Being Real and Bustin Nooooobs
Life, Poker, Life. Ha! Poker content! Christmas was one of the best ones that I can remember. Traditionally my family does things at my house with Mom's side of the fam on Christmas eve, and then we go to Orange County on Christmas afternoon to spend time with my Dad's side. Over the years Christmas eve has dwindled to just my nuclear fam and my Mom's grandparents, and they always bickered like grumpy old people. Never too enjoyable really. However, in the past year they have both had significant medical issues, and I think it kinda woke em up. They were happier than I have ever seen them. My grandfather, who didn't even remember where I lived or what I did, was singing Irish jigs and reciting two hundred year old verses of poetry. He told us stories about WWII and Alaska. It was awesome.
Christmas morning was great. My mother responded to my protests last year when for the first year of my entire life I didn't get a toy. She hooked it up with a remote controlled helicopter. It's sick and is airborne in the house quite often. Furthermore, she didn't guess what I got her. I'm like 2/20 lifetime now or something silly sneaking something past the "gift identification radar." She's good.
Anyways, headed down to OC to be with that side of the fam (cousin's wedding side) and had another excellent day. The "kids" table is still the kids table, but instead of sippy cups we were doing tequila shooters last year. Cousin Dave busted out some funky Tennessee whiskey this year and it tasted like gasoline and kicked like a mule.
We have a $10 white elephant-ish gift exchange that is always a good time, but this year was the best by far. I've never heard our entire family having so much fun together before. It was wonderful. Thanks y'all (That means you Jeff, Chris, Caryn, and any other secret readers :-)!
Christmas eve I wrote that rant blog and it felt good to get all those things out. Thanks to whoever left that youtube comment - that really meant a lot to me. The following morning Kristin and I grabbed some coffee and headed to Puddingstone lake where I spent much of my youth. We sat on a picnic bench and talked, and invariably we got on the subject of the church.
She helped me to look back at the things that have frustrated me so much about the church and why they have driven me away. I realized something that I hadn't before and kinda the moment that I gave up. In the spring of 06, Shay (ex-wife) applied for a job as an assistant at a church in Colorado. She flew out there, things were great, and then when they asked what I did things weren't great. Now remember, I used to work at a church, I strongly support the ministry, they had good references for me in Colorado and California, yet it wasn't good enough. They interviewed me over the phone, and since I wouldn't quit playing poker when I moved to Colorado, they denied Shay the position. It pissed me off like nobody's business, but I guess I didn't realize until this week the signifigance of that moment.
The thing is that the church is an instutition founded by God but run by people and therefore it is going to be inherently flawed. I cannot justapose the actions of the church onto the character of God. True, I have been hurt, and I have every right to be angry, but I am wrong in the grudges that I have held. I need to let them go and re-learn what it is like to forgive - not only the church, but those that have hurt me along the way.
The thing is that much of my strife with the church was due to my going against the grain. Anybody who's read like one of my blogs that isn't about poker knows this. I have always been a maverick, and while working in the church I was no different. I saw things that were not right and I wanted to change them. I was very "successful" if you can define success within the context of ministry, yet that was often overshadowed by the conflicts that I created. For example, at the last church I worked at, I was brought on in a part time role to basically start a student ministry. They gave me a roster of about 20 kids, 5 of em showed up every once in a while, and the programming was minimal. Within 9 months there was a program in place with 20 regular attenders and over 60 kids on the roster, and this is excellent for a tiny church with an average Sunday attendance of about a hundred. The problem? Now that I had kids coming for youth program, the elders wanted kids to come for the morning church service. But, there was a reason that kids didn't come to the church service in the first place. It was boring. The only reason I went was because I had to, and I wasn't about to force teenagers to come to a church service with an average age of 60 and about as traditional as it gets. I offered ideas to change the service to make it more accomadating to teenagers, but instead they got upset at me for saying it like it was.
In the entire history of the Christian church anybody who has said anything prophetic has been met with resistance. Kristin mentioned the old testament prophet Jeremiah. He led people out of Israel and into Egypt with much strife. When they got to Egypt, even though everybody knew he was right, they still chastized him at every opportunity, yet he still wrote "'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'Plans to help you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'"
That's where I fell short years ago. Instead of embracing the visions that I had and letting the crap run off my back like water off a duck, I let it discourage me and drive me away. In that battle I lost. I let my pride get the best of me and it has caused me a lot of heartache in the past few years.
Now what? Beats me. But knowing is half the battle, right?
OK fine...................... poker.
So after going busto I have been torturing the cash games. I got staked to play online cash games and in the past week I'm up almost 5k. Thats good for me as I will be shipping half that to my bank account on the first.
I have been playing primarily the 2-4 NL games. I feel like I have finally gotten a grasp of the style that just crushes the game. I had played so weak-tight for so long. When I first started playing NL cash, I played much like tourneys and got screwed with many top-pair top-kicker type hands and it gave me a very scared perspective of the game. Now I'm playing a very F YOU style and it's working great. I've learned a ton about pushing people to their breaking point, and then when they finally decide to stop folding I show up with the goods. Plus, it's given me a ton of control over the pots as opponents have responded to my play. Here's a couple of examples, both 2-4 NL 6 max.
First hand a couple of days ago, I open raise in MP with 7 8 . I get called by both blinds. flop 356 with one . SB bets $4 into the $40 pot, BB calls, I jack it to $44, SB calls, BB folds. Turn 3 , BB checks, I check. River 9, he ships it all-in for like $200, I snap, and he has QQ.
If I was playing my old style, I probably would've never seen the flop. The SB woulda re-raised enough where I wouldn't have been able to see the flop. Instead, the SB thought, "Let's trap this LAGtard," and he ended up trapping himself. Here's another example.
I open 55 in MP to $14, get called by the BB. Flop Kxx rainbow. He checks, I fire pot for $30, he calls. Turn 5. I fire pot for $90, he calls. River a blank, I ship it for $275, he calls with AK. GG. Again, same thing. Since I had tortured both opponents on previous hands, they decide to let me do the betting and end up losing a huge pot instead of winning a small one. Obvious it was convienent for me to hit on both hands, but I don't put another dollar into either pot unless I hit.
I've also imported many of my accumulating chips tricks from tournament poker to cash games. It has allowed me to pick up a ton of small pots that I wouldn't have otherwise and it gives me an image that helps hands like the above happen. It's really a fun adventure and I'm finally appreciating NL more than LHE.
I've also been playing a bunch of the PLO games online. They're so juicy but the variance is so high. It's pretty incredible how bad people get it in, but with 4 cards instead of two, it's always tough to have a huge lock on a hand like you can in hold'em. I like it though. Much gamboooool.
As far as donkaments go, I've continued to get reallllllly close and get screwed often. Last week I took 4th in the stars 109 25k, losing QQ to Ax early on the final table that crippled me. I had a ton of chips right by the money in the million and ub $500 this sunday, played huge pots as 3-1 favorites and lost em both. Tonight I bubbled the final table of the FTP $129 bounty, getting screwed earlier near the bubble and running QQ into KK in that one. I'm stuck something like $16k in makeup this month, which I guess isn't too bad considering that I've played like $40k worth of tourneys this month, but with how many times I've gotten so close, it's frustrating. Now a win of any of the standard tourneys doesn't even get me unstuck!
I'm looking for the next new site that is going to be filled with noooooobs like the one that I'm playing on right now. If any of y'all have any insights I'll let ya know where I've found :-).
I'm pretty excited actually to be a little grinder in January to get my bankroll back under me. It's nice having hands hold up every once in a while now, and it sure is satisfying stacking peeps. Today when I woke up I was actually excited to play some cards. I haven't experienced that in a while.
Several of y'all commented about how my writing changes with how I'm running. Thanks for pointing that out, I really didn't realize it. I think it's a good thing though. When we're running good, life is good and we're full of confidence. When we're running bad though our confidence is shaken and often our game is shaken. I'm a big believer in the human element of poker and when I'm running bad i naturally look at myself first. I believe that our personal lives are connected to our poker lives and often the outcomes on the table. I've written a couple of articles about it and recommend that everybody takes a look at themselves when running bad, because there isn't a damn thing we can do about the cards, but we can improve ourselves and the way we play.
Also, I've been chewing on this personal stuff a lot since July. Back then I realized I had some serious issues that I had to work on, and this blog has often been the words that have been floating around my head. Back when I first started blogging in 04 I wanted to make my blog different, and I decided to do that by writing what I was thinking, not some candy coated version of what I was thinking or what I thought I should write about. I wanted my blog to be two things. I wanted it to be for me first and foremost. Writing is one of the greatest tools that I personally have to work through things in my own life. I believe that through writing I can learn about myself, improve myself, and create a history of who I have been allowing me to learn from my successes and mistakes alike. Secondly, I wanted to create someting real . Not scripted, not "reality tv" real, but just pure, raw, me. One of the biggest things I spoke out against in the church was how people put on their happy face every sunday morning. I often felt like the people I talked to in church sanctuaries on Sunday mornings weren't really the pepole I was talking to. I hated how the church encouraged this. I felt like the church had become a place like a hospital that didn't allow bleeding people in. It wasn't ok to be vulnerable, open, honest, wounded, real. I responded to that by writing the most real aspects of myself in the public light of a blog. I would not allow myself to become a thespian of life, hiding behind whatever happy or sad mask I dug out of my closet that morning. As a result I feel like many of y'all that read this blog, yet have never met me, feel like you know me. I think that's a good thing. Perhaps I say things that I shouldn't say. Perhaps I shouldn't be so open about certain aspects of my life. But, I think it's a good blend, and something you cannot ever accuse me of being is fake. I would much rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.
Tomorrow I'm going to the UFC fight. I'm psyched. Jared got tipped two $750 face value (going for like 2k each now) tickets by a woman that works for UFC and we're going. They're sick seats, and we're headed down early to catch every bout. Sunday tourneys, Monday is NYE and we're going to be on the strip again this year, Tuesday the Trojans are going to kick the crap outta the Illini, and Wednesday Tiffany leaves for more snowboarding adventues.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
I Am Me.
Caution: Passionate blog including a couple of f bombs. Read at own discretion. Why do we as a society embrace the ideals presented in movies such as Braveheart or Dead Poet's Society yet continue to live in our conformity?
What is it that we are trying to not conform to, yet fail daily at being mavericks?
Where did we go wrong in our culture that work and money and power and popularity are of greater importance than family and friends and love and adventure?
I mean seriously. Think of how many times we have put off people in our lives because we had to work. We had to work because we had to have money. We had to have money because we had to pay our bills and because we wanted things. We wanted money so we can have power and adventure.
My life was far more exciting when I was penniless.
We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?
What will my verse be? My entire life I have tried to figure out what that verse is. People have told me what my verse should be, but if I wrote those words then it would be plagarism. I must find the lyric myself.
We grow up in a defined world. Go to school once you're five years old. Graduate high school. Unless you want to be a loser, go to college. Graduate college. If you want to do something great, go to grad school. Become a doctor. If not, get a good job, marry a good girl, settle down, and start a family.
Noble pursuits.
How boring would this world be if everybody followed that basic outline for what life should look like? Yet, when any of us deviate from the plotted course of our American lives, even people that we do not know are made uncomfortable by this.
I play poker to pay my rent. I wrestle with ideas of ideology, philosophy, theology, and love.
Yet I am a gambler. I am counter-culture. I am against the grain. I make people uncomfortable. Just take a look at my comments on my private blog here.
Now, I'm not trying to defend myself or anything, but I am the only person that I really truly know anything about, so I might as well use what I really know as an example for something that I am trying to learn about.
Not one member of my family is really comfortable with the idea of my playing poker for a living. I'm pretty sure that my girlfriend isn't completely comfortable with it. My ex wife was not. Many of you think that I need to go to gambler's anonymous and get my life back on track.
What the fuck is back on track?
Something is missing here. Why do I get over seven thousand hits per blog that I write? Why are we as a culture so fascinated with the mavericks of the world yet so afraid of them at the same time? Why do we feel such a need to herd those who have left the fold back into a nice, neat, line? Why do we love heroes such as John Wayne, Wyatt Earp, or Bret Maverick? Why do we love Tom Brady or Peyton Manning so much? Why do we embrace so many actors and actresses whom have become famous because of television?
Because really it's all the same ol song and dance. We have a cultural paradigm that you need to connect the dots in this order to be successful. There are a few people like those mentioned above, fictional or not, who are extraordinary examples of those who have succeed outside the system - and we are envious.
Yet, if that person is not a superstar, then we are still wary of them. Curious enough that we often know the details of their lives better than we know the deatils of some of our friends and family, yet critical simply because they make us uncomfortable.
What is success? Why do we even want to be successful in the first place? Where did we go wrong as a society that we ever began to put things like family behind things like work? What made us conclude that there really is a set value system within this world that we are all held accountable to? Why is the businessman on Wall Street more successful than Bill who runs the Range at Slab City? Why is the kid who graduated college more successful than the kid that didn't?
I'm trying to think of what is my point in this whole ramble and I really don't know. I'm exploring this in my own head, heart, and soul as you are reading these words on your computer screen. I don't know. But what I do know is that I was never designed for college. I was never created to sit in a cubicle. I am blessed with a personality that naturally rebels against authority and I believe that to be a good thing.
Why cannot we explore who we are without encountering the scrutiny of those who claim to care about us?
Now, don't get me wrong (remember, this is a free flow of thought, not an essay on a topic). I am all for accountability. But I want to be held accountable to what is right like my friend Kristin did to me this summer, not to what somebody else thinks is right for me.
And deep down we all know what is right. We all know that happiness, romance, adventure, love, and family is what is right in this world. Whether or not you believe in God or not, I would conject that most people would agree with that statement.
I don't know shit when it really comes down to it. What I do know is that something isn't right with the way things are going... and that's what I want to fix. Every moment of our lives is a line in the verse that we are writing in the great performance that is this life. It is not in the future, it is not something that we are to prepare for, it is something that we are to live .
And it is different for every one of us. Right now I am a writer. Tomorrow I will be a traveler and a boyfriend. Wednesday I'll be a poker player. No single thing defines us or who we are. I also don't believe that the entire collection of things we do, believe, feel, think, see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or want can define who we are. We as human beings are so beautifully complex that we cannot be defined by terms that can be put into words. We come close with poetry, music, art, romance - but we can never fully capture that which we are lacking. Definition, direction, who we are.
I am me. Plain, simple, me.
On bended knee is no way to be free
Lifting up an empty cup I ask silently
That all my destinations will accept the one that's me
So I can breathe
Circles they grow and they swallow people whole
Half their lives they say goodnight to wives they'll never know
Got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul
And so it goes
Don't come closer or I'll have to go
Owning me like gravity are places that pull
If ever there was someone to keep me at home
It would be you
Everyone I come across in cages they bought
They think of me and my wandering but I'm never what they thought
Got my indignation but I'm pure in all my thoughts
I'm alive
Wind in my hair I feel part of everywhere
Underneath my being is a road that disappeared
Late at night I hear the trees they're singing with the dead
Overhead
Leave it to me as I find a way to be
Consider me a satellite forever orbiting
I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed.
- Eddie Vedder
I'm not in control
Make the best of a bad spot The only sounds I can hear is the crashing of Pacific waves and the clikity-clack of my skaboard wheels rolling over cracks in the boardwalk. It that moment of serenity I realized once again that I am not in control, and if we take what life brings us we can find ourselves in some pretty sweet spots.
You see, about an hour before I found myself here I was busting out of the UB $500 $75k guarantee in 26th place. I had just gotten crippled playing for a top 5 stack with top 20 getting paid opening with my ace king offsuit and getting jammed on by 78 sooooooted (for like 9k over my 1k open). It had already been a pretty gross Sunday, getting busted out of the Sunday million in similar fashion right before the money (that time the guy limp called my 25bb shove with A8o), so I was not too happy with things in general. I was about to drive to LA to see my fam for Christmas. I grabbed all my things, made sure everything was locked up since everybody had already left town for Christmas, and closed the door behind me without my car keys.
Now, I thought about these keys, but knew they were in my backpack. I was wrong.
So, two of the guys that live in the money factory were on a plane to Minneapolis, one was already there, and the other was in Poway, about thirty minutes away, but I don't have his number yet.
Even though this is supposed to be a bummer situation, it ended up being pretty cool now as I was rolling down the boardwalk at a beautiful moment in time. I had just eaten a gyro and drank a bud light at the world's best gyro place. My friend Emma who I haven't seen in a long time is on her way down, and it will be nice to see her also. So, embrace the good and realize that there is nothing more that I can do about my current sitiation.
We all need to be thinking this way about poker, me especially. I have been on the worst downswing of my life, consistently getting tortured in sick spots. We need to embrace that we got it in good, not that we got sucked out on, because over the long term everything balances out. There is nothing more that I can do about getting sucked out on except how I handle it. If I let it tilt me and affect my confidence, then I am not realizing that I am not in control of the bad beats. I am in control of the spots that I get myself into and how I react to the consequences of that spot, whether they be good or bad.
Merry Christmas! I'm off to go on an adventure.
Oh yeah... I found my cell phone. It was under the couch LOL.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Christmas on the Beach
Good week in the money factory Well, I realized my greatest fear this week. I went broke. Not like I can't buy myself lunch broke, but I ain't got no stake broke. I no longer have a bankroll that can support any sort of game that I can make any sort of living at. It's been a long work in progress really. Y'all know how badly I have been running since June overall. I went on something like an $80k downswing. November was my first winning month since July with the online tournaments, but the check that I got from Full Tilt last week got instantly spent on bills and paying back debt. Sooooooooo... I knew money was gonna be tight, but with being backed online I wasn't too worried about it. Then, while playing cash games on my own money online monday through wednesday, I ran uber poorly and lost $3k playing 1-2 NL and PLO. Wednesday night I took fourth in the stars 109 25k guarantee, but it was only for $4k or so, so not nearly enough to catch me up on the week.
Broke. Busto. It's really not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. For the longest time I swore that if I ever went broke that I was quitting poker for good. I foresaw going broke like the first time I went broke in Jan 04. Back then I had to raid couch cusions to come up with enough change to walk to burger king and buy something off the 99 cent menu.
But this time it's not even close to that. I have so much stupid shit that I've bought over the last four years of being a professional that I could sell just the things I don't really use and have a healthy 30-60 bankroll (I should get around to selling some of those things really, so if anybody's interested motorcycles, jet skis, tv's, or firearms, lemme know. LOL.).
Plus, I look back at the accomplishments that I've had in poker, and I know I'll be fine. I just have to work harder in the next few months and get that bankroll back.
So, Thursday we were all out at the club, and Billy and Dave offer to stake me in cash games. I accept, we work out an agreement, and Friday afternoon Billy and I sit down to our first session. I'm playing 2-4 NL online for em. First hand? AKo in the BB, we flop broadway, we stack some dude. I ended up making $2k on the day yesterday, so that's very very very helpful.
Anyways, speaking of Thrusday night, I lost my cell phone (again). Sorry if you've been trying to get a hold of me...
What else. Kart racing. Wednesday night four of us from the house met up with sponger at this indoor go-kart track to do some racing. We were expecting Bullwinkles, we got Daytona. It was SICK! It cost us $25 (which included a head sock LOL). We got out on the track and found that these were not amusement park bumper cars, but like those crazy fast KARTs. We wore our head socks with racing helmets and were assigned our go-karts. These were linked to our names which they got from the waivers and then put up on the scoreboard.
Time out. Dave is playing sixteen 1-2 NL games on stars right now. I've never seen that and it's just sick.
OK. So, after all the customary rules and the warnings to not bump, we were off for a five minute qualifying period. There were ten of us in this race and our goal was to put up the fastest lap time in those five minutes. I got second in that endeavor, losing to sponger, the only dude that had done this before. That was good because it pretty much guaranteed my victory in our four way side bet. We then had ten minutes to race, and it was sick. My arms are still sore and it's Saturday.
I'm tired of writing.
Wait, I just thought of something. I know that there's gonna be people who are going to read this and be like, what a busto idiot he sucks blah blah blah. Yep, I'm busto, yep, I made some money management mistakes, but frankly I don't want to hear about it from anybody. I wrote about it here because it's my blog and writing helps me process things. Learn from my mistakes. Don't tell me I'm an idiot, because that's information I already have :-).
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Vegas -> Slabs -> Money Factory.
hate having to write something in this box. Friday morning I kissed my girlfriend goodbye. She was about to leave on her Great Adventure that she had planned for a long, long time. Her destination was Mammoth Mountain, Tahoe, and the rest of the Western United States. She just launched a womens snowboarding apparel company and is using the next four months to travel around to the different mountains, everywhere from Whistler to Breckenridge. She is going to ride and to promote her product.
Yeah, so news there. After 16 months of whatevs, Tiffany and I are officially together, finally having that talk somewhere around 3am Saturday the 8th at the Spearamint Rhino while celebrating Kevin Saul's 2nd place at the Bellagio Friday the 7th.
So, with her leaving town, I knew it was time for me to get back on the road. I've been ancy since about Nov 1 and have been going especially nuts in the past two weeks with it being so cold in Las Vegas. I needed to go somewhere warmer, and I was missing the money factory. So, Saturday afternoon at 1:30 I left and drove south.
I wasn't too sure where I was headed when I left. I was planning on driving south on the 95 rather than the 15 mostly because I wanted to go somewhere that I hadn't been before. Also, I had been itching to go to Slab City and I knew that it was somewhere by the Salton Sea.
Sometime in the late 1960s people moved into an abandoned military base east of Niland, California. All that remained of the military base were a few guard shacks and the concrete foundations where there used to be buildings. The place was called "The Slabs", and after some time of people consistently living around The Slabs, it became known as Slab City.
I had first heard of the Slabs when I first read Into the Wild and had been planning on heading there for a long time but never really had the opportunity to until now (course I had never gone out of my way to make an opportunity, but I will be doing that in the future for sure).
Every Saturday night at Slab City they fire up what they call "The Range." It is basically their weekly hangout gathering open-mic night where everybody hangs out and some people/bands play sets. I figured if I was driving to San Diego on a Saturday night, I might as well stop by the range!
I found Slab City about five hours later after a sweet solo drive across the desert. I found the Range, parked in some secluded spot, and walked up to the gathering of people around the fire barrel. The first guy I met was named Mike. He asked me if I had a warrant out for my arrest. LOL. Aparrently less than 15 minutes before my arrival the police were snooping around (who never bother anybody at slab city) looking for a guy named Brian from Niland who had a class C trailer. I convinced them that I was from Vegas and all was well on the hippie front once again.
We stood around the rusted out oil drum that held our campfire and talked about whatever. I met good person after good person. Many of these people I would not have acknowledged if I passed them on the street or if they asked me for a quarter, but here I was drinking and smoking with them and having a great time. After about 20 minutes, Mike asked me, "Do you play?"
Ten minutes later I was walking onto stage with my djembe drum. I played an eight song set and had an absolutely incredible experience. At the end of the night I played another set with just a couple of the guys. They asked me to lead a song, and then I lead another one, and then they asked me to do my own stuff, and before I knew it I was putting on a regular concert, leading with my voice and acoustic guitar, the drums were driving the music and the electric guitar was giving it life. It was awesome.
Everybody ended up going to sleep around 11pm. I was like, now what? I'm still wide awake and definately not drunk. I decided to finish my drive down to San Diego, made it halfway, and unrolled my sleeping bag in the bed of my truck somewhere between the Salton Sea and San Diego.
The following morning I was waken up by the Border Patrol. You can imagine my state of disorientation with this one. I was in the mountains off the 8 freeway and aparrently pretty dang close to Mexico. Anyways, the officer was just checking on me as he saw a body in a bag in the back of a truck. After confirming that I had a pulse he left, and with the sun rising I wasn't going to be able to make it back to sleep.
7am. I'm in the mountains near Mexico. I'm not going to go wake the fellas up. What do I do? My questions were answered as I was driving west on the 8. I saw the Viejas casino, one of the few in Southern California that I had not been to. I wandered into the poker room wearing the clothes that I had worn yesterday (and slept in), slippers, and a bandana. Their biggest game was 1-3NL, and I beat it for $170 in the 90 minutes that I was able to play. The game broke for their 10am $27 bounty tournament. They told me it would not last longer than three hours, so I was in.
13 bounties and two hours later we had gone from 113 players to 9. LOL doubletheblindseveryfifteenminutesaments. I had a lot of chips (like 13 bb's... good for the chip lead) and really didn't feel like making a deal anyways. Second hand I get it all in vs 3rd, 8th, and 9th in chips. I had 77 and was against A4o of the 3rd in chips guy (who limped and then called my shove), K2s of the BB, and something goofy of the other player that was way behind my hand, so maybe like 63 or so. Anyways, I lost that pot, never recovered, and then with 6 left we chopped evenly. I had seven chips. The four players ahead of me had 9, 10, 19, and 24 chips. The A4o guy had like 75 chips. Thanks bro. We all took $325 each.
By the time we chopped it was 12:45 and i was on my way to the money factory to manufacture more money. Alas, it was not to be though as I ran like dog shit, the most painful one being two outed 20 off the money in the UBOC $1k main event.
I grinded a ton of cash games last night too. I was up about $500 playing 1-2 NL and PLO, but then the wheels on the bus fell off and I lost $1k straight, putting me about even for the day. The most painful was with about $350 behind in PLO I had the AAJT with diamonds and opened for pot, got re-raised pot, I re-raised pot, and we saw a flop for $62 each. It came Q72. I bet pot, he called. Turn a 9 of diamonds, I bet all-in (about 80% pot) and my opponenet showed me QJT8 with one suit. So, I had him all-in at 60% to win and 15% to chop. OBV i lost, but these are the most painful beats ever when you look at their hand and are just like, what the?!?!? That hand had no business playing a pot that big ever, but because he played so bad he stacked me. Sigh.
So, I'm in San Diego for a while. I love it here.
Oh, and I'm playing Cantu in the semi-finals of my fantasy league right now. He's ahead of me by 4 points and has the Bears defense tonight while I have Adrian Peterson and Chester Taylor. So, MN rushing has to beat Bears defense by 5 points tonight for tha moniez. Also in fantasy news I won my $1k side bet with Theo, so that's nice.
Aight. Peace. Good Luck.
Devo
Busted and Beaten Badly
Black Belt Jared So a couple of days ago I wrote a blog with a story in it about how Jared went into a police station to take care of a ticket from a boat trailer with broken taillights and almost got arrested.
Well, Jared took care of everything Tuesday afternoon, and it was a very good thing because by the time the next business day happened he was in the presence of police once again.
We were at the Sunset Station playing poker after bowling. The game was 1-2 NL hold'em. I busted Danny when I snap called his limp re-raise all-in with KJ off and it held against his 54 off. I wasn't too fond of the game as there was this guy that I simply just didn't like. We left around 3:30 am, and Jared decided to stay around because the guy was most certaintly going to be giving away the $400 he had in front of him and Jared had Christmas shopping to do.
I remember doing that. I remember being in games like that with guys like that and swearing that I'm not leaving until they leave, and always quitting ahead.
So we went home. The next morning I woke up and was greeted by the announcement that Jared had been arrested last night. I thought it was for the trailer thing. Nope. He beat some ass.
So, the guy , Canadian as Shawn would refer to him as or Savage as Scott would refer to him as, ended up playing heads up with Jared. Jared won. The guy didn't want to rebuy. Jared walked to valet to catch a cab. The guy followed him.
"Hey man, lemme get dat money back from you. I got a morgage and kids and shit, man..."
Long story short, the guy begged the whole way from the poker room to the valet and kept jibber-jabberin while Jared was waiting for a cab. He started getting aggressive sticking his hands into his pants and pockets like he was reaching for a weapon, got close to Jared, and Jared popped him in the nose. The guy went down, popped back up, charged Jared, and Jared hip tossed him.
Notice, that Jared popped him and didn't jump on him. Jared was really trying to defend himself without trying to get into a fight. The guy got back up and re-engaged with Jared.
After the guy got tossed, he charged Jared again, and this time it went to the ground. Jared had him in a kimora, that transitioned into an arm bar (that dislocated the guy's elbow), and Jared finally put the guy to sleep with a triangle as security and the police showed up.
Long story short - the cops are like, whatever - you attacked him, you lost, stfu and go home, but this guy was going off about how he wanted to press charges and all the bull crap. Jared beat this guy's ass and got a taxi cab home paid for by the Henderson Police Department. God bless video surveilence, eh?
So, Thursday night (bout 36 hours after the fight), Jared gets a call from the Henderson PD. They want to know if he has any martial arts training. Lawl. "You looked like you were trained professionally in the video, and you hurt the guy pretty bad." The guy suffered a dislocated elbow, a broken nose, and was still in the hospital.
For the record, Jared has zero martial arts training. We watch a lot of UFC together, but no training. He wrestled in high school.
One, people like that piss me off so much. Don't sit in the game if you can't afford to be there. Then, don't beg for your money back when you lose it. Then, don't threaten violence. Jared was genuinely concerned that this guy was about to pull out a weapon with how he's been acting and decided to pop him in the nose before he was facing a knife or a gun. Obviously the video shows that Jared was acting in self defense otherwise he would've been taken to jail, not be given a free cab ride home.
GG sir.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Stripped Poker
I felt the hard edge of the red cube pressed between my thumb and index finger as I lifted it off the green felt. I was convinced that if I handled the dice in just the proper manner and made sure they read a certain number before I threw them it would somehow be favorable for myself.
I was in the middle of my first hot run on the dice table, a moment that I have dreamt about for the past ten years. It was four am on a warm spring morning (well, really it was still nighttime, because morning does not start until you have woken up from at least 90 minutes sleep). My friend and I were up a couple of hundred dollars each which was a lot of money to a couple of college students from downtown Los Angeles. I was the expert, teaching my friend how to play craps. I calmly explained what it means to “come out” with a tobacco pipe precariously dangling from my lip, wisps of fragrant smoke sweetly drifted skywards, briefly distracting somebody in some security booth somewhere.
I picked up the dice, and with one swift forward motion I fired the cubes downrange, hoping for the perfect shot. At the moment a pair of treys would drive the crowd wild. I was working on my fifth consecutive point and the parlayed bets were growing in height and value. Redbirds were pressed into quarters and then bumped to blacks. Every roll of the dice meant the winning or losing of thousands of dollars for the community which was this table. Nothing else in the world mattered except the eventual report from these transparent cubes.
This roll would be different. My first die was thrown very hard and hit squarely on the bottom of the tower of green ($25) checks in front of the far dealer. The chips exploded with a beautifully unique noise and made an utter mess. The second die missed higher and righter and bounced off the top of the dealer’s beer belly and off the table.
“What the hell was that kid!?! Asked the pit boss with a snarl.
“That’s it Devo. This guy’s gonna card you, they’re gonna take you in a back room, take all your money, and kick your ass.” Thanks for the support friend.
I fortunately did not have to show the gentleman my ID because if he asked for one I wouldn’t show it to him. I was only twenty years old at the time, and this was my first adult memory of a town that I had been coming to for all of my life already.
You see, Las Vegas was basically a vacation home for my family for, well, infinity. My earliest tragic memory of my young childhood was when I left my favorite stuffed animal in a hotel room. To this day I still think about Kanga (who happened to be a kangaroo in case you didn’t guess from my four old creativity with phonics), especially when I walk into the Circus Circus, where I left him in 1985.
Back in those days they (obviously referring to the powers that be that we have zero influence over in any context where they are referred) were making a strong effort to make Las Vegas more of a family friendly town. Las Vegas was just emerging from the mafia prominence and dominance of this worldwide tourist destination. The Circus Circus was the perfect family spot and the poster resort for the town‘s family friendliness. . Everything they offered catered to the entertainment of the family. Above the gaming pit was a complete circus trapeze act that performed every ninety minutes or so. The building was oval in shape much like a circus tent. The first floor was the casino, the second floor was the circus. Circling the trapeze are were midway games just like you find at the fair. My dad and I would spend hours shooting squirt guns at clowns’ mouths, throwing softballs at milk jugs, and shooting BB machine guns. Our family would meet for dinner every night. I would tell of my adventures, my mom would tell of hours of playing blackjack for two dollars a hand and how one time she bet ten dollars… you get the idea. After dinner my mom would take me and eventually the other kids as they came along upstairs to bed time.
Mornings were always the most exciting time. More often than not I remember my dad making it rain chips all over my mother. I would bounce in my one piece pajamas with feet on my bed a few times before launching across the canyon that separated our beds and coming to a rest leaning against my mother. I picked up the chips and let them slowly fall out of my little fingers like adventurers standing on piles of gold that I had seen on TV. I was in wonderment with the colors, all the blues, reds, greens, blacks, and the occasional purple.
Even on the times that my Dad did not come home with chips, he would still tell me tales of adventure the previous night as we enjoyed some all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. He would tell me about how at one time he had over two hundred dollars at risk every roll of the dice and woulda won huge with a couple more rolls. But he always had fun in his stories, and thus I grew up seeing the glamour in high stakes gambling and dreamt of the day that I could too partake in the game.
Little did I know that by the time I experienced my quarter life crisis I would be a professional gambler living in Las Vegas.
-----------------------------
This is hopefully the start to my first book. I am obviously writing it from my own perspective, but I am going to market it as a fictional book with a fictional character. I want to focus on the struggles of a twenty-something living in Las Vegas wrestling with issues of life. I want to explore the issues that so many people my age have with abandonment from their fathers. I want to explore the issues that so many of us have with the clash between religious parents with a modern mindset vs. postmodern kids like us who just don't agree all the time. I want to tell a fun story about a quarter of life that has managed to center around las vegas, and I want to learn something about myself in the process.
What do you think? Gimme compliments and criticism both, but any hating bitter comments are gonna result in a ban.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Friday Evening Ramblings
Remember the Arizona. I suppose that tonight I once again sucked at winning while ahead I can scribble down a blog while I sit on my last table going.
Today is Pearl Harbor day. I have been criticized before for "not supporting the troops," but that is so far from the truth. Simply because I often don't agree with the political decisions involving the general running of this country, including most of our recent wars, does not mean that I do not support our troops. The brave young men and women of our armed services give us in this great counrty the freedoms that we still do have.
I have always been a closet WWII history buff, and every year on this day I remember what my grandfather did for my life here right now in the Pacific Theatre. I take a moment and appreciate what so many of the fathers that came before that fought for their country and it's future. I hope you take a moment as well.
Chip Reese died this week. The mood around town has been pretty solemn in the poker community. I did not know chip very well at all. I played with him once and had a drink with him once at Light, but he was somebody that had my respect, as well as the respect of many others in the poker community. RIP Chip.
My truck's registration has been expired for quite some time now. The Ford dealership was supposed to fix everything but they tried to rape me like bubba in Alcatraz. Then Thanksgiving happened, and I finally got it to another shop. So the little stupid speedometer servo gear that is causing all these problems? Ford don't sell em. They only sell the entire output shaft that is about five times more expensive all the ways around (labor too...). So, the guy at my shop found a used one, and that lasted... twelve miles. I'm like WTF, I just shipped you $1600 cash to do a bunch of shit but most importantly this little detail SO I CAN PASS SMOG AND REGISTER MY DAMN TRUCK?!? He then explains about the used piece, etc (information that would have been useful to me before) and tells me that it won't affect smog and as soon as we find a new part he'll re-install for free. K, cool.
Weekend happens, I go to smog truck, fail. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?OJERIOAFJEOIJAFIOEJAWFOIJEPAFOIAEWJ.
One of the mechanics left a hose off. OMG are you kidding me. "Here's a free oil change for your trouble." What about the smog check that I just had to pay for?
I just shoved all-in with T6s over 5 limpers. I win.
So, hose back on, computer cleared, back to the smog guy.
"Have you driven thirty miles yet?"
"No."
"You have to because the computer has to run tests on itself before it passes smog otherwise you automatically fail so you have to drive so the computer can test itself."
Sigh............................................................................................................
Today I wake up, Jared needs to go to Boulder City, and I'm like, "Can I drive?"
He's in an excellent mood because he has to pay a ticket that he got on the Piece of Ship trailer for the taillights not working and lack of a license plate (both guilty). We get to the courthouse, and it's closed. LOL. We try the police station, Jared just want's to pay the thing and get out of Dodge, and a police officer overhears and decides to help.
"Is the trailer here? I can sign off on it if so." Obviously we're never fixing anything on the Piece of Ship so obviously the trailer's not here.
"OK... lemme see the ticket. Ummm... wow. You had a court date for this. You missed it."
"WTF?!?"
"Yeah, hold on. Lemme go see if you have a warrant."
*wtf...........*
"Don't worry. I'm not going to hook you up if you do."
Guy was actually really cool. I kinda wanted Jared to get arrested cause then I could make fun of him for life for walking into a police station with a warrant for his arrest for not having taillights on a trailer for the biggest piece of crap boat in southern Nevada and getting arrested. Seriously that would have to trump me sucking off his fingers cause you know I'd be shooting pictures with my camera phone.
So I suck at dodging three outers on the river and am busto yet again.
"I love you for who you are." The greatest words I have ever heard in my life.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
Allen Kessler's blog and my Response
Thought this would be good material...
How badly did I play vs Barry Greenstein today?
Here is the scenario. We are playing the $2500 no limit tourney at Bellagio. I started with $5,000 chips and by the end of level 3 had accumulated over $25,000 in chips without ever risking a large portion of my stack, We get to the 300 600 level and I am moved to a new table. This table is very agressive with raising and often reraising nearly every hand preflop. My cards go totally cold and I barely get to play a hand. When we get to 400 800, I still have about 20k but every time I enter a pot I get raised or reraised and I don't collect 1 chip that level. When we start the 600 1200 level I am down to about 11k. Each orbit costs about 3000, so I dont have much time left. I push all in once for about 10k which gets me another orbit when no one calls. I fold one round of hands and now I am getting desperate with about 9000 left after I post my Big Blind. Barry Greenstein had just lost a huge pot hen he raised on the button and defended an all in with Q 10 suited and had about 12k left. I knew he would be pushing all in soon as well. As I expected, he looks down under the gun, and counts out a raise; he hesitates when he realizes that if he raises he won't leave enough behind to post his Big Blind and still have any fold equity, so he pushes all in for his remaining 12K. Everyone folds around to me in the Small Blind. I don't think Barry is too strong, because a strong hand he would probably raise about 1/4 of his chips and try to trap someone for the rest of his chips after the flop. I look down at AJ suited (the best hand ive seen since the 300 600 level) and decide this may be my last chance to get money into a pot with any equity at all. I reluctantly push all my chips forward and hope the Big Blind doesnt pick up a monster so that I can go against Barry heads up. The Big Blind folds and Barry turns over 99 and wins the race and I am out of the tournament.
Barry insulted my play during the dinner break, stating that against his early push, I am a 2-1 dog at best and that I had 4 or 5 free hands coming where I would have fold equity with a 10 Big Blind push. The problem was that in the last 2 levels, I was only in a spot to push an unraised pot once or twice; and the way the table was playing, I may not have had the chance to get my money in a pot with any fold equity at all. By the time I would post my next blinds I would be down to just over 5000 in chips with literally no fold equity and praying for a race opportunity.
I reasoned that the AJ suited may be my best opportunity to get some chips in this tourney and took my chances there. How bad was this play?
- Allen Kessler
my response:
excellent play.
you are hereby banned from ever again criticizing my play with AT busting you out of the 25k.
in your spot I snap call fist pump am thrilled to get it in against barry's range.
His shove range should really be top 30%, as I thought yours should have been in the 25k and thus snap called with ATo. Thus, your call is +ev regardless.
Barry has 10BB's and 4m's, and after two hands will be down to 8bb's and 3.3 m's His range is huge here and AJs is so far ahead.
Even if you give Barry as slim a range at top 20%, here's how the numbers work out:
1,527,375,168 games 0.035 secs 43,639,290,514 games/sec
Board:
Dead:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 42.737% 39.77% 02.97% 607421024 45335254.00
{ 66+, A4s+, K8s+, Q9s+, J9s+, T9s, A9o+, KTo+, QTo+, JTo }
Hand 1: 57.263% 54.29% 02.97% 829283636 45335254.00
{ AJs }
at top 30%:
2,315,035,008 games 0.001 secs 2,315,035,008,000 games/sec
Board:
Dead:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 39.486% 37.08% 02.40% 858436068 55673164.00
{ 55+, A2s+, K5s+, Q7s+, J8s+, T8s+, 98s, A7o+, A5o, K9o+, Q9o+, J9o+, T9o }
Hand 1: 60.514% 58.11% 02.40% 1345252612 55673164.00
{ AJs }
And, just for fun, lets give barry a top 10% range, which is obv waaaaay too tight, but just for argument's sake.
Your stack: 9k after BB, now you're in SB, thus stack = 8300 (assuming 600-1200/100), and you have to call off that 8300 for a shot at 8900+8900+1200(BB)+900(antes) 19900. Thus, with your 8300 you only need a 42% equity to make calling correct there, 40% if it's 6-12/2.
Therefore, you're correct to call even if barry's shoving range there is only top 7.5%:
547,937,280 games 0.005 secs 109,587,456,000 games/sec
Board:
Dead:
equity win tie pots won pots tied
Hand 0: 58.067% 55.37% 02.69% 303413168 14755124.00 { 88+, ATs+, KTs+, QJs, AQo+ }
Hand 1: 41.933% 39.24% 02.69% 215013864 14755124.00 { AJs }
---
760,262,976 games 0.005 secs 152,052,595,200 games/sec
Can't believe did all that. I am now going to post this in a blog.
Devo
Quickie update and a neat hand
enjoy It's been a while since I've updated... So, I'll try and give it a shot here in the next fifteen minutes before the 5pm tourneys get fired up.
The five diamond started this week. I was supposed to be playing in all of them but my live backer went AWOL. It's been okay though as I've been able to hang around the house with the fellas and grind it online. I got pretty screwed in lots of spots online this week, but I've been very proud of my play. Here's a hand I played in the $1k on stars last night.
We were playing 150-300. The villian in this hand open limped in MP1. It folded to me in the BB and I checked my option with 5 5 . The flop came out K K 6 . I checked, he bet 300, I raised to 987, he re-raised to 2400, and I jammed it to 10,275 all-in. My opponent had me covered pre-flop with 12250 to my 10575.
Sick, eh?
Here's what I wrote in the forums about this hand:
I shoved. He turbo mucked.
My line of thinking: I figured that since I was an unknown to him, most players are not three betting Kx or 66 in position here. Furthermore, I don't think he's open limping Kx here based on his numbers. However, most unknowns will not c/r here with Kx or 66, I know that he knew that, and thought it was very likely that he was either re-moving on me or had a hand somewhere in the range of 6x or 22-88, but either way since unknowns don't 4 bet bluff, it just felt right in the spot. Perhaps going too many levels deep for the situation, nor is this a standard play of mine. In fact I have never made it before. It just felt right at the situation and this was my reasoning.
I have just been chewing a lot on chip accumulation lately and how it's so dynamic in the HSMTT internet world. It seems like everybody knows pre-flop strategy pretty well these days as far as accumulation goes. I wonder often if there's more value in seeing flops and getting ourselves into these spots every once in a while. If the villian in this hand really was on the level that I gave him credit for, being that he put me on not having a K or anything that could stand a 3 bet and thus 3 bet rather than actually 3 betting for value... I really think that we need to figure out what the next level of new school chip accumulation looks like if we are to continue to stay ahead of the game like we have for the past several years. I feel like this may be a spot where we can pick up chips in rare instances if we learn to identify those spots and then have the balls to execute when we see those spots, and thus we will remain ahead of the ever steepening learning curve of online HSMTT's.
So, I had some small cashes this week including cashing in the 1k, but I ran pretty bad overall. I think in one day I lost 13/14 races. Hard to win tournaments when that's going on. Yesterday I played three pots for top ten in chips in the 1k and the fuper, and lost with QQ<52dd, AA<78cc, and AKcc<89hh. Gross.
Life's been good. I've been hanging out with Tiffany again and things are better than ever. I bought Rock Band for the 360, and that is quite possibly the most fun video game ever. We've played that A LOT (probably why I haven't scribbled out a blog in a while!).
I'm getting ancy though and will be heading somewhere soon. Probably Monday at the latest I'm headed somewhere.
K. Tables are popping up.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
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