It's been quite some time since my last post and a lot has happened since. I was obviously out in Vegas a few weeks for the World Series as many of you know from the posts of my better half IrishWife. Despite going 0/2 in the events I played and having a very disappointing finish right before the money on day 4 of the main event, we both had a really good time getting to meet a bunch of the Leggo guys. I think Katie was almost more disappointed I busted than I was... she got really into it which was very cool as I know a lot of girls would just go lay by the pool or something while their man was playing. Not her though, she watched every minute of it and even got Norman Chad to both autograph something for my Dad and to come over and say hi to me while I was playing. Now that she knows who he is she's been able to laugh/groan at his terrible jokes during commentary of the WSOP while we watch to see if I made any of the coverage.

Since we got back from Vegas we've been incredibly busy getting ready for our new house. We officially closed this past Friday and are loving the new place. I'm sure I'll have pics up soon of the inside but it's super nice and so much better than the small apartment we were living in.

We don't get very long to enjoy it though as we're headed to Greece for 10 days starting Aug. 26th. I studied there in college and we're going to Athens for a week then to Milos (an island) for a long weekend for the wedding of a girl I studied with there. We're meeting a couple of my other friends who I studied with and we to get to show Katie a good time since she's never been.

Poker's been up and down lately as I haven't been playing a ton being so busy with house stuff. I've had a couple periods of running and playing very well and a couple others of the opposite so overall things have been decent but not great. I'm looking forward to getting back from Greece and really grinding as we really don't have anything else planned for the rest of the year so I'm looking to put in a ton of volume this last couple months of the year. I've kept my online bankroll somewhat low lately as I've been withdrawing regularly to make sure we had enough for the down payment and new furniture for the house. That means likely I'll start grinding 2/4 and then look to build up by the end of the year to a point where I can play 5/10 or 10/20 comfortably if a good game runs.

I feel like video wise I'm putting out some interesting things that seem to be well reviewed so I'm gonna continue to do 2-3 of those a month. If anyone has any things they wanna see me do just lemme know as I'm always looking for new ideas. I'll probably do a member review video sometime in the near future so if you're interested in that keep an eye out or send me a message. Once I get back from Greece I'll also be available for coaching so if you've asked me about that recently just remind me in early September and I'll get back to you.

So I've been playing tournaments the past couple Sundays both to try to win a seat to the main event and to gain some more tournament experience in general to prep for the WSOP. I know most people think tournaments are the devil but I've actually enjoyed playing them. That's probably because I've done fairly well in them relatively speaking, cashing something like 4/18. Certainly I'd probably have a different opinion if I was 0/18 as probably isnt too uncommon a run to have.

But it's nice to sit down on a Sunday and know that I don't really have to be on my A game at all times to do well since there are just so many recreational players that at any given time I'm almost guaranteed to be in the top 25% of players in the field which isn't always the case in a tough 3/6 lineup. Also theres something to be said for the hope of a big score... it almost takes me back to when I first started playing and every dollar won/lost was just so meaningful. At this point I've just become almost numb to the swings from cash games to the point where a big upswing is only slightly gratifying.

Contrast that to the 150 seat main event guarantee on Full Tilt yesterday. It was the last time I was shooting for a tourney seat before I was gonna break down and sell some of my action. I had busted out of the Stars tourney with AA < QQ fairly early on and busted out of the Full Tilt freeroll 33/4000 (lol freerolls only paying out top 10 spots). I don't know if I've been as happy to see a flop in a long time as when we were down to the last 300 players or so and I shoved Q7hh as a 12bb stack from the cutoff and got called by JJ from the bb and saw Qx 8h 4h on the flop. Or had my heart beat as fast as it did when we were down to the last 180 or so and my stack was dwindling so I shoved 57s sb vs bb and just praying that the bb folded which he did. Or getting a walk in the bb with 170 left locking me up with a big enough stack to just wait out the smaller ones to bust.

The prize was "only" 12k but I don't think I've ever been that excited to make 12k before and I've had a handful of 10k days from cash games. Just overall a gratifying feeling to have "won" which you don't really get playing cash. Makes me look forward to the WSOP and I just hope I can make a decent showing in the couple events I play in.

Somewhat interesting hand that I didn't play but someone else did and shows how terribad tourney players can be. About 200 players left button limps and has close to 100k which at this point is probably close to 20bb's. He's probably in the top 40 or so in chips and a fair lock to make the top 153 which pay out the prize. Fairly big stacks left in the blinds, the sb covers him and has over 200k chips and the big blind is fairly large stacked as well. The huge stack shoves from the sb and bb folds. Button doesn't even think for a second and instacalls AJs for his tournament life. I mean theres really no hand except maybe AA that you should even think about limp calling there... it's just so bad to risk your tournament life with a hand that only has probably 60-65% equity maybe vs a shoving range. SB probably thought on that level so he ended up shoving A10 and luckily for button he held. It's just mind boggling with that much money on the line people still don't have the vaguest idea that your calling off your stack range has to be so super nutted because of the risk/reward. Unfortunately after that I had to tighten up my own shoving range a great deal with this guy to act behind me because who knows what he mightve called me with. Definitely something interested though with the prize payout being the same for the top 153 that it definitely was the case where it would be correct to fold AA in a lot of spots facing a shove from a bigger stack.

Alight enough tournament talk. I'll leave you with an updated pic of the front of my house. The beautiful port a potty is still prominent and has a prominent odor as well.

I'll just run off some random updates in this post:

- Sunday was my one year anniversary. Celebrated by going to the beach in Wilmington, NC for a couple days. Fun time and great weather but I failed at applying spray sun screen so I ended up getting burnt on about half my stomach and not the other half. Very good look.

- Finalized plans to head out to Vegas. I'm getting there June 29th in time for the Leggo party and am staying til the 16th (hopefully I'll get to extend that by a couple days when I make my final table run in the ME). Right now I've booked the Gold Coast to stay at as it's pretty inexpensive, right by the Rio, and fairly nice from what i've read. If anyone has any other recommendations or an open room in a poker house lemme know.

- The house is coming along nicely. They've put brick on the exterior and have started putting up siding as well. Dry wall is about to go in as well. Still have a tentative move in date around August 10th.

-My latest video came out with me spending the entire video breaking down one hand from several angles. I thought it was pretty unique way to approach a video and I"m always up for trying new things so please let me know if you liked it/didnt' like it and any suggestions you may have for upcoming videos. I've become a pretty big fan of using Pokerstove and Excel to break down ranges and math behind plays so if you guys like those vids I'll keep em coming.

-I started coaching again after a bit of a break from that - right now I'm focusing on a student who is fairly like minded to me in that he also utilizes stats to influence his decisions. I think that probably is my greatest strength in teaching as I can explain pretty well how to logically come to the right play by utilizing stats and math. Anyway, if that interests you at all let me know as I can put together packages for 1 on 1 teaching or in a group setting as well.

Just started Round 2 of P90x and it's just as brutal as I remembered it. I'm on day 3 after just having finished Plyometrics yesterday. Right now my chest/triceps hurt from pushups, my lats/back hurt from pullups, and my legs are on fire from the jumping around for an hour. Tomorrow I'll be adding shoulders and biceps to the list of parts that are aching. It's really not that bad though. Call me crazy but part of me really enjoys aching this much because it makes it feel like it's really working.

And having done one round of P90x already (well sorta - it took me about 120 days to complete instead of 90 since I took my time with it and didn't work out as many days per week as I should), I know it works. I fished the first time in January I think and the end result was I dropped about 15 lbs from starting at 187 (I'm ~6 ft tall). Since then I've been meaning to get back into a regular workout routine but the two week or so break after finishing turned into roughly a 4 month break with just the occasional workout sprinkled in. So I"m back on track. The nice thing this time is that I"m really not looking to lose too much weight since I'm still right around my ending weight, I just wanna lose a bit of fat and add muscle. That being the case I won't have to watch what I eat as much and probably can just eat as much meat/protein as I want.

Pokerwise it's been another slow month. It's tough to play when things aren't going well, but I've been watching a little bit of the Tommy Angelo series on DC and thats really helping with the physiological/mental aspect of playing. Even when the results aren't there I really feel better playing the game when I'm focusing more and making a concerted effort to play my A game. One thing he's said that really has stuck out for me is that Tilt is anything that causes you to play less than your A game. Normally I've associated Tilt with just being crazy mad and 5bet shoving crap like J7s vs a nit but I like his definition way better. I've mainly avoided doing the absolute crazy stuff from being steaming mad but the last couple months I haven't been as focused as I should be at the tables which when added with running poorly really contributes to subpar results. The last couple of weeks I feel like I"ve been playing better and better and hopefully that'll jumpstart me to some better results.

As for videos, I"ve got a 200NL coming out shortly that won't be mindblowing but has some good tidbits in it I think. For my next video I want to do a hand history review of member hands which I think you guys will find useful. So if you've made it this far in the blog and want to send me a hand, PM me the hand history and any relevant reads or even an image of the guys popup HUD stats if you're a stats guy. I'll start with saying one hand per person and then depending on the response maybe I'll do more. I'm looking to make it a small stakes video so let's say any hand from 50NL to 200NL.

Lastly, I've been rewatching every season of the Wire. Just started Season 4 last night and gotta say it's just as good the 2nd time around. I know I've picked up a few things that I missed the first go round.

For those that read my infrequently updated blog you may remember that I'm in the process of building a new house. Well actually a group of nice Mexican workers are building it but I'll be living in it when they finish.

For a while the progress was pretty slow while they finalized the plans/got the permits/did other boring stuff, but the past week or so has seen a ton of progress get made.

It started with just a basement...











So that's been pretty exciting to see. We should officially close on the house in about 3 months. It's pretty rewarding to see what all the grinding and hard work at and away from the tables can do.

When all is said and done it'll be 4 bedrooms/3.5 baths. And no, the port-a-potty out front is not included in that calculation.

Been a frustrating month so far. I cannot for the life of me string together more than one or two winning sessions in a row. I feel like I'm playing pretty well too for the most part which makes it even worse that I can't win. Some fun hands from a little one tabling session while was watching the Pens blow out the Senators.



PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

BB ($613)
UTG ($740)
Hero (MP) ($700)
CO ($600)
Button ($1252.85)
SB ($600)

Preflop: Hero is MP with K, A
1 fold, Hero bets $21, 1 fold, Button raises to $48, 2 folds, Hero raises to $700 (All-In), Button calls $652

Flop: ($1409) 9, 6, 2 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: ($1409) 9 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: ($1409) J (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: $1409 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button had A, Q (one pair, nines).
Hero had K, A (one pair, nines).
Outcome: Hero won $1406

Villain is the huge mark at the table... 80 vpip just being a monkey preflop and postflop. He was doing enough stuff postflop where it was gonna put me in some tough spots if I didn't flop a pair so I decided to just shove. I seriously doubt he was folding JK here so I think it's fine.



PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

CO ($1272)
Button ($964.80)
Hero (SB) ($1216.30)
BB ($600)
UTG ($989.50)
MP ($600)

Preflop: Hero is SB with 5, 5
UTG calls $6, MP bets $18, 1 fold, Button calls $18, Hero calls $15, 1 fold, UTG calls $12

Flop: ($78) 10, 10, 3 (4 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $12, MP calls $12, Button calls $12, Hero raises to $102, 2 folds, Button raises to $252, Hero calls $150

Turn: ($606) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button bets $200, Hero calls $200

River: ($1006) 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, Button checks

Total pot: $1006 | Rake: $3

Results:
Button mucked A, Q (two pair, tens and threes).
Hero had 5, 5 (two pair, tens and fives).
Outcome: Hero won $1003

Utg is the huge fish here and is donking out a super super wide range. He'd do stuff like donk/3bet bottom pair so if anyone had anything good they were almost certain to reraise the flop. So when it gets around to me I think I have the best hand here a lot and can get a few bigger pairs than mine to fold. It's also gonna be extremely tough to play pretty much any turn oop so I decide to repop which looks pretty strong since I can definitely have a lot of 10's in my range. Folds around to button who raises me. I think he's so FOS here almost always since with how deep he is he's always raising a good hand to build a big pot vs fish. So I just choose to call a couple barrels and own him.


At this point I'm feeling pretty good. The table fish is running over the other fools at my table and I'm just waiting in the wings to find a hand to take him down. Then this gem ensues...

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $6.00 BB (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

saw flop | saw showdown

UTG ($1272)
MP ($600)
Hero (CO) ($1749.30)
Button ($591)
SB ($962.50)
BB ($600)

Preflop: Hero is CO with K, K
UTG bets $18, 1 fold, Hero calls $18, 1 fold, SB calls $15, BB raises to $72, 1 fold, Hero calls $54, SB calls $54

Flop: ($234) 7, 6, J (3 players)
SB checks, BB checks, Hero bets $138, SB calls $138, 1 fold

Turn: ($510) 5 (2 players)
SB checks, Hero bets $1539.30 (All-In), SB calls $752.50 (All-In)

River: ($2015) Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: $2015 | Rake: $3

Results:
SB had Q, 5 (two pair, Queens and fives).
Hero had K, K (one pair, Kings).
Outcome: SB won $2012

Super. This hand really illustrates how bad he was. I like how I played the hand as I think it's pretty much correct to have a non-existent 3betting range to keep the monkey in the pot at all costs. The turn sets up kinda an awkward stack-pot ratio. I like a shove here since as you can see he's never folding a pair and this ensures I can get the money in ahead. Too bad I can't hold.

Saw today that we added KingDan as a guest pro. I don't know him personally but wanted to say welcome aboard cause I know he has a good reputation as a very solid player and because he has a very badass first name.

His name also got me to thinking... we at Leggo really do have a plethora of Dan's as coaches. Myself, cntgetmedown, d2themfi, grogheadflow, and now KingDan. (so close with The_End but unfortunately Danny was obviously misspelled as Denny at birth).

So anyway, I thought it seemed pretty clear that overall the name Dan is associated with the best coaches in the world... until I glanced over some of the other names on the Leggo coaching page and kept seeing one name that could very well be our nemesis... Ben. The name haunts me ever since I was mistakenly given a name-tag with the name Ben instead of Dan while competing in a 4th grade scrabble tournament. I still managed to win despite this grievous error.

It's with this memory in mind that on behalf of all the Leggo Dan's I challenge boywonder, Bttech86, sauce123, and straate (if you're still lurking around anywhere) to some type of challenge so we can once and for all determine which name is indeed best for Leggo coaches.

I just got a PM from a member that asked a good question about one of my videos so I thought I'd share it as I think it might be helpful to others as well:


Very good question - it has to do with something called "reverse implied odds". Most people understand the term implied odds - for example when you have a flush draw and are facing a bet on the turn your odds are usually better than the actual pot odds because if you hit your flush on the river you can on average win some money from your opponent. So even if the pot odds are 25% and your equity is something like 20% you are still often correct to call if you know you'll win money on the river.

Reverse implied odds, on the other hand, is when you have a weak made hand and are facing a bet where it is implied that your opponent will bet more on a later street. For example, you have 55 on a Qs 10s 3h 4d board and your opponent bets 75 into a 100 dollar pot. You think he's value betting a pair of Q's or better but also has a lot of flush draws/straight draws that he's betting. So based on pot odds you only need 30% to call turn and let's say you run Pokerstove and find that you think you have 35% so it looks like a call.

However, you know he's aggressive so he's very likely to barrel the river with a lot of missed draws but still value bet his strong hands. So let's say a complete blank hits the river - something like an offsuit 7. The pot is now 250 and he bets 185 - again you need 30% equity to call. You run pokerstove again and figure that he'll probably give up with some air hands but is probably gonna fire some missed spade draws. Your best guess is that you probably have around 35% equity again - so again it looks like a clear river call. Both the turn and river decisions in a vacuum are +ev so overall it looks like a good play.

The key factor though, is that when facing the bet on the turn you know you're up against an aggro player that is going to continue bluffing a good amount on the river, so you are facing an implied river bet, which you should factor into your decision on the turn just the same as you would factor in getting paid off with your flush draw on the river when you were the one drawing.

So if you factored in the 185 you had to call on the river into your turn decision, you would be calling (75+185)=260 on the turn instead of just the 75 dollar turn bet. The total implied pot would be (100 + 75 + 75 + 185 + 185) = 620, so taking reverse implied odds into account you would need 42% equity to call turn and river, and you only have 35% so you're losing money calling both barrels.

This is a simplified view because there are so many different variables - your opponent is going to have a very different bluff frequency on different river cards and you'll have different equity against his range as well depending on what river card hits. But the gist of it remains the same - if you know you're going to be facing a river barrel a lot and you have a marginally + ev call on the turn often it's best to just fold instead of call turn and call river.

Hope that makes it more clear.

It's been a while since my last blog... basically I've been busy grinding out 3/6 and it's been slow going. I feel like I'm playing pretty well but it just seems like I can't get my hands to match up well with my opponents in the sense that when I have a big hand they don't have anything and when I'm bluffing they wake up with something.

Variance certainly can be one of the toughest things to deal with as a player. Even though we try to not be results-oriented if you run AK into AA enough or have overpairs cracked by sets a lot it can be very tough to keep playing the hands optimally. So thats been tough to deal with but I've been making a concerted effort to review sessions and I'm pretty confident that I'm due for a big month.

My latest vid came out today and the early reviews on it don't seem too great. I hadn't recorded a live session in a while so I think my commentary while playing might've come out a bit too basic for most players watching it. So looks like my next video will be back to the concept type approach that has worked well or at least a pause/record format so I can take time to compose my thoughts better. Sorry to those who watched and didn't find it helpful

Other than poker the wife and I are just waiting for our new house to be built. They broke ground on it a couple weeks ago and have dug out a big hole for the basement and now we're just waiting on them to start adding concrete. It's gonna be exciting to see something we customized ourselves get built from the ground up.

Don't normally play tournies too often, but with the $4mil guaranteed prize pool/$1 mil guaranteed to 1st on Stars I figured why not.

Just busted 1353/36,169 so a pretty good showing on my part, although I only managed to profit a fairly measly $500 for my 6 hour investment. Thought I played pretty well against a very soft field. Tried to reduce variance as much as possible which I think is pretty good vs weak players. Not much use in pushing 60/40 edges all-in when I've got a pretty big postflop edge.

Things went pretty smoothly for the first few hours. Chipped up from 10k to 16k in my first couple orbits and from there on out managed to stay above the average stack til the fifth hour or so. Then I got 10's on the button and ran into small blinds Aces so that knocked my down to around 8 big blinds or so.

Stole a few blinds/antes and was cruising in the 10-14 bb zone for a while when my final hand came up. 6,000/12,000 blinds 1200 ante I was on the button with 10 5o and 118,000. This was definitely a spot where I wasn't exactly sure if I should shove if it checked to me so I was kinda hoping someone else would raise so I could fold. Unfortunately everyone folded and with 28k already in the pot and the blinds being fairly tight and they didn't cover me by all that much so a shove seemed like the best option. I shipped it in and the same small blind who had aces before called with Ak. Had 33% equity but the flop came JQ7 killing my 10 out and I couldn't catch a 5 or a running straight.

Oh well, I'm not a million dollars richer but I'm sure I'll be dreaming tonight about all the things $500 can buy.