HPT Main Event

This weekend my brother and I drove up to Walker, MN to play in the Heartland Poker Tour Main event. The drive was really sweet. We drove through the woodlands of Northern Minnesota. Our hotel was located right on Leech Lake. It sure is purdy in those parts.

First we tried a couple of qualifiers. I bubbled my first qualifier and decided not to play anymore. Instead, I bought directly into the main event for $1k. Before the tourney started, I finally had the privelage of meeting Dan "kalangis612" Goonin. It was awesome finally meeting him. He seems like a really chill guy and I hope that he'll be joining me in Vegas.

All players started with 15,000 chips blinds at 100/100. The levels were only 30 minutes long. The structure was excellent until the 1000/2000 level. They didn't have 25 chip denominations, so the antes started at 100 during 300/600 level. That made play pretty sloppy afterwards. Anyways, I chipped up early taking advantage of a super weak/tight starting table. After the 1st break I won a huge pot off of a loose call station with KK on a 10 high board (I wouldn't put it past him to have q10, k10, etc). That put me at 35k. A few hands later, I lost 20k back to the same player when we got them in on an 8 high board. He had a8, I had 99. He spikes the ace on the turn for the 40k pot. I bounced back with a few good hands and aggressive play. I knocked out a couple of short stacks with JJ and QQ and built my stack up to 50k.

At this point, about 80 players remained and the average was around 35k. The blinds were 2000/4000, so my M was fairly low. I picked up A7 in late position and shoved. The player directly to my left called his 33k stack with QQ and I lost the pot. Down to 17k in the BB, I called a late position shove of 20k with 64 suited. There was already 11k in the pot before her shove, so the 64 was an easy call (had to take the gamble, no matter how ugly it looks). Villain turned over k10 and i hit my 4 to win the pot. About one orbit later, I picked up Jacks. A player UTG shoved and I reshipped. The small blind called. Sb turned over 99's and UTG turned over AJ. My jacks held and I nearly tripled up.

With about 50 players left I went completely card dead. The structure was awful, so it was either push or fold, which really hurt my standard mtt style. I prefer making small raises to take down blinds rather than shoving all in and playing big pots. I chipped down to about 65k with about 40 players to go. Here, I went into reship mode. I reshipped a late position raise a couple times, once with 55s and another with AQ. I chipped up to about 80k when we finally made the money with 30 players remaining. At this point, the blinds had been raised to 2500/5000 with a 500 chip ante. I picked up KQ UTG+1 at a 9 handed table and shoved all in. It was folded around to the big blind who called with 10s. I lost the flip and sent 35k his way. I stole a few more blinds and chipped back up to a little over 50k. Then, I picked up KK UTG+1 and shoved. The bb (guy with 10's from earlier) called with AJ. Flop brought an ace, good game me. I was just a few tables short of getting my ugly mug on tv.

This tournament made me realize how much I hate live poker. I played really well for over 8 hours. The end result: a cash for $1,088. The buy in for the tournament was $1100. I lost $12 on the day. So to conclude my tournament recap, I'm going to just rant for a little about live poker tournaments.

-The players are so ridiculously bad, yet they ridicule me for my aggressive style, especially when I get caught. Fuck people, I'm not gonna sit around like ur nitty asses letting the blinds and antes chew me up waiting for aces or kings.

- The structures suck. They think that a good structure means more starting chips. Not the case people. On the money bubble, I had 65k chips, which was the average stack. This was an M of approximately 4. The majority of the field had an M under 4. Just ridiculous. Would it kill you to have 25 chip antes and a 150/300, 600/1200, and 800/1600 level?!

- Dealers suck. Some of the dealers for this tournament were blackjack dealers and slots attendents who had a 3 day crash course in dealing poker the week before the tournament. I could tell. Some of them were very good, but at least half the dealers I had seemed lost. They miscounted antes, couldn't seem to figure out how much was in a person's chipstack, and they frequently forgot to give players change from higher denomination chips. On top of that, they took a really long time to deal the cards in general. And then, at the end of the tournament, the last thing that was said to me wasn't "god damn tcb, had it not been for that ugly final hand you probably woulda shipped this tourney. Congrats, you are the man." Instead, it was "if you'd like to leave a tip for the dealers, which we encourage, you can leave it in this tip box." I grudgingly left the dealers $8, which is a lot more than they deserved.

- A lot of players think they need to hollywood it up. They've seen it on tv and they wanna act just like those guys. These people look at their cards, put the card marker down, look at them again, fold their hands against their chin, look at the cards again, then fold. From under the gun! I swear we probably played an average of 15 hands an hour...

- Busting out of a live tournament is heartbreaking compared to an online one. People, I have probably had several hundred mini cashes in big tournaments because of bad beats. But after those beats, I realized that I could just close my computer and start again the next day, or better yet, fire up another tourney while lying on my couch in my 'draws watching South Park. Live play is different. I drove 5 hours north, stayed an entire weekend, played 8 hours, only to bust on a sick beat just short of a televised final table, against a SUPER weak field. Then, after that beat, I had to hop in my car and drive another 5 hours back home in the rain.

In conclusion, I am glad I'm not a live tourney pro. I much prefer playing online. I will still take the occasional live shot. I'm going to vegas in late june to play the Venetian series events and possibly some smaller buy in WSOP events. After that, I plan to play some more close HPT events and the Fall Poker Classic at Canterbury.

15k guaranteed Win/HPT Tournament

This weekend I am driving 4 hours North to Walker, Minnesota to play in a Heartland Poker Tour event along with my brother. We are leaving tonight to play a couple satellites/sngs to try to get in cheap. The buy in is $1k and the sattys are $250. I've heard they are fairly soft. I've got some momentum going in, as last night I shipped the 15k $30 rebuy for around $4200. I was fortunate to pick up some big hands early and build up a stack going into the money. I abused the money bubble and brought the 2nd biggest chipstack to the final table. There I took advantage of a fairly final table. I got HU against a player who said it was the first tournament he had ever gotten HU in. Knowing he was inexperienced and probably nervous playing for that much money, I played hyper aggressive and leaned on him. The HU battle actually lasted for quite a few hands. Eventually, I made the hero call after raising 5 7, getting called, and having him shove a j 5 4 board. He showed a4 and I took down the pot and the win.

I'm excited for the HPT event, thats for sure. My brother has actually done really well in limited live tournament play (he's only 19, so no Vegas for him just yet). I, on the other hand, haven't done shit in live play. My biggest cash is for something like $700. I've probably played over 30 tournaments lifetime in live play. I really feel like I am playing solid poker and the deep structure will allow me to play a little, rather than get into push fold mode right away.

TLB Challenge Final Day

The TLB challenge has come to a close and I did not make my goal of winning the weekly. I only played 5 tournaments on saturday and did not cash in any of them. I made it very deep in the 100k but lost a giant pot all in preflop with KK against QJ (so much for running good). Had I won that pot, who knows, I think it would have been very close. After losing that pot, I did not feel like playing poker anymore. Instead, I went home to go to a campground with a few of my buddies to celebrate the memorial day weekend. To me, last night was definately worth the $700 in prop bets that I lost. Here is a breakdown for my Saturday:

$82 6k 40/100
$33 5k 40/170
$123 10k 61/96
$162 15k 35/89
$320 100k 45/244

Total Buy Ins: $720
Total Winnings: $0
Net Loss: $720

This challenge has been really eventful for me. It shows me just how much I could accomplish in poker if I really dedicated myself to it. I played several 10-12 hour days and one 15 hour day. I feel as though I could be a constant threat to win the TLB if I become willing to put in the hours. However, as a student and social animal, I will simply never be willing to grind that much. I need my time away from poker. This summer might bring a couple more runs at the TLB, but I can't see myself constantly grinding like some people do. As I said before, the potential money I gave up by not playing the night tournaments last night was definately worth it to go drink a few beers around the campfire with my friends.

Here is my breakdown for the week:

Total Buy Ins: $5789
Total Winnings: $11,064
Net Gain: $5285
Prop Bet Loss: $658
Weekly Profit: $4627

TLB Challenge Day 6

Wow, what an awesome day I had yesterday. After running like absolute dogshit the previous day, I was frustrated and really didn't even wanna play. It was a Friday and I kinda wanted to go over to a buddy's place and just say screw the TLB challenge. But I decided to suck it up and play. I busted out of the first few tournaments early. Despite this, I decided to play the $50 rebuy. This is actually a really tough tournament. Its probably 95% regulars and 5% donks who don't see the "rebuy" part of the tournament title. There are usually even a few top 100 ranked pocket fives players that play it (AJKhoosiers, RDCRSN, Sandler1860 and others). So the field is tough and I have generally stayed away from it. Basically nothing eventful happened until there were about 25 players left. I doubled up with AA vs QQ to move to 20k. Then I chipped up a bit to about 30k only to lose a coinflip for 2/3 of my stack with JJ vs AK. I was down to 10k with blinds of 800/1600 and shoved 66. I got called by AK and the flop saw an ace. However, my lucky ass spiked a six on the river to stay alive. I limped into the final table with about 30k in chips, good enough for 7th position.

The final table was crazy. I'm pretty sure that 4 players were knocked out within the first 12 hands. Then, 5 handed, the big stacks started clashing. Some guy called a 4 bet shove with a6 for over 80k in chips. Then another guy called DAISYXOXO's 4 bet shove with 33 and beat Daisy's a8. Three handed, the same guy 3 bet shoved a7 and beat the other dude's pocket jacks. Meanwhile, I just sat back after winning a coinflip to double up. When we got HU, my opponent had 350k, I had 50k with blinds of 800/1600. The combination of his super aggressive/loose style and a good run of cards got me up to about 120k. Here I played the biggest hand of the tournament. He raised the button to 9k, i reraised to 27k with ace-7 off and he called. The flop was 10 7 4. I shoved my remaining 90k into the pot and he called with a 64 suited! The board ran dry and I won the pot. Later I got him to call a 4bet shove with a10 against my ak. To seal the deal, I shoved his preflop raise of 12k chips (leaving him with 80k) with a9 and he called, tabling a5. My 9 kicker played and I took down 1st place, my first ever win in that particular tournament. It was one of the craziest final tables I have every played. A forum friend, DEALACE1 watched the tournament from the time there were 15 people left. I really appreciate his support.

In the nightcap, I made a deep run in the 25k, playing with Bigdogpocket5s once I got into the money. I went card dead at the wrong time and shoved a7 into queens from the button to finish in 23rd. However, I did go on to win the $22 4k 6 seat tournament later that night. This tournament was a lot less eventful than the 15k. It was a much weaker field, and many of the players were simply trying to move up the payscale. I also got very lucky a few times, making a runner runner flush with a 56 shove from the button and hitting a 7 after shoving pre against AQ and him flopping two pair, but both times i was in preflop as only a 60/40 dog and a coinflip. I admit I definately ran hot when I needed to. Thats what makes poker interesting. Yesterday I lost 3 huge pots in big tournaments, 2 of them were 3 outers after seeing a flop and one was a 70/30. Today, I hit two huge 2 outers on the river for my tournament life. I was just happy to be able to take advantage of my good fortune.

Here is the summary of my day:
$82 6k 24/108
$33 4k 89/129
$183 8k 51/85
$61 4k 20/111
$44 5k 139/146
$155 15k 1/74 $4350
$66 6k 74/155
$11 5k 295/707
$130 25k 24/225 $163 +$20 bounties
$27 10k 172/471
$123 15k 59/133
$22 4k 1/246 $1280
$55 10k 96/244

Total Buy Ins: $992
Total Winnings: $5813
Net Gain: $4821

So this day earned me 236.96 TLB points. This brings my total to 587.6 points with only one day to go. I am currently in 4th place, 167 points behind the leader, who chopped the 80k earlier this week. This should make for an interesting final day!

TLB Challenge Day 5

Ugh, now I remember why I don't do this whole grinding thing. Its probably because I truly hate poker and long for the day when I can finally retire. The theme of my day was tcb21 is going to get bad beat and coolered in every single tournament. It started with the 4k $15 rebuy which i have final tabled two days in a row. There, with a top 15 stack deep, I hit the nut straight on the turn only to get beat by a fat full house on the river for the chip lead. Then in the 15k $50 rebuy, I am on the money bubble and pick up JJ in the sb. The table, which had not seen a pot go unraised in about 1.5 hours decides to fold around, so I std raise to 2785 with blinds 500/1000. The bb calls. The flop is 8 7 3. I make the lead around 3800 and get min raised. There, I jam my 20k stack and get insta called by k7. As you can guess, the king hit the turn and I busted. Then in the 6k (wtf is that AP, why get rid of one of the 3 good tournaments you actually have) I have a nice stack deep around 20k with blinds 400/800. I pick up AJs and raise to 2200. A donkish/loose big stack with around 30k makes the call. The flop is jack high. I check to him (he had bet pot last time I checked flop after raising pre) and he checks. The turn is another rag so I fire 2750. he min raises me (wtf is with these AP min raises today) and I shove my remaining 15k. He calls with AK and the river is a king of course.

So all in all its been an awful day. Had it not been for Buffalo Wild Wings, I might have been inclined to throw my laptop out of my 3rd story apartment window into the windshield of my car. Luckily, Buffalo Wild Wings is better than sex and that sorta calmed me down.

Here is the recap of my day:

$62 6k 38/98
$33 4k 93/134
$123 8k 54/84
$61 4k 49/104
$44 5k 93/149
$155 15k 11/87
$66 6k 34/149
$11 5k 202/681
$130 25k Probably a money bubble/270
$27 10k 398/478
$63 15k Probably 87ish/158

Total Buy Ins: $775
Total Winnings: $0
Net Loss: $775

I am currently still in the 15k and 25k, so I reserve the right to change the whiney nature of this blog in the unlikely event that I cash in either one.

Ok kids, so I've kinda backed myself into a corner with today's poor performance. I'm gonna need 300 points in the next 2 days. That translates to a lot of big final tables or a 100k win. I can do it, but its not going to be easy. Wish me luck!

TLB Challenge Day 4

Today was a really uneventful day. I only managed 2 cashes and 1 final table. I was hoping to make a run in the 80k, but didn't. I built up a stack to about 6k but lost AA vs 1010 when MOISTPANTIES hit his third ten on the turn. That hand didn't elminate me, but I could not recover and caught a huge dry spell of cards. Eventually I shoved 5's into 7's and lost out. I did manage a deep finish in the 4k again, placing 5th. I was in position for back to back wins but lost a big coinflip with AK against 44, then a 60/40 with QJ against AK.

I also made it deep in the 6k but ran AQ into AK to finish in 14th place. Here is a rundown of my day:

$82 6k guaranteed 14/102 $90
$122 8k guaranteed 53/91
$33 4k deepstack 93/140
$60 4k rebuy 5/86 $360
$44 4k deepstack 57/124
$105 15k rebuy 77/96
$21 5k rebuy 58/252
$130 20k deepstack 36/177
$22 15k sniper 334/753 (1 bounty)$4
$215 80k sniper 163/392 (3 bounty) $60
$27 9k 336/455
$123 15k rebuy 76/166

Total Buy Ins: $984
Total Winnings: $514
Net Loss: $470

My 2 cashes today earned me 63.36 points. That brings my weekly total to 350.64 TLB points. I am currently sitting in 8th place.

So far, I've accumulated all these points without hitting a really big score. I'm hoping to final table one of the nighly guarantees within the next three days. If not, the Saturday 100k is my backup plan. I'm sitting just fine right now and look forward to grinding these next three days. Thank you to all who have supported me in my quest for #1.

Right now, I am going to book my Vegas trip. I am definately looking forward to hitting up sin city with yaboystu, z06fanatic, kalangis612, clover777, killerkali, and all the other dudes that are renting a place out there. I'll probably discuss this in a future blog entry. Right now, I gotta get cracking on some more physics homework.

TLB Challenge Day 3

Today was a really good day. I ran really well, picked up big hands when I needed to, and even managed to close a tournament for once, albeit a small one. I felt like I really took advantage of my chipstack on the bubble well, making a lot of 3bets and putting pressure on the medium sized stacks. I was disappointed in my finishes in the 6k and 15k. I went into both final tables as the chip leader and was unable to hold it. Coincidentally, I lost both tournaments against pocket aces. In the 6k, I raised the button with k6 and a hyper aggressive unknown player (1st and 2nd in chips) called me. The flop was K Q 10. He bet 1/2 pot which he had done frequently, and shown air twice, so I shoved. He tables aces and I lose. In the 15k, I 3 bet another unknown players button raise with q4. The flop was 66 3, so I shoved 80k into about a 60k pot. He snap called with aces and I lost again. Blah! Here is a rundown for the day:

$82 6k 4/107 $750
$33 4k 34/143
$91 4k 1/99 $1270
$123 8k 31/98
$44 5k 66/153
$205 15k 4/98 $1540
$130 20k 52/149
$27 9k 326/441
$130 30k 119/237
$133 15k 40/162
$55 8k 168/220

Total Buy Ins: $1053
Total Gain: $3560
Net Profit: $2507

My 3 cashes were worth a combined 185 tlb points. This brought my weekly total up to 287.28, good enough for 11th place as of midnight.

I just busted from the $30 rebuy about 15 minutes ago and now I have to get to work on my physics homework for my class starting at 7:30. This grinding business is really rough sometimes.

TLB Challenge Day 2

Day 2 of the TLB challenge was super frustrating. I made it deep in a lot of tourneys, but couldn't seem to close. I took some really tough beats near the money bubble that cost me a few TLB points for sure. I did manage to place 3rd in the $20 rebuy which got an 8k prize pool, giving me 60.49 tlb points. I lost a big pot on the FT bubble for 95k chips to the player who eventually made it HU. That was frustrating, but I battled back and chipped away until my 77's ran into aces 3 handed. Oh, and while I was working the FT of the 6k, I totally forgot to add on in the 8k, which seems to happen a lot to me. Yet another sign that I am getting old and losing my mind. In the 3 big buy in nightly tourneys, my QQ got beat by J8 after 3 betting pre and getting them in on a Q 10 9 flop in the 30k, My K10 lost to AK after flopping 2 pair K 10 rag in the 15k, and I don't remember how I lost the 20k, but I'm sure it was a bad beat. Haha. Oh, and I have no idea how to format a hand history in one of these blogs, so if anyone knows how please teach me.

Here is the breakdown for my day:

$81 6k 3/128 $975
$33 4k 29/138
$63 8k 36/115
$155 15k 39/94
$44 6k 24/154
$60 4k 23/86
$130 20k 124/183
$12 5k 89/798 (1 $2 bounty)
$130 30k 255/278
$27 9k 242/514
$123 15k 81/178

Total Buy Ins: $858
Total Winnings: $977
Net Gain: $119
TLB Points: 60.49
Weekly Total TLB Points 102.51

Back at it tomorrow with hopes of running slightly better. For now, I gotta get crackin on some physics homework for my summer class that started today. I guess the one bright spot of busting out of all the nightly tournaments early is that I won't fall behind in my coursework :)

TLB Challenge Day 1

Today was the 1st day of my tourney leaderboard weekly challenge. I ended up with about $700 in prop bets from the following people:

$333 Nutinsider
$200 BigDogPocket5s
$100 Highrisa
$50 Knownfactor

Unfortunately, this weekend was high school graduation weekend in my hometown and many of my old friends were hosting grad parties. I chose to attend these parties, meaning I was unable to play any tournaments prior to the 7:00 20k. I played the following tournaments:

$130 20k 76th/172 players
$130 40k 44th/342 players $180 (plus 2 $10 bounties)
$27 10k 395/530 players
$30r 15k 48/152 players

My one cash was worth 44.02 TLB points.

Total Buy Ins: $407
Total Winnings: $200
Net Gain/Loss: -$207

So it wasn't exactly the start I had hoped for, but at least I didn't bat zero. The graduations this weekend sort of made me depressed. I'm from a small school, and I was kind of friends with everyone in high school. I played sports and even hung out with people from all grade levels 9-12. This year's graduating class was the freshman class when I was a senior four years ago. That makes me feel really old. I know a few of the soon to be seniors, but after next year, I officially will know nobody from my high school. It's kinda gonna suck going back home to watch basketball and football games only to realize that I don't know anyone who is playing. I do wish those kids all the best and look forward to introducing them to the college lifestyle.

I hope to continue the grind tomorrow, starting with the $20 rebuy 6k at 11:00.

MTT Leaderboard Challenge

Because I was a full time student last semester taking 18 credits, I didn't have the chance to play very many Multi Table Tournaments. I've also lost my motivation to play a bit lately. Its hard to sit inside and grind when it is so damn nice outside. However, next week, I decided to challenge myself by creating a prop bet with some members of the PCS forum (see link at the end of this post). I layed down 3:1 odds that I would win the weekly MTT leaderboard on the CEREUS network during the week of May 17th-May 23rd.

The points for the tourney leaderboard on Absolute Poker are accumulated each time a player cashes in a multi table tournament (any tournament with more than 18 players). The formula for TLB points is:

Sq rt of prize pool/Rank^2/5

So, if I were to play the $30 rebuy 8k guaranteed and finish in 1st place, I would receive 89.44 points.

I will be updating my blog each night next week to keep ya'll up to date with my TLB status. Wish me Luck!

Here is a link to the prop bet thread at Pokercrewship.com

http://pokercrewship.com/forum/index.php?topic=2986.0

Introduction

Hey everyone

Now that I finished my 6th semester at college, I have a bit more free time. As a result, I decided to start a blog. I'm going to try to post new entries at least once a week, but don't hold me to that. Let's start with a brief introduction.

My name is Tyler. I am currently a junior at Minnesota State University, majoring in Elementary Education. I grew up on a farm in Iowa just south of the Minnesota border. I am a fun-loving, likeable person. I enjoy playing sports (especially basketball and golf), camping, time on the lake, parties, movies, and music. My favorite things in the world are Buffalo Wild Wings, ice water, sleeping in til noon, and my friends/family.

When I was 18 years old, I quit my job at a gas station/convienence store/pizza place and began playing online No Limit Texas Hold'Em for a living. Most of my blog will be based on my ventures as an online poker player; however, some of the content will be personal anecdotes and thoughts. I would love for ya'll to follow my blog and post some comments. Welcome to my world.

Here are some websites that track my poker results.

http://www.bluffmagazine.com/thepokerdb/TCB21/Absolute%20Poker/2224056/player-profile.asp

http://www.pocketfives.com/profiles/tcb21

http://www.sharkscope.com/

I currently play under the following screen names:

Absolute Poker- tcb21

Cake Poker- badbeatmeat

I have played, but do not currently play, under the following screen names:

Bodog Poker- tcb21

Ultimate Bet- duffnt

Full Tilt- duffnt