Another kid Another dream tl;dr
01-04-2010
, 03:16 AM
01-04-2010
, 05:01 PM
Day 11
After closing out the year on a win, one last night of partying was on the agenda. My roommates and I got dressed up and met a girlfriend of mine from high school and her college roommates at ESPN Zone for dinner. I know, not exactly baller. But I made the conscious decision to be very liberal with my money early in the night. After all, bringing in the new decade in Las Vegas only happens soo many times in a lifetime. I picked up the tab on the food and drinks for most of the night. Everyone tried to thank me. I told them to thank the poker gods for blessing me with a beautiful cooler. They don’t understand the minor miracle that is set over set.
The night went about as well as I could’ve imagined. The strip on New Years eve really is an incredible experience that I recommend every youngster checking out at least one time. Set me back about 5 bills however. Whatever, just a small hit to the big chip stack, as my friend so nonchalantly put it. It’s funny how unattached I’ve grown to money. When you’re a poker player, you see it disappear and reappear so frequently that you grow so emotionally distant from the process. Many people see that personality trait as a fault, I’m convinced it’s a blessing.
As awesome as I felt the night before, that’s about equally as miserable as I felt the next day. My streak of no sleep continued as I woke up at 10 with about 4 hours of unconsciousness behind me. How did I decide to work off the headache, sore throat, and anxiety that was my hangover? Oh yeah poker. Awesome idea. Not. But some way, some how, my game actually felt pretty sharp.
Have you ever felt like you played the absolute perfect poker hand? Where everything pans out the exact way on the felt as it did in your head? That’s how I felt in the first meaningful hand of the day at the Venetian.
Tilting Asian raises my 40 dollar CO open to 130 on the BTN. K
Q doesn’t exactly stack up that well in a 3-bet pot out of position, but tilting Asians truly are my weakness. I call and we see a flop of AQT rainbow. I check and he thinks forever. He wants to bet but he can’t pull the trigger. KK or JJ, obviously. I’ve got a K so it’s got to be JJ. Turn brings the 9. Now usually I wouldn’t go for value with mid pair in a 3-Bet pot, but I was so convinced he had Jacks that it seemed fairly natural at the time. I lead for 190, completely expecting him to call with his new-found straight draw. He does. River brings a 7, completing a back door flush draw. Perfect. I continue my trap with a weak looking check. Player knows he only has one chance to win and that’s to ship his money into the pot. He does, all 540 of it. I call almost before he gets it over the line. “Your good” he says flipping up his JJ. Guy almost went through the roof when he saw me turn over KQ. He did one of those head shaking condescending laughs as I raked in the chips.
Up almost a buy-in, exhaustion set in. I should’ve just racked up and gone to watch the whopping that Florida was putting on Cincinnati with my friends at the sports book. Instead, I stayed.
For the past 3 years, when a player has called a raise out of position preflop and led into the original raiser, it’s been a sign of weakness. Maybe a decent pair, but not a hand the player wants to play for a big pot. Apparently that trend is changing. Twice I attacked this type of play, and twice I suffered the consequences. The final time I had JQ and raised it up to 50 only to find 3 callers. SB bets out 130 on a 9T4 flop and I represent my big pair by making it 320. He shoves in for 400 more. Awesome. Just ****ing awesome. I call and river a Q. It’s no good however, as my opponent has flopped top two pair.
A few rounds later I isolate 3 limpers with a raise to 70 on the CO with Q9. BTN and first limper make the call. Flop comes the pretty Q
96. I bet 150 and the BTN is the only one to continue. Praying that I fade his flush draw, the turn brings the 5
. I make a dangerous decision and plan a check raise. He bets out 250 and I confidently shove in 500 more, my final 750. He snap calls and I know I'm toast. 78. River bricks and all of a sudden I’ve gone from “perfect poker” to broke. How could you be so careless? He always has 78 there. He’s just not showing a flush draw often enough to be profitable.
Suddenly I regret my generous New Years Eve. This always happens to me. I call it the curse of generosity. I’ll have a nice session and celebrate with good friends only to see myself lose the profit back the next day. Boy do I feel stupid. Nothing better than starting the decade in the red! Still up 2500, and amidst a minor dispute between a friend of mine and the condescending floor lady at Venetian, I moved my play back to the B for my final week of 5/10 play…
After closing out the year on a win, one last night of partying was on the agenda. My roommates and I got dressed up and met a girlfriend of mine from high school and her college roommates at ESPN Zone for dinner. I know, not exactly baller. But I made the conscious decision to be very liberal with my money early in the night. After all, bringing in the new decade in Las Vegas only happens soo many times in a lifetime. I picked up the tab on the food and drinks for most of the night. Everyone tried to thank me. I told them to thank the poker gods for blessing me with a beautiful cooler. They don’t understand the minor miracle that is set over set.
The night went about as well as I could’ve imagined. The strip on New Years eve really is an incredible experience that I recommend every youngster checking out at least one time. Set me back about 5 bills however. Whatever, just a small hit to the big chip stack, as my friend so nonchalantly put it. It’s funny how unattached I’ve grown to money. When you’re a poker player, you see it disappear and reappear so frequently that you grow so emotionally distant from the process. Many people see that personality trait as a fault, I’m convinced it’s a blessing.
As awesome as I felt the night before, that’s about equally as miserable as I felt the next day. My streak of no sleep continued as I woke up at 10 with about 4 hours of unconsciousness behind me. How did I decide to work off the headache, sore throat, and anxiety that was my hangover? Oh yeah poker. Awesome idea. Not. But some way, some how, my game actually felt pretty sharp.
Have you ever felt like you played the absolute perfect poker hand? Where everything pans out the exact way on the felt as it did in your head? That’s how I felt in the first meaningful hand of the day at the Venetian.
Tilting Asian raises my 40 dollar CO open to 130 on the BTN. K
Q doesn’t exactly stack up that well in a 3-bet pot out of position, but tilting Asians truly are my weakness. I call and we see a flop of AQT rainbow. I check and he thinks forever. He wants to bet but he can’t pull the trigger. KK or JJ, obviously. I’ve got a K so it’s got to be JJ. Turn brings the 9. Now usually I wouldn’t go for value with mid pair in a 3-Bet pot, but I was so convinced he had Jacks that it seemed fairly natural at the time. I lead for 190, completely expecting him to call with his new-found straight draw. He does. River brings a 7, completing a back door flush draw. Perfect. I continue my trap with a weak looking check. Player knows he only has one chance to win and that’s to ship his money into the pot. He does, all 540 of it. I call almost before he gets it over the line. “Your good” he says flipping up his JJ. Guy almost went through the roof when he saw me turn over KQ. He did one of those head shaking condescending laughs as I raked in the chips. Up almost a buy-in, exhaustion set in. I should’ve just racked up and gone to watch the whopping that Florida was putting on Cincinnati with my friends at the sports book. Instead, I stayed.
For the past 3 years, when a player has called a raise out of position preflop and led into the original raiser, it’s been a sign of weakness. Maybe a decent pair, but not a hand the player wants to play for a big pot. Apparently that trend is changing. Twice I attacked this type of play, and twice I suffered the consequences. The final time I had JQ and raised it up to 50 only to find 3 callers. SB bets out 130 on a 9T4 flop and I represent my big pair by making it 320. He shoves in for 400 more. Awesome. Just ****ing awesome. I call and river a Q. It’s no good however, as my opponent has flopped top two pair.
A few rounds later I isolate 3 limpers with a raise to 70 on the CO with Q
9. BTN and first limper make the call. Flop comes the pretty Q96. I bet 150 and the BTN is the only one to continue. Praying that I fade his flush draw, the turn brings the 5. I make a dangerous decision and plan a check raise. He bets out 250 and I confidently shove in 500 more, my final 750. He snap calls and I know I'm toast. 78. River bricks and all of a sudden I’ve gone from “perfect poker” to broke. How could you be so careless? He always has 78 there. He’s just not showing a flush draw often enough to be profitable.Suddenly I regret my generous New Years Eve. This always happens to me. I call it the curse of generosity. I’ll have a nice session and celebrate with good friends only to see myself lose the profit back the next day. Boy do I feel stupid. Nothing better than starting the decade in the red! Still up 2500, and amidst a minor dispute between a friend of mine and the condescending floor lady at Venetian, I moved my play back to the B for my final week of 5/10 play…
01-06-2010
, 06:46 PM
Day 12
Never in my life have I had “poker player friends”. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had friends who play poker. Hell I learned the game with 5 of my best friends. But never have I made friends who thought about the game analytically. That all changed about a week ago. Playing in the 2/5 at Venetian I met a Dutch fellow named Kai. He introduced me to his travelling partner Otto and together we met two German students Lukas and Sebastian. We started playing in the same games, sharing meals together, and going out for drinks at night. It was refreshing to meet 4 other University students who were also balancing their studies with their poker games. We had Sebastian and Casey (my friend from home) playing 1/2, Otto and Lukas playing 2/5, and Kai and myself venturing into the 5/10. We were like a clan of poker players, always surveying the room to check on each other’s chip stack, and finding someone to replay virtually every interesting spot with.
I can honestly attribute a good portion of my post-Christmas success to these guys. Their presence forced pressure upon myself to play as close to perfect poker as I could. They weren’t concerned with how many chips I had, they were interested in how I obtained those chips. Here’s a perfect example.
On day 12 I was sitting in the 5/10 at Bellagio with Lukas and Otto.
I was around even when I raised 1 limper in the CO to 50 with 36ss. The BTN called and everyone else folded. Flop came 25
Q. I led for 100 and got called. Turn came the 10 and this time the guy check called 220. We check checked a J river and he scooped in the pot with QK. I made sure to show my bluff face up.
An hour later I opened in MP with AQ and was met with a raise to 120 by the same player. I decided to call, hoping my reputation would get me paid off if I hit the flop hard. Flop came Q66. We checked the flop. Turn came the 7 and I bet 200. Player took little time in calling me. I was fairly certain he had two Jacks. River brought the 2 and I led for 370. He’s thinking. I’m screaming. CALL ME. PLEASE ****ING CALL ME. In my head of course. Eventually, he gives the “Okay I’ll pay you speech” and calls. My AQ is good.
I was proud of the way I used my reputation to get me paid. Otto and Lukas were not convinced. On the way to IN n Out we spent the whole time discussing whether the play was profitable or not pre flop. They agreed that he was going to probably pay me off on dream flops, but convinced me that his range absolutely crushes mine and out of position it’s a losing strategy. Any other friends of mine would’ve been impressed with the huge pot I won, these guys were disappointed. I’ve learned that being critical, even in winning situations, is a huge key to improving my game.
Up a few hundred, I returned from dinner to find an interesting spot with 10 10. It seems like every interesting hand I have had this trip has been with 10 10 or AQ. Weird. Anyways, I opened UTG to 40 and a small stack raised to 160 with about 160 back. Crazy loose Asian in BB cold calls 160. We’re about 1000 deep. I call and see a flop of 89J. Asian leads for 240. I shove in for my final 850 on a semi-bluff. Original raiser calls and the Asian thinks and folds KJ face up. Turn A and the original raiser flips up AK. Come onnnnnnn. Luckily the river brought the 10 and I scooped up a good sized pot.
I ended the session up a buy-in. After subtracting the loss I suffered from taking 50% of Lukas’ action in the game, I had a profit of 700 for the day. I'm not concerned with his loss, however, as I would stake him again in a second. He’s definitely a winning investment at 5/10, he just ran relatively cold.
After the session we made our way to the Stratosphere. When I was 11 years old I came to Vegas for the first time. My Uncle took me up to the stratosphere to go on the Giant drop rollercoaster. We waited 2 hours in line. That’s 2 hours to look down on the Vegas skyline. 2 hours to realize that your 1500 feet above ground. 2 hours to think about all the things that could go wrong with the ride. I basically spent 2 hours ****ting my pants. By the time I made it to the front of the line I said **** this and watched as my Uncle went on the ride.
10 years later and finally I have a chance to redeem myself. 8 of us make it to the top of the building and all of a sudden those old fears come back to me. We get in our seats and Sebastian can tell I’m not doing well. “Matt I’ve seen you all-in for 2500 dollar pots this trip, why the hell are you soo nervous.” I don’t reply. I want to get the **** off this stupid rollercoaster. This is not how I’m supposed to die. Eventually the ride starts and shoots us up into the Vegas sky. I’m alive. A couple more times we go up and down. The rush is incredible. Never again will I be nervous at a poker table. Not after that ride.
We go on one more ride that hangs off the building, before heading back to our hotel rooms. I can sleep well tonight. Not because I won a grand at the poker table. Not because I’m sober. Because I conquered the stratosphere.
I'm now up 3200 for the trip and poised for a big day...
Never in my life have I had “poker player friends”. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had friends who play poker. Hell I learned the game with 5 of my best friends. But never have I made friends who thought about the game analytically. That all changed about a week ago. Playing in the 2/5 at Venetian I met a Dutch fellow named Kai. He introduced me to his travelling partner Otto and together we met two German students Lukas and Sebastian. We started playing in the same games, sharing meals together, and going out for drinks at night. It was refreshing to meet 4 other University students who were also balancing their studies with their poker games. We had Sebastian and Casey (my friend from home) playing 1/2, Otto and Lukas playing 2/5, and Kai and myself venturing into the 5/10. We were like a clan of poker players, always surveying the room to check on each other’s chip stack, and finding someone to replay virtually every interesting spot with.
I can honestly attribute a good portion of my post-Christmas success to these guys. Their presence forced pressure upon myself to play as close to perfect poker as I could. They weren’t concerned with how many chips I had, they were interested in how I obtained those chips. Here’s a perfect example.
On day 12 I was sitting in the 5/10 at Bellagio with Lukas and Otto.
I was around even when I raised 1 limper in the CO to 50 with 36ss. The BTN called and everyone else folded. Flop came 2
5Q. I led for 100 and got called. Turn came the 10 and this time the guy check called 220. We check checked a J river and he scooped in the pot with QK. I made sure to show my bluff face up. An hour later I opened in MP with AQ and was met with a raise to 120 by the same player. I decided to call, hoping my reputation would get me paid off if I hit the flop hard. Flop came Q
66. We checked the flop. Turn came the 7 and I bet 200. Player took little time in calling me. I was fairly certain he had two Jacks. River brought the 2 and I led for 370. He’s thinking. I’m screaming. CALL ME. PLEASE ****ING CALL ME. In my head of course. Eventually, he gives the “Okay I’ll pay you speech” and calls. My AQ is good.I was proud of the way I used my reputation to get me paid. Otto and Lukas were not convinced. On the way to IN n Out we spent the whole time discussing whether the play was profitable or not pre flop. They agreed that he was going to probably pay me off on dream flops, but convinced me that his range absolutely crushes mine and out of position it’s a losing strategy. Any other friends of mine would’ve been impressed with the huge pot I won, these guys were disappointed. I’ve learned that being critical, even in winning situations, is a huge key to improving my game.
Up a few hundred, I returned from dinner to find an interesting spot with 10 10. It seems like every interesting hand I have had this trip has been with 10 10 or AQ. Weird. Anyways, I opened UTG to 40 and a small stack raised to 160 with about 160 back. Crazy loose Asian in BB cold calls 160. We’re about 1000 deep. I call and see a flop of 89J. Asian leads for 240. I shove in for my final 850 on a semi-bluff. Original raiser calls and the Asian thinks and folds KJ face up. Turn A and the original raiser flips up AK. Come onnnnnnn. Luckily the river brought the 10 and I scooped up a good sized pot.
I ended the session up a buy-in. After subtracting the loss I suffered from taking 50% of Lukas’ action in the game, I had a profit of 700 for the day. I'm not concerned with his loss, however, as I would stake him again in a second. He’s definitely a winning investment at 5/10, he just ran relatively cold.
After the session we made our way to the Stratosphere. When I was 11 years old I came to Vegas for the first time. My Uncle took me up to the stratosphere to go on the Giant drop rollercoaster. We waited 2 hours in line. That’s 2 hours to look down on the Vegas skyline. 2 hours to realize that your 1500 feet above ground. 2 hours to think about all the things that could go wrong with the ride. I basically spent 2 hours ****ting my pants. By the time I made it to the front of the line I said **** this and watched as my Uncle went on the ride.
10 years later and finally I have a chance to redeem myself. 8 of us make it to the top of the building and all of a sudden those old fears come back to me. We get in our seats and Sebastian can tell I’m not doing well. “Matt I’ve seen you all-in for 2500 dollar pots this trip, why the hell are you soo nervous.” I don’t reply. I want to get the **** off this stupid rollercoaster. This is not how I’m supposed to die. Eventually the ride starts and shoots us up into the Vegas sky. I’m alive. A couple more times we go up and down. The rush is incredible. Never again will I be nervous at a poker table. Not after that ride.
We go on one more ride that hangs off the building, before heading back to our hotel rooms. I can sleep well tonight. Not because I won a grand at the poker table. Not because I’m sober. Because I conquered the stratosphere.
I'm now up 3200 for the trip and poised for a big day...
01-06-2010
, 10:25 PM
01-07-2010
, 03:42 PM
01-07-2010
, 06:07 PM
