Falker34

Graduation

2009-06-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

I graduated!!!! It took me 9 semesters/5 years to graduate from Carnegie Mellon University with a BS in Economics and a Minor in Business Administration. It was a very proud day for a couple of different reasons.

The first is the fact that I went through a ton of adversity during college but was able to persevere through all of it and become a better person because of it. For instance, my first 2 years of college I was chronically ill due to a deviated septum that was caused from a broken nose I suffered in High School when a baseball hit me square in the nose. Now that might not sound like a big deal, but think about being unable to breathe through your nose at night and waking up 3-4 times every night due to your mouth being so dry that you can no longer breathe. Not the best for trying to be productive day in and day out.

I also changed majors during my college tenure. I know that a high % of college students change majors at least once during their college career, but it is usually close to their current major or they are changing from being undecided which is foreseeable change. My transfer out of engineering was as bumpy as you can possibly have. I had to beg my dean to let me transfer 1.5 weeks into my 4th semester as an engineer. I didn't know what I wanted to transfer to, so I took GenEd courses that I needed instead of any core classes so these classes didn't help me figure that out at all.

Even though warned against this, I took a semester off because I did not want to waste time wandering not knowing what I wanted to study during college. That is a waste of money and is something that I could do at home. So, I went back to California the fall of my Junior year to find a direction. I vowed that I would return the following semester and unlike the majority of people that say this, I actually did it. I returned with a different view on life and was able to do much better (grade wise) in my new major.

Another reason that it was a proud day for me was that there were a lot of people in my life that helped me get to this point and I was able to reward their kindness and encouragement. My Mom is at the front of this list of people and she was there in person to enjoy it with me, but she was not without a lot of help, especially when I was little. Just a quick shout out to the most influential people in my life: My Grandparents, Chris Van Tassel, The whole Brennan Family, John Andikian, Mike Dodd, George Pascoe, Bob Jeski, Devric Lampley, Paul Renfro, Coach Yosh, and anyone else that I forgot. I would not of accomplished anything in my life without these people helping guide me in the right direction.

The last reason that it was a proud day was because I know that my Dad was watching down upon me from heaven and he was proud of me and my accomplishments. Even though I did not have a lot of time with him, he will have an everlasting effect on my life because he was just that kind of person. I love you Dad.

If you have read so far, here is something inspirational. One of my favorite commercials of all time.

Quick Update

2009-04-28T01:48:00.000-07:00

School

So I am in the middle of an all-nighter. This one is a little different than the others I have done during college for a couple of reasons. First, I will be presenting twice during the middle of the day. Usually(always), I do not stay up all night before a presentation because it is not a benefit to have bags under my eyes while I present in front of a class and a professor. I do not have a choice on whether I can sleep before these presentations because I have soooooo much work. Also, when I stay up all night, it is usually because I have a test early in the day and can crash right after. Today, I have 2 presentations and a final exam. The kicker is that the final exam isn't until 6:30pm so I have to stay awake the whole time and after my final I have some Fraternity stuff that I must attend and prepare for... so long day ahead.

Carnival

I commented about carnival last year, but to recap it's where my university, which is a nerd school, goes crazy and we party for like 4 days and nights straight. Pretty awesome being a state school for half a week. This year, my fraternity got Wiz Khalifa to perform a private show for us. Wiz is an up and coming rapper and the whole event was amazingly entertaining.

Here are some pics from Pavillion. Pavillion is where we rent part of a park and grill, drink and bronze.

Me playing corn-hole against a brother.

All of the brothers that attended Pavillion together. I am in the middle left.

Poker

So April has been an up and down roller coaster ride. I am not sure how many more hands I will be putting in because of finals, but May should be more profitable and educational, although during April I got some good hand reviews due to help from my friend Pete who plays professionally online. I will post a graph at the end of the month and some interesting hands to talk about, along with my math post, which will finally come...I promise.

Job Front

Last week, I finally got a good reply from the many colleges that I applied for a coaching position. It said that they were "interested" and to be patient as they go through the rest of the applications. It is definitely a positive from a very dim process so far with trying to get a coaching position at a University. I am optimistic that I will get a college coaching position before August and will excel at it.

More updates to come, with more focus on Poker and the future.

Spring Break '09

2009-03-19T03:24:00.000-07:00

I went to Acapulco for Spring Break and it was absolutely epic. The weather was amazing, the atmosphere was even better and I actually didn't spend that much money, which I am very proud of myself for. The clubs that we went to were gorgeous. The best one was called palladium, which is #5 in the world (I think). Here is a pic with the lights going crazy.

Poker is going well so far this month. I need to get in a ton of more hands, but I am learning a ton by watching some instructional videos and implementing some new wrinkles into my play. When I first started playing 6-max, I noticed that some regulars would actually follow me around for a couple sessions. That put a hurt on my self esteem a bit. Don't they know who I am? That got me thinking that I really didn't have this cash game thing down the way I thought I did. These new wrinkles in my game make me a much more difficult opponent to play against and makes me happy that I'm putting in the time to input new weapons into my aresonal.

I have been in some heated discussions lately on 2+2 where I get hammered by using some of these wrinkles. There is a preconceived notion in mediocre players minds that poker is supposed to played a certain way and people doing anything else must be wrong. I remember when I used to think that people shoving all-in with overs and an OESD were "wild". How could they put in all that money on a draw? It's ridiculous!?! lol. When people do not look at reasoning why people make plays and just compare play during a specific hand to how they would play it, they are doing a disservice to themselves and are actually hindering themselves from learning more about poker. The best thing about poker is that I keep learning something new about it.

My next blog post will be dedicated on poker math. I want to post some math stuff on some forums so I figured I would use this audience as a guinea pig.

PEACE

March Goals, Midterms, and Spring Break

2009-03-05T02:52:00.000-08:00

I have been up all night studying for my International Money and Finance class (probably the most challenging material that I have come across as an Economics student at CMU). To take a little break from studying, I decided to keep the 5 people who read my blog updated with my life.

Poker Goals

I'm first going to go over February goals.

Step up to NL25 and play 10-20k hands: This goal was met, but it took me longer than I wanted it to.

Step up to NL50 and play 10-20k hands: This goal was not met. My success at NL25 was marginal at best with a big downswing in the middle of the month. I am going to put in a ton of effort into my game over the next month and hopefully by the end of the month I will be able to jump up at least 1 level

Play 60-80 hours of Poker: This wasn't met either. I played around 35 hours in February. It is definitely an improvement from January, but if I want to be at my goal for the summer I will need to pick up the effort of actual time spent on the virtual felt.

March Goals

Step up to NL50

Play over 100 hours of poker

Post ALL interesting hands on 2+2 right after every session

Think of poker when away from the tables more

Find a coach to help me progress faster

Midterms

I had/have only had 2 midterms this semester, which is much less than my average over the last 5 years. However, I had to write a paper for my writing for economists class and actually had to make a midterm for my poker class. The poker midterm was straightforward and easy imo. I didn't want anyone to stress out over this midterm because CMU is stressful enough as is.

My first midterm was on Tuesday night. It was for my business law class. I think I did pretty well and hopefully make up for my subpar performances on the first 2 exams in the class. My 2nd midterm is in ~4 hours. It is an open note exam. We are given quotes from the readings and have to identify them in the 10,000 pages of reading we have done so far, so don't think that this test is going to be easy because it is open note...

Spring Break

So I will be on my way to the airport at this time tomorrow to go on spring break to Acapulco. I am super pumped about it and it should be an absolute blast to go party for 7 days straight. Here are my 5 Keys to having a good spring break:

1. DO NOT GET SUNBURNT YOUR FIRST DAY

This is something that has happened to me on a couple of vacations when I was little. After this happens, you are just miserable for 2-3 days. Since I dropped ~$1500 on the trip, it would be like me lighting $400-$600 on fire. I don't like lighting money on fire so I did 3 sessions in a tanning bed to prevent getting fried.

2. Drink a ton of bottled water

Due to the fact that I will be drinking alcohol a lot during the 7 days in mexico, it is important to hydrate whenever you are not dehydrating your body.

3. If you get lucky, make sure your roommates don't interrupt

The last time I went on spring break, a friend of mine had this happen to him. He was enjoying himself with a lady friend and one of his roommates interrupted them. He stood and faced the guy with only a helmet on. The guy looked him over and responded and said "Sooooooo..." 20 second pause, "Should I come back later?"

4. Friends have one "Save me from dying" card

This happened to me a couple times. As soon as the person is lucid enough to listen, I inform them that if they are in the same situation again later in the trip that I will not being helping. You must stick to this rule or you will be stuck being the mom of your friends for the whole trip.

5. Leave your pride at the border and just have fun

If you try to get in a dick swinging battle with every state school d-bag, you will not have fun. Who cares who has the best definition in their 6-pack? Dance a lot, drink a lot, and enjoy the scenery because when you get back from the 85 degree beach weather it will be ~15 degrees snowing and shitty.

Pokerstars Down?

2009-02-16T02:27:00.000-08:00

So I got up early to get in a session at NL25 and either my internet or the pokerstars software that is going haywire because I can't see any of the games on PS atm. As I am able to post this on my blog, I am going to attribute it to PS software. But lucky for you, I feel ambitious and productive, which is the reason for me writing this blog post.

Poker:

As it stands right now, I am way behind the pace that I wanted to be at for this month. The month is halfway over and I wanted to be at NL50 with around 20k hands in at NL25. Right now, I only have 6.5k hands in at NL25, which will not cut it if I am going to try to get some financial security before the end of the semester. I have put in a lot of time studying and thinking about different lines and sophisticated theories and breaking down hand analysis. This is all good and dandy and is improving my game, but in order for me to improve at the pace that I would like I need to put in A LOT of more hands in, which means rolling up my sleeves and getting dirty.

An interesting question that I am trying to have answered by a couple of my poker pro friends is whether it is a good idea to add more tables or to move up in stakes first. I currently 8-table NL25 but I would like to get up to at least 12 tables. With that being said, I think it would be good practice to do add tables while I am at lower stakes because there is a learning curve when adding tables and the learning will cost less. I am going to post this question (probably right after this blog post) on the 2+2 forums and see what other people think. Let me know what you guys think about it.

School:

Everything is going pretty hunky dory as far as school is concerned. I have been keeping up with my readings and getting my assignments done so as it stands I have a very good chance in passing all my classes and graduating, WOOOOOOOOO. The only class that worries me is international money and finance. I wrote about it in my last blog, but it is a very tough class. I think the teacher is very good actually, but the homework is being graded quite hard and I have had very poor marks on it. Oh well, just got to do better and complain less, lol.

Poker Class:

My friend Stephen is actually coming and teaching my class this week. He is a midstakes HUNL grinder. He does very well for himself and has avery good thought process when it comes to poker, so I feel my class is in very good hands. The topic this week is turn and river play. He prides himself in making good decisions and having good logic so I think this is a very topic for him to go over. He actually has very good timing to come teach my class because I have an IM bball game during my Monday lecture, which I would of gone to and cancelled my class, lol. I also have my class turning in their first paper for the class this week. I already had about 5 submissions for the paper so it makes me feel good that at least a couple of people listen and are doing work for the class.

Pong:

So I play in a couple of beer pong leagues and my 6 on 6 team was 4-0 going into the weekend. Feeling good and playing good, we went down to the wire with another team and ended up losing by 1 cup. That might not seem that uncommon to most people, but we started with 100 cups per side so it is very heartbreaking to lose by 1 cup in these games. My other team, which is in a 2 on 2 league, won by a very large margin tonight. We played a couple of Sig Nu guys and they were not used to the rules or table size of our house so we nOOb stomped them.

So I can't really think of anything else to talk about right now and the PS software is working again, so I'm off to grind my face off for a couple of hours. PEACE.

Plugging along

2009-01-22T11:20:00.000-08:00

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I have blogged and I have a ton of stuff to talk about. I apologize if I ramble or go off on a tangent in advance.

Career
So as of right now, my career choice is to go into Football coaching. Although I do not have anything materializing lately on this job front, I do have some fall back jobs that I could end up going to after graduation. The problem with trying to get a college football coaching job for me is that I am not available to coach until after the semester is over and most of these coaches are being hired now. Because I am unavailable now, I am less attractive to most employers, imo.

School

Classes are very hectic to start the semester. I picked up two extra classes in order to complete my minor in BA. Those two classes aren't that difficult, but the couple other classes I have started off very quickly and I have been on my horse to try and stay on course early in the semester. My International Money and Finance (IMF) has been exceptionally interesting and challenging. The professor is a very exceptional teacher, which makes the class have a much higher incentive to show up and be attentive. I think this is something that a lot of professors negate and their attendance is down because of it. This is also something that I am applying to my own course because I want to have strong attendance throughout the semester.

General Poker Theory Course

The course has been going well so far. The first class I went over the very basics of poker (why people play poker, how to make money, Variance, etc.). The second class I went over types of players and Bankroll management. I think that I might of went over BRM too quickly or not emphasized it enough because most of the students didn't have questions on it. It is a very difficult concept to apply over and over again, but it is absolutely necessary in order to survive poker. With that being said, most of the people in the class are looking to how to attack certain instances instead the meta-game of poker. Flawed thinking? Probably, but I can't do very much about it. All I can do is teach as many important concepts that I can and they will get out of it as much as they put in.

Poker

So I have completely changed my goals for 2009 as they compare to poker. They were:

Goals for STTs in 2009:
* Put in 3,333+ games a month
* Start at $16's and end up at $38's
* Find ROI at every level before moving up in stakes (2k games minimum)
* Win "Earth" SNG leader board 6 times (low or high orbit)
* Work a lot on my game non stop

I am still going to try and work on my game non-stop for the semester/year, but I have turned away from STTs for at least the next couple of months and have been focusing on cash games in January. I started very low (NL10) because I want to slowly and progressively build my 6-max NLHE skill. So far this month I have played 9k hands. For me restarting school and being very busy and changing games, I am pretty happy about that volume. I will be bumping up to NL25 come February 1st and would like to put in 10-20k hands there before I jump up to NL50.

I am going to try and put in 60-80 hours of playing time (~40k hands) over the month of Feb. and hopefully that will get me through NL50 and I can bump to NL100. A realistic goal would be to get to NL100 by March and grind my face off during that time in order to start making some real money at cash games.

Those are most of my random thoughts. oh, and go STEELERS!!!!

Here's a video I saw on MTVU the other day and it's pretty awesome. Gnarls Barkley "Who's going to save my soul". Enjoy.

FWIW,

Falker

2009 Goals and Expectations for Poker

2009-01-09T19:55:00.001-08:00

Poker
Goals for STTs in 2009:
* Put in 3,333+ games a month
* Start at $16's and end up at $38's
* Find ROI at every level before moving up in stakes (2k games minimum)
* Win "Earth" SNG leader board 6 times (low or high orbit)
* Work a lot on my game non stop
* Working on not being short term results oriented
* Make my poker class awesome, which I'm teaching at my university
* Make 365+ posts on 2+2 forum

So this was the post I made on 2+2 a couple weeks ago and they have already changed, at least while I am still finishing up college. First, I will not be able to put in the volume that I want to because I am getting my minor in Business administration. However, I am going to try and offset the potential $$$ that I will be losing by giving personal coaching sessions to some of my students of my poker class.

Winning a SNG leader board would be nice, but I don't want to put a figure at "how many". Instead I am just going to strive to win low orbit and at least qualify for the high orbit every week. As far as making my class the best I can, I will strive to do this because it is going to be a lot of fun and it will improve my game a ton as well (or at least I hope so).

The ROI that I am looking to obtain would be around +10-15% at the 16s and 7%+ at the 27s. These are very lofty goals, but I think that they are obtainable and I want to prove to myself that I can get there. This will be by far my toughest goal, but I am looking forward to getting to a point in the 16s where I just dominate.

Here's Obama's inauguration speech from 1-20-09. I think it is very encouraging for the new year. Happy new year everyone.

WOOOO QUADS

2009-01-07T21:23:00.000-08:00

So this gem came about while playing on Pokerstars tonight. I don't know if there is anything else I could of done to get anymore money out of the MP player. He was a maniac and I was wondering if I could raise on the flop and see if I could get him to make a play on me. I say this cause the hand before he had AKo and got 70 BBs in on the flop of 543. The CO I had no reads on, but once he raised the turn I was pretty sure he had a monster. Any other way to play this?

--------------------
HAND #1
--------------------

BB: $2.30 (23 bb)
UTG: $10.25 (102.5 bb)
MP: $17.90 (179 bb)
CO: $12.30 (123 bb)
BTN: $28.85 (288.5 bb)
Hero (SB): $22.85 (228.5 bb)

Pre-Flop: Hero is SB with 5c 5h
UTG folds, MP raises to $0.30, CO calls $0.30, BTN folds, Hero calls $0.25, BB calls $0.20

Flop: ($1.20) 4h 5d 5s (4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, MP bets $0.70, CO calls $0.70, Hero calls $0.70, BB folds

Turn: ($3.30) 2h (3 players)
Hero checks, MP bets $2, CO raises to $5, Hero calls $5, MP folds

River: ($15.30) 7d (2 players)
Hero bets $7.20, CO calls $6.30 and is all-in

Results:

Spoiler:

$27.90 pot ($1.35 rake)
Hero showed 5c 5h (four of a kind, Fives) and won $26.55 ($14.25 net)
CO mucked 4s 4d (a full house, Fours full of Fives) and lost (-$12.30 net)

When cards don't matter

2009-01-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I played in a live 2-3 NL game ($100 Max/Min buy-in) at Hawaiian Gardens casino. I got there around midnight and played for about 5 hours on 3 different tables. Of the 25+ opponents I played against, only about 1 of them I thought was a good player. People either were playing way too tight and passive or they were the type of guys who had a VPIP of about 75% with a prf of 5%. Everyone's range was polarized on every street in every hand. It just makes me feel stupid when I once thought that everyone who played on the internet were for the most part bad and loose players and live play was wayyyyyyy tougher. My view on live vs. online is now reversed where I view online as tough and intellectual playing and live play as just bad (there are obviously exceptions for this though, and you can definitely find tough live games, but for low to medium stakes, live<<<<<<<<<

The third table that I got moved to had a few characters on it with the only above average player on it. He wasn't above average for the type of style he played (he was a little too passive for my taste and would limp/fold too often), but he made good reads on other players and trapped well. There was a gentlemen to my right who was from Atlanta and was very talkative. He mentioned hands he played (Bad beats and quad/straight flush type hands) and how he played them. He would talk about different strategy he uses and the fact that he hates playing QQ (I told him that every time he got QQ, that I would take them off his hands). After I heard his speech about hating QQ, I figured out that he was the pessimist type and that unless he had a flashy (straight flush draw or AA) or lock hand that he was easy to push off hands. After absorbing all of the information on the table, I decided that I wanted to start 3-betting certain opponents much more lightly and the Atlanta gentlemen was a perfect target for this.

We were playing 7 handed at the time, and ATL made a standard "pot building raise" to $8 ("real" raises are closer to the $15 mark at the Hawaiian Gardens) from UTG+1 and I look down at Th3c, so instead of folding I decide to 3-bet to $22. Now I know that there are 5 people left to act, but the type of table it was I didn't have to worry about people calling light behind me. After a 3-bet the table would only call with a top 3% hand. So I make it $22 and the rest of the table folds to the ATL gentleman and he makes a comment right before he throws in his $14, "So you got those Queens then?", at this exact point when he is releasing his chips into the pot, I have his hand range polarized to Ace Face. So unless an ace or broadway hand flops, I know I can bet and get him to fold. Flop comes 8h9h4c, he checks and I bet $25 into the $49 pot. He thinks for 5 seconds and open mucks AdJs.

Although live play is probably MUCH easier than online, because of the minimal number of hands seen an hour, I still think that playing online is more profitable. But it is hard to really find out one's profitability in a wiffle ball (live 2-3 NL) game when you only see about 1250 hands a week playing live.

I saw this for the first time the other day and died laughing, so I figured I would share it with all of you guys too. The guy in the video is a senator's son and he is trying to make a documentary on online poker. He is playing a $0.10 MTT...THAT'S WHAT TIME IT IS!!!!

Emotional Stability

2008-12-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

I think the biggest flaws in my poker game within the last 10 months was my emotional response to short term results. When I won one of my many online poker tournaments during the spring, I would jump up and down, scream in excitement and brag to anyone who would listen. During the summer, I cashed in zero events and was devastated by this. For the last month of the summer, I couldn't stop thinking about missed opportunities during the WSOP tournaments and my play suffered. Luckily, I was smart enough to stop playing poker for the time being and salvage what was left of my diminishing bankroll.

Once school started in september, I started to play a limited amount of hours to try and ease my way back into poker. This was a good idea until I hit a heater and thought I was the best thing in the world since sliced bread. I tried going up in stakes (I was playing Omaha 8 or better at that time) and all my winnings over a 45 day span were dried up in a matter of hours (42 to be exact). I kept playing trying to get unstuck, which was cutting into my relatively small bankroll. Luckily, again, I was smart enough to stop playing for awhile.

Unable to stick with one specific game and type (Game = NL Hold'em, while type = Tournaments vs. Cash game) during my poker career, I decided to try and stick with what I have been best at, which was NLHE tournaments. To get back into tournaments with a fresh start, I thought that it was smart for me to do some studying before I got my feet wet again. So, I finally decided to finish Collin Moshman's SNG book, which I had started in April. I have a problem with reading the first 30-50% of a poker book and then trying to apply all the theories introduced like I know exactly how to, which I don't. This doesn't give me a well-rounded game that is needed as a professional poker player. It gives me a sporadic game that is just not what my max stress level can handle. Highs being too high, and lows being too low.

So with a new focus and direction on where my poker game is going, I have played a ton of Single Table Tournaments (STTs) within the last 30 days. Now a ton for me was about 200 STTs, that is not a lot for the online STT pro, but for me it was a lot. I played them almost all on Pokerstars and was able to grind out a $650 bonus to help my bankroll. During those 200 games, I got sucked out a bunch, but because I was only playing for $6.50 they didn't hurt too bad and my skin started to grow tougher.

Over those STTs, I think it has finally hit me. One tournament, in the long run, doesn't really matter, my play does. It's hard to have that sink in when it's a $1500 buy-in, but something happened the other day as I was playing in a $155 tournament (not quite at the $1500 level, but still a step up from $6.50) at The Hawaiian Gardens Casino. Once I put my money into the pot and all the betting is over, I have absolutely no control over the rest of the action and me getting emotional about it doesn't help.

For the rest of the tournament, I played very well because I was focused on every single hand. Nothing else mattered other than playing my best at every possible junction. So when My aces failed to hold up against a pair and gutter draw, I didn't even flinch. I didn't berate the other player whatsoever, not even a smart ass remark (which is what I usually do). I just reassessed the situation with how many blinds I had left, and was ready to move on to the next hand. I do want to mention that I ended up semi-winning this tournament (we chopped 7 handed), but my road to the final table was with a couple bad beats and 3 key coin flips (I won 2 out of the 3).

We will see if I can still be emotionally stable the next suck out I get that knocks me out of a WSOP event, but as of right now I think that I will be up to the challenge and ready to just move on to the next tournament.

Cheers from California!

Back in California....kinda

2008-12-11T09:42:00.000-08:00

So I landed at the Orange County (John Wayne) Airport Wednesday night at 9:35, about 25 minutes early. I had spent the last 11 days living at my University's library because of all the work I had to finish due to finals and the kicker to that is I'm still not done with all my work. I got home last night, powered up my new macbook, which I love btw, and spent a good 2+ hours finishing up my part of a write up for a project class I had. At this very moment, I am awake at 6am pst to finish a paper and a project which are due in less than 8 hours. It's kinda overwhelming, but I just have to grind through this and get my work done. Oh well to being able to enjoy myself yet.

Victory!!!!

2008-12-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

So I just shipped (1st place for all those non-poker folk) a 180 person MTT. It felt absolutely great, kinda how drama feels when he learns that his TV show is a hit after it's debut. This weekend was an absolute godsend. My fraternity had our Christmas party along with our Formal. Both nights were amazingly fun, which was perfect for the type of week I went through.

I had an absolutely brutal week studying where I was at the library for a stretch of 50 hours in a 72 hour block. But that headache is over and I'm now on to my "Finals" headache. I do have light at the end of the tunnel though. I go back to California on Wednesday and I am super pumped about it. I can't wait to go see the family and hang out with my bum friends as well. Enough with my drama (pun intended), time to get to work and when I ace my Finals and final projects, I will drop to my knees and scream "VICTORY!!!!!!!!!"

Finals

2008-12-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

Blah... That's the first word that comes to mind when thinking about studying for finals and doing final projects. I have been stuck in the library for 2 straight days now, and I don't see me leaving the library (other than to sleep) for the next 3 days :(. With that being said, I am really close to finishing all my classes and if I do well in the finals and final projects, I will get my highest GPA in college. So, the bottom line is that this 10 days from hell is a necessary evil when it comes to finishing college. I just have to buckle down and do work son.

I have been doing very little playing lately. Been doing a lot of studying poker and plan of finishing about 3 books over winter break. I want to set a system over break on playing sit and go's. I want to get to playing about 100 SNGs a day, which will be a challenge, but it is where I want to get to in the near future.

Over break, I am also going to shotgun my resume and credentials to every Division 1-A Football program to see if I can get an assistant job for next year. We'll see if that works at all. I feel that I will get a generic answer back from all the programs that eventually say "no", but, we'll see what happens.

California T minus 8 days and counting.

Football is over and a new direction is beginning

2008-11-20T14:33:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was my last football game that I will ever play competitively. My body barely survived the season as on the 2nd to last play of the game I went down from a kidney blow and had to be helped off the field. I am a little sad that is over, but I'm happy about going out on a win.

With having an extra 35 hours a week from no football, I am planning on putting about 20-25 hours into poker weekly. I think only about 10-15 of those hours will be actually playing. The rest will be studying because I think I am right on the brink of a break through in my game. Also, I am teaching a "General Poker Theory" class next semester and am determined to make it as good as possible, meaning I need to do a lot of studying myself.

School is winding down and I think I have a shot of having my best semester of my college career. I think that I might be able to pull out 3 A's and the rest be B's, but to have that happen I need to put my nose to the grind stone and do well on the last couple of assignments of the year. I will try and have my blog be updated more often since I have extra time now.

Happy Holidays

Changing Paths

2008-10-20T19:19:00.000-07:00

So I'll start this blog with talking about the everyday things.

School is going pretty well. I have spent the most time in the library than any other 1st half of a semester. I would usually tend to do most of my school work in a semester after midsemester break, but I am much more dedicated on doing very well this semester. With that being said, I only have a 3.0 gpa at midsemester. It's funny at this school, 3.0 is very respectable because the average of one of my midterms was a 48%. Yes, that's right...the mean in a class of 60 4.0+ high school students is a 48/100. Just goes to show that this college is actually tougher than the real world, but doesn't teach you anything that would be helpful on the job.

The stock market. Not sure what to say about it other than it sucks ass. It makes me really curious with how that will affect the Presidental election. It did make me think really tough about going into the making industry. America has a real problem with credit and borrowing. It has just been a disastor for our economy from the housing bubble bursting, and our economy will suffer another gigantic blow once our credit card bubble bursts. I will kinda feel bad when a couple million Americans loose their homes because they are nose deep in credit card debt, but it is at least partly their fault for not planning well and buying way too much, which they obviouly could not afford.

So with the market being terrible and having no ambition to wear a suit for the rest of my life, I have decided to pursue a career in coaching football. I have already contacted the president of football operations at USC and got some real good information from him. I am still trying to get a hold of someone from the football program at Oregon, but I love to be a part of that program because they are just a class act.

Poker. I am kinda reverting back to my roots. I am playing a lot of MTTs and Sit'n'gos. All NL hold'em too, which is a little weird cause I have been playing HORSE (minus the H) games lately. I will be dedicating the rest of the semester to dominating the nightly tournaments in order to get my bankroll healthy again.

Anyways, that's the mid October update from me. Good luck in everyone's endeavours.

Update and October Goals

2008-10-06T08:49:00.001-07:00

The last week and a half have been very productive. We won both our games the last 2 weeks. Granted, the teams we played were not very good, but a win is a win. The offensive line for the other team yesterday was ginormous. Both their guards were like 5'8", 300+ lbs so it wasn't very fun to go knock bodies with them.

College has been extremely busy. I had 4 homeworks due within a 4 day period, which is a lot when all of them take 3+ hours to due. However, I got them all done and am looking strong when it comes to grades this semester.

Poker: It was a very swingy couple of weeks. I went on a big upswing where I couldn't do anything wrong, then I went on a terrible downswing where I got runner runnered every hand. It's kinda evening out and I'm back on track.
September Omaha 8 Results:

October Goals:
-Read 5 books: 2 on Omaha Hi-Low and 3 on tournament poker.
-Play 20K+ hands of Omaha Hi-Low
-Build my bankroll big enough where I feel comfortable playing at 3-6 limit Omaha 8 (I currently play at 2-4 limit atm)
-Clear 2 bonuses of $650 each
-Clear 20K+ VPPs at Pokerstars

July, August, and Most of September

2008-09-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Ok. So I haven't blogged in about 2.5 months. I'm sorry about this to anyone who actually reads this blog. So lets wrap up Vegas.

Vegas had a ton of ups and downs. Unfortunately, there were more downs then ups and I ended Vegas on a big down. I did nothing in any of tournaments that I entered which is very frustrating, but after reading other people's blogs about tournaments, I realize that going 0 for 8 in tournaments is not a big deal at all. In fact, I could have been playing 100% optimally and gone 0 for 8. I do not think I was playing optimally and I took a long look at my play during live tournaments over the summer. I definitely found a couple leaks in my game, which I will plug up once I start playing tournaments again (I probably won't play tournaments this semester because of the long continuous hours that are involved with doing well).

Along with taking a couple shots at bigger tournaments during the summer, I also took shots at bigger cash games during the summer. I played the 50-100 Stud 8 game at the Rio and I played the 75-150 Omaha 8 game online. I played with big name pros during my shots (Joe Haschem, Marcel Luske, Cindy Violet) but didn't tangle with them that much. I got scooped a couple times early while playing stud 8, where I had the low and high locked up and my opponent hit a miracle card to take both away from me. That got me into a whole early and played about even for the next 7 hours which is very depressing. The same thing happened with playing the Omaha 8 game. I couldn't win a hand to save my life early on and played even for about 1.5 hours and then went cold for the next hour. When taking shots at games, it is very detrimental to one's confidence when you get stuck early.

Anyways that was Vegas and poker for the summer. The month of July I just kinda took off. I spent some time with the family and friends that I hadn't seen very much because I was in Vegas for the summer, which was very relaxing. I also dipped back into playing World of Warcraft because I was so burnt out of poker. Playing WoW is fine during the summer or down time, but playing it during the school year is definitely a bad thing. I had played it most of July, all of August and a little bit this month. I'm starting to tone it down a bit and am probably going to stop playing it completely when the expansion comes out.

Football: I was a little worried at the end of last school year about how my shoulder was going to hold up during the season cause my progression was very slow (I had surgery on my laborem December 27 '08). I went to Cal rehab in Huntington Beach, which helped get me started in the right direction and then I went to the Keith Kleven Institute in Vegas for my shoulder. Keith and his staff was absolutely amazing and my strength and ROM (range of motion) increased phenomenally.

Football camp this year was a little bit tougher this year because I came in not in the best of shape. Due to my shoulder and trying to grind in Vegas, I was not very good at keeping up with my workouts. Although I was a little out of shape, I performed on par during camp. Even though I am not starting at the moment, I am getting ample time during the games (I rotate every series with another ILB).

After winning our first game, we have lost our last 2 games by a combined 14 points. Our first loss, our Offense played well but had way too many turnovers along with us making some mental mistakes. Our 2nd loss, our defense played very well as we were put in tough position after position and kept holding up, but by the end of the game they made a couple more plays than us and that won them the game.

Current Poker: I have decided that instead of playing NL hold'em, that I am going to play limit Omaha 8. I think my edge in O8 is bigger than NL and that the swings are less intense, which is better for my nerves. I am trying to grind up to 5-10 and 15-30 by the end of october. I am currently at 2-4 and 3-6. I will try and post about 2-3 times a week. One about poker, one about football and one about life.

Peace,
Danny

Vegas days 8-14

2008-06-29T15:27:00.000-07:00

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!!!!

2008-06-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-22T00:23:00.001-07:00

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

2008-06-20T23:37:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-06-14T10:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

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.

Traveling

2008-05-26T15:34:00.000-07:00

Next year I will be a 5th year Senior and most of the guys that I came into school with graduated last Sunday. To celebrate their progression into the real world, we all decided to go down to South Carolina for one last shit show. It was an amazing time to say the least.

Within the adventure to Seabrook Island in SC, I had a couple other adventures. My friend O'Shea and I took a trip to Myrtle Beach where we hung out with my friend Stevie. We hit up this bar called liberty and then we went back to her house where her mom made us shrimp scampi. She then showed us around a bunch of other bars and we got blasted. Most of the bars we went to were much different then what I was used to. They were very spaced out and it seemed that people didn't know each other but it didn't stop them from being very talkative with each other. At the end of the night, after I blacked out, I guess I was talking to a whole bunch of locals outside the bar, so I guess I was adapting to the situation because it just seems that southern folk are very friendly.

The next night 16 of my Beta Brothers went to Charleston to go out to the bars. We hit up 2 different bars. The first had the hottest 4 bartenders that I had ever seen. It reminded me of coyote ugly, but the chicks were WAYYYYY hotter. It just made me miss California even more because the selection of hot girls in Pittsburgh is few and far between. Anyways, the 2nd bar was on a rooftop of a hotel. I'm pretty sure that there is a height limit on all buildings in Charleston because this was the highest building and it was only 5 stories tall.

After a very sad farewell to my Beta Brothers, we went to my friend Jameson's cousin's graduation party in Maryland. Jameson's other cousin Jackie had trouble with handling her alcohol and puked out the car as we parked coming back from the restaurant where the party was at. She was really funny because she was under the illusion that everyone else was throwing up with her, not sure why.

So after putting my liver through liquor boot camp, I need to start buckling down and focusing on my goals for the summer in Vegas and for my last year playing College Football. I'm going to go pack, run, and lift. PEACE

Finals

2008-05-12T08:55:00.000-07:00

So I just finished finals last Friday and it feels so gratifying to be done. But more than just feeling good about finishing, this year I actually left the tests feeling good about my performance. Meaning I felt that I could of possibly got a 100% on one of the finals that I took, which is incredible coming from a guy that started his college career with a 1.22 GPA. With that being said, there is no guarantee that I got A's in any of those classes because I do not know what any of the curves are for the final grade, but as long as I am close to the 3.0 mark I am happy about my performance.
I think that most people go on a binge for a week or two after they finish finals (when I say binge, I do not necessarily mean they go out drinking every night, more of the idea that they become lazy and unmotivated when their finals conclude). After my last final on Friday, I went out drinking and then did nothing productive on Saturday, but yesterday I went to the library and I continued reading Scott Fischman's book, "Online Ace." I want to make my Vegas trip very productive and it is obvious to me that the only way to do that is to spend a lot of time preparing and studying for the WSOP. Binging from now to the time I go to Vegas would be the worst thing that I could possibly do.
So, I am going to set my goals high when it comes to preparation. For just this week, I want to watch 30 poker videos and finish reading the Harrington on Hold'em series and also finish three other books that are more directed to the psychology of poker. I think that I am going to read and study until I get back to California at the end of the month and then put as much of that information to work and play in tons of live MTTs.

April Results

2008-05-12T08:35:00.001-07:00

I guess it's been a while since I posted, so I will post some results from last month. April has been my most successful month ever as a poker player. I got 2nd place in FTP's Sunday Brawl and I won a big daily double tournament as well. This netted me about $47,300. It was a big boost to my confidence and big pick me up to my bankroll which was hurting from playing NL(4) at the beginning of the month.
Right after I got 2nd in the Brawl, my poker playing probably got cut by three quarters. I have heard ghost stories of friends going up in limits on cash games and trying to beat tough games just because they had a big tournament score. I was determined not to have this happen. Leaking this big tournament score to the cash game players would be retarded because my month in Vegas over the summer is more important than stroking my ego by playing NL(10). With that said, my main purpose is to have $30,000 of my big score turned into liquid cash, which is much more difficult and time consuming than I anticipated it to be. 20gs going to expenses and my bankroll for Vegas and 10gs going into a CD for next year's tuition (tuition alone for my school is about $40,000 a year).
So April came about new beginnings for my poker adventure and I now have a new problem:
How to build on $40,000 instead of locking it up or spending it all?

Carnival and some poker

2008-04-27T09:19:00.001-07:00

So two weeks ago we had what is called "Carnival" at Carnegie Mellon U. It's a shit show for 4-6 days where all you do is drink and party (I say 4-6 because carnival for me starts on Tuesday while the rest of CMU starts carnival on Thursday). Every party had a theme and every theme was awesome. Wednesday we had the 3rd annual Tom Selleck mustache bash (which was pre-themed by ribs and 40s), Thursday was a Luau, Friday started with us at the Pavillion all day (The pavillion is in a park where we killed about 20 kegs) and then went to Acapulco Nights where we had an ice luge which looked like the devil from Acapulco (Taking shots from this thing might have been one of the greatest experiences of my life). Saturday was our 3rd annual Alumni Golf outing followed by Boom Booms (a local bar). All and all it was a great time. It is nice whenever a big academic school like CMU can party like a state school.

Oh Poker...I won another tournament last weekend. It was one of the big daily doubles on Full Tilt. I happen to like all the daily doubles on FTP. The structures are very good and most of the people who play on them are not very good at all. They either play too fast the whole tournament or they play too conservative for too long and they get blinded out. It is hard to balance those two styles in order to get optimal play, but it is something that I have worked very hard on and it seems that my style is paying off in tournaments. On the flip side of that, I think that my cash game skills have deteriorated a bit from playing all these tournaments. Before I go to Vegas this summer, I am going to need to watch a lot of videos and read some NL cash books so I don't get destroyed in cash games at the RIO.

Well that's all for now. Hopefully I can post another win or two before I go back to Cali.

First Blogg EVER!!! Getting 2nd in the FTP Sunday Brawl

2008-04-14T06:45:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I entered the Sunday Brawl on Full Tilt with just wanting to cash. I had bubbled a couple times in that tournament and the 750k guarantee on FT, so I was very focused on making the money for this tournament. Once I actually got to the bubble (162 cashed), I kept thinking about what Matt Matros kept saying in his videos, "To increase your EV, you have to keep playing." So without doing anything too reckless, I just kept playing. If I had AQo in the blinds and an obvious steal position player raised, I shoved with 15 BBs. If you don't just keep playing (whether it is the bubble or not), you lose the chance to go deep in the tournament.

So with that said, I ended up having about 10-15 BBs from 800 people left to about 40 people left. With about 40 people left, I went on a heater. Winning about two flips and holding up when i was a 3-2 favorite, 3-1 favorite and even when I was a 4-1 favorite, until I got heads up for the title with SkinnyRicky. He was a very good player and we went heads up for awhile and then I went bust when I shoved after a check raise with a straight draw and he called with top pair and 2nd nut kicker.

I missed and he won, but I took a lot out of this tournament. I have found many areas of my game that need to improve, especially my heads up play. Well that's it, but I hope that my first post wasn't too awful.

PEACE