Well, Thanksgiving, my Grandmother's 80th Birthday, as well as some poker has been taking place since my last update.
First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. I know it's late, and everyone is already thinking about Christmas, but we all have a great deal to be thankful for. I was extremely lucky to be adopted into my wonderful loving family. My entire family has been extremely supportive as I've developed as a poker player and grown into an adult. They've been behind me my entire life, good times, and bad.
Thank you so much.
For Thanksgiving dinner, we had my mom's side of the family over. After dinner we visited with my Dad's side of the family at my Aunt's.
Let me tell you something, it's a lot of fun to play in the major live events and get recognized. Being asked for a picture, interview, or signing an autograph is pretty cool, but I'll tell you what - It's great to be able to come home to my family and friends and just be Adam Junglen. I'm really lucky to be surrounded by a great family as well as a ton of friends, whom I managed to visit over the weekend.
Also this weekend we celebrated my Grandma Marty's 80th Birthday. I can't possibly imagine ever being that old, it's quite a milestone. I'm also happy to report she's in great health and she's still with her husband, (my grandpa) by her side. In fact, both sides of my grandparents are still with us, which is very rare considering my age, and something I certainly do not take for granted.
Happy 80th Birthday Grandma!
Now, onto other things. I got my new desktop in the mail and it's just....huge. Right now I'm running on a 30in monitor, and another 20in beside in on portrait mode (flipped vertical). it's capable of running more monitors, and I have a spare 20in I'll be using once I move into my new apartment/office.
Several days ago I couldn't sleep, so I decided to play some cash. Usually I play HU SNG's when I'm bored or can't sleep, but I decided to play some 25/50NL. I certainly don't claim to be a long-term winner in the game. I probably should've just played 10/20, but I guess I just felt like gambling.
My opponent and I went back and forth a bit, he was up around a grand for awhile, then I won it back, got even, and then proceeded to stack him in this $10k pot. Pretty sick cold deck, glad I was on the right end of it. Afterwards I ended up playing a few more orbits, but basically ended up hitting and running since I saw Shaun sitting at 25/50 capped, which I'm much more comfortable playing.
Deeb (tedsfishfry) was sitting at the 25/50 capped game and I decided to sit to joke around. Well, he posted immediately and it was quite clear he was willing to play. I obliged and took just under $5k off of him, which is quite a bit when you're playing capped pots.
At 25/50 capped the most you can bet in a single hand is 30bb's, or $1,500 - so he was stacked quite a few times. I believe we broke even in races (my AK < QQ and my 77 > AQ), I managed to get lucky once with A8 > JJ on the 78T flop, but besides that I just straight owned Shaun. I'm not really big on posting HH's, but some of these are just funny, and I know he won't mind. I actually hope he chimes in on some of these.
As I put it, it was a "friendly game."
Remember, they're capped NL hands.
88 > A7
KT > JT - Check/Capping on this board is pretty standard since it's so draw heavy. I was expecting to get called by middle pair.
LOL - This isn't as god-awful as it looks. Shaun raised preflop, made a pair on the turn, called my bet, and then the Ace on the river was just a good card for me to bluff at. Shaun probably thought I was floating OOP with absolute air, or had a King. "The nuts or nothing," and obviously I only play the nuts.
KK > A8s - I guess Shaun thought I had a small pair or weaker Ace....or more likely was just tilting - because I knew he'd call a full capped bet. Shootin fish in a barrel =)
No brag would be complete without a sicko graph, posted below. Trust me, I'll be the first one to tell you I ran hot (specifically vs neverA).
I think Shaun just wanted to pay for my Lasik I'm having on Friday...so, thanks for the new eyes Shaun!
I'm pretty much done saying how I got into poker. This entry's going to be a review of my "breakout" summer.
In the spring I had won the $200 HU MTT on PS for $14k or so, and the $10r 55k for about $13k. I was very satisfied with my online results, but one major thing still eluded me. A major live win. In May I was in Vancouver for the Johnny Chan Poker Classic. KalenSC won the first $500 NLH event, then Jeff won the $1k 6max event. The next event was PLH and I final tabled, but ended up losing a critical race at the final table and placed 5th, if I recall correctly for around $13k.
Then later in June I made my first televised final table - a $1k Heartland Poker Tour event at Turning Stone. It wasn't a big deal media wise, but I desperately wanted to win a live tournament. I went into the TV table (final 6) as the chipleader, and played worse than I'm capable of and got coolered out of it to place 4th for ...I don't even remember. Around $12k.
That was a very devastating experience for me. I was a decent favorite to win, was feeling confident, and came up short. When you're as hyper-competitive as me, nothing short of a victory will suffice. I went home and was massively depressed at my failure.
About a day after I got home I bought a plane ticket to Las Vegas. The WSOP was going on and I figured it'd be a good idea to take a trip out and see some friends and clear my mind. I was taking the TS tournament too hard, which is something I've worked on. I don't get as heartbroken anymore over tournaments (although they can still be extremely frustrating). At that time I was really frustrated though. I'd taken 8th in a previous TS 1k, 5th in the PLH $1k, and now 4th in the TS Televised $1k. My motivation was hurting and was ready to just take an extended break.
Anyways, I stayed with Bond18 and then stayed at "The Gobbo House" with Gobbo, JCarver, EC10, Kalen, Mlagoo, and I'm sure others that I'm missing. Not to mention there were many visitors every night. It was nice to see all of my poker friends outside of the poker element.
One night my friend, and fellow two ragger Matt (mlagoo) won the $1k Sunday Million for around $315k. Words cannot describe how happy I was for my friend. Without a single iota of jealousy we all celebrated his win. I remember the next day I was incredibly motivated. I said to myself "Matt can do this, I know I can!"
It was Monday and I decided I was going to win the biggest tournament - the FTP $1k. As some of you may recall, I didn't end up winning, but took 3rd place for $33k - my biggest cash at the time.
I was not satisfied.
I wanted to win. I wanted it more than anything. I wanted to experience the feeling of winning a huge tournament, whether it be online or live.
I didn't take 3rd place too hard, after all, it was my biggest cash. My friends were around me to help give moral support, but I was fine. I hung out in LV for another few days, but I had a mission. I couldn't concentrate on the online majors while playing on a laptop too well, so I flew home a few days after my FTP cash to play the majors.
I believe it was the next week at home that my mission continued. I had to win a tournament....and I was in a great position to. I was heads-up in the Sunday $100+R, first was around $36k, and I had a gigantic chiplead heads-up. Well, I somehow managed to lose every single hand during HU play and took 2nd for 23k or so.
It was horrible. I still can't believe I lost that. Don't get me wrong, $23k is a hell of a lot of money - I still know the value of money.....but I set the bar very high for myself and when I lost that match I was just in shock.
The next Sunday arrived and I was ready to play. I was incredibly determined to take down a major. Perhaps the devastating $100r disappointment turned out to be a blessing, because I was firing on all cylinders. After 12 grueling hours of intense concentration I did it.
I DID IT!
I won the PokerStars Sunday Million for $200k.
This was by far my greatest poker accomplishment. It was such a relief to finally take one down. I still wake up sometimes and just think to myself, "Damn...that was awesome. I reached my goal, I did it."
My local friends were at a friends house, watching me play on a laptop. They were all drinking and having a great time. I woke up my mom and told her I "finally did it." She knew how badly I wanted a victory and was very happy for me. Later that night I went with my friends to Steak N' Shake, a 24/7 diner to celebrate. I'll never forget it.
Just writing about this brings back the amazing indescribable feeling of finally achieving a major goal.
I'd won the biggest Sunday tournament. Now it was time for me to put up a big live result.
I haven't decided yet if I'm going to continue writing about how I got into poker. For the most part I think I covered most of the real questions of how I first got started, and it's getting to the point where I'm just re-blogging stuff that's simply in my archives. Regardless, I may continue to write about what's happened this year from my current perspective. We'll see though.
Lately I've been pretty busy. First, some fairly big news. I went in for my Lasik consultation, and the doctor told me I had terrible eyes, and that he could fix them forever. Just hearing that sounded great. My surgery will be on the 30th, and I'm looking forward to it.
On to other news, I'll be getting a computer in from the PokerVT to start playing more online. Not only that, but I also just purchased the Dell 30in monitor, and it is a beast. Here's a picture of it sitting on my desk:
