Daily recap 1-24-10 - Deep Run

After waking from a nap cranky, I wasn't going to play tonight even thought I had planned to all day. I didn't feel that I would play my best because of it and so I ate about 1/3 box of ice cream. After some encouragement from Jenni, I decided to play anyway. I'm playing the $30 rebuy on Tilt for the first time and the $20 rebuy on Stars. My play so far has been pretty good, but I haven't really had a lot of hands. Being a bit tired and feeling the effects of the sugar crash, I'm not quite in the zone yet as far as hand reading and pulling the trigger. I'm kinda going on auto pilot. The first real breaks are just ending so my goal right now is to start putting people on hands.

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Just hit the money in the $30 rebuy and just bubbled the $20 rebuy. I'm feeling good right now. I'm running good and playing good and I'm 7 out of 35 with $71K at the 1k/2k + 250 level. So I've got chips, but it still isn't a ton. I've got MoormanI two to my right as the chip leader and he is definitely using his stack. I've had to play somewhat patient since I haven't been able to really read his play thus far. In order to win this thing I'm going to have to pick good spots and make good reads. I'm not going to nit up because he's aggressive, but I'm also not going to just 3 bet him every chance. I'm gonna have to do my best to put him on a range and trust my gut.

Right now I'm fighting my own emotions of wanting to final table and ultimately win. I told Jenni that any profit I make in the next month or so was going to pay off some bills, so my hope is to obviously just take down one big tournament and not have to worry about it. But it is counterproductive to play that way. So much can happen in a tournament that I just need to stay +EV focused. I mean I get super deep and it's a big jump and a marginal situation I may pass it up, but I am still focused on making the top 3 at least so I need to accumulate chips.

I'm also trying not to be affected by having Moorman to my right. Normally I don't care about who I'm playing against, but he is literally opening every pot so I can't put him on any sort of range. I've never played with anyone this atgressive before. In order to play my best I can't worry about that stuff. All I can do is play each situation to it's fullest and not worry about the results of one tournament. Even though I bubbled the $20R after playing great and building a big stack, I'm going to push those emotions aside and concentrate on this table now.

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Just won a massive pot with QQ vs. TT and I'm up to 116K at the 1200/2400 level.

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Moorman just got taken out, so I should be able to open more pots now.

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Took a big hit a bit ago...ugh...in shove mode now with 16 left.

Full Tilt Poker Game #17890349164: $25,000 Guarantee (Rebuy) (134861280), Table 8 - 1500/3000 Ante 400 - No Limit Hold'em - 1:26:17 ET - 2010/01/25
Seat 1: AKSharky (76,764)
Seat 3: heavyv63 (162,199)
Seat 4: JOSEKATE (24,276), is sitting out
Seat 5: Romario25 (21,821)
Seat 6: ErikTheKing7 (41,024)
Seat 8: sMokInMySkIzArD (45,166)
Seat 9: DP388 (120,614)
AKSharky antes 400
heavyv63 antes 400
JOSEKATE antes 400
Romario25 antes 400
ErikTheKing7 antes 400
sMokInMySkIzArD antes 400
DP388 antes 400
heavyv63 posts the small blind of 1,500
JOSEKATE posts the big blind of 3,000
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DP388 [Ks Kh]
Romario25 has 15 seconds left to act
Romario25 calls 3,000
ErikTheKing7 folds
sMokInMySkIzArD folds
DP388 has 15 seconds left to act
DP388 raises to 10,500
AKSharky folds
heavyv63 raises to 18,000
JOSEKATE folds
Romario25 folds
DP388 has 15 seconds left to act
DP388 calls 7,500
*** FLOP *** [6h 7d Jc]
heavyv63 bets 9,000
DP388 raises to 27,000
heavyv63 has 15 seconds left to act
heavyv63 calls 18,000
*** TURN *** [6h 7d Jc] [As]
heavyv63 bets 9,000
DP388 calls 9,000
*** RIVER *** [6h 7d Jc As] [9d]
heavyv63 bets 9,000
DP388 calls 9,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
heavyv63 shows [Kd Ad] a pair of Aces
DP388 mucks
heavyv63 wins the pot (134,800) with a pair of Aces
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 134,800 | Rake 0
Board: [6h 7d Jc As 9d]
Seat 1: AKSharky (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: heavyv63 (small blind) showed [Kd Ad] and won (134,800) with a pair of Aces
Seat 4: JOSEKATE (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Romario25 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: ErikTheKing7 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: sMokInMySkIzArD folded before the Flop
Seat 9: DP388 mucked [Ks Kh] - a pair of Kings

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Fck...can't pick a spot to shove...3bb now.

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Grrr...13th for $325.20. That KK hand killed me and I couldn't pick a good spot to get my chips in until I was so low I had to get called. I'm still happy with the way I played, but I lost another big hand late that really hurt me.

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Post note: I think I just realized a small leak that's been happening in bigger tournaments. I'm talking myself out of shoving with marginal cards when I'm a little above 10bb or so. I'm assuming I will find a better spot than shoving J9 from the hijack and I'm letting myself blind out. I used to never do this, but I think because of the possibility of higher payouts I'm a little more timid shoving ATC. I need to be conscious of that in the future without overcompensating for it.

Earning Pots - Recap 1-20-10

I'm feeling really good about my play so far tonight. After playing with Chris Layton in Biloxi, I've started noticing more spots where I can profitably bluff. I realized that I was nitting up a bit in Biloxi and only taking one stab and check/folding when called. Tonight I am 2 barreling when it makes sense for the board and I'm leading more. I'm not going crazy, but I am definitely making good reads and balancing my play. So far I was pretty card dead in the beginning, but I opened up my game sooner than normal and it helped me stay afloat until I picked up a few hands. I was also 3betting in position as well as from the blinds vs. just calling to set mine, etc.

Well, after taking a few beats and then earning my way back up I had to make a big laydown which I think was correct, but not sure. Shortly after that I doubled back up to 70K with 2000/4000 blinds. The utg shorty shoved and the button min raised. I had KK and shoved and the button thought it would be funny to show up with AA. gg me. 31st in the 50/50.

Gonna keep playing mtts. I am good at grinding the 90 mans, but we need money right now and I'm due for a big cash so I will sacrifice sleep so we can pay some bills.

Biloxi WPT Event - Jan 2010

I'm currently in an RV heading down to Biloxi to play for about 5 days at the WPT Southern Poker Open. I'm looking forward to the trip and I'm ready to get down to business. I'm going into this trip with kind of a grinders mindset. I haven't played much over the last few weeks compared to normal, but when I have played I have played really well. I feel like a lot of the multiple factors that most good players still don't think about are now coming to me at a subconscious level.

So I'm going down to take care of some business and make a profit. Of course there is the phenomenon of constantly seeing 1:11 or 11:11 on the clock for the last few months that gets me excited that the tournament on 1/11 could be a big one. But I really can't put stock or extra emotion into a tournament simply because of a coincidence. Of course, if it was a sign then I'm not going to argue with that.

We played a few tournaments up on a flat screen in the RV using the WiFi, so that was pretty cool. We tag teamed the decision making and it was comforting to hear myself think about hands at a different level than others.

Anyway, I'll try to post any significant hands as the trip goes on.