finally played some tonight

Well I've been talking a lot of poker this week and watching some PXF videos. No action on the job front and other than scouting sites and sending out resumes I haven't been busy so I've tried to enjoy my time this week as I know I may not have a lot of it soon. Anyway I've been talking over hands with Stevie and a couple other guys from PXF and watching the lastest Bax videos as well.

I'm still waiting for the coaching site to come online and when it does I'll link it here. At the moment I've had no updates other than they hoped to go live today or tomorrow and their ads would be on Sharkscope Aug 1st. I played some $11 HU SNGs today and did ok. Didn't play a lot and I'm probably going to play some more tonight but they were so soft. I think I went 6-4 in my 1st 10 games and easily could have been 82 or 9-1. They were really bad players. Also I'm going to start playing some Step 4s on stake as well. Currently only the ones to Event 6. It pays 3 seats to the $530 and 4th gets $210 so its a $5 loss. Shouldn't be that hard imo to have a 50% or better cash rate in these and they should be lower variance as well. We'll see how it goes with them but I'm excited to try them out.

quick update

OK I haven't done an update since I haven't played online since I got back from Vegas. Part of it is I just don't have the desire to play right now. I'm not sure what it is and I wish I knew. Maybe its burnout. Part of it is I've been busy with resumes, interviews, phone interviews, etc. Nothing's panned out yet but my stress level is getting higher every day I go through another interview. I stopped by and talked to my old boss today to try to get a letter of recommendation and I think he's going to write one for me. I really wanted to have a chance to talk to him but he was busy so I didn't get to talk long. But hopefully if he knows of any openings he'll give me a call. I may have a chance at a job where my lil bro works. Not a great job but its something. Would at least get me back in the job market but the pay and hours aren't great.

I somehow crashed my PT databases and have been rebuilding it somewhat on my LHE datamined games. I'm still datamining the games but not sure when I'm going to play again. I'm leaning towards grinding some low limit HU SNGs again just to get myself playing again. Maybe if I start playing I'll get back into the rythm of it. Anyway updates will prolly be scarece until I get things sorted out.

LHE here I come

OK hopefully I can get the will power to get off my ass and play starting Monday. I got 1 of my LHE DVDs in this weekend. it was the shorthanded from Dave Fromm. I thought it was just ok. I'm used to the PXF and Cardrunners videos where they profile a session instead of generic hand examples. And his video is based on some live play where HU there is no cap and he's suggesting putting in 5 or 6 bets on hands which would never happen online on most sites. I started rewatching a lot of low stakes 6 max videos on CR as well.

I'm thinking of trying to play some LHE HU SNGs as well. I know I used to play some NL HU SNGs this year and did pretty well and eventually just seem to hit a wall and can't get past it. And LHE SNGs don't run that much either but HU LHE has a lower rake than 6 max but obv you can't multi table it as easy. Also from looking at FullTilt's lobby tonight I haven't seen a ton of LHE HU going on. Peak hours it may be different as its almostmidnight on the east coast right now.

Anyway wanted to let everyone know I was alive, I did get out of Phoenix but just barely. And I adjusted to Vegas more than I thought. I got out the airport at like 1am and it was 85 degrees and I was cold. LOL! I've been freezing my ass off all week in this non 110+ weather.

leaving Las Vegas???

Man I hope so. I get to the airport way too early because check out was 11am and my flight was like 3.30 pm. I didn't want to be lugging my suitcase arund Vegas and figured I'd get here early, have lunch and chill out at the bar or whatever. Well I get here but can't check in for my flight more than 4 hours early but I can print my boarding passes. I wait about 30 minutes and then go to check in but my flight to Phoenix has been canceled. Now it would make sense to just let me take the next Nashville flight they have an open seat on. There are like 4 more Nashville flights today but the reason I chose the Phoenix layover was because it was a lot cheaper. Anyway they schedule me for a flight that lands in Phoenix about 10 minutes before my Phoenix flight departs and told me they would hold the plane for me. Now as bad as my luck has been this week I have no expectations of that plane being there and I fully expect to stay in Phoenix tonight. I also got stopped by security at the airport screening because my laptop was out of the case like it was supposed to be but not in a bin by itself so my laptop and bag had to be searched.I've also walked about all of the terminals here in Vegas as my original flight was at one end and my new flight at the very other end of the terminal. Like the 50 miles I walked the last week weren't enough I needed to get a couple more in today I guess. I think I finally lost some weight though between the heat and the walking so thats a good thing. And free wireless internet at the airport is cool too. I was fully expecting to have to pay for internet here. No electrical outlets handy though so once my battery dies I'm back to reading a book and trying to stay awake waiting a few more hours for my flight.So I hope to be land in Nashville around 1am today. I wouldn't be surprised if I have to spend the night in Phoenix which may be ok if I know ahead of time I can call a couple friends in Phoenix and at least go out to dinner with them. I'm so exhausted right now and when I get home I'm going to sleep for at least a day before getting out of bed and doing anything else. lolI was expecting a phone call from the last job interview I had but they haven't called today so maybe I hear from them tomorrow. They had said I would hear from them today if I was still in consideration though so we'll see what happens. I'm still on the list for a couple other new jobs they are creating in the coming months as well.Anyway this should be the last update from Vegas. Its starting to feel like the Hotel California. You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave...

its all over now baby blue

OK well today got off to a bad start and it really sums up my 3 years of trying to make the WSOP main event. My plan today was to play the 4pm and 9pm satellites. I stop at the Rio to eat because I had 2 hours before the tournament started and evrey tournament has been running registration 1 hour into the event. I get down there about 90 minutes before the start and there is a huge line. I get near the front and they announce registration is closed for the 4pm tournament because they don't have enough tables to let anyone else in. If they had allowed 1 more table I would have been in the tournament. I wait 20-30 minutes for them to make the official announcement and I'm out of luck. They tell us if we want to play any other tournaments that night to register right then. So I get back in line to register for the 9pm event. Only to get to the front of the line and told I can't register for 3 more hours because they haven't opened registration for that event even though the tournament director announced that we could register for all events. I storm off and walk around the casino a while and meet up with Moki who decides to go back and see if we can get in and for some reason we can now register for the 9pm event. Which is fine. We sign up and meet Marco and go over to Casa Fuente for a cigar and a mojito since we have 4+ hours to kill. We come back and there is almost 300 players in the event and 28 seats to the main event are going out. I really liked my table as it was full of fish. I raise 3 times in the 1st level and all 3 times I get 2-3 callers and they donk the flop into me and I had to fold. Level 2 old man to my right in the SB raises my BB and I call with A9. Flops K8x he bets I raise thinking he's on a steal and he quickly calls. Turn is a K and he checks and I check behind thinking he must have something to call the flop and he probably isn't folding the turn. River is a 9 and he quickly bets and I call and he shows T8o and I've got back my chips I lost in level 1. Next hand of interest I get TT in LP and an agro donk in MP raises again and I flat but then the SB flats too which kind of scared me but I know he's been wanting to get chips from this guy and could be calling light. Flop comes T85 all clubs and the SB leads out for pot, MP calls and I tank and decide to shove. I don't want to see a club on the turn and have to give up on my set and both players think a while then fold. SB tells me later he had the flush draw and overs. This gave me about 13,000 in chips and we started with 6,000. I go to break with about 12,000 and in very good shape. There are about 190 players remaining at this point. We go to break and come back and things quickly go south. About 20 minutes before break a very agro kid comes in to my right raising a lot of pots. He raises UTG and I 3 bet AKs and then a shorty in the BB shoves me but his bet is only 2x my bet so I have an easy call. He shows KK and flop comes with the case K and I double him. I'm now down to about 8,000 chips and blinds went up a couple hands later. I now had about 15 blinds. I get QQ UTG+1 and same agro player raises UTG again and I think a minute and shove. He tanks and counts down his stack 3 times and starts to move it in then backs up and thinks about it. I really thought he was calling but after about 3 minutes he folds. About 5 hands later I get 77 in the BB. UTG+1 older Italian guy who had been playing kind of tight limps, then the btn limps, the SB limps. Now I have about 19 blinds but there are 5 blinds in there and I shove trying to take it down there and UTG+1 snap calls and when everyone folds he shows JJ and I'm out. Its been a good run. I don't regret any of my plays as I feel I played as well as I ever have live. My reads were spot on, I played a tight agressive game just got unlucky in a few key pots when I needed to get lucky. Since I didn't get to play the 4pm sat today I think I'm going across the street to Caesar's and play the Mega Stack event there tomorrow. Slow structure, huge stacks, and it should be a fun tournament to kill some time tomorrow so maybe I won't be thinking about the main event.

Fri night think i'm going to puke

Man what a sick night. I'm playing my A game. I mean I'm getting a couple hands but I'm playing great. Had a weird hand in lvl 2. I've been a lil looser than usual but haven't been to showdown yet and haven't been that out of line. Raise KK UTG and get 3 bet. I milk it a while and look him over and I 4 bet 1/2 my stack with the intention of shoving any flop that doesn't have an Ace. If an Ace falls I can't get away from my hand but I'll check and maybe he'll bluff if he doesn't have an Ace thinking I'll fold. Flop is horrible QJx 2 diamonds. I stall a minute cause I hate this flop. His flat call really made me think AK, QQ, JJ. And now I only beat 2 of those hands so I should have check/called I think but I go ahead and shove cause I don't think he's folding AQ or KQ to me here. He insta folded so I'm guessing he had AK.

A couple orbits later I raise TT UTG+2 and the BB calls. Flop T54 and he checks. I look him over and announce check. Turn is a 4 giving me the boat but putting a flush draw on board. He checks and I bet out the same as flop bet and he insta calls me. River is a 5 double pairing the board and making the flush. He thinks a minute and checks. I just sit there shaking my head and shuffling chips. I just didn't know what he could have that could pay me off. If I thought he had a 5 or 4 I'd make a large bet but I'm sure he doesn't have either. But I think he might pay me off with a flush if I make it a smallish bet. So I finally throw out some chips about 1/2 pot I think but I did it looking angry and hoping maybe he'd think I was really weak and he did. He calls QTo. End of level 3 I have about 14,000 and we started with 4,000.

Just after break my table breaks and I'm moved to a table thats not going to break until the end of the tournament. Now I've been at least 2x average since we started level 2. Right where I wanted to be. I stayed there most of the night. On my new table I played the most bizarre hand ever. I'm in seat 1 to the left of the dealer which I hate because they keep the muck right there and its hard to follow action from seats 8-10. The hand here is against the player in the 10 seat who obv can't see my actions any better than his. I raise QQ UTG and get 2 calls. Flop is 998 (2 spades) I have about 8,000 left and the pot is 6,000. Any raise I make commits me to the hand. I bet out 5,500 and caller 1 thinks a while and mucks but player 2 insta calls me. Turn bricks off. Caller 2 is in the BB and IDK what he's thinking. Maybe he thought I was all in on the flop. He flips over his hand Ks5s. I can't help but smile as the entire table is bursting out in laughter. The dealer tells him the hand isn't over I have chips. The kid apologized and flips his cards back over and announces he checks. Now the pot is close to 20,000 chips and I have about 2,500 left. In no way can I push him off a flush draw. He's getting almost 10:1 to call. He probably has to call with almost any pair here. I sit there a minute and announce I'm all in. Now he goes into the tank and everyone just gets silent. B/c we know his hand, we know he has to call but somehow he doesn't. Moron at the table starts to announce He's only got $2,500. Luckily I had a great dealer and he instantly interupts the player and tells him he's not in the hand, he's not allowed to comment on the hand. So he gets quiet and the kids throws his hand away. Now I'm a favorite there but he still had a 1 in 4 chance of snapping me off there. I really felt when he folded and I was now about 3x the average that I was in great shape.

Fast forward to next break. We started the tournament with 320 players. We're playing for 15 seats and at break I'm 2x the average stack and we've got less than 80 players remaining. Blinds go up when we return but I've got about 25BBs in my stack. I watch a couple big stacks implode. Biggest stack at the table raises AK UTG and the btn min 3 bets him. Everyone knows this guy has AA except the UTG player who shoves his AKo and gets crippled. He easily could have gotten away from his AK as he was CL at the table and this was the only guy who could hurt him so the guy had to have a major hand to get in v/s the chip leader. Next orbit another big stack raises UTG with ATo and the tightest player at the table shoves. This guy hadn't played a hand in an hour he had been at the table. Of course AT calls and gets crippled. Now we're down to about 65 players. I raise AJs UTG and get shoved by the BB. I throw my hand away not needing to gamble and he shows me AK. Good fold me. Next orbit I raise AJ again in MP and the guy with AA in the last hand 3 bets me. I fold again and he shows me AA. Good fold me again. I think I raised AJ in LP a 3rd time and folded to a shove and was shown AA. So now all my good folds have costs me about 1/3 of my stack. My raises were fine as no one was playing back at me without a huge hand and all 3 times a nit showed me a hand.

Now the blinds go up in my BB and there are 50 players remaining. With the blind increase I'm about average but I only have 11BBs. Folds to the SB who shoves me with 8BBs. Now if he has any clue what he's doing he should be shoving me with any 2 cards here. I would shove there blind had the situation been reversed. Anyway I call with you guessed it AJ. He had AQ. GG me. I'm literally sick right now. I've come closer to a seat than this before but this really hurt. Last year I came in 3rd place on back to back days for a WSOP seat and the 2nd day was AA < QQ for 80% of the chips in play. But to play for 4+ hours tonight and probably playing the best live poker I've ever played to just get cooler late is a kick in the nuts.

I've got a couple more tournaments tomorrow to try to get into the last day of the event. There is a nice view from my balcony and it has a 100 foot drop. I'm standing out here right now debating the jump off of it.....

quick Friday update

quick update here. Got up early and played the 10am $550 sat but bested before 1st break. I never got hands and got trapped into several pots. I called in the BB with AK early against a crazy Asian player. Flop is QJx I check/call the flop with 2 overs and a gutshot + backdoor flush draw. We check down and he shows a small pair. I probably should have led out on the river but I didn't think he would fold a Q or a J so I just gave up. A little later I raise 88 in middle position and absented minded BB finally decides to call. Flop is AAQr and looks like a good flop for me so when he checks I lead out about 3/4 pot and he thinks and shoves me but he has so few chips I have to call knowing I'm probably behind. He shows AJo and had flopped trips. So now I've got about 10BBs left and go through the blinds and now I'm realy short. I'm looking for a spot to shove before the blinds come back because it was almost time for break. I didn't want to wait through break as a small stack with the antes coming in and leaving me even shorter. I get 5 trash hands in a row and can't shove anyone and get QJs in the BB. My plan was to shove preflop and take my chances. Unfortunately 3 guys limp in front of me and I knew I couldn't fold all of them out so I check and take a look at the flop. Its KJx and I check with the intention of getting all in on this flop. Middle position guy bets out and I call he had limped KK and I was basically drawing dead.

I'm planning on playing the $550 today at 4pm. Also I'm playing the 4pm tomorrow afternoon. I'll play an $1100 sat but not sure when. If I bust out of the 4pm early it may be tonight or if I run deep in the 4pm I'll do it tomorrow night. Worst case I'll get up and play the Sunday 8am last chance satellite.

Someone was asking who all I had seen while I was here in Vegas. Off the top of my head (I know I'm leaving off a lot of people I should be remembering but I'm drawing a blank on some of them) the list is:

Barry Greinstein
Gavin Smith
Daniel Negreanu
Mike Matusow
Ted Forrest
Joe Hachem
Chris Moneymaker
Greg Raymer
Annette15
Jean Roberte (Guy from Survivor)
David Sklansky
Doyle Brunson

From cardrunners.com
Mike Schneider (Schneids)
Taylor Caby (Green Plastic)
Andrew Wiggins (Muddy Water)
Brian Towsend

Vegas update #1

OK landed in Vegas and was dead tired. I hadn’t slept much the last 2 days because of job interviews. Last interview went great but once again I don’t have all the training they’d like me to have so I’m not holding my breath on any of them. Hooked up with Moki and he took me on a tour of a couple of the casinos. The tournament room in the RIO is massive. If you’ve ever watched the WSOP coverage on ESPN you’ve seen the room but its so much bigger in person. It has 2,000 people playing poker in it, not to mention the dealers, tournament staff, reporters, friends standing around the tables. Its just amazing. We spent the night at Casa Fuente smoking/drinking late into the night. Then I had a party to attend back at the Rio for Cardplayers.com. I got there late but the party was still going strong. I finally left around 4am after having spent several hours talking poker and strategy with one of Cardrunners top pros. Overall though I’m not all that impressed with Vegas. Its so damn hot. Its over 110 degrees and the locals tell me its cooler now than the last couple of weeks when it was around 120. And man its so expensive to get around town. Cab rides are $5 for the 1st mile and $2.50 a mile after that. And the Rio where the tournaments are isn’t close enough to walk to anything so I have to cab to get there every day or walk ½ a mile to another Harrah’s properties to try and catch the shuttle which runs every 30 minutes. But they start late and shut down earlier than is convenient for me. The city looks nice especially at night when it’s all lit up but between the heat, the crowds, and the prices I’m just not as excited about it as I thought I would be. But anyway today was my 1st day in a tournament. Played the afternoon $550 buy in event which payed out 1 out of 20 a seat. Below is part of what I typed up as a trip report on another site and I’m lazy and just cut/paste it here. Today Moki and I played the 4pm sat. I was a card rack in the 1st 3 levels. AA 2x, AK 2x, KK once. I was still at my starting stack nearing 1st break even after getting paid off a couple times. A couple very loose agro guys either 3 bet me pre, or CRAI on flops. I had only shown down AK once and AA 2x. Those were my only showdowns so I look like a complete nit. Blinds are going up and I have about 11BBs. 3 guys limp and I shove A7s and everyone folds. Next hand I get KK on the btn. 1 limp, I raise, SB shoves and I call he had 53o and doubled me up. At 1st break I'm 2.5x the starting stack and somewhat above average.Get back from break and I get KK but no action when I 3 bet. I kept slowly chipping up but the blinds are rising and most people are getting below 10BB stacks. LP agro kid with 12BBs raises and I shove TT he had KK and cripples me with 150 left. I steal once or twice and then just sit back playing the waiting game as I had enough chips to wait. I get 88 UTG and shove and moron on the button calls all in with 44 and doubled me back up again. Next orbit blinds go up and I'm down to about 6BBs. I shove K7s UTG+1 and get 2 calls behind me. One guy had A9s and the other AQo. Flop comes T98 giving me the straight and flush draws. Turn is a 6 giving me the straight, but the river is a J giving AQ the 3 outter and eliminated me with about 110 players left and top 20 get a seat in the Main Event. I win that hand and I was back above average at a very weak table. I blame it on Moki busting out cause after he stopped by my table to tell me he was going to dinner I ran horrible. lol Hopefully we both have better luck tomorrow. Also not sure how much I'll get to update as my cell connection here through my laptop is really bad. I'll do what I can but not sure I can do daily updates but obv if I get a seat or something huge happens I'll do my best to get it up on here.

And congrats to Schneids from Cardrunners on his undefeated streak in beer pong. That was the best performance in the sport I've ever seen. Too bad he can't go pro in beer pong. LOL

1st day of the rest of my life

OK 2 interviews yesterday instead of 1. As I was getting ready to leave for my 1st interview I got another phone call requesting an interview. 1st interview was good but the pay isn't worth the drive but the work is easy and its only 3 days a week Mon-Wed so it is kind of tempting cause it would leave my weekends open. 2nd interview I had applied a month ago for supervisor and they kept me on file and they had a Quality Control opening. I don't have the CMM programming experience they want but I can learn it quickly so if they don't find the candidate they want I think I got the job. I couldn't sleep last night and I'm heading to my 3rd interview in a couple hours for the IT Tech Support job. Then off to the airport where I hopefully make my flight. I don't think it will be a problem though.

Its going to be a long day. I didn't get a lot of sleep before my interviews yesterday. Then I met my dad and went out for a couple drinks, came home packed and tried to sleep. I got a few hours of sleep before I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Drinking a 5 hour energy drink right now and had an early breakfast. Watching Rounders for about the 100th time for inspiration. LOL!

Anyway I woke up this morning and immediately the 1st thing in my head was I either make it or I don't. So I guess this week is it really. I mean I really thought I wanted to get a job and just play on the side. But this morning when I woke up I didn't want to go back to work I just wanted to get to the tables and play. I got a good feeling about this trip. I'm going to go out, have a good time with some friends, play my sats and hope things fall my way. There should be plenty of dead money out there so if I run good I think I'll be in the Main Event. But whatever you know. I know I'm rambling here, nerves I guess. Anyway wish me luck. Vegas here I come.