The Black Knight

Date: Mon, Jul 21, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

One of the best movies ever I don't say this kind of stuff often but the new Batman movie was absolutely awesome, when I walked out I told my brother that I thought it was the best movie I had ever seen. It is definately in the top five, vying with Braveheart for my favorite of all time. I will have to see it a few more times before deciding for certain. Sadly I didn't get to see it in IMAX, but I plan to soon. Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker was almost perfect, and I can't imagine him not winning an Oscar for best supporting actor. The movie has set basically all the records for highest gross in the first day/week etc, and it deserves it. I haven't blogged in awhile, no particular reason, just nothing too exciting going on. I've been playing the mixed games on PokerStars and been doing pretty well.

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leaving vegas

Date: Sat, Jul 19, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

only for a while I am thinking im that im going to like the idea of the whole vacation house thing. I also like the idea of being away from Vegas/live mtts and having a lot of time to focus and work. I was convinced by durrrr to study plo, so a lot of time has been spent on that. Ive played a little at $1/2 plo and am up like 5 buyins over 1000 hands or something, which is irrelevant, but nice. I plan on basically watching every good plo video online and hopefully being able to put in lots of hands. I am unsure what is happening on the live mtt trail. The Niagara Falls wpt may or may not be going to happen, so that is making it hard to book flights. Also, the UB tournament in Aruba claims to have a 4 mil guarentee. Last year they had 550 people. I have no clue how they expect to get another 250 people, especially with the things that have went down recently. If I determine they are only going to get 400 people, I will for sure be going, otherwise, paying $2000 for hotel and $1000 for flights for a $5000 tournament is usually a bad idea. So, right now, all I have booked is the bike for their wpt and borgata for their wpt. Hopefully everything goes well between now and then and they will provide a nice break from the standard grind.

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Won the nightly 100 grand tonight for 22k

Date: Sat, Jul 19, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

holla Took down another major mtt tonight after negotiating headsup to give myself $21,800 which was worth way more than my chip equity and my opponent agreed. Thanks to everyone who sweat me from the rail, really appreciate the support!

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I bought a new monitor and a n00b pwner

Date: Thu, Jul 17, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

The CRT is finally gone.

Last week I got a 24" widescreen LCD. It works pretty well for grinding.

I also bought a new controller to play with. Basquiatcase calls it a n00b pwner, a name inspired by Athene's videos on youtube. I can control all my actions with my n00b pwner except for typing bet amounts. It's so much more baller than using a mouse.

Last month I ran about half my expectation which was kinda annoying. But this month I'm back on track and on pace for a 5k month. At the end of the month, I'm gonna take a week off and go to KY and maybe a few other random places.

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Got a beef with bigjoe? This is the blog for you

Date: Thu, Jul 17, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

Help me find someone to beat the shit out of him. A bunch of us were out for a leisurely mexican dinner last night when the talked turned to fighting. At one point, Joey said that he thought he had a better chance of beating a professional MMA fighter who weighed ~140 than one of our roommates, who is ~220 with no fight training at all. Normally I would just laugh this off as pure stupidity, but Joey has actually been in a cage with a similarly built MMA fighter (although under slightly different circumstances) so I was really shocked by his completely insane assessment of the situation. After throwing around some hypotheticals and potential props, we decided that the amount of money and effort it would take on both ends for him to fight an MMA fighter would be impractical. We did come up with a compromise, with details still to be negotiated. If we can get everything worked out, Joey will be fighting a professional boxer who weighs somewhere around 120-130lbs at standard MMA rules. Some quick background on bigjoe2003- He grew up on the mean streets of Austin, fighting his way through life like a turn of the century Irish immigrant. While money has made him soft, he still feels that he's capable of beating a professional fighter using 5oz MMA gloves. He doesn't see this as ridiculous at all, so please don't convince him otherwise and kill my action. What I need from my blog readers is this- If anyone knows of some very angry, well trained professional boxers who weigh somewhere between 115 and 130, please contact me at onebid@gmail.com. They will be compensated and have the opportunity to beat the living shit out of a guy who thinks professional fighters aren't all that tough when you have a weight advantage. Also I want to wish good luck to my good friend Luke Staudenmaier at tonights 15k WPT Bellagio Cup final table.

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busto at venetian

Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

im bad at coin flips Today was day 2 of the venetian $5000 event. Things were swingy at first but I eventually got to around 40000 chips when the d_ry raised and I pushed TT for 25bbs or so. He called with AK and I lost. I have been hearing everyone talk about how burnt out they are. Right now, at least, I am the opposite. I am super hungry and waiting patiently for the day when I can string together two or three big winning hands in a tournament. Also talked to Barry Greenstein the other day for a little while during a break at the wsop and we talked about how lots of good players have had bad years. He recently said in his blog that there is some math principle that says something along the lines of "there just arent enough spots for all the good players to do well." Basically, there are more good players than there are wsop events now, so everyone cant do well, which kinda makes me happy, as I am still very happy with the way I played this summer. I am just unhappy with the results. Too bad equity doesnt buy houses. Sadly, I wont get another chance until the wpt at the Bike in a month or so. Between now and then, Katy and I are going to be setting up our second house in Florida. That should be a lot of work, but it is nice to be close to family and away from Vegas from time to time. I may or may not be able to update for the next few days, as we have lots of stuff to do. I hope everyone runs super between now and then.

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Update

Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

.... Just arrived back to my hometown, Richmond Va after being in Vegas for the last six weeks. I didn't play much online really in the last two months but have finally gotten back to the grind and up a lil over 10k in the last 15 hours of time I've puttin in since I've been back. Always seem to run really good in Va for some reason. Anyway, I have to spend alot of time this month looking for a house and my brother's wedding is coming up soon so I can't do the 70k prop bet for the next month. As for the railbird who writes blogs about the icons saying he will play any of us headsup I said I would play him. He then says I declined to play him or w/e but that is not true. All I said is that I would play him in 100 headsup sngs and I'm not worried about him finding someone else to play for him because busto railbirds don't know good players. I don't want to give him attention and I know this is what he's looking for but saying I'm afraid to play a busto railbird hu is just a joke. So at anytime I will play him just set the date and I will be there.

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Reducing my number of consecutive games

Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

Making adjustments Usually when I make adjustments in my play it's in relation to hand ranges for pushing or calling. Recently I've become pretty frustrated with the fact that I seem to do poorly towards the end of my sessions. I usually do very well at the beginning but then play bad at the end and give some of it back. This month I'm going to try to only play ~75 games consecutively, then stopping for an hour or so to regroup, then starting up again. I think the hour break is really good for my concentration levels, and because the games are pretty hard these days, I need to be playing my best at all times. I'm not sure if I'm playing bad at the end or if I can't really concentrate fully for over 5 hours, but the shorter sessions seem to be working as I've been doing well this month, making around $10 per game before FPPs, etc. I've also been trying to play more MTTs, specifically the $100+9's that go off every few hours. They are really soft and I've been building big stacks in them which is good. I think the main improvement in my game has been raising in position a fair amount more, and also finding better spots to resteal. Yesterday I cashed in the Million, 2nd chance, and one of the $100+9s, but made really bad plays in the 2nd chance and the $100+9 that threw away a bunch of equity. In the 2nd chance, I had ~40k chips bb1600 on the button with TT. Someone two seats to my right open shoved 15k chips, and azntracker (a SNG regular) cold called with 25k behind. Immediately I thought he might have a huge hand, but I would've cold called if he isolation shoved. It really made me think on multiple levels. First, he has to know that his cold call looks extremely scary, and I know that he is shoving, instead of cold calling, if he has a hand like 88-JJ, AQ/AK. I really don't know what hand I could've possibly put him on that I could beat, which makes the shove just awful. I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much, but it's really frustrating to make a huge error at the most critical moment of the tournament up to that point. In the $100+9 the mistake wasn't as egregious. I was raising a fair amount and got 88 in the CO with 80k chips bb4000. I opened to 9000 because the player in the big blind only had 13,000 chips after posting the big blind. I did this because it would look like I was trying to cheaply steal the short stacks blind, and if someone on the button or in the small blind 3 bet me, I could reraise all in as I'm ahead of their range of hands. HitUR2outer, a solid MTT player, cold called with 120k chips on the button. This was a little strange as I thought he would normally be 3betting instead of cold calling, but he could probably do this with hands like suited connectors and small pairs. The big blind then went all in for about 17,000 total, which then reopened the action and gave me the option of reraising or just calling. Because I had a very strong hand compared to what I'm open raising in this spot, I decided to just shove for 20bb to isolate against the all in player. HitUR2outer had AA and busted me, which really sucks because I essentially trapped myself for 20bb, and also for the second time in about a 30 minute span with the 2nd chance. Although I feel that shoving is the best play when a random player cold calls, regulars just don't seem to be cold calling there without monster hands. I definitely need to take more time and consider the ranges of regulars. Luckily there are so few solid players that it really doesn't come up that often. Lastly, here is one really interesting hand from the bubble of the Million. The villain in this hand is a solid MTT player, and I had won 6 of the previous 9 hands, taking them all down preflop including 2 reraised pots, and we're about 10 spots to the money. He knows that I'm raising very wide here, so he's probably restealing with many hands. ***** Hand History for Game 18800967231 ***** $300000.00 USD NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, July 13, 08:15:18 ET 2008 Table 94708139 941 (Real Money) Seat 3 is the button Seat 1: Corner7 ( $42004.00 USD ) Seat 2: R_Bruno ( $26253.00 USD ) Seat 3: Dre2 ( $89501.00 USD ) Seat 4: mike19338 ( $35895.00 USD ) Seat 5: JSchnett ( $69296.00 USD ) Seat 6: Tanium2 ( $42186.00 USD ) Seat 7: kummherdo ( $32566.00 USD ) Seat 8: whollyflush ( $67760.00 USD ) Seat 9: z32fanatic ( $115059.00 USD ) Corner7 posts ante of [$300.00 USD]. R_Bruno posts ante of [$300.00 USD]. Dre2 posts ante of [$300.00 USD]. mike19338 posts ante of [$300.00 USD]. JSchnett posts ante of [$300.00 USD]. Tanium2 posts ante of [$300.00 USD]. kummherdo posts ante of [$300.00 USD]. whollyflush posts ante of [$300.00 USD]. z32fanatic posts ante of [$300.00 USD]. mike19338 posts small blind [$1500.00 USD]. JSchnett posts big blind [$3000.00 USD]. ** Dealing down cards ** Dealt to z32fanatic [ Qc Jc ] Tanium2 folds kummherdo folds whollyflush folds z32fanatic raises [$7500.00 USD] Corner7 folds R_Bruno folds Dre2 folds mike19338 folds JSchnett raises [$65996.00 USD] Now, it seems weird to be thinking of calling a 22bb shove here with just QJs, but it fairs extemely well against a wide range of hands. Now, assuming he would just reraise monster hands like JJ+ and AK hoping I would 4 bet with a wide range, QJs is almost a call. Using pokerstove, with a range of 44 through TT (remember I think he isn't shoving monsters), A9+, KJ+, a hand like QJs wins just over 40% of the time. Now, I need around 45% equity to make this a call, so it's not that far off. If he's shoving TT-66,AQs-A5s,K9s+,Q9s+,J9s+,AQo-ATo,KTo+,QTo+, then I should actually call with QJs here. Anyways, it's pretty close and I thought it was an interesting example of hands playing well against ranges. I'm probably gonna play 75-100 games a day for a week or so and hopefully continue my good run. Also I just realized I didn't write up anything about the main event, so I'll try to do that this week. It wasn't that interesting, but my table was really polarized in that it had 4 good players and 6 bad ones.

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on to day 2 of venetian 5k

Date: Mon, Jul 14, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

yay So this is my first day 2 of the summer. We started with 25000 chips at 25/50 and I got up to around 30000 pretty fast but then stalled out, as I was 100% card dead except for a few AKs where I got checkraised every time on all low boards. Apparently I should just stop continuation betting them. I later got AK all in against A3 for a 25000ish pot but chopped. I ended the day around 28000, which is a nice 23bb stavk for tomorrow. Hopefully I can win a hand and make some monines.

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Convo with bar slut

Date: Sun, Jul 13, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

The following conversation took place last night on 6th street with a very drunken bar hoo-ha. Her: So what do you do for a living? Me: I play poker. Her: Oh oh oh! Our friend just went out there for the big tournament! Me: The world series... Her: Yeah! So you must be pretty good if you play for a living. Me: I do okay. It's a job. Her: Did you play in that tournament? Me: No, I skipped it this year. Her: Ohhh (laughs and puts her hand on my wrist). So you're not *that* good. Owned so hard...

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busto in bellagio 15k

Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

bah Today was rough. I was 100% card dead today, except for AK 3 times where I missed every time and an AQ where I got all in for a 30k chip pot against todd brunson on a Qh4h3c board. He had 76h and peeled the 5 like a pro on the turn. I later got in with QJs in a standard repush spot and won and then later A4s in another standard repush spot and lost to a very like call from K9 busto me. To make me feel a little better, it ran off xx9Kx, so even if I had AA I would have lost. Oh yeah, it was also right at the end of the day to extend my out before day 2 streak. All in all though, there wasnt much I could do today. When you get all in with 3 coin flips and only win 1 of them, you are going to lose. Actually, I was 50% or better on all of them, but thats irrelevant. Like a great(lol) unknown gambler once said, "You are 50% to win any hand, you either win or you lose." I thiiink there is a $5000 event at Venetian on Sunday, so I will probably play that. Hopefully the bleeding stops soon.

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Relaxation

Date: Sun, Jul 6, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

yay The last few days have been nice. I havent done much besides lounge around the house, make some videos, and go to see ufc. UFC was great. Going with around 20 of my poker friends always means lots of fun. Forrest Griffin is now the light heavyweight champion, which is a good thing for the ufc I think, as he carries himself well and it opens up a ton of other good light heavyweight fight options. I guess I just like to see someone work their way up from the bottom and make it. Granted, thats how most people in any profession get to the top, but his story is more public than most peoples. I am finally going to grind for a few hours online today, mainly because of double points. Online has been going sickly good for me for the last week or so, so hopefully it can keep up. Also, gl to all my friends still in the wsop.

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Interesting night

Date: Sun, Jul 6, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

... I played pretty much all day and all thru the night last night. I got destroyed at 1/2 and then found some fish at 3/6 and ran up a nice stack. All in all I think I'm up ~6k on the session heres the pic. Heres my fav. hand of the night vs HT-max. I called pretty quickly and actually had him on QQ but was way off. I just think he shuvs this river w/o the ace often enough to make it a difficult but good call. ***** Hand History for Game 18622207901 ***** $600.00 NL Texas Hold'em - Sunday, July 06, 11:18:35 2008 Table Atria (Real Money) Seat 2 is the button Seat 1: HT-Max ( $1093.00 ) Seat 2: j0hndayt0n ( $6603.90 ) Seat 3: Chalouze ( $238.45 ) Seat 4: needfood ( $591.00 ) Seat 5: TheCleaner11 ( $856.90 ) Seat 6: ta1887 ( $278.00 ) Chalouze posts the small blind [$3.00]. needfood posts the big blind [$6.00]. ** Dealing down cards ** Dealt to j0hndayt0n [ Kc Kh ] TheCleaner11 folds ta1887 folds HT-Max raises [$18.00] j0hndayt0n raises [$54.00] Chalouze folds needfood folds HT-Max raises [$96.00] j0hndayt0n calls [$60.00] ** Dealing Flop ** [ 3c, 3d, 6d ] HT-Max bets [$84.00] j0hndayt0n calls [$84.00] ** Dealing Turn ** [ 6h ] HT-Max bets [$198.00] j0hndayt0n calls [$198.00] ** Dealing River ** [ Ac ] HT-Max bets [$697.00] j0hndayt0n calls [$697.00] HT-Max shows [7d 8d ] j0hndayt0n shows [Kc Kh ] j0hndayt0n wins $2192.00 from main pot

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I am the anti-robinhood of sng's

Date: Sat, Jul 5, 2008 Tournament Internet Professional

I steal from the poor and give to the rich. My graph from the $16's-$300's My graph from the $300's+ Basically everytime I play a game higher than the $300's I seem to lose. Not really sure what to say, because I don't feel like they're too much harder than the $225's just insane variance. The funny thing is that I'm not running that bad, but even if you run slightly bad you can lose so much at these levels. Also, in the 50,000 sngs I have played lifetime I have never seen it get 3/600, 9 handed. Welcome to double vpp week all. AND one more thing... yes sngiconstalker I'll play you HU! Please accept my offer so we can get started.

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