You get 4 cards, but you can only use 2

I'm on to Day 2 of the $1500 buy-in PLO8 event. Basically I luckboxed a lot and played fairly well I think to end the day with 27.6K chips. Average is just under 20K so I'm in good shape. 98 players made day 2 and I believe 63 get paid. I'm not a PLO8 expert but here's one hand I found somewhat interesting, though in retrospect after thinking about it more it was an easy decision.

300/600 blinds I have like 20K and limp A237 nut diamonds in EP, one other limper on the button and only the BB comes along in the SB. The flop comes 367 all spades. BB checks, I check, and then the button bets pot. Folds to me and he has a bit over a pot sized raise left in his stack. After some though I realize I have to checkraise the pot since I usually have the best hand with my nut low and 4 outs to a fullhouse, and he's going to have to fold a lot of non-nut flushes to my raise (unless he has a decent low to go with it calling would be terrible, and even if he does call I'm basically freerolling him for the scoop). It's easy to get drawn in by the fact that he almost certainly has a flush and I only have 4 outs to beat him for the high, and thus play the hand passively since my low could get counterfeited or something, when it's clearly a perfect spot to put the pressure back on him with the big bet. If I didn't have some kind of high potential it'd be trickier since I now have to be a lot more concerned about getting quartered/counterfeited, but having 2 pair here makes this really easy. In the actual hand he folded.

Hopefully my luck continues tomorrow I really want a final table!

Mike

Dinner, dice, and donkaments

Alright so after busting the tournament on Friday we met up with Bond and Adam Junglen for dinner at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris casino. It was a nice restaurant, we had some wine and I ordered pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon, which was obviously delcious because it's meat wrapped in bacon. We then decided we wanted to relax and watch a movie so we headed over to the Palms, but Knocked Up wasn't playing for a couple hours so we decided to rent a movie instead. However we made a detour to the craps table on the way out and Bond taught me how to play . I kind of wanted to learn how to play just because it seems like the most fun/social pit game and the house edge is apparently pretty small if you know what to bet, so it's not the worst way to spend some time with buddies while getting free drinks. Anyways we played until we both got to roll and I was lucky to make $200. I've got this -EV gambling down, if I could just figure out how to win when the odds are in my favour now!

Saturday was another enormous field $1500 NL event. I'm tired of writing long boring tournaments reports, so I'll stick to cliffs notes for this one. I got up to $30K chips at the dinner break (which is average stack when we get in the money) but then lost it all in the 90 minutes before the next break. I played fine though, there were just a lot of hands where I basically had to lose some chips. On my bustout hand I moved in over a late position raise from David "sirio11" Cosssio with 44 since I had the perfect stack size for it but he had KK. Oh well.

Today I played online all day and made a few nice scores. I won yet another Main Event seat in the $650 satellite. This one was highlited by my K7o beating KK all-in preflop. I run so good in that tournament it's incredible. I also finally final tabled a big Sunday tournament, finishing 3rd in the $200 rebuy for just under $21K. I took a few really bad beats on the river at that final table but I was also gettting dealt a ton of good hands and hitting flops so I can't really complain too much about my luck there. Tomorrow I'm going to play the $1500 PLO8 world series event. Not my strongest game for sure, but I think I play reasonably well and most people will probably have even less an idea what they're doing than me since as far as I know this game is basically never spread live, at least not in North America. It should be a fun tournament though and a nice break from holdem. There aren't any NLHE world series events until the $5K 6-max event on Thursday, which is going to be soooooo awesome like every 6-max event but even bigger and awesomer.

Mike

Early bustout again

I'm going to skip right to the end I think.

Hand 1: 2 fish limp at 75/150, I limp the button with J9ss, and the blinds come along. I have like 5500 to start the hand. Flop 995 rainbow, checks to 2nd fish who bets 500, I decide to slowplay for once and call, and first fish calls. Suspicious overcall, but I'm not too worried yet. Turn 6, they check to me and I bet 1200, fish #1 calls (now I'm pretty scared), fish #2 thinks for a bit and folds. River 4, fish leads for 3K of my 3600 chips and I guess he can at least have T9,98, or 97 here enough that I have to call, but he shows the 87o and takes the pot. lol.

Going out for dinner with some friends in a bit which will hopefully lead into drinks and stuff later on. I'm playing the $1500 NL tomorrow, and assuming I don't make day 2 I'll be playing online tournaments Sunday.

Mike

I will not play 500/1000

I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I will not play 500/1000
I like playing 500/1000

Edit for hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198035
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198030
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1198038

Mike

$1500 NL Report

I didn't get much going today, I probably played one hand bad and then recovered by winning a flip and then chipped up a bit before losing a flip.

Hand 1: I have like 3500 to start the hand, two dudes limp at 25/50, I make it 250 with ATo in the CO and both limpers call. Flop A63 2 diamonds and first limper bets 300. Live players putting money in the pot scares the hell out of me but I have top pair and stuff so I call. The turn is an offsuit J, he bets 600 with like 800 behind so I just go ahead and put him all-in and lose to AQ. The ol limp/call with AQ, gets me every time. Meh, maybe I should have found a fold cuz live players are so predictable/bad but I dunno, down to 1500ish.

Hand 2: QQ wins vs AKs AIPF at 50/100 back to 2800ish chips.

I make a few nice resteals and the occasional straight steals of the blinds to get to 4500, and then have 4K on my bustout hand:

Hand 3: It folds to the button who open limps at 100/200 a25, I make it 800 with A7o and the limper calls. Maybe I should have raised more to just win it preflop or something but I don't like that because I'd never do it with a real big hand. Flop 932 2 spades, I bet 1200, he instashoves and I think for a bit and decide I have to call off my last 1800 since there's a very good chance he has a flush draw (especially given how fast he moved in, I may suck at picking up tells, but timing tells live are the same as online and I've found them to be fairly reliable online) and I'm getting big pot odds. He turns over 86ss and turns a 6 for the win.

Tomorrow is a $2K pot limit holdem event which shouldn't have such a ridiculously enormous field like the small buy-in no-limit events. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do tonight, probably just relax and go to sleep a bit earlier than I have been, I was tired today.

Mike

Cash game day, food/drink report

I played some live cash games at the Bellagio today. We decided we'd see how many people were playing the $5K tournament there, but unless they got a bigger field than they had been we'd just play cash. The tournament got like 50 players so I ended up playing 10/20 NL. The buy-in is uncapped in these games so I bought in for $5K. I ended up running pretty ok:

Hand 1: I raise to 80 with JTss in EP and get called in 2 spots. Flop is three low spades, I bet 200 and get raised to 480. He has like 4K onthe table too so I decide to just call as I think a reraise blows him off most hands I beat. Turn is an offsuit Q or something. I think I should lead out here but I decide to check planning to checkraise all-in probably. He checks behind though and the river blanks, I bet 1000 and he folds. This is a bit of a weird situation with the money so deep, I think I have to lead the turn but against a lot of solid (nitty) live players I feel like if all the money goes in when we're this deep I'm often getting shown a bigger flush.

Hand 2: UTG raises to 80, I call with KK 2 seats behind him (with effective stacks so deep I think a reraise really turns my hand face up here and puts me in an awful situation postflop when I get called). Folds to the button who pops it 300 more with 1700 behind. UTG folds and I think for a bit and decide to call. I'd usually reraise here, but live players seem to like making huge hero folds of big pairs preflop so I think he'd dump QQ/JJ/ here a lot, whereas if the flop comes low he will likely feel pot committed to his hand once he puts in a big flop bet, though maybe I'm just giving people too much credit. The flop comes KQ8 two hearts, I check, he bets 600, I put him in and his QQ is no good, sick flop.

Hand 3: Guy on my right limps, I make it 100 with KJo in the CO and get called by both blinds and the limper. Flop JJ6 2 clubs. Checks to limper who bets 160, I make it 460 and he calls. Turn Kd, I bet 920 and he calls. River is a low club and he leads for 1600. I put him all-in for $1000 more or so and he calls showing JTo. Wow.... nice river play sir.

I finished up $8700, and we went to the asian place Noodles in Bellagio for a very tasty dinner. I should maybe talk more about places I've eaten. Last night I went for sushi with gobboboy and mlagoo at Hikari steakhouse/sushi bar which is actually fairly close to our condo. It was pretty good, they had some really nice special rolls. I haven't been able to eat at a lot of really nice places since I usually have to eat fairly quickly in the Rio during dinner break from the tournament. The other place I can definitely recommend is the Indian place in the Rio, Gaylord's. I've tried 3 or 4 different dishes there and they were all excellent. In terms of beers I've tried a few I like. I really enjoy Sierra Nevada Pale Ale which I tried last summer.

Another new beer I've tried that I like is the Pyramid Hefe Weizen:

I may be a bit biased on this one because I really enjoy most wheat beers though. That's about all I can think of for now, back to the tournament grind tomorrow with a $1500 NL WSOP event. Oh yeah Aaron chopped the $1K Stars Super Tuesday last night for $40K. Our condo is clearly rigged to own that tournament.

Mike

Short up and down day

I got up as high as 125K or so at one point today but lost a big coinflip for most of my chips and then another hand allin preflop where I was well ahead. I finished 34th for $7500ish.

Hand 1: I raise to 8500 on the button at 1500/3000 a400 with KJo and Joe Tehan defends his BB. Flop ATx, he leads 10K and iwant to shove on him but stack sizes are kind of awkward for it so I decide to just fold.

Hand 2: I raise AA UTG 5-handed and the guy on my left reraises to 20K or sometihng. I move in for 30ish more and he has to call and his A4o is no good. Finally I knew if I just kept playing solid one of these guys would give me chips.

Hand 3: Joe Tehan raises to 7800 or something UTG and Alan Sass (TheUsher) calls on the button. I raise 20K more with AJo from the SB and both fold. This way my high point of 125Kish.

Hand 4: I raise A7o in the CO, the loose aggressive BB calls. Flop K9x 2 clubs he calls my 10K continuation bet. Turn 9 chk/chk, river 9 he bets 14K I make a bad river call. I think the call would normally be fine but he had just been caught floating the flop against Tehan so it was unlikely he was doing it again here. Oops.

Hand 5: Alan raises to 8500 in the CO, I make it 27.5K in the SB with AK, and the BB (A4 guy) thinks for a bit and shoves 60.8K total. I quickly call and lose to TT.

Hand 6: We're at 2k/4k a500 and I have about 36K to start the handin the BB. Folds to the SB who is a seemingly aggressive asian guy who puts me all-in. I think for a bit and figure he probably knows he should be moving in with a huge range there so I call with K9s, and his 64o is good.

On the plus side I busted out early enough to play the Stars $1K Super Tuesday again so I'm going to try to defend my win from last week now. I'm not sure what my next live event will be there's not much good coming up for a few days iirc.

Mike

A long day for a change

Woohoo I made another cash and another day 2. I ran pretty awesome today overall which was nice for a change. Playing 6-handed makes these live tournaments so much more fun than the full 10-handed tournaments which can get pretty boring at times during the long days when you're not picking up any hands. Anyways I was planning not to write a long report but I just started remembering some hands so it might get long.

Hand 1: Alex Brenes limps in the CO at 50/100, I make it 400 in the SB with AQo and like 3100 more behind and he calls. Flop QJ9, I bet 600 he moves in really fast and between the combination of me having bullied him in some previous pot so he wouldn't want to get pushed around anymore and the speed of his move all-in I was pretty sure he had a pair/draw combo hand so I called pretty quickly and faded lots of outs against his QT.

Hand 2: 100/200 I make it 600 on the button with ATo. SB who is a friends of 2+2er aejones and wearing a fairly gay "ship ship mcgipp" shirt calls in the SB with 3500 more or so behind. Flop AQ8 2 hearts, he checks, I bet 800, he checkraises me and I'm pretty sure he reraises almost everything that beats me preflop so he likely has hearts or JT for the double gutter so I put him in and beat his JT.

Hand 3: Guy on my right makes it 550 at 100/200 a25, I call in position with 66 and then high stakes cash player whitelime moves all-in in the SB for 3100 more. Orignial raiser folds and I decide I'm getting too good a price so I call and he happens to have 55 which is pretty sweet.

Hand 4: Johnny Chan is on my left now at a new table and limps UTG at 200/400 a50. He's been limping a lot and he just won a big pot with AJ vs AQ aipf to get like 12K in chips or so. He said he kinda of still doens't want to be there because he's supposed to meet his wife for dinner or something. Another guy limps, the SB completes, and I raise 1600 more with AQo in the BB. Chan calls and we see a flop of A62 two diamonds. I bet 3500, he jams and I call and fade his AJdd to get to 40K and bust a world champion. At this point someone came and asked me about the hand and for a chip count so maybe I get mentioned in online coverage somewhere I dunno.

I can't really remember much else interesting. I got as high as 80K at one point before chipping down to 65K to end the day. There are 42 players left and average stack is like a bit over 100K, but blinds are only going up to 1500/3000 a400 so there's a little play left for a change. The final table of this tournament will be televised on ESPN so here's hoping I keep running good tomorrow and get there.

Mike

Another short day

I busted the $3K NL tournament before the first break. I didn't do a whole lot and was at 5300 when I raised red queens in MP to 300 at 50/100. All 5 players behind me called and the flop came 752 two dimaonds. The blinds checked and I decided to check and probably checkraise all-in unless people started going crazy before it got back to me. If I bet they're prboably going to put me on exactly what I have and on a draw heavy board I would probably have to call a raise all-in. At least this way the 2 bad players on my left get a chance to put money in with a worse hand. Of course it's pretty bad if it happens to check around but it seemed worth the risk to add some deception to my hand. It checked to James Mackey aka mig.com who won the $5K NL event for like $750K or something on the button and he bet 1200. Folds back to me I jam 5K and mig has to call with 96dd and gets there.

I went home and played some of the later online tournaments, and had a 4th in the Absolute Poker $150 tourney for $4800. People on Absolute are so bad at poker it reminds me of the old days on Paradise pre-US ban. Tomorrow is the $2500 NL 6-max event at the Rio and I am pumped for it. Like I said before the last 6-max event this is my favourite format as almost all the cash games I play online are 6-max tables. Hopefully things go well and I make day 2 so I don't have to blow $5K on the heads-up event on Tuesday.

Mike

Short Day

It was a pretty uneventful day, I stole the blinds on the first hand to get to 46K and then went down from there basically. Was down pretty low then pushbotted my way back up to 38K. Then a shortstack pushed in EP for 28.3K total at 1500/3000 a400 and I had 44 in the BB. According to math I'm getting 1.44:1 so I need to win just over 40% of the time for a call to be profitable. Live players usually push too tight here, but this was a youngish guy who I figured at least had some idea to push somewhat light, and against any reasonable range I usually win enough. He had A9o and turned a 9 to cripple me, and I busted within the next orbit. The CO said he folded AQ and even after the guy showed A9 he defended it was the right play.... Anyways some PokerStove numbers, against this tightish range calling is correct:

equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 42.724% 41.98% 00.74% 121479780 2153418.00 { 4c4d }
Hand 1: 57.276% 56.53% 00.74% 163592760 2153418.00 { 22+, A9s+, KQs, A9o+, KQo }

and he probably pushes a lot more unpaired hands in reality that I'm in good shape against, and at that stage in the tournament I definitely want to take any small edge I can get to get back to a playable stack. Oh well $3K Nl event tomorrow.

Oh yeah I finished 80th for $6100, guess that's kind of important information.

Mike

In the money, on to day 2

I made my 2nd cash of the WSOP today in the $2K NL event. 1600ish runners started the day, and around 140 are left playing tomorrow, 153 cashed. I have 41.1K chips which puts me just slightly below average. The blinds are at 1k/2k a300 so I only have about 20xBB though. Here's some hands I can remember:

Hand 1: I had like 5K after winning a little with a set, a really really bad player thinks about raising then limps with 1200 or so behind, the SB completes, I find ATo in the BB. I figure I probably still have the weak limper beat even though he thought of raising and I'm also really sure he's never folding to a raise, so I just pop it up 500, he shoves I call and lose to 99. Bigger hand than I thought he had but oh well.

Hand 2: I have like 2400 now, a weak player limps in EP, I make it 400 with AQo in MP, and only the limper calls. Flop AJx, he check/calls 500. Turn blank I bet my last 1500 and he thinks for a bit and then calls with KJo. Well played sir, back to 5K.

Hand 3: I can't remember how it happened, I'm pretty sure I won a bunch of standard small to medium sized pots picking up hands or just raising then continuation betting. I got up to like 17K at one point.

Hand 4: The hand before this a new player got moved to the table in the BB. I raised his blind with AQo from the CO and all folded. The next hand I have AQhh in the HJ and raise again to 1200 at 2/4 a50. He makes it 3200 in the SB and he covers my 16K or whatever I had to start the hand. I kind of don't believe him and he looks the kind of guy that doesn't necessarily need a monster to reraise here but I decide that a push is too big a bet given I don't actually know anything about him and decide to call and take a flop in position. The flop comes K42 no hearts and be bets 4500, I fold.

Hand 5: I fold like a million hands in a row then open AA and get it in against KK to double to 19K.

Hand 6: Button raises to 2100 at 3/6 a75, I decide with my image it's a great spot to resteal and shove him in for his 12K stack with QJo. He instacalls with AK and I lose all the chips I just got, back to like 7K.

Hand 7: I get moved tables a few times and shortstack ninja my way up to 20K without ever seeing a flop. One hand of interest is when I jam like 10K UTG+1 with T5o at 800/1600 a200 because I guess I might as well or something and it folds to the BB who tanks and claims to fold 77. LOL. "I only had 2 overs but I wouldn't have minded the gamble, I need a double up". Also I shove like 11K on the button at the same level and the blinds fold. They say come on you've been moving in a lot show us one. I oblige and turn over the As. And then the Ad. Ship table image points.

Hand 8: Now I have 19.5K and a guy from my original table has been moved 2 to my right with a ton of chips. He was very aggressive at the old table and he saw me spew off a lot of chips in the QJo resteal hand, so he knows I can make a few moves. We are like 5 from the money and he opens in the CO to 4500 at 800/1600 a200. I find KK in the SB. I'm not normally one to Hollywood much because I usually think it's pretty transparent, but in this case i laid it on pretty thick. I really wanted him to think I had a marginal hand that I wantd to resteal with but wasn't sure if I should being so close to the money and all. Finally I moved it in and he thought for a bit before calling with Q8s getting just under 2:1. I held and all of a sudden had over 40K

I then raised a couple times on the bubble to get to 50K before blinding down to 41.1k to end the day. Average stack is about 50K so I'm in decent shape.

I also played the $1500 PLO on Thursday. I luckboxed up to like 15K before bricking a 12 outer twice all-in on the flop against 2 pair to drop to 7K, and then my ragged aces lost to 7789 all-in preflop to bust. I was happy with how I played though and didn't really feel at a disadvantage despite not playing a lot of PLO. OK we start up at 3pm PST tomorrow and play down to the final table. With 140 left there's still an awful long way to go though.

Mike

Blargh 5K report

Pretty upset with myself for how I played one hand today, but whatever I'll get over it. There were some intersting hands anyways. My table was semi-tough with a lot of TV pros. Men Nguyen, Harry Demitriou, Eli Elezra, and Chau Giang all there.

Hand 1: I haven't really done anything notable and I've bled off some chips trying to hit flops and stuff. This is a weird hand. Men opens to 325 at 50/100 in MP. He opens a lot of pots though this is the first one in a while. The guy on his left calls who seems fairly weak, and a tightish European guy next to act calls. I'm next on the button and decide this is a perfect spot to squeeze, but the SB was sitting out and I guess the BB folded out of turn because the dealer went to put up a flop. I'm like whoa, whoa I still have a hand here, so they call over the floor who explains the ruling to the dealer (he has to shuffle up the the deck and redeal the flop). I stick with the plan figuring if anything my reraise has to look even stronger now and make it 1500 with J6o. To my surprise Men calls, the next guy folds, and to my even bigger surprise the tight guy calls. Now I'm really not sure what the heck these guys have, especially the tight European who I never thought could have a hand good enough to call there. The flop comes J72 rainbow, they check to me and even though I have top pair I know a bet here would be a complete bluff. Maybe I should have just bet anyways since they'd have to think I have a huge hand, but I decide to check behind and see what happens, maybe get some value from worse hands at some point. Then turn is a Q which is obviously pretty bad, Men thinks for a bit and then checks, and the Euro guy bets 3K. I can't imagine him betting anything I beat now so I fold and Men also folds. We talked about the hand later he asked if I had AK I was like no I hand a weird hand, asked him if he had AQ or something and he said something like that, I had a "big pair". NOt really sure what that means, hard to imagine he had JJ+ there but who knows.

Hand 2: Elezra limps at 100/200 from MP, I make it 800 with A6o in the CO, the BB calls (damn) and Eli obviously calls. The flop comes A43, they check to me and I check behind. Turn 5, the BB bets 1200 and I call. River K, he checks I check behind and beat 56ss.

Hand 3: I have like 12K now and open to 600 in the CO with AA. Chau Giang makes it 2200 on the button. So far he's shown only premium hands but I assume he's a strong enough player to reraise with a wide range here and he probably gets away from even very strong hands here if I reriase so I just call, which is pretty standard against a competent player in this spot. Flop AQx rainbow, I check and he bets 3500. I think for a while because I'm not sure whether to just call or shove it in now (a push would be 6K more) and eventually decide that if he has something he'll get it in basically regardless on the turn or river even though my call looks pretty suspicious and maybe he'll happen to turn some kind of hand or make a bad bluff. The turn is a T and I check, he puts me in and I call, he says "you win I have no pair no draw". Up to 24Kish.

Hand 4: Harry limps UTG, Elezra limps behind in MP, I make 1000 in the CO, the BB thinks for a bit like maybe he'll reraise and then calls, Harry folds, and Elezra shoves 3300 more. I'm pretty sure the BB has a fairly big hand but prboably not AA/KK since he'd have reraised and he likely folds everything else if I push (he has like 15K or something). I have no idea what Eli has but it's hard to given him credit for a big hand here even though he has to know he's always getting called by one of us and we likely have big hands. I go ahead and shove, the BB folds (must have been QQ or JJ), but Eli has AA. Damn. Down to 20K.

Hand5 : Raise KQo in EP to 600 at 100/200 a25 and Demitriou calls in late position. Flop Q9x 2 clubs, Harry has like 8K left. This is a pretty awkward spot as i don't have a club, I decide to check and he bets 1000. I consider calling and leading non-club turns since i don't like calling and checking again as his draws can take a free river. Eventually I decide just to checkraise all-in which is maybe kind of reckless but can't really be that bad and he instacalls with K6cc. wtf is he calling my early raises with.

Hand 6: I'm trying to forget this hand happened. It involves another awful hero call on the river that never really had a chance of being right.

Hand 7: Now to down 2500 there is a raise and call in front and I shove AKdd. Both call, I flop the nut flush and get to 8K.

Hand 8: I now have 5600 or so at 300/600 a75 and shoce T7o in late position. The SB calls, but turns over 44. I still lose though.

Not sure what I'm going to play tomorrow... There is a $5K at Bellagio that might not have a much of a field (Aaron played the $2500 today with only 75 runners) and the WSOP has a $1500 PLO and then $3K Stud Hi/Lo. So I may play the Rio event as I'm obviously a PLO master after my FTOPS 2nd place finish. We'll see I guess.

Mike

VICTORY!!!

I won the $1K Super Tuesday tournament on Stars for $75K! Basically I got all-in dominated a lot and drew out, and then eventually I got my act together and started playing well at the end, and also made some hands to make a huge comeback after I had bluffed off a lot of chips at the beginning of the final table. This is easily my biggest tournament score so far, but with the $5K NL starting tomorrow and other WSOP events I'm hopeful that won't be the case for too long! In other news, I was talking to Ryan Daut at dinner last night and he mentioned taht a friend of his had been ahving a lot of success shortstacking 200/400 PLO on Full Tilt (mostly against Gus Hansen because as Matusow constantly tells the entire tournament room, he is supposedly the worst Omaha player ever). Anyways, being the degenerate high stakes shortstacker that I am I decided to try it out and see what happens. What I learned: Gettting 4-outed on the river for $28K sucks.

OK time to get some sleep for tomorrow.

Mike

Quick $1500 NL Shootout Report

I'm glad I played this thing, most of my table was absolutely terrible. That being said I obviously didn't even make the first break.

Hand 1: 3 limpers at 25/50, I make it 250 with JJ. I wasn't sure whether to go 250 or 300, I guess I should have made it 300 because they all called. Flop KTx checks to me and I check behind. Turn A and I have to release to a bet.

Hand 2: Aggressive guy on my right makes it 225 on the button. I want to reraise with AQo in the SB but his big raise is kind of scary and with 2400 or so in my stack it's super awkward so I just call. BB calls and I ahve to check/fold a K95. The main point of this hand is taht every time I have a playable hand the guy on my right made some enormous raise. In other news the lady two seats to my left who is awful has busted 2 players already, one where she obviously had a flush and somehow an even bigger clown paid her off.

Hand 3: Folds to aggro guy on my right, he makes it 350 at 25/50 still. I have AJo on the button and consider tilt pushing but eventually I just muck and he shows KK. Expert 7xBB raise sir, can't risk getting those cracked.

Hand 4: Now we're down to 7 at 50/100, tightish guy opens in MP to 300, bad aggro guy calls on my right. I had 2350 and KQs on the button and decide that sice I've basically never put a chip in the pot a squeeze should get a lot of respect, and I jam. The awful lady in the BB insta-calls and I figure I'm going home but she says "this is kind of a loose call" and shows JJ. Board comes T98QJ and I spike a nice 2-outer to double to 5K.

Hand 5: I open KK UTG 6-handed to 300 and awful lady calls in position. Flop T9x, I bet 500, she instashoves 2650 more, I instacall, and get rivered by A9.

Hand 6: I chipped up to 1650 and shove AK over tightish guy's EP raise. He calls with KK and IGHN.

Online donkaments this evening including the new Stars $1k, and then $5K NL tomorrow. That'd be a good time to run good.

Mike

No luck today either

I busted the$2500 NL early, and struggled along in the Stud 8 for quite a while but busted before the end of the day :-(. Tomorrow is a $1500 NL Shootout, presumably it will be capped at 1000 players and you'll have to win 3 single tables of 10 players each. I was going to skip this event and play the $2500 Bellagio Cup event, but talking to some people on break today they made some really good points as to why I really should be playing this tournament and it's probably even more +EV than a normal tournament, so if I can get down there early enough and get a seat I will. Otherwise Belalgio Cup I guess. Steve is gone for a few days now also.

Mike

Just another typical Sunday....

OK not exactly, it was actually significantly more heartbreaking than most. I went deep in three majors and got screwed at the end of all of them. First was the Party 300K guaranteed, where I was running insanely good the whole way and had lots of chips. Then with 15 left I had around 550K chips and got all-in pre with AQ vs A9. Flop Q85. I'm winning this tournament for sure. I looked away and made some decsions on my other tables, and when I looked back I had 100K chips as the turn and river came 6,7. Then I robbed some blinds and won AT vs JJ all-in prelfop to get back to 500K, and I was forced to call an all-in with 75 and beat his 44 to get to 600K or so. I got dealt KK with 11 left and raised, then got reraised all-in by AQ. Flop JT8. Oh crap. Turn 2 ok.... River A. hyachachachachach. Then in the Stars 2nd chance with 27 left I had an above average stack and got in preflop with KK again, this time vs AA. Finally, in the 200 rebuy on Stars with 12 left there was a raise UTG (6-handed), I had JJ so I shoved, some clown in the BB called with 99 and the UTG raiser had AA :-(. So those 3 cashes added up to a total of like $5500 (1st paid 60K, 48K, 46K respectively in the three). I also made like 4K in cash games. Oh yeah I obviously won my 6th main event seat in the $650 satellite. So ridiculous. So all-in all it's was still a really good day, but of course Im still somewhat disappointed. Tomorrow is the $2500 NL, and probably the $2K Stud Hi/Lo if I bust out before 5, though with 5K starting chips I don't really expect to be out early.

Mike

lol more poker

I'm too tired to do a long report. Some stuff happened in the $1500, I never really got a lot of chips, and then I busted making a really marginal call that is probably bad because no one ever bluffs ever. Then I went and played the $2500 HORSE and while it was the funnest table ever with Matusow and Elezra and some others again I basically won like 2 pots the whole time and busted before the end of the day. Today/tomorrow will be online tournaments, then $2500 NL on Monday I guess.

Mike

Event 13: $5k PL Holdem

Bah, I played another 12 hours today for nothing. I played with lots of pros and stuff so I guess that's cool or something. Basically I was exceptionally card dead most of the day and then when things finally started to turn around I lost all my chips in 5 minutes. Let me see what I can remember.

Mike Matusow is 3 to my right to start the day. He basically just talks about how he doesn't want to be here because Harrah's is robbing us blind (basically true), and how he's finally winning online lately. He rants about how Gus Hansen is the worst O8 player in the history of the world and he wants to bust out so he can go play against him online and take all his money and stuff. Anyways so Mike obviously doesn't want to be there and it shows in his play and he's gone pretty fast. Funny guy to have at the table though.

Eli Elezra opens for 350 on the button at 50/100 and I call with 77 in my BB. The flop comes Q97 2 hearts and I check. I think I should probably lead here but either way can't be bad. He checks behind. Turn 9 I bet 600 and he calls. River is a low heart and I decide to go for a big sexy river checkraise, but he checks behind. Sigh.

Hand ?. I can't remember what order things happened in but anyways here's some interesting ones. I've basically never played a hand ever because I'm so awfully card dead. Anyways some guy limps, I make it 800 at 100/200 on the button with JJ and 7500 to start the hand and he calls. Flop J8x all clubs and for some reason he checkraises me all-in with 7c7 and loses despite turning a set.

Again I"ve done nothing in forever and chipped down a bit. Joe Tehan limps in EP still at 100/200 and I make it 800 with K2ss. He calls and the flop comes 544 2 spades. He checks and calls my 1400 chip bet. The turn is a 4 ruining my flush draw but it doesn't really matter because he has 77 or 88 here like always so I bet 3000 and he folds.

Again I fold for hours on end, eventually some new fairly aggressive guy makes it 1200 in middle position at 200/400 on my BB and I repop to 3600 forcing him to fold (I had random bad cards). Next hand Joe Tehan raises to 1000 in MP. He's clearly notices that the guy on my left in the BB hasn't put a chip in the pot in like 600 hours and I'm only slightly more involved so I just go ahead and make it 3200 with some bad hand. He calls, the flop comes 992 and he folds to my 4200 bet.

I fold for a while and then youngish aggressive guy open to 2400 from early-middle position at 400/800 on my SB (guy on my left never puts money in pot ever remember). I decide to make it 7000 with the monstrous 73cc, leaving myself 13K behind. Unfortunately he calls and the flop comes AJT. I give up and check, and he checks behind. Turn is the 8c giving a flush draw and a gutter taht might be good. I should prboably jam here and pray he folds but in my mind I was done with the hand and didn't think about things clearly and checked. He now put me all-in and I had to fold.

I now raise KQo and get called by Joe Tehan in the BB. I flop AJT and get him to double me up to 24K with A2s.

Blinds now 600/1200, it folds to Howard Lederer on the button who has been at our table for a few orbits now, and he raises to 3600. I find AA in the BB with 24K and decide to just call. Flop comes AKx which is kind of sucks even though I have a set. I check and he bets 4K. I'm pretty sure he's basically never putting another chip in the pot unless he has the case ace or some other good hand and I'd rather he not turn a gutshot on me or something foolish so I just checkraise to 10K and he folds.

I now get moved to a new table, I hav like 30K in chips. I finally start getting some hands now, I reraise a guy with KK, and then open KK in the cutoff seat to 4500 at 800/1600. The BB calls with like 9000 left or something ridiculous and the flop comes Axx. I check behind and the turn is a Q. We both check again and the river is a J. He min-bets 1600 and I call and beat TT. How he doesn't get all-in preflop baffles me, people are pretty bad at poker.

I win a few more pots and ahve just over 40K when all goes to hell and Kathy Liebert of all frigging people takes all my chips. She opens to 4500 in MP with like 25K total at 800/1600 still. I have TT in the BB and reraise pot, she reraises the rest in and I lose to AA. Sigh. Now I have 14K, it folds to me in the CO and i have Ks8d. Maybe I should fold here since even with 9xBB I don't need to be taht desperate but live players love folding etc so I pot it to 5600. Liebert calls in the BB, the flop comes Qs6s5s and she puts me allin. I call and lose the coinflip to Ac7s. Tomorrow is 1500 NL tournament, hopefully I bust early or get a big stack for once. Oh yeah somehow Steve didn't make the money in this one either busting just after me, he's down to 3 for 4 in cashes now.

Mike

Event 10: $1500 NL 6-max

I had high expectations for this tournament but unfortunately I went out before the dinner break. Let's get right to the hands I guess.

Hands 1-3: Raise QTo, flop QQJ. Bet, get raised and call. Turn check/check. River T I bet fairly big but he folds AJ face up :-(. Raise AA no callers. Call a raise with 99 in my BB. flop 954, chk/chk. turn 9, I bet he folds. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh those were the first 3 hands of the day and I didn't make that much.

Hand 4: I have like 5K now after raising and betting the flop some more. Button limps at 25/50, Ted Forrest calls in the SB, and I check 85s in the BB. Flop K88, Ted checks, I bet 100. Button calls, Forrest maks it 300. I call and button folds. Turn 9, Ted bets 300 and I call. River 9, Ted bets 600 and I quickly call expecting to chop, but lose to 89.

Hand 5: I thinkI've somehow chipped back up to like 5K now. I raise QQ in the hijack to 300 at 50/100. I've been raising a lot and this in particular is the 3rd hand in a row I've raised. The SB calls and the BB who is some guy who will apparently be in the next High Stakes Poker calls. He might be a good cash player or something (maybe), but he clearly sucks at playing on shallow stacks. Flop 532. Check to me, I bet 600, the BB calls. Turn J. I get that sinking feeling that I'm being slowplayed but with 2700 effective behind and 2100 in the pot and my over-aggressive image I think not betting would be awful so I fire 1500, he hollywoods for a bit and says something retarded like "I guess I'm all-in then" and raises his last 1200. I sigh and call then instamuck to his 64s.

Hand 6: I have 1050 now. Clown limps UTG and I make it 400 with AQ. Normally I'd just shove here but clown figured to have crap and I don't mind him calling and trying to outdraw me with his obviously worse hand since I need to get some chips. I'm getting it on the flop no matter what of course. Flop 932 two hearts. He checks, I shove, he instacalls with... 87hh. OK, it wouldn't have made a difference since I would have called anyways, but not pushing into me on the flop with his hand is just awful. I'm obviously shoving regardless when checked to and he never has the best hand, but if he pushes into me he might get me to fold A-hi or K-hi or something incorrectly that has him beat instead of having to coinflip against it. Anyways I hold up to get to like 2200.

Hand 7: Folds to the SB who is an aggressive youngish guy from Toronto. Blinds 100/200 he makes it 600, I jam 2200ish with AKo, and he calls with 44. I turn an A and get back in it.

Hand 8: 100/200 a25. Raise KK on the button. BB calls. Flop Jxx, I get chekraised and put the rest in. He has KJ and I'm up to like 11K.

Hand 9: I think this one is pretty debatable. I now have like 13K somehow. I raise AJcc UTG to 600 at 100/200 a25. Button calls. He's too loose preflop and not really good postflop but not crazy or anything. He can have like any suited ace, small-mid pairs, paint cards, and like AT-AJ, maybe AQ, and probably some suited connectors or something. Flop Ad2c3c. I bet 1200 and he makes it 2500. A push would be for 10K more and I'm pretty sure he never calls with a worse hand, and he basically never folds a better one, maybe AQ sometimes. So I didn't see a lot of value in reraising and decided to just call since his turn action should tell me what's going on and he never has a lot of outs when behind (and if he catches a club that makes him two pair or a straight I may get all his chips). Turn 5h. I check and he jams. I tank. and mutter about how sick this is and how I should have just put him in on the flop then eventually fold. He asks if I want to see, I say yes and he shows A4hh. Sigh, excellent flop raise sir. I posted the hand on 2+2. My initial impression is that a small reraise on the flop may have been the best play since it keeps worse flush draws in and maybe gets called by a worse ace somehow or something. I hadn't considered that.

Hand 10: I'm pretty sure I win a coinflip against a shortstack with AK vs 55 or something to get back to 13K. Aggressive Toronto guy raises to 850 at 150/300 a25 with like 4K behind, I make it 3K in the CO with QTs and he instamucks.

Hand 11: Some time has passed now I haven't done anything big, just playing tight. Same guy makes it 850 on the button, he now has like 10K behind though. I make it 2850 with 95o or something really bad like that and he folds quickly again.

Hand 12: 200/400 a25. I raise to 1200 on the button with AKo, the SB jams like 5K total and 55 is good.

Hand 13: Fold to Toronto guy in the CO who makes it 1150, I shove 8K on the button with A6o and he folds quickly.

Hand 14: Despite what it seems from this report, my table image is actually pretty good. I haven't been overly active and I've only ever shown down huge hands. AK several times, the KK, once I showed a set after checkrasing all-in to repay the guy for showing the A4hh, and the table also knows I folded the AJcc in that hand. So I have a pretty tight image actually. Anyways, guy from the AJcc hand raises to 1700 at 200/400 blinds still in the hijack. His raises are always unnecessarily big like that, and he raises a normal widish range. I haven't reraised him yet preflop and I'm pretty sure a pushfrom me will get a lot of respect, especially since I have like 8300 counting my SB. I find KTs in the SB and jam over his raise. The BB wakes up with QQ to cripple me and I'm out a few hands later. I'm happy with my play here still. The raiser said he had AJhh and his friend at the table said oh yeah but you definitely would have folded that anyways. Just unlucky the BB happened to have a monster.

Tomorrow is the $5K PL Holdem, time to get some sleep. It should be a smaller and tougher field, but I'm confident in how I'm playing.

Mike

Busto 65th & 50/100 Stud Hi/Lo

It was a short day in the tournament, but not without some excitement. I finished 65th for $67ooish.

I donk off some chips and then shove 75dd for my last 22K. The SB tank folds AJs. lol. Then I shove AQs UTG, get called by 99, and river an A. At some point after that an aggressive asian guy raises UTG 6-handed (because half our table showed up late) to 6K at 1k/2k still , and I jam like 37K with K8o in the BB and pick up some more chips. Then I raise AQs in EP, it folds to the BB who is wearing all Full Tilt gear but I don't really know who he is. He thinks for a bit and shoves. I tank and fold unhappily. The very next hand I have like 40K left and raise UTG to 9K at 1500/3000 with 99, and an aggressive asian man makes it 24K in MP. I'm getting like 1.85:1 on the rest of my stack and decide that's too good a price, but he obv has AA. I flop a flush draw but miss everything :-(.

Then after that I decided to go play 50/100 Stud Hi/Lo because it's fun and I've never played the game live before. I played for 5 or 6 hours and made $1100 due to running good and scooping a few big pots mostly, though the players didn't seem overly tough. It was a nice break from holdem though for sure. Tomorrow is the $1500 NL 6-max which I'm looking forward to because 6-max is the best. If I somehow don't make day 2 then Friday is the $5k PL Holdem.

Mike

My first WSOP cash

Hey all, I made the money in the $1k + rebuys tournament today. It was an up and down day and I didn't play all that well, (pressed the call button too much as usual) but I managed to battle through to the money and Day 2 tomorrow. I begin the day with 34,400 chips, average stack is like 65K or something and blinds 1k/2K with a 300 ante, so it could be a short day if I don't get an early double up. I think I'm guaranteed like $5K or something now, for a tidy $1k in profit. On to the hands, we started with 2K in chips and I immediately took a rebuy for another 2K in chips:

Rebuy period: I steal a bunch of small pots and move allin with big hands and get called by worse hands. Lose a smallish pot at the end to drop to 7500, double add-on to 11.5K. In for $4K.

Hand 2: I"ve won some small pots to get up to $15K. I raise AJo in EP to 700 at 100/200 a25. Fish calls in MP and Paul Wasicka calls in one of the blinds. Flop J86 two spades, I bet 1800 and both call. Turn 4d. Fish can have a lot of stuff, usually some sort of draw, and Wasicka basically always has a draw too, so I fire 6K and take it down. I considered trying to go for a cheackraise on the fish but it's too risky and he's often checking behind drawing hands anyways.

Hand 3: Folds to CO at 150/300 a25 ,who's a weak player and open limps. I limp JTo on the button and blinds come along also. Flop T54 checks to me and I bet 900. Amnon Filippi calls in the SB and the others fold. The turn is a 6 and I check behind. River is a K and he fires 3500. I fold pretty quickly and he later says he had 23.

Hand 4: First disaster river call. Last hand before the break Martine23 raises in EP to 1200 at 200/400 a25. I have AsQd on the button and like 20K which he covers. I consider reraising since he can be raising wider than usual since people want to just fold and go on break, but decide to call instead. The BB calls also. Flop T9x 2 spades checks around. Turn Qs, Martine bets 2300, I call, and the BB folds. River is the Td and he fires 6K. I'm pretty sure this is basically never a bluff, but his action doesn't make sense. The only hand he can really have is KJ but I would expect him to bet bigger on the turn. There's basically no way he can ever have a flush since he would usually also have at least a gutshot on the flop with it and he doesn't check that big a draw. I deliberate for a while and finally call and he shows KcJs as expected to take the pot and drop me down to 10K.

Hand 5: I go on a little rush after the break and get some chips back, I recall 3 hands but can't remember the exact order they happened. I raise 88 to 1800 at 300/600 a75 in EP and only the BB calls. Flop QQJ goes chk/chk. Turn J, chk/chk. River K he checks, I bet 2500 and he folds. Whew.

Hand 6: I raise UTG with AA and get called by Amnon on my left and the BB from the last hand now on the button. Flop Axx I checks around. Turn blank check around, river A I bet 3600 and the button calls with some bad pocket pair that should never call there since I have like JJ at worst.

Hand 7: I raise AQss UTG to 1800 and get called by two young guys in MP. Flop comes KTx 2 spades and I decide to go for a checkraise all-in. In retropsect the frist caller didn't have that many chips so I probably should have just led big. Anyways it checks to the second caller who bets 3K, I make it 12K and both fold quickly. After all these hands I was up to like 34K or something at my peak.

Hand 8: Eep this hand is pretty embarassing. Raise to 3600 at 6/12 blinds with 99 in EP. Asian guy calls in MP, he seems loose/aggressive and just lost a big pot on the last hand. The BB calls also. Flop KQ4 checks around. Turn 3 putting a heart draw out there also checks around. River J checks to the asian guy who bets 8k. BB folds and I tank thinking he could easily have air here. I really didn't think he had a K or Q since I'd expect him to bet the turn, I don't know if he'd bet just a jack there, prboably not, so unless he has a bizarre slowplay or AT it seems reasonable I could have the best hand. There could also be a steam factor from the last hand I guess too. I go for the hero call and lose to QJo. Oops.

Random shortstakced hands: Jam a few times with marginal hands to pick up the blinds and antes, shove over a raise with JJ, and then UTG raise A3o and steal the blinds/antes since the table ahd been playing super tight. Moved to new table where I thankfully no longer recognize everyone.

Hand 9: The tournament directors announce hand for hand as we're on the bubble. I have like 28-29K at 1k/2k a300 and open shove 33 in the CO. Thankfully they all fold, the bubble bursts, and I get my first WSOP cash. My new table seems to have some lunatics so if I pick up some hands and they hold I should be able to get back in contention.

Mike

Some pictures

I got the master bedroom. Walk-in closet.
My own bathroom.
Living room.
Kitchen, nice new appliances.
Dinner table with laptops.
4th place finisher looking photogenic as usual.

More Vegas Trip Reportage

I'm probably not goign to go into as much detail in this post just an update mostly. On Saturday I couldn't play the $1500 NL so I was thinking of just playing the online tournaments, but I ended up going to the Venetian instead to play their $540 deepstack tournament. The tournament is pretty good, players are soft etc.... It becomes a huge crapshoot pretty suddenly though because the antes are enormous. Anyways, some people donated me chips early, but then I did nothing for a while before luckboxing 63>KQ aipf on the last hand before the dinner break. I ended up cashing and then eventually pushing JT into KQ and losing. One semi-interesting hand of note:

Some guy limps at 100/200, he's generally just loose/bad. I find JJ and raise 4xBB to 800 in position. I've been playing very aggressive so far so this is a great spot as I'm likely not going to be given credit for much of a hand here. Folds back to the limper who calls. The flop comes K98. He checks and I check behind. The only bad cards that can come off are an A or Q so I'm not too worried about a scare card, but I don't really want to bloat the pot or give him a chance to do something stupid and bluff me off the best hand. Then turn is a 5, he bets 1300 and I call. The river is a 6, and he bets 2K. At this point I still kind of think I might have the best hand. Obviously he can have a king, maybe some kind of bluff that backed into a straight or something, but I also thought that given our history he could have nothing or he could be blocking with a worse one pair hand because people suck at playing the river properly. Eventually I call and J9s is no good. His river bet is a standard thing you see from weak players. He gets confused and thinks he might still have the best hand so he just bets smallish and hopes something good happens. If you think the hand through from his point of view you'll realize that on the river it's really hard for me to ever call with a worse hand, so there's no point to bet unless he's hoping I fold a better hand. His hand has lots of showdown value though so there's not really any point to turn it into a bluff, and betting 2K into 4500 isn't going to be a very effective bluff anyways.

OK after that I drove back to the Rio and sweated Steve until 3am or something when they finally made the final table. I bumped into AaronBeen, Kush, and MrTimCaum also railing the final 2 tables. Steve caught some cards and finished 2/9 going into the final table. On Sunday I ended up heading over to Aaron/Kush's place to play Sunday tournaments. Everytihng went pretty bad and I lost even more money playing cash. I was in a pretty good 25/50 game on UB and stacked some really bad player to get a 10K stack but then I didn't leave and played a really tough hand against another guy who I only barely covered, and lost a 20K pot, when as usual lately I couldn't find the fold button. I don't know why I'm such a call station lately in cash games but I've got to get that fixed. As you prboably know by now, Steve finished 4th for 120K or so. He got pretty unlucky to go from chipleader to bust in like 3 hands, but the blinds in the limit section were so big that's the way it goes. The plan for today is to relax, prbably run some errands like getting some food in the house, and then either go play live cash games or more likely stay in and play the $1k tournament on Full Tilt and other online donkaments. Oh yeah I finally got my wire transfer late Saturday night so at last I have lots of money here. My next big live tournament is the $1k rebuy WSOP event on Tuesday. I've got a pile of $1K casino chips ready to go.

Mike

Event 1: $5K Mixed Holdem

I missed only two hands since we started like 45 minutes late. I arrive for my BB and defend with 87s, miss the flop, and check/fold. In my quick glance around the table as I arrived and had to play the hand right away I didn't see anyone I recognized. Upon further inspection Phil Ivey is definitely in the 9 seat but everyone else is unnkown to me, most appear to be random live players so it looks like a sweet table draw. My initial impression turns out to be correct, it really is a pretty soft table, but I'm pretty card dead early on and the few random plays I make don't work.



Hand 1: We're now at 75/150 NL, I'm down to like 8500 from starting 10K. UTG limps (people had been limping lots) and I find QQ UTG+2 and make it 600. It fold to Eric Seidel in the SB (he had just recently been moved here) who calls, some old guy in the BB calls, and the limper calls. The flop comes a perfect AQx with 2 clubs. They check to me and I fire 1750. Seidel folds, and the BB makes it 4K. Folds to me and I move in and get called by AK. Up to 20K.



Hand 2: 150/300 blinds limit holdem (I'll talk in terms of blinds instead of betting limits for the loimit hands). Ivey raises in MP, the SB cold calls, and I call with KQo in the BB. The flop comes QQ8 2 diamonds and I checkraise Phil. He calls and a blank turn rolls off. I bet he raises and I call down and lose to AQ. Back to 17Kish. Shortly after this I get moved to a new table which sucks. Im in the 6 seat, Dutch Boyd is in the 2 hole, Josh Arieh in the 3 seat, Jeff Madsen is on my left in the 7 seat and Freddy Deeb is in the 9 seat. Tough table.



Hand 3: I raise a few hands when I get to the table then get card dead again. Finally I raise AJo in MP at 200/400 NL and the BB moves in for 4K total. I call getting 2:1 though I'm likely dominated and lose to AQ. Down to 9K.

Hand 4: I've managed to chip down to 6Kish now. I raise KK to 1200 still at 200/400 NL and the BB calls. Flop Q65 he check/calls my shove and Q3s is no good. No idea where that came from but I'm back in it.

Hand 5: Arieh is playing very aggressive as usual. He raises in the hijack at 400/800 blind limit and I decide I'm 3-betting anything playable in the SB. A8s looks pretty huge for this purpose, so I 3-bet and he calls. Flop ATx he calls my bet. Turn is a blank and I decide to check, he checks behind. River is some card I forget and he calls my bet and mucks.

Hand 6: Arieh again raises in the hijack and I have KQo in the SB. I know a 3-bet isn't going to get a lot of respect but I still think I have to 3-bet there. He calls and raises my bet on the J8xhh flop. I call and fold a blank turn, resisting the urge to do something stupid.

Hand 7: I raise QJs in the CO, still at 4/8 limit. Madsen 3-bets from the SB and I call. I flop gin: T98. I raise his flop bet bet and he calls down with what he later said was a big pair. Back over 20K.

Hand 8: I've chipped down a bit to 13.6K now at 800/1500 blinds limit and another new table. I raise 22 in the hijack and the button 3-bets to 4500. I call and the flop comes 754. I have the best hand there enough that I can't really fold to his c-bet but calling down leaves me with 1500 only, so I have to checkraise and make sure to get full value the times he doesn't have a pair. He calls and raises my turn bet which I have to call all-in and lose to A5o.

The line for the $1500 NL tourney on Saturday was so long that there was no way I was waiting in it. I ended up playing at the Venetian instead. My wire transfer finally arrived on Saturday and Steve final is playing at the final table of the $5K mixed holdem tourney today. He's coming in 2nd in chips. Good luck Steve! I'm exhausted so sorry if some details are lacking in this report.

Mike

WSOP Trip Report #1

OK a fair amount of stuff happened already I'm going to try to remember everything as best I can. Thursday was a pretty boring day. My flight was relatively uneventful, I met Steve at the airport in Toronto, and despite leaving 45 minutes late we arrive in Vegas right on time. Schaefer picked us up at the airport, and we went to rent a car for him since he's 25+ and Steve and I are using his car. Eventually we got all that sorted and headed towards our condo, which we were able to locate without much trouble. Things were going just a little too well up to this point, it was pretty ominous. So we go up to our condo and put in what we think is the code to unlock the door and nothing happens. After a few minutes of hopeless button mashing we try calling the lady to find out the real code (turns out the code we had was for an outside gate that is never closed). It's 1:30am or so by now though sh's obviously asleep. Great. So we decide to run down to the Rio (where all WSOP events take palce) to get our money and register for a few tournaments and hope we somehow hear from her while we're there.

Now the whole wire transfer to the Rio thing had me kind of nervous because the people at the bank who did mine hadn't really done a lot of these before so I was pretty worried it might not have been done right. We get up to the cage and they start looking for our money. It must be a complete disaster back there because she kept saying hold on I'm looking somewhere else. Eventually she came back saying to try again in the monring because those people are better with things, but that they may not ahve received it yet. Sigh. Between the condo and wire transfer I was really hoping to go 1/2 for at least, I mean I knew something had to go wrong but come on. So at this point we're basically screwed, we have like 8K between us and we both want to play a 5K tourney the next day, and it's getting late and we have nowhere to sleep. We call one of our friends and find out that Bond18 is staying at the Rio and he says we can crash with him. So we meet him 20 mins later and go crash for the night. In the morning I was supposed to do a big online for cash transfer with another guy I know from online so we would have money to buy in.

We make up at 8:30, and for some reason I slept terribly. We're able to get a hold of the lady renting us the condo and find out taht Aaron set the door code himself and forgot to tell it to Steve. Frigging Aaron. Steve could have guessed it if he knew that too. So we go try to get our money again and they tell us the transfer hasn't gone through yet. Great, these things are not supposed to take more than a couple days normally. Anyways we're able to put together a plan where we go get set up in our condo, then head to Tresaure Island to the PokerStars booth to get our gear from there and sign some form(I'm buying in to several events with my W$ so I ahve to wear their crap), and then rock over to the Mandalay Bay to meet Thayer and borrow some money. Thayer is at the final table of the Mandaly Bay WPT event today so good luck to him! He is obviously being backed by Steve and timex, so their Vegas backing is off to a pretty ok start. First tourney, first final table. timex is so lucky at backing it's sick.

So things go as planned and we arrive at the Rio at 11:45 for a 12pm start. The line is like 1000 peopl long or something. It's completely fucking insane. Fortunately, as we had guessed, they were letting people playing the $5K that day cut to the front and register since it was starting soon. It still took a while and a few more debalces to get bought in, but I finally was seated at table 39 seat 5. OK I'm going to make a new post for the tournament since this is semi-long already. I busted out towards the end of the day for those who want to know how I did.

Mike

Weekend Report + Vegas Schedule

I played a fair amount of 10/20 and 25/50 in the last few days as well as the usual bunch of tournaments. I've basically decided that when I play cash I'm just going to sit at the best tables I can find across all the sites whether they're 10/20, 25/50, or maybe even an occasional 50/100 game. While I don't want to get back into shortstacking high stakes a lot, if a 100/200 or 200/400 game looks especially good I'll allow myself to take a shot at those too. Anyways I feel like my cash game is in a bit of a funk the last day or 2, I'm just not reasoning through situations as clearly as usual and I find myself pressing that call button too much when I'm confused. Part of this probably has to do with playing more aggressive players at higher limits, but a lot of it is just me not being at 100%. I put in more hands in the last few days than usual and I've never been good at playing long cash sessions, so I'll probably cut back a bit before I leave for Vegas on Thursday.

The other thing I've noticed lately is that most online tournaments have become somewhat boring to me. Other than the Sunday tournaments and a few of the special ones throughout the week, most online tournaments are such small stakes compared to my cash games and the tournaments I'll soon be playing in Vegas, that they just don't seem important and aren't as exciting anymore. This makes me want to play more cash tables than tournaments in my mix, but as I said above I seem to do a lot better when I'm not overdoing the cash tables. I might put in some short sessions based around the Full Tilt $1K tourney on Monday and new Stars $1K tourney on Tuesday this week, but other than that I think I'm gonna play a bit less until I get to Vegas. Anyways, as for results my cash games went up and down a lot this weekend but I finished down like $10K mostly due to shortstacking big games unsuccessfully again. In tournaments I cashed the Stars Million again this week for $1100 and finished 3rd in the UB $530 for $9400, so I made back a bit there.

Ok Vegas plans. Steve and I arrive in Vegas on the same connection from Toronto Thursday evening. We'll hopefully get moved into the condo we rented without any problems and then I'm playing my first WSOP event of the year on Friday: The $5K mixed holdem event (half limit half no-limit, it's kinda weird). From then on I'm planning to just play a ton of events, though my actual schedule will depend on how a lot of things are going. Playing live poker every day may very well drive me insane at some point (especially since it's so slow compared to online), but I'm pretty motivated to really breakthrough on the live circuit and make a big final table, book at least a 6-figure score, and maybe even win my first world series bracelet if I get lucky. I've always been pretty good at playing a lot of hours when it comes to tournaments, so I'm pretty optimistic I'll be able to keep focused and play a relatively full schedule over the entire month and a half or so, and still think poker is fun at the end. Of course I'll make sure there's still lots of time to party it up bit, play some golf, and relax and enjoy things other than poker in general while I'm down there too. A lot of people I know will be in Vegas during most of the WSOP, and meeting and hanging out with all the other poker players, especially the online players I play against and discuss strategy with almost every day, is always the best part of these trips. So wish me luck, and awesome Vegas trip reports will commence on here by the end of the week!

Mike

It's becoming a new Sunday pattern

1. Win a few buyins at cash to cover most of tournament fees.
2. Donk out of all the Sunday major tournaments. Get semi-deep in 1 or 2 maybe, just enough to get a little bit of hope up to be crushed.
3. Win WSOP seat in the $650 satellite.

So yeah I have 5 main event seats now. I was doing pretty well in the Sunday million but then I decided to lose every all-in instead of winning them, which was probably a poor strategic decision on my part to go away from what had been working and got me that far. Oh yeah I also blew a massive stack in the Party $530. With 16 players left I had 120K. Average stack at the final table was approximately 50K so I had just an enormous stack. I made the final table with 18K and finished 9th. That sure was fun. Hmm I guess that's about it. I'm starting to get really excited about Vegas, it's going to be amazing. 10 more days.

Mike

A few things on PocketFives

PocketFives is an online community for tournament poker players, their big feature is their ranking of the top 100 online tournament players. As I mentioned in a post some time last year when I was ranked for a couple weeks, there are lots of good reasons not to read too much into those rankings (the ranking criteria are explained on the site), but nonetheless it is kind of nice to be recognized as a top player. I re-entered the rankings last week in the 100 spot, and after my performace on Saturday I jumped up 21 spots to 79. Also, there's an article on the front page now about members of the P5s community that have been doing well in the first few FTOPS events. There's a paragraph about me in there for my 2nd place finish in Event #2.

PocketFivers dominating the FTOPS

I didn't write anything about Sunday because it was pretty unevenful. I made a bunch playing cash and lost some of it back at tournaments. In particular I've moved back to shortstacking 25/50 full ring games and taking shots in those games with a full stack when I happen to have position on a big fish while shortstacking. My results so far have been very positive taking these shots, here's a few hands.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1103117

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1103118

And one from Party. It turned out the guy I didn't recognize at this table wasn't bad, but in the time it took me to figure that out I played this hand against another guy. Pretty easy call for me on the river I guess, though I took my time making it since it was for a lot of money. He's trying to represent a big hand on the river, but on a draw heavy board like this there's no way he ever checks behind a big hand on the turn, and no draws got there on the river obviously. The only thing that makes any sense is if he rivered a set of twos, but that's very unlikely compared to the chances he's bluffing, especially since it doesn't look like I have much of a hand either the way I played it.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1103139

Oh yeah I checked the flop because it's a connected board that may have hit someone hard, and getting a continuation bet raised there is awful when I have such a big draw. Often with such a big draw I would lead out and move all-in over a raise, but if I get raised on this board it's way too likely that pairing my K or J won't be enough to win me the pot so I don't just want to get all-in on the flop as a big underdog. I wasn't sure about the turn but I think I'd have taken my chances and checkraised all-in over a decent sized bet since there's a good chance I have the best hand but he has a ton of outs. Against some really tight players I might call and fold if he follows through with a big river bet, but I like the checkraise against a more aggressive player, though I didn't have much of a read here.

Mike

Huge Day!

I had two huge tournament cashes today. First I won the $100 rebuy on Stars for $23K. I got lucky at the right times at the final few tables and won a big coinflip when a shortstack shoved A2, I shoved to isolate with JJ, and gotskillz moved in over the top of me with AKs. I flopped a set and won the huge pot. From there I picked up a couple more hands at the right time and cruised to victory.

My other big score was in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) event #2. It was a $100+rebuys PLO tournament of all things. I'm not much of an Omaha player, but I've read the PLO section in Super System 2 and practiced enough online and in friendly live games that I'm pretty sure I'm +EV in a big PLO tourney like this with lots of satellite qualifiers who won't rebuy. Also, most people are just really bad at Omaha, and once the blinds get really big it takes most of the skill out of the game, even more so than in Holdem. So I basically just ran incredibly well winning most of my 52/48s and flopping the nuts a lot, which makes your decisions pretty easy even when you play as poorly as I do. One player had all the chips at the final table but I was able to pick up some pots at the right time (including one pretty big suckout) and outlast everyone else. I started the heads up way behind in chips and busted on the first hand. 2nd paid $33K though, my biggest ever online score. Maybe I should play more Omaha or something. I might add some hands from the tournaments later if I get around to it. Trying to explain why I played some PLO hands the way I did could be embarrasing though.

Mike

Go Will!!

My friend Will "cutiepi314" Ma is chipleader going into the final table of the Grande Prix de Paris tomorrow (it used to be a WPT event but because of some new French laws it isn't this year, so the field was only about 130 players). Not bad for his first ever live tournament. Good luck Will!

Will Ma -- 610,000
Jeff Lisandro -- 490,500
Ram Vaswani -- 413,000
David Redlin -- 370,500
Runar Runarsson -- 309,000
Tor Gammelgard -- 255,000
Paul Gourlay -- 122,000
Yuri Kerzhapkin -- 111,500
Jeff Wallace -- 103,000

Prize Structure:

1 €422,560
2 €224,480
3 €158,460
4 €105,640
5 €79,230
6 €66,020
7 €52,820
8 €39,615
9 €26,410

Oh yeah I have some % of his action :-D. In other news I am basically broke on Full Tilt until timex and I settle up. Bad luck + some bad play = bustoooooo.

Mike

Update: Will won obviously. That was the easiest money I ever made, maybe this backing thing isn't so bad.

More Sunday disappointment

I went really deep in the two biggest tournaments today, but busted out short of the real money again. 53/6667 paid $2600 in the Stars million and 33/2350 paid $1500 or so in the Full Tilt 400K. Such a tease to beat so many people and still be so far from the final table. Check it out I actually got my money in with the best hand for once:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1070045

I did however win a 4th WSOP main event seat in the $650 satellite on Stars. I got the $1k cash and 10K W$ again. That tournament is such a gold mine. Anyways it would have been a very profitable day except I dropped 3 buyins shortstacking 200/400 pretty quickly. Apparently timex has been killing it lately though so it sounds like I'll be doing pretty well if we ever get around to settling up.

Anyways I now have $15K W$ kicking around. It turns out Stars is letting people buy into some of the prelimiary WSOP events with W$ again this year so I'll have no problem using that. You still have to buy into the events on your own though, they just credit your account with the cash once you send them proof you played the event. This is because of this whole debacle where 3rd party registrations for WSOP events are no longer permitted. This means if you win a WSOP seat you will just be paid the $10K in cash and it's really up to you what to do with it. A lot of people will probably just pocket the money (as they should really), so expect the main event field to be waaaaaay smaller this year.

Let's see what else. I've been doing really well at the 10/20 NL 6-max games with a full stack lately. Being able to play on Party still is so big. In general the games are a lot softer there, though I table select over Party/Stars/Full Tilt and just play the best tables wherever they are. I definitely think there's still a lot of money to be made in the mid-high stakes NL cash games for a solid player, but you've got to put more effort into picking your spots. I have no interest in sitting with 5 other solid regulars and trying to outplay them, there has to be at least one noticably soft spot or several weaker regulars. I think that's about all I've got for today, I'm going to go contemplate why the Sunday majors are so rigged against me.

Mike

I kinda like Mondays though

My Sunday post was really short but here's a long strategy-type post to make up for it. I finished 2nd in the Full Tilt $150 40K Guaranteed for the 3rd time without a win. The heads-up was ridiculous as I grinded out the chiplead playing pots postflop, then lost it in a 40/60 all-in preflop. Grind back a 2:1 edge, lose flip. Grind back to even, lose flip. gg. I think I did a pretty good job of getting inside his head in the heads up and making some big calldowns. Or maybe I was just lucky he never made a hand at the right time. Anyways here are some of the big pots.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053136 - This one would have more or less ended things without a marathon heads up. I wasn't thrilled about calling his all-in but it's so likely he has a draw on that board that I think I have to.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053149 - Given the flow of the game I really felt he could be raising almost any 2 since he hadn't punished my limps in a while. I floated the flop thinking I could still easily have the best hand. Maybe I should have bet the turn but I thought there was a chance he could be hoping to trap me with a checkraise, and I didn't think he'd ever bluff the river unless maybe another club fell. He said after that he came really close to firing the river and I probably would have had to fold. When he checked to me on the end I considered betting since it'd be really embarassing if he rolled over KT and won the pot, but I figured he might call with almost any piece of the board since I'd been bullying him a lot, and my hand had enough showdown value that checking was best.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053786 - I checked behind the flop so he can't just checkraise me off my hand or anything. Betting is fine too, it's situational and I mix it up. Turn there were enough draws out I had to bet, and I just didn't believe his checkraise, though it was certainly possible he could play a king that way. I decided not to fold and the decision was between calling and pushing. I really thought he would lead most of his good draws on the turn instead of checkraise, he hadn't done anything that tricky. So it seemed possible he could have complete air, and given his earlier comment I decided to give him the chance to follow through on the river this time (instead of pushing to protect against draws), but I was committed to calling some ugly looking river cards. The river wasn't a great card but my decision was already made on the turn, I had to call.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053781 - seemed like a good time to mix in a preflop reraise. Oops.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053823 - I decide to mix in a checkraise bluff. He seemed to mostly be raising with big cards so it was pretty unlikely he hit the flop, and his cont. bet was a bit bigger than most which in this circumstance I thought showed a little weakness too.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053835 - Another poorly timed reraise. Given the way things had been going playing flops there's a good argument to be made for not playing big pots preflop without a really big hand, but on the other hand he was raising often enough that I can't see how this reraise is really a misake.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053839 - Standard, but another lucky flop for me.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053844 - This is one is unavoidable. Oh well.

I also found some fish playing 10/20 on Party and had a very profitable session.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053867 - ooooook.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053870 - A bit of a cooler, I probably played it unnecessarily fancy but I figured there could be a lot of random garbage in his range that I wanted to let bluff again.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053875 - Obviously not exactly standard. Against this guy I was willing to play a really big pot with TPTK though. I never miniraise like I did on the flop really, but against this guy I thought it would work well to induce some bluffage. His check/call turn followed by a huge river jam doesn't really make sense and I'm just not folding against this guy here.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053887 - lol? He did stuff like this a lot.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1053894 - Well that sure was nice of him.

Wow, actual content on my blog, unreal.

Mike

I hate Sundays so much

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1047982

I lost more shortstacking and stuff too this week. As much as I knew a big downswing was coming it doesn't make it suck that much less. Oh well. I've moved out of Waterloo basically permanently. I'm in St. John's for a month and then Vegas for the World Series. Steve, Aaron, and I have a place booked from May 31 until the end of the Main Event. I'm planning to play a lot of events. After that I don't know where I'm going to live. Maybe Toronto or something, I'll see what options are available.

Mike

Nice Downswing

I'm not sure of the exact number because I don't know how timex finished the week, but I think I lost like a billion dollars or something this week. Actually, timex may have carried the team enough that I only lost like 50K. It's funny because my account is down a lot more than that due to shots at a juicy 500/1000 NL cap game where I owned only a small % of my own action. Basically, David Benyamine put a series of brutal suckouts on me Monday night and took like 60K off me, but only like 20K of that was my action. At the end of the night timex had to ship me 84K because a lot of the money I lost has his and he had a big winning night at 2/4.

Then Friday night I put up a nice -70K at 2/4. So timex will prboably owe me another big transfer next time we settle up unless I start running good again soon. Anyways, the regulars in those games seem to be adjusting better to us now so we'll probably have to be a little more particular about when we decide to play, we'd gotten a bit slack and just started playing all the time because we were running so good. I didn't play a lot of donkaments yesterday because I was in terrible shape after Saturday night.

We went to Fallsview in Niagara for mine/my buddy's birthday. The theme of the night was the Entourage episode where they go to Vegas. If you don't watch the show you prboably should. Anyways, the night was an overwhleming success and we partied like movie stars for a night. I obviously volunteered to take care of the high stakes blackjack scene, and luckboxed $1300. It was fun to be the drunk fish who doesn't really know what he's doing but simply can not lose for a night. So I bought a bottle of Dom P for the entourage at the club. While it definitely wasn't part of the plan, the night ended with us being involved in an altercation at the club and getting the boot, just like in the Enourage episode. Since no one was hurt or anything we were actually quite pleased with that result.

Here's a funny graph. Since half the downswing comes from 500/1000 where I had only a small % of the action I'm actually still up quite a bit over this period.




Mike

I Actually Meant it at the Time

Really, I wasn't planning to play 200/400 again any time soon. I'm usually a big bankroll nit. On the other hand we were up a couple buy-ins and the game seemed beatable. Worst case we lose back what we had won and gain a story to tell about that time we took a shot at the biggest game online. Oh, how we were foolish when we were young. So one night when the game looked relatively soft Mike and I agreed to the same 50/50 deal and took another shot. A funny thing happened though. We won again. This was already a huge amount of money we'd made, but instead of just being happy with that and quitting while we were ahead, we did what any good poker player would do. We got greedy.

It was clear we had an edge against most of the usual lineups, so we started taking shots whenever we saw the game running with a favourable lineup, and kept running hot. We went on a sick run Saturday afternoon grinding the game for several hours. The swings are huge, but I am likely the biggest luckbox in the history of shortstacking so we always ended up ahead. By the time I quit to go out for the evening we had made a completely ridiculous amount of money.

Sunday was another good day. We played the usual tournaments and sat 200/400 when the game was running and looked good. I continued to run insanely hot and just killed the game today. Mike ran really cold and lost a huge number. I don't think there's really much difference in the way we play so it really is mostly just random luck that I did so much better than him. Without giving exact numbers on how much we won or lost, we just settled up for the week and I sent him $60K to make us even, and he was in the black for the week before that. timex may be the luckiest person in the history of staking deals/trading action.

I also had a very good day at my normal games. I won several buy-ins playing 10/20 and a buy-in taking a shot at fullstacking 25/50 on Party. Even my tournaments went well as I won the $530 tournament on Party for $14K. Overall the week was just been completely insane. I don't even think it has really sunk in yet. Either that or poker has desensitized me to the value of money even more than I thought. Here's the biggest pot of the week. I forgot to sit out on my next blind after doubling up and then this happened:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1003105

How lucky.

Mike

March Graph

Someone asked so I'll post it, I still feel a bit uncomfortable about posting these though. On the one hand I know part of what makes this an interesting read is that I try not to hide anything and give an honest portrayal of the ups and downs of my poker career, and it wouldn't really work without going into actual numbers. On the other hand, well, exactly how much money I make is none of your damn business :-). I think I can still get the point accross without always being so specific. So I may have to be a little more vague about the exact numbers in the future (even if a lot of the data is available publicly elsewhere). Also, despite what it may seem like when I write posts like the one from Saturday, it's not generally something I like to brag about (except when talking to other poker playing friends it's become fairly standard to brag back and forth a bit). Anyways, enough rambling here's the graph already. March was another excellent month.


In other exciting news I finished 6th in the $1k tournament on Full Tilt tonight for $11K. I made a mistake on the final table bubble I'm kind of upset with myself about though. I'm just not closing these tournaments lately. Obviously there's a lot of luck involved, but that's why you need to make sure you're not making any mistakes near the end of these things, since even if you're playing perfectly the cards aren't going to fall your way a lot of the time.

Mike

Wow

timex's friend "IBluffUOut4" final tabled the two biggest tournaments on the internet yesterday. He finished 3/1962 for $30K in the Full Tilt 400K Guaranteed, and 5/6637 in the Stars Million for $42.6K. That has to be one of the sickest Sunday performances ever.

We Fly High

It was a Saturday like any other Saturday. I was just planning to play the usual Saturday 320s in the afternoon then watch Masters,Habs/Leafs, and UFC. Seemed like a nice relaxing day. So I start talking to Mike aka timex aka hit21hit on MSN, and next thing I know I'm playing 200/400 NL with Phil Ivey. As you can tell, he didn't really have to twist my arm much. (my comments in brackets)

Watts says:who nenad playing 200/400 with aba and ivey (Nenad Medic, used to go to UW also, now wins WPTs etc...)
Watts says:*whoa
timex says:o wow
timex says:btw, I bought a watch (Mike had a BBV thread about buying a balla watch recently)
Watts says:what one?
Watts says:the tag?
timex says:ya
Watts says:nice
timex says:pretty decent
timex says:they are having a sale at fairview mall, so I got 20% off
Watts says:sweet yo
Watts says:so just uner 2k?
timex says:so it was 1730 after tax
Watts says:not bad
Watts says:TAG doesn't have the same ring as timex or rolex tho
Watts says:thogh it could still have nice double meaning as a poker name (I'm not funny)
timex says:lol (pity laugh)
Watts says:lol doubling up first hand of 10/20 for the day (brag)
Watts says:soooo...
Watts says:do Ishortack 200/400 or not?
timex says:YES obv (as if I didn't know he'd immediately say yes)
Watts says:you want half my action?
timex says:I'll take 1/2 ur action if you tell me ur hands etc.
timex says:and only until say 240 or something, I need sleep after that
Watts says:k
Watts says:letus gogogogogo (BBV-ism)

The games weren't exactly what most people would call soft: Phil Ivey, sbrugby (probably the best HSNL player online, played in this season of High Stakes Poker), Nenad (serb) and Gus Hansen. Some other random shortstack guys that were terrible showed up too fortunately, I defintiely had an edge in this game, especially as I'm unknown to everyone except maybe Nenad. Mike talked me into playing both tables.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?975976- Things were going well when I played my first all-in pot as a *slight* favourite. Sorry forgot to clean up the railtards chat. That sucked.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?975985 - Phil Ivey owns me obviously.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?976046 - I got the best of Nenad in the hands we played today.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?976062 - I finished +13K, timex got half of course.

Timex then sat but I decided I'd had enough high stakes action for one day (for a long time prboably) and I didn't take any of his action. He obviously won a coinflip against Phil Ivey, proving his luckbox knows no bound.

Also, I won two more WSOP seats. First I luckboxed a $160 double shootout on Stars last night, and then I won the $650 satellite today (6 spots paid). Full TIlt just gave me cash for their seat when I told them I had to take the Stars seat, and I got 10K W$ and $1K cash for the second seat on Stars. Balllllin!

Mike

PS. no donkaments tomorrow for real this time because I'm spending Easter with family.

What a stupid Sunday

I lied in my last post, my basketball game was earlier than I thought so I got over to Steve's in time to play the evening tournaments. Things were going very well in several tournaments but then I lost two hands worth a combined 25-30K in equity I'd estimate. The first was against Ogre from 2+2 on the final table bubble of the Stars 100r. I was 2/10 and looking to improve on my 13K cash from last week.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?959055 - He thought I was picking on the BB who had been playing really tight (I actually had some old hands on him from somewhere that said he was fairly aggressive so Ogre's read was way off). I knew he was capable of shoving a fairly wide range there so I had to call even though getting into a big confrontation with another biggish stack there kind of sucks. 42o is just a terrible hand though I think he needs at least some showdown value for his push to be reasonable, oh well lol donkaments etc... I went on to bubble.

No worries I'll just win my WSOP seat in the 650 satellite I figured and it won't be such a bad day. I was deep in that with a bubble type stack, but I had finally picked up enough pots that I was in very good shape when some donkey went off his mind and tried not to make the WSOP. There are 24 left and 22 get seats. I'm like 17/24 when this ridonkulousness happened:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?959066 - I just shove in because it's the thing to do (folding might be ok but I don't have enough chips to fold in yet so pushing is better since the BB had shown no suicidal tendencies) and some guy decides to go on a kamakaze mission to ruin my life. If he had AA you might be able to have some discussion as to whether calling or folding is correct (he should still fold), but with AQ his call is just suicidal.

So at this point I was pretty pissed but I had a ton of chips in a $200 WSOP sat on Full Tilt that paid 3 seats so I decided not to endlife and go for vindication there. As luck would have it I was able to win a couple crucial big pots for a change and I got my WSOP seat after all! So all-in-all it turned out to be a pretty OK day I guess, though it could have been so much better. Tournaments really are stupid.

Mike

Poker Tournaments are Stupid

With that in mind, here are some NL cash hands. They're cool because they don't read I had 7xBB and shoved 74o and got called by AA. Actually tournaments are pretty OK too, but I suck at them or something. Also I'm not playing a lot of them again tomorrow because I have basketball (intramurals prboably just saved me 5K) so I figured I'd go for this instead of a Sunday report. First an interesting hand where I should have folded a set.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955755 - It was Full Tilt so I couldn't timebank the river and I had a set, which I'm not exactly in the habit of folding when the only reasonable hand I lose to is a bigger set. In retrospect I think the river is a clear fold as my line is usually a monster or air, and he's a strong enough player to basically never raise a worse hand for value (even KQ just calls my big river bet probably). There's also basically no way he can ever have a bluff here (especially since marginal hands can just call not raise because they beat the nothing part of my range and he almost always has some part of the board by the river). That leaves a lot of sets in his range even when you discount KK/QQ some.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955760 - Another turned set stacks me. I played this one correctly of course but I've been running hot enough that this hasn't happened to me too much.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955772 - I go for the bet/3-bet line with my big draw (I do the same with sets a lot too for balance) but can't get him off his overpair and brick my 12 outer. Pretty standard aggressive play.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955786 - Impossibly strong vs impossibly strong as Phil Laak says. He gets there on the river though. Fortunately this next hand happened shortly after against the same guy:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955791 - I guess maybe he thought I was steaming because that's a pretty sick calldown.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955798 - Kinda boring, sometimes I'm on the right side of the coolers. Folding to my 4-bet is not unreasonable, but I definitely might do this as a bluff sometimes so it's probably not a big mistake to just get it in.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955805 - I think this guy was tilting or something because he played another hand really badly in a big pot earlier in the session. Surprisingly he seemed to play pretty well in another session today so I'm not sure if he's good or not. Against some players I would fold the turn, but the way he was playing that session along with my general annoying aggressive image I knew I'd have an easy call if he pushed over my turn bet.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955810 - The preflop call is probably a small mistake in general, but I'm getting pretty good implied odds and felt he was very strong here, and also didn't seem like the type to ever get away from an overpair if I hit.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955812 - Another big pair vs big pair hand. I checked the turn going for the checkraise since I figured most draws usually bluff there and other worse hands will have a hard time calling a big bet. I'm not sure I like his turn bet, but I definitely can't fold since there's enough draws and various other things I beat that play it the same.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?955818 - Yay.

Anyways I always seem to post hands where someone gets stacked because they're the most fun, though often not the most educational. It's probably the only time I've ever picked fun over education.

Mike