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So what now?

In the wake of Black Friday (also known as Golden Friday to our friends across the pond), I did what most poker players did: I proclaimed that I would win the Main Event and deal with the aftermath in the same way Biggie Smalls (featuring Puff Daddy and maybe even Mase) did. I somehow failed to do that, so it seems like I actually have to think about my backup plan.

Initially I had planned to think about going back to school (I have about two semesters left until my degree), but it seems like there are too many poker opportunities (traveling for tournaments or just spending a few months a year living outside of the US playing online cash; both of which would have their benefits be magnified because of Leggo) to worry about getting a Philosophy degree right now (the primarily benefit of getting the degree is really so that I can eventually work in college basketball).

Aaron Jones, sentence constructor extraordinaire, just made a sentence + parentheses into a paragraph. He also just referred to himself in the third person.

So, I’m now trying to decide between spending September on in Toronto or Europe. The former has some Canadians that I am loosely proud to be associated with living there and some Americans headed there, and the latter has some pretty good poker tournaments in the fall. Being the complainer that I am, I have qualms about both.

Toronto really seems easy enough. If I get a place there and establish some residency, I could re-open my Stars account and create an account on some of the smaller sites. It’s only a 90 minute flight from Indy, and even if I only played poker for 50 hours a month, it would pay for itself and then some. It’d certainly be something I’m not used to though—not having a car, not being too close to my family, being in fucking Canada. I’m going to do some research.

Even before I cashed in the Main I thought it might be fun to do another tour of Europe and play some tournaments at the same time. Turns out there’s a pretty great schedule of stuff over there but it’d require a great deal of travelling—my mortal enemy. I hate traveling because it’s uncomfortable, unclean, and unfun. I don’t sleep well when I travel and I don’t like being herded like cattle.

Tournaments are fun if you're doing well in them, but who knows how long that'll last. If I do both, I could play some online poker while I'm in Europe, that might be a grand plan. Sounds a lot like a wrote a blog and came to no conclusions. Why decide today when I can put it off for tomorrow?

I know this because I got 103rd in the Main Event. It was a weird tournament, but as far as poker playing goes, it appears to be noteworthy.

The most incredible thing is that even the poker community, professionals (mostly live pros) and amateurs alike, put a lot of stock in the Main Event. It's weird given that people involved in poker are supposed to understand variance and be less emotional-- everyone is just crazy about the Main Event. I guess it's mostly the average person who is enamored with the amount of money involved, but it's a little bit annoying to have my entire poker 'career' be validated by making day six of the Main Event. I mean, it was fun, I just wish there wasn't such a big deal made about it. Maybe I'm just low key.

Now that I got most of the negative stuff out of the way, I will quickly recap what I can remember of the tournament.

The first day was interesting-- I had an incredible starting table, but the only two people who had a clue were on my left. That didn't wind up bothering me too much, as I kept losing pots by bluffing in questionable spots or having to give up on bad board runouts against the donks on my right. I was up over 40k from a 30k starting stack at first break, cruising and literally felt like I could not lose a pot to these guys. A bunch of things went wrong, and eventually I got below 10k, made a bunch of squeezes and reshoves with 30 bigs or so, got up to about 22k, and then doubled on the very final hand of the night where I 3-bet a crazy Asian guy with 68hh, the flop came K86, and he CR/called it off with KT and I held. I bagged 46k.

The second day was pretty eventful as well. My starting table, again, was very good. A few old guys, a Euro pro, and relatively tightish other players. That was good because I didn't get very good hands! I bluffed an old guy in this spot-- I 3-bet Q9o on the button to his CO open, he calls, it comes 554r, he checks, I bet 5300, he makes it 13500, I make it 21500 (about half of my stack), he folds what was probably 88. I get moved to a new table, things start to go bad, but then I double with TT to AJ against an aggro kid. I flop a set of twos, get paid, I flop top pair, get paid, I win some pots without showdown, and I bag 131k.

The third day was also a crazy swing-- I had position on one of the softer spots at the table who was playing pretty loose/passive (once he shows down defending J5s in the bb and J7s in the CO to an EP open, I can peg his ranges as too wide in spots and probably own him unless he's sensational postflop or tricky aggro). Things didn't go well against him though, as I 3-bet him a few times and got 4-bet twice, folded the river another time after I made second pair with Q8s, and got down to like 50k at one point, almost certainly below 25 bigs. I then double with 65k effective-- donk on my right opens to 4600 at 1-2, I make it 10600 with 65k effective with A7s (not deep enough to call, too good to fold vs this clownhoes), he calls. The flop is 962dd, he open shoves over 2x pot (!!!) but I call because I have a flush draw! He has A9o (wtf) and I get there. I towards the very end of the day I play a 5b pot with a Hungarian kid where I flat a 5b OOP (napkin, Chipotle receipt) and bet the river on K52A5 where a turned FD missed (irrelevant, no money went in on the turn). I got it in with JJ to KK and lost, and then got it in with TT to 99 and won on this day, neither time I was at risk. I bag 362k.

The fourth day was the most annoying day primarily because of the bubble. My table was pretty good again, but in a weird way. I had two guys from Maccau at my table, both were playing relatively badly. The only kid with with a clue was two to my left, but he didn't really make it too hard on me. Still, I wasn't playing crazy and mostly just got in some incredibly annoying spots postflop where I value bet TT on 932K7 and got called by JJ, and value bet 66 on 44337 and got called by 88 in spots that might have been a bit thin. I recall swinging a bit less on this day, and I don't think I got all in. The bubble lasted like 45 minutes and we played about 4 hands. I eventually got up and got back down and bagged 545k, which was 1k above average.

The fifth day got a little bit more serious, as I did not sleep for a second the night before. I started to get a tickle in my throat and wound up getting sick as I was trying to sleep. It was incredibly annoying since I'm usually so controlling about staying healthy, drinking fluids and washing my hands dozens of times a day. However with so many people playing in the poker room and so many roomates, it's really impossible to avoid it. Poker has always been exceptionally annoying when it comes to sanitizing everything, and I've missed many hands just going to wash my hands in between hands! I was miserable and vowed to play tight as people started to bust pretty quickly with only a few hundred players left. For the first time in the tournament, I started to run scorching hot. Second hand of the day someone limp re-raised me UTG/UTG1 and I held with KK to JTs. Still in the first level I had a pretty interesting spot where I had QQ on the button after a UTG all in for 15 bbs, and a UTG2 call. I ended up reshoving for almost 90 bigs to isolate and got it in for almost a 500k pot with QQ to K9s. An incredibly fortunate spot with all the dead money, and I held again. I got up to over 1.5m at one point, and was rocking some outstanding 50 high stacks where the base was 1m chips. During the last level I bluffed it off in two questionable spots where I made flush draws but not flushes, and I eventually bagged 607k, which I think was half of average going into Day 6.

The sixth day was short. I was annoyed immensely by the payout scale, which truly makes no sense. I am unforgiving when it comes to illogicalness (but apparently forgiving when it comes to fake words), and I don't understand why they would have 162nd-225th be 47k, 161st to 100th be 54k, and then have the payouts jump every 9 people after that? There doesn't seem to be any reason that they can't make it a bit more progressive, just going up by $1500 or something every 9 or 18 spots. Anyways, I started short, got a bit shorter after being card dead, then held with TT to 88 to double to ~1m. Our table was playing insanely slow, and this amateur in a Giants jersey was running incredibly hot, showing down aces 4 times in the first ~50 hands and 6-betting all in with a hand that basically had to be kings or aces. He's been active pre, so when he opens UTG1, I 3-bet AKs in MP (68k, 199k). I am not happy about calling his shove because of how incredibly strong he acted physically, but what choice do I have? So, I get it in with 30 bigs with AKs to AA, turn a flush draw, but am eliminated in 103rd place.

My final thoughts are this: people take too long to act. It's a big tournament, but these fucking morons definitely take 12 seconds to fold 47o in MP, which is 11 seconds too long. It's annoying. I felt like people were taking a long time in spots when they thought the rest of the table was tough (on Day 5 I had a relatively tough table even though I had position on everyone reasonable, I didn't really play many interesting hands). It's pretty stupid, but what can you do? I've heard of tournaments with 30 second clocks, that's reasonable, but honestly...

I might as well write a quick blog since I made Day 2 of the Main Event. I have a few unsurprising observations but I probably won't write about too many hands...

The Main Event is just unreal, epic soft. I had one of those tables today, probably in about the 16th percentile of softness, where the only two players who were career winning poker players were probably on my left and two to my left (#frenchcanadians). The rest of the table was just unbelievable: super tight blind guy (couldn't see to other side of table, I announced all bet sizes on our side of the table, lolol), tight wheel chair guy, tightest guy of all time, crazian, loose crazian live guy, skinny chick with nice rack, etc. I mean there are literally guys at the table who cannot win the tournament. I would have laid 1m to 1 with the one crazian dude, and he was probably only like the 28th worst player in the field. He was a level below Jerry Yang.

Despite those facts, it's really hard to win at NLHE if you don't make top pair. It's even harder than you only play 250 hands over 12 hours and don't make top pair, because you press in spots when you shouldn't be pressing (just making c-bets in spots which probably aren't that good because you're so desperate to win a pot, two barrelling in spots where you misidentify people's ranges).

I think in 10 hours of poker today I made top pair twice (probably three times, just can't remember) and two pair once. Such is life. I can't complain though, because I wound up hurricane rampaging at the end of the day to run ~10k up to 46,850 going into Day 2. Tomorrow will be an awesome day of basketball and golf before having to grind a bunch more on Monday.

I will tell the one hand of note-- Middle-aged Asian sits down and opens A8o UTG first orbit. Cool story bro. I 3-bet him with KQ a few times in a row and (shockingly) he folds. I 3-bet him for the fourth time (including once where I squeeze-shoved like 12k over his open and the Asian between us's call) with 68hh (1200-2800). He calls. K86dd, he checks, I bet 3500, he makes it 7500, I jam ~20k total, he tanks for 2 minutes and calls with KT and I hold. That was it-- I had been waiting all day to make something and not have to decide 'do I bluff here?' (where the answer was usually yes). Boo yah.

On to day two.

Without getting into too many cliches, live poker is an interesting novelty. It's a little fun for a while-- you get to play with chips, stare at people while you bluff 'em, see the look on their face when and their desperate words when you make a play on them-- but, ultimately, it is draining and miserable. It's a lot of sitting with your muscles and brain being inactive, for the most part. I tried reading a bit, but then you're giving up a bit of an edge by gaining less information. I tried listening to music, but ultimately I'm just not really that big into listening to music-- it's cool that it's there, but it's just background noise (and it prevents you from hearing the action at the table). At my first table in the 10k 6m we actually had a pretty good time: junglefish was there and we were playing 'show 1,' where you have to show one of your hole cards everytime you drag a pot without showdown. It's fun guessing the person's other card and seeing if you may be getting bluffed (among the highlights: I squeeze a raise and 4 callers with A2o, but someone picks the A of spades from my hand, junglefish gets bluffed by live pro, goes on rampage berating live pro's river checkraise ).

I did wind up cashing 31st in that tournament for 2.5x my buy in. Bleh. I was short all of day2, never getting to average after losing a bunch of small pots in standard c-bet spots where I happened to have the bottom of my range or losing with top pair due to bad board runouts. Bad board runouts are probably the most tilting thing in poker the King and I decided. It's just annoying to have top pair or two pair turn into a bluff catcher of relative hand strength when there's a four flush on board. ZzzZzzz. Then you have to decide if this is a good time to bluff catch or you're being emotionally pulled into making a call because you're so angry you definitely had the best hand on the previous street!

So in the tournament I wound up losing a bunch without showdown (to my recollection I got AK once and queens a few times over the course of the tournament... in all, I could have just used AQ or AJ in some spots where I wanted to have a wide value range. Alas, I did not get very good cards and I played exceedingly tight in spots that I would prefer not to play tight in, but everyone was playing pretty hood and I never had above average chips after the first break on day2). I did win some all ins though, flips mostly (and 56s to KJo), and wound up losing most of my chips with AQ to QT in a pot that would have actually given me ~average chips in the money. I lost the rest of them in a bvb battle with second pair to top pair.

I am not particularly happy about my cash, but at least I put one on the books. It's cool to cash and have 105% of yourself because you crossbook with fish who think they are better than you but they aren't. The summer is basically over now, and counting the Main as sunk cost, let's say I'm going to wind up losing 30k or something. I'm not particularly happy about it, but it's less than I've lost in previous summers! Overall, I played pretty well, I'd say I played my B game.

Word on the street is that FTP is donezo (someone can link an article in the comments section if they want, cliffs are they FTP is unable to operate, likely busto and was trying to make the money to pay out US players, but will now likely be unable to make the money to pay US players). I am not particularly surprised by this, although I do wish I would have sold the substantial amount of money I had on there for 70% or whatever it was going for a few days ago. The one thing that is interesting is that this basically ensures that none of the big name FTP pros will be able to show their face in the live poker scene ever again without getting relentlessly abused. It also calls out all the clowns who were still wearing their patches or supporting them in any way. Who knows, maybe I will get my money from Tom or Phil? I hope I'm high on the list!

OK, so I suck at twitter.

I am also having a terrible series, as I always do, but at least I'm only 0 for 7 and not 0 for 20+ like the rest of my house is!

Instead of focusing on the depressing stuff-- eating too much, not playing enough poker, losing when I do play, my ankle injury not healing well, my fear of getting a bad haircut, lack of exercise, etc.-- I'd rather just tell you the hood hand of the summer. The hood hand of the summer award goes to the member of our house that plays the most hood hand. The previous hood hand of the summer was played by Dan Smith, better known as "King," the founder of dansmithnubs.com. He floated the flop OOP and then check-raised the river when the flopped FD came in. It was hood since he called the flop with two overs (to the second highest card on the board!) and no draws, but it wasn't as hood as my hand. In fact, this HH has gotten fucked up twice-- once when I was telling Maddog (and he thought I had a FD and was bragging about the hand, wtf?), another time when I tried to tweet it.

At 75-150, active British guy opens CO to 350, I make it 900 on the button with Q7hh, he calls.

Flop T32r, he checks, 800, he makes it 2200, I call.

Turn Ko, he bets 3100, I call.

River J, he checks, I shove for my last 3075 into ~12600, he folds.

He storms away from the table, I show everyone else, they let me steal blinds for a few rounds.

#hoodhandofthesummer

Man, three times I've gone to the page to post my blog and everytime I just stare at the cursor blinking and don't think of anything to write. Part of that reason is twitter: I post a lot of random stupid shit that I do on a daily basis there, so I lost material for the stuff going on in my life. It's tough to keep up a blog, I don't blame those that let their blogging fall off over the years as new projects come up and they become more private people.

Without online poker, you'd think this would be my WSOP to play a bunch of events or play a lot of live cash. It has not been my laziest WSOP ever, but sadly it's become par for the course. I'm 0 for 4 (which, comparatively, puts me as just one of everyone-except-Dan Smith in our house who are collectively ~0 for 60 or something), lining me up for a big donut in WSOP lifetime. I'm not running good (drew Nutsinho in first round of 25k HU, probably top 5 player int he field; got HU in the 5k shootout with over half the chips and missed a zillion outs twice and then triple barreled the river and ran into pretty much the top of my opponent's range), but I can't really complain since I just haven't played enough (3 cash sessions, down a little; 4 tournaments, gg 33k). The next two weeks will be relatively important because I plan on putting in two real weeks of work at cash and tournaments, 8-10 hours a day 5 days a week until 4th of July comes around (probably my favorite holiday). My results won't be important, it'll just be interesting to see if I actually do it.

I tweaked my already tweaked ankle today playing basketball, but I should live. I think we're probably going to start playing around 11PM at night in the coming weeks so we can have our own run instead of having random chumps play, you're welcome to PM Bobbo if you're a competent basketball player in Vegas and want to get on his contact list.

And so it goes. Turns out if you just sit down and make yourself blog, you'll start writing things, especially if you like to talk about yourself as much as I do. Keep track of my twitter for pics of some of the Leggo stuff we've got for the WSOP this year.

I have been taken hostage by the social media shitstorm and given in to Twitter. My twitter name is aejonesleggo, because some putz took aejones before me. I am not angry at that person, their first name probably starts with "A," their middle name probably starts with "E," and their last name is probably "Jones." They have a right to it as much as I do. Now if Randall Stevens took the name, well, I might be a little weirded out. Here's a link to my twitter I think: http://twitter.com/#!/aejonesleggo

The primary reason I have started to twitter is the first annual "Who is the better human being?" competition (sponsored by Dani Stern). The first two contestants in this competition are Aaron Jones (me) and a very famous canadian (lowercase, for extra disrespect) poker player name Mike "Timex" McDonald. This competition will prove that I am a slightly better human being in all aspects of life.

Thusfar the competition has gone as follows:

Arm Wrestling: Timex (I think I got hustled here, he suggested it and seemed to out strategize me, I haven't arm wrestled in the 21st century)
Pull-ups: aejones (15)
Chin-ups: aejones (15; I almost got 16, and his 15th was a fake one, so he can count this a tie but I will lol-break his soul if we do this again in 2 days)
Push-ups: aejones (71, I could have done 10 more probably but I'd already beat him by 5 or something so decided to make my chest hurt like 6% less tomorrow)
IQ Test: Timex (150 to 141 based on some 20 minute IQ test online, I am not going to give them my CC number so I can't figure out details, but there's a chance I lost based on him finishing a few minutes sooner than me, I'm not sure)

So I lead 3-2 going into day 2 of what will probably be ~40 day event.

We have each forfeited the following: I am not doing any weight lifting with my legs because I haven't done anything for 8 weeks on my ankle, not that I was any good at deadlifts or squats before that. I'm also throwing in the towel for cardio or distance running for the same reason. I think he plays some kind of racquet ball and even though I don't play I might be better than him in a few weeks if I started to. He mentioned Chess but I don't play.

I believe he has forfeited pool although we may still do it, and he's forfeited ping pong based on the words of people in the house but we may still play my left hand vs his strong hand. He doesn't want anything to do with basketball of course and also said he sucks at swimming. I suggested backgammon but he doesn't play.

I'm also not going to play anything that involves luck.

I think next on the slate is HU monopoly or Trivial Pursuit. It seems like we'll be able to find random competitions throughout the summer, but if anyone has anything feel free to suggest it. He outweighs me by ~15 pounds, fwiw. I don't think it'd be a good idea to box or wrestle because of the weight difference and my fragility, but I would definitely be up for fencing or just good old fashion sword fighting.

The Leggo Party will be at the end of June this year on the 30th. It'll be at the same place as last year, with full details being posted ASAP. I know a lot of training sites were canceling their parties, but this is what everyone at Leggo does best, so how can I possibly do that? Don't blame me if I buy a few less drinks than last year though!

Haven't played a lot of poker lately for obvious reasons, but I got a chance to play a little live session yesterday. It went well enough to not be a waste of time, so that was nice.

I'm gearing up to play the 25k HU tomorrow, which is exciting. Every year I feel like I'm due, and this year is no different! I'm move motivated than I've ever been, and I'm gonna play better poker than ever before.

I expect to win, this would be a great time to cash in whatever run-good I'm due. Do I still have my 'one-time' left?

This is a pretty funny graph. At some point I guess I decided it was time to start bluffing? Anyways, it worked okay, and as you might imagine-- was VERY opponent dependent.

I'm getting geared up for the WSOP, planning on playing a bunch of stuff. A little nervous about just spending a crapton on buy ins considering 0 lifetime WSOP cashes-- but I'm due! Probably will try to trade in the really big events, or just win something.

Will probably give a better detail of what my WSOP will entail this weekend. I might even start a twitter, I feel the force pulling me.