Macau/ BCPC

Hey everyone

I'm back in beautiful Vancouver, gearing up for my 3rd BCPC. Hopefully I can improve upon my 13th place finish last year. That goes off tommorow and I'm pretty excited about it.

My last post was pre-WSOP, and nothing really noteworthy happened on the trip. I busted day 2 of the main event, and whiffed on the other 3 side events I played. I pretty well broke even at cash games and came back a small loser on the trip.

If nothing else, the trip sort of inspired me to play more live poker. I started to grind at the local casinos in Vancouver with very good results. This actually put me on the lookout for some bigger action. And what better place then the gambling capital of the world... Macau!

I rented an apartment thru 2+2 with 3 other high stakes Swedish poker players, and one American. The place was great and I made a bunch of new friends.

Some pics.

Our apartment building, in between Macau Tower and the MGM

Fountain Show at the Wynn

Our apartmentView from our balcony

View from my room

Had a really great meal there that I'll share as well. We went to Robuchon a Galera. It was my first time at a 3 michelin star restaurant, and we did a crazy 8 course set menu. Just a couple pics.

Half duck breast, half foie gras, with a figgy sauce

Sea trout in a ginger broth with smoked cream

Great meal!

No real plans after BCPC. I'd love to make a trip back east soon and see all my family and friends who I miss alot. Especially my mom! Love you mom! :)

Anyways, be good everyone. Until next time.

vegas 2011

wow has this year ever flown by!

heading back to vegas tomorrow morning to grind out a few of the events.

with all the crazy stuff going on with online poker no one really made the time to organize a house, so I'm just staying with my buddy rick at his place there. and we're driving out from vancouver! woo roadtrip!

should get in tuesday afternoon, just in time for the wednesday $1500 event.

if there is anything worth posting, it will be here.

stay tuned

snow day

well this is the end.

probably only 30 or so minutes left.

i'm typing pretty frantically as to get everything i need to down in time. truthfully, i don't know what happens next.
i have no idea what happened but i hope it fixes itself soon.
i cant even remember the last time i've been in this situation. probably a dark day years ago in toronto? i'm not sure.

i suppose all i can do now is embrace it, in all its madness.


the power is out.


my laptop's battery is the last ounce of juice i have left.

i was actually grinding online and timed out in a few small pots. i was even in a $100 tourny but pretty shortstacked.

i should go to a coffee shop or something to finish it out but I'm probably close to bust now anyways.
thankfully i already brewed some coffee, so it seems like as good a time as any to sit down and update.

so, where am i at?
broad question, with lots of different answers.

physically, i'm in vancouver. i've got a great place i love in the core of downtown.

healthwise, i'm probably at my peak. i've hit the gym 4x a week for the last 18mos or so. probably in the best shape of my life.

pokerwise, i'm stagnant. still grinding, mostly 2/4NL right now. cash games have been pretty consistent.
the last year in tournament was has been pretty disappointing, as I consistently fell just short of big scores.
i finished in the top 20 of at least 8 tourneys with over $100,000 for first place (5 of which were $200,000+).
and after all that I still only probably ended up $20k in tourneys.

but still, all considered;
mentally, i'm in a good place. i'm happy, still very much enjoying what i'm doing.
i'm concentrating now on improving my work ethic, as the games get tougher and I need to work harder.
at the same time i'm working on managing my state control to make that easier.


i guess not much has changed, but i don't think that is a bad thing at all

*beep* *beep*

my computer is fading now, only 10minutes left.
i can see the dark at the end of the tunnel.

i have no idea what to expect, or when my life will return to normalcy.
everything i do seems to revolve around electricity.

maybe this is like the poker equivalent of the snow days i looked so forward to as a kid?

only difference now is that i go to a separate school from all my friends lol :)
well, that and no snow.

anyway ill try to make the most of the day as best i can.



until next time

Post WSOP

So I'm back in Vancouver from the world series.

Actually that was a while ago but whatever. Mid-july I think?

Series ended up being successful despite being down on live tourneys for the trip. Made a bunch online and at live cash games. Even up for the trip on random craps and blackjack actually, thanks to a black-out drunk session I played after XS one night. Woke up with a bunch of extra money and had to be filled in by some friends as to just exactly how lucky I was getting

The main event was a let down, as it is for like 90%+ of people who play I assume. I made it to day 2 with a shortish stack and busted early.

Enjoyed the trip overall but it didn't quite meet my always high expectations :)


NOw that I'm back, I've kind of promised myself that I'd try to better enjoy the beautiful city I'm in. I always brag about the awesome stuff to do in Vancouver, but I never seem to be doing it! So I've been hitting some trails, beaches, did a bit of boating, and of course I try to hit up all the best restaurants.

Oh speaking of restaurants, I just remembered something funny that happened in Vegas.
I actually emailed it today to a podcast I listen to (Two Jacks in the Hole , comedy podcast not at all about poker. check it out!) for a segment they do called 'glitches in the matrix'. SO I shall cut and paste:

After a night of degeneracy, me and a buddy are leaving the casino and see some b-list celeb shooting dice.
The table has a pretty big crowd and it painfully obvious it's because of this one guy.

Me and my buddy really could care less. We keep on and get to talking about how ridiculous it is that people get so starstruck.
We pretty much agree that there are virtually no celebs that we'd actually care that much about seeing. Just normal people, right?
Sure it's cool but nothing to lose your mind over.

I go on to tell him that I actually might be taken aback if I saw Shaq or something. Mostly the fact that he's gigantic, but also because I love basketball and grew up watching him.

So anyways, we leave it at that and call it a night. The next day we head over to Mix restaurant @ Mandalay Bay with a bunch of other poker players and grab dinner.

About half way through dinner, a giant African American gentleman walks into the dining room and the place starts buzzing a bit.

If you couldn't have guessed it already, Shaq is walking right towards us with a fine dime piece on his arm. He walks up and looks over at our table of twelve (who are all staring at him) and says 'Wassup fellas!" as he walks by. He ends up getting seated right next to us.

Pretty weird right?


Anyhow, I also hit up Calgary this past week. They had the canadian open poker championship. I went 0/2 in the events, but my buddy Ricky(rask88) basically chopped the $1000 event for first place money and I had 10% of him! Easiest $4k I ever made. Met a bunch of cool people on the trip too, and the drive up there has amazing scenery.

Next up for live events, I'm looking towards the British Columbia poker classic. This will be my second year doing it and hopefully I can have better success. Oh and hopefully a murderer doesn't win again. :)

Ok this is getting too long I'm off to bed. I'll update tomorrow if I win the sunday million or something :)

starting on a good note

Got out to Vegas about a week ago. The house is great and we're all having a lot of fun.

First thing we did when we got here was flip for rooms. There are 9 of us but only 8 rooms(5 really nice and 3 decent ones). So two of us would have to share. And because I run awesome at flips, I get the pleasure of sharing my room. Thankfully its with one of my good buddies from Vancouver so it hasn't been a problem. Not like I spend much time in the room anyways.

Oh and on top of that we went out for a nice dinner that night and I lost the credit card roulette for that too. Lost two $500+ roulettes thus far actually.

Thankfully my luck has shifted a bit. In my second tournament of the series, the Venetian deep stack extravaganza $2000 event, I managed to final table. My first live final table of a major event. I didn't stick around long though as I busted in tenth place. The crazy thing about it is that my roommate ended up at the final table too! So random. He ended up finished 4th or 5th, and I had 5% of him so I made some more money. The cash itself was about $13,000, so I'm looking good so far.



I've played 2 WSOP events and haven't made day 2 of either sadly. I'll probably just play the $3000 triple chance and the main event and a bunch of cash in between. I've played so much poker this week, I'll probably take it easy this weekend and get going again on Wednesday.

gearing up for wsop

It's almost that time of year again, and I can't wait!
I'm flying into Vegas on the 15th, and hopefully be hitting the felt soon after.

We'll count last year as a warm-up. This year, I'm thinking bracelet!
I'll keep everyone posted on what I decide to play. As of now the only thing set in stone is the main event. I think I'm gonna take all of my action this year and just swap %'s with some great players to help ease the variance of a $10,000 buyin event.

To gear up I've been playing a bunch of tourneys and grinding cash on any site other than Stars. Their cash games have dried up so much with the changes, I think I would struggle to beat mid-stakes there for a good clip.

Thankfully the action is still pretty soft elsewhere, and I get to play anonymously which is a HUGE help. Maybe it's just mental but I think I've just been on stars for so long and have so much history with different regs it gets boring. I like the whole idea of fresh start for my image.

I'll probably play a lot of cash games in Vegas if they're good. Probably start at $5/10 and move up from there when games are good.

I've had mild tourney success since my last post, up a bit of money with only 1 final table since. Saving my run good for Vegas hopefully! I have some horses (players I'm investing in) playing events for me so hopefully they run good too.

Oh and I'm getting ready for the nightlife as well, as I went on a bit of a shopping spree and treated myself to some new clothes. I've been doing well so I splurged a bit, with my favorite piece being a John Varvatos goat suede officers jacket.


I think it might be the second most expensive thing I now own after my car lol :)

Well, that's it until Vegas. I'll make a post before I play anything so people can sweat me if they like. love ya!

any given sunday

Every sunday I wake up and say it.
Today is the day.

Sundays, in all their beauty, are filled with laziness, indulgence, and of course, the biggest poker tournaments on the internet.
Sundays are the only day I can go to sleep with hundreds of thousands of dollars more than I had when I woke.

I rolled out of bed yesterday with the same thoughts.
Today.
It was a beautiful Vancouver afternoon, so breathtakingly perfect that I just couldn't wait to lock myself up in a room for 12hours and click my mouse.

And twelve hours later, wouldn't you know it. It was no longer today, and I was still in a tournament. Probably the biggest tournament on the internet that day, the full tilt $1million guarantee ($500 buyin, 2100 entrants).

$200,000 for first place, and only 8 people in my way.

It seemed like forever before someone busted, but eventually 1 did. And then there were only 8.

I was the short stack at the table and everyone was just sitting, waiting and praying for me to bust out so they could move up a pay grade. And I did not disappoint.

A few hands later I'm in the big blind and it was folded to the smallblind who, given the stack sizes, was going to move all-in with any two cards. Given that, my K6 suited looked awfully good. He pushed, I called, he sucked out, I cursed.
All pretty standard.

$20,000 richer nonetheless, and of course, there is always next sunday!

(click to enlarge)

first $10k pot!

I've played a bunch of higher stakes this year with marginal success. Anyways, the guy who won the sunday million 2 weeks ago for $250,000 has been dumping about $10k a day at $25/50 so i decided to take a shot.

Results!

Poker Stars $5000.00 No Limit Hold'em - 7 players - View hand 625220
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

BTN: $5144.00
SB: $17248.00
BB: $5569.00
UTG: $10485.00
UTG+1: $5000.00
MP: $6541.00
Hero (CO): $5100.00

Pre Flop: ($75.00) Hero is CO with 6 6

UTG raises to $150, 2 folds, Hero calls $150, 3 folds

Flop: ($375.00) 6 K 8 (2 players)

UTG bets $200.00, Hero raises to $775, UTG raises to $2200, Hero raises to $4950, UTG calls $2750


Turn: ($10275.00) 2 (2 players)


River: ($10275.00) 7 (2 players)


Final Pot: $10275.00

UTG shows A 4
Hero shows 6 6
UTG wins $10272.00
(Rake: $3.00)

ooops.

oh yeah! blogging

Sorry for the neglect, I have no excuses.

Havn't posted anything since superbowl and quite a bit has gone down since. I actually entered a different superbowl squares pool and won the whole thing! It wasn't as big but the $5k was a nice treat. Pretty sure I blew it all during the olympics though lol.

They were absolutely insane. I've never seen anything like it - the streets were jammed packed the whole time and everyone seemed to be in a great mood. I got a chance to see deadmau5, wale, mstrkrft, and even got out to see one of the hockey games. Once in a lifetime experience but was pretty relieved when it was over. I was just exhausted.

What else? Well, I'm moving downtown next week. I'm about 30m outside of vancouver now, so it'll be nice to be right in the core. The best steakhouse in the city is right across the street so it could get expensive!

Oh and I've got my summer plans all sorted out. Me and 8 other mid-high stakes guys are renting out a legit mansion for the whole series. The place sleeps 41 people, has a theater, basketball court, putting green, poker room, etc.









Should be insane. Really looking forward to vegas again.


Oh yeah and I'm still winning money playing poker too which is nice. :)

superbowl squares time!

It's that time of the year again!

click to BIGGER

I didnt get great numbers but it should still be a fun sweat.

I have the 1,1 and the 5(saints),4 (colts). Ship it one time!


Oh and for the people who have no idea what this is:
http://www.runyourpool.com/super-bowl-squares.cfm

back from cali

Just wanted to check back in and share the promised photo from last post:





Fabio! If you watch top chef like me you'll recognize who that is. He was one of my favorite chefs from all seasons, and we got to enjoy a 7 course meal prepared by him at his new restaurant, Firenze. It was a great meal and great trip.

I've had a pretty good start to the year, with poker and everything else. Really stoked about the Olympics coming up, should be a crazy month!

2009 Review and looking forward

I'm not even sure where to start. It was a weird year, in which I didn't really accomplish all the things I set out to do, but had some other success in areas I never really set out to do.

New year and a new city. It's been a good year in Vancouver, and I'm really pumped about the Olympics. The city is really starting to jump. I'm gonna stay here for another year I suppose, spending the summer in Vegas.

Vegas was easily the best part of my year. Meeting a bunch cool people, and having good success at the WSOP. Can't wait to head back next summer.

I drove across Canada too, don't know if I ever wrote about that. Bought a car in Toronto and took the trip with a good buddy over 4days. Great trip, great times.

Unfortunately I didn't get to do much more travelling. I'm planning to get somewhere in march. Maybe Malta, not sure. Oh and I'm heading to California this weekend for something I'm really looking forward too. It's a surprise for a friend who reads this blog so I can't say, but hopefully I come back with some pics.

2009 wasn't really what I wanted to do in regards to cashgames. I played about 1/2 the amount of hands I did in 2008, and my hourly was worse. I did run about $25k below expectation, so that had a little to do with it. But if it wasn't for that tournament the year would've been pretty bad results wise. Oh well, I'm pumped to crush in 2010.

I've been hanging out with a couple good players here in vancouver, and we've been talking a lot of poker. It's been great because we do a lot of discussions at the gym, so I've been getting in better shape.

My goal for the year is to never tilt. I know it's a bit unrealistic, but so far so good. I've been studying Tommy Angelo's Buddhist inspired 8 step path to poker enlightenment, and its been good for me. Lots of great gems in there, and I'm playing with a lot more emotional control.

I have some pretty lofty goals for the year. I'm really gonna to need to play and improve a lot to acheive them, but I have faith.

Best of luck to everyone in the new year, unless you happen to find yourself in a pot with me :)

bcpfail

well, i doubt i could be running any worse.

if you caught the wsop final table this week, you'd have seen how bad all my horses ran and how sick hot joe cada ran. so yeah that bet from the last post didnt work out too well for me. gg $500

but at least bcpc is in town, and the easy money is floating around town. time to crush cash games and own tourny donks!
right?



i busted in day one of each event, so gg $5k+.

also yesterday i had dinner with 15 of my closest 2+2 friends and gained the priveldge of buying everyone dinner after a failed credit card roulette bid. gg 2.5k. :(

so im stuck like $10k this month if you count my ftops fails. ugh.
even though everyone is in town this weekend im just gonna go into lockdown.

im just not in a partying mood.

im going to make $10k, no matter what it takes. long nights? 24hr sessions? peeing in water bottles? i dont care. im making it happen.

WSOP Prop Bet

Well the final table of the WSOP main event goes off this weekend.

I'm really hoping Ivey wins because, well, he's the man. Check out the E:60 spot he did with ESPN:



I also made a prop bet with a buddy for the final table. We did a draft and I got first pick so obv my team is a lock. We have $500 on the winner, with Darvin Moon being a push.

Team Main:
Eric Buchman
Phil Ivey
Jeff Schulman
James Akenhead

Team Rick:
Steve Begleiter
Joe Cada
Kevin Schaffel
Antoine Saout


The only person I don't have that I want is Joe Cada. He's a beast, but I couldn't take him over Ivey.

I also heard Doyle and Negraneu have a 'must-win' prop bet, with Daniel taking Ivey, and Doyle taking Darvin Moon. If someone other than Ivey or Moon wins, the bet is off.
It's an even money bet... I'm not even sure who's side I like, but I think if I had to choose I'd go with Doyle's (moon). What do you think?

BCPC

Alright, I have my next tourny lined up, and it's right in my own backyard!



The British Columbia Poker Championships start on November 12th, and the 4day $2500 main event starts on the 19th. There is a $500 and $1k event before the main event and I'll probably play in both if they don't sell out.

It's all going to be at the river rock casino. Never been, but I've heard it's nice. The cash games are supposed to be really soft too, so I may take some shots. One of my buddys here told me the 10/25NL games are pretty juicy so I'll get in that if I run good at 5/10NL.

I'll keep you all on updated on what happens.

easy money

So just to update you all on the propbet I made -- it's over.

The guy quit earlier today, which was pretty surprising. I mean I didn't think he had much of a chance, but I thought he'd tough it out longer.

Easy $1k. Feels like I won $4k though because my $3k was in escrow. :)

The easy money is nice as I've struggling on my end. Nothing serious, just breaking even since I got back to Vancouver. I feel pretty good though, about to clear some bonuses and reach some milestones so I'll have a nice influx of cash.

Until next time!

pokerstars giving away a porsche!

All you have to do is deposit before october 17th, and youre entered into the freeroll. Pretty awesome giveaway, can't wait to give it a shot.

Click the banner for more details.

prop bets

Free live streaming by Ustream

This guy above me thinks he can accumulate 830,000VPPs in 70 days. I don't think its possible.

I put up my $3000 to his $1000, and he got $45,000 action in total.

Should be fun to watch him struggle through it. Today is day 1.

I mean, supernova elite is a great value and awesome to get, but so many people struggle to achieve it with a whole year given. How this guy thinks he can get it in 70days is beyond me.

The guy will be doing updates at:
http://www.i-eat-fish.com

I wish him just enough luck to keep his sanity, but still end up failing the bet :)

wcoop relfections

I know WCOOP ended a week or so ago, but I've been traveling and havn't had much time to play lately, let alone post. I'm in toronto with my g/f for another week, and then to vancouver for a few months.

Overall a pretty unsuccessful series for me. I didn't have any deep runs, though I cashed in a few. The structures are just so amazing. You need to dedicate a lot of time to the tourneys, but they are so much fun with all the play involved.

In the main event, I got really shortstacked early and basically hung on for about 7hours as one of the shorter stacks in the tourney. Just stealing blinds, keeping my head above water until I got a big hand. I eventually got A10 and doubled through A9 (allin pre), and then K10 doubled through tsoprano's K9 (allin pre). I went from 6bbs to about 25bbs, when I picked up a trashy little pair of aces under the gun. I raised and got 3bet and ended up getting it in against QQ. The board 4flushed and I busted about 8 or 9hours in. :(

I'm really looking forward to pokerstars spring series, the SCOOP. Should be just as amazing.


In other news, I bought my first car! It's a 2003 infiniti G35, and so far I like it a lot. I've never needed my own car really, but I figure I deserve it. Oh and the best part is I paid for it with FPPs. I've been withdrawing my Pokerstar's bonuses into a separate account, and used all that money to pay for my new car in cash! it was a great feeling, thanks stars! :)

wcoop ME

things are going pretty good.

having a pretty great summer cash wise, and now I just qualified for the $5200 WCOOP main event on stars.



pretty sweet. i might sell some action (like 1k or 2k) to guarantee myself some profit on the whole thing.

not too much else going on. heading back to toronto in a few weeks to see family and watch one of my best friends get married. should be great.

all for now, take care all