WSOP Update and The "Lost" May Blog...

Here’s the blog I meant to post right before the World Series. I got off to a running start (mentioned at the end), so it took me a little bit. Enjoy!

Right around December 31st, 2009 every poker player on the planet predicted a banner year for 2010 – myself included. I was careful to make the distinction of “online.” Well, a few weeks after I said that, I made the final table of the $109 Sunday rebuy several times on PokerStars. A few months later, I had the best SCOOP of my life.

In this year’s SCOOP, I made one final table and cashed seventeen (17) times. During the scoop, I also made the final table of the $109 Sunday rebuy two more times, and actually even won it once. I’ve made the final table of that tournament five times now, and I’ve finished 7th, 6th, 5th, 2nd, and 1st. I’m going to try to sneak a 3rd and a 4th in there just because I think it’d be fun to hit for the cycle.
The SCOOP final table I made was Event #2 (High) – $2,100 buy-in. I managed to outlast all but four of the tourney’s 1,077 entrants. It paid $107,000 Not a bad start to the series. A week later was the $109 win. That was for another $60,000. All in all, I cashed for $190,000 during this year’s SCOOP.

Again – I will share with you my secret. I can’t promise it will work for you, but for me, I have to play at least five tournaments at a time – sometimes as many as 8. When I’m playing online at home, I’m very easily bored. This causes me to make mistakes. When I’m playing several tables at once, there is always some action, so I rarely find myself making plays out of boredom. Much better this way.
And, no, they’re not all super-high buy-in tourneys either. Usually I’ll play one or two tournaments for a decent sized buy-in, but the rest can very easily be $10 and $22 tournaments. It doesn’t matter what they’re worth. It’s still poker, so my brain is constantly working, and luckily I have fans in the chat box to keep me involved when all else fails. Thanks guys!

Still, I’m only human, and as they say “To err is human.” So, I thought I’d share with you a mistake I feel I made in my 7th place finish in the $109 rebuy.
With 5 players left, blinds are at $40k – $20k, and I have around 22 big blinds (450k). I’m UTG +1, and I’m dealt pocket tens. Now, my instinct is to shove. But I don’t listen. Instead, I open for somewhere around 90k. I got one caller behind, from someone who had proven himself to play a LOT of hands. The flop came 5-5-7, which is a good flop for me in this spot. I continued, and he followed. The turn came a 3, where the money promptly went in. My opponent held pocket 3’s, and I was out of the tournament – because I didn’t listen to my instinct. If I had shoved UTG +1, it’s very unlikely this fella could have called with 3-3. Though, even if had had, the money would have gone in with me as the favorite, rather than as a dog.
For now, I’m talking some time off before the WSOP. In a little less than a week, it’s going to be six weeks of non-stop poker Remember before when I said that I had predicted a great year online, and I was correct? Well, I’m going to take it a step further, and predict that this year will be my best World Series ever.

I’m playing the best poker of my life, and I’m on a bit of a heater, so things are exactly where they’re supposed to be for me to finally take down my elusive bracelet. World Series of Poker, here I come.

Update – 06/25/10
Man, I wish I had posted this blog when I originally wrote it. Now it’s going to look like I fudged the facts and predicted my best World Series ever after I already got off and running! Well, we’re about halfway through the series and guess what? I am having my best World Series ever.
I’ve had four cashes so far, including a final table in the $2500 Pot Limit Omaha event. I finished in 6th place, which is, of course, disappointing, but I can’t really complain. I’ll post another blog soon where I’ll talk about some of the hands at that table, and some of the other events I’ve played. Until then, I’m going to keep on rolling!