Busto in Cost Rica
Date: Fri, May 23, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
awwww come on! So about 6 hours into day one I busted out of the $2,500 event in Costa Rica. I wasn't sure how soft the play would be before I got here but I was shocked by how awful my table was. People were making plays you would rarely see at a $60 table online so crazy how profitable live mtts are, just crucial variance. Basically, I was just card dead the whole time and was picking up small pots here and there to stay alive but finally got AJs on the button with 12 bbs and someone raised from MP with huge antes so I put him on something like 44+a7s+a9o+k10s,kjo+q10s+j10o,910s so had to resteal just happen to run into QQ and couldn't suck out. I'm really excited to play a good amount of wsop events because players are even worse and I'll get in a larger sample size. After I busted I met up with Jorj95, DDbeast, Johny D, and my friend from home so we all got some drinks which was a really good time. Were planning on going to the rainforest within the next couple days to go ziplining so looking forward to that. Hopefully we can find some time to grind but for now having too much fun.
Austin/WSOP non-plans
Date: Wed, May 21, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
and owning Joey I finally moved to Austin and got settled in a few weeks ago. It's been a lot of fun and I'm definitely glad that I came down here. Hopefully it'll help me get some motivation and rekindle my interest in poker. On a related note, I won't be playing any events (except maybe the ME) at the wsop this year and will only be in town for a short time to visit friends and pick up my car. This is the first year since I've been playing that I have no interest at all in being in Vegas for the series. As for the Phil Gordon bet, apparently there was some confusion on his end as to whether the bet was on or not, so hopefully we can revisit the bet next year. He's also expecting his first child near the start of the series, so best wishes to him and his wife. I've also been running really well at credit card roulette since I've been down here. Last night I got heads up with Joey for the $700+ bill and won, so that was fun. I also shipped the under (which he's contesting of course) on the bill. Somehow winning money/meals from Joey is more satisfying than getting it from anyone else down here. Hopefully I'll continue to run good. Oh, I should also mention that Wicks has discussed a prop bet with me where he has 30 days to make 6k playing the 6.50s on Stars. Please encourage him to make this bet with me.
busto in 18th
Date: Tue, May 20, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
meh lol Today was rough. I doubled up to 60000 in the first level of the day after busting a guy with 10bbs with 99 vs J8s and then got in with 66 against 88 in a standard button vs bb spot for 17bbs. After that, I stole a lot of blinds but never really got any hands. Later people started repushing over me and I got back down to 60000 in 2000/4000-500. I lost a few more blinds then eventually pushed A3s from the co for like 10bbs and lost to AQ in 18th place for $9500ish. All in all, starting with 80ish people left with 2/3 average, I should be happy. We are going to Pensacola tomorrow to visit family. It should be fun.
Costa Tomrrow
Date: Tue, May 20, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
Exciting months ahead Flying into San Jose, Costa Rica tomorrow evening. Looking forward to kicking back in a plush suite and playing in the $2,500 Lapt event. Spacegravy and his friend from Richmond Matt (facestealer) are coming with. Hopefully I will get to meet some of the online players I have been playing with daily for the past 6 months. Its always interesting to meet players in person after playing with them for a long time. All of us are going out to dinner tonight since I wont be in Austin for the next 2 1/2 months. Its gonna be weird being away from the awesome set up I have created here in the office. But, I will have to man up and buy a baller laptop for traveling purposes. -j000hnnyd
Frusterating month so far playing sngs
Date: Tue, May 20, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
....
Graph so far of the month:
So far this month I've been running fine overall just the few % of my overall games have been $555's-$2,000's which I've just run like complete crap at. I had been doing very well over the last 3 months so I figured it was time to move up to the highest buyins, but I'm already missing the small variance at the $114's-$225's so I'll most likely just stay at those. Hopefully within the next 10 days I'll make a nice turn around.
Tomorrow I'll be flying to Costa Rica to play in the $2,500 event so hopefully that goes well. We have alot of fun activities planned out for the trip so really looking forward to it.
27000 going into day 2 of new orleans
Date: Tue, May 20, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
meh Not much to report today. The first level I got QQ and won a 2000 chip pot pretty early and the day went to crap from there. I got K8s in a limped pot with a flop of 886 and lost 1/3 my stack to 86. I then got QQ 2 more times and it came AKx both times multiway, so I was down to 5000 after the first level. I hung around though and just grinded the standard +ev stealing spots and eventually got TT against Gavin Smiths 99 on a 632 board to get back to 10000. There was another hand where a guy raised fto 700 rom 2nd, the guy in 3rd made it 2200 and I pushed for 6000 total with AK(i had lost a few hands..) They both folded and I 1/2ed up uncontested, which is always suuuper nice. Not much else really happened. I ended the day with 27000, with 78 people left with an average stack of 36000 going into 600/1200. I have had a 20ishbb stack all tournament, so hopefully I can keep playing it well and not get any set up hands that arent in my favor.
Pretty good week
Date: Mon, May 19, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
Playing good, running better.
I've been having trouble forcing myself to put in the hours lately, due mainly to spring and all the beautiful days. Its hard to grind when its suddenly nice outside after months of cold winter.
I managed to get in 278 SNGs last week (Mon-Sun) and wrecked them for a lovely 25%.
Obviously this is a heater and above my sustainable rate but I do feel like I've been playing much better poker of late. I've been at about 12% over my last 2500 at the 36s, which coincides with when I cut back on some tables and played sets for a while to work out some kinks. I'm back to 12 tabling continuous again now but I definitely feel like I ironed out a lot of wrinkles when I went to sets for a while. I definitely plan on playing a few session of sets every month to keep myself sharp and noticing changing game conditions.
poker is fun
Date: Sat, May 17, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
meh Yesterday was nice. I somehow decided to not run KK into AA all that often and won a nice 6 buyins at 2/4nl. Today, I ran KK into AA 3 times and AK into AA another, to lose a total of 2 buyins. It seems like every time I have a nice winning day, it is usually 2+ buyins. Every time I have a losing day, it is 2 buyins max. Now that I say that, im sure I am going to go on a horrorific downswing and lose like 20 buyins. I am heading to New Orleans in 2 days for the wsop circuit event. Hopefully that will give me a shade of practice before the wsop. That is going to be a loooong 2 months. I wonder what the odds of me being the lucksack to win 2 wsop events this year are...3000:1? Maybe worse.
Today was a good day
Date: Fri, May 16, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
won a 180 man Today I played for about 7 hours and got in 140 games. Lately I have been loading tons of different games in the beginning just to get tables loaded. Normally I'll get in every $114 9 mans, $78 6 max, $60 45 man, and $33 180 man for 15-20 minutes until I get up to 18 tables or so. Originally I would continue to mix the games throughout my session, but lately I've been feeling like mixing 6 and 9 max games is throwing me off because the bubbles play differently and the payout structure is different, which results in some hands being +EV shoves in 9 max games but not 6 max, and vice versa. The last few days I've been playing every $114 9 man and $60 45 man as the main part of my sessions, which keeps me at about 14-16 tables the whole time. Also it's fairly easy to differentiate which games are which because there are always way more chips on the table in the 45 mans. I did well today and made ~$4000, the most entertaining of which came in the form of winning a $33 180 man. These things are so fun for some reason, probably because they give you the same feeling of winning a small MTT, but you can play 10-15 per day. The other interesting thing about them is that there is no SNGPT for 180 mans, meaning there is no way for people to review their play and improve, which makes them pretty easy. In other news, I'm going home this weekend for the first time in 4 months, which should be fun. There is a music festival in Columbus tomorrow that I may go to as it has a bunch of bands I like. One reason I might NOT go is because the concert is called "Rock on the Range" which implies that Columbus is some country town, even though it has >1,000,000 people. I don't like furthering those stereotypes, but it might be too good to pass up.
through 100k hands of full ring
Date: Wed, May 14, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
meh
Full ring is nice. It is pretty easy to get in 1200 hands per hour, make a fairly steady money, and just relax and work. I have been 20 tabling on stars for the last 2 months now and have finally gotten to 100,000 hands. This is only 80ish hours of solid work, but considering that ive taken a week off and played a ton of live mtts, I think I have gotten in a decent amount of hands. I clearly would like to force myself to work at least 4ish hours per day til the wsop though. It is hard though, because i like to be on the same schedule as my girlfriend and also like to not be working when shes home, as I like spending time with her. Still, having 6 hours of "work" time per day, I should be able to force myself into working 4 of those.
As for stats, I am running at 2.9 bb/100 over 101k hands, which comes out to $13,000ish. Its weird, cause this doesnt sound like much money to me, but it is nice to see that if I "have" to sit down and make money, I can. Also, I have played only 1500 hands of 3/6, as those games dont run near as much and I found that mixing the games (1/2, 2/4, and 3/6) causes for betting problems when I am deep in hands and really have no clue what is happening in hands. So, for the last 28000 or so hands, it has been mostly 2/4. So, the breakdown is 28k at 2/4, 40k at 1/2 and 30k at .5/1. Looking back, I wish I hadnt "wasted" that time playing the lower levels but it was prob necessary to get a little experience.
Haven't played a whole lot lately
Date: Tue, May 13, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
weather is nice So far this month I've only played 900 games or so, which is a less than I had hoped, but I don't feel too bad about it because I've been going out during the day a lot more which is fun. There are a bunch of rivers and greenbelts in Austin that are fun to take a day trip to with a group. I think it's pretty healthy/natural to play less during the summer when it's warm outside. It helps motivate me to grind when the weather is crappy because I know that if I work hard I can take it easy during the summer. Yesterday we finally booked a Vegas house, and it's pretty sick. It's a 7000 sq ft. house that's pretty close to the strip. It was definitely more than I'd hoped to spend, but it'll be worth it. I'm looking forward to seeing Noodleman and Mcshove for the first time since last WSOP. My goal for this month is to get ~100k VPPs, but so far I only have 40k. I've found that it's pretty important to start playing at ~1pm because there aren't many regulars on yet. At around 7pm it starts getting pretty rough, and each game will have 6 or 7 regulars out of 9, whereas earlier in the day there will be 1 or 2 other regulars. I've also been playing some 6max SNGs because they don't take as long, so you can get in a high number of games in less time. Stars recently added turbo $33 180 man tourneys after months of everyone emailing them. Turbo 180 mans are really fun to play and I encourage everyone to load them. Right now only 2 or 3 are going at a time, but hopefully that will increase soon. If 8 or 9 are running at a time maybe Stars will add a $60 turbo 180 man which would be sweet. Stars is usually really good about pleasing their high volume customers, which is why they are the #1 site and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Lastly, our web developer is going to come up with some prospective redesigns for the site in the coming weeks, which is pretty exciting. I'm really pleased with the current site, but if he thinks they can do better then that's fine by me.
Full Tilt finally sends me a check
Date: Tue, May 13, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
It only took them 26 days, multiple emails and one bald faced lie. So I requested a check on back on April 14th, FTP approved it on the 16th and sent me the standard email : This is an automated message sent from Full Tilt Poker. Your Player ID: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date and Time: XXXXXXXXXXXX Transfer Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Payment Method: Check Amount: $XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Status: APPROVED Your withdrawal has been approved. Funds transferred electronically should be available in your account immediately. Bank transfer withdrawals may take up to 10 business days to be credited to your bank account. Delivery times for withdrawals by check vary depending on delivery method and destination. Checks sent to the Continental US should arrive within 15 business days via regular mail. International delivery times will vary. Thank you for playing at Full Tilt Poker ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I waited 15 business days and then asked them where my check was, they responded: Thank you for contacting Full Tilt Poker Support. We have recently experienced a temporary technical issue that is affecting the shipping of some checks. We apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause you; it is important to us that you receive your funds in a timely manner. According to our records, your check for $xxxxxx was mailed by our check processor on April 28, check number xxxxxx. Please note that regular United States Postal Service (USPS) delivery can take 15 business days, and it has been 9 business days since your check was sent. If you still have not received your check by May 16, please let us know and we will be happy to assist you further. Thank you for your continued patience, and if you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us. Regards, Ellen Full Tilt Poker Support ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So now they're acting like the 15 days is how long the postal service takes? LOL! I emailed them back that day: I want you guys to know that I seriously suspect the email you just sent me to be a lie. Specifically, I do not believe your claim that my check was mailed on April 28. The US postal service simply does not take as long as you are saying. I have had a long standing relationship with your company and have trusted you with thousands of dollars of my money. If you are lying to me, it is a very serious problem and makes me question trusting your operation with large sums of my money. If what you just told me is a lie, I'm giving you a chance to admit it right now. When my check arrives, it will have a postmark on it, I will know when it was mailed. Is that post mark going to say April 28th? I understand that the current legislative climate can cause problems for the online poker industry. I can accept occasional delays as long as you are honest with me about what is going on. I cannot accept blatant deception. If you have been deceitful with me on this issue, now is the time to come clean. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- their response: Hello, I am sorry to hear that you feel this way. Full Tilt Poker is dedicated to providing our players with thorough customer service. Our recent technical issues have caused delays in the processing and shipping of some checks. I would like to put your mind at ease in the matter of your check. The shipping date and check numbers that we provide to our players is passed on to us from our processor. We rely on them to provide us with reliable information so that we can provide it to our customers. Thus, to the best of my knowledge the information provided to you by the customer service representative was true. If for some reason the post mark on your check is not April 28th, please feel free to let me know and I will inform our processor of the discrepancy. We appreciate your business. If there's anything else we can assist you with, please let us know. Regards, Giselle Check Team Lead Full Tilt Poker Support ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ultimately, My check arrived on May 10th and was postmarked May 6th. I dunno why I ever expect competency or honesty from FTP, but I thought I'd share my frustrations. Is there more stars in future? Possibly.
News and Updates
Date: Mon, May 12, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional
gonna teach the gf how to play poker Ok its official. I am going to legitimately try and teach my gf how to play poker. She is done with school for the time being and I've convinced her that instead of waiting tables she should try and learn how to play poker. She is a begginning player so I am going to have to start with the very basics. I think I will have her read the first chapter "Nuts and Bolts" of Ed Miller's book, and then go over that with her. My eventual goal is to have her be a sit and go player, but I think that at first I will give her a crash course in limit holdem just to help her understand poker in general first. I think she will be coming to Vegas with us this summer, so I'm hoping that just immersing her in poker for the next two months will make her capable of beating the 16 dollar tables on pokerstars. That is my goal, I will be giving frequent updates on our progress, and perhaps even let her write a little in the blog so you can hear how she is progressing from her point of view.
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