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Friday, July 28, 2006

Not as Planned Part Two

So Aaron was not going to play in the main event and actually came home to Seattle to think about it. He was just burned out from the last month. I was at dinner with him last night, and he had just won 30K and was feeling a little better about going and then at dinner just said fuck it I am going. He tried to get out last night and could not get a flight. He did get a 6:00am flight out today. He got there and his bags took almost and hour to show up, then as he rolled into the Rio he put one of his bags on the ground to get the other and it was run over by a cab and broke his laptop and new sunglasses. That had to piss him off as that is not a good start to the day. Then when he showed up he was told that he could play today or Monday. He did not want to wait until Monday so, in I am sure a bad mood, he took his seat today.

This would not have been my plan of attack after that morning but hey he wanted to get going. So I just talked to him and he has almost tripled up to $28,000 and has to be among the chip leaders right now. Good for him, go dude. Many hands to play and many cards to fade. Good Luck AK

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Not as Planned

So my Tuesday turned into a day not as planned. I first thought I had to travel on Weds so I decided I could not go down to the Muck to get into the $100/200 or whatever they were running that day because I needed to get some real sleep. Then of course the trip gets moved so I had the night to go out. By then I had already committed myself at work and going home so I did. Then at home I decided I did really want to play anyway and try to play my way out of this horrible run of cards. What better way than to go up to Parkers and play a little $8/16 and work on my chops.

Boy am I glad I did that, really. I picked up right where I left off, I won a total of three small pots the first 4 hours I played. That's right 3. I got nothing to play, when I did it was out of position in the blinds with 5-7 or more in the pot already, so I could not raise and protect my hand, and then I would hit complete air on the flop. AK, 4,5,8 two suits not mine on flop, I check, many bets, muck. Pocket 10's A,J,x board, I check, many bets, many calls, muck. Pocket KK's A on flop I bet many calls, turn miss, I check many bets and calls, muck. Wonderful. Whose dog did I shoot? I got into the game 4 buyins and almost just gave up, if I were playing $100/200 I would have gone broke before I could have gotten out. But then a friend of mine from LA who just happened to want to play a little low limit came into the room, and I decided to stay. I played with him for a while and had some fun and actually started hitting some hands. I went on a mini rush and almost got back to even but gave away a big pot to a player who made a great bluff that I might have been the only player at the table who would have laid down to and kept myself stuck a tiny bit. I had K,Q of diamonds and had turned a flush and check raised the turn on a paired board. The river brought the third card to the paired board making three jacks I bet out and he raised. I just mucked the hand, what can I really beat, any pair now beats me he was calling to whole way and betting on the flop, he has to have me beat right?? Nope he made the play with the naked A of diamonds no pair. That is not a move you see EVER in an $8/16 game. It is a move you rarely see in $100/200 and if it did happen you did not see it. I loved the move, it was awesome, creative, and won him the pot. He was so proud to show me the bluff, and I am glad he did because now I know he has the ability to make that kind of move and I will never forget it.

Lesson here, never show the bluff. I know it makes us feel really cool to pull off a huge bluff and we really, really want to show the world, but don't. Just know that you pulled off a world class bluff and gloat to yourself. Don't give the table information that can come back to haunt you. It will always come back to haunt you, unless of course you decide to quit poker after reaching such a high or the player is too stupid to remember, which of course the bluff would not have worked on because who lays down a K high flush??

So the run continues, I lost 1/2 a buyin. Getting nicked to death right now. I may play again this week and possibly at the Muck.

Also, I played against Schnieds of 2+2 in LV when I was there and did not know it. This was the kid who beat me with the AK when I turned a set from a few posts ago. It appears he is writing a blog for his local newspaper. Go check it out here www.startribune.com/blogs/cardshark Good luck to all those at the WSOP main event starting Friday. I really wish I were there. Maybe next year. Hope you are all winning. Talk to you soon..SJ

Friday, July 21, 2006

Sorry

I want to apologize for not posting much in the last few weeks. After my trip to the WSOP for the first week I have been busy at work and on a number of trips and vacations but not for poker. I have played very little, and the poker that I have played has been up at Parkers in the $8/16 game for fun and to work on a few things in my game without putting any real money at risk. I have played three small sessions. One I wanted to play as a complete maniac pre-flop and then adjust on the flop to work on reading skills. The other two I went back to normal poker mode. Funny thing is the only session of the three I won was the maniac session. I don't know what that says about my game right now but it was fun. I have been on a horrible run for the last month. Even worse was that it started just as they kicked the game up to $150/300 at the Muck and I played $100/200 at the WSOP. Almost all of the sessions had losing results, not big, but it is all relative at the limits played. It hurt the bankroll and ego. I feel like I don't even know what I am doing right now. I can't even beat the $8/16 game at Parkers, depressing. I am trying to work on a few things as well as just play my way through an absolute horrible run of cards. 90% of the big pairs I have had in the last month have lost. Unfortunately for me I am not seeing them much right now either. Don't even want to know the percentage I am losing with AK right now. Just ugly. I am missing steal hands completely on flops, it seems like I miss every draw, and get picked off on every bluff, just depressing. I know that there must be some leaks in my play right now as well. You can't lose every session based on cards, but it sure feels that way right now. I just need to get better somehow, someway. I will be down at the Muck next Tuesday to try to get back into a regular groove, hope this will start me on the right path again. You also might have noticed that I once again went to not posting actual numbers. I have been concerned that with the new law passed in my State that there are probably too many people who are not poker players, and who may be State related, looking at this site. I don't want to draw anymore attention to myself from the non-poker world. I don't want to be an example, I just want to play cards.

On the other front I have not posted much about my friend Aaron down at the WSOP because there has been nothing to post about. He has played in only 3 or 4 tournaments, all non-cashes. He did play the $50,000 HORSE event and made it to day two but everyone(ok all but 14 of the 143) made it to day two so that was a non-event as well. He has also done nothing in the cash games. He started on a good note and then has slide back down to around even on some crushing beats in the NL game. He is feeling much like myself right now where nothing seems to be going right and the cards feel like they are conspiring against you. They suck you in and then stomp on your bankroll. I hope he has a good week leading up to the main event and finally breaks through in the main event, but with 8,000 players the odds are not in ones favor. Good luck to all that are going to be in the main event, it will happen again without me this year as I just can't get away from work for a day let alone two weeks for a deep run. If you go to the event knowing you need to bust and get back to work you might as well just put up $10k on a single blackjack hand. At least you have a chance of getting some money back on that play.

Lastly I updated my blog roll to those that I am really reading. I dropped a couple, and will look to add some, but right now just subtractions. I dropped Josh because he just does not post. Shame as I like some of his stuff, but he just must not be interested anymore. Might have something to do with his lack of success lately in any events as well.

Also, remember any of you who don't have a rakeback deal online to use my link at the left for Rakeback.com. I use them and have been really pleased with the way they do business. Good luck and I hope you are all winning. Talk to you next week....SJ

Friday, July 14, 2006

Additional WSOP Observations

I was only there for a little bit at the beginning of the WSOP, but this year sure felt different than any of the last years prior. First off there seemed to be a lot more people interested in the WSOP this year. Not just from players, and there were definitely more players this year, but from people just interested in seeing it. Both at the RIO and Bellagio. Tons of bystanders just wanting to see the person they see on TV playing cards. Sounds exciting huh?? Can't quite figure out that phenomenon.

The action seemed to be around the RIO and the Bellagio. I visited a few other card rooms and they were pretty dead. Even Ceasar's new room was dead. Nice big room, but no games, other than a few low limit tables. Nothing higher than $10/20. Wynn had a few games, but that was pretty dead too. I guess Bellagio still has a lock on the action, there was some brief interest in other places but you always come back to the best. I never even played anywhere else except Bellagio.

The last thing that really struck me was the young age of the players with a ton of money. The internet has really consolidated a lot of money into a few hands of some really good young players. I mean good, and I do mean a lot of money. These guys were around 21 to 25 and they had hundreds of thousands of $$. That is just amazing. Even if they did not have a hundreds of thousands they were a ton of them in the $100/200 games and up, so they had decent sized bankrolls. Some of them were nice kids, but a lot of them were really cocky, arrogant people. They have not been humbled yet by the pain of poker. It will come, but I am sure the internet will keep making them.

One side effect of all these smart young players playing poker on the internet for a living is that they will not get into the mainstream economy. These guys are clearly very smart, fast thinkers, and have good brains. They will not go to college, get real jobs, and produce something of value for the US economy. These guys would make great wall street traders, bankers, start there own businesses, etc. Maybe this is not a bad thing, as there are plenty of kids that do want to do that, but are we losing some of this talent to poker? I just think down the road when these guys are 35 and did not go to school, have lived the life of poker and now want to do something else. What else can you do now? Internet poker player does not look that good on a resume? These players will never make it back to mainstream society. I hope they know that.

Aaron got busted out early on day two of the $50,000 HORSE event. Too bad. The structure was not as good as it appeared. They did start you with $50,000 in chips but the blinds went up really fast, and there was not a lot of play in this event. I think they should make this a 4 or 5 day event and really let some poker happen as opposed to still having to have some short term luck. The final table is a pretty good list of top players, but heck the whole event was pretty much full of names, so you could not go wrong. Final table should be fun to watch. Hope you are all winning and I will talk to you soon. I will not play next Tuesday again as I have to go to LA next week. Maybe get back to cards in a week or two. Will update with any Aaron WSOP if they happen. SJ

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Continue of Delayed WSOP Trip Report

So I went to bed after a fairly disappointing day and was ready to play the $1500 limit event. Now I play limit as my 1st game and I was feeling pretty good about this event, but the way I had been running for the last month needed to change for me to have any chance.

I started the event as good as I could have hoped for. We started with only 5 of the players at the table. I started with the BB and the SB was not there. It was folded to the button and I looked down at K,6, he raised of course to steal the blinds. I made the call and flopped a K on a ragged board. I bet right out he raised, I three bet, he called. Turn was a nothing and I bet out he raised, I called, river another nothing card, I checked he bet I called and showed him my K which was good. Take the pot. Next hand in the SB with the BB not there, also was folded to the same player who just tried to run over me, and of course he raised again. This time I three bet him out of the SB with pocket 77's and he called. Flop came 7,5,5. I checked and he checked behind me, turn a Q I bet out and he just mucked. O well did not make much on that hand. I proceeded to win a few more pots and then cracked AA with an A,6 of clubs when I turned a flush. I now had $2,800 in chips before the end of the first round and was feeling really good.

That was all she wrote however. I went absolutely card dead for the rest of the day. They broke my 1st table about 45 minutes into round two, and right before they were going to start the final table of the $1500 nl event #2. I was sitting right up against the final table so it would have been a good spot to play and watch but alas it was not to be. I got moved to a table which had Dutch Boyd and Josh Schlein

This picture was taken of him at my table early in the tournament, he finished 3rd in the event. He was a very aggressive player and good to boot. I did not play a pot with him, heck I did not play a pot at the table I think. Funny dude however, you can tell just by looking at him he was goofy. Someone asked him about his final table hands at the WPT Aruba event and he told some good stories. Dutch was short stacked and went out about 15 minutes after I got there.

I then got moved for the third time. I made it about half way through round 4 when I just had to take a stand because I was not going to get any cards. With about $900 in chips left playing $150/300 there was a raise in late position and I had pocket 55's on the button. I three bet the hand all in, and to my surprise, the SB four bet it and the BB called, both of them all in and now the original raiser called with no more action to come. The flop came 4,6,6, turn a 10 river and A. I was up against SB=99's, BB=A,Jo, and original raiser A,6 off. Wow I went out two straight tournaments to A,6o. The worst hand won the pot, shitty. Time to go back to Bellagio.

I return to Bellagio and get into the $100/200 game, same guys as day before. Same shitty run of cards. I play another really long session from mostly behind again, but this time I manage to get myself a small win. Not much consolation however as I did not come here to make nothing. I decided to go to bed and skip the shorthanded event on Friday as I wanted to play another session of $100/200 all day Friday and I did not want to get a late start. I did get to go to Joe Bartholdi's party at Carmel on Thursday night while I was taking a break from my session. Just a bunch of poker players sitting around drinking, nothing great there.

I got up around noon on Friday and took my seat in the $100/200 game again. This time I go straight down making hands that get sucked out on and paying off. Prime example #1, I have pocket QQ's in late position. I raise and get called out of the SB and BB. Flop comes 9,10,J. No a great flop for me but not horrible. Checked to me, I bet, SB calls BB mucks. Turn a Q, really not the hand I wanted to make now. Checked to me I bet now and I get raised. I call almost sure I am beat but still call. Please pair the board on the river, nope a 3. Bet, and I make the crying call, and he shows me AK for the gutshot on the turn. Nice 5 outer sir. Whole day and night went like that, just a whole lot of crap. I end up booking another small loss and decide I am done playing for the trip. Nothing was going my way and I was tired.

I did watch Aaron play some $600/1200 Omaha, 2-7, and badugi. I also got to meet Chris Fargis of www.twentyoneoutstwice.blogspot.com Nice guy, although he was not having a good night, and may not even remember meeting me as it was around 2:00am. Aaron won enough to buy a small house that night. The game was 5 handed and there was one dude who was in for -$220,000, ouch that is a bad night. I guess my losses don't look so bad compared to that guy. It is all relative.

On a side note there are two players from Seattle in today's HORSE event. Aaron Katz and Rep. Go guys, here are the shots form today courtesy of Cardplayer site.




Hope you are all winning and I will talk to you soon about some other observations on the trip. SJ

Monday, July 10, 2006

Delayed WSOP Trip Report #1

Ok, I have been really late in getting this up here. I have been back for over a week and been busy at work and did not feel like posting over the weekend. So for all two of you who have been waiting here it is..... Day 1. I got down there late Tuesday evening/Weds morning of the 27th/28th. I went to go check out the poker room at the Bellagio and it was pretty early like 2:00am so there was not a whole lot going on. There were still a few games going, a $100/200 and a few $30/60 and smaller, but not packed. There was also a few big games going on and Aaron was still up playing. I can't even remember what he was playing I think a mixed triple draw game around $200/400 or $400/800. I watched a bit and then went over to the Rio to check in to the WSOP get my card and sign up for the PLHE $1500 event the next day. That late at night there was no one there and I zipped in and out in less than 15 minutes. I popped back to the Bellagio to say goodnight to Aaron and my buddy Joe who was also there playing $30/60 and went to bed to play the days event later.

Event #3 $1500 PLHE. I sat down at my fist table and recognized no one. I also did not recognize any cards. I was looking down at garbage for the first hour. When you start with very little chips my strategy is to play tight and wait for a hand to try to get started. This was not going to work because I was not going to get cards so as the second round started I started to gamble a bit to collect some blinds. I stayed around even $1500 for a while at least, but could not make anything good happen. We broke tables and I was put at a table with Hasan Habib and Robert Mizrachi, both Hasan and Robert went bust soon after I got there as they were pretty short stacked when I arrived. I then got moved again right before the end of the 2nd round and once again to a table with no one that I knew. At the start of the 3rd round I picked up pocket 10's in second position. I made it $400 to go playing $50/$100 blinds and got called to my immediate left and a late position caller. Flop came 6,6,4 rainbow. Good flop for my hand. I bet $800 into a $1350 pot and got called in both spots. Now I only started the hand with around $1600 so this left me only $400 left. Turn was a 9. I went all in for my last $400 and the first player dumped but the last player insta called, oops, he showed my A,6 off for flopped trips and I was done. I guess I could have just moved in on the flop but the result would have been the same. After the guy called with A,6 pre-flop I was doomed. I would have had some chips if I would have caught a 10 on the river but a J sealed my fate. Off to the Bellagio to play some live games....

The room was absolutely packed in the afternoon, I put my name on the $100/200 list and talked to Aaron and Joe and everyone else from Seattle down there. There were lots of guys from Seattle down there. Old ones that had moved to LA and Vegas and guys that were from our game. Now I don't know what the Bellagio was/is thinking, but they are running a $1000 buy in tournament at 2:00pm in the afternoon and taking up tables in the main cardroom. I know they are trying to get all the players that bust out of the main WSOP events into the Bellagio, but they could have run this in the Fontana room and left the tables for live games. They have to make more off the rake than the juice from this tournament, it just killed the live games for a good chunk of the afternoon. So that said I had to wait a few hours for them to free up some tables and they started a 3rd must move $100/200 game. I jump into the game and proceed to get up a quick $2,000. It is all down hill from there. I never get any more hands to hold up, and I just get buried. The other aspect to the game was that there were not very many soft spots. Lots of really good limit players in this game all week. You had to really time and set up bluffs well and for the most part you had to turn over the winning hand, which of course I could not manage to do all week. There are some really good players coming out of Canterbury in Minnesota. There was a pack of them maybe 6 or 7 that rotated in this game and all of them were good. I played with all of them over time and very few of them booked a loss. Good players all and nice as well. I liked them all. One in particular that went by the name of Sketch(sp?) was super good. I played with him every day, and he never went on tilt, or played poorly, never. I am sure he is going to kill this game if he stays for the entire series. I played until 5:00am and could never get anything going, booked a loss, and went to bed to play in the $1500 limit event the next day. I will try to follow up with tournament day #2 tomorrow. Hope you are all winning and are having fun at the WSOP. Aaron had a good picture taken during day one of the $1500 NLHE #2, here it is for all to see from Cardplayer site......

Thursday, July 06, 2006

I Am Not Dead

I am not dead yet... I got back from Vegas last Saturday and then took off on vacation with the family for the 4th. Just got back into Seattle today and working. I will try to put up a few posts maybe tonight and over the next few days to let you know what happened. It was a very fun, but alas unfruitful trip to the WSOP. Some good stories and observations coming. I had delusions that I would try to post while down there but I played way toooooo many hours of poker to try and post. Good idea but not enough discipline to post. Talk to you soon and I hope you are all winning...SJ