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-