Christmas in Arizona??

So we're watching the Cowboys/Bengals preseason game, and my wife asks to look up when the Dallas Cowboys are playing Arizona..Good news, they are playing Arizona....IN ARIZONA!! Which is 4 or 5 hr drive from Vegas...But here's the bad news...the GAME IS ON CHRISTMAS DAY!!! Now, for the kicker, my wife still wants us to make the drive to Arizona to watch the Cowboys. On the surface...it's doable...1) My wife's kids are with their dad on Christmas, 2) The game falls on a Saturday, which is my day off 3) It's an NFL with my wife's favorite team.

But do we really want to spend Christmas Day in Arizona! It never occurred to me before, but I never gave it serious thought for the simple fact that I don't feel like driving home after the game, and the fact that I have to work on Sunday...Plus, I don't think my 4-year old daughter needs to be in a football stadium surrounded by drunks spewing profanity left and right...Don't get me wrong, someday we would love to see a football game live...

So yes, on the surface checking out the Cowboy/Cardinal game is a great idea, but it would seem weird to spend Christmas Day sitting with a bunch of obnoxious football fans...

MY BASEBALL PICK TODAY:

Oakland (-114) (Cahill) over Texas (Lewis)

RESULT: Oakland 3, Texas 2

Texas had a 2-0 lead going to the 7th, but the Athletics scored 2 in the 7th and 1 in the 8th for the victory

Poker and Sports Betting

I'm sitting here on a unusual muggy Saturday night in Las Vegas, thinking about what to blog about....watching the Nationals/Dodgers game (game is tied 2-2 top of 7th). I'm a little under the weather..not sure why. I think I forgot to wash my hands throughly after my shift at work. I always make it a point to wash my hands when I get off work..When you handle chips, cards, and money all day...you get all kinds of germs sticking to your hands..not something you want everyday.

Not much poker playing lately. Last Saturday morning and played 1-2 No Limit at Planet Hollywood. I was at the perfect table. We had two drunks with a ton of chips, spewing their chips to everyone at the table....everyone except myself..lol. It was one of those sessions where if I was in a pot with these drunks they always had the nuts...and bluffing their money to everyone else..I couldn't catch a break...200 bucks later..I was done for the day.

The session was a bit of a wake up call for me. Although I know I'm a very good cash game player, I just don't have the proper bankroll to handle the swings you'll encounter in cash games. So I decided to eat a piece of humble pie and go back to playing limit poker exclusively mixed in tournaments. When I first started played I built my bankroll playing 3-6 through 10-20 Limit poker, and has tremendous success. Even when the "poker boom" was in full force, I was reluctant to move to no limit because I was having success in limit. Circumstances caused me to shift my attention to no limit cash games...The no limit genre was swallowing up all the limit games to the point where all the good limit game dried up. The Mirage 6-12 and the Bellagio 8-16 disappeared replaced by the no limit monster...It sucked, but had to accept the change or be left behind. I actually adjusted well to no limit, and won most of my sessions, but lately the losses have been bigger and psychological part of the game was waning on me...For the first time in the 11 years I've played poker...I lost confidence in my game. I began to ask myself questions...AM I still good? Will I ever beat the game again? Should I give it up?

I think stepping back and reanalyzing the games I'm playing and going back to limit will hopefully give me the confidence back.

In the meantime, I've been having success betting sports...beisbol has been very good to me. Someday, I'd like to bet sports and play poker for a living. It's baby steps I've been taking..It proper money management and looking for the value picks that has been the key to my success. You can't always bet Verlander, Carpenter, and Lincecum because the sports betting marketplace is giving you no value. I've learned to treat sports betting like day trading...you make calculated risk based on information you gathered...then watched how it comes out...it's a beautiful thing to a successful sports bettor...

To my friends who don't gamble...I'm not reckless with my money...my kids are taking care of and my bills are paid, but this is something I like to do and I'm good at it...

Till my next blog...follow your dreams....dont let anyone say you can't do something...

Orleans Friday Night No Limit Tournament

I started playing poker semi-seriously in 2001 when I moved to Vegas. I was still in the Air Force and at the time I was making more money playing than in the Air Force, so poker became more than recreation...I started treating it as a profession. So from 2001-2004, as I was still in the Air Force, I was also a semi professional poker player.

Before the poker boom which sprung up poker rooms all over Vegas, The Orleans Friday Night No Limit tournament and The Mirage Tuesday Night No Limit were the signature events in the city. It wasn't unusual to see the same people play every week. Some of them have gone to play bigger tournaments and even win WSOP bracelets (Scott Fischman, being a prime example)

As for me, I played those tournaments nearly every week, and did very well...I've won the Orleans Friday night 3 times and the Mirage twice, with my biggest score being over 5K at the Mirage. I've also had numerous cashes.

I gained a lot of respect from the local poker pros and even had some of them want to stake me, but at the time I turned all request down. At the time, I didn't believe in staking. I figured if I can't make it on my own, I shouldn't be playing poker. Plus, I didn't want to share the prize pool if I did make a cash. Basically, I was working for me and only me!!

Fast forward 6 years later, after getting into a relationship and having a daughter, my poker playing diminished. I would occasionally play tournaments but not at the volume I did earlier in my career. But now, I'm started to get back into it, cause I've come to realize...this is why you got out of the Air Force...

So I feel I'm slowly back and last night, I went to play the Orleans Friday Night Tournament and got back into the groove. My strength in tournament poker is I know how to accumulate chips, my aggression, and I know how to play position. I was able to steal and take a lot of pots by simply betting in position. My biggest weakness in tournament is my aggression sometimes gets me in to trouble, because I sometimes use my aggression at the wrong times -- called meltdowns! LAst night, I had one of those meltdown when I made a bad call for all my chips in a situation where I knew better.

Even with my bad call in the end, I felt it was the only mistake i made...I think if I start playing that tournament more often, I will get the results I had six years ago...I need too....

Vacation done!

After a great vacation, it's back to the grind. During my time in San Diego, I did alot of thinking and I need to take the bulls by the horns and take chances...not just in poker, but life in general. It's time to step up my game in all facets of my life..

This journal will be the roadmap to my journey....

Pursuit to $10,000 (6 Jun 2010)

Played 4 sessions of 1-2 NL and it was one of those weeks where I know I played well, but I was cold decked so badly that ended up being a losing week. In two keys hands I lost my entire buy in.

Hand 1: Aliante Station..

I only played at Aliante because my wife was playing the bounty tournament, and I was bored sitting in the sports book, so I bought in their 1-2 game. Unlike their sister properties that offer 1-2 NL (Santa Fe, Red Rock, and Green Valley) that I’ve played in which are normally pretty tough, the Aliante NL is actually pretty good game probably cause the game gets a lot of the bounty tournament players chasing their buy ins. The game I was in was typical passive preflop and post flop. The players won’t call big bets unless they have the nuts, but are willing to chase their draws all the way to the river. Because of the passiveness, you can easily manipulate the pot by betting small on your draws. If they have a hand, they’ll tell you right away, but at the same time, they fold if they hit nothing…even a small bet like 5 or 10 bucks.

So I raise in first position with Pocket 10 to 7 bucks. I have no problem making baby raises out of position…I get called in 4 sports. One with 200 who just rebought and another with over 300. I had 225...Big blind called as well. Flop comes 10 K 4 with two spades. I bet 15...called by two players…Big blind folds..river is 7 hearts, which also puts two hearts on the board….I bet 30...Thi s is the only mistake I think I made…I probably should have bet more, but I never afraid of people out drawing me. I’m willing to bet enough to call trying to maximize the pot….The first races all in…the second players calls….Of course I move all in….second guy calls….River is a 9 looks innocent enough. First guy turns over K7 for two pair..second guy had 86 spades and rivers a STRAIGH’T!!!! BUSTO!!!! Thinking it over later, I think I was destined to lose my entire stack cause I don’t think the 86 spades” player would fold to any bet . NICE HAND, and I head back to the sports book!

HAND 2: Planet Hollywood.


This is hand was just a “COOLER”!!. There’s a straddle…it’s folded to me in the small blind, I have 160 in front and complete with 10 9 offsuit. Big blind completes…We take the flop 3-handed…flop comes Q J 8 with two spades!! BINGO!! FLOPPED THE NUTS! I decided to bet the flop…I bet 10...In coordinated boards like that I bet the flop 85 percent of the time. The only way I check is if the players are extremely aggressive. In this case, neither player were aggressive…..The straddler is the only caller….River is a 6 hearts. I bet 20...Staddler raises to 60. With only 130 behind, I was sure he had two pair and was 100 percent sure he would call an all in…so I go all in…he instant calls…I show my straight…Straddler has Pocket 8’s for a flopped set!!..I play for the board not to pairs….6 on the river..board pairs…BUSTO AGAIN!! CHIPS!!!!!


In those two hands I lost 400 bucks, and although I had a great session at Rio (doubling my buy in) and Planet Hollywood (Pre Cooler hand)…I ended up a net loss..Overall I was happy with my play, but sometimes the deck goes extremely cold, but when you get knocked down, you have to dust yourself fall and go at it again. I’m looking to play cash games at least twice this week. Hopefully. I won’t be cold decked…I have to play my game and the money will come


PURSUIT TO $10,000: +$99

Renewing my Pursuit to $10,000

At the beginning of the year, I decided on an ambitious journey to make $10,000 playing poker in one year. Now, you may be saying that $10,000 isn’t much especially since I live in Las Vegas and the abundance of poker games are at my disposal 24 hrs/7days a week. But you have to take into account that I have a job and family I’m responsible for…These obligations take up a lot of my free time, so finding time to play poker is tough…
The first two months, I was trying to play poker..mainly online with the occasional trip to the casino and I was doing well, but I began to lag again. The last part of Feburary I didn’t play any poker….just couldn’t find the time either to play live or online.

Then in March, I started the P90x program (Home Fitness Program), which I became consumed with…Working out 6 times a week, I became obsessed with fitness, nutrition, losing weight, and all that good stuff associated with health that poker too a bad seat…Didn’t read a poker book, Didn’t read the poker forums, didn’t do anything poker.

Then a funny thing happened, my wife played a Ceasars Palace Ladies Event and finished 6th!!! She over a $1,000, and it made me think…I can play this game. I needed to get the passion of poker that my wife had.

There’s another reason why I’ve decided to renew this journey to $10,000! I’ve been boggled in my life..doing the same thing over and over, day after day..I needed something to pursue….something to accomplish…I needed a goal!! I don’t think its about winning $10,000, it’s about the journey. I want to see if I can do it! I want to see if I can see something through…I’ve done it with P90x, now it’s time to do with my passion….poker!


So in the coming weeks, you’ll be my passenger to my journey. I’ll tell you the highs and lows, the wins and the losts, and emotions of it all!!


So here we go….I started this journey playing cash games the past two weeks and I’m up $343! Hopefully…I’ll get to $10,000 sooner than later.

My Pursuit to $10,000 (Days 21-31 --Nothing but Sit and Gos and donking off at Aliante

Days 21-31 (Sit and Gos, then Donking off to the Locals)



Had a remarkable run in the Sit and Gos…cashing in 10 of the 14 I played, which included 5 consecutive cashes. I’m playing very well. On the other side of the ledger, I lost 130 dollars playing 2-4 Limit at Aliante Station. It’s so funny. I actually went to watch a basketball game, I peeked at the poker room and saw an open seat…and unfortunately I took. I played so fucking bad…I was playing too many hands and playing them badly. I guess when you get your aces cracked twice, you tend to play worst..Oh well..

Didn’t play any poker from last Wednesday till Sunday as I attended my mother’s retirement party. So this week, I’ll be trying to catch up. Hopefully, my good fortune will continue.

After One month, I’m up about $100 during this pursuit. I’m not discouraged or lost confidence…I’ve been playing very low stakes…I see this as a marathon, not a sprint. If I just cut off donking money off, I’ll get on track. I’m still extremely confident I’ll hit my $10,000 goal.



OVERALL STATS

Live Tournaments -- $-175
Live Cash Games -- $137
Online Cash Games --$-14.55
Online Sit and Gos -- $157.50
Online Tournaments -- $-13.20