One Bullet Wonder

So after the fun we had last week in event 1, it was nice to get through yesterday on 1 bullet. I played the $450 $1M guarantee "Almighty" Stack MTT in which you're inexplicably given 100,000 starting chips. I got there 3 hours after it started and still had over 100BBs. I played a pretty messed up hand with QQ where I flatted pre, called 445cc, called 8x, and folded 6c river. Very confident it was right. Get AK next hand, open, 4 calls, flop KT5, c-bet 2 calls, turn 7d puts flush draw on board, shove 100K into 100K, get called by A3dd and hold to get to 300K. From there the only real hands of note saw me open 44 to 18K at 4K/8K and SB shoves 108K. It felt very very close but I called and held vs KQhh. Later button shoves 81K at 5K/10K, I iso KTo in SB and beat T9s. Ended up bagging 398K, back to 8K/16K on Thursday. Chilling at Borgata til then, gonna go play basketball now and maybe go on a run later. Days off!

Intermediate term lurker here. Happy to see your game steadily improving/recent success, especially the deep run at parx; as I was reading I thought it was going to be the bink post.

Anyway, I grind on bovada myself, and like you, dealing with variance doesn't really come naturally for me like it does for some. I definitely can relate, and our leaks parallel one another, so I find your pgc inspirational and appreciate the work you put into it. You obviously love the game man and are are talented so keep going strong, you'll get there.

Got 106th of 2369 in the $450 Almighty Stack on 1 bullet. Just bagged 193K at 2500/5000 of the $1090 6 max with 18 left of 305 entrants. $78K up top. Final table will be live streamed. Gfy fetsie


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Also thanks a lot Tommy, posts like yours encourage me to keep going with this thing!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

GL tomorrow i'll keep an eye out on the blog tomorrow, looks like there's quite a few bosses left

Yeah I ended the day at 5 handed table with Vincent Moscati on my left (6 WSOP circuit rings and $450K live earnings), Barry Hutter on his left (high roller reg, WSOP bracelet winner, $3.5M in live earnings), and Joe McKeehen on his left (Main Event Champ with $13M in live earnings). So it was sorta tough. I tripled with JJ>TT/77 to get to 200K at 5Kbb and then got to 3b Barry a few times. While it's a little nerve wracking you really just need to play your game, respect him as a top opponent but also realize there's lots of variance in tournament poker and sometimes that's a good thing for you. I knew the redraw was coming with 18 left too so I didn't get too out of line at any point. Excited for tomorrow! If I make the final table I'll tweet a link to the live stream. I'm below average so have work to do but will have over 30bbs to start.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow good luck! I'll be at the Borgata this weekend, let me know when you FT. I wanna rail

Glgl!

gl man

He's CL with 7 left and 72k up top! LFGGG bud!

Ended up finishing 4th for $27K. Will do a full update when I'm home so I can use my computer. It was a fun run!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congratulations man nice work!

Got that five digit score you've been talking about and then some.

Congrats man. Glad you finally got that 5figure score!

Great work man, well done, congrats on the score!

Thanks for the support guys! If you go ahead and watch the video replay I never stopped smiling. Fetsie's just mad his prediction of me being busto after I didn't post for a week was wrong because my absence was just due to me crushing.

The Past Week

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long post. I'll break it down into sections so you can skip around to whatever interests you. I actually think I'll break this down in to 2 or 3 separate posts. Seems like I last left off with bagging in the Almighty Stack after day 1A on Monday.

Some topics I'll hit:

--Off Days
--Almighty Stack Day 2
--Getting Drunk and Playing Mixed Games
--Event 12, $1090 6 Max $200K Guaranteed Live Streamed FT
----Bullet 1
----Bullet 2, Day 1
----Day 2
----Live Streamed Final Table
--Reflections on the run
--Future Plans

Off Days After Bagging the Almighty Stack

It was a weird feeling only taking 1 bullet to bag, and doing so on day 1A, which was on Monday. The Almighty Stack was a $450 buy in MTT with a $1M guarantee and live streamed final table. They call it the Almighty because you're given 100K starting chips, which is a bit silly. The funny part of it is that the structure is actually better than event 1, not because of the big stack, but because of the blinds in relation to the big stack. Day 1 of the Almighty played the same number of levels as day 1 of Event 1, but a starting stack was good for 8.3BBs on the last level of day 1 of the Almighty, compared to 5BBs on the last level of Event 1. There were also big antes in the Almighty which was cool too.

Anyway, I bagged 398K back to 8K/16K and now had lots of time to do whatever I wanted on Tuesday and Wednesday. I met Matt Wantman this trip and we realized that both of us are into running. We were both overly excited since, speaking for myself anyway, I've met very very few poker players who are also interested in running. We planned on running together Tuesday but elected to instead play basketball with a few other poker players. My team went 2-0 because we are the best.

Later that night I saw Sully with a couple other guys and didn't lose CCR so got in there for free! I enjoyed the movie. It had the worst dialogue I've ever heard but the way they went about portraying what happened was incredible so it made up for it.

I had a pretty relaxed Wednesday and made sure to get some sleep for day 2 of the tournament.

Almighty Stack Day 2, Absurd Starting Table

Coming back on day 2 to a tournament that had 2300 runners, a small buy in, and still had 600 players remaining, I was not pleased to recognize as many players as I did at my table. Seat 2 was Tony Cheng, a guy I often joke with who has had some real success in the last couple years. For those who have read this thread earlier, he is the guy who had a very short stack on the stone bubble of the Parx main and was able to spin it up before punting it off after the bubble burst.

Seat 3 was Shannon Shorr, $6.1M in live earnings. Seat 6 was Mike Haberman, AKA JohnnyDrama, who is one of 9 people in the state ranked higher than me in online MTTs. Seat 7 was Jake Schwartz who I'd met in person the day before and has over $1M in live earnings, including a 4th in a 10K WPT event at the end of last year. Seat 8 was Will Givens, who also has over $1M in live earnings and a WSOP bracelet. I was in the 9 seat with about an average stack, and every one of those players had me covered. wtf mate.

We played for a while without much meaningful happening to me, but Givens was playing very aggressively and knocked Tony out. The couple of times Shannon fought back Will 4b him and Shannon got a disgusted look on his face before folding. I eventually found a spot that I liked, with some good players thinking it might have been blah. Given my image and his style though I don't really regret it. Givens opens to 60K in the HJ at 24Kbb and I have KTo with 430K in the CO. I jam, Will takes some time then calls with 77 and I get the sweet QJ4K2 runout for the double. I believe my image was pretty tight and given Will can have close to any two here I don't mind the shove.

We hit 255 players remaining with 250 paying and it folds to Will's button which he obviously opens to 75K at 15K/30K. I have 900K in the SB and Will covers. I 3b to 220K and after lots of tanking and moving his chips around, Will calls. ****. I was snapping off a shove and would be fine with a fold but am going to have to really go with my reads when this flop comes 6 high. Fortunately it comes A84hh! I bet 175K, Will insta shoves and I beat him into the pot. He turns over Kx4h, and after a scary 7h turn the river is a brick and all of a sudden I'm playing close to 2M. The bubble burst and from there not much went right! Mike shoves 270K UTG at 30K, I make it 500K with AK from MP, BB calls off his 300K and Mike's 99 holds vs my hand and BB's AQ. Mike got scammed to bust to Shannon a little while later and soon after that our table broke.

The new table was quite soft and I felt confident that if I made some hands they were gonna more or less give me the chips. Unfortunately that was not how it went. We had a guy opening anywhere between 4x and 8x whenever it came to him. Sometimes he's just rip all in. The few times I opened marginal hands I seemed to always get 3b to a ridiculous size. I opened to 110K UTG at 50Kbb with QJs and the crazy guy says "all in" on the button. I had 2M and he covered. Alrighty then.

I grinded very hard though and didn't get frustrated when I was under 10BBs. I dipped below 800K at 40K/80K but got it back to 1.2M. Crazy guy opens to 350K at 40K/80K from EP and I find JJ in MP. All in it goes, and when it gets back to him he eyes my stack so I start cutting it down for him. As I am he says "ehh, it doesn't matter if you had TEN million, I can't fold this hand!" and turns over KK. Nh sir. So 106th for $1370 is how the day ended. I was happy with how I played.

Gonna end part one here and start up part 2 in next post.

Long Post, Part II

Getting Drunk and Playing Mixed Games

After the Almighty Stack I did something I haven't done in a long time. I went out to a bar and had a lot of fun. I guess I shouldn't say out, it was in the Borgata, but there were a lot of poker players there who I actually enjoy talking to and we were all drinking and watching the Jets game. We talked about possibly going and playing a mixed game for fun in the poker room and off we went around 11. The line up was pretty entertaining.

Seat 1: Jon Borenstein
Seat 2: Joe McKeehen
Seat 3: Jesse Cohen
Seat 4: Michael "Gags" Gagliano
Seat 5: Mike "Mixed Game Expert" Bees
Seat 6: Me
Seat 7: Dan Dizenzo
Seat 8: Will "The Blogger" O'Connor
Waiting in the wings: Matt Clark, Norm Michalek
Honorary Railbirds: Anna Antimony, Pete Ippolito

I think I realized the night was not going to be a profitable one when I made a 7432 badugi and Joe announced "74?" at showdown before turning over the 742A badugi. I found a way to lose 40 big bets in this game in 3 hours but would be lying if I said I didn't have fun. I left around 3AM to make sure I at least got some sleep for the 6 max the next day. While cashing out I looked up and saw 3 Asian players, 1 of whom I know as a solid tournament player (though he obviously plays cash too), excitedly talking in a different language. They all had so many black chips that when they wanted to color them all up to orange 1K chips the cashier said she'd ran out. "See ya tomorrow Eli!" I heard one of them yell and sure enough, Eli Elezra gives them a wave as he walks away with his head down looking a bit defeated.

The Six Max

Bullet 1

I arrived at 100/200 with a 20K starting stack. Barry Hutter was on my direct right, and it didn't seem like there were any super fish at the table. Nothing really went right and I found myself with 10K at 150/300/25. Barry had been playing just about every hand and opens to 750 in the CO. I 3b the button to 2000 with ATo and after a slight pause he throws out 2 blue chips to put me all in. The plan was to 3b/call but I felt pretty bad about it and I did not catch up after he showed me JJ. I heard quick footsteps behind me as I was walking to the cage and it's Joe trying to catch me to tell me we will be rebuy buddies. He bought in around the same time as me and for some reason I feel a lot better about losing $1100 that quickly.

Bullet 2, Day 1

This starting table seems a little bit better than the first. Dave Johnston is 2 to my left but I don't recognize anyone else. I drop to 15K but get a double with 88 vs button's AK after a very sweet 855 flop. There's a friendly kid named Sonny 2 to my right who is showing his hand almost every time whether it gets to showdown or not. There is a player in the 2 seat who I initially just assume won't play great, but he surprises me by making some well timed 3 bets and keeping pressure on when fish often would slow down. I manage to spin it up to 40K before open shoving for Dave's 11K at 600bb with 55 in the SB. He picks up his hand as if he's going to fold and laughs; I laugh too because even if he calls it's never 66+ at this point but it's clear he's considering gambling with something speculative. Eventually he does call with QJs and wins the flip to knock me back below 30K. I lose some more pots but then find a double vs Dave where I open KT, c-bet KT4hh, bet 8x and check 7h river. He shoves, I snap, he says "just a 10" and I double.

Dave busts shortly after and his seat is filled by a guy who is VPIP'ing near 100, limping a lot, and smashing every single flop. At one point I open AKss, he flats button, I c-bet Qs7d5d, he raises, I fold and he says "that wasn't your flop" and shows Q2dd. Later he complains when a kid peels the BB with KJo and flops AQT vs his AJ because "KJ is a bad hand." Good lord. I drop to 20K with 15 minutes until dinner at 1200BB but manage to c/shove top pair twice to win pretty big pots without showdown and get back to 60K. C/shoving top pair is normally not great but due to board textures, stack sizes, and the way these guys were playing, both were actually pretty standard. I got some Chicken Parm at Metro with Joe and felt ready to spin up the 40BB stack.

When I got back from dinner things did not go well. I lost every pot I played and watched the big fish win most of his. I remember sitting with 4 blue chips, 1 yellow, and 1 pink for 21.5K as we approached a break. When we got back from the break BB was 2400 so I had 9BBs. I got walked with AK (LOL, usually I don't look but the table wanted me to turn it over), and then got a 3b shove through (more lol). I then completed Q9o in the SB in a multi-way limped pot and for the 3rd time c/shoved top pair, this time when the flop came Q62dd. Big fish called with KJdd and somehow I faded it all to get back near 60K. We were about 10 from the money, with 304 entrants and 36 paying, and I managed to tiptoe my way in. Our table broke shortly after and I once again was seated at Barry's table.

Barry was in the 2 while I was in the 5, with Vince Moscati, 6 time WSOPc ring winner, in the 1. Both Barry and Vince had heaps as we played 2K/4K. I chipped down a little but then found KK and AA in back to back hands, once winning the blinds, once 3b shoving to get it up to 80K. A few hands later an older guy opens UTG to 11K. I find JJ in the CO and shove my 80K. Barry takes a few seconds and then reshoves for UTG's 160K or so. UTG sits back like he has a big decision and I start fearing the worst. Eventually he calls and now I'm really not feeling great. That is until Barry turns over TT (standard) and UTG turns over 77!!!!!! My hand holds and all of a sudden I've gone from 20K at 2400bb to 240K at 4Kbb. Shortly after the guy with 77 busts, his seat is filled by Joe, who has over 500K. This table is not looking great anymore, and with the 6 seat busting I now have 3 very good players on my left. Fortunately the day is winding down and there are 19 left, as we're told that we will play until 18 remain. I had to 3b Barry twice, once with AT and once with AQ, and didn't really mind when he folded both. I bagged 193K with 17 left at 3K/6K (apparently 2 people busted at the end of the day).

Part 2 done, part 3 to come later, might play a bit online now.

Long Post, Part III

Six Max, Day 2

I received an incredibly favorable table draw entering the second day. Barry, Joe, Vincent, Vinny Pahuja, and Jason Rivkin, the five left in the tournament that I was familiar with, were not at my table. If my math is right it's about 18% that none of them would be at my table, given I was at one of the 6 handed tables with 17 left. Our table was also very short stacked; despite the average being 358K, my 193K slightly covered the 3 players on my right, and the 2 on my left each had about 400K, meaning doubling me up would really hurt their stacks. With 32bbs though I knew I would have time to wait for the proper spots and not have to feel pressured just because I was short compared to the rest of the field. That would also have to be balanced with the fact that 6 handed requires you to play more hands, but I'd been dealing with that all tournament and felt very comfortable with all of it.

The one person at my table whose name I did recognize was Rachel Krantz. Stereotypes are often correct at the poker table but I was told by some friends to throw that out the window with Rachel. She is a woman who doesn't look like she'd be from the age of the internet kids but boy can she click some buttons! Her short stack did not deter her from coming out firing. For the first 15 hands or so I folded every time, without any of the spots really being close. Then I was dealt AA! The guy 2 to my right opened to 17K and I elected to make it 45K from the CO, starting the hand with around 165K. He flatted and the flop came J74, at which point he donked 25K into the 100K+ pot. I decided to be very exploitative here and clicked to 53K, leaving myself 60K behind. Against regs I'm either calling or shoving here but I felt this was best in this spot. He shoved, I called and held vs TT to get up to 300K+.

After that player busted the fireworks began with Rachel and I. Here are some of the hands:

--UTG opens 18K at 8Kbb, I flat 77, CO flats, Rachel peels BB. Flop 654r. Rachel checks, opener checks, I bet somewhere in the 40K range, CO folds, Rachel jams 110K or so, UTG folds, I call, Rachel has 76, turn 2 river 3 and we chop.
--Soon after, Rachel opens button to 20K at 10Kbb with 130K or so to start the hand. I shove 77 in the BB, Rachel folds.
--Next orbit, Rachel mins the button again, having won the blinds she is back to 130K or so. I shove 55 in the BB, she snaps with KK and holds. I am down to 170K.
--Very next hand, Rachel opens the CO, I shove 170K with TT in the SB, Rachel calls with 99 and I hold.
--Finally, Rachel jams her button for her last 10bbs, I wake up with AQ and hold vs her A3 for the knockout.

With 14 left some ridiculous things started happening on the other tables that were incredibly fortunate for me. First, after having the lead with 800K at the end of day 1 with 17 left, Barry Hutter busted in 14th. And right before we combined to 2 tables I turned around to see Joe shipping a huge chunk of his stack across the table. After Rachel busted 13th Joe was moved to my table with about 100K. Joe jams his CO, I flat the SB with KK, BB folds, Joe shows KQ and the board runs QJT49. Chop it up again. A few hands later Joe loses a standard flip to get completely crippled and busts the next hand. After someone busts from the other table, I hang out to watch the last hand before break in which Jay Rivkin raise/calls the SB with 55 and holds vs the BB's AT for another knockout. The BB's name was Ricky, really nice kid wearing a Run It Up hoodie. I think he said he just started playing live and I thought he held his own quite nicely, so shout out to Ricky if he stumbles upon this.

That elimination left us 9 handed and after a little bit of back and forth I eliminated a short stack when my 99 held vs his A3. To balance tables they moved a player from the other table to ours and wouldn't you know it, here comes Sonny with plenty of chips! At one point I raised TT, Sonny 3b quite large, and without making much of a scene I folded face down. I swear I took 5 seconds to fold this hand after it got back to me. The combination of playing with this kid on day 1 and seeing him showdown big hand after big hand and show it every time combined with me being friendly with him to the point that I didn't think he was going to get out of line AT ALL (AKA flat 99 and not 3b it) made me feel really comfortable with the fold. He showed QQ and I tapped the table and said nice hand.

The one player at the table who I thought might give me problems from the beginning was a guy named Rich. He seemed very comfortable and had the demeanor of being here before. He opened most of his buttons, peeled a lot of his big blinds, but the more we played the more I noticed he wasn't really 3 betting me. At one point I opened K8o OTB, he flatted BB, we went check check on the KQ4 flop, the turn was a 9h bringing a backdoor flush draw. He checked, I bet 36K, he quickly raised to 90K. I took my time then called. The river was an offsuit 8 and he quickly checked. I thought for a long time then checked back, deciding that while there were almost zero hands he had that beat me, there were also close to zero hands he had that I'd get value against, and betting would only open the door to a check/raise. He showed AThh and I won the pot. I got a lot from that hand. 1) He flatted ATs pre instead of 3 betting. 2) He did not fire a second barrel on the river and 3) After the hand he said, "You were thinking of betting that?" I don't know if it would have been that crazy of a value bet, but I hoped that Rich's comment was indicative of the fact that he would now have to be weary of me betting rivers for thin value, and not being polarized anytime I bet on the end.

Eventually I opened JJ and Rich did finally 3b me. I think the size was 105K and Rich had about 600K to start the hand. I took my time before jamming and Rich quickly tossed his cards in the muck in frustration. We played with 8 players left for about an hour, and when you're playing 4 handed that is an eternity. The last major pot I played before the redraw came when Jason Rivkin opened the SB to 50K at 10K/20K. I peeled the BB with 66 and the flop came A94cc. Jason bet 50K and I called. The turn was an offsuit 7 and we went check check. The river was the Jc and Jason bet 66K into the 200K pot.

This bet screamed "please don't raise me." It felt like a pure blocker bet and I believe the line I took is one I'd take with flush draws some of the time, while the rest of the time I'd bet turn with those draws. I didn't think I needed to get to some 6th level of thinking with this one so I decided Jason had a weak ace or a jack and put out his blocker bet praying not to get raised. So I raised, and I made it too small, going to 200K. I think I like a size like 275K much more, given Jason had about 500K behind after his 66K bet. I think he makes crying calls too often when I make it 134K to win 466K.

Jason tanked. And tanked. And tanked some more. He is a bit of a quirky guy at the poker table so he grabbed some chips and sort of motioned them towards the pot before grabbing his cards then rechecking them then grabbing them then capping them and going back to his chips. I'd estimate the tank went for about 5 minutes before he uncapped his cards and pushed them about half an inch in front of them. I continued to stare at the same spot on the table until the dealer had securely tucked those cards in the muck. Vincent on the other table busted shortly after and we had reached the live streamed 7 handed final table!!

End of part 3, part 4 later, need sleep since I'll be driving back to Borgata in the morning to play day 1B of the WPT Main.

Bagged 17.9K from 30K starting in the $3500 WPT Borgata Main. I caught a punt to get to 50K then lost QQ to AKs for 26K each. The 2nd to last hand of the day a very aggressive player named Greg Fishberg opened to 1500 at 300/600. I 3b AQo to 4000 and when it folded back to him he instantly slid his entire stack out. The initial plan was to snap call a shove but the speed of his jam made me reconsider. We had a nice little conversation and after a minute or two I slid my hand into the muck. It's hard to describe what I saw/heard that led to me folding this hand but for some reason I felt very confident. He showed me KK and we bagged after the next hand. So today is a freeroll. We're back to 400/800 so I'll have 22bbs to work with. First 2 levels will be 60 minutes and they'll go to 75 minutes after so it's not panic time yet. 550 of the initial 1000 remain and late reg is open the first 2 levels. Time to make something happen.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seems like you're in the zone, glgl.

We'll have to continue the long post about the 6 max later...cliffs are I made the live stream final table and finished 4th for $27,276 and my biggest lifetime score by quite some margin. Had less than half of myself but it was still a good score for me.

WPT Borgata Main Event Day 1

Bagged 17,900 from 30K SS after day 1 of the $3500 WPT Borgata Main. It has the same structure as the $2700 main I played last series so I was quite familiar with what to expect. I got a great table draw throughout the day and knocked a player out with 99 on T954 after he got it on with 87 and I held. That boosted me to over 50K where not a lot happened until I lost a big flip. Anna Antimony opened the CO to 1500 at 300/600, I 3b to 4000 OTB with QQ, BB 4b to 9500, she folded, I shoved, he called off for his 26K with AKs and won after the KdKxTd9d4x runout. Anna claimed QJdd lol so pretty sick hand.

My table broke with a half hour left in the day and I moved to a new table with Greg Fishberg 2 to my right. He is a very aggressive player but does quite well and I introduced myself since I'd played with him a bunch but never actually said hi. We played an orbit or two and the floor announced 3 more hands in the day. Folded the 1st one and then found AQo with 23K at 300/600. Fishberg opens HJ to 1500 and I 3b to 4000. It folds back to Fishberg and he instantly slides his whole stack out. The plan was obviously to call off but I went super live pro with it and tanked. "Guess it's not that good huh?" "Oh no it's pretty good and I'm sort of surprised I haven't called yet." "Not a pair then?" "Nope not a pair." "Well look I'll show you either way." "That's nice of you!"

I tanked for another minute and then folded. The snap shove is often a good but not nutted hand from weaker players. The "I'll show if you fold" is often indicative of a weak hand from weaker players. But Greg isn't a weak player. In fact Greg knows that weak players do that with those hands. I also didn't really expect him to lose his mind this late in the day (although he's fully capable). We'd also been friendly and if he was gonna go nuts in a spot like this I don't think he'd do it vs me. I also had a stack that looked like it was rarely going to 3b/fold this late in the day, especially with re-entry open through 2 levels the next day. I added everything up and did something I would have berated myself for doing 6 months ago: I strayed from the plan and folded. "Do you want to see it?" Sigh must be a bluff, but yes I wanted to see it so I told him so, and he flipped over KK. I bagged 17.9K and reminded myself that all of day 2 would be a freeroll.

Day 2

My table draw for day 2 looked quite good but unfortunately my table would be breaking first. I opened 99 1st hand, BB peeled, and I c-bet and won on the T95 flop. Flopping sets is nice. Our table broke and they moved me to the next table to break, which was also soft! Sigh. Our table broke and they moved me to another soft table! It's pretty unreal to not run into any big names. I think I played well and looked for spots but got 3b by randoms who weren't 3 betting light every time I opened and found myself with 24K on break coming back to 1K/2K.

First hand back from break: Only 5 people are seated, it folded to my CO and OTB and SB are not there so I rip the Q9o. BB begrudgingly folds. Next hand, EP opens and I shove TT. Last hand's BB sticks his 27K in and we're off to the races vs AKs. Board runs out 9 high and I have 60K. Next time I'm on button I open 22, BB shoves 16K with AQs and board runs AA2xx. 85K. Cool. I'm in the 6 seat and the 8 seat is eventually filled by Chris Reslock and the 9 seat is filled by David "The Dragon" Pham. I am aware he is a maniac so I get ready to battle, but the big hand ends up coming against Chris. I open CO to 6K at 2400bb (I'd been going bigger on David's BB since he's gonna peel it all) and Chris flats the SB. Flop comes 887r, I c-bet 8K and Chris c/r's to 20K. I call. Turn 887(7). Chris bets 30K and I call. River brick and I shrug and check back after Chris checks and beat his AKs. Pretty weird line with that hand but all of a sudden I have 150K in front of me.

Actually the Chris hand might have come after the actual big hand. Button opens 5500 at 2400BB and I flat BB with T9o. Flop comes J87dd and I c/r to 18K over his 6K c-bet. He takes a little time then makes it 36K. Woah. With 72K going to the flop I don't think there's much reason to do anything other than put it in, so I do. He's visibly frustrated and tanks. And tanks and tanks and tanks. I stare at my chips in front of me and don't divert my stare. He looks at me and asks if I'll show if he folds. I don't react at all. Tank tank tank. Pretty sure he doesn't have a flush draw at this point and a hand like QQ would make sense (though he shouldn't be 3 betting this on flop). After what feels like an eternity he folds his hand and begs me to show. I apologize and tell him I can't. The guy next to me tells me I might get some airtime; I ask him what he means. Apparently cameras came over for a good part of villain's tank and I was so focused on the chip I was staring at I didn't notice lol.

I end up hero calling in 2 different hands and am incorrect both times; I don't mind my call in either one. The first one was ambitious but I don't feel awful about it because I didn't expect kid to peel 72s in the BB with 15 bigs to start the hand, but if you get the 2287 run out then god bless ya. The hand I thought was more interesting was the one vs Pham. I open CO with 55 to 6K and he peels BB. Flop is Ad6c2d and we both check. The turn is the Tc and he leads, I think 6K. I call. River is 2x and he bets 17K into 28K. I thought this spot was quite interesting. I think David will value bet Ax here, though I don't know if his weak Ax is going this large, and a lot of his good Ax 3b's pre. He's good enough to bet a 10 here though I don't know if he gets much value and again, don't think he goes this big. So his value hands are reduced to pretty much just 2x. I'm sure he has A2 K2 Q2s and probably some goofy 32s and 42s stuff, but not many other 2s than that. I supposed he can show up with 66 and 22 here as well? But he can have both flush draws and I don't think there's enough value hands in here to justify a fold so I called. He missed clubs! But one of them was a 2 so he won the pot with K2cc. I think my call is good.

Last hand before our table broke EP opens 6K, I flat AQo in MP, Pham flats button, BB peels. Flop QT7dd. BB checks, EP reaches for his chips and then checks. This is often a sign that they have a hand they don't want to face a bet with, but his reach seemed pretty genuine to me. In either case I was gonna bet so 12.5K goes into the middle. Pham raises to 32Kish pretty quickly and I'm feeling pretty oi because I don't think I'm folding but this didn't feel like a draw to me. BB folds and original raiser who reached for his chips then checked rips 100K all in! Easy fold for me now and Pham tanks for 3 minutes then calls with 77! EP shows AJdd and whiffs and The Dragon takes a massive pot. I move to my new table with 90K and go on dinner break shortly after

The only player I recognize on my new table is named Chad Eveslage. When I was 17 I joined an online poker forum that was very small but welcoming and I often posted my tragic hand histories on there. They'd also give me $1 sng stakes and that was part of the way I got started. Chad was on that site, as well as Joe McKeehen, as well as Josh "slayerv1fan" Hoesel. Looking back it's pretty absurd the way players who used that site have succeeded. The more I played at this table the more I realized I probably should also recognize the 2 seat, whose name was Daniel and I later learned was Dan Zack, high stakes cash game crusher. Not much happened for me at my new table. I opened AA and got 3b which was sweet, and elected to 4b stuff 30bbs rather than 4b small since opponent seemed competent. Against a fish I click back but I think good players know that looks stronger and might fold some hands they'd just call off with vs my shove like 99/TT. Maybe. idk. He folded quite quickly so I don't think it mattered much. Later it folds to button, he makes it 11K at 3Kbb and I feel pretty good about ripping 78K from the BB with 44. He folds quickly and I get 5K more than I should since he opened so large.

Later button opens off of 22BBs or so, I 3b 99 pretty big in the SB and he does what I was hoping he wouldn't and flats. I get the dream 753r flop and c-bet with no intention of folding and he folds pretty quickly. The day winds down and I bag 120.5K coming back to 2500/5000 tomorrow. Levels will be 90 minutes long which is going to be great for me to find the spot I want to find. There are less than 170 left of the original 1179. 110 pay. A sort of unfathomable $820,000 is up top. This would be a nice tourney to win.

Snap Bust!

Went into today very excited and was quickly reminded how poker works. After folding the first 3 hands of the day, UTG1 opens to 10.5K at 5Kbb, UTG2 flats, and I shove 116K from MP with JJ. Ari Engel thinks for about 30 seconds and then flats and you can figure out the rest. I do not hit a jack vs his AA and am eliminated less than 10 minutes into the day.

I didn't really expect to feel as crushed as I did. I know logically that I haven't lost that much money from this tournament. I felt like I was freerolling after day 1. Having 24BBs is not enough to avoid one bad hand ending your tournament, and I knew all of these things. But when the river hit I can't really describe just how empty and sad I felt. I guess when you commit over 2 days of your life fully to one event and it ends so abruptly it's hard to actually know how you'll react. I also think that when multiple cameras came over to watch Ari unbag his chips I got a bit excited. I have a ton of fun with being an entertainer, and I think I know exactly how to talk to each individual type of poker player in a way that makes them warm up to me without me being annoying. It allows me to enjoy myself more but I also feel it gives me some insight into how they think and what they're doing at the table. And I was just really excited to do this deep in a WPT event, and in a flash all of that was gone.

The plan now is to drive home and take a decent chunk of money out of the bankroll to buy a new laptop and pay some bills. If I can convince my roommates to go out bowling tonight then I imagine I'll do that and get very very drunk. This has been an unbelievably successful series. It's just the nature of poker that even when things go almost perfectly, you're left wanting more. Coming 4th in the 6 max was such a huge thing for me yet I was still left wondering what could have been had I ran better 4 handed. Making day 3 of my first ever WPT event is huge for experience and confidence, but again, I'm left here feeling really upset. The more you play, the more you get used to disappointment and not letting it bother you much, but I do get the feeling that there will never come a time when I'm COMPLETELY numb to it. There will always be a bunch of "firsts"; first WSOP event, first Main Event, first 10K buy in, first 6 figure score, first 5 figure losing day, etc. You'll never be able to fully prepare yourself for any of those firsts since you've never experienced them before and have no way to know how they will feel. But the key is to just keep your head up and keep plugging. I sulked for about 20 minutes in my room after this loss, called my buddy Max who gave me a very good pep talk and allowed me to vent my frustrations, and now it's time to move on and look forward.

The one thing I do feel very confident about: It's time to start grinding the big live MTTs.

Read your entire blog over the last couple days... definitely following you. Always good to have someone to vent, esp after committing that much time to one event. Looking forward to reading future posts!

Again congrats on the deep runs, and yeah it looks like you're on your way to playing the bigger buy-in mtt's so that's a win/responsibility in itself so I'd just prepare for and concentrate on that.

A quick bit of advice in regards to that empty hole in your soul which comes from losing everything when being right on the cusp of victory. I used to trade futures for a living. I was in the industry a few years as a broker before trading for myself, but literally my first year prop trading was in 2008 when the market's were more volatile than they'd been in generations. I've had some crazy short-term variance and swings in poker, but nothing compared to the swings I experienced trading; price action that would historically take four or five months (or a season) to materialize would take place in a matter of thirty or forty seconds. I'd find myself up 8k at 9:45 am, thirty minutes after the grain markets opened, and 40 min later I'd be down $6500, and that's with putting on basically the smallest positions I could. I'm a pretty even keeled guy, but there'd be days I'd leave the Board of Trade and I'd be muttering to myself on the L platform at 11am in the afternoon with people staring at me like I'm some kind of crazy person. Basically I had to learn a proper mental approach to winning and losing very quickly or I wasn't going to make it.

While at that job which I had for four years, and while working in the industry in general, there was one constant; the best traders were not very emotional people... At least as far as I could tell while they were working. Very rarely there would be an occasional exception, with a guy who'd smash his desk and scream at the walls (or break the arm off his chair mid-session like I did once) and still crush, but usually those people were some combination of completely bat-**** crazy and more or less a genius, so that's impossible to quantify and beside the point. The vast majority of the time the best traders were pretty cool customers.

In my time prop trading there were five other guys when I came in the office, four of them were still there when I left, I saw thirty guys try to come in and fill that seventh seat and nobody could do it for more than five or six months at a time. Sometimes because they didnt have the talent or work ethic, but mostly because they didn't have the mental game... When you make 10k in thirty minutes, or you outplay a field and 50x a buyin like it was nothing, it's really hard not to get excited about it. But what I realized over time is that the best traders got used to winning; they didn't get excited. Losing will always hurt, and no one can really get used to losing, because that would be besides the point wouldn't it? What you have to do is get used to winning... To not get overly excited about it... Then when you inevitably lose, the swing isn't as severe and it's more easily managed. Most rec poker players and traders alike take the opposite approach; they're in the market or the game for precisely that swing of emotion which is counter productive to the full time or professional player. They're not there to win they're there for the swings. A very wise man once said "everybody gets what they want out of the markets," and I think that's true.

Anyway, I'm sure what I just wrote has been written a hundred times, and it's probably a process that occurs naturally for anyone who stays in the game long enough. I did come up with it over the years through my own insight and experience though, so it was nice to try to articulate it here; I think it's somewhat counter-intuitive and pretty valuable, especially for someone still in there twenties. So basically tempering the highs is the most effective way to temper the lows, and ultimately it helps you be a better player and a healthier person in a volitale game.

Sherlock--Thanks for the kind words, glad you're enjoying the thread!

An Interesting Night

Tommy, you're getting a full post for that last comment. So last night I did what I said I was going to and got very drunk with my roommates and went bowling. We had a great time as we usually do and ended up back at the house a little before 1AM. Both of them are accountants of sorts and while one of them went to bed the other stayed up a little bit and I decided to read him Tommy's entire post to see what he thought about it. This roommate's name is Tom but his nickname has been Tee Dubs forever; I go about 50/50 on what I normally call him but I'm probably the only one of his friends who ever calls him Tom. Anyway, we've been best friends since freshman year of college when we ran cross country and track together, we were roommates from Sophomore-Senior years, did our own things the next couple years but kept in touch and hung out often, and at the beginning of this year became roommates again.

Tom is sometimes awkward but always a very cool/nice guy. He's the type of guy who often bites his tongue to avoid controversy. BUT, when we get drunk a small part of his censor falls off. He's still incredibly polite and tries to preface everything he says with the fact that he means no offense, but he'll actually tell me what's on his mind when we drink. So last night I read him your story Tommy and he was in awe that you were able to do what you did for so long with how tumultuous it must have all been. We were both very impressed with it all and started to discuss the idea that the people who are best at losing are those who don't get too high when winning. It's funny you brought that idea up because I've had it before but never verbalized it; I remember telling my parents and girlfriend last year that I didn't want to get too excited when I won a tournament because that leads to me feeling emptier when I lose. I've had these exact ideas before and I think they are correct.

But anyway, Tee Dubs told me two things last night that really hit me hard, and I wish he'd talk to me like this more often.

1) The conversation went something like this, with Tom beginning,

"Whose mouse are you using right now?"
"Yours but dude you can have it back I'm gonna go buy a new one as soon as I..."
"That's not my point and you can keep it as long as you want. Why are you using my mouse right now?"
"Because mine broke."
"How did yours break?"
"Alright alright I get your point."

He went on to express the point that it is pretty ridiculous I'm still breaking mouses and to be fair, he's right. I need to keep striving to get more relaxed when I play and while I have made big strides in the past few years, I need to continue to try to stay calm and collected while playing.

2) Tee Dubs called me out on something that I've never been called out on before. I guess to some extent I've been told this by other poker players, but never in a million years would I think someone not in the poker world would have the ability to come up with this idea. We began talking about my last 2 weeks at Borgata and he brought up event 1, where I fired 6 bullets.

"So you lost your 6th bullet and then what did you do?"
"I felt miserable and didn't want to think about poker anymore so I went to my room."
"Wasn't there another flight you could have played though?"
"Yeah but it started at 7PM and would have ended at 5AM and day 2 started at noon 7 hours later so I had no desire to hop in there and torture myself like that."
"See, that's bull****. Why would you just give up like that? This is your job. Your job is to play poker. You are a good poker player. You should have fired a 7th bullet. The only thing that should be stopping you from doing so is if it doesn't make financial sense and is out of your bankroll management guidelines."
"Yeah but I would've been tired and making bad decisions."
"Again, another bull**** excuse. If one of my employees said that to me he might get fired. You know damn well that you're profitable against that field if you fire another bullet, even if you're not at your best. Saying you'd be tired that night or tired the next day is just an excuse and you need to stop doing that."

WOW. That was just some unbelievable insight from someone who doesn't play poker. FIRE A 7TH BULLET HE SAID!! And he's 100% right! I make these excuses about how I might not be playing my best or I'll be too tired and at the end of the day they really are just pure excuses. The bottom line is that this is my job and even though I do work hard at it, I need to work even harder and treat it even more like a job.

The idea that the people who are best at the mental game is those who expect to win is a good one. But I also think my expectation of winning is part of what gets me so fired up when I lose. I feel like I'm supposed to win. I feel like when I play my A game something unlucky has to happen for me to lose. The more I progress as a player, the more I understand variance and the easier it's been for me to relax and go easy on myself when I make a mistake or when I don't win a tournament. Losing still is difficult for me, but don't get me wrong; I expect to win every time I sit down. When I sat down for day 3 of the WPT main I was studying everyone thinking about how I was going to approach playing against this table after I doubled up to 50BBs. I always expect to succeed. And I think while that is helping me handle the losing, it's also part of what gets me worked up when I do.