What the whaaaat?

Crazy but this just happened...

Photo Courtesy LearnWPT

Yes, it was the LearnWPT workshop that I mentioned was coming up in my last post - held at the Commerce Casino in the beautiful city of Commerce in Los Angeles - I spent almost two full days once again immersed in the knowledge tornado wrought by Nick Binger and Lucky Chewy - and it was great, it was awesome, I learned a lot and the class gets better every time.

This was my third seminar of this kind in four years, and the gang at LearnWPT has really refined the advanced curriculum. I felt this time through, even more than the last time in the Mastery class, that all the pieces fell in place and that my game will be stronger than ever before going forward.

That said, I had no illusions about taking down the class ending satellite again.  I had done it in 2017 in Atlantic City - I realized then that the odds were long and I would have to get very lucky.  This time, facing off against three tables of fellow students, I figured it was someone else's turn and I wouldn't have any pressure on myself to "take it down".   This was just poker for fun - if I ran good I figured I might have a chance at the final table or even the second and third place prizes.

Oh yeah, and those prizes were no joke.   A full WPT Workshop for 2nd ($2,000 value) and for 3rd place a full years subscription to their platinum online GTO Solver ($1,000 value and well worth it).

So I would be super happy if I went deep, final table would be great, a lesser prize would be amazing - I never even considered that I could take the top prize AGAIN.

As a reader of this blog I know you are very aware that I have worked super hard on my game - and that even with all the work it still takes a good amount of luck in any given tournament to make a deep run.

Starting Stack - Plus Groovy SWAG Card Protector

Well I confess, I had plenty of run good this time around.

I doubled up very early on - in the second level I believe.  Directly to my left was this nice soft spoken guy that I couldn't help notice had been the subject of two days of interview and b-roll being shot by a LearnWPT camera crew.  He was decked out in Zynga poker SWAG so my guess was that he was a Zynga poker winner of a LearnWPT workshop package.

Anyways, he was a bit intimidating with his sunglasses and headphones, but he also seemed pretty friendly when we weren't in hands together.

I was a little surprised to see him limp under the gun, as prior to this he had been raising aggressively both pre and post-flop.  I was on the big blind and checked my option, with one or two other limpers in between as we saw a flop of 10x4.  I had 104 in the hole (as Sven calls it, the "Good Buddy" hand, 10-4 Good Buddy!  Get it?) and had flopped two pair.  I checked and Zynga guy led out for half pot, it folded to me and I check raised his bet 3x.  He thought for a beat and then shoved the remaining 6K or so of his stack into the middle.  I snapped.

My 10-4 held and I chipped up quite a bit and Mr. Zynga was out.  He got a very nice exit interview that I overheard from my seat.  I was sad to see him go as a nice guy, but as a player I was just as happy to see him exit, as having someone who was aggressive on my direct left (albeit trying to get tricky with KK) is not something I enjoy.

And so the run good continued.  In the course of the tournament I had at least three massive all-ins where my hand held up, including a giant three way collision at the final table where my AK beat QQ and AJ.

Another three way all in saw a standard open from a big stack under the gun, and a shove from a short stack in the cutoff.  I was on the button with AA and so I just called, hoping to induce the UTG to ship it for protection.  Yes, I know - now I'm getting tricky with a premium - but I'm doing it from the button and given the UTG players aggression and poker smarts, I was rather shocked that he then just called my flat.

So we were off to a flop of Jack high rainbow.  With the short stack all in, the UTG big stack checked do me and I bet about half pot, 8K into 15K, the big stack insta-shoved.  I snapped fearing only a set of Jacks, he had pocket Kings which mercifully didn't hit the turn or river.

Chipping up about mid-tournament.

Without that streak of luck I wouldn't have been able to end up on top, that's for sure.  But I also had to get to work as the "bubble" approached.  I really had to apply the pressure, and I'm glad to say I did - even when I didn't have the cards, which was often.

I was very fortunate that a couple of the more aggressive students busted out with coolers and collisions at the final table, and when we were four handed and then after the bubble as well, it was me vs. some students who were quite a bit tighter.

At one point four handed and then again three handed, I didn't pay too much attention to my own hole cards - I just hit the gas and applied pressure as much as I could.

Then one gentleman two seats to my left had had enough and began open shoving with maybe 20 bigs behind, every time I opened on his big blind. I simply waited for a better than average hand and then eventually called with KQ.  I lost to his A7, but by then I had so many chips I was still ok.

After we were "in the money" my two remaining opponents, both really nice guys who were as excited as I was, both had even stacks and I had about double what each of them had, that is, I had about 35 big blinds, still enough to open and maneuver a little bit.

Photo Courtesy LearnWPT

The fellow to my right still found a way to open 4x which was pretty ambitious.

The gentleman on my left, who previously had been the one 3-bet shoving, was opening a more standard 2.5x, I was able to tussle with him a few times.  This is the one hand I remember well.

I opened 2x on the button and he defended from the SB, the big blind also came along.

I had J3o, flop was 210Q rainbow.  My opponent in the SB led out into me a tiny bet - about 1/4 pot.  The Big Blind folded.  I knew this lead meant the SB likely wasn't very strong.  The problem was that there was not enough chips left behind for him if I just called and tried to take it away later, if he bet again on the turn he would be committed - the time to act was now.  I held my breath and shoved all in.

He tanked a bit and then eventually folded a 10 face up.  Whew!  I didn't think he was that strong, but I was relieved that my aggression had worked.

I knew at that moment that there was a good chance I could win this thing, barring any catastrophic bad luck.

The man on my right soon busted when he got tangled up with the other fellow - I was super excited, even though my remaining opponent now had doubled up and had almost as many chips as I had.

We were were now heads up.  Gary was his name, and he had shown himself to be a tough opponent, especially when he used his whole stack to counter my aggression.

I was therefore a bit surprised when he suddenly tightened up considerably in heads-up play.

Photo Courtesy LearnWPT

After I had opened 2.5x three times in a row and he had folded every time, and after he had limped his button every time as well - I started to really pour on the aggression. He had tightened up a lot as compared to three way play - in almost no time at all he had about 20K compared to my 120K.

Now it was the waiting game - I wasn't just going to hand over my chips, I had to have a decent hand.

I found it in short order with the Hollywood Park Nuts.   Side note: I had been telling my fellow players more than once at the final table, after finding out that none of them were from Los Angeles (pretty crazy) that I had opened several times with "the Hollywood Park Nuts". They were bemused and bewildered, having no idea what hand I was talking about.

If you play poker in SoCal you of course know what the HP Nuts are - Jack King Off.  Suit.

I opened, my opponent shoved with Q10 and I snapped.

A bunch of broadway cards came out on the flop, along with a nine, but somehow I managed to flop top pair and hold - game over!

Photo Courtesy LearnWPT

I was fairly flabbergasted - and truthfully, even now almost 24 hours later, I still am!   How did this happen?

It is really crazy, because though I have certainly worked on my game - I haven't dedicated myself fully, the way I would if this were my profession or my livelihood.  I study twice a week, and I play online when I can.  Then of course on the weekends I will play once or maybe twice if my schedule allows.

My mind boggles when I think how good I've gotten with merely a part time application of myself to studying the game.

I know a TON of my good results are because of LearnWPT.

Private poker coaches, even the lesser known ones, typically are $200 an hour or more.   LearnWPT gives two FULL days of immersive instruction and comprehensive and coherent strategy for a fraction of that price, and it's instructors are well known pros with proven results.  Even top of the line coaches often will simply talk in stream of consciousness or simply review hands - LearnWPT has an entire strategic system that is mathematically driven and carefully crafted and forged from over a decade of formal instruction.

Why a bunch of my fellow amateur poker players haven't jumped on board the LearnWPT train, I honestly don't know.  I'm sure they flinch at the 'cost' - but really, with $7000 of satellite winnings now under my belt after me not paying even half of that for the seminars, the instruction has MORE than paid for itself.   And let's not forget my other results since taking my first workshop in 2017.

Half a dozen $2000+ scores at SoCal casinos.   Five Moose Lodge tournament wins, including the Multi-League Overlay Championship and SLR Tournament of Champions - both for over $1000.
The World Series of Poker 2018 Main Event - I entered for a $1225 satellite and cashed for $15000.  The World Series of Poker 2019 Colossus - 313th out of 13,000+ for almost $2000.

These results to me are pretty astounding, considering how infrequently I play card room tournaments and for that matter only play at the Moose Lodge maybe twice a month at the most.

I am super super happy with where my game is at - and I'm beyond excited at the prospect of another shot at a WPT Main Event.

Not sure where I'm going to play - right now I've got my eyeball on the Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa this May 1st, but we will see.  It will likely cost upwards of $1500 in travel and lodging, which isn't the biggest deal, but I would really like to figure out if there's a more economical option on the table.  If not - I'm still taking my shot!

If I do go to Tampa in May, it means rededicating myself to studying and playing as much as I can between now and then.

The WPT GTO solver has been great these past two weeks - I've gotten up to over 500 hands with just an hour or so of time a couple nights a week.  I will keep on with that - and I also need to really start writing down hands when I get back on the felt.

Speaking of being back on the felt, I think that's going to happen this Thursday night at the Moose - I'll also be playing this weekend in Phoenix after watching baseball in the day with my family.  I've got my eye on a tournament on Saturday night, and some cash game play for Sunday night.  Hope I continue to run and play good!

Moose Takedown and a bit O' Planning

So how did the Tournament of Champions at the Moose work out?   Boom baby!

Turns out I'm a pretty good player at this point - and it was nice to book such a nice win, $1100, last November.

Since then, almost 3 months later, I've played in 15 tournaments and cashed twice.  Thankfully, they've all been small events - but it is frustrating looking at all that red on my poker results app.

But I have to remember, it's all part of tournament poker, it's really quite normal.

I still feel good at the table - in any given event I do truly feel like the best player in the room or at least near the top.  I would love to keep on keeping on and take down a few more tournaments here in the upcoming months.

I also have been pining to start playing in meaningful cash games - this is largely because I've fallen in love with watching poker vlogs on YouTube.  Brad Owen and Andrew Neeme have great channels with lots of hand breakdowns - and then there's a bunch of newer guys who are just as interesting.

My current favorite is this guy Wes Cutshall - he's a hilarious dude who lives in Texas and vlogs about, get this, 5/5 cash games where the buy-in is uncapped and typically is around $5000!  Also you can straddle from any position with ANY AMOUNT.  Yes, you can stick 5K in the middle pre-flop (pre cards being dealt) from UTG if you want.  It's crazy, and crazy fun to watch.

So my plan in 2020 has kind of morphed here - I really want to play more cash.  I am planning a trip to Phoenix at the end of February for baseball spring training, and for the two nights I have there I plan to go play 1/3 or 2/5 cash at Talking Stick.  I hope it goes well - I plan to bring two buy ins and play until I bust or am up a lot!  We shall see, but that likely will set the tenor for the rest of the year as far as me playing cash goes.

I don't mean if I go bust I'm not going to keep playing cash - I'm really actually not too concerned with results. - more rather I want to see how it feels playing deep in a cash game and how well I play, as opposed to results after the money goes in which I can't control.

I have had a great time, and good results, playing in my micro stakes home cash game; and I want to keep hosting those games - but it's hard to tell if I'm playing well or not when the stakes are so low and people are so eager to call with money that is basically meaningless.   We shall see how the big leagues go soon enough.

And as for tournaments - I'm really looking forward to playing plenty of them as well.  I know I will never give them up, they're just too much fun, even though they often are painful.  It always stings to bust, no matter the stakes or circumstances.  Just the nature of the beast really.

I haven't played in my regular league at the Moose yet (I had to miss the January event for work) but I did play in a different league at the same Moose lodge and final tabled and cashed for 3x my buy in.  That was a good feeling, and I would love to keep playing in the league as I feel comfortable there and not outmatched at all.  The league has overall better players than my Saturday league, but still, I think I have a decent edge over most of the field.

And then there's the World Series.  I'm glad it looks like I have 3 guys from my home game who will be coming along this time, hopefully there will be more and hopefully we will all be getting together several times before we go to have discussions and maybe some hand labs or small tournaments.

I'm looking at the same week I went last year - the week of the Colossus and Crazy 8s.  This year the Crazy 8s is a single re-entry, last year it was unlimited.  That's a HUGE difference and a much bigger incentive to play.  I plan to bring two bullets for each event.   If I do happen to cash, I will plunk down $1500 that Sunday for the AMAZING tournament / lotto ticket called the Mystery Bounty event.   It is incredible - really!  Click here to check it out.

I love the idea behind this event so much!  Actually, so much that I plan to host my own version of this format later this year.  Stay tuned on my home poker game page for that.

I'm pumped about going back to the Rio - I just finished watching a series of vlogs by this guy, Ryan Depaulo, who cashed in the same Colossus event I did last year - only he final tabled and binked 200K+ in third place!  Very inspiring, a semi-pro player, degenerate gambler who does study his game (despite his wacky image in the vlogs) and has had a deep, deep run in the WSOP and understands and appreciates the significance and the rarity.  I highly recommend starting with this video and watching all 3 episodes that show his entire Colossus run.   Yeah, he's a bit obnoxious, but I really like that he's not a robot when he plays.   My goal in playing tournaments going forward is to be rather gregarious, but always kind and hopefully stay on the other side of the obnoxious line.

And speaking of inspiring, then there's this fellow, Bryant Morrison - a fellow student from the last LearnWPT workshop and hand-lab that I attended.  I think that's him across from Chewy in the pic.  The guy in the 10 seat also looks familiar.  Turns out, Bryant only plays a handful of tournaments a year, including the WSOP, but studies his ass off.  And holy shit he binked a big ass Circuit event.  He's clearly in his 70's, and yet with GTO solver software and a bit of elbow grease, he was able to take his game to a stratospheric level.  I wanna do that!  And I think I can, though it will take doing the work.

My plan is to take another, my third, WPT workshop in a couple of weeks.  Between now and then I will be hitting the software solver and also going over my last workshop notebook.  I paid good money for all of that information, and I want to actually put in study time.  I confess I haven't done my due diligence since the workshop - but going forward I will.  Then the workshop itself will help reinforce all of the work that I plan to do and also put me in the right frame of mind to keep doing it.  If Mr. Bryant can do it, I KNOW 1000% I can!

So the plan is - from here on out, Tuesdays and Thursdays after work and after dinner, is study time.  Watch a full WPT video (15 minutes or so) an hour on the GTO solver and a half hour of review and maybe one more video.   Easy enough right?

Anyways, this is fairly rambling - but it's where my mind is at re; poker.  January was very hectic for work, and now briefly we are slowing down.  I want to make sure that I take advantage of this lull  and hit the books and felt hard so I can reap the rewards this summer.

So excited for poker this year!  Stay tuned for more updates!