WSOP 2010 Day One
Sunday, May 30th: Ah, the first day of the series. The part where you’re still genuinely excited to be there. Actually, I find I hold up a bit better than most guys, I suppose mostly because of my attitude towards busting; it’s win win, no matter the result of the hand. You either win the hand and get some chips, or bust out and have your afternoon or evening free in Las Vegas. I suppose there are occasionally those lame 12 hour then bust with four minutes to go days, but even then a whole lot of weed and nothing else to do awaits you at home. It’s not so bad.
I’m feeling particularly good going into this year’s WSOP. I’ve played an awful lot of poker recently during the SCOOP, done some coaching with both my roommates, co-authored and reviewed a book, gotten into the best shape I possibly can, and am mostly abstaining from alcohol through the duration. At the end of the day there’s not much you can do if you get the bitch end of variance over ~30 events, but I like to think I gave myself about as good an improved edge leading up to the summer as I could. Unfortunately, I began things on an off-note by losing my tournament receipt, meaning I’d arrive at the Rio at near exactly noon and have to weed through a sea of hopeful tournament registrants to get a new one. I figured there’d be no line at the 7 diamond club section and walked in without notice. One of the simple pleasures of regularly wearing a suit and tie is that you can walk in anywhere with a knowing look and a nod so long as that’s somewhere people in suits are considered staff, which is many places. I was only eight minutes late to the table, where I sat down with a cheerful “Hey guys” to everyone. People said they thought I was a floor-man.
I started chatting up the middle aged guy on my right and found out that this was his second WSOP event, having played the same event the previous year. He seemed pretty risk averse talking to him, and specifically mentioned that it was unfortunate that he had to put his chips in with a draw at the end of the day, which proved relevant in the first major hand of the day:
Effective stacks: ~3000, blinds 25/25, I hold 4c5c UTG
Preflop: I raise to 75, folds to the BB, BB calls.
Flop: Ac 7c 5h
BB checks, I bet 75, the irregularly small continuation bet that had worked an extremely high percentage on the table. The BB thought briefly and checkraised to 375. It seemed like a pretty awkward spot and I thought that he might not have any hands that checkraise/fold range given how risk averse he seemed, and most of the hands I get it in against I’m not actually doing so hot against. I feel there are very probably zero draws in his check-raise range.
Turn: Tc
BB bets 600, I call. Since I think there’s zero draws in his range, I think he never has clubs, and that if I bomb him on the turn he might get away from two pair because the obvious scare card hit. I think when river blanks I get him for the rest more often by flatting.
River: 2d
BB bets 600, I think a little and shove, and he goes into the tank. Eventually he lines up his chips and slides them in, then disappointedly looks at my flush. He tabled A5 and said he just couldn’t put me on a flush since I’d raised from UTG.
I found a ton of hands worth opening and the table was generally playing very passive and straight forward. I was being flatted pretty often but it didn’t seem like guys wanted to get out of line too much. I played my next larger hand at the blind jump:
My stack: ~6000, Hijack: ~3800, UTG+1: ~1500, I hold AdQd on the CO.
Preflop: UTG folds, UTG+1 calls, MP1 calls, MP2 folds, hijack calls, I raise to 250, folds to BB, BB calls, UTG+1 calls, MP1 folds, HJ calls.
Flop: 3c 9h Qh
BB checks, UTG+1 shoves for 1275, hijack calls, I raise to 3275, BB folds, hijack folds. UTG+1 tables KQ and when the board bricks out I take it down.
My upward momentum continued through the level, until I found myself in a curious situation in the next:
My stack: ~10,000, MP1: ~4500, MP2: ~2300, blinds 50/100, I hold AcTc UTG 8 handed.
Preflop: I raise to 250, folds to MP1, MP1 calls, MP2 looks down at my bet as if it is difficult to see, then sets out 350.
“That’s a raise” says the dealer.
“What?” he replied confused.
“That’s a raise. You’ve put out more than half the initial raise, you have to raise it.”
“Oh.”
It folded back around to me. Assuming the guy wasn’t angling then he basically never has anything good here and the initial guy is pretty loose-passive, so I think the move is to reraise to an amount that allows you to fold to MP1 and call off MP2; so I reached into the pot, took back the chips I had, and threw out 1100. Unfortunately, it seems I had additionally scooped up the BB, causing a need for the floor to be called. Classic live misclick. We were assured that my raise was instead to 1000 and the BB was returned to the pot. MP1 folded and MP2 insta-jammed for 2300 total. I obviously called and he proudly flipped over pocket kings. My man.
“Lawlz” I announced to nobody in particular.
“I am gonna ace ball the fuck out of this guy, I’m running way too good not to today” I thought.
Flop: A 2 3, with the ace on the door.
Turn: 4
River: A
Sweet.
Not long after our table was broken up. I was moved to the other side of the massive room. The WSOP has logistically really done things right this year, using their two biggest available rooms and several other medium ones to run the events. It’s nowhere near as crowded as previous years. I wound up at a table with Ryan Fee’s roommate David, and Pearljammers now fiancé Xtracey. “I thought you were the floor when you came over here, but when you sat down it had to be Bond” she said a few seconds into my arrival. It was the first time I’d ever met her and I have to say that PJ has found himself a very engaging girl. Well played sir. She was very pleasant, and could not understand what she’d ever done to catch hate on the internet. For some reason, that just seems to be the thing about poker society; it’s pretty hateful. Our entire occupation revolves around taking each other’s money and considering that the variance in the game rewards some so much more so than others, it stirs up some serious envy. I definitely used to be one of them, but I suppose I’ve just come to think that all I can control is how well I play and there’s not much point in getting worked up about the shit I can’t control. I think if you want to criticize someone’s play, you can do it in a way that’s polite civil discourse, and not in a wise ass manner that inevitably degenerates into an E-dick waiving contest. Writing this paragraph has made me want to go smoke more weed and watch the “Player haters ball” episode of Chappelle show. That’s definitely happening right after this.
Not long after my arrival to the table we moved up to the 75/150 level. I had been fairly tight when the following hand came up. The BB was a young guy who Xtracy talked to about being an online SNG player, and he’d been playing well thus far:
My stack: ~9000, BB: ~12,000, blinds 75/150. I hold QdQh UTG:
Preflop: I raise to 400, folds to the button, SB folds, BB calls.
Flop: Kc Qs 5s
BB checks, I bet 800, button folds, BB calls.
Turn: 4s
BB checks. I think this spot is close and I’m going to post it. I didn’t think I could double barrel for value against a ton of his range, given most of his flop peels will be flush draws, JT, and one pair king and queens, with the queen naturally being very unlikely. He would often though not always checkraise two pair or a set on that kind of flop, so I think betting the turn against a range of flushes and hands that are likely to fold that don’t have much chance of sucking out isn’t right, but perhaps I’m over thinking here. I checked back.
River: 4h
BB bets 1300, I think a little while and make it 4500. He goes into the tank for quite a while, then eventually folds. He later said that he had Ts9s, and I told him we’d talk about it when either of us busted. He wound up getting short and busting first, and we chatted about it and I told him he’d made a good fold against my queens full.
I mostly stayed out of trouble until the 100/200 level, when I played a major pot:
My stack: ~12,000, MP2: ~10,000, blinds 100/200. I hold 8d8s in the BB.
Preflop: Folds to MP2, MP2 raises to 500, folds to me in the BB, I call.
Flop: Th 6h 3c
I check, MP2 bets 800, I call.
Turn: 8c
I check, MP2 bets 1500, I raise to 4000, he shoves, and I naturally call instantly.
“Do you have 97” he asked?
I tabled my hand and saw the bad news when he flipped up TT. I started laughing and said “When he asked if I had 97 I was all; ah fuck!”
River: 3
I counted out the necessary chips and slid them over to him. I was crippled down to the 2000 area.
A couple orbits later I shoved 99 on the CO for about 1800 and was tank called by the button with QQ. It wasn’t a slowroll or even a nitroll, for some reason this guy tanked pretty much every hand he played, perhaps a student of the John Phan method. The board bricked out then I shook his hand and told him “Best of luck.”
I ran about the Rio for a bit checking in on people and catching up with people I hadn’t seen since last year. I decided to take it easy tonight and not go out since I’ll be playing tomorrow. I looked over the schedule and from what I can tell; I think I’ll have perhaps two or three days off in the month of June. Sounds like fun.
A night at Stoney’s: Friend bangs girl in truck
I was hoping to update my blog with the story of the beer pong tournament, but unfortunately that's stuck on the computer that won't get internet. Luckily, Thursday night produced an equally entertaining story, and while I am not it's protagonist, I am certainly in part responsible.
A group of 20 or so of us in the poker community met up at Bachi Burger on the South side of Las Vegas. My friend Brandon Schafer was there and mentioned that he was going out to Stoney's after dinner, and the boys and I readily agreed. For those not familiar with Stoney's; it's a Vegas locals bar about 10 minutes South of the strip on Las Vegas boulevard. It plays a mix of hip-hop and country music, has several beer pong tables, video games, a mechanical bull in the corner, and is partially frequented by men in cowboy boots and hats. It is not suit country.
We drove over after dinner, and had a group out all interested in chatting up some girls that night. I'd been drinking since the beer pong tournament and we got into into the vodka straight away. My particular memories for the night are fairly hazy, but at some point I can recall that I saw some girl I figured was my friend Smitty's type and sort of shoved him at her, saying "That girls all you."
What happened after that is a series of events as related by Smitty, as I witnessed none of it and was entirely unaware it happened until I came home in the 4am vicinity. He talked to the girl somewhere in the 5 minute area, and finding himself not particularly enthralled, decided to throw up the deep bomb and just flat out asked her to come home with him. She declined the offer for logistical reasons, but fortunately counter-offered with "I have a truck."
Smitty took her hand and lead her outside, where at some point he realized he was not carrying a condom. I'll have to ask for further clarification on this part, but I'm told he "bribed the bouncer for a condom" (?). I'd like to add how proud of him I am for taking the time to be so responsible, particularly when so intoxicated. They then made their way to the girls truck, hopped in, lost their clothes, and got down to what Smitty later described as "The one time in my life I wasn't just thrilled to be having sex." Apparently things were not particularly comfortable, and after some time of drunken and logistically difficult fornication he pulled out and she started going down on him. He finished by busting on her stomach, and within the next minute or two one of the girls friends had shown up. She somehow set off the car alarm, causing Smitty to panic, leap up, and run out of the truck while attempting to put his pants on. In doing so he managed to leave behind his wallet with something in the area of $1000 in it, and has been unable to get the girl to return it in their text conversations after the fact.
I don't remember this so well, but I'm told I first heard this story when I arrived home completely wasted that night. Smitty said something like "I fucked a girl in a truck" and I started screaming in the middle of the house "YOU STUCK YOUR DICK IN A GIRL IN A TRUCK!?!?!?"
I'll update this if he winds up getting his wallet back. I'm assuming it's not happening.
Update: The number he got that he thought was the girl turned out to be online MTT player Holdplz. They went back and forth for a couple days before they figured it out.
Poker Log Days 86-95
Days 86-95, May 25th: I have barely played poker for the last week and a half. I played a medium sized Sunday session of about 11 hours and got second in the UB $30k for enough to make a small profit on the day combined with the rest of my cashes. We held our house warming and first of many parties on Friday. I think at our height there was perhaps 60 people floating around the house, in the outside pool area, and smoking up my pool house. My God did it reek of weed after that night, but it was worth it since as far as I could tell everyone had fun and there was no serious damage to anything outside some small carpet spillage. I've gone back to drinking the last couple of nights. Tomorrow is the Doyle Brunson beer pong tournament and I wanted to make sure that I didn't get insta-wasted after having been sober for so long. My potential partner Randal Flowers had to drop out due to transportation issues, luckily I've replaced him with the very talented Leo Murphy, who dominated our practice rounds this evening at the house. I just haven't found the time or energy to write much lately. I'm hoping to do it pretty often during the WSOP, but I also know that my evenings tend to get away from me during that period so I'm not going to commit to blogging any certain amount of what happens. Any day I blog about I'll aim to do in the same fashion as last year, detailing what goes on but during and outside the tournament scene.
Poker Log Days 82-85
Poker Log day 82-85, May 16th: It's been a full on two weeks of SCOOP. The first week was probably in the 70 hours of play area, and this one was around another 40-50, though that's not as bad as some guys would have done, you know, the type of guys who actually go deep in SCOOPs. I'm not allowed to complain though, because today I had my first sizeable result since returning to grinding by getting 6th in the Tilt $750,000 for 23k and change. For years I didn't even play the things because I couldn't wake up at the early Australian hours and feel focused, but I can increasingly see why people both enjoy and dispise playing so many high value tournaments over the course of one massive day. I had a few interesting hands which I posted on 2+2:
Hand 1: SCOOP 1k main event. I had not been very active leading up to the hand. The table had been kind of limpy but it was near the peak of my day so I didn't have a very elaborate read leading up to the hand. Anyone do anything different anywhere?
Thoughts on river? Kind of gross that a player showing passive tendencies like limping is min raising that turn and going for a val looking river sizing, but we also don't know if he's dumb enough to think a 7 or 78 is the nuts here, which most 1k players aren't but then again he's limping and it's a big Sunday 1k, but then, we have a flush!
Poker Stars $1000+$50 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t75/t150 Blinds + t20 - 9 players
SB: t20926 M = 51.67
Hero (BB): t8965 M = 22.14
UTG: t7374 M = 18.21
UTG+1: t21585 M = 53.30
UTG+2: t6605 M = 16.31
MP1: t13305 M = 32.85
MP2: t11090 M = 27.38
CO: t4501 M = 11.11
BTN: t5649 M = 13.95
Pre Flop: (t405) Hero is BB with 5
9
1 fold, UTG+1 calls t150, 1 fold, MP1 calls t150, 4 folds, Hero checks
Flop: (t705) 3 5
6 (3 players)
Hero bets t455, UTG+1 calls t455, MP1 folds
Turn: (t1615) 4 (2 players)
Hero bets t990, UTG+1 raises to t1980, Hero calls t990
River: (t5575) T (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets t2850, Hero...
Hand 2: Stars $109 125k final with about 13 left. Villain had been pretty passive and inactive, I had been opening pretty frequently. Obviously, his flat is super scary and anyone who's good at this game knows they can just shove if they have KK/AA and near always get called with 10 BB but who knows people are dumb on Sunday and I want to check I'm not too nity in these spots. I pretty much want to play flop as bet/fold to something like this but I'm curious as to whether we should bet/call a shove?
Poker Stars $100+$9 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t6000/t12000 Blinds + t1200 - 6 players
BB: t219585 M = 8.71
UTG: t334516 M = 13.27
MP: t423091 M = 16.79
Hero (CO): t294129 M = 11.67
BTN: t432837 M = 17.18
SB: t125056 M = 4.96
Pre Flop: (t25200) Hero is CO with 9
9
2 folds, Hero raises to t26600, 1 fold, SB calls t20600, 1 fold
Flop: (t72400) 7 K 7 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets t27755, SB raises to t55510, Hero...
Hand 3: Tilt 750k with what I think was 15 left. I had OPR'd villain and he had minimum experience, played fairly low buy ins, and thus far he had been pretty tight/weak with his short stack. I'd been fairly active but not excessively so, especially since my stack had taken a few small/medium hits in hands that never got to showdown.
How much do you guys read into his making it 60k as opposed to shoving when he's a player of this experience level? Obviously if any reg or someone with a brain does this to you I think it's a get in, but vs this guy in a situation this high pressure?
Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guarantee No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t5000/t10000 Blinds + t1000 - 7 players
UTG: t631699 M = 28.71
Hero (UTG+1): t244738 M = 11.12
MP: t274582 M = 12.48
CO: t117992 M = 5.36
BTN: t65328 M = 2.97
SB: t412972 M = 18.77
BB: t208303 M = 9.47
Pre Flop: (t22000) Hero is UTG+1 with 8 8
1 fold, Hero raises to t22225, 1 fold, CO raises to t60000, 3 folds, Hero requests TIME...
My focus over the next two weeks leading up to the WSOP will be more on study than play. I'll aim to play perhaps three days a week and spend large periods doing hand history reviews of my roommate's tournaments, making Pokersavvy vids with other players, playing tons of heads up, harassing people with questions, and anything else I can think of to get myself in a state of maximum preparation for the WSOP. Because I'll be playing cash most days I'll have a more flexible schedule and can return to working out twice a day so I can reach a physical peak leading up to the series. I find that I'm rather enjoying not drinking and I think once the WSOP starts I won't let up as much as expected and I'll likely stay off the sauce most nights with a few exceptions, such as the upcoming Doyle Brunson beer pong tournament for which I will be proper fucking wasted with my partner Randal Flowers through the duration of. Randal's a great kid and we got the chance to hit up the town while he was in Vegas. His last night here we wound up going out to the infamous Rhino. I had never been in a Vegas strip club before minus a quick jaunt in and out as a favor to a cab driver friend, and I had recently read some stuff on picking up strippers. There were a few things that stuck out in my mind, that the most important factor is to get a stripper to momentarily click off from business mode and get her on a personal level, that a stripper cannot put you in the "customer frame" wherein you drop serious money to spend time with her, and that strippers shit test more than any other women on the planet.
They did not disappoint. They barrage you with shit tests in near every statement and much of what they say is designed to illicet specific information. They have excellent game, because they have so much practice. The theory goes that when it comes to shit tests, you either blow them up if you have something clever to say, often phrased in a "yes and..." wiseass kind of way, or you sidestep. After you chat up enough women you start seeing shit test patterns and you wind up with answers you've found to be optimal after trial and error.
1. "Do you want some gum?"
"Are you saying I have bad breath?"
"Yes, and would it kill you to brush?"
2. "Do you do this often?"
"Yes in fact, I do this all day every day, and I have zero legitimate business here whatsoever."
3. "So you're a whore huh?"
"Yes, but we whores prefer to be called sluts."
And so forth. Then there are the ones for which there are no yes or no answers. For these, make sure you don't qualify yourself or become defensive in any way (which you should obviously never do anyway). The mistake most guys make is qualifying, by which I mean they attempt to explain their behavior in a rational way to the woman throwing the test at them. For example, I carry around a crappy phone compared to my peers, the reasons being that I have a better one which I haven't been fucked unlocking, and that I generally find that either I or my friends will somehow destroy any decent phone I buy and you know what, fuck the Ipone and it's addictive time wasting applications anyway. If a girl senses the in-congruency of walking around dressed to the nines but carrying a plain phone she'll often ask "What's up with the phone?" or "No iphone?" The wrong answer is to tell her why, the right one is something along the lines of "I'm broke, can't you tell?" or some other sarcastic non response. I digress from the strippers though.
So Randal and I took a taxi over to the Rhino, and for once in my life I was just chilling in a white t-shirt and some linen pants, as I had been grinding all day. When we got there I was told that I wasn't allowed in with the simple top and made to buy a Spearmint Rhino t-shirt and wear it. I looked like a proper dick head. It was very crowded for whichever weekeday it was and it took us some time to find space on a couch. As anyone who's ever been to a strip club knows, the strippers generally approach you, particularly if you maintain eye contact as they walk by. In my time there I only had a few come sit with me as the place was pretty busy, but one stayed around for a while to chat. I made, as far as I could tell, absolutely zero headway with her, and after about ten or fifteen minutes of banter plus a cocktail for her while I sipped orange juice, she asked me for $40 for her time.
"For your...time?" I inquired.
"Yes you know, for sitting and chatting"
"Nah I'm cool, if you're looking for a customer I'd probably look elsewhere."
She argued for a bit then attempted to lower her price to $20. She then accused me of having wasted an "hour of her time" and being offensive while I sat there entirely calm and polite. The more she got riled up the more blank I became, mostly because I had no idea what kind of logical thought pattern to appeal to so I just sort of sat in silence instead. Honestly, I had no idea how to talk to the strippers and didn't particularly enjoy it. At some point we had been discussing the situation of my t-shirt, and upon becoming angered she told me that she was going to rip my t-shirt to which I replied "Well, seeing as I'm temperless I'm not going to do anything about it, but I'd prefer that you didn't." She reached her hands under both my shirts, slid them up to the top, and tore my bottom white t-shirt near in half. "Well, there goes that." Eventually, she made sure to hit my tab up for another drink then sprinted off the second it arrived. Randal however, had a great time, and the strippers loved him. I decided the joints in my pocket and reading online were much more my cup of tea, then left him on the early side of things.
Vegas is very different socially. People are much more outgoing for reasons outside just the alcohol, and they'll often approach you or open you in conversation for any number of reasons. I'm often posed questions as if I work at the casino due to the way I dress, which is great when some bachlorette party needs directions but not so cool when the confused old people are looking for the bathroom 9 out of the other 10 times. The Vegas locals I meet seem to have a certain distrust for each other, particularly those who weren't born around here since the perception is that only the very money hungry move to Vegas and that the people there are often looking for any angle to take you at.
I grinded hard on Friday then decided to take all Saturday off to just do whatever I wanted and relax leading up to the SCOOP today. I had my plans with my roommate Dan to meet some girls down at the MGM pool party for the day, but when we arrived the line was awful and we decided we didn't care to wait. I asked Dan if he wanted to come run some game on the strip but he declined and took the swim suit and bag I'd brought home with him when he left. While walking the strip I started texting a girl I'd met earlier in the week on the sidewalk in front of the Bellagio. Turns out she was doing club promotion, which is a very common job to see people doing on the streets of Las Vegas if you're attune to what's happening around you. She said she was promoting over at the pool party at the Aria so I said I'd come meet her and her friend. When I got there I didn't have a swim suit so we had to go down to a store and grab one then change into it and leave my clothes at the store. We went back up to the loud pool party where she tried to throw me in the pool and I caught myself and tried to throw her back, and it was pretty much on from that point forward. She said her and her friend were going out to the strip to do promoting, which basically involves approaching groups of girls and trying to talk them into going to their particular club that night. I started telling her that I'd kick her ass at that and I couldn't wait to make her look foolish. She shot right back then gave me a little education on the Vegas promotion industry.
Near every club in Vegas has an army of promoters out walking the streets on the hunt for either girls, or guys who will get a table. The girls are ranked in an A, B, or C format. 'A' girls are proper hot girls, 'B' girls are cute girls who might have a hot body and average face or vice versa, and 'C' are the rest, the average and below. The promoters get a set amount per an 'A' or 'B' girl, and generally nothing for a 'C'. They also get a cut of any bottle that a table reservation buys and often swap clientele with other promoters so they have the ability to offer multiple club service and still see part of the action. Principally, their job is doing something that I have practiced as a hobby for over a year; going out in the middle of the day and talking girls into giving you their phone number and meeting up with you later at some such location. The thing is, many promoters have no tact or social calibration; they understand that getting X amount of people means Y amount of dollars and they'll go out and take as many shots as possible and at times apply unwanted pressure to make that Y happen. Most don't seem to enjoy it since they often get attitude from those they approach and have many silly little rules associated with their job, such as updating their facebook three times a day being mandatory. She couldn't understand why i was so enthusiastic for it, or as she kept saying "You have the right attitude for this". As far as I was concerned I had lucked into my dream date; a date with a cute and fun girl who wants me to pick up other girls for her.
I left her to finish up some work in the evening and went to meet the group I had missed earlier in the day. They were hanging out at their hotel before getting ready to go out that night, and I was their sober accompanyment in what was, at the time, an entirely platonic regard. I think a lot of guys vastly underestimate spending time with women on a the friendly level and nothing will give you a better insight to the way they think and function, plus women like having nice and sociable guys to introduce their friends to. As pick up intstructor '5.0' likes to say "Learning pick up turns guys into girls." It helps to be able to speak to women on the topics that interest them even if they are girly for a man to be learning about, so I read about fashion, am semi conscious of celebrity news, try to know my music, have seen every episode of "Sex and the City", and am increasingly familiar with the behavior and vernacular women have that allows you to show insight at choice moments. Simple examples are things like that many women have what's known as a "bar name", a fake name they give to chodes in bars, or that girls generally carry "flats" in their purses when they go clubbing so they don't have to wear heels home, or all kinds of little things they do that being informed about subcommunicates that you spend a lot of time around women and are generally perceptive. On the whole, women are vastly more socially savvy than men and they pick up on more than most guys would ever think. Boys grow up practicing sports, girls grow up practicing socializing.
We wound up out at Tryst at the Wynn. I'm becoming more and more comfortable with being the sober guy in the club and around the group of drunks, plus it really makes a lot of sense that one person stays in control to keep everyone else out of potentially bad situations. The girls managed to charm a couple of middle aged guys to giving us carte blanche at their table and I'm sure the boys were happy that all I wanted to mooch off them was a few bottles of water. I don't have any problem loosening up without booze these days and I must have spent half my night on the dance floor. The only major difference I notice when clubbing sober is that there are long periods of silence in conversation that I never realized when intoxicated. It's so fucking loud in there and there's so little of relevance to say that people will often sit there sort of watching the mayhem around them for several minutes, and when everyones drunk there's nothing awkward or strange about it. It's a tad more noticable when you're coherent, or perhaps I just have less creative banter when I'm not drinking. Either way, I was out until five and worried that I wouldn't get enough sleep to play poker. I decided I'd let myself sleep until 2pm and just play from the SCOOP main on, and I'm glad I did.
Poker Log: Days 75-81
Days 75-81, May 12th: With the enormous time drain that is the SCOOP my updates have become less regular. My overall productivity at much of anything has become less regular, and I've even missed a little time in the gym here and there. I've also been going out socializing with what I must admit is a bit of purpose so I actually have an established and fun group of friends to regularly go out with Vegas.
Tournament wise things have been in the break even area. It seems that most days I usually have one final table and a few random cashes that wind up making up most of that day's buy ins. I won a small tournament for like $2700 the other day and I'm not sure I was even up overall on it. My plan for the moment is to grind out the remainder of the SCOOP then cut from five or six days of work a week to four so I have a little more free time and study time. I'm going to be commiting some serious effort and concentration into learning cash games and being coached by my roommates leading up to the WSOP.
The list of interesting roommates continues to grow. We've added online phenom 'TheAshman' who is a shy, polite, and genuine kid of 21 who I took clothes shopping the other day and got to know better. We had Dani 'Ansky' Stern around the last couple nights and he will apparently be staying with us over the summer. Last night we went out midnight bowling at Southpoint hotel and casino, which involves dollar beers, so by the time we got home it was decided that Dani and Ashman would have a wrestling match in the yard for the purposes of all of us gambling on it. Dani had a substantial size advantage at 210 pounds to Ashman's 135, but Ash wrestled throughout college so he was made the heavy favorite. They managed to take it to the third round before Ashman got a leg on Dani's chest and applied enough pressure to make him submit, though that he lasted that long against the highly athletic and technically more sound Ash was still impressive.
When I'm not grinding online, in the gym, or observing wrestling matches I'm in the city running some game. Vegas is like a day game dream; almost no girl is in a rush on her way to work or something important, and they're often in a good and sociable mood. When I went out the other night to XS it became readily apparant to me that I was useless at night compared to the day, though it was a locals night and the crowd wasn't nearly as packed with fun loving tourist girls that are the staple of clubs in Vegas. Everyone seemed to be in the club that night, from David Benyamine, to Bobby Belande and Viffer, to Ne-Yo at the next table over. I watched people make it rain with massive wads of one dollar bills on three or four different occasions over the course of the night, including Viffer who nearly started a fight with some kid who sort of leaped across the barrier put in front of the tables so he could grab some ones off the floor. It's amazing what you see and remember when you go out and don't drink.
I finally got around to ordering a new computer set up today. I went with a fairly regular desktop since I don't do anything outside of poker and write on it, but I got two 30 inch monitors so I would have maximum visibility available to me when I play my gigantic amount of tables. If I can spend the next few weeks improving my game and take things to the next level I should be an equity creating machine considering the pure volume and quantity of games I'm capable of playing without wanting to kill myself. Still, I feel like when I get into a more regular grind mode I'll probably be doing five days instead of six as I'm finding six is begining to get unpleasant.
I've saved up a few interesting hands over the last few days. I copy/paste anything that gives me pause to think during the course of the day but often find when I sit down and think it through more thoroughly the answer is pretty obvious. Here's what I have that hasn't been so easy upon reconsideration and have been posted:
Hand 1: Stars turbo $100 single rebuy addon. Villain is a guy I've seen around a little lately but I'm not particularly familiar with his play and there's no thoroughly developed history leading up to this hand.
Anyone do anything particularly different?
Poker Stars $100+$9 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t40/t80 Blinds - 9 players
UTG+2: t5900 M = 49.17
Hero (MP1): t6200 M = 51.67
MP2: t3005 M = 25.04
CO: t5760 M = 48
BTN: t6310 M = 52.58
SB: t5740 M = 47.83
BB: t5545 M = 46.21
UTG: t3000 M = 25
UTG+1: t5850 M = 48.75
Pre Flop: (t120) Hero is MP1 with A J
3 folds, Hero raises to t240, 2 folds, BTN calls t240, 2 folds
Flop: (t600) 9 2 J (2 players)
Hero bets t400, BTN calls t400
Turn: (t1400) 3 (2 players)
Hero bets t990, BTN calls t990
River: (t3380) Q (2 players)
Hero checks, BTN bets t4680 all in, Hero folds
Hand 2: As you can tell from the stacks, it's supe early in the tournament, first orbit if I'm not mistaken. Not much in the way of reads going, certainly no relevant history.
Poker Stars $2000+$100 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 9 players
UTG: t10000 M = 133.33
Hero (UTG+1): t9975 M = 133
UTG+2: t9925 M = 132.33
MP1: t10075 M = 134.33
MP2: t9925 M = 132.33
CO: t9925 M = 132.33
BTN: t9925 M = 132.33
SB: t10250 M = 136.67
BB: t10000 M = 133.33
Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is UTG+1 with Q Q
UTG raises to t150, Hero calls t150, UTG+2 raises to t650, 6 folds, UTG calls t500, Hero calls t500
Flop: (t2025) 8 5 J (3 players)
UTG checks, Hero checks, UTG+2 bets t1150, UTG folds, Hero...
Hand 3: Pretty early in the tournament here. At this stage of the day I'm def playing tons of tables on a Sunday and not getting out of line while super deep stacked in the SCOOP early or anything.
River seems ultra ****y for us. Assuming he has QQ+ after calling the turn given preflop action, I think it's hard to value shove against QQ/KK on that river given it's a spade and at this stage the only thing he beats is a total spaz out bluff. Aces now beat us, so I really question if there's any point in shoving considering no better hands fold no worse hands call. We could check, but if he shoves it ultra seems super gross cause it's unlikely most guys turn QQ/KK into a bluff there.
Thoughts?
Poker Stars $200+$15 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t25/t50 Blinds - 9 players
Hero (UTG): t9650 M = 128.67
UTG+1: t10150 M = 135.33
UTG+2: t10455 M = 139.40
MP1: t9925 M = 132.33
MP2: t8753 M = 116.71
CO: t11597 M = 154.63
BTN: t9800 M = 130.67
SB: t9950 M = 132.67
BB: t9720 M = 129.60
Pre Flop: (t75) Hero is UTG with J J
Hero raises to t150, UTG+1 raises to t450, 7 folds, Hero calls t300
Flop: (t975) 4 J 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, UTG+1 bets t600, Hero raises to t1800, UTG+1 calls t1200
Turn: (t4575) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets t2500, UTG+1 calls t2500
River: (t9575) A (2 players)
Hero...
Note the horrible grammar and redundant use of the word "ultra" in hand 3. This is what happens when you post strat blazed.
Poker Log Day 74
Day 74, May 5th: I woke up on the early side and had my first kempo lesson in the morning. I've got a small amount of traditional boxing training under my belt and I really enjoyed the work out of learning a self defense art, and while I have no interest in ever being in a fight for the rest of my life I figure it can't hurt to know how to carry yourself if it's absolutely necessary. My instructors name is David Williams; I managed to keep from cracking any toe sucking or diamond toothpick jokes through the duration of our time together despite the heavy temptation. Not like he would have got it anyway.
In the afternoon I went into the strip to pick up a suit that the tailoring was finished on, more Wii controllers (turns out they were the one thing we forgot, epic fail) and run some game. I approached this girl right in front of a jewelry store and the guy working there watched it happen. After it was over he came right up to me and was like "Whoa hold on a sec dude...my names Jessie, I mean I'm not as handsome..."
"That's okay, so Jessie...you busy later then?"
"Hahahaha! I can't believe you did that!"
"Practice makes perfect dude."
When guys first get into cold approach they often think that if anyone overhears or witnesses they'll come over and punk them or be like "What the fuck dude?" but any time I've done that in front of someone they're just flat out awe struck instead. Of course there was the one guy who accidentally approached a girl right in front of a girl he had approached 20 minutes ago five blocks away, and she punked him pretty fucking hard. Live and learn though.
After the strip I stopped off at Whole Foods to grab some groceries and lunch. I ran into another online player named Zack, who had recently busted the $1000 SCOOP event in 16th place. The time was about 3pm, and he told me he'd finished only a few hours ago. The tournament had started in the previous evening, and I think it's a good demonstration of when a structure gets too good. I relaly appreciate the quality and quantity of tournaments provided by PokerStars and how much they incorporate the suggestions of their player base, but I think some of the SCOOP structures go too far. Playing 16 straight hours and having your sleep schedule ruined for barely any money would be just so devastating, so I hope they tone those things down a little come next year.
I played an evening session of tournaments. Mid way through our internet cut out and would not come back on. I had to call Shaun Deeb and ask him to cover for me on Stars and UB while I tried to work it out. Unfortunately, Tilt does not allow you to have a friend cover in the event of a disconnection, so I had to just let my stacks drain there. I wound up driving all the way to Deeb's so I could continue playing on his laptop. I played very spewy from that point on and wound up running deep in a few places but not turning them into any serious results. There were a number of interesting hands from yesterday's session that I saved which I have posted on 2+2 as follows:
Hand 1:
Stars $100r 6 max. Villain is a reg I have tons of history with. He probably considers me TAGish and thinking, and in this current tournament we have no particularly relevant back and forth history. I def 3 bet/call JJ pre, but I think with no antes and no 3 bet history I'm not sure I can profitably 3 bet/call him here, but perhaps considering it's 6 max I should and we'll plug that leak immediately.
I'm very confused when we get to the turn. I feel like most of the time he has a better hand than me he bets on the flop given the texture, so I sort of feel like my hand should be ahead on the turn, but I also can't figure how many worse hands would be raising me. Even many of his combo draws have showdown value so I think he'd just call, so I'm mostly just confused. Thoughts?
Poker Stars $100+$9 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t75/t150 Blinds - 6 players
BTN: t6435 M = 28.60
SB: t5425 M = 24.11
Hero (BB): t10345 M = 45.98
UTG: t7640 M = 33.96
MP: t6465 M = 28.73
CO: t7670 M = 34.09
Pre Flop: (t225) Hero is BB with T T
1 fold, MP raises to t355, 3 folds, Hero calls t205
Flop: (t785) 5 6 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks
Turn: (t785) 2 (2 players)
Hero bets t575, MP raises to t1600, Hero...
Hand 2:
Tilt $20r 6 max. I have done zero 3 betting preflop thus far. The villain who shoved on me is a guy I've played with quite a bit recently. I don't have a super good read on him, but he seems sensible and we were talking about how I was hanging with one of his friends at a club this weekend who is a pro, so I'd guess he's probably a thinking player if that's the case.
I feel like he shoves AK pre every time, folds AJ everytime, and might flat AQ but would generally shove or fold it as most thinking players do these days. I guess he could have TT or AA, but obv AA is unlikely and I think on this texture a set probably check calls the flop pretty often. I think he could have big hearts, which we're ahead of but he has plenty of equity. I guess the question is, does he have enough drawing hands in his range to make this a call with the good odds despite the times that we're behind we're totally crushed?
Full Tilt Poker $14,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t80/t160 Blinds - 6 players
SB: t8062 M = 33.59
BB: t20240 M = 84.33
UTG: t12915 M = 53.81
Hero (MP): t13530 M = 56.38
CO: t15625 M = 65.10
BTN: t4408 M = 18.37
Pre Flop: (t240) Hero is MP with A 3
UTG raises to t320, Hero raises to t920, 2 folds, SB calls t840, 1 fold, UTG requests TIME, UTG calls t600
Flop: (t2920) T 6 A (3 players)
SB checks, UTG checks, Hero bets t1770, SB raises to t7142 all in, UTG folds, Hero...
Hand 3:
UB $120 20k. Pretty common type of spot, but I realized it might be one I misplay regularly. Randoms on UB tend to be worse than on the other sites, so they're a bit more passive about semi bluffing but also over play top pair type hands a bit more too.
On the turn I'm not sure whether I should bet/call cause he could semi bluff, bet/fold cause he's never shoving any worse hands for value, or check/eval because the previous two options are both a little awkward. I'm not sure I get three streets here from the times he's just a medium king, but maybe I'm over estimating my opponents as I think it's clear I too often do.
My stack: 7,345
Button: 4,608
Blinds 50/100
I hold Kh Ad UTG
Preflop: I raise to 300, folds to the button, button calls, both blinds fold.
Flop: Kc 4h Ts
I bet 450, button calls.
Turn: Tc
I...
Hand 4:
Stars $11 single RA. Hey guys, playing a crap ton of donkaments lately including some smaller stuff and wanted to see if my logic still holds up there. This guy had been moderately active and I had not 3 bet him at all, and I don't think I'd been doing much 3 betting at all.
I felt like if he had a real big pair on the flop he'd basically never lead it, so I could raise flop with the plan to jam the turn and he'd just have to give me credit for one of the biggest pairs and fold whatever he had. I feel like his bet is half value half information with something like TT or JJ and just begging me to blow it up, but I might be completely wrong and guys at these stakes are leading good hands cause they don't realize that by checking they get an extra bet from my 3 bet bluffing range. Thoughts?
Poker Stars $10+$1 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t300/t600 Blinds + t50 - 9 players
BTN: t61625 M = 45.65
SB: t34249 M = 25.37
BB: t31100 M = 23.04
UTG: t29010 M = 21.49
UTG+1: t49705 M = 36.82
UTG+2: t14011 M = 10.38
MP1: t6970 M = 5.16
Hero (MP2): t43541 M = 32.25
CO: t7421 M = 5.50
Pre Flop: (t1350) Hero is MP2 with T A
1 fold, UTG+1 raises to t1800, 2 folds, Hero raises to t5225, 4 folds, UTG+1 calls t3425
Flop: (t11800) 4 6 4 (2 players)
UTG+1 bets t4200, [color=red]Hero raises to t12200...
Poker Log Days 72-73
Days 72-73: Two days of massive poker grinding. Yesterday's session was like 11 hours I think. I started more or less right after the gym and just registered for everything I could get my fucking hands on. There are just so many tournaments available to me now, I've forgotten how good it is. The volume simply doesn't bother me; if I can get my auto-pilot game (which is necessary when in the 20 table region) on a higher level I'll be able to do some serious damage.
Yesterday I final tabled a Tilt $30r and finished 3rd for a bit under $4,000 or something. That plus the random cashes on the day likely made it a slight up day considering the quantity of buy ins. I won the UB $30k sniper today for just under $7,900, plus another in the their $30r for something small. I feel like I'm on the cusp of hitting something much harder; I've gone deep in the fuper and stuper several times this week and come up barely short each time.
Life in Vegas is quite pleasant and I've settled into a new form of productive routine. I hit the gym straight away in the morning, about 11:30 (poker morning), then have the option of taking my afternoon or evening off for my various purposes. On the big SCOOP days I take neither and simply make the days responsibilities to hit the gym and play poker nearly 12 hours then get blazed and sit in the hot tub after. There will be quite a few of those over the next couple weeks it seems. Playing long hours hasn't prevented me from going out at night or spending the afternoon in the city running game, and there's a decent balance going for a town as hectic and spontaneous as Vegas. I'll take Saturday off.
Poker Log Days 61-71
Days 61-71, May 2nd: Suffice to say, it's been a busy week and a half. I didn't get up to much trouble in Hawaii and mostly relaxed in the good company of Cade and Kari. On my second to last night there Cade and I decided to ball out on a Friday night and go down to an internet cafe where we sat around playing Halo and Warcraft 3. I used to do that kind of thing all the time when I was a teenager and it was good to be nostalgic for a moment and geek it up. As far as I can tell, many of the younger generation of poker guys have their background in video games as opposed to the older generation who were predominately gamblers that eventually wound up realizing poker was a decent way to make a living. While sitting in the cafe a guy a guy walked by the door and yelled "Hey Tony! Tony Dunst!" I looked up and said hi to the young man I didn't recognize. That was the end of our conversation and he walked off. The next day Mark messaged me on facebook and told me it was him who'd said hello at the cafe. We got to talking for a while and I learned that Mark both hosted regular home games and that were I to stop by there would be weed present. Seeing as I had been unable to obtain any during my trip and Cade needs to stay away from it due to his aspiring politicol career I was more than keen, plus I always enjoy a good home game for the social aspect.
I went over to the game, met Mark properly, then hung out and chatted for a while. Afterward we gathered a group of us in a room and blazed up the blunt while I rambled on about my theories on "weed karma" (which can be summarized by saying that I believe weed society is the only form of society in which karma always comes around because every weed smoker understands each others appetite for weed). Mark and his friend Chris have a cool little operation going on there, and I much appreciate their inviting me by and smoking me up. I advised them to look me up when they swing by Vegas in June, and I'm advising them now to bring that fine girl Brittney with them and if possible, tell her that my poolhouse was somehow the only room available in Vegas during that period because all hotels were sold out.
The next morning I woke up early to get ready for my flight to Vegas, and by early I mean in the 11am area. Cade's mom took us for Chinese food then they dropped us off at the airport. As always, staying over with them was an absolute pleasure and I've applied quite a bit of pressure on Cade to visit me in Vegas, because if there's one place where an aspiring politician can keep his hands clean, it's Vegas.
I had made plans with KingDan for him to pick me up upon my arrival at the Vegas airport. He told me he was playing in the Venetian $2500 tournament and if he wasn't there then he was probably still in. I found myself deposited at an alternative baggage claim, so I used a payphone to call him and figure out where he was. When I got no answer I figured he must still be in so I took a cab over, left my bags at concierge, and walked over to the poker room. I found Dan and a slew of other familiar online players still in, and after sweating for a while we decided to call up Chewy and tell him to come down so we could grab Korean after the tournament finished for the day. We brought Randallin with us for what made for a hilarious trip to Korean followed by a much needed session of mixed volcano and joint blazing then sitting in the hot tub. Dan would go on to chop the tournament with fellow professional and absolute sicko Ike Haxton for $90,000, then lose heads up for the amount they left to play over. Congrats to both of them.
I took the next day off from poker to get things done around Vegas. Naturally, this meant stopping by Saks Fifth Avenue to look at suits and ties before doing anything truly relevant like buying a phone, much needed toiletries, or opening a bank account (which I still have not done but hey, I needed a clean and unwrinkled shirt and tie for the next day's tournament). Luckily, Chewy has hired us a personal assistant in the form of the lovely and personable Malia, who is responsible for making sure we man-boys actually get some real life things done on occasion. When questioning whether she should accompany us to the electronics store the other day I pleaded with her to join us with "No please, come. We need a sensible adult along with us." Having a sensible adult with us did not prevent buying a Nintendo Wii and every conceivable attachment and game we could think of or purchasing a list of films and TV shows that are mandatory for every stoners collection (heeeeeeeello Pineapple Express).
The next day was the $5000 WSOP circuit event at Caesar's. I'm going to write up a full and seperate tournament report for that seeing as I had a number of interesting hands and a pretty eventful day. I wound up busting out late in day one and going out with the PokerNews crowd later that night, which is truly a fun bunch. As many people know at this stage, the end result of that tournament was Luckychewy winning for just over $190,000 and his first major live first place. Dan and I sat about sweating him for eight hours as Dan got increasingly drunk and yelled "WOOO WOOOOOOOOO!!!" whenever he damn well felt like it and demanded nubs from everyone, including Chewy's heads up opponent Dan Casetta, who was a great sport about our joking around the whole time.
The final table finished too late for us to go out and party, so we did it the next night by getting a table at Tryst and inviting everyone we knew who was into that kind of thing. It wound up being a great night despite my not drinking, something it seems I'll probably carry forward even after I give up my ultra strict diet in June. I'm sure I'll occasionally have a big night here and there, but lately I just haven't felt any need to drink when I go out. It's a fuck load of empty calories, prevents me from driving everyone home, and depending on how much I drink decreases my ability with chatting up girls at the venue (although there is that perfect zone where you're like four drinks in and feeling a little loose and extra ballsy but aren't so wasted you can't remember anything she just said to you).
Every day since then has been devoted to playing massive sessions online during the SCOOP. I've got a good computer and 30 inch monitor to play on here, both of which belong to Dan though I'm in the process of ordering a new one and dual 30's for myself, as I enjoy being able to comfortably play an absolute shit load of tables. My first day back I went a little too far with the registering and wound up 25 tabling my one screen, but the few days after have been better and I've kept my maximum at a more managable 18-20. I'm really loving being in a time zone where I can wake up at a reasonable hour like noon and have an entire days worth of tournaments that I can decide to play, instead of Australia where you have to wake up insanely early to get the maximum value, particularly on a Sunday (Monday over there). I've done pretty well since coming back, making a number of final tables over three or four days play and winning a WSOP main event package on my first try, which I will be converting to cash because FullTilt gave me that option and I'd rather not play the event wearing anyone's logo unless I can't prevent it or I'm sponsored (which isn't going to happen). In fact, the subject came up while out with poker publicist Lara Miller and poker royalty Pam Brunson when Pam asked if I was affiliated with any site. "Oh no, I've shot myself in the foot far too much for that, and considering the content in my blog I don't consider myself sponsorship material." However, I told Pam that I'd like to write a formal recommendation for my friend and backer Mike Watson, as I think he's perfectly in line with the style of player they seem to be looking for; young guys that have both online and live credibility who are polite, gentlemanly, and professional. I think DoylesRoom is putting together a very smart collection of guys, and Mike would be a great addition.
I haven't been saving any interesting hands from my sessions lately, but I'm going to start tomorrow now that I'm settled and in a better routine. From here until the WSOP I'll be grinding online poker six days a week, the gym just as much, and going out to socialize and chase girls with whatever time I have left. It should be fun.