On Thursday I played some live cash at Foxwoods, the big games were super tough so I mostly played 25/50 and lost around $5K. I didn't really make any hands and I made one bad river call for $2K. Steve busted on Day 1 also though so we left Friday morning. I crashed at his place in Kingston again after the long drive, and then I drove back to Toronto Saturday morning in time to play the FTOPS events on Saturday, and a full Sunday schedule. Saturday went pretty poorly for me, but Sunday was fairly successful. I made a bit playing cash, and then had several tournament cashes, unfortunately nothing really big though. Going deep in several of the major tournaments earned me the win in a sidebet I was in with 10 other people on 2+2 about who would do the best in the big tourneys on Stars/Full Tilt so I won like $3K from that on top of my cashes. Unfortunately I made a bad play deep in the 2nd Chance on Stars which cost me a chance at a big score and busted me in 15th.

Tonight I played some more tournaments including the big FTOPS event and a little cash. I didn't make the money in any tourneys though and I think I lost a little at NL cash. However I saw Gus playing a bunch of 200/400 PLO tables and decided to randomly take another shot shortstacking that game. Probably not a very smart thing to do but I think I'm probably slightly +EV. The swings are so huge though but a little controlled shot taking isn't the worst thing. Anyways here are the big hands:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1693044

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1693045

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1693048

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1693050 - ty Gus?

http://www.pokerhand.org/?1693051 - I was going to quit after this hand regardless, an unfortunate end to the session but overall still very profitable.

Anyways I still definitely don't want to get in the habit of playing these games too often it's just too big and I'm not confident enough in my PLO game even playing only 20xBB deep, but it's pretty sweet when you're on the right side of these hands.

I'd really like to put in some serious effort to improve my PLO and HORSE games at some point but I just never get around to it, especially when there are still lots of good holdem games I can be playing and making money in instead. When I think about how long it took me to get to the level I'm at in NL Holdem and how there's still a lot I don't know it seems like a pretty daunting task to try to master more complicated games like PLO, O8, Stud 8, etc... but it'd definitely be a really good option to have when I get a little tired of playing Holdem all the time or when other games are softer. Anwyays for now I'll be focusing mostly on FTOPS and the other usual tournaments and cash games.

Mike

I believe I was either the 4th or 5th person eliminated from the main event today. I played some really crazy hands in level 1 today, most involving someone hitting a gutshot. Gutshots have really been killing me lately. Rewind back to Niagara last week I lost a $22K pot to a gutshot.

I was playing 25/50 NL cash again and was up like $3K just playing aggressively and winning a lot of small pots by following up preflop raises with flop bets most of the time whether I hit or not. Standard stuff (but not to the live nits). So I raise QJo in MP to 200 and get called on the button by some guy who likes to call my raises and then fold when he misses. Effective stacks $11Kish. The flop comes Q95r, I bet 400 and he instacalls which I'm pretty confident is a sign of weakness. Turn is a J, I bet $1000 and he quickly makes it $4000. In retrospect this is probably the easiest fold ever but I had top two pair and kind of thought he might be making a move getting sick of me running him over (hint: live players will never adjust they just try to "trap" you) so I shipped it in and lost lots of money to his obvious KT.

OK so back to Foxwoods main event:

Hand 1: 50/100 30K starting chips. CO limps, button limps, SB completes I check K8o in the BB. Flop K84 2 hearts, I bet 300 and button calls. Turn 3c, I bet 750 button calls. River 6h, I decide to go for thin value and bet 1500, he calls with 75o. OK wtf...

Hand 2: I've been pretty aggressive so far, raising a lot of hands and firing on the flop most of the time. Unfortunately I've been getting called a lot and having to give up so people aren't giving me much credit anymore. I'm down to 25K now and raise KQo to 400 in EP. 2 players call in MP, the latter being David Pham. Flop AJ8r, I bet 800 and Pham calls. Turn T, I bet 2K and Pham calls. River is a low diamond completing a backdoor flush draw, I bet 5K he calls and mucks. These gutshots are a lot more fun when you're the one hitting them.

Hand 3: So Im up to 33K and lose a little randomly raising and missing some more when I find KK in EP and raise to 400. An older guy calls in MP, he doesn't look like a huge nit but I have to assume he's prboably on the solid side and not going to mess around too much without a big hand postflop. Pham now reraises to 1500. He's since lost another big pot and only had 12.5K to start the hand (our table is crazy), and there's a good chance he's just steaming at this point. I decide to just call to trap since I'm not sure how often he'll get all-in preflop with a hand like AK or QQ/JJ even if he's tilting a little and the old guy also calls in the middle. Flop 89T, and it surprisingly checks around. Turn is a 3, I lead for 3K, old guy calls, and Pham now shoves for around 8500 more. I have no idea what to put him on here, I can't imagine he would ever check that flop with a big hand so something like QQ/JJ seems fairly likely, I guess maybe AA but a set should be unlikely. However I'm very concerned about the old guy in the middle it seems like he could very easily have a set and be willing to risk a bad river card to try to trap Pham. I end up folding and old guy instacalls with a set of 3s, Pham has QQ and busts out. It was pretty sick that this hand went the only way it possibly could go where I don't get his stack.

Hand 4: Guy limps UTG, UTG+1 who seems fairly decent makes it 350, I call next to act with QQ, we get one more caller and the limper calls. Flop QT6 rainbow, check to me I bet 1K (should bet a little more), folds to the original raiser who calls which is pretty weird. Turn is a J and he now bombs into me for 3K. I really didn't think he'd call the flop with AK, and he wouldn't have raised a limper with 89, so I figure he probably has JJ or TT and decide to valuestack myself by raising and getting another 18K in against his AK. I definitely should have just called down here it was a pretty clear mistake in retrospect. So I have 2K left now.

Hand 5: Down to 1200 now at 100/200, loose asian guy limps UTG, folds to me on the button I shove 66 and he calls with A5s. I manage to hold and double to 2700. I then shove over a raise with AJ to get to 3600 when he folds.

Hand 6: I raise in EP with QQ, asian guy calls, guy after him makes it 2500, I move in and he calls with TT. 4 bricks and a river T later I'm the 4th or 5th bustout of the tournament :-(.


So Steve plays tomorrow. I finally got my wire transfer money today so I have enough cash to play some big cash games, so I think I'm gonna take another shot at them, I've heard a lot of stories about the games being pretty good. I also had a nice session playing 5/10 NL yesterday where I made $7200 basically just running over the table and hitting every flop. I got AA against KK twice and stacked the guy both times as well which was pretty insane. As long as I remember that they're never bluffing and and get back to making ridiculous hero folds I should do well.

Mike

Busted out in 7th place. Here my vBlog below:

Click here for voice blog

Down to 7 handed, SirWatts is about average in chips. Here's is his voice blog report during a recent break:

Click here for vblog

So today was my first Foxwoods donkament. People here are really bad at poker. Steve and i both made it through to day 2 of the tournament, play starts up at noon tomorrow with 27 or 28 players left. I don't feel like I played very well today but I shortstack ninja'd my way along despite never getting dealt a hand. I have 73.5K going into tomorrow, average is around 130K.

Hand 1: I have around the $8K we started with. Limp behind an EP limp at 25/50 with J9cc. Flop JsTc9s. Checks to me I bet 200, SB makes it 600 I call. Turn Kc, he bets 1K I call. River 2s, he bets 1K and I kind of shrug as I'm going to muck my hand then realize the other flush draw just got there and I could almost certainly just shove and win the pot, but decide I've probably tellboxed too much to try to bluff now so I fold.

Hand 2: <3 Foxwoods. Guy raises my blind to 525 at 100/200. I make it 1600 with JJ and 3100 behind, he calls. Flop KJ6 two clubs, I jam and he calls with 42cc. Turn 6 leaves him drawing dead. Yeah that reads 42cc, I couldn't make this shit up.

Hand 3-10?: Fold til blinds get big then open shove my stack for various amounts with various hands, mostly complete garbage, and never get called.

Hand 11: I have too many chips to open shove so I raise to 2400 at 400/800 a100 with ATo. Some old guy on my left shoves 6K more, I have to call and he has A5s. Board comes 8828T. Woot.

Hand 12-20?: Fold a lot more then go allin a bunch and never get called. Highlights include shoving 20K with Q6o at 1k/2k a300 from the HJ and watching the button tank for a minute and claim to fold AQ. lol good times.

Hand 21: CO open shoves I call on the button with KK to get to 48K.

Hand 22: Open to 8K in the CO at 1500/3000 a400 with A3o. Old guy in the SB calls and leads for 8K on the J93 flop. It's kinda near the bubble but I'd do this anyways and shove like 35-40K more or something because he's never calling. He mumbled something about AT and folded. Up to like 70K and I make the money.

Hand 23: Open to 11K in the HJ with A2o at 2k/4k a400, the BB shoves like 19K more and I have to call getting 2.5:1. He has JJ and I river an A, everyone calls me a donkey etc...

Hand 24: Shortly after last hand I open to 11K in the CO with KJo with another 80K or so behind. Button makes it 27K and he's pretty aggro. I really want to shove because I think he's completely FOS but I decided to pause and think for a second before I do. Then he says something about A2 no good this time and whenever people talk I figure they have something so I fold. Sigh I wish I had just quickly shoved on him I play so bad.

Anyways 73.5K going to tomorrow. Steve is also still in with like 190K or something. Hopefully I can make some hands tomorrow I was pretty brutally card dead today.

Mike