Well, camp opened today and I am really excited. I can't wait until tomorrow when single games tickets go on sale.
Maybe this year we can get the job done. I think that our team will be even better this year than it was last year.
The offense will be even better, yes, better, if that is possible, and the defense will be even better with more speed and experience.
So watch out NFC the Seahawks are coming and it isn't going to be pleasant for your team.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Update, thoughts on math.
Well, today is the start of the WSOP main event and I wish everyone good luck that are playing in it. This year I did not really try that hard to win a seat and I am kind of kicking myself a little. Next year it is going to be my number one goal and I think that I will start setting aside some of my bankroll just for WSOP qualifiers. I got close in one satellite and was disappointed.
I have really been crunching numbers and working on different spreadsheets and such to look at different situations in tournaments. One situation that I have been working on is the blind defense where you have someone that is stealing your blinds aggressively and what kind of stack do you need and cards to play back. It is very interesting to me when I looked at different situations and how the numbers work.
I took Ms of 10, 8, 6, 5, 4. For those of you that don't know what M is, it is your stack divided by the preflop pot size. small blind plus big blind, plus antes would make up the pot, divide this into your stack and you get M.
M is a very important number as it takes into account what it costs you to play a round. It is more telling than your BBs, because it takes into acount antes and the small blind that you have to pay. When used in conjunction with your BBs it becomes a very valuable tool.
No limit hold'em is a game in which aggression really is rewarded. You can win a hand several ways. One, your opponent folds to your bet. Two, you have the best hand come showdown. When you fold you cannot win, obviously, but you also cannot lose anymore, and it is often important to remember that.
I played in a tournament today where I watched people call down with hands like KJs and ATs when they had nothing, not even a draw. They just kept blindly calling down bets and throwing their stack to the wind.
You need to have a plan of attack when you play a hand. You need to be willing to let go of AK when you miss, other times maybe you make a play with it, maybe sometimes you reraise to that weak flop continuation bet, but there is no crime in folding an unimproved AK hand especially on the turn when faced with a big bet. Now, if you have a very short stack you should look to get all your chips in pre-flop with a hand like AK. This illustrates that you cannot play one hand the same way, as this is poker and it is always evolving depending on table dynamics.
I have had an ephiphany this week and it has given me a great feeling of confidence when playing. It is always dissappointing to lose a hand at a key moment because of a "questionable call", but in the end it is just the cards evening out. We cannot get caught up in the bad beats. There are no bad beats. The cards just come as they will come. Today, I had 76s which I limped from the button in an opned pot. The board came 7K6 and I bet 2/3 of the pot. I was called by the SB and then the 2 comes on the turn and he bets all in. I should have realized that he had a set, as this is my custom to think set when people shove like that, but I had a read on this guy that he was not the most solid of players watching him bet 500 in a 60 chip pot earlier, so I called with my two pair. My call in hindsight probably was poor when looking at his bet. I actually closed the table when I saw his set of 2s thinking, oh, well, that is how it goes. I clicked back a couple minutes later just for fun because I had a feeling that something wasn't right. Sure enough I hit a 6 on the river and won the hand. The cards just evened things out.
The better understanding you have of the math of situations the better your play will be. Today I shoved in the face of several weak limps and was rewarded by taking down pots and keeping my stack where it was or chipping up. You have to be able to make these moves.
I feel as though I am on the verge of something very nice, time will tell.
I have really been crunching numbers and working on different spreadsheets and such to look at different situations in tournaments. One situation that I have been working on is the blind defense where you have someone that is stealing your blinds aggressively and what kind of stack do you need and cards to play back. It is very interesting to me when I looked at different situations and how the numbers work.
I took Ms of 10, 8, 6, 5, 4. For those of you that don't know what M is, it is your stack divided by the preflop pot size. small blind plus big blind, plus antes would make up the pot, divide this into your stack and you get M.
M is a very important number as it takes into account what it costs you to play a round. It is more telling than your BBs, because it takes into acount antes and the small blind that you have to pay. When used in conjunction with your BBs it becomes a very valuable tool.
No limit hold'em is a game in which aggression really is rewarded. You can win a hand several ways. One, your opponent folds to your bet. Two, you have the best hand come showdown. When you fold you cannot win, obviously, but you also cannot lose anymore, and it is often important to remember that.
I played in a tournament today where I watched people call down with hands like KJs and ATs when they had nothing, not even a draw. They just kept blindly calling down bets and throwing their stack to the wind.
You need to have a plan of attack when you play a hand. You need to be willing to let go of AK when you miss, other times maybe you make a play with it, maybe sometimes you reraise to that weak flop continuation bet, but there is no crime in folding an unimproved AK hand especially on the turn when faced with a big bet. Now, if you have a very short stack you should look to get all your chips in pre-flop with a hand like AK. This illustrates that you cannot play one hand the same way, as this is poker and it is always evolving depending on table dynamics.
I have had an ephiphany this week and it has given me a great feeling of confidence when playing. It is always dissappointing to lose a hand at a key moment because of a "questionable call", but in the end it is just the cards evening out. We cannot get caught up in the bad beats. There are no bad beats. The cards just come as they will come. Today, I had 76s which I limped from the button in an opned pot. The board came 7K6 and I bet 2/3 of the pot. I was called by the SB and then the 2 comes on the turn and he bets all in. I should have realized that he had a set, as this is my custom to think set when people shove like that, but I had a read on this guy that he was not the most solid of players watching him bet 500 in a 60 chip pot earlier, so I called with my two pair. My call in hindsight probably was poor when looking at his bet. I actually closed the table when I saw his set of 2s thinking, oh, well, that is how it goes. I clicked back a couple minutes later just for fun because I had a feeling that something wasn't right. Sure enough I hit a 6 on the river and won the hand. The cards just evened things out.
The better understanding you have of the math of situations the better your play will be. Today I shoved in the face of several weak limps and was rewarded by taking down pots and keeping my stack where it was or chipping up. You have to be able to make these moves.
I feel as though I am on the verge of something very nice, time will tell.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Satellite Seat won
Well, yesterday was a mixed bag of sorts. Although I did not have a hugely successful day in terms of cashes, I did feel like I played very well. I thought that my play on the whole has been very solid for the last week, although I have not played a lot.
I really enjoyed taking some time away from the tables and getting some perspective on poker and the ups and downs and loses that come from it. It is perhaps the hardest lesson to learn if you want to be a poker player. I still find myself not making some moves that I know I should be making due to courage I guess. Especially in SNGs where you need to push with perhaps any two in certain situations. It helps a lot more now that I have set up a pretty cool spreadsheet that will analyze the numbers on the fly as it were and help with some of the decision making process, or at a minimum, it can help show that a certain play was correct or incorrect after the game is over and you can sit down and crunch some numbers.
Crunching numbers can be a very gratifying experience when it shows you in black and white that you need to do things that you are not doing. It was a great comfort yesterday after I finished 3rd in a SNG when I had thought that I let some situations pass me by, but in reality I played pretty flawlessly. I thought I should have pushed all-in a couple times, but in reality, my cards were just not good enough to do it due to my opponents stack size at the time. It was very reassuring having concrete evidence that you played it correctly, instead of wondering.
Sometimes we just finish 3rd and there is nothing we can do about it.
Last night I played on Titan Poker for the first time in a Free roll set up for PokerXfactor subscribers. The prize was the final table got a ticket to play in a qualifier today that sends the top 5 on to a big tournament tomorrow. It really was a lot of fun and I think I played about as well as I could play. I made some incredible laydowns, that is if the people were truthful with what they had after the fact, which I believed most people, or I actually got to see the cards for myself.
Thinking back, and also at the time, I didn't have the feeling of, dang it, I really played that wrong. I made some plays that I thought were just outstanding. I had raised with KQss and got reraised by the big blind to 5bbs. I just called due to the fact there was so much money in the pot now. The flop came Js Xs and a card of no consequence. The BB puts in a bet that represented about half his remaing stack of which was almost 1/2 pot bet. From the time the flop hit I had thought that I was going to push all my chips in if he checked it to me, because I had two over cards and the 2nd nut flush draw. I thought I had a pretty strong hand, plus the back door straight, and straight flush draws still. Because he bet half his remaining chips and the pot was sitting at about 2900 chips now and I only had 1600 left I shoved them all in. He thought about it for a while and folded. That was a really good hand for me.
Later on when it got down to the final two tables I doubled through the chip leader when he raised and I shoved in the BB with 55 and won. I had to hold on and I did not play another hand the rest of the time. Luckily there were several people that just did not have a clue on satellite tournaments at the end and busted out by going all in when they didn't need to. There were several really short stacks left, and I am happy to say we both made it.
Final tabling any tournament is a great feeling for sure, and winning a little money and advancing is icing on the cake.
I really enjoyed taking some time away from the tables and getting some perspective on poker and the ups and downs and loses that come from it. It is perhaps the hardest lesson to learn if you want to be a poker player. I still find myself not making some moves that I know I should be making due to courage I guess. Especially in SNGs where you need to push with perhaps any two in certain situations. It helps a lot more now that I have set up a pretty cool spreadsheet that will analyze the numbers on the fly as it were and help with some of the decision making process, or at a minimum, it can help show that a certain play was correct or incorrect after the game is over and you can sit down and crunch some numbers.
Crunching numbers can be a very gratifying experience when it shows you in black and white that you need to do things that you are not doing. It was a great comfort yesterday after I finished 3rd in a SNG when I had thought that I let some situations pass me by, but in reality I played pretty flawlessly. I thought I should have pushed all-in a couple times, but in reality, my cards were just not good enough to do it due to my opponents stack size at the time. It was very reassuring having concrete evidence that you played it correctly, instead of wondering.
Sometimes we just finish 3rd and there is nothing we can do about it.
Last night I played on Titan Poker for the first time in a Free roll set up for PokerXfactor subscribers. The prize was the final table got a ticket to play in a qualifier today that sends the top 5 on to a big tournament tomorrow. It really was a lot of fun and I think I played about as well as I could play. I made some incredible laydowns, that is if the people were truthful with what they had after the fact, which I believed most people, or I actually got to see the cards for myself.
Thinking back, and also at the time, I didn't have the feeling of, dang it, I really played that wrong. I made some plays that I thought were just outstanding. I had raised with KQss and got reraised by the big blind to 5bbs. I just called due to the fact there was so much money in the pot now. The flop came Js Xs and a card of no consequence. The BB puts in a bet that represented about half his remaing stack of which was almost 1/2 pot bet. From the time the flop hit I had thought that I was going to push all my chips in if he checked it to me, because I had two over cards and the 2nd nut flush draw. I thought I had a pretty strong hand, plus the back door straight, and straight flush draws still. Because he bet half his remaining chips and the pot was sitting at about 2900 chips now and I only had 1600 left I shoved them all in. He thought about it for a while and folded. That was a really good hand for me.
Later on when it got down to the final two tables I doubled through the chip leader when he raised and I shoved in the BB with 55 and won. I had to hold on and I did not play another hand the rest of the time. Luckily there were several people that just did not have a clue on satellite tournaments at the end and busted out by going all in when they didn't need to. There were several really short stacks left, and I am happy to say we both made it.
Final tabling any tournament is a great feeling for sure, and winning a little money and advancing is icing on the cake.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Playing poker can be very brutal
I read a lot of posts where people are constantly trying to figure out how to avoid bad beats, which is kind of funny. In order to suffer a bad beat you have to have the best hand and have somebody make a bad play, which is the essence of poker. You want people making dumb plays.
I try and not get upset at the bad beats, but it is hard because we are human and it is tough to control our disappointment. I have wanted to punch holes in walls or kick my footstool across the room many, many times, but I don't because it is poker.
I just try and count to whatever and take a breath. I also try and avoid letting the person that just sucked out on me know what I think of him, but it is hard for sure. lol
Good hand gone bad
this is an example of what I am talking about. I hope that this link works. You might have to sign up for a free membership, but it is pretty harmless.
This hand would have put me in great position as chip leader in a WSOP qualifier. It was devastatingly disappointing losing this hand. I made a perfect read on this guy and I am a huge favorite and bam, thanks for playing. lol.
I try and not get upset at the bad beats, but it is hard because we are human and it is tough to control our disappointment. I have wanted to punch holes in walls or kick my footstool across the room many, many times, but I don't because it is poker.
I just try and count to whatever and take a breath. I also try and avoid letting the person that just sucked out on me know what I think of him, but it is hard for sure. lol
Good hand gone bad
this is an example of what I am talking about. I hope that this link works. You might have to sign up for a free membership, but it is pretty harmless.
This hand would have put me in great position as chip leader in a WSOP qualifier. It was devastatingly disappointing losing this hand. I made a perfect read on this guy and I am a huge favorite and bam, thanks for playing. lol.
Monday, July 10, 2006
Family
What would we do without family? I am eternally thankful for the family I have right now, for they are loving and supportive as a family should be. Life is too short to get bogged down with the trivial things that people worry about. I would recommend to anyone out there to get rid of the things that are not positive in their lives, and if that means letting go of friends, and I dare say, family members that have a negative influence on your life. I will always be there for my family, no matter how they have treated me in the past or present, if they needed my help, all they have to do is ask for it. Blood is blood and I would always be there for my family, whether they were always there for me or not. That is what family is for.
So if that son or daughter that has been a pest to you for all these years suddenly comes to their senses and calls or comes over, welcome them with open arms for one's family is sacred.
So if that son or daughter that has been a pest to you for all these years suddenly comes to their senses and calls or comes over, welcome them with open arms for one's family is sacred.
Back home
Well, I am back home now after a week in Las Vegas. It was a good trip with just a few minor problems. Word to the wise, leave your cellular phone in your room when you go down to the pool. lol Yes, we did have a phone get wet and go on the fritz, and if that was not enough the next day I made the mistake of trying to see if the battery was bad by putting it in our good phone which caused it to go bad. The sad thing was the phone that went in the water works fine with the battery that didn't get wet, but the phone that stayed dry is forever ruined. Oh, well, we were going to upgrade our phones in November so we just did it earlier.
The sad thing about getting a new phone is all the new gadgets you have to buy for them, chargers, cases, memory cards, hands-free devices. What is really sad is I purchased the Verizon music kit so I could link my phone to the computer and I loaded everything and it doesn' work. I am fairly computer literate and I spent hours trying to get this thing to work and nothing. Pretty sad.
Well, I did not play any poker this weekend as I was a little tired. We didn't get home until 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning and then there is all the catching up to do and unpacking, and then my daughter was coming in at 3:00 p.m. so back to the airport I went.
Sunday I watched the World Cup which was a pretty awesome game, although, France lost, it was still pretty good. I wanted Italy and France to make it to the final so it was pretty nice.
The sad thing about getting a new phone is all the new gadgets you have to buy for them, chargers, cases, memory cards, hands-free devices. What is really sad is I purchased the Verizon music kit so I could link my phone to the computer and I loaded everything and it doesn' work. I am fairly computer literate and I spent hours trying to get this thing to work and nothing. Pretty sad.
Well, I did not play any poker this weekend as I was a little tired. We didn't get home until 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning and then there is all the catching up to do and unpacking, and then my daughter was coming in at 3:00 p.m. so back to the airport I went.
Sunday I watched the World Cup which was a pretty awesome game, although, France lost, it was still pretty good. I wanted Italy and France to make it to the final so it was pretty nice.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Live play in Las Vegas
If you think that you are getting burned too often online, I have a thing or two to say to you.
I was watching the WSOP and a guy had limped AA and let the BB come in for free with 72o and hit a set 77K on the flop. On the turn he waited and waited and shoved all his chips in and the guy, Rafe Furst, called off all his chips and then proceeded to suckout on the river.
Later Rafe had A8o and raised all in and was called by AK and proceeded to river a Jack to double pair the board and chop the pot again and survive. he later went on to win the bracelet.
I was playing in a tournament and got all my chips in with 88 and lo and behold this old timer woke up for the second time in 3 hands to have JJ and I was knocked out.
Today, I had AA in the BB and two limpers and then a guy goes all in. The pot is about 2700. I have 2100 left after posting the bb of 400. I made a mistake and just called meaning to go all in to get rid of the limpers, but they folded anyway.
I was HU against a local casino employee and he had 99. needless to say, he spiked the only remaining 9 in the deck(one guy said he folded a 9 preflop). I lose over half my stack after having that guy crushed.
The next hand I am in the SB with about 900 left after posting SB of 200. I have AJo and shove all in. The BB calls showing down AK, imagine that.
So the point of this is that even live you get rivered and your monster hands run into bad luck and that is poker. Just forget about it and move on. I can honestly say that when my AA got cracked I didn't think twice about it, because that is life and we all need to accept what we cannot change.
as a sidenote, I watched a donkey tourist fold the nuts against someone that was all-in because he was not paying attention in a multiway pot and when the one person folded he thought he won and did not turn up his hand but mucked it instead and lost a huge pot because he was not paying attention. It was one of the most ridiculous things I have seen in live play. He assured his demise by being unobservant.
I was watching the WSOP and a guy had limped AA and let the BB come in for free with 72o and hit a set 77K on the flop. On the turn he waited and waited and shoved all his chips in and the guy, Rafe Furst, called off all his chips and then proceeded to suckout on the river.
Later Rafe had A8o and raised all in and was called by AK and proceeded to river a Jack to double pair the board and chop the pot again and survive. he later went on to win the bracelet.
I was playing in a tournament and got all my chips in with 88 and lo and behold this old timer woke up for the second time in 3 hands to have JJ and I was knocked out.
Today, I had AA in the BB and two limpers and then a guy goes all in. The pot is about 2700. I have 2100 left after posting the bb of 400. I made a mistake and just called meaning to go all in to get rid of the limpers, but they folded anyway.
I was HU against a local casino employee and he had 99. needless to say, he spiked the only remaining 9 in the deck(one guy said he folded a 9 preflop). I lose over half my stack after having that guy crushed.
The next hand I am in the SB with about 900 left after posting SB of 200. I have AJo and shove all in. The BB calls showing down AK, imagine that.
So the point of this is that even live you get rivered and your monster hands run into bad luck and that is poker. Just forget about it and move on. I can honestly say that when my AA got cracked I didn't think twice about it, because that is life and we all need to accept what we cannot change.
as a sidenote, I watched a donkey tourist fold the nuts against someone that was all-in because he was not paying attention in a multiway pot and when the one person folded he thought he won and did not turn up his hand but mucked it instead and lost a huge pot because he was not paying attention. It was one of the most ridiculous things I have seen in live play. He assured his demise by being unobservant.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
Make the Pilgrimage to the WSOP, if you can
After checking in today at the Grandview in Las Vegas, which is pretty nice, I check out the forum to see what was going on at the WSOP and caught the Rizen post. My wife and I were going to go grab a bite as it was almost 4:00 and we had not eaten all friggin day, but lo and behold I see Rizen is at the final table.
Well, we jump in the car and run over to the Rio. Going to the WSOP was one of the coolest things that I have done in a very long time. Railing Rizen was also great fun. I had never met him before, but I felt like he was my friend, a family member almost. It was with great pride and admiration to root him on.
Walking around the WSOP hall is one of neatest experiences a poker player can ever have, outside of sitting at a table with Doyle, or Ivey and the like at a big event like this. It was just too damn cool standing next to Phil Gordon or listening to Greg Raymer discuss a hand. And then you can bump into Daniel Negreanu coming out of the bathroom or brush past Eric Lindstrom or Barry Greenstein, or Matusow, D'Agostino, the list goes on and on and on, and with each star sighting I kept thinking how cool is this.
I mean this was like the Academy Awards of Poker with all the stars that you see out and about. I even saw the guy that came in 2nd at the Bellagio WPT final that was just on TV this week. Seeing Chris Ferguson without his hat on was also kind of a wierd thing, scary looking dude, lol.
I would highly recommend that if you can come to Las Vegas during the WSOP run it is well worth it. I felt like a kid at Christmass all day long and then I also got to meet Santa, I mean, Rizen and he was just as nice as can be.
I know that this has just furthered my determination to play in some of the events at the WSOP whether this year or next year. It is without a doubt my number one goal and after today, and after today I will not forget how incredible it really is to be here and play. Now I just have to get the play part down and it will be even more magical if that is possible.
Well, we jump in the car and run over to the Rio. Going to the WSOP was one of the coolest things that I have done in a very long time. Railing Rizen was also great fun. I had never met him before, but I felt like he was my friend, a family member almost. It was with great pride and admiration to root him on.
Walking around the WSOP hall is one of neatest experiences a poker player can ever have, outside of sitting at a table with Doyle, or Ivey and the like at a big event like this. It was just too damn cool standing next to Phil Gordon or listening to Greg Raymer discuss a hand. And then you can bump into Daniel Negreanu coming out of the bathroom or brush past Eric Lindstrom or Barry Greenstein, or Matusow, D'Agostino, the list goes on and on and on, and with each star sighting I kept thinking how cool is this.
I mean this was like the Academy Awards of Poker with all the stars that you see out and about. I even saw the guy that came in 2nd at the Bellagio WPT final that was just on TV this week. Seeing Chris Ferguson without his hat on was also kind of a wierd thing, scary looking dude, lol.
I would highly recommend that if you can come to Las Vegas during the WSOP run it is well worth it. I felt like a kid at Christmass all day long and then I also got to meet Santa, I mean, Rizen and he was just as nice as can be.
I know that this has just furthered my determination to play in some of the events at the WSOP whether this year or next year. It is without a doubt my number one goal and after today, and after today I will not forget how incredible it really is to be here and play. Now I just have to get the play part down and it will be even more magical if that is possible.
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