Hey everyone,

Apologies for not writing any blogs for the last few months, with the training site popping off now I'm going to be updating alot more regularly.

Trip Report

I last minute decided to go to Austria because my good friend Stevie444 said I could crash for free if I came out and I hadn't been skiing in a long time. So, I figured why not? I would like to consider myself the kind of renaissance man who loves travelling the world, seeing new cultures, learning new languages, and eating exotic food... and I am in a way... but I'm already glad to be back in the familiarity of my own home - Austin to me is a magical place of good vibes, music, and delicious grub so I dislike spending alot of time away. Overall, I had a good time and met some likeminded, cool people.

Got in on Saturday after not getting a wink of sleep on the plane. Met up with Dominik Nitsche (Bounatirou), Simon Charette (Pokerbrat), and Stevie for some dinner. Was so tired it was hard for me to organize verbs and nouns into coherent sentences. Skipped the pokerstars party because I was so tired, and since I don't drink anymore being around an open-bar is tempting fate - cause anyone who knew me when I used to drink knows I can tear up an open bar. Sunday I woke up after 14 hours of sleep, got some a ridiculous breakfast of an omelette, waffles, cereal, and fruit (I decided to go no holds bar for one week foodwise since I usually keep a strict diet) and started grinding sunday poker with PureProfitFour, hustla16, stevie, pokerbrat, Liv Boeree, Kevin Macphee and Bounatirou. Below is the only picture I got of the entire trip... I forgot to bring my camera charger.





Pretty sad and ridiculous this picture of Me, McLean Karr (PureProfitFour), and Stevie444 on our laptops is the only picture I got of one of the most impressive and beautiful places I've ever been. One of my 2011 goals is to begin taking more pictures of my adventures and even of the bland day to day bits. I realized that I have almost no record of 2009-2011 mainly because I wasn't dating anyone and because I was going out to less clubs. That being said, these have been two of the best years of my life and I would like to be able to reflect on them in the future. When I was with Maria, she always made everyone stop and take pictures and I loved being able to look back and relive moments in my life. I promise more pictures in the future. Anyway, grinding with that particular group of online vets was fun - less complaining, lots of laughter. That night we stayed up til 9 a.m. watching Stevie win the 200r after a long heads up match with Doc Sands!

The next day, monday, was day 1b of the 3750 euro main event. I woke up tired and grumpy as hell. I thought chugging a few red bulls with coffee would put me in a better mood but they only functioned to exacerbate my crankiness and amplify my fogginess. The whole day I felt off and didn't like how I played for the most part. It felt like nothing I did worked and that people could pick up on my weakness. And, perhaps they were, as my heart rate was so amped from the caffeine that I was probably giving off micro-tells. I ended the day with 17k, less than the 30k we started with. On Tuesday, I woke up feeling refreshed and sat down at a table with my friend Anton Wigg, he said something along the lines of "have fun, its the most important part." Which, whether or not you agree with, made me realize I haven't been having fun recently and have been taking myself and the game too seriously. So I just relaxed, and focused on making good decisions without caring about the consequences... with a combination of strong play and luck ran it up to 200k nearing the end of day 2. That whole day it felt like people were playing my game, I had a pretty good grasp on how everyone at the table played and developed strategies to exploit each player... I then ran KK in to AA with 60 big blinds effective and busted out, in a spot which was basically unavoidable. At this point in my poker career, I can handle nearly anything as long as I played well, so I retired that night disappointed but content with my play.

The next few days I spent relaxing and snowboarding. I thought because of my history skateboarding that I would pick up snowboarding relatively easily but that was unfortunately an overly optimistic expectation. I was able to balance on the board but I could rarely turn without busting my ass. Balance and flexibility are two of my weakest areas physically. In fact, Stevie's 80 year old grandma beat me at wii balancing games =(. I've been working on them by going to yoga and with my personal trainer but its a slow process.

So now I'm back home after a long flight and am preparing for a week of hardcore grinding and working out. My nutritional intake for last week has consisted of lots of buffet food so I just bought lots of eggs, lean meats, veggies, and beans. For all of double guarantees week I plan on eating around 2500 calories a day, running or lifting the hour before the day starts, and playing 12+ hour days. Stoked! And I mean it. Binge grinding is mentally taxing but rewarding and keeps my mind off of the negative crap in my life. There is something comforting in knowing all you have to do for the next week is play poker.

Training Vids

The decision about whether or not to make training videos again was a tough one for me. Obviously I worry that putting these videos out there will educate my competition and give explicit instructions on how to destroy me at the tables. And, I could see why people thinking me making videos would be stupid and self-defeating. Why would I do this? Apart from the obvious financial incentive I have for making these videos I'm the kind of person who likes to have other accomplishments and goals. I enjoy making good videos, getting better at explaining my thought process, and getting better at poker through educating others. I would also be lying if I said I didn't enjoy recognition and appreciation. I also believe that people who are motivated to succeed and watch videos are going to make it no matter what and that bad players will usually stay bad players. All of the information one needs to be an elite player is out there, it just takes ALOT of time and effort to get there. If I'm going to make these videos, I want them to be the best MTT videos on the market so I would appreciate any input I can get. I think right now my main issue in videos is going off on too many tangents because I'm trying to account for every exception and possibility rather than get to the meat of the issue. Hopefully you guys will bare with me as I'm still learning how to make the most cohesive and enlightening videos I possibly can.

You guys won't hear from me until the end of double guarantees week but I will write up a summary of that week and of my 2011 so far next blog. Thanks and gl!

Hey everyone,

After playing not up to par all last week I realized today that I needed a break so I took the morning off, slept in, worked out, got a massage, and even got a pedicure. Player hate all you want, but I don't see why its not manly to have women massaging my feet and cutting my cuticles and such. Anyway, I realized that because of fatigue and ego I had been playing with alot of emotion when I think its best to play with a detached zenlike state of mental clarity - an EVbot more like it. People would 3 bet me and I'd actually get mad - like they should ask permission to 3 bet me cause I'm apestyles or something. I'm not sure where that came from because its not how I generally roll, I'm glad I got out of it though - ego can be a very ugly thing. Today I played in my usual slow, methodical, style and am happy with the decisions I made regardless of results.

Anyway, I said in my last blog I would collect all of my bluffs on sunday successful or unsuccessful and I did just that. Of the bluffs that I remembered to put into pokerhand 3 or 5 worked - around my usual success rate. I remember getting caught one other time but I conveniently forgot to save it. I'm going to analyze 2 of the bluffs and link the other 3.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5697016

This first bluff was deep in the 200r

Pre-flop (Kc7h) was a fold or re-raise. K7o certainly doesn't flop well and I think that calling in this spot might have played a roll in my decision to go after the pot so hard. The best play pre-flop was to fold - sometimes I overestimate my post-flop abilities. I don't often like to fold my big blind getting odds in position from the small blind versus a weak range though.

On the flop (Ah Jh Tc) after he checks and calls a c-bet I put him on mostly Jx and Tx hands with gutshots and some weak aces - he almost never has 2 pair or better on such a draw heavy coordinated board. I think a c-bet is okay since sometimes people do check-give up these sorts of boards.

On the turn (6h) I believe the success rate of a 2nd barrel is relatively low. However, I expected that I could get him to fold most of his range by the river since, as I mentioned before, he has almost all 1 pair hands and weak ones at that. However, I think that safest/most standard play is to simply check back and give up/hope to draw out. I do like my turn bet sizing since it set up a pot sized bet jam for the river. $6600 or so might have been more credible but $7000 is fine.

On the river (8d) I continued with the plan and jammed... he looked me up with middle pair after deliberating for some time. I'm unsure if I like my bluff or not. I also don't know if him showing up with middle pair makes my bluff bad or good since I was correct about his range being weak but incorrect about whether he would fold it. I think my mistake in the hand is that people get verrrrrry sticky blind vs blind and tend to love to be heros - especially late on a sunday. Usually I bluff less blind versus blind but get very thin value for this very reason.

I don't hate my thought process behind the bluff and my hand reading was all right. Its hard to account for villain making a hero call but I might have been able to predict more hero calls blind vs blind in the 200r late on a sunday. Also, its hard for me to rep many strong aces since I didn't reraise preflop with effective stacks around 40 bbs and would have 3 bet AT- AK. However, I do have plenty of broadway combos and ace rags. I don't think that villain's call is often correct versus me since I am capable of value betting any ace or better in this spot and certainly don't pure bluff very often here. However, I always laugh when regs are like "omg that call is so bad versus my range I'm bluffing 1 in 10 there" and I just happen to have hit my 10 percenter by calling them and don't want to be that guy. So... hats off and nice call.


The 2nd bluff:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5698876

This bluff occurred deep in the wcoop 1k vs. a strong, loose-aggressive villain. We had played a few hands where I re-raised him light and got somewhat thin value on a river versus him. I had 3 bet him a few times and he had folded twice, called once and 4 bet another time. I believed him to be aggressive and capable of making moves but also a solid hand-reader.

Pre-flop -(JsJc) My opening raise is obviously okay. Villains range for flatting in the big blind versus my utg open 35 bbs I thought to be mainly broadway combos and small-middle pairs. Since I nearly minraised perhaps he was calling with Axs as well. I expected a typical range to look like AT-AQ, KJ+, 9Ts+, 22-99, and perhaps some suited connectors like 87s. There is also some possibility of him trapping with KK+.

Flop - (As 5c Qh) Terrible flop for me that has hit his range alot of the time. However, I feel like checking concedes the pot since I would never feel comfortable calling a bet on this sort of board. So, I opt for a smallish < 1/2 pot bet. My standard bet on dry A high boards is usually around this size with my entire range.

Turn (Tc)- The Tc brings a flush draw and gives me a gutshot... Most of the time I'd choose to give up but I figured it would look very strong for me to bet turn with the intention of jamming any rivers if he checks to me. I also assumed that if he were to call this turn, rather than raise, the top of his range is AJ and he almost never has better than 1 pair.

River (9d) - My turn bet left him with a little less than a pot sized bet on the river and I continued with the plan of jamming river even though I was unhappy with the 9 since I considered A9s to be a part of his range. I thought his most likely hand to be KQ since I had the J blockers versus AJ. I also thought he would fold all of his non two-paired Ax hands since my pre-flop hand range is relatively strong, has hit this board, there are tons of hand combinations that beat him, and he really can't expect me to turn a hand like JJ into a bluff or be pure bluffing here (I'd also shown down no bluffs post-flop at the table). I put him all in on the river and he folded. I wouldn't recommend this bluff versus a bad player - bad players don't like to fold top pair. I thought this villain a strong enough player to give credit for a big hand in a spot that I normally would have a big hand. My strong utg range combined with this board run out makes this bluff very credible.

In retrospect, I think villains hand range might have been a little too strong for this bluff to be great even though it worked.


My other bluffs:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5696083

Heh, don't usually bluff the maxxmeister but expected lots of floats in his range and turned more outs. I generally need at least some equity in a hand to continue barreling and rarely pure bluff.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5696770

Fired a board that was unlikely to have hit anyone three ways and hit a gin turn. Was planning on bet calling turn...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?5696086

Kind of a terrible hand although I imagine I do make better hands fold occasionally - since every hand is a better hand.

Its about midnight where I'm at and I'm unshaven, my eyes are red, and my brain feels fuzzy and dull. This is an unfortunate side effect of playing poker 12-14 hours a day every day for the WCOOP. Usually I would accept this feeling, turn on my newest television series (Dexter season 4 at the moment) and unwind but I keep repeating these horrible hands I've played over and over in my head. I've been on such a heater for the first couple of weeks that I allowed that to get to my head and have played with ego and lack of discipline this last week or so. So, tomorrow before I begin playing I'm going to work out and watch some instructional videos to get in the zone before a huge Sunday.

I'm certainly not complaining, I just expect myself to make fewer mistakes than I do after all of these years of study and play (funny thing is the more I learn the more I realize how bad I am). In fact, I've been absolutely killing it this month. I think that I've played okay overall but above all I've been luckboxing hard and running like a Kenyan. Its not that I've been getting it in bad a ton, but I've won the races when they mattered most and my timing has been impeccable. It is an amazing feeling to be able to make so much money playing this game and accomplish all that I have. You'd think I'd be satisfied with winning every competition I am in at the moment and being up 6 figures but I'm not. Well... I am, I'm immensely grateful and feel blessed and lucky that I've been given the opportunity to play a game that I love, am healthy, and free. But, I want moaaar... I want to be number 1 on pocketfives and I want to have a million profit on stars. I don't think its greed though, at least I hope not. I just keep making goals to keep myself interested and engaged. The fun is in getting there right?

Anyway, I've got to get my zzzzzz on so I can wake up refreshed tomorrow. I'm thinking about collecting all of my bluffs, both successful and unsuccessful, tomorrow and putting them in a blog with analysis. Thoughts?