I tried really hard not to go into the 200k today expecting to do well. But I couldn't help but hope and imagine taking it down for $45k. I envisioned playing solid poker and running as deep as I possibly could. That became a reality today, but sadly I couldn't go all the way, finishing 25th/800+ for $1100.
I understand how twisted it is to complain about this but I think people fail to realize is what I'm complaining about. I'm not upset about winning $1100, lol. I'm upset about not running deeper. Its sickening to me that I had to survive just 24 more players for the first place of $45k. Coupled with the fact that I lost with AK vs AJ all-in pre and had him dead to a gutshot on the river in a massive 100k pot, pardon me for ranting.
Anyways, I feel like I played really well overall, with just one hand that I'm still kicking myself for. But I'll try to live with misplaying one hand out of 300. I think I can deal. I played as a shortstack for nearly an hour and a half (half of Hour 3 and nearly all of Hour 4) but managed to stay patient and steal enough to keep my head afloat until I could double up. I played solid and because of that I really didn't find myself in a lot of tricky situations so I'm grateful for that.
I also made a new friend while playing and I weigh things like that pretty heavily for whatever reason. Poker has a social aspect to it and I feel that making allies in the community is important. Anyways, he seems like a very good player and I'm very much looking forward to picking his brain and keeping in touch.
With this cash I'm rolled for 1/2 although I'm still not sure how I feel about playing with almost 25 buy-ins. I feel like I'm becoming a bigger nit the higher I move up, which is great on one hand but on the other hand is potentially costing me money. Anybody have a problem 6-tabling 1/2 6-max with a 25 buy-in roll?
Anyways, thanks for reading.
- BnB -
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Won UB $2k ($10r, 6-max); won $200k seat
I woke up yesterday with little memory of getting home and the events of the night. My laptop was on my chest (how it didn't fall off my bed and die, idk) and dead since it was unplugged. Ridiculous. I stood up to use the restroo... whoooooa there thats a hangover. Fuck.
I grabbed a soda since it makes me feel better after a night of drinking and sat down at my computer and did the usual routine: Facebook, Gmail, 2+2, TwoRags, and some friends' blogs. I had planned on playing a marathon like 18-hr day yesterday (kidding, ish) but at that point in the day the thought of 6-tabling made me physically ill.
I knew I wanted to play poker though so I jumped in the first tournament I saw, the UB $2k Gtd $10r 6-max holy hell thats a mouthful. I figured I could deal with one table whilst I remedied myself back to a decent condition.
After 6-tabling for so long, I can't tell you how easy it was just having this one tournament open. I watched nearly every hand and had a pretty good feel for the metagame of the table, blah blah blah. I also felt that my opening ranges were pretty solid for a 6-max table. I noticed a lot of players who were playing like it was full ring, as well as others who were playing like it was 3-handed. So, to be cliche: I was patient, picked my spots, played solid, etc... and ended up taking the event down.
When we were down to the final 3 tables, I noticed a player who was beginning to run as hot as fire and was playing amazingly well. I felt like he was going to be my biggest threat. I don't know what it is or what he did, but no one gave him credit for anything and ended up shoving middle pair versus him like 3 times and all of a sudden he has this sick chip stack that was minimum like 8x above the average.
I end up getting HU with this player and after one hand it immediately becomes apparent that he is the worst HU player I've ever played against. I'd say he bet pot about 75% of the time, regardless of position, who raised pre-flop, or texture of the board.
I wish I had the hand history for this but I remember a hand in particular where I raised KK OTB and he called and led out for pot-sized bets on the flop and turn and culminated in him shoving the river and showing nothing but like 7 high. I'd seen this play from him before and I don't know if it was necessary on my part but I was using up all of my time clock. I've no idea if this actually gave him the false idea that I was weak and strongly debating what to do, or if he just was that poor. I ended up taking the event down for about $960.
Later in the day, I joined a $10r that gave away guaranteed 25 seats to the Sunday 200k. I love rebuys because they're deepstacked and I just sit back and essentially coast, not getting too involved and really sitting and waiting for solid hands. I mean, there is time for that. Of course as the bubble approaches I put the pressure on a bit more but generally speaking, you just have a sick amount of chips and I personally don't see the point in risking them early on. The event drew 100 people and I was actually worried with about 30 left that I wasn't going to make it. The bubble was lasting a little longer than usual and I was folding premium hands when folded to since I didn't want people left to act to wake up with real hands. In the end though I won the seat and I'm looking forward to playing that event today.
I grabbed a soda since it makes me feel better after a night of drinking and sat down at my computer and did the usual routine: Facebook, Gmail, 2+2, TwoRags, and some friends' blogs. I had planned on playing a marathon like 18-hr day yesterday (kidding, ish) but at that point in the day the thought of 6-tabling made me physically ill.
I knew I wanted to play poker though so I jumped in the first tournament I saw, the UB $2k Gtd $10r 6-max holy hell thats a mouthful. I figured I could deal with one table whilst I remedied myself back to a decent condition.
After 6-tabling for so long, I can't tell you how easy it was just having this one tournament open. I watched nearly every hand and had a pretty good feel for the metagame of the table, blah blah blah. I also felt that my opening ranges were pretty solid for a 6-max table. I noticed a lot of players who were playing like it was full ring, as well as others who were playing like it was 3-handed. So, to be cliche: I was patient, picked my spots, played solid, etc... and ended up taking the event down.
When we were down to the final 3 tables, I noticed a player who was beginning to run as hot as fire and was playing amazingly well. I felt like he was going to be my biggest threat. I don't know what it is or what he did, but no one gave him credit for anything and ended up shoving middle pair versus him like 3 times and all of a sudden he has this sick chip stack that was minimum like 8x above the average.
I end up getting HU with this player and after one hand it immediately becomes apparent that he is the worst HU player I've ever played against. I'd say he bet pot about 75% of the time, regardless of position, who raised pre-flop, or texture of the board.
I wish I had the hand history for this but I remember a hand in particular where I raised KK OTB and he called and led out for pot-sized bets on the flop and turn and culminated in him shoving the river and showing nothing but like 7 high. I'd seen this play from him before and I don't know if it was necessary on my part but I was using up all of my time clock. I've no idea if this actually gave him the false idea that I was weak and strongly debating what to do, or if he just was that poor. I ended up taking the event down for about $960.
Later in the day, I joined a $10r that gave away guaranteed 25 seats to the Sunday 200k. I love rebuys because they're deepstacked and I just sit back and essentially coast, not getting too involved and really sitting and waiting for solid hands. I mean, there is time for that. Of course as the bubble approaches I put the pressure on a bit more but generally speaking, you just have a sick amount of chips and I personally don't see the point in risking them early on. The event drew 100 people and I was actually worried with about 30 left that I wasn't going to make it. The bubble was lasting a little longer than usual and I was folding premium hands when folded to since I didn't want people left to act to wake up with real hands. In the end though I won the seat and I'm looking forward to playing that event today.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
I hate titles. Just read.
Cash games have been good lately. I really wish PT worked and I could have stats to look at though. Apparently my computer is so full that PT can't even compress the database anymore. Tilt. I've erased everything which I don't use, which apparently is nothing and unfortunately doesn't include large programs like Photoshop and Flash. I'm planning on on buying a rather large external hard drive from Radio Shack soon and moving a lot of my files over there. In fact, I'd love to move everything over there and completely restore my machine to its just-out-of-box state. The thought of playing poker without PT locking up my machine sounds too good to be true, but hopefully I'll be able to say "dream come true" in a few days.
After suffering an absolutely disgusting massive downswing over the past few days, I decided to turn things around and made about 6 buy-ins yesterday. It probably should have been closer to 10, but I remember 3 separate instances yesterday where I lost set under set. Being on the losing end of that makes my heart cringe at the thought of it. I honestly can't say I know how I put up with it on three separate occasions yesterday.
I've got plans to visit friends in College Station, TX this weekend, and I don't know what their internet situation is like. If they have wireless, I may put in a session or two earlier in the days. If not, well whatever. Hand me a brewski.
Gonna try and get in about 3k hands now before lunch. Peace.
- BnB
After suffering an absolutely disgusting massive downswing over the past few days, I decided to turn things around and made about 6 buy-ins yesterday. It probably should have been closer to 10, but I remember 3 separate instances yesterday where I lost set under set. Being on the losing end of that makes my heart cringe at the thought of it. I honestly can't say I know how I put up with it on three separate occasions yesterday.
I've got plans to visit friends in College Station, TX this weekend, and I don't know what their internet situation is like. If they have wireless, I may put in a session or two earlier in the days. If not, well whatever. Hand me a brewski.
Gonna try and get in about 3k hands now before lunch. Peace.
- BnB
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament
So I'm currently watching the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament: Elimination Match 13, and I just need to take this opportunity to vent about how much I hate Phil Hellmuth.
Six people were sitting at the table this round including some familiar faces like Gus Hansen and Mike Matusow and, unfortunately, our good friend Phil. This guy is a total douche bag. Not only does he act like a child at the table talking ridiculous smack and insulting the other players' play but he gets up from the table at one point to go listen to his music on the other side of the room and pout. At one point Matusow is talking to other players, not even Phil I might add, and Phil starts saying things like "Mike, how many times have I told you not to talk while I'm thinking?" and "I already warned you about this for an hour yesterday." Completely serious, no smile, he's not kidding. Well excuse us Phil, but who made you King Douche Bag? No one. Don't sit there talking the whole time and directing insults at people and then expect all to be silent when your dumb ass is thinking. So Matusow, my new hero starts talking loudly about the weather occasionally looking directly at Phil. Did I mention they were sitting next to each other? Hahaha take that Phil Fuck-up!
Poor Hansen gets knocked out first after withstanding what I'm sure in real time was hours of Phil's shit and finishes 6th with no points to add to his total. And what does Phil do the minute Hansen walks away? Starts talking shit about how Hansen shouldn't have been here anyway and blah blah blah.
A little time goes by and finally Phil is knocked out in 5th place after all of his shit and I am ecstatic. However, just when we all thought it was over, Mary Strong on the sidelines begins to interview him and here comes the pouting again. He keeps saying "I'm not happy about where I'm at" (even though he has 20 points and is in I believe 6th place overall - something like that) and "Well, I had to play with Gus who has no knowledge of the game so what can I expect?". Um, excuse me but didn't Hansen win this whole thing last year? Oh right, he did, so get over yourself Hellmuth. It got so bad that there was a good 10 seconds of awkward silence before she sent the cameras back to Chris Rose and Howard Lederer. Even they stepped out of the realm of professionalism and said "Well good try Mary, but when someone decides to act like a 10 year old there's not much you can do".
And then later, during Mike Matusow's interview (after finishing 2nd), Phil comes over and hogs the lime light once again insulting Matusow's play and saying he knows nothing about the game. Even though he was smiling at had a slightly nicer tone to his words, they were still completely unnecessary and condescending. Thankfully Matusow came back with the fact that he tried to read Phil's book but realized one chapter into it that Phil knows nothing. Balla! Matusow 2, Phil 0.
Oh and as a side note, Eli Elezra ended up winning lol.
In short, Phil Hellmuth clearly can't be a bad player because of his 11 bracelets and whatever other awards I'm sure he carries pictures of in his wallet, but if you act like a total and complete ass whole and embarrass yourself on national television all the awards in the world become null and void. Play the game hard, have the passion, be competitive, but also be a gentleman.
** P.S.
I apologize for all of the cursing through out this post, it just burns me up when people get so damn cocky and childish.
Six people were sitting at the table this round including some familiar faces like Gus Hansen and Mike Matusow and, unfortunately, our good friend Phil. This guy is a total douche bag. Not only does he act like a child at the table talking ridiculous smack and insulting the other players' play but he gets up from the table at one point to go listen to his music on the other side of the room and pout. At one point Matusow is talking to other players, not even Phil I might add, and Phil starts saying things like "Mike, how many times have I told you not to talk while I'm thinking?" and "I already warned you about this for an hour yesterday." Completely serious, no smile, he's not kidding. Well excuse us Phil, but who made you King Douche Bag? No one. Don't sit there talking the whole time and directing insults at people and then expect all to be silent when your dumb ass is thinking. So Matusow, my new hero starts talking loudly about the weather occasionally looking directly at Phil. Did I mention they were sitting next to each other? Hahaha take that Phil Fuck-up!
Poor Hansen gets knocked out first after withstanding what I'm sure in real time was hours of Phil's shit and finishes 6th with no points to add to his total. And what does Phil do the minute Hansen walks away? Starts talking shit about how Hansen shouldn't have been here anyway and blah blah blah.
A little time goes by and finally Phil is knocked out in 5th place after all of his shit and I am ecstatic. However, just when we all thought it was over, Mary Strong on the sidelines begins to interview him and here comes the pouting again. He keeps saying "I'm not happy about where I'm at" (even though he has 20 points and is in I believe 6th place overall - something like that) and "Well, I had to play with Gus who has no knowledge of the game so what can I expect?". Um, excuse me but didn't Hansen win this whole thing last year? Oh right, he did, so get over yourself Hellmuth. It got so bad that there was a good 10 seconds of awkward silence before she sent the cameras back to Chris Rose and Howard Lederer. Even they stepped out of the realm of professionalism and said "Well good try Mary, but when someone decides to act like a 10 year old there's not much you can do".
And then later, during Mike Matusow's interview (after finishing 2nd), Phil comes over and hogs the lime light once again insulting Matusow's play and saying he knows nothing about the game. Even though he was smiling at had a slightly nicer tone to his words, they were still completely unnecessary and condescending. Thankfully Matusow came back with the fact that he tried to read Phil's book but realized one chapter into it that Phil knows nothing. Balla! Matusow 2, Phil 0.
Oh and as a side note, Eli Elezra ended up winning lol.
In short, Phil Hellmuth clearly can't be a bad player because of his 11 bracelets and whatever other awards I'm sure he carries pictures of in his wallet, but if you act like a total and complete ass whole and embarrass yourself on national television all the awards in the world become null and void. Play the game hard, have the passion, be competitive, but also be a gentleman.
** P.S.
I apologize for all of the cursing through out this post, it just burns me up when people get so damn cocky and childish.
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