First pokerpwnage video

So I recorded my first segment for pokerpwnage today. I decided to do the $26 Knockout that I won on Fulltilt a couple of months ago. I am actually surprised at some of the moves I made early on in that tourney as I think I misplayed a few hands and was playing way tighter than normal. But I also think a lot can be learned from mistakes, so hopefully people will like it. Even if they don't, I always end up gaining from doing the videos as it gives me insight into my own play, so it really is a can't lose proposition.

I am about to fire up some tourneys and am hoping to put in a pretty full day. We'll see how it goes...

Back to the grind

Well the title of this post really isn't fair. I am back to working again, but I have to say that I still really enjoy playing so it isn't a grind at all. I know quite a few poker pros who no longer enjoy playing - for them poker really has become a grind. Thankfully, it's still not like that for me. I think a big part of it is that I take lots of time off and with my wife's guaranteed income I am fortunate to be able to do that. So I'm not working 7 days a week. I'm not playing 16 hours a day. Basically I am not burning myself out.

Tonight is just another example of my refusal to force myself to play. I normally would be playing an evening session, but the Cubs/Brewers game is on and I'd rather watch that. So I am.

Anyhoo, I didn't make any money today, but I played well. Tomorrow should be a full schedule. I am looking forward to it.

Car buying

So we got it. We (more like she) chose an Audi A4. It's deep-sea blue and has a whole bunch of nice gadgets, such as navigation and bluetooth (meaning we can talk on the phone without having to punch any buttons), so it's a nice new car. Now that we have it, my wife is in the "did we pay too much for a car" phase, but once she drives it on a daily basis, I'm pretty sure she'll be happy with it.

Anyhoo, now that it's finally here, I can also get back to work, and getting back in shape, and finding someplace to volunteer.

Car shopping

My style of shopping, is much different than my wife's. However, after a second weekend of re-testdriving, looking at colors, and doing research on edmunds.com we have decided on a car we want. Now all I have to do is haggle a bit about the price today and then hopefully it will be ours w/in this week.

I feel bad that we dragged our sister-in-law to all of this, but my wife was very happy to have her help. It was nice having her here as well.

I need to finish a video that I had promised to do for grinderschool, and then I need to start my first one for pokerpwnage. I'd also like to start playing again this week.

Weekend Off

My wife is actually off for the entire weekend and her sister came up to visit for the weekend, so I am just going to chill and spend some time with the fam.

Being able to have this flexibility is one of the many reasons why I hope that I can continue to have success at playing poker professionally.

pokerpwnage

I was asked to become a guest instructor for a new poker training site called pokerpwnage.com today. The site already has quite a few of the top ranked online tournament players as instructors, including USCPhildo, GhettoFabulous, UHBigTex, and Assassinato. Since I do not play anywhere close to the volume of these top ranked players (they play about 4 times as many tourneys as I do), I am not nearly as well known as them, so I was somewhat surprised even to be asked.

Anyways, my current poker goals are: 1) to keep winning at the same rate that I have been this last year, but also 2) to get my name out in the poker community as much as possible to try and bring in some other money making opportunites such as this one. So I am excited to this, and hopefully this site will take off and people will like my videos. If so, maybe some rizenesque opportunities could come my way. We shall see...

Nice Sunday score

I got 5th in the 200k guarantee on UB for just over 10k.

I was a little disappointed not to win it since I was in first place with 6 to go, but winning 5 figures in a day is still a big deal for me.

So wheeeeeeeee!!

Poker Year in Review

After getting 9th place in a big tourney last night and going to place dejected that I didn't get a top 3 finish I realized today that I needed to take a step back and review the year.

For the year I have played 540 tourneys, cashed 87, final tabled 16 (5 firsts (all on Tilt), 1 second, and 1 third).

Considering that I really didn't play much the first three months of the year since I was studying for the bar, I am very happy with both my profit (over 30k) and ROI over 70% for the year.

I am still on target to make over 60k this year, for my roll to grow, and for good things to keep happening. The toughest part for me has been the mental aspect since I am always expecting to win it still frustrates me to run bad. I also still want to become more socially and physically active. But all in all, I really have nothing to complain about. When you add in the fact that I passed the bar and can become employed if I need to, life really is purty good.

This weekend we should be test driving some cars, once we make the final purchase I'll post pics.

Back from Vacation

I just got back from a great couple of weeks relaxing, playing, visiting family in Santa Barbara and L.A. The plan now that I'm back is to make a whole bunch of doctorish appointments (I need new glasses, dentist, etc.), buy a new car, and of course play some poker.

Rest of Vegas

After bubbling the 5k I had a few days open so I entered a $350 tourney on my own dime at Caesar's. I played super well and ended up losing 3 hands where I was at least a 70% favorite at the final table. If I had won any of those (especially the last one AQ < AT) I would have made at least $10k more. As it was, I am still very happy with my first live cash being over $14k.

The other highlight was busting some lady who for whatever reason felt she had to enter every pot that I played.

My next tourney was the 3k WSOP event where my KK got cracked by A3s on a 337 board fairly early.

I then made another day two and my first cash in an WSOP event when I cashed the 1.5k event. I had a huge stack going into day 2 - I was 7th out of like 150 players, but I made a huge bluff against the eventual winner on the turn with 55 on a 227Q board and he had AQ.

My last tourney was another bad beat when my JJ < TT in another 1.5k WSOP event.

After that tourney, I was scheduled to stay in vegas for like 5 more days, but I was just vegased out, so I switched flights and came home early.

Looking back on it, the trip was great. I played well, I made some decent money, and I will definitely be playing some more live events in the future. I played against some well-known pros and even busted one (Eric Seidel) who is the current #1 ranked player.

Tomorrow we are off to Santa Barbara and I will be staying in So Cal for the next 2 weeks so I probably won't be posting or playing much.

Day 2 of the $5k NL Event

So I made it through a grueling 13 hour day and was in good shape with over 70k in chips to start day 2. I had a hard time sleeping that night as I was both exhausted and amped over the possibility of not only cashing but making some major cash in my very first event - being in a strange bed didn't help either.

I had thoughts of just sitting on my stack and folding to the money but that's just not my style so I just tried to relax and play my game and take the opportunities as they came. I actually was pretty aggressive early on and people were folding to me. I then made a bad double barrel bluff against an older guy at the table which lost me some chips but I still had a decent stack. Soon thereafter an older French guy got moved directly to my left and I had played with him the day before and knew that he made some bad shoves. With blinds at 800/1600 I got dealt 99 from the button and made a standard raise to 4500ish and Frenchie overshoved like 35k more. It folded to me and I snap called much to the table's surprise. I was delighted when he showed A9 offsuit, but wasn't as happy when the A came on the flop. That hand decimated me, but I was able to chip back up to about 20k when I then ran AK into TT and couldn't win that race and I was out in 80th place when 72 got paid.

I was definitely disappointed in the result and just went back to my hotel room to sit and sulk. But I was happy about my play and can't be upset about getting all my chips in when I was way ahead. I also had not played much live, so it was a confidence builder to know that I could get deep in a high buy-in event against players who are some of the best in the world.

Next post will detail my foray into a Caesar's tourney and my first live cash.

Las Vegas Recap

Day 1



I arrived in Vegas on Tuesday, June 10 in the afternoon and checked into the Imperial Palace which would be my home for the next ten days. It's one of the crappier hotels on the strip, but it is on the strip, it is cheap, about $50/night (I was staying with a poker friend to make it even cheaper), and it has a bed, shower, and tv which is all I really need. I unpacked and then headed over to the RIO to get my registration finalized. I had heard of hugely long lines the previous year, but I must have picked a good time because I had no wait and was quickly registered for the $5k event the next day, as well as a $3k and two $1.5k events in the upcoming days. Since I had time to spare, I went in and checked out the main poker room and got to just soak in the atmospehere a bit. The whole thing really is a zoo. When I got there the last three tables of a big buy-in ($5k) rebuy lowball event was going on. Because this event was so expensive to play, the field was stacked with well known pros who I have spent the last 5 years watching on t.v. Doyle Brunson, Mike Matusow, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Erik Lindgren, were all playing and the crowd was 3 people deep with people snapping pictures. There are usually at least 3 different tourneys going on at once during the series, and this day was no different, so across the room were hundreds of other players in a different tourney and there is a constant chirping of chips being shuffled and shouts of "seat open" at table x when a player is eliminated. After watching the big names play for a bit, I headed back to my hotel and just watched tv and relaxed until the next day when I would be playing my first WSOP event.



Day 2 - Day 1 of the $5k NL Event



I think I was probably the only player to arrive to the RIO on the free shuttle which runs every 30 minutes from Caesars, but I got there plenty early and just waited for the fun to begin. The structure of this tourney was very deepstacked, we started w/10k in chips and blinds just starting at 25/50 with one hour levels so there was plenty of play.

I picked up AA early to win a small pot and that helped to ease the nerves. Other than that there was nothing really spectacular. The only really two good players at the table were directly to my left, which didn't leave me much wiggle room. I lost a decent sized pot w/AK and was down to about 7k with blinds at 200/400 when a young internet player to my right who had just been moved to the table raised and I woke up with AQ in the cutoff and shoved. The BB called me w/TT and I won that race to stay alive.

After that I was able to chip up simply by stealing and restealing. I didn't show down any other hand until late at the end of day 1 when I was fortunate to have my AA run into AK and doubled through to like 70k. Since I had never played live before I felt a little retarded going through the process of bagging my chips for the next day (I forgot to put the confirmation sheet in the bag before sealing it so had to do it over), but I felt super good that I had survived the first day and had a decent chip stack and a really good shot to make the money the next day. We finished that day with like 120 players and 72 would get paid. The one thing I was super surprised about was how tired I was. We played for 10 hours, but with breaks we were there for over 13 hours and by the end of the night I was just blitzed. I also had a really hard time sleeping that night. I am generally a pretty laid back guy, but being in a new bed, going deep in a high buy-in event, and having a shot to make big money all kept me from getting the deep sleep I craved.

Next post will detail my quick day 2 and then my first live cash.

Back from Vegas

I wasn't due back until Tuesday, but I played my last tourney today and realized that I am just spent. So I came home early. Vegas was profitable and educational. I'll write about it tomorrow.

Off to vegas on a Good Note

I got deep in the Sunday Warmup today but then lost a race, went card dead and I was out in 35th. I was definitely hoping for a final table there as first was almost $100k, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Still, I am clearly playing very well, my bankroll is in good shape so I can leave and feel fine when I get back, and since I am being staked for Vegas there is really little downside to me going. Tomorrow I need to tie some loose ends around the house, and then I'm off on Tuesday. I'm excited to go.

Winning is FUN!!

Took down another smallish tourney on Tilt today.

Wheeeeeeee!!

Swingy much?

After 2 really frustrating months I have had back to back nice days and everything feels good again. Got 4th in the 40k daily guarantee on Tilt for close to $5k. So that's about 10k in the last two days, which makes me feel good again.

This is definitely a game that plays with your mind. I just need to remember that these good days should return when I'm grinding through the days where nothing seems to work.

Little win = Huge confidence boost

I won the 17.5k guarantee on Tilt which is a $75 FO tourney for $5.7k. My bankroll had been in a slow and steady decline prior to this the last couple of months so it just feels good to win again.

Next week I am off to Vegas and I'm looking forward to it, when I get back my wife has some time off work so I'll be vacationing until probably mid July. I want to get into some basketball/volleyball leagues when I do get back in July and will also look into volunteering. Either at a Boys & Girls Club type place or maybe some sort of pro bono work now that I can actually practice here in CA.

Back to work

So the inlaws have come and gone. We bladed, ran, biked, walked, weeded, ate, and made numerous trips to Starbucks. And now it is back to the routine. I have a couple of weeks before I am off to Vegas and I am hoping to get a decent score in between now and then.

As far as my bar privileges, it turns out my score is valid for 5 years. So my plan now is to just sit on them and if I can't make the money I want playing poker then I will swear in and start looking for a job. If the poker train keeps steaming along, then I'll still swear in in a couple of years and then transfer to what is called "inactive" status where I get to keep my bar privileges without having to take that stupid exam again.

Passing the CA Bar Exam

I have been reading blogs of some of the other people who took the bar exam with me this February. Some passed, some failed. For those who failed, I understand the ego crush since I failed my first time as well. I received a 1369 my first time (you need a 1440 to pass), which from what I have gathered is a pretty bad score. Basically I got 55s on all my essays. So for those that failed - if I can pass it, so can you.

Double wheeeeeeee!!

I passed the CA bar exam!!

I am not sure how long this poker thing will work out, so having the ability to practice law and become relatively quickly employed is a huge relief.

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!