Before I write reports on Vegas and the WSOP like I said, I figured I'd go back and write about one of the older trips first. So this is our one-night trip to the Borgata back in May.
This trip involved myself, Gabe, and Vincent Kim, affectionately known as vk. We were spending the weekend up at vk's place in New York as a sending off for Geoff, since he was leaving for the Peace Corps soon, and we capped off the trip with a stop in AC for a night on the way back. Unfortunately Geoff and a few others present could not / did not want to go to Atlantic City with us. My goal with this report is to make them regret that decision.
So vk had to go to work on Sunday, so Gabe and I went ahead to the Borgata before him. Upon check-in, we tried to bring a cooler full of leftover beer up to the room. Unfortunately security stopped us and told us that we could only bring up 6 beers per person, and we couldn't have the cooler either. They actually had me pretty scared and I was like umm wait so are you gonna confiscate this?? They were like no just bring it over to the bellhop, take out 12 beers and leave everything else with them. So whatever, fine. So we went over to the bellhop, and there were two older women checking their stuff too. They asked us what we were doing and we explained the situation to them. They were like wtf, we'll take up some beers for you. And the whole time they were like "So the party is in your room, right??" Ha. yeah. So they took up some beers for us, and they jokingly told us that they'd come over at 2am. And, despite being a fair bit older than us, I thought one of them was pretty cute! Now if Gabe and I had ANY sort of game at all, we'd have maybe asked them what they were up to later, where they'd be partying, or seriously have encouraged them to come over as opposed to just laughing along like it was a joke. But alas, we don't. It also didn't help that the beers we happened to be carrying were cans of Miller Lite, and we had nothing else to go along with that. But whatever, there was business to take care of at the poker tables.
So we went down to the poker room, Gabe sat at his 2/4 limit game, and I sat at 2/5 no-limit. Now, those of you who have been to poker rooms with me, you know that NL cash games aren't my strength or preference... usually I play mid-limit games or tournaments. But as I was in WSOP training mode at the time, I figured NL cash games would be a good place for this, to try and get used to the deep stacked play of the WSOP. Anyways, I sat down with my $500, and actually managed to turn it into $1400 relatively quickly. The table wasn't all that soft, but there was just one huge donator who helped me out a lot, namely by being willing to call my pre-flop all-in with AJ against my KK, and both of us had just over a full buy-in at the time. What a rush that was -- even as a huge favorite the whole way, I was sweating every single card as I was staring at over $1000 in the middle of the pot. Fortunately my kings held up and I even rivered a set for good measure.
I think Gabe won in his game too.
So then vk showed up after finally finishing at work. It's probably about 9pm at this point. The three of us got some food, and then headed back down to the poker room for some shenanigans at 2/4 limit hold'em. It didn't take long for us to all get to the same table, and that's where the fun started. First of all, vk and I started ordering double JW Blacks. The best part was that after just two rounds, all we had to do was make eye contact with a hand raised as our waitress walked by, she'd nod, and our next JWs would be on their way. A+ for service.
The next part of the story revolves around Gabe. See, Gabe kinda looks like he's 13. Even though he is 21. And not 21 according to a fake ID, but truly 21. Well, Gabe got carded repeatedly that night. And this was nothing new, he got carded just for walking in the poker room at the Taj on a previous trip. But this time it just got completely out of control. He got carded signing up for a table, he got carded buying chips, he got carded taking his seat, he got carded ordering a drink. And then again and again and again. At one point the floor tried to stamp his hand to signify that he's in the clear, but the stamp wouldn't work!! So then a little while later, we're still playing, Gabe isn't even doing anything, and someone comes over to card him AGAIN. This time vk and I burst out laughing, as this is about the 10th or 11th time on the night. And THEN, the floor says they have to card the whole table now because vk and I were laughing!! ha.
Around 2am I run out of gas and head back up to the room. Apparently I missed a good 3-4 more hours of action though, including vk and Gabe playing craps, vk breaking a glass in the restaurant where they got a late night breakfast, and vk blowing cigar smoke in my face as I was sleeping.
Anyways, in the morning at check out, we went to the desk and asked them to tally all our comps and apply them to the room bill. I didn't expect it to be that much since you only get like $1-$2/hr at poker. But I did already have a reduced rate on the room for having played lots of poker, so the initial bill was like $60 instead of the rack rate of like $300. Then she added all our comps on top of that, spouted off a bunch of numbers, and handed me the final bill which said approximately $3 for the final total. Gabe was like, "Wait, what just happened?" And I said, "umm... I think you guys don't owe me any money for the room anymore." WHAT UP (almost) FREE ROOM AT THE BORGATA.
The End.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
The Fallout
So it's been a while since my last update. A lot of that has to do with being back in school and not really having time to play.
But a lot of people have been asking me questions like, can you still play online poker, how can you deposit money, etc etc. And the big question: "How are you going to win a seat in the World Series of Poker again?"
So. Basically, the wording on the new legislation wasn't exactly straight-forward, and many sites are not interpreting it as a ban on online poker. However, PartyGaming did decide to back out of the U.S. market. A somewhat surprising move, since they were by far the largest online poker site in the world and basically had a death-grip on the entire market. With their departure from the U.S., the largest sites are now PokerStars and Full Tilt (where I won my seat this year). A few other sites have backed out too, but none that I really cared about (Paradise, Pacific I think, and some others). So at the end of the day, all this means is that I no longer play at Party, and the games at Full Tilt are better and more plentiful. Mainly these days I play at Full Tilt and WPEX, the rakefree site.
In terms of moving money around, the dust hasn't quite settled on this yet. There have always been numerous ways of doing electronic tranfers... but some more dubious than others. The two major methods of depositing/withdrawing money were Neteller and Firepay, which basically are just online wallets like PayPal (who unfortunately has never gotten involved with online poker so that has never been an option). As of now, Firepay has backed out, but Neteller is still around. It is uncertain whether they will remain an option or not, but hopefully other options will not be too difficult if it comes down to it.
As for winning a seat in the World Series of Poker in 2007, ok this will have to be a multi-part answer.
First let me address the report that Harrah's announced that they will no longer be accepting third-party registrations. This would certainly be bad. It would mean no more online satellites, which is how the majority of entrants get into the Main Event (including, of course, me). Phil Gordon on his Poker Edge Podcast said this would be a disaster to the tournament as it is, and we would expect a drop off in participation by like 500%. Then he spoke to a Harrah's representative, and the official word is that nothing has changed from previous years. Meaning that someone else can pay your buy-in, but you just have to go to the main booth to register in person, like we all did this year. So that is fine.
Second part is where will I do it. Well, luckily Full Tilt is still around. Last year I made attempts at Full Tilt, Party and Stars. I was very happy to have won my seat on Full Tilt, because they are by far my favorite site, and as I was required to wear their apparel, I wore it proudly since I like them. If I had won it on Party, I'd have worn it in disgust. Stars... I'm indifferent towards them. So anyways, this year I'll be going for it at Full Tilt and Stars I guess. Last year Rahul won his seat on Party, so hopefully he can do it at Full Tilt or Stars this year. We've made big plans of going #1 and #2 in the Main Event this year :)
Third part is... well, bankroll issues. Last year, when I made my attempt, I set aside $2000 out of my bankroll to take my shot. Which was what I feel to be reasonable fraction of my roll at the time to use on a longshot dream. ok so I got lucky and did it in $800ish, but anyways. The problem is that right now I don't even have $2000 in my whole poker bankroll. Thanks in part to not playing much as I mentioned, spending most of my roll in August/September, and then hitting a nasty downswing over the past week or so when I finally did start playing again (including a trip to Vegas which I'll talk about later). Anyways, basically I'm going to need to rebuild first, before doing anything frivolous like playing WSOP satellites.
Fourth part is again not really having time to play. Tournaments take a big chunk of time, even satellites. Anyways, the plan is that I won't really play any satellites until after my 1st year theory exam in June. In the meantime... I won't have much time to play otherwise either, but hopefully there will be enough time in there to rebuild some semblance of a roll again. Then after my theory exam, assuming that I have rebuilt enough, I'll spend the month of June on satellites (yes I realize this gives me only a month to win it :P). Hopefully by then Rahul will already have his seat and we can have all the reservations in place. And then if I get my seat, then I will join him. Actually I'd probably join him in Vegas either way :)
Anyways. That's all for now. Since I'm on break now and have some free time, I'll probably write a few more entries, on my latest Vegas trip, and also a WSOP 2006 report/summary.
But a lot of people have been asking me questions like, can you still play online poker, how can you deposit money, etc etc. And the big question: "How are you going to win a seat in the World Series of Poker again?"
So. Basically, the wording on the new legislation wasn't exactly straight-forward, and many sites are not interpreting it as a ban on online poker. However, PartyGaming did decide to back out of the U.S. market. A somewhat surprising move, since they were by far the largest online poker site in the world and basically had a death-grip on the entire market. With their departure from the U.S., the largest sites are now PokerStars and Full Tilt (where I won my seat this year). A few other sites have backed out too, but none that I really cared about (Paradise, Pacific I think, and some others). So at the end of the day, all this means is that I no longer play at Party, and the games at Full Tilt are better and more plentiful. Mainly these days I play at Full Tilt and WPEX, the rakefree site.
In terms of moving money around, the dust hasn't quite settled on this yet. There have always been numerous ways of doing electronic tranfers... but some more dubious than others. The two major methods of depositing/withdrawing money were Neteller and Firepay, which basically are just online wallets like PayPal (who unfortunately has never gotten involved with online poker so that has never been an option). As of now, Firepay has backed out, but Neteller is still around. It is uncertain whether they will remain an option or not, but hopefully other options will not be too difficult if it comes down to it.
As for winning a seat in the World Series of Poker in 2007, ok this will have to be a multi-part answer.
First let me address the report that Harrah's announced that they will no longer be accepting third-party registrations. This would certainly be bad. It would mean no more online satellites, which is how the majority of entrants get into the Main Event (including, of course, me). Phil Gordon on his Poker Edge Podcast said this would be a disaster to the tournament as it is, and we would expect a drop off in participation by like 500%. Then he spoke to a Harrah's representative, and the official word is that nothing has changed from previous years. Meaning that someone else can pay your buy-in, but you just have to go to the main booth to register in person, like we all did this year. So that is fine.
Second part is where will I do it. Well, luckily Full Tilt is still around. Last year I made attempts at Full Tilt, Party and Stars. I was very happy to have won my seat on Full Tilt, because they are by far my favorite site, and as I was required to wear their apparel, I wore it proudly since I like them. If I had won it on Party, I'd have worn it in disgust. Stars... I'm indifferent towards them. So anyways, this year I'll be going for it at Full Tilt and Stars I guess. Last year Rahul won his seat on Party, so hopefully he can do it at Full Tilt or Stars this year. We've made big plans of going #1 and #2 in the Main Event this year :)
Third part is... well, bankroll issues. Last year, when I made my attempt, I set aside $2000 out of my bankroll to take my shot. Which was what I feel to be reasonable fraction of my roll at the time to use on a longshot dream. ok so I got lucky and did it in $800ish, but anyways. The problem is that right now I don't even have $2000 in my whole poker bankroll. Thanks in part to not playing much as I mentioned, spending most of my roll in August/September, and then hitting a nasty downswing over the past week or so when I finally did start playing again (including a trip to Vegas which I'll talk about later). Anyways, basically I'm going to need to rebuild first, before doing anything frivolous like playing WSOP satellites.
Fourth part is again not really having time to play. Tournaments take a big chunk of time, even satellites. Anyways, the plan is that I won't really play any satellites until after my 1st year theory exam in June. In the meantime... I won't have much time to play otherwise either, but hopefully there will be enough time in there to rebuild some semblance of a roll again. Then after my theory exam, assuming that I have rebuilt enough, I'll spend the month of June on satellites (yes I realize this gives me only a month to win it :P). Hopefully by then Rahul will already have his seat and we can have all the reservations in place. And then if I get my seat, then I will join him. Actually I'd probably join him in Vegas either way :)
Anyways. That's all for now. Since I'm on break now and have some free time, I'll probably write a few more entries, on my latest Vegas trip, and also a WSOP 2006 report/summary.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Some good news
Party has stated that they will be reimbursing cash for any unused tokens for tournaments. This is great news -- I had a bad feeling that they would fuck us on this.
The Monster Tournament will be cancelled, since there is no way that it is feasible without all the U.S. players. I have a token into the Monster Monthly Million, which should be worth about $200 or so. Not sure on the exact amount since the whole tournament structure was based on a jackpot and freeroll, but it should be roughly that amount.
I also have a Sunday Million token, which is worth $215.
Kind of a bummer in that I did want to play both of these, but I will happily take the cash in light of everything that is going down.
The Monster Tournament will be cancelled, since there is no way that it is feasible without all the U.S. players. I have a token into the Monster Monthly Million, which should be worth about $200 or so. Not sure on the exact amount since the whole tournament structure was based on a jackpot and freeroll, but it should be roughly that amount.
I also have a Sunday Million token, which is worth $215.
Kind of a bummer in that I did want to play both of these, but I will happily take the cash in light of everything that is going down.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Thursday, September 21, 2006
Another Sunday Million?
I just won a satellite into this week's Sunday Million. Thanks in large part to the table chipleader calling my all-in with his pocket 3s. Hooray for people willing to toss a coin for more than half their stack... and then running into my pocket 10s :) That put me in pretty good command, until we got down to 3-way and it did get pretty close, but I managed to pull through.
So, yay, I won a seat again. First shot at it too... NOT one of those massive satellite-after-satellite sessions that I've become accustomed to doing. The only problem is, I'm going to Rick's wedding this weekend. However, my flight does return in time for me to play, if I wanted to. But I'm going to be all kinds of jet-lagged and hungover probably. Then again, being hungover seemed to work out okay last time.
Right now I'm automatically registered for this week's Sunday Million, but I think I can unregister and use my token on a different week, or probably re-register for this week too if I decide to play it. So I'll probably go ahead and do that and just hold on to my token for now.
hmm, also the Monster Million is on Sunday too. But... I definitely can't make it back for that -- it's at 12:30 EST, so 9:30am here, yeah not happening. Guess I'll definitely hold on to my token for that one.
In other news, I have lost all confidence in my limit cash game skills. I dropped $500 today, which isn't that much but it just felt so horrible today. It felt like nothing could go my way, especially in the heads-up pots where you have to be more creative. I just don't know if I can beat a tough limit game... I still believe that I can beat the 15/30 games in Vegas, but those are so much softer than the 5/10 games online that have been destroying me. Online games are much more difficult, due in large part to the aggression that you face. If anyone check-raises you at a B&M casino, on any street, you can be pretty damn sure that you're beat unless you have at least a set, or unless you are facing the rare drunken maniac. But online, that check-raise could easily mean bottom pair, or a pure bluff. And this puts you in a tough spot with all of your medium-strength hands against one opponent. Maybe I just have to face the fact that my skills aren't as good as I thought. I used to think that I would be the best or one of the best players in just about any limit game that I'd play in. I still believe this for 15/30 live and below, but I don't know about above that, and I certainly don't feel like one of the best players in my online games right now.
ok I'm done rambling now. Maybe I should just screw limit games and focus on landing a big tournament win anyways :) we'll see...
So, yay, I won a seat again. First shot at it too... NOT one of those massive satellite-after-satellite sessions that I've become accustomed to doing. The only problem is, I'm going to Rick's wedding this weekend. However, my flight does return in time for me to play, if I wanted to. But I'm going to be all kinds of jet-lagged and hungover probably. Then again, being hungover seemed to work out okay last time.
Right now I'm automatically registered for this week's Sunday Million, but I think I can unregister and use my token on a different week, or probably re-register for this week too if I decide to play it. So I'll probably go ahead and do that and just hold on to my token for now.
hmm, also the Monster Million is on Sunday too. But... I definitely can't make it back for that -- it's at 12:30 EST, so 9:30am here, yeah not happening. Guess I'll definitely hold on to my token for that one.
In other news, I have lost all confidence in my limit cash game skills. I dropped $500 today, which isn't that much but it just felt so horrible today. It felt like nothing could go my way, especially in the heads-up pots where you have to be more creative. I just don't know if I can beat a tough limit game... I still believe that I can beat the 15/30 games in Vegas, but those are so much softer than the 5/10 games online that have been destroying me. Online games are much more difficult, due in large part to the aggression that you face. If anyone check-raises you at a B&M casino, on any street, you can be pretty damn sure that you're beat unless you have at least a set, or unless you are facing the rare drunken maniac. But online, that check-raise could easily mean bottom pair, or a pure bluff. And this puts you in a tough spot with all of your medium-strength hands against one opponent. Maybe I just have to face the fact that my skills aren't as good as I thought. I used to think that I would be the best or one of the best players in just about any limit game that I'd play in. I still believe this for 15/30 live and below, but I don't know about above that, and I certainly don't feel like one of the best players in my online games right now.
ok I'm done rambling now. Maybe I should just screw limit games and focus on landing a big tournament win anyways :) we'll see...
Monday, September 18, 2006
Cashing in the Sunday Million
This week's Sunday Million had a total of 5015 entrants and top 750 paid, with a first prize of about $150k again. It's actually still going on right now, they are at the final table and down to 5 players. Unfortunately I'm not one of them :(
But I did last a good 5 hours or so, and came in 351st place for a prize of $601.80. Most of it was actually fairly uneventful, I even missed like my first 20 hands because I was still trying to get myself out of bed. My first big hand was with KK, we went 3-way to the flop and then I bet, got raised, I re-raised all-in and got called by a flush draw which did not hit. This put me up to about 15k chips (from a starting stack of 5k). The next big hand was again with KK a bit later, someone in front of me open-pushed for about 19k with pocket 9s, and my hand held. After that I had about 40k with the average being something like 20k.
I hovered at that point for a while though, and the average started catching up to me. We passed through the first pay level (601st-750th) which was about $300. I think somewhere in the 2nd pay level, another big hand came up when I had AQd in the small blind, it folded to the button who pushed, I thought for about 20 seconds and then called, he had 77 and I got a beautiful flop with a Q and two diamonds. The flush didn't come but I still doubled up to 86k. This lasted me through the 3rd pay level (401st-500th), I chipped away a bit as I couldn't make much happen. Then my final hand was with AK in the small blind, it folded to the button who raised to 10k (blinds 2k/4k), I shoved for about 60k, he thought for a good minute before calling with pocket 10s, which held. No regrets though, I'd push all day in that spot... it was just unfortunate that he had that good of a hand.
So this is my biggest tournament cash prize ever. My next biggest cash prize I think was in a $20 tournament, I made it to the final table in a field of like 800 entrants and cashed for like $500. Anyways, I feel good about my cash in this Sunday Million and I hope to be able to report bigger results in the future.
But I did last a good 5 hours or so, and came in 351st place for a prize of $601.80. Most of it was actually fairly uneventful, I even missed like my first 20 hands because I was still trying to get myself out of bed. My first big hand was with KK, we went 3-way to the flop and then I bet, got raised, I re-raised all-in and got called by a flush draw which did not hit. This put me up to about 15k chips (from a starting stack of 5k). The next big hand was again with KK a bit later, someone in front of me open-pushed for about 19k with pocket 9s, and my hand held. After that I had about 40k with the average being something like 20k.
I hovered at that point for a while though, and the average started catching up to me. We passed through the first pay level (601st-750th) which was about $300. I think somewhere in the 2nd pay level, another big hand came up when I had AQd in the small blind, it folded to the button who pushed, I thought for about 20 seconds and then called, he had 77 and I got a beautiful flop with a Q and two diamonds. The flush didn't come but I still doubled up to 86k. This lasted me through the 3rd pay level (401st-500th), I chipped away a bit as I couldn't make much happen. Then my final hand was with AK in the small blind, it folded to the button who raised to 10k (blinds 2k/4k), I shoved for about 60k, he thought for a good minute before calling with pocket 10s, which held. No regrets though, I'd push all day in that spot... it was just unfortunate that he had that good of a hand.
So this is my biggest tournament cash prize ever. My next biggest cash prize I think was in a $20 tournament, I made it to the final table in a field of like 800 entrants and cashed for like $500. Anyways, I feel good about my cash in this Sunday Million and I hope to be able to report bigger results in the future.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
DRUNK
ok so
i lost $900 at 2/4 NL
but then i cashed in the Steps for $500 by taking 3rd in Step 5. damn I wanted more, it's funny how each hand means so much money. When down to 3 I moved all-in with 66 from the button thinking I would just steal the blinds. well I was called by the big blind with JJ and his hand held. so yeah $500 for me
But tomorrow I play in the Party Million so I guess I better get some sleep for that. ok bye all
i lost $900 at 2/4 NL
but then i cashed in the Steps for $500 by taking 3rd in Step 5. damn I wanted more, it's funny how each hand means so much money. When down to 3 I moved all-in with 66 from the button thinking I would just steal the blinds. well I was called by the big blind with JJ and his hand held. so yeah $500 for me
But tomorrow I play in the Party Million so I guess I better get some sleep for that. ok bye all
Saturday, September 16, 2006
STEPS WOOT
ok so first of all I am drunk because Michigan just beat Notre Dame!!!!!!!
so. ok. let me chill out. right so I tried playing some 2/4 NL on Party after our victory, and after all of my guests left my house. yeah it didn't go so well. I had a couple of bad plays, a couple of bad beats, and all of that added up to a loss of about $900. Shit.
But on the other hand, I just made it to Step 5 of the Party Steps. What up now. That's right.
So this is a tournament with a 1st prize of $2000, 2nd prize of $1000, all the way down to 5th place of $200. But fuck all that... in the words of the best movie ever, Top Gun, there's no points for 2nd place.
oh and a personal note to Wendy, I don't know if you are the only one reading my blog but it's in my AIM profile so maybe others are reading it and not speaking up.
so. ok. let me chill out. right so I tried playing some 2/4 NL on Party after our victory, and after all of my guests left my house. yeah it didn't go so well. I had a couple of bad plays, a couple of bad beats, and all of that added up to a loss of about $900. Shit.
But on the other hand, I just made it to Step 5 of the Party Steps. What up now. That's right.
So this is a tournament with a 1st prize of $2000, 2nd prize of $1000, all the way down to 5th place of $200. But fuck all that... in the words of the best movie ever, Top Gun, there's no points for 2nd place.
oh and a personal note to Wendy, I don't know if you are the only one reading my blog but it's in my AIM profile so maybe others are reading it and not speaking up.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Sunday Million Here I Come Again
Hooray, I won a satellite into this week's Sunday Million on Party. I played in a $10 rebuy tournament, with 19 entrants. The play in this was extremely fast and wild. There were a total of 79 rebuys!! haha. Only 2 of them were mine :) I accumulated a ton of chips fairly early, thanks in large part to these three hands:
1) JJ > AQd > A9o
2) Don't call me with KTo, especially when we're the chipleaders
3) wow. lucky me. this one just fell into my lap.
A total of four seats were awarded, and I was the massive, massive chipleader throughout most of the final table. In fact I got so excited about having so many chips that I took a snapshot:
Notice how my chipstack has six digits...
I did almost screw it up when we got down to six players though and chopped my stack in half with JJ, but I managed to hang on long enough to win one of the four seats. YAY.
So this is on Sunday, which is actually the same day as the $530 WCOOP event that I've been trying to win a seat into. I took another shot at that today too and whiffed again. d'oh. Oh well, at least I'm in Party's Sunday Million this week!!
1) JJ > AQd > A9o
2) Don't call me with KTo, especially when we're the chipleaders
3) wow. lucky me. this one just fell into my lap.
A total of four seats were awarded, and I was the massive, massive chipleader throughout most of the final table. In fact I got so excited about having so many chips that I took a snapshot:
Notice how my chipstack has six digits...
I did almost screw it up when we got down to six players though and chopped my stack in half with JJ, but I managed to hang on long enough to win one of the four seats. YAY.
So this is on Sunday, which is actually the same day as the $530 WCOOP event that I've been trying to win a seat into. I took another shot at that today too and whiffed again. d'oh. Oh well, at least I'm in Party's Sunday Million this week!!
Monday, September 11, 2006
AGJAIOWEJGA SOMEDAY AGAIN I WILL WIN A SATELLITE
Just busted out in 9th in satellite for a seat into the $530 WCOOP NLHE event, top 4 got a seat. ugh. There were 62 total players and it was a rebuy tournament, so the play was pretty wild, plus the blinds got huge pretty fast so it became a pushfest. I won a race with 55 vs. J9c, had AK hold against A6d, lost when I open-pushed with AQ and called by AT and K7c (???), TT lost to A2c, TT beat AJ... final hand I had Q8 in the big blind, 6000 chips but blinds were 2000/4000 so I basically had to call anything. Folded to SB who pushed, I called and he had Q9 and I was in domination land and out the door.
ugh. Fortunately I didn't spend any money on this satellite -- the buy-in was with points that I accumulated by playing on Stars. But still, I WANT this seat. ARGH.
ugh. Fortunately I didn't spend any money on this satellite -- the buy-in was with points that I accumulated by playing on Stars. But still, I WANT this seat. ARGH.
Step by Step
ok so Party Poker has these "Steps" tournaments, which are single-table tournaments where you start at Step 1 (for $6) and if you win that, you move to Step 2, win that and move to Step 3, etc. Actually at some of the steps, the top two places move on. At Step 5 is where the cash prizes start, with a first prize of $2000. Anyways, I played this today and I've made it to Step 4 so far. hooray. I haven't attempted Step 4 yet cuz there weren't any going at the time. But let's see if I can bring home any bacon from this.
Since my last post, things actually went badly again. I did make a big effort to qualify for the Tuesday Super, and no luck. So I spent a total of >$500 on those crazy satellites and no seat. I lost about $1200 total over Tuesday to Thursday. Friday I was too hungover to play, heh. Yesterday (Saturday) I picked up Ed and his gf from the airport and drove down to Hood River, OR where I am now. Playing less poker here obviously since we've all been hanging out.
Tonight I sat at one table of 10/20 limit hold'em for a bit and pulled down about $300 in like half an hour. Now... a "real" poker player frowns upon the "hit and run," i.e. getting up from a table after a quick score. Because when you are playing in a game, you should stay in it as long as you feel that you have an edge in it. But with all of the losing that I've been doing recently, I really just felt that I needed to have a winning day. So I just got up and quit. Yes, I am not a "real" poker player right now.
Poker Stars is running the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) starting next week. There's like 20 events or so, but only a couple that I could actually play in since I start orientation next week and then class the week after. But I'll probably try and play a few satellites for whatever events that I can play.
Since my last post, things actually went badly again. I did make a big effort to qualify for the Tuesday Super, and no luck. So I spent a total of >$500 on those crazy satellites and no seat. I lost about $1200 total over Tuesday to Thursday. Friday I was too hungover to play, heh. Yesterday (Saturday) I picked up Ed and his gf from the airport and drove down to Hood River, OR where I am now. Playing less poker here obviously since we've all been hanging out.
Tonight I sat at one table of 10/20 limit hold'em for a bit and pulled down about $300 in like half an hour. Now... a "real" poker player frowns upon the "hit and run," i.e. getting up from a table after a quick score. Because when you are playing in a game, you should stay in it as long as you feel that you have an edge in it. But with all of the losing that I've been doing recently, I really just felt that I needed to have a winning day. So I just got up and quit. Yes, I am not a "real" poker player right now.
Poker Stars is running the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) starting next week. There's like 20 events or so, but only a couple that I could actually play in since I start orientation next week and then class the week after. But I'll probably try and play a few satellites for whatever events that I can play.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
hooked on satellites
...the only problem is, apparently I suck at them.
I spent today playing mostly single-table tournaments, with a few multi-tables mixed in. I managed to play 4-6 tables at a time, which was new because in the past my brain could not handle multi-tabling no-limit; in limit most of my moves are fairly automatic so it's not really too tough to play many tables of that but no-limit is kind of a different story. However, it becomes more managable in tournaments because at the later stages you're basically moving all-in or folding, so the thought process can be fairly quick.
Anyways, my main goal of today was to win a satellite into the Monday Super, which was a $162 buy-in with a total prize pool today of $165,900. The satellites were $22, so I mixed these in with the regular $33 SNGs that I played. Well, by the end of the day, I played 11 of these satellites, and did NOT win a seat >:0 so yeah that means I spent $242 on these satellites when I could've just bought my seat for $162. I feel like Daniel Negreanu and his addiction to rebuys... except, DN is good at poker.
oh, here's a sick hand from one of the satellites:
set over set over set
yeah that was fun
Well, I played a total of 36 non-satellite tournaments today, and managed to pull down about $700 on the day. And that's including my satellite losses. So yeah that's pretty sweet, I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to log in a real win.
Tomorrow I'm going to make it a serious mission to win a satellite into the Tuesday Super, which is the same deal as the Monday Super, same satellites and same buy-in. Because... after losing a bunch of them it just becomes personal, you know?
I spent today playing mostly single-table tournaments, with a few multi-tables mixed in. I managed to play 4-6 tables at a time, which was new because in the past my brain could not handle multi-tabling no-limit; in limit most of my moves are fairly automatic so it's not really too tough to play many tables of that but no-limit is kind of a different story. However, it becomes more managable in tournaments because at the later stages you're basically moving all-in or folding, so the thought process can be fairly quick.
Anyways, my main goal of today was to win a satellite into the Monday Super, which was a $162 buy-in with a total prize pool today of $165,900. The satellites were $22, so I mixed these in with the regular $33 SNGs that I played. Well, by the end of the day, I played 11 of these satellites, and did NOT win a seat >:0 so yeah that means I spent $242 on these satellites when I could've just bought my seat for $162. I feel like Daniel Negreanu and his addiction to rebuys... except, DN is good at poker.
oh, here's a sick hand from one of the satellites:
set over set over set
yeah that was fun
Well, I played a total of 36 non-satellite tournaments today, and managed to pull down about $700 on the day. And that's including my satellite losses. So yeah that's pretty sweet, I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to log in a real win.
Tomorrow I'm going to make it a serious mission to win a satellite into the Tuesday Super, which is the same deal as the Monday Super, same satellites and same buy-in. Because... after losing a bunch of them it just becomes personal, you know?
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Out in 1202th
So the Party Poker Sunday Million ended up having a total of 5084 entrants, and a first prize of $157,604.
We had starting stacks of 5000 chips, and blinds at 20/40. I had an early double-up when my AA beat AKc... it may have looked like I was stealing when I opened from the button, so he re-raised, and I re-raised him back. Now at this point he might want to start worrying, but instead he pushed and of course I called. This was all pre-flop. He turned a flush draw and I was ready to break something, but luckily my hand did hold. But after that I couldn't make much happen for a while. For about the next hour, I kept hovering around 10k in chips as I'd steal some pots, get caught in some steals, lose some blinds, win some real hands, etc. Once the blinds got really big though, then the steals really started to matter, and I got myself up to about 20,000 chips. At this point though this was merely just above average at the time.
Here's a couple of hands that sucked:
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t150/t300
10 players
Stack sizes:
UTG: t4075
UTG+1: t5929
UTG+2: t2136
Hero: t10642
MP2: t3998
MP3: t7369
CO: t4611
Button: t5763
SB: t7943
BB: t17558
Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is MP1 with 2c 2s
3 folds, Hero raises to t800, 2 folds, CO calls t800 (pot was t1250), 3 folds.
Flop: 2d 4h Tc (t2050, 2 players)
Hero bets t600, CO raises to t1448, Hero calls t848 (pot was t4098).
Turn: Th (t4946, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks. (I was going for a check-raise here, of course)
River: Ts (t4946, 2 players) (FUCK!!)
Hero checks, CO bets t954, Hero calls t954 (pot was t5900).
Results:
Final pot: t6854
CO shows Qs Qh
Hero doesn't show 2c 2s
CO wins 6854 chips from the main pot with a full house, Tens full of queens.
---------------------------
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t300/t600
10 players
Stack sizes:
Hero: t11280
UTG+1: t10053
UTG+2: t18420
MP1: t22100
MP2: t12373
MP3: t39642
CO: t8169
Button: t17559
SB: t28691
BB: t16968
Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is UTG with Th Tc
Hero raises to t1800, 2 folds, MP1 calls t1800 (pot was t2700), 6 folds.
Flop: 7s 3c 5c (t4500, 2 players)
Hero bets t2000, MP1 raises all-in t20300, Hero calls all-in t7480.
Uncalled bets: t10820 returned to MP1.
Turn: 4c (t23460, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t23460)
River: 6h (t23460, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t23460)
Results:
Final pot: t23460
Hero shows Th Tc
MP1 shows 4d 4h
Hero wins 11730 chips from the main pot with a straight, three to seven.
MP1 wins 11730 chips from the main pot with a straight, three to seven.
------------------------------
And to be fair, here's a hand where I sucked out. although, he really didn't have to put a move on me on the river:
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t200/t400
10 players
Stack sizes:
UTG: t8719
UTG+1: t8510
UTG+2: t2544
MP1: t10773
MP2: t17737
MP3: t14782
CO: t19459
Button: t30491
SB: t20268
Hero: t5940
Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is BB with 4c qh
UTG calls t400 (pot was t600), 5 folds, CO calls t400 (pot was t1000), 2 folds, 2 folds, Hero checks.
Flop: 2d 4h As (t1400, 3 players)
Hero bets t625, UTG calls t625 (pot was t2025), CO folds.
Turn: 4s (t2650, 2 players)
Hero bets t1000, UTG calls t1000 (pot was t3650).
River: 7s (t4650, 2 players)
Hero bets t1000, UTG raises all-in t6694, Hero calls all-in t2915.
Uncalled bets: t2779 returned to UTG.
Results:
Final pot: t12480
Hero shows 4c Qh
UTG shows 6s 6d
UTG wins 2779 chips from side pot #1 with two pairs, sixes and fours.
Hero wins 12480 chips from the main pot with three of a kind, fours.
-----------------------------
Anyways, around level 9 or so, I got moved to a new table where just about everyone had a bigger stack than me. Not cool. The first hand I played, I raised to steal the blinds as normal, and the big blind moved in on me. Not cool.
I think I actually busted out on the very next hand. I was on the button with pocket 4s. It folded to the cutoff who made a standard raise. He had me covered by a lot. Now here's the thing... even if it looks like a steal, that doesn't mean you have to move in with pocket 4s. Especially when your stack isn't much of a threat to his. He had like 70k or so. But apparently, I decided not to consider this at the time and said "ZOMG THAT'S A STEAL, POCKET PAIR IS THE NUTZ I GOT YOU NOW!!" So yeah I pushed all-in for 18k, he called instantly with pocket kings and I did not improve.
These big field, medium buy-in tournaments are such a rush to play. And it really takes a lot out of you, especially when it comes to the time where almost every decision is for your whole stack. But this is definitely much more enjoyable than grinding 6 tables of 5/10 limit hold'em. I just hope I can turn some of this into some meaningful results. I've also been playing a bunch of 1, 2, and 3 table tournaments and those have been going okay.
Anyways, right now I'm playing in a satellite for the Weekday Super, so I'd better go and pay attention to that.
We had starting stacks of 5000 chips, and blinds at 20/40. I had an early double-up when my AA beat AKc... it may have looked like I was stealing when I opened from the button, so he re-raised, and I re-raised him back. Now at this point he might want to start worrying, but instead he pushed and of course I called. This was all pre-flop. He turned a flush draw and I was ready to break something, but luckily my hand did hold. But after that I couldn't make much happen for a while. For about the next hour, I kept hovering around 10k in chips as I'd steal some pots, get caught in some steals, lose some blinds, win some real hands, etc. Once the blinds got really big though, then the steals really started to matter, and I got myself up to about 20,000 chips. At this point though this was merely just above average at the time.
Here's a couple of hands that sucked:
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t150/t300
10 players
Stack sizes:
UTG: t4075
UTG+1: t5929
UTG+2: t2136
Hero: t10642
MP2: t3998
MP3: t7369
CO: t4611
Button: t5763
SB: t7943
BB: t17558
Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is MP1 with 2c 2s
3 folds, Hero raises to t800, 2 folds, CO calls t800 (pot was t1250), 3 folds.
Flop: 2d 4h Tc (t2050, 2 players)
Hero bets t600, CO raises to t1448, Hero calls t848 (pot was t4098).
Turn: Th (t4946, 2 players)
Hero checks, CO checks. (I was going for a check-raise here, of course)
River: Ts (t4946, 2 players) (FUCK!!)
Hero checks, CO bets t954, Hero calls t954 (pot was t5900).
Results:
Final pot: t6854
CO shows Qs Qh
Hero doesn't show 2c 2s
CO wins 6854 chips from the main pot with a full house, Tens full of queens.
---------------------------
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t300/t600
10 players
Stack sizes:
Hero: t11280
UTG+1: t10053
UTG+2: t18420
MP1: t22100
MP2: t12373
MP3: t39642
CO: t8169
Button: t17559
SB: t28691
BB: t16968
Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is UTG with Th Tc
Hero raises to t1800, 2 folds, MP1 calls t1800 (pot was t2700), 6 folds.
Flop: 7s 3c 5c (t4500, 2 players)
Hero bets t2000, MP1 raises all-in t20300, Hero calls all-in t7480.
Uncalled bets: t10820 returned to MP1.
Turn: 4c (t23460, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t23460)
River: 6h (t23460, 0 player + 2 all-in - Main pot: t23460)
Results:
Final pot: t23460
Hero shows Th Tc
MP1 shows 4d 4h
Hero wins 11730 chips from the main pot with a straight, three to seven.
MP1 wins 11730 chips from the main pot with a straight, three to seven.
------------------------------
And to be fair, here's a hand where I sucked out. although, he really didn't have to put a move on me on the river:
Party Poker
No Limit Holdem Tournament
Blinds: t200/t400
10 players
Stack sizes:
UTG: t8719
UTG+1: t8510
UTG+2: t2544
MP1: t10773
MP2: t17737
MP3: t14782
CO: t19459
Button: t30491
SB: t20268
Hero: t5940
Pre-flop: (10 players) Hero is BB with 4c qh
UTG calls t400 (pot was t600), 5 folds, CO calls t400 (pot was t1000), 2 folds, 2 folds, Hero checks.
Flop: 2d 4h As (t1400, 3 players)
Hero bets t625, UTG calls t625 (pot was t2025), CO folds.
Turn: 4s (t2650, 2 players)
Hero bets t1000, UTG calls t1000 (pot was t3650).
River: 7s (t4650, 2 players)
Hero bets t1000, UTG raises all-in t6694, Hero calls all-in t2915.
Uncalled bets: t2779 returned to UTG.
Results:
Final pot: t12480
Hero shows 4c Qh
UTG shows 6s 6d
UTG wins 2779 chips from side pot #1 with two pairs, sixes and fours.
Hero wins 12480 chips from the main pot with three of a kind, fours.
-----------------------------
Anyways, around level 9 or so, I got moved to a new table where just about everyone had a bigger stack than me. Not cool. The first hand I played, I raised to steal the blinds as normal, and the big blind moved in on me. Not cool.
I think I actually busted out on the very next hand. I was on the button with pocket 4s. It folded to the cutoff who made a standard raise. He had me covered by a lot. Now here's the thing... even if it looks like a steal, that doesn't mean you have to move in with pocket 4s. Especially when your stack isn't much of a threat to his. He had like 70k or so. But apparently, I decided not to consider this at the time and said "ZOMG THAT'S A STEAL, POCKET PAIR IS THE NUTZ I GOT YOU NOW!!" So yeah I pushed all-in for 18k, he called instantly with pocket kings and I did not improve.
These big field, medium buy-in tournaments are such a rush to play. And it really takes a lot out of you, especially when it comes to the time where almost every decision is for your whole stack. But this is definitely much more enjoyable than grinding 6 tables of 5/10 limit hold'em. I just hope I can turn some of this into some meaningful results. I've also been playing a bunch of 1, 2, and 3 table tournaments and those have been going okay.
Anyways, right now I'm playing in a satellite for the Weekday Super, so I'd better go and pay attention to that.
First post
So this summer I "went pro" after I quit my job on June 9th, just to hold me over until I start school again. This included a trip to Las Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker, since I won a seat into the Main Event on Full Tilt Poker. Unfortunately I did not cash in either event that I played ($1,500 NL and the $10,000 Main Event) but it was a great experience and I hope to return next year with better results. I may add another entry on my experience there.
The past week of grinding has been particularly horrible. I've been putting in roughly 6 hours a day, and managed to roughly break even. At least it's not a loss, but to play for this amount of time really IS "work" -- it's not a game anymore. And when you feel like you are working hard, you want to have something to show for it.
Because of these poor results in the limit cash games where I have primarily been making most of my money, I turned to NL tournaments in the past couple of days. Originally this was simply just for a change of pace. But it turns out that things have been going much better here, so I think I might stick with this for the remainder of my time as a "pro." Or at least for a couple more days. We'll see how it goes.
Tomorrow I am playing in Party Poker's Sunday Million. I won a satellite into this tournament, which is a $215 buy-in event. The satellite that I won was a single table, $26 buy-in tournament so I basically turned $26 into a $215 seat (except that I took multiple shots at it, but we won't talk about that). The total prize pool is guaranteed to be at least $1 million (which is why it's called the Sunday Million), and so far there are 1384 people signed up but I expect this to be much higher by go time. First prize will probably be something like $300,000 or so.
I've also won a seat into the Monster Monthly, which is another tournament with a guaranteed $1 million prize pool. That tournament takes place on September 24th, so it's still a ways away. Actually I just realized that I will be on a plane at that time (returning from Rick's wedding), so I will probably just change my entry to next month's instead, which is on October 29th.
Anyways, that's all for now but I hope to be back with some good news on the Sunday Million!
The past week of grinding has been particularly horrible. I've been putting in roughly 6 hours a day, and managed to roughly break even. At least it's not a loss, but to play for this amount of time really IS "work" -- it's not a game anymore. And when you feel like you are working hard, you want to have something to show for it.
Because of these poor results in the limit cash games where I have primarily been making most of my money, I turned to NL tournaments in the past couple of days. Originally this was simply just for a change of pace. But it turns out that things have been going much better here, so I think I might stick with this for the remainder of my time as a "pro." Or at least for a couple more days. We'll see how it goes.
Tomorrow I am playing in Party Poker's Sunday Million. I won a satellite into this tournament, which is a $215 buy-in event. The satellite that I won was a single table, $26 buy-in tournament so I basically turned $26 into a $215 seat (except that I took multiple shots at it, but we won't talk about that). The total prize pool is guaranteed to be at least $1 million (which is why it's called the Sunday Million), and so far there are 1384 people signed up but I expect this to be much higher by go time. First prize will probably be something like $300,000 or so.
I've also won a seat into the Monster Monthly, which is another tournament with a guaranteed $1 million prize pool. That tournament takes place on September 24th, so it's still a ways away. Actually I just realized that I will be on a plane at that time (returning from Rick's wedding), so I will probably just change my entry to next month's instead, which is on October 29th.
Anyways, that's all for now but I hope to be back with some good news on the Sunday Million!
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