Hey loyal HP readers. For those of you who followed my build thread and a couple of my structure questions threads, you know that I am now three events into my first-ever league. While it has been a learning experience, for the most part, it has run flawlessly. In large part, that is because of YOU (the Home Poker forum). I just wanted to throw out a big thanks in advance.

With event #3 in the books, I can safely say that my league will eventually turn into something great. Event #1 had only 10 players (1 table). Event #2 had 13 players (two tables) and tonight was Event #3 in which we had 16 players. Tonight was supposed to have a larger turnout but 5 guys that I work with had to work a Saturday OT shift, so they were unable to attend. Even with a smaller than expected crowd, the action was plentiful and fun times were to be had by everyone.

I started this league for two very specific reasons...

1. My brother that I live with (I am 25, he is 23) wanted to start our own league that had a larger buy-in than the smaller and more aggressive league we already play in, and...

2. I am obsessed with NLHE tournaments and am fascinated by the math-side of it. Tournament poker, ESPECIALLY deep-stack tournament poker I believe is my calling. Yes, my calling... as in it is what I want to do eventually as a living. In the past 6+ months, I have read countless books by many pros and have taken in A LOT of information. Once I learned the math-side of Hold Em, I began to "run" so much better.

What I want to accomplish with this thread is to continue showing my progress in not only my league and its growth and success, but my own success in tournaments in my league and the ones that I attend every Sunday at my local harness racing track/card club. This thread will be similar to threads you can find in the "Poker Goals & Challenges" forum, but I want it to stay here in HP as I won't only be talking about my own play, but also as a thread that covers my home league as well.

While it can be argued that we play for micro-stakes, I believe that I need to start somewhere (US Citizen and online play is not an option). In June (either this year or next year-we haven't decided yet), my brother and I plan to fly out to Vegas and enter into a $1000 or $1500 WSOP event. While he is more of a traditional gambler and he plays cards for the fun of it, he knows that it is my dream to turn pro one day.

I truly 100% believe that I can someday do it (grind in Vegas for a living). With me grinding tournaments every weekend at my card club and once or twice a month in my home league, I am going to gain valuable experience and take a fun ride. It is my goal that by grinding these tournaments, I will perfect my tournament game as much as possible before I start taking shots at the World Series a few times each year. I hope that this thread can prove as an entertaining read for not only you, but a valuable lesson for me as I continue to strive towards perfecting my tournament game.

Last Sunday [local card club] Results:

Entered into a $65 tournament (structure sheet can be found here) and grinded my way to the final table (11 players) with a total entry of 79 players. Made two sick bluff calls and got lucky by flopping two separate sets-once with pocket 10's, the other time with pocket 3's- and got paid off on both of them. With an incredible amount of horrible luck and dead cards by the time I reached the final table, I sat with 25k remaining in front of me.

The blinds were 1500/3000 and I sat with KQ. I had my head phones on (as I always do) and out of the corner of my eye, I watch as UTG seemingly folds his hand by pushing his cards past the bet line (into the muck), albeit not far past it; and I just limp in for 3000 (why I limped I don't know, as I would almost ALWAYS raise all-in or fold in this spot with less than 10 BB's remaining). The dealer notes that UTG declared raise (to 9000) and that my 3000 call was a legally-binding 9000-chip call (stand house rules which I was aware of).

Now, at this point, I know I will be shoving all-in on the flop as UTG was playing EXTREMELY standard ABC poker and was making 3x raises all night long (usually with AQ+ or pocket tens or better). If he missed the flop, and I am talking being scared of 1 over card with Tens or Jacks, he would check-fold to any bet on the flop by me and was seemingly scared to play a flop with me as I was running fairly good without loosing one hand of showdown all the way to the final table). Basically, this was your standard older tight player (60-ish+ years old) that was afraid of post-flop action-the type of player you love playing pots with as they are usually very profitable.

Unfortunately, CO three-bets all-in (he had about 40K) and UTG insta-folds. At this point, I figure that I am just fine because in the 5 or 6 hands CO has raised all in with horrible hands (another older-type player): QJoff, Q9off and J10off were three hands that someone actually called and two of those three times, he won. Being that I have 35%+ of my stack in and that I was not going to fold against CO's wide-open range (especially that I would have been left with just over 5 BB's remaining), I called and tabled my KQ suited. CO shows up with AQ and it's good game as Ace-high takes the pot.

Finish: 11th/79. Did not cash (top 8 made the money)

Tonight's [home league] Results:

As mentioned earlier, with 16 entrants, it was our biggest turnout so far after three events. I build my stack up to chip leader (but barely-only 600 chips above second place). I am sitting with 26,200 chips and villain has 25,600. Before we get to the hand at hand, some background story about villain:

If you read this thread here, you will remember about my buddy calling out my "horrible play." While that topic is for that thread, it is important to note that my "buddy" in that thread is actually my cousin. My cousin's best friend is villain. While both my cousin and villain are knowledgeable players, they both get EXTREMELY pissed at any pot they lose. In their mind (this is my opinion of course), if I raise, I am 100% bluffing/am weak and their hand should always win against mine if they choose to play back at me. Think Phil Hellmuth-type tantrums when they lose at showdown.

Last weekend, we were playing in our other (smaller buy-in and more aggressive blind structure) tournament and I was crushing the competition. Villain and I are in a hand together and he opens UTG to a standard 3x raise and I call with QJ. Past history with villain shows that he could literally be holding any two cards-72 all the way to KK was in his range. Flop is Q-high all hearts and he overbets all-in instantly. In previous hands, villain has shown up with the flush draws or top pair and after some quick thinking throughout our massive history, I figure I have him beat with top pair and he is going all in with his flush draw. Much to my surprise however, he tables AA with and overpair and a heart re-draw making my chances of winning the hand remote (I had 4 outs twice). The J is the turn card and the river is a blank black card and he TWEAKS out. His chair goes flying backwards and he is just making a scene that "every time" he plays against me I get "so lucky". Yes, this time, I got incredibly lucky to knock him out and I end up finishing in 2nd out of 28 players... (however most of the time, I have villain crushed and I just continue to remain silent in my hands against him because I love how tilting I am to him and I usually always am able to use his frustration towards me to my advantage)

Fast forward to tonight's league game and as mentioned before, I am sitting with 26,200 and he is sitting with 25,600. Blinds are 200-400 (50-chip ante) and we are at final table (10 players remaining). Average stack is 16,000.

I am UTG and look down at 1010. I open up to 1250 and every folds except for villain who calls. Flop is 10Q4 and I lead out for a half-pot bet of 1600 and villain raises me to 4800. I come over the top all-in and he insta-calls and table QJ. Knowing that I am a 65% or so favorite still had me nervous because this hand reminded me almost as if it was last weekend. The turn card is the 8 giving him three more outs with a gut-shot but I know I am a 3-1 favorite heading to the river. Unfortunately for me, the K hits the river and I am crippled to 600 chips and am knocked out the very next hand. Villain is smiling ear to ear as my cousin is adding fuel to the fire exclaiming "he just got you back from last week" which was fine. I smile and mutter "good hand" knowing that I will continue to get yummy action from these two further down the line and that I will be ready. Tonight, I finished 10th out of 16. With tonight's finish (and event #1's 3rd out of 10 and event #2's 5th out of 13), I am 6th in league points and am running (by my standards) only ok in my home league. I have seemingly overplayed my monsters to the point of scaring away any action and have made some ill-timed bluffs when I was card dead. I hope to run better tomorrow at the local card club as I will be buying into the same type structure roughly 10 hours from now. Will post results on that tourney tomorrow.

Year-to-date Results:
local card club:
2/27: 11th of 79 (did not cash)

home league:
1/28: 3rd of 10 (cashed)
2/11: 5th of 13 (did not cash)
3/3: 10th of 16 (did not cash)

Good night HP.