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Knowing what range of hands your opponent is putting you on may not seem like a crucial skill to the uninitiated. In fact, it may be the most important skill of all in a game like no limit hold’em. To be a successful poker player, you must know what your opponents are thinking. If you don’t care about that, well,...
May was a fantastic month for me whereas June has been more an educational month. I have netted a nice profit, my 9th in a row. The month started off badly and then kicked off at Royal Ascot but in the last few days has gone south a bit.
Wilkinson has been fairly steady but has not had many bumper days this month which is unusual. I expect at least 5 in a month and I had 2 at best. The BetPlan has had a poor finish to the month but that will bounce back very soon I am sure. PremCode has had an excellent month but I missed some of the best prices and got better prices on the losers. E.g. Yesterday got a 9/1 BOG on the placed horse but only got 16/1 (half stake) on the winner. All part of the game though in general I am happy.
I have learnt a lot in the month and have enjoyed having the tennis as an additional outlet which has been good. I have not made as much progress on the new server as I hoped but I have made progress. The load of the historical data is taking much longer than expected. The adjustment from not have had a day job to give routine to my day has been difficult.
The plan for July is to have my best month ever I am going to set the bar very high for myself. Why? Several reasons. Firstly I need to if I am going to achieve my goal at the age of 35, which is only a year and 1 month away now. Secondly I am staking £500 a horse on the BetPlan so one decent run of form should net me a few quid. Thirdly I am going to have more time than I have ever had to focus on it. Finally PremCode is in great form and long may that continue.
The hurdles that I will face are lack of accounts with the major bookmakers, overconfidence and lack of confidence and unexpected distractions. So all seems pretty manageable does it not?
There is plenty to look forward to in July with Newmarket’s July meeting, the coral eclipse and the Ashes to name a few. The weather looks set to be hot albeit a little to hot to be perfect conditions for punting but still fantastic.
I also kicked off my get fit regime yesterday. To be totally mentality fit you need to be physically fit as well.
Chris, The Form Guru has been having a thin time of it this month but a couple of good winners today has put a bit of gloss on things. Still a losing month for the service though.
SLH played on both his mainline and exchange services, and although he managed a big priced second place - it was a losing night for him.
The only other action on a pretty quiet day came from Noseahead, who advised Eleanor Eloise (unplaced) at Brighton.
Overall, a small profit on the day and June finishes with me showing a profit of £5,092 on the month which is obviously very pleasing. Just shy of £25,000 for the first half of the year and I'm delighted with that.
Bets Advised
SLH Private
Split The Wind 2pts e/w @ 5/1 - LOST (SP 9/2) Flashy Sir 1 pt e/w @ min 14/1 - 2ND (SP 9/1)
SLH Exchange
Pacha Doudairies 2pt back @ min 2.65 - LOST
Nose Ahead
Eleanor Eloise 1pt win @ 9/1 - LOST (SP 7/1)
Chris, The Form Guru
Perfect Class 2pts win @ 9/2 - LOST (SP 4/1) Sharp Sovereign 2pts win @ 11/2 - LOST (SP 6/1) Cavendish Road 2pts win @ 6/1 - WON (SP 9/2) Not Now Lewis 1 pt e/w @ 12/1 - WON (SP 14/1)
Bets Placed
Split The Wind £200 e/w @ 11/2..................(400) Flashy Sir £100 e/w @ 16/1 - 20/1................260 Pacha Doudaries £200 back @ 2.66................(200) Eleanor Eloise £100 win @ 8/1 - 9/1.............(100) Perfect Class £50 win @ 4/1......................(50) Sharp Sovereign £50 win @ 11/2...................(50) Cavendish Road £50 win @ 6/1.....................300 Not Now Lewis £25 e/w @ 11/1 (bog)...............437
Windsor on a Monday night was once described to me as a most wonderful place to lose money. It was of course exactly that with the return to form of Resurge ,who powered to victory at the crippling odds of 12/1 and better.
The race itself seemed to revolve entirely around the Noseda trained, Racing Hero, which was backed as if defeat was out of the question, being sent off a warm order at 8/13. Favourite backers, however, knew their fate early as the horse was floundering early and was never close enough to land a blow.
This left the race to those who were able to display improved form and Resurge was a definite candidate. In four runs this term, he had been seen to get progressively worse and was dropping down the handicap to a mark, half a stone less than when the season started. This was as an emphatic success as you are likely to see in this overpopulated 0-85 grade and the seven length margin, probably didn’t do the winner justice in terms of his dominance.
One can only hope that layers might have been able to back it back, but such was the horse’s dominance, so many others would have been jumping on the same boat.
I am afraid, this was just one of those horrendous moments, that we got horribly wrong. So much for the delights of the river side racecourse.
The summer term is winding to an end, and with four young children I have a series of sports days to go to. They’re not generally big days in the Black household - we don’t take them too seriously and we never win anything. It’s all good fun though, and sometimes exciting.
At our local nursery school (up to age 7) the highlight is the marathon - once round the field for year 2, the oldest class in the school. Sebastien Coe’s children went to the school, and the first year I went along his little daughter Alice was allowed to run in the marathon even though she was only in year 1. They set off, and a small group of boys forged quickly clear, leaving the others in the main pack - at around the half way point Alice came out of the pack and started to cut the boys down one by one. There was a moment when it looked as if she might win, but the leader was too strong and it wasn’t to be. It was great entertainment on a small scale.
My children generally make up the numbers. The girls both ran creditably but always down the field. Eddie didn’t seem to get the concept of racing and was a comedy show last time - as the other boys raced to the line he cruised in behind with a strange exaggerated running action staring at the crowd with an ear to ear grin. He was more like a synchronised swimmer than anything else - it makes me laugh just thinking about it.
Ollie, my youngest, made his sports day debut today at the age of 3 - from a very early age I’ve suspected he might be sporty. As a baby he’d stick his chin and strain to pull himself up or move around - he’s incredibly cheerful and energetic, but has a fierce temper on occasion. He’s fearless - recently he leapt off a table about four feet onto my shoulders while I was looking the other way. He’s the youngest in his year group and is dwarfed by most of his friends, but he showed them the way to go today - three races, three wins.
This was great news - as a supportive dad I feel I have something to look forward to on the sports pitch now. It’s a strange mindset, not at all dissimilar to breeding horses.
With three races in the bag already today it seems rude to ask for more, but I have a runner with a decent chance - Peintre D’Argent goes at Hamilton in the 4:15. I think she got there too soon last time - she would also have benefited from the run. She should go well today.
One element of gambling that I have struggled with in the past is losing runs when betting size able amounts. Now for the BetPlan I am currently staking £500 straight win bets. I am additionally trading the selections but that’s all fine. It is the win bets that have required the faith. I have had a couple of friends who are using the system contact me yesterday asking ‘what going on with the BetPlan?’. My response was simple everything is running fine.
They were not so convinced stating I had a lot of losing lately. I then pointed them back a few more days and show them the winners. We then looked at the long term and they started to feel a little more comfortable but not a lot. This was before evening racing when the BetPlan had a 9/4 winner and on ABC added at 2/1 shot into the mix as well. When you least expect it sometimes thinks turn around very quickly. The key is to keep following the system with the staking plan and the correct attitude. Remember the staking plan protects you. Whatever your initial bank was is the most you can lose simple as that. So although I have had days where I have lost £2000 on the BetPlan in reality I have not because I started with a bank of £1000 and am still well in profit.
The problem is your mind tends to bank your betting bank before you have left the casino. This is the reason why it took me a while to be comfortable with the fact of living solely on the income from this source. You have a bad day at the office in most of jobs and you get paid the same. With gambling you have a bad day at the office and you lose money. String a few bad days at the office in a row and you could easily panic. The key is if you have done your research and have the correct staking plan then you will know that a good day in the office is just around the corner. It’s the law of average you see.
So for all those gambling bloggers who are having a tough time chin up and for that matter all those gambler/traders who don’t have a blog but read blogs then rember keep it simple. The key to success is very straight forward. 1) Staking Plan 2) System 3) Confidence = winning mentality
Wilkinson had another solid day yesterday. 3 from 8 at Pontefract, but more importantly Betteras Bertie won at 20/1. A bad day at Wolverhampton with 2 winners from 7. 3 from 6 at Windsor including Hollow Green 16/1 and Expensive problem 16/1. 3 from 6 at Musselburgh. In addition had 3 winners from 3 at Wimbledon and smasher poor old BetInternet.
No bets this week, but an update of the profits to advised stakes at the halfway point of the year.
Reckon I would have lost about £3300 over the eight days had I been betting, so a good time to take a break.
The golf salvaged something on the week, and it could have been so much better of course - Goosen traded odds on in running I've read elsewhere, not sure how close Moore and Mahan got during the tournament but they both ran good.
Results to advised stakes / prices for week
Maths - Account Bets..................0
Maths - Selections....................-3.9
The Form Analyst......................-6.25
SLH Private...........................-2
SLH A/W...............................-2
Equine Investments....................-2.5
Tipping Legends.......................-18.5
Tipping Legends - Golf................+15.75
Making It Pay.........................-7.2
Nose Ahead............................-8.5
theformguru.com.......................+0.5
Chris, The Form Guru (I/rail).........-25
High Class Equine.....................+5
Results to advised stakes / prices YTD
Maths - Account Bets...................+6.25
Maths - Selections.....................+16.77
The Form Analyst.......................+66.24
SLH Private............................+171.87
SLH A/W................................+18.36
Equine Investments.....................+12.45
Tipping Legends........................+19.10
Tipping Legends - Golf.................+37.91
Making It Pay..........................-17.57
Nose Ahead.............................+85.64
theformguru.com........................-3.92
Chris, The Form Guru (I/rail)..........-37.93
High Class Equine......................+3.4
Optimum Racing.........................-72.98
Here's a full list of all bets advised during the week ended 28 June.
As far as I am aware it is a complete record, but if anyone notices any discrepancies please let me know.
SLH Private
Snake Charmer 1pt e/w @ 14/1 (25/1 - 33/1 avail) - LOST (SP 14/1).
Pulled up lame 3 out when disputing the lead
SLH Exchange
Native City 2pts lay @ max 3.0 - WON
Night Cru 3pts back @ min 1.76 - WON
Same Race -
Roisins Prince 1pt back @ min 5.5 / What's Up Doc 1pt back @ min 3.6 - LOST / WON
SLH A/W
Lochstar win bet @ 3/1 - LOST
Home e/w bet @ 13/2 - LOST
Equine Investments
Highland Storm 1pt win, 0.5 pts e/w @ 14/1 - LOST (SP 7/1)
Paraguay 1pt win, 0.5 pts e/w @ 10/1 - LOST (SP 10/1)
Bateleur 1.5 pts win @ 5/2 - WON (SP 7/4)
April Fool 1.5 pts win @ 5/2 - WON (SP 9/4)
Peter Island 1.25 pts win @ 5/1 - LOST (SP 9/2)
Spin Again 1.5 pts win @ 10/1 - LOST (SP 11/2)
Eastern Aria 1pt win @ 7/2 - 2ND (SP 7/4)
Amanda Carter 0.5 pts win @ 10/1 - LOST (SP 12/1)
Legislate 1.75pts win @ 9/4 - 3RD (SP 6/4)
Just a quick run down of the figures up to my holiday.
Profit on week £1,330
Profit year to date £24,705
Results by service for week (per my staking plan)
Maths - Account Bets......................0
Maths - Selections......................496
Maths - Bad Horses........................0
The Form Analyst.......................2996
SLH - Private..........................(600)
SLH - Exchange.........................(170)
SLH - A/W..............................(100)
Equine Investments....................(1100)
Tipping Legends.........................529
Tipping Legends (Golf).................(500)
Making It Pay..........................(100)
Nose Ahead..............................(49)
theformguru.com........................(200)
Chris, The Form Guru (I/Rail)............34
High Class Equine.........................0
Optimum Racing.........................(100)
Personal Bets / Trades..................194
Profit on week £1,330
Results by service YTD (per my staking plan)
Maths - Account Bets..................(1250)
Maths - Selections......................966
Maths Bad Horses (Lay)..................710
The Form Analyst.......................3784
SLH - Private........................14,413
SLH - Exchange.........................1361
SLH A/W................................1499
Equine Investments.....................1122
Tipping Legends.......................(3655)
Tipping Legends (Golf).................(728)
Making It Pay..........................(397)
Nose Ahead.............................5193
theformguru.com........................(286)
Chris, The Form Guru (I/rail)..........(916)
High Class Equine......................(100)
Paul Jones (a/p) Chel / Aintree........1259
Chel / Aintree others (PJ, Maths etc)..1103
Optimum Racing........................(2442)
Personal Bets and Trades...............3069
Profit year to date £24,705
************************************************
Results to advised stakes / prices for week
Maths - Account Bets..................0
Maths - Selections....................+10.83
The Form Analyst......................+28.41
SLH Private...........................-8
SLH A/W...............................-1
Equine Investments....................-11
Tipping Legends.......................+3.29
Tipping Legends - Golf................-5
Making It Pay.........................-2
Nose Ahead............................-1.75
theformguru.com.......................-8
Chris, The Form Guru (I/rail).........+1.85
Optimum Racing........................-2
High Class Equine.....................-2
Results to advised stakes / prices YTD
Maths - Account Bets...................+6.25
Maths - Selections.....................+20.67
The Form Analyst.......................+72.49
SLH Private............................+173.87
SLH A/W................................+20.36
Equine Investments.....................+14.95
Tipping Legends........................+37.6
Tipping Legends - Golf.................+22.16
Making It Pay..........................-10.37
Nose Ahead.............................+94.14
theformguru.com........................-4.42
Chris, The Form Guru (I/rail)..........-14.93
High Class Equine......................-1.6
Optimum Racing.........................-72.98
Back from a very nice refreshing break and ready to push on again now.
Had my first bets in over a week today (Monday), still got a couple to run so will update today's results later on.
However, first I need to update the blog for results of bets placed on the Saturday of Royal Ascot.
I will also give a full rundown of all bets advised by the various services while I was away - and I think it's fair to say my break was pretty well timed. There were a few close calls again with the golf, and a good profit achieved this past weekend but the big one continues to prove elusive for the time being at least.
Rang the SLH messages during the week to keep my records up to date, but the rest of the tips are texted or e-mailed so collected those on my return (just 247 mails in my inbox last night !).
Saturday 20 June
Proved to be a losing day, although had Cannonball won instead of finishing second, then it would have been a very different story.
Struggled with the advised prices as I knew I would, as I was driving and so was late with the calls and only had the option of betting with Bet365 - no time, or inclination to call elsewhere only to be given the runaround.
Bets Advised
Tipping Legends
Shakespearean 1pt win @ 15/2 - LOST (SP 8/1) Meglio Ancora 0.5 pts e/w @ 16/1 - LOST (SP 14/1) Cannonball 2pts win, 0.5 pts place @ 20/1 - 2ND (SP 11/1) Jimmy Styles 2pts win @ 6/1 - LOST (SP 5/1) Young Mick 0.5 pts e/w @ 11/1 - 4TH (SP 8/1) Record Breaker 0.5 pts e/w @ 14/1 - 2ND (SP 14/1) Amerigo 3pts win @ 3/1 - 3RD (SP 4/1)
The Form Analyst
Glasshoughton 1.5 pts e/w @ 4/1 - 3RD (SP 9/2)
Maths - Selections
Cosmopolitan - win @ 7/4 - WON (SP 6/5) Carlitos Spirit - win @ 9/2 - WON (SP 15/8)
Nose Ahead
Orpsie Boy 0.5 pts e/w @ 33/1 - LOST (SP 25/1) Young Mick 1pt win @ 11/1 - 4TH (SP 8/1) - misread text so didn't place this bet Tyrells Wood 1pt win @ 15/2 - 2ND (SP 9/2)
High Class Equine
Pepper Lane 1pt e/w @ 4/1 - LOST (SP 10/3) - not placed, text arrived after I had stopped for my holiday.
Chris, The Form Guru
Tyfos 1pt e/w @ 8/1 - LOST (SP 9/1) Percolator 1 pt e/w @ 8/1 - LOST (SP 9/1) Rowayton 2pts win @ 6/1 - LOST (SP 3/1) Tamagin 1pt e/w @ 25/1 - LOST (SP 25/1) Striking Spirit 1pt e/w @ 33/1 - LOST (SP 33/1) Brave Prospector 0.5 pts e/w @ 40/1 - LOST (SP 25/1) Heron Bay 1 pt e/w @ 14/1 - LOST (SP 10/1) Drill Sergeant 1 pt e/w @ 16/1 - WON (SP 14/1) Excitable 1 pt e/w @ 10/1 - 3RD (SP 5/2)
Just the loss on the US Open Golf bets to post for Sunday, missed a winner from Maths and a couple of successful lays from SLH. i'm assuming the in-running lay of Wikaala was matched, but please let me know if that wasn't the case.
Bets Advised
SLH Private
Urban Tiger / Fishguard Filly 1 pt e/w dbl, both around 7/2 - 3RD (SP 11/4) / LOST (SP 11/4)
SLH Exchange
Sandhurst 1pt lay @ max of 3.0 - LOST Wikaala 1pt lay in running @ max of 4.0 - LOST
Tipping Legends
Pure Genius 1pt win @ 9/2 - LOST (SP 3/1)
Tipping Legends Golf
Steve Stricker 2pts e/w @ 33/1 - TIED 23RD Paul Casey 0.5 pts e/w @ 25/1 - MISSED CUT
Maths Selection
Singora Lady win bet @ 4/1 - WON (SP 4/1)
Bets Placed
Steve Stricker £200 e/w @ 40/1.............(400) Paul Casey £50 e/w @ 25/1..................(100)
So here I sit in McCarran airport as I type this shortly before 6am on Tuesday morning, trying fruitlessly to arrange some thoughts in my cloudy, murky head as I look back on yet another annual Vegas trip, replete with the usual bouts of debauchery, degeneracy, and just general excess as I always seem to fall into whenever I come out here these days. I feel this exact same way -- this feeling of not being all there -- every time I depart the fantasy universe that truly is Las Vegas to return to the Real World every summer. It's just the last rite of passage that I really need to go through if I want to truly live the Vegas experience to the fullest. I drank far more this weekend than I ever drink in a year outside of Vegas. I smoked more cigarettes this week than at any time since, well, Las Vegas last summer. And, something I didn't believe could ever be possible: I actually slept less on this trip than I have probably over any four-day period in my entire life, including prior Vegas trips.
Counting today, my last day in the desert, the earliest I went to sleep on any day of this trip was around 4am, and that was my first night into town after a long and draining trip when my other friends were still just straggling in for my brother's bachelor party and everyone was not quite geared up for the true Vegas experience. Friday night saw me playing cash poker at the MGM with Chad, CK and Blinders until sometime after 3am, and even then I ended up staying up gambling and then pondering whether or not I really wanted to play the WSOP that I had been hoping to play on Saturday. On Saturday I headed to the Venetian at noon local time to start the $560 buyin Deep Stack Extravaganza, and little did I know I would be playing there until around 3am before heading back to the MGM, where, once again I couldn't sleep. In fact, I was so wired from the Day One action, and so hungry from having been firing on all mental cylinders for so many hours straight, that I ended up meeting up with Chad for a very late-night meal at the Studio Cafe, a place I've been frequenting in the MGM since I was nearly a teenager. It was a great opportunity for me to debrief about the day, to pick Chad's brain about some thoughts and questions I had heading into Day Two, and just generally to decompress after what had been a very draining day or me to say the least. But I watched the sun turn the mountains to the West of Las Vegas pink with its first rays out my hotel window before I even considered being able to actually fall asleep on Saturday night, so abuzz was I with the anticipation of playing in my first ever poker tournament Day Two. And then on Sunday night I once again ended up at the Venetian blasting my way through the rest of the DSE field until sometime after 3am. And if you think I could sleep after winning almost 51 grand in far and away my largest ever poker tournament score, then you haven't been picking up what I've been putting down over here for the last several sentences. After the big win, I couldn't have kept my eyes shut with staples, glue or any other adhesive known to man. I'm not sure I had ever been that far from sleep in my entire life. But believe me, I didn't catch a wink of sleep after my Sunday Venetian score this weekend until after 8am on Monday morning. By then I knew I would need to pick up my check from the Venetian on Tuesday afternoon due to a technical error they were having with their system on Sunday night, and thus I had already rescheduled my flight back to the beach and my family for Tuesday morning super early. So that left me with one more surprise night in Sin City to actually get some sleep for a change, and what did I do? Well, I'm here at the airport waiting to board my 7 o'clock plane back to the east coast, and I haven't slept a single wink yet today, thanks to a late-night gambling session that happened purely on a whim, but which I did not want to let go after I started winning money hand over fist and I was having such a blast playing a bunch of table games that I haven't really played since I used to frequent Las Vegas in my former life. Before I knew it, three quarter blackjack tables and three hot craps setups later, there it was, 5am, with a flight outta here scheduled for just minutes after 7, completing the circle of me not getting anything that even resembles a good night's sleep on any of my nights in town.
But of course, the total lack of sleep or any kind of rest at all that seems so hard not to do basically every time I'm in town contributes in a big way to my feeling the Day After, or even the Morning Of, of just a general in ability to function as a productive member of Real World society after three or four days in fantasy camp. Throw in the drinking, the smoking and just the general partying that goes on every time I'm in town, and it's no wonder that I'm sitting here today having a good deal of trouble even putting together coherent sentences at all, and certainly not doing a good job of capturing the essence of what makes one of these Vegas runs so very special in my life.
As I look back on this particular trip to Vegas as compared to my forays in recent years, it certainly ranks up there as the weirdest of the trips I have had. From a purely poker perspective, I began the poker portion of my trip as I wrote about earlier by putting in a hideous session of 1-2 nlh cash at the MGM with Chad and CK, losing one and a half buyins and basically calling every value bet like a fonkey on the river as I managed to accumulate a host of second-best hands in spots where it was very difficult to put my opponents on a winning hand. Amazingly, I can read myself the post I wrote very early on Saturday morning just after that crappy cash session where I remember seriously considering not even playing the WSOP the next morning. Of course, cooler heads prevailed in the morning and I realized that I was letting my performance in an unusually unlucky cash session cloud my feelings about playing in a poker tournament, and that just didn't make sense to me. Of course, as I wrote previously, I was unable to register for the Saturday WSOP event, as I and probably about a thousand of my closest friends were all turned away thanks to the geniuses at the WSOP who couldn't even plan sufficiently ahead to make extra space for more than 2700 entrants, even when they had filled all of those 2700 seats more than 12 hours before that event was scheduled to begin at noon on Saturday, and you already know the rest of the story that ended up with me at the Venetian to play the Deep Stack Extravaganza event. It's just really funny to me that, for the first time ever since I've been making an annual summer poker pilgrimage to Las Vegas, I actually had reservations about even playing in any poker tournaments shortly after arriving, and then of course this ends up being the time that I record my biggest tournament score. It's just funny how life works some times I guess.
Along those same lines, I will admit here that one of my initial reactions to hearing about sprstoner's and then LJ's incredible WSOP performances this summer -- other than elation mixed with a healthy portion of jealousy at my fellow bloggers' tournament success of course -- was that it, too, left me looking forward that much less to my own upcoming tournaments in Vegas. I know I complained to a few of you out there over the girly how now, even if I went on a sick run and managed to make it deeper than ever before into my WSOP tournament, there was just no way it was going to seem great to anyone, or even feel great to me myself, after seeing these people I know and like have such deep runs, make WSOP final tables, etc. I just remember specifically feeling bummed about that turn of events, solely from my own perspective, because I really felt like I was suddenly thrust into a no-win situation for me, where even if I made it to, say, the top 100 again and cashed for say 5 grand or something in the WSOP, I still simply wouldn't feel like I had accomplished all that much in light of others' recent serious triumphs. And again, this is not to suggest for a second that I was not thrilled to see these guys running so deep on the grandest of scales -- I think my body of work over the last several years makes it quite clear that I am probably more excited about any blogger's grand-scale poker accomplishments than anybody else out there -- but rather just to highlight the fact that I recognized that one of the effects of this great news was going to be the diminishing of what I considered to be even the most optimistic of expectations for my own performance heading into my trip. And, just like my previous point above, I just think it is really interesting and coincidental that this trip was the first time I have ever felt like I simply did not have the ability to do anything at this point that would really feel like a major accomplishment to me given the incredible job some friends had been doing already in the WSOP this summer, and then of course this ends up being the trip where I kick the most ass I've ever kicked in any poker tournament. Again, life moves in mysterious ways I suppose.
I should also mention that I saw without a doubt the weirdest thing I've ever seen happen in any poker tournament happen near the end of Day One of the Venetian DS event I played in. Rather than spoil that one with the details now, I will leave that for Wednesday's post all about Day One of my tournament. But suffice it to say, there was in fact more than one thing that went down during my tournament that were truly new experiences for me -- mostly not positive ones, mind you -- and overall it leaves me also feeling like the actual poker tournament I played in was also quite weird when it all comes down to it. And that's not even counting how sickly I rallied on Day Two from 2/3 of the way down the leaderboard to the very pinnacle over the span of just a couple of hours, which in itself was really pretty amazing and weird.
One other thing that was different about my gambling experience in Vegas this summer was that I also dabbled this trip in both blackjack and in craps, also things which I have not normally participated in in past Vegas poker trips. Back in the day, when I was a young, single guy going to Vegas with friends and family 7 or 8 times a year, I was Mr. Craps, and since even before that I've been playing blackjack in casinos all around the country, so it's not that I don't know how or don't think these can be profitable over the short-term. But the very fact that these games are by definition not profitable over the long term is what has kept me largely away from those games since I had an epiphany about my gambling proclivities sometime around Y2K and really stopped gambling altogether until getting back in to poker a few years later.
In all, it was an exciting and really amazing trip, far and away the most fun I have ever had during a short weekend in Sin City, influenced largely of course by me playing probably the best poker of my life, certainly on the largest stage and in the most significant spot I have ever played in. I learned all over again in a major way how incredibly draining a poker tournament can be, and after putting in probably 40 hours of poker in a 3-day span counting my marathon cash session on Friday night plus the next two full days at the Venetian, I can say with confidence that my mind hasn't been as worn down in as long as I can remember as it was when this thing was finally done around 3am on Sunday night / Monday morning. Every time I close my eyes -- even still, now 36 hours later -- I see pocket Kings, pocket 9s, J4 of clubs, etc. I couldn't even come close to playing even reasonably good poker at all on Tuesday, even though I had originally expected to do nothing but play poker tournaments from start to finish on this trip, and when I tried to log in to full tilt for some quick online satisfaction, I found myself donking away by not even being able to focus on the hand, the community cards, anything. I will just need a few days away from the game to clear my head, as that much high-stress, high-tension poker really threw me for a loop. But it goes without saying that this weekend will not be one I will ever forget, and I look forward to spending the next couple of days posting all about my performance in the $560 buyin Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza tournament, following it up with a recap type of post at the end of the week about my post-trip thoughts, and my impressions in general of Vegas and of the trip as a whole.
I plan to be back on Wednesday with my recounting of Saturday's action in Las Vegas, which mostly means Day One of the Venetian Deep Stack event. See you then!
Time to reread your favorite poker books and polish your chip protectors as the World Poker Tour has revealed the twelve stops for their eighth season. Vegas residents should note that a record four events will be held at the Bellagio this year, so plan your season accordingly.
Bellagio Cup V
July 13-19, 2009 Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV
Buy-in: $15,400
Legends of Poker
August 22-26, 2009, Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles, CA
Buy-in: $10,000
Borgata Poker Open
September 19-24, 2009, Borgata Hotel, Atlantic City, NJ
Buy-in: To be determined
Festa al Lago
October 20-26, 2009, Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV
Buy-in: $15,400
Foxwoods World Poker Finals
November 5-10, 2009, Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket, CT
Buy-in: $10,000
Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic
December 13-19, 2009, Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV
Buy-in: $15,400
Southern Poker Championship
January 24-27, 2010: Beau Rivage, Biloxi, MS
Buy-in: $10,000
L.A. Poker Classic
February 20-25, 2010, Commerce Casino, Los Angeles, CA
Buy-in: $10,000
WPT Celebrity Invitational (at L.A. Poker Classic)
February 27 - March 1, 2010: Commerce Casino, Los Angeles, CA
Invitation-Only Event
Bay 101 Shooting Star
March 8-12, 2010, Bay 101, San Jose, CA
Buy-in: $10,000
Hollywood Poker Open
March 20-24, 2010: Hollywood Casino, Lawrenceburg, IN
Buy-in: $10,000
WPT Championship
April 17-24, 2010 Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV
Buy-in: $25,500
As I type this, the bubble is about to burst in the $50,000 HORSE game at the 2009 WSOP in Las Vegas. This year, they decided to keep the format to all HORSE, even on the final table, unlike last year where it was decided to make the final table all No Limit Hold’em. Why? [...]
Boom chacka lacka!!!! Last night I chopped the prize pool with the final four finishers in the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza $560 buyin nlh tournament for a cool 51k and change in Cold Hard Cash!!!
This is easily my biggest ever poker score, and I can honestly say that so much went on in this tournament that I have never, even been a part of before. I can't wait to post all about the experience, and really the crazy weekend I had here in Las Vegas overall this time around. I hung with some old blogger friends, met a few new ones as well, and had yet another amazing meal in one of my favorite restaurants in the world. But most of all, I played poker. Like a motherfucker. Nine or ten fruitless and frustrating hours of cash on Friday night / Saturday morning, and then what proved to be about 15 straight hours on Friday on Day One at the Venetian, followed by another 12 hours or so straight through on Sunday to get to the chop. In the end, after several frustrated and frustrating attempts, we finally got unanimous agreement on a chop -- something I was pushing hard for, mind you -- when down to four players remaining, and the four of us divided up the remaining $231,000 and change in the prize pool almost exactly according to chip stacks, leaving both me and the guy who had just a few hundred chips more than me each nabbing more than second place money, while the chip leader who had close to twice as many chips as 2nd and 3rd place took home 70 grand, and the fourth place guy agreed to 37k for his take in our four-way domination of the event.
I have so much to write about this, but right now is not that time as I have a million things to do today and still haven't slept or even come down to earth at all yet. This whole week I will probably spend reviewing the whole crazy trip to Vegas, from The Venetian tournament in separate posts for separate days, to some of the awesome perks we got this time as a result of my brother's -- shall we say "reputation" among the MGM/Mirage/Bellagio crowd based on his past experiences in their casinos, and of course, by popular demand, some discussion on my amazing meal at Prime in Bellagio, for the second year in a row. I want to cry that place is so great. But more on that later in the week. I promise I will be working on these posts all week and that I'll get each one up as soon as they are good and ready. I will try to target a post every day of the week like usual, but being that I will be on vacation with my family this week I don't want to make any guarantees.
51 grand, all to sit and play poker for 27 hours over two days. Whoever thought of this was a frigging genius.
Some people say that they go on tilt after playing bad. They say that just knowing that they made a mistake is enough to send them over the edge. I’m from a totally different way of thinking. I know I’m not a perfect poker player, and that mistakes are inevitable. I accept that, and do my best not to make mistakes. However, when mistakes happen I am grateful that I’m able to pick up on them and learn to (hopefully) never make the mistake again. The thing that really irritates me is when I’ve made the right moves, the right read, have the player right where I want him, and inevitably they catch up and take my chips. Since I like to think that poker is a game of skill, it truly puts me on tilt when I play well and still lose. At least when I play bad and lose, I’ve invested money into my poker education.
The other day I went to play one of the DeepStack Tournaments at the Venetian in Las Vegas. I went into it thinking if I busted out it was no big deal and I would just go play cash game. Since the cash games were so juicy looking I knew I could easily get my buy in back if I busted and still make a profit for the day. I had nothing to lose…or so I thought.
The tournament started off kind of slow. I won a few small pots and lost a few small pots. I was able to limp into a five way pot when blinds were 75/150. I had 5h 3h, and the flop came out 5d 2d 3c. It was checked to me and I led out for 600. The big blind called and everyone else folded. The turn brought a 9d. He checked to me, and I bet 1100 . He looked down at his cards and made the call. I was pretty sure at this point that he probably had a flush. The river came a fourth diamond. He shot me a look and then checked. It seemed as though he didn’t like that fourth diamond hitting the river, and with no diamond in my hand I knew the only way I could win was to bet. If he hit the flush on the turn, he probably had low diamonds in his hand. It was highly likely that I could get him off his hand with a decent size bet. I assumed that a bet of 1850 would be enough to get him off his hand. After some pondering he decided to call and turned over 2c 7d. “Wow,” is all I could say as I sent my cards to the muck.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about the hand. One, I made a good read on my opponent knowing that he was weak, but I couldn’t figure out how he could make the call there. It was the first time I have been so frazzled in a tournament that I literally had to walk away for a few hands to cool off. After clearing my head, I returned ready to play again.
The next few rounds were up and down. I lost a few races with the short stacks on my table, but was able to chip up to above average. Then I got moved to another table with Tommy Vu who had the chip lead on the table. Seat two was a guy in his late twenties or so, who was boasting to the table about his recent cash in a WSOP event. This guy quite obviously had an ego, and this irritated me right away.
The blinds were 400/800, and I looked down at pocket kings in the highjack. Seat two raised to 2200 in early position. I made it 6300 to go, and he called. It was heads up, and the flop came 9 6 8 rainbow. He grabbed a stack of chips and bet, and I immediately moved all in for 15k. I was sure that I was ahead at the time, and wasn’t worried about a set or a straight. He called and turned over Ad 7d. Instead of him hitting an ace or his open ender, he went runner runner diamonds to knock me out. This was a real blow to me because I had been playing well all day with minimal mistakes, and had I won the hand I would have had the chip lead at the table, and in contention for the chip lead of the tournament.
So my fun in the tournament was over, and I should have been putting my name on the list to play cash game and make some money for the day. Instead, I walked over a slot machine, pulled out a hundred dollar bill, and proceeded to take my frustrations out on the max bet button. Before I knew it, that hundred was gone and I was off to the next machine. I realize now, that there was no amount of money short of hitting $100,000 or more that could have satisfied me. It took five machines and five hundred dollars to convince myself that my day of fun and excitement was over. I went home with the worst tilt hangover I’ve ever experienced.
On Friday night, actually not even that early on Saturday morning, I sat right here in this same spot and wrote from a kind of stream of consciousness my feelings about the poker I played that night with Chad and CK and Blinders, and how, even though I repeatedly lapped up Blinders' chips with my usual aplomb, I just generally had a horrible session at the tables otherwise and really just could not get anything going. I remember sitting here only about 28 hours ago typing how I really didn't even feel like playing in the World Series today, the very thing I have always looked forward to the most about my annual trips to Las Vegas over the past few years. And believe me, I really felt it when I wrote it, as I purposefully sat right down and wrote about that session within just minutes of returning from the scene of the carnage to my room here in the MGM.
When I woke up on Saturday morning, however, sleep had done its work to help me start getting my head set straight about the whole thing. The conclusion I drew draw about what happened in Friday's cash session was, quite simply, that I allowed myself to play cash poker when I would never even think of denying that I am really a tournament guy and not a cash guy. And then I kept on doing that, over a span of probably 8 or 9 hours in the afternoon and evening, even though I could feel myself not getting anything going and getting more and more frustrated all along the way. And even though I had a lot of fun sitting with Chad and CK and chatting it up, overall I let myself spend that entire day at the cash tables when I wasn't enjoying myself and wasn't playing well, instead of coming out here and doing what I set out to do. A week ago I was writing here about my plans to play a poker tournament every single day of my Vegas trip, and yet here I am just a handful of days later, playing frustrating cash for 9 hours on Friday and not even playing a single tournament until Saturday? It occurred to me when I awoke on Saturday that that is ridiculous. And I resolved to change it.
So eager was my subconscious mind to put that whole cash session behind me, that I did this cute thing where I woke up on Saturday bright and early, like around 7am, even though I had been up like every night of this trip until a good 5am or later the night before. Even after just two hours of shuteye, I simply could not sleep without starting to take care of my issues from the night before's decision to play cash: I was going to go and register super early in the morning for WSOP Event #51. I already wrote earlier on Saturday about that whole thing, and how Harrah's once again funked up and left themselves woefully short on space for the last weekend $1500 nlh tournament of the 2009 World Series. The end result of all this was a record turnout for the Venetian's $560 buyin nlh tournaments, as every table I sat at on Saturday had at least two or three people who described having been shut out of the WSOP that morning and thus ending up at easily the next most popular tournament series of the summer in Sin City at the Venetian.
So fast forward to the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza. 792 runners started play for $560 apiece at 12pm sharp, with me seated at Table 75, Seat 10, which I love the more I play live poker because I can be very close to the flop which makes it as easy to see as possible. This was especially good because it would prove to be the exact seat I would sit in for the ensuing nine hours. Nine hours of what was probably the live tournament with the most shenanigans I have ever seen, nine hours that started off (as usual of late in my sparse live play) with me bleeding chips in drips and drabs while trying to make something happen, but then slowly but surely morphed into me being the table chip leader, and the guy that everyone was afraid to get mixed up with.
Unfortunately I don't have the time right now to write up the entire tournament -- which I obviously will do later this weekend -- but suffice it to say that I have now officially made my first Day Two ever in a live tournament, out of maybe five chances now (three WSOP events and one WSOP Circuit event at Caesar's in AC). I played extremely well, saw some of the craziest things happen that I have ever seen in a poker tournament (if I forget, somebody remind me to tell the stories of the two pocket Aces hands that went down), and I survived a couple of ugly-ass suckouts, luckily both against relative short stacks (JJ < 99 allin preflop, and J8 < AK allin on a KJ8 flop when of course the turn and river brought running pairs), one won big race (66 > ATo, probably my most significant hand of the whole tournament on Day One) and then unfortunately lost one big race just a few minutes before we stopped play on Saturday evening (AKo < JJ) on a hand where I had already raised and I was forced to call someone else's push for like 3-to-1 odds knowing full well he was holding a pretty high pair (I figured Queens). But I really played great poker on Saturday, the best I've played in a tournament in quite a while, and in just a few minutes I will jump into a cab and head back up the Strip to the Venetian to to see if I can catch a break early and try to regain the stack I had around 1am last night.
I enter Day Two with 157,000 in chips (starting stacks were 15k), having been as high as 300k earlier before losing the AK to JJ hand. Of the 792 who started, we are down to the final 48 as play resumes today, with the top 72 finishers getting paid. The Deep Stack tournaments are known for the top-heavy nature of their tournament payouts, really weighting the big prizes to the final table and especially to the top 3 spots, even moreso than other poker tournaments in general, so right now I stand to make only like $800 or something if I bust in 48th. But we're already well into the money, something which I did not focus on a bit until we went hand for hand starting with 73 players remaining. Luckily hand for hand did not last three hours like my last big tournament cash in Vegas in the WSOP shorthanded holdem event back in 2007, but rather only took I think 2 or 3 hands until 2 players busted at the same time. OK so with 792 runners and 15,000 starting chips, divided by just 48 players remaining, the average chip stack to start play on Sunday will be 247,500. So instead of 2x the average stack if I had just won the AK vs JJ race, I will instead sit down to a stack that is just 60% of average, making me what I figure is somewhere around 31st or 32nd out of the 48 runners remaining.
Needless to say, I will have my work cut out for me if I am to really make a push in this thing, and I'm going to need to win some pots and hopefully get a little lucky early to get myself back into position where I can muscle some people out of pots. Just a few pocket Aces in the first couple of orbits ought to do the trick, don't you think? Just two Aces maybe, I'm not trying to be Astin here. But I will definitely need a little bit of luck and some really hard work to last deep into the night tonight. And whenever I am finished, I will update here as well as continuing the posts I've already started describing the tournament in more detail (nobody forget those two AA stories I have coming, both are pretty awesome) as well as some of the awesome perks we got to enjoy this time around courtesy of the MGM, thanks to my brother the insane-0 gambling maniac.
Took a big bad beat this morning, when I got up early to head over to the Rio to register for WSOP Event #51 and discovered to my dismay that the f-heads who administer the Rio have done it again, they maxed out at 2700 entrants as of Friday night around 11pm. There were a bunch of idiots sitting and sleeping in line in the registration room in the vague hope that, at some point this morning, Harrah's was going to open up a few new tables to increase the capacity for the event. And while I'm sure they will eventually open up a few new tables in the event, there's no effing way I'm going to sit around and wait for these donkeys who seem every year to find ways to muck up the administration of the WSOP. It's amazing, really, how much they can never seem to get the WSOP even close to right, basically since the minute they moved it out of Binion's a few years back.
Anyways, I considered my options for maybe 10 minutes, and one answer just seemed very clear, especially in light of the shitcocky experience I had playing cash for about 9 hours on Friday. I hopped in a cab, and within a few minutes I was at the Venetian, where I signed up for today's Deep Stack Extravaganza event, a $560 buyin tournament that lasts two days, has a great structure and 50,000 starting chips. Really, it's a significantly better tournament than the $1500 WSOP event today -- I don't think anyone can argue that -- and while I freely admit that my preference would have been to experience the mystique and cache of the WSOP, all things equal -- in the end it's not a bad outcome for me. I'm hoping to get Chad to join me out there, so we can chop it when we get down to heads-up and piss some of our mutual readers off but good.
So that'll be me at noon today. I'll still be playing in my first poker tournament of the trip, but instead of donking it up against 3000 Mookie-winner types at the crowded, cramped Rio, I'll instead be playing a much more skill-focused nlh tournament at what is probably the best poker room in Las Vegas.
Had an absolutely atrocious cash game session today, losing a little over $300 at 1-2 at the MGM but having a fun time sitting with Chad, CK and even Blinders for the last few hours. But my cards were so awful, words can barely describe it. Over about 8 hours of cash game play, I received no AA, no KK, one QQ (which lost to CK's K5s), one JJ (which lost to Chad's AQ), and one TT (which lost to KJo). One AK which I won with a reraise before the flop. And I literally did not hit a single flop on the night. I must have seen (or known they were out there) maybe 15 or 20 flopped sets at my table during that time, but I literally -- no exaggeration -- did not flop top pair even a single time over 8 hours of play, let alone a set. Actually, that's not entirely true -- earlier in the afternoon I flopped broadway with JTs on an AKQ board. I bet the flop and got called by a guy who obviously had top pair or two pairs. The turn was a Jack, I bet and got called again, and then the river brought a lovely Ten, putting broadway on the board and giving me the split for my efforts. And sadly, that right there was the literal highlight of my entire 8-hour session -- getting uberfucked and splitting a pot at the river. Fun times.
I don't recall ever having this tremendously bad luck after the flop in addition to perhaps the worst run of starting cards in my entire poker history. Getting so few playable hands over 8 hours, I ended up making some stoopid river calls of medium-sized bets because I simply couldn't bring myself to lay down the three good hands I was dealt all day long. It sucked so hard, right now I'm siting here thinking that I might not even feel like playing in the World Series tomorrow at noon. There's just nothing like 8 hours of horrible cards, horrible luck and horrible decisions to make you question who you even think you are fooling by dropping 15 hundy on a silly little luck-based card game.
Oh and by the way, putting my lesson from last night into practice on the three good hands I was dealt all day (if you can even call TT and JJ "good"), I raised it up to 20 each time after a couple of limpers -- this is ten times the big blind now, mind you -- and still got called by K5s to lose half a buyin with my Queens, and by AQ to lose half a buyin with my Jacks.
So let's review. A solid 8 hours of play, only one true premium hand in pocket Queens (if you can even call that "premium"), which I raised to 10x, got called by K5s and lost to turn and river Kings. Two "semi-premium" hands in JJ and TT, each of which I also lost after raising it up to 10x the big blind, getting called by KJo and AQo and getting outflopped or out-turned in each. I flopped broadway, bet all three streets and ended up playing broadway on the board for the split. Oh, and I also lost half a buyin against a shorty when I called allin with A2 on an A23 board and learned I was up against A3. And I did not flop top pair even one time the entire night long. Fun times, did I mention that already?
Poker can suck it.
Right now, it feels like my odds of actually playing in the WSOP on Saturday are about 30%. I guess we'll have to see if that changes with a few hours of sleep to help erase the memory of today's pokering from my data banks.
After much anticipation, I finally made my way down to the 2009 World Series of Poker last week from Thursday, June 18th to Monday, June 22nd, as I have done for the past four years or so as a way of celebrating my birthday. I’ve been lucky enough to attend the WSOP during the huge expansion years where the attendance has jumped up to unprecedented heights, and although last year was a bit of a let down overall, the feeling around the 2009 Series was that it could once again put the WSOP back on an upward swing in terms of attendance and prestige.
I once again elected to stay at the Rio Hotel, the current home of the WSOP, as it is easily the best way to fully enjoy the event, as you can just walk downstairs from your room at any time and check out an event, play in a satellite or two, and just watch the masters at work.
After a perfect Italian meal at Café Martorano inside the Rio, I headed down to the main WSOP floor to check out the satellite action. I don’t know exactly why I was looking to play in a satellite event since I had zero plans or intentions to actually participate in a large buy-in tournament, but I guess the single tournament format of the satellites appealed to the online SnG player inside me.
I ended up buying into a $125 satellite, with 1st place (all satellites were winner take all) awarding $120 in cash and $1,000 in tournament chips, which can be applied to a normal WSOP tournament. I wasn’t surprised when I sat down at my table and noticed that most of the other players were of the standard tourist fair with limited poker knowledge and almost no single-table tournament experience.
I decided to play the satellite much like I would any of my usual online SnG tournaments, sticking to a fairly tight strategy to begin with and then amping up the aggression and “steal” mentality as the blinds went up. Well, as it turned out I didn’t need to put too much effort into my strategy, as on the third hand I received pocket 8’s in early position and decided to just limp to try and flop big. Three other players limp in behind me and the flop came K-J-8 with two diamonds. I made a pot sized bet and was immediately raised by the player to my left, which was then followed by a call by the player to his right. Figuring I was up against A-K and maybe a diamond draw, I pushed all-in and to my surprise was called by both players.
My first opponent turned over K-J for two pair and the other turned over A-6 of diamonds for the flush draw. With two cards to come I had to dodge a king, jack and any diamond and was lucky enough do so, eliminating both players and tripling myself up very early in the match. From that point on I was able to pick off a number of pots, as simple tournament strategies including continuation bets and betting in position were able to work very effectively against my relatively weak table. Considering that there was never a check-raise throughout that entire satellite, it became very obvious that everyone was going to check a weak hand and fold to a bet.
Overall I ended chipping my stack up comfortably by stealing pots and blinds and didn’t have to show my hand more than twice throughout the entire game, just when I tripled up and then again when I knocked out the 8th player from the table with my pocket 4’s against his Q-10. Once it got to heads up the other player and I decided to make a deal, which ended up resulting in us each taking home $60 in cash and a single $500 tournament chip, which I then quickly sold for $400 on my way out the door.
One satellite down, and I have more than $300 in profit to show for my efforts. Not a bad way to start my WSOP weekend!
In this installment of organizing your home game, I’m going to discuss the need for having set rules and guidelines for your home game. I’m going to assume that you know the basic games rules and how to play whatever game you choose, but as the host, you need to understand the OFFICIAL rules and [...]
Bet Stories, whether or not they are fiction or truth have always been intriguing ones, now the stories can continue with online gambling kicking off, the launch of a casino means that betting has never been easier, and you can play them anywhere in the world. Whether its Asia or Europe lady luck may be smiling on you!
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