Hey I'm 6th/18 in LAPC Main Event heading into Day 5 with 987K chips. Just a spot for you to post your comments here since you can't afaik on Everest's site.
Mike
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Help me win a $100K Sponsorship!
Sorry to do this but a part of the competition for the Everest Poker sponsorship is getting a lot of hits on my blogs and any videos I might post over on their website. So please go check out my profile and read my blogs over there for a while! (and tell all your friends!)
http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799
http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Trip Report: Box Seats at the Lakers
First of all, huuuuuuuuge thanks to Scot and Kyle at TwoRags and Dave and everyone else at the Commerce Casino for making this happen. It was a great time, and very much appreciated. One of my favourite parts of traveling for poker is going to different sporting events around the world. So the deal was that the Commerce had arranged for a limo to pick us up and drive us to and from the game, and we had VIP tickets for the Commerce's box. Myself, Thayer, Vivek, and Ray ended up going.
The limo was set to pick us up at 7 at the casino. We had a little trouble finding the driver but we still managed toget to the Staples Center in time for tipoff. As we're walking around the side of the stadium to the VIP entrance we get a little taste of Hollywood. Some perfect 10 blonde girl is walking up to the gate and paparazis are going crazy snapping photos of her. Unfortunately I never got a good enough look to see who she was, but it was definitely one of those things you just don't really see anywhere else. So we get up to the booth and find Scot, and meet Dave from the Commerce (thanks again guys). The booth is nothing overly spectacular, but there's lots of free food and drink so I'm quite happy with it. The first half of the game is probably the biggest annihalation I have ever seen in professional basketball. LA was pressing hard on defense and Atlanta couldn't hold on to the ball for 10 seconds at a time. It took a string of miracle threes before the end of the half for Atlanta to not finish down 40. When coach was teaching them to beat the press during timeout they must have been as distracted by this as I was:
Anyways around half time Norm McDonald came up to the booth and he was a lot of fun to hang out with, definitely a funny guy in person. Here's a shot of everyone in the booth:
And another shot of the Laker girls just because. Unfortunately we were a bit too high up and I didn't quite have enough zoom on my camera to get a real good shot. This time they're wearing the traditional Laker gold.
So all-in-all it was a great night. VIP treatment, basketball, free beer, Laker girls, and celebrities. What more could you ask for? Back on the grind with the $1500 LAPC event tomorrow.
Mike
The limo was set to pick us up at 7 at the casino. We had a little trouble finding the driver but we still managed toget to the Staples Center in time for tipoff. As we're walking around the side of the stadium to the VIP entrance we get a little taste of Hollywood. Some perfect 10 blonde girl is walking up to the gate and paparazis are going crazy snapping photos of her. Unfortunately I never got a good enough look to see who she was, but it was definitely one of those things you just don't really see anywhere else. So we get up to the booth and find Scot, and meet Dave from the Commerce (thanks again guys). The booth is nothing overly spectacular, but there's lots of free food and drink so I'm quite happy with it. The first half of the game is probably the biggest annihalation I have ever seen in professional basketball. LA was pressing hard on defense and Atlanta couldn't hold on to the ball for 10 seconds at a time. It took a string of miracle threes before the end of the half for Atlanta to not finish down 40. When coach was teaching them to beat the press during timeout they must have been as distracted by this as I was:
Anyways around half time Norm McDonald came up to the booth and he was a lot of fun to hang out with, definitely a funny guy in person. Here's a shot of everyone in the booth:
And another shot of the Laker girls just because. Unfortunately we were a bit too high up and I didn't quite have enough zoom on my camera to get a real good shot. This time they're wearing the traditional Laker gold.
So all-in-all it was a great night. VIP treatment, basketball, free beer, Laker girls, and celebrities. What more could you ask for? Back on the grind with the $1500 LAPC event tomorrow.
Mike
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Another good day
I'm running so hot online since I arrived in LA. Today I played a tournament on Everest Poker. $100 freezeout and I finished 7th for $1100. So what you ask? Check this out:
http://www.everestpoker.com/en/livethedream/
If you read through all the information on that page and then realize that most of the people that have qualified seem to be $5 satellite winners you'll understand why I think I should hopefully be a lock to sign a $100K sponsorship deal with Everest Poker at the end of March. I'm looking forward to hearing more details about the live casting from them. Strange as it seems this may very likely be my biggest tournament score ever.
Right after this tournament ended I met Scot from TwoRags and got a ride to the studio for the single table tournament. The lineup was me, Thayer, Deeb, Serge (adanthar), Nath, Vivek (psyduck), Shane (shaniac), Todd Brunson, Layne Flack, and Jose Canseco. It was definitely an interesting mix of players and the table was a lot of fun for the short time I spent at it. Sadly, I was the first person to bust, and I was eliminated by none other than Jose Conseco. I basically played 3 hands.
Hand 1: 4K starting chips, 25/25 blinds. Shaniac raised UTG to 100, Nath calls UTG+1, I make it 400 2 seats later with AKss. Todd Brunson in MP thinks for a bit and then cold calls which is really confusing, I know he has a huge hand but I don't really think he'd play AA this way, even KK I think he reraises a lot. Shane folds but Nath comes along as well. Flop K87 2 diamonds. Nath checks, I bet 800, Todd shoves for 1450 more, Nath folds, and I call. Todd has the AKdd and I'm getting freerolled. He catches a diamond on the river and I'm left with 1300.
Hand 2: Jose Canseco opens to 200 in MP, I shove 1225 in the SB with AKo and pick it up.
Hand 3: 25/50 now. Canseco opens to 200 in MP, Nath calls in late position, I shove 88 in the BB for 1400, Canseco instacalls which forces Nath to fold 99. Canseco has ATo (not exactly the best call), and flops an A to bust me.
After I busted though I got to go in the other room and watch the hole card cameras and do some commentary on the tournament. It definitely took some getting used to but I think I actually did a fairly decent job, and it was a fun experience. They hooked us up with all sorts of snacks and alcohol too so it was a good time despite the early bustout. So, what am I going to do tomorow to follow a day like this you ask? Probably just relax all day, maybe play a little bit of live cash or something, and then Scot came through with the hookup for box seats at the Lakers game in the evening. Life is going pretty ok right now.
Mike
http://www.everestpoker.com/en/livethedream/
If you read through all the information on that page and then realize that most of the people that have qualified seem to be $5 satellite winners you'll understand why I think I should hopefully be a lock to sign a $100K sponsorship deal with Everest Poker at the end of March. I'm looking forward to hearing more details about the live casting from them. Strange as it seems this may very likely be my biggest tournament score ever.
Right after this tournament ended I met Scot from TwoRags and got a ride to the studio for the single table tournament. The lineup was me, Thayer, Deeb, Serge (adanthar), Nath, Vivek (psyduck), Shane (shaniac), Todd Brunson, Layne Flack, and Jose Canseco. It was definitely an interesting mix of players and the table was a lot of fun for the short time I spent at it. Sadly, I was the first person to bust, and I was eliminated by none other than Jose Conseco. I basically played 3 hands.
Hand 1: 4K starting chips, 25/25 blinds. Shaniac raised UTG to 100, Nath calls UTG+1, I make it 400 2 seats later with AKss. Todd Brunson in MP thinks for a bit and then cold calls which is really confusing, I know he has a huge hand but I don't really think he'd play AA this way, even KK I think he reraises a lot. Shane folds but Nath comes along as well. Flop K87 2 diamonds. Nath checks, I bet 800, Todd shoves for 1450 more, Nath folds, and I call. Todd has the AKdd and I'm getting freerolled. He catches a diamond on the river and I'm left with 1300.
Hand 2: Jose Canseco opens to 200 in MP, I shove 1225 in the SB with AKo and pick it up.
Hand 3: 25/50 now. Canseco opens to 200 in MP, Nath calls in late position, I shove 88 in the BB for 1400, Canseco instacalls which forces Nath to fold 99. Canseco has ATo (not exactly the best call), and flops an A to bust me.
After I busted though I got to go in the other room and watch the hole card cameras and do some commentary on the tournament. It definitely took some getting used to but I think I actually did a fairly decent job, and it was a fun experience. They hooked us up with all sorts of snacks and alcohol too so it was a good time despite the early bustout. So, what am I going to do tomorow to follow a day like this you ask? Probably just relax all day, maybe play a little bit of live cash or something, and then Scot came through with the hookup for box seats at the Lakers game in the evening. Life is going pretty ok right now.
Mike
Monday, February 18, 2008
I must be the greatest!
This title would have worked a lot better if I was able to win a tournament today, but I'm going to use it anyways. I managed to save my Sunday with a 3rd place finish in the $150 tournament on Full Tilt for $11.6K. I was also chipleader in the $200 rebuy as we reached the money but I lost some small pots somehow and then lost a coinflip so I only cashed for $1800. Before those tournaments the day was going pretty terribly. I was busting every tournament I played in record time, which wasn't so bad because it's relatively painless compared to going deep in everything then bubbling. The biggest success of the weekend though was finally winning my EPT Monte Carlo package. I had finished 2nd in two of the Step 6 STT Monte Carlo satellites when only first gets the seat, including one where I lost A8o to A6s all-in preflop for almost all the chips. This time I managed not to bubble the $1000 MTT supersatellite after having the chiplead for a decent amount of the middle stages of the tournament. The package includes the $10K Euro buy-in, hotel for the week, and $1500 for travel expenses. I'm also planning to play EPT San Remo in Italy a couple weeks before Monte Carlo and then figure out some plans for hanging out in Europe for the week in-between the tournaments. I haven't won a seat for that one yet though.
So tomorrow the guys from TwoRags are organizing a single table tournament that will be filmed by the Live at the Bike guys with hole cards and everything to put on their new website I'm told they're working on. It's going to be a $1000 buy-in, with a line-up of mostly TwoRags bloggers and online guys, but I think Vanessa Rousso is also going to play, and there is one other special player: Jose Canseco. Yup, that Jose Canseco. I'm looking forward to this one for sure, it should be a lot of fun and a good experience. Check the blog tomorrow to find out if Roger did it.
So far the guys from TwoRags have been great. I met Kyle the other night and he took a bunch of us for dinner during the $1K event. Definitely seems like a real nice guy with a lot of good ideas. I finally get to meet Scot tomorrow before the tournament, he's been the guy I've mostly talked to on AIM about all the different ideas and things they have going on with the site, and is at least partly responsible for getting me to haul my lazy ass out here. They definitely do have some connections in the city, and it's nice to finally be able to put faces to names to screennames. A lot more online players I know are arriving this week for the main event so there should be a lot of fun times ahead. Now that FTOPS is over I'll be leaving the hotel room a lot more.
Mike
So tomorrow the guys from TwoRags are organizing a single table tournament that will be filmed by the Live at the Bike guys with hole cards and everything to put on their new website I'm told they're working on. It's going to be a $1000 buy-in, with a line-up of mostly TwoRags bloggers and online guys, but I think Vanessa Rousso is also going to play, and there is one other special player: Jose Canseco. Yup, that Jose Canseco. I'm looking forward to this one for sure, it should be a lot of fun and a good experience. Check the blog tomorrow to find out if Roger did it.
So far the guys from TwoRags have been great. I met Kyle the other night and he took a bunch of us for dinner during the $1K event. Definitely seems like a real nice guy with a lot of good ideas. I finally get to meet Scot tomorrow before the tournament, he's been the guy I've mostly talked to on AIM about all the different ideas and things they have going on with the site, and is at least partly responsible for getting me to haul my lazy ass out here. They definitely do have some connections in the city, and it's nice to finally be able to put faces to names to screennames. A lot more online players I know are arriving this week for the main event so there should be a lot of fun times ahead. Now that FTOPS is over I'll be leaving the hotel room a lot more.
Mike
Saturday, February 16, 2008
I must be the worst ever
OK not really but the stuff I do sometimes makes me wonder. I fucked up really bad today in the $2500 NL LAPC event. I'm not going to tell you the hand because it's too embarassing and you'd lose any respect you may happen to have for me as a poker player, but the cliffs notes is I made a terrible laydown preflop with 16 players left. To rub it in I obviously had the best hand and would have held up to give me an average stack which would be pretty sweet so deep in the tournament, espeically considering I'd been struggling on a shortstack for a while. Then I shoved TT over a raise 2 hands later and a guy behind me obv woke up with aces to punish me for my idiocy. So anyways I cashed for a bit under $6k or something. I guess fatigue probably was a factor playing for 11 hours but that's part of the game and no excuse. Seriously I'm really bad at poker stop reading this blog. Anyways tomorrow is the big $2500 FTOPS event which I get to play now at least. Hopefully I can sleep off my tilt. I mean seriously good players are supposed to capitalize on these few opportunities we get late in tournaments not do stupid shit and blow every chance at a 6-figure win. Sorry for the swearing mom. I'm done now.
Mike
Mike
Thursday, February 14, 2008
I just won $42,500 and I'm incredibly disappointed
I know that's an enormous amount of money. To be able to win that much in a day I should be ecstatic. Lots of people probably don't make that in a year and just think I'm an asshole for not appreciating how lucky I am. I guess you'd have to be a poker player, in particular a tournament player, to really understand. That's just the game. I just finished 6th in the FTOPS Event #12, a $300 rebuy tournament with 6-handed tables and over 1300 players, for $42.5K. I played for 9 hours, generally getting very lucky, overcoming the few times I got unlucky, and for the most part playing some pretty damn good poker, especially towards the end. But then I ran into an unfortunate spot at the final table where I got put to a tough decision, and in retrospect, not because of the results of the hand but because of all the factors I failed to consider, I think I made a mistake which cost me tens of thousands of dollars in equity. I was so focused on just playing well and winning, and to fall short is incredibly disappointing. 1st place paid over a quarter million dollars, it was the biggest final table I've ever made, and to screw it up after getting so close is just a huge letdown.
Anyways here's the hand. It's obviously a spot that can go either way based on so many situational factors. I feel like the key factor I missed is that the villian doesn't really know much about me, and from what he's likely seen of my play probably does not think I'm very good as I've gotten my money in bad and drawn out a few times leading up to the final table when he likely had my table open to watch. He's therefore significantly less likely to be bluffing when he makes the large turn bet and I think I should have gotten away from my hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2100640
For some reason I seem to go through these stretches where instead of making a lot of these good but tough folds like I usually do I just start calling everything. I had several hands like this today where I paid off big bets in spots I typically get away from, though everything is so situational some of those calls may have been correct. Anyways I'm off to replay these hands in my head a few thousand more times before I can get to sleep. Next live tournament will be the $2500 NL event on Friday, probably play some more online stuff today I guess.
Mike
Anyways here's the hand. It's obviously a spot that can go either way based on so many situational factors. I feel like the key factor I missed is that the villian doesn't really know much about me, and from what he's likely seen of my play probably does not think I'm very good as I've gotten my money in bad and drawn out a few times leading up to the final table when he likely had my table open to watch. He's therefore significantly less likely to be bluffing when he makes the large turn bet and I think I should have gotten away from my hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2100640
For some reason I seem to go through these stretches where instead of making a lot of these good but tough folds like I usually do I just start calling everything. I had several hands like this today where I paid off big bets in spots I typically get away from, though everything is so situational some of those calls may have been correct. Anyways I'm off to replay these hands in my head a few thousand more times before I can get to sleep. Next live tournament will be the $2500 NL event on Friday, probably play some more online stuff today I guess.
Mike
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
LA Days 1&2
Hey hey, I got in safely yesterday in time to play Sunday tournaments online. No luck in the tournaments but I had a profitable day because of a good cash session. Cash has continued to go well overall. I've been playing a lot of 25/50 NL so the swings are pretty solid, I had a +$44k day and -$26K day last week, but overall I seem to be moving in the right direction. The games I've been playing have been really good, and I've been putting in a decent amount of hands lately, it kind of reminds of the good ol Cake Poker days of last summer. Anyways today I played my first event of the LAPC, a $2500 event with 167 players. It went a little something like this.H
Hand 1: A bunch of small pots have happened and I'im up to 6K from 5K starting stack. I've opened a few pots but nothing particularly exciting. In one hand I opened UTG to 200 at 25/50 with AKo, a donk calls, and the SB makes it 700, I reluctantly fold. Now in this hand I make it 300 UTG @ 50/100 with AKs. Donk makes it 900, I decide screw these guys I don't really want to fold again (notice the expert thought process and decision making skills used here) even though he seems to be the loose passive type who wouldn't reraise without a huge hand, so I make 2K more and call his instashove. His AA is good and I have 900 left, looks like I'm going to make it back to the hotel in time for the $1K FTOPS event online.
Hand 2: Shove 725 UTG with A3cc. Get called by AT and 66 so I'm basically drawing dead but flop trip threes.
Hand 3: Jason (JP_OSU) opens to 450 UTG, I shove 2250ish with AK and he said he miscounted the pot and called with AQs so I'm back around starting chips when I hold.
Hand 4: I raise TT in the CO to 450, SB calls. Flop A56 two spades, he checks and I decide to check behind. Turn T, he bets 250 and I make it 1000. He calls. Turn Js. He bets 3000, I tank for a bit and call. He says "2 pair" and I table the winner.
Hand 5: I'm not in this hand but it was pretty hilarious. Middle-aged Asian guy who limps a fair bit and loves angle-shooting and giving reverse tells limps UTG and says something about how he always miss the flop, try one more time. Another guy limps, Jason has recently bluffed off his stack and shoves his last 800. BelowAbove is in the BB and raises to 2200 to isolate. UTG now makes it 3600 more. Folds to below who tanks for a while and calls. Flop KTx, below shoves 13K, asian guy beats him into the pot and obv shows AA. Below has QJo???!!! and misses. Jason has KQ and rivers trips to get back in the game.
Hand 6: I raise AJs with 6 players behind me. Guy on my left who seems to always call my raises calls, and now below on his left shoves 5K more. It folds back to me and I figure it's got to be really unlikely that he'd shove on me light there since I usually have a pretty big hand and I'm not going to give him any credit. But on the other hand he is belowbove.... I finally decide to fold but I'm not entirely sure it's right.
Hand 7: I have around 8300 now. Open the HJ to 600 with TT, guy on my left calls yet again. Now the asian guy from before very quickly makes it 2600 on the button without saying anything. I figure this is far too good a spot for him to squeeze, and as much as I hate putting much faith in my live reads, the speed of his action and the fact he didn't try to Hollywood at all makes me think he's weak. I think for a bit and decide I just can't fold, so I stick it in and he tanks for a bit and eventually folds.
Hand 8: I now have about 11.3K, and a very solid table image. Folds to the CO who seems not overly loose or overly tight so far, he hasn't really showed any hands since he got moved here, who open to 625 at 100/200 a25, his standard open size. I reraise to 1825 in the BB with 76o, but he quickly calls. Flop 542r, I check intending to checkraise all-in, but he bets only 1200. I sense a trap and decide to call. Turn Qc starting a backdoor flushdraw, I check he bets 2500. This time I just can't resist the temptation to shove on him, but he instacalls and table the nuts and more: 63cc. I don't get there and that's that. It would be fair to say most people at the table were a little surprised when the hands got turned over. I overheard him make some comment about how he thought I had a monster preflop but I "priced him in if I could hit the right flop". lol.
Anyways tomorrow is a $1k tourney which I guess I'll play. I'm a bit unimpressed by the size of the field today though and it's kind of tempting to skip some of these prelims and just grind online if they're not going to be very big, or maybe even play some live cash. Anyways I'll be blogging more regularly for the next couple weeks as always when I'm on the road. Talk to y'all later,
Mike
Hand 1: A bunch of small pots have happened and I'im up to 6K from 5K starting stack. I've opened a few pots but nothing particularly exciting. In one hand I opened UTG to 200 at 25/50 with AKo, a donk calls, and the SB makes it 700, I reluctantly fold. Now in this hand I make it 300 UTG @ 50/100 with AKs. Donk makes it 900, I decide screw these guys I don't really want to fold again (notice the expert thought process and decision making skills used here) even though he seems to be the loose passive type who wouldn't reraise without a huge hand, so I make 2K more and call his instashove. His AA is good and I have 900 left, looks like I'm going to make it back to the hotel in time for the $1K FTOPS event online.
Hand 2: Shove 725 UTG with A3cc. Get called by AT and 66 so I'm basically drawing dead but flop trip threes.
Hand 3: Jason (JP_OSU) opens to 450 UTG, I shove 2250ish with AK and he said he miscounted the pot and called with AQs so I'm back around starting chips when I hold.
Hand 4: I raise TT in the CO to 450, SB calls. Flop A56 two spades, he checks and I decide to check behind. Turn T, he bets 250 and I make it 1000. He calls. Turn Js. He bets 3000, I tank for a bit and call. He says "2 pair" and I table the winner.
Hand 5: I'm not in this hand but it was pretty hilarious. Middle-aged Asian guy who limps a fair bit and loves angle-shooting and giving reverse tells limps UTG and says something about how he always miss the flop, try one more time. Another guy limps, Jason has recently bluffed off his stack and shoves his last 800. BelowAbove is in the BB and raises to 2200 to isolate. UTG now makes it 3600 more. Folds to below who tanks for a while and calls. Flop KTx, below shoves 13K, asian guy beats him into the pot and obv shows AA. Below has QJo???!!! and misses. Jason has KQ and rivers trips to get back in the game.
Hand 6: I raise AJs with 6 players behind me. Guy on my left who seems to always call my raises calls, and now below on his left shoves 5K more. It folds back to me and I figure it's got to be really unlikely that he'd shove on me light there since I usually have a pretty big hand and I'm not going to give him any credit. But on the other hand he is belowbove.... I finally decide to fold but I'm not entirely sure it's right.
Hand 7: I have around 8300 now. Open the HJ to 600 with TT, guy on my left calls yet again. Now the asian guy from before very quickly makes it 2600 on the button without saying anything. I figure this is far too good a spot for him to squeeze, and as much as I hate putting much faith in my live reads, the speed of his action and the fact he didn't try to Hollywood at all makes me think he's weak. I think for a bit and decide I just can't fold, so I stick it in and he tanks for a bit and eventually folds.
Hand 8: I now have about 11.3K, and a very solid table image. Folds to the CO who seems not overly loose or overly tight so far, he hasn't really showed any hands since he got moved here, who open to 625 at 100/200 a25, his standard open size. I reraise to 1825 in the BB with 76o, but he quickly calls. Flop 542r, I check intending to checkraise all-in, but he bets only 1200. I sense a trap and decide to call. Turn Qc starting a backdoor flushdraw, I check he bets 2500. This time I just can't resist the temptation to shove on him, but he instacalls and table the nuts and more: 63cc. I don't get there and that's that. It would be fair to say most people at the table were a little surprised when the hands got turned over. I overheard him make some comment about how he thought I had a monster preflop but I "priced him in if I could hit the right flop". lol.
Anyways tomorrow is a $1k tourney which I guess I'll play. I'm a bit unimpressed by the size of the field today though and it's kind of tempting to skip some of these prelims and just grind online if they're not going to be very big, or maybe even play some live cash. Anyways I'll be blogging more regularly for the next couple weeks as always when I'm on the road. Talk to y'all later,
Mike
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Timex is the sickest
He won EPT Dortmund yesterday for 933K Euro or just shy of $1.4M USD. He's just been on a tear to start the year. Sadly I didn't have any of his action for this. I'm taking a rare Sunday off today to go to a Super Bowl party. I figure I'm probably saving around $6K this way anyways so it's all good. I guess there should be some kind of content in this post. Here is my January graph where I crush over an insignificant number of hands.
Almost $8/hand, wish it was always that easy.
Mike
Almost $8/hand, wish it was always that easy.Mike