WSOP 2013 Update

(Image taken from cardplayer.com)

Again, it's been a while since I last updated this blog. Mainly because it's been a while since I last had something exciting going on in poker. The daily grind of live cash games tends to be dull and boring. The grind had me burnt out to the point where I took some time off and played only 1-2 days a week. And then the World Series of Poker came to town.

I hadn't really planned on playing any events this year, but a thought came in my head telling me to take a shot on a few. On May 29th I went down to the Rio to sign up for Event 3A ($1,000 NLH Re-entry) and Event 6A ($1,500 "Millionaire Maker" NLH Re-entry). I thought I would be playing 3A that day, but somehow I got the dates mixed up in my head. Apparently this is a reoccurring theme with me.

(Image taken from uncrate.com)

Since I was stuck at the Rio with no event to play I decided to go play a morning session of 2/5 over at the Venetian. The must move I was put in was later turned into a main game with players giving away easy money. Unfortunately I lost most of my profit when I made a nut straight on the turn of K96T only for a 6 to drop on the river giving my opponent Kings Full. To my opponents credit, a big portion of the money got in on the river.

On May 30th I went down to the Rio to play Event 3A. I wasn't given much to work with, with only 3,000 in chips and unappealing cards. I busted on a hand that might have been a bad calldown based on my opponent's playing style. I called down with 88 after the villian check/raised the turn of Q363x. He showed Queens Full. Always the nuts! (Yes, I know 33 is the nuts here.)

(Image taken from 7million7ears.com)

I was a little bummed about the calldown, but I decided to truck on and play the "Millionaire Maker" on June 1st. The reason it is dubbed "MM" is because the WSOP is guaranteeing a $1,000,000 first prize in a relatively small buy-in event ($1,500). I played well on Day 1 establishing a tight image early. I was fortunate to be dealt an endless amount of premium hands. I believe I had 4-5 AA's and 2 KK's in just 8 playing hours. Not all of them got paid off due to my tight image and unfortunately I did have one of my AA's cracked.

I came into Day 2 with 32.300 in chips from a 4,500 start going into 300/600 75 ante. Things didn't start off well as I was 20 minutes late due to a cab fiasco. My table draw was awful. There didn't feel like there was a soft spot there. I was going to have to earn my chips. I picked up quite a few goods hands such as AQ AJ and mid pairs. However, even these hands are vulnerable. My image was loose as my opponents saw me raising quite a bit early and folding on later streets. The bubble approached and I was at around 85,000 chips when the following hand happened:

(http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/5128330)
(Villian had 76d, I had 98s)

He ended up tank calling with a hidden two pair. I played somewhat tight afterwards trying to re-establish my image. As dinner break approached I was able to get paid off with KK>99 in a 3bet pot on a red 44T flop against the same guy I bluffed earlier. I guess my bluff worked out in the end.

After dinner break I couldn't win a hand for the life of me. I was pretty card dead and the spots I did have and take didn't go so well. I chipped down to 45,500 before my table broke. The blinds had gone up to 1500/3000 going into my new table. Later I was dealt AQo and 4bet it against 2 LP raisers. The original raiser called with KK and the 3bettor folded Ax. Miraculously an Ace shows up on the flop to save my day. I effectively triple up which gave me raising chips. I chip up to 198,000 as Day 2 ends.

The blinds had gone up to 4000/8000 going into Day 3. I didn't last long as I lost two all-ins in less than 30 minutes. First hand was folded to LP who raises to 21k (leaving 60k behind). I shove the button with AJo and he tank calls with 98s calling himself an idiot in the process. Unfortunately an 8 binks on the river for him. Nice hand sir!

Next hand I am dealt KQs in the HJ. It folds around to me and I shove with my remaining 125k. The CO wakes up with Jacks. First card I see in the window: a Jack with no help. Nice hand sir! Good luck everybody, it's been fun! I busted out in 95th of 6300+ players cashing for $8,563.

Las Vegas Update

It's been forever since I last updated this blog. I recently started renting an apartment in Las Vegas. I've been a bit bored of living out of the country for past 14 months and desperately needed a change of pace. My plan is to split time between Mexico and Las Vegas for the time being until I figure out my next move. I scheduled it so that my leases both end around the same time (beginning of May). This allows me to have options in the future.

The first response I hear when people find out about my situation and having two rents is that I must be making a fortune. In reality this has been a down year for me. I consider the apartment a birthday present to myself. However, my combined expenses actually aren't that bad especially knowing of others who spend more and just have one place.


Poker
Like I mentioned earlier, this has been a down year for me. I put in the hours during the first few months of Mexico, but the results weren't there. Since then I have been taking it easy and learning a new format in hyper 6man and 9mans. I really enjoy the 9mans and hope their popularity continues to increase. I still have a lot to work on though.

I also plan to play live poker while I'm in Vegas at least 4 days a week (Tu,W,F,Sa). I'll be playing mostly 2/5 (1k max buyin). I also have a lot to work on here as I continue to make costly errors that can be avoided. Live poker is a lot more enjoyable for me because of the social aspect (even though I'm a quiet kid). There's also a sense of reality to it with chips, cards, and bills. When I play online I just see a number moving up and that's no longer motivating to me.

While it's been a down year for me, I'm not too worried. The results will come in time as long as I put in the effort. My Dad always said something along the lines of "you earn what you put into something".

Health
This is something I've been putting off for a while. I haven't been to a dentist or doctor (except for emergencies) since I was 18 and my eyesight continues to get worse. I want to start investing money back into my health. It's very silly that it's taken me this long to take action.

While I was in Canada I reached my peak weight of 212lbs (96kg). I'm around 6' (183cm) tall and was always a skinny kid growing so this came as a shock to me. I blame the weight gain on all the poutine and pork I was cooking myself. I wasn't very active as well. Since then I've been able to quietly drop 24lbs (11kg).

There's no secret to my weight loss. I continue to drink mainly water and have been a bit more active. The casino I play at is ~2.8 miles (4.5km) each way and isn't too bad of a walk. I plan to use poker as an incentive to walk each time I go. I can already feel the blisters forming!

After finishing a game of basketball with my Dad we had an interesting conversation that ended in a bet. The bet is that I have until my 29th birthday (2 years) to dunk a basketball on a 10' hoop. Growing up I played basketball all the time, but I was only able to dunk on a couple occassions. Never in a game setting though and with almost no witnesses. I was offered 40:1 odds so I snap accepted and tried to put down $1,000 on it. We settled on a much smaller amount. While earning some money will be nice, it will be much sweeter to be in that kind of shape again.

Goals
I recently came across a quote that change my way of thinking when it came to setting goals. It's an amazing simple concept that for some reason I haven't put into practice.

• Walk 20 miles a week
• Play 20 hours a week of live poker
• This is only when I'm in Las Vegas. My plan is to play on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. I picked those days since they don't conflict with football (american). I plan to play in hours as much as I walk to get to and from.
• Play 40 hours a week of online poker
• This is only when I'm in Mexico. My plan is to play 500 minutes on non-football days (Tu,W,F,Sa) and 300 minutes on Mondays and Thursdays with Sundays as my day off.

That's all for now. I'll have to come up with some more abstract goals later on.

My Live Poker Experience: Part One

I thought it would be a cool idea to write about my experience playing live poker as it differs greatly from online. I think I'll end up breaking it into three separate posts.

The first time I visited a casino was in 2004. I was 19 and had been playing poker while attending college. A bunch of guys were going to the Turning Stone Casino in upstate New York so I joined in. Don't worry, I wasn't underaged. Turning Stone is one of the rare casinos (in the US) that allows you to gamble at 18. My first experience there wasn’t noteworthy.

The one quirk I remember about Turning Stone was that it was illegal for them to charge rake. So instead they gave the winner of each pot a special button. The winner would then toss back the button along with the rake + tip for the dealer. The one hand I can vaguely remember was that I had QQ and called down on a King-High board. He had the King.

Later in the year I went back with my father. There was a special tournament series and he was staking me for three events. This was where I first met “PeteTheBeat”. Pete is a friend of my father’s who has had success in both live and online tournaments. I believe he was the first professional player I met. As for the stake, I cashed in one tournament where I was the chip leader near the bubble. After a series of unfortunate events I managed to squeak out a min-cash. Womp Womp Womp.

My next visit to a casino was in 2007 at the age of 21. My family was living in Toronto while I moved back to my hometown in Connecticut. I didn’t have much money at the time, but I saved up a couple buy-ins to go play at Foxwoods. I didn’t own a car so I bought a round-trip bus ticket for $50. The bus took about 90 minutes to get to Foxwoods. My main game was 10/20 Limit Hold’em (FLHE). Limit was still king in cash games, but No Limit was starting to gain popularity.

When there was a wait I would either play 4/8 FLHE or 5/10 FLHE with a full kill. A kill game is unheard of to most online players I know. The way a kill works is when a player wins a pot of 10 big bets ($100) or more that player would be given the kill button. The player with the kill button is forced to blind in for twice the big blind ($10) next hand and the action plays out like a 10/20 FLHE game.

My goal was to be able to earn a living playing poker. I would say I went around 20 times with mixed results. Having to pay $50 for bus rides, buy expensive meals at the casino, and the 3-4 hours of travel made it difficult for me to consider poker as a viable option. I don’t remember any specific hands from Foxwoods, probably because I played LOLimit.

Around this time I met someone who played an important role in my poker career, Ben Yu. I believe Ben first specialized in FLHE and later got into mixed games as well as sportsbetting. I first got to know Ben while playing Defense of the Ancients (DotA, a computer game). It was later revealed that we both enjoyed playing poker and he sent me some money on PokerStars for my birthday. What a cool guy! This helped respark my interest in poker.

Our paths crossed one day when he came to Connecticut to play a tournament series at Foxwoods. Several guys he knew from twoplustwo (2p2) went as well. I believe “Scary Tiger” was there. I had read a few books published by 2p2, but I never heard of the forums before. This discovery is definitely one of the biggest contributors to my success as a poker player.

July Review

Well it's time to set aside another month of poker and move forward towards August. July saw my volume dwindle with my hours played dropping to ~135. I continue to be in this lost transition phase where I haven't found what I'd like to play regularly. I haven't been motivated to play poker recently because of that.

I've been fortunate to continue my streak of run good at higher stakes. I even took down a $109 2x Chance MTT for $4,775. Without this bit of luck I might have gone crazy as my results at my normal stakes are abysmal. At this point I'd like to see better results at my regular stakes just for self-validation.

My success in Victoria may have set the bar too high for my expectations of Mexico. There I was motivated to put in 200+ hours a month and achieved 10k profit months with ease. I expected more of the same for Mexico, but it hasn't worked out that way. The games seem much tougher coming back after a 2-3 month break.

I don't have any goals for August besides playing 160+ hours. I'll be playing 6max hypers for the most part so we'll see how that goes. Best of luck to everyone in August!

June Results

It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to write each new blog post. When it comes to poker there isn't really much that is new and exciting to talk about. Poker is just poker.

Anyways, June was rough on me. I didn't expect a losing month to be possible with the high volume I play at a low average buy-in. With only 172.3 hours played, I didn't reach any of my goals I set at the end of May. I'm not upset over it though, just dissatisfied with the results and the questions they bring:

• Is this just standard variance?
• Are the games getting tougher?
• Was it my play?
• Have I lost my edge?

It's funny how the same questions come up each time after a bad run. You'd think being conscious of this fact would stop them from being asked, but for some reason it doesn't work that way. However, a near 4k game month at mostly turbos (with some nonturbos) provides me with some gratification.

That's all I really have to say about June. As for July, I don't have a solid plan mapped out yet. I just plan to play poker. All I would like is to put in a good amount of quality hours playing and studying without worrying about results. If I can make that happen I'll be satisfied. Whether I do this with mostly 9s, 18s, 27s, 45s, or 180s who knows?

As for staking, I'm down to 6 active players. I was never able to regain momentum after halting my operation on Black Friday. This month I've had a bunch of players leave the stable (on good terms) for various reasons. With my status as being an American, a competitive staking market, and the games showing diminishing returns I don't see myself picking up many additional players in the future other than solid guys.

I've been doing a lot of thinking these past months. This may be my last year as a full-time poker player. I don't see myself moving again after my lease is up in Mexico. I may not even stay the full year in Mexico. In a way I feel as if I'm putting my life on hold in order to earn a higher salary. But again who knows what I'll decide.

Best of luck to everyone in July!