EricCrain
Yes, actually, I did raise that crap.
I have fans!!!
I'll be honest ... before tonight, I never knew people outside of my facebook friends and die-hard poker fans read my blog. Tonight, however, I found out differently.
Grinding my nightly $8/16 o8 game, a player who is also a hyper-aggressive player who I have had words with before made this comment after capping the flop and turn with Q high/no draw
Dealer: jakz101poker has 15 seconds left to act
Dealer: raiseandfold shows two pair, Kings and Twos, for high
Dealer: jakz101poker shows a full house, Nines full of Kings, for high
Dealer: jakz101poker wins the pot ($229) with a full house, Nines full of Kings
Dealer: Hand #23881860635
jakz101poker: almost
raiseandfold: maybe yiy should write that in your blog fat %%$
What a read by him! I am quite the fat%%$, and will include it in my blog! More than anything, I'm honored. To think, little ole me, coming from a small town in Illinois, would have real followers of his blog! So I would like to thank you, raiseandfold, for recognizing my blog.
Earlier tonight, I was getting hammered. Somehow, I was stuck about 80bbs at o8, but am back on the uptick and am even again. That's right, raiseandfold, not only have you contributed to my comeback, but to my blog as well. TY, and goodnight.
Internet poker nerds
This probably isn't the right place to complain about this. I would imagine that roughly 90% of my reading audience will be offended by this. Earlier tonight, I was bored and somehow got linked to some Sorel cheating thread on 2+2, and read about three or four pages of it. I will never get those minutes of my life back. Ever.
Back when I started playing for a living in 2005, I don't remember the insufferable self-righteous jackasses being around. I remember meeting xmrstyle, tongni and mntbikr18 in Nassau. I remember Get Crunk and Tommyboy at my first USPC in AC. I remember hanging out with stuckinpgh in Louisville for the first time. I remember meeting Micon in Tunica. I remember meeting UCNoles, What is 7x6 and BradL in Vegas. And all of them are some really cool fucking guys. No egos, no self-promotion, just normal guys hanging out who liked playing poker. I have been insanely lucky with my friends in the poker community. They're all great guys. I wish this was the rule, as opposed to the exception.
The first internet guy I ever met at a live poker table who I felt the need to punch multiple times was this obnoxious guy with a monotone voice in Louisville. He asked me my screenname (not my real name ... ever) and then said "oh I don't know you. I'm (insert crafty name here)." He then started rambling off these random tournament wins he had and some other crap that I didn't care about. I was embarrassed that this anti-social, pimple-faced, ego maniacal loser was even talking to me. This is why I prefer talking to people at the poker table who are way older than me. They're there cause they enjoy playing. If they win, cool. If they lose, oh well. No stroking their own entitled egos ... just having a good time.
Of course, this breed of older poker players are quickly becoming extinct. Sure, there will always be a man who sees Chris Moneymaker on TV and wants to give it a go on the internet. Me may throw $100 on here or $200 on there, but generally these guys flame out quickly. It's usually not because they're losing money. Most older people who get into poker consider it a hobby and generally write off the costs as a loss before they start. Rather, they're driven away by these losers who continually berate poor players because of bad beats and an immense need to feed their own egos.
Do these douche bags really think the way to build a business is to insult your potential customers? If I was a 35 year old with a 100k a year job, I wouldn't spend my leisure time (and more importantly, money) playing online poker if I was going to be told how awful I was, how I'm going to go broke, how an opponent hopes I die or something bad happens to my family. Not only is it grossly rude (and possibly illegal), but it's insanely counterproductive for somebody to taunt these people. If you're running a business and charging too much for a product but people are still buying, do you taunt the customers while they're leaving, telling them how dumb they are? Clearly the answer is no, and it should be no different when it comes to running your own online poker business.
These internet poker nerds are hurting the bottom line of the poker industry for the sake of stroking their own egos. It's a group that I'm embarrassed to be associated with.
Two years ago, I was walking around the Rio with Pokernews reporter Elissa Harwood. We were walking past a group of kids whose friend had just won his match to cash in the WSOP heads-up event. As the group walked past us, one of the kids snickered, "Dude, you super used him!" I looked at Elissa and said "fucking internet nerds." She gave me a look as to say, "aren't you in that group too?"
Please, don't lump me in with that group just because I'm under 30. I loathe them and would rather hang out with the old school crew any day rather than these self-righteous 20something dorks.
$2500 8-game in Tunica
This is going to have to be a quick blog. I'm currently on dinner break from the $2500 8-game at the Gold Strike. Before the tourney I decided to set the over/under of entrants at 20 people. The under hit. By a lot.
When we started the day, I was at the final table. I was registrant number 5, and 3 more followed. Me, Chad Brown, Vanessa Rousso, WSOP POY Frank Kassela, Captain Tom, tight internet player, aggro internet player, 1 amateur. We started with 15k in chips and are yet to lose a player. Chad is the chipleader with 30k, I'm closely behind with 27k and Vanessa has about 20k. Nobody else is above their starting stack.
For the most part, the table has been fun and friendly. I always thought Vanessa was pretty on television but had never met her in real life. She is positively stunning in person. Chad Brown runs good.
I decided to go with the headphones/sunglasses/backward s hat look. I feel like quite the douchebag, but for whatever reason I am able to concentrate more when I have that look going on. More serious is better, especially when playing against world-class players.
While the table has been fun, Kassela seems to think that some of us don't belong and wasn't afraid to post about it on twitter. I got upstairs and decided to look at my opponents twitter accounts to see if they thought anything about my play/tells/etc. I find this post instead from frank.
"Only 8 people signed up for this 8 game mix event and 4 of them really shouldn't have"
You're a class act Frank! Mumble under your breath about how the idiots at the table have no chance. I can only assume that the 4 he thinks should have signed up were Chad, Vanessa, Captain Tom and himself. No love for the short chubby guy.
I decided to follow him on twitter and tweet these two messages.
ericcrain
@fkassela 4 of us shouldn't have signed up huh? More motivation baby.
ericcrain
Apparently I shouldn't have signed up for the $2500 8-game according to @fkassela. We shall seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee .
Apparently winning the WSOP POY gives you free reign to tell people how awful they are and have an inflated ego while hiding behind your iPad at the table (yes, really).
Gotta get going. Hoping to post tomorrow about how I took this down. Peace!
Clarity and poker.
For me, the last month has been quite a whirlwind. I've tilted, I've played focused, I've blown big stacks, grinded small stacks, tilted because LeBron is a douche, lived at an ex-girlfriend's house for a weekend, traveled from hotel to hotel, all while seriously contemplating what the next step in my life is going to be.
I never planned on being a poker lifer. I see the guys at my table, middle-aged, sad and lonely, waiting for their next pair of aces to try and win the rent money. Of course, this isn't everybody who plays poker professionally. The influx of young talent has made it tough to distinguish between a poker table and the most aggressive daycare on the planet. Unfortunately, the sad truth is that the odds are overwhelmingly in favor of a young poker superstar ending up hoping and praying for their next big pot, just like the middle-aged man they make fun of while they're away from the tables.
ESPN does an incredible job of glamorizing the poker scene. They show the excitement of winning a race at the World Series of Poker. They show the improbable becoming possible and the ensuing jubilation of kings running down aces. They show the agony of defeat the the overwhelming joy of winning. It's not nearly that glamorous.
For every Joe Cada or Joe Hachem, there's an ordinary Joe, grinding his way in the $1-2 nl cash games, just trying to put food on the table for his family. To slightly lesser extents, I have been on both ends of the spectrum. I've gone from a $250,000 loser to a $250,000 winner in the same day. I've outplayed people on ESPN and I've grossly been outplayed on ESPN (Thank you Michael DeMichele). I've also grinded $5/10 and $8/16, trying to win enough to make sure my bills were paid and I had enough leftover to buy the new Madden.
The problem with experience column A is having to deal with the subsequent and generally inevitable column B. VERY few people have the mental stability to stick around at the highest stakes in the world. I would argue that there are more skilled players than a David Chiu or Barry Greenstein, but their ability to focus and stay off tilt are simply world-class. Chiu, in fact, was playing $30/60 cash games just days after winning over $1 million dollars in a WPT tournament. That, ladies and gentlemen, is discipline.
The point is, being a professional poker player is not for everybody. I feel like when I'm focused I among the best in the world, and my results have backed that up. I have over $750,000 in career online tournament cashes with an ROI over 30% since 2006. I have two WSOP circuit rings ($300 nl in 2006 for $63,000 and $500 HORSE in 2009 for $13,000) in a limited number of tournaments. I cashed 13th in the $3000 nl at the 2008 WSOP for $35,000. I finished 2nd in a $500 nl in Biloxi in 2009 for $35,000. I final tabled the $2,500 8-game event at the 2009 WSOP for $38,000. My point is - I am a damn good poker player. Now, if only that was enough.
It's no secret among those who read this blog or are close friends of mine that the last year has been a struggle. For the most part, I've remained borderline-comfortable, but living this way can take its toll on anybody. My mental stability is nearly non-existent, which is in lockstep with my body's stability. What this all boils down to is that I don't want to wake up one day and be that middle-aged man who sits across the table, hoping to flop a set or make his flush so he can make sure his family is provided for. Oftentimes, I see this as my ghost of Christmas future. It scares the hell out of me.
In that spirit, I'm finally taking steps to rectify the problem at hand. I will undoubtedly play poker forever, but I will not be a professional poker player for much longer. I am enrolling into school this fall, moving toward a future that doesn't resemble my present. I plan on finishing my bachelors in a year, followed by completing my masters and (if I'm feeling ambitious) eventually getting my doctorate. I want to be a college professor someday. I want to do something that makes a difference in peoples lives, rather than trying to destroy lives to fill my own pocketbooks. I want to work with people instead of against everybody I come in contact with.
If you can make a living as a professional poker player, by all means, you have my respects. There are times that it drives me crazy that I cannot comfortably do the same. That said, I imagine there will come a day when settling for the less, rather than suffering while chasing the more, will prove to be one of the best decisions of my life.
Getting ready to sleep on a jet plane.
I haven't slept yet. It's 2.16 pm. After Sunday tourneys last night, I decided it would be a good idea to head to the bar to celebrate a final table. A drink or two led to a trip to Steak n Shake and playing Chinese Poker until 630 am. Incredibly, this was a short Chinese Poker trip to Steak n Shake for my friend Daryn and I. Last time we showed up at 2 am and played until 11:30 am. Even the waitresses commented on our degeneracy.
This time, however, I got home and had to pack my stuff. I packed, sat down on the couch and realized that I was ready to go to Vegas NOW. So I drove the 2 hour drive to St. Louis. I got here about 10 am, but couldn't decide which plane to take. Turned out I waited too long to make a decision and ended up stuck on a flight with a layover in Phoenix. If my friends think I'm indecisive on 8 hours of sleep at 6 pm, they should see me at noon with no sleep. Really, it is special.
So now I'm sitting at the airport, just put in a small session on Pokerstars and am ready to board my flight. My first event with be the $1500 HORSE on Wednesday. I'll post more about my WSOP plans and any other fun stories that may occur later. Until then.............
Big wins for friends
What a Sunday it was a week ago. Maybe the biggest Sunday ever for internet poker, I celebrated by skipping it. It was probably bad timing for me to be burnt out, but I would have shot off money quicker than a drunken jakz coming home at 3am and playing Benyamine.
I still got my gambling fix in though, when I got to rail my friends Tommyboy83 and BradL go deep in the 2k SCOOP and 10k SCOOP, respectively. Tommy ended up chopping the 2k event for something over 200k. I'd check, but I'm just too lazy to do so. Tommy I think got better than 2nd place money though, and finished 3rd, so it was def. a good chop. Plus, his playing until 7am and my railing allowed me to get McDonalds breakfast. Go me!
Brad's event was actually a two-day event. He was 7/27 going into day 2 of the 10k SCOOP Main Event. He put on a clinic of tournament poker - picking up blinds with nothing, re-stealing with nothing on occasion, making good laydowns when he was beat and didn't get too involved with any one hand. He was above average when he reached the final table and eventually got 3rd for over 600k. Mad respect to both of you guys.
As for me, I've been busy getting buried (per the usual) in cash games and winning it back with a tournament score. If I get a score today, it will be no different. Stupid cash games.
Fun night of mini tourneys
Usually I reserve my tourney play for Sundays. My normal schedule is all the major NL tourneys, any horse/o8 tourney over $215 and a few others sprinkled in. I really don't have the grind for tourneys nowadays, so usually one day a week will suffice for me.
Tonight though, I was in a mood for some reason. I talked to a few local buddies and we got in as many o8 and HORSE tourneys as we could find on FTP and Pokerstars. My biggest score of the night came in the form of the $117 Super Turbo on FTP. I was relatively short throughout the tourney and had to catch a couple miracles to survive (beating AT with A5, chopping A8 vs AT). I had forgotten about how crazy that tourney is, even deep into it. I was 2/11 but never really had any spots to chip up. 5 minutes later I was 11/11 and I hadn't seen a flop! I got to the final table 3rd in chips and 4 people busted out rather quickly. I was 2nd in chips when UTG (3rd in chips ) open shoved 15 BBs into my AQhh. I decided to gamble and called, only to find him holding AK (oops). I flopped 2 hearts but couldn't catch up and was crippled to 3 BBs. I stole a couple blinds the next 2 hands (how nobody called I don't know) and then beat the UTG ship by 5th place who held 84 to my AK and was 4 handed. I folded for a few orbits (really, I have to stop doing that in the super turbos) and got it in with 33 vs an identical stack with A8 and lost the race. Still, $3500 is a pretty decent score for a 200 person tourney.
I also final tabled the $26 plo8 on FTP, getting it in on the KQ5 flop with AK64 vs AQ83 for a pot worth 3/4 of the chips in play. The guy who had been berating me for not taking a deal spiked his Q on the river to cripple me. I busted the next hand. I think I got $500ish for that FT. I had a min cash in the stars nightly $22 o8 and am still in the nightly $33 HORSE. Mad props to my buddy Salukitiger for also still being in with 12 left. We'll celebrate tomorrow at a Southern Illinois Miners game, but now it's time to get back to work and take down the $750 for first! Gotta keep on the good grind!
SCOOPed up
So, um, the SCOOP has been awful. I have one min-cash thus far in the $55 o8, and a bunch of early exits. I've been playing mostly the L and M schedule, with a few occasional embarrassing entries into the H tourneys. The 5k o8 and 1500 hu were early exits. Today I'm giving the H tourneys another shot, in the $3k, $300 and $30 8 game and $1000, $100 and $10 plo8. Hoping today goes better than the rest of my SCOOP.
Overall tourneys have been going average for the most part. I took down a small plo tourney yesterday on FTP for 1kish. Two Sundays ago I took down the $215 o8, took 2nd in the $215 HORSE and won a 109 turbo. Was my first winning Sunday in months!
Sorry I don't have more time to write more or better. Have my 3 8-game tables up and am pretty much going to win all 3. Just thought you should know.
Sunday Funday!
For me "winning Sunday" has been an oxymoron. It simply doesn't happen. I always wake up with hopes of a big score and always seem to end the day in disappointment. It's like going out on a date. Yesterday, however, I finally won! Oh, Sunday, you will not defeat me anymore!
My day started out awful. Quick losses in the FTOPS main event, SCOOP Event 2, $215 heads up, $640 WSOP sat and a few other worthless, awful tournaments. I did nothing but lose, play NBA 2k 10 and watch my buddy Kevin take 7th in the FTOPS 109 rebuy rush event (mad props homie). The night time tournaments went much better. I finished 2nd in the $215 Pokerstars HORSE tournament. I lost to an old friend (samEnole). He offered to chop it straight up when I drew even, but felt like a gamble and let him kick my butt to take 2nd. After that I won the $215 omaha hi/lo on Stars. When we got to 3-handed one of the players suggested that since I had 65% of the chips in play and "seems to have some shorthanded o8 experience,' that they just give me first place money so they could split 2nd and 3rd. Um, really? Sweet! GG guys. I thought this had to be the greatest chop ever until GambleAB informed me that he once got them to give up 105% of 1st place so they could chop 2nd and 3rd. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. I would have quit here but my buddy racehorse was super deep in the FTOPS main event, so I entered a $109 turbo to occupy my time while railing. Won that one too. Pretty sure that's the first time I've ever won 2 tourneys in the same day. Wish I had won the HORSE to make it 3!
Super congrats to racehorse for getting 33rd in the FTOPS main too. We all had the run-good skype rail going on, but no luck. Oh well, that concludes a good sunday and a mostly worthless FTOPS. Now it's time for the SCOOP, a little live action at the Mid South Poker Classic in Tulsa and then onto the WSOP!
Make structures better!
I've had a few weeks to recover from the circuit events in STL. Oddly enough, I'm still sick from the awful environment that was there. It really makes me wonder how I'll survive the WSOP since my immune system seems to really, really hate cigarette smoke. Regardless, it's good to be back home and have time to reflect on the two-week trip.
During the two weeks I was there my good friend Greg Russell drove up to play in the $340 buy-in HORSE event. Greg is a typical poker enthusiast. He enjoys home games, playing low-limit online tournaments and cash games and enjoys watching poker on TV. He's no slouch, as he is constantly working to improve his game and even won a $300 buy-in WPT preliminary HORSE tourney in Tunica last year. In addition to having a pure passion for poker, he works a full time job, making it difficult to travel to any tournaments. Generally, he'll make a couple poker trips a year, either to Tunica, Tulsa, Vegas or this year, St. Louis.
Now, Greg was pumped traveling to STL. He always gets geared up for the live HORSE tournaments because he has a legitimate love for the game. He left work early on Friday, drove two hours to play and was immediately hit with a blind structure that is generally reserved for the phrase "turbo." He asked me afterwards, "why are casinos and tournament directors in such a big hurry to rush players out the door?" It's a legitimate question that tournament directors need to ask themselves. I understand the idea of wanting to get the tournament over with quickly, but at the same time they are alienating their core customer. The structures for tournaments are simply way to fast in a lot of instances. This isn't always the case. In Tulsa, for example, the tournament staff does a great job of giving tons of play to the players. They take care of the customers. In St. Louis though, this wasn't even close to the case. I know directors are trying to speed up play to make one day events and the casinos are there to just make money, but it seems like they're missing the big picture. Many of my lower limit players would love to play in more live tournaments like a WSOP circuit event, but would like to feel they get their moneys worth. Like everyone else in the world they can sit in the bedroom, surf the tivo menu and play some poker on the internet. If it's that easy, why go to a brick and mortor casino? Greg says he likes to mingle with people and have the feeling if the river is going to burn him, he want to see it in person and not by a computer program.
So basically, he likes playing live! He likes the camaraderie, the feel of the cards, throwing chips into the pot ... the same sorts of things that a lot of us fell in love with when we started playing poker. This isn't an article about making the tournaments more skill based or making the first levels of tourneys not matter - it's an article about remembering why the amateurs like to come out to the casino and try their luck in a WSOPC-circuit event. The current structures are way to fast to enjoy yourself and play cards. These director set up play to be so fast its gamble gamble gamble, get a little lucky or see ya at the buffet. So really, why should Greg bother spending the money if he isn't going to get his money's worth?
Casinos and tournament directors really should focus on looking at the big picture. After gas, hotel room and meals, Greg had spent $500 without ever seeing a flop. How can the casinos possibly expect to keep amateurs coming around if they don't give them more than a couple hours of entertainment. If these players stop coming around because they feel like they're not getting their money's worth, it's going to hurt the bottom line of everybody. The casinos won't make the extra money from the hotel, food, table games and tournament feels. The professional players won't have as many amateurs to feed off of in the tournaments. Greg coming is good for everybody except Greg, unless the structures change and he gets his money's worth by being able to sit down and play for more than just a 90 minutes. If you're a casino, why would you shove him out the door? He should be made to feel like he can sit down in a tourney and play some cards for a while and enjoy people. With internet poker available at the click of a mouse, Greg can stay at home, pay the same tournament fee, play more hands and save $500 off his travel expenses. If you take away why people love to come play, they won't come around anymore. That's not good for anybody.
