WRCKNGBLL
blog champs event 2
well i cashed and still playing in this fking tourney but sick to death of the fking BS beats on stars going on 4 mths now- bunch of kunts i have been treading water for 3 weeks. geting deep in one or two tourneys here and there only to get fkd over by absolute bullshit. fuck u stars, thanks for the freeroll but FUCK U KUNTS....:]
stars blogger champs
Option 2
<div style="height:180px;width:100% ;"><a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/blog_tournament/"><img src="http://www.pokerstars.com/images/wbcoop/180x150.gif" alt="Online Poker" align="left" style="margin-right:10px;" border="0"></a><p>I have registered to play in the WBCOOP PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! You too can <a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/">Play Poker Online</a> at PokerStars.com and take part in the WBCOOP which is open to all Bloggers by registering on <a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/blog_tournament/">WBCOOP</a> to play.</p><p>Registration code: 366623 </p></div>
The code above will look like the following:
stars blogger champs starts
<div style="height:125px;width:100% ;"><a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/blog_tournament/"><img src="http://www.pokerstars.com/images/wbcoop/125x125.gif" alt="Online Poker" align="left" style="margin-right:10px;" border="0"></a><p>I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online <a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/">Poker</a> tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on <a href="http://www.pokerstars.com/blog_tournament/">WBCOOP</a> to play.</p><p>Registration code: 366623 </p></div>
free scoop tourney entries up for grabs!
great week
So i have been back at the tables putting in some volume and had two good results this week. Pocket five rankings and OPR files look good.
1st in Fifty Fifty for $11,500 and 2nd in Nightly 100k for $16,800 in consecutive days... then came crashing back to earth today despite a very determined effort to keep it going. Thing is i played well. Apart from one big mistake, a total donk off with 30 or so left in the Fifty Fifty when i thought my opponenet would go away (I did have top pair with marginal kicker QJ, he has KK) but otherwise played well enough today imo.
Key hands today-
$320 Quater Million - Build it to almost 9k stack before re raising one player all in with QQ and getting snap called by a short stack in blinds with 77. Shame. Then get in with AQ v A8... busto... hes calling off like 1/3rd his stack there...??? Im in EP... whatever... thanks for calling!
Nightly 70k - i re raise an UTG limper with my AK get called and flat his flop bet on A4x board. Then re raise big his turn bet which he flats. Pretty sure i am good here... Then he snap shoves the river.... I think something odd here... but the pot is about 4,500 and he shoves for 1,800... there is a one card straight out there but dont put him on that, just dont think he has a set but rather AQ or AJ.... i look at pot and whats left of my stack and decide i have to call even though all of a sudden i feel like i am behind for the first time and the DC has 54 for made 2 pair on river... ok champ well played. maybe my pot control could be better here but also looks like a good spot to dbl v AQ or AJ and if he has A rag well I cant complain about him calling a big re raise pre flop with it! He played 54 UTG for his stack... There are so many good opps to get easy chips early in these big field MTTs and thats just one that got away I guess.
Fifty Fifty.... I was short short short for sooo long and then with about 350 left i get two double ups with big pairs against smaller pairs.... never understand why some peeps want to go to war with someone who hasnt been playing much with what is so likely a weaker holding... anyway start chopping away a bit now before some smarty pants flats my raise pre flop and then I CR all in with QJ on Q high board... what a spastic... with like 50 BBs ... I really donked off 90% of my stack there and then copped a beat with AJs v QTs when a guy who was after me just called out of spite... he was in BB but def not priced in to call... he just wanted to get me... i baited him to call me earlier when i had him crushed and he was after me ever since!
And in the $109s 40k and 2nd chance... my notes a bit messy but got crippled with some sickness AIPF incl QQ v KT, AT v A5, QQ on 6 high flop which i shove and get snap called by AK... come on now! Aside from that i didnt win the flips i needed to... funny thing about my flips is 90% of the time i get it in first... so many people jsut love to race and theres a time and place for that but id rather get it in good when i have a good idea of where i am at... the one time i got it in behind (that wasnt a race with me holding overs) was with A3 v A7 in a blind battle.
All in all i played decent... shame that in my best shot at a decent score today i just got sloppy. Live and learn! I battled away for hours and hours and then with 30 left i feel like i am usually quite good at picking spots and generally knuckling down to earn as much as I can. I am still yinging and yanging between loosening up to take a punt at the big money and getting to the FT and going from there. And defintely need to work on my FT bubble play, the whole 5 and 6 handed thing is something i would like to get a lot better at as far as hand ranges/holdings go- have to make those adjustments to the looser 6max dynmaics.
what i learnt at the wsop
i believe i need to adjust my thinking in a number of areas and will be looking to avoid talking about beats for starters, they are inevtiable, getting it in good and remaining positive are really important. beats and coolers also... and being card dead... i mean i could look back at my first ME and lament the fact i never got AA in 10 and a half levels (over 21 hours) and that i missed the flop with AK or AQ every time between levels 5-9 inclusive but how is that going to help me improve. what can i learn from thinking like that? instead i am going to concentrate on what i have learnt and what i can do better next time.
1. as always good bankroll management is imperative. knowing the importance of good BR is useless if u dont implement it. never put more than 5% (some say 3%) into any one tourney or cash game. in fact many articles i have read say u ought to have 50-70 buy ins at any level. everybody seems to know this but i suspect very few actually do it. while i was spectacularly unsuccessful with implementing correct BR mgmt this year i have a firm resolve to start doing so immediately. since arriving back in sydney i have read several articles by (or about) laak, chan and negreanu and their BR mgmt failures in the early days. i have been inspired to to get my act together in this regard. i am going to open a new bank account and use it for poker only. i will use it for cash games, tourneys and poker related travel. its one thing to have stats about online results but i think this will be very helpful and wise in regards to live play. i will be playing live a lot more come august when i will start playing at star city a lot more.
2. poker only; no table games. why put so much time and effort to develop an edge in the tough poker world and then donk off playing games where one has no edge and never will? its one thing to let off steam or tool around with friends once in a blue moon but personally i seem to be the sort of person who is just better off being black and white about things. yes or no and thats its. better to blow of steam or relax away from a casino anyway during a long series or a trip away. aside from the money i have tilted massively even donking off a tiny amount because i know its dumb and i hate tilting and going to bed tilted so even more reason to play poker only.
3. travel with a crew; travelling on ones own is way over rated imo. i have done a bit of it and its never as much fun as travelling with others. on poker trips its also great to have a few people to help keep each other accountable and keep each other sharp in regards to talking about the game and various opponents, situ's and the like. the other benefit here is the possibility on longer trips of getting a house- i have heard plenty of stories about groups of players getting a house and having a blast. the fun aspect is obv but also just having your own pool, jacuzzi, fridge, kitchen, laundry, bbq etc... so much better than another hotel room. i was particularly frustrated by the number of people in hotel pools even early in the day!
4. importance of being able to play without cards. seems obv but when u r playing the best value tourney in the world, ie the main event, there are a lot of bad players and most bad players play too much so when u raise in MP and expect players to give u some credit for a hand if you havent been active but you get two callers then how do you proceed? i didnt seem to have very good timing with my cbets... found it hard to fire 3rd barrels etc. also i think i should have played more connecting cards T8 etc rather than mostly pairs and strong aces which make it pretty easy for an opponent to put u on a hand.... still i was amazed at how many players called my raises with weak aces as like AT and A7. and i should have 3 bet with air (against decent opponents who can fold) now and then to just try and win some chips.
5. bigger balls (i) i suppose i was a bit scared of going broke early in my first ME (or at least earlier than some of the other CMU guys!) and so i overplayed two big hands on day 1 (the only two hands on day one where i had better than one pair... in fact i held the nuts on the flop both times) and lost a ton of value. in my defense one oppoent was short and he seemed to have a hand after re raising me on the flop and the other time there was a flush draw out there but again he raised me on the flop and i figured him for a big hand- he made a good decision laying down an over pair.
6. bigger balls (ii) my big regret of my first wsop was in the ME on day 3 where i check folded the turn holding QQ on a 77K8 board... on the flop i was unsure and so check called a bet. on the turn by the time i had worked out i was probably in front, my opponent told me he would show, after tanking i ignored my instincts and knowing my opponent was likely to put me all in on the river, i was too much of a pussy to risk going broke with under pair to the board when i believed it was good and villain showed a bluff. if i didnt have 30+ BB i guess i would have been more willing to take a stand there.
7. folding big pairs... i 4 bet all with QQ and ran into KK without taking enough time to make a thoughtful decision in one event (i didnt really have much FE once my opponent made it 2000 and i was all in for less than 4,000 more) and i 5 bet all in pre flop with KK when i was 80% sure my opponent had AA. some will think i am nit tard for writing that but when u are utg + 1 and raise the utg player and another player in MP 4 bets big AND that player happens to be the tightest player at the table, an old guy 60+ and they tend to be very tight and he hasnt played a hand since 1987 well what can he have? i had raised with TT and JJ in the last two rounds and then folded to raising wars behind me and kind of had the sh*ts about that so i just figured i had to take a stand there... would have had 25 BB if folded and only had 10% of my stack invested.
8. i have learnt that getting a taste has really fired me up to improve my game. (i) will be taking a bit of time off to do some stuff i need to here at home and then going to put some time into study and then within a week or so i will be literally chompin at the bit! (ii) finished june 2009 as the 10th ranked australian online player (according to pocketfives) and that was a real shot in the arm- i havent played online much in july but will be looking to get back up in the rankings in august!
in summary at my next wsop, or next big series, i will aim to:
take more time to evaluate a big hand/situ.
have the courage to back myself.
be willing to fold big pairs if i believe they are no good.
try and extract more value from my big hands ie work out how to get paid more rather than noob tard raise/shove.
travel/stay with mates.
only play poker!
implement correct BR mgmt.
*one final note- once again thanks to tonyg for the CMU fantasy league (and now for the ashes comp also on CMU) and the staking of so many players at this years wsop. champion!
all over red rover
well thats it for me in the 2009 wsop - had a great time but didnt get a result in any of the wsop or ventian deepstack events i played. had aa cracked aipf, ran qq into kk, ran kk into aa, ran into a set, ran into quads, lost a race - they are basically my bust out hands. could have played a little more aggressively in the right spots against the right opponents and should have had the balls to follow my instincts in one key hand for me on day 3 of the main event. i laid QQ down to an opponent who fired two barrels on a K high flop. i came to the conclusion that he was weak but i couldnt pull the trigger. he showed the bluff, i read him as weak but didnt follow through. i think that will be something that stays with me for some time- have to trust instincts. have to follow through on conclusion once weighed everything up.
ran into AJ at LAX, he was going to the gate and i was leaving- united offered 25 passengers business class flights for tomorrow plus $400 towards future travel and hotel/meals etc so i took it. the deciding factor was that on the way over i had two blokes either side of me and it was horrible cramped flight. going home i will get a ton of sleep...
it was great to meet aj and tony (big thanks for the main event promotion) and rayan and the chipmeup admin guys andrew and andrew. also met cmu players sean (havenrl), kick and ed sevellano (sp?). look forward to having another crack next year when i am better prepared... made a last minute decision and left two days later and its not as much fun on your own. next year talking to a few mates about getting a big house with pool and a bunch of rooms. someone here told me they had a ten bedroom house (mansion?) for $6000/month - thats pretty cheap when u break it down.
anyway after some down time i will be back to grinding the online tourneys and then off to melbs for the vic chanps in mid august- going to play the three big events there.
best of luck to dwayne on day 5!
limp into day 3 with 20 big blinds - so sad
so in 9 levels now, 18 hours of live play, at say 18 hands an hour, about 324 hands i have had AA zero times, KK once and QQ zero times.... i have not hit with AK or AQ since level 4, thats ten hours ago. i have been called by A7 and AT etc and they hit there kickers and call my cbets if i make them... i have just about given up cbetting... heres an example of why... weakest player i have ever seen in my life, a middle aged dutch guy, is warned the first three hands he plays at our table to cover his cards when he looks at them- i swear on my grandmothers life- he picked up his cards and held them up in front of his face- both me and the guy either side of him could almost see his cards- the rest of the table was steaming! certainly from their poinbt of view it looked like we could see them. the 4th hand he played he leaned back in his chair and took both cards about 2 feet back from the edge of the table to look at them... i blurted out "what?" and looked at the dealer who has to tell him he cant take cards off the table like that... anyway here is how his tourney ends... he raises in EP gets popped, he calls and then check calls three barrels on Q high board for his entire stack of 40k+ .... his opponent tables AA and looks concerned and our retarded dutch man tables AJo no pair no draw, zicho busto wtf-o? No one at my table says anything for at least ten seconds. we are stunned in the extreme. finally someone quietly says "that was weird". i honestly cant believe it and i saw it with my own eyes, he was on my immediate left. there was another tard calling station who hit hard and had well over 150k by days end. i felt sick when i bagged my paltry stack of 24k (i will have 20 BB on day 3) and still feel sick now a couple hours later. great table- couldnt ask for better... BUT couldnt get many decent starters, couldnt hit, my cbets were ALL called, couldnt push anyone off a pot, couldnt rep a big hand, couldnt flop a draw the few times i played suited connectors, despite all this i managed to keep my head and remain pretty calm tho i must admit i had been hoping to get in a hand with dutch guy for an hour and i was steaming at the way the easiest 40k in the tourney got mopped up. anyway f it, tomorrow is day off and hopefully i can chill and forget about it for a day.
Into Day 2 with 32,150
Had a safe accumulation policy in my first wsop main event. Chipped up during each level. Flopped nut straight and basically overplayed - it was a huge mistake... i won 6,500 chips from opponent but could have got a few thousand more. Made one big move all day: check, insta called a raggedy board with my AK, then check check turn and leading out for 3,000 when a Q hit the river... my opponent insta mucked. By the end of the day this guy, old bloke in his 70s drinking double scotches, part owner of the red sox was playing 5-6 hands a round and firing chips everywhere... he was on my immediate left. I dropped 12k in last level after missing with AK or AQ 4 times, he was my only opponent each time! I cbet twice... once he raised and i folded and the other time he called and i check folded the turn. Went home last night feeling a bit sick i had safely worked my way to 44k after 4 levels and was aiming to get to 55k and maybe 60k+ during last level of play. started that level well winning 3-4 of the first ten hands pre flop then went on slide to finish the day which pissed me off a bit. And i didnt get AA, KK or QQ once in ten hours! Had such a good table too. 3-4 guys playing way too many hands, calling big re rasies with A2s and AJo - ridiculous. playing A4 utg... just insane play. I struggled to catch anything all day. Though I did flop nuts twice: overplayed a flopped nut straight with 68, thought guy had a set and would call he looked super confident and teh other time i 5 bet all in with top set on a 2 suit board. i was sure opponent had KK or AA... he had only shown big hands all day, when he popped me pre flop i thought i had to make set to win the hand.... than when he popped me on the flop i was sure he had a monster but he tanked and open folded JJ. I think i got some TV time for ChipMeUp that hand.... (1) i had worded up the camera operator in my area... i gave him the nod when he was close by and when he was set i 5 bet all in AFTER pulling out my hand written sign... Before i tell u what that said i should say i currently have a beard after tearing calf muscle 2months ago and being on crutches for 2 weeks, not leaving the house a whole lot- hassle to get anywhere and was crushing online... so i have the 8 week beard and havent had haircut for like 4 months... think tom hanks in castaway! So i pull out my sign "HOMELESS PLEASE FOLD" and my table cracks up the camera films me for 45secs or so while opponent tanks and then when he folds i ask camera if they want to see my cards and they come around to see i hold the nuts. I am pretty excited and say something incoherent and my cards flip as i muck - doh! (2) also some tv time railing hellmuths feature table: matusow comes over and starts talking to Hellmuth who jumps up and comes over to the rail, as does a camera. i am standing, wearing CMU cap, right in between them as they have a funny exchange H: "I am more comfortable than i have ever been in the main event" etc etc etc he starts profiling the table within their earshot and he is holding court like he likes to do! Then Matusow gets a word in... "How many chips you got?" Hellmuth: "about 34,000". Matusow: "by the way you were talking i thought you had 60 or 70!" The rail errupted in laughter and Hellmuth just went back to his seat. anyway, stoked to be part of the CMU crew at this tourney and trying to do whatever i can to promote the site. Obv best thing would be a decent result. Id quite like to make a feature table actually... would mean there would be at least one really tough player on it but i think it would be great fun.
OK hopefully i have well over 100k at next post. No sure what average chip stack will be after day 2 but i deliberatley played last day 1 as i thought it would be softest field and also cos i wanted to rail a bit on day 2 and think about my day 2 strategy in light of what i see today. Guess the chip average will be more like 150k after day 2... hmmm will find out soon enough. Ok day 2a started i go watch the guys now.
WSOP Main Event Debut Today
In two hours i will be sitting at table 2 in the Amazon room at the Rio.
I'm pretty excited... some butterflies but after the first 15mins or so i should be good. I played two $1,500 events this year and have spent a fair bit of time railing the cmu guys, the aussies and the name players. Im comfortable in there now.
Quite sure i got myself on ESPN during their coverage of feature table yesterday (in Chip Me Up hat of course)....
Matusow makes his wasy to the rail and stands beside me as he calls out to Phil Hellmuth... something about not doing what Daniel did. Hellmuth jumps up and comes over, as does one of the cameras. From the cameras perspective i am standing in between the two players as Phil tells Mike "I'm more comfortable than ive ever been in the Main Event" and "Theres one guy at the table trying so hard to give me his chips". Phil is holding court like he likes to do and Mike asks for Phils chip count. Phil says about 35K and Matusow says "By the way you were talking i thought you had 60 or 70". Everyone within earshot cracks up... Phil just goes back to the table.
Anyway hopefully I get a table with players that i am confortable against and there are guys dying to give me their chips!
Talk about a dream come true. A month ago i didnt think i was going to make it here this year.
Then in early June i (finally) got some great results on stars, most notable a 2nd in the Nighhtly 70K for $10,471. A total of 5 final tables (incl a 1st and three 2nds) in the first two weeks of June. So i jumped on a plane... didnt really play much online in the second half of the month but finished the month as the 10th ranked Australian player for June 2009 (according to the pocketfives.com rankings).
Then in first wsop event (39) got AA aipf and got cracked by TT after the door card was an Ace... K and Q also on flop, J on turn, river blank... the highs and lows, it can be a brutal game!
Hoping that playing good today wil be enough to finish with an above average chip stack!
Will be keeping note of key hands and blogging late tonight.
harden up
think i will give up playing on sundays - 7 brutal sundays in a row... so how do the pros and the full timers cope with the downswings? i got no idea its not my forte. starting to wonder why i bother... so much time and effort. for what? heres todays summary...
played a good razz tourney today the $215 sunday event and made the final table 3rd or 4th in chips but ran into a cold cold deck and probably should have played a couple hands differently on the FT. "pearljammer" got lucky against me a couple of times when he had all his chips in against me and was fortunate to make the FT. i was a bit annoyed about that, would liked to have busted him. anyway i finished 7th. could have played much better at the FT for sure.
then with 80 left in a $55 rebuy (big prizepool 1800 runners and almost $30k for 1st) a very active johnnybax raises my blind in mid position. blinds are 2000/4000 and he makes it 10,500... i insta shove for 65k with 55 assuming he is good enough to fold a marginal hand as he has only seen me play pairs and AK or AQ... so its 55k for him to call and there is about 83k in pot. he has a stack of about 250k so its 20% of his stack... i guess the price is about 1.5-1 so maybe its not as bad a call as i first thought. thing is i feel like there are some players one is more inclined to fold to in that spot... i had been quite tight. so he has K8s... and hits a K on river which was awful as 140k stack with blinds 2k/4k puts me in the mix. the top 18 finishes all got over $1k in that event... maybe i could have played 55 differently there but that seemed like a great re steal spot. i just didnt think he would call me.
in second chance i had KK cracked by JT in a blind battle after it all goes in on a J x x flop and he makes 2 pair with a T on turn, for 80% of his chips he goes with top pair no kicker... again i think a good player would laydown to me there but nevermind play.
lost race shoving JJ into AK in sunday million.
got it all in for a big 120k pot in the $11 rebuy in a blind battle with KT on K high flop against a weak fishy player who had a straight draw (no overcards) and got there.
anyway those were the most significant hands/tourneys. going to try and win some $$$ in cash games tomorrow ahead of the $2500 razz tourney - very disapointed about only selling one share.
was hopeful that some would be picked up closer to the event...
