Sunday, October 30, 2011

Event #1 -Venetian DSE- How do you people do this for a living?

The other day on my new Internet based radio show 'Everything Weight', I interviewed blogger and professional poker player William "Poker Monkey" Souther. Monkey does this poker tournament thing for a living. He couldn't have made more sense when he commented on the show, "the game of poker lends to depression." This is especially true in tournament poker. This is really really true if you do tournament poker for a living. Because honestly, as a hobby, it shatters my innards. Thankfully it just ruins my night...and by the next day I'm usually over it. And honestly, when I lose, I don't believe it matters emotionally if I lost after making a wrong or correct decision. Especially after spending such long hours, 20 to be exact. Although a lot of the tournament was fun, overall it was a lot of work and stress. It did not feel like a day off from work...but try convincing my wife that, who thinks it's all shits and giggles. Hell, I think I have had less stress being the responsible one for a code blue (cardiac arrect) in the hopsital. I think though, that if the financial security of my family relied on poker I would go absolutely insane.

Tonight I placed 14th out of 751 at event #1 of the Venetian DSE. Yes I got lucky at times...but I played my A game. Day 1a I did a lot of roller coastering and then at the end of the day got real lucky to have a complete donk to my right that dumped a bunch of chips my way. When I have a huge pile I become incredibly lethal, and it is hard to stop me. I just kind of barrelled my way through Day 2. Even though I was crushing for hours today when the field hit the last 3 tables the competition became tough. Not to mention, during most of the final 27, I was 3rd or so in chips and kept getting larger stacks moved directly to my left. Really?

When we were down to 18 I got placed at a table that was very aggressive and it was a struggle to find good opportunities to take pots. The #9 and #7 seat were very LAG, and they often seemed to be getting into a "who has a bigger penis" contest with 3 and 4 betting each other. Occasionally the #3 seat got involved in the penis games. They took ENORMOUS amounts of time to make their plays. It was painful and torturous and seemed to be a good method for Al Qaeda to employ.

Notable Hand #1

I am in the cut-off (seat #6) With about 950k. Blinds are 10k/20k with 3k antes.
I am looking at Pocket 10s

Seat #3 was short; maybe 200k or so. He open shoves.

I don't mind flipping in this situation, and there is a good shot I'm doing better than a coin flip.

Seat #4 & 5 fold.

I call. I thought about raising or shoving but wanted to see the rest of the action and from whom, before I committed more. Maybe I should have shoved....#7 and #8 fold, and then #9 takes his usual 20 million years in the tank before he decided to shove his 700k.

I have no respect for him after the ranges I saw him playing with and the risks he was making with crappy hands.

I think to myself:

1. Again, I'm either WAY Ahead, or coin flipping; against just him; if he wakes up with a huge hand, bad luck, this guy is doing shit like this way too much for me to give him much credibly. I decide if I am flipping I am probably doing better than that since there is a good shot he is sharing over-cards with seat #3.

I call.

Denny Robinson, a friend and patient of mine (yes he has agreed to allowing me to disclose that information) was coincidentally sitting on my right at this table. He clearly didn't approve of my call. But honestly, I'm not waiting on pocket Aces to take a stand against this aggro punk.

Both of them turn up AJ. SWEEEEEEEEEEEET!

I couldn't watch the board, but no Ace or Jack came. The river made a flush. I don't remember either AJ being suited and so it must have been a four flush.

It was pretty nauseating. After being crippled I open shoved my 6BB with deuces in the cut-off and lost, placing #14.

I am over it now. I had a lot of fun. My bankroll is healthy. I have been playing well and just won an event at the MGM Series 2 weeks ago, and also won a daily event at the Aria shortly after my Main Event cash at the WSOP. I am getting more known in the poker world and earning respect as a player from other professionals. I also have plans to once again get more active with QuadJacks, and recently did an extensive interview with them that I felt was pretty awesome. The notoriety, with pro-poker players, I think will be a useful business tool for my practice in the future.

Best of all, I am balancing my family and business well with poker lately.

This game is a sick game...but often life is sicker. I say if you can master your emotions in poker, you can master your life.

This game is a great game.

2 comments:

  1. nice to see a fresh post.......good job......I like your comment that this game is sick. I like to say.......
    Poker is stupid....deal me in.

    ReplyDelete
  2. my blog is more famous than pokermonkey is, u should interview ME on that show.

    ReplyDelete