There are no off days: Days 41-54
Sunday April 17th-Friday April 30th: I haven't written lately for two main reasons. The first is that after Black Friday I lost all sense of routine and wasn't sure whether I was supposed to even be making any comments on the matter. I got out everything I wanted to say about it the first time around, so I'll mostly lay off that. The second is that I went to WPT Florida at the Hard Rock casino and forgot my laptop which was not delivered to me by Truck Dan days later.
I spent my time in Vegas after Black Friday feeling confused but hopeful. I decided that since I didn't have to grind well into the evening anymore I should aim to work out twice a day now, so I often begin my morning like normal by having a session of lifting with Shon then come back to the gym in the evening to do 30-40 minutes on a stationary bike just to accelerate my heart rate and metabolism again each day. I've been mostly good about the diet in Vegas, but there have been some days in Florida where I got pretty sloppy. I'm good about keeping my meals clean, but now and then someone busts out some bad-ass snack or tells you she baked fresh cookies immediately post smoke and you're just done for. I never binge too hard though, and there's still been plenty of the days where I've been very clean. Training with Shon has been great and I can tell how good he is at getting every last second of effort from me without ever being a dick about it. The Thursday I left for Florida we did the Spartacus work out in the afternoon and he pushed me through four circuits, which was awful and enormously satisfying at the same time and took our entire hour together. Because I've had more time available to me I've added some core work to the routine three days a week and the length of time in the gym has gone up perhaps 20 minutes a session on all lifting days except legs. Like pretty much everyone who lifts regularly, I just try and get through leg day as quickly and painlessly as possible then get the hell out of there.
When possible I've also tried to keep myself busy and progressing in poker. As I'd mentioned I had a great deal of bankroll online but thanks to the increasing confidence in cash outs the situation has loosened. Still, I thought it would be smart to start shifting towards live grinding as soon as possible so I started playing live 5/10 on the strip not long after Black Friday. I ran hot and had every bluff work my first session at the Bellagio and won around $2500, then lost a $180 back the next day at the Venetian after having busted their $550 Deep Stack event by losing a large coin flip. I'd like to try to keep learning during the month leading up to the WSOP, but obviously some of my more traditional tools have been made less useful. I've still got plenty of hand histories I could go over with guys I respect plus videos I should make time to watch, so that's a start. I also wouldn't mind reading a few poker books that I've heard highly recommended to me that I never got around to reading because they came after the period in which I spent a lot of time learning the game through that medium. I enjoy having more time to read in general, and have lately gone through stuff like "The Big Short" from author Michael Lewis; a look at the guys who figured out the financial crash was coming and how everyone inside it managed to fuck up and fail to see the inevitable. Going in I had only a moderate understanding of the financial crisis after many hours of news programming in the form of Comedy Central plus viewing the documentary "The Inside Job", and the more thorough explanation in the book left me with a feeling of…"Wait…really???". This is especially because the story of our crisis essentially closes with everyone at the top of the food chain getting rich in the end, no matter whether did everything right or were blinded by hubris and botched it something epic. While I had been aware of this previously, the degree to which I came to get it after the book finally allowed me to understand the full extent and enthusiasm with which Wall Street kicked everyone in the balls through a combination of greed and ineptitude. Interesting shit, but I'm going on a tangent here and I'm supposed to be talking about poker, plus I still don't feel confident in my ability to relate what happened at length and be accurate here. To put it simply, just picture that Mad Magazine guy with the doofus look on his face saying "What me worry?" then apply it across the board to the majority of people leading our economy and BAM, comprehension obtained.
On the Thursday of April 19th Chewy, Heika, and I caught a flight to Fort Lauderdale together. Chewy and I decided to go early and found out there was a $3200 event in Pompano Beach about 20 minutes North of where the WPT event would be. I showed up Friday morning and realized I'd pulled $2200 out of my safe instead of the full $3200 and had to hit Chew-brah up while he was playing for a grand. I blame the jet lag, because blaming my own incompetence prevents me from future employment on Wall Street. Necessary borrowed funds safely in hand, I proceeded to the cashier and got bought in then was pointed to my seat. The table was a mix of a few Florida randoms that were clearly recreational players and some online guys that were playing very sharp, notorious cheat and all around cock-sucker Josh "JJprodigy" Fields included. I've had the displeasure of playing with him several times after my original long and sympathetic chat with him in 2009, and I've never spoken a non-mandatory ("check", "you win", whatever) word to him since. While it is not my style to berate or insult someone at the table (and waste potential material?) I'm all in favor of making the scumbags of our industry feel as unwelcome and ostracized as possible in person. The cheat plays good poker though, and right next to him was Ryan "HITTHEPANDA" Franklin, who also played really aggressive and smart all day, though I didn't know who he was until we introduced ourselves after we finished.
Day 1 at Pompano was an interesting bit of poker. I found very few quality hands and hit even fewer flops, however I had by far the best seat on the table. On my immediate left were four players that the aggressive mostly online guys on my right were treating like targets. I was right in the middle and got to pick some really good spots to get out of line preflop or attack late position aggression throughout the day without having to risk a ton of chips doing it. We began the day with 33,000 and my stack fluctuated between 15,000 and 37,000, but mostly stuck somewhere in the mid 20's. During the last few hours Chewy and local professional slash strip club owner Mike Beasley got moved to the table. I had never met Beasley before, but I had been told about his high-end club all day from friends and floor staff. When he sat down he looked at me and said "I hear you want to come to my club." Given that strippers quasi-terrify me and that I'm never a fan of directly parting with money for the attention of women, I couldn't reply in earnest that it was something I'd been yearning for. "I hear that apparently I should" I replied, then began asking him about his clothes-diminishing establishment at length. Beasley comes off like the cool older guy who never quite lost the spark of youth in his eye, and elaborated in great detail on the pride he took in the quality of his club "Scarlett's" and it's comfortable atmosphere. I told him I might swing by with Heika some time and he assured me it was a place where couples were welcome and encouraged. The table collectively spent the remains of the evening in jovial discussion of strippers and whatever else amused us, outside my occasional disapproving silent stare towards JJ in the middle of a hand together. I finished with a stack of 34,500 that I was very happy to have and which was incidentally 100 chips more than Chewy had, allowing me endless opportunities to clown on him over the rest of our night together catching up with some of the online boys at the downtown Miami apartment of Tony Nikaj.
Although there was a reseating for day 2 at Pompano that combined players from two days of play, within 30 minutes of play my table again contained Mike Beasley and Luckychewy, but also had the addition of Truck Dan. I had breakfast on the table over conversation with the boys while I turned my stack into 80,000 with seemingly little effort. First I squeeze shoved 33 against a late position raise and call for about 30 BB. The raiser folded and the flat caller tanked for a long time, tried asking me about the strength of my hand, deliberated some more, then despondently called and turned over AKhh with a genuinely uncertain look on his face. It was a good tournament like that. I won the flip and shot up to nearly 70,000, then almost immediately after found a spot to 4 bet AA against a dude who was pretty loose. He called preflop and folded to my small bet on the raggy board. It looked like I was about to have a fun and social day of poker, but then I decided to be an idiot.
There are moments in poker where you do something blatantly stupid and awful, something that needs no reconsideration or reflection to know how bad it was. You fucked up and did something dumb, inexplicably, plain and simple. Late last year it became my job to point out and occasionally mock some of those moments in televised poker, and I don't regret anything I've said (thus far). And although it is my job to draw attention to those moments by other players, I am by no means immune to having them myself. In fact, for those who are only recent readers of the blog as a result of said exposure, you may not be aware that I have a long and established history of making large fuck ups in tournaments. I think a lot of people are afraid to admit they play bad sometimes, while others are simply delusional or unaware. I guess I never saw a big deal in calling out other peoples bad play on TV because I never saw it a big deal to call out or admit my own, and at least most of the people who have screwed up in the hands I criticized this year generally did it for some fairly small portion of their chips, instead of dusting off a stack like my stupid ass too often does. For my current and any future backer the question is not "Can he play well?" but "Can he play well long enough before doing something retarded on a large scale?"
With about 80,000 effective and Beasley covering, he opened in MP2 to 3100 at 600-1200 and I called on the button with ATo. The blinds folded and we went to the flop of AQ4 rainbow heads up. He thought for a bit and bet about 6,000, which I called. The turn brought a 3 putting a flush draw up on the board. He thought for a while then checked. In many spots, I think checking the turn was fine, but we had some history from both that day and prior and what I thought was a more aggressive dynamic (what I call the "imagined necessary aggressive dynamic", a common leak in online poker players playing live). I told myself I'd bet the turn and fold if he raised, then fired out 13,300. Beasley thought for quite some time, which apparently planted the idea in my head that he didn't have it or was semi-bluffing a flush draw or combo draw. He made it 18,800 more and I called pretty quick, recklessly throwing previously arranged plans to the wind, consequences be damned! The river was an off suit 3, and Beasley fired out what I believe was 23,500. Obviously I called the river and dropped my hand in the muck when he tabled queens full. So, if I get license to point out the fuck ups of others in great detail in mocking tone on a grand scale, it seems only fair to do it to myself. Together, let's count the ways I fucked up and should have known to fold:
1. The sizing of his flop bet: If you're observant at all these days, then you know that the majority of people are sizing their continuation bets on A high uncoordinated-ish boards pretty small, because it's all that's needed to get a fold out of much of many people's flatting range. The most probable reason someone might increase the size of their bet on such a dry board with deep stacks when they could bet the same size as a bluff and have the same fold equity? Cause they fucking have it.
2. The fake turn tank: People have been doing the fake tank before raising forever. It's in Mike Caro's book on tells from forever ago and near anyone who has played more than a few hours of live poker in their life has seen someone try to pull this. In most cases, the fake tank is of moderate length, as Beasley's was. Too short and it's not a tank, too long and it's socially inconsiderate plus people start wondering "Would he ever really tank for five minutes then raise anything that wasn't the nuts?" (Player dependent as always, but you know.)
3. The stack-a-donk line: An absolute classic, still applicable and used both against and by donks world wide. The stack-a-donk line is betting the flop, check-raising the turn, and betting the river for value with a big hand, so named because it generally requires a stationy type to keep calling on the other end ("Mezzanine CDO! Buy! Buy! Buy!"). If your opponent is on the loose side and not too nity to check behind on the turn often, the stack-a-donk line remains a great option when your opponent isn't very good at that whole folding business or is apt to decide "He might be making a move" just so they can be a hero. Said necessary donk in this hand? Yo.
4. The river value bet sizing: A one third pot bet that begs to be called as opposed to a shove, which is what pretty much anyone who's ever bluffing in this spot would size it considering there was about 60,000 in the pot and approximately 50,000 left in remaining stacks.
So yea, I botched it real hard. Happens man, and anyone that's played enough poker has done it, though many are fans of altering the history or details to cast a more favorable light on their play. In the future, I'd love to take the same approach to evaluating my own bad play in a segment, but first I'd actually have to final table or something, and if I keep playing hands like that it's not happening.
Time spent in Florida not imploding stacks has been most pleasant. The weekend we spent off from play was wasted away at the beach with friends laying around in the sun, aiming to be sober for as few hours of the day as possible. It is my first time in this part of the country in well over a decade and my first time in South Florida ever. Those that live here will talk your ear off about how much they love it and how you should consider moving here. While the heavy tourism industry here still creates a synthetic vibe in some areas, there still seems like plenty to love about spending time down here and I'd consider coming back for a while in fall if the online poker situation isn't resolved.
The World Poker Tour mostly arrived in town on Monday the 25th. Predictions for the main event size were all over the map, especially after Black Friday throwing everyone into a near financial panic. I'd heard of people betting on an over/under of 269, I'd heard people betting on an over/under of 400. When the event finally went off on Wednesday the 27th and closed registration the next day, all bets paid over when we closed with 433, an encouraging result for both poker in South Florida and poker in the US post April 15th.
The story of my main event was bland and eerily similar to three of the four other mains I've played this year. It began with a tough table draw (which is common in some tournaments on the WPT, less so on others) that contained many people I was on a first name basis with. I spent nearly the entire day card dead on a hilarious level, a word I choose because by the end of the day when I'd pick a few light three bet spots on the aggressive players on my right like "Thay3er" and "CDBR" then get 4-bet by either one of them or someone behind I'd just sink my head in mock despair then smile, fold, and everyone would laugh at me failing again. The largest pot I played was against Josh Arieh and Brendan Steven, where I had to call a 6700 chip turn bet with a pair and the nut flush with appropriate pot plus implied odds then check fold the brick river to a large bet. I did a ton of folding pre-flop after looking down at total rags, and the only time I got AA I made a pretty clear turn fold. After bleeding chips slowly and pointlessly all day, I finally played an interesting hand with five minutes left against Thayer:
My stack: ~8,500
Thayer: ~50,000
Blinds 150-300 with a 25 ante, I hold 33 UTG eight handed. As previously mentioned, I had been exceptionally card dead all day, been firing multiple barrels in zero pots, and had a very nity image.
Preflop: I raise to 700, it folds to Thayer in the SB, Thayer calls, BB folds.
Flop: As 9s 5h
Thayer checks, I bet 800, Thayer calls.
Turn: 6s
At this point, I decided that outside AA, there should in theory be about zero hands in Thayer's range that can call me down if I bet both streets here. I already think given stacks and positions that he has a very narrow flatting range preflop, and that if he had AK or 99 he'd have probably aimed to get it in pre, but perhaps not with 99. I also knew if he had a large flush such as KQss he would likely take a more aggressive line on the flop, be it bet-3-bet shove or check-shove, depending on which he thought would get more chips from my bluffing range. Additionally, it's a spot where I can actually have a number of value hands on this board, including ace-king, sets, and flushes. Thayer checked, and I bet 2000. Thayer thought a little bit and called, so I was pretty confident his most probable hand was AQ and he would know I know his most probable hand is AQ.
River: Jd
Thayer checked, I shoved for what was about 4800, and he thought for a little bit then folded. I very rarely show cards in a tournament and even less frequently when bluffing, but since I've known Thayer forever and there was only a few minutes left in the day I thought it would be fun to go for it, so I immediately tabled the three's after he mucked. We all had a good laugh about it, even Thayer considering it was a pretty small portion of his chips and he was still chilling at the end of the night. On an interesting side note, at the start of the day Truck Dan came over to our table and explained that if Thayer did anything nasty to me I had the option of calling in a slap that Truck was allowed to land on Thayer as the result of a lost prop bet. Had I been really on the ball with things (and felt like being a total prick) I could've showed the bluff then called over Dan to viciously slap Thayer in an attempt to reverse the course of the old saying and add injury to insult. Woulda shoulda could a I suppose, though when later fraternizing with Thayer after hours and asking how he would've felt about my potential prank I got the impression that it would not have gone over well, though he replied to my query with little more than his usual laconic shrug and deep inhalation.
I returned to play the next day with a table that I had much higher hopes for. Unfortunately, I only played three hands before my day ended and lost all three. The first two involved my open raising then never putting another chip in the pot, the last was shoving A8s for 20 BB over the late position raise of Noah Schwartz and being quickly called and busted by his aces. I believe I'm 0 for 5 in WPT main events thus far this year, and while I've made it to day 2 four times I'm not sure I've made the second break in any of those. It's been some pretty bad-ass performances thus far.
My responsibilities since getting knocked out have been minimal. Vince and I are doing some work later in the week, and played tennis together at the club of his friend and ex-professional Rick Fogle. They exchanged an endless string of jokes and insults about each others age, then pulled out the fun and embarrassing stories of their youth spent traveling around as professionals. They also pointed out some of the things I was doing wrong with my swing, which they would know far better than I. If I have the kind of time on my hands I think I am post WSOP, then I'll finally start taking lessons regularly again and start playing as much as possible.
We have only another month until the WSOP, and in-between is the WPT Championship at the Bellagio. I'll be playing a ton of the preliminaries which should be up, and have decided to try and sell off at even money to play the main since Mad Dog and I don't do tough ass $25,000 events in the deal and I'd rather just take a shot then stick more make up on. I think the field should be even tougher than usual this year and I find my being a good investment at even money very questionable, but sometimes you just want to swing for the fences so we'll see what happens.