So, it's been a little while apparantly. Maybe I should update this thing...
So let's see what's happened in the month since I wrote an update for the blog. Well, I got the job at Brantford Casino as a dealer, actually just passed my table test today as I'm writing this. Fairly excited about getting to deal for the casino, even if it isn't Hold'Em right away, it's still a very fun job and financially very sound.
The training for that has been eating my time, and I've barely touched a deck of cards(as it relates to poker I mean)... save for one weekend out at the Elite Poker Tour(my old employ), where I managed to eek out 3 final tables in 3 tournaments and one win, a very rewarding weekend from a poker standpoint.
The only other time I've played poker is making a fairly rediculous idea on Sunday night in some freezing rain that I was so bored I wanted to go to Fallsview and play, so off I went. Normally I'd have gone to Seneca since it's better, but given the timeframe(I was leaving my house at 10:30pm), most of Seneca's big games are dead at that point(I called and 2/4 NL was the biggest they still had running). So I went to Fallsview and hopped on what is actually, outside of the city of Las Vegas, the biggest cash game I've ever played in, the 5/10 NL game at Fallsview.
Right away I felt an overwhelming since of calm at the table, considering I was bringing $1000 to the table, I was fairly calm about it, and in control. Nothing much happened, I didn't want to mix it up early, and I was fairly card dead off the hop, so I got alot of time to get a real solid read on the table, and basically they worked as : Seat 1 had never played a hand for an hour. Seat 2 was a tight but solid player. Seat 3 was a pure POW(Pay-Off Wizard), and a large calling station. Seat 4 was a drunk guy who was begging to give his money away, and knew nearly nothing about Hold'Em, or if he did, the drinks had long since washed that knowledge away. Seat 5 was another big calling station. Seat 6 was a big time regular that knew everyone that worked there, was a large tilt monkey(I came to the table to the sounds of him whining about a bad beat that had happened over 3 hours ago), and wasn't overly impressive. And Seat 7 and 8 were two more fairly tight, reasonably solid players. Seat 9 was me, and Seat 10 was an immensely tight but very solid player I had played with a few times at 5/5 before.
So, there's the layout, down to business. I finally started to really feel comfortable and started looking to mix it up, taking down a few small pots and losing a few pots here and there, when I finally got into my first real big pot of the day.
The drunk asian guy in Seat 4 opened for a raise to 15 dollars UTG. Obviously this is infact, not a raise, so since he had said raise, they comitted him to 20 dollars. 3 players called to me, and I called in fairly late position with 9h/7h. The flop was 7/5/3 rainbow. The UTG player bet out now, 160 into 80. I had been looking to mix it up, and figured there was a strong chance I had the best hand still, so I re-shoved over the top all in for my $950 or so infront of me(to be fair, he only had another $250 infront of him), he snap called and I actually thought I might be in trouble, until he turned over his brilliantly played Q/4 offsuit. The turn was a 9 giving me top 2 and eliminating a Q as an out for him, leaving him just the 6 for the straight, which naturally was the river card. Ship half my stack over there please. He was polite enough, he laughed, he was having a good time, and I didn't really mind, he offered to buy me a drink, but since I don't drink, I declined, so he bought the entire table a round, and bought me a couple red-bull's to stash away for the session. Nice guy. But I wanted that money back.
So, it didn't take overly long for us to tango again, this time, he raised to 30, and I called with Ad/10d, we were the only 2 in the pot. The flop came Ac/7s/8c, and he bet out 100, another one of his rediculous continuation bets that I really had no idea what to do with. I decided to just smoothe call it, and the turn came a 9h, giving me an open ended straight draw to go with the top pair, reasonable kicker. I had seen him get way carried away a few times with ace rag, so 2 pair, or me flat out out-kicking him were all options, but I decided to just smoothe call his $150 turn bet. The river was a Jh. Perfect. He bet out $200, and only having another $150 ontop I shoved it into the middle, he snap called again, with A/J for top 2, and I showed the fact that it was my turn to suck out on him. That got me back to $1100 or so for the session.
Then it was Round 3 with the same guy, this time he raised to 30, and I looked at Ac/9c, and called again. The flop was ugly enough, K/J/9 rainbow, and he again bet out big, 100 again into 60. This is the part where I should explain, when I play, largely inspired by my summer trip to Vegas with Bruno, I almost always wear a hoodie now when I'm playing. This guy was incredibly bothered by the hoodie, and in each of these hands, he had complained about it because he wanted to be face to face with me. At one point he got up and threatened to leave the game(in the middle of this hand...) if he couldn't see my eyes. He asked me to take off the hoodie, obviously I didn't. He then asked the dealer to make me take of the hoodie. The dealer informed him he couldn't, and he looked back to me and said : "If you don't take it off I'm leaving the game". Part of me wanted to take it off just to ensure the dead money stayed, the other part of me was more vocal though, and quickly I snapped back at him, "What the fuck do I care if you stay?". That didn't impress him. Meanwhile, during all this, I'm still considering what to do, and I decide over time that I again think he's just drawing, so I call. The turn pairs that 9. That's wonderful. He bets out again, I call again. The river is a 6, and he goes all in. I snap call and he shows A/6 for bottom pair, and I show the trip 9's for the win. $1600 now.
I lose a bunch of it back over a couple sick hands, various draws and setup hands that lose me money, one in particular where it folds around to me on the button with AQ, I raise to 35, BB re-raises to 100, and I re-raise over to 250, and he shoves in. I fold and he shows he woke up with KK in the BB.
So eventually I'm at around $1200 when one of my favourite hands I've ever played comes up, I'm still so proud of this hand it scares me.
A bunch of players limp to me, and it's my button, I look down at Ad/Kd, and I raise to 60 straight(there were 5 limps so it was basically a pot raise), I get 2 callers behind. The flop is terrible, 8s/5h/3c. They both check and I bet out $100, a weakish bet, but I wanted to define my hand for fairly cheap. Right away Seat 6, the regular everyone on the staff knew, called, and the other guy folded. The way he called, I figured he either had 6/7, or a hand like 7/7, 6/6 and thought they were still good under my AK. The turn paired the 3. He checked again, and I decided he didn't have one of those pairs, because I felt like if he did, he'd have bet it there to chase me away and not let me see a river. Instead he let me fire again, which I did, another $250 with A high. He smoothe called again, and I felt absolutely positive he had 6/7 and was chasing a straight. The river really, really complicated the hand. It was a 7. I knew cold dead that he hit that card, and I had just lost the hand. I also knew there was $900 in the pot, and I didn't want to give it up that easily. He checked the river one last time, and trusting my read entirely I thought he figured I had an overpair this entire way, and was chasing the straight to steal it. I figured any fair bet on the river was going to take it, as long as I didn't wuss out. This entire thought process happened while he was checking, and before I even realized what I was doing, I had announced I was all-in. $800 on an Ace high bluff. If I thought the game was too big for me, this was proof positive it wasn't. He tanked for what seemed like an eternity, and eventually asked me a real dumb question, "Can you beat the board?", the board, once again, was 8/7/5/3/3, so I responded with a simple "Yes.", and he chuckled and said, "I beleive you too.". Well good, because I do beat that board. Infact, both my A and my K are going to play, thank you very much. He then flashed me what I already knew, and exposed the 7d. That wasn't getting him anywhere, I already knew he had that, so my reaction was nothing at all. He finally mucked and I showed him the AK, which nearly had him suicidal, slamming his chips around and swearing like crazy that he knew he had me. About 5 hands later we had a nice discussion about the hand :
"How do you make that third bet with fucking AK? What are you an idiot?"
This is the point where I'd normally let it be, but he was obnoxious, and I decided to come back at him a bit...
"I knew you weren't calling."
"Ya right, I knew you had that, I ALMOST called you fucking donk"
"Well, congratulations, you're almost a good player, and I almost didn't read you like a book, and you almost won all my chips. As it turns out...I do have all your chips, I did read you like a book, and you're not a good player. Bad beat huh?"
That'd be the point he went on insanity tilt and dumped off a wad of money before leaving in a fit of rage.
Anyway, after that pot, I had around $1900. I played one more huge pot before I left...
I call a preflop raise out of the BB with 8c/6c, because I love to put chips in play, and I felt comfortable at the table now. The flop was gin, 5/7/9 rainbow. The only time I flopped the nuts in the session. Naturally I lead right at the flop hard, betting 90 into 110. The original raiser takes two huge stacks of red chips and very slowly and carefully slides them into the pot, before I even have any idea what the dollar value is(I know both of them are over $300 from the size), I toss my stack of black chips into the middle(10 of them). The dealer eventually breaks down the guy's total bet of $740, and I take back 3 blacks and toss out the extra 40 dollars. He rolls over QQ, and I hold, and end my session at $2680, a profit of almost $1700.
And since these things are never exactly linear, or well thought out, crafted or written, who doesn't expect me to randomly switch topics again...back to today.
I went over to a friend's house from the training course at the casino, and we sat down to a game of Chinese Poker(we had both been studying up and practicing for the better part of 2 weeks now of training). We set up and played, and I crushed him for 56 points in about 4 hours of play. The game is maddeningly addicting, and a true gambler's game, moreso than anything I've ever played, the swings can be intense. 2 hours into it he had me by 14 points, and I took 70 points off him in the next 2 hours. Naturally we had money on it, so that's another nice winning poker session recently.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
How to lose over $1200 in 6 hours...
Because I know you all want lessons, please observe a master at work :
Let's start online. FTOPS started last night with Event #1, a $200+16 buyin NL Hold'Em short handed event. Normally I'm fantastic at these events, I've run deep in every short handed high buyin event I've played online. This time, not so much at all. I was crushed in this event. It started early getting involved in a few pots where I had made hands and got drawn out on and my 3000 starting stack turned into 1600 within 25 minutes or so. Then came the hand that killed me :
I raised the cut-off with 9h/4h, a fairly standard play, especially 6 handed I really tend to opt for alot of preflop raising and general agression before the flop, switching to very conservative post flop because you'll find opponents ranges wider than at a 9 or 10 handed table also. Anyway, both blinds call. The flop was decent enough, Jh/2h/2c. Paired board I never like chasing a flush but the quick 100 bet into 300 and a call behind made me fairly certain my flush was going to be the best hand, so I called behind also. The turn was a 5h. The initial better led 600, and got called, I shoved behind 1150, and got called by both. The river was absolutely devestating. 2s. Three 2's on board and now I know I'm toast. It goes check, bet, fold and the guy holding QJ wins the pot with his full house. The other player had a lower flush than me so the 2 killed my shot at the 4000 chip pot.
After this, since I didn't play poker most of the day in an effort to be ready for a long night in that tournament, I decided I was ready for a game. No tilt anywhere to be seen, I even told a friend how weird it felt, I was dissapointed because I wanted to play more poker than the half hour I lasted. Tilt never factored into it.
So, I decided to make a trip out to Fallsview. Ironically the casino has been debated alot on Jackseven lately, some think it sucks, some think it's great. I agree with column a. I think as a poker room, it's an absolute nightmare. The layout is horrendous(who puts the poker room that far away from any cage?), the service is awful(I still remember the session where I sat at a table for 6 hours asking to be moved to a new table because there was absolutely no action at my table and other people who asked after me getting moved). However, there's alot of action, so it's kind of a necessity for me to go there.
Anyway, I sit down at a 5/5 NL game with $500, and quickly run it up a little bit until this hand happens, that also gave me a big realization.
The cut-off(fairly solid) raises to 35, and I'm on the button with AQo, I call here(a play I'll discuss more later), and the blinds fold. The flop is A/K/7 rainbow. The cut-off leads 65. Here's a difficult spot for me because this is the kind of continuation bet he'd make holding almost ATC still, so I'm almost forced into a call, which I make(more on this later too). The turn is a complete brick, a 3. He checks now, which really confused me because I wasn't sure if that meant he had a hand like QQ or JJ and was giving up, or he had a big hand like AK, KK and was trying to trap another bet out of me. The river was another Ace. Now he leads 150, and again I'm faced with another fairly tough decision, it's possible we have the same hand, it's slightly possible I have him outkicked although I doubt it, so I have to decide if he has QQ or JJ and is trying one last steal effort, or if he has AK or KK and is value betting. I decide wrong and call, and he shows AK.
Now, let me take a moment to dissect this hand a little more. I discussed this with Griffin when I got home, and I discovered something with him during the conversation. Calling ranges should be even wider than I normally make them. I hate the idea of calling any raise with AQ. I already don't call raises with A/10, A/J, KQ, typically, obviously all this is circumstantial, but for the most part. Now I'm fitting AQ into that range. I'd rather have been calling his raise with 6d/4d than with AQ. 6d/4d, J/10 suited, any hands like that are easy post flop. I either hit big, I outplay, or I fold. There's no difficult decisions to leave yourself after the flop like there is playing a hand like AQ, AJ, KQ. All those hands leave you is alot of post flop work. And I feel like I'm too good at this game to put myself in a marginal spot like that where I have very difficult decisions.
A few hands later I go broke with 5s/2s on a As/10s/5d flop, and that leads to me reloading.
During this time, there was one player just steamrolling the table, he was hitting insanely well, a very agressive kid, although he seemed to know more or less what he was doing, he was just very agressive, and at the time was a card rack. All the same, I wanted to tangle because he was very agressive. That lead to this hand after I had worked my stack up again :
There were a few players that left the table and came back and posted(3 in all), they all check everyone else folds to the maniac holding the button, he goes to 50 straight. I'm in the BB and look at AA. Perfect, now I decide that although I don't like limping with players behind, I think I can be fairly safe they can't call after I have, so I just smoothe call the extra 45. The posters all fold.
The flop is 2d/5s/6s. Not a bad flop but not great. I lead at the flop almost as it's being dealt, trying to sell him on a pro-bet here. I bet 120. He instantly comes over the top to 300. I'm holding about 600 total at this point. I decide to just call the extra 180 and see the turn, already deciding I'm letting him set me all-in on the turn(barring a spade then I'll give it some thought). Turn is a blank, 9d. I check and he says all-in and I've called before he even puts a chip in the pot and flipped up my aces. I'm fairly certain I know what he's rolling over and I know I'm a 4 to 1 favourite. Sure enough, he shows me As/Qs. Almost a 2k pot now and I've got it in a 4 to 1 favourite. But, just to give me the final kick in the crotch for the day, the river peels off the 8s. Ship it over there please.
After that I take 1 more bad beat as I drive home, taking the back way from my house I get stuck at the Welland Canal bridge for about 20 minutes. Nice way to top off the night. Overall things kind of sucked.
Let's start online. FTOPS started last night with Event #1, a $200+16 buyin NL Hold'Em short handed event. Normally I'm fantastic at these events, I've run deep in every short handed high buyin event I've played online. This time, not so much at all. I was crushed in this event. It started early getting involved in a few pots where I had made hands and got drawn out on and my 3000 starting stack turned into 1600 within 25 minutes or so. Then came the hand that killed me :
I raised the cut-off with 9h/4h, a fairly standard play, especially 6 handed I really tend to opt for alot of preflop raising and general agression before the flop, switching to very conservative post flop because you'll find opponents ranges wider than at a 9 or 10 handed table also. Anyway, both blinds call. The flop was decent enough, Jh/2h/2c. Paired board I never like chasing a flush but the quick 100 bet into 300 and a call behind made me fairly certain my flush was going to be the best hand, so I called behind also. The turn was a 5h. The initial better led 600, and got called, I shoved behind 1150, and got called by both. The river was absolutely devestating. 2s. Three 2's on board and now I know I'm toast. It goes check, bet, fold and the guy holding QJ wins the pot with his full house. The other player had a lower flush than me so the 2 killed my shot at the 4000 chip pot.
After this, since I didn't play poker most of the day in an effort to be ready for a long night in that tournament, I decided I was ready for a game. No tilt anywhere to be seen, I even told a friend how weird it felt, I was dissapointed because I wanted to play more poker than the half hour I lasted. Tilt never factored into it.
So, I decided to make a trip out to Fallsview. Ironically the casino has been debated alot on Jackseven lately, some think it sucks, some think it's great. I agree with column a. I think as a poker room, it's an absolute nightmare. The layout is horrendous(who puts the poker room that far away from any cage?), the service is awful(I still remember the session where I sat at a table for 6 hours asking to be moved to a new table because there was absolutely no action at my table and other people who asked after me getting moved). However, there's alot of action, so it's kind of a necessity for me to go there.
Anyway, I sit down at a 5/5 NL game with $500, and quickly run it up a little bit until this hand happens, that also gave me a big realization.
The cut-off(fairly solid) raises to 35, and I'm on the button with AQo, I call here(a play I'll discuss more later), and the blinds fold. The flop is A/K/7 rainbow. The cut-off leads 65. Here's a difficult spot for me because this is the kind of continuation bet he'd make holding almost ATC still, so I'm almost forced into a call, which I make(more on this later too). The turn is a complete brick, a 3. He checks now, which really confused me because I wasn't sure if that meant he had a hand like QQ or JJ and was giving up, or he had a big hand like AK, KK and was trying to trap another bet out of me. The river was another Ace. Now he leads 150, and again I'm faced with another fairly tough decision, it's possible we have the same hand, it's slightly possible I have him outkicked although I doubt it, so I have to decide if he has QQ or JJ and is trying one last steal effort, or if he has AK or KK and is value betting. I decide wrong and call, and he shows AK.
Now, let me take a moment to dissect this hand a little more. I discussed this with Griffin when I got home, and I discovered something with him during the conversation. Calling ranges should be even wider than I normally make them. I hate the idea of calling any raise with AQ. I already don't call raises with A/10, A/J, KQ, typically, obviously all this is circumstantial, but for the most part. Now I'm fitting AQ into that range. I'd rather have been calling his raise with 6d/4d than with AQ. 6d/4d, J/10 suited, any hands like that are easy post flop. I either hit big, I outplay, or I fold. There's no difficult decisions to leave yourself after the flop like there is playing a hand like AQ, AJ, KQ. All those hands leave you is alot of post flop work. And I feel like I'm too good at this game to put myself in a marginal spot like that where I have very difficult decisions.
A few hands later I go broke with 5s/2s on a As/10s/5d flop, and that leads to me reloading.
During this time, there was one player just steamrolling the table, he was hitting insanely well, a very agressive kid, although he seemed to know more or less what he was doing, he was just very agressive, and at the time was a card rack. All the same, I wanted to tangle because he was very agressive. That lead to this hand after I had worked my stack up again :
There were a few players that left the table and came back and posted(3 in all), they all check everyone else folds to the maniac holding the button, he goes to 50 straight. I'm in the BB and look at AA. Perfect, now I decide that although I don't like limping with players behind, I think I can be fairly safe they can't call after I have, so I just smoothe call the extra 45. The posters all fold.
The flop is 2d/5s/6s. Not a bad flop but not great. I lead at the flop almost as it's being dealt, trying to sell him on a pro-bet here. I bet 120. He instantly comes over the top to 300. I'm holding about 600 total at this point. I decide to just call the extra 180 and see the turn, already deciding I'm letting him set me all-in on the turn(barring a spade then I'll give it some thought). Turn is a blank, 9d. I check and he says all-in and I've called before he even puts a chip in the pot and flipped up my aces. I'm fairly certain I know what he's rolling over and I know I'm a 4 to 1 favourite. Sure enough, he shows me As/Qs. Almost a 2k pot now and I've got it in a 4 to 1 favourite. But, just to give me the final kick in the crotch for the day, the river peels off the 8s. Ship it over there please.
After that I take 1 more bad beat as I drive home, taking the back way from my house I get stuck at the Welland Canal bridge for about 20 minutes. Nice way to top off the night. Overall things kind of sucked.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Guilt update
Weird, it's been quite a while since I did one of these updates, maybe I should write one up.
So, where am I at?
Well, I've just moved most of my money off Pokerstars. It's nothing against Pokerstars at all, I do think it's the best site on the internet, but unfortunately I don't qualify for any rakeback bonus', whereas I will be able to get it on Full Tilt. That's 5k or more a month I'm earning just to switch sites, so I'm in the process of making that switch. Therefore, there hasn't been much for me in the way of online poker lately, I play a little every night, but not as intensely as I had been for the last few months.
I'm really eager for the FTOPS events kicking off this coming week, I think I'm in a good frame of mind poker-wise, and I feel like my tournament game is coming around a bit. I've been doing alot of reading and watching on card runners the MTT videos and entries to see if I can learn anything, and I'm more comfortable than I was a month ago playing an MTT. Some progress was shown at the live tournaments I run. I had played in(without an actual count), 15 or so events, and made 1 final table(finished 3rd), up until this week. This week I've played 2 events, and won them both.
The first event on Wednesday I felt like I got fortunate in some spots where I normally don't get lucky. One big spot was a 10/10 vs AA showdown where I caught a 10 on the flop. I felt like I played well though, grinding my way through some card-dead spells, and maximized opportunties.
Tonight however I think was a big turning point. Almost from the onset I felt like I dominated the tournament, there was hardly a moment I wasn't either chip lead or 2nd in chips. Granted, I ran fairly well(made 2 sets of quads, only got paid once for them), but I think the big thing tonight was I had a remarkable efficiency in pots I was in. Typically I'm very good at big pot poker, because I rarely put my money into a big pot when I'm behind. However, I find that I bleed chips back trying to play smaller pots and slowly widdling back to the pack before I double up again. Today was the opposite, today I won every big pot I played, but found a better rythmn in the pots around those big pots where I was just further extending myself from the field. I felt basically from 15 minutes into the tournament that I was going to win, and it worked out.
My tenative FTOPS schedule is now finalized, the only ones I know 100% for sure are I'll be playing Event #1(6 handed NL Hold'Em) and Event #3(PL Hold'Em) on Wednesday and Friday respectively. After that there are a bunch of question marks, although I deffinitely want to be in the 2 million dollar guarantee main event. Most of these will be straight buyins.
As for other poker, I went down to Fallsview on Tuesday and saw Marc and Bill there, hung out for a while, saw Marc roll a little bit, unfortunately I had to leave for work mid-way through the day and later found out he had been eliminated, although I'm fairly certain this was still a pretty good month for him, what with the marriage and all. His track record is one of the "new wave" of players who continue to amaze with their consistency. Guys like Scott Clements, Marc, Jared Hamby and other internet pros that have taken poker by storm not just by the magnitude of their accomplishments but by the consistency they accomplish these feats showcase how far poker has come and how well some people can play the game these days.
On a personal note, I got some fantastic news(hopefully, assuming from here on out things go well), that I got a job at Brantford Casino as a dealer. I'm making fair money playing poker, but the ability to have a well paying job and keep my poker bankroll seperate from that will be key, because were it not for constantly taking checks out for living expenses from my bankroll, it would be over $40,000, instead of the over $20,000 I cashed out a while ago from Pokerstars. This should make the run I'm on a little bit easier, both because I don't have to worry about finances at home, and because I don't have to take money from my bankroll. At least that's the hope. I'm very excited about that, obviously under the assumption I pass a credit and criminal background check.
So, where am I at?
Well, I've just moved most of my money off Pokerstars. It's nothing against Pokerstars at all, I do think it's the best site on the internet, but unfortunately I don't qualify for any rakeback bonus', whereas I will be able to get it on Full Tilt. That's 5k or more a month I'm earning just to switch sites, so I'm in the process of making that switch. Therefore, there hasn't been much for me in the way of online poker lately, I play a little every night, but not as intensely as I had been for the last few months.
I'm really eager for the FTOPS events kicking off this coming week, I think I'm in a good frame of mind poker-wise, and I feel like my tournament game is coming around a bit. I've been doing alot of reading and watching on card runners the MTT videos and entries to see if I can learn anything, and I'm more comfortable than I was a month ago playing an MTT. Some progress was shown at the live tournaments I run. I had played in(without an actual count), 15 or so events, and made 1 final table(finished 3rd), up until this week. This week I've played 2 events, and won them both.
The first event on Wednesday I felt like I got fortunate in some spots where I normally don't get lucky. One big spot was a 10/10 vs AA showdown where I caught a 10 on the flop. I felt like I played well though, grinding my way through some card-dead spells, and maximized opportunties.
Tonight however I think was a big turning point. Almost from the onset I felt like I dominated the tournament, there was hardly a moment I wasn't either chip lead or 2nd in chips. Granted, I ran fairly well(made 2 sets of quads, only got paid once for them), but I think the big thing tonight was I had a remarkable efficiency in pots I was in. Typically I'm very good at big pot poker, because I rarely put my money into a big pot when I'm behind. However, I find that I bleed chips back trying to play smaller pots and slowly widdling back to the pack before I double up again. Today was the opposite, today I won every big pot I played, but found a better rythmn in the pots around those big pots where I was just further extending myself from the field. I felt basically from 15 minutes into the tournament that I was going to win, and it worked out.
My tenative FTOPS schedule is now finalized, the only ones I know 100% for sure are I'll be playing Event #1(6 handed NL Hold'Em) and Event #3(PL Hold'Em) on Wednesday and Friday respectively. After that there are a bunch of question marks, although I deffinitely want to be in the 2 million dollar guarantee main event. Most of these will be straight buyins.
As for other poker, I went down to Fallsview on Tuesday and saw Marc and Bill there, hung out for a while, saw Marc roll a little bit, unfortunately I had to leave for work mid-way through the day and later found out he had been eliminated, although I'm fairly certain this was still a pretty good month for him, what with the marriage and all. His track record is one of the "new wave" of players who continue to amaze with their consistency. Guys like Scott Clements, Marc, Jared Hamby and other internet pros that have taken poker by storm not just by the magnitude of their accomplishments but by the consistency they accomplish these feats showcase how far poker has come and how well some people can play the game these days.
On a personal note, I got some fantastic news(hopefully, assuming from here on out things go well), that I got a job at Brantford Casino as a dealer. I'm making fair money playing poker, but the ability to have a well paying job and keep my poker bankroll seperate from that will be key, because were it not for constantly taking checks out for living expenses from my bankroll, it would be over $40,000, instead of the over $20,000 I cashed out a while ago from Pokerstars. This should make the run I'm on a little bit easier, both because I don't have to worry about finances at home, and because I don't have to take money from my bankroll. At least that's the hope. I'm very excited about that, obviously under the assumption I pass a credit and criminal background check.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Turning Stone...Part 1.
Well, that was fun. I say this multiple times, and every single one has a fun meaning. Here, watch.
Well, that was fun. The trip here was basically hell. Griffin had been stopped at a border before trying to get to the USA for a month or two under a work visa, so this created problems for us this time coming down here also, as we again got held for over an hour at the border.
During this time, just as a helpful aside, Amanda nearly got me shot. She text messaged me good luck, which I appreciated, but it just so happened that it was during our wait in the border office, which has signs that say "No Cell Phone Use Permitted", you're basically not allowed to move while they go over your papers. So, the text came through during that time, and not noticing the signs for no phone use, I pulled out my phone to read it, and promptly was told to put the phone away by a guard there that literally had his hand on his gun holster. Fun fun fun.
So, we got to Turning Stone around 5:00am, give or take, and checked in. We got up to the room and went back down to check and see what time the tournament started, then Griff decided that since the tournament started at 10:00am it'd be fun for him to play a cash game. I went up and crashed, he walked in after about an hour having lost a 5/5 buyin($500). Not a good start.
Well, that was fun. I woke up and headed down to register, actually fairly early, so I sat at a 1/2 table to just fling some cards around while I waited for the tournament, and played basically one hand of interest. I still don't know how this guy played this weak.
There's an early position raise to 10 and 6 calls to me in the SB with Ad/5d, so I call also. Flop is Kd/6d/3c. I flop the flush draw. I check intending to check raise someone in since I have 80 behind and I'm willing to gamble at this point with the pot already at 62. Checks all around amazingly to the button who bets 20. I raise all-in. It folds around to him and he goes into the tank, muttering to himself about how he thinks I flopped trip 6's. Eventually he flashes KQ face up and folds it, asking me if I had trip 6's. I literally laugh at him and tell him no, and flash the 5d, and muck the other card. Time to go register for the tournament.
Well, that was fun. 300+40, gone in 3 hands. Fold, fold, and then this. We start with 5000 in chips, blinds start at 25/50 and are a comfortable 40 minute levels. Really nice structure. So, I'm in the SB in a limped pot, and I call up with 6c/7c. BB checks. Flop is Ac/5d/2c. I pick up a flush draw. I check, BB leads out 200 at the pot of around 250. Folds all around to me, I call. Turn is a 9c, completing my flush. I check again, intending to check raise here, and he complies by really overbetting the pot here, 1000 at the pot of 650. Now, we started with just under 5k each so there's not alot of room left for me since there are still scare cards, I figure I'll shove and kill the hand here, unless it's flush under flush which I'm willing to bust on early, although there's no indication that's the case since he's really betting hard now and I doubt he'd do that with a made flush. I shove in. He borderline insta-calls which scares me, and rolls over A/2 for 2 pair. River is an Ah. Ship that man his pot. That's my 340 dollar tournament stay. 3 hands.
So, upset, I go back to what I know best, cash games, and buy in to the 5/5 game for 500 bucks. I really only played 2 hands of vast importance.
Early middle position, I look at AQ, so I raise to 20. I get 3 callers. Flop is Q/J/3 rainbow. I fire out 50. One player calls(SB, so he's out of position for the rest of the hand). Turn is a 10. He checks again and I fire $100. He calls again. Pot is now $380. River is an ace. He checks again, which to me says, "I can't possibly have a king because how can I rely on you to bet on a 4 card straight board". Which means, it's Kenny Tran value bet time. This is the biggest part of my NL Cash game play I'm working on. I fire out $200. He folds, but at the same time, I'm happy that I still bet that card when alot of people would just check behind.
The other big hand I played, I limped from middle position with Qd/Jd. It was raised to 20 dollars behind me, and I called along with one other player. Flop was Kd/10d/4c. Open ended straight flush draw, I'm getting a big pot here. I check. The initial raiser flat shoves 250 bucks at the pot of 70. Other player folds and it's back to me, I actually deliberate for a moment because I'm 100% sure he has AA right now and just hates that flop, so a few of my outs are gone. But it's not more than 5 seconds before I call, I'm not ever laying that hand down on that flop. Turn is a brick, river is a 9c, making my straight. For those of you wondering, the way I calculated it, and this is obviously optimum, I know he has aces so I have 2 Aces, 4 9's and 9 diamonds that make me good. 15 outs. There are 8 players meaning there are 20 dead cards(hands and the flop and burn), so 32 cards remaining. 15 of which are gold for me, he's got to fade half the deck twice to hold, and I need to hit one of my half of the deck in two cards. We're actually after I did the math more specifically back home, dead even to win. He's 50.61%, I'm 49.93%. So if I play this hand 100 times, I profit $3500(50 wins x the profit of the 70 dollars dead money in preflop). Easy call.
After that hand I middled around for a while, won a few more chips, cashed out $1590, profit of a thousand. So that's a good middle of my day, time to grab a nap since I'm running on 3 hours of sleep.
Well, that was fun. The trip here was basically hell. Griffin had been stopped at a border before trying to get to the USA for a month or two under a work visa, so this created problems for us this time coming down here also, as we again got held for over an hour at the border.
During this time, just as a helpful aside, Amanda nearly got me shot. She text messaged me good luck, which I appreciated, but it just so happened that it was during our wait in the border office, which has signs that say "No Cell Phone Use Permitted", you're basically not allowed to move while they go over your papers. So, the text came through during that time, and not noticing the signs for no phone use, I pulled out my phone to read it, and promptly was told to put the phone away by a guard there that literally had his hand on his gun holster. Fun fun fun.
So, we got to Turning Stone around 5:00am, give or take, and checked in. We got up to the room and went back down to check and see what time the tournament started, then Griff decided that since the tournament started at 10:00am it'd be fun for him to play a cash game. I went up and crashed, he walked in after about an hour having lost a 5/5 buyin($500). Not a good start.
Well, that was fun. I woke up and headed down to register, actually fairly early, so I sat at a 1/2 table to just fling some cards around while I waited for the tournament, and played basically one hand of interest. I still don't know how this guy played this weak.
There's an early position raise to 10 and 6 calls to me in the SB with Ad/5d, so I call also. Flop is Kd/6d/3c. I flop the flush draw. I check intending to check raise someone in since I have 80 behind and I'm willing to gamble at this point with the pot already at 62. Checks all around amazingly to the button who bets 20. I raise all-in. It folds around to him and he goes into the tank, muttering to himself about how he thinks I flopped trip 6's. Eventually he flashes KQ face up and folds it, asking me if I had trip 6's. I literally laugh at him and tell him no, and flash the 5d, and muck the other card. Time to go register for the tournament.
Well, that was fun. 300+40, gone in 3 hands. Fold, fold, and then this. We start with 5000 in chips, blinds start at 25/50 and are a comfortable 40 minute levels. Really nice structure. So, I'm in the SB in a limped pot, and I call up with 6c/7c. BB checks. Flop is Ac/5d/2c. I pick up a flush draw. I check, BB leads out 200 at the pot of around 250. Folds all around to me, I call. Turn is a 9c, completing my flush. I check again, intending to check raise here, and he complies by really overbetting the pot here, 1000 at the pot of 650. Now, we started with just under 5k each so there's not alot of room left for me since there are still scare cards, I figure I'll shove and kill the hand here, unless it's flush under flush which I'm willing to bust on early, although there's no indication that's the case since he's really betting hard now and I doubt he'd do that with a made flush. I shove in. He borderline insta-calls which scares me, and rolls over A/2 for 2 pair. River is an Ah. Ship that man his pot. That's my 340 dollar tournament stay. 3 hands.
So, upset, I go back to what I know best, cash games, and buy in to the 5/5 game for 500 bucks. I really only played 2 hands of vast importance.
Early middle position, I look at AQ, so I raise to 20. I get 3 callers. Flop is Q/J/3 rainbow. I fire out 50. One player calls(SB, so he's out of position for the rest of the hand). Turn is a 10. He checks again and I fire $100. He calls again. Pot is now $380. River is an ace. He checks again, which to me says, "I can't possibly have a king because how can I rely on you to bet on a 4 card straight board". Which means, it's Kenny Tran value bet time. This is the biggest part of my NL Cash game play I'm working on. I fire out $200. He folds, but at the same time, I'm happy that I still bet that card when alot of people would just check behind.
The other big hand I played, I limped from middle position with Qd/Jd. It was raised to 20 dollars behind me, and I called along with one other player. Flop was Kd/10d/4c. Open ended straight flush draw, I'm getting a big pot here. I check. The initial raiser flat shoves 250 bucks at the pot of 70. Other player folds and it's back to me, I actually deliberate for a moment because I'm 100% sure he has AA right now and just hates that flop, so a few of my outs are gone. But it's not more than 5 seconds before I call, I'm not ever laying that hand down on that flop. Turn is a brick, river is a 9c, making my straight. For those of you wondering, the way I calculated it, and this is obviously optimum, I know he has aces so I have 2 Aces, 4 9's and 9 diamonds that make me good. 15 outs. There are 8 players meaning there are 20 dead cards(hands and the flop and burn), so 32 cards remaining. 15 of which are gold for me, he's got to fade half the deck twice to hold, and I need to hit one of my half of the deck in two cards. We're actually after I did the math more specifically back home, dead even to win. He's 50.61%, I'm 49.93%. So if I play this hand 100 times, I profit $3500(50 wins x the profit of the 70 dollars dead money in preflop). Easy call.
After that hand I middled around for a while, won a few more chips, cashed out $1590, profit of a thousand. So that's a good middle of my day, time to grab a nap since I'm running on 3 hours of sleep.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Another good day...
I set a new personal best today, more on that and a few hand histories, but first thing's first, I figured this would be a good time to talk a little about limit poker stratagies...
I must be the worst person alive for even thinking myself qualified to write this. First let's start with a little background on myself.
I've played alot of limit poker at Brantford Charity Casino a few years ago I used to go almost every day down there to play the 5/10 game. I did well, but this is before I became the player I am today, I just always had a real nack for limit poker from the start I found.
Skip ahead, I start working for a Poker tour, running poker tournaments, playing them nightly, and so on. I became a solid NL player and a solid MTT player, but still always said I considered myself a better limit player than NL.
Skip ahead again, and finally I clear a bankroll after a very enjoyable, successful(cashed in my first WSOP event ever, although it wasn't an overly big number, those few days with Bruno at the WSOP will be long lasting memories, we had alot of fun, and both cashing was icing on the cake), and lucrative(over 5000 dollars earned for the trip) trip to Las Vegas, my first trip down there, I decided to toss some money down into online poker and see what became of it.
I bought in for 500 to Pokerstars after returning from Las Vegas, and have run that up to over 17,000 dollars currently on the site, and that's after I withdrew 5000 of it to pay the bill for my new TV(61" JVC HD-ILA HDTV, and all the new upgrades that had to be bought along with it), I plan on withdrawing a 2nd poker paycheque in a day or two, another $5,000 give or take.
How did that happen? Limit poker. I'm back at it, so I figured I'd take some time to explain my theories on limit poker. You may read this and decide I'm an imbecile, if so, sobeit. This is just how I've been so far pretty damn successful at a game alot of today's poker players find very difficult.
First, I want to make it clear that all these tips are strictly 6 handed mid-level limit games(5-10, 10-20).
Limit poker is a cruel game for a couple reasons, so let's establish the large problem people have with transitioning NL-limit poker.
Protecting your hands.
Okay, you've flopped top pair after raising preflop with AK in a 10-20 game and getting 4 callers. Flop comes Kh/6h/4c. Now would be a time to slam it in NL and try and protect against a potential draw. So go ahead and bet your 10 dollars into the 40 dollar pot, and lay him 5 to 1 to draw. Kind of hard for any flush draw not to see equity in that call now huh?
My solution isn't anything overly sophisticated, first of all you want to ensure yourself you're using position very well, and for me, with that flop, I won't even bet that flop. I'll check it, hope to see a turn card that's a blank. Now 2 things have happened. First of all, his odds have cut themselves down drastically after seeing that brick on the turn, and 2nd of all, you're now in the big bet stage. So now you can bet 20 at the 40 pot, and lay him 3 to 1, with 1 card to come to chase that flush draw, with him having already seen the blank turn card peel off. You'll find first of all you'll be able to protect your hands more here, and 2nd of all, you won't spill money to the table as they call your flop bets on the draw and spike the turn.
So, with that out of the way, the specific games I play are 5/10 and 10/20(mostly 10/20 now) limit, 6 handed games. That being key for the next part of the story.
I play completely maniacal at the table, raising any two suited cards, connected cards, or face cards or pairs, as long as I'm not UTG. I find this works for alot of ways, even if I run into a hand that 3 bets me, I'm being layed a strong price to call, and see a relatively cheap flop(rather than facing an all-in re-shove) and I can win some huge pots. Alot of my biggest pots are with hands that would turn a stomach, 10h/4h cracking KK, with a K on the flop and I make a flush on the turn, things like that. While it sounds like that's just me running exorberantly well, it's really not, I think I put myself in alot of positions to win pots, either stealing some money by stealing blinds(keep in mind stealing blinds at 10/20 limit is the same as stealing blinds at 5/10 NL, so it can be very equitable to steal blinds frequently), or by flopping large. It's kind of similar to Marc Karam's NL strategy for low-level NL cash game tables, but only slightly altered to a limit table. The other key to adopting a stratagy this intense is the last part of the lessons :
The absolute most important part to limit poker, SAVE, YOUR, BETS
This can absolutely not be stressed enough. You have KK at a 10/20 table, raise to 20 preflop, get re-raised to 30, cap it to 40 and the player calls. Pot is 80 dollars. Flop is Kh/6h/2s. He bets out 10, you raise 20, he calls. 120 in the pot. Turn is a 10c. He checks, you bet out 20, he calls. 160 in the pot. River is a 9h. He bets out 20. You're actually being layed 9 to 1 to call here. Unfortunately, 98% of the time he's just made his flush(yes there are the odd players that are crazy enough to bet there with the pot odds they leave behind, but you let them have it). The truth is the biggest key to limit poker is not saying "Fuck, I think I just got rivered...I call.". You know you're beat, wonderful, fold. The biggest thing about limit poker is one key statistic, which I track along with my other statistics on limit play for myself, and that's "Showdown's won". Mine over the course of this entire run I'm on, is 89%. I'd say that's fairly strong. That's why I win at limit poker. I don't waste money to see how bad the river card was to me. Limit will allow chasing, accept it and don't pay to see it, and you'll do fine.
So with that said, back to my day today, I won't list alot of examples of hands, mainly because I was multi-tabling so I can't really remember all that many quite frankly, but what I do remember is booking a $3600 dollar day today total. I bought into 4 tables of 10/20 at 500 a peice, and eventually had 5600 in play over the 4 tables, including one table over 2k. What I do remember is I fell in love with suited connectors again today, I made countless large pots with 5/6, 6/7, 4/5 suited, and one of the sickest pots I've ever played which I will take the time to write out.
I'm UTG with QQ, so I raise it up to 20, it's called by 2 players. 60 in the pot to the flop. The flop is Q/8/5 rainbow. I bet out 10(ya, I bet that, no use check raising here), it gets raised, and 3 bet, so I cap it to 4 bets, it's called and called. 180 in the pot and we see the turn. A. I bet out 20 praying that's a good card for me, it's raised to 40, 3 bet to 60. I cap it to 80, call, call. 420 in the pot now. River is a 2. I bet out again, raise, 3 bet, I 4 bet, call, call. 660 dollar pot. My QQ goes up as the winning hand, and I rake the pot, neither of the other players show(surprising as you'll see in a second). I go through hand history to see what they had. 88 and 55. All 3 of us flopped a set.
So, after the quality poker session and a stop in at the mechanic's for an oil change, I drive out to Oakville and meet up with a few friends to go see Toronto FC play the New York Red Bulls.
This was my first MLS game, and since I seem to now almost always include little life lessons, here's todays. Even you Ottawa kids on jackseven. Make a trip to see Toronto FC play. It's a blast. Amazing atmosphere, the crowds are so heavily into it, singing, dancing, it's one gigantic party, like Mardi Gras in a stadium. It was the most fun I've had at a sporting event, ever. And I regularily go to Habs games in Montreal, I've been to Leafs games, been to Sens games, been to an NFL football game(Cincinatti), been to countless MLB games, been to a Raptors game, and I saw the Blue Jays win the World Series(granted I was 10 at the time, but still). Nothing compared to the sheer enjoyment of the Toronto FC game. I highly recommend you go down and check it out. The stadium is gorgeous and it's one hell of a party.
Griffin and I are planning to go down to Turning Stone next weekend for the tournament series down there, if you're planning on being there, we'll see you there. Griffin'll probably be the one sitting at a final table, and I'll probably be the one that busts in 14 minutes and goes and wins it all back playing a ring game.
I must be the worst person alive for even thinking myself qualified to write this. First let's start with a little background on myself.
I've played alot of limit poker at Brantford Charity Casino a few years ago I used to go almost every day down there to play the 5/10 game. I did well, but this is before I became the player I am today, I just always had a real nack for limit poker from the start I found.
Skip ahead, I start working for a Poker tour, running poker tournaments, playing them nightly, and so on. I became a solid NL player and a solid MTT player, but still always said I considered myself a better limit player than NL.
Skip ahead again, and finally I clear a bankroll after a very enjoyable, successful(cashed in my first WSOP event ever, although it wasn't an overly big number, those few days with Bruno at the WSOP will be long lasting memories, we had alot of fun, and both cashing was icing on the cake), and lucrative(over 5000 dollars earned for the trip) trip to Las Vegas, my first trip down there, I decided to toss some money down into online poker and see what became of it.
I bought in for 500 to Pokerstars after returning from Las Vegas, and have run that up to over 17,000 dollars currently on the site, and that's after I withdrew 5000 of it to pay the bill for my new TV(61" JVC HD-ILA HDTV, and all the new upgrades that had to be bought along with it), I plan on withdrawing a 2nd poker paycheque in a day or two, another $5,000 give or take.
How did that happen? Limit poker. I'm back at it, so I figured I'd take some time to explain my theories on limit poker. You may read this and decide I'm an imbecile, if so, sobeit. This is just how I've been so far pretty damn successful at a game alot of today's poker players find very difficult.
First, I want to make it clear that all these tips are strictly 6 handed mid-level limit games(5-10, 10-20).
Limit poker is a cruel game for a couple reasons, so let's establish the large problem people have with transitioning NL-limit poker.
Protecting your hands.
Okay, you've flopped top pair after raising preflop with AK in a 10-20 game and getting 4 callers. Flop comes Kh/6h/4c. Now would be a time to slam it in NL and try and protect against a potential draw. So go ahead and bet your 10 dollars into the 40 dollar pot, and lay him 5 to 1 to draw. Kind of hard for any flush draw not to see equity in that call now huh?
My solution isn't anything overly sophisticated, first of all you want to ensure yourself you're using position very well, and for me, with that flop, I won't even bet that flop. I'll check it, hope to see a turn card that's a blank. Now 2 things have happened. First of all, his odds have cut themselves down drastically after seeing that brick on the turn, and 2nd of all, you're now in the big bet stage. So now you can bet 20 at the 40 pot, and lay him 3 to 1, with 1 card to come to chase that flush draw, with him having already seen the blank turn card peel off. You'll find first of all you'll be able to protect your hands more here, and 2nd of all, you won't spill money to the table as they call your flop bets on the draw and spike the turn.
So, with that out of the way, the specific games I play are 5/10 and 10/20(mostly 10/20 now) limit, 6 handed games. That being key for the next part of the story.
I play completely maniacal at the table, raising any two suited cards, connected cards, or face cards or pairs, as long as I'm not UTG. I find this works for alot of ways, even if I run into a hand that 3 bets me, I'm being layed a strong price to call, and see a relatively cheap flop(rather than facing an all-in re-shove) and I can win some huge pots. Alot of my biggest pots are with hands that would turn a stomach, 10h/4h cracking KK, with a K on the flop and I make a flush on the turn, things like that. While it sounds like that's just me running exorberantly well, it's really not, I think I put myself in alot of positions to win pots, either stealing some money by stealing blinds(keep in mind stealing blinds at 10/20 limit is the same as stealing blinds at 5/10 NL, so it can be very equitable to steal blinds frequently), or by flopping large. It's kind of similar to Marc Karam's NL strategy for low-level NL cash game tables, but only slightly altered to a limit table. The other key to adopting a stratagy this intense is the last part of the lessons :
The absolute most important part to limit poker, SAVE, YOUR, BETS
This can absolutely not be stressed enough. You have KK at a 10/20 table, raise to 20 preflop, get re-raised to 30, cap it to 40 and the player calls. Pot is 80 dollars. Flop is Kh/6h/2s. He bets out 10, you raise 20, he calls. 120 in the pot. Turn is a 10c. He checks, you bet out 20, he calls. 160 in the pot. River is a 9h. He bets out 20. You're actually being layed 9 to 1 to call here. Unfortunately, 98% of the time he's just made his flush(yes there are the odd players that are crazy enough to bet there with the pot odds they leave behind, but you let them have it). The truth is the biggest key to limit poker is not saying "Fuck, I think I just got rivered...I call.". You know you're beat, wonderful, fold. The biggest thing about limit poker is one key statistic, which I track along with my other statistics on limit play for myself, and that's "Showdown's won". Mine over the course of this entire run I'm on, is 89%. I'd say that's fairly strong. That's why I win at limit poker. I don't waste money to see how bad the river card was to me. Limit will allow chasing, accept it and don't pay to see it, and you'll do fine.
So with that said, back to my day today, I won't list alot of examples of hands, mainly because I was multi-tabling so I can't really remember all that many quite frankly, but what I do remember is booking a $3600 dollar day today total. I bought into 4 tables of 10/20 at 500 a peice, and eventually had 5600 in play over the 4 tables, including one table over 2k. What I do remember is I fell in love with suited connectors again today, I made countless large pots with 5/6, 6/7, 4/5 suited, and one of the sickest pots I've ever played which I will take the time to write out.
I'm UTG with QQ, so I raise it up to 20, it's called by 2 players. 60 in the pot to the flop. The flop is Q/8/5 rainbow. I bet out 10(ya, I bet that, no use check raising here), it gets raised, and 3 bet, so I cap it to 4 bets, it's called and called. 180 in the pot and we see the turn. A. I bet out 20 praying that's a good card for me, it's raised to 40, 3 bet to 60. I cap it to 80, call, call. 420 in the pot now. River is a 2. I bet out again, raise, 3 bet, I 4 bet, call, call. 660 dollar pot. My QQ goes up as the winning hand, and I rake the pot, neither of the other players show(surprising as you'll see in a second). I go through hand history to see what they had. 88 and 55. All 3 of us flopped a set.
So, after the quality poker session and a stop in at the mechanic's for an oil change, I drive out to Oakville and meet up with a few friends to go see Toronto FC play the New York Red Bulls.
This was my first MLS game, and since I seem to now almost always include little life lessons, here's todays. Even you Ottawa kids on jackseven. Make a trip to see Toronto FC play. It's a blast. Amazing atmosphere, the crowds are so heavily into it, singing, dancing, it's one gigantic party, like Mardi Gras in a stadium. It was the most fun I've had at a sporting event, ever. And I regularily go to Habs games in Montreal, I've been to Leafs games, been to Sens games, been to an NFL football game(Cincinatti), been to countless MLB games, been to a Raptors game, and I saw the Blue Jays win the World Series(granted I was 10 at the time, but still). Nothing compared to the sheer enjoyment of the Toronto FC game. I highly recommend you go down and check it out. The stadium is gorgeous and it's one hell of a party.
Griffin and I are planning to go down to Turning Stone next weekend for the tournament series down there, if you're planning on being there, we'll see you there. Griffin'll probably be the one sitting at a final table, and I'll probably be the one that busts in 14 minutes and goes and wins it all back playing a ring game.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Brantford Session, the really good kind. Infact, call Guinness.
Well, today was the day where this really resonated with me, that I can do this as more than a recreational basis. Today was simultaneously 2 personal bests of mine. It was my highest cash game session win, and it was one of the most grotesque win rates I've ever seen much less personally posted.
So, without further adieu, my trip to Brantford Casino.
Basically the story goes, Griffin backed out of a trip to Fallsview, so I was left with nothing to do today. After sitting around and playing break even poker online, I decided I was kind of bored, and decided to head down to Brantford Casino where they offer some quality limit poker games, since that's what I've made this run at right now.
So, I got there around 8:00, waited for over an hour to get onto a table and got on at around 9:00. I sat at a 10/20 limit table, with 500 dollars.
For the first little while it was fairly boring, the table was inredibly easy, and I was real comfortable sitting there. One thing you should know before we go any further, is I'm bit of a maniac at limit poker, so when you hear stories of some of these hands, keep in mind, it's actually a very specific stratagy I have for the game.
In any event, I finally got a playable hand and decided to come into a pot. Qc/Jc, and saw a flop of K/Q/6 rainbow, 1 club. I bet out from EP, and got a raise and a couple of callers, so I called behind. Turn was the Ac, so I slowed down for a check call here now. It went bet 20, raise to 40, call infront of me, so I naturally called, and initial better called. River was a 10. I bet out, and only got one caller(not sure if I liked my bet here, more I thought about it after I could probably milk another bet out of some people if I check). Anyway, nice pot.
After that hand, I promptly bled chips back..
First, with A/10 in the cut-off raising and getting only BB to call. Flop was 10/4/6, he bet out I raised, he re-raised and I 4 bet him still figuring I had the best, he called. Turn was a 5. He checked, I bet, he raised, I called. River was a 7. He bet out. I flat folded to save the extra bet and he turned over 6/3. Nice hand?
Next, with A/J also in the cut-off the next rotation, I raised, got 3 callers from button, SB and BB. The flop was Ac/9h/4h(I had no hearts). I bet out, got everyone to call. Turn was a Jh. Not the best card but still not that bad. Checked to me so I bet again, and got everyone calling. River was a 7h, and it promptly went bet, raise infront of me. Obviously I folded. After that hand I was down to my original 500(actually a little more, I think it was 570 or so), when Griff called me to see what I was doing. I told him I was at the casino, and told him how I was doing. Now, this is important for the really insane part of this story. This call was right around 10:30pm.
The hand immediately following that phone call, I was in the BB. The cut-off raised, button called, SB called, and I called with Qc/9c. Pot sat at 80. Flop was gin, Jc/8c/6c. SB led out at the pot and bet 10, and I was going to raise, I wanted value right off the hop, but I saw the cut-off already reaching for his chips, and he tossed the 20 in before I could stop him. So, I decided to just call the 10 that I was initially faced with, to commit him to that raise to 20, so I could 3 bet it. The button called the 20, and the SB went to 30. I slammed over to 40, capping it. cut-off called, and button called. Pot was now $240. As if the flop wasn't gin, the turn was the absolute end all, be all, of gin cards. 10c. Perfect. Now there's 4 clubs on board, and I'm absolutely positive that the ace and king are out there. SB leads again for 20, and I smoothe call that 20, hoping cut-off will do me a favour again. And again he complies by raising to 40. Button calls the 40. SB goes to 60, and I cap it at 80(exact same betting pattern as the flop), everyone calls behind. Pot is now $560. River is a blank, a 3h I beleive, which really kind of upset me actually, I was hoping the board would pair because I had to beleive the other kid still in this hand(button), had a set and was chasing a boat. SB led out again for 20. I didn't screw around this time and I raised to 40. Cut-0ff called the 40, and the button finally folded. SB came back at it again to 60, and I re-raised again to 80. Cut-off still called, and SB called. Pot of $800. Cut-off showed KK with the Kc, SB showed AK, with the Ac, and I showed my straight flush. Ship it.
That put me close to 1200 for the session now. And that pretty much was the opening of the flood gates.
After a few more smaller pots, I had built it up to 1400 infront of me, and then my next big hand happened(remember what I said about hands that may not make sense, this is one of them...).
UTG I am dealt 10h/8h. This is the type of hand in limit I like to see flops with. Unfortunately I don't like my position, so I merely put on a semi-bluff and try and represent something more. I raise from UTG to 20. It's called twice before it's re-raised to 30, and 2 more calls behind that. Being that the pot is so big now, I decide to cap it and hope to flop large, knowing bad flops are easy to leave here, so I cap, and everyone in the pot calls. 6 players capped. Pot is 240. Flop is weak for me, even though I do make top pair. 10/6/4. I lead out 10, and it goes fold, fold, to the re-raiser, who raises to 20. Call, fold to me, so I call the extra 10. Pot is now 300. Turn isn't terrible. 5. Still a rainbow board, but now I do happen to find myself a straight draw. I check. Raiser bets 20, and it's called, so I call behind. River is gin, the 7. I lead out the 20, it gets called, and called. The raiser shows his overpair, QQ, the other player randomly shows 3/3, also for a straight now, and I show the high straight for the 360 dollar pot.
Now I'm sitting at nearly 1600, feeling good, playing pretty well, extracting chips efficiently, and I'm running really well right now too, so I'm in game mode.
I win another pot off the player who called that hand with 3/3 on every street. The first one I have 10/10, raise, get called by a few players. Flop is 8/6/4. I bet out, he calls along. Turn is a 6. I bet, he raises now, and I call. River is a 10. He bets out out of turn, so I check, and then raise his bet, he folds 3/3 face up this time after misplaying it brutally again.
A few hands later he calls a fairly well done bluff by me, I thought...on a K/K/6/A/2 board, with 4/2. A little startling, and a small dent, but that's alright.
The next hand I'm UTG with KK. Being the goofy player I am, I decide to just call here, because they're almost worthless until I've seen the flop. 4 players behind me all come along with raises until it's capped back to me with 5 players in the hand. I call. Pot is at 200. Flop is K/6/2. BB leads out, I raise, everyone folds to the BB who re-raises, I 4 bet, and he calls. Pot is now 280. Turn is a 9. He bets out, I raise, he 3 bets, I 4 bet(we're now uncapped), he raises again, and I 6 bet him, he calls. Pot is now $520. River is a Q. He bets out, I raise again, and smartly he finally realizes he's beat, but still calls, and shows 99. I show my KK for the 600 dollar pot, pushing me past $2000 infront of me now.
The table starts to fold away which is crushing to me since I was really loving the table, but I get one last pot in.
I call into a 6 way pot with 6h/8h. Pot is 60. Flop is literally startling to me. 5h/7h/9h. 2nd straight flush in a few hours, and it's right off the flop this time. The pot is capped before it even gets to me, so I call along. 5 players to the turn, pot is now $260. Turn is a Qc. Bet, raise, call, fold infront of me, I 3 bet, call, call, fold. 3 of us to the river. Pot is now $480. River is a 3s. Really upset there wasn't another heart since someone had to hold the Ah in this pot, and my straight flush is fairly well masked. It goes bet, call to me, I raise, and get called by both. One who flopped a baby flush(2/4 of hearts), the other one with 99 for top set. $600 dollar pot.
The last players from the table leave, and I look at the clock. 1:00am.
I look back at the castle of chips infront of me, and grab racks and start racking it up. 5 racks later, I'm just shy of the full 2500, $2480 was the final tally.
Just to really put this into perspective now, that's 1910 dollars, in 2 and a half hours of 10/20 limit. 95 big bets. 38 big bets / hour(these numbers are all during the streak I went on, the final tally is less gaudy but still fairly rediculous, 4 hours, 24 big bets / hour.
After my table had basically disintegrated, some new players came to sit down. I spent about a half hour or so at the table, but didn't like it, they all were younger, tighter, fairly solid players, so I just got up and walked out.
After that, I called Griff and told him how I had done, and I think he thought I was kidding at first since we had just talked about 3 hours before hand and I was even, but twas no joke good sir. Was just a real good run. Felt wonderful.
And to end the story on a creepy, weird note, another of my human interest stories. This one comes from me going to buy gas for the car-ride home. I stopped in at the gas station, and went to go pay for my gas, and noticed the new Maxim Magazine was out, so I picked it up. Erica Durance is on the cover, and she's a wonderful specimen of the human species. Anyway, I take the magazine up to the counter to pay for it and the gas, and this weird guy behind the counter, whose really overly polite, looks down at the magazine and goes, "Nice...". Nothing out of the ordinary, I concur with his sentiment that she is an attractive person. He then gets really, really creepy. In the picture she's wearing just underwear. He goes, "I wish I could get her out of that bra"...which is a little over the line, but okay. He then, and I couldn't make this up if I tried, proceeds to rub the picture of her, right where her breasts are. I pay for the magazine, and promptly tell him I'll just switch it out for a different one since that one is "damaged". He doesn't understand but allows it, and I leave the story much more creeped out than I once was.
Anywhoo, since I've typed for way too long anyway, let me pass along one final note to people. If you enjoy music, and the various melodies and harmonies that can be created my musicians, please, I'm begging you, go buy Hurt "Vol.2". Hurt is one of the best bands in music right now, and this CD is absolutely terrific.
So, without further adieu, my trip to Brantford Casino.
Basically the story goes, Griffin backed out of a trip to Fallsview, so I was left with nothing to do today. After sitting around and playing break even poker online, I decided I was kind of bored, and decided to head down to Brantford Casino where they offer some quality limit poker games, since that's what I've made this run at right now.
So, I got there around 8:00, waited for over an hour to get onto a table and got on at around 9:00. I sat at a 10/20 limit table, with 500 dollars.
For the first little while it was fairly boring, the table was inredibly easy, and I was real comfortable sitting there. One thing you should know before we go any further, is I'm bit of a maniac at limit poker, so when you hear stories of some of these hands, keep in mind, it's actually a very specific stratagy I have for the game.
In any event, I finally got a playable hand and decided to come into a pot. Qc/Jc, and saw a flop of K/Q/6 rainbow, 1 club. I bet out from EP, and got a raise and a couple of callers, so I called behind. Turn was the Ac, so I slowed down for a check call here now. It went bet 20, raise to 40, call infront of me, so I naturally called, and initial better called. River was a 10. I bet out, and only got one caller(not sure if I liked my bet here, more I thought about it after I could probably milk another bet out of some people if I check). Anyway, nice pot.
After that hand, I promptly bled chips back..
First, with A/10 in the cut-off raising and getting only BB to call. Flop was 10/4/6, he bet out I raised, he re-raised and I 4 bet him still figuring I had the best, he called. Turn was a 5. He checked, I bet, he raised, I called. River was a 7. He bet out. I flat folded to save the extra bet and he turned over 6/3. Nice hand?
Next, with A/J also in the cut-off the next rotation, I raised, got 3 callers from button, SB and BB. The flop was Ac/9h/4h(I had no hearts). I bet out, got everyone to call. Turn was a Jh. Not the best card but still not that bad. Checked to me so I bet again, and got everyone calling. River was a 7h, and it promptly went bet, raise infront of me. Obviously I folded. After that hand I was down to my original 500(actually a little more, I think it was 570 or so), when Griff called me to see what I was doing. I told him I was at the casino, and told him how I was doing. Now, this is important for the really insane part of this story. This call was right around 10:30pm.
The hand immediately following that phone call, I was in the BB. The cut-off raised, button called, SB called, and I called with Qc/9c. Pot sat at 80. Flop was gin, Jc/8c/6c. SB led out at the pot and bet 10, and I was going to raise, I wanted value right off the hop, but I saw the cut-off already reaching for his chips, and he tossed the 20 in before I could stop him. So, I decided to just call the 10 that I was initially faced with, to commit him to that raise to 20, so I could 3 bet it. The button called the 20, and the SB went to 30. I slammed over to 40, capping it. cut-off called, and button called. Pot was now $240. As if the flop wasn't gin, the turn was the absolute end all, be all, of gin cards. 10c. Perfect. Now there's 4 clubs on board, and I'm absolutely positive that the ace and king are out there. SB leads again for 20, and I smoothe call that 20, hoping cut-off will do me a favour again. And again he complies by raising to 40. Button calls the 40. SB goes to 60, and I cap it at 80(exact same betting pattern as the flop), everyone calls behind. Pot is now $560. River is a blank, a 3h I beleive, which really kind of upset me actually, I was hoping the board would pair because I had to beleive the other kid still in this hand(button), had a set and was chasing a boat. SB led out again for 20. I didn't screw around this time and I raised to 40. Cut-0ff called the 40, and the button finally folded. SB came back at it again to 60, and I re-raised again to 80. Cut-off still called, and SB called. Pot of $800. Cut-off showed KK with the Kc, SB showed AK, with the Ac, and I showed my straight flush. Ship it.
That put me close to 1200 for the session now. And that pretty much was the opening of the flood gates.
After a few more smaller pots, I had built it up to 1400 infront of me, and then my next big hand happened(remember what I said about hands that may not make sense, this is one of them...).
UTG I am dealt 10h/8h. This is the type of hand in limit I like to see flops with. Unfortunately I don't like my position, so I merely put on a semi-bluff and try and represent something more. I raise from UTG to 20. It's called twice before it's re-raised to 30, and 2 more calls behind that. Being that the pot is so big now, I decide to cap it and hope to flop large, knowing bad flops are easy to leave here, so I cap, and everyone in the pot calls. 6 players capped. Pot is 240. Flop is weak for me, even though I do make top pair. 10/6/4. I lead out 10, and it goes fold, fold, to the re-raiser, who raises to 20. Call, fold to me, so I call the extra 10. Pot is now 300. Turn isn't terrible. 5. Still a rainbow board, but now I do happen to find myself a straight draw. I check. Raiser bets 20, and it's called, so I call behind. River is gin, the 7. I lead out the 20, it gets called, and called. The raiser shows his overpair, QQ, the other player randomly shows 3/3, also for a straight now, and I show the high straight for the 360 dollar pot.
Now I'm sitting at nearly 1600, feeling good, playing pretty well, extracting chips efficiently, and I'm running really well right now too, so I'm in game mode.
I win another pot off the player who called that hand with 3/3 on every street. The first one I have 10/10, raise, get called by a few players. Flop is 8/6/4. I bet out, he calls along. Turn is a 6. I bet, he raises now, and I call. River is a 10. He bets out out of turn, so I check, and then raise his bet, he folds 3/3 face up this time after misplaying it brutally again.
A few hands later he calls a fairly well done bluff by me, I thought...on a K/K/6/A/2 board, with 4/2. A little startling, and a small dent, but that's alright.
The next hand I'm UTG with KK. Being the goofy player I am, I decide to just call here, because they're almost worthless until I've seen the flop. 4 players behind me all come along with raises until it's capped back to me with 5 players in the hand. I call. Pot is at 200. Flop is K/6/2. BB leads out, I raise, everyone folds to the BB who re-raises, I 4 bet, and he calls. Pot is now 280. Turn is a 9. He bets out, I raise, he 3 bets, I 4 bet(we're now uncapped), he raises again, and I 6 bet him, he calls. Pot is now $520. River is a Q. He bets out, I raise again, and smartly he finally realizes he's beat, but still calls, and shows 99. I show my KK for the 600 dollar pot, pushing me past $2000 infront of me now.
The table starts to fold away which is crushing to me since I was really loving the table, but I get one last pot in.
I call into a 6 way pot with 6h/8h. Pot is 60. Flop is literally startling to me. 5h/7h/9h. 2nd straight flush in a few hours, and it's right off the flop this time. The pot is capped before it even gets to me, so I call along. 5 players to the turn, pot is now $260. Turn is a Qc. Bet, raise, call, fold infront of me, I 3 bet, call, call, fold. 3 of us to the river. Pot is now $480. River is a 3s. Really upset there wasn't another heart since someone had to hold the Ah in this pot, and my straight flush is fairly well masked. It goes bet, call to me, I raise, and get called by both. One who flopped a baby flush(2/4 of hearts), the other one with 99 for top set. $600 dollar pot.
The last players from the table leave, and I look at the clock. 1:00am.
I look back at the castle of chips infront of me, and grab racks and start racking it up. 5 racks later, I'm just shy of the full 2500, $2480 was the final tally.
Just to really put this into perspective now, that's 1910 dollars, in 2 and a half hours of 10/20 limit. 95 big bets. 38 big bets / hour(these numbers are all during the streak I went on, the final tally is less gaudy but still fairly rediculous, 4 hours, 24 big bets / hour.
After my table had basically disintegrated, some new players came to sit down. I spent about a half hour or so at the table, but didn't like it, they all were younger, tighter, fairly solid players, so I just got up and walked out.
After that, I called Griff and told him how I had done, and I think he thought I was kidding at first since we had just talked about 3 hours before hand and I was even, but twas no joke good sir. Was just a real good run. Felt wonderful.
And to end the story on a creepy, weird note, another of my human interest stories. This one comes from me going to buy gas for the car-ride home. I stopped in at the gas station, and went to go pay for my gas, and noticed the new Maxim Magazine was out, so I picked it up. Erica Durance is on the cover, and she's a wonderful specimen of the human species. Anyway, I take the magazine up to the counter to pay for it and the gas, and this weird guy behind the counter, whose really overly polite, looks down at the magazine and goes, "Nice...". Nothing out of the ordinary, I concur with his sentiment that she is an attractive person. He then gets really, really creepy. In the picture she's wearing just underwear. He goes, "I wish I could get her out of that bra"...which is a little over the line, but okay. He then, and I couldn't make this up if I tried, proceeds to rub the picture of her, right where her breasts are. I pay for the magazine, and promptly tell him I'll just switch it out for a different one since that one is "damaged". He doesn't understand but allows it, and I leave the story much more creeped out than I once was.
Anywhoo, since I've typed for way too long anyway, let me pass along one final note to people. If you enjoy music, and the various melodies and harmonies that can be created my musicians, please, I'm begging you, go buy Hurt "Vol.2". Hurt is one of the best bands in music right now, and this CD is absolutely terrific.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Update(poker and life)...
So, this should be different, merely because I'm going to use this as a way to vent about alot of stuff, and this may come off however it comes off, I frankly don't care what people think of this issue of the blog, but since it is wrapped around poker let's at least start there.
I have this friend, we'll call him Shmiffin Shmenger as an alias. He has been a friend of mine for a long time now, ever since we travelled across North America playing a computer game together. Eventually there came a day where he decided to move in with me, and we got a place in Oakville together(the place, just for the record, was an absolute hole in the earth).
Anywhoo, he, around playing the computer game we played back in the day at the very highest level possible, decided he wanted to play poker too, and he was playing like 5 tables, and burning through a little money playing low stakes and learning. This to me, was weird, I spent my time reading and studying the game before I ever bought in for money. He jumped right into the fire, with some success but overall was basically a break-even player.
Something happened though, he figured this game out. I would say, right now today, I don't know a better NL Hold'Em tournament player than Griffin...I mean, Schmiffin. Granted I know of some other monsters in the MTT scene thanks to jackseven, like fishbones namely(congrats on the 65k btw, methinks it's time you ponied up for a WPT event). However, I've never seen a run like Schmiffin is on right now. In the last month or so, he's finished 3rd of 448 players for $3500, 3rd of 338 for $1900, 4th of 1095 for $1750, 2nd of 1130 for $3300, 1st of 276 for $7200 and 3rd of 1048 for $4300. That's over $20,000 in the last month or so.
Dating back a few months now, we were the opposite, I played the MTT scene, and he was a cash game junkie. Suddenly, about a month and a half ago(shortly after my trip to Las Vegas), we had a discussion where we both realized we were playing the wrong game. He started the MTT, because he's a monster at finding the right times to gamble, and always builds big chip stacks and contends.
Me, I'm a more reserved player, and thus I started out on a cash game run. Since I got back from Las Vegas, I bought in to Pokerstars for 400. I've turned that in to around 7000, and that's after taking some money out of the site for the first time. I've climbed from playing 2/4 limit and 1/2 limit, to playing regularily at 10/20 limit now online. Infact, and I know this because since I decided to do this I keep emmaculate records of my cash game play to ensure I'm ahead of the curve at the game I'm playing. In 23 days now, I have not once had a losing day. Granted that doesn't seem drastic, but 3 weeks of playing 5 hours every day(minimum), and never booking a loss, has seen my account steadily soaring. Can I keep this up? I'm sure not, but at the same time I don't feel like I'm doing anything drastically special or even running that well. I always considered myself a much better limit than NL player, and I rarely lose at limit poker anyway, this is just kind of a real hot-streak ontop of my already, what I consider very solid play.
It's become weird talking poker with Griffin...oops, Schmiffin, nowadays. When we talk, I don't want to get too nutty about it because we're both very much realists about these runs and that they can't last forever, but at the same time neither of us thinks we're doing anything extraordinary right now, and there's a level of excitement you can see in the way we discuss poker now, as if maybe this game is beatable, and this is a realistic profession to have. Obviously we knew it was, but had struggled with the idea that we could realistically do it for money steadily, and now there's a light at the end of that tunnel.
He might correct all this with a hate laced tirade about me putting words in his mouth, but this is the way I feel now. I feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel. It's refreshing, and it's been alot of fun earning between 189(worst day of the last 23), and 941(best day of the last 23) dollars a day for the last 23 days straight. Does that continue? No. Can I play this game consistently at a high level and expect to make money steadily playing limit, a game I consider myself very, very good at? Absolutely.
This all comes on the heels of me quitting my job at a computer sales store in the area. I didn't do it for poker, however, I did do it because of poker, if that makes any sense. I have alot of expendable money in various poker bankrolls, and ontop of that, I earn fairly consistently in online cash games. I didn't particularily need a job, but I liked the financial security of a guaranteed paycheck. However, I was not ready to work somewhere I hated working for that guaranteed paycheck. I quit after several bad days and several run ins with management and other personnel. If I can make a suggestion, never work in a field that has commisioned sales, maybe it's just my 2 experiences with it now, but it creates a really competitive and tense work environment.
And just for fun, despite this being related to poker precisely no way at all, I attended a few screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival this past week, the Midnight Madness showings.
The first one I attended was The Devil's Chair, this creepy English horror film, that was fairly tense, very gory, and slightly creative. It got a bit bogged down in the middle, albeit intentionally, and it got really repetative in the early going repeating the same jokes over and over, but the payoff was worth it. Pretty satisfying horror movie, although everyone including a few friends, kept telling us(myself and Griffin...that's right, I said it, fuck Schmiffin), to wait until Saturday's movie.
The next night we went to a martial arts movie starring Donnie Yen, one of the gods of Martial Arts films right now, who North American movie fans will recognize from Highlander: Endgame, Blade II and Shanghai Knights. He's starred in some badass movies overseas too, specifically SPL(Sha Po Lang). The other star of the film, Collin Chu, who was in The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Reloaded, as Seraph. The movie, entitled Dao Huo Xian(FlashPoint), was an inredibly done martial arts film that used alot of MMA fighting styles, submission holds and made the fight sequences all look incredibly realistic and cool. No wirework. No shenanigans. Just incredibly realistic looking straight fight scenes. The last one, between Collin and Donnie, was mind blowing and drew a standing ovation from the audience.
And the third one, the last of the festival, entitle À l'intérieur(The Inside), I don't even know what to say. The Weinstein Group bought it at the festival, and intends on releasing it. Where, I'm not sure. Because there isn't a hope it's on a North American theater screen. This movie was brutally, unrelentingly intense and terrifying, immensely gory, disturbing and haunting. This was one freakishly intense horror movie, that stemmed from a very basic story. It shows that these French directors coming out of France with horror movies really know what they're doing(Alexandre Aja also had a big debut in the same vain, called High Tension, that was also a simple story and just so rediculously well paced, tense and gory that you can't help but love it). This made High Tension even look tame.
Why do I babble on about all this? This was my first time at a film festival, and the experience is incredibly cool. The movies are light years better than some of the drivel Hollywood churns out(especially right now, Mr.Woodcock? Are you serious?). I strongly suggest going out to a festival, meet the directors, stars, talk to them, and support them and their efforts in making creative, original films. All three of these movies, if nothing else, had a style or way about them that was unique to movies I've seen, and I'm a huge fan of them.
To anyone playing online poker and not making any headway, keep your chin up. The game is beatable, it takes time. You may not be ready yet, but there'll be a point where you find a comfort zone, and you start finding the game borderline easy, and feel invincible(quoting Schmiffin), and this game becomes beautiful.
I have this friend, we'll call him Shmiffin Shmenger as an alias. He has been a friend of mine for a long time now, ever since we travelled across North America playing a computer game together. Eventually there came a day where he decided to move in with me, and we got a place in Oakville together(the place, just for the record, was an absolute hole in the earth).
Anywhoo, he, around playing the computer game we played back in the day at the very highest level possible, decided he wanted to play poker too, and he was playing like 5 tables, and burning through a little money playing low stakes and learning. This to me, was weird, I spent my time reading and studying the game before I ever bought in for money. He jumped right into the fire, with some success but overall was basically a break-even player.
Something happened though, he figured this game out. I would say, right now today, I don't know a better NL Hold'Em tournament player than Griffin...I mean, Schmiffin. Granted I know of some other monsters in the MTT scene thanks to jackseven, like fishbones namely(congrats on the 65k btw, methinks it's time you ponied up for a WPT event). However, I've never seen a run like Schmiffin is on right now. In the last month or so, he's finished 3rd of 448 players for $3500, 3rd of 338 for $1900, 4th of 1095 for $1750, 2nd of 1130 for $3300, 1st of 276 for $7200 and 3rd of 1048 for $4300. That's over $20,000 in the last month or so.
Dating back a few months now, we were the opposite, I played the MTT scene, and he was a cash game junkie. Suddenly, about a month and a half ago(shortly after my trip to Las Vegas), we had a discussion where we both realized we were playing the wrong game. He started the MTT, because he's a monster at finding the right times to gamble, and always builds big chip stacks and contends.
Me, I'm a more reserved player, and thus I started out on a cash game run. Since I got back from Las Vegas, I bought in to Pokerstars for 400. I've turned that in to around 7000, and that's after taking some money out of the site for the first time. I've climbed from playing 2/4 limit and 1/2 limit, to playing regularily at 10/20 limit now online. Infact, and I know this because since I decided to do this I keep emmaculate records of my cash game play to ensure I'm ahead of the curve at the game I'm playing. In 23 days now, I have not once had a losing day. Granted that doesn't seem drastic, but 3 weeks of playing 5 hours every day(minimum), and never booking a loss, has seen my account steadily soaring. Can I keep this up? I'm sure not, but at the same time I don't feel like I'm doing anything drastically special or even running that well. I always considered myself a much better limit than NL player, and I rarely lose at limit poker anyway, this is just kind of a real hot-streak ontop of my already, what I consider very solid play.
It's become weird talking poker with Griffin...oops, Schmiffin, nowadays. When we talk, I don't want to get too nutty about it because we're both very much realists about these runs and that they can't last forever, but at the same time neither of us thinks we're doing anything extraordinary right now, and there's a level of excitement you can see in the way we discuss poker now, as if maybe this game is beatable, and this is a realistic profession to have. Obviously we knew it was, but had struggled with the idea that we could realistically do it for money steadily, and now there's a light at the end of that tunnel.
He might correct all this with a hate laced tirade about me putting words in his mouth, but this is the way I feel now. I feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel. It's refreshing, and it's been alot of fun earning between 189(worst day of the last 23), and 941(best day of the last 23) dollars a day for the last 23 days straight. Does that continue? No. Can I play this game consistently at a high level and expect to make money steadily playing limit, a game I consider myself very, very good at? Absolutely.
This all comes on the heels of me quitting my job at a computer sales store in the area. I didn't do it for poker, however, I did do it because of poker, if that makes any sense. I have alot of expendable money in various poker bankrolls, and ontop of that, I earn fairly consistently in online cash games. I didn't particularily need a job, but I liked the financial security of a guaranteed paycheck. However, I was not ready to work somewhere I hated working for that guaranteed paycheck. I quit after several bad days and several run ins with management and other personnel. If I can make a suggestion, never work in a field that has commisioned sales, maybe it's just my 2 experiences with it now, but it creates a really competitive and tense work environment.
And just for fun, despite this being related to poker precisely no way at all, I attended a few screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival this past week, the Midnight Madness showings.
The first one I attended was The Devil's Chair, this creepy English horror film, that was fairly tense, very gory, and slightly creative. It got a bit bogged down in the middle, albeit intentionally, and it got really repetative in the early going repeating the same jokes over and over, but the payoff was worth it. Pretty satisfying horror movie, although everyone including a few friends, kept telling us(myself and Griffin...that's right, I said it, fuck Schmiffin), to wait until Saturday's movie.
The next night we went to a martial arts movie starring Donnie Yen, one of the gods of Martial Arts films right now, who North American movie fans will recognize from Highlander: Endgame, Blade II and Shanghai Knights. He's starred in some badass movies overseas too, specifically SPL(Sha Po Lang). The other star of the film, Collin Chu, who was in The Matrix Revolutions and The Matrix Reloaded, as Seraph. The movie, entitled Dao Huo Xian(FlashPoint), was an inredibly done martial arts film that used alot of MMA fighting styles, submission holds and made the fight sequences all look incredibly realistic and cool. No wirework. No shenanigans. Just incredibly realistic looking straight fight scenes. The last one, between Collin and Donnie, was mind blowing and drew a standing ovation from the audience.
And the third one, the last of the festival, entitle À l'intérieur(The Inside), I don't even know what to say. The Weinstein Group bought it at the festival, and intends on releasing it. Where, I'm not sure. Because there isn't a hope it's on a North American theater screen. This movie was brutally, unrelentingly intense and terrifying, immensely gory, disturbing and haunting. This was one freakishly intense horror movie, that stemmed from a very basic story. It shows that these French directors coming out of France with horror movies really know what they're doing(Alexandre Aja also had a big debut in the same vain, called High Tension, that was also a simple story and just so rediculously well paced, tense and gory that you can't help but love it). This made High Tension even look tame.
Why do I babble on about all this? This was my first time at a film festival, and the experience is incredibly cool. The movies are light years better than some of the drivel Hollywood churns out(especially right now, Mr.Woodcock? Are you serious?). I strongly suggest going out to a festival, meet the directors, stars, talk to them, and support them and their efforts in making creative, original films. All three of these movies, if nothing else, had a style or way about them that was unique to movies I've seen, and I'm a huge fan of them.
To anyone playing online poker and not making any headway, keep your chin up. The game is beatable, it takes time. You may not be ready yet, but there'll be a point where you find a comfort zone, and you start finding the game borderline easy, and feel invincible(quoting Schmiffin), and this game becomes beautiful.
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