Professional Poker Player

I got to the Rio at about 11:45 and I’m still standing in line at 1:05. Apparently, there have been major computer and registration problems in the tournament registration office. Things are going very slow right now and I’m typing this as I’m standing in line.

The tournament directors told us about the problem about 30 minutes ago, and think that they are able to fix it by adding a 30 minute break after level 1. Most of us in the tournament registration room think that this is bullshit. However, after voicing our concern about the halving of the value of our chips, one of the directors simply responding by saying “You don’t have to play.”

Why couldn’t they just stop level 1 right where it was? You’re effectively cutting our chip values in half by making everybody (probably a thousand people) start at level 2 with 50/100 blinds. If we wanted to play with this little amount of chips, we would have bought into a $750 tournament somewhere and not put up with this bullshit.

I know one thing, I’m not tipping anybody once I win this thing. No professional service operator, especially a pit boss or a tournament director, should treat their valuable clients like this. If anybody who reads this is playing in the World Series of Poker, be careful about who you tip. All these people care about is the money, and once it’s gone, they are just going to move on to the next whale.

I decided to play a little bit lower stakes due to the cold decks I’ve been running into lately. I’m gonna make this one short and sweet. I started playing the nightly event at 7:00pm and there were 271 entrants. After over 8 hours of perfect poker, I had half of an average stack and found KJ on the small blind. The button (big stack) made a raise to 3BB and I thought he was simply using his muscle to take our chips so I raised him all-in for a total of a little less than 10BB. The big blind folded and the big stack called and unfortuately turned over AKo, beating me with Ace high and knocking me out.

I placed 28th in the tournament, 27 places paid.

Sure, it may have been a common tournament mistake to make, playing against the big stack near making the money. However, I considered the $368 prize to be minimal compared to making the final table. Also, at the beginning of the hand, the tournament clock showed 34 remaining players, not 29 so I had considered the fact that I may have to push my stack to make any decent money anyways.

So I had another disappointing tournament today… at least this one didn’t take 13 hours to realize that I wasn’t going to win something.

We each started with $6,000 in chips. After blinding and calling down to about $5500 I was able to double up. I had AKo in early-middle position and was at a very aggressive table. I smooth called hoping to backraise a player trying to squeeze the pot. The blinds were $100/$200 and there were 4 more callers behind me, building the pot to $1300 in blinds alone. This was odd though, that so many people would call without raising. As expected, the button raised and made it $1000 more to call. Nobody between us called and I reraised him $3000 chips more. My opponent reraised me all-in and I quickly called. He showed QQ and I spiked a King on the flop, knocking him out of the tournament.

It was all downhill after that. I was getting decent cards, but nothing seemed to hit me. I would get A10o, see an ace on the flop, and my opponent would have AJo. I once had AQs missed a flop of K86 men’s warehouse and another hand I had 99 with a flop of KQQ. I couldn’t hit anything whatsoever!

My final hand was pretty bad too. I could have played it differently and won, but the way it went down was disgusting anyways. I had 22 in middle position and the blinds were $100/$200 with a $25 ante. I raised to $700 preflop and the flop came 689 all differnet suits. My opponent checked to me and I bet $700 once again. He came over the top for $1500 more and I moved all in for another thousand. He made a crying call and won with 44.

Anyways, I’ll get a bit luckier one of these days and hopefully catch something that will bring my chips to the level in which they need to be. It’s just so difficult keeping a chiplead with flops like these.

It didn’t take long before 25% of the field was knocked out. I had an below average chip stack of about 3150 and a very weak table of players. My only showdown hand was my last one.

I was under the gun and told myself that if I had anything in the top 10% that I was going to limp-reraise with it. I looked down and saaw KsQs. I limped for 200 (Level 3) and the guy next to me raised to 900. Three other players called the 900 and it was my turn to act. I quickly shoved my stack into the center. The initial raiser moved in for another 200 chips and the other three players folded. My opponent said that he wasn’t going to call but felt lucky and flipped over AQo, something that I didn’t think he wasl

Ace high won the hand and I was knocked out. Now I’m playing a $325 satelitte.

I’ve played in a couple more events since the last time I posted, Event #21 $5000 NLH  and today’s tournament, Event #27 $1500 NLH. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to cash in either. I had a running shot at cashing in the $5000 event, but I was knocked out of today’s event out of sheer bad luck.

I played tough poker during the $5000 event. I was sat at a table that was due to break within the first couple hours, so I didn’t see any point in building any particular type of image for later on. Its unlikely that I’ll see any of these players after we get moved so the image would be worthless. All I cared about was my chip stack.

During the first few levels I played very tight, not even bothering to limp and see a flop with anything less than a top 15% hand. My only plays were to raise or fold. I had a few good hands, one in particular where I was dealt AA in early-middle position. I made the bet 3.5x the BB and a player directly to my left reraised me 3x my bet. There were no callers and the action was back on me. I moved all in, which was not very many more chips, and I had my opponent covered. He instantly called, tossed over QQ. The dealer flopped the community and I won the hand, nearly doubling my chip stack and knocking a player out in the meantime.

I picked up a few more chips during Level 3 and chipped up to about 33,000. Levels 4 to 9 were a grind, and I didn’t see much else for cards. Standing patiently, waiting for whatever I could get. During Level 10, I saw AQo and raised 3x BB only to be forced out of the pot by a reraise then an all-in. I wish I would have called as I had both opponents dominated since they held KQs and A10s. I would have won the pot, and taken a heavy chiplead at my table. Unfortunately, I put at least one of them on AKo or a pair above 8’s and didn’t risk my chips.

Level 11 was coming to a close with 20 minutes of action. Humerto Brenes was at my table and was playing fairly tight and predictably since Level 3 when I joined the table. The only hands that I saw him turn over were pocket pairs, and he almost always got the rest of his money in after the flop. However, I thought that he had been setting his image up during these levels in order to use his tight image to steal pots later in the tournament.

Humberto raised 3x BB in early position. The average stack was about 60,000 at the time, and I had about 28,000. Nobody called and I looked down at A5s on the small blind. I made a loose call, hoping to double up before Day 2 and get back to a healthier chip stack. The flop came 256 with no flush draws. I checked, allowing Humberto to make a half-pot continuation bet, then I moved all-in. He called with JJ and knocked me out of the tournament.

The worst part about it is that the tournament director stopped action and told everybody to grab a bag for their chips. I was knocked out on the very last hand of Day 1 in 120th place out of 731 players. Top 73 paid.

Today was a different story. It was only a $1500 buyin so players only received 3000 in chips. I quickly chipped up to 6000 and it went downhill from there. I didn’t make any bad calls, I was actually playing perfect poker. However, all of my draws were left in the dark and my bets were contested by my opponent betting the river. The worst part about it is that I set each hand up so I would look weak and they would bet on the river, hoping that I would be able to raise when my draw hit.

My final hand of the day was KsKd. I raised 3x BB with about 11x BB in front of my during Level 3. The button called my bet and the flop was Jc10c6c. I bet 3x BB once again to make it appear as a continuation bet, and my opponent raised me all in for another 5x BB. I called and he flipped over KcQc, the 2nd nuts.

I am now going to play in the 3:00 Mega Satellite event (I’m already 45 minutes late because I’m writing this blog) and try to get my way into the $10k Main event at a discounted rate. I’ll be playing it anyways, but I certainly don’t want to pay full price. Wish me luck!

This podcast is about how I won my biggest pot ever, participated in some 7-way flips at and some of my tournament results.

2008 WSOP Podcast - June 7

Current Cash Games Statistics

Current Tournament Statistics

After breaking it off with my girlfriend last December, I tried meeting new people via a service that most people know as a reliable and trustworthy online dating company, eHarmony.com. I figured that it would be fun to try out, and could be a great way to meet new people. Boy was I wrong.

When I signed up to be a member of this overpriced dating service, I thought that this was a service that is priced the way it is because of it’s success factor. Instead, I found out that the money that is being given to this company more so pays for the large amounts of commercials that are aired on TV and customer service representatives that they need to keep their customers as part of the “29 dimension system” that milks as much money from the customer as possible.

The first thing that you do is fill out this long questionairre… aka their “29 dimension system” survey that matches you with “compatible mates” that live as near or as far as you tell the system to look. After filling out the questionairre, you then create your match profile, a sort of public advertisement that says “Hey! I’m right here! This is who I am!” Of course, nobody tells you that people can’t actually look FOR you, but that eHarmony simply makes you WAIT until a possible match comes up on their system.

Ya, that’s right, you have to fill out all of this information, taking hours  of your precious time, and then they make YOU wait on them… which, by the way, is a computer algorithm which randomly decides if it wants to match you today or not. For the price you pay eHarmony, you’d almost expect that they are at the very least outsourcing the matchmakers from India, Siberia, or China. Nope, sorry, all you get is this stinking algorithm that claims to know just what kind of gears you’re made of, and whether or not they match up with somebody elses.

So, what did I get after trying out this service for a period of 4 to 5 months? Not a single handwritten “communication” from another being. The farthest I got in their over 10 step process was asking hand-selected questions, receiving hand-selected answers back, being asked hand-selected questions, and giving them back. Not once during my membership did I exchange a single word with another human being… except the letters to and responses from eHarmony support of course.

Don’t get me wrong, I received a match from time to time… I believe I averaged one single “match” about every 3 to 4 days. Now, if you don’t know much about the eHarmony.com matching system, you should know that just because you “match” somebody doesn’t mean that you’re ever going to trade a communication with them. Most of the time, they see your profile first and close the match, unless you’re some smokin’ hot Abercrombie & Fitch model of course. I’m no model, but I’m certainly not un-attractive by any means. The match-closing process goes the other way too. eHarmony will send athletic and successful men matches from hell. Just today when I was closing my account I read a match that said things like “I can’t stand people with pets.” Why the fuck would you say something like that in the first place? The funniest part about some of these profiles is that you’ll see some fat chick being picky as hell about who she matches up with. I close those matches straight away.

eHarmony.com allows members to hide their photo from new matches too. Be careful!!! Every single time that a “match” of mine has a hidden photo, they have later revealed a zit infested face, cross-eyes, herpes on the lip, or something else that is completely disguisting. Usually, they are just obese people trying to find love with somebody, hiding their photos so their matches won’t judge them right away. FACE IT PEOPLE… if a guy isn’t attracted, he isn’t attracted… that’s it!

So, to end this long and stress-relieving rant, my final words on eHarmony:

GET BENT

P.S. Don’t sign up for eHarmony, you’d have a better chance picking up a hot chick by going to church carrying a scythe.

After my last podcast, I went back to the Bellagio and played a little bit more $25/$50. I won another $6000 in the first half of an hour, but got in a hand against a fish where I flopped a set and he flopped a King high flush. The money went all in on the turn when a 2nd suit rag fell. The hand cost me about $7000 and I was now down about $1000. After that, I lost a few small pots in the next hour and left with a loss of $2000 and some tip money for valet.

I was getting ready to gear up for the main event, trying to satellite in. I won my first and only satelitte into the Super Satellite, costing a mear $560 to enter. Playing in the satellites are typically pretty easy, and this one was no different. We each started with 4000 in chips and the levels were 12 minutes. I played tight and made a couple well timed moves to get in the money. At first, the chips all went to one guy, who could have literally sat out and won his seat into the super. However, he started dumped the chips around the table, evening the stacks and allowing me a chance to catch up to him. I was sitting with an average stack most of the time. My tight strategy turned into a loose/aggressive one once we reached level 5 or 6 and I started picking up quite a few pots. Before I knew it, I was chipleader and took down the satellite with another guy (top two paid).

The Super Satellite was to take place the next day at 1pm. I arrived early and there were just 280 entrants. By the time level 2 was over, there were 385 players who bought into the Super. Hours dragged on, and my chip stack slowly, but consistently grew. I caught a few good hands, but nothing that paid off big time. By level 2, I had tripled my original stack of 5000 to 15000 chips.

After getting to about 20k in chips, I got caught bluffing and lost 6,000 chips in a single pot. I had AdKd and hit a flush draw on the flop 8d9d4s. I raised preflop, bet the flop, bet the turn (3c), and bet the river (Qh), making sure to represent an overpair in the range of Tens to Queens. Unfortunately, my opponent also had diamonds… (Qd Jd). He missed his flush and straight draws, but paired the queen on the end and called my bet of 3500 chips on the river.

I placed 58th out of the 385 that paid over $2500 to get into the Super Satellite, and it took another 3 hours from when I was knocked out to get down to the top 36 players that got a seat, 37th getting cash as a prize.

Since the satellite, I hopped into a $25/$50 and won $1100 and got into a $50/$100NLH mixed with $25/$50PLO and lost $600, so even though the stakes have been high, the wins and losses have been kept in balance.

Let’s try this out…

Lost the $5k today, but beat the $25/$50