I ate well the whole day and felt pretty strong. I decided to head to the golf course for the first time in two months and as predicted, on the range I wasn’t hitting the ball very well at all. I took it to the course and it started to come around a little bit, but nowhere near where I was two months ago. Two months ago I would be targeting 80 as a score, while on this day I targeted 104! I was on pace for that through 7 holes, but then I got a painful blister on my right hand and decided to pack it in. I never really get blisters, but my grip was a bit off and that had to be what caused it.
After golf I headed home and read three more chapters of that book I’m reading. I usually read three chapters and then write a report on what I learned from them. It’s a fun assignment and I’ll be reading even more over the next three weeks.
I was a bit bored and wanted to finally get out of the house so I called Lex to see what he was up to. His sister was in town so they were doing dinner at a steakhouse. I haven’t eaten in any restaurant or consumed any food not prepared by Patty in about 3 months, so a steakhouse didn’t sound appealing to me. Evelyn wasn’t going, though, and said she’d be willing to see Inception again despite just seeing the movie two nights earlier.
I did a 90 minute yoga session as part of my P90X program and then went to pick up Evelyn. I’m on week 8 of P90X and my body looks completely different. Aside from the 10 lbs I’ve lost, I’m also much stronger. I literally could not do a single chin up when I started, and now I can do four comfortably.
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Inception was just incredible and I’d happily see it again. Ever since The Matrix I never thought something like that could be duplicated, but this movie surpassed my expectations, and I went in with very high expectations. I highly recommend seeing this movie, but make sure you don’t go if you are sleepy. There is a lot going on and you need to pay attention to fully get it. I felt like I was able to follow the story quite easily and that made it even more enjoyable for me.
After the movie I hung out with Evy at her place for a bit and we caught up. We haven’t hung out in ages and we used to talk all the time. Then we got a text from Lex telling us to meet him at Surrender, a club at the Encore so we decided to check it out. I’ve never been there before, but the vibe was really cool. By the time we got there they were just closing up. I had one drink and then something happened that had me laughing my butt off.
We had these three women in a booth next to us and they appeared to be drunk and obnoxious as well as extremely rude. They were trying to steal vodka from the bottle we had and when one of our friends asked what she was doing she gave a pouty face and said, “You aren’t going to drink it anyway.” We probably weren’t, but once she said that I’d rather pour the vodka on the floor than let her have it.
I didn’t talk to them at all, but one of Lex’s friends was. They started to get belligerent throwing stuff at us, and ultimately one of them spilled a drink on Lex’s friend. He walked over to her and asked what the heck she thinks she’s doing, and she got all crazy saying, “Do you know who I am? I’m freaking rich and I’m staying in a villa here. I’ll freaking kill you!” Then she kicked him in the chest with her heels on.
Now, normally I’m not a fan of violence or beating on a woman, but what he did makes me laugh even thinking about it now. It was epic. With her heel still by his chest, he pulled on her leg like a lawnmower cord and essentially dragged her on the floor and she skidded on the carpet for about 12 feet! HAHA, you just had to be there I guess, but as I’m typing this my laptop is shaking from my belly laughs. This chick totally deserved it.
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A lot of people seem to be out of town after the WSOP and I just didn’t want to go anywhere. My best friend is on vacation for another three weeks and isn’t reachable by phone which sucks since we normally chat via text all the time.
I got invited to Italy, Cabo, Portland, San Diego, etc. but I swear to you, the idea of traveling just doesn’t interest me. I do enough travel throughout the year that when I have downtime I want to spend it at home, with my boy Mushu.
My “plan” for the next month is to complete P90X and maybe even post the before/after pics 🙂 and work on my poker game online. I’ve been playing either the $400-$800 8-game mix or the $100-$200 NLH game in Daniel’s Room on PokerStars. With no action in Bobby’s Room and none on the horizon, it looks like I’ll be getting my poker fix online.
Outside of that, I’m just going to use the next couple weeks to unwind before I start shooting The Million Dollar Challenge again, as well as The Big Game. Both will be shot in August, and after that it looks like my schedule will start to get busy again with travel to Europe.
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It was a good start to the day. I came in with 24,475 and early on doubled up:
HAND 1:
A player limps for 400 under the gun, everyone else folds and I check my option in the big blind with AQ. The flop comes Q 9 4 rainbow. I checked and my opponent bet like 900. I decided to play it slow feeling like he either had me with a set, AA, or KK, or if I was ahead, he probably didn’t have a lot of outs. I called.
The turn was an Ace putting a backdoor flush draw out there too. I checked, he bet 1300, I made it like 3600, he re-raised to 9600. At this point I can fold, call, or re-raise him all in for another 10,000. I hummed and hawed for a while. I didn’t think this guy was bluffing at all and he could easily have a set here, but I just don’t see how I could get away from it with my stack being so small. I thought it through, and finally moved in. He went into the tank and now I felt great about my hand. In fact, I assumed by the long pause that he was drawing completely dead so I did the best I could to talk him into making the call. I won’t repeat here what I said, but I’m sure you’ll see it on ESPN when the shows air. He finally called and showed AJ.
HAND 2:
From there I picked up a little momentum and actually built my stack up to about 80,000. Then a very interesting hand came up. I raised to 1375 (blinds 300-600) with 6d 7d and a tough, young, internet player called me in position. It folded around to the big blind who re-raised to a total of 4600. I counted his stack and it seemed like he was deep enough for me to make the call in position. I called. The internet kid paused for a while and eventually called. I put him on a suited connector type hand or a small pair looking to win a big pot, but I put the big blind on a big pair or AK. I felt really good about where I was at and my read of the situation.
The flop came Ac Qc 2h and the big blind insta checked. When he did, I was convinced he had KK or JJ and that this was a great spot to pick up the pot since I felt like it was very unlikely that the internet kid would hit this flop. I bet 6500 and the internet called. The big blind, frustrated, folded what appeared to be KK.
The turn came the 8s. Now, I have nothing but there is a lot I can represent. I could easily have any of the following hands: AK, AQ, QQ, 22. I felt like my opponents most likely holding was either a flush draw, or possibly a weaker suited ace, maybe even something like A-10 suited. I felt like he may fold an ace to another bet, and he’d call with flush draws. If he calls me on the turn, I need to have enough chips to be able to make a reasonable sized bet on the river without crippling my stack if I was wrong and he was calling me down with an Ace. I elected to bet 13,500. He thought for a while, looked like he may want to raise me and for a second I thought he may have a hand like Jc 10c which would be a big draw. Finally he called. The river came the 3c and at this point I didn’t think I could buy the pot. I mean, I put the guy on the flush draw so I felt like I had to give up and protect my 45,000 stack. I checked, and he moved all in.
So either he was turning his Ace into a bluff, or he actually made the flush. Either way I had 7-high and obviously couldn’t do anything about it anymore. I’m still interested to see what would have happened if the river was NOT a club. I probably would have bet something like 17,500. No need for a much bigger bet since if he missed clubs he’d probably fold and if he has an Ace he’d be almost as likely to call 17,500 as he would 25,500.
HAND 3:
After that hand I never was able to get it going and I kept picking up trash hands. Nothing even the wildest of players would consider playing. I eventually picked up a mediocre hand in the big blind and defended. A young internet player raised under the gun, the button called, and I called the 1300 more from the big blind with K-J (blinds 500-1000). The flop came 10-9-7 rainbow and I checked, The raiser bet 3600 and I called. The turn was a 5 and it went check-check. The river came a 4 and I decided that this pot was worth trying to steal. I felt like I could get him to fold Ace high, KQ, KJ, and maybe a few paired hands like 7-8. I bet 6800 and he tanked. He finally called me with 8-9 and that’s how I ended the day under 30,000
I started the day with 24,475 and “chipped up” to 27,900. When day three begins we’ll be playing 500-1000 (100) for another hour before going to 600-1200 (100) which means I’m hardly in desperation mode with 28 big blinds. I’ll need to pick up some hands obviously, but I’m hoping I can maybe chip up to 42k-45k without getting it all in. That depends heavily on table draw, and here is what mine looks like:
1.Patrick Barth 36,600
2. Eric Carr 82,000
3.Michael Adamo 130,000 (I used to play house games with this guy 20 years ago!)
4. Jeremy Jagoda 59,000
5. Hoyt Corkins 122,400
6. Dhurba Mukherjee 70,800
7. Oleksandr Bichurch 51,900
8. Dustin Patterson 54,700
9. Daniel Negreanu 27,900
Despite the fact that I’m not exactly doing great chip wise, I’m extremely proud of myself for doing the best I can dealing with adversity on day two and making it through without giving up. I’d say that when I factor in all of the variables that can affect your WSOP performance, this is the absolute best WSOP I’ve ever had. I don’t know that a lot of people would look at it that way, or that many people could handle my WSOP experience as well, but I am very proud of the discipline I showed throughout when I could have easily made excuses to “quit” and go get drunk or something. I never did that even once.
The mark of a true professional is one that can put aside everything else in their life when they are playing the game and still give it their best effort. For the past six weeks or so, I’m satisfied that I did the very best I could. It was a mental struggle at times, but nothing kept me from dedicating myself fully to playing the game…and it’s not over yet.
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To my left was a tough player, I could tell based on how deliberate he was and how he handled his chips. I picked up 10-10 and made it 225, I got one call, and then this tough player made it 1050 in position. We were still very deep obviously, so I made the call hoping to flop a set, and the other player folded.
The flop came Qc 8c 3s and I checked. The tough player bet 1650 and I called. The turn was the 4c, I did not have a club, and checked. He also checked, so now I actually felt like not only did I have the best hand, but I felt like my opponent probably didn’t have a club. That read was based partly on a tell and partly based on my assumption of this players betting patterns and that if he had the Ace of clubs he would bet.
The river came the Ks and I checked. He now bet 3650 and I tanked. The way the hand played out, it appears as though he is repping AK, but I didn’t buy it based on his bet size. I felt like if he had AK he’s bet closer to 2400 hoping to get value from a Queen. This bet was a big too big for AK, so the question was, “What the heck does he got?” Well, I sensed pre-flop that he could be just making a squeeze play in position with any two cards. I thought long and hard, convinced myself he didn’t have AK so he’d have to show me the nuts or nothing. I called the bet, and he showed Jc 9c!
After seeing that hand I feel good about my call strangely enough. He made a tricky check on the turn with that hand and I never could put him on that.
HAND 2:
I was still doing fine over my 30,000 start playing a decent number of hands when a player to my right opened for 500. I called in position with QQ and the big blind re-raised to 2250 with the original raiser folding. This guy was super easy to read. This was never a hand other than: JJ QQ KK AA AK. I can honestly say that his hand is literally down to these hands and with 10-10 he would have called. I’m sure of it! We are relatively deep so I feel like it made sense to call the raise in position and hope to flop a Queen. This guy was a bit of a calling station and wasn’t getting away from AA or KK if I hit.
The flop came 5s 6c 7s and he bet 3450. I think I’m beat in this spot, but it looks like a really good flop for me to represent and straight card that hits the turn. I mean, I have his range narrowed down to a select few hands, but there is no way he can correctly narrow down my range to anything as specific as what I actually have. I call.
The turn is an 8… perfect! He checks to me, and I see that he has about 14,000 left while I have 31,000. Seems like an automatic bet here for me so I stick it in fully expecting him to fold AA or KK. He thought for a minute and said, “Hmmm, well I can’t put you on a set or having a 9 in your hand so I have to call.” I was thinking, “Dude, have you never seen me play before! I’m waaaay more likely to hit that flop than I am to have QQ!” He turns over his KK proudly, but on this hand the river bails me out as a 4 completes the straight on board.
HAND 3:
There was a novice player two to my right and anytime he entered a pot I played virtually anything playable in position in the hopes of busting him. He min raised to 400 and I called on the button with 3-4 off suit. The tough player from earlier called from the big blind. The flop came 8s 5h 5c and it was checked to me so I bet 750 hoping to steal it right there. The tough player called.
The turn came the Kc and he checked again, this time I decided to bet 1800 hoping to get him to fold a draw- he called. The river was a Js and he checked again. At this point I figured he’d call me if he has a pair, but if he’s drawing he’ll fold, so I decided to make a relatively small bet of 2400. He paused for a moment, then check-raised me to 5800! I didn’t but it for a second, seriously. He is repping 88 or 55 in this spot but I didn’t believe he’d play it that way, so I decided that I would rep the 88 or 55 and made it 11,200 leaving myself with 17,000 in case I had a bad read. He tanked for a bit, then asked me how much I have left which left me thinking, “Oops, well it looks like I’m toast.” Finally, he decided to fold his hand and I said, “You had the right idea,” and showed the 3-4. We laughed about it and he said, “I knew it! I should have put them in.” He actually had 6-7 for 7 high.
That hand got me to 40,000 and from there I cruised to 55,000. Once I hit that point, though, I couldn’t hit a flop and it seemed my opponents would either river me or hit the flop consistently. The main event is an interesting struggle because it’s sooooo much easier than a typical tournament that you have to fight against trying to outplay everyone, every single hand. When they start hitting against you, that will make your chips bleed away.
I had a steady balance of aggression going throughout the day, but the cards really went dead for me in the last two hours. One kid in particular was short and he doubled through me twice. The first time when his AK beat my AQ, and then he shoved again with 55, I called with AK, and he doubled again bringing me back down under my 30,000 starting stack. I ended with 24,475 and the blinds will be 200-400 with a 50 ante so I still have plenty of chips to work with, over 60 big blinds.
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I get one off day today and then it’s back at it again tomorrow. I plan on relaxing all day. I did Kenpo which is part of the P90X workout I’m doing and it’s the funnest one for sure but still gets you sweating pretty hard. After that I decided to clean out my closet (no not come out of the closet you weirdos) since I haven’t done that for a while. I’ve recently developed an addiction for online shopping and need to make some room for new stuff. It’s so quick and easy online! Never used to do that ever, but now I prefer it.
Whether I make it through day 2 or not, I’ll have two off days and plan on actually going out! Probably take in a show or maybe a movie, we shall see. Whatever we end up doing doesn’t really matter, I’m just excited to have a chance to unwind after a grueling 6 weeks where I was more disciplined than ever before in my life. Like, in every way you can define what makes you disciplined, I was that this month. I was such a good boy!
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Ok Doyle, I’ve been busy playing the tournament so I didn’t have a chance to look at who I wanted to bet on, but I have my list of 11 Team PokerStars Pros that I’ll bet on. They are:
Jason Mercier
Daniel Negreanu
Joe Hachem
Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier
Ivan Demidov
William Thorson
JP Kelly
Jose Ignacio Barbero
Lex Velduis
Jude Ainsworth
Arnaud Mattern
I’d be willing to bet on my team in a simple bet “most money won” in the main event. I actually don’t feel strongly about this bet because the Brunson 10 you are forming seems really strong.
The bet I really want to make with you though is this one:
Bill Reynolds
Will Molson
Tom Marchese
vs
Johnny Chan
Phil Hellmuth
Barry Greenstien
You can bet whatever you want on that match up because several people have already been begging me for a piece of my bet. What I find most interesting Doyle, is that you are willing to make a completely blind bet? You have absolutely no idea how good or bad those three kids play, but you just assume you have the best of it because you have three guys you know? Do you really not think there are tons of great young unknown players out there that could possibly play better than the three you mentioned? Would you do the same thing in golf? If I brought a “buddy of mine” from North Carolina that you’d never heard of, would you just bet on Dewey Tomko with no strokes for even money?
I can come up with plenty of three man combos against Chan, Hellmuth, and Barry. Also, I promise to make sure they are all guys you’ve never heard of:
Vivek Rajkumar
Jason Somerville
Richard “nutsinho” don’t know his last name
I have the utmost respect for the old school players and all they have done to promote the game. Without them poker would not be where it is today. In terms of either no limit hold’em tournaments or cash, though, the best players in the world today, with a few exceptions, are young.
Many of them are very deep thinkers and think about lines of play at a very high level factoring in more variables than whether or not a player looks like he’s bluffing. They can be effective live without being really good at reading tells. They are better at understanding lines, are hard to exploit, and their bet sizing is very precise. They don’t guess at the right sizing, they base it on math and logic.
When playing 100 or less big blinds deep, there are just hard and fast rules that apply that I don’t think old school players are aware of. I sure wasn’t, until I put some hard work in earlier this year playing online and looking to plug leaks. I found a lot of it fascinating. A lot of what I did could clearly be proven to be wrong. Not just an opinion, but you could actually prove that a certain play I tended to make would cost me money in the long run.
When I was working on my NLH game with some of the young guys I was thoroughly impressed with the amount of thought that went into every play. It made me feel a little bit stupid at first, but the more I listened and spoke with them the better I got.
Aside from chatting with Lex about hands, I had spent one night with with guys that I’d been butting heads with on PokerStars the whole month in Monte Carlo. They railed me all night while I played online. I ended up winning about $90,000 on PokerStars that night, but the lessons I learned were worth a lot more than that.
I came 15th in the $2500 NLH 6 max event and 11th in the $25,000 6 max event, and that would not have happened without all the practice I put in online. And of course, a special thanks to Bill Reynolds, Tom Marchese and Richard “Nutsinho” don’t know your last name 🙂
Doyle thinks I “used to” be a good player until I started with all this stuff, and while he’s entitled to his opinion, I couldn’t disagree more. I don’t see how working harder and spending more time working on, and analyzing your weaknesses could make you a worse player.
I’ve said it a million times and have been saying it ever since I started playing poker in Las Vegas. If you don’t get better, you get WORSE by definition. If you don’t question your methods and evolve, others will, and they’ll eventually surpass you. It’s the day you think you have it all figured out that you are doomed.
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I’m still in the TOC with a chance, 17 players left, and I just bought into the main event, playing Day 1C. I’m looking forward to both events and feel like I’m playing no limit hold’em better now than I ever have. I think in 2004 my edge over the field was much bigger than it is today, but as a player, I know now how to exploit the player I was in 2004.
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He called, and the river came the 10h which appears to be a complete blank, until he fires 12,000 at it! I thought about it for a very long time and almost called a clock on myself. He “could” have the nut flush, I guess, but I just didn’t think he’d play it that way on the flop.
Problem is, I didn’t think he was bluffing so I had to decide what hands I could beat. I guess I could beat J-10 or a smaller set, and also maybe Ac Ad played bizarrely. Meh, I hated the spot, really wanted to fold, then made a big mistake by calling. Chris showed 10c 10s which made perfect sense. Johnny Chan who was seated on my right said that’s the exact hand he put him on. I messed up that one.
The table then broke as we got down to 18 and I was seated to the left of Matusow and I had Howard and Hellmuth on my immediate left. Things went pretty well for me at that table as I busted Dan Harrington by slowplaying Aces and getting him to move in with Qc Jc and I ended with 39,900 which puts me right in the middle of the pack with 17 left.
At the start of day two Doyle wanted to bet on the “old guys” to win the event, and I told him I’d give him action, but the problem is that the whole field was basically old with the exception of Elky who isn’t exactly young in poker terms either. So instead I told him I’d take 3 guys against his 3 guys in a must win.
Pick 1
Daniel: Elky
Doyle: Johnny Chan
Pick 2
Daniel: Erik Seidel
Doyle: Barry Greenstien
Pick 3
Daniel: Joe Hachem
Doyle: Dan Harrington
Hachem had a lot of chips and Seidel was the chip leader. I liked the way Hachem was playing and although he’s not a “young guy” at 44 I felt like he was playing like one on day one. He was pretty aggressive and playing well. I also took Seidel not only because of his chip stack, but also because I think his game has evolved with the times as well and I don’t think he plays the same way he did 6 years ago.
Had the tournament not started yet and he wanted to take those three guys, I would have happily taken 3 young guys and went with Ivey, Elky, Cunningham, Juanda, or Antonio. All of them are under 35.
For the 6 max event, I’d let Doyle pick any 3 guys he wants over 35 and I promise to take three guys he’s never heard of: Bill Reynolds, Will Molson, and Tom Marchese. He can have Barry Greenstien, Johnny Chan, and Phil Hellmuth, and I’d take my chances.
The point of this isn’t to say that older players aren’t good poker players, but in a 6 max format the experience lies so heavily with the younger players. There are loads of 6 max specialists and I don’t think any of them are over 35. Sure it’s internet poker which is different, but I think they are more advanced fundamentally than those less experienced older players.
I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better thanks to playing in the 100-200 NLH game on PokerStars and I’m glad I did. I worked hard to improve and I feel like it’s paid off for me and gives me a fighting chance in this event tomorrow. I’m going to give it my all, that’s for sure.
While playing in the game Howard brought up something I found interesting enough to share my viewpoint on. Howard is notorious for showing up 2 hours late for all events. Lots of players do that, and I think in many cases it probably is a great idea, especially in the limit events where the first two hours are close to pointless. In no limit, though, I disagree with his view about the early levels being pointless.
I think it really depends on the type of player you are. For a tight, conservative player, playing 50-100 with 30,000 in chips seems like a waste of time. As Howard said, “It’s like just waiting for a cooler either way.” In Howard’s case that may be true because his approach to the early levels is a conservative one, electing to not gamble in marginal spots, and instead waiting for the antes to get in there so he can come over the top of people, etc.
If you are a player like Alan Goering (perfect example), Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, or any aggressive player accustomed to playing deep stacked NLH, then those early levels offer an excellent opportunity to take some chances and look to either bust players, or chop away and build up a lead for the ante stage of the tournament. I’ll use an example to illustrate:
If Durr raises to 300 at the 50-100 level with 5h 7h and a player on the button re-raises to 1000, he may decide to make this call because he feels like A) he can outplay the player after the flop, and B) he is deep enough to justify risking the 700 in chips.
Often these situations only arise in the early levels, and when the average stack dips below 60 big blinds, a player like Durr can no longer profitably make this call, even if he thinks he can outplay his opponent after the flop, because the raise represents too high a percentage of his stack.
So while it’s true, that for a tight player the first level is a time to pretty much sit back and waste time, for the loose aggressive players looking for an early advantage, those early levels are the only time they can successfully impose their post flop skills against more straight forward players.
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Today was my first off day since the start of the WSOP. That seems nuts, I know, but it’s true. It’s the first day I never left the house for the Rio and I vegged hardcore. I watched Rocky I yesterday and Rocky II today. I’ll end up watching all 6 before the main event, a tradition for me that I think I’ll do forever. What can I say, I love the Rocky movies.
I also wasted a bunch of time perusing the internet and checking twitter. A new phenomenon of sorts (actually I shouldn’t say new because I don’t know how long it’s been going on), is to create phony twitter accounts and make fun of poker players, etc. I used to always get messages from “AsianSpa” and I was like, what’s this dude’s deal??? I read some of his tweets and found some of them funny enough and I have pretty thick skin so I can handle needles my way pretty good.
The other one is “DougLeePoker” and I feel like an idiot, because for the longest time I thought, “Man, I never would have thought Doug Lee would have a twitter account, and certainly not tweet the things he’s tweeting?” Well, it’s obviously not the real Doug Lee, just someone who took on his name to needle poker players and so I follow him too. If you know of any other good ones let me know…
I’d warn anyone who elects to follow these guys that they are often pretty vulgar and can be mean so if foul language offends you I’d suggest blocking those two!
I find the whole twitter thing to be such an odd social experiment and it’s pretty fascinating. You can learn a lot about a person based on what they are willing to share and how they share it. I had one friend of mine, who will remain nameless, tell me, “You can totally tell when a chick is nuts by reading her tweets.” LOL, I thought that was kind of funny.
Some people use it to tell you they did laundry or that they are watching Rocky (guilty), while others use it simply to tell jokes. Drama Queens often use twitter to… well, create some drama! I don’t even know yet how I feel about twitter, facebook, and the various social sites. In some ways they can be fun, but in other ways they can be destructive or just a plain waste of time.
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There is always a lot of discussion amongst live pros and internet pros about which school of thought is best, and while I think a combination is best, the fundamental knowledge of the young players today make them much more difficult to play against. My foray into online poker earlier this year was, for me, a resounding success, and that has nothing to do with results at all. I was up when I played badly, gave it all back playing better, was up again playing well, and then lost it back again trying to unsuccessfully play more than one table. I’ll get back at it after the WSOP.
Anyway, that work taught me so much about the way the game is being played today and the adjustments I’d have to make to be successful against the younger, more prepared breed of poker player.
In playing just four hours today, with my old school buddy TJ Cloutier, Scotty Nguyen, and the rest, the differences in the thought process in each hand was substantial.
Let’s break down a few hands I played:
HAND #1:
I raised under the gun with AK and got a few callers, one of them being Elky on the button. The flop came A-6-2 rainbow and I bet 800- only Elky called. The turn was a Q, I checked, Elky bet 1775 and I called. The river was a 4, I checked, Elky bet 4400 and I decided to lay it down and showed it. Elky showed 4-5! He took one off with a gut shot, took the lead on the turn, and decided to rep a set on the river. It worked, and he obviously outplayed me on the hand, but having said that, I’m not all that upset about the lay down.
I ruled out him betting a mediocre Ace on the end, so I felt his most likely hand was a set of 6’s (or 2’s), if not that, then aces up. There was an outside chance he was betting A-J or A-10, but I don’t think he’d bet 4400 with either of those hands. It was a pretty big bet, which polarizes his range some, meaning, he either floated the flop weak, or he had AK beat. Ultimately I laid it down, and at the time was pretty confident I did the right thing. He showed the bluff, and it stung, but I’m still fine with the fold based on my read of his range in that spot. I felt like I could only beat 4-5 or 3-4 as 3-5 filled the unlikely straight.
HAND #2
Later against Elky I raised with Kc 5c, Hachem called, and Elky called from the small blind. This time the flop was Kh 9h 6c and Elky led again. I called Joe folded. The turn was the 2c Elky bet and I called. The river was an 8 and Elky bet 4400 again. I folded again.
This was a very different situation to the previous one. The previous hand the board was very dry while this time the board was very wet. Based on a comment Elky made after the last bluff about the dry board, I felt like he wouldn’t try to bluff and rep a hand in this spot because there are so many draws that could miss. This time I was right, Elky had me beat.
HAND #3
With blinds at 100-200 with a 25 ante Antonio raised to 525, Doyle called, and Duke called from the small blind. I had Jc 3c in the big blind and called the 325 to try and catch a lucky flop. It came Ac Kc 3s. It was checked to Antonio who bet 1775, Doyle folded, Duke called, and I decided not to get it in here and just call. Often a pair and a flush draw is a big enough hand to get it in on the flop, but the problem here is that I can’t really rep very much. I can’t really rep AK AA or KK, so that narrows down what I can rep to just a set of 33’s. I figured it wasn’t believable enough and if I raised they’d correctly put me on a big draw.
The turn came a 5, and Duke bet 2800. I wasn’t exactly sure what to make of that bet, but similar to my hand, it seemed like a very exploitable bet since she can’t rep very much either. So now I’m stuck in the middle and if I call my hand becomes so obvious. Also, Antonio is a good player and I fully expected him to raise the turn if I call with any kind of a hand. I tried to think about what part of my range I’d bet the turn with in that spot and I couldn’t figure out any hand I’d ever do that with, so it puzzled me. The bet didn’t make any real sense, but it was cheap enough that I thought it was worth a shot to hope that Antonio decides to leave it alone, and that I can catch the 3 and potentially get it all in on the river. I was getting a decent price to hit the flush alone, but adding the 3, as well as maybe a jack makes a call seem like the right play considering.
It’s close though, because if a club hits the river I can’t get any action because my hand plays face up at that point. Weird spot.
Antonio folded, and the river came the 8c. I was a bit shocked when she bet 5600. Again, I couldn’t figure out exactly what the meaning, or the purpose of the bet was? If she had Qc 10c I’d expect a bigger bet since it’s obvious I should have hit that card. If she doesn’t have the flush, then there can’t be any value in betting one pair there. My hand is either two pair going into the river, or a flush that just hit.
I ended up tanking for a pretty long time. She bet 5600 and had about 16,000 left. Normally a raise seems standard here, but if I raise, I don’t see how I get called by anything but a flush, and if she has a flush, it’s likely to be exactly Qc 10c and nothing else. I thought about min raising, but if I do that and she has As Qc for example, that opens the door for her to move all in and I’d be forced to fold the hand. I didn’t want to put myself in that spot, and since I didn’t see any value in a raise, I decided to call. She showed AQ.
It worked out for me because if she checked I already decided I’d bet 4500 and I think she’d probably have to fold. In hindsight, I guess I would have raised the river if I thought she’d bet a one pair hand based on the way that I played the hand. The whole hand ended up being weirder than it should have been, and that’s why I ended up tanking for so long on the river. I wasn’t slowrolling, I was trying to figure out exactly what she was thinking, and when I couldn’t, I just gave up and called. I thought about the hand on the drive home, and still don’t really know what happened there.
HAND 4
I raised with JJ from early position, Hachem called, and Elky called from the big blind. The flop came A-9-7 rainbow and Elky led out for like 1275. I felt like Hachem may have an Ace, but if he didn’t have AQ or better he might fold if I raise the flop. Elky could have a wide range of hands here that include straight draws, a 9, or obviously an Ace or better. I didn’t want to just flat call and guess, so I decided to show a bit of strength so I made it 2600. Hachem did fold (he had an Ace) and Elky called. The turn was a 5 and Elky fired 3300. As soon as he made the bet I thought to myself, “What an excellent bet.” Regardless of his actual hand, this was a genius bet. He could easily rep the 6-8, and if he has 8-10 he won’t get raised, plus, he may get me to fold my hand. He could, of course, have an Ace or better but when he bet the turn he had me thinking he had the 6-8 or the 8-10. The fact that I couldn’t even beat an Ace, though, made me lean towards folding “just in case” although I was pretty convinced he had 6-8 or 8-10.
I folded the hand, and he showed a 10! Dang it, he had the 8-10 and outplayed me again. Elky played great all day which I expected.
What I DIDN’T expect was to see Joe Hachem play better poker than I’ve ever seen him play. He was a thorn in my side, 3 betting me frequently, and the one time I 4-bet him with A-10, he 5 bet me and I really think he was bluffing there too. What I was most impressed with was his bet sizing. I learned a lot about “that stuff” from the top players in the 100-200 game on PokerStars, specifically Nutsinho, Altum Atrus, and KingofCards. When we were in Monte Carlo all three of them railed me all night long and I learned a ton.
Anyway, Joe was NOT playing old school poker at all. He seemed really focused, and he wasn’t a bystander by any means. He was really mixing it up and making loads of plays. I’d never seen him play like that before and I was thoroughly impressed.
Antonio was on my immediate left and he always plays me very well and today was no exception. He is a cash game grinder and he has a really good feel for how I think so he makes things very tough on me. My seat at the table wasn’t ideal with Antonio on my left and the “new” Joe Hachem to his left. Other than Elky, they were the most active players by a long shot and you always want to have the tough aggressive players on your right, and the weak tight players on your left.
Tomorrow at noon we start up again and you can follow along on PokerNews or you can watch it live on ESPN3.com at 12:00pm PST. We’ll be playing another 4 levels tomorrow with 22 players remaining. I ended the day with 36,125 which puts me right at the average. Already out are: John Juanda, Greg Raymer, Barry Shulman, Sammy Farha, and Phil Ivey.
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After busting I had a very chill night at the house. I have a couple friends from LA staying with me during the WSOP and I haven’t seen them much lately since I’ve been playing, and they’ve been working too.
Court also came by to do P90X with me. He is just one week away from finishing the 90 day program and we are on the same workout schedule this week which works out good. I never really workout with anyone so it’s nice to have someone there to let me know if I’m doing the moves right. It’s exciting to see and hear how far he’s come and I’m just about 6 weeks away from where he’s at.
A support system is key, I think, when dedicating yourself to a workout. I’m still unable to do the entire Ab Ripper program, but I have definitely progressed and am getting stronger. It’s nice to know you aren’t the only one fighting through it, and that if you keep working hard you will break through. I’m hoping.
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The PokerStars.net The Big Game is in full swing and we’ve aired two weeks already and so far the response has been fantastic. I’ve received tons of feedback on the show as well as the high tech site that was built so you can track the stats and the players. The main site URL is: http://thebiggame.pokerstars.net/ and if you want to take a look at the bios of upcoming Loose Cannons you can find them here: http://thebiggame.pokerstars.net/players/ just click on the Loose Cannon tab for the bios. Of the Loose Cannon’s there is a steady mix of players, both aspiring pros like Will Davis, to fun loving guys like Ernest Wiggins. Each Loose Cannon brings something different to the table and that will ensure that the show stays fresh and fun. You can also take a look at all the pros who’ve participated in the first 6 weeks of shows.
I hope you guys are all enjoying the show, and especially the commentary! I think Chris Rose and Joe Stapleton are doing an amazing job. Chris is the best in the business, and Joe is not only hilarious, but he is also doing a good job providing solid analysis on the hands.
Many have asked if I’ll always be on the show, and the answer is no. I do play 4 of the 6 weeks though and I enjoyed every minute of it… and yes, there is another week coming up with me and Phil Hellmuth… and yes I do needle him a little bit, but nowhere near as much as one solid online pro who really sticks it to PH. Lots of fun episodes to come! Set your tivo’s accordingly.
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1. Daniel Negreanu 237
2. Howard Lederer 180
3. Barry Greenstien 101
4. Erick Lindgren 93
5. Chau Giang 83
6. Joe Cassidy 80
7. Rafe Furst 70
8. Mori Eskandani 61
9. Eli Elezra 56
10. Andy Bloch 47
11. Phil Galfond 42
At the moment, my team is a one man wrecking crew with John Juanda alone garnering me 206 points. Pat Pezzin is also pitching in with 4 cashes and a final table. Benyamine, Scotty, and Mercier have all been quiet for me thus far, but I’m in a great position to win this league.
I haven’t got any recent updates in the ESPN pool, but I should be in good shape there with David Chiu and my pick up Steve Bilirakis. I dropped Freddie Deeb to make room for Bilirakis and he promptly got me a 3rd place finish.
The FCP Fantasy Pool is updated regularly in the forum at FCP Forum. Also, if you are curious who got picked by the majority of poolsters, the full list is here: STATS with the biggest difference coming between Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly, but both players have been left off the scoreboard thus far. Actuallly Jason Mercier $7633 was a 93% favorite against Jason Somerville $3163 also, and both are off to slow starts. I was matched up with Phil Ivey and I’m ahead for the time being with $49,541 in cashes to his $6405. Last I heard, though, Ivey was currently deep in 3 tournaments simultaneously! He gambled in his heads up match with the Grinder and came out on top.
I also won my first match very early in round #2 and was never behind winning the first five hands and never once losing a hand at showdown. My next round match will be against Jonathan Little.
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I’m loving the show (The PokerStars.net The Big Game) and loving the website even more. Never before have fans and viewers alike had so much information about what’s going on then they do now with The Big Game website. Not only are there in show stats updates, but you can get all the stats on all the players on the site! You can also watch every single hand played using the hand replayer. The stats page is updated after every single show so you can watch the episode then track the trends. You can learn a lot from those numbers. Here is the link to the stats page: The Big Game Stats
There are two sets of stats, both preflop and post flop. For those of you unfamiliar with what the stats represent, here is a basic rundown:
PREFLOP:
VPIP: Stands for Voluntarily put money in the pot and it tracks how often a player puts money in preflop when they don’t have to. The higher the percentage the looser the player. (Tony G the loosest at 58.7% and Doyle Brunson the tightest at 30.6%)
3bet: This stat gives you the percentage of times a player decides to re-raise the bet before the flop when given the opportunity. (Phil Hellmuth is the most active 3 bettor and Doyle Brunson 3-bets only 2% of the time)
FT3Bet: Calculates how often a player folds before the flop after some one has re-raised them before the flop. (Both Phil Hellmuth and the Loose Cannon Earnest Wiggins have never folded to a 3 bet, while Doyle Brunson has folded to a 3-bet 33% of the time)
Raise: Pretty straight forward, this stat tells you how often a player raises before the flop. (I’m the highest at 29.8% and Earnest Wiggins only raises 2.5% of the time. Gamble up E DUB!!!)
ATS: Stands for “Attempt to Steal.” A steal occurs when a player raises from the button, or next to the button, when no other player has entered the pot yet. (Tony G is the highest at 78.6% and Wiggins is at the opposite end stealing only 10% of the time. You can hardly call that “stealing”)
BR: Stands for Button Raise and it gauges the percentage of times a player raises before the flop when they are on the button. (Tony G. is at 100% and Wiggins is the low man at 16.7%)
FTSA: Stands for Fold to a Steal attempt and it calculates how often a player folds against a steal raise. (Apparently I’ve been nitty folding 100% of the time to a steal raise, while Tony G has only folded 33% of the time to a steal raise)
CPRF: Stands for Call Preflop Raise and it gives you the percentage of times a player calls a raise. (Tony G is the high man at 46.3% and I’m the low man at 26.9%)
PFW: Stands for Preflop win and gives you the percentage of times the player wins the pot before the flop. (I’m the high man winning 7.4% of the time without a flop and Wiggins doesn’t get away with many, winning just 0.8% of the time preflop)
POST FLOP:
WWS: Stands for Winnings without a Showdown and it tracks the total amount of money won without a showdown. (Tony G has won an astounding $268,000 without a showdown, while Wiggins has amassed just $22,400 in winnings without a showdown)
WAS: Shows you the percentage of times a player wins at showdown. (Wiggins has NEVER lost a pot at showdown while Doyle wins just 25% of the time)
P/L: Stands for Profit/Loss and is simply “the score” which tracks exactly how a player is doing in the game. (On the site now it appears I’m the big winner at +$153,000 while Doyle has been unlucky and is down the most $156,300)
CBet: Calculates the percentage of times that a player makes a continuation bet after the flop as the preflop raiser. (Surprisingly Wiggins is at 100%, while Doyle Cbets only 25% of the time he raises preflop)
AF: This is a cool and valuable stat that tracks a players aggression factor. It’s the number of bets and raises divided by the number of calls post flop. So of you bet two flops and check call 1, your aggression factor would be 2.0. (Tony G is the high man at 3.4, with Phil Laak doing the most trapping at 1.2)
AIEV: This is the stat that tracks how lucky you are in the all in pots. When you are all in and no decision is made, it’s up to luck, and this stat tracks how lucky people are in those spots. I would LOVE to know my AIEV on High Stakes Poker! (Hellmuth has been the unluckiest due to that one pot he played with Wiggins. He rates to be +$37,975, but is actually down -$83,600. Wiggins should actually be stuck $64,275 but instead, thanks to winning 3 of 4 from Hellmuth, he’s up $57,500. I played an all in pot with Tony G and if the cards broke even I’d be up $216k instead of $153k but I’m not complaining 🙂
CR: Percentage of times a player check raises. (Hellmuth has done is 15.4% of the time and Wiggins has never done it once)
FTCbet: Stands for Fold to a Continuation bet and it calculates the percentage of times a player folds to a continuation bet from a preflop raiser. (Brunson folds 71.4% of the time, while both Hellmuth and Wiggins fold only 50% of the time)
PW: The percentage of pots won by the player. (I’m the high man at 24.8% and Doyle has only won 8.3% of the pots. With 6 players at the table, the average would be 16.7%)
Underneath the stats you will see the hand replayer and you can click on any hand you like and see how it played out. This will be a running theme with all of the weeks and all of the shows, so enjoy!
Also, one last comment on this weeks show and the epic hand between Wiggins and Hellmuth. Hellmuth is rich. So are pretty much all of the pros who decide to play in that game. The only one who is NOT… is the Loose Cannon. I think it’s pretty normal that all of America, unless you don’t like the guy for some reason, would be rooting for the underdog to win some potentially life changing money. Hellmuth will be just fine. Winning or losing that pot won’t change his life one bit, but for Wiggins, that’s an amazing moment and it’s only logical that everyone would be happy for him. Obviously it’s annoying to Hellmuth to lose a pot like that, hey I’d be annoyed too! If Hellmuth would have lost that pot to Doyle, or Laak, or me, you wouldn’t see me all excited like I was. I was happy for Earnest as you should all be, because you could BE him.
I like Hellmuth. True story, cameras on or off, I have always liked him and I enjoy needling him. He needles me back too, but he usually does it OFF camera and I don’t mind at all. I’ve known the guy for ages and we’ve hung out lots of times. He’s a big boy and he can handle it. Sure in the moment he often looks like he wants to kill someone, but when it’s all said and done, he moves on, and even finds a way to laugh about it.
I don’t always agree with some of the things he does, but I know at the core he is a good person. I don’t say that about a lot of people, but when you tear down the “I am the greatest, THEY don’t know how to spell poker” speeches, he is good to his friends and family which is most important.
Yes, I rag on him all the time, but how can you not! The guy says some crazy things sometimes! Phil will tell you, “Daniel is my biggest critic, but deep down I know he’s got love for me.” Good read Phil…
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If you polled Vanessa Selbst, Vanessa Rousso, Annette Oberstad, Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert, Liv Boeree, Maria Ho, Evelyn Ng, Kristi Gazes, and Mimi Tran, just to name a few, I can guarantee you that Annie’s name wouldn’t be the one they thought of when crowning “The Best Female Poker Player in the World.” It’s her website, so she can make whatever claim she wants I guess, but I don’t think you’d see Phil Ivey being OK with his website saying “Best African-American Poker Player in the World.” In my opinion, and in most players opinion, Phil Ivey is the best poker poker player in the world today… but you won’t hear him say that. Like ever. When you are the best, you don’t need to toot your own horn, others will toot it for you.
Aside from her position being hypocritical, in my opinion, separating herself from the men when referring to herself as the “best of the women,” the facts in her blog were wrong. More women ARE playing in open events. This $1000 event this weekend saw about twice as many women enter than the previous $1000 events. The fact the ladies event was on the Friday is simply NOT a coincidence people. B.J. Nemeth points out that he counted about 55 women at 99 tables of the Sunday heat, which is about 6%.
Having said that, percentages are NOT what tells the story since the number of men playing has also increased. Bottom line is, more and more women ARE playing in open events at the WSOP each year. FACT.
As for needing an event specifically for women sending the message that they are inferior, that’s also not true. There are 55 WSOP events open to both men and women. Women aren’t excluded from playing in the open events and are welcome to play on an open playing field in every single bracelet event.
You also can’t make the argument that the LIPS tour (a female poker tour) is somehow OK, but the WSOP Ladies event isn’t. Both are tournaments geared towards getting women into poker. The only difference is the buy in level.
As for Shaun Deeb handling himself in a classy manner playing the event, at least he wasn’t the guy using a tampon as a card protector, but he did dress in drag and his goal was to make a mockery of the event, which in turn simply mocks the women who choose to enter it.
Poker is still mainly played by men. Women represent a small demographic in the poker world and I see nothing wrong with trying to reach out to them. There is precedent for this. The LA Kings each year have a “Ladies Day” where they teach women in LA about the game. Hockey is mainly played by men, so this is a way to reach out to a new demographic, no different then reaching out to women and introducing them to the game of poker.
I’ll take that a step further. There is a woman who teaches black kids how to swim. I saw this on HBO Real Sports and it was a touching piece. Her own son died drowning because he never learned how to swim, and this wasn’t uncommon for many blacks who grew up avoiding the pools. That traces way back to the days of racism when blacks weren’t welcome to share public pools with whites, so many of them never learned how to swim:
“*The Swim Gap. When U.S. Olympic athlete Cullen Jones took to the podium with his teammates to accept the 4