Catch-Up
Poker:
Cash has still been going great. So too, the Harrahs Weeklies. Been bubbling a little too much there 13th, 12th, 16th, but a fair amount of top six finishes too sprinkled in recently, so I can't complain. Sounds like the free roll may have as much as 29 or 30k up for grabs.
I've put together a package that includes many of the upcoming events (IP's WPT events, Harrahs in house event, and the beginning of the Million Dollar Heater) that I've sold most of. Feel on the precipice of some deep runs and am really confident with how I'm playing lately. Been really locked in with where I stand in hands. Minimizing losses on coolers and making some great calls, and thin value bets. Kai Landry once blogged about live poker, and that just innate sense when you put someone on a hand, some undefinable moment of cognition, that your subconscious processes but you could never identify specifically. That's been happening a lot. It's weird and eerie but fun.
Just wish I could find the time to play more often. It's hard with the new edition to the family, and the fact, he isn't sleeping through the nights yet. Oh well. A healthy baby is a great "problem" to have.
Halloween:
Rocked a Magnum P.I. costume for a party and despite taping a Detroit Tigers logo on my hat, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and growing an honest to goodness Tom Selleck thick stache very few people had any idea who I was. Course that happens when you are making a thirty year old reference at a party that was attending by at least 50% under 35s. Had to shave it though as a mustache on me looks a little creepy. A daddy day at my oldest's school wasn't the place to sport that look.
WSOP-TV:
The World Series of Poker coverage to me is a little underwhelming. Feels like they've been on Day 7 for three (four?) weeks. If all that happened on one day, what an amazing cycle of ups and downs, and maybe better packaged in two or three episodes. Found a few players that I want to root for.
David Benefield "Raptor" seems all class and oozes professionalism even though technically he's retired. Him putting up with the fellow Texan (Alexander?) is a great example. The bar owner telling him his outs every time and his non frustrated acknowledgement is like a master class on how to treat fish. Humor them. Smile nod, put up with their trivial commentary, and take their chips later.
Thought I was going to get to root for the Matador, but he busted on the bubble. The criticism leveled at Carlos Mortensen by Norman Chad felt a little rough. I can't say I like Carlos' plays that they spotlighted either and perhaps it was a matter of fatigue, as 40 year olds and overs don't have the best track record now that the field takes seven days to get to a final nine, but the guy's track record speaks for itself. Since the fields have swelled, besides Dan Harrington, what other Main Event champ has come so close to getting back to the promised land? Nobody. Yeah, he stumbled but he must have been great for 6 and a half days to make it that far.
JC Tran has a lot of the chips, the even keel, experience, and the guts to become the Main Event champion. He also seems like another genuinely nice guy and prototypical poker professional. Can't root against a dad scratching out a living on the felt, eight eliminations away from poker history. Just so much I like about his game in the hands they've spotlighted. The guys at the defunct Poker Road podcast used to make it sound like he was some aggro-luck box, and maybe he was four or five years ago, but now he's as smooth as Dr. J on the felt. (Wish I could think of a smooth Sacramento King to properly honor him in an analogy but I'm struggling to think of more than five King players).
Seems like a lot of folks I know on Facebook are friends with Riese the Beast. So, I guess I won't mind if he wins either. The editing of his hands except for a well timed bluff and a maybe one poorly timed bluff seemed straight forward. So, it's hard to appraise him from a poker perspective.
I wish Yveginy Timoshenko had made a deeper run. Seemed like every hand he played he made the right decision. Though Slim Wunstel and JC Tran differed in opinion on that when Timoshenko eliminated the Gulf Coaster. I'll get to that hand in a second even though it's from an old episode. Timoshenko's calm demeanor and placid thought processing is another guy that inspires me. He chucks away hands other (almost always correctly) some pros would agonize over. Like Merson last year I felt Timoshenko outclassed most of the players as the field got really thin.
As for the hand in question, Wunstel said Timoshenko was right to call with AJ (~ I think) which sucked out on Corrie's AQ. Tran said he had played with Wunstel before and Wunstel always had "it." Implying AJ would never be good there. Corrie should pay us at Gulf Coast Poker to put that clip on our front page and use it for advertising for him.
Obviously, I've never played with him in the WSOP Main Event or a 10k buy-in of any kind, but I've played a number of button v. blinds, or blind v. blind hand in tournaments and Corrie has a huge range there. I don't think Timoshenko is wrong too often calling with AJ in that spot, and I think Corrie was being honest that AJ is correct to call him there.
Though in general I hate AJ calling a shove. It's the borderline hand in a lot of spots but so often it's crushed and it crushes so few other hands. More people are shoving Ace anything or King Big over a raise in live poker so it's winning more than it used to but it's still just a hand I hate to do battle with. I'd almost rather suited connectors depending on my stack. Though, against good players AJ has to be in your raise call range when they get short. Doesn't always end up well, but more times than not you are ahead.
Alright dinner beckons...
Cash has still been going great. So too, the Harrahs Weeklies. Been bubbling a little too much there 13th, 12th, 16th, but a fair amount of top six finishes too sprinkled in recently, so I can't complain. Sounds like the free roll may have as much as 29 or 30k up for grabs.
I've put together a package that includes many of the upcoming events (IP's WPT events, Harrahs in house event, and the beginning of the Million Dollar Heater) that I've sold most of. Feel on the precipice of some deep runs and am really confident with how I'm playing lately. Been really locked in with where I stand in hands. Minimizing losses on coolers and making some great calls, and thin value bets. Kai Landry once blogged about live poker, and that just innate sense when you put someone on a hand, some undefinable moment of cognition, that your subconscious processes but you could never identify specifically. That's been happening a lot. It's weird and eerie but fun.
Just wish I could find the time to play more often. It's hard with the new edition to the family, and the fact, he isn't sleeping through the nights yet. Oh well. A healthy baby is a great "problem" to have.
Halloween:
Rocked a Magnum P.I. costume for a party and despite taping a Detroit Tigers logo on my hat, wearing a Hawaiian shirt and growing an honest to goodness Tom Selleck thick stache very few people had any idea who I was. Course that happens when you are making a thirty year old reference at a party that was attending by at least 50% under 35s. Had to shave it though as a mustache on me looks a little creepy. A daddy day at my oldest's school wasn't the place to sport that look.
WSOP-TV:
The World Series of Poker coverage to me is a little underwhelming. Feels like they've been on Day 7 for three (four?) weeks. If all that happened on one day, what an amazing cycle of ups and downs, and maybe better packaged in two or three episodes. Found a few players that I want to root for.
David Benefield "Raptor" seems all class and oozes professionalism even though technically he's retired. Him putting up with the fellow Texan (Alexander?) is a great example. The bar owner telling him his outs every time and his non frustrated acknowledgement is like a master class on how to treat fish. Humor them. Smile nod, put up with their trivial commentary, and take their chips later.
Thought I was going to get to root for the Matador, but he busted on the bubble. The criticism leveled at Carlos Mortensen by Norman Chad felt a little rough. I can't say I like Carlos' plays that they spotlighted either and perhaps it was a matter of fatigue, as 40 year olds and overs don't have the best track record now that the field takes seven days to get to a final nine, but the guy's track record speaks for itself. Since the fields have swelled, besides Dan Harrington, what other Main Event champ has come so close to getting back to the promised land? Nobody. Yeah, he stumbled but he must have been great for 6 and a half days to make it that far.
JC Tran has a lot of the chips, the even keel, experience, and the guts to become the Main Event champion. He also seems like another genuinely nice guy and prototypical poker professional. Can't root against a dad scratching out a living on the felt, eight eliminations away from poker history. Just so much I like about his game in the hands they've spotlighted. The guys at the defunct Poker Road podcast used to make it sound like he was some aggro-luck box, and maybe he was four or five years ago, but now he's as smooth as Dr. J on the felt. (Wish I could think of a smooth Sacramento King to properly honor him in an analogy but I'm struggling to think of more than five King players).
Seems like a lot of folks I know on Facebook are friends with Riese the Beast. So, I guess I won't mind if he wins either. The editing of his hands except for a well timed bluff and a maybe one poorly timed bluff seemed straight forward. So, it's hard to appraise him from a poker perspective.
I wish Yveginy Timoshenko had made a deeper run. Seemed like every hand he played he made the right decision. Though Slim Wunstel and JC Tran differed in opinion on that when Timoshenko eliminated the Gulf Coaster. I'll get to that hand in a second even though it's from an old episode. Timoshenko's calm demeanor and placid thought processing is another guy that inspires me. He chucks away hands other (almost always correctly) some pros would agonize over. Like Merson last year I felt Timoshenko outclassed most of the players as the field got really thin.
As for the hand in question, Wunstel said Timoshenko was right to call with AJ (~ I think) which sucked out on Corrie's AQ. Tran said he had played with Wunstel before and Wunstel always had "it." Implying AJ would never be good there. Corrie should pay us at Gulf Coast Poker to put that clip on our front page and use it for advertising for him.
Obviously, I've never played with him in the WSOP Main Event or a 10k buy-in of any kind, but I've played a number of button v. blinds, or blind v. blind hand in tournaments and Corrie has a huge range there. I don't think Timoshenko is wrong too often calling with AJ in that spot, and I think Corrie was being honest that AJ is correct to call him there.
Though in general I hate AJ calling a shove. It's the borderline hand in a lot of spots but so often it's crushed and it crushes so few other hands. More people are shoving Ace anything or King Big over a raise in live poker so it's winning more than it used to but it's still just a hand I hate to do battle with. I'd almost rather suited connectors depending on my stack. Though, against good players AJ has to be in your raise call range when they get short. Doesn't always end up well, but more times than not you are ahead.
Alright dinner beckons...
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