The last couple days I’ve completely zoned into online… honestly its been pretty sick, I’ve probably crammed in 30 hours of playing over the last two days and still managed time to get to the gym and slip a few hours of sleep in there. My binge started off great winning the Poker Stars $55 rebuy tournament. During this tournament I was very concentrated, playing Jay Pizzo poker, poker I wish I could play in every tournament I play in. Was making great reads, huge lay downs and saving bets. Although I was playing great I went to the final table short stacked. Was able to get it all in with AK vs. A10 and doubled up right away. There was a lot of action at this table; people were throwing their chips around. A very crucial hand happened when the chip leader raised on the button and I had pocket 9’s in the big blind. I decided just to call being able to fold the hand if big cards fell on the flop. To my liking I received a dream flop of A,A,9 flopping a full house. The original raiser was a very strong player and came out betting right away, making me believe he’s capable of betting trip aces into me in this spot. I cold called the flop looking to put him all in on the turn, but on the turn he checked… So I bet out an over sized bet trying to look weak and wanted to win the pot right there. He calls might bet instantly. The thought did cross my mind that he possibly flopped a full house also with A,9 or possibly filled up on the turn but I could really care less at this point… all the power to him if he did, I was going all the way with this hand especially this late in the tournament. The river bring a useless card and he checks to me right away, I move all in for my remaining chips and he calls instantly showing A,3 giving him trip aces and I’m shipped this huge pot. At this point there are 4 players remaining and I have a slight chip lead. One of the players in the chat box asks if any of the remaining players are interested in making a deal for the remaining prize pool. For those who don’t play poker this is very common practice when there are few players remaining in a tournament. The blinds get so high sometimes and there’s so much gambling at this point anyone is capable of winning. In this case I had a slight chip lead, so I would receive slightly more money then the other players… I gladly accepted the deal because like I just mentioned the blinds were so high is was a crap shoot at this point. So I managed to walk away with a nice chunk of change of $5,500.
After playing online non-stop I decided I’d play a small tournament at The Unit.. it was a $60 buy-in with a couple tables. The tournament didn’t have a very strong field, so I was looking to take advantage of the weak spots. At my opening table I was able to get involved in quite a few hands without getting played back at. My chip stack was going up and down like a roller coaster, at one point I was down to 400 in chips from the starting 2500. I managed to win a few pots then grabbed a big one where I flopped bottom two pair from the big blind and doubled up giving me a pretty average stack going into the final table. The very first hand was kind of a weird one. One of the stronger players at the table was sitting to my right and opened up for a raise, I glanced down at my cards and called with A,10 (ace of clubs)… Two, who also made the final table was sitting to my left, moves all-in trying to steal the pot. At this point I thought Two was pretty weak, but at the same time I thought to move all-in against a early raise and a call (squeeze play), made me think he had to have something decent. It gets folded back to the original raiser and he thinks for a while and decides to call, I fold my hand knowing I had to be dominated. Original raiser flips over A,Q and Two flips over A,10 offsuit.. I was shocked why he would of made that move in that spot with such a mediocre hand like A,10 and Two replied by saying he didn’t know there was a raise! He thought we both just limped and tried to steal.. anyways the flop comes with 3 clubs and the turn brings another club (Would have given me the NUT FLUSH!).. I was pretty pissed off b/c if Two would have seen the raise he would have played the hand differently and I would have scooped a huge pot. So right off the bat I was pretty spun knowing I should be chip leader at this point. I re-grouped and played pretty solid throughout the final table, pushing when I needed to and made some big lay downs. We were down to 5 players (top 3 pay) when a gross beat happened to me. I’m in the BB (big blind) and the button limps in.. now the small blind makes a Huge raise all-in, I look down and happily see pocket kings. I make the call and the small blind says out ‘Oh shit’ as he flips over one 3 and says it was his best card. The rest of the table laughs when he flips over a 2 of spades to go with it. One of the remaining players at the table mentioned how she folded a 3 leaving only two 3’s left in the deck. It’s pretty obvious what happen now; the flop is 7,5,3.. turn 3! I lose the pot and once again I’m short stack. Now I go on a pretty good rush moving all-in numerous times picking up the blinds and was also able to felt(knock-out) a player in the process. We were down to 3 handed and I won a race situation and knocked out the 3rd guy. We were down to heads-up in the tournament and we both had pretty equal chip stacks, so for my second tourney in a row we decided to chop it. Just like the other tournament, the blinds got really high at this point and any hand could have ended it.
So all and all I had a really successful couple days making $6,000+.
I headed home to my parents place in Guelph this past weekend to see the family and some of the boys. Its reading week so a bunch of people are home in Guelph. I had a pretty relaxing time being able to get some good meals in at home and just did some well needed relaxing without poker. People laugh when I say that, how I need a vacation from poker but its 100%. true. When you play all the time it gets very exhausting and stressful, going home gives me time to just chill and have no worries on my mind. I also went out with a bunch of the boys for some drinks and had a good time. I don’t really remember much of the night having 1 too many drinks but it was fun from what I do remember.
I’m going to take another couple days off from playing and start fresh on March 1st. February was a decent month but not even close to as good as my January.. So I want to start March off with a clear mind and zoned in to playing more consistent. That was my biggest problem in February after looking back. I would play great for one week making some huge cashes then fall off for a week or two. So I’m dedicating March to playing good poker all month and not getting distracted.
Goal for the month of March: $15,000+
We’ll see how the battle goes..
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Live Tourney & Full Tilt Holdem/Omaha -- So Close!
Its been a while since I've played a live tournament from playing online so much that I though I'd go check out a tourney at a local Poker club. The tourney was $350 buy-in with a $150 re buy or add on, so pretty much it was a $500 buy-in with 20,000 starting chips and the blinds starting at 25/50. As I registered and drew my seat number I saw some familiar faces at my table, one which was a good friend of mine Azim... Me and Azim go back years from when I first starting play poker, he was one of the first guys I met in the poker community. To make a long story short for about the first year I played poker I played with Azim going from tournaments to live games nightly. During that time I learned a lot from Azim and we were able to discuss hands, mistakes and strategies. Getting back to the tournament I started off great doubling up right away with JJ to a canon trying to bluff me out of the pot. A few hands later I ran into a cooler when I flopped a set of deuces running into the nut flush... from there on in I went into grinder mode trying to pick up as many chips as I could from a pretty passive table. I stayed pretty average stack the whole tourney till we got down to about 14 players. I got myself into a race situation with pocket 7's which went down in flames to K,Q off suit, crippling me pretty badly. I managed to squeeze my way to the final table along with Azim sitting directly to my right. I rarely ever play to just get in the money, always having the mindset to win at all costs.. but this was one of those situations where I had such a crippled stack that making it to the money (6th) would be a task on its own. I stole blinds when I could but the cards went cold at the wrong time making me fold A LOT more then I ever do with a short stack. A bad beat took place with 7 players remaining getting into 6th place and cashing $800. I got knocked out by Azim of all people! lol.. He raised on the puck with A,10 and I glanced down and squeezed one Ace and shoved it, unfortunately when I opened the hand the other card was a 5. I figured I'd rather lose my chips to Azim then anyone else, he did manage to use those chips usefully winning the tournament cashing over $6,000. All and all I felt pretty good for my first live tournament in a while, didn't make too many mistakes and felt really confident at the table. Besides winning making the final table was a goal I set before this tourney and was able to accomplish it. With the WSOP in Vegas coming up in a few months I'm going to do my best to play as many live tournaments as I can to get some practise in.
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Tonight I signed up and registered for the $320 buy-in Full Tilt Online Poker Series tournament. This tournament is a little different then the usual ones I play because it was Pot Limit Holdem/Pot Limit Omaha tourney. Pot Limit opposed to No Limit means at any point you can only bet whats in the pot. And Pot Limit Omaha is similar to holdem except that you get 4 cards in your hand opposed to 2 cards. Every 10 mins the game would rotate from Holdem to Omaha and back & forth. The tournament started with 645 players with a first prize of $45,200. I really got into the zone early in the tournament accumulating chips without too many problems. I really took advantage of the Omaha rounds finding a lot of weak players not playing well in these rounds. Holdem players tend to play very loose/aggressive when playing Omaha gambling a lot more then they usually would. Managing to flop top set(3 of a kind) a couple times I really grabbed some chips and was in the top 10 with 50 player remaining. At this point of the tournament I go moved to a very very tough table with about 3-4 solid Internet pros and a couple live pros. I tightened up my game while at this table grinding away till I got moved, this took a bit of a beating on my stack but was still sitting with the average chip stack. We got down to 18 players and I was 11th in chips at the time when I ran into this situation. I was in the small blind with A,Q,J,4 double suited. It was folded to me in the small blind while the big blind was one of the chip leaders of the tournament. Whenever I get down to 2 tables left in a tourney I really change gears here and try to put myself in a position to win the tournament. A lot of weak players make the mistake of tightening up there play just trying to make the final table, well you might make the final table but will most likely be knocked out right away. Whats the point in that? To try and make a little extra money? I think that's stupid and I've had so much success in tournaments b/c I play to finish FIRST and FIRST only! So getting back to the hand, I hammered into the chip leader hoping to grab some chips to build on this average stack. The big blind got very lucky flopping trips with 5,5,2,4 to a 8,4,4 flop. I flopped the nut flush draw with this flop and bet the pot right away, with trips he obviously puts me all-in. At this point I had over 70% my stack committed to the pot leaving me no option but calling getting over 4-1 on my money. I end up losing the pot getting knocked out 17th of 645. 17 place paid out approx. $1,003.00 for my efforts. I really felt like I was going to win this tournament at all stages but it doesn't always work out as we'd like it too.
Overall I had 2 pretty good showings in these tournaments. Although I didn't win I was able to cash in both of them and minimized mistakes & gambling situations. This week I'm going to get in as many hands as I can and hopefully win a big one!
We'll see you all in a couple days and I'll let you know how its going. As always feel free to post any comments regarding any of the stuff I right in my blogs. Just click on the comments link underneath each blog and you can read comments by others and also post your own.
Take it easy...
Jay
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Tonight I signed up and registered for the $320 buy-in Full Tilt Online Poker Series tournament. This tournament is a little different then the usual ones I play because it was Pot Limit Holdem/Pot Limit Omaha tourney. Pot Limit opposed to No Limit means at any point you can only bet whats in the pot. And Pot Limit Omaha is similar to holdem except that you get 4 cards in your hand opposed to 2 cards. Every 10 mins the game would rotate from Holdem to Omaha and back & forth. The tournament started with 645 players with a first prize of $45,200. I really got into the zone early in the tournament accumulating chips without too many problems. I really took advantage of the Omaha rounds finding a lot of weak players not playing well in these rounds. Holdem players tend to play very loose/aggressive when playing Omaha gambling a lot more then they usually would. Managing to flop top set(3 of a kind) a couple times I really grabbed some chips and was in the top 10 with 50 player remaining. At this point of the tournament I go moved to a very very tough table with about 3-4 solid Internet pros and a couple live pros. I tightened up my game while at this table grinding away till I got moved, this took a bit of a beating on my stack but was still sitting with the average chip stack. We got down to 18 players and I was 11th in chips at the time when I ran into this situation. I was in the small blind with A,Q,J,4 double suited. It was folded to me in the small blind while the big blind was one of the chip leaders of the tournament. Whenever I get down to 2 tables left in a tourney I really change gears here and try to put myself in a position to win the tournament. A lot of weak players make the mistake of tightening up there play just trying to make the final table, well you might make the final table but will most likely be knocked out right away. Whats the point in that? To try and make a little extra money? I think that's stupid and I've had so much success in tournaments b/c I play to finish FIRST and FIRST only! So getting back to the hand, I hammered into the chip leader hoping to grab some chips to build on this average stack. The big blind got very lucky flopping trips with 5,5,2,4 to a 8,4,4 flop. I flopped the nut flush draw with this flop and bet the pot right away, with trips he obviously puts me all-in. At this point I had over 70% my stack committed to the pot leaving me no option but calling getting over 4-1 on my money. I end up losing the pot getting knocked out 17th of 645. 17 place paid out approx. $1,003.00 for my efforts. I really felt like I was going to win this tournament at all stages but it doesn't always work out as we'd like it too.
Overall I had 2 pretty good showings in these tournaments. Although I didn't win I was able to cash in both of them and minimized mistakes & gambling situations. This week I'm going to get in as many hands as I can and hopefully win a big one!
We'll see you all in a couple days and I'll let you know how its going. As always feel free to post any comments regarding any of the stuff I right in my blogs. Just click on the comments link underneath each blog and you can read comments by others and also post your own.
Take it easy...
Jay
Friday, February 16, 2007
Getting the ball rolling....
Since my last post I've really been able to pick things up and get back in order. I don't have any huge placings but I've been playing good poker and even though I'm still taking some rough beats I see myself making a big cash sometime in the near future. Tonight I made it to the final table in the $75 tourney on Full Tilt. I went in medium stacked and lost with JJ vs Q8, if i win this all-in it puts me second in chips and in a good position to win the tournament. I ended up finishing 7th place paying out roughly $1,000. I was also able to cash (cash=placing in the money) in 2 other tournament tonight on Ultimate Bet and the $109 on Full Tilt. I was looking at my statistics as of late and I see that my Poker Stars ROI (return of investment) has been significantly lower then the other sites I've been playing on.. and I'm really not too sure why? It can possibly be b/c the poker stars tournaments start with only 1500 in chips apposed to the 3000 on Full Tilt. Might have to go back to the playbook and see if the 1500 chip count tourney strategy need some adjusting.
While I was playing online tonight I was surfing around and found a great video featuring Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan for those who don't know is the host of Fear Factor and UFC commentator.. but I found out recently that his #1 passion is being a comedian. So anyways I was on his website reading his blog and read about a beef he has with another comedian. It goes on and on but the other night Joe went on stage and got into a verbal argument with the guy. Its some funny and witty shit. Joe is a very smart guy after I watched some videos on him. I always liked him as a UFC (ultimate fighting) commentator but I definitely like the guys a whole lot more after watching and reading some of his material. Here's the link to his blog which has the attached video if any of you are interested.
http://www.joerogan.net/main.php
Other then that things have been pretty good lately.. been hitting the gym regularly and getting my energy back. I'm a little pissed b/c it seems like everyone I know seems to be going somewhere hot for vacation within the next couple weeks... and I'm stuck here with this gross cold weather. Might have to call up some of the guys and swing down to Vegas for a weekend... gonna see if I can free up some time.
Rented the movie The Departed last night and I thought it was a good movie, but I'm gonna watch again now see if I can pick up some things I missed..
Goodnight
While I was playing online tonight I was surfing around and found a great video featuring Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan for those who don't know is the host of Fear Factor and UFC commentator.. but I found out recently that his #1 passion is being a comedian. So anyways I was on his website reading his blog and read about a beef he has with another comedian. It goes on and on but the other night Joe went on stage and got into a verbal argument with the guy. Its some funny and witty shit. Joe is a very smart guy after I watched some videos on him. I always liked him as a UFC (ultimate fighting) commentator but I definitely like the guys a whole lot more after watching and reading some of his material. Here's the link to his blog which has the attached video if any of you are interested.
http://www.joerogan.net/main.php
Other then that things have been pretty good lately.. been hitting the gym regularly and getting my energy back. I'm a little pissed b/c it seems like everyone I know seems to be going somewhere hot for vacation within the next couple weeks... and I'm stuck here with this gross cold weather. Might have to call up some of the guys and swing down to Vegas for a weekend... gonna see if I can free up some time.
Rented the movie The Departed last night and I thought it was a good movie, but I'm gonna watch again now see if I can pick up some things I missed..
Goodnight
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Murphy's Law
"Whatever can go wrong will go wrong".... this is what has been happening to me the last 2 weeks at the tables. Running very very cold since my 6k cash in the Full Tilt tourney. It feels like if there's a possibility for me to lose a hand, the poker gods are making me lose it. I could write 3 paragraphs of bad beats I've taken lately but I would make too many people sick. Aside from the cards not cooperating I don't feel I'm playing my best poker right now anyways. Not sure if its because of the beats I'm taking or my head just isn't in it. Making some very amateur mistakes in crucial points of tournaments I simply should never make.
The last couple weeks I've also felt like shit.. not sick or anything, just very sluggish. I'm on a terrible sleeping schedule right now that I can't shake. I know this is all because I haven't eaten healthy like I do lately do to playing in live card rooms where the food selections aren't always the best. I woke up today and got back on schedule, went grocery shopping to replenish my fridge of vegetables and plenty of fluids. Made my way to the gym today and felt good. I'm a very firm believer that healthy living will have a positive effect on your poker game without a doubt. Healthy living results in high mental and physical energy which is obviously needed to play poker for 12 hour sessions.
I did just rant about how bad the cards have been running, but I was able to pull off a 2nd place finish in the Ultimate Bet (UB) 100+9 tourney tonight. It wasn't a huge tourney, only about 110 players. But it felt good to get a solid cash under my belt. A good win can help your confidence that seems to dwindle during a losing streak. I had my boy Serge sweating me in the ladder stages of the tourney (sweating=watching). I played a pretty solid tourney, got very lucky with JJ outdrawing QQ but also took some beats of my own to even it out. I made it heads-up against a pretty solid player. I won the very first hand making a huge check raise allin on the flop making him fold and made him steam a bit. Then the very next hand he raises on the puck, I call on the Big Blind (BB) with K,J.. flop is K,9,2. I feel this is a perfect spot to make the exact same move on the guy hoping he's still steaming and calls me with a shitty hand. Well I did check-raise all-in again and unfortunately he calls with pocket deuces giving him a set. I'm not too disappointed because even if I do play the hand slower a 10 comes on the turn locking me into the hand with top pair and a gut shot straight draw... so I lose that hand either way.
Its about 5am now.. gonna try and hit the sack.. Get to the gym early tomorrow, then possibly play a couple tourney's tomorrow night if I feel up to it.
The last couple weeks I've also felt like shit.. not sick or anything, just very sluggish. I'm on a terrible sleeping schedule right now that I can't shake. I know this is all because I haven't eaten healthy like I do lately do to playing in live card rooms where the food selections aren't always the best. I woke up today and got back on schedule, went grocery shopping to replenish my fridge of vegetables and plenty of fluids. Made my way to the gym today and felt good. I'm a very firm believer that healthy living will have a positive effect on your poker game without a doubt. Healthy living results in high mental and physical energy which is obviously needed to play poker for 12 hour sessions.
I did just rant about how bad the cards have been running, but I was able to pull off a 2nd place finish in the Ultimate Bet (UB) 100+9 tourney tonight. It wasn't a huge tourney, only about 110 players. But it felt good to get a solid cash under my belt. A good win can help your confidence that seems to dwindle during a losing streak. I had my boy Serge sweating me in the ladder stages of the tourney (sweating=watching). I played a pretty solid tourney, got very lucky with JJ outdrawing QQ but also took some beats of my own to even it out. I made it heads-up against a pretty solid player. I won the very first hand making a huge check raise allin on the flop making him fold and made him steam a bit. Then the very next hand he raises on the puck, I call on the Big Blind (BB) with K,J.. flop is K,9,2. I feel this is a perfect spot to make the exact same move on the guy hoping he's still steaming and calls me with a shitty hand. Well I did check-raise all-in again and unfortunately he calls with pocket deuces giving him a set. I'm not too disappointed because even if I do play the hand slower a 10 comes on the turn locking me into the hand with top pair and a gut shot straight draw... so I lose that hand either way.
Its about 5am now.. gonna try and hit the sack.. Get to the gym early tomorrow, then possibly play a couple tourney's tomorrow night if I feel up to it.
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