Wednesday, October 29, 2008
afternoon off
One thing I've always wanted to get better was just taking a little more time off to just enjoy an afternoon or whatever. For some reason when I wake up and don't have any plans I pretty much automatically go to my computer and start a session. Literally almost every single day is started with a session. They usually last 2-4 hours and then who knows the rest of the day. I guess looking at my PT I did play 45 minutes today but it just wasn't feeling satisfying. A lot of times if I quit short it's cause I started off blowing my brains...but today I was dead even and just not feeling it. A buddy messaged me and said "why you quit that table with such and such still playing?" I guess I just want an afternoon off. I haven't even decided what I'm going to do yet but I have a few business things and errands I have to run so I guess I'll take care of those and then who knows. Maybe just sit on my ass and play the new guitar hero or see if the boys want to play some more racquetball. All I know is, I've earned an afternoon off and I'm taking it...
Saturday, October 25, 2008
canterbury tournament
My friends convinced me I 'had to' play at least the main event of the fall poker classic at Canterbury. Fine. I can handle that.
I hate Canterbury. I don't hate too many things, but they seem determined to stick it in your ass and just make you know that it is in fact your privilege to play there and you are not a customer who is paying them. I hadn't been there in six months previous to this tournament and I really doubt I'll be there in the next year until the next one. That said, there are quite a few people who work there whom I like and it sucks that the only place I see them is there.
On one of the dinner breaks I was 2nd to act (utg+1) and I looked down at 92o so I stood up and started walking towards the buffet. Somebody started hollering my name. I looked back and it's the floor and he's irate that I 'folded out of turn'. Yes, i suppose very technically I did, but it's not like this was even a remotely critical spot of the tournament and surely not worth hollering at me for. I said sorry and kept walking away. Everyone does this. It's not like I'm some out of norm out of line renegade.
The tournament sheet said play was going to be until 27 players or midnight, whichever came first. From the get go that seems OK. They pay 27 ($1270 which is a huge 190 dollar profit from the buyin) and playing longer than 12 hours is kinda long. Ok. But when you have a really stupid structure and it's 9:30 and people are literally getting knocked out every 2-3 minutes it doesn't make sense to make everyone quit and come back the next day. Most people have jobs and other things they need to be doing. It sucks to have to come back and bust out and 'break even' especially if you had to drive a long way. They were going to prolong it but there were a couple 'strongly voiced' players who insisted they stick to it so they did. 80% of the players wanted to keep playing. From a direct business perspective I don't totally blame them, it made a ton of people have to come back the next day who otherwise wouldn't have and they probably spent some money. But from a rational standpoint it's totally brutal. It didn't help that after they decided we were done they collected our ID's and made us sit there idly for 25 minutes. Take our ID's, let us play until you are done with that shenanigans and then send us home. That would make more sense at least.
33 minutes into playing today we had gone from 27 to 18. After about an hour and a half we were down to 9.
I went into the final table 2nd in chips. The only player who covered me was some young kid who 'looks sorta like eminem'. He definitely looked out of his element and was right to my left. A few hands in I raised to T37000 with with AQdd T5000/10000 and T2000 ante. I had been raising smaller but this spot seemed right. I had about 400k chips and he had perhaps 700k and the avg stack was ~220k. He called and everyone else folded.
The flop came AhQsTh and I led for T60,000 and he instantly sat back in his chair like damn. Then he said "raise, one hundred twenty thousand." I immediately hated my hand. I was pretty sure I was folding. Nobody who knows me would ever call me a folder, but jeez, I'm not a bonehead either and this goofball is telling me he flopped a straight or three tens. Or he could have AT, QT, or a flushdraw right???? I went into the tank for like 30 seconds. Some asshole older guy who couldn't stop needling Blake the day before called the clock on me. Ok fine. I hadn't said a word after he raised because I didn't want to give away my hand. Well, now I had to figure out what was going on so I did my standard talking. Asking him what he had, running through different hands etc and he was just staring down at the felt. Good move by him for sure. Then I asked him if he had king jack and he looked up and looked me in the eyes. That was the decided moment in my mind. Most players fitting his description will not all of a sudden look at you if you call their hand out. They'll be like OMGOMGOMG don't make a move, he'll know you have it. Sold. I said all in and he SNAP-called. hmmm. I showed AQ and he showed KJ and byebye beeker. All that good playing and making good reads to blow one and go out to the only guy who can break me. So frustrating. There were a handful of pretty short stacks so I coulda folded and still had an above average stack and easily gotten some decent money. I've lost many 'huge' pots in cash games without blinking at all and for some reason this just hurt really bad. I was in the worst mood I've been in in years. I don't know what my problem was, but I was super crabby.
As I'm walking out of the tournament area I ran into Pickett, troy, frank and another buddy who had just came down to sweat. They didn't even get to see one hand. After cashing in my chips and getting a beer I'm sitting down kinda stewing a little bit at an open table when a dealer walks by and spills my beer everywhere including partially on me. Haha. My initial thought was oman...when it rains it poors, but given how ridiculous the timing was it actually made me in a better mood. It's like the world is testing me. Oh yeah, life is good.
So we get to the wild game and the guys want food and I have to use the restroom so I go find one. I walk down to our seats and take a seat. The boys are sitting in seats 5-7 and I sat in seat 4. There is a ~45 year old couple in seats 2 and 3 and the guy kinda snaps "you have a ticket for that seat?" I'm like what? Yeah? He says ummm actually you don't. Then I realized the boys didn't scoot all the way in. We have 5-8 and I'm in 4. It's the 2nd game of the season. Sorry, I'm off by one seat. Ok. "well if whoever has that seat comes you're going to have to move" "ok fine yeah I will don't sweat it" and I thought it was over there. I got back to the game. Then like 30 seconds later his lady friend turns to me and says really bitchily "no really, if somebody comes you're going to have to move, that's not your seat." I thought for sure she had to be joking cause it was just like mega-bitch tone so I asked her and no, was serious, wrong seat dude. Pickett turns to me and says "wow, wrong day lady." I told her that "I having the worst day ever and to please just stop pushing my buttons and leave me the fuck alone, if somebody wants to sit here I'll move." She mocks "ouhhh what are you going to do, go postal on us???" I don't think I've ever went off on somebody I didn't know or said fuck to a random person but this lady was out of this world. I mean wow. I switched seats with Pickett and ignored them the rest of the time and that was that. I climbed over like 3 rows of seats the other time I came back to avoid them and the wild scored a couple goals and I quickly forgot about all that bologna. Some people though, man.
I hate Canterbury. I don't hate too many things, but they seem determined to stick it in your ass and just make you know that it is in fact your privilege to play there and you are not a customer who is paying them. I hadn't been there in six months previous to this tournament and I really doubt I'll be there in the next year until the next one. That said, there are quite a few people who work there whom I like and it sucks that the only place I see them is there.
On one of the dinner breaks I was 2nd to act (utg+1) and I looked down at 92o so I stood up and started walking towards the buffet. Somebody started hollering my name. I looked back and it's the floor and he's irate that I 'folded out of turn'. Yes, i suppose very technically I did, but it's not like this was even a remotely critical spot of the tournament and surely not worth hollering at me for. I said sorry and kept walking away. Everyone does this. It's not like I'm some out of norm out of line renegade.
The tournament sheet said play was going to be until 27 players or midnight, whichever came first. From the get go that seems OK. They pay 27 ($1270 which is a huge 190 dollar profit from the buyin) and playing longer than 12 hours is kinda long. Ok. But when you have a really stupid structure and it's 9:30 and people are literally getting knocked out every 2-3 minutes it doesn't make sense to make everyone quit and come back the next day. Most people have jobs and other things they need to be doing. It sucks to have to come back and bust out and 'break even' especially if you had to drive a long way. They were going to prolong it but there were a couple 'strongly voiced' players who insisted they stick to it so they did. 80% of the players wanted to keep playing. From a direct business perspective I don't totally blame them, it made a ton of people have to come back the next day who otherwise wouldn't have and they probably spent some money. But from a rational standpoint it's totally brutal. It didn't help that after they decided we were done they collected our ID's and made us sit there idly for 25 minutes. Take our ID's, let us play until you are done with that shenanigans and then send us home. That would make more sense at least.
33 minutes into playing today we had gone from 27 to 18. After about an hour and a half we were down to 9.
I went into the final table 2nd in chips. The only player who covered me was some young kid who 'looks sorta like eminem'. He definitely looked out of his element and was right to my left. A few hands in I raised to T37000 with with AQdd T5000/10000 and T2000 ante. I had been raising smaller but this spot seemed right. I had about 400k chips and he had perhaps 700k and the avg stack was ~220k. He called and everyone else folded.
The flop came AhQsTh and I led for T60,000 and he instantly sat back in his chair like damn. Then he said "raise, one hundred twenty thousand." I immediately hated my hand. I was pretty sure I was folding. Nobody who knows me would ever call me a folder, but jeez, I'm not a bonehead either and this goofball is telling me he flopped a straight or three tens. Or he could have AT, QT, or a flushdraw right???? I went into the tank for like 30 seconds. Some asshole older guy who couldn't stop needling Blake the day before called the clock on me. Ok fine. I hadn't said a word after he raised because I didn't want to give away my hand. Well, now I had to figure out what was going on so I did my standard talking. Asking him what he had, running through different hands etc and he was just staring down at the felt. Good move by him for sure. Then I asked him if he had king jack and he looked up and looked me in the eyes. That was the decided moment in my mind. Most players fitting his description will not all of a sudden look at you if you call their hand out. They'll be like OMGOMGOMG don't make a move, he'll know you have it. Sold. I said all in and he SNAP-called. hmmm. I showed AQ and he showed KJ and byebye beeker. All that good playing and making good reads to blow one and go out to the only guy who can break me. So frustrating. There were a handful of pretty short stacks so I coulda folded and still had an above average stack and easily gotten some decent money. I've lost many 'huge' pots in cash games without blinking at all and for some reason this just hurt really bad. I was in the worst mood I've been in in years. I don't know what my problem was, but I was super crabby.
As I'm walking out of the tournament area I ran into Pickett, troy, frank and another buddy who had just came down to sweat. They didn't even get to see one hand. After cashing in my chips and getting a beer I'm sitting down kinda stewing a little bit at an open table when a dealer walks by and spills my beer everywhere including partially on me. Haha. My initial thought was oman...when it rains it poors, but given how ridiculous the timing was it actually made me in a better mood. It's like the world is testing me. Oh yeah, life is good.
So we get to the wild game and the guys want food and I have to use the restroom so I go find one. I walk down to our seats and take a seat. The boys are sitting in seats 5-7 and I sat in seat 4. There is a ~45 year old couple in seats 2 and 3 and the guy kinda snaps "you have a ticket for that seat?" I'm like what? Yeah? He says ummm actually you don't. Then I realized the boys didn't scoot all the way in. We have 5-8 and I'm in 4. It's the 2nd game of the season. Sorry, I'm off by one seat. Ok. "well if whoever has that seat comes you're going to have to move" "ok fine yeah I will don't sweat it" and I thought it was over there. I got back to the game. Then like 30 seconds later his lady friend turns to me and says really bitchily "no really, if somebody comes you're going to have to move, that's not your seat." I thought for sure she had to be joking cause it was just like mega-bitch tone so I asked her and no, was serious, wrong seat dude. Pickett turns to me and says "wow, wrong day lady." I told her that "I having the worst day ever and to please just stop pushing my buttons and leave me the fuck alone, if somebody wants to sit here I'll move." She mocks "ouhhh what are you going to do, go postal on us???" I don't think I've ever went off on somebody I didn't know or said fuck to a random person but this lady was out of this world. I mean wow. I switched seats with Pickett and ignored them the rest of the time and that was that. I climbed over like 3 rows of seats the other time I came back to avoid them and the wild scored a couple goals and I quickly forgot about all that bologna. Some people though, man.
Monday, October 20, 2008
one of those days
I sat down after softball this evening just planning on working a little bit with the baseball game on in the background...well then every bad player and their helpless brother thought it would be a good night for a marathon session...so here I am 7 hours later. I wanted to work out. Nope. I wanted to go to bed and fix my sleep schedule. Nope. I wanted to watch the new entourage cause I hear it's good. Not yet.
But...it's all worth it. It's just one of those days where the fish don't leave or go bust and I'm crushing so my image is good. As a good professional - when those two come together I just don't get to quit no matter how 'sick of sitting at this stupid freaking computer' I am. Days like today make the non-poker days just that much sweeter and make me feel better about a splurge here and there.
I think I'm just extra satisfied because after my 1k/2k shot I lost five or six hundred bets and today brings me out of that hole. Money wise I'm still in it but it's not about that. That will come in due time. I have the bets and a good chunk of my confidence back.
For those of you who are playing the fall classic main event...good luck and hopefully see you at the final table...
Wow, just as I was going to post this (which is now 8 hours instead of 7) one of the big dumbdumbs quit and that's gonna be good enough for me to just call it a night. Yay. Good night.
But...it's all worth it. It's just one of those days where the fish don't leave or go bust and I'm crushing so my image is good. As a good professional - when those two come together I just don't get to quit no matter how 'sick of sitting at this stupid freaking computer' I am. Days like today make the non-poker days just that much sweeter and make me feel better about a splurge here and there.
I think I'm just extra satisfied because after my 1k/2k shot I lost five or six hundred bets and today brings me out of that hole. Money wise I'm still in it but it's not about that. That will come in due time. I have the bets and a good chunk of my confidence back.
For those of you who are playing the fall classic main event...good luck and hopefully see you at the final table...
Wow, just as I was going to post this (which is now 8 hours instead of 7) one of the big dumbdumbs quit and that's gonna be good enough for me to just call it a night. Yay. Good night.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
oopps, it's been 6 weeks
There are quite a few more than interesting enough things that have happened over the past month and a half but I just haven't felt overly motivated to write them down. A big part of the problem is since Barcelona(where I went for 9 days in sept) I've felt like I would have to write about that before writing about anything else. This was combined with the Twins crazyness at the end of September and I just wasn't sitting around feeling like typing.
Soon enough I'll write-up about barcelona because I think it's pretty interesting considering it was my first time to Europe.
The poker side of things has been pretty interesting. August was my biggest month ever and by mid sept I was having a top notch september too...so I pressed while in barcelona. I found a couple good $1000/2000 spots (where I had 400/800 once and 500/1000 the other time) and went with it with my friends having the other half of the action. The first night got out to a bad start but I recovered vs benyamine HU and only lost a little. The 2nd night I played just benyamine and man do I feel like I have a big edge on him. He folds sooo sooo much. We were going back and forth and he was starting to run hot when this hand happened and it was downhill from here:
Full Tilt Poker Game #8043391767: Table Vina (heads up) - $1000/$2000 - Limit Hold'em - 14:41:57 ET - 2008/09/12
Seat 1: uglystyles ($61,474.50)
Seat 2: David Benyamine ($64,463)
David Benyamine posts the small blind of $500
uglystyles posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to uglystyles [8h 8d]
David Benyamine raises to $2,000
uglystyles has 15 seconds left to act
uglystyles raises to $3,000
David Benyamine calls $1,000
*** FLOP *** [9h 8s Ks]
uglystyles bets $1,000
David Benyamine calls $1,000
*** TURN *** [9h 8s Ks] [5s]
uglystyles bets $2,000
David Benyamine raises to $4,000
uglystyles raises to $6,000
David Benyamine calls $2,000
*** RIVER *** [9h 8s Ks 5s] [7s]
uglystyles bets $2,000
David Benyamine calls $2,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
uglystyles shows [8h 8d] three of a kind, Eights
David Benyamine shows [Jc 9s] a flush, King high
David Benyamine wins the pot ($23,999.50) with a flush, King high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $24,000 | Rake $0.50
Board: [9h 8s Ks 5s 7s]
Seat 1: uglystyles (big blind) showed [8h 8d] and lost with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 2: David Benyamine (small blind) showed [Jc 9s] and won ($23,999.50) with a flush, King high
I played a little bit longer but he kept me down and after a bi it just felt like he had all of the momentum so I quit and haven't played it since. I played some 500/1000 but ran bad there too as well as at the lower games. I started playing lower to get my confidence back and I ran really bad. I lost like 600 bets average of like 30/60 probably. I've since won over half that back since and I'm going to keep playing tons of $15/30 until I get them back before I get back at it too much. I've just really been game selecting for 100/200 and 200/400 and pretty much just grinding. It's been relaxing to say the least. I ended up losing a little in september which was my first losing month in quite awhile I think. I was definitely due. I'm down a touch here in october but it's not stressin me. I know how the game works and I'm in such a good mental state with it these days that I don't even think about getting to the positive as much of a goal. I just want to play well and find good games.
I started really looking at houses but I only want one on a lake and I'm pretty particular about things so that leads to high prices and not much selection and with everything in the economy and the fact I'm gone so much anyhow has made me rethink it. I'll probably just see how the winter goes and there's a reasonable chance go with it in the spring. A couple buddies want to get a condo in Vail and it's tempting me. They would be using it as their primary residence....but I really want to still live in MN so if I did it i'd probably live at both. I love it here...the seasons, the people(friends/family and just people in general are cool), twins, wild (which pickett, schneider, dave P, and I got season tix to for the first time this year). The home opener was quite the fun time.
In the past few years I haven't been at home for a month straight ever. Travelling is very fun and I'm very lucky and blessed, but this past month it's been nice to get into a little rythm here at home. I've been pretty focused on getting a lot of work done (both poker and business related) and workout a lot as the ski season is rapidly approaching. I'm jonesing really bad and can't wait. I suppose I'll take a quick trip out to cali before winter but by the end of november if I haven't really gone anywhere I wont burn myself out as bad by being gone a lot. For now I'm just going to keep enjoying fall in Minnesota.
Soon enough I'll write-up about barcelona because I think it's pretty interesting considering it was my first time to Europe.
The poker side of things has been pretty interesting. August was my biggest month ever and by mid sept I was having a top notch september too...so I pressed while in barcelona. I found a couple good $1000/2000 spots (where I had 400/800 once and 500/1000 the other time) and went with it with my friends having the other half of the action. The first night got out to a bad start but I recovered vs benyamine HU and only lost a little. The 2nd night I played just benyamine and man do I feel like I have a big edge on him. He folds sooo sooo much. We were going back and forth and he was starting to run hot when this hand happened and it was downhill from here:
Full Tilt Poker Game #8043391767: Table Vina (heads up) - $1000/$2000 - Limit Hold'em - 14:41:57 ET - 2008/09/12
Seat 1: uglystyles ($61,474.50)
Seat 2: David Benyamine ($64,463)
David Benyamine posts the small blind of $500
uglystyles posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to uglystyles [8h 8d]
David Benyamine raises to $2,000
uglystyles has 15 seconds left to act
uglystyles raises to $3,000
David Benyamine calls $1,000
*** FLOP *** [9h 8s Ks]
uglystyles bets $1,000
David Benyamine calls $1,000
*** TURN *** [9h 8s Ks] [5s]
uglystyles bets $2,000
David Benyamine raises to $4,000
uglystyles raises to $6,000
David Benyamine calls $2,000
*** RIVER *** [9h 8s Ks 5s] [7s]
uglystyles bets $2,000
David Benyamine calls $2,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
uglystyles shows [8h 8d] three of a kind, Eights
David Benyamine shows [Jc 9s] a flush, King high
David Benyamine wins the pot ($23,999.50) with a flush, King high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $24,000 | Rake $0.50
Board: [9h 8s Ks 5s 7s]
Seat 1: uglystyles (big blind) showed [8h 8d] and lost with three of a kind, Eights
Seat 2: David Benyamine (small blind) showed [Jc 9s] and won ($23,999.50) with a flush, King high
I played a little bit longer but he kept me down and after a bi it just felt like he had all of the momentum so I quit and haven't played it since. I played some 500/1000 but ran bad there too as well as at the lower games. I started playing lower to get my confidence back and I ran really bad. I lost like 600 bets average of like 30/60 probably. I've since won over half that back since and I'm going to keep playing tons of $15/30 until I get them back before I get back at it too much. I've just really been game selecting for 100/200 and 200/400 and pretty much just grinding. It's been relaxing to say the least. I ended up losing a little in september which was my first losing month in quite awhile I think. I was definitely due. I'm down a touch here in october but it's not stressin me. I know how the game works and I'm in such a good mental state with it these days that I don't even think about getting to the positive as much of a goal. I just want to play well and find good games.
I started really looking at houses but I only want one on a lake and I'm pretty particular about things so that leads to high prices and not much selection and with everything in the economy and the fact I'm gone so much anyhow has made me rethink it. I'll probably just see how the winter goes and there's a reasonable chance go with it in the spring. A couple buddies want to get a condo in Vail and it's tempting me. They would be using it as their primary residence....but I really want to still live in MN so if I did it i'd probably live at both. I love it here...the seasons, the people(friends/family and just people in general are cool), twins, wild (which pickett, schneider, dave P, and I got season tix to for the first time this year). The home opener was quite the fun time.
In the past few years I haven't been at home for a month straight ever. Travelling is very fun and I'm very lucky and blessed, but this past month it's been nice to get into a little rythm here at home. I've been pretty focused on getting a lot of work done (both poker and business related) and workout a lot as the ski season is rapidly approaching. I'm jonesing really bad and can't wait. I suppose I'll take a quick trip out to cali before winter but by the end of november if I haven't really gone anywhere I wont burn myself out as bad by being gone a lot. For now I'm just going to keep enjoying fall in Minnesota.
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