Since I last updated a week or so ago I've only played poker once - last Sunday where I had a good online session, winning another WSOP Seat and coming 7th in the 200 rebuy.

On Monday I got up early and flew to San Francisco for a much needed break from Las Vegas.

I have been having a good time in the desert, and actually been quite healthy while out here all things considered.

Nevertheless, Vegas is an exceptionally frustrating place to spend a month, and a cultural wasteland, so a trip to SF for a few days was a welcome change.

I had a secondary reason for heading out there too - picking up my ex-gf/permanent bff/frequent travel wife Bonni, who I flew out here to hang out with me for the rest of the trip.

We went and saw a couple of bands (Grizzly Bear, Isis) and did a bunch of shopping/exploring/etc.

Had an amazing time, life-affirming even... what a great city.

Tough to come back to Vegas afterwards, though I had missed poker a little and was excited to play the $1500 yesterday (until I found out it sold out the night before).

Instead we went to Okada for Teppenyaki (was awesome) and then XS for MonsterDong's 21st.

We drank quite a lot of sake/wine before we even got to the club so our partying was um, spirited... and today I am lazily playing the Sundays with roughly zero enthusiasm.

There's only a few WSOP events left now - I might not even play the $1500 on Monday because it would suck to miss the $5k 6-max on Tuesday, and then after that all there is is the Main Event.

I'm gonna play Day 1a so that if I bust out I can head to New York asap - I've never been, and always wanted to, really badly.

Then I'm probably going to Chicago, and I have no idea what I'm doing after that.

I don't really know what my life is anymore, I have no home and no real plans either... nothing to go back to.

I found out I can't get into uni mid-year like I had hoped, and I left all my bands behind to move to Melbourne, so I really have absolutely no ties whatsoever.

There's more live stuff - Macau, WSOP Europe, Vic Champs, so I guess I'll just keep doing what I've been doing for a while.

It'd be nice to have a home but I don't know where, Melbourne is so unappealing at the moment with all its cold weather and past romantic failures.

I'm sure I'll come around, but right now I dunno.

I guess I can play the circuit until it's Spring in Australia and then try and start again (again) in Melb, that seems like a good plan.

Played the Sundays yesterday, I came 9th in the first $100 rebuy (one of my favourite tournaments).

I was chipleader for most of the way from 100 left to 25 left but then I called SB's 12bb jam with KT and lost to 96, got AQs allin for 20bb vs KK and lost, and went card dead for ages while all the random Euros nitted it up trying to make the final table.

They blinded down so hard that by the time the final table rolled around there were 5 stacks under 15 big blinds...

I jammed JT from MP for my 10bb and got called in the BB by A6s and did not win.

Couple other mincashes for the day meant I probably broke even or so.

Today I went down to play the $2k NLHE, rolled in half an hour late and decided I was hungry enough to go get an omelette and a coffee to prepare myself for what could easily be a long day.

5 minutes into the second level I casually strolled over to my table feeling good, and I recognised some of the faces: Dennis Philips, Theo Tran, ADZ124... Interesting table.

First hand I'm dealt in ADZ opens to 350 utg at 50/100.

Young guy calls, Middle aged guy calls, I look down at KK and make it 1650.

It folds around, ADZ tank folds, then young guy re-calls, and we're headsup to the flop.

It comes 972 - he check-raises me allin.

Fine, whatever, I call... He has AA.

GG!

Went to the gym on the way out of the Rio and that was it, my day done in just one hand after 4 days off!

Kinda fiending to play again now so I'll be there at everything else that's on this week.

I am feeling really burnt out after all the live poker the last two weeks.

Going deep in the 6-max was super fun and stimulating, but really exhausting.

The last couple of days were the first days in Vegas so far that I've felt 'over it'.

I couldn't be bothered playing today and I don't think I'm playing tomorrow either, the 10K Headsup would be fun to indulge in but I think I'll leave it to the experts and I really don't have the energy to grind a $1500.

I played some online cash today though, to try and get myself back into it.

Ran pretty good too, won a buyin each at 10/20 PLO 10/20 NLHE 5/10 NLHE and 2/4 NLHE for a 7k day - turns out cashgames are easy!

Jokes aside though, I've been feeling very uninspired when it comes to poker for quite a while now.

I really hit a wall when I won the $750k Guaranteed in March.

A part of me died, winning that.

I was so driven, for so long, to get as good as I could at MTTs, and to play every big tournament until I won one.

On some level after winning that I felt like I had clocked MTTs, and the game was over, so poker went back to being very boring again because I had essentially accomplished everything I aspired to and didn't have any goals anymore.

Getting to Vegas and playing the $40k was the kick I needed, to get back into the zone and care about poker.

I started dreaming of winning a live tournament, and more importantly, aspiring to get better at live play.

I started thinking about hands again after I played them, thinking about my own weaknesses and how to improve, how to adjust to the fields, and so on.

For the first time in a few months, I felt the fire to compete, and to improve.

But all I can feel right now after all the grinding the past few weeks is exhaustion.

I think I'll get it back though, I'm quite interested in live poker at the moment - both live cash and live tournaments.

Anyway, in the theme of putting some actual poker content in this blog I'll post a couple of hands from the 6-max.

First one took place vs James Sudsworth, a tough and aggressive British player that plays 25/50 on euro sites, who I had been battling throughout the day and who had been getting the better of me a little bit situationally but still probably respected my play.

He raised utg to 29k at 6k/12k with 400k to start the hand.

It folded around to me in BB and I took a flop with 64cc.

His opening range was very wide even utg, and I had been flatting his button raises on an earlier table from the BB with hands like KQ, KJ, KT, QJ, QT, JT - he had seen me do so 3-4 times.

The flop came T99 with two diamonds one club.

I checked and he quickly checked behind.

The turn came the 2 of clubs, I bet 39k and he raised to 110k leaving ~250k behind.

I felt like he would think I had a draw quite often, but that I would quite often shove over his raise with my draws.

I also felt like he was good enough to make this play with a ten for value, and snapcall my shove.

Was a tough spot but I decided to fold (turned out he had 33 and said he would have folded to my shove).

Another hand: I got moved to a new table when we redrew for seats with two tables left and 20 minutes left in the day.

A player I hadn't played with yet in the event who looked like a fish (middle aged Mexican-American) opened to 29k utg.

He got flatcalled from MP by another weak player, who I had been playing with and getting the better of on the other table.

They each had around 400k to start the hand, and as it is folding around they started having a friendly non poker conversation with a complete absence of any kind of nerves or seriousness from either side (implying neither of them really had anything).

It folded around to me in the BB and I looked down at A9o, and decided to squeeze.

I made it 117k, but surprisingly after a few seconds the original raiser flatcalled (for close to 1/3 his stack).

Other guy folded, and we were headsup to the flop.

I decided to give up unless I flopped a monster, putting him on a range of roughly AQ, AA-TT, weighted towards AA AQ and JJ.

The flop came 643 rainbow.

I checked, and he checked behind.

The turn came a 9.

I checked, and he strangely bet 65k into 280k.

I called.

The river came a 7.

I checked, and he went allin for 220k into 410k.

I thought for a long, long time (the longest I've ever thought about one street before).

It felt like he could be bluffing postflop but I just couldn't put him on enough hands preflop for 1/3 his stack that he could have turned into a bluff, was he really sitting there with AQ trying to get me off AK?

The bet was for half my stack, and if I folded I would still be in quite decent shape.

Eventually I folded; he SLAMMED down JTs and yelled 'THATS WHY IVE ALREADY CASHED FOUR TIMES THIS SERIES!'

If I got either of those right I would have been 3/11 going into Day 3 instead of 8/11.

So I guess I'm 1/24 now, and have one less thing to complain about.

It was a pretty epic couple of days.

I always felt like when I finally cashed I would make a deep run.

It's always been that way for me, dating back to M:TG.

A disproportionate amount of the time I would either lose the first two rounds and drop from the tournament, or I would come 1st.

Poker has been quite similar, although it didn't work out exactly like that this time as while I did get a deep run from my first cash, I wound up finishing an ultimately disappointing 9th, for a touch under $40,000.

I feel really good about the experience overall.

Day two was the most exciting and mentally stimulating day for me in recent memory.

12 hours of dynamic short-handed poker, vs a mixture of opponents who were mostly winning players, on a stage of sorts, for a lot of money and pride.

It was awesome, and reminded me why I started playing poker in the first place.

Obviously part of me is a little sad at having gotten close to so much money and a bracelet and so on.

And there were a couple of hands that will haunt me a bit.

But overall I think I played pretty goddamn good, and I am proud of my efforts, all things considered.

If nothing else I can hold my head up high this time and say I put everything into it that I could.

So anyway yeah, I guess a $40k cash would seem nicer if I hadn't paid that much to enter a tournament two weeks ago.

Plus it's a bit harsh to have gotten 11th in the Monte Carlo 6-max where 1st was $400kish and now 9th in this where 1st was $550k, both times having to navigate through a strong field to get that deep in the first place.

But I enjoyed myself, and I feel I am hitting my strides again.

It's going to be a little weird to go back to 1500s now after playing the whole of day 1 of the $5k vs a field of sickos, then sleeping for a day, and then playing 3 days in the 6-handed event - which was obviously way more comfortable with only 6 people per table as well as way more hands per hour/interesting spots per hand, because of being shorthanded.

But I'll get back into the swing of things I think.

I really do like live poker at the moment, I'm quite determined to master it.

There aren't that many great events left in the series (god I need to learn mixed games, WSOP NL is so dominated by 1500-2ks now that it's just ridiculous) but I am aspiring to do some sicko stuff on the live front at some point this year, whether it's WSOP, WSOPE, Macau, wherever.

That's my new goal I guess, one-up this finish :-)

So I finally had a winning day.

I didn't have to do much - I slept for 15 hours and then my friend that I had 50% of came 10th in the ECOOP Main Event for $16k.

It was a bit disgusting actually, he got KK in vs K5o preflop for a pot that would have made him 2nd in chips with 25 left, and he lost... zzz ;[

Still cool that he got the score though, and I don't wanna be the guy who always has a new beat story.

I hope I don't come off that way.

I'm actually having a great time in Vegas, and am excited to be here.

It's weird, I haven't even been drunk yet or cashed in a tournament, but I've still been really enjoying myself.

I also feel more determined to play well than I have for a long time.

So please take any of my 'look how unlucky I am' stories with a grain of salt, I'm a long way from being emo at the moment.

It feels good to be grinding again, working towards something.

Before I got to Vegas I kinda felt like 'well, I hope I cash a few times this year but its not that big a deal since I hate poker atm anyway'

Now I feel more like 'f this, and f cashing, I am going to do what it takes, learn what I have to learn, and put in the hours until I win one of these things!'

Tomorrow is the $2500 6-max, and then Tuesday I think I am going to get very drunk.

So after playing for 12 hours I busted on the VERY LAST HAND OF DAY 1 in the $5k NL...

After doubling up on the second last hand...

From 22bb to ~46bb... so it's not like I was short...

I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel like the WSOP was created with the sole purpose of doing whatever it takes to destroy my spirit as much as possible at all times!

It's pretty sick, like how last year in the Main Event I was about to make my first dinner break of the series (15th event!) and I spent the first 5 minutes of the dinner break losing a coinflip for 95% of my stack (which was above average) so I went to my 'omg first ever wsop dinner break' feeling completely crushed because the series was essentially over and I had officially failed.

Well today I was about to pensively make my first ever Day 2 with 22 big blinds, when on the second last hand for the day I flopped top set and got it in vs a flush draw and held to double to a very healthy stack and only having to survive one last hand where I was going to be in the big blind and determined not to do anything stupid.

I made a joke to the guy next to me that I'd been talking and telling WSOP failure stories to about how sick it was going to be when I busted on the last hand...

And then Victor 'I Personify The Word Donk' Ramdin opened utg to 2500 with 25k or so behind, it folded around to Isaac Baron on the button, and he made it 7625 with around 50 behind.

I looked down at JJ and my 45k and really had no choice but to push afaik.

Ramdin obviously went into the tank for like 3 minutes despite obviously never having anything, and I had to sit there getting slowroll tortured over whether or not Menlo was going to snapcall.

Well of course 3 minutes later when Ramdin finally folded instantly came the words 'I call, I have Aces...'

The board blanked out and I was done.

I'll write a proper report later on probably as it was a really epic day, my starting seat was wedged right in between Elky and JC Tran, and over the course of the day I sat with a lot of sickos.

But for now I should sleep, I'm just posting for sympathy obviously

Honestly though I'm really not upset at all, it's weird.

I guess it's just perspective - what's the difference if I lasted another 10 hours and came 15th with a different JJ vs AA?

You either win the tournament or fail, whatever, zzz.

Sigh

Well, it's been another eventful couple of days poker wise.

Yesterday was the $2k NLHE, it was a strange tournament.

I don't really feel like going too much into that one so I'll just give the cliff notes:

I won my first ever flip in a WSOP NLHE tournament outside the rebuy period, and had 3x starting stack at the first break.

Then I bluffed off 50bb in a spot that was fine vs a bad player but bad vs a good player (live misread by me on player type - he called me down with ace high).

I still had average stack after that though, and I made the dinner break again!

But then I went card-dead over that crucial 3-4 hour period in the mid to late part of day one where your stack goes from double average to under average if you don't luckbox some double-ups, and we all know I would never actually fucking cooler someone in one of these things ever.

So my stack went short over time and I got it in good and chopped then got it in bad and lost.

Today I went down for the 2500, and for some reason I felt really tilted and angry at my starting table... you know when live players just get on your nerves sometimes.

It was the first time I'd really felt tilted/frustrated this trip - despite having had 9 losing days in a row or whatever I have been in pretty good spirits.

So I went and found Stevo on the break and had him prescribe me some herbal medicine to relax a little bit, as I knew I needed it (not trying to glorify smoking but my god it helps cope with being stuck in a donkament).

Came back inside feeling relaxed and focused, found a masseuse when I got back to the table, and got settled and ready to grind.

And I started playing well. Really well.

I was seeing things so clearly, making all the right moves, ducking and weaving as well as attacking...

One hand I threebet a button opener from the BB with A8o, he called, and the flop came AKQr.

I checked quickly, he thought for not long and bet half pot.

I said 'really?' with a frown, and while he was in the middle of replying 'well i know you dont have anything' I folded the Ace faceup before he got all the words out.

He had JT and spent the next 20 minutes going on about it, I mean, there's nothing special about the hand but I really was seeing things very clearly....

I didn't even bother kidding myself that I might be giving him action.

I busted anyway though of course, lost QQ vs KJ and then A3 vs KJ zzzzzzz.

I walked out of the room in frustration initially, but then as soon as I got into the sun I felt completely different.

I started to feel like I was healing, being revitalised.

So I decided to go and just sit in the sun and listen to music for a while to unwind.

While I was doing that I decided that I would in fact play the $2500 6-handed LHE later on that afternoon, and to best prepare for the event I would go to the gym first.

So I worked out, then I went in the sauna for ages, and by the time I was done I really felt like a new man.

Come 5pm I sat down at the table ready to grind.

By the first break I had double my starting stack. In Limit Holdem.

By the second break I had triple, and was possibly the chip leader.

I played a few hands quite well I thought.

One hand I opened the SB with Q7o, BB called.

Flop came 763r, I bet he called.

Turn came a 5, I check-called.

River came an Ace... I decided a donk-bet would look ultra full of it and could induce a raise from his air, plus I can valuetown worse 7s and other pairs, so I led out.

He raised and I snap-called. He mucked.

Another hand I had 76s, raised from cutoff, BB defended.

Flop A62, he check-raised me.

I called, turn paired the 6.

He bet again, and whereas I'd usually insta-raise, I decided best line was actually just to think a bit and call to try and induce a potential river bluff... because everything else I beat only puts in two more bets anyway, and I can value-raise the river and get him to wtf call.

So yeah, similarly to before, nothing amazing about those hands or anything but I just really felt like I was playing my A game.

But then of course, when the blinds got huge, I started running so bad

First I had KJ vs QJ vs AQ on QJJxx for millions.

Then I threebet AA from bb vs cutoff, he called, and then he raised my flop bet on 875hh.

I called with the plan of calling down on bad cards, check-raising the turn on blanks.

Turn came 6 obviously, I check called.

River... Th.

I checked planning to call, but then when he bet it really felt like he had it, so I started playing the game 'think of one single plausible hand he can have here that you beat'.

And there were none....

Flush draws got there, T9 JT type hands made a pair and he wasn't good enough to turn those into a bluff, he would have just checked them back.

So no missed draw makes sense.

So what is he supposed to have? KK? QQ? He just wasn't that good.

So I folded and he said he had a flush and I believed him.

Then I had KQdd on the button, and threebet a gentleman's open.

The BB coldcalled 2, and the PFR 4bet.

I just called as did the BB, and the flop came Q 7d 3d...

We got 4 bets in (BB folded), and the turn somehow peeled off the 2 of diamonds...

PFR check-called.

River... 4 of diamonds. PFR bet out.

So sickening lol. AAd obviously.

So from those 3 hands 80% of my stack was gone, and then I ran AQ into AK cutoff/button 4bet pre flop A42 get it all in by showdown.

It was incredibly disappointing to get punished so badly after trying so hard to do all the right things, and feeling like I was playing so good!

I know I just have to keep doing it, doing the right things to take care of myself so that I can keep playing well even through failure.

It's so important to stay positive, but it's also important to stay realistic and aware of the bigger picture.

So I've been making a real effort to eat well and exercise, spend time in sun, etc, so that if I do end up blanking everything for example, I can still go home feeling good about myself in other ways!

Last year was pretty brutal cos I lost a lot of money but also gained like 5 kgs, and went home feeling bad about pretty much everything.

Not going there again.

But yeah it's only been 7 events - such a long way to go, plus I already made 3 dinner breaks!

That's practically day 2, which is practically in the money, which is practically the final table, which is practically a bracelet.

Tomorrow is the first $5k event, I'd do anything to day 2 it... gl me ;[

Yesterday I skipped the $1500 donkament that was running, to do some errands and catch up on some well needed rest.

The two days of poker preceding had been pretty intense.

Sunday I was in online tourneys from within the first 5 minutes of waking up until midnight, and even when I was done with my session I wound down for the night by watching 2 poker videos.

Then Monday I dragged myself out of bed and threw myself into the exhausting experience of 9 hours of live PLO, where I actually managed to run up a stack but then gambled it away.

So by the time I finally got to sleep Tuesday morning, I was wrecked.

I woke up in the afternoon, and headed over with housemate StevoL to visit the Canadians staying around the corner from us (rdcrsn, improved, rookieqq9 and some others).

Got a little blazed sitting outside in the desert sun, and played a small session of donkaments since they were starting around that time.

I got 3rd in the 55+R with big antes for a small session win overall.

Then Stevo and I went to Naked Fish, which was great as always, and I went off to run my errands.

First thing I did was go to American Apparel to get some trackpants.

I pretty much have 5 American Apparel uniforms for live poker now, hoodie/shirt/trackpants/underwear/socks... it's all so comfortable, and the trackpants also mean I can go to the gym right after I play.

As I was walking around the store one of the cute girls who worked there said to me: 'Wow, you look EXACTLY like one of my professors!' 'Oh really? What subject?' 'Finite Maths...' (people have been saying weird things to me lately!)

Then I went over to the Bellagio to play some cash, partly to try and reinforce good habits (I really want to play more live cash, I just always burn myself out on stupid tournaments), partly to withdraw some money from the cage, and partly because I thought it would be fun.

I got in there and ran into Martin (MagicNinja), which was completely unexpected, and he jumped into a 25/50/100 must-move game with me.

I'm pretty sure ADZ was one of the guys at the table, he was sitting with over 100k and then over-flushed a tilted old man for 600bb (in a preflop three-handed once-raised pot).

Then after a while Ansky showed up, so I had Ansky on my right and MagicNinja on my left.

I introduced myself to Ansky and he said 'oh YOURE seabeast? I thought you'd be like, 18...'

Not sure if that was more to do with acting immaturely on 2+2 or looking incredibly washed up irl (though both are probably true) but it was funny anyway

The game broke and we played 3-handed for a while, while Ansky waited to get into the main game - but it wasn't exactly a good spot for me and I was hungry, so Martin and I went for a late meal instead.

I made it home about 3am and still couldn't sleep, messed around online before I realised it was 9am and I had to play a tourney at midday...

I had a quick nap and then we drove in for the $1500 6-max.

I was feeling quite good all things considered, I think when I'm tired I get grumpy which brings out my competitiveness... so even if I wasn't operating at full mental strength that could maybe be compensated for by wanting to beat my opponents even more than usual, and needing to focus on something to stay awake.

Anyhow I didn't last long enough for it to be relevant.

We started with 4500 at 25/50, I sat down and won a few pots early.

One of them I opened Q4o utg 4-handed because a nitty old guy was in the BB, it folded to him and he called.

Flop came 983 rainbow, he check-called.

Turn was a King; he led out for 300 into 800 or something... I quickly made it 900 to go, he called.

The river was a Queen, I decided there was no value this early and checked it behind - he turned over A7 and said OH MY GOD - THAT WAS LAST HAND - I THOUGHT I HAD A KING!

So I got to win the pot as well as show my Q4 and be the crazy guy at the table, which I always like.

I was opening nearly every hand (kept finding QJo, 44, etc) and then I opened AJhh on the button.

The BB seemed itching to threebet me, I really expected it and had already pre-adjusted my button opening range to compensate for it.

And he did, so I thought a while (cos flatting wasn't terrible with that hand and those stacks) but I decided that nah, his range is so wide that a four-bet is better, so I four-bet small with the intention of calling a shove.

He folded pretty quickly.

Then I opened 66 to 150, got flatted, and the SB jammed 900 over me.

I re-isoed, flatter folded and I lost to AA.

I got threebet twice and both times I had a suited connector and some other donk coldcalled the threebet, so I peeled flops both times and missed.

I was back to starting stack at this point with a crazy image, and the rest of the table were loosening up quite a bit too.

Then I opened A4hh utg, and got 3 callers including the old man in big blind.

Flop came Jh 7h 5x; old man check-raised my 375 to 1100 or so, with a 4k stack.

I shipped it in and he called with 75.

The turn peeled off a heart, and I thought YES! Finally I won a race!!

But then I noticed it was the 5 of hearts and I was drawing dead, ah right ok cool, zzz.

Next hand I had my 1000 chips or so left and utg opened to 150, utg+1 flatted, old man flatted, and I looked down at 88, obviously shipping it in.

Utg folded, before Utg+1 SNAP-shipped in his chips with a fist-pump before old man had even folded.

Utg+1 showed AK and looked shocked at my 88 like he couldn't believe I actually had live cards.

The flop came 222. Turn K.

I pretty much think the exact same thing every time I bust - 'well, that was fun...'

Went straight to the gym afterwards which was good, and came home to rest and decide whether to play the 2500 HA or play online, or neither.

I decided that I was just too tired (especially after doing weights) to play live poker until 3am or later, but that if I didn't play online I would go to sleep too early, so I played an online session.

Things were looking ok midway through but I ran super-bad late to finish 6th in the 55+R Big Antes and 10th in the turbo 40k, and I blanked out of everything else.

So my breakeven run continues.

I am feeling really uninspired about tournaments at the moment.

Cash appeals to me a lot more, especially soft deepstacked live games.

I've started fantasising about moving somewhere like Moscow or Berlin and finding a live game to round, Euros are so bad and so rich (especially live) and I've always wanted to live overseas.

It would be a new challenge too, which is a big thing for me.

I don't mind playing long live sessions either, the things that turn me off are either having to wait for hours to get an initial seat, or having to hustle and suck up...

Well today I chipped up for the first time in a WSOP event pretty much ever.

It was the 1500 PLO, I rolled in about half an hour late (mmm, sleeeep) to find out that we started with 1500 chips and 2 addons we could use for free at any time.

I sat down, rebought once, ran decent for a while, decided to use my last bullet to cover everyone, ran decent some more, zzz.

Ran it up to about 20k before getting moved to a new table to the direct left of Allen Cunningham, ran good vs him and abused the table a little (very weak/tight) to hit 45k at the dinner break.

At that point there were 180 players left, 81 cashed, average stack 18k, I had 45k.

It can't even be expressed how much better a position this was than I have been in in any of the other 17 previous WSOP events I've played.

I could easily have taken a low-variance approach and done stuff like not iso with doublesuited hands in late position and that sort of thing, effectively guaranteeing I would make the money.

But I didn't, I couldn't help myself. Must win at all costs

Especially when they all play so bad

A lot of really annoying hands took place and I lost 5 or 6 pots in a row in 5-10k chunks, decimating my stack.

I lost allin preflop to shortstacks with doublesuited cards vs AAxx twice, and squeezed vs Jason Mercier (who had like half the chips in play with 150 people left basically) in position with AAxx, he flatted, caller flatted, and then Mercier openpotted 542dd - I had no draws and still double the pot...

Even though he has flushdraw a lot/most of the time, if he has anything to go with it I'm pretty boned, and he can definitely have me crushed too anyway as it's the type of flop people always check behind.

Another hand I opened 8654 to 2100, got flatted, then a guy with 10k stack OVERCALLED AAxx and obviously the flop came A96 rainbow and he got away with it somehow.

It's dumb because if he just jammed preflop I would have got it in 45/55 or whatever it is and felt fine when I lost, but instead he played terrible and I felt worse because I had to c-bet that flop, and then my c-bet committed me with even a gutshot bottom pair and backdoor flush draw because he was so short... fucking nitfish flat to mincash mfers, wtf

To be honest though all things considered, I feel pretty good about the day - it was exciting, plus I was completely in the zone for the 2 hours leading to the dinner break (had been a while since I was really in the zone).

I really enjoy playing with other good players.

It's a sinking feeling for me when I get moved to a table and don't know who anyone is.

Of course I want there to be value but cmon, live tournaments, there's always going to be value... I want to battle someone.

But yeah, it burns a little to know I could have definitely cashed if I took a different route (as stupid and arbitrary as it is, would be nice to get the monkey off my back and make it into the money one time in this building...)

I think nearly every single play I made was +cev though... and at least I made the dinner break and won some pots - fuck mincashing, making the money is meaningless, it's positive enough that I actually won a pot here and there for a change!

I'm taking tomorrow off, there's a bunch of stuff I haven't had time to organise yet (boring things like getting healthy groceries, some toiletries, some new American Apparel trackpants so I be comfortable while playing but also head straight to the gym as soon I bust out of a tourney, etc) plus 1500 FRNLHE tourneys are pretty much hell.

I really wish I spent time practicing mixed games before WSOP.

The 40k inspired me but also kinda killed me in a way...

How the f am I supposed to care about wading through a zillion person field of retard donks to win a prize roughly equal to prizes I've already won before?

I wish I could play the mixed games with 'famous people' each day (a lot of whom still suck), and if you cash at all you're on the final two tables already.

But alas. I'll have to settle for the 10k LHE and 10k PLO later on in the series, and then a whole bunch of large field donking.

Oh and I played the Sundays yesterday and broke even.

Got 7th, 11th, 16th, and 25th in stuff... ;[

Man, it's so sick how I always find a way to bust in either the third or fourth level.

Apparently, that is where my skill level lies in WSOP tournaments... good enough to last the first two levels, but not good enough to tough it out past level four!!

My table today was the typical weak loose/passive table one would expect in a relatively small buyin tournament, and I made a couple of mistakes.

One of them was when I had KcQc - a gentleman raised preflop to 75 and I elected to call, as did three other players (why wouldn't they).

The flop came Ac 6x 3x and the flop checked through.

The turn was the 4c, giving me the nut flush draw.

Preflop raiser now bet 200 on the turn, which I called...

It folded to an elderly gentleman who had earlier thought for some time before calling an all-in raise on AK6 while he was holding KK.

He raised to 600, and the preflop raiser called.

Obviously I called too, and the river peeled off the 6c, giving me the nut flush but also pairing the board.

We checked, and elderly gentleman bet 800 (into 2200 or something).

PFR folded, and I really knew I should fold.

There's just no way he ever turns over a non full house there ever... So even with those odds it's a bad call I think.

But I called because of some Party Poker induced 'if hes bad enough to take this line hes bad enough to show up with some dumb hand' bullshit that still plagues me and he had the obvious 44.

My table was all unknowns except one guy who was wearing his WSOP bracelet - I recognised him from tv, he won one of the televised events a couple of years ago and there was some shit about his dad playing too in the coverage or maybe the main event coverage later that year or something, I don't know, anyway he was pretty bad and was limping a ton.

At 50/100 I had 1900 and he openlimped MP, before the next two players who were both relatively competent elected to overlimp as well...

I was next to act in the cutoff, and obviously planning to shove a really wide range.

I looked down at first card K, and was just thinking cmon, give me a suited 5, give me anything... but it was the offsuit two and I elected to fold.

Within a few seconds I really started regretting it and I'm pretty sure in hindsight I'm actually supposed to shove even 32o there.

None of the three musketeers are EVER calling there, it was super obvious, so it's either a blind wakes up with TT+AQ+ (they were nits) or I take down the pot (I'm too lazy to stove but I'm pretty certain that makes 32o a push).

Both those hands are obviously a bit unorthodox in terms of mistake making but they're the sorts of extremes in specific decisions you need to get to to really play well live, I think.

You really do get a lot of information.

But meh, other than that I just waited forever for good spots, treaded water, and finally got it in with 22 vs AK and lost, zzz.

Tomorrow I'm staying home and playing the Sundays, which I was really looking forward to until I spent the last two nights trying to get Windows working on my laptop (has been maybe a 6 week battle now and is the reason I haven't made any videos for a while).

I have two XP cds in my suitcase and now two copies of Vista...

The first copy I bought from Walmart and when I got home it turned out the cd had been stolen from inside (lol) and the second copy I also bought from Walmart and it turned out to be UPGRADE ONLY ie. you need to already have a fucking copy of Windows installed to install it.

With the XP discs I don't have a product key and haven't been able to get one for the life of me (they don't sell them online anymore).

So I can only play Stars/FT tomorrow, which is really disappointing as I haven't played a full Sunday schedule since SCOOP and I was looking forward to it

The last two months have been a lot like travelling around getting punched in the face in a new way each day.

Being in Vegas has been good for my mental state though so far (how fucked up is that when you think about it) and I'm feeling pretty positive.

The house we have is pretty ballin, and I've bumped into a few guys around the place and am looking forward to starting to go out as more and more people get into town.

Would be nice to upswing soon ;[