Hi Everyone,
Sorry I haven't written a blog in a while, I've been extremely busy. I didn't realize I had some avid readers so I'll make sure to keep posting. I've actually had a good couple weeks excluding the last couple days. I had a couple good runs in the $163 Multi table tourney on Full Tilt, but still haven't won. I made it one of my 2007 goals to win this tourney and I keep coming SO CLOSE but can't manage to put the nail in the coffin. I finished 6th place of over 400 entrants paying me $3,112. I played that tournament pretty solid but ran into 9,9 when I was holding 8,8. In these tourney's when you get to the final table the blinds start to get really high, so a lot of gambling comes into play. Its tough to do sometimes because you sit in a tournament for 4-5 hours playing solid poker, then you get to the final table and have to gamble with some hands you wouldn't usually do with. But that's how you have to play to win some of these tournaments, unfortunately I ran into a slightly better hand this time. About a week ago I managed to finish 3rd place in this same tournament, this payed out a nice sum of $6,246. Its funny because pretty much the same thing happened to me in this tournament as well. When we were down to 3 handed and the chip leader was an absolute canon. Pushing and going all-in every pot. Finally I was in the big blind holding 10,10, he made his typical all-in raise on the button, I made an immediate call with no hesitation that I had the best hand.. Unfortunately he flipped over KK and my goal to win this tournament vanishes again. I felt pretty positive after this tournament because I didn't get sucked out on or I didn't play a hand poorly. I just ran into a cooler (certain situations where you simply are destined to lose or go broke) and there wasn't much I could do.
I mentioned earlier I have been busy and its pretty much been re-doing my bedroom. I got my new 50" plasma installed on the wall, new queen size bed put together and a new larger computer screen (so I can play more poker tables at the same time!) It was a pain in the ass putting up this new TV because I didn't realize that behind my drywall is concrete, so hiding the cords was tricky. Other then that I went out to a birthday party at some bar called Drake Hotel the other night, the bar was brutal.. I literally had to wait half hour to get a drink, but still had a good time hanging out with some friends.
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In February Full Tilt is hosting Full Tilt Online Poker Series III, its basically a week long of high buy-in tournaments with huge guaranteed prize pools. I'm going to do my best to play all the tournaments so I'll be sure to post my results.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Home Games in Action!
In the last week or so I've played in 2 different friendly home games, something I haven't done in a while and I truly forgot how fun they really are. One of the first tournaments I've ever won was the called the 'Beatrice Invitational' at my brother Rob's house and his two roommates/friends Ryan and Matt. Man it feels like it was yesterday when when I got the call from those guy's saying they are going to host a $50 tournament. I fell off my chair, I was like, "What? 50 bucks, are you crazy, that's a lot of money"..with the quick response of, "Yeah, but you can win 350 bucks".. And those sweet words officially started my poker career!..lol The tournament was seven handed and I remember it lasting forever (oh yeah I forgot to mention, this took place about 3 years ago). I managed to knock out every player and won the first ever Beatrice Invitational winning the $350 dollars which at the time felt like thousands. About a week ago I was talking with my brother and we thought it be a good idea to host a Beatrice Invitational II while watching football on Sunday. So we called up all the boys, pulled out the old table top and chips and the games began. Its kinda funny because I've played tournaments with buy-ins well over $1000 and had zero nerves going into them but with the Beatrice Invitational I was a bit nervous of losing . I was the defending champion.. I couldn't lose! haha
The table consisted of myself, Ryan, Matt, Rob, Mike Wilner, and Two. The very first hand I lost half my stack making a donkey move and I felt the title slipping through my finger tips.. I ended up flopping some big hands and grabbed some chips and made it heads-up with Two. When I went heads-up with Two, I knew he was going to do one thing and one thing only... try to make a big Move on me. I know the way Two thinks when I'm playing him, he thinks I'm trying to push him around and he always snaps back with a big bluff in the wrong spot. And what I thought happened did, I raised on the button with Q,J.. Two looks at his chips (one of Two's tells..lol) then moved all-in... I called and he flipped over 10,J.. He received no help from the board and I became the two time Beatrice Champion! Sorry guys, better luck next time!..hah Ship it
The second home game I attended was at my cousin Paul's house. Now that I've gotten pretty big into poker my cousins have been bugging me to teach them how to play. So we picked a Saturday night and set up a game. I ended up just dealing most of the night so all the games went smoothly, most of the people at the table didn't even know the rules so Poker 101 was in session. I was actually pretty impressed on how many of them were able to pick up the game and concept pretty quickly and we actually had some intense battles. By the end of the night everyone wanted to keep playing but it was 4am! Playing poker all the time makes it tough to see family so I was glad to be able to hang out with my cousins and be able to play poker at the same time. All and all it was a great night, I'm looking forward to the next time we do it.
Pretty much the purpose of this blog is that I didn't realize not only how much fun it is playing home games, but how much it actually improves my poker game in general. When I'm playing poker sometimes over 50-60 hours a week. I'm playing 100% focused and dedicated to play the best poker I can making no mistakes. It can be very mind draining and stressful. When I jump into a fun home game it allows me to relax and play stress free and have a good time while I'm playing.. it also allows me to play like a donkey if I want and do dumb things and not worrying about losing a lot of money. Its like a professional basketball player who plays in the NBA taking a night off and going to shoot hoops with his buddies. He might not try a 360 dunk in a real game but he'll sure have fun and try it when he's out playing for fun. I'm going to do my best to play in more home games when I have the time, so I can blow off some steam and have fun with friends and family.
The table consisted of myself, Ryan, Matt, Rob, Mike Wilner, and Two. The very first hand I lost half my stack making a donkey move and I felt the title slipping through my finger tips.. I ended up flopping some big hands and grabbed some chips and made it heads-up with Two. When I went heads-up with Two, I knew he was going to do one thing and one thing only... try to make a big Move on me. I know the way Two thinks when I'm playing him, he thinks I'm trying to push him around and he always snaps back with a big bluff in the wrong spot. And what I thought happened did, I raised on the button with Q,J.. Two looks at his chips (one of Two's tells..lol) then moved all-in... I called and he flipped over 10,J.. He received no help from the board and I became the two time Beatrice Champion! Sorry guys, better luck next time!..hah Ship it
The second home game I attended was at my cousin Paul's house. Now that I've gotten pretty big into poker my cousins have been bugging me to teach them how to play. So we picked a Saturday night and set up a game. I ended up just dealing most of the night so all the games went smoothly, most of the people at the table didn't even know the rules so Poker 101 was in session. I was actually pretty impressed on how many of them were able to pick up the game and concept pretty quickly and we actually had some intense battles. By the end of the night everyone wanted to keep playing but it was 4am! Playing poker all the time makes it tough to see family so I was glad to be able to hang out with my cousins and be able to play poker at the same time. All and all it was a great night, I'm looking forward to the next time we do it.
Pretty much the purpose of this blog is that I didn't realize not only how much fun it is playing home games, but how much it actually improves my poker game in general. When I'm playing poker sometimes over 50-60 hours a week. I'm playing 100% focused and dedicated to play the best poker I can making no mistakes. It can be very mind draining and stressful. When I jump into a fun home game it allows me to relax and play stress free and have a good time while I'm playing.. it also allows me to play like a donkey if I want and do dumb things and not worrying about losing a lot of money. Its like a professional basketball player who plays in the NBA taking a night off and going to shoot hoops with his buddies. He might not try a 360 dunk in a real game but he'll sure have fun and try it when he's out playing for fun. I'm going to do my best to play in more home games when I have the time, so I can blow off some steam and have fun with friends and family.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Final Table of Pokerstars $100+9 Mult-table Tournament
01/11/07
Its about 4:30am right now and I just finished playing in the pokerstars tournament mentioned in the title. I haven't had a big cash since my 5k 4th place a few nights back. Been playing well and cards are running good to, but just seem to have been losing crucial hands late in tournaments. I played pretty solid throughout this tourny and avoided any gambling situations whenever possible. We were down to 18 players and I was just holding my head above water trying to stay alive. I managed to steal a few blinds and made it to the final table short stacked. It sucked going into the final table short stacked but I would be able to throw my chips around and gamble and hope to double or triple up. In the first few hands of the final table I was in the big blind with 8,9 of hearts when JohnnyBax(popular Internet pro) raised from early position to 6000. I called from the big blind with my 25000 stack. The flop came 6,7,8 giving me top pair and an open-ended straight draw. A perfect flop for my hand as short stacked. Not checking I immediately move all-in. JohnnyBax thinks and calls with A,J giving him no pair and ace high. The turn comes a 10 of spades making my straight, leaving JohnnyBax to only a 9 to make him a higher straight. Seeing I had a 9 in my hand that left him only a 6.82% to hit on the river. And my final table curse continues when a black 9 falls knocking me out in 8th place. Finishing 8th place paid out just over $1000.
I was about to go to bed after getting knocked out, but I was talking to a friend of mine Serge who was in a late night tournament and I thought I join to blow off some steam. Its a cheap tournament only a 26 dollar buy-in. Its funny because I'm tired and want to go to bed but I'm running super hot in this tournament. I'm currently 1st place out of the remaining 180 and people keep handing me their chips! Looks like its going to be a late night.
I dunno who has been watching that new poker show called 'Poker After Dark', but I think it sucks. Its a new show that starts at 3:30am by Full Tilt poker, it pretty much has the same players as High Stakes Poker on GSN but its a single table tournament format. There's no commentating so sometimes you hear nothing but the chips shuffling which gets pretty annoying. I'm hoping I just caught a couple bad episodes because I was looking forward to this show especially that its on a perfect hour of 3:30am!
Anyways I'm gonna finish up this tourny and check on how my boy Serge is making out then probably hit the sack and wake up tomorrow to play a few more tournys!
Its about 4:30am right now and I just finished playing in the pokerstars tournament mentioned in the title. I haven't had a big cash since my 5k 4th place a few nights back. Been playing well and cards are running good to, but just seem to have been losing crucial hands late in tournaments. I played pretty solid throughout this tourny and avoided any gambling situations whenever possible. We were down to 18 players and I was just holding my head above water trying to stay alive. I managed to steal a few blinds and made it to the final table short stacked. It sucked going into the final table short stacked but I would be able to throw my chips around and gamble and hope to double or triple up. In the first few hands of the final table I was in the big blind with 8,9 of hearts when JohnnyBax(popular Internet pro) raised from early position to 6000. I called from the big blind with my 25000 stack. The flop came 6,7,8 giving me top pair and an open-ended straight draw. A perfect flop for my hand as short stacked. Not checking I immediately move all-in. JohnnyBax thinks and calls with A,J giving him no pair and ace high. The turn comes a 10 of spades making my straight, leaving JohnnyBax to only a 9 to make him a higher straight. Seeing I had a 9 in my hand that left him only a 6.82% to hit on the river. And my final table curse continues when a black 9 falls knocking me out in 8th place. Finishing 8th place paid out just over $1000.
I was about to go to bed after getting knocked out, but I was talking to a friend of mine Serge who was in a late night tournament and I thought I join to blow off some steam. Its a cheap tournament only a 26 dollar buy-in. Its funny because I'm tired and want to go to bed but I'm running super hot in this tournament. I'm currently 1st place out of the remaining 180 and people keep handing me their chips! Looks like its going to be a late night.
I dunno who has been watching that new poker show called 'Poker After Dark', but I think it sucks. Its a new show that starts at 3:30am by Full Tilt poker, it pretty much has the same players as High Stakes Poker on GSN but its a single table tournament format. There's no commentating so sometimes you hear nothing but the chips shuffling which gets pretty annoying. I'm hoping I just caught a couple bad episodes because I was looking forward to this show especially that its on a perfect hour of 3:30am!
Anyways I'm gonna finish up this tourny and check on how my boy Serge is making out then probably hit the sack and wake up tomorrow to play a few more tournys!
Thursday, January 4, 2007
So So SOUR!
I'm still staring at my screen in shock of what just happened to me in the $163 Full Tilt Multi-table tournament, where 1st place paid $14,000. The whole tourny I stayed about average stack and managed to make it to the final table of the 372 players who entered the tournament. I was playing really solid and had a pretty tight aggressive image at the table. I was able to win a big all-in with pocket 6's vs A,9 to make me chip leader with 6 players remaining. I was sitting with about 300k, the closest guy to me had about 200k and third had 180k. From the button the guy with 180k moves all-in as I look down at A,k. I immediately call and the button shows A,9 offsuit. To my liking the flop comes down A,K,8 rainbow.... the turn... a 9, I laughed out loud thinking how sick it would be if the guy hits another 9 on the river to fill up. And my final table curse continued when the 9 of spades fell on the river. I nearly puked on my keyboard. After the flop fell I was a 99.19% favorite to win the hand. So sick. But I still had some chips left and played all-in poker for a few rounds getting me back in contentions with 4 players remaining. with the blinds 10,000-20,000 I move all-in on the button with A,K again and got called by the chip leader with K,Q.. and of course a Queen comes right away on the flop knocking me out in 4th place. The day wasn't so bad because forth place did paid just over $5,000. As happy as I am winning $5,000 in 1 days work.. I'm still so sick about not winning the 14k.
I did manage to cash in another tournament on Ultimate Bet paying me approx. $300. So all and all it was a good day, considering the bullshit beats I took on the final table. Its about 2:30am right now, I'm probably going to eat since I wasn't able to get up during the tournament to eat. Then probably catch a flick on TMN and hit the sack..
Night..
I did manage to cash in another tournament on Ultimate Bet paying me approx. $300. So all and all it was a good day, considering the bullshit beats I took on the final table. Its about 2:30am right now, I'm probably going to eat since I wasn't able to get up during the tournament to eat. Then probably catch a flick on TMN and hit the sack..
Night..
Jay Pizzo's first ever Poker Blog!
What's up everybody..
I'm using this site to blog all my poker results, poker hands and anything to do with poker. I am starting this blog for all friends, family, co-workers and players who are curious about my poker results and lifestyle. Consitently I answer the same questions about how I did at a certain tournament or about specific hands, so I'm hoping by putting it all down here will give you guys all the stuff you want to know. It's my 2007 New Year's resolution to track all my poker winnings and to keep it in a blog, so here it is. And I do apoligize for my shit writing, haven't been in school for a while now which might show in my blogs. Most of my blogs will talk about online tournaments I play in, live and online cash games I jump into and poker trips I take. I'm going to try my best to write in a way that if you have no idea about poker you will still get an idea on whats going on.
Before I get into specifics, I'll give a rundown of of my poker success in 2006. 2006 was the year of online for me, prior to this year I was playing the majority of my poker live at casino's and underground clubs. I was bored one day and opened up one of my poker accounts on pokerroom.com and saw they gave me a free $20. Joined a sit n' go (single table tournament), won that, played a $100 multi-table tournament finished second, before I knew it I turned that 20 bucks into $5000 in a few weeks. I was happy as a pig and shit, I won't lie.
In April-JuneI headed to Las Vegas with my brother Rob for the WSOP (World series of Poker). For those who don't know the WSOP is approx. 30 days of different tournaments ranging the buy-ins from $1000-$10,000. The main event is 10k. So the first tournament I entered was the $1500 No Limit holdem event. I started the tournament off great doubling up by flopping a set making myself chip leader for my table. Played solid for a few hours till I played an interesting hand with Andy Bloch (professional player) where I still think he played the hand like a donkey. With the blinds at 50/100 he raises from middle position to $400 of his $2700 stack, I'm sitting directly to his left looking down at KK raising it to $1800 to go. He thinks and thinks and only calls leaving himself with only $900. I'm wondering why he wouldn't push or fold from that spot? Anyways the flop comes 8,4,2 rainbow. He checks and I immediately put him all in for his remaining $900 and he quickly calls with 8,8 flopping top set. That hand completely crippled myself for that tournament. From there on in I ran Awful for the rest of my trip in Vegas. I entered the 1k buy-in tourny at the Bellagio getting knocked out late in the tournament with KK all-in vs JJ to a JJ,4 flop. Following that tournament I had an early exit from the $1500 Limit Holdem WSOP event having my KK again get run down by A,J. Besides getting unlucky at the poker tables I did end up having a good time meeting up with a good buddy of mine Brohman and a couple of his buddies and drank away my poker sorrows. All and all my first Vegas trip was an awesome one giving me a shit load of well needed experience playing with top notch players and getting a real good feel for the professional poker player lifestyle. But that knowledge didn't come cheap! Overall the trip cost me about $5000-7000 with tournament entries.
In September and October I was running extremely hot in online poker touraments. 6th Place in the World Series of Online Poker Cup tournament on Poker Stars paying out over $26,000, winning 2 WPT Seats worth $12,000 per seat and winning a few other smaller tournaments tallying approximately 50k over those two months. In the end of October I had my best personal accomplishment when I played in the $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tournament event in Niagara Falls. The tournament had approx. 500 players with a 1st place prize of over 1 million dollars. I made it down to 50 players left in day 2 where I took my worst beat in my poker career. To make a long story short, because it hurts even typing this shit, I moved all in with pocket Aces and got called by A,Q offsuit and the guy made a straight. 45th place payed out $20,000 and I finished somewhere between 46th-50th paying me zero dollars! Ship it!
I also had a fun trip down at Foxwoods Casino and resort which I'll talk about in future blogs b/c I'm sure you all are bored as shit right now!
Alright guys I'm really hoping I stick to writing this blog on a regular basis, if any of you have any questions about specific hands or anything just let me know.
Jay Pizzo
I'm using this site to blog all my poker results, poker hands and anything to do with poker. I am starting this blog for all friends, family, co-workers and players who are curious about my poker results and lifestyle. Consitently I answer the same questions about how I did at a certain tournament or about specific hands, so I'm hoping by putting it all down here will give you guys all the stuff you want to know. It's my 2007 New Year's resolution to track all my poker winnings and to keep it in a blog, so here it is. And I do apoligize for my shit writing, haven't been in school for a while now which might show in my blogs. Most of my blogs will talk about online tournaments I play in, live and online cash games I jump into and poker trips I take. I'm going to try my best to write in a way that if you have no idea about poker you will still get an idea on whats going on.
Before I get into specifics, I'll give a rundown of of my poker success in 2006. 2006 was the year of online for me, prior to this year I was playing the majority of my poker live at casino's and underground clubs. I was bored one day and opened up one of my poker accounts on pokerroom.com and saw they gave me a free $20. Joined a sit n' go (single table tournament), won that, played a $100 multi-table tournament finished second, before I knew it I turned that 20 bucks into $5000 in a few weeks. I was happy as a pig and shit, I won't lie.
In April-JuneI headed to Las Vegas with my brother Rob for the WSOP (World series of Poker). For those who don't know the WSOP is approx. 30 days of different tournaments ranging the buy-ins from $1000-$10,000. The main event is 10k. So the first tournament I entered was the $1500 No Limit holdem event. I started the tournament off great doubling up by flopping a set making myself chip leader for my table. Played solid for a few hours till I played an interesting hand with Andy Bloch (professional player) where I still think he played the hand like a donkey. With the blinds at 50/100 he raises from middle position to $400 of his $2700 stack, I'm sitting directly to his left looking down at KK raising it to $1800 to go. He thinks and thinks and only calls leaving himself with only $900. I'm wondering why he wouldn't push or fold from that spot? Anyways the flop comes 8,4,2 rainbow. He checks and I immediately put him all in for his remaining $900 and he quickly calls with 8,8 flopping top set. That hand completely crippled myself for that tournament. From there on in I ran Awful for the rest of my trip in Vegas. I entered the 1k buy-in tourny at the Bellagio getting knocked out late in the tournament with KK all-in vs JJ to a JJ,4 flop. Following that tournament I had an early exit from the $1500 Limit Holdem WSOP event having my KK again get run down by A,J. Besides getting unlucky at the poker tables I did end up having a good time meeting up with a good buddy of mine Brohman and a couple of his buddies and drank away my poker sorrows. All and all my first Vegas trip was an awesome one giving me a shit load of well needed experience playing with top notch players and getting a real good feel for the professional poker player lifestyle. But that knowledge didn't come cheap! Overall the trip cost me about $5000-7000 with tournament entries.
In September and October I was running extremely hot in online poker touraments. 6th Place in the World Series of Online Poker Cup tournament on Poker Stars paying out over $26,000, winning 2 WPT Seats worth $12,000 per seat and winning a few other smaller tournaments tallying approximately 50k over those two months. In the end of October I had my best personal accomplishment when I played in the $10,000 buy-in World Poker Tournament event in Niagara Falls. The tournament had approx. 500 players with a 1st place prize of over 1 million dollars. I made it down to 50 players left in day 2 where I took my worst beat in my poker career. To make a long story short, because it hurts even typing this shit, I moved all in with pocket Aces and got called by A,Q offsuit and the guy made a straight. 45th place payed out $20,000 and I finished somewhere between 46th-50th paying me zero dollars! Ship it!
I also had a fun trip down at Foxwoods Casino and resort which I'll talk about in future blogs b/c I'm sure you all are bored as shit right now!
Alright guys I'm really hoping I stick to writing this blog on a regular basis, if any of you have any questions about specific hands or anything just let me know.
Jay Pizzo
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