Mini LAPO Report

Played two entry flights to the L.A. Poker Open (LAPO) event #12 a few weeks back.  Didn't play particularly fantastic, but the tournament was indeed a turbo and I can't be too hard on myself for failing to accumulate and busting out in both flights in short order.

My first starting table was fairly soft, until all the soft players busted and then I got a few decent regs who came in and made it all but impossible to get frisky.   

Based on his play, I would not put the fellow to my immediate left in the category of a decent regular.  His name was Lance, I knew that because he did the whole awkward introduction handshake thing that you run into at the tables sometimes.  He talked a whole hell of a lot, nice guy, but rather annoying after about 20 minutes of non-stop chatter.  Finally he simmered down a bit.He was drinking the entire time.  He didn't do anything special poker wise, except speculate badly and spew off down to a nub of a stack.

Then another guy, don't remember his name, younger, showed up on my right and he knew Lance and they both got super chatty and reminisced about their days on the tournament circuit, talking about all the fun they had, all the women, all the big cashes - Lance said his biggest was 300K, the the other guy said his biggest was 500K on the WPT.

Whatever.  Neither of these guys impressed me with their play.  Lance continued to stack off and he was gone within an hour.  The other guy luckboxed huge - twice.  AIPF with  his QQ he binked a Q on the river to drag a monster pot - and did the same thing later with 1010 vs. JJ.  Then he woke up with Aces not once, twice, but three times and got paid every time.  His stack was gargantuan when I finally busted.

So as I said, Lance didn't impress me too much.  He drank a lot at the table, he was a bit of a goofball.

Then I saw this.

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=127115

Yep, that's him in third place for 100K plus in the LAPO main.

Sure enough, his personal Hendon mob page shows multiple six figure scores including the 300K one he talked about.

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=25335

The lesson?  Stop trying to make correct decisions and start drinking heavily. Easy game.

OR

Remember that I do this for fun, on a part time basis.  As drunk and as bad as Lance seemed, his stories involved his struggles to provide for his family by playing poker.  When the stakes are that high, a human being finds a way - no matter how absurd he might seem at first.

**********

I probably have very little poker left in me in 2013, I have my home game tournament on Saturday and then after that I may or may not squeeze in a home cash game to socialize before Christmas.  I will likely be working through most of the holiday break and will probably have an opportunity to make one or two local daily tournaments at Commerce or the Bike before the year ends or just after.

In any event, it looks like I will finish the year up just over 2K, which is a very satisfying result, especially after being stuck not much less than that last year.

2014 is looking bright as well, as I have booked a 4 day Vegas weekend in February to gamble it up in the Venetian Deep Stack as well as some other local dailies.  Can't wait for that!

Cruising along...

Having a fun year of teh pokerz, and once again feel my game is growing leaps and bounds.

Last Sunday for my birthday weekend I treated myself to the nooner at the Bike, a $40 2K guarantee that typically doubles that number.

I love these "small" events at the Bike, a great turbo structure and a $40 price point - plus a lot of very soft players.  I had a great first two hours, basically running over the table and getting paid when I hit.  By the second break I had over 20K up from my 5K starting stack.

Then the blinds escalated and two tough players sat down to my left.  I started to bleed a bit as I went completely card dead.  Not a big deal, but I found it hard to accumulate with two seasoned, sticky and tricky players to my immediate left.  Then this hand happened.

I've got about 40 bigs.  I'm in the big blind with Q9o.  UTG (clearly someone who fancies himself a poker wizard) min raises.  The button calls and so does the small so I come along hoping to flop 2 pair or better.

The board is 479 rainbow - a big reason why hands like Q9 suck ass.  I check and it is checked around.  A Jack peels off on the turn.  I check and the wizard bets incredibly small, maybe a quarter of the pot.  The button and SB fold, I flat.  The river is an 8, which is a terrible card for me if wizard barrels.  I check and indeed he does fire, only this time a big, nearly pot sized bet.

I take a moment to reflect and cut out my calling chips.  The rest of my stack is still viable - so there's that.  Then I think, if I were he - what would I be doing with a ten in my hand.  Betting for value no doubt - but perhaps not so large against a decent player, which is how I would have pegged myself by now.  If I had wanted to get him off a hand like middle pair however, I very well might bet a painful amount.  Other, shittier players, typically over value bet the river if they have a monster - I've learned the hard way that these fish are never bluffing.

Better players, like this wizard and myself will occasionally over bet the river against good players - to make it seem bluffy, but more often than not the trend is to give the right price for a call and get good value.  Better players also though, will absolutely bomb the river big time against a fish - I often use a massive over bet on the river with a big hand against weaker players who see me as a lunatic and are dying to snap me off with top pair or worse.

Nope, my mind was made up.  If I were in this guys shoes, I would have put me on top or middle pair and the 8 was a perfect card to bluff at with a big painful bet.

I shrugged and threw the chips in.  And waited.

"I just have a 7" he said sheepishly showing A7s.  I flipped up my cards and dragged the pot.

Felt pretty good about that one - I had for once taken my time and really dissected the play.  That I was able to do it by getting into another players head and imagine it from his perspective, is a new development in my game that I think has been a long time coming.  This game is all about the player - and very much less so about the cards.

About an hour later I was still bleeding slowly.  The UTG wizard had been deflated by my pwnage and had been inactive, and eventually he was moved to another table.  The second sticky tricky who was now directly to my left had been more difficult to handle.

Three times already he had floated my cutoff raises and taken the pots away from me by three betting the flop or jamming the turn.  I was primed to stack off to him - and that's exactly what happened.

KJ suited was what I chose to take a stand with, raising 2.5x from the hijack - he again floated and the flop came out QJ8.  I c-bet, with a pre-planned intention of calling off to any of his nonsense.  He eyeballed my stack.  A three bet for him didn't make any sense, so he of course jammed on me.  I pondered briefly - I did have a back door flush draw and of course could also catch running cards for a straight.  I called off, he had me well covered.

Yep, he had flopped the nuts with 910o.  It would have been easy to put him on a draw as there were two hearts on the board, but honestly I didn't even think that much about that.  I simply had had enough of his aggression and chose to make my stand with second pair and very little equity.

A big mistake, no doubt.  I had about 25 bigs at the time, and if I was going to play KJs from the hijack (7 handed) I needed to min raise and then c-bet fold the flop if I only got a piece. Or check fold if I blanked.  There is even a decent argument for mucking KJs in the first place - especially with big stack sticky on my immediate left.

Oh well.

Overall I still feel really good about my play on Sunday - and felt even better after last night watching one of the best live tournament players in the world, JC Tran, make a call for half of his stack with A7o pre-flop against the nittiest player at the table.  Truly horrific - but understandable being that JC had been card dead for over 5 hours and was in a pressure cooker event in front of millions of people.

Nice to know that stone cold killers like Tran are human too.

Looking forward very much to my home game this Saturday - I took second last month and would've had first locked up if not for a nightmare beat from a player that called off to stack off with bottom pair against my TP good kicker and turned her 2 outer.

I've also got the LA Poker Open at Commerce coming up - I hope I get a chance to plunk down $150 for their 200K guarantee the following weekend.

WSOP 2013

Great trip, once again, and this year I had the pleasure of finishing up nearly 1K in profit for a change!

There's lots of pictures and fluff over on my home poker blog, but here I'll just stick to the long and short (mostly short) of how my tournaments went.

I played in three Daily Deep Stack events at the Rio, and didn't cash once.  I found myself tired and unfocused on the second day, but really there was no excuse otherwise not to bink.  I mainly lost patience at a few key times, and also failed to win critical races.

I remind myself, and my poker compatriots, that the DDS', as great as they are, are at the end of the day, turbo events, where you MUST accumulate early and greatly to have any chance at final table money where the payouts are awesome and incredibly steep.

So I'm not going to waste time beating myself up over my drought at the Rio.  But I did find time to get unstuck at other softer venues.

On my third day, in the hole for just under $500 I managed to recoup my losses on a day and a half in the middle when I took down a Mirage 11am daily (3 way chop for 1st place monies of $660) as well as a T.I. 10pm silly fest for just under $600.  There was also a $300ish cash somewhere in there at a different Mirage tournament  as well.

Really, this trip more than any other in recent memory, was a great illustration to me of how my game ebbs and flows almost entirely on the strength of my opponents.  My twitter feed from my big Mirage cash is pretty hilarious.

Christopher Manzoni ‏@PepperStChrisM1 Jul

Table is the nicest, sweetest bunch of fellows ever. #fisharefriendsnotfood

Christopher Manzoni ‏@PepperStChrisM1 Jul

Top five softest card room table I've ever played at. 2005, thank you so much for sending me your finest poker wizards. #timewarp

Christopher Manzoni ‏@PepperStChrisM1 Jul

No one is deep in this thing but I'm way above avg. Just have to win a couple of flips to cash I'm guessing. #pleaserungood

And run good I did.

Truly, this was one of the softest tournaments I've ever played in. I was able to pillage to my hearts content, and I was able to read precisely from more than one player exactly when they'd had enough and were ready to pay me off.  A great afternoon.

A great afternoon also turned into a great evening when Sven and I sough out the super shitty structure but super fun room of T.I.

I played damn well, save for one catastrophic call with a small pair near the money that thankfully only crippled me temporarily - it is awful tough to stay disciplined when the average stack is 8 bigs and I have 12.

But it all worked out, I again dragged a good amount of cash simply because I understood inflection points and was able to put players on fairly narrow ranges of cards because of their obvious betting tells and patterns.

It felt great to be one of the best players in the room in these little turbos - and it was also humbling to play in the big room and realize that lots and lots of people were better than I was, though not necessarily all at my table at the same time.

I often was in the top third of ability at any particular table in the Rio, but I feel like I was tilted to an extent in the DDS tournaments, simply by virtue of the fact that the monster stacks that surrounded me seemed mostly to luck-box their way into their riches.  Why couldn't I flop the world and get paid in a multi-way pot?  It was my tilt that was my down fall in these - I need to remember that the most ferocious tournament sharks in the world also play with short stacks, some of them on a regular basis, and do just fine and aren't intimidated or rattled.

Overall, for once, I don't feel like I over extended myself too much - it was four days of card playing, but as I said, one day I opted out of the big DDS and had my best results.  Four days is a good number, with a break in the middle somewhere from any major events.

Hopefully I can get back around the holidays, in the mean time I'm on a bit of a break from card rooms, and my home game doesn't fire up again until the middle of next month.  It's all good - I'm enjoying my time with other pursuits, the best of which of course is family.

Next year for the WSOP, I think I really need to give consideration to giving myself a fair shot to go deep in a well structured tournament.  Yep, I think rather than spend $300 on satellites at home, I'd rather set that amount aside every other month or so and save up to a 1K bracelet event and perhaps the $1500 millionaire maker, which Sven informs me was the poker playing experience of a lifetime - that I would be remiss to miss.

Best of both worlds.

Looks like I was a bit premature saying I won't be at the WSOP this year!

I've managed to swing a few days off from work and the wife is on board for a 3 or 4 day visit with her folks around the fourth of July, soooooo....  the weekend before that I plan to drive out to Vegas with my homies Sven and Cali for a few days of degeneracy.  Mikey P. will also be there tackling his first ever WSOP bracelet event, using a seat that he won in my home game.  Should be a grand old time!

Myself, I plan to stick to the 3pm Rio Deepstacks, and an occasional silly late night (but not too late) turbo.   If I happen to bink a monster cash I will certainly partake in a bracelet event; perhaps the July 3rd Little One for Little Drop $1,111 charity event, or maybe the noon July 5th $1500 last chance donkament.

Of course I'm especially excited, after a good long time with my family of course, to swing back to the Rio on my way out of town on the weekend of July 6/7 and take in, for the first time in my life, the full glory of the greatest poker tournament on the planet - The Main Event.

Hopefully I'll bink a super mega-cash and actually get to play in it, but just checking it out will be well worth it.  The atmosphere no doubt will be electric as always, plus there should be plenty of opportunity for star gazing.  Not that that's my big thing, but it should be cool just to chill and check out who's there.

I've been eyeballing the other events around town -

The Venetian Deepstack is going on, and is certainly prestigious and well run, but the price points ($400/$600) are a little too steep and the fields are notoriously a little too tough.

Both the Aria and the Wynn are running series, but both will be concluded by the time I roll around.

Binion's Classic is an actual possibility, as there is an Omaha/8 tournament that is reasonable on Monday and will be great fun, if not actually profitable.

Caesar's has it's Megastack Series, and I love these because the structures are the right kind of shitty - meaning they are genuinely one day events that won't have me playing till 2am and not cashing.  It could happen.

The Nugget of course has it's grand series, which is also well priced and also happens to be soft - it too is a very real possibility for Monday or Tuesday, especially if I don't cash in the Rio DS's.

The Rio also is putting on an additional poker series called the Carnivale of Poker, which is pretty weird to me because really, where are they going to put everyone?  The price points and structure seem to be really similar to the WSOP Circuit events, which I have very little interest in because I get two of them every year here in L.A. and they tend to have tough fields and endless structures along with mid-sized buy-ins that don't come close to matching the prestige of a bracelet or the payoff of a Rio DS. (Though at least the circuit events do have a spiffy Circuit Ring you can win.)  And yes, they are 2 day events and yes they start at 11am.  Meh.

I am in fact planning in advance to play both 3pm Rio Deep Stacks, on Sat and Sun; as well as to be prepared to play the 6pm or the 10pm if I bust.  (Not both - if I bust the 6pm I'm done).

I would like to get up early enough on Sunday to hit a $75 mega at 9am, but I say that every year so who knows.

But beyond the first two days, I'm pretty much up in the air.  If I don't cash I'm more inclined to play smaller events such as the Nugget nooners or perhaps even the downright cheap Orleans events which include a tasty looking $60 Omaha/8 tournament on Monday.

We shall see!

Summer is here!

And it looks like there's a very good chance that I WON'T be going to Vegas for the WSOP after all.

Life has just been too hectic, both work and play and family, and I'm perfectly fine with that.  The good news regarding poker though, is that my game has been sharp and I've had some nice results recently.

Two weeks ago I played the 6pm $65 daily at Commerce.  I love these turbos.  There's no rebuys or re-entries and there's a $2500 guarantee.  Best of all, you get 10K in starting chips and they rarely go past 5 hours.  Unlike the endless Quantum Reloads at the Bike.  This means I can play for a thousand bucks and still be home before midnight, as opposed to playing to 2am for $400 or less.

Alas, too much time has passed for me to recall specific hands, but I dimly remember that I played well and made mostly good decisions.  I'm still battling to stay away from limping, it sure is tempting when everyone is doing it at the table.  I don't mind once in a blue moon to set mine, but I really have to lay off the calling with a suited queen crap.  If it's in position okay, but there's really no excuse for me to do it anywhere but the button or the cutoff.

Thankfully, I am still keeping meticulous track of my results - and my spreadsheet says I finished fourth in chips out of 60 for $440.  I do remember that if we hadn't chip chopped 5 handed and I had busted out in fifth place, it would have been just over $200, so I was happy to double my guarantee.

Five days ago, Memorial Day, I managed to get away in the early evening, to once again play the same event.

This one I remember quite a bit more.

First, the nasty bad beats.  I have KK in the cutoff and a healthy stack.  Two limpers, I raise it up 6x and all fold but the medium stacked BB who defends.

Flop is xKA and he donk jams.  I snap and he turns up A9.  Turn A.  River 9.

The table about had a conniption fit, I was fairly placid and calmly counted out nearly half of my chips and slid them over.

Until this point I had been playing very well and gotten the better of several regulars, who clearly thought that they were the shit.  I was happy to prove them wrong by smashing flops and letting them hang themselves by betting air.

On one hand, that I am just now recalling, I check raise jammed a four flush board with two good overs.  The super awesome regular tanked and tanked and finally called with the better hand - middle pair.  He was ahead, I was the favorite, and when I "binked" one of my 15 outs he was incredulous and heavily steamed.  Ship it.

Anyway, post nasty bad beat I got fairly zen - reflecting on how well I had played and how this small tournament was what I was doing for fun.  It was no big whoop were I to go out after a couple of hours.  $65 is a small price to pay for such a good time.

Our table broke and I was a shorty.  I sat and watched, card dead, some truly dreadful play as a doddering old guy cracked a young hot heads aces.  The hot head was soooooo angry, that had I been a much greener player I would've guessed he had barely played.  Alas, I have enough hours at the table now to clearly recognize a full time grinder, and that's what he was.

It seemed clear that the dodderer to my right, and another geezer to my left (who sounded Russian) were my bestest greatest hope for a climb back.  Now flush with chips, the dodderer indeed became my salvation.

First, I watched his game closely as he "shifted gears" - meaning, he got super spewy.  He loved to stop and go jam, often very light.  He did it again against the hot head, who laid down bottom two pair, and then he showed his bluff.  Sticking the needle in, but giving the rest of us confirmation that yes indeed, he had very little self control with a lot of bullets.

No, it wasn't a crafty codger who was bluffing to get paid off later - this guy was a knuckle head who couldn't take his foot off the gas.

I was in the big blind with JJ.  From the cutoff he raised small, just under 3X.  I had been paying attention and knew that he didn't have what I had, that is, an overpair.  He had overbet with JJ, QQ and AA.  He had raised smaller with AK and with suited broadway cards.  I knew this because he loved to show.

The board came all low cards, I checked, he jammed.  I snapped, because I had been paying attention and had seen him rip with air several times, once with AK and he had hit a K on the river.  Sure enough, he turned up AK.

The turn was an Ace and he fist pumped and exclaimed in triumph.  The river was a Jack and the rest of the table whooped for joy.  I was calm as a milk pond.

He was hurt but not crippled.  I had more than doubled up as the antes and blinds were so large.  Best of all I had gotten it in way ahead and was pleased to see that there was indeed a bit of justice in poker.

The very next hand he shoved with 1010 and I called off with QQ on the button and busted him.

Now I was healthy again, but time was short and stack after stack open shoved.  There was little I could do without cards.

Finally I was in the SB with A10 and it was folded to me.  I eyeballed the Russian's stack to my left in the BB.  He had about a third of my stack.  Easy shove.  He tanked and tanked and tanked.  Uh oh, he has a hand.  Finally he called with A4.  4 in the window which held.

Sigh.

Oddly enough, this one for some reason really stung.  Not because the buffoon did a fist pump and whoop almost identical to the dodderer, but because it was such a God awful call and I had him at almost a four to one dog.  I didn't mind getting beat earlier with KK when I was a 98% favorite, but for some reason this one rattled me.

Thankfully, I was card dead enough not to just dump it all in afterwards.  I managed to climb back as we got to a final table, but using expert timing and experience for my jamming.  Having the occasional QQ didn't hurt either, which is what I got called with after shoving by TWO players, one the original guy who beat me with A9 earlier.  He had AQ, sayonara.  The other fellow, a monster stacken had Q10 and he almost got there with an 8 and 9 on the flop, but thankfully a nasty jack did not appear on the river this time.

As the players fell one by one, and we all finally agreed to a safety for the bubble (paying 9 instead of 8) I managed to stay healthy and by the time the last nub busted I was barely third in chips out of the 4 good little children that remained.  The guy behind me had maybe 2/3 of what I had.  The other two fellows probably had twice my chips each.  I suggested we run the numbers for a chip chop and the dill-hole who was second in total chips (with a whopping 16 big blinds) poo-pooed the idea.

Fine, I thought.  Clearly you are just too awesome at super short stack play.  Clearly I suck at variance.

The next hand I woke up with AA in the small blind.  Dill-hole raised from the button and I ripped, he snapped with A7. GG sir, you're doing it.

Now he was crippled and thankfully didn't have the stones to suggest a chip chop.  I was the chip leader for one hand until the other monster stack busted dill-hole with a bigger ace which held, AIPF.

Once DH had departed I turned and smiled to the slightly bigger stack than myself.  "Well, you and I are both under 20 bigs and the blinds are set to double.  Should we run the numbers?"

I could see the wheels turning in his degenerate brain, but finally he put it together and agreed to look at the figures.  He stood to take home $1080, I was due $1008 and the Russian $875.  I could tell the chip leader wanted more, but he was smart enough to agree, especially after the Russian saw that the number was double his guarantee should he exit.  $1008 was 400 more than the 2nd place payout as well, so I was thrilled when "big" stack agreed.  Plus, I reminded him, he got the title!  Big whoop.

So happy to take down four figures for the second time in 2013, and I'm also happy to say I'm up over 2K overall this year as well, cashing in almost 40% of the tournaments I've played in.

So I'm a little sad that Vegas is looking unlikely this summer, but happy enough to be providing for my family and spending more time with them as well.

My game is good, but my life is even better.

Poker Bender 2013.01

Just got back from the first of hopefully what will be two trips to Vegas in 2013 for pure poker debauchery.

Overall the trip was a roaring success - I played in 11 events and cashed three times, paying $1170 in entry fees and receiving $1220 in payouts for a whopping $50 profit!  But once again, it was not poor play on my part that prevented me from scoring bigger, it was my own poor judgement outside of the game that lead to my barely better than neutral results.

I have said many times on my other personal blog that I am beyond blessed when it comes to my friends, especially the small but wonderful group of guys that I've known since grade school.  One of them showed up unexpectedly on my first night in town.  It was a great and wonderful surprise to see him, drink in hand, as I played the 7pm Aria tournament.  He wanted to go out and hang, but alas, it was not a cash game, it was a tournament so I (foolishly) agreed to have breakfast with him and his family for the following morning.  8am, the following morning.

I don't blame him one bit - but in hindsight I needed to be firm with him and stick to my guns, saying "I only do this twice a year, this is it for my Vegas poker, I am happy to meet up with you guys tomorrow afternoon if I bust out early."  And that would have to be that.  Instead I once again tried to be the people pleaser, and ended up boning myself pretty hard.

Backing up, the night of my arrival -Friday - was a great time at the Aria 7pm.  I had struck out in the 1pm, getting my feet wet after a long absence from the tables, but in the evening tournament I was firing on all cylinders.  I was especially good at avoiding almost entirely the 2 or 3 players at each table that I knew were better than me.  I abused the others pretty much without mercy, especially at my 2nd table.

At the final table, once the avg. chip stack was around 20 bigs, including mine, I ripped with expert timing and also folded a lot.  A lot.  There was a lot of undisciplined aggression all around, and I knew pretty early on that they would do most of the work in climbing the ladder for me.

My good friend A8Fold was at the final table with me and managed to get his chips in good, but alas ran bad and couldn't fade the dreaded 6 outer and bubbled.  Another player had helpfully suggested a safety for the bubble prior to his busting, so we all dug a little cash out and got A8Fold his buy in back at least.  Also, A8Fold managed, the Tuesday night after I had left Vegas, to bink first place in the Aria 7pm (though he chopped $5400 6 ways evenly).

Anyway, back to me and my first and largest cash of the trip. The only hand of any note that I played badly was when I flopped TPTK and paid off a chunky river bet to AA which had been slow played the entire way.  It seems to be the real fashion these days, slow playing AA, KK and especially AK.  People still massively overbet 1010, JJ and QQ.  Especially JJ.  I'm pretty acutely aware of the slow playing AA thing now, and I'm proud to say that (this hand excepted) I picked up on it most of the time fairly early on, and was able to minimize the losses or maximize the profit for the most part.

Play continued after A8Fold bubbled, for nearly an hour!  With only five of us left and getting paid, finally, the teeny stack whimpered out, literally blinding off by FOLDING his BB when he only had 2.5 bigs left!  Crazy, but not unusual at the tournament poker tables in Vegas.  When he finally succumbed we played for another 20 minutes and the two big stacks see sawed a couple of times.

With only four remaining, two big and two smaller stacks, me being the smallest, the chip leader at last suggested a chip chop count and we all agreed to look at the numbers.  Turned out I would get $645 if everyone went along with it, which it turned out was a hundred bucks more than the third place payout!  Sold!  Everyone else agreed too.  The top two guys got just over 1K apiece (1st was 2K and 2nd place was about the same) and the guy with just a few chips more than me got $675.

And best of all it was 230am when we finished.  Yuck.

Needless to say, after a rather lovely breakfast at the Wynn at 8am the following day, I was a wreck.  Yes, I should have politely declined.  But even if I had said yes I should've gone back up to my room and taken a 2 hour nap.  Instead I dragged my sorry ass over to the Mirage and donated $110 to their "The Stack" tournament.  It was pretty silly and fun format - 50,000 in starting chips!  The joke of course is that there were no 25 or 100 chips and we started with 100 bigs which turned to 50 bigs after one level.  Too bad I was way too tired to fully take advantage of the very soft field.

After languishing and busting I did at least have the fortitude to recognize that I was burnt toast and I headed for the Treasure Island 2pm $50 turbo.  I was eager to check out the new room, and I have to say I didn't hate it.  I thought I might since I loved the old one so much for it's tucked away location.  The new room was quite a bit noisier and in a more high traffic area, but after chatting with the dealers a bit, it seems that they are all behind the move because they get a lot more business now.

I was rather card dead, and also dead tired, so nothing transpired other than a rather enjoyable but sleepy afternoon of 10-20 blind shoving.  The move worked every time except the last time.

After T.I. I got a bite and did some walking, biding my time until 7pm when I joined back up with A8Fold for the Venetian's evening tournament.

At this point, I was rather fried, and I must say I blew up in spectacular fashion barely an hour into the tournament.

I woke up in the BB with queens and of course raised it up nice and fat after 2 limpers came in behind.  One of the limpers was the button who I could tell fancied himself a table captain at this rather touristy table.  Well FUCK him.  Raise!  5x bitch!

He flatted and the flop came 7 high rainbow.  I led out with an almost pot sized bet, he flat called.  The turn was a nine.  I knew this asshole was drawing to some wonky bullshit so I ripped - ALL IN MOTHERFUCKER!  He snap called with 79, two pair.  I was out.

Sigh.

I botched the hand pretty badly.  This was basic stuff.  Had I been half awake I would've kept the same line except I would've checked the turn, having already given him the wrong price on the flop to continue.  I would've paid off his thin value bet on the turn (or he very likely would check, God's gift to poker that he was) and I would have check-called the river and maybe even been able to get away on the river if he bet large enough.  I've gotten very good at recognizing that only a very special breed of player barrels big on fifth street with air.  Chunky river bets, a good 80-90% of the time, mean what they mean.  Top pair, in this case an over pair, is no good.

But I was rather wasted, though not too wasted that I couldn't recognize the futility of re-entering.  I smartly called it a night and retired.  A8Fold told me the next day that he didn't last much longer either.

Sunday was a new day, and I had a great time all around - even though I only min-cashed once.  I was focused and alert as I plopped down into the 5 seat in Harrah's new poker room.

I loved that the old room was fully enclosed and quiet.  This new place is loud and smokey, though not too bad at 10am on a Sunday.  Again, the dealers told me that they much preferred the new digs, much more foot traffic and business.

Me, I guess I liked the room well enough, though I do hate the open air (smoke and noise suck) - if only because it still consistently gets super soft and touristy poker players!  This morning was no exception and I delightfully had my way with the lot of them - including the one half decent player across from me.  I recognized his type immediately, a Vegas regular, stopping by for his morning pillage on the vacationing home gamers, and I resolved to avoid him.  But with AK in the cutoff I had to raise his blind.  He defended, of course, and I c-bet a low but wet board.  The flush draw hit the turn, I had air.  He led out, I 3 bet him, he flat called.  The river brought a fourth spade and he checked.  I fired very big.  He tanked and tanked and folded a jack high flush face up!   Oye.  He bought my story, though I hadn't put him on such a strong made hand based on his weak lead. Oh well, it worked out!

This reg and I tangled a little bit later at the final table.  They only paid four players and I managed to make it easily.  Then I four bet shoved on him with AJ, he tanked a long while and finally called off with J10.  A ten on the flop and that was that.  Out in fourth for $135.  Can't complain really, I was so comfortable throughout.  If it wasn't for the sky high juice and low payouts, I no doubt would make these type of tournaments a regular event if I was a grinder.  The opponents are just so darn soft so often!

So it was almost 1pm, and instead of hoofing it over to the Aria, I made my way over to Caesar's for their weekend 2pm.  I had never played in this one before, a $225 entry and what I knew was bound to be a bigger prize pool and tougher players.  Well, it turned out to be more of the latter and less of the former.  Only 30 runners total sat down for one of Vegas' biggest dailies.  I was dissapoint.  I'd also say I didn't play that well for the first hour or so, getting my bearings at a TAG table after playing with soft fish for the last 3 hours, took a little while.  I spewed off about a third of my stack before I readjusted and began to grind back.

I felt good, though I realized that the structure wasn't the greatest and that I would have to start winning some flips to have a chance at a real run.  First place was almost 5K, so I had some incentive to buckle down.

Turned out, my first flip would be my last.  I woke up with AQ in the BB and the 3 betting maniac on my right had pulled the trigger yet again - and I knew he was likely firing light.  I ripped my 32 big blind stack, he tanked and tanked and tanked and finally called with QJ.  Nope, could't win with this dominating hand either as after a Q came on the flop a sickening J peeled off on the river.  Out.

No worries.  Overall I was very happy with my play, especially grinding back from early setbacks and felt good about my chances at the Aria 7pm.

Turned out that I was not only card deadish, but I couldn't over come this either thanks to a genuine table captain who had a strangle hold on the rest of us.  It was impressive but frustrating as my evening came to an early end in a flurry of cold 3 and 4 bets that only went to showdown the one time when he had a hand.  Ah well.

Sunday was, despite my puny results, a good day.  I knew Monday, my last day, would be even better, as I was rested and raring to go.

I donked around a bit in the 10am Harrah's with no hands or results to speak of, before doing the same in the 11am $60 Mirage.  I got coolered in that one, my aces cracked by a pair of sixes AIPF that hit a set on the turn.

Good news was, I had plenty of time to get to the Venetian nooner.  $150 and 52 runners.  The Venetian has also recently remodeled their poker room. It doesn't look a whole lot different, but all the tables and chairs have been upgraded and best of all the room has been 80% enclosed in glass which cuts down on the smoke and noise considerably.

I must say, this was my best played tournament of the trip.  I was really warmed up and firing on all cylinders.  I had a maniac on my right that I managed to handle perfectly, brilliantly shoving the river with air and getting him to lay down and then a few hands later pulling the same maneuver with a monster and getting paid handsomely.  I also managed to outplay the "better" player across from me on more than one occasion.  Best of all I smashed a flop in a three way pot and got all the monies.  I was table chip leader for the remainder of my stay there, and then continued to accumulate at my second table through small ball grinding in expert fashion.

As the final table approached I  was able to bear down and play just about perfectly, not bothering with pocket pairs out of position, rather raising in position with trashier holdings and c-betting my way to more and more chips with air.  It felt fantastic, picking the right targets and picking them apart. The art of no-limit hold-em, playing the player and being less concerned with the cards, is what truly makes the game great.  On more than one occasion I only pretended to look at my cards, because what I had did not matter one bit.

At last it was final table time; I continued much the same, but I blew it big time in a crippling hand that saw all my hard work potentially reduced to rubble.  From the cutoff I raised it up with two over cards.  The SB defended.  She was a very newish player whose boyfriend was a capable grinder on my right.

I c-bet the safe enough flop of 266.  She literally rolled her eyes and called.  She was Hollywooding in about the most obvious way she could, she had a six.  Duh.  Another six peeled off on the turn.  Hmmmm....  she had to have deuces.  She checked.  I bet big, probably too big, but I knew this was a horrible card for her.  Her baby full house was no effing good against my higher pair, or at least the one I was representing.  She pretended to be steamed and then abruptly announced she was all in.

She had me covered and obviously I had to fold because I had nothing, except I had lost 75% of my stack.  "Your deuces are in fact good..." I said with more than a hint of frustration, "...but only because I don't have a pair or enough chips." She smirked and turned up her deuces.  Wow that sucks, I thought to myself, she's so bad she doesn't even grasp how bad that turn was for her.  I felt like an idiot for misplaying this newbie so badly - I had been handling them expertly for the past 3 days and she basically owned me, bad acting and all.

I truly was devastated.  After being comfortably at 50 bigs for the last 2 hours, among more than a few short stacks, I was now in genuine danger of busting and not cashing, and I had only myself to blame.  Before I knew it, the structure jumped and I was at 3.5 big blinds.  My big blind hit and I didn't have to bother looking to stick my chips in.  Three other players came along, limping in and checking it down to bust me.

Or... maybe no one had a hand?   The flop was as ragged as I could've hoped for, as was the turn and river.  Everyone turned up their cards, no one had shit.  My Q6 had turned a pair of sixes.  Holy crap, it was good!  Ship it!

More than quadrupling up put the wind back in my sails.  I was not back in it by any means, but I was off life support.  I managed to hold on and not make any big mistakes for the remainder, even winning a few pots to get back up to 20 bigs or so.  Probably the biggest comeback in my tournament career, considering there had been 9 players and I had been down to 3.5 bigs with 4 more eliminations to go until the money.  Now it was bubble time, and I managed to squeak in for a min cash!  $420!  Yay!

I was so relieved that I had gotten away with fucking up my hand earlier that I didn't even mind my QQ getting cracked AIPF by JJ.  The $420 felt like a million bucks, and officially got me unstuck for the trip!  Nice!

I was done, and didn't have any more tournament poker in me, but I let A8Fold talk me into one last dance at Caesar's for the 10pm.  I resolved not to count it as an official result, even if I cashed.  I just splashed around and had some fun and actually final tabled once again, before spewing it all away on a fantastic (and terrible) all in bluff with 73 into a flopped 2 pair.  Awesome!  I had to laugh as the rest of the table sat gaping and horrified at my utterly insane and hopeless shove.  Hey, if he had blanked the flop I would've taken it down - I don't think it was the worst EVER.  Fuck you guys!

Ah well, another trip in the books.  Another lesson learned.  Poker time is MY time and is not to be trifled with.  I need to stand my ground and be firm.  Nice about it, but firm.  I already can't wait for June and the WSOP to get here.  Hopefully I can satellite into a bracelet event. Specifically, event #6, the $1500 Millionaire Maker - which has a guaranteed first place prize of a million bucks!  My good buddy Sven is parlaying his 2012 satellite winnings from Pepper Street into the entry for this event.  I hope I can join him!

In the mean time, it's home games and smaller stakes.  Last week I chopped evenly three ways for $160 at a $20 rebuy tournament at Monkeyland Audio studios.  A very profitable and soft home game that I've been recently invited to on Thursday nights.  The structure is beyond terrible, but is fairly easy to overcome thanks to the less than adequate skill set of the majority of players.  One last week that I chopped with had literally never before played a poker tournament.  He was friendly enough, perhaps a bit too apologetic as the deck smacked him hard and he raked the chips, oblivious to the "moves" other people were pulling.  I didn't bother to make any moves, I simply got my chips in when I hit a hand against him and got paid.

The host is a brusque fellow who berated the new guy a bit, which I thought was truly bizarre.  Firstly, it's $20 and secondly, why would you want to discourage an ATM at your game?  Most of all he just wasn't very nice to him, which is not the way a host wants to roll I would think.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my own home game this Saturday and then hopefully I can sneak off to play in at least one event for The Bike's Winnin' O' the Green event this month.

Small update and planning...

Min-cashed at Hollywood Park in their Sunday afternoon $70 trash-ament.  Three tables and third place netted me a mere $285 total.  Beats a poke in the eye with a burnt stick I suppose.  I played pretty well, pulling the trigger (jamming) expertly with 12-22 blinds on average for the last 2 hours of play.  Not once did I get looked up, save for the two times I had monsters, KK and AK, both held.

My tables (all 2 of them) were incredibly soft compared to the LAPC or other larger events, I felt very comfortable mixing it up with about 80% of my opponents.

Then just last week I played in a friend of a friends home game for the third time; it takes place almost every Thursday night in a sound studio.  The players range from utterly clueless to semi-serious, mostly falling towards the former category.  The buy in is only $20 but the rebuys are unlimited for an hour and the structure is beyond shitty.  A starting stack in the third level is 10 bigs.  But so far, the game has been massively profitable.

My one cash last month for first place was for $400 plus two $20 bounties.  I did get lucky and suck out twice, once my A5 cracked AK and my 78 also bested AK, both AIPF, but at no time did I think I wasn't the best player at the table.  Hopefully I will be invited back again and again, the game seems like it will be very enjoyable, not only for the cash flow but it's also loaded with nice people.

As for my planning...

On the 1st of March I'm headed to Vegas for a WSOP tune up.  I've booked 4 days at Harrah's and plan NOT to rent a car for once.  Nope, I'm going to walk and walk and walk from tournament to tournament.

There are no special events running, save for the Wynn Classic - and I don't plan to play there unless I can cash big first.  The entry for their quarter million guarantee is $550, a bit beyond my budget.

Instead I plan to hit the Venetian and the Aria hard, as well as Caesar's and probably T.I. for some less serious events.  The V or the A will be my one "serious" tournament each day, and then I'll follow it up with one "silly" event elsewhere.  My good buddies Sven and A8Fold will be there, so it should be very good times as well as hopefully profitable.  Yes, it is the beginning of NASCAR week in Vegas once again - I'm hoping for plenty of tourists who have their minds on drinking and gambling it up at the poker tables.

Looking beyond the beginning of next month, the World Series of Poker just released it's schedule of events and I'm salivating hard at the prospect of a summer poker bender.

First things first - I am truly torn at this moment in time whether or not I want to play in a bracelet event.  I'm up over 2K in profit so far in 2013, which is fantastic, and kind of gives me the room to splurge if I so choose. (Ignoring the fact that I am stuck $1600+ in 2012).  If I do that though, it basically puts my roll back down to $500 in the black, which is cool and all, but I know it can vanish quickly.

If I do play, it will be for a $1500 event, not a 1K, because the structure is so much better and also because there is also a very special $1500 event on May 31st.  It's called the "Millionaire Maker" and what it is is a $1500 WSOP bracelet event with a guaranteed first place prize of a million dollars.  True, the payout will probably be fairly top heavy, but on the other hand with two starting days and what will likely be a shit-load of entries, it may turn out to be an almost normal payout anyways.

So that's that.  I also shouldn't forget that I'm having at least 2 home game WSOP satellites in my garage and maybe one online as well.  I would really like to bink one of these and get a massive discount entry.

But whether I play in a bracelet event or not, I plan to stay exclusively at the Rio and play the 3pm deepstack events until I collapse in exhaustion.  I may or may not play a sillier evening event here and there, but not the later Rio deepstacks as the price points are still high and the prize pools are exponentially smaller.  I'll probably do the 7pm Aria or V.

Anyway, the end of this month can't come quick enough.  I'm very much looking forward to binging a bit.  The two big keys for me in doing this are to be 1) well rested and 2) to walk a lot for exercise.  Also, I don't want to eat a lot of crap, though I'll probably get a nice burger somewhere as it has been awhile.

In the mean time, I have a cash game this Friday night in my garage and next week on Thursday I'm going to try to slip away for HPC's Facebook tournament.  It's silly, it's $60 and they play till the sun comes up, but I know the field will be super fishy and it will in turn be super fun.

LAPC Report - Event #2

I plunked down my $225 and sat down amongst 754 runners on day 1D of the 2013 LAPC Event #2.  It was a 250K guaranteed prize pool, but by the end of the 6 starting heats it had swelled to over 600K with 3,336 players altogether.

I felt good and loose early on but couldn't catch any cards of note or pull any moves as my table was reasonably solid.  Yes, a typical Southern California card room tournament table - not your average Vegas tourist/donk-athon.

I was just below my starting stack when I finally doubled up with QQ, I four bet shoved and was called by AK which didn't hit.

From there I was moved to a table of doom, though I didn't know it when I first sat down.  With about 40 bigs I led out from MP with AJos.  The button flat called and the flop came a safe enough A610. I c-bet about half the pot and the button tanked briefly and then raised me big.  It was a jam or fold proposition, I couldn't flat without committing the bulk of my chips.  I thought for way too little, and then jammed.  The button was flummoxed and tanked and mumbled for a good five minutes before shaking his head and proclaiming "I just can't fold this..."  Way before he said that, I knew I was in trouble.

I misplayed the flop badly - I know that as poker players we are supposed to be able to take a read and decipher what our opponents mean by their bets.  His bet clearly told me where he was at, he had no reason to bluff so big and bold, especially because he wasn't Vanessa Selbst.  Most players aren't.  I figured he had A6 when he started to tank.  He had A10.

My previous table had been a bit aggro, with a surprising number of 3 bets and fairly light shoves.  I sat down at my new table and just figured it was more of the same.  Turns out, my button opponent was a straightforward but solid player who had smashed the flop with top two pair.  I had a redraw to a backdoor flush, but the turn peeled off a black queen.  I was still pretty close to where I was when all the chips went in, about a 3 to 1 dog.

A king hit the river and I had a broadway straight.  Wow I suck.

I honestly didn't feel that great to get my money in so bad and suck out.  My opponent was gracious as he left, I barely had him covered.

From there on the rest of the day was a bit of a blur.  I vaguely remember a couple of big enough hands that I was able to 4 bet jam and get everyone to fold, but there were no premium cards beyond pocket 10's or AQ.   I simply used my super tight image (as there were a handful of very active monster stacks) to re-raise all-in and take the not so insignificant antes and leftovers.

At one point I had around 60 big blinds, which towards the end of the day was three times the average chip stack.  I was in very good shape to easily make the money.

At this point I wouldn't say I shut down, but again, this was a bit of a table of doom - there were three VERY good and aggressive big stacks who had their way with the rest of us and even tangled with each other on occasion.

Mercifully the table broke as dinner approached.  My last table of the day was a bit softer and certainly friendlier.  A nice fellow to my left and I had good friendly banter.  I started to drop in chips a bit and had to get active with the dreaded AJ in position.  Thankfully the two callers I got folded to my c-bet on a dry king high board.

A couple of other similar hands were all that I played on day one - the blinds and antes climbed relentlessly, so that when it was time to bag up at around 11pm, I had less than 10 big blinds.  I was fairly card dead, but I also made a conscious decision to tighten my range considerably as I once again fell into the mindset that I had played for over 9 hours, I didn't want to walk away with zero monies.

Not a winning tournament poker mindset - but then again, I don't play these big events every day.  The friendly fellow on my left and I joked that there was something to be said about "making at least minimum wage."

On the other hand, if I missed the money at least I would have had this swell $225 hat.

Or I could've had a $225 corn beef sandwich.  (Every tournament entry came with a food voucher.)

Although it sounds like I'm being silly, the point is, that I still fall into the mental trap of lusting after the min-cash.  It really is frustrating to tell myself that I don't care about squeaking into the money ahead of time and then have that logic dissolve in a puddle of emotion and angst over the idea of walking away empty handed.

I need to remember that poker, being one long game, is about long term results.  And if I play to just "make the money" I am 100% guaranteed to be a losing tournament player in the long run.  It simply is NOT profitable to only try and survive in todays game.  Tournament poker is no longer about surviving - winning players play to win.  Period.

Of course there is something to be said for merely hanging on if you find yourself super short stacked at a table of sharks - but as I said, I had 60 bigs about two thirds of the way through the day.  I needed to get active and tackle the bigger stacks - better players or not - with gusto.  Oh well.

I bagged up my 96K and made the long trek back to my car.  I was fairly happy to make my second day 2 ever.  I was guaranteed $660, which is a bit better than double my money back but not much.

The next day I was pleased to look on the internet and find that I wasn't at the bottom of chip stacks.  Of 168 players advancing, I was #112.  Even better, there were 3 shorter stacks that would be at my table.  Even better than better, the blind levels had rolled back a bit (to the shortest level of the shortest day 1) so I had almost 20 bigs instead of less than ten.

Early on I managed to bust one of the shorter stacks.  I raised in MP with 1010, pre-planning to get it in if I got re-raised.  A shorty did just that and I snapped - he had 99 which didn't hit a 2 outer.  

Now I had 30 bigs and a little breathing room.  I managed to get it all in and get no action when with AQ in the big blind I 3 bet shoved a big stacks steal attempt. He relinquished.

And that, I'm sad to say is really the last hand I played of any note in the tournament.  Again, I had made the money, but I once more entered a lame bubble mentality for the next two pay jumps.  The one I really wanted to hit was the pay jump to into four figures, $1040.  I did hit it, thanks to my utter lack of playing.

Now to be fair, I had squa-doosh to work with in terms of cards.  No premiums whatsoever.  A single pair of sixes in early position and a few KJ's, also UTG or in a similar spot.  Basically unplayable.

A medium stack on my right had gone up and down a bit and finally got his money in pretty good when he was the big blind against another mid sized but slightly shorter stack, but got coolered on the river.  He stuck his nub of a stack (which was still bigger than mine) in on the next hand - he was small blind and I was big blind.  I looked down at an ace and so happily called.

My exit number - very fitting.

He was shocked, he had barely seen me play a hand.  I had A4 he had 45.  A five on the flop and I was out.  Yes, it is disheartening to dominate someone pre-flop utterly and have him bink the unlikely 3 outer immediately.

But the disappointment I felt rising inside of me didn't really come from the typical card from hell that I so often find myself up against, instead I felt a bit let down at myself for my timidity.

Yes, I was outclassed by anywhere from 2 to 6 players at every table I sat down at in this event.  Yes, I was pretty well card dead throughout the tournament with only a single pair of queens as my only premium in 15 hours of play.  But really, I need to put more faith in myself and the idea that playing it safe is a losing way to go in tournament poker.

I'm not saying that I should lose patience and spew, but I do need to force things once in awhile - if I really want to go deep and big, it will never be enough to fold 95% of all of my hands - which is about what I did on my final table.

Still, I am deep down happy enough to lock up a four figure score so early in the year.  I look forward to seeing the result added to my Hendon Mob page.  A small victory and another big lesson for this enthusiast.

Looking forward very much to taking another shot in this LAPC, I was originally looking at Event #21 which is also a 250K guarantee, but for only $150 with 8 starting heats instead of 6.  But I have to reconsider as day 2 of this event conflicts with my home game!  I can't miss that!  Hopefully I can find an alternative at the LAPC for one more shot.

Poker bender update...

So with the wife and kiddo visiting grandpa up north - I went on a poker bender, playing 6 tournaments in 5 days, plus I squeezed in a cash game at my house on a Friday night!

After the dust cleared I had finished up a whopping $125.  I firmly believe if I had managed to win any of the three 80/20 hands that knocked me out I would have been up a LOT more.

First, let's get the cry baby crap out of the way.   1st tournament - lost with KK to AK AIPF.  2nd tournament - lost with QQ to 33 AIPF.  3rd tournament, ran my 88 into JJ.  4th tournament - lost with AQ to JJ on an AQx board when a J hit the turn.

Variance, thy name is me.  Honestly, I've lamented my inability to fade 2 outers many times before, but I truly can't remember such a long line of coolers in a row.  It was almost a relief in the third tournament to get my money in bad - and of course I couldn't win the 80/20 with me as the 20.

I fared much better in my home cash game that Friday night - despite being felted right off the bat in PLO when my flopped full house lost to a nasty turn card that gave my opponent a bigger boat.  I managed to crawl back and finish up over $100 in profit.

Still, I was pretty much resigned to being down for the entire year when I dragged my tired ass out of bed and headed for Hollywood Park Casino.  Commerce had had it's way with me, so I figured HPC could now take over with the bad beat raping. There was no way I was taking a shot at the WSOPC at the Bike.  Run bad = play bad, at least for me.

The first tournament of the day went ok, I was pretty flat and uninspired to get creative so when the cards didn't come I eventually busted with a wimper.  For some reason I felt okay enough to give the 5pm donkament a try, and this is where things got better.  For once I caught some cards AND knew how to use my chips.  I was particularly magnificent at the final table as the bubble approached.

I used my stack as a sledgehammer, boldly shoving with random cards after limpers came in.  My read of  that table was spot on - everyone was terrified of missing out on the min-cash.  I simply didn't give a shit because I knew it wasn't enough to get me unstuck.

Eventually the blinds got huge, and I won a key pot with AQ when I sucked out on AK to make a broadway straight. (Finally, I was the suckee instead of the sucker.)  I was the chip leader, and someone else asked for a chip chop count.  The actual first place was $800+ but I was offered $640.  I happily accepted, as with 14 big blinds I knew my skill edge was nowhere near big enough to make playing it out worth it.

One week later I won my own home tournament again, rather I chopped 1st and 2nd place monies and had the chip lead - I lost the heads up play for the trophy, which I played poorly - probably because I didn't care too much.  Along with bounty money I collected $340.  With that win I'm up $465 for the year.  Nice.

Up next, Event #2 in the LAPC.  I'll be joining Sven and Tony for a $250K guarantee event.  It should be a blast, though I am unlikely to bink as the amount of players and the skill level make it a pretty daunting challenge.  Still, I'm up for the experience and will do my best to have fun and make correct decisions.