Holy crap what happened?

 I never got around to reporting on my WPT Experience at Rolling Thunder, a 5K Main Event where my entry was paid thanks to the satellite I won playing at LearnWPT (see previous post).

It was overall another amazing experience, this time around I made it to day 2 and though I didn't cash, I thought I made a pretty good showing and was excited about the prospect of more live poker in 2020 and the WSOP.  You can read a bite sized account here on my twitter feed.  That is the link to my page, here is the link to the first tweet.

And then this wacky pandemic thing hit and I haven't played live literally since the WPT Event!  Wow, holy crap!

Boo!

Man do I miss live poker!   So instead of playing in my garage, in California card rooms and the Rio in the summer - I've played exclusively online since my trip to Sacramento.   Thankfully, it's been 100% for real money and 100% with my friends - from SoCal, NoCal and the Moose Lodge.

The good news, I've played on average 3 or 4 tournaments every week and I am up over $5000 in profit.  Considering I play almost exclusively $10 and $20 tournaments, that's fairly impressive to me!

So yes I feel good about that.  But the bad news is, online poker to me isn't nearly half the fun of live pokers.  I miss it terribly!

One thing that softens the crummy-ness of online play a bit is that two of the three leagues I play in (SoCal and NorCal) both have zoom meetings when we play.  So I get to see my friends and interact somewhat.  Honestly, if it wasn't for zoom I wouldn't play even a fraction of the amount that I do.  Playing with people I like is my favorite thing about the game - I can't imagine just clicking buttons and numbers without the human interaction to go with it.

So after bad news and good news - the latest news is GREAT news and that is thanks to modern medicine and the miracle vaccine I will be returning to live poker VERY soon.

First - in my home game.  I'll be asking that everyone who comes be vaccinated like me.  It will be the honor system, and I know it will be fine.

I've scheduled the official soft reopening of my home game for May 22nd with a multi-table tournament - and I'll likely even be able to squeeze in a single table tournament and maybe a cash game before that date as well!   So that is something I'm looking forward to IMMENSELY!

I plan to host as much as I can until my group is "caught up" - meaning our points system (to choose Player of the Year) for 2020 is correct and up to date and we have a Tournament of Champions as well.  This means probably at least 2 tournaments a month, hopefully the wife will be ok with it!

Second - I've got my eyeball on Vegas and other places to get my card-room fix as well.

Of course there's the WSOP, which will be held in the fall (Oct-Nov) but there's also just the city of Vegas itself which I know I'll be getting to probably in the summer in the first week of July to visit the in-laws with the wife and kiddo.  Hopefully I can slip away and play some tournament poker on that trip, I would love to do a tourney in the Venetian now that the giant piece of crap owner is dead, I won't feel too guilty about spending my money there.

I'm also looking long and hard at the Peppermill Casino in Reno, which has a great poker room I'm told.  I'm scheduled to visit friends at Tahoe in the last weekend of July, I would love to play a day or two of cash or maybe tourney at the Peppermill leading up to that visit.

And of course, there are the local rooms with their absurd cash game rake and preposterous tournament vig. I won't be doing any of them until they are indoors and get rid of the plexiglass.  I realize this might take awhile, but I really don't want to play in a glass box.

Stupid.

Of course I will make an exception if there's still plexiglass in Vegas when I go in July, and at the Peppermill later that same month.  But I will not be heading to the WSOP if somehow they still have plexiglass up in the Pavillion/Brasillia/Amazon rooms.  That's just stupid beyond belief if they do that. 3000 people passing each other chips and cards, most of them hopefully vaccinated - yeah, let's put up a stupid wall of plastic that likely doesn't do shit.

But I am hopeful, that the plexi-boxes will be all gone by the time fall rolls around.  I am also, probably naively, praying that the dreaded masks will also be a thing of the past.   There is ZERO reason to wear them if one is vaccinated, other than preventing yourself from still spreading Covid. But the point is, once everyone has a chance to get jabbed, the onus should be on those who refuse the needle to protect themselves, not on the rest of us who are immune. Hopefully the deaths per capital will be so low by October that we can finally be free of the suffocating wet napkin thing on our faces.   I have no problems with masks before we've reached herd immunity, but I will not be happy or going to the WSOP if they are insisting on them with a low deaths per capita number in our country.

So there it is.   FUCK OFF pandemic!  It's time for live poker!!!!  LET'S FUCKING GO!!!!

Ahem.  Yes.  So also, hopefully all three groups that I play with online will still continue - I've enjoyed it very much, despite my griping here.  I would hate for my online fun to disappear altogether.

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!

WSOP 2019 and Looking Forward to 2020

This is long overdue I know - but I didn't do a written report this year, instead I tried my hand at a poker Vlog.   If you haven't seen it yet, here it is for the record.  Enjoy!




Overall, with a month and a half still left in the year, I've had a great poker experience in 2019.   My results show me up over $2000 in profit for 2019 so far - pretty great considering I play once every other week or so in $40-$100 tournaments and then also indulged in a week of  multiple WSOP tournaments at $800 and $600 a pop.

On the horizon right now is my Moose Tournament of Champions for the Silverlake Rounders group - I'm hoping I run better than I have been running at the Moose of late.  Yes, the players have adjusted to me at this point and they understand I get out of line a good amount (way more than is the average there) but I've also been nailed by just running into bigger hands.

Case in point, at a recent final table just 3 from the money, I 3-bet stuck my 20 big blind stack in with AJ soooted and my opponent (who had me covered by a bit) went into the tank, asked for a count and then somehow found a call with Pocket KINGS.  LOL, ok.    Lost my cool a little bit at that one.  I've been playing for almost 15 years at this point and have never run into a tank call against KK.

The very next day at the Moose I got all my chips in against a rock who was "on to me" with two pair vs his one pair - runner runner flush for him.  Yay.

So it's been like that.  Plus like I say, they're on to me a bit when it comes to my shenanigans, which overall is a good thing, it means I get folks to stack off with top pair marginal kicker (just have to avoid the runner runner flush thing.)

Then there's the last couple of tournaments left in my home game - HORSE in 2 weeks and one more NLHE event in December, then a big break until the TOC in January.

The home game has been great - though I haven't won a tournament - it's just been such a good time and my results are not indicative of the fun I've had with such a great bunch.  Though the results have been decent.  My results for my garage are up over $1000 in profit.  Not too shabby for not taking a tournament down, though there are still two tournaments left!

And so I look forward to another great year playing the game I love - I am seriously eyeballing yet another WPT Workshop (for the record it would be my third) but it's an Advanced Course and it's at Commerce in February.  We shall see how the schedule shakes out.

I think I forgot to mention the second course I took, it was just this last year at the Bellagio and it was the LearnWPT Tournament Mastery Course, run by the master Nick Binger and co-hosted by Eric Lynch and Lucky Chewy.  It was a great three days, including an immersive hand lab that had all sorts of great info to chew on with Chewy.  Super nice guy by the way - super chill and every bit the zen master that we've seen on tv.

Chewy giving me advice to chew on.  Get it?

I will say, that a lot of the course was focused on GTO (Game Theory Optimal) play, and while I think it's important to grasp the concepts and also practice at applying them (that's what Learn WPTs fantastic GTO training software is for) - it is a much less interesting aspect of the game for me and it also doesn't factor in so much when playing ultra-low buy in tournaments with recreational opponents.

Still, I do study and I do practice - so the next time I'm at a table with stone cold killers, like I was on day 3 of the Main in 2018, I think I will have better than a fighting chance.  In the meantime, against players who are highly exploitable, I still plan to exploit them as much as I can.

So that's that for now - looking forward to finishing up the year strong, and carrying on in 2020!

Preparing for the Plunge

It's that time of year again, WSOP time!  The series so far this year, viewed from the comfortable surroundings of Burbank California, has been pretty freaking fantastic.

I know I am fairly well known as a guy who doesn't care for deep structures when the player pool is tough - but it's hard to come out against this years events; because apparently even the 'low' buy-in events are now offering exponentially more chips and deeper structures.

The WSOP has definitely established itself this year as being THE player-friendliest event in town, by a lot.   Before we've had the Venetian Deep Stacks, the Planet Hollywood Phamous and the Wynn Classic who could all arguably say they offered a better value.  For the first time though, it's the WSOP that can for sure say they come out ahead - deeper structures all around AND a bracelet?  Sorry, it's not even close.

So it is with great excitement, and I confess a little trepidation, that I plan my annual WSOP adventure.   This year the fam has nothing planned for summer time, we're saving up for a bigger international trip next summer, so I've taken it upon myself (for the second year in a row now) to take off a full week from work so I can take advantage of the poker goodness.

While last year it was all about the almighty MAIN, this year I'm taking a shot at multiple bracelet events for the very first time.

I fly out of Burbank on a Sunday morning, June 23rd and I will arrive in plenty of time to register (even if I late reg a bit) for event #53, the $800 Eight Handed NL Deep Stack.  I will only have one bullet for this single re-entry event.

Then my plan on Monday (assuming I'm busted out of 53) was to do the Tag-Team!  Event #57 promises to be amazing - you can play with all your buddies!  Unfortunately my one poker compatriot had to bail, so I will be missing out this year.  (Unless of course, someone here reading gets inspired and wants to join forces and take down the bracelet!)

There is a $1500 Super Turbo Bounty in the morning, but I'm not really rolled for such a cavalier shot.

So Monday may be a bit of a wash on the schedule - which is fine.  There will likely be plenty of Daily Deep Stacks that I can get into trouble with.

Tuesday has an amazing looking 3 day event, 11am Event #59 the NLHE Deepstack Championship.  I will be playing this for sure, and bringing two bullets to the game.  This is a single re-entry which is nice because it means I will be on equal footing with everyone else in terms of reloading.

If I bust out of this, then Wednesday I will be throwing down bullet number one for Event #61, The Colossus. I'm especially excited for this one as the structure is supposed to be a vast improvement, though as you know, I don't mind a good turbo, gotta get lucky against the stone cold killers!

If I don't cash in either Wednesday or Thursday's flight, and haven't cashed all week - the plan is to head home, tail between my legs.

Actually, it won't be the end of the world - tournaments are a very tough nut to crack consistently, so as long as I bring my A-Game and am focused, I'm not going to let results bring me down too much.  Poker is poker and tournament poker can be especially brutal when it comes to results.

If the stars and planets align and I find myself with some good fortune, i.e. money, I will likely stick around for the weekend and throw down in Event #64 - Crazy 888s likely for one bullet only (but if I've cashed medium to high four figures then I will likely bring two bullets).

And when/if I bust from that one I will be truly done.   If my results approach 10K then I will for sure pony up for a mega-satty for the MAIN which is the following week.  Work expects me back the Friday after July the 4th - so I do have room to make it happen, if the poker gods smile.

We shall see!

Regardless of what happens, I am super excited and pumped to be grinding for a week of teh pokerz at the greatest place on the planet for it.

It's worth mentioning that up until this last Sunday, I have been on a down swing in my tournament results.  My old record for consecutive non-cashes was 11 in a row.

On May 11th I took down first place in my monthly Moose Lodge event for $800.  After that I averaged playing once or twice a week per usual, almost all tournaments, and didn't cash for 10 tournaments in a row.

This last Sunday would've been my 11th non-cash, except I cashed.  Dragged my lazy butt down to the Commerce for their turbo-ish $65 1pm with $50 add-on.

October 10th 2018 was the last time I was in a California card room - so I was mentally prepared to be rusty against a bunch of grinders who play every day.

As it turned out, sure there were likely a handful of fellows here and there who were better than me on any given day, but most were not.  Most were lousy.  And even the better ones weren't that great.

I was at table 6 of 10 and got off to a rather slow start,  dragging my first pot after almost a full hour of play.  I was rather card dead and the table was certainly more aggressive than the average Moose table, and even looser as well which is saying something.

There was a young woman down at one end who was catching cards like crazy, and she was aggressive and getting paid.  I pegged her initially as someone who knew what she was doing, but later came to realize, she was just hitting a lot and actually not getting too out of line.   Early on she was a calling station for seeing flops.  Later in the day at the final table (spoiler alert) she played much tighter as the pay jumps commenced.

Didn't flop any sets that I can remember (if I did I didn't get action) - premiums were rare.  No AA, had QQ a few times.  Overall ran pretty average or a bit below for long stretches.  Yet somehow our table broke and I was ok with chips, then chipped up a bit at the next table - then our table broke again and I was at table 1 which I knew eventually would be the final table so my neighbors were going to stay for awhile.

Early on at that table (with 4 tables remaining and 12 getting paid) I got tangled up with a player to my right who was young and very fluid with his chips and mannerisms.  His body language and demeanor screamed "good player" so I had been avoiding him, but when he opened on my big blind I defended with a sooted 108.   Flop was 10xx and I check called the flop, turn and river.  He had aces and I paid him off on that final bet and I shouldn't have - at least one of the next cards was an over card.  I should've released on the turn or at the very least the river.

So that was the biggest mistake I can recall, and it knocked me down to about 11 big blinds.  I busted out the snap-shove (in my head) and put it to good use and chipped up a bit until this hand.

A woman earlier sat down with a big ass stack.  She opened a pot and got into it a bit with another dude to my left - at showdown she showed AK for top two pair and dragged the chips.

Awhile later she opened on my big blind and I had, of all things, AQ.   She had opened maybe 3 hands in 90 minutes.  Her range was narrow and uncapped.  I flat called.

The flop was all low cards, I check called her C-bet.   The turn was a blank, check check.  A 10 rolled off on the river, I led out for a third of the pot and she instal-folded.  No doubt with AK.

It was a nice boost, both for the stack and for the ego - I had completely outplayed her from out of position with a hand that was very likely dominated.  I realized that there was no skill-edge at this table, at least the kind of edge that I worried about - the edge was the other way, with just about everyone.

I began to open and c-bet here and there.  My stack climbed and for the most part, it worked beautifully.  No one had seen me getting out of line as none of my hands went to showdown.  I especially picked on the woman's big stack, she was folding way too often out of her big blind.

I also targeted the players to her right and left.  They had medium/small stacks that were ripe for picking on and I was able to do so on a fairly regular basis.  I avoided tangling with my aces nemesis for the most part.

I did get into a hand with him before the break.  Once again I was on the big blind and he opened from the cutoff.  I defended with Jc8c.  Flop was 753 rainbow, much better for my range than his and he released quickly when I check raised him 3.5x.

That was one of two pretty bad ass 'moves' that I managed to pull.

The other one was after we had redrawn for the final table and the money bubble had already burst.  I was hunkering down in the small blind with about 22 bigs or so - a tall and silent type with the Dr. Dre headphones opened and I looked down at JcKc, a great spot for me to three bet regardless of my holdings, I knew he was itching to accumulate - the problem was, none of us except for the 3 & 4 seats (I was on the 10) were deep.

Still, I carved out about a third of my chips and slid them out, 4x ing his open.  The plan was to bet fold here, and to shove any flop that I hit, otherwise check fold.  Fortunately I didn't have to go to the flop, he tanked for a solid minute and then folded.  It was a big addition to my stack, including the one limper earlier as well as the big blind ante and villain's initial raise.

I remember being 8 handed for a long time, and I managed to tread water pretty effectively as other smaller stacks diminished.  No giant hands leap out at me from my memory, but I do remember a massive 3 way hand double knock out that I wasn't in - that brought us to four handed and I was second in chips.

Commerce recently upgraded their higher denom chips - gorgeous!

The chip leader had maybe a 2 to 1 advantage over me and substantially more against the others.  One of those others proposed looking at the numbers, I soothed the concerned chip leader telling him "absolutely no pressure on you, if you're not happy we keep playing, no big deal".  He nodded with a slight smile.

The numbers came in just a tad below what he mentioned he wanted.  I happily threw him a hundred and he agreed - I would end up getting 1875, he came in at 2500 and the others had quite a bit less.

Yay.

Too bad I blew it all on Black-Jack.

So mission accomplished - not only did I avoid breaking my non-cash streak, I also dodged a min-cash and scooped up a nice score.  Not to shabby for $105 entry!

So now with monies in hand, I'm planning to attack the WSOP.  I plan to study a bit this week, relax, play a small tournament in my garage on Friday night just for social fun (and not worry if I bust) - then head on out to the mother EFFING WtotheStotheOtotheP.  Boyeee!!


Stay tuned for the report!

The Mighty MOOSE

Having been a serious recreational player for well over a decade now - I would be remiss if I didn't mention in this blog that I recently have found a new venue for my degeneracy - the Mighty Moose Lodge!

I guess it's actually been almost two years at this point, since I first got invited to a Saturday evening tournament by my great poker hombre G-Bone.  I plunked down my monies and found myself in the company of a bunch of friendly folks who all knew each other and were all very welcoming to this new player.

Everyone was so nice, and the lodge is literally 5 minutes from my house - a fantastic combination that has seen me all but abandon the delightful (and by delightful I mean shitty) venues of Commerce, The Bike and Hollywood Park - which are all about an hour away and filled to the brim with grumpy regulars.

At the Moose the games are self dealt, and almost exclusively tournaments.  There are three (or four or five?) different 'groups' of folks who host tournament series through the year.  I primarily play in the group called the Silver Lake Rounders which meets once a month for a $100 freeze out.

I played in this group exclusively for almost six months before my first cash, which believe it or not was for first place!  I'd had such great time though with this bunch, that I hadn't become frustrated at all at not cashing for so long - I was super super happy to take a tournament down, but I never felt like saying "Finally" or anything like that.

Quads - easy game.

Now as almost two years have passed, I'm beginning to really feel at home with this bunch, and have grown rather fond of just about all of them.

You don't have to be a Moose Lodge member to play, anyone is welcome, but they certainly like to have more members.  I hadn't really thought about joining, but then I learned that there was to be an end of the year "Moose Appreciation" tournament which had a $1000 guaranteed overlay, for Moose Lodge members only.

Sign me up!

I didn't cash, I don't think, but I was happy to have a Moose Lodge card and give some support to such a great fraternity of folks.  And it's certainly not just men, at any given tournament there's a great variety of all kinds of people.  They all have one thing in common, a love of the game!

******

So a year went by, and I cashed a few more times (and took down another tournament I believe) and then I had my second crack at the Moose 1K Overlay event and this time, I emerged on top somehow.

Now and hopefully for a long time, there is a dope trophy downstairs in a wall case in the main room - with none other than yours truly's name inscribed for all times!  Noice!

So yes, at this point I've had my fair share of good results at the ol' Moose; but I have to say - even if I wasn't doing half as well, I would likely still keep coming back.

And sure, the pace of play is a bit slower - and as you all know that is my monster pet peeve; but I genuinely don't mind it, because it is what it is, and everyone's so gosh darn nice and there to socialize.

And it's FIVE MINUTES from where I live.  This is really the ultimate killer app for the Moose.  If I bust out early, it really isn't a big deal at all, I be home and Netflix and Chilling in no time.  Gotta love it!

And yes, I would be neglectful of the truth were I not to mention that it is a mostly soft field, which is I have to confess, very appealing to me. :)  But as with every poker group, no matter how seasoned or not, the players will adjust - and at this point they've all pretty much figured out I'm a crazy person who has no problem emptying the clip on occasion.  No doubt my run good will cool down here soon, if it hasn't already.

I have tried, to little and no avail, to bring in other players from my home game.  A couple have come, Fish and Sven both played and didn't cash and came back like once or twice - never to return again.

Both complained about sitting at the same table with a colorful character or two.  Yes, there are some personalities at the Moose, but not one of them even comes close to the nasty neighbors you can find in California card rooms.  Eccentric? Yes.  Annoying?  Only if you let them be.  I find it's pretty easy to smile and drag chips, and before long they're not so annoying after all.  I'm a little sad my poker buddies haven't taken to the Moose the way I have, but my wallet is certainly not sad at all.  Don't need too many sharks in the pond!

So I don't know if I've ever mentioned it in this blog, I think I may have in my personal blog, that I love the city where I live very much - and now even more-so that I've found a poker home away from home.  The Moose is a truly special place full of really good people, and I hope I play poker there for literally the rest of my life!

Reality Check

Something to think about - I've always taken the opposite approach to most recreational players when selecting a tournament.

The flatter the structure, the more chips you get, the longer the levels, the higher the buy-in - the more likely you are going to find yourself up against experienced players, either semi-pros or true professionals.  This is not a positive EV (Expected Value) equation.

When I look at the WSOP schedule, for example, the Monster Stack event doesn't really appeal to me as much as the smaller 1500 and 1K events, because I understand that deeper blinds, more chips and longer levels put me at a DISADVANTAGE, in the long run against more experienced players.  Most recreational players feel the opposite.

They want tons of chips and long levels and hundreds of big blinds to start.  If I'm up against other recreational. / home game players, sure a deeper structure will probably give me an advantage.  But if anyone like me who only plays poker on the weekends and has a full time job outside of the game, thinks they have an edge in something like the Monster Stack where some of the best tournament players in the world are congregating, along with hundreds of other full time professional players, they are kidding themselves.

There is a very real skill gap in this game.  I saw it first hand on day 3 of the Main Event.  Days 1 and 2 were a dream, both of my tables were loaded with fish.  The one decent tournament professional I faced on day 1 I coolered when I woke up with AA and he had KK.  Then day 3 hit like a hammer.

There was one older recreational player at the table, I was better than him.  Every single other player at that table was either making their living at or seriously supplementing their income in poker.  I was the sucker, and this was painfully obvious after a few hours and a dozen hands or so that saw my stack cut in half, not by bad luck or bad cards, but by simply being outplayed.

It was sobering, but not surprising or shocking.  It wasn't discouraging either - it was actually weirdly reassuring.  Poker truly is a skill game, and the harder we work on it, the 'luckier' we are bound to get. If I was playing tournaments every day and had to live off of my winnings, I know I could be right up there.  But since my time and resources are limited to a point, I need to be completely honest about myself and my capabilities.

Deeper structures and higher buy-ins are not what I should be looking for.  I would much rather have a fast structure with a low price point and a high guarantee - like last Sunday's event at the Bike.  $240 for a 100K guarantee prize pool and it was a one day event, now that is just perfect!

These Quantum multi-day things that allow Day 2 entries for 4K, these are a TERRIBLE value for a recreational player.  You are going to shell out a couple hundred bucks or more to play for 10 hours and then squeak into day 2 with a small stack only to sit down with fresh as a daisy tournament professionals (because they didn't have to grind all the previous days) who have newly added big stacks and they are licking their chops in anticipation of pillaging your stack.  No thanks.

Give me a turbo any day.  Let me 3 bet shove my 20 big blind stack and get lucky against a pro who has no defense for such a play but to fold or call and pray.  The other advantage of a fast structure - drunken amateur cash game players.  My best results by far in Vegas are in these 3-4 hour low entry turbo events late at night.  Over five years I've played in dozens of tournaments at T.I. (now sadly they just closed their poker room).  $65 tournaments, over in 4 hours or less.  My profit at T.I. was $219 an hour.  I've never approached anything like that at the Aria dailies or the Venetian Deep Stack events.

If you're going to give me a 'deep' structure, it has to be for a low price point - not because I can't afford the occasional 1K event, I'm blessed in life to be able to have that kind of money to spare once in awhile, but because lower entry events see lots of recreational players.  Binion's and the Golden Nugget run low price point series with good structures and much more importantly - soft fields.

But if I'm at the WSOP, I'm avoiding the Monster Stack, the Marathon, the 1K Double Stack or any other format that gives an edge to professionals.  I'm seeking out the 1K 3 day events and especially the Colossus, probably by far the best value for the money of any tournament ever.

Yes, the Main Event is an exception because it's the greatest tournament on earth and I wouldn't trade that experience for anything and I would love to go back - but other Super Deep events, if they truly are deep, are more likely to attract people who make a living at this game and are counting on people like me to show up.


EDIT:  Here's a video from 2 years ago of me ranting a bit on this subject - not sure if I already put it on this blog, but here ya go.