To Reno and Back

I went to Reno on Thursday for an extended weekend to play in some of the Fall Pot of Gold tourneys. I figured $45/nt to go and play some live poker and meet some people from an online staking site that I use was worth a 2 hour drive.

The tourneys were only averaging about 75 players for the $300+ buyin tourneys which was a little too small for my liking but I did win the $340 tourney on Friday for about $6k so the trip was profitable.

The casino itself was actually really nice. The room was huge, and the resort had a driving range, a bowling alley, and plenty of restaurants. The only bummer was that it was sort of an old style casino in that everywhere you went it stank of old cigarette smoke - there are actually quite a few non-smoking casinos in Vegas now that I really like and all of the poker rooms there are non-smoking. Whereas here the tournament was just played out on the casino floor so I was stuck in a blue fog the whole weekend.

Anyhoo, I am now back and with a profitable month I am of course feeling lazy again, so I am contemplating how much I actually want to play the rest of this month. I think I am going to focus on getting back in shape and keeping our house looking purty and will keep poker on the back burner. Maybe I'll even take on a student or two... We'll see.

Dinner with yo-yoers

I am finally used to getting weird looks and lots of questions when people find out that I am a professional poker player, but I will admit I found it a little humorous when one of my step-brother's cohorts was agog at my profession considering that he is currently "on tour" as a yo-yo player.

Anyhoo, they were in town doing their demos, and I met up with them last night and figured they probably hadn't had a real home cooked meal for a while, so I invited them over and made some roast chicken, mashed potatoes, garlic bread, salad, and fresh baked cookies for dessert. So I think I am now a hit with yo-yoers.

Besides getting my ego stroked it was also nice to shoot the shit with my step-brother since I do not see him very often. I think I will finally get back to actually working and playing some cards tomorrow.

Busy Weekend

We had a great time in wine country this weekend (we went to a town called forestville right on the russian river) kayaking, biking, and just relaxing at the beach and in the hot tub.

My step-brother Kent also welcomed his first child so I am an uncle again.

And my other step-brother, Mark, unexpectedly showed up in Sacramento yesterday in the midst of a yo-yo tour so I hung put with him a bit last night and am having him and his crew over for dinner tonight.

Delayed weekend post

Last weekend my family from L.A. and my cousin and her family from San Fran came for the weekend. We went and played at the river one day and then the next day we drove up into the mountains and hiked to these natural waterslides. I am a big family guy, so as always I had a blast just hanging out and having fun.





Pokerwise, I haven't played since last Friday (when they came into town) basically because I just haven't felt like it. We leave for a belated anniversary trip to wine country this weekend and then I am thinking of going to Reno next week to play some live poker at a casino that is having a series of tourneys in October.

Reflection

I am taking today off and just sort of evaluating where I am, where I want to be, and what I need to do to accomplish my goals. And to do all of that I always think it is good to look back and see where you have been.

It is hard for me to believe that I have now been playing professionally for over 2 years. When I started with my 30k bankroll I had dreams that I would consistently be making $10k+ every month, that my bankroll would steadily increase and that I could then move up in limits and my ROI would stay the same and then I would be consistently making $20k+ every month. That this cycle would just continue until I was a bazillionaire and life would be eeeeeeeeasy.

Instead I have found that I generally take 2 or 3 small steps back before taking one giant step forward that is big enough to jump over those backward movements. That the "consistent" 10k months are a pipe dream - I generally have one losing month for every 2 winning months.

If I had kept a bankroll graph it would be the spikiest thing ever. I have gone from 30k, down to less than 25k, back up to over 30k, up to 40k, back down to 30k, back to 40, up to 50, back to 40, up to 50, up to 60, back down to 40, back up to 60, back down to 40, then as recently as mid August I was back down to 32k and since then I have built it back up to where it currently stands at 68k.

I have learned that between downswings, monthly withdrawals, and laziness leading to low volume, growing or even maintaining my bankroll is HARD! So although I never thought I would still only be halfway to my goal of a 100k bankroll two years after I started this, I am not really upset with myself.

Here's what I am proud of:

I have kept my tilt in control and have not spewed off my bankroll playing in cash games over my head when I am in the midst of downswings hoping to chase my losses.

I have practiced good Bankroll Management and have looked for backing when I need it so that I can play in games that I know I am +EV in and give me the best shot of making huge money but I just can't afford to play on my own dime at the moment.

I have made and exceeded the monthly withdrawals that my wife and I have agreed upon and have still been able to (gradually) increase my bankroll.

I made a WSOP final table.

I have become an instructor on an up and coming poker instructional site.

I have not donked off my roll.

This is what I still need to work on:

volume, volume, and more volume. I am a lazy mofo. The more I play, the more I make - and yet I still find ways not to play. I can't help but think that if I had put in the volume I am capable of, that my bankroll would already be at the 100k point.

If I can continue to grow and play as well as I have these last two years AND I actually put in some significant volume I believe that my next two years can be even better than these last two. Here's to making that happen...

Double Final Table

I won a small $55 6 max on stars and then got 5th in the $75k nightly tourney on Fulltilt.

I feel like I played pretty flawlessly all night long and it was maybe the first time that I have ever made 2 final tables in one night. It still hurt to lose in 5th in the 75k when 1st place is like $25k but, I know it will happen one of these nights and I feel very very strong about my game again.

No more WCOOP

I was backed to play the Main Event today which was a $5k buy-in and after 13 long hours I made the money. I feel like I played really well in all of the events I entered, but this was the only one I cashed in the whole series. It wasn't a huge payout since I had so little of myself, but it did feel good to play so well. I am obviously disappointed that after so many hours of playing today I barely made any money, but these are the days where I need to remember that I easily could be multiple thousands of dollars in the hole rather than a little bit positive for the day.

Tomorrow I have an appointment to have my knee looked at, and next weekend my family from LA and San Fran are coming to visit us.

Bah Final Table Bubble

I got 12th in the 50k on Tilt today which was frustrating because I had to play so patiently just to get that far and then for it all to come to naught blows goats. I know I got down to extremely short stacked at one point in the tourney (like maybe 3 BBs) after getting coolered so I was really happy to have made such a big comeback...

But of course that makes it all the more frustrating when you get it in good as like a 70% favorite and lose when you are down to just 15 players. Oh well.

Nothing earth shattering to report

I played a full session yesterday and ended my cashless streak which was nice. I got deep in a couple of tourneys and gave myself every opportunity to take them down, but it just wasn't meant to be.

I also played the $1k WCOOP event and made an aggressive (maybe overly so?) move against a guy who had been raising 25% of hands from middle position. I shipped it in over his raise with 25 BBs w/9Ts and one of the players to my left woke up with AA - gg me. I am still somewhat on the fence with the play. 25 BBs is a big enough stack that I don't need to risk it all in that spot, but I also think that unless my opps wake up with TT or JJ+ I am not going to get called - so it's going to work a lot.

I have also been staked to play in the $5k WCOOP main event this Sunday and I am looking forward to that.

On the non-poker front, charmian left her phone on top of our car earlier this week and it was eaten by the freeway when it fell off so we went and got her a new fancy phone today. Her sister comes in this Friday for the weekend so I will play tomorrow, Friday aft., and then take Fri. night and all of Saturday off.

Hopefully a few final tables will start coming my way again soon.

Stupid Sunday

Sundays are either extremely frustrating or extremely satisfying. Today was a frustrating day. It was the first day in a long long time that I failed to cash in any of the tourneys I entered. I played well but just couldn't win the crucial late races. But I was probably due for an 0fer day so that's ok.

At least it was a good football weekend. Both the Badgers and Packers won in good, close games.

I am also getting bored of not playing, so I think I will probably be getting back into playing some decent volume this week again.

We'll see...

Day Off

I took the day off to spend some time with Charmian and to finally get to all the outside chores I have been putting off. The back patio is now clean, the yard raked and mowed, the side of the house is cleared of the weeds and crap and I put down some of that cocoa mulch (mmmm smells good), and I planted some flowers and mint (mojitos here we come).

I still want to clean the gutters, but I will wait to do that until after the leaves have fallen since that will happen soon enough. Other than that I just need to clean a bit more inside and the house will finally be back in some semblance of shape. Charmian should be home soon and then we are off to the river to walk Chula.

I am not sure when I will get back to playing fulltime again but it is nice to not have to feel that I NEED to play.

Out... of... shape (gasp)!

I went for like just a 30 minute bikeride today and almost collapsed, so it is time to get my rear back in gear. I plan to go out every other day until I can ride without being winded for an hour. I am surprised at how pathetically out of shape I really am.

My knee is also still bothering me so I am making an appointment tomorrow - at this point I feel like surgery is probably likely for me because rest/ice has done nothing and it has been a long time that it has been bothering me now.

Pokerwise I played a night session today and played great again but took a few bad beats in spots where I really needed hands to hold up so the results were obviously lacking. As long as I can keep getting people to put the money in bad against me, the odds will run back in my favor again.

Taking things super slowly

As is often the case after I get a 5 figure score, I am getting back into the swing of things super slowly. I have played half days yesterday and today just because I don't have the mojo to keep grinding. I feel like I am still playing really well, I just don't feel the need or pressure to play anymore than 1 session a day.

10 Years!!

On a beautiful September day in 1996 you, on the spur of the moment, suggested we bike from your mom's house in Santa Barbara to my dad's house in L.A. We were young and stupid - me in my flip flops and bike with no ballbearings and only half of a seat and you in your do-rag, hemp necklace, and eco-warrior hairy legs, and neither of us with helmets - but god it was fun to be young and stupid. It was on that day that I reeled you in "for keeps."

For the next three years we lived with your mom while we finished school at UCSB, spent a year living with the girls at Lodge in South Africa, and spent a summer in Ecuador. Finishing our undergrad education might have been our priority back then, but the most important lesson we learned was that we made a really good match, and even with all of the retarded small fights we got into, we still knew that we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together.



Although you had given up your vegetarianism in South Africa, you still had enough eco-warrior in you that your save the world ideals and strong passion for travel meant that the Peace Corps was your dream job after graduating from UCSB. Since I didn't really care what I did as long as I was with you, I decided to hitch along for the ride. With a little help from Peace Corps policy (which dictates that for a couple to be placed together, they must be married) we decided to get married sooner rather than later. And so, on September 5, 1999 about 3 years after our 120 mile bike ride, we were married in front of family and friends in a beautiful park in Montecito.

The Peace Corps might have been the impetus (or kick in the pants as Chingui would have said) to get us married, but Chula has been the measuring stick for our marriage.

Bought for 5 quetzales, she was given to us in a costal, and arrived at our home with a belly bloated full of lombrices and a skinny little body full of fleas. We literally scared the shit out of her when we took her out of the bag, and after bathing her, deparasiting her, and then failing miserably when we tried to take her for a walk and she just hunkered down, you asked me "is she ever going to love us?" It became pretty obvious, pretty soon, that the answer was yes and she has been our constant companion ever since.

She loved us even after I took her stitches out too early.

She loved playing with her chucho in arms, Pachak. She was the only dog in Tejutla allowed on the bus and she joined us on our adventures vaccinating animals, building greenhouses, starting goat projects, climbing Tajumulco, or just hanging out in the backyard.







She was adopted along with us by the Munoz family (even eating off the table) and was there for our tearful good-bye.



And then she joined us for our next chapter when we both went to professional school in Madison. She got to experience the leaves fall in autumn, the snow in winter, the sun and fun in summer, getting in good graces with my mom, trying on your scrubs from med school, and joining me on my lunch breaks from my first "real job" as an AAG.







To top off a decade of moving, she came with us on our trek back West. Camping in Colorado and Utah, our new house in Sacramento, and on those precious moments when you have time off, walks to the American river.




With the crazy hours you are working and the stress you are under it has to be hard to stop and reflect, so I am hoping this gives you the chance to reminisce about how vast, varied, and wonderful our last ten years together have been. From undergrads working at Dr. Frawley's and Lucky's, to Peace Corps volunteers, to professional students, to lawyer, to poker player to doctor. From Santa Barbara, to Guatemala, to Madison, to Sacramento - living with your mom, living with my mom, buying our first home. From the incredible highs of going to Guate, getting accepted to medical school, winning your scholarship, winning enough money from poker to put the down on a house, to the incredible lows of leaving our newfound family and friends in Guate, losing Chula, the deaths of Tita and Grandpa, and hitting the rockbottom of residency hell. At this stage of our lives we are in somewhat of a grind, so it is easy to forget that we have experienced more in these ten years than many people experience in their lives.

With less than two years of grinding to go, we will soon enough be facing the stresses and excitement of new adventures. Where will we end up two years from now? Where will we end up five years from now? Are kids, a new dog, a new house, a new job in our future? I am anxious, nervous, and excited to find out what the answers to those questions will be but I am reassured that with you by my side, wherever we end up and whatever we end up doing, I'll be just fine.

Happy Anniversary Charmiancita! I love you very much and am so looking forward to our next ten years together.

Don't know whether to wheee or sigh

I got 2nd in the $50k on Tilt for almost $14k, but I took a very bad beat heads up for the win when I had QQ versus my opponents 77 and he rivered the 7. So right now I am frustrated about the 8-9k that I lost on that one hand, but I am sure I will get over it.

Today is my wife's b-day and tomorrow is our 10th anniversary so I am going to take the rest of tonight and tomorrow off and clean the house, make her a nice meal. I'll be back at it this weekend.

Back at it

I took a couple of days off and started back up again today with the WCOOP starting today. I made two deep runs out of just 11 tourneys that I played today, and ended in 8th and 10th which is once again encouraging because it shows how well I am playing, but discouraging because I just can't break through. Tomorrow is another day...

Preparing for the WCOOP

I had a decent Sunday making a final table on the $50 rebuy on Stars. I also stayed up late railing one of my best poker friends as he took down the 750k on FullTilt for a nice 6 figure score. So I am taking today off, cleaning up the house, buying some groceries and getting ready for my next month.

August actually ended up decently. I got my 200 tourneys in and I made a decent profit. September should be a good volume month for me as well so I should get my 200 tourneys in once again. If I can get that one decent score, I could get my bankroll back up to the highest it has ever been.

What Makes a Player Top-Tier?

I have been thinking a lot lately on self-analysis and focusing on what I need to do to become a better, more profitable player. Tournament play is a very results oriented business and the internet ranking systems and idolization that follows from it make this pervasive focus on results even more stringent. While I wouldn't mind my internet dong getting sucked a little, I have come to realize and accept that my lack of volume means it just ain't gonna happen for me. However, I also realize that just because I don't have the same results as high volume players does not mean that I am not as high a caliber of player as they are.

I think in general there are three categories of players out there:

1) our lovable, needable, idiots - these are players who are either playing for fun, or are new to the game, or perhaps are prone to tilt. They make obvious mistakes and play hands suboptimally.

2) second-tier, break-even to proficient players - these are players who have obtained firm grasp on the fundamentals of the game. They understand how to make accurate guesstimations of their opponent's ranges based on position, stack sizes, and previous play. They understand push/fold poker and know how their hand plays against their opp's ranges. They understand fold equity, and know how to steal and resteal. They might make some minor errors or "spewy" plays, but their mistakes tend to be on the aggressive side. Many of the top-ranked players are actually in this category and can make quite a bit of money based on sheer volume alone (i.e. there are guys out there with just a 10% ROI who are making $100k/year because through sheer volume they are playing in $1 million worth of tourney entries).

3) the top-tier, first rate, cream of the crop players - these are players who know the game really well. They quickly recognize stack sizes, position, hand values, and know their opponents' tendencies. They make no errors when it comes to push/fold, restealing, 3-betting light, or calling shoves. They think at least one move ahead and understand how to size their bets so that they can control the size of the pot and know what they will do in response to any possible move an opponent may make. They do not let prior bad beats affect them and can focus on each hand as it comes.

So what's the difference between a top-tier and a 2nd-tier player? The difference between being a top-tier player and and 2nd-tier player is not just playing mistake free poker. The biggest difference is that top-tier players ADJUST their play based on what their opponents are doing. 2nd-tier players often develop a "style" of play that works for them and then just stick to it. For example, late in a tourney a 2nd-tier player in the BB might 3-bet a button raise as a total bluff because he knows that in general a player on the button late in the tournament will try and steal the blinds by raising. However, if this particular button has only attempted to steal the blinds once out of the last 15 attempts, then this 3-bet which generally would be a great play suddenly becomes spew. A top-tier player recognizes that, a 2nd-tier player does not.

Because top-tier players adjust their game depending on how their opponents are playing, they also know how to and will use every single possible play available to them if the situation is correct. Thus while a 2nd-tier player might say that you should "never open-limp hands late in a tourney" or that "you should never minraise," a top-tier player understands that if the situation is right an open-limp or a minraise might actually be the best play.

So what do you need to do to become a top-tier player? I don't think I am quite there yet, so I can't tell you for sure, but I think the first step is to check your ego at the door and determine where you currently stand. If you're a beginning player, you need to play a lot, ask a lot of questions, and just learn the basics. You need to give yourself the time to become a proficient 2nd-tier player. This is a lengthy time commitment - it takes time to truly understand stack sizes, position, hand values, hand ranges, fold equity, aggression, steals, resteals, etc. Once you do reach this level, the next step is to again drop your ego and realize that you can get even better. Not only do you need to play mistake-free poker but you then need to expand your game so that you are playing not just your cards, your position, and your stacksizes, but you are also playing your player as well. I hope to be there soon.

Day off

Another deep run on Thursday and another stupid mistake late (I ended up getting 14th) left me frustrated at myself so I took that night off and didn't play today either. I feel like I am on the precipice of being an elite player if I can just stop making those stupid mistakes late. Playing mistake free poker + getting some run g00t = extra monies. Making mistakes late = added frustration, lost equity, and wet pillows from crying myself to sleep (ok maybe not that bad).

I did go to my home game tonight which I always enjoy (even though I still get frustrated when I lose there too). They are having another one tomorrow night, so I haven't decided if I'm going to play online or take another day off and play live tomorrow night again. Either way I will be playing a full session on Sunday and will get my 200 tourneys in this month.

Tantalizingly Close

I have made deep deep runs in lots and lots of big weeknight tourneys and I am just fizzling out before the big money. I have a new ergonomic birthday chair and will just keep plugging away and at some point it will all fall into place again.

One of my buddies won the UB Sunday tourney for over $40k this weekend and although I feel great for him I also obviously want one of this big scores for me again. I haven't had a 5 figure online score since April so I feel that I am due and with the three close calls I have had the last 2 nights, I want it even more.

Happy Birthday?

Meh - not really. I totally muffed an opportunity for a really big night when I checked the "call any bet" box w/AQs in the 50/50 on Tilt when I should have folded. I then proceeded to lose every race possible after that and instead of easily making the final table (I had twice the average chip stack needed to make the final table at one point) I went out in 11th.

Other than that one mistake, I am playing super well though. I made the money in 4 of the 8 tourneys I played tonight and I had a shot to go deep in all of them. I made the final table in the $30 rebuy as well so I did show a bit of profit for the night. But wow, I will be kicking myself for a while over the missed opportunity in the 50/50 tonight where 1st place was over 11k and 11th was just $700.

Ready for the weekend

I keep getting very deep in some of the smaller buy-in PokerStars tourneys but not deep enough. In the last 4 days I have come in right around 30th place in 4 tourneys on Stars that have over 1400 entries. 30th place is right around $100, 1st place is between $6k and $10k. So getting deep is great, but it ends up being just a waste of time. I know if I keep plugging away I will finally break through - but I still get frustrated waiting for it to happen.

The funny thing is that all of my friends who I speak with daily believe that I am actually really lucky, that I run better than most. Whereas I tend to dwell on how unlucky I am, how I never win races late, how I always get sucked out on late, blah blah meow chow.

Anyhoo, I need to go to San Francisco tomorrow night to help my cousin out and visit with her fam (and my younger sister) so I am going to take tomorrow and Saturday off and then come back raring to go on Sunday. One big Sunday and all my frustrations suddenly dissolve...

Still grinding

I played some of my best poker today. I folded AA twice postflop correctly, I stayed patient when I needed to and made aggressive moves when I needed to. And even though I cashed 3 of the 12 tourneys I played today, I ended up losing money for the day. I am so due for a score on PoekrStars it is crazy. As long as I keep playing like I have been, it will come.

Standard Sunday

Woke up, played 12 tourneys in 8 hours, cashed 3 of them, lost money, played well. That's pretty much how most of my days go, and thus how most of my blogs go. I made this comment on an internet wunderkid's blog yesterday (he is another pro on pokerpwnage who I have only met in passing a couple of times in real life but he seems like a decent kid and I like living vicariously through him):

Being young and untethered by commitments should be a panacea. One reason why I love reading your blog is that I think (usually) you realize this. I was amazed at how many of the internet wunderkids who I saw and met in Vegas this year seem to totally miss that point. They were surrounded by friends, had shittons of money, and had the opportunity to delve into a million off the table experiences. But from what I saw, the vast majority of them went straight from the live tables back to their rooms so they could continue grinding on the online felts. What a waste. Ten years from now you aren't going to remember whether you made 70k or 120k in 2009, but you will remember what experiences you had. Poker should be your tool for letting you experience life to its fullest - too many of your compatriots are making poker THE experience and that's a shame.

And even though I am now old and in many respects, tethered, a lot of this still holds true for me as well. I need to try and keep that perspective and use poker to help me obtain what I want out of life, but I need to make sure not to make it my life. And with that, I am going to go hang out with the wife.

wheeeeeeee

After money bubbling the FTOPS (again) and whining up a storm to Adil, I took down the $20 rebuy on FT for $8k.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Off to do a quick shopping trip and then a home game tonight.

Looking to break through

Today was my only positive day of the week. For a whopping $105, which really doesn't help offset the multiple -$1000+ days I've had this week. I actually won a small tourney on Fulltilt today and got 11th in the Sniper on UB so I still feel real good about my game, but I really need a big score. I have been letting the frustration get to me a bit, so I am taking tomorrow night off and we'll go from there.

Midst of a downswing

It's tough because I am playing so well, but just not holding or running well. Of the 7 tourneys I played this afternoon, I took two horrible beats, one bad beat, one cooler (a hand where I can't fold but run into a bigger hand - in this case I had AK and my opp had AA), and couldn't win a race in the other 3. The hard part with downswings is that the only way to get out of them is to keep playing and win, but as I continue to play and take bad beats I get increasingly frustrated. I am really really pleased with my overall play tho, so hopefully I'll get the score I am looking for soon.

Shouldnt have played today

I took a ton of bad beats early and then basically just went into a "screw it" mentality where I just raised a ton of pots and c-bet everytime postflop. The good thing is that I realized that I have probably been a bit too passive lately because a lot of times I was able to just out agg people postflop. The bad thing is that I was in a "screw it" mentality so I didn't make laydowns that I normally would.

Anyhoo, tomorrow I should play a full schedule.

Soulcrushed

I got 184th place when 162 pay in the biggest FTOPs event that I am going to play this series which was a $1060 buyin. I played pretty stellar (made one small mistake when I had a big stack) and then lost a huge pot late in the tourney when I was a 55% favorite with JJ versus AQ. It's always just such a deflating feeling to play that well for that long and you can't help but get your hopes up that maybe this will be that one glorious tourney where everything falls in place, only to lose when you need it the most.

Meh - it's the life I've chosen. Tomorrow is another day.

Another break-even day

I am tired and more than a little frustrated to have played so well on a long Sunday and have nothing to show for it. I made the final 2 tables of the $20 rebuy on Tilt without ever getting it in bad (which is rare - usually to get that deep you need at least one suckout) only to get slowrolled when I had AK versus some internet kid's AA (slowrolling means he hit the timebank button to make me think he had a hard decision to make when he actually has the best hand possible, just to try and piss me off). I also made the money in 2 of the Sunday majors and am playing really well, I just need the run good to hit me square in the face so that I can get a top 3 score in a really big tourney. I am supposed to play a $1k buy-in tomorrow, but if I am not feeling the mojo, I won't play it.

Break Even Day

LOL I lost exactly $7 on the day. I lost a big hand late to a retard in the Sniper but battled my way back to the Final Table and then lost a race to finish in 8th. I feel really reallllllly good about my game right now. I am not spewing at all and just running really poorly when it matters the most - I feel like I easily could have made the money in over half of my tourneys today if I just raced better. Tomorrow I am playing an afternoon session and then taking the night off.

FTOPs and Grinding

So I am now officially back to the grind. I am going to play a full session tonight and then will just keep on grinding. Today starts off FTOPs which is a series of bigger buy-in tourneys on FullTilt which happens either 3 or 4 times a year. Due to a series of cashouts prior to the WSOP and investments in other players, my online bankroll is down to a level where I don't want to take the whole risk of playing $200+ tourneys on my own dime, so I have reluctantly put up a BAP on PTP so that I can still play these events but don't have to absorb all the risk. It has just sold out, so I will play the first FTOPs event tonight.

Other than that, life quickly has gotten back to normal after a nice long vacation. Wake up, surf the internets, walk the dog, try and do some sort of exercise, shower, play online poker, rinse and repeat.

Not a bad first day back

I got 3rd place in the Sniper tourney on UB and almost made another final table on Full Tilt in the $30 rebuy, so my first day back was profitable which is always nice. I feel like I played really well and stayed patient and focused which is usually my downfall when I get back to playing after a break.

Tomorrow I am probably going to get some errands done and then play a home game tomorrow night, so I'll be back to the grind on Wednesday.

Back Home Take 2

So I just got back from a week in Hawaii with my wife and my family on my dad's side (my dad, step-mom and their 2 kids, my sister, her husband and their 4 kids, and a random cousin thrown in for good measure). We rented a 5 bedroom house in Kauai for the 13 of us (6 adults, 3 under 9 yr olds, 3 adolescent girls, and one soon to be freshman at UT) and had a blast. The place was right on the ocean and had an incredible view of the Princeville coast and its own pool and jacuzzi. We snorkeled, kayaked, went on a catamaran, did the luau thing, and just hung out and had a good time. Even though I've been on a long break, it still felt good to just relax and not have to worry about doing anything.

Now that we're back, Charmian is back to the grueling hours and I need to get back and put some volume in or I won't have a bankroll to play off of. I will be very upset with myself if I don't get in my 200 tourneys this month. As always, the hard part for me in getting back is just getting my mindset back so that the bad beats don't send me into a tailspin.

On the health front, my left knee continues to be screwed up so I will probably make another appointment to see the doc since the sports I like to play (basketball, volleyball, tennis) all require quick movements and jumping and I can't do either right now. I also want to lose like 10 pounds since vacationing has meant eating a ton of junk. The next two months should be pretty poker intensive so hopefully that will mean more regular updates here.

Finally back home

I decided to stay a little longer in Santa Barbara and just got back home tonight. I had fun and tried to stay active playing basketball with my "old fart" game which is a longstanding game that I started playing when I was in college and is just a really good group of guys who play every Mon, Wed, and Fri on their lunch break. I played every day but there is something wrong with my left knee so I can't run, jump, or cut as well as I would like to. For the majority of the time I just hung out with my in-laws, which I know seems weird to most people, but I get along well with all of them so it really is nice just to hang out, relax, and be taken care of. The only detriment is that I always gain weight when I am there.

Still being lazy

July is basically going to just end up being a no volume month for me, and I am ok with that. I am heading off to Santa Barbara on Tuesday and will stay for about a week and then the following Friday we are going to Hawaii for a week, so I don't foresee me playing much the rest of this month. Once August rolls around though I should be raring to go and will get back to trying to get as much volume in as I can.

Lately I have been playing in this weekly home game which has been fun, and I will continue to keep playing in that as it is just a nice way to play with a good group of people and get out from staring at a computer screen all day.

Not feeling the mojo

I just haven't been having the desire to play, so I haven't been. I will probably play sporadically this week as I have a home game tomorrow and on Friday and on Wednesday I need to take Chula back to the vet to see how she is progressing. Next week we are off to Santa Barbara for a long weekend (for me at least) and then we are off to Hawaii the following week.

A little live play

There is a cardroom just a couple minutes away from my house which I had not been to until this weekend. I have a bad tendency to spew when I play cash - especially when I play live and this weekend I lived up to that tendency. A couple of the guys from my new homegame invited me to play so I went and had a good time even though I came home a loser. It is a weird game because it is 1-3 NL but you can only buy-in for $200. They also take a rake of $4 from every pot so it is hard to beat the rake - but the play is really really bad. A lot of limpers and a lot of people who can't fold preflop. I would actually be even for my games played there if I just didn't bluff. As it is I am down 4 buyins because I made 2 huge bluffs (1 one ok the other was just bad) and because I lost 2 races. One lesson learned is that a minraise postflop at this establishment = the nuts. I might continue to keep playing there as an excursion to actually see people face to face but I am not sure how juicy the game is since the rake is so hard to beat.

First full day

Today was my first full day back and it went ok. I won a small $55 6 max tourney on PokerStars which gave me a small profit for the day. It's a little weird playing online again and I find myself getting more antsy/bored than I was when I play live. But the more I play, the more I will get back into the swing of things again.

Tomorrow I am going to go play at a cardroom that is just down the street from my house. If it goes well, that could definitely become a weekly excursion for me.

Hiatus Over

Ok, so it has been nice to just be a couch potato but it's time to get back to work.

A whole bunch of just stupid everyday costs that always seem to pop up have popped up again as well so making some money would be a good thing. The latest cost was our 1994 pickup failing its smog test and needing to pay like $800 to get some stupid part. The emissions from the car are actually really low but it failed some fuel evaporation test. I am not a car person, so I have no idea, but the whole thing just seems like a big racket to me. And although we usually don't need 2 cars, today proved that sometimes we do when I went to go play in my live poker game and Charmian called me frantically saying she needed the car to check on some patient at a hospital she needs to drive to.

Anyhoo - I should pick up the pick-up tomorrow and then get at least an evening session in.

Just chillin'

So I have written a check to all of my backers except for the three who have not yet responded to my messages. I am a little surprised at just how wiped out I felt from Vegas especially since I came home early, took a weekend off, and wasn't there that long. Last night I was invited to play in a lowstakes homegame which was just fun. No pressure, a good varied group of players, and actually talking with people face to face is a good thing. I still haven't gotten around to cleaning the house up or to getting back to the grind, but at some point soon I will get so bored that it will happen.

Back home

I only had 3 more events that I was scheduled to play and none of them were that intriguing to me and they were spread out with the first one starting this Wednesday, so I decided to pack it in and head home. I had a profitable WSOP and it feels good to be home.

I started writing the first batch of what is going to be close to 40 checks to pay off my stakers today and once I get all of their info, I will send the rest of this week. This week I plan on just relaxing, cleaning the house up a bit, and getting all of my paperwork in order. I will get back to the online grind when I feel like getting back to it.

Quick exit

Quick exit for me. I got there a little late and by the time I got to the entrance doors the mob from the $1.5k event were on their first break so I had to swim upstream against that crowd and missed probably the first 6-7 hands that were dealt. No big deal, I sit down and first hand I am in the BB and indariva raises my blind. I look down to see AQ and 3 bet him. Flop comes rags, I bet, he raises, I call. Turn is a K, and I have to decide if he is bluffing or has me crushed since close to half my stack is out there and I would be calling 4k more. I fold and am left with 11k ish.

I then 3 bet another guy w/99 and his AJ outflops me, but I lose just 4k on the hand.

I win the blinds from Negreanu with TQs and chip back to maybe 9k.

David Baker raised from EP and got 3 bet from the guy next to him. I wake up with 77 in the BB and have to decide if I want to go with it there or fold. I fold (correctly to Baker's AA) and the pokergods deviously grin on me when the board comes 689T.

Last hand I only hand about 6-7k left and I get AJ and lost to 66. Oh well. Gl Chris. I am going home.

Should be a fun day.

Today will very likely be my last WSOP event for the year so I am going to do my best to make it a good day and have some fun as well. My wife will be excited because her favorite player, Daniel Negreanu, is going to be seated directly to my left (although there will be the dealer between us). Shannon Shorr is also a well known pro, and the guy in seat 5 is an icon at parttimepoker.com which is the site where I arranged my backing for this Series.

Seat 1: Daniel Negreanu - 14700
Seat 2: Shawn McBride - 32700
Seat 3: David Baker - 72100
Seat 4: Simen Sagstuen - 58400
Seat 5: Chris Tryba - 17300
Seat 6: Rob Breeden - 21100
Seat 7: Shannon Shorr - 16900
Seat 8: Erle Mankin - 23300
Seat 9: Adrian Dresel-Velasquez - 16300

Made it to day 2 of the $2k Limit Event

I start tomorrow with 16k with blinds at 500/1000 so I need some run good early if I want to cash.

I played pretty well today. Again, I am surprised that I am still in it with how unlucky/poorly I actually ran. QQ ran into KK, KK ran into AA, I took two other bad beats when I was way ahead pre, and yet I still somehow have chips. It will probably take somewhere around 2 hours to make the money tomorrow and with just 16 BBs, I need some good mojo.

Playing well again

Today the suckout gods decided to hit my opponents. I somehow made it to the dinner break with just over 20 BBs even though my QQ lost to 99, my AK lost to AT, my A8 lost to JJ on an 882 flop, my TcQc lost to 4c5c on an Ac2c3c flop, and my AK lost to JJ. First hand back from the dinner break and the same kid who busted me at my final table busted me again when I ran into his AA when I had A4s.

Yesterday I ended up getting pretty schnookered with my neighbors downstairs from me, which was fun, and the night before I finally met up with Jerry from Pokerpwnage and had a real good meal. So all in all I am happy.

I am playing the $2k Limit event tomorrow and if that doesn't go well, then the $1.5k on Saturday.

Another early exit

I didn't even make it to level 2 today. But I played fine so I am not upset. I iso raised AJo against a short stack and ran into AA from one of the blinds. Oh well. My next event will be on Thursday.

Ruh Roh

I made a bad bluff today in the $2k and I went out with a decent stack right before the dinner break.

I feel like I made mistakes throughout the whole hand - I should have raised pre instead of flatted; I should have given up when he called my raise on the flop; I never should have tried to take the pot down on the turn; I acted way too fast. A lot of it comes from the fact that I don't mind losing as much anymore as long as I lose well and I felt like I lost poorly today, which I don't like. In the end, I am probably being a little hard on myself - I was correct that my opp was weak pre; my play would have worked against any other hand, etc. But in the end, I should have played my hand better, conserved chips, and at least given myself a better shot at getting deeper.

Tomorrow I am playing the $1500 event, and vow to take my time with every decision so that I will not make a mistake.

Back in Vegas

I had a really nice relaxing weekend in Santa Barbara. My wife's family always treat us like royalty when we go down there - meals made for us, dishes done for us, etc. We did some urban hiking to see the fire damage, I played some tennis while Charmian did some shopping, saw The Hangover, and even got to have a nice lunch with my sister and her family and my L.A. family who were on the way up to drop off my niece for soccer camp.

I am playing the $2k event today and plan on just plugging away this week.

Fun Night

So the radmins from FTR, which is the forum where I first started really learning about poker more in depth, arrived yesterday for their yearly weekend of debauchery. Even though I have been on the site for over 4 years now, I had yet to meet them, so it was cool to finally hang out with them.

We basically just chilled out, drank a little but in their suite with a group of ftr guys, went and had some dinner and then played some drunken 1/3 NL cash. I am not a cash game player at all, so all I really wanted to do was not lose everything. I ended up making my cabfare home which just made the night that much better. I also hit the perfect level of buzzedness where I had no problems falling asleep last night but also feel perfectly fine today.

Today I am planning on just hanging out again, hopefully having some dinner with the ftr guys again and then coming back here and go to bed since I leave super early for Santa Barbara tomorrow morning.

Quickest finish

Out very early in the Venetian. AK
I am hoping to hang out with the FTR guys tonight and then just bum around tomorrow, maybe play some online and then just relax this weekend with my wife and her fam in Santa Barbara.

Back to it.

I came in like 190th out of 600ish today. Picked up a nice stack early and then my AA were cracked by JJ to bring me down to like a 12k stack. Blinds at 200/400 I raised to 1100 from the HJ w/TQo and both blinds called. Flop comes Th7h2x and it checks to me. I bet out 2300 and get c/raised all-in by the SB. He had been playing pretty ABC poker, but the way stacks were I felt he was easily making a move with a draw or a mid pair, so the only hands I was really worried about were a set, JJ, or TK/AT. I felt he would have re-raised pre w/QQ+. So we got it all-in and he had JJ and even though the turn gave me 8 more outs with another heart giving me the Q hi flush draw, I bricked the river and that was that.

Tomorrow I play the Venetian and then I'm off until next Monday where I will be playing the next WSOP event.

I is famous!

So the rumors of being able to watch me play at a final table are true. If you have access to ESPN360.com, you can watch me play. Click on Schedule/Replay/and it's the Saturday June 6, 3 pm EST WSOP $2000 nlhe event. You need to forward to about the 1 hr 56 minute mark to watch the coverage of my final table. I am the guy in the Fat Albert t-shirt and the brown UCSB hat.

Day Off

I had a really good day today. Two of my bentrilo buddies picked me up this morning and we volunteered at a homeless shelter in the Vegas ghetto where we helped serve lunch. It just took an hour but it felt good to get out and actually help out a bit. We then headed back to golfer's house, played some RockBand and then headed off to play some golf. Golfer was a onetime golf pro and I have not played golf since highschool, so we were obviously a good match. It was fun just to get out and whack the ball though. Tonight, I went to Target and bought an alarm clock which I think will make it easier for me to get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow I am going to go deposit my check, and then head off to the RIO to play the $1500 PL Holdem event.

I am surprising my wife by flying to Santa Barbara and meeting her there this weekend. I told her I wouldn't be able to come because there are too many good events this weekend, so it should be a nice surprise. I think it will give me a nice break from Vegas as well and will let me recharge the batteries and end the month raring to go.

WSOP Event #11 Recap

** Warning ** This post is going to be long and have a lot of poker hands in it. **Warning**

I will try and recap as best as I can, but to be honest after three days of play and little sleep in between a lot of the hands that I played have been merged/forgotten. All of the WSOP this year start with 3x your buy-in in chips. So I started day 1 with 6k in chips and very early on chipped up. I was paid off w/AA, flopped a set of 88 against AK on a K8x flop, and picked up a flush on the river against what I am imagining was either a set or two pair against Court Harrington within the first two hours. So I was quickly up to somewhere around 20k in chips when I had my first table move.

My next table had Michael Craig, a FullTilt pro, seated two to my right. I know his game pretty well since I have played with him quite a bit online. I quickly bled chips away at this table due to bad beats and lost races - my 55 lost to 44 and TT lost to TKs all-in pre against short stacks, so I was pretty quickly down to like 10k in chips with blinds at 200/400 when I finally won a flip against Michael Craig when my JJ held against his AK all-in pre. Bill Gazes, another well known FullTilt pro, was then moved to our table and after basically just maintaining my stack I was able to almost double through him when my 88 won a race against his TJ all-in pre.

My last table move of the day placed me directly to the right of Tom McEvoy who won the Main Event 20ish years ago and is a pro for PokerStars - he also recently won the Tournament of Champions. We never really got involved in many hands. I must say that all of these pros/higher profile players were all extremely approachable and seemed like decent guys - guys who almost anyone would enjoy having a drink with and just shooting the shit. My big hand at the new table was fairly soon after I had been moved to the table when the button who had about an even stack with me raised and I was dealt TJs in the BB. I am guessing blinds were at 400/800 and both of us were probably right around 25k in chips. He raised to like 2500 and I reraised to somewhere around 8k with the thought that I would often take the pot down right there, or I could shove almost any flop if he called as a bluff. Instead, he put me all-in but I was getting right around 2:1 on my money (probably a little better) and since he had me covered he could easily be using his stack to try and bully me so I really thought that my hand had over the 33% equity it needed to justify a call. I called, he had 66, and I won that race which propelled me to my ending stack that night of somewhere around 65k.

Day 2 began with just over 200 players and 171 got paid. I got a very fortunate table draw because I was the chip leader so I was able to bully the table quite a bit, especially as we got nearer and nearer to the money bubble. When there were only 177 players left I was able to force a guy with about 25k in chips to fold QQ preflop when I had AJ just by using my stack as a weapon. After he reraised me, I put him all-in and he wasn't willing to take the risk of busting out with only 6 players. So by the time we hit the money and our table got broken up I was probably up to about 100k in chips.

My next table was very very chip rich, the player immediately to my left is an internet wonderkid named benba who had me outchipped and he used his stack very very aggressively - which meant if I wasn't willing to play a marginal hand against him, it was better just to open-fold. I chipped up a bit against him when he 3 bet me and I 4-bet jammed him with AQ. He then got involved with another very aggressive German guy named Olav directly to my right in a huge pot where Olav got sick of benba's 3 betting and just jammed with QKs only to have benba turn over AA. Unfortunately for benba (and fortunately for me) the flop came 3 diamonds and Olav flopped his flush. Soon thereafter I won a big pot when I hit a set of 9s against another good internet kid who either had a big pair or trip Qs on a 9QxxQ board. I then won a couple of nice medium sized pots and just maintained a decent stack for the next couple of hours. By the time we were playing the last couple of levels we were down to like 36 players and had been playing for over 10 hours. I had made two marginal calls against shorter stacks and run into better hands so my stack was down to about 200k when another good young internet player who had been playing very tight openshoved for 15 BBs. There was quite a bit of drama in the hand because Olav did not hear the all-in declared and no chips were pushed forward so when it folded to him he raised a small amount and was forced to keep those chips in the pot even though he did not know that there was an all-in player in front of him. He folded but was pissed and began arguing vociferously with the floor and basically telling the dealer she was a stupid old cow. Meanwhile, I wake up with AJs and had a really really tough decision. I know that if I can put the all-in on a range of hands like A8s+/any pair/QK/some suited broadways that my AJ is ahead and should call. However, he had been tight, so if his range was more like AT+/88+ then I should fold. I took quite a while and ended up calling. Hand wise it ended up being a bad call as he flipped over AQ but I think I ranged him well. Results wise it was a great call when I binked a J on the turn. That was basically it for that night and we played down to 25 players. At 3 am we bagged our chips and were told to come back the next day at noon. I ended the night with just over 400k with blinds starting the next day at 8k/16k.

We only had about 7 hours to sleep that night (since it took another two hours to drive there and back, shower, and eat) but I was pretty amped up and nervous so I only slept like 4 hours. I finally realized that I would not be able to get back to sleep so I just woke up, and continued what had been my daily routine the past two days - I went for a 20 minute jog, ate a bagel and some fruit, took my shower, and headed off for the final day. I was tired, but I knew that the adrenaline would pull me through, and it did.

There were enough short stacks to start day 3 that players dropped pretty fast. And pretty easly on I should have been one of them. The button opened raised and I woke up with 99 in the BB. I reraised which was about 1/3 of my stack so when he 4 bet me I couldn't fold and was not a happy camper when he turned over QQ. The late suckout karma came through for me though as a 9 was the first wheel card on the flop. That hand propelled me to 800k and gave me enough chips to lose a bad beat against a shortstacks 79 when I had AK and then win a race with AQ versus another short stacks 88. Before we knew it, we were down to 10 players and off to the big lights of a tv final table.

I guess the final table was televised on ESPN360.com and from what some people have told me, I had quite a few people railing me and cheering me on. I have been asked if I was nervous but I really wasn't. The whole thing was sort of surreal. I knew that it was a big deal, but for whatever reason it didn't stress me out at all. I was really focused on just playing good poker and letting the results happen. Somewhat early on at the final table I picked up 88 in the cutoff and the very aggressive kid who had come into the table as the chip leader raised from early position. Blinds were 15/30k and he raised to 80k. I had just under a million chips and decided to take a flop with him in position as I felt I could outplay him postflop. The flop was 2x8cTc and he checked to me. He had bled quite a few chips and I knew he was waiting for a good spot to get some back, so I decided to bet small because I felt it was likely that he would check/raise me. He complied and reraised my 100k ish bet to 275k. I was then left with the decision of whether just to call or shove all-in. A call had the advantage of allowing him to keep spewing if he was bluffing, but if he wasn't bluffing and had the T or an overpair or a flush draw, then I could very well lose value by calling because he would call a shove on the flop with those hands but might fold them if a club, a non-club or overcard came on the turn depending on what he had. Anyhoo, I decided to shove and he folded so I think it is pretty clear he was bluffing and the better result would hav been to call, but that doesn't mean my decision at the time was wrong. I maintained that stack for a while but then was coolered when a short stack woke up with KK when I had TT and that took me down to a stack where really all I could do was wait to reshove on what I thought were light raises or fold. I never got that opportunity and the blinds increased so I was then forced into a push/fold stack with 20 BBs because 4 of the 5 other players at the table had about the same stack as I did and I was not willing to raise/fold at that point. On my 3rd openshove I was finally called with TT when I had QK and I wasn't able to win that last race and out I went in 6th place.

Other than 2 marginal calls (which really weren't that bad) I think I played the tourney pretty mistake free so I am very happy with my result and my play. I had to get very lucky to make the final table (two suckouts late in the tourney) but I also had to withstand quite a few bad beats (AK lost to 79, 55 lost to 44, TT lost to TK) and lost races along the way as well. So I feel the luck factor evened itself out (although I did get lucky when I needed it most), but I also made some really good plays.

The aftermath is just a really nice boost to my bankroll and confidence. It is also a nice boost to my reputation on parttimepoker which is the site I used to get my financial staking. I know from my previous big score that it takes me a couple of days to settle back down, so even though I was exhausted last night I still only got about 6 hours of sleep. So I just was super lazy today and surfed the web, I am watching the Lakers game now, and will get a better night's sleep tonight. Tomorrow I am planning on playing an event at the Venetian because I just don't have it in me to grind 3 more days in the $2500 WSOP event which starts tomorrow.

I would like to give a big thanks to Adil, christaborg, and scgolfer for railing me the whole way yesterday. And although Adil might have enjoyed himself a little too much on Friday night he gets an even bigger shout out for railing me from Friday night all the way to the end. Quite a few of the posters from flopturnriver and parttimepoker also came by to rail me at the final table and I really do appreciate that as well. Lastly I heard I had quite a contingency following my progress online - the reason I even bother with this blog is for you guys so I hope I put on a good showing.

WSOP Final Table!!

Wheeeeeeeeeee!!

I made my first WSOP final table today and ended up in 6th place for just over $92k. I am being staked for this series so I don't get to keep all the $$, but I get a nice chunk of it and am very happy.

Supposedly I made it on internet tv as well. I am just relaxing with some of my poker buddies from ventrilo who railed me at the final table today and being a karaoke master playing rock band.

I will try and do a big update tomorrow detailing the whole experience.

$2k event update

I have made it to day 3 of the $2k event with a little over an average stack. I have 411k with blinds starting at 8/16k tomorrow. It starts at noon tomorrow and it is 3:30 now, so I am going to try and get some zzzs.

Made it to day 2 of the $2k event

I made it to day 2 of the $2k event.

I have just over 65k and the average stack is just over 40k. Blinds are 600/1200 to start tomorrow so I have some wiggle room. I think we are somewhere around 70 from the money - there's like 240 left and 170 get paid.

I played with Court Harrington, Bill Gazes, Michael Craig, and Tom McEvoy today.

I am tired and want to get a good night's sleep for tomorrow so I'll try to recap today when I wake up tomorrow.

A little longer but still no dice

I made it to level 5 yesterday. I made one bad/marginal call w/TKs but played fine other than that and lost a race when I was down to 20 BBs w/AJ < TT.

I am in the 2k event today which means we start with 6k in chips so it should give me some opportunity to play some hands. Hopefully I can keep getting a little deeper in each tourney I play until I finally take one down.

My friend from ventrilo, Adil, has made the money in the 6 max tourney which started yesterday and he has a decent stack heading into today so hopefully he can get through one more day and get a nice Final Table.

Quick first day

I met up with a whole bunch of PTPers this morning before he fun began which is always nice. When I actually got seated I had a sort of a fun table to start off. Doug Lee and Humberto Brenes were both at my table but we really didn't mix it up much (Humberto squeezed me at one point early and I mucked 88).

I got dealt AA very early on and it was my only raise pre that actually took down the blinds. I actually chipped up to a little over 6k at one point just by outplaying (and flopping) my opps postflop.

My bustout hand was AdTd during level 3 which I raised from the HJ and got called by the HJ who was a bigstack and tried to outplay me everyhand postflop and by the button who really didn't mix it up much.

Blinds were 75/150 and my stack was the smallest of the 3 with about 5k. I raised to 450 so the pot was like 1500. Flop came 4d5s8d and I checked, the CO also checked and the tightish button bet 400. The play is so bad in these things that I really didn't know if he had a monster or nothing and it didn't really matter with my hand either so I raised to 1800 which left me with maybe 2500 behind and he pretty instantly put me all-in with a set of 5s and I didn't hit my diamond.

Tomorrow is a 6 max $1500 tourney.

Busting sucks, but it does feel good to be back and see how bad the play is. I got most of my chips from the old guy to my right who was a classic limp/caller. And there was another guy who made a "world series" fold when he minraised me pre when I had raised from the CO w/A6s and the guy who could never fold on my left came along as well. I actually folded the A6s to the minraise because he had so few chips left but the guy to my left didn't. Flop came 9TQ and the minraiser put in over 1/2 his chips and then folded to a shove w/JJ and I just sat there smiling.

I will probably play online tonight and then back at it tomorrow.

Let the run good begin!!

Since my younger brother woke me up everyday when I was in L.A. around 7 a.m. I am back on a getting up early schedule so I got up around 8 today (I normally wake up around 10) and have already got a run in and plan to take a little swim before I head off to play.

I don't feel nervous like I did last year, but I will admit that I am amped to play - I have been having dreams of making a final table. Hopefully I am not getting my hopes up too high.

Since I am an unknown it is very unlikely that any of my hands will be mentioned unless I am up against a well-known pro, but you can try checking at pokernews.com. Otherwise I will try and update here daily.

You can also click on the WSOP RAIL in the upper right hand corner of the blog to check on how I am doing overall.

In Vegas

I made it to Vegas with no real problems. My rental for the month looks nice and is just a 5-10 minute drive from the Rio where the WSOP is held. I have already registered for tomorrow's event and am getting excited to play now. I will be at Table 112 in the Amazon Room tomorrow to start if anyone is looking to do some live railing.

Tonight I am just planning on getting some groceries and hopefully a good night's sleep.

Vegas Time

Well I am off today to L.A. to spend a couple of days with my fam before heading off to Vegas on Monday. Last year, I was raring to go as it was my first WSOP experience. This year I am a mixed bag of emotions. I am definitely excited that I have the opportunity to play over 10 events for the whole month of June and I feel that I am playing very well and am due for a big score, so hopefully I can come home with the bankroll a little fatter.

I am also a little hesitant because being away for a whole month will be emotionally draining and I am starting to stress a little but about my dwindling bankroll especially as unexpected life expenses (Chula's surgery, air conditioner being fixed, etc.) keep popping up. One big score and all that stress is relieved though. So here's hoping for a good WSOP.

I am bringing my wife's laptop and the place I rented has WiFi so I hope to be updating this pretty regularly. Wish me luck.

Almost perfect poker

I got 4th in the $30 rebuy and FT bubbled the Sniper when I lost a race and then took a bad beat with QQ < AQ to go out in 10th. I made one semi-spewy bluff at the Final Table of the rebuy, but if it worked it would have been stellar. I really am playing good - thought I might get rewarded tonight and although a positive night is nothing to gripe about, I still had thoughts of winning both tourneys outright and digging myself out of my monthly hole. Oh well.

Tomorrow I take Chula to get her stitches out, and then I need to finish cleaning up the house. I will probably play one last time on Wednesday before I head out to L.A. on my way to Vegas.

Still shaking my head

Wow the downswing continues. My yearly ROI has plummetted from 86% on April 13th to 24% now over around 300 tourneys. Meh - so much for volume being the answer. The crazy thing is I feel so good about my game but am starting to doubt myself even though I really can't find many mistakes when I review my HHs. I feel like I am starting to press when I get a stack - but then when I back off and tell myself to be patient I never win the races I need. I am going to put a full session in tomorrow and then I might play on like Wednesday next week, but other than that I will not be playing again until Vegas just to take a mental break from the game and to get the house in order before I leave.

I need to race better

Sigh. I got deepish in the quarter million when AK lost to 88 on a K8xA board. I just can't win the big races when I need them. After getting a decent stack after I finally sucked out on someone, my KK ran into AA, my nut flush + A over draw bricked against top pair, and then my AK hand knocked me out. It's got to turn at some point. The agonizing thing is that as I get deep in these mofos I start to think that tonight is the night it will turn around - and I just keep getting my hopes repeatedly dashed. Tonights final table would have gotten me out of the hole for the month and winning would have basically set me up for my goals for the year - when it's snatched away with a hand that you think is likely ahead it just hurts. I'm taking tomorrow off and then I'll be back at it this weekend.

Maybe I talk too much about anklegrabbing

So I decided to allow ads onto this blog because I figured if it works, free money is never a bad thing and if it doesn't work, then who cares.

Supposedly the ads are chosen through some sort of program that "reads" your blog. So the fact that the first ad is now about anal fissure treatment just made me laugh because that's what I feel I need after getting reamed every session.

A sliver of hope

I actually final tabled the Sniper tourney last night and got 4th for a positive day. I know I should be happy with that result, but I am not. I was actaully pretty frustrated. I had a ginormous stack and got involved with the table luckbox/idiot who had the second biggest stack when we were down to 4 players and just could not win a race late. I had Ah7h and my retard opp had 8sTs on a Th9h2x flop and he couldn't fold to my all-in raise with top pair 8 kicker and the board bricked out for me. So that hand decimated me and then I couldn't win a last race to try and get back in it and out I was in 4th. I am fine with how I played, since winning that hand locks up the tourney for me. But 4th doesn't get me out of the hole for this month, and 1st would have, so that of course was what I was thinking of as I went to sleep last night.

More Multiaccounting Drama

One of the top MTTers, Dan "Wretchy" Martin, has been outed for mutliaccounting and banned for a couple of months on both PokerStars and FullTilt. I have to admit that the more these types of stories come out, I don't really feel angry or outraged - I just feel old. I mean, let's face it, the vast majority of online players are young males, and that has always been a pretty prolific target group of weasels. Does it surprise me that young guys, who are playing a largely anonymous game will try and cheat if they can? No. Does it remind me once again that I am an old fart in a young man's game? Yes. I am playing this game for a living because I like making my own hours and I actually enjoy the game when it is not crapping down my throat. But most of these kids who are playing are doing it because it is an easy way to make decent money and with little expenses they can live a "balla" lifestyle. So does it surprise me that these kids will try and take every advantage they can? Absolutely not.

What does surprise me is that once they are caught, the most common reaction is for the cheater to come out and make a post excusing his behavior on some well-known poker forum. The excuses have been "it was my grandma's account," "it was my girlfriend's account," etc. but the one common theme is that the cheater's rarely apologize. Instead they try to excuse their behavior by saying "everyone does it." Again, given that the ones who are doing this are young, immature kids, it shouldn't surprise me that this is their response, but it does. I've done plenty of stupid crap, even cheated a couple of times on tests at school - but if I was ever caught, my reaction to lie or excuse my behavior ended when I was in middle school. By the time I was in college I was man enough to say - oops, I fucked up - give me your punishment.

Anyhoo, poker is still going poorly. Tonight was particularly bad. I was going to give it a break - but I want to get my 200 tourneys in for the month. So I keep grinding, and keep suffering.

Chula's home

She actually seems to be in less pain this time than last time. She is keeping her conehead on so I am just not going to bother taking it off for now.

Poker is continuing to go poorly although I feel I am playing mistake free.

Chula update

She had her re-surgery yesterday and I get to pick her up this afternoon. I just feel so bad for her. If this time is like last time, she is in lots of pain these next few days and she looks pathetic with her shaved ass for a good 6 weeks. They put in a heavier gage suture this time, so hopefully it holds. If it doesn't she is just going to be 3-legged.

Pokerwise I made yet another final two tables yesterday only to get knocked out by a guy who made a retardo bad call of my 20 BB reshove w/9To and got there against my AQ. Obviously I want him to make that call there, but it woulda been nicer if I had actually held.

Starting to pull my hair out

I am playing really really good poker and just can't get the run good going in any way whatsoever. I got deepish in the 75k tonight on Tilt after clawing my way back from ruin early when my 2 pair got counterfeited without ever getting AK, KK, or QQ, the entire tourney and the only time I got AA was early on. So I got deep even without cards, but at some point you need to win a flip or you need a hand to hold up to get a stack. And I just can't do that lately.... ever. And it's eating away at me.

I start to look at the other tables when there are 5 table or less and I can't help but think, well if I can FINALLY get another top 3 score here I will actually be back in the black for the month. If I can FINALLY win one of these nightly big tourneys I will actually be way up. And then it just doesn't happen.

Imagine if you did your job perfectly and as a result your boss took money from you - well that's what is happening to me day after day lately.

The added stress of chula getting resurgerized tomorrow and I am leaving for Vegas now in just a couple of weeks isn't helping either. I am just so strung out right now but there really isn't anything to do except keep playing and hope for the best.

I think reading this thing must be as fun as going to the dentist, so I am not going to post about poker again until I finally break through and take something down. So if the posts on here are few and far between that simply means I am continuing to grab my ankles but don't think you want to keep hearing about it.

pobre chula take 2

chula has been sing all four legs when she walks slowly but not when she goes at any pace. It turns out the suture they put in her knee is either broken or stretched out so they want to do the surgery over again. None of us are really looking forward to that. Not only the cost - another $2k, but just how pathetic she is recovering. The whole vet saying she should be back running and jumping when she recovers is also not that reassuring this time around since it didn't happen the first time.

We have scheduled her surgery for Thursday and we'll just see how we feel on Wednesday I guess.

So close yet so siggggghhhhhhh

Super dejected. I couldn't help but think I might actually get a top 3 score in a Sunday Major. But the run good just couldn't get me there and out in 12th in the Mulligan on FullTilt. I am concentrating on just playing mistake free poker and I think I played that tourney as well as I possibly could. Siiiiggggghhhhh.

You can't help but go through some what if scenario when you get that deep and just miss. But I'll honestly go berserk if I focus on that.

Tomorrow I take Chula to the vet for a progress check on her leg. So if I play it will only be a night session.

Warning - bitch post ahead

I am just so frustrated with poker right now it's hard to describe. I just can't seem to catch a break. Feels like every single time I lose it is because of a bad beat or a cooler. Feels like every single time I make a move versus an aggressive opp he actually wakes up with a hand. Feels like every single time I get AA everyone either folds or I get cracked. Quite simply, it feels like poo.

So I take a deep breath. I check my records and I still have the same bankroll that I did in January. I have made enough that I have made my monthly withdrawals and set aside enough so that I can go to Vegas for the WSOP next month. My ROI although drastically lowered is still ok at just under 40% and just needs one decent score to get back above 50%. Breeeeeaaaaaatttttthhhhhheeeeeee.

Tomorrow is another day. Rinse, cycle, repeat.

Day off

Since yesterday was an off day I decided to make today my day off. Mowed the lawn, gonna clean the house a bit, take a bike ride, grill some burgers, watch Survivor.

I'll be back at it tomorrow.

off day

I actually made quite a few mistakes today. There was definitely quite a bit of anklegrabbing going on again but I also spewed in spots where I just didn't need to spew or called in spots where I felt I was beat but just couldn't fold an overpair.

I am going to go for a bikeride tomorrow and if I get back in time I'll play my aft session if not, I won't.

some light

I got 3rd in the $55 20k on Tilt today. Even it was a little disappointing though since I took a very bad beat 3 handed which cost me at least $1k. It was nice to get another final table though and hopefully this is just the start of a nice little heater.

tough stretch

I am in the midst of a 3 week downswing. And my mind is starting to play tricks on me. I start questioning whether it is bad luck, variance, or whether I am playing poorly. So then I start concentrating on just playing mistake free poker. But then of course, whenever I lose it is due to a bad beat and I start bemoaning my luck. So then I start getting away from the mindset I want to be in and I begin questioning whether it is my play or my luck that is hindering me and the cycle continues.

But when I look at my HHs, I see no glaring holes. I am playing good, solid poker, and just not getting my big hands to hold. And each day that I don't win, it eats at me a little more. I need my run good back. Please. Pretty please with sugar on top. One time! Hold!

I am getting tired of sighing.

Sigh

I took 3 days off and just hung out with my wife on Friday and Saturday. We went and saw the new movie with Russel Crowe where he plays a newspaper guy and rented 7 pounds. Unfortunately it has been rainy here so we didn't do too much active stuff. But it was still nice to just chill out.

So when I started playing today my mind was in a real good spot and I played really really well. But I didn't cash any of the 14 tourneys I entered today. And that's just draining. My last tourney of the day was me bubbling in 47th when 45 got paid. But of the 14 tourneys that I busted I really only made 2 mistakes and both of them were minor. Everything else was just coolers or bad beats.

I'll be back at it tomorrow. And I am due...