Arizona State Poker Trip Report

Got back yesterday after 5 days at the Arizona State Poker Championships at the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale. Traveled there with my friend Noah and stayed at the hotel there. All I have to say is wow. The hotel is super nice, the poker room is amazing, and this tournament is absolutely insane. The poker room is nicknamed “The Arena” and rightfully so. The poker room is surrounded by TV's everywhere and a giant jumbo-tron hangs in the middle with 4 more giant screens visible from everywhere in the room. Hotel rooms were nice, as well as cheap.

This tournament has to be one of the highest value tournaments of the year. $1070 3 starting days with re-entry. If i'm not mistaken that is the largest $1000 tournament outside of the WSOP? The play as one would expect was laughable. Felt like I was back in 2007 as most pots were 5-6 ways limped around. Structure was pretty good as well with 45 min levels and a very healthy starting stack. Shortly into day 2 levels went to 60 minutes. I needed all 3 days to qualify for day 2. On day 3 I built a monster stack and had 400k from 25k starting with 2 hours left in the day. Unfortunately I lost a few pots that I feel I played well, but didn’t go my way and I bagged 255k at days end, Good for 28^th place out of the 210 returning to day 2.

Day two got off to a pretty rough start for me. During the 2^nd orbit of play I got in a pretty tight spot where an older gentleman (no reads) opened to t15,000 at 2500/5000 with 115,000 total chips in middle position. David Pham flats the cutoff (he flats fairly wide here and never really has a big hand). I am on the button with 88. This is one of those weird spots where I feel that I am crushed by this older gentleman getting it in range (JJ+ AK+ in my opinion at the time). There is so much $$ in the pot though that he does not have to fold often for me to show an immediate profit here. With 42K of dead money in the pot I am risking $115K to win 42k. Lets assume for a second that I have 0 equity when I get all in with this guy than he has to fold (we will assume 40 -120 for easier math) 75% of the time. Which he might be doing as people in these tournaments just value their tournament life so much. Lets remember though that I do have a decent hand and vs what I think his all in range of JJ/AK+ I would guess that I have around 30% equity. Now the villain only needs to fold 50% of the time for me to break even and I would very safely assume your average random in this tournament is folding 50% of the time here. Unfortunately the villain had KK and I quickly lost half of my stack but still had 25 bb or so.

I was super card dead for a while before having a decent spot where it folded to me in the SB. I had 100k at 3000/6000 and had a pretty standard shove with K5o vs an unknown. He called with A8 off and I spiked a K on the turn for a big double up. I again folded for 2-3 more orbits with my new shit image until the bubble hit. This was the one mistake of the tournament that I felt I made. I had 150k at 4000/8000 and it folded to me in the Hi-Jack + 1 with 5 to act behind me. We were at this time 5 from the money. Everyone behind me was playing super tight and was calling it off with prob JJ+ AK+. For some reason unknown to me I just ripped all in since they were calling so tight. Shoving here is definitely +Cev but it is close with ICM factors if it is +$ev or not. A complete brain fart for me as raise fold here is a billion times better vs these players. Guy tanked for 2 minutes with JJ and finally called and I lost to bubble the tournament. I beat myself up for a little while after this one cause it was a pretty big mistake for how soft this tournament was. After a couple of hours though I realized that it was in the past though and I just need to learn from the mistake and not make it again.

As for cash games I did put in quite a few hours down there. The first day down there I played 3/5 which is nice cause it is a $1000 cap buyin instead of $500. Had some success and ended up making a $1000. The next night I found myself in the best 20/40 limit holdem game I have ever played in. Words could not describe how good this game was. People limping calling J4o and C/r any flop. It was insane. Unfortunately I probably ran about $3000 below EV and lost $2300 in the game. Still having problems figuring out how I lost $ in the game. The final day that I got to play cash I was super excited cause they got a 20/40 mix game. The game started as O8 / Triple Draw / Badugi for the first 4-5 hours and eventually Stud 8 and Badacey were added. I swear I would just love to play this game every single day. Playing mix is just so much more entertaining and relaxing. No bet sizing, tanking, hollywooding. Hoping they get these games legalized in Washington soon. Ran pretty bad in triple draw throughout the night and came out a $850 loser. Played for 12-14 hours in the game and did not get bored once. That is how much I love the mix games.

Overall I enjoyed this trip a ton. I wish I could of won some $$ on the trip, but sometimes that is not going to happen. Ill try to get another blog up on Sunday night with Stats for the first week of the grind.

Until then talk to everyone later.

The Grind

Welcome to the new installment of my blog “The Grind”. Follow me through what us poker players refer to the grind. The down and dirty, put in hours, make the cheddar part of the job. While many players are taking vacations following the WSOP right now, Im continuing the grind and continuing to work on my game.

I love getting in grind mode because of routine. Everything seems right when I am in a good routine. Wake up, hit the gym, eat healthy, and play some cards. Of course, I make sure to have fun while I am on the grind, but the main focuses are poker, working out and eating right. Hopefully you will see some golf updates, sporting updates, but I have a clear focus right now, Poker.

Goal setting is a very important part of being on the grind. It motivates you and keeps you going day after day through the struggles. My goals are going to focus on 2 things, health and poker. These are my 2 clear focuses throughout the rest of the year. I have always tried setting goals, but have struggled to stick to them, or keep good records to track my progress. Maybe more important then setting goals, is setting reasons on why you have the goals. For me this is simple this time. All my poker goals revolve around one thing, Making Money. I want to make money, more money. I have a lot of monthly expenses, way more than I should, and I have to work extremely hard too keep the life I have right now. Just like any other job I put in my hours, more hours, and grind it out day by day. The only difference is I love going to work, putting in hours won't be a problem for me. As for health. The reasons are motivational based. I haven't been under 200 pounds since early in high school probably. It is a huge milestone and I know when I see 199 on the scale that it will make all the hard work well worth while.

Poker

• 45 hours / week minimum of grinding. (most of this @ 2/5nl and 15/30 Omaha 8)
• 5 hours / week minimum of Studying game (books , videos , HH review, Equity calcs)
• $8,000 / month profit (trying to stay away from these goals as they are somewhat out of my control but this should be fairly obtainable)
• $1,000 / week for expenses (deposited weekly into bank)
• Really develop and perfect my Limit Omaha 8/better game
• Final Table a live tournament

The most important goals here for me are the two goals regarding minimum hours played. They will drive the success of the other goals. Also a key point here is the word Minimum. I am setting these goals up so that I can surpass them. The other two super important goals for me are the O8 goal and to FT a live tournament. We have recently gotten a 15/30 w 20/40 kill Omaha 8 game going at Tulalip a few days a week. I love the game, while I am still not suer experienced I want to work super hard on this game as it is super profitable. It is hard though to make a Quantifiable goal here. Also I want to regain my focus on working on my tournament game. I have a strong travel schedule set up for the rest of the year and plan on having a lot of success in those events. I need to prepare myself so I am ready deep in a tournament, whenever it maybe.

Health

• Under 200 pounds
• 5 workouts a week

Going to do some more research this week and probable revise these goals. Trying to find a new workout program to stick to. I want to do more crossfit based workouts instead of heavy lifting. Diet is going to be a huge part of these goals and I feel confident to go full speed on my normal diet like I have done in the past.

Not sure exactly where to put this, but one of the other big things I want to focus on is not wasting time. It is probably one of my weakest attributes and I will have to manage my time better in order to accomplish these goals. Basically my plan is before I go to bed make my schedule for the next day. What time I will wake up, what hours ill be in the gym, the casino, working on my game. Having a schedule is key for me to keep on track.

Travel Schedule

Get a lot of questions about what tournaments I am going to play next on twitter so here is my tenative schedule for the rest of the year.

August 10-14 Arizona State Poker Championships

September 12-21 Borgata Poker Open

October 6-7 DeepStacks Poker Tour Fall Pot of Gold

Oct 11-22 WSOPC Chicago

Oct 27-Nov 7 WSOPC Vancouver

As of right now that is what I am planning on traveling too. Some may be added, some may be taken off, but it is a good rough idea. The key for me is to remember that these are business trips and nothing should change in my routine while attending. Basically day off on each end for traveling, but other than that it is still workout in the morning followed by 10 hour days playing and working on my game. Traveling to events though is awesome casue it does keep the grind more exciting and different. Couple weeks at home and im ready to get on the road again. After a week on the road im ready to get home. This provides a nice change of pace. 

Look for weekly updates on this blog. As always you can follow me on twitter @McmattoPoker as I am always providing updates on their. 

Pre WSOP Blog

 

Excuse the long hiatus from blogging as of late. I really do not have any excuses as to why I haven't done a blog in a while, but lets not focus on the past and instead look towards the present and future.

The most exciting time of the year for a poker player is almost upon us. For a professional player, how successful your year is can be determined over the next 2 ½ months. With so many tournaments and side action taking place withing a 2-3 square mile area, almost every poker player in the world will be in Las Vegas for some, if not all of the WSOP. I have finally locked up all my plans for the summer and am setting some goals and rules for my self on how I will have a successful summer.

After my debacle of a summer last year, the first thing I sought to change was my housing situation for the summer. While I still don't want to stay in a hotel for 6 weeks, I have chosen to stay in a smaller/ quieter housing setting with 2 local Seattle grinders. I choose these 2 guys as roommates mainly because of their dedication to the game. They both are very good thinking players and I know we will all motivate our selves into putting in the most hours possible this summer. We rented a nice, but very affordable 3 bedroom town home about 15 minutes from the Rio. The main reason I still choose to stay in a house over a hotel is cooking. I still try to eat as healthy as possible for most of my meals and staying in a hotel makes the nearly impossible. I feel that staying in a non-party atmosphere house will keep me focused on my goals for the summer and give me the best opportunity to leave Vegas with my head up knowing I gave it everything I had this summer.

I feel that one of the more important things for me this summer is to get into a solid daily routine. For me, this routine will focus mainly around poker, health, fitness and golf. On days when I play tournaments at the Rio (12 pm starts) my routine will consist of waking up around 8:30 – 9am and getting a good healthy breakfast in. I will need to be in the gym by about 9:30 or 9:45 at the latest for a good hour long lifting and or cardio session. Leave our condo by 11:30 to ensure that I am not missing any hands of poker. Another key part to my routine I believe will be going home on dinner breaks. With 90 minute long breaks as long as I get away from the table 1-2 minutes early to beat the line to the parking lot, I cant have about 30 minutes at home to cook and eat while allowing 30 minutes of transportation each way. I feel that getting out of the casino during breaks is a good way for me to clear my mind of poker for a little bit and also allow myself to refocus for the 5-6 hours that still remain in the day. The other part of my routine involves the night before events. I am going to be very strict on no drinking the night before events. I want to be in bed by 1 or 130am at the latest to allow a good nights rest. I am playing less events this year and want to be mentally and physically prepared for each one. On non-tournament days I will hopefully be able to get out on the golf course in the mornings before it gets to hot. Having a lot of non tournament days this year is great for me as I can grind the side action and make my own money off of my backing deal.

For those that I have read my blog in the past, you are well aware that I have made health and fitness a very important part of my life over the last two years. I feel that these two things are essential for me to perform at my peak at the WSOP this summer. No more eating giant filling meals during dinner breaks that will leave me in a food coma for the last 5-6 hours of the tournament. One of the biggest / most underrated aspects of playing your best poker is being able to have 100% mental focus while at the table. Eating light meals frequently and packing healthy snacks in my bag such as protein shakes / bars, fruit, nuts etc will give me the best chance of reaching my peak mental focus while playing. As for working out, I have always found / know that when I work out first thing in the morning or right before I play poker I always play better. My energy level is way higher throughout the day and thus I play better. I pick up more reads on my opponents, I pick up more betting patterns etc. That is why I will make a very strong effort to hit the gym every morning this summer before tournaments.

One of the biggest changes that I will be making this WSOP (My 3^rd) is playing less events. The previous two years I focused more on volume than quality of play. I believe I played 30+ events both years. I feel both years it led to me not putting max effort and focus into each event since there was “Always another tournament at 5pm”. This year I am cutting back my schedule to about 18 events (2-3 / week). My hope is that this will keep me focused and excited to play and put forth my effort in each event. This schedule also gives me the opportunity to put max time in to side action at the WSOP. On non-tournament days you will see me grinding SNGS, Megas, and Cash games. This will give me the best opportunity to have a winning summer.

A lot of people ask me about game selection at the WSOP. Since there are so many options of what to play, sometimes it is hard to choose. Most of my side action time will be spent playing Single Table Sit and Goes and Cash Games. The 2-$500 sngs are gold mines and have been my bread and butter the last couple of years at the WSOP. I plan to continue that this year. I will also be playing a lot of my usual 2-5nl and some 1-2 to 5-5 PLO. I also want to play some more mixed games, so if a good 20-40 O8 or Stud8 game etc pop up than I will jump in that.

Last, but not least, I will list some of my Goals / Expectations / Rules for the summer that will give me the best opportunity to succeed. I want these goals to be things that I can control. You wont see goals of “win a bracelet or make a final table” because a lot of times those are out of your control due to variance.

• 300+ Hours of poker (6 weeks x 50 hours / week).
  • I need to put in hours. This trip is a business trip. Yes there will be time to have fun (golf) etc but these next 6 weeks define my whole year so I need to put in max effort to ensure that happens. Fifty is the minimum I expect some 60-70 hour weeks.
• Gym minimum 5 days / week. Mandatory on tournament mornings.
  • As I have said before I have more mental focus and play better when I am working out and eating healthy.
• Eat healthy and minimize my eating out meals to 1-2 / week
  • See above. This will also help me lower my expenses.
• Stick to my bread and butter buy ins don’t stretch my bankroll to far.
  • I find at big series like the WSOP there is so much GOOD action that it is easy to play to big and get stuck early in the trip. I want to refrain from taking shots for the first while until im up a good amount. Taking shots is not a bad thing, but it must be done in the right situation.
• Record all expenses to the T
  • This is a business trip and I need to minimize this. Cut out the $100 meals
• Record hands and discuss with roommates
  • If you don’t study you will keep making the same mistakes over and over again.
• Update Blog weekly
  • I really hope I find time to do this, but I will be playing a ton.

My Schedule of events. You can follow updates on my twitter @ Twitter.com/mcmattopoker AS you can see I am only playing NL Holdem Events. This is because I believe my hourly rate is higher playing side action then mixed game tournaments since I have not quite yet polished off those games.

WSOP Event # 9A: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em re-entry day 1a on June 2, 2012.

WSOP Event # 9B: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em re-entry day 1b on June 2, 2012.

WSOP Event # 14: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout on June 6, 2012.

WSOP Event # 16: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em/ Six Handed on June 7, 2012.

WSOP Event # 19: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em on June 9, 2012.

WSOP Event # 21: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em on June 10, 2012.

WSOP Event # 23: $3,000 No Limit Hold’em/ Six Handed on June 11, 2012.

WSOP Event # 31: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em on June 16, 2012.

WSOP Event # 33: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em on June 17, 2012.

WSOP Event # 38: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em on June 20, 2012.

WSOP Event # 41: $3,000 No Limit Hold’em on June 22, 2012.

WSOP Event # 43: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em on June 23, 2012.

WSOP Event # 44: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em on June 24, 2012.

WSOP Event $ 46: $2,500 No Limit Hold’em on June 25, 2012.

WSOP Event # 53: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em on June 30, 2012.

WSOP Event # 54: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em on July 1, 2012.

WSOP Event # 56: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em on July 2, 2012.

WSOP Event # 59A: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em re-entry day 1a on July 4, 2012.

WSOP Event # 59B: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em re-entry day 1b on July 5, 2012.

WSOP Event # 58C: $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold’em on July 9,

2011.

Accepting the Challenge - Turning Pain Into Success

Accepting The Challenge-

Turning Pain Into Success

I will preface this blog by saying that most of the content, while rewritten in my words, is credited to Eric “The Hip Hop Preacher” Thomas. You should check out his website at www.etthehiphoppreacher.com or check out his Youtube channel for many of his motivational speeches at http://www.youtube.com/user/etthehiphoppreacher where every Monday he posts a new episode of his show TGIM, Thank God its Monday. A show to motivate you to work harder each week and achieve your goals.

I discovered some of the work of Eric “The Hip Hop Preacher” Thomas a couple weeks ago through his video, “How Bad Do You Want It” of Giovanni Ruffin (former RB for East Carolina, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsSC2vx7zFQ ). I have spent much of the last 72 hours engulfed by his messages. These messages have sent me in to his so called “Dream World”, thinking about what I really want. What goals do I want? Where do I want to be in one year? Five years? Ten years? While thinking about what I wanted to achieve in the near future, I also began to think about what I had in the past. Two years ago in 2009 I shot into the poker world. I won a Spring Championship of Online poker event for $470,000. I had a $30,000 bankroll at the time and had 100% of my action in the event (satellited in). In both, 2009 and 2010, I had deep runs in the World Series of Poker Main event with 80^th and 15^th finishes respectively. I had become one of the new rising stars of poker. I was featured in World Poker Tour's new segment “The Ones to Watch.” I had made it in the poker world and and had taken it for granted.

Flash forward 12 months to the beginning of 2012 and the poker world has come crashing down on me. I took everything for granted in 2009 and 2010. I thought that this game was easy and every year I was going to have a half million dollar tournament score. I thought that success was going to come to me without going through pain. I stopped working on my game because I was overridden with confidence that I could achieve my goals and aspirations without putting in the hard work. This was the mindset that led me to my first losing year of poker, since I quit my job at the grocery store back in the summer of 2006 . In 2011, I wanted success, I wanted to win Cardplayer POY, I wanted to have a million dollar year, but I didn't want to endure the pain that comes with success. I wanted everything in the world, but I didn't want to put in the work to reach that success. I am talking about the work outside of the tables. Studying hand histories, talking with other top pros, watching videos. There is so much content and information easily available about advanced poker theory, that anyone with the will to succeed can get it. There is no information that is available to the likes of Jason Mercier, Eugene Katchalov, Eric Seidel that isn’t available to anyone else, as long as you put the work in to get that information, and the work to process that information. Thats the glory of the situation that we are all in right now. Everything is there for the taking.

Accepting the challenge is what it is all about. “You have to live the best of your life for the rest of your life! Forget about your past because the only one tripping over it is you.” - Eric Thomas. Learn from your mistakes, but don’t let them drive you down. All that matters is today, tomorrow and the next day after that. Accept the challenge that there will be pain in reaching success. I went through pain this past year losing much of my bankroll. It took that pain to reilize that I actually wanted to succeed. And you know what? I expect more pain in the future before I can reilize success. People come up to me sometimes and say, “ You deserved to win the main event last year,” or , “ I felt your pain during the main event, you'll win it next year.” The 2010 main event is in the past. The only thing I have taken from that event, is the pain. Not the pain that I feel sorry for my self because of what happened. But, the pain is with me because that pain is what is going to drive me to success in the future. I was given a taste of success, but I want the whole thing now. I am going to turn that pain into success because the only way to achieve success is by going through the pain.

There is a massive opportunity coming up in the poker world in the next few years. There is the potential 2^nd coming of the “Poker Boom”. People always say, myself included, “Man I wish I was where I am now in poker, back in 2004 when Party Poker was around.” They wish they were as well prepared as they are now for that opportunity that has come and gone. We very well may have that 2^nd chance that people always ask for. Will you be prepared for the opportunity, if and when it comes? There will be sponsorship opportunities, fame opportunities, one of us could very well be the new Moneymaker. The question is, will you be prepared when your opportunity come ; because you don't know when you will get it? It might be in the LAPC 2012, WSOP 2012, WSOPE 2012, when you are given an opportunity in a tournament, in life, in school, will you be prepared enough that you are not practicing while you are playing? I once heard a quote, but do not know who it is by, “Luck Is where opportunity and preparation meet.” You can control the preparation and you can generate your own “Luck” by being prepared to the best of your ability when opportunity arrives. All I know is, next time I am deep in a major tournament, the next time I am given that great opportunity, I will be so well prepared, because I have put in more work off the tables.

Part one though is only accepting the challenge. You need to embrace the challenge. Turn your weaknesses into strengths. “Step out of your comfort zone and put yourself in a position where you feel stupid”. You can't be afraid to struggle in life. Wither it is in poker, school, or any situation, the only way you can enhance your self as a person is by first struggling. I relate to this with some of the mixed games right now in poker. This past fall I sat at a 20/40 stud hi table at Commerce. My first time ever sitting at a live stud hi table. I struggled, but learned so much in those 2 hours of playing through my struggles. I have never paid attention so much at a table because I knew I was weak at that game. I was trying to do whatever I could to improve. Take that mindset into everything you do in your life. “If your struggling, don’t quit, remember it is the pain that will lead to the success. You can't walk around pain, the only way to success is THROUGH pain.”

Finally, the third point is to “Become Excellent.” Someone else out there wants your spot in the spotlight. “Your not the only kid who wants to play in the NBA,NFL, attend Yale, attend Harvard. It takes that extra 1 pushup, that extra mile, that extra hour of studying.” If you really want success, are you going to let anyone else work harder than you to get it? Take for example, say there are going to be a lot of open sponsorship opportunities in the next 2-3 with new online poker sites. Are you going to let other people work harder than you to get those opportunities? There is a reason Jason Mercier is on top of the poker world right now. There's a reason he is living the life that every poker player wants to live. HE WORKS HARDER than anyone else out there. He put in more hours, more pain then anyone else. Im friends with Jason, but not super close, but every time we were at the same tournament stop in the last 2-3 years, he put in more hours at the table then anyone else. He was putting in 24 hour sessions in the mixed games at Commerce to work on his game, to make his money. Very few people are putting forth that pain, that time, in order to reach success. Over the next couple of years ill be fighting with people like Jason, Moorman, Eugene Katchalov to win poker tournaments all over the world. I have to ask my self. “Am I going to let them work harder than me?” Because as much as you, or I want to think it, It's not going to be who runs the best, it's going to be who is the most prepared when opportunities arise. Who is going to make the least mistakes with 10 left in the LAPC 2014 with a 1.5 million first prize? If your prepare your self to become excellent you will put yourself in that opportunity enough times that you WILL succeed. But remember, there will be pain along the way, but don’t let hat DIScourage, but only Encourage you to work harder for the next opportunity

These have been some of the thoughts that I have been thinking over in the last 72 hours after listening to Eric Thomas. He doesn't mention the word poker once during any of his speeches, but thats not the point. You can succeed at anything with the right mindset and attitude. The problem is, “Most of you kind of want to be successful, but if you REALLY want to be successful you need to be willing to put more time in then the person next to you.”

As 2012 moves along I will see how bad I really want to be successful. I will see how much I really want to turn the pain of last year into success in 2012. Next Monday, I leave for my first traveling poker trip of 2012. I will be at the LAPC from Feb13 – Mar1 then Bay 101 from Mar1 – Mar9. I have never been more excited to succeed on a trip then for this one. I am working hard on my game trying to prepare my self incase my opportunity comes at LAPC or Bay 101. Maybe it will, maybe it wont, but I want to give my self the best chance to succeed if that opportunity comes. If not, there will be the next poker trip (WPT Florida?). You can't control the cards, but you can control how prepared you are if the cards give you the opportunity to succeed at any given tournament. The ones who take the most advantages of those “opportunities” are the people who will succeed the most in 2012.

Matt “Mcmatto” Affleck

Hello Cardplayer

Hello Cardplayer

Hello everyone! Just want to start by saying how happy and honored I am to be a featured blogger for Cardplayer.com. I hope to give you guys a glimpse into my life, which for now hovers greatly around poker, fitness, and getting hustled by Matt Savage on the golf course. Hopefully, through reading this blog, you can see my motivation and dedication I have towards this great game of poker and how much I want to be successful with all my goals. I also tend to have some fun with this blog, posting random pictures I have taken throughout the weeks, favorite youtube videos, and random sports discussions. I invite you to go back and read the two previous blog posts from this year to see some of my goals of the year, and to give you an idea of what to expect from me this year.

There has been some great poker action in Seattle the past couple of weeks. Last week, I played the $460 re-entry event at the Clearwater casino on Bainbridge Island. The event attracted 95 runners, while small, is about what I expected. I made it through Day 1a, but was quickly ousted from Day 2 within the first orbit of play when my AQ could not outrace 66 to get some decent chips.

All was not lost though, as the cash game action has been excellent here. While I have not been playing the game, they have been running a 5/10/25 PLO game at Tulalip 1 to 2 nights a week. For those that do not know, Washington State has a $500 max bet rule. If I bet $300 on the flop the maximum raise is to $800. You could then chose to raise to $1300. So yes, this 5/10/25 game might be the stupidest game ever.. The game, however, is very good, high variance, but very good. The max buy in for the game is $2000. Last weekend, one of the regulars in the game had close to $50,000 on the table at one point, the most by far ever in the casino on a poker table. I want to play this game, but with the limit poker nuances and my lack of work ethic lately on my PLO game (been refocusing on tournaments and NLH cash) I just don’t feel comfortable playing the game. The 5/10 nl action though was very good this past week here. I believe we had 3-4 nights of 5/10 going at Tulalip and the games were all very good in my opinion.

Stats from last week

Hours played – 39 ( (19) 3/5nl, (13) 5/10nl , (6) 5/5nl, (2) 5/10 PLO)

Profit - $1,818

hourly rate - $46.62

I again crushed the 3/5nl game this week making just over $2,000 in 19 hours of play. I just feel so confident in this game now. I play a very high variance style in the game, pushing every edge, YET the game is still very low variance due to the player styles you run into. I am the one always putting everyone to the test and rarely have difficult decisions calling off my chips. Some ask why I am “Slumming” it playing 3/5, that I should be playing bigger etc. This all has to do with ego, or lack there of. I am trying to remove all ego from my poker game as it had been the demise of so many in our game. Why shouldn't I continue to play in the 3/5 game when I am beating it for a very good rate with little to no variance.

Hand of the Week- Hand reading, bluff catching, putting you opponent to the test.

This hand comes from the new 5/5nl game I have been trying to spread at Tulalip. Same game as the 3/5, but with a Max buy in of $1000 instead of $500.

My image- I have my standard Hyper Lag image at the table and have been playing the most pots out of everyone.

Villains image – Standard 3/5 player. Will play fairly ABC post flop, doesn't get out of line to much, might be playing bigger than normal since this is a $1000 buy in game and he does split time between 1/3 and 3/5.

History – I have 3 bet him once already and showed a “4” after he folded pre flop.

My hand – Jc6c

Weak Hi jack player open limps

Villain Iso raises cutoff to $20.

• I immediately pickup on his raise size here. Most players in this game like to protect their hand and would raise bigger with their stronger hands to get value. My initial reads puts him on a marginal hand.

I 3bet the button to $75.

• A little bigger than I normally 3bet, but we are sort of deep (Villain had 6-700 maybe?)

Villain calls quickly heads up.

• He didn’t even consider 4 betting. To be honest I didn’t expect him to fold pre flop much.

FLOP Ts 9s 5h

Villain checks

I Bet $80

• Bet sizing is key here, I don’t believe I need to bet much here to see how strong the villain is. This gives me the cheapest price to bluff at the pot. It also allows me room to barrel turn and river if need be. Bet sizing is one of the biggest leaks of 3/5 players I see. I would guess the average cbet here would be in the range of 125-130, $80 accomplishes the exact same thing imo.

Villain snap calls

• His quick calls indicates a very weak holding to me. If he had an overpair, he would of at least taken a second to consider raising the flop here. Also many 3/5 players are going to raise this flop with any strong hand to protect against the flush and straight draws. You very rarely see people slow play here.

Turn 9c

Villain checks

I bet $130

• again bet sizing here. The players at 3/5 do not really consider pot odds, rather this just look how much it is to call. $130 Is a lot of $$, again I don’t believe I need to bet much more than this. Also with this sizing it gives me the opportunity to make a cheap triple barrel bluff. I can bet 175-200 on the river here giving my self a good price to bluff. They don’t see what odds they are getting to call, rather they see that I re raised pre flop, bet flop bet turn and bet river.

Villain Snap calls

Again I still feel that he is weak. He again didn’t even consider raising. At this point I am planning on barreling 175-200 on most rivers. I am putting his range on 77-88, AT, KT, JT,QT, QJ, KJ, 78 and Flush draws and the best hands he could have at JJ, QQ, KK, AA with AA and KK less likely cause he would of 4bet pre flop. I don’t expect him to fold QQ on blank rivers.Most of these hands will have a hard time to call a third river bet.

River 6d ( I am now qualified :D)

Villain Shoves $315 (he took about 5 seconds)

Hero calls

So I did not expect him to ever lead non-club rivers. He shoved the river so quickly like there was very little thought process into my hand range. I begin to analyze his range now, which has greatly changed. I feel the only VALUE hands in his range are TT, AA, 66. I discount 66 due to combinations since I have a 6 in my hand. AA I discount since if he was going to take the line of check/call, check/call to let me keep bluffing (which is a great line IMO) he would almost for sure check the river to let me bluff missed clubs and straights and he would not be folding. TT is probably the most likely value hand, but there are so few combinations. There are way more combinations of missed flush and straight draws here. KJ,QJ, J8s all have either gutters, open enders and over cards. All his nut flush draws or overs and flush draws missed. There are just so few hands he is repping / plays this way for value

I call after about 30 seconds.

Villain - “Shit” and flips AhKh (no fd)

I flip Jc6c

Villain - “What the hell, J6”

I smile and rake the pot :D

While this was one of my favorite and cool hand histories in a long time, there is a lot to learn from this hand. Live tells, timing tells, assessing players ranges and how that range changes throughout the hand. Trusting your range. Realizing when a player does something that makes zero sense.

Changing the subject to fitness, while not a bad week, I certainly did not have my best week in terms of working out and dieting. I broke my diet for the first time last weekend. Went out with some friends and had 3 beers, the first alcohol I have had in 3 weeks since starting the diet. Somehow after the bars we ended up at this taco truck and I couldn’t help my self. I had a carne asada burrito. Soooo worth it. I think this might have been for the best though. It remotivated myself and I come into this week looking forward to having a perfect week in order to make up for last. At last weigh in (now just over a week ago) I weighed in at 207.75. 4 and ¾ pounds from my goal of 203. I now have 13 more days (Feb 13 when I leave for LA) to accomplish my goal and I still 100% am focused on reaching it. I am going to skip my weigh in this week and push my self to the best of my abilities this week. I have 6 workouts scheduled in the gym + snowboarding on my day off from the gym. This plus a perfect diet should allow me to shed a lot of weight this week before I weigh in Sunday before the Super Bowl (my one scheduled “cheat day” of this challenge). I had a great chest, back and shoulders workout yesterday on my own. I got in 27 sets in just over an hour and felt great afterwards. I have 3 workouts planed with Bobby this week (My personal trainer). Lately these workouts have been beyond challenging. We have been working out with Battle ropes and TRX bands a lot lately. While not quite at this intensity a lot of the exercises are similar to these.

Also these new TRX bands are awesome. They allow you to get a full body workout with one piece of equipment. This pushup to knee in exercise is painful and one of the better core exercises.

Finally, for this blog, I want to give a shout out to my sponsor, Poker Income, http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/poker-income-pro-bankroll/id316520188?mt=8 . This app for Iphone and Android allows players to track all of their poker sessions. It records hours played, profit, sessions etc. You can export that information to spreadsheets and even back up the info on their cloud server in order to prevent data loss if you lose your phone or break it. I have been using this app since last World Series to track all my records and recommend nothing else. Download the free trial today.

I will leave you all with some pictures from Seattle this week. I truly do love this city.

 View from my balcony on a awesome winter day.

Same view on another awesome winter day

Downtown Seattle from the Seattle - Bainbridge Island ferry

January 16-22

January 16^th – January 22^nd

Very interesting week for all of us here in the Pacific Northwest. We got our annual dosage of snow in a giant snow storm here. I live in downtown Seattle which gets the least amount of snow and we got 5-6 inches in 1-2 days here. Some of the outer areas, Olympia (60 miles south?) got upwards of 2 feet of snow. As normal, the city almost completely shut down and many roads became impassable. I saw on the news that something like 700 accidents were responded to by the State Patrol in a 24 or 48 hour period. 

I had some fun in the snow. I built a snowman out side my condo and dressed it up like Jake Locker, the current QB of the Tennessee Titans and former University of Washington QB. 

I chose not to mess with the roads at all and basically spent 2 straight days at home. This didn’t deter me though from working towards my goals. I put a lot of work in reading Elky's tournament book, “The Raisers Edge”. I am about 2/3rds through the book and while much of the content is stuff I already know in my head, it is a great refresher and is definitely a very good, current state, tournament poker book. I am taking my time going through the book really concentrating on the concepts and noting the key points throughout. I hope to get through the book this week and move onto the books predecessor Kill Everyone which has a bunch of shove charts that I want to study and work through.

Speaking of tournaments, this past weekend I played in all 3 of the Muckleshoot Winter Classic poker tournaments. They had a $300 (5k added), $500 (15k added), and $1000 (25k added). The $300 and $500 had quick and not deep structures early and required you to get some chips (like the 1k wsops but worse). In both of these tournaments I feel I played 1 hand bad in each and was left short and busted both in the first 2 levels.

$300 hand of the week. Key Concept- Assessing a players range and board texture for that range.

Q4dd Button (8000 chips 50/100 blinds)

Folds to me on the button and I make a fairly standard raise to 250. I had a very loose image as I had been involved in a ton of hands early, but not with much success. Both blinds were very weak players. The SB was a big station pre flop but seemed to plat fit or fold post, but hadn’t gotten to showdown so I had not confirmed that. The BB was very passive and had already flatted AK and KK pre and played them horribly post flop. Both blinds called.

FLOP 653R (1 diamond 1 club) pot 750

Both blinds check. I make a very standard cbet of 400. Both call. I am already planning to double barrel lots of turn cards as I feel you must if you are going to Cbet this flop

Turn Ac (back door clubs (pot 1950)

Awesome turn card to double barrel. Both check and I barrel 1100. the Small blind quickly calls and the BB folds. At this point in the hand I am putting the sb on still a very wide range and doesn't have to have an Ace. 64,54,34s,78,67,57,A4, 77,88,99,TT,JJ,QQ.

River Kc (pot 4200) I have 4800 back

SB Checks. If I put this SB on the above range I should be betting this river 100%. All his pair and gutters have missed and there are not many A's in his range. He may have hit some back door club draws. Basically this is the best triple barrel spot ever. The one problem is my stack. I have 4800 back with 4200 in pot so im not getting the best price to shove (if I had 3-4000 I would shove). Also if I bet something like 2500 I don’t have a read on this guys river play yet if he will fold for a smaller amount and if he calls im basically crippled. I got very gun shy here and checked back. I figured I had some showdown value vs random 4's and 78. I hate my check here and wish I bet like 2800 on the river. The SB showed A4 and won the pot. I still don’t know if he folds the river with that hand but by checking back im letting 64 win the pot so much that is never calling a river bet.

The $1000 was pretty uneventful as well. I lost a decent size pot at 100/200 leaving me with 10k chips (much better structure, we started with 20k and 45min levels). I hung around 10k for the next 90 mins or so until we got to 300/600. I doubled up with A5dd vs A7o when the button opened and I shipped 17bb he made a good call but I got there. Then raised the button with A2hh and 10bb stack shipped Jtdd and I lost. Finally got 20bb in with Aqss vs 99 on TT2ss and bricked. At least I had a chance to get some chips in this one but I don’t think I made a single mistake the whole tournament.

This week I have the $460 main event at the Clearwater casino in Seattle. This is a re entry with a pretty shitty structure I think and I have no idea how many people since it is a smaller poker casino.IM hoping for 200 and 20-25k to first. This is day 1a friday 1b saturday and day 2 sunday. If I don’t make Day 2 I have the $300 end of the month event at Tulalip that I will play. Other than those 2 tournaments I just plan on the normal and grinding a bunch of cash here. O ya I did well in cash games at Muckleshoot this weekend and made $1700 in the 3 days at 3/5 nl.

As for health, I had a pretty good week with the diet yet still have a lot of room to improve. I need to stop eating bigger meals at night, which is hard since I normally stay up late (1am ish). I weighed in at 207.75 this week, meaning a loss of 1.25 pounds last week. Im going to push very hard and try to get under 200lbs but the time I leave for LA.

I have been watching this motivational video at least once per day, mostly right before I go to the gym and it is awesome. If it doesn’t inspire you then something is wrong.

Random video Jeff Madsen posted on my FB wall this week. From the Savage Invatational golf tournament last year

WE ARE BACK IN 2012!

The Comeback

The time has come. One my goals for 2012 is to restart my blog that I briefly began last year and had some mild success with. While I don’t have any specifics for the blog, I do plan to blog 1 time per week and hopefully give some of you an inside look at the life of a Professional Poker Player. Some things I hope to carry over form my old blog include Video of the week, Picture of the week, reports of my week in poker, and reports of my week in health and fitness.

This blog will recap January 9^th - 15^th (my weeks are Monday → Sunday)

This week was the 1^st week of my 2012 diet. Basically I am going on a 35 day body cleanse before I head to LA for 1 month for the LAPC and Bay 101 (my first big live tournaments of 2012). During these 35 days I have a goal of losing 8 pounds and 1-2% body fat. Last Monday with my trainer (Bobby) I weighed in at 211. I cant remember the last time I weighed in under 200 pounds so that is a huge goal for me to see 199 on the scale. I peaked in weigh around 2010 at about 270.

My plan on how to achieve these goals are fairly simple. Cutting the basic bad things out of my diet. No alcohol (minus Superbowl), no obvious fatty foods, etc etc. My basic diet looks something like this

Breakfast – 3 egg whites with sun dried tomatoes and artichoke hearts / piece of fruit

Gym

Snack – Protein Shake

Lunch – Turkey Patty (Home made w/ ground turkey breast, and seasoning and spices

w. cottage cheese and salad

Snack - Protein Bar

Dinner – Chicken breast , brown rice, veggies

snack – protein shake

Nothing special in the diet, just clean cut. As for the gym aspect I have a fairly basic 6 day a week plan. 2 of the workouts (IMO the 2 hardest) will be done with Bobby, my personal trainer.

1- Chest / Back / Shoulders

2- Legs

3 – Arms

4 – Agility w/ bobby

5 – Full body w/ bobby

6 – core / cardio

So thats my 2012 opening diet I guess. I will keep you guys updated every week with the progress on that. This week went very well with no mishaps on the diet. I did miss my last 2 workouts of the week since I was very sick and did not have the energy to hit the gym

POKER

Now to the part of why most of you are reading my blog. Poker! 2011 was my first losing year in poker ever. I had 1 5 figure score all year in tournaments and had a horrible year in cash games. This was all my fault. I did not take the game seriously , I did not work on my game hard enough. I took the money for granted and did not play my best at all times.

I am using last year as the greatest motivation to have my best year yet in 2012. I am rebuilding, I blew a lot of money last year cause I played like shit. I have spent the last month in a ½ back in Seattle doing nothing but grinding the shit out of an awesome 3/5nl game at Tulalip. I have gotten rid of my ego, something that kills many poker players. I don’t care what people think if they see me grinding 3/5nl. This game is awesome and I am crushing the game. Since December 13^th over 190 hours (yes I am playing a lot) im beating the game for $61/hour. Probably by far the biggest win rate in the game

Last week I played 40 hours in the game and profited $4129 for $105 / hour. Basically until February 13^th when I go to LA I will keep grinding 40-50 hours a week in this game and keep on my workout schedule. Next week I plan on having a hand of the week for the blog.

Coming up this week I actually have some decent tournaments in Seattle. The Muckleshoot casino has their Winter Classic series Jan 20-22. A $300, $500, and $1000 tournament with $50,000 added over the 3 events. I plan on playing all 3 of these tournaments.

Poker Goals for 2012.

I wrote these down on Jan 1^st and I guess I should write them on here. I am going to do everything in my power to accomplish these goals

1. $200,000 profit for the year
2. Be known as the biggest / best winner in 5/10 nl, PLO, Horse games etc in the Seattle area casinos where I play most my cash games.
3. Become more proficient @ other forms of poker i.e. Horse / plo, triple draw / badugi etc
4. Spend more time Studying the game (perhaps the most important)
5. Start poker blog (YAY) and build my media image (website?) getting ready for potential sponsorship deals when / if online is legalized
6. Major TV Final table / wsop ft / win a live tournament (have won 1 life time a $200)
7. Have a work ethic equalized by no one.
8. Focus more on the game while playing (reads etc)
9. Start Coaching program.

Health goals

1. Drop weight to 190
2. Rebuild w/ muscle to 205
3. Gym and diet
4. Continue to workout with my trainer Bobby

So this blog got a little bit long. Like I said I hope to blog ATLEAST once per week. Hopefully Ill get into the plan of doing some strategy articles hand history reviews etc. Looking forward to another great week health wise and poker wise. Got 3 great tournaments this week so see if I can get year off to a great start.

Heres my Video of the week. Best UFC KNOCKOUT EVER! Just look how limb he goes. Out cold.

Please leave any comments or suggestions on what you would like to see in the blog. Also ideas for some strategy articles!

Talk to you all soon!