Quick Update
confirm run bad Sorry it's been a while, it hasn't' been too much fun lately pokerwise. I've still been getting deep, made final two tables in the 100r last two days, but am running very bad in all my all-in situations and I'm getting coolered a lot more than usual. I cashed in the Sunday Million and I lost every single all-in pre-flop situations, and I was ahead in every single one of them until the last one where I was short. But, when people tell me "No, I'm playing really good, I'm just running really bad," I kinda laugh and am like, whatever, esp after many months of losing.
So, here's my tallies for aipf situations:
theoretical pct actual pct
Races: 7-11 (wins/losses) .500 .375
Favorites: 17-10 .750 .588
Dogs: 3-24 .250 .125
I also took a gross one 3rd in chips w/44 left vs the chip leader where I flopped top set we get it in and he immed turns his 2 outer. So, it's tough to overcome being a 2-1 underdog every time I get it in, but I'm still cashing - just hate writing about this as i'm sure that you hate reading about it.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
The Great 2008 Road Trip, Days 9-11
Whadda weekend... So, I took Thursday off, Tiff and I had dinner in what has become one of my favorite places anywhere here in Leavenworth, and really nothing else to report.
Friday we went into town and had breakfast as some awesome hippie breakfast joint (I love these places!). She took me back to work and went exploring. I started out hot, up $1500 in cash games and doing well in tourneys. Then the wheels fell off the bus and I lost the $1500 back and cashed in zero tourneys.
Saturday Tiff went up to Mission Ridge and I played the day schedule. I took 6th in the 100r on stars which was pretty disappointing as I was crushing the whole tournament with a huge chip lead. I made a mistake/got in a bummer spot on the final table and doubled up bigegypt. I opened pre w/KT 7 handed from the cutoff. bigegypt called on the button with a stack that should be shoving not flat calling. It was like 1/8 of his stack pre. The big blind called also and the flop came Kxx. BB checked, and I was in a weird spot. bigegypt had 100k, I had like 280k, and there was 40k in the pot. Normally it's getting in with top pair and these stacks, but his pre-flop call was so odd. I gave him 99-AA in his range which may be off. I reasoned that I'm not getting value from 99-QQ by betting, but the chips needed to get in, so check-raise all-in was my best line trying to get him to bluff with those hands. KK is pretty unlikely, and if he has AA so be it. I think though that he's not always betting here with 99-QQ, I have a T so TT's less likely, and losing 100k is a pretty good ding to my stack with the relative chip stacks on the table. I think better lines would have been bet/fold or check/fold. So, I got crippled (to just below average) and couldn't win a hand after that. GG me in 6th. for like 4400, I win 4k on the day after cashing in the ftp 100r also.
Saturday night was awesome. We went into town for thier Ice Festival. We had beer brats at an outdoor beer garden, I bought a stein with discounted refils (and uuuuuuuuuusssssed them), and then we ran into like 15 frat dudes from UW and one girl (her parents owned the cabin LOL). We ended up kicking it with them for about 5 hours and we had a blast. I felt like I was in college again... so much fun!
Sunday started out the grossest ever. I never had a chance in any tournament til the 4:30pm 100r. I had an avegage stack with 12k, got some info that a certain player was extremely LAG opening like every UTG with garbage, so when this villain with 20k opened to 2k and another 20k stack flatted, I thought it was a good spot to squeeze with 64s. He has AA obv.
Fast forward a couple hours, and all I have left going is the 200r. I'm in to the day for like $4600. Fortunately I'm chip leader in the 200r, but there's still 100+ players with 36 getting paid and me needing to take 8th to make money on the day. Fast forward a couple more hours, and I'm 3rd in chips with 12 left. I ran hot hot hot hot hot. I never lost a race, but I never sucked out either. Every chip I won was accumulated or won as a coinflip or better. I was very proud of that. Then I played a hand 6 handed vs. the 3rd in chips on my table. I had like 215k and he had like 125k with average at 150k. I have 88 on the button blinds 4k-8k, I open for 10k and he ships. Weird spot... I think I'm ahead slightly more than I'm behind, but I think he has AK/AQ a huge percentage of the time and ICM wise I shouldn't be racing there. Questionable, but I like it.
Little did I know though that I wouldn't see a better hand the rest of the tournament. With 10 left I played a race for half my stack w/AT<88, and that was the best hand I would see. I stole the blinds a few times, but busted w/K4 v KT when I open shoved the cutoff with 3.5 m's and 7 left. Sigh.
On one hand, I'm very proud that I'm cashing in these rebuyaments so consistently and getting in them for much less than I used to. These fields are the toughest online and that makes me feel good. That point however, plus the ol not running good on final two tables part, is largely the reason that I haven't finished better than 6th in one in 6 final tables last 6 weeks. People really just aren't giving it away deep in these things.
Anyways, we're headed back Tuesday. Tiff's sister's birthday is on Friday so we're gonna get back for that.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
The Great 2008 Road Trip, Days 5-8
1867.4 Miles Into the Trip... Wow this has been a fun journey. I am finally at the point in a long road trip, or long anything really, where the days melt into each other and the distractions of daily life fade into forgetfulness. We are on a journey, much like life, that never has a fixed destination. We're not going somewhere on this trip, the trip is where we're going. It's a beautiful feeling and the state of mind that I wish to live the rest of my life like. Living for the moment, living for now, and thus thoroughly enjoying the beautiful details of every moment of these nameless days I am living.
Besides that, I've been grinding. A lot. I averaged about 10 hours a day for the last four days while Tiffany has been riding, but really I shoulda stuck to writing these last four days. I was super psyched for Sunday and even brought my laptop to breakfast to make sure I was in time for the 100r and Brawl at 11am Western time. Well, before I even made it out of breakfast I busted with JJ on an AJx flop vs. the big blind that check/called a 3/4 pot bet on the flop and then did the same on the 9 turn and then check-jammed the K river which I obviously fist-pump snap-called only to be shocked that the chips were going that way to his QTo. Whatever. I had the worst Sunday I have ever head until about 5pm when I started rolling in the FTP 750k, Mulligan, Stars 2nd Chance, and the 100r. I had huge chip stacks in all of those tourneys but ended up getting effed in all three losing pots as 3-1 favorites for top 5 chipstacks. I only made the money in the 750k taking like 106th, but the day still cost me $2500 plus $1500 cash where I got horribly unlucky also.
Monday... Sweet! FTP 1k! Nope. 10 mins in playing 10-20 a dude opens for 70, I flat right behind him with JJ, heads up flop of QJx and we go bust to QQ. Oh, but to not despair. In three other tourneys I busted getting it in with the nuts of top set vs flush draws, and then I got it in with an open-ended straight flush draw with two overs vs top pair (QJcc on Tc9cX vs AT) and couldn't hit. Whatevs... I know there's nothing I can do about it, but it is very very very frustrating and as y'all know it's been this way for a long time.
That night we went to a local bar and I had a couple of interesting conversations. Tiffany asked, "Why don't you talk about what you do in places like this?" Cause I really don't unless there's a reason to. I was trying to explain to her how often it's a general pain in the ass as 80% of the people are going to hear the words coming out of my mouth and immediately do something to piss me off. It might be the judgemental type that believes that gambling is wrong, the skeptical type that says it's all luck, the know it all who plays poker and immediately thinks they're better than you, or just the quiet person that instantly puts some stereotype label on your forehead. It's just not worth it really. I make up something about what I do when I'm talking to some random person that I'm probably never going to see again, and then only if they really press and want to know what I do. I often go with the wilderness guide since I have done that, sometimes I'll make up something wacky like Eel Farmer, and I've even signed Danny Masterson autographs. The other 20% of the people are either people like most of you who understand the game of poker and the theory of it being a profession or just plain cool non-judgemental pepole. I suppose I could use talking about poker as a correlation to personalities for friendship, but meh. I've just argued "long run" and "skill game" too much and every time I get in that discussion I feel like I would be more fulfulled talking to potatoes.
Enter Laura. She meets Tiffany outside smoking, Tiffany talks about us and what we're doing and Laura brings up poker somehow and Tiff says I'm a pro and blah blah blah. So, I shake hands with Laura, and she says, "So, you're a pro, huh?" I do my best to dodge questions cause I really don't want to talk to this random drunk chick that is obviously already skeptical about me. Eventually the conversation gets to the point where she says, "So, have you found any games in town?" This is after she challenged me to heads up for $3 and then talked crap when I politely declined. I mentioned that I play online mostly, she said online's a joke and went into this tirade about reading people and looking into their eyes and all this hollywood crap, and apparently this sent Tiffany into defensive girlfriend mode, and Tiff says, "So have YOU found any games in town??"
Nope.
I am going to become an accountant to make my bar going experiences easier.
The bartender, however, was right up my alley. His name is Dave Fish (seriously). He is married with a kid, spends his winters in Bend, Oregon bartending at this lodge, and spends his summers in Alaska running a Fishing Guide service that he owns. So sweet. We had good ol talks about many things and I thoroughly enjoyed his conversation.
So the next morning we left to head north into Washington. We settled in Naches, WA, which is somewhere in the middle. LOL. This town was hilarious. It felt like something out of the 50's movies. Like, seriously. Everything down to the traffic lights looked like they had not been altered in 50 years. I loved it.
Tuesday poker: same flavor. Don't wanna talk about this.
Wednesday was a good day however. I went back and watched a few PXF videos, read deeper into some threads, did some thinking, and reviewed some of my hand histories and found a couple leaks that I thought might help. I also brought some of my live tricks into the online game, and the results showed. I played 16 tournaments yesterday, took 4th/800 and change in one, 11th/1600+ in another, and 18/270 in a third. Furthermore I got screwed deep in three that I really should have cashed in. I don't think there was anything I could have done to get further in the one I finished 4th, I made a marginal mistake in the 11th, and I got effed in the 18th. I played very well making only a couple of marginal mistakes all day. I also won $1k in the cash games.
That reminds me. I finally had a couple of revenge suckouts yesterday. Twice I got it in with aces, once vs KK and once vs. QQ. The queens flopped top set and we went running clubs for the nut flush, and the kings flopped KQQ and we rivered an A. Those made me feel much better about life.
Last night after working we walked across the street to the bar. This place was the perfect downtown locals bar in a small town. There was a lady who looked 65 hanging out knowing everybody with a kitten walking around her shoulders and nooooobody cared. Then I met her mother. She looked 40. I still can't figure it out. So, apparently this cat was very friendly, I know this because the cat lady told me so as she insisted that this cat goes walking around my shoulders. I watched this dude shoot a sick game of pool - with a kitten on his shoulders that was not owned by him. Add that to the list of random shit I've seen in my lifetime...
So, today's Thursday and we just arrived in Leavenworth, Washington. Apparently this is some Bavarian town and this weekend is the ice festival so everything was booked up. I called the Chamber of Commerce, they gave me three hotel names, the first one didn't have any availability Saturday, and the second is where I am at right now. I got on the phone with this lady named Helen. She gave me the usual greeting, I responded, "Hi Helen, how are you?!?"
Pause. "Well, to tell ya the truth I have a damn cold."
I like this lady already. We chat about rooms, rates, and she's trying to figure out a way to give us a discount. Nice. "Well, what the hell ya do? AAA? AARP? Senior Citizen? Student? Military? Ride a Harley? What?"
"Uhhhhh... well, I work for myself. Ahem.. I'm self employed."
"C'mon, what the hell ya do?"
"Well......... I'm a professional poker player actually."
"REALLY?!?!? Ya know last week I went up der to dat Casino and I done won myself darn near four hunned dollas." She just could not stop talking about gambling, getting married in Vegas, not being able to get a room so sleeping in their car on their honeymoon in Vegas, her brother in law who is a professional gambler, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on............ She was absolutely hilarious. Racist as all hell, sweet as sugar, quick wit and humor, and after chatting on the phone and in person, she gives us this sick room for $55 a night through the holiday weekend. The rate she quoted first was $55, $99, $149, $99 for the next four nights. NICE! So, I'm done writing, and I am going to go check out this Bavarian town.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
The Great 2008 Road Trip
Days 1-4. Bend, Oregon, by way of Los Angeles, Pismo Beach, and Half Moon Bay
Sorry about the lapse between blogs. I came back from Christmas/San Diego with a sore throat. This was magnified by the UFC fight the night of Dec 28th, not helped by New Years Eve, and I thought I was home free New Years Day, when Tiffany didn’t feel well. I felt like I was still on the tail end of things and not completely recovered. By this point I had decided to go with Tiffany up north and we made the call to wait til the 3rd to leave for Washington.
Long story short, she got really sick, then I got really really really really sick, and we weren’t all the way fixed until Monday the 7th. We finally left for our road trip Wednesday afternoon. Destination: Washington ski areas. All of em. Schedule? None. So, Tiff wanted to hit Mtn. High in So Cal since she tried to on Monday but the roads were closed. We drove down to my Mom’s place, kidnapped her for dinner, met up with a bunch of the homies (Nick, Shawn [Danny’s brother], and Tommy plus 3 girls), and ended up crashing at Shawn’s pad.
Next morning Tiff woke up early, I woke up later and started working. My mission on this trip is to grind my ass off and get back somewhat of a reasonable bankroll. She’s been planning on doing this for a long time so I’m kind of tagging along. I figured with all the drive time I’ll get a bunch of reading and writing done and with all the down time/her boarding time I’ll get a bunch of work done. I started out winning both in cash and tournaments on Thursday, but just marginally in both and I’m in make-up in both so it didn’t really matter… plus I felt kicked in the nuts the way things went down and really should have gotten out of make up in cash and won about 5k in tournaments. Damn river I swear. In that cash session I only played one big pot, got it in on the flop w/KK v 75 on a 97x flop and he promptly turned a 5. Course I brick. But two nights before I had an especially gross session where I got it in five times, all $800+ pots, four times I got it in on the turn with the best hand and lost all four. One time I got it in with an open-ended straight flush draw with an over vs.. top two (I’m a favorite) and I lost that one too.
Anyways, so we decided we were going to San Francisco, then Bend, stop, ride Mt. Bachelor, maybe Hood, and then keep on keeping on. That didn’t work, and I’m stoked that it didn’t. We stopped in Santa Barbara and had dinner with Kristin, and then continued north to Pismo Beach. We decided along the way that we were taking the coast up and found this sweet room for $109 right on the sand with a 24 hour beach front Jacuzzi. Rough life really.
Friday I spent the whole day driving. Just meandering our way north on PCH, stopping to check out what we wanted to, enjoying the scenery of the Big Sur area otherwise. One of the highlights was an elephant seal colony that we came across. There were literally hundreds of elephant seals on this small stretch of beach and it looked like something off of the Discovery channel. Freakin cool. We saw a birth right after it happened, and it was crazy. The seagulls were hell bent on eating the protein rich afterbirth, the mama was intent on deafening the seagulls (she made a BAHHHWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!! noise in their ears showing her teeth. I was hoping for her to rip some heads off really, or maybe I would provide her with some alka-seltzer, but there was no more blood to be seen). The newborn pup just kinda wiggled around the sand thinking about what I suppose newborns think about, which is a lot of, “What the F&#!“ and whatever their instincts are telling them, “Booooobs.“ When I’m not in the middle of nowhere I’ll post some pics, probably toward the end of the trip.
We ended up staying at Half Moon Bay in this old Victorian right on PCH since the hostel at the lighthouse was sold out of private rooms. Sad. It was cool, but not worth the money really.
Today we finished the drive up the coast, through San Fran, across the bay bridge, breakfast at Tom’s Cabin in Berkley (this awesome little hippie organic breakfast joint), and have continued driving all day. We’re staying at the Mt. Bachelor Village Resort the next couple of days, and I’m psyched to get in a good day of tourneys tomorrow. I’m back on a somewhat normal schedule and am actually gonna try and make it up by the warm-up and play all the way through the 200r.
“And it didn’t matter exactly where we were headed. We’d get there. We’d find somewhere to stay. Something or somebody would turn up. And if they didn’t, we’d camp. It was that simple. At last I was living for each day, free as the eagles that lined the roadside…” - Charley Boorman, Long Way Round
Peace and good luck,
Devo
My New Favorite Hand of All Time
What do you put him on? Sorry I've been absent as of late, but I got sicker than I have been in my adult life since the new year. And no, it had nothing to do with the NYE festivities. Kinda disappointing really!
I wanted to show y'all this hand I just played. It brought a roomie downstairs saying, "What are you laughing at?!?"
2-4 nl. Over my dead body (or sweet information of your own that you'd like to swap) am I telling y'all where these fishies hang out. 6 max table, I open to $14 w/QTo from the cutoff, the big blind calls. I have zero history with the big blind. Flop 233o. BB min bets $4, I jack it to $34, he calls. Turn an ace putting a heart draw out there. BB bets $4 again, I jack it to $90, he calls. Damn. River a 6, he checks, I'm like, "Damn. I know he's got nothing, but I give up." I check, and they ship me the pot. AHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Guy types into the chat box, "Nice value." I think it's my new favorite hand of all time.
Time to suck on a Sucrets.
Peace and good luck,
Devo
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