. In the other hand, I needlessly played a big pot with AQ on a Q,4,2 board, and lost to my opponent's 4-4.

I may only play on Full Tilt going forward. I hear players talk about how certain sites are rigged, how they always take sick beats on certain sites, etc., and I always laugh to myself. I certainly don't think Poker Stars is rigged or anything like that and I'm sure I would run equal to expectation there over the long run. That said, I am more comfortable on FT as I have played there longer, like the software better, and know the player pool much much better. As such, I actually think I play slightly better at FT and should probably focus my energies there.

London Update: touch rugby was awesome. Figuring out the flow of the offense was a challenge, as you constantly have to retreat behind the ball and sometimes it is best to just allow yourself to get tagged rather than making a bad pass. I feel like I started to figure it out by the end. Playing d was a lot of fun. It was like constantly trying to guard against an option offense in football. If I lived here, I would definitely start playing regularly.

Goals for March

2008-03-01T04:27:00.000-08:00

Tibbar tibbar rabbit rabbit. Happy March people. Just took a look at my schedule for this month and it is going to be insane. I am traveling 24 of 31 days (including trips to Atlantic City, West Palm, Vegas and Chicago), so I want to be realistic with my poker goals. I am hoping to play at least 20,000 hands online (about 10 full days of play), and if I play well, I should be able to make at least 3BB/100 hands (i.e. $12,000).

Having a blast in London. Hit up St. Pauls, Big Ben, and many of the other sites yesterday. Off to play touch rugby right now.

Off to London

2008-02-27T11:58:00.000-08:00

I am leaving for London tonight and will not be back until next Tuesday. I am bringing my laptop and may put in a few sessions from the road, but will most likely take the week off.

Put in a mini session this afternoon winning $533 in 145 hands. I also discovered that at least one of my opponents is reading the blog. Interesting little exchange:

Anonymous: go write in your blog about how you outplayed [ ] twice on the river
Anonymous: "i check called ace high on the flop cause i was trapping"
Drewkamm: i don't think checking a high qualifies
Anonymous: oh my fking god
Drewkamm: sorry dude...that was sick
Anonymous: go write that in your blog please about how you outplayed me
Anonymous: please do it
Drewkamm: i will probably post it in my blog about running well and getting lucky...why the hostility?
Anonymous: cause im down a million dollars in the past week

During the hand in question, we were playing heads up and I called a raise with 5c6c. The board came down Qs,7c,4c, giving me a straight flush draw. He led, I raised, he reraised, and I shoved. He ulimately called and had the one hand I didn't want to see, Ac9c (a higher flush draw). I am still 43% to win, but the turn 8c (giving me a straight flush) is pretty sick. I won over 2k in the pot, but unfortunately lost most of it back playing 10-20 capped NL (losing a flip and just playing poorly).

Several people have asked me if I am concerned with my opponents potentially reading my blog and gaining insight into my play. The honest answer is yes and no. Of course reading my analysis regarding the way I play a particular hand in a particular situation could be helpful, but overall, I feel like I vary my play enough and adapt to my opponents such that it should not significantly affect my results.

To Anonymous (if you are reading): Sorry to post our exchange on here, but I wanted to address the issue of opponents potentially reading my blog. I haven't played much with you, but I know that you are a highly successful HIGH stakes player and are one of the toughest HU players on Full Tilt...I assume you were just frustrated from a few bad sessions and do not actually find my blog offensive (if you do, I'd love to understand why. Please post a comment if you feel like I am misrepresenting my play or my skill level or something). Anyways, best of luck.

Bottom Line: $9,704

Reflecting on Week 1

2008-02-27T09:16:00.000-08:00

After completing my first week as a full time player last night, I wanted to take a step back this morning (glad I did not do this last night while still fuming from my poor evening session) and point out a few observations from my first week.

1. First and foremost, I am enjoying myself. Poker is a constant challenge which very much caters to my competitive instincts. Playing against some of the best online pros in the world just makes me want to become that much better. Despite playing more than 10,000 hands this week, I am never bored while playing and feel like I have to constantly adapt or my opponents will get the best of me. That said,

2. Poker is surprisingly stressful. Perhaps this will go away with time, but at this point I just care too much. Although my sessions typically only last 2-3 hours, I am incredibly focused on each hand and take no breaks. After each session, my body feels the impact and I typically need about an hour of dead time before I can really think about anything non-poker related.

3. If I were doing this for the long term (i.e. as a career), I would definitely set a weekly schedule and really try to stick to it. I think playing two sessions a day, each 1,000 hands long, five days a week, would be an optimal routine. This would mean playing about 25-30 hours of poker a week (trust me, this is A LOT)...My schedule is just going to be too crazy over the next few months to stick to something like this, but I will be sure to take days off going forward (I played every day this past week which was a mistake).

4. I like my setup. Given my bankroll and my skillset, I think that 4-tabling 6-max 10/20 NL cash games is the best use of my time from a bankroll management, risk/return, and $/hr perspective. In choosing this setup, I have made several choices including playing online rather than live, cash games instead of tournaments, 4-tabling 10/20 NL, and playing short handed rather than full ring games. Let me briefly explain the rationale behind each of these decisions.

Online vs live: the driving factor here is flexibility. I can live where I want, and play where, when, and for however long I want. In addition, I also strongly believe that online play offers a much better risk/return profile than live poker at a casino. The difference is driven by the sheer number of hands you can play online. In one hour live I will see ~40 hands whereas online I will see ~400. This means I can play lower stakes online, protect my bankroll, and still make more ($/hr) than I could make live. There are obvious limitations to online play as well (not seeing your opponents is a big one), but I think these are more than offset by the difference in hand volume.

Cash vs tournament: the key difference here is volatility. A winning tournament player can go months in the red before having a big score, whereas a winning cash game player should put up a positive result in every month (assuming full time play). Given the fact that I am trying to build a bankroll for the WSOP in June, I just feel like grinding cash games makes more sense for me. There are other substantive differences as well including the difference in focus between pre-flop play (tournaments) and post-flop play (cash games). In cash games, every street is important (preflop, flop, turn and river), and so weaker opponents have more opportunities to make mistakes from which strong players can capitalize.

4-tabling 10/20 NL: 4-tables seems to be the perfect balance for me. I am never overwhelmed by the action (I can see all 4 screens with no overlap), and equally important, I am never bored. As such, I do not try to force the action, because I am always within a few minutes of having a real hand to play...Given responsible bankroll discipline (x buy-ins at a certain level), I could probably play as high as 25/50 NL. In the past, however, I have never played above 5/10 NL for an extended period of time. After one week of play, I think 10/20 is probably the right spot for me. The games are substantially tougher than 5/10 NL (much more agressive and probably 60-75% full time pros), and although I will not win as many bb/hours, I believe that I will be more profitable at this level (I am staying open minded here, and if this proves not to be the case, I will drop down to 5/10). In addition, playing 10/20 NL will force me to play my best and continually sharpen my game, which will only help me going forward.

6-max vs 9-max: this is another interesting choice, as I used to be a 9-max player. Full ring games (9-max) have many weaker players than the short handed 6-max games at the same level. Still, 6-max games force the action, and as a result, players have to open their hand range (play more hands), and are faced with many more difficult decisions (why weak players avoid the games to begin with). As a result, there are many more opportunities for weaker players to make mistakes. This will always result in an opportunity for stronger players to get a larger edge. This is obviously a tradeoff between tougher competition and more opportunities to exploit weakness, but I believe I will be more profitable in these short-handed games.

5. Losses hurt more: unfortunately, it is rooted in human psychology that losses hurt more than gains feel good. I can attest to this fact after one week of play, which is why I am constantly trying to detach myself from the financial results.

I feel like there are many more thoughts floating around in my head, but I guess I will save many of them for later. As always, if you have a question or comment, feel free to post in the comments section.

AK Blues

2008-02-26T20:28:00.000-08:00

I played the PS 1k Tuesday (and the $100 rebuy) in addition to 3-tables of cash. I definitely didn't feel that sharp as my timing just seemed to be off the whole session. In addition, I ran quite poorly in the cash games, losing a large flip, and taking two pretty bad beats. Playing poorly and running poorly can be a deadly combination in a hurry. I dropped just under two buy-ins playing cash and an additional $1,359 in tourney fees, making tonight my second largest loss to date.

Not exactly the way I wanted to end my first week.

A few of the larger hands. You might notice the trend that I did not win many of these.

Rabbit_hunter just owned me tonight:

Classic flip: Rabbit had been playing very agressively and so I felt like I had to reshove my AK here (against some opponents I would consider a fold) as I knew I would be losing equity otherwise. Unfortunately, could not win the flip.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2174639

Big semi-bluff: I am very happy with the way I played this hand as I almost timed out on the turn deciding whether to shove or muck. I decided that AQ, KQ or some kind of big draw was more likely than AA or a set, based on his flop smooth call and big turn raise. I made the correct decision and got my money in with 70%+ equity. Unfortunately, 70% is pretty far from 100%. Just a sick river. This hand really hurt as I had already been losing and this hand ended my session.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2174621

AK < AQ: I played a little bit of capped NL today, which means that only $600 from each person can go into the pot on any given hand. Got it in here with AK against AQ, but my opponent spiked a Q. Just not my night.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2174723

The hand which sent me to the rail in the PS 1k Tuesday:

AK no good: my opponent's shove here is very questionable, but I was happy to see it sitting with AK. Unfortunately, he had 33 and was a slight favorite in this flip.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2174653

Bottom Line for Week 1: +$9,171

Running Well

2008-02-26T11:20:00.000-08:00

I put in a short 514 hand session this morning, and although I had a hard time winning many pots, I ran very well in the two largest pots in the session, which made the session quite profitable netting $3,105.

Like most poker players, I have the tendency to fixate (and complain - sorry) on the bad beats I take (see Gus Hansen post), but I think it is important to recognize when the cards turn in your favor. Too often poker players attribute all of their wins to skill and all of their losses to bad luck. This logic is obviously silly.

I am not sure either of these two large pots can be considered bad beats (as I was ahead when the majority of the money went in), but I will be the first to admit that I was very fortunate to have these hands turn out the way they did.

Turn and RIVER: this really was a remarkable hand. I flop mid-set after calling a button raise from the small blind. Typically I would go for a check raise here, but decided to lead, because the button was an agressive player with a huge stack and I thought he would likely raise the flop, following through on his pf raise. Instead, the button called and I initially put him on a mid pair like 99, A7, a weak K, or a draw like 68. I would love to claim that I check called the turn because I thought I was behind, but the truth is I was trapping and wanted to get paid off on the river. I just couldn't give him the 96, as he called with just a gut shot on the flop. I like my check on the river (although risky) as I knew my opponent would bet this river (whether he had a hand or not), and my all-in raise gets called by his straight. If I don't fill up on the river, I probably go broke here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2171428

Lucky flop with 1010: I almost smooth called here, which is what I will typically do in this situation, but king was raising a lot and jeet's trail call looked weak. Alarm bells did go off when jeet trail called my overraise, but I can not honestly say I put him on bullets. This was just a very fortunate flop, and I knew that leading on the flop was the best way for me to get paid off. I decided to check the turn to make it look like I had given up on the hand, but given my opponent's hand (AA), I was getting paid off either way.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2171424

Bottom Line: +$14,201

I Hate Tournaments

2008-02-25T21:07:00.001-08:00

Played the Full Tilt 1k Monday night tourney tonight with little success. I got my starting stack (3k) up to 7k after doubling through with 88 (against AQ), but then ran terribly and couldn't win a hand. Tournaments are very very frustrating as I feel like I should win money when I play well, but that just isn't always the reality in tournaments.

I three-tabled cash games as well and had another winning session. I was up $2,105 in 718 hands so I netted $1,045 on the evening.

My favorite hand from the cash game session:

Suspect call: I literally tilted Hockeystud by commenting earlier in the session in the chat box, "I probably should have value bet that river", after I rivered two pair and beat him out of a pot. The guy went nuts for some reason and started gunning for me the rest of the session. Perhaps I should try to tilt people more often...I knew I was getting paid off on the river, but I thought he at least an A.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2168565

Here is a quick summary of the tournament:

10-ball, corner pocket: I reraise here with 88 against a late position raiser. We get it in and I win the flip against AQ.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2168501

AJ reshove: make a nice read here and reshove with AJ. I get it in dominating my opponent (A10), but he spikes a 10 on me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2168504

Ladies: recover some of my lost chips with ladies here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2168515

Trap with AJ: get my opponent to shove with 89 here but my AJ does not hold up. We got it all in preflop, but watching the cards come out as they did made it that much worse.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2168519

I then lost AQ against K9 and A8 against K10 to get cracked in the middle of the pack. Very frustrating.

Bottom Line: +$11,096

Calling Station

2008-02-25T13:05:00.000-08:00

Put in a 780 hand session this morning on Full Tilt playing about half of the hands at 5-10 and the rest at 10-20 NL (still having a hard time getting multiple 10-20 games going in the morning). I ended the session up $2,818 and much of the win came from two river calls where my opponents bluffed their missed draws.

Tough river call with cowboys: checking the river here was the obvious choice (as opposed to a defensive bet which sometimes makes sense in similar situations), because I would only get called by hands that beat me, and would actually get raised occasionally in this spot by missed draws as the A is unlikely to have helped my hand after betting the flop and turn. After I checked the river and my opponent bet, I tried to piece together the hand. I really thought AJ was unlikely as my opponent would have likely raised on either the flop or turn with top pair, top kicker. A weak J like QJs made more sense, but then a river bet here would make no sense at all. That left a flush draw, which certainly seemed most likely. Still, if my opponent had the nut flush draw he would have paired his Ace and would have the best hand on the river. Very few players (only top pros capable of very thin value bets), however, will value bet this in a big pot on the river. He would be thankful to have spiked his A on the river and checked to show the hand down. Thus, I gave him a missed flush draw and decided to call on the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2165783

River call heads up: playing heads up is always a lot of guesswork. This felt like a missed draw to me on the river (mainly because of his check on the turn), but he certainly could have been trapping with a hand like 66 and hoping that I would bet the turn. Always nice when you look someone up and they have a busted draw.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2165793

Bottom Line: +$10,051

Mini-Roll

2008-02-24T22:19:00.000-08:00

Another nice win as I shipped just over two buy-ins in a 700 hand session tonight on FT.

I played well, but the cards dictated much of the session as I was dealt several big hands in profitable situations.

A few of the more interesting hands from tonight:

AA vs. KK: poker is easy when you are dealt bullets against cowboys.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2162703

Tough spot with JJ: this was a pretty interesting hand and illustrates the importance of position. I came very close to folding after I was raised on the flop (and thinking through the contingencies after the fact, I think folding is probably the best play here against this opponent)...turns out I was way ahead with JJ against 1010, but not convinced I made the best play here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2162708

Double gutter semi-bluff: I typically only show the largest hands I win or lose and thus rarely show the smaller bluffs and semi-bluffs which are critical to playing profitable poker (mainly because they help balance your range of hands in various situations and keeps your opponents guessing). In this hand, I have a double gutter on the flop, but am playing my opponents cards and not my own. After limping from the button, leading on the flop, and just smooth calling my smallish check raise, I can almost hear my opponent telling me he has a hand like J10 or QJ. I know that he will muck on the turn if he does not improve, and I take it down by firing my second bullet.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2162721

Confused against AA: I have to admit, I did not expect my opponent to turn over AA here. I guess his under the gun limp should have alerted me to the possibility, but his play made it seem like he had some kind of drawing hand instead. I probably didn't need to pay him off on the river, but decided to call because I thought he may have missed his draw or just be trying to bet me off of a chop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2162725

Pair and a flush draw: this hand is a good illustration of basic poker math and the power of a big draw. After flopping a pair and a flush draw, I raise the flop even though I know my opponent is likely to have an A. I would prefer it if my opponent folds, but I insta-call his all in, because I know that I am not far behind. As it turns out, I was 49% to win after the flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2162726

Sick turn: not sure it mattered how I played this hand after the flop as the money was likely going in. Glad this guy was short-stacking.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2162729

Bottom Line: +$7,233

Feels Good to Win

2008-02-24T13:16:00.000-08:00

Put in a short 650 hand session this afternoon on Stars and posted a $1,911 win. Definitely feels good to put in a winning session, and will hopefully be able to string a few together. Overall, I actually think the games are slightly tougher at Poker Stars, but I needed a break from Full Tilt after this morning.

Just a few hands:

Nice check with AK: this hand is a very good example of why you should not always continuation bet (after raising or reraising preflop) on the flop. After reraising with AK I get called here by the trail caller (i.e. his hand can not be very strong here and he is likely calling because he puts me on a move). After missing the flop, I know that my opponent is looking for any excuse to check raise me all in. Instead, I check the flop, spike one of my six outs on the turn, and get paid off from there.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2159595

Quads: In a multi-way raised pot with an A high board, I will almost always lead with a set as I strongly believe it is the best way to win a big pot. After getting called in position, I really thought I was going to get paid off. Hitting quads on the turn did not slow me down because I know I'm still getting paid off against almost any A and a spade draw. Not sure what this guy had (maybe a weak A).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2159609

Interesting spot with bullets: After raising with AA here and getting called out of the bb, I cb the flop and check when I turn the under straight. I value bet the river and my opponent puts in a large check raise. River check raises are very rare online and are very very scary. Still, I could not figure out how this guy could possibly smooth call, check, and check with 56, 66, A6 or 67. If I had any guts, I would have reraised him all-in (although he may have called with just an A after committing more than half his stack)...He obviously thought he had 10 outs on the flop, but would have actually lost a decent pot had a Q or A rolled off on the turn.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2159634

From yesterday's session:

Tough beat: I just did not run well this weekend. In this hand I flop a flush and get it all-in on the flop with 73% equity in this $3,300 pot. Nothing wrong with the way my opponent played this hand as I would likely shove the flop as well with top pair and the nut flush draw.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2159797

Thin value bets gone wrong:

I really don't dislike my play here. It is a sb vs bb battle and I flop top pair with AK. I know my opponent would have check raised me on the flop with a flush draw, so I think the turn is a great card for me, picking up top two pair and the nut flush draw (little did I know that I was called by a gut shot on the flop). When I get smooth called on the turn, I put my opponent on a hand like AQ or A10 with one spade. The river bet is thin, but I actually like it. It looks like I might be running a 3-street bluff (which often happens in these blind battles) and I think I definitely get called by AQ or A10. If I check, I certainly call his shove in case he is bluffing with a missed flush draw on the turn, and he would like check AQ or A10 so I get no value from these hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2159807

I really like how I played this hand right up until my last decision. I check the flop with mid pair (hoping to show the hand down), smooth call on the turn as I pick up a flush draw, and value bet the river when I spike two pair. BUT, after getting check raised on the river, I can absolutely only beat a bluff. He could be bluffing in this spot, but if he was, he'd check raise me to 8 or 9 hundred, not $560. Tough to fold two pair here to such a small raise, but I need to make this fold.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2159812

Gus Hansen

2008-02-24T08:38:00.000-08:00

When I logged on to Full Tilt this morning, I noticed a full ring (9-handed) game of 25-50 NL with Mike Matusow and Gus Hansen both playing. Although I am trying to stay disciplined about only playing 5-10 and 10-20 NL, I decided to take a shot in this game.

Games with Full Tilt pros (especially big names like Mike and Gus) attract two types of players: top online sharks and weak recreational players playing well over their head. This creates an expected return at these tables well higher than a typical game at this level. In addition, I don't consider Mike or Gus particularly strong players IN THIS GAME. Gus is typically a 200-400 NL player, and unlike Phil Ivey, has a hard time focusing on lower stakes, and Mike, in my humble opinion, is just not that good of an online player. In summary, I felt like I had an edge, I have experience playing at this level, and although I have a hard time with the swings playing this high, I am properly bankrolled for this game.

Unfortunately, Gus ensured that the session did not last long.

I had a fairly tight image early in the session, when I decided to try a resteal from the bb with 57 off after the sb smooth called Gus's button raise (this is a fairly typical move, because the button raise is likely weak and the sb is dead money).

Gus calling in position is not fully unexpected and does not narrow his range of hands all that much. On most flops, I will fire a cb (representing a big pair or AK/AQ) around 1k and take it down the majority of the time. This flop, however, was one where I thought checking made much more sense. After Gus checked behind, I thought it highly probable that he was slow playing an A, as Gus will typically bet in this spot if he missed the flop to try and steal the pot.

After hitting trip 5's on the turn, my focus shifted to figuring out how to get Gus to pay me off. Since I thought Gus likely hit the flop, I decided to play it strong and led on the turn for 1k. Gus insta-shoved and I insta-called. When I called so quickly, I am sure that Gus knew he was beat, but I highly doubt he expected me to turn over 57 (talk about an image builder). Don't get me wrong, I am not recommending playing 57 this way very often, but it does show the value of deception in high-stakes cash games.

After all the money is in the middle on the turn, I am 95.5% to win and all I'm thinkin about is Vegas and the fuckin' Mirage.

Bang, Gus spikes a two-out Ace on the river and ships an $8,300 pot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2158262

Bad beats are a part of poker. Obviously, this one was particularly tough to take because I was taking a shot in a bigger game and the odds were so overwhelmingly in my favor. That said, these types of hands are going to happen to all serious poker players, and it is how one responds to these beats that will define their level of success. I am proud of myself for immediately signing off FT after taking this beat and not compounding this bad luck with poor play.

I keep reminding myself that I am intending to play on and off for several months, and that this poker experiment really is a marathon and not a sprint. Gotta just keep grinding.

Financial update: the good news is I am still up $1,277 since getting back from West Palm Beach on Wednesday (which is when I started playing full time and keeping this blog). The bad news, of course, is that I was up over 10k before the weekend. The reality is that if I continue playing at these stakes (4 tabling 6-max, 10-20 NL) where one buy-in equals 2k, the swings are going to be this large or larger on a daily basis. When I stop and look at these numbers, they are astounding and can be paralyzing. It is very easy to get caught up in the short term financial swings, but this is very very dangerous. It is a constant challenge, but I am continually telling myself to merely focus on the quality of my play.

Yesterday's session: I still owe some hand histories from yesterday's session, but I don't feel like sifting through PT and posting them at the moment.

Rough Session and Beer Pong

2008-02-23T19:26:00.000-08:00

Rough 600 hand session this afternoon in which I dropped 3 buy-ins. I swear to god, this poker thing is stressful: financial and emotional rollercoaster.

I am actually not that disappointed in my play. I played very well for the first 500 hands, getting into trouble making thin river value bets twice (which is going to happen, but is critical to being a top-tier cash game player), and losing a 4k pot when I had about 75% equity (all-in on the flop). I am only disappointed that I continued playing after taking this tough beat. I tried to fight tilt, but ended up losing a buy-in shoving a flush draw in a spot I knew I would get called.

I will post some of the hands tomorrow. Right now, I'm off to ship a beer pong tourney.

I love Damon Jones

2008-02-22T22:02:00.000-08:00

Never good when Damon Jones and Eric Snow (not to mention two D-leaguers) play a combined 76 minutes against you and you still lose. Sucks to be the Wizards right now.

Put in a late night 900 hand session tonight. Started down about a buy-in as a result of some tough spots and mediocre (poor) play. I picked up several big hands in the second half of the session though and ended up booking a very nice win of $5,122.

The games were not nearly as agressive as this morning, but there was still plenty of action. Here are some of the larger and more interesting hands:

A trap that worked: I was going to check raise all-in here on the flop, but after flopping top set I decided to play it slow and I lucked out that my opponent had the case K.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2150965

A trap that didn’t: Not sure what to think of this hand. I may have been bluffed off the best hand here, but there are just so many hands that have me crushed with this board. If you are going to trap with big pairs, you have to be able to fold them after the wrong flop.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2151017

Flopped a flush: I like my smooth call on the turn as it looks like I have the bare A of spades, which sets up the raise on the river, which looks like I missed my draw.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2150977

Losing the minimum: To be honest, I just lucked out here and decided to play this hand slow in position. I could have easily bet the flop in which case we probably get it all-in before the turn.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2150990

Tough spot with bullets: I lost a fair amount of money on this hand, but I really like how I played it. With three players smooth calling my raise, it is fairly likely that someone flopped a set, and by checking the flop I can save myself from going broke in case someone did outflop me. If dwballz check raises the flop with his set I muck and get away very cheap. After his smooth call, however, a fold or a call just felt too weak in this spot. I wanted to commit myself to RR's $1,100 stack but not to dw's. RR pushed all-in over my raise, which is what I wanted, but dw unfortunately had a set and came over the top. Not an ideal result, but happy with the way I played it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2151008

Too agressive with AQ: I just didn't think RR would overraise with AK here, so I thought I had a lot of fold equity and would be in a flip situation at worst. Just a bad read of my opponent's betting patterns.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2151014

Representing AK with KK: KK is going to stack QQ a lot, but I like how I played this hand to represent AK trying to induce a call from QQ-1010.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2151043

Good AQ: I trap on the flop and turn here after flopping trip Aces. I almost checked the river, but decided it was more likely my opponent would call a shove rather than bluff the river based on how the hand played out.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2151033

Bad AQ: Ahh...I really want this one back. It is a tough spot for me flopping top pair, top kicker in a reraised pot heads up. Still, Checkmate is a solid player and his flop smooth call was very fishy. I should have checked the turn (losing some value if he has KQ or AJ), and then called a bet on the river. I definitely didn't need to lose my stack in this hand.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2151053

That's all for tonight. I will likely take tomorrow off, but may put in a short session at some point.

If anyone has any questions or comments on any of the hands, feel free to post a comment.

Marathon Session and New Nemesis

2008-02-22T13:00:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning at 10am, pounded a red bull, and was determined to put in a solid session of play after the disappointing end to my session last night.

1,716 hands and 5 hours later, I feel great about the way I played. Financially, the session was a roller coaster as I went up about 2k in the first 700 hands as I grinded four passive 5-10 NL 6-max games. Then, 10-20 NL tables started filling up and the action just exploded. I went from up 2k to down over 4k in less than 300 hands as I could not win a coin flip to save my life. I felt like I was playing well and just running poorly and decided (I think objectively) that I was not tilting and to continue playing. Things turned around and I was able to grind my way back to a $3,136 profit on the session. After last night, I am very happy that I was able to keep my focus, avoid tilt, and keep grinding after my session took its huge downturn.

There are lots of interesting hands I want to post, so I will try to keep my commentary short.

After reviewing my session on Poker Tracker (it is finally working properly), I realized that my 5 largest winning pots and 3 largest losing pots (and 4 of 5) were all to the same player, BigBlueBin23. This was my first time playing with him and he is the most aggressive and one of the toughest players I have ever played against. Here is just a sampling of our battles:

I get the best of him:

Fairly straight forward but the fact that he called shows how hard we were pushing against one another.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2147954

I had just gone into my huge downswing before this hand and I think it played out the way it did because he thought I was tilting after losing 2-3 buy ins.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148021

This hand probably best illustrates how agressive BigBlueBin23 was playing. Very rarely will I make a 4th raise with AQ let alone hope for a call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148024

Straight forward.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148045

Very interesting hand. I bluff an overcard and a gut shot on the flop and then spike my ace on the turn to put me in a tenuous spot at best. BBB check raises me on the turn and only against him would I even consider making this call (I thought I lost this pot on the river at first and may or may not have started cursing).

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148103

He gets the best of me:

This was a pretty tough spot given my opponent. I really thought I was protecting the best hand when I shoved on the flop. This is why it is so difficult to play against agressive players.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148082

Previous to this hand BBB had lost several large pots in a row and I knew he was likely to tilt and bluff off some chips. Still, I play it much too passively and make a bad call on the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148089

I could not win a flip today.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148096

This hand occurred before I played with BBB for a while. I misread his strength (I was calling to bluff the turn or river the whole way) and tried a bad bluff on the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148117

Always a bad idea to bet yourself off a draw. Betting or raising with a draw is typically a bad idea unless you are strong enough to call a reraise.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148120

Some other interesting hands against other players during the session:

People often ask me, how can you "read" people on the internet. Obviously, you can not get physical tells, but this hand is a great example of reading betting patterns. After my opponent check called the flop and then led strong on the turn, I was very confident that he had a draw or a weak ace (turns out, he had both) and not a set or two pair. Making reads like this is critical at these stakes, because the play is so agressive that you have to know when to muck an overpair and when to shove in with top pair.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148070

This was pretty much a mistake hand from the start. A reraise steal here with KQ is not a bad play (as long as it is done rarely), and I was obviously looking to take this down preflop. After the trail caller called (note, not the original raiser, meaning a much weaker range of hands), this is actually a good scare flop for me as I am representing a big ace or a fairly big pair, and I thought my opponent would likely fold a small pair (the hand I thought he had) to a bet on the flop. After getting called on the flop and spiking a Q on the turn, I actually shoved in for value (again, thinking he had a smallish pair) on the turn, but this play is pretty terrible. Alarm bells should have gone off in my head when he just smooth called the flop and he is probably mucking a small pair on the turn anyways, so I am getting very little upside from this move.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148413

Interesting little heads up hand. I raised the flop to see where I stood and called the turn when I picked up the straight draw as I was pretty sure I was getting paid off on the river if I hit.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148056

This is a good example of why the small blind is such a tough spot to play a hand. I try a semi-bluff check raise on the flop and give up after getting called. In general, I think I am playing too many hands from the small blind heads up against the big blind. I have a bit of a tournament mentality when it folds around to me in the sb, and need to start folding more as these are very tough spots to play from.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148153

Losing flips for days:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148133
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148135
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148147

Standard annoying bad beat:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2148141

Poker tracker note: My PT is now up and running and recording all of my results. I can see my summary results on screen (i.e. up $3,136 in 1,716 hands), but have not yet figured out how to copy and paste these results onto this blog. Eventually, I will post my results like this.

First Loss and TILT

2008-02-21T17:38:00.000-08:00

I put in a 1,000 hand session tonight on Full Tilt and recorded my first loss (since starting this blog - don't worry, there will be many more). I was down $3,606 on the night. I ran into some tough spots early and fell behind two buy-ins within the first 200 hands when I ran KK into AA (all-in preflop) and bottom two pair against a flush draw and gut shot (all-in on the flop), losing both hands. I grinded back over the next 500-600 hands (down about 1k at my high-water mark), but am very disappointed with the way I played at the end of the session. It is no coincidence that a big loss and a long session coincided with one another. My desire to get back to even made me push hands harder than I should have and I ended up tilting off about a buy-in at the end of the night. A 1,000 hand session is a reasonable session (probably about 2.5 hours of play), but I need to shorten my sessions when I am losing (and possibly not playing my best) and lengthen them when I am winning (and playing well), and not the other way around.

I need to convince myself that every hand is part of one long extended session. Losing focus of this fact and worrying instead about the volatility of the current session cost me tonight.

Poker tracker: the PT support staff is working on the issue and I will start posting hands again as soon as it is resolved (hopefully tomorrow).

Done Deal

2008-02-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

It appears to be a done deal. In a three-way deal with Seattle and Chicago, Cavs get Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Wally World, Delonte West and a 2nd round pick for Larry Hughes, Drew Gooden, Cedric Simmons, Shannon Brown, Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall.

I like this deal a lot. Wally is still a very productive player on the offensive end and is a much better fit in Cleveland than Hughes. He and Gibson will get a lot of open looks. Losing Drew's scoring will hurt some, but Joe Smith is underrated and should be able to make up for most of Drew's production. Ben Wallace will bring a tough interior defender (replacing Marshall who is completely done at this point in his career) and Delonte West is a solid backup point guard. Clearly, with a deeper front line and a better fit at the 2, we are a better team right now after making the deal.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the deal allows the Cavs to maintain their long term financial flexibility. Hughes and Wallace have equally terrible contracts, which expire after the 2009-2010 seasons. Although we are taking on Wally's huge contract this year, it expires after next year along with the large contracts of Joe Smith, Eric Snow, and Damon Jones (and Anderson Varejao unfortunately), which will give the Cavs a lot of flexibility before the trade deadline next year or in the summer of 2009.

The Celtics and Pistons still have more talent, but I wouldn't bet against LeBron in a 7 game series against either team.

Poor Play, Nice Win

2008-02-21T11:01:00.000-08:00

I put in a 650 hand session this morning on Full Tilt. It was very difficult to sustain a 10-20 NL game as there just aren't enough high stakes players on Full Tilt in the morning. If I want to play morning sessions going forward, I will probably have to play on Poker Stars.

Due to the lack of players, I was jumping around from table to table as short stackers would join and then exit. In the spirit of assessing my play objectively, not based on results but on the quality of my play, I think I played a very fair session. I did not tilt at any point, which is good, but my timing just seemed to be off for much of the session. I played much too timid and passive, trying to protect my stack, and ended up putting myself in difficult situations on the turn and river after smooth calling the flop. I still booked a nice win of $1,296 playing almost entirely at 5-10, but really felt like I should have put up a bigger number given the situations I was in. Once again, there were many interesting hands, several of which I misplayed and need to improve from, but I am still having trouble with Poker Tracker. I will hopefully have it resolved before my session tonight.

Cavs update: Ric Bucher just reported on ESPN that the Cavs are in serious talks with the Bulls which would send Chris Duhon and Ben Wallace to the Cavs for Larry Hughes, and the Sonics which would send Wally World to the Cavs for Donyell Marshall and Ira Newble. I will wait to see if either of these trades go through before commenting. 45 minutes before the deadline and counting.

Cavs deadline deal?

2008-02-20T21:40:00.000-08:00

A blockbuster Cavs trade is apparently brewing. I had previously heard the rumors regarding Mike Miller and Andre Miller (and Mike Bibby and Jason Kidd before they were traded this week), but Danny Ferry is apparently working on something bigger. The part about the Cavs getting back a draft pick is puzzling, because aside from LeBron, they have very few assets with trade value. This makes me think the Cavs are taking back a bad contract in this deal. Perhaps something like Ron Artest and Kenny Thomas for Drew Gooden, Sasha Pavlovic, Shannon Brown and Ira Newble's expiring deal. Look forward to seeing what happens tomorrow.

Poker Stars

2008-02-20T17:10:00.000-08:00

Another solid 500 hand session, this time on Poker Stars. I played four tables of 6-max 10-20 NL and each table ran short handed for much of the session. The session was short (taking just over an hour to complete 500 hands) and full of action. Overall, I ended up $2,293.

I have pasted links to a few of the more interesting hands below:

Bullets: A tough spot with aces here. I smooth called the preflop raise here (something I probably do ~25% when in position so I can control the size of the pot after the flop), because I thought there was a good chance jbabt would repop after his under the gun limp. Instead we took the flop three handed and the board looked moderately scary for bullets. After getting check raised on the flop by the limper, I considered folding, but decided that jbabt would very rarely limp with 99, JJ, or QQ, so the only hand I really had to worry about was QJs. J10, 910, KQ, two hearts, or a straight bluff seemed much more likely. As such, I decided to push in and jbabt mucked.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2137464

Blind battle: I flop a monster here and try to figure out how best to get paid in this blind battle. Unfortunately, I put him on two over cards on the flop and decided to just smooth call, hoping he would bluff the turn and river if the draws did not complete (67 or diamonds). I wanted to represent the draw on the turn as well by checking in position and taking the free card. Then, on the river, I overbet to try and convince him I was bluffing 67 or 68, which I thought wouldn't work because the diamond flush did hit. He obviously put me on a straight move and decided to look me up with 77. Seeing his hand, if I raise the flop I might win a very large pot. Oh well.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2137484

Missed a bet: I make a standard in position raise with A9 and get called by a loose/agressive player in the BB. After flopping three nines, I do not even consider slow playing and fire out a standard continuation bet on the flop. I know if he flopped a K I can win a big pot, and he may check raise me with any pair or on a bluff as it looks probable that I completely missed the flop. After his call on the flop, I put him on a weak K or some kind of gut shot (QJ or J10) with plans to bluff later. ADZ124 check called again after I fired my second bullet on the turn. The river J annoyed me as K10 or even 910 felt like a possibility. After his check, though, I really should have fired again. It would have been a thin value bet as there are not many hands that he can call with that I have beat, but it is pretty tough for him to have a 10 there or a full house and not raise the turn or bet the river.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2137888

Quads: Decided to play this hand slow as I thought Magistr_Ludi might be bluffing. Turns out it didn't matter how I played the hand. Poker is easy when you flop a set against AK hitting top pair.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2137474

Bad beats are annoying.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2137514

Nice Morning Session

2008-02-20T10:32:00.000-08:00

I put in a 500 hand session this morning on Full Tilt playing some short handed 6-max games at both 5-10 and 10-20 NL (and one 10-20 PL game accidentally). Ended the session up $3,421, which is great, but more importantly, I think I played very steady poker. I am really trying not to get caught up in short-term results to avoid tilting when variance turns against me. Instead, I am just focusing on playing every hand as well as I can. I am capping each of my sessions based on a hands played limit rather than some stop loss or gain target to reinforce this mentality.

Had several interesting hands which I wanted to share from this morning, but Full Tilt deleted my hand history for some reason.

One interesting hand I do remember:

10-20 NL, 6-Max table, playing 4 handed: I open raise to 70 from the button with JJ and the SB repops to 230 (a standard pot reraise). I had about $3,500 in front of me before the hand started and the SB had about $1,600...this was a tough spot for me as I legitimately considered folding, calling, and reraising. I will often just muck JJ to a reraise if I am out of position and not getting proper odds to call and try to flop a set. It is incredibly easy to lose a big pot with JJ to AA, KK, or QQ when the flop comes down with three rags.

In this situation, I was not getting proper odds to flop a set (I am ~7.5:1 to flop a set, and since I needed to call an additional $170, I would have to scoop an average pot of $170*7.5=$1,275 when I do flop a set to break even). However, the fact that my open raise from the button looked like a possible steal, the SB's reraise has a much wider range of hands (possibly as wide as AA-22, AK-A10, KQ-67s) , many of which I am well ahead of. That, given with the fact that I was in position, (knowing the SB would auto CB on the flop), led me to call.

The flop came down K, 3, 2 rainbow and the SB insta-bet $300 into a pot of $470...Again, a tough spot for me. A raise here made little sense, as the SB would muck if he was bluffing and would reshove any hand that can beat mine. Still, I had a tough choice between folding and calling. I felt like the SB's range was still very wide and I thought a delayed smooth call would be pretty scary and slow him down unless he had AK, AA or KK (or 33 or 22). The turn was a 10 (completing the rainbow) and the SB insta-checked...This was an easier decision for me. Many players will see this check and insta-shove, but I think this is a silly move as the SB could still be trapping with a monster like KK (or even AA or AK). I checked planning to call or check on the river.

The river was a J, completing a board of K, J, 10, 3, 2 and giving me a set. The SB led for $700 (leaving him an additional $400) and I had my 3rd tough decision of the hand. I was certainly at least calling, but I was not sure if there was value in a raise here. His play was completely consistent with either a KK trap or an AQ bluff that rivered the nuts. Still, a bluff with 99-44, 89-45s, or a value bet with AK, KQ, 1010, or AJ seemed more likely here. I ultimately decided that he would probably make a crying call if he had one of these value bet hands and decided to shove. Not sure if this was the best play or not to be honest, but given his range of hands it felt correct. He mucked the river and I scooped a nice $2,500 pot.

First Post

2008-02-20T08:36:00.000-08:00

I will be posting my poker results and sharing my poker experiences and insights on this blog. Apologies preemptively for any rants about Cleveland sports teams which will undoubtedly occur as well.

To give a little background, I have been playing poker seriously for the past 4 years while working in the finance industry. I started in the underground clubs in Manhatten while working as an investment banking analyst, building my bankroll slowly in the incredibly loose 1-2 and 5-5 NL games. Weekends in AC were also a regular occurence during my time in NYC. My bankroll got a nice boost when I placed second in a prelim WPT event at the Borgata for 65k.

Since moving to Washington DC two years ago to work for the World Bank, I have shifted my poker focus to the online world, and have slowly moved up the ring game ranks.

Last week, I quit my job and now have a 6-month window (I will be attending business school in the fall) to give poker a full time shot. I am incredibly excited and plan to take this opportunity seriously. My goal is to build a sizable bankroll over the next four months, playing primarily in online cash games, and then head out to Vegas in June and play in most of the Hold'em WSOP events. My hiatus from the real world got off to a promising start last week.

I have never used Poker Tracker or any other poker software before, and am having a bit of trouble installing it properly. Once I get it going, I will use it to post my daily results and to also post links to interesting hands which I will provide commentary on. Until then, I will just post my results and I guess you will have to trust me.

You can typically find me at either Full Tilt or Poker Stars under the screename Drewkamm at the 10/20 NL tables.