New coaching site up!

So this was a big week for me for a couple of reasons. I played the main event and busted midway through day 1. I am ok w/ my bustout because I played well but could not overcome being 2nd best every hand. The WSOP was slightly disappointing for me because I cashed 3 times for about $27k in 25 events or so but ended up losing about $38k overall. That's the nature of tournaments though.

I will be back to my regular cash game grind, live version, going forward and will continue blogging. I will be doing so at my new site

http://www.stackemcoaching.com/

where I coach, make audio sessions for subscribers to listen to, and participate in the forums actively.

I'm looking to help others improve their games and I think at the cost we're selling our coaching, it's affordable for just about everybody. We have some great coaches including myself, Joe Tehan (who I've talked about before), Matt Affleck, and Jared Tendler (who's an awesome mental game coach and who's coached numerous poker players, including a bunch of successful guys). We'll also be adding new coaches, guys that we handpick so rest assured they'll know their stuff!

Again, I hope everybody checks it out, whether you decide to subscribe or not, and I'll continue blogging like usual but it will be over there. Here is the 1st blog I put up over there the other day...

http://www.stackemcoaching.com/blog/post/its-mental.html

1 for 7 (so far)

That's just how it goes sometimes. I don't think I'm off to a terrible start but it is disappointing to only have 1 cash through 7 events. Last year I started off 0-9 before I reeled off 5 cashes in my last 8 tournaments to show a profit. Let's talk about the good news, the cash. Well actually it ended in a tilting way...

It was the $1500 6max nl event. Before people say "yeah of course Nicolak is expected to cash in that, that's what he plays online all the time", I do think I have almost an equal chance in just about any form of poker except nl deuce and plo. It just turned out my only cash happened in this event. Day 1 was fun w/ a starting table of Frank Kassela and Cardrunner's Taylor Caby. Kassela isn't that good at nl (yeah I said it, and yes I know he ft'ed the $25k 6max nl event last year) but Taylor is obviously good.

Anyway I had a tough table throughout day 1 and day 2 and ended up busting in 43rd place (out of 2k entrants) for $7400 or so. I opr utg w/ AK and kid 3bets in mp and I jam and get called by ATo and the board runs off A24AT. I had the kid covered by 5k at 1500/3k blinds and ended up having 2 blinds after that hand and went bust next hand. Obviously it's disheartening to lose that way but that's variance for ya.

I will talk about an interesting hand I played on day 2. I have about 140k w/ blinds at 1k/2k/300. Some Pokerstars pro named Jose Nacho Barbero opr to 4500 on button, I elect to call w/ K8s in the bb (I considered 3betting but Jose was very aggressive and capable of 4betting light) and the flop comes...

Ks2cJs

It goes check check, turn...

Qs

I bet 6k or so, he calls, river...

Th

I check ready to give up thinking I just got rivered but Nacho bets 14k and I begin thinking (even in obvious spots like this where a fold seems automatic)....we know he never has flushes because he would've cbet the flop (especially since he's so aggro) so his range is capped to Ax while we can credibly rep flushes. I decide to c/r to 54k (initally I was going to make it 64k but thought 54k would be big enough to get him to fold Ax hands) and he tank calls w/ 99!

Sure it's risky trying to get him off a straight but I assumed he would be good enough to know I would take this line w/ flushes (he is a Pokerstars Pro, but I guess that's not always saying much). I don't know if he's good enough to realize I would take this same line w/ Ax hands as well (because again, we know his range is capped to Ax so I can profitably c/r in this spot w/ Ax to try to get him off of a chop) Also I was playing pretty straightforward up to this point. I guess I might've assumed he was a good enough hand reader and could figure this out, or maybe he just thought to himself "zomg I have a straight how can I ever fold it?!" Whatever the reason, he made the call and it dropped me down below avg. I talked to a few guys and they all liked my line and are amazed at the call he made (some even calling it a -ev call, I agree). I do think I should've went w/ my initial raise of 64k because he was counting down his stack before calling and I think the extra 10k would've made him fold. Oh well.

I bust and I hang out at the Rio trying to relay my sob stories to anybody that will listen...after all, that's what we all do...jk. I have a guy I have 10% of in the 6max and I rail him for awhile. They're down to 24 or so and he gets in over 300k w/ QQ vs the kid that won it last year (and who Pokernews is calling the king of 6max cuz he got a 2nd in the $5k 6max and a 1st in the $1500 6max last year...pfftttt) who's holding 99 and he rivers a 9 to bust my horse (he barely had him covered) and have a sizeable chiplead at that point (he ends up getting 3rd for over $200k). Talk about a double whammy that night!

I also played in the $1k nl which attracted over 4k entrants. I busted that one in level 2 when I called every street w/ AsJs on a 9s8c6s, Qh, 8s, and called all in at the river w/ the nut flush only to see him turn over 86. Standard.

Yesterday I played in the $1500 nl shootout and I love shootouts because the better nl players are at a bigger advantage. The last 2 years I finished 2nd and 1st on my 1st tables. This time I got hu vs. Paul "Gees" Volpes, some internet mtt pro who's ranked really high. I started out w/ 4k vs his 41k but managed to get it to 12k vs 32k when my AQ > his T8o aipf. At blinds 200/400 I opr to 850 w/ 44 and he shoved and I elected to gamble and called only to lose to J9s. I do think a better line would've been to limp so I can reraise all in had he raised from the bb there. I think that's one area of the game I need to work on, is the shallow stacks opening/raising/reraising range, but that's probably just memorizing a chart.

Today I played the $1500 Pot Limit Hold'em event and this had the shortest turnout at 760 entrants. I guess people are intimidated by not being able to bet more than pot (forcing people to play more flops), or the fact that antes never come into play. Anyway I pretty much lost a flip when I raised and called off w/ KQ on a JT3r flop and couldn't beat AJ at level 5.

The most important thing to realize is how well I'm playing. I think I misplayed a couple of big hands (including the last hand I blogged about, the 54s hand where it should've been a fold or 3bet preflop) but overall I am happy w/ my play. I would give myself an A- up to this point. Sure people can win a tournament playing like a F player and people can go a long time w/o ever winning playing their A game but hey, that's the risk we take when we play tournaments, especially at the WSOP where the fields are bigger.

Tomorrow is the $1500 Horse and I'm relieved to be playing a mix games event after all the hold'em events. I actually enjoy mix games more than hold'em. Heck, I'm almost to the point where I'd like the WSOP to be over so I can go back to my normal (post Black Friday) cash game grind (so I can actually start making money!).

Sometimes I'm not sure (WSOP hand)

The setup is the $10k pot limit hold'em event. 250 entrants and it's accurate to say it's a tough field w/ very few weak spots. I get on a very tough table w/ 4-5 aggro Euro kids who know how to play + couple other young kids, Bttech, Jared Jaffee (who busted and was replaced by Sam Stein), and Rick Solomon (the dude that offered Pamela Anderson to pay her huge loss in a Vegas casino for a night of, ummm, fun...eventually they marry and divorce).

We start w/ 30k and I'm down to about 25k playing 250/500. Utg opr to 1200, I flat w/ 45s on the button, bb calls, flop J64r w/ 1 to my suit, chk chk I bet 1700 (to try to win it there, case can be made for checking but I like betting since bp is so vunerable and I should only have to worry about bb because utg checked which likely means he has nothing), bb folds, utg c/r to 4400 (he has me covered).

Now let's assess his range...1st of all, he seems like a young competent thinking player (although even some competent mtt pros don't seem to understand how to play postflop well) so I would expect him to lead w/ all jacks, overpairs, 66, 44 (to get value from jacks), 87, and some random air hands inc. AK. Given that he doesn't cbet flop means he's giving up or is slowplaying JJ, that's pretty much it. Well once he c/r's me I know he has JJ or air, and given that there's a lot more air in his range, mostly due to combinatorics, and his possible line of thinking being "well this good looking asian dude can be just trying to steal it on the button since we both checked to him and w/ the bb out of the way let me put him to the test and resteal vs his possible steal w/ my air + backdoor equity", I call w/ my bp (possibly the best hand) + backdoor draws + position.

Turn 9 bringing 2 hearts (not my suit), chk, chk (I just want to get to sd because my hand is likely good now but I can't stand another c/r so I elect to check), riv offsuit Q, he bombs 11k and I go into the tank. Once he checks the turn we can almost eliminate JJ unless he was going for a weird and rare c/r, c/shove line. Now I go through in my mind everything I just wrote and can't figure out what the heck he has or is repping. Again if it was a bad player, he's liable to show up w/ AQ, sets, AA, etc since they have no clue, but this kid wasn't bad. Also he wouldn't bomb the river w/ top pair type hands because he would know my most likely hand are busted draws or a jack so he'd value bet around 6-8k at the river.

The only hand I think he can have is A4s, T8, KT or air...but A4s is probably not in his range because he probably cbets that on the flop. Well if he backdoored a straight and it's either that or air I should call. My bp is pretty much equivalent to AJ (I won't totally discount overpairs since it's possible some mtt pros take this line).

Here are a few more reasons for calling (pros for calling)...

-He seems like a young mtt pro....probably not experienced in postflop play and just making plays for the sake of it to win a pot w/o having an idea of what he's really repping...this happens more often than you think, even in $10k's

-The field is tough and I don't expect guys to give chips away like they do in the smaller buyins so there isn't much merit to the "wait for a better spot" reasoning, so I need to seize the +ev spots, even if they're marginal

-I have a little over 10bbs if I lose and I can still come back

Here are my question marks on calling (cons for calling)...

-When he bombs the river like that, he's more likely to have the straight, as unlikely as it may seem from the flop on...so I'm not 100% sure if it's +ev to call...I think it is, but not as much as I thought it was at the time

-It's a big bet and chips saved are more valuable than chips won in mtts so I'm not sure if I'm supposed to call in a very marginal spot even though I felt it was slightly +ev

I asked a couple of very good players and they both thought it was a fold but I think they were putting more weight into the actual river bet size (and 'waiting for a better spot") than the entire hand (my thoughts on it anyway)

I elected to make a hero call and lost to KT. I don't feel bad about how I played the hand because my read was spot on and I went w/ it. Again I don't know if that's enough reason to risk most of my stack though.

In a cash game I almost always call since I feel it's +ev, but again it's different in tournaments where it's sometimes correct to pass on marginal spots, including very small +ev spots.

Sometimes I'm not sure .

As for the tournament I built my stack up from 6k to 32k (illustrating why calling isn't bad since I can come back) and got it in at the 400/800 level w/ TT from the bb vs a Euro kid in the co in an obvious squeeze spot (button had called as well and we were playing 7 handed w/ 5 more hands left for the night) and busted to QQ.

Thoughts and comments are appreciated (and yes you can tell me my call is bad as long as you give reasons why).

WSOP Start

I just got home after busting the 1st event I played, the $1500 limit omaha 8 hi lo. I played 9.5 1 hr levels and busted during the last level of the day. I'm not that upset though for a couple of reasons. 1st is that I felt like I played really well, especially in a game which isn't my specialty. I know I'm +ev in this event but after playing today I feel like I'm hugely +ev in future limit om8 events up to a $5k buyin or so. This isn't to brag but to instill a self confidence in me going forward for this game. If there's one quality about me that has contributed to a lot of my longterm success, it's the ability to look at myself and assess w/ near certainty where I stand in relation to everybody else in poker.

When I reflect back on past om8 tournaments I play, I see the mistakes I made (just like I've done w/ other forms of poker)...this is a sign that I'm getting better and seeing what the right plays are. Today I felt like I played near perfect except for an obvious river value bet I missed (also compounded by not paying attention to my opponent's stack, so 2 missteps that led to 1 error). I might've made a couple of loose calls preflop but they weren't mistakes because they were situational and I felt the worse shape I could be was about even money.

I ran pretty bad during the last 2 levels, including losing 2 pots where I'm a big fav to scoop going into the river, instead had to settle for a chop when my opponents got there w/o much equity for half. I also folded some big hands including 2458 w/ 3 spades on a A77Q9 board where I turned a flush and just c/c'ed turn then c/f'ed river vs. an old guy where I'm close to 100% sure I'm beat; another hand where I c/f'ed to a 1 big bet w/ 3 big bets left on the turn w/ AJT2 on a J932 2 flush board vs another old guy and old lady (older people tend to "have it" a lot more in this game than other games), the old guy showed a set of 99s to scoop so I was right. My reads were spot on today and I took optimal lines whenever I played a hand so again I felt really happy w/ my play overall.

Anyway the 2nd reason I'm not upset for spending all day playing a tournament then busting late (like most others) is because I feel like I gain a little bit of experience every time I play, and the longer the better. Granted in nl tournaments I don't get that feeling much since I feel like I know almost everything I need to know (although picking up on tournament regs' playing styles and habits is valuable) but in other games I don't play as much I'm always observing and trying to gain that valuable experience.

As for the rest of the WSOP I'm planning on playing a lot of events and as long as I feel good mentally and physically I'm planning on playing pretty much every day. Since I'm a well rounded player I'll be playing in all sorts of events, mostly nl and pl hold'em but a lot of the mix game events as well. My ultimate goal is to win a bracelet or 2 (or more) and to know that I played the best that I can play.

I am sacrificing time that I could be playing the juicy cash games during the WSOP. I'm sure my hrly is higher playing cash games than tournaments but I just enjoy WSOP tournaments so much and I'm hungry for my 1st ever bracelet, so there's a lot of happiness and life ev associated w/ playing these WSOP events.

Also I posted in the CR forum but if I make a final table, anybody from here that come sweats me at a ft I will buy them dinner at my celebratory dinner (limited to $1k total for you guys, but not necessarily for the whole bill which will be bigger because of friends and family that will be there). Obviously I'll have to make a ft 1st which is not easy.

Other observations at the WSOP so far:

-Turnout so far doesn't seem affected by Black Friday. They had 128 for the $25k hu and a record # 925 entrants for today's $1500 om 8, granted it's only 3 events so far (other being employees' event which attracted a big # as well)...I'm sure the main event will be lower than years past though

-The featured table is a lot more elaborate...bigger and more eye catching....too bad only 3 events are supposed to be televised (WSOP rematches, $50k Players' Championship, and the $10k main event)



















-Very few patches being worn, especially after yesterday when James Bord confronted John Juanda about FTP and security guards had to be called in...after all Juanda was wearing a FTP patch and was an easy mark; note: I wore a CR patch today, more brownie pts due my way from the higher ups at CR, even more so when I win my bracelet w/ it on ;)

-Lots of cash games going on...biggest I saw was a $200/$500/$1k PLO game and it was almost full

-Lots of railbirds as usual

-Phil Ivey is suing FTP (for $150 mil) and is abstaining from this year's WSOP (he isn't really boycotting it..that's just the wrong choice of words)...as for my thoughts on this, good for him, and a noble act from him, but put me in the boat that wonders if he did it for us, or because that was the only option he had for numerous reasons, including keeping that indestructible and and almost mystifying image he's always had...other theories were running around as well, including wanting to get out of his no compete cause

-Met Gakn29, a fellow CR vid maker today, nice guy...saw Mement Mori but not sure if he noticed me (or even knows me!)

Finally it looks like I'm getting a little more recognition with the poker media because I saw that PokerNews was updating my chip counts (1st time ever). For those of you that want to sweat me, follow on PokerNews or better yet, follow me on twitter located to the right of this blog (I update every couple of hrs, including stack sizes, notables on table, interesting or amusing hands, etc.)...after all, you may get a free dinner out of it.

Live Poker Hands

So I've been playing some live poker lately and will talk about a few interesting hands I've played (including beats...because I can).

The 1st hand I want to talk about was a hand I played last month at Mohegan Sun. It's a $5/$10 nl game w/ a $3k cap. At the time I had about $4k and a guy opr to $40 in the hijack, button calls, I call w/ 44 from the sb, and old guy in bb calls.

Flop Ah6s4s

Checks to the preflop raiser, he bets $115, button folds, I c/r to $340, bb snap calls, pref raiser 3bets to $900, I shove, bb snap calls for $3500 (which worried me a little that 66 could be in his range, but so could a bunch of other hands), prefl raiser tanks and finally calls for $2500...so I'm looking at a $10k pot at $5/$10...lol...never happens online, and I tell the others lets roll our hands over and see who needs what...both guys refuse.

Turn Qd, River 8d

By this point I open my hand, preflop raiser shakes his head and shows AKo, and the old guy just erupts and starts yelling "I won the lottery!" and shows 75o. He goes on for 5 mins (I kid you not..I really wish I could've recorded it) telling his buddies to bring him 10 racks or something while yelling out of excitement. Now this was the biggest game in the room and everybody comes over to see what all the commotion is about. Well things settle down and being the pro I am, I kick the old dude's ass...jk...I just take it in stride and the guy on my right apologizes for the old guy telling me "sorry man, you shouldn't have to go through that after losing that big pot"...I reply "nah, it's cool, it's almost worth paying him $3500 to see him act like that!"

The next hand illustrates why you should never have an ego. Some guy sits down on my right in a $5/$10 game at the Aria (in Vegas) and starts firing it in every hand. He's raising every other hand trying to take control of every hand. I can tell he knew what he was doing though so he wasn't a total maniac. Rather he was a guy (mid to late 20's) that felt like he was the best player on the table and could run over the table.

Anyway I start 3betting him often since I'm on his direct left and he doesn't fold to my reraise one time for 8 hands or so (most I won on the flop, couple of times I lost at the river). This is obviously because he feels like he can outplay anybody, including me, even oop.

Prior to the final hand I stacked him for $3k w/ 44 vs his AA where almost all the money went in on the river when I made a straight.

Now he opens in the hijack to $40 (again) and I 3bet to $130 w/ AK (again) right behind and he flats (again)...flop...

A75r

Chk, I bet $140, he c/r to $440, I flat thinking I'm usually good here but hoping a straight card doesn't peel...turn...

4 bringing backdoor fd

He checks, now I'm thinking at this point the 4 is not a very good card because 86 and 45 get there and pondered checking it back, but I decided that he's aggro and capable of making a play here often w/ 1 pr + straight draws or worse and thought inducing + protection was more +ev than checking back the turn so I bet $600 with the intent to call a shove, and shove he did for $2500 total and I took a couple of seconds before I called (after all this was the plan, and if he had better, so be it).

He asks me how many times I want to run it and now I feel a lot more confident my hand is best, I say I don't care, he says how about twice, I say sure, but yet we don't open our hands...anyway dealer burns and turns for a river card...

Offsuit Q

2nd run...

Offsuit Q

and I'm feeling good about winning the pot and he just tells me he missed, and I open my hand and scoop the pot. He gets up and leaves, having given me about $6k in less than an hour. This was a good example of a guy having too big of an ego and thinking he could outplay everybody...I don't care how good you are but being oop w/o initiative is a tough spot to overcome over and over (especially vs. a competent player).

Now I like to think I play all my hands well but occasionally I'll slip up and I did so here...

I'm in a $10/$20 nl game at the Bellagio last week and we have some famous players in the game including Antonio Esfiandari, Phil Laak, Brian Rast, and Brad Booth. The 1st 3 were waiting for the $10/$20/$40 game. I'm sitting about $4500 deep and get dealt 99 in the sb.

A kid in ep opens to $60, mp guy calls, Brad calls, Antonio calls, I call, bb calls making it 6 way to the flop...

AT9 all clubs

Talk about a dicey situation w/ deep stacks! I elect to check to evaluate (leading is probably ok too), and it goes checked around...turn...

6 of spades

Now normally I would lead here and think it's best but at the time I just felt like there are tons of aggro and tricky players here so why not let them make a play at it and I can c/r...right after the hand I realized it's still best to lead because I probably have the best hand, I can call a raise and evaluate river, and getting 3bet if I c/r gets really expensive.

Anyway the action goes I check, bb leads $200, preflop raiser raises to $450, Brad reraises to $950, 2 other guys fold, and it's to me...so I have to fold now, bb tank folds, preflop raiser calls...river

offsuit 4

It goes check check and the kid that raised the turn (not Brad) shows AK w/ nut club draw that missed and Brad just mucks! Well now the bb jumps out of his chair and says he folded the best hand with aces up and whines, while I roll my eyes knowing I folded an even better hand. Sure I misplayed the turn and it cost me but I can't understand what the heck Brad Booth is doing cold 3betting the turn and can't beat AK...at least bet the river and win the pot!

Finally I played this hand tonight at the Aria...$10/$20nl and I'm about $4500 deep. The game started 5 handed w/ King Dan (of the other training site), Ashton Griffin (or Ashman), Brent Roberts, another decent kid and me. Obviously it's about as bad as a live $10/$20 game can get (thanks DOJ) but I wanted to get bigger nl games going at the Aria and Dan and I said we would do so going forward (until online poker comes back).

Well Dan opens to $60, I 3bet to $180 w/ KK, sb cold calls, bb (a new player but a good aggro player) 4bets to $600, Dan folds, I elect to call to play ip and underrep my hand, sb now shoves for $5k, bb folds (what he said was AK after the hand), and now I need to decide if the sb can have other hands besides AA and after a couple of minutes I decide that his shoving range here is wider than AA so I call. He rolls over QQ and I roll over KK with no thought...I'll celebrate inside after I win the hand...flop...

Q45

turn and river brick out and I lose another $10k pot.

Now I can go on tilt and lose the rest of the $10k in my pocket but I decide they'll have to win it from me like the kid did w/ QQ...I wasn't going to give it away...and eventually I recovered everything and ended up winning $1500 for the night (a lesson in playing your A game no matter what).

Other than that I'm up a little bit since Black Friday (even though I should be up a lot but that's variance) and been busy working on a couple of side projects. The WSOP is right around the corner and I'm planning on playing a tournament heavy schedule so I'm trying to play as much cash games as I can. Hopefully I can run a little better, and if anybody wants to play some poker with me, look for me at the Aria (or Bellagio), and feel free to say hi...always cool to meet new people, something that I've missed out on hiding behind a computer screen for years.

Beats galore! (An update)

So I thought I'd update on how I've been doing lately in poker. I guess you can never complain if you're winning but wow I'm running on the wrong side of variance. The 1st thing I'll talk about is my quest for 100 buyins at $5/$10 nl online. Here are my results since I started...




















I guess I'm doing alright but running about $5k below ev. No single hand sticks out...just a bunch of flips lost, sets losing to draws, etc. I do want to mention I feel like my game's improved a lot in just the last 2 months (won't get too much into it because it'll make a good post for another day) even though I haven't been playing much. So I'm expecting to crush in the upcoming months at all forms of poker.

Here's my month so far at all stakes and games online....




















I haven't had the chance to put in much volume but I'm hoping to get in a ton of volume before the WSOP starts. Once the WSOP starts I won't have much time to grind online because I'm planning on playing a heavy WSOP schedule (bracelet one time?).






















As for live poker, I mentioned in my previous post it's going well. It is live poker after all. Also I've been playing a lot of tournaments this year, especially live tournaments. I've been playing extremely well in them but my results are just not there (yet). Here is the list of live tournaments I've played and how I busted...

$1k HPT main event... above avg stack late in the tournament, lost 10s vs AK aipf for half my stack, then bust AK vs 99 aipf, finish 10 away from money

$320 Venetian DeepStack... 4/5th way in busted JJ vs AK aipf button vs bb for top 10 stack

LAPC $1k prelim... midway, bad player limps utg, I iso w QQ, he calls, flop JT2r, he checks, I bet, he calls, turn 2, he checks, I bet, he shoves...I tank and began talking to him trying to gauge his strength....I say it's A2s or some random draw (he c/r's w/ Jx + on the flop from my read)...he comment's "Would I limp w/ A2 here?"...wow, if there was ever an answer screaming Yes to A2, that was it...yet I talk myself into thinking his range is wide enough to call profitably and call and is shown, you guessed it...A2s. So I would say this was the worst hand I've played all year in a tournament because he basically told me he had A2. But a turn 2 is the only card I bust on though, so a little bit of bad luck there.

LAPC $5k prelim... super tough field w/ about 90 entrants yet I feel like I'm one of the favs to win. Basically lost some chips w/ underset vs overset where most would've gone broke. I played 33 cautiously on a 743hh board vs 2 players inc. aggro preflop raiser who had 44, turn Th and everybody froze up, riv Qx and I called aggro's value bet. Later I bust w/ AK vs QQ in a postflop flip situation (nfd+ 2overs).

LAPC $10k main event... great tournament, great structure, great turnout...yet I busted in the last level of day 2. After chipping up some on day 1 on a pretty tough table I couldn't win a hand on day 2 on a softer table. Got to play some w/ Jennifer Tilly on that day and even though she's not that great, she tends to play big pots that increases the variance for her opponents. She just beat me every hand we played together. Finally I lost a key pot during the last level where a kid rivers a gutter w/ T8s (he turned a fd) vs my KK. I shoved w/ my last 13 bbs w/ KQo in the co and ran into button's JJ and couldn't win.
















Wynn $500 prelim #1...decent structure for a $500 buyin event and a great turnout..over 800. Played pretty well on day 1 to make it to day 2 and down to 100 players. I chip up and become the 2nd biggest stack on a very soft table. W/ 45 players left I run KK into cl's AA and bust. Sucked because 1st was $85k and the field was pretty soft. At least I have my 1st live cash of the year...for a measly $900. I had the pleasure of playing w/ Andy Frankenberger who was a really cool and nice guy (good poker thinker but needs a little work on the fundamentals).

Wynn $1k 6max nl prelim...If I'm not a big fav. in this one, I don't know what I'm a fav. in! I don't really pick up any hands all day (and especially don't get on the right side of cooler spots that allow you to get deep in tournaments) but manage to hang around w/ 15-30bbs in the later stages. Then w/ 30 players left I get in 99 vs J9o aipf and lose most of my chips. I manage to chip up w/ the best hands aipf and win a key race w 22 vs ATo (finally I win a flip!!) and get to 25bbs w/ 18 players left (9 get in the money). I get in my stack w/ AJo vs A7o bvb and bust.

Wynn $1k prelim...this was a very fun tournament for one reason. A "name" live mtt pro tweets "other than Vanessa Selbst, a soft table" early on. He happened to be on my direct right, Selbst on my direct left. Let's just say that he didn't think it was a soft table....after I busted him! I 3bet him relentlessly all day until he took a stand and 4bet jammed JTo...into my KK. At this point I was one of the chipleaders w/ about 40 left and 15 itm. Then I lose a flip postflop (go figure), go card dead, then cl (w/ about 120bbs) opr utg, I jam w/ 20bbs total w/ QQ in the co, and he tank folds AQ faceup! Are you kidding me??!! Very next hand, aggro hijack opr, I jam AJs w/ about 25bbs, button wakes up w/ AK and that's all she wrote. Obviously the cl who folded AQ the previous hand regrets folding that when he sees my AJ...obviously I regret it more!! So I busted 23rd, and 15 get in the money.




















That's it for live tournaments. Now my online tournaments... jk. I've played a bunch and I know I've been running as bad in those as I have in live ones. I just finished playing the $109 multi entry miniftops where 1st was $181k. W/ over 9,300 entrants I busted 250th. Here's the hand....

No-Limit Hold'em Tournament, 2500/5000 Blinds (9 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com
MP3 (t350817)

CO (t72109)

Button (t104344)

Hero (SB) (t179784)

BB (t225496)

UTG (t159480)

UTG+1 (t178998)

MP1 (t172561)

MP2 (t266073)

Hero's M: 23.97


Preflop: Hero is SB with Q, J

7 folds, Hero bets t10000, BB calls t7500

Flop: (t25000) 10, Q, 8 (2 players)

Hero bets t15500, BB calls t15500

Turn: (t56000) 4 (2 players)

Hero bets t32500, BB raises t196896, Hero calls t118684

River: (t358368) 9 (2 players)


Total pot: t358368

Results:

Hero had Q, J (straight, Queen high).

BB had K, J (straight, King high).

Outcome: BB won t363768

Winning this pot would've put me in the top 15 but it was still a long ways to go...but still!

So that's about it for poker. Other than that, life is great!

New Goal

In conjunction w/ my new video series over at Cardrunners I will try to win 100 buyins at $5/$10 nl online. This includes full ring, 6max, and hu. I expect most of my volume to be at 6max since most of the tables that run are at 6max. In the series I will try to capture some of my play and also talk about what it takes to beat these games on a consistent basis. I will also focus on non showdown winnings since everybody is always trying to improve that aspect of their games.

I'll admit I'm not the best when it comes to non showdown winnings but I have improved steadily over the years and I am still working on it and will relay some of my thoughts and ideas. Also $5/$10 is definitely not a limit where people are pushovers so it'll definitely be a challenge holding my own in regard to my red line. I expect to make some mistakes along the way but I expect myself to learn from them and that's the best way to get better.

Why $5/$10? Well that limit is considered the entry to high stakes online. I want to show that even in today's state of games that if you work hard enough you can succeed. Granted I have a ton of experience playing that stake and I'm a decent poker player but everybody knows $5/$10 is pretty tough nowadays. I'm not going to think I can achieve it easily...all I'm going to do is play the best I can and work hard at my game along the way.

I used to play $5/$10 on a regular basis, even 16 tabling 20-30hrs/wk (2 years ago) but I've slowed down and played stakes anywhere from $2/$4 to $5/$10 the last couple of years (for reasons mentioned in an earlier blog post). Now I'm not going to eschew the lower stakes because I'm still planning on multitabling and sometimes there are just not many $5/$10 games going.

As for time frame I'm not going to set one. The reason being that I've devoted some of my time to live play including playing some big buyin live events this year. Also the WSOP is right around the corner and I'm planning on playing a full schedule. This goal may take me 2-3 months or it may take me 1 year. Another reason I'm setting this goal is to push me to work hard at my game and put in the time that I've been lacking the last couple of years.

















The only thing I haven't done is think of a name for this series...if anybody has a good idea feel free to let me know.

So the 1st video in conjunction w/ this goal comes out today. I actually started playing in February and captured the 1st video during a session. Hope you guys like it and get something out of it. Expect more in the future and hopefully some of my new ideas and growth as a poker player helps those that watch them.

Oh, and I will post $5/$10 graphs from time to time to show my progress, starting w/ the hands I've played since I decided to do this....























Yeah, 97 buyins to go :)

LAPC Report

So I've been in Los Angeles playing live tournaments and cash games. So far I'm about even in cash games playing mostly $10/$20nl w/ some $100/$200 mix games. I'm gonna post something about live cash games and how they differ from their online counterparts in a future post (from my perspective anyways).

For tournaments I played a $1k, $5k, and a $1k super satellite to the $10k WPT main event. So far nothing to show for it but I did make it to day 2 of the $10k main event w/ a stack of 43,600 w/ the avg. being around 40k. They got about 650 entrants and 1st is about $1.6 mil. I had a pretty tough table draw today w/ Erick Lindgren, Brett Richey (DatMoose), Chris Moorman (Moorman1), good Euro player, and Joe De'Niro (Robert's supposedly estranged son but also a pretty good poker player) so I'm happy w/ my chip position. I think I'm supposed to make day 2 of almost all $10k+ events because of the deep structures (barring some coolers) since it benefits good cash game players used to playing deep so I'm not getting too excited.

2 of the guys on the table (edog and datmoose) were both in my 3dime fantasy football league that I've blogged about in the past so it was fun talking about how I crushed them both...no we just reminisced about the past couple of years (but yeah I did crush them both). Funny how the 3dime league was the highest and most expensive league I was in but it was one of the smallest for them. Both guys were in $5k-$10k buyin leagues w/ crazy side action...not just one but several. They're obviously more baller than me.

Anyway Brett paid me what he owed me but accidentally gave me an extra flag ($5k chip). I immediately knew he overpaid me and gave it back to him. The crazy part was I asked if he would've noticed, because he was carrying a lot of high denomination chips w/ him (cuz again, he's baller) and he said he would've, but he would not have accused me of taking it and just would've thought he dropped it somewhere. Damn, opportunity missed....jk.

Also I got an online transfer from somebody for a decent amount (over $1k) the other day and they didn't know they xferred it to me by mistake but I returned it.

If there's ever a time for karma to rear it's head for somebody, it's me...at least that's what I'm hoping for this tournament.

I have pieces of a few guys and all of them made it to day 2 as well (I probably mentioned this but I have run well when taking pieces of guys).

The only downer on the day was going out to sushi w/ Joe Tehan, Jon Turner, and a couple of others and losing credit card roulette...sucks it was sushi which meant it was expensive. (Again karma I hope).

Anyway I'm going to get plenty of rest for day 2 of the LAPC main event so I will cut this short (vs. my usual blog posts).

I did write an article recently about my 1st big score and how I reacted w/ the boon to my bankroll and I think it's a decent read for those interested...

http://bit.ly/fGMZsB

A day in the life

As per request from a fellow tweeter (or twitterer, not sure what the proper term is), I'm going to talk about a typical but busy day for me. That day also happens to be today. Today was busier than usual for me because I'm leaving for a wedding in Santa Barbara this weekend then heading to Los Angeles for the tail end of the LAPC where I pursue my adventures in live tournaments (plus live cash games). I will be updating my progress on my trip include all my tournament runs on twitter for those interested. You can find the link to the right for those interested. (I always say there's better things to do than follow twitter but I guess millions of people think differently...tbh I've become more active on twitter so I guess I'm falling for that twitter bug).























Anyway I woke up at 8am today (gasps from all the new generation of poker players, some thinking that's when they go to bed) to see my kid off to school. I've talked about this before but I like to take care of my family duties before anything else and that includes poker. The last thing I want my daughter to see is her father immersed in the world of poker...poker is just a means of providing a good life for my family and myself. I want to show my kid that poker is just a job and I want be the best dad that I can be, especially in her eyes. Naturally the next thing I do is head straight back to bed for a couple more hours of sleep. I'm one of those people that needs 8hrs+ of sleep or I'll be cranky all day. Somehow my wife loves talking to me while I'm snoozing even though she realizes this. I guess the trade off of having somebody "listening" to her is worth me being cranky all day. Women.

So I woke up again at 11am, do a little prep work for the podcast I cohost w/ Jeremiah Smith called "Cash Plays". I also drink my French Vanilla Slimfast for lunch. Losing weight is hard. We interviewed Greg "FBT" Mueller about his recent appearance on Poker After Dark. Greg and I actually go back a long ways. When I started playing poker for a living 13 years ago in Vancouver, Canada I tangled w/ him often in the limit hold'em games around town (yeah, the dark ages of poker, before nl hold'em became popular, before online poker was introduced). I knew then that he would become big time in poker because of his loud personality but more because of how sick good he was at poker. We also interviewed Jared Tendler, a poker mental game coach. Also we did our hand 2 hand combat where we break down a hand or two from cash games. Anyway for those interested the podcast will be available on PokerRoad and Cardrunners next Tuesday.

Then I spent the next two hours coaching a student, actually my only student currently. I've been hesitant to jump into coaching for a few reasons, mostly because I can't match my hrly coaching vs. playing. I'm coaching this particular person because she's a good friend of a good friend (and I am getting paid). I've been mulling getting into coaching on the side and will announce it here if I do decide to do it.



















After this it's time for dinner and my wife, kid, and I head off to Hot 'N' Juicy Crawfish for dinner. We invite a friend of my wife's and her 2 kids and order a few lbs of juicy crawfish and crab. I shy away from the crawfish...just seems like too much work for too little meat...plus sucking the juices out of the heads doesn't sound appealing to me. I order 2 lbs of snow crab legs, medium spice, 1lb in garlic butter flavor and 1lb in hot'n'juicy flavor.

I come home and see how my bets in sports did. I have a guy that has been a handicapper for years and has a winning track record so I bet his plays. He put out Nashville -115 and Edmonton +115 and both won (dingX2). I bet relatively small compared to what I make in poker so even if I run bad here I don't lose much (compared to my poker bankroll). This is the mini degeneracy in me..but very mini...and again I actually expect to come out ahead in the long run.

I decide to put in a session of online poker. After winning $1800 last night playing $5/$10 at the Venetian (thank you pocket Aces and old man gone wild syndrome) I decide to test my mettle vs. the virtual world tonight. I hop into some $3/$6 and $5/$10 nl 6max games on FTP and run pretty good and win $2200 in about an hr (only if I can sustain this hrly). Graph of my session tonight...























Now I have a couple of more things left to do for the day. I need to finish up my next video for Cardrunners. I will probably use the footage from tonight's play and just add my commentary for a nice polished product and ship it to my bosses at CR. Believe it or not but making a poker video is quite a lot of work..not just from my end but from the editing department and management before they put out the final product. So I thank you guys that put in the time and effort to put out the final product.

After this I will go through all my mail and bills and make sure everything is up to date. I had a personal assistant before that handled all of this but it didn't quite work out. I'm on the lookout for a PA actually so if anybody knows of a good one for a reasonable price, feel free to let me know.

Things that I didn't do today that I wish I had include getting in a workout, watching a poker video, doing some poker analysis, or reading something about poker theory/concepts, doing that Pokernews article Kristy asked me for (postponed til tomorrow), and spending some time w/ my kid...after all I'll be gone for a couple of weeks and away from my kid.

Realistically my days aren't this busy (eg the podcast is once every 2 weeks, along w/ making a video for CR) but having to leave town for a couple of weeks, and being the procrastinator I am, today just turned out to be a very busy but productive day.

So is my life baller? Probably not, but hey, my family is taken care of and I'm enjoying my life and really, that's all that counts.

Finally a shout out to my buddies Adam Friedman who got 2nd in the $1k FTOPS 10 game mix for $38k (but seriously, how did you not win it after having a 6-1 chip lead hu??!!) and Jaymes Rosenthal (you need to come to CR from that other training site) for taking down the recent Venetian Deep Stack tournament for $15k and a trophy...both occurred today. Hopefully I can make my own magic happen next week in Los Angeles.

Oh, here is my setup/grind station as requested @PokerLawyer ;) A few months old (there's a football game on tv) and a lot cleaner than it is right now.

The week that was

I've had a pretty eventful week (for me anyway). Started the weekend w/ a bang by participating in the Cardrunners' 5th anniversary $5 rebuy tournament on Saturday. Several CR pros had bounties on their heads including myself. I gave away a free lesson but the guy that busted me has yet to claim it...wonder if that is saying something...lol. I was fortunate to bust a fellow CR pro ChipaHoya who was giving away a cake...yes a cake. I received it the other day and took a picture of it. Wow it came in a big box and was expecting it to be a big cake but apparently it was wrapped heavily and had ice packs in it to keep it cool so it turned out to be a lot smaller than I thought it would but nonetheless it was good....thanks Chip!



















Anyway I ended up cashing in the tournament and fortunately I busted out when I did (not often you hear that statement) because I needed to attend the Las Vegas Wranglers' game that was starting shortly. They are a minor league ice hockey team here in Las Vegas. I needed to attend because my kid was part of her school choir singing the national anthem and some popular Christmas songs (during intermission). Well after the Wranglers scored their 1st goal people starting throwing teddy bears into the rink. It was quite a site...pic here...



















Apparently it was toys for tots night or something like that. Obviously I thought it was very cool for the team to do that and had I known I would've brought a big teddy bear to toss myself (or maybe a note of me giving away a free poker lesson and my contact info since I have an unused offer).

Sunday was obviously football all day. I was in contention for playoff spots across my 3 leagues and unfortunately 2 of my teams choked and missed the playoffs. At least my 3dime team made the playoffs and is the #1 seed. I did take a pretty sick beat in one fantasy league where I was up 50pts going into Monday Night Football and had AP and Joe Flacco vs other teams' Matt Schaub, AJ, Sidney Rice, and Minn defense. I was probably at least a 10-1 fav and we had a total pts bet for $500 w/ me having the 50 pt lead and lost when Schaub and AJ went bonkers.

Now this league is the 1dime league comprised of mid - high stakes online regs and I think I lost to a certain guy I play vs. on a regular basis in my games. What's significant about this guy? Well this guy played a hand vs me a couple of months ago at nl600 where we got in $600 each w/ AK vs AK preflop and we ran it twice and he won both!! He had AK of spades and flop rolled off w/ 1 spade both times and both times it came runner runner spade. Yeah I guess you could say that guy owns me in everything.

Also on Sunday I played a multitude of tournaments for once (been awhile because of NFL) including the nl hu miniftops. I managed to beat my 1st 2 opponents fairly easily then lost to the biggest donk in my 3rd round matchup. I had him down 5-1 in chips and somehow he came back and won. It was also tilting because that was the bubble round..if you win that round you cash. Anyway I find out later that Kristy Arnett of Pokernews won it. She covers tournaments around the world and I didn't know she played online poker but apparently she's been getting coaching and playing 6max nl cash games online. What's significant of this? Well besides the fact that she's female, attractive and just won a nice tournament for $31k, I got to interview her for our podcast Cashplays (look for that soon). I really came away impressed by her knowledge of poker but unfortunately she would not give me back my buyin for that tournament when I asked. Side note...asian women are awesome at poker and at life...Barry G and Doublefly (his blog link on the right) know what I'm talking about and that's why I married one ;) . Kristy pictured...

















I had to hurry to my kid's school after that interview to watch my kid sing in her choir for her school's annual Christmas play. Obviously as a dad it was awesome watching my kid be in it. I did get her Guitar Hero last year so it's good to see that she put that game to good use (improving her vocals). Now only if she would stop asking me for a real guitar (or maybe I will give in to that this Christmas). I managed to get a few good snapshots of the play including this one...



















As for poker I managed to find time to play a little (but not too much). I made a couple of videos for CR where I played some nl1k 6max and hu. The hu match was interesting in that the guy got up $2700 or so on me but the whole time I felt like it was a matter of time before I beat him, and beat him I did. The videos are available on CR again for those that have a subscription and are interested in checking them out.

Also I played a hu match w/ my CashPlays cohost Jeremiah Smith the other day. We did it because he likes giving away money...I'm kidding...we did it because we thought it would be cool since we're cohosts on a podcast that focuses on cash games and maybe we can make a video or two out of it to share w/ our listeners and CR members. I went in thinking of making it a live session but after we played I think it's better to make it a leakfinder series where I help out Jeremiah and point out some of his mistakes and how to go about fixing them. The match lasted a couple of hours but it will be a 10 part series because of all the numerous screw ups Jeremiah made (zing!)...no it will probably be a 2 part series I'm thinking right now and I really think they will be informative. I won't reveal how the match ended up other than that Jeremiah might as well have played w/ his cards face up ;) .

Anyway since I haven't talked about poker much lately here is an interesting hand I played...

Full Tilt, $5/$10 No Limit Hold'em Cash, 6 Players

Poker Tools by CardRunners - Hand Details

MP: $1,000 (100 bb)

CO: $2,169 (216.9 bb)

BTN: $543 (54.3 bb)

SB: $3,963 (396.3 bb)

BB: $1,000 (100 bb)

Hero (UTG): $1,000 (100 bb)

Preflop: Hero is UTG with 8 8

Hero raises to $30, MP raises to $95, CO folds, BTN calls $95, 2 folds, Hero calls $65

Flop: ($300) 9 8 8 (3 players)

Hero checks, MP checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($300) A (3 players)

Hero checks, MP bets $150, BTN folds, Hero calls $150

River: ($600) 7 (2 players)

Hero checks, MP checks

Results: $600 pot ($3 rake)

Final Board: 9 8 8 A 7

MP showed A K and lost (-$245 net)

Hero showed 8 8 and won $597 ($352 net)

I don't want to get into too much detail here because villain is a fellow CR pro and we have history and definitely some kind of metagame going but wow is his river check back sick. He tanked down to a few seconds and I knew at the time he had a big diamond, possibly AQ w/ the Q of diamond (because the K of diamond would surely bet) and he was thinking whether betting had any value vs. me because he knows I probably won't call w/ much worse (even though sometimes I would) while I could check/shove w/ better. I was pretty shocked to see his hand tbh and I think I get an opponent to bet that hand 99% of the time (so I can check/shove all in).

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everybody!

Online poker

Screw live, back to online for me. Live poker is my mistress while online is my girlfriend. After awhile I miss the comfort of online poker and being able to play 1000 hands/hr. Results wise it's been up and down, and running below ev. I've been playing more $5-$10nl which is always a challenge but one that I look forward to. I'm feeling really confident in my game at this point and as long as I put in the hours I feel like the sky's the limit for me in poker.























Also played 2 FTOPs w/ no success. It's been awhile since I've played online tournaments as well so I'm enjoying that. Also I was really in the middle whether to go to Los Angeles for the NAPT main event this weekend and possibly play some live cash games there and passed because I didn't feel like driving 4-5 hrs and I didn't really prepare for it, like not having a place to stay overnight. I will plan on playing the $2500 main event at the Venetian next Sunday though (and miss NFL!). Also I'm planning on playing some of the events at the 5 Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in a couple of weeks including the WPT $10k main event.

I actually feel like someone that matters in the poker world now w/ the stuff I've been doing the past few months. Doing the "Cash Plays' podcast w/ Jeremiah Smith is a blast and I'm excited to be a part of Cardrunners and teach members how to improve their games and help the company grow. I don't care about feeling like someone important, because the only peoples' opinions that matter to me is my family's (along w/ my employers now) but I like the sense of knowing that I could be helping others in poker. I spent the 1st 11 years of my poker career improving my family and my lives and now I'm at a point where I can help others and I hope to do a good job at that and I'm looking forward to more of it. The only thing I haven't decided on is coaching. It's not really about the money because I can probably get paid ok coaching. It's the time commitment now w/ various things going on. When I coach somebody I really root for that person to do well so I feel like I need to invest a lot of myself and my time to see that happen. That's why I've been sticking mostly w/ my friends when it comes to coaching, because they're friends and the time we spend together is , well..like male bonding I guess.

Anyway I'll show a couple of recent hands I played online for those that like to look at hand histories.

Try to guess my mistake in this hand......

No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (5 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB ($680)

UTG ($1621)

MP ($2136)

Button ($1000)

Hero (SB) ($1445)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 8, 8

UTG bets $20, MP calls $20, Button calls $20, Hero calls $15, 1 fold

Flop: ($90) 9, Q, 8 (4 players)

Hero checks, UTG bets $90, MP calls $90, 1 fold, Hero raises $275, 1 fold, MP raises $915, Hero calls $730

Turn: ($2190) Q (2 players)

Hero bets $420 (All-In), MP calls $420

River: ($3030) 10 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $3030

Results:

Hero had 8, 8 (full house, eights over Queens).

MP had J, 10 (straight, Queen high).

Outcome: Hero won $3026

For those that thought not shoving the flop is a mistake is wrong. The mistake was not folding my set when the MP player 3bet to $915. This particular opponent's range is 99, QQ, or JT here like always and I felt like I had to fold but the fact that I had a set made me call (actually bad logic in this spot)...I thought I was calling all in but saw I had $420 still left on the turn. It probably worked out better because the board paired Qs on the turn and after my opponent called all in we had run it twice on but unfortunately for him he was drawing dead no matter how many times we ran it. If I shove the flop maybe I just win the 1st run w/ the Qs pairing. Also my opponent tanked forever when I shove $420 into the $2600 pot because he was good enough to realize that I probably had a full house. I could tell he really wanted to fold but given the pot odds probably felt compelled to call. Sorry dude.

Now most people complain about getting sucked on and losing a hand after they played the hand perfectly. I misplayed this hand and got rewarded so it's basically the reverse. I will not complain even though I misplayed my hand (who ever complains after misplaying a hand and winning the pot anyways), but I'll be honest, I can't make mistakes like these if I want to maximize my profits in the future. Chalk this one up to playing bad and getting lucky on my end.


No-Limit Hold'em, $10.00 BB (6 handed) - Hold'em Manager Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($3456)

BB ($1251)

UTG ($1000)

Hero (MP) ($1082)

CO ($1249)

Button ($1277)

Preflop: Hero is MP with 5, 5

1 fold, Hero bets $30, CO calls $30, 3 folds

Flop: ($75) A, 3, 6 (2 players)

Hero bets $50, CO calls $50

Turn: ($175) 5 (2 players)

Hero bets $140, CO calls $140

River: ($455) 7 (2 players)

Hero bets $225, CO raises $1029 (All-In), Hero calls $637 (All-In)

Total pot: $2179

Results:

Hero had 5, 5 (three of a kind, fives).

CO had Q, K (high card, Ace).

Outcome: Hero won $2176

No description really needed on this hand...just that I'd like to give thanks to the guy that floated w/o much of a hand and decided to rep, ummm, I guess a 4 at the river.

I guess I have a whole bunch of hands where I got it in good but got sucked out on but really no educational or entertainment benefits showing those. It would just serve a purpose of saying hey look at me and how bad I run (sometimes). I usually leave that for my wife to listen to...after all, what are wives for?