One Time Plzzzzzz!!!

So these last few weeks have been incredibly frustrating, and last night sent everything over the edge. I am not even in the red and I have actually seen a profit since returning from Vegas, but have just been flirting and (to make a sexual/baseball reference) getting to second with a guy on third then the cleanup hitter hits a screaming line drive into the gap, and the guy on third tags instead of just running, and the left fielder gets to it quickly, and I have to stop so as to not pass the idiot who was tagging up on a ball that simply could not have been caught, and I get thrown out at the plate by like 10 feet.

Maybe it isn't the most perfect analogy, but that is the best I could come up with. The thing that makes me the most sick is that people keep telling me that if I continue to get in +EV spots in MTT's, I am eventually going to have a big score. It's like, duh, but it absolutely sucks in the short term when you play in a FTP guaranteed with 1200+ players, play for 4 hours and get it in as a 3/1 fav. just into the money and can't hold. I guess it's a decent quandry to be in, as my cashing percentage has been pretty high over the past couple weeks, but I have been lacking a big score and am losing confidence in my late tournament game even though I feel like I have such an edge when we get down to 2-3 tables and have to play short-handed.

Last night seemed to set me off way more than normal. I signed up for the $75 $23k guaranteed KO tourney on FTP which started at 9pm. I had class the next day at 9am, so I was hoping that, if I indeed stayed up late, it would mean good things financially.

I doubled up early when I limped Q9hh from the SB behind one MP limper. BB checked, and we saw a pretty awesome 10h 7h 5h flop. I opted to lead 80 into a 120 because I am obsessed with building pots, especially when the stack to blind ratio is huge. BB mucks, limper makes it 280. As said, I love building pots, especially with the 3rd nuts, so I make it 800 to go. He tank/ships it in, and I snap call and have his Jh8h drawing dead.

I was up to an above avg stack of 25kish when we got in the money. 45 spots paid, and first paid over 5k, so I was eyeing that. Anyways, with about 3 tables left, I raised 77 from MP to 4200 at 800/1600. Button flats, BB defends, and we see a magical Ax Qx 7x flop. SB (maniac) checks, and I opt to check to the LAA button. He checks. Turn 5. BB leads 6k. I flat, and button makes it 20k. BB mucks, and I do my time bank thing then shove it in, and he calls with AQ. Sick cooler for him, awesome for me as I am now above 100k.

I was around 100k, and we were down to 14 when things started to go wrong. I decided to get pretty agro and raised K6o from the c/o. The SB who was SLAP and had already called like 4 of my raises calls. HU, we see a Q J 5 flop. He checks, I lead half pot, he calls. Turn x, check check. River x. He checks, and, with the pot at 37k, I type in 22k with Grant railing. With my time running down, I was about to click bet but then just decided that really the only hand that calls the flop that I can bluff off is K10, as I was pretty sure he was calling with a Q or a J given the other hands that we had played. I checked, and he obv shows K10 and takes the pot.

This sorta sent me off, and the next hand I called a min. raise from the BB with A6o and c/raise the button on a Q 10 5 flop then just give up. So I was down to 50k and told Grant that I was blowing up.

I then raise Q9hh from c/o, and the same SLAP calls from the SB; flop Ad Jd xd. He checks, and I almost press check but decide to lead 10k of my remaining 35k. He obviously "tanks" then moves me in and I insta-fold.

Few hands later, I'm in the SB with 20k at 2k/4k, and I have a trivial shove with K6o. BB snap calls with QJ. Board 6 3 2 A J, sending me to the rail in 14th place, good for like $220.

I was so p/o'd that I had spewed off 50 bb's before anyone else got knocked out that I threw my laptop onto the table and knocked over some stuff. I was even money to do some seriousl damage to my laptop and probably would have if Grant weren't there.

I have gone back and forth between cash games and MTT's with more success in MTT's, but lately I just haven't been able to break through. The most frustrating thing is that I continue to put pressure on myself because Derek had a 20k last month and a half, and Grant has had some dece scores, and every time that I sit down, I am trying so hard to do the same so that I can tell everyone that I know that I rock at MTT's.

I know that this is a terrible mindset, and I am super happy for the other guys when they do well. But the result is that I constantly play tournaments and put pressure on myself to go deep and do not let the action come to me. When I look back at my poker career, I have had the most amount of success when I haven't wanted it really bad or when I haven't needed it really bad.

I know that I am super close to breaking through on full tilt, and I am hoping that my next blog post will be me celebrating a win in the 50/50. But for now, I am super bummed and couldn't sleep very well last night after playing so well for so long and then blowing up and getting rewarded very little.

In other news, today is Grant's 21st birthday, and I wish him the best. Tonight we are going out to dinner, and I also have to do some studying for a test tomorrow. This weekend, I am going home again and going out to Grant's on Saturday night for a party. Then Sunday, my family is going on a yacht in Tacoma which should be fun.

Until then, I will continue to sulk and be unhappy about the last couple weeks. But at least I know that I am ready to turn the corner.

God Bless all,

JG

3rd in UB $10k

I finished 3rd tonight in the $50 $10k guaranteed on Ultimate Bet. The day started off with me 2-tabling some $1-$2 in which I managed to drop $300 in less than an hour. So I started to feel pretty miserable before I left home and came up to Bellingham.

I got up here around 8 and decided to sign up for the 9pm on UB and the 9pm on FTP. I whiffed the FTP and managed to eek my way into the UB money. With 30 left, I had around 8k at the recently added 500/1k level. I chipped up and then re-shipped on back-to-back hands with no callers which sent my stack up to 24k. I had two fairly aggressive players to my direct left that sort of handcuffed me while we were on the FT bubble. I decided to knit it up a little bit and actually managed to get up to 50k. With 11 left, I called a SB shove from the BB with AJ. He showed 10-8o on a board of 9 7 X 8 X. That got me down to 30k, but a player was knocked out of the other table simultaneously.

The first hand of the FT, I raised KQhh from MP to 6200 at 1200/2400. It mucked around to the big stack in the BB, and he flat called with AK even though I had like 12 bb's behind! Anyways, flop came 10xx, and he checked and I fired, and he mucked, lol.

Another hand came up when I found AA in 2nd position at 1200/2400. I raised to 6200 with about 50ish behind, and the same chipleader called from the BB; flop came Ax5h4h. He checked, and I considered betting, but with 40k behind and around 18k in the pot, I felt a check was safe. The turn was the 10s, and he led for 8k. I tank/called. River Qx, and he led 15k even though I had 30k behind. I shipped it in, and he tanked for a while before folding. The fact that he had to posture led me to believe that he didn't know what he was doing. A sure sign of a bad player is betting on the river in a hand like that and then having no plan at all if the opponent moves in or something.

Anyways, that got me up to about 80k when another interesting spot came up. I had 85ss on the button at 2500/5k when it mucked around to the c/o who limped in with just 30k behind. This player had been very aggressive but not very good, and so I didn't read that as strength whatsoever. The blinds had only 25k and 30k behind. I pondered it over and decided that, with around 15k in the pot, it would be a decent opportunity to move in and attempt to take that money. I felt that as long as I could avoid the blinds picking up a hand, I would be able to take the pot. The BB snap called and showed AK. I was fortunate when the board rolled out xxxx5 to give me the pot and move me over 100k with 5 left.

From there, the other big stacks knocked out the two shorties, and we were 3-handed. at 3k/6k I decided to play some small-ball with caution and do a lot of button/sb limping type things. I was grinded down to about 80k when the button (the player I played the other two big pots with) opened for 18k. I decided to ship in the A8hh, and he mucked. The very next round in the same spot, he bet pot at 22k, and I found AJo. I told Grant on IM that I was moving and I expected he was getting frustrated and would call me light. I did just that, and he called with QJo LMAO. I kinda had a sick feeling though, and it came Qxx10x to send me to the rail.

I took home $1100ish for my efforts. Although I was not extremely pleased with the way things ended, I was happy to fight the short stack and make a decent run. I feel very very comfortable right now with my MTT game and hope that this is a sign of a big run for me in the coming weeks/months.

God Bless,

JG

Vegas Recap

I had been meaning to keep everyone (well really no one cuz no one reads this blog) updated on a daily basis, but I just never got around to it. I ended up staying in Vegas for a total of 9ish days, which was a bit much for my first ever Vegas trip.

I only got ID'd a handful of times and never had a problem using my brother's ID (thanks Paul!). The day that I got down there, I pulled off a pretty sikkkk slowroll, and Derek was completely oblivious. We hung out by the pool for about 2 hours, ordered a couple pina coladas, and I babbled on about how lucky I was that poker had afforded me the opportunity to make a trip like this.

The second day (Tuesday), we headed over to the Ultimate Bet barracks at the Palms, checked Derek in, got some gear, and then played some pool and had some free drinks. It was a blast, and I was able to scoop $40 off Derek in a couple games. Later that night, we headed back to the Palms and attended the UB party, which was quite an experience. I felt like I was living in someone else's body. It was located on the 32nd floor of the Palms in a $25k/night suite. The indoor had two stories with a separate room with a sushi bar as well as a chocolate fountain, an open bar, and some pretty good-looking dancers. I obv worked my game and got a few pictures including one where I got some cheek-kissing action :) The outside part of the suite had an amazing view of the strip and one of those pools that extends over the edge. For those of you who have seen that Girls Next Door episode, yes - it was just like that.

After quite a few rum and cokes and a jag bomb to top it off, we headed over to the Rio to sweat Phil Hellmuth in his attempt at an astonishing 12th bracelet in the $1500 HORSE event. When we got there, they were 4-handed, and I recognized one of the players who was a young asian kid. I remember railing him at a small, local casino near my hometown in a $15-$25 limit game. In my intoxicated state, I started to become rowdy, telling him that I remember him from Midway. Somehow Derek and I managed our way back to the roped-off area where we hung out with JC Tran, Nam Le, Amnon Filipe, Victor Ramden, and Shawn Rice. We talked to JC, and I told him that I picked him in the 2nd round on my WSOP fantasy pool and that Derek had passed him up. This did not make him happy (lol) but he nonetheless ordered all of his drinks, and we obliged and drank them. FWIW, Phil took 3rd, and our Asian "friend" ran horribly heads up and took 2nd.

While we were railing, apparently Derek got in a conversation with Victor Ramden. Somehow Derek got Victor's number, and we made plans to play 4-8 HORSE at Caesars the next night. Derek texted Victor when we got the game going. We didn't receive a response that night, but the next morning, Victor amazingly texted Derek back and told him that he was sorry he couldn't make it, but he had taken a mini-vacation with his family to L.A. Victor was a very very nice guy, and he is making a nice little run in the main event. I wish him the best, and, although we never got the 4-8 game going, I am pulling hard for him to take this one down.

Another one of the highlights of the vacation was getting to meet a guy named Eric from Sweden. The first night there, we played some drunken (obv.) 4-8 HORSE at Caesars. One of the guys there was a guy named Eric, wearing capri pants and a poker stars track jacket. Eric was very loud, and we quickly became acquainted. It is hard to describe the hillarity of this guy, but I can honestly say that I have never laughed that hard in my entire life for that long. The following are a couple of his quotes (just visualize it in a Swedish accent):

"This douche from Texas capped it heads up with me in Razz with 15 kings"

"How unlucky am I to be human. I wish I was a cat...just eat, sleep, and s*** all day"

"My uncle changed his name to Jack Daniels at the age of 65...65!!"

He said that he would try to make it back to Vegas for our September trip, and I really hope he can make it. He also gave us an invitation to come visit him in Sweden, which I would seriously contemplate doing.

Derek's fiance game down on Wednesday night, and we all had fun hanging out. On Saturday, we went to the Cirque de Soleil Beatles show at the Mirage which was fantastic. The 4th of July was actually kind of awful, as we didn't even get a chance to see any fireworks for whatever reason.

As far as poker goes, I actually ended up playing almost every day. I had a couple bad sessions toward the end and probably ended down around $600, which I was totally okay with. We got to hang out with Don Cheadle, who eventually took my seat to play in our 4-8 HORSE game. He is also a really nice guy. Derek had an incredible slow-roll on a guy that was borderline evil. In Stud/8, Derek and this Australian guy were heads up, and, on the river, Derek raised, and the guy made an obvious crying call. Derek said that he had a low, and other guy flipped over 555. Derek had obviously been drinking and so he slowly flipped his cards up. He revealed something like 8-8-6-3-A-x and his last card was face down. The dealer told him he only had a 4-card low. He then flipped up a river-caught 8 for trip 8's to scoop. I am shocked that the other guy didn't throw punches, but he said he didn't mind because we were all having fun, and the pot wasn't very big.

I was also quite excited for my friend Adam who was down there and chopped for 1st in a Venetian DS tourney for 38k! Adam is a sick player who I have tons of respect for, and he completely deserves every dollar of that tournament. It is just a shame that the tournament ended the Monday after the 4th day one of the main event, or else he would have played in that.

As far as Derek goes, he survived a grueling day 1 where he was up to as high as 36k before ending the night with a below-average 23k. At one point, he had Dan Shak to his immediate left and a maniacal Layne Flack a couple seats to his left. He was super nervous in the first couple levels. The 3rd hand of the tournament, he raised QQ up front to 350 (100/200), cold-caller to his left, and then a guy made it 1300. Derek decided to muck, and the guy later told him he had 99 :/

I then decided to move my flight back and stay to watch Derek in day 2, which was Wednesday. Derek was extremely card dead the whole day, only picking up AK and 99 in about 5 hours of play. He never saw AA the entire tournament (over 15 hours!!). His bust hand, he moved in with A2 from the BB for 12bb's when only the SB limped, and he snapped him off with 10-10. Overall, he felt that it was a great experience and did not seem bitter at all. I have a feeling he will be back next year and in years to come.

I have rambled quite a bit in this blog, but I had an amazing experience in Vegas, and I am very glad that I went. Even though it might take some of the excitement away from our September trip, I think it will still be an epic weekend, as everyone and their mom will be in Las Vegas which will make it even more spectacular.

Today I played some online MTT's and bubbled 3 final tables!! The most heartbreaking was the $28k on FTP. There were 10 left with 1st place receiving $7k+. 5-handed, I ran QQ into KK for a 30bb pot against a super agro player. Oh well.

I decided to do the test drive on cardrunners.com, which is an excellent instructional site which allows members to watch videos and commentary from some of the world's top internet pros. Today I watched a few videos and am already thinking at a much higher level. I have sort of struggled with my confidence in online cash games, but I now feel more confident than ever and am hoping to do the whole move-up-in-limits things soon which would be super awesome.

I am heading up to Bellingham tomorrow and start classes on Monday :/

I am on a Vegas sleeping schedule (go to bed at 4am, wake up at 3pm), so it is almost my bedtime at 3:20.

Goodnight to all and God bless,

JG