Happy Halloween... The Month in Review
WHAT happened to my boat??? October 31st. What a wild and crazy month it has been. It was a very good and profitable month for me. I brought in just over $25k. I took second in the best all-around player points for the Fall Classic in Canterbury Park. I crushed the live games both in Minnesota and Las Vegas. It's a good day to be a professional poker player.
Here are some of the highlights of the month:
I placed third in an Omaha/8 or better tournament. This was only the second O8 tournament that I have ever played in. I was very proud of my play and have logged that as one of my best accomplishments recently.
I get a call while in Minnesota from my brother that says, "I have bad news..." He proceeds to tell me that our boat got wrecked. Images of the boat sinking to the bottom of Lake Mead flash through my mind as he gives me the story. The boat was parked on the street, on it's trailer. We live on a cul de sac. The boat has never left it's parking spot on the street except to go to the lake. Every neighbor knows that the boat sits there. So, it makes perfect sense that somebody crashed their truck into the boat. I couldn't help myself when I heard the news. My 1971 24' pontoon boat got totalled by a truck while parked on land. How white trash appropriate.
The good news was that we were pretty sure that insurance would be picking up the tab. And boy did they. The decided not to total the boat and give us $3400 for repairs. Now remember, we bought the boat six weeks ago for $2k cash. Good news already. The best news is that upon further inspection, there is no reason for the boat to still not float. It may be all banged and dented up, but it should still float.
So, Saturday when I got back from MN, everybody was on the lake. Aparrantly the boat was still floating. They got back at 10pm with no boat.
"Where's the boat?"
"On the side of the highway."
This time a rim basically fell apart. When I finally saw it I saw parts of rim and five lug nuts remaining. It was so bad that we could not fix it and had to have our boat towed back to our house. That required two regular flat bed tow trucks, one huge one, four guys and four hours. I couldn't help but laugh my ass off while I watched them unload a 24' old school boat off a flat bed tow truck in front of my house.
I finally put money back on-line in the past week. The games are actually quite good right now. I have finally re-commenced my vendetta against the game of no-limit hold'em. I really don't want to fall behind the learning curve on this game because I still want to be an unemployed bastard in three years when it will be impossible to find a decent limit game. I've played over 10k hands in the past four days. I've pretty much been a couch potato machine. I actually have three games going right now while I'm typing this and sitting at my brother's bar. I'm finally starting to actually get it , which is making me feel much better. I blew through $2000 in my first 6k hands and have since turned it around to about even. I'm playing the 2-4NL games online. It is really hard adjusting from a limit mentality and being a call-down monkey like I often am online. Also the strategy and set-up are so completely different. There is so much more creativity to this game that I never got before that ultimately sets up for the big stack busting bet. I also am getting that sense that I do not have to be as precise as I have to be in limit. I'm not sure how to apply that to NL yet, but I am constantly learning.
So, here's the outlook for November. I'm headed to LA for the start of the Commerce Holiday Bonus tournament on Thursday. From there I'm headed up to Lucky Chances on monday or tuesday for a series of nickel and dime tournaments. From there it's back to LA for more tournaments. I am thinking I will be in Foxwoods for the main event which starts late-mid November, like around the 17th I think? Dutch is headed up, Brandon and Jenn are going, and Poff is going... so, why not? Not sure if I will play.. 10k is more than 5% of my roll! Will definately be trying to satellite in. So, another 3 weeks on the road... but I'm excited about it.
It's good to be back home in warm weather with my own truck with the people that I've missed. Thanks for reading.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Canterbury Park Fall Classic Event #13, The Main Event. $1000+70 NLHE
Mike Pickett goes deep... So going into the final event I was tied for second in the best all-around points, but I had absolutely zero chance of catching the leader even if I won the event. Bummer, since that was my goal, but I'm still quite pleased with my play this past few weeks. I netted just over $12k after expenses, so I cannot complain about anything. For the main event I basically showed up and played really bad. I cannot even give you a bad beat story. I played like a complete donkey and did not even deserve to make it to level 5 like I did.
My friend Mike Pickett however, he played perfect poker.
He absolutely crushed the field on day one, finishing fifth in chips with 107k and 26 players remaining. The tournament re-started today at 1pm CST. By the time I arrived at 2pm they were down to 13 players. Gosh this structure is frustrating. Mike had a commanding chip lead with over 300k. When they were at the 3k-6k/1k level, right on the final table bubble (two five handed tables), Mike and the 2nd chip leader got in a huge hand together. Mike opened the cutoff to 20k, and the SB re-raised to 70k. Mike shoved, and the guy insta-called with the K K . Mike showed A A and we went nuts in the gallery. The flop came the grossest thing I have ever seen. K K 3x. At the same time another player busted on the other table, and whamo, Mike was down to 62k. ARRRRRRGGGH. Tournament poker is stupid. Once again the best player has the most chips and gets screwed by some stupid beat. Mike went bust shortly thereafter with a flopped nut flush draw vs. a JJ overpair. We were so disgusted. I am very proud of how Mike played and extremely disappointed at how the cards came down. Well done Mike, and I'm sorry for the bummer luck buddy.
At some point this weekend I will give a re-cap of the entire tournament. Then I will be at the Commerce by next weekend! Foxwoods has been given a back-seat because some of my friends from up here are headed out there, the juice is lower, and the action is better.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
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Canterbury Park Fall Classic Event #12(a), $500+50 Limit
Final Table Report Arrrrrrrrgg. I am so sick of these "almost there" finishes. I ended up taking third for $7028 minus $351 each to Jay and Poker Bob. The three of us swapped 5% at the 2nd break when we all had huge stacks. At the final table all of my friends came out to cheer me on. There were so more awesome guys (and gals... thanks Mary and Abi!) that came out then I ever thought would be there. That in and of itself was one of the best highlights of my entire Fall Classic.
So, it came down to myself, Doug Dicken (Gigabet's brother), and Justin Sellers who is the best all around points leader and has been having a hell of a tournament. Justin is on my right and Doug is on my left and we all have about the same amount of chips. These three hands basically crushed my tournament hopes.
First, I raise KK from the button. It gets called in both spots. The flop comes QT5. Doug checks, Justin bets, I raise, fold, and Justin calls. Turn comes 9, check, bet, call. River 8, Justin bets, I make crying call, he rolls over T8.
Later, I raise AJo form the button, Doug calls, Justin 3 bets, we both call. Flop A93, check, bet, just call, fold. Turn, Q. He bets, I call. River 3, he bets, I call, he rolls over 5 3 for trip threes. I thought about this hand for a while and if I should have raised the flop or the turn. Now, Justin was playing very wild, but he had only 3 bet in that spot twice, and with JJ and AJ. So, he obviously could be on something creative, but highly unlikely. Thus, I was either way ahead (of say KK, JJ, TT, etc) or way behind to almost anything else. AQ, AK, AA, QQ, 99, 33. If I gassed it I was either getting 3 bet or he would fold, and thus I saw no value in raising other than to protect my hand. But if I was ahead, he had no more than 5 outs, most likely 3 or 2. So even though I would have won the pot on the flop or the turn, I still think it was the best play in the long run.
So meanwhile Doug gets super lucky in two pots (all-in on both - rivered few outers) and wins a few others and Justin are down to just a couple chips. Also, Justin goes all in and rivers a 6 outer to stay alive. So, I raise J 7 from the SB, Doug calls, and we see the 7 5 3 flop. I bet, he raises, I 3-bet, he calls. Turn, K , I bet, he calls. River 8 , I bet my last 5k, he calls and shows the 89o. I have never been so frustrated at the end of the tournament than I was after this one. I only sucked out on the river ONCE, and that was in a spot where my hand was quite possibly the best hand anyways. OBV I caught several rushes to build the chips and make the final table, but it's just so frustrating getting there, being the best player, having the spots to win all the chips and getting really unlucky to not finish. Lucky to be there, unlucky to go out how I did.
Something at the final table really frustrated me tonight. I have already ranted about the lack of a 300-600 level which is retarted, but they did the SAME thing at the final table! It went from 2k-4k/4k-8k and doubled! WTF! 4k-8k blinds, 8k-16k limits. That thing in and of itself made me unable to take the bad beat in that last level and still recover. It is the worst decision I have ever seen in a poker tournament to screw over the end game that bad when a few people have played 12 hours already and now have to put it all up to a crapshoot for tens of thousands of dollars. Jerry, the cardroom manager, really needs to fix these gaping holes in the structure to keep players happy in these tournaments. The juice was already upped 3%, can't we get a structure without crapshoot levels?!?
Anyways, tied for second in best all around points. Really wanted to take that down, but Justin put a lock on it with his 2nd place finish tonight. Even if I win the main event I cannot win all-around. Main event tomorrow should be pretty great minus the two bad levels. 4k in starting chips, 50 min levels, big field due to satellite entries, and a two day format. The tournament will end tomorrow with 3 tables left and then reconvene on Friday. I want to make it to Friday.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Canterbury Park Fall Classic Event #12, $500+50 Limit
Quick update It's been a little while since I have written, and for that I apologize. I am on dinner break right now from the $500 +50 Limit Hold'em championship. Before I get into a discussion about tonight, let me catch you up on the happenings of this week.
Sunday we all drove up to Mille Lacs for the $1500+200 (sick juice!) Heartland Poker Tour event. I was super excited for this event, but then I got jacked in several ways. We started with 15k in chips, blinds of 100-200. Here's how the structure went. 1-2, 2-4, 3-6, 4-8/1, 5-10/200, 1000-2000/300! What the? 500-1000 to 1000-2000? SICK! But, everybody had to deal with the same thing, and I know how to handle this, and the field was full of terrible players.
Going ino the 5-10 level I had 36k in chips and was feeling good. I was controlling my table and picking up about 40% of the pots and keeping them small. Then, the worst beat came when I got moved by the floorperson to balance a table. Bad beat. I was moved just to the left of Mike Carlson who was completely owning the table and I was placed right in his path. There wasn't a dang thing I could do, I ended up giving him all my chips and he went on to win the thing.
Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful as far as the tournaments went. I never had a chance and went bust quickly in both. I did play a bunch in the live games Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday and won about $3400. Quote of the day goes to this guy who saw my buddy Dave's cards at showdown and said after a long pause, "What's that?" Dave had 8 high with the 8 3 after banging the whole way. That same guy won the award for biggest donk play too when he posted behind the button and said he's getting all of his $300 in the pot blind. So, I look down at 72o, raise, he 3 bets blind, I call and we see the flop heads up. JJ7. We go all 7 bets to get him all in. He had KQo. 72 good. I love it.
So, I'm going to go win this tournament. I will tell you all about it later!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Canterbury Park Event #8, $550 NLHE
:YAWN:
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I don't know how the hell this is but half a dozen of the best poker players that currently are in the midwest are awake today for the first time already. I woke up to an alarm clock for the first damn time in months. We are on our way to play in the Heartland Poker Tour's current event at Grand Casino Mille Lacs with a direct buy-in of $1700 and a pretty strong structure. Most people (everybody else) enter the tournament through "qualifiers" earlier in the weekend or the weekend before. These qualifiers are basically top 20% satellites. Yeah the field is that juicy that we would be willing to wake up at five effing am and drive two hours into the middle of "Yoo betcha" land.
Yesterday's event actually played like a real tournament. The levels were 50 minutes and we started with 3k in chips instead of the usual 2k. I am kinda glad that I didn't make it to the 400-800 level though because that would have screwed things up and unless I prospered in that level I would have gotten pissed. I made it ten minutes shy of that level and was just fine. It's kinda hard to get mad when you bust out of a tournament with ten-deuce offsuit. I had absolutely zero hands the entire 5 hours that I was in, and the only time I played a big pot before that hand I called an all-in with AQo in the blinds vs. K2s. I lost that one. I was pretty proud however of how I was proceeding, manufacturing chips in places that did not require cards that I did not have. I thought this was one of those spots where I pulled the ol' squeeze play from the BB trying to pick up some weak money, but the guy called 65% of his stack with ATo. Oh well.
Ok, I'm sure you'll get a report of tonight's occurances. Thanks for reading.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Canterbury Park Fall Classic Event #7, $300+40 NLHE
Boooooring... Once again one of those not too exciting days. I doubled up to 2800 chips at one point and then never did anything else. My starting table was with Schneids, so that was fun. I love watching that guy do what he does and he's just such a good guy. I played about 4 hours of 30-60, made $315, so lost a total of twenty-five bucks today. I'm crushed.
I've been pretty disappointed in the quality of the games so far. In fact every game I've played in has been tougher than any game I've played in in Las Vegas for quite a while. Perhaps it has been because I have been playing during the day and then all of us that are good are going out at night. Um, actually that's quite probably accurate. Bummer.
Quote of the day came from e-mail today. Thanks to Larry for this hilarious bit.
" I can see a new episode. Seat 5 silent farts under the table. When the automatic shuffler delivers a new deck, it also delivers a plume of fresh ass gas. The dealer falls over backward, dealing cards in the air; 5 players bolt from the table. Only Devo, the Picketts, and an old dude with an oxygen bottle remain. Suddenly one of the Picketts yells for the floorman. As he approaches, Pickett asks for a reduced rake because they are now playing short-handed while holding their breaths. The floorman arrives at the table, immediately vomits, then approves 1/2 rake for the brave fart-tilt-boys. Play resumes ." - Larry Williamson via e-mail on FartTiltPoker.com
$500+50 NL tomorrow. We start with 3k in chips and the levels are 50 mins which I am happy about, however the 200-400 to 400-800 jump is going to jack things up again. Joys of bad structures...
Peace and good luck!
Devo
Canterbury Park Fall Poker Classic Event #6, $200+30 Stud Hi
Fun going bust and Omaha8 re-cap I had more fun going bust today than I have ever in a
poker tournament before. The structure was faster than ever in the stud event with 2/3 of the field gone within 3 levels. When my first table broke I got moved to a very fun but very tough table containing my friends Blake Bohn, Mike Pickett, and Sam Pickett. There were also two other players that I recognized that were far from pushovers. Blake and Mike went bust pretty soon because the structure was accelerating quite rapidly. I took Mike out with a lucky 7th street card, and I was liking my chances more and more. Then, Mike's seat was replaced with the biggest donk ever, Kirby Rogers. Unfortunately for my stud tournament Kirby is everything but the biggest donk ever. He's one of the best players of an extremely talented pool of young professionals in Minnesota. Anyways, Sam's stack dwindled and I had a couple of chances to bust him but he "Zing!"-ed me twice on 7th street. Gosh I wanted to bust two Picketts in one day. Wasn't going to happen. My final hand came when Sam open raised to 600 and I put my last 525 in with (T9)T, and the player who brought it in called with a 3 showing. Sam had a 4 on the door and KK wired. Sam makes 3 pair, and the bring player makes Aces up with the A8 in the hole to bust both of us. Sam says, "Let the record show that I lasted longer than Bryan." I love it. We both left the table laughing having a good ol time.
Sam and I had a hilarious moment when we were down to two tables yesterday in the Omaha8 event. A player busted in the 1 seat, I was in the two, and Sam was in the three. The crowd was getting pretty large by that point, and 30 seconds after the player was gone the most god-awful swamp butt stench assaulted my senses. "Oh my God who dropped ass!" I scremed. It was bad. We're half laughing, half gagging. Sam says, "That's a nice departing gift." I say that I'm about to tilt, and Sam says, "He put you on fart tilt." Hilarious. Sounds like a good parody site... FartTiltPoker.com. I should buy that domain name now.
So, other than that nothing exciting today. Made $115 in the 30 game before the tourney, lost $100 in a last longer bet.
So, 3rd in Omaha8, 259 entrants. The final two tables were said by Jan to be the youngest group she has ever seen at an Omaha8 event. God bless youthful aggression. That really was the key to the tournament as far as I am concerned. It was quite a tulmutous event for me. I ran my stack up big, then got pretty unlucky and dropped to 1600 at the end of the 2nd break. I came back UTG with the blinds at 400-800. I raised, scooped, and tripled up. Then, they pushed the button one spot too many and I was in the SB. Nice. I won that pot too. Within 20 minutes I was up to 22k. NICE. About twenty minutes after that, this hand came up. The really loose-aggressive 19 year-old internet professional open raised, and I re-raised the small blind with the A A Q 5 . The flop came K K 2 . I bet, he called. The turn came a 7 . I bet, and he raised. Now, I'm not folding this spot ever, but I was pretty sure that I was ahead. After some thought I 3-bet, and he just called. Good news. The river brought the 3 , I bet my last 1500 and he called and says, "I got there on the river." Got what on the river?!? Good lord... He rolls over A348. No clubs. Oh... My... God. I now get half of MY 35k pot. Nice call on the flop. Nice raise on the turn. Arrrrgh. From there I ran my stack down to 9k when we made the money and broke for dinner.
In the money I ran like God. Check out this sequence of hands. I steadily build my stack to 19k, and then with the blinds at 1k-2k I am in the small blind, and the button open raises. I have A K 2x3x. I 3 bet, flop the nut flush, bet, get called, turn an A, bet, and he folds. Next hand, I'm on the button. Don't remember the hand, he opens the cutoff, I 3 bet, he folds on the flop. Next hand, I open raise the cutoff, both blinds call, flop the nut-nut draw, turn the nut flush with no low out there, and river the nut low to get 3/4 of the pot. I love having a monster after several super aggressive non-showdown winners.
When we finally made the final 9 I had a little over 80k, and just could never really catch a break. I missed at least 4 20+ outers to scoops/chops in monster pots. I had to fight to keep the stack that I had. I took some tough ones and was left with literally one 5k chip left. I tripled that. Then I chopped one. Then I tripled again. Back up to 65k! Nice. Played a few more hands, and then this hand happened. Chip leader, who won the event in 04, open raised the button, and I 3 bet AA67 with nut spades all-in. The other short stack 4 bet in the BB with KK92, and the button 5 bet him all-in with 234T. Sick. I liked my chances. We both lost, and John won the event. I was quite frustrated with how everything went down at the final, and in the midst of my frustrations people saying "Congragulations!" just set me off even more. Not pissed by any means, but just frustrated. If you've ever been in that spot you understand. Then Sam said the best words that I could have heard, "You played well." That's what you want to say to your buddy in that situation. Thanks Sam.
I like the deal that we made 4 handed. Stacks were 165k in front of John who was solid, 155k to my right in front of a tight player, 132k in front of me, and 100+ish in front of Mark who I didn't think was playing that well. Limits were 8k-16k, so there wasn't much room for play. I proposed a 5k save and then re-distribute the prize pool 40/30/20/10, boosting 4th 2600, 3rd 2900, 2nd 600, and cutting first by 6100. I suppose taking 3rd I got the best of that one in hindsight! But I do think it was a wise deal considering chip stacks and fluctuation and John's skill level. What do you think?
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Brandon Cantu took the sickest beat today in the $10k Festa al Lago Bellagio main event. He was actually fourth in chips and less than 15 minutes in he was busted by Joe Pelton (won the Legends main event this year). Brandon raised early with the 77 and Joe called with the 9{moscardsuit:cs} 7{moscardsuit:cs} . Flop T7x, Brandon bets, Joe calls. Turn 9, Brandon bets more, Joe calls. All the money goes in on the 9 ball river. Sick sick sick sick sick. I feel bad for the guy.
Ok. That's all folks. Peace and good luck! $300+40 NL tomorrow.
Devo
Canterbury Park Fall Classic Event #5, $200+30 Omaha8 event
Disappointing 3rd?
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Long story short. I took 3rd tonight in the Omaha8 event, good for $7600 cash on a $230 buy-in. I brokered a pretty good deal 4 handed. Disappointing 3rd, but I can't complain too much. More info to come.
Sweat in my boy Brandon Cantu in the Bellagio Festa al Lago $10k main event. He's 2nd in chips with 18 left, well into the money.
Ok. I'm sleeping. 10 hrs. did me well today. I want to final table this $230 stud event too.
Peace.
Devo
Canterbury Park Fall Classic Event #4, $200+30 Limit HE
Stupid fast structures...
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Arrgh. 281 players entered yesterday's limit hold'em tournament, and I was told to exit the building with seven tables remaining. The structure is just so damned fast that you really have no room for error or fluctuation. They really need to add the 300-600 level. I mean seriously, I went bust at 3:30 pm, the tournament started at noon, and I finished in the top 20%. Something like 70% of the field busted out between 90 minutes in and 3hr 30minutes in. That's so not right for the joint's only "major" series of tournaments for the entire year. While I'm on this podium, here's the other major complaint. For several years Canterbury has had the same payout structure which has stated that any more than 360 players will pay top 36. Last year they had a few tournaments eclipse that 360 number big time, yet no adjustments were made nor were any forecasts made toward this year. Even when over 700 players registered for the $200+30 NL event, they failed to adjust the payout structure. Less than 5% of the field in that event got paid. That is very much the wrong way to retain players in the game of tournament poker and in your tournaments in general. Listen to the tournament directors that have flown in to run this damn thing and take their suggestions. They know they are doing better than most people in the business.
Okay. I'm done now. So, frustrated about yesterday. I had 9600 in chips about 20 minutes before I busted, so you can imagine how those chips went away. This was funny. Two days ago my friend Andy Fox busted me in the NL event. Yesterday I busted Andy in the limit event. How bout that? One, lets take two random people and say that they are going to bust each other in consecutive days. Pretty unlikely, eh? Now, in fields this huge, lets say that they're going to be buddies too.
Today is the Omaha 8 event. I am stoked for the game because hold'em is boring, but I have a feeling that I'm going to get frustrated with the structure again.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
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Canterbury Park Fall Classic Event #3, $200+30 NL
53s cracks AA and KK in the same hand
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Tournament report: Nothing happened. I never got above how many chips I started with. Got the rest of my dwindling chips in with the best of it, AJ vs. KQ, but I lost. Oh well.
But, y'all will love this hand. 30-60 game, 3 limpers, cutoff raises, button calls, I'm in the SB with 3 5 , I call, BB calls, UTG raises, everybody calls, CO 4 bets, button calls, I call, UTG caps, and six of us see a flop capped. It comes Q T 5 . Long story short, we see the turn 3 ways capped, I get trapped the whole way and there's 5 small dead bets in there. The turn is the Q . I check, UTG checks, CO bets, and we both call. I'm pretty sure UTG is on KK and the other guy is on AA. Good news is that a 5 is good or a club is good that isn't an A or a K. River comes a 5, and I play bad and just checked... but, the AA guy bet, I called, and the KK guy folded his KK. AA guy rolled over AA, and my 53 was good. The pot was over 1700. Good times. I played about 6 hours live and made $1500. And now I'm going to bed, cause the $200+30 limit tourney is in less than eight hours!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Canterbury Park Event #2, $300+40 NL
Play perfect, go busto.
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Well, four hours of tournament play and I'm busto. I was cruising with a ton of chips for a while until these two hands came up.
A really bad player in the #1 seat raised UTG to 500 with the blinds at 100-200 with 25. His small bets generally meant small hands. I picked up 88 and re-raised to 1400. His stack was about 5200 at the start of this hand and I was at 9700. My image was somewhat loose, but I was not doing anything out of the ordinary. I had also laid down A Q on an A T 3 flop to him before I had even put a chip in the pot... that story will come later. So he knew I was capable of a big laydown. I'm sure he wasn't thinking on any other levels based on the quality of his play. Anyways, the flop came out JT3, suits unimportant. He stares at the flop and then bets 800. The manner in which he bet screamed weakness. Then, to seal the deal, he stares at me and will not avert his gaze. Totally weak. I give him a T at best, definately not a draw, possibly 99 or less. Ok, now that I know he's weak, I'd better make sure he's not committed. Nope - he has about 3k left.
"I'm all in."
Now I definately don't want a call, but I'm pretty sure he's on a 9T sort of hand and cannot call this bet. He thinks for a while and finally says, "Well, I guess that's why they call it gambling. This is a bad call, but I've already put so much money in the pot. I call."
He rolls over 99. OMG you fish. Lay your hand down one time.
My favorite part is that after he doubles through me he says that he "knew" that I was on overcards and that he "knew" he was ahead the whole time. Riiiiight. Explains his pre-flop speech. The hand we played before was quite interesting because when he bet 400 into me as the pre-flop raiser 3 ways in a 1400 chip pot, I asked how much he had left. He lifted his hands up to show me but FORGOT that his cards were in his hand still and I saw the bottom one, T . That combined with all the tells I was picking up on him made me conclude that he had TT or AT. He later confirmed that he had TT. Good laydown B!
Anyways, from there I doubled up a guy with aces, doubled up with Jacks, and found myself in this spot with 5700 in chips. I was in the small blind in the 200-400 with 50 level on a new table. A player limps from MP, I complete in the SB, and the BB checks. I have 9 T . The flop comes Q Q 8 . It checks around. I'm thinking, Jack. Sure enough... J . Even better. I bet 600, and the big blind looks thrilled that I bet 600. Ahh, he flopped queens. Sweet. He raised to 1500, player folded behind, I went all-in and he immediately called with Q 7 . River came 8 and I was sent packing. Bummer.
Tomorrow is the $200+30 NL event #3. I'm going to play super-aggro Gussey (Hansen) style tomorrow. Should be fun.
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So far I've met several of y'all that are members of PSO and/or regular readers of this blog. So much fun! I love meeting people, and if you see me floating around please say hello! If you don't, shoot me an e-mail so we can meet up.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
maverickusc@gmail.com
Canterbury Park Event #1 $300+40 limit hold-em
Limit studs in Minnesota...
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Mike Schneider wins again. It's so sick. The guy has two cashes in major tournament history... both of which are limit tournaments, both of which the guy finished first. He is officially one of the best limit poker players in the world today.
Now granted, he did catch a three outer and a six outer, but that's still sick.
The good news is that I had 5% of him. Ship the $1325. The bad news is that he had 5% of me and I finished 15th of 281 players which paid $818 gross on the $340 buy-in.
I love the fall classic for so many reasons. The tournament is a pretty good structure... It's a little fast, especially between levels 4 and 5, but mostly because of the community of people that create such an electric energy surrounding the room during these two weeks.
I had a generally uneventful first event. I felt like I earned every chip that I had the entire tournament. I got maximum value out of almost every hand and lost the minimum out of every hand, except for these couple. Here are the two interesting hands.
With thirty-some-odd players left, top 27 getting paid, I open raised the button with the Q 8 having 13,700 in chips. My image on the table was non-existent other than my youthfulness and my large stack. The two players in the binds had about 8k and 10k respectively with the blinds at 1k-2k, and both players were young leading me to believe that they were successful internet players. The flop came 8 7 5 . He checked to me, I bet, he called. The turn came A , he checked, and I... what is my proper action here? I very often have the best hand here, and even if I don't, I have 14 outs if he has an ace, 7 if he has a set, and somewhere in-between if he has anything else. What I was thinking was that he saw the A as a scare card, and unless he had that A beat he could not call, and even if he did I had plenty of outs. Furthermore, if he had a strong hand he would check-raise me, but there were so very few hands that could check raise me that I would lean towards betting almost any hand, even though a check-raise would make me puke. Comment below and I will give hand results later.
We made it down to 19 players when this hand came up. There was an over $400 jump from 27th-19th to 18th-10th that it was worth it to hang to the final two tables. I open raised the hi-jack with A 9 , and my friend Cory, a very solid player, called out of the big blind with the blinds at 2k-4k. I had raised with 19k+ in chips and he had about 30k+. The flop came heads up of Q T x, and he checked. I glanced quickly at my chips and checked behind. The turn came the Q . He checked, I sensed weakness, and I bet 4k. Cory check raised to 8k. Now, I knew that Cory sensed that I was either very strong or very weak, most likely very weak, and I knew that he knew that I knew this. I also knew that he knew that I was capable of slow playing a big hand, and I also know that he picked up on my checking my chips tell on the flop. I three bet. What sealed the deal in my book was that my 3 bet would leave me with only 3k, less than one big bet. Cory went into the tank and finally called. I was bummed. Hat's off to him for making a good read. The river came a blank, he checked, and I checked behind. He showed the T 9 and took down the pot. Nice play Cory. He went on to take third in the event.
What was so sweet about this event that Mike Schneider, Kirby Rogers, and Cory all made the final table, and they are all some of the best limit players in Minnesota if not the world, and they ended up taking 1-2-3. The entire crew of all of us were there to cheer them on, and it was so much fun to see our good buddies finish strong.
The quote of the day came when Jimmy Sommerfield, tournament director with world series and circuit experience, said to Ed, the oldest guy on the final table, "Ed, where's all your fans? All the people in the gallery are under forty!" Now Ed is easily over 70 and looks it too. Without missing a beat he looked at Jimmy and said, "They're dead," in such a non-chalant sort of way that he expected Jimmy to understand immediately. We all cracked up laughing.
Also tonight Pam from the Star Tribune showed up. Pam is a reporter for the co-major newspaper in the twin-cities area and was doing a story on the poker fad and specifically young professionals involved in it. She hit the jackpot tonight. She was hot and a ton of fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing what she has to say about toinight.
Oh yeah, I finished 2nd to Kirby in the $100 14-way last longer split 70-30 for a net of $320. So, that plus $360 minus $40 for Mike's 5% plus $1325 for my 5% of Mike. Good day.
Tomorrow is the $300+40 NL event #2. I'm gonna win one of these damn things!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
maverickusc@gmail.com
Day 0, Canterbury Park Fall Poker Classic
Satellite and 30-60
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This morning I went into work with Kelly and Nicky, two of my good friends from Minnesota and with whom I am staying for this trip. Got into work at 11 (so early...) and left at 7. It was kinda nice to feel normal once again.
There was no 30 game going so I played in a $65 satellite. $500 in buy-ins and $50 cash to the winnner and we made an 8 way last longer bet for $20. I came out super-aggressive, was able to pick up a few pots early and cruised from there. At one point I busted two players in one hand. As the second player was leaving he said, "Look. You bust both asian player in one hand. Now this game fuck up." Instant quote of the day. He was asian. Other was too. All us white guys remaining couldn't help it and cracked up, he smiled and left. 3 handed I chopped the last longer pool with the other remaining guy $70 to him and $90 to me, which I am happy with since he was behind me and he could react to me. He then went busted four hands later (damnit), and I was heads up with a young player named Kyle. He had me 3-2 on chips. We took a $200 save and decided to play for the remaining $150. I don't know how I feel about taking a save in this spot. The blinds were 50-100, soon to be 100-200, with only 3k chips in play. But, I had a good read on him and felt that I was the better player. How much equity do I give up due to the fast structure? If any of y'all have any insight on that I'd be happy to hear it. Please comment below.
From there I started a 30 game and was basically stuck in the mud. I was up $600, down $600 and everywhere in between. I finished up $242. Nice net for 8 hours of $597.
I'm going to be spending a lot of time out these two weeks hanging with people that I haven't seen in a while, and I'm stoked on that. I just might wear myself out pretty quickly though!
Tomorrow is the $300+40 Limit event #1. It's interesting that their opening event is a limit event... wasn't like that last year.
Oh yeah. It was 34 degrees this morning. I hate the weather here.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
maverickusc@gmail.com
The Three Day Recap: Sinking Boats and Jennicide
Just like a poker player to make over/under bets on top speed while our boat was sinking...
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It has been quite an overwhelming but eventful few days. So much so that I have a billion things floating in my mind and all I can think of is how flipping cold it's going to be in Minnesota. Last year during the fall classic the weather was just fine. But I just spoke with Kelly and she said it's snowing, and the ten day forecast forecasted cold. Snow. Rain. Ten day high of 58. Damnit if I didn't like and miss dearly so many people there I would simply miss my flight.
Yesterday was quite the day. I woke up around 2pm and Jared and I decided we were lake bound. The problem was that we had to do some repairs to the boat/trailer for reasons that you will learn about later. We siphoned somewhere in the neighborhood of fifteen gallons of lake water out of our pontoons and then had to put on the lug nuts on the port side trailer tire correctly. We motored out to Bocce island and did the classic drink beer/play bocce ball tricks. I love being on that lake at sunset.
From there Tiffany and I picked up Melissa and then went to Capo's. If you're ever in Vegas looking for the best Italian ever, look that joint up. After dinner we headed to Brandon and Zach's apartment where I met Jennifer Leigh, aka Jennicide. She had a sweet article about her in Card Player this month and is a super cool girl. She was playing online and went bust in that account but still wanted action. She couldn't re-load immediately, so we ended up playing $5 point Chinese four way, Brandon, Zach, her, and myself. She lost $35, everybody else won. We were on the way out, and I kinda felt bad cause she was getting crushed, so I said, "Want to play rock paper scissors for $40?" She agreed, and an epic match broke out - best of five.
I quickly pulled into the lead with an opening winner of scissors followed by a draw with two rocks. I went with the rock once again and it pulled through, putting me ahead 2-0. But, Jennicide is tough competition and wasn't going to go down easy. Standing toe to toe we were locked eye to eye with our right fists clenched. One... Two... Three... THROW!
Tie. Again, tie. Again, tie. We were going level three on each other. I was thinking about what she was thinking I was thinking about what she was thinking. Then, in a moment of zen clairity, I knew the answer. I was due for a rock, and she knew that rock is my favorite, and I had just thrown paper, and she knows that I like repeaters, so she knew that I knew that she knew I liked repeaters and thus was going to go rock to smash her scissors but she wasn't going to go scissors she was going paper.
I threw scissors. The nuts. Shippit. MHIG. Brandon paid off his marker to Jenn to me, and Jenn went into "I can't win at anything" tilt. She's probably going to kick my ass at pool next time we are in that context. I'd better start practicing... Either way she was a ton of fun and sweet new friend to have.
From there I found out that a guy that owes me money was at the Bellagio and one of Melissa's friends was deep in the tourney so we headed down there. Neither of those events happened, but I saw the ESPN special on Cory Lidle, the New York Yankees pitcher that died in a private plane crash yesterday. If you missed that on the news, do a search for the story. It is quite tragic. It really hit home to me because he was a pitching coach of mine during high school and I have several memories containing both him and my father. It really struck a painful chord in my heard and I cried for the first time in a casino sportsbook.
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Tuesday night six of us launched on Lake Mead on a three hour beer drinking tour. Danny was getting off work later so said that he would meet us at the dock at 10:15pm. Jared left the island to go pick up Danny while we were left with three beers each and all the dead bushes to burn we needed. Then, two guys that Jared works with said that they had three girls that wanted to get on the boat and would be at the dock by 10:30. We were like, sweet. More girls always good.
Problem. When Jared picked up Danny, the "Guy on the Couch" was with him. Guy has to be at least 350 lbs. He's cool, but this boat was starting to get heavy. Then, the three girls showed up, but one of them was a guy not a girl, and not a small boy either.
Long story short. Return trip was eleven people, only four of which were girls, one of the guys was over 350, and all guys but one were over 200 pounds. My feet were soaked in the drivers seat. We had water coming up through the deck. The pontoons were submerged in the back. The motor was nearly underwater. Our top speed was cut in half. And, it was choppy. At one point we took a wave over the bow, and didn't pop back up. We actually dove like a submarine for a couple of moments until I cut the engine. We finally made it back, blew a tire on the trailer on the way home, and crawled into bed at 5 am.
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Monday I was on my way around the strip visiting boxes to get cash for this trip. At the Wynn I played 30-60 for an hour, lost every hand and blew a quick $1119. That was fun. I then headed to the Mirage and while I was in my box I heard Melissa walk into the poker room. She was with my friend Topher and a couple other guys Rich and Mike, and we hung out for a while together. Then Poff got a call from Ted Forrest who was going to Jet and said, meet us there. Sweet! Problem for me... I was wearing sandals and a hat. That's no good for Jet. We met Ted, hung out front for a while, the bouncer said that I couldn't get in, so I said, "Have fun kids!"
I walked across the street and played some poker. Poker? This is a poker related blog? Ah ha! The 40 game was full so I sat in a 2-5 game. The floor guy said, "You'll like this one, Bryan..." I immediately identified the fish and busted him within twenty minutes. Good times. Whatever he had it was a horrible call. Made $850 on the 2-5 game. I then got into the 40-80 game and played until 7am. Tiffany did a great job of keeping the game fired up and happy with her random mid morning energy and red bulls she was providing. I made somewhere in the neighborhood of $330 after a generally slow session and drug my butt home.
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So, getting on a plane in two hours and flying to Minnesota for two and a half weeks! Excited for the trip, scared to death of the cold. :Sigh: I'm going to bring my winter mountaineering gear and sit at the final table with ski goggles and a beanie.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Post a comment
maverickusc@gmail.com
River a Full House? Just Call...
Reflections from the morning/evening couch
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Here I am lazily sitting on the couch watching Poker Superstars III on FSN waking up from a late night and long sleep. Something sweet just happened though because I have seen two partypoker commercials in the past few commercial breaks. Now, it's quite possible that these shows have been put together for a while now with the commercials already edited in, but either way I think that it's good news for the online poker situation in general. If money is still being spent in this country on marketing by offshore gaming sites, then the state of online poker is not as dead as many of us have previously thought.
I played at the Venetian 40-80 for about 5 hours yesterday netting a profit of a monsterous $306. The highlight was seeing my friend Greg who I met on my trip to Casino Arizona a few weeks ago. I ended up spending some time having a few drinks with a friend of mine, and then found myself playing 30-60 at the Bellagio. This fascinating hand came.
My friend Noah from Minnesota (aka Broke Rapper) open raised the cutoff. I looked down and saw the 9 9 and re-raised. Jim, a solid player that has showed up in town this weekend from New York was in the SB and called after a little thought. Last time I saw him cold call my 3 bets he had QQ. The BB also called, and we saw the flop 4 ways. It came K Q J . All checked to me, and I was done with this hand. I checked behind. The turn came with the 9 . Well for the love of all the snakes on a plane! What the hell do I do with that card?
Jim bet, the BB folded, Noah folded, and I decided to do what any professional poker player would do. I figured that Jim could only be betting a T, and had either TT or AT. I called hoping that the board would pair.
The river came with the K . Jim bet, I thought for a moment and raised. He thought for a moment and re-raised.
It was at this point that I realized that my river raise was a pretty bad play. When I think about it now sitting on my leather couch, watching Matusow torture Hansen, listening to my brother play Led Zepplin poorly on the guitar, I clearly see that Jim could never have had AT in this hand. Further, the only possible hand that I am going to get value on is if he has TT. If he has AA, KK, QQ, JJ, or AK, I'm not getting any value. He would be able to fold AA, probably AK, and would not have bet it on the turn. If he's bluffing, he's not calling my raise. He might even fold his TT for my river raise.
I ended up turning my hand face-up and worked this all through on the table. I folded for the last bet, shocking the hell out of the table, but I knew that 100 times out of 100 times I was beat by this player in this situation. But what is frustrating to me is that even though I saved that last bet, I should not have put two bets in on the river in the first place. That is the problem that so many people run into in this game is that they base their bets off of the objective strength of their hand rather than the subjective strength of their hand. I have value bet ace high on the river, and I've just called with full houses before. It's all relative to the strengh of your hand compared to your opponents hand.
Oh, Jim had quad Kings. I ended up losing $500 in that session.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
The PPL Draft and the Venetian
It felt like the series for one night...
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Last night marked in my opinion one of the best things that has happened to poker in a long time. I am so thrilled with the timing of this too - that last night came six days after Black Monday even though it was planned months in advance.
I was at the Venetian last night for the inagural draft of the Professional Poker League. 64 of the best poker players in the world have made a long term committment to the Venetian to play a series of poker tournaments and matches that will be held weekly and broadcast nationally. The Venetian in turn has built an arena that will play venue to the matches. I am not sure how the players are going to make money or how the Venetian is going to make money, but I am assuming that it is purely endorsement and advertisement money. That is good news to me because the primary marketing monies have come from internet poker. Perhaps more beer and tobacco endorsements? Or perhaps it will look like NASCAR with the individual competition but the team aspect at the same time. Either way, it is very much off the ground and running and no doubt a good thing.
The energy in the room was incredible last night. It felt very much like the Series. Right off the bat I saw my friend Kenna James who I had not seen since the Series. He gave me a big ol bear hug and we spent a while catching up. I also saw my friend Katie who writes for Poker Pro magazine. Unfortunately the second time I walked up to her she got busted out of the tournament... I am a bad sweat. I also spent some time with David Williams who is as fun as ever.
After the draft most of the PPL players played in a bounty tournament in the Venetian poker room that was quite a hit. There were people everywhere. Daniel had a line of people waiting for autographs and pictures, and he greeted each and every individual between hands with a handshake and a smile. There was a named pro at almost every table of the tournament and it went down as quite a success.
I did not make it into the tournament - aparrantly it was sold out for quite a while. I was playing in the 40-80 game that decided to get going again for the first time in over a month. I got crushed for $1200 in the first 12 minutes but eventually battled back for a win of about $1050. My session was interrupted when my friends Brandon and Zach showed up and we headed into Tao. Brandon Cantu won event #2 of the series this year and his event was just televised last Tuesday. It will replay tonight at midnight pacific time also! I was curious if he would be recognized as he walked into the room or perhaps at the club, but such was not the case. We had a good time hanging out, chatting about how cool the PPL could eventually get, and called it a night somewhere around 3:30am.
So, very excited about the new current state of poker, stoked on how good this month is going, and ready to get on to winning some tournaments!
Peace and good luck,
Devo
maverickusc@gmail.com
Maiden Voyages(s)
Bought boat. Day One: Fix engine, get running, install front and rear navigational lights, install front headlights, fix gas tank, and do all legal paperwork for the boat. Finished at 10pm. Then? Go boating. We finally launched at 11pm, had a good ol time, took out at 3am, woke up at 1:30pm and finally got home at 9:30pm.
Enjoy the pics.
Devo
Early October Live Poker
Coming out of the gates strong...
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What a month it has already been. First day, Sunday the 1st, I played a couple of hours online four tabling 1-2 NL on party and made $400. I really felt more comfortable with the game and was able to identify some of the mistakes I have been making... other than pushing $2300 drawing almost dead! I then headed into the Wynn for some 30-60 action, and the game was GOOOOOOD. I stayed a little longer than I wanted to, but made $1k in the last hour for a total win of $1926. Good day one.
Monday morning I lazily woke up figuring it was going to be just another monday. When I checked my e-mail inbox, I was asked a question about how the internet ban was going to affect neteller. I knew that the legislation passed Senate on Friday night, but this e-mail sent me to beating the bushes. What I found was quite scary. I was dumped head first into "Black Monday" as the facts of what was going down were revealed to me. If you are unfamiliar with these, read Justin's recent blog on the internet ban.
I wandered into the Wynn with mixed emotions. I was furious at our American government. I love my country but I hate my government. We live in a nation no longer run by the people. I have been upset with our current political state of affairs for a long time, but this one really set me off. I strongly recommend any of you who believe in freedom and the constitution to check out the libertarian party. I was also very scared about what was going to happen with my profession and the poker industry in general. What is actually going to happen is yet to be seen, but I am very thankful that I live in a town where I can play live in a decent game every day. I was so shook up by these emotions that I could not focus on the table for the life of me. I only lasted 45 minutes, but it was a fun 45 minutes in the meantime.
First hand I post behind the button in a 9 handed 30-60 game with a lineup of many of the usual suspects. I pick up the Qh 4d and we see a flop 5 ways. It comes Qc Jc 4c . Check, check, check, bet, and I raise. All fold to the bettor and he 3 bets, I just call. Turn is the Kd , he bets, I call. River is the Qs , he bets, I raise, he calls, MHIG, and he flashes the Ac 2c . Hehehe.
Very next hand, All fold to the guy I beat last hand. He raises, I 3 bet Jc Js , all fold and he 4 bets. I just call. Flop comes 7c 5d 2s , he bets, I raise, he 3 bets, I call. Turn Jd , he bets, I raise, he calls. River is 4d , he bets, I raise, he calls, MHIG, he flashes Ad Ah . Two hands vs. same opponent, I catch 4 outer on river and 2 outer on turn and am up $910. He left immediately.
From there I went to the Bellagio to see if anybody was around for the 1st event of the Festa al Lago that I could talk to about Black Monday. I didn't find anybody and sat in a 15-30 game to kill an hour until traffic dissipated. I won $70, putting me up $1200 for the day and went out with the boys for the night.
Tuesday was a much better day. I discovered the Mirage 40-80 6max game and crushed it for $2209. Good times, juicy game. I played in it again today and lost $181.
Highlight of the day: Jared and I bought a pontoon boat! 1971 24' pontoon boat. It's sick. Cost us $1k each. Our driveway is officially redneck.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Bring on the Fall Poker Baby!
Thank God it's October.
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This month has been one of those that should make any of you thinking of being a professional poker player shake in your boots, birkenstocks, bare feet, or whatever the hell you have on your feet right now. I ended up winning $1673 in 120 hours of work. Now granted, that is better than $13 an hour which many people would be thrilled to make and I have the freedom to travel whenever I want and work whenever I want. However, I would much rather have a normal job for $13 or $23 or $33 an hour and not have to deal with the stresses that come with professional poker playing.
For example, last night I was stuck just over $2k within two hours, got pissed because I hate losing months, and ended up battling all the way back to up $436. I was quite proud of that. Anyways, I'm pretty much just rambling about how poker isn't all peachy and peaches. That said, I still love it. I just need to figure out some passive income.
So, on to October. It's going to be an extremely busy couple of months, but that's okay because I'm going to win a tournament in that time. It's been since March 2002 since I have outright won a live tournament. How sick is that? I've took down several online ones during that time, had 3 chops live, and a runner-up to a bracelet (most sick), but no wins. Therefore, damnit, I'm winning a tournament this fall. Here's what my schedule looks like:
October 2-11, Bellagio Festa al Lago. Will probably only play one or two events, but will be playing most of my cash games there
October 3, Brandon's final table on ESPN.
October 5-6, $100,000 Wynn Freeroll.
October 10, Dutch's final table on ESPN. My thirty seconds of background guy fame.
October 12, Fly to Minnesota
October 14, Paintball Tournament. Bet you didn't know that about me, eh?
October 14-27, Fall Classic at Canterbury Park. I will be playing all events and my goal is to finish in top 3 in all around points.
October 28, Return to Las Vegas.
October 28-November 16 - World Poker Finals begin at Foxwoods. If I have a good October I will be there for sure. I've always wanted to head up to New England, especially during the fall. I also have two friends that I would love to visit during that time. Plus, I got to get my mug up on TV in a playing context otherwise Justin West is going to start getting pissed at me. Anybody going to be any of those places at any of those times? I would love to say hello!
So, times like this month are reasons that I only work 120 hours in months like September. Either way, I'm stoked for a new month. On a positive note, I've started it off on a great note winning $368 in an hour today playing $1-2 NL! Woo-hoo! 8 more of those and I'll undo my status of no-limitarded.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
maverickusc@gmail.com
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