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.

onto San Diego

Got into San Diego yesterday to play a few events at Harrahs Rincon which is about an hour North of SD. $150 cab ride from the airport, that was fun. The place is right near an indian reservation and there are trailers and bad housing just across the street, odd place for a casino, but I guess the tribe owns part of it or something. The room is actually real nice though, I got a step up from the standard room and we are in the Garden part which is just 3 floors overlooking the pool with a small step out balcony. 42 inch flatscreen, really modern decorating , not bad at all. The pool is real nice with hottubs all around it, too bad its 60 degrees. Better than Tunica though, which I'm still sick from.

Karec and I both played the $440 today, we signed up together last night and of course they put us the same table, LOL to random seating. The structure is interesting, they give you a lot of chips, but it goes 25-50, 50-100, 100-200/25, 200-400, so its real fast, just 40 minute levels for the $440, $550, and $770. The $1k does have hour levels, and the $5k on tuesday has a pretty decent structure. So anyway back to today, I busted in the first 40 minutes when I reraised Karec and 2 other players up to 700 with AA, the player who initially called Karec's raise makes it 2200 to go, so I just call. Flop 962, I check, he shoves all in, I snap call, he has QQ, Q river... good game me. I went back to the room got my camera and decided to take a walk around the outside of the casino since its all mountians around it. Took some pictures, and came back and fired up online tourneys. Karec was up soon after, he got AQ all in vs Q9 on a Q78 flop, turn 5, river 6, good game Karec. Pretty dumb, we run good.

Online stuff so far today has been a debacle, I cashed the $200 turbo on Tilt but no cards at the end and out 20th or so, I was top 5 entire way of the Tilt $120 bounty, with 60 left I was 3rd and I raise AQ up to 999 at 200/400. BB calls and he has 22k in front, I had 25k, avg was only 12k at the time. Flop J89, he bets 2400, I Call. Turn is a 3 and he just shoves 19k into the pot, I tank and call, he has AT and gets there on the river for a huge chip lead, such fun. 40 left in the $55 singlerebuy on Stars get a walk with KK in the bb when I Have 10 bigs, very next hand I shove QQ in the sb, bb has AT, gg me, then QQ is no good against TT all in preflop a bit later in the Stars $109, such fun. I did win the $100 3 am turbo the night before we left for SD, that was good for $6k, I ran good there, sucked out 3x late.

Oh yeah, didn't post about the Tunica $10k, I busted day 2 in a $55k flip vs Hoyt Corkins, I got sick after so never got a chance to post about it. I didn't play that many interesting hands anyhow.

First few days in Tunica

Tunica isn't quite as beautiful as the Bahamas, its actually not even as beautiful as Brownstown, but it isn't quite as depressing as last year. Last year I said I would never come back here and would surely not drive back down here, but Karec and I drove down here this year and it wasn't too bad at all. I think staying at the Gold Strike where we never have to go outside is a big help, last year we were at the Microtel and had to get out and see how ugly and cold it was everyday to go to the casinos.

The first tourney I played was a $1k on Tuesday. We started with 3k chips, 25/25, and hour levels... I lasted 80 minutes. I ran into cooler after cooler it seemed, I reraise with AK, first limper ships, I tank and fold, this was actually at the 25/50 level. Another hand I limped 52s behind 3 limpers, flop A43 all clubs, I lead get almost minraised and call. Turn is a brick, I check, he checks, river 4, i check, he bets small and i call and he has 44 for quads. I lost AQ to KJ basically all in pre to a shortstack. I had another dumb hand but can't remember it right now, I finally busted raising AK, bb calls, flop KQs, I bet he raises, which he had done vs me before when I had AA and I 3 bet all in and he folded, this time I did the same thing and he called with AA. good game.

Funny thing about the tournament, in the very first two minutes I heard a dealer shout "seat open", I laughed to myself thinking this is why I'm in Tunica, then I get a text and its from Karec saying he already doubled. ha. He hit the nuts on the river and 3x shoved the pot and got called. He built up a huge stack having $40k at dinner break for over triple average/chiplead but ran into no luck after dinner and went out 22nd and it just paid 18.

The next day was another $1k this time with 280 or so players. I had a surprisingly tough table for a Tunica tourney, 3 of us ended up cashing, and another was the bubble boy in 28th. I actually ran good in this tourney. I won a big pot early at the 100/200 level. I raised to 525 with AK and was called by a solid lp player and called out out of the bb by a laggy player. Flop A53 with 2 spades, bb checks, I lead 850, lp calls, bb shoves in his 6k stack. I tank and finally move my stack in fearing a snap call from lp with 55 or 33. I thought the bb most likely had spades. LP finally folded and the bb turned over A5, a K ball hit the river though and I was sitting with a big stack. My stack really didn't do anything for literally the next five hours, I just stayed between 12 and 18k. I lost one all in
A7 vs K9 vs a shortie and that was the only showdown I was really in. 27 paid and with out 45 or so left I raised QJcc in ep and was called by the bb. Flop T87 with two clubs and it was checked me, I bet, the bb checkraised all in and I snap called with my flush draw plus gutter plus overs. He turned over T9, turn brick, river Q and I doubled up to around 24k or so. Ah I forgot one thing that happened a bit earlier. I ate dinner with Karec, Soggy, and Stamm, we were talking about how Men Master was a huge cheater and all the ways he has cheated in the past. Soggy happened to be at his table. He is at the table behind me and I notice him stand up so I look over and he says "You play so bad" to Men, and then Men says "yeah, thats why I win tournaments baby", Soggy says "yeah cuz you cheat" the floorwoman who was close by says to him "leave and don't come back". Men didn't really say much to him, it was pretty great really. Soggy was saying he plays so bad cuz Men sucked out on him in a huge pot.

With about 33 left, I was sitting on about 24k, I raised KQs in lp and was called by the player next over. Flop Kxx, and I check, he bet and I moved in and he called with AA. oops. The turn brought me a flush draw and I hit it on the river. oops again. This brought me up to 36k which gave me a pretty big stack, prob in something like 6th or 7th at this point, but that didn't last long. I raised 88 a few hands later and was reraised by a guy who had reraised me just a few minutes earlier, I had raised to 1800 at the 400/800 level and he made it 4300. Then a guy in lp started to put in 1800 but then saw it was 4300 and started to pull it back, but once its in it stays in, so instead he calls the entire 4300. So then I decide to call the extra 2500. Flop 642, I check, the raiser bets 7k, misclick guy folds and I think and finally shove, he thinks for a few seconds adn calls with KK. oops. If that guy doesnt call, I just fold my hand, so sick. That dropped me down to $6k putting me in near last. I grinded that without a showdown to get into the money, then won a flip KJ vs 66 in the money, but nothing much after that. Shoved 10 bigs with QJs and got called by QQ right after we combined to 2 tables. 18th for $1960 or so.

Played a mega satellite the next day and won that, was a grind, but won my seat to the main event, so thats good. I play the main on Sunday. I don't believe pocketfives will have anyone here, cardplayer will be here I assume, but probably won't pay much attention to me until I get a huge stack at least. ha