So, I’m leaving Vegas. Not because i’m broke. But because im getting kicked out of the country.
I’ll
be back tho. I think…. It was great here. I wish i could pick up and
move here, things are cheap, 24 hours, and plenty of fun. (also plenty
of good looking women from around the world who flock to vegas)

This last week went. +300, -300, +300, +400, Then today was +200.

I’m
kinda pokered out right now. I decided to play lots of poker since i
was leaving, but that kinda hurt my play. I started zoning out and not
paying attention.

2 posts ago, I mention a hand I bluffed. I had 8s7s. I wrote that the board was 10,8,x It was actually 10,6,x.. If i had a pair, i wouldnt consider it a bluff.
anyways, incase anyone was wondering wtf i was talking about.

Last 2 days been ok. +500, then -400 then +100. The -400 was ridiculous. I played about 400 hands of live poker, which is a lot. and never saw AA, or KK or QQ. and never got paid off on any of my decent hands. so it was basically just me bleeding away chips until i would top up, and top up until eventually it was a 12 hour session and i was stuck 400. so left to go home.

Those things happen in live poker every so often. What separates live winning players who play fulltime, is the abiltiy to handle those sessions with minimum loss. Bad beats occur in all poker games, live and online. But full sessions of cold cards will happen live more often than online. This isnt my first 12 hour session without seeing a Big Pocket pair, or flopping a big draw/monster. I wish it was as simple as waiting for aces, and then doubling up.

I’m going to take a day off also. even though i’m in grind mode, trying to grind out as much as i can while here. wanting to jump levels desperately.
I also just purchased the book, Ace on the River, by barry greenstein.
A great book so far. read the first 60 pages in the book store, I didnt want to stop! He talks a lot about his life starting out, issues he surpassed as a player, etc.. while on the topic. My books I have and recommend are:
Ace on the River
Harrington on Holdem, volume 2 for tournament strategy
Read em and Reap for live reading ability
super system 1 and 2. The stud section in 1 is great
small stakes holdem by sklansky. 1 of the best books for starting out.

Well, i played another satelite. we were down tot 5 handed with top 2 getting seats, and I raised from the button with 9,9. Smal blind went all in, i had him covered and called.
he showed 3,3 and caught his 3. That crippled me and i was soon out. So annoying, I dont think i will play anymore of those satelites. they are pretty gay.
Besides that, cash games are going well. averaged about 250 each session the last 3 days. Could have been more if it wasnt for the satelites i played. I might buy in directly into a 330 if i continue to do well in cash games.

The 1/2 is just so profitable. I could take shots in more tourneys, or at a higher limit, but I’m almost guaranteed to make money at the 1/2 No limit games in vegas. Today for example i was stuck early from a cooler.
I had A,7 on button and flop comes J,7,7. and UTG limped pocket Jacks. so that sucked, but I knew if i reloaded it would only be a matter of time. Sure enough eventually I was back to even, and then soon after I was up about 300. There is about a handfull of good players at those tables and I know them all now and we avoid eachother like the plague.
My favorite hand of the night tonight was the following.
I raised to 12 with 8s7s from the Hijack. 2 away from the button. the BB re-raised to 25. folded back to me and I called.
flop came 10,8,3 rainbow. BB checked, and I checked. (normally i would bet this, but i felt like he was waiting to check/raise.
turn came another 10. he checked. It was now pretty obvious he held AK and wasnt willing to try and steal. So I bet 40. He starts to count out 40 and then thinks for a bit. He then counts out the rest of his money, (which wasnt much more He had another 40 or so behind) and I thought, Ugh.. he might just push all in here. Which would kill any attempt i had at stealing on the river if he calls and misses.So fearing his allin I say to him “pocket 7’s must be good here” He then replies with, “You dont have 7’s” So I show my 7 of spades and say “I’m positive 7’s are good cause you have AK”
He smiles and mucks. and I turn up the 8 also. The table enjoyed it and had a laugh and that put AK boy in a sour mood. Oh well…

Played another satelite on sunday, and ended up winning. so I paid my way into the 330 on monday.
Played great the entire tournament, but ran really really cold. Especially in crucial spots.
I stole as much dead money as I could, but eventually I was going to need a big pot. We started wit 500 players, and we were down to 100 with blinds at 600/1200 and a 100 ante. I’m on button with 18k, and look down at 10,10. Same hand i went out on at Sahara. This time Cutoff makes a standard raise to 3400, and i shove. Obviously its standard for Big Blind to wake up with a hand, he shoves over top of me with KK. cutoff folds and I dont improve. Good Game me. out in 99th or 100th roughly.
Today I decided I wanted to try and climb through the limits. I was starting at 1/2 no limit and once i reach 500. move to 2-5, then if i reach 1000 move to 5-10. I ended up moving to 2-5 after 20 minues. a sick start. But i got coolered early at 2-5. I flopped top 2 paid, and villain flopped bottom set.
I eventually grinded back what i went to the table with and called it a day. It was about 6 hours of playing, and the table had lost all the dead money, so I left.
Going to try out my “Lucky You” type of limit climbing once more. we’ll see if i can get up to 5-10 no limit at least once.

I’ll start by saying, Man, I wish i was running good. I’d be having a sick week if i could just win some 50/50 race situations.
I Lost a open ended straight draw with Flush Draw vs an over pair. I’m a slight favorite. and tonight I lost a open ended straight flush draw vs a set. about 55/45 for him. Both times it was all in on the flop.
Also, In tournaments and satellites I seem to be running into horrible situations of being card dead at the wrong times, making moves at the wrong time.
being in sb, having it fold around, and running into BB with AA or AK. happened twice tonight in the same satellite to the same guy. Sick.

But besides all that bitching, Things are going well. Up 1200 in cash since monday, but down 405 in tournaments/satellites. I made a great bluff today, it had me smiling. I usually dont run a Bluff play, but i couldnt help it this time.
I had 8,10 of spades, on a board of J,7,3,3,A I had check/called the flop (which had 2 hearts. ) I was planing to float this player because he was a pretty weak player. I check/called the turn, and I decided to check the river.
He made a weak bet, and thats when i raised enough to put him all in.
He struggled for about 45 seconds, finally he grabbed his chips and counted them out, looked back at me, looked at the board, looked back at his chips, and thats when i decided i had to say something or he was going to call.

So i hold my cards up, and say “I’ll show u anyways,” he says “what?” I said again “I’ll show u, so if u fold, I’ll still show”

he mucks, and everyone says, “Ok show show….” So i show the bluff and the table erupts, he looked pretty steamed, and I felt like Hellmuth when he bluffs Matusow. It made me smile

Also the last two days I’ve been going around to various casinos and checking out the poker rooms. Played at Red Rock Casino and Spa today, was really nice. The poker room was pretty decent also. Its a fair ways off the strip, but i’d recommend it to anyone traveling to vegas.
Not too sure If i’ll be playing anymore satellites this week.
I might just keep trying to build with cash games, and maybe play in a sateliite monday morning for the 330.00 MTT deepstack.

Feels good to be back in vegas. although i wont be here for long. U.S, Customs isnt really excited about me going back and forth like this.

So basically my game plan is to play a ton of poker for 2 months and see where i’m at.

I played a little bit while back home. Nothing much, just talked poker/vegas with all the local regulars who knew me from before. I think i made a few bucks tho.

then traveled to Victoria BC to visit family. and now arrived in LV last night.
My car was at Venetian so I went there to pick it up and played some 1/2 NL
I made a quick 170. Funny hand was a guy with K,3 on a board of 3,5,8 with 2 diamonds, calls after it goes bet, and raise by me. I had 8,9 of dimaonds for top pair with flush draw.
turn is a 3. and we get them all in. river was a J of diamonds for my flush, and he’s like Ohh, such a brutal suckout…..blah blah. I look at him confused, wondering how he can justify his flop call, 5 handed after a bet and raise, yet he feels he took a bad beat? give me a break. So i packed it in around 3am.

Today I started playing aorund 5pm. Played 1/2 NL at planet hollywood and after an hour of play i was up 380.
nothing really major either, i was just getting decent cards, and playing solid.
So with that in mind, I decided i’d quit cash games and play a tourney over at Sahara. its a 65.00 NL holdem tourney. start with 6k in chips. blinds are 30mins. but the structure of blinds is pretty good for a $65 tourney.

we started with just over 100, and got down to 30 players. I had zero hands for the last hour of play and was bleeding chips, i finally had to make a move with 10k chips and 500/1000 blinds. didnt work out though.

So I decided to go play some satelites at Venetian for their deep stack extravaganze events running all month.

I played a 130.00 satellite and busted 1st. Its very rare that i bust so early in a sng since i play them really well. But this was just a bad play by a bad player who got rewarded and i was out.
I then decided to play cash games while waiting for another satellite, which I feel was a mistake, but Now that i look at it, I was just unlucky again. I lost 200 with KK on a Qh,8d 4h board. Villain had J,10 of hearts and caught the ace of hearts on the turn.
I check raised him all in, and he says something like “Pocket queens……” and then calls. whatever. I’m just super pissed because as soon as that hand ended, they call my name for another satellite. so now i cant re-load.

I go into this next satellite steaming, but soon regroup and focus. well what do you know. I struggle to keep my head above water as i continue to get garbage hand after garbage hand. My best hand was K,Q. I spent the entire time winning small pots. I never went to showdown. finally we’re 4 handed . I ave about 1800 and blinds are 100/200 and chip leader limps from UTG. i push button with 3,3. He thinks for a second, and then says. “ahhh ok i call”

he has K,6.. ugh.. so standard that the flop is 10,6,4.. turn and river brick and i’m out. considering I had been playing very tight and never went to showdown, and that he had K,6!!! he should be folding there 110% of the time. So I lost all my profit from cash games today, but oh well.
I’m pissed at the poor showing in tourneys tonight, but I planned to play cash games to pay for them, and that part of the plan worked.
Now all i need is to get into a bigger event here and cash deep.
ship a 5 figure score 1 time!

cheers

Took 1 day off, and decided i’d relax, focus and attack my next session with a positive attitude, and play ABC poker.
Started off great flopping a set vs 2 pair, and doubled up. finished the day +662.00 after about 2.5 hours. I’m thinking thats going to be it for this week, I fly out of Vegas in 2 days and will be in Toronto.
Also, looking forward to some deep stack events in February at the Venetian.

10k starting stack, hour long levels. its a perfect event for my style.

Recently I’ve been running cold. I started off this week +3 buy-ins, then decided to play a single table sng sat for the venetians 500+40 MTT.
we were 5 handed, with top 2 getting seats when this occurred, I’m sb with AQ and blinds are 100/200 My stack is 1900. It folds around to button who shoves for 1400. He shoved on me the last rotation also, so I called and he turns over AK.
Its pretty much a no brainer call for me in that situation, just very unlucky he woke up with AK. I couldnt build back and was out in 5th.
I then met up with a girl i knew from highschool and her friend. They wanted to get some food/drinks and gamble. So after buying dinner, and spewing at black jack, she asks me to teach her how to play poker.
So we sit down at a 1/2 game at Venetian, the table doesnt mind if people watch and talk during the games. After a couple hands, and a big pot we raked in, one guy says to me, “This looks just like the movie Lucky You”
I thought that was kind of funny, because I was thinking the same thing.
After a couple hours at the table, we managed to make back what I lost at Blackjack. Although to give an example at how bad I run, there was a Big black guy next to me, who was playing every pot and talking up a storm. I said to him, wanna shove all in blind? He only had 100 in his stack and he agreed. So next hand is dealt and he shoves everyone folds to me, and like we agreed, I called. I turn over K,2 and he turns over 5,2. He is completely dominated and he spikes a 5, and i miss completely. I later found out he is 1 of the owners of NewEraCaps. And he gave me his email address if i ever need business from them.
Next day I played at Planet Hollywood, and ran so incredibly cold. 90% of my hands were unplayable, and only big pot i was involved in was I flopped a Nut flush draw + inside straight and 1 over on a board of Q,J,8 when i had A,9s. Villain flopped QJ, and I 3 bet him all in, and he insta-called. Normally I’m showing up with a straight or set here when i 3-bet this flop, but he caught me the one time i was slightly behind. 60%-40%. which is basically a flip but i missed all my outs.
Decided to take a break and switch to Limit Holdem, which I enjoy doing when i’m sick of playing. Ran ultra bad there. KK vs QQ, capped preflop. flop came J,10,7 and he check raised me, so I 3 bet and he smooth called. As soon as he did that I put him on QQ, turn was a rag but it was also a 3rd heart. and he check/called my bet, and river was another heart. making a 4 card flush on board. I had zero hearts, and Obviously he had the Qh. GG me.
So back to even this week, But I’m fine with it. Going to take some time off, and get back into a decent sleep routine. Also, I have some other poker related things in the works. Excited to make some progress in that, and will fill everyone in once the ball gets rolling. Might play 1 or 2 more sessions before I fly back to Canada On the 18th. But wont be posting any updates until after I return to Vegas.
cheers and GL

This week/weekend is the Adult Entertainment Convention in Las Vegas. and more importantly, the show is being held in Venetian. So the casino is filled with porn stars and other aspiring women. Makes going to “work” a little easier.

Today after checking out the convention i played for about 4 hours. Nothing really exciting, picked up a couple hands and managed to stay above water the entire time. +300 on the day, Not once did I go all in. So I feel alright about the day considering i didnt get any big hands called.

Have a new plan for this weekend, Going to play a 1 table satelite to get into the 500+40 for saturday at Venetian. I’m confident i will get an entry.

thats all. cheers

In all honesty, This week was bullshit. I’m still stuck 1.5buy-ins.
I should be up close to 2k if I could just run like normal.
Hand 1, yesterday. $650 pot, I raise from button, get 2 calls, i flop the nut straight on a rainbow board, Villain in this hand check raises me all in. So obviously I call, he turns over a set, and the turn and river pair giving him a fullhouse.
Next happened today, I’m up about 150 after an hour. There is a guy at my table who is sitting with around 1k. I win a hand off him, with 8,8 on a board that reads 8,4,5,3. and he folds to me on the turn and says “Your ace 2 is good” Keep in mind he raised preflop, and I raised him on the flop.
I looked at him, and said “are you serious? you think i had A,2? you must have gotten pretty lucky to have those chips”
people at the table laughed, because it was true. So a couple hands later, I can tell this guy wants to get involved in a hand with me, and I’m pretty happy about that.
I pick up JJ in the cutoff. UTG who is short stacked leads out for 10. folds to me, and I know he’s weak and wants to gamble and leave. So i make a big re-raise to 42. Basically putting him all in. The button decides to call the 42 leaving him 50 behind. (I couldnt believe that) and the Donkey with the big stack calls from small blind.
The UTG player moves all in. But he had more than i thought he went all in for 58 total. so it was 16 more. which meant i couldnt re-raise. At this point i reached a tuff spot. either i push all in, for another 250 more, or i just call.
I decided to just call, the button decides to move all in, and small blind calls again. so i call again.
The pot is about $320 at this point.
The flop comes out Qs,3d,5c. Not exactly what I wanted, but not bad.
small blind looks at me, and bets out 100. Now, i’m thinking, this is ridiculous. He was probably cold calling all these bets with a small pair and now hit a set. Then I started to pick up some physical language and body tells. It was great! I’ve bee reading Read em and Reap and using my experience, plus new things i’ve been looking for in tells, This guy was doing one directly from the book. It was almost too perfect, So I pushed all in for about 200. He looks at me and says, “well you got me, but i have to call now”

He holds Ad,4d. The other two all-ins had Ace,rag also. So they are all drawing very very slim. The turn is a Qd, and the river a 6d. and The donkey goes runner runner flush. For those who dont know, a runner runner flush is 23-1.
I make a great read, a great push, and get sucked out on big time. Its not that the pot was that big, its just such a slap in the face. I bought back in and eventually started to pick up some hands. Also picked off a nice bluff and finished the day +350.
Also, today Johnny Chan, Jaime Gold, and Antonio Esfandiari were all playing 2k, 4k in the back room. when I cashed out last night, Antonio was at the cage cashing in a 10k stack of 100’s. similar to those they use on High stakes. Must be nice