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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Convertibles
I've been shopping around for a convertible. I bought a Miata when we moved back to Austin from Japan, traded it in for a Solara when we moved to San Jose, downgraded to a Taurus for a couple of years, and am finally ready to return to toplessness.
I have evaluated the VW Eos, the Saab 9-3, the BMW 1 and 3 series, and the Volvo C70. I had been leaning towards a new BMW 328i, but I test drove an Audi A4 3.0 tonight, and that changed the landscape dramatically. That is one FUN car to drive. I enjoyed most of the other cards, but the Audi actually gave me butterflies. So that's what I'm looking at now.
I also did some reflection tonight about the used vs. new decision. There are some sweet deals on used A4's. e.g. I saw a 2004 for under 16K. A new one (2008) will cost me about 3 times that. I was prepared to splurge, especially with my extra $$$ from my Vegas trip, but I think I can find some better things to do with $32K...
I have evaluated the VW Eos, the Saab 9-3, the BMW 1 and 3 series, and the Volvo C70. I had been leaning towards a new BMW 328i, but I test drove an Audi A4 3.0 tonight, and that changed the landscape dramatically. That is one FUN car to drive. I enjoyed most of the other cards, but the Audi actually gave me butterflies. So that's what I'm looking at now.
I also did some reflection tonight about the used vs. new decision. There are some sweet deals on used A4's. e.g. I saw a 2004 for under 16K. A new one (2008) will cost me about 3 times that. I was prepared to splurge, especially with my extra $$$ from my Vegas trip, but I think I can find some better things to do with $32K...
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Introducing Nuance Mobile Care
For those who are curious about what I have been working on for the past year, we officially launched the product today. Here is an article about it.
Happy 100th post, by the way!
Happy 100th post, by the way!
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Summer - Halfway over already?
Wow, time flies. It's hard to believe summer is already over. Very depressing to hear back to school ads starting up.
The kids are having a great summer... they have been making great progress in their swimming lessons, and have a couple of "quiet weeks" before their production of Pinocchio, and then Kayleigh heads off to Camp Newman.
We had a "date day" today -- Monique and Kayleigh went to check out the new American Girl movie, and Will and I went to Nickel City, an arcade that charges $2 admission, but most of the games are free or under 50 cents to play. I was hoping they would have Gauntlet, because I thought Will would get a kick out of that game, but no luck, unfortunately.
Tonight we are going to Alexander's Steakhouse to celebrate my win in Vegas and our friend Rik's birthday. Last time we were there, we spent almost $800 on dinner for 2... I hope we can do better than that this time!
I have started shopping for a convertible. Right now, I'm leaning towards a 2009 BMW 328i. If I get this one, we will most likely take their "European Delivery" option, which offers a 7% discount on the car if you pick it up in Germany. Basically, a free trip. We would probably do this in December, taking a couple of weeks to visit Italy and maybe France. I'm also considering a Saab 9-3 and a Volvo C-70, but I'm 75% sure at this point that I will end up in the Bimmer.
Poker-wise, not too much exciting has been going on. I did come in 3rd in the 9PM $77 6-man last week for a $2200 score, but I'm really looking forward to the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) and FTOPS (Full tilt Online Poker Series) events coming up in the next couple of months. These are the events that really allow "break-out" level prize pools. I also have a seat in the $2K buyin event at the Bay 101 in August, but it is on Kayleigh's birthday, so I will probably try to sell the seat or exchange it to play in a different event.
Hope everyone out there is doing well. I'll try to post more often.
The kids are having a great summer... they have been making great progress in their swimming lessons, and have a couple of "quiet weeks" before their production of Pinocchio, and then Kayleigh heads off to Camp Newman.
We had a "date day" today -- Monique and Kayleigh went to check out the new American Girl movie, and Will and I went to Nickel City, an arcade that charges $2 admission, but most of the games are free or under 50 cents to play. I was hoping they would have Gauntlet, because I thought Will would get a kick out of that game, but no luck, unfortunately.
Tonight we are going to Alexander's Steakhouse to celebrate my win in Vegas and our friend Rik's birthday. Last time we were there, we spent almost $800 on dinner for 2... I hope we can do better than that this time!
I have started shopping for a convertible. Right now, I'm leaning towards a 2009 BMW 328i. If I get this one, we will most likely take their "European Delivery" option, which offers a 7% discount on the car if you pick it up in Germany. Basically, a free trip. We would probably do this in December, taking a couple of weeks to visit Italy and maybe France. I'm also considering a Saab 9-3 and a Volvo C-70, but I'm 75% sure at this point that I will end up in the Bimmer.
Poker-wise, not too much exciting has been going on. I did come in 3rd in the 9PM $77 6-man last week for a $2200 score, but I'm really looking forward to the WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker) and FTOPS (Full tilt Online Poker Series) events coming up in the next couple of months. These are the events that really allow "break-out" level prize pools. I also have a seat in the $2K buyin event at the Bay 101 in August, but it is on Kayleigh's birthday, so I will probably try to sell the seat or exchange it to play in a different event.
Hope everyone out there is doing well. I'll try to post more often.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
main event day 2
got no callers for my first shove, second shove with aj of diamonds, got called in bb by 99. flop was t87 with two diamonds, but the board bricked out.
it was a blast playing and i will definitely be back.
it was a blast playing and i will definitely be back.
main event day 2
forgot to mention that my table broke and i am now immediately to the left of alan cunningham.
main event day 2
uh oh.... i dropped down to 25k, built back up to 46k, and on the last hand before break, picked up ak of diamonds on the button. mp raises to 2900. i decide to reraise to 9000. mp goes all in for a total of about 34k. 25k more to call into a pot of 21k is pretty easy, especially since i have chips left if i lose. unfortunately he has aces. one diamond comes on the flop, and a k on the turn, but no miracle river, and i am very crippled. i have an m jus above 4 , so i get to play shovebot poker for a bit. send me your goodluck vibes!
main event day 2
39300 at 2nd break. on the vry first hand, i got all in vs a 12k shortstack with aq. i wasin great shape vs his kq until k came on the flop. so that took me under 60k.. i lost a couple of small pots, when this occurred: i went to call a 2500 bet on the river, but instead of a blue (500) and 2 yellows (1000), i accidentally put out 2 reds (5000) and a blue. i lost the showdown obviously. so i still have plenty of chips but lost a bit of ammo. pretty disgusted with myself for he slipup, but that happens...
there were no bustouts this round. the short stacks are the same, except that alex built back up to a very big stack, sparked by his suckout against m on the first hand. gary benson is getting pretty short now too.
i am having some luck stealing blinds cheaply from early position. one of the two guys on my left have called nearly all of my late position raises, but my early raises have been getting a ton of respect. i am going to see if i can calibrate a good frequency to execute that move.
thanks everyone for the support. next updaate around 7 pm.
there were no bustouts this round. the short stacks are the same, except that alex built back up to a very big stack, sparked by his suckout against m on the first hand. gary benson is getting pretty short now too.
i am having some luck stealing blinds cheaply from early position. one of the two guys on my left have called nearly all of my late position raises, but my early raises have been getting a ton of respect. i am going to see if i can calibrate a good frequency to execute that move.
thanks everyone for the support. next updaate around 7 pm.
main event day 2
71500 at first break. I won the first two pots of the day, then lost three reraised pots in a row and was down under 40k. then i picked up aces on the button, reraied an mp player, who called. flop was akk. i bet 1/3 pot, and he called. turn was a small card making a three flush, and he checked. i bet again and he checkraised all in. oops. :) so that hand got me to 70k.
peter jepsen busted quickly, the victim of a brutal two outer when his kk got beat by tt. alex is now shortstacked; he lost most of his chips to brett in a set over set hand. hani also busted. scott and the 8 seat are still in with short stacks.
next update around 430....
peter jepsen busted quickly, the victim of a brutal two outer when his kk got beat by tt. alex is now shortstacked; he lost most of his chips to brett in a set over set hand. hani also busted. scott and the 8 seat are still in with short stacks.
next update around 430....
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Day 2 Table Draw
Here is my table draw for Wednesday. Gary Benson is an Australian WSOP bracelet winner and the best known player at the table, ; Peter Jepsen is a Full Tilt-sponsored player. Alex is a two-plus-two'er who also FT'd a NLHE shootout earlier in the year. Brett has a WSOP FT under his belt as well. All in all, it's probably a slightly below average draw, but I'm not sure. It's nice that there are no monster stacks, and 3 smaller stacks to pick on, but I would definitely prefer that the bulk of the chips be in the hands of the less-proven players...
Peter Jepsen 33,550 B26 01
Alex Triner 70,900 B26 02
Scott Jones 11,400 B26 03
Gary Benson 18,650 B26 04
Tom Rose 53,675 B26 05
Brett Richey 87,975 B26 06
Hani Awad 11,600 B26 07
Jason Baer 11,300 B26 08
Michael Migdol 56,050 B26 09
I am flying back to Vegas Tuesday night and planning on a quiet restful evening to make sure I'm at my best on Wednesday.
Peter Jepsen 33,550 B26 01
Alex Triner 70,900 B26 02
Scott Jones 11,400 B26 03
Gary Benson 18,650 B26 04
Tom Rose 53,675 B26 05
Brett Richey 87,975 B26 06
Hani Awad 11,600 B26 07
Jason Baer 11,300 B26 08
Michael Migdol 56,050 B26 09
I am flying back to Vegas Tuesday night and planning on a quiet restful evening to make sure I'm at my best on Wednesday.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Day 1 Summary
While I'm certainly happy to be at 56K at the end of day 1, I'm definitely aware of the luck factor in achieving it. First of all, I got hit by the deck, both in terms of cards dealt and flops hit. I had aces 5 times yesterday (but none of them won me a decent pot). I hit some good top pair-top-kicker flops, and also several strong drawing flops, including two open-ended-straight-flush-draws. I also had a good table draw, with no tier 1 (or event tier 2, that I am aware of) pros. Donkey on my left gave me all his chips like he was supposed to, and most of the table was clearly looking to "survive the day", enabling me to steal frequently late in the day.
I did an awesome job reading hands, however. Here are some samples:
- Call a button raise from BB w/ 65. Flop is K63 two-suited. I check-call the flop. Turn is an offsuit 8, check-check. River is T and makes a 3-flush, button bets big. Although this bet can be a wide variety of hands (including frequent bluffs), I folded, telling the button "I know you made your flush, nice river". He shows Q-high flush.
-Limp UTG with 88. Call raise from UTG+1. On J9x board, raiser c-bets and I call. On blank turn, I check, and he fires big again. He's shown capability of firing multiple bullets before. I interrogate him for a bit before folding, he shows a J.
-J8s in BB. SB starts the hand with 6K (blinds 200-400) and open-limps. Board is QJ4, two-suited. SB shoves. I think for a long time and call, confident that he has either a 4 or a flush draw, but no Q. He shows 98 flush draw, but hits.
-Limp JT in EP. Guy on my left raises like 5.5x BB. Folded back around to me. My first instinct is that he has TT, but I discount that possibility since I have a T in my hand. I fold, saying, "my hand no good against your 99, sir". He says, "you're close", and shows me TT.
Here's the hand that I lost a lot of chips in level 4 (150-300 with 25 antes). I start hand with 70K. One MP limper, cutoff makes a smallish 3.5x raise to 1500. I have 55 in the BB and call. 4750 in the pot. Limper calls. Flop is A32. I check, limper checks, and raiser bets 2200, and it feels like a c-bet. I think he has an A maybe 30% of the time in this situation? He has about 16K left in his stack. I raise to 8000, and he thinks a bit and calls. Turn is a middle card like a 8, and I put him all in. He install calls AK and I whiff the river. I think on this board, given his stack size, other lines such as check-call flop, donk any kind of scary turn might be better? On the other hand, I put him to a test if he has any pair below aces, and I have a full 6 outs (24% if the chips go in on the flop) if he has AK. Any comments?
Plan for day 2 is to quickly identify which players are playing to survive, and which ones are playing to win the tournament and play accordingly.
In case you're curious, here's what the payout timeline was like in last year's WSOP:
Last year, there were 6358 players, and 621 spots payed out. The bubble burst around 6:30PM on day 3. Survival to the end of day 3 ensured a payout of $39,445. At the end of day 4, 114 players were left, and payout reached $58,570. Day 5 narrowed down the field to 27 players, with a payout of $333K. And everyone who made it to the final table at the end of that day was assured a payday of $526K.
Lots of good things have to happen to make it that far, but I know I can do it! Keep your fingers crossed for me!
I did an awesome job reading hands, however. Here are some samples:
- Call a button raise from BB w/ 65. Flop is K63 two-suited. I check-call the flop. Turn is an offsuit 8, check-check. River is T and makes a 3-flush, button bets big. Although this bet can be a wide variety of hands (including frequent bluffs), I folded, telling the button "I know you made your flush, nice river". He shows Q-high flush.
-Limp UTG with 88. Call raise from UTG+1. On J9x board, raiser c-bets and I call. On blank turn, I check, and he fires big again. He's shown capability of firing multiple bullets before. I interrogate him for a bit before folding, he shows a J.
-J8s in BB. SB starts the hand with 6K (blinds 200-400) and open-limps. Board is QJ4, two-suited. SB shoves. I think for a long time and call, confident that he has either a 4 or a flush draw, but no Q. He shows 98 flush draw, but hits.
-Limp JT in EP. Guy on my left raises like 5.5x BB. Folded back around to me. My first instinct is that he has TT, but I discount that possibility since I have a T in my hand. I fold, saying, "my hand no good against your 99, sir". He says, "you're close", and shows me TT.
Here's the hand that I lost a lot of chips in level 4 (150-300 with 25 antes). I start hand with 70K. One MP limper, cutoff makes a smallish 3.5x raise to 1500. I have 55 in the BB and call. 4750 in the pot. Limper calls. Flop is A32. I check, limper checks, and raiser bets 2200, and it feels like a c-bet. I think he has an A maybe 30% of the time in this situation? He has about 16K left in his stack. I raise to 8000, and he thinks a bit and calls. Turn is a middle card like a 8, and I put him all in. He install calls AK and I whiff the river. I think on this board, given his stack size, other lines such as check-call flop, donk any kind of scary turn might be better? On the other hand, I put him to a test if he has any pair below aces, and I have a full 6 outs (24% if the chips go in on the flop) if he has AK. Any comments?
Plan for day 2 is to quickly identify which players are playing to survive, and which ones are playing to win the tournament and play accordingly.
In case you're curious, here's what the payout timeline was like in last year's WSOP:
Last year, there were 6358 players, and 621 spots payed out. The bubble burst around 6:30PM on day 3. Survival to the end of day 3 ensured a payout of $39,445. At the end of day 4, 114 players were left, and payout reached $58,570. Day 5 narrowed down the field to 27 players, with a payout of $333K. And everyone who made it to the final table at the end of that day was assured a payday of $526K.
Lots of good things have to happen to make it that far, but I know I can do it! Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
main event
round 4 was great for me. i ran my stack up to 70000 chips and had the table begging for mercy...but in the last ten minutes, i made a move with 55 on an a23 board that cost me over 20k in chips, leaving me at around 48500. average is probably around 30, so i am still very healthy. i just need to be a little more careful. one more level to go for the night - we will be done around 1245 am.
main event
45500 at the 2nd break. I flopped top two pair with 97 and got paid off big by kk, and won a few other small pots to take the chip lead at the table. Also raised with q6suited, and semibluffed a short stack off of his hand on a j98 board that gave me a flush draw and a gut shot. we lost a couple of players in the last round, but i like my table presence. antes come into play next round, and i am really glad i have a stack with which i can play aggressively.
gonna go back to my room and see if room service will be faster than waiting for a restaurant....
gonna go back to my room and see if room service will be faster than waiting for a restaurant....
main event
22650 at the 2nd break, I was down to about 14 but won two big pots. In the first, I limped with a4 suited and flopped the nut flush draw on a q65 board. sb led out, I called, two others in the pot folded. turn was an offsuit 8, giving me a very bad gutshot draw to go with my flush draw. but sb only bet 1/30, so i called (after considering a raise). river was the 7, giving me the nut flush. sb checked and after some though i settled on only half pot for the river, which he thought before calling. maybe i left money on the table there by not betting more, but i dont think so. on the other hand, i i limped with t9, and caught a t92 flop. same guy from the other habd led out. i raised, he called. turn was an ugly 8, making a 3 straight and a 3 flush on the board. i chose to check behind. river was an uglier 7, and i checked behind again, winning the showdown against kt . again, may have left some money on the table....
main event
18575 at first break. I won a big pot early to get up to 24000 earlly, but gaveit back and more when I called down a guy who had been caught bluffing twice, but this time he had quads. i got dealt aces twice. the first time i took the blinds, the second time the bb called and the flop came kqx. i cbet and he called. j came on the turn, he checked and i decided to check. the river bricked and i called a half pot bet losing to kj. so i lost the abdolute minimum on that hand.
there is a woman celeb at my table, but i am not sure who she is. she looks like annie duke probably did in her early 20's.... i will try to find out who she is. another guy got queried about his average stack, which means he is well known as well, but not sure who he is.
there is a woman celeb at my table, but i am not sure who she is. she looks like annie duke probably did in her early 20's.... i will try to find out who she is. another guy got queried about his average stack, which means he is well known as well, but not sure who he is.
main event
i am in the blue section in the amazon room at table six. look for first update around 2pm. start sending positive vibes my way!
Friday, July 4, 2008
happy 4th of July
so i am blogging to you live from the voodoo lounge, 50 stories up at the top of the rio. from here we can see probably 100 different fireworks shows on the horizon. this is very very VERY cool. wish i had a camera with enough resolution to capture the effect....
venetian deepstack - out
anyone want to see me dorkin hard, check out pokerstars.tv website later today...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
venetian deepstack - out
blech, lost a big race with 77 against ace ten, went card dead for a bit before losing another race with 99 v kt. having dinner at one of mario batali's restaurants before checking out wayne brady's show over here. tomorrow i really do plan to take a day off from poker to res up for the big day on saturday. still taking stakers if anyone is interested in buying action...
venetian deepstack
i was going to take today off from poker, but i got a full night of sleep and woke up with a hunger to shake the losing streak. so i decided to play the venetian deepstack tourney today, which is $550 for 15000 chips, but only 40 minute levels. at the second break, i am doing pretty well. i have almost 40000 in chips, almost twice average. 270 players remain from the original 380. i made a huge laydown early with a ten high one card flush, but i think it was correct. next update around 6:45"
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
bad day yesterdat
well, the poker results for this trip have been disappointing to say the least. yesterday i played 2 satellite sng's to the bellagio 1k event. in the first, i was down to 4 players (2 got seats). i was tied for the biggest stack at the table, with 2 short stacks. i shove 15x bb preflop with kk, the othe big stack calls allin with 88 (very questionable in that satellite situation) and catches to knock me out. in the next one, i had kk cracked two more times. hopefully i will run better in the main event. by the way, i am playing day 1C which starts on saturday.
today i am giving the caesars megastack another try. hopegully i can improve on last weeks finish here.
today i am giving the caesars megastack another try. hopegully i can improve on last weeks finish here.
Monday, June 30, 2008
330 megasat
playing in a $330 megasatellite. off to a great start, up to over 10k in chips from 2k after 4 levels. i busted out 3 players.
wsop 1500 monday
bleh.... called a raise with 44. flop came qq7. raiser checked, i bet pot, he think-called. 4 on the turn, we got it all in, he had qq. next hand a had aq suited, shoved in my 11x bb and got called by 77. had ten outs on the turn but couldnt convert. gg me.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
wsop 1500 horse
up to a much healthier 3850 at 2nd break. i won a nice blind confrontation in o8, and won a nice pot in stud with buried aces against split kings. kings caught a 2nd pair on 5th, but i resucked on 6th. we now have a 30 minute break. there are 803 entrants in this event.
wsop 1500 horse
i am shortstacked early in horse. i started strong but had a series of disasters to knock me down to 900 chips from my original 300. but i have confidence that i have not yet used all of my luck on this trip and plan to come back strong. i have a couple of tier-2 pros at my table, faces i recognize but dont know the name... gl me!
bad beats and variance
Sorry for the lack of updates, everyone. The client I'm using to post from my phone stopped working and my last update didn't get posted.
I got back from the dinner break with about 14K in chips, blinds 300-600 with 75 antes. After a few hands, it got folded around to me in the SB, and I look down to find AQ. I raise to 2300, SB makes it 5300. My options are fold, which seems very weak in this situation, heads up. So many people play Ax strong in this situation and you will get reraised with AJ or worse, KQ, etc, quite often. The second option is just call and see a flop. The problem is that this option puts over 11K on the flop, and with only 8K remaining in my stack following the preflop call, I would be pot-committed (maybe? opinions?). So I rejected this option. Which left re-ship, which I did. He instacalled and I knew I was in big trouble -- and he had the bullets. I think this hand was definitely a cooler, but perhaps I should have gotten away from it. So my final position was ~550th out of 2700 players.
Anyway, I left the casino and was going to not-play-poker for the rest of the night. But I passed by the satellite room and they were about to start a $225 HORSE satellite to tonight's (Sunday) $1500 event. I decided to give it a go. I started off great but eventually busted out of the satellite. Dejected, I headed back into the casino. I was going to play the "World Series of Poker Final Table Bonus" table game, but the table was crowded, and so instead, I sat down at a Let It Ride table. After ten hands or so, I hadn't gotten any cards. Then I looked down at a new hand and squeezed out Ad....Kd....Td. With three cards to the royal my heart started racing and I stood pat. (For details on how Let It Ride works, check out http://casinogambling.about.com/od/othergames/a/LIR.htm )
The dealer's first card was the Jd. I showed the table my hand and we began chanting for the Qd. The dealer flipped it over, and...it was....the...
queen
of
DIAMONDS!
We all started screaming (I think my tablemates were almost as excited as I was), as I had just won $50,000!!!! After a half-hour of administrative BS, I walked away from the table with a stack of $1k chips, a stack of $500 chips, $37500 altogether after taxes were automatically withheld. (In case you're wondering, the casino's biggest chip is a $25K chip. However, the casino manager explained to me that for them to pay me with that, they would have had to order a "fill" of those chips for the table, or $500K, and they obviously don't do that for security reasons.
Anyways, I put $25K in my casino account, went and registered for the main event (and today's HORSE event), then, on my friend Ed's suggestion, took $1K to the Craps table to try to give some of the money back to the casino. I failed miserably, going on one of my best shoots of my left to walk away from the table with $4K. Anyone seen the movie Vegas Vacation?
So this was the win of a lifetime..... all because I'm too bad at poker to lay down AQ heads-up in the Small Blind.
I got back from the dinner break with about 14K in chips, blinds 300-600 with 75 antes. After a few hands, it got folded around to me in the SB, and I look down to find AQ. I raise to 2300, SB makes it 5300. My options are fold, which seems very weak in this situation, heads up. So many people play Ax strong in this situation and you will get reraised with AJ or worse, KQ, etc, quite often. The second option is just call and see a flop. The problem is that this option puts over 11K on the flop, and with only 8K remaining in my stack following the preflop call, I would be pot-committed (maybe? opinions?). So I rejected this option. Which left re-ship, which I did. He instacalled and I knew I was in big trouble -- and he had the bullets. I think this hand was definitely a cooler, but perhaps I should have gotten away from it. So my final position was ~550th out of 2700 players.
Anyway, I left the casino and was going to not-play-poker for the rest of the night. But I passed by the satellite room and they were about to start a $225 HORSE satellite to tonight's (Sunday) $1500 event. I decided to give it a go. I started off great but eventually busted out of the satellite. Dejected, I headed back into the casino. I was going to play the "World Series of Poker Final Table Bonus" table game, but the table was crowded, and so instead, I sat down at a Let It Ride table. After ten hands or so, I hadn't gotten any cards. Then I looked down at a new hand and squeezed out Ad....Kd....Td. With three cards to the royal my heart started racing and I stood pat. (For details on how Let It Ride works, check out http://casinogambling.about.com/od/othergames/a/LIR.htm )
The dealer's first card was the Jd. I showed the table my hand and we began chanting for the Qd. The dealer flipped it over, and...it was....the...
queen
of
DIAMONDS!
We all started screaming (I think my tablemates were almost as excited as I was), as I had just won $50,000!!!! After a half-hour of administrative BS, I walked away from the table with a stack of $1k chips, a stack of $500 chips, $37500 altogether after taxes were automatically withheld. (In case you're wondering, the casino's biggest chip is a $25K chip. However, the casino manager explained to me that for them to pay me with that, they would have had to order a "fill" of those chips for the table, or $500K, and they obviously don't do that for security reasons.
Anyways, I put $25K in my casino account, went and registered for the main event (and today's HORSE event), then, on my friend Ed's suggestion, took $1K to the Craps table to try to give some of the money back to the casino. I failed miserably, going on one of my best shoots of my left to walk away from the table with $4K. Anyone seen the movie Vegas Vacation?
So this was the win of a lifetime..... all because I'm too bad at poker to lay down AQ heads-up in the Small Blind.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
wsop 1500
i have 14700 at the dinner break...just at average. I had a little more but made a questionable call on the last hand of the round. 573 players remain. next round is the ante-heavy 300 600 round, but unfortunately I have 3 big stacks on my left that will make stealing a challenge.
wsop 1500
at 11300 at the 2nd break, down from over 15k at one point. dinner break in two hours, i will post some hands then. my new table is much better than the first one...only one of the players has shown any kind of aggro tendencies. average stack is about 6850 and blinds are 150 300 with 25 antes. 1190 players remain.
wsop 1500
one other thing to note is that i am playing in the satellite room, which means my table will break up soon.
wsop 1500
Patience was a virtue in the first two levels, as I have tripled up to 10400 on the strength of two flopped sets and a turned nut straight againt a tptk + flush draw (most money went in on the turn) i resisted defending my blinds with some decent hands, includng qjo, qt, and this preservation of chips was important when i doubled through. i dont have any tier pros at my table but a couple of guys look familiar and i think may be online pros. i have a deep enough stack now to play some aggressive poker, but the guys on my left are somewhat aggressive and i wont get too far out of line.
Friday, June 27, 2008
caesars megastack
Just a quick update. did crappy in cash games today, but i did chop a satellite single table for $870 ($625 profit). this gets the tourney fund back in the black.
Tomorrow is the 1500...look for first update around 2pm....
Tomorrow is the 1500...look for first update around 2pm....
Caesar's Palace - Hand Summary
Here's a quick summary of Thursday's Mega stack tournament at Caesar's...
Early: Open from the button with AA. BB has been calling raises left and right and does so with mine as well. Flop is AAJ. Check check. Turn is a T, he checks I bet half pot, he calls. River is a deuce. I try a big bet here but he folds.
Nothing too exciting happens the first few levels. I lose a few chips when I raise an MP limper and the SB with KhQh, and the MP limper shoves. I fold. I nursed a short stack until I was finally able to double up when my QQ held up against AK. I chipped up well in the high-ante levels, when this hand came up:
With a starting stack of around 12K, I raised to 1800 from MP with QTo and got called by the button and the big blind. The flop was AQ2, big blind checked, I checked, and button bet $10K. BB folded and I thought for a long time before calling all-in. When button showed 33, I excitedly flipped my hand over, when to my horror, one of my cards started to fly off of the table. I have to tell you, dear readers, I have NEVER in my life made so athletic a move as to catch that card before my hand was declared dead.
I doubled up again with AK vs A6. The noteworthy thing about this is - when you're stealing away at the high-ante levels, the nice thing is that your good hands get paid off more, as this one did.
I got all the way up to 80K when I made a donkey call with AJ vs AK preflop and sucked out, and another one with A8 vs AQ and sucked out. (This is the first tournament I've won in quite awhile by getting my money in bad multiple times). Then this hand came up.
Deep-stacked old man in EP raises to 5000 (blinds 800-1600 with 200 antes). I flat call in ghe SB with 88. BB calls. Flop is J75 two-suited. I check, BB checks, old man c-bets like 2/3 of the pot. I have not seen him fail to c-bet yet, so I cautiously call. BB agonizingly folds, and I put him on JT or something like that. The turn is an interesting offsuit 4, which gives me a gutshot to go with my pair if I am behind. I check again and old man bets 20K. I agonize and make the call. The river bricks up and I get a cheap showdown vs AJ.
The rest of the tournament was pretty straightforward. After my next-to-last post, I succeeded in chipping up to about 120K, when this hand came up. Blinds 4000-8000 with 1000 antes. I limped in the SB with Kc5c. Somewhat aggressive BB checked. Flop was 654 all hearts. I led out for 18K, he flat called. The turn was the Ad, and I check called a 24K bet. The river was the 2d and checked again, then folded to a 53K river bet. BB later told me he flopped a flush, but not sure if I believe him or not. With a high flush he probably would have raised PF, and with a low one he has a mandatory raise in case I have a high heart... anyway, that hand dropped me back into short-stack mode, and I was happy to wake up with AK on the button, until BB called with JJ. And so I finally lost the race that knocked me out.
All in all, I wasn't too happy with my play in this tournament. I played good patient poker for the most part and made the one key read to keep me in the tournament. But I hate having to get lucky (with the two 3-out suckouts) and I should have done a better job protecting my chips in my blinds...
Early: Open from the button with AA. BB has been calling raises left and right and does so with mine as well. Flop is AAJ. Check check. Turn is a T, he checks I bet half pot, he calls. River is a deuce. I try a big bet here but he folds.
Nothing too exciting happens the first few levels. I lose a few chips when I raise an MP limper and the SB with KhQh, and the MP limper shoves. I fold. I nursed a short stack until I was finally able to double up when my QQ held up against AK. I chipped up well in the high-ante levels, when this hand came up:
With a starting stack of around 12K, I raised to 1800 from MP with QTo and got called by the button and the big blind. The flop was AQ2, big blind checked, I checked, and button bet $10K. BB folded and I thought for a long time before calling all-in. When button showed 33, I excitedly flipped my hand over, when to my horror, one of my cards started to fly off of the table. I have to tell you, dear readers, I have NEVER in my life made so athletic a move as to catch that card before my hand was declared dead.
I doubled up again with AK vs A6. The noteworthy thing about this is - when you're stealing away at the high-ante levels, the nice thing is that your good hands get paid off more, as this one did.
I got all the way up to 80K when I made a donkey call with AJ vs AK preflop and sucked out, and another one with A8 vs AQ and sucked out. (This is the first tournament I've won in quite awhile by getting my money in bad multiple times). Then this hand came up.
Deep-stacked old man in EP raises to 5000 (blinds 800-1600 with 200 antes). I flat call in ghe SB with 88. BB calls. Flop is J75 two-suited. I check, BB checks, old man c-bets like 2/3 of the pot. I have not seen him fail to c-bet yet, so I cautiously call. BB agonizingly folds, and I put him on JT or something like that. The turn is an interesting offsuit 4, which gives me a gutshot to go with my pair if I am behind. I check again and old man bets 20K. I agonize and make the call. The river bricks up and I get a cheap showdown vs AJ.
The rest of the tournament was pretty straightforward. After my next-to-last post, I succeeded in chipping up to about 120K, when this hand came up. Blinds 4000-8000 with 1000 antes. I limped in the SB with Kc5c. Somewhat aggressive BB checked. Flop was 654 all hearts. I led out for 18K, he flat called. The turn was the Ad, and I check called a 24K bet. The river was the 2d and checked again, then folded to a 53K river bet. BB later told me he flopped a flush, but not sure if I believe him or not. With a high flush he probably would have raised PF, and with a low one he has a mandatory raise in case I have a high heart... anyway, that hand dropped me back into short-stack mode, and I was happy to wake up with AK on the button, until BB called with JJ. And so I finally lost the race that knocked me out.
All in all, I wasn't too happy with my play in this tournament. I played good patient poker for the most part and made the one key read to keep me in the tournament. But I hate having to get lucky (with the two 3-out suckouts) and I should have done a better job protecting my chips in my blinds...
caesars megastack
26 players left, but I am super short stacked at 55k with 5k 10k blinds. current payout level is $431.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
caesars megastack
and the tournament continues. I am at about 60k with blinds 2k 4k, 500 antes. 53 players remain. 11hrs in, this is great pactice for saturday (and the main event!)
caesars megastack
still in it at the dinner break... I have 43k in chips, down from a peak of over 80. average is about 30k, blinds were 800 1600 with 200ante last level...not sure what they are next.
caesars megastack
i doubled up with qq vs kk and won a couple more pots to get up to 17k but have dribbled back down to 10k. i was mistaken in my last post, there are still no antes. next round is 600 1200, so yes, John, desperation is setting in. about 140 players leftout of original field of 444.
caesars megastack
2nd break finds me at 6100 in chips with blinds 300/600 and 100 ante. Not totally desparate yet but close. I got outplayed on one hand where I open limped 33 utg. blinds were 100 200, and i started hand with 7k or so. mp player raised to 600. blinds folded, flop came 996. i check-called 1200. a on turn and i checkfolded to another 1200 bet. guy showed kq for no pair. :( I did outlst that guy, which is a small consolation. one more hand - new player open limps 400 out of his 3600 stack. mp guy goes all in for 3900. limper thinks then calls all in with....q6 sooooooted! good call howver, as mp had 87o!
caesars megastack
we started tourney with 7500 chips. at first break i have 8200, a little below average. my table draw is average, there are a couple of softish players a couple of tricky players, but noone prticularly noteworthy. i have been getting ok cards, including jj, qq, kk, and aa, but awful flops (including flopping quad aces, which killed my action).
WSOP Update #1 (Wednesday)
I played 3 $175 single-table satellites tonight (1 with a $20 last-longer bet), and struck out in all three. So our $2500 tournament fund is down to $1955. No worries, there's lots of poker left to play. I will be playing in the $225 deep-stack tournament tomorrow at noon at Caesar's Palace. Check back here for updates.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Going to the Main Event!
Tonight, the last night before my Vegas trip, I decided to enter one last online WSOP Main Event satellite, a $33 rebuy. I pretty much dominated the tournament from start-to-finish and took home the prize. I ran extremely well, but made some well-timed moves and steals to stay on top of the pack. Some of the highlights included:
Red aces on an 986 all-diamond flop, doubled through the chip leader who had JJ (including Jd)
Three-handed, AA vs QQ AIPF
Heads up, KK vs TT AIPF
Stole with 82o, then shoved out of position on 654 flop, eliciting a fold
Stole with 9d3d, got called by TT who was AI. Flop was an ugly Jh 6d Kh, but I made runner-runner flush.
Flat called OTB with AQ against UTG raiser who had me covered. Checked behind QJJ flop, flat-called 9 on the turn, and checked 7 on the river. Took it down against TT.
I won like 3 races against short stacks.
Basically, I ran well but also played pretty damn well, too, the combination usually required to win a tournament. I was really happy with my HU play. I started HU with a 2:1 chip lead, increased to 3:1 before I hit a couple of unlucky hands to fall behind. But at this point I felt like I had a very good read on my opponent and was able to regain the lead.
For those of you who are investing, here is what this means to you:
The main event entry is not covered as part of your investment, as it was won prior to the Vegas trip. If I win any main event satellites while in Vegas, they will be treated as a $10K cash win.
If you would like to invest in my $10K Main Event entry, I will sell up to 50 1% shares at $100 each. I will try to play on Day 1A (July 3rd), so let me know before then if you would like to invest.
Thanks again to everyone for your support and good wishes!
Red aces on an 986 all-diamond flop, doubled through the chip leader who had JJ (including Jd)
Three-handed, AA vs QQ AIPF
Heads up, KK vs TT AIPF
Stole with 82o, then shoved out of position on 654 flop, eliciting a fold
Stole with 9d3d, got called by TT who was AI. Flop was an ugly Jh 6d Kh, but I made runner-runner flush.
Flat called OTB with AQ against UTG raiser who had me covered. Checked behind QJJ flop, flat-called 9 on the turn, and checked 7 on the river. Took it down against TT.
I won like 3 races against short stacks.
Basically, I ran well but also played pretty damn well, too, the combination usually required to win a tournament. I was really happy with my HU play. I started HU with a 2:1 chip lead, increased to 3:1 before I hit a couple of unlucky hands to fall behind. But at this point I felt like I had a very good read on my opponent and was able to regain the lead.
For those of you who are investing, here is what this means to you:
The main event entry is not covered as part of your investment, as it was won prior to the Vegas trip. If I win any main event satellites while in Vegas, they will be treated as a $10K cash win.
If you would like to invest in my $10K Main Event entry, I will sell up to 50 1% shares at $100 each. I will try to play on Day 1A (July 3rd), so let me know before then if you would like to invest.
Thanks again to everyone for your support and good wishes!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
WSOP Stakes
My annual trip to Vegas for the World Series of Poker begins on Wednesday. I'm not sure which events I will play in yet, other than the $1500 No-Limit Hold 'Em event beginning on June 28th. I will likely also play tournaments at Caesar's, Bellagio, and/or Venetian during the trip.
Several people invested in my entry in the Shooting Star World Poker Tour event in March, and it was a lot of fun having so many people rooting for me while I played. So I figured I would give all of my friends and family a chance to do the same for this trip.
There are two ways I am allowing people to invest:
1) 1% shares in the $1500 event I mentioned above at $15/each
2) 1% shares in my $2500 bankroll for tournaments other than the $1500 tournament at $25/each, including Single Table Satellites, Multi-table Satellites, and Multi-table tournaments. If I win an entry into the $10000 main event in any of these satellites, I will play in the main event, but will give you the option to sell back your shares to me at that time for $100/each (plus any other satellite winnings) at that point in time if you want to cash out. If I play more than $2500 worth of tournaments, shares will only apply to the first $2500 of entries.
I will sell up to 50% of my shares for both investments, first come, first serve.
One stipulation I ask is that we do all money transfers by Paypal. If you want to invest and this is a problem, let me know and we will work something out.
You will be responsible for any taxes on your portion of winnings.
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail or give me a call (408-623-0380). If you plan to invest, please send money to my paypal account (michael@migdol.net) by Wednesday night.
Thanks everyone for your support in the past and in the future!
Several people invested in my entry in the Shooting Star World Poker Tour event in March, and it was a lot of fun having so many people rooting for me while I played. So I figured I would give all of my friends and family a chance to do the same for this trip.
There are two ways I am allowing people to invest:
1) 1% shares in the $1500 event I mentioned above at $15/each
2) 1% shares in my $2500 bankroll for tournaments other than the $1500 tournament at $25/each, including Single Table Satellites, Multi-table Satellites, and Multi-table tournaments. If I win an entry into the $10000 main event in any of these satellites, I will play in the main event, but will give you the option to sell back your shares to me at that time for $100/each (plus any other satellite winnings) at that point in time if you want to cash out. If I play more than $2500 worth of tournaments, shares will only apply to the first $2500 of entries.
I will sell up to 50% of my shares for both investments, first come, first serve.
One stipulation I ask is that we do all money transfers by Paypal. If you want to invest and this is a problem, let me know and we will work something out.
You will be responsible for any taxes on your portion of winnings.
If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail or give me a call (408-623-0380). If you plan to invest, please send money to my paypal account (michael@migdol.net) by Wednesday night.
Thanks everyone for your support in the past and in the future!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Summer Time!
Sorry for not posting...we've had a busy start to the summer! Here's a quick update on what we've been up to.
Kayleigh and Will have been out of school for a week now. They are both starting the summer in dramatic fashion by attending the Children's Musical Theater of San Jose's summer camp, and participating in their August production of Pinocchio. Later in the summer, they will both be going to scout camp. Kayleigh is continuing cheerleading lessons in anticipation of joining the cheerleading team at California Sports Center, and Will has decided to try out piano lessons.
The kids are also both doing a Youth Science Institute (YSI) camp, and Kayleigh will be spending a week at ID Tech Camp doing "Adventures in Game Design". Hey Cass, got any openings at ID?
Not to be outdone by the humans in the family, Lucy will be starting some long overdue obedience lessons in July.
I'll be taking my annual journey to Las Vegas next week for the World Series of Poker. I plan on playing in at least one WSOP prelim event (the $1500 NLHE starting on June 28th), and maybe more depending on how things go. I had a good "warm-up" this morning at GC, chopping the tournament 6 ways for $1300. Let me know if you're interested in buying a share of my Vegas tournament action!
If you want to see my talented son and his best friend miming, check out this video:
I guess that's about it for now. I'll try to update things more often!
Kayleigh and Will have been out of school for a week now. They are both starting the summer in dramatic fashion by attending the Children's Musical Theater of San Jose's summer camp, and participating in their August production of Pinocchio. Later in the summer, they will both be going to scout camp. Kayleigh is continuing cheerleading lessons in anticipation of joining the cheerleading team at California Sports Center, and Will has decided to try out piano lessons.
The kids are also both doing a Youth Science Institute (YSI) camp, and Kayleigh will be spending a week at ID Tech Camp doing "Adventures in Game Design". Hey Cass, got any openings at ID?
Not to be outdone by the humans in the family, Lucy will be starting some long overdue obedience lessons in July.
I'll be taking my annual journey to Las Vegas next week for the World Series of Poker. I plan on playing in at least one WSOP prelim event (the $1500 NLHE starting on June 28th), and maybe more depending on how things go. I had a good "warm-up" this morning at GC, chopping the tournament 6 ways for $1300. Let me know if you're interested in buying a share of my Vegas tournament action!
If you want to see my talented son and his best friend miming, check out this video:
I guess that's about it for now. I'll try to update things more often!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
America Voted and...
Wow, did they blow it this week. I must be totally out of tune with the American Public, because I just don't see how Jason Castro made it out of the bottom two. I'm completely floored. Who is voting for him? Do teenage girls somehow find him attractive? Or a good singer? Or does this guy just have a million cousins voting for him. I just don't get it... And then voting off Carly before Brooke? Huh?!?!
On a slightly different topic, my wife and I were watching the show last night (Tuesday), when suddenly she says, "hey, he was at Bouchon when we were there!". "Who?" I asked. "Him!" she pointed. It was Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. There are very few celebrities who I would bother for an autograph if I saw them in public -- he would have been one of them. Too bad Monique didn't recognize him at the time.
We also saw Michael J Fox by the craps tables. I didn't ask him for an autograph...
Hey, who here is reading from http://oasisofblue.blogspot.com ? Most of my referrals are coming from there, and I'm really curious what it is. Could someone leave a comment and let me know?
On a slightly different topic, my wife and I were watching the show last night (Tuesday), when suddenly she says, "hey, he was at Bouchon when we were there!". "Who?" I asked. "Him!" she pointed. It was Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber. There are very few celebrities who I would bother for an autograph if I saw them in public -- he would have been one of them. Too bad Monique didn't recognize him at the time.
We also saw Michael J Fox by the craps tables. I didn't ask him for an autograph...
Hey, who here is reading from http://oasisofblue.blogspot.com ? Most of my referrals are coming from there, and I'm really curious what it is. Could someone leave a comment and let me know?
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
How am I running?
I know I just won the Wynn tournament, but jeez even in that tournament I ran bad. I busted out of GC tourney today with AK vs A3 all in preflop. And check this out from the HORSE heads up match I just played:
PokerStars Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind t100 (2 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
Hero (t1941)
Button (t1059)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 6s, 8h.
Button calls, Hero checks.
Flop: (2 SB, t200) Qh, Th, 9s (2 players)
BB bets, Button raises, Hero calls.
Turn: (3 BB, t600) 9h (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.
River: (5 BB, t1000) Jh (2 players)
BB bets, Button raises, BB 3-bets, Button calls t159 (All-In).
Final Pot: 10.59 BB (t2118)
Results in white below:
Hero has 6s 8h (straight flush, queen high).
Button has Kh Kd (straight flush, king high).
Outcome: Button wins 10.59 BB (t2118).
and two hands later...
PokerStars Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind t100 (2 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
Hero (t482)
Button (t2518)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 9h, Ac.
Button raises, BB 3-bets, Button caps, Hero calls.
Flop: (8 SB, t800) 9s, 4c, 9c (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls t82 (All-In).
Turn: (4.91 BB, t982) Jd (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: (4.91 BB, t982) Kh (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: 4.82 BB (t964)
Results in white below:
Hero has 9h Ac (three of a kind, nines).
Button has Jh 9d (full house, nines full of jacks).
Outcome: Button wins 4.91 BB (t982).
PokerStars Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind t100 (2 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
Hero (t1941)
Button (t1059)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 6s, 8h.
Button calls, Hero checks.
Flop: (2 SB, t200) Qh, Th, 9s (2 players)
BB bets, Button raises, Hero calls.
Turn: (3 BB, t600) 9h (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls.
River: (5 BB, t1000) Jh (2 players)
BB bets, Button raises, BB 3-bets, Button calls t159 (All-In).
Final Pot: 10.59 BB (t2118)
Results in white below:
Hero has 6s 8h (straight flush, queen high).
Button has Kh Kd (straight flush, king high).
Outcome: Button wins 10.59 BB (t2118).
and two hands later...
PokerStars Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind t100 (2 handed) Poker Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: HTML)
Hero (t482)
Button (t2518)
Preflop: Hero is BB with 9h, Ac.
Button raises, BB 3-bets, Button caps, Hero calls.
Flop: (8 SB, t800) 9s, 4c, 9c (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets, Hero calls t82 (All-In).
Turn: (4.91 BB, t982) Jd (2 players, 1 all-in)
River: (4.91 BB, t982) Kh (2 players, 1 all-in)
Final Pot: 4.82 BB (t964)
Results in white below:
Hero has 9h Ac (three of a kind, nines).
Button has Jh 9d (full house, nines full of jacks).
Outcome: Button wins 4.91 BB (t982).
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Vegas Friday
What a cool vacation we are having. We slept in yesterday, then met our friends for brunch over at the Terrace Cafe at the Wynn, having decided to play in the $125+one $100 rebuy tournament over at the poker room there. Our brunch was highlighted by everyone dropping their forks repeatedly, and Larry's phobia of the little sparrows that were flying all over the patio where we were eating.
After signing up for the tournament, I sat down at a $1-$3 NL table. I limped in with Q5 of diamonds, and totally misread a guy who led out the AQ3 flop with 2 clubs. I flat called the flop, then raised the turn which made a 3-flush but also gave me a wheel draw. The nice thing about that play is that he may lay down an A, he may lay down a better Q, and if he reraises me I can easily get out. But he flat called, and when I made my wheel on the river, he checked again. I bet the pot (about $90), and he called instantly, tabling the Jack-high flush. Not a good start to the day.
The tournament was a lot of fun. The Wynn structure is pretty good for the money -- you get a total of 8K in chips and 30 minute levels that go up very slowly. The only negative point is that they only break every 2 hours. Larry, Dave, and I were all at the same table. (Richard and Ralph were also in the tournament). I busted Larry with pocket 9's after he raised, Dave flat called, and I shoved for 20xBB. Richard was unfortunate when his K-high flush ran into the nut flush.
I'm still trying to figure out how I survived the first 3 hours of the tournament, which featured:
- Losing a big pot in which the money went in on the turn on a 238A board. I had 45, the other guy had A2.
- Losing a big pot with AA vs a K6 all-in PF
- Twice getting all-in PF with AK vs. KQ and having Q come in the window
My luck finally changed, however. I was all-in with 55 against KQ. A king came on the flop and I was getting up to leave when a 5 spiked on the turn. After that, I won 2 more big pots and was tourney leader. Then, on one hand, the button raised my big blind all in for about 3xBB. (We're playing with Antes, BTW) I look down at...6 of diamonds and 3 of diamonds. I burst out laughing, and of course the table thinks I'm insane. The antes make this a better than 2-1 call, and I do so. I'm up against K2 and all of a sudden I have a huge chip lead. The table began talking chop, and I agreed to take $1450 of the ~$8500 pool with 7 players left.
I went straight to the tournament to join Ralph & Larry and their wives for dinner at Country Club at the Wynn, which bills itself as "A New American Steakhouse." This was a really amazing meal, and I highly recommend this restaurant. We started off with a cheese fondue appetizer. I had some raw oysters (April is a -ber month, isn't it?), and for Entree had their special dry-aged New York Strip. Monique had the Sea Bass. The sides were really good, too. My favorite was the Truffle Creamed Spinach.
After dinner, we hit the blackjack tables. We hit a good run early and left the table up $350. Then, a good run at the craps table put us up $600 for our gambling for the night. Instead of going to bed, however, we went to the poker room exhausted, never a good idea, and blew $300 of our winnings.
I've decided to play the Venetian $500 buy-in tournament today, so wish me luck!
After signing up for the tournament, I sat down at a $1-$3 NL table. I limped in with Q5 of diamonds, and totally misread a guy who led out the AQ3 flop with 2 clubs. I flat called the flop, then raised the turn which made a 3-flush but also gave me a wheel draw. The nice thing about that play is that he may lay down an A, he may lay down a better Q, and if he reraises me I can easily get out. But he flat called, and when I made my wheel on the river, he checked again. I bet the pot (about $90), and he called instantly, tabling the Jack-high flush. Not a good start to the day.
The tournament was a lot of fun. The Wynn structure is pretty good for the money -- you get a total of 8K in chips and 30 minute levels that go up very slowly. The only negative point is that they only break every 2 hours. Larry, Dave, and I were all at the same table. (Richard and Ralph were also in the tournament). I busted Larry with pocket 9's after he raised, Dave flat called, and I shoved for 20xBB. Richard was unfortunate when his K-high flush ran into the nut flush.
I'm still trying to figure out how I survived the first 3 hours of the tournament, which featured:
- Losing a big pot in which the money went in on the turn on a 238A board. I had 45, the other guy had A2.
- Losing a big pot with AA vs a K6 all-in PF
- Twice getting all-in PF with AK vs. KQ and having Q come in the window
My luck finally changed, however. I was all-in with 55 against KQ. A king came on the flop and I was getting up to leave when a 5 spiked on the turn. After that, I won 2 more big pots and was tourney leader. Then, on one hand, the button raised my big blind all in for about 3xBB. (We're playing with Antes, BTW) I look down at...6 of diamonds and 3 of diamonds. I burst out laughing, and of course the table thinks I'm insane. The antes make this a better than 2-1 call, and I do so. I'm up against K2 and all of a sudden I have a huge chip lead. The table began talking chop, and I agreed to take $1450 of the ~$8500 pool with 7 players left.
I went straight to the tournament to join Ralph & Larry and their wives for dinner at Country Club at the Wynn, which bills itself as "A New American Steakhouse." This was a really amazing meal, and I highly recommend this restaurant. We started off with a cheese fondue appetizer. I had some raw oysters (April is a -ber month, isn't it?), and for Entree had their special dry-aged New York Strip. Monique had the Sea Bass. The sides were really good, too. My favorite was the Truffle Creamed Spinach.
After dinner, we hit the blackjack tables. We hit a good run early and left the table up $350. Then, a good run at the craps table put us up $600 for our gambling for the night. Instead of going to bed, however, we went to the poker room exhausted, never a good idea, and blew $300 of our winnings.
I've decided to play the Venetian $500 buy-in tournament today, so wish me luck!
Friday, April 18, 2008
Vegas Baby!
Monique and I are enjoying a well-deserved long weekend in Vegas with some friends of ours. One of these friends is an "Invited Guest" at Palazzo, and he was able to get us a great rate. So that's we're staying we're staying. The hotel itself is amazing. The hotel only opened 3 months ago, but we haven't seen any real glitches yet....
For dinner last night we went to Bouchon a French restaurant in the Venetian. The restaurant is on the 10th floor and overlooks a beautiful courtyard -- the night was perfect for an outdoor meal. Despite having made reservations and arriving 10 minutes early, we had to wait about 20 minutes for our table, which was annoying. The service was extremely sloppy -- they did things like take away our butter knives while leaving the bread and butter. The food was pretty good, but not enough to make up for the poor service. We shared a watercress and endive salad and a garlic cream soup. Monique had gnocci, and I settled for saffron mussels after learning that my first choice (a scallop special) was sold out. I give the atmosphere 5 stars, the food 3 1/2 stars, and the service 2 stars.
After dinner we met up with our friends in the Venetian poker room. Monique and I were able to quickly get seated at 1-2 No Limit. I had only $275 with me, so Monique bought in for $100 and I bought in for the rest. It was Monique's first time playing no-limit in a casino, and she did OK. In one hand, she called a $12 MP raise from the BB and was heads up. When the flop cam Qxx, she led out, and the raiser raised to $30. The turn was another rag and she check-called a $35 bet. On the river, a K came and she check-called another $25. I was expecting to see her QJ lose to KQ, but they chopped the pot holding AQ!
We won enough to pay for the pricey meal and turned in. The plan today is for Monique to go shopping with "the girls", while I find a tournament to play in.
For dinner last night we went to Bouchon a French restaurant in the Venetian. The restaurant is on the 10th floor and overlooks a beautiful courtyard -- the night was perfect for an outdoor meal. Despite having made reservations and arriving 10 minutes early, we had to wait about 20 minutes for our table, which was annoying. The service was extremely sloppy -- they did things like take away our butter knives while leaving the bread and butter. The food was pretty good, but not enough to make up for the poor service. We shared a watercress and endive salad and a garlic cream soup. Monique had gnocci, and I settled for saffron mussels after learning that my first choice (a scallop special) was sold out. I give the atmosphere 5 stars, the food 3 1/2 stars, and the service 2 stars.
After dinner we met up with our friends in the Venetian poker room. Monique and I were able to quickly get seated at 1-2 No Limit. I had only $275 with me, so Monique bought in for $100 and I bought in for the rest. It was Monique's first time playing no-limit in a casino, and she did OK. In one hand, she called a $12 MP raise from the BB and was heads up. When the flop cam Qxx, she led out, and the raiser raised to $30. The turn was another rag and she check-called a $35 bet. On the river, a K came and she check-called another $25. I was expecting to see her QJ lose to KQ, but they chopped the pot holding AQ!
We won enough to pay for the pricey meal and turned in. The plan today is for Monique to go shopping with "the girls", while I find a tournament to play in.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Saturday Spread Silliness
Well, it was a disappointing week, but I ended it with two fun sessions of poker. Friday night was my friend Ed's monthly home game. I busted out of the tournament early with JJ against AA, but with a personal record-low # of rebuys (1). So I was down $60, but ran ridiculously hot in the following cash game, including scooping 3 High-Low pots. As usual, we ended the night with a hand of Indian Poker. I was first to act and saw no cards higher than a 6! I decided the guy on my left (holding a deuce) would see this as well and bet out, even if I was the only high card. So I decided to checkraise him. He led out for $3 which was called by one other player (holding the 6) , then Ed (on my right, holding a 5) re-raised to $10! Last time he did this, he was trying to unsuccessfully get me to fold my A, so I re-raised to $20. The deuce CALLED, and Ed called, and my 10 was good. Good times. So I ended up $70 in the cash game, and $10 net for the night.
Last night I went in to Garden City and was pleased to quickly get a seat at a table with one of my favorite LAG (loose aggressive) players who has about $1500 in front of him. Over the course of the night, his stack went back and forth between $300 and $1500. A typical hand with him would be he would raise (in any position) to $20 or $25, 5 or 6 people would either flat call or limp re-raise him. He would call ANY re-raise - I saw him do this with T8o and T6s! And then basically mix it up on the flop, but usually applying full pressure by betting $200 (the max). There were at least 5 $1000+ pots with him involved, and he ended up the night with over $2000.
I won a couple of doozies with him, including one in which he checkraised me ($200 of course) on a Kxx board (I had AK, he had AQ), one in which I value-bet with TPTK on a Q-high board on the river, and called his checkraise (he instamucked). I did lose one big one when I called a raise from this guy with 95s in the BB (yeah I know, mistake #1). The flop was all paint (meaning it probably missed him), and gave me a flush draw. My plan was to check call the flop and check raise the turn; if I got re-raised I would still have odds to call and see the river. (Albeit for an expensive $600!). The turn, however, was an offsuit Q, making the board AKJQ. So instead I checked and he bet "only" $125. I called like a wimp, and the river was an offsuit 9. I checked and when he bet $200, I succumbed. He showed 62o!
I did make one really good call. I limped with black 9's (planning to reraise against the maniac), but instead, a good, fairly tight player on my left raised to $25. 3 people called and I decided to just call. The flop came T77 with 1 heart. The raiser was last to act, and I figured I would wait and see what he (and the rest of the field, if he bet) did. He checked. Now the turn was the Q of hearts (making a two flush. The maniac led out for $25, which I read as weak. Folded to me, and I decided to raise $100 . The opening raiser flat called. Huh? I couldn't believe he would check the flop and flat call the turn with any real hand like QQ or JJ. TT maybe? Anyways, the LAG quickly folded and I was HU with the turn was an offsuit rag, and I checked. The raiser quickly bet $100 into the $300 pot. I interrogated him a bit and finally decided he had AK of hearts or KQ of hearts (giving him flush + straight draw + overs on the turn) and called. He showed KQ of hearts and I won the pot.
At one point I was up $1600, but lost almost half of that trying to "tag the LAG" one last time. But it was a fun, pleasant table.
I haven't heard anything from either waitlist yet. I did get a couple of additional recommendations submitted to the BCEMBA program (which solicited additional application material in their waitlist letter). Keep your fingers crossed!
Last night I went in to Garden City and was pleased to quickly get a seat at a table with one of my favorite LAG (loose aggressive) players who has about $1500 in front of him. Over the course of the night, his stack went back and forth between $300 and $1500. A typical hand with him would be he would raise (in any position) to $20 or $25, 5 or 6 people would either flat call or limp re-raise him. He would call ANY re-raise - I saw him do this with T8o and T6s! And then basically mix it up on the flop, but usually applying full pressure by betting $200 (the max). There were at least 5 $1000+ pots with him involved, and he ended up the night with over $2000.
I won a couple of doozies with him, including one in which he checkraised me ($200 of course) on a Kxx board (I had AK, he had AQ), one in which I value-bet with TPTK on a Q-high board on the river, and called his checkraise (he instamucked). I did lose one big one when I called a raise from this guy with 95s in the BB (yeah I know, mistake #1). The flop was all paint (meaning it probably missed him), and gave me a flush draw. My plan was to check call the flop and check raise the turn; if I got re-raised I would still have odds to call and see the river. (Albeit for an expensive $600!). The turn, however, was an offsuit Q, making the board AKJQ. So instead I checked and he bet "only" $125. I called like a wimp, and the river was an offsuit 9. I checked and when he bet $200, I succumbed. He showed 62o!
I did make one really good call. I limped with black 9's (planning to reraise against the maniac), but instead, a good, fairly tight player on my left raised to $25. 3 people called and I decided to just call. The flop came T77 with 1 heart. The raiser was last to act, and I figured I would wait and see what he (and the rest of the field, if he bet) did. He checked. Now the turn was the Q of hearts (making a two flush. The maniac led out for $25, which I read as weak. Folded to me, and I decided to raise $100 . The opening raiser flat called. Huh? I couldn't believe he would check the flop and flat call the turn with any real hand like QQ or JJ. TT maybe? Anyways, the LAG quickly folded and I was HU with the turn was an offsuit rag, and I checked. The raiser quickly bet $100 into the $300 pot. I interrogated him a bit and finally decided he had AK of hearts or KQ of hearts (giving him flush + straight draw + overs on the turn) and called. He showed KQ of hearts and I won the pot.
At one point I was up $1600, but lost almost half of that trying to "tag the LAG" one last time. But it was a fun, pleasant table.
I haven't heard anything from either waitlist yet. I did get a couple of additional recommendations submitted to the BCEMBA program (which solicited additional application material in their waitlist letter). Keep your fingers crossed!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Waitlist #2
Got the bad news today that I have been waitlisted at BCEMBA (Berkeley-Columbia Executive MBA) as well. Unlike Wharton, however, BCEMBA encourages waitlistees to submit additional application material, so I'm going to get an additional recommendation and a "pick me, pick me, please please please please" letter together. I also reached out to my network for suggestions and have found a couple of Haas alum who are going to help me with some advice.
It's better than two dings, I suppose. But it shore does suck not knowing where I stand in either program.
Had a nice little run at Garden City tonight, up about $950 playing 8-16. Things started badly, when I posted my big blind with 73, flopped trips, and lost to same trips, better kicker. But I was patient and recovered nicely. I also got to answer another set of "hey, wasn't that you in the final 4 tables at the Shooting Star? What happened on your last hand" questions.
And on my last hand, UTG, I pick up 6d 3d.
Mucked it.
It's better than two dings, I suppose. But it shore does suck not knowing where I stand in either program.
Had a nice little run at Garden City tonight, up about $950 playing 8-16. Things started badly, when I posted my big blind with 73, flopped trips, and lost to same trips, better kicker. But I was patient and recovered nicely. I also got to answer another set of "hey, wasn't that you in the final 4 tables at the Shooting Star? What happened on your last hand" questions.
And on my last hand, UTG, I pick up 6d 3d.
Mucked it.
Monday, March 31, 2008
waitlisted
got word for wharton today - i was waitlisted. :( hopefully better news from berkeley coming soon....
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Hump day
Well, it has been quite a week already. On Sunday we had some friends over for an Easter cookout. We had some yummy tri-tip, chicken, and hot dogs. The kids played Super Smash Bros. Brawl
on the Wii while the adults chatted.
Monday, there were some posts on the Business Week B-School forums that Wharton admit notifications were made by phone on Easter Sunday. I hadn't gotten the call and was a little worried until eventually people realized that that the notifications had only gone out to those who had requested early notification. So the waiting begins again...Most people on the forums (who I should know better than to trust by now) are anticipating results at the end of this week, despite the official notification deadline of 4/15.
Yesterday, I left work a little early to get ready for our Den Meeting. When I got home, I noticed something different about the hummingbirds -- one was perched on the side of the nest. They have been looking ready to fly for a couple of days now. Naturally, I got the camera out and shot a couple of pics, but I must have gotten too close, because one of them suddenly flew out of the nest! He (she?) flew over the roof of the house, and I have not seen him (her?) since.
The remaining baby was looking quite lonely, and I quickly set up our webcam to record to try to catch her (his?) first flight. We were soon treated to a visit from the mama bird, who came back to the nest briefly, seemingly to give some encouragement to the remaining baby. As of this morning, the baby is still there. I do have a video of the mama coming back posted. You will want to download it and view it in a bigger window than what's on the blog. Mama makes her appearance about 50 seconds into the video.
By the way, I finally fixed the port routing, so you can now see the video at http://pictures.migdol.net (without the ":81" on the end)
Does anyone know about hummingbird babies? Once they fly out of the nest for the first time, are they expected to come back?
I caught American Idol last night and was glad to see a couple of my favorites, Kristy Lee Cook and Michael Johns, make some "breakout" performances. I think the two that are in trouble tonight are Jason Castro (how stoned was he last night?) and Chikezie. I was sad to see Amanada Overmyer go last week. I liked her style, although I knew she didn't have nearly enough charisma to survive this type of popularity contest.
on the Wii while the adults chatted. Monday, there were some posts on the Business Week B-School forums that Wharton admit notifications were made by phone on Easter Sunday. I hadn't gotten the call and was a little worried until eventually people realized that that the notifications had only gone out to those who had requested early notification. So the waiting begins again...Most people on the forums (who I should know better than to trust by now) are anticipating results at the end of this week, despite the official notification deadline of 4/15.
Yesterday, I left work a little early to get ready for our Den Meeting. When I got home, I noticed something different about the hummingbirds -- one was perched on the side of the nest. They have been looking ready to fly for a couple of days now. Naturally, I got the camera out and shot a couple of pics, but I must have gotten too close, because one of them suddenly flew out of the nest! He (she?) flew over the roof of the house, and I have not seen him (her?) since.
The remaining baby was looking quite lonely, and I quickly set up our webcam to record to try to catch her (his?) first flight. We were soon treated to a visit from the mama bird, who came back to the nest briefly, seemingly to give some encouragement to the remaining baby. As of this morning, the baby is still there. I do have a video of the mama coming back posted. You will want to download it and view it in a bigger window than what's on the blog. Mama makes her appearance about 50 seconds into the video.
By the way, I finally fixed the port routing, so you can now see the video at http://pictures.migdol.net (without the ":81" on the end)
Does anyone know about hummingbird babies? Once they fly out of the nest for the first time, are they expected to come back?
I caught American Idol last night and was glad to see a couple of my favorites, Kristy Lee Cook and Michael Johns, make some "breakout" performances. I think the two that are in trouble tonight are Jason Castro (how stoned was he last night?) and Chikezie. I was sad to see Amanada Overmyer go last week. I liked her style, although I knew she didn't have nearly enough charisma to survive this type of popularity contest.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Ego
So I now have an entry in the CardPlayer database.
Here is a picture of me just after busting Layne Flack, with my peak of about 280K chips on Thursday.
One from PokerPages.com...
And the reporter from PokerPages was nice enough to send me these from Day 1b:
Here is a picture of me just after busting Layne Flack, with my peak of about 280K chips on Thursday.
One from PokerPages.com...
And the reporter from PokerPages was nice enough to send me these from Day 1b:
Friday, March 14, 2008
shooting star final hand
Well, I woke up this morning and, yes, it was Friday, and no, the hand I busted out on was not a bad dream. Darn. As I told my friend Andrew, you know you probably made a bad play when you are posting about it on the 2+2 (poker discussion website) psychology forum instead of the tournament strategy forum. Ah well... life goes on.
For those of you who are interested, I started the hand with about 180k in chips, with blinds at 2k-4k and 500 ante. I had 63 suited diamonds on the button. Cutoff (guy to my right) open raises for 3x the blind. I call because I know this guy is a big bluffer. Still, this is not the kind of hand I want to call him down with if I make just 1 pair. So, the preflop call is probably a small mistake.
The flop comes J34 with one diamond and two clubs. He checks, and I bet 25k. He checkraises me to 55k. Now, I just outthought myself. I felt this guy would just call with his really strong hands, and that his checkraise was more of a "probe" bet, eg with a hand like pocket tens or nines. because I read him as weak (or at least not suprstrong), I felt like I could push him off of many hands better than mine, or, if he called, had a fair chance of outdrawing him on the turn or river. So I decided to try to take down the 80k pot right there by going all in.
He had KJ and called after a bit of thought. a 7 came on the turn, giving me a 3,5, or 6 as outs, but none came on the river.
Despite my "logic" above, the single biggest problem with my move is that I was at the "best" of the 4 remaining tables, the only table that did not have a pro on it. And, similar to a hand on wednesday when I took a conservative route because I thought I could take advantage of other weak players at the table, I should have done the same here. In the first two hours, a third of the remaining field of 36 had already busted. A bit more patience would probably have meant at least double my winnings.
So, one last time, I apologize to those who have been supporting me. I cannot begin to describe how much the excitement that you all have shown in this endeavor has meant to me. I have no doubt that I would not have gone as far as I did without all of you behind me. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You!
For those of you who are interested, I started the hand with about 180k in chips, with blinds at 2k-4k and 500 ante. I had 63 suited diamonds on the button. Cutoff (guy to my right) open raises for 3x the blind. I call because I know this guy is a big bluffer. Still, this is not the kind of hand I want to call him down with if I make just 1 pair. So, the preflop call is probably a small mistake.
The flop comes J34 with one diamond and two clubs. He checks, and I bet 25k. He checkraises me to 55k. Now, I just outthought myself. I felt this guy would just call with his really strong hands, and that his checkraise was more of a "probe" bet, eg with a hand like pocket tens or nines. because I read him as weak (or at least not suprstrong), I felt like I could push him off of many hands better than mine, or, if he called, had a fair chance of outdrawing him on the turn or river. So I decided to try to take down the 80k pot right there by going all in.
He had KJ and called after a bit of thought. a 7 came on the turn, giving me a 3,5, or 6 as outs, but none came on the river.
Despite my "logic" above, the single biggest problem with my move is that I was at the "best" of the 4 remaining tables, the only table that did not have a pro on it. And, similar to a hand on wednesday when I took a conservative route because I thought I could take advantage of other weak players at the table, I should have done the same here. In the first two hours, a third of the remaining field of 36 had already busted. A bit more patience would probably have meant at least double my winnings.
So, one last time, I apologize to those who have been supporting me. I cannot begin to describe how much the excitement that you all have shown in this endeavor has meant to me. I have no doubt that I would not have gone as far as I did without all of you behind me. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You!
Thursday, March 13, 2008
shooting star day 3
i am out, total winnings of $25K. I sincerelly apologize to all investors for my final play. it wa/ a horrible blunder, all things considered. details are on cardplayer.com, but i will post more on the hand later....
shooting star day 3
We are down to 23 players with the current prize level at $20k. Also, I collected a $5k bounty for busting Layne Flack. I have just over 200k in chips. Next update in 2 hrs.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Wow.... just..... Wow....
As both my friend Ed and my wife has commented, the current feeling is more surreal than anything else. Today was an exercise in patience and finding the right time to make a couple of steals to survive until real hands came. I got moved to a table with Justin Bonomo (ZeeJustin of online fame) (I suck, that wasn't Justin), JC Tran, and a very aggressive Brandon Cantu. I played there for a couple of rounds and had about 35k in chips when I got moved to a table that included:
Anna Wroblewski
Jennifer Harmon
David Tran
Isabelle Mercier
Tuan Le
and
Lee Watkinson
This is what playing in a WPT event is all about!
Luckily, I quickly won 3 big pots: one with AK all in preflop vs AT (why do people keep calling my raises with AT?), one with a flush that I caught in a blind defense, and my 2nd rockets (AA) of the tournament got action from a short stack.
So now we play tomorrow, 6 6-handed tables. If (or as we positive thinkers say, when) we survive tomorrow, we will be down to 6 players, I will have $135K in prize money locked up, and the highly coveted chance to make a fool of myself on the worldwide-syndicated WPT program. :-) Oh, did I mention the $1 million for first?
My draw for tomorrow, which is posted at http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/live_updates/14167 could be a lot worse. Layne Flack, with $93K in chips, is the bounty at the table. I'm glad I'm not at tables 2 or 5, which have 3 world-class players on them.
Tomorrow is 2-hour levels starting at 10:30 AM, so I expect my first update to be around 12:30 PM central time.
Thanks again to everyone for your continued support.
Oh, one hand story.
I was feeling pretty low, having just made a bad fold. I said, "I need help", and pulled out pics of the kids and put them in front of my chip stack. My next big blind, I called a small raise with 6-4 suited. I flopped an open ended straight draw, and check-called a small continuation bet. The turn got checked, and I caught the straight on the river. While I didn't get any action on the river, it was still a much-needed boost at a much-needed time. So thanks kids! And don't you ever let me catch you playing 6-4...
Anna Wroblewski
Jennifer Harmon
David Tran
Isabelle Mercier
Tuan Le
and
Lee Watkinson
This is what playing in a WPT event is all about!
Luckily, I quickly won 3 big pots: one with AK all in preflop vs AT (why do people keep calling my raises with AT?), one with a flush that I caught in a blind defense, and my 2nd rockets (AA) of the tournament got action from a short stack.
So now we play tomorrow, 6 6-handed tables. If (or as we positive thinkers say, when) we survive tomorrow, we will be down to 6 players, I will have $135K in prize money locked up, and the highly coveted chance to make a fool of myself on the worldwide-syndicated WPT program. :-) Oh, did I mention the $1 million for first?
My draw for tomorrow, which is posted at http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/live_updates/14167 could be a lot worse. Layne Flack, with $93K in chips, is the bounty at the table. I'm glad I'm not at tables 2 or 5, which have 3 world-class players on them.
Tomorrow is 2-hour levels starting at 10:30 AM, so I expect my first update to be around 12:30 PM central time.
Thanks again to everyone for your continued support.
Oh, one hand story.
I was feeling pretty low, having just made a bad fold. I said, "I need help", and pulled out pics of the kids and put them in front of my chip stack. My next big blind, I called a small raise with 6-4 suited. I flopped an open ended straight draw, and check-called a small continuation bet. The turn got checked, and I caught the straight on the river. While I didn't get any action on the river, it was still a much-needed boost at a much-needed time. So thanks kids! And don't you ever let me catch you playing 6-4...
shooting star day 2
and we are done with day 2. 36 players remain, i now have 185k in chips. more later....
shooting star day 2
if you are a backer, please send me your social security number. i will need it asap.
shooting star day 2
Congratulations everyone we are IN THE MONEY.... I am till shortstacked but have a few chips to play with.
shooting star day 2
I was all in 3 times last round, and won the one that I had to show down, jj vs at all in preflop to dbl up. Up to 76k now. not where i want to be but much better than i as before. 72 players left, next update at 5pm.
shooting star day 2
This round started off rough but I was able to recover back up to 56k in chips. I did make one bad fold, but you have to make some of those sometimes.... I am now well below average but still reasonably deep (blinds are going to be 800-1600 with 75 ante after break). About 85 players remain,
shooting star
1st level of the 2nd day was uneventful. I have about the same chips that I started with. We did lose the bounty player at our table, Mike Matusow. Levels today are 90 minutes so look for next update at about 2pm Pst. about 100 players remain.
Shooting Star - Day 2
According to Card Player, there are 138 players remaining in the field from an original size of 376. 45 places will pay. I am ranked 29th out of the 138, although my chip stack is just a tad below average. The bubble will be around 7:30PM PST if similar to last year. Also, there are 16 bounty players remaining.
For those of you who are following on cardplayer.com, the hand where I took the chip lead (briefly) was totally misreported. Here's what really happened. I started the hand with about 44K in chips, Thu had me covered. Blinds were 100-200.
Thu raised UTG to 700, I flat called in UTG+2 with 22, BB called.
Flop was A82, Thu bet out 1000. I meant to raise to 2500 (5 yellow chips) but grabbed
the wrong color chips (doh!) and raised to 5000 (5 blue chips) instead. He called
which I figured was AK, AQ or a set.
Q came on the turn, he checked, I bet another 5000, he reraised me to
15000, leaving me 13000 behind. He had me covered. I decided to call it down, and when the 9 came on river, Thu put me all in. I said "I'm not good enough to fold this" and called.
The comment about the yell was accurate. I received a warning for
excessive celebration. :-)
Here are details on the hand that I lost the lead. I had 7s6s in late position. Blinds are 150-300 with 25 ante. Guy to my right with about 40k in chips raises to 1100. I read this as a steal attempt but decide to call in position, because the big blind is a weak player and I want him in the hand. Big blind calls, flop comes 754 with two hearts. This is a pretty big flop for me, with top pair and an open ended straight draw. BB checks, original raiser c-bets 2000. I raise to 6000, which puts a total of about 12000 in the pot. BB now goes all in for a total of 29000, so it is 23000 for me to call into a pot of 41000. If BB has a set or a made straight, these are not proper odds (I need to be about 36% or better to win, and am only 25% to win vs. these hands)
Against the hand i was actually up against (Qh 7h for top pair plus a flush draw), I also had improper odds. But remember, BB was weak. I have seen him make very similar moves with overpairs, with or without flush draws. Against Ah Kh, I am even money (and have a huge overlay on the call), and I'm only a 45% dog against Ad Ac (overpair without a heart).
Another consideration in my call was this: the chip leader at the end of day 1 gets a $10,000 bonus (real money, not tournament chips). I felt this type of call was necessary to help build my stack aggressively to try to get that bonus (not to mention to further my position in the tournament). If I lost, the chips were going to a weak player, and I would still have a strong chip stack at the table.
So I made the call, but not help came. One friend I talked to hated both my flop raise and my big call... I would be interested in hearing other opinions.
OK time to get ready! Will send my next message from the casino.
For those of you who are following on cardplayer.com, the hand where I took the chip lead (briefly) was totally misreported. Here's what really happened. I started the hand with about 44K in chips, Thu had me covered. Blinds were 100-200.
Thu raised UTG to 700, I flat called in UTG+2 with 22, BB called.
Flop was A82, Thu bet out 1000. I meant to raise to 2500 (5 yellow chips) but grabbed
the wrong color chips (doh!) and raised to 5000 (5 blue chips) instead. He called
which I figured was AK, AQ or a set.
Q came on the turn, he checked, I bet another 5000, he reraised me to
15000, leaving me 13000 behind. He had me covered. I decided to call it down, and when the 9 came on river, Thu put me all in. I said "I'm not good enough to fold this" and called.
The comment about the yell was accurate. I received a warning for
excessive celebration. :-)
Here are details on the hand that I lost the lead. I had 7s6s in late position. Blinds are 150-300 with 25 ante. Guy to my right with about 40k in chips raises to 1100. I read this as a steal attempt but decide to call in position, because the big blind is a weak player and I want him in the hand. Big blind calls, flop comes 754 with two hearts. This is a pretty big flop for me, with top pair and an open ended straight draw. BB checks, original raiser c-bets 2000. I raise to 6000, which puts a total of about 12000 in the pot. BB now goes all in for a total of 29000, so it is 23000 for me to call into a pot of 41000. If BB has a set or a made straight, these are not proper odds (I need to be about 36% or better to win, and am only 25% to win vs. these hands)
Against the hand i was actually up against (Qh 7h for top pair plus a flush draw), I also had improper odds. But remember, BB was weak. I have seen him make very similar moves with overpairs, with or without flush draws. Against Ah Kh, I am even money (and have a huge overlay on the call), and I'm only a 45% dog against Ad Ac (overpair without a heart).
Another consideration in my call was this: the chip leader at the end of day 1 gets a $10,000 bonus (real money, not tournament chips). I felt this type of call was necessary to help build my stack aggressively to try to get that bonus (not to mention to further my position in the tournament). If I lost, the chips were going to a weak player, and I would still have a strong chip stack at the table.
So I made the call, but not help came. One friend I talked to hated both my flop raise and my big call... I would be interested in hearing other opinions.
OK time to get ready! Will send my next message from the casino.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
shooting star
well, I made it to day 2 with above average chips - 53400. Thanks to everyone for your support. game time tomorrow is again 10:30.
shooting star
made a bad bluff, knocked down to 38500. still have plenty of chips to be patient. 1 hr left to go....
shooting star
last break now, with 2 more hous of play before we are done for the day. I am at 63k in chips. average is 39K. 117 players remaining from todays original 230.
shooting star
not sure if my earlier posts made it, but i currently have 56k in chips. average is 30k. both bounties at my table are eliminated. i was briefly chipleader but lost a big pot shortl before break.
keep your fingers crossed...
keep your fingers crossed...
shooting star
after 2 hours I am up to 33000 in chips (started with 20000). good start, hope to keep it up. look for next update around 3Pm pst.
shooting star
Just arrived at the casino. I have two bounties at my table, Josh Arieh And Robert Williamson. tournament starts at 10:30...
Friday, March 7, 2008
bored at the eye doctor
So, I am sitting here waiting at the eye doctor and thought I would post a few words.
Watched the American Idol elimination episode last night. I was really sad to see A'siah go... she really struck me as having a lot of pop star potential, and she won me over on her audition episode. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the sad story. I do like David A, but man, that little chuckle he has bugs the shit out of me...
Played some 5-200 at GC for a bit last night. Holding 87 in the BB, loose utg limps, new player raises to 25, 3 callers, i call. I flop the nuts on a rainbow board, lead out for $50, called by the original raiser. The turn is a safe-looking 6. I bet $100, raiser goes all in, I call, he shows 65. Sigh. I guess thats why you raise with those hands, but.... never works that way for me. :( It was a great table though, and I bounced back from down $300 to only down $75.
oh one last hand. I raise one limper to $25 holding AKo. Called by 3 players including one megafish. Flop 322. I bet $60, megafish calls leaving $20 in his stack. He has been making that kind of call all night with crap, and I put him on kq or kj. J comes on turn, I put him all in, he calls and shows qj. no help on the river. sigh again. I run soooooo bad at GC 5-200.
Watched the American Idol elimination episode last night. I was really sad to see A'siah go... she really struck me as having a lot of pop star potential, and she won me over on her audition episode. Maybe I'm just a sucker for the sad story. I do like David A, but man, that little chuckle he has bugs the shit out of me...
Played some 5-200 at GC for a bit last night. Holding 87 in the BB, loose utg limps, new player raises to 25, 3 callers, i call. I flop the nuts on a rainbow board, lead out for $50, called by the original raiser. The turn is a safe-looking 6. I bet $100, raiser goes all in, I call, he shows 65. Sigh. I guess thats why you raise with those hands, but.... never works that way for me. :( It was a great table though, and I bounced back from down $300 to only down $75.
oh one last hand. I raise one limper to $25 holding AKo. Called by 3 players including one megafish. Flop 322. I bet $60, megafish calls leaving $20 in his stack. He has been making that kind of call all night with crap, and I put him on kq or kj. J comes on turn, I put him all in, he calls and shows qj. no help on the river. sigh again. I run soooooo bad at GC 5-200.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
MBA Interview and Shrinky Dinks
I had my final MBA interview yesterday at Haas (Berkeley). I felt like the interview went really well. The interviewer seemed to "get" my story and I came away with a much better vibe than from my Wharton interview. Now the waiting begins.
Berkeley: April 7
Wharton: April 15th
I've been saying (only half-jokingly) that I hope I get exactly 1 acceptance letter, since 2 leaves me with an extremely tough decision, and 0 would... well, 0 would suck.
Tonight was our weekly den meeting. I asked Sharon (my co-denleader) to prepare tonight's meeting since I've been so tired with the illness. She came up with Shrinky Dinks, which was actually pretty fun. Preheat your oven at 300 degrees, grab the plastic lid off of a takeout salad container, decorate it with colored Sharpies, pop it in the oven, and watch it shrink. Good times.
As you can see from the posted pictures, the baby hummingbirds hatched this morning. I wish I could have captured better pics, but you'll have to take my word for it... they are very cute.
Only a week to go until the Shooting Star. I'm feeling a little bit aloof about it, which worries me. Or maybe it's a good thing. I've been thinking quite a bit about how the bounties affect strategy, but I haven't come to real conclusions about how they will affect my play. I'm going to play some slightly higher buy-in tournaments online over the next week to try to acclimate to playing with more skilled players. My first attempt tonight was almost a success, but just before the money I lost a race with QQ vs AK.
I did win $400 last night playing 5-200 at 101 when I got back from Berkeley. Here's my hand of the night. I pick up AdKd on the button with about $250 in my stack. UTG is very deep, a pretty tight, straightforward guy who I've played against before. He raises to $15, everyone folds (yeah I know, table selection...), and I decide to flat call. Flop comes AQ3, no diamonds. He checks, which with him is either a monster or KK or JJ. Maybe TT. I bet $30 into the $40 pot, and he smooth calls. The turn card is a J, which I hate. He checks again and I check for pot control. The river pairs the 3, and he grabs a stack of chips, puts out $20, another $20, thinks a bit then puts another $20 out, thinks a bit more, then leaves the bet at $60.
Easy fold?
I almost laid it down getting not great odds, but curiosity got the better of me, and he showed QQ. While I was pretty disgusted with myself for the call, I think others would have lost more. Next week, in the Shooting Star, I gotta make that laydown...
TV... Two shows I'm really into right now are American Idol and HBO's In Treatment. Anyone else find David Cook's Rock-ization of Lionel Richie's "Hello" downright... creepy?
I wish I could post about stuff going on at work, but I'm a little nervous about offending people who might stumble upon this blog. I may start posting about work stuff in a restricted-access blog so that I can vent a bit.
Well, sorry for the rambling, but I am new at this. Please leave comments if you're reading so that I know I'm not talking to myself. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Berkeley: April 7
Wharton: April 15th
I've been saying (only half-jokingly) that I hope I get exactly 1 acceptance letter, since 2 leaves me with an extremely tough decision, and 0 would... well, 0 would suck.
Tonight was our weekly den meeting. I asked Sharon (my co-denleader) to prepare tonight's meeting since I've been so tired with the illness. She came up with Shrinky Dinks, which was actually pretty fun. Preheat your oven at 300 degrees, grab the plastic lid off of a takeout salad container, decorate it with colored Sharpies, pop it in the oven, and watch it shrink. Good times.
As you can see from the posted pictures, the baby hummingbirds hatched this morning. I wish I could have captured better pics, but you'll have to take my word for it... they are very cute.
Only a week to go until the Shooting Star. I'm feeling a little bit aloof about it, which worries me. Or maybe it's a good thing. I've been thinking quite a bit about how the bounties affect strategy, but I haven't come to real conclusions about how they will affect my play. I'm going to play some slightly higher buy-in tournaments online over the next week to try to acclimate to playing with more skilled players. My first attempt tonight was almost a success, but just before the money I lost a race with QQ vs AK.
I did win $400 last night playing 5-200 at 101 when I got back from Berkeley. Here's my hand of the night. I pick up AdKd on the button with about $250 in my stack. UTG is very deep, a pretty tight, straightforward guy who I've played against before. He raises to $15, everyone folds (yeah I know, table selection...), and I decide to flat call. Flop comes AQ3, no diamonds. He checks, which with him is either a monster or KK or JJ. Maybe TT. I bet $30 into the $40 pot, and he smooth calls. The turn card is a J, which I hate. He checks again and I check for pot control. The river pairs the 3, and he grabs a stack of chips, puts out $20, another $20, thinks a bit then puts another $20 out, thinks a bit more, then leaves the bet at $60.
Easy fold?
I almost laid it down getting not great odds, but curiosity got the better of me, and he showed QQ. While I was pretty disgusted with myself for the call, I think others would have lost more. Next week, in the Shooting Star, I gotta make that laydown...
TV... Two shows I'm really into right now are American Idol and HBO's In Treatment. Anyone else find David Cook's Rock-ization of Lionel Richie's "Hello" downright... creepy?
I wish I could post about stuff going on at work, but I'm a little nervous about offending people who might stumble upon this blog. I may start posting about work stuff in a restricted-access blog so that I can vent a bit.
Well, sorry for the rambling, but I am new at this. Please leave comments if you're reading so that I know I'm not talking to myself. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Monday, March 3, 2008
First Post
We San Jose Migdols (as Grandpa Migdol loves to call us) have so much going on right now that I feel compelled to share. Here's just a sampling of what's going on:
Will is starting back with Soccer tomorrow, adding to Cub Scouts for his extracurricular activities.
Kayleigh is taking a break from dancing, but is taking Golf lessons and Cheerleading in addition to Girl Scouts.
Monique is rapidly approaching the end of her stint as Volunteer Recognition Lunch chair in the San Jose Junior League. Last Friday she got tagged at the last minute to act as event coordinator for the Fashion Show when the person who was supposed to do it got sick. Go, Monique.
And myself?
Will is starting back with Soccer tomorrow, adding to Cub Scouts for his extracurricular activities.
Kayleigh is taking a break from dancing, but is taking Golf lessons and Cheerleading in addition to Girl Scouts.
Monique is rapidly approaching the end of her stint as Volunteer Recognition Lunch chair in the San Jose Junior League. Last Friday she got tagged at the last minute to act as event coordinator for the Fashion Show when the person who was supposed to do it got sick. Go, Monique.
And myself?
- Recovering from a REALLY nasty flu which turned into bronchitis and an eye infection
- Super busy at work working on an exciting new project
- Making some progress with GooGooGram and excited about a possible partnership opportunity
- Put up a webcam this weekend to highlight the hummingbird who has nested in our front yard. Check it out at http://pictures.migdol.net:81 (Don't forget the :81 !)
- I'm applying to EMBA programs at Wharton and Berkeley-Columbia. My apps are all done, and my last interview is Monday afternoon. Wish me luck. Notifications are in mid-April.
- I won a $10,000 entry into the World Poker Tour Shooting Star event here in San Jose. I begin play on March 11th, and will be posting updates here.
- I've been trying to get an in-dash Navigation System installed into the Odyssey. My attempt at self-installation has failed so now I get the privilege of paying Fry's $150 to do it for me. :-(
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