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!
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