CARDRUNNERS

Aruba has been an awesome time so far.  I'll definitely write up a decent recap of it, but for now I'll just write up Day 1 of the tournament.

I got to my table to find out I was playing with my good friend Brian (used2bgood).  I've been playing online with Brian since 2003, and he was actually the first kid I know to make it to the 25/50nlhe games on UB when they first opened up.  He's a true grinder, I often call him Paul because he reminds me of a Paul Wasicka type.  He's also notorious for running hilariously bad at the most inopportune times, for example, in a WPT event when folded to him on the button, he shoved QQ w/30 bb's (lol) because it was the money bubble and he NEEDED to cash in the event otherwise he'd have less than $1000 to his name.  The tightest player at the table INSTA called with AA and he went out 1 out of the money.  Some old guy immediately jumped out of his seat a few tables over and screamed "OH MY GOD I MADE THE MONEY, I FOLDED DOWN TO 300 CHIPS AND I MADE THE MONEY!!!!"  I could go on about used2bgood stories but that one just came to mind for some reason.

Anywho, we were sitting across the table from each other so we basically just bs'd the whole day.  I hope someone reading this blog was at my table because they can make a comment and attest to how ridiculous the conversation was.  It was like we were playing a $5 homegame, I honestly didn't feel like I was playing seriously because everyone was just chatting and having fun.  It helped that I lost 2/3 of my stack in the first 3 levels so I really couldn't do anything but sit and wait for cards, so I could actually just BS with everyone and not worry about losing tons of EV. 

An interesting hand came up after the dinner break.  There was a kid who was monking around every single time I raised.  I would estimate he raised me 80% of the times I opened from mid or late position, and he was sitting directly to my left.  I honestly think there is a chance he could see my cards.  I thought about this later as I caught a glimpse of another player's cards (I told him to make sure to cover them up), but I realized that I hadn't been covering mine so it wouldn't surprise me if this guy had gotten a peak at my hands.  I'm rambling a bit, but anyway, this guy was seriously playing pretty crazy (but well) and then the following hand came up.

Monk opens to 850 at 150-300 25 level.  Aruba has these weird chips that are different colors than the normal WPT chips.  My friend Brian thinks the raise is to 1350 chips, because it is a yellow (normally 1k but in this case 500) and then 3 blacks and 2 greens.  So he tosses out 1500 to make the call, but it actually is a min raise.  He is clearly visibly trying to call but the dealer makes the raise stand.  At this point I go "sick angle, man, way to to slowplay aces."

So the kid obviously 4-bets him to 4800 as Brian clearly didn't mean to raise and the kid also probably doesn't give anyone else credit for thinking on the level he is.  I want to be clear I'm not knocking the kid, I probably wouldn't have given anyone credit myself.  So Brian calls the 4800, leaving about 22k left in each of their stacks.  The flop comes down T high and the kid just shoves all in, Brian at this point goes "this looks so bad, i'm so sorry, i call."  Brian flips over Aces and the whole table gasps.  The kid had 55 for a random bluff and is sent to the beach.

What was so crazy about the hand was that it 1) looked like Brian was trying to angleshoot by "accidentally" minraising and 2) me, the kid who everyone knew was good friends with Brian and we had just got back from dinner break 10 minutes before was openly talking at the table saying "nice angle," which would lead everyone to believe it was less likely that it was actually happening because I truly did believe that it was an accidental raise (which it was).  So it really looked like on break or something we had talked about a way to angleshoot the table, but the kid was a very good sport about the whole thing and although he was disappointed, I think he knew we weren't trying any funny business.

So I was down to 5k when someone raised to 850 in EP and one other person called in mid position.  I look at 77 on the button and shove all in, which I'm told is "very close"  to being a shove or a fold.  I did figure I was getting called but the guy raising EP was loose so I don't think it's a horrible position to try to double or triple up in.  I obviously flop a set and I am at 11k.

7 hands later, I am in sb with JJ.  The same guy opens in MP and I really don't know what to do with this hand.  I have about 40 bb's so I could make it like 8 bb's then bet/fold or bet/call depending on the flop, I could just jam but then I am almost never getting called by worse, or I could just flat call.  I decided to flat call and the flop came T62dd..  The player bet 1k and I made it 3k, leaving myself with like 7k behind.  He INSTA shoved all in and at this point i had to call.  He had 78dd for the gutshot draw and the flush draw.  Somehow I dodged and now I was up to 22k.

For the last two levels I got no cards whatsoever.  None.  I just really played patiently and hung around, so I'll take it.  I have about 22k goign into day 2, the average is 27k.  I'm pretty happy with how things went, all things considered.  I'll blog ya later, gonna go lay on the beach.

Taylor

I didn't get a chance to update my blog from last weekend's trip to NYC and random Chicago stuff.  I am actually in the airport again and I have some spare time so I'll try to make a little update on stuff. 

Last week I was in New York for two nights.  I got a chance to hang out with Gaucho and a co-worker of his plus some of his friends.  We had a nice dinner at Wolfgang's in Tribeca, which is basically exactly like Peter Lugar's for any of you that have been there.  The guy who started Wolfgang's used to work at Lugar's and you can tell everything is almost exactly the same - the menus even look the same.  I am not too much of a foodie when it comes to steak places because I am not the biggest steak afficianado out there.  That said, the steak was very good and I am glad I had it.  Unfortunately, I continue to run dry ice cold (yeah, i said that) at credit card roulette and I lost yet again.  I would estimate I am down $8000 in credit card rouletting over the past 6 months, probably about $6500 lower than my expectation.  Thanks CC roulette Gods.

I got a chance to play in a poker game last Friday night.  It's a private game that goes every so often, just a really friendly game with some pretty well-to-do people.  I'm not going to go into too much detail about it, only because it's a private game.  I'll definitely write up some interesting hands at times but that's about it.  Last week didn't go so hot for me unfortunately, it definitely took me some adjusting to get used to how the game plays and I think I've got that part down for next time (tonight).  I'm going to play in the game, get a couple hours of sleep, then meet up with Stinger and Wiggins who have a layover at JFK to go to Aruba.  The three of us will head there with some friends for the next 6 days.  It will just be a chance to relax, hit the beach, and have some good fun with some of my good friends.  I don't think I'll play too much poker there, if any.

I also wanted to mention one thing I don't get a chance to talk about too much on here.  I think one of my favorite things about my job is that I can meet new people in almost any city in the world at any given time.  In my last blog, I mentioned that I was in NYC and that people should PM me if they wanted to meet up.  Kevin and Chris, two long time CR members whom I had never met PM'd me and we grabbed lunch with another one of my friends.  At first glance, this might seem pretty weird or awkward; four guys who had never met before getting lunch.  But it really is cool to be able to meet other people from different parts of the world that have some common interests.  I suppose I'll say this until one day I wind up chopped up in a meat locker by some creep I meet on the internet, but until then, I've got all my limbs in tact and I'm feeling fine.  People that aren't heavily entrenched in the online poker community, or any online community for that matter, probably don't understand this phenomenon, but I've met some of my absolute best friends on the internet, guys I'll be friends with for the rest of my life.

So, on that note, if anyone happens to be in Aruba this week for the UB tournament, or happens to live in Aruba, feel free to PM me and we can grab drinks at the bar at our hotel.  I actually saw a post on 2p2 this week from some guy I had met in Aruba 3 years ago.  I honestly can't remember meeting him, I think I was a bit buzzed that whole week, but apparently we talked about CardRunners and over three years later he finally signed up.  Pretty crazy, but I've definitely learned that you might as well put yourself out there and meet as many people as possible.  You never know what will come of it and if nothing else it makes life a bit more interesting. 

Anyway, I hope you guys have a nice weekend.  Hopefully I run good tonight!  

Taylor

PS - I'm going to make a video or two with Stinger in Aruba.  If you have suggestions please leave them here.

PPS - If you live in the DC area I just did a radio interview with 106.7 WJFK for a new show called "Mediocre Poker," which is hosted by the guys who do the normal morning show on that channel.  They tell me they are "poker geeky" and are actually CR members too, so they invited me to come on and chat with them.  I think it was actually a pretty funny interview, even though most of the people reading this blog have probably already heard about all of the stuff we talked about.  So I guess if you love/hate me you should check that out this weekend, it airs Sunday at 6pm ET.

I decided to take a quick trip to New York for Th/Friday nights.  I just got in a few minutes ago and got settled in at my hotel room.  Normally I just crash on Gaucho/Ezra's couch but since I got in during the afternoon and Gaucho works fairly late I figured I'd get a room and just relax .  I got a bit of work done and now am just waiting to meet him and some friends at dinner.  Apparently Cole and his gf are in NY too at the yankees game tonight.  Hopefully we'll all get to meet up afterwords but I have no idea when they are going back (his gf has work tomorrow).

I came out here to play in a poker game friday night.  Basically some friends and friends of friends in the finance industry play a pretty high stakes game once a month or so.  They needed an extra guy this month and since I wasn't doing anything exciting Friday night in Chicago I said I'd come out of the game.  I think the game will be fairly high stakes, probably 20k buy-in with 25-50 blinds, but I think it escalates as people lose some and re-buy.  Hopefully I can have a good night at the tables, but I am mostly interested in hearing what these guys have to say about the brewing financial crisis.  I've been following the news pretty closely lately and it definitely doesn't look good.  We'll see what happens, but hopefully I can learn a thing or two tomorrow night while having a good time.  It's funny, in my experiences playing with these guys before they have always been extremely respectful and seemingly genuinely interested in having me around.  Obviously to them it'd be easy to treat me like the no name twentysomething poker player that I am, but I've always been pleasantly surprised how most ultra successful people have a lot of respect for other talented people, even if my talents are seemingly insignificant to someone in their position.  Just writing about this game really has me hoping that I can be in a similar position to them sometime in the future.

Anyway, shoot me a PM or something if there's anything cool going on in NYC later tonight or tomorrow afternoon (I'm in tribeca).  I'm booked from now until the late evening, and then tomorrow evening all night long.  I'll be flying home at 7am Sat morning after the game is over.  If I have time I will make an update with some interesting hands that I played.  Saturday afternoon in Chicago I will catch up on sleep, then go out for my roommates birthday at night.  Sunday morning at 8am, 7 friends and I are tailgating at the Bears game, then hopefully watching us beat the Bucs before I head home and probably die of sleep deprivation.  Note to self: stop abusing body.

Taylor

I wanted to quickly make a short post about a poker charity tournament being held in the Chicagoland Area.   There’s a $250 charity tournament for a WSOP seat being held in Palatine, IL, on Oct. 4^th.  The proceeds from the tournament benefit Clearbrook, a non-profit organization devoted to enhancing the lives of children and adults with developmental disabilities.  I know they need quite a few more people to sign up to get to the 200 person goal, so if you are interested in playing a (soft!) poker tourney with a chance to go to Las Vegas for the WSOP, you might check this out.

For more info on the tourney: https://secure.digital-community.com/english/clearbrook.org/events/event_calendar_secure.html?req=calendar/event&eventUniqID=11220-0--

For more info on the Charity: www.clearbrook.org

I might as well provide a little life info here for those of you that have bothered to read this far.  I'm really loving the weekends lately.  It's so nice to have the NFL on Sunday's; immersing myself in fantasy football and low stakes sports betting for 8 hours on Sunday is the best way to deconnect myself from work and the internet.  Over the past year or so, I've done an atrocious job seperating my personal time from work time; it all just seems to blend together.  I always have email access, I'm on my computer for probably 10+ hours per day, and I'm generally always thinking about CardRunners, poker, or both.  I'm making a conscious decision to try to change all of that, as I think I'm going to burn myself out if I don't ever take any time for myself.

So with that new Sunday motto, I set out to watch the Bears, followed by a few more NFL games and Entourage.  Amazingly enough, even though the Bears blew a 17-3 lead soley because of penalties and poorly timed fumbles, it felt great to spend the afternoon with friends watching the game.  Two of my roommates and a few of my other friends got tickets to go see the Cubs play the Brewers in Milwaukee, and a couple people offered me tickets to the game, but I figured I'd rather sit around and watch football for the day instead.  Big, big mistake, Carlos Zambrano threw a no-hitter, the first for the Cubs since 1972.  I'd estimate I've watched most or all of 50+ Cubs games per year since I was 7 years old.  We're talking about something like 1000 Cubs games, probably more actually as when I was a kid I would watch literally almost every game.  I've seen Cubs pitchers take no-hitters into the 6th and 7th innings a few times, and Zambrano has actually gone into the 8th and I THINK the 9th before.  It sucks to not only have not watched this game because I was watching football and Entourage, but I probably would have gone had I not specifically planned on doing nothing all Sunday.  Sigh, it's still a great feat and I'm happy for Z. 

Take it easy,
Taylor

Brad with a stern look because I am not abiding by the rules of the game.  Funny people in the background.

It looks like Bennigans is closing its doors, after filing for bankruptcy today.  It’s funny; I’ve always loved that damn monte cristo sandwich, even though I haven’t found the time to go there in over 5 years.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/29/news/companies/ben...

  For those of you that don’t know, the monte cristo is ham, turkey, swiss, and some sweet sauce served in fried bread and topped with powdered sugar.  It’s a walking heart attack, but it’s like eating breakfast lunch and dinner at the same time, and I’m not just talking about the amount of calories you’ll consume.