I was trolling through 2+2 today and came across a thread and response that hit home.
Original Thread:
How do you..
So last night I came pretty close to my first BIG cash, I haven't been an MTT player for long, about a month now.
First time i've really been that close to a large amount of money, but managed to go out in 13th, after being top 5 for a long time.
How do you guys deal with this? As i'm sure you've experienced it before.
I just generally feel like **** today, so close and the money I won doesn't seem to matter at all!
Just feel like that big MTT win will never come around..
Thanks
- Lncredible
Response:
if you don't have thick skin in this game you will never be as successful as you want to be. So many good players limit themselves b/c they dwell on their beats and misfortunes. You just have to let it go.
- M1cKmAcK
This is definitely something that I needed to read. I've been running like shit all year on full tilt and now that run bad is spilling over to PokerStars. Gotta try to stay positive and keep my cool during this downswing. Hopefully, it'll all come together when I'm on the verge of that huge score.
Good Luck!
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Catching Up
Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote a post. I'll just do a long recap so that I can start with more up-to-date happenings. Here are the highlights or lowlights of my summer in Vegas.
- I finally had a decent cash in a Vegas Tournament($6k) and I'm now listed in the CardPlayer database. I finished 3rd based on a 4-way chop in the 2009 Binions Poker Classic Event #6. There was a $200 buy-in and 246 entries.
- Next up the WSOP Main Event. I'm not a big cash player so I think the adjustment with playing deep stacked was even more steep than going from online to live. After a while I felt somewhat comfortable.
Day 1: I was definitely not given any breaks with my first table draw. I spent all of Day 1 with Andrew "Muddywaters" Wiggins, Josh Schlein and a handful of solid players. There were only one or two complete donks. Obviously they didnt last long. Not much happened. At the end of the day, I bagged 44275 chips.
Day 2: This day was very different than Day 1 in terms of moving. I was at 4 different tables. I started at a table with a couple of maniacs. Two were pros with some nice scores. One was Nam Le's brother. They looked like twins and he sported the Nam-esque Pittsburgh Pirates hat, so it wasn't hard to make the connection. I managed to get up to 50k but I couldn't move a guy off of AA with my busted straight draw. He tank called me down. I continued to nurse my short stack after getting crippled by a guy that tried to rep a hand vs my top two. I played it kinda bad and he got there. For runner, runner, straight holding J2o. I had to pay him off on the river. I was complete tilted after this hand. I figured that it was just a matter of time, but I'd bust and I proceeded to tweet that I had busted so I wouldn't have to get any more calls. Well, shortly after this hand, I was moved to a table with Tim Phan. I was only there for a couple of hands before being moved again. Next up was a table with Antonio Esfandiari. He had a mountain of chips. At this table I was able to stop the bleeding a little by using my short stack to resteal a few times with big ace type hands. The only other person that I recognized at this table was "dfish" from online poker. He was so annoying. I'm surprised that he could talk with Antonio's nuts in his mouth. I guess that's how early 20-somethings act. After being at this table for about an hour, the highlight of my tourney happened. A tourney director came to break up the table. He said that the person with the green card will be moved to the featured table. That was pretty cool. Dfish also stated that the person would get $10k, which I later found out was false. The $10k was only given if you started at the featured table at the beginning of the day. So, the Director proceeded to deal the cards, but he misdealt. He did it again and yours truly got the green card.
After going to the area, there was some confusion as to me really supposed to be there. After walking back and forth, they finally mic'd me up and I was there in livin color at the table with Phil Hellmuth. That was pretty cool. Me and my $17k stack. 5 chips. 3 orange($5k) and 2 yellow($1k). I didn't expect to be there long at all. It was at this time that I decided to let the cat out of the bag and send a tweet that I was at the featured table. A couple hands in, I finally picked up a big hand. I was dealt AA in EP with only about 20bb. I decided to tank, limp to induce a raise. It worked. I got it in vs AJ. He flopped a gutshot, but I held. My next big hand I had QQ and got it in vs AK. I held. Then from the BB, a shorty shoved into me and I called with KJs. Unfortunately, he had KQo, but I flopped a flush draw and got there on the turn. It was very cool. People in the stands were chanting my name like I was a superstar. I was there about about 3 and a half hours. Here are some clips from the episodes after they were broadcast. Unfortunately, none of my hands were shown because they weren't against Phil. I'm wearing a Michael Jackson t-shirt which I thought for sure would get me on TV, but I guess ESPN doesn't have any MJ fans. At the end of the day, I bagged up 58000 chips.
Day 3: After spending all of days 1 and 2 in the amazon room, I started off this day in the Brazilia room. It's like the red-headed step child when you're in the Main Event. Luckily, these tables broke quickly. I was at the table with Roland De Wolfe, but he was short and didn't last long. When I made it back into the Amazon room, I was moved to a table with a huge stack, the very friendly Kara Scott and a bunch of unknowns. The first big hand I played, I got a guy to call my shove on the flop for most of his chips. He had a pair of 9s. I had AKs which was a flush draw, overs and gutshot. I got there on the turn. Eventually, I was back to the dreaded 20bb stack(blinds 1000/2000) and I pick up 99 from MP. I decide to limp. The loosest guy at the table raised. My plan was to limp and get him to "raise the limper". I expected him to do this with a wide range. He had just shown a few hands where he attacked and folded to a 3bet. Unfortunately for me, after I shoved, he tank called and flips QQ. I didn't hit any kind of draws Good Game me. I lasted about 30 minutes before the dinner break. I peaked at about 78k. I finished like 1100 something out of 6600. As the saying goes, "I'll Be Back".
On another note, I was on tv again while the cameras filmed a big hand between the huge stack and an aggro guy. This happened right at the first break. The guy literally took 10 minutes to make this call. Scroll to around the 5:50 mark. I am shown next to the guy that attempted a big bluff against the big stack at our table.
Overall: It sounds kinda crazy, but for the most part I was card dead for the tourney. I saw AA once, QQ once, TT once, 99 about 3 times, 55-22 a few times and AK like 5 times. Not many good connectors and rarely hit any flops. After about 20+ hours of play, you'd think I see a better selection of hands. I think I did decent for my first big live tourney and don't think I played horribly, but I know I have a lot to learn and will be a better player next year.
- Well, I played some events in the FTOPS, WCOOP and Mini-FTOPS. I managed a few cashes in the mini, but that is all. The doomswitch is still on at Full Tilt. You'd think after 9 months they'd have some compassion, but I guess not. Hopefully, things will turn around on that site. I've been working a lot on my tilt control and I'm trying to stay positive. Before I would type "donks rule" in the chat after a beat, but now, I try to just only type nh and move on.
- To no one's surprise, I have a new coach. Seems like I change coaches like I used to change "girlfriends", every other week. Hopefully, someone will stick or at least turn on the light bulb. If the great Phil Ivey can state on national tv that he still has a lot to learn, there isn't a word or phrase to describe how much I need and want to learn.
Later and Good Luck at the tables.
- I finally had a decent cash in a Vegas Tournament($6k) and I'm now listed in the CardPlayer database. I finished 3rd based on a 4-way chop in the 2009 Binions Poker Classic Event #6. There was a $200 buy-in and 246 entries.
- Next up the WSOP Main Event. I'm not a big cash player so I think the adjustment with playing deep stacked was even more steep than going from online to live. After a while I felt somewhat comfortable.
Day 1: I was definitely not given any breaks with my first table draw. I spent all of Day 1 with Andrew "Muddywaters" Wiggins, Josh Schlein and a handful of solid players. There were only one or two complete donks. Obviously they didnt last long. Not much happened. At the end of the day, I bagged 44275 chips.
Day 2: This day was very different than Day 1 in terms of moving. I was at 4 different tables. I started at a table with a couple of maniacs. Two were pros with some nice scores. One was Nam Le's brother. They looked like twins and he sported the Nam-esque Pittsburgh Pirates hat, so it wasn't hard to make the connection. I managed to get up to 50k but I couldn't move a guy off of AA with my busted straight draw. He tank called me down. I continued to nurse my short stack after getting crippled by a guy that tried to rep a hand vs my top two. I played it kinda bad and he got there. For runner, runner, straight holding J2o. I had to pay him off on the river. I was complete tilted after this hand. I figured that it was just a matter of time, but I'd bust and I proceeded to tweet that I had busted so I wouldn't have to get any more calls. Well, shortly after this hand, I was moved to a table with Tim Phan. I was only there for a couple of hands before being moved again. Next up was a table with Antonio Esfandiari. He had a mountain of chips. At this table I was able to stop the bleeding a little by using my short stack to resteal a few times with big ace type hands. The only other person that I recognized at this table was "dfish" from online poker. He was so annoying. I'm surprised that he could talk with Antonio's nuts in his mouth. I guess that's how early 20-somethings act. After being at this table for about an hour, the highlight of my tourney happened. A tourney director came to break up the table. He said that the person with the green card will be moved to the featured table. That was pretty cool. Dfish also stated that the person would get $10k, which I later found out was false. The $10k was only given if you started at the featured table at the beginning of the day. So, the Director proceeded to deal the cards, but he misdealt. He did it again and yours truly got the green card.
After going to the area, there was some confusion as to me really supposed to be there. After walking back and forth, they finally mic'd me up and I was there in livin color at the table with Phil Hellmuth. That was pretty cool. Me and my $17k stack. 5 chips. 3 orange($5k) and 2 yellow($1k). I didn't expect to be there long at all. It was at this time that I decided to let the cat out of the bag and send a tweet that I was at the featured table. A couple hands in, I finally picked up a big hand. I was dealt AA in EP with only about 20bb. I decided to tank, limp to induce a raise. It worked. I got it in vs AJ. He flopped a gutshot, but I held. My next big hand I had QQ and got it in vs AK. I held. Then from the BB, a shorty shoved into me and I called with KJs. Unfortunately, he had KQo, but I flopped a flush draw and got there on the turn. It was very cool. People in the stands were chanting my name like I was a superstar. I was there about about 3 and a half hours. Here are some clips from the episodes after they were broadcast. Unfortunately, none of my hands were shown because they weren't against Phil. I'm wearing a Michael Jackson t-shirt which I thought for sure would get me on TV, but I guess ESPN doesn't have any MJ fans. At the end of the day, I bagged up 58000 chips.
Day 3: After spending all of days 1 and 2 in the amazon room, I started off this day in the Brazilia room. It's like the red-headed step child when you're in the Main Event. Luckily, these tables broke quickly. I was at the table with Roland De Wolfe, but he was short and didn't last long. When I made it back into the Amazon room, I was moved to a table with a huge stack, the very friendly Kara Scott and a bunch of unknowns. The first big hand I played, I got a guy to call my shove on the flop for most of his chips. He had a pair of 9s. I had AKs which was a flush draw, overs and gutshot. I got there on the turn. Eventually, I was back to the dreaded 20bb stack(blinds 1000/2000) and I pick up 99 from MP. I decide to limp. The loosest guy at the table raised. My plan was to limp and get him to "raise the limper". I expected him to do this with a wide range. He had just shown a few hands where he attacked and folded to a 3bet. Unfortunately for me, after I shoved, he tank called and flips QQ. I didn't hit any kind of draws Good Game me. I lasted about 30 minutes before the dinner break. I peaked at about 78k. I finished like 1100 something out of 6600. As the saying goes, "I'll Be Back".
On another note, I was on tv again while the cameras filmed a big hand between the huge stack and an aggro guy. This happened right at the first break. The guy literally took 10 minutes to make this call. Scroll to around the 5:50 mark. I am shown next to the guy that attempted a big bluff against the big stack at our table.
Overall: It sounds kinda crazy, but for the most part I was card dead for the tourney. I saw AA once, QQ once, TT once, 99 about 3 times, 55-22 a few times and AK like 5 times. Not many good connectors and rarely hit any flops. After about 20+ hours of play, you'd think I see a better selection of hands. I think I did decent for my first big live tourney and don't think I played horribly, but I know I have a lot to learn and will be a better player next year.
- Well, I played some events in the FTOPS, WCOOP and Mini-FTOPS. I managed a few cashes in the mini, but that is all. The doomswitch is still on at Full Tilt. You'd think after 9 months they'd have some compassion, but I guess not. Hopefully, things will turn around on that site. I've been working a lot on my tilt control and I'm trying to stay positive. Before I would type "donks rule" in the chat after a beat, but now, I try to just only type nh and move on.
- To no one's surprise, I have a new coach. Seems like I change coaches like I used to change "girlfriends", every other week. Hopefully, someone will stick or at least turn on the light bulb. If the great Phil Ivey can state on national tv that he still has a lot to learn, there isn't a word or phrase to describe how much I need and want to learn.
Later and Good Luck at the tables.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
WSOP 2k9
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Downswing and Training
It's been a while since I've written a post. Honestly, I haven't had much of anything to write about other than bad beat stories, so I'd rather just not write than clog this blog with those stories.
So, the SCOOP passed by and not much happened. I only played in 3 events. 2 low and 1 mid stake event. The start times are not geared toward East Coast players. Unfortunately, I didn't cash in either event, but I love the 3 level buy-in idea. I just think Stars didn't have enough reasonable sattys for the high stakes events.
As much as I love playing on Full Tilt, I have been getting crushed since Feb. I'm trying to stay upbeat. Things will turn around soon, but the MTT grind can definitely take a toll on my emotional state. To help this, I just played a cash game for 30 minutes, lost $150 and then realized why I play MTTs. LOL.
After the SCOOP, I took a week off. The break was needed. As long as I am playing decent, I'll chug along during a downswing, but when I start noticing a lot of bad play, it's break time. My first day back, I finally made another Final Table on Stars. Ended with a 3rd place finish for $7400. A decent payout, but I woulda loved to get another 5-figure score if I coulda won my race, QQ < AK.
Regarding training, for the past 6 months or so, I've been emailing TheMaven and his students regarding the program. I think this could really help my progress, but there is a good amount of cost to get into the program. For a while, I've been trying to find something to invest my poker winnings into and eventually decided to invest in myself by joining the program. My initial training period is in May. Hopefully, I can get started and show vast improvement in time for the FTOPS and WSOP.
Well, that's it for now. Maybe I'll be posting soon about winning a WSOP ME seat. I've still only played one sattie and finished just shy of the seat. Take care.
So, the SCOOP passed by and not much happened. I only played in 3 events. 2 low and 1 mid stake event. The start times are not geared toward East Coast players. Unfortunately, I didn't cash in either event, but I love the 3 level buy-in idea. I just think Stars didn't have enough reasonable sattys for the high stakes events.
As much as I love playing on Full Tilt, I have been getting crushed since Feb. I'm trying to stay upbeat. Things will turn around soon, but the MTT grind can definitely take a toll on my emotional state. To help this, I just played a cash game for 30 minutes, lost $150 and then realized why I play MTTs. LOL.
After the SCOOP, I took a week off. The break was needed. As long as I am playing decent, I'll chug along during a downswing, but when I start noticing a lot of bad play, it's break time. My first day back, I finally made another Final Table on Stars. Ended with a 3rd place finish for $7400. A decent payout, but I woulda loved to get another 5-figure score if I coulda won my race, QQ < AK.
Regarding training, for the past 6 months or so, I've been emailing TheMaven and his students regarding the program. I think this could really help my progress, but there is a good amount of cost to get into the program. For a while, I've been trying to find something to invest my poker winnings into and eventually decided to invest in myself by joining the program. My initial training period is in May. Hopefully, I can get started and show vast improvement in time for the FTOPS and WSOP.
Well, that's it for now. Maybe I'll be posting soon about winning a WSOP ME seat. I've still only played one sattie and finished just shy of the seat. Take care.
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