Another kid Another dream tl;dr
06-24-2010
, 06:33 PM
), but must say I had to laugh when you got owned by the shortstackers.
06-25-2010
, 03:54 PM
06-25-2010
, 04:15 PM
06-25-2010
, 06:52 PM
Angle Shoots
Back in high school and college the idea of making a living playing poker was quite admirable. Checks for hundreds of dollars a week, sent from Antigua, impressed not only my friends but my parents too. The idea that I could sit at my computer and print money by solving problems even caught the interest of my high school professors, who began learning the game with my friends and I.
Eventually every wednesday night we would all meet up in our virtual world and play the freeroll tournament on WSEX Poker, which usually paid out around $300-$500 to the winner. Well one particular wednesday, I won the 200 man tournament in front of many of my high school faculty. From then on I was looked at in a different light and began spending a lot of my after school time discussing winning strategies with the teachers and trading online for real money. I never asked for anything in return. In fact being treated and respected based on my intelligence instead of my age was more gratifying than any amount of monetary compensation.
In many ways that's why I pursued poker so strongly in the first place. The poker table is a place where nobody judges you based on your sex, skin color, or age; but strictly by your intelligence. I was 16 years old and my 40 year old teachers looked up to me because I knew how to get people to fold top pair and call with Ace high.
This feeling of importance lasted about the length of the Moneymaker sensation, but eventually it ran it's course. Nowadays I'm embarrassed to tell those same teachers that I'm still playing poker, and even my friends think that it's time for me to mature. The "normal", non-gambling folk, simply don't support the pursuit of something that they see as simply a hobby.
So when I had a chat on tuesday with a slots player at the Mirage pool I was a little hesitant to answer when he asked why I was out in Vegas for 6 weeks. Surprisingly he was amazed when i told him it was to play poker. These gamblers are different from most of the people I need to justify my vacation to. They spend their time fighting for that big score, but mostly trying to stay afloat until the money's gone. So to them the idea that I could survive a whole summer out here doing what THEY love is remarkable. I could've sat with this guy and supplemented his curiosity all day. Every answer I gave was followed by a smile and an admirable nod. A bit of a relief from the confusion and concern that I've grown accustomed to from most people in my life.
Poker has taken a bit of a back seat this week as I've spent most of my time at the pools, restaurants, and clubs, doing more of the tourist thing with my girlfriend and her friends. However on sunday before they arrived, I was able to get in one long session.
The first hand of my day saw me playing a 3way pot in position with Q
T. After calling a raise to 40 on the BTN, I called the original raiser's 80 bet on a 3
J
Q board. He checked a 4 on the turn, to which I fired a bet of 175. When he called it was pretty clear that he did not believe me. So when another non-spade 4 came on the river I decided a big bet was the best was to get him to bluff-catch me. I chose 370 and after a few minutes of thought he put his chips in with AJ.
Up to 1600 I found Aces in the CO. I raised it up to 40 and was met with a raise to 140 by an internet player on the btn. Now in this particular hand their was a bit of important metagame going on. He had 3bet me a few times to which i had joked that I wasn't going to take it much longer. So with the perfect scenario set up I reraised the pot to 320. Almost immediately my opponent shoved for 1500. I rechecked my cards and slid my chips into the pot. The flop came QT4 as my eyes rotated between the flop and my opponents facial expressions. A 3 on the turn and a 5 on the river completed the board to where my opponent slowly shook his head. I knew I had him as I flipped up, and he just mucked saying "I've been running into that hand quite a lot lately."
Up to about 3800, I was forced to get involved with my 26 from the BB when 5 players had already entered for 40. Not expecting much, I checked a flop of A
45. Surprisingly so did the rest of the table. The turn was a great card for me as the 7 completed the rainbow. I checked again and this time the CO bet 150. The BTN called pretty quickly, which made me believe he only had one pair. Knowing the CO probably also had one pair I threw in a raise to 560. Both players folded pretty quickly as my aggressive play helped me take down an uncontested $500 pot.
With a $4700 stack, I got involved in my last pot of the day and possibly the most controversial of my career. I raised a few limpers to 70 with AK. Now the action was to that same internet player from the AA hand who 3bet it up to 240 on the BTN. This didn't surprise me at all. He had been getting crushed, reloading for 1500 about every hand, and was clearly looking to play a huge pot. So with my opponent showing one stack of $10 chips and some bills, I reraised, committing myself, by throwing in 900. As the action got back to the internet player I saw him pick up his bills and begin counting out a call. At this point it became obvious that this player had about 35 bills in play, even though he hadn't won a pot in hours. I asked him when he got so deep and he replied with "I rebought the other hand." Completely caught off guard I checked when the flop came down 943 and eventually folded when my opponent shoved in for his remaining 2k. Feeling stupid for not asking and cheated by my opponent who had reloaded for 3X the allowed buy-in, I stacked up my remaining chips and ended my session. While it was still a 2800 winning day, I couldn't help but think all night about that last hand. Was it an angle shoot? Or my fault by assuming he was playing by the rules?
Anyways that session put me back up about $4200 for the trip. It's very satisfying to know that I didn't crumble mentally after my terrible two day run, but I need to be very careful and not allow tilting mistakes to happen again. On saturday my roommates and I are playing the 1k at the WSOP. I don't know if this is allowed at 2p2, but I thought it would be fun to sell like 30% of myself. So if any of you guys want to come along for the ride and purchase anywhere from 2-5% either write it here or message me and I'll get back to you later tonight with my poker SN and methods for payment. If this isn't allowed and any moderators want me to take down the offer I can do that as well.
Matt
Back in high school and college the idea of making a living playing poker was quite admirable. Checks for hundreds of dollars a week, sent from Antigua, impressed not only my friends but my parents too. The idea that I could sit at my computer and print money by solving problems even caught the interest of my high school professors, who began learning the game with my friends and I.
Eventually every wednesday night we would all meet up in our virtual world and play the freeroll tournament on WSEX Poker, which usually paid out around $300-$500 to the winner. Well one particular wednesday, I won the 200 man tournament in front of many of my high school faculty. From then on I was looked at in a different light and began spending a lot of my after school time discussing winning strategies with the teachers and trading online for real money. I never asked for anything in return. In fact being treated and respected based on my intelligence instead of my age was more gratifying than any amount of monetary compensation.
In many ways that's why I pursued poker so strongly in the first place. The poker table is a place where nobody judges you based on your sex, skin color, or age; but strictly by your intelligence. I was 16 years old and my 40 year old teachers looked up to me because I knew how to get people to fold top pair and call with Ace high.
This feeling of importance lasted about the length of the Moneymaker sensation, but eventually it ran it's course. Nowadays I'm embarrassed to tell those same teachers that I'm still playing poker, and even my friends think that it's time for me to mature. The "normal", non-gambling folk, simply don't support the pursuit of something that they see as simply a hobby.
So when I had a chat on tuesday with a slots player at the Mirage pool I was a little hesitant to answer when he asked why I was out in Vegas for 6 weeks. Surprisingly he was amazed when i told him it was to play poker. These gamblers are different from most of the people I need to justify my vacation to. They spend their time fighting for that big score, but mostly trying to stay afloat until the money's gone. So to them the idea that I could survive a whole summer out here doing what THEY love is remarkable. I could've sat with this guy and supplemented his curiosity all day. Every answer I gave was followed by a smile and an admirable nod. A bit of a relief from the confusion and concern that I've grown accustomed to from most people in my life.
Poker has taken a bit of a back seat this week as I've spent most of my time at the pools, restaurants, and clubs, doing more of the tourist thing with my girlfriend and her friends. However on sunday before they arrived, I was able to get in one long session.
The first hand of my day saw me playing a 3way pot in position with Q
T. After calling a raise to 40 on the BTN, I called the original raiser's 80 bet on a 3JQ board. He checked a 4 on the turn, to which I fired a bet of 175. When he called it was pretty clear that he did not believe me. So when another non-spade 4 came on the river I decided a big bet was the best was to get him to bluff-catch me. I chose 370 and after a few minutes of thought he put his chips in with AJ.Up to 1600 I found Aces in the CO. I raised it up to 40 and was met with a raise to 140 by an internet player on the btn. Now in this particular hand their was a bit of important metagame going on. He had 3bet me a few times to which i had joked that I wasn't going to take it much longer. So with the perfect scenario set up I reraised the pot to 320. Almost immediately my opponent shoved for 1500. I rechecked my cards and slid my chips into the pot. The flop came QT4 as my eyes rotated between the flop and my opponents facial expressions. A 3 on the turn and a 5 on the river completed the board to where my opponent slowly shook his head. I knew I had him as I flipped up, and he just mucked saying "I've been running into that hand quite a lot lately."
Up to about 3800, I was forced to get involved with my 2
6 from the BB when 5 players had already entered for 40. Not expecting much, I checked a flop of A45. Surprisingly so did the rest of the table. The turn was a great card for me as the 7 completed the rainbow. I checked again and this time the CO bet 150. The BTN called pretty quickly, which made me believe he only had one pair. Knowing the CO probably also had one pair I threw in a raise to 560. Both players folded pretty quickly as my aggressive play helped me take down an uncontested $500 pot. With a $4700 stack, I got involved in my last pot of the day and possibly the most controversial of my career. I raised a few limpers to 70 with AK. Now the action was to that same internet player from the AA hand who 3bet it up to 240 on the BTN. This didn't surprise me at all. He had been getting crushed, reloading for 1500 about every hand, and was clearly looking to play a huge pot. So with my opponent showing one stack of $10 chips and some bills, I reraised, committing myself, by throwing in 900. As the action got back to the internet player I saw him pick up his bills and begin counting out a call. At this point it became obvious that this player had about 35 bills in play, even though he hadn't won a pot in hours. I asked him when he got so deep and he replied with "I rebought the other hand." Completely caught off guard I checked when the flop came down 943 and eventually folded when my opponent shoved in for his remaining 2k. Feeling stupid for not asking and cheated by my opponent who had reloaded for 3X the allowed buy-in, I stacked up my remaining chips and ended my session. While it was still a 2800 winning day, I couldn't help but think all night about that last hand. Was it an angle shoot? Or my fault by assuming he was playing by the rules?
Anyways that session put me back up about $4200 for the trip. It's very satisfying to know that I didn't crumble mentally after my terrible two day run, but I need to be very careful and not allow tilting mistakes to happen again. On saturday my roommates and I are playing the 1k at the WSOP. I don't know if this is allowed at 2p2, but I thought it would be fun to sell like 30% of myself. So if any of you guys want to come along for the ride and purchase anywhere from 2-5% either write it here or message me and I'll get back to you later tonight with my poker SN and methods for payment. If this isn't allowed and any moderators want me to take down the offer I can do that as well.
Matt
06-25-2010
, 10:11 PM
06-26-2010
, 03:02 AM
06-26-2010
, 10:24 AM
06-26-2010
, 03:03 PM
06-27-2010
, 04:55 PM
Event 47 NL Hold'em
The WSOP is something I've dreamt about since the first time I saw poker on ESPN. I can still remember playing games of follow the Queen, Guts, Hollow man, and 7 card hide-no-peakie with episodes of Moneymaker's historic run faintly running in the background. It was then that we changed our main game to NL Hold'em, knowing it was our only chance at gaining fame and one day playing on ESPN.
Things are a bit different nowadays. I'd much rather grind out a 2 buy-in win at the 5/10 then place a large portion of my bankroll in such a high variance event. Still though with my final two roommates getting into town and both planning on playing Event 47 on saturday, I felt like no time was better for my first World Series Event.
Entering the Rio on saturday was quite a different experience than my prior visits this trip. Even though I had been to the WSOP and played the cash games, I still didn't feel like I had actually been apart of the dream that I'd shared years before. It felt like I'd been to the nice Steak Restaurant, but only ordered the cheeseburger. This time it was real. I was in the tournament area, and had a ticket with my name and Yellow 148 to designate my starting table. When a Nevada congresswoman got behind the microphone and announced "shuffle up and deal" I had officially accomplished something, not only for myself, but on behalf of my entire poker circle back home.
Be it nerves or a competitive atmosphere nobody said a word to each other for the first 30 minutes of play. I found this awfully strange as it was only a 1k event, but nonetheless I wasn't going to be the one to break the seal In my first ever WSOP hand I raised the red KK to 75 at 25/25 in MP. The btn and sb called and of course the A appeared as the door card. We checked through the flop and I bet out 125 to take it down on a blank turn.
KK would make it's way back to me again when a fish in ep raised to 75 and 4 players called. In the Bb I raised it back to 325 and surprisingly everybody called. The flop came A T 4 as I cried a bit inside. Instead of giving up, however, I deducted that AK was highly unlikely and that if I fired two big bullets in a row, it would put a lot of pressure on a player with a medium ace early in the tournament. So after some thought I led for 850, leaving me 2400 for a river shove. Fortunately it wouldn't be necessary as everyone folded in order.
With my stack up to 4500 I played a pot with AK at 25/50. An older guy raised to 125 in EP and I bumped it up to 300. He called and I Cbet a flop of 532. He called again and after he checked an A on the turn, I checked back for pot control. The board paired the 5 on the river and he fired out 650. I wanted to raise, knowing my hand looked like a mid pair, but played it safely and called. He showed AQ and I raked in another fairly decent pot.
About two hours in my table broke and I was moved to table 116. The table had the same mixture of solid players to fish (about 6:3) as my previous table. With no reputation whatsoever, I felt my first hand was a good spot to 4bet. I raised the btn at 50/100 to 250 with A3 and the BB, a player who had announced he made it 6 days in last years main event, bumped it up to 725. With 6500 effective stacks I 4bet to 1750 and he folded after a little bit of thought.
At that point I started daydreaming about a deep run. My cards had been good and my reads spot on. I had thoughts of playing Durrr heads up and running over him for the 6 figure pay day. Of course I was no where near that point, but boy was it fun to dream.
My next opportunity to better my stack came at the end of 50/100 when a fish min-raised to 200 and I bumped it up to 700 in the co, again with KK. Surprisingly the BTN called and the fish joined. The flop was a perfect 223 as the fish quickly checked. I decided that the btn had a big pair and the best way to get him to put his money in would be a check call and lead on the turn. So I checked and as expected he bet out for 1k. What I didn't expect was a call from the fish. So not wanting to give them both a free card I raised it up to 3k with about 2400 back. After a bit of thought the btn shoved his stack into the center. The fish folded and I made the call, officially putting me at risk for the first time of my tournament life. As luck would have it my opponent had AA. The turn came the 6 as I began rising out of my seat. The river finished me off with the T and my short run was now over.
It was my first lost pot of the day and subsequently my last. It was hard to be disappointed getting my money in with that hand, but it did help teach me a lesson about poker goals and success. In my younger days, before I was aware of variance, I was naive enough to believe that all I needed was one chance at the 10k event to prove that my skill set was one of the best in the world. Now as I grow older and wiser I know that the true test to a poker player is longevity. The better I play, improve, and manage my bankroll, the longer I'll be around and the more chances I'll have at being that outlier. That Joe Cada, Chris Moneymaker, or Greg Raymer. The player with the necessary skill-set to take advantage of a run of good fortune. Until then, it's back to the grind.
Matt
The WSOP is something I've dreamt about since the first time I saw poker on ESPN. I can still remember playing games of follow the Queen, Guts, Hollow man, and 7 card hide-no-peakie with episodes of Moneymaker's historic run faintly running in the background. It was then that we changed our main game to NL Hold'em, knowing it was our only chance at gaining fame and one day playing on ESPN.
Things are a bit different nowadays. I'd much rather grind out a 2 buy-in win at the 5/10 then place a large portion of my bankroll in such a high variance event. Still though with my final two roommates getting into town and both planning on playing Event 47 on saturday, I felt like no time was better for my first World Series Event.
Entering the Rio on saturday was quite a different experience than my prior visits this trip. Even though I had been to the WSOP and played the cash games, I still didn't feel like I had actually been apart of the dream that I'd shared years before. It felt like I'd been to the nice Steak Restaurant, but only ordered the cheeseburger. This time it was real. I was in the tournament area, and had a ticket with my name and Yellow 148 to designate my starting table. When a Nevada congresswoman got behind the microphone and announced "shuffle up and deal" I had officially accomplished something, not only for myself, but on behalf of my entire poker circle back home.
Be it nerves or a competitive atmosphere nobody said a word to each other for the first 30 minutes of play. I found this awfully strange as it was only a 1k event, but nonetheless I wasn't going to be the one to break the seal In my first ever WSOP hand I raised the red KK to 75 at 25/25 in MP. The btn and sb called and of course the A
appeared as the door card. We checked through the flop and I bet out 125 to take it down on a blank turn. KK would make it's way back to me again when a fish in ep raised to 75 and 4 players called. In the Bb I raised it back to 325 and surprisingly everybody called. The flop came A
T 4 as I cried a bit inside. Instead of giving up, however, I deducted that AK was highly unlikely and that if I fired two big bullets in a row, it would put a lot of pressure on a player with a medium ace early in the tournament. So after some thought I led for 850, leaving me 2400 for a river shove. Fortunately it wouldn't be necessary as everyone folded in order. With my stack up to 4500 I played a pot with AK at 25/50. An older guy raised to 125 in EP and I bumped it up to 300. He called and I Cbet a flop of 532. He called again and after he checked an A on the turn, I checked back for pot control. The board paired the 5 on the river and he fired out 650. I wanted to raise, knowing my hand looked like a mid pair, but played it safely and called. He showed AQ and I raked in another fairly decent pot.
About two hours in my table broke and I was moved to table 116. The table had the same mixture of solid players to fish (about 6:3) as my previous table. With no reputation whatsoever, I felt my first hand was a good spot to 4bet. I raised the btn at 50/100 to 250 with A
3 and the BB, a player who had announced he made it 6 days in last years main event, bumped it up to 725. With 6500 effective stacks I 4bet to 1750 and he folded after a little bit of thought. At that point I started daydreaming about a deep run. My cards had been good and my reads spot on. I had thoughts of playing Durrr heads up and running over him for the 6 figure pay day. Of course I was no where near that point, but boy was it fun to dream.
My next opportunity to better my stack came at the end of 50/100 when a fish min-raised to 200 and I bumped it up to 700 in the co, again with KK. Surprisingly the BTN called and the fish joined. The flop was a perfect 2
23 as the fish quickly checked. I decided that the btn had a big pair and the best way to get him to put his money in would be a check call and lead on the turn. So I checked and as expected he bet out for 1k. What I didn't expect was a call from the fish. So not wanting to give them both a free card I raised it up to 3k with about 2400 back. After a bit of thought the btn shoved his stack into the center. The fish folded and I made the call, officially putting me at risk for the first time of my tournament life. As luck would have it my opponent had AA. The turn came the 6 as I began rising out of my seat. The river finished me off with the T and my short run was now over.It was my first lost pot of the day and subsequently my last. It was hard to be disappointed getting my money in with that hand, but it did help teach me a lesson about poker goals and success. In my younger days, before I was aware of variance, I was naive enough to believe that all I needed was one chance at the 10k event to prove that my skill set was one of the best in the world. Now as I grow older and wiser I know that the true test to a poker player is longevity. The better I play, improve, and manage my bankroll, the longer I'll be around and the more chances I'll have at being that outlier. That Joe Cada, Chris Moneymaker, or Greg Raymer. The player with the necessary skill-set to take advantage of a run of good fortune. Until then, it's back to the grind.
Matt
06-27-2010
, 06:14 PM
06-28-2010
, 05:06 AM
06-28-2010
, 01:24 PM
06-28-2010
, 10:19 PM
