To coordinate with work as best as possible I picked day 1c, Saturday, to be my first starting day. There was a lot of buzz from Thursday and Friday and to be honest much of it made me nervous.
On Thursday, Day 1a, I first saw my friend the Poker Grump, who won a seat into the event, get put at this viciously brutal table of individuals, Including Greg Raymer (2004 WSOP Main Event Champion) David Chicotsky (2008 Online Player of the Year) and Tom Schneider (2006 Player of the Year). Wow...watching his updates kept my heart going through the day and I was proud that the grump survived his first day while Greg, David and Tom did not. Nor did a number of other big names, such as Doyle Brunson.
Of course my mind wanders. Am I even going to survive day 1? Who will be at my table? Is it gonna be stacked by well known pro's also? How will I play? Am I going to be able to control my aggression and be patient enough to wait for hands. AM I going to tighten up too much and get bullied by people eventually blinding out? To say the least, I had a lot of pre opening day butterflies.
As nervous as I was, I have to say that I impressed myself when the butterflies flew away as soon as the cards were dealt. I felt no undue pressure at all and in fact got involved in the very first pot, bluffed at it, and took it down. Oh geez. Is this how the day is going to go? Am I going to be living on the edge like this all day?
I was very active the first 2 levels and got in an out of a lot of pots. I put a significant amount of energy in pot control and my chip fluctuation was between 24-38k. from my 30k starting stack. The guy to my immediate right was chipping up fast. He was clearly a newbie/amateur but he was hitting sets, straights, nut flushes, all kinds of stuff and was getting paid off. Kid to my left, Joel Shulruf aka "feltin'donks" was clearly a tough online player and a student of David Chicotsky's. One over to his left was also a strong online player. A few seats to my right was Chiropractor David Hunkus, who although not the best, was strong enough to give me the most grief on day 1 (ie He flopped a set of Aces when I had AK).
I did not have any serious good or bad fortune until I picked up pocket Kings on the button. A nitty old man in middle position open raised. He got two flat callers. I, of course, bring in a big re-raise. Clearly no body is giving me credit for a hand and so they all call. Great. That's what I want a 4 way pot. The flop came with low cards and the nit bets. The next two fold.
At this point I was pretty sure he had Queens, maybe Jacks. Seriously doubt he would open raise with anything that might hit a set. If he had aces or kings he would have 4 bet back at me pre-flop. I doubt he is betting with air. I call the flop to see if hell charge ahead on the turn, which he does. He puts me in for 70% of my chips and I simply finish the job and go all-in. Yes level 3 I had my tourney life on the line...but I was fairly sure I was ahead, the river was my fear! He of course calls and turns up Queens, The river is a blank and I chip up to close to 65k. This guy was so patient and so inactive that I have to say I felt a little empathy for him after I took his chips. I had no idea how bad he may have felt, but just couldn't help but wonder if the 10k buy-in was a big deal to him or if it was really not a big deal. Regardless I felt what all poker players shouldn't feel, I felt sorry for him.
Later on a new kid came to our table and had raised my BB which I flat called with 57diamonds. The flop came 7QQ. I bet out knowing the chances that he has a Queen are low. He 3-bet me back, which I considered a weak move...the turn was a 6 and I check-called his turn bet. The river was a 3rd Queen, I checked keeping pot control in mind and he shoved all in. His all-in bet would have brought my stack to 45k if I was wrong. I was sure he had no Queen and that the only thing he could possibly have better than me was a pocket pair. The all-in felt very polarized and designed for me to fold, cuz hey if he had a pair he would likely check right? If he had a Queen he would be frightened to scare me away? I called and I was right he had nothing. My stack soars to over 90k.
Not long after I have been watching the nice inexperienced guy to my right donk off all of the chips he accumulated from his run good. He eventually became short stacked and shoved with KJ and I called him with a medium pocket pair and knocked him out. His hands were shaking after it happened and I felt deep sorrow for him as well. I imagined that the 10k put his family in a tight spot and he was counting on this win. I don't know why I think like this, I just do...I don't let it affect how hard I play someone but I can't rid my self of empathizing with the pain they must feel.
That was the last coin flip I won and the last player I knocked out. I was able to be aggressive enough to chip up to 120k winning small ball pots...and at the end of Day 1 I was a top 20 chip leader...just like that. No suck-outs, no epic hands, just a touch of run-good mixed in with a lot of average stuff. I was feeling good about bagging my chips and heading into day 2.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Pain is So Close To Pleasure; WSOP Main 2011
Sunshine and rainy weather go hand in hand together
- - - -Queen
Khoa Ngyuen , to my left, has been much more active in the last 30 minutes. He was not a threat earlier and started the day as the table short stack. Just a few hours earlier I had him 8:1 in chips, and now he is 3 betting my 15k open to 45k from the big blind with a stack size slightly below mine. Ngyuen survived a number of coin flips and was able to quintuple up.
I'm on a roll too. The shit roll. You know the one that rolls down hill, cause shit certainly isn't rolling up. I'm down more than 1/2 the stack I started with on day 4. My hole cards have been disgusting for the most part, and the opportunity to open at this table is not often. The Ah6h, after everyone folded to me on the button, feels like the nuts.
Lets back up....Just a few hands ago, in the big blind, I flatted into a multiway pot that Ngyuen had opened under the gun. The flop came with low cards and a flush draw. With complete air I check raise his c-bet, hoping that he has two big cards and will be forced to fold. He calls. Okay he has a pair, and I'm not getting him off of it. Thankfully my imaginary flush hits the turn. With out hesitation I go all-in. Quickly Ngyuen folds.
I certainly have not been making a habit of these kind of risky plays. In fact one of the things that have gotten me to this point was my strong emphasis on pot control. I can think of just a handful of times that I have willingly put my self at serious risk like this. It appears to be my newer form of tilt...and although it's not a good thing it is far better than my calling station tilt. Even though in chips I am up, closer to 400k, the reality is that my cards are still shitty and my play is getting even shittier. I don't think I ate much on Day 4 and certainly I am not use to playing poker tournaments that run so long that you are at increased risk for bed sores and blood clots.
Why am I on tilt? The day started great! I was happy with my table draw, I had my friend Denny Robinson, my father, and my wife on the rail. I was getting no cards but was making some serious pots with some strong post-flop play. I brought my stack from 580k to 680k within 90 minutes.
Things first went south when I 3 bet a pot in BB with AQs. I c-bet the turn with air and get a call. Pot gets check down to the river, and pocket 10s beat my AQ. Sometime later I get into a multiway pot with A4 suited and flop a pair of 4s with a nut flush draw. The smallest stack of 35k shoves into an 80k or so pot. Everyone else folds and I call, he turns over QQ and I hit no Aces or hearts. Later on, a 50k stack shoved into my blinds when I had 33. I called and he had A6. The 6 hits.
Despite all of this I am holding my game together at this point. Here is where things really change.
About an orbit later I call an open raise by David Docherty with J10s in position. I flop an open ended straight draw and hope to represent the Ace that is on it. He check calls the flop, turn and river, after I fire three-barrells. He shows AK. Ooops. Down to Around 450k now. Another two orbits later, Docherty raises into my SB where for the first time all day I see a decent pocket pair.
Jacks.
I flat call and the flop comes 10 high. I lead out with 2/3 the pot and Docherty begins to think. I start to imagine what I would do if I were he, especially after I just failed to bluff him down to the river. If I had air or a weak pair I would probably raise 30% of the time or I would fold the other 70%. Almost never a flat call unless I was planning to bluff a later street. If I was very strong I would flat and try and see how much my very aggro opponent would be willing to give me. He raises and I have already mentally pigeon holed that move as weak. I shove back all-in and he shows a set of 10s. I drop down to close to 200k and inside I am emotionally devastated with what has just happened.
It definately sucks because this happened right before we entered the money. I let the excitement of breaking the bubble get ruined by all this.
Swinging back to the hand I opened this blog with... I am now facing a decision by Ngyuen's 3 bet. I know he has a fairly tight range. I know he thinks I have been pushing him around. I feel he is trying to take a stand, and even if he has me beat I know he wont call a big re-raise. Especially not one that puts him all-in. Unless of course he has Aces...
...and he does.
Afterwards I sat and stared at my 30k starting stack...in disbelief. Before it sunk in the first suited AK of the day came up the very next hand. Still in denial I gleamed of a triple up after I got one caller and an all-in. All-in turned up AK and we chopped. A few hands later with less than 30k I called an open raise with J10 and the raiser had KK. The World Series was officially over.
It was tough going down, especially that way. I would prefer any day going down with the best hand, as you are at least left with continued comfort and confidence in your decisional ability. Going down with the worst hand leaves a bit of a deeper hole.
I have not told anyone until this blog how it went down. I left the table feeling somewhat humiliated and defeated.
Why did this happen? Was it run bad? Absolutely, I know I could have gotten him to fold any hands outside of Aces, Kings and Queens. It was run bad that he had Aces. It was run bad that I never won any important coin flips. Honestly I feel the cards ran average for me the entire tourney.I had a few key pots, but if you look at my stack it was loaded with smaller chips. I knocked only two people out of the tourney, and they were both on Day 1. After that I made my bacon with strong pre and post flop play in small ball pots (aside from my Mike Sowers encounters).
But listen, I am not an idiot. My demise was more play bad than run bad. I busted around #500 because I lost patience and I didnt continue to work on pot control. I was living in the past and my desire to stay a big stack blinded my ability to manipulate my gears. In retrospect I should have tightened up a bit more and continued to work on pot control.It is a lesson learned. Would I play my Jacks again the same way? I don't know. What was the value of putting him all in? Did I hope that he had 99 and would call? Should I have check-called to the river with my Jacks? I can't see doing that. Am I going to fold my Jacks after he three bets me on that flop? Call him down to the river? Does he eventually put me all-in anyway? Wouldn't I rather he be in that spot where he faces a tough decision instead of me? Is it bad luck that he didn't have a tough decision after flopping the nuts? I don't know what the right answer is. I felt strong about my play and was honestly shocked to see his set. It is rare that I am shocked when I see someones hand...I thought this pot was mine. Losing this pot was shot to the gut, and blowing up afterwards was a kick in the balls.
I remember seeing an interview with Dutch Boyd where he was discussing the emotional
extremes of poker. He describes how he believes the extremes of happiness and dissapointment in poker are not equivocal, and that the worst pain is far worse than the best pleasure.
In my experience they are not only equal but remain quite close together. This WSOP Main Event was a thrilling ride for me. Especially since I became an early chip leader and stayed within the top 60 players for 3 days in a row. It was a long fall from being a chip leader in just a few short hours...it stung deeply and I am not fully over my dissapointment.
The evening I busted I was comforted when I saw a tweet from Vanessa Rousso discussing how she deals with her dissapointment by zooming out and seeing a bigger picture. I really liked that concept because for the last 4-6 weeks I have been hyper-focused on poker and life is so much more than that.
Yes I am dissapointed, but I am proud at the same time. I played some of the best poker of my life and clearly feel like I can compete at a very high level of tounrament poker comfortably. I cashed my very first WSOP Main Event and know that I have earned the trust and respect of enough people to pay my way in on a yearly basis. I am very lucky. Tournament poker is just beginning for me.
Having all of my friends, family, employees, colleagues, and even patients to rail me was an amazing feeling. All of the guilt I feel when I am out playing poker on Thursday afternoon melts away when the people you love the most are right behind you cheering you on. I am certain that having that kind of love and support made me a play even better.
Most of all I have to give it up to my wife, who was there for nearly every second of every hand I played. She was an amazing support and earns every bit of her spousal variance! :)
- - - -Queen
Khoa Ngyuen , to my left, has been much more active in the last 30 minutes. He was not a threat earlier and started the day as the table short stack. Just a few hours earlier I had him 8:1 in chips, and now he is 3 betting my 15k open to 45k from the big blind with a stack size slightly below mine. Ngyuen survived a number of coin flips and was able to quintuple up.
I'm on a roll too. The shit roll. You know the one that rolls down hill, cause shit certainly isn't rolling up. I'm down more than 1/2 the stack I started with on day 4. My hole cards have been disgusting for the most part, and the opportunity to open at this table is not often. The Ah6h, after everyone folded to me on the button, feels like the nuts.
Lets back up....Just a few hands ago, in the big blind, I flatted into a multiway pot that Ngyuen had opened under the gun. The flop came with low cards and a flush draw. With complete air I check raise his c-bet, hoping that he has two big cards and will be forced to fold. He calls. Okay he has a pair, and I'm not getting him off of it. Thankfully my imaginary flush hits the turn. With out hesitation I go all-in. Quickly Ngyuen folds.
I certainly have not been making a habit of these kind of risky plays. In fact one of the things that have gotten me to this point was my strong emphasis on pot control. I can think of just a handful of times that I have willingly put my self at serious risk like this. It appears to be my newer form of tilt...and although it's not a good thing it is far better than my calling station tilt. Even though in chips I am up, closer to 400k, the reality is that my cards are still shitty and my play is getting even shittier. I don't think I ate much on Day 4 and certainly I am not use to playing poker tournaments that run so long that you are at increased risk for bed sores and blood clots.
Why am I on tilt? The day started great! I was happy with my table draw, I had my friend Denny Robinson, my father, and my wife on the rail. I was getting no cards but was making some serious pots with some strong post-flop play. I brought my stack from 580k to 680k within 90 minutes.
Things first went south when I 3 bet a pot in BB with AQs. I c-bet the turn with air and get a call. Pot gets check down to the river, and pocket 10s beat my AQ. Sometime later I get into a multiway pot with A4 suited and flop a pair of 4s with a nut flush draw. The smallest stack of 35k shoves into an 80k or so pot. Everyone else folds and I call, he turns over QQ and I hit no Aces or hearts. Later on, a 50k stack shoved into my blinds when I had 33. I called and he had A6. The 6 hits.
Despite all of this I am holding my game together at this point. Here is where things really change.
About an orbit later I call an open raise by David Docherty with J10s in position. I flop an open ended straight draw and hope to represent the Ace that is on it. He check calls the flop, turn and river, after I fire three-barrells. He shows AK. Ooops. Down to Around 450k now. Another two orbits later, Docherty raises into my SB where for the first time all day I see a decent pocket pair.
Jacks.
I flat call and the flop comes 10 high. I lead out with 2/3 the pot and Docherty begins to think. I start to imagine what I would do if I were he, especially after I just failed to bluff him down to the river. If I had air or a weak pair I would probably raise 30% of the time or I would fold the other 70%. Almost never a flat call unless I was planning to bluff a later street. If I was very strong I would flat and try and see how much my very aggro opponent would be willing to give me. He raises and I have already mentally pigeon holed that move as weak. I shove back all-in and he shows a set of 10s. I drop down to close to 200k and inside I am emotionally devastated with what has just happened.
It definately sucks because this happened right before we entered the money. I let the excitement of breaking the bubble get ruined by all this.
Swinging back to the hand I opened this blog with... I am now facing a decision by Ngyuen's 3 bet. I know he has a fairly tight range. I know he thinks I have been pushing him around. I feel he is trying to take a stand, and even if he has me beat I know he wont call a big re-raise. Especially not one that puts him all-in. Unless of course he has Aces...
...and he does.
Afterwards I sat and stared at my 30k starting stack...in disbelief. Before it sunk in the first suited AK of the day came up the very next hand. Still in denial I gleamed of a triple up after I got one caller and an all-in. All-in turned up AK and we chopped. A few hands later with less than 30k I called an open raise with J10 and the raiser had KK. The World Series was officially over.
It was tough going down, especially that way. I would prefer any day going down with the best hand, as you are at least left with continued comfort and confidence in your decisional ability. Going down with the worst hand leaves a bit of a deeper hole.
I have not told anyone until this blog how it went down. I left the table feeling somewhat humiliated and defeated.
Why did this happen? Was it run bad? Absolutely, I know I could have gotten him to fold any hands outside of Aces, Kings and Queens. It was run bad that he had Aces. It was run bad that I never won any important coin flips. Honestly I feel the cards ran average for me the entire tourney.I had a few key pots, but if you look at my stack it was loaded with smaller chips. I knocked only two people out of the tourney, and they were both on Day 1. After that I made my bacon with strong pre and post flop play in small ball pots (aside from my Mike Sowers encounters).
But listen, I am not an idiot. My demise was more play bad than run bad. I busted around #500 because I lost patience and I didnt continue to work on pot control. I was living in the past and my desire to stay a big stack blinded my ability to manipulate my gears. In retrospect I should have tightened up a bit more and continued to work on pot control.It is a lesson learned. Would I play my Jacks again the same way? I don't know. What was the value of putting him all in? Did I hope that he had 99 and would call? Should I have check-called to the river with my Jacks? I can't see doing that. Am I going to fold my Jacks after he three bets me on that flop? Call him down to the river? Does he eventually put me all-in anyway? Wouldn't I rather he be in that spot where he faces a tough decision instead of me? Is it bad luck that he didn't have a tough decision after flopping the nuts? I don't know what the right answer is. I felt strong about my play and was honestly shocked to see his set. It is rare that I am shocked when I see someones hand...I thought this pot was mine. Losing this pot was shot to the gut, and blowing up afterwards was a kick in the balls.
I remember seeing an interview with Dutch Boyd where he was discussing the emotional
extremes of poker. He describes how he believes the extremes of happiness and dissapointment in poker are not equivocal, and that the worst pain is far worse than the best pleasure.
In my experience they are not only equal but remain quite close together. This WSOP Main Event was a thrilling ride for me. Especially since I became an early chip leader and stayed within the top 60 players for 3 days in a row. It was a long fall from being a chip leader in just a few short hours...it stung deeply and I am not fully over my dissapointment.
The evening I busted I was comforted when I saw a tweet from Vanessa Rousso discussing how she deals with her dissapointment by zooming out and seeing a bigger picture. I really liked that concept because for the last 4-6 weeks I have been hyper-focused on poker and life is so much more than that.
Yes I am dissapointed, but I am proud at the same time. I played some of the best poker of my life and clearly feel like I can compete at a very high level of tounrament poker comfortably. I cashed my very first WSOP Main Event and know that I have earned the trust and respect of enough people to pay my way in on a yearly basis. I am very lucky. Tournament poker is just beginning for me.
Having all of my friends, family, employees, colleagues, and even patients to rail me was an amazing feeling. All of the guilt I feel when I am out playing poker on Thursday afternoon melts away when the people you love the most are right behind you cheering you on. I am certain that having that kind of love and support made me a play even better.
Most of all I have to give it up to my wife, who was there for nearly every second of every hand I played. She was an amazing support and earns every bit of her spousal variance! :)
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Bet or Die.
Aggression is a constructive energy at the service of development, differentiation, mastery, object relations, and the maintenance of a satisfactory balance between the self and the environment.
~~Ana-Maria Rizzuto, The Dynamics of Human Aggression
Success only feeds the appetite of aggression.
~~Lyndon B. Johnson
Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.
~~Jimmy Carter
Thursday afternoon was starting to look up! Things could not have been going better at the Aria 1pm daily NL tournament. I was enjoying my half day off of work, was chip leading my table, and had a great view of Doyle Brunson and Jean-Robert Bellande playing a cash ring game (this crappy picture is just of Doyle, Bellande arrived later on).
This isn’t just any KK. This is a KK that has some serious equity. I have been opening and 3-betting in late position a lot, and people have been getting stubborn lately. Luckily I have been exercising control, giving up most pots when I encountered what I considered resistance.
This kind of discipline is a big deal for me, since lately I have had a hard time reeling myself in. Earlier that same day I entered the Venetian noon daily and busted out within 20 minutes after failing to bluff Grandma off middle pair. To think that just a year ago I started this blog as a proud nit, and now I’m firing 3 barrels at someone who clearly will not be folding. Clearly I had a subconscious desire to be a strong loose aggressive player, concealed by (or revealed?) by my loudly spoken disgust for aggros.
The bee sting from Grandma had smartened me up. At the Aria playing I was playing with much more control. Things look good and feel good. I’m in a great position to chip up with my pocket kings. I raise 6x the big blind.
The next two players fold and the button snap raises all in. The button can seriously hurt me since he is 2nd in chips at the table. He was a fairly tight player and the thought that I may be up against aces crossed my mind. I figure that although possible, it is very unlikely, and so I almost never will fold this hand preflop.
I call and he turns up AK off. I fade the board and become a huge chip leader in the tournament. The table now has a new respect and fear for my three-bets. I grow my stack slowly and stay aggressive, always in position, and pick up as many blinds, antes and pots that I can. My open hand range depends on who is to my left. If their range is tighter, mine is looser. If there range is looser, mine will be tighter. Eventually I get such an overwhelming stack advantage that chips just effortlessly start flying into my stack. Eventually it becomes impossible for anyone to compete with my huge lead and I win.
_______________________________________________________________
Okay that last part was a lie. I didn’t fade the board. The freakin Ace spiked me on the river crippling me and eventually leading to my demise. Tournaments. You need to dodge both bad luck and bad decisions…oh and there are lots of opportunities to run into both.
In my last post
In late March I remember busting out of a Thursday Venetian event after my straight was squashed when the river boated up my opponent. The real bad beat that day was somehow I lost my iPhone in the Venetian parking lot. Shit, that was a bad day.
Things started looking better for me in May after I made an unusual last minute decision to play an event at the WPT's Five Star World Poker Classic series at the Bellagio. Unfortunately the only affordable event, $500 NLH was on Wednesday. Making a Wednesday a half day at work is no small task. Patients get re-scheduled, staff gets grumpy, explainin needs to happen with the wife. I decided Tuesday afternoon that I was going to play this event. I can get away with it since I do these kinds of sporadic things as often as Haley's comet comes around.
Playing this event for me was a big deal. My last WPT event I came just short of a final table after I took a bad beat. I was excited to play in the Fontana room again and enjoyed having the tournament room directly behind the Bellagio fountains. The environment brings an authentic Vegas ambiance making the poker experience much more fun.
I played very well in this tournament despite that every table I encountered had numerous players that were strong and aggressive. I was able to mount an above average stack but eventually misplayed QQ vs KQ post flop and lost 2/3 of my stack.I swear to God that Queens are the death of me. Soon after I busted, #69/207. It was very disappointing, especially after all the work I had gone through and the guilt that I harbored, trying to get this time off.
The very next day I played the Venetian noon daily. No, I do not give up my Thursdays if I play Wednesday. The 130 player field seemed ridiculously weak relative to my WPT experience. With allot of aggression, some blind I admit, I made a final table. This tournament felt very easy to me. The deck ran about average, no serious good or bad fortune, except I busted #7 with AsKs vs AdJh after a fourth diamond hit the turn. Interestingly I left the table happy and confident.
The next week I made my way back to the Orleans. They have the biggest regular Friday night NL tournament in Las Vegas. Entry is $125. The fields are massive for this kind of tourney, and have a dramatic variety of players at all different skill levels.
I have played this tournament only 5 times as it is luxury to get a Friday night where I do not have family responsibility. Its worth paying another $50 for babysitting though, since I find this the most fun tournament in town.
This particular Friday night was a record setting field of 371. I played my usual aggressive style and the deck hit me both pre and post flop. I got a lot of action and had a serious stack by level 5. I slowly grew my stack for most of the night and without any major pots made my way to the final table where I agreed to a 4 way chip-chop and took second place. Although not error free, I felt real good about my play.
I had so much fun that the very next Friday night I played the same tournament in a 237 player field. My second hand I had pocket aces and doubled up after flopping a set on an otherwise dry board. I checked the flop and the turn brought a second 10, filling me up, while making trip 10s for some girl to my left. Now that's fortune. Once I'm in this chip position its very hard to stop me and my aggression without risking some serious chips.
Being the chip leader brings a lot of interesting social elements. Some people want to be your friend. They start talking to you more on breaks and stuff. I want them to my left because they are usually afraid of me. Some people are so jealous that they hate you, and raising their blinds pisses them off even more and they become volatile with a wider range of hands. I try to play these guys more conservatively, and let the cards come first.
That night I made the final table 4th in chips. In addition to playing very aggressive, and at times very smart, the deck also hit me allowing me to take out 7 of my 10 opponents. I had donked off a bit of chips to one other opponent, who I had a 2/3 to 1/3 chip lead on heads up. He called a bluff of mine and soon after surpassed me. As I dwindled I was able to trap him with a set of 10s and re-take the lead. He got scared, as did I, and offered a chop. With the stipulation of taking first place (for the purpose of player of the month points) and a reasonably larger share of the prize I agreed. The gravy was learning that in just two tournaments I placed 2nd in the Orleans tournament player of the month and took home a fairly large additional prize.
The next Thursday I played in the $230 NL Caesar's Summer Mega Stack, with some ridiculous structure where blinds leap in bounds and antes do not start until like level 10 or something weird like that. I would say the skill of the players were, on average, slightly higher than both the Orleans Friday night and the Venetian noon daily.
I played very confidently, very aggressively, and very well in terms of control. My game fell to crap after a set of 8's got spiked by an inside straight that took most of my stack. Still I felt strong and confident.
I entered day 1a of the first 1K WSOP NL event. Last year when I played this event I had no appreciation for how crappy the $3,000 starting stack was, and how you really had only 3-4 hours to make something good happen. Armed with that knowledge, and my newly found aggression I came into this event guns a-blazing. It served me quite well, as I was able to quickly bring my stack up over 10k, which at the time was more than twice the average. My initial table draw was awesome. The table was easier than both Caesars and even some of my daily Venetian tourneys. There was a lot of easy post-flop pickups. I felt way more experienced, aggressive, controlled and confident than last year.
Things went bad after I made a table change and I started to screw with a bigger stack than me. After some time I could not get him off middle pair, and lost more chips than I would like to admit. Eventually I got put in a situation in which I shoved on a nut flush draw and missed. I am trying to be more careful taking these kinds of risks, but at times I reason to myself that the fold equity + the 1/3 of the time I get there, + the advantage you get from a larger chip stack = it's worth the risk. Having a large stack in tournament poker, I am learning, is the easiest highway to make a final table and get into serious money.
The following Thursday, however, was not only painful but thought provoking. I once again entered the $230 NL Caesars Summer Mega Stack, entered a field of over 330. I played my usual style and made a pretty above average stack. After moving to a new table I once again began to poke the bee-hive of a big stack, ha ha, on my left. I raised his blind with a 54 suited, and he 3-bet back. I didn't believe him, and I 4-bet. Ha ha, he 5 bets! Sometimes this little voice comes into my head and tells me to do crazy crap. It said "He has nothing. All-in" and then it came out of my mouth. Did I just, with an above average stack, 6-bet shove all in with 54 of diamonds??? He folds. Holy shit. I was right, but this is not good for my heart. HUGE HUGE POT! I'm left wondering if I am a genius or a donkey.
He dwindles away and I begin swallowing everyone again right through the money. Please welcome opposite tilt to the room. I can not lose. My unapposed aggression, as suggested by Jimmy Carter, became addictive. I got involved with a dude that has a stack size that can injure me pretty good. I raise pre-flop and he calls in position. I flop a flush draw on a board with no broadway cards. I shove all-in. He debates and calls with Queens. I miss the flush.
Ugghhh! What am I doing? Am I out of control totally? I make a few more stupid moves after that and lose some more chips. Soon I find myself short, open shoving in late position with crap and just a few big blinds. I bust #27.
I am really upset at myself, and even lost a little bit of confidence in my game considering the nonsense that I pulled. But to be quite honest, I cannot remember a tournament that I truly crushed without taking some serious risk before hand.
This past Saturday I entered my first deep stack event at the Venetian. The field was 727 players. I played exactly as I describe in this blog. Once again, I was a massive chip leader for 17.5 of the 18 hours I played. Once again, in the end I feel I beat myself, this time at the final table.
to be continued...
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
#Winning: No...seriously. I really am.
Last weekend I moved my family of five (+2 large dogs) to a new house while I worked a sixty hour work week. I was rewarded with the nastiest case of strep throat I can remember having as an adult. With a chaotic new home of unpacked boxes and grumpy family, my buddy told me I hit Charlie Sheen status when I won the Venetian noon daily (102 entrant live MTT; $150 buy-in NLHE freeze-out) this past Thursday. Hey, Thursday is poker day!
Now that I am feeling better, my big move is over, and the frenzy of new patients at work is slowing down, I am finally getting my bearings together and resurfacing.
I write this as I am flying to Orlando to attend a conference hosted by National Healing. I don’t particularly enjoy traveling, but today I welcome the dead time as I have not had a chance for much introspection.
Since things have mellowed for me I am calmer and more relaxed than I have felt in a while. I have been seeing things in my life as much more positive. Although lately I have been thin on time and have played few tourneys, I have had solid results. I have cashed in more than a third of my entries, one being a POY ranked Deep Stack event 2 weeks ago and ,again, yesterday getting my first win at the Venetian noon daily.
In addition to having a better attitude, I credit my results to regularly playing the $2.20 - 180 entrant poker star NLHE MTT tourney. Although I still have shitty online results, I clearly perform better live when I am playing more online.
Yesterday was an adventurous day for me, as it was the first time I was ever in the position of being an overwhelming chip leader live (so much so that a chop was not ever mentioned). 10 handed at the final table I started out as chip leader with more than ¼ of the chips in play. With 5 players left and 765,000 chips in play I had well over 400,000. When I was heads up I had 700,000 and my opponent had 65,000. I took out 8 of my 9 opponents.
I don’t think I ever appreciated how ridiculously easy it is to play big stack poker. I bet and raised at a very high frequency basically pillaging the table at will. Winning the final table was virtually a cake walk…which I must admit took some of the fun out of it (really I’m not complaining). The tournament lasted about 9 hours (12:00 pm - 9:00 pm) without a dinner break. The first place prize was close to 4k.
It is worth looking back at the day and examining what allowed me to jockey myself into such a dominating position. Although I played well I have played better in the past.
I arrived around 20 minutes late for the tournament. My table draw was fairly soft, a few regular locals but more tourists than usual. I cannot over emphasize how important the table draw is to my success. Who is at the table and where they are located is critical. I want the tighter players to my left and the looser aggros (LAG) to my right. I can bet frequently into tighter players on my left and they will usually fold. When they don’t go away, or they fight back I can escape. Having an LAG to my left limits how often I can gear into a looser range as I will be three-bet more frequently and be put to a tough decision with a marginal holding. With an LAG to my right I now have the ability to pick and choose the pots I play against them and will usually do more flat calling. In general, the tighter the table the easier it is.
I was fortunate not to run into many loose aggros. Although I am getting much better at playing an LAG style, clearly I need a lot more work at playing LAG opponents. Playing well against opponents who adopt this style, in my opinion, makes for a superior poker player. LAG vs LAG is a battle of marginal hands. It is critical to be good at this in tournaments as there is simply not enough time to wait for monsters to pay you off. Winning these skirmishes requires a lot of post-flop play strength, bet pattern recognition, high level meta-thinking, and even being able to read more subtle tells. I am not sure that my ability to note detail or my attention span is strong enough to compete at some of the highest levels (at least yet), but I do think I can improve upon them significantly.
My very first hand in level 1 was a disappointing monster in where I flopped a nut straight but got no action. The first few levels I would say I got involved with 20-30% of the pots and won the majority, slowly doubling my stack from 7,500 to 15,000 by level 3-4.
A key hand that frightened my opponents occurred not long after the table was in a momentum of showing me resistance.I had been check raised a couple of times I was c-betting post-flop with air.
Notable Hand #1; level 3; 100-200 blinds.
I am in the BB with 10-7 off. I have a 14k stack.
Everyone folds to button, who is a 65+ male that is a little steamy after being cut down to 4,000 chips from a recent bad beat. He limps. SB completes and I check.
Flop A-10-10. Pot: 600
Almost every flop I have fired a slightly more than half pot bet out, regardless of what I have had. It is rare that I slow play. I almost never do it. The more I think about it, when I check raise these days I am almost always bluffing. Since my betting frequency is high, I have a lot of call equity and im looking to get paid off well.
SB checks
I lead out with 400.
Button calls and a SB folds.
Turn is a blank. Pot: 1400
At this point I believe he has a weak Ace (ie AJ or worse) or a smaller pocket pair. He would have likely raised preflop if it was stronger. Im not much worried about him having a better 10 as it is very unlikely, and if he has it, oh well, bad luck for me. Mostly I imagine he just doesn’t believe that I have anything based on my previous play.
River is a blank. There are no straights or flushes. Only possibility that he has me beat is that he is slow playing a small set that gave him a boat or he has a bigger 10. I still feel it is much more likely he has a small pair or a weak ace and thinks Im full of shit. I cease the opportunity to get value from my hand and bet 1200.
He calls quickly.
I show my 10. At that point he just stared at the board, much like someone stares in the refrigerator as if they looked long enough something good will suddenly materialize from thin air.
He mucks and I never know what he had for sure. The true value was not the pot but the fear instilled in the rest of the table as now I should have them guessing a bit more. This is a strong psychological edge that needs to be used with wider ranged aggression.
At about level 6 or so I was moved to a new table with about 20k in chips, a healthy above average stack. I was the chip leader at my previous table but get no such fortune here. The table is much younger and the stacks are much bigger. To my right I have a solid tight player and to my left I have a strong LAG opponent. Although I was able to make a few moves and keep my head above water, the LAG player to my left smacked me around a bit with hefty 3-bets that forced me to fold my marginal opens.
It was time for me to shift gears to tight aggressive, which interestingly has been difficult to do lately. I have been trying so hard to avoid the nitty, sit and wait for the nuts, that I forget the importance of having adaptable gears when the environment changes. I locked down my range and stagnated until I was moved to a new table.
At the new table around level 9 or 10 I was below average with about 18k. The table had some huge stacks and I remained in lock-down. Although I had hit a few good flops the best pre-flop hands I had all day at this point were 88 and AQ. The big hole cards never came and I was forced to loosen up and open raise in late position with broadway cards and weak Aces. Having a nitty image, in a field that was getting tighter, worked well as the majority of my raises went uncontended. The stack directly to my left was the tourney chip leader, and he was clearly playing too tight and folded to me a number of times. I was able to build a stack slowly up to about 30k doing this.
My big break came when UTG+1 , who has me well covered, raised 2.5x and I was on the button with pocket 4s and flat called. Although ideally I'm looking for a set, the blinds are big enough that I am not getting the odds to win 9x my chips back (as you will flop a set about 1/9 times). I negotiated the call as I imagined there were other ways win without a set. My strategy depended on the board. Post flop I will either be dominated or way ahead...so I plan to tread lightly, but firmly.
1. If the board has broadway cards and he was to lead out I fold.
2. If the board has broadway cards and he checks I bet, if I meet resistance I am done with the hand
3. If the board has small cards and he checks I bet
4. If the board has small cards and he bets I raise. If the raise doesn’t stop him I have to stop myself.
My decisions were pretty easy when I flopped a set that I didn’t need. The board was 10-4-2 rainbow and he led out with a huge over bet. Now I was praying that he had a big pocket pair. I counted out the chips needed to call his raise and used a little theatrics to suggest that If I am going to call I will just have to pot commit myself now. I reluctantly go all in and he snap calls with AK. Love it. I hold and now have a very healthy stack over 70k. A set made in a late level is usually gold.
At this point I simply slid back into a loose aggressive gear and easily picked up 2-3 blinds per orbit on average, took a couple of decent size post-flop pots, and took out a short stack with AQs. I finally hit some big hole hand like AA and QQ but got zero additional value, as I got no preflop action.I met serious resistance less than a third of the time.
I had close to 200,000 chips when I started the final table. I stayed very aggressive open raising atleast 30% pre-flop 2.5x. The few times my opponents shoved back it wasnt a big deal folding a marginal hand. They began opening their shove range so much that I was able to call with medium pairs and Aces down to 10. I got my chips in good every time and stacked people with hands like AQ, AJ, 99, 77. When it was heads up it was all-in every hand and A3 ended it.
In addition to things going well (ie not getting unlucky) I think my biggest improvement was my ability to change gears more fluidly.
I'll be at it again next Thursday afternoon and hope I can pull off another deep run.
Now that I am feeling better, my big move is over, and the frenzy of new patients at work is slowing down, I am finally getting my bearings together and resurfacing.
I write this as I am flying to Orlando to attend a conference hosted by National Healing. I don’t particularly enjoy traveling, but today I welcome the dead time as I have not had a chance for much introspection.
Since things have mellowed for me I am calmer and more relaxed than I have felt in a while. I have been seeing things in my life as much more positive. Although lately I have been thin on time and have played few tourneys, I have had solid results. I have cashed in more than a third of my entries, one being a POY ranked Deep Stack event 2 weeks ago and ,again, yesterday getting my first win at the Venetian noon daily.
In addition to having a better attitude, I credit my results to regularly playing the $2.20 - 180 entrant poker star NLHE MTT tourney. Although I still have shitty online results, I clearly perform better live when I am playing more online.
Yesterday was an adventurous day for me, as it was the first time I was ever in the position of being an overwhelming chip leader live (so much so that a chop was not ever mentioned). 10 handed at the final table I started out as chip leader with more than ¼ of the chips in play. With 5 players left and 765,000 chips in play I had well over 400,000. When I was heads up I had 700,000 and my opponent had 65,000. I took out 8 of my 9 opponents.
I don’t think I ever appreciated how ridiculously easy it is to play big stack poker. I bet and raised at a very high frequency basically pillaging the table at will. Winning the final table was virtually a cake walk…which I must admit took some of the fun out of it (really I’m not complaining). The tournament lasted about 9 hours (12:00 pm - 9:00 pm) without a dinner break. The first place prize was close to 4k.
It is worth looking back at the day and examining what allowed me to jockey myself into such a dominating position. Although I played well I have played better in the past.
I arrived around 20 minutes late for the tournament. My table draw was fairly soft, a few regular locals but more tourists than usual. I cannot over emphasize how important the table draw is to my success. Who is at the table and where they are located is critical. I want the tighter players to my left and the looser aggros (LAG) to my right. I can bet frequently into tighter players on my left and they will usually fold. When they don’t go away, or they fight back I can escape. Having an LAG to my left limits how often I can gear into a looser range as I will be three-bet more frequently and be put to a tough decision with a marginal holding. With an LAG to my right I now have the ability to pick and choose the pots I play against them and will usually do more flat calling. In general, the tighter the table the easier it is.
I was fortunate not to run into many loose aggros. Although I am getting much better at playing an LAG style, clearly I need a lot more work at playing LAG opponents. Playing well against opponents who adopt this style, in my opinion, makes for a superior poker player. LAG vs LAG is a battle of marginal hands. It is critical to be good at this in tournaments as there is simply not enough time to wait for monsters to pay you off. Winning these skirmishes requires a lot of post-flop play strength, bet pattern recognition, high level meta-thinking, and even being able to read more subtle tells. I am not sure that my ability to note detail or my attention span is strong enough to compete at some of the highest levels (at least yet), but I do think I can improve upon them significantly.
My very first hand in level 1 was a disappointing monster in where I flopped a nut straight but got no action. The first few levels I would say I got involved with 20-30% of the pots and won the majority, slowly doubling my stack from 7,500 to 15,000 by level 3-4.
A key hand that frightened my opponents occurred not long after the table was in a momentum of showing me resistance.I had been check raised a couple of times I was c-betting post-flop with air.
Notable Hand #1; level 3; 100-200 blinds.
I am in the BB with 10-7 off. I have a 14k stack.
Everyone folds to button, who is a 65+ male that is a little steamy after being cut down to 4,000 chips from a recent bad beat. He limps. SB completes and I check.
Flop A-10-10. Pot: 600
Almost every flop I have fired a slightly more than half pot bet out, regardless of what I have had. It is rare that I slow play. I almost never do it. The more I think about it, when I check raise these days I am almost always bluffing. Since my betting frequency is high, I have a lot of call equity and im looking to get paid off well.
SB checks
I lead out with 400.
Button calls and a SB folds.
Turn is a blank. Pot: 1400
At this point I believe he has a weak Ace (ie AJ or worse) or a smaller pocket pair. He would have likely raised preflop if it was stronger. Im not much worried about him having a better 10 as it is very unlikely, and if he has it, oh well, bad luck for me. Mostly I imagine he just doesn’t believe that I have anything based on my previous play.
River is a blank. There are no straights or flushes. Only possibility that he has me beat is that he is slow playing a small set that gave him a boat or he has a bigger 10. I still feel it is much more likely he has a small pair or a weak ace and thinks Im full of shit. I cease the opportunity to get value from my hand and bet 1200.
He calls quickly.
I show my 10. At that point he just stared at the board, much like someone stares in the refrigerator as if they looked long enough something good will suddenly materialize from thin air.
He mucks and I never know what he had for sure. The true value was not the pot but the fear instilled in the rest of the table as now I should have them guessing a bit more. This is a strong psychological edge that needs to be used with wider ranged aggression.
At about level 6 or so I was moved to a new table with about 20k in chips, a healthy above average stack. I was the chip leader at my previous table but get no such fortune here. The table is much younger and the stacks are much bigger. To my right I have a solid tight player and to my left I have a strong LAG opponent. Although I was able to make a few moves and keep my head above water, the LAG player to my left smacked me around a bit with hefty 3-bets that forced me to fold my marginal opens.
It was time for me to shift gears to tight aggressive, which interestingly has been difficult to do lately. I have been trying so hard to avoid the nitty, sit and wait for the nuts, that I forget the importance of having adaptable gears when the environment changes. I locked down my range and stagnated until I was moved to a new table.
At the new table around level 9 or 10 I was below average with about 18k. The table had some huge stacks and I remained in lock-down. Although I had hit a few good flops the best pre-flop hands I had all day at this point were 88 and AQ. The big hole cards never came and I was forced to loosen up and open raise in late position with broadway cards and weak Aces. Having a nitty image, in a field that was getting tighter, worked well as the majority of my raises went uncontended. The stack directly to my left was the tourney chip leader, and he was clearly playing too tight and folded to me a number of times. I was able to build a stack slowly up to about 30k doing this.
My big break came when UTG+1 , who has me well covered, raised 2.5x and I was on the button with pocket 4s and flat called. Although ideally I'm looking for a set, the blinds are big enough that I am not getting the odds to win 9x my chips back (as you will flop a set about 1/9 times). I negotiated the call as I imagined there were other ways win without a set. My strategy depended on the board. Post flop I will either be dominated or way ahead...so I plan to tread lightly, but firmly.
1. If the board has broadway cards and he was to lead out I fold.
2. If the board has broadway cards and he checks I bet, if I meet resistance I am done with the hand
3. If the board has small cards and he checks I bet
4. If the board has small cards and he bets I raise. If the raise doesn’t stop him I have to stop myself.
My decisions were pretty easy when I flopped a set that I didn’t need. The board was 10-4-2 rainbow and he led out with a huge over bet. Now I was praying that he had a big pocket pair. I counted out the chips needed to call his raise and used a little theatrics to suggest that If I am going to call I will just have to pot commit myself now. I reluctantly go all in and he snap calls with AK. Love it. I hold and now have a very healthy stack over 70k. A set made in a late level is usually gold.
At this point I simply slid back into a loose aggressive gear and easily picked up 2-3 blinds per orbit on average, took a couple of decent size post-flop pots, and took out a short stack with AQs. I finally hit some big hole hand like AA and QQ but got zero additional value, as I got no preflop action.I met serious resistance less than a third of the time.
I had close to 200,000 chips when I started the final table. I stayed very aggressive open raising atleast 30% pre-flop 2.5x. The few times my opponents shoved back it wasnt a big deal folding a marginal hand. They began opening their shove range so much that I was able to call with medium pairs and Aces down to 10. I got my chips in good every time and stacked people with hands like AQ, AJ, 99, 77. When it was heads up it was all-in every hand and A3 ended it.
In addition to things going well (ie not getting unlucky) I think my biggest improvement was my ability to change gears more fluidly.
I'll be at it again next Thursday afternoon and hope I can pull off another deep run.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Where oh where has time for poker gone?
Don Wade, aka Miami Don/winner of 2010 WPBT, sent me a message the other day asking if I wanted to meet up and do a daily noon tourney at the Venetian, and if I had looked into the Red Rock Casino Heartland Poker Tour.
"Hmmmm," I thought. I could do a noon satellite next Thursday and play the main on Saturday and Sunday. Uh-oh, isn't my new leaf giving up multi-day MTTs??? Maybe if I really can prove to my wife I have been an exceptional husband I can....uh wait, I can't even make the noon tourney this Thursday at the V. Who am I kidding? I have far too much going on.
Nothing makes me quite as grumpy as having to miss my Thursday poker sessions... except maybe bubbling one. Seriously though, my mood has been as rotten as the straggling Thanksgiving leftovers lurking somewhere in my fridge.
Since I am in denial I left things open with Miami Don. The truth is that the new year has come fast and furious. It is a rather difficult time for me as I am making some major changes in my private life and medical practice that, at least for now, will put a major financial and time burden on my life. I'm pretty bummed that I wont have much time over the next 1-2 months for much more than a few low stake late night poker star MTT turbos. Online poker does not do it for me. I want to play and I want to play live.
For those of you interested here is a list of what I am contending with:
1. Teachers Health Weight Management Program - STOP (safely taking off pounds)
You may remember from an earlier blog post that I was in negotiations with a health insurance company to contract weight management services, something that insurances will typically not cover. This was a big deal and I was able to successfully negotiate a contract that went into effect January 1st, 2011. The new patients are seemingly infinite. A good problem that I am not fully prepared for. Click here for our provider profile.
2. Tenant Changes
For the last two years I have had a urologist renting space from me in my office. Aside from having pee all over the place at the end of the day it was kind of a drag having this practice in my office since they took a lot of my space and had a huge volume of very ill and grumpy folks (I guess not being able to pee right and having instruments probed inside my urethra would make me grumpier than missing poker). Having them as tenants was a necessary evil as I pay a very high rent premium being that my office is located on the posh St. Rose San Martin Hospital campus, considered one of the most beautiful hospitals in the US.
Click Here For Picture Reference
"Hmmmm," I thought. I could do a noon satellite next Thursday and play the main on Saturday and Sunday. Uh-oh, isn't my new leaf giving up multi-day MTTs??? Maybe if I really can prove to my wife I have been an exceptional husband I can....uh wait, I can't even make the noon tourney this Thursday at the V. Who am I kidding? I have far too much going on.
Nothing makes me quite as grumpy as having to miss my Thursday poker sessions... except maybe bubbling one. Seriously though, my mood has been as rotten as the straggling Thanksgiving leftovers lurking somewhere in my fridge.
Since I am in denial I left things open with Miami Don. The truth is that the new year has come fast and furious. It is a rather difficult time for me as I am making some major changes in my private life and medical practice that, at least for now, will put a major financial and time burden on my life. I'm pretty bummed that I wont have much time over the next 1-2 months for much more than a few low stake late night poker star MTT turbos. Online poker does not do it for me. I want to play and I want to play live.
For those of you interested here is a list of what I am contending with:
1. Teachers Health Weight Management Program - STOP (safely taking off pounds)
You may remember from an earlier blog post that I was in negotiations with a health insurance company to contract weight management services, something that insurances will typically not cover. This was a big deal and I was able to successfully negotiate a contract that went into effect January 1st, 2011. The new patients are seemingly infinite. A good problem that I am not fully prepared for. Click here for our provider profile.
2. Tenant Changes
For the last two years I have had a urologist renting space from me in my office. Aside from having pee all over the place at the end of the day it was kind of a drag having this practice in my office since they took a lot of my space and had a huge volume of very ill and grumpy folks (I guess not being able to pee right and having instruments probed inside my urethra would make me grumpier than missing poker). Having them as tenants was a necessary evil as I pay a very high rent premium being that my office is located on the posh St. Rose San Martin Hospital campus, considered one of the most beautiful hospitals in the US.
Click Here For Picture Reference
Although this too is a positive move for me, it will be a lot of work in terms of re-structuring my office and it will be a significant cut to my income.
3. Movement to a Concierge Primary Care Practice
It is no secret that Weight Management and Wound Care are my true medical passions. Primary care, aka general medicine has been something I have been hoping to phase out of my practice. I am not going to write a huge diatribe about the issues in primary care that hurt both patient and doctor. Basically, since to some degree I do enjoy primary care, I have decided that I am going to re-vamp my primary care practice and have a monthly fee for extra-ordinary services (eg email and phone consultations). I have yet to get to doing this...so more work on my plate.
4. Health issues in my family...
In general I have a hard time separating my emotions from my patient care. It is something that makes me an exceptional physician, but at the same time is a weakness of mine that can, at times, interfere with my own emotional health. Since being the physician for members of my family can amplify these tendencies I made a rule that I would not see my family as patients. It didn't take long until I would bend the rule for a cousin here, a brother in-law there....but it was okay in my mind. Only my mother and father would truly be the ones I couldn't emotionally take on as my patients...that was until I discovered my Father, who is struggling with a recurrent MRSA urinary tract infection did not get appropriate care from a physician. So now I am left to care for him as well. Below is a picture of a portion of my rather large Italian family at my house on Christmas. I failed pretty badly at my rule, as I have seen every single person in this picture as a patient. I guess that is a privacy violation. That's fine, let them sue me.
5. Child Care
My mother-in-law lives with my wife and I. We asked her to move in with us last year to help watch our new addition while my wife and I both worked full-time. Unfortunately she has been having some health struggles as well and we have been doing a lot of scrambling to get acceptable child-care for our 9 month old...a never ending issue in our house. This causes more distress than I can describe.
6. Moving
Not much to talk about other than we are in the process of moving...something incredibly fun to do, especially when there are so many other things happening.
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In addition to poker I would like to be doing some recreational activities like skiing etc...I don't see that I will find time to do these things. My exercising has hit an all-time nadir in 2010 and I don't see over the next few months it getting much better. Although I was a serious body builder when I was younger running has typically been my exercise of choice...mainly due to convenience. Put on your running shoes, head out the door and return in an hour. This all went down hill a few years ago when I was running with my rather large dogs and developed a grade III ankle sprain, when my labrador (aka bull in a china shop) bolted under my feet after he saw some quail scurrying by. Here is a picture of my dogs enjoying the Vegas snow fall that left as quickly as it came this Monday morning.
The other day I was reading a post by Dr. Chako on his blog and really liked the resolution idea he had on running 365 miles in 2011. Even though I am out of running shape I can still run at least 3 miles, and doing so just 2-3x per week would easily get me to that goal. Later I noticed when reading a post on the crAAKKer blog, that Grange95 also liked this idea and set up a friendly wager with Dr. Chako. I tweeted the two of them to see if I could get in on the action (three-way as commented by Chako). So now all I need to do is get me a new pair of running shoes, and possibly some inserts...should be easy with my light schedule.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
World Poker Blogger Tour
Several weeks ago I left a rather abrupt post about quitting poker after I made the decision to kamikaze myself from the $2500 Venetian DSE Main event while I had an above average stack and over half the field gone. I know I said I would post some details about what happened but honestly the details are not much of a learning issue other than the fact that external influences can play a bigger part in tilting your game than you might think.
My goal has been to become a highly ranked POY player, but this last event made it clear that it is not a realistic endeavor while I am responsible for both my family and a medical practice.
Coming to this conclusion I was unable to see a purpose in poker. I am not very good at half assing thngs...typically I do or do not. Since I'm not planning anytime soon to become a professional I started to believe that any effort in poker was really a waste of my time. After a lot of thoughtful consideration I realized I have been motivated in poker only to accomplish and ignored the idea of just enjoying the game regardless of the outcome. It was an anxiety driven process.
I have decided that I do not need to keep upping the ante by challenging myself in events that last for 2,000 years, have more skillfull players and higher buy-ins. I will continue to play tournament poker, but I am opting for smaller more time controlled tournaments in addition to more life pre-play planning.
A week after I vowed to quit I found myself at the South Point Casino testing my new plan. I decided to play their 10:00am turbo $60 NLHE bounty tourney. It lasts about 4 hours and was easy to fit in my day. I crushed it completely and at one point had 40% of the chips in play. Eventually when there were just a few remaining I agreed to a chop. It was a good feeling because not only did I enjoy the game, and was able to revel in my achievement, but I was home in time to enjoy Sunday with my family.
It reminded me a bit of my old golfing days. I am a terrible golfer. Although I have a nice lengthy drive (>300 yards) it would typically be on the other fairway. There would be at least one hole where I hit it straight. A 300+ yard drive down the middle of the fairway looks good and feels good enough to make you think you can play this game well enough to come back for more. Even though I play poker much much better than I golf I had a bad enough streak in the last 2 months to knock my confidence down quite a bit. This small win got my fire going again like that monster drive down the fairway.
To make dropping all things poker even more challenging I was contacted by the guys at Quad Jacks to discuss working on some very cool and fun project ideas. Marco Valerio, the interview host, was quick to point out that I was not kidding anyone when I threatened to quit the game.
The Quad Jacks team have some impressive and progressive ideas on poker strategy and so hanging with them I got a better appreciation of their poker theories that mainly involve paying less attention to playing your cards and more attention on playing your opponents. These guys inspire me as they represent the new age poker player and already have a firm grasp that the real money is not in poker itself but the business of it.
Using their concepts I have been pushing the boundaries of my game. This past Saturday was the World Poker Blogger Tour (WPBT) where I placed 3rd succeeding at playing a much looser and more aggressive game.
The poker bloggers fascinate me, as they are a sub-culture of the poker sub-culture. A sub-sub culture? I got involved with both blogging and with bloggers by developing a friendship with the Poker Grump. The Grump, an interesting character himself, is a professional poker player that survives off low limit cash game poker. He is well educated and creates incredibly well written and informative material on his blog. Many of the blogger folk he is friends with are similar in that they are well educated individuals that produce exceptional poker fodder on their sites. I have been a reader of many of these blogs and it was quite fun to have had the opportunity to put faces to their names.
The tournament went very well for me in general. I was a chip leader for most of the day. The field was not as aggressive as I am use to and my more aggressive play worked well since many were on the tighter side of things. I also made very few mistakes.
One of my smaller mistakes was very early on when I was in a multi-way pot that was raised pre-flop by CJ the The Luck Box. I had been playing very aggressive against him and forced him to fold a number of times and he was clearly unhappy about me being involved in another pot. This time I had 3c5c out of position. I flopped and bet out on a flush draw when he re-raised me with his top pair forcing the third opponent out. It was a small risk relative to my stack, and I imagined I had good implied odds...and heck, according to the bloggers "Crubs always make it." I called and the crubs made it. Unfortunately my mistake came when I didn't take advantage of the implied odds that got me into this position. I started to fear that maybe he had a better flush draw and so my brain shifted to controlling pot size, checking and calling CJs bets. When I turned my flush over CJ, an incredible sportsman,visibly looked upset and in a very PC way stated that he didn't expect that I would call a flush draw to a re-raise. He was even nice enough to educate me that calling a re-raise with a flush draw was not a good idea! Lol. His huge turn bet crippled him and started me off with a very healthy stack.
I used my stack in a very aggressive way and was involved in 1/3 - 1/2 of the pots. I picked up some serious momentum and built a pretty big stack by level 5.
Although I didn't know it at the time my most challenging opponent at my first table was Grange95, who also writes one of my favorite poker blogs. Since I had position on him most of the time I got the best of him, and when our table broke he gave me a very nice compliment on my play which was very flattering as I hold him in high esteem.
I encountered many people who I enjoyed meeting including Dawn Summers, Poker Poison and Buddy Dank.
In addition to Grange95, the most challenging players were Bad Blood and Miami Don.
Miami Don was easily the most aggressive player and thankfully he was to my right. At one point after losing several flips to shorties I myself became short. When Miami Don raised on the button with Jack-crap off, I had 99 in the SB and was able to double up through him starting a nice run. He continued to relentlessly raise, and at one point had raised 4 times in a row with no challengers. The fifth time I shoved all in with A7 suited. Although they were good cards to shove back at him with I made a very bad decision to do so since I was in early position and some one woke up with Kings. Miami Don folded and lucky for me I hit my Ace on the flop catapulting me to chip leader. Miami Don, the well deserved winner, must have thought I was the biggest thorn in his side, as I put him all-in on multiple occasions...with garbage hands. Every time he folded.
At the final table Miami Don surpassed my lead when someone shoved into him while he had Aces. He proposed a chop, where he would take 2nd place money and the 1st place trophy and everyone agreed. I was in third place and there were 6 left. Although I really wanted to win the event I agreed to the chop since 1. I didn't want to be the lone asshole and 2. I was a newbie in this group and I knew the trophy would mean more to Miami Don than it would to me.
Overall I had a great time. The bloggers were a great group of people. They were kind, fun and exceptionally welcoming. I am excited to see them next year and participate in some of their social events a well.
My goal has been to become a highly ranked POY player, but this last event made it clear that it is not a realistic endeavor while I am responsible for both my family and a medical practice.
Coming to this conclusion I was unable to see a purpose in poker. I am not very good at half assing thngs...typically I do or do not. Since I'm not planning anytime soon to become a professional I started to believe that any effort in poker was really a waste of my time. After a lot of thoughtful consideration I realized I have been motivated in poker only to accomplish and ignored the idea of just enjoying the game regardless of the outcome. It was an anxiety driven process.
I have decided that I do not need to keep upping the ante by challenging myself in events that last for 2,000 years, have more skillfull players and higher buy-ins. I will continue to play tournament poker, but I am opting for smaller more time controlled tournaments in addition to more life pre-play planning.
A week after I vowed to quit I found myself at the South Point Casino testing my new plan. I decided to play their 10:00am turbo $60 NLHE bounty tourney. It lasts about 4 hours and was easy to fit in my day. I crushed it completely and at one point had 40% of the chips in play. Eventually when there were just a few remaining I agreed to a chop. It was a good feeling because not only did I enjoy the game, and was able to revel in my achievement, but I was home in time to enjoy Sunday with my family.
It reminded me a bit of my old golfing days. I am a terrible golfer. Although I have a nice lengthy drive (>300 yards) it would typically be on the other fairway. There would be at least one hole where I hit it straight. A 300+ yard drive down the middle of the fairway looks good and feels good enough to make you think you can play this game well enough to come back for more. Even though I play poker much much better than I golf I had a bad enough streak in the last 2 months to knock my confidence down quite a bit. This small win got my fire going again like that monster drive down the fairway.
To make dropping all things poker even more challenging I was contacted by the guys at Quad Jacks to discuss working on some very cool and fun project ideas. Marco Valerio, the interview host, was quick to point out that I was not kidding anyone when I threatened to quit the game.
The Quad Jacks team have some impressive and progressive ideas on poker strategy and so hanging with them I got a better appreciation of their poker theories that mainly involve paying less attention to playing your cards and more attention on playing your opponents. These guys inspire me as they represent the new age poker player and already have a firm grasp that the real money is not in poker itself but the business of it.
Using their concepts I have been pushing the boundaries of my game. This past Saturday was the World Poker Blogger Tour (WPBT) where I placed 3rd succeeding at playing a much looser and more aggressive game.
The poker bloggers fascinate me, as they are a sub-culture of the poker sub-culture. A sub-sub culture? I got involved with both blogging and with bloggers by developing a friendship with the Poker Grump. The Grump, an interesting character himself, is a professional poker player that survives off low limit cash game poker. He is well educated and creates incredibly well written and informative material on his blog. Many of the blogger folk he is friends with are similar in that they are well educated individuals that produce exceptional poker fodder on their sites. I have been a reader of many of these blogs and it was quite fun to have had the opportunity to put faces to their names.
The tournament went very well for me in general. I was a chip leader for most of the day. The field was not as aggressive as I am use to and my more aggressive play worked well since many were on the tighter side of things. I also made very few mistakes.
One of my smaller mistakes was very early on when I was in a multi-way pot that was raised pre-flop by CJ the The Luck Box. I had been playing very aggressive against him and forced him to fold a number of times and he was clearly unhappy about me being involved in another pot. This time I had 3c5c out of position. I flopped and bet out on a flush draw when he re-raised me with his top pair forcing the third opponent out. It was a small risk relative to my stack, and I imagined I had good implied odds...and heck, according to the bloggers "Crubs always make it." I called and the crubs made it. Unfortunately my mistake came when I didn't take advantage of the implied odds that got me into this position. I started to fear that maybe he had a better flush draw and so my brain shifted to controlling pot size, checking and calling CJs bets. When I turned my flush over CJ, an incredible sportsman,visibly looked upset and in a very PC way stated that he didn't expect that I would call a flush draw to a re-raise. He was even nice enough to educate me that calling a re-raise with a flush draw was not a good idea! Lol. His huge turn bet crippled him and started me off with a very healthy stack.
I used my stack in a very aggressive way and was involved in 1/3 - 1/2 of the pots. I picked up some serious momentum and built a pretty big stack by level 5.
Although I didn't know it at the time my most challenging opponent at my first table was Grange95, who also writes one of my favorite poker blogs. Since I had position on him most of the time I got the best of him, and when our table broke he gave me a very nice compliment on my play which was very flattering as I hold him in high esteem.
I encountered many people who I enjoyed meeting including Dawn Summers, Poker Poison and Buddy Dank.
In addition to Grange95, the most challenging players were Bad Blood and Miami Don.
Miami Don was easily the most aggressive player and thankfully he was to my right. At one point after losing several flips to shorties I myself became short. When Miami Don raised on the button with Jack-crap off, I had 99 in the SB and was able to double up through him starting a nice run. He continued to relentlessly raise, and at one point had raised 4 times in a row with no challengers. The fifth time I shoved all in with A7 suited. Although they were good cards to shove back at him with I made a very bad decision to do so since I was in early position and some one woke up with Kings. Miami Don folded and lucky for me I hit my Ace on the flop catapulting me to chip leader. Miami Don, the well deserved winner, must have thought I was the biggest thorn in his side, as I put him all-in on multiple occasions...with garbage hands. Every time he folded.
At the final table Miami Don surpassed my lead when someone shoved into him while he had Aces. He proposed a chop, where he would take 2nd place money and the 1st place trophy and everyone agreed. I was in third place and there were 6 left. Although I really wanted to win the event I agreed to the chop since 1. I didn't want to be the lone asshole and 2. I was a newbie in this group and I knew the trophy would mean more to Miami Don than it would to me.
Overall I had a great time. The bloggers were a great group of people. They were kind, fun and exceptionally welcoming. I am excited to see them next year and participate in some of their social events a well.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Game Over
Well I'm pretty sure it's time for me to give up poker. Yesterday I entered a satellite to the Venetian $2500 main event and won a seat. I played over 8 hours on Saturday. For some reason I think that I can fit a 3-day main event into my life. Last night I think I got 4 hours sleep (baby crying) and I have been sick with a cold.
I started playing at noon today and played pretty damn good for most of the day. Was able to survive some terrible things like flopping a kings full vs another guys quads. I was then moved to a table that was riddled with pros. Although I was clearly out of my league with most of the table Joe Tehan was the one that gave me the most grief. Despite all this I was able to keep a stack above 50k while average was 30k. At about 10pm with 110/236 players left I began to think about playing til 2 am, getting home by 3 and then up at 6:00 to go work, and then resume play at 4pm and play til 2am again...With 27 to cash and 90 minute levels who knew if the field would even be in the money on day 2...then go another night with 3 hours sleep and do it again at 2pm while having to change my whole work schedule. All this while my poor wife does everything with the kids by herself. I had a complete Mike Matusow blow up around 10:30 pm and did things with hands that were insane and completely out of my character. I busted about #106 at around 11:30pm, and walked away looking like a complete donkey. I am disappointed that I wasted this seat...If I didn't have a family or a full time job I know I could do this and do it well...but the reality is this hobby is too consuming. I'm sure Ill do the occasional daily tourney now and then, but I am done with trying to do serious tourneys and regular playing. Thanks all for reading my blog...it was fun for a while but I think I'm done...If I ever get wealthy enough where I don't need to work maybe I'll bring all this back again. Right now I am trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
I started playing at noon today and played pretty damn good for most of the day. Was able to survive some terrible things like flopping a kings full vs another guys quads. I was then moved to a table that was riddled with pros. Although I was clearly out of my league with most of the table Joe Tehan was the one that gave me the most grief. Despite all this I was able to keep a stack above 50k while average was 30k. At about 10pm with 110/236 players left I began to think about playing til 2 am, getting home by 3 and then up at 6:00 to go work, and then resume play at 4pm and play til 2am again...With 27 to cash and 90 minute levels who knew if the field would even be in the money on day 2...then go another night with 3 hours sleep and do it again at 2pm while having to change my whole work schedule. All this while my poor wife does everything with the kids by herself. I had a complete Mike Matusow blow up around 10:30 pm and did things with hands that were insane and completely out of my character. I busted about #106 at around 11:30pm, and walked away looking like a complete donkey. I am disappointed that I wasted this seat...If I didn't have a family or a full time job I know I could do this and do it well...but the reality is this hobby is too consuming. I'm sure Ill do the occasional daily tourney now and then, but I am done with trying to do serious tourneys and regular playing. Thanks all for reading my blog...it was fun for a while but I think I'm done...If I ever get wealthy enough where I don't need to work maybe I'll bring all this back again. Right now I am trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
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