CARDRUNNERS

Went out with my law school buddies tonight cause they just finished their last final and are done with their first year. They were pretty pumped because it's basically the last summer they will ever have to do what they want. When I was sitting there listening to them talk about how it's all downhill after this summer I just felt so lucky. I get to do the thing I enjoy the most for the rest of my life and whatever else I want.

I think im heading home tomorrow. I'll probably spend the next 10 days relaxing, reading, working out, playing some poker, and hanging out with friends. I'm heading to vegas on the 21st to play in the mandalay bay WPT event and prelims, then pretty much every wsop event I can.

I have pretty modest goals for the summer, just want to make at least 1 final table and make an overall profit playing in tournaments at the WSOP. Hopefully all goes well.

Oh by the way, if you havent seen it, i highly suggest renting crank. One of the most awesomely bad movies ive ever seen in my life. Basically this dude gets injected with a Chinese super virus called the Beijing Cocktail, and the only way to extend his life is to keep his adrenaline levels high, so basically its just an awesome excuse to work in gratuitous action scenes.

One spoiler, jason statham gets to bang his girlfriend in public, and during it, screams I FEEL ALIVE. After all he needs to keep his adrenaline going, so what better way to do it than exhibitional coitus. There are a whole bunch of crazy asian people watching it and going bonkers. It's an awesome scene in an awesome movie. I'd draw a picture but I just cant do it justice.

I'll preface this post with saying that i hate nothing more than people who complain about bad beats/coolers. I almost never do it and really hate it when people start im'ing me with these setup hands they had and expect me to show them sympathy. that being said, I am going all out today with my coolers in the donkaments today.


Played the major tourneys today. Hilarious what happened:


here's how i busted in the ftp sunday:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/187885

ftp mulligan:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/187882

stars 2nd chance:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/187886


Pretty sweet. Even sweeter since they were all in a short period of time, all within 45 minutes of each other.

Oh, i forgot about the stars sunday. The glorious stars sunday. With 1200 players left I am top 15 in chips. Then the following destruction happens:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/187765
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/187772


I go from top 15 in chips pretty close to the money, to out without even making the money. Insane. I thought a bit before calling the 99, i know it's pretty much an impossible fold to make but i definitely felt as if i was beat there. I dont want to be results oriented about it because it's just a cooler and it happens.

so to sum up the day, i busted from my 4 major tourneys with a set vs overset, AA v set, KK vs set, and a combination of losing an 85% advantage and a set vs a straight. man, i do not know how the online donkament players do it.

im gonna run a late night session at 3/6 to try to recoup the losses from coolerville.

So I decided that I would start playing a lot more online mtts for a couple reasons. First I would like to improve my mtt game and its a great way to practice. And secondly, I think that there is a lot more dead money in mtts than cash games, so it could be very profitably.

Tonight I decided to play 4 tournaments. The 22r and 100r on stars, and the nightly 150 on both stars and ftp.


So 8:00 rolls around and I am scrolling through the tournament lobby when I see this big stud tournament. I was like SWEET I LIKE STUD IM GOING TO PLAY. So I register for it without even reading what it really was. Turns out I entered a 7stud play money tournament.



And since I registered for the thing less than 10 minutes before it started, I couldnt unregister. So along with my cash games and other tournaments I would be playing a 7stud play money tournament.

My table opens up and of course I recognize nobody, although I'm sure there were a few sharks mixed in there. My guess is Joe Awada and Ted Forrest were using secret accounts and were at my table. It was a real blood game. Pretty much 90% of the hands were 7 way to 4th street, cause I was the only one who folded.

So a few minutes go by when I see something in the top left of the table that I hadnt yet noticed cause I was playing a lot of tables.



there was a link to make first time deposits. Here is the link if you guys want to make a deposit for the first time:

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/bonus/


So anyway, I play it for a while and eventually bust :(. I was very upset and expected much better. I probably could have folded this last hand for my last 238 but I felt pot committed with my 2 pair and 4 flush:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/186218


I was very sad and disappointed with my night. But oh wait. I'm still in the ftp 150! and im a total lucksack!

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/186183

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/186185

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/186186

yada yada yada, i build a monster chip lead with 12 people left and have about 35% of the chips in play, and hold the chip lead all the way to hu, fall behind a bit, but then pull back ahead and take the shizzle down.



sick yo. i love donkaments.

So I'll just keep this entry to the poker happenings last week.


WPT CHAMPIONSHIP

The only recognizable person at my table day 1 was Ari (sick bad luck getting the guy im backing at my table).

The blinds started off at 50/100 and we had 50k starting stacks. I decided I was going to play almost every hand with merit this level because we were so deep and I was sure I was the best player at the table deepstacked.

The first pot worth noting came up about 3 rounds in. I had been raising/playing a ton of hands and my stack was about the same as it started the tournament. a player limped in middle position, i had AJo in the cutoff and raised to 450. folded back to him and he limp reraised to 1200. I called.

flop came k53 rainbow and he made this disgusted face and insta checked. i read this as extreme strength coming from this particular player so I checked behind figuring he probably had KK. turn came a T putting 2 hearts on board. he bet 750.

now, the pot was about 2600 and he only bet 750. I had a gutshot and I also had the Ah in my hand. I decided to call getting over 4:1 with position and my gutshot and I would be bluffing on a heart river.

The river came the Qh, and he bet 1200. i thought for a little and decided to raise to 5k. if I didnt hit my straight I probably would have raised a bit bigger on the river to try and push him off but I decided to try and get as much value as possible. he tanked 1-2 minutes and finally called, and then threw a mini fit when he saw my straight and turned up AK (a lot weaker than what I had actually put him on).

A few rounds later I rivered a boat with 76 on an A7726 board, and bet 10k on the river, was called by a guy who stood up and screamed AH FUCK BAD BEAT. im guessing he had a 7 with a better kicker and I rivered him.

I finished off the level playing a ton of hands and having my stack stay pretty much around 67-70k.


After the break, the blinds were 100/200 and I continued to try and play a lot of pots. However, I quickly realized that I was getting 0 respect. i fired 2 barrels with a nut flush draw in position and was called down by bottom pair, and I also had a lot of other bluffs snapped off. I decided to tighten up and wait for some better hands. I didnt really get any during this level and my stack dipped to 55k due to my called bluffs.


When 100/200/25 ante started, I finally picked up a hand with KK utg. I raised to 700, it folded to button who made it 2200, and then the big blind (who was the same player i "bad beat" on the river earlier) shoved for 35k. I gave him this look like WTF IS THIS, thought a few seconds and folded. the button was like wow, and folded QQ face up. the big blind obv had AA and made some comment that he didnt want the flop to come K or Q and have a difficult spot oop. terrible nitty old man, nice job wasting the best setup hand of all time.

It wasnt really a difficult fold, pretty much the easiest KK preflop fold I've ever had. It was a little frustrating to finally get a real hand and have it wasted though.

A round later, the guy who reraised to 2200 and folded QQ face up made it 700 in mp, got called in one spot and I called on the button with J8hh. The flop came QJ9 with 1 heart and the pf raiser bet 1100. mp folded, i called, and then the dealer let me know that it wasnt 1100, but it was 2100. now its time for a rant.

THE FUCKING 500 AND 1K CHIPS IN THIS TOURNAMENT WERE BASICALLY THE SAME COLOR. one was light brown and the other was dark orange. if you were sitting across the table from a bettor and the light wasnt right you really couldnt tell the difference between the two chips. It fucked me over a few times here and there.

since i already put 1100 out there i decided to throw the other 1k out there. the turn came a heart and he bet out 3500. he seemed fairly tag, but on the tight side and i contemplated raising here, but decided the likelihood he had a set and the combined possibility that he wouldnt fold AA/KK was too high that I shouldnt raise, so I flat called again. River blanked, he bet 6k and i folded. I sort of wish i made a play on the turn or river in this hand, but I feel he very likely had a set because he seemed very very tight.

On the last hand of the level, i got dealt QQ utg, raised to 700 and got 3 calls. flop came 235 with 2 clubs and 1 diamond. the bb (same old guy that overbet shoved AA) led out 1100, i made it 3k with 2 players left behind, they both folded and the old man thought for a little and shoved for 30k. I felt like it was highly likely he was semibluffing, but since he already overbet shoved the nuts and seemed really tight, I thought sets made up enough of his range to fold here. I folded and he showed 34dd, which I would be basically 50% vs because of his backdoor flush draw. Flat calling and jamming turn is probably ok, but i didnt like the thought of playing a multiway pot to this turn.


I then lost a pretty big pot in the 200/400/50a level. I raised utg to 1200 with 88, got 3 calls, and a shortstack shoved for 10k more. I got the feeling from looking at him that he didnt want a call and the players behind me seemed pretty weak so i flat called. everyone folded and he actually had AK, which is way stronger than I expected from him. he made a straight and i lost about 25% of my stack.

Nothing else important happened the rest of the day besides me check raise bluffing this total fish on the turn and him waking up with KK. another 12k down the drain.

On the last hand of the day i folded KJ on a J88 flop to a guy who ended up showing 86. i finished the day at 28k and was pretty disappointed that I couldnt capitalize on my easy table and crazy image. At least I still had 35bb left for the start of the next day.


On day 2 i had a much worse table. play2kill was seated directly to my left, and I also had thor hansen and a few guys i had recognized from past WPT final tables. I won a few pots and lost a few pots early and my stack basically stayed the same for my bustout hand, which I will say again with my analysis.

kido pham (who is crazy) open raised the button to 3k at 400/800. I had AQdd in the big blind with 28k. I decided to raise, and made it 10k, he shoved and I called. I think hes raising the button close to 100% of the time here, but, since I made it 10k over his raise, i am basically committing myself against a shove, so I essentially shoved for 9x his bet. I much much would have preferred if i had made it 8k and then still called a shove (cause hes crazy), but at least this way I wouldnt have committed myself.

Overall I think I played well, but I think I should have a) totally given up on bluffing after the first level, b) been just as loose but less aggressive in the first level to help maintain a better image and c) played the last hand a little smarter.


Anyway, after that I found a series of wsop circuit events at Caesar's which is right next door to the bellagio. i played in 3 of them, a 500, a 1k and a 1500. I got rather deep in the 500 but bubbled with top 2 vs a flush draw, which I got pretty mad about (so hilarious that I got upset) because it was a big pot and I would have had a good chance to make a final table and pick up POY points. oh well whatever. got busted from the other tourneys in standard ways (squeezed into aces, lost top pair vs a flush draw)

as for cash games, I didnt play much live. i played about an hour of 50/100 7stud to help me gear up for the wsop stud events (which I plan on definitely playing) and I came out up 800 and felt like I was much better than my opponents. i am very excited for the wsop stud events because I feel like my ability in that game is close to my skill in NL.

ill post some trip adventures when i get back to school.

When I got in I met up with the two guys im backing, mig and ari, to have dinner. Ari just won a 2500 super sat to the 25k event which is pretty nice, unluckily he will be sitting at my table on sunday in the championship event.

After dinner we met up with my buddy corwin (tecknowledgy on stars, plays 2/4nl and is my plo student) and my partner in the backing deals, nazgul18 on stars, he runs www.liquidpoker.net He had a few friends from ba...doing.