Got em again... EZ game.
This feels so good. Quickie blurb blog here. Yesterday I played the Stars 109, 100r, and fuper, the FTP 25k and 55k, and UB $129 bounty. I finished somewhere in the last three tables of the FTP $25k to a super silly beat. Guy on the button who's 10th in chips makes his standard open to like 2.7BB's, I ship it on him with AKo, and he calls off the 20 BB's left in his stack with 54 and the speech, "I'm going to sleep." Unfortunately for me he jinxed his sleep and obv 54s > AKo. Whatevs. I'll take the call every time there.
Then I took 6th in the PS 100r. I was pretty happy with that one as I got really card dead at the end and got pretty unlucky in a hand that we played to showdown. I am proud of back to back ft's in the 100r though as that field is notoriously tough and yesterday's final two tables were stacked.
OK... it's almost four so I'm gonna fire em up. Playing on all three major sites as badbeatninja.
Also, I've put my hand histories from my ftp 55k win up on pokerxfactor. If you're interested in seeing that shoot me an e-mail at maverickusc@gmail.com and i'll send you the link.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.........
Man, this is great. What a world of difference confidence makes. I get picked up, I get a great boost of confidence, I get a 1st, 3rd, and 9th in nine tournaments.
Today I played the 100r and fuper on stars, the 55k and 30r on tilt, and the 129 on UB. I took 9th in the 100r after running bad early for 3 unnecessary rebuys. I sucked out greeeeeat a couple of times deep (although I belonged in both pots) and thought for sure the tourney was mine when I got in a race on the final table and busted 9th. It felt good though... that was the first time I have cashed in the 100r.
Meanwhile, I was down to two tables in the FTP $55k (same one I've won and seconded in). I did an excellent job of accumulating chips and sizing bets tonight. By the time we reached the bubble, I had established my standard open to 2.1x bb and was getting zero resistance about 75% of the time. It was sick. On the final table I had a nice little lucksack moment when I got it all in 3rd in chips from the SB vs. the BTN who was 2nd in chips with A K v A K . I calmly said, "Clubs?" Flop 3 of em, river the fourth. EZ game.
The guy I got heads up with was soooooo passive. If he played even a bit of normal he would've lasted about ten minutes, but he was so passive that he didn't stack off with an overpair on an 832 limped pot when I flopped top and bottom (he open limped btn with KK... thanks buddy.). He also didn't stack off when I had an overpair vs. his top pair, just calling all 4 streets.
I digress. Great night. I'm feeling great. I'm so stoked for the five diamond coming up. Estoy en fuego ahora. Ten cuidado!
Thanksgiving was surprisingly good. I hate spending holidays away from family but that's how it worked out this time around. I ended up hanging at a friends house, coming home by five and playing the online tourneys, went over to Jon Eaton's house to meet Platts who was staying there, FTing the 100r, winning the $55k, and then going to Jared's bar to chill. It was a fantastic night.
I love playing in a living room with stud poker players. It's so good to bounce ideas and thoughts and hands and bad beat and good beat stories and just general support off of players that are in your caliber and especially when they're better than you. Everybody improves, the guy deep in a tournament will play better, and work is suddenly more fun. I really need to make a more concentrated effort to play my online tourneys with other fellas and thus help both our results.
OK... night y'all.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Huge chip lead FTP 20r 9 left and the rest of day WTF?!?
badbeatninja ftw sweeeeeeat
I ended up taking third in this tourney which was pretty disappointing, but there wasn't a dang thing I could do otherwise. I played one weird hand with 77 out of the small blind that I hate but I can't figure out what to do that's better. I hate all options. Maybe donk the flop? Anyways, check it out here.
So after dropping off the hitchhiker yesterday Jared and I headed to Nick and Ian's house, some old friends that I've kept in touch with ever since high school. Casey was there also. We loaded five mountain bikes and helmets into Jared truck and drove up to the top of a mountian. We saw a doe mule deer on our hike up, and that was pretty cool for 11am in southern california. I was psyched for this ride. I used to guide mountain biking trips in Colorado and this was my first real opportunity since then to ride. So, in one of the first sections, I came into a corner hard (not out of control...) and lost the front wheel traction and then the bike. I suppose I shouldn't have tried to ride as hard as I used to after four years and on a bike that I don't know. OOPS! I got a sweet abrasion on my forearm, one of those annoying ones that are so shallow that they don't scab but they always sting. I got an ok one on my right knee, and sweet ones on the heel of my palms from breaking my fall. I still haven't picked out all the pieces of dirt.
We rode the bikes all the way back to Nick's house, prob a 12 mile total distance trip. We chilled for a bit, and then the five of us headed to the local pitch and putt par 3 course. I played barefoot and bad but had a great time while losing $10 in total bets. Back home, shower, and then again pile into Jared's truck to head down to Temecula where a bunch of other buddies were. I was pretty tired from the day and elected to be the DD. Man, that was the drunkest I've ever seen my group of friends as a whole. It was half hilarious and half annoying. I got everybody back home safe somewhere around 3:30 am.
Today was an excellent day. I got picked up for all my online action with a really sweet deal. It's a great relief in the finance department and has instantly allowed me to play better and with more confidence. I was super stoked with my play in the four tournaments I played and really should have booked a bigger win, but as it is with tournaments, luck plays a huge factor in the short run.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Tripod
I've declared today WTF?!? day I've been awake for 40 minutes before ten am already.
Weird, I know.
While pouring coffee a cat named Tripod rubbed against my leg in the way that cats do.
"I woke the rooster up this morning. Moms and I walked out back, turned out the light, and the rooster comes walking out of the doghouse looking at us like, "WTF!?!" - Jared on what happened while I was sleeping.
I'm driving through burn areas right now, listening to Eddie Vedder, and Jared just picked up a guy with a beard and dredlocks who is now in the back of the truck on our way down the hill.
It's going to be a weird day.
Devo
Hippie Paradigms
Non Poker I've found myself content at 3:30 in the morning in Lytle Creek, California. It's a small mountain town outside of Los Angeles. Jared and I left from Vegas at 8:45pm Sunday night to head to his Mom's house. He's coming down now since he has to work on Thanksgiving, so I figured I'd join him. My Mom isn't doing the big family thing this Thanksgiving. I really wanted to do the big family thing, but this way I'll get to spend time, roll with Jared, and not stress being back in town for my friend coming into town this weekend or to get Travis a ride to the airport on Friday. So, yeah, Mom - there's my plan :-).
I've been thinking about this paradigm of "being a hippie" if you will for a long time. In July I realized that this pursuit of fame and fortune had made me a real pain in the ass to be around and in general not so much of a pleasant person. I missed the person that I was several years ago and have been working on incorporating the lessons that I learned years ago but had forgotten during this summer. I re-learned that I had always hated money and what it often does to people. I remembered how much I like people, and how much I enjoy being in a community of people who are good.
Recently I have been re-learning what it means to be happy. What really makes me happy. People have often asked me if I am happy, or if I like what I am doing. Others have criticized me in my career path saying that I am doing nothing for the world, that my previous directions were "better". I have learned that this world does not need any more doctors, or lawyers, or teachers, or athletes, or whatever. What this world needs is happy people, because happy people make people happy more than any of the other professions listed before. If I am a happy poker player, I am going to make the lives and the worlds of the people that I encounter better by simply being a happy person. Imagine if the number of truly happy people you ran into every day increased ten fold. Man! What a more awesome society we would live in!
And the paradigms of society. The things that we have made important and not. The fact that my friend who used to be a teacher made $35k last year while I can play a stupid game of cards and be up over $100k this year. Or that Alex Rodriguez is getting ten year contracts for $275m while our soldiers get shot at for $20k/year.
I believe that our society needs to change in many, many ways. As much as I would like to up and vanish on the road, chase rivers and snow around the country, and just live, I know it is not the right thing. I love the community of hippies, and wanderers, and guides, and anybody else who loves people and freedom, but it is wrong to isolate ourselves from the rest of the world simply because we do not agree with the world. Just as it is wrong for the church to isolate themselves from the world, for Christian communities to isolate themselves from others. I have made a very intentional moment to change my paradigms yet still live my life in the place that I have found myself.
I spend more time around campfires. I play my guitar more. I talk with people more, rather than watch TV. I have remembered to live for right now, because tomorrow is not guaranteed to us. I've learned to re-focus on poker, and to balance it as an element of work rather than a dominant force in my life. I have re-kindled old friendships and remembered who I was.
I'm going to spend a few days here in So. Cal and be back in Vegas on Wednesday. Venetian starts next week and the Five Diamond is immediately after!
It's a mystery to me
We have a Greed
With which we have agreed
And you think you have to
Want more than you need
Until you have it all
You won't be Free
Society
You're a crazy breed
I Hope you're not lonely
Without me
When you want more than you have
You think you need
And when you think more than you want
Your thoughts begin to bleed
I think I need to find a bigger place
Cause when you have
More than you think
You need more space
Society
Crazy indeed
I hope you're not lonely
Without me
There's those thinking more less
Less is more
But if less is more,
How you keepin score?
Means for every point you make
Your level drops
Kinda like you're startin from the top
And you can't do that
Society
You're a crazy breed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me
Society
Crazy indeed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me
Society
Have mercy on me
Hope you're not angry
I disagree
Society
You're a crazy breed
Hope you're not lonely
Without me
Society, Written by Jerry Hannan, Performed by Eddie VedderPeace and good luck,
Devo
Devo's Back
But I Still Want to be a Hippie... Today I put in the best session I have had since July, and the best in terms of big bets I think I may have ever had... but it's close. I got em for $2183 playing 15-30 and $152 playing one 10-20 game and 3 5-10 games online, so somewhere in the neighborhood of the low 80 big bets. I got two pieces of advice from good buddies of mine and inplemented half of each of em. Tonight was the first time I've actually wanted to be sitting at a poker table for a long time.
Money hater of the night award goes to a player that played every street post flop as bad as possible. The great part about how badly he played it was based on how he played it I would have mucked the river for one bet, but instead he gave me a free showdown and a several hundred dollar pot. He was in the small blind, I was in the big blind with 8 8 , and we saw a flop six ways. It came J 4 8 . He checked, I bet, two players called, he check-raised, I three bet, randoms folded, and he four bet. I called. Turn QQ , he bet, I raised, he three-bet, and I called. River Tx, he checked, I gladly took the free showdown and beat his QJo. Thaaaaanks.
I was really proud of both my sessions today though. Online I got stuck $500 within 15 minutes in juiceball games. I got pissed, said screw this I'm booking a winner, and quit an hour later up $152. Then in the 15-30 game I got stuck a rack again in the first ten minutes, and within 20 minutes I was back to even. I was proud that even in the midst of a 3 month losing streak and a losing month I was able to find the drive and determination to battle back in good games and book winnners.
Friday I took my 97 F-150 into the Ford dealership to see about a check-engine light that wasn't affecting performance, a cruise control issue, a flashing O/D light, and to have my oil changed. I signed off on the diagnostics charge, went home, and was called with an estimate at 3:30pm. They wanted $1300 for the diag, oil change, plugs, wires, and a "servo" on the speedo cable. For the record, a new speedo cable itself is not an expensive operation... maybe a couple hundo or so. $500 for the speedo servo, $700 for plugs and wires, and the change for the rest. I literally laughed out loud and said, nooooooooooooooo. Spark plugs go for 0.99 each on sale!!! I say I'm gonna pick it up in about an hour.
I show up in an hour, ask for my truck, and the receipt isn't printed. Long story short, 25 minutes later I'm asking the cashier "What's taking so long?!?" She says, well, the first mechanic has to take it off the rack and do a write up on it, then it goes to a supervisior who does a write up and then passes it onto the service manager who has to do a write up, and then he sends it here where we settle up, then you'll have to take your receipt to valet and they'll get your car for you.
You have got to be kidding me.
Ten minutes later I get my recipt printed up and they overcharged me by over a hundred bucks. I said this is wrong, she "checked" on it, three minutes later said, "Oh, you're right. Take this to the manager and he'll take care of you."
I patiently waited outside the manager's office for five minutes, the other customer walked out, he followed her, looked me dead in the eye and said, "What's up?" And then proceeded to walk out the door. I'm like, "Sir! Excuse me! Wait!" He kept walking. I lost it.
Anyways, I'm not going back there anytime soon.
yep. 4:30 am and I'm tired, so cheers.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
The Frontier Implosion Party
Perks of Living In Vegas Man, last night was AWESOME. Here's how my day went: I woke up, played Guitar Hero 3 for a while, then left the house at 7:30pm with Travis my old roommate from Colorado. We went to the Bellagio and picked up Maria Ho, parked my truck on the roof of one of the Fashion Show parking structures as our plan B (we had heard that they weren't letting people on the roof of the Wynn) and walked over to the Wynn. We scout the roof, find out that we're cool, and start the party in the poker room. We started a $4-8 mix game playing 2-7 Triple Draw, Omaha 8, Badugi, and Crazy Pinapple just the three of us on table 1 in the top section and ordered cocktails. Within half an hour the game had filled up with Jared, Danny, Joe Tehan, Adam Spiegelberg, and Justin Sellers. Every time we ordered a round of drinks we would play a "cocktail pot", and whoever won that one had to do the tipping. It was great times, but I could not win a hand to save my life and was even playing decently good losing $361. By the time we quit at one there was a must move game going with Gank and Micon in it and eight people on the list. LOL.
From there we wandered upstairs and began tailgating on the back of Jared's truck. We had 4 18 packs of beer which should have been enough, but shortly before implosion Danny pushed the cooler around on a skateboard and sold "a lot of it". He made enough to pay for the beer and a full tank of gas and as the tower fell we all finished our last beers. There was probably thirty of us at implosion time. Others there that you know were Jon Friedberg and Shannon Shorr.
The tower was a "small" one, only 16 stories tall, but it was nonetheless incredible. They had an awesome fireworks display and then BOOM. Our spot was awesome because we were so close and the small 3 story building in the front blocked most of the dust and debris from hitting us. Check out the videos out there. They're awesome.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
I Still Want to Be a Hippie
It's been a good week. It has been an excellent last several days. First off, I want to thank all of you that sent me e-mails of encouragement. They really have meant a lot to me and have been a strong source of strength for me.
Last night Jared and I went to see "Into the Wild" at the only theatre showing it in town. I had been fixing to see this movie for quite a while. The book rocked my world and I was sure that the movie would do the same, especially at this crux in my life. Into the Wild is a story about a 21 year old man who is as counter culture as they come. He is a trust fund baby from a "perfect" family but he is embittered by the lies and pursuit of wealth that have jaded his family for his entire life. After he graduates college he drives west in his Datsun, not sure where he's going, but knowing that he wanted to disappear. It's a story about his adventure that takes him from Atlanta to Lake Mead up the Pacific Crest Trail to South Dakota to the Grand Canyon down the river in a kayak into the gulf of Mexico, back north to Los Angeles, to the Slabs, and to Anzo Borreago (sp?) before leaving on his "Great Alaskan Adventure." It's a story of an intelligent kid losing himself to find himself. At the end of the movie he writes that "happiness is only real when shared." The movie ended, credits rolled, the lights came on, and nobody had moved. When was the last time you had ever seen that? I haven't ever. Everybody in the theatre (granted not many people) had not moved and were engrossed in conversation about the movie. It definately hit Jared and I in a big way.
I'm definately doing it. I got into the poker world in the first place because of that counter-culture personality that most of us have. We hate the idea of the corporate ladder, the pursuit of money, working 9-5, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, never living because of being too wrapped up with working. For a couple of years poker was a the perfect combination with my love for the woods and the wild because it allowed me the freedom to be as transient as I wanted to. I would guide for about four months every year, living in a sleeping bag somewhere and loving it. But then the series of 06 happened, I started writing here at pokerpages, I got asked for autographs, and suddenly I was consumed with the pursuit of fame and fortune. It's made me less happy of a person.
I definately feel that there's a balance here in the city that I can find as a compromise as last night was an awesome hippie moment as was last Sunday that inspired my previous blog. Jared and I saw the flick, hung out at my friend's bar, went to the market and bought wine, went home and drank it around a bonfire in our backyard. We chilled and watched the sun rise and had a peaceful moment with peaceful people.
What am I going to do? Beats me. Perhaps I'll return to the river. Perhaps I'll go back to Forest Home. Perhaps I'll just embrace the hippie spirit more consistently here. Perhaps I'll sell everything except for my truck and some gear and really get back into the hippie spirit.
I do know that I have been so much more stoked this week than I have been in a while. I re-invoked my policy of treating work like work. Back before 06 I kept my bankfoll and personal finances separate and paid myself hourly. I've dropped back down in limits again and am paying myself $20/hr in an effort to rebuild my bankroll and teach myself some life discipline with spending. I went 7 for 9 this week in sessions and won 1700. I worked on somewhat of Jared's schedule.
It's been a good week. I'm way more stoked right now than I was seven days ago that's for sure.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
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