Gran Torino

When the movie Gran Torino came out, it was one of those critically acclaimed movies that I tend to stay away from. People hype it up so much that whenever I do actually see a movie like that, its either really disappointing or really wierd (man, movie critics love wierd movies). However, this weekend I rented it and I must say, it is an awesome movie. It's the best movie I've seen in a really long time. Clint Eastwood is so freakin balla, even at his advanced age. The plotline is great, and there are a lot of nice subtle messages sprinkled throughout. Its got everything you could want in a movie- action, humor, sadness, and a powerful message. It really made me think about how we percieve people of different cultures and create boundaries based on these perceptions. This movie gets my highest recommendation for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Poker has been decent lately. On Tuesday night, I took 4th place in the $15k guaranteed for $1750 after forgetting to add on and having only 3900 chips after the break. Then on Wednesday, while driving to Lincoln, NE with my mom (we went down to visit my sister who attends school at UNL), I won the $55 10k guaranteed on Cake poker for $2200. I got really lucky as a shortstack when my 10-8 beat AA to double up, then again when I shoved a late position limper with 47s against his AJ and hit 3 of a kind 4's. After that, I cruised and played really solid with a big stack. I'll probably take tonight off and get back at it again on saturday. I haven't had a 5 figure cash since March, so I'm hoping to get another one here soon.

Disadvantages of Multi tabling

Sundays are my biggest poker days. I usually play about 8 tables at a time, sprinkling in 12 early in the day. Though playing this many tables reduces variance and increases my chances of hitting a nice cash, it can backfire in some instances. Here is an example from yesterday:

Its about 1:15 P.M. and I am just beginning to recover from another night of moderate/heavy drinking and downing 1/2 of a large pizza from Gary's Pizzaria. I have 12 tables going, 4 of which are sngs and another 2 of which are sattys. I am 4 handed or less in all the sngs and the blinds are huge in the sattys (turbo rebuys for the 100k). (to those non poker players out there, this basically means that I have to make 6 fast decisions at the same time, and each one is essential to winning or losing money). I am frantically clicking buttons and darting my head back and forth when all of a sudden it hits....

Anyone who has ever topped off a night of drunkeness with a fat, greasy pizza knows exactly what "it" is. "It" is a form of the most ungodly, foul-smelling, sloppy shit you have ever witnessed.

It came without warning, causing me to jolt forward in my chair. Panicked, my eyes darted towards the bathroom a mere ten feet away. However, I was frozen in place, shackled by 12 flashing screens, all holding the promise of fortune. Greed held me captive in my chair.

Moments passed as I tried desperately to control my sphincter for just 15 more minutes. My efforts proved to be useless when, at the exact moment that I trapped a guy with the nut straight to win a $530 seat, I helplessy shit my pants.

The fecal matter quickly seeped towards the edge of my shorts, finding a resting place on the black leather chair beneath me.

Broken, ashamed, disheartened, and alone, I sat crying in a pile of my own shit for the next 20 minutes while I finished the rest of my session.

First $20r win of 2009/FTOPS #1

Most of my full poker days begin at 11:00 with the $20 rebuy 6k guaranteed. It is one of the softest fields on the site. I have numerous final tables over the years with few wins. In 2009, I had yet to win... until today. I came out on top for $1800. I can attribute this win to a combination of running well and a weak final table. Unfortunately, the win pretty much breaks me even after a ridiculous cold streak of cards. On top of that, I wasted all my good luck on a small tournament on the night when I was playing the 80k and the FTOPS #1 $1million guaranteed.

I just busted out of the FTOPS tourney after flopping a set on a board of 10 j Q. Of course villain had AK and I couldn't improve. That would have given me a top 40 chip stack, granted there were still 3,000 players left.

Tomorrow I will continue trying to satty into FTOPS events and hopefully gain a little ground with my tilt bankroll

FTOPS

So I got back from vacation refreshed and was ready to get back to the game. Unfortunately, I forgot how to run good. I'm going through one of those stretches where I'm getting beat in every way possible. Despite this, I have decided to get some money on FTP (where I never play) to play some of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series events. You can check out the tournament schedule here:

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/promotions/full-tilt-online-poker-series/schedule.php

I'm hoping to satty into all the NHE events, as I don't have the bankroll on tilt to buy into all of them. Hopefully I start to run a little better when that time rolls around.

I've also decided that I need to do a better job limiting my spending. The other day I was just thinking to myself, and realized that I spend my money on useless shit all the time. I'm gonna try to draw up a budget sometime this weekend for use in the 2009-2010 school year.

Vacation!!

On Thursday night I continued my run in the $30 rebuy tournaments by taking 3rd in the AP 15k. The final table was very strong. Some of the players included rock3656 (49th ranked player mtt player on p5's) Dark_Hawk2000, Bzimzim, DaMortician, and some others. Bzim lost 2 huge flips to rock to bust out in 6th. I made a HUGE mistake by playing a hand really poorly and was down to 20k. Luckily rock was trying to abuse a bubble, so he gave me a few walks and I was able to chip up in some other pots. I eventually doubled with 99 vs rock's K4. 3 handed I lost 2 huge pots, going into each as the favorite. The first I raised from sb with j8 suited to 28k. BB called. The flop was J 7 4 with 2 clubs. I bet 35k villain shoved 200k. I didn't think such an overbet meant he had a jack, so I called and he showed a flush draw. His draw hit on the river. Then I lost after 4 bet shoving rock3656 with A10d. He turned over KJ. He hit a jack on the river to send me out in 3rd for $1890. One thing about rock was that he NEVER seemed to miss. Within the last 2 tables, he won j7 vs AK, Q10 vs JJ, AQ vs 1010, 55 vs AK, KJ vs A10 and a couple others. He never got them in too far behind, but he NEVER lost the flips either. MBN

Tonight I will be leaving for vacation in Iron River, WI. Some people might be thinking "didn't you just get back from vacation, I thought you went to Vegas?" My answer is that Vegas wasn't vacation. Iron River is VACATION. There is nothing more relaxing for me then spending a week on the lake. I have been attending vacation up north with some family friends for the last 5 years. They are an awesome group of people (there are about 25 of us). We go fishing, boating,and swimming. We lay on the beach, play sand volleyball, grill out, and watch a baseball game. My day can be packed with activities, or I can sit around and do nothing. Thats the beauty of it-I'm on nobody's schedule but my own. Another thing I love about Iron River is that it is almost completely isolated. The biggest nearby town is Duluth, MN which is over an hour's drive away. There is no internet service and the cell phone signal is really weak. That means I can leave the world behind for awhile. This also means no poker for almost 10 days!! The timing for my break is really bad, as I've been playing solid and running pretty well lately. I was up almost 10k this week, one of my best weeks this year. Hopefully I can continue my run when I get back.

If you're not first, you're last

Any fan of Will Ferrell knows these famous words from Ricky Bobby- "If you're not first, you're last." Though I don't believe this to be entirely true, I do understand where Mr. Bobby is coming from. In tournament poker, so much of the thrill of playing comes from actually WINNING the occasional tournament. For me, these wins drive me to continue playing even moreso than the money. There's something about that 1 next to your name that really seals the deal on a well played tournament.

Yesterday was a really good poker day for me. I played insanely well, made some sick reads, and seemed to be making all the right 3bets. Simply put, I was in the zone. I started the day by placing 2nd in the cake $30 rebuy for around $1700. The player I went against HU was very aggressive, and I tried to counter by jacking up my aggression. This cost me dearly as I tried to play too many big pots. Still, the tournament ended when I 3 bet shoved with 66's and villain called with KQo blinds 6000/12000 when we were both 500k deep. I'm not sure that I really like that call, but what can you do.

During the night session, I once again crushed the rebuys on both Cake and AP. Lately I have been playing crazy during the rebuy period shoving any two cards and showing them to advertise that I am a donkey, then capitalizing when I actually wake up with a hand later in the tournament. It worked for me, as last night I went into both final tables (20k on cake and 15k on AP) as the chip leader. The cake table was really weak and the blinds were high relative to everyone's stack. I busted out in 7th after losing a small coinflip to drop from 200k to 150k, but the ugly hand took place when a donkey who had sucked out about 14 times at the final table just to stay alive min raised 16000 UTG blinds 4000/8000, I shoved AK for 150k, he SNAP called A3 offsuit. The flop was 2 4 J turn 7, river of course was the 5 to give the donkey the straight and 2x as many chips as the 2nd place player. I bowed out in 7th for $700

At the final table of the AP 15k, the players were a bit better. I lost a huge pot within the first 2 hands when I raised AQ from the button to 10k blinds 2/4. The BB (DAMORTICIAN) reshoved all in for 75k. I called and lost the flip to JJ for 150k, leaving me with 150k behind. After that, players basically just traded blinds until the blinds got too big to standard raise, then it became a shove fest. I won a few flips to stay alive as a short stack but lost AK vs A8 3 handed to drop me down. The next hand I shoved j10 and was called by a4. Luckily I made a straight and knocked out the guy who had just beaten my AK. I came into the HU match with 225k in chips compared to the 650k for my opponent. I battled back to about 350k when I picked up KK on the button. With blinds at 8k/16k, I raised to 40k. Villain reraised to 120k. I jammed it in and he snap called, turning over A10. The flop came QJ blank, turn blank, river... you guessed it... ace. 2nd place for $2700

So when the dust settled, I cleared almost $5k on the day, but it was still SUPER frustrating. I lost at the very least 6 crucial 70/30 hands on the final tables of these 3 tournaments (plus losing a huge pot AK vs KJ all in pre in the 80k deep to bust money bubble). Without those ugly hands, I feel like I would have won each tournament, and that is no exaggeration. My opponents didn't impress me at all. I guess thats what I get for winning coinflips early. However, I am consistently getting my chips in ahead, and thats all I can hope for.

Another Decent Sunday

Today my uncle from Green Bay wanted to play golf with my brother and I, so we skipped the morning session to play 18 holes. I had a miserable front nine (cursed shanks) but played really well on the back 9 and scored a +3 39. The course is a tough one and I'm not a good golfer, so that is awesome for me.

We got done playing a little after one and I was back in time to play most of the afternoon session. I started off really cold and blanked my first 3 tournaments. Then I made a deep run in the 50 1r 1a, finishing 3rd for $1300. Of course, the tournament only had 98 players, so it doesn't count for my p5's PLB score. I also final tabled the Bodog 100k, finishing 7th for $3500. That was a really disappointing finish for me. I was 2nd in chips going to the final 9 and there was only one proven player at the table (WU_WIZARD). The only real mistake I made in the tourney was when I raised QJs blinds 4000/8000 to 22,225 (I had about 350k at this point) in late position. The bb made pretty much a mini raise to 55k (with about 160k). I called hoping to hit a good flop in position. The flop was Q 9 5. He checked, I jammed, he insta called and tabled AA. :( I should have known, but the mini raise was popular at that table and it was Bodonk afterall. Still kind of a stupid mistake to play such a big hand at a weak table.

On a happier note, I finally made the AP yearly MTT leaderboard top 10. I am pretty proud of that, considering the lack of volume I have played. The pokerdb says I've played 700 mtts this year, and I'm guessing about 200 of them are satellite tournaments, which do not count towards the score. By comparison, the first place player has played over 1700 tournaments and has a 3rd place finish in the 200k, whereas my biggest AP cash is a win in the 30k. I feel like if I put in some volume during the 2nd half of the year, I can probably finish top 3. Volume seems a problem though, as I am becoming more and more lazy. I had every intention of grinding all summer, but there are just so many other things to do that are way more fun. I feel bad for the online players that put in 10 hours a day every day when the weather is so damn beautiful.