CARDRUNNERS

I busted the $40k buyin NL event on day 1!  I started the day not really going anywhere with a lot of tough players at my table (which was expected) with my image not being so great as I've shown down a few bluffs and mucked all my good hands when they weren't called.  Because of this and the fact I wasn't getting any hands I was folding a ton when my bustout hand occurred, which went like this: 
Mark Seif limped UTG+1 at 500/1k and was playing a little more solidly before having shown down some nonsense bluff w/ K10 high no draw 3 barrel on 34824, so needless to say I isolated him w/ 69dd as hes never ever limp/reraising me here.  Someone behind me called and one of the blinds call and Mark Seif folds...just kidding he calls!  Flop comes 3710r with 1 diamond and it checks around, turn is an 8 (bink!).  It checks to me and I bet 12,550 which was near pot, a bet which Mark check-raises to 34,000.  Well, since he's never bluffing here I just decided to shove allin for 110k effective stacks and get instasnapped off by 88.  River...8.  GG!

In other news, I've been playing a lot of $25/50 and recently $50/100 at the bellagio with pretty good results.  Just yesterday I played a very interesting hand at $50/100 vs some crazy guy named Bill where I made a pretty sick call but lost anyways :(.  Here's how it went:
Bill is stuck and has been playing nearly every hand and trying to barrel people off hands on multiple streets.  He limps UTG and gets 2 more callers.  I have 910dd in the bb and I check.  Flop is Ad4d4s.  I check, Bill bets $500, a very solid guy named Ben calls behind, I call.  Turn is the 7d giving me a flush, I check, Bill bets $1400, Ben looks at his hand for a bit, shakes his head, and angrily folds.  I call planning to check/call most rivers.  River is an Ac.  I check and Bill bets $10,000!  Well, the board double pairing really sucked, but the fact that he bet 3x pot on the river means he never has a bare 4.  Also, due to the fact that it was very clear that Ben folded an ace and Bill and I had talked about overbetting before when I snapped off a smaller bet vs him earlier, I called w/ my 10 high flush.  As soon as I called, he says to me, "you're good" and moves to muck his hand.  I flip over 910dd proudly and he goes...oh OH...and flips over J8dd.  DAMMIT!  I would've never thought in a million years he'd turn a flush into a bluff there!!  That's ok though, I'm still playing great and I like my call.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the series and I'll keep you guys as updated as I can!

Ok, so after my last rant I had a lot of time to clear my head up, hanging out a ton with friends and not playing too much poker.  I've also cleared my head of a lot of other issues troubling me, and its safe to say that its definitely worked out.  During my long stretch of runbad, I definitely was not playing my A-game, but I was certainly also running really bad to encounter some of the stuff I did encounter.  Well, I've come to terms with it, and its a pretty high variance game with stretches of seemingly non-sense, and I can now deal with that.

For the last few weeks I've played 2 main tournaments, the Bellagio 25k and EPT Monte Carlo series.  I thought I played quite mediocre on day 1 of the 25k, but its good thing we were able to start with 100k chips (1000bbs) and on day 2 i refocused and was able to make it to day 4, busting in 19th.  I got it allin pretty good K10o vs J10o for about 15bbs preflop.  The flop came out 10 high and the J came on the turn, and normally these days when that J comes I would be crying or pissed or at least very emotional.  However, I'm so refocused that it didn't phase me at all.  I'm very happy with the way I played the tournament and was glad to bust the way I did, getting it in so good :).

During the Monte Carlo Main event, I started day 2 with a 40k stack.  I started the day with a pretty soft table and chipped up 10k, but was soon moved to a very very aggressive table.  There was a young player with a huge 200k+ stack raising nearly every hand and playing very well.  He clearly had the table under his control and managed to tilt the crap out of the European player to my right, outplaying him in every single pot.  I couldn't really do much, and my stack slowly dwindled to 22k as I wiffed a few flops.  Luckily shortly after, I reshipped w/ AA vs A9, held, and was suddenly up to a healthy 70k.  With such a stack I could definitely do some damage, and was looking forward to getting into the heated tangle of such an aggressive table.  Unfortunately I busted out AKo to QQ shortly after that to the same aggressive player :(.  This bustout didn't phase me either, but it was pretty funny that I never thought I would lose the hand for some reason.  Up to this point, my cashing rate in EPT  mains has been 100% (4 for 4).  Needless to say, when the flop came out J high all hearts to match my beautiful AhK vs his QQ no heart, I was licking my lips ready for the doubleup and deep run.  Somehow the board bricked out (WTF!) and I was knocked out.

The next day, I played the 2k event, and in the process of registereing, multiple people approached me and asked if I was in the 25k highroller.  Well, the thought had not even crossed my mind, as the high roller event at PCA was an awfully tough field, and I didn't feel like playing in a tourney with so many tough players.  However, this high roller event attracted quite a few rich locals looking for a good time, and I was quite upset that I wasn't able to play.  
The 2k event, however, was also quite soft.  I managed to chip up early, but lost most of it back before the dinner break.  During dinner we decided to go to a restaraunt called Avenue 31, and as I had 1 hour and 15 minutes to eat, I didn't think it would be a problem.  Well...it was.

When we first walked in, we were asked if we had a reservation.  No? well...we'll seat you in the corner next to the kitchen where you won't disturb our rich clientelle.  As we were seated, we weren't offered water, or bread...not even menus!  It took about 30 minutes to get menus, and 20 more minutes for our order to go through.  By the time my dinner break was over, I was served ONE (1) water and ONE (1) beer.  Not bad for 1 hour and 15 minutes of waiting.  Normally this wouldn't upset me too much, but about 15 minutes before I had to leave, some guy who was clearly wealthy walks in with his hot girlfriend/wife, got his hand shook, was served sparkling champagne, got bread, got menus, and got his order taken all within 5 minutes.  COOL.

So...after such a disappointing dinner, I rushed back to the tournament, only to run A8o into 1010 and 44 allin pf vs some laggy kid on tilt and some guy trapping me with his 1010.  Flop came AKx all spades giving the kid a flush draw, but the river brought a 10s which means I don't even win the sidepot.  After busting in less than an hour, I rush back to the restaraunt, and by the time I got back my friends hadn't even been served their main course yet.  Needless to say, I'm never going back to that place again.

The next day, I played in the 5k 6max event, and was able to make it deep, finishing 12th.  I had a 10% swap with my friend Clay (MezmerizePLZ), who ended up chopping the win for 215k euros.  When they first started playing, the old Russian man he was playing asked for a chop, but Clay refused.  As the heads up progressed though, it was evident we had underestimated this guy, and not only was he giving Clay a hard time, but everyone was tired and I was falling asleep.  Added to the fact that it was the last day and all the dealers and tourney directors were out having fun while these guys had to stay back and work, Clay decided to chop the HU and end it there.  215k euros definitely ain't too shabby, and I'm really proud of him, he really deserves this win!

All in all Monte Carlo was a great trip.  The dealers and floorpeople in EPTs are really great and with a better structure next season for all the EPTs, I think I'm going to be attending a lot more.  All in all, I'm really happy I'm out of my hellish infinite bad run, and look forward to the World Series coming up.

So after my last entry I told myself that I would grind really hard to give my roll a boost.  Well, I finally started to run normally, after the "Peter Eastgate" incident, but then I started to play badly as well.  Go figure!  After spending Christmas Eve on a ship with my family, the days after in Sea World, Universal Studios, and Epcot (my favorite being Sea World, the concept of training killer whales to do what you want still boggles my mind), New Years Eve in New York City, Skiing in the Poconos immediately after, 1 week+ in the Caribbean again for PCA, I was FINALLY back to San Francisco again! 

This is when i started my heavy grinding, playing 12 tables and averaging 3k hands a day.  On Full Tilt I was playing 5/10 FR, and on Stars I was playing 25/50 6max and FR.  In this period of about a week I managed to make 100k, running at expectation.  It also helped that a bunch of my friends from England came to visit us in San Francisco for a month, and we did a lot of cool stuff like hiking and climbing near the San Francisco shoreline.  I also made a video where I played super aggressively, which I keep forgetting to upload fully (I'll do that tomorrow) and will hopefully be up soon. 

Afterwards, I went to Las Vegas to go house hunting as real estate prices are pretty low at the moment.  Well, I told myself that the Vegas trip was going to be all work as I was determined to buy a ~$500k house at the end of the trip, but somehow Thursday night, with my friends Clay, AJ, and Chris in town and it being Chris's birthday, it was obvious we had to go out to Tao.  We had a huge group of 8 people, and started the night off with shots of Patron, and quickly finished off a bottle.  Since we were getting a buy one get one free deal on bottles, I ordered 2 more bottles of Patron, but at this point people were declining shotglasses and it turned out that only me, Clay, and Chris were doing shots.  Somehow I was just NOT getting drunk, at all, whatsoever, so we finished up 3 bottles in about 2 hours, pure shots.  After finishing off the 3rd bottle, my girl and I were dancing and having a good time, but my memory of the entire situation is really fuzzy, and all I can remember is her handing me bottles of water and me slamming them down on the table and refusing it.  Supposedly shortly after, I stood still for 2 minutes, and promptly passed out on the seat.  Supposedly, and I was told this later so it could be wrong, security then came over, shined lights in my face and tried to get me up, but I was just telling them to go away.  Apparently I then got dragged off by security into the medical area, where they strapped me to a gurney and started asking me questions.  What I remember of the conversation went like this:

Paramedic: Eric, Eric are you ok?
Me: WTF why are you doing this to me? Get me out of here.
Paramedic: I'm an EMT and we're taking you to the hospital.
Me: I'M A TRAINED EMT AND I KNOW I'M FINE, LET ME GO HOME!
Paramedic: Ok, we're going to ask you a series of questions, and if you get them right you can go home.
(at this point Chris somehow finds me, and starts arguing drunkedly witht he paramedics)
Paramedic: What year is it?
Me: 19...2008...2009!
Paramedic: Who's the president of the US?
Me: BARACK OBAMA (with a smile)
Paramedic: How many quarters are there in a dollar?
Me: 25
Paramedic: How many quarters are there in a dollar?
Me: 25!
Paramedic: Ok, we're going to have to get him out of here...
Chris: C'mon Eric, you got this, how many quarters in a dollar?
Me: FOUR, NOW GET ME THE F*** OUTTA HERE.

Then all I remember was stumbling along, friends helping and dragging me into my Bellagio room.  The next morning, I woke up completely hangover-less, and without any urge whatsoever to throw up.  I drank two bottles of water, and besides feeling listless all day I was 100% fine!  This was defintely my most interesting clubbing experience, and probably the 4th drunk I've ever gotten.

After Vegas (the trip was semi-successful as I managed to submit an offer for a house) I flew to London for a few days to film an educational extention to the Pokerheaven European Cash game, where I talk about some of the hands that I played.  It was frustrating with the way they categorized the discussion, and we only got a short amount of time to discuss every hand so a lot of things I wanted to talk about I couldn't.  However, I think things went pretty well, but unfortunately I couldn't meet up with all my friends because the jetlag kept making me go to bed at 8.

From London, I flew back to San Francisco, where I am now, back on the grind!  Today I'm in a pretty good mood, winning about 40k, which is why I decided to update my blog (also because someone reminded me ;)).  Here are some godmode hands:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/621039
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/621045
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/621050
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/621167

That last one was especially brutal!

Here are some hands against some total spewmonkey, who I happened to get the most $ from:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/621005
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/621020

And some more UNREAL spew:

http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/621012

I also played Eastgate again and lost 30k to him :(.  But that's ok...I'll win vs him someday, and when that day comes...robusto! :)

Well, thats all for now, hopefully I keep running well.

I played Peter Eastgate today HU on Stars.  There was a hand that I forgot to save where I 4bet him w/ AKhh and he called OOP, flop came Q84.  It went check/check and turn was a 7 bringing 2 spades and he overbet shoved AI.  Well, I had previously seen him do this with draws and made the call w/ AK high, binking a K on the turn and winning against A8o.  2 things went through my mind when this happened:
1. Wow I ran good!  Sucked out!
2. Wow he called a 4bet OOP with A8o!  I need to keep playing!

He leaves but soon after calls me back to play, this time at $100/200, where he proceeds to run really good vs me (he played quite well too) and take the rest of my stars roll with some retarded coolers that played themselves:
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/600638 --I was cheering here!  Crap.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/h/600642 --I was cheering here too!
The rest of the hands were just me making good thin valuebets and him rivering me or me making good thin calls and him rivering me.  It was really irritating, and I lost about $100k total

Then I decide to take pieces of MezmerizePLZ at $200/400 who ran QQ into durrrr's AA (didn't save the hand b/c it was too standard) and Boosted J who ran into this:
http://www.pokerhand.org/?3666675

So, I'm pretty broke online now losing about $140k total today with about...well nearly nothing left!  Gonna grind $5/10 for a few months, worry free and variance free.  SEE YOU GUYS AT THE TABLESSSSSSSSSS

As some of you know and as most of you have experienced yourself, when one goes on a huge downswing one does not want to do ANYTHING.  ANYTHING!  For the longest time I was grinding and grinding, losing and losing, and being depressed and doing more grinding and losing.  In addition to all the traveling, this took a noticeable toll on my health and, after talking to a few friends, I took the longest break I've taken in 2 years.  I feel a lot better now, but a lot (I MEAN A LOT) has happened since my last update.

When I last left you guys, I was in NYC, and had a fantastic time there watching 2 Duke Basketball games where we convincingly won the tournament held at Madison Square Garden that we play in every year before Thanksgiving (the name escapes me at the moment...).  I thought our team was going to be pretty crappy once again as a transitional force, but those games led me to believe otherwise!  I hope Coach K takes us far this year as we've sorta been on a slump recently.  After this I went down to Maryland to have a delicious Thanksgiving meal with my family and flew back to San Francisco.

A day later, Cardrunners had a get-together in Ft. Lauderdale which I certainly could not miss, so I flew across the country yet again to Florida.  There, the guys had some fun times hanging out in bars and playing beach volleyball, which I had none of because I was busy in my little hole grinding and grinding, losing and losing :(.  On the last day, we rented a stretch hummer limo (so much for gas efficiency) and went to a sick restaraunt and club in Miami.  That city always amazes me as it seems EVERY chick there is super hot, a feat I thought was only achievable at Vegas stripclubs during peak hours.  Anyways, after dinner (which was a pretty good asian fusion place) the guys went out to a club and Ryan Daut and I decided to head back and grind (ON THE GRIND, ALWAYS!).  A few hours later, Brian Townsend, who decided to stay behind as well, was having a pretty cool Stacraft discussion with Ryan and I.  In comes Taylor Caby and Ezra, both presumably very drunk.  Taylor proceeds to start yelling and screeching about a mouse in the kitchen jumping around, which is the first time I've ever heard of a jumping mouse.  Ezra is cracking up every 2 minutes for no reason except for the fact that jumping mice are scary for some and hilarious to others.  Then Stinger comes in and sits right down at the table, looking kinda blue in the face....well, I'm a little concerned so I ask him if he wants water.  With a slight wave of the hand, he dismisses me, and then proceeds to get up and puke THREE different times, covering the bathroom, kitchen, and the hallway connecting the two rooms.  It's nice to see that the best PLO player in the world is human too...a human that can't control his alcohol LOL.

The next day I fly across the country yet again, and spend another day at home (sigh) before I fly off to Vegas for the Bellagio Five Diamond Tournament.  I made it in time for the last 5k tournament, which I decided to enter.  A hand came up where gobboboy was short and shoved, some guy called, and I isolated from the SB with A4o.  Well, the 3rd guy folded and I chopped vs gobbo's A3.  This guy then proceeded to call me a monkey, and I few hands later I shoved on his UTG raise w/ QQ with about 13 blinds.  Adam Junglen sighs and calls behind me and I immediately know he has JJ at best.  Then it folds around to this guy, who goes into the tank.  He says "what do you have over there?" which I immediately replied "I dunno, maybe A4o".  He says, "I'm not talking to you, I call you instantly.  I'm talking to the other guy".  LOL.  Anyways, he eventually folds and I cooler Adam QQ vs 1010.  Fast forward to my bustout hand:  same guy who thinks I'm a monkey raises 4.5x utg, and I immediately put him on AK because he is a fool like that!  I flat in mid position w/ A9cc looking purely to outplay, everyone else folds.  Flop is J46r, he check/calls.  Turn is a 2 bringing two diamonds, he check/calls.  River is 10 and a 3rd diamond, and I'm thinking to myself how funny its going to be when he check/folds and I show him a worse A high.  Unfortunately he check/calls within 10 seconds and tables AK with a curious look on his face.  I give him a wide grin, proudly table A9, and walk away...and as I'm walking away I hear something like "I put him on AQ..."  LOL, whatever.

So after grinding some cash, I decide to start by break at this time and skip the 15k.  Which is ok, because after day one my horse Evan McNiff is 2nd in chips w/ 190k.  He then proceeds to rape EVERY SINGLE DAY ending top 5 in chips every day!  He obviously heros the FT as well, and busts in a sick sick hand 3 handed.  A tight solid player raises the button, Evan 3bets from the SB, and Chino Rheem in the BB COLD 4BET SHOVES.  After pondering it over for less than a minute, Evan confidently makes the call w/ AJo vs Chino's A9.  Unfortunately, it was not to be as the flop of A77 and 9 on the turn GGed Evan for 3rd, but I was really impressed by his call and his performance this tournament.  GJ buddy :)

Afterwards, I flew directly to Florida for yet another cross country trip (sigh) to go on a family cruise and check out the Orlando theme parks.  This blog entry is long enough though, so I'll leave that for the next update.  Happy Holidays all :).