50th

Today was one of the more frustrating days of poker I've had. Most times I raised, I got shoved on, and I had 3 guys at my table regularly shoving for 15 to 20 BB's. I only woke up with 3 hands the whole day - AA (bought the BB from the SB), AKc bought the blinds, QQ (busted a shove monkey).

I wasn't really upset with my finish considering I could never get anything going. Plus I won a huge pot allin with A8 vs AK. However, after that hand I lost A9 to 88 for a big pot and KQ to JJ when I was short to go busto. Another final table would have been sweet, especially given the size of the field and therefore the size of the prizepool, but alas it wasn't meant to be.

I maybe done until the main event starts. I will be playing day 1b (which means this Friday, July 4th). With some luck and good play, hopefully I can make it 3 straight cashes in the Main, and with some really good luck and great play ---- who knows...........

My First Donkament Cash....

I reached day 2 of today's $1500 NLH tourneywith a 51,900 stack (avg around 40K). As the title says, it was my first cash in one of these dinky WSOP NL tourneys. I've always thought they were great EV because of all the dead money, but you still need to navigate the mine field.

Today, I ran ridiculously well. I hit at least 4 or 5 sets. Almost all were for big pots. I also chopped with AQ vs AK and won a "race" with AJ vs AQd on a (JTd)3 flop. Both of those were also fairly large pots. I still played really well in not making any notable mistakes, but today was a day I just rode lady luck's back.

58th

At least I didn't get teased with a deep run. I played two hands. One I called a raise pre and folded on a complete whiff post. The next I raised with A6cQ4s only to get called by two guys (one allin). Flop came T(97s). I shoved and the other guy had a fairly simple call getting about 5 to 1 even though he only had A247. The other guy showed KK22?!? (not exactly the hand I want to go with calling allin). In any case they only held 1 spade combined. I even got a nice tease with an offsuit 5 coming on the turn to give me an open ender. However, the 4 on the river sealed it for me.

In other news, I can safely say I already miss my wife and kids, and they've barely been gone. Anyone who has kids knows how great it is to come home to children who love you unconditionally. They run and give you a hug as soon as you walk in the door and just want to cuddle. Who cares that you busted from a big tourney on the bubble? Also, my wife is wonderful and a saint for taking care of the kids on her own for basically a month and a half straight.

Boring but alive...

I made it to day two of the $1500 PLO8 tourney today. We are barely into the money and I am on a short stack of 16,100. Average is about 31K. I was up to about 23K early into the 5th level, but from that point on I never went above 23K or below 15K. I would chip up in small pots and then blind off. I never picked up much of anything. However, in this game you can survive a long time with nothing if you play patient and smart. I am hoping the patience I displayed the last 4 levels today pay off tomorrow with a nice rush.

My wife and kids leave tomorrow for home. It was a nice change of pace to have them here, and I wish they could stay longer. It's always nice to come home after a bad day at the tables to three people who are just happy to see you. Hopefully, my wife will be able to come back out here in early July, and drive back with me once the series is done.

Good News/Bad News

Good news - I played one of my best tourneys today. Bad news - It didn't matter.

I busted a guy on the 50/100 in a 4500 pot with AKc vs JJ to get to 6K. My table was ridiculously weak. The 5 players to my left were all tight and extremely predictable. I was in ATC mode when folded to me from the button to the HJ-1 . I chipped up to around 8k and then I busted one of the remaining two decent players in a 4k pot with AK vs AQ. When I saw my table was breaking soon I raised 3 straight pots to end it. At my new table, not much changed. I literally chipped up to 24K without showing down a hand except for calling a very short stack's allin with 44 from the BB. He had KTs and won the coin flip.

Right before dinner, I got moved to my 3rd and 4th tables within 5 minutes. Ten minutes later dinner came and I had 21.5K.

Before the next level started, I had to move to my 5th table. The only player I recognized was Gobboboy. I raised the 1sy hand from the CO with KT and bought the blinds. Two hands later, I got JJ and raised to 1525. A newb to my left RRed to 4500 leaving him 4700. Normally this seems like a monster (specifically AA/KK), but I just didn't think this was the case. I decided to stop-n-go any flop. A93 flop came. Not exactly what I was looking for, but if he has KK or QQ it should work everytime. He called with AQd and held. I picked up all the chips on the next hand with QJc. I raised and the only other big stack at the table called from the BB. He was a very cocky young kid who Gobboboy had said was very agg. Flop came JT4 with 2 diamonds. I checked behind him and he says "good check". 9d on the turn and he immediately starts saying "oooh man that hit me nicely", and I called his 1975 bet. River x and I just called his 3875 bet. He says nut ten. I quietly flip over the winner and he is shocked. He just couldn't believe I would actually check away from top pair. He also said he would have called me if I shoved (lol). I guess I missed some value. 6 hands later I get AK. 2nd pos made it 2k, then a shortie shoved for 4600. I raised it to 9k. Unfortunately the button then instashoved for 15575. The first guy folded, and I was literally sick to my stomach. I had to call 6575 for about a 32K pot. I was virtually certain he had AA or KK obviously. However, I only needed 17% eq. I called and he "luckily" showed KK. The other guy had TT. Incidently my eq turned out to be 25%, but against AA there it only would have been 6%. I still dont know if I should have called. I suppose there was a small chance he had QQ or AK. I mean this is a $1500. Anyway, the board ran out QT899. This knocked me down to 5300. The next hand, one guy limped and I found 88. This was an easy shove. However, the BB ended up calling off about half his stack with AJ. He turned an A and I was out. I thought it was a semi-loose call given his stack size and the danger of the limper maybe having a monster, but maybe he thought I was tilting.

Castle of Pain's Good Week Continues

Last night, Seth Fischer had the COPs 2nd final table of the week when he placed 2nd in the $2500 NLH 6-max tourney for a mere $330K or so. He seemed to play very well from what I saw. Although he did run very well in his allins throughout the tourney (including an AK vs AA win that basically could have knocked him out 3rd), in a sick reversal of fortune he was one card away from the bracelet before losing. He got Dario Minieri allin with KK vs 43s, and the flop brought two spades and then running 4s. Sad to say, he was unable to mount a comeback after this and lost a little while later with KTd vs QQ.

Hopefully, all of us can continue this streak with good play and deep runs. I am playing tonight's 10K O8 World Championship.

Mixed Emotions

To find out what place I got today, all you need to do is refer to the quote on the left surrounding the picture of me. I really felt all day long that I was going to pull it out. I had over half the chips in play at a couple points 3-handed, but unfortunately this one guy repeatedly doubled through me. Only once did we get it in with him as a favorite, and a few times he was drawing very thin. This left a bad taste in my mouth when I got knocked out because he was easily the worst player at the final table. Congrats to Barry G for taking home the bracelet.

I am extremely pleased with my performance in the event. I did make a few mistakes at the final table, although only twice did it potentially cost me. The money was much needed for me because of the cold streak I had been in, but I really wanted that bracelet......

Thanks for all the HOP II guys for sweating me. One of these days one of us will bring the big prize home. Also thanks for all my family supporting/rooting me on back in IL.

Finally!!!!

I just ended today with the chip lead going into the final table of the Razz tourney with 359,500. Second is around 220,000 and is Barry Greenstein. Also of note is Archie Karas. For those who don't know, Archie is famous for going on a legendary streak on the craps tables and in heads-up poker matches. He rode it up to supposedly more than $40 million before losing it all. However, he was also known for taking on all challengers in heads up Razz.

I went on a sick rush to end the day. With 16 left I had 128K which was slightly above average. Over the next 45 minutes, I rode it up to my current stack, and eight guys quickly busted. Alot happened during the day, including my being allin 4 times. Two of the times I doubled I had less than 5K at the 2000/4000 level.

Anyways I am started to crash here.

Happy father's day dad! Love ya.

Momma said I can talk again (at least for 1 day)

Today was easily my best day of poker in a while. I know it was Razz, but almost all of my decisions were spot on Even when I was wrong, I felt like like it was a proper play. My table started out super juicy...beyond my lofty expectations even. The two worst guys lasted a significant amount of time while some of the better players busted early. Everything seemed to play out beautifully. I don't have a huge stack, but I am a fair amount above average with 20,500. Average is around 13k I think. I don't even think I ran that well. In my estimation, I ran a little above average maybe, but I didn't spew a bit and made some thin value bets and some big calls with very marginal hands.

I'm not sure what my table will look like tomorrow, but if I can continue my play and dodge the bad luck, I like my chances.

My momma said.....

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. So, hopefully I'll have something to write tomorrow.

Short and bitter

Out early in the $1500 PLO. AAQ7 vs JT74 on a 775 board. I was a 60/40 favorite although at the time I thought it was more like 70/30. The pot was about 4600, and he hit a J on the river to win.

I play the 3K HORSE tomorrow.

Quick Update

While I've been ice cold, some guys in our house have been doing excellent. Tom has had a 12th place finish in the $1500 NLH 6-max, and a 22nd finish in the $1500 NLH (that had over 3900 people). Jason finshed 13th (I think) in the 5K Mixed Holdem event and 16th in the $1500 NLH 6-max. Toph had a 18th place finish in the 1k NLH w/ RB's. Also of note is our friend Nappy (he's not in the house), who just finished 11th in the $2500 NLH for the biggest cash of his career.

All in all we've been doing really well, it's just kind of sick we have 6 top 22 finishes (5 in the house) but no final tables. The breakthru will come shortly if everyone keeps playing as well as they are.

1 2 3 You're Out!

My short stack lasted all of 3 hands today. On the second hand, I woke up with a real strong hand and bricked out to get crippled. Next hand, I was allin and flopped top two vs a set.

Tomorrow is the $1500 PLO. It is crucial to hit your big hand early because there isn't alot of play with your starting stack in this tourney.

On to Day 2....barely

I'm pretty tired, but suffice to say I have made day 2 of the 2k Omaha H/L event with only 5k. We started with 4k. I won few pots for the majority of the day. To be honest, my hands just sucked. Fortunately, I hit one 10 minute rush to go from 4k to 10k. Outside of that, it was pretty much sit on my hands for 8 levels. The only significant pot that I got screwed on, I chopped 3 ways after flopping the nuts. The river cost me about 6K and would have got me to about 15k at the time. I feel I played super strong outside of one hand. I truly think the vast majority of the field would not have made it through the day given my hands. Hopefully, this will pay off tomorrow (actually later today) with a strong run.

Fun in the Sun

Lost JJ to 99 allin pre to get to about an average stack after losing about 40% of my stack in the first level. Nine came on the flop. See ya next time. The rest of the tourney was fairly noneventful except for two hands. Both times I lost to flushes with top pair decent kicker (one I folded on the river, one I called on the river).

Bleh

Misplayed a hand early on and let a guy hit a one outer for free. Then made a mistake by calling his allin on the turn. This crippled me, but I doubled up twice to give myself a chance. Unfortunately, I lost a coin flip that would have been big. This was the first tourney I was really mad at myself afterwards. I not only need to bring my A game everytime, I also need to catch some breaks. Today, neither occurred, and I basically got what I deserved

On a good note, we moved into the house today. It is great to have all the guys together again like two years ago. Hopefully, this will get me going again.

Close, but no...........

I never really could get anything going today. On one of the first hands, I lost about 4K (or about a third of my stack). I dwindled down to 6K before hogging a 3-way pot I almost (and maybe should have) folded on the flop. This took me up to 16K when the average was about 17K. After that, nothing really went well. I got knocked out in about 120th.

The $1500 NLH 6-max is tomorrow. It's a fun event especially if you can get a hold of some chips early. Pretty much everyone I know will be playing it. Also, we move into our house tomorrow.

Event #6 - $1500 Omaha H/L

I expected this to be a juicy field with much more prestigious events going on. However, my first table had only 2 or 3 weak spots, and most of the guys knew each other. Fortunately I ran well out of the gate and got up to 4100 from a 3K starting stack at the first break. Early on in level 3 I got up to 5500 before going somewhat cold and siphoning a few chips. I got moved to a new table and went into the second break at 3300. This new table was still above average for this field, but it was definitely softer than the first table. I lost a decent pot on a huge draw to fall to 2100 at the 200/400 level. However, right after this I got a little lucky in a big scooped pot, and then I won another scooped pot the next hand. This took my stack up to over 7k. Most of the good players at my table got eliminated soon after. I chipped up a little more to get to 9700 at the next break going into the 400/800 level. Nothing much happened in the last two levels of the day until the last 30 minutes. I hit a little rush to finish right at 13K. I wish we could have kept playing because this table was real soft by the end of the night. The average is about 13K with about 200 of the 830 remaining. Top 81 cash and hopefully, I can hit a rush to start the day tomorrow.

Event #3 - $1500 PL Holdem

Not much to this one. I chipped up to 4500 in the first hour with two well played hands, but then ran into a ridiculous and unavoidable cooler. It folded around to the small blind at the 50/100 level and he completed. I checked my option with T5o. Flop came KT5 and he check called my 100 bet. 5 on the turn, and he check called another 250. On the 9 river, he check-raised my 650 bet to about 1900. I put him allin for another 600 and he called. I knew there was a chance he had K5, but that was the only hand that beats me here. He should never show up with KK, TT, or 99 here. However, 95 and especially QJ are easily possible. Of course he had K5 and I was crippled to 1K. I stayed there for another hour before busting with AK vs JJ vs ATh 3-way allin.

On a crazy note the guy on my left at my starting table had AA, KK, 3 QQ's, 2 JJ's, and TT all in the first 90 minutes or about 45 hands. Eight premium pairs in 45 hands!!! He showed almost all of them, and also said he had 88 77 and AK that he didnt show because he had to muck them to bets on losing hands.

I play today in the $1500 Omaha H/L. The field should be extremely soft.

Two congratulations need to be sent out - 1) to Tom Fuller who played deep into the morning today before falling out of the $1500 NLH tourney in 22nd out of 3900+. 2) to my daughter Ellie for having finished her last day of kindergarten yesterday.