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!