It's just around the corner. I'll be out there Friday May 29th til Tuesday June 2nd. The Stimulus Special has my name written all over it. I plan on playing this and maybe MegaStacks or Deepstacks event. The Sun Coast tourney was my first time cashing in a Vegas tourney. Hopefully, that was just a warm-up to some real money. I'll also be back in Vegas right before the Main Event, the week of July 4th. Hopefully, I'll have a seat in the tourney. (Anybody wanna back me?)
Also, I've started a Twitter account. I will send text messages from Vegas during the various stages of the tourney to update my stack size, etc. Hopefully, I'll send "Final Table Baby!". You can follow me at http://twitter.com/junkiepoker.
Later.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
The Secret to Making Money in Poker Tourneys
Two things that I really believe that help in all facets of life.
1) Staying positive. This is my biggest challenge because I am a huge football and basketball fan. I grew up in a sports family so being emotionally involved is normal. I'm trying to work on not getting too high or too low. It can be difficult at times when going through stretches without a single cash. My poker chant while playing in tourneys is, "I'm gonna win this tournament." Feel free to use it the next time you play.
2) Charity. This is not so hard for me. I grew up not having anything so it's always been easy for me to give time or money to the less fortunate because I've been there most of my life and 90% of my family is still there. One of my New Year's resolutions was to give at least $20 each week to some charity or church. I've kept true to this for like 90% of the time. Whenever I find that I forgot a week, I'll double up the following week.
Try adding this to your life. I promise you it will help.
1) Staying positive. This is my biggest challenge because I am a huge football and basketball fan. I grew up in a sports family so being emotionally involved is normal. I'm trying to work on not getting too high or too low. It can be difficult at times when going through stretches without a single cash. My poker chant while playing in tourneys is, "I'm gonna win this tournament." Feel free to use it the next time you play.
2) Charity. This is not so hard for me. I grew up not having anything so it's always been easy for me to give time or money to the less fortunate because I've been there most of my life and 90% of my family is still there. One of my New Year's resolutions was to give at least $20 each week to some charity or church. I've kept true to this for like 90% of the time. Whenever I find that I forgot a week, I'll double up the following week.
Try adding this to your life. I promise you it will help.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
First Trip to Vegas for 2k9
As I stated in a previous post, I decided to fork over the money and take a trip to Vegas and train with the online phenom, The Maven. Here's a trip report.
Well, it didn't start out too well. I took the worst bad beat of my life. Before heading out, Maven suggested that I rent a car. I thought about it, but decided to avoid it because I didn't want to deal with parking, getting gas, etc, etc. Boy did this bite me in the ass. I should have known something when a local on the plane asked where I was staying. I told her the Sun Coast. Then she asked how was I getting there. When I replied by saying a cab, she had this look on her face, like What The Fuck are you thinking. LOL. After getting off the plane, I went to the shuttle area to find out if there was a shuttle going to the Sun Coast. Of course there wasn't. Then I just waited in the long ass cab line. I told the cab driver where I was going and he paused as he closed the trunk. So, we're just riding down the freeway. I looked at the meter and saw it at about $19. Usually the cab to my usual spot, Ballys, is only about $20. I asked how much would this fare be and he told me about $50-$60. I said oh shit, turn around. After calming down, I just decided to finish the drive. That was unexpected to say the least. I was able to pay with a credit card in the cab, but I got screwed again because there was a $7 service fee. Go figure. The good news was that I found out a free shuttle would take me to the airport when it was time to leave. (even though I had to catch it at 6am)
This was actually the worst part of the entire trip. The casino was nice, they had some nice restaurants(T.G.I.F ftw) and even had a movie theater. I was tempted, but couldn't bring myself to fly to Vegas and go to the movies. The poker room was pretty small, but it was better than nothing. They ran a lot of limit games and only $2-$5 no limit. That's too big for me so I decided to play in a crappy $45 daily tourney to kill time. On Day 1 I was set to meet with Maven at 3pm and on Day 2 2pm. On Day 1, I played the daily tourney. Nothing much happened, but I saw how horrible live players play. I don't play much live any more, but the few times that I do play, I can see why online players are making more and more final tables of big televised tourneys.
After getting knocked out of the tourney, I took a cab over the Maven's house. He is sharing the house with online legend, Ari. It's a nice house but you can tell its a bachelor pad. There training center is sick. It looks like a huge garage that was split in two rooms. One room has black painted walls. There are 4 workstations. Each with a 30" monitor and a vertical 24" monitor. Two workstations were mirrors of a third. The second room was brownish and had 5 or 6 similar workstations. Ari and his student were in this room.
I spent most of my time next to Maven watching every hand of every tourney that he played. Before going out, I bought a digital voice recorder. This thing is great, I was able to record almost every minute that was spent talking poker.
Day 1: We started with intros. Maven introduced me to his two in-house personal assistants, Ari, and one of Ari's students. I even got to play with both of Ari's WSOP Circuit rings. They are pretty cool. They almost look like Super Bowl rings. Afterwards, we went over some general MTT strategy, etc. This was followed by watching him play and talk about various moves. He introduced me to a couple of moves that I have seen online but didn't really have in my tool box. One came at a good time because just before flying out, I discovered a leak in my game and was thinking about ways to plug it. One of Maven's tools plugs this leak. The night ended around midnight. Thankfully, Maven gave me a ride back to the casino. When I got back to the Casino, I grabbed a bite at my home away from home, TGI Fridays and then went and played Pai Gao for an hour or so to get some drinks. Day 2 was set to begin at around 2pm.
Day 2: To kill some time before heading over to Maven's house, I decided to play the Sun Coast daily tourney again. I ended up chopping it 4 handed. I had the chip lead and had no doubt that I would win. The only reason for the chop was that time was getting close. I needed to eat before going to Mavens and it takes 20-30 minutes for the cab to arrive. The chop was kinda funny. Did I mention that live players suck? Well, around 5 or 6 handed I was a smallish stack, not that anyone had a big stack because the structure sucked ass. But anyway, I was just shoving on them like crazy. Finally, this little ole lady had enough of it and called. I had KQ and she had K8. I felt kinda bad because she was obviously frustrated because I had the button when she was in the BB and this call/loss crippled her. So with the chop, at 5handed, they asked for an even chop. I had like 40k in chip, #2 had like 20k. I had my headphones in my ear, so I didn't look like a complete ass when I totally ignored them. When 5th busted, I was in 3-way pot with two short stacks. The guy that won had about 20k and I still had like 35k. At this time, I was ok with the chop because 1st didnt get much and I had to eat, leave. One guy was literally pissed that I didn't agree to an even chop 5 handed. I laughed and said that you've got to be kidding me. One guy had 1 or 2 big blinds and they wanted an even chop. Live players suck. LOL.
One interesting situation came up in the tourney. At one point early in the tourney, it was folded to the SB. I paused, looked down at Ten, Six. I paused again, and then shoved. But after I pushed in, I noticed the dealer flipping over the flop. My immediate reaction was to ask the dealer what was he doing. I didn't check. The floor was called over. It was ruled that since I took too long and the dealer did his usual tap and flip, that I checked. WTF? I hope this wouldn't be the case in a "real" tourney. Anyway, the SB shoved. I paused again. I had flopped mid pair with my six, but there was a flush draw out there. The SB said, "You can fold because the floor said that you just checked." So, I called. He had nothing, unless you call an over and a backdoor flush draw a hand. My hand held.
Day 2: So, I got to Mavens and the day was basically more of the same. I watched him play til like 11. It was nice to see him play in most of the big Sunday tourneys. He even sent me some of my money back because he busted "early" on Day 2. I thought that was cool.
Overview. So, the big question that people asked me when I got back to Raleigh. Do I think the training, trip was worth the money? It's kinda hard to say Yes or Hell No. It was very, very nice to see the "day and life" of an online poker professional. I think of myself as a full-time semi-pro, so seeing how they big boys play is nice. Here are some points that I took from the trip:
1) The workstations that they used didn't have any non-poker software except for firefox. And this was only to pull up peoples poker stats. So, I need to pay for the full membership to the online database and I needed to cleanup my PC to make it perform its best.
2) I need a large monitor.
3) They use Poker Tracker religiously. I have Poker Tracker, but rarely use it while playing. Basically this is costing me money, because all of the big boys use PT.
4) I have a few more big tools for my toolbox. This is always nice.
5) Don't play and be distracted by tv, the net surfing, etc, etc.
6) Contacts.
7) Watching pro play.
8) A bunch of other small things that I can't think of right now or put a price tag on.
Could I have been givin these things without going to Vegas? Probably, but I am a "seeing is believing" kind of person. I definitely believe a newbie would get the most bang for the buck, but it was beneficial for most intermediate players as well. So, if you fall into this bucket, I recommend taking the trip if you are serious about improving your game. I am always trying to get better and if that means taking a bit out of the several thousand that I have made, then so be it. I am no where near where I want to be skill-wise or financially, so training to become a better player can do nothing but help.
Wow, this was long. Til next time. Good luck at the tables.
Well, it didn't start out too well. I took the worst bad beat of my life. Before heading out, Maven suggested that I rent a car. I thought about it, but decided to avoid it because I didn't want to deal with parking, getting gas, etc, etc. Boy did this bite me in the ass. I should have known something when a local on the plane asked where I was staying. I told her the Sun Coast. Then she asked how was I getting there. When I replied by saying a cab, she had this look on her face, like What The Fuck are you thinking. LOL. After getting off the plane, I went to the shuttle area to find out if there was a shuttle going to the Sun Coast. Of course there wasn't. Then I just waited in the long ass cab line. I told the cab driver where I was going and he paused as he closed the trunk. So, we're just riding down the freeway. I looked at the meter and saw it at about $19. Usually the cab to my usual spot, Ballys, is only about $20. I asked how much would this fare be and he told me about $50-$60. I said oh shit, turn around. After calming down, I just decided to finish the drive. That was unexpected to say the least. I was able to pay with a credit card in the cab, but I got screwed again because there was a $7 service fee. Go figure. The good news was that I found out a free shuttle would take me to the airport when it was time to leave. (even though I had to catch it at 6am)
This was actually the worst part of the entire trip. The casino was nice, they had some nice restaurants(T.G.I.F ftw) and even had a movie theater. I was tempted, but couldn't bring myself to fly to Vegas and go to the movies. The poker room was pretty small, but it was better than nothing. They ran a lot of limit games and only $2-$5 no limit. That's too big for me so I decided to play in a crappy $45 daily tourney to kill time. On Day 1 I was set to meet with Maven at 3pm and on Day 2 2pm. On Day 1, I played the daily tourney. Nothing much happened, but I saw how horrible live players play. I don't play much live any more, but the few times that I do play, I can see why online players are making more and more final tables of big televised tourneys.
After getting knocked out of the tourney, I took a cab over the Maven's house. He is sharing the house with online legend, Ari. It's a nice house but you can tell its a bachelor pad. There training center is sick. It looks like a huge garage that was split in two rooms. One room has black painted walls. There are 4 workstations. Each with a 30" monitor and a vertical 24" monitor. Two workstations were mirrors of a third. The second room was brownish and had 5 or 6 similar workstations. Ari and his student were in this room.
I spent most of my time next to Maven watching every hand of every tourney that he played. Before going out, I bought a digital voice recorder. This thing is great, I was able to record almost every minute that was spent talking poker.
Day 1: We started with intros. Maven introduced me to his two in-house personal assistants, Ari, and one of Ari's students. I even got to play with both of Ari's WSOP Circuit rings. They are pretty cool. They almost look like Super Bowl rings. Afterwards, we went over some general MTT strategy, etc. This was followed by watching him play and talk about various moves. He introduced me to a couple of moves that I have seen online but didn't really have in my tool box. One came at a good time because just before flying out, I discovered a leak in my game and was thinking about ways to plug it. One of Maven's tools plugs this leak. The night ended around midnight. Thankfully, Maven gave me a ride back to the casino. When I got back to the Casino, I grabbed a bite at my home away from home, TGI Fridays and then went and played Pai Gao for an hour or so to get some drinks. Day 2 was set to begin at around 2pm.
Day 2: To kill some time before heading over to Maven's house, I decided to play the Sun Coast daily tourney again. I ended up chopping it 4 handed. I had the chip lead and had no doubt that I would win. The only reason for the chop was that time was getting close. I needed to eat before going to Mavens and it takes 20-30 minutes for the cab to arrive. The chop was kinda funny. Did I mention that live players suck? Well, around 5 or 6 handed I was a smallish stack, not that anyone had a big stack because the structure sucked ass. But anyway, I was just shoving on them like crazy. Finally, this little ole lady had enough of it and called. I had KQ and she had K8. I felt kinda bad because she was obviously frustrated because I had the button when she was in the BB and this call/loss crippled her. So with the chop, at 5handed, they asked for an even chop. I had like 40k in chip, #2 had like 20k. I had my headphones in my ear, so I didn't look like a complete ass when I totally ignored them. When 5th busted, I was in 3-way pot with two short stacks. The guy that won had about 20k and I still had like 35k. At this time, I was ok with the chop because 1st didnt get much and I had to eat, leave. One guy was literally pissed that I didn't agree to an even chop 5 handed. I laughed and said that you've got to be kidding me. One guy had 1 or 2 big blinds and they wanted an even chop. Live players suck. LOL.
One interesting situation came up in the tourney. At one point early in the tourney, it was folded to the SB. I paused, looked down at Ten, Six. I paused again, and then shoved. But after I pushed in, I noticed the dealer flipping over the flop. My immediate reaction was to ask the dealer what was he doing. I didn't check. The floor was called over. It was ruled that since I took too long and the dealer did his usual tap and flip, that I checked. WTF? I hope this wouldn't be the case in a "real" tourney. Anyway, the SB shoved. I paused again. I had flopped mid pair with my six, but there was a flush draw out there. The SB said, "You can fold because the floor said that you just checked." So, I called. He had nothing, unless you call an over and a backdoor flush draw a hand. My hand held.
Day 2: So, I got to Mavens and the day was basically more of the same. I watched him play til like 11. It was nice to see him play in most of the big Sunday tourneys. He even sent me some of my money back because he busted "early" on Day 2. I thought that was cool.
Overview. So, the big question that people asked me when I got back to Raleigh. Do I think the training, trip was worth the money? It's kinda hard to say Yes or Hell No. It was very, very nice to see the "day and life" of an online poker professional. I think of myself as a full-time semi-pro, so seeing how they big boys play is nice. Here are some points that I took from the trip:
1) The workstations that they used didn't have any non-poker software except for firefox. And this was only to pull up peoples poker stats. So, I need to pay for the full membership to the online database and I needed to cleanup my PC to make it perform its best.
2) I need a large monitor.
3) They use Poker Tracker religiously. I have Poker Tracker, but rarely use it while playing. Basically this is costing me money, because all of the big boys use PT.
4) I have a few more big tools for my toolbox. This is always nice.
5) Don't play and be distracted by tv, the net surfing, etc, etc.
6) Contacts.
7) Watching pro play.
8) A bunch of other small things that I can't think of right now or put a price tag on.
Could I have been givin these things without going to Vegas? Probably, but I am a "seeing is believing" kind of person. I definitely believe a newbie would get the most bang for the buck, but it was beneficial for most intermediate players as well. So, if you fall into this bucket, I recommend taking the trip if you are serious about improving your game. I am always trying to get better and if that means taking a bit out of the several thousand that I have made, then so be it. I am no where near where I want to be skill-wise or financially, so training to become a better player can do nothing but help.
Wow, this was long. Til next time. Good luck at the tables.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
First MTT Win on Stars
Well, the poker gods shined on me once again after a bitch and whine post. On Sunday I won my first tourney on Stars. It was a $20 cubed for just under $9400. Not bad. For anybody looking for a nice deep stacked tourney for a low buy-in, I definitely recommend this 2pm-ish(EST) on Sundays. The initial $20 gets you 3k in chips. The rebuy gives you another 3k. So, that's a very deep 6k stack to start the tourney. I kinda just stumbled across this tourney. It's definitely on my regular Sunday tourney list now.
Usually, I try to capture a screenshot of all of my online poker milestone's but for some reason it didn't dawn on me til the next day that this was my first win on Stars. By the time that I realized this, the tourney lobby was already gone. Stars only keeps up the daily tourney lobbies for about 24 hours.
Because Stars offers chops, I would consider one if the chips are fairly even instead of flipping coins for a few thousand dollars. But this tourney was an exception. The other guy was so bad that I didn't even think of a chop. When we started I was down 2 to 1. After a while, I was up 4 to 1. Then I got unlucky when he hit trips on the river after all of the money was in on the turn. That gave him a 4 to 1 chip lead. Even at this point, I didn't think of chopping even if he wanted to. We were still deep and I had a huge skill advantage. So, as you know I ended up winning. It was only a day or two earlier that I told myself that I would buy that new Camaro after my next decent poker score. Well, this was the score. I contacted the dealership, but the problem now is trying to sell my current car. Hopefully, between now and the end of the summer I can win a lot more money and sell my car.
That's it for now. Good luck at the tables.
Usually, I try to capture a screenshot of all of my online poker milestone's but for some reason it didn't dawn on me til the next day that this was my first win on Stars. By the time that I realized this, the tourney lobby was already gone. Stars only keeps up the daily tourney lobbies for about 24 hours.
Because Stars offers chops, I would consider one if the chips are fairly even instead of flipping coins for a few thousand dollars. But this tourney was an exception. The other guy was so bad that I didn't even think of a chop. When we started I was down 2 to 1. After a while, I was up 4 to 1. Then I got unlucky when he hit trips on the river after all of the money was in on the turn. That gave him a 4 to 1 chip lead. Even at this point, I didn't think of chopping even if he wanted to. We were still deep and I had a huge skill advantage. So, as you know I ended up winning. It was only a day or two earlier that I told myself that I would buy that new Camaro after my next decent poker score. Well, this was the score. I contacted the dealership, but the problem now is trying to sell my current car. Hopefully, between now and the end of the summer I can win a lot more money and sell my car.
That's it for now. Good luck at the tables.
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