It's official: I have become another faceless working stiff in the American workforce. As I write this blog post from a cafe near the office in downtown Chicago, my mind keeps wandering back to Vegas. I had a great time this summer, and I'm really sad that it ended so quickly.
Anyway, I finally moved up to Chicago last week and I'm loving it so far. Brandon and I drove a 26' moving truck up from Austin on Wednesday, stopping only in Little Rock to say a quick hello to James and Kelsey. Our place in Wrigleyville is in a great neighborhood with lots of young people; most of the people I've met have been very open and friendly. The summer weather up here is beautiful, and I think I'm gonna really like living in Chicago.
I met Andrew at their new CardRunners office on Division St yesterday afternoon to see the place and record a video (which I subsequently forgot to upload last night). The office is HUGE and even has its own full-sized kitchen -- it's more than big enough for CR's needs and will likely double as a nice staging area for pre-partying.
Nate, Meyvis, and another friend of theirs from Yale are coming up this weekend for a quiz bowl competition, but Nate said they ran into some problems registering at the last minute and might just forget about it and enjoy themselves up here instead.
Sent from my iPhone
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Main Event Trip Report, part 1
Sorry I haven't updated this blog in awhile -- things have been crazy
in Vegas (as usual). I played the WSOP Main Event on Monday, and here's what
happened:
The table I was started at was a lot more aggressive than I expected it to be;
people were 3-betting regularly, and it was extremely rare to see a
flop in an unraised pot. Everyone started with 20k chips with blinds of 50/100, which was great. I lost a few big pots early on, made most of
it back when I flopped the nuts one hand, then dropped back down to ~11k on a
failed bluff. This went on for the first 4-5hrs or so, then I
thankfully got moved to a new table after the dinner break.
My new table was soft as hell. All my raises got respect, and I was
able to accumulate a bunch of chips quickly. Within 2 hours my stack
was healthy again at around 20k; then the table broke and I got moved
again.
My third table was the best of them all. I arrived with just under
20k chips, and within two orbits I broke 30k without a single
showdown! One big hand I played early in my stay at the table went
thusly:
I open 99 from the hijack seat for 2k and get called by the SB (an seemingly
eccentric guy who has ~35k).
Flop: T65r. Checks to me, I bet 2800, and he thinks for a sec before
minraising. Bleh, not a good spot, but I've seen him do some stupid,
weird shit already so I thought for a bit before calling.
Turn: A. Great card for me to bluff. He checks, and I actually
decided to check behind because that's how I would usually play an ace
here. In retrospect, betting the turn was probably a better line against most opponents.
River: 3. He checks, I bet 5k, and he insta-folds.
At the time, I had no idea how insane this guy
was, but this became increasingly more apparent as the session
progressed. He was mentally unstable to the point where I was actually concerned
for his mental health. For example, he had a ~5"x5" piece of
construction paper in his pocket that he would bring out and set on
the table every time he won a pot. On it was handwritten something to
the tone of, "All online poker sites are rigged! They cheat and scam
you out of your money and cannot he trusted. They are all dirty liars;
don't believe their propaganda!" Our friend was certainly a few cards
short of a full deck, and the antics he performed later on confirmed my
suspicions.
Although the lunatic was certainly an entertaining character (and I'll
share some hilarious stories in a future post), lemme get to the
important hands I played in the tournament. I had worked my stack up to
around 40k by stealing the blinds and antes a bunch of times, which
was made possible by the other players at my table playing strictly
"by the book" poker.
For instance, I'd raise Q8o from MP with two of these basic-level
players in the blinds; one time, the BB laughed when it was folded to
him as he flipped up A9s and exclaimed, "Man, the book says to fold
here...I don't like my kicker very much." He folded, and I laughed to
myself about how easy it was to accumulate chips at this table. This was just too easy for a tournament with a $10k buyin!
Towards the end of the 300/600-100 (blind-ante) level I noticed that the
player to the left of the lunatic was visibly frustrated that he
hadn't won a pot in awhile, and he recently failed at an attempt to
steal the blinds which angered him even more. He had about 35k to
start the following hand:
The guy I just described opened for 2400 third to act, and it folded
around to me on the button. I looked down to see JJ and decided to
just smooth call in position. Both blinds folded their hands behind me.
Flop: T54r. Pretty good flop for me; he leads for 6k, which was very
unusually large for both him and for the standard table c-bet size. I
really felt like he had overcards and wanted me to fold, so I raised
to 16k. He instantly shoved the rest of his chips in the pot, which made me go into the tank for awhile to think. He had about the same number of chips as me to start the hand, so this decision
was essentially for my tournament life. After a bit over a minute of
thought, I didn't feel that he had an overpair or a set and decided to call his
~15k allin raise. He proudly turned over ATo, convinced he had the
beat hand, and looked very sullen when he saw my jacks.
The turn was a blank, but the river was another ten to basically seal my
fate in this tourney. I was obviously furious to see that river card,
and I jumped to my feet and smacked my hands together a few times in an attempt to release the massive rage inside my soul. An ESPN camera crew
happened to be right behind me when this all unfolded, so I'm sure
they got a great reaction shot of me when the ten hit on the river.
Ugh, I hate tournaments SO MUCH.
So the dealer counted out the chips, and I was left with 725 chips to
play with. After paying the 100 ante, I was allin next hand for
slightly over one BB. My A3 held up against the blinds' two
hands to more than triple me up! I more than doubled again in my BB
the subsequent orbit when a bad player with an already smallish stack
raised my blind with junk and lost to my A7s. After more stealing, I
worked my way back up to a nice 18k stack! I'M ALIVE!
Just over an hour into the 400/800-100 level, I finally decided to
stand up to the player on my right who was consostently overbetting
the pot preflop (he'd open for like 3.2k at the 300/600 level or 4000
at 400/800). He made it 4k to go from MP one round, and I 3-bet him
to 13k with KQh. He asked for a count of my remaining chips, then
thought for about 30 seconds before folding. Nice pot for me -- my
stack was now around 28k which was terrific considering my chip
position after losing that JJ hand about an hour beforehand.
The very next hand, the same guy opened for 5k from MP. I looked down
and saw two queens in my hand, so I moved all-in for about 28k. He
again asked for a chip count, then thought for ~20 seconds before
calling with aces. What a slowrolling asshole; stalling like that
before calling with the best possible hand breaks the most fundamental
rule of poker ettiquite and is strongly looked down upon by all poker
players.
My play here was correct -- he shows up here with hands like 99, TT,
JJ, or AJ almost 100% of the time -- and I was utterly shocked to
see AA played this way. I was excited, however, when the flop
came QTT! Ship it baby! The turn was a blank, and I was so excited
that I didn't notice the ace on the river to end my run in the
2007 Main Event. Oh well, gg me; I had a great time playing anyway.
There are some more really awesome/hilarious stories from the Main Event that I'll share with everyone in the coming days, but for now it's time for sleeeeep.
in Vegas (as usual). I played the WSOP Main Event on Monday, and here's what
happened:
The table I was started at was a lot more aggressive than I expected it to be;
people were 3-betting regularly, and it was extremely rare to see a
flop in an unraised pot. Everyone started with 20k chips with blinds of 50/100, which was great. I lost a few big pots early on, made most of
it back when I flopped the nuts one hand, then dropped back down to ~11k on a
failed bluff. This went on for the first 4-5hrs or so, then I
thankfully got moved to a new table after the dinner break.
My new table was soft as hell. All my raises got respect, and I was
able to accumulate a bunch of chips quickly. Within 2 hours my stack
was healthy again at around 20k; then the table broke and I got moved
again.
My third table was the best of them all. I arrived with just under
20k chips, and within two orbits I broke 30k without a single
showdown! One big hand I played early in my stay at the table went
thusly:
I open 99 from the hijack seat for 2k and get called by the SB (an seemingly
eccentric guy who has ~35k).
Flop: T65r. Checks to me, I bet 2800, and he thinks for a sec before
minraising. Bleh, not a good spot, but I've seen him do some stupid,
weird shit already so I thought for a bit before calling.
Turn: A. Great card for me to bluff. He checks, and I actually
decided to check behind because that's how I would usually play an ace
here. In retrospect, betting the turn was probably a better line against most opponents.
River: 3. He checks, I bet 5k, and he insta-folds.
At the time, I had no idea how insane this guy
was, but this became increasingly more apparent as the session
progressed. He was mentally unstable to the point where I was actually concerned
for his mental health. For example, he had a ~5"x5" piece of
construction paper in his pocket that he would bring out and set on
the table every time he won a pot. On it was handwritten something to
the tone of, "All online poker sites are rigged! They cheat and scam
you out of your money and cannot he trusted. They are all dirty liars;
don't believe their propaganda!" Our friend was certainly a few cards
short of a full deck, and the antics he performed later on confirmed my
suspicions.
Although the lunatic was certainly an entertaining character (and I'll
share some hilarious stories in a future post), lemme get to the
important hands I played in the tournament. I had worked my stack up to
around 40k by stealing the blinds and antes a bunch of times, which
was made possible by the other players at my table playing strictly
"by the book" poker.
For instance, I'd raise Q8o from MP with two of these basic-level
players in the blinds; one time, the BB laughed when it was folded to
him as he flipped up A9s and exclaimed, "Man, the book says to fold
here...I don't like my kicker very much." He folded, and I laughed to
myself about how easy it was to accumulate chips at this table. This was just too easy for a tournament with a $10k buyin!
Towards the end of the 300/600-100 (blind-ante) level I noticed that the
player to the left of the lunatic was visibly frustrated that he
hadn't won a pot in awhile, and he recently failed at an attempt to
steal the blinds which angered him even more. He had about 35k to
start the following hand:
The guy I just described opened for 2400 third to act, and it folded
around to me on the button. I looked down to see JJ and decided to
just smooth call in position. Both blinds folded their hands behind me.
Flop: T54r. Pretty good flop for me; he leads for 6k, which was very
unusually large for both him and for the standard table c-bet size. I
really felt like he had overcards and wanted me to fold, so I raised
to 16k. He instantly shoved the rest of his chips in the pot, which made me go into the tank for awhile to think. He had about the same number of chips as me to start the hand, so this decision
was essentially for my tournament life. After a bit over a minute of
thought, I didn't feel that he had an overpair or a set and decided to call his
~15k allin raise. He proudly turned over ATo, convinced he had the
beat hand, and looked very sullen when he saw my jacks.
The turn was a blank, but the river was another ten to basically seal my
fate in this tourney. I was obviously furious to see that river card,
and I jumped to my feet and smacked my hands together a few times in an attempt to release the massive rage inside my soul. An ESPN camera crew
happened to be right behind me when this all unfolded, so I'm sure
they got a great reaction shot of me when the ten hit on the river.
Ugh, I hate tournaments SO MUCH.
So the dealer counted out the chips, and I was left with 725 chips to
play with. After paying the 100 ante, I was allin next hand for
slightly over one BB. My A3 held up against the blinds' two
hands to more than triple me up! I more than doubled again in my BB
the subsequent orbit when a bad player with an already smallish stack
raised my blind with junk and lost to my A7s. After more stealing, I
worked my way back up to a nice 18k stack! I'M ALIVE!
Just over an hour into the 400/800-100 level, I finally decided to
stand up to the player on my right who was consostently overbetting
the pot preflop (he'd open for like 3.2k at the 300/600 level or 4000
at 400/800). He made it 4k to go from MP one round, and I 3-bet him
to 13k with KQh. He asked for a count of my remaining chips, then
thought for about 30 seconds before folding. Nice pot for me -- my
stack was now around 28k which was terrific considering my chip
position after losing that JJ hand about an hour beforehand.
The very next hand, the same guy opened for 5k from MP. I looked down
and saw two queens in my hand, so I moved all-in for about 28k. He
again asked for a chip count, then thought for ~20 seconds before
calling with aces. What a slowrolling asshole; stalling like that
before calling with the best possible hand breaks the most fundamental
rule of poker ettiquite and is strongly looked down upon by all poker
players.
My play here was correct -- he shows up here with hands like 99, TT,
JJ, or AJ almost 100% of the time -- and I was utterly shocked to
see AA played this way. I was excited, however, when the flop
came QTT! Ship it baby! The turn was a blank, and I was so excited
that I didn't notice the ace on the river to end my run in the
2007 Main Event. Oh well, gg me; I had a great time playing anyway.
There are some more really awesome/hilarious stories from the Main Event that I'll share with everyone in the coming days, but for now it's time for sleeeeep.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Ready for the Main Event
I'm so pumped about playing the ME. Aside from partying with Nath and crew to celebrate his big win last night, I've been mentally preparing myself for the (hopefully) long road ahead of me in this tournament.
I've been looking to sell pieces of my action in the ME recently as well, and I think I'm gonna close the doors with 40% of my action now sold. I'm still thrilled to play for 60% of myself, and it feels good to know that other people see me as a profitable investment. I certainly think I'm a good investment, and hopefully I can prove us all right with a nice showing in the coming week(s). All I can hope for is to play well and keep myself focused, and I'm ready to do both.
Bill (Zimba) from CardRunners will update the CR WSOP blog with chip counts for me and other CR members/pros throughout the day, so checking there is the best way to keep track of me. Wish me luck!
I've been looking to sell pieces of my action in the ME recently as well, and I think I'm gonna close the doors with 40% of my action now sold. I'm still thrilled to play for 60% of myself, and it feels good to know that other people see me as a profitable investment. I certainly think I'm a good investment, and hopefully I can prove us all right with a nice showing in the coming week(s). All I can hope for is to play well and keep myself focused, and I'm ready to do both.
Bill (Zimba) from CardRunners will update the CR WSOP blog with chip counts for me and other CR members/pros throughout the day, so checking there is the best way to keep track of me. Wish me luck!
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Our house is sick at poker
Nath just won the PokerStars nightly $150 for $24k. Most of the guys at his final table were pretty bad players too, and the guy he was heads-up with at the end was super weak until they got HU. I'd swear it was a different person playing once HU started.
Off to the strip to celebrate -- I'm probably gonna crash at Kush and Aaron's place since we're all gonna meet over there tomorrow anyway to play the Million together. It's party time in Vegas baby!
Off to the strip to celebrate -- I'm probably gonna crash at Kush and Aaron's place since we're all gonna meet over there tomorrow anyway to play the Million together. It's party time in Vegas baby!
Saturday, July 7, 2007
$10k is a LOT of money
It really is. We poker players train ourselves to disassociate the chips we play with with their actual monetary value, but I'm sorry: $10k is a LOT of money that can be used to buy a ton of awesome stuff. It was hard laying down all those benjamins to the cashier at the Rio, but I know that my entry is +EV. But even so, I realized that this was the 2nd most expensive purchase I've ever made (second only to my car), and I'm totally fine with that. I'm registered to play on Day 1-D, which is Monday.
I finally met Brian Townsend yesterday afternoon at our CardRunners booth at the gaming expo inside the Rio. We'd been trying to get together for dinner or drinks for a few weeks without success, so it was nice to finally get to talk to him about a lot of the ideas I have for CR.
We met later that night for dinner at a sushi place inside the Wynn along with a friend of his from college named Amy, and Brian introduced me to a bunch of interesting sushi/Japanese delicacies. I'm not usually a big seafood guy (I only have cravings for sushi about once per year), but I'm always open to trying new things, and most of what Brian ordered for us was pretty good. I still prefer a good steak to any type of seafood, but it was a great experience. We also had some really great discussions about the future of CR and this type of business model in general. Brian is an extremely intelligent person; there's no doubt in my mind that he would be wildly successful in any line of work outside the poker world.
After dinner, we headed over to the CR/Bluff Magazine party at the Sapphire Lounge. The whole CR crew was there, as were a bunch of my other friends (Kush, Aaron, Lyric). Stinger got a great picture of Zimba getting a lapdance, and we all partied there for the rest of the night. I ducked out a little early with an upset stomach to go register for the Main Event (the line during the day was apparently >3hrs long), then headed home for some much-needed sleep.
I hit up the Bellagio poker room at around 4pm today and jumped into a $5/10 game. The first hand I played came a little more than orbit into my session: ~3 limps, button raises to $60, I look down to see JJ in the BB and bump it up to $210, folds to the button who instantly 4-bets to $480. Nobody 4-bets with less than KK live, so that was an easy laydown. I flipped up my jacks as I folded.
The very next hand, a few people limp to the CO who raises to $50. I pick up JJ again and make it $180 to go on the button, and the CO is the only caller. Flop: AK4r, he leads for $200 and I fold. Well played sir.
I get dealt JJ again the very next hand. WTF, who is shuffling? This time, a guy who appears to be a bad player raises from MP. I 3-bet to $200 for the third fucking time in a row, and this time the button looks down at his cards and announces he is all in for about $1k, which makes this yet another easy fold. It's sick how good I run.
I played 5/10 for another hour or so before deciding to jump into one of the $10/20 games running close by. After 3-4hrs of being completely card dead, I finally get my ~$2500 in with 9h8c vs KdTs on a 7h8hTh board. Somehow I brick out on the turn & river, so this villain took about $2400 of my stack. What can I say...when you're hot, you're hot!
The table was pretty soft, and I felt like I had a big edge on almost everyone at the table, so I reloaded for my final ~$2500. I had no idea how much amazing action there was gonna be at this table -- here are some examples:
Seat 3 was a pretty bad player who raised/played waaaaay too many hands and paid off far too often (and lightly)
Seat 4 played even worse, but he was generally very passive
Seat 5 was a player that obviously was regarded by pretty much everyone else at the table as a good, solid player, but IMO he wasn't anything special
Seat 6 = me. My table image for all of these hands was very solid/TAG. I had only shown down good hands that I bet strongly for value. This is a great table image to have since it is so easily abused. :)
Seat 7 was a solid player
Seat 8 could be solid at times, but he was much too loose in his hand selection both pre- and post-flop
Hand #1:
Button is in Seat 5
Seat 3 (stack = ~$10k) opens for $120 (pretty standard for him), Seat 4 (stack = ~$4k) calls, Seat 5 (stack = ~$3500) calls, and I pick up AA in the SB and raise to about $500 (my stack was ~$3500), Seat 7 was sitting out, Seat 8 (stack = ~$7k) cold calls from the BB, and everyone else calls too. So 5 players to the flop for ~$500 each.
Flop: Qs8hQc. This is not a great flop for AA playing multi-way -- especially from OOP -- and I decided to take an alternate line on this hand. Seat 8 loooooves to bet/bluff when he has position on the preflop aggressor, and I figured that I could get some really great value from him if I checked and let him do the betting for me. Plus, this way I have great relative position on the flop bettor and I find out if someone else has a Queen cheaply. So I check, and unfortunately he checks behind me after thinking for a sec; Seats 3&4 both check, and Seat 5 bet $360. This was such a strange/tiny bet and I had no idea what it meant. So I called, and Seat 8
quickly raised to $800. Seat 3 folds, and to everyone's surprise Seat 4 cold calls the $800, as does Seat 5. The pot is huge now, and even though it's pretty obvious that AA is no good here, the pot was too large and the bet was too small for me to fold. Hell, I think I even had odds to draw to my two Aces here, so I called.
Turn: 6d. Total brick; sigh...I'm ready to check/fold. I check, Seat 8 checks, Seat 4 checks, and I couldn't believe what was happening when Seat 5 checked behind too.
River: Kc. I didn't know what to think about the turn action, but I still don't think my hand is good here and I probably can't get anyone to lay down a Queen, so I have to check again. Seat 8 checks, as does Seat 4, and Seat 5 checks as well. AA is good; WTF?! All that was going through my mind during this time was "Wow....just.....wow." Seriously, how does nobody (esp Seat 4!) have a Queen or 88 there. Seriously.
Hand #2:
Button was in Seat 5 again
Stack sizes are about the same, except mine was about $8k now. Seat 8 straddles to $40, Seat 3 opens for $160, Seat 5 calls, I make it $560 to go with JJ from the SB, Seat 8 cold calls again (what is up with this guy?), and the other two call as well.
Flop: 8d5c4h. Sigh, this is such a crappy spot to be in (especially OOP!); I decided to bet/fold to a raise. I put in ~$1200, Seat 8 insta-calls, Seat 3 folds, and Seat 4 thinks for over a minute before finally folding his hand. He told me later he folded A8o (nice fold buddy)...it's utterly ridiculous how bad people are at poker.
Turn: Ah. It's pretty obvious that I don't have the best hand, but this is a great scare card for me to bluff at with my tight/nitty table image, so I decided to take one final stab at the pot and bet $2500. Seat 8 sighs loudly before folding QQ face-up. Hooray!
I ended the session a few orbits later after Seat 4 went busto and Seat 3 left to get food. From there, I headed over to Kush and Aaron's place at the Towers by the strip and we discussed a bunch of hands from my session, including the ones above. Among other things, we all agreed that 1) my 3-bets in both hands were way too small and offered more implied odds to the others in the hand than I wished to give them, 2) my table was insanely soft and gave massive action, and 3) I shouldn't have left the game until Seat 3 went busto too. Oh well.
Kush finally paid up the $400 he owed me on UB, so I challenged him to a HU match at PLO on Full Tilt. Neither of us is particularly skilled at PLO, but he agreed and we played two tables of 1/2 PLO HU for a little under an hour. I started off really badly (was down almost 4 buyins really quick), but I battled back like the machine I am to finish as a big winner. Check out the sickest hand of the match. I got my money in pretty bad there, but there's no way I'm ever not stacking off on this flop for ~100bb. Red deuce for the win!
That's it for now -- I'm very pumped about playing the Sunday Tourney with Kush/Aaron/etc on Sunday and then the Main Event on Monday. The next few days should be a blast!
I finally met Brian Townsend yesterday afternoon at our CardRunners booth at the gaming expo inside the Rio. We'd been trying to get together for dinner or drinks for a few weeks without success, so it was nice to finally get to talk to him about a lot of the ideas I have for CR.
We met later that night for dinner at a sushi place inside the Wynn along with a friend of his from college named Amy, and Brian introduced me to a bunch of interesting sushi/Japanese delicacies. I'm not usually a big seafood guy (I only have cravings for sushi about once per year), but I'm always open to trying new things, and most of what Brian ordered for us was pretty good. I still prefer a good steak to any type of seafood, but it was a great experience. We also had some really great discussions about the future of CR and this type of business model in general. Brian is an extremely intelligent person; there's no doubt in my mind that he would be wildly successful in any line of work outside the poker world.
After dinner, we headed over to the CR/Bluff Magazine party at the Sapphire Lounge. The whole CR crew was there, as were a bunch of my other friends (Kush, Aaron, Lyric). Stinger got a great picture of Zimba getting a lapdance, and we all partied there for the rest of the night. I ducked out a little early with an upset stomach to go register for the Main Event (the line during the day was apparently >3hrs long), then headed home for some much-needed sleep.
I hit up the Bellagio poker room at around 4pm today and jumped into a $5/10 game. The first hand I played came a little more than orbit into my session: ~3 limps, button raises to $60, I look down to see JJ in the BB and bump it up to $210, folds to the button who instantly 4-bets to $480. Nobody 4-bets with less than KK live, so that was an easy laydown. I flipped up my jacks as I folded.
The very next hand, a few people limp to the CO who raises to $50. I pick up JJ again and make it $180 to go on the button, and the CO is the only caller. Flop: AK4r, he leads for $200 and I fold. Well played sir.
I get dealt JJ again the very next hand. WTF, who is shuffling? This time, a guy who appears to be a bad player raises from MP. I 3-bet to $200 for the third fucking time in a row, and this time the button looks down at his cards and announces he is all in for about $1k, which makes this yet another easy fold. It's sick how good I run.
I played 5/10 for another hour or so before deciding to jump into one of the $10/20 games running close by. After 3-4hrs of being completely card dead, I finally get my ~$2500 in with 9h8c vs KdTs on a 7h8hTh board. Somehow I brick out on the turn & river, so this villain took about $2400 of my stack. What can I say...when you're hot, you're hot!
The table was pretty soft, and I felt like I had a big edge on almost everyone at the table, so I reloaded for my final ~$2500. I had no idea how much amazing action there was gonna be at this table -- here are some examples:
Seat 3 was a pretty bad player who raised/played waaaaay too many hands and paid off far too often (and lightly)
Seat 4 played even worse, but he was generally very passive
Seat 5 was a player that obviously was regarded by pretty much everyone else at the table as a good, solid player, but IMO he wasn't anything special
Seat 6 = me. My table image for all of these hands was very solid/TAG. I had only shown down good hands that I bet strongly for value. This is a great table image to have since it is so easily abused. :)
Seat 7 was a solid player
Seat 8 could be solid at times, but he was much too loose in his hand selection both pre- and post-flop
Hand #1:
Button is in Seat 5
Seat 3 (stack = ~$10k) opens for $120 (pretty standard for him), Seat 4 (stack = ~$4k) calls, Seat 5 (stack = ~$3500) calls, and I pick up AA in the SB and raise to about $500 (my stack was ~$3500), Seat 7 was sitting out, Seat 8 (stack = ~$7k) cold calls from the BB, and everyone else calls too. So 5 players to the flop for ~$500 each.
Flop: Qs8hQc. This is not a great flop for AA playing multi-way -- especially from OOP -- and I decided to take an alternate line on this hand. Seat 8 loooooves to bet/bluff when he has position on the preflop aggressor, and I figured that I could get some really great value from him if I checked and let him do the betting for me. Plus, this way I have great relative position on the flop bettor and I find out if someone else has a Queen cheaply. So I check, and unfortunately he checks behind me after thinking for a sec; Seats 3&4 both check, and Seat 5 bet $360. This was such a strange/tiny bet and I had no idea what it meant. So I called, and Seat 8
quickly raised to $800. Seat 3 folds, and to everyone's surprise Seat 4 cold calls the $800, as does Seat 5. The pot is huge now, and even though it's pretty obvious that AA is no good here, the pot was too large and the bet was too small for me to fold. Hell, I think I even had odds to draw to my two Aces here, so I called.
Turn: 6d. Total brick; sigh...I'm ready to check/fold. I check, Seat 8 checks, Seat 4 checks, and I couldn't believe what was happening when Seat 5 checked behind too.
River: Kc. I didn't know what to think about the turn action, but I still don't think my hand is good here and I probably can't get anyone to lay down a Queen, so I have to check again. Seat 8 checks, as does Seat 4, and Seat 5 checks as well. AA is good; WTF?! All that was going through my mind during this time was "Wow....just.....wow." Seriously, how does nobody (esp Seat 4!) have a Queen or 88 there. Seriously.
Hand #2:
Button was in Seat 5 again
Stack sizes are about the same, except mine was about $8k now. Seat 8 straddles to $40, Seat 3 opens for $160, Seat 5 calls, I make it $560 to go with JJ from the SB, Seat 8 cold calls again (what is up with this guy?), and the other two call as well.
Flop: 8d5c4h. Sigh, this is such a crappy spot to be in (especially OOP!); I decided to bet/fold to a raise. I put in ~$1200, Seat 8 insta-calls, Seat 3 folds, and Seat 4 thinks for over a minute before finally folding his hand. He told me later he folded A8o (nice fold buddy)...it's utterly ridiculous how bad people are at poker.
Turn: Ah. It's pretty obvious that I don't have the best hand, but this is a great scare card for me to bluff at with my tight/nitty table image, so I decided to take one final stab at the pot and bet $2500. Seat 8 sighs loudly before folding QQ face-up. Hooray!
I ended the session a few orbits later after Seat 4 went busto and Seat 3 left to get food. From there, I headed over to Kush and Aaron's place at the Towers by the strip and we discussed a bunch of hands from my session, including the ones above. Among other things, we all agreed that 1) my 3-bets in both hands were way too small and offered more implied odds to the others in the hand than I wished to give them, 2) my table was insanely soft and gave massive action, and 3) I shouldn't have left the game until Seat 3 went busto too. Oh well.
Kush finally paid up the $400 he owed me on UB, so I challenged him to a HU match at PLO on Full Tilt. Neither of us is particularly skilled at PLO, but he agreed and we played two tables of 1/2 PLO HU for a little under an hour. I started off really badly (was down almost 4 buyins really quick), but I battled back like the machine I am to finish as a big winner. Check out the sickest hand of the match. I got my money in pretty bad there, but there's no way I'm ever not stacking off on this flop for ~100bb. Red deuce for the win!
That's it for now -- I'm very pumped about playing the Sunday Tourney with Kush/Aaron/etc on Sunday and then the Main Event on Monday. The next few days should be a blast!
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Main Event, Here I Come!
The past few days have been pretty awesome, especially last night.
Since my last update, I've successfully completed all of the required jumps with my skydiving instructor Kevin, and I have now been cleared for truly solo jumps. I can't even begin to describe how awesome the sensation is when you spot everything on a skydive by yourself and are entirely in control of your own jump. I learned how to "track" in the air too (which is positioning your body in such a way to significantly reduce drag, thus making you fly a LOT faster), and it's a freaking blast. I can't wait to jump again!
I've been running a lot better live recently too (aside from a bad 10/20 session a few days ago where I dropped about 5-6k), including winning one really nice $6k pot vs a really bad player to end my session at the Wynn on Tuesday morning.
Anyway, I decided to do some laundry and play a few tourneys online yesterday morning + afternoon instead of going skydiving or heading back to the strip, and I'm glad I did. I bubbled the $50+Rebuy+Addon on Stars in an unavoidable situation, but I got pretty deep in the afternoon $50 freezeout. Here are a few screenshots I took:
- Final Table About to Start
- New Chipleader!
- Start of HU
- A Winnar is Me!
Big thanks to Nath, Meyvis, and Ben for helping me out when I had questions. When I was in good shape with about 18 left in the tournament, I told Nath that I'd play the Main Event if I won. Hopefully I can be the next Jamie Gold, minus the douchebaggery and bad play overall. Oh and because this house is full of sick tournament players, Nath just had to show me up last night by taking 2nd in the Full Tilt $100+Rebuy tourney for ~$15k. Sick stuff.
So to celebrate my win, I met up with some CardRunners friends at Tao in the Venetian. Derric (SixPeppers) and Lyric were both really cool guys, and a few random CR members were there as well. The upstairs pool area is freaking gorgeous, and we had a table to hang out at where we each consumed our fair share of tasty beverages. As I was scoping out the pool area for some girls, I noticed that Andrew (from CR) and his crew were there as well. Our two groups merged and we had a blast drinking and hanging out all night (and occasionally trying to get Stinger to do something crazy).
Kush and Aaron showed up a few hours later to hang out, and after the party died down I left with them to try and hit up Ghost Bar at the Palms. Unfortunately it closed like 15min before we got there, and we ran similarly bad trying to get into the Voodoo Lounge at the top of the Rio. So sick to have such a cooler after the nasty beat the Palms dished out on us. I crashed at Kush and Aaron's place for the night -- their condo is pretty sweet and is right next to the strip. Vegas is so awesome.
There's apparently a CR / Bluff Magazine party tonight at the Stratosphere that should be fun, so I'm gonna go meet the whole CR crew at their booth at the Rio in a few minutes and see what happens from there. Should be fun!
Since my last update, I've successfully completed all of the required jumps with my skydiving instructor Kevin, and I have now been cleared for truly solo jumps. I can't even begin to describe how awesome the sensation is when you spot everything on a skydive by yourself and are entirely in control of your own jump. I learned how to "track" in the air too (which is positioning your body in such a way to significantly reduce drag, thus making you fly a LOT faster), and it's a freaking blast. I can't wait to jump again!
I've been running a lot better live recently too (aside from a bad 10/20 session a few days ago where I dropped about 5-6k), including winning one really nice $6k pot vs a really bad player to end my session at the Wynn on Tuesday morning.
Anyway, I decided to do some laundry and play a few tourneys online yesterday morning + afternoon instead of going skydiving or heading back to the strip, and I'm glad I did. I bubbled the $50+Rebuy+Addon on Stars in an unavoidable situation, but I got pretty deep in the afternoon $50 freezeout. Here are a few screenshots I took:
- Final Table About to Start
- New Chipleader!
- Start of HU
- A Winnar is Me!
Big thanks to Nath, Meyvis, and Ben for helping me out when I had questions. When I was in good shape with about 18 left in the tournament, I told Nath that I'd play the Main Event if I won. Hopefully I can be the next Jamie Gold, minus the douchebaggery and bad play overall. Oh and because this house is full of sick tournament players, Nath just had to show me up last night by taking 2nd in the Full Tilt $100+Rebuy tourney for ~$15k. Sick stuff.
So to celebrate my win, I met up with some CardRunners friends at Tao in the Venetian. Derric (SixPeppers) and Lyric were both really cool guys, and a few random CR members were there as well. The upstairs pool area is freaking gorgeous, and we had a table to hang out at where we each consumed our fair share of tasty beverages. As I was scoping out the pool area for some girls, I noticed that Andrew (from CR) and his crew were there as well. Our two groups merged and we had a blast drinking and hanging out all night (and occasionally trying to get Stinger to do something crazy).
Kush and Aaron showed up a few hours later to hang out, and after the party died down I left with them to try and hit up Ghost Bar at the Palms. Unfortunately it closed like 15min before we got there, and we ran similarly bad trying to get into the Voodoo Lounge at the top of the Rio. So sick to have such a cooler after the nasty beat the Palms dished out on us. I crashed at Kush and Aaron's place for the night -- their condo is pretty sweet and is right next to the strip. Vegas is so awesome.
There's apparently a CR / Bluff Magazine party tonight at the Stratosphere that should be fun, so I'm gonna go meet the whole CR crew at their booth at the Rio in a few minutes and see what happens from there. Should be fun!
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