The Best In The Business

[engy]

As Simon says not overly dramatic at all. This is why you are the best in the business

[Doobs]

See you in the queue for the 4pm PLO8.  Can't believe the 5k hold em will be softer. 

[FUN4FRASER]

Don't fancy anything in the Rio


Pads have you ( or anybody else) got any tournament ideas for tomorrow please ?

Cheers

[pleno1]

Hey

I will play the $5k 6max tournament.

At Venetian there is day 1 of the $1100 deepstack, should be a good one.

[pleno1]

Ok so new week. 5 big tournaments. Take a full day off to prepare and get focused.

The first event is 6max I've wrote a lot of articles previously about 6 max tournaments. It usually brigs the arrogant side of a poker player out. more 3betting than is optimal, more raising than is optimal, generally just very arrogant, sub optimal playing from good players because it's 6 max and they think that gives them a chance to be excessively aggressive.

I wake up at 1pm, have another 2 hours sleep so I can get there for 4.30ish (30 mins late. I load up facebook at 3:30 I wake up to see my very good friend Matas CSimbolas posting a pokernews report of him bluffing his chips. Wait a minute. What is he talking about? It's 3:30 how could he be posting hands already. No, don't tell me this.

I check the WSOP website and it is indeed 12pm start. How can I even talk about arrogance or laziness in poker players if I didn't even check the starting time for the event. I took the whole day off previously including two events where I make $1000 from registering and I get the start time wro by four fucking hours?

What has happened has happened though. Nothing I can change but I'm far from happy with myself.

I get there and I have so much luck. I have 4 fish and one reg who is short. Probably top 5 tables in the room. One guy on my direct right has 100k and 0% fold to 3bet. He just called a 3bet and bet/3bet all in with a8o for 120bbs on j82 against AK.. Just the stuff that I know happens in these silly tournaments, but stupid me missed four hours of guys giving their chips away. Annoying.

I open quite a lot of pots and my image is aggressive. Reg opens, whale flats, I squeeze Akdd reg calls, whale calls. I squeeze to 2750 over 750/call

Flop aq8cch I cbet 3300 reg calls, whale folds. Turn aq88ccxc I check and reg bets 5600 and I have 18k total. Such a disgustingly tough spot but I decide to fold. Thoughts? Seems ok I guess?

All of the fish except the whale get eliminated (all to whale) and they get replaced by Paul Volpe, one American reg I don't want to name and an AsiAn American reg I don't know.

I limp bvb vs asiAn. 65cc he makes it 3x. I call.

Flop 973 I check he bets I decide to call. Turn 8, I check he checks. River 9738T I check he bets 4k into 6k I think this is a call. He has AJ.

The American pro that I think is very bad hit is very famous opens, whale flats sb I defend kjcc in bb. Flop kq2r check, check. Bet by reg. Whale folds I call.

Turn kq22 I have 10k total there's 5 in pot. He bets 3000. Pretty gross spot. I decided to call once more. Everybody ok with that?

River kq227 he jams 7k into 11.

I'm probably at the tiptop of my range. I fold 2x on flop, jam KQ pre I think. Problem is if he has any kind of ambitious bluff it will be AJ or JT so this is not a good hand to bluffcatch. I fold and he said he had 76, AA or AK.

My bust out hand. Whale opens cut off I jam button with 99 for 5k ish at 400bb. Sb cold calls and then the whale decides to flat the button. Flop 982r. Whale has A8hh and back doors a flush to stop me from trebling up.

I felt completely fine after the tournament. Maybe I deserved this run bad for my lack of organisation. I pride myself on making good decisions, that's what I like to do but I missed the easiest thing to see here which was annoying. Don't get me wrong I started the tournament with 25k and 300bb so it's completely fine but just would love to have been there at the start of the tournament.

Nevermind.

[pleno1]

Got a text from Byron Kavermon asking if I could play for his 6 a side team tonight. Was pretty much what I needed, just take mind off poker and running bad. I mention it a lot but its extremely easy to get a self of entitlement. If every time you bust from a tournament you had a huge equity (never mind range!) advantage against players you are sure you're better than and every time you log on to WSOP.com you see the guys who played against you and were playing awfully, tis really, really easy to just blame everything on variance and ask why is it me?

The fact is we will run bad, but its how we react to it. Thinking about it, if 100 people run bad and you are the very best out of all of them dealing with it, then its such a great thing that we run bad. If we are able to deal with variance better than everybody else and continue crushing in life and our approach to the game, then bring on variance.

That's all I've got to think about. Even if 100 people have an awful series and I'm one of those, that could be a really good thing. Everybody is going to run really bad at one point, so as long as I keep my absolute A game and continue approaching things great then again, bring on variance.

I'm feeling optimistic now. If I lost a 95-5% tomorrow then maybe I'll walk away and remind myself that its a good thing!

Time is running out.

Tomorrow will be a good day, one way or another.

[pleno1]

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

[bagel]

 Plato1 best in the business.

[bobAlike]

Plato1 - For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

[tikay]

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

God bless Marianne.

[Tal]

That's an incredibly interesting quote. What are your thoughts on it? It's a real thinker, that.

Is the light figurative (doing your best)? Spiritual (Jesus, the light of the world)? Physical (do we beam when showing our true selves)? Something else?

The book is an interpretation of a textbook from a generation before, where the question was posed as to whether our reality is merely a dream and that our existence is an extension of God, projected outside of the reference of space and time.

If there is an answer to life, the universe and everything, and if we are meant to know what it is, this may be said to be as important a school of thought as theoretical physics.

There is a thought in physics that reality itself is a hologram, which helps explain the effects of the event horizon in black holes.

Whatever it is, it hurts my head.

[pleno1]

Going on WSOP live stream commentary on 45 min.

[FUN4FRASER]

Going on WSOP live stream commentary on 45 min.

Try to speak loud and proud  ☺  👍

[pleno1]

$1500 Mixed Max

Fun tournament. I get to the table a couple of levels in late registration and the cut off opens to 450, button makes it 1150, BB then jams 5800 and the button snaps. He has k9o against the BB JTo. I tell him afterwards "nice call man" he responds "that was a very easy call" I start to contemplate that I'm in fact awful at this game I was once definitely at least competent at.

Literally next hand, old guy raises, I fold AJo in mp, pretty tight but probably good fold I thought. Young guy who I recognise peels cut off. Get to the turn of J583 and they are all in KJ for the old guy and 52 for the young american pro. Comically 5 on the river and once more I doubt my competency in this game.

I chip up pretty well. I played a few pots, almost all of them characteristically unorthodox. I limp button, win the pot. Next orbit I limp button with 95dd, reg completes SB, BB makes it 1000 at 200bb. I have almost exactly 10k and decide to take a flop.

532ddc he bets 1200, I call.

Turn 532A, he dwells and checks. I go all in for 8000 into 4000. It's a pretty shitty spot for him, he likely has 66-KK or AK/AQ/AJ/AT, he basically never has a set or two pair or a straight, my sizing looks like I can't but its really tough for him to just call off 2x pot. I have to have pretty much exactly 54dd or 67o (I don't think I would do it with that) so its pretty effective play. I win a few pots and just generally feel pretty dialled in. I make a few good decisions and get to 16k.

I limp bvb vs good reg at 300bb and he makes it 1000. I have T6cc and obviously take flop.

Flop Q85ccx I check, he bets 1200, I call.

Turn Q859ccxx I have double gutter and flush draw, but more importantly this board wayyyyyy favours me, I have all the 76, 98, TJ and he has none of that, I can get him to fold a lot on the turn and more on the river, as well as improving.

River is Q589J, There is 8.5k in the pot so I try to polarise my range and bet 8000 into 8.5k. I know this player will know I like to put pressure on and his range should have very few Tx.

AT - folds turn
KT - Debatably folds turn, may not raise pre
QT- Won't raise pre flop most limey
T2-T6, will fold turn but will check pre
T7 - Checks pre
T8 - Checks pre
T9 - Likely checks pre

So on the river I think he may bluff catch me semi wide knowing I could potentially turn a hand like 87, 98, 66, 77, Qx or whatever else into a bluff (I could be correctly or incorrectly be perceived to lead the turn with my entire range, a decent strategy.

He takes around 10 seconds and then goes all in. I have 7.5k behind.

Now lets think about this abit. I can definitely just have Tx here, very easily, I could be bluffing, but going all in for less than a min raise would be incredibly optimistic with less than Tx.

So on the river he always has Tx, we have to see what potential Tx he can have.

T2-T9 I think checks pre flop very, very regularly, especially against me. So he has to have JT/QT/KT/AT. I think AT is a very clear fold pre flop so he is defined down to JT/QT/KT. I really don't know if he raises JT pre flop, I certainly would check JT pre flop and definitely thinks its best, but maybe he just wants to show a form of aggression which is totally fine. I think out of the three of the Tx, KT is definitely the most likely to raise pre, I would perhaps give him 3/4 of the combos of KT pre, 2/3 of the QT combos and then 1/2 of the JT combos. I think he potentially raises half of those JT combos on the turn against me, he had raised in very, very similar spot previously with the top of his range where perhaps calling his entire range would have been the more obvious choice. So on the river, I think he gets to it with very, very few JT. We now have to speculate with KT and QT. QT is very reasonable post flop, but very debatable as we've mentioned previously pre flop, he will definitely have all the suited combos though, so lets give him 4 suited combos, 2 off suit combos. KT lets give him 4 suited combos and 4 off suit combos. On the river I think it's pretty ballsy to just jam QT as I can have KTcc, so this makes it even less likely for him to jam as a bluff as I have T6cc so he can't have QT with Ten of clubs and bluff blocking KTcc as I have it.

It's really fucking sick spot. I have to call 7.5k, theres 7.5+7.5+8.2+8.2+2+2+1.2+1.2+1+1+1 = 43k in the pot.

When I call and win I only ever chop because he won't ever bluff worse than Tx for less than a min raise on the river so when I call and win I gain 21.5k chips, when I call and lose I lose 7.5k.

I went through it all and really think he just doesn't jam QT enough of the time to justify calling. It's so sick as 15 minutes to dinner and going through the blinds I ended up going to break with 10bbs, pretty fucking tilting haha. Really happy with the hand though, I've bricked the last 7 or so tournaments so to fold here with all the price etc shows that at least my mindset is strong and I'm sticking with it trying to make good decisions.

After I was eliminated from the tournament I went on the WSOP live stream with David Tuckon and Jonathan Little. I really enjoyed it, I think I was perhaps a little bit too technical and advanced for the audience, but they said they definitely wanted me back for all of the higher stakes tournaments, but I would have to skip the seniors event haha.

There should be a link you can watch the stream sometime soon, on twitch or something. Going on the commentary really helped me with my confidence, I spoke out loud about poker, theory, adjustments etc and it made me at least pretend to myself that I know what I'm doing so I go into the $10k 6max, probably the second most important tournament of the summer with at least a false sense of optimism if not true optimism.

I hope for a good run, maybe this could be the one.

Ha

Ha.

[pleno1]

Today was such an incredibly tough day to take. I won't go into pots or anything specific, but I literally played completely flawless in apparently the toughest tournaments of the year, the $10k no limit 6 max.

I'm not going to be arrogant or anything like that, just realistic, I played fucking awesome, I could blog about 15 hands, but I inevitably lost KK v AK all in pre xxxxA and then the rest with AA v 77 aip.

I don't care if it's an admission of failure. Fuck it, I failed. I can't take it anymore, I know its a small sample size, but literally in every live tournament 5k-25k I've been absolutely fucked whilst playing as good as I possibly could at the time. At the moment I'm way better than 6 months ago and progressed so much in the last 12 months. It's too much to take for me and enough is enough.

Every time I bust a tournament at 7pm, I'm going home, spending hours studying, going over ICM spots, going over tournament hhs, being the absolute pro I can be. I wake up early, meditate, relax, massage, gym, all the fucking stuff I'm supposed to, but no fucking dice. It's so tough to take and I'm way past angry, I really just don't think I care anymore. I'm completely and utterly over it. There's a really good $3000 no limit tournament tomorrow but I'm just over it. I hate to moan, but its just how I feel, I've played as well as possible all trip, I'm maybe not as good as X, Y or Z, but personally I've played at my absolute full capacity, and I believe I'm good at this game. It's just so painful seeing the ace on the river, but inside me it felt inevitable.

The fact is I either am way, way overconfident or I'm delusional and have a way higher sense of entitlement than is necessary.

Either way, I'm either running way more normal than I think or I'm running unquestionably bad over Monaco/SCOOP/Vegas. I don't think I can take it anymore and tbh I just want to get out of here.

Over the last few years as you all know I've given poker absolutely everything, I sacrificed a lot and dedicated myself in areas where I perhaps shouldn't have. Now I don't feel motivated, don't feel determined, I just feel like its all unfair and the whole world is against me. I just feel so unhappy when I don't succeed in poker, I do everything I can to succeed that is pyscially possible, but when its out of your hands and your fail, its just so, so hurtful.

I'm going to go to sleep now and the intention is to go to the Airport and get on the first flight that seems attractive and see where I end up.

Apologies if this seems moany or something, just how I feel.