Vegas days 8-14

So after two weeks in Vegas I have decided that tournament poker is very draining. I know almost all tournament players could of told me this already, but once you experience this agony of defeat over and over it wears on you. Although I have lost roughly 10k playing tournaments and satellites over the last 2 weeks, I am actually up $40 (American) so I don't fell too horrendous. Anyways here is the recap per day for the last week.

Vegas Day 8
Didn't do very much serious poker, just played some 10-20 Omaha 8 until the wee hours of the night. Was fun and was some practice for the horse event that I will be playing.

So after day 8 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +5625

Vegas Day 9
During week 1 of my trip, I played 6 Satellites and cashed in 4 of them. This was a very high cash % and I knew it wouldn't last, but I haven't cashed in any since. Including day 9 of my trip, which I was 0 for 3 at.

So after day 9 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +3145

Vegas Day 10
Played in the PLO $540 tournament at the Venetian. It was a very good structure. I actually played against a couple of pros during the tournament (including Scott Fischman) and a ton of Europeans. When it was all said and done, I was the bubble boy (meaning they paid 27 and I finished 28th). It was a very surreal experience, but it will probably help me in the long run.

So after day 10 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +2625

Vegas Day 11
I played in the nightly tournament at the Rio and in the Mega satellite and didn't do well in either. Ran poorly, and played below average. Wasn't the worst experience ever, but I feel that I need to do better.

So after day 11 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +1225

Vegas Day 12
Went to the Rio and played in the 2k WSOP event. Was playing well and running good, until I ran my AKs into AA blind vs blind. It has been standard for me to run into aces for the hand that cripples me or knocks me out of the WSOP tournaments so I am not too worried about how I have played in those tournaments. Played in a 1k Satellite right after I busted, which was a bad idea since I was steaming. Played bad in that and lost the 1k really quickly. That night I came back and played some Stud Hi-Low online and did pretty well. Recouped about half of my losses on the day.

So after day 12 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = -455

Vegas Day 13
Again played in a WSOP NL event. Ran really well early. Was playing amazingly. Then 70 people away from the money, I flopped top two pair against Aces when I was a bigger stack against a monster stack. All the money went in on the flop and he went runner runner straight to knock me out. It was extremely frustrating playing all day, then having a bad beat knock you out of the tournament. But, I came home again and played Stud Hi-Low and recouped most of my losses again.

So after day 13 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +-855

Vegas Day 14
I woke up around noon today and started playing Stud Hi-Low again online before the horse tournament that I will be playing tonight and did very well. Won a good 900 before I will be leaving the house today, so it is starting to turn around again. I am now off to go to the Rio to play the horse tournament, which I feel very confident about. I hope I run well and beat up on people that don't know how to play horse.

So after day 14 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +45

Update: Played really well in the Horse tournament today but missed going to day two by 30 minutes. Felt good about my play, just didn't get enough cards today.

Updated: So after day 14 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = -1450

CHEERS!!!

SHIP IT!!!!

Vegas Day 7
So after a very infuriating first week of poker in Vegas, I finally had a good day...a very good day. There were no tournaments to play today so me and Barry went to play in cash games at the RIO and I crushed the 5-10 NL there. I literally took almost $3500 off of one aggro Spaniard. I am just very ecstatic about a good win. Tomorrow is going to be a study day with some online play. More than anything, I need to look at this win as just another good win and just keep playing as good as possible. Off to get some sushi and then to bed. SHIP IT!!!

So after day 7 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +5985

Vegas Day 6

Another very frustrating day playing in MTTs. I ran my Kings into Aces within the first hour and got flushed over flushed for the rest of my stack. People keep telling me that if I get coolered (like I have the last two tournaments) it's something that just happens and you can't prevent it, but I think that I could of gotten away from the hand. As of right now, all of that is behind me and I have to just move on. On the flip side of that, because I get knocked out within the first couple hours of the tournament I get to go play cash games at the RIO, which are amazing. I have been running well in them and again have recouped all my loses from the tournament and then some. Also went to dinner again with Barry and a couple of other guys that we know at the cheesecake factory. It was delicious as usual, but we had a gigantic appetizer and most of my dinner is in the fridge waiting to be eaten for lunch tomorrow. Anyways, here is my running total:

So after day 6 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +1265
Not too bad for someone who has lost 6k in tournaments over the last 6 days.

Vegas Days 2-5, running poorly in MTTs, and running well in everything else

As of right now, I have not made it further than 4 hours in any MTT (MTT = Multi Table Tournament) and have only made it past 1.5 hours in one MTT. It has been very frustrating because of the fact that I have been preparing for MTTs for about 3-4 months and have not been doing well in them so far, but I have to understand that when it comes to MTTs that the variance is very high in them and that I am not going to cash in most of them, so just keep playing well and it will come.

Going through the days 2-5,

Vegas Day 2
I started the day with playing in the WSOP 1500 NL MTT and busted out within the first two hours so I was pretty upset. I then blew off some steam and played house games for about 3 hours, which was a bad idea because I lost 1000. I then went back to poker and played Satellites at the RIO and ran very well where I recouped most of my loses, which was very nice. The satellites at the RIO are as soft as I have been told so I think that they are the way I am going to earn my way into the Main Event of the WSOP.
So after day 2 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = -500

Vegas Day 3
There wasn't any WSOP events running that I wanted to play in so I decided to play in a Mega Satellite, which I ran pretty bad in and played bad in as well. I then went and played another satellite which ran awful in, but because I played extremely tight I got third which was +500 so I was happy about that. After poker for the day we went to the Palms restaurant in Caesars Palace. The food there was pretty good but the company was better. We went on a house date with a bunch of friends of ours who are staying in another house in Vegas. We are trying to imitate Baller poker players so we decided to do credit card roulette. This is how credit card roulette works, you put everyone's credit card in a bag and pull a card one by one until there is only 1 card left, the last card then pays for the whole meal. It was actually one of the funnest things that I have done in awhile and it gave me a big rush because my card was pulled third to last, but luckily I got a free steak dinner. Below are a couple photos of the group that I went to dinner with and the second picture is me feeding Barry as we shared are creme brou lei.


So after day 3 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = -505

Vegas Day 4
I played in another WSOP 1500 NL event and again I didn't get very far. I ran my queens into Aces and the fact that my chip count wasn't very high, I couldn't get away from the hand. I played cash afterwards and played even for a couple hours until my final roommate showed up so we decided to go meet him at our house and hang out with him. His name is Matt and he's from Texas. Pretty laid back in my opinion.

So after day 4 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = -2285

Vegas Day 5
Woke up this morning and decided I wanted to play cash games instead of tournaments and it went pretty well. Was playing pretty tight for about 4 hours, up about 400 and then I flopped a set of 3s in a monster pot and scooped up a pot of over 5k which is such a great feeling. Just a mountain of chips being pushed to you with hundred dollar bills mixed in it is one of the best feelings in the world. That pot recouped all of my tournament losses and now puts me ahead on the trip which feels awesome, I just hope that I can carry this momentum into tomorrow's MTT. Had dinner at Noodles in the Bellagio and the food was FANTASTIC and am now just winding down. Wish me luck in my quest for a WSOP bracelet.

So after day 5 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +515

Vegas: Day 1

So got into Vegas yesterday and our place that we are staying in is amazing. I think tomorrow I am going to take pictures of the house and post them, but just trust me when I say that this is the type of house any Bachelor would want. Met my roommates for the first time yesterday as well. Pete is a professional player from New Jersey and Barry is software designer (I think) from the UK. All of us seem to be getting along very well, which I am very happy about.

Ok. So my first day at the WSOP started out very rocky. I hesitantly entered the 2.5k 6max NL tournament and felt a little bit out of my element. I play 6max cash online, but I have never played a 6max tournament before. I doubled up very early in the tournament and then went on to blow away most of my chips on a bluff and then loose a coin flip with my AK losing to 1010.

I then relaxed for a little bit and decided to go play in a satellite. I had heard that the live satellites at the RIO are extremely soft, but the table that I was playing at wasn't nearly as soft as I expected it to be. Don't get me wrong, there were a couple of awful players, but surprisingly there were about 4 other players (Besides me) that were above average. In the satellite, I went on a little bit of a heater and got down to 3 handed. At this point, I excelled because the other players did not adjust properly and I stole a bunch of blinds and chipped up quite quickly. I then busted one of the other players and chopped with the final guy left, I took most of the money because I had a massive chip lead at that point.

So after day 1 of my Vegas trip my total win/loss = +400
I think that I am going to blog everyday and keep a running total of my winnings. Well, I'm going to go downstairs and have a beer with my roommates and then pass out. PEACE!

Off the Snide and VEGAS!!!

So I finally popped my live poker winning session cherry. Had a 6-hr session where I banked $430 which is almost a buy-in. I'm not going to complain about the small win cause I am just happy to get off the snide and lock up that first win.

On Friday morning (1am), I went to a casino and crushed the $300NL game. The first table I was at was the SOFFFFTEST table that I had played in a very long time. It consisted of 4 weak tight players 3 above average players 1 nit and myself. I tried not to get in pots against the above average players because the bad players were just so easy to play against, but I ended up taking some pots against them when they made mistakes. I also was able to squeeze them out of pots with a couple check raises on the turn when the W/T players would make extremely weak bets on the turn.

The second table I went to was a little bit tougher. Much more aggression, but I was able to bring out more of my poker arsenal, which is always fun. I made a Monster bluff against a very good player where he raised to $25 preflop and I called with 83s out of position (Disclaimer: Do not attempt to make this kind of bluff against anyone except for the most advanced thinking player because you will get called by even above average thinking players), the flop came K75r and he bet $50. At this point in the hand, I didn't think he had a monster (ie monster = set) so I felt my balls tingle and decided to make a move. I check raised him to $125 ($75 more). He then made a good read and thought I had air so he made it $275 ($150 more). A better play imo is to call my flop bet and let me bluff the turn, but most players at middle stakes don't play well Post-flop so they try and inflate pots whenever they can. Anyways, he had about $400 behind and so I made a big speech telling him that he had to have Aces or AK and couldn't of had KK or 77. I then made the big big bluff and moved in on him. He took awhile but then mucked and asked for me to show my hand, so I obliged and the table talked about the hand for the next hour.

It felt good to make one of those monster bluffs. It felt even better for it to work, because if it didn't I would of been down $200 instead of up $850. So I left that session up $850 and very happy because I starting to get my live groove back which is awesome for the fact that I am going to Vegas tomorrow for 5 weeks. Damn...5 weeks, it should be a ton of fun.

Well, I need to pack, so see ya next time.

Transitioning to Live Poker

So this semester I did very well for myself while playing online poker. I had always been a long time winner at live poker (tournaments and cash), but had struggled in online poker. My cousin, a professional online player, decided to give me a stake last summer (which I dumped into the poker community) and then also gave me a stake at the beginning of the year. Well off the $300 he gave me, I made it into $50k, give or take a couple hundred. I put a lot of time and effort into improving my online game and it payed off huge.

With all that said, my live game this semester has struggled. I did ok when I was playing in the underground games in Pittsburgh, making maybe 2300 or so, but playing live poker at the Cali casinos this calender year has been extremely frustrating and has been eating up my live bankroll. As far as BR is concerned, I am still fine when it comes to my Vegas BR, but the money I set aside to play in Cali casinos before I went to Vegas has been eaten alive and is down to 60%. I think the live experience will be worth it because I don't want to be rusty when it comes to the WSOP, but damn it is difficult to get used to the boredom of live poker...Anyways, I think it is helping significantly as my live play has been improving with every session I play so I just need to keep at it.

Vegas

So Vegas is less than 2 weeks away and I need to figure out exactly what I am bringing. I am definitely bringing my desk top, but I was also thinking about bringing my DJ amp and DJ speakers. I have them currently set up to my computer and they rock. Also, I am curious exactly how my rooming situation is going to end up. I have a house with some other guys, but one of them can't come to Vegas because of some family problems so we are scrambling to try and find another. It seems that life isn't supposed to go as planned ever, which makes me laugh at the people who always freak when it doesn't. Anyways, I can't wait for Vegas and I hope that I play well enough when I'm there to satisfy my expectations.