I think I lost like $30K this weekend or something like that. I stopped running like god on Cake and dropped a few buy-ins there and I repeatedly took awful beats in tournaments. Oh well can't stay hot forever. I have to specifically mention the EPT Barcelona satellite bubbled though because it was probably one of the worst beats of my career. I wasn't planning to play Barcelona unless we won the World Cup trip but I figured I basically had to play the $1000 satellite because my record in major satellites on Stars is so ridiculous. So as usual I run good and have what should basically be a fold-in stack with 11 left, 10 getting seats. Then things went awry. First, the shortstack is all-in with 77 vs TT. OK good game Spain here I come, oh hello 7 on the river. No worries the other guy now has like 5xBB he'll be busto soon. He moves all-in with 88 and gets called by 3 people. Board AJTQ..... K. OK that's ridiculous but whatever, no worries he just got his money back he'll be out soon still. On his next BB the small blinds pushes 76 and he calls with A6. Flop 7xx, Finally! Turn blank, river.... A. OK I'm kinda getting a little nervous but I'm still in good shape. Next orbit he gets AA vs QQ to double up to lots of chips. Hmmm it seems I'm the shorstack now. Well I guess I'll move in with 55 because it's the best chance I'll ever get to pick up some chips while I have still have a stack with fold equity. Oh you have QQ. I see.
So what to do now, suicide seemed like a good option which timex supported (he is a good friend). I went with the more standard approach of blowing through a dozen or so rebuys in the $100 rebuy trying to build a monster stack, which seemed to help. Anyways that's about all I've got, Sunday was more of the same getting 2 outered in some tournaments and then tilting off stacks in the others. In cash games I kept getting sets beat in huge pots so that's always costly. Though I didn't get to showdown I suppose I could have been bluffed but I think my play was correct. Oh well World Cup and stuff next weekend to look forward to. I'll also get my first rakeback payment from Cake on Wednesday I'm excited to see how much that is, reminds of the good ol Party rakeback days (except I'm winning before rakeback now). OK enough rambling I'm out.
Mike
Monday, July 30, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Shameless Brag Post
I generally try to stay pretty modest about the success I've had/money I've made, but this one felt pretty good I had to post it. On June 27th timex transferred me 30K that he owed me from something or other on Cake Poker so I could start playing there. Today is July 27th and I just finished off a +$200K month on there playing mostly 25/50 NL. I definitely never expected to have as much success with cash games (buying in full anyways) as I have since I started playing 3/6 and 5/10 NL late last year. I think it has a lot more to do with me having really good table selection (ie playing on Party and Cake mostly) then it does with me being one of the best high stakes cash players, but I'm obviously pretty confident in my game too. Also I'm pretty sure I've been luckier than just about anyone ever, but that's a hard thing to measure, I suppose there's an outside chance I'm actually really good or something. Anyways I'm pretty happy with that.
Mike
Mike
Monday, July 23, 2007
Newfies on to Round 2
In addition to the usual Sunday tournaments I also played the first round of the World Cup today. Each of our 4 team members played a 4-player tournament against players from Quebec, New Brunswick, and PEI, and points were awarded based on which place you finish in each tournament. After a bad start I was able to finally start making some hands to come back and take control of my heat. I laid one bad beat on the only other decent player to help seal the win. One of our freeroll qualifiers seemed to steamroll his heat for a 2nd win, and tilterino finished 2nd in his to seal first place overall. We play again in 2 weeks, this time it will be four 5-man tournaments using the same scoring system and if we win that round we get the free trip to Spain for the live finals, so hopefully we luckbox that.
The rest of the Sunday tournaments were a disaster and I didn't cash a single one. I played a lot of cash also though. I was stuck almost $20K at one point today but then the 25/50 games on Cake got going and I won 2 enormous pots against one of the regular fish in the game. I set a new personal best with over $40K on that table at one point (the maximum buy-in is $5000 but anything you win stays on the table). So overall I finished up around $10K on the day it looks like, despite losing $10K and $7K pots where I got set-over-setted and not cashing any tournaments. Also, earlier this week I got yet another 2nd place in the nightly Full Tilt $163 tourney. That was either the 3rd or 4th time I've finished runner-up in that tournament. I played BKice heads-up and he seemed to play pretty well and I really just wasn't very focused for some reason and played poorly. Oh well it was still a nice $11K score.
Finally, I have to give a belated congrats to my friend Adam Junglen for winning the Stars Million last week for $200K. His blog is linked on the side if you want to read some of his thoughts on that. The 2+2 kids are having a lot of success in the million lately. Maybe it's my turn soon?
Mike
The rest of the Sunday tournaments were a disaster and I didn't cash a single one. I played a lot of cash also though. I was stuck almost $20K at one point today but then the 25/50 games on Cake got going and I won 2 enormous pots against one of the regular fish in the game. I set a new personal best with over $40K on that table at one point (the maximum buy-in is $5000 but anything you win stays on the table). So overall I finished up around $10K on the day it looks like, despite losing $10K and $7K pots where I got set-over-setted and not cashing any tournaments. Also, earlier this week I got yet another 2nd place in the nightly Full Tilt $163 tourney. That was either the 3rd or 4th time I've finished runner-up in that tournament. I played BKice heads-up and he seemed to play pretty well and I really just wasn't very focused for some reason and played poorly. Oh well it was still a nice $11K score.
Finally, I have to give a belated congrats to my friend Adam Junglen for winning the Stars Million last week for $200K. His blog is linked on the side if you want to read some of his thoughts on that. The 2+2 kids are having a lot of success in the million lately. Maybe it's my turn soon?
Mike
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Team Newfoundland
The World Cup of Poker (WCP) is an annual event held by PokerStars. In Canada, each province gets a team formed of the top 2 finishers of the pevious year's Tournament Leader Board (TLB) plus 2 winners of freeroll qualifiers. I finished 144th on the yearly TLB last year which was enough to earn me the 2nd spot on Team Newfoundland (I have no idea who finished above me from the province). There are a few online qualifier rounds starting this Sunday and if we make it through both rounds we get to represent Canada in Barcelona. Free trip and accomodations at the beginning of September and the winning team of the live competition gets the prestige of World Cup champions as well as $20K/player, which I would then lose at WSOP Europe! So it should be fun maybe we'll get lucky and make the live part. I think the freeroll qualifers are still open so locals get in there I need some good teammates to score a free trip with (edit: actually looks like they already happened) .
I played Sundays online obviously and finished 15th in the big $100 rebuy and 8th in $200 rebuy for $6K. For some reason I played the high stakes showdown 16 player heads up tournament which has a $10K buy-in though and got destroyed in the first round. It's very unlikely I'm a winning player in this tournament so I need to not play it anymore. It's so tempting though. Fortunately I'm still running good in the 25/50 games on Cake Poker though so I recovered my losses and then some. I also played some tournaments tonight and finished 6th in the $100 rebuy for $4K. So I'm running semi-good in the rebuys lately except for the closing them part. That's all I got for now, peace.
Mike
I played Sundays online obviously and finished 15th in the big $100 rebuy and 8th in $200 rebuy for $6K. For some reason I played the high stakes showdown 16 player heads up tournament which has a $10K buy-in though and got destroyed in the first round. It's very unlikely I'm a winning player in this tournament so I need to not play it anymore. It's so tempting though. Fortunately I'm still running good in the 25/50 games on Cake Poker though so I recovered my losses and then some. I also played some tournaments tonight and finished 6th in the $100 rebuy for $4K. So I'm running semi-good in the rebuys lately except for the closing them part. That's all I got for now, peace.
Mike
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Final Vegas Thoughts
I left Vegas late Friday night and arrived home this afternoon. I happened to be on the same flight from Toronto to St. John's as my aunt and uncle who are coming to visit so that was a nice coincidence! On Thursday night I tried to cram a lot of the partying I had missed out on into one crazy night, which led to a predictable outcome for me. It certainly was a fun night though! Anyways by the end of the trip the live tournament grind finally got to me. I gave away almost all my chips on one hand in the 2nd level of the $10K Bellagio Cup event with AK on a K54 rainbow flop in a situaton that was a clear fold. I never give away my chips in that type of situation, the grind was clearly affecting my play.
Overall I guess I can't be too upset with my WSOP. I played 25-30 events between Venetian/Bellagio/WSOP and cashed 6, which is a very high in the money %. I just didn't break through for the big final table score and I didn't cash either of the big $10K events. Looking back I just never got anything going on Day 2 and that was that. I probably made a few more mistakes than I'd have liked but that's part of the game. The trip was a good learning experience and a lot of fun. Also my online results during the trip were fantastic so I ended up substantially ahead despite coming home with less than $1000 in my pocket. Assuming I can get back most of the 30% of my cashes that was withheld plus square up whatever timex owes me for buying pieces of my action I won't even be down as much for the live tournaments as it seemed.
Looking back the one thing that sticks out is my run on Day 2 of the PLO8 event. The day just seemed to go by so quickly and I never really appreciated how close I was to something big. I guess there are a lot of possible reasons for this. First, I don't really know how to play the game that well so I think in a lot of situations I don't even really realize how lucky I may have gotten. On top of that I also had to try to stay focused on my play since so many more decisions than usual were not at all automatic to me. Also, I basically was on my own at this point. I didn't talk to anyone all day about how I was doing because no one else was really playing at the Rio that day. I also never really had a big chip stack so my expectations didn't get too high at any point. And of course my day ended so abruptly on that unfortunate river card. Nothing ever really had a chance to sink in. Certainly not how I would have envisioned my one close call.
Anyways from here I really have no idea what my plans are. I'm planning to play the newly announced WSOP Europe and some other live events that are around the same time in September. There are numerous European Poker Tour Events as well as the UB sponsored Aruba tournament and others I'm forgetting also in September so I'll have to put together a schedule at some point. Those will be my next big live tournaments and I'll still be playing online some for the rest of the summer of course. There are also various things I put off untl after WSOP that I'll have to take care of now. Definitely an exciting time in my life right now but there's several things I'll have to get figured out. Alright I'm going to bed Newfoundland time is the worst. Sundays tomorrow obv.
Mike
Overall I guess I can't be too upset with my WSOP. I played 25-30 events between Venetian/Bellagio/WSOP and cashed 6, which is a very high in the money %. I just didn't break through for the big final table score and I didn't cash either of the big $10K events. Looking back I just never got anything going on Day 2 and that was that. I probably made a few more mistakes than I'd have liked but that's part of the game. The trip was a good learning experience and a lot of fun. Also my online results during the trip were fantastic so I ended up substantially ahead despite coming home with less than $1000 in my pocket. Assuming I can get back most of the 30% of my cashes that was withheld plus square up whatever timex owes me for buying pieces of my action I won't even be down as much for the live tournaments as it seemed.
Looking back the one thing that sticks out is my run on Day 2 of the PLO8 event. The day just seemed to go by so quickly and I never really appreciated how close I was to something big. I guess there are a lot of possible reasons for this. First, I don't really know how to play the game that well so I think in a lot of situations I don't even really realize how lucky I may have gotten. On top of that I also had to try to stay focused on my play since so many more decisions than usual were not at all automatic to me. Also, I basically was on my own at this point. I didn't talk to anyone all day about how I was doing because no one else was really playing at the Rio that day. I also never really had a big chip stack so my expectations didn't get too high at any point. And of course my day ended so abruptly on that unfortunate river card. Nothing ever really had a chance to sink in. Certainly not how I would have envisioned my one close call.
Anyways from here I really have no idea what my plans are. I'm planning to play the newly announced WSOP Europe and some other live events that are around the same time in September. There are numerous European Poker Tour Events as well as the UB sponsored Aruba tournament and others I'm forgetting also in September so I'll have to put together a schedule at some point. Those will be my next big live tournaments and I'll still be playing online some for the rest of the summer of course. There are also various things I put off untl after WSOP that I'll have to take care of now. Definitely an exciting time in my life right now but there's several things I'll have to get figured out. Alright I'm going to bed Newfoundland time is the worst. Sundays tomorrow obv.
Mike
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Day 2 Report
OK hand from day 2, today didn't go very well.
Hand 1 - 500/1000 a100. Raise AKss in MP to 3K, Choron calls in SB. Flop A62cc, I bet 5K he CR to 18K I call planning to move in over a turn bet. Turn 3, he checks I decide to check behind. River J he shoves for 55K or something, more than the pot. His line makes no sense, I figured there was no way he could possibly be bluffing because it's the worst line for a bluff ever and no decent player would ever take this line as a bluff (I always have an ace and he's really not representing much that should scare an ace). Seemed like his AJ got there or something so I folded and he tabled KTdd. Oops 6 levels of thinking too much there. Anyways my main point I was trying to get accross about this hand was that if I knew anything about how he actually played (he immediately ran another weird bluff after this and got caught) I would obviously have beat him into the pot. Obv nothing personal, I'm an asshole etc...
Hand 2 - This hand is as hilarious as it is poorly played. Folds to CO who raises to 4K. I'm already pretty sure this guy is the type that this means he has a pretty big hand. I have AsKc on the button though so whatever I make it 14K. He calls with 31K behind. Flop Ts7s4c and he bets 13K. I'm pretty sure I always have 2 live overs and the backdoor nut flush which isn't awful and live players do weird things like ignore pot odds and make ridiculous folds so I figure I might actually get him off of 99 or 88 and shove since I obv can't be bluffing for only 18K more. He actually thinks for 30 seconds before calling with QQ. wtf?
Hand 3 - I have like 27K now and open to 3K with KK in EP. SB calls and we see a QJJ flop. I decide to check behind and the turn is a deuce. He bets 10K and I move in for 14K more and get called by KQ.
Hand 4 - There's a limper in EP and te guy two seats behind him raises to 5200 with 25K more beind at 600/1200 a200. I find AKo in the SB and kinda want to fold but I go ahead and reraise to 16K. Limper folds, he moves in, I call and lose to AA. I lost so many chips with AK this tournament it's ridiculous.
Hand 5 - 800/1600 a200. Now I'm short again and move in over an EP raise to 4800 with JJ. He thinks for a bit and decides to gamble with 44 because my raise is only like 20K more. Door card on the flop is a 4. Oh well GG main event. Oh hello there J on turn. But it gives him a flush draw which I miraculously dodge.
Hand 6- I basically blinded off a bunch o chips except for the times I moved in with J7o over a limp and 42o over a raise due to raise sizing tells. Last hand before dinner break I had just called clock on some guy trying to stall into dinner break because our table was next to break and he'd miss his BB. Now it's his BB and I raise with 44 in the HJ to 4600. The SB moves allin pretty fast and I really think he's weak making a play before the break given the circumstances (I had stacked up raising chips then thought better of it and mucked my hand on the last hand before the previous break also sort of giving away my move). I was only getting like 1.4:1 but I deicded to gamble and call. He had AQ and beat me.
Bellagio Cup main event tomorrow, $10K WPT event. This will be my last big tournament for this Vegas trip. I've had more than enough live poker at this point, tournaments in particular are so tedious live, but I do like playing at the Bellagio. Seriously, the Bellagio tournament buy-in is $10000 + 300. The WSOP main event is $9400 + 600. The Bellagio dealers and service in general is so much better, and being able to go out on the Fontana balcony on break and watch the fountain show and such is awesome. Sleepy time,
Mike
Hand 1 - 500/1000 a100. Raise AKss in MP to 3K, Choron calls in SB. Flop A62cc, I bet 5K he CR to 18K I call planning to move in over a turn bet. Turn 3, he checks I decide to check behind. River J he shoves for 55K or something, more than the pot. His line makes no sense, I figured there was no way he could possibly be bluffing because it's the worst line for a bluff ever and no decent player would ever take this line as a bluff (I always have an ace and he's really not representing much that should scare an ace). Seemed like his AJ got there or something so I folded and he tabled KTdd. Oops 6 levels of thinking too much there. Anyways my main point I was trying to get accross about this hand was that if I knew anything about how he actually played (he immediately ran another weird bluff after this and got caught) I would obviously have beat him into the pot. Obv nothing personal, I'm an asshole etc...
Hand 2 - This hand is as hilarious as it is poorly played. Folds to CO who raises to 4K. I'm already pretty sure this guy is the type that this means he has a pretty big hand. I have AsKc on the button though so whatever I make it 14K. He calls with 31K behind. Flop Ts7s4c and he bets 13K. I'm pretty sure I always have 2 live overs and the backdoor nut flush which isn't awful and live players do weird things like ignore pot odds and make ridiculous folds so I figure I might actually get him off of 99 or 88 and shove since I obv can't be bluffing for only 18K more. He actually thinks for 30 seconds before calling with QQ. wtf?
Hand 3 - I have like 27K now and open to 3K with KK in EP. SB calls and we see a QJJ flop. I decide to check behind and the turn is a deuce. He bets 10K and I move in for 14K more and get called by KQ.
Hand 4 - There's a limper in EP and te guy two seats behind him raises to 5200 with 25K more beind at 600/1200 a200. I find AKo in the SB and kinda want to fold but I go ahead and reraise to 16K. Limper folds, he moves in, I call and lose to AA. I lost so many chips with AK this tournament it's ridiculous.
Hand 5 - 800/1600 a200. Now I'm short again and move in over an EP raise to 4800 with JJ. He thinks for a bit and decides to gamble with 44 because my raise is only like 20K more. Door card on the flop is a 4. Oh well GG main event. Oh hello there J on turn. But it gives him a flush draw which I miraculously dodge.
Hand 6- I basically blinded off a bunch o chips except for the times I moved in with J7o over a limp and 42o over a raise due to raise sizing tells. Last hand before dinner break I had just called clock on some guy trying to stall into dinner break because our table was next to break and he'd miss his BB. Now it's his BB and I raise with 44 in the HJ to 4600. The SB moves allin pretty fast and I really think he's weak making a play before the break given the circumstances (I had stacked up raising chips then thought better of it and mucked my hand on the last hand before the previous break also sort of giving away my move). I was only getting like 1.4:1 but I deicded to gamble and call. He had AQ and beat me.
Bellagio Cup main event tomorrow, $10K WPT event. This will be my last big tournament for this Vegas trip. I've had more than enough live poker at this point, tournaments in particular are so tedious live, but I do like playing at the Bellagio. Seriously, the Bellagio tournament buy-in is $10000 + 300. The WSOP main event is $9400 + 600. The Bellagio dealers and service in general is so much better, and being able to go out on the Fontana balcony on break and watch the fountain show and such is awesome. Sleepy time,
Mike
Out of main event
Full report coming at some point I guess, here's cliff notes:
1. Hero fold to Choron before I found out he's worse at poker than I could ever have possibly imagined, would ahve had a big stack again if I called.
2. AK loses to QQ when I make some semi-insane flop bluff in a reraised pot and lose more than I had to a complete moron.
3. KK doubles me up.
4. AK loses to AA aipf.
4. JJ doubles vs44 aipf A54J3 board.
6. Hero call 44 preflop lose to AQ last hand before dinner break.
1. Hero fold to Choron before I found out he's worse at poker than I could ever have possibly imagined, would ahve had a big stack again if I called.
2. AK loses to QQ when I make some semi-insane flop bluff in a reraised pot and lose more than I had to a complete moron.
3. KK doubles me up.
4. AK loses to AA aipf.
4. JJ doubles vs
6. Hero call 44 preflop lose to AQ last hand before dinner break.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Table 19, Seat 4
That's where all the chips will be piled up. Glen Chorny aka Choron from Waterloo is also at my table in the 8 seat. Let us gogogogo. The pocketfives guys usually keep an eye on me so there might be some updates on me there throughout the day at P5s Live
Mike
Mike
Monday, July 09, 2007
I played poker today
So yesterday I chilled and didn't play any poker. I watched the UFC card which was somewhat disappointing here at the condo. We ended up having to order the live stream online since no one in Vegas shows the UFC live. It's fucked up. Apparnetly the casinos don't show it because they would have to pay on a per person basis or something for everyone in the casino, or based on capacity or some bs. So annoying. Anyways, after the UFC I went out for drinks and stuff with some girls me and Bond18 met a few nights ago, and that was a lot of fun. Yes, a whole day without poker just doing normal people stuff! Maybe there is hope for me yet!
Aha maybe not today was Sunday and I played poker all day. I finished 4th in the UB $530 for $6400, my QQ ran into KK 4-handed when I was 2nd in chips. I also ran better than anyone ever in the cash games on Cake (twistedecho was over here and sweating my play and just laughing as I flopped a set every 2nd hand and took everyone's money), and that combined with the awful players was enough to net me $30K+ on the day on that site playing 10/20 and 25/50 NL. So certainly a very profitable day of poker. Tomorrow we unfortunately have to move out of our condo because we only booked it until the 9th (blame Aaron). We don't really know which hotel we're going to move into yet but we'll figure something out. I don't really have any other plans for tomorrow yet, probably just relax and get ready to play Day 2 of the main event on Tuesday. I'm excited to get back in there and play again. Oh yeah I forgot to get a picture of our awesome outdoor swimming pool and hot tub in the condo complex earlier, I'll miss being able to jump into that when it cools down at night and relax.
Mike
Aha maybe not today was Sunday and I played poker all day. I finished 4th in the UB $530 for $6400, my QQ ran into KK 4-handed when I was 2nd in chips. I also ran better than anyone ever in the cash games on Cake (twistedecho was over here and sweating my play and just laughing as I flopped a set every 2nd hand and took everyone's money), and that combined with the awful players was enough to net me $30K+ on the day on that site playing 10/20 and 25/50 NL. So certainly a very profitable day of poker. Tomorrow we unfortunately have to move out of our condo because we only booked it until the 9th (blame Aaron). We don't really know which hotel we're going to move into yet but we'll figure something out. I don't really have any other plans for tomorrow yet, probably just relax and get ready to play Day 2 of the main event on Tuesday. I'm excited to get back in there and play again. Oh yeah I forgot to get a picture of our awesome outdoor swimming pool and hot tub in the condo complex earlier, I'll miss being able to jump into that when it cools down at night and relax.
Mike
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Crazy Day 1
Wow I just finished Day 1 with 90K chips which should leave me comfortably above average. Things were going extremely well all day and then in the last level I actually thought I was going to bust out before the end of the day it was so sick.
Hand 1: Level 1 50/100, 20K starting chips. I raise UTG to 400 with 75s. 3 callers and I figure it will be hard to bluff all of them I should probably try to flop a straight or some.... holy crap! Flop 643. I bet 1500 and the guy on my left calls. Turn 8, I bet 3500 he makes it 7K and I jam. He calls with 33 and the board doesn't pair so I get a sweet early double up.
Hand 2: Still level 1, UTG who is some spewy Euro guy makes it 500, I call with KK UTG+1 and then an old guy makes it 1500 in MP. Old guys reraising scares the hell out of me and after Eurodonk calls I consider just calling but eventually reraise t0 5000. Old guy calls and Euro finally folds. Flop Qxx and I check intending to fold to most bets, but he checks behind. Turn blank goes check/check, and on the river blank I bet 5K and he calls showing the other 2 kings.
Hand 3: The guy with the set has in Hand 1 has now rebuilt to 8K which is fine because he's really awful. I raise to 400 with KK and he calls as do two others. Flop QTx 2 hearts and the BB leads 700. He's also awful and I decide to call to disguise my hand and see what happens behind me before I get too much money in. Hand 1 guy on my left now raises to 2K and the BB deliberates for quite some time before calling. I then make it 7K and the guy on my left calls all-in, BB folds. He has AQ and I win another big pot. I have 53K at the first break which is pretty huge. Not much happens in the next level and I finish it at 46K.
Hand 4: Some old guy who's new to the table and seems really bad limps in EP, a soldish player raises 5xBB to 2K, another solid player calls, and I call on the button with 88. Limper calls and we go 4 ways to a Q8x 2 diamond flop. It checks to me and I bet 5500. Old limper guy calls with 15K more behind and the turn is a Q. He leads for 10K and I put him all-in and beat his QTs. I had around 85K after this hand.
Hand 5: A good aggro player 2nd in chips at the table raises to 1700 at 300/600 a75 and I find QQ in my BB and make it 5500. He calls and the flop comes Q42 rainbow. I bet 7500 and he calls. Turn 3 I check he bets 20K and I move him in for something like 35K more. He tanks for quite a while and folds KK as I later found out. Over 100K now. Now comes the 400/800 a100 level where everything goes crazy.
Hand 6: Yes, this actually happened again I'm not getting confused with hand 1. I raise to 2400 in EP with 75s and only the guy 2 to my left calls (he is awful). Damn, well maybe I'll flop another... wtf? really? Flop 643 and he gets 20K or so in with 99. I had like 130-140K after this hand, and then things start to go wrong.
Hand 7: Old guy who is not as tight as i thought makes it 2500 and get 2 callers from solid players. I find AKo in the SB and decided to raise it 10K more. Except I throw out 5 orange chips which are obviously worth 5K each not 2500. Woops. Original raiser folds and the first caller (Joe Beavers) figures there's no way I ever raise that much with AA or KK and moves all-in with QQ for like 20K more (we'd likely have gotten it in anyways but I'd have more hope of getting him to fold some other way probably). I finally lose a hand but at a very bad time and drop under 100K.
Hand 8: The CO open limps for 800. He's playing so weak-tight and I'm pretty sure I can get he will fold to a large raise. I have 93ss on the button and make it 3200. The BB who is new to the table wearing a Party Poker shirt calls, and the limper folds. Flop Qxx all diamonds, he checks and I chek behind. Turn 8h, he checks and I figure this is as godd a time as any to stab at it and bet 5500. He calls though and the river is the Ad. He checks and I give up. He shows 98o with the 9d and takes the pot. Euro + PartyPoker = megadonk, I should have realized immediately.
Hand 9: Solid guy who I"ve repopped a few times earlier makes it 2800 in the hijack with 30-40K or so behind. I make it 9K on the button with QQ. He calls and the flop comes Axx. We check it down and his KK is good. I dodged a bullet there I would probably have called a shove preflop.
Hand 10: Very next hand, he raises again to 2500 and I call with TT. EuroParty calls behind me on the button and we see a 986 two club flop. Raiser checks and I bet 5500 which is just not big enough. Eurodonk calls and the turn 8. I still fell like I have the best hand and he prboably has to have a draw and I check figuring if he chekcs behind it's fine and he bets I'll jam on him. He bets 13K and I cram for like 30K more effective which is almosy all of my stack. Jesus. How will I explain donking off a 140K stack in the last level of the night? He thinks for quite a while and folds. Not sure if I was just completely on the wrong level and he folded a better hand here or not, but it was kind of scary. Not much happened after that and I finished with 90K. I play again on Tuesday. If I happen to bust that day I can play day 1B of the Bellagio Cup main event on Wednesday which is pretty sweet. Hoping to just relax and have some fun this weekend.
Mike
Hand 1: Level 1 50/100, 20K starting chips. I raise UTG to 400 with 75s. 3 callers and I figure it will be hard to bluff all of them I should probably try to flop a straight or some.... holy crap! Flop 643. I bet 1500 and the guy on my left calls. Turn 8, I bet 3500 he makes it 7K and I jam. He calls with 33 and the board doesn't pair so I get a sweet early double up.
Hand 2: Still level 1, UTG who is some spewy Euro guy makes it 500, I call with KK UTG+1 and then an old guy makes it 1500 in MP. Old guys reraising scares the hell out of me and after Eurodonk calls I consider just calling but eventually reraise t0 5000. Old guy calls and Euro finally folds. Flop Qxx and I check intending to fold to most bets, but he checks behind. Turn blank goes check/check, and on the river blank I bet 5K and he calls showing the other 2 kings.
Hand 3: The guy with the set has in Hand 1 has now rebuilt to 8K which is fine because he's really awful. I raise to 400 with KK and he calls as do two others. Flop QTx 2 hearts and the BB leads 700. He's also awful and I decide to call to disguise my hand and see what happens behind me before I get too much money in. Hand 1 guy on my left now raises to 2K and the BB deliberates for quite some time before calling. I then make it 7K and the guy on my left calls all-in, BB folds. He has AQ and I win another big pot. I have 53K at the first break which is pretty huge. Not much happens in the next level and I finish it at 46K.
Hand 4: Some old guy who's new to the table and seems really bad limps in EP, a soldish player raises 5xBB to 2K, another solid player calls, and I call on the button with 88. Limper calls and we go 4 ways to a Q8x 2 diamond flop. It checks to me and I bet 5500. Old limper guy calls with 15K more behind and the turn is a Q. He leads for 10K and I put him all-in and beat his QTs. I had around 85K after this hand.
Hand 5: A good aggro player 2nd in chips at the table raises to 1700 at 300/600 a75 and I find QQ in my BB and make it 5500. He calls and the flop comes Q42 rainbow. I bet 7500 and he calls. Turn 3 I check he bets 20K and I move him in for something like 35K more. He tanks for quite a while and folds KK as I later found out. Over 100K now. Now comes the 400/800 a100 level where everything goes crazy.
Hand 6: Yes, this actually happened again I'm not getting confused with hand 1. I raise to 2400 in EP with 75s and only the guy 2 to my left calls (he is awful). Damn, well maybe I'll flop another... wtf? really? Flop 643 and he gets 20K or so in with 99. I had like 130-140K after this hand, and then things start to go wrong.
Hand 7: Old guy who is not as tight as i thought makes it 2500 and get 2 callers from solid players. I find AKo in the SB and decided to raise it 10K more. Except I throw out 5 orange chips which are obviously worth 5K each not 2500. Woops. Original raiser folds and the first caller (Joe Beavers) figures there's no way I ever raise that much with AA or KK and moves all-in with QQ for like 20K more (we'd likely have gotten it in anyways but I'd have more hope of getting him to fold some other way probably). I finally lose a hand but at a very bad time and drop under 100K.
Hand 8: The CO open limps for 800. He's playing so weak-tight and I'm pretty sure I can get he will fold to a large raise. I have 93ss on the button and make it 3200. The BB who is new to the table wearing a Party Poker shirt calls, and the limper folds. Flop Qxx all diamonds, he checks and I chek behind. Turn 8h, he checks and I figure this is as godd a time as any to stab at it and bet 5500. He calls though and the river is the Ad. He checks and I give up. He shows 98o with the 9d and takes the pot. Euro + PartyPoker = megadonk, I should have realized immediately.
Hand 9: Solid guy who I"ve repopped a few times earlier makes it 2800 in the hijack with 30-40K or so behind. I make it 9K on the button with QQ. He calls and the flop comes Axx. We check it down and his KK is good. I dodged a bullet there I would probably have called a shove preflop.
Hand 10: Very next hand, he raises again to 2500 and I call with TT. EuroParty calls behind me on the button and we see a 986 two club flop. Raiser checks and I bet 5500 which is just not big enough. Eurodonk calls and the turn 8. I still fell like I have the best hand and he prboably has to have a draw and I check figuring if he chekcs behind it's fine and he bets I'll jam on him. He bets 13K and I cram for like 30K more effective which is almosy all of my stack. Jesus. How will I explain donking off a 140K stack in the last level of the night? He thinks for quite a while and folds. Not sure if I was just completely on the wrong level and he folded a better hand here or not, but it was kind of scary. Not much happened after that and I finished with 90K. I play again on Tuesday. If I happen to bust that day I can play day 1B of the Bellagio Cup main event on Wednesday which is pretty sweet. Hoping to just relax and have some fun this weekend.
Mike
Friday, July 06, 2007
This is called a flag
Steve ended up chopping for just under $100K today. Then I went to dinner with 15 or 20 2+2ers, some I already knew and many I was meeting for the first time which was a lot of fun. Main Event begins for me in 9 hours. I will be at table 64 seat 3. Ship the $10 Million one time?
Mike
Thursday, July 05, 2007
I should have showed up late
Played the Bellagio $5k yesterday. I didn't win a single pot during the first 2 hours so I prboably should have stayed in bed. Anyways there ended up being 90 players so a really nice field size. My first table was really tough, Jennifer Tilly and one other guy seemed like the only soft spots, and neither of them was really terrible. I managed to get back up near starting chips (10K) when I took a decent pot off David Pham when I flopped top pair in a blind battle. Then I got moved to a new table where people were awful. My first big pot was when I raised A8cc in the CO to 1200 at 200/400 a25 and the SB, who already had over 60K and already proved himself to be awful called. The flop came 446 and I checked behind him, certainly not planning to give up on the hand though. The turn was an 8, and he bet 2200. I had around 4500 left and was pretty sure he was bluffing the river too so I just called. River 7 and despite the 4-straight on board I basically instacalled his 4200 chip bet and he said "I have nothing", so I tabled the winner. From here on basically nothing good happened, I tried to 3-bet a raise with nothing once for 1/3 my stack and got instashoved on to drop back, then I pushbotted a bit. My bustout hand I pushed J9o into QQ on what was likely a bad push since they were clearly gettng sick of me moving in so much. But I mean one guy folded 99 face up in the BB to one of my pushes so I don't see how it can be that bad. Anyways when he instantly moved all-in over my final shove with J9 I had a feeling I wasn't drawing as live as I might like.
Steve made the final table 3rd in chips though so I'm probably going to go chill out at the Bellagio and sweat him today (I has 5%!) and then get rested up for the main event tomorrow.
Mike
Steve made the final table 3rd in chips though so I'm probably going to go chill out at the Bellagio and sweat him today (I has 5%!) and then get rested up for the main event tomorrow.
Mike
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Good News
I ended up making a bunch o money tonight and I'm not tilty anymore. I finished 4th in the 100r on Stars for $8K when I lost a huge pot when I was already the chipleader with KK vs AQ aipf. I also made a couple grand shortstacking and a few thousand more playing cash on Cake and Absolute. Since I can't play Party down here I've started playing more on other smaller sites because the games on Stars and Full Tilt are really tough for the most part. Tomorrow I am playing the $5K tournament at Bellagio. Unless I final table this tournament I will not be playing live on Thursday at all most likely since I'm registered for Day 1A of the main event on Friday. This leaves me free to watch what should hopefully be one of the best UFC cards ever on Saturday and play online tourneys on Sunday. If I dont make day 2 of the main event I'll play the $10K Bellagio Cup WPT event starting Monday. I guess I have to book a flight home for some time after that. So that's the schedule for the rest of the trip. If I can show up on time from here on out who knows how much money I might win.
Mike
Mike
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
O YA ALSO
PHIL HELMUTH WAS AT MY TABLE AND I WAS LIKE LOL I TRIED YOUR STRATEGY BUT IT DOESNT WORK SO WELL ON DAY 2 AND HE WAS LIKE LOL YOURE AN IDIOT KID. THEN HE BUSTED OUT, BUT WITH 3 GOOD INTERNET PLAYERS ON HIS LEFT HE OBV WOULD HAVE GOT MURDERED ANYWAYS. ALSO I CUT THROUGH THE FEATURE TABLE AREA WHICH WAS EMPTY TO RUSH TO MY SEAT BECASUE THERE WAS A BIG CROWD AND THE FLOORMAN TOLD ME NOT TO DO THAT SO I TOLD HIM TO FUCK OFF BECAUSE I WAS 20 MINS LATE. ACTUALLY I JUST THOUGHT THAT.
LIFE TILT
SHOWED UP 20 MINS LATE DUE TO MISCOMMUNICATION WITH ROOMMATES AND MISSED AN ENTIRE ORBIT. WE WERE HAND FOR HAND SO I FOLDED INTO THE MONEY THEN TILT SHOVED OVER LILHOLDEMS BUTTON RAISE WITH A6 AND LOST TO AQ. I AM GOING TO THE LEGENDARY SPEARMINT RHINO NOW. I HAVE $9K CASH LEFT AFTER BUYING INTO THE MAIN EVENT, WELL SEE HOW FAR THAT GOES WITH THE GIRLS THERE. JUST KIDDING I AM GOING TO PLAY ONLINE TOURNAMENTS AND SHORTSTACK THE BIGGEST CASH GAMES I CAN FIND SO I SHOULD LOSE LOTS MORE THAN 9K. BYE.
WATTSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
WATTSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Day 1 of $1k rebuys
I survived the day with 38.1K (average is almost 60) to make day 2. 109 players remain and 99 get paid. I'm working on thinking of some new spectacular way to bubble. I was running so insanely hot today and then cooled down later in the day when the blinds got big. I got dealt AA like 6 times in the first 4 levels, including against KK, QQ, and AA. I also had KK against JJ. I did however play one interesting hand where I made a pretty big call and was right for a change!
A tightish guy raises in MP at 100/200 to 600, and I only have black TT this time in the CO so I just call, and the BB calls also (he seems weakish). Flop Js9h7h. Checks to me and I bet 1000 (should have bet 1200ish), the BB calls and raiser folds. Turn 3s. Out of nowhere he leads for 7K into the 3800 pot with like 3K more behind. My inital reaction is that this guy is completely FOS because no one plays a real hand this, especially on a draw heavy flop like that. It looks like he picked up a spade flush draw on the turn and is making a move, and since the jack on the flop is a spade I beat all hands containing 2 spades (except 97 I guess but it's super extremely unlikely he slowplayed such a strong but vulnerable hand on that flop). Unlike other hands where I made big calls (that were almost all wrong) in the WSOP just sort of guessing/hoping, this one I really had pieced together and everything made sense, I was very confident I was right. It was a lot chips for that point in the tournament but I moved him in anyways and he called with 8s6s and my hand held.
After some more coolers I had 40K but unfortunately I went cold for a bit and dropped to 30K. Then I doubled through a guy with AK vs AJ on an A-hi flop to get over 60K before making a few bad moves preflop and not picking up any hands to end the day, which dropped me to where I am now. We'll see how things go tomorrow. The P5s Live guys had a few updates of me today and another picture that came out a bit better:
A tightish guy raises in MP at 100/200 to 600, and I only have black TT this time in the CO so I just call, and the BB calls also (he seems weakish). Flop Js9h7h. Checks to me and I bet 1000 (should have bet 1200ish), the BB calls and raiser folds. Turn 3s. Out of nowhere he leads for 7K into the 3800 pot with like 3K more behind. My inital reaction is that this guy is completely FOS because no one plays a real hand this, especially on a draw heavy flop like that. It looks like he picked up a spade flush draw on the turn and is making a move, and since the jack on the flop is a spade I beat all hands containing 2 spades (except 97 I guess but it's super extremely unlikely he slowplayed such a strong but vulnerable hand on that flop). Unlike other hands where I made big calls (that were almost all wrong) in the WSOP just sort of guessing/hoping, this one I really had pieced together and everything made sense, I was very confident I was right. It was a lot chips for that point in the tournament but I moved him in anyways and he called with 8s6s and my hand held.
After some more coolers I had 40K but unfortunately I went cold for a bit and dropped to 30K. Then I doubled through a guy with AK vs AJ on an A-hi flop to get over 60K before making a few bad moves preflop and not picking up any hands to end the day, which dropped me to where I am now. We'll see how things go tomorrow. The P5s Live guys had a few updates of me today and another picture that came out a bit better:
Monday, July 02, 2007
Vegas Weekend Report
So it was a relatively uneventful and unsuccessful weekend. I played the $2K on Friday and made a really bad 4-bet shove with AK into AA to bust before the frist break. On Saturday I played the $1500 NL (with a record 3100+ players) and lasted until just before the dinner break. So today I stayed home and played online and lost a bunch of money at cash and tournaments. It's crazy to think about, but I've been in Vegas for a month now, and it still kind of feels like I just got here. The Main Event starts this Friday, which means this trip is getting close to an end, and also that I will be a multimillionaire in a couple weeks time!
Anyways tomorrow is a $1k + rebuys event which I'm pretty excited for. Tuesday is either day 2 or in the unfortunate event that I'm out I'll probably play the $1500 limit holdem shootout. No idea what I"m going to do after that though. I haven't registered for the main event yet so I don't know my start day, but everyone will be in town for the main event so there'll prbobably be more partying and sociailizing coming up. The Bellagio events will prboably start to draw some big fields now too so if I can find enough cash to buy-in to those that's a definite possibility. With only a few tournaments left it's time to refocus and make sure I bring my A game for the rest of the trip.
Mike
Anyways tomorrow is a $1k + rebuys event which I'm pretty excited for. Tuesday is either day 2 or in the unfortunate event that I'm out I'll probably play the $1500 limit holdem shootout. No idea what I"m going to do after that though. I haven't registered for the main event yet so I don't know my start day, but everyone will be in town for the main event so there'll prbobably be more partying and sociailizing coming up. The Bellagio events will prboably start to draw some big fields now too so if I can find enough cash to buy-in to those that's a definite possibility. With only a few tournaments left it's time to refocus and make sure I bring my A game for the rest of the trip.
Mike
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