Out of 10K Pot Limit Holdem Championship

I busted with 15 minutes left in the day. Tough day altogether as I knew it would be. The field was about 275 players and for this event you get the cream of the crop. Every table was a tough one, with your weak spots at the table made up of players who will be the sharks at the table when the Main Event rolls around. The day started out fine, no real hiccups until I got moved tables. I got it in for a 37k pot with Andy Black with AQo on a Q62 board vs his 69...turn 4 river 6 obviously, down to 20k. Chipped back up a bit. Played 44 pretty creatively on a 2356 board to double up to about 60k. was up to 80k or so and things went wrong. I had a bluff that went a little awry and I missed two big draws, where I knew I was up against big hands and, had I hit, I could have won giant pots. The biggest was a pot where I hold j10s on a flop of A89. The original raiser led out, I called, and the SB then also called. This particular player NEVER overcalls here without a monster, so we KNOW (!!!!) 100% he has a set. The turn is the K of hearts. Now I have a flush draw to go along with my straight draw. Somehow they both check to me. Every ounce of you sees all that money in the pot and wants to bet, but it was obvious my bet would only get the money in poorly. I took my free card and missed. The SB fires out 25k and is called by the raiser who has AK, the small blind had a set of eights. So, I feel good that i made a nice check, but at the same time in tournament poker making a good fold doesn't get you any closer to a W. Uggghhhh, show me the 7 of diamonds one time and ship the sherbet!! The other hand I had 53s on a AJ5 two heart board, giving me a pair and a flush draw. The turn and river were bad, and while I never saw the kids hand, I couldn't imagine my 5 being good the way the action went. I finally got the money in for 20 big blinds with A10s to JJ. I actually flopped an ace, but he runnered clubs and I was out with 15 minutes left in the night. Not much you can do, when the table is tough like it was today, you have to be very careful and pick your spots well, and hope a couple things go your way. Today just wasn't my day. Only a couple more tourneys left until the main event, can't wait!!!

26th birthday and a lul in tourneys (kinda long I was bored)

Well, i'm 26 now. I'm officially a dinosaur as far as the poker world goes. Pretty low key as far as celebrating went. Scotty was on the grill, cookin up literally whatever would fit on a bun, including potatoe salad and hot sauce. Our favorite activity seems to be sitting in the hottub drinking beer, though ping pong is quickly becoming a close second. I was pretty terrible at ping pong when i got here, but am starting to pick the game up. I'm down to Scotty right now, but considering we spotted him 5 games while I learned I'll take it. I prop bet Jay $500 to shave his head like a 40 year old balding man. It is pretty rediculous looking, worth every penny. Tomorrow the plan is to go golfing. Obviously I'm not much of a golfer, but riding around on the cart with Shane and making prop bets is definately more fun than swinging the clubs. Last week we went, and betting on Scotty proved to be profitable for me. As long as Scotty shoots well the Coronas and dinner tab will be on me again. He did play about 40 games of ping pong tonight so the horse may be a little sore. Gotta see how the champ is feeling in the AM before I throw more coin on him.
Tomorrow will be another day of rest because Tuesday is the 10k Pot Limit Holdem tournament. I have only played two tournaments since my final table and have not done anything in either of them. I am looking forward to this one because it will be a smaller field (though much tougher) than the tourneys I have been playing, and they are starting you out with 30k in chips. I am not sure how i feel about the antes not being in playing because it is Pot limit. I have always been a loose agressive player who likes to play a lot of pots, but given that there should be about 7 out of 10 players at the table in this event playing the exact same strategy it is oftentimes very difficult to play that way effectively. My image has also been something i have to pay a lot more attention to this year. After the TV coverage from last year more players are aware of who I am this year, so they are paying attention to how I play more. Most people assume I'm bluffing and am a typical free-wielding internet nut. So depending on the table and how I'm running it's my job to either live up to this expectation or tighten up to relieve people of that idea. Which brings me to another thought from the WSOP. I find many people unwilling to adjust their game when they get to a table. Many people label themselves as either loose or tight players and feel they need to stick with that strategy to the bitter end. The best players in the game know this is not the way to win. Depending on when you played with me during this WSOP I have been either an absolute maniac or one of the biggest nits you will ever see. It is all a combination of how people are playing at the table, and of course the cards. At certain tables it is right to open any two cards blind when the action is folded to you. Against weaker players who are playing push/fold poker the quality of the hand you hold is far less important than the spot in which you hold it. However with better players who are wlling to see flops in position and make plays it becomes very unprofitable to be using this strategy. You will only find yourself banging your head against a wall or getting into some very difficult spots after the flop rolls out. Changing gears, with so many people knowing so much more about Holdem and poker theory in general, has become the single most important factor in beating your table. Some of the times I've been successful this year has been because i've managed my image well, and the same can be said forwhen i haven't. Some people don't agree with me about this being that important, but you're reading my blog, so i'm hoping you're not one of them!! Hopefully Garrett posts this soon as i am still unable to figure out how to directly load this onto www.clubontheriver.com. Also, I will be talking to Joe about the signup sheet for lessons, as I've had a handful of people asking me about it. I'm still not sure how I am going to run them. At least for a little while when i get back from the WSOP I will be doing them free based on people who sign up. We'll see how good my teaching skills are though. I've mentored a lot of people who have gone on to become successful poker players, but as far as the one on one lessons go i'm still debating as to the best way to go about making them work. I know one of the biggest things will be me watching you for a while. It's tough to teach someone what they're doing right or wrong if you've never seen them play. So, if you're signing up for lessons, be ready to be critiqued!!! You can critique my coaching in a year when you're making millions :). Off to bed. LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE...

Out in 5th of $1500 NL Holdem WSOP event, jamin comes in 3rd in the $10k HU event

Can't be too disappointed. I have never been more card dead at a final table in my life. In fact all of Day 3 I was incredibly card dead. I saw one pair (88) and it was raised and re-raised before it got to me. I saw AQs and it was raised allin and reraised allin before it got to me. I maintained a chip stack by three betting junk hands a few times. I was really just sort of biding my time until I could pick up a few hands. With 5 players to go I looked down at AQ and made a standard raise to 150k. Pete, the older gentlemen who was literally being hit in the face with the deck, instantly announced allin. He had done this about 10 times at the final tble and had shown everything from AA to A10. I figure given the situation and my dwindling stack I can dominate him a fair amount here and more likely I am in a raceoff for 2.5 mil in chips. I called and Pete showed up with 99 and won the flip. I wasn't really mad, given the cards I was dealt at the final table. I'm not exactly a tight player but opening hands like 92o and j4o against a table of competent players just isn't going to be profitable. It's nice to be on the board and make my first "official" final table at the WSOP. I have now played 7 tournaments in the WSOP. I was planning on playing a few more but the day 2 of the 2500 event forced me to miss the 5k and I missed two tournaments due to the 3 days of play in the $1500. I was going to play yesterday but we were out late celebrating Jamin's 3rd place finish in the $10,000 Heads up event for $215,000. A good WSOP for our group from Michigan so far. I think I am going to play the tournament at the Venetian, Bellagio or Caesars today considering there is no WSOP event. Hopefully once I get back on the grind I can produce another good showing heading up to the Main Event.

Chipleader (or close to it) going into Day 2 of the $1500 WSOP event

Today really couldn't have gone much better. I showed up about 15 minutes late because we went out to LAX in Luxor last night and I don't really remember getting home. But perhaps i should play hungover more often. I ran a decent sized bluff for 80& of my chips in the first level which thankfully worked and I was at around 6k after the first two levels despit being quite card dead. I chipped up to 13k when my first big hand came up. A guy who had been limpin a decent amount limped for 200 in early position. I limped in behind with a5s on the button and both blinds came along for a K47 two heart board. Everybody checked to me, I tought about checking but my table had been so weak I decided against it. I fired 350 into the pot. The small blind checkraised to 1250. The SB was the only other decent play at the table, so I had to be careful. But because he's a good player I figured he would have bet out two pair into the pot instead of opting to checkraise. This was good news because now it looks like he's on a draw as well. Considering I have the biggest draw I like where I'm at. I call the 1250 and the turn is te beautiful 3 of hearts, giving me te nuts. He checks and I fire 2100. He jams for about 10k and I snap call. He turned over a smaller flush and the first cooler of the WSOP to go my way is complete. I now have a giant stack and am rolling. But for whatever reason i cannot resist to do a little bluffing. A younger kid raises to 850 and I pop him to 2450 with 75cc. He calls and we see a 236 rainbow flop. I fire out 3150 into the pot and he calls. I bet small for a couple reasons. If he decided to slowplay AA he is always checkraising this flop and I can find out for cheap. The small bet also allows me to make a believeable second barrel bluff on the turn if he calls. The turn is good and bad for me, it pairs the 3. It's bad because hes likely holding 1010 or JJ and this does nothing to scare off those hands. However, he is a thinking player and knows I am as well, so he knows that the 3 is a TERRIBLE bluff card for me, so if I don't have it I will likely slow down. He has about 11k left and I fire 4450 into the pot to put him to a decision for all the marbles. He mucks and I'm back to cruising. I win my first flip of the WSOP with AK to QQ and life is good. I lost a flip with AK to JJ and 3 bet a couple times to keep my stack even. An interesting hand came up. I found AA in the SB and it was folded to me. A seemingly agressive internet kid is in the BB and I know if I raise he will try and flex his muscle and outplay me. Standard operating procedure for a kid who is new to the table. I make it 3k and he callls, flop is 66Q two hearts. I lead out 3750 and he goes to 12k. He can have a 6 here, but its quite unlikely hed play it this fast on thsi board. He never plays a queen like this. The onyl actual hand I can put him on besides a stone cold bluff is a flush draw, but because we're so deep I don't think he'd play it this fast and risk me raising him off his hand. So at this point it's tough for me to really put him on anythign of any value. I call and the 4 of heart turns off completing the flush. I have black aces so the hearts are annoying but we'eve pretty much ruled out him having any real hand. He never has the ace of hearts here either because there is no way he's just calling my SB raise with an ace in his hand. At this point the plan is to call off every chip we have no matter what lol. He fires 18k and we take a minute and make the call. The queen of spades hits the river. Now, if he barrels the river we are beating him in the pot, because there is ZERO chance he ever has a queen here te way the hand plays out, and it's very tough for him to bet a 6 because it looks like I 100% have a queen here. Unfortunately he checks the river and mucks his hand pretty quickly. The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, but I managed to chip up nicely while the money bubble was going on and ended the day at 134.7k, which either puts me in the chip lead, or real close to it. play starts at 2 PM tomorrow. See ya then...

On to day 2 of the 2500 event

Even though I made day 2, I feel this was the worst I have played yet in the WSOP. I stayed up till 6 am playing online the night before and was exhausted most of the day. When my ipod finally died halfway through the day, I kind of lost my mind. I was up to 20k then down to 5k then back up to 18k, before ending at the dinner break with 8k with 200-400 blinds. When I came back I was looking to play fast and get ahold of some chips, luckily I did just that. The make or break hand came up when I found 9s9c on the button. The guy two to my right made it 1000. He had varied his bets a lot preflop but had shown against me that if he ever flopped anything he was going to check and let me bluff, so i decided to call and see which line he took. Flop comes AA8 two hearts, he leads out 1k. With a flop like that I'm almost positive he is checking if he had an ace, and especially if he has an overpair. He may be betting a flush draw too, and if that is the case he will surely check if he hits it on the turn. Keep in mind I've been playing with this guy for 6 hours and he has a lot of obvious betting pattern tells. I call, turn completes the flush with the 4 of hearts. He leads 2k. Weird considering almost everyone would slow down here, especially a guy who's slowplayed every big hand he's had against me. I call the 2k. The river is an offsuit jack. I actually hate this river because a bluff hand like KhJx now gets there. I'm praying he bets, because if he checks I fear I lose to a jack that he will not fold, and I don't really wanna turn my hand into a bluff. He puts me allin for like 4.5k. I think for a bit and decide to trust the gut and call. He mucks his hand and I'm back in the game. I chip up a bit and leave that table with 41k. It takes ten minutes at my new table to even see the first hand because this guy is taking forever. He finally folds and I get to see my first hand....it's AA. First time I've seen that all day. I raise, a shortstack shoves and tables A9o and I win a little pot and am up to 52k. Now, the annoying hand comes. The table has seemingly labeled me an internet kid and is looking to play back at me with any two cards so my plan is to play tight. I look down at QQ and make it 2100 to go (400-800 blinds). I get called in 4 spots, lol. The board comes 942 rainbow, and I lead 5200 into the pot. I get called by the guy who has now taken a combined twenty minutes on two different decisions. Evereyone folds and we see a Kd turn card. I'm a bit worried about a set, but with our stack sizes checking and calling off doesnt really give me the info I need and check folding is not really ever an option. I decide this guy is incapable of making a play for all his chips so if he comes over the top of me, he must have flopped a set. I bet 8200 and he immediately goes allin for 30k. If I'm going to trust my read in big calls I have to trust them in big laydowns, so I annoyingly muck my hand. I lost a couple other small pots and limped into day 2 with 26,200 in chips and blinds starting out at 600-1200 tomorrow. Frustrating end to the day but with 20 big blinds all I need is one double up, or to pick up a few small pots early and I'm right back in the hunt. Until that time....

First Day in Vegas

So, last night was pretty boring. I was up all night because the poker room didn't close down until 2 AM back in Michigan. I stayed up and caught the 8:45 AM flight to Vegas. I tried to sleep on the plane, but the dude next to me found it imperative to play the loudest most annoying pocket blackjack game for like 3 hours straight. When i got in Sarah was the only person in the house, and she went to go run some errands, so I passed out for the rest of the night. Today's tournament started off well, working my stack up to around 15k with 100-200 blinds. Then I proceeded to run KK into AA, and AQs into AK in a big blind button confrontation. My final hand came when I shoved 2400 in the cutoff with A9s and the big blind woke up with AK, gg. Came back and played cash games online for about 4 hours and did pretty well. Jay and I made a bet that neither one of us would drink for the rest of the trip. We went to dinner and both immediately agreed that it was a stupid bet and ordered a round of dos equis!! Scotty me n Jay gambles for who'd pay the bill and Jay lost, so ship the free dinner. Right now we're taking turns watching YouTube videos of the most interesting man in the world. Tomorrow is the 1500 6 handed event. I have made my living playing 6 handed 5-10 and 10-20 for 6 years now, so needless to say i am looking forward to this event. Hopefully the coolers and bad beats can sty at bay and I can make a deep run. Until that time....

Dean