July, August, and Most of September

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

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.

Traveling

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

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

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

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

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