Feedback Wanted

I know there are many more blogs on Two Rags now than when I started blogging 9 months ago. So I’ll just toss this out there for those who still take the time to read about my life in poker. If there is anything more specific about my poker journey that I’m currently undertaking that you guys would enjoy hearing about by all means please chime in.

Ok onto the usual stuff. Well its official, The Borgata is offering another 2K Deep Stacked event in August. This time there will be two Day 1’s to avoid the shutouts (Shaun) that occurred last time. Really looking forward to this, reservations are already in place. This should serve as a perfect tune up for the WPT which rolls into town in September.

Online MTT’s

BLAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK I suppose I could go into a little more detail than that. Highlights of the last few sessions:

July 3: I took 14th in the $20 Rebuy and made another solid run in the Nightly $150 but busted well short of the meaningful dough.

July 5: After another epic run of bad beats early in the session I managed a couple of deep runs. Late night I took 15th in the $50 Rebuy and also Final Tabled the $120 Deep Stack finishing 9th after losing a massive pot just before the Final Table with 1010 vs AQ when on an all rag board my opponent called my turn bet with just Ace high and caught his Ace on the river. At the Final Table I went down with AQ to 88 leaving me talking to myself as I headed up to bed.

July 9: I took 12th in Tilt’s $120 Knock Out as I fell into a card dead coma as we hit the final 3 tables. In the Stars Nightly $300 I held a top 3 chip stack as we neared the $, then the wheels came off the bus when all of my steals went bad which coincided with another epic card dead streak. I of course managed to cash albeit for another unspectacular amount.

2008 1st Half Summary

So in summary, the frustration continues as the top 3’s that are necessary to make this venture profitable continue to elude me. I’ve actually taken the last few days off to give my mind a bit of a break.

With the first half of the year behind us I did a quick review of my online MTT results and was quite pleased at what I found. I was stuck in the vicinity of 5K thru the end of June. So why the optimistic slant you wonder? Well there are two major reasons. For one I am wholly confident that my game is better than it’s ever been as my brain continues to absorb Shaun’s wisdom. Secondly, and you’d have to live in my skin to really understand this…… I have run so bad this year it’s literally indescribable. Here let me try…. I have only a single cash of a thousand or more ($1200) in the last 5 months, which based on the schedule I play, is almost impossible to accomplish were one to try. Yet despite this staggering stat I am one top 3 finish from being in the black for the year. So when thinking logically about it, if I can keep my game at the same level and get a stretch where the cards just break even for me there is obviously lots of $ there for the taking. Let’s just hope that the psychological damage isn’t too deep before I get through this wretched stretch.

Oh and Lets Go Mets .

-Doyle-

Had a few minutes this morning so I decided to throw in a quick update. I wish there was more time to keep up with my blog but lately it’s been tough to find that free time.

Taking a month off from live

I’ve decided not to make a visit to Borgata this month for a couple of reasons. For one I really want to stick to the 4 session per week schedule thru the end of July that I made up for myself and going to Borgata would throw that off course. In addition, I’ll be taking a trip there in August and will probably spend too much time there in September as the WPT rolls into town.

Online Cash

Haven’t discussed online cash much lately because I haven’t been playing much and it’s certainly been showing in my results. Save for a good start to the month of July (it’s double FPP week) 3 of the last 4 months have been overall losers, though thankfully none of them were horrible. I’ve said it on more than one occasion; I don’t really love playing cash online and probably just do it once in a while just because it’s there. Despite the recent shortfall, I’m still a comfortable, yet unspectacular winner over the past year.

Online Tournaments

On the MTT front I’ve been putting in my online sessions with regularity. Since I last updated a few days ago I Final Tabled the $10 Rebuy busting 6th as I lost another big flip with AKs < 10 10, sigh. I bubbled a bunch of Final Tables as well. Of note were the $30 Rebuy where I went out 10th aipf with AQs < A5s; the $120 Deep Stack where I finished 12th busting aipf with QQ < 10 10 and the $150 Stars Nightly where I took 13th after being card dead/ and dutifully short stacking for what seemed like forever.

I can’t remember a stretch this prolonged without a nice score in a long, long while. Such is the life where MTT’s are concerned. Thankfully I’ve cashed enough where the past 6 months haven’t done any significant damage to my bankroll. My psyche on the other hand……. Well suffice it to say you need a really thick skin if you’re going to play MTT’s full time.

Coaching

The good news is that despite the horrible run of variance I’m encountering I have never felt as good and as confident about my game as I do right now. I’ve been spending plenty of time working with Shaun, and as always he’s been awesome to have as both a coach and a friend. He just seems to instinctively know when and how to push and challenge me. He’s also super quick to let me know when he sees something he doesn’t like, which often begins a debate between the two of us over strategy which I humbly lose like every single time which happens to be the point of the whole thing to begin with.


Hope everybody enjoys their 4th of July weekend. To all of you in the WSOP Main Event best of luck. I wish I was there with you and fully intend to be next year.

-Doyle-

Got back from Borgata on Sunday and can report that I completely stuck to the game plan I had set for myself. I had the family along and on the first night we added to the riches of Guy LaLiberte by taking in the Le Grand Cirque show at Harrahs. The show was great but the venue is rather antiquated. The sight lines are poor and the sound system is terrible. Unless somebody we have to see is in town it’s likely we’ll stick to the Borgata for future shows.

I played a limited amount of $5/$10 NL cash over my 3-day stay and had another good trip. The Borgata 1K had a start time of 10AM on Friday. I wish all of their events would have the same start time but it isn’t likely to happen. Got settled in for what I hoped would be a long day. I wound up getting what I hoped for without the financial reward at the end. It was a 399 player field paying 36 spots. About 11 hours after the tournament began I was sent to the rail with approximately 52 players remaining, sigh. I was on a short stack consisting of between 10 and 25 BB’s beginning at the 400 level and lasting all the way thru the 3K level when I eventually busted. My cards sucked pretty much all day and I played the short stack to perfection, timing my numerous all ins and steals perfectly, other than my bustout hand when a tighty woke up with a hand that dominated my 8 high, lol. I just never got that double up that I needed to give me some breathing room.

I’m actually pretty happy with my last 2 live tournament efforts, the 1K and last months deep stacked 2K, both of which I played 11-12 hour days and saw lots of hands. Part of me is sorry I decided to skip the 5K Main Event at this years Summer Open. I’m just feeling really on top of my game right now and can no doubt credit a lot of it to Shaun who I’m still working with several days a week despite his busy WSOP schedule.

Online Happenings

The prior month I had really scaled back on the buy in levels while I really learned how to play a ton of tables at once. Seeing Shaun do it really inspired me to tackle this. I figured there would be a tough learning curve while 12+ tabling. So I decided to limit the large $ buy ins while doing so. It was a smart choice because I had a rough stretch between Mid May and Mid June.

On Monday I jumped back into what I hope will be a normal online schedule. My plan is to put in 4 lengthy night time sessions a week for the next month or so and reevaluate things after that.

Monday’s session ended in bitter frustration as I saw chip leads pretty deep in both the Full Tilt $75 and the Full Tilt 50/50 fail to result in a meaningful score. The former saw me lose 2 large 80/20’s, win a small 20/80 (lol) and lose 3 consecutive flips to bust at the final 3 tables. The latter ended when my AA < AQ aipf at the final 2 tables, sigh.

On Tuesday the beats were out in full force including another crucial AA<AQ aipf hand (wtf?), causing a good friend of mine to question how I can continue to take this shit year after year. Anyway my best run came in the Stars $20 Rebuy where I held a top 4 stack with 15 left when a bvb battle ensued for a monster 300+K stack. I had my opponent out chipped by 6K or so with 150+K effective stacks. I opened 3x in the sb with AQs to 12K. My opponent raised to 55K and I jammed causing my opponent to tank a bit before calling off his last 90K with 33. After losing the race the blinds went up to 3/6K and I had less than 1 big blind (6K) remaining. My A6 in the BB was good enough to triple up and then my button shove doubled me up to 50+K when the BB called with 83o. I next jammed the cut off and took the blinds and had a wee bit of breathing room, though I was still the tournament shorty. I stayed in the 50K neighborhood and made the Final table still as the shorty. On my first BB I found 99 and doubled to over 100K against AQ. A few hands later I woke up with AK in early position and standard raised with a 15BB stack. I got shoved on by 88 and lost the flip, finishing in 9th and ending the miracle comeback.

One of these days the flood gates are going to open, I can feel it.

Well it’s been a while since I last updated. Apologies go out to my friends and family who actually read this to keep up with my poker happenings, and thanks for bugging me to update.

A month has passed since Shaun left so there’s plenty to catch you up on. The big cashes continued to elude me as I continually fell just short of final tables in large fields or made them being short stacked. Part of this was clearly my own fault and I’m working with Shaun on some ways to fix this. Beyond that this year as a whole has been so frustrating where my deep runs are concerned. I’ve been reviewing a lot of my tournament hand histories and I simply want to vomit at the card distribution that has been dealt to me pretty much all year. To further compound the agony have been the coolers and bad beats I’ve taken when getting it in with premiums at final tables as thousands upon thousands in equity got flushed down the drain. The good news is that I recognize what my leaks are and I’m as determined as a mofo to fix them. Beyond that I have to believe that the card distribution will begin to even itself out.

The month of May wound up being pretty much break even, actually a tad to the negative online. After my trip to meet Shaun at Borgata early in the month I took another one a couple of weeks ago with my family where we pretty much relaxed, ate some good meals and even squeezed in a show (Kathy Griffin). I did well again at the $5/$10 NL tables and more than paid for the expense of the trip.

Despite being encouraged by Shaun among others to go out to the WSOP this summer I decided not to. My main goal continues to be becoming the online player that I want to be. So the trip to Vegas, while assuredly a great time (I’m sweating the blogs like crazy rooting for all of my online buds – most of whom I’ve regrettably yet to meet face to face) will have to wait another year as I remain dedicated to plugging away online. I’ve also decided to cut back the beefy schedule I had planned for the Borgata Summer Open which is just getting underway. Last year I played a bunch of sub events and the 5K Main Event. This year I’m planning to play in just one of the 1K’s and that’s it. Again it all comes down to wanting to put as much time as I can into an online schedule until I’m totally comfortable with my game. I’m hoping that I’ll be happy enough with where my online game is come September when the WPT comes back to Borgata so I can go enjoy myself down there and play to my hearts content.

That’s pretty much it for right now. My summer work schedule is on the light side by design so I’ve been swimming two-a-days trying to get myself back into better shape, laying in the sun a lot, spending plenty of time with my family and playing lots of hours online. Things could definitely be worse.

-Doyle-

A week ago Friday I met up with Shaun at Borgata for what would be my first face to face coaching session. While I waited for him to arrive I churned some $5/$10 NL profits. Shaun navigated his way to AC a little late due to his GPS going haywire on him. We grabbed a quick bite and headed to the room to begin the nightly grind. The plan we discussed at dinner where Shaun would limit his tables to about 6 or so to allow us to really focus on the coaching aspect quickly went out the window. Shaun just can’t help himself, he’s a true blue “degen” and I mean that in a good way. Within a short time there were a gazillion miniature tables all over Shaun’s laptop. From 8PM until 3AM Shaun kept up the grind and continued coaching me as I tried to absorb it all.

At some point past midnight we loaded one of my old hand histories into a replayer on my laptop and reviewed it in fine detail as Shaun continued to multi table (he’s clearly a savant). I received plenty of well deserved “dude wtf’s” and discussed plenty of spots with Shaun opening my eyes to different ways to look at situations, awesome.

Not only is Shaun a professional grinder but the boy knows how to sleep. I on the other hand must have been a farmer in a past life because when daylight breaks despite blackout curtains, my internal clock says it’s time to make the donuts, just brutal. So at 5:45 after 2+ hours of sleep I lay in bed awake trying to will myself back to sleep to no avail. At 7:00 I shower, detour to Starbucks and wind up at the $5/$10 tables. After a few hours and a few more bucks to the positive I head back to the room and wake Shaun up. We head downstairs, eat a quick breakfast of Philly Cheesesteaks and Cheeseburgers and get back to the grind. Oh the healthy life.

The grind session began early afternoon and went well into Saturday night. During the day I met a fellow 2+2er steve the donk who joined us in the room during his 15 minute Super Satellite breaks where by the way he crushed his way to a seat. After a failed attempt at a nap late afternoon I loaded up some tables and grinded while continuing my education sitting alongside Shaun.

After another great information filled day we got to sleep at a decent hour so we’d be ready to play the $2000 NL Deep Stacked tournament on Sunday morning. I got a solid 5 hours weeeeeee and repeated the prior mornings steps winding up at the cash tables before 8AM. There was already a line formed for the 2K registration and I quickly jumped on. After a brief cash session the line had diminished and I went to grab some breakfast, Shaun had wanted to sleep until 10-10:30 (tourney started at 11:00 and he still needed to register). Big mistake. When we finally made it downstairs the lines stretched from the Poker Room well out into the casino, way past Wolfgang’s for those familiar with Borgata, wow. Long story short a limited number of alternate tickets were handed out and subsequently scalped to the highest bidders. Borgata accommodated 776 players and probably another 250 got turned away including Shaun and Gboro, meh. I sat down to play at 11:00 while Shaun and Gboro headed up to the room to grind the Sunday donkaments.


I went up to the room during the breaks every 2 levels. Early afternoon Astrolux joined the Sunday grind session in our room. The 2K liveament wasn’t really interesting, my opening table was very tight solid, no real spewiness and therefore it was tough to extract chips because we were playing 11 handed due to the oversell and somebody always had it. I won a couple of really nice pots with the 64cc and lost every time I found a big Ace. I saw AA shown at my table at least 15 times. Big pockets were widely distributed all around except to my seat, oh wait I got QQ once and flopped quads and found no action. The only known player at the table was Karlo Lopez who I’ve played with before and spent some time chatting with, I always find Karlo a fun guy to have at the table. With the table chip lead about 8 ½ hours into the day my table broke and I got moved to the table from hell. As I took my seat the dealer was peeling the turn card in what was a pretty juicy pot already. 20 minutes later it goes check check on the river, wtf!!! I would’ve called a clock had Bodog Ari not been in the hand. As it turned out he raked a really nice pot and would go onto a 3rd place finish good for 6 figures, well done sir. On it went, every hand everybody had a seemingly life or death decision to make. What a brutal table. My day ended during the last level of the day. I’m not in the mood to type out the action, but in my mind I got slow rolled really badly by AA which fit with the theme of the slowest acting table ever, I mean ever. Live players suck really bad and the more I play live the more I don’t want to which makes no sense at all.

At 11PM after busting the boys were still in the room and we just hung as Shaun continued to grind after Gboro and Astrolux finished up their sessions. Sometime around midnight Gboro says “Hey Doyle wanna go for some drinks?” LOL, not this early riser who’s been up since 6AM. Gboro and Astrolux headed down for some booze and I grabbed another couple of hours of coaching and room service as Shaun continued to grind, what a frickin’ baller. At 2 or 3AM Gboro and Astrolux were back in the room trying to convince us to head downstairs to play a live SNG with them, oh to be young again. We had the good sense to decline and eventually got to sleep.

On Monday after some more profitable early AM cash I went back to the room and woke Shaun. We decided to drive back to my house in Pennsylvania and spend the day grinding. While Shaun grinded from the minute we hit my office my body and mind began to crash. We headed outside to the pool deck, Shaun with laptop in hand and I took a lounge chair and caught some zzzzzzz’s. After I woke we loaded another of my old HH’s into the replayer and did another great review while eating dinner as Shaun multi tabled. I began my session at 9PM which culminated with a Final Table in the Stars $20 Rebuy. Sitting comfortably in 3rd place I got it aipf from the BB against the player in 4th place who held AQ and snap called my shove. The A on the turn crushed me and I would up a disappointing 7th.

On Tuesday Shaun spent some time reconfiguring my desktop to make my multi tabling experience easier and then headed off to Turning Stone. During our time together Shaun was often times complimentary of my game, something which kind of surprised and inspired me. He also told me he got plenty out of discussing situations and hands with me too. I guess I was able to give him some insight into how somebody not nearly as good as him views certain situations :-)

Another thing we spent some time discussing was adjusting my life schedule so that I can play in the better nightly events as opposed to the early AM and occasional afternoon sessions that I became lazily accustomed to. Next update I’ll let you all know how it’s going.

Shaun and I have made plans to do this again in about a week from now. Hopefully the weather will be good so we can spend some time at the pool in the sun before grinding. All in all it was an enjoyable 5 days for me. Shaun’s a really good kid with a good head on his shoulders. I couldn’t be happier with my choice of a coach.

-Doyle-