This is a poker blog, so it seems like I should talk about poker.

At the beginning of the year, I wanted to learn how to play PLO. My plan to learn PLO was pretty simple. I had a book by Tri Nguyen, and after I finished it I was just going to play alot. With occasional refreshment through bluefire videos, and discussion with friends.

I attempted to do this, but I just proceeded to lose alot of money. Well, the graph speaks for itself:

Anyways, discouraged by my results, I dropped PLO for a time being and focused on tournaments, rush, 1/2nl. I had good tournament results but everything else was rather fruitless. After, a summer in Vegas and encouraged by the godliness of my roomie gamblegambel's PLO results, I was once again faced the PLOmonster.

Results:

The first graph is running bad, playing bad. The second graph running good, playing good. I think it also helps that I went from 4-6 tabling to 1-3 tabling.  These results are encouraging and I would really like to start grinding away. In commemoration of the this blogs title line "100K in 100 sessions," which was a goal that I was starting this time last year, I will be setting the fall goal of making "100k in 200 hrs of online poker." Obviously, as an extended idea of the first goal the name of the second goal is not exactly poetic.

I will be starting to document the new goal when I move into my new house, in a little over a week. Blog you then.

-Joe

All things considered:

I am moving into the nation's capital on September 3rd, this is very good. I love my parents but I do not love living with them.

The only thing I am positive that I will buy for my new residence is a mini indoor wall mountable basketball hoop.

ESPN called me for background information, so I think I should be on TV Day 2b of the Main Event, August 31st to be exact.

The guy from ESPN asked me if there was anything interesting about myself or things I wanted people to know, I stuttered and then mentioned this blog.

I'm holding out renewing my bluefire subscription to see if they name drop bluefire poker. If they do, can I have a free supscription bluefire?

-Joe

I am on my way to Dallas, for my first bachelor party ever, not really quite sure how i feel about the whole thing. By the whole thing, I mean friends getting married but it was bound to happen just like bar and bat mitzvahs, and then graduating from places.

The real purpose of this blog is a public service announcement.

I live in Maryland and on Sunday there was the craziest storm thats hit Maryland since crabs were found in the Chesepeake back in 1723. During this storm which lasted maybe 15 minutes my neighbors tree decided that it should fall down. Furthermore, the tree decided to land directly on my car. It's really pretty funny looking because my car completely dissapeared under the tree.

Although I do have pictures of this spectacle I can not post them on my blog. Because for those of you in the public unaware it is impossible to post pictures on the bluefire blogging software. So I am announcing my picturelessness. Please Bluefire, one time...

Sorry for not updating, I'm not sure if you are aware but Vegas is Hot!

Anyways, I am off to go check out the new poker games at Charles Town so my blogging return is going to be a bit abbreviated.

So, Vegas:

-I managed to go 0fer in my first 6 tournaments, all WSOP events. Despite, having a top ten stack with 20% of the field left in a 1500 event, and making day 2 of a 1k event.

-Who cares about not cashing, when you can dominate 5-10-25 PLO. I won back all my tourney losses plus a few extra k's playing the 1k stack in the button straddle Rio PLO game.

The Main Event of the World Series of Poker:

-I was freerolling into the Main so my result was going to dictate my success on said Vegas trip.

-Day 1 table draw: amazing. I cooler one guy and win some crazy Euros money and end with 84k.

-Day 2 table draw: amazing. I play all day with Doyle Brunson directly to my right. Doyle is really funny, and very personable. However, he seemed tired and didnt play greeeeat, and I busted him. ESPN, ftw. I end day with 124k after making bad bluff on 3rd to last hand.

-Day 3 table draw: amazing. Table breaks and I get relocated to terrible table with lots of good players on big stacks including Bluefire Poker's very own Phil Galfond. I survive, and play OK even though I lost 170k pot with KK<AK aipf. I end with 184k.

-Day 4 bubble day, table draw: good. I play good and bad throughout the whole day, but without about 150 players to the money I get all money chips in for the first time with A10dd vs AQo on a QJ6dd flop. I win the flip and then survive the bubble. I go on a heater at the end of the night, get paid off with quads, and end with 493k feeling great.

-Day 5 table draw: gross. I get seated to the left of scott clements, DC pro to my left, and then a bunch of good players like David Peteres, Chris Klodsomething, and Mark Leonard. Anyways, I play for three or four hours, feel great, and then...

Mark Leonard raises to 25k utg at 5k/10k... I have 430k and both the blinds have about 180-200k... Mark had been very tight and I had not been three betting very much so I decided to flat QQ in the CO... I just think he plays against my three bet well and I wanted to give the blinds a chance to monkey squeeze.... Anyways the BB ends up actually flatting and we see a flop three ways (I am not gonna explain my thoughts for the rest of the hand, it seems kinda obvious).

Flop Q78r BB checks, Mark bets 45k, I Call, bb folds.

Turn 7 Mark bets 100k, I call.

River 7 Mark goes all in ( he had me covered), I snap call. Mark turns over 67ss. GG

So, I got 353th place. I am still happy overall, and even though the last hand was gross once the turn is a 7 its just a cooler, eitherway. Alright, I will try to stay in touch more with Bluefire in the near future.

Also, I got to meet Jason Senti when I was out there, I didnt speak to him much, but seems like a very cool guy. Obviously Congratssssssssss to him on his incredible Novemeber Ninage.

Blogyalater.

Joe

Sweden was very fishy, but I can't say I was too suprised.

I am currently at the airport headed to Vegas in pursuit of happiness.

Abandonment of this blog seems imminent. Although, keeping it for the purpose of random musings does not seem terrible.

As far as Vegas goes I am planning on mainly playing cash games, and considered setting a goal and tracking it in retro blog fashion. However, 23 percent of me wants to play a lot of 1k-3k wsop events along with a few venetian deep stack events. If I felt there was under a 15 percent chance of me playing alot of tournaments I would set a more structured cash game schedule.

Blog you later.

I listened to B.I.G.'s "ready to die" today and the head bobbing may have given me whip lash. The last time I listened to this album on repeat was in 4th grade.

Also, method man deserved respect for his role as "cheese," a particularly hated character on the wire, but his appearnce on "ready to die" solidifues him as very legendary.

Poker has been very swingy the last week with me basically losing and winning back the majority (down enough for rakeback to make me up 100 dollars) of the money I had on the internet. I feel less than spectacular about my play.

Fortunately, I am going to Sweden for 12 days to calm my nerves before this summer's "Trip To Vegas" begins on June 20th. I am leaving the details of my trip to Sweden a mystery as to perpetuate the concept of me being an international importer/exporter.

See you in two weeks, blog.

Joe

I took a mini trip to the Atlantic City last week and this is the story:

I got to Atlantic City on Wednesday night and the plan was to play cash games on Thursday and Friday, win some money and then play the 2k WSOP Circuit Satellite Main Event. Well, instead of winning money playing cash games I managed to lose around 4k on Thursday, but I was fortunate enough to win it all back on Friday. I am positive that had my experience been win-lose, not lose-win I wouldn't of played the 2k event on Saturday.

The event starting on Saturday at 11 am and was supposed to be a 3 day event. Unfortunately, the event only managed to get 47 runners and they cut it down to 2 days. The tournament had a pretty great structure that accommodated playing poker (30k starting stack with 1 hour levels), but because of the short field I was kicking myself for even entering the tournament during the first few hours. Anyways, after about an hour into the tournament I realized that the short field had effectively convinced all the good players who were showing up late not to enter and the only people who entered where rich business men or home game heroes who just realllly wanted to play.

I ended day 1 with a commanding chip lead. There was 1.4mm chips in play, and at the end of the day I was leading the remaining pack of 14. I managed to get 458k chips, with the closest stack behind me only 138k. The most fun pot I played all day happened with 16 players left and resulted in me taking out the guy who was 2nd in chips behind me. It went like this:

I had 300k to start the hand and the villain had 150k-
Villain limps the CO, SB completes, and I check the BB with 47o.
Flop 45Jss Sb checks, I check, CO bets 1800, SB calls, I raise to 6700, CO reraises to 21700, SB folds, and I CALL.
Turn 7d, I check (was planning on leading but turning the nuts (i now beat 45) changed my plan a bit), CO bets 12,300, I reraise to 57,300, CO goes all in for 120k, and I snap call. He sighs and flips over the A2ss.
River Ac  I fade his 12 outs and win the pot.

I just want to note that I played this hand the way I did because the villain elected to be way too aggressive and turn his hand face up.

Ok, onto Day 2.

Day 2 went great from the start for me and I chipped up to 620k by the time we got to the final 9 and I was feeling very confident heading to the final table with almost half the chips in play. Playing short handed with a huge stack I had alot of steal opportunities but reverting back to 9 handed I had to slow down my play because there were more players and a few mega short stacks. By the time we got down to 7 players I had managed to chip down to 570k, which was no big deal, but at this point the tournament fell apart for me (keep in mind top 5 play and the pay out structure was very steep). This series of hands went down:

I double up a short stack who had 80k with my AA vs J10 on a 10710 board.
I double up another short stack with my A4cc vs KJ on a K23cc flop.
I lose a huge pot with KK vs A4hh against an old man on a 1038hh turn 2c river 2h board (Just in case you were wondering I was out of position this hand and just fired big every street and on the river the old man sighed and called even though he made his hand, yes it was very tilting)
I lose a moderately sized pot with AJcc vs A10 on a Q107cc flop (against the same old man).
I lose 120k of my remaining 190k chips with AA vs Q10 vs 103cc on a QJ9ccc flop. I managd to fold after it went check, check, I bet, call, reraise allin by Q10, and the over ship all in with 103cc (lol at old man calling my button raise in the sb with 103cc).

Anyways, my low point was 70k, but as one of the players noted this final 7 was a short stacks dream because there was an uncanny amount of limping. So at this point my depressed self just buckled down and starting reshipping over every light open I could find and it seemed to work. I chipped up from 70k to 120k then finally manged to find 55 in the bb. The sb who was the short stack jammed 50k into me, I called, and won the flip against AJcc. That was awesome and from there I won a couple more hands before break to get back up to 270k.

With five players left the stacks were like this old retarded man with 600k, two 270k stacks, and two 190kish stacks. Everybody wanted to desperately make a deal, and since I am rather passive in nature I acquiesed after some painful negotations. The pay out structure before the deal was this:
1st- 36k (plus 10k seat to WSOP ME)
2nd-20k
3rd-12k
4th-8k (plus 1100 seat to harrahs tournament)
5th-4k (plus 1100 seat to harrahs tournament)

The deal we agreed to gave 22k to the big stack, everyone else got 15k, and then we played it our for the ME seat. Also, we agreed that the winner should get the additional 2200 bucks Harrahs had thrown in to 4th and 5th place.

Everyone was also eager to finish the tournament so we all agreed to decrease from 90 minute levels to 20 minute levels. Since, everyone was so passive this helped me tremendously when blinds got big and I was able to effectively win flips and run over the table from there on out. I guess I should just throw in my final hand:

I have A8dd with 900k in chips and the Villain has 450k in chips. Blinds are 8k/16k.
Villain limps the bttn, I make it 48k in the bb, and villain calls.
Flop is 367hhd I check, Villain bets 30k, I call.
Turn 8h I check, Villain makes a hilarious over bet all in for 390k or so. I take about 15 seconds, think about the last time he had the nuts and how he check min-raised me, and then call. Villain turns over 7c9h, and I fade the flip and win the tournament.

So, I ended up winning around 25k after it was all said and done, and since I already have a WSOP ME seat it was nice to pocket the cash on this one. I hope this wasn't TL;DR.

Later.

Also, I am really excited about there being a picture of me on the internet with a big stacks of chips, two cards jammed into it, and a trophy. And did I mention, a trophy.

Obviosuly, I will throw in some pictures of the trophy when I get the technologies needed to do that in order.

Yesterday, was another fine tease. Anyways, I was pretty deep in the 750k like 50ish people left with an above average stack and I ran this bluff.

The villain has been at the table for only 7 hands. He won one pot without showdown where he defended in the bb, then mini bet the turn and river (opponent folded). Then, in the hand prior to this hand he minraised from the co and succesfully stole the blinds. None of that is too important but I think it does help clarify his limping range in the hand I play with him.

Anyways, I would appreciate any thoughts or comments? Also, I would be curious if people think this is spewy not because it is neccessarily a -EV, but because of the tournament aspect (i.e. healthy stack plus lots of people with questionable intelligence left).

***** Hand History for Game 20901869471 ***** (Full Tilt)
Tourney Hand NL Texas Hold'em - Monday, May 17, 12:39:16 ET 2010
Table 750000 Guarantee (157373409) Table 266 (Real Money)
Seat 1 is the button
Seat 1: hero ( $256094.00 USD )
Seat 2: Dyvvvvvnamisk ( $146103.00 USD )
Seat 3: apevvvvvstyles ( $99045.00 USD )
Seat 4: iggvvvvvythumper ( $27648.00 USD )
Seat 5: norvvvvvvvajean ( $146803.00 USD )
Seat 7: anvil......510 ( $301429.00 USD )
Seat 8: pairA.......Shilton ( $163237.00 USD )
Seat 9: king .......silas ( $505368.00 USD )
Dynam...........isk posts small blind [$3000.00 USD].
ape......styles posts big blind [$6000.00 USD].
hero posts ante of [$750.00 USD].
Dynam.......isk posts ante of [$750.00 USD].
apes........yles posts ante of [$750.00 USD].
iggyt........humper posts ante of [$750.00 USD].
nora........jean posts ante of [$750.00 USD].
anvil5........10 posts ante of [$750.00 USD].
pairA............Shilton posts ante of [$750.00 USD].
king........ silas posts ante of [$750.00 USD].
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to hero [  8d Qd ]
iggy.........thumper folds
nora............jean folds
anvi..........l510 calls [$6000.00 USD]
pairA........Shilton folds
kin.........g silas folds
hero..... raises [$19500.00 USD]
Dynam.....isk folds
ape.........styles folds
anvil5........10 calls [$13500.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ Td, 4s, Ac ]
anvil5........10 bets [$18000.00 USD]
hero calls [$18000.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ 3d ]
anvil........510 bets [$18000.00 USD]
hero raises [$55019.00 USD]
anvil510 calls [$37019.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 2c ]
anvil5.........10 checks
hero bets [$162825.00 USD]
anvi..........l510 calls [$162825.00 USD]
hero shows [8d, Qd ]
anvil510 shows [Ad, 8h ]
anvil510 wins $525688.00 USD from main pot


 

I've been stringing together a good run the last 3 weeks or so.

Yesterday, my over-confidence peaked and resulted in me punting away a huge stack in the FTOPS main event with like 250ish people left. I am not very good at football so needless to say it was a sloppy punt, the ball was sideways and the distance was insuffiicent. 

Anyways, my 3 point shot in basketball has improved from probably around 18% to 28%. Buying a basketball significantly aided in this improvement. I still can barely dribble so you won't see me in D-League quite yet.

Talk to you later.

Today was Sunday, also known as the day of worship.

Scotty Nguyen:

http://img42.imageshack.us/i/scottynguyenk.jpg/

Russ Hamilton:

http://img37.imageshack.us/i/russhamilton.jpg/

Robert Varkonyi:

http://img34.imageshack.us/i/varkonyi2002wsop.jpg/

(Bluefires image stuff is not working so I left you with links to their images)

What do these three ugly men have in common?

They all won the beautiful world series of poker main event.

The same event I managed to win a seat to today.

Thank you full tilt poker for giving me a dream.

http://img440.imageshack.us/i/wsopbracelet.jpg/

^(Picture of a world series of poker bracelet, I am a suspense killer)

Pretty soon I am gonna have a nice rush poker graph to post, but I just need to put all the hands together from my laptop, etc. Also, for all the bluefireytes Phil Galfond is on High Stakes Poker and its pretty amusing.

good night,

Joe

P.S. I am gonna retry the images tomorrow because its much less entertaining with the links in my opinion.

I think I should make a youtube video of me playing rush poker all over the world.

I could rush in the grand canyons.

Rush on the pyramids.

Rush on the temple mount.

Rush on top of a glacier.

Rush in the bathroom.

Rush on the Eifell tower.

Rush in Canada.

Obviously the list could go on and on.... but I could be the "this guy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY, of rush poker.

Also, the video wouldnt be me playing rush so much as the opening "3,2,1..." segment of rush poker, which acounts for about 75% of rush pokers amazingness.

Dont kick me off the front page yet, because this guy got an eagle:

{Picture of an Eagle}

Yes, I have been playing a lot of golf.

Anyways, I have been playing alot of poker on my laptop, since I am in Atlanta, and have done really well. I have also had some awesome coolers that would be fun to post here for posterity purposes (like quads over quads) but will have to wait on that since getting hand histories from my laptop is a pain.

K, seeya.

-Joe

There are alot of things you can do to get better at poker/ stay sharp:

-Review hand histories

-Read forums

-Watch bluefire videos

-Youtube high stakes poker episodes and cover up the hole cards with an index card, while guessing people's ranges

But, instead of doing these things I try to think of products I can buy that will superstiously reinforce playing better.

Like this:

Rush ya later.

-Joe

I be rushing everyday.

The name of the table I rush at is called "Swiftly tilting"

I try not to subscribe to labels.

Anyways, I am having trouble deciding how seriously I should be taking poker when I could of been making billions of dollars buying up credit default swaps a few years ago.

Most importantly: TREME

As a poker player and resident of Maryland it is stereotypically obvious that I have a slight obsession with "The Wire." So to say I was excited about the new show Treme is sort of like saying phil mickelson was pleased to win the masters.

Since, I dont want to write an essay I will give you some bullet points of my thoughts here:

-David Simon is genius.

-The music is incredible.

-Wendell Pierce and Clarke Peters were my two favorite actors on the Wire and the only two cast members to join this project.

-Rob Brown of "Your the man now dog" fame is awesome.

-I was suprised to find out I have lived this long without being aware of Mardi Gras Indian Chiefs.

-John Goodman is just the right amount of fat.

-Also, the music (it makes your arms swing and your feet kick).

Ok, blog ya later.

Finally a blog worthy hand:

sciencewm posts small blind [$1.00 USD].
azul63 posts big blind [$2.00 USD].
Dealt to Hero [  Ah Js ]
Traveller4 folds
hero  raises [$6.00 USD]
pooqi folds
ALFeRICH folds
sciencewm folds
azul63 raises [$8.00 USD]
hero  calls [$4.00 USD]
** Dealing Flop ** [ 6h, Tc, 9c ]
azul63 bets [$21.00 USD]
hero  raises [$46.00 USD]
azul63 calls [$25.00 USD]
** Dealing Turn ** [ Kc ]
azul63 bets [$20.00 USD]
hero  raises [$95.00 USD]
azul63 calls [$75.00 USD]
** Dealing River ** [ 6d ]
azul63 bets [$18.00 USD]
hero  calls [$18.00 USD]
azul63 shows [7h, As ]
hero shows [Ah, Js ]
hero  wins $336.00 USD from main pot

I have been playing rush poker alot lately, and will post my results after I play at least 20k hands.

This blog has no direction really anymore, which makes me feel like I will be unable to maintain it. I guess if you have any suggestions for what I should do with it that could help. I hope I get suggestions like "post pictures of girls in bikinis and really sweet cars."

-Joe

P.S. I would like bluefire poker to give me a certificate that certifies that I started the trend of monetary goal oriented blogs on bluefire.