Well I had an interesting weekend from a poker perspective to say the least. There were some really big special tournaments this weekend so I played a fair bit. On Saturday there was the sickest tournament ever, the Pacific $1000 buy-in $3 Million guaranteed. It got 2200ish runners meaning around $800K was donated to the prize pool by the site. The payout structure was really top heavy to try to attract players: 1st = $1 million, 2nd = $400K, and then more gradual from there. Also, basically everyone on Pacific is terribad so it's really awesome. Sadly it wasn't my time as I held on for a while on the short stack before losing AA to JJ around 5 hours in but still short of the money. I also busted everything else I played including the PokerRoom/Mansion grand which is also awesome, and I was even down slightly at my 10/20 and 25/50 cash games after a decent number of hands. Yup, it was time to tilt, and as people who have been reading this blog for a while will know, that usually means shortstacking high stakes pot-limit omaha.
Following the standard "move up to get even" theory of tilted shot-taking I sat at 200/400 PLO with my usual minimum $8K buy-in. Finally luck was on my side for once that day and I quickly doubled up. Success! Out of the hole and showing a small profit for the day, time to quit and go out for the night right? You must not be very good at tilted shot-taking. You see now I'm freerolling on my next $8K buy-in! And look how easy it was to randomly win that coinflip and make a bunch of money, surely I can just do that again no problem. So I bought into the other table and, sure enough, within a few hands I had doubled my buy-in again. Easy game, I thought, but now I couldn't sit back in for 30 minutes anyways so I quit and went to dinner. As it turned out not much was going on that night so I stayed home. When I got back I noticed 3 200/400 PLO tables going. Well, gotta play the rush right? In quick succession I won big pots on all 3 tables and quit for good this time. In total I played 34 hands of Omaha and made $53.5K. Here are the big pots I won, minimal comments on strategy because I probably still suck at omaha.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2533002
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2533004
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2533007
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2533011
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2533014 - MSampoerna is a billionaire that owns Mansion among other companies, and he had just taken a very bad beat on the previous hand so I figured he was just trying to tilt the rest off in this hand. As it turned out I looked it up and I had 35.8% equity all-in 3 ways preflop, and I outskilled them on the river card.
Sunday went similarly, I took some rough beats in the 3 tournaments I got deep in and busted everything, then played a bunch of PLO to try to get even. This time I swung up and down all over the place but luckily I came out ahead ~$10K in the end to put the day in the black. The PLO games seem really good right now, I imagine a good player with a sufficient bankroll could make a lot of money as there seemed to always be one or two players that were pretty weak. I guess I'll keep taking shots at them buying in for the minimum when they look good and see how things go. Anyways I'm back to Toronto tomorrow. Peace,
Mike
Monday, April 28, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Back Home!
Update!: Checkout my poker commentating debut. TwoRags has posted a couple clips from the live $1000 sit and go we played in LA back in January.
Nath vs. Vivek
Jose Canseco bluffs Serge
Well I'm back home in St. John's for the next week. Saturday was my 24th birthday so between that and the fact I'd been on the road for 3 weeks already in Europe I decided to skip the WPT Championship 25K event. I'm actually not planning to play any more live events until the end of May when I'm making the move to Vegas for a month and a half again for the World Series of Poker. Last year I was extremely burnt out from poker by the end of the series so this year I'm going to try to do a few things different to avoid that including taking the next month off from live poker.
I haven't played much poker in the last week or so. I busted out of the 2K euro event in Monte Carlo pretty quickly and then spent most of the rest of the trip drinking in the player's lounge. PokerStars really did an amazing job with this. The player's lounge had free drinks: water, coke, redbull, and beer. It had a wii and a PS3 set up on big LCD screens, as well as a foosball table and a couple laptops set up in the battleship format to play heads-up against each other or often some of the Team PokerStars pros. Considering the prices for drinks throughout the rest of Monaco (20E+ at the hot local night club) hanging around there was a pretty popular option amongst the players when there wasn't much else on the go, and it's really pretty incredible of them to treat their players so well.
Finally, I promised pictures from the trip so here are a few. I only have pics from Pisa on my camera at the moment, I'll see if anyone else has some from Florence or Monte Carlo that I can steal.
The leaning tower obviously.
Mike
Nath vs. Vivek
Jose Canseco bluffs Serge
Well I'm back home in St. John's for the next week. Saturday was my 24th birthday so between that and the fact I'd been on the road for 3 weeks already in Europe I decided to skip the WPT Championship 25K event. I'm actually not planning to play any more live events until the end of May when I'm making the move to Vegas for a month and a half again for the World Series of Poker. Last year I was extremely burnt out from poker by the end of the series so this year I'm going to try to do a few things different to avoid that including taking the next month off from live poker.
I haven't played much poker in the last week or so. I busted out of the 2K euro event in Monte Carlo pretty quickly and then spent most of the rest of the trip drinking in the player's lounge. PokerStars really did an amazing job with this. The player's lounge had free drinks: water, coke, redbull, and beer. It had a wii and a PS3 set up on big LCD screens, as well as a foosball table and a couple laptops set up in the battleship format to play heads-up against each other or often some of the Team PokerStars pros. Considering the prices for drinks throughout the rest of Monaco (20E+ at the hot local night club) hanging around there was a pretty popular option amongst the players when there wasn't much else on the go, and it's really pretty incredible of them to treat their players so well.
Finally, I promised pictures from the trip so here are a few. I only have pics from Pisa on my camera at the moment, I'll see if anyone else has some from Florence or Monte Carlo that I can steal.
The Cathedral.
The leaning tower obviously.
Me at the top of the tower with the cathedral below.
Mike
Monday, April 14, 2008
Busto (Updated with Details)
OK let's do a quick recap of Day 2. I quickly chipped up to about 27K winning small pots and picking up the blinds, unfortunately most of the hands I picked up the blinds with were monsters that I definitely would have preferred to get action with. Then this hand happens to set me back where I started.
Hand 1: 300/600 a75 Folds to this Russian guy on my right in a PokerStars Supernova Elite shirt who shoves 7Kish. I reshove AQ and lose to 44. Back to 17K. From there I manage to chip back up to around 22K when this absurd hand happens.
Hand 2: This LAGgy French guy raises to 1500 in MP, and he basically does this a lot with likely all sorts of stupid hands, but raises bigger with legitimiate hands. He seemed but bad but I didn't realize what a complete nutcase he was until after this hand. I decide to just reraise and pick up the pot. I find A3o and make it 5K. He insta-calls. OK I still definitely think he has a weak hand. Flop T94r, I bet 7K, he instacalls. I only have 10K left so I give up on the 6 turn and fold to his bet. He turns over his hand and I expect it to be QJ and put me on lifetilt but he actually has the nizzles, 87o. From this point on he just keeps playing crazier and crazier.
Hand 3: 400/800 a100 PokerStars shirt raises to 2100, I shove 11K w/ 66 in the SB he calls with ATo and I hold to double.
Hand 4: Just after this it folds to me in the CO and I raise to 2200 with 99. The BB is not back from break yet and Luca Pagano on my left starts counting chips and I'm praying he reraises me. He obliges and makes it 8200, I ship for 22K and he folds getting over 2:1 yay.
Hand 5: Maniac limps and all fold to me in the BB with 34K now. I make it 3300 with KTo for value and he obv instacalls. Flop T84 two spades, I bet 4600 he makes it 10K I call. I'm not worried about spades because he'd make a huge raise with a flush draw. I really think he's on a complete bluff or has like 54s or 33 because I've seen him miniraise as a pure bluff before. I'm just letting him hang himself. Turn 8, not the best card but whatever. I check, he bets 13K I shove for 7K more he calls. T6s for him I've got him dead to a chop, river A no 70K stack for me.
Hand 6: 500/1000 a100. I get moved to a new table and chip up to 48K winning a few small pots and mixing in a resteal. I open to 2700 with JTo in the HJ, guy on my left calls and old Italian guy in the SB calls. Flop 942r, old guy leads out 3900. Looks like the standard trying to figure out where he's at bet so I inform him that he is losing by making it 12K. Guy on my left folds but he instacalls. Turn 6 he checks and I consider shoving since I only have about a pot size bet left and I still don't think he has much but I'm not cool enough to pull the trigger on something like that so I give up. River 7 chk/chk he tables J9s I muck. I remembered a hand afterwards where I saw him completely station a guy and realized I shouldn't have even bothered bluffing the flop. Discussing afterwards while drinking someone made the interesting generalization that in the US or UK against the nitty grinders there they always love to "play good" by "finding out where they're at" and folding to a raise on the flop so my bluff is good against them, but against an Italian, Frenchman, or Spaniard I'm basically lighting money on fire because they just don't play that sophisticated yet.
Hand 7: 600/1200 a100 So for once I definitely do not have my typical "SirNit" table image which is pretty awesome as it gets me lots of action here. Old guy limps in EP, SB completes, I find AA in the BB with my 30K stack and make it 4800. Limper folds and I'm thinking 'damn that was unexpected, now the SB obv has nothing and folds and I don't get paid off with AA again.' "How much do you have?" Speaking of unexpcted... I push out my chips where he can see them. He pushes in a stack of brown 5k chips and I do one of my typical instacall and turn by hand over immediately. He dejectedly tables 55 and the door card is obv a 5. 952 two clubs though so I have some backdoor draws, and I even turn a flush draw but brick the river.
So overall the day actually went pretty well except for when I got in pots that would have given me an average or better stack, in those I just got crushed. I'll probably play the 2K event tomorrow though I guess.
Mike
Hand 1: 300/600 a75 Folds to this Russian guy on my right in a PokerStars Supernova Elite shirt who shoves 7Kish. I reshove AQ and lose to 44. Back to 17K. From there I manage to chip back up to around 22K when this absurd hand happens.
Hand 2: This LAGgy French guy raises to 1500 in MP, and he basically does this a lot with likely all sorts of stupid hands, but raises bigger with legitimiate hands. He seemed but bad but I didn't realize what a complete nutcase he was until after this hand. I decide to just reraise and pick up the pot. I find A3o and make it 5K. He insta-calls. OK I still definitely think he has a weak hand. Flop T94r, I bet 7K, he instacalls. I only have 10K left so I give up on the 6 turn and fold to his bet. He turns over his hand and I expect it to be QJ and put me on lifetilt but he actually has the nizzles, 87o. From this point on he just keeps playing crazier and crazier.
Hand 3: 400/800 a100 PokerStars shirt raises to 2100, I shove 11K w/ 66 in the SB he calls with ATo and I hold to double.
Hand 4: Just after this it folds to me in the CO and I raise to 2200 with 99. The BB is not back from break yet and Luca Pagano on my left starts counting chips and I'm praying he reraises me. He obliges and makes it 8200, I ship for 22K and he folds getting over 2:1 yay.
Hand 5: Maniac limps and all fold to me in the BB with 34K now. I make it 3300 with KTo for value and he obv instacalls. Flop T84 two spades, I bet 4600 he makes it 10K I call. I'm not worried about spades because he'd make a huge raise with a flush draw. I really think he's on a complete bluff or has like 54s or 33 because I've seen him miniraise as a pure bluff before. I'm just letting him hang himself. Turn 8, not the best card but whatever. I check, he bets 13K I shove for 7K more he calls. T6s for him I've got him dead to a chop, river A no 70K stack for me.
Hand 6: 500/1000 a100. I get moved to a new table and chip up to 48K winning a few small pots and mixing in a resteal. I open to 2700 with JTo in the HJ, guy on my left calls and old Italian guy in the SB calls. Flop 942r, old guy leads out 3900. Looks like the standard trying to figure out where he's at bet so I inform him that he is losing by making it 12K. Guy on my left folds but he instacalls. Turn 6 he checks and I consider shoving since I only have about a pot size bet left and I still don't think he has much but I'm not cool enough to pull the trigger on something like that so I give up. River 7 chk/chk he tables J9s I muck. I remembered a hand afterwards where I saw him completely station a guy and realized I shouldn't have even bothered bluffing the flop. Discussing afterwards while drinking someone made the interesting generalization that in the US or UK against the nitty grinders there they always love to "play good" by "finding out where they're at" and folding to a raise on the flop so my bluff is good against them, but against an Italian, Frenchman, or Spaniard I'm basically lighting money on fire because they just don't play that sophisticated yet.
Hand 7: 600/1200 a100 So for once I definitely do not have my typical "SirNit" table image which is pretty awesome as it gets me lots of action here. Old guy limps in EP, SB completes, I find AA in the BB with my 30K stack and make it 4800. Limper folds and I'm thinking 'damn that was unexpected, now the SB obv has nothing and folds and I don't get paid off with AA again.' "How much do you have?" Speaking of unexpcted... I push out my chips where he can see them. He pushes in a stack of brown 5k chips and I do one of my typical instacall and turn by hand over immediately. He dejectedly tables 55 and the door card is obv a 5. 952 two clubs though so I have some backdoor draws, and I even turn a flush draw but brick the river.
So overall the day actually went pretty well except for when I got in pots that would have given me an average or better stack, in those I just got crushed. I'll probably play the 2K event tomorrow though I guess.
Mike
Sunday, April 13, 2008
16.7K on to Day 2
It was a pretty frustrating day. I more than doubled my stack at my first table to 32K but then got moved to a new table that was pretty tough and didn't make any more hands. I bled down to 16.7K without losing any real substantial pot which was even less fun than it sounds. However blinds are still only 200/400 a50 when we return tomorrow so I have lots of time to pick up some hands. Hopefully I get a better table draw, there are so many bad players I definitely got extremely unlucky with table draws today. I don't feel like recounting all my hands, here's one that describes the 2nd half of my day:
150/300 a25 I raise AQs to 900 in EMP, one of the decent aggro players across the table calls. Flop JT5r, I bet 1600 he calls. Turn 7 chk/chk. River A. omg I finally made the top pair!!!! So I'm trying to figure out how to get value out of the hand, only to realize that not only can I not value bet, I have to check and fold to a bet because his entire range basically just got there way harder than I got there and the stuff that didn't is almost never bluffing. So I check, he bets 5200 and I sigh and fold because he has the nuts.
Mike
150/300 a25 I raise AQs to 900 in EMP, one of the decent aggro players across the table calls. Flop JT5r, I bet 1600 he calls. Turn 7 chk/chk. River A. omg I finally made the top pair!!!! So I'm trying to figure out how to get value out of the hand, only to realize that not only can I not value bet, I have to check and fold to a bet because his entire range basically just got there way harder than I got there and the stuff that didn't is almost never bluffing. So I check, he bets 5200 and I sigh and fold because he has the nuts.
Mike
Saturday, April 12, 2008
EPT Monte Carlo Day 1B
So I play tomorrow (Sunday). Looks like there's going to be around 800 players so probably over 2 million euros for first. I'm not ready to do tell you all about Monte Carlo yet because I didn't leave my room today. Last night was the PokerStars cocktail party which was a lot of fun. It seems like everyone is here, this tournament is just big. Anyways I ended up having a bit too much fun trying to take advantage of free drinks as opposed to $10+ drinks like anywhere else here. So today I just lied around and did nothing all afternoon. In the evening I played the Saturday afternoon EST tournaments to get my mind back on poker for tomorrow but had little luck. I also mixed in some cash games though and ran really well at those. I was up $22K at one point ($20K on one 25/50 table) but I lost a few big pots at the end to finish up only $13K. I haven't posted any cash hands in a while so here are some of the big pots from today:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425185 - I decided to slowplay preflop. It should still be fairly obvious I need a biggish hand to call here so I was pretty surprised to get paid off by such a weak hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425213 - His little minireraise was scary and I almost decided to play the hand more passively by just calling it. He was an unknown player to me who bought in fairly short and had run it up and on this site that usually means a fish. He didn't seem to be that bad though and passive players can definitely have AA or KK here a lot. I decided that it was likely enough he was just doing something stupid and would give me lots of money so I opted to just try to get it in preflop.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425200 - A very skillful hand on my part. Notice how I can win from either side of these races, with the AK or the pair, the sign of a real expert.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425254 - Here I mixed in a 3-bet bluff. It's hard to get action from worse hands on the flop having overrepresented my hand preflop so I check behind for pot control. This gives him the chance to bluff with worse hands and also lets me see some more cards to try to improve my hand if I happen to be beat. If he's slowplaying a big pair which is not all that unlikely and I make 2 pair or better I may win a huge pot instead of getting checkraised off my hand if I bet. I backdoor my flush and win a nice pot.
So I'm rolling along unable to lose a pot until these two hands at the very end of the session:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425308 - I'm never sure how to play the turn here. I usually just lead out but then if he raises me it's really ugly. I probably have to fold but it's not a fold I'm entirely comfortable making since it feels so weak. I decided to just check/call down and give him the chance to run a big multi-street bluff trying to represent a hand like AK. In particular once he bets big on the turn I'm very concerned he has a huge hand and I definitely am not going to raise him, but I certainly can't fold at any point.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425343 - Just one of those gross hands. I don't think I can play it any other way but the queen is such a bad turn card, as soon as it hit I just had that feeling that I was about to lose a lot of money.
Anyways time to get some rest before I play tomorrow. Play starts at 1pm here so 7am EST. CardPlayer is here doing live coverage (www.cardplayer.com) so if you're bored that's probably the best place to check and see if they happen to have any updates about me.
Mike
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425185 - I decided to slowplay preflop. It should still be fairly obvious I need a biggish hand to call here so I was pretty surprised to get paid off by such a weak hand.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425213 - His little minireraise was scary and I almost decided to play the hand more passively by just calling it. He was an unknown player to me who bought in fairly short and had run it up and on this site that usually means a fish. He didn't seem to be that bad though and passive players can definitely have AA or KK here a lot. I decided that it was likely enough he was just doing something stupid and would give me lots of money so I opted to just try to get it in preflop.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425200 - A very skillful hand on my part. Notice how I can win from either side of these races, with the AK or the pair, the sign of a real expert.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425254 - Here I mixed in a 3-bet bluff. It's hard to get action from worse hands on the flop having overrepresented my hand preflop so I check behind for pot control. This gives him the chance to bluff with worse hands and also lets me see some more cards to try to improve my hand if I happen to be beat. If he's slowplaying a big pair which is not all that unlikely and I make 2 pair or better I may win a huge pot instead of getting checkraised off my hand if I bet. I backdoor my flush and win a nice pot.
So I'm rolling along unable to lose a pot until these two hands at the very end of the session:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425308 - I'm never sure how to play the turn here. I usually just lead out but then if he raises me it's really ugly. I probably have to fold but it's not a fold I'm entirely comfortable making since it feels so weak. I decided to just check/call down and give him the chance to run a big multi-street bluff trying to represent a hand like AK. In particular once he bets big on the turn I'm very concerned he has a huge hand and I definitely am not going to raise him, but I certainly can't fold at any point.
http://www.pokerhand.org/?2425343 - Just one of those gross hands. I don't think I can play it any other way but the queen is such a bad turn card, as soon as it hit I just had that feeling that I was about to lose a lot of money.
Anyways time to get some rest before I play tomorrow. Play starts at 1pm here so 7am EST. CardPlayer is here doing live coverage (www.cardplayer.com) so if you're bored that's probably the best place to check and see if they happen to have any updates about me.
Mike
Friday, April 11, 2008
Pisa, Florence, and Monte Carlo!
Hello, bonjour! I am now settled in the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort, and it is pretty much the best place ever. I'll have lots of time to rave about it in the coming week though once I've seen and done more here, for now I want to talk about the last few days doing the tourist thing in Italy. So timex, ch0ppy (Matt), and I stayed in San Remo Sunday night and played online tournaments until 7am or whatever because of the time difference. Our plan was then to check out Pisa and Florence before heading to Monte Carlo for the EPT grand final, but at the last minute while we were looking for hotel/finalizing our plans before leaving timex dropped out and decided to just stay in San Remo and be a degenerate, so only ch0ppy and I ended up going. We decided to try to keep the trip cheap so we ended up booking a cheap hotel in Pisa for 3 nights. The first night we arrived and crashed almost immediately after a quick wander around town and bite to eat. The second day we went to see the leaning tower as well as checking out the rest of "Piazza dei Miracoli", or Square of Miracles as it is called. The third day we went to Florence for the day and did one of those open top bus tours all around the city.
So day 1 ch0ppy and I leave timex passed out and hop on the train towards Pisa. We transfer in Genova and arrive in Pisa around 4 or 5pm after a 5 and a half hour journey counting wait time for our transfer. It's a short cab ride to our hotel from Pisa Centrale but as tired as we are it's still too early to sleep. We decide to kill some time wandering around Pisa looking for a decent place to eat and end up at a pizzeria by our hotel. Our server looks like the stereoypical Italian pizza man from North American tv/movies which amuses ch0ppy greatly. We're so tired we can't even finish our pizzas and we're passed out in our uncomfortable 45 Euro/night beds by 8:30.
We sleep in until just before 10am and miss breakfast, but we're feeling refreshed and ready to do the tourist thing. We get a cab to the Square of Miracles and after grabbing lunch at a place the cab driver recommended nearby (the only cab driver we had in Pisa that spoke any english beyond "leaning tower" or "train station") we see the tower for the first time. It really is a pretty remarkable building to see first hand. The lean is quite pronounced (approximately 5 degrees, though it was even more than that in the 1990s before it was closed and scientists had to figure out a way to straighten it up a bit and prevent its collapse), and the white marble with which it is built is quite striking. We paid our 15 Euros each to go inside and climb the ~295 steps to the top, and it really is a spectacular view down on the city, the cathedral, and the rest of the square. We next paid our 10 Euros to check out the rest of the buildings of the square. The cathedral was quite nice as well. I've never been inside one before so I was very impressed, though the Duomo in Florence the next day blew it away, but the rest of the square was quite underwhelming, though we did end up learning a lot about the history of Pisa and the Square of Miracles. I also paid 30 Euro-cents to take a piss. Go figure.
The next day was a quick hour long train ride to Florence where we met skier_5 (Tommy) at his hotel and went for lunch. The three of us then got on one of those hope on hop off open roof bus tours of Florence. We went around on the first line seeing some of the sights, only hopping off on a terrace across the river from the main part of the city where there was a statue by Michelangelo and a great view down on Florence. We then all went to the Duomo (cathedral) which was really nice. Most impressive was the huge mural way way up high on the ceiling. We paid to go all the way up to the top of the building and get a closer look at that mural on the way up to really appreciate how huge it is, as well as an incredible view down on to the city. ch0ppy and I then went around on the 2nd bus line which took us way out into Fiesole. We then met back up with skier and Ben Straate (straate on Stars, when I first started playing cash games seriously we were both 3/6 NL regulars on Stars and he was probably the first really aggressive really good player I ran into regularly. Most regs were nits and the few LAGs were terribly spewy. We both moved up to the bigger games fairly quickly.) for dinner. We tried to join them for drinks after but we ran out of time looking for a good bar and ch0ppy and I had to get back to the train station so we could crash back in Pisa for the night.
Yesterday ch0ppy and I checked out of our cheap hotel with no tv or internet and hopped on the train towards Monte Carlo. There were some delays and decently long waits for transfers so the trip took a lot longer than it was supposed to but we finally arrived in Monte Carlo around 9pm. So far I have nothing bad to say about the place. Most of the people we've met speak both english and french very well (french being the official language here), the city looks gorgeous, and the hotel/resort is amazing. More on that note once I've been here longer. I'm sorry no pictures for now. I took a lot in Pisa but my camera battery died and I don't seem to have the charger with me so you'll have to wait on those. ch0ppy got a lot of pictures of everything I missed though. Time to stop sitting in my room and go check this place out. A bien tot,
Mike
So day 1 ch0ppy and I leave timex passed out and hop on the train towards Pisa. We transfer in Genova and arrive in Pisa around 4 or 5pm after a 5 and a half hour journey counting wait time for our transfer. It's a short cab ride to our hotel from Pisa Centrale but as tired as we are it's still too early to sleep. We decide to kill some time wandering around Pisa looking for a decent place to eat and end up at a pizzeria by our hotel. Our server looks like the stereoypical Italian pizza man from North American tv/movies which amuses ch0ppy greatly. We're so tired we can't even finish our pizzas and we're passed out in our uncomfortable 45 Euro/night beds by 8:30.
We sleep in until just before 10am and miss breakfast, but we're feeling refreshed and ready to do the tourist thing. We get a cab to the Square of Miracles and after grabbing lunch at a place the cab driver recommended nearby (the only cab driver we had in Pisa that spoke any english beyond "leaning tower" or "train station") we see the tower for the first time. It really is a pretty remarkable building to see first hand. The lean is quite pronounced (approximately 5 degrees, though it was even more than that in the 1990s before it was closed and scientists had to figure out a way to straighten it up a bit and prevent its collapse), and the white marble with which it is built is quite striking. We paid our 15 Euros each to go inside and climb the ~295 steps to the top, and it really is a spectacular view down on the city, the cathedral, and the rest of the square. We next paid our 10 Euros to check out the rest of the buildings of the square. The cathedral was quite nice as well. I've never been inside one before so I was very impressed, though the Duomo in Florence the next day blew it away, but the rest of the square was quite underwhelming, though we did end up learning a lot about the history of Pisa and the Square of Miracles. I also paid 30 Euro-cents to take a piss. Go figure.
The next day was a quick hour long train ride to Florence where we met skier_5 (Tommy) at his hotel and went for lunch. The three of us then got on one of those hope on hop off open roof bus tours of Florence. We went around on the first line seeing some of the sights, only hopping off on a terrace across the river from the main part of the city where there was a statue by Michelangelo and a great view down on Florence. We then all went to the Duomo (cathedral) which was really nice. Most impressive was the huge mural way way up high on the ceiling. We paid to go all the way up to the top of the building and get a closer look at that mural on the way up to really appreciate how huge it is, as well as an incredible view down on to the city. ch0ppy and I then went around on the 2nd bus line which took us way out into Fiesole. We then met back up with skier and Ben Straate (straate on Stars, when I first started playing cash games seriously we were both 3/6 NL regulars on Stars and he was probably the first really aggressive really good player I ran into regularly. Most regs were nits and the few LAGs were terribly spewy. We both moved up to the bigger games fairly quickly.) for dinner. We tried to join them for drinks after but we ran out of time looking for a good bar and ch0ppy and I had to get back to the train station so we could crash back in Pisa for the night.
Yesterday ch0ppy and I checked out of our cheap hotel with no tv or internet and hopped on the train towards Monte Carlo. There were some delays and decently long waits for transfers so the trip took a lot longer than it was supposed to but we finally arrived in Monte Carlo around 9pm. So far I have nothing bad to say about the place. Most of the people we've met speak both english and french very well (french being the official language here), the city looks gorgeous, and the hotel/resort is amazing. More on that note once I've been here longer. I'm sorry no pictures for now. I took a lot in Pisa but my camera battery died and I don't seem to have the charger with me so you'll have to wait on those. ch0ppy got a lot of pictures of everything I missed though. Time to stop sitting in my room and go check this place out. A bien tot,
Mike
Monday, April 07, 2008
Quick update from San Remo
Yo, so I had no luck in the 2K Euro event. In fact it was a complete disaster and I was out before the end of the third level. We ended up staying here an extra night to play Sunday tournaments. I had a few close calls including 5th in the UB $500 for ~$5200 to finish up a little on the day I think. Anyways now that poker is over with ch0ppy and I are heading to Pisa to check out the ol leaning tower and such, and we're also going to spend at least one day in Florence. It seems like most of our friends have already left for Florence but we were behind on the planning with wanting to play Sundays and all. timex is being a biatch though and not coming with us. He's probably just going to head to Monte Carlo early or something lame like that. So I probably won't be posting on here again until I get to Monte Carlo but I'll try to make sure I get some good pictures for the next update. I know I usually slack on the sight-seeing and picture taking so hopefully I can redeem myself a little.
Mike
Mike
Friday, April 04, 2008
Damn you Shaun Deeb
Could have saved me 5K Euros by not getting sick but instead I had to play the EPT. It was a pretty short day, I doubled up with AKo 4-flushing AKs in a very skillful hand. Then I called a 4xBB shove with K7o and beat his A9o. Now at 36K blinds 600/1200 a100 I get moved to Schaefer's table. He raises UTG 7-handed to 3200, I call with JJ on the button and the BB makes it 11.2K. Schaefer folds, I'm not thrilled about it but shove and BB has QQ. I'd probably fold TT but I think JJ is just good enough I shouldn't be folding. Anyways the 2K Euro event is tomorrow so I'll get in that now I guess.
I haven't talked about San Remo at all, basically the whole area is gorgeous. When I flew into Nice the runway is right next to the sea so it's a pretty sick view of the Mediterranean as you land. The water is that beautiful bright blue rippling calmly. From Nice timex and I got a cab to San Remo, and the entire trip is winding through hills by the coast. There are houses built on the sides of all these hills by the sea that timex claims would just slide down into the sea if he were to give them a little push. The weather has been very nice like 15-20C every day so we've been chilling by the pool a lot. The casino here is kind of small but it's fairly nice and the hotel we're staying at is pretty nice as well. It looked really small from outside but the rooms are actually fairly spacious. We've been going to some good Italian restaurants, lots of pizza and pasta obviously. Speaking of food it's dinner time. Later,
Mike
I haven't talked about San Remo at all, basically the whole area is gorgeous. When I flew into Nice the runway is right next to the sea so it's a pretty sick view of the Mediterranean as you land. The water is that beautiful bright blue rippling calmly. From Nice timex and I got a cab to San Remo, and the entire trip is winding through hills by the coast. There are houses built on the sides of all these hills by the sea that timex claims would just slide down into the sea if he were to give them a little push. The weather has been very nice like 15-20C every day so we've been chilling by the pool a lot. The casino here is kind of small but it's fairly nice and the hotel we're staying at is pretty nice as well. It looked really small from outside but the rooms are actually fairly spacious. We've been going to some good Italian restaurants, lots of pizza and pasta obviously. Speaking of food it's dinner time. Later,
Mike
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
I got into the EPT!
I was a last minute entry into EPT San Remo today when Shaun effing Deeb had to withdraw because he was really sick. I was able to buy-in and take his spot which was pretty awesome, though obviously I feel bad for Shaun and hope he's feeling better soon. I did my best to make the most of the opportunity though. I didn't run especially good today and it was an up and down session. I probably made some small mistakes but all-in-all I'm happy enough with how I played. I was pretty exhasusted all day because I woke up really early this morning and didn't bother trying to get back to sleep since I wasn't supposed to have to do anything today. I ended the day with 17K which is a bit short with blinds starting at 500/1000 tomorrow but it'll do. I was going to write a quick summary of key hands but I'm really just too tired. My stack basically went 10K ---->15K ----> 3K ----> 14K -----> 6K ----->17K throughout the day is the short version. Hopefully I can catch some cards tomorrow and make a little run. Bed time,
Mike
Mike
Sunday, March 30, 2008
I won a donkament!!!....
...and it was so much fun I went ahead and won another one. With no $100K sponsorship package and still a little pissed about the whole ordeal it was clear I had to take matters into my own hands and go get paid. Of course seeing as it was Sunday that meant trying to luckbox some donkaments. Unfortunately all the US-based sites tournaments start super late here and I have a flight at 8am so I didn't really want to bother playing all the late ones and risk having to miss my flight if I was at a final table or something (unless it was a really big final table). Fortunately there are a lot of Euro-donkaments that start at more Euro-friendly times so I just played everything that started from 12pm EST to 5pm EST (6pm-11pm here). Timex told me about a $550 tournament on Betfair that had a $100K guarantee so I made an account there and gave that a shot as well. Lucky he did, because that was where I finally broke my ~9 month slump. It only had 156 players so there was a nice overlay and after a roller coaster final table I finally ran (really) good at the end for once and took it down for $30K.
I guess when it rains it pours though. One tournament I've finished 2nd in at least twice without winning (possibly 3 times not sure) is the Full Tilt $163 tournament. I usually only play the evening one but they now have the usual 3pm one on Sundays as well and it gets a big field. 699 players meant first paid just over $25K and I ran insanely good in this one as well (the first 3 times I got all-in preflop in this tournament in the early-mid stages I was dominated but got there). I cardracked pretty hard at the final table again and shipped this one too. No luck in the other donkaments but +$50k is definitely one of my best days ever and easily my best ever Sunday. Not bad considering I stopped registering 4 hours earlier than usual. Anyways my flight leaves pretty soon so I better go. Peace,
Mike
I guess when it rains it pours though. One tournament I've finished 2nd in at least twice without winning (possibly 3 times not sure) is the Full Tilt $163 tournament. I usually only play the evening one but they now have the usual 3pm one on Sundays as well and it gets a big field. 699 players meant first paid just over $25K and I ran insanely good in this one as well (the first 3 times I got all-in preflop in this tournament in the early-mid stages I was dominated but got there). I cardracked pretty hard at the final table again and shipped this one too. No luck in the other donkaments but +$50k is definitely one of my best days ever and easily my best ever Sunday. Not bad considering I stopped registering 4 hours earlier than usual. Anyways my flight leaves pretty soon so I better go. Peace,
Mike
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Sigh.....
Well I'm out of the Everest contest. I don't imagine I ever actually had a chance. The day went pretty well, we played a few sit n gos and I finished 4th and 2nd which is reasonably solid. The interview was two questions, one about Everest and one about poker in general. You get 5 minutes to prepare your thoughts then go in and do a 5 min interview. I got a couple tricky questions but I think I actually handled them pretty well. Anyways then they narrow it down to 20 people at the end of the day. I wasn't selected, but I kind of wasn't surprised. It seemed pretty obvious that their objective point system they claimed would be used was complete bs. Choose one/all of these reasons: I'm Canadian and they're concentrating on the European market. I only recently joined the site mainly for this contest and they wanted to reward their regulars more. They wanted people who were legitimate amateurs to give a shot to "Live the Dream" like the contest name, not someone who was kind of already doing that. Whatever the case, I don't think anything I said could have given me much of a chance as it turns out. I guess I still got paid to hang out in Vienna for a few days which is alright. Vienna seems like a really nice city, but I'm still probably not going to get to seeing much of it with tomorrow being the last Sunday of the quarter hence $1K buy-in Sunday million. I'm pretty much planning to watch March Madness all night, sleep forever because I'm tired and jetlagged as hell, then get up and play Sundays all night. Next up is EPT San Remo which I head to on Monday, I really wish I was playing but it's sold out. Despite the disappointment I somehow still feel really good about this trip, for whatever the hell that's worth.
Mike
Mike
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Everest Contest Preview
I didn't play at all this weekend hence the absence of blog updates. I spent Thursday-Sunday visiting family and friends in the area and enjoying that special holy weekend that comes but once a year: the first weekend of March Madness, when anything can and invariably does happen. Today I played a nice long session to make up for it a little bit though, and made two final tables. I finished 5th in Party Super Monday for ~$1700 and 2nd (siiiiiiiiiigh) in the iPoker (Titan) network $50 rebuy for ~$8K. So I finished up about $6K at tournaments but lost the same amount playing cash so the day was more or less a wash. I'm leaving for Europe on Thursday, with the first stop being Vienna for the Everest Poker live casting (March 28-31). I haven't really gone through what this involves on here yet so I'll take the time to do so now. The 200 players invited compete for 10 sponsorship packages. We are judged in 7 categories:
Blogging Skills: 10
This category was basically just graded on how many entries you write during the last 4 weeks. I wrote more than required so presumably I received 10/10 points.
Internet Voting: 10%
This is the part where all of you came in. We were divided into the groups of 10 players at the final tables we qualified from. I finished 2nd in my group (the winner had ~8500 hits, I got around 6000, and the next guy had under 3000) for 9 points. Thanks!
Online Poker Skill: 20%
Live Poker Skill: 20%
Presumably these are my strongest categories. Very few if any players in the competition will have the kind of poker resume I've built up in both live and online events over the last year or two. There will also be some tournaments played between us at the live casting which will have some weight on the live portion but I don't imagine that will weigh very heavily compared to results in major tournaments.
Personality: 15%
This is the part where you guys deliver your best one-liners. I'm certainly not the biggest personality out there but I'm fairly certain I'm not too big of a douchebag either.
Everest Poker Knowledge: 15%
I've been doing some studying. I'm not really sure how they will test this category or what types of things they expect me to know but I've been absorbing whatever information I can find.
Speaking Skills: 10%
Perhaps not my strongest category but the experience from being on TV for the World Cup of Poker and doing the interviews for that will help a lot as well as experience giving academic presentations and such. Again nothing I'm too concerned about.
So overall I definitely like my chances and I think it'll be a fun weekend in Austria.
After that it's off to EPT San Remo (April 1-5) which has unfortunately sold out. I hadn't bought in yet so I'll probably have to miss the main event, but there's a 2K Euro 2nd chance event and having to just hang out in Italy isn't a terrible fate. Then there's a week to travel around a bit before EPT Monte Carlo (April 11-18) which I've won a package for already. This is the big one. 10K Euro buy-in, last year first was over $2M USD/CAD and it's looking even bigger this year. Winning this would be a pretty good birthday present to myself. As always blog updates should be more frequent when I'm on the road so check back often starting this weekend.
Mike
Blogging Skills: 10
This category was basically just graded on how many entries you write during the last 4 weeks. I wrote more than required so presumably I received 10/10 points.
Internet Voting: 10%
This is the part where all of you came in. We were divided into the groups of 10 players at the final tables we qualified from. I finished 2nd in my group (the winner had ~8500 hits, I got around 6000, and the next guy had under 3000) for 9 points. Thanks!
Online Poker Skill: 20%
Live Poker Skill: 20%
Presumably these are my strongest categories. Very few if any players in the competition will have the kind of poker resume I've built up in both live and online events over the last year or two. There will also be some tournaments played between us at the live casting which will have some weight on the live portion but I don't imagine that will weigh very heavily compared to results in major tournaments.
Personality: 15%
This is the part where you guys deliver your best one-liners. I'm certainly not the biggest personality out there but I'm fairly certain I'm not too big of a douchebag either.
Everest Poker Knowledge: 15%
I've been doing some studying. I'm not really sure how they will test this category or what types of things they expect me to know but I've been absorbing whatever information I can find.
Speaking Skills: 10%
Perhaps not my strongest category but the experience from being on TV for the World Cup of Poker and doing the interviews for that will help a lot as well as experience giving academic presentations and such. Again nothing I'm too concerned about.
So overall I definitely like my chances and I think it'll be a fun weekend in Austria.
After that it's off to EPT San Remo (April 1-5) which has unfortunately sold out. I hadn't bought in yet so I'll probably have to miss the main event, but there's a 2K Euro 2nd chance event and having to just hang out in Italy isn't a terrible fate. Then there's a week to travel around a bit before EPT Monte Carlo (April 11-18) which I've won a package for already. This is the big one. 10K Euro buy-in, last year first was over $2M USD/CAD and it's looking even bigger this year. Winning this would be a pretty good birthday present to myself. As always blog updates should be more frequent when I'm on the road so check back often starting this weekend.
Mike
Monday, March 17, 2008
I'm Back!
So the Everest competition ends this Friday and my position in the online popularity contest part is unlikely to change so I've decided to start cross-posting back here again. I'm sorry I was away for so long but the Everest competition is obviously a pretty big deal for me and even though I like my chances I have to take it seriously and do everything I can to try to win. On to the blog.
It might seem like this a copy/paste of last weekend's blog but I assure you that's not the case. I slept really poorly this weekend for some reason even though I was exhausted. Still, being the hard worker/addict that I am I just grabbed some caffeine and played the usual schedule. On Saturday I busted out of everything super fast except for the Absolute $500 tourney. Again this week I managed some key suckouts and survived pushbotting my shortstack for quite a while as we neared the final table (the structure gets really bad towards the end in this tournament). I held on until the final table slowly increasing my stack. More of the same at the final table as I played very patient (but not passing on any good spots myself) watching the other shortstacks around me bust out and moved up several spots. I managed to win a couple key pots all-in preflop where I had the best hand for a change and get heads up with around 40% of the chips. Unfortunately I then lost a coinflip to finish 2nd for the second week in a row. Another $24K certainly doesn't hurt, but I kinda wonder if I'll ever win one of these things again.
Sunday was a typical disaster so I won't waste too much time on it. I cashed the warmup on Stars but I'm pretty sure that was the only one. I just slept for 15 hours though so I'm feeling pretty good and ready for St. Paddy's day etc... On that note I must go get ready. Even though I'm crossposting here please take the time to continue to visit me over at http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799 and click on all my blog entries until this weekend when the contest is over. Thanks again for all your support.
Mike
It might seem like this a copy/paste of last weekend's blog but I assure you that's not the case. I slept really poorly this weekend for some reason even though I was exhausted. Still, being the hard worker/addict that I am I just grabbed some caffeine and played the usual schedule. On Saturday I busted out of everything super fast except for the Absolute $500 tourney. Again this week I managed some key suckouts and survived pushbotting my shortstack for quite a while as we neared the final table (the structure gets really bad towards the end in this tournament). I held on until the final table slowly increasing my stack. More of the same at the final table as I played very patient (but not passing on any good spots myself) watching the other shortstacks around me bust out and moved up several spots. I managed to win a couple key pots all-in preflop where I had the best hand for a change and get heads up with around 40% of the chips. Unfortunately I then lost a coinflip to finish 2nd for the second week in a row. Another $24K certainly doesn't hurt, but I kinda wonder if I'll ever win one of these things again.
Sunday was a typical disaster so I won't waste too much time on it. I cashed the warmup on Stars but I'm pretty sure that was the only one. I just slept for 15 hours though so I'm feeling pretty good and ready for St. Paddy's day etc... On that note I must go get ready. Even though I'm crossposting here please take the time to continue to visit me over at http://www.everestpoker.com/video/user/?d=799 and click on all my blog entries until this weekend when the contest is over. Thanks again for all your support.
Mike
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
LAPC Day 5
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
Mike
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
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