The Longest Day

So I left my house in Tahoe at 2 AM and got a ride to SF airport for my 7:40 flight. arrived to JFK at a little before 5 PM, then flew to Dublin, then to Barcelona, and everything went to plan. That is, until my bag didn't arrive in Barcelona! Having had my luggage not arrive before, I knew to just stay calm, carry on, and they'd deliver it to me. The problem was that I didn't have the address or phone number of my Hostel (stups). So I'm exhausted, but determined to play the first event of this European Poker Tour series, so I make my way to the casino, where the first thing they tell me is, "You need to wear pants and shoes to follow the dress code." She points me towards a mall and I go purchase both since I don't have my luggage. I get back and they say, "Tomorrow, please bring a different pair of pants."
I have really been modifying my game a ton, so I was excited to practice some new strategies in the live arena, especially after such a mortifying WSOP. So I was excited, but really regretted playing about an hour into the tournament, I was just so exhausted. I stuck it out anyway and ended up taking 9th out of 160. I made an embarrassingly bad fold on the money bubble: Dag Mikkelson opened cutoff to like ~20K at 1500/3k because BTN had 37k, I had 48k, and BB had 30k. I look down at ATs and obv fistpump...fold!? ZOMG WTF!?$%^&* Not really sure what happened, but I think it had something to do with being exhausted, having played all day and not wanting to have nothing to show for it, but regardless, this was the pussiest and maybe worst fold of my entire career. Ironically, the bubble boy called Dag's BTN shove from SB with ATo and lost to Dag's KTs LOL! Guess it was a good fold afterall!
I played event 1 of the WCOOP tonight and lost in level 3 after losing with AK to TT on AAT board and then to Q7 with QQ on a T36 board--he had a flush draw. I'm trying to accumulate chips as we speak in the Full Tilt $150, so maybe I can make something out of that.
Tomorrow I'm excited to actually partake in some of the more experiential portion of the trip. My plan is to go to the beach, maybe grab some tapas, and if I can manage, get on a bicycle for either a guided or self guided tour.

Can't sleep, so I guess I'll blog...

Today was an awesome day, I took down the $100 1R1A turbo tournament on PokerStars for ~$25K, and best of all was I beat JohnnyBax heads up for the win! I have been on a bit of a tear lately, done some different things to revamp my game a bit, and, I didn't realize this at first, but I took away so much from hanging around the poker players I stayed with in Las Vegas. Picking up little pieces of each player's style and game and using that to tweak my own--and to punish them when they're at my table ;)--has made a tremendous impact on my recent success.

I went to visit my sister in San Francisco after she recently returned from Thailand! She was still pretty jetlagged, so the first night I was there I went to play poker at Lucky Chances cardroom. There was a long list for the $5/$10 and there was a super soft looking $20/$40 NL game, so I decided to take a shot. I played very straightforward most of the night, but I manipulated my image well and got some clutch folds. I made one questionable call where there were two flush draws on board, and I suspected the player who bet the river had the flush draw that missed, not the one that got there, and I was wrong. I don't mind the way I reasoned through the hand, but what I should have done--and what I did on a later hand--was talked to him to see if he'd give me any information. One thing that I have always struggled with in live poker is coming from an online background where I don't take much time at all to make my decisions, and not taking advantage of all the extra opportunity and information up for grabs.

I have planned a trip to Europe to play some big buyin MTTs in Barcelona, London, Paris, and Amsterdam, all across the span of 2-3 months. I'm getting really excited, and I have a lot to do to prepare before the trip. This is similar to my year last year where I busted my ass to prepare for some international travel, and I think having that on the horizon not only gives me a lot to look forward to, but it also forces me to make sure I have all my ducks in a row.

Last big thing on my plate at the moment is a really exciting job opportunity as a poker coach with a new training site that will unveil in September. I'm so flattered to be offered this job because, afterall, the way I got good at online poker was watching a training video, and here I am getting ready to produce my own videos!. I'm just generally excited to get my name out there in a legitimate way. I'll also have the opportunity to do some private coaching, which is great because I have always loved teaching/coaching and it has not been a part of my life as of late.

Can't keep quiet

I took third in the Sierra Poker Classic ME, and I'm pretty happy with how I played with the exception of this hand: with still 9 left, shortly after resuming, I had about 80k in chips and was sitting two to the left of a solid $5/$10 player named Eric from Sacramento, who had the chiplead, but wasn't tremendously far out in front of me. The day prior, I had 3bet him once when he raised in LP and I was OTB, and that pot I took down without seeing a flop. Now, I looked down at 99 OTB and Eric raised from HJ to about 2.5x. I 2.5x'd his raise and he flatted. The flop came 662 with two clubs, he checked, I bet a little over half pot and he 2.5x'd that bet. It was a pretty clear shove or fold spot, which I hated because I was pretty certain that if I pushed he folded all worse hands and called with all better, but if I just called, I give him a chance to catch up and didn't feel like I had such a lock hand that I could risk another card rolling off. I decided that with the slow structure and relatively deep stacks that I could find better spots to pick up small pots and run over my opponents, rather than risk it all in this obviously marginal spot. I mucked and of course Eric turned over the QThh. What I really hate about this hand is that I always mock live players for not having a plan or ever expecting the obvious and knowing how to react, and I simply didn't have a plan once I bet. Anyways, I hung around for a while, we got down to 3 handed and I got all in with AK vs. A9 and lost when a 9 came on the turn. Still a nice showing for only my 2nd big buyin tourney.

I'm in Vegas now. Yesterday I played a $1060 at Caesars WSOP-C and did well until I lost with 99 to A6o AIPF. I had some good hands, one where I got all in with a Q hi flush draw and was elated to see my opponent turn over a 9 hi flush draw, another where I defended my blind with Q8hh vs. an UTG raise, something I wouldn't normally do, but my opponent seemed especially weak and I thought would pay me off with a lot of weaker hands. I flopped a flush and got 2 good streets of value from him before I got a little greedy on the river, thinking he was calling anything and betting a little too much.

Today I went to Venetian to play a $500 DS event, which I didn't realize was a 2 day event and I had never been so happy to get coolered with 30bbs at 8/1600 with QQ vs. KK because A) had I gone deep I would have been forced to miss my friend's graudation party in LA, and B) because I had decided to buy into a Nevada SPCA charity event hosted by Jen Harman. I was multitabling for a little which was incredibly distracting and stupid and something I need to not do anymore, but finally I busted the DS event and could focus on the Charity tourney, and wouldn't you know it I settled for nothing less than 1st place! I obviously ran super hot, but I don't think I made a single mistake when we got down to it. I had the pleasure of playing with Negranu and Jeff Madsen among others, and not only did I win a seat to the WSOP ME, I got a really nice Curtis & Co. watch, an astonishing trophy and some other really neat prizes.

Tomorrow I'm off to LA, but I'll be back for more come Monday.

First live win!

Well it's been a while since I've posted and what better time than after booking my first live win!? During the Sierra Poker Classic here in Tahoe, I trumped a massive field of 35 players with a $340 buyin to take down 1st place and $4500. I really turned up the volume on the aggression factor, open shoving at least 50 times at the final table because people were so concerned about cashing that they would just fold what was clearly the best hand because they didn't want to gamble. HU was more of a battle than I would have liked, I started with nearly a 5:1 chiplead, and at one point, Phi (pronounced fee) Tran reclaimed the chiplead until this hand: Phi limps OTB with 70k chips, blinds 12/2400/300, I look down at American Airlines and decide to raise of course, so I bumped it up, 6k on top, he calls, which was surprising because in the past he had been mostly folding when he limped and I raised. I guess since he had some chips now he decided he was ready to gamble. Dealing at this point was Kevin Ferguson, who interestingly enough, dealt both Jamie Gold and Joe Hachem's final hands for their respective WSOP Main Event victories. Kevin dealt a Q34 flop with two clubs, I led out for 9k, Phi called. Turn was an offsuit 2, making me a little worrysome about 56, but not so much that I'm not still going broke, my read was that he had a Q, and not a Q with any of the possible 2 pair combos on board, maybe Q8-QJ, he wasn't raising with hands like these on the button. I lead out for 21k and Phi shoves relatively quickly, but I called even quicker. He turned over the Q7s and the river came Kd to just about seal it up for me. Tom Sexton, Mike Sexton's brother, was there as tournament director and was announcing the action via microphone to the massive 3 person audience.

I played 5 events in San Diego, made 2 cashes, one of which was a final table, and in that $500 buyin, I got 7th for about $3900. Without a doubt I'm building my confidence in my live play and really starting to get pumped and prepared for the WSOP this year.

Awful Hero Call

It's not easy being back in the poker world. I had a couple good sessions last week and forgot it was actually possible to lose. I have been playing well for the most part, with the exception of my attempt at being a hero just about 45 minutes ago. I went to Harvey's with Wes and he got sucked out on with (I assume) the nut straight vs. two pair that filled up on the turn. I stuck around and we got down to 3 handed with a regular player and a visitor from SF. I had played with the regular last weekend and definitely got the best of him, I even picked up a pretty crucial tell. Tonight went his way though, as the first hand 3 handed, he straddled UTG/BTN and I picked up KTo in sb, and decided to make it $30. Both players called and the flop came K84 with two diamonds. For some reason, I checked, the BB bet out $50, BTN made it $120, and I decided to just flat. I was pretty sure I had the best hand, but I didn't want to cold 4bet and get shoved on, or get flatted and be OOP, and I thought this would appear as a huge hand and maybe get me to showdown. The turn came 6d completing the flush. I checked and he bet $225. I called relatively quickly, thinking now he definitely can't bluff the river because he's gotta be concerned that I have a flush! The river came Qs, I checked and he bet all in. At this point, I acknowledged the read or "tell" I had on the guy, but after about 5 minutes, decided I wanted to be a hero and called off the last $900 or so in my stack. He turned over A7dd for the nut flush! I am so frustrated with myself, I just needed to have a little faith in my read and dump the hand on the turn as played.

Anyways...Wes and I grinded together in the newly set up poker office for the first time today and I think it's gonna be a tremendously beneficial set up for the development of both of our games. I have two 24" monitors on the way from the Full Tilt store, I can't wait to have those set up, I have a good feeling it'll increase my winrate and just my general comfort level while playing.

I got a good settlement for my totaled Jeep; I'm glad to finally have that off my plate and start car shopping again. Unfortunately, when my things arrived here in the trailer, SO much of my stuff was damaged! I was really disappointed and it seems like there's very little I will be able to do about it. Just one thing after another!

My classes are coming along fine, but I have yet to go skiing a single day, which was a huge factor in me deciding to move here. From what I've heard the conditions haven't been great, they haven't had any snow since Christmas, but regardless, still somewhat pathetic that I haven't been to even check it out yet.

Sigh...hopefully I can get my act together and start putting up some good results soon, I'll grind tournaments all day Sunday so that might be a good place to start!