Poor Weekend

I think I lost like $30K this weekend or something like that. I stopped running like god on Cake and dropped a few buy-ins there and I repeatedly took awful beats in tournaments. Oh well can't stay hot forever. I have to specifically mention the EPT Barcelona satellite bubbled though because it was probably one of the worst beats of my career. I wasn't planning to play Barcelona unless we won the World Cup trip but I figured I basically had to play the $1000 satellite because my record in major satellites on Stars is so ridiculous. So as usual I run good and have what should basically be a fold-in stack with 11 left, 10 getting seats. Then things went awry. First, the shortstack is all-in with 77 vs TT. OK good game Spain here I come, oh hello 7 on the river. No worries the other guy now has like 5xBB he'll be busto soon. He moves all-in with 88 and gets called by 3 people. Board AJTQ..... K. OK that's ridiculous but whatever, no worries he just got his money back he'll be out soon still. On his next BB the small blinds pushes 76 and he calls with A6. Flop 7xx, Finally! Turn blank, river.... A. OK I'm kinda getting a little nervous but I'm still in good shape. Next orbit he gets AA vs QQ to double up to lots of chips. Hmmm it seems I'm the shorstack now. Well I guess I'll move in with 55 because it's the best chance I'll ever get to pick up some chips while I have still have a stack with fold equity. Oh you have QQ. I see.

So what to do now, suicide seemed like a good option which timex supported (he is a good friend). I went with the more standard approach of blowing through a dozen or so rebuys in the $100 rebuy trying to build a monster stack, which seemed to help. Anyways that's about all I've got, Sunday was more of the same getting 2 outered in some tournaments and then tilting off stacks in the others. In cash games I kept getting sets beat in huge pots so that's always costly. Though I didn't get to showdown I suppose I could have been bluffed but I think my play was correct. Oh well World Cup and stuff next weekend to look forward to. I'll also get my first rakeback payment from Cake on Wednesday I'm excited to see how much that is, reminds of the good ol Party rakeback days (except I'm winning before rakeback now). OK enough rambling I'm out.

Mike

Shameless Brag Post

I generally try to stay pretty modest about the success I've had/money I've made, but this one felt pretty good I had to post it. On June 27th timex transferred me 30K that he owed me from something or other on Cake Poker so I could start playing there. Today is July 27th and I just finished off a +$200K month on there playing mostly 25/50 NL. I definitely never expected to have as much success with cash games (buying in full anyways) as I have since I started playing 3/6 and 5/10 NL late last year. I think it has a lot more to do with me having really good table selection (ie playing on Party and Cake mostly) then it does with me being one of the best high stakes cash players, but I'm obviously pretty confident in my game too. Also I'm pretty sure I've been luckier than just about anyone ever, but that's a hard thing to measure, I suppose there's an outside chance I'm actually really good or something. Anyways I'm pretty happy with that.

Mike

Newfies on to Round 2

In addition to the usual Sunday tournaments I also played the first round of the World Cup today. Each of our 4 team members played a 4-player tournament against players from Quebec, New Brunswick, and PEI, and points were awarded based on which place you finish in each tournament. After a bad start I was able to finally start making some hands to come back and take control of my heat. I laid one bad beat on the only other decent player to help seal the win. One of our freeroll qualifiers seemed to steamroll his heat for a 2nd win, and tilterino finished 2nd in his to seal first place overall. We play again in 2 weeks, this time it will be four 5-man tournaments using the same scoring system and if we win that round we get the free trip to Spain for the live finals, so hopefully we luckbox that.

The rest of the Sunday tournaments were a disaster and I didn't cash a single one. I played a lot of cash also though. I was stuck almost $20K at one point today but then the 25/50 games on Cake got going and I won 2 enormous pots against one of the regular fish in the game. I set a new personal best with over $40K on that table at one point (the maximum buy-in is $5000 but anything you win stays on the table). So overall I finished up around $10K on the day it looks like, despite losing $10K and $7K pots where I got set-over-setted and not cashing any tournaments. Also, earlier this week I got yet another 2nd place in the nightly Full Tilt $163 tourney. That was either the 3rd or 4th time I've finished runner-up in that tournament. I played BKice heads-up and he seemed to play pretty well and I really just wasn't very focused for some reason and played poorly. Oh well it was still a nice $11K score.

Finally, I have to give a belated congrats to my friend Adam Junglen for winning the Stars Million last week for $200K. His blog is linked on the side if you want to read some of his thoughts on that. The 2+2 kids are having a lot of success in the million lately. Maybe it's my turn soon?

Mike

Team Newfoundland

The World Cup of Poker (WCP) is an annual event held by PokerStars. In Canada, each province gets a team formed of the top 2 finishers of the pevious year's Tournament Leader Board (TLB) plus 2 winners of freeroll qualifiers. I finished 144th on the yearly TLB last year which was enough to earn me the 2nd spot on Team Newfoundland (I have no idea who finished above me from the province). There are a few online qualifier rounds starting this Sunday and if we make it through both rounds we get to represent Canada in Barcelona. Free trip and accomodations at the beginning of September and the winning team of the live competition gets the prestige of World Cup champions as well as $20K/player, which I would then lose at WSOP Europe! So it should be fun maybe we'll get lucky and make the live part. I think the freeroll qualifers are still open so locals get in there I need some good teammates to score a free trip with (edit: actually looks like they already happened) .

I played Sundays online obviously and finished 15th in the big $100 rebuy and 8th in $200 rebuy for $6K. For some reason I played the high stakes showdown 16 player heads up tournament which has a $10K buy-in though and got destroyed in the first round. It's very unlikely I'm a winning player in this tournament so I need to not play it anymore. It's so tempting though. Fortunately I'm still running good in the 25/50 games on Cake Poker though so I recovered my losses and then some. I also played some tournaments tonight and finished 6th in the $100 rebuy for $4K. So I'm running semi-good in the rebuys lately except for the closing them part. That's all I got for now, peace.

Mike

Final Vegas Thoughts

I left Vegas late Friday night and arrived home this afternoon. I happened to be on the same flight from Toronto to St. John's as my aunt and uncle who are coming to visit so that was a nice coincidence! On Thursday night I tried to cram a lot of the partying I had missed out on into one crazy night, which led to a predictable outcome for me. It certainly was a fun night though! Anyways by the end of the trip the live tournament grind finally got to me. I gave away almost all my chips on one hand in the 2nd level of the $10K Bellagio Cup event with AK on a K54 rainbow flop in a situaton that was a clear fold. I never give away my chips in that type of situation, the grind was clearly affecting my play.

Overall I guess I can't be too upset with my WSOP. I played 25-30 events between Venetian/Bellagio/WSOP and cashed 6, which is a very high in the money %. I just didn't break through for the big final table score and I didn't cash either of the big $10K events. Looking back I just never got anything going on Day 2 and that was that. I probably made a few more mistakes than I'd have liked but that's part of the game. The trip was a good learning experience and a lot of fun. Also my online results during the trip were fantastic so I ended up substantially ahead despite coming home with less than $1000 in my pocket. Assuming I can get back most of the 30% of my cashes that was withheld plus square up whatever timex owes me for buying pieces of my action I won't even be down as much for the live tournaments as it seemed.

Looking back the one thing that sticks out is my run on Day 2 of the PLO8 event. The day just seemed to go by so quickly and I never really appreciated how close I was to something big. I guess there are a lot of possible reasons for this. First, I don't really know how to play the game that well so I think in a lot of situations I don't even really realize how lucky I may have gotten. On top of that I also had to try to stay focused on my play since so many more decisions than usual were not at all automatic to me. Also, I basically was on my own at this point. I didn't talk to anyone all day about how I was doing because no one else was really playing at the Rio that day. I also never really had a big chip stack so my expectations didn't get too high at any point. And of course my day ended so abruptly on that unfortunate river card. Nothing ever really had a chance to sink in. Certainly not how I would have envisioned my one close call.

Anyways from here I really have no idea what my plans are. I'm planning to play the newly announced WSOP Europe and some other live events that are around the same time in September. There are numerous European Poker Tour Events as well as the UB sponsored Aruba tournament and others I'm forgetting also in September so I'll have to put together a schedule at some point. Those will be my next big live tournaments and I'll still be playing online some for the rest of the summer of course. There are also various things I put off untl after WSOP that I'll have to take care of now. Definitely an exciting time in my life right now but there's several things I'll have to get figured out. Alright I'm going to bed Newfoundland time is the worst. Sundays tomorrow obv.

Mike

A rough estimation of how I played today

Day 2 Report

OK hand from day 2, today didn't go very well.

Hand 1 - 500/1000 a100. Raise AKss in MP to 3K, Choron calls in SB. Flop A62cc, I bet 5K he CR to 18K I call planning to move in over a turn bet. Turn 3, he checks I decide to check behind. River J he shoves for 55K or something, more than the pot. His line makes no sense, I figured there was no way he could possibly be bluffing because it's the worst line for a bluff ever and no decent player would ever take this line as a bluff (I always have an ace and he's really not representing much that should scare an ace). Seemed like his AJ got there or something so I folded and he tabled KTdd. Oops 6 levels of thinking too much there. Anyways my main point I was trying to get accross about this hand was that if I knew anything about how he actually played (he immediately ran another weird bluff after this and got caught) I would obviously have beat him into the pot. Obv nothing personal, I'm an asshole etc...

Hand 2 - This hand is as hilarious as it is poorly played. Folds to CO who raises to 4K. I'm already pretty sure this guy is the type that this means he has a pretty big hand. I have AsKc on the button though so whatever I make it 14K. He calls with 31K behind. Flop Ts7s4c and he bets 13K. I'm pretty sure I always have 2 live overs and the backdoor nut flush which isn't awful and live players do weird things like ignore pot odds and make ridiculous folds so I figure I might actually get him off of 99 or 88 and shove since I obv can't be bluffing for only 18K more. He actually thinks for 30 seconds before calling with QQ. wtf?

Hand 3 - I have like 27K now and open to 3K with KK in EP. SB calls and we see a QJJ flop. I decide to check behind and the turn is a deuce. He bets 10K and I move in for 14K more and get called by KQ.

Hand 4 - There's a limper in EP and te guy two seats behind him raises to 5200 with 25K more beind at 600/1200 a200. I find AKo in the SB and kinda want to fold but I go ahead and reraise to 16K. Limper folds, he moves in, I call and lose to AA. I lost so many chips with AK this tournament it's ridiculous.

Hand 5 - 800/1600 a200. Now I'm short again and move in over an EP raise to 4800 with JJ. He thinks for a bit and decides to gamble with 44 because my raise is only like 20K more. Door card on the flop is a 4. Oh well GG main event. Oh hello there J on turn. But it gives him a flush draw which I miraculously dodge.

Hand 6- I basically blinded off a bunch o chips except for the times I moved in with J7o over a limp and 42o over a raise due to raise sizing tells. Last hand before dinner break I had just called clock on some guy trying to stall into dinner break because our table was next to break and he'd miss his BB. Now it's his BB and I raise with 44 in the HJ to 4600. The SB moves allin pretty fast and I really think he's weak making a play before the break given the circumstances (I had stacked up raising chips then thought better of it and mucked my hand on the last hand before the previous break also sort of giving away my move). I was only getting like 1.4:1 but I deicded to gamble and call. He had AQ and beat me.

Bellagio Cup main event tomorrow, $10K WPT event. This will be my last big tournament for this Vegas trip. I've had more than enough live poker at this point, tournaments in particular are so tedious live, but I do like playing at the Bellagio. Seriously, the Bellagio tournament buy-in is $10000 + 300. The WSOP main event is $9400 + 600. The Bellagio dealers and service in general is so much better, and being able to go out on the Fontana balcony on break and watch the fountain show and such is awesome. Sleepy time,

Mike

Out of main event

Full report coming at some point I guess, here's cliff notes:

1. Hero fold to Choron before I found out he's worse at poker than I could ever have possibly imagined, would ahve had a big stack again if I called.

2. AK loses to QQ when I make some semi-insane flop bluff in a reraised pot and lose more than I had to a complete moron.

3. KK doubles me up.

4. AK loses to AA aipf.

4. JJ doubles vs 44 aipf A54J3 board.

6. Hero call 44 preflop lose to AQ last hand before dinner break.

Table 19, Seat 4

That's where all the chips will be piled up. Glen Chorny aka Choron from Waterloo is also at my table in the 8 seat. Let us gogogogo. The pocketfives guys usually keep an eye on me so there might be some updates on me there throughout the day at P5s Live

Mike

I played poker today

So yesterday I chilled and didn't play any poker. I watched the UFC card which was somewhat disappointing here at the condo. We ended up having to order the live stream online since no one in Vegas shows the UFC live. It's fucked up. Apparnetly the casinos don't show it because they would have to pay on a per person basis or something for everyone in the casino, or based on capacity or some bs. So annoying. Anyways, after the UFC I went out for drinks and stuff with some girls me and Bond18 met a few nights ago, and that was a lot of fun. Yes, a whole day without poker just doing normal people stuff! Maybe there is hope for me yet!

Aha maybe not today was Sunday and I played poker all day. I finished 4th in the UB $530 for $6400, my QQ ran into KK 4-handed when I was 2nd in chips. I also ran better than anyone ever in the cash games on Cake (twistedecho was over here and sweating my play and just laughing as I flopped a set every 2nd hand and took everyone's money), and that combined with the awful players was enough to net me $30K+ on the day on that site playing 10/20 and 25/50 NL. So certainly a very profitable day of poker. Tomorrow we unfortunately have to move out of our condo because we only booked it until the 9th (blame Aaron). We don't really know which hotel we're going to move into yet but we'll figure something out. I don't really have any other plans for tomorrow yet, probably just relax and get ready to play Day 2 of the main event on Tuesday. I'm excited to get back in there and play again. Oh yeah I forgot to get a picture of our awesome outdoor swimming pool and hot tub in the condo complex earlier, I'll miss being able to jump into that when it cools down at night and relax.


Mike

Crazy Day 1

Wow I just finished Day 1 with 90K chips which should leave me comfortably above average. Things were going extremely well all day and then in the last level I actually thought I was going to bust out before the end of the day it was so sick.

Hand 1: Level 1 50/100, 20K starting chips. I raise UTG to 400 with 75s. 3 callers and I figure it will be hard to bluff all of them I should probably try to flop a straight or some.... holy crap! Flop 643. I bet 1500 and the guy on my left calls. Turn 8, I bet 3500 he makes it 7K and I jam. He calls with 33 and the board doesn't pair so I get a sweet early double up.

Hand 2: Still level 1, UTG who is some spewy Euro guy makes it 500, I call with KK UTG+1 and then an old guy makes it 1500 in MP. Old guys reraising scares the hell out of me and after Eurodonk calls I consider just calling but eventually reraise t0 5000. Old guy calls and Euro finally folds. Flop Qxx and I check intending to fold to most bets, but he checks behind. Turn blank goes check/check, and on the river blank I bet 5K and he calls showing the other 2 kings.

Hand 3: The guy with the set has in Hand 1 has now rebuilt to 8K which is fine because he's really awful. I raise to 400 with KK and he calls as do two others. Flop QTx 2 hearts and the BB leads 700. He's also awful and I decide to call to disguise my hand and see what happens behind me before I get too much money in. Hand 1 guy on my left now raises to 2K and the BB deliberates for quite some time before calling. I then make it 7K and the guy on my left calls all-in, BB folds. He has AQ and I win another big pot. I have 53K at the first break which is pretty huge. Not much happens in the next level and I finish it at 46K.

Hand 4: Some old guy who's new to the table and seems really bad limps in EP, a soldish player raises 5xBB to 2K, another solid player calls, and I call on the button with 88. Limper calls and we go 4 ways to a Q8x 2 diamond flop. It checks to me and I bet 5500. Old limper guy calls with 15K more behind and the turn is a Q. He leads for 10K and I put him all-in and beat his QTs. I had around 85K after this hand.

Hand 5: A good aggro player 2nd in chips at the table raises to 1700 at 300/600 a75 and I find QQ in my BB and make it 5500. He calls and the flop comes Q42 rainbow. I bet 7500 and he calls. Turn 3 I check he bets 20K and I move him in for something like 35K more. He tanks for quite a while and folds KK as I later found out. Over 100K now. Now comes the 400/800 a100 level where everything goes crazy.

Hand 6: Yes, this actually happened again I'm not getting confused with hand 1. I raise to 2400 in EP with 75s and only the guy 2 to my left calls (he is awful). Damn, well maybe I'll flop another... wtf? really? Flop 643 and he gets 20K or so in with 99. I had like 130-140K after this hand, and then things start to go wrong.

Hand 7: Old guy who is not as tight as i thought makes it 2500 and get 2 callers from solid players. I find AKo in the SB and decided to raise it 10K more. Except I throw out 5 orange chips which are obviously worth 5K each not 2500. Woops. Original raiser folds and the first caller (Joe Beavers) figures there's no way I ever raise that much with AA or KK and moves all-in with QQ for like 20K more (we'd likely have gotten it in anyways but I'd have more hope of getting him to fold some other way probably). I finally lose a hand but at a very bad time and drop under 100K.

Hand 8: The CO open limps for 800. He's playing so weak-tight and I'm pretty sure I can get he will fold to a large raise. I have 93ss on the button and make it 3200. The BB who is new to the table wearing a Party Poker shirt calls, and the limper folds. Flop Qxx all diamonds, he checks and I chek behind. Turn 8h, he checks and I figure this is as godd a time as any to stab at it and bet 5500. He calls though and the river is the Ad. He checks and I give up. He shows 98o with the 9d and takes the pot. Euro + PartyPoker = megadonk, I should have realized immediately.

Hand 9: Solid guy who I"ve repopped a few times earlier makes it 2800 in the hijack with 30-40K or so behind. I make it 9K on the button with QQ. He calls and the flop comes Axx. We check it down and his KK is good. I dodged a bullet there I would probably have called a shove preflop.

Hand 10: Very next hand, he raises again to 2500 and I call with TT. EuroParty calls behind me on the button and we see a 986 two club flop. Raiser checks and I bet 5500 which is just not big enough. Eurodonk calls and the turn 8. I still fell like I have the best hand and he prboably has to have a draw and I check figuring if he chekcs behind it's fine and he bets I'll jam on him. He bets 13K and I cram for like 30K more effective which is almosy all of my stack. Jesus. How will I explain donking off a 140K stack in the last level of the night? He thinks for quite a while and folds. Not sure if I was just completely on the wrong level and he folded a better hand here or not, but it was kind of scary. Not much happened after that and I finished with 90K. I play again on Tuesday. If I happen to bust that day I can play day 1B of the Bellagio Cup main event on Wednesday which is pretty sweet. Hoping to just relax and have some fun this weekend.

Mike

This is called a flag

Steve ended up chopping for just under $100K today. Then I went to dinner with 15 or 20 2+2ers, some I already knew and many I was meeting for the first time which was a lot of fun. Main Event begins for me in 9 hours. I will be at table 64 seat 3. Ship the $10 Million one time?

Mike

I should have showed up late

Played the Bellagio $5k yesterday. I didn't win a single pot during the first 2 hours so I prboably should have stayed in bed. Anyways there ended up being 90 players so a really nice field size. My first table was really tough, Jennifer Tilly and one other guy seemed like the only soft spots, and neither of them was really terrible. I managed to get back up near starting chips (10K) when I took a decent pot off David Pham when I flopped top pair in a blind battle. Then I got moved to a new table where people were awful. My first big pot was when I raised A8cc in the CO to 1200 at 200/400 a25 and the SB, who already had over 60K and already proved himself to be awful called. The flop came 446 and I checked behind him, certainly not planning to give up on the hand though. The turn was an 8, and he bet 2200. I had around 4500 left and was pretty sure he was bluffing the river too so I just called. River 7 and despite the 4-straight on board I basically instacalled his 4200 chip bet and he said "I have nothing", so I tabled the winner. From here on basically nothing good happened, I tried to 3-bet a raise with nothing once for 1/3 my stack and got instashoved on to drop back, then I pushbotted a bit. My bustout hand I pushed J9o into QQ on what was likely a bad push since they were clearly gettng sick of me moving in so much. But I mean one guy folded 99 face up in the BB to one of my pushes so I don't see how it can be that bad. Anyways when he instantly moved all-in over my final shove with J9 I had a feeling I wasn't drawing as live as I might like.
Steve made the final table 3rd in chips though so I'm probably going to go chill out at the Bellagio and sweat him today (I has 5%!) and then get rested up for the main event tomorrow.

Mike

Good News

I ended up making a bunch o money tonight and I'm not tilty anymore. I finished 4th in the 100r on Stars for $8K when I lost a huge pot when I was already the chipleader with KK vs AQ aipf. I also made a couple grand shortstacking and a few thousand more playing cash on Cake and Absolute. Since I can't play Party down here I've started playing more on other smaller sites because the games on Stars and Full Tilt are really tough for the most part. Tomorrow I am playing the $5K tournament at Bellagio. Unless I final table this tournament I will not be playing live on Thursday at all most likely since I'm registered for Day 1A of the main event on Friday. This leaves me free to watch what should hopefully be one of the best UFC cards ever on Saturday and play online tourneys on Sunday. If I dont make day 2 of the main event I'll play the $10K Bellagio Cup WPT event starting Monday. I guess I have to book a flight home for some time after that. So that's the schedule for the rest of the trip. If I can show up on time from here on out who knows how much money I might win.

Mike

O YA ALSO

PHIL HELMUTH WAS AT MY TABLE AND I WAS LIKE LOL I TRIED YOUR STRATEGY BUT IT DOESNT WORK SO WELL ON DAY 2 AND HE WAS LIKE LOL YOURE AN IDIOT KID. THEN HE BUSTED OUT, BUT WITH 3 GOOD INTERNET PLAYERS ON HIS LEFT HE OBV WOULD HAVE GOT MURDERED ANYWAYS. ALSO I CUT THROUGH THE FEATURE TABLE AREA WHICH WAS EMPTY TO RUSH TO MY SEAT BECASUE THERE WAS A BIG CROWD AND THE FLOORMAN TOLD ME NOT TO DO THAT SO I TOLD HIM TO FUCK OFF BECAUSE I WAS 20 MINS LATE. ACTUALLY I JUST THOUGHT THAT.

LIFE TILT

SHOWED UP 20 MINS LATE DUE TO MISCOMMUNICATION WITH ROOMMATES AND MISSED AN ENTIRE ORBIT. WE WERE HAND FOR HAND SO I FOLDED INTO THE MONEY THEN TILT SHOVED OVER LILHOLDEMS BUTTON RAISE WITH A6 AND LOST TO AQ. I AM GOING TO THE LEGENDARY SPEARMINT RHINO NOW. I HAVE $9K CASH LEFT AFTER BUYING INTO THE MAIN EVENT, WELL SEE HOW FAR THAT GOES WITH THE GIRLS THERE. JUST KIDDING I AM GOING TO PLAY ONLINE TOURNAMENTS AND SHORTSTACK THE BIGGEST CASH GAMES I CAN FIND SO I SHOULD LOSE LOTS MORE THAN 9K. BYE.

WATTSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Day 1 of $1k rebuys

I survived the day with 38.1K (average is almost 60) to make day 2. 109 players remain and 99 get paid. I'm working on thinking of some new spectacular way to bubble. I was running so insanely hot today and then cooled down later in the day when the blinds got big. I got dealt AA like 6 times in the first 4 levels, including against KK, QQ, and AA. I also had KK against JJ. I did however play one interesting hand where I made a pretty big call and was right for a change!

A tightish guy raises in MP at 100/200 to 600, and I only have black TT this time in the CO so I just call, and the BB calls also (he seems weakish). Flop Js9h7h. Checks to me and I bet 1000 (should have bet 1200ish), the BB calls and raiser folds. Turn 3s. Out of nowhere he leads for 7K into the 3800 pot with like 3K more behind. My inital reaction is that this guy is completely FOS because no one plays a real hand this, especially on a draw heavy flop like that. It looks like he picked up a spade flush draw on the turn and is making a move, and since the jack on the flop is a spade I beat all hands containing 2 spades (except 97 I guess but it's super extremely unlikely he slowplayed such a strong but vulnerable hand on that flop). Unlike other hands where I made big calls (that were almost all wrong) in the WSOP just sort of guessing/hoping, this one I really had pieced together and everything made sense, I was very confident I was right. It was a lot chips for that point in the tournament but I moved him in anyways and he called with 8s6s and my hand held.

After some more coolers I had 40K but unfortunately I went cold for a bit and dropped to 30K. Then I doubled through a guy with AK vs AJ on an A-hi flop to get over 60K before making a few bad moves preflop and not picking up any hands to end the day, which dropped me to where I am now. We'll see how things go tomorrow. The P5s Live guys had a few updates of me today and another picture that came out a bit better:

Vegas Weekend Report

So it was a relatively uneventful and unsuccessful weekend. I played the $2K on Friday and made a really bad 4-bet shove with AK into AA to bust before the frist break. On Saturday I played the $1500 NL (with a record 3100+ players) and lasted until just before the dinner break. So today I stayed home and played online and lost a bunch of money at cash and tournaments. It's crazy to think about, but I've been in Vegas for a month now, and it still kind of feels like I just got here. The Main Event starts this Friday, which means this trip is getting close to an end, and also that I will be a multimillionaire in a couple weeks time!

Anyways tomorrow is a $1k + rebuys event which I'm pretty excited for. Tuesday is either day 2 or in the unfortunate event that I'm out I'll probably play the $1500 limit holdem shootout. No idea what I"m going to do after that though. I haven't registered for the main event yet so I don't know my start day, but everyone will be in town for the main event so there'll prbobably be more partying and sociailizing coming up. The Bellagio events will prboably start to draw some big fields now too so if I can find enough cash to buy-in to those that's a definite possibility. With only a few tournaments left it's time to refocus and make sure I bring my A game for the rest of the trip.

Mike

Nice day off and $5K 6-max sadness

So on Wednesday I didn't play anything, I slept in and then went to Bellagio to sweat Bond18 at a final table there and meet up with a whole bunch of other online guys who were doing the same. Unfortunately Bond went out really quickly in 8th after losing a big flip, but that meant more time for drinking and hanging out. Also, Bond and crew had a pretty funny interview before the tournament with Cardplayer: http://www.cardplayer.com/tv/25748 (Bond comes on like 2 mins in). He probably went a bit overboard but all in good fun. Anyways, Bond got 8 of us comped for dinner at Bellagio Cafe and after that we played some craps (I lost this time :-() before most people left and we headed to the Rio. At this point grayfx and I decided to donk it up at a 4/8 limit table and have a few more drinks, and we got Bond to come play too when he finished writing another of his trip reports. The game was a ton of fun but I had a couple more drinks than I was planning and wasn't as well-rested as I'd have liked to be for the $5K today, but it was worth it to have a fun day away from serious poker at last.

The tournament today went up and down a bit, but overall didn't go very well and I busted just before the dinner break. I won a few big pots against devilfish who was on my left when my trips outkicked his trips and I flopped top set against his top 2 pair (lol T8o). After that hand I have like 26K and this hand happened when I managed to lose the minimum with QQ preflop:

Howard Lederer raises to 600 in the hijack at 100/200 a25, the SB who is some fairly aggro local guy makes it 2100 in the SB on a really big stack. I find QQ in the BB and just call, and then Howard jams at least like 15K more, SB folds and I shake my head and fold pretty quickly. Howard said he had KK after. I then lose 2 fairly big pots in a row.

I raise 55 to 900 at 150/300 a25 in the HJ and get called by the BB. Flop 766 I decide to check behind. Turn 6 he bets 2K which is a pretty big bet, around the size of the pot and I call. River 2 he bets 2500 which looks like it's begging to be called but I figure he prboably doens't put me on a pair after I checked the flop so he can have 44 or 33 maybe or occasionally just a cheap bluff attempt so I call and lose to 99. I think my play is fine though.

Folded to aggro local guy in the SB who raises to 900. I decide to defend with 96cc. Flop QTT 2 clubs. He bets 1500 and I call. Turn offsuit 8 giving me tons more outs, he bets 3000 and I call. I kind of wanted to jam on him here but it would have been too big a bet and him betting into me twice should show a lot of strength, though in retrospect this guy may have just been bad. Turn K he fires 6K and I muck. I think I like raising the flop better against this guy in retrospect.

Anwyays nothing happens for a while, I resteal a bit to keep chips as I'm really card dead before raising the flop with air in a blind vs blind hand and getting shoved on, then open shoving what I had left w/ A5o in the SB and getting called by the BB with 33 and losing. Tomorrow is a $2K NL.

Mike

Michael Watson Eliminated in 10th Place ($9,049)

It was a really weird day. I battled on a short stack most of the day, and whenever I got my hands on some chips and it began to look like I might make a comeback I would lose a pot and return to shortstackville. Here are a few hands I can remember:

Hand 1: UTG pots it to 21K with not much behind so I figure he can have like anything, I find A247 double suited or something like that. This was actually around the time I had the most chips I had all day with like 97K or something. I figure I have to at least call and I'm probably pot-committed then anyways so mise well jam and try to get it heads up I guess. The BB ends up tanking and folding AAT9 he said, which is pretty sweet, but I still get scooped by KQTT or some foolish hand like that for 30K.

Hand 2: I have like 83K and pot it in EP to 28K with AKKc6c. The SB who as it turns out is a huge huge clown says "pot, pot, pot from you is it? I have a pretty big hand" before calling, and Chad Brown calls in the BB. The flop comes 789 which is pretty frigging awful. They check to me and with 84K in the pot already I decide to gamble and shove, figuring I can easily have the best high hand and i can blow them off a lot of hands that have way more outs than they realize. Clown reshoves with AT73 (wow, that sure is "a pretty big hand" against an UTG pot raise). I'm obviously in terrible terrible shape here. The turn is a 6 and I'm like drawing dead except the river is a 3 and I get a quarter. I should almost certainly have checked behind the flop but I play bad and stuff and I thought they could easily both have missed that board since you're not supposed to be calling my raise with many middle cards there.

Hand 3:So now I'm pretty screwed but people bust left and right and we collapse to one table of 10 (this doesn't really count as making the final table though). I have 32K and we high-card for button and I'm the BB. Oh crap. I fold my BB to go to 24K then double to 48K on the next hand when it folds to me in the SB and my A479s wins against some high cards. On the next hand the 2nd shortstack pots in EP and I have AsTs2h9d. His pot from EP shows a lot of strength but I'm a monkey and I don't fold A2 with a suited ace when I have 6 bets so I jam. The BB who is the clown from the previous hand then instajams over top of me so we go all-in 3 ways. Then this happens (note clown is obv the one with A3): http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/tourney/updates_pn.asp?tourneyID=3469&groupid=309

Such a sick river, 13 cards for 3/4, 4 cards for 1/2, 17 cards I get 1/4, and 2 cards I get nothing.... Sigh. Also, the pocketfives live guys covered the tournament a bit and I introduced myself to them. You can check out the coverage at http://www.pocketfiveslive.com/. There is also a picture they took of me on there in which I look completely retarded. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do tomorrow, probably not much. Thursday is the $5K 6-max NL I've been looking forward to so much, still looking for that first final table.

Mike

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