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.