I am terrible at thinking long term. When I'm having a losing day (or sometimes even a losing hour) it gives me almost no comfort to think back on all the success I've had in the past and all the money I've won in my lifetime. I want to win now and as soon as the dollars hit my account I feel like that's where they should stay. Lately, I've been avoiding looking at my account balance as I play during the day so while I usually have a sense of how I've been doing, I don't know exactly how much I'm winning or losing. This seems to keep me in a better frame of mind and stops me from sweating every dollar. Even though I know I shouldn't look, it's almost impossible to stave off curiosity for more than a few hours.
Today, I had a somewhat shocking and perplexing day. After starting the month off with 7 straight good winning days (and two days off), I had my worst day of the year today. Where the hell did this run of terrible luck come from? I don't feel like I played any different today although I'm sure I made my share of mistakes. For the most part it just seemed like every time I made a good hand, someone else made a great one. Unfortunately, making big lay downs isn't one of my strengths and I really got punished my making second best hands.
At the start of July if you told me I'd be winning as much as I am for the month at this point, I gladly would have taken it. But, since I had so much more 8 hours ago it really doesn't make me feel much better to think about the fact that I'm still having a very good month so far. It's critical that I book a win tomorrow even if it's a small one otherwise my morale is going to start suffering and when that happens it becomes really difficult to play all day and play well. It seems like whenever I go into a day thinking that I lose 2 or 3 big hands in the first 10 minutes of my day. Hopefully, tomorrow will be the start of new streak.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
This and That
One of the things that sucks about my job is I don't get holidays off. I read an article in the paper the other day that said that most people in France get 20 f-ing holidays a year on top of whatever other vacation they get. Lucky bastards! With the exception of the major holidays, I usually discover that I'm in the midst of a holiday at 1:00 p.m. when I check to see how our stocks did and I see that the market was closed.
Today it took me a few minutes to figure out why there were twice as many games running as there would be on a normal Wednesday. Of course, almost everyone was home from work and what better way to kill some time than with a little online poker. I've learned over the past few years that the 4th of July is one of the days when the total nut balls come flying out of the wood work. With the exception of the day after Thanksgiving, you'll find more people who don't have a clue what the hell they are doing playing poker on the 4th. While it makes the games a little better, it also makes them more volatile and a little more stressful. At the very least I hope the other regular players got their bankrolls beefed up today with a bit of extra dough so they can slowly lose it back to me in the coming weeks.
In online poker ban news, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a huge article that took up 3/4 of the front of the technology section a few days ago. What was great about it was based on how the article read it seemed like the paper was in favor of fully legal online gambling and that anyone who opposed it was a freedom hating idiot. It wasn't until close to the end of the article that they even mentioned the reasoning behind the ban and they did it in a lackluster way. I've discovered that the most recent rallying cry of the Poker Players Alliance as other opponents of the ban as well as the congressmen who've written bills to repeal the ban is "Adult Americans should be able to spend their money however they want." Makes perfect sense to me. Apparently the first bill (I think there are actually a few) to repeal the ban and make online poker totally legal and regulated in the U.S. was submitted in April and is in committee , but there wasn't any mention of when the house will vote on it.
I don't want to get too riled up and go on and on, but I will mention one more thing about the ban. One of the main things that the opponents of online poker say over and over is that young people are the real victims. They're damaging their financial future and losing what little money they have gambling and the government needs to save them. I've read this a few places and I always think that credit cards are 10 times worse than gambling. How many people do you know who've lost any significant amount of money gambling? Probably not too many. Now how many people do you know (especially young people) who have bought a ton of shit they can't afford using their credit card and spent thousands of dollars on interest in the following years? Almost everyone falls into that trap at some point, but I don't see the government trying to save us all from ourselves by making it hard to get a credit card.
Now that I have my little rant out of the way I can tell you I actually had a pretty nice day today winning just under $500. What makes it all the sweeter is I was losing over $700 at one point early in the day. So far July is looking nice.
Today it took me a few minutes to figure out why there were twice as many games running as there would be on a normal Wednesday. Of course, almost everyone was home from work and what better way to kill some time than with a little online poker. I've learned over the past few years that the 4th of July is one of the days when the total nut balls come flying out of the wood work. With the exception of the day after Thanksgiving, you'll find more people who don't have a clue what the hell they are doing playing poker on the 4th. While it makes the games a little better, it also makes them more volatile and a little more stressful. At the very least I hope the other regular players got their bankrolls beefed up today with a bit of extra dough so they can slowly lose it back to me in the coming weeks.
In online poker ban news, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a huge article that took up 3/4 of the front of the technology section a few days ago. What was great about it was based on how the article read it seemed like the paper was in favor of fully legal online gambling and that anyone who opposed it was a freedom hating idiot. It wasn't until close to the end of the article that they even mentioned the reasoning behind the ban and they did it in a lackluster way. I've discovered that the most recent rallying cry of the Poker Players Alliance as other opponents of the ban as well as the congressmen who've written bills to repeal the ban is "Adult Americans should be able to spend their money however they want." Makes perfect sense to me. Apparently the first bill (I think there are actually a few) to repeal the ban and make online poker totally legal and regulated in the U.S. was submitted in April and is in committee , but there wasn't any mention of when the house will vote on it.
I don't want to get too riled up and go on and on, but I will mention one more thing about the ban. One of the main things that the opponents of online poker say over and over is that young people are the real victims. They're damaging their financial future and losing what little money they have gambling and the government needs to save them. I've read this a few places and I always think that credit cards are 10 times worse than gambling. How many people do you know who've lost any significant amount of money gambling? Probably not too many. Now how many people do you know (especially young people) who have bought a ton of shit they can't afford using their credit card and spent thousands of dollars on interest in the following years? Almost everyone falls into that trap at some point, but I don't see the government trying to save us all from ourselves by making it hard to get a credit card.
Now that I have my little rant out of the way I can tell you I actually had a pretty nice day today winning just under $500. What makes it all the sweeter is I was losing over $700 at one point early in the day. So far July is looking nice.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
A Strong Poker Day
The system I've been using over the past few months is pretty simple. I've made a few adjustments here and there and found that my best bet seems to be playing in $2/$4 blinds games, buying in for $125 (the max buy in is $400 and that's what the majority of the other players do), and leaving if I get my stack up over $200. There are usually 10-15 games running at the $2/$4 limit and after being out of a game for 30 minutes you can rejoin a game you've already played in and buy in for any amount (If you wand to return earlier than 30 minutes you're forced to buy in for at least the amount you left with).
Normally there are plenty of games going, but to make sure I don't end up on a waiting list for a game I've just been in I make a note on my dry erase board of the time and the table name every time I leave a game. Usually I've got two or three names on my board and sometimes if things are going really well I'll have 4 or 5 tables that I've left within 30 minutes. Today I looked over at my board during a crazy hot stretch and saw that I'd left TEN tables in a twenty minute span and even more amazingly I had at least $250 in all of them when I got up.
When I stopped for lunch today I'd played 1,800 hands and I was up about $50. I played another 1,200 hands and finished the day ahead $1,700. It was a sweet run and a great day overall. Also if you look at the post below you can read an article I wrote for Cardschat.com (it's not up yet) which explains a little more of the logic behind buying in short.
How Much Should I Buy in for in a No Limit Cash Game?
The vast majority of online no limit cash games have a maximum buy in, a minimum buy in and what amounts to a suggested buy in. When you sit down there are usually two check boxes: one that conveniently allows you to buy in for the maximum (usually 100 times the big blind) and one where you can type in another amount. The “other amount” area usually has a number that’s equal to 60 big blinds pre-entered which the websites have put in as a suggested amount that you buy in for. Of course if you try to buy in for a minuscule amount you’ll be kindly informed that you are below the minimum which is almost always 20 times the big blind.
So which amount is right and additionally should you leave if you hit a certain amount? The answer is the same as the answer to many other poker questions; it depends. Some players will have the best results buying in for the maximum and others will have better results buying in for less. Some players should hit the road when they reach a certain amount and others should never get up because they’ve accumulated a given number of chips. The important part is to do some critical thinking about what your strengths and weaknesses are and decide what works best for you.
Conventional wisdom says that you should buy in for the maximum and accumulate as many chips as you can in an effort to have every other player covered. The thinking here is that when you get that big hand that you’ve been dreaming about and someone else makes a slightly worse hand (or tries an ill-advised bluff) you’ll make the most you could possibly make. The main disadvantage is sometimes you’ll be the one with the second best hand that’s tough or impossible to fold and you’ll end up losing more than if you had fewer chips. The questions is, will there be more times that you double up or take an opponents entire stack than times that you lose all of your chips or allow an opponent to double up?
There are other advantages to having a huge pile of chips in front of you. While it’s nice to have people bluff at you when you’ve got a great hand, in general it’s easier to beat opponents who straightforwardly bet their good hands and check their weak ones. When you have a ton of chips your opponents will be less likely to bluff at you because they’ll think you can afford to call them down. On the other side of the coin, your bluffs will be more effective on earlier betting rounds because even if you’re betting relatively small amounts, your opponents know that in order to call you all the way down they might have to put in more chips than they want to. Frequently they’ll decide it’s not worth it and give up when they may have called you down if you had fewer chips.
Another strategy is to buy in for a smaller amount to limit your risk. In the old days before online poker, if you were winning you’d be stuck with whatever amount you had in front of you since you couldn’t take chips off the table. Now there are so many games that if you want to, you can leave one game if you’re ahead and immediately buy into another for a lesser amount. For example, if you decide that it makes sense for you to always have between 40 and 70 big blinds, you can buy in for 40 and if you find yourself with more than 70 you can leave that game and buy into another for 40. The main advantage of this strategy is limiting your fluctuations. No one terrible hand is going to wipe out an entire great day’s worth of profit or put you in a huge hole.
Of course there are other advantages for buying in small. You’ll find that it’s easier to get paid off on your good hands. Since your opponents will know they’re only liable for the amount you have in front of you, often times they’ll take ill-advised risks. Furthermore, many players have the perception that if you haven’t bought in for the maximum then you must be a weak player. Anytime your opponents have misconceptions about your abilities, it works to your advantage. It can be less stressful when you have less on the line and it can make those small pots and blind steals seem more significant.
Deciding how much to buy in for requires that you look at your strengths and weaknesses. If one of your strengths is making big lay downs, then having more chips is less dangerous than if you’re a player who’s never folded top pair in your life. Maybe chopping out a bunch of small pots with well timed bluffs is what you do best. In that case there’s no reason to open yourself up to more risk by having a big stack. If you go on tilt every time you lose a huge pot, you’ll be better off having fewer chips and keeping the pots smaller. While half the players in every game think they’re the best player in the game, actually being the best player in the game means you’ll be better off with more chips. Another factor in this decision is the size of your bankroll in relation to what size games you find interesting. You can play in bigger games with a smaller bankroll if you buy in small.
If you buy in for the maximum is it still possible to have so many chips that you should get up? Sure it is. Most players have a range in which they feel comfortable. Maybe that range is 100 to 200 times the big blind for you or maybe it’s anything up to 500 times the big blind. When you start playing hands differently than you would strictly because you’re worried about losing all of the chips in front of you than it’s best to get up and jump into another game for a lesser amount. For example, if you’ve decided that raising to 3 times the big blind when you’re first in with pocket aces is the best way to play them and all of a sudden you decide to open raise to 6 times the big blind because you’re worried about taking a bad beat, you’ve got a problem. You don’t want to give up equity because having so many chips is making you nervous.
When you look at a typical online no limit game you’ll find that most players buy in for the maximum, but many of them would be better off buying in for less. Don’t let your ego get the best of you and buy in for more than the optimal amount just because you feel like you have to. On the other hand, if you’re used to buying in for less, maybe you’d be better off buying in for the maximum. The important thing is to think about why you’re buying in for the amount you do. If you’re not sure how much is right for you (and probably even if think you’re sure) try experimenting with various amounts and let your results dictate what you should do in the future.Monday, July 02, 2007
June Recap and July Goals
June turned out to be a pretty good month. I effectively won the same amount that I did in May (which was my best month so far this year) but I took the first 5 days off for my trip to the WSOP and another 3 days for our baby shower weekend extravaganza. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that making the same amount of money while working 3/4 the time is a good thing. I ended up falling a little short of my goals, but ended up playing about 45,000 hands for the month.
In July, I'll once again try to hit 60,000 hands in a month. My wife Jen and I are due to have our first baby on August 2nd so there's a fair chance that I'll get derailed by an early baby arrival. If the baby comes in early August I should be able to hit my target without too much trouble. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I can't seem to quite hit the hand goals that I've been setting for myself, but I'm pleased that I've been doing better than I thought I might be able to do in terms of dollars per hand. Hopefully I can continue to improve on both an knock out a $10,000 month.
In July, I'll once again try to hit 60,000 hands in a month. My wife Jen and I are due to have our first baby on August 2nd so there's a fair chance that I'll get derailed by an early baby arrival. If the baby comes in early August I should be able to hit my target without too much trouble. I'm a little disappointed in myself that I can't seem to quite hit the hand goals that I've been setting for myself, but I'm pleased that I've been doing better than I thought I might be able to do in terms of dollars per hand. Hopefully I can continue to improve on both an knock out a $10,000 month.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Hours Not Results
I had a strong day today. I played over 3,500 hands (a ton for one day) and won back about 80% of the money I lost on Saturday. Here's another article that I wrote for Cardschat.com. For those of you who were there you'll realize that the events that I talk about didn't really go down how I described and are rather a combination of my first trip to the Oaks and my first trip to Cache Creek.
When to Stay and When to Leave
I clearly remember the first time I played poker in a casino. I was 20 years old and I was heading to an Indian casino to play $3/$6 limit hold ‘em when my regular game was a 20 cent/ 40 cent game with my buddies. I made the trip with my first poker mentor who was my friend’s boss. His normal game was $15/$30 or $30/$60 and as we walked in the door he asked me, “Are you going to play until you win or lose a certain amount or are you going to play for a given amount of time?” I was so terrified and excited by the anticipation of playing in such a “big game” that I really didn’t have any clue what to say. But after a minute I replied, “If I get to the point where I’m ahead $100 I think I’ll get up.” To my credit $100 would have increased my bankroll by 50%, but I was still making a mistake that many players make. You want to play hours, not results.
We’ve all been guilty of using the “hit and run” or “stop win” strategy. After jumping into a game and picking up a few quick pots it can be tempting to lock up that profit and go do something else, but there are a few reasons why you should keep playing. The first and most important reason is that it’s much easier to play your best when you’re winning. Generally you’ll be more patient, more confident, and probably be having more fun. No one is 100% tilt proof and most of us have some significant trouble keeping our emotions in check. It’s much, much easier to stay on track when you’re ahead as opposed to behind.
Furthermore, winning is a sign that you’re in a game you can beat. Of course if you’ve just sat down and made two full houses and a flush in the first five hands then who knows. But if you’ve been playing for two or three hours and have significantly more than you started with then it’s more likely that you’re in a good game than a tough game.
On the other hand, if you’re losing, it’s easy to convince yourself that it’s okay to make plays that you know deep down are losing plays. When you’re losing it’s harder to stay patient, losing is never fun, and you might be in a game that you have little chance of beating.
The same players who tend to hit and run don’t like to call it quits when they’re losing. We’ve all thought to ourselves, “If I could just get even I’d leave this game in a second,” but you don’t want to play for hours and hours longer than you’d planned in a quest to get even for that one session.
The best thing to do is decide about how long you want to play and play for about that long. You don’t need to say “I’m going to play for exactly 8 hours today” and quit the second those 8 hours are up. But if that’s your plan you shouldn’t leave after 4 hours or shouldn’t stay for 12.
Of course, there are a few exceptions. The first one is while you don’t want to set a limit on your wins, setting a limit on your losses can be a good idea. My personal threshold when I’m playing limit hold’em is 50 big bets. While it’s very rare that I find myself down that much, when it happens I know that I won’t be in a state of mind to play my best and I’m better off calling it a day. If you’re more tilt prone, 35 big bets might be a better guideline. The key is that you don’t want to bury yourself so much in one session that it takes you several great winning sessions to dig yourself out.
Another exception is when you’ve been on an extended losing streak. No matter how skilled, every player runs into some significant losing streaks and sometimes it feels like you can’t win no matter what you do. If you’ve been getting killed for a string of sessions in a row, sometimes it can help your state of mind to book a win.
You might also push the limits of how long you’re willing to stay if you are in a fantastic game. If you’re just about to leave and all of a sudden one of the worst players in town sits down with two of his equally skilled friends, they all order a shot of tequila and tell you about how they just hit it big betting on a horse race then it’s time to call home and say you won’t be back for a while. On the other hand if you feel irritable, you have something on your mind, or you just can’t play your best for whatever reason, then leaving early should be something to consider.
While there are a few exceptions, your best bet is playing hours not results. It would be great if we could only play when we’re ahead, but playing while you’re behind is part of the game. Don’t sell yourself short and leave a good situation too early and don’t bury yourself with such a big loss that it takes you weeks to recover.
What happened to me in my first trip to play $3/$6? It turned out the decision on when to leave was easy. When I ran out of chips and opened my wallet only to discover there wasn’t any money left, they wouldn’t let me play anymore. :)
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Playing for a living
I've written a few more articles that I've gotten paid for over the past couple months. Rather than give you a link I figured I'd just cut and paste so anyone who happens who searches for key words on Google or Yahoo will find their way to my blog. I'm going to try to put one up every day this week since I've gotten at least 5 more published online and I haven't included anything about them. Here is the first which might be the best.
10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Going Pro
Almost everyone who has played poker seriously and doesn’t love their job has at least thought about playing for a living. For me, it was the best decision I ever made. For other players attempting to play for a living is detrimental. If you’re thinking about going pro there are 10 key questions to ask yourself:
How thick is my bankroll?
What are my expenses?
How easy would it be to return to my old job?
Do I have a strong support system in place?
What are the consequences of failure?
How much data do I have about my past results?
Is playing for a living going to have a negative impact on my health or social life?
Can I handle the pressure?
Am I ready to write the IRS a check every three months?
How much do I love to play?
How thick is my bankroll?
Debate is always raging about how much money you need to play at a given level without a significant risk of going broke. While most casual players completely ignore bankroll requirements, if you’re going to play for a living you need to have enough money in reserve to ride out the short term fluctuations. In my opinion a solid bankroll for limit hold’em is about 300 big bets, for NL hold’em about 5,000 big blinds, for SNGs it’s about 100 buy-ins, and for multi-table tournaments it’s around 250 buy-ins. Of course having more is always better than having less. The most important thing is to have enough money so you feel comfortable and don’t feel like you’re in danger of going broke.
What are my expenses?
This question can be a little tricky. When most people are working out a budget, they have a tendency to include only the bear minimum. It’s important that you make a realistic list of your monthly expenses that includes some margin for unexpected events and splurging. Remember this is your life we’re talking about here. You’re still going to want to buy new things and go out and have fun. You’re still going to buy birthday gifts and holiday presents and take vacations. You might also have to pay for private health insurance. If you’re living on cold cereal and don’t have an extra ten bucks to go to the movies you’ll be better off with a traditional job. A good way to come up with an assessment is to look back at your bank statements and credit card bills (I know you won’t have them, but if you call your bank and credit card company or go online you should be able to get those records easily) and find out how much you actually spent in the past 6 months or year. Use that number as a baseline.
How easy would it be to return to my old job?
If your boss is one of your best friends and you expect she’ll say “you’ll always have a job here” as she wipes away a tear and hugs you as you leave on your last day of work, you can stretch it a little more on some of the other 9 questions. On the other hand, if you know your boss is going to kick you in the butt and say “you’ll never work in this town again!” as you leave, you better be sure you’re going to make it as a poker player. Everyone has some sense about how marketable their job skill set is, and if it’s going to be hard for you to find another job as good as the one you have, then you should be much more cautious before quitting.
Do I have a strong support system in place?
Part of playing poker is having losing sessions. Sometimes when those losing sessions get strung together it can very difficult emotionally. Having a supportive spouse or group of friends can make a big difference in your mental health when you’re getting killed at the tables. Conversely, if every time you come home after a loss your spouse says “Oh no! You lost again! How could you do that you idiot?” it will be tough to keep yourself in a positive, confident frame of mind. Of course, if you happen to be someone who’s very even keeled and takes losses very logically as part of the game, then having a strong support system is less important.
What are the consequences of failure?
Think about what’s going to happen if you don’t make it. No one goes into professional poker thinking that they are going to fail, but plenty of people who try just can’t make enough money to live on. If you go broke are you going to find yourself $10,000 in debt working at a fast food job wondering what the hell went wrong? Or are you going to be disappointed (but not crushed) having blown through your bankroll, but otherwise be in good financial shape with a solid job? If you’re supporting a family think about what the consequences will be for them if things don’t go how you hope they will. You should always have a backup plan and decide how far you’re going to go. If you decide that you’re going to try to play poker for a living even if it means blowing through every dime you can get your hands on then at least acknowledge that fact. A healthier option would be to decide how much of your net worth you’re willing to commit or how far you’ll go into debt ahead of time. When you hit that limit, it’s time to get a job. Remember you don’t just get one shot. If you go broke, you can always rebuild and try again somewhere down the road. Don’t bury yourself so much that you can never recover just because you can’t admit that you’re not good enough yet to play poker for a living. Go back to the drawing board, work on your game and when you have enough money saved again, give it another shot.
How much data do I have about my past results?
The longer I play the longer I find it takes to get a realistic assessment of your hourly rates. If you’re winning over a short stretch it’s more likely that you’re a winner and if you’re losing it’s more likely that you’re a losing player, but to be able to predict your future results with any precision you need a ton of data. If you’ve been playing 20 hours a week for 5 years and have a spreadsheet with the exact amount of every win and loss then it’s a good bet that you know how much you can expect to make. If you’ve been playing every other Saturday for 6 months and don’t have any written records who knows what you can expect. Make sure you have records that back up what you think about your abilities and don’t jump to any conclusions because you’ve hit a hot streak. When some players win a tournament or have a few winning sessions in a row all of a sudden they think they’re Phil Ivey. Don’t get swept up and do something rash because you’ve been running good.
Is playing for a living going to have an impact on my health or social life?
Playing poker for a living can be hard on your body as well as your mind. It’s a pretty sedentary job and if you’re not careful you could find yourself putting on a few pounds. It doesn’t help that finding healthy food options in and around casinos can be a challenging task. Furthermore, poker can be a high stress business and if you don’t manage that stress well it can have a negative effect on your health.
Your social life might be affected as well. If the best games are on Friday and Saturday nights (or at night on the weekdays) you may find yourself having to choose between making strong money and spending time with your friends and family. Make sure you’re willing to play at the times it’s best to play, not just the times that are most convenient
Can I handle the pressure?
Losing is never fun. But when you’re counting on your winnings to pay your everyday expenses, losing or even breaking even can be a disaster. The mailbox doesn’t stop filling up with bills, just because you haven’t made a flush draw it what seems like a month. If you keep losing it can feel like a tremendous weight and it’s hard to play your best when you feel like you have to win. Having a solid bankroll and some savings beyond that can help alleviate some of this pressure.
Am I ready to write the IRS a check every three months?
YOU HAVE TO PAY YOUR TAXES! Sure with all those cash transactions you could fudge things a little, but is it worth it? If the IRS nails you for income tax evasion (a felony) you will wish you’d never been born. Part of playing for a living is making quarterly payments to the IRS. It’s never fun and I’m sure if most people had to pay out of their pockets instead of getting the money withheld from their checks, they’d storm the capital building and we’d all have lower taxes. The good news is you get to deduct all kinds of stuff as business expenses. Get yourself a good accountant, keep a log of everything that could be remotely related to your playing career, and it doesn’t seem so bad. Make sure you can afford to pay your taxes and still make enough to live on.
How much do I love to play?
In my mind this is the most important question. If you’re going to play for a living you better L-O-V-E to play. You can’t kind of like to play or think poker is interesting. You’ve got to love it. Poker is a business where self motivation is a must. No one is going to make you play or tell you to go play. You have to do it on your own and it’s much, much easier if playing is what you want to do anyway. If you have a job and can think of two or three things that you’d rather do with your free time then play poker, you probably don’t love it enough. The reason why this is so important is no matter how much you like to play now, after playing everyday for 6 months or a year or 5 years it won’t be nearly as interesting and stimulating. So if you just like it now, in a year it will turn into a real grind. If you’re good at it, but don’t really enjoy playing, you’ll totally hate it in 6 months.
You don’t have to find yourself in the best case scenario with a huge bankroll, low expenses, a loving a supportive spouse, a steel will, years of records, and an intense passion for poker to make it work. But if you find yourself lacking in a few of these categories you might want to rethink going pro. They say “playing poker is a tough way to make an easy living.” There are plenty of pitfalls and traps, but if you’re good at it and enjoy it, it can be the best job in the world. If playing poker for a living is your dream, go for it! Just make sure you’re smart enough to go after that dream at the right time with the right preparation.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
A massive correction
The streak is over in a big way. I had a fairly substantial loss on Friday and got totally rocked today. I can't even begin to describe the kind of bad luck I had today. It may have been the worst luck I've ever had over the span of 1,000 hands in my entire career. It was looking like this was going to be a banner month and it should still end up being good, but I'm feeling a little in shock right now. I'm taking the rest of the day off and tomorrow as well.
For the last 6 days of the month I am going to set a few goals and while I haven't been so good at hitting my goals in the past I am going to make these happen no matter what it takes! After all they're not that hard. The first part of the goal is to play 17,500 hands which works out to 3,500 hands a day for 5 days and one day off with one little caveat. If I hit plus $2,000 or minus $1,500 I'll stop for the day and count it as a full 3,500 hands. The second part of the plan is I'm going to work out 4 times during the 6 days. It shouldn't be too hard, but I always rationalize not working out when I spend all day playing and I've really been slacking off on my exercise regimen. Also, no drinking for the week. Between Vegas and Napa and having people over frequently and whatever I've been drinking too much lately and a week without having a drop seems like a good idea.
The best part about these goals is they aren't too much for me to handle. I feel like I should be able to do that much every week, but in practice I'm not particularly self motivated. Hopefully I'll be able to recover the money I've lost in the past two days over the next week and take a small step forward towards a healthier me.
For the last 6 days of the month I am going to set a few goals and while I haven't been so good at hitting my goals in the past I am going to make these happen no matter what it takes! After all they're not that hard. The first part of the goal is to play 17,500 hands which works out to 3,500 hands a day for 5 days and one day off with one little caveat. If I hit plus $2,000 or minus $1,500 I'll stop for the day and count it as a full 3,500 hands. The second part of the plan is I'm going to work out 4 times during the 6 days. It shouldn't be too hard, but I always rationalize not working out when I spend all day playing and I've really been slacking off on my exercise regimen. Also, no drinking for the week. Between Vegas and Napa and having people over frequently and whatever I've been drinking too much lately and a week without having a drop seems like a good idea.
The best part about these goals is they aren't too much for me to handle. I feel like I should be able to do that much every week, but in practice I'm not particularly self motivated. Hopefully I'll be able to recover the money I've lost in the past two days over the next week and take a small step forward towards a healthier me.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Another Good Day
I had another winning day today. In fact it looked like it was going to be a monster day. Normally I win about one in every 11 pots. Nominally I should win one in every 9 pots since I'm one of nine players and we all get dealt the same cards in the long run. But since I'm more patient and selective, in practice it seems like I win about one in every 11. Another thing I've noticed after looking at the statistics that Pokerstars keeps track of is when I win more than 50% of the hands that go all the way to the showdown I'm usually ahead and when it's less than 50% I'm usually behind. On average I only make it to the showdown about 1 hand in 40.
With those things in mind the start that I had today was pretty amazing. After 100 hands (about 12 minutes) I looked at my stats and saw that I'd won 6 of 7 pots at the showdown and 25 pots overall! This put me ahead over $500 and for a while the good luck kept on coming. At one point I was ahead over $1,500, but after a few bad plays and a little bad luck I ended up finishing the day ahead $900.
This is my 11th winning day in a row the smallest of which was almost $200. I'm starting to think crazy thoughts like maybe I can go the whole month without having a losing day. I'm planning to play 8 more days this month so it seems very unlikely, but you never know.
I've played 14,000 hands of $2/$4 blinds this month and I'm winning 29 cents a hand (I've also played about 12,000 hands of $3/$6 which haven't gone as well, but have still been good)! If I could do that over the long run I could work 35 hours a week, take 8 weeks of vacation a year and make a quarter of a million dollars a year!!!
What's amazing is 29 cents a hand is nothing compared to the amount of money in play. If I could steal the blinds in a $2/$4 game (which nets me a whopping sum of $6) once every two rounds and then break even on everything else that would be 33 cents a hand. Pokerstars keeps track of and lists the average pot size for each individual game for the $2/$4 games it's usually in the $50 range and in the $3/$6 game it's usually in the $75 range. All I need is 30 cents a hand to drag $250,000 a year. It's possible that while I think I've been running good these past few months, maybe I've been running bad and now I'm hitting an average run of luck!
With those things in mind the start that I had today was pretty amazing. After 100 hands (about 12 minutes) I looked at my stats and saw that I'd won 6 of 7 pots at the showdown and 25 pots overall! This put me ahead over $500 and for a while the good luck kept on coming. At one point I was ahead over $1,500, but after a few bad plays and a little bad luck I ended up finishing the day ahead $900.
This is my 11th winning day in a row the smallest of which was almost $200. I'm starting to think crazy thoughts like maybe I can go the whole month without having a losing day. I'm planning to play 8 more days this month so it seems very unlikely, but you never know.
I've played 14,000 hands of $2/$4 blinds this month and I'm winning 29 cents a hand (I've also played about 12,000 hands of $3/$6 which haven't gone as well, but have still been good)! If I could do that over the long run I could work 35 hours a week, take 8 weeks of vacation a year and make a quarter of a million dollars a year!!!
What's amazing is 29 cents a hand is nothing compared to the amount of money in play. If I could steal the blinds in a $2/$4 game (which nets me a whopping sum of $6) once every two rounds and then break even on everything else that would be 33 cents a hand. Pokerstars keeps track of and lists the average pot size for each individual game for the $2/$4 games it's usually in the $50 range and in the $3/$6 game it's usually in the $75 range. All I need is 30 cents a hand to drag $250,000 a year. It's possible that while I think I've been running good these past few months, maybe I've been running bad and now I'm hitting an average run of luck!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Just Like Keanu Reeves
What does Keanu Reeves have to do with poker? Nothing! But I did feel like I did a little Matrix Style bullet dodging today. My morning session was tough and it seemed like I kept going broke in spots where I was fully expecting to win. After lunch it wasn't much better. 2600 hands into the day I was down a little over $700 and doing my best to remind myself that I'd just won about the same amount yesterday. I accepted the fact that my streak of winning days would be coming to an end and even though I didn't really feel like it I decided to play to 3,000 hands before calling it a day.
Then I went on a nice rush. I picked up Aces, got three way action and won a huge pot. I flopped a straight against a player who had aces and doubled up. I picked up a few other modest pots and before I knew it I was about $100 short of even! All I needed was one more big pot to make it happen. Then I lost a big pot and found myself stuck $250. Crap!
I still had a few hands to go and I kept thinking if I could make a couple of nice hands I could keep the streak alive. I managed to win a few mid size pots in a row and when I checked my balance I saw that I was about $50 away from even. I kept thinking "Come on you bastards, just give me one decent pot!" When I crossed over the 3,000 hand mark I decided to keep playing until I lost all of my chips in one game or until I was ahead for the day.
300 hands later I was still about $50 from even and starting to get impatient when I picked up AQ in the small blind. "Ah ha!" I thought for the 50th time in the past half hour "This could be the one that does it for me!" Everyone folded to me, I raised and the big blind called. The flop came down AQ9. Ah ha! I bet and my opponent called. Ah ha again!The turn was a 10 which seemed like a good card. If my opponent had one pair he easily could have made two pair worse than my own or picked up a draw that would encourage him to pay me off. I bet and my opponent made a big raise. Uh Oh. Even though that's exactly what I wanted him to do, I couldn't help but think that he might have KJ and made a straight. It didn't really matter what I thought he had because there was no way I was folding. I put in the rest of my chips and thought "Don't have KJ, Don't have KJ, Don't have KJ" like I was the little engine that could. And then the river came out...BING! Q on the river! Full House! SEND IT! It turned out that my opponent did have KJ, but obviously I still won the pot.
I picked up a few other small pots as I played to my blinds in all of my games and ended up winning just under $200 today. The streak is still alive!
Then I went on a nice rush. I picked up Aces, got three way action and won a huge pot. I flopped a straight against a player who had aces and doubled up. I picked up a few other modest pots and before I knew it I was about $100 short of even! All I needed was one more big pot to make it happen. Then I lost a big pot and found myself stuck $250. Crap!
I still had a few hands to go and I kept thinking if I could make a couple of nice hands I could keep the streak alive. I managed to win a few mid size pots in a row and when I checked my balance I saw that I was about $50 away from even. I kept thinking "Come on you bastards, just give me one decent pot!" When I crossed over the 3,000 hand mark I decided to keep playing until I lost all of my chips in one game or until I was ahead for the day.
300 hands later I was still about $50 from even and starting to get impatient when I picked up AQ in the small blind. "Ah ha!" I thought for the 50th time in the past half hour "This could be the one that does it for me!" Everyone folded to me, I raised and the big blind called. The flop came down AQ9. Ah ha! I bet and my opponent called. Ah ha again!The turn was a 10 which seemed like a good card. If my opponent had one pair he easily could have made two pair worse than my own or picked up a draw that would encourage him to pay me off. I bet and my opponent made a big raise. Uh Oh. Even though that's exactly what I wanted him to do, I couldn't help but think that he might have KJ and made a straight. It didn't really matter what I thought he had because there was no way I was folding. I put in the rest of my chips and thought "Don't have KJ, Don't have KJ, Don't have KJ" like I was the little engine that could. And then the river came out...BING! Q on the river! Full House! SEND IT! It turned out that my opponent did have KJ, but obviously I still won the pot.
I picked up a few other small pots as I played to my blinds in all of my games and ended up winning just under $200 today. The streak is still alive!
Monday, June 18, 2007
Technical Difficulties Make Me Nuts
There's a great scene in the movie Office Space where one of the main characters (Who's name is Michael Bolton - no relation to the singer) is trying to print something and the printer jams. You just see him standing at the printer and he says "P.C. load letter? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Then as he struggles with the paper stuck in the machine he says "This is just what I need right now. Come on you little bitch let's go!" Eventually one of his co-workers pulls him away. Later in the movie, Michael and his buddies exact their revenge on the printer (which they all hate so, so much) with a baseball bat, a few drop kicks, and even their bare fists. After they get their fill of pounding on it they leave it broken into a thousand (by my count) pieces in a deserted field. This is often what I feel like doing to my technology when it doesn't work the way it's supposed to.
I had a little scare when my Internet cut out today in the middle of a significant hand. The hand in question took place in a $3/$6 blinds NL cash game where I had about $175 in front of me. I open raised to $18 with KK and got called by both of the blinds. The flop came down with three unconnected cards below 9. Both of my opponents checked, I bet $36 and the player in the small blind moved all in. I clicked on call and...nothing happened. ACK! My Internet connection failed and I wasn't sure if the software had registered the call. If it didn't, my hand would be folded if I wasn't able to log back on in time. After about 10 seconds of staring blankly at my blinking but inactive screen I ran down stairs to jump on one of the laptops.
Jen's laptop was on, but closed. When I opened it up the area that reports the status of the wireless connection said "limited or no connectivity." My first thought was "This is just what I need right now. Come on you little bitch let's go!" Luckily, when I ran back upstairs my computer had reconnected and I'd won the hand. But it wasn't exactly the fun positive experience that I normally get from doubling up.
At that point I spent about an hour screwing with a myriad of things trying to make my connection more reliable. I thought my best bet was switching out my wireless USB network adapter with another one we had lying around that looks like a satellite dish compared to the stupid little stick I've been using. But, of course after 30 minutes of restarting, configuring, swearing and sweating, I couldn't get that piece of shit to work the way it's supposed to.
I think the main source of my connectivity problems was that our wireless router had been moved over the weekend and was in a spot that blocked some not insignificant portion of the signal. I think I have the problem solved, but tomorrow I'm investing in some new equipment to receive the signal on this end just to be sure.
Happily, despite the various malfunctions I had another nice winning day. With a late start and all the time I spent messing with stuff today, I only managed 2,000 hands (I've reduced my goal for the month from 60,000 hands to a more realistic 50,000 which is still a lot given the 8 vacation days I've taken so far this month), but I did win a little over seven hundred. That makes 9 winning days in a row. I'll try to make it 10 tomorrow.
I had a little scare when my Internet cut out today in the middle of a significant hand. The hand in question took place in a $3/$6 blinds NL cash game where I had about $175 in front of me. I open raised to $18 with KK and got called by both of the blinds. The flop came down with three unconnected cards below 9. Both of my opponents checked, I bet $36 and the player in the small blind moved all in. I clicked on call and...nothing happened. ACK! My Internet connection failed and I wasn't sure if the software had registered the call. If it didn't, my hand would be folded if I wasn't able to log back on in time. After about 10 seconds of staring blankly at my blinking but inactive screen I ran down stairs to jump on one of the laptops.
Jen's laptop was on, but closed. When I opened it up the area that reports the status of the wireless connection said "limited or no connectivity." My first thought was "This is just what I need right now. Come on you little bitch let's go!" Luckily, when I ran back upstairs my computer had reconnected and I'd won the hand. But it wasn't exactly the fun positive experience that I normally get from doubling up.
At that point I spent about an hour screwing with a myriad of things trying to make my connection more reliable. I thought my best bet was switching out my wireless USB network adapter with another one we had lying around that looks like a satellite dish compared to the stupid little stick I've been using. But, of course after 30 minutes of restarting, configuring, swearing and sweating, I couldn't get that piece of shit to work the way it's supposed to.
I think the main source of my connectivity problems was that our wireless router had been moved over the weekend and was in a spot that blocked some not insignificant portion of the signal. I think I have the problem solved, but tomorrow I'm investing in some new equipment to receive the signal on this end just to be sure.
Happily, despite the various malfunctions I had another nice winning day. With a late start and all the time I spent messing with stuff today, I only managed 2,000 hands (I've reduced my goal for the month from 60,000 hands to a more realistic 50,000 which is still a lot given the 8 vacation days I've taken so far this month), but I did win a little over seven hundred. That makes 9 winning days in a row. I'll try to make it 10 tomorrow.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The Blood Bath Continues
About thousand hands into the day today my Internet locked up on me (which isn't all that unusual), but instead of popping back after 15 or 20 seconds like it normally does, it stayed disconnected. After checking the status of my wireless network connection my computer told me that everything should be working fine. I restarted my computer. Nothing. I reset my router and cable modem. Still nothing.
I was then forced to take the only course of action I had left...I cooked half a hot link and some eggs and put them on an English muffin with some cheese, had a cup of coffee and some Orange juice and watched the 1988 movie Alien Nation staring James Caan. Amazingly this did not fix my Internet problem!
Then I used some highly technical techniques that I learned while studying mechanical engineering at U.C. Berkeley. I unplugged everything and let it "rest" for about a half an hour while I watched the U.S. open. When I plugged everything back in everything worked just fine.
When I logged back on to pokerstars I discovered that I was ahead $420 instead of the $300 that I thought I was up. Over the course of the next 400 hands my opponents came at me like a bunch of flying squirrels plunging into a wood chipper. The kept bluffing into my made hands! It was great. While I probably should have kept at it and played at least another 1,000 hands, I'm having some mental fatigue problems after playing 8 of the past 9 days so I called it a day early.
I had a modest but not insignificant win yesterday and I ended up winning a little over a thousand today which brings my winning streak to 8 days straight. My only regret is that I didn't shift back to playing these cash games sooner.
I was then forced to take the only course of action I had left...I cooked half a hot link and some eggs and put them on an English muffin with some cheese, had a cup of coffee and some Orange juice and watched the 1988 movie Alien Nation staring James Caan. Amazingly this did not fix my Internet problem!
Then I used some highly technical techniques that I learned while studying mechanical engineering at U.C. Berkeley. I unplugged everything and let it "rest" for about a half an hour while I watched the U.S. open. When I plugged everything back in everything worked just fine.
When I logged back on to pokerstars I discovered that I was ahead $420 instead of the $300 that I thought I was up. Over the course of the next 400 hands my opponents came at me like a bunch of flying squirrels plunging into a wood chipper. The kept bluffing into my made hands! It was great. While I probably should have kept at it and played at least another 1,000 hands, I'm having some mental fatigue problems after playing 8 of the past 9 days so I called it a day early.
I had a modest but not insignificant win yesterday and I ended up winning a little over a thousand today which brings my winning streak to 8 days straight. My only regret is that I didn't shift back to playing these cash games sooner.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The Streak is Still Alive
I picked up another $750 over about 3,000 hands today. That makes six straight winning days! I'm not quite sure what my record is in terms of most winning days in a row. I think it's 9 or 10. I know I've done 8 a few times and my best run in terms of winning days with one miss was 14 out of 15 when I was proping at the Oaks. Hopefully I can keep playing well, running good and kicking ass!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Back on Track
After taking the first 5 days of the month off and losing my ass in the process I knew that I was going to have to put in a little extra effort for the rest of the month. In May, which turned out to be my best month of the year by a significant margin, I set the goal of playing 60,000 hands. As it turned out on May 31st I needed to play about 2,000 hands to make my goal. Not surprisingly I fell into a classic trap. I won on the 30th and when I woke up on the 31st I thought to myself "I'm going to Vegas tonight! I don't want to have a total collapse today and break the momentum I have going into the WSOP (total B.S.). I''ll just start my vacation early! YAY!"
58,000 poker hands in a month is nothing to sneeze at, and it's light years better than the 45,000 or so hands that I played in April. This month I'm going to try again to hit the 60,000 hand mark. So far I've knocked out 13,000 after working 4 full days and 1 half day in the 6 days that I've been back from Vegas. I'm going to have to step up the production a little to make it. My plan is to work a little harder than normal and play 3,500 hands a day 5 days a week instead of 2,500 a day 6 days a week which is what I might normally do. If I can do that every Monday through Thursday plus Saturdays for the rest of the month I'll end up with 62,000 hands.
One problem I have though, is when I'm doing well I have a tendency to take my foot off the gas. When I've got the money set aside for next months bills half way through the month and I find myself up $500 for the day it's hard to keep playing when I don't really feel like it. On the other hand when things haven't been going well, I really put my nose to the grindstone because I feel the pressure.
With that said, the good news (and the bad news for me hitting my goal) is I've been doing really well. (Prepare for the massive jinx) I've won all five days that I've played in June and while none of them have been four digit wins they've all been in the middle three digits. I've moved up from playing a mix of $1/$2 and $2/$4 blinds no limit cash games to three $2/$4 NL games and three $3/$6 NL games. I'm making about 18.5 cents per hand in the $3/$6 games and while it's really too early to draw any conclusions, I'm feeling confident that I can keep winning a solid amount at that level. The fluctuations have been much larger as you might expect, but so far I've been handling it well.
Also on Saturday I confirmed that I don't totally suck at tournaments. I finished 13th out of 780 in the $50,000 weekly supernova freeroll and picked up $525. I was 11 spots away from $4,000 and 12 spots away from $10,500, but $525 isn't exactly a pile of nickles.
58,000 poker hands in a month is nothing to sneeze at, and it's light years better than the 45,000 or so hands that I played in April. This month I'm going to try again to hit the 60,000 hand mark. So far I've knocked out 13,000 after working 4 full days and 1 half day in the 6 days that I've been back from Vegas. I'm going to have to step up the production a little to make it. My plan is to work a little harder than normal and play 3,500 hands a day 5 days a week instead of 2,500 a day 6 days a week which is what I might normally do. If I can do that every Monday through Thursday plus Saturdays for the rest of the month I'll end up with 62,000 hands.
One problem I have though, is when I'm doing well I have a tendency to take my foot off the gas. When I've got the money set aside for next months bills half way through the month and I find myself up $500 for the day it's hard to keep playing when I don't really feel like it. On the other hand when things haven't been going well, I really put my nose to the grindstone because I feel the pressure.
With that said, the good news (and the bad news for me hitting my goal) is I've been doing really well. (Prepare for the massive jinx) I've won all five days that I've played in June and while none of them have been four digit wins they've all been in the middle three digits. I've moved up from playing a mix of $1/$2 and $2/$4 blinds no limit cash games to three $2/$4 NL games and three $3/$6 NL games. I'm making about 18.5 cents per hand in the $3/$6 games and while it's really too early to draw any conclusions, I'm feeling confident that I can keep winning a solid amount at that level. The fluctuations have been much larger as you might expect, but so far I've been handling it well.
Also on Saturday I confirmed that I don't totally suck at tournaments. I finished 13th out of 780 in the $50,000 weekly supernova freeroll and picked up $525. I was 11 spots away from $4,000 and 12 spots away from $10,500, but $525 isn't exactly a pile of nickles.
Friday, June 08, 2007
WSOP Recap II
When we last left our hero he was battling the forces of doom and it looked like he was down but not out! Actually we knew he would eventually be down and out, but we didn't know exactly how it would happen.
The night before the $1,500 limit event I was at the Paris with Jean and E.B. playing Pai Gow and trying to turn my luck around. Jake and Chrissy had just left for the airport and while I was having a good time I was worried about blowing even more money playing stupid casino games. I decided to let the gambling gods give me a sign! To this point I had ignored the signs from the gods which in huge neon lights the size of the Titanic all said "STOP GAMBLING!!!" While I was busy covering my eyes to avoid reading those signs I was also repeatedly thinking the mantra of all losing gamblers, "It has to turn around sometime!"
But now I was looking for a real sign. Instead if betting $25 on one hand I went to $50 on each of two hands. I decided if I won both hands, I'd finish my drink, order a shot of whiskey and take one last gasping, hacking, coughing attempt at winning back some of my money. If I lost both, I'd call it a night and leave with whatever money (and dignity) I had left. I got one terrible hand, and one OK hand, but they both got squashed by a monster hand from the dealer. Horsefeathers!
I made my way back to Harrah's and was in my room by 8 p.m. I had the thought that if my 21 year old self was there he slap me in the face, pour a bucket of ice down my pants, and give me an atomic wedgie. He'd say, "You're in Vegas, you fool! It's only 8 o'clock! Why aren't you out there gambling and drinking!" And I'd say, "But, I'm tired and I have a tournament tomorrow and..." SLAP! "You're not 77, you're 27! Now get out there and booze it up! You've got money in your pocket don't you? I never stopped gambling until I was on the plane back to California or I didn't have a penny left on me. Don't you know it has to turn around sometime?"
Anyway I woke up well rested and headed off to the Rio to play my 15th career WSOP event. When I sat down at my table, I noticed Rafe Furst who has 1 WSOP bracelet was sitting two spots to my left. I'd never played against him before and I hadn't seen him play on TV so I didn't really know what to expect, but it turns out that while I was there he was playing a very conservative style and didn't give me any trouble.
I got a fair number of playable hands early and ended up taking my stack from 3,000 up to about 5,000 sometime during the 3rd level. But by the end of the 4th level I was back down under 3,000. When we got back from our second break a little more than 4 and half hours after we started, I knew I would need to make some progress soon.
Around that time a new player got moved to our table. I got the vibe that he was a strong and accomplished player and it wasn't until I was leaving the tournament area later and picked up a bluff magazine that I figured out who he was. He was on the cover with 7 or 8 other players (Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harmon, and Phil Ivey to name a few) with the headline "Players to Watch at this Years WSOP." It turns out it was Jeff Madsen who won two bracelets last year and in the process became the youngest player in WSOP history to win an event.
When Madsen sat down he said hello to Rafe Furst and within seconds they'd agreed to a $100 best two out of three rock, paper, scissors match. While the dealer was shuffling, bang, bang, bang they knocked out three rounds and a $100 bill came flying across the table to Rafe. I find it interesting to be around people who bet three digit amounts on stupid shit like rock, paper, scissors. Doing that kind of thing has never appealed me, but I find it interesting none the less.
It turns out that the tournaments were maybe the least interesting part of the trip from a blogging standpoint. I had a few hands go against me in unspectacular fashion and I was out. I didn't feel bad about it, because I knew that I had played my best. Not just pretty good, or OK, but my actual best. I was focused, I wasn't the least bit nervous and I felt almost positive that every move I made was the right one given the circumstances. It just didn't work out. For better or for worse, that's poker.
The night before the $1,500 limit event I was at the Paris with Jean and E.B. playing Pai Gow and trying to turn my luck around. Jake and Chrissy had just left for the airport and while I was having a good time I was worried about blowing even more money playing stupid casino games. I decided to let the gambling gods give me a sign! To this point I had ignored the signs from the gods which in huge neon lights the size of the Titanic all said "STOP GAMBLING!!!" While I was busy covering my eyes to avoid reading those signs I was also repeatedly thinking the mantra of all losing gamblers, "It has to turn around sometime!"
But now I was looking for a real sign. Instead if betting $25 on one hand I went to $50 on each of two hands. I decided if I won both hands, I'd finish my drink, order a shot of whiskey and take one last gasping, hacking, coughing attempt at winning back some of my money. If I lost both, I'd call it a night and leave with whatever money (and dignity) I had left. I got one terrible hand, and one OK hand, but they both got squashed by a monster hand from the dealer. Horsefeathers!
I made my way back to Harrah's and was in my room by 8 p.m. I had the thought that if my 21 year old self was there he slap me in the face, pour a bucket of ice down my pants, and give me an atomic wedgie. He'd say, "You're in Vegas, you fool! It's only 8 o'clock! Why aren't you out there gambling and drinking!" And I'd say, "But, I'm tired and I have a tournament tomorrow and..." SLAP! "You're not 77, you're 27! Now get out there and booze it up! You've got money in your pocket don't you? I never stopped gambling until I was on the plane back to California or I didn't have a penny left on me. Don't you know it has to turn around sometime?"
Anyway I woke up well rested and headed off to the Rio to play my 15th career WSOP event. When I sat down at my table, I noticed Rafe Furst who has 1 WSOP bracelet was sitting two spots to my left. I'd never played against him before and I hadn't seen him play on TV so I didn't really know what to expect, but it turns out that while I was there he was playing a very conservative style and didn't give me any trouble.
I got a fair number of playable hands early and ended up taking my stack from 3,000 up to about 5,000 sometime during the 3rd level. But by the end of the 4th level I was back down under 3,000. When we got back from our second break a little more than 4 and half hours after we started, I knew I would need to make some progress soon.
Around that time a new player got moved to our table. I got the vibe that he was a strong and accomplished player and it wasn't until I was leaving the tournament area later and picked up a bluff magazine that I figured out who he was. He was on the cover with 7 or 8 other players (Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harmon, and Phil Ivey to name a few) with the headline "Players to Watch at this Years WSOP." It turns out it was Jeff Madsen who won two bracelets last year and in the process became the youngest player in WSOP history to win an event.
When Madsen sat down he said hello to Rafe Furst and within seconds they'd agreed to a $100 best two out of three rock, paper, scissors match. While the dealer was shuffling, bang, bang, bang they knocked out three rounds and a $100 bill came flying across the table to Rafe. I find it interesting to be around people who bet three digit amounts on stupid shit like rock, paper, scissors. Doing that kind of thing has never appealed me, but I find it interesting none the less.
It turns out that the tournaments were maybe the least interesting part of the trip from a blogging standpoint. I had a few hands go against me in unspectacular fashion and I was out. I didn't feel bad about it, because I knew that I had played my best. Not just pretty good, or OK, but my actual best. I was focused, I wasn't the least bit nervous and I felt almost positive that every move I made was the right one given the circumstances. It just didn't work out. For better or for worse, that's poker.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
WSOP Recap (and massive complaining)
First of all, thanks to Jen for the updates that she posted to the blog. Not surprisingly I wasn't in the mood to rehash the details of my defeats right after they happened.
If I had to sum up my trip to Vegas in one brief phrase it would be: IT SUCKED! In the past 6 years I've made roughly 15 trips to Vegas, 10 gambling trips to Reno or Lake Tahoe, and 2 trips to Atlantic City. I have NEVER had worse luck. I've had trips where I lost more money on the whole, but I've never lost so much betting so little.
When it comes to gambling on stupid casino games I am a realist. I know in the long run I am going to lose. In fact I can probably tell you more about the math of exactly how much I can expect to lose over a given period of time with a given bet size than anyone you know. I've decided the entertainment value is worth more than cost, but man I have never had a trip where I've been so universally screwed. Not once in the 5 days that I was in Vegas did I leave any table with more than I started with. No matter how bad things are going, you should run into a little streak of good or even average luck somewhere.
I'll try not to bore you too much with the details, but I will point out a few of the low lights. The game of choice for our group is Pai Gow Poker. I won't explain too much about it, but the important point is you're playing against the dealer and it's a very slow game (speed is your enemy in the casino) with a small house edge. In this game 28.61% of the hands the player will win, 29.91% of the hands the house will win and 41.48% of the hands will be a push (or a tie) and no money changes hands.
When we made it to our hotel (The MGM) around midnight my good friend Chrissy and I immediately sat down at the Pai Gow table each with $500 and each betting $25 a hand. By 2:30 we were both down to the felt. At a Pai Gow table you get dealt 25-30 hands an hour so at most we saw 75 hands. If you played an infinite number of groups of 75 hands on average you'd lose 1.84 betting units. Yet somehow we managed to both lose 20 betting units (well over 10 times the expectation) in that time (it's not surprising that we shared the same fate since while we each have our own hand we're both playing against the same dealer hand). This was pretty extraordinary.
I lost $300 playing at a $5 craps table in about 45 minutes. Enough said.
In another Pai Gow session at The Mandalay Bay I sat down and immediately lost 6 hands in a row with no wins and no ties. The chance of losing 6 in a row like that are 1 in 1397.
Now that I've got that out of the way I can talk about the poker aspect of the trip. I got to Vegas late Thursday and my plan was to head to the Rio on Friday to sign up for my first tournament which wouldn't start until Saturday at noon. I knew from past experience that the line to register for tournaments is crazy in the hour or two before the event and I wanted to bypass that entirely.
After that my plan was to head to Treasure Island to meet with the folks from pokerstars. Since I paid for one of my entries with FPP's I had to sign a contract and pick up a load of Pokerstars gear which I was supposed to wear during the tournament. In order to ensure that I did what they wanted, pokerstars only gave me 85% of my buy in initially and once I proved that I actually played or was going to play in the event (by showing them by nonrefundable tournament entry card with my name and the event # on it) they gave me the rest.
Unfortunately when I made it to the Rio, I discovered a line so long that looked like they were holding American Idol auditions inside. Some people were sitting in chairs that they'd found someplace which to me meant that not only was the line crazy long, but it was also slow. The slowness made no sense to me since last year the longest I had to wait to sign up for an event was about 20 minutes and even then the line was moving quickly. I decided that my best bet was to wait until the middle of the night or early the next morning and come back. I had my fingers crossed that there was some reason other than massive incompetence for the delay and whatever it was would get resolved quickly.
So I went on with my general misfortune had a bunch of drinks and went to sleep by midnight. At 3:30, POW! I was wide awake. So I decided to head over to the Rio, sort out my business and then head back to the MGM for some more sleep. When I got there I saw that while the line was shorter, it was still fairly substantial. I went to the front of the line and asked one of the guys standing there how long he'd been in line. Immediately a half dozen people chimed in, said that it had been three hours and talked about how pissed they all were. To make it worse one of registration windows had just closed leaving only 4 left, meaning it could take even longer to make it through the line. If it had been my first year at the WSOP I would have manned up and waited, but for my 14th career event it wasn't worth it.
The next day (Saturday) I decided I would just have to brave the line and sign up. While the rest of the gang went to dinner I headed off to the Rio to wait for hours in a slow moving line. When I walked in the door and looked down the loooooong hallway to where the end of the line should have been I didn't see anything. So far so good. I turned a corner and still didn't see anything. Great! Then I walked into the tournament area and right up to the cage where there were THREE OPEN WINDOWS with people waiting to sign me up! It was like a Christmas miracle. After planning on skipping dinner I made it back to The Mandalay Bay where I'd just been 20 minutes earlier and sat down at dinner before anyone had even ordered.
I'd had a couple of snifters of Grand Mariner starting about 3 in the afternoon so after dinner I was ready to call it a night. We all made it back to the MGM and while most of the group hit the tables I watched a movie in my room by 10 p.m and asleep a little after midnight.
The next day I got up started my parade of visiting 5 hotels in 7 hours, 4 of them with my luggage in tow. I left the MGM (#1) a little before 11 (While waiting in the cab line I did see a guy who I can only assume was crazy rich or who just won a ton of money or both get into the back of a shiny new Maybach and tip the bell hop $100 for putting his two bags in the trunk). I made a brief stop at The Treasure Island (#2) to meet with the pokerstars people who gave me a very nice set of two shirts, a hat and a jacket which went directly into my suitcase where they remain at this very moment. I got a splash of VIP treatment when one of the people in the makeshift office told me that because I was a P0kerstars Supernova if I wanted to eat at a particular restaurant in the Rio anytime during the WSOP they she would make reservations for me or if I was in a hurry I could call her ahead of time and she'd order me whatever I wanted ahead of time.
Then I hauled my ass (and my suitcase) over to the Rio (#3) where I dropped my stuff off in my friend Matt's room. The I actually played in a poker tournament. Crazy I know. Interestingly enough the poker tournament was totally uninteresting. I think Jen did a nice job of summing it up. I was at a great table with a bunch of week players for about 2 hours where I ran my stack up to about 5,000 after starting with 3,000. Then I got moved to a new table with better players and ran into two tough spots.
On the first hand that led to my demise I had 4,500 chips with blinds of 75/150. Two players called the 150 chip big blind, I looked down at KK and raised to 600. To my surprise the first player who just called the big blind reraised all in to 1,800. Of course I called and was not please to see that my opponent had the only hand I was worried about - AA. I lost that hand and was back under where I started.
I dribbled away chips for a while and found myself with about 1,500 on the button with blinds of 100/200 when the following hand came up. The first player to act, who was probably the worst at the table made it 600 to go. The next player to act who was a very tight player immediately went all in for about 2,000. I could tell he really liked his hand, but when I looked down at QQ I knew I couldn't throw it away when I had a stack that was about 1/4th of average. The player in the small blind who had been left with around 300 chips after losing the previous hand called and after about 60 seconds of thought the original raiser also called. The small blind turned over 99, the original raiser turned over K-10 and sadly the other player turned over AA. When the flop came with three spades I was left with only one card in the deck that could make me the best hand. Unfortunately a 4th spade came out on the turn and the player with K-10 made a flush with the K of spades and took the whole pot.
I trudged over to the tournament registration area, signed up for the next day's tournament and after getting my bags from Matt's room I left the Rio. After waiting in yet another cab line I headed to Harrah's (#4) and checked in to the room I'd be staying in for the next two nights. After a quick turn around I made about a 10 minute walk over to the Paris (#5) to play some more Pai Gow with my friends.
I'll pick up here in my next post (this one is getting crazy long!) which should be coming in two or three days (I'm very busy tomorrow).
If I had to sum up my trip to Vegas in one brief phrase it would be: IT SUCKED! In the past 6 years I've made roughly 15 trips to Vegas, 10 gambling trips to Reno or Lake Tahoe, and 2 trips to Atlantic City. I have NEVER had worse luck. I've had trips where I lost more money on the whole, but I've never lost so much betting so little.
When it comes to gambling on stupid casino games I am a realist. I know in the long run I am going to lose. In fact I can probably tell you more about the math of exactly how much I can expect to lose over a given period of time with a given bet size than anyone you know. I've decided the entertainment value is worth more than cost, but man I have never had a trip where I've been so universally screwed. Not once in the 5 days that I was in Vegas did I leave any table with more than I started with. No matter how bad things are going, you should run into a little streak of good or even average luck somewhere.
I'll try not to bore you too much with the details, but I will point out a few of the low lights. The game of choice for our group is Pai Gow Poker. I won't explain too much about it, but the important point is you're playing against the dealer and it's a very slow game (speed is your enemy in the casino) with a small house edge. In this game 28.61% of the hands the player will win, 29.91% of the hands the house will win and 41.48% of the hands will be a push (or a tie) and no money changes hands.
When we made it to our hotel (The MGM) around midnight my good friend Chrissy and I immediately sat down at the Pai Gow table each with $500 and each betting $25 a hand. By 2:30 we were both down to the felt. At a Pai Gow table you get dealt 25-30 hands an hour so at most we saw 75 hands. If you played an infinite number of groups of 75 hands on average you'd lose 1.84 betting units. Yet somehow we managed to both lose 20 betting units (well over 10 times the expectation) in that time (it's not surprising that we shared the same fate since while we each have our own hand we're both playing against the same dealer hand). This was pretty extraordinary.
I lost $300 playing at a $5 craps table in about 45 minutes. Enough said.
In another Pai Gow session at The Mandalay Bay I sat down and immediately lost 6 hands in a row with no wins and no ties. The chance of losing 6 in a row like that are 1 in 1397.
Now that I've got that out of the way I can talk about the poker aspect of the trip. I got to Vegas late Thursday and my plan was to head to the Rio on Friday to sign up for my first tournament which wouldn't start until Saturday at noon. I knew from past experience that the line to register for tournaments is crazy in the hour or two before the event and I wanted to bypass that entirely.
After that my plan was to head to Treasure Island to meet with the folks from pokerstars. Since I paid for one of my entries with FPP's I had to sign a contract and pick up a load of Pokerstars gear which I was supposed to wear during the tournament. In order to ensure that I did what they wanted, pokerstars only gave me 85% of my buy in initially and once I proved that I actually played or was going to play in the event (by showing them by nonrefundable tournament entry card with my name and the event # on it) they gave me the rest.
Unfortunately when I made it to the Rio, I discovered a line so long that looked like they were holding American Idol auditions inside. Some people were sitting in chairs that they'd found someplace which to me meant that not only was the line crazy long, but it was also slow. The slowness made no sense to me since last year the longest I had to wait to sign up for an event was about 20 minutes and even then the line was moving quickly. I decided that my best bet was to wait until the middle of the night or early the next morning and come back. I had my fingers crossed that there was some reason other than massive incompetence for the delay and whatever it was would get resolved quickly.
So I went on with my general misfortune had a bunch of drinks and went to sleep by midnight. At 3:30, POW! I was wide awake. So I decided to head over to the Rio, sort out my business and then head back to the MGM for some more sleep. When I got there I saw that while the line was shorter, it was still fairly substantial. I went to the front of the line and asked one of the guys standing there how long he'd been in line. Immediately a half dozen people chimed in, said that it had been three hours and talked about how pissed they all were. To make it worse one of registration windows had just closed leaving only 4 left, meaning it could take even longer to make it through the line. If it had been my first year at the WSOP I would have manned up and waited, but for my 14th career event it wasn't worth it.
The next day (Saturday) I decided I would just have to brave the line and sign up. While the rest of the gang went to dinner I headed off to the Rio to wait for hours in a slow moving line. When I walked in the door and looked down the loooooong hallway to where the end of the line should have been I didn't see anything. So far so good. I turned a corner and still didn't see anything. Great! Then I walked into the tournament area and right up to the cage where there were THREE OPEN WINDOWS with people waiting to sign me up! It was like a Christmas miracle. After planning on skipping dinner I made it back to The Mandalay Bay where I'd just been 20 minutes earlier and sat down at dinner before anyone had even ordered.
I'd had a couple of snifters of Grand Mariner starting about 3 in the afternoon so after dinner I was ready to call it a night. We all made it back to the MGM and while most of the group hit the tables I watched a movie in my room by 10 p.m and asleep a little after midnight.
The next day I got up started my parade of visiting 5 hotels in 7 hours, 4 of them with my luggage in tow. I left the MGM (#1) a little before 11 (While waiting in the cab line I did see a guy who I can only assume was crazy rich or who just won a ton of money or both get into the back of a shiny new Maybach and tip the bell hop $100 for putting his two bags in the trunk). I made a brief stop at The Treasure Island (#2) to meet with the pokerstars people who gave me a very nice set of two shirts, a hat and a jacket which went directly into my suitcase where they remain at this very moment. I got a splash of VIP treatment when one of the people in the makeshift office told me that because I was a P0kerstars Supernova if I wanted to eat at a particular restaurant in the Rio anytime during the WSOP they she would make reservations for me or if I was in a hurry I could call her ahead of time and she'd order me whatever I wanted ahead of time.
Then I hauled my ass (and my suitcase) over to the Rio (#3) where I dropped my stuff off in my friend Matt's room. The I actually played in a poker tournament. Crazy I know. Interestingly enough the poker tournament was totally uninteresting. I think Jen did a nice job of summing it up. I was at a great table with a bunch of week players for about 2 hours where I ran my stack up to about 5,000 after starting with 3,000. Then I got moved to a new table with better players and ran into two tough spots.
On the first hand that led to my demise I had 4,500 chips with blinds of 75/150. Two players called the 150 chip big blind, I looked down at KK and raised to 600. To my surprise the first player who just called the big blind reraised all in to 1,800. Of course I called and was not please to see that my opponent had the only hand I was worried about - AA. I lost that hand and was back under where I started.
I dribbled away chips for a while and found myself with about 1,500 on the button with blinds of 100/200 when the following hand came up. The first player to act, who was probably the worst at the table made it 600 to go. The next player to act who was a very tight player immediately went all in for about 2,000. I could tell he really liked his hand, but when I looked down at QQ I knew I couldn't throw it away when I had a stack that was about 1/4th of average. The player in the small blind who had been left with around 300 chips after losing the previous hand called and after about 60 seconds of thought the original raiser also called. The small blind turned over 99, the original raiser turned over K-10 and sadly the other player turned over AA. When the flop came with three spades I was left with only one card in the deck that could make me the best hand. Unfortunately a 4th spade came out on the turn and the player with K-10 made a flush with the K of spades and took the whole pot.
I trudged over to the tournament registration area, signed up for the next day's tournament and after getting my bags from Matt's room I left the Rio. After waiting in yet another cab line I headed to Harrah's (#4) and checked in to the room I'd be staying in for the next two nights. After a quick turn around I made about a 10 minute walk over to the Paris (#5) to play some more Pai Gow with my friends.
I'll pick up here in my next post (this one is getting crazy long!) which should be coming in two or three days (I'm very busy tomorrow).
Monday, June 04, 2007
Bad News
Well, Dave got eliminated. I didn't hear any of the story because I was at the grocery store when he called. He changed his flight to come home tonight instead of tomorrow, so he'll probably be telling you all about his trip tomorrow morning.
Update
Dave just called in on his second break. Over the last two hours he's built his stack up from $2800 to $2825. Ha! When they go back after the break they'll be playing $200/$400 so he's starting to get a little short stacked, but is still just one hand away from being comfortable. He says he hasn't had a decent hand in an hour, so if he can just get one or two good hands things should start to turn around.
Poker Pages posted the payout structure, here it is:
The next break will be the dinner break, and that will be around 6:45 or 7. Hopefully we don't hear anything until then!
Poker Pages posted the payout structure, here it is:
| 1st | $280,715 |
| 2nd | $177,627 |
| 3rd | $114,278 |
| 4th | $75,771 |
| 5th | $53,412 |
| 6th | $40,991 |
| 7th | $30,433 |
| 8th | $22,359 |
| 9th | $16,148 |
| 10th-12th | $11,552 |
| 13th-15th | $10,310 |
| 16th-18th | $9,068 |
| 19th-27th | $7,826 |
| 28th-36th | $6,708 |
| 37th-45th | $5,714 |
| 46th-54th | $4,844 |
| 55th-63rd | $3,975 |
| 64th-72nd | $3,292 |
| 73rd-81st | $2,795 |
| 82nd-90th | $2,360 |
The next break will be the dinner break, and that will be around 6:45 or 7. Hopefully we don't hear anything until then!
Event 06 - $1,500 Limit Hold'em
I just got off the phone with Dave, who is on the first break of today's event, Limit Hold 'Em, which started with 910 players. Limit moves a lot slower than No Limit, so not too much has happened so far. He started with $3000 in chips and now has about $2800. When he gets back from break the limits will be $100/$200.
Here are the live update links:
Card Player
Poker Pages
He says he likes his table a lot, and is playing with Rafe Furst, who he says is a nice guy.
Here are the live update links:
Card Player
Poker Pages
He says he likes his table a lot, and is playing with Rafe Furst, who he says is a nice guy.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Eliminated!
I just got a call from Dave saying he got eliminated. I only got the short story, which was that he lost half his chips with KK against AA, and then the rest with QQ against AA. Yuck! I'm sure he'll have more to tell you about it later.
Event 04 - $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em
Dave successfully got registered in today's event which started at noon (PST).
According to cardplayer.com there were about 900 entrants, which is a little smaller than last year. Dave just gave me a call on his first break saying they started out with 3,000 in chips and he had gotten up to around 5,000 but has since slipped back to around 3,500. All in all, he says things are going well and he'll update me again in a few hours.
Here are some sites with live updates of the action:
Card Player
Poker Pages
They usually talk about big hands between famous players and will give you some updates on how the limits are going up and about how many people are left. At some point they should post what the prize structure will be which will tell us how many people they need to play to before ending the day.
According to cardplayer.com there were about 900 entrants, which is a little smaller than last year. Dave just gave me a call on his first break saying they started out with 3,000 in chips and he had gotten up to around 5,000 but has since slipped back to around 3,500. All in all, he says things are going well and he'll update me again in a few hours.
Here are some sites with live updates of the action:
Card Player
Poker Pages
They usually talk about big hands between famous players and will give you some updates on how the limits are going up and about how many people are left. At some point they should post what the prize structure will be which will tell us how many people they need to play to before ending the day.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
First Tournament - Cancelled
Hello, this is Jen!
Dave wanted me to put a post up to let you know that he ended up not playing in today's event. He went to the Rio yesterday to sign up and apparently the line to register was hours long and not moving at all. He decided he would rather just get this morning around 8 and sign up then. He woke up this morning feeling awake at 4 for no particular reason, so he headed back over to the Rio planning on signing up and then coming back to the MGM for a few more hours of sleep before the tournament. When he got there he found out the wait would be 3-4 hours. Wisely he decided that he would not be playing his best poker after getting so little sleep and standing in line all night long, so he is skipping today's event. He's hoping they can work out whatever bugs they're having and he's going to return this evening or early tomorrow to sign up for the next event.
Dave wanted me to put a post up to let you know that he ended up not playing in today's event. He went to the Rio yesterday to sign up and apparently the line to register was hours long and not moving at all. He decided he would rather just get this morning around 8 and sign up then. He woke up this morning feeling awake at 4 for no particular reason, so he headed back over to the Rio planning on signing up and then coming back to the MGM for a few more hours of sleep before the tournament. When he got there he found out the wait would be 3-4 hours. Wisely he decided that he would not be playing his best poker after getting so little sleep and standing in line all night long, so he is skipping today's event. He's hoping they can work out whatever bugs they're having and he's going to return this evening or early tomorrow to sign up for the next event.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
WSOP Preview Extravaganza!
On Thursday May 31st I'll once again be heading back to Vegas to take a shot at a high six figure pay day in the World Series of Poker! As most of you know last years WSOP was the reason that I started this blog and was a collosal, monumental, extra large failure. I played 10 events, and while I like how I stacked up against the competition in most of them, I got hosed in one way or another in all of them.
Even in the one event in which I made the money I got jobbed. On my final hand I went broke when the player in the big blind (Michael Mizrachi AKA The Grinder supposedly one of the top 25 best players in the world) called wiht AJ after the player on the button moved all in with 77 and I moved all in over the top with KK. Even before the cards were turned over he said he knew he was behind, but was "gambling" in an attempt to win a big pot. Of course he flopped an ace and busted both me and the other guy. And then what did he do? He went broke on the very next hand! I had to stand there in line to get paid with him standing right behind me for ten minutes!
I'm getting all worked up here so before I get too carried away and start devising a plan to pie Mizrachi in the face I'll get on to this years preview and leave the past in the past. This year I'm only playing in 3 events and here's the scoop on all three.
June 2nd Event #3 $1,500 No Limit Hold 'em
Other than the main event this should be the event with the most newcomers and inexperienced players since it's got a small buy in by WSOP standards and is the first event other than the employees event and a $5,000 mixed limit/no limit event event. Last year there were 2,776 entrants and there would have been more if the room was bigger. I finished somewhere in the range of 2,100th place when I lost with AA against KQ (an 87% favorite preflop). I expect this year will have a similar turnout and hopefully better results for me. Here is a list of the top 20 finishers and their prizes.
1 Brandon Cantu (BC, Canada) $757,839
2 Phong Ly (CA, USA) $416,816
3 Drew Rubin (FL, USA) $226,597
4 Lee Padilla (CA, USA) $176,579
5 Brent Roberts (NY, USA) $151,570
6 Don Zewin (NV, USA) $126,940
7 Ron Stanley (NV, USA) $107,614
8 Mark Swartz (AZ, USA) $88,668
9 Carlos Mortensen (NV, USA) $71,617
10 Tom Nguyen (NV, USA) $56,081
11 Jennifer Harman (NV, USA) $51,155
12 Jack Rosenfeldt (CA, USA) $46,987
13 Ali Eslami (CA, USA) $43,197
14 Chad Burum (CA, USA) $39,408
15 David Baker (TX, USA) $35,619
16 Adam Smith (TX, USA) $31,830
17 Steve Hohn (KS, USA) $28,040
18 Stuart Krasney (CA, USA) $24,251
19 Jorge Walker (CA, USA) $20,462
20 Paul Smith (CA, USA) $20,462
June 3rd Event #4 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold 'em
If you were betting on which tournament I was most likely to make the money in this would be the smart one to choose since both of my past WSOP cashes have been in pot limit events. I'm not sure why that's been the case since pot limit and no limit are almost the same once you get well into the tournament and the blinds get big, but maybe it will give me a little extra confidence when I sit down to play. Last year there were 1,102 entrants in this event and I finihsed 58th. Other than the money, the highlight of this event last year was I spent the entirety of day 1 playing at the same table with former world champ and super nice guy Chris Fergeson. I don't know why people dislike pot limit and love no limit, but I'm sure this event will have half the turnout of Event #3. Here are the top 9 finishers and their prizes from last year.
1 Rafe Furst $345,984
2 Rocky Enciso $180,508
3 Eric "Rizen" Lynch $104,544
4 George Bronstein $75,212
5 Burt Boutin $60,169
6 Can Kim Hua $52,648
7 Richard Chase $45,127
8 John Juanda $37,606
9 Alan Gilbert $33,845
June 4th Event #6 $1,500 Limit Hold 'em
The best thing about limit tournaments is you can't go broke on one hand early in the tournament. The first few hours can be a little boring since the betting limits are relatively small and insignificant, but hopefully it will give me a chance to get a feel for my opponents without much on the line. Last year there were 1,068 entrants in this event and I didn't play because I was in day 2 of the pot limit event. Here are the top 9 finishers and their prizes.
1 Kianoush Abolfathi $335,289
2 Eric Buchman $174,938
3 Josh Schlein $101,318
4 Michele Lewis $72,891
5 Vipul Kothari $58,313
6 Hank Sparks $51,029
7 Patrick Maloney $43,735
8 Lars Hansen $36,446
9 Matt Welsby $32,801
All three of these events are three day events. The first day you play from noon until roughly 2 a.m. with 20 minute breaks every 2 hours and a 1 hour break for dinner in the 6:45 p.m. range. At the end of day 1 all of the remaining players will be in the money. On day 2 you start at 2 p.m. and play until only the top 9 players remain who then come back the next day for the conclusion.
Unlike last year when I needed to go very deep in at least one event or make the money in 3 or 4 consider the trip a success, this year just making the money in one event will make the trip a success. Also in contrast to last year, I'm not feeling any pressure at all. The money involved is a small fraction of what was at stake last year and as per usual when I go into a big buy in event the money has already been set aside and it won't be a big deal if none of it comes back. Wish me luck and I'll do my best to update the blog daily with results from Vegas.
Even in the one event in which I made the money I got jobbed. On my final hand I went broke when the player in the big blind (Michael Mizrachi AKA The Grinder supposedly one of the top 25 best players in the world) called wiht AJ after the player on the button moved all in with 77 and I moved all in over the top with KK. Even before the cards were turned over he said he knew he was behind, but was "gambling" in an attempt to win a big pot. Of course he flopped an ace and busted both me and the other guy. And then what did he do? He went broke on the very next hand! I had to stand there in line to get paid with him standing right behind me for ten minutes!
I'm getting all worked up here so before I get too carried away and start devising a plan to pie Mizrachi in the face I'll get on to this years preview and leave the past in the past. This year I'm only playing in 3 events and here's the scoop on all three.
June 2nd Event #3 $1,500 No Limit Hold 'em
Other than the main event this should be the event with the most newcomers and inexperienced players since it's got a small buy in by WSOP standards and is the first event other than the employees event and a $5,000 mixed limit/no limit event event. Last year there were 2,776 entrants and there would have been more if the room was bigger. I finished somewhere in the range of 2,100th place when I lost with AA against KQ (an 87% favorite preflop). I expect this year will have a similar turnout and hopefully better results for me. Here is a list of the top 20 finishers and their prizes.
1 Brandon Cantu (BC, Canada) $757,839
2 Phong Ly (CA, USA) $416,816
3 Drew Rubin (FL, USA) $226,597
4 Lee Padilla (CA, USA) $176,579
5 Brent Roberts (NY, USA) $151,570
6 Don Zewin (NV, USA) $126,940
7 Ron Stanley (NV, USA) $107,614
8 Mark Swartz (AZ, USA) $88,668
9 Carlos Mortensen (NV, USA) $71,617
10 Tom Nguyen (NV, USA) $56,081
11 Jennifer Harman (NV, USA) $51,155
12 Jack Rosenfeldt (CA, USA) $46,987
13 Ali Eslami (CA, USA) $43,197
14 Chad Burum (CA, USA) $39,408
15 David Baker (TX, USA) $35,619
16 Adam Smith (TX, USA) $31,830
17 Steve Hohn (KS, USA) $28,040
18 Stuart Krasney (CA, USA) $24,251
19 Jorge Walker (CA, USA) $20,462
20 Paul Smith (CA, USA) $20,462
June 3rd Event #4 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold 'em
If you were betting on which tournament I was most likely to make the money in this would be the smart one to choose since both of my past WSOP cashes have been in pot limit events. I'm not sure why that's been the case since pot limit and no limit are almost the same once you get well into the tournament and the blinds get big, but maybe it will give me a little extra confidence when I sit down to play. Last year there were 1,102 entrants in this event and I finihsed 58th. Other than the money, the highlight of this event last year was I spent the entirety of day 1 playing at the same table with former world champ and super nice guy Chris Fergeson. I don't know why people dislike pot limit and love no limit, but I'm sure this event will have half the turnout of Event #3. Here are the top 9 finishers and their prizes from last year.
1 Rafe Furst $345,984
2 Rocky Enciso $180,508
3 Eric "Rizen" Lynch $104,544
4 George Bronstein $75,212
5 Burt Boutin $60,169
6 Can Kim Hua $52,648
7 Richard Chase $45,127
8 John Juanda $37,606
9 Alan Gilbert $33,845
June 4th Event #6 $1,500 Limit Hold 'em
The best thing about limit tournaments is you can't go broke on one hand early in the tournament. The first few hours can be a little boring since the betting limits are relatively small and insignificant, but hopefully it will give me a chance to get a feel for my opponents without much on the line. Last year there were 1,068 entrants in this event and I didn't play because I was in day 2 of the pot limit event. Here are the top 9 finishers and their prizes.
1 Kianoush Abolfathi $335,289
2 Eric Buchman $174,938
3 Josh Schlein $101,318
4 Michele Lewis $72,891
5 Vipul Kothari $58,313
6 Hank Sparks $51,029
7 Patrick Maloney $43,735
8 Lars Hansen $36,446
9 Matt Welsby $32,801
All three of these events are three day events. The first day you play from noon until roughly 2 a.m. with 20 minute breaks every 2 hours and a 1 hour break for dinner in the 6:45 p.m. range. At the end of day 1 all of the remaining players will be in the money. On day 2 you start at 2 p.m. and play until only the top 9 players remain who then come back the next day for the conclusion.
Unlike last year when I needed to go very deep in at least one event or make the money in 3 or 4 consider the trip a success, this year just making the money in one event will make the trip a success. Also in contrast to last year, I'm not feeling any pressure at all. The money involved is a small fraction of what was at stake last year and as per usual when I go into a big buy in event the money has already been set aside and it won't be a big deal if none of it comes back. Wish me luck and I'll do my best to update the blog daily with results from Vegas.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
What a Difference a Day Makes
On Saturday I had my worst day of the year so far. I took Sunday off and on Monday I got back all but $11 of the money I lost on Saturday. I've noticed that I have a much more difficult time with the weekend players. I am certain that the weekend players are worse and you'd think that would make them easier to beat, but in practice that hasn't been the case for me.
I have a few theories as to why that might be. I think the main problem is that two pillars of my game are bluffing at a ton of small pots and avoiding putting in all of my chips in close situations. The weekend players have a tendency to call with much worse hands so those small pots that I'd normally win aren't coming my way. Furthermore players who aren't very good, but have some experience have a tendency to make big bluffs more often. Consequently I'm faced with more tough spots where I have to make a decision for more chips than I'd like to.
Another problem is that one of my strengths is playing hands in a certain way and betting specific amounts in order to convince my opponent(s) that I have a specific hand that is different from what I actually have. The regular weekday morning and afternoon players are pretty good (but not great) so they spend time thinking specifically about what I have. It's possible to convince them I have a perticular good hand when I don't and a bad hand when I have a good one. Conversely, you can't make a bad player think you've got something different than you do because they're not thinking that hard. They're mostly focused on what they have and sometimes it doesn't really matter what you do.
Or I'm just running bad on the weekends. It's really difficult to tell.
Meanwhile the pokerstars double frequent player point (FPP) promotion ends today. I have mixed emotions about the ending of this promo. I'm sad that after a week and half of piling up FPP's at an insane rate, I'll have to go back to generating them at a slower pace. But I'm happy that I can take a guilt free day off in the middle of the week.
After a sweet day yesterday and another good one today the last 10 days have been a solid success. I didn't make it to my upper end goal of 30,000 hands in 10 days, but I came within a whisper of my secondary goal of 25,000 hands. If I didn't get my doors blown off on Saturday I would have played on Sunday and finished in the 28,000 hand range, so I feel ok about how hard I worked.
More importantly I used the FPP's I earned in the past 10 days alone to purchase an entry in a $1,500 WSOP event! The rewards for playing at pokerstars are hands down the best of any poker site. For playing the same amount on another site I'd probably have enough points for a sweatshirt and a box of golf balls. You can keep that shit! Give me the WSOP seat baby!
My goals for the month are going great. Since I worked so hard this past week and a half I've already played 45,000 hands this month. Out of the remaining 9 days in the month I'll only have to work 5 to make my goal of 60,000. Also the hands that I've played have been quality hands. If the month ended today I'd be ahead $1,200 more than any other month this year and if I can keep the pace up I'll have about the 6th best month I've had in the past 4 years.
Also a reminder that I'm off to Vegas for 5 days of WSOP and general merriment on May 31st. Look out for a WSOP preview extravoganza the like of which you've never seen! Not really. In actuality it will be a brief preview, but look out for it anyway!
I have a few theories as to why that might be. I think the main problem is that two pillars of my game are bluffing at a ton of small pots and avoiding putting in all of my chips in close situations. The weekend players have a tendency to call with much worse hands so those small pots that I'd normally win aren't coming my way. Furthermore players who aren't very good, but have some experience have a tendency to make big bluffs more often. Consequently I'm faced with more tough spots where I have to make a decision for more chips than I'd like to.
Another problem is that one of my strengths is playing hands in a certain way and betting specific amounts in order to convince my opponent(s) that I have a specific hand that is different from what I actually have. The regular weekday morning and afternoon players are pretty good (but not great) so they spend time thinking specifically about what I have. It's possible to convince them I have a perticular good hand when I don't and a bad hand when I have a good one. Conversely, you can't make a bad player think you've got something different than you do because they're not thinking that hard. They're mostly focused on what they have and sometimes it doesn't really matter what you do.
Or I'm just running bad on the weekends. It's really difficult to tell.
Meanwhile the pokerstars double frequent player point (FPP) promotion ends today. I have mixed emotions about the ending of this promo. I'm sad that after a week and half of piling up FPP's at an insane rate, I'll have to go back to generating them at a slower pace. But I'm happy that I can take a guilt free day off in the middle of the week.
After a sweet day yesterday and another good one today the last 10 days have been a solid success. I didn't make it to my upper end goal of 30,000 hands in 10 days, but I came within a whisper of my secondary goal of 25,000 hands. If I didn't get my doors blown off on Saturday I would have played on Sunday and finished in the 28,000 hand range, so I feel ok about how hard I worked.
More importantly I used the FPP's I earned in the past 10 days alone to purchase an entry in a $1,500 WSOP event! The rewards for playing at pokerstars are hands down the best of any poker site. For playing the same amount on another site I'd probably have enough points for a sweatshirt and a box of golf balls. You can keep that shit! Give me the WSOP seat baby!
My goals for the month are going great. Since I worked so hard this past week and a half I've already played 45,000 hands this month. Out of the remaining 9 days in the month I'll only have to work 5 to make my goal of 60,000. Also the hands that I've played have been quality hands. If the month ended today I'd be ahead $1,200 more than any other month this year and if I can keep the pace up I'll have about the 6th best month I've had in the past 4 years.
Also a reminder that I'm off to Vegas for 5 days of WSOP and general merriment on May 31st. Look out for a WSOP preview extravoganza the like of which you've never seen! Not really. In actuality it will be a brief preview, but look out for it anyway!
Saturday, May 19, 2007
10 Billion Hand Bust
The 10 billionth hand on pokerstars came and went today. The hand was dealt on a 6 handed 1 cent/2 cent no limit table which is the smallest possible limit. The hand was dealt and then frozen so an announcement could be made and other players could come watch. After ten minutes of the support personnel making sure that everyone knew what was going on and saying MANY, MANY times that the winner of the hand would get $100,000 they let the action play out.
Then I got to witness without a doubt THE WORST PLAY IN POKER HISTORY! Two people folded! Let me say it again. TWO PEOPLE FOLDED! HELLO! The winner of the hand gets a hundred grand and two of the six players at the table folded before the flop! I can't stop saying it, TWO OF THE PLAYERS AT THE TABLE FOLDED! One had about $5 and the other about $1.75 and they must not have had a brain cell between them. Everyone at the table got $10,000 and a $5,000 entry into the WCOOP main event. They'll probably go blow it all on shiny objects or DVDs of the movie Catwoman or whatever it is that morons buy. How in the world could you be so oblivious? Incredible.
So who won the hand? The player in the big blind who started the hand with 82 cents (82 cents! Jesus!) and had no idea what was happening at the beginning of the hand. She clearly didn't know about the promotion, but managed to figure it out after support told the players 75 times that the winner would get $100,000. She got dealt 83 of clubs and made a flush to win the biggest pot in the history of 1 cent/2 cent blinds poker. Congratulations to Justine0003 who I will envy for a long, long time.
I managed to be playing during about 30 of 100 smaller milestone hands and not only were none of them were dealt on one of my tables, but none were dealt on any $1/$2 or $2/$4 blinds NL games period.
Meanwhile I had my worst day of the year today. A miserable, miserable day where I managed to combine the forces of bad play on my part and absolutely horrible luck. I couldn't do anything right today. It felt like I made the minimum on the winning hands I had, lost the maximum on the big losers I had, bluffed into made hands (I actually moved all in against a Royal Flush yesterday) and checked into hands I could have won by bluffing. And I also got TOTALLY SCREWED over and over. I kept getting pocket aces or kings and either winning $6 or losing $100.
I'd intended to play for the next three days to take advantage of the remaining days of the double FPP promotion, but as a general rule if you have you're worst day in 6 months (I lost a few more dollars on December 3rd 2006 than I did today) you need a day off. Also I've worked 7 days straight and 17 of the past 19 so I can't feel like too much of a slacker. What a terrible depressing day!
On Monday I'm going to try something that I've been wanting to try for a while. I'm going to play as many hands in one day as you would get dealt in a month playing full time in person. It's 5,600 hands which should take me 12-13 hours of actual playing time. There's a fair chance that my brain might shut down about 3/4 of the way through because while I've played 12 hours in a day before it was usually 12 hours of 1 game in person with breaks or 12 hours of 2 or 3 big multitable tournaments online so the effort wasn't as intensive. If I can make it to 5,880 that would be the same as playing 24 hours a day for a week without missing a hand. I'll let you know what happens.
Then I got to witness without a doubt THE WORST PLAY IN POKER HISTORY! Two people folded! Let me say it again. TWO PEOPLE FOLDED! HELLO! The winner of the hand gets a hundred grand and two of the six players at the table folded before the flop! I can't stop saying it, TWO OF THE PLAYERS AT THE TABLE FOLDED! One had about $5 and the other about $1.75 and they must not have had a brain cell between them. Everyone at the table got $10,000 and a $5,000 entry into the WCOOP main event. They'll probably go blow it all on shiny objects or DVDs of the movie Catwoman or whatever it is that morons buy. How in the world could you be so oblivious? Incredible.
So who won the hand? The player in the big blind who started the hand with 82 cents (82 cents! Jesus!) and had no idea what was happening at the beginning of the hand. She clearly didn't know about the promotion, but managed to figure it out after support told the players 75 times that the winner would get $100,000. She got dealt 83 of clubs and made a flush to win the biggest pot in the history of 1 cent/2 cent blinds poker. Congratulations to Justine0003 who I will envy for a long, long time.
I managed to be playing during about 30 of 100 smaller milestone hands and not only were none of them were dealt on one of my tables, but none were dealt on any $1/$2 or $2/$4 blinds NL games period.
Meanwhile I had my worst day of the year today. A miserable, miserable day where I managed to combine the forces of bad play on my part and absolutely horrible luck. I couldn't do anything right today. It felt like I made the minimum on the winning hands I had, lost the maximum on the big losers I had, bluffed into made hands (I actually moved all in against a Royal Flush yesterday) and checked into hands I could have won by bluffing. And I also got TOTALLY SCREWED over and over. I kept getting pocket aces or kings and either winning $6 or losing $100.
I'd intended to play for the next three days to take advantage of the remaining days of the double FPP promotion, but as a general rule if you have you're worst day in 6 months (I lost a few more dollars on December 3rd 2006 than I did today) you need a day off. Also I've worked 7 days straight and 17 of the past 19 so I can't feel like too much of a slacker. What a terrible depressing day!
On Monday I'm going to try something that I've been wanting to try for a while. I'm going to play as many hands in one day as you would get dealt in a month playing full time in person. It's 5,600 hands which should take me 12-13 hours of actual playing time. There's a fair chance that my brain might shut down about 3/4 of the way through because while I've played 12 hours in a day before it was usually 12 hours of 1 game in person with breaks or 12 hours of 2 or 3 big multitable tournaments online so the effort wasn't as intensive. If I can make it to 5,880 that would be the same as playing 24 hours a day for a week without missing a hand. I'll let you know what happens.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Mental Toughness Required
Playing poker for a living is definitely an occupation that requires substantial mental toughness. Sometimes it feels like everything that could possibly go wrong is going wrong. Out of nowhere all of your bluffs are getting called, your big hands are running into bigger hands and none of your drawing hands are getting there. You see good hand after good hand get squashed and you think to yourself, "What happened to my money? If only this had gone differently and I hadn't done that."
I can tell you from 7 years of experience (both my own and from watching other people) that the natural reaction is to go completely nuts. Your heart tells you "Get in there! You better win this pot now! You can't wait for the next hand you have to win this one!" Some players listen and play every hand as aggressively as possible and take wild chances in a desperate effort to get that money back. Others manage to ignore their heart and listen to their brain which is telling them "Stay calm. Wait for a good hand. It wasn't that much money. IT'S OK! DON'T PLAY THAT HAND YOU IDIOT! FOLD! FOLD! FOLD!"
Hanging on to your composure when you start losing pot after pot is like charging into the ocean trying to make it to a boat. If the waves are small and spaced out you can make it, but if they are huge and come one after another then even the strongest person will be repelled.
Similarly, losing a few pots close together isn't hard to handle if they are small and losing a big pot here and there is ok too. It's just part of the game. But if you lose several big pots in quick succession wiping out days worth of profit it's almost impossible to stay totally calm and think rationally.
The trick is being able to let that emotional response pass and get back to playing your best as quickly as possible. It might take 5 minutes or 5 hours or 5 days depending on the amount of money involved and the way things went down. Part of being a pro is getting back on track right away.
Lately I've been trying to focus on having the mental toughness to bounce back as quickly as possible. Luckily for me no matter what happens or how upset I am, my absolute worst is still pretty good. While I'm not sure how good my "A game" is, I'll take my "F game" against almost anyone's.
Unfortunately I had the chance to work on my mental toughness today under extreme circumstances. I was in 6 NL cash games and I lost all of my chips in 4 of them in the span of about 3 minutes. First I lost $200 when I made a straight on the turn at the same time that another player made a flush. He made a huge bet and I decided that there was about a 45% chance he had a flush and a 55% chance that he didn't. I was wrong and lost. Just after, I picked up QQ and lost $200 to a player with AA. Then I lost $100 with AQ to QJ when the flop came down Q J 5 and I didn't improve.
At this point I was not happy. Not only did I just blow through $500 in no time at all, if I was playing really great I probably could have saved some of that money. Of course they were all tough spots and I certainly didn't make any big mistakes, but it wasn't like there was no way I could have gotten away from those hands and I was doubting my decisions.
Maybe 45 seconds later I picked up JJ and I thought to myself "Pleeeease make this one easy on me." Someone open raised the minimum (to $8), another player called, I made it $24 and they both called. The flop came down J 7 3 with 2 hearts. Ah Ha! I bet $40 and one of the other players moved all in. Not only did I have the best possible hand, but no matter what my opponent had I was at least 75% to win and most likely they were either a 10 to 1 underdog or drawing dead. I guessed I was up against a flush draw or an over pair so when the turn came an 8 and the river came a 9 I was sure I'd won. For a fraction of a second I considered that they might have pocket tens, but then I realized that made no sense. When my opponent turned over A 10 of hearts and took the pot it felt like I'd been punched in the chest. Another $400 pot headed the wrong way.
That money isn't that important and I've lost literally thousands of $400 pots in my lifetime, but man, losing that pot right after those other three really hit me hard.
Then I thought "This is actually great, because it gives me a chance to work on my mental toughness!" If you believe that I have some magic beans I can sell you for only 11 easy payments of $49.95.
Happily, I did manage to have a total luck 180 right away. While the turn and river were coming out in the hand with the jacks I got dealt AK on another table. I raised, flopped an ace and some doofus with 89 which was no pair, no draw, decided to blow all in and I doubled up. Over the next 300 hands or so I managed to pick up 5 or 6 medium pots and finally one more big one (along with the standard compliment of little ones). After the big one I saw I'd recovered $685 of the $700 I blew through. At that point I promptly called it a day feeling like I'd been battered by enough waves for one day.
I'm still on target for my May goals. I've played 33,000 of my 60,000 hands for the month and I'm only slightly off the pace of playing 30,000 hands in the 10 days of the pokerstars double FPP promotion. I've had 9 winning days and 5 losing days so far, but my biggest losing day was under $300 and I've had three winning days in the plus $1,000 range.
There's never a bad time for a good streak, but since I'm going to need an extra $2,500 or so for my trip to the WSOP and Jen is going to be too pregnant to work right around the corner this has been good timing.
I can tell you from 7 years of experience (both my own and from watching other people) that the natural reaction is to go completely nuts. Your heart tells you "Get in there! You better win this pot now! You can't wait for the next hand you have to win this one!" Some players listen and play every hand as aggressively as possible and take wild chances in a desperate effort to get that money back. Others manage to ignore their heart and listen to their brain which is telling them "Stay calm. Wait for a good hand. It wasn't that much money. IT'S OK! DON'T PLAY THAT HAND YOU IDIOT! FOLD! FOLD! FOLD!"
Hanging on to your composure when you start losing pot after pot is like charging into the ocean trying to make it to a boat. If the waves are small and spaced out you can make it, but if they are huge and come one after another then even the strongest person will be repelled.
Similarly, losing a few pots close together isn't hard to handle if they are small and losing a big pot here and there is ok too. It's just part of the game. But if you lose several big pots in quick succession wiping out days worth of profit it's almost impossible to stay totally calm and think rationally.
The trick is being able to let that emotional response pass and get back to playing your best as quickly as possible. It might take 5 minutes or 5 hours or 5 days depending on the amount of money involved and the way things went down. Part of being a pro is getting back on track right away.
Lately I've been trying to focus on having the mental toughness to bounce back as quickly as possible. Luckily for me no matter what happens or how upset I am, my absolute worst is still pretty good. While I'm not sure how good my "A game" is, I'll take my "F game" against almost anyone's.
Unfortunately I had the chance to work on my mental toughness today under extreme circumstances. I was in 6 NL cash games and I lost all of my chips in 4 of them in the span of about 3 minutes. First I lost $200 when I made a straight on the turn at the same time that another player made a flush. He made a huge bet and I decided that there was about a 45% chance he had a flush and a 55% chance that he didn't. I was wrong and lost. Just after, I picked up QQ and lost $200 to a player with AA. Then I lost $100 with AQ to QJ when the flop came down Q J 5 and I didn't improve.
At this point I was not happy. Not only did I just blow through $500 in no time at all, if I was playing really great I probably could have saved some of that money. Of course they were all tough spots and I certainly didn't make any big mistakes, but it wasn't like there was no way I could have gotten away from those hands and I was doubting my decisions.
Maybe 45 seconds later I picked up JJ and I thought to myself "Pleeeease make this one easy on me." Someone open raised the minimum (to $8), another player called, I made it $24 and they both called. The flop came down J 7 3 with 2 hearts. Ah Ha! I bet $40 and one of the other players moved all in. Not only did I have the best possible hand, but no matter what my opponent had I was at least 75% to win and most likely they were either a 10 to 1 underdog or drawing dead. I guessed I was up against a flush draw or an over pair so when the turn came an 8 and the river came a 9 I was sure I'd won. For a fraction of a second I considered that they might have pocket tens, but then I realized that made no sense. When my opponent turned over A 10 of hearts and took the pot it felt like I'd been punched in the chest. Another $400 pot headed the wrong way.
That money isn't that important and I've lost literally thousands of $400 pots in my lifetime, but man, losing that pot right after those other three really hit me hard.
Then I thought "This is actually great, because it gives me a chance to work on my mental toughness!" If you believe that I have some magic beans I can sell you for only 11 easy payments of $49.95.
Happily, I did manage to have a total luck 180 right away. While the turn and river were coming out in the hand with the jacks I got dealt AK on another table. I raised, flopped an ace and some doofus with 89 which was no pair, no draw, decided to blow all in and I doubled up. Over the next 300 hands or so I managed to pick up 5 or 6 medium pots and finally one more big one (along with the standard compliment of little ones). After the big one I saw I'd recovered $685 of the $700 I blew through. At that point I promptly called it a day feeling like I'd been battered by enough waves for one day.
I'm still on target for my May goals. I've played 33,000 of my 60,000 hands for the month and I'm only slightly off the pace of playing 30,000 hands in the 10 days of the pokerstars double FPP promotion. I've had 9 winning days and 5 losing days so far, but my biggest losing day was under $300 and I've had three winning days in the plus $1,000 range.
There's never a bad time for a good streak, but since I'm going to need an extra $2,500 or so for my trip to the WSOP and Jen is going to be too pregnant to work right around the corner this has been good timing.
Friday, May 11, 2007
A little gift from pokerstars
Pokerstars made an announcement that they are going to have a bit of a blowout as they approach the 10 billionth hand dealt in their history. When I first started playing online poker in 2004 Party Poker who was the big dog at the time had dealt more hands than any other site. In the five years that they'd been in operation they'd dealt 250 million. Pokerstars expects to deal half that many in the next 10 days and has dealt over 5 billion hands in the last year. When they say poker boom the mean BOOOOOOOOM!!!
So what are they giving away? The lowliest thing is they're adding a few thousand dollars in prize money to about a dozen daily tournaments from now until May 22nd. I'm not going to bother squabbling over that money.
More significantly they are adding $100,000 to the prize pool of the $215 buy in "Sunday Warm up" and $250,000 to the prize pool of the $215 buy in "Sunday Million." The first usually draws about 2,000 players and the second usually draws about 7,000 (and I expect they'll get about 50% more players than usual) so the added money isn't that significant.
In my estimation there will be about $50 in extra equity total if I put up $430 and played both tournaments. However this added money should attract players that normally wouldn't play in these tournaments and for many of them it will have no business playing in a $215 tournament. So on top of the small added bonus money, the fact that the field will be much weaker than usual should add some significant additional value.
Another thing which is always nice is they're offering a 25% deposit bonus on deposits up to $600. For me this is a free $150!
The most exciting thing for some players is they are giving away money to the players that are dealt in on every millionth hand starting with #9,900,000,000. The amount varies depending on the size of the game you're playing in as well as your VIP level and the winner of the actual hand gets much more. The lowest amount would be if you had no VIP status and were playing in micro level games. The winner of the hand would get $250 and the other players dealt in all get $100. I won't go through all the permutations, but the bottom line is for me I'll get paid $2,400 if I win one of those 100 hands and $900 if I'm just dealt in. That would be sweet!
No one knows which tables the key hands will be dealt on, but you can see the hand counter going up so I'm going to make sure I'm playing in 10 games when the key hands are going to be dealt as often as I can. Obviously I won't be playing when all 100 hands get dealt since one is going to happen about every 2.5 hours for the next 10 days or so, but I might be able to at least be logged on and playing when 50 of them are dealt. I have no idea what kind of dollar value to put on this part of the promotion, but I sure will be fired up if I get any piece of that money.
Not surprisingly the ten billionth hand will be much more significant. Getting dealt in is worth $10,000 plus a $5,000 seat in the WCOOP main event and winning the hand is worth $100,000! You can bet that when that hand gets dealt pokerstars will have more players logged on than they ever have before. I will personally be in more games than I ever have before. I'm taking my monitor to max resolution and shrinking those games down as much as I can to give myself the best chance.
When I first started thinking about this I thought "Ha ha! I'll have about a 1 in 1,000 chance at hitting this one!" But I think it's actually much better than that. Pokerstars usually has around 10,000 games going, but the majority of them are play money games and some more are multitable tournaments which don't qualify (only SNG's tables and cash game tables count) I'm going to estimate that for the big hand there will around 2500 qualifying tables and if I'm in 15 games that will give me a 1 in 166 shot of being in the big hand. For the lesser earlier hands there might be as few as 500 qualifying tables if it's late at night meaning I'll have a 1 in 50 shot of hitting each one if I'm in 10 games each time. All of a sudden I'm a little more excited about this part of the promotion.
All that stuff is great, but by far the best thing for me is DOUBLE FPP's for 10 days! Normally I get about $32 in FPP's for every 1,000 hands I play. Between now and May 22nd I'll be getting $64 for every 1,000 hands. If I bust my hump I think I can play between 25,000 and 30,000 hands between now and the 22nd. Which means this part of the promotion will be worth close to an extra $1,000 for me. Thanks pokerstars!
So what are they giving away? The lowliest thing is they're adding a few thousand dollars in prize money to about a dozen daily tournaments from now until May 22nd. I'm not going to bother squabbling over that money.
More significantly they are adding $100,000 to the prize pool of the $215 buy in "Sunday Warm up" and $250,000 to the prize pool of the $215 buy in "Sunday Million." The first usually draws about 2,000 players and the second usually draws about 7,000 (and I expect they'll get about 50% more players than usual) so the added money isn't that significant.
In my estimation there will be about $50 in extra equity total if I put up $430 and played both tournaments. However this added money should attract players that normally wouldn't play in these tournaments and for many of them it will have no business playing in a $215 tournament. So on top of the small added bonus money, the fact that the field will be much weaker than usual should add some significant additional value.
Another thing which is always nice is they're offering a 25% deposit bonus on deposits up to $600. For me this is a free $150!
The most exciting thing for some players is they are giving away money to the players that are dealt in on every millionth hand starting with #9,900,000,000. The amount varies depending on the size of the game you're playing in as well as your VIP level and the winner of the actual hand gets much more. The lowest amount would be if you had no VIP status and were playing in micro level games. The winner of the hand would get $250 and the other players dealt in all get $100. I won't go through all the permutations, but the bottom line is for me I'll get paid $2,400 if I win one of those 100 hands and $900 if I'm just dealt in. That would be sweet!
No one knows which tables the key hands will be dealt on, but you can see the hand counter going up so I'm going to make sure I'm playing in 10 games when the key hands are going to be dealt as often as I can. Obviously I won't be playing when all 100 hands get dealt since one is going to happen about every 2.5 hours for the next 10 days or so, but I might be able to at least be logged on and playing when 50 of them are dealt. I have no idea what kind of dollar value to put on this part of the promotion, but I sure will be fired up if I get any piece of that money.
Not surprisingly the ten billionth hand will be much more significant. Getting dealt in is worth $10,000 plus a $5,000 seat in the WCOOP main event and winning the hand is worth $100,000! You can bet that when that hand gets dealt pokerstars will have more players logged on than they ever have before. I will personally be in more games than I ever have before. I'm taking my monitor to max resolution and shrinking those games down as much as I can to give myself the best chance.
When I first started thinking about this I thought "Ha ha! I'll have about a 1 in 1,000 chance at hitting this one!" But I think it's actually much better than that. Pokerstars usually has around 10,000 games going, but the majority of them are play money games and some more are multitable tournaments which don't qualify (only SNG's tables and cash game tables count) I'm going to estimate that for the big hand there will around 2500 qualifying tables and if I'm in 15 games that will give me a 1 in 166 shot of being in the big hand. For the lesser earlier hands there might be as few as 500 qualifying tables if it's late at night meaning I'll have a 1 in 50 shot of hitting each one if I'm in 10 games each time. All of a sudden I'm a little more excited about this part of the promotion.
All that stuff is great, but by far the best thing for me is DOUBLE FPP's for 10 days! Normally I get about $32 in FPP's for every 1,000 hands I play. Between now and May 22nd I'll be getting $64 for every 1,000 hands. If I bust my hump I think I can play between 25,000 and 30,000 hands between now and the 22nd. Which means this part of the promotion will be worth close to an extra $1,000 for me. Thanks pokerstars!
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My WSOP 2023 Plans and Missions
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