Nath's Poker Exploits and Related Musings

to clear up any confusion

2007-06-16T23:41:00.000-05:00

since Kush couldn't find it:

my new blog is now at tworags.com.

the link straight to my blog is here.

my blog, it is on the moving

2007-05-19T21:57:00.000-05:00

my blog will now be hosted at www.tworags.com. i'm very excited for this change in scenery and plan to be writing more often as a result. i could get into the hows and whys of why and how this happened, but i'd rather just get back to writing.

lack of updates

2007-04-23T03:28:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I took some time off from poker while I was road tripping in Texas, so I haven't played much at all. (I did play the Sundays while I was there, and made two deep runs in the Stars Million, but no dice-- still waiting for that big score.)

Anyway, I have another project coming up, that should be really cool when it all works out. I don't want to say too much about it right now, but I'll let you know what it is when it comes to fruition.

This is all to say, I may not be writing much while I sort it out.

coming out of a slump

2007-03-23T06:59:00.000-05:00

Quick entry. I won the Stars 100k tonight for close to $28,000. Not much to say; I played mostly well and tighter than usual save for a few screwups in the early going. Enough went my way to take it down. This is a big slump-breaker, too. Here's hoping this gives me some momentum to build on.

the downswing continues

2007-03-06T13:24:00.000-06:00

Another awful session puts my downswing at somewhere around $45,000 in two weeks.

I'm taking a serious break from poker. I just can't handle how badly I'm running and the massive amounts of money I'm going through.

Update from the West Coast, including my huge downswing

2007-03-06T08:28:00.000-06:00

OK. So I ended up busting out pretty early on Day 2 of the LAPC. It was an embarrassing day for me. First, I overslept a tournament that started at 3:30. I made it in half an hour late, having lost about 3,000 chips. My table was tough, so naturally I responded by playing weakly. I was card-dead, and the one chance I tried to open to steal the blinds, I raised 20% of my stack and folded to a push.

So after this awful performance, I decided to take some time off and just chill out in the hotel. Played some online. I hit a bad stretch, and probably didn't play my best, either; I ended up down about $10,000 in this time.

After a couple of days my friend Steve talked me into coming to Vegas. My astonishing laziness meant I hadn't left the hotel in two days, and I took another day to leave, because my schedule had again become nocturnal, and I was preferring the lifestyle of sleeping in and lying around the hotel watching TV and playing online. But on March 1 I finally booked a flight and left. So after spending a week in LA, not only did I see nothing in the city, I didn't even play cash games at the Commerce. I'm really, really terrible at letting my laziness attach me to my bad habits, and the curse of the Internet just makes it worse.

Anyway, upon arrival we realized we had enough time to make it to the Venetian and play that day's event (they're having the Deep Stack Extravaganza right now; a series of $300 and $500 events with, well, deep stacks). Steve and I played but I busted shortly after the 100/200/25 level began, and he didn't take much longer.

(As a side note, I feel like I've been playing poorly in tournaments recently. I'm not being aggressive enough, because I fear that with my name and reputation, people will realize I'm full of shit when I bet so often, so I shy away from betting even when I should. On top of that, I still think I should play the hands, so I just play them passively. This leads to more difficult decisions and more getting outdrawn. In spots where raising or folding are clearly the best decisions, I call-- which is the worst choice of the three, but my attempt to compromise. It doesn't work. I am reminded of this because of my bustout hand here, where I flopped bottom two because I overlimped the button with 75o instead of raising to knock out the blinds and isolate the limper. If I raise, I win the pot; instead, I flopped bottom two pair, shoved over the short stack's push from the BB, and busted when the SB called with top two.)

I played some 5/10 NL while I waited for Steve to finish. In this time I got QQ vs. KK fourhanded and managed to drop $1000 with it. Yippee.

We left and decided to get dinner at Firefly, a popular Spanish tapas place not far from his apartment. The food was excellent although we ordered much too much of it. The Mojitos were also delicious (and of course I had several).

Anyway: I wrote more here but Blogger and Firefox combined to lose it. Great fucking pieces of software they are. I'm not rewriting this shit since it's all boring anyway. Cliff notes, I'm running like shit and ready to go home. I'm not playing online again until I leave Vegas. I will probably fail to satellite into the Wynn main event or cash in the Venetian events. I've lost somewhere between $30,000 and $35,000 since I came west. Poker sucks and the one time I try to write about it my shitty browser and shitty blogging software conspire to lose what I've written. Fuck this shit.

Made it through day 1 of LAPC

2007-02-25T06:14:00.000-06:00

More to tell later but the story is I have 21,225. I have had an up and down day-- played well and got lucky when I had to but played poorly in a couple of big pots that hurt my position.

I am mounting a comeback, though, seeing as how I was down to 825 chips in the small blind at 200/400/50. I'll tell about that later, too.

For now I'm just going to bed though.

I can't believe I forgot to write in the last six weeks

2007-02-24T00:24:00.000-06:00

I'm currently in Los Angeles, hoping to play in the LA Poker Classic tomorrow. I say "hoping" because I haven't won my seat yet and my failure to bring a second form of ID has made obtaining cash exceedingly difficult. I'm going to have to make a run to a bank tomorrow or find someone here who can help me.

Since Australia nothing particularly noteworthy has happened; I've had a few decent cashes but no kind of major breakthrough. I've started to expand my game roster, because I'm getting a little bored with $100 online NLH tournaments. So I'm getting back into cash games, trying to develop a consistent winning strategy (very different from my "see every flop" live deep-stacked strategy... 100BB aggressive 6-max games don't work like that).

I'm also playing more limit hold 'em. I like the aggressive nature of shorthanded high-limit games, though I'm terrible at saving bets. I'm pretty sure I'm a winner at 30/60, though, at least so far.

I'm going to head back to Syracuse after the tournament, to rest and relax. I've been on the road too much lately, and a lot of that time has been spent drinking and partying with old friends of mine down south. I intend to really rest and get better, so I'll be in top shape for my next goal: Foxwoods.

"One day, you will run worse than you ever thought possible."

2007-01-14T00:40:00.000-06:00

My Aussie Millions Main Event lasted less than four hours.

Having been recently moved to a new table, I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-27k when this hand comes up. EP limps in, next to act makes it 600 to go, and I'm in the cutoff with K7ss. I call (a little loose, but I have good position and no qualms about speculating this deep and trying to flop a big hand.) Haralabos Voulgaris calls on the button and the big blind calls. Decent-sized 5-way pot.

Flop comes T65 all spades. Raiser bets a meek 500 and I toss in 1500 (probably too weak). Haralabos cold-calls, everyone else folds, and by now perhaps I should be wondering what he has but slowing down with second nuts seems ridiculous, so I bet-3-bet all-in on the blank turn and get shown A9 of spades.

So if you're keeping track I'm down something on the order of $8700US here plus one $10,500AU tournament buyin. Nothing-- and I mean nothing-- has gone right at the poker table. I got crushed at the cash games-- I have AA, someone flops a set; I have a big pair, someone has aces. Or a set. In the FTP qualifier freeroll I moved in short with AA and chopped with the other AA. Then UTG with 10xBB I moved in with AQo and the BB called with, you got it, Q8s, and of course the board was all his (he flopped a flush draw and turned an 8). I got crippled in the $1650 calling a shove with AQ and losing to T7s.

Nothing I've done has gone right. My big hands all get cracked or coolered. I don't think I'm playing poorly, but I can't overcome these cards.

I'll be happy to get back to the States. I would love to play more live events like this, because I think I'm really good at them, but I can't afford it and I can't overcome these kinds of cards. I'm just tired of online poker, staring at a computer hours on end a day. But I don't have the means to play major live events and I certainly don't have any other skills that pay even close to what poker does.

I've got another week here. I have no idea what I'm going to do. I'm depressed right now, I feel alone, and like I got kicked in the teeth. Between this, and the cheating scandal (which has now degenerated into some vicious personal attacks toward me) and everything I've had to deal with regarding some old friends who have turned their back to me, 2007 has been... well, it's been a shitty year.

May we live in interesting times

2007-01-11T12:28:00.000-06:00

I'm here in Melbourne, and have been for the past 40 hours or so. I've quite enjoyed my time so far; the Crown casino and resort is a splendid place and very well run, and what little I've seen of Melbourne so far has been pretty. The weather is great, and I intend to find a couple days I can take off and see the countryside as well as the city.

Today's poker adventures (it's about 5:30 AM here-- I started writing at 2, and I did not intend to be up this long) did not go especially well, though. I entered the "Feature Event", a $1600AU no limit hold-em tournament with a couple of twists. First, the event featured a number of pros with a $1000 "bounty" on their heads-- knock them out and receive the cash. Second, the event was to be played down to 32 people, at which point tables would be redrawn and the event would become a double shootout, meaning that four tables of eight would play down to two players, and then those eight remaining would constitute the final table. Last, the event had a "speed clock"-- players only had 20 seconds to act on their hand before it was declared dead. In a similar effort to keep the tournament fast (it was billed as a "speed tournament", I think), antes were eliminated. I hated that part, but enjoyed the fast pace of the action.

We started with 4000 chips and 25/50 blinds. I showed up 15 minutes late and discovered a tough table-- circuit pros Dan Alspach and Lee Watkinson were on my left. The table was fairly loose in the early going, so I tried to play lots of flops, but couldn't get much going. I lost a couple pots right before the break and headed into the third level with 3300.

Coming out the blinds were 75/150. A few hands into the level I picked up AQo and raised to 400. The button, a player who had been playing poorly (mostly limping into pots and folding to a raise, except one hand where he went all in for something like 2700 chips in first position at the 50/100 level), moved in for 1700 more. It folded to me and I considered I was probably going to call but did a quick check on the pot odds to be sure-- at a glance I was getting about 3:2 on my money and AQo should be in decent shape vs. a normal pushing range, and always adjusting up slightly for strange moves. As I started thinking just to be sure, I realized the speed clock wouldn't afford me that luxury, so I threw my chips in.

He tapped the table and pointed to me, indicating my hand was good. I showed my AQ and he turned over T7 of diamonds.

The flop was spread and the door card was a 7. As the dealer finished opening it, a queen was second off. The final card? A ten.

I didn't improve to beat his two pair and this knocked me down to 1100.

I doubled up once with two kings vs. two nines but never got any traction. Eventually, with 1650 chips. in a hand where the first person to act folded and another was sitting out, I looked at K6 offsuit and decided king-high was good enough to make a move at four people. I didn't think anyone except the big stack would call lightly, and even he wasn't splashing around (he'd gotten caught bluffing not long ago). I was right about all three of them, but the big blind found two nines and called me immediately, and that was that.

I took a short break and decided to play some cash games. The no-limit games here this week have been very good. Unfortunately, I wasn't my most focused at the $2/$5 game in the afternoon and only broke even, and the $5/$10 night session was a disaster. The game was very live, but I couldn't get hands, and I didn't pull the trigger on moves enough. Combined with a couple of poor plays near the end of the night, and a few flops I hit where my hand didn't hold up, I had a terrible session, finishing down about $5000AU. I left and I felt terrible.

I don't understand people who get a thrill from losing big as well as winning big. I understand the need for action, I understand playing high stakes for the rush, and because it motivates you to focus and play better. But losing big has never provided me excitement, perverse or otherwise. It just sucks. The walk back to my room was miserable. The game was so good and I could get none of it.

I'll be back, though. I feel like I can make a lot of money here if I play well. In retrospect, I played too loosely preflop (as I usually do in deep stacked full ring no limit cash games) , and I didn't make moves in enough spots where they probably would have worked. I didn't have the guts to pull the trigger, probably because I didn't bring enough money on the trip. Many times I should have raised or folded and called instead, and those losses add up.

Completely random note: I've seen a ton of the "TV pros" here, both in the poker room and (especially) at the Full Tilt mixer last night. I wasn't in a good mood then, so I didn't really try to talk to anyone, but I find that's always the case in these spots.

I have this strange thing about meeting name pros. On the one hand, I hate to feel fanboyish or come across that way, but it always seems like that's the case when you meet them-- it can't be helped, just because of who they are. I want to be able to talk to them as a fellow pro, even if I'm not on their level yet. Finding that balance is hard. I don't know what causes my shyness to kick in when I'm definitely adept when I need to be and I should be looking to establish my name in the poker world.

One more thing from these last two days before I go. There's some stuff I've been dealing with in the online world. I'm kind of burnt out on it to go into detail, but basically it involves a player I've partially staked in a series of heads-up limit hold 'em freezeouts against another player ("HIV" in the online poker world). It came out in the last couple of days that during match 3, which took place the night of the 8th, the other player got coaching from a very, very good limit hold 'em player and shorthanded / heads-up specialist ("tongni"). After tongni left, my guy won the match, and then the two attempted to schedule another match with my guy vs. HIV, where they had planned to have tongni playing on HIV's account instead, unbeknownst to us. It was a pretty clear attempt at a dirty trick, and a poorly executed one, too. We got word of it before the match went down, so nothing happened, but it was evident that the two of them along with another player had planned this out in advance. These were not small stakes-- three 100/200 limit freezeouts for $10,000 apiece-- so we're not talking practical-joke money or anything, but

It's more frustrating and disappointing than anything. For one, I've met two of the three people involved, considered at least one of them a friend, and loaned another one money based on his word as a poker player-- and he repaid it, so I assumed it was good. From a personal standpoint, that's appalling and kind of saddening. From a professional standpoint, it's low and disgusting, but at least nothing happened and now I know who to watch out for, and I'm a little wiser for it. Personally, as a poker pro, I take every advantage I can get when I'm at the table-- but only once I'm seated and within the guidelines of the rules and accepted ethical standards. I try not to even cross into gray areas-- our game's reputation is shady enough as it is and I think we have a responsibility to hold ourselves to a higher standard regarding it. So I try not to do anything that would even seem unethical, for both and professional and personal reasons-- like it or not, I have a pretty ingrained compass about these things and I would not feel comfortable or happy with myself in betraying it, even if I wasn't caught.

Besides, I don't need to cheat to win.

* * *

That's all I have for now. I'll try to post more about Australia as more happens.

t-minus Australia

2007-01-08T20:09:00.000-06:00

sitting in a hotel room in Los Angeles. my flight for Melbourne leaves in five hours. it's a fifteen hour flight; i leave the night of the 8th and i'll be arriving on the 10th, locally.

there's a $1600 tournament on the 11th. i'll probably enter that. get my bearings, get a feel for live again.

the main event starts the 14th, with day one split into two flights. i still don't know which one i play. the event is a five-day run, so the final table is the 19th.

the structure looks tremendous. i'm always pumped for the chance to play live and i think i will do well here. but i've been saying that for a while, and i have no idea what will actually happen.

at the least, i plan to be well rested and mentally acute, which hasn't always been the case at live events.

2007: More Updates to Come

2006-12-27T05:38:00.000-06:00

I've done a terrible job keeping my blog updated recently. I've been trying to balance out my life for a little while now, and inevitably, some things suffer. Some days it's my poker, some days it's my sleep, some days it's my outside interests, friends, relationships, creativity, or something else.

Anyway, the point of all this is just to explain that I haven't forgotten about this blog. I will be continuing to update it when major happenings arise. I also hope to post more thoughts on strategy as well, and, since I will be playing more live events in 2007, I should have more trip reports, too. (I'm going to the Aussie Millions in January and I promise to have something from there.)

I've got a couple theories about tournaments I want to explore, but they're going to have to wait for now. I'm still working on how to best express them, and while they aren't particularly groundbreaking, they are part of my approach when I play my best that I think people overlook.

Update from Turning Stone

2006-12-02T13:01:00.000-06:00

People tell me I should update my poker blog more. I keep forgetting that people actually read it.

Anyway, here's the latest from Turning Stone: I managed to sleep through several of the tournaments, but when I actually played I did well. I took 7th in the $300, and I won the $740 for just over $27,000. I also made it to 28th in the $600 but that didn't pay.

I just busted out of the $1000 on a pretty bad play which I've recounted several times and don't really feel like doing again.

I've been playing some cash games too-- almost entirely no-limit hold 'em; the biggest game they have constantly running is a 5/5 $500 max, but occasionally they spread 5/10 $1000 max and (more often, when the high stakes players are around) 5/10 20-to-go $300 minimum uncapped. I've done well overall, making about $4000, most of it on two nights (I dropped two buyins on my first night of 5/5 because I was dicking around way too much).

I dropped some money at shorthanded 30/60 and 50/100 limit hold 'em. I only played because there was a live one sitting in; limit hold 'em isn't my forte at all but I've recently been picking up shorthanded and I enjoy it because it's still action-packed, it just takes a very different set of skills. I was doing really well but I started running cold and got very tired, so my game slipped and I finished down $3000 or so. That's pretty bad for a session. I did pick up $1100 after getting 25% of someone who was in a good 75/150 game later in the week.

And I crossbooked someone 10% on the $740, because I was up all night playing the 300-min game and he thought I'd be too tired to do well. Still waiting to collect, but that's another $2700 in the bank.

More later; I gotta run.

update on my poker life

2006-11-17T01:04:00.000-06:00

Wow, I haven't written in ages. I apologize to all my readers, who have probably by this point gone from expecting new material, to peeking in every now and again to see if I decided to add anything, to giving up altogether.

Anyway:
After the WCOOP I decided to take a poker vacation. I was not playing very well, I was not handling the swings emotionally, and I dropped a ton of money on the WCOOP. So I decided to back off for a while, focus on the other areas of my life. I didn't touch poker for two solid weeks.

When I came back to poker, I was mentally rested, focused on my game, and playing better. In addition, I didn't have the distractions hanging over me in the other areas of my life, because I'd taken care of some things I needed to.

This has translated into several big results recently:

-4th place in the Stars Sunday $215 Second Chance, October 29, for $14,000.
-1st place in the Full Tilt nightly $163 for just over $16,000.
-tonight, I just wrapped up the UB $109 40k. We chopped heads up for $8,000 apiece.

I've also had some smaller scores (most notably first place in a small-field $109 pot-limit hold 'em tournament for $2100). A few other final tables mixed in as well. In addition I made quite a bit through backing a couple of players, as is well covered on 2+2.

Anyway, I'm travelling again soon. I may attend the Turning Stone tournaments after Thanksgiving. I'd like to get some live play in before Australia. In the meantime, I'll continue to play online. It looks like I'm going to settle into Houston for at least a little while longer, as it seems to be the place where most of my life is centered right now, and where I'll need to be to accomplish my short-term goals.

the beginning of the end

2006-10-02T03:32:00.000-05:00

Party Poker plans to cease operations in the U.S. after the newly passed legislation.

PartyPoker is one of, if not the largest, poker site on the web. That they are ceasing U.S. operations is a very bad sign-- other sites will probably follow suit.
Word is that their stock price has already dropped 33% on the UK exchange today.

It's unbelievable, with the popularity of poker, that a moralizer like Frist can do this based on what he thinks he knows is best for the American people. You'd think he wants everyone to be miserable. You'd think he wants everyone to be forced to get a corporate job. You'd think he wants all the people who pay their college tuition through poker to have to go in massive student loan debt for a long time.

Or maybe he just wants to be able to go on the campaign tour in 2008 and praise himself for being the great moral crusader who put an end to the evils of online gambling.

If you ever play poker and you enjoy being able to, I encourage you to voice your dissatisfaction. I don't know what we can do now. But we need to take a stand-- even those of you who don't play for a living recognize that your desire to play casually is impeded, and that there is utterly no reason to make online poker illegal, aside from governmental greed and a sense of faux morality trumped up to pimp for the electorate.

It's prohibition all over again. It didn't work with alcohol, it didn't work with drugs, and it won't work with gambling.

If something isn't resolved where Americans can play online poker I will have to seriously consider moving to another country.

downswinging in time for the WCOOP; also, Bill Frist continues to be an tragic waste of a human being

2006-09-30T03:39:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted much lately because I haven't had anything good to report. The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker started September 15, and I missed a lot of the early events while I was taking care of other things. I haven't cashed in a single one, though; the best I have to show is 112th in the $530 Stud Hi/Lo event that paid 72.
It's all been part of a pretty bad downswing in September. I'm pretty sure I'm down five figures-- low five figures, but that's still not insignificant for me.
The Main Event of the WCOOP - a $2600 NLH tourney - is Sunday, and after that I'm taking a serious break from poker. Not a break where I say "I'm gonna lay off for a while" and jump back in. I have some other things to deal with in the rest of my life-- buying a car, planning a possible return to school, looking for a place to live (and the possibility of it being in another city).
More later if anything interesting develops.

***

Oh, and Bill Frist: The moralizing senator from Tennessee is attempting to further his presidential ambitions by banning online poker as a move of moral posturing. Tonight, he succeeded in getting anti-Internet Gambling legislation attached to the Port Security bill Congress passed.

I don't know what all the implications are going to be, but it probably isn't good. If they start going after players, this might necessitate a move to another country for me.

New opportunity

2006-09-14T07:53:00.000-05:00

Just letting everyone know that I'll soon be part of the teaching staff of www.pokermentors.com, a site designed to give players who want to learn more personal, one-on-one instruction to suit their particular needs.

More details when I'm officially a member, but I have to say that I join a very good lineup of mentors, and from what I've done so far I feel like this is a good way for me to teach.

Long time, no post

2006-09-07T20:37:00.000-05:00

Sorry. Not much has happened and I've been busy with a few creative projects and personal issues.
I'm up a bit over the last couple of weeks, but nothing significant has happened. Made runs in the Stars Million and Full Tilt 200k last Sunday, but not at any big money.
I'll get back to writing regularly when I'm playing poker more regularly.

weekend at poker

2006-08-28T03:18:00.000-05:00

This will be short-- I'm tired-- but I've had some good success lately.

Last night I got home from the bar and fired up some NL cash games on Party Poker. before long I found an insanely fishy player who was doing things like raising to $77 preflop (at $3/$6 no-limit). I followed him around 4 tables and made around $5500 in four hours.

Tonight I had my big score in the Stars $215 rebuy. We chopped it three ways and I took $20k.

I think I'm actually going to take a couple of days off now that I've gotten a nice win under my belt. I've got a few other things I want to do-- writing and planning both my finances and my future-- and I feel like a win takes the pressure to make money off me for a while.

i suck at taking breaks from poker

2006-08-24T23:52:00.000-05:00

but at least i'm running good again.

won the Full Tilt Aussie Millions satellite today. 18k prize package, going in January.

getting a new laptop seems to produce good results. maybe i'll buy another one before i play the big Sundays.

sorry for the lack of updates

2006-08-18T16:21:00.000-05:00

I got back from Las Vegas a week ago. There just hasn't been much going on in my poker life to warrant mentioning. I'm on a downswing... my online play has been slim lately, but the first-place finishes are turning into 6ths and 7ths and the final-table appearances are turning into second-table knockouts.

I'm going to Lake Charles for a while. My dad (my biggest fan) is having quadruple-bypass surgery tomorrow. Obviously I'm going to see him; those of you who know about my fall may not know that he was a major reason I got through it alive; he supported me and took care of me more than anyone else in my family while I was in the hospital and I stayed with him afterward as well.

When I have more to write, about poker or life, you'll know. 'Til then.

report from the last couple days at the WSOP

2006-08-09T03:07:00.000-05:00

I took some time off to unwind after busting out of the main event. I didn't think I played very well the second day; after my first day's disastrous last level I lost a lot of my patience and just tried to pick up pots even when I had no business doing so.

I realize I have a lot of problems playing an "orange zone" stack, when you're too big to open all-in but you still have to move sometimes with hands that are less than ideal but can't stand a reraise. I want to work on that.

I entered two of the $1500 "second-chance" bracelet events they were running during the WSOP and neither one went well. My plan was to try to pick up enough chips early to go deep; in the first one I got some good hands but never got action on them. Sucks because I was at a good table.

I got up to 1900 before running KK into AA in the second level. I misplayed the hand; I panic-pushed a really bad flop but obviously it didn't matter.

Second tournament I got lots of garbage. To complicate things Thayer Rasmussen (2+2er UCF THAYER) was on my left and playing well and had a big stack.

I actually folded AK preflop. Mid position made it 100 at 25/25 and got a caller; button made it 400 with 600 behind. I had AKo in SB and just dropped it; I figure I'm never good with that action and maybe not even racing. MP and button got it in the flop with QQ and 99. No ace or king hit anyway.

The first pot I tried to make a real move at was when I raised an MP limper from LP with JTo. I made it 125 at 25/25. The SB who was really short moved in for 250 more. I was getting a little better than 2:1 and figured he was moving with anything so I called. He had Q9s; the flop was QT8 and I didn't improve.

This knocked me to 1200 and I got a long run of garbage after that. At 25/50 I opened 55 in MP and got a caller in the big blind; the flop was AA5 and I got no action.

I folded AJ UTG+1 to an UTG raise. Turned out to be the right move; he had QQ and flopped top set and busted a guy with a pair and a flush draw.

I got down to about 800 before picking up a pot at 25/50 UTG with AK. Two hands later M/LP (bigger stack and fairly aggressive guy) made it 200 after an older lady limped in (she was doing that a lot; seemed weak-tight). I had JJ in SB and pushed 800 more and he folded.

Next hand I had TT on button and 1300 in chips or so; I opened to 175. Thayer called in the SB. The flop was 662 with two hearts. He checked, I bet 325 and he pushed. I called because I think he does that with lots of hands I beat; draws and smaller pairs, for example. Unfortunately he had A6.

I probably won't play tomorrow's. I just need a bit of a break from poker. I'll spend the last couple days trying to relax and packing up and such. I return to Houston Friday and I'll see my friends but after that I think I may take a vacation somewhere where I can really relax. Take some time off from both poker and partying. I play better when I'm better rested and in better shape anyway.

poker glossary?

2006-08-03T02:35:00.000-05:00

some of my friends who don't play poker but want to follow my blog and my WSOP progress are extremely lost by the jargon i use to describe hands and situations.

i don't want to water down my writing for them so i was wondering if anyone could point me to a place that offers a glossary of the general shorthand we use to describe poker hands.

if not i can write one up myself.

Out of the WSOP main event

2006-08-02T17:04:00.000-05:00

I'm really angry about the way the day went because I played badly. I got a pretty good table and even made a couple of big hands early. I then proceeded to give my money away on a series of bad decisions. On at least five separate hands where I had a decision where I should have raised or folded, I called instead and gave away chips.
I deserved to lose, especially since I've been living like a fat fucking alcoholic pig since my first win.

I'm playing some online today in an effort to get back the style that got me here in the first place. To stop playing like a weak pussy. To stop making myself guess and to attack, attack, attack.

brief update

2006-07-31T08:07:00.000-05:00

i finished the day with $13,350. I am rather disappointed with my final chip count but at least I'm still there.
I had over $30,000 to begin the final level but a series of disasters (beginning with aces cracked in a $30,000 pot) started my downslide.
Will have a full report tomorrow. I am completely wiped out.

T-minus 1 hour

2006-07-30T13:07:00.000-05:00

Table 131 Seat 7
Wish me luck, in all its forms, and the focus to stay in the right frame of mind to make the correct decisions.

The Freakonomics of Tournaments, Chapter 2: Chaos Theory, the Butterfly Effect, and the Fundamental Theorem of Poker

2006-07-27T04:05:00.000-05:00

(I posted this on 2+2 as well.)

Chaos theory in its most elemental version suggests that the forces of nature and reality are intertwined in such a way that what we do now will affect what happens in the future even in ways we may not see or comprehend. One of the ways chaos theory is most commonly expressed is by the "butterly effect". "If a butterfly flaps its wings in Peking the weather in New York changes the next day" or something like that. Among other things, it's a great reminder to a poker player not to be results oriented, and to only concern yourself with factors you can control.

How does this apply to the Fundamental Theorem of Poker, and more specifically, tournaments?

Well, the Fundamental Theorem of Poker states that every time your opponent plays his hand differently than he would if your cards were face up, you gain.

One big reason I play so loose is because I feel tournaments are absolutely about accumulating chips. The Fundamental Theorem of Poker speaks to the flipside: The other reason I play so loose is that it disguises my range so well and makes my hands hard to read. I induce more mistakes from my opponents than a predictable player can because their hands are much more readable with the information available. And that's the secret: My moves may be individually -EV on a particular hand, but they induce my opponents to make bigger mistakes than I make, because my hands are much harder to read than theirs.

Here's an example particular to me: Let's say we're in the mid stages of a tournament, antes are in and many people have Ms between 12-15 if not even shorter. A tight player opens in MP; his range may be, for example's sake, is 99+, AQ+. It folds to the villain in BB who has AQ. Now against a tight player it is usually right to fold because his range is such that AQ is being crushed. Now, my range in this spot might be 22+, 76s+, AJ+, ATs+, KQ, or some such. (My range is never set in stone; it depends on many factors, which is part of my style.) Now if the observant opponent knows me, he knows it's proper to push over me given the range I open with. As a result I usually have to fold the hands near the bottom of my range. I lose a small amount when I fold, but when I have a hand near the top of my range, I call and get the money in as a good favorite, and it's a much bigger pot than I would have been able to create otherwise. I generate more EV for myself this way, and I've found the huge mistakes I induce in my opponents when I have big hands make up for the small ones I make (frequently) preflop.

In addition, my aggressiveness at the table can occasionally induce others to play hands differently than they otherwise would against OTHER players. I've observed the following effect: After I raise several hands in a row, or, say, raise the same person's blind two or three times in a row, he may mentally decide "This is the hand I'll take a stand." So, say the next time I get garbage and throw it away. Someone else, a much tighter player than me, raises the blind, and the player who has already decided to take a stand does so again, and gets called by a much better hand and gets crippled or busts. In a tournament, where everyone's equity is affected by what happens on other hands, this can be huge. Instead of a simple blind steal or small pot, now someone is knocked out and we move up a pay spot.
The effects aren't always that pronounced, but they do exist.

This is a pretty rough draft and I'm sure needs work but I was thinking about this the last couple of days and so far this is the best expression of one of the benefits I've found of playing loose.

Questions, comments, and thoughts appreciated.

yesterday's report (1500 NL and 2+2ers)

2006-07-26T23:42:00.000-05:00

I wanted to play the $1000 7 Stud Hi/Lo event on Monday but I was too burned out from the weekend to do any serious pokering. So I slept in all day and decided to recuperate and attack the $1500 NL on Tuesday, the last event before the ME.
I got two full nights of sleep and found I was playing much better. Unfortunately, the second full night of sleep meant I didn't even show up to the Rio until 12:15, so I was placed on the alternate list. My table didn't sit down until 1:30, an hour and a half into the event. With 1500 chips and starting halfway through the 25/50 level I knew I was going to have to go into attack mode.
The only person I recognized at my starting table was Laura Fink, who was seated directly on my left. She placed 13th in the 5k pot-limit HE event, but I knew her because me and my travelling posse that was in town last weekend went out on Saturday for drinks at the Bellagio. We met up with a bachelorette party that one of my brother's friends was a member of and the bride-to-be mentioned she knew her and I should keep an eye out for her.
Anyway, I didn't get to see her play too many hands so she doesn't play a big part in the poker part of this story.

I started off playing pretty fast because we were under such a time crunch. In half an hour the blinds would be 50/100 and that would leave little room to maneuever. I wanted to identify and target the weaker players as well as look for spots to pick up pots nobody else wanted.
This amounted to me open raising lots of hands and playing lots of pots in position. We started eleven-handed, so I still had to be somewhat patient, but it's also possible that playing 3-4 hands a round 11-handed instead of 8- or 9-handed disguised how loose I was playing to the rest of the table.

First good pot I take I have QQ in BB. MP raises to 300 (50/100) and I have 1300 total and QQ in the BB, so as soon as I look I toss in the rest of my chips. No reason to get coy this short. He folds.
I took my first real beat of the series in an early pot at 50/100. I had already gotten my stack over 2000 when this happened. Two limpers in MP and I complete Q7 from the SB. Laura checks in the BB and the flop comes down Q74. I don't like to checkraise here because I think I get more out of one-pair hands or get people to overcommit with worse hands by leading out, especially with these stack sizes. I bet out 200, BB and first limper fold, and the second one minraises 200 more. I take about 3 seconds to stick it in, and he calls and turns over KQ. Turn 4 and a river 4 result in a chopped pot.
My stack is still healthy, though. Here's another hand I played and I kinda like it.
MP with 1500 opens to 300. I have 87hh and call; it's loose given his stack size but I figure between position and willingness to be aggressive I have a decent chance to take the pot.
Flop is AT9 one heart and he bets 400. I call. I don't jam here because I know he's only calling with an ace and I don't want to definitely get it in as a 2:1 dog. If the ace doesn't slow him down on the turn I'll fold, unless I hit (or pick up a heart). The turn is a low card and he checks. I bet 800 to put him in and he folds.
A bit later, or earlier, I don't remember which: Super tight old guy makes it 400 from LP. SB calls all in for 375 total. I look down at AQ and think I have a good chance to isolate against the player I know I'm ahead of and push. LP old guy thinks for a few seconds and says "I know I'm folding the best hand" and tosses away AK face up. I said "yes, you are"; SB has K9s and I have AQ. Flop comes Q high with two spades and he doesn't get there. Old guy even says he put me on AQ or AJ but "AK is nothing" and he's not putting in 80% of his stack with it. Okay then.
I lose some back opening AQ UTG to 275. SB pushes in for 425 more and I call and lose to his AK.
Get to break around 2700.

First hand back LP opens to 500 or 600 with like 1200 behind. I look at AK in BB and toss in a stack of purples. He calls with AT and I win.

I'm opening lots of pots, especially in LP. People aren't putting up too much resistance so my stack is growing slowly. I give back small pieces misplaying hands but I'm still slowly incrementing.

Then I got my huge lucksack break of the series:

Folds to me in SB and I have A9o. I open to 575 (not enough from the small blind, I knew it then and know it now and did it anyway). BB calls. Flop is A73 all diamonds (i have none). BB has 2500 or so total, maybe slightly more. I decide that since I probably have the best hand but it is very easy to get raised off it, especially with these stack sizes, I should check-raise all-in. I check, he bets 500, I shove, he calls with T8dd. Oops.
It's okay: The turn comes an ace and the river a 3. I boat up and knock him out, jumping to 7700 chips or so in the process.
I give some back when I don't play well and get to the break with about 5700. The only hand that was one of those "shit happens" things was when I open AJ to 525 in MP and BB (tight old man who folded AK earlier) raises 1000 more. I fold faceup in like 3 seconds, and he shows AA. I ran my raises into big blind's AA several times.

100/200/25 levels after the break. I'm opening more frequently since the antes make the pot so huge. I'm taking down a decent amount of pots preflop but giving some back when I do stupid crap like float.

First cooler hand of the day: Button opens to 600 when he has 1500 total. Normally this would set off warning bells but he'd been doing this a lot, i suppose assuming everyone knew he was committed. I was in the small blind and saw KK so it was a no brainer reraise for me. The BB thought for a minute and folded and I wish I knew he had a hand so I could have flatted and let him make a move and trap him. I don't have those kind of predictive powers, though. The button turned over AA and I doubled him up.

Interesting hand from later on:

I have about 6k and open 55 UTG to 650 (still 100/200/25). MP 4 seats down who is a good player pushes, and it turns out to be like 5500 total. A short stack who's loose and wild calls all-in for like 1300 total. It comes back to me and I have a "blink" moment: "Call, you have the best hand." Then I stop and realize "You're putting your whole stack at risk hoping for a race in the SIDE POT and you don't even know what the short stack has." So I fold.
Raiser turns over AK suited and short caller has A3s. The board runs out 6635x and the A3 takes the pot.
Now it's easy to say I'm results oriented here, but afterwards I was analyzing the hand and I realized why I had that "blink" moment:
-Even though I'm a loose player, people may not have fully realized that here, and an UTG raiser at an 11-handed table still has a reasonably solid range.
-The reraise was so massive that it ONLY makes sense with AK. AA/KK would try to extract some value, and since I raised UTG, 99-JJ has to seriously worry about a bigger pair from me. QQ could go either way, I think, but still for both those concerns almost never makes an all-in raise.
If this is all true, then AK is so much more likely than anything else that with the pot odds I should call.
But then what about the overcaller? Couldn't he have me dominated and therefore in a bad spot even with pot odds? Maybe, but not necessarily. He was wild; I must have sensed that and known he'd be willing to throw it in with lots of hands. If he has an ace there that actually helps me and I become close to 60/40 to win the side pot at least.
Obviously it would have been a bad call on the surface but thinking about the way the hand played out makes me understand why I had my initial reaction. Plus, if I do call and am right, I have a big enough stack to wield as a weapon vs. the table.

Things were uninteresting after that. My bustout hand was a cooler: 150/300/25 and I have JJ in EP and 4500 or so in chips. I open to 875. Kid a couple seats behind me stops to think, asks how many chips I have. Gets a count, thinks for a few minutes, and calls. BB calls, he's a bit loose and donkish (saw him not long ago open to 800 UTG and fold to an all in for 1300 more; even if I'm opening loose in EP I'm not folding with those pot odds). Flop is 644 and he pushes for like 1500. I overpush and kid calls immediately, at which point I know I'm beat but don't know how. BB shows 55; kid has KK, and that's all she wrote.

I played better yesterday but didn't get the cards when I needed them. Hopefully in the ME I'll have both going for me.

I decided that since I had nothing to do I would watch Daryn Firicano (2+2er Daryn) at the final table of the $1000 NLH rebuy. I walked around the side of the stage looking for fellow 2+2ers and spotted Vanessa (fslexcduck). We introduced ourselves and she introduced me to the rest of them-- Daryn, Yeti, flawless_victory, FoxwoodsFiend (Ariel), jcmoussa, pfkaok, and a few others. We went to dinner where I started drinking to get into proper sweat mode. After getting back saw stevepa, AJo (Alex Jacob), and chuddo/snagglepuss, among others. Our spots on the bleachers were taken so we took a seat at one of the tables behind the final table stage. FF, jc, duck, and I played $10 a point Chinese Poker with 2-7 low middle and royalties (3 points for trips in front, 5 for quads in back, 7 for straight flush in back). I lost $20 and then we got kicked out because someone unrelated to us broke a table. We explained to security that we were there to support our friend and when we went out to dinner with him a bunch of Hellmuth fanboys took our seats. They cleared room for us.

The drinks started coming heavily. I increasingly razzed Hellmuth from the bleachers; when Daryn opened the button, Hellmuth reraised, Daryn pushed, and Hellmuth folded, I yelled "Must have misread his soul". pfk and I were trading jokes about Phil's small bets and raises ("12k/24k/4k... Hellmuth makes it 49k").
Hellmuth doubled up Daryn twice which was nice, first when he called his A2s push with KJ, and second when Daryn played this sweet hand: He opens from button, Hellmuth calls. Flop is like A42 two diamonds. Hellmuth checks, Daryn checks. Turn is a T. Hellmuth checks and Daryn pushes for like 2x the pot. Hellmuth tanks for like 3 minutes and finally calls with A6. Daryn shows A8 and the 8 plays.

Daryn took a sick beat when he moved in with AQ from the SB and Juha Helppi called with AJs from the BB and flopped a jack. Daryn was short after that and finally lost pushing KQ over Helppi's button open. Juha called with A8 and it held. Third place wasn't a bad score, but Daryn was playing really well and could have taken it if he'd gotten a few breaks.

Afterwards the whole big group went to a house that a few of them (AJ, Ariel, and Jason Strasser) were renting and partied the night away. Those kids are fun. They are also really, really good at pool.

(no offense to anyone I didn't reference by first name. I didn't forget you but for convenience I only used those people I would reference more than once for story's sake.)

Took today easy; just placed 6th in Stars 55r. Gonna chill some tomorrow, see some people who arrive. Maybe get a massage. Time to relax and prep up for the ME.

I'm out of the $1000 rebuy

2006-07-23T19:22:00.000-05:00

I've been playing horribly. I need to figure out what's wrong with my game.

I think I've been getting too complacent, playing loose without playing aggressive, playing pots without playing to win them, and just overall playing bad poker.

More later. I need to de-stress.

5K PLHE: play bad, get there; play bad, don't.

2006-07-22T20:50:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty bummed now so I'm not going to get into it, but here's what today proved:

-It's better to be lucky than good, especially when half your table is top pros.
-You can blow a 200BB stack in an hour and a half.

On the other hand, I made Johnny Chan $1000 on a sidebet with Mike Matusow on my triple-up hand. I don't think Mike has any respect for me. I heard a rumor he called me a "toothless scum". He was friendly to me when we were at the same table, but if I find out this is true, we're going to have a real problem next time I see him.

the agony of defeat (or, today's $2000 NL)

2006-07-21T17:13:00.000-05:00

Today's tournament was the story of bad bluffs and second-best hands.

I went up and down early until my first big pot.

Still at 25/25 blinds I limped in Ac4c in early position (I usually raise if I play at all, but I'd raised two pots in a row and didn't want to be blown off a hand I actually wanted to play). All folded, the blinds checked, and the flop came J high and all clubs. Small blind bet out 75 and I called. Turn was a low red card; he bet 200 and I called. River was a red 8 (no board pair; I have the nuts) and he bet 250. I raised him 600 leaving 400 behind. I know it looks weird and/or suspicious but my general feeling was that a 600 raise gets called when a push doesn't, because he didn't really have the chips to look me up for 400 more if I was bluffing. He called pretty quickly and I was up to 2800.

Won a small pot when I called a weak player's EP raise with 64o and flopped bottom two in a three-way pot. He made a nearly pot-sized continuation bet; I raised and he folded.

I had a tough time because the player directly to my left was also good; pretty loose and aggressive like me. I bluffed off some chips to him when I opened A3 in the cutoff to 75. The flop came T73 and I check/called 100. The turn was the 8 of hearts, putting two hearts on the board. I checked and he bet 200; I nearly folded but decided with the ace of hearts in my hand I could bluff a flush and a number of other scare cards. So I called, and fired 350 on the K river. He called immediately with T8.

I got aces twice in the first level and didn't win anything significant.

I win my second large pot with 64 offsuit: It's 25/50 blinds now and two people limp in. I decide that I want to play the hand and take control of the pot so I raise to 225. Both limpers call.
The flop is 754 with two spades (I have none). The first caller bets out 225. The second folds; I decide I'm going to tie myself to this pot and make a big raise to try to take it down. I make it 1000 leaving 1100 behind. The guy thinks for a minute, seems to have a genuinely tough decision, then finally calls. (I thought this was an obvious push or fold.)
The turn is a red queen. He checks and I throw in the last 1100. He folds much faster than I thought he would. Umm, thanks.
I have 3800 now, and run to the bathroom since I'm hitting my early position hands and I can't wait. Then the wheels fall off.

First hand back: three limpers to my big blind and I check T8o. The flop is Q96 giving me a double gutshot. I check and it checks to the button who bets 100. I could try to pick up the pot now but my draw is well disguised, so I call. One other caller.
Turn is the 6c. I check, the caller now fires 250. Button folds. I don't think he's full already so I count my eight outs as good; I'm getting better than 3 to 1 to call and I think he has a legitimate hand so my implied odds will be even better. He has about 1300 behind; I decide if I hit that I'll fire a big river bet to appear to be bluffing.
The river is the 7c filling my straight. I throw 1100 into the pot. He sighs and says "You make a full house? I guess I have to pay you off" and calls. I get ready to scoop the pot from trip sixes but he turns over AcTc.
I didn't even consider that.

Not long afterward EP limps, guy to his left raises 200. He's been doing that a lot so I decide to repop him with anything decent. Guy on my right calls the 200. Perfect squeeze spot. I look at A7 and raise to 750. Now EP limper goes all in for 350 more; whatever, he doesn't have much of a hand. But the original raiser shoves, the caller folds (99), and I fold. Limper turns over QTs and the raiser has KK.

I'm down to 1500 or so. I get TT and raise to 175. Two calls behind. Ax 4s 5s flop, I bet 325, the first caller shoves and I throw away my hand rather disgustedly.

Limper in front and I limp 53cc in LP. Same aggro guy on my left makes it 200. First limper calls and so even though I'm short I decide my odds are decent and I'm throwing it in with any reasonable piece of the board (AK3 all hearts would not be a reasonable piece). Flop comes 753 all spades. I open shove the rest in when the action gets to me. The raiser calls fairly quickly. He turns over KK with the K of spades and turns a fourth spade.

That's it. Nothing special, nothing exciting, just another day of tournament poker where the breaks don't go your way.

please to sign all comments

2006-07-19T19:37:00.000-05:00

I would appreciate it. Traffic has increased considerably since my WSOP finish and I would like to know who's talking to me.

an article about the $2500 shorthanded that has a little bit of coverage about me

2006-07-19T16:21:00.000-05:00

here

it's only like a paragraph, but hey, it's something. they got the pieces of my story at least.

dammit Firefox

2006-07-19T02:51:00.000-05:00

I wrote out a full report from the $1500 no-limit tournament today and Firefox lost it because it has gigantic memory holes is starting to crash enough to make me think about leaving it.

Short version, started at a table with Barry Greenstein, got to 3200 early, made moves that didn't work, table broke, I played 3 hands badly and went out as a result.

today's exploits

2006-07-18T05:31:00.000-05:00

I busted out 40 minutes into the $1500 pot-limit Omaha event. I made several second best hands and kept losing my stack a few hundred at a time until it was gone. The only person at my table I recognized was James Van Alstyne. I was not asshole enough to make a WPT Championship joke. (Maybe if I'd stuck around longer and he'd gotten a big chip lead I could have been like "Hope the TV cameras don't come around now that you're way ahead, you could end up fifth!" But there seemed to be no reason to be an asshole except for asshole's sake. He seemed like an OK guy who looks overworked.)

Played some NL side games ridiculously loose-aggressive because I don't care about dropping money at 5/10 NL. I ran three large bluffs; two were successful, one was not, and the lesson of the day, again, is that if you set yourself a time limit for leaving the game you should stick to it.

I'm playing in the $2000 NL tomorrow (and by "tomorrow" I mean "in eight or nine hours"). I'm playing the $5000 NL shorthanded on Thursday whether or not I make the final table of the $2000. I'm also flying some friends in for the weekend.

Now that I realize I can definitely compete at these levels my next goal is to win a bracelet. I spent a bit of time facetiously bragging on 2+2 that I would dominate this year's World Series once I got there; now, I think I have a real shot to make another final table.

edit: I should mention that by "I don't care about dropping money" I don't mean "I wasted money"; I mean "I am free to play in the style I prefer because I don't have the fear of losing a bet if a move doesn't work out". Like, for example, if I run a $2000 three-street bluff (which I did).

report from the final table, $2500 shorthanded

2006-07-17T05:43:00.000-05:00

(you can follow the cardplayer updates starting here. it may make it easier to understand which hands i'm referencing.

I started with 102k, shortest at the 3k/6k/1k level. My initial plan was to sit back and play a little more conservatively while I felt out the table and assessed what I could and couldn't get away with and against whom.

The cards didn't cooperate. After Demetriou went out 6th I went on a rush and had no choice but to play.

The first move I made, Mike Guttman (the guy who knocked Demetriou out) is on the huge stack now and opens to 18k in the cutoff. I have 99 on button and like 100k total, if that. Easy push and I don't think twice about it. He folds.

The very next hand I get QQ in cutoff and open to 18k. Dan Hicks calls on button. Flop is T97. I go ahead and bet 27k figuring Hicks will jam any piece; he does and I call. He has A7 and my queens hold up to get me to 265k.

The very next hand I get 88 UTG. I open to 18k. Both blinds (Alex Bolotin and Guttman) call. The flop is Q98. It checks to me; I bet 30k, maybe more. They both fold and I show.

THEN I get AK in the BB. Hicks opens to 19k and it folds to me. I survey his stack and see he has about 100k left so I just jam. He folds.

Next hand I have 33 in SB, folds to me, I open to 21k, Hicks folds and I show.

Then A9dd on button. Folds and I open to 18k, again. Bill Chen calls in BB. Flop is QQ7 two hearts. Check / check (because given the way I've been playing it's easy for him to c/r me with air or a draw and I don't want to get pushed off the best hand).
Turn comes 5d, he bets 20k, I call because I have position and ace high might still be good. The river comes Ah which is a nice card to represent, not to mention it also gave me the best hand. He checks and I think about what I can get out of him. I bet 25k and he folds.

The next pot I win is a blind battle. Guttman limps and I check with K2o.
Flop is J63 rainbow, check/check.
Turn is 2h, he bets 7k and I call.
River is Kd. He checks, and I value bet 16k, a little big maybe but also a good size for an attempted steal. He folds.

I get AK in the small blind, raise to 23k, Hicks calls.
Then I fuck it up a little. The flop comes AQT, I check/raise Hicks all in after he bets 17k. This is a mistake; I was trying to get a few more chips out of him without really considering that he would have been much more willing to push over me than to call me. He might have pushed KQ, QJ, KT, or even JT there if I lead. He folds and I pick up the pot.

This all happens in a 3 round span or so. I go from 100k to 480k with only one showdown.

Next big pot I play, Guttman opens to 18k in CO, I call on button with 66, Hicks immediately shoves. I calculate the pot odds... 135k is bigger than I want to see, but I'm still getting decent enough odds that I think it's a call since I think he shoves lots of high card hands there. He has 99 this time and it holds.

I bluff at a JT98 board in a four way pot and get two calls and don't have the heart to bluff the 7 river. I should have. We chop the pot (Bill Chen had T8; Alex Bolotin had AJdd for a pair and flush draw; I had 54o).

Chen raises to 18k in the CO. I decide to call and look at a flop with K5dd. The flop is KT8, I check and he bets 20k. He only has 90k left or so so I stick it in. He immediately calls with K8. Shit.

I'm down again to 130k or so.

Then I make the mistake of opening 96hh while Hicks is extremely short stacked to my left. I do the pot odds and it's a clear call getting 2.3 to 1 or so but I shouldn't have put myself in that position with my stack size and the likelihood he would push over me. He has KTo and makes two pair by the river. I'm down to 95k.

Next hand I have TT UTG. I just open push; Guttman calls from BB with 88. Flop is T96 and I double up.

Levels go to 4k/8k/1k.

I'm opening a lot of pots in the meantime, relatively speaking, but mostly with reasonable holdings. Once I got to 400k or so I tried limping in Ax suited in the first two seats twice and got raised both times so I stopped doing that.

I open my second consecutive hand for 23k with red 22 UTG. Hicks pushes 49k more. I know I'm good here and the pot odds were easy anyway so I call. He turns over J8cc. I don't know why he pushes that there because I'm never folding and he's behind a lot of hands in my range. It doesn't matter; he flops a flush.

I keep chipping away to stay afloat... I did a lot of observing the table before I decided my action to sense if anyone was interested in their hand. I would occasionally raise with any two when I felt like everyone would fold.

I get AKss in the BB. Folds to Guttman and he makes it like 26k. I immediately shove. He calls with A3cc. The flop is Kx Qs Ts. It's a real beauty but the jack of diamonds hits the river and we chop (Blind Lemon Jefferson where are you).

I get 66 in CO and open push 130k or so since my stack doesn't leave me any other real options. Bill Chen comes over the top with AKhh. My hand holds up and I have 300k.

Chen was opening my blind frequently when I had decent hands and I had some difficulty playing them. Once I had 77 and decided to call and check/folded an ace high flop. Then I had AT and called and led a Q53 flop. He called and we checked through and he showed 66.
I stopped calling to play difficult hands out of position after that.

Then Bolotin, who has been short all day, moves in from CO for about 80k. I have TT in the SB and immediately call. He shows A7 and spikes an ace on the river. Frustration sets in.

Alex raises to 24k from the button. I decide I've had enough of the bullshit and shove 66 for 100k more or so. He has me slightly covered and folds KQ.
The next hand I have 88 and he raises to 24k again. Now I have him covered and I push. This time he calls with AQ, but my hand holds and I bust him and pull up to 320k or so.

Hicks goes out shortly after that.

Now we're playing three handed and I have enough chips to open up my game the way I want to.

Guttman has the chip lead but is clearly the weakest player at the table. I decide I'm going to aim for chunks of his stack.

One hand I have K7hh in the SB. Guttman opens the standard 23-24k from the button, I decide to make it 80k because I might have the best hand, and although calling and seeing a flop would be safer, this gives me a better chance to win the pot. He calls without too much thought but folds to my 100k bet on the Q42 two-diamond flop.

I'm playing nearly everything on the button, limping in sometimes, opening sometimes. I regret the raise when I make it 23k with 98dd and Chen makes it 75k. I call, but then the flop comes QT7 and he shoves. I comment something like "I was gonna do that" and he says "I can take it back and let you push". His shove is more than the pot so I fold.
I regret the limp when I limp 86o, and the blinds check. Guttman calls my stab at the pot with like 2PNK so I give up.

First big pot I played with Guttman: He raises to 24k in SB and I have 97cc in BB and call. Flop comes down 965 and he checks. I decide I'm ready to go to war with this hand and just have to figure out the best way to do it. I make a weak stab of 25k which is just begging to be check-raised. He obliges by making it 100k. I take about 5 seconds to move in for 320k more or so. He folds.

Most of the big hands from here on out were covered by cardplayer so I won't hit all the details but I will provide some thought process.

I did squeeze-reraise once preflop from BB with AQ. Chen made it 35k and Guttman called and I went to 150k.

I had AQ on the hand Guttman had 87s and called my river bluff. It wasn't a good bluff. But it did set me up to get paid on the K7 hand. I checked top pair because I both wanted to extract more value from a worse hand and not be put in a tough spot if I was check-raised.

The hand where I made the nut flush on the turn with K2 I nearly 3-bet the turn but I figured I was letting off too many worse hands too easily by doing that. As it stood I double through him if the board doesn't pair.

The last hand I played like a total donkey. I should have raised the flop with my open ender. I almost called the river but then I got the first-level thought "hmm, I have a straight, I should get some value from it." When he pushed at me I felt I was beat but I didn't see it. I looked at the board again, figured I was behind Q8, but chopping mostly, and he doesn't have Q8 because he wouldn't raise OOP with that, so maybe A8 or 88. So I called.
I totally missed the KQ as a possibility. I misread the board. I made a beginner's mistake and it cost me a chance at $200,000 and a World Series bracelet.

That kills me more than anything else.

results

2006-07-16T06:27:00.000-05:00

second place in the $2500 shorthanded
$238,280
not bad, but not first

will write more in detail about the whole thing later

quick update

2006-07-15T02:29:00.000-05:00

up and down day but i did make the final table! starts at 2 pm pacific tomorrow.

seating and chip counts:

Seat 1 - William Chen - $175,000

Seat 2 - Alex Bolotin - $280,000

Seat 3 - Harry Demetirou - $378,000

Seat 4 - Mike Guttman - $587,000

Seat 5 - Nath Pizzolatto - $102,000

Seat 6 - Dan Hicks - $321,000

ooh that's actually good for me. the biggest stacks are in front of me although Dan Hicks was a thorn in my side all day when he was on my left and had me covered.

the payouts:

1
$442,511

2
$238,280

3
$139,564

4
$107,226

5
$78,292

6
$58,719

i now have a 100% success rate on final tabling WSOP bracelet events which i'm pretty sure is the all time record.

more detail on day two later. now i need rest.

$2500 shorthanded day one trip report

2006-07-14T04:12:00.000-05:00

i started at table 53. i didn't know anyone, but apparently one of my tablemates is Steve Zoine, one of your B-list circuit pros.
i find him surprisingly loose and passive for a tournament player.

i'm so fried right now i barely remember hands. but i spent the early period figuring out how my table played and then pushing around the weak players.

ok, fun pot #1: open 74ss UTG (obviously) to 3x or whatever, i don't even remember what level this was. aggressive asian kid calls on the button. flop comes down like J85 or something ridiculous, i bet out 250, he makes it 525. he's been making a bunch of small aggressive moves so i decide to see what the turn brings and see if i can't win the pot. turn is a 4. i check and he bets 1100 leaving 2600 or so. i think about it for a minute, think about folding, then realize he could well be making a move, and if he ha a strong hand, i have outs (definitely 4, possibly 10). so after a minute of calculating and studying i push. he folds after about ten seconds.

fun pot #2 vs. steve zoine. right after i showed down some random trash in the first level i open up KK utg to 3x like it's no big. he calls. flop is like JTx two diamonds. i lead 250 and he calls. turn is a low brick, i check, he bets 250 or 350 or something and i make it 1000. he deliberates and calls. river is a 4d. i don't like it but i don't think he has it either and i want to block and/or get value so i fire 1k more. he deliberates and says some bullshit line about me outdrawing him and folds, saying he folded top set, and he's obviously lying because if you fold top set here you can't possibly be a winning tourney circuit player. i'm sure he had AJ/KJ or some nonsense.

get to 7000 by first break.

drop to 4000 early in the third level. first lame hand: open KQ to 275 (50/100), zoine calls from sb. flop is K high two clubs (i have Qc), he leads 300 i call. turn is a club, check/check. river is another club, he bets 1k, i think and call because a bluff is likely, he shows KcKx, and i have like the only hand that matches my bets that can pay him off, the lucky bastard.

i end up getting it back, at 100/200 i open KK to 500 and zoine calls in position, flop is QJ8 two hearts, i lead 800 he calls, turn is an 8, i just stick it in because i have the best hand and i want that pot. he folds.

make some moves here and there: blind battle i have j8 in BB, flop comes T9x, i bet 200, SB c/r to 500 and i push him in, he folds, says he folded a ten. man so many tournament players are pussies.

he busts, new guy comes in and another fun blind battle: he opens to 500, i have T5dd and call, and decide to put on some showmanship and stare him down without looking at the flop. he leads 600 or 625 or something, i glance over and see T54 two hearts and immediately fire 2000. he thinks about 30-45 seconds and folds.

i get to 2nd break with 14k. my table breaks. things get fun.

my new table has a couple of young guys on either side of me and a middle aged kinda aggro dude in the 5 seat (i'm in the 2).

i get up to 17k at 100/200/25 and this pot happens. i open JThh to 625 utg, milagro (middle aged aggro, and yeah taco milagro, whatever, i'm tired) makes it 1500 more, about the 3rd time i've seen him reraise preflop in like 20 minutes. we both have lots of chips and i decide to call. flop is J97, two clubs. i check, he bets 3200. i'm like, hmmm, i don't even have to bother putting him on a hand. if he has AK/AQ/TT he folds, if he has something better he might fold, if he calls i have 9 outs unless he has a set (doubtful, probably not reraising the 99). he goes in the tank, says "i can beat a jack". i shrug. says i have clubs. no response from he. he folds claiming QQ. yeah, you're going to read about lots of hands like this. i have 24k now.

he says to me "it's fine, i'll get your chips later." i mumble under my breath to the guy next to me "yeah but when you do they'll just be yours i'm giving back."

so nature deals him some delicious irony.

he opens to 700 in CO and i call in my BB with QTo. flop is AT7 two diamonds, check/check and i know he doesn't have an ace. so turn is 3d, i check, he bets 1500, i call because i'm definitely ahead. while i'm debating how to play the river, depending on what comes, it hits another ten. i check, he pushes, i call immediately, he mucks. i guess by 'later' he meant "some unspecified future date".

this bumps me to 35k or so. tony le takes his place in the 5 and not long after kevin o'donnell moves into the 4 seat.

i take a huge pot. 150/300/25, i open 76ss in CO to 875 or so, everyone behind me calls (young kid, tony le, and BB in 6 seat-- i don't know where kevin was during this, maybe i was utg+1 and he folded). i have a good feeling about the flop when i see the 4s in the door, and then the dealer spreads the 5, and the 8. checks to me and i bet 1100. button raises 3500 more. blinds fold, i think for 30 seconds, mentally count down his remaining chips, decide i don't want to let him get away from the hand later, and push him in for his last 8-9k or whatever. he says "I have to call" and turns over 54hh. i say "I have the nuts". it holds and i have 50k.

the VERY NEXT HAND i get AA and open to 900. kevin in 4 seat calls on button, or co, or something. behind me. flop is Q95 two spades, i lead 1500, he makes it 3000, and he has a ton of chips so i don't want to get a ton of money in because i'm definitely behind if i do. so i call and plan to lead out any non K/Q/8/spade turn. turn is an 8 and so i check call 3000. river is a king and i check and he bets 10k. there is absolutely no way i am still ahead so it takes me about 10 seconds to muck faceup.

chipped my way back in my usual fashion, which is raising lots of pots, stealing blinds and antes, c-betting a lot if i get called, etc.

karlo lopez moves into the 3 seat. he's a great guy; he and i had a lot of fun.

i can barely remember what happens from here. one pot i fucked up badly where apparently karlo had KK and i had AA and i somehow did not stack him. i am opening lots of pots and lots of weird hands. kevin o'donnell seems to want to play sherriff.

this leads to him frequently reraising me. so i get creative with him.

i open 43hh on the button, he reraises in BB, 2500 more, so we were probably at 300/600/75. i call with plans to reevaluate and to take it away if i sense weakness. flop is T95 or something and he bets 3500. i think a few moments and raise 5500 more. he mucks 88 faceup.

in another pot i open KT and he calls from blind. i c-bet a Q high flop 3500 and he calls. turn is a jack and he leads 4200. i shove and he folds.

he's doing a lot of minreraising me. i open to 2300, he goes to 4600. and we both have lots of chips and i have hands like 87s so it's not unreasonable to take a flop but i keep missing and losing the initiative so i can't pick it up when i don't hit.

another fun one i have with him: open 64cc to like 1700 (still 300/600/75). he calls in position. flop is like Q87 one club and i c-bet 2200 with my gutshot. he calls. turn is 5c. the one perfect card. i check though and he checks. river is a ten. i bet 5000, he thinks, comments "you have jack nine again?" (i limp called a raise from karlo lopez preflop earlier with J9hh and flopped top two). he calls with two pair, ship it.

ok so fun read hand: 400/800/100, shortish stack in BB. i have A3hh in cutoff and open to 2000 so that if i feel he's strong i can fold to a push. he stops, thinks, actually picks up his cards like he plans to muck them, then seems to say "fuck it" and puts in his chips. it's like 6k more. i'm getting not quite 2:1 but he looked very weak to me the whole way, i go through it and decide i likely have the best hand, and call. he has J9ss, i flop an ace and turn another.

i'm having a great time, karlo and i become buddies, i'm telling people my story so i can pitch it as the feel good hit of the summer if i win the main event.

i finally bust o'donnell at 600/1200/200 when i open A5 to 3300 and he makes it 3300 more. i decide "fuck this, i have ace high, this time i'm taking a stand since he has enough chips to fold and i have some good outs." i push him in. he calls immediately with kings. i flop an ace. i knew i would. The Man was right.¹
this is the only time all day i got my money in behind (at least that i got called). i haven't been to too many showdowns, i haven't been all in for all of my chips once.)

aggressive young scandinavian is raising my blinds a bunch. i'm letting him but finally shove back KQ at him and he folds, which sets up our next series of events.

i'm at my peak now, 125k or so.

very next hand he shoves like 12500. i have 55 in SB and seriously think about this since it's 1/10 of my stack. i want to call, i feel like i might have the best hand, but something about it feels off to me and i fold.
very next hand, possibly subconsciously wanting to make up for it, ep opens to 4k and i call on button with KTss. blind moves in 4800 more, EP just calls, and now i call getting huge odds and knowing i'm calling if i hit any piece.
flop is Q T x, he pushes 9500, i call. he shows AK. shorty shows AQ. i lose the side pot to an ace on the river.
postflop was fine, preflop sucked. the only chink in my armor all day.

i finished with 101,800. i'm 3 of 38 going to tomorrow and i think karlo lopez (48,700) is second at the table by a decent margin. the only other person whose name i know is aleksander strandli at 20.8k.
i'll be in the 2 seat at table 119. karlo is the 3 seat, aleks is the 1 seat. come wish me well if you're here. if you're not, just follow me on cardplayer.com. and if you know who the 4 5 and 6 people are, tell me that, too.

1 - "That's what it's all about, isn't it? Making the wrong move at the right time."

recap of today: or, I suck at poker, and by extension, life

2006-07-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

played 5/10 at the Rio all day. I'm keeping this brief because I don't want to relive it and because it's already really late.
I played well in some spots. I played like dog shit in others. I made several really bad calls when I knew better and cost myself several thousand dollars. I also donked around and tilted off a bit more than that. I'm probably down $2500 on the day.

What really pisses me off is that the hands where I was beaten in a big pot, I analyzed the situation correctly, constructed the hand properly, figured out I was probably beaten, and CALLED ANYWAY.

That fucking sucked. I blew off money with lots of second best hands... top two vs. flush, trips vs. full house, straight vs. boat or some such (that one I folded).

The one hand I DID fold I had QT on a QT3 all-club board. UTG bet 50, I made it 125 (yeah not great I know), loose button cold called, SB moved in for about 650 total. Folded, I folded, button folded. SB shows Q3.

I told myself I would leave at 2 AM so I could rest for the 2500 shorthanded. Instead I played until 4:30 and probably lost at least $3000 in that time.

I have no discipline and no focus. I'm pretty depressed and down about my game right now. So naturally I'm in a $2500 tournament which I will probably sleep about four hours beforehand.

Oh, and for some reason Harrah's has me in their system as "Nathanial Pizzolatto". I've tried to fix this repeatedly but had limited success. I'm going to be pissed off if I do well and the wires report that shit-shingle of a fake name as the real thing.

When I took a break to go get a hamburger, the burgers weren't ready. When I took a break to go to the bathroom, it was closed for cleaning. Even the kitchens and restrooms are coolering me today.

When you lose this game is the loneliest in the world.

brief recap of the day

2006-07-12T07:16:00.000-05:00

I spent most of the day at the hotel, overindulging myself in laziness and room service. I woke up and ordered breakfast and a mimosa alongside it and enjoyed it so much I got an entire bottle of champagne and a quart of orange juice.

I played some poker online, with horrible results.
Around 2:30 AM I finally left the hotel to check out the Bellagio. It was a longer walk than it looked, but Las Vegas is a surprisingly cool city at night not to mention I'm sure my unfamiliarity with the paths through the city had something to do with it.

I made $42 playing mostly 5/10 NL and some 2/5. I still play too loose preflop.

The Bellagio is a gorgeous place both inside and out.

I'm getting some real rest tonight and then heading over early to the Rio, to register for Thursday's 2500 shorthanded event, and to tear up those cash games. Maybe to just wander around the city some more, too.

Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand

2006-07-11T08:08:00.000-05:00

(Awesome; my browser crashed in the middle of writing this. Let's try again.)

Just put in a 12-hour session of cash games at the Rio. Started at the 2/5 NL to get my feet wet and wait for a spot in the 5/10 NL. The 2/5 is 200-min, 500-max; the 5/10 is 500-min uncapped. I finished the session up about $700 but made a series of severe weak/loose errors that ended up costing me quite a bit of money. I was on a noticably poor run of cards but I also realized that my ridiculous preflop play cost me a lot of money. I will tighten this up for future sessions because I think $100 an hour is definitely sustainable at this game and $200 an hour is possible with the right run of cards and the right table.
I also discovered I play better when I subsist solely on Red Bull and worse immediately after I've eaten. (But man, they make good cheeseburgers in the poker kitchen.)

By the way, based on the few orbits I was there, most people I know could beat the 2/5 game. (I didn't say most poker players I know; I said most people.)

Since the WSOP events and cash games were all in the same place I took some moments to spot celebrity players. Here's a brief synopsis of who I saw:

-Allen Cunningham, at the TV final table for the 1k rebuy event which he won (and which I only watched for like 10 minutes because I was there to play, dammit)
-Barry Greenstein, as I was walking by the cashier's cage on the phone with Kurt, wherein I commented "Barry Greenstein is like ten feet away from me, right now"
-Minh Ly, several times out by the poker kitchen smoking cigarettes; I have a really blurry photo of him talking to
-David Singer, but in the photo they're barely distinguishable as people, let alone famous ones
-Greg 'FBT' Mueller, and I still don't know what "FBT" stands for. But my brother-in-law is a hockey player, and based on my experiences with that, Greg looks exactly like a hockey player
-David Pham, also out back by the poker kitchen / smoking area
-Hung La, talking to someone at a table where no game was being spread
-T.J. Cloutier, just once, when he passed by while I was at the 2/5 NL table
-Andrew Black, playing the $50 blind / $25 ante no-limit hold 'em with
-Antonio Esfandiari, who hadn't shaved in like 3 days, and seated between them was
-Shannon Elizabeth, who is amazingly beautiful in person, even if she is too skinny
-Phil Laak, wandering around at like 4 AM with some buddy of his I didn't recognize
-Paul Darden and
-Eskimo Clark (both of these two on several occasions but at least once at the big NL game)
-Someone wearing an Absolute Poker "Mizrachi" jersey, although I don't know if it was Michael, Robert, the other one (Eric?), or just some goombah-looking dude who was a fan of theirs
-Noli Francisco, I think at a Badugi / Triple Draw mixed game
-Men Nguyen, way across the room, didn't even bother to find out what he was playing, and it might not even have been him
-Hon Le, whose name it took me forever to remember since all I could remember of him was "That one guy at that one WPT final table in season one"
-Tuan Le and Nam Le-- at least I think it was them, because I only saw them walking around, and not for long. They're shorter than I expected.

That's all I can think of right now.

I have a camera on my new phone, so I'm going to try to upload pictures if I can ever figure out how. In the meantime, the sun is coming up, which is a good sign it's time for a poker player to go to bed.

More to report on later, but I'm having an amazing time so far, and I could see myself doing this for quite a while. Vegas is a hell of a spectacle and so many of the buildings are really beautifully designed. The games are profitable and great fun, too.
"Eternity is in love with the productions of time," indeed.

I do wish I knew more people, though. Ah well, Vegas has poker opponents and hookers: do I even need people for anything else?

skipped the 1k event

2006-07-10T16:42:00.000-05:00

Everything I heard was that it was sold out already anyway and the alternate lists were full so I decided to sleep in.
Gonna grab some breakfast now before I head over to familiarize myself with the Rio, watch a 2+2er (Alex Jacob at the final table of the $1k rebuy), play some cash games, etc.

I have arrived in Vegas

2006-07-10T04:15:00.000-05:00

This has been an interesting day, to say the least.

I managed to miss not one, but two flights. I didn't take off until 10:55 PM.
I arrived at the Monte Carlo to find that Pokerstars didn't actually reserve my hotel for the extra days I'd requested. They put me up in a room anyway, but I have no idea what my future arrangements will be.

And there's a 1k tournament I want to play tomorrow that I have no idea if I'll be rested enough to really justify it.

Ah, what to do, what to do...

interesting hand from Turning Stone $300 tournament

2006-07-08T09:19:00.000-05:00

I was just thinking about this hand so I thought I'd share it and my thought processes.

Blinds are 100-200. I've just doubled up twice in a row (both with 55, once AIPF against AJs, and the second time I flopped a set and busted top pair). I have something like 6-7k to start the hand, I think (my memory is fuzzy).

MP limps in and I have QQ in the cutoff. I raise to 700 and he calls fairly quickly. He's got about 3500 behind after the call, I think.

The flop comes down Ks Tx and a low spade. He checks, and I check. I talked this hand over with someone and they said they continuation-bet 100% of the time here. I don't, and I'll tell you why.
It's not so much that I'm worried about the overcard per se (I don't always check my big pairs when an overcard flops). It's that on this particular board, it would be easy for an aggressive player to check-raise me off the best hand. QJ and Ax of spades are possible hands for a limp/call and if I am check-raised I have a difficult decision to deal with-- am I ahead of a draw or behind top pair or better?
If the flop comes drier-- K73 or such-- I'm more inclined to bet because I have more certainty that I'm probably beaten if I meet a check raise.
So on this board I want to maintain control of the hand. If he did have a drawing hand and the turn bricks, he's got much less equity if he makes a move at the pot. I would rather exercise some caution and pot control on a hand where I may have the best hand but I may be raised off it, as opposed to a hand where I know I'm beaten if I meet resistance.
The turn is a low card and MP fires out 800. I call since I feel like I still have the best hand, particularly since I've under-represented it. I think a raise here both pot-commits me and drives out everything that doesn't beat me.
The river is the ten of spades. MP quickly goes all in. (This is the part where my memory is fuzzy; I remember his all in being for about 2800 chips but also an overbet of the pot, which doesn't jive since the pot at this point is 3300, and that part of the action I DID get right.)
Something strikes me as suspect about the bet either way, so I replay the hand in my head, to figure out what would beat me that would play like this.
A king would never shove the river; the worst card in the deck came out (making two pair into trips and completing the flush draw).
I've played the hand rather passively, so he can't think I'm strong enough to call a push if he has trip tens or a flush. He would value-bet me (and a push CAN be a value bet on the river, but I really didn't think it was here, given the way the hand played out).
So I decide a bluff is very likely. I study him for a few moments after thinking it through and notice he's leaned over the table holding his cards like he's getting ready to victory-rip them. That's a tell-- acting strong when you're weak-- and it jived with my logical analysis of the hand. So it took me about 45 seconds to piece it all together, and I finally called.
He said "nice call" and tabled A9o.
I busted him and ran my stack to about 11,000 chips. Our table broke soon afterward, and at my new table with the ante rounds starting I was able to attack frequently and maintain my big stack.
I rode it all the way near the end, when I got too out of line and made some questionable / bad plays to leave me short stacked. I finally had to resort to some desperation pushing and eventually lost when my J9s ran into AK. I finished 15th.

I just like this hand as an example of logical tells matching with physical tells, and how playing a hand passively can occasionally net you more chips than it would have otherwise.

some insight into my tournament strategy

2006-07-04T19:37:00.000-05:00

I just wrote up a hand from the 109 win last night that I used as an example for my big-stack ultra-aggressive style of play.

The title of the post is "The Freakonomics of Poker: A Preview (74s UTG)"

Here's the link. Check it out.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=6422819&an=0&page=0#Post6422819

The second poker tournament I've won at Lamar's condo

2006-07-04T04:38:00.000-05:00

Just took down the midnight (EDT) Stars $109 for ~$7700. I got the big stack and played in my usual aggro-freak fashion after I did.

Another good tuneup for the series. It seems as though I spent a couple months improving my poker game, and now I'm starting to get back the elements of my tournament game that made me so successful early on.

I may post a HH of this, I may not. For now, I'm going to relax, celebrate a little, and get back to working on that 55k summary.

Sundays never quite work out for me

2006-07-03T02:38:00.000-05:00

So I took the Sunday to try to play the big Sunday tournaments online. I was particularly intrigued by the Stars $1 million being changed into a $215 with one rebuy and add-on. This gave me an advantage over all the people who got in by satellite and wouldn' t be willing to add on.

However, I didn't play any of them well. I think I overloaded myself on tournaments and just didn't think my plays through. As a result I didn't cash in anything. It probably didn't help that it's been a hedonistic weekend and all the alcohol and cigarettes were catching up.

I tried to make some back at the cash games tonight, but took some hits right before I called it a session and only ended up about $800 or so, mostly 4-tabling 3/6 and 5/10 6-max NL on Party.

I'm going to take a break again. My online poker will be limited before I leave for Vegas as I do my best to see friends and family before I go.

One thing I will have ready is a report from the 55k 3rd place finish. There were a lot of hands I wanted to single out and comment on as regards my playing style, and I've already begun combing through the hand history and writing them up.
The one thing I do worry about is that too many people will try to take some of the ideas I use and run with them the wrong way. I already see evidence of this on the 2+2 boards; people trying to "play like Nath" by being ridiculously aggressive and getting way too aggressive with marginal hands and playing too many hands, when they would be better served working on their fundamentals. You're better off sticking to a simpler approach until you develop enough as a player that you feel comfortable making difficult decisions.
OK. More later with those hands. Time to watch TV poker with the TiVo.

tonight's stars 55k

2006-06-30T04:19:00.000-05:00

I finished third for ~$5400.
I'm not happy.

I was dominating this tournament, completely in my zone and crushing everybody. I was playing more hands than anybody and playing them well-- my VPIP/PFR was running about 46/31 through the entire tournament
Then threehanded I started slipping a little. I gave some chips back. Then the guy on my right, a scared overbetter, opened to 420k at 30k/60k in the small blind, and I had AK and shoved him in for the last 1.5 million or so, and he called with KQ and made a straight.
I never recovered from that. That knocked me from the heights to an average stack and eventually I was crippled losing 75dd to 33 after getting it in on an AQ53 two-diamond board.

It sucks, not just missing the 9k extra, but blowing a tournament I'd been having an absolutely killer run through. They don't come often. That's why I hate large field tournaments.

4th in Paradise "Treasure Chest" tonight

2006-06-25T23:48:00.000-05:00

$550 with 93 runners. 4th paid $4300.
It was a bitter cash. I was in command of the final table the whole way then fourhanded lost most of my chips with two tens to ace-eight suited preflop. Shortstacked I pushed in with ace-jack and lost to two queens.

Considering the difference between 4th and 1st was some $9500 this made it a disgusting and painful 4th place. I feel like throwing the prize money back in the face of the poker gods.

(but I won't.)

my poker career

2006-06-25T06:37:00.000-05:00

People have asked me, especially with the heater I've been on in June, what my career trajectory has been and how it started. So I decided to answer hopefully once and for all with this story.

I've been playing cards all my life-- literally as long as I can remember. I started playing bridge as a small child, and got together for weekly games with my mother and grandparents. We also played rummy and several variants, but always plenty of card games. Poker wasn't a frequent sight then, but I was made well familiar with cards from my youth.

I started playing Hold 'Em in college. Never seriously, just for fun, always small-stakes games with low buy-ins. Just for kicks and never really an exhibition of skill. I got better, but I was for all intents and purposes still a novice. I occasionally played play money games on Paradise Poker at this time, around 2001, but again still really didn't know anything about the game.

Around late 2003 three of my friends-- Alex, Jeff, Roy, and I started a regular home game. $20 buy-in, .10/.20 blinds, unlimited rebuys (cash game after all). This played much deeper than the games I was used to and was my first real exposure to poker with any sort of deep stacks.
I started beating the game fairly regularly in 2004 but still didn't know how to play well. Still, we had a rotating cast of players, more of my friends got into the game, but the core of us four were the regulars and the long-term winners.

In October 2004 my roommate at the time, Lamar (who remains a close friend) had gotten into the game and decided to deposit a little money online. We played small stakes and small tournaments at Pokerroom with mixed success. He lost some money and then resolved to put up another $25 to give it a shot, or give up entirely if it failed.
Then we caught our heater.
We both like to gamble. And we started winning right away this time. We did the typical gambler "taking a shot" thing, moving up in stakes as we made money. Before very long we were sitting in at the 2/5 no-limit game, the highest stakes Pokerroom offered at the time.
We went on a two-week heater where we played four nights each week and left each night up two full buyins.
We were ecstatic-- it seemed like such easy money!
We took some of the $8k we had and bought some things, and at this time I decided I really wanted to study the game to make sure this was sustainable. So I bought some books-- Super/System and Harrington on Hold 'Em, Vol. 1 were the best-- and began to study as well as play.
Unfortunately our luck ran out and we lost most of it back. We just weren't as good as we thought we were.

In December I got a real job at a law firm, but I still spent lots of time playing my home game-- and in addition, I began reading the 2+2 forums on a regular basis. In April I deposited $300 on UltimateBet and decided to take a shot at sit-and-gos and MTTs.
I had a couple cashes early on in their afternoon $22 6-max tournament, and was decently successful with sit-and-gos, but I kept taking shots at multis without really knowing how to play them.

Through the summer I continued to work and play, but our home game was breaking (Jeff moved to Germany; Alex to Austin) and so even though I was still beating it it was a much less regular occurrence. In addition I ended up going through nearly all of the money I had online and I wasn't making enough to save to play more. For all intents and purposes, I was BUSTO again.

In late July I entered a $5 MTT on UB using player points I accumulated. I made it to the final two tables; good enough for $25. This is how my current bankroll started.
I used this to grind out some $5 SnGs to build a roll for a while, playing the occasional multi. My roll was probably around $100-200 in early August, when I had my first breakthrough: I won a $10 MTT on UB and cashed for over $900. The deck completely hit me over the head, and I knew this, but at the same time it confirmed that I could win (which was a hump I was having trouble overcoming).
So I started playing $10 and $20 SnGs to maintain the roll with the occasional MTT. The very next week I won that $22 6-max for another $850. My roll was on its way.

I played primarily $22 and $33 SnGs and occasional multis for a while, slowly increasing the roll until the big scores hit. I had two big weekends, one where I won the $22 6-max again for $800, a small $33 for $700, and cashed in the weekly $215 for another $500. $2k was a huge boost to my roll at the time.
The second big weekend happened while I was in Austin, dodging Hurricane Rita and seeing Austin City Limits Festival. I stayed with Alex for a couple days and we played some tournaments. I won one for $800 and finished third in a $109 for $1200. Another $2k weekend and we were on the go!

With this money I decided to expand to other sites. My next destination was Pokerstars because I'd heard so many good things about their tournaments. It took me a while to get used to the software, and I was still playing primarily SnGs and small buyins.
Then the big breakthrough came. I entered the $11 rebuy 45k on October 12 and played well and caught an insane rush near the end. I was massive chip leader at the final table, but I goofed up a bit heads up. Still, we made a deal, and I took $9700.
I felt like this was for real now.
Later that fall I won UB's nightly $33 10k for about $3k and a $44 for another $2700 or so. I was running insanely hot this fall; I wasn't playing as often as I do now, but when I did the results were remarkable. I went back over my records and from my first win in August through the end of November my ROI was something like 480%.

Then came the biggest turning point in my life.

I've made reference to "the accident" on the 2+2 forums but many may still not know what it is. I fell off a three story house (my house) and landed on the pavement. I was in the hospital for twelve days, I shattered my entire face and broke my arm, and required two surgeries to put my face back together. It's still not perfect but all in all I'm lucky to be alive.
When I got out of the hospital I went and stayed with my dad while I recovered. Since I couldn't move very much or do a whole lot, I spent a lot of time with my computer, and online poker by extension. Two days after I was released I finished 7th in a UB $109 for $700, even though it took most of my energy to stand and walk to the kitchen for a drink (which I had to feed myself through a tube on the end of a syringe, because my mouth was so swollen and wired shut).
But I still had it. I read 2+2 constantly and did my best to study and play and improve my game.
On December 20, eight days after I was released from the hospital, I won the Stars $11r 25k for another $8000. I felt like I was on my way for sure now.

As I recovered I spent more and more time as a presence both at the tables and on the forums online. I started taking shots at bigger tournaments on occasion, but with mixed results. I didn't have another significant win until February 1 when I won the $11r 25k again, this time for $9800.
A week later I won a $109 on Stars for $4500.
I felt great about my game at this point. I was also occasionally visiting Isle of Capri casino in Lake Charles and beating their $5/$5 300NL cash game regularly, so I felt like I could do both well.

Then the downswing: I moved back to Houston for an extended period in February. I probably wasn't quite ready but I thought I'd try anyway. I had some small wins during this time, but nothing substantial. Then in March I hit a serious downswing-- the combination of taking a shot at $2/$4 NL cash on Stars (one of the toughest places for cash games) combined with no big tournament results left me down about $5000 for the month. I was again questioning my game.

At the beginning of April, though, I took second in a Stars $109 for $5300 or so. I went back to my dad's for a couple weeks in April to rest and recuperate from the Houston lifestyle, and while I was there I hit it big:
-first place in the nightly Bodog 25k for $6250
-sixth place in the PartyPoker Super Thursday, another $6000
-second place (after a deal) in the Stars 33r for $6300 or so
-fifth place in UltimateBet's Sunday $215 for $7100

Then at the beginning of May I won my seat into the WSOP through a $160 double shootout on Stars. I can't even put into words what a thrill it was; I won a grueling 45-minute heads-up match against a tough, highly regarded opponent, and now I was going to the Big One, one year after being essentially broke.
I felt like my game was back. And not a moment to soon; I was heading to Turning Stone in May to play a series of tournaments and meet some 2+2ers.

My laptop broke shortly before the trip so I was unable to take it (or play online most of May). At Turning Stone, I only cashed in one of the tournaments I played, but once I got comfortable with the surroundings, I started beating the cash games and ended the trip ahead several thousand dollars.
Again, I felt like I could play cash games well and I might take a shot at them once more.
I fixed my laptop by the end of the month, but I went through a period where I was not only losing consistently, I was playing badly. I was extending one of my philosophies too far: I was taking "You need to be aggressive" and "You need to gamble to win tournaments" to "You should be shoving your chips in any time you have any piece of the board, without considering what your opponent has". I was losing again and struggling to figure out why.
So I decided to try cash games again. I started playing 2/4 NL on Bodog because a couple of people I met at Turning Stone told me the games were really good there. Within a weekend of playing there I moved up to 5/10 and was beating it regularly for a short while. I hit a short downswing, but was still up 5-6k, before I started thinking about tournaments again.

I had been posting on 2+2 regularly and was approaching my 5000th post. I turned it into an essay on my tournament philosophy and the flaws my game currently had and what I would be doing to fix them.
It was pretty well received, and more importantly, writing out my mistakes made me realize I was making them, and that I was being aggressive in the wrong spots, looking for the wrong pieces of information while ignoring the important ones. I felt like it helped clear my head, but again, there was no way to be sure.

Until the Big Day.

June 8 I decided to devote to tournament poker. I entered the Party $33 rebuy 35k guaranteed that afternoon. I love Party rebuys because of the "rebuy trick" (basically, any time you put all your chips in, you can rebuy, whether or not you lose the hand). I used this to amass a huge stack early on, which benefits my style the most.
I spent several hundred on the tournament, easily, but finished second for $7200.

I took a short break and decided to play the big nightly tournaments - the Stars $150 and the Party Super Thursday (also $150).
I finished 11th in the Stars $150-- disappointing because I felt I played well but got a couple tough breaks at the end I couldn't overcome.
I was playing well in the Super also, but I hit a brutal cooler when I made a move with A7 from the button and lost to the small blind's two queens. I was down to 20k chips at 4k/8k blinds; I decided rather than panic or give up, I would be patient.
I got moved to another table, picked up aces shortly after, and called an all in from another player. I won that hand, moved in again and took another round of blinds, and then found A2 in the big blind when the same player moved in from the button. I figured I was short enough that I needed to gamble and he could have almost literally anything, so I called. My A2o beat his 97s.
From that point I relentlessly attacked blinds until I was in shape to play real poker again.
I made it to the final table, and doubled up when one enormous stack was moving in nearly every hand to put pressure on everyone who was waiting for the short stacks to bust out. I called him with queens and beat his K2o, and suddenly I was second and in great shape.
When it got to fourhanded we decided to cut a deal. A little negotiating later and I ended up with 20k for my second-place stack.
All told, it was the biggest payday of my life, by about three times as much as I had ever previously seen. More importantly, I was playing well again-- running well of course, but also playing well enough to take advantage of those breaks.
Now I knew I could win at the higher levels.

The next Friday I was laid up in bed ill and decided to play poker. I entered the Stars afternoon $109 rebuy-- typically regarded as one of the tougher fields online-- and played a strong game, got lucky when I had to, and came away with a 10.5k win. So the Super wasn't a fluke.

The next week-- two days ago, Friday-- I was at it again and I played the Stars $150, among others. I did nothing in the rest, but after a wild ride which included me dropping the chip lead at the final two tables, fighting to get it back, then surviving a wild ride and several lucky breaks as a short stack, I got heads up and eventually won for 14.5k more.

Wow. It had always seemed like every time I would move up I would downswing and struggle for a while, but I would eventually succeed, and when I did it was bigger than ever. This month has been the ultimate example of that.

Nowadays I'm playing primarily $100 and up buyin tournaments online, and $3/$6 6-max and $5/$10 full ring no-limit cash games. I mix them up; I find I can't play the two well simultaneously because the mindsets are different (i.e. I do more dumb things in cash games that work in tournaments but cost a lot more money when you're wrong about them in cash games).

I'm leaving for Las Vegas for the World Series on July 9. I plan to play 10 or 11 preliminary events before the Main Event as well as some live cash games. I'm hoping recent results have been a good sign; if I continue to play as well as I can, and I get the cards to fall right, I think I can make some real noise.

Not bad considering where I came from. It's been an amazing ride.

My big night at Turning Stone 5-5; or, all the money I made from people not named Roman

2006-06-24T04:44:00.000-05:00

I love playing live No Limit. LOVE it. Online is easier to access for me, but live is so much fun and so engaging that I would do it over online any day if I had a consistent access to a good game.

I play a pretty loose cash game; I try to see lots of flops, especially with position and speculative hands, hands people can't put me on. I especially do this at the beginning of a capped game because I'm trying to double and get deep enough so that I can use my skill advantage on later streets as well as make real money when my hands hit.
This results in a swingy return; on an average night I can expect a small profit, but on a big night when I'm running well I can make a ton. This was one of those nights.

The game is 5-5 NLH with a 500 max buyin. I of course buyin for the maximum and routinely top off after I call and miss a flop.
First big hand: I didn't top before this so I have about 475. Two or three limpers to me and I'm in the cutoff and limp with 5c3c. Button folds, small blind checks, and big blind makes it 15. The limpers call, and this is beautiful: I still have position and now the pot is building for when I hit my hand. I call.
The small blind then reraises to 60. Uh-oh.
I think he has a big hand-- aces or kings-- but he made the fatal mistake of not raising enough to drive people out. The big blind calls, one limper folds, the other calls, and now I'm looking at putting in 45 more into a pot of 210, which is easily justifiable especially since I have a little over 400 behind and I know I'm getting the implied odds if I hit.
I call.
The flop is 6c 5h 2c.
Small blind goes all-in, others fold. I know what he has and I call instantly because I am a favorite over aces (17 outs if he doesn't have the ace of clubs; 16 if he does). He turns over aces with no Ac. I hit another 5 on the turn. He's surprisingly cordial about it; he's like "Well played, I would have done the same thing in your spot."

The next guy wasn't.
Ever meet a player who thinks he's technically perfect but really just plays weakly and allows you to hit hands? The guy who insists there's a Right Way and a Wrong Way to play, and if you play the Wrong Way you're an idiot fish? One of these guys sat on my left with 500.
Several limpers come in, and I check my small blind with 7h3h. The Technician raises to 15. This is going to drive nobody out at 5-5 (I would have made it 40 in his spot with anything I wanted to raise). Everyone calls, and what the hell, so do I.
Flop is AQ5 two hearts.
I check and he bets 15 again. Everyone folds, and even though my flush draw is trashy, I'm sure HE doesn't have one, and I'm getting something like 6:1 immediate odds to call, so I do.
Turn is another 5. Check, he bets 25.
Again, I'm getting better than 4:1 and I might even get paid off more if I hit. I call.
River is another heart. I fire 100 into him. He looks really frustrated, thinks about it, sighs, and finally puts in his money and turns over AQ. I show my flush and scoop in the pot. He is not happy, and I can tell. He grumbles a little, and he might be tilting or looking to get me back.
Not long afterward, I'm in the cutoff with 53o. Normally I toss it, but I have a lot of money in front of me and good position on 3 or 4 limpers, so I call to see how it develops. He calls behind and the blinds check.

The flop is Ks6s4x. I have one spade but it's not really relevant. Everyone checks to me and I bet 15, partially to see if anyone else is interested in the pot, and partially to get more money in if I do hit. He raises to 45. Everyone folds. I'm still getting a decent price, and I know he's looking to take something from me, so I call, thinking I definitely have good implied odds against this guy.
Turn is an ace. I check, he bets 40. I'm getting close to 4:1, and this guy will pay me. I call.
River is a 7 and I fire 100. He just flies off the handle and shoves his chips in-- about 200 more. I call immediately and table the straight. He shows A3o and gets up, telling me I'm a terrible player and I make the worst calls he's ever seen.
My initial reaction is verbal defense, which I wish I hadn't done. I wanted to think of something to say to get him to stick around. The best I ended up coming up with when I saw him later was "If I'm so bad, come back around, and you'll probably get it back." I talked it over with one of my friends the other day and he said something like "Yeah, I like to gamble, sorry I got lucky," would have been better, and I agree.
I don't think it would have mattered, though. Guy was a pill anyway.

Last hand isn't as interesting, but it was still a massive pot. UTG with two queens I open to 20. Guy in L/MP (two or three off the button) makes it 50 with about 525 behind. Everyone passes, and I can't fold my queens yet, so I call.
Flop is Q82. I lead 50 (and I probably should have led more). He makes it 150, and I think for a few seconds and call, hoping he figures me for AQ (and FWIW I might well dump AQ preflop in this spot-- reverse implied odds and all.
Turn is a 7. I check, he bets 250, and I checkraise all in. The trap is set, and he knows, but it's too late. He groans and says "I think you have me, but I have to call," and puts in his last 375, turning over two kings. River bricks and I scoop the pot in.

I ended up leaving the table with about $2200. All in all it was a hell of a night and a great example of why I play my loose-aggressive style: People often don't know what I have, and when I hit big hands, people pay them off because they're usually well-concealed and I don't try to slowplay them.

Out for now. More later, perhaps on Turning Stone, perhaps on some online hands.

How my big June is breaking down

2006-06-24T02:48:00.000-05:00

I've broken through to another level in tournaments this month. I've finally started winning at the higher levels I've been shooting at. Here's how I've done this month-- what I've won and how it's broken down:

June 8: The Big Day
I spent most of the day playing poker this day and had some big scores at Party. I finished second place in their afternoon $33 rebuy $35k for ~$7200. Later that night I played the nightly Super on Party ($150+12) and made a deal when it got fourhanded, taking $20k. (First place was $31k and second was $17k or so; in the deal the chip leader got $23k and I got the second-most money.)
That night I also finished 11th in the Stars $150 for $800. That was disappointing; 3 big final tables in one day would have been sexy.
Still though it turned out to be a ~28k day. That's three times as much as I'd made in any day previous.

June 16: Laid up at home, so I won the Stars $109r
I woke up on almost no sleep feeling really ill that Friday, either from the big meal I'd had the night before or from a virus I caught from visiting my folks in Lake Charles. Laid up, feeling terrible, I decided to do the one thing I can do when I'm bedridden: play online poker. I entered a few tournaments, but I only made noise in one: the afternoon $100+9 rebuy on Stars, where I finished 1st for about 10.5k. It was my second-biggest cash to date

June 23: Forgot the Special, but this was a nice consolation prize
So I had laid out all the tournaments I was going to play tonight and lined up to register for everything. Unfortunately, I had crashed and burned in everything except the Stars $150 (some people call it the Stuper; I'm moving to have it called the Royale with Cheese, or at least the Royale for short). I meant to enter the $215 Party Friday Special at 9, but forgot to register. I opened the tournament lobby a full 45 minutes in advance and simply assumed I had registered. Nope.
I was playing ultra-tight in the first hour of the Stars $150 because a)I was getting no hands and b)I was playing four tables and didn't have the focus to bully the table. But I doubled up at some key points, and when I was out of everything else, I got extra-focused and played my A-game most of the way through. I blew the chip lead at two tables but didn't give up; I fought back, and I got wild as the blinds got high, but I made it through. After a grueling heads-up duel in which my opponent came back from three big blinds on two separate occasions, I closed it out for 14.5k.

So it's been a good month. I feel like I'm getting well prepared for the World Series. I've been going through stretches in the last six months where I'll have a big win or two, try to move up and break even or struggle, stop to reassess my game, and then have another breakthrough. It happened in April when I landed four solid cashes (6th in a Party Super Thursday, 1st in a Bodog 25k, 5th in an UltimateBet 200k, and 2nd in a Stars 33 rebuy), and I feel like it's happening again.

If I keep running good and I'm playing as well as I think I am I could make real noise at the World Series.

I won the Stars $150 tonight

2006-06-24T02:17:00.000-05:00

This is one I'd been after for a while, since I'd moved up to higher buyins. It had eluded me but I finally took first after an extremely wild final table and protracted heads up battle for a little over 14.5k.

I'll probably put the video up on PokerXFactor. It was a wild tournament and I got very lucky along the way. But for now let's just add this to the tally; June has been an absolutely sick month for me.

Date set

2006-06-23T16:38:00.000-05:00

I finally heard back from Pokerstars.
I'll be running in Day 1C of the WSOP. So my first day of play in the Main Event is July 30.
I still want to get up there on the 9th; I expect to hear back more with regards to my reservation soon.

Ugh

2006-06-23T01:46:00.000-05:00

I just dropped four buyins in an hour 3-tabling Party 3/6 6-max.
I'm not even sure how to explain it. I made a couple of really stupid pushes, and just didn't hit any hands, and on the few I did I didn't get paid.
I'm sure part of it is variance but I also played like crap.
This seems to be a recurring theme: I move up a level or to a new site or new game and crush it for about a week. Then, DOWNSWING.
I'm counting on being able to beat this to get me through the next few months, the WSOP, etc. Days like this suck.

The biggest hand I ever folded, and why

2006-06-22T07:50:00.001-05:00

I posted this hand on the 2+2 forums and got lambasted for it, and I certainly know why. But I think it was the right decision, and I hated myself for it, but in the end I made it.

It was at Turning Stone casino. My first or second night there and I'm playing 5-5 NL, 500 max buyin. I'm still feeling my way around the table, and the casino, and how to best play live cash games (which I haven't done in a while-- damn me for convincing myself to play online instead of at Isle of Capri when I go to Lake Charles!)
I'm playing relatively conservatively preflop, since my style tends toward seeing lots of flops, with sometimes random holdings, to try to hit big and bust people. So I'm not open-raising a whole lot.

Anyway: I'm on a decent run and have about 1400 to start the hand. Guy on my right, in 2nd or 3rd position (10-handed) limps in. I limp behind with two eights (this would not happen now, and it wouldn't have happened, like, the next day. Still feeling my way). Maybe four people come along and the blinds check.

The flop comes down 8s 7s 4c. Rock and roll! Pot's $35-40 minus rake.
The guy on my right leads out $25. He seems like a pretty good player. I can't slowplay on a board with this many draws so I pop it to $75. It folds around to the small blind who'd been playing a pretty tight, even nitty game. He makes it $200 more and is sitting on about $1100 behind that.

Ay ay ay.

The first guy folds. I'm agonizing, and I would never agonize here ordinarily. Something about him is just giving off the vibe that he has 65 and absolutely nothing else. He might have a set, sure. But the more I study him, the more I realize he seems utterly confident in his hand. And I know if we play it out, it's going to be for stacks.
I think it over for five minutes; I want to get it in with top set but every bone in my body is screaming "fold, he's got the stone nuts". I get the clock called on me and with about fifteen seconds left I kick it in.

I posted this and got responses ranging from "This sucks" to "Move down in stakes" to "Quit poker altogether."

I never really explained why I ended up making the fold but I think I can articulate it now.

It breaks down for me several ways:

-I didn't raise preflop. If I had, the bets would be bigger, and there might be enough money in the pot to shove in my chips even thinking I was up against a straight and hope to hit a full house.
-Also, my opponent's nittiness meant that if I had raised preflop, I could probably confidently narrow 65 from his holdings, or at least reduce the likelihood in my mind he has it enough to justify continuing on, because I don't think he'd call a raise with it from the blinds.
-In addition, I think his nittiness was such that if I had just called and the board paired, he may well have folded a straight. It's got to be pretty evident that when I raise a bet and call a large third raise in an unraised pot I must have a set. And he was tight enough that I think he could get away from it.
-His demeanor. At no point did he seem worried about having the worst hand, and if he had 77 I think I would have picked up something on him that he wasn't 100% comfortable.
-Metagame and stack sizes. Not from the specific fold, but because of the table. There's a very loose and rather wild player (I believe Mike was his name and "Action Mike" was what he was known as) who has a stack similar in size to mine. I want to have him covered because he will pay me off quite readily with second-best hands and I can bust him for a much bigger score. (And by wild I mean he'll bluff the river any time he thinks he sees weakness, and he makes way too many loose calls-- in two subsequent hands that week I got him to pay off my Broadway straight on a KQJTx board with two pair, and I got him to stack off with A8 when I raised preflop with AK, he called, a short stack moved all in, and I moved in over the top.)
If I'm wrong here-- if he does this with exactly 65 and 77 I'm about even money and not getting a great overlay to play for my stack-- I'm bust and have to rebuy for 500. That means I can't cover Mike. That means I can't get full value from a hand when I hit a big one on him.

It was a perfect storm of situations. I don't think it would ever come up again. I mean, if any one thing is different, I probably go with it.

-If I raise preflop, I go ahead and go with it.
-If I'm playing online and can't observe my opponent, I probably go with it.
-If either one of us had less money, I go with it. (Keep in mind my immediate pot odds are close to 2:1 but I know we're going for stacks so it's really more like 1300 to win 1500, not 200 to win 400. The less he has or I have the more often I can be wrong and still be making a proper call.)
-If having a loose fishy player covered was not a concern, I go with it.

I found out later from the guy on his right (a 2+2 lurker I met at TS and talk to somewhat regularly now) that I did in fact make the correct fold. I mean-- I can't imagine making that fold again, especially considering the way I was playing once I got in my groove at the live games (and some of the crazy calls I made later in the week).
But here, in the moment, it seemed absolutely right. And sometimes, you just have to go with that.

(I wouldn't take this as a suggestion to try to make me fold a big hand, though. I hate doing it. And I don't mind picking people off. But everything is situational. Everything.)

Next post I'll put up some fun hands from later in the week-- my first big night at 5-5, when I was in my groove and playing lots of hands and position preflop and hitting well. Like someone on 2+2 wrote about Sammy Farha's play on High Stakes Poker, "a LAG who catches cards always looks like the smartest player at the table."

EDIT: I should clarify some points about the hand in question. First, when I say it was "the right fold", I don't mean that if this situation were to regularly come up it would be the right fold every time; I mean, specifically this time, and after talking to the person who was sitting next to the player in question, I found out the villain did in fact have 65.
Anyone who knows how I play knows I hate making big folds, or for that matter, any folds. I can't imagine a situation coming up where I would do this again. I'm sure even if I played the spot again I would probably at least call, so there's something to be said that perhaps I wasn't quite in my comfort zone live.
I don't post this hand because I'm particularly proud of the fold; I post it because I think it's one of the most unique hands I've ever played and I wanted to provide some insight to my thought process. So many of the people who roasted me seem to be online-only players who just refuse to use the added information available when playing someone in person.
(By the way, I think 77 is a pretty easy fold here.)

Upcoming events

2006-06-22T07:03:00.000-05:00

So this Sunday is the big end-of-the-month tournaments for most of the sites. They all run large Sunday tournaments but several of them run bigger ones at the end of the month. In particular Pokerstars, beginning this year, has begun running a quarterly tournament that's even bigger. Each Sunday's tournament is a $1 million guaranteed prize pool, but the regular Sundays are a $200+15 buyin, the monthlies are a $500+30, and the quarterly is a whopping $1000+50. What this boils down to is that most weeks you see between 4000-6000 runners; the monthly tends to attract 3000-4000; and the last quarterly took in just over 2000. A smaller field is always better for variance's sake, but it'll still be tough.
I've been trying to satellite into the tournament but with no success so far. I don't really like satellites, but I don't want to drop the full buy-in either. If worst comes to worst I'll try to play enough cash games to justify dropping a buy-in. (I've been having good results at Bodog 3/6 and 5/10 NL full ring and Party 3/6 6-max, so it's doable).
Of course I'll hit the big Party tournaments as well; I'm not sure which other ones run specifically large monthly tournaments but I plan to play all the Sundays anyway.

After that, my attention turns to the World Series of Poker. The main event doesn't start until July 28, but my goal is to arrive on July 9. Stars is covering my ME entry and the hotel for that time (guaranteed through August 4 and all the way further if I still have chips then); I still need somewhere to stay before then. I'm hoping to find an affordable hotel or possibly crash in a house with some 2+2ers until then. I want to play some live games and some of the earlier bracelet events. Here's the schedule of the ones I want to play:

10-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 17 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $1,000.00
13-Jul-06 Thursday 12 noon 21 No-Limit Hold'em- Short handed 6/table (3 day event) $2,500.00
14-Jul-06 Friday 12 noon 22 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $2,000.00
16-Jul-06 Sunday 12 noon 25 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout (3 day event) $2,000.00
17-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 26 Pot-Limit Omaha (2 day event) $1,500.00
18-Jul-06 Tuesday 12 noon 27 No-Limit Hold'em (2 day event) $1,500.00
20-Jul-06 Thursday 12 noon 30 No-Limit Hold'em- Short handed 6/table (3 day event) $5,000.00
21-Jul-06 Friday 12 noon 31 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $2,000.00
22-Jul-06 Saturday 2:00 PM 33 Seven Card Razz (2 day event) $1,500.00
24-Jul-06 Monday 12 noon 35 Seven Card Hi Low Split (2 day event) $1,000.00
25-Jul-06 Tuesday 12 noon 37 No-Limit Hold'em (3 day event) $1,500.00
28-Jul-06 Friday 39 No-Limit Texas Hold'em World Championship Event $10,000.00

Clearly I don't have the bankroll to buy in directly to everything. I'm hoping some combination of satellites and cash game winnings both before and during the Series will cover it. I already have won $1,500 in WSOP entry chips through Full Tilt; I'm trying to win more. I'm hoping my recent cash play is a good indicator that I can be a winning player; if that's the case I'll play more online until I get there and I'll play a lot live when I am there (I hear the games are quite good around tourney time).

I love playing live, more than I do playing online, and so I'm really excited for this trip. A real adventure, a chance to see how well I do on the big stage.
The main event ends the 10th of August. Whether or not I'm still in it, I plan to stay that long, either for the second-chance tournaments, the cash games, or the Whole Experience.

2006-06-20T10:08:00.000-05:00

So this is my new poker blog. I plan to be writing more in depth here about poker because it doesn't quite fit my livejournal audience.

This is just an initial post. No content yet. When I have some time in the day or two I'll tell my story a little, put up some links to other stuff I've written, and maybe talk about what I've done recently.

Welcome readers. (And welcome me to the poker-blogging scene, I suppose.)