catching up

Been a while since I got around to this, really nothing noteworthy on the poker front has really come up. Karec and I both played in the San Diego main event, both busting after dinner break on day 1. From there it was onto the Venetian where they were having the Deepstack events. I built up a nice stack in the first one, then donked it all off somehow, I think I made a hero call with 33 and was shown KK for a large portion of chips. The next day I once again built a stack but ended up busting 12th for $2400 losing a flip that would have put me in 4th or so. That one was $55k to win. The Venetian hotel rooms were so nice, all suites, pretty decent priced room service off the kids menu too.

Online wise lately, haven't had too many great results, one night while still back in Vegas, I got 50th or so in the $1k FTOPs which paid 380k to win or so, my cash was good for $4k, it was pretty sick as I had a top 10 stack with 100 left and lost a flip to go out. Erick Lindgren went onto win it, like he needed the money. Same night I got 2nd in a Stars $109 for $7k I think, got 4th last night in the 22r, 13th the night before in the $320, that was $56k to win, bleh... besides that, not too much going on. I've started playing more nl cash and also some plo cash and so far the results have been great.

GG to Kelvin Sampson... hopefully Dakich can keep things together and at least make a run to the Sweet 16, winning the big ten tourney in Indy would be key as IU would have to be a lock 3 seed in that scenario imo. I think Sean Miller(Xavier) is my #1 choice for the next head coach right now, but sounds more like a two horse race between Brad Brownell(Wright St/formerly UNC-W) and Tony Bennett(Wash St/Dick Bennett's son of Wiscy fame)... of course that whole two horse race thing is sort of like the Kentucky Derby, the frontrunners at the beginning sometimes don't even end up in the race when it rolls around.

Free agency started today in the NFL and the Bengals traded a 3rd and 5th round pick for DT Shaun Rogers and are saying GG to Kevin Smith and Madieu Williams(signed with the Vikes for 5 yrs/33 mil). *edit: frickin the trade didnt go through league office, and now the Browns trade for Rogers, what a frickin joke*

And to round out the sports talk, the Reds are still in the hunt for the central, ha.

Back on the poker front, I'm going to be doing some coaching and my rates will beat most of all the personal coaches I know who are comparable talent. PM me on 2p2 or pocket5s for details or email me at mattsterling AT hotmail DOT com

Finally the hardware is here

I won the WSOP Circuit $1k today for $30k and a circuit ring. I managed to win JJ vs KK heads up to give me a 5-1 lead and then got KQ all in vs T7 of spades on a Q97 flop. The turn was a 8 giving him more outs but I somehow faded the river to give me the win. I also got AA all in vs QJ of spades on a T774 board with 3 spades, river came 7 to give me the boat, that was with 7 left, wasn't for all my chips though but will an important pot. Heads up, I played pretty passive preflop limping most buttons with hands like KQ, KJ and the sort. The key hand was raising A3o pf on the button and I got called. Flop comes 25T, the guy leads into me and I just call, turn is a 7 and he leads again for 40k, I have 160k left and shove and he snap folds QT face up. So I could have been done right there but got away with my one bluff of the week. Karec played one $550 sng and won that for a $5k seat tomorrow so we are both playing that, hopefully the running good in San Diego continues.

still luckboxing San Diego

chipleader of the $1k heading into tomorrow, I won 2 flips today while losing zero so still running pretty good, I also won a nice pot with a boat. Hopefully some hardware tomorrow so I can be like Karec.

luckboxing san diego part 2

The final table today started out pretty well, I busted the first 2 players with AQ holding against KJ and KK holding against 66 to give me around 280k with 7 left and the chip lead. I really wasn't involved much of all the rest of the way til we were down to 4, but Karec sucked out in a huge pot with 6 left. Blinds were 5k/10k I believe and the utg player shoved in his 120k, the player next over shoved in his 120k, and Karec called with QQ out of the bb. The utg player had ATo, but the next guy had KK and Karec was in bad shape. Flop came A high, turn was a King, but it was the King of spades putting 3 spades on the board and giving Karec the flush draw, the river was the Jack of spades giving Karec the pot in one of the more dramatic final table hands I've ever seen. It also gave him a big chip lead with over 400k. Shortly after that I was down to 10 big blinds and shoved Q2 in the sb, bb called with AJ but flop came 522 and I doubled up. Very next hand I raise 66, and the same player shoves, and I tank and call with 66, he had KK and I couldnt suck out. That left me with 3 big blinds and Q8 couldnt catch up to A9 and I was out in 4th for $6160. They decided to chop after I busted and Karec got the biggest piece of it getting $19k. They played it out for the circuit ring and Karec ended up winning. They went all in blind once they got headsup and Karec won with him holding 64off on the final hand, the hand known as the "k-rock", how fitting.

Played the late night tourneys tonight after we had a few drinks, cashed the $109 3am tilt turbo but lost a flip for the chiplead with 24 left. I got 6th in the Stars 1 am $109, losing AQ to 88 with 6 left and then AA to frickin 66 to the same guy, 6 on the river for me to go out 6th for $1500. First was $9k too... bla. And I'm currently still in the 2 am $75 on Tilt which is $6k to win, 3 are left... and I'm out 3rd for $2700, run KQ into AQ with 15 bigs. Could have been a big night, ah well. Have to get the luckbox ready for tomorrows circuit $1k.

luckboxing San Diego

It's so nice to run good, but I still need to run good tomorrow to make any real money. I'm 4/9 heading into tomorrow's final table of the Wsop-Circuit SD $550, Karec is 5/9. Only 158 players showed up though, so its only $25k to win, but they are giving rings out again for circuit prelims, so I could get me some hardware.

We started today with $8k in chips, and I quickly was down to $6k or so losing AK on a AK6 flop and KK on a J66 flop, where I called this aggro guy's checkraise and then a J turned and I just gave it up. I built that up to 13k after 3 bet shoving AQ on a Q74 board against the same aggro guy's checkraise on the flop. Lost a 26k flip a bit after that while average stack was probably around 12 or so. That left me with 2k or so, got that up to 5k then ran AT into KK at 300/600, to put me down to just 900chips.

That's where the hardcore luckboxing started, as I had just 1.5 big blinds. I got A5 all in vs Q2 and held, then I shoved 2500 at 300/600 with J7o, guy calls, another guy calls, then a guy shoves, first guy calls, other guy folds, so I'm getting over 4-1 on my money. They turn over A6 and JJ, so I'm dead, like 6% to win. Flop comes 976, so I have some sweat, turn is the beautiful 7 ball and I've quadrupled up to 10k or so. I build that up to 20k or so, don't really recall how. Then I pick up KK and run into AA but again I suck out huge and now have 40k or so, get QQ to hold vs AJ, have 60k or so. With about 25 left I win AQs vs 88 to put me up to 100k, I win K6 vs QT for 30k, and then with 10 left win TT vs AJ for about 80k to put me up to 147k going into tomorrow. Run like that tomorrow and I may just go ahead and win.