Yo

Just a quick post. I finished Day 1A of EPT Monte Carlo with 24K down from 30K starting stack. I've got Twitter set up to post the most recent updates from my feed on the sidebar on the right here and I'll be texting in updates at each break so you can follow my progress from here. There has been a bit of a debacle with the rgulations here and PLO tournaments and STT's have been outlawed but the 5K euro PLO tourney has been replaced by a 5K euro 6-max NLHE tourney so that's not bad at all.

Mike

A Quick Pre-MC Post

Hey, sorry I have written in a while I just haven't really felt like it. WPT Champs didn't go great, I busted early on Day 2. I don't really feel like or remember all the hands I played but here's the first major pot I played:

50/100 we start with 100K in chips. David Phan opens the button to 300 I call in the SB with 88. Flop KT8r, I check, he bets 450 I make it 1525 he calls. Turn T I bet 3200 he makes it 8200 I call, River blanks I check/call 10K and KT is good. The first day actually went ok overall though and I chipped up to 105K but Day 2 nothing really went right. Congrats to Yev on the win though! I'm going to take partial credit since I loaned him some of my lucky Bellagio money for his buy-in. Also huge congrats to my fellow PS+ instructor charder for finishing 4th, and luckychewy for 13th.

I really haven't played much poker since then. Yesterday I shortstacked some good 500/1000 HA games fort he first time in a while and made 80K as I ran good. I've also played a couple short sessions of 50/100 CAP and 25/50 full stacked that went well so I've made back some of the money I've been losing to luckexpress.

Tonight I leave for Monte Carlo and should arrive early Monday afternoon. I'm planning to play the 10K euro main event, 25K euro the high roller, and the 5K euro PLO championship, though hopefully I'll do well enough in at least one of the first two that I have to skip one of the latter ones. That's all I've got for now, check out my two latest videos on PS+, I do a decent 3/6 PLO video and a HU PLO match with Tom that turned out really interesting where you can watch our commentary from both sides and see both people's cards. 5/10 PLO and 10/20 PLO will be my next two vids, I've already recorded the 10/20 but I need to do the 5/10 since it has to get put up first. Wish me luck in the coming week!

Mike

SCOOP Wrapup

Ok this will be my final SCOOP-related post. I cashed the $10K main event but lost a flip to bust 33rd for $30K. That cash probably put me around even on the series, not a great result by any stretch but 9 cashes is very solid I just didn't run good deep in any of them unfortunately. I also had a 2nd place finish in a Stars $100 rebuy for $22K which was a solid result, but Shaun F Deeb runs too good at final tables for me to close. Next up is the WPT Championship at Bellagio. It will be my first time playing this event but it should be really sick; $25K buy-in, 75K starting chips and hopefully a big field. The turnouts for their preliminary events have been terrible but Bellagio usually gets a crowd for the main event regardless, especially this tournament with it's huge buy-in has always been much bigger than you would expect. so I'm pretty optimistic it'll be a good turnout. I'll be giving the live updates on Twitter thing a try so follow me on there (SirWatts) if you want to read how I'm doing at each break beginning Sunday.

In other news there's really not much other news. I don't really feel like playing a whole lot right now before Bellagio so I probably won't. I'm going to watch baseball (Jays off to an unexpected good start), the hockey playoffs (go habs go!), and hang out with my friends here before I hit the road again. Take it easy homies,

Mike

SCOOP Update

Hey kids, what's up? I've been SCOOPin hard the last week playing most of the M and H events. My in the money % has been really high as I've cashed 8 events, 2 H (high buy-in) events and 6 M (mid buy-in) events. As a sidebar the 6 cashes in the M events is tied for most in the series. Unfortunately they are basically all small cashes except last night when I final tabled the (M) $425 8-game mixed event but busted 6th for a bit under $6K. I also have bubbled two additional (H) events, so I've been getting chips early and hanging in there but I haven't had quite as much luck in the later stages. Last night was particularly frustrating seeing as I went on a huge heater with 12 left to take a big chip lead, then ran KK into AA against the guy in 2nd place in the NLH round. Luckily I still had an average stack after that hand and hung in until the final table, but I spewed a few bets in the limit games and ran out of luck to bust 6th.

I haven't played all that much high stakes cash lately. The few sessions I have played went well enough despite another frustrating losing session against luckexpress. The games haven't been running a lot lately though and I've been content to go back to grinding tourneys mostly while SCOOP is on. I'm really enjoying playing the different games and feel like this is good experience to have before WSOP this summer where I want to play a lot of non-holdem events. I'm starting to become more confident in my play in the limit games which is very good news. Anyways I'm grinding some SCOOPs as I write this so I'm goign to go focus on them. Hopefully next time I write I'll actually have that win to write about!

Mike

PS. I'm giving this Twitter thing a try as SirWatts. I dont know how much I'll use it but I've been talked into giving it a shot since it's the big craze and all.

Last Week and Scoopaloop Day 1

Yoooo. So I've been in Montreal visiting my sister and haven't played a whole ton of poker lately. But with the SCOOP starting on PokerStars that is quickly about to change. OK first, I don't remember exactly when these hands happened but I played some good PLO/HA games and lost like 100K since whenever I last updated. It was a pretty crap session but whatever it happens. I had a great time in Montreal though and got to relax and not think about poker too much which isn't a bad change of pace.

So today was the inuagural day of the inaugural SCOOP and I played 4 events and cashed three of them. Unfortunately they were all min-cashes but fortunately I cashed both of the high buy-in events. In the 500r I was given a ton of chips early through run good and various opponents being huge spazzes and the same in the 50r. I ran good early in the $1K PLO8 as well. Unfortunately towards the middle stages of these tournaments things stopped going so well. I made a bit of a run in the 55r event but busted around 150th/4000 or something, and in the high buy-in events I managed to survive long enough to barely limp into the money in both.

As for PS+ stuff I was happy to see all the very positive response to my last MTT video. Next up is going to finally be the HU PLO video between myself and Tom. We just recorded it and I got my ass kicked. Hopefully when I do the commentary I can at least tell you all why. After that I'm supposed to do a video on moving up from midstakes to highstakes PLO, but with all the SCOOP going on it's going to be hard to fit that in around playing 10 hour days every day. If I get deep in any SCOOP events I'll definitely be looking to record or do a hand history review possibly as well from those. Anyways I really don't have anything super interesting to write about this time, I'll write again when I win my first SCOOP event.

Mike

PS. As of when I'm writing this Bond is still in with 19 left in the 500r. gogogo Tony!

Swingy Weekend!

I've basically spent the last 4 days on the couch watching the NCAA tournament with my laptop on my lap. It's been really fun! There were a lot of good high stakes HA games going on the weekend so I was pretty busy grinding those while trying to keep an eye on any close games. I crushed the 500/1K games but got owned pretty hard at 300/600 heads-up by luckexpress. Maybe heads-up just isn't my game but other than a few questionable plays it's mostly just been me being on the wrong side of a bunch of coolers. Maybe I could have lost a little less on a few of them or something but it happens. Luckily 500/1K > 300/600 so I still made money. My sessions for the weekend went something like this:

+120K, -60K (after being up >120K at one point), +150K, -90K. Guess which ones were heads-up.

Fun times and I still finished with a sizable profit (though it's not all that much considering the stakes), but at my peak I was up almost 3 times as much as I finished ahead so slightly disappointing from that perspective. I don't really have much else I want to write about right now. I've got another video coming out shortly for PokerSavvy, it's an MTT vid this time, and I'm going to have to get another one done at some point too before the end of the month. That could prove tricky as I'm going to Montreal to visit my sister and friends there on Wednesday. In any event, happy March Madness kids, enjoy the games!

Mike

March

It's a pretty good month to be home from traveling. We've got the NCAA tournament starting next week. We had the World Baseball Classic here in Toronto last week, though Canada's embarrassing loss to Italy almost makes that a negative. I went and saw the Canada-US game live though which was awesome. If any of Canada's top pitchers were available they actually would have had a pretty decent team. A lot of other fun stuff is happening this month too! I'm going to go visit my sister and friends in Montreal soon. My friend Tim is moving to Toronto in a week. And today is my roommate Alicia's birthday! As such I am taking the day off to celebrate. And of course there's St. Patrick's day....

Poker-wise I've been playing a lot online lately instead of taking care of various errands I should be running while I'm home. I had an up and down week at high stakes, first losing a bunch at what was probably an ill-advised shot playing Gus heads-up 500/1k PLO. I then won all that back yesterday playing luckexpress heads-up 300/600 HA and some 500/1000 full-ring HA. Full Tilt has raised the minimum buy-ins to 35xBB in those games which is just stupid. While I feel perfectly comfortable playing that deep instead of just shortstacking 20xBB deep like I used to it's a lot of money to risk. Lately I've been selling half my action when I take shots at these games and only playing when the lineup looks very favourable. It's pretty stupid, the only high-stakes games that run are 25/50 with a 5K or maybe 10K max buy-in if you want to play deep, and then 500/1000 with a minimum 35K buy-in. Oh well, I guess I'll stop complaining and just hope I keep running good.

I played a few tournaments this week as well, had a few cashes but nothing big. My best result was finishing 4th yesterday in an iCOP event on the Boss network. It was just an 88 euro PLO8 tourney with a huge overlay on the 25K euro guaranteed prize pool. I finished 4th for 2K euro which was disappointing considering I had the chip lead at one point at the final table, but it was a fun tournament and I ran good right from the start, and that combined with no one having any clue how to play the game let me build a solid stack quickly.

Alright I don't have much else to write about. Just gotta give a shout out to timex for coming close to going back-to-back at EPT Dortmund. He final tabled and finished 5th for 200K euro. It would have been so sick if he could have repeated, and if he hadn't lost his two huge coinflips at the final table he very well may have. Alright I'm out kids, enjoy your day. Don't lose too much playing donkaments.

Mike

How I Do

It has been widely reported that the first person eliminated from the WPT Celebrity Invitational was Antonio Esfandiari. This however is simply false. I know this because I had been standing in the hall outside having a conversation for two minutes before they made that announcement. Now you're probably all wondering how that nit Watts managed to bust twice (I of course took my $200 to charity rebuy) in half an hour before a single one of numerous celebs who don't really have much of an idea how to play. Fortunately you've come to the right place because I'm going to tell you the story.

Gobbo and I got there around 6pm for the cocktail party to mingle and so I could have some free cocktails. We bumped into some friends and checked out whatever celebs we could find. Other than usuals such as Jennifer Tilly, Don Cheadle, Mekkhi Phifer I also saw William Hung, Tony Aleida and Agent Pearce from "24", and probably some others I'm forgetting. What can I say I've never been a huge fan of celebrities but it was still pretty cool. After some quick speeches Bruce Buffer gave us his special rendition of "shuffle up and deal" which was freaking awesome and it was time to gamble. First of all, I am playing 2 out of every 3 pots at least, often without looking at my cards. I am "straddling" every UTG and have got others doing the same. If I catch any piece of the flop I do not fold. If they check to me I will almost always bet.

So I've lost some chips doing stuff like limp/calling the Q3o when I finally pick up a real hand and make my standard raise to 200 at 50/100 with the 45o. 4 players call and the flop comes Q64 with two clubs. I make a strong continuation bet of 200 and the guy on my left calls, then Mimi across the table from me makes it 700. I obviously call as does my friend on my left. The turn is an offsuit 5. DING DING DING DING DING!!!! Two checks and Mimi bets 1100. I quickly make it 4 dimes and my friend cold calls the whole thing with what is almost certainly a flush draw. Mimi calls as well. The river is the 2c which means I lose. But I bet the 3 or 4K I have left anyways for some reason and then rebuy.

I quickly begin rebuilding my stack though. For whatever reason I have 93o and flop a 3 so I call a bet. I turn a 3 and bet out but somehow everyone folds. Go figure. Then I call Chau Giang's raise with KThh and flop ATx. I call his 500 bet and when a T turns I bet 1k which he calls and then 3k on the river which he somehow folds to again!! Gah! So despite being 3 for 3 on 5-outers I am still down like 7K chips.

Then there are two sweet hands in a row where a young asian guy whose name I should know but I don't opens to 250 in EP and I reraise to 500 in MP with the 5h and the 2h. He calls and snap folds to my 500 bet on A44. I just know I woulda hit the living hell out of my gutshot too why couldn't he have an ace. Then the next hand he limps correctly fearing another reraise so I know hes weak and quickly raise to 200 with 23o to try to isolate. Unfortunately I get reraised to 700 and decide to fold my hand face up.

Now on my BB at 75/150 the same young asian guy makes it 500 in the CO and I call with AQo. The flop comes QT7 with 2 spades and I bomb out for 1k, and he raises to 3k or 4k or something like that. I quickly jam all 12K or so of my chips into the pot while fistpumping and doing double backflips of pure joy in my head but he calls with Q7 and I lose all my gold. SIIIIIIIGH.

After that I hung out for a bit with Kristen and Gavin (busto not too much later) and Jennifer and Heather (and a hilarious visit from Noah Schwartz) but when gobbo busted we decided to just head back to the hotel. Now at this point you may be thinking "Watts, what the hell is wrong with you? First place in that tournament was $100K", and that is a reasonable thing to ask. But as usual I am thinking about 5.3 steps ahead of you. Don't feel bad it's just one of the skills I've developed from poker. So we get back to the room and there are a few pretty ok looking 500/1000 HA tables going on Full Tilt. I sit and start winning lots of pots. PLO is just such a ridiculous game. Last week I felt like I could not win money at the game to save my life. This week I feel like I just can not lose a hand. By the time the games break a couple hours later I'm up $120K. As you may recall first in the freeroll was $100K. I believe the moral of the story is that the gambling gods love you when you just degen it up for them from time to time.

Alright that's about as much as I can possibly write in this tone. I'm back to Toronto late Monday night. Looking forward to seeing everyone I've missed while I've been off hiding from winter, but especially the kitties! Take it easy,

Mike

Another Week in LA

Yoooo. So I decided to stay in LA for the Celeb Invitational freeroll today. It should be a really fun tournament, I'm definitely not going to take it too seriously although first is 100K so if I get deep I'll have to focus up. I've had a week here in LA with no tournaments to distract me. I'd like to say I used that time to go out and see the city and then party with movie stars all night. But in typical Watts style I've mostly just slept away the day and stayed up late playing PLO, mostly online but some live as well. The good news is that I've been on a pretty solid heater in the 500/1k HA games as as well as 10/20 and 25/50 PLO, up over $200K. The HA games have been very good this week so I was back playing them again. They're pretty fun win you win most of the flips.

Oh yeah as for the LAPC main event itself I made Day 2 but busted early on. I was up and down a lot. I'm not really happy with how I played a few hands but I don't think I made any super clear cut mistakes. So overall happy enough with my play and I definitely had my head in it unlike at Aussie Millions where at times I was very unfocused. I think that's about all I've got for now though I'm probably forgetting some stuff. Just wanted to post a quick update. Keep it real,

Mike

LA and PS+

Hey y'all, I've been in LA for the LA Poker Classic for almost a week now. The WPT main event starts tomorrow and I'm hoping to improve on a deep run I made last year when I ended up finishing 10th. So far I've had no luck in the few prelims I've played, just a $1K and a $5k event. Unfortunately I couldn't play any more as I'm pretty low in cash here. They wouldn't change my Australian $$ at the casino here because we are in the ghetto, or at least that was the reason I took from the whole thing. I probably would have played the $10K HU event, though the field was so tough that missing out on that is not a huge loss really. I also might have played the $10K PLO but it only got 54 players and was on Sunday so again no big deal. After the main event I was planning to stay around for the Celebrity Invitational freeroll event, but depending how deep I get in the main and how much cash I'm able to get to play live games here I may change my flight and bounce early.

In other news I'm on a pretty big PLO downswing because 500/1000 is just way too big. I'm pretty upset that Full Tilt made all these tables instead of just leaving 200/400 as the biggest game. Essentially no one actually has the money to play that high so obviously most people have to buyin short if they want to play as it's the only games over 25/50 that runs at all regularly. I do still think I have an edge short stacking the half holdem half omaha games against a lot of lineups though so I've been gambling a bit and playing with not so great reults. Anyways I'm probably going to take a break from playing these games except when the lineup happens to look really good.

I think my new goal in poker is going to be to get a lot better at limit mixed games. I play a few of the HORSE games fairly decently and a few others pretty mediocrely and I also want to learn 2-7 triple draw so that I can play most of the new Pokerstars SCOOP events, as well as play a lot more non-holdem events at the WSOP this summer. There is just no way I will survive the summer playing a 2000 person $2K NL event every day again. I need a new challenge and the smaller fields in the mixed games are nice too so maybe I could actually finally final table a bracelet event. Speaking of which, look at all the money I get to lose beginning in April:

PokerStars SCOOP: April 2-12 Probably around $40-50K in buy-ins.

WPT Championship at Bellagio: April 18-24 $25K main event.

EPT Monte Carlo: April 28-May 3 10K Euro main event. 25K Euro high roller. 5K Euro PLO championship among other side events. ~$60K USD.

World Series of Poker 2009 (and Bellagio Cup!): Begins May 28th with the special $40K buy-in tournament. Likely to spend close to $150K in buy-ins this summer.

Countdown to busto has begun.

The final major announcement which I haven't written about on here in a while is that I have officially joined Poker Savvy Plus as a core pro and will be contributing three strategy videos a month beginning in March. I'm very happy to be on board and hope some of you sign up and enjoy my videos, and most importantly learn from them to make some $$$! This blog is now being cross-posted over there, so a special hello to everyone reading this on PokerSavvy! I really think PS+ now has a very strong team of core pros and you're going to see a lot of really good videos coming from there this year. That's all I've got for now, going to the gym for a bit, wish me luck beginning tomorrow!

Mike

Adelaide

First, before I begin, I need to point out that my WPT epsiode has FINALLY been pirated by the fine people of the internet and is available over at thepokerbay.org and possibly some other torrent sites as well. I'm looking forward to watching it later on today. Edit: It's now also up on www.pokertube.com for people who dont want to do the torrent thing.

Alright so the last four days I spent in Adelaide for the ANZPT event there. I guess I'll start with a brief recap of my tournament since some semi-interesting stuff happened and I last more than 3 hours.

We started with 20K chips and hour long levels, a pretty fast structure but quite reasonable, I think it was the same as the standard EPT structure. In the early levels I chipped up a lot by getting dealt big pairs and winning decent sized pots with them and just winning most small pots I played uncontested whether I made pairs or not. I got as high as 42K before this hand:

Hand 1: 200/400 a50 I opened to 1100 UTG with AKo no spade and a bad player flatted as did some guy in the CO as well as the BB who actually seemed ok. The flop came A83 all spades, I bet 3K, first guy flatted with like 4K more behind or something ridiculous, CO folds, BB shoves for 9K more, I sigh and stick it in and other guy calls as well. BB has 88 and other guy has KK with the Ks so I don't win. Gross spot but in this tournament I can't imagine ever playing it differently.

Hand 2: At a new table now 400/800 a100 a loose player who's very short opens UTG to 2K, I make it 6K UTG+1 with AKs and around 18K more behind. It folds to a pretty tight youngish girl Monica in the SB who makes it 16.8K without hesitation. Folds to me and after some thought I realize I should probably not give away the rest of my chips yet.

Hand 3: Same guy opens UTG to 2K, I 3-bet to 6K UTG+1 with AA. Nice life. He makes some comment along the lines of "this fucking kid, every time" and says let's see a flop. Flop AQJ with two spades, he checks, I shove his last 10K or so in and he mumbles about how of course the ace had to come and he has 8 outs before folding T9cc face up. lol.

Hand 4: 500/1000 a100 I"m up to 30K or so. Asian lady minraises in EP, guy on my right calls with like 4500 behind, I call button with 22 and a blind calls. Flop KQ2 two spades, lady bets 6k, guy on my right calls all-in, I expert raise to 12K, lady calls. Turn blank, she shoves I snap and hold vs AA to get to ~70K.

Hand 5: I open to 2700 in MP. Some Canadian guy with a ton of chips who talks a lot calls in the BB. Flop QTx rainbow, he tells the dealer tha I'm going to bet if checks and then he'll call so I oblige and bet 4K he calls, Turn 8 he says now if I check hes gonna check behind so I've gotta bet and leads 10K. I'm thoroughly unamused by this nonsense and call. River blank he shoves for my last 45K or so and I cry and fold. He def seemed like a bit of an idiot but most people when they pull this type of bs and talk this much always have it so and he didn't seem like the type to run such an insane bluff.

Hand 6: Monica limps UTG, I raise to 4K in MP with AQo she calls. Flop KJ8 two clubs she donks 5500 with like 13.5 behind and I decide to shove since these leads are usually weak, she might fold KQ even, or I might accidentally be ahead of a draw, but she really did just lead into me with top 2 pair and so I'm down to 20K. Oops.

Hand 7: HJ who is new to the table opens to 3K, I shove 22 in the CO for 20K, he calls with AK, I flop a set and lose to the backdoor flush.

Anyways, the big news from Adelaide was Tony final tabling and finishing 2nd for 111K AUD. Even at the current exchange rate he cleared his makeup! There were also several nights out where I learned the true meaning of "Go hard or go home" as they like to say here. I have decided to go home. But not right away. Saturday I leave for LA to go play a few events of LAPC. My flights are tentatively booked to stay until early March and play the Celebrity freeroll thing but I might bounce right after I bust the WPT main event instead depending how much I'm feeling LA. We shall see. Anyways I'm off to enjoy my last week in Melbourne. Check out my episode I've watched it since I started writing this blog and it's pretty sweet. I cooler everyone so fucking hard. There's really not a single hand where I do anything resembling outplaying anyone, I just always get there.

Mike

Heat

OK I have no idea what I want to write about in this entry but I feel like I'm due for one so here goes nothing. The last week since Aussie Millions ended has been pretty fun and relaxing. It has also been one of the hottest in Melbourne's history as those of you have been watching the tennis at all may have heard. Timex and I didn't make it out to the tennis at all because all the night sessions were more or less sold out and we learned our lesson last year about watching tennis in the mid-afternoon heat, and it was probably at least a good 5 degrees cooler the day we went last year compared to the heat wave that's been going on lately. It's basically felt like Vegas here for the last week with temperatures in the 40s every day. We got down to the beach a couple times when the weather was more reasonable, but this week we hardly ever left the apartment during the day other than to go the gym two minutes down the street. I can hardly complain though, I'll take this weather over winter in Canada any day. No one has ever had to shovel out their driveway from sun and heat.

I have about two more weeks left on my Australia trip before I head to LA for the LAPC. Today is going to be a chill day and we'll watch the tennis on TV tonight, hopefully it will be an epic final. Tomorrow is SuperBowl Monday here in Melbourne so we're going to get up a little early and go watch that over at Berky's place. I think it comes on at like 11am here or something. I don't know what plans will be after that, I think we'll have to hit the beach at least one more time before we rock out to Adelaide for the inaugural ANZPT event on Wednesday.

I guess PokerStars decided they just didn't have enough live poker tours yet so they started another one here in Aussieland even though they already have several APPT events here. There's a 3K AUD (~75 USD at latest exchange rate) event in Adelaide starting Wednesday so we're rocking down there with some of the Melbourne donks (Bond, stevol, berky, etc...) to win that shit. I'm told Adelaide isn't much of a city but it'll be fun to see somewhere else in Australia regardless.

Anyways I think that's about all I've got for now. Gonna go try to win back some of te money I lost playing PLO while writing this.

Mike

A Quick Hello from Melbourne

I've had a bunch of complaints about the lack of updates so sorry about that. I think my ethernet card is broken or something because the internet in my place here isn't working. Luckily I have found a wireless signal to steal but it's very unreliable, and I haven't really been spending much time back in the room here lately anyways as I've been out playing poker and enjoying the city and the weather.

Anyways, the quick version of the story is I'm having a blast here but playing pretty bad. My head really hasn't been into the tournaments at all. At PCA that was kind of the case as well, but when I sat down at the table I played my best. On this trip that hasn't been the case. I've been very impatient and played quite poorly in a number of spots. Part of it is trying some new things, part of it is running bad, but a big part of it too is just not playing well. But like I said, I'm still having a blast here and I'm only losing plastic-coated Australian play money anyways.

Timex and I will be here for almost another 3 weeks just for vacation, though we will probably go play a tournament in Adelaide on the new Stars Australia/New Zealand tour whenever that is. We're staying in an hotel-style apartment in Tony's (Bond18) building which is quite nice. It's nothing big, but there's plenty of space for us and the location is actually quite convenient. So many of the things we need (gym, grocery store, restaurants, etc.) are super close near by, and we're a short drive from the casino. Anyways I'm quite tired and was supposed to get a nap by now, and this hello has not been as quick as planned. I'll try to write more soon.

Mike

First Real Post of 2009!

Alright, I've been super lazy about blogging so far this year but I think it's about time I wrote up something real. First of all, Bahamas trip report:

PCA was way more fun than I ever thought it would be. I'm not sure why I wasn't as excited about it as I should have been from the start. 2 years ago when I went I was just starting to meet people in the poker world. I had a great time and met a lot of friends for the first time. Last year I didn't go at all since I just did Aussie so i didn't know how much better they had made the resort. But more importantly I just didn't have all the friends in the poker world that I do now. First let me get the poker stuff out of the way though. I ended up playing the $25K and $5k tournaments and busting both pretty early with not much going right. I wasn't super motivated to play either, in fact I wasn't planning to play either of them when I woke up the respective mornings but that's what ended up happening. I certainly don't regret the decision though in retrospect I'm sure I would have had more fun rocking the lazy river and hanging out with whoever I happened to bump into out there. Once I sit at the table though I am into the game and I play as close to 100% as possible.

Alright, so what really made PCA so great was just bumping into everyone, and I really do mean almost everyone, that I'm friends with in the poker world. Over the years I've made a lot of friends through poker, but seeing most of them in one place and randomly bumping into different people every day and having a great time no matter who it was I bumped into that day really solidified in my head how amazing these people are. I only get to see them a handful of times a year, and other than that I only get to talk to them periodically online, but yet so many of them have become true friends. We all have so much in common that we seem to just get along so easily when we see each other, it's really quite amazing. So, for all of you that are reading this, even though you probably won't hear me say it very often in person, you are all so awesome and I'm so happy to have friends like you.

Moving along, every January I usually do a recap of my previous poker year and set goals for the new year. The 2008 recap is remarkably easy: I accomplished basically every single one of my poker goals that I had set for myself last year. In fact I blew them away. I don't feel like going through all of them right now, but if you're interested it's easy to find the post archived at sirwatts.blogspot.com. I ran insanely good from the Bellagio Cup onwards through November, and even booking a decent loss in December didn't put too much of a dent in the year overall. On the one hand I need to remember how lucky I was in 2008 and keep my expectations reasonable or I will likely be setting myself up for huge disappointment in 2009. On the other hand, you gotta dream big.

So, moving along to 2009. I have one of those good problems when it comes to setting goals for 2009 in that I need to completely come up with a new set of them. I still enjoy playing tournaments but I'd be lying if I said I had the same fire and drive to play them as in 2008. That's not to say I don't care or find them interesting anymore as I certainly do, but I think it's pretty normal and understandable that it's just not going to be the same now that I've had "the big score". Of course that being said, the group of people who have won two major tournaments is significantly smaller than the group of people who have binked one, so that does motivate me quite a bit. However, as anyone who reads this blog regularly is aware, I've definitely caught the PLO bug, in particular the high stakes PLO bug. Obviously I have to be a bit smarter about the games I play, but I would very much like to be an extremely successful high to nosebleed high stakes when the games are good PLO cash player in 2009. I feel like there is just so much money potentially to be made in these games and I want to get a piece. No doubt this will probably be the hardest goal I've ever set myself but I guess a challenge is always a good thing.

However, most importantly for 2009, I want to do better at all things outside of poker. Continue to try to get back in better shape, get back to playing a lot of golf and possibly other sports, buy my own place, continue to meet new people and make more friends, and spend more time hanging out with the ones I already have. I'm sure this list could go on a lot longer but you get the point. When it comes down to it there are a lot more important things than poker in life, and I know the better I balance all these things the happier a 2009 it will be for me. It's certainly not an easy thing to do, and I don't expect to completely change the way I live or anything, but I will try to keep making small improvements as I go. All the best to each of you in 2009, I've got a flight to Melbourne to pack for.

Mike

sick preview

Bellagio Cup IV Part 2 Preview

OMG PAIR THE BOARD!!!!!

I CANT TAKE IT EITHER VINCE!

can't wait to see if I get there..

Mike

PS. Still can't find downloads for the first half unfortunately.... 2nd half will air tonight in the US on FSN. No idea about Canada but I'm guessing it will probably not get shown until a later date but might be worth checking.

Busto PCA

Hey all I just busted out of the PCA main event. Yesterday I went up to 50K at one point before losing some pots and ending the day at 25K. Today I quickly lost two pots and busted. Yay. Off to the water park!

Mike

WPT Episode on!?

Well, apparently the first half of my WPT episode aired last night. Would have been nice if they told me or something but there ya go, I wasn't expecting it to air for a couple months still. I think it's a 2-part episode and will conclude next Sunday but I haven't seen it myself yet so I dunno. Also I am in Bahamas and playing Day 1B of the PCA tomorrow. My Christmas and holidays were awesome, hope yours were too! I think that's about all I've got for now. I'm going to go try to find some illegal downloads of my episode.

Mike

Important 2009 Update

44 Michael Watson Toronto 2,952 2 $2,158,130
45 Michael McDonald Waterloo, CAN 2,920 3 $1,487,214

Mike

Aaaaaand busto

It was a short day, I was super card dead and when I finally got a hand I folded the winner on the flop. Got the last of my chips in against Mark Teltscher with 88 vs 66 and lost that too. Here's the one interesting hand:

400/800 a100 I open in early-middlish position to 2200 with JhJ and 20K more behind. Joe Cassidy calls 2 to my left (though I forgot it was him at the time) and and a middle aged asian guy calls right after him. The flop comes 853hh and I bet 5K. Cassidy makes it 11K, and the asian guy INSTA-shoves for 40-50K or something that covers both of us. I only have 15K left and really don't want to fold again but it's hard for me to beat both of them here. I feel like the speed of the all-in move weights the asian guy's range towards a draw a lot. He has a set or a draw and most people Hollywood with their sets a little at least. But I still have to worry about Joe and I have no idea what he has. I ended up folding and Joe called with A8cc and held vs A3hh. So that really sucked. I think maybe the live reads were strong enough that I should have called but I'm not sure how results oriented I'm being.

Anyways now that that's over it's back to Newfoundland this Friday for Christmas which I'm definitely much more excited about than any poker tournament. In other news I've done 2 videos now for PokerSavvy and it looks like I will be doing a lot more. They've got a lot of other very good players making videos there as well so if you're thinking about joining a training site you should go over there and check it out. I think they still have a 24-hour free trial offer on. Also, for people that haven't seen it yet I got "felt'd" by Kristy Arnett from CardPlayer. It's basically the poker version of Punk'd. Here's a link:

Felt'd =/

I don't really know what to say about it but hopefully you get a good laugh out of it on my behalf. Either that or you'll feel super awkward the entire time watching it like I did. Alright I'm out, possibly no blogs for a while over Christmas depending what I'm up to.

Mike

Bellagio Five Diamond Update!

Hey hey it's time for a little update about what I've been up to here in Vegas. I got in Tuesday night and played the $5k tournament on Thursday. I got off to a good start in that one but lost a biggish pot to Mark Teltscher that I played weird and then got KK vs Shannon Shorr's AA so that was that. I played Day 1A of the $15K main event on Saturday but unfortunately it was a really frustrating day where not a whole lot went right. I finished the day with 32K of my 45K starting stack though and with blinds starting at 400/800 tomorrow I still have some room to play. Here are some key hands:

Hand 1: 100/200 A player limps in MP, I make it 1k in the SB with A8dd and he calls. Flop 666 I bet 1250, he calls. Turn 4 I bet 2500 he calls. River 2 I bet 5500 he calls with TT and wins. Yay obvious 3-barrels.

Hand 2: Amnon Fillipi limps the HJ, Matt Hyman limps the CO, I make 1050 on the button with AJo and both call. Flop AK2cc, Amnon checks and Matt bets 1750 which I call as does Amnon. Turn Js putting a 2nd flush draw on board. They check to me and I fire 6K, Amnon thinks briefly and shoves for 19K more. Matt thinks a bit and folds and I tank for a long time before finally folding. From what I've seen of Amnon he is very spewy in a call stationy way preflop and on the flop but when he puts his chips in he usually has it. He's quite capable of making the elaborate slowplay with a set of 2s here as well as peeling the flop with QTo, and while there are a decent number of hands he could semi-bluff with on the turn I don't think he is particularly likely to make a big move like that.

Hands 3-7ish: I raise and #1pen 3-bets me and I have to fold. wtf he's supposed to be a nit like me.

Hand 8: 200/400 a50 Solidish player opens the HJ to 1200, Amnon quickly calls, I make it 4800 in the SB with 98o and Peter (#1pen) cold 4-bets to 10.5K in the BB. Can't imagine he didn't have a monster here but when someone picks you off time and again like he was it's pretty tilting even if it seems like he's probably just running good picking up hands on you most of the time because you just don't know for sure.

Hand 9: 300/600 a75 Young short stacked guy open to 1600 in MP with like 10K behind and I shove in the BB with AK and hold vs his AQs.

Hopefully day 2 goes better and I can put chips in the pot a few times without getting raised out of my seat. Or ya know just get raised when I actually have it.

Today I played Sunday tourneys online and got owned. Just a couple small cashes to show for it. Anyways I better get some rest for tomorrow. Cheers,

Mike