About freakin time, I've played a total of 5 events this week, and went zero for 4 in the first 4 events I played which was really discouraging along with the epic fail of a bubble expierence in my $2,000 event. Anyways, today things finally went my way. Woke up this morning to play the $2,500 event and found that there were over 230 players entered which made for a sweet prize pool. To make things better, instead of paying out 27 like they usually do for these size fields, they decided to pay out 18, making the bottom pay-out x2 your buyin for once, and making it a pretty top-heavy pay-out. Got a godly table draw with no one I knew and a bunch of old guys that played like absolute fish for my starting table. Scott "BigRiskky" Clements was then moved to my table but looked pretty card dead for the most part. The first 4 hours I showed down exactly one hand, and that was a forced showdown where Psyduck was short stack and shoved on my blinds and I woke up with 77 and snap called and held vs his A2.
I was then moved to the most nightmare table ever. Two seats to my left was my boy Blair Hinkle (mig.com's roommate) who just lucksacked a stack of like 75,000+ at 200/400 blinds. To his left is Gigabet, and to the left of that is JC Tran. Gigabet played pretty tight/solid for the most part, and as expected JC Tran was playing an insane amount of pots. It was actually interesting watching him, caz there were clear spots were whatever he was doing was just totally retarded spewing. But then there were spots where it was just fucking sick pwnage. He is a really weird player. Anyways, I played pretty tight for the most part while being at that table, then as luck would have it, I was moved over to another table which happened to be the easiest table ever. I was hovering around 20,000, and built it up to 50,000 right before dinner break at this new table just by raising every single hand for 20 mins. I come back from dinner break and it was just sick bubble ownage after that. We went from 28 players left to 21 really fast, and during that time my stack went from 50,000 to 120,000 without showdown. My table had 6 complete super tard tight nits, and one REALLY fucking good young kid named Dan who apparently plays the highest live cash games around. When I didn't raise, Dan raised, and Dan didn't raise I raised. It was a pretty cute trade off, but something had to be done about his raising so I tried to get the upper hand with some 3 bets on his opening raises. He proceeds to get into a 3 & 4 betting war with me and it was at this point I realized this kid was definitly not going to have my shit.
Blair Hinkle! Bubbled out in 21st place. /wrists
Then it happened... With 20 players left, some nit opens utg, and Dan flat calls in middle position. The flop comes Q-7-4, the money goes in, Dan shows 77 and I'm like thinking: 'wtf sickest life ever caz now he's going to have a fucking massive stack and and be able to do some fearless annilation of the bubble'. But NOPE! UTG tables QQ for top set, and the most mega cooler I've ever seen. ROFL!!! Dan loses half his stack and is stuck around 40,000. This gives me a little upper hand as he was more careful of his opening raises now that he couldnt 4 bet bluff me and that my 3 bets clearly committed me to calling a shove. With 20 players left, Dan had chipped back up to about 70,000 and then I proceeded to run like fucking god as someone from the other table busted leaving us with 19, and they decided to move Dan from my table to the other table leaving me with 6 complete retard nits. I zoom zoom my stack up to 140,000 before the bubble burst. Once again, I redraw the easy table, with Roy Winston being the only other person I recognized. Dan was also at my new table but was pretty crippled after his AA got cracked by Roy's flopped flush. This table was a breeze compared to the other table which had Danny Wong, Gigabet, JC Tran, and Bakes. Roy Winston made it clear that he wasnt going to have my shit either so I played a pretty tight/solid game and cruised to the final table.
Tomorrow's final table starts at 3:00pm, the blinds are 2k/4k with a 500 ante for 15 minutes, then the blinds increase to 3k/6k with a 1k ante. I'm 4th in chips with 156,000. Roy Winston is the chip leader with 250k+, JC Tran has 200k, Gigabet has 190k, everyone else left has under 100k. Tomorrow is going to be very interesting indeed... lets see what these live pros are made of. Key to tournament poker success: Fuck getting cards, Run good with table draws and pwn the donkeys.
And on a small side note, I came up $7,500 at 10/20 NL yesterday. Up close to $15k in cash games on the trip after playing a little over 15 hours total. Live poker is so easy
Title says it all. I've come to realize that there arent very many good players that can play poker even close to decently well. I played the $3,000 event on Tuesday and get knocked out in the 2nd level after Micheal Mizrachi thinks it's a good idea to 3 bet me with 74o and then ends up calling a 3/4 bet on the turn to hit a gut shot. I took a nap after that event and played some 5/10 from 6:00pm to 2:00am. Needless to say, I absolutely raped bitches. Came up $4660 in the session which contained one fairly epic / note-worthy hand I played:
This british guy and I are going at it, I get 3 streets of value from him with AA on a 2-6-7-J-9 board after he calls a $600 bet on the river with 98. I proceed to rape him even more after he turns a straight on me with KJ on a 5d-Td-Qc-9d board, but he slowplays and I check behind ATss, river comes 7d and he checks his straight w/o a diamond and I turn my hand into a bluff and piss all over him when he folds. He then starts to raise $60 instead of $40 everytime it's my big blind. So finally he makes it $60 and I look down at J7dd in the big blind and make a sloppy call just to play a pot with him. Flop comes 4h-8s-Js, I check and he bets $80, I check-raise to $240 and he makes a quick call. Turn comes Kh, I check and he checks behind. River comes 5h, and I bet $300 for value since he was a sick station that could easily pay me off with worse here. He takes about 5 seconds and then shoves all-in for $1200 total. LOL? So I go over the situation and ask for a count, and it's about $900 more for me to call. I quickly realize that it is either a bluff or a backdoor flush since this tard wasnt capable of any type of thin value raise with this line, and he'd bet the turn with 2pr or a set. I tanked for about 5 minutes, and then made the call. He taps the table saying 'good call' and mucks, and I table my J7dd... [vital]Myth is across the table and instantly goes 'HOLY SHIT OMFG COSMO UR MY HEROOOOO' Then txts me the same thing about an hour later to confirm my his belief in my heroism.
Played the $5,000 event today, 132 players entered. LOL jokes... 1st hand I pick up KK, UTG old guy raises to 150, I reraise to 550, gets back around to him, he makes it 2500. I puke. With 10,000 starting stacks I figured there are better spots than to be shipping in 200bbs vs a complete unknown the 1st hand of a $5,000 event. I fold and he shows KK. Sick, whatever... 20 mins later I flop a pair + flush draw and brick the river losing about another 4,000 chips. I end the first break at 7,600 in chips. Get back from break and chip up to 10,000 again then get all-in QQ vs AT on a ten high board. It holds and I'm up to 20,000. Steal some blinds and bluff a big pot vs Frank (the guy I went heads-up vs at the Wynn Classic) to get myself up to a healthy 30,000 in chips at 100/200 blinds. FrinkX gets moved to my table and insta rapes bitches, going from 20,000 to 40,000+ after 5 betting all-in vs some guy who folded after getting 3.5 to 1 on a call after 4 betting. Sweet play. Our table had to be one of the easiest tables in the tournament. Tuan Le was across from me and the only other notable player worth mentioning was Danny Wong who was seated directly to my left. From what I heard, Danny Wong is suppose to be a sick good tournament player with tons of sucess and huge scores. I definitly got to witness some gosu ninja short stacking on his part, as he kept himself alive between 5bbs-10bbs for over an hour before doubling up to 20bbs and getting back into the hunt with another double up a little while later. When blinds got to 200/400, things went to shit for both me and FrinkX:
UTG (stack size: 12,000 total) opens for 1400, Tuan Le (stack size: 14,000 total) flat calls. FrinkX (monster stack / has both covered) pops it up to 5,500. UTG flat calls (lol) and Tuan Le overcalls (wat?). Flop comes 2d-5s-Jd, and UTG shoves, Tuan shoves, and FrinkX obv insta-calls both short stack tards with KK. UTG has AJ, and Tuan Le has ATdd (ROFL? Nice preflop call dumbass?). Turn bricks 8s, river comes 3d... fucking so sick. Huge 40k+ pot gets shipped to Tuan Le. FrinkX proceeds to order a much needed vodka redbull. As for me, I mix it up with Danny Wong. Why? Because I can. In the $2,000 event I bubbled I was pissing all over him, and ended up bluffing him off a huge pot with QT high. He basically had been giving me a lot of respect, waiting for a spot to pick me off. Unfortunately for him, I have been holding the cards over him for the past few days, and have won almost every pot we've played. So far in the tournament I had check-raised him twice all-in (once as a bluff, and once with two pair). So it gets folded to me in the small blind and I pop it up to 1200 with Q8o. He flat calls in the big blind and the flop comes Qc-3s-2c. I check, he bets 2,000 and I check-raise all-in for 12,000 more. LOL overbet shove ftw~!!! Danny Wong instantly looks at me and starts tanking for what seemed like forever. He started saying things like "This looks so drawy" "This can only be a draw" "Flush draw?" "Do you want a call?" and asking me all these question. After 5 or so minutes Danny picks up his hand looking like he was going to fold when all of the sudden FrinkX steps in and saves the fucking day: "CLOCK!!!" he yells at the dealer. LOL~!!! Danny then brings his hand back and the floor guy starts a clock on him. Danny rethinks over the hand and seems to be rushed, as with about 15 seconds left he made the call and turned over A3. HOLD ONE TIME DEALER!!! Turn came an Ace, and I totally puked River dropped a 5 and I lost a 30k pot to him, dropping me down to about 16,000. So so sick. Other than this hand though, I was impressed with Danny Wong's dicipline and patience as he never really made any big mistakes if you ignore this blow-up call.
FrinkX proceeds to run a set into Danny Wongs rivered straight and finally busts out when he runs KT vs Tuan Le's A5 and doesn't get there. I continue to run like dog shit, getting all my chips in with AJ on a A-9-3-9 board vs the big fishes A5. River 9. Fuck my life! After that, nothing seemed to be working out for me. I repopped with AJ and the nit shoves on me so I fold and leave myself with 10,000 as blinds moved up to 400/800. Finally my last hand, I raise to 3,000 with AQ, and some big fish calls out of the small blind. Flop comes 3s-5s-8s, and the guy checks, I recheck my hand and find I have the Q of spades, so I shove. Guy in the blind has A9ss for the flopped nuts. I'm drawing dead, gg my life. Lyric was still in when I busted but got all-in with AK vs AQ... Q on river. So sick. [vital]Myth gets it all-in w/ top pair vs some donk who limp-calls his raise with 93 suited and flops a flush draw. Flush draw gets there. How are tournament players so bad? It's amazing. Lyric tells me later that his tables had some of the softest players he's played with in a while. Ironic since we over hear some live pros talking earlier about how these fields in the prelim events are some of the toughest on the tournament circuit? Wat? R U JOKING?
Here are some live pros who totally suck at this game:
JC Tran (Plays every hand. Limp-calls a fuck ton. Calls off %75 of his stack with 66 vs a nit then proceeds to shove an ace high flop as a bluff and is surprised when he's called by AK, and justifys his play by saying that he put the guy on QQ... So you called off 75% of your stack to bluff someone off of QQ? Obv genius) Micheal Mizrachi (Plays 80% of his hands then 3 bets 74o expecting to get respect? Then fails to c-bet a beautiful flop, then proceeds to call off half his stack when he improves to a gut-shot) Tuan Le (Overcalls ATdd for 1/4 of his stack and acts like it's standard. LOL?) Eugene Todd (Flat calls 77 for 1/4 of his stack, saying that he put the guy on a big hand and that he had to set mine) Mike Sexton (Old and dumb in general. I have too many examples of his general stupidity. He's a real nice guy thou!) Mark Seif (Limp calls a fuck ton of hands. Called off 1/2 of his stack with 76 suited and thought it was standard. Yes you read it right, I just said he called off half his stack preflop with 76 suited. For value?) Ted Lawson (LOL @ Bet sizing tells, and old man passiveness syndrome) David Plastik (Loves that limp-call, and the zero c-bet flop frequency when he misses)
I'll add more names to this list as they come. So far these are people I've played with and have been very unimpressed with their knowledge of what they are doing. Went back to cash games tonight, got set over setted and only lost $400? On top of that I was totally card dead for about 3 hours and was stuck as low as $1900 on the night. But when your entire table plays with their cards on their forehead, it's pretty easy to grind some profit without showdowns. Finally I flop a set and get paid off by top pair for a $3,000 pot which puts me up $420 on the night. How are people so bad live? It's amazing
Today was the $2500+120 event, and once again I got a pretty sweet starting table with no one I really recognized. Unfortunate for the first hour I picked up no hands and my table seemed to be playing fairly loose both preflop and post flop. Some guy punted his entire stack 5 minutes into the tournament with 2nd pair + gut shot. Another guy re-re-re-raised the turn on a 8-8-3-5 board and insta-folded when he got shoved on. Yikes. An hour into the tournament I got moved over to RaiNKhaN's table and got the seat directly to his left. Ship the position! Mr.Smokey01 was also seated at the table. I got to the first break with 3300 in chips, mostly from folding and one bad bluff into a small pot.
Came back from the break and grabbed a few chips by knocking out RaiNKhaN (he played a big pot earlier and got crippled to 500 in chips), then proceeded to pick up a few more pots. Mr.Smokey01 busted out about 15 minutes later and was replaced by Bushman. Another kid who made the final table from the event I won at the Wynn was also moved to my table. For most of the 100/200 level I continued to struggled to pick up chips and finally got stuck at 2400 in chips and raised a cut-off limp to 800 with ATo only to get limp-shoved on. I called off my last 1600 and he had KK... sick life. But I warned him I run infinitly good in these spots and sure enough the flop came A-T-4. Ship it. Turn and river bricked out and I doubled to about 5,000. Did a few ninja-like rejams and chipped up to 8,000 before my final hand: Blinds were at 100/200 w 25 ante and it gets folded to the table chip leader who had well over 25,000+ in chips. He had been playing pretty loose, and he popped it up to 600. I flat called on the button with KQo, and everyone else folded. Flop came: Kc-8h-3h, and he c-bet 1,000. I made a very fast call trying to give off some weakness (now I sound like Phil Hellmuth and his bs about false-tells blah blah blah but whatever). Turn came Qh, he fired 2600 and I shoved all-in. He snap called and showed K5hh. River bricked and I went out in 75th or something around 4:00pm. Hmmm... odd? I tend to last forever in these tournaments. 4 hours was the fastest I've busted so far lol... I'm cursed
So I went back up to my room and found Rekrul playing 5/10 heads-up on 4 tables, so I watched him for a bit. He's pretty fucking amazing. Total relentless aggression, with some sick telepathic reads. At the end of his first session he was up $22,000 after 3 hours. Wat? I took a nap for a couple hours then woke up and watched him play a little 6-max before heading down to the poker room to grind myself.
I played a 6 hour 5/10 session tonight from 8:30pm to 2:30am, and for the most part I thought I played my A game. Got a little sloppy towards the end of my session, but ended +$2200. The only hand worth mentioning was my double-up vs some super fish 10 minutes after sitting down. The hand goes down like this: I'm on the button with 54o, there are 6 limpers infront of me so I limp, and both the blinds come in as well. Flop comes A-2-3 rainbow. DING! It gets checked around to the guy to my right and he bets $70 into a $90 pot. I raise to $180, everyone folds, the guy makes the call. Turn comes 8, he checks. I bet $400. He shoves for my last $550 so obv I snap call and tell the dealer "Dont pair the board". River comes an Ace and I puke a little inside and am ready to muck my cards... but the guy tables AT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! WAT? AT no good sir. Nothing else really happened, just chipped up in a bunch of small pots, lost a few 60/40's and a got a set cracked by a flush draw. The table was fairly soft, (not as soft as the tournament tables obv) and there were a lot of really nice people sitting.
Tomorrow is the $3000 event, so I need to get my rest. Wish me luck!
Arrived in Vegas last night and played a 5 hour 5/10 session. I thought I played pretty well for the most part, just couldn't pick up anything big. Got KK cracked, QQ cracked, and basically won the blinds with the AA I picked up. Most of the money I got came in some sweet bluffs than I ran. Ended the session down $175 which is kind of like breaking even, so that's fine. Came back up to my room to find RaiNKhaN, Rekrul, FrinkX, Lisa, Raidan909, and 2 of Raidan's friends playing chinese for $20 a point. RaiNKhaN and FrinkX were teaming up to set up there hand. I watched while waiting for room service to bring my pizza. I don't get it Chinese is so weird.
Woke up this morning to play the $2k event, and as expected I ran like absolute god with my table draw. We started at 4,000 starting stacks, and I chipped up to 8,000 in the first hour. The second hour was a little cold and I dropped to 6,500. Coming back from the first break I picked up KK and 100/200 and got all-in vs Q8 on a J-9-3 board. Turn 4, river 2, sick hold for my double up. That got me up to about 13,000 then I had my epic suck out (as expected once again): Blinds were 100/200 and Mark Seif was playing like a fucking monkey. Earlier he called 2,200 chips from his 5,000 stack with 76s and flopped an open ended draw, then got there to double up. He started the hand with 9,000 and limped under the gun. Someone else limps in middle position and I once again pick up KK and pop it to 1,000. Mark Seif snap calls and the other guy calls as well. Flop comes 5c-6d-7d, and they both check to me as I bet 2500. Mark Seif shoves for his last 8,000 total and the other guy folds. I fucking snap call / beat his ass into the pot and tabled KK. He turns over 66... fucking unreal how these live donks run sometimes. Oh wait, turn KING ship it!!! River bricked and I busted out Mark Seif on a two outer. He is probably going to go whine to his other live donk friends about how some internet kid 2 outted him without realizing how bad of a leak his preflop call is. Whatever, that gets me up to 20k+ at 100/200 w 25 antes. A few orbits later another lagtard moron decides it's a good time to donate yet another 10,000 chips to my stack as he ships in 76 on a J-7-4 board vs my AJ. After another sick hold I'm up to 32,000. Good game sir.
From here it was it was cruise control. Blinds moved up to 200/400, when there were about 90 some players left, and it was during this level that there was a bust out at one of the tables almost once or twice every minute. I basically moved up and down between 26,000-34,000 during this time playing only small pots and keeping myself above average stack in chips. Finally at the end of the 300/600 level I decided to play some long ball vs some tight young asian kid to my right. Button limped, the asian kid in the sb sensed weakness and made it 3k. I flat called in the big blind with QTo / the intention to shit all over him. The button folds, and flop came down 3-5-9 w 2 hearts. Asian kid lead for 5,500 and I make it 14,000. He tanks for a while then folds and I proceed to table the hand face up. Probably a mistake on my part, since I was winning almost every pot without showdown and playing a real risk free game up til that point. Meh, so with 27 players left we reshuffled tables and all the players that saw the bluff were moved elsewhere. I had a 40,000 stack and made decided to make an ackward bluff where I had Ad9d and flopped 4c-9s-Qh in a 4 way pot. It was checked to the aggressive player in position who bet 1/2 pot. I called thinking A9 was the best hand in this spot and everyone else folded. Turn came down a 7h and I checked and the guy checked behind. River came a 2h, and I checked and he tanked for a bit then bet 6,000 into a 17,000+ pot which seemed to make sense with something like a QX hand. I figured he wasnt thinking hard enough to make a value bet with worse than A9 here, and didn't have a set or two pair type hand. He also seemed to be giving me a lot of respect for the most part, so I decided to turn the A9 into a bluff and check/raised river to 18,000. He insta shoved, and I puked and folded as he showed Ah5h for the backdoor nut flush. Gross That knocked me down to about 16,000 at 400/800 blinds. From there I played some ninja style short stack poker until we got to the bubble...
19 players left, the bubble lasts a fucking solid 45 minutes. Jean Robert Bellende, who talked like a moron, was at my table and seemed to be playing a surprising good bubble game. He was very aggressive, picking up pot after pot and putting a lot of pressure on the obvious nits who were just waiting to squeeze into the money. Men the Master was on life support at like 6,000 in chips... and basically was folding every hand, giving himself no shot to steal blinds / double up etc. The most unreal nit ever. And then I watch this happen: The old guy to my right has 10,000 at the start of this hand, it gets folded to the button who opens for 2200, and this old guy flat calls AKo from the big blind. Flop comes 9-9-4 and he fucking check-folds. 2 hands later he proceeds to pick up JJ and doubled through A8 back up to 18,000. No justice in this game. Finally with blinds increased to 600/1200, UTG raises to 3600, and I look down at TT in the big blind and re-ship my last 16,000 all-in. UTG tanks for a while then calls and tables AKo. HOOOOOLLLDDDD!!! .... But it was not to be this time. Flop came down A-4-5, turn 8, river 3 and I went out as the bubble boy in 19th place. /wrists, brb jumping off a bridge...
...k back. Tomorrow is the $2500 event, hoping for a little better luck than today. :-P
Okay so I'm really lazy. Since the Wynn Classic I've played a total of 3,500 hands online which is pathetic. On top of that, I can't bring myself to write up another epic blog post about my Day 2 of the Main Event at the Wynn, nor can I bring myself to write up the billion other things that are going on in my life right now. So this is going to be a very quick, to the point, cliff noted version of everything I want to say. Enjoy:
Day 2 of the 10k Main Event @ Wynn Classic:
10 minutes into the day I chipped up a little bit from 19k to 24k, then I double up when I raise JJ, flop K-Q-J and turn K vs guy's AQ. I basically made a 1/8th pot bet on the turn and he shoved. Ty ship it. Played a bunch of small pots and slowly chipped up, until finally it all came crashing to an end. My stack was 58k when blinds were at 600/1200. I had been kind of card dead for a while, so I just been folding a lot. I picked up 98ss in UTG+2 and look over at the blinds who were super weak/tight nits, given that I thought my raise would look real strong since I've been folding a lot I popped it up to 3200. Action was folded around to a young kid who I was told plays a lot online, I think Darren Elies was his name, who flat called on the button with a 100k+ stack. He had been fairly tight/aggressive but played a lot of pots in position, so I suspected his preflop call was probably looser than normal with the intention to take the pot away from me in position since he probably viewed me as tight/solid/trappy. Everyone else folded, and the flop came Kh-6d-4h. I went to c-bet then realized this was exactly the type of flop texture this guy would float / raise to try and get me off of my hand. Instead, I decided to check (given he has seen me be trappy with some big hands earlier, using a similar line). He hesitated a bit then checked behind. Turn came As. I lead out for 5500, he counted out his chips and made a pretty quick call. At this point I thought his range was very wide, from a bunch of float type hands calling to bluff the river, to a bunch of marginal hands one pair hands that he just wants to call down with and get to showdown. The river came 7c. I checked, and he didn't take long before firing 15,000 into the 19,000 pot. I took my time, counted out my chips, waited a good 2 minutes and thought through folding vs shoving. In my head I couldn't put him on a hand that could call if I shoved, infact my gut was screaming to shove. And I had been following my gut in every decision up to this point, and my gut had not failed me yet. "Did you know that you have more nerve endings in your gut than you do in your head? Look it up!" -Steve Colbert. Finally I came to the decision to fire it in. In a calm manner, I looked up at the dealer and said "all-in" as the dealer counted out 34,000 more for Darren to call. As soon as I shoved, Darren grunted and pushed himself away from the table. Well that's a good sign! Atleast he didn't snap call lol. After a minute he stood up and stared at the board and then back at his stack. I sat there trying to be as relaxed as possible, as my heart was racing faster and faster the longer he took to make the decision. Finally he sat down and counted out 34,000 and rechecked his stack seeing that he had about 45,000 behind if he called and was wrong. I started to get this sick feeling in my stomach... he's going to hero call me... oh no. Finally after a few minutes Darren pushed the 34k call in and flipped up K7o for an obscure rivered two pair. I mucked and insta left the table. Spent all night thinking about the hand, and I really feel like I'm still comfortable with the play itself but there are some other factors I should have considered: It didn't threaten his tournament life. He had me well covered, and I'm pretty sure this was a key reason why he called, he saw that he had room to continue to grind if he was wrong. Also, the type of player Darren was. He was willing to play pretty loose in position and to do that you need to be making some good reads / call downs from time to time. This play would have been much better vs a nit than vs a smart online player capable of thinking on multiple levels.
...Myth brought up a funny point though: "He didn't read you on a bluff, He thought he sucked out on you on the river." And if that is the case, then I feel really sick because K7o on that board given that action is exactly a bluff catcher, and if he didn't realize that then I just got 3 outed on the river lol. But I really have no reason to believe he misunderstands the game that badly. Just another good player making a good call down in a really critical spot in the tournament, so my hats off to his sick bluff catch.
That tuesday night was St. Patty's day... and since I busted from the main event earlier I went on massive drunken tilt. We went to O'Shea's and played some beer pong. Played some drunken 1-3 NL at the Wynn, and basically went wild on the strip. Standard night. Here is a video of actionDJ and I doing a boat race for $50, and Lyric laughing his ass off in the background. Derric won but cheated obv because he fucking spilled half his beer on his shirt:
Came back to SD and been chilling with my friends and getting my shit together (with taxes and investments and such). Put a good portion of my tournament winnings into CD's at the bank and the rest into a money market account. Been doing a fuck ton of shopping, and now I understand why girls like to shop. It's kind of fun buying shit for yourself. Leaving back to Vegas in 5 hours for the WPT Championships. I ment to leave Friday night but got stuck for another day in SD so now I'm leaving tonight with Rekrul. Going to grind cash games when I get there then get some sleep for the $2,000 event tomorrow. For those wondering: I plan on winning it. I run too good on peachy's money to not win. Ez game. One more time baby! GOGOGO!!!
PS: Made the biggest hustle of a prop bet ever vs Rekrul. I bet him he can't drink a sip of alcohol til the 18th of April (when ElkY gets back into Vegas) for $1,000. Ship it ez? He won't make it past tomorrow.
Before I start, I promise I'll post my Day 2 report from the Wynn Classic main event before I leave to Vegas this weekend. I'd like some more feedback on my bust-out hand from the event as it was very interesting. For those of you who didn't hear, I basically bluffed off a 56k stack at 600/1200 and got caught by some very obscure rivered two pair that almost folded. So today I did some clean-up, got things organized, been reading up on taxes (which is depressing, because it sounds like I'm going to get waxed pretty hard) and finally planned my upcoming trip back out to Vegas for Bellagio's WPT Championships.
I went to this event last year for a few days and it was a blast since there are so many tourists who come to watch, making for a very exciting environment, along with some extremely juicy side games. This year, the plan is to leave early in the morning on the 5th and leave on the 13th. Here is the list of events I plan on playing:
At least, that's what I told peachy. Although realistically I might have to take a break from an event or two to play the side games. They really are too juicy to pass up this time of year. Almost as sweet as WSOP time. Obv, Myth and FrinkX are going to be playing these events as well (actually more since they are leaving on the 1st) so hopefully we can deliver some more magic from San Diego.
Now you guys might be wondering why did I titled this blog 'How Good Do I Run?'... well it basically speaks for itself. I'm pretty sure no one runs better than me this month. Came up $54,500 total this month by playing less than 10,000 hands online and entering a couple donkaments. Ez life. Plus I have more POY points that mig.com, and I am going to make sure he hears about this every time I see him. Finally, about 30 minutes ago while I was booking my flights, a friend of mine showed me how to sign up for Southwest Rapid Rewards (basically rakeback for the airline I use the most). What the heck, I signed up for it. A notice to call a certain number appeared so I called the number and was answered by one of the Southwest travel agents. I tell her that I was signing up for their rapid rewards program so she figured it was my first time flying with Southwest... she figured wrong. For the next 20 mins, she is pulling up all my past flights and adding them to my new rapid rewards account while I'm put on hold... somewhat. She basically has the phone on her desk and I over hear her talking to her deskmate saying things like "Look at how many previous flights are on this account!" "Wow" "Oh my, there is another page of them" "Jesus" "I've never seen someone with this many previous flights and no previous rapid rewards account". Finally she gets back on the phone with me and is like "Sir, we were able to locate 31 previous roundtrip flights from the past 3 years, does that sound about right?" What can I say? I like to travel. "That sounds about right" I said, and then I hear her do some more typing until finally she gets back on the phone with me and says the following:
"Southwest is rewarding you with 5 free roundtrip tickets."
LOL? Ship it crucial! That pretty much covers all my trips back and forth to Vegas from now til the end of summer. As for other updates in my life, I haven't been playing much poker online at all. Been really lazy since I got back from the Wynn. I can point my finger at one huge reason why... I have a crush on a girl. It's totally like a high school style crush too. I need to grow-up, and that's about all I'm going to say on that matter.
Beep beep beep… the alarm went off at 11:30 Sunday morning, but I snoozed it til 11:50. I kicked brystmar til he woke up, since he crashed on my floor then I walked down to the tournament room. The day before I made a last longer bet with mig.com, actionDJ, and FrinkX for $100 each. I figured they were all drawing dead since I end up lasting forever in these Wynn tournaments since I run so fucking good. At noon, it was surprising how many people weren’t there for the $10,000 main event when the cards hit the air. Of the 9 players registered at my table, only me and another guy showed up on time, so we ended up trading blinds back and forth for 2 orbits. A 3rd guy sat down 10 mins later, then eventually more and more players started to filter into the tournament floor. Eric Siedel was the first player I recognized, as he took a seat to my direct left. Mike Sexton was across the table, and then Toto Leonidas sat down 2 seats to my right. They were known but not really the kind of player I feared… then a player I actually feared sat down: Travis Pearson. For those of you who don’t know, Travis plays the highest games at the Wynn and absolutely destroys them. You can ask around for some stories from people who play regularly with him, but basically I’ve heard rumors of ace-high snap calls in huge pots as he tips the dealer before the cards are even shown. Totally nasty style.
We started with 20,000 at 25/50, I chipped up to 22,000 pretty quickly then I took two huge hits 20 minutes into the first level: I picked up KK and raised to 200 utg, and got 2 callers. The flop came 3-3-4 and I lead out for 500, and the young kid called. Turn came a 4, and I lead for 1200 and once again the young kid called. At this point it felt like some pocket pair that was 55+. The river dropped a 7 and I bet 2600, and he raised to 6000. Puke I folded, and he picked up the pot. A couple hands later, I play a nightmare pot that I totally screw up: UTG middle aged guy limps, I raise to 200 w AJo, and I get 2 callers behind me + the UTG limper calls. Flop comes Jc-Js-2c, and UTG guy checks, I go absolutely retarded and decide to check(?) wow worst play ever? The caller behind me bets 400, Mike Sexton folds, the UTG limper check-raises to 1400. YUCK! So here I am trying to be all deceptive and find myself stuck in a spot where anything I do is going to announce the strength of my hand. The UTG limper’s c/r also seemed really really strong to me which had me a little freaked about 22. I decided to flat call with the intention to fold to any big bet on the turn, and the original bettor behind me insta-folded. The turn dropped a 8d, and the UTG player insta-fires 4,000. This is where I should have gone with my game plan and made an easy laydown… nope! Time to dig myself a bigger hole and call fuck I play so bad. River drops Qh, and he puts me all-in for 11,500. PUUUUKKKKEEE!!! If I call turn I obv should be calling river right? I rag on myself for a good 5 minutes and finally fold and leave the table to cool off. I run into brystmar and tell him what just happened and he gave me a little prep talk to un-tilt me. I took a good 5 minutes off to walk around then came back to the table only to find a new player to my right… Anna Wroblewski. For those of you who don’t know, she is an insanely spewy kind of player who ended up coolering me in a $6,000 pot at 5/10 over the summer. So naturally that kind of puts me on even sicker life tilt, especially since I get chipped down all the way to 7,500 in chips and it was still the 1st level.
Time to refocus: I picked up a few pots and moved myself back up to 9,000. Then I take a huge pot vs Travis when I made a funky play with a flush draw and happened to hit it on the river. That moved me back up to 18,000 which is where I ended the 1st level at. After the break, things picked up for me. Eric Seidel was busted by Mike Sexton, so I had him off of my left side which was nice. I made a quick move vs Mike Sexton, as he had been trying to pick on me all day, so I check-raised turn after he floated flop with obv garbage. Then I picked up AK, and got into a 3 bet pot vs him and check-raised all-in after flopping my ace. He tanked and folded. Then I made a squeeze vs the guy who took the big pot from my AJo earlier in the tournament and Anna with A9s from the big blind. I flopped my ace and busted the middle aged guy when he shoved 77 as a bluff. Ended the 2nd break at 33,000! Great success!
Anna Wroblewski in the center, you guys see me in the purple sweatshirt / black hat on her left?
After Travis busted early in the 3rd level my table broke, obv was on sick tilt as he bluffed off a lot of chips when Ryan Young was moved to our table. I had to say, Mike Sexton wasn’t very good… he was playing close to 80% of the hands dealt to him and although he was aggressive he was definitely spewy. Toto Leonidas on the other hand definitely was impressive. He played a very aggressive game, and showed down a deceptively played monster when he doubled through Mike Sexton. Other than that, he was almost never at showdown and slowly chipped up without getting into many big pots. Anna Wroblewski played a very solid tournament game, and she was pretty friendly / fun to sit next to, as she kept complaining about how tournaments suck and how she wanted to bust but no one would let her etc. She made a really awesome check-raise on the river vs this one guy when she turned middle pair into a bluff, and when the guy made a donk call with a straight (which should not have been good, but obv he doesn’t know how to read the action) she said that she ment to just call which I thought was the funniest level of all time since it was clear that she knew exactly what she was doing by bluffing him, yet cardplayer decided to report it as a ‘mistake in chip denominations’. I basically played no big pots in the 3rd level and ended the level going into dinner break with 38,000.
I took a long ass nap during dinner break, and when I came down (10 minutes late) I decided I was going to pwn bitches. Within the next hour I chipped up to about 60,000 in chips. I picked up QQ and triple barreled the only fish left at our table. Then I picked up 75s, flopped 5-5-Q and killed the poor guy who thought he could bluff me with his last 15,000 in chips. Then started to do my blind steal / running over people until 10 mins before the end of the level. I picked up QQ and raised to 700 at 100/200 blinds and got 3 callers the most active player at our table reraised to 3,200 on the button, and when action got back around to me I reraised to 10,000. When it got back around to him he shoved for 7,000 more and I snap called. He had AKo… and the board comes A-K-X-X-X and I lose a 35k flip. I then pick up KT and flop Tc-4h-2h, and get it all-in vs a short stack who had 9,000 in chips with 8h7h. He turns the flush and I am knocked down to 32,000 at the end of the 4th level which was disappointing.
The 5th level, 100/200 w 25 ante was pretty uneventful as I basically chipped up to 36,000 and folded most of the level. At the end of the level I was moved to a new table with Lee Watkinson, Vanessa Rouso, and internet pro Matt Graham. The 6th and final level of the day was pretty brutal… I was totally exhausted from the long day, and was very card dead for the most part. I basically folded my way down to 28,000 then attempted a squeeze play vs Vanessa Rouso… but she had QQ and pwned me. Was stuck down at 14,000 and opened to 1200 with 8c6c from middle position vs tight blinds without realizing that Lee Watkinson had a retardedly short stack in the small blind. He shoved for 3800 total and I puked. Then called and did a mini-fist pump when he showed 44. GET THERE! I spike an 8, win the flip, and end the day at 19,075! Such a brutal day… probably would rate my play overall as a B- (sloppy), which isn’t very good for my first $10,000 event. But I was definitely happy that I made Day 2 with enough play in my stack to redeem myself at 300/600 w 50 ante.
Went back up to my room and found the girls getting ready to go to Bellagio’s new nightclub: The Bank. Since it was their last night in Vegas, I decided to man up and go out with them. Can you guys tell how tired I am?
That's right, last Saturday night was [vital]Myth's 23rd birthday, and what better way to celebrate than to go fucking ape shit wild at Tao (the night before the $10k main event, obv a smart idea imo). Some of us definitely needed this night more than others... FrinkX, for example, got 2nd in two 1k satellites to the 10k main event where only the winner got paid. The day before in the 3k, after 12 hours of playing, Myth got 20th place and FrinkX got 19th when 18 got paid. It was a fucking brutal day of bubbling. To make matters worse, my boy Tom Berg (aka brystmar from Cardrunners) took the most epic beat at the final table of the $3,000: He entered the final table as the chip leader, with a huge lead on everyone. Second place in chips was this other monkey who was playing every pot and being a total spewtard. With 8 players left, brystmar gets the spewtard who's 2nd place in chips all-in on the turn of A-9-7-3 with AQ. The spewtard held T9... and river drops a very brutal 9 ball, crippling brystmar. If Tom had won that pot, he would have had 70%+ of the chips in play with 7 players left, rofl? And with $162k on the line for first place, this was especially hard to swallow. Brystmar ended up out in 6th place for $12k... so we all wanted to cry for him just a little bit. What a brutal game.
The night was saved as Patrick (aka: BigRed0000 from LP.net) had arrived in Vegas to party with us. More asian blood is always welcomed. So off to Tao we went, we got a table for 12 and balled out of control as usual. Here are some pics from the night:
actionDJ's girlfriend on the left, Me being me, Patrick trying to smile like me, and my friend from SD
Rekrul (obv baller), Steve O'Dwyer (brytmar's roommate), and BigRed0000
Me and Blair Hinkle (mig.com's roommmate)
Now for my favorite pictures, the big group ones:
Patrick, Me, and Myth with the girls
The boys, from left to right: FrinkX, Rekrul, BigRed0000, Steve O'Dwyer, JonnyCosMo, Blake Cahail, Blair Hinkle, Tom Berg... and ofcourse, front and center laying across us all is [vital]Myth
So we get back to my room at around 5:00am, and a hotel manager comes up and says we are being too loud and to get people out so I start kicking people out of my room at around 7:00 so we can go to sleep. I fall asleep around 7:30ish... with an alarm to wake me up at 11:30am for the main event. Key to success: Get more rest than this before your big events. When my alarm went off at 11:30... it was the start to a fucking brutal day.
Question: Who likes my fashion for the night? Red shirt + black tie + boat shoes... my friend's idea. Good? Yeah?
Right now I'm back in beautiful San Diego loving life as usual. Vegas over the weekend was such a blast, as I brought out some of my closest friends from SD to come party with me on Friday. Unfortunately they didnt arrive til past midnight. Earlier in the day I had final tabled the $2,000 NLHE event at the Wynn Classic with ElkY. Our final table was a lot tougher than the final table I had in my $1,500 event. I had two pretty key highlight hands in the $2,000 event I'd like to share: First came in the 2nd level 50/100 blinds, when I was moved to a new table with Frank Rusnik (aka Round42). I've been playing pretty tight/aggressive for the most part, almost never getting too out of line. So it gets folded to me in the cut-off and I open to 300 with QcJc, the very loose button player calls me and Frank Rusnik repops it to 1050 from the small blind. I look at this and think it's such an obvious squeeze spot for him to be doing it in, plus he's been repopping people a few times in the short period of time I was sitting at the table. So I shove for 4850 total, button folds. And Frank tanks for a good 5 minutes before folding QQ. ROFL? Sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick sick, how do I get away with such murder rofl. The second key hand came after I had acquired a big stack, I had 46,000 at 300/600 w 50 ante, action gets folded to the button who raises to 1600. I reraise to 5,200 from the small blind with QQ. Action gets back around to him and he raises all-in for 33,500 more. Ummm, gross? I don't think I've ever folded QQ with these button vs blind dynamics online, but I've noticed in these live tournaments that people who 4 bet usually have the nuts. The problem was, the guy was young and seemed to be an online player. What made it really a tough spot was that we were both top 5 chip stacks in the tournament at this point. I thought there was a good chance he could have AK here... but even then it wasn't a real good spot for me to commit on a flip. Then I asked myself if he would ship in JJ here? The answer was a clear no. With that in my head I folded after tanking for a good 5 minutes as I told the guy "I never fold this online... ever". The guy on the button turned to me and asked if I folded queens, and I nodded, and he insta had a sick look on his face as he mucked his hand. Later on he claimed he had KK there, although I'm not exactly sure if I want to trust the word of some of these guys in these tournaments, so I kind of just was like eh ok.
The bubble lasted forever, close to 3 hours to get from 18 players down to 10. During that time, it was a total roller coaster ride for me. I had an average stack right on the bubble, then ended up losing a flip, then reshipped AQ from the SB vs a button raise and he woke up with KK and held which crippled me. I found myself all-in with 14 left with 44 vs AJ. The flop came K-K-Q and I wanted to puke a little. Turn came an 8, and river was a paint card so I figured I was out... but wait it was a KING! Ship the survival one time! With 14 players still left in the tournament I saw the most absurd thing ever: The blinds were 1500/3000 and the shortest stack who had 20k in chips, opens to 12k from middle position. The button who just came to our table flat called this raise from the button as he had a 50k stack which was also short. Naturally his flat call there screamed strength so I look down at AQo in the small blind and insta-muck. Flop comes 2-5-Q rainbow and the short stack puts in his last 8k into the 32k+ pot. And the button insta folds his hand!?!?!?! HoLy sHiT can u chip dump more to this guy? Insane stupidity... I can't even imagine what hand flats there preflop and insta folds the flop. So anyways, with 10 players left the tables get reshuffled and ElkY gets moved to my right with a somewhat big stack. I had an above average stack until this huge hand: I open to 8500 at 1500/3000, and get a call from the chip leader to my left as well as the loose chip dumping moron in the small blind. The flop comes Ah-7c-6h, and the chip dumping moron leads for 10,000. I shove for 42,000 more. The chip leader behind me folds, and the chip dumping moron insta calls with 9h8h. YUUUUUCCCKKKK~!!!! So now we are flipping for a 100k+ pot, and naturally turn drops the Jh leaving me drawing dead and crippled. I fold 2 hands before shoving my last 14k in the middle with A8, and got called from the big blind with A3 which doubled me up to 33,500 just as the day ended.
ElkY and I @ Final table of the $2,000 NLHE event
The final table was over quick for me as I said in my last blog post. I picked up AJ when the other short stack shoved from the cut-off and obv I snap called and he had JJ. GG. So that night we started drinking at 10, my friends arrived and 12, and we got to Tryst at around 2:30am with a big group. Unfortunately half our group were not let pass the front door (yes that means mig's roommate Blair who was totally smashed while we chilled at Parasol Up). The rest of us had a pretty sweet time:
Me, ElkY, ElkY's french girl who was super hot, and FrinkX @ Tryst
French girl, Rekrul, and Me
Coming up next: [vital]Myth's 23rd birthday party @ TAO. LOL OH YEAH
It's been crazy out here. My $2,000 final table didn't go as well as I'd had hoped. Basically what happened was that I had $33,500 to start the final table at 2k/4k w 400 ante, and folded the first 3 hands. On the fourth hand I was in the small blind with $28,000 in my stack and it gets folded to my friend Jermey (aka TheTaker on FTP, I thought he played excellent on day 1) who shoved his short stack of $34,000 in the cut-off. I look down hoping for A9+, 66+ and happen to look at AJo. NUTS! I snap shoved for what I had left, and Jermey rolls over JJ. Ug sick life The board bricks off for me and I went out in 10th for $4180. Meh...
Last night brystmar (the CR pro who is also staked by peachy) made the final table of the $3,000 with the chip lead so we all were pretty excited for him. So in celebration, me and my friends from SD got drunk at Parasol Up, and went out to Tryst for a fun night of dancing. Pics will follow, def some funny stuff. I've now seen ElkY dance. My life is complete.
Kind of nervous right now, as tomorrow is my first $10,000 event. Pretty landmark moment in a poker career I think. I feel pretty confident about my chances in it, especially after seeing the fields in these previous events. I have a $100 last longer vs mig.com so that should be fun. I told him he's drawing dead thou, as I run too good at the Wynn for him to last longer tomorrow. Ok wish me luck, going out to Tao now, hopefully won't be too hung over tomorrow.
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