I mentioned before that I applied for Taylor Caby’s protégé contest and I was thinking last night about what my realistic chances are of winning. My few paragraphs would have to stand out from everyone elses and I’m not sure if I did that. I’m sure much of my responses were just as generic as the rest. The one original thing I did do was cancel my membership and then rejoin a week later so that I could enter the smaller pool of contestants filled with new signees. Then I started thinking about why I want it so badly. The obvious choice would be money but it’s much deeper than that for me.

It’s for freedom. I can hear Mel Gibson screaming it out right now…FREEDOM!!!!


I have a full time job and have no inclination to quit that job for a poker lifestyle. I don’t make a ton of money but I live comfortably. The extra money I make from poker gives me the freedom to do what I could not with my normal income. I feel very bogged down by the working suburbian life. We live in a society where work dominates your time. The standard 9 to 5 day and commute times leaves only a few hours a day for yourself to enjoy and most of the time you’re too tired anyways. Throw kids into the mix and you might as well forget about doing things for yourself (can you tell I don’t have any yet? :). In the short time that I’m on this planet I want to experience it. I want to see many different parts of the world.

Poker gives me that option. I used some of my winnings and took my girlfriend to Mexico over Christmas for 10 days. We didn’t choose the popular beach locations but delved into some culture in Mexico City and the surrounding areas exploring some ancient Aztec ruins. It was amazing and it only fuels my fire to see more. Since poker is not part of my normal income it’s easier to spend it. I know this doesn’t make sense but psychologically it works for me.

So what next?...what if I don’t win the contest? I know that coaching would be beneficial for my game. I’m a winning player but I have leaks and it’s hard to plug them all through self reflection. A kid can play basketball his whole life and shoot basket after basket day after day for hours (like I did) and become a great shooter. Yet there are always small changes in mechanics that would improve the shot that the shooter is unable to see. If I don’t win the contest I will start looking for some coaches. The difficult part is finding someone who is a good fit and priced reasonably.

I’m also considering doing some coaching for free. Why would I do that and who would want to learn from me? Well…I am a winning player and could help out a low level player improve. More importantly why would I want to? Teaching is not a one way street. I’ve mentioned before that I am a teacher and when you start out teaching, even though you have a firm grasp on the material, when you explain it to someone else you get a much firmer grip on everything. Someone may not understand the way you’re explaining something and you have to think of another way to present it. This only strengthens the knowledge you have on the subject. Students also ask questions that you haven’t thought of and make you see things in a new light. I would assume that I would get the same result from coaching poker. I’ll make my decision on these things after Taylor announces my name.

FREEDOM!!!!

Last Friday I was bored and entered a satellite for the FTOPS $100 rebuy. At the time I didn't even know it was a rebuy tourney :) I was in one of those moods where I felt like playing and entered one of the first satellites I saw. Obviously I won a seat.

The tournament was Saturday and the field was extremely weak. Many of the players did not initially double their stack and some even quit after their first stack was gone. The tournament was interesting because I must have changed tables 9-10 times and had to get a feel for the dynamic at each new table and adjust my play. I would finally get a good feel and then I would move again. Sometimes I would curse for moving and other times I would say a quick prayer to the poker gods for moving me. It actually made me pay attention a lot more because I had to change gears so often.

The worst table change came when I had a decent stack and the two chip leaders in the tourney were directly to my left. They were both playing 30/20 and making life difficult for me...stealing their blinds was out of the question. I thought the following hand was interesting:

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 1,700/3,400 Blinds, 400 Ante, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 85,978
BTN: 167,391
SB: 51,224
BB: 90,873
Hero (UTG): 121,187
UTG+1: 313,636
UTG+2: 343,915
MP1: 42,214
MP2: 193,920

Pre-Flop: (8,700) Q K dealt to Hero (UTG)
[color=red]Hero raises to 8,500[/color], UTG+1 folds, UTG+2 calls 8,500, 3 folds, BTN calls 8,500, SB folds, BB calls 5,100

Flop: (39,300) 9 4 4 (4 Players)
BB checks, Hero checks, [color=red]UTG+2 bets 17,000[/color], 2 folds, [color=red]Hero raises to 60,000[/color], UTG+2 folds

Results: 73,300 Pot
Hero mucked Q K and WON 73,300 (+47,400 NET)

He was leading at a ton of pots and figured the only way he might make a call or shove is if he had tens or JJ but doubted he would even make that call since my line is strong. There was no way he was leading this with a 4 or with 99.

I did not get very good cards but took advantage of my image at the various tables and definitely played the player. One time my girlfriend happened to look over and said "Why are you putting so much money in with 76?" "Babe...because he's going to fold"

I'm going backwards chronologically in tourney hands but I was considering shoving in the following hand:

We were 20-30 people away from the bubble. I had been raising quite a bit and taking most down preflop as our table was playing very tight. The Villain was a high stakes cash game player and was well aware of bubble dynamics. He could be doing this with total junk but I have no fold equity if I shove.

Reasons for folding: I'm raising from utg+1 so that should look pretty strong so he must have something. I can fold and still abuse everyone.

Reasons for shoving: QJs does very well against his wide range and a double up is always nice.


Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 500/1,000 Blinds, 125 Ante, 9 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

CO: 21,533
BTN: 8,190
SB: 4,591
BB: 36,711
UTG: 20,424
Hero (UTG+1): 17,589
UTG+2: 28,015
MP1: 33,219
MP2: 25,496

Pre-Flop: (2,625) Q J dealt to Hero (UTG+1)
UTG folds, [color=red]Hero raises to 2,500[/color], UTG+2 calls 2,500, [color=red]MP1 raises to 9,000[/color]

I'm not sure what the correct play is.

And then the bustout hand. The reraiser was playing pretty LAG 27/18 . When he flipped over Q10o I was ecstatic but alas. Still won a little cash though.

Full Tilt Poker, NL Hold'em Tournament, 3,000/6,000 Blinds, 750 Ante, 8 Players
LeggoPoker.com - Hand History Converter

MP1: 275,305
MP2: 264,104
CO: 135,742
BTN: 347,646
SB: 190,930
Hero (BB): 104,437
UTG: 106,410
UTG+1: 61,008

Pre-Flop: (15,000) A K dealt to Hero (BB)
2 folds, [color=red]MP1 raises to 17,600[/color], [color=red]MP2 raises to 53,400[/color], CO folds, [color=red]Hero raises to 103,687 and is All-In[/color], 3 folds, MP2 calls 50,287

Flop: (233,974) 9 2 T (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Turn: (233,974) 9 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

River: (233,974) 7 (2 Players - 1 is All-In)

Results: 233,974 Pot
MP2 showed T Q (two pair, Tens and Nines) and WON 233,974 (+129,537 NET)
Hero showed A K (a pair of Nines) and LOST (-104,437 NET)


I'm currently playing FTOPS #9 but its uneventful. I have been at the same table though for 2 hrs which is amazing...lol. (I just looked in PT and I changed 14 times last night)

I just cashed out some from FT so my roll isn't big enough to play all of the NL events so I'll try to sat in to some. Unless some tworags pro wants to back me....Cmon Bond, I'm plus EV BABY!


edit: Event #9 Nursed a shortstack for a long time and with M=5 shoved 77 from MP and ran into QQ. Finished 218

I haven't posted in awhile because I came to the realization "Who really gives a crap what I have to say?" I talked to Dante and he reeled me back in a little. I originally was going to talk about my trip to Mexico City or my recent 5th place screw up in the Cake 100k but settled on an event from today.

The following is a true story:

As many other members at cardrunners I applied for the Taylor Caby protege contest. I've been checking his blog and the forums daily to see if the winners have been announced. All of this is having an effect on my subconscious as I had a dream about it.

In the dream I was hanging out with Taylor drinking some beer and he was introducing me to a bunch of different people. Many of his friends said, "You must be Jeremy" which led me to believe in my dream that I was one of the winners. A gambling game started up where everyone received one card face up and the buyin was $1000. Although out of my price range I forked it over since I would be making some money once the lessons started. I lost.

At one point everyone was talking about where to go out that night and I looked down and noticed that I was wearing warmup pants and a t-shirt and needed to change. Next thing I know I'm in different clothes and everyone was getting ready to go out. There was one taxi and everyone wouldn't fit. Taylor says, "Hey man, It was nice hanging out with you...see you later" and proceeds to get in the car leaving me standing outside. Humiliated I yelled "F@#! you guys!" and began to walk home.

"Oh, we didn't know you wanted to go...come on"

"Screw you bastards" and I walked home which happened to be on the corner. My place was above a strip mall with a food court where I saw a girl crying that I used to mess around with years ago. Suave as can be I said "You want to come upstairs and talk?" She followed me up the stairs and as I led her into my place.....

my damn alarm goes off! No joke. I'm humiliated in a dream and I can't even make it better by getting a little.

Hopefully I can't foresee the future even though I am the Swami. I want to win that damn contest.

I'm extremely upset at how I ended this tournament. I was 2nd in chips with 15 left when the hand below happened. I was in a good situation in this tourney and only had to really worry about 3-4 players...Adanthar being one of them. I did not think through the hand properly and instacalled on the turn. Part of this is to vent because the few people I talked to at work don't understand my blunder. They just say "Holy crap, you won $5500" I'm a teacher and that's a season of coaching a 3-4 month sport for them that I made in one night...they don't get beyond that.

Full Tilt (6 handed) Full Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com (Format: 2+2 Forums)

Seat 2: MP (1,886,861)
Seat 7: Hero BB (1,317,097)


Preflop: Hero is SB with J, J. Hero posts a blind of 50000.
2 folds, MP raises 100,000, 2 folds, Hero (poster) raises 325,000, MP calls.

Flop: T, 2, 8 (2 players) pot 686,000
Hero bets 500,000, MP raises 1,000,000, Hero calls 486097 (All-In).

Turn: 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: 6 (2 players, 1 all-in)
MP showed 8 8 and won (2,658,194) with three of a kind, Eights

Final Pot:


This isn't a bad beat post. He flopped a great hand but I did not analyze the flop like I should have. Once I reraised his minraise and he just called I can pretty much rule out KK+ from this type of player. He raised my flop bet and my dumbass instacalled without thinking...that's just poor. Hit the damn time button, talk out loud to yourself like you had been doing the whole tournament, don't act like a fing donk and instacall because you have an overpair to the board. There were no straight or flush draws and I was one of the only stacks that could put a dent in him so there is no way he's raising this spot without a set or the off chance he called preflop with kings or aces.

I still would have had a manageable stack if I folded (M=5)...especially with the players that were left. This isn't a post to advise "fold if you're beat" because I didn't know where I was at in the hand. That's the problem with this whole hand. My advice is to TAKE YOUR TIME. Think through the hand carefully...there is a lot of money at stake. I don't play in enough tourneys to be in these situations that often so fing up this prime opportunity really hurts.

My parents live out of state and so do one of my good friends parents, so for the past 2 years we've made a turkey, drank beer and watched football. Here's this year's turkey...

Turkey

Luckily we had a backup plan.

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