WSOP Recap - Now What?

Just got back from my week long trip to Vegas and I'm re-adjusting to my "normal" life. It's funny how you can play poker for 7 days straight and essentially feel like you are playing for a living and then, wham!, back to life.

If you've read any of the previous posts, you already know that I didn't get my bracelet yet. Am I disappointed? Of course. But I knew going into it that I hadn't put nearly the volume in to make it a statistically realistic goal. I've played a total of 5 WSOP events with two cashes. These are gigantic fields, so in order to win I would need to not only play my best, but also run great too.

I still have big goals for myself and still plan on winning a bracelet as well as a Circuit ring, but now is probably a good time to just chill and work on my bankroll beating the local scene. I'm gonna let the next week or so just kind of happen without setting any new goals. I need a period of time where I just play poker without any sort of extra pressure on myself. No bankroll goals, no anything. Just play, have fun and keep improving my game.

Right now I need to find a good 1/2 game and build up my roll so I'm comfortable playing 2/5. I'm certainly not worried about a skill jump at 2/5. In fact I'm sure I could crush 5/10 games. But I'm still a bit bankroll deficient and I don't want the risk of loss to affect my game. I'll also get myself on a regular schedule playing the legion tournaments. I still don't like the extra charity rake, but they improved the structure so it makes up for it a bit.

I'm also going to put together my own short tournament series. This is really where I'd have the most equity. It would be deep structures, no rake and bankroll friendly. Without online poker, I can't play $20 and $30 tournaments, but a smaller field $50 rebuy or $100 freeze out is good for now.

So the plan for now, is to not really have much of a plan. I'm just gonna let things come to me and see what happens.

The Bracelet Still Eludes

Well, I gave it a valiant effort but came short busting out of the $1,500 WSOP event #38. I started out great chipping up from 4,500 to about 11,000 in the first two blinds levels. I took some hits during the next two levels running my pocket pairs into boards of A9x and K9x, only to c-bet and fold to a raise...both times they showed a set of 9s. I then raise AJ and one of the same guys calls me and checks back a flop of QJTx, the turn is a blank, I bet and he calls. River is a scary card and we both check..he has KQ. Next thing you know I'm back to like 7,000 and go pretty card dead.

I guess looking back, maybe I could have changed gears and gotten super aggro with trash cards but these are hour long blind levels and the beginning has no antes. I also had a very good and aggressive Costa Rican to my left so I didn't feel this strategy made a lot of sense. Unfortunately I pretty much stalled the rest of the day but was able to hover between 15-20bb. Blinds went up and I finally was at 10bb when a player opened under the gun. He was somewhat active and he's someone that has had some TV success. I know his utg range is somewhat narrow but you could tell he was starting to get frustrated being card dead as well. I look down at 99 and decide that while he certainly can have TT+, he can also have AJ, AQ, AK, 77, 88. He may also open KQs and I would think he might mix in some suited connectors every once in a while. So I shove and of course he has AA. GG me. Busted about 400 out of 2190.

So that sucked. I was certainly disappointed, but I don't regret the decisions I made. I adjusted to each table and my chip stack. Tournament poker has crazy variance and I sometimes wonder why I like it better than cash games...but I do. And winning a bracelet is still a goal of mine and something I plan on achieving. I'm going to finish out my trip with a Venetian Deep Stacked event that will hopefully make me push back my flight one day. I'm just as motivated as ever to keep improving and taking down some big tournaments.

Nasty Tuesday

I started the day excited and focused. I jumped into a single table satellite and played great. We agreed to give 3rd place their buy-in back and ended up in 3 coolers...KK vs. AA then AJ vs. AK 3 handed. I still had chips and played short stack ninja and then shoved AJ only to have the BB wake up with AQ.

I then played a daily $235 tournament at the Rio that ended up getting about 900 entrants. It started out well and then went down hill quickly. I lost pot after pot and finally got in a 3 way all in with AK and bricked out. Despite the quick evaporation of my chips, I feel really positive about all my decisions other than one weird hand where I turned my set of 5s into a bluff (I know it sounds weird, but it was the only way I was gonna win the pot... and it almost worked...almost).

At this point I was still feeling great and the lack of winning pots wasn't getting me down. I then decided to play the $185 nightly at the Rio. I started off playing well and ended up chipping up in a weird pot where I squeezed with AK and the middle guy called for half his stack with 79os and tank/called my shove on J89. I binked a K on the turn and had about 60bb. BUT...then I made a big mistake in a pot in a spot that I know better but couldn't let go of the bluff. Without going into the details, I was in the small blind and raised a brand new player to the table who limped in. I then double barrel bluffed half my stack and folded when he shoved the turn. Based on how the day had went, you would think I'd be tilty at this point but I recovered. I then raised QQ, got two callers A on the flop, K on the turn...ugh. After another orbit now I'm down to 8bb and went into short-stack ninja mode. I picked my spots and got myself back to about 18bb. I then got KK under the gun (exciting huh?) and raised. The player next to me who was pretty tight re-raised. I jam and of course he has AA. King on the flop....and guess what...A on the river.

So overall the day started well and got kinda nasty. I really only made two mistakes with one of them I regret. The main reason I regret it is that I didn't listen to my gut. I've been trusting my instinct all trip so far and this is the first time I ignored it. It's a good reminder and it's not a mistake I'll be making again.

Tomorrow is the $1,500 WSOP bracelet event and I am ready to take it down. I've been working hard on my game and feel confident. 5 years ago I set a goal to win a bracelet by 2011 and I'm going to make it happen.

Some Fun Hands in Vegas

So my last post talked about some good laydowns that I made. Let's talk more about some of the hands I won. Here are a few fun ones.

Position, Position, Position - Blinds are 100/200 and I have about 28,000 in chips. Two players limp and I have K9s in the cutoff. I will often raise here to isolate the limpers but my image was somewhat aggressive already so I decided to switch it up a bit. The button folds and the small blind (who I had previously noticed staring someone down hard in a spot that looked like a bluff), stares at me and makes it 1,000. The limpers fold and while I at first thought about folding because "he probably has a better hand", I took a few seconds to think about the situation. I have position with a hand that can flop reasonably well and I can easily get away from top pair with a ton of action if needed. So I decide that instead of playing scared money, that I would see a flop and play some poker. The flop is Kxx and he insta-leads 2k into 2,500. I look at him and his eyes are HUGE, like an owl at night. His bet sizing and his staring is telling me to go away. So I'm pretty confident my king is good here. If he had AA or a better king, he wouldn't be betting so much. So I decide to call. Raising will get all worse hands to fold and better hands to call, so I elect to flat and hope to get value on later streets if he has a pocket pair under the King. The turn brings a second spade (which is beautiful) and he checks as expected. No reason to bet here because it's pretty obvious he doesn't have a King. I check and the turn is a blank. He checks and I bet 3k into the 6,500 pot hoping to get a hero call from QQ but he folds. He probably had something like AQ. But the moral of the story is that having position can outweigh the concept of him "having better hands in his range". It's more about the situation, having position and then considering that my cards have decent equity vs. his range (despite being behind).

Weak Bets from Weak Opponents Usually Mean Weakness - At 150/300 + 25 there are two limpers and I open AJos on the button and get flatted by an older Asian guy in the small blind who liked to see flops. This drug along the limpers and the flop came KdQd4s. There is 5050 in the pot, the Asian guy checks dark and it checks around to me. I could c-bet here, but the flop is somewhat coordinated and often times leading into 3 players here will lose money in the long run so I decide to peel off a free card to try and bink a ten. The turn is a Q and the Asian guy leads for 600. So this seems kinda weird. Yes he checked dark, but if he had a K or Q he wouldn't bet so small into 3 others. I decided that calling was best here because if he had a hand like KQ or 44 for a full house, he would bet the river and I would know where I stood if I hit a Ten or an Ace. The river brought a third diamond on board and he checks. Now I'm confident that he was weak and was just taking a small stab at the pot. This diamond was a great card because now I can represent a wide range of scary cards and get him to fold. There are times that Ace high might be good here, but I think betting is better in case he does have a King or maybe a pocket pair. There was 6,250 in the pot and I bet 3,500 to make it enough to get a fold but also look like it was for value. He folded and I took down a nice sized pot.

The Importance of Breathing - This isn't really a hand per se and could probably be it's own blog post. But for now I'm just going to comment on what I'm seeing is something that is really important (at least to me). Breathing brings oxygen to the brain, slows your heart rate and also relaxes your muscles and blood vessels. All of these physiological effects allow you think clearly and logically, limiting emotion or fear from influencing your decisions. I'm getting myself into the habit of exhaling slowly and then thinking about the situation before I look at my cards. I will also take this same ritual before deciding what line I'm going to take and how much I'm going to bet. I've mostly done this before, but there are times where I've played and subconsciously had my mouth closed and thus holding my breath during a hand. This can sometimes be a whole session of being tense and getting into auto-pilot, leading to impatience (which feeds the cycle of being tense). You will often times see the high stakes players with their mouth's open during a hand. They are in the zone and probably aren't really thinking about how they look. But they are relaxed and focused. Oxygen is flowing and because they aren't tense, blood can flow freely to bring that oxygen to their brains. This is something that has to be natural of course. You can't really "fake" being relaxed. But if you are conscious about breathing, the rest of your body tends to follow suit.

WSOP Trip Update

It's Monday night in Vegas and I've been here for 2 1/2 days now. So far the trip is going well and I'm playing good poker. Here's a quick run down of how things have gone:

Saturday Night - Played MGM $80 nightly as a warm up and had a great first table where I was running over things and even successfully raised blind two hands in a row. I got moved and on the very first hand, I got it all in pre-flop with KK vs. 88 and and 8 hit the flop. I was down to 10bb and got knocked out a few orbits later. Oh well, shit happens.

Sunday - Played my first WSOP event of the year. I set a goal for myself 5 years ago to win a WSOP bracelet and this was my first shot. I went in to the event very confident and had a good table where I had a good read on how to beat everyone. Things were going well until I had to make a bunch of good laydowns. I kind of stalled and next thing you know I'm short stacked and I shove AK and lose a race to JJ. I obviously didn't like busting out, but I was fine with it as I feel I didn't pass up spots and made good decisions.

Sunday Night - Played the nightly $110 at Caesar's Palace and ended up winning it! We chopped it 4 ways, but I was the chip leader and got a little extra. There was a little over 100 players so that was good for $1,800. I played patient and finally got a double up that gave me enough chips to start running over the table. I abused the bubble and it felt great.

Monday - I decided to play the $120 Mega Stack event at Caesar's which ended up getting 680 players. It's a deep stacked event and I started off playing great and chipped up to about 35,000 from the initial 15,000 starting stack. I lost a pot with TT and was down a bit to about 31,500 and then had to make a big laydown with QQ. Two limpers and I raise QQ in the small blind. The big blind (who was a pretty tight player) calls, first limper folds and the button calls. The flop is a nice J45 rainbow. I bet, the bb calls and the button then raises. Normally you'd be happy to get it in with QQ here, but both of the players in the hand were tight old guys who were not capable of bluffing in a spot like this. I ended up folding and the button finally told me he had J5s! WTF? Either way, I'm happy I made a good decision and folded still having a decent stack. BUT...I then stalled and was in shove mode and lost JTs vs. AK. Again, I am very happy with my decisions and wouldn't change a thing about how I played.

Monday Night - The plan was to take a break from the pressure of escalating blinds and just grind out a cash session. We got to the Venetian and the first hand I play is AA. Once again I get into a spot where I have to fold an over pair. Long story short is an older guy donk leads into me on an KsQc8s board, I raise and someone else behind me shoves all in. Based on the strength showed in the hand before he acted, this was very likely a big hand and AA was no good. So again I show discipline and make what I think is a good laydown. This is probably the 5th or 6th big laydown I've had to make with top pair or an over pair. Unfortunately this time the guy shows....Js5s!!! What is it with J5? Regardless, I'm still happy with the fold and think I'm behind there enough where calling will be a losing play in the long run.

So that's where I am so far. I'm playing well and had a good result with the one win. I'm having to make some pretty tough laydowns, but I'm a good enough player to be able to make them. I am very confident that these are not spots where I'm nitting up and folding to pressure. My reads on these players were good and I was not folding because I was scared of losing a big pot or getting knocked out.

There's a lot of poker left to be played and I'm pumped to really win something big. I've played poker for 7 years now and it's my time to shine. It's my time to take it to the next level and accomplish the things I've been working my ass off for. I know that luck will prevail in the short-run and I have been a profitable player since I've been playing. But it's time for me to win something substantial. I have the confidence that I can do it and I'm ready. My next post will be celebrating a big win.

Training Camp Update

So I've started my "training camp" and I've stuck to the plan so far. I've actually added more playing to it. Because I've been laid up in bed, I've been able to put a lot of hands in online. My concentration level isn't one where I can 8 table, but I started at one and comfortably built up to 3. Playing on percoset isn't all that bad.

Again, part of training camp is building up the mental and emotional endurance required for playing poker for days on end at the series. This is an important part of the training process and I'm actually kinda lucky I had surgery so I could do this. Toward the end of yesterday's daytime session, I realized I was starting to tilt a bit. So after a rough day of beats and coolers, I took a break yesterday around 5pm, focused on some other things and came back strong for the night.

Things started off great and I was really zoned in on the game flow and tendencies of the other players. I was making good reads and chipping up nice. I ended up building a top 5 stack as we got to the middle and late stages of one tournament and I was cruising near the bubble. But then it all came crashing down in one hand. One thing I discovered last night was that I still need to work on some emotional aspects of losing control in certain situations. Maybe I got a bit cocky or felt like I was invincible, but as this hand progressed things got out of control quickly and I lost focus on the other players in the hand.

We're down to about 23 (paying 20 but I wasn't really focused on that) and the chip leader to my right raised. I had TT on the button and 3bet and then the BB who only had a bit more, shoved. I didn't really fathom the big stack being in the pot, so when he called and it came to me, I was a bit thrown off. The shove was less than a min raise, so I couldn't isolate and we took a flop of 8d3d5c. The big stack checked and here's where my first mistake happened...I didn't take the time to really think through the situation and assign him a range of hands. I felt like he would have iso'd with JJ+ so I just threw in a 1/2 pot bet assuming he would just fold and I'd iso the short stack. But...he called. This completely threw me off. As I'm trying to figure out what he has, the Td is put out there and he insta-shoved. I got caught up in the moment, and just said "I don't know what you have buddy, but I have a set and I'm not folding". Of course he turns over Ad9d and I'm drawing to 10 outs. I don't get there and in one fowl swoop, I'm out. WTF?

So now it's the day after and I'm trying to figure out what the hell happened. Would I have called in a non-ego driven, emotional state? Not sure. If I had been calm and focused, I would have realized that I needed 3.5-1 to draw to a boat/quads and I was only getting 3-1. I would have logically realized that the ONLY thing he can have here is a flush. This is not a bluff or semi-bluff in this situation and my set of Tens are beat. I know it's easy to say this after the fact, but in this situation it's true. If he had a lower set that was slow playing, he would have checked it down...or at least thought for a bit before shoving. It was like he had shoved before I had a chance to process anything and I didnt' take any time to think about it. So...the question is why?

Yeah, I put a lot of pressure on myself and I take pride in making good decisions. I know this is a blessing and a curse. But I'm glad this happened during "training camp" so I can keep getting better and improving my game in these spots. There is a blog post I wrote almost 5 years ago called "Reset Your Mind for the End Game" and it talks about this very situation. Basically, I had a rough initial part of the day so winning something meant more than it should. I wanted to validate my skills and prove that the morning was just variance (which by itself is flawed thinking). So when I had this big stack and was very comfortable at the table, I may have let my guard down a bit and assumed nothing bad could happen to me. When this hand started to unravel and even on the flop, I wasn't completely focused and I just assumed any bet would take it down. I really didn't think about proper bet sizing for the situation. I just mashed the 1/2 pot button and gave him reverse implied odds to draw. And while my blow up happened on the turn, where I really could have prevented the hand from going the way it did was pre-flop. When I saw the TT, I should have taken a bit more time to analyze the situation and more importantly, had my guard ready. I just assumed he had nothing and my re-steal would take it down. I needed to be mentally prepared for all possible situations instead of being cocky. You have to be prepared for anything in poker and my shortsightedness cost me my stack. It's important to remember, no matter how long you have been playing or concentrating for, that the END GAME is when you need to step it up a notch. It's fine to feel confident, but not so confident that you aren't taking the time to fully think through each situation.

Okay, that's my rant for today. I'm trying not to be too hard on myself and I know my expectations are high. I'm not really "mad" at myself per se, but I want to learn and be prepared for future situations like this when the stakes are higher. The more I'm in these situations the more I can be comfortable in them.

WSOP Training Camp

My WSOP plans are finalized for this year and I'll be playing in a $1k on Sunday June 19th and a $1,500 on June 22nd. Each year I've written a blog post that is more of a mental prep for the trip, but this year I'm thinking about things a little differently. I'm going to treat these next 2 weeks as a "training camp" as if I was an athlete peaking for competition.

So what will be involved in my peaking routine? Here are the skills I need to hone & sharpen:

1. Accurate reading skills and assigning hand ranges
2. Mental & emotional endurance
3. Confidence
4. Acting on my reads

How will I train and peak these skills?

1. Play only Hold'em tournaments
2. Hand history reviews and equity calculations
3. 1/2 hour daily 2+2 forum reviews
4. 1 hour of video reviews
5. Finish 2 additional advanced videos for Pokerology
6. Reduce coffee intake and focus on longer work sessions throughout the day not relying on external energy sources

Mon June 6 - Review HHs on 2+2, Play online tournaments

Tues June 7 - HH reviews & EV calcs, Make 1 new pokerology video

Wed June 8 - Surgery - likely no activity except possibly watching videos and/or 2+2 late

Thur June 9 - Post Surgery recovery - watch videos and read 2+2 threads

Fri June 10 - Post Surgery recovery - watch videos and read 2+2 threads; play online (tbd)

Sat June 11 - HH reviews, 2+2 Threads, play online, watch videos

Sun June 12 - HH reviews & EV calcs

Mon June 13 - Read 2+2 threads, play online (OR play Legion Tournament)

Tues June 14 -Make Pokerology video

Wed June 15 - Watch videos, read 2+2 threads, Play online

Thur June 16 - Wrestling meeting

Fri June 17 - Rest

Sat June 18 - Leave for Vegas!