DAY 4

I wake up at 2 PM and feel pretty well. I make the 5 minute walk to the poker pit and there's an open seat at 2/5 so I can get right into the action. I recognize the guy in seat 1, a good young asian kid who makes a living at 200NL online and another asian kid in seat 7 who looked okay but I felt like something was wrong with his game. I just didn't have time to figure out what exactly.

The first hand I play i open 22 to 20 in MP and get called by the SB, who had been playing every hand since I sat there. The flop came down 966 and he donks 15 into me. I know I should fold but put him on 2 random cards and make the call. The turn brings the T and he donks another 15. I apply the asian handreading concept (put them on a hand you can beat and call) and decide he has A5 and call. The river brings a J and he checks. I check back and he flips over 93o. I played that hand like a pro.

Around 5 PM I leave the table for dinner and take a seat in the Rainforest Cafe. It was a bar/restaurant that was built as a rainforest, with plastic wild animals and lots of trees/waterfalls/etc. It was pretty neat and original but they let the elephants and jaguars roar for about a minute every 15 minutes, which got annoying pretty quickly. I had a rainforest burger with fries, and the burger was really good. The fries were kinda meh, but I wasn't hungry after the burger anymore so it didn't really matter.

When I got back, a loud and aggressive black guy had replaced seat 2 with about 400 in chips. Despite the fact he was aggressive and stealing a lot of small pots with overbets, it was obvious to me that he knew what he was doing. He only continued with good hands and gave up when people were playing back at him. His image paid him off as people were calling down lightly against him and he worked up his stack to about 800.

I finally find AK in MP and raise the limping black guy to 25. I had been getting really crappy hands so my image was tight, and the guy on my left mentioned: this guy plays barely any hands but when he does he always makes it so big. The black guy says something like: yea he must have a good hand. The flop comes down QK5r and he checks, to which I bet 35. Black guy makes a huge raise to 175 and I'm really confused what to do. I take my time to think about it, when the weirdest thing ever happens: black guys reveals the K and says: if you got AK you're good. We are about 700 dollar deep at this point.

I go into the tank and try to find out what he's doing. I knew he was somewhat decent so I just though it was unlikely he'd raise a hand like KJ/KT here. Even if he did, he'd do it to get value from a hand like AQ, so showing a K would be pretty retarded in that case. I let it go and feel pretty good about my decision. Asian kid in seat 1 asks if I had aces and I just tell him I folded AK since my hand was really face up at this point. I ask him what he would've done and he says he would shove it, but I don't believe him and think he's just trying to talk me into wrong plays. Black guy doesn't show his hand and is pretty quiet while raking in the pot, which for me is a confirmation he just had it there.

Later on I get 99 and with the straddle out there I bump it up to 35. I get 2 callers and we see a flop of JT9. I cbet 85 and the guy on my left raises it up to 200. I'm not thrilled about it but I can't really fold for 100BB so I stick it in and he flips over 78o. I brick and I'm down 700 at this point.

I rebuy for 800 and get dealt KK on the button. By now the black guy has moved in the seat 2 on my left since he wanted to sit in front of the dealer. It gets folded around to me (which is really rare in live poker) and I make it 20 to go. Only the black guy in the BB calls and we see a 763 flop. I bet 35 and he raises me to 100. I think about it for a bit and make it 300. He shoves his stack in and I call, and he flips over AJ. The turn brings a 2 and I'm 1 card away from being back in the black but the river brings the nasty Q and I'm left with no chips.

Down about 1500 I rebuy another 500 and request a seat change to the left of the black guy. However he decides to leave and we're 6 handed. I raise AK and AQ but am up against JJ and 99 both times and lose another 100 in total. Down 1609 for the day I rack up and leave, a little disappointed but you can't win them all.

I grab a taxi to the RIO to register for the 1k event on Thursday. Upon arrival I realise I forgot to take extra money, but I had about 1100 with me so I could pay for the event. I didn't have enough money to play cashgames though, so I was pondering wether I would ATM some money or just get back to the MGM. I decided it was a good time to try out my new NETeller card and pinned 400 to play some 1/3.

After about 10 minutes of watching people fail at slots I got a seat. The table was really weak and I was ready to make up for some of my losses that day. I overlimp 67 OTB and see an A65 flop 6way. The woman in the BB donks 10 and after 1 more caller I decide to call as well. The turn brings a 6 and she donks 10 again. The other guy folds and I raise it up to 60. She immediately releases.

A couple hands later I raise QJ to 10 in LP and get 3 callers. Flop came down AK5 and after it gets checked to me I fire 30. Only 1 guy calls and we see a K turn. It goes check/check and we see a T on the river. He bets out 40 and after thinking for a while I put him allin (he had like 85 more). He shows an A and folds.

I raise a couple more hands and I'm pretty active. With a stack of 400 I open to 15 with AA in LP after 3 limpers. I get 2 callers and we see a 763 flop. I cbet 40 and the guy on my right, an older asian, raises me to 140. I stick it in for about 200 more and he asks for a count. While the dealer is counting out my chips he is counting his own, and I'm relieved that he doesn't have a set or a flopped straight. Eventually he makes the call and flips over 77 for top set. I look at him and ask why he didn't call immediately when I hear the table go "ooooh" and see the A on the turn. All I can think of is: justice. He says he's sorry and didn't really realise he was slowrolling.

It's funny how things go, because he was actually a really nice and genuine guy and after that hand we just started chatting and joking around for the rest of the night. It was the first time I actually had a nice and long conversation with someone, and it was funny that it was with the guy that (unintentionally) slowrolled me.

I didn't play many hands after that when I overlimp 78o OTB out of sheer boredom. We see a 4way flop of QJ8 and after it gets checked to me I throw in 10. Only the SB, who was really short, makes the call. I'm ready to give up the hand but the turn brings a 7 and after he checks I bet 35. He shoves allin for 60 more and I make the call. I saw him get allin earlier on a KQ56 board and muck his hand against K8 so I knew he was doing it light. However this time he had 9T for the flopped straight and I lose the pot.

The last significant hand was one of the craziest...

DAY 3

That I'm still not recovered from the 9 hour shift was pretty obvious today. I woke up even earlier than yesterday, at 8 AM after only 7 hours of sleep. It turned out it wasn't 9 PM last night, but actually 1 AM, since I was looking for the time at my laptop. which is ofcourse still showing the time in Belgium.

I stayed in bed till 10 and for some reason felt really hungry. It was then that I realised I hadn't eaten anything since that pizza at 1:30 the day before. Uh oh, time to get some food in my belly before I die.

I headed down to check out the breakfast buffet and it looked really good, so I signed up for it. I had scrambled eggs, bacon, a waffle, fried shrimps, bread, and a piece of water melon. There were so many more things I wanted to try out though, and I hated that I'm such a small eater. I flush everything down with 2 glasses of orange juice and head to the poker pit.

Since they had no 2/5 running I sat down at a 1/2 table that was unbelievable soft. There was this old couple where the woman was completely clueless and ended up losing and rebuying a $60 dollar stack 3 times in like 10 hands. There was only 1 other guy at the table with the full 300, which is usually a sign of weaker players as well.

I win and lose a couple small pots and with about the starting stack I 3bet a shortstacker with AK to 35. He calls and we see a Q52r flop. He checks and I check behind, planning on just calling the turn if he shoves, which is pretty standard I think. The turn brings a 6o and he shoves as expected, but it turned out I totally misread his stack. I thought he had about 50 left, but it turned out to be 105. I say fuck it and muck.

A couple hands later I get T3 in the BB when the old woman, who finally hit something that was good enough to win and had now a stack of about 120 limps UTG+1 and the BB completes. I check and we see a J33 flop. The BB bets out 8 and I just call, so does the woman. The turn is a meaningless 6:clubs: and the BB leads again for 25. I just call to keep the clueless woman in, and she comes along. The river brings us a Q and the BB checks. I bet 65 and the woman throws in her remaining chips, totaling 80. I call and ofcourse she had K3o.
A little later I check with 67 in the BB and we see a 4way flop of 782. It gets checked to the old woman who bets 4. I call and HU we see the 4 on the turn. I check and this time she bets 10. I call since I got a bunch of draws and this woman had been stacked with bottom pair and stuff, so I might even have the best hand. River brings the A and I c/call her 20 bet. She flips up K8 and I was never ahead in the hand :').

Down about 250 a new 2/5 table is starting so I get on that. I buy in for 500 more to bring my stack up to 750.

Early on I get 66 when a huge loud whale raised to 15 in MP and I call on the button, along with 2 others. The flop comes down 842 and it gets checked around to me. I bet 30 and only the whale calls. The turn is the 3 and he checks to me, to which I bet 80. He calls and the river is a 7. We both check and my 66 is good.

A little later I raise A7 to 20 and we see a 3way flop, whale included. It comes down 7 6 2 and I cbet 50, which gets called by the whale only. The turn brings a 5 and the whale c/calls my 120 bet. The river is a 3 and he instantly bets 200. I lay it down and he shows me JJ.

I win a couple smaller pots to bring my stack back to around 750, when I open Q9 to 15 and get 3bet by the only other competent player at the table to 40. I decide to get fancy and call, and we see a QT5 flop. I c/call his 40 dollar bet while wondering wtf I'm doing in this hand. The turn is a 7 and he fires 50. I can't do much else but call, and we see a Q river. I check and he checks back, and my hand is good. I ask him if I made a suckout but he says no. Whatever.

By this time the table breaks and I fold a couple hands on 1/2 waiting for a seat to open at the other 2/5 table.

The new table was actually pretty tough, with some solid internet kids on it who weren't afraid to stick a lot of money in. I raise a couple of hands pretty early on, and though I miss every time I take down the pots with a cbet.

After that I go on a really long streak of terrible cards and I can't do much. I finally get 89 and limp along on the CO, when the BTN, a good aggressive kid with a 2k dollar stack makes it 35. Only 1 caller and I call as well. We see an AT6 flop. MP checks, and I check too with the intention of c/raising the BTN his cbet, but he chooses to check behind. The turn brings a 4 and when MP checks I fire 80. The button now raises me to 225 and I'm a little confused. I know I gotta shove here but I can't really pull the trigger. Eventually I make the call, getting almost the right price without implied odds (I think, I'm pretty bad at pot odds). The river bricks a Q and I check, to which he checks behind. I almost muck my hand but flip it over to see what he had, and he says: omg I shouldve bet the river. I don't really understand what he is talking about, but when he doesn't flip over his hand immediately I realise 9 high is good. He folds his 53 face up and I rake in a 550 dollar pot.

About 2 orbits later I decide to rack up and leave since the table wasn't that great and I was sitting a little too deep for my liking. I'm up 261 and head to my room to relax and browse the internet.
At about 10:00 I decide to head over to the Bellagio since I wasn't feeling too tired and I wanted a change of environment. I stopped at the food court to grab a burger at Wendy's (note that it has been almost 12 hours since my last meal at the breakfast buffet), and have a lot of trouble finishing a small burger and fries.

I make the 20 minute walk to the Bellagio and for some reason the heat didn't really bother me. Granted, it was 10:30 and dark, but last year it really bothered me to walk outside. Apparently the fountain show was going on when I arrived and I watched the last 10 minutes of it. After seeing some really cool youtube clip that someone posted a while ago, I wasn't really impressed.
Upon arrival I sign up for the 2/5 waiting list and head to the bathroom. When I come out I walk past Brian Townsend, but ofcourse I don't bother him and just move on.

It took like 20 minutes to get a table, and right after sitting down I already wanted to leave. 6 of the players were internet kids with headphones and gigantic stacks. I believe the biggest one had about 3k in front of him. I buy in anyway since I walked 20 minutes and waited another 20 min, and I hadn't played in this casino last year.

What really annoyed me right away is that you can use $100 bills at the table, which means you have absolutely no idea how much someone has. (I knew the bigstack had 3k because he was counting his money at one point and I counted along). I knew the internet kids had me all covered, but there were 2 fishier guys with like 200...

DAY 2

I woke up at 9 PM after only 7 and a half hours of sleep and felt very awake, which is very unusual for me. Maybe I'm sensible to jetlag after all. I tried to sleep some more but eventually gave up around 10:30. After taking a shower my list of annoyances with this room only got bigger. The water was spraying in all directions and despite the fact I closed the shower curtain, my bathroom floor was ready to compete with the MGM Grand Pool.

So I went downstairs and tried to get a hold of a bungalow suite upgrade for $5 again, but after talking to the manager, the lady at the desk provided me with the same answer I got last night. No bungalow rooms were available, and I should try again tomorrow. I know this deal is probably too good to be true, but since they flat out lied in their promotion description, I'm gonna go bug them every single morning until they hate me. Who knows, eventually they might give me the room just to make me shut up .

After that I went and checked out the Grand Buffet but it was $20 and I wasn't that hungry yet, so I passed on that. Apparently you can enter the area even if you didn't pay at the cashier so I decided to make a quick walk through to see what they had to offer, but at first sight there was nothing I liked so I guess this is nothing for me. They also offer breakfast buffet between 9 and 11 though, which is probably more my cup of tea, so I'll check that out when my bio rhythm has shifted in such I way that I'm awake AND hungry during those hours.

Time to sit down at a 1/2 table and warm up a bit. I bought in for 300 and couldn't get much going. I see a few flops but whiff most of them and win very few pots. Finally I get dealt KK with a stack of 250 and raised two limpers to 12. They both call and we see a flop of Q74. When it got checked to me I bet 25 and one of them makes the call. The turn is the 9 and he checks, so I bet 55. He shoves allin for like 40 more and ofcourse I make the call. He proudly flips over Q9 and takes it down on a blank river.

I rebought and played some more small pots which I can't remember, and around 1 PM I leave my $200 stack at the table to grab a bite. I ate a pretty decent mozarella & basicilicum pizza in the first restaurant I found and got back to the table around 1:45, ready to turn this into a winning day. I add my stack back to $300 and post my BB right away in MP. I get dealt 99 and raise it up to 12 after 2 limpers. The BTN coldcalls and the limpers come along for the ride. We see a flop of J93 and it gets checked to me. I fire 40 and the BTN makes it 100, with about 130 more behind. The 2 other players fold and I take my time. I really don't see any other play but shove, so I stick in my stack pretty comfortably. I felt a lot of players would just flat a flopped flush, so I expected to be up against a J (might even be without a diamond, live people are bad), an A or 33. I hate to see the A and 4 roll off, but it doesn't matter as he yells that he can't be beaten on this board while turning over K6. Woops, another $240 down the drain.

Finally things turned around as I actually started hitting some flops to bring my stack up to $400. One of the hands I open 75 to 8 in MP and we see the flop 4way. It came down A34 and I cbet 25. Only the button calls. Turns brings the A:heart and after thinking about it I chose to check. The button checked behind and we see a blank river. I glimpse at him and see he is just looking around the room uninterested, so i decide he has a missed draw and bet 25 in the 80 pot, and he releases immediately.

I open QQ UTG to 10 and get 3 callers, when the SB, a player who just sat at the table this orbit and was wearing this strange hoodie with glitter on it shoved allin for 200. I call and pray for a low board, which I get when it rolls off 64438. However, he shows me 66 for the flopped set and I'm back to about 250.

A couple hands later I raise QT to 8 in late position and get 2 calls from the BTN and the SB. The flop comes down K85. I fire 20 and get c/raised by the SB to 45, and I make the call. The turn brings the pretty 9 and he instantly fires 50. I have a strong feeling he has air so I call to let him bluff the river. It brings an interesting A and he bets another 50. I shove and he whines about how he is beat but eventually sticks in his last 40. I show my flush and rake in a decent pot.

A little later I limp A6 behind after 3 limpers on the CO when the SB makes it 15 to go with about $350 in front of him. 1 guy calls and so do I, and we see a pretty A52 flop. SB just grabs a stack of redbirds and slams 100 in the pot. Ofcourse I'm not going anywhere and after pondering for a while I make the call. Turn brings the beautiful K and he shoves allin for his remaining 250. I snapcall and he turns over AQ. Needless to say he was pretty pissed off to see my hand.
Back up to around 750 I am up for the day since I was in for 700 total, and it feels pretty good. I proceed to lose some small pots and eventually leave the table with 650 in chips. Warming up round was over, time to go play with the big boys!

I cash out 150 and take my remaining 500 to a 2/5 table. Most of the players have about 1000+ in front of them (you can buyin between $100 and $1000), and they all stare at me, probably wondering how long it's gonna take for them to steal my chips. I am a little nervous/intimidated, and I feel like I got a huge "I am scared money" sign on my forehead. I man up and tell myself this is live poker, and I am most likely better than most people at the table.

I fold all my hands during the first 2 orbits and gather some reads about my opponents. I was sitting in seat 1, seat 2 was a pretty loose/semi-aggressive older guy, seat 3 was a asian spewmonkey who was playing 80% of his hands, seat 4 looked like a solid internet kid (SIK1), seat 5 was a pretty tight guy, seat 6 was a shortstacker whom I saw shove allin for 150 on his straddle with 35 after a few callers, seat 7 was a weaker loose player who was hovering around 300 and 400, seat 8 was a friend of seat 4 and was playing really solid from what I could see (SIK2) and seat 9 was also a friend of the 2 and was also playing solid poker (SIK3).

So yea, this table didn't look too good at first sight, but the other 2/5 table was full and I decided to just stick around and play. My stack dropped to 450 after limp/calling some mediocre hands and I told myself to stop being a loser and start playing some actual poker. I open to 20 UTG with 77 and get called my SIK2 in the small blind. Flop comes down QJJ and he c/calls my bet of 30. Turn brings the A and he checks. I think bout it for a while and decide to fire 75. He tries to stare into my soul but I stay cool and eventually he folds.

A couple hands later I raise a limper to 20 with AT and both him and the SB make the call. Flop comes down Q8K and the limper donks...

DAY 1

After a very short and restless night the big day finally arrived. My dad brought me to the airport where I had to check in for my first flight from Brussels to Atlanta. While I was waiting in line I suddenly realised I didn't request a Visum this year and I'm starting to get really worried. My mom always takes care of this kind of stuff and didn't even mention it to me, so maybe my Visum from last year was still valid. I made a sigh of relief when I got my tickets and no questions were asked.
My first flight was right in time and I had a seat at the hallway which is always good. Next to me was a 10-year old kid without any parents near him, and I was hoping this kid wouldn't be a pain in the ass. Luckily it turned out he was very quiet and calm, unlike the two 6 year old kids who were seated right in front of me. Damn those little bastards.

After a 9 hour long flight which consisted of watching 24 and trying to sleep I finally arrived in Atlanta. I was lucky that my next flight to Vegas was at gate E36, the 2nd to last gate all the way down to one side of the airport. My flight was scheduled at 17:30 and there was a flight to Tampa at 16:20 on the screen, so I had to wait for that one to leave and hope the gate for my flight wouldn't change in the meantime, since there were no TV's anywhere to be seen at this side of the airport. I sit down at gate E34 since all the other power plugins (?) were taken.

At 16:40 I walked back and saw a whole lot of commotion taking place. The flight to Tampa was still on the screen and there were like 6 people at the desk in a discussion with the lady behind it. I didn't really get much of what was happening but ofcourse the only thing I cared about was my own flight. I wasn't really sure what to do at this point since I didn't want to be a jackass and interfere (these people weren't looking too happy, and they were talking about a flight the next day) and just waited. Luckily for me some more Vegas people came by and eventually we learned that the flight to Vegas was scheduled for 18:20 at gate A27, which was all the way to the other side of the airport.
Again I had my requested seat at the hallway and again I was sitting next to some parent-less kid. This one was a little more annoying, as would turn out later during that flight. I must be some kind of kids magnet because 5 minutes later a women with a 3 year old girl was seated in front of me. Ofcourse the little bastard was making annoying noises all the time and couldn't sit still. Her daddy was seated a couple rows behind us, and at one point she was standing up in her chair, faced my way, and she litterally jumped up and down nonstop for like 5 minutes, causing my seat to vibrate as well. I wanted to kill her but just sat it out.

After about 4 hours we finally landed in Vegas, and the worst part was over. I got a cab to the MGM Grand and told the driver not to go via the highway, which I learned from reading topics on 2+2. I had signed up for a promotion that would upgrade me to a bungalow suite for $5, but ofcourse they didn't have any available. However I anticipated this and kept pushing for it, showing a printout and talking about how this promotion was very misleading and I had been searching the net for quite a while to find the best deal. I though I had it in the bag when the guy said he would go talk to the manager, but when he came back he just said they really didn't have one and I should come back tomorrow. I gave up and accepted the regular room he gave me, but would definitely come back the next day. He asked if I wanted low or high floor and I said low, since I figured I would be getting to the poker pit faster that way.

It turned out that my room (28-350) was on the 2nd to highest floor, and it took ages to get up since there were always people who needed to be at floors 20-27. I had 2 queen beds instead of the king bed I signed up for, and the lightswitch didn't work so I had to feel the walls in the dark to find another one. Apparently there was only 1 other in the whole room, which was located in the bathroom. I knew there was no way in hell I would be staying in that room, but decided to deal with that later and hit the poker pit first. I was very tired and awake for a long time, but the excitement of finally being there kept me awake.

After a 5 minute walk to the poker pit I got seated at a 1/2 table, which had a lot of younger kids on it. I bought in for 300 and folded all my hands in the first orbit. In the 2nd orbit I got AQ in MP and called a raise to 12 from a decent internet kid on my right, who was isolating an UTG limper. One other guy on the BTN called and we saw a TJ5 flop. The IR checked to me and I decided to take a stab, betting 25. BTN folded and the IR made it 75. I let it go and move on.

The next signifcant hand I played I got AK and I called a 14 dollar raise from a nit who opened UTG and who had only played 1 hand, where he stacked a guy with bottom set. Flop came down 995 and I called his cbet of 25. The turn was a meaningless 2 and he fired 35. This guy was trembling like crazy and I thought about it. Now every other day I would realise he was trembling because he had the nuts, and not because he was bluffing. But right now I was tired and convinced myself he was trying to bluff with AQ. The river came a 6 and he fired another 35, and I was actually starting to worry about him having a stroke. I've never seen someone be THIS nervous at a poker table before. I knew I had to fold and he was milking me with an overpair, but I called and pretended to have TT against his JJ. God I played that hand bad.

I bought in for 100 more to get my stack back up to 300. The next hand I played I had JJ against the same guy, who again opened to 14. I called and we see a K95 flop, which he checks. I check back and the turn brings a nasty A. He checks again and I check it back. The river bricks and he checks once again, and I just show down my hand, expecting to see QQ or TT a lot. He actually had 77 and I rake in a huge 25 dollar pot.

By this time a new internet kid arrived who was playing really aggressive and raising a lot of garbage hands. I requested a seat change to sit 2 on his left (I wanted to change anyway since I was seated in 7 and could barely read the suits on the flop) which was right in front of the dealer.

The next hand I goet KQ in the BB. MP, a fairly tight straightforward player, limped, MP+1 made it 10, the button called and both me and MP called as well. The flop came down Q93 and I led for 30. I got called by both MP and MP+1. The turn brought the 2 and I decide to fire again, this time making it 65. MP thinks about it and minraises me to 130. MP+1 quickly folds and I immediately openfold my KQ. He goes like: wow, great laydown, and shows me his set of 3's.

I rebuy another 100 and I'm now in for 500, down about 250. I pick up KK UTG+1 and 3bet a guy who was sitting at the table for 2 orbits and hadn't played a hand to 21. The whole table folds and I can see how he is frustrated and calls. The flop brings 9TJ and I'm...

Despite the fact I like blogging and writing down the happenings of my life, I somehow keep failing to do on a frequent basis. It almost feels like starting a new blog now, since it's been such a long time .

After my skiiing trip in France I played a bit of poker and computer games, and not much has happened in my life. As usual I was playing at stakes I don't really belong, and ended up playing my biggest poker hand ever:

$5/$10 No Limit Holdem
888
6 Players
Hand Conversion Powered by weaktight.com

Stacks:
UTG kekec83 ($1,172)
UTG+1 massacre_ ($2,438.91)
CO Hero ($2,269.25)
BTN muckfest ($1,156)
SB minderm ($2,234.50)
BB patdekos ($3,526.50)

Pre-Flop: ($15, 6 players) Hero is CO K K
2 folds, Hero raises to $30, 1 fold, minderm raises to $110, patdekos calls $100, Hero raises to $400, minderm goes all-in $2,234.50, patdekos folds, Hero calls $1,834.50

Flop: 8 5 10 ($4,579, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: 7 ($4,579, 2 players, 1 all-in)

River: 2 ($4,579, 2 players, 1 all-in)

Final Pot: $4,579
Hero shows
K K
minderm shows
K A

Hero wins $4,575 (net +$2,340.50)

minderm lost $2,234.50
patdekos lost $110


At the beginning of April we left on the long-awaited trip to South-Africa, which I mentioned in my last post. Apart from a horrible travel back and forth, the trip itself was pretty nice. Saw a lot of animals and beautiful views, but missed out on some cool stuff because we were on a roundtrip and the schedule was tight. I definitely should go back again to do the stuff I want to do, which is pretty different from the stuff my parents wanted to do . (No I'm not talking stripclubs here)
Anyway, I'm gonna keep the tripreport and pictures for later since I'm too lazy to write about that now and the pictures are on my laptop anyway.

When I came back I completely lost all interest in poker and took a long break, up until 2 days ago. I have to say my break really helped, since I am now enjoying it a lot more again. Although it's only been 2 days and it might be too early to draw conclusions. Here are my results for the past 2 days:



Ofcourse this is a non-samplesize, but it's always nice to run good when you're back after a long break.

Some other good news is that I booked my trip to Vegas, where I'll be staying from the 27th of June till the 9th of July. I booked a room in the MGM Grand since that's the casino I enjoyed the most last year and I heard from other people that it's a good place to stay.
Something to note is that I'm actually going all by myself. My family and closest friends, who obviously know me very well, were a little surprised to hear that, since it's actually not something they would expect from me. I am still very dependant, living with my parents and not having much notion of "the real world". But since I'll be turning 24 this summer I really think it's time to lift up my lazy ass and start getting rid of the whole "I don't care" attitude. This trip will be a good start .

I'm also planning to play a $1000 WSOP event and because I don't want to end up folding everything but AA/KK I sold 70% of my action. Despite my frequent shottaking I'm still a huge bankroll nit, since I only play 1kNL after winning some money on lower limits and instaleave when I lost (near) a buyin . The big dream is still to play the main event, but I don't think I'll ever get there since I can't imagine myself putting down such a huge amount of money on 1 donkament, and you'd have to be crushing the midstakes to get the credentials for a stake.


Next I wanna take a look at my goals and see how I am doing so far.


Poker
- Move up to 1000NL

Not even close, but I'm probably about ready to play 400NL fulltime. This goal could still be accomplished but I'd have to start studying/playing a ton during the summer (which is the plan anyway)

- Play a WSOP event

About to happen!

- Read all the e-books I bought recently

On my Africa trip I started listening to the memoires of the big AEJones, but I didn't get very far, since there wasn't too much time to do this. Definitely something I will finish later.

I still got like 10 good ebooks and a whole bunch of movies that I need to see, and I better do that soon to get my money's worth .

- Buy a laptop

What was I thinking, this isn't a goal wtf.

Bonus:
- Hit 6 figures in alltime poker winnings

This is definitely going to happen sooner or later, but it's not gonna be for this year.
I took a look at my year graph to get an idea at where I was at, and I was absolutely stunned at how little hands I seem to have played this year. 80k hands, I should easely be hitting that in a month!




Life
- Gain weight (currently 131 pounds with clothes on)

This is actually happening I think. Ever since I got back from South Africa I am eating a lot more, and I even manage to eat breakfast from time to time. Unfortunately my brother stole our balance so I don't have exact numbers.

- Pass exams

Still possible, although I'm a little scared for those in June. Some of them are gonna be tough, and as usual I didn't do much during the year ...

- Get driver's license

Still haven't even started with this, I'm "planning" to do this for like 4 years now. What the hell?

- Travel around

Done, will do in future.

- Start playing badminton in competition (I play recreational for like 7-8 years)

I actually looked for some clubs that offer competition play but they don't allow people mid-season, so it basically means I have to wait till September to do this. I will make work of it though.

- Read 10 books

I've finished 1 book (dunno if there's an English version) and I am halfway "The girl with the dragon tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. After that I'll probably read all of Dan Browns books (have read 2 of them so far and LOVED them) and the Harry Potter series (never read a book or seen a movie).

- Play 10 min. piano every day (on average)

This is somewhat maintained, although I still should be playing more than I currently do. Exam coming up the 4th of June. This is one of the pieces I have to play.

It's been a while since I made an update, and a lot of stuff happened in the meantime, so fasten your seatbelts for a long read.

First things first: my exam results so far are really good. I got 5 out of 7 grades back, and I aced them all! Too bad an ace in Europe doesn't mean the same thing, since it's actually only 65%+. But, according to the weird American system, I'd still have one A, so that's still pretty badass.

I also went on a really nice snowboarding trip. It was my second snow experience (I won't count the 1-2 inches we sometimes see here in Belgium), the first being a pretty lame skiing vacation 8 years ago, where I didn't learn shit. In other words, I was a complete newbie, but got the hang of it pretty quick. The only downside was that literally every part of my body was sore after day 3, since I was falling down at a rate of like once every 5 minutes. This may seem contradictory with my previous statement (getting the hang of it quickly), but I actually chose to try and get better, even if that meant taking a lot of hits. Being careful and not falling is actually pretty easy, but it doesn't make you a better boarder.
Anyway, I still have a long way to go so I'll definitely go again next year!

Some pictures:

Arrival after sitting on that god damn bus all night


Group picture with the fisheye camera (I'm the guy on the right with the huge skiing glasses (I wear normal glasses which is a pain in the ass))


View from the apartment


Ready for the first day


Recovering from a heavy day (yea yea need a haircut blabla)


Intense snowcone battle


Which I couldn't win because this mofo had a shield


One guy brough a slingshot


Heavy action photo (look how fucking steep it is!)



I didn't play any poker since mid-january, and I have to admit I'm really enjoying this long break. I'm planning to start grinding again this week or next week, but I'm not in a hurry. To be honest, I was hoping to be more excited to start playing again. Guess I really did lose my love for the game and I need to start seeing it as a job, rather than a hobby. Sucks that I have a terrible work ethic.

Next trip will be in april, when I'm heading to South Africa to battle some lions and swim with sharks. But first I need to get grind on the mind, to pay my trip to Vegas this summer.

Not much happening in my life at the moment. Got my first exam on Friday morning, and my biorhythm is totally fucked again, so that's gonna blow. My plan is to sleep only 5-6 hours now (I need a LOT of sleep, around 10-11 hours a night) so I'll hopefully be tired enough tomorrow night to get another 7-8 hours before my exam.

Also ordered a laptop today, which turned out to be around 850$. I just let my brother pick one and trusted his reads. I didn't really have any special requests anyway, just a simple basic laptop to play poker and watch some shows. Will take pics when it arrives.

Haven't played poker in a couple days, and I'm planning to keep it that way for now. The last thing I want to do is lose money and not be able to concentrate on my studies. It's hard enough as it is.
Here's my graph for 2010 so far, which is basically only the new years session and another one the day after:

New years eve was very relaxing. We had dinner and played games until early morning hours, and because my biorhythm was totally messed up anyway I decided to grab this chance to try and fix it once again by pulling an allnighter. On my way back home I came by the bakery and decided to buy croissants to bring my mother a breakfast in bed. It was 8 AM and the room was filled with old people giving me this dirty look. Guess my red eyes gave away I was the odd man out.

When I got home I actually felt pretty awake, since it was freezing cold outside and it was like a 40 minute ride. Because my dad just woke up the house was still very cold as well, so I quickly turned up the heat, took a blanket and sat down shivering behind my computer.

At this moment it occurred to me that the poker tables would probably be very fishy, filled with drunk people and whatnot. I checked out Party Poker and my presumption was confirmed, as I saw some very high table pot averages and deepstacked fishes limping around. To maximize my winnings on this wonderful morning, and because I hadn't slept all night and was ready to play my D game, I decided to sit on the highest tables with action: 600NL and 400NL. Wait what? Guess I'm a little degenerate after all.

I managed to win some big pots and was up 1800$, only to lose it all back. For some reason I didn't really care (I wasn't drunk or anything by the way). Here are some fun hands:

Party Poker $600.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 451673
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $1736.80
SB: $630.00
BB: $815.15
UTG: $452.93
MP: $732.30
Hero (CO): $1053.09

Pre Flop: ($9.00) Hero is CO with 3 3
2 folds, Hero raises to $18, BTN raises to $60, 1 fold, BB calls $54, Hero calls $42

Flop: ($183.00) 7 3 2 (3 players)
BB checks, Hero checks, BTN checks

Turn: ($183.00) A (3 players)
BB bets $144.00, Hero raises to $324, BTN folds, BB raises to $755.15, Hero calls $431.15

River: ($1693.30) 6 (2 players)

Final Pot: $1693.30
BB shows 7 7
Hero shows 3 3
BB wins $1689.80
(Rake: $3.50)



UTG: $607.61
MP: $3599.40
CO: $600.00
BTN: $522.00
SB: $2552.63
Hero (BB): $1270.71

Pre Flop: ($9.00) Hero is BB with A T
2 folds, CO raises to $24, 2 folds, Hero calls $18

Flop: ($51.00) T 8 4 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $48.45, Hero calls $48.45

Turn: ($147.90) 3 (2 players)
Hero checks, CO bets $527.54, Hero raises to $1055.08, CO calls $0.01 all in

River: ($1203.00) K (2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $1203.00
CO shows A A
Hero shows A T
CO wins $1200.00
(Rake: $3.00)


The guy in the 2nd hand was a huuuuge fish and he would have made this move with any pair for sure. I didn't raise the flop because he was the kind of guy to go crazy whenever he felt weakness, so I considered my hand to be the nuts and wanted to let him hang himself. He ended up donking off 350BB in 1 hand with top pair against MP and I was pretty disappointed to see him leave right after. My winning hands were all pretty standard stuff btw, so I'm not just posting these losing hands to complain. (yes I know set under set is standard as well, just posted that one because it's one of my biggest losing pots ever )

I managed to get away from the tables being up ~300$ so that was a good thing. I watched some video's afterwards and tried to keep my eyes open for as long as possible, but around 7 PM I gave up and went to bed. Woke up around 9.30 AM this morning and it really feels like today is the 1st of January. Now there's nothing to look forward to anymore, and I have to start studying my ass off once again. FML.

EDIT

Upon request, here is an interesting hand I played during the session. I was pretty tight, playing 19/14. Villain plays 20/16/2.8. He seems decent, sitting with a 6k stack on some other table (he is MP in hand 2 above) and generally just playing very solid poker. We haven't been in many hands together (he's sitting on like 5 of my tables)

UTG is a 37/2/1.6 drooler, so I think his isolation range is fairly wide. On the flop I think he perceives my range to be overpairs (99/TT/JJ), sets, and less likely 34/56/78/89.

Turn goes c/c, which rules out his sets and probably overpairs, unless he is potcontrolling these. However, if he potcontrols an overpair on the turn, he's never gonna shove them on the river.

I lead out pretty big on the river. I have almost NO bluffs in my range. I wouldn't lead out with 78 or 56 here, because no worse hands are folding. This leaves in my range the sets and 43/89/TT/JJ.

How many people would try and bluff me off a set or 2p here? Which worse hands is he shoving for value here? I think it's safe to say he's showing me 67, 55 or A2 here a lot. Occasionally he might be bluffing, but not 30% of the time in my eyes.

Party Poker $600.00 No Limit Hold'em - 6 players - View hand 451684
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $788.55
Hero (SB): $804.80
BB: $674.50
UTG: $883.50
MP: $812.90
CO: $1068.34

Pre Flop: ($9.00) Hero is SB with 3 3
UTG calls $6, MP raises to $24, 2 folds, Hero calls $21, 1 fold, UTG calls $18

Flop: ($78.00) 8 3 4 (3 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $18.00, MP raises to $66, Hero calls $66, UTG folds

Turn: ($228.00) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP checks

River: ($228.00) 5 (2 players)
Hero bets $145.00, MP raises to $722.90, Hero folds

Final Pot: $518.00
MP wins $514.50
(Rake: $3.50)

So December turned out to be the best month ever in my poker carreer, booking my first 5-digit win. This is obviously a great feeling to start 2010, and I can't wait to replicate these results every month to take down my monetary goals that year.

I have been working a lot on my game by posting hand histories over and over and discussing hands with others. Special thanks to Robin_Ripper, as he spent quite some time doing this with me.

So here is a detailed breakdown of my winnings:



+ cleared 2400$ from a 3000$ bonus on party
+ 745$ rakeback on AP
+ ~4800$ donkament shippage
+ 100€ bonus on party
+ 100$ on party poker for some weird promotion
- about 500$ in donkament buyins

= 10k+$


Now I'm off to have dinner with friends. Happy New Year everyone!

As the end of the year approaches, I think it's time to take a look at my goals for 2010. Here were my goals for 2009:

- Go to Vegas: success
- Grind 400NL and take 1kNL shots: fail
- Upgrade my setup: success
- Pass my exams: fail
- Go live on my own: fail

Here are my goals for the next year, a little more specific and thought-out this time:

Poker
- Move up to 1000NL
- Play a WSOP event
- Read all the e-books I bought/downloaded recently
- Buy a laptop

Bonus:
- Hit 6 figures in alltime poker winnings


Life
- Gain weight (currently 131 pounds with clothes on)
- Pass exams
- Get driver's license
- Travel around
- Start playing badminton in competition (I play recreational for like 7-8 years)
- Read 10 books
- Play 10 min. piano every day (on average)

I know the poker goals may seem a little presumptuous, but that's why they're called goals. I'm pretty sure if I worked hard I could easely beat 400NL and take 1000NL shots by December 2010.

Alltime winnings include everything I won with poker so far. My bankroll is currently around 20k, and I cashed out about 5-6k over the years, so the goal is actually to win around 75-76k next year, or 6-6.5k per month. That should be doable, as I don't have many problems getting the hands in.

As for my life goals, I will try and update whenever I have finished a (part of a) goal. I started studying for my exams in January, so mid February I'll see how that goal works out this time .


Also read a poker article that really fits me perfectly. Well, the first 2 paragraphs at least, as I almost never whine about bad beats anymore, nor do I think I'm a great player and everytime I lose it's a cooler or bad luck.



Why you suck at poker (by FenderJaguar)

You can’t think for yourself. Your understanding of poker comes from what you’ve been taught, like a cookie-cutter. You don’t have the ability to come to your own logical conclusions, and you have no idea what to do in new situations that you haven’t been cookie-trained in (no fear though, you can in some cases be taught how to be logical lol). That’s why you lump in with the rest of the grinders, spending seasons in the abyss trading coolers with other people too stupid to realize "hey, there’s 5 regs at this table and myself, I could probably find a better spot. Like maybe a table with an actual fish .

You play too many tables. You rely on rakeback. You “chalk it up to a cooler” too much. You don’t do enough homework. You don’t think about your game enough. You think you know it all, when really you don’t know jack fucking shit. You spew in spots where you’re crushed like a retard asking out a prom queen. You assign qualities to your opponents that they just don’t have. You overthink, you underthink, you estimate terribly. You don’t value bet well. You fail to stack people where you can, leaving tons and tons and tons of ptbb’s laying all over the felt. You don’t have a plan for the rest of the hand. You fire too many barrels. You fire too few barrels. You don’t even know what you’re going to do when you face a raise a lot of the time, let alone what turn and river cards are awesome/terrible.

You’re complete shit when it comes to reading hands. You let whimsy control your game. You play too many tables. I know I already said that one but you know what, it seems like a good time to reiterate it. You play too many FUCKING TABLES. You can’t make good decisions 8 tabling if you don’t already have a good internal idea of what those decisions should be. If you haven’t been there through a ton of 2-4 tabling repetition, you won’t “get it” while 8 tabling. So stop. You don’t know how to count card combinations (an excellent way to increase your hand reading ability). You let your emotions influence you and you tilt too much, even if you “aren’t the type to tilt too much”. You don’t work hard enough. You don’t put enough hands in and you quit winning sessions too soon, hanging around while you’re losing and on tilt (IE your winning sessions are your shortest, and your losing sessions are your longest). You’re not honest with yourself. You self-soothe and do whatever you can to justify your plays or lack of motivation to yourself. You find others to be miserable with, you may even have a network of dreamsowers lamenting their every lost flip and overpair vs. a set. You may even sit around and talk about how good you all are or will be, and how you crush the game, and are just unlucky. Jacking off each others ego so you can feel good about how great you play just to spite how shitty you’re running. Most of all, YOU KNOW A LOT OF THIS ALREADY.

I could go on and on here, but I think you get the idea. Am I talking about you? Am I talking about me? To some extent. I’m talking about all of us in some way or another. We’re all guilty. Anyone who takes this game seriously and wants to make a living, an income, a business out of poker. I tell my students all the time, It’s there if you want it. Do you? When are you going to be honest with yourself and change? How many years are going to go by before you realize you haven’t improved and you’re still where you were? It’s true that poker isn’t for everyone. Some people can absolutely not stomach the swings. Some people can’t weather the storm of mental beatings and abuse that you go through in this game. Some people aren’t mentally tough enough. Above all you need to be honest with yourself. If you’re happy being an SSNL grinder, making a better-than-average income, hats off to you. But for those of us with something else burning inside, there’s a whole world we haven’t discovered yet in this beautiful game.