Seneca

Tomorrow I'm off with a few buddies for the first time since the Spring for a roadtrip to Seneca for their deepstack 10am tournament. The structure isn't the best, but it's one of the only games in town, or rather, close to town. I've gone deep a few times, and actually cashed maybe four times out of 10. Not a horrible record. Very well run tournament, and the people are nice. The plan is to make our way over the border, play the tournament, and as people bust they'll make their way back over the border and back to the smelly hole that is Casino Niagara for the cash games.

Should be an interesting crew this time as well. Full report upon my return.

Holy Crap! An Update!

Wowsers.

Has it really been this long? Man oh man. I have been a busy bee. Poker has always been there, but sort of an afterthought. At least, online it has been. I've been bitten by the live play bug, and can't really shake it. There's so much more to be learned once you've gotten past the math.

I've taken a stab at improving my game from an implied odds perspective, and I think things have gotten tremendously better from me doing that. Rather than just play so straightforward, I'm willing to make some questionable post flop plays in order to hopefully get paid off. It's working (I think).

Online just doesn't seem to do it for me. I still play the weekly Wednesday games on CT, but that's about it. They're also running a WSOP league, and I think I'm 2nd overall after 4 of 20 games (15 count towards your final score). Some work to do, but consistency has always been my strong point. Also qualified for the WCOOP and the Bloggers WCOOP qualifier. Wish me luck, I'll probably play the PLO event with my ticket.

Work has been incredibly busy (what recession?) and I'm pretty sure I'm one of the top earners again for the company this fiscal year. Nice.

I've been designing a lot of chips for people lately, as one of the mainstays of custom home chips is shuttering on August 31st. Sucks, now that there's only one game in town. My latest design is for BCC, and is my own personal set. Big thanks to MR. YOUKNOWWHO.

4 days and counting...

Played an awesome WSOP warm-up style event over the weekend and took down 4th. The blinds were nice and long, and the structure was very deep. I played a slow, steady and deliberately tight game, just to see how that would work. Lots of post flop play which was nice. However, 5 handed, I think I tightened up too much and it ended up hurting my finish. Found myself folding a lot of medium strength hands that were probably winners. Oh well, $80 invested, and won $220, so can't complain too much.

I'm really looking forward to my trip, and have decided that satellites is a much better way to get into the WSOP this year. I'd much rather play a whole bunch of tournaments rather than blow it all on one longshot.

Been awhile...

Haven't played much poker as of late. Guess I'm saving myself for Vegas, which is fast approaching. I got to Step 4, then blew all three chances I had built up. Mostly coolers, so can't really feel bad about my play.

I've also firmly decided that I'm going to play ONE satellite at the RIO for the PLO tournament. If I win, super, I'll play the thing. If I lose, meh, I'll play all the tournaments I actually want (have some shot at) to play in Vegas and actually spend some time with my wife. My base of operations this year is the Venetian. Love that room, and it's reasonably close to my two other fave rooms, Wynn & Caesar's.

Played a little live tournament/small stakes cash recently with a new group of guys. While the conversation was fun and all the guys were nice, the game played extremely aggressive, and I'm going to need to step it up a little bit if I want to be more successful there. There were some sick hands where I knew I was in a good spot, and just got lucksacked out of some pots. Can't wait to go back though. I think that cash game is crushable.

Somebody hurry up and check out the blog...

The visit count is at 666.

Steps baby, Steps.

I'm once again this year making a run for an WSOP ticket through the Pokerstars Steps program.

I'm using the tried and true method of blowing all my FPP's on Step 1's, and moving up with a bank of Step 2's, rather than trying to go the whole way with one ticket at a time. Keep in mind, the whole idea for me is NOT to play the main event, but take the $12k in prize money that's deposited after a win at Step 6 and play a small event and pocket the rest.

I've heard that the sharks sit around in Step 6's waiting for donkeys like me to register, then proceed to destroy me and hoard tickets. Anybody have any experience with that?

Well that tears it.

I'm taking a break from Omaha altogether. Things just don't seem to be going my way as of late. I'm experiencing a pretty heavy downswing and can't seem to focus on turning that around. My reads are off, my luck is nil, and I can't seem to stop being a sheriff.

I'm even reconsidering playing in event #5 this year. I don't know if I can hack it, and considering that I've only spent say, 30K hands playing PLO, I might not be ready to actually play for teh bigz moniez. I'm going to reevaluate and look at it later.

The thing is, I know what constitutes good play in PLO. I know the starting hands, I know what plays well in a multi-way contested pot, I know how to count clean outs, I know pot-odds and implied odds, and I just can't seem to beat these jokers any more. I was literally crushing the micros a month ago, and now, it doesn't seem like I could win to save my life. It's frustrating.

For kicks I decided to play .50/1 PLO last weekend. I doubled the max buy-in within a 100 hands or so. The table broke, so I moved to a new one and was doing well, doubled it and then lost it all. Felt stupid. Logged off and didn't play until yesterday when I went back to the micros. The play was awful. Suckouts and random 4 cards winning everywhere. As tight as I was, I just couldn't believe that I was beat and still lost a buyin on the session.

Hence the break.

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