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On Monday I decided that I’ve had a good enough month that I can start playing some 50/100 and 100/200 on my own action. I woke up hungover at 11 a.m. (we’d gone to “The Bank” at Bellagio the night before and stayed out pretty late), saw everybody else in the house was asleep, and proceeded to play some poker. After 631 hands I was up 50k but realized that I was too tired to put in a session, so I chilled by the pool, read, and took a nap.Later that night Jay started playing some 200/400 NL and 500/1000 cap NL and cut me in on a quarter of his action. While I was watching Miller’s Crossing half-asleep at 10 p.m., Jay made me 30k. That was pretty nice. Jay wanted to keep playing but we had to wake up early for rock climbing with Jamie.

Jamie is our personal trainer that Krantz hired to come out for the summer. He’s also been coordinating trips like whitewater rafting in the Grand Canyon (epic fail), rock climbing (was super awesome), and forthcoming trips like dune-buggy racing and going to machine-gun shooting ranges. Anyway, he swung by the house at 6:30 a.m., which was the earliest I’ve woken up in god knows how long. Surprisingly, I was feeling fine and by the time we hiked to the rocks and started climbing I was completely pumped up to go climbing. The climbing was actually very tough: the rocks were only 50 feet high but there were spot where I was basically hanging on by my hands, getting insanely tired while desperately looking for something to grab on to. I ended up climbing 3 different paths, which was absolutely exhausting; my forearms were killing me, my fingertips were completely raw, and my feet were dead.

By the time we were finished and back at the house, the 3 of us had been up for 8 hours and only had a few granola bars for breakfast. Fortunately, our chef had left a bowl of ridiculously good turkey chili on the stove for us along with a plate of sushi. I was so damn hungry I immediately scarfed down 3 bowls of the chili and a ton of sushi. I was in a total food coma and was about to go take a nap when I decided to see if there were any games going. I sat down at a couple HU tables, played for an hour and a half, made 126k, and quit when I realized I could barely keep my eyes open.

So basically in the last two days, having played only 4 hours or so, I’m up around 200k. To celebrate, I got a table at “Pure” and went out with Krantz, Flawless, Danzasmack, Ansky, and a couple Swedish ex-students of mine and Krantz’s that were in town. This may not have been the smartest idea as I’d gone out until real late 3 of the last 4 nights, but I ended up having a ridiculous night. I ended up going to sleep at 7 a.m., woke up 3 hours later still drunk when the sun hit me in the eyes (note to self: buy a sleep mask), played some poker, dropped 17k, and went and worked out with Jamie. I’m working on an average of 4 hours sleep the last 5 days and I’m supposed to go out tonight and meet up with Team Cardrunners. Don’t think I’ll go crazy tonight because I’m playing the 5k 6-max WSOP event tomorrow, but we’ll see.

Anyway, sorry for the tl;dr and rambly post but I’m basically running on fumes right now. Cliff’s notes: Vegas is fucking crazy.

Today I played some 100/200 versus a plethora of fish and 25/50 against ADZ (who took me for 3 buy-ins).  Then I played some 50/100 and before you know it I was stuck 90k on the day.  This was pretty annoying, and sitting there by myself in the house while everybody else was still passed out from the night before wasn’t exactly helping my mood.  I was in need of a shower, hadn’t been outside all day, stuck 90k, and 2-tabling.  It was awful.  By the end of the day, I was up 10k.  I played some sick pots and got very lucky in a couple huge spots:

FullTiltPoker Game #6931768775: Table Masolino (6 max) - $50/$100 - No Limit Hold’em - 20:10:38 ET - 2008/06/22
Seat 2: the guru 11 ($34,274)
Seat 3: mr doodles70 ($11,690), is sitting out
Seat 4: DaEvils ($22,750.50)
Seat 5: gaucho2121 ($10,000)
Seat 6: MotherFlusher ($5,498)
DaEvils posts the small blind of $50
gaucho2121 posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [Ad Ah]
MotherFlusher folds
MotherFlusher is sitting out
mdistenfeld adds $10,000
the guru 11 raises to $350
mr doodles70 has returned
MotherFlusher stands up
DaEvils raises to $1,250
gaucho2121 adds $100
gaucho2121 folds
the guru 11 calls $900
*** FLOP *** [Kc 3c Td]
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils bets $1,700
the guru 11 calls $1,700
*** TURN *** [Kc 3c Td] [8h]
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils bets $4,500
the guru 11 has 15 seconds left to act
the guru 11 raises to $12,400
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils raises to $19,800.50, and is all in
the guru 11 calls $7,400.50
DaEvils shows [Ad Ah]
the guru 11 shows [8s Ts]
*** RIVER *** [Kc 3c Td 8h] [3h]
DaEvils shows two pair, Aces and Threes
the guru 11 shows two pair, Tens and Eights
DaEvils wins the pot ($45,599) with two pair, Aces and Threes
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $45,601 | Rake $2
Board: [Kc 3c Td 8h 3h]
Seat 2: the guru 11 (button) showed [8s Ts] and lost with two pair, Tens and Eights
Seat 3: mr doodles70 is sitting out
Seat 4: DaEvils (small blind) showed [Ad Ah] and won ($45,599) with two pair, Aces and Threes
Seat 5: gaucho2121 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: MotherFlusher didn’t bet (folded)

FullTiltPoker Game #6930089695: Table Bordley (6 max) - $50/$100 - No Limit Hold’em - 18:01:04 ET - 2008/06/22
Seat 1: gamblegambel ($1,744)
Seat 2: SteamCleaner ($49,350.70)
Seat 3: MotherFlusher ($2,000)
Seat 4: DaEvils ($22,436)
Seat 5: gaucho2121 ($20,397)
Seat 6: Big Eye Fish ($8,691)
Big Eye Fish posts the small blind of $50
gamblegambel posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [5h 4h]
SteamCleaner raises to $300
MotherFlusher folds
DaEvils calls $300
gaucho2121 folds
Big Eye Fish folds
gamblegambel folds
*** FLOP *** [Qh As 3s]
SteamCleaner bets $600
DaEvils calls $600
*** TURN *** [Qh As 3s] [7d]
SteamCleaner has 15 seconds left to act
SteamCleaner bets $1,600
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils calls $1,600
*** RIVER *** [Qh As 3s 7d] [6h]
SteamCleaner has 15 seconds left to act
SteamCleaner bets $2,600
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils has requested TIME
DaEvils raises to $19,936, and is all in
SteamCleaner has 15 seconds left to act
SteamCleaner has requested TIME
Big Eye Fish adds $1,359
SteamCleaner calls $17,336
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DaEvils shows [5h 4h] a straight, Seven high
SteamCleaner mucks
DaEvils wins the pot ($45,019) with a straight, Seven high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $45,022 | Rake $3
Board: [Qh As 3s 7d 6h]
Seat 1: gamblegambel (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 2: SteamCleaner mucked [Ac Qc] - two pair, Aces and Queens
Seat 3: MotherFlusher didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: DaEvils showed [5h 4h] and won ($45,019) with a straight, Seven high
Seat 5: gaucho2121 (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: Big Eye Fish (small blind) folded before the Flop

FullTiltPoker Game #6930543904: Table Bordley (6 max) - $50/$100 - No Limit Hold’em - 18:36:18 ET - 2008/06/22
Seat 1: Semifaded ($1,997)
Seat 2: SteamCleaner ($29,953.70)
Seat 3: the guru 11 ($12,785)
Seat 4: DaEvils ($32,146)
Seat 5: gaucho2121 ($22,892)
Seat 6: mr doodles70 ($10,000)
gaucho2121 posts the small blind of $50
mr doodles70 posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [SECRET CARDS]
Semifaded folds
SteamCleaner folds
the guru 11 folds
DaEvils raises to $200
gaucho2121 has 15 seconds left to act
gaucho2121 raises to $775
mr doodles70 adds $100
mr doodles70 folds
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils calls $575
*** FLOP *** [9c 6d 7h]
gaucho2121 has 15 seconds left to act
gaucho2121 has requested TIME
gaucho2121 bets $1,100
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils raises to $3,800
gaucho2121 has 15 seconds left to act
gaucho2121 has requested TIME
gaucho2121 calls $2,700
*** TURN *** [9c 6d 7h] [Qc]
gaucho2121 checks
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils bets $5,800
gaucho2121 has 15 seconds left to act
gaucho2121 has requested TIME
gaucho2121 calls $5,800
*** RIVER *** [9c 6d 7h Qc] [Kh]
gaucho2121 checks
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils bets $21,771, and is all in
gaucho2121 folds
Uncalled bet of $21,771 returned to DaEvils
DaEvils mucks
DaEvils wins the pot ($20,847)
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $20,850 | Rake $3
Board: [9c 6d 7h Qc Kh]
Seat 1: Semifaded didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 2: SteamCleaner didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 3: the guru 11 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: DaEvils (button) collected ($20,847), mucked
Seat 5: gaucho2121 (small blind) folded on the River
Seat 6: mr doodles70 (big blind) folded before the Flop

This hand I was very happy with because I hadn’t been getting to showdown much, was stuck a bunch, and I had a feeling based on past pots this guy was trying to run m over.  He was only 11/10 over 300 hands so I knew he was nitty, but I just couldn’t see myself being behind that often here:

FullTiltPoker Game #6931690673: Table Masolino (6 max) - $50/$100 - No Limit Hold’em - 20:04:37 ET - 2008/06/22
Seat 1: FKMYLIFE ($23,057.50)
Seat 2: the guru 11 ($36,824)
Seat 3: mr doodles70 ($11,690)
Seat 4: DaEvils ($15,653.50)
Seat 5: gaucho2121 ($10,000)
Seat 6: MotherFlusher ($2,700)
the guru 11 posts the small blind of $50
mr doodles70 has 5 seconds left to act
mr doodles70 is sitting out
DaEvils posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #1
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [Jd Jh]
mr doodles70: brb
gaucho2121 folds
MotherFlusher folds
FKMYLIFE raises to $300
the guru 11 folds
DaEvils raises to $1,050
FKMYLIFE calls $750
*** FLOP *** [Kd Ac 4h]
DaEvils checks
FKMYLIFE checks
*** TURN *** [Kd Ac 4h] [7c]
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils checks
FKMYLIFE bets $2,000
DaEvils calls $2,000
*** RIVER *** [Kd Ac 4h 7c] [Kh]
DaEvils checks
FKMYLIFE bets $4,300
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils has requested TIME
DaEvils calls $4,300
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FKMYLIFE shows [3c 2c] a pair of Kings
DaEvils shows [Jd Jh] two pair, Kings and Jacks
DaEvils wins the pot ($14,747) with two pair, Kings and Jacks
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $14,750 | Rake $3
Board: [Kd Ac 4h 7c Kh]
Seat 1: FKMYLIFE (button) showed [3c 2c] and lost with a pair of Kings
Seat 2: the guru 11 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: mr doodles70 is sitting out
Seat 4: DaEvils (big blind) showed [Jd Jh] and won ($14,747) with two pair, Kings and Jacks
Seat 5: gaucho2121 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: MotherFlusher didn’t bet (folded)

Anyway, I played trex313 (one of the Dang brothers) at 100/200 and he quit me but promised to 3 or 4-table me in the future.  As I’ve said in the past, I think I have an edge against those two even though they are obviously elite players, and hopefully there’ll be a blog post in the future about an epic session against one of the two.

As for the summer so far, I just can’t lose right now.  I won 30k yesterday and it barely even registered and when I lost15 earlier today I couldn’t believe it.   Since my post “bouncing back” I’m up 130k, mainly at 25/50 and 50/100.

I’ve been going out a lot in Vegas lately and am on my way out the door to go to the Bellagio’s club “The Bank” with Krantz, Whitelime, and some Swedish ex-students of Krantz’s.  Krantz now has a wide assortment of pictures of me from various clubs that he can threaten to put on facebook if he ever chooses to blackmail me, hopefully he’ll never go busto from one of his tilt sessions and need some cash.

I’m +45k in my two days in New York.  I played some 200/400 vs Zigmund and dropped 90k (of which I only had 1/8).  He ran very well (including one hand where I reraised JJ and he called with KT and I bet a T23 and bet/called a King turn figuring he would bluff all his floats that turned into draws and only jam KT+. If he had bricked the turn I stack him, instead he 5 outs me to reverse the stackage) and I quit and then Krantz played him.  Krantz wanted 100% of himself but offered me 1/4 and I took a bigger piece than I normally would (50/100 worth).  Krantz took him for 60k so I ended up being +5k on  200/400 action.

After that I just ran very well, with hands like these:

POKERSTARS GAME #18180854770:  HOLD’EM NO LIMIT ($25/$50) - 2008/06/16 - 16:45:51 (ET)
Table ‘Kalyke III’ 6-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: skier_5 ($5123 in chips)
Seat 2: Wyern ($5000 in chips)
Seat 3: Bullitos ($9666 in chips)
Seat 5: Vick Is God ($5000 in chips)
Seat 6: kitty97 ($4970 in chips)
skier_5: posts small blind $25
Wyern: posts big blind $50
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Vick Is God [7d 9d]
Bullitos: folds
Vick Is God: raises $100 to $150
kitty97: folds
skier_5: folds
Wyern: raises $450 to $600
Vick Is God: calls $450
*** FLOP *** [Jh Ah Th]
Wyern: checks
Vick Is God: checks
*** TURN *** [Jh Ah Th] [8d]
Wyern: bets $900
Vick Is God: raises $1150 to $2050
Wyern: raises $2350 to $4400 and is all-in
Vick Is God: calls $2350 and is all-in
*** RIVER *** [Jh Ah Th 8d] [8s]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Wyern: shows [Ad Ts] (two pair, Aces and Tens)
Vick Is God: shows [7d 9d] (a straight, Seven to Jack)
Vick Is God collected $10023 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $10025 | Rake $2
Board [Jh Ah Th 8d 8s]
Seat 1: skier_5 (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: Wyern (big blind) showed [Ad Ts] and lost with two pair, Aces and Tens
Seat 3: Bullitos folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: Vick Is God showed [7d 9d] and won ($10023) with a straight, Seven to Jack
Seat 6: kitty97 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
FullTiltPoker Game #6847811192: Table Rock Port (6 max) - $25/$50 - No Limit Hold’em - 11:27:16 ET - 2008/06/16
Seat 1: niceandsleazy20 ($4,085)
Seat 2: rubenrtv ($4,996)
Seat 3: jcmoussasux ($8,847)
Seat 4: Bling1528 ($3,843)
Seat 5: DaEvils ($5,000)
Seat 6: WatchOutMom ($5,000)
niceandsleazy20 posts the small blind of $25
rubenrtv posts the big blind of $50
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [Qh Td]
jcmoussasux folds
Bling1528 folds
DaEvils raises to $175
WatchOutMom has 15 seconds left to act
WatchOutMom calls $175
niceandsleazy20 calls $150
rubenrtv folds
*** FLOP *** [Kc 7h Jd]
niceandsleazy20 checks
DaEvils bets $410
WatchOutMom adds $175
WatchOutMom folds
niceandsleazy20 has 15 seconds left to act
niceandsleazy20 raises to $1,050
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils raises to $4,825, and is all in
niceandsleazy20 calls $2,860, and is all in
DaEvils shows [Qh Td]
niceandsleazy20 shows [7s 7c]
Uncalled bet of $915 returned to DaEvils
*** TURN *** [Kc 7h Jd] [9c]
*** RIVER *** [Kc 7h Jd 9c] [8h]
DaEvils shows a straight, King high
niceandsleazy20 shows three of a kind, Sevens
DaEvils wins the pot ($8,392) with a straight, King high
niceandsleazy20 adds $2,500
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $8,395 | Rake $3
Board: [Kc 7h Jd 9c 8h]
Seat 1: niceandsleazy20 (small blind) showed [7s 7c] and lost with three of a kind, Sevens
Seat 2: rubenrtv (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: jcmoussasux didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 4: Bling1528 didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: DaEvils showed [Qh Td] and won ($8,392) with a straight, King high
Seat 6: WatchOutMom (button) folded on the Flop

I also played in a juicy 50/100 game, and although I’m still not used to the swings of 50/100, let it not be said I play scared money! (I probably butchered this hand but I had a feeling I was getting bluffed. This is one of those “either brilliant or misplayed on every street” kind of hands I get myself into sometime:

FullTiltPoker Game #6854351763: Table Kennedy (6 max) - $50/$100 - No Limit Hold’em - 21:33:19 ET - 2008/06/16
Seat 1: traheho ($21,789.50)
Seat 2: Brian Hastings ($10,000)
Seat 3: DaEvils ($10,050)
Seat 4: mr doodles70 ($14,132)
Seat 5: Haidarych ($15,994)
Seat 6: FLIPokeHer ($11,685)
DaEvils posts the small blind of $50
mr doodles70 posts the big blind of $100
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [9d 9h]
Haidarych folds
FLIPokeHer folds
traheho raises to $350
Brian Hastings folds
DaEvils raises to $1,250
Haidarych has been disconnected
Haidarych has reconnected
mr doodles70 folds
traheho calls $900
*** FLOP *** [Ad 5d 7s]
DaEvils bets $1,860
traheho has 15 seconds left to act
traheho raises to $3,720
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils calls $1,860
*** TURN *** [Ad 5d 7s] [6c]
DaEvils checks
traheho bets $10,040
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils has requested TIME
DaEvils calls $5,080, and is all in
traheho shows [Jd Qd]
DaEvils shows [9d 9h]
Uncalled bet of $4,960 returned to traheho
*** RIVER *** [Ad 5d 7s 6c] [Tc]
traheho shows Ace Queen high
DaEvils shows a pair of Nines
DaEvils wins the pot ($20,197) with a pair of Nines
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $20,200 | Rake $3
Board: [Ad 5d 7s 6c Tc]
Seat 1: traheho showed [Jd Qd] and lost with Ace Queen high
Seat 2: Brian Hastings (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 3: DaEvils (small blind) showed [9d 9h] and won ($20,197) with a pair of Nines
Seat 4: mr doodles70 (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: Haidarych didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: FLIPokeHer didn’t bet (folded)

Today it was more of the same, just stacking people and running very well.   My 100k downswing was annoying, but good to get 75k of it back in 2 days.  Life is good, I’m playing amazing poker (imo) and running very well.  I’m flying back to Vegas tomorrow and that will motivate me to play a lot more hands and hopefully keep crushing.

In other (bittersweet?) news, I didn’t get the job I’d interviewed for.  I was a bit reluctant to take it because it would start before the end of WSOP (meaning less Vegas time and no post-Vegas cruising of the Mediterranean) and because I’m starting to consider applying to law school instead of getting a job (1 more year of freedom is pretty appealing when you’re at the top of your poker game and on the verge of being set for life), but I also would have loved to have the opportunity the job would have presented.  Oh, well: there will be other job interviews and opportunities. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

For the first time in recent memory, I booked a round-trip ticket. I knew the exact dates of my leaving Vegas for Martha’s Vineyard and I knew when I’d be leaving, so there didn’t seem to be any downside to ending the “fly out to a place and book a return flight at the last second” pattern. Then as my friends were all leaving to go back to New York I realized I’d lost my iPod and didn’t feel like taking a 10-hour trip by myself with no music. So I last-minute canceled my non-refundable flight and caught a ride back to New York (sunk cost baby!).  I think I’m going to stay in town for a few days (my brother’s in town as are a couple friends I haven’t seen in a while) and then head back to Vegas.

Anyway, the trip to Martha’s Vineyard was great. Taking a break from my responsibility-free life to vacation in Las Vegas was really starting to wear me down so I needed to take another vacation. I played a bunch of soccer and tennis (I’m actually surprisingly good at soccer and won every game I played despite not playing in over 10 years, but I’m also horrible at tennis), managed to get a reasonable tan (or what counts as a tan for my pale self), and saw a lot of friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

The only unfortunate thing about the trip (besides losing my iPod which means hours of finding missing music and fixing mp3 tags) was that I had basically no internet access which made me miss the deadline on my Deucescracked video. I’m really upset about that because Team Deucescracked has always taken pride in releasing everything on time and I’m the first to miss deadline as far as I know. Hopefully my videos are good enough that you’ll excuse the delay.

Also, congrats to Vanessa for winning a bracelet (she won a PLO bracelet and I have to admit I’m insanely jealous) and for following it up with a great performance at the 10k HU tournament.  Right now there’s just no stopping Team Deucescracked!

nice way to bounce back from the downswing. I played some 200/400 NL and lost 53k (of which I had a sizable chunk), due mainly to this hysterical hand (notice the turn overbet. lol!):

FullTiltPoker Game #6785774278: Table Posy (deep 6) - $200/$400 - No Limit Hold’em - 16:54:33 ET - 2008/06/11
Seat 2: trex313 ($65,999)
Seat 3: David Benyamine ($57,594)
Seat 4: DaEvils ($49,898)
trex313 posts the small blind of $200
David Benyamine posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #4
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DaEvils [8s 7h]
DaEvils raises to $1,200
trex313 folds
David Benyamine calls $800
*** FLOP *** [Td 2c 9c]
David Benyamine checks
DaEvils bets $2,100
David Benyamine has 15 seconds left to act
David Benyamine raises to $8,400
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils calls $6,300
*** TURN *** [Td 2c 9c] [6s]
David Benyamine has 15 seconds left to act
David Benyamine bets $24,000
DaEvils has 15 seconds left to act
DaEvils has requested TIME
DaEvils raises to $40,298, and is all in
David Benyamine calls $16,298
DaEvils shows [8s 7h]
David Benyamine shows [8c Tc]
*** RIVER *** [Td 2c 9c 6s] [Kc]
DaEvils shows a straight, Ten high
David Benyamine shows a flush, King high
David Benyamine wins the pot ($99,995) with a flush, King high
DaEvils is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $99,996 | Rake $1
Board: [Td 2c 9c 6s Kc]
Seat 2: trex313 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: David Benyamine (big blind) showed [8c Tc] and won ($99,995) with a flush, King high
Seat 4: DaEvils (button) showed [8s 7h] and lost with a straight, Ten high

Anyway, I got back all that and then some by winning a coinflip at 100/200 on Stars (I had a bigger piece of that than I did of the 200/400 action) and I ran insanely well at 25/50. Speaking of running insanely well at 25/50, here’s a screenshot of how I’ve been doing at the Stars 25/50 game since I left New York for Chicago/Vegas. Easy game imo.

My Vegas trip had been going very well until the last couple of days.  I was up over 100k to start but I moved up in stakes and ran pretty badly the last two days.  Playing 50/100 HU all of my own money I lost a couple coinflips, check/raised 8J on 356 and runner-runnered trp jacks against a straight, and other such shenanigans.

This all culminated in my getting a seat in Kenny Tran’s 100/200 game yesterday.  I wasn’t invited but got on the list and after a few hours of waiting I sat down in the game.  I was pretty pissed at Kenny because he’s told me he’d invite me back and he didn’t.  These live pros that “host” games invite players, those players lose a ton of money, but in the meanwhile he live pros figure out the player isn’t awful and don’t invite him back.  I think it’s a bit ridiculous (yeah, yeah, +EV for him to not invite me, yada yada.  But I think it’s messed up to do this as standard operating procedure).

Anyway, I played very tight but bluffed off a decent amount of chips when I called a small reraise with Qd9d in position against Burt Boutin, a very very tight player.  The SB also called and the 3 of us saw a flop of Ks8s4s.  It got checked to me and I bet about half-pot (6k or so) with the intention of taking it down on the turn if called. Only Burt called and the turn came a 3s.  He checked and I bet 12k, figuring my bluff only has to work about 33% of the time and he folds all of his non-spade-containing hands besides KK, but he called.  The river came a brick he checked and I only had 18k behind and didn’t think I could get him off JsJx or QsQx so I checked and his KK took it down.

Other than that the theme of the day was I would run bluffs on people I knew were nits (but who didn’t know me) and run into their monsters.  After my Q9s hand I only did this against new players to the game.  One nit I reraised with QT bet a 995 flop and bet a K turn and he jammed.  Another nit check/called 3JQ and check/raised my pot-sized bet on a 3 turn all-in.  I raised another tight (but not nitty) player with a flush draw on 223 and got cold-3bet by a guy who showed 25.  I 3-bet a big raise with JJ and folded to a cold-4bet.  I basically won 0 pots, ran a lot of +EV bluffs into the top of my opponents’ ranges, and made 0 hands.  The total damage was about 70k (of which I had 40%).

So, long story short I’m down 80k in the last two days.  I’m flying out from Vegas to visit my friends from Yale at Martha’s Vineyard and don’t plan on playing much poker in the next week or so.  In the past when I’ve gone on big downswings like this I’ve thought I need to take a break, but I’ve been doing so well at 25-50 online and playing insanely well (really the best I’ve ever played lately) that I’m just going to keep grinding.  It sucks to lose 80k when I only have a month or so left of full-time poker playing (hopefully I’ll get a job soon), but I’m still up a fair amount on the month and know it’s just a matter of time before I post another screen-shot.

href=”http://www.sv.ultimatebet.com/poker-blog-post/MikeVickIsGod-Wins-30000-in-Under-30-Minutes-with-Online-Blackjack/2626″>

Favorite quote is “Upon discovering the possibility of an unfair advantage, play was suspended temporarily and an investigation was immediately opened.” They’re actually bragging on their website about being dumb enough to worry about an unfair advantage on their own blackjack tables.

I busted very quickly today, I think I was the 2nd person out. Early on, at 1k-2k the SB limped, I raised to 6k with KQ, and he called.  The flop came down Qh4d6d and he check/called 8k.  The turn came a Js and he checked and I bet 22k (with 100k starting stacks).  He announced a check-raise all-in but I didn’t hear him because of my headphones.  He started sliding in chips and I pull out my headphone and said “oh” after realizing what had happened.  I was going to call but he said very excitedly “Oh, you call?” and almost flipped his cards over.  I figured he had a monster based on that so I mucked to what he later told me was his JQ.

Then with 48k the same guy raised 2 limpers from the SB to 17k (lol!) and I jammed all-in for 30k more from the BB with 88. He called with A9, hit an ace, and it was game over.  It’s always an amazing feeling busting out of a WSOP event because you get to wait in their payment processing center for half an hour minimum while they give you your money.  After swapping out pieces I ended up owing out 2500 to my friends and am still in make-up with Cole (I’m up 10k for him or so, so at least I don’t have much make-up to go before I start seeing profit).  Not a big hit considering I’m running amazingly, but still annoying to think about while you’re watching some incompetent cashier slowly fill out W-2s and photocopy your ID.

Played the 5k shootout and won my table, so I cashed for 17k.  This means I’m up 14k on the WSOP and only in for 21k of make-up with Cole (obviously less if I win my table and move up the money bracket).  I swapped 3% with 5 different people so right now I owe out 2k to my friends (none of whom is in the money) and if I bust out the next table I’ll still have no money to show for my cashing for Cole.  Obviously it’s good to get from under makeup because a) I want to win Cole money after losing him 35k last year and b) the more I get to keep if I win again.  In the meanwhile it’s just kind of funny that whenever I cash in the WSOP I’m actually losing money, but that’s obviously being results oriented as my swaps with friends are pretty much neutral EV and I’m the only one cashing right now.

I actually had 48k of the 100k in chips at the table with 7 players left (won 6J vs 7hTh on 2h5h6c, JJ vs 88 all-in for a halfstack against Devilfish Ulliot, and 79 vs As5s on Ad7s9s) and was expecting to run the table over but I lost 3 all-ins (69s vs AK, AT vs JJ, and AQ vs 77) and was down to 23k.  The guy on my right was giving me a headache (opening lots of pots, folding to a couple reraises, 4bet me once, and just generally playing very laggy relatively deep).  I bluff raised him a couple times and he kept folding saying “I’m sick of folding to you.” Despite his looseness and being an L.A. Commerce donk, you could tell the money meant a lot to him: when he got backdoor boated on KKAAx and folded the river he was steaming and he clearly wanted to win the table very badly.  We were basically the only 2 playing pots and I’d been letting him control the table for the most part.

Then I raised Qs4s UTG with a 30k stack and 5 players left and he called in the BB.  He donked (with a 20k stack)KQ8 rainbow for 1600 into 2400 and I called.  The turn came a 6 and he bet 2400.  I thought for 5 seconds or so and minraised him to 4800 figuring I could barrel him off a king and protect my hand (and avoid getting bluffed) if I’m ahead.  He called and the river was an offsuit 9.  He checked, I bet 9k, and he tanked for forever, staring me down for a couple minutes, and folded KT.  I think I’m about the only person who takes lines like this, but against bad opponents I’ve found that they can be awesome.

In other news, I played all day at Bellagio yesterday (mainly 25/50) and won 14k while the rest of Team Israel was in the Grand Canyon.  They came back and said it was awful: they were stuck in this motorized raft and were flooded with near-freezing cold water the whole time.  All of them are unanimous in saying that every moment was awful and tortuous (including Krantz and Flawless who love doing outdoorsy stuff) and Emil and Krantz claim that if they knew how boring and freezing it would be they wouldn’t have gone if somebody paid them 25k to do so.  So, I think I made the right decision.

Towards the very end of the night I played in a 3-handed 100-200 NL game with some Commerce pro and a French guy named Patrick.  Patrick left after an hour and I played the Commerce guy HU (he was very bad HU and quit me eventually).  As Patrick left he said he was sorry for leaving so soon but he had to talk to his agent.  I asked him what he does and he says, “I sing. I am a singer.”  I asked him what his last name is and he told me.  I told him I’d google him and he goes “Yeah, heh. Google me.  Go ahead.”

So I did.  And it turns out he’s basically a bigger star than Gerard Depardieu in France.  It was kind of funny not knowing who he was the whole time and then googling him only to find this clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxLYg2ClPsM

Funny line from his wikipedia: “Bruel has had a running feud with French comic Dieudonné over Zionist politics”

Last piece of news, one of the people at my table is a reg at the Bellagio high stakes games and is organizing a 200/400 100k buy-in game that he’s inviting me to.  I’ll keep you guys posted if I play it, but it seems like he’s organizing a profitable game so I’m pretty excited to take a shot at it.  I busted him when he slowplayed AK and flopped a K against my AA (easy game) and we exchanged contact info, so hopefully I’ll make a killing at the game and have more hysterical pictures to show.

I got a call from a UB representative today. He apologized profusely and very unprofessionally (”sorry man, this is ****ed up. we didn’t have our **** together, i’m really sorry”).

Anyway, he asked me if I’ve heard from anybody before him. I told him UB support said they’d forward my email to the relevant department and he said “Oh, they didn’t do that. I never got that email, I just read your blog and I saw that this happened and was like ‘man, that’s messed up’ so I went ahead and fixed that. Anyway, you mind if I have a marketing director come talk to you?” He also offered to give me a free seat in the 200k guaranteed and I told him not to bother because I’m not going to play it. Anyway, account’s unlocked now.

In other gambling news, I lost about 14k coinflipping with some degenerate twoplustwoer who flipped me for his whole roll and won (funny thread and hand histories here: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=217031&highlight=so+i+flipped+again). I also lost 13k to Jonas playing Chinese poker. We were playing $300/point which is just obscene and I’ve decided to tone down the extracurricular gambling, even if it’s neutral EV, because I think that being in Vegas all summer with no restrictions on gambling is probably not a smart call.

I’ve also booked a bet with ZeeJustin where I’m laying 2.5:1 and betting that Phil Ivey doesn’t win a bracelet this summer. I’m laying $37,500 to win $15,000 that Ivey goes bracelet-less. I think it’s a very +EV bet for me and so does ZeeJustin (he found somebody willing to give him a better price on my side of the bet so he’s just betting both sides and arbitraging it up), so I hope Ivey gets a lot of 2nd places (gives me a sweat, I still win).

As far as poker goes, I’ve been playing some of my better poker lately and been running really well and when that happens it’s a pretty lethal combination (see screenshot above). The rest of Team Israel is at the Grand Canyon right now: I didn’t go because it turns out the “whitewater rafting” is really just a tour down the Colorado on a motorized raft. Given that I’ve already been to the Grand Canyon twice, I’d have had to wake up at 4 a.m. and drive 4 hours each way, and I have to make a Decuescracked video today, I figured it would be a good opportunity to have a lazy day catching up on some reading and playing some poker.