Matt Glantz’s Blog

Finally!   The previous 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 6th place finishes in big WSOP tournaments were so frustrating.  This win was more of a relief than anything.  I have placed 1st before, but only in smaller events that were not on par with this tournament being on the big stage.  This will always be a special memory for me.

Tourny Recap:

Day 1:

Play poorly at the start.  Spew away a bunch of chips.  Go from 50k down to 18k in the first level.  Play very strong the rest of the day and chip up to end the day at 185k, putting me 6th in chips out of 31 remaining.

Day 2:

Play super strong all day.  Have to fight back from one real cold deck hand vs Dario (JTh vs K2h on the AhKs9H flop), and a sick beat from Dennis(KK vs QQ all in pre).  Both of them played their hands well.  Just truly disgusting situations for me.   I pick my spots optimally all day though and finish strong with 650k, which places me 2nd in chips going to final table.

Day 3:

Final Table.  Played ultraconservative for the first many hours.  Trying to pick my spots sparingly.  Basically just waiting to see what was going to develop.  It was clear early on that both Eugene and Erik were going to battle to try to accumulate all the chips as aggressively as play would allow.  So while I did not and never do have a strategy going in, it became apparent to me that by not challenging the two of them I would be giving them both the green light (since I was to their left), to turn up the aggression even more and thus let them take all the risk while busting out players as I try to move up spots.  I was to the direct left of both of them and I would guess that it took me 5 hours before the first time I 3 bet Eugene.  Certainly if I ever had a premium holding I would have gladly 3 bet them earlier, but usually I would have been 3 betting them or at least flatting them with a huge part of my range in response to their opening frequency.   But anyway, in what seemed like forever getting down from 8 players to 3, my chips stack hardly deviated.  Even though the avg stack was only 20bbs,  my stack was between 400k and 700k the whole time.  So without much risk, I landed with about 16% of the chips with 3 of us left.  One double up from avg stack.  All according to what I thought was the optimal plan.

I am the short stack to no surprise.  But that is fine, now I am guaranteed 3rd place money.  And just some good run of cards away from winning.  The way the structure is set up, there is no real edge for anyone at this point.  Avg stack is 25bb.  The decisions are all fairly simple.  Basically, one of us will get luckier than the other two and that will be our winner.  Obviously I need to get luckier than them because my stack is shorter.

Opinions on my two opponents:  Erik is a very accomplished top tournament player who is super tricky and plays many games well.  He is a feel player who is not limited by conventional style.  His one weakness in NL is his betsizing which can be exploited somewhat, but overall just a tough tough player.   Eugene is a very accomplished top NL Holdem tournament player who is fundamentally as strong as anyone.  He is top 5 in the world in NL.  He just doesnt make mistakes.  I am unable to spot any weakness in Eugene’s game.  That is scary.  In the spirit of great competition, I do love the challenge against two ultra strong opponents.  With an overwhelming mutual respect among the three of us and each one’s desire to win, this is what tournament poker is all about.

Chips:  Euguene 1.9m, Erik 1.2, Matt 600k.  First confrontation.  Erik folds button.  Eugene completes from sb at 25k 50k blinds.  I shove 12 bbs with K9c.  Eugene takes a long while to call which surprised me when he turns over A5 off.  I flop a 9 and double up.  First lucky hand.  Now we are all virtually even in chips with 24bbs each.

Eugene wins a couple small pots from Erik and now has me covered.  Eugene raises the button, I reraise from SB with 88,  he shoves with AK.   My pair holds and now second time I get lucky takes me to the chip lead and leaves Eugene short.

Eugene doubles through Erik with two random hands.  Eugene was short so just standard stuff.  Then I raise 2.5x on button with QJ and Eugene ships it for I think 9 or 10 bbs.  So I make an unhappy call.   Flop AAT,  turn K.  Sick.  Eugene could not run worse 3 handed and I could not run better.   So he is out 3rd.

Heads up with Erik. I have 2-1 chip lead with 40bbs to 20bbs.  I 4 bet shove with A8 and he turns up AQ.   So now he has 2-1 chip lead and we are forced to take a dinner break.

I goto dinner with my wife and Eugene.  He gives me some subtle strategy advice.  Shows a lot of character in Eugene.  I mean he just busted from a huge tournament and I am the one that busted him.  How many friends in poker will do that and by the way he sweated me through the rest of the event.  I am not sure if the advice changed anything in my play after dinner but just to hear thoughts from a fantastic player is always going to be an addition to the arsenal.

So now I have 20bbs to his 40bbs.  I limp button with A2 with intention of limp shoving.  He makes a raise I havent seen before.  He raises 4.2x from bb.  Wow.  Not what I expected.  But again Erik is very tricky.  Calling is not an option.  Can I really fold an ace heads up?  I don’t think I can.  But his range with this raise in my mind is so defined.  I am 90% sure he has AK AQ AJ most of the time.  So I struggle but yet force myself to fold an Ace.  He must of saw that I had a big hand and made a tough fold so he shows me his AQ.  And I am so happy I get the dealer to pull my hand out of the much to show him the ace.  I think I am supposed to go broke there and I feel like I am freerolling now.

Now the hand where I get luckiest.  He had just raised or reraised me last 4 pots, and showed me an ace all 4 times.  Uggh.   He raises 2.5x.  I call with J8c.  flop AA3 two clubs.  I check shove for 20bbs.  He instacalls with his A7.  Not a good spot for me, but pretty standard nonetheless.  I river the 5c and I see the pain in his face.  This hand was not lucky.  This hand was really lucky.  Erik looked totally defeated after this bad beat as I took a more than 2-1 chip lead.

It didn’t matter what his mental state was though as a few hands later we got it in totally standard.  I raised the button with A3 and he shoved for about 17 bbs with QJ.  He flopped a Q but I turned an ace.  It was over.

So the first two days I played really well and did not get lucky.  But the final table I was a luck box.  Play was pretty much all standard as the structure was fast, but its nice to finally get lucky in the right spots at the end.

Overall London was an experience.  Winning the tournament was quite an experience.  The support from family and friends was unreal.  But I cant wait to get home and see my kids.  The traveling is taking its toll on me.

I was just informed that the Bellagio added its first ever $10k Horse tournament.  OMG.  Why would the do this to me?  I was so looking to a month off.  I instabooked a flight obviously and now I will only be home a short 9 days before leaving for Vegas.

Flying home in the morning.

I have been here 6 days now and have only played in two poker tournaments and have played no cash games.  London is way more interesting to me than I would have expected.   I must have walked a total of 25 miles around the city since I have been here.  This is quite askew from all the previous poker trips I have ventured on.

The first tournament was the WSOP Europe Main Event.  The short of it:  I was chipleader at the end of the first level after flopping two sets and I was bust before dinner break.  So I didn’t waste too much energy at the Casino of the Empire in Leicester Square.  (evidently pronounced “Lester Square”)

So after 3 days of walking around London, I am more than ready to play poker but the only thing that is of interest is the European Poker Tour (EPT) High Rollers Event.  The entry fee is 20k pounds, or about 34k dollars.  So the field will be small and the competition will be the toughest.  I had no intention of playing this when I was planning my trip but as a poker player I do feel the urge to play.  No way I am putting up 34k though for a spot where my I think my expectation is somewhere between break even and slightly positive.  So I send out a text to the guys from the Borgata mixed game to ask if anyone wants a piece.  I figure if they have faith, I will play.  Well, I get 6 responses with minutes.  I am offered a total of 130% in pieces.  They want anywhere for 10% to 50% each and a couple of them just say I will take “whatever”.   This was the push I was looking for, so playing the tournament seemed like an easy decision now.  I have to cut everyone back but they all got pieces now.  And to my one friend Bruce who texted me back his response 6 hours later, “I will talk to David and let you know what piece we want”.  Sorry Bruce, I am oversold and its a little too late.  His text back to me, “Don’t ever offer me a piece again then!”   Sick guy.

So Day One starts with 50k in chips.  I manage to end the first level with 18k.  Yes, that is hard to do at 50-100 blinds.  Early on I raise it up with AQ, get called by a few players, flop AJ7.  And I am up against 77 so lose about 6k.  Then I raise with the KQ, get flatted by the non English speaking Japanese kid to my left.  Flop QT4 with two hearts.  I have no hearts.  I bet, he raises small.  I call.  Turn is a black 6.  I check, he bets 3/4 pot, I call.  River pairs the 4.  I check again, he bets 15k which is about the size of the pot and I obviously hate my hand.  But here is the problem.  I have never seen this guy before.  He looks like his name is something like Yokashana Tikohaka and he looks like he just drove here all the way from Japan in one of those geared up Toyotas from the set of ‘The Fast and the Furious”.   And as I am watching him for any tells I can pick up, I just keep having this image of him wearing a leather racing jacket doing drift turns in this Toyota with neon lights on the underside of the car.  So I convince myself that with this drawy of a board he has to have flopped a set or missed a draw.  All or nothing kind of thing.  And with his appearance and nothing else to go on I find a call.  He proudly shows AQ and yep I feel like a donk.  To make it worse over the next two levels of play it is quite obvious he is the tightest player at the table.  So down to 18k by the end of level one is somewhat less than what I was hopeful for, but things did turn around after that.

I think by level 3 I was up to 100k with avg stack around 55k.  And I finished the day with 185k with avg around 117k.  There were 31 players remaining from a start of 75 High Rollers.

Day 2 started very similar to the first day.  I have my table covered, the second biggest stack is 90k.  Dario Mineri raises from the 3 hole and I call from the bb with JT hearts.  Flop AK9 with two hearts.  I try to bet size so that I can 3 bet shove and get him to fold a weak ace.  I mess up the sizing and he gets to shove but it doesnt really matter as he turns over the K2 of hearts.  So pretty much the only hand I am drawing so slim against.  Such a cold deck to have the K2 find the only guy in the tournament who would not instamuck that hand from the 3 hole.  And then to have that flop.  Gross.  So he double through me and I am under 100k.  I lose some more and get down to 70k with avg up to 135k.

The hardest thing for me in tournaments has always been to just stay focused and not get disinterested in the face of adversity.  I give myself a pep talk and hunker down.  I find it easier in these big buyin events knowing there are only 27 players left to go through vs 500-1000 players at this point is some of the other tournaments.  So that gives me some solace.

I manage to go from 70k to 200k without playing a big pot and overcome avg stack.  Confidence is back.   I continue to run and over the next 4 hours make it to 500k with avg around 300k.  11 players left.  I pick up KK on the button, get reraised by Dennis Phillips from the sb, I shove and he reluctantly calls with the QQ.   Pot has about 455k in it.   Queen on the flop and boom they smack me right back down to 260k.    Here we go again.  I am now fighting the usual demons.  ‘why do I always lose these in big situations, why does this have to happen again, why cant i have the QQ beat the KK one time, dadadadada’.  So now with slightly less than avg stack and only the top 8 players getting paid with 11 left, this was crunch time.  $70k bubble.  At this time I need to decide do I want to be a professional or do I want to dwell on how unlucky I am.  The choice seems obvious but trust me when you are in these situations emotions are hard to overcome and many times get the best of great players.

With my wife sitting 5 feet behind me I look at her and know what I have to do.  260k stack.  avg is 320k.  11 left.   6 handed table at this point.  Boom, raise it up, take the blinds. 275k.  Boom, call from the bb with AJ vs Dennis and on the KJ5 board keep the pot small but get value.  315k.  Boom, pick up the AK and 3 bet take it down.  350k.  Take the blinds. Take the blinds.  Take the blinds.  Smoothly up to 400k.  Boom, short stack all in utg for 100k.  I call with AT, he turns over 66.  Ten on the turn.  Back in business!

We move to the final table with 9 players.  9th place gets a whopping 0 pounds, which interestingly enough converts to zero dollars.  8th place is $70k.  The pace slows down to a crawl and we go about 3 hours before we lose a player but in that time I was able to chip up with no showdowns to about 647k.  Avg is 413k.  Final table set for tomorrow.

The 10k WPT event started for me the day after we arrived.  I finished the 1st day with a bunch of chips and was in good position to have a decent tournament.  But, on day 2 I could get nothing going right as I got my aces cracked early in the day and then received a standard cold deck situation when I raised with AQ on the button and got reraised by the big blind.  I elected to see a flop and then went bust on the Q97 flop.  The big blind had KK.  So with 55 players or so my tournament was ended.

I played some 25-50 plo in the Merit Poker Room, but I quickly saw how dead the game was as I felt that I was the only one in the game willing to put a chip in a pot without the stone nuts.  I won a peanut.  $1k.

The next day I found a nice Chinese game with Bryan Colin, Mike Matusow, Daniel Aleie, and a guy named Shlomo from Israel.  I was able to win about 35k in the game before it ended.

They also had a 300-600 mixed game which I joined.  That game was live with opportunity, but I was unable to capitalize and ended a loser for 10k.

A short 5 day excersion in Cyprus and I am now on my way home.  I cant wait to sleep in my own bed.  One thing I will remember about Cyprus is how much I loved the fruit and the Humus.  The watermelon was exceptional.  It won’t be the same eating fruit back home.

My sister had a baby today and I am excited to get to see her new baby boy.

Tournament     -$10,300

Cash Games    -$9,250

Chinese           +$38,500

Total for trip:   +$19k

My first trip ever over Europe would start out smooth. We had a scheduled 11 hour direct flight to Athens and then a 1 hour layover before flying an 80 mins to Cyprus. My flight to Athens was spent watching movies and playing Chinese poker with Bryan Colin. After being down as much as $2k and up as much as $20k, we ended with me being ahead $4k for the flight. (Don’t feel bad for Bryan. When I left the poker room here in Cyprus last night, he was beating up on Eli Elezra and Jeff Lisandro for about $75k.)

I took an Ambien half way through the flight which did not have the desired effect. It did not get me tired and thus never fell asleep. It did not mix well with my body as I became somewhat delirious when we got to Athens. I was told I was spewing nonsense but I don’t have any recollection of the events. Bryan has some good stories about me for the rest of the day. They are quite scary. Maybe he can post them in the response for the blog here.

We landed in Larnaca, South Cyprus on time and everything seemed set. We have now traveled 99% of our 5,000 mile trip. All we have to do is take a taxi for 50 miles from South Cyprus (normal European free country) to North Cyprus (somewhat lawless Muslim run country; of which we had no idea). We get to the middle of Cyprus and cross the armed border patrol. It is 95 degrees out and sun bearing down. We are in a Mercedes taxi with a middle eastern driver who is not the best with the 6 speed manual transmission. Apparently he thinks its normal to blast the air conditioning while driving with all four windows wide open in the blistering heat. The air conditioning was useless in this environment. About 5 miles through the border with the car rocking back and forth and the driver shifting up and down, and the Ambien still in my bloodstream, I was feeling more than a little queasy. I quickly knock Bryan’s arm and try to motion to him to get the driver to pull over because I am about to hurl chunks of everything that was inside my stomach.

I will skip the next few minutes as it was a disgustingly violent episode and the details are too gross.

So we were now pulled over on the side of a dirt road in what might as well been Afghanistan. This was not a safe place. With the sun beating down on us, there was puke quickly drying all over the outside of the car and enough inside the car that I felt bad for the driver. Bryan claims that I got some on his shoulder when I was trying to get him to make the driver pull over. Fortunately the driver was very understanding about it and had some bottled water in the car to give me. So we get back in the car to continue our journey.

Back on our way I give the driver a $100 tip since he handled the situation so well and figuring he needs to get the whole car washed now. This seemed to make him very happy. So I am feeling a bit better and we get about another 10 minutes closer to our Hotel and its Round 2. The same scenario happens again.

I get cleaned up again and we are now only about 15 mins from the hotel. Finally we get to our destination. Bryan takes care of everything with checking in and getting me in a room as quick as possible. It was clear to him that I was not functioning at a high enough level to do anything for myself at that point. Good thing for me Bryan was travelling with me. He proved to be a reliable friend! So I get to my room and I all I want to do is shower and pass out. Round 3, bam! At least this time I was near a sink and a toilet.

I think I lost 10 pounds in 14 hours of travel. Things can only get better from here. The resort is decent but the surrounding landscape is amazing. We are on the beach in a cove off the Mediterranean Sea and there are mountains all around us. Eventually I figure to make it outside.

I never got anything going in the main event.  I busted in the third level after hovering around starting stack for the first 4 hours.  I did manage to crush the Chinese games during the breaks but lost a bit back when I went over to the Bellagio to play the mixed games for the last night before heading home.

Overall my trip was a failure.  I lost money overall and that is the ultimate measure for a poker trip.  It was a big chunk of time and commitment out of my life to be in Vegas for 5 weeks and I dont know if I will be doing this whole thing again.  I feel as though the 5-7 day trips I have made in the past are more condusive to me winning.

I would like to let everyone know how much I appreciate the support I got in the form of emails, texts, and blog comments.  It really was a help having so many friends and family behind me the whole way.

I am flying back to the east coast today and very much looking forward to finally starting my summer.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

-$10,000

Net total for Tournaments +$9,000

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

-$55,000  in cash games

$0 in prop bets

+$89,000 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$152,000

Net total for Prop Bets          -$165,900

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$213,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          -$208,400

I have been in Vegas too long.  I am tired and rundown which is leading me to make bad decisions and I have been playing less than optimal for the last week.  I am not able to play my best right now which has turned into two losing sessions in a row at the Bellagio the last two days.  Last night I lost another 85k.  That is enough losing for me so my plan is as follows.  I am going to play the 10k WSOP main event on Friday.  If I bust out on Day 1 then I will fly home on Saturday and spend the rest of the summer down the shore.  If I make it through Day 1 then I will have to stay in Vegas until at least Tuesday to play Day 2.  Either way no more poker for before the main event.

On a better note I did manage to pick up $68k in Chinese Poker the last two days.  Since I only made one final table I will lose my 10k prop bet to Bryan Colin.  But I did win my team bet player of the year points against Daniel and Erick to win 20k.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

$0

Net total for Tournaments +$19,000

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

-$85,000  in cash games

+$10,000 in prop bets

+$68,000 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$207,000

Net total for Prop Bets          -$165,900

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$302,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          -$242,400

I got smoked.  Simple way to put it.  Gus Hansen cashes in 9th.  Erik Sagstrom cashes in 3rd.  John Hanson is now heads up for the title so he will either finish 1st or 2nd.  I either crossbooked or bet against all three of them.   For me to get absolutely smoked as I did, two of the 3 had to finish in the top three spots.  I did have a 10% piece of Chau who finished 7th, but overall this tournament cost me $149k in prop bets.

So after 6 straight days of winning in Chinese Poker it all turned sour for me.  In 5 sessions over the last two days I had results of -80k, -65k, -6k, +17k, and -40k.  So I am buried for the trip now and to top it off I lost another 89k in the 1500-3000 mixed game at the Bellagio last night.  Things not ending well for me here in Vegas.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

+$15,900

Net total for Tournaments +$19,000

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

-$89,000  in cash games

-$137,300  in prop bets

-$174,000 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$292,000

Net total for Prop Bets          -$175,900

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$370,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          -$245,400

I was busted from the 50k Horse in the last level of Day 3.  I was the short stack from about 45 players all the way down to 24.  I did my best to hang in but when it got down to 3 tables it was my time to go.  So I lost my 20k last longer with John Hanson and had a few other prop bets that were mostly a push.  Now I have to sweat due to my crossbook with John.  If he cashes I will owe him more money.  Also if Erik123 and or Gus Hansen cash I will also lose some.   I have 10% of Chau so really hoping he wins this tournament.

During the tournament breaks I was able to pick up about 50k in Chinese Poker so as bad as I was running in the beginning of the trip I have been running well the last week now.

Tomorrow I will be playing my last event before the main event which starts Friday.  Tomorrow is the 2-7 Triple Draw which will be fun.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

-$50,000

Net total for Tournaments +$3,100

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

$0  in cash games

-$25,000 in prop bets

+$49,500 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$381,000

Net total for Prop Bets          -$38,600

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$186,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          +$160,000

The 50K HORSE has begun and I am in 3rd coming around the first turn.  Hassan leads the field with 380k and I am in a solid third position with 300k in chips.  Average stack is around 160k.  I was last coming out of the gate though as I was down to almost 100k in the first two levels from the 150k starting stack.  My table and seat position was this:  I had Phil Ivey two to my left, Gus Hansen three to my right, Bill Chen directly across the table, and Erick Lindgren directly to my right.  There were also two very solid tight internet players seated on my side of the table and a overly tricky tough player seated next to Bill.  So all around not the table I would hope for.  But in the games I play in regularly now I am used to challenges so this is nothing new.   One thing that is tougher in this tournament is that everyone is trying so hard to win.  That is not always the case in the 2k-4k mixed game, or at least it doesn’t appear that way some of the time.

Anyway, so we had a group of 8-10 players in the Chinese during the breaks today.  Big group all from the Horse tournament.  I was able to win about 30k.  So after what felt like 12 straight days of losing in Chinese, I think I won 6 straight days now.  So Streaky!

On Thursday, the day before the Horse, I played in the 3k-6k mixed game at Bellagio and was up big but only finished up 50k for the day.  But a win is a win.  And its nice to have a win going into a big tournament.  Confidence is such a huge factor in a mixed limit event.  You need other players to fold hands to you.  They have to sense your confidence.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

$0

Net total for Tournaments +$53,100

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

+$50,000 in cash games

$0 in prop bets

+$29,500 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$381,000

Net total for Prop Bets          -$13,600

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$236,000

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          +$185,500

As usual the 2500 Omaha HL, another small buyin tournament was a nonevent  for me.  I got deep into day 2 again but failed to cash.  I did squeak out a win in the Chinese though playing mostly with Roland DeWolfe and Sorel Mizzi.  I was 8.5k on the plus side when I escaped.

I headed over to the Bellagio where there was a good 2k-4k mixed game. The lineup was: Jon Hansen, Abe, Jennifer, Gus, Chau, Hennigan, Ray D, and Doyle.   Mix was  Omaha8, Stud, Stud 8, Holdem, 2-7 Triple Draw, NL Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha, Stud HiLo Regular, and Razz.  This is more the lineup that I enjoy when playing in Bobby’s Room.  Unfortunately the game broke up only about an hour after I got in.  It was a short stop for me but I was able to win 103k for the hour.  One big Stud 8 or better pot was the main cause of my result.  I raised with a 7 up. Gus reraised with a Q.  Doyle called the 4k with an 8 and Jen cold called with a 4.  So I called with 467.  Turn I pair my 6, Gus hits a Ten, Doyle hits a 3, and Jen hits an 8.   I lead with a 67 board. And gus pops it, Doyle repops and Jen calls again.  So we got this pot jammed up now.  On 5th I catch an Ace and everyone bricks.  So I lead again and Gus pops again (sick guy but he happened to be right) and Jen releases her hand.  When he pops it here Gus should have trip tens or queens but Gus is very creative so you never really know.  When Jen folds I am the only one left in the pot shooting for low.  On 6th I catch open sevens so my board reads 76A7 and I have the 46 in the hole for two pair and a low draw.  I check on 6th with what looks like Aces up to them and they both check behind.  So now Gus is probably holding queens and tens and who knows what Doyle has, probably Kings in the hole.  I river the magic 6 and bet the nuts.  When I get called I let them know “I got it boys” and show down the full house.

So my beautiful wife is flying in tonight.  While I have been all work and no play for the entire month that will change now.  I am also looking forward to the next week because tomorrow is my favorite event.  Its truly the Players’ Main event.  The 50k Horse Tournament.  It should only attract about 100 players but it will be the who’s who of high stakes poker.  Not the TV show but real high stakes poker.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

-$2,500

Net total for Tournaments +$53,100

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

+$103,000 in cash games

$0 in prop bets

+$8,500 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$331,000

Net total for Prop Bets          -$13,600

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$265,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          +$106,000

I played the $2500 Razz tournament and made it deep into day 2 but failed to cash.  That tournament is certainly one of the most boring and takes the most discipline.  So I entered to $2500 Omaha H/L today and at the end of the night I have about a 35k stack with average stack being about 17k.  I am probably top 5 or 10 in chips with 200 players left.  This will be my last tournament before the 50k Horse on Friday.

Fortunately I was able to win about $42k in Chinese Poker the last two days.  It had to happen eventually.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

-$2,500

Net total for Tournaments +$55,600

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

$0 in cash games

$0 in prop bets

+$42,000 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$228,000

Net total for Prop Bets          -$13,600

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$274,000

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          -$3,000

The 5k NL Shootout and the $2500 mixed event were both on the schedule for yesterday.  The shootout started at noon.  This event is different from all the other in the fact that you play your starting table down to a winner and then once you win your table you are in the money and you come back to day 2 for the next table.  I got down to 3 handed at my table with two tough internet players and that was the best I could manage as I busted in 3rd at my table.  I went over to the mixed event but as has been the usual in the small buyin events I never won a pot and busted in maybe the 5th level.  I had some big crossbooks with Doyle Brunson and Eli Elezra.  But they both busted around the same time so it was a wash.  I broke even in the Chinese poker for the day.

I went over to the Bellagio and played in the 3k-6k mixed game again.  The lineup was the same as the night before minus two or three players.  It was my longest session so far as I played about 8 hours.  I was hovering between stuck 100k and even most of the night but had a small rush at the end and left ahead about 64k.

Today is the $2500 Razz Tournament.  This one might be torture but I have a big crossbook with Jon Hansen which could get interesting if one of us makes it deep.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

-$7,500

Net total for Tournaments +$58,100

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

+$64,000 in cash games

$0 in prop bets

$0 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$228,000

Net total for Prop Bets          -$13,600

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$315,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          -$39,000

After winning 20k from Jon for the last longer bet in the Stud 8 tournament I lost a total of 40k to Abe in the same event since he got a 20k bonus for cashing and a 20k bonus for the final table.  He wound up in 6th place in that event.  1st for him would have cost me another 20k.  The 10k PLO tournament was the next day in which I had no prop bets going on which was fortunate considering this was my first quick exit from an event.  I lasted less than an hour.

During the last two days I was actually winning in Chinese Poker for a while but that didnt last as I went on a big slide right before the game broke and came out $49k loser.

Last night I played the 3k-6k mixed game at Bellagio.  Lineup was: Oppenheim, Benyamine, Patrick, Gus, Jen Harman, Ivey, Rafi Amit.   Mix was  Omaha8, Stud, Stud 8, Holdem, 2-7 Triple Draw, A-5 Triple Draw, Stud HiLo Regular, Razz.   The games was active and played really well but I was unable to drag any significant pots and lost 200k.  My first loss in the game at Bellagio this trip, but a bigger result than any one of my wins.

Today I will be multitasking.  Playing the $5k NL Shootout at noon and the $2500 8 Game Mix tournament at 5pm.

So after this huge downswing I am now negative 100k for the trip.  Still focused on the goal and will be trying hard to bounce back.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

-$10,000

Net total for Tournaments +$65,600

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

-$200,000 in cash games

-$40,000 in prop bets

-$49,500 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$164,000

Net total for Prop Bets          -$13,600

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$315,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          -$95,500

With twenty minutes til the end of the night I went bust in the Stud 8 tournament.  I can not recall the last time I was out in the first day of a big event.  Fortunately I won the 20k last longer with Jon Hansen, but still at risk for losing 20k to Abe if he cashes in the event and more if he reaches the final table.  Today will be a day of rest finally.  There is no game going on at the Bellagio for me and tomorrow is the big 10k PLO tournament that I will be entering.  I am going to do an interview today with ESPN and then most likely see the Pelham movie.  Oh, and I managed to lose another 14k for the day in Chinese throughout the breaks.  Chinese is really dragging on my results.

So after the tournament was done for the night I went to the lounge with David Benyamine to sweat him playing Gus heads up Omaha 8 on Full Tilt.  For those of you who don’t know David is a former tennis pro from France who plays in the biggest games all the time live and online.  David has a deep French accent and he is my favorite player in all of high stakes poker to play with.  He laughs at all my jokes and always laughs at all his own jokes too.  Gotta love the guy.  So he played for a few hours and probably of the 4000 decisions he made in the heads up battle, he would ask me what I thought of his play on about 600 of them.  So almost every hand there was some decision where he would ask me my thoughts.  Let me be clear that he always made the play first and then asked me what I thought.

There were these 4 constant conversations heard over and over again:

“Dju also raise dere?”, “Prob not David.”, “Wow, I cant believe dju, How can dju win at poker?”

“Dju like my limp?”,  “David, I would never consider playing that hand. the J955 double suited”, “But zat would be a bad fold, you just really don’t understand poker.  I would fold if he raized after I limped anyway”, “Umm David, he just raised and then you called anyway.”  “Matt, zu are an idiot!”

“David, How can you not lead that river?”, “Oh, really. Dju think Gus would not call me with a pair of trees on zat board?  Oh zreally. Zu zreally do not know Gus.  Zu are so stupid.”

“Zwould zu call?”,  “No, I would three bet there against Gus”,  “Oh, zreally.  Zu are so bad at poker.  Zwhat are you talking about?  I zreally do not understand zu.  How can zu win at poker?  Do you zink I play bad?”,  “No David, I think there are different ways to win at poker”, “Oh, zreally.  Well….. Maybe zu are right.”

I wish I had video.  It would be priceless.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

-$10,000

Net total for Tournaments +$75,600

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

+$19,500 in prop bets

-$14,000 in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$364,000

Net total for Prop Bets          +$25,900

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$256,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          +$208,000

Yep, 6th it is.  Happy to get to the final table.  Unhappy with the result.  Thanks for everyone’s support while I was at the final table.  It was very helpful to the psyche when so many people were pulling for me.   Anyway, so the final table was stacked with a ridiculous amount of talent and skill.  Of the final ten, eight were great limit holdem players, and all ten were great poker players with proven track records.  My friend Matt Hawrilenko was one of those who is widely considered the best limit holdem player in the world.  Six of the ten at the final table are friends of mine, so it made for a very easygoing enjoyable experience.  Even though I did not win, I could not be happier for my good friend Greg who won the event.  He finished 2nd a few times before and I know he was just dying to win a bracelet.  Good things happen to good people!  Greg deserves the glory.  Oh yeah, and the 450k that goes along with it.

Greg is on my team in the prop bet against Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren for WSOP player of the year points.  So this combined effort in the limit holdem today pulls us ahead to a nice comfortable lead.  Making the final table today was a clincher for a prop bet with Matusow so that will be 10k from him.  Half goes to Bryan Colin who took half that bet of mine.  Just gotta love Mike.

Good news.  I only lost 1k today in Chinese Poker.

After I busted out from the tournament I went over to the Bellagio to play the 2k-4k mixed game again.  Some new faces to the lineup last night.  We were honored with the presence of the Great Dane (Gus Hansen) and the Great Baldini (Jon Hansen).  No relation between the two.   Needless to say the game is becoming more fun as we get midway through the WSOP.  The mix today was Omaha 8, Stud 8, 2-7 Triple Draw.  I netted a dissapointing 12k in the game today after being up over 100k early.

Tomorrow we got the Stud 8 or better World Championship 10k Event.  Certainly one of the top 3 events in terms of value.  Barry assures me this will be a super soft field.  I will have a bunch  side action on this tournament.  I have a 20% crossbook with Jon Hansen,  20k bonus for making the final table, and a 20k last longer with him.   I also have a 20k bonus for cashing, 20k bonus for final table, and 20k bonus for winning it, all with Abe.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

+$70,342

Net total for Tournaments +$85,600

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

+12000 in mixed game

+5000 in prop bets

-1k in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$364,000

Net total for Prop Bets          +$6,400

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$242,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          +$213,500

…..So we fly back from Philly on Monday in time for us to play the 10k Limit Holdem Championship Event.  I struggle all of Day 1 just to hover around the starting stack of 30k and finish up the day with 38k at my peak.  During the breaks I lose a couple thousand in Chinese Poker.  Anyway after the tournament ended for the night at 3am, I pretty much beg Benyamine and Jon Hansen to come with me to the Rio Poker Room to play some Chinese at $1,000 a point.  Obviously very big game but I am feeling that its time to raise the stakes as my Chinese has been improving drastically over the last few weeks.  We played for about 4 hours and I think i net won about 5 hands in that time.  We probably played about 80 hands and I just was a road bump for my friends as the two of them just kept running me over and then backing the truck up and running me over again.  This experience cost me 128k.

Day 2 for the Limit Holdem Tournament was today and on the first 20 minute break from the tournament we went to the Aces Club Lounge and played some more Chinese.  This time we had Doyle to make it a foursome.  In the 20 minutes we dealt out 5 hands and I managed to lose 51k during the short break.  That is a very hard thing to accomplish in such a short period.  But I was able to do it.  Chinese Poker is not my friend!

So in the 10k Limit Holdem Tournament we finished up the night down to 12 players.  I have a stack of 483k with avg stack being about 460k.  I am very much in the hunt in this one.  We play til we have a winner tomorrow.  Of the remaining 12 players. 8 or 9 of them are superb limit holdem players.  This will be challenging.  It would be nice to get the the final table of 9 players since that will clinch one prop bet for me and get me closer in the others.  First place pays about $450k.

This is my 8th tournament of the WSOP thus far and I have now cashed in 4 of them.  No final tables yet but tomorrow should change that.  I only have 75% of myself in this tournament because I gave my friend Dan a 25% freeroll as a much deserved Thank You for flying me up and back to see my family.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

0

Net total for Tournaments +$15,300

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

0 in mixed game

0 in prop bets

-181k in Chinese

Net total for Cash games     +$352,000

Net total for Prop Bets          +$1,400

Net total for Chinese Poker  -$241,500

WSOP 2009 Trip Total          +$137,200

No tournaments today for me since I am flying out in the morning.  So I played the 2k-4k mixed game at Bellagio.  Lineup was: Oppenheim, Ralph, Chris Smith, Hennigan, Abe, Johny Chan, Rafi Amit.   Mix was  Omaha8, Stud, Stud 8, Holdem, 2-7 Triple Draw, Razz.  I was off to a great start in the first few hours.  Up as much as 160k.   Mostly hovered around there for most of the day, but then my good friend Ben Lin came over to sit behind me and sweat me.  Knowing how bad he runs, I should have never let him be in the room, let alone sweat my hands.   So not surprisingly in 20 mins of him behind me I lost 7 straight pots and lost 100k straight.  So I quit.  Finished up 56k for the day.  Just glad to book a win before I go home.  I have a recent history of having bad losses on the night before I get on a flight.

Played some Chinese Poker during the day and lost another 21k today there.   I have not fared well in the Chinese so far but will be sticking with it for now.  Down about 60k total for the trip in Chinese.

Recap of the WSOP so far:   I played 7 tournaments.  I cashed in 3 of them which is good, but no final tables.  And of course no bracelet.  I am disappointed with the tournament results, but the live game results have been superb.   So overall, the first two weeks have been very good.

I am incredibly homesick and cant wait to get home and see Deb and the kids tomorrow.  I will be blogging again when I get back.  And I wanted to say thx for those who made comments on the blog.  It is the only way I know people are reading it and I try my best to improve the blog based on the feedback I get.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

0

Net total for Tournaments +$15,300

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

+54k in mixed game

0 in prop bets

-21k in Chinese

Net total for Cash games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker +$293,400

WSOP 2009 Trip Total +$308,700

So on Tuesday the plan was to just play cash games at the Bellagio and take the tournaments off for a day.  We started a 2k-4k mixed game - same lineup and mix of games as previous with a couple other players thrown in.   Game was not that special again.  The lineup has been tough every day the game has run so far.  As we were playing Phil Ivey was trying to talk some of us into playing the 3k HORSE  tourny that was starting over at the WSOP.  Most of us were planning on skipping that one to rest for the 10k 2-7 NL on Wednesday.  But he made me an offer I felt I couldn’t refuse.  He layed me 60k to make the final table of the 3k HORSE vs me laying him 50k to make the same final table.  With a field of 450 players, most of the time neither of us will have to pay, but that was enough incentive for me to leave the Bellagio and jump in the HORSE tourny.   I also crossbooked 20% with both Abe and Benyamine for the tournament.  I was up 74k in a bad mixed game at the time so it was easy to leave and it would be more opportunity now in the tournament.

So I ended day 1 of the HORSE with an average stack, but Ivey, Benyamine, and Abe were all busted out of the tournament.  So total freeroll for me for day 2.  It would turn out I would cash in 36th place.  Another deep run but ultimately dissapointed.  36th would pay $5,838.  So I get an additional $1,160 from the crossbooks and me and Ivey are a wash.  I won about 7k in the Chinese Poker during the breaks.

So during the tournament I am randomly seated next Dan, a friend of mine from back home.  We are catching up a bit on what is going on his life and when he asks me how I have been doing out here, I tell him everything is going great but I am desperately homesick.  Miss my wife and kids.   So he says he has the cure for that.  He is taking his jet home on Friday back to Philly and coming back to Vegas on Monday.  He tells me there is room for me.  Wow, best news I heard all trip.  This came out of nowhere and when I thought about it, I could not pass on this offer.

So I am planning on playing at the Bellagio today and then taking a weekend back home.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

+2800

Net total for Tournaments +$15,300

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

+74k in mixed game

+12400 in prop bets

+7k in Chinese

Net total for Cash games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker +$260,400

WSOP 2009 Trip Total +$275,700

The 10k Omaha H/L tournament was a great event with probably the toughest field of any event.  I had a bunch of bets going on during the play.  I had a 1k last longer with Gavin Smith and also with Rafael Zimmerman.  I won both of those on Day 1.  I also crossbooked 20% with Erick Lindgren, David Benyamine, and Abe.  All 3 of them were out early on Day 2.  So I had a real nice freeroll with a 60% bonus on anything I cash in the event.  At dinner break on Day 2, I was top 5 in chips with 65 players left.  Within an hour after we got back I lost 3 big pots and was down to about half the avg stack.  I survived for a couple more hours but was busted around 40th place for no money.

I spent the next hour playing Chinese poker with Barry Greenstein and Mike Matusow.  They tortured me hand after hand and I lost 35k very quick.  I gave up and quit them to head over to the Bellagio for the 2k-4k mixed game.  Lineup was: Ralph Perry, Benyamine, Jennifer, David Singer, Abe, Chau, Tim Phan, Rafi Amit.   Mix was  Omaha8, Stud, Stud 8, Stud H/L regular, Holdem, 2-7 Triple Draw, A-5 Triple Draw. Again, not the greatest lineup.  High stakes poker at the Bellagio is not very good at the moment.  Hopefully that will change as the WSOP goes on.  Anyway, I spent about 4 hours in the game and won about 24k.  Not too much volatility for me during the session.

I am taking the day off from tournaments today.  We are hoping to get a decent mixed game going early today.  Tomorrow I will be playing the 10k NL 2-7 Single Draw Tournament.  That will be a very small field with mostly known players.  That event is always fun.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

-10k

Net total for Tournaments +$12,500

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

+24k in mixed game

+2k in prop bets

-35k in Chinese

Net total for Cash games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker +$167,000

WSOP 2009 Trip Total +$179,500

The Limit Holdem Tournament was frustrating.  I was chipleader with 70 players remaining and I was out in 40th without a cash.  So far I have entered 5 events and cashed in 2.  The next one is today. 10k Omaha H/L.

After the bustout I landed at the Bellagio where there was a 2k-4k Mixed game going on in Bobby’s Room (Bobby’s Room is the high limit section of the Bellagio Poker Room.  I had to clarify that because I got some emails recently with people asking me who’s Bobby and why were you playing up in his hotel room.)  Fortunately for me there was a seat open.  Lineup was: Oppenheim, Benyamine, Jennifer, Hennigan, Abe, Tim Phan, Rafi Amit.   Mix was  Omaha8, Stud, Stud 8, Holdem, 2-7 Triple Draw, A-5 Triple Draw.  I believe I lost the first few hands I played, but then for the next 3 hours mostly every time I entered a pot, I won it.  I was up about 125k and the game wasn’t playing all that well.  The lineup sucked and there wasn’t too much gambling going on.  So when Rafi the goofball knocked over my chips for the 3rd time in the span of an hour, I just quit.  Rafi is like a little kid playing in Bobby’s Room.  He is a big winning player who can’t control his impulses to do stupid things in the game to try to be funny.  Anyway, I like Rafi prob as much as anyone does.  I think he is funny most of the time and I get his humor.  But after ignoring the fact that the first two times I beat him in a hand and he knocked down my chips to be funny, I had just restacked all the beautiful 5k, 1k, and 500 dollar chips.  He did it again.  Meanwhile he had to reach across Abe and his chips to do it to me.  So I was a little worried also that one of these times the chips would intermingle with Abe or Benyamine’s stack next to mine and then we would have issues.  All I said was, “Ok Rafi, It’s time for me to quit.”  And as I am racking up, as if right on queue, my man Oppenheim gave Rafi a good tongue lashing.  It was sweet.

Anyway, while this is not a normal occurrence in Bobby’s Room, stupid things go on all the time in there just like it was a 1-2 dollar home game.

So I went back to the Rio to see what was going on.  I played a few hands of Chinese Poker with Matusow and Hellmuth.  They beat me for 12.5k in a span of 20 mins.  Then the 3 of us with the addition of 4 other poker players went for a late night dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse.  I felt bad for the table behind us as Mikey was his usual over the top loud self.  It felt like the dinner was scripted for a movie as Mikey was continually ranting at the top of his lungs about nonsensical stuff and Phil interjecting every couple of minutes about his poker accomplishments, his bracelets, or his 18 businesses he owns.  The rest of us really enjoyed the show.  Bryan Colin’s text to me this morning: “Thanks for the invite, that dinner was classic!”  I have realized in the past week that I am by far the most normal person in poker.

Recent Result for Tournaments:

-2500

Net total for Tournaments +$22,500

Recent Results for Cash Games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker

+125k in mixed game

-20k in Chinese

Net total for Cash games, Prop Bets, and Chinese Poker +$176,000

WSOP 2009 Trip Total +$198,500

Well, I busted early on day 2 of the 10k Mixed.  Disappointing for me since I really like all the games involved and it has been a while since I failed to cash in a big buyin event.   Also I made some prop bets during this event that cost me a bunch.  I lost some last longer bets on myself and David Benyamine vs Jon Hansen.  I also cross-booked with Abe but neither of us cashed so it was a wash.

I busted early enough to have some time before the Limit Holdem event started to play some Chinese poker with Jen Harman, Eli Elezra, Jeff Lisandro and Doyle.  It felt like I lost every hand and they punished me for about 33k.  That was fun.

At 5pm, the $2500 Limit Holdem (6 max) event began.  6 max means 6 players per table.  There is more randomness in this event than most other events, but I ran well as usual, and wound up chip leader through most of the night.  It looks like I ended up 3rd in chips according to this report:   http://www.pokernews.com/wsop/2009/event-14/

Amusing playing with all the Limit Holdem Scientists.  They have a ton of gamble and a lot of heart.

During the breaks of this tournament Barry Greenstein and I battled heads up in Chinese and I tortured him for about 14k.  He is probably the best Chinese poker player of the group, so I felt ptetty lucky to win that matchup.  Especially since I just learned the game in the last month.

I got a couple more prop bets that are for the series.

$10k   getting 2.25 - 1 on making two final tables

$10k   getting even money from today on to make one final table -  i have half that bet - Matusow has other side

$20k on Player of the Year Points starting at the 10k Stud Event on the best 2 out of 3 of me, Greg Mueller, and Shawn Buchanan vs  Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren

Result for Tournaments:

-10000

Net total for Tournaments +$24,910

Results for Cash Games

-20k in Chinese

-19k in last longers for the 10k mixed

Net total for Cash games +$71,000

WSOP 2009 Trip Total +$97,000

Freddie Ellis won the 7 card Stud tournament tonight.  He is a regular in our Borgata poker game.  A bunch of us were there to root him on and he represented us well.  He is now the 3rd player from the Borgata game to take home a Stud bracelet in the last few years.  He joins Ben and Dr Mike for the Atlantic City pride.

We had a 300-600 mixed game at the Bellagio today which I played in for an hour.  Won about 3k.  Then Mike Matusow and I went over to Bryan Colin’s ‘9000 sq ft’, as Mikey likes to call it, over by the mountains.  I have never been this far from the strip in Las Vegas before.  We were there to play Chinese Poker and for dinner.  I lost 2k during this excursion, but that is a very minimal amount for the stakes we were playing.

On the way back I got a call saying a 2k-4k mixed game was starting at the Bellagio so I got dropped off there and jumped right in.  I played for maybe 45 mins and came to the realization that this game pretty much sucked.  I was playing with Benyamine, Ivey, Oppenheim, Kenny Tran, and Will.  I did give it a good 45 mins though on the hope someone else would enter that game.  That never happened and off I went.  Picked up another 32k in that game.  Still running good.  Made for a pretty nice day.

Prop Bets:  I won 1k in a last longer bet with someone in the stud tournament.  Tomorrow for the 10k mixed event I have a 10k last longer bet (must cash) with Benyamine.  I also have a 10k bet getting 2.25 -1 that I will make 2 final tables this summer.  That is with Bryan Colin.  Frustrating that I came close to winning that bet already with two 2nd final table finishes in the first two big events.

Result for Tournaments:

Net total for Tournaments +$34,910

Recent Results for Cash Games

+31000

Net total for Cash games +$110,000

WSOP 2009 Trip Total +$144,910

This one hurt!  Finished in 14th place in the 10k Stud Event.  Cashed for $24,480.  This result was a big disappointment for me.  I rate to do better in this specific event and it is was one of the better opportunities for me to pick up a bracelet.

During the breaks I played a bunch of Chinese Poker and while losing big to Johnny Chan heads up, I pretty much beat everyone else and was able to pick up 14k.

The next event for me will be the 10k Mixed (8-game) Event on Thursday.  This is the one I finished 3rd last year.  Hoping to improve on that finish.

Result for Tournaments:

+14480

Net total for Tournaments +$34,910

Results for Cash Games

+14000

Net total for Cash games +$79,000

WSOP 2009 Trip Total +$113,910

I went into the 1k NL tournament with the mindset that I had to get a ton of chips early to make it worth missing out on the game at the Bellagio.  I did increase my stack from 3k to 7.5k by the first break which was certainly one of the top 5% chip counts, but I figured I needed to get to about a 20k stack by the next break to make my tournament equity equal to the to the alternative.

During the break, Eli beat me for 2k in Chinese.  I went back to the tourny and got involved in a hand with the tightest guy in the table.  He led all the streets after the flop and I raised him bluffing all 3 streets.  Needless to say it was a very high risk play and not the smartest.  After he deliberated each street, he called each time.  And I was back to avg stack and then out of the tourny soon after.

I ran over to Bellagio, but unfortunately missed the last open seat in the ‘East Coast’ game.  I was able to gather a few to start a 1k 2k mixed game in Bobby’s Room but the game didn’t last long.  Maybe an hour.  Luckily I got a seat in the 600-1200 ‘East Coast’ game.  The mix was Stud, Stud 8 or better, and NL Holdem.  7 of the 8 seats were filled with Borgata players.  It was our standard Borgata game transported west.

A hand from the game:  100-200 NL Holdem (12k cap),   a guy limps in early position, I raise the cutoff to 800 with KK, the sb calls,  limper calls.  Both guys you all know, but I wont embarrass them with their names (sickos).  Flop comes 457 two hearts.  I got two black kings.   limper checks, I bet 1300  half pot,  sb raises to 3500, limper ponders for a minute then folds.  I cap it to 12k and obv get called.  I am up against the somewhat surprising 39H.  Why not!  Anyway we run it twice.  We each win one time and chop the pot.  The other player informs me he limped and called my raise with 96off.  That was what he was thinking about on the flop.  So basically I raised with KK and was up against the 96off and the 39H.   Normal.

I played til about 1am.  Picked up about 42k between the two games.  Today is the 10k Stud Championship at 5pm.

Result for Tournaments:

-1k

Net total for Tournaments +$20,430

Results for Cash Games

+42k

-2k in Chinese

Net total for Cash games +$65,200

WSOP 2009 Trip Total +$86,630

I finished in 18th place in the 40k for a cash of $96.171.  It was an uneventful final 2 hours for me in the tournament today.  Stole a few blinds, got blinded away, and it was ended in a standard blind vs blind situation when I was 13bb deep.  Blinds 15k 30k with 4k ante.   All fold to the small blind who was Lex.  He has 2.5m.  He makes it 80k.  I have 385k.  I look down to see Q9s.  Folding is not an option.  I consider whether to jam or just call.  I come to the conclusion that I have close to zero fold equity so I elect to just call.  It turns out it didnt matter.  Flop Q22.  He leads for 100k and I jam.  He instacalls with AQ.  And I am out the door.

Feels good to be one of only two guys to cash in the 25k WPT Championship last month and the WSOP 40k NL this month.  To surpass both of those bubbles is a big relief as those are the two biggest NL bubbles of the year in the US.  Also, I was informed that I am the only one to cash in the 3 biggest buyin events in the US for the last year.  That includes the 50k Horse.  Those bubbles were 32k, 72k, and 124k.   Cashing for those numbers rather than being stuck 25k, 40k, and 50k is a huge swing not only for the bankroll but for the psyche.

So before and after the tournament today I played Doyle and then Eli heads up Chinese poker.  I punished Doyle and broke even with Eli.  After the bout with Eli I went over to the Bellagio to play some 600-1200 mixed games with all my boys from the East Coast.  6 of the 8 seats were filled with players from the Borgata.  We played 600 1200 Stud, Stud 8 or better, and 100 200 NL holdem.  I was stuck about 25k at one point but wound up small on the plus side by the time dinner rolled around.

Today is the 1k NL ’stimulus’ tournament with close to 6k players.  I will be playing ultrafast to build up a stack or get bust and be at the Bellagio playing some poker.

Result for Tournaments:

40k buyin, cashed 96k,   (sold half my action in this tournament only due to the huge buyin and extremely tough field;  will have 100% in the rest of the tournaments)

+28k for this tourny

Net total for Tournaments +$21,430

Results for Cash Games

+1200 in  6 12 game

+14k in Chinese

Net total for Cash games +$20,200

WSOP 2009 Trip Total +$41,630