Out of the $1500

The hand that seems to be following me came up 2 hands into level two. I had about 3200 in chips from the original 4500 and had been calling a lot in late position and then folding either the flop or turn unimproved. I think I had an image of loose passive up to that point so I felt like I had a good trap set when I decided to call a late position raise from the button with KK. The small blind folded and the big blind raised to 750, the original raiser thought for a while before calling, and I of course moved in. Big blind who has me covered moves in and original raiser thinks for a while before folding. Big blind has Aces, original raiser says he folded AK. I don't catch the case King and that's that.

This is the third time I've run Kings into Aces. I did it in the Main Event three years ago deep into day 2 , in the Mohegan main event this year, and now. It will be a nice feeling when I'm on the other side of this one and they hold up.

I was disappointed to learn that they start the blinds at 25-50 and jump to 50-100 right away. So, we actually started with less big blinds in $1500 despite having more chips (1K starts at 25-25) which doesn't make much sense to me. The second level is 100-200 so an average stack starting the second level probably has less than 50 big blinds. I assume the $1500 tournament has more levels towards the middle or end of the tournament or else it's structured poorly in comparison to the 1K.

Next up $1500 on Wednesday....

Out of the 1K

Not too much exciting in this one. I had a great table as expected, I only recognized Tom McEvoy who busted pretty early when he ran Jacks into Aces. We started with 3000 chips or 120 big blinds so there wasn't a whole lot of room to manuever. I actually was dealt a fair amount of decent starting hands but it seemed like every time I had it I won a small pot and every time I didn't I got played back at.

The biggest pot I lost was when I isolated a limper one off the button with AJ to 200. The flop was AQ8x with two spades and I checked behind. The turn was a spade and he led out 200. I read his bet as weak, probably a flush draw or flush draw+pair and raised to 625 intending to check behind on the river, he called. The river was an offsuit King and he led out for 850 and I thought for a while before calling. I couldn't really put him on a hand besides JT or a bluff but as it turned out he had a slowplayed flush with 45s. I had been playing a lot of hands to that point and my opponent had been limping a lot and generally playing bad so I thought there was a good chance his river bet was a bluff. From there I was down to about 2K and nothing exciting happened until I raised all-in with AQ two off the button with 1600 chips - blinds were 75-150. The small blind woke up with AK and that was that.

Next up is the $1500 NL on Monday. We start with 4500 chips in that one so they'll be a little more play at least.

May Update/WSOP Thoughts

I've pulled to within 6 days of SNE pace and have been playing a fair amount amount of hands. I think I was two weeks off of pace when I returned from Monte Carlo so I've done well hands wise but nowhere near the 2500 hands a day goal I had set for myself. Inevitably, things always seem to come up and I haven't been quite as driven as last year. For example, yesterday I spent 3+ hours unsuccessfully trying to will the Celtics to a victory instead of playing. It was worth it even though they didn't win.

As I have all year, I've continued to run well this month. It's really amazing because I'm not playing nearly as much heads up and 3-handed as I was last year. I don't even feel like I played very well this month particularly during the last week, nevertheless my results have been good:





I'm heading to Vegas in 2 days and my first tournament is on Saturday. I've been watching no-limit videos every night, both cash game and tournament videos. I've also been playing 2-3 tournaments a day online although that doesn't seem to help me much since I'm usually 3-4 tabling ring games and paying little attention to the tournament. The videos are a big help though and I plan on continuing to watch them throughout the next six weeks. I've also been reading Telling Lies and Getting Paid and Positively Fifth Street to psyche me up for the WSOP.

It will undoubtedly be a grind and a battle of attrition at times. I've set the following rules to help:

-Eat Healthy
-No Caffeine after 7 PM
-Exercise on days off
-Get as much rest as possible (not always easy to do between Day 1 and Day 2 of a tourney)
-Sanitize my hands several times a day (I've been sick during almost every extended stay in Vegas)
-Stay focused on making the best decision possible using all the information I have available, the rest is irrelevant

Next update after Day 1 of the 1K NL..

A Tournament Win

I won a $50, 1522 player NL tournament tonight that paid about 13K. I believe it's the second online tournament I've won in all these years excluding satelites and my 2nd biggest online cash. I played well and ran better. I've been watching a lot of videos on CardRunners which has really helped my game. Hopefully this carries over into the World Series.

WSOP Schedule

Hard to believe it's only another ten days until the start of the World Series. I'm heading out to Vegas next week for about 6 weeks and am planning on playing about 20 events. I'll be blogging with tournament updates throughout. Here's a list of events I'm planning on playing:

May 29th Event #3 $1,000 NL
May 31st Event #5 $1,500 NL
June 2nd Event #8 $1,500 NL
June 4th Event #12 $1,500 Limit
June 5th Event #13 $1,000 NL
June 7th Event #16 $1,500 NL 6-Handed
June 9th Event #18 $2,000 Limit
June 11th Event #23 $2,500 Limit 6-Handed
June 12th Event #24 $1,000 NL
June 15th Event #29 $10,000 Limit Championship
June 19th Event #36 $1,000 NL
June 21st Event #40 $2,500 Razz
June 23rd Event #42 $1,500 NL
June 24th Event #44 $2,500 Mixed Limit/NL
June 25th Event #45 $1,500 NL
June 26th Event #47 $1,000 NL
June 28th Event #49 $1,500 NL
June 30th Event #53 $1,500 Limit Shootout
July 2nd Event #56 $2,500 NL
July 5th Event #57 $10,000 NL Championship

Interesting Poker Article

Article

Gettin my Grind On

Finally back home and looking forward to playing full time again. I haven't played much the last three weeks or so and have fallen about 35K VPPs or 2 weeks off SNE pace. I'm planning on playing about 15 events during the World Series which starts at the end of the month so I'll probably lose 3-4 weeks there as well. So the next three weeks should be poker filled for me, I'm hoping to average about 2500 hands a day which should bring me within a few days of being on pace before heading to Vegas.

Been playing a fair amount of NL lately as well and watching a lot of videos. I feel like I'm getting better although my results haven't been too great, it's a very small sample though of a couple thousand hands. Not sure how much NL I'll be playing in the next couple weeks but hopefully 3 or 4 hundred hands a day in addition to my regular play.

Also planning on playing some of the SCOOP events that are coming up. There is a 5K limit event on Friday and several midstakes NL tournaments that I'll likely enter.

This is what May has looked like so far:

CardRunners Video Up

That's it, just wanted to let everyone know my first video is up. Please make comments, suggestions on CR so I can improve future videos.