Finally Running Good

So after about 3 months of results that looked like this:

The last few weeks have looked more like this:

But while I was running good recently, we all had (and are still having) a little sweat with the Harry Reid bill, which made me feel sort of like this:

especially since I'm not all that informed on the bill and really don't know which side I'm rooting for.  I think it's a good thing if it's done correctly, but I just never trust the government to not screw things up (although they could easily screw things up whether this bill passes or not).  It just seems like such a tenuous situation, especially since if we get it regulated, the first time someone under 21 gets caught playing online, we will get the always powerful and logic-filled political argument of

In other news, PokerStars signed Isildur1 to their team recently.  My sources say he looks something like this:

He is famous for seemingly coming out of nowhere last year to win millions against some of the best competition in the world in a matter of weeks, and then losing millions to them in a matter of days, and then disappearing for a while.  I have to admit I'm not much of a "fanboy" of watching poker players play online, but his whole story is pretty interesting in my opinion and I've found myself on multiple occasions looking him up on PokerStars and watching some of his games.

Movin' On Up

So after about 4 long months of house hunting and consulting builders, we finally agreed to terms on a house yesterday.  It was hard because my wife and I are both pretty picky about what we want in the house and it was really hard to find one that even came close, but finally we found one that has pretty much everything we want.  As long as everything goes according to plan, we will be moving in at the beginning of the new year.  It's quite a relief for this to (hopefully) be done before the kid is born, just because it will be way less of a hassle that way.  So if you don't see me playing as much in January, that's probably why.  Well that and I'll be in Bahamas for the PCA for 10 days.

I'm currently at 2,136,073 VPPs and am going to try to end the year at 2.25 million so I can get the extra $10k bonus.  Most Tuesdays I can earn like 15-20k VPPs if the games are going good, and I can usually earn 10k VPPs or slightly more on Sundays, and since I need about 114k more I should be able to come relatively close to 2.25 mil on the 'Only Tuesdays and Sundays' plan.  I'm hoping to start to see some of the Supernova Elite chasers who are behind pace coming into my games in the last couple weeks so hopefully that will make the games go more, plus it might make them better since a lot of these guys don't know the hyperturbo strategy very well due to not playing them very often.  If the Tuesday and Sunday plan falls short obviously I can play other days too, but it's way harder to get motivated on those days because I earn VPPs at like half the rate per hour (or less) because the games don't go as often.

USACOOP was decent, I did pretty well in the satellites and cashed in a couple of the events, but nothing big.  I had a decent stack in the main event about 50 spots from the money, but then lost half my stack on a hand where I played every street badly except preflop.  I lasted for a few more hours and cashed in something like 150th place, but it's frustrating to make one dumb play to wipe out half my stack in a tourney I felt like I was playing really well in.  But that's how it goes in tourneys.

New Article

Quick post, Arizona Poker News magazine chose me as their feature player of the month and has a nice long article about me and Supernova Elite stuff, link is here:

http://www.azpokernews.net/

click on the 'Back Issues' tab and download the November 2010 issue if you're interested.

NAPT LA Day 4

Well, came into the day 13th in chips with 19 left, with 538k which was about half of average.  Had all shortish stacks at my first table and was able to steal the blinds quite a bit.  People were busting quickly and within a half hour or so I got it in against a guy with about 300k chips with a9 vs his 78 and won that hand to bust him and move up to about 900k chips, and that put us at 16 people left, so we broke down to two 8-handed tables.  My new table was much more aggressive and I wasn't getting much for hands so I just had to fold for a while while a few people busted and I moved up the pay scale.  Finally at blinds 15k-30k, I have about 650k left in the big blind, it's folded to the small blind who makes it like 70k to go and I look down at A5s and shove and he snap calls, never a good sign obviously.  He flips over AK and I miss and bust in 12th place for $37k, just missing the televised final table.

About a half hour after I bust, the guy running the 5k bounty shootout calls me and tells me I'm now first alternate in case someone doesn't show up, and since some people weren't prepaid that I had a decent shot of getting a seat in it.  So at that point I was already headed to the Crystal Casino where the bounty shootout was being held because I had to get a refund of my buyin.  At this point it's like 4:30 and he tells me they should know by 6 whether I have a seat or not.  Long story short, my wife and I waited til after 7 before everyone finally showed up, so I got shut out.  Would have been a nice one to get in because it's pretty much guaranteed TV time.  The guy was really nice about it though and promised me that I could have a spot in the PCA bounty shootout in January, and also gave me a comped limo ride back to my hotel.

NAPT LA Day 3

Interesting day to say the least.  Started the day with about 400k in chips and held steady for the first couple levels, but then lost a couple hands to bring me down to 140k at 5k/10k blinds.  Shoved a few hands then finally got called on one of them when I had AK and my opponent had JJ, and I hit an ace on the flop to double up.  About one orbit later I pick up A9 in the cutoff and raise to 22k, the button makes it about 60k, the small blind was sitting out because he had a one round penalty and I had stolen the last hand when it was the sitout guy's big blind.  So anyway the current big blind folds and I decide to ship for about 370k thinking that the button could be 3-betting me kind of light here since the small blind is sitting out.  Unfortunately he wasn't and he called with TT.  Flop came all low cards and so did the turn, but an ace on the river and I double up to about 725k.

The next couple levels I chipped up pretty good without really playing a big pot and got to just over 1 million chips at one point.  Then I lost a decent sized pot with AK vs QQ and after that for the whole last level I was completely card dead and just had to keep folding.  Anyway, I ended the day at 538k which is about half the average stack, and I'm 13th in chips with 19 people left.  We restart at 1pm Pacific time tomorrow and go until the final table of 8 people is left.

NAPT Day 2

Holy rollercoaster day.  Got down to around 30k chips in the first hour or so at a really tough table, and then our table broke.  At the new table I turned 30k into 280k in a matter of about a half hour, then bluffed off half my stack to get down to around 110k.  Then I ran like god the last couple hours and finished the day with 407k, which puts me at about 1.5x average with about 80 people left.  We restart at 1PM Pacific time.

Not many interesting hands that I can remember, just a lot of standard preflop spots.  The hand where I bluffed half my stack off, was probably a pretty dumb play.  I knew a guy had a big pair on a dry board and tried to get him off of it since we were both pretty deep but then I gave up on the river.  It was most likely a good decision because I later saw him make some pretty loose calldowns in later hands.

Only other interesting hand was on the exact bubble with 105 spots left and 104 being paid.  My stack was about 220k at 2500/5000 blinds, folded to small blind who probably had about 300k to start the hand.  He makes it 12k to go which is a really small raise and I call in the big blind with 98o.  Flop comes QJ3 and he bets about 15k and I call, both trying to hit the gutshot and hoping I can take it away from him on the turn if he checks to me.  Turn comes a ten giving me a straight.  He checks and I bet 30k and he calls pretty quickly.  River is a blank and he checks again, and I fire 80k and he tanks for probably 3 minutes or so before finally calling.  Probably a good thing I hit because I was planning on firing the turn and possibly the river even if I missed.

We play down to 24 players tomorrow.  I'm signed up for the 5k bounty shootout tournament on Tuesday but obviously I'll unregister if I make it through tomorrow.

NAPT Day 1

Sorry I didn't update this last night, I was really tired when I got in and went straight to bed.

So anyway, my table draw sucked all day.  It was mostly young internet kids, and a few older guys who may have been slightly tight but definitely weren't going to be giving away chips.  So I was just patient most of the day, waiting for good spots and hoping to make day 2 with a decent stack.

Only played a couple really big hands all day:

Level 1, 50/100:  I'm in the cutoff with about the 30k starting stack.  Guy 3 to my right opens for 300, guy on my direct right 3bets to maybe 800 or something, I 4bet to 2200 with QQ, everyone folds except the 3 bettor.  flop comes 559 rainbow, he checks, I bet about 3k, he calls.  Turn is another 5, he checks and I check.  I just didn't feel I was getting 3 streets of value very often but it's possible I could have I guess, and if I'm only getting 2 streets of value it's probably better to wait until the river, and I also think there's at least some chance he's playing AA or KK like this, so I'm trying not to go broke if this is the case.  So anyway I forget what river was but it was a low card for sure, he checks, I bet 6500, he thinks for a while and finally calls, and my QQ is good.

Level 8, 400/800/100:  I have about 50k chips at this time  The guy 3 off the button opens for 1600 and he had been super aggro all day and already showed a couple of 3 barrel bluffs and a hand where he 4bet 26hh in mid position after utg opened and utg+1 3bet, so needless to say he wasn't playing scared.  He had probably about 100k chips at this time.  It gets folded to me in the small blind with a9cc and I flat call, big blind folds.  Flop comes 865 with 2 diamonds and a club.  I check, he bets 2200, I call.  I feel like I have the best hand here a lot plus I have a gutshot straight draw and a backdoor flush draw, but also I don't really want to build a big pot against a guy who could be pushing all sorts of draws here, like any 7 or a diamond draw, or even a gutshot that's worse than mine.  Anyway, Turn comes an offsuit 3, I check, he bets 4800.  At this point I'm basically deciding whether I want to call 2 more streets with ace high which isn't a very fun thing to do on this type of board usually, but I figured he had a lot of hands he'd bet 2 more streets with that I'm in great shape against (hands like anything with a 4 7 or 9 in it where the other card isn't paired, also diamond draws).  So after a little hesitation I call.  River comes an offsuit 5 for a final board of 86535.  I check and he bets 9800 and I call pretty quickly because I already was pretty sure I was calling the river and every draw missed on the river.  He turns over T7o and I have to look for a few seconds to make sure he doesn't have anything, then I turn my hand over and take the pot, putting me up to about 70k.

One more hand right before the end of the night, I was still around 70k on the button, blinds 500/1k.  Guy 3 off the button raises to 2300, next guy calls, next guy 3bets to like 7k and has about 140k behind.  I look down to see KK and 4bet it small to something like 15k, hoping to induce something.  It gets folded around to the 3 bettor who thinks for at least 3 minutes before folding.  Would have been nice to get that one all in but oh well.

Other than those hands, most of the hands I played were standard open and cbet the flop, or just normal kind of 3bet or 4bet situations preflop which really aren't all that interesting.

Ended the day with 79,700 which should be a little above average going into day 2, which starts tomorrow.

NAPT Los Angeles

Well I'm heading out to NAPT Los Angeles tomorrow.  I'll be playing at least the 5k main event and the 5k bounty event.  Hopefully those are the only 2 that I play but if I bust early I'll probably play a few more of the side events.  I'll put progress updates on my blog as usual.  If any of you guys are going to be out there feel free to say hi.  :)

Hosting Two VIP 1-table sit-n-goes

Hey everyone I'll be hosting two 1-table VIP SNG's this Saturday at 3pm and 4pm EST, the tourney ID's are 327126808 & 327127624.  Hurry and sign up because they are maxed at 10 people per SNG and will surely fill up quickly!

Double Eliteness

So I made it to 2 million VPP for the year yesterday.  I guess it's kind of nice to reach that milestone, but more importantly I had a nice winning day at the tables after running so badly during WCOOP and taking some time off the last few weeks.

So what have I been up to since WCOOP ended?  Well the day after it ended, Deb (the wife) and I went up to a cabin in northern Arizona where it was beautiful, and more importantly relaxing.  It definitely felt good to get away from things for a few days as playing 10+ hours of poker every day for 3 weeks straight can really wear on you.  We didn't really do a whole lot except visit the Grand Canyon one day, which reminds me, for some reason we visited the Grand Canyon about 5 different times when I was a kid and while it's pretty cool and amazing, it's really one of those things you see and just say "yep, it's a big hole in the ground", and no matter how many perspectives you see it from or how many times you go visit it, it's still a just big hole in the ground.  This scene from National Lampoon's Vacation pretty much sums it up for me. Sorry it's in German, I couldn't find an English version, but what they say doesn't really matter for the scene anyway.  If anyone can find an English version of that clip I'll switch it out.  Hah, anyway, sorry for that tangent.

The next week Deb and I went to Ohio for a few days to visit her family and go to an Ohio State football game. It's really hard for me to root for Ohio State because I'm a big ASU fan and have been since I can remember, and really before I met my wife there were 3 football teams I disliked, Ohio St, USC, and Arizona, probably in that order.  The biggest reason an ASU fan has to hate Ohio St is because in 1997 we had our one and only realistic chance at a national championship in the history of our school, and they beat us in the last minute of the game in heartbreaking fashion to ruin our chance.  It almost feels like I'm worshiping a false god or something when I root for them now (if I actually believed in such things).  I mean saying I root for them isn't really accurate but I guess I don't hate them as much as I used to.  Marrying a Buckeye fan has a way of easing that and I now realize they aren't all evil demonic creatures.  Besides, by marriage law I think I'm required to root for her team, unless they're playing my team.

And yes before anyone comments on it, I do realize that all this "hating" teams is really dumb and illogical, but that's how sports is.

So besides that, we've been looking for a new house in the same area.  We probably won't move more than like 5-10 miles away but we just want to upgrade our house in preparation for the baby coming, and with the housing market crashing there are some great deals on really nice houses out there.  It's quite frustrating because we really want to find that perfect house and we've been looking for a little while now and found a few that we like, but there's always something little things (or big things on some of them) about every house that we don't like.  There's some chance we'll build but I'd rather avoid that if we can find something we like that's already built, because building, while kind of fun at exciting at times, can be really stressful and time consuming, and would be kind of hard to fit into the schedule with a newborn at home.

I don't think I announced it yet on here, but we found out a few weeks ago that the baby is a boy and he's due February 9th.  We're pretty excited about it.  I'm still a little nervous just because it's a big change but I think it'll be a good change overall.  I just hope I have a quiet baby.  :)

On the poker agenda, I have NAPT Los Angeles coming up in a few weeks, and PCA in Bahamas in January.  Other than that I'll probably play some or all of the RCOOP events which take place during Thanksgiving week.  It's an interesting concept in that each region of the world has it's own tournament series.  I just enjoy these tournament series because I get to bring out my competitive side.  When I'm playing sit-n-goes throughout the year it's nice to make money at them but it's hard to be competitive about it because there's not really a sense of exhilaration in grinding out money.  I mean I like money as much as the next person and it's always fun to win more, but it's not really a competitive thing.  There's just no feeling like winning a big tournament, not that I'd know really since I've never won anything that I'd consider "big", but I hear it's a nice feeling.  :)  I just could never play them all year though because it's so emotionally draining to play them since you're never really happy unless you win the tournament, so except for a few days a year you're going to end up being frustrated.  Besides you have to commit a lot of time to seriously play tournaments all year.  Like if I want to play for only an hour or 2, that's easy to do because most of the games I play last 15 minutes at the most and they go whenever people sign up, so it's easy to start and quit when I want to.  While with tournaments you have to wait until the time the scheduled tournaments start and you really never know how long you're going to be playing so it's hard to play on days where you actually want to do anything besides play poker.  Also the monetary swings in tournaments are brutal because most of your money comes from making the final 3 spots in a tourney, and with fields of hundreds or thousands of people it's really easy to go long lengths of time without making money.  So that's why I just play a few tournament series a year, and just go all out during those, then I get it out of my system and I think tournaments are silly until the next tournament series starts, then by that time I'm ready to do it all over again.

Oh and speaking of tournament series, I got my SCOOP Player of the Year trophy in the mail the other day, I'll post a picture of it in my next blog entry.  I'd do it now but my wife's asleep and she's the camera person in the family.

WCOOP Main Event Day

Event 60, $215 NLHE:  Registered late for this one and busted about 20 minutes after I registered with JJ vs AK.

Event 61, $10,300 8-game:  Felt like I was in a pretty good spot in the stud games at my table with a lot of the players being fairly passive.  Hung around slightly below the starting stack until I doubled up in NLHE about 4 hours in with AQ vs A2, but didn't do much after that and busted about an hour later.

Event 62, $5200 NLHE Main Event:  Ran my starting stack of 20k to around 35k in the first 3-4 hours, then lost about 15k chips all in preflop with 99 vs AK (ironically enough against a guy named something like 99NeverLoses), then lost QQ vs TT and KT vs AJ in the next 20 minutes or so to bust.

Overall a pretty disappointing WCOOP, had good stacks in a few events but couldn't get anything going late.

Was down another 30k in satellites today but ended up making a comeback in the last hour or 2 before the main event and ended up winning about 5k on the day in them.

Going to a cabin up by the Grand Canyon with the wife for a few days tomorrow, really looking forward to it, will be nice to just relax for a few days.

WCOOP Day 21

You guys get the quick update because I'm really tired, sorry.

Event 58, $530 Heads Up PLO:  Won my first 3 matches, then had about a 10:1 chip lead in the 4th one but couldn't hang on in a match that took forever.  Anyway, cashed for $986 in 39th place.

Event 59, $2100 HORSE:  Got down to to like 600 chips a few hours in, but then an hour later I had 30k, then an hour later I had 0.

Also lost about 30k playing satellites today after being up 25k at one point, hopefully it goes a little better tomorrow.  These $2k buyin satellites are pretty ridiculous but I definitely feel like I have an edge in them, but obviously short term variance of them only going twice a year (SCOOP and WCOOP) make it crucial to run good on those days.  Last year on WCOOP main event sats I won like 100k, we'll see how it goes tomorrow.

WCOOP Day 20

Event 55, $530 NLHE 1R1A:  In for $1530 total.  Just refer to what happened in event 53 yesterday, it was basically the exact same story.

Event 56, $1050 FLHE 6-max:  Crazy tournament.  Was down to 600 chips about 2 or 3 hours into the tourney, then about half an hour later I was up to 37k after hitting every hand I played.  Made it to the money with a somewhat short stack of around 20k but then ran really hot to get over 250k chips with 2 tables left, but lost a few hands including getting aces cracked in a huge pot where I folded the river, but there was just no way my hand was good with the way the hand played out, and I'm not generally one for making big laydowns.  Anyway I  busted a few minutes after that in 9th place for $8800.  Nice to finally get a decent cash and I ran really well to get as far as I did, but also frustrating to be so close to the final table and the big prizes, and not make it.  But I'm happy with how I played on pretty much every hand so no complaints.

Event 57, $215 NLO8:  Got a decent stack in a fairly big pot where I cracked aces with a crappy hand to make a flush, and had about 40k chips at one point, but then I got it in with AA39 with nut spades on a QJ4 2 spade flop and the other guy had QQ23, and I missed everything, and that brought me down to like 5k chips which was the starting stack.  We were close to the money so I folded a few hands to ensure the cash, then busted soon after the bubble burst in 142nd place for $371.52.

I will be hosting the final table for event 56 now, would have rather been playing at it but oh well.  Will be fun to see how it turns out, some very good players are left in the field.

Oh I also won the hyperturbo heads up tourney today for like $5600 so a pretty good day overall.

WCOOP Day 19

Event 52, $320 NLHE Turbo:  Lasted about an hour in this one, don't remember how I busted.  Never had much more than the starting stack.

Event 53, $530+R NLHE:  In for $1530 total.  Ran really good during the rebuy period and after 2 hours I had about 40k chips, but couldn't get anything going after that and busted a couple hours later.

Event 54, $2100 PLO:  Felt like I had a good spot but ran bad the first hour and was down to about 2k from the starting stack of 7500, but then I doubled up 3 times in about 6 hands to get up to 18k.  Lost a few of the chips back then got it in in an unavoidable spot where I had KKxx and my opponent had AAxx and didn't hit anything.

WCOOP Day 18

Event 49, $215 NLHE 1R1A:  In for $615 total.  Bought in at the end of late registration and rebought/added on to get to 15k.  Got down to 5k pretty quickly when I got it in with AK vs AQ and lost, but then I gradually chipped up and ended up cashing with about 40k.  Ran pretty good after getting in the money, winning all ins with QT vs AK and then AK vs KQ.  About an hour later I shoved the button with K9 and got called by the small blind with 77 and lost that flip, then the next time it was my button I got 55 and shoved and got called by the big blind with A8 and lost to bust in 106th place for $1205.76.

Event 50, $215 NLHE Big Antes:  Busted this one about 20 minutes into the tourney at 25/50 blinds, UTG made it 150, next to act calls, I make it 500 2 off the button with AA, next to act makes it about 1200, button calls 1200, folded to me, I ship for a little over 5k, both other guys call, and they have KK and QQ.  Unfortunately king on the flop and I bust.

Event 51, $320 PLO8:  Doubled up in the first hour in a pot where we got all in both having flush draws and low draws, and I ended up scooping the pot with AQ high and no low when the board paired twice.  Pretty uneventful after that, stayed around 5-10k for the next 5 hours or so then ran really good in the next hour or 2 including doubling up twice vs Barry Greenstein and also fading a freeroll he had on me, and I hit the money with about 60k chips which was about 1.5x average.  Hung in there for a while with a short stack and ended up busting in 52nd place for $1120.

WCOOP Day 17

Event 46, $320 PLH/PLO:  Had a top stack in this for a while then lost a few hands, got it in with 55 vs 22 to double up to about half the average stack with about 20% of the field left, then the next hand I got AA and got it in vs kq on a queen high flop, king on the river, gg.

Event 47, $530 Stud8:  Lasted like 3 hours, nothing really to report.

Event 48, $1050 NLHE:  got it in blind vs blind about 3 hrs in with 33 and he had QQ.  I 3 bet his small blind minraise which he had done a couple times previously when folded to him, and he 4bet me and I shoved and he called.  May have been slightly overambitious but I'm happy with how I played it.

WCOOP Day 16

Event 43, $320+R PLO:  In for $920 total.  Ran really good for the first 4-5 hours and had a top 10 stack with about 1/3 of the field left, then lost a few chips and finally got in the last of my chips after calling a 3 bet preflop with JT97 double suited, flop came T42 with 2 diamonds (I had diamonds), opponent had AAxx, turn came an 8 giving me a ton of outs (any diamond or 6 7 9 T J Q) but it came a 4 on the river and I busted with about 20% of the field left.

Event 44, $320 NLHE 2x Chance:  In for only the initial $320.  Too tired to remember specific hands right now but had a big stack for most of this tourney and cruised into the money with an above average stack.  Went card dead for an hour or so and finally shoved 75k at 2500/5000 blinds with ATo and got called by the small blind with A6o, board came 25K36 and I bust in 52nd place for $1837.50.  Would have had a great shot if I could hold on that hand, would have had average stack with 52 people left with $120k for first, but oh well that's how it goes.

Event 45, $265 NLHE Turbo Knockout:  Never got much higher than the starting stack and busted about an hour in with a6 vs 55 all in preflop. Had no bounties.

WCOOP Day 15

Event 41, $215 NLHE: Stayed slighty above the starting stack for the first 2 hours, then got in a big pot after I called a raise from the small blind in a 4 way pot with 75hh, flop came KQ5 with 2 hearts, turn came a heart and I ended up getting it in but the other guy had JThh.  Maybe I can get away from it but I'm not good at folding flushes when 80bb deep.

Event 42, $1050 NLHE:  About 10 minutes into the tourney I get T9o on the button, raise to 100 at 25/50, sb raises to 300, I call.  Flop comes K87 with 2 spades, he bets like 450 I call, turn is a K, he bets like 900 I call, river is 2 of spades, he bets 2k, and I raise to about 5500 because I can easily represent the flush here and it's a pretty hard call for him with anything less than a flush, and he could easily have been value betting thin or just bluffing with a better hand.  So anyway he tanks for about 2 minutes and finally calls with AK.  I still like my play but perhaps I should have bet bigger, I don't know.  Not much happened after that, I lasted about 2 hours and finally got it in with AK vs 88 and lost.

Pretty frustrating week, had decent results the first week but haven't cashed at all in the last 7 days.  I kind of miss SCOOP because it has more variety, as in $1k+ small field tourneys every day so a final table/bracelet feels within reach anytime I played one of these, plus micro buyin mega fields for fun...also having 9 tourneys on most days is really fun.  WCOOP on the other hand is mostly $200-$500 buyin every day and all fairly big fields and only 2-3 tourneys each day.  I mean part of this is probably just me being annoyed at having crappy results so far, I don't know.  Hopefully I can run a little better the last week (I can't possibly run worse anyway).

WCOOP Day 14

Event 38, $530 NLHE Heads Up:  Got kind of a bad beat in this one because when the tables opened it looked like I was going to get a first round bye, but then I got an opponent literally 5 seconds before registration closed and the tourney started.  Got out to an early 10k to 5k lead when I called a river checkraise with 2nd pair in a spot where his line didn't really make sense with many value hands, and it was good, but after that it was all downhill and I ended up losing every big pot after that.  I looked at one point right before I busted and I was 4 for 16 in showdowns at that point...hard to win a heads up match with stats like that.

Event 40, $320 HORSE:  Got up to over triple the starting stack at the 3 hour mark but then lost a few hands and busted (broken record I know).

WCOOP Day 13

Event 35, $215+R NLHE:  In for $615 total, never got much going busted an hour or 2 after the rebuy period.

Event 36, $530 Omaha8:  Got to a peak of slightly over double the starting stack a few hours in but ran bad once the limits got higher.

Event 37, $320 NLHE:  Lost most of my chips with KK vs AA about a half hour into the tourney, then lost the rest on the next hand with AT vs AK.

WCOOP Day 12

Event 32, $320 NLHE 6-max:  Never had more than double the starting stack in this one and busted with about 1/4 of the field left.

Event 33, $320 PLO 1R1A:  In for $920 total.  Played great in this one.  Kept stealing pots and getting value in great spots.  Had a top 20 stack with 200 people left but then lost 3 all ins where I had about 80% equity on each one and busted around 140th with only 102 spots paying.

Event 34, $320 Triple draw:  Probably my best game, but never got much of anything going in this and busted in about 3 hours.

Going see Norm MacDonald at Improv tonight so at least something good came out of busting early.

WCOOP Day 11

Event 29, $265 NLO8:  Got it in with nut low draw and nut flush draw vs trips, and hit the flush to double up in the first hour.  Soon after I got it in with A2J4 vs A25x on a 34J flop and busted him when he missed his draw.  Don't really remember what happened after this but I last a couple more hours before busting.

Event 30, $530 NLHE Shootout:  Won a race early on with QQ vs AK to double up.  Kept chipping up until we got 3 handed and I had almost half the chips at one point after just stealing tons of pots, but then 3 handed I lost basically every big pot I played and ended up busting 3rd at my table.

Event 31, $320 8-game:  Chipped up from 5k to about 22k at one point but then lost a few hands as the limits went up and busted with about 20% of the field left.

Tomorrow's my birthday so maybe there's some birthday luck in store for me.  :)

WCOOP Day 10

Event 26, $320 Mixed Holdem:  Ran really good at the beginning, winning a few big NLHE pots and getting my starting stack of 5k up to around 25k at one point, but then lost a few big hands in limit holdem as the blinds got bigger and busted with about 20% of the field left.

Event 27, $320 Badugi:  Never got much going in this one, busted in 2 or 3 hours.

Event 28, $1050 NLHE:  Won a decent pot with A9 on a 9 high board to get me above 10k, then lost a race vs Joe CAda with JJ vs AK to go down to 5k, then won a hand soon after vs Joe again with KK vs AQ to get back above 10k.  Lost a couple smaller pots to get to around 6k, then 100/200 blinds, button opens for 555, I ship with JTs, he calls with 66 and I miss.

WCOOP Day 9

Event 23, $215 NLHE 4-max:  Busted on about the 10th hand when I got it in with KK vs 99 on a K99 flop.

Event 24, $320 Stud:  Doubled my stack in the first couple hours, then ran bad in the third hour and busted.

Event 25, $215 PLO 1R1A turbo:  In for $615 total.  Won pretty much every hand I played until we reached the money, being chip leader at one point right before we reached the money.  Didn't get much going after that and lost a couple hands after we were in the money, and finished in 42nd place for $1594.24.

WCOOP Day 8

Event 21, $215 NLHE:  Can't even remember how I busted but I know I didn't last more than a couple hours.

Event 22, $530 NLHE:  Had around the starting stack for the first 4 hours then got it in with JJ vs QQ and lost.

WCOOP Day 7

Event 19, $109 NLHE:  Late registered for this one and busted on about the 4th hand when I got it in with JT vs QQ.

Skipping event 20 because it's not an event I really want to play all that badly anyway, and I could use a day off.  Back to work tomorrow!

WCOOP Day 6

Event 16, $215 PLO 6-max:  Had a top 20 stack with about 1/3 of the field remaining, but then lost a few pots and hung around for a while, ended up cashing in 173rd place for $575.

Event 17, $215 NL Single Draw:  Lasted about an hour in this one, got it all in with a smooth 8 draw in in the big blind after the small blind raised, he had a pat 9, and I didn't hit.

Event 18, $109 8-game:  Only won like 2 hands in this one and busted in the first hour.

WCOOP Day 5

Event 13, $215 PLO8 1R1A:  In for $615 total.  Had a pretty good stack for a while but then a couple missed draws and an ill-timed bluff had me on a short stack with about 20% of the field left.  Bustout hand was at 600/1200, I had about 25k, minraised 2 from the button with ak63, button flats, blinds fold.  Flop 987 rainbow, check check, turn offsuit K, check check, river 3, I bet 4800 I think and he put me all in and I called and he had AK82 for a better kings up and a better low.  I figured I'd be chopping here pretty much all the time but oh well.

Event 14, $265 NLHE 6-max Knockout:  Got it in with AK vs JJ in the first hour and busted.

Event 15, $215 Razz:  Ran really well in this one for the first 6 hours or so and was in the top 10 in chips with about 200 people left, but then had a really bad hour where I lost every hand I played and barely hung on to cash in 125th place (out of 128 spots paid) for $450.

WCOOP Day 4

Event 10, $265 PLO Knockout:  Busted about half hour into the tourney when I got it in with 7542 vs AK73 on a 775 flop, ace on turn.

Event 11, $320 NLHE Ante-Up:  Love the structure of this tourney as I've mentioned before.  Didn't last very long though.  Frustrating tourney to bust out of quickly because like 90% of the field plays terribly in this format.

Event 12, $215 Heads-Up NLHE:  Won my first match about half hour in when we got it in with 66 vs 44 and I held.  Second match I got it in with 99 vs QQ about 5 minutes into the match and lost most of my chips, then lost the rest with A8 vs KQ.

Chopped the 2nd chance ante up tourney when it was 3 handed for $15,000, nice to get a somewhat decent score to break the losing steak I've been on since WSOP.  Hopefully I have a bigger one in the future.

WCOOP Day 3

Event 7, $215 PL Draw:  Busto, nothing really eventful.  Fun game to play though.

Event 8, $215 Triple Stud:  Had a decent stack in this one a few hours in but then ran bad for a half hour or so and busted.

Event 9, $1050 NLHE:  Got the 7500 starting stack to around 12k about 5 hours into the tourney when I got it in with QQ vs JJ and lost.

I'll be hosting the Triple Stud final table tonight so I was hoping I'd still be in something so it'd make it easier to stay awake, but now I guess I just have to wait.  :)  Early start tomorrow with the first event at 9am, I may have to late register although I'll probably get up on time anyway, we'll see.

WCOOP Day 2

Event 4, $320 PLO:  Doubled up early with aces vs kings but then didn't get much going after that and busted about 3-4 hours into the tourney.

Event 5, $320 NLHE 6-max Shootout:  Had over half the chips at my table at one point, but then flopped a flush and ran into a bigger flush and lost most of my stack, and busted soon after.

Event 6, $215+R NLHE Turbo:  Ran kind of bad during the rebuy period and ended up being in for $1415 after accounting for rebuys/addons.  Ran really good after the rebuy period though and ended up being chip leader with about 40 people left, then lost 4 or 5 hands in a row after that with the last one being A8 vs 66 on a KT8A6 board to bust in 26th place for $5087.16.  Frustrating to have that great of an opportunity to win 200k and only end up with 5k, but oh well, 3 more weeks of WCOOP.

WCOOP Day 1

Event 1, $215 6-max NLHE:  Got up to 30k from the starting stack of 10k a few hours in, the biggest hand being JJ vs J2 all in pre.  Unfortunately a few mintues after this hand I got it in with JJ vs AA and busted.

Event 2, $10,300 NLHE:  Hung around 15-18k from the starting stack of 10k until about 5 hours in, when I tried a 3 barrel bluff with 9 high and unfortunately he had the nuts, so that brought me down to 4k or so, then I got it in with 44 (I think?) and my opponent had TT and I busted.

Event 3, $215 NLHE:  Got the 10k starting stack up to around 115k, the biggest hand being a 3 way all in where I had AA and another guy had KK.  Soon after that I got it in with TT vs KK and that brought me down to about 40k and we were nearing the $.  I didn't really get any playable hands and blinded off to around 28k when we hit the $.  About 20 minutes after the bubble burst I shoved with KT and got called by KJ and lost, cashing for $410.24.

Also lost 25k today playing satellites for the 10k, but I was down over 50k at one point, so it's almost like a win

Selling shares for WCOOP if anyone is interested

WCOOP starts this Sunday!

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/163/staking-selling-shares/wcoop-package-player-series-prizes-included-866218/

I'll be posting updates to my blog every day after I'm done.

Busto

Well that sucked.  Went into the day with 136k.  Second hand of the day I lose 80k all in preflop with 99 vs qj, then chip back up to about 120k in the next half hour without a showdown, then get it all in with AK v JJ and I'm out short of the $.

Day 1B

Well today went better than the first day.  Hung around the starting stack of 20k for the first 4 hours, then at the 600/1200 level there was a late position raise and a call and I was in the big blind with about 25k with JTs and figured I had a lot of fold equity so I shoved, the raiser called and the other guy folded AQo, flop came AA7, turn Q and I think I need a K to stay alive, and I start walking away when the river comes a Q, but then like 2 seconds later I realize it's a chopped pot since we both have 2 pair with a J kicker, so obviously I come back to the table.

In the next half hour or so I win a couple flips and steal some pots to get my stack to around 80k at 1k/2k, when a mid position younger player limps in, the small blind make it 5500, I make it 14k from the big bilnd with JJ and now the limper makes it like 40k and he has me covered.  I think he is obviously pretty strong here a lot of the time but I just got the feeling that he had some weak hands in his range possibly, I'm not sure, so anyway after thinking for a minute or 2, I get it in with him and he has KK, but luckily I hit a J on the turn and double up to 160k.  I chipped up to like 190k at one point but then lost a flip for about 50k towards the end of the day and ended day 1 with 136,500.  Average stack should be around 100k with maybe about 150-170 people left when we start day 2 at 11am on Monday.

I would have blogged sooner but I was dead tired when I got home after going to dinner with my wife and fell asleep at 9pm within 5 minutes of getting home.  So now obviously it's 3am and I can't sleep.

Day 1A Busto

Not much else to say really, never had more than double the starting stack and really never had any great hands, but my all ins were barely ever called.  Finally shoved with QJ with about 20k at 1k/2k and got called by AJ and busted.  The structure is pretty fast, we started with 20k and were at 1k/2k blinds about 6 hours into the tourney, but the tourney is about as soft as you can find for a 1k+ buyin tourney, so that easily makes up for it.

I'll probably show up at 10am instead of 9am tomorrow because I think I'll need the extra sleep, plus the first hour is 25/50 and 50/100 with 20k chips so it's kind of pointless anyway.  It might cost me like $20 worth of chips to miss the first hour, and the extra sleep I get will probably be worth more than that anyway, plus not having to drive an hour thru rush hour traffic.

Arizona State Poker Championship

So the AZ State Poker Championship starts tomorrow.  It's held at Casino Arizona and it's a $1k buyin with 3 starting days, but a nice little thing about it is that you can buy in for all 3 starting days if you don't make day 2.  Hopefully I only have to buy in once but it's nice to have that opportunity, and I really think more tournaments should do that.  They really have nothing to lose by doing it that way.

The only thing that sucks about this tourney is that it starts at 9am.  I've been on a schedule lately of waking up around noon or so, so I'll probably need to make a quick Starbucks stop before I go in.

I'll be at table 7 seat 7 (seems lucky?) on tomorrow, Friday the 13th (or maybe not so lucky?).  If any of you are attending, feel free to say hi.  I'll probably post a quick recap of the day after each day and update my twitter on each break if I remember to do so.

Miscellany

Haven't been playing much since the end of WSOP.  I think I was a bit burnt out after playing for 2+ weeks for SCOOP, then only like a week off before 6 weeks of WSOP.  I've only put in like 5 sessions online in the last 3 weeks and I've lost every time so far, which doesn't help me want to play more.  It's weird though, I haven't been this unmotivated about poker since about 2004, and that was when I basically quit playing for 3 years (I didn't really 'quit' but I played very seldom for those 3 years).  I was motivated earlier this year because I wanted to be the first to Supernova Elite and make it onto Team Online, which I ended up getting, and then after that I was motivated to try to be #1 on the SharkScope leaderboard because it would be fun to be #1, but for some reason I really don't care about that anymore.

I think the motivation will come back since WCOOP is in about a month and I really love those tournament series, but I think I'll take it easy until then.  I guess I probably deserve a little break as much as anyone in poker.

I normally go months without watching TV but my wife and I have been watching way more than our fair share the last few weeks.  We watched the first 2 seasons of Breaking Bad in a span of 2 days about a week ago, and now we're watching Mad Men and are almost through season 2 of that.  Both are absolutely amazing shows and that means a lot coming from me since I think most TV shows are downright unwatchable.  Also been watching Shark Week a little because, well, sharks are interesting.

And last but definitely not least, I'm gonna be a daddy in about 6 months.  Wish me luck.  :)

WSOP Main Event Day 2

Went into the day with 11,975 chips.

Level 5, 200/400/50:  Won a lot of small pots and never had to show down a hand, ended the level with 23k.

Level 6, 250/500/50:  Chipped up to 33k winning some more small pots when the following hand occurred.  I had been pretty active at the table so far, and raised to 1025 utg+1 with TT.  Folded to the big blind who called.  Flop T93, he checks, I bet 1500, he calls.  Turn 8 making the board T938, he checks, I bet 4500, he goes all in for about 22k, I obviously call.  He flips over J9, and the river is a queen giving him a straight, and now I'm down to 7k chips.  Kind of frustrating because I easily could have gotten to over 60k in about 1.5 hours after starting the day with 12k, but that's poker.

Next round I get 33 utg with 7k chips and shove, and the big blind calls with QTdd.  Not really sure what range he put me on to make that call but whatever.  The flop comes 448 with one diamond, and the turn comes the 5d, meaning he needs any 5 8 T Q or diamond to beat me, but somehow I fade it and double up to 15k.  After that hand I won the blinds quite a few times as my table was pretty tight, didn't really play any big pots the rest of the level, and ended the level with 23k.

Level 7, 300/600:  Lost like 6k chips when I 3bet a tight guy with A6cc knowing that he'd fold a lot, but he called, then we checked down the board of K64J8, and he showed TT.  Didn't really play any other big pots that level and ended the level with 23k.

Level 8, 400/800:  Chipped up to about 32k mostly from stealing the blinds and 3-betting.  Then a younger kid who just got moved to our table with a fairly big stack opens for 2k about 3 off the button, and I call in the big blind with 87hh.  Flop comes 843 rainbow and I check and he bets 3k and I call.  Turn is 5h putting two hearts on board.  I check and he bets 7k.  I consider both calling and raising but I really don't think he's ever laying down a better hand if I raise, and if I'm ahead he shouldn't have too many outs, and maybe I can induce him to bluff the river, so I call, leaving myself with about 22k chips.  River is an offsuit jack.  I check and after a few seconds of thought he sticks in a pile of 5k chips, putting me all in.  I think for a bit but I feel like I have to call here because I just feel like he could have a lot of hands he would 3-barrel on this board, and the range of value hands he can have isn't all that wide considering the pot-sized bet on the river.  So I call and he has KK and I'm busto.  I possibly could have found a better spot at my table I suppose but I'm not that disappointed because he definitely looked like someone who could be bluffing in that spot a lot.

Oh well, back to the online grind now.  :)

WSOP Day 1 Detailed Review

Sorry guys, been meaning to do this for a couple days now, but had a few things come up and I've been a little busy the last couple days.   I'll go level by level and talk about any interesting hands that I can remember.  The details might not be 100% accurate but it will be close enough.

Level 1, 50/100:  Only one interesting hand that I can remember from this level.  Early position guy opens for 300, middle position calls, button calls, I call in the small blind with 67dd.  Flop comes 445 with 2 spades.  I check, EP bets 800, MP folds, button calls, I call.  Turn is an offsuit queen.  I check, EP checks, button bets 1400 and I just get the sense that he's not all that strong and either has a 5 or a low pocket pair or a draw, so I checkraise to 4500, hoping that EP folds and then I'd bomb the river if the button calls the turn.  However, EP flat called the 4500 and so did the button, and I got the feeling that EP had KK/AA most likely, with a full house also being a possibility.  River comes a 9 and I decide to give up on the bluff, and it gets checked around, and EP wins with AQ.  I kind of wish I had fired like 10k on the river here as it would have been a really tough call for him with AQ but honestly I thought the chance that one of them had a big hand was too high to make it worth bluffing.  That was the only big pot I played in level 1 and I ended the level with 21k out of the starting stack of 30k.

Level 2, 100/200:  Won a decent pot where I bet every street with KK on a low board, and my opponent tank folded the river for his last 7k or so chips, when obviously I was rooting for him to call.  A few hands later the hijack opens for 400 and I call with KQo on the button and the big blind calls too.  Flop comes K87 with two clubs, big blind checks, hijack bets 800, I raise to 2200, big blind goes all in for like 9k, hijack thinks for a bit and folds, I obviously call because I'm crushing his range as he should have a lot of draws here, and he turns over Q9cc.  Dealer announces "all in and a call on table (whatever table we were on)" and the espn cameras come over to tape the hand.  So we wait like 30 seconds and they deal the turn which is a blank.  Then the dealer pauses and the camera guys have to fix something before the river comes so we wait like a minute before the river gets dealt, which is pretty annoying.  And after all that wait the river is the ace of clubs and the guy makes a flush.  I ended level 2 with 17k.

Level 3, 150/300:  Didn't really play any big pots this level, ended the level at 18k.

Level 4, 150/300/25:  Played a ton of big pots in this level.  Right at the beginning of the level the early position guy opened for 2200 and he had always been opening to really large amounts with his big pairs.  I look down at KK and I'm pretty sure he's not folding at any point so I reraise to 8k and he calls.  Flop comes all low cards and I get in my last 13k or so and he calls with JJ.  My KK holds up and I'm at 44k now.  Very next hand the same opponent opens for 800 under the gun and I call in mid position with AQo  Flop comes AK4 rainbow and he instantly checks and I know he's really weak so I check behind hoping to either induce a bluff or to let him catch up a little.  Turn is a blank and he bets 4k, which is a pretty big bet, and I call.  I still get the feeling that he's pretty weak though.  River is an 8 and he checks to me and I'm pretty sure I can get some value out of him here so I bet 6k and he calls.  I turn over my hand thinking I have to be good, but he turns over 84o (having raised under the gun) for a rivered 2 pair.  So that hand kind of sucked and now I'm at 32k.

Later in that level I get TT about 3 off the button and raise to 800, button calls, everyone else folds.  Flop comes 942, I bet 1400, button raises to 4k, I call.  turn is a 5, I check, button bets 8k and I just get the feeling he's trying to push me off my hand.   I call, and the river comes an ace, I check and he checks behind and shows AJ.  A bit later I get KK under the gun and raise and get a few callers.  Flop comes K23 and I bet like 2k and only the big blind calls. Turn comes a 4, and he checks and I bet 4500 and he calls.  River comes a 5 making the board K2345 and he bets like 10k and I really don't know what I can beat here and he doesn't seem like the type to bluff on this board, so I fold, and now I'm back down to 16k.

Next big hand I played, guy 3 off the button opens for 800, next to act calls, I call on the button with K9ss, small blind calls.  Flop comes 753 with 2 clubs, everyone checks to me and I bet 2400 because I just get the feeling that the flop missed everyone and easily could have hit me.  The small blind calls and everyone else folds.  Turn comes a 7 and he checks and I check behind.  River comes an offsuit ace and he bets 7500 almost instantly.  I think for a bit and I really feel like he's full of crap here as every draw missed and he would need a minimum of trip 7s to bet the river for value, but if I call and I'm wrong I only have like 4k chips left.  So after a few seconds of thought I call and he mucks his hand and I turn my hand over.  I got a few weird looks from the table for calling a pot-sized bet with king high but I thought it was a pretty easy call at the time since there were so many possible bluffs in his range and not many value hands.  My only real decision was between calling and raising my last 4k chips just in case he was trying to bluff with something like KQ/KJ/KT of clubs and actually had the best hand, but I thought calling was probably better because I could beat the vast majority of his bluff hands.

Next big pot, under the gun raises to 800, and I'm in next position with QQ and I decide to flat call.  Everyone else folds and the flop comes J55.  He bets 2k and I call.  Turn comes an 8 and he bets 5k and I call.  River comes a 5 so the board is J5585.  He bets 10k and I call.  He turns over AJ and my QQ is good, so now I'm up to 48k.  I feel like maybe I could have gotten more chips in here but he easily could have AA/KK/JJ here too and played it the same way, so I'm happy with how I played it.  I don't really play a hand after that and end the level with 46k.

Level 5, 200/400/50:  We're only scheduled to play half of level 5 on day 1.  Had a few sick spots in this level.  In separate hands I opened JJ and QQ in early position to 1025 and the guy who was overbetting all his big pairs raise to like 15k and 20k, and I folded both hands.  He had made bets like this throughout the day and never showed anything less than JJ so I think my folds are ok but it's pretty sick folding both of them, especially the QQ.  So anyway I don't really win any pots in this level and going into the last hand of the day I have like 35k.  The overbetting guy opens for 1200 and a couple other guys call and I call on the button with QJhh.  Flop comes AT9 the overbetting guy bets like 4k and everyone else folds and I call.  I'm pretty sure I'll be able to double up if I can hit the straight here because his overbets always meant strength.  Turn comes 3 of hearts giving me a flush draw to go with the straight draw and he fires 10k.  At this point if I call I only have 12k behind but I call because I should have 15 outs and I'm definitely getting paid off on the river if I hit. River comes an offsuit 9 and he puts me all in and I fold obviously, ending the day with 11,975.  Kind of disappointing considering I had 48k an hour earlier, but I guess anything can happen.  We restart at noon tomorrow.

WSOP Main Event Day 1

I'll do a more in-depth update when I get around to it because I did have some interesting hands, but I don't feel like doing it right now.  Suffice to say I'm pretty disappointed with how I played a few hands, but really happy with how I played some others, and I ended the day with 11,975 chips, and I play again on Saturday.

WSOP Day 37 Update

Event 54, $1k NLHE, Day 2:  Went into the day with 41k in chips, which put me in 40th out of about 600 people left, with just under 400 being paid.  Nothing really interesting before the bubble, lost about 20k in one pot with A2 vs AQ on an ace high flop with a lot of possible draws, but other than that I just stole the blinds a lot and when the bubble burst I had 47k.  Had a really interesting hand after the bubble, blinds were 600/1200, all relevant players had about 40-50k to start the hand, I opened for 2600 from the cutoff with KJdd, button called, big blind reraised to like 6000, I called and the button called.  Flop came A85 with 2 diamonds, big blind checks, I check because I think the button will bet with a lot of hands and also I can see whether the big blind is strong or not.  So the button bets 12k or so, big blind tanks for a few minutes and I'm pretty sure he has like JJ-KK or something and I kind of want him to call so I can push him off the hand on the flop.  But anyway he folds eventually and I go all in for about 25k more, and the button folds pretty much instantly, which I figured he would, because he shouldn't have very many hands in his range there that have an ace in it.  So that was nice to almost double up without even seeing a showdown and without even having a pair.  That hand put me at around 70k which is what I went to dinner break with.

After dinner break the first hand is folded to the button at 800/1600 and he opens for 4k with about 30k behind, and the small blind is not there so his hand is folded, so I figure the button has a pretty wide range, so I go all in with A6o and he snapcalls with KK and I don't suck out and I'm down to like 32k.  Then about 2 hands later I pick up AK and get it in vs AT and I hold and I'm back close to 70k.  Nothing eventful after that for about 2 hours until a hand at 1000/2000 where a guy with about 160k chips opens to 4500 in the cutoff, button calls, I have AKdd and raise to 14k, cutoff thinks for a bit and goes all in, button folds, I call obviously, he has QQ, time to race.  Flop comes with an ace, but queen on turn and I'm busto in 153rd place for $3182.

Just the main event left, I signed up for Day 1B, which is Tuesday the 6th.  Will be nice to have a couple days off from poker but obviously I wish I was still in that one.

WSOP Day 36 Update

Event 54, $1k NLHE:  Ran so good today, sucking out on people at least 5 different times, only lost one big pot all day when I had 99 vs KK and I thought for sure I was going to win that one too, but oh well.  Ended the day with 41,575 chips from the starting stack of 3k.  Should be about 600 people left with about 400 getting paid, and I have slightly over double the average stack.  Hopefully I don't make a quick exit like I did a few days ago in the $1500 nlhe when I had a ton of chips on day 2 then too.

No more events until the main event.

WSOP Day 35 Update

Event 55, $10k PLO:  Pretty much broke even the first 4 hours and never played any big pots and went into dinner break with 28k of the 30k starting stack.  Then the next 2 levels I got down to 20k or so then doubled up on a hand where I had the guy drawing dead on the flop (which is really hard to do in plo).  Then I won another decent pot to get to around 60k, then made a possibly bad call with the low end of the straight and a flush draw on the turn in a spot where the guy probably should have the nut straight almost always, and he did, and the flush didn't get there.  So that put me back at about 30k.  Lost a few chips after that and got my last 20k chips in with AAQ9 vs AKQ3 on a QJ4 board and couldn't fade it, and busted in the last level of the day.

$1k NLHE at noon tomorrow and $2500 NLHE at 5pm if I bust that.  Then the series is done except for the main event.

Still feeling a bit under the weather so I'm looking forward to having a break before the main event.  Don't really know which day I'll play for the main event yet but I will definitely take a few days off before I start, just to recover from being sick if nothing else.

WSOP Day 34 Update

Event 53, $1500 Limit Holdem Shootout:  Doubled up in the first level where I was hitting every hand, then lost pretty much every pot I played after that and busted at the beginning of level 4.

$10k PLO tomorrow at 5pm.

WSOP Day 33 Update

Event 49, $1500 NLHE, Day 2:  Went into the day with 96k chips putting me in 11th position with 290 people left and 270 getting paid, so I had pretty high hopes obviously.  On the first hand of the day I lose about 13k chips vs the other big stack at the table when I missed a straight and flush draw in a spot that I would have won a big pot if I had hit b/c I could tell he was really strong and he later told me he had a set.  A few hands later I get 66 in the small blind at 600/1200 blinds and raise to 3600, the big blind goes all in for about 35k, I snapcall, he has QJo, flop was safe but he hit a queen on the turn and now I'm down to like 45k.  I managed to lose flips to shortstacks two more times before the bubble burst and when the bubble broke I was down to like 30k.  After this I shoved once or twice a round for a couple hours and my stack stayed about the same.  The final hand I shove 10 big blinds in the small blind with q4 and big blind calls with K8 and I miss.  I finished a rather disappointing 166th place for $3433.  Just so frustrating going into the day with almost 3 times the average stack and busting in a little over 2 hours, but it's easy to do when you never win a pot all day except for a few blind steals.

Anyway enough ranting, gonna rest up a bit now.  Still feeling kind of sick with a cold or whatever.  I don't play til tomorrow at 5pm, and it's a $1500 limit holdem shootout, which is a pretty quick event usually, so it shouldn't be too taxing anyway.

WSOP Day 32 Update

Event 49, $1500 NLHE:  Felt like crap when I woke up this morning and considered taking a day off but then decided to go in at like 1:30 and I got there in time to late register and hopefully put up a Michael Jordan-esque performance.  Not much happened thru level 5, ended that level with 3k chips from the starting stack of 4500.  Then the rush hit me and and half an hour later I had 35k, and ended with that at the dinner break.  Kept running great all day, probably winning like 90% of my showdowns all day, and got up to about 105k with a half hour left in the day.  Then I had a hand where the guy 2 off the button opened for 3500 at 500/1k and he had a stack of around 45k, I made it 9500 with AKo on the button fully intending to call off if he shoves.  So the blinds fold and he instantly raises me 15k more with about 20k behind and I just get all kinds of 'strong' vibes from him, and also I figure I have a good stack for doing some bubble pwnage tomorrow since we're almost in the money, so after a few minutes of contemplation I decide to lay it down.  Won a few more small pots to end the day with 96,400 chips.  We restart at 2:30 tomorrow and no 5pm event tomorrow, so it's stay in day 2 of this one or go home.  Hopefully I feel a little better tomorrow, I was drinking a ton of water today to stay hydrated and kept having to go to the restroom and missing hands.  Obviously that's not too big a deal in the early levels but I definitely don't want to be doing that on day 2.

WSOP Day 31 Update

Event 47, $1k NLHE:  Got it in about 20 minutes into the tourney with AA vs AK and doubled up.  A few hands later I raised with 96h in the cutoff and the bb called, he had 5k to start the hand I had him covered.  Flop Txx with 2 hearts, he checks to me, I bet 400 he raises to 1000 I call.  Turn Q of hearts giving me a flush, he bets like 1300, I go all in for like 2500 more, he calls with AT with a heart, heart on river, and I'm down to like 1k chips.  A few hands later I shove over an opener with ATo and he has AK gg me.

Just got out of the pool which was nice since I think this was the first time I've been home when it was still light out.  Feeling pretty refreshed right now and ready to take on the last 5 days of the wsop preliminaries.

Gonna rest up the rest of the day and maybe go get a nice dinner with my wife.

$1500 NLHE at noon tomorrow and $5k PLO at 5pm, probably like 80% chance I play the NLHE, and will play the PLO if I'm not still in the NLHE.

WSOP Day 30 Update

Event 46, $5k PLO8, Day 2:  Won 3/4 of a pot when allin twice in the first few hands in hands where I hit a backdoor flush draw, and my stack was around 40k for a bit, but it was short lived.  Lost a couple pots to some shortstacked players, then got my last chips in with Ad3d5Q preflop and didn't hit anything.

Event 48, $2500 8-game:  One of the events I was really looking forward to, and I started off great winning 3 triple draw pots and getting above 10k in the first 6 hands of the tourney.  After that I just bled chips in every game and went bust in PLO when I called 3 streets with bottom set and the guy showed a rivered straight, gg me.

WSOP Day 29 Update

Event 46, $5k PLO8:  Kind of a boring game but so many people are willing to get their money in so bad in this game, so it's a good spot.  Hovered around even for the first half of the day, then got all my chips in with A34T vs A24Q on a Q52 flop, and hit a 6 on the turn to double up to around 30k.  Soon after that I got all my chips in again with 22c3c6 vs AcKc95 on a 27cQc board, he made the low on the turn and I faded the flush on the river so we chopped that one.  A few hands after that I flopped top set with aces and won about 12k on the hand after he folded the turn, so I was up over 40k as our table broke with about a half hour left in the day.  I get moved to a table with a lot of guys with like 1k-6k chips, and I manage to get scooped 5 times by the shortstacks in the last half hour and end the day with 18,000 chips.  We start day 2 at 3pm with probably slightly less than half the field still in and 400/800 blinds.

Will play the $2500 8-game at 5pm if I bust this before dinner.

Getting a little tired the last few days so I might be skipping a few events the last week depending on how I'm feeling.  I still feel like I'm playing fine but I don't know how many 15 hour days I have left in me.  We'll see.

WSOP Day 28 Update

Event 44, $2500 Mixed Holdem:  Sat down at the wrong table to start, then figured it out and moved to the right table.  Started with 7500 chips, got up to 13k on about the 3rd hand when I picked up KK in the no limit portion and let a guy bluff off most of his stack.  Then that table broke and I got moved again, and in the next no limit round I picked up K9 on the button at 75/150 blinds, i opened for 425, sb made it 1125, I called, flop K94 with 2 hearts, sb bets 1400, I make it 3100, he goes all in for more than I have, I obv snapcall, and he had AJ with no hearts, and I hold and double to 26k.  Soon after this I have to go play...

Event 43, $10k HORSE, Day 2:  Went into this with 4100 chips with limits of 1500/3000.  We start with stud8 and I get a36 the first hand and someone with a low card raises in front of me, and I reriase and he reraises me all in, he had 663 which is in decent shape against my hand, I end up making a pair of 3s and no low, so I bust on the first hand, so I go back to...

Event 44:  Lost some chips after this in the limit holdem portion to get down to around 20k.  Then in the next nl round I called 3 barrels vs durrrr on a KQT93 board with KT and get my stack back to around 30k.  After this I get crushed in the next 2 limit holdem rounds and my stack dwindles to 13k at the dinner break.  About 5 hands after getting back from dinner I pick up JJ utg and open for 1025 at 200/400 blinds in nl.  Someone in late position reraises to 3000 and I go all in for 13k.  He tanks and tanks, and by this point I'm pretty sure I want him to call because I think he'd snapcall with any hand that is either ahead of me or flipping with me.  But he finally does call after about 5 minutes and flips over AK, and he hits a king on the turn, gg me.

Not sure yet if I'm going to play the $1500 nlhe tomorrow, because I want to play the $5k plo8.

WSOP Day 27 Update

Event 43, $10k HORSE:  Was really looking forward to this one as I love the mixed game events.  I slept over 12 hours last night/this afternoon so I was feeling really refreshed.  Apparently my body was a little more tired than I thought it was.  Ran pretty bad to start and was down to 5k chips in level 6, but then the rungood kicked in and I ended level 7 with 38k, and then the power went out in Rio and it was pitch dark in there.  Someone joked that Men the Master would probably be the chipleader when the lights came back on.  So anyway they fixed all the lights and so we played the last level, and I ran really bad and am pretty sure I never won a pot the last level.  I ended the day with 4100 chips and the limit will be 1500/3000 to start the day so I need to run really good tomorrow.  I may multitable again with the 2500 mixed holdem since there's no 5pm event (why is it that on days that I start out with a shortstack there's no 5pm event?) but I'm not sure yet.

WSOP Day 26 Update

Event 41, $1500 PLO8:  Lost half my chips in the first 2 hands I was dealt, and lasted a couple hours before I lost the rest.  Kind of nice to bust early actually and have an evening off, pretty sure it's my first of the series.

$10k HORSE tomorrow, I'll probably skip the $1500 NLHE to play it.

WSOP Day 25 Update

Real quick update b/c I'm cranky and tired right now and have a headache.

Event 39, $1500 NLHE Shootout:  Lasted about 2 hours in this, lost all in with a6 vs kq.

Event 40, $2500 Razz:  Built my stack up to about 30k from the starting stack of 7500, but then lost about 6 showdowns in a row in the last hour, and busted with about 1 minute left in the day.

$1500 PLO8 tomorrow.

WSOP Day 24 Update

Event 36, $1k NLHE:  Only lasted like an hour in this one, got it all in on a 765 flop with 99 vs A8 and 87, ace on turn, gg.

Event 38, $10k PLHE:  Wasn't sure if I was going to play this event, but I decided to.  I held around the starting stack of 30k for the first six hours.  There was a pattern all day today, I would make a hero call and win a decent pot (at least 3 of them where I got a reliable tell on someone, thus making it an easy call), then a few hands later I would get coolered in a spot where there's no way I can avoid losing a lot of chips.  This happened about 5 times.  Finally with about 20 minutes left in the day I picked up JJ in early position with a 30k stack at 500/1000 blinds, and the utg player made it 2300 and I called and the big blind called.  Flop came Kxx, bb checked, utg bets like 4500, I call.  Turn comes another king, utg bets like 9k, I tank for a while, then the utg player does one of my favorite 'weak' tells (I don't want to reveal what it is), and when he does this I call.  River is a low card and I'm hoping he goes allin so i can snapcall, but unfortunately he checks and I check back and my jacks are good.  Then with 10 minutes left in the day I have about 60k chips, still 500/1000, cutoff opens for 2500, I make it 7500 on the button with TT, and this was about the fifth time I had 3-bet him after he opened, and he folded all the other times, and I knew he was getting fed up with me.  I was hoping he'd 4-bet so I could get it in, but instead he calls and we see a flop of K74.  He fairly quickly leads out for 10k and I just know he's weak and I want to let him fire again on the turn or river, so I call.  Turn is a 9, he checks, I check.  River is a ten giving me a set.  He bets about 30k and I go all in for a few more chips and he calls and has QJ for the nut straight.  Just a ridiculous hand b/c I probably don't go broke on any card other than a ten on the river, unless he bets a queen or a jack, which I think was unlikely.

Just really annoyed with how the day ended because I'm so happy with how I played and all my reads were perfect today.  I don't think I've ever played a better day of nlhe (pot limit holdem actually, but basically the same thing).

Anyway, done ranting for now, $1500 nlhe shootout at noon, and $2500 razz at 5pm if I bust the shootout.

WSOP Day 23 Update

Event 37, $3k HORSE:  Not much to report on this one, except Phil Ivey was at my table for like the 6th time this series, and he got his revenge on me for the KK vs AA hand from the 1500 HORSE by busting me today.

WSOP Day 22 Update

Event 35, $10k Heads-Up NLHE:  My first round opponent was Aaron Wilt.  I ran pretty good for the whole match, including winning a big pot with JT on a 9828Q board to get to a 50k to 10k lead after about an hour.  Maybe 10-15 minutes later after some preflop shoving and folding, he shoved about 10k at 300/600 and I had KK so I made the tough but necessary call, he flipped over 66, my kings held, and I was off to round 2 at 10pm.

My second round opponent was Julian Herold.  This was a pretty crazy match.  One of the first hands I had AQ vs his AK on an ace high flop and I lost about 20k of my 60k starting stack on that hand.  Eventually he got me down to about 25k, then we got it in on an AsKh3s board, and I had A3, and he had A2 with a spade.  The turn was the 4 of spades to give me the maximum amount of sweat, but the river was a blank and I doubled up.  A few hands later we got it all in in a huge pot on a flop of JhTh4h, where I had TT and he had J7 with no hearts, so I was in really good shape.  The turn was a blank and I had him drawing dead, the river was another ten just for fun.  So at this point I'm up about 110k to 10k at blinds of 500/1000.  We play the shoving game for a while and finally he shoves about 12k and I call with K8hh, and he has A7o.  The board blanks out and he doubles up to about 25k.  After that he won another pot where I got it in with a pair and a flush draw, and he had top 2 pair, and he doubled up again.  Then we got it all in preflop and I had AQ vs his A9.  The flop was all low cards with 2 diamonds, the turn was a diamond giving him a flush draw, and the river came a diamond too, so that sucked.  Then I was down to 20k.  After that I win a few hands and then double up when we get it in preflop with A2 vs KT, and my A2 holds as the board doesn't help either of us, and we're almost even in chips after all that.  The match ended quickly after that, however, when we got it in on a Q95J board where I had Q9 and he had 55, and he had me covered.

Pretty annoying to have him almost dead and then end up losing, but it's ok.  Think I'll have a few beers tonight and then forget about it, since there's still plenty more events to play.  :)

Skipping the $1k NLHE because I want to play the $3k HORSE tomorrow at 5pm.  I may play the 1k on Sunday if I don't make day 2 of the HORSE, but I'm not really sure yet.

WSOP Day 21 Update

Event 31, $1500 HORSE, Day 2:  Started the day with a decent stack but ran bad, finally getting JJ vs AA in limit holdem, and my stack was down to 2700 at 400/800 blinds.  Next hand I got 99 and stole the blinds somehow.  Next hand I got it all in with KK vs Phil Ivey's AA, and hit nothing on the flop or turn and was down to 2 outs for my tourney life, but somehow binked a king on the river to stay alive with about 10k chips.  Then went on a crazy rush including winning a huge 3 way razz hand where I hit the river and both opponents missed, and 20 minutes later I had about 50k chips.  Got my stack up to about 90k about an hour later and played another huge 3-way razz hand, this time where all 3 of us had an 8 made going into the river, but I had the best 8, but someone made a 7.  By the time we got in the $ i had 66k chips, which was about 1.5x average stack.  After that I ran really bad for a half hour and was down below 20k chips, but then won an allin pot in razz where I had to hit the river to make an 8 vs my opponent's 9, and got back to 42k chips.  Unfortunately I never got much going after that and busted about an hour later in 50th place for $3773.

$10k Heads-Up NLHE tomorrow at 5pm.

WSOP Day 20 Update

Quick update because I'm sleepy:

Event 30, $1500 NLHE:  Busted in like half an hour after getting all my chips with K7 on a Kh8hJx flop at 150/300 with about 3500 chips after raising into a big blind who was sitting out.  Pretty sure I can never fold on the flop in that spot.

Event 31, $1500 HORSE:  Definitely one of the better events of the series from a value standpoint.  Ran reasonably well all day and had a few beers during the evening (which may or may not have helped my play) and ended the day with 15000 chips from the starting stack of 4500, which should be slightly above average.  Day 2 starts at 3pm.

Will play the $2500 PLHE/PLO tomorrow if I bust before dinner in the HORSE.

WSOP Day 19 Update

Event 28, $2500 PLO:  Didn't really play any big pots for the first 5 hours, but chipped up to 10k from the starting stack of 7500.  At 100/200 I limped in early position with 3567 and someone in late position potted it and the button called and I called.  Flop came J56 rainbow, I check, preflop raiser checks, button bets like half the pot, I go all in, other guy folds, button calls with j5xx and has me in bad shape but I figured he could be betting pretty wide there and I can't fold obv.  I miss my draws and bust just in time to sign up for...

Event 29, $10k Limit Holdem:  I genuinely was hoping I would make the dinner break in the PLO so I could skip this event.  As it turned out, I liked my spot in this.  My first table, everyone was way more interested in the basketball game than in the poker game, and I was able to chip up from about 30k to 36k without really showing a hand.  Then they broke that table and I got a table where people were definitely in a gambling mood.  Obviously this means that I need to hit some hands to get some chips, and I didn't really hit much of anything, and busted near the end of the day.

$1500 NLHE and $1500 HORSE tomorrow...two good events.  $1500 HORSE might be the softest tourney of the whole series.

WSOP Day 18 Update

Event 24, $1k NLHE, Day 2:  Went into the day with about 9k chips which was about half of the average stack with about 500 people left, and 342 spots being paid.  I open-shoved 2 of the first 5 hands or so, then shoved 2 other hands after someone opened, and finally had like 18k without showing down a hand.  Then I tried to bluff someone in a spot where I probably shouldn't have, and was down to 7k.  At this point we were about 40 people from the money, so I basically nitted it up for like 15-20 hands, folding 66, aj, and aq after ppl opened because I had no fold equity, and made the money with about 5k chips.  The first hand after the bubble burst I had qj utg at 500/100 and shoved my last 5k chips.  The big blind called me with k3 and i didn't hit anything and busted in 341st place for $1864.  I busted just in time for the beginning of...

Event 27, $1500 Stud8:  Didn't really get much going in this one, never had more than double the starting stack, busted at the end of level 7.

$2500 PLO tomorrow, I just hope I last long enough in this one so that I can avoid the 10k limit holdem.  :)

WSOP Day 17 Update

Event 24, $1k NLHE:  Started with 3k, chipped up to like 5k by the end of level 4, then at the beginning of level 5 I won a huge pot with QQ vs AK and 99 to get to around 20k.  Then I lost some chips when I 3bet with JJ and another guy with a lot of chips 4bet me and I folded, I just didn't think he ever has a worse hand there.  Then later I hero-call down with 2nd pair in a spot where he should be bluffing a lot, and he wasn't bluffing.  So then I was down to about 3k.  After a few timely shoves and a double-up with QQ vs A5, I ended day 1 with 9200 chips.  Should be around 500 people left tomorrow when we restart at 2:30, and they pay 342 spots.

If I bust this in the first few levels tomorrow I'll play the $1500 stud8.

WSOP Day 16 Update

Event 23, $2500 6-max Limit Holdem, Day 2: Went into the day 8th in chips out of about 100 people left, unfortunately I kept getting great starting hands and losing most of them. I busted about 2 hours into the day with about 60 people left.

Event 25, $10k Omaha8: More of the same, I think I won one or two hands at most the entire tournament. Busted in 4 hours.

Quick video blog I did for PokerNews shortly before busting from the omaha8:

http://www.pokernews.com/video/wsop-2010-george-lind-video-blog-94531553001.htm

1k donkfest tomorrow.

WSOP Day 15 Update

Event 23, $2500 6-max limit holdem: Wasn't going to even play this event at first but then I had to meet someone at Rio at around 5pm, so after I met with him I decided I might as well get in the tourney since I was already there. I then proceed to hit every flop or draw I need for the last 6 hrs and end the day with 49,600 chips from the starting stack of 7500. I should be top 5 or 10 in chips with about 100 people left going into day 2. We resume at 3pm tomorrow.

I will play the 10k Omaha8 if I bust the holdem before dinner break, but I'd have to run pretty bad to not make it to dinner break with the stack I have.

WSOP Day 14 Update

Event 19, $10k 2-7 NL, Day 2: Started the day with 21k and stayed around there for the first few hours playing some small pots, then went card dead for an hour or so and blinded down to 3k. I then won 4 hands in the next orbit around the table and was up to 50k at one point. I made a hero call with a pat ten vs a 2 card draw and he showed me a 9 and I was down around 25k again. I made a shove or 2 every orbit to stay around that stack for another couple hours, but then shoved about 12 bb's utg with t8642 and the guy next to act called, and I knew he was probably never drawing there and always had me beat if he was patting, so I broke the ten, and he showed a 97xxx. So I needed to catch a 3 5 or 7 to stay alive. It was a king though, and I busted out in about 25th place, but the tourney only pays 14 spots.

$2500 6-max Limit Holdem tomorrow, I'm about 50/50 on whether I want to play it, I'll probably decide tomorrow afternoon. I kind of want a day off but I hate missing events too. :)

WSOP Day 13 Update

Event 17, $5k NLHE, Day 2: Went into the day with an above average stack of 63k, but never got anything going. Final hand I had about 30k left, blinds 800/1600, I make it 4k on the button with AK, big blind calls, Flop AK4 with 2 hearts, big blinds goes all in, obv I call, he has j7 hearts, turn is a heart, river is a blank, gg me.

Event 19, $10k 2-7 NL: Not much to say about this one, was really card dead all day and paid people off in a couple of questionable spots, but overall pretty happy with how I played. Ended day 1 with 21,700 chips out of the starting stack of 30k. Day 2 starts at 3pm.

Will play the $1500 stud if I bust before the dinner break in the 2-7.

WSOP Day 12 Update

I'm going to go in chronological order for this update.

1:00

Event 17, 5k NLHE: Registered at the beginning of level 2 and played until the end of level 3. Never played a big pot and ended level 3 with about the starting stack.

3:30

Event 15, 10k Stud8, Day 3: Was last in chips out of 18 people coming into the day with only 16 spots paying, so not a great spot to be in obviously. Fortunately I scooped my first hand to get up to around 200k then was never really in danger of bubbling as there were a few short stacks. After the bubble my stack was down to around 40k but then I scooped a few pots to get my stack up to 370k at the first break, which was about average stack with 13 people left.

5:40

Event 17: Went back to play some holdem on the break and won 3 hands out of about 6 that I played to get my stack from 12k to 18k.

6:00

Event 15: Couldn't get much going in the stud8 after the first break, folded the river in a big pot that I knew I was ahead up to the river, but there was just no way he could bet into me without having me beat. Lost a few other small pots to get down to around 100k. Then someone raises and I have AK6 all spades and decide this is the hand I'm going with so I reraise and he calls, and we get all the money in by 5th street, where I have two kings and he has a flush draw. He hits the flush on 6th street but I catch a third king to pick up a few outs. Unfortunately I don't fill up on the river and I bust in 10th place for $43,833.

7:00

Dinner at Buzio's since the 5k event had just started their dinner break when I busted.

8:30

Event 17: Arrive back at the NLHE event with 15k chips, which was the starting stack. Within a half hour I win 2 all in pots to get to around 70k, then I lose 2 big pots to get back down to 20k, then win 2 more big pots to get back to around 75k at the last break. Same story in the last 2 levels, lost a ton of chips with QQ on a 245 flop where the guy had A3, and was down to 19k. Then I raised utg and got 4 callers, and the big blind shipped and I called with KK and it held up, and that pumped me back up to over 50k. Won a few small pots at the end of the day to end with 63,600. We resume at 2:30 tomorrow.

I'll probably play the 10k 2-7 NL if I bust before dinner tomorrow.

WSOP Day 11 Update

Event 15, $10k Stud8, Day 2: Quite an eventful day today, was down to 15k chips after about an hour, then about 3 hours later I was up around 360k, then I was back down around 20k, scooped 4 all in pots to stay alive, and I end the day with 76k. I'm most likely in last place right now out of 18 people left, and they pay 16 spots. We restart at 3:30 tomorrow.

Also I might play the 5k nlhe tomorrow because the odds are good that I won't last long in the stud8, and the 5k is a deep structure so I wouldn't lose many chips in it while playing the stud8, unless I end up doing well in the stud8. If anyone who has a piece of me has a problem with this, leave me a message and I won't count the 5k nlhe on your part of the shares. If I don't hear from you before 12pm pacific time then i'll count it.

Need some serious rungood tomorrow!

WSOP Day 10 Update

Event 15, $10k Stud8: Stayed around the starting stack of 30k for most of the day, but then ran really hot in the last couple hours, hitting every hand I played, to end the day with 76,700. I'm probably around 10th in chips going into day 2, which starts at 3pm.

WSOP Day 9 Update

Event 13, $1k NLHE: Got my stack from 3k to 8k as I doubled up with 43 vs AA on a Q43 board, then busted a guy with AQ vs KQ on a QJT board. Then I lost a few chips making what was probably a good bluff but the guy called with a ridiculous hand that he really had no business calling with, then made a hero call with 99 on a ten high board that was probably a bad call, but not terrible I guess. Then the first hand after the first break I get KK and run into AA and I'm busto.

Event 14, $1500 2-7 NL: Had a great table. Haven't played this game all that much but I felt like it was a really good spot considering my table. Ran my stack up to 8k from the starting stack of 4500 by the first break, but then ran pretty bad after that and busted shortly after the dinner break.

10k stud8 tomorrow at 5pm.

WSOP Day 8 Update

Event 10, $10k Stud, Day 2: Ran horrible in this and busted about an hour into the 2nd day. Missed 2 flush draws, then got the last of my chips in with trips vs a straight & flush draw, and he made the straight.

Event 12, $1500 Limit Holdem: Had a great table where people were limping a lot and kept getting good hands but not many of them held up. Busted in level 5.

Playing the 1k donkament tomorrow, and if I bust that before dinner I'll play the 2-7 nl.

WSOP Day 7 Update

Event 10, $10k Stud: Ran absolutely horrible the first 6 levels of the day, was down to 15k from the 30k starting stack after 2 levels and down to 2k with about 10 minutes left in level 6, but then won 3 hands at the end of that level to get to around 20k, then ran really good in the last 2 levels to end the day at 42,700. It feels almost like I'm freerolling in this event now. Play resumes at 3pm tomorrow.

WSOP Day 6 Update

Event 8, $1500 NLHE: Ran pretty good in the first few hours to get my stack up to around 13k from the starting stack of 4500, with a couple of well-timed suckouts on preflop all-ins. My stack stayed around 5-10k until the end of level 8, when I got it in with AJ and ran into AA.

I'm most likely going to skip event 9 tomorrow (1500 pot limit holdem) so I can play event 10 (10k stud) since stud is one of my better games.

WSOP Day 5 Update

Event 6, $5000 NLHE Shootout: Hovered around the starting stack of 15k for the first 5 hours, then won 2 big pots to get to around 70k about a half hour before the dinner break. Then in the next 10 minutes or so I lost 20k with AJ vs KK, 35k with 77 vs qt, and my last 15k with a3 vs 66, so that wasn't very fun considering I had about half the chips at my table.

Event 7, $2500 Triple Draw: Registered late for this one since I was still in the previous event. Had a couple of tougher tables to start but the table I got moved to after the dinner break was just ridiculous. People were drawing 3 or 4 cards every hand, and huge pots were being built. Unfortunately I couldn't hit a hand to save my life, which is especially frustrating at a table like that, and I busted about an hour before the end of the day.

$1500 donkament tomorrow at noon.

WSOP Day 4 Update

Event 4, 1500 Omaha8, Day 2: Went into the day with a slightly above average stack at 19,500 with about 270 people left and the tournament paying 81 spots. I hovered around 20-30k for the first couple hours, then slid gradually downhill for the next couple hours before ultimately busting on the last hand before dinner break with about 120 people left.

Possible double dip tomorrow, with the 5k nlhe shootout at noon, and the 2500 triple draw at 5pm.

WSOP Day 3 update

Event 2, 50k 8-game, day 3: busted about half an hour into the day in a stud hand where I made a straight on 5th street and my opponent made quads on 6th.

Event 4, 1500 omaha8: Ran really good all day except at the end I lost a few pots, ended the day with 19,500, which is slightly more than the average stack. Play resumes at 3pm tomorrow.

My body still hasn't adjusted to the WSOP schedule yet, I keep getting sleepy around midnight. Hopefully that fixes itself soon.

Event 2, 50k 8-game Day 2 Update

Interesting day to say the least, got my stack up over 300k 3 different times, then ran really bad in the limit games the last hour to go from about 340k down to 68,500 to end the day. The first limit will be 8k/16k tomorrow so I have enough chips for 1 or 2 hands at most. I need some serious rungood. I'll most likely play the $1500 Omaha8 (event 4) if I bust in the first couple levels tomorrow, but let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Event 2, 50k 8-game Day 1 Update

Ended day 1 with 187,600, from the starting stack of 150k. Didn't really fluctuate much, my low point was about 140k and my high was about 190k. Ran really good in all the limit games, especially razz, but lost a few big pots in PLO. Day 2 starts at 3pm local time (pacific), feeling pretty good so far. We'll see how it goes.

The event only got 116 people, which is kind of surprising, but I guess not that surprising given the recent downturn in the economy. I was expecting at least 150, if not more. Oh well, better odds to win a bracelet I guess. :)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's almost that time of year.  A poker player's Christmas-time, otherwise known as the World Series of Poker.

Unfortunately in past versions of this poker-Christmas, I've given away a lot more gifts than I've received.  I've played around 150 WSOP events in my life, and have only 4 small cashes to show for it.  Last year I played 37 events and had zero cashes, which is just ridiculous and immensely frustrating.

And even though I realize that a sample of 150 tournaments doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of my poker life, it's annoying to have that monkey still on my back.  Many of my friends have a bracelet or 2, and they talk like it's the easiest thing to just win a tournament here and there, and it's implied that I must be doing something wrong to have not won one yet.  Meanwhile many of them have won a lot less money than I have overall in poker (excluding the WSOP), but there's still a part of me that really wants to be successful at the WSOP for reasons that go way beyond money.

So is this the year that I finally break the streak?  I sure hope so, but so much of it is out of my hands.  Obviously it takes skill to win a tournament, but it also takes an incredible amount of luck (and I'd say this even if I was up a million dollars at the WSOP).  I feel a calm confidence in myself this year, as if I just expect good results.  Part of it probably has to do with winning the SCOOP Player of the Series last week.  I feel like I can compete with the best in any game (not that I didn't feel like that before, but winning the award definitely didn't hurt my confidence).  In past years I can recall being a little nervous in the days leading up to the WSOP, but I haven't felt that at all this year.  Whether that made any difference in my results is difficult to determine (I tend to think it didn't, but it's so hard to say really).

Anyway, enough rambling, first event is Friday, we'll see how it goes.

I will be updating at the end of most days on here, but if you want to follow me during the day, I will be updating my twitter every 2 hours or so with updates from whatever tourney I'm in.  There's a link to my twitter account on the right, or you can just click here.

CardPlayer interview

http://www.cardplayer.com/cptv/channels/13-other-poker-videos/poker-videos/4149-online-zone-george-jorj95-lind