May 26th, 11am

Had a great dinner last night at Little Budda which was made even better since Derrick treated!!  But the best part of the night was winning two mochas from him afterward as he tried to battle me in the music game.  These young kids....

Thought I would post some fun hands from yesterday's tournament for the poker enthusiasts that read this.  My numbers might be a little off with regards to chip amounts.  Here we go:

130/300/25 level.  I had 8000 chips.
A super active player raised to 800 from the hijack. I had been folding for two hours + and looked down at 33 on the button.  At first glance you'd think it's an easy call or raise, here were my thoughts:
CALLING: I am putting in 10% of my chips, the flop will come with 3 over cards and he is going to fire a continuation bet.  I am going to have to call another 4-6bb on the flop just to see what he does on the turn.
RAISING: I most likely have the best hand and I do need the chips, but if he does decide to gamble with me and he puts me all in with a four bet (he has plenty of chips to do so and had been doing this on more than one occasion) I will be forced to gamble for my tournament life praying it's a coin flip.
FOLDING: always sucks to fold the best hand, but the other two options don't seem that attractive and the chips I save will really help as I am moving close to the shoving all in area....
I folded.  While it might not have been the very best play I think my thought process was very good and I was very happy with the decision.

200/400/50 level.  I have 7500 chips.
Same guy opens to 900 from early position.  I look at TT and easily go all in.  The button calls (that's not good) and the original raiser goes all in for 30K (that's really not good) and the button calls  (as scooby doo would say - ROT RO!).  I am up against AA & QQ.  But the board runs 67989 and my straight takes the main pot.  Back in it!  Got lucky, but the important part is my decision was correct.
After that you are in the hands of the poker gods.

200/400/50 level.  22K chips.
utg opened to 900.  two callers.  I look at TT on the button.  In general, I don't like three betting a hand with value and then have to fold it to a four bet because you are basically turning a good hand into a bluff.  Here however, there are too many people in the pot.  I need to raise to get my hand heads up.  TT plays well heads up.  Horribly against 4-5 players unless you flop a set, and how often does that happen? I called, the blinds also called.  And I had to fold on the flop.
I hated my play of this hand.  Bet it doesn't happen again!


My coaching partner Todd coined the phrase "experience and adjust". It means exactly that: when you experience a situation you adjust any mistakes you made so you do it better in the future, because situations always reoccur.  We preach this to our golfers.  A lot of times we hear our golfers or parents talk about recruits and bringing in more good players but what the players have to recognize is that they are good players!  If they continue to experience and adjust they can be as good as anyone.  That's why I love poker so much because it gives me a chance to compete with the very best in the world as long as I continue to E&A.

Thursday I played a hand where I had 88 on the button against two other players and the flop came QhJh8s. A player bet out and after I matched his bet I would only have a pot sized bet left behind me (meaning if the pot was 10K after his bet basically I had 10K chips left).  I decided to move all in, he folded and I won the hand.  I sent a text of the hand to my poker peeps and Will, Derrick and Gregg all commented that my play was correct. Later Thursday night Will sent me a text mentioning that if I had more chips in front of me I could just call his bet on the flop and get another bet from him on the turn or river.  And if the turn or river cards completed a straight or flush I would just have to read to player to figure out what to do.  So what happens yesterday?

200/400/50 level. 21K chips.
Very next hand after TT, a player raises to 900 from early position.  I call in the cutoff with 99. The small blind calls. Flop KhQh9s!!! The raiser bets 2200.  I just call this time because I have much more chips in front! The small blind folds.  The turn is a 5h.  He bets 6K so there's that extra bet Will talked about!!  I put him all in as he only has another 6K in front.  He calls and shows 55!!! Will is going back to school next year in Copenhagen but he always has a lucrative career as a back up.  The dude is a damn brilliant poker player!!  Guess that's why he owns a WSOP bracelet.

And to think he's 0/2 lifetime against me heads up... and I have the True Romance DVD signed by him to prove it!  Thanks Will!!


200/400/50 level.  35K ish chips
The active player opens to 900.  I call in middle position with 77. The cutoff (who just made a great river call and accumulated a lot of chips) 3 bets to 3100.  We both call.  Flop QT7 rainbow. Pot about 10K.  First player checks.  I can easily check here, let the aggresor fire a continuation bet, then check raise him, but then my hand becomes obvious and I only win one bet.  I go for the glory and lead out a half pot bet.  If he has a Q,T, over pair or draw he will call minimum, and he has plenty of chips to bluff raise me here.  (Typically my bet looks like an informational bet and will fold to a big raise.)
He decides to give up and says "nice bet". Translation:  I 3 bet with absolutely garbage and was just hoping to win the pot pre-flop! 
Oh well, it was still a nice pot and I loved my play!

After that I got moved to a new table and absolutely nothing went right.  Had to fold AK three times after I put in a bet, made one questionable river call that cost me 6K after the guy hit a lucky turn card, and got cold decked twice against the super short stack who knows absolutely nothing about playing poker!! 

Today's another day.  I'm well rested and ready to start the Venetian $600 deep stack event in 45 minutes.  I don't know how it's going to turn out but I do know I'm going to play great!!

JWB