My starting table was a bunch of people I never saw before and JOEYTHEB, who I’m pretty sure knows who I am.. we’ve played a fair amount together.

In the first level the only meaninful hand I played.. I limped 56c in MP after a few limps.. BB makes it 250, EP calls, I call button calls.. flop comes 9c 5x 2c.. check to me i bet something stupid and small like 350.. only original raiser calls turn is Ac he ch i bet 850 he call river 2o he ch i bet 1550 and he folds.

At 50/100 a pretty interesting spot came up.. I raise button to 300 with red 55, sb is superaggro and makes it 1k with 3k left behind, bad tight donk BB calls 1k cold with 6.5k behind and I think a bit and call 700 more with 7.5k total behind. Flop comes Jx 7s 6s SB bets out 1k into 3k, BB instamucks and I’m about to muck but I take a few secs and SB looks super nervous. I took about 30 seconds or so glancing and him then see him take a sip of his water and sit back in his chair but I could tell he did it in a way to try to give off confidence but he did it sooo poorly and nervously that I was sure he had no pair. So I ship it in and as soon as I did it I was happy I did because he didn’t look happy.. looked back at his cards and mucked it pushing me up to 10.5k. That was the last hand I won…

At 100/200 I raised a bunch in late position and cbet 3 dry flops but got raised all three times. Then interesting hand against Joey comes up.. He raises button to 600 and I flat Jd10d in BB.. flop comes Qd 7d 6x and I lead 600 and he thinks a bit and calls turn is 9o, I think a while and I don’t think he has a strong hand and decide to lead 1200 again he thinks about 20 seconds and calls and now I’m sure he’s weak and plan on making a big river bet depending on the card. River is offsuit ace which I think I like at first to try and push out 89 or other weak middling pairs but after thinking about 15 seconds and looking over at him I think it’s a little too likely it hit him and check and he thinks a while and checks behind.. I declare J high and he shows AK to scoop.

At 100/200/25 I raised two hands and got repopped from tighter players.. then made probably a pretty bad squeeze shove just to try and gamboool for chips.. blinds were about 4 minutes from going up to 200/400/50 and I had 2.7k and J10o in BB.. bad weak player limps in EP, Joey makes it 800 from CO, Button calls with like 6k total behind, sb folds and I ship the 2.7k after thinking a while.. feeling like Joey probably had a wide range here so I might have a little fold equity albeit probably not much but also figuring if I can win the 50/50 or 40/60 I’ll be up to about 7k.. eventually I do get it in against AQ.. turn gutter ball with pair outs but brick off river..

I’ll be playing the 450 next Tuesday and then the 1k the following Friday.

-Tre

I’m playing WSOP event 7 tomorrow.. I’ll be at Orange table 9 seat 8.

Friday we will be driving from SD to Vegas, hopefully arriving around dinner time. We will be spending one night at my friend Tom’s house and then checking into here for the remaining 7 nights of our stay: http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/LASGD/main.wnt
We’ll be stayting in a nice little one bedroom condo there with whirlpool, kitchen, washer/dryer etc.etc. I have altered my schedule of play a bit in order to accommodate our travel needs. Originally I was going to play the 1.5k NLHE WSOP Event #2 on Saturday but instead I’m playing the 1k NLHE Venetian Deepstack on Sunday. I think this is a good change in terms of value as the Venetian tournament will have much more play. Only downside is it will be a much smaller prizepool and no chance to win a bracelet. However, I will be playing the 2k NLHE WSOP Event #7 next Wednesday so I’ll have my shot at a bracelet then.

Okay, back to enjoying my vacation.. I’ll be back with updates.

Tre

1) I wish I would have started out with a bigger bankroll. When I first started playing for a living three years ago after graduating college, I had no more than 3k to my name.

2) I wish I started playing online fulltime a lot sooner. I was basically a live 1/2 NL grinder for somewhere around 2 1/2 years. I missed out on sooo much money and soo many opportunities by playing live. I think my game has gotten 1000 times better in the past 7 or 8 months that I’ve been playing online. I feel like I sort of stunted my growth.

3) I wish I would have put in a lot more hours and spent less money in those 2 1/2 years of live play. During this time period, I had every opportunity to build a big bankroll and put money away to pay for bills. I lived rent free and had little to no financial worries. Instead of building a nice roll, I’d spend my money on lots of stupid things and actually ended up in a ton of debt somehow. I’d play like 15 hours a week or less sometimes and make just enough to get by and keep my BR at 3k. When I had a bad streak here and there I’d borrow money which is debt that I am still repaying now.

4) I wish that in December of 2006 when I chopped the Trump Classic tournament for 15k, I didn’t go out and pretty much spend it all. I bought a brand new car which I put 5k down on. Had to pay back about 3k to friends and then went to Chicago, Vegas for the Five Diamond, and Tampa Bay all in a two week span, buying my plane tickets as I went. By the end of January 07 I was borrowing money again.

5) I covered this already a bit but I wish I didn’t make so many poor financial situations in the past 5-6 years. I put myself in pretty steep credit card debt throughout college never really thinking about the future. I have a ridiculous amount of monthly bills that I pay now and hope to be debt free (besides big purchases like a house) within the next 5 years. These poor financial decisions have caused me to have to be staked and give away half my winnings which makes it pretty much impossible to build a bankroll or put away money for future months bills.

6) I wish I had won a big race where I had AK vs. JJ for a big pot with 7 people left in the Harrahs’ WSOP circuit prelim event in December 2007. That hand is probably the hand I remember most vividly from the past three years and I believe it to be the hand that cost me the most $ equity wise. It was particularly painful because 1) the remaining players were pretty weak and I feel like if I had won that pot I’d likely finish first or second which would mean an additonal 35 or 48k. 2) The door card was an Ace and the flop came AKJ which was a little brutal. This is one where there is nothing I could have done to change the result but it is still one of those things that I think about too much.

7) Last but not least, I wish I had started playing HUNL online a lot sooner than I did. I like where I am at now and I have a ton of room to improve. I also wish I had starting watching training videos a lot sooner and really discussing important hands with some of my poker friends. I think I am now a student of the game and I work really hard on my game much more than I ever have before.

Now that I got all that off my chest, I feel like I can move on and put all of it behind me. I can’t change what has happened in the past but I can make sure I don’t repeat the same mistakes.

Tre

Monday I played a decent sample of hands and felt like I played almost every situation optimally but the cards still didn’t fall right for me. I decided to go through my Poker Tracker and look back at my winrates since I started playing HU and run some graphs and what not. Doing so made me remember that I am in fact a winning player and that variance happens to everyone so I just have to remember that. Just focus on making good decisions and dealing with the coolers/beats. I went to see Harold and Kumar later that day. I thought the movie was really funny although not as good as the first one. Afterwards, my friends and I hit up a new bar in Philly called the Ugly American for a few beers and some dinner.

I played about 500 hands today and booked about a $400 win. I still ran pretty poorly in a lot of situations but I was fortunate that I didn’t get hit n run’d and was able to eventually bust the 4 or 5 guys that I played.

I’m really looking forward to leaving in a week for Cali/Vegas. I hope to end the month on a strong note and play my best during the WSOP.

I have a lot of things planned for the next few days. Tomorrow one of my best friends is graduating from Temple Law School so Jody and I are going to the ceremony and then heading down to the Jersey shore for the night. Friday morning Jody has to work a half day down in Northfield which is right by where we’ll be staying in Margate. We’ll likely spend the rest of the day on the Boardwalk in Ocean City and possibly having some dinner with my Step Grandparents. Saturday my friends are having a big BBQ for Memorial Day so that should be a good time. Also at some point one of my best friends from college will be visiting after spending the past 7-8 months in Iraq. Also wanted to mention to check out my friends clothing line.. hopefully I’ll be wearing some of the shirts during the WSOP.. Subconthreads.com/

Lots to look forward to!

-Tre

Past 5 days..

So I made a blog entry yesterday but it got erased some how so that sucks. Obviously been running pretty bad over the past week or so but no big deal I’m optimistic I’ll turn things around. I made a video yesterday of me getting destroyed by some dummy. You can check that out here: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JYEI0PPQ

In non poker news, I’ve been playing a ton of golf lately and thats been going very well. I’ve been shooting mostly low 80s with the occasional high 70 which is the best and most consistent I’ve ever shot. I leave for California/Vegas in 12 days and I can’t wait to get out there. Although I’ll be on vacation I decided to try and keep up my regular HU schedule of playing so that I don’t fall behind on bills. I’ll also be playing WSOP events 2 and 7.

Theres been so many ugly hands over the past week or so, I don’t feel like reliving them so I’m not gonna post any.. instead we’ll just move on and run better

Tre

This is my month of May so far. Most of this has been at 1/2 HU with a bit of 2/4. The first 3 days were a little bit frustrating but there is no way I can complain because of the past 4 days. I haven’t put a ton of hands in but when I have things have gone very well.

I made a video of a session that I played. A little disclaimer first: the audio is REALLY REALLY fuzzy and can be a bit annoying and the screen is like stretched out a little in a weird way. Sorry about the poor quality, I think my microphone is crappy. The video starts out a bit slow but I think there are some decently interesting spots in there. Also, this is the first time I’ve ever done audio on the video after playing the session. Here is the link to download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=056X0Y9U Once you get to the page, type in the three letters at the top. Once it takes you to the next screen wait for the 45 seconds to count down then you can download. Please leave any feedback in the comments section or feel free to e-mail me at tresav63@yahoo.com

I played 3 tournaments on Sunday. I finished 9th out of 204 in a smaller 6 max tourney on Full Tilt. I got knocked out in the 2nd hour of the FT 750k but I thought I played pretty well in that. Finally, in the Stars second chance I got knocked out 39th out of 1400 or so after AJ<KQ. I thought I played really well in that and if I caught a few more breaks I think I would have had a good chance at making a final table.

I leave in exactly three weeks for San Diego and Vegas. I’m really really excited to get out there and relax a bit and play a few tournaments here and there. I don’t think I’ll be playing online at all while I’m out there because playing on the laptop tilts me to no end but we’ll see what happens. Hopefully in the next few weeks I’ll put together another little article like the one I had in the last post.

-Tre

April has come and gone and what a month it was for me. I had a career month in terms of money earned and felt that I played my A game for most of the month. Here are some fun hands from the past few days:

This wasn’t fun:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548004

Sweet call IMO

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548005

SHIP SHIP

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548006

Okay so maybe I value bet a little thin?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2548012

So a friend from one of the forums PMed me asking for HU advice and I sent an initial long message which I think contains some basic but solid info for anyone who wants to learn to play HU. Here it goes..

The first thing that I would tell you is to be a complete game selection nit. It’s not very difficult because there are so many horrible players that play HU. There are a few very good ways to determine if someone is going to be easy money. If they buy in with less than the max then they are most likely not going to be good. I don’t play anyone that buys in for min, I’ll sit out and ask them to add a little more money. The best people to find are the ones that buy in for 40bb or some odd number that looks like the rest of their bankroll. If a player sits down and buys in for the max buy in, I will player search his name to see if he’s on any other HU tables. As a general rule I won’t play him if he’s multitabling HU. The only way I would play him is if I have played him before and knew him to be bad or if other people I know have played him and told me he was bad. If I get through those steps with a fullstacker, usually in about 20 hands you’ll be able to tell whether he’s competent or not. I use realtime HUD to display stats and the pertinent stats that I keep available for HU play are: VPIP/PFR%/3bet%/CBet%/Aggression factor/ fold to cbet%/Checkraise%. There are all different kinds of bad HU opponents but when you first start out playing the best ones to play against are those that call too much from OOP and don’t play aggressive enough in position. Pre-flop stats aren’t as important in HU because things change based on the opponent you are playing, but you can be pretty sure that if you play someone who is playing like 65/18 (and believe me there are a TON of them) you are in a game where you should be able to make money.

Now that we understand a bit about HU game selection, let’s move on to a few strategy tips. When you are playing the shorter stacked players you have to recognize the adjustments you have to make to your game. Oh, one other thing I forgot to note. Shortstackers tend to be hit and runners which is one of the most frustrating things in HU. When you get hit and run you need to be able to shake it off and focus on the next opponent. I usually put a note on a player if I can get to hit before he leaves the table that he is a hit and runner and I won’t play him next time he trys to sit down. Okay so back to strategy. Some short stack players will play super aggro preflop to try and take advantage of their short stack. We can counter this by minraising our hands from the button and stacking off a little more light before the flop.(Note: against fullstack players that 3bet a lot pre, I minraise a lot as well.. if you have a leggo membership check out the video by AlusivePnkBny) The most important adjustment to make against shorter stacks is to make sure your playing pretty tight OOP. Just like in 6max or FR, we don’t have implied odds to hit our hand.

As far as playing fullstacked opponents our strategy should be based on how our opponent is playing. Pre-flop I’m likely to raise between 90%-100% of buttons until my opponent proves to me that he is semi-competent. I vary my raise size based on how he is reacting. If he calls too much OOP sometimes I will start making it 4x to punish him for calling so much. I will be very happy if he keeps calling at the same rate because that is adding another BB to the pot when I’m in position. If I’m getting 3bet a lot I’ll begin minraising and looking to either 4bet bluff crap hands or take flops in position with hands that have value. If someone is balancing their ranges well and calling some and 3betting some then most likely your playing someone who is competent and you can sit out. As far as your 3betting tendencies in general my 3betting range is going to be something like 88+, sometimes AJ and KQ, AQ,AK and then a lot of suited connectors probably like all connectors 45s+ and two gaps like 35s+ but it depends on the opponent obviously. Playing well in 3bet pots is the most difficult thing to learn imo. It’s really all about experience and knowing your opponents tendencies. I’ve talked a lot about pre-flop play so far, I think I’ll save some of the post flop stuff that I do for the next little chapter I write for you, lol.

A few other important things with HU. Tilt control is absolutely one of the most important things you’ll have to learn to play HU. If you begin to feel like you HATE your opponent or you HATE poker right this second.. STOP PLAYING!!!111!!! So many times it will happen that your oppponent will go on a heater and hit every hand. He’ll run his $50 up to $400.. you’ll grind him back down to $50 and boom next thing you know he has $400 again somehow. You have to learn to deal with this. You have to learn to keep your ego in check. Bad players are going to beat you from time to time. I’d recommend that you start out by 1 tabling. I never play more than 2 tables and often if I feel like I’m starting to lose my focus I’ll drop down to one table. Just try to focus on each decision and make the best play possible.

-Tre

I shot 95 on Friday which is pretty standard for me. I hadn’t played in a while so I was pretty happy with my performance. I had 3 pars and a birdie. The birdie was on the 17th which is about a 140 yd. Par 3 over water. I hit my tee shot about 35 ft. from the hole. As we were driving up my Dad said that I would bury the putt since I hadn’t hit a put all day. I hit it perfect and sunk it and let out a giant YEAHHHHHHHH!! It was a great day and I’m looking to get out at least once a week.

I’m about to leave to watch the Sixers game. I’m hoping they can come up with another win. The Flyers advanced last night so that was pretty cool.

Pokerwise there have been a ton of fun hands from the past few days. I haven’t been playing a ton of hands but I feel like I’m playing very well and the quality that I’m putting in is much more important than the quantity. Right now I’m at about 15k hands for the month so I’ll probably finish at about 20k which is 10k short of my goal but oh well. I’m in the process of making travel arrangements for a little vacation that will include a trip to Vegas to play in a few WSOP events. It looks like right now I’ll be playing in events 2 and 7. I’ll post my official travel schedule when I get it all figured out.

Just a few hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1781051

This guy was terrible and ran up a 1.6k stack until I sat down. He left after this hand unfortunately..

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2511736

It’s awesome when things go well like this:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2511741

Sets this up perfectly.. 4 hands later

http://www.pokerhand.org/?2511746

-Tre

I’m obviously very happy with the score and the way things are going. The most important thing for me is to maintain my focus and keep grinding the HU cash games. I have reached my goals already for the month with the exception of the WSOP seat but I need to keep making as much money as possible and make it a career month. I still have a ton of debt to pay down and a baby on the way so I there is no shortage of motivation.

Yesterday I went on a diabetes walk at my little sisters school. I’m actually going to look into doing a few more charity walks. Today I’m going golfing around 2 with my Dad. It’s the first time I’m getting out this season and I’m really looking forward to it.

Thanks for reading,

Tre