Hello blog

Sorry about the lack of updates lately. Ever since School ended for me (Dec 13th) I've done a whole lot of lazying/nothing. Kind of pathetic, but it feels great :) Let's see if I can recap...

Dec 11th was my birthday. It sort of sucked, as it does every year because its right before final exams and most people can't come out to party etc... but this year there were a good amount of kids out as it fell on the last day of classes, and I did decide to say "F it" on tuesday and abandon any plans to study to make sure I enjoyed the day. The way I see it, 21 is too big not to remember. I didn't make it as big as I should have, but it was a good time. A new bar just opened in college park (finally) called "The Thirsty Turtle"...corny, I know, but probably going to be one of the better bars to be at in the coming months, and a big relief of the overcrowding issues plaguing our small college town of sex, drugs, and alcohol.

After I got through the proceeding next couple days, and final exam, I decided to really relax despite trying to refocus and pull back up from my recent major-downswing. I spent a good amount of time over the past few days hanging with friends, and seeing family and a cousin from Toronto that came to visit. We spent a good amount of time in DC at and around my brothers place in Georgetown. Overall, its been very relaxing and very nice to be on the "doing nothing" break and catching up with people that I so easily lose touch with.

Despite needing and wanting to relax, I do have serious plans to refocus poker-wise and otherwise. December began with my aforementioned huge downswing, and I still have barely put in the volume required to recover from said downswing. Amsterdam is coming up tommorow, so there won't be much poker time in it for me, which is absolutely fine. Recently, I read a thread posted by Phil Galfond (Jman28, an amazing poker player), which really reenforced the principles that I've tried to approach poker with in my time spent playing the game. It really seems to negatively impact ones self overall when they play when they truly don't want to or are not in the right mindset to, but to only play for the sake of playing, boredom, or just trying to put volume in blindly. By not playing when I don't feel like it or am not in the right conditions to, or have something "better" to do, it really helps me focus when I do sit and put the time in. This allows me to really "want it" when I put in my long sessions of multi tabling and cutting myself off from the world to focus to the best of my abilities and put in a lot of games. That said, December has really been a disappointing month with little to no volume, and almost all downswing. Its ok, though, because a lot of other stuff was good and I've continued to learn a ton via going over hands and continuing to prepare coaching lessons for post-holidays for my students.

My first order of business is to finish off 2007 with a bang, and do Amsterdam to its fullest extent. I really want to have a crazy time, so I can get it out of my system in time for a great January and year of 2008 to follow. A friend of ours is making the last minute booking of the Amsterdam trip with us and is bringing his dog, who he has a special note for as his "emotional support" and medical permission to have the dog sit with him on the plane and stay in the hotel with us :) Should be a good time.

When I come home, I expect to find a good bar with friends to hit for new year's, or at least something fun to that effect. Waking up January 1 will bring the new, full month dedicated to business (and seeing the people, of course). Being that I want the month to be poker-oriented mainly in order to finally make some serious moves, I decided to book a couple of trips to meet these goals. Atlantic City and Las Vegas are more or less officially on the docket. With WPT Borgata happening in mid january, it'll be a great opportunity to meet more 2p2ers in continuation of the summer's vegas experience, get some live tournament experience, and get some more cash game time in. Just after this I'd like to try and get to Las Vegas with the same goals in mind and really get my act together for 2008. I have an offer from some accomplished live Vegas professionals for partial backing in bigger cash games, but we'll see what develops with my own comfort, bankroll and planning on that front.

To my students- Don't worry about coaching, I will continue to accommodate lessons even with my travels, its a very important part of everyone's development, and, though a lot of lessons will need logistical shifting, it'll all be worked out for both parties. I also just came out with Donkit/Sharkscope video for 6 man SNGs and I should have another one going up of me 4-tabling micro stakes games (I felt this would be beneficial to many of the viewers). I didn't have time to record another one before getting stuff together pre-Amsterdam, but I will be making a couple more upon my return home.

That is a basic recap of whats gone on and what I'd like to have go on. In addition to my poker goals and desire to finally finish school, I'd like to get back in shape also and continue my world travels. This will most likely be my last blog post of 2007, so expect an Amsterdam recap, and big things in 2008!!! Thanks for reading.


-Alex

LALALA

Most of these occur at or near a bubble, or are just ridiculously gross. Not quite sure what the hell is going on other than inexplicable horror. All of these in themselves are standard. I've never seen it all happen like this at once. Have a peeksie on my blog!


http://www.pokerhand.org/?1783047
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1782940
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1767928
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1790733
http://www.pokerhand.org/?1790742


everytime i get KK an ace flops or i bubble etc etc....
my worst full table- sng downswing ever....kinda sucks. Compounded by marginal error , these swings will be among the worst i ever face in my career id say in terms of severity of negative earn (as opposed to total $ swings)

End of the month

I finally had a semi "quiet week" with school, but unfortunately I came up just short of platinum star because of my detrimentally low volume at the beggining of the month. If only November had been a 31 day month....

On the bright side, I killed it on PokerStars in the last sessions of the month going for platinum star, mainly at the the 60 dollar tourneys playing 10-20 at a time continuously. It seems that most reading this aren't inerested in non-poker stuff so here are some stats of my last 3 days (aka most of the months volume) for those that wish to view them, and also for those that wonder if I actually ever play (click on image to clear it up)



or same thing at: http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/5541/chargery1.jpg


Definitely a strong finish to what was a disappointing month in the way of volume. Not a huge sample of course, and I did get pwned at my small sample at the 60 STTs of the last couple sessions, but it's not too big a deal, the downswing had to come in some form! I have to say, if thats what I can look forward to in the way of downswinging then I think I'll get by :)

My 4th Donkit/sharkscope video should be up soon as well. I am just playing one table to go over some 6 man SNG strategy (39 turbo). Turned out fine, though one hand heads up I had Freudian slip of the tongue and assigned a range of "Aces and Kings" to the button opener when I mean to illustrate a tight range of Ax and Kx hands, not just AA/KK. Sorry for the confusion, a note will be posted with the video to clarify the commentary on that one hand, otherwise it looks ok. My next video will be made shortly as well, though I haven't decided on the content just yet.

I have some school work coming up again for final exams so my volume won't be much better, but I'm essentially completely done for the semester on December 13th. Look for things to bump up big time after that (including Amsterdam!). Stay tuned and thanks for reading.


Alex

Quiet week

Thanksgiving break was great. Spent a few days down south at my grandparents and got some much needed family time in. It's always nice to see my grandparents, aunt and uncle and family friends, as I probably get down there two or three times a year, tops nowadays. The actual thanksgiving feast was amazing, by far the best meal of the year, and lived up to every ounce of expectation that I had for my grandmother and aunt's excellent cooking.

I came back friday night and got to spend saturday with some close friends from home. I went to lunch near home with a few of them, and later that night my closer friends came to my apartment at school for football, beers, and relaxing. It was definitely a great time. I don't think I'd seen one of my closest friends from home in 6 or so months, and most of them are not around in general so thanksgiving still remains a closely tied holiday.

School has been quiet since friends left and classes started up for the week. Luckily, I have a couple of days off from heavy course work until final exams start up again soon. The bright side is a likely great winter break is on the horizon.

I haven't played much poker...and by not much, I mean I think I've played 2 sessions this month. Pretty pathetic, but I'm going to charge ahead to sneak in platinum for the month regardless and turn up the heat. Then, when break starts, I can continue. Hopefully that plan works, I am certainly capable of disappointing myself. We'll start with 300 games in the next couple days, and go from there. Thanks for reading.


Alex

hrmph

The week was tough, as expected. I got lucky midway through the week and found out that my 30 page final english paper was due monday (tommorow) and not friday. I have gotten to play no poker, and spent about 20-25 hours outside of class doing school related work. Unfortunately, my exams did not go as well as I'd hoped despite starting preparation earlier than I normally do, but hopefully I can stop the bleeding and finish the semester reasonably. There isn't much more that I can think to do beyond what I am already doing, so I'm just going to stick it out.

The plus side to finishing the week was a very very fun weekend. Friday night we had a party in the apartment and had a nice showing, and an overall good time (highlights: my roommate running around in a poncho and an off-duty stripper showing up). Last night, my friend Leah had a "WTF" theme party, where the idea was to dress in something that would elicit a "WTF?!?!" response when walking down the street. With no time to gather an outfit, I went in a nice array of sweat pants with baseball spandex on top, brown dress shoes, gloves, and the very same poncho from the previous night. I must say, I think I may have been the best dressed. My roommate Tim ended up showing up with a few friends and shared enjoyment, with lots of beer and some really good 7 layer been dip. Tim couldn't resist topping off the party with karaoke, and I must say I've never seen anyone get quite so into it before. Another good, fun night.

This week brings gathering the loose ends of my english paper together, go over some coaching stuff, and getting to the last couple days of classes before thanksgiving break. I am very much looking forward to a couple of days off before the last leg of the semester (including birthday!) I don't know that heavy poker volume will continue until after final exams, we'll see how it goes. Thanks for reading.


Alex

The weekend before death

If death came in school form, it would be next week with a 30 page paper and two exams. This won't leave time to do much else, so any desire to go out would have to happen this weekend. I guess it was bound to happen eventually. Thanksgiving break will still be amidst work, so most other things will be waning in the final month+ of the semester.

All that said, I'll either go out and do something tonight or stay in and grind, as I just won't put in much other time this month. I'll still be allowing plenty of time for coaching and videos but won't be getting too indulged until winter break arrives. FTOPS (Full Tilt's big tournament series) recently began so I may be jumping into a few events this weekend, perhaps starting with tonight's 200 buy in pot limit hold em event. We'll see what happens.

After all that is over with I'm really going to have to take proactive steps toward finding a house for next year, as we do not really want to stay in campus apartments anymore and having a house allows for much more freedom and entertainment. Also, since I'll likely only be here for half the year next year, I'd need a place to go in the spring and a house would solve that issue. Moving back home is not something I can ever really foresee, but I do love the area I'm from so I'm not opposed to staying locally for now. TBA, a year off abroad is also in the cards. Thanks for reading.



-Alex

A slow start to November

Well, with all of the BS ive had to deal with in school and what not, I really haven't had time to sit down and start grinding for the month. My main focus is going to have to be getting through school work, so I expect volume to wane for the next several weeks. Coaching/posting/videos will have to make up for lack of table time.

There really hasn't been too much going on thats note-worthy, I'm still trying to qualify for WPT (world poker tour) bahamas so I can spend winter break at a couple of WPT events, as our apartment has already planned to get up to Atlantic city for the world poker open at Borgata in January. I'm extremely excited for this as it will be my first live tournament series as 21+...at long last, in about 5 weeks it'll be time.

Also, my fraternity's semi-formal/dated party is on wednesday in D.C and im planning on going to that, which should be the highlight of the week. Hopefully more exciting updates to come. Thanks for reading.

-Alex

October

meh at October. A lot has happened this month that signifies so many transitions, both psychological and material...hard to explain, but its been a weird and somewhat depressing month. I'm not at all unhappy that its over. Recently things have been relatively quiet, and honestly that is really ok with me, I haven't been going out much and have been trying to maintain a good balance of playing time and do-nothing-relax time in order to enjoy the balance to which I've grown accustomed.

Poker went pretty well this month. I only got in about 500 tournaments, mostly mtts, and a few hours of coaching/video making for a total of about +5k. Not bad considering I worked about 60 hours in total for the month, but I can't help but think if I got in more volume like I told myself I would that I'd be closer to the 10k mark than the 5k mark. Oh well, hopefully soon. I finally regained platinum star VIP status on pokerstars also which hasnt happened in months due to not being here in the summer to play enough and just not putting in the time at the stakes I should be playing to maintain high VIP status. Its probably too late this year, but next year I will for sure become a supernova VIP...i look forward to that. Thats about all for now, I look forward to November, and much moreso, December. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

sick

I hate being sick. I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and general feeling of the common colds deathness (yes, I made up that word), so I basically did nothing all day. I sat in the dark either in my circular "chill" chair or in bed watching Arrested Development DVDs and trying to stay hydrated/medicated/rested. I'm feeling slightly better today, hopefully tommorow I'll be good to go. I decided to get to all of my classes despite the sickness, so I went from wakeup at 1030 to around 4pm without food and with very little water (Stops at fountains), and being sick and tired that just isnt much fun when you're going at a pretty fast pace during the day. Generally I don't have a problem getting through my schedule but on days like today it proved more difficult.

I came back and relaxed some before fraternity meeting, which I went to before coming back to make my 3rd video for donkit/sharkscope. I am 4 tabling 27 turbos in this video, so look for that on the site(s) if youre interested, and please, feedback always welcome via 2+2 messages, comments here, aim/email. I think it turned out well and I got into some good spots to discuss, including an early game situation that rarely comes up in sngs that was good to talk through for the audience. I'll announce when that is posted. Otherwise, there isn't too much else going on. Ideally I'd like to get in one more session tomorrow before the end of the month, we'll see if I can come through and not continue to be sick/too tired to want to put in a serious session. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

Rainy Day...but not a bad one

Cruddy weather out, but I've never minded the rain so much so it didn't go too poorly. lets see:

school: I had to present a lesson in English today so I had to get dressed up for that...not ideal with the water coming down on you, but it went fine I think. I skipped Badminton after that because frankly I didn't want to run 10 minutes away from my apartment, mess up my nice clothes even more and just go through the wednesday process, so I got lazy and called it quits after english. Kind of a dull rainy day I guess.

Poker: I got home and hung out with a friend upstairs, and after a couple hour, much needed nap, I sat down for a session, starting with the 55 buy in 50k grtd on stars. I added some mtts in and I was playing my usual regiment though not as intensely, I don't think I ever had more than 12 games going. Anyways, got in 35 tournaments and made 1k, which helps me crawl out of losing weekend. We'll see what happens next, I hope I can get time in to grind in the next week with the end of the month coming, I should have platinum star (VIP Status on pokerstars) and hopefully about 1k tournies for the month. We'll see about profits.

Also, my second Donkit video will be up within the next few days, so look for that on www.donkit.com or www.sharkscope.com if you want to check it out, Its another two tabling video. I'll be making my third video for the site soon and am open to suggestions of what I should play. If you have anything you'd like to suggest, feel free to leave it in the comments or email me (alex.triner@gmail.com) or to PM me on the forum. Thanks for reading, hope everyone is doing well.


-Alex

lol

Poker: yeah that didnt go at all as planned. Basically after I downswung thursday night, I made it all back/friday saturday and then some, only to go -2450 yesterday. Sick career single day loser. Just multiply thursdays blog post by a factor of 5 and you'll get the idea. Truly amazing, here are just 3 representations of how it went:

The quality of play: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1614291
A typical early game beat: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1614035
When I finally went deep, it went like this: http://www.pokerhand.org/?1613726


So yeah I wont post them all, that would take a while, but it was less than desireable. I'm looking to pick it back up this evening and hope I don't have to take a break.


School/life: My brother and a couple friends were in town for the homecoming football game (UMD v. Virginia). We went tailgating for a few hours but I didn't stay for too much of the game as it was just ridiculously crowded and I was better served going to find a tv to watch with people.

I've been fighting back pains since last semester (pre-summer) and they've been acting up, so I've tried to stay loose stretching and heating and carefully avoiding class :) Well, not really, but I skipped my first this morning that I have in a while, just to relax and kind of recover between back and poker and spiting school for making me miss homecoming.

Other than another two english assignments, the week looks relatively light so I'm gonna try to get out some and just make this a relax-week. Gym? Maybe...maybe...
Thanks for reading.


-Alex

gahhh

not a great end to the week.

stuff: school kinda blew this week. Got a bunch of mediocre grades back...not a huge deal but just not what I'd like to end the week with. What sucked the most was that I basically had to sit out of homecoming altogether. I had midterms through tuesday and was looking forward to our famous hayride event thursday but, realizing that I had a lab when everyone was leaving, the entire week essentially went down the tubes. Oh well, I've been to every other homecoming/greek week and its been fun, and I should get a couple of more out of my time here. Hopefully my schedule will be easier to combine fraternity stuff with in the coming weeks, I was hoping I wouldn't have to miss weeks at a time.

I guess the good news is that the homecoming football game vs Virginia is tomorrow and my brother and some friends will be in town for it, so that should be fun.


Poker: blah. last night I played and got dominated both in cash games and tournaments for my worst losing night online at approximately -1600. It wasn't too fun, but I guess it does happen. It was just so unreal how all the beats can flood at you at once, when you're never less than a 3:1 favorite to win a hand and you just can't seem to win. Well, as any experienced player knows the only way to battle it out is put the time in so thats what I plan on doing. I sat down again tonight for a session and it went similarly poorly, but I did end up a couple hundred which was certainly preferably to another disaster night. Still hurting from the loss but I was winning consistently and big prior to last night so I have a feeling I'll be able to recover nicely from this. I plan on playing some tommorow during the day and making sunday a poker day as well...this is going to be the first week in several that I am likely going to play the sunday major tournaments on full tilt and pokerstars (the million grtd, 750k grtd and second chance tournaments). Beyond squeezing homework in around the football game/saturday happenings and poker, thats the gist of the weekends plans. I hope I have good news by the end! Thanks for reading.


-Alex

bread winning and spending

i think ill go back to dividing the blog into poker and life, i think some people are more interested in one vs the other, and this way I can go into a bit more detail when I want to talk about hands or more about something else etc... anyways

poker: played last night for a few hours, got in 30 tournaments. Not a huge amount but during the week any 30 game day is a good one. Fortunately, I hit for 2k and had my 2nd greater-than-1.5k day in about a week, needless to say I'm on pace to tear it up this month with any more volume and any more running decently well. Hopefully I can keep it up, its nice to be shipping it more consistently.

In other news, my 2nd video for donkit/sharkscope should be posted in the coming week when they figure some stuff out, so be on the lookout for that. If anyone has any feedback for me on the 1st video, please feel free to post it here, PM me on the forums, or email me (Alex.triner@gmail.com)...I'm always looking for ways to improve my n00bness at video making and instruction.

Life: I finished most of the bout of my midterms and what not which is nice, but I have constant english projects which have been keeping me annoyingly busy.
Also, I'm still going through some back issues stemming from the end of last semester, so I'm also really hoping to get back into the gym on a semi consistent basis. Both of these tasks should stay consistent through the semester, so I'm hoping things like my poker schedule, sleep schedule and partying/people schedules will also somehow sync.

The biggest highlight right now is probably the booking of a trip to amsterdam for myself and my brother, as well as any friends who want to join. We are close to confirming details on the trip, and I'm really very excited to head there for the first time. He's been there a few times (and talks about wanting to move there after every return), so I know it'll be a great experience. If any friends want to join, shoot me an IM, its looking like December 26-31st time frame is when cheap airfare is available. As most people know, I love to travel, so going anywhere for the first time is exciting for me, and I've especially wanted to visit Amsterdam for quite some time. I have to say, things look good overall, hopefully I can stay afloat with the english work. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

long, long week

I can't express enough how glad I am that this week is over. Honestly, it was just one thing after another. Teachers unhappy that I have a difficult course schedule to accomodate, midterms, people annoying me about stupid things, people owing money, general inconsiderate environments and stressful workloads, I'm just so glad the weekend has arrived. I got to play a small session tonight where MTTs were severely rigged but the 45 man sngs went well and i still turned a few hundred in profit despite a rough go at the big multis that i was playing. it seemed that flips were 80/20s tonight and whenever someone was supposed to be making a move they had a monster....just the way some nights go I guess, can't complain too much since I did come away with profit.

I've spent a good deal of the afternoon also trying to relax a bit and organize and line up more videos for donkit.com/sharkscope as well as work with some students on logistics for the upcoming weeks. Schedules are slowly coming into place. Next week shouldn't be too much easier for me due to another midterm and homecoming, along with trying to keep up steady poker work to keep up a very promising trend thus far. Anyways, looking forward to the weekend hiatus, sucking it up through the week then hopefully having some down time for online stuff/personal stuff/non school stuff.

I highly encourage those SNG and cash grinders that find video instruction useful to buy the videos at www.donkit.com and www.sharkscope.com (poker videos link), I've heard nothing but good things about both sites and the video authors and quality, and I think I'm going to be a strong addition to the selection with my first video being in full swing for sales on both sites finally!

Finally, last night after the bulk of the week was done I got to participate in some fraternity happenings finally and really got to connect with a lot of the members of the pledge class. These kids are really great kids and look promising for the chapter and our future strength, I'm excited to have them ready to go and come aboard, but I do have to say some stern talking-to's never did hurt any of them. They're close and should make us proud. I really am going to make my best effort to see to the end of the pledging process consistently and strongly as I feel this has been some of the best interactions I've had with guys that I'll be able to call brothers soon. I think thats about it in my life for now without any boring detail, thanks for reading.


-Alex

Schoolaments

Yeah, school work is in full swing now. With a 30-40 page paper and exams coming up, I'll definitely have my share of work to do, but I intend on still getting to extra curricular stuff as well as try to get my time in at the tables. I did have the chance to get in about 50 games yesterday, starting out rough but finishing up strong. Two saturday sessions, a poker video, an hour of coaching and a seat to the sunday million later, i was +1800. Not a bad weekend.

The weekend was relatively uneventful, I was lazy thursday and friday, people always come in and out of the apartment to say hey but I didn't have the energy to go out and certainly didn't feel like drinking, so it wasnt until Saturday that I decided to finally go out on a weekend night in CP for the first time in quite a while. I went with one of my roommates and a few other friends to a party close by that was fun but somewhat uneventful. After, couple of us went back to a friends place to relax, listen to music and smoke a bit, and thats basically how I rounded out my night. I came back, hung out and passed out to planet earth, a fantastic nature show on the discovery channel? Im not sure, I download them because they're so awesome. I highly recommend late night discovery watching.

This week I have a good amount of studying to look forward to, hopefully with some fraternity happenings mixed in, as well as a couple of hours for for video-making and some coaching scheduled. I think my sister might be visiting at the end of the week for a night, so I have that to look forward to also. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

The venture continues

With school work on the rise and general laziness I haven't yet gotten a "good" act together for my online playing regiment recently, but as I stated in my last entry coaching had started nicely enough to keep me involved. Yesterday, it went a bit further when I got an offer to join www.donkit.com to become a video author for their site. The pay is great and the work will help expand coaching and my analytical approach to play overall. This is very exciting as I've often looked forward to the prospect of working with a site for something like this. I highly recommend the videos on there for both SNGers and cash game players, videos from the likes of curtain, newt_buggs and cero_z are all well worth it. Look for my first videos to be up in the coming weeks/months hopefully.

I have a relaxing weekend more or less, as I plan to record my first video for the site , perhaps get some work done, hopefully play some, and just hang out. Hopefully all remains smooth, this has definitely been a boost to the week. I also look forward to trying to get to some more fraternity events with the new pledge class, the kids are looking good. Can't think of too much else new going on, hope everyone is doing well, and thanks for reading. Look forward to updating soon.



-Alex

post holiday update

honestly, i dont even know what to post in here usually which is why i havent posted much lately. basically, school is in full swing and the holidays have kind of hit their semi hiatus, at least the the two big ones are done with. I enjoy spending time with the family but commuting to my parents' house is a big pain. Great food definitely made it worth it, however.

my sng coaching venture has somewhat taken off as well. I have 4 consistent students now through the 40 and 50 buy in levels and so far so good. Not a ton of hours put in yet but im excited to keep going and see what im capable of in this venture; I really think it will help to focus my game, and there has already been evidence of this.

I've also just been informed of another trip to Greece and Israel in the spring time, and there is potential talks of bahamas and amsterdam in the mix at other times in upcoming months. I'm very excited, hopefully I survive the semester to get there! I'm finally thinking about looking into buying a camera, might be worth it to motivate myself to make trip reports after worthy trips.

Anyways, thanks for reading, an update should come along at some point.


-Alex


-Alex

holidays

well, that pretty much sums it up. i have basically nothing going on this week due to the jewish holidays/laziness so ill be doing a lot of the home-for-meals thing. Other than that, i have played basically no poker and done basically nothing with my frat so im trying to turn both of those things around currently, in addition to keeping up with school, which is so far so good. With rush come and gone I look forward to spending a good amount of time with our pledges. Last pledge class I regret not being there for as a brother and I think it hurt my relationship with some of them. I'd like to go out on a strong note in that sense. We'll see if I can be active long enough to keep that up.

I also officially started coaching this week, having my first couple of coaching sessions with some 16s and 27s STTers. Both went reasonably well for my first formal sessions for levels that ive beaten.

On a related note, I've decided to keep sit and gos in my poker regiment for now, mainly at the 60 dollar level while i continue my cash game quest through nl100, 200 and eventually to 400. This will allow me to make sure I'm not rusting up on my sng game while im still taking on students to coach at the lower buy ins. It'll also give me a shot to test my resolve at the 60s, as I have a very small sample at the level in recent memory. Ill also continue mtts and live cash games up through nl500.

All of this aside, however, its WCOOP time! Pokerstars big online tourney series starts tommorow and goes for weeks and in addition to satelliting in, I'm looking to sell some of my action (contact me if interested). we'll see what comes next, for now its holiday time. Thanks for reading, Happy new year (Shana Tovah)!!



-Alex

exhausted

wow i never thought the transition back to school could be so taxing, I seriously have had a tough time running around campus like I used to, but classes seem manageable this semester so ill deal. Recently really havent been too productive, dealing with an expensive parking permit fiasco, schooling and trying to make fraternity stuff happen. I need to get back into a poker routine, i havent played in weeks and im not too happy about that. I have, on the other hand, signed on a couple of new SNG students so thats positive for my coaching career which I will continue with on the side of my cash games and limited STT volume nowadays. Hope something good comes up soon, as soon as I can find pictures from my family I would like to post a europe trip report. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

back in town

sorry for the lack of update, just returned from Greece Monday night, and my body has been unusually out of whack. I've been sleeping a ton and havent had the energy to do much else (haven't even played poker since I came home). I'm feeling a bit better today even though my sleeping is still messed up so I may try to put in a session later after seeing friends and running errands. I will try to get a Europe trip report out but for now I can preface it by saying it was quite awesome, and I had an unforgettable summer overall. It was just what I needed to try and get my head on straight for the fall with everything going on. Hope all is well with everyone, I guess you can expect some report soon. Thanks for reading, wish me well in recovery.


-Alex

running late!

I'm literally running out the door right now to get home before we head to the airport. My trip to europe begins today. I wont be blogging for a couple of weeks, so around the 27th is when ill be back. Hope you all end your summers well, I know I will....stay tuned for summer reports and such when I return! Thanks for reading.


-Alex

Rollercoaster!

Wow, the last couple of days have been crazy.

I started futzing with some multi table sngs just for the interim pre-europe to mix things up at the 27 and 60 buy in. The last three days of them, 8-14 tabling: +600, -800,+1200. Good result, INCREDIBLY swingy up to the last few games. Seriously, tournaments of any sort in volume are not for the faint of heart, but I can't say I'm not feeling good by the end.

Other than some poker I've seen a few friends around home and been moving stuff around between the upcoming trip and moving bedrooms to the end/big bedroom of our apartment. I'm finally all moved in and everything has been good, clean and set up. I'm excited to finally have a lot of room AND a single bedroom with a big bed. Things are looking good right now so hopefully no disasters pre europe (other than the passport fiasco- who knew there was a pre-expiration date for those damn things?) Thanks for reading.


Alex

boring day

i woke up at around 9am today for NO reason. I was pretty lazy and just hung around the apartment, did mostly nothing except talked to some friends. I wasn't feeling great tonight and wasn't up to going out so I just stayed in and played some tournaments online. Played for a few hours, +600 in tournies (mainly 60s with some 27s). Other than that, I have done nothing productive. Will report back with something interesting should said topic of interest arise. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

an update

sorry i havent updated for a while, to be honest there isnt much worth updating on.

I have played barely any poker beyond the odd home game and nl100 and 200 online (<3k hands since ive been home), and ive been pwning those sunday million satellites for 5 seats at this point. beyond that, not much doing.

In the real world, I've gotten a chance to hang out with some good high school friends recently and its been nice. In my hometown theres a very short list of entertaining things to do without going into the city, so we've entertained ourselves with meals and movies when I leave my burrow (apartment). So far I've seen Harry potter 5 (meh compared to the book, big meh compared to the other movies), I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry (funny, not Sandler's best work but it'll do good enough), The simpsons movie (good for a final movie, not amazing) and "Once" is next on the list. I've heard fantastic things about it so I'm looking forward to it.

Other than that, things are getting cooking for our family trip to Greece/Turkey. The bride of the wedding that we're attending in Greece (close family friends) called today and told my brother and me that we are going to be Groomsmen, which is exciting because I don't do too many weddings and certainly have not been a Groomsmen for a Greek wedding. I've been on death-trips to the suit store (I hate shopping) but its definitely worth it for this trip. Hopefully all updates will be good ones until I leave. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

Lazy Day

I kind of overslept lunch at home so I woke up at around 2:15 this afternoon and high tailed it home. I played with the baby cousin for a bit, the friends dog, helped the sis out with her surgery recovery stuff and relaxed at home for a while. I came back and was kind of just lazying around when I figured I didnt feel like going out, so I'd play some sunday million stats and see if they were soft enough to make a quick buck. Yep, they were. I played like 5 or 6 satellites and won 3 seats for +640 post-exchange in the hour and a half-two hours i played today. I'll take it for a lazy weekend day. I will probably go out for a little while and see some people and enjoy the rest of the night. Thanks for reading, maybe something interesting will come soon.


-Alex


Edit: woke up this morning (sunday) and played two sats before I went home for a bit...so make that 4 seats for +860. ship.

Home!

Ah, its nice to be back. The first stop getting back from the airport was the barber shop, where my curls and beard came off. It felt amazing to feel the non desert air on my bare face, and it was definitely necessary. It's nice to be back.

I got home and visited (/am visiting while i write this) with my sister who is in recovery from shoulder surgery. I've also gotten to hang with my parents a bit, though my mom is running around in preparation for cousins coming this evening and spending the weekend here. Other than that I'll probably hang around home, possibly meet up with some people, and stay home through dinner with the extended family. I'll head back to my apartment at some point after that where I'll get to resume life in the lazy manner to which I've grown so accustomed to doing. Its good to be back.


-Alex

Farewell Devin

I woke up around 2pm today and Devin and I headed to lunch at this decent burger joint (Red Robin) around the corner from the house. We hung around the house for a while before heading out for a goodbye dinner for Devin with Rob and Travis. We went to a fantastic sushi joint called Sushirogo (spell check?) in the Caesar's palace shops. It was really great food, and it was a further pleasant experience when the hottest blonde chick I've seen in Vegas sat down at the table next to us so we had a nice view to go with dinner.

After some good sushi we dropped Devin at the airport and went to the Bellagio to put in my final session for the trip. Travis and I sat at the same 2/5 table that just started and basically neither of us got anything going in the hour we got to sit before Rob came out of the 10/20 game in a huff after losing a big flip and a sick cooler where he lost with top two vs a set, followed by donking off his final chips with 33 into AA (while getting slow rolled). -10k :( I didn't want to face sitting there tired all night so we racked up and joined Rob for the trip back to the house. Not an overly eventful day but we're winding things down here in LV with Devin's departure and by this time tommorow I'll be on a flight home. Overall it was a fantastic trip; plans changed throughout and therefore goals had to change, but I still made a few thousand and free-rolled on all the vegas expenses because of poker, pulling in a cool 65ish/hour. I'll take it.

I hope everyone enjoyed reading the reports, I'll continue to blog while home on anything interesting that may happen. Thanks for reading!



-Alex

House game at the Palms, hangin with the ballas and the Bellagio

So last night we decided we wanted to play a house sit and go, and since we knew nothing in poker ever happened at the Palms, and they had spread a game for us once, we tried there. They ended up not allowing tournaments for us so we decided to play a 1/2 mix PLO/NLH. I ended -100 after donking a river bluff when JShuttlesworth called with his bluff catcher, then at the end 3 barrel bluffed one of the two fun randoms that sat at the table and dumped 1k each to our game. I was tired so I didn't play a "real" live session afterward.

Today I woke up and eventually Devin and I dropped off Rob and Dave to play at Bellagio and we headed to the shipitholla mansion to hang with the ballas for a while. We basically hung out there, watched the WSOP final table in their awesome home theatre, got messed up and ate...overall had a good time, the entire crew is very hospitable and all very nice guys despite having ridiculous amounts of money.

We left the shipit mansion and headed to Bellagio around midnight for a night session. I sat 2/5 and quickly realized that my table was the most loose/passive table in the world featuring one old guy who literally just called anyting for anything with any type of close to made hand ever. He limp/shoved JTo at one point and, when he had the betting lead would bet down with basically anything. No one was 3 betting preflop at this table and I had a pretty tight image, so when there was a raise to 25 from a solid player and 5 callers, i had to have that 140 in dead money, so I made it 120 to go with T5o (obv). A short stack moved in for 75 total, so I realized I would have to show down my hand which kind of sucked, then the old crazy guy called the 120 more. I flopped a 5 on a super drawy board and ended up checking it down with the old guy, and my T5 was good against his K7o for king high and the short stack mucked, and I took a 350ish pot down with my pair of fives. Woooooo. No real other interesting hands, stacked a couple of short stacks but not much to talk about. We ended our session around 515-530am and headed home. +400, decent.

I have barely two more days in Vegas and I have to say going into the last couple days its been awesome, and saying goodbye to the ballas was depressing because they are great guys and really know how to be both hospitable and have a good time. Hopefully the last couple days will go successfully without any shocking Las Vegas story that you hear about on the news. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

A solid night at the office

After lounging around and breaking even online today, Devin, Rob and myself headed down to the Wynn, met up with Owen and Alex, and sat down for a session. I sat 1/3 which was looking nice and deep (effective stacks for half the table probably around 800, then the other half with 200 or less probably), while Devin sat 5/10 and Rob 10/20. The night was a lot of breaking even, but a nice run in the last couple hours of the session. Some key hands:

Couple of limps around I complete the SB with J8dd. We take a flop 3 or 4 ways of 7x6d5d. I check BB leads middle position raises and I repop it to 163. BB shoves 90 over that and MP folds. I obviously call, he has 77 and I brick off twice. I basically never play the hand differently (I do lead sometimes). Oh well. Quick -several hundred there. 4 or 5 hands later big donkey limps I limp A3dd we take a flop ways of K84 two diamonds. Checks to me I bet 15 donkey calls. Turn pairs the 4 and gives me the big flush. Donkey checks I fire pot he calls. River is an offsuit jack making the final board Kd8d4x4dJh. Donkey leads 75 into me I jam and he has like 275-300ish behind. He tanks forever commenting on the fact that I don't play many hands (which a) is completely untrue I was in a lot of pots and b) he said that the 2nd hand I was dealt in at the table, as well as the third and fourth), and after thinking FOREVER calls and obviously mucks. I really don't know if he could have had anything but KJ but who knows. That put me back around even, and for the next several hours thats just about where I stayed.

A long time later I end up making a flush in a blind battle vs a reasonably aggro British guy (who blows up at me when I outdrew his straight, shipit, and thats what you get for playing your hand poorly), then flop a set with 99 in a min 3-bet pot vs AK on K97 flop and the guy open jams, then we FINALLY get shorthanded around 3:30am. Live shorthanded is fun as no one knows how to adjust so I got to play 6 handed for an hour and 4-5 handed for an hour, taking just about every pot that people offered me...though most small just making sure I was in a lot of pots.

Up and down up and down, but the night ended well, that was the interesting stuff that I can remember, finished the night +400. Considering I hit 3-4 flops all night in any type of big way after an 8-9 hour session I'm pretty happy. Hopefully I'll get to play a couple more decent sessions before I head back east....there are talks of a house sit and go to take place at the palms tomorrow, so we'll see if that develops. It's about 6:30am local time now, so I'm gonna consider heading to bed. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

Meh

I went down to the Bellagio today to do a favor for a friend, and I decided to sit for a while. The 2/5 list at the Bellagio was not moving so a while later I walked over to Caesars to play the 1/3 500 max game. Game was nitty and not great, but I ended up getting up because I didn't deserve to make money. In an early hand I had Q8o in the bb and saw a 3 way flop of 79Tcc. It checked to the button who bet 10, both the sb and me called. The turn was an ace and i fired pot, the button folded and the small blind called. The river was a jack, and for some reason (I credit it to idiocy and not paying close enough attention) I though I only had a jack high straight, and the sb fired 80 into me. He had about 100 behind and I was sure he wasn't folding to the chop so I flat called the raise. DOH! Wow, wish I read my hand correctly because he flipped 86 (obviously) and I scooped and didn't even realize it until the dealer announced my queen high straight. Why am I dumb? I have no idea. I got up and took a lap around the room, and told myself that if I made another careless error that I wouldn't be treated to everyone at the tables' money.

Sure enough, a while later I grabbed chips to open raise a pot with AKdd and I made it 20 under the illusion that I was at the Wynn where they have 3 dollar chips. Too bad only the wynn uses 3 dollar chips and I had 5 dollar chips when I meant to open to 12. I took down the blinds, but when I realized that yet again I made a careless, inexcusable, stupid error on a routine open raise I stuck to what I said and told myself that I just wasn't allowed to play if I couldn't adhere to not playing like a moron and making mistakes that a drunk person would make. I got up +220, which was still nice, but missed out on another 150 or so in equity and feeling like I had just smashed my head into a wall, with those stupid mistakes. Live and learn I guess.

I came home, hung out for a while and got an IM from spacegravy saying to come over and hang out at the SNGicons mansion while he grinded a bit. I headed over there, watched him luckbox his way to victory by never losing coinflips, and just shot some pool and drank a bit and hung out with him, z32, and a couple of z32's friends. I wasn't dressed or ready to go clubbing so when they left I just headed back home. Not a very happening day, hopefully my head will be removed from my ass for tommorow and I can proceed with life.

Also, Dave (Green Kool Aid) arrived yesterday. He was supposed to live with us the entire month and was the reason that rob was living here at all (they're best friends outside of the online poker world), but due to life he ended up not coming out. Luckily he gets to enjoy a few days out here. "Happening" house with 8 of us here now, should be a nice last few days. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

The depressing part of life, poker, and the puppet of doom

So the last week or so has brought really depressing news. There have been a few phone calls that have brought nothing but news of death, and its really thrown me off everything. My neighbor of 18 years passed away over a week ago due to long standing heart complications, and a girl that I graduated high school with passed away two nights ago from a heart attack. That mixed in with on and off talks about death with various friends and people has just put me in very downer mode.

I was about to sit for a game at the Wynn when I got a call from my good friend Josh from high school about the news. I was quickly in no mental condition to play poker, so I hit the bar instead. After some long island iced teas and beers, I was feeling more comfortably depressed and decided to walk to the poker room, as a few friends were playing in there. Al (ALreturnsLOL) bustoed his short live roll in the 1/3 uncapped game. Rob and mike were playing the 10/20 uncapped game while Ari (AZK) and Alex (Gary Stevenson) were pwning 25/50nl uncapped featuring running back Lamont Jordan and trust fund baby with 100k on the table, action Dan. Quite a site to see such bad play at levels as high as 25/50.

I headed to grab food with Rob, Ari, AL and Mike at a high class asian restaraunt, enjoyed some nice sushi, and headed back to the pokerroom. After sobering up I saw Owen (Jshuttlesworth) playing a shorthanded 1/3 game, and though still a little bit buzzed, felt like I was ready to take an edge off and sit for a while.

I bought for 500 and quickly was getting involved in a few pots. The highlights:

I open the cutoff with 98o to 15 and get 2 callers, the button and out of the blind. The flop came 5c6c7 (nuts) and I led for 40 and the button thought and called. Now, this guy was trying to call all of my hands without a showdown with his girl sitting behind him, so, though I had no solid reads, I was willing to try and show him up in front of the Ms. The turn brought the 10c, and I led for 55 and got raised to 200. I thought for a few seconds and, though it was possible he was playing his flush like this, I couldn't narrow his range enough to seriously consider folding, and I certainly couldn't raise, so I flat called the raise thinking that he shuts down with all of his made hands that don't beat a straight, and probably wouldn't run a big bluff once called on the turn. The river paired the 5, and I checked and he checked behind, mucking to my straight.

The next hand I had QsTs and called an Early position raise. In the heads up pot the flop came Q high and reasonably dry. I called a bet. The turn checked through and when the river bricked as well, the bettor checked again and I quickly potted it. He quickly called and mucked to my top pair. I love the old "he checked the turn so he can't have a queen here" thought process.

After a bit more dabbling I started feeling hangover effects, got a major headache and decided that I had to get up. Finished the 1.5 hour session at +200.

I watched some more of the big games and eventually we recruited Brett to drive out and pick us up, as Rob was planning to stay all night and he needed the car to pick up Dave (Green Kool Aid) this morning. On to puppet.....

You can read up on the rules of puppet here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=11144258&page=0&fpart=1&vc=1

Basically its a sick sick game where hold em hands are dealt to the players, who ante up at a preassigned amount (1 dollar for our game) and a dead hand is also dealt (the puppet). Anyone who decides to play their hand (decides simultaneously) runs their hand out vs anyone playing and the pupper, and the pot is replaced by the loser (or losers, if the puppet scoops). You wouldn't think this game plays terribly big with 1 dollar antes, but...it does. If you scroll to a few pages in the above post you'll see both my posts (AMT) and Costanza's post with details. The short of it is that the puppet kept bad beating everyone in runner runner gutshot straights, boat>boat, and pwning actual flips and the pot quickly ran up to 2700, when bengiec wouldn't chop the pot to prove one of his ridiculous emo points about playing stupid gambling games (that he requested to be woken up to play). After one more 3 way beat where the puppet scooped, the pot hit 8k and bengiec still wouldnt chop the pot. Now, literally, we've rapidly approached puppet for ROLLS.

Futuredoc decided to play KQ for 8k heads up vs. the puppet, and the puppet turned over AK. After flipping a shit and going ballistic, he spiked a Queen on the flop, putting bengiec in the hole 4k and getting himself unstuck. It was...ridiculous, to say the least. Quite the game if you're looking to flip coins for bankrolls.

Anyways, thats what vegas has brought since the parents left town. I'm going to do my best to put in some poker time in the week before I leave, as after losing my prop bet with AZK I haven't had the motivation that I would have, and basically haven't played nearly enough. We'll see what this week brings, thanks for reading.


-Alex

Double update

Not a ton going on here the last few days; we've had 2p2ers in and out of the main event pretty quickly, including our very own luke (IWEARGOGGLES) being the 1st one out of the 2007 main event! Give it up for Luke! Everyone else seems to be following in similar fashion, and running like ass, but Isura, Rob, and Devin are still in the event so hopefully we can continue to get something going for day 2.

Yesterday all we did was play online. I played a bunch of multi's, ran like complete crap in everything, but at least made all of my buy ins/entree fees back playing cash games. boooo donkaments, yay cash games. It was uber rigged, but oh well, these things happen.

Today, after a nice late mexican lunch, Devin, ALreturns (who has finally arrived in one piece, six days later off of a train from West Virginia...dont ask) and myself headed down to the WSOP to check on Rob and Isura and whichever other trout were still present in the tournament. We didn't find much but got to see Isura at the featured table with Phil Hellmuth (he ended up busting Hellmuth, shipit) and Rob working up his stack in his typical pwnerific LAG fashion.

After a bit of sweatage, we headed over to the Venetian and met up with Dan (Citanul) and his girlfriend for dinner at a nice French Restaraunt. I enjoyed dinner for the most part even though I was still somewhat full from lunch, and I very much enjoyed finally meeting Citanul. He was nothing like I expected in real life in appearance but still a good Jewish guy and was overall very nice and a pleasure to hang out with.

After Dan put his GF in a cab back to MGM, we all headed down to the Venetian poker room to try and put a short session in at the tables before Devin had to head back here to rest up for WSOP Day 2. After a ridiculous wait for 1/2, AL and I got seats while Dan and Devin played some 2/5. My session was not terribly eventful; I 3-bet every opportunity I could (4 times in 70 minutes) with J9s, AQo, 99 and KJo. All of these pots were either folded pf or folded to my flop cbet when I inevitably missed every flop. Fortunately in live cash when the other guy misses to, no one wants the pot anymore except the guy that continues to bet aka me. So I took a lot of stabs and went up and down with my stack, though no big swings. The only medium sized pot I got to play was against Scotty's (from Europtrip) brother, while Scotty stood behind him and watched. I raised QQ in the hijack over limpers to 20 and his brother called on the button. His brother called me down on a jack high board, and I made a 4 straight on the river on the J 9 x 8 T board. He folded to the river after calling down my PSB's all the way, and it was a nice 150ish pot. After this, Scotty and his brother walked off and I sat for a while not getting much going. I only ended up sitting for 70 minutes before Devin wanted to head back so he could rest up for tommorow. I ended +60, weeeee.

I'm only here for another 10ish days, so I'm going to try and put in a good amount of time at the tables, and hopefully not busto this last week+. I wish all the 2p2ers left in the ME the best of luck, and may your AA/KK start holding up. Thanks for reading.


-Alex


Edit: The only other mentionable that I can think of are the last few days where I have decided to take on a few students to coach in low buy in Sit and Go's. Over the last several weeks I have gotten more PMs (private messages) on the 2+2 forums from low buy in single table tournament players asking for coaching than I know what to do with. For a long time I simply denied coaching and recommended some other known coaches/solid SNGers that posted on the forum, but I've decided for several reasons that this will be a good experience for me beyond any coaching I've done for friends or the occasional poster on the side. We'll see how it goes!

The parents are in town

so today I woke up around 11 and headed down to the MGM grand where my parents are in town for a few days with my younger sister for her martial arts convention. Its a nice time for them as they can make it a vacation.

Basically we hung out by the pool all day, and had a nice dinner at a mexican restaraunt in mgm (for the life of me, i cant remember the name of it). afterward, i said goodbye to my parents and decided to play some cards while waiting for rob and his girlfriend. I was pretty tired so i decided to not play much 2/5 tonight, but I sat 1/2 at mgm and to say the least, the game was laughable.

I did run well, and it started out with a german guy calling 3 streets of betting with one pair and mucked to my overpair (AA on a K high board, obviously), and continued when I was dealt AA again, and an over aggressive swedish kid basically announced he knew i had AA preflop when i 3 bet (yes, obviously i only 3bet AA preflop), which basically TOLD me he was going to take his "call the flop, bluff when checked to on the turn" line. sure enough, thats what happened, and i shipped a couple hundred more in that pot. I bluffed the swedish kid taking advantage of my nit image, and kind of just ran the table for a while but only played for about 90 minutes before deciding I was too tired to keep going. +500.

I walked over to the Bellagio afterward then got a call from my friend misha (AZK's brother) that he had come along last minute to vegas for the weekend with Ari. Rob and his girlfriend Noel (spell check?) met up with us and mikeCH after I hightailed it to the Rio. We had a few drinks for misha's birthday, and I caught a glimpse of the 100/200 nl game going on featuring a drunk ben affleck and matt damon, and a sober daniel alaei and gabe thaler licking their lips. After a nice sit down and catch up with the boys, we said goodbye and after a long long day, headed home. I wake up in about 5 hours for a family brunch with my aunt as well, so I'll look forward to that (and less forward to not sleeping tonight). Thanks for reading.


-Alex

1/2 PLOMAHAHAHAHA and a balla dinner

so this afternoon we decided we wanted to go the Orleans for some old school vegas and play the only 1/2 PLO game that we knew of. After arriving and finding out we'd have to wait a couple of hours to get the game going, Rob, Devin and myself headed to the palms to play before we met up with Riverboatking and all of the HSNL crew for a celebration dinner for RBK's 10k PLO final table.

When we got to the Palm we saw two small poker rooms, and several empty tables, so we asked if they would spread a 1/2 PLO game for us. They graciously complied and we started a three handed PLO game. Quickly, the game grew and eventually, with a couple of randoms, nathan, brett and ben joined the game as well. Albeit a "friendly" game, every other pot was a big big pot for a 1/2 PLO 200 minimum buy in, and Rob and I came away the big winners. I ended up getting it all in in a 4 way all in when I flopped a big wraparound with 89TJ vs a bigger wraparound, and two different 2 pair and flush draw hands. The turn and river were both kings, and though I was sure that the paired board made my turned nuts no good, it didnt, and the ONLY card on board that could pair and still give me the win did. I chopped a small main pot with brett and his wraparound and I took down a huge side pot that basically put me +570 on the session. ship PLOmahaha!

After the game Rob, Devin and I had to head to Nine, the upscale restaraunt at the Palms for the celebration dinner where we met up with other 2p2ers including: riverboatking, jman, travestyfund, apathy, raptor, inyaface, bigt, fslexcduck, ahnuld, us three, and a couple of other close friends and 2p2ers I did not know.

Dinner was really awesome...we completely balled out with the HSNLers on four incredibly expensive bottles of win (at least 300 each?) and all of the appetizers and main courses. We all threw down 150 for the dinner, and with a 500 dollar balance after that, we did a 17 way flip for the remainder. Phil (jman) chose number 16 and with all of our credit cards in the middle, riverboatking counted off the top. Jman and I were the only ones both from maryland, so when both of our cards were right next to each other, I thought I was in trouble when I saw blue Chevy Chase, knowing I was 1:1 to pay the last 500. Luckily, RBK flipped over the card and it read Phil Galfond. Ship not having to pay the last 500! close one. Afterward we just decided to head home, myself drunk and Rob tired. In typical expensive dinner fashion + drunkenness, I graciously vomited up the remainder of my 200(ish) dollar meal and decided to call it a night. Tommorow, there is supposed to be a party at the SNGicons mansion, so we'll see what the day brings with that. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

LOL 10K PLOAMENTS!

So today Rob, Devin and I headed to the wynn to play some cash. We got there and realized the 50-name long waitlist just wasnt gonna cut it, so after meeting up with Rob's friend and hanging at Bally's, we headed to the Rio to sweat Jonas (Riverboatking) in the 10k pot limit omaha WSOP world championship event. Jonas is an absolutely sick player both at PLO and NLH and despite him being a cash game player (this is just his 5th live mtt ever!), he was chip leader from 70-17 players left when he took a hit against the biggest fish at the table in two pretty big pots, and against Doyle Brunson with 14ish left for a lot of chips as well. The donkey cold called a pot size pf open with AJT5 rainbow and they got it in on a QhTh5 flop. OBV. The donkey later busted someone when he was obviously up against the nut straight on a flop check/raise all in when he had a bare flush draw, and drawing to just seven outs (AI player had 2 hearts for the straight flush draw as well), of course hits again.
We went to dinner with Jonas, he got his game back on, and he was still ready to go and playing solid poker. Finally, the 10 player final table bubble busted with David Chiu going out in 10th to the big donkey when his AAxx got cracked by ATJ8 double suited on a J8x flop. gg David.

Even though the stacks are shallow when they ended blinds tonight at 15k/30k, Jonas is 6th/9 going into the final table and is probably the 2nd best player at the table next to Patrick Antonius. The final table lineup is: Brunson, Antonius, Marco Traniello, Jonas, Robert Mizrachi, and a couple of no names. Sick sick final table, and ill be there tommorow with the gang to sweat and watch as 2p2 [hopefully] FINALLY takes a bracelet. gogogog RBK! Thanks for reading.


-Alex

I deserve to lose

after stopping off for beers and pool at the SNGicons mansion, we headed to the Rio to play some 2/5. There really isnt anything interesting to write about it....i played like complete ass. i was not thinking through hands, i chose a TERRIBLE spot to put in a 3 bet bluff on the flop against a tight player and another unforgivable river fold when I didn't believe him on the turn and still folded to a river bet after holding the fucking money over the pot, timing down and still folding....obviously I was shown the bluff. The next little while proceeded to be me calling down in spots where I figured players for one pair hands that I had beat and drawing to less than 5 outs, and they still managed to hit most of the time....I was stuck 500 at one point but managed to escape -140. I'm actually really ecstatic that I only lost 140, I felt that I deserved to lose my entire bankroll based on how poorly I was thinking and playing. I guess its good that this is my biggest losing session since vegas cause its basically nothing at 2/5nl, but I played godawful and really just need to put this behind me and get my head out of my ass.

5k 6 max event, and some shipping

today was day 1 of the 5,000 dollar buy in shorthanded no limit hold em event at the WSOP, and I was woken up at 11am by Rob after his cruddy online session so that he'd have someone to go down to the event with. I was planning on sweating all the 2p2ers today and playing some side games at the Rio anyways, so I obliged right when I woke up and we headed down to the series.

Robs table wasn't anything special, but it featured Men "the master" Nguyen running over everyone. No one at the table ever folded to a 3-bet preflop, so it was really a waste for Rob and he couldn't get anything moving. At 100/200 blinds with just about 4.3k, Men opened to 600 and Rob shoved the small blind for a sizy reraise. Men literally beat him into the pot with the Js9s, and with a Jack in the door and a Ten, on no improvement, AdTd for Rob was no good. Great call Men, now I know why they call you "the master"....I also often put in 20% of my stack before the flop with no betting left with jack high. *clap clap*. I guess he did something right, because with about 90 players left tonight he was among the top 2 or 3 players in chips.

Anyways, I was walking around sweating all of our beloved trout, and eventually decided to sit some 2/5nl. I sat with the max of 500 (obv) and on the 1st hand took down a pot pf for a quick +150 when someone raised over a limper to 30, and an aggressive, young foreign player whom I had played with a few days previous 3 bet to 100 straight on the button. I looked down at the AK of diamonds and decided to jam for 500, not wanting to play this pot out of position against an aggressive player, and getting my chance to see all five cards if called. A while later, another foreign idiot sat down with a 200 stack and open to 30 UTG. I looked down at two red aces and make it 95 to go. It folded back around to him and he called, leaving himself just about 110 behind. The flop came KcTc4 and villain check/called all in. The turn and river brought sixes on both streets, and he turns over two sixes in his hand for running quads. Nice hand. Two hands later, I am in a pot with a middle aged guy that I apparently played a few underground cash games with at home in Maryland. On a flop of A9Q, I potted it with A9hh and got called. When the flush draw filled on the turn we both checked and a river put out a 4th spade and I ended up check/folding after getting runner runnered yet again. Weeeeeeeee. I didn't really want to get up from the table so sitting just under even again (still about 500), the runner runner quad fish limped UTG+1 and I made it 30 to go with the Jd9d. The F.I (Foreign idiot) calls and we take a flop of KdQXd, giving me a gutshot straight draw and a flush draw. F.I checks, I check behind. The turn bricks and we both again checked. The river brought the Ad and F.I led 55 into me. I raised to 210 and he pushed for just about 400 total. I called and he showed the Td8d for a nice deserving cooler. shipit fish. Between that and picking up some small pots i finished the session up about 400 after a few hours when the table become a cooler and/or nit fest, so I decided to get up and continue sweating some 6 man NLH.

I went over to the feared Zeejustin's table to sweat/get a chip count to send to the shipitholla ballas, when I started chatting with his parents who were also on the rail (Justin is from the D.C area as well). Eventually on Justin's break I finally got a chance to meet him and have a nice chat with him and a couple of other 2p2ers that I met up with throughout the day in the series including Slim Pickens, Noodleman, Irieguy, JSH06, and so on. Though Justin has a lot of stigma around him given the famous online scandal from a while back, he seems to be a really nice guy and certainly a solid tournament professional. He also seems to attract a lot of scuffle, because Phil Hellmuth was insulting him to his face at his previous table and he ended up calling the floor on him. Later, at the table I was sweating, another all in player ended up throwing his cards at Justin because the guy was a sore loser and thought the dealer made a mistake in chip counts. Justin's dad and this guy almost got into it with each other, but luckily ZJ's dad didn't feel much like brawling. After a while of sweating Justin, Phil (Jman) and Travis (TravestyFund), we decided to head back home. All three are in the money, Justin and Phil with some chips to work with. All of them have a shot and I'd love to see all of them final table this awesome event. Best of luck to all of them, and tommorow should be another day of similar action. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

More side games at the Rio, and a 2+2 gathering

Yesterday we finally got out of the house after some late nighting and what not, and headed to the Rio to sweat the 50k HORSE event. After watching Zeejustin pwn for a while (he ended up in 18th, just out of the money, good game Justin), I sat some 2/5nl. I was getting cards, but no action. I was continuing to open wide just so I could play some pots against a seemingly soft table, but no one was paying me with anything. Finally, I had to three barrel bluff a guy just to take down a reasonably sized pot. A relatively weak/tight player (seemed sane at least) limp/called my raise from the hijack when I held two black sixes. The flop came Ace high with two spades and he check/called my flop bet. At this point, I was putting him on some type of reasonable draw or a mediocre Ace. The turn bricked, and I fired near pot. He very quickly called my turn bet and I narrowed his range to a big flush draw or top pair with not too much of a kicker. I decided at this point that if the draw bricked on the river, it was a good spot to go with a three barrel bluff. The river did brick the draws, the EP player checked and i bet 330 and he quickly mucked his cards saying "you must have me outkicked". Shipit. Other than that and picking up some small pots, nothing too interesting happened. +175 that session.

When we left the Rio we headed over to the Venetian for a scheduled 2+2 dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe. Even though the uber-rigged restaraunt wouldnt hold our reservation and we ended up splitting tables, the 2+2ers featured: our house minus futuredoc and bobbofitos, DF_Newb, Daleroxxu, JSH06, and most of the shipithollaballa mansion (usher, inyaface, good2cu, travestyfund, bigt, apathy, a couple of their friends), as well as Irieguy and his girl.

Dinner was a good time, and we decided to hit Tau, the club in the Venetian. As we went to the bouncer to get into the club, he quickly turned me away for having shorts on, and for having a fake ID. so rigged. He took my ID and I ended up having to pay him off to get it back. -70. sosososo rigged. We ended up going back home to change clothes, and myself, Devin and Jared (JSH) met up with good2cu, Dale, Apathy, inyaface, and two of their friends. We got a VIP booth at studio54 (club inside the MGM grand) and basically partied it up there. It was a really fun time and all of those guys are really stand up guys. I'm glad we all had a chance to chill/party together and I certainly don't think it will be the last time it happens while I'm out here.

Other than that, the 5,000 buy in shorthanded NLH WSOP event starts tommorow at noon. In addition, the final table of the 50k HORSE is being played down, so between those two events with all of the 2p2ers in the 5k event, and myself playing side games at the rio, it should be a solid day tommorow. Wish all of the 2p2ers luck in the event, we have a huge edge in this field with the strong representation of entrees, and we really need a frickin bracelet already! THE WSOP IS RIGGED AGAINST TROUT! Gl all, and thanks for reading.


-Alex

The Rio.....and the Rhino

So I didnt update yesterday; heres a capturing of the shenanigans.

So 2 nights ago we headed to the Rio to watch days 1 of the 50k HORSE event. The field was obviously stacked with 148 of the toughest mixed game tourney pros that come out to Vegas/play here full time. We sweated Zeejustin sitting next to Doyle Brunson for a while, before taking a lap around the tournament and sitting to play some side games.

As usual, side games were decent/good at the Rio. I played 2/5....nothing too interesting, finished +120 and the only pot I even saw a showdown on was when a queen-latifah like chick to my left called my flop bet in raised pot on a AQxss flop. We both checked a deuce turn and I checked the river when the flush card filled (obviously planning on calling a bet with my AK) when she checked behind and mucked. She kept calling for deuces in her hands just to be dumb, and when I told her that the deuce didn't stop me from betting she replied with "oh i know, i know what stopped you from betting"...obviously implying that the flush card did. Well, missy, you are dumb and wrong....if she was right, she should've bet the river (and she would have been power owned when I snap called). But anyways, the game was weak and when we finally got short handed (to only my excitement) the game broke.

I then went to the 10/25nl uncapped game in the "big side game" section where Rob (Bobbo) was sitting with over 5k. Unfortunately, the hand I sweated was his bust out hand: Everyone had him covered in this hand and UTG+1 (big stack with over 10k) raised to 75. The button called and Rob repopped the SB to 300. Both players called and Rob led the flop dark for 625. The flop came K62hh and the big stack was basically going nuts over the dark bet, trying to figure out what the hell he was doing, and finally calls the 625. The button tanks and folds. The turn is an offsuit 3 and Rob leads 1150. The big stack again tanks and calls. The river is a Q (puke), and Rob checks. The big stack sets him in for his last 2k or so, giving him juuust over 3:1 on the pot, and Rob called with AK and lost to the 3-outed KQ. GG.

Rob was incredibly distraught (and understandably so) over the loss, so what else is there to do after losing a pot like that but to hit the spearmint Rhino aka the hottest strip club in Sin City? We did just that.

We got to the rhino around 5am and sat in their main room with girls pole dancing and tons of strippers coming in and out of the table sections dancing on guys, trying to pull them into the private show room ($$$) and what not. Unfortunately, yours truly was victimized. I was pulled into the back by a hot black chick and got my share of what goes on in the backroom at the Rhino. When I was pulled into the 2nd back room, however, I knew I was spending no less than 1,000 that night and decided to cut my losses at a whopping 500 when I overtipped the stripper in an awkward spot to save myself 500-1k more. Ouch. I was pretty pissed at myself and the situation for the night, but no one really to blame except me and the big guy down there. Such is life.

We proceeded to sit around and drink for a couple hours when we finally gathered up futuredoc from stripperaments and headed home. We got home at about 730am, and hung out and proceeded to crash for the day. Yesterday, we basically did nothing except play online. Ben, Travis, Nathan, Rob and Matt played a 109 mtt and had a 100 dollar last longer bet. Ben, being the luckbox that he is, didn't tell anyone he was going to win the damn thing. It's pretty tough to lose a last longer when you win the tournament, so thats just what he did for a cool 9.1k. We were all sitting around in uber pwnage fashion as he just couldn't lose an all in or showdown.

We then played a 5.50+r fixed limit omaha8 tourney online, and that was rigged too, so in one last hurrah we had a 5 dollar last longer on a 10 cent mtt on stars between me, Travis, Rob, Brett and Nathan. The catch is, you had to be all in every hand. I shipped it, going out the same hand that Nathan did but with more chips, and I won the last longer. Wooooo

Thats about it for now, today there will likely be 50k HORSE sweatage, playing, and a big 2+2 dinner gathering. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

Grinding it out at the Rio

We got to the Rio today around 11:30am for Devin to play the 1500nl event. They weren't letting in spectators for a few hours so Brett, Travis and I left to explore the wonderful world of the Wynn's uncapped NL games. Unfortunately, upon getting there we see that the wait list was hours long, so after taking a lap through the casino and checking out the scene we dropped Brett off at MGM to play SNGs/cash while Travis and I headed back to the Rio for sweatage and pwnage.

After we watched TravestyFund bust deep from the 2k PLHE event and Devin busting the 1500 event, I sat 2/5nl at the rio. The game was kind of nitty at first, but the entire session it went from nitty to random TONS of action for a few orbits, back to nitness, etc...

I went from 500-->650---> 250 after i turned a set vs. a big fish's turned straight (he didnt have a full buy in either). I rebought to 500 and ground my way back up to even (800) when, yet again, I doubled up a short stack, this time a semi nitty lady to my right who had less than 200 to start the hand. We got it all in in a limped pot with 97hh to her K9cc on a Q99ss flop. That all sucked but I continued to grind my way up when a few big hands came up.

First, I'm sitting about 850ish and mississippi straddle the button to 10. The small blind (who is the most weak/tight player in the history of poker) calls, and DevinLake UTG dark raises 15 more. I call blind on the button (obviously!) and the small blind again calls. We take a flop 3 way and its T72 all diamonds. The small blind leads, Devin folds and I finally look at my cards: TT. shipit. I make raise 20-80, he makes it 200 and I end up shoving the flop with his 300ish behind. He tanks and ends up folding A MADE FLUSH. I didn't see his cards but I did see him fold bottom set on the flop vs Devin and the big stack, so I'm pretty sure he wasn't lying.

After this, Z32fanatic came to the cash rail on the 1500nl event break (he ended up getting ITM last i checked, shipit) and during this time I ended playing a 550 bb pot for stacks. Weak/tight guy opens utg to 15, tight solidish young kid maks it 60 in mp (he wasnt 3 betting particularly light at all) and I cold call the button with two black aces. The flop came Js6s2. PF 3 bettor led 75 into me, i made it 250, he tanks FOREVER and shoves. At this point I'm putting him ONLY on two kings, and sure enough he turns over two aces...at least I'm freerolling and made like 10 or 15 bucks on the hand.

After this the only other big pot I played was when I opened to 20 with two red Kings. Guy two behind me calls. We take a flop of Q98hh. I lead for 35 he calls. The turn is an offsuit 7, and I was going to lead but in the spur of the moment decided to check. Once I checked, I thought I had made a mistake by not betting but I also realized at this point I needed to shove him in. He ended up betting 75, I shoved over and he quickly called with AQo. The river was a deuce and I stacked the donk. yaaaay.

After the 6 hour session, Rob called and said he was headed down to the rio to meet up with MikeCH and JShuttlseworth. Brett and I joined them for dinner at the rio and then we all headed to the Wynn (except for MikeCH who stayed to play 10/25nl at the rio). By the time we got there I was exhausted and the wait list was pretty long , so we rounded up matt (hippo) who was already playing there, brett, devin and myself and we headed back home while Rob and Owen (Jshuttle) stayed to put in a long session at the Wynn. I am absolutely exhausted now, but even though today was a huge grind I enjoyed the session and thought I played reasonably well. Hopefully the pwnage won't be as swingy, but will continue.

Today: 6 hours of 2/5 deep stacked at the WSOP, cashed out 1100. Not my finest session, but if I can maintain 60/hour the rest of the trip I'll be pretty happy. Anyways, it is definitely time for bed...thanks for reading.



-Alex


edit: also at my 2/5 table was this idiot young blonde kid who looked like he was 10, decked out in dodgers apparel with his fat ring and chain. The kid berated me from opening the CO and button every time...the 3rd or 4th time i did this with AKo. he called from the bb. Flop Came A98hh. he check/called my flop bet. the turn came an offsuit 7 and we both checked. The river completed a 4 straight with an offsuit 6 and the bb led just about pot or overpot slightly. I tanked and after checking the turn behind thought he was value betting AT/AJ/AQ or, being the cocky talking constant idiot that he was, was just as likely on a pure bluff. I'm a fish calling station so i looked him up and he turned over AQs. gg. he then requested a table change and got up.

Day 2

Basically we sat around the house today until around dinner when we finally settled the rental car situation and decided to head out to the Rio to check out the action. We got there just in time to see Vanessa (fslexcduck) take on rekrul (high stakes NL player, very solid). The match was over pretty fast, and Vanessa was out in 4th for just over 100k. A nice score, but unfortunate when she ran top pair into a turn flush for the tournament not 15 minutes after it started. Still though, she took down some amazing players HU in the tournament including Peter (Apathy) and Doyle Brunson, just to name a couple. She'll certainly have continued success to come.

After the rio we headed over to the bellagio where Rob (BobboFitos) sat 10/20, devin (DevinLake) and Matt (the hippo from hell) sat 2/5 and I headed to Caesars with Brett (Blackize) and Travis (Costanza). I sat 1/3nl 500 max. I didnt do a whole lot here but the only big pot I played involved me stacking the mid stack BB when I flopped top set on a JT8ss flop when I led the flop and he insta-shoved.

I was up about 140 in this game when the game started nitting up slightly, and two seats opened to my left. As I was looking around to see who would fill the seats, ben (bengiec) and Nathan (futuredoc) come and take the seats. wow, what a seat change for me. The table basically sucked for me from this point on, and although they were kind enough not to constantly 3 bet me, I didn't have position on any good player at the table and the bad players weren't sitting deep enough to make a long session there worth while.

Brett and I then headed to Monte Carlo where we sat some 1/2nl. DevinLake met up with us after a rough bellagio session and sat to my right. Basically, he power owned the shit out of me. The only real pot we played together was when the laggiest player at the table straddled (standard for him) to 4, Devin called in the SB and I repopped to 16 (I should have made it 20, for the record) with the AKcc. Both players called. On a QTXr flop, I was trying to check/raise bluff the lag player thinking his betting range when checked to was going to be enormously wide. Of course, I was not so fortunate and the flop checked through. On a low diamond turn (putting out a flush draw), Devin check/called a bet of a bit under pot (35 into a 43 or something similar). The river filled the flush and Devin checked again. I couldn't really figure out what I could get him to fold on the river after whiffing my gutshot and his turn call, so I checked behind and he angrily turned over a flush. Wow I am so good at poker. Basically, I'm really not so good because I was dealt J3 more times at this table than in my poker career thus far. I got nothing going and just let the shit show continue. Only having lost about 100, we called it quits a few hours later and after meeting back up with Matt, headed back here. I finished the day +29 over just about 5 hours, shipit.

Tommorow, I expect a better day and a longer session, so we'll see how that goes. It's now 5am, 8am body time still, so I think I'm going to wind down and hit the hay soon. Thanks for reading.


-Alex

ZOMG VEGAS!

ITS COMING! T-36 hours till I leave! I have run a couple errands and seen friends, but really I have done nothing for the trip. I still have loads in the way of logistics of travel once im there, meeting up with 2p2ers out there, side bets, etc... And that'll basically all have to happen tommorow, with packing. whoopee :)

In other news, since I did nothing applicably productive today, I did come out with a low buy in strategy post in the single table tournament forum on 2+2 with some insight on how to play AQ in the early levels of a sit and go. It didnt turn out quite to be the masterpiece i had envisioned, but its decent in terms of strategy posts that i've seen on the forum recently, and hey, its all I could think of. Heres a link for anyone interested in reading:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=10838377&page=0&vc=1#Post10838377


Tonight I'll probably be seeing friends before I leave, followed by a day of running around crazy tommorow. Oh Vegas, how I await thee. Thanks for reading.



-Alex

Stupid Sunday!

Honestly this is just a complete whine because its my blog and i'll whine if I want to. My brother has to take my car for tonight/tommorow so that makes things a bit complicated/annoying for tommorow. In other news I played some DS satellites for the sunday million because I felt like the 6 man DS's were a joke. I was right, I won a seat, I played, I saw, I bustoed. Since then I've done nothing today. This is why I never considered playing MTTs full time :P

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1163255 (If anyone wants to know why I played the hand the way that I did just IM me, I'm too burnt to relive analysis at the moment).


In reality neither of these things are that big of a deal, but it made for a mundane and not overly pleasant sunday. Thats about it.



-Alex

Pleasant Saturday

Though waking up at 8am for no reason certainly was not a highlight of the day, the rest of today seemed to fall into place. I sat around the apartment and did some laundry/watched some t.v through the morning, and then went home to hang out with the family. After that I proceeded to come back to my apartment and write the introduction to my strategy post that will be coming out in the STT forum on 2p2 pretty soon. It is certainly not a comprehensive post and will be geared primarily toward lower buy in games/players, but with the quality of the forum's posts nowadays, any strategy post seems worthy. Stay tuned for that.
In other news, I had a nice profitable 300 dollar hour of playing sit and gos today after I wrote my post introduction (karma?) and soon after found out that Max (Inyaface) and Travis (TravestyFund) were deep in the 5k pot limit hold em WSOP event. Max bubbled the final table but Travis is currently around 4th in chips with 10 players left in what is a very tough looking final table featuring Lisandro, Cunningham and Brenes, just to name a few. Hope he can pull it out as this would be a great start to STTF's reign on the WSOP in 2007. Thats it for now, thanks for reading.



-Alex

Bahh

Minor Downswing and major lack of volume in playing poker recently. More frustrating is that I was sleeping on and off all morning yesterday as I've been a bit sick. I finally woke up at 2:30pm to spend 2 hours on the phone with my bank for charges put onto my debit account without my knowledge of it. Turns out I was semi-scammed into signing up for some "promotional" program that conveniently doesn't tell you when they start charging you for a service (that I didn't even knowingly sign up for in the first place). After a long drawn out conversation, that situation was resolved but incredibly annoying.

Beyond that I've tried to get in some time playing sit and gos online. Ive had some ridiculously frustrating small sessions, and between that and people flooding in and out of here, I just haven't played like I'd hoped I would be, but its still nice to see everyone and if nothing else I'll get my volume in in Vegas.
I also ran into my TA from the class that I missed an "A" in by 1/10th of a point and she said I may be able to swing a grade review for a shot at that small bump into an "A". This would take a lot of pressure off and would also be awesome, so I'm pulling for this. Being sick and not doing much doesn't make for too interesting of a blog entry. Thanks for reading.



-Alex

It is ON!

Honestly its not really on...other than poker and peoples, I haven't done a whole lot. Again, this is what I expect of my time at home during the summer and I couldn't be more content with it, so all is well on this end....except for school. I got my motor skill development course grade back (KNES370) and I got an 84.9%. Usually this would be pretty standard for me, except that in this class, an 85+ is an A. LOVELY. NO ROUNDING THIS TIME, NO EXCEPTIONS, NO DICE. This 1/10th of a point is costing me almost 1 full GPA point because I did not take a lot of credits this semester, so its really a killer the way this class played out. Theres nothing I can do as this is a result of last minute course grading changes by the professor and I'm shit outta luck. Meh. I run bad at life I guess.


Poker (AC Trip report): My friend and fraternity brother Chuck had a room comped at Caesar's palace in Atlantic City last night, so my roomate and I went up with him for the night. ATLANTIC CITY RULES, even though the games were a bit off while we were there.
The first time we sat was at Caesars. All of us were put at the same 1/2 table, and all I can say about this table is....wow. Every player at the table was penetratingly obviously bad at poker in various ways. The highlights were a drunk guy and an old guy, the drunk guy who wouldn't shut up, who would call huge bets and fold with little money behind later in the hand, and the old guy who made random sized bets, often over betting the pot by 10x and never folding preflop.
Specifically, the old guy and the drunk guy got into it in a pot where the old guy check/called a flop bet, announced a dark check, and then fired 55 dollars on an Ace turn card. The drunk guy flips out, the dealer never heard the dark check announced, and the floor was called over for a 10 minute dispute of the events before the bet was ruled legal (honestly, obviously the dark check must stand should the floor person confirm that it was said, but since theres no way for him to know for sure and the money was in the pot, it was the only sensible ruling in my opinion). The drunk guy timed out with 2 floor people towering over him ,and from then on basically the table took turns calling time on the drunk guy because of how ridiculous his slowing of the game was.
The only interesting pot I played in this game was when i raised a bunch of limpers on the button with 88. The drunk and old guy called (yes I know, theres a trend) and the flop came KQJ. though the old guy didnt often fold the flop, he had at certain points, and since both of their preflop calling ranges were so ridiculously wide, I decided to try and take down this already-medium-sized pot on the flop. I fired 35ish and the old guy called. This basically told me nothing except that he didnt have 43o maybe. The turn was a 4 and we both checked to another 4 on the river. We again checked and I showed my 88. He looked at his cards twice and mucked. As I was raking in the pot someone said that he mentioned he had A4o. I'm not entirely sure why he would muck trips but obviously the pot was mine at this point and I finished this game +50 even though for the most part I was completely card dead and watching the antics of the table instead of playing poker.
After dinner we headed to the Taj and I sat 1/2 while Chuck played a 35+12 mtt (I know, I cant comprehend the rake either) and Aaron (Manchild) played 2/5. Aaron had a look of death on his face the entire time so his session didnt go optimally I guess. Mine for the most part did not either but I was fortunate enough to take down three key pots in this game that gave me a reasonably nice session.
First, I raised a limper with ATdd. He called directly in front of me and we took a flop of KQJ heads up. Shipit. I was check/raised (holla) and called the raise. The turn was a 7d giving me what I like to call the NUTNUT. He lead 50 and I set him in for not even 100 more in a pot of over 100 already and he thought a while and folded. No matter what he had his play was obviously horrendous but I'm pretty surprised he didnt call given the action and the board texture. He was also CERTAINLY not capable of folding TPTK or better but was also semi weak so I'm kind of surprised I missed out on the last chunk of his stack but oh well.
The next hand I limped A5cc in MP, got called by a young kid directly behind me and took a flop of 3 middle straight cards (I dont remember specifically) with two clubs. I led and he raised 10 to 35. I called and the turn put out another club. I checked and he jammed. I called and he showed the T6cc for a lower flush. I didnt even realize he had the 9c as outs for a straight flush but he missed his 1 outer and i took down a decent sized pot even though he wasnt sitting with a full buy in at the start of the hand.
Finally, against a young Russian guy, for the third or fourth time of the session he limp/called a preflop raise of mine. I had AJo and we took the flop HU. The flop came ace high with 2 low hearts (I had no heart). As he had done before he check/called the flop and the turn brought a heart. We both checked and the river put out a 4th heart. He led 35 and with a read of what I thought to be a great bluffing spot for him I made it 80 to go and he folded. In the end I finished the trip +200 after about 6-7 hours of play. The next casino I play in will probably be in Las Vegas so I'm feeling good about that. Thats about it for now, thanks for reading.


-Alex

An update!

I went on a last minute beach trip this week for a few days with some high school friends....definitely part of a balanced summer kick-off. I'm not gonna lie, we basically just drank the entire time, but seeing everyone and hanging out together after months of barely being able to keep in touch with them because of things happening at school...crucial. Great trip overall, and a big thanks to my Goldy for putting us all up and being such an awesome host (and thanks to his parents for trusting us enough to not burn down the place).

With all of that done, I got back to school last night and my roomate aaron (manchild on 2p2) had people over to drink and hang out. Not being able to turn down a fridge fully stocked with beer...yes, I think I've been drinking for 4 or 5 days now. We wound up at the bar but last night was by far the most ridiculous Ive gotten this week. I think it involved car bombs and rum at one point, but I'm still alive to tell the tale. Alex one, alcohol 0.

Other than that, looking forward to seeing everyone else I haven't seen. I plan to just continue the awesomeness that has ensued since school let out until I head out west.


Poker:

I've decided to just continue with sit and gos online until I either reach my money goals pre-vegas or have a yearning desire to play more online cash in the next few weeks. Despite the fact that SNGs are rigged, they get me to focus more than I generally do (leak that I'm fixing steadily) and the swings are much more manageable especially since I have an easier time playing deeper bank-rolled in tournaments.
I only managed to get in 250ish sit and gos in the 3 days I got to play for the PokerStars double VPP promotion. The first 2 days I was running hot and ended up at about a 33% ROI and was about to break a 1K 15 tabling 16 dollar turbo SNGs after only a few hours of work. On the third day I lost a bit but still would up with a 21% ROI over the small sample and still made more than I would have 6 or 8 tabling the 60 dollar games.
I'm also going to continue to put in some time at the live 1/2 games locally and continue to "condition"/pwn before Vegas. Though I was not all that happy with the way I played at my last live session, I still have yet to be a loser at any one live 1/2 game (at the games Ive played more than once, meaning when I stopped going to the game I had won money overall). Thats about all for now, thanks for reading.


-Alex