Bodog Ari

May 24th Training Class

2011-05-24T09:46:00.001-07:00

Due to live play, I haven't ran this class in a little while. However, I will be running my 3 hour class this evening. We will be reviewing my win of the Cake turbo $50 on April 21st as well as my 2nd place finish in the Bodog turbo $75 on May 19th.

The charge for the class is $75 which can be paid via paypal (or cash if you are in Vegas). On Paypal send the money to TheBodogAri@gmail.com, and direct any questions about the class to the same email address.

May 29th Training Session

2011-05-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

I will be conducting a training session on May 29th from 1130am-400pm pst. I know a lot of you haven't been able to play many tournaments in recent time so this class will aim to get you back onto a level necessary to do well this summer. In particular, I will be focusing on the methods I use to do well in live tournaments. As my twitter/facebook followers know I'm coming off a live heater where i final tabled 3 tournaments (1 in Chester PA and 2 in New Orleans) in less than a week for about $40K. Additionally I won a $350 in Las Vegas last month for a $8200.

This training class will be done in a unique format that allows for both students who can attend in person and those that can only attend remotely. I'll be using the same software that allows students to remotely attend my weekly/biweekly classes for the remote students. For those that can make it to Las Vegas, the class will take place at the Ariengel.com training center in Summerlin (about 20 minutes from the strip). The cost of the class will be $500 and can be paid by cash, check, money order or paypal.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about this class and look forward to working with you and helping my students have a successful summer. Please email me at TheBodogAri@gmail.com if you have questions or comments.

Guest post about Liv Boeree

2011-05-08T05:48:00.001-07:00

WSOPC, 2 Day Training Workshop and New Website

2011-02-23T22:26:00.000-08:00

I'm flying out to Florida tomorrow to play in the WSOP circuit event there and visit my parents. Hopefully it turns into an enjoyable and profitable extended weekend.

On March 7 and 8th I'm running a 2 day workshop titled "Inside the mind of Ari Engel: Turbo Edition". I'll be discussing my philosophy when it comes to the end game, short stack poker, game selection and other ideas that I find important to being a winning tournament player. If you're interested you can email me at TheBodogAri@gmail.com for more info.

I have a new website under construction. I'm hoping to have ariengel.com fully up and running by the end of March. My training business is at a crossroads and this is a very exciting time for me. I'm going to keep working hard to ensure that my students continue to hit big scores and improve their games. I'm looking forward to bigger and better things going forward.

Doug Lee, New Weekly training and Ftops

2011-02-08T17:41:00.000-08:00

I decided last minute to skip the Borgata WPT event, seemed a little crazy to fly cross country for just one tournament, and I kinda hate visiting the east coast during the winter. I had to get in my live poker fix though and luckily for me there was a sick event being held Caesar's Palace in Vegas. It was a $240 buyin, where the winner won a seat to the NBC Heads Up invitational (this was the only seat in which the public could win their way in). I built up a stack early in the event, then proceeded to suckout on a really good online player to build a really nice stack. I proceeded to play a little too loose, but was generally holding my own... got to play with a former student of mine. All was looking pretty good, until with about 40 left, I was moved to a table that featured Eric Baldwin and Justin Young. I lost a race to Eric Baldwin, got coolered in another pot, and then was left with 4-5bb and eventually lost. Not a big deal... But, the highlight of the day was playing with Doug Lee. I hadn't played with him for a while, (the last time we played- itm of the Caesars 1k HU where I won my 2nd ring) he both called me the biggest nit in the world and called my 14bb shove with q4). For those that don't know about Doug Lee, one of 2+2's longest threads is about him... http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/doug-lee-biggest-toolbox-ever-229343/ He's basically a confirmed angle shooter, who has done tons of unethical and low things throughout his career. So it came as no surprise that he tried pulling an angle on our table that day. He posted the big blind and played out the hand and then the next hand the button was in front of him. The dealer started dealing and had almost completed when I protested saying that the button was in the wrong seat. I called Doug out for it, telling him no wonder everyone says you are an angle shooter and too his credit he didn't defend his actions. Luckily for me I woke up with a6 in the BB a few hands later when he shoved 9.8bb from the hijack with qt and knocked him out.

I launched a weekly review of some of the deep tournament runs I've made of late. This week was my first week running it and I was very happy with the turnout and the feedback from it. If you are interested in details, please email TheBodogAri@gmail.com.

This weeks marks the beginning of another Ftops series. I've played in 2 events so far with no success, but I'm looking forward to playing some more and hopefully hitting my first Ftops Jersey.

Beatiful weather, Diet coke prop bet and future plans

2011-01-31T15:36:00.000-08:00

Things have been going great recently for me. I made a trip to Florida to visit my parents, but unfortunately had to skip PCA due to health issues, but all is for the best.
Looking at the weather reports, I'm so grateful to no longer be living in a cold-weather climate. Vegas during anytime but the summer has such great weather. It's hard to believe January can have this much sunshine in the northern hemisphere.
Anyone that knows me even casually knows that I used to drink way too much soda. I've been drinking over 24 cans a day of Diet Coke for years. Somehow I've quit cold turkey and its been over 3 weeks since I had my last soda. For some extra motivation TheLandlord (my former landlord in Brooklyn) and I have a 2 month bet going where if I either of drink a can of soda we have to pay the other person $20. So far TLL has slipped twice.. I have a perfect record still and don't plan on changing that.
In my last blog post, I mentioned a goal of being ranked in the top 100 on Pocketfives. Since that time I've cut down on my playing schedule a bunch, so barring some really big scores it seems like its unlikely to happen any time soon, but with poker you never know when the next heater might come.
One of the reasons why I've been playing lower volume has been an increase in students in recent times, they're progress has even astounded me. I'm very proud with the results of the students I've worked with and that has got me motivated to try and provide more avenues in training with the hopes of seeing some even larger scores from my students.

Poker Update

2010-12-16T12:27:00.000-08:00

Things have been going great since my last blog update. I was lucky enough to have a former student get 3rd in the wsop main event for over $4 million. Congrats to Joseph Cheong aka 'Subiime' on his amazing run!
I've been splitting my time between online poker, live poker and tournament poker training. In the last week had former students finish 2nd in wsopc 1k, win a miniftops and win a 10 rebuy.. Almost every time i go deep in a tournament there will be some former students there too, it makes for some interesting dynamics:)
I'm in the middle of a trip to the east coast now. Poker-wise, I bubbled the wsopc $1650 main event after coming into day 2 with a lot of chips, but that's going to happen sometimes. I've had a great time visiting my friends and family in this area, but the winter weather is devastating; I don't miss it at all.
I'm considering playing 2 10k's in the next month, the wsopc regional in AC and the PCA in the bahamas (this would be my first year there). I also would love to get re-ranked on pocketfives list of the top 100 online tournament players. In 2006, I was ranked #1 on that list and I consider that one of my career highlights. Given how much the tournament scene has changed over the years, and my relative lack of volume (I usually play 3 tables at a time) getting back in the top 100 would be an awesome accomplishment for me. I'm currently 291st in the p5's rankings so I have a little way to go.

Thanks for reading my blog- good luck at the tables.

WSOP 2010, Browndog19, training session and Sketchy1 pwnage

2010-06-03T08:11:00.001-07:00

I went semi-deep in the limit 08 $1500, ending up in 54th for less than 3x the buyin. My limit 08 game was/is weak, so my poker mentor Andrew "Browndog19" Brown gave me lessons leading up to the event (and during breaks/end of night), and they proved to be extremely useful. Coming from the big bet games, my preflop game was way too loose among other leaks. Thanks for all the help Browndog and congrats on your recent 3rd place Sunday million finish.

Some of my students are starting to trickle into town and while we don't have a wsop final table yet this year, we have had a number of students make deep runs. Hopefully one of us can pull off a bracelet sooner than later. It's great seeing students playing there biggest buyins ever and doing well. If you are interested in joining the growing list of our successful students, The Maven and myself will be running a 2 day training session on June 10th. For more info: click

Big shout-out to my friend and former housemate Jon "Sketchy1" Eaton on getting back to back 2nd and 1st in the FTP and Stars $1,000 respectively (along with a 2nd in the Stars 100 re-buy in between). Awesome accomplishment by a great guy. He played Wednesday's wsop $1500 - so nice of him to give people a chance in the cheating site $1,000. (AP + UB)

2nd MiniFtops, Subiime Wins!!! and Media Coverage

2010-03-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

I've been a good run recently, almost managed to take down my biggest field tournament ever, but ultimately came 2nd in the $20 Mini-Ftops Turbo with 10,772 entrants. It feels great to finally get a good run going on Full Tilt, since I've had disproportionally more success on PokerStars than FTP so far in my career.

Thank G-d our training business is continuing to grow. On April 16, we're running our first 3 day weekend bootcamp, which should allow more students who work in the real world to partake.

Speaking of students (although he's such a superstar now, its hard to remember when he was merely a "student") huge congratulations to Joe "Subiime" Cheong for taking down a WSOPC ring in Rincon on Sunday. We now have 6 rings in the extended ATC family.

Recently Emunah Magazine published an article about me: Emunah.

Additionally, I participated in a poker documentary, Post Oak Bluff:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Letter to a Student: Perspective

2010-03-05T06:27:00.000-08:00

I responded to a question via pm today and figured this might help someone (This is crossposted from a post on TheMavenVT forums a little while ago):

It can definitely be tough sometimes. You just have to remember what you're getting yourself into when you sign up for a tournament. If you're playing a 1000 player tournament, and lets say, you stand to win it double as often as an average player... so you win it 1/500 times. 499 times you're losing and that's if you're absolutely killing that tournament by being double as good as average...
Losing tournaments is part of our winning formula, you should not play to avoid losing, rather play to maximize your profits, and the way to do that is to make the best decisions possible. Often times this will still result in you losing, however every now and then, things will come together and you will hit a nice score.
As a competitive person it can be hard, but you simply are fooling yourself if you expect to win each and every day. It's taken me a long time, and I still have a way to go. Imagine a baseball batter being upset batting 400 (which would be beyond world class) because he's getting out more often than he gets a hit. Anyone who knows baseball knows that would be crazy. The same thing applies to tournament poker.
I like to think of it in a long term way. For example: From an ev perspective, given how well he plays, how often, tilt factor etc. John Smith expects to make 365K in the next year. The way I look at it, John Smith makes 1K a day for the next year (assuming he plays each day). As long John shows up each day and makes decisions to the best of his abilities, he will get paid 1K for working that day, regardless of his actual results. Yes, some days he will lose 3K, and some days he will win 10K, but in my reality he simply makes 1K a day for showing up and performing at the level he should.

Ftops, Kosher restaurant and UB cheating scandal

2010-02-23T15:20:00.000-08:00

I final tabled the Ftops cashout event last week, ultimately finishing in 5th. I've been very busy recently working on the development of TheMavenVT, it should be a great product! This week The Maven and myself are hosting a group training session at Aris Training Center. We started yesterday and all 8 students seem eager to learn. I'm optimistic on their potential.

We have a new kosher restaurant in Las Vegas which is obviously very nice for me. Unfortunately it is Falafel/Schwarma place and we already have one of those (Sababa- the Nuts), but its good having some variety.

In other news, with the help of Joe Sebok, I finally got my UB hand histories that I've been seeking for at least a year. In 2005, I ran up a small amount on the UB skin Pokershare and eventually found myself playing at the highest limit holdem stakes against the likes of BrandomAdams, Hoss_TBF and Patrick Antonius. I lost almost all of it back very quickly, and didnt think much of it until the whole cheating scandal went public. Looking over my hand histories brought be some relief, although I'm still unsure whether I was cheated or not. Does anyone recognize or have info on "AlIYouCanEat" on UB, I seemed to have played a ton with him at the highest of stakes, but searching that name on google brings no results, seems curious.

Next week I'm off to Chicago for the 1K heads up tournament (with a Porsche being added to the prizepool for the winner) and then playing the Borgata $1500 the following week. 20 minutes till we start up for the day..

Training, Travel and Live Poker

2010-01-27T09:19:00.000-08:00

Had an amazing week last week training 6-10 students at a time depending on the day. We were lucky enough to have Kathy Liebert ($5M in lifetime cashes) join us for one of those days and baseball legend Orel Hershiser was there every day, what a great student! This group of students were particularly adept at learning and I think the poker world will see big things out of them in the future. (Sorry not going to give their sn's away:) This week I've working on making a video of my Sunday Million Chop from early 09 for TheMavenVT. Today I'll be doing a private training session with an amateur player who runs a successful business. I'm headed out to NYC on Thursday to visit my sister and brother in law and then will be going down to AC for the Borgata $3500 with Thelandlord. After that I'm going to Tunica for the WSOPC $5k and then heading back to Vegas for another group training session starting on Feb 22. Anyone interested can find more info on ArisTrainingCenter.com or TheMavenVT.com. If you want updates on my progress follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/realAriEngel

Wisdom teeth, HPT tournament and training session

2010-01-14T23:42:00.001-08:00

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth taken out on Monday. My dad flew in to help me out, as I'm historically a horrible patient. However, the surgery and few days after went as well as I could have imagined. I still haven't eaten any real food, but I'm not in any pain, and the pain that I did have after was mild compared to what I had imagined. I played a couple of superturbos throughout the week, but today was the first day I actually put in a MTT session (played 5-6 tournaments) and luckily I was able to go deep in the $75 6max on Full Tilt. I ended up chip chopping heads up with a tiny chiplead.

Next week the Maven and myself are hosting a group training session, where we will have 4-7 students coming each day to watch us play at Aris Training Center. While here they are free to ask any questions, and we will do our best to explain our thought process behind each move. Historically, our students have performed very well, and we have the highest of expectations for this incoming batch. I feel like I have progressed a ton in the last year as a poker teacher/coach and am looking forward to imparting my poker knowledge to new students throughout this year. Before that happens, this Saturday evening (after Shabbat is over) I will be playing in the Heartland Poker Tour event at the Red Rock. I believe a number of past students will be coming in for that, so it should be a fun mini-reunion, and hopefully one of us can take it down.

All the best and good luck at the tables to all of you.

2009 Recap

2010-01-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Daisyxoxo aka Jeremy Fitzpatrick on winning the 2009 Bluff Online Player of the Year (OPOY). A couple of years ago, Daisyxoxo decided to invest money in himself and together with a couple of friends hired the Maven to train him in tournament poker. Since that time he's grown into the Maven's top student and has made a huge name for himself in the online poker world.
Having the Bluff OPOY award stay within the ArisTrainingCenter.com family is a tremendous honor and further proof of the benefits of our training.
2009 was a great year for ArisTrainingCenter and TheMavenVT. After winning the 2008 Bluff OPOY, the Maven was featured on the front cover of Bluff Magazine's April edition along with a 4 page article on the Maven and our business. In November, The Maven was the lead commentator of the WSOP Main Event live coverage. Lastly in December, Aris Training Center was featured in a Cardplayer.com "Cribs" like video.
On the table the success our students had was phenomenal. One of our students won player of the FTOPS (Full Tilt Online Poker Series) by final tabling 3 ftops events in the course of 8 days. Another student had a deep run in a WCOOP (PokerStars premier series- World Championship of Online Poker) event for almost $100,000. In a 2 week period, another of our students won 5 PokerStars $100 Freezeouts. And the list goes on... It's been a great year for the Aris Training Center family and I'm looking forward to 2010 being bigger and better. With the upcoming launch of TheMavenVt, The Maven, Daisyxoxo and myself will be able to impart our poker knowledge to a wider audience.
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/realAriEngel

TheMavenVT, Main Event FT and Updates

2009-10-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last update. September was filled with Jewish holidays so I spent a bunch of time traveling to friends and family. Jetblue offered an all you can travel promotion from Sep 8 to Oct 8 for $600, I took full advantage booking more than 10 flights in that time. The downside to all this was my inability to play any Sunday tournaments as they conflicted with the Jewish Holidays. I believe this was my first time missing 4 straight Sundays since I started tournament poker.

I made it home in time for the Caesars Poker Classic, where they ran a 1K heads up tournament. The last time they ran a heads up tournament was in May, and I was able to take it down winning my 2nd WSOPC ring in the process. This tournament didn't go as well - although I did make a deep run - finally falling to eventual winner Chad Brown in the semifinals.

I'm incredibly excited to have been invited by TheMavenVT to participate in the online broadcast of the WSOP Main Event Final Table. TheMavenVT will be launching in early 09, and I'm very happy to be involved with the creation of this new training site. My first video for the site will be my final table earlier this year in the Stars Million, where I chopped 3 way for 116K.

I'm looking forward to action packed November, where I'll be working hard getting TheMavenVT ready for launch. The beginning of the month features the 14th Ftops, and then I'll be heading to Australia for my cousin Ezra's Barmitzvah at the end of the month.

Check out some videos TheMavenVT channel on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMavenVT

WSOP 2009 (one time)

2009-06-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

I've been looking forward to this world series for the last few weeks. I'm going to play more events this year than ever before, and I'm hoping for big things obviously. So far I busted the 1K, 1.5K Plo and 1.5K. A number of my students are playing WSOP events, I'm hoping we can get a few bracelets into the Ari's Training Center family this year to go along with the 5 WSOPC rings.

I loved seeing Tom McEvoy defeat Robert Varkoni in the made for TV freeroll. Should be epic TV watching... (No chance we'd want to watch a ft like the 5K PLO last year won by Phil Galfond instead).

The difference between a bracelet being bought and won as per the logic of the Harrahs Players advisory board:
I get a particular joy in knowing that no players can "buy a bracelet" this year. For example, last year a young Man Max Greenwood, purchased his bracelet in the 1K rebuy, by merely beating out 879 players. This year there are 147 players in the 2.5K 2-7 event a game that very few players have a chance at winning... makes sense to me. It definitely makes sense that there are no people from the younger generation involved in these decisions, the kids would definitely mess it up.

I've been very impressed with Pokernews' coverage of the series, I think that have improved big time. Of course when it comes to reporting from the WSOP there's a clear winner: TaoOfPoker .

Best of luck to everyone.

Scoop Pesach and Daixyxoxo

2009-04-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

I am a huge fan of the Scoop series. It's awesome having the variety of buyins to choose from, and even though I haven't had success yet, I'm very excited to play them. I've been sick over the last week and am just starting to feel better, hopefully a big Sunday is in the works.

Pesach/Passover is starting this week which means I'll have to skip a bunch of events I would have wanted to play. At least I'll get to spend a few days with the family away from all things poker. It's almost good from a poker perspective having these "forced" religious breaks, as I have a hard time limiting myself naturally.

Daisyxoxo (ranked first in the world according to bluffmagazine.com) is going to be offering training at my training center in early May. His progression from unknown to Mtt superstar has been amazing to watch from afar. I'm looking forward to having a chance to meet and learn from one of the best in the business. If you would like more info on training with Daisyxoxo, email: ArisTrainingCenter (at) gmail (dot) com.

Wsop Circuit Final Table

2009-02-28T19:34:00.000-08:00

While the rest of the poker world went out to LA, the Saturday start day there precluded me from playing, so I decided to head out to Omaha Nebraska for the WSOPC in Council Bluffs Iowa...just across the bridge from Omaha. It was my first time in that part of the world. Unfortunately, the tournament only got 66 players, on a positive note I recognized very few faces and as the avid poker fan that I am, I tend to recognize (by face if not by name) most if not all players that have got even a drop of coverage.

It was even nicer to stack the "kid" to my left wearing a WSOPC ring who let go of 80% of his starting stack when his likely over pair.

I managed to lay down aces for the first (ok maybe slight exaggeration:) time. Amateur player opens UTG, I flat Aces in mid-position, and four of us see a flop. It comes 10,7,4,(rainbow) UTG leads, I call, 3rd to act calls in position, the blind folds. Turn is a 9 (making 2 diamonds) UTG leads, and I'm convinced that between them both I'm no longer good. So, I consider my options and make what I considered to be a prudent fold. After a non-diamond King on the river, UTG leads out again (he bet the same amount on the flop, turn, and river) and the other guy makes a crying call...gets shown AK diamonds and mucks. So much for disciplined laydowns. I managed to “shake it off.”

With blinds at 1K-2K and fourteen or so people left (9 paid) a short stack (who'd folded down to his current levels) shipped 3.8K (less than 2BB's) and got called from the button, I called in the SB w/ A2 and so did the big blind. The flop came J105 with a flush draw, we checked around. I led for 4K after a turned 2; both players folded but the button first flashed his 44. When the short stack showed his top set of JJ, and the table saw I was drawing dead, shenanigans ensued:)

At the final table, 6 handed, I was dealt 16 BB UTG+1 and I open to 2.5x w/ 88; it gets to the SB who goes all in (the SB and BB were virtually tied as chip-leaders at this stage and both had approximately double the player in 3rd). The SB was an amateur player who was playing on the semi-active side, but definitely wasn't an aggro-tard. With the BB's stack behind (and possibly the help of some live reads...he got up and walked around, did way to much unnecessary movements for a guy bluffing). I laid down my hand (I flashed my hand to SB hoping for him to show me as he had done the day before in a similar spot). The SB was nice enough to show me his AA. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take advantage of it and busted out in 6th place. It was my first 5K buyin final table.

Big Congrats to "Irish" Mike Sinnott who took down the 2nd preliminary event in Iowa, a $500 buy-in for $25K. I also want to congratulate DeadMoney627 for taking down the Bodog 100K (something I've still never done, after playing it close to every Sunday since it started to run. Lifetime, I have 2 FT's where I ended 3rd and 4th.)

Tomorrow I'm beginning the Bluff Poker Challenge where 25 of the best online players players start with $200 (no reloads allowed). Whoever wins the most in MTT's and Sng's gets on the front cover of Bluff Magazine. I've spent a ton of time thinking about bankroll management throughout my poker career, so this competition provides me with a built in advantage.

My thoughts

2009-02-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

People keep arguing for the legalization of online poker in America. I'm of the understanding that it is already legal, I don't think people will like government regulated online poker nearly as much as they we're being led to believe. I imagine a bureaucratic nightmare, filled with endless forms for depositing withdrawing and unbelievably high rakes. Ideally we could go back to a pre-UIGEA world, and then pay Nat Arem a ton and have him build a state of the art regulations center. I'm a strong believer that we as an industry can build an effective policing unit. So much has been done in an unofficial capacity over the last few years. If people like Nat were given more resources, it's easy to assume we'd be able to make the online poker scene a much safer place without the need for government intervention (which seems to mess up everything else they enter.)

I still can't get over the number of regulars (people that are attempting to play poker for a living/decent % of it) that insult/berate bad plays and bad players. Leaks are fun - and extremely shortsighted.

I recently had my biggest online score, chopping the Sunday Mill 3 way for 116K. That combined with a great December and January having me feeling very confident. It really is amazing how much confidence can do for one's poker game. It's no wonder so many poker players have over inflated egos. Balance is so huge in this game.

Over the last year The Maven and I have spent a lot of time and energy building a state of the art training center. Literally every person that walks through the door is seeing something they've never seen before, it's fairly breathtaking (if you enjoy computers over views). I'm very happy to note the progress of our students has been amazing, and I'm proud in watching them grow into legit stars.

Speaking of spectacular achievements, congrats to The Maven for winning the 2008 Bluff Magazine Online Player of The Year. It was awesome having the pleasure of watching Maven play 10-28 tables throughout the year, maintain a highly profitable pace, train countless students and all make it look easy.

I tried to mimic Maven and move up from my standard 3-4 tables, so November was spent 6-11 tabling while I lost 5 figures. I've since tried 5 or 6 on occasion, but virtually all my success has occurred while 1-3 tabling. I still realize the theoretical value of mass multi tabling online tournaments, so I haven't given up on the dream. Still, for now I'll stick with my comfort zone and intend to play no more than 5 tables at one time.

Hope you enjoyed,

Ari

To find out more info about coming to my training center email: BodogAri (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T10:38:00.000-08:00

Another holiday, does time fly...

It's been a great year so far, highlighted by my Borgata score in May. I've final tabled the warmup and brawl over the last couple of months, and got 6th and 3rd respectively. Otherwise its been quite a day to day grind, but can't say I don't love it.

To break up the monotony of online grinding, I decided to go serious at the recent Venetian deepstacks they ran. I can't play any weekend tournaments, so I just stuck w/ the $300 they ran daily. I ended up playing 6 total, busted in 2 of them, but got 11th, 2nd (chopped 3 way for 15k), 7th and 15th. Definatly was fun going on a heater live, even though it wasn't for the biggest money.

At home, crazy stuff is going down. I've turned my house into a full fledged tournament training center. It's preety crazy the look we have, and every person that comes in is in shock. Both The Yid/ Maven and myself are doing training here, and the results of our students have been amazing. Needless to say, if you want to improve your tournament game, we have one of the best models for doing so.

Of to Florida for the holiday (parents moved from NZ, yay no 15 hour flights).

Good luck All.

I'm against titles

2008-08-19T11:17:00.000-07:00

Roundup of the summer, I went 0/7 at the WSOP, bubbling (w/in 5% of the field) 3 of them. The main event was a story of bad beats, as I got seated on day 3 (bubble day) to the right of a huged stack Owen Crowe, a top online player (Ocrowe), famously labeled as lacking a fold button. Additionally, I had Leo Wolpert (SuperflousMan) another top online player a couple to his left.
The other player of note at my table was a young asian player (yap)two to my right. Throughtout the day, it would fold to yap who'd open a ton. Ocrowe folded zero, i repeat zero(0) times during the first 3 levels of the day. This created an interesting dynamic, as eventually yap realized he wasnt gonna get away w/ much (playing ocrowe OOP isn't much fun) and started to shut down.

All this led me to a real bad spot. I couldn't open much w/ all these good aggro players to my left, and noone to my right (the other players were shortish playing tight, one or two were stalling etc) was opening light, leaving me with few opportunities to resteal. The best spot was most likely when I was Big blind, and Ocrowe raised UTG-that says a bunch. 666 paid, and as we got to less than 700 players Ocrowe and a short stack 3 to my right got into a verbal confrontation over the short stacks constant stalling. My bustout occured during this time, when it folded to yap on the button, i figured his range was literally any 2, as the SB was a tight shorter stack, and I was aggro but not too crazy, and it being the bubble and all etc. I didnt need to look at my cards as I decided this was way too good of a spot to pass up, but the q10 i saw was bonus equity for when I was wrong and got snapped off. Unfortunately, he beat me and my 28bb's into the pot, and I couldn't outrun KK. Definately hurts to bubble the ME, but I'm very confident my move was +EV...

I did manage one live cash in a Venetain 2500 (min cash- $3669) a tournament that my housemate, a former student who has become a MTT superstar, The Maven/The Yid took down for $206k. Obviously, huge congrats to him.

In online news, I made the money of the sunday million on Stars this week, but couldn't finish it off and I ended around 400th. With around 1000 people left in the tournament (shortly after making the money) I was seated at the same table as a well known very aggresive player (whose game I respect a ton) luckily though we were at opposite ends of the table. Unfortunately, that didnt stop a confrontation, as I opened AJ in utg+2 on his button and after he reppoped me, I figured I was good and for 22 blinds total I wasn't gonna get away. He showed me a big pair (either qq or kk) and I binked the Ace. The "poor guy" went off at me. Fair enough deep-ish (itm at least) of the million, I can understand it being fustrating etc. however when I looked back at the chat (ok who am i lying, i was following it all-not responding) 20 minutes later he was still going at it. This is a guy who plays 10k events semi regularly and has had a ton of success from tournament poker- the kids nowadays...:)

I played in the 2nd Borgata Deepstacks, but wasnt able to recreat the magic, and got in w/ a4 against 88 early in day 2. I'm a big fan of Borgata tournaments though, and I'll be back there next month for the WPT event. Not as sure about legends in LA next week, but it's possible.

As for the title, it speaks for itself, I'm not a fan of me having to come w/ a title whenever (even if they aren't very often) I make a blog.

Congrats to Andrew Brown

2008-06-11T10:31:00.001-07:00

My former college roomate/good friend/guy who introduced me to poker/first poker teacher took down the 2k omaha hi lo event at the Rio last night, beating Ted Forrest heads up to earn the more than 226k prize. At the beggining of the final table, he filled out a small bio page and labeled himself the best PLO player you've never heard of. You gotta love the confidence, (just please dont be playing 200-400 game now). I'm off to either play the 5knl or 3k Horse today, I gotta catch up with my mentor.

WSOP 2008

2008-06-04T14:33:00.000-07:00

I had surgery last week (hernia) so I've been recuperating at my place and hadn't had a chance to play in any wsop events yet. I was really psyched to play in the 1k rebuy this year, as in the past its gone on during the weekends and given my lack of saturday play, I've never been able to get in on what seems like a tourney I'd like. Unfortuantely, I woke up the morning of the tournament w/ too much pain to legitametly consider playing the event, oh well, maybe next time.

Today, I was finally feeling upto heading down to the Rio, so I decided to play the 2k buyin. I didn't last a level, getting in aj dd on a q108 ccd board against k5 cc, turn was a 5, so gg me. At least it ended early. I'm really excited to be playing live tournaments (I can't say I feel the same way about online tournies, but I'm sure I'll get back into it, nothing like a few scores to change that feeling.)

McCain vs Obama- please spare me, at best I'll vote for third party, although i'm not really sure it's worth the little effort required to do so.

I played in the sattelite room today, which Cardrunners sponsors. They put a card on each table entitling all players to a 24 hour free pass , I hope many people choose not to take them up on the offer. It's amazing how far the online poker world has come....

I can only dream about what it would be w/o government intervention, just thinking about it makes me really upset, but what can I/we do.

Chopped Borgata 2k

2008-05-12T00:42:00.001-07:00

I had my biggest score, just finished 3rd @ Borgata where they had a 2k deepstack tournament that got 700+ players. We chopped it 4 way so i got a couple of extra dollars above the official $120k payout.

I also finished 27th in the 5k buyin at Ceasers LV where Allen Cunnningham ended up winning. I had some very difficult table draws in that one and had to suck out a number of times to stay alive.

I'm gonna play the 5k WSOPC in New Orleans as my last live tournament before the world series starts. Hopefully it'll be a good summer.

2008-04-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

I spent the last 2 weeks in New Zealand probably for the last time as my parents are moving back to the US soonish. It was ok, but I'm definately happy to be headed home. Depending on jetlag issues, I'll play the 5k WSOPC event at Ceasers LV later this week. While in New Zealand I played a total of an hour of poker...

In more personal news, i kicked my 25-55 cig a day habit cold turkey the day before I left to NZ, so it's been about 2 weeks. I don't feel any different, but I'm happy I was able to do so, as it wasn't the short run I was worried about.

WSOP is less than a month away, can't believe its already been a year, one tiiiime plz.

Grinding

2008-02-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

I've been playing alot of poker in 08 so far. No big scores yet, but I'm fairly satisfied with the way I'm playing. As planned, I'm playing more live poker, even though I dislike playing 1 table, sitting around waiting for the cards to be shuffled and having to deal with the people that "live" in casinos. The comforts of home and multitabling is definately my ideal poker setting.

I have managed to final table a couple of smallish live events. The first one was a 1k "Turbo" in Australia. The turbo part didn't refer to the structure (which was actually quite non-turbo in that the blinds did not go up that quickly, there were no antes the entire tournament, and tables were 10-handed) rather each person had 20 seconds max to act on each decision. This is a great rule, and I hope to see it implemented in other tournaments. The amount of hollywooding that goes on live is ridiculous.

I came into the final table second in chips, but unfortunately I ended up 7th. My bustout hand was non-standard. It folded to the cutoff (sitting with 26-ish BB's) who minraised, and sitting on the button (and having him covered by a very small amount) I re-minraised with a10. (The cutoff had doubled up earlier in the final table after flopping a flush over flush after raising q6 of diamonds UTG+1.) Both blinds folded, and the cutoff flat-called the tiny amount that he needed to. The flop came 986 (2 spades of which i had none), and my opponent check called my half pot c-bet. The turn came a blank 7, and he led out for 25-40% of the pot. I didnt believe he'd be able to fold any 2 pair hand so I put in a raise to which he immediately put the rest of his chips in. I called only to be shown j10.

The other final table I made was a PLO rebuy at the Venetian. It was a $500 entry with $300 rebuys, and got a real small turnout. The first hand I got qj99 double suited and got a decent amount of action when i flopped top set and a flush draw. I never had to rebuy, but found myself on the ft/money bubble getting real short. I was lucky enough to pick up aaxx(X's prob were not complete garbage if I rem right) and got it in preflop and held. When we got down to 10 handed I decided to start playing maniacally and was able to get to the final table with a nice stack after sucking out on the bubble boy. (I repotted him preflop for the 2nd time in an orbit after he had laid down the first time. There were a couple of shorter stacks than him, so they were very thankful to me for getting them into the money:) PLO tourneys never have antes, so when we went back to a full table, I went back to nitting it up. Next thing I know we were 3 handed and I was the short stack. We worked out a deal leaving a little money on the table to play for along with the title. I picked up top set against a wrap straight and flush draw 3 handed and after an obvious board pairing on the turn I went into heads up about even. We played about 20-30 minutes and got all in a bunch of times. It seemed like the hand with less equity won each showdown. I got crippled finally when i my gutshot and flush draw didnt get there against naked aces.

Aussie Millions and the death of 07

2008-01-03T10:22:00.000-08:00

I recently celebrated my 3 year "anniversary" of quitting my job to become a full time poker player. It got me thinking for a little... but then a table popped up and I went back to making the decision at hand (raise obviously:)

I'm heading down to Melbourne, Australia next week for the Aussie Millions. Last year a top online player, Gobboboy-Jimmy Fricke- took 2nd in the main event, and after labeling the field extremely weak, its seems like he's convinced half the online world to make the trip this year. Hopefully that doesn't change the composition of the field too much.

One of the prelim events there I'm really looking forward to. A pot limit holdem, PLO and PLO8 (with alternating levels). I like those kind of tournaments a lot, because although I'm not great at any of those games, I feel quite proficient in them all and that provides big advantages.

After about 6 months now of living in Las Vegas, I can say I really am enjoying the life here. I live about 20 minutes from the strip and only go there for poker tournaments. My area is nice, quiet and suburban, and just a slight improvement in looks over my place in Brooklyn.

After starting my career playing all the time, and getting in the huge amounts of volume necessary to improve a lot, I have been slowing down in recent times. I doubt I'll ever get back to the amount I was playing my first 2 years (but nor should I, it definitely wasn't a "healthy" amount) but I'm hoping to increase the number of tournaments I play in 08 vs 07, although a large amount of that depends on my online/live ratio. I don't really make goals, if I thought it was so important I probably would have done it already (or given my best effort). That said, I'd love to have my best year, during the upcoming one.

Ron Paul

2007-12-18T01:33:00.001-08:00

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

Only one candidate for president supports our right to play online poker. Support him.

Pocketfives new "Poker Legislation" forum has a breakdown on all the presidential candidates positions on online poker. It's quite bleak:(

Blogs

2007-11-18T08:35:00.000-08:00

I am actually a pretty big fan of the blogosphere, and read a number of blogs on a semi-routine basis. My big pet peeve in this regard, is bloggers who rarely update their blogs, and here I am ...

I've played in 3 $5,000 buyins tournaments over the last couple of weeks, in Indiana (near border of Kentucky- Caesar's Indiana) in Connecticut (Foxwoods) and in Jersey (AC-Borgata). Well I'm plus in frequent flier miles, and minus in cash, weeeeeee fun game, what can you do, etc.

I've been playing a little less frequently online due to those tournaments, travel/visiting people and places, and general laziness. However, I am happy with the progress of my game and my short term results. Long term, I am celebrating the completion of my third year making a living playing cards. To say I'm extatic with where poker has taken me, and completely shocked and overwhelmed by my results and the life it has enabled me to live is probably an understatement. Thankgiving is coming up, I'll save that kind of talk.

It's now early sunday morning, and today is a bigger Sunday than normal, as Full Tilt has their FTOPS series main event, which is guaranteed to have at least a $2M prizepool. One tiiiiiiiiiime?
Some people complain about how the FTOPS runs multiple times per year, while PokerStars series, the WCOOP, only runs once a year, saying that Full Tilt dilutes the importance of its series by its actions. That may be true, but I love it. Large fields are where the money is made in tournament poker, and the more opportunities to play in large buyin large field events, the better.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to play in many FTOPS events between, 3 days in AC for the Borgata Deep Stacks (finished 29, 18/170 paid), no Friday/Sat tournies (I hate that their friday tournies run at night, while their Saturday ones run during the day, thereby making sure I can't play- I really wanted to play the 100R PLO...) I think I've only played in 2 of the events, the 300R, where I put in a bunch of rebuys, and headed into post rebuy with basically a minimum stack. I proceeded to bust in the first post rebuy level when I got ak in preflop against qq. I played in the 500 Horse on Thursday, and went deep, but a number of unfortunate situations later and I was gone in 19th.

The next live series I'm going to play is here in Las Vegas, Bellagio's 5 Diamond Classic. They have a bunch of 1-5k buyins leading up to a 15K main event. One more tiiiiiime.

2007-10-02T19:16:00.001-07:00

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 6022861

WPT's and Coaching

2007-09-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

WPT at the Bike in LA didn't go as planned. I got to the 2nd day with an average stack, and after basically holding my own for half the day. I went for the big play (don't remember the exact details, but i got it in w/ a flush draw against a set on a A6X flop and bricked out). Looking back, I certainly could have played better, but I don't really mind my bustout hand.

Anyways, that's tournament poker, I could be playing like the best player in the world and I'll still bust more often than not. All I can focus on are the things in my control, namely decision making.

I'll be going to play the WPT at the Borgata in a couple of weeks. My only live tourney win (non-chop) was in Atlantic City, and I have the most experience playing live in AC, so I am confident and hopefully things will go well there.

I have decided to go into coaching/training poker. I have trained a couple of players, and they have all become excellent tournament players and are happy with their results. With this in mind, and a history of teaching in my blood (Both my parents were teachers for varying lengths of their careers.) I feel like it is a natural progression for me. If you would like more info on this subject, my email is: BodogAri-At-Gmail-dot-com.

This week is the Jewish new year, I wish all of you a happy and healthy year, and may G-d make this year better than last.

August

2007-08-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Things have going really well for me recently (no evil eye please). Last week I managed to chop the Sunday 100R with JoeyTheB a very good player (and good person) from Jersey who plays alot in Atlantic City and online.

I'll be going next week to the WPT Bike tourney in LA, so basically the goal is to be on your TV sets in about 6 months, one tiiiiime.

In very recent developments, I've been getting killed in Full Tilt tournaments this month, having had no nl holdem wins this month and a very low itm%. I've never had the success I've had at other sites on FTP, but this has taken it to a new low, any advice is appreciated!

On Stars since the big chop things have been relatively "meh" too. I did however manage to cash in 4 straight tournaments for the first time over the last 2 days. As noted in earlier posts that doesnt do much for my profitability but is an interesting note. Edit: Let it be known these small swings while "depressing" do not get me to down, I realize it's gonna happen. (Ok in theory they don't get me down, I know I'm "supposed" to not be upset about them, of course that is not always the way I act...)

I did an interview the other day with "Cardplayer TV" (TV being a little deceptive in this case as I did the interview by phone.) Here is the link.

Speaking of live poker, Internet legend/celebrity TheWacoKidd is currently 2nd for the year on Cardplayer's player of the Year race. I really want to wish him good luck, and I hope he can get a couple more good scores in this year. Helpful hint of the day: If you're at his table avoid at all costs.

More importantly, I hope to write my next blog w/ a WPT win to my name. Then you can all say you read a blog of a WPT champion instead of an "internet donkey".

PokerTracker

2007-08-03T15:15:00.000-07:00

I finally found someone who was willing to sit with and instruct me on the basic setup process for PokerTracker. I've never used any kind of statistical tracking device before, (I dont count sites like thepokerdb in the same category as they only show overall results) but so far it seems amazing. I'm looking forward to building up a large sample of data on some of my regular opponents. Thank you very much to Dyzalot for the help.

On a related note, I'm completely baffled that this software is legal, and I believe anyone who doesnt use it loses some advantage. (I've got no idea what the percent is, but it is something.) Obviously, as long as its legal, I'll continue using it.

Interview

2007-07-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

Here is the link. An interesting side note is that the interviewer, "Ozone23" has absolutely been killing online poker recently with at least 2 final tables of the Bodog Sunday tourney (2nd in both if I recall correctly.)

I haven't been blogging much recently, but that's not to say Ive been playing much at the WSOP. Unfortunately the summer is basically over, and I only got to play 3 wsop events, (and the main which is coming up.) At least I've been getting in some good results online.

I have officially moved to Las Vegas, so I'll definitely be playing more live poker in the coming year. I am very confident that I will begin to show some very nice live results, but the nature of tournament poker is such that my confidence can easily go down the drain. I continue to only have one goal poker wise, and that is to play to the best of my ability.

In Kosher Las Vegas news, the Chinese restaurant here (Shalom Hunan) has been renamed Hunan and is no longer kosher. It was a lot of fun taking a cab out there, seeing the sign- with "Shalom" crossed out- only to take the cab right back home. All you entrepreneurs out there, we need more kosher places out here. That's what I miss most about New York (their plethora of kosher eateries), but having a pool in my backyard, playing online poker in the sun, and being 15 minutes away from tons of live action definitely make up for that. However, If anyone does decide to open up another kosher place out here, I can guarantee one customer:)

Sunday Morn ramblings

2007-06-10T08:46:00.001-07:00

So online players are still killing the WSOP, but it's got to the point, where there are too many of them/us doing well for me to write about. At this point its definately clear, if you can beat the 100R on Stars, you're preety much set to beat live poker tournaments.

On a personal note, I have yet to play any live poker since getting to Vegas, (and obv will not today-Sunday) but Monday I will play my first WSOP event of the year, a 2500 NL event. Monday also represents the start of the Bellagio Cup series of touraments, and I absolutely plan on playing more live in the coming weeks.

I have heard many a poker player claim that he/she is "playing the best poker of my life" and as clicheic as that sounds, I believe it right now about myself. Of course, this likely means that I will be making alot of unconventinal moves, and I hope to get thouroughly embarrased from my various bustout hands throughout the WSOP. (I just hope pokernews keeps on top of things, so that when I finally call off with k high, you guys can all laugh about me paying off the nut fullhouse.)

A couple of months ago, I stopped playing more than 4 tables at a time, and I have tried to keep it at 2-3 most nights. I am now a strong believer in limiting the # of tables one plays at once. Obviously there are people that make there living on volume, but for most of us, more tables leads to worse reads and more standard play, and that is simply a losing recipe for winning tournaments. That is not to say you can't make money that way, but to win a tournament, you must "play the player" and I dont see how you can do that w/ 22 other tables running. Maybe that's just me.

Another thing that I have improved upon, is my willingness to go allin when I have more than 20BB's. In the past, if I thought a guy was weak or I liked my hand, I'd move in from any spot w/ any amount of chips. I feel like I used to blow alot of chips, when I finally did run into a big hand. Now @ the time, I'd just chalk it up to, "they need a monster to call, so they woke up with one... it happens" and that clouded my ability to think about the return/risk part of the equation.

The following hand took my place in my third tournament ever (first cash) on pokerstars, a 100R in which I took 2/96 for 6400. The original raiser in this hand, hold_emNL is a young poker player who goes by "Durrr" and is widely considered to be among the best of the very best in the world. He is often seen multitabling the highest NL holdem cash games on the internet. Of course at that stage, I knew nothing about him, and very little about tournament poker, and just pushed; $680K in PokerStars winnings later, this is something I can't imagine myself doing.

PokerStars Game #2748119950: Tournament #13241851, $100+$9 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (300/600) - 2005/10/07 - 16:29:06 (ET)
Table '13241851 2' Seat #7 is the button
Seat 1: Hold_emNL (20060 in chips)
Seat 2: wedlowjones (11675 in chips)
Seat 3: BodogAri (15810 in chips)
Seat 4: Tipsy (7233 in chips)
Seat 5: nickelrulz (4190 in chips)
Seat 6: The Camel (25290 in chips)
Seat 7: smokingjoep (29635 in chips)
Seat 8: Ship_It_Boys (9900 in chips)
Seat 9: thopra (12285 in chips)
Hold_emNL: posts the ante 50
wedlowjones: posts the ante 50
BodogAri: posts the ante 50
Tipsy: posts the ante 50
nickelrulz: posts the ante 50
The Camel: posts the ante 50
smokingjoep: posts the ante 50
Ship_It_Boys: posts the ante 50
thopra: posts the ante 50
Ship_It_Boys: posts small blind 300
thopra: posts big blind 600
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to BodogAri [Ac Tc]
Hold_emNL: raises 1200 to 1800
wedlowjones: folds
BodogAri: raises 13960 to 15760 and is all-in
Tipsy: folds
nickelrulz: folds
The Camel: folds
smokingjoep: folds
Ship_It_Boys: folds
thopra: folds
Hold_emNL: calls 13960
*** FLOP *** [3c Qc 7c]
*** TURN *** [3c Qc 7c] [Kc]
*** RIVER *** [3c Qc 7c Kc] [5c]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hold_emNL: shows [Ks Kh] (a flush, King high)
BodogAri: shows [Ac Tc] (a flush, Ace high)
BodogAri collected 32870 from pot

Full Tilt Poker is running a 1K buying sattelite to the 50K WSOP Horse event. I
have managed to win 2 seats to the satellite, and am very excited to play in it
today. That combined with the 2 regular Horse Sunday tournies, makes this the
biggest day of Horse in my life. If somehow I manage to luckbox my way into that
50K seat though, I cannot imagine actually playing in that tournament, and from
FTP's guidelines it seems like I'd just be able to take the 50K cash, and not
play in the event. Obviously this does not bode well for the main event's
participation numbers...

Different legislation is being thrown around vis a vis the internet gaming bill.
I'm very disallusionized w/ politics right now, but I strongly hope they don't
mess it up more than they already have. As usual congress (and I'm talking about
even the one's on our sides) have decided "if its worth having, its worth
regulating." Now regulation in theory is a good thing, protect's the innocent etc.
but like everything else the government enters, they will no doubt operate an
inefficient burecaracy that does not little to nothing to protect gamblers, but
does alot to eat up tax money. (Just like almost every single govt project-its
just so sick that I have to pay close to 50% every year to fund these ridiclous
schemes- while the people making these laws are opening up bank accounts in the
Cayman Islands.)

The Coming of the Online player

2007-06-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

Firstly, a huge congrats to Jared "The Waco Kid" Hamby who has absolutely dominated live poker this year, and just got to his first TV final table and took 2nd. Thayer (last name is real hard to spell so I won't bother-and how many thayer's are there) took 4th in that same tournament-the Mandalay Bay WPT. PrtyPSux and Daut barely missed the TV final table finishing 8th and 9th respectively.

Going into tommorow's first WSOP Final table, and 2 online players are still kicking. PearlJammer (famous for 16 tabling MTT's profitably and being the 6th ranked internet MTT player) is one of the short stacks after getting sucked out on the FT bubble. MrSmokey1 (who many consider to be the best internet combo player - mtt, sng and cash) goes into the ft 4th in chips. In 2nd place chips wise, is 2006 PCA winner, Steve Paul Ambrose, trying to dispell the myth that he only plays good poker one week a year. (He has gone deep back to back in PCA finishing 20th this year.) Good luck to them all.

Going into day 2 of the 1500, Alex Jacob (who is questionably an internet player-having started online, but really making a name for himself live w/ multiple big ft's and a win in the USPC this year- he is also infamous in my mind for absolutely schooling me @ the Foxwoods WPT a year or so ago where he went on to finish 2nd to Victor Ramdin). Basebaldy is also one of the chip leaders w/ 150K+ and average @ 33k.

It shouldn't be a shock to anyone following the poker world - and it is waaaaay obvious to me - that online players are gonna do well @ this years WSOP. I just hope that I'm one of them.

However, if there's one thing that's not gonna change this summer, its playing online on Sundays- the holy day of online poker. Of course, I'll be playing all the majors today, and both the Stars and FTP Horse tournies.`

Interesting hand of the day: I was in the aformentioned Mandalay Bay WPT, and I came into Day 2 very short. So anyways, here I am sitting w/ 8500 on the button, the blinds are 400-800 w/ a 100 ante, and Jaime Gold opens from the Hijack (or-1 from there) for 2500, I look down at AJ, and I take it as a given that I am well ahead of his opening range. However, instead of auto pushing, which is the standard move, I make it 5000 to go. It gets back to the World Champ, and he laughs at my bet, and calls. The flop comes q94, and he check folds to my 2500 bet (I had 1k left behind).

The Marvels of modern technology

2007-05-14T17:49:00.000-07:00

During my drive over to AC today (I wasn't actually the driver) I was able to win a seat into tonights FTOPS 1K buyin. This is one of the biggest if not the biggest non-sunday online tournaments ever. Should be fun... yeh im in AC playing online poker in my hotel room.

Presidential elections

2007-05-14T09:29:00.000-07:00

Before you turn around, the 2008 elections are gonna be here. There is nothing we can do about it, every 4 years we hold elections. Now, the fact that elections are held does not mean that reasonable candidates will be put in place in time. As it turns, the front-runner Hillary Clinton is an opportunistic power driven person, who during her co-presidency (93-95) managed to infuriate half the country with her extreme-leftist initiatives. (In recent years, she has taken steps to moderate her positions.)

As a social moderate/small government proponent/keep taxes low etc. person, naturally a Republican candidate will be closer to my positions. On the other hand, I refuse to vote for anyone that supports/ed the Internet gambling legislation. This excludes many of the so called "conservatives" as they in general like to pander to the Christian coalition (and groups like that) and will not want to be seen as pro-gambling- i mean anti family.

Candidates such as Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani leave some room for hope, but their positions are not clearly staked out. They both have impressive resumes, Romney highlighted by turning around the Salt Lake City Olympic games and a successful stint as governor of Massachusetts. Giuliani instantly gained national attention for his leadership on and after 9/11, and his cool under pressure is a huge plus for a president. Furthermore, his years as NYC Mayor show him as a manager that gets things done, even when there may be political consequences.

I have wrote to the campaigns of Romney and Giuliani to try and obtain there position on the Internet legislation that was tucked into the Port Security Bill last year. When I receive answers, will post them.

I'm off to Atlantic City today for the "WSOP Warmup" series of tourneys going on @ Harrahs. I'll be playing a 1k and a 2k buyin, GL me.

I final tabled the small field (80 players) Stars 200 Horse yesterday for the second week in a row. Once again, I wasn't able to take it down, but I did improve on my 7th from last week, this time finishing 3rd. I had another repeat this Sunday, finishing one table away from a major final table for the second straight week. Last week's 11th place finish in the Full Tilt 400K, was followed up by a 14th in the Bodog 100K this week. Quite disappointing to say the least.

50 1 Rebuy/Addon

2007-05-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

I had a rollercoaster ride in it, and despite once again (Stars 300 where I got 2nd a couple weeks ago) playing poorly (or at least getting in my money behind a number of times) I managed to take it down.

You might be asking, what's with all the poor play Ari? Well, I routinely play poorly in about 20% of my tourney's. It's not something I'm particularly proud of, but having decreased that number significantly from when I started, I am happy with my progress. It's hard enough winning a tournament when you play well, but when I'm not playing my A game, I virtually never do well in a tournament. I certainly will not enter a tournament if I feel like I wont be able to have a strong showing. The fact that these 2 tournaments I did well in, I also played poorly, is the exception that proves the rule.

Happy Mother's day to all mom's especially mine.

I've been thinking...

2007-05-12T19:02:00.000-07:00

I bluffed off my chips in the stars nightly 150 tonight to one of the best players on the internet, westmenloaa. Why do I do those kind of things?

In the 25k, for the few hours that I sat with Chip Reese he opened virtually every pot, and almost never got resistance. Of course I was sitting 2 to his right, so there wasn't much I can do. ZeeJustin was sitting 2 his left, and wasnt really looking to get in pots with him it seemed. I was thinking, if I had been in his seat, I'd be reraising often, then again, I bluffed off my stack while ZeeJustin went deep in yet another tourney, coming back from a very short stack to start day 2. (When I played with him)

I'm off to AC this week, not sure yet what I'm gonna play, but there a couple of series going on, then soon its vegas time.

Tommorow is Sunday, hopefully good things happen.

In the course of this post I got bad beat out of 2 tournies. That's Poker!

edit: i bubbled the 11pm UB $100. 20 paid, with 21 left, UTG+1 limped for 600, a big stack raised to 2500 utg+2, and I pushed from the cutoff for 10500 with aq. The raiser had ak, and his kicker held. Going into the hand I was sitting 12/21. Definately a questionable play, but mainly because the big stack had not really been getting out of line. Still I'm sorta happy to go out on the bubble trying to accumulate chips. It'd be sick if he had rags, and folded them even with the odds, thinking that I must have a monster to push on the bubble as a mid-short stack.

So I've busted out of everything tonight, except the 50 1 rebuy/addon on Stars, where I'm sitting 2/32 on break 2. (144 entered) One tiiiiiiiiiiiiime.

2007-05-06T12:08:00.000-07:00

So with all my talk of bubbling and trying to bubble, you'd think I might take getting knocked out on the bubble well. The truth is a little farther, I hate getting so close, and not hitting. However, I realize that is what it takes...

which is all an intro to what happened last night. 5 paid in the UB 100Rebuy (the days of UB being a major site are almost for sure numbered) and I got sixth. The interesting part was that I actually had the best hand when the money went in. (I can't remember the last time I was called on the actual bubble (1 away) and showed the best hand.) The other tourney i bubbled was the 20R, and there I went out in a more normal way, when my 109 couldnt beat aq.

Speaking of UB, I've broke my DB curse. Ever since thepokerdb.com started tracking UB tournies, I'd never been able to cash for more than double my buyin. We are talking about over 6 months, with nothing to show. Of course, I wasn't playing much on the site- partially due to the bad run, and partly to a general dislike of UB- either way, it hurt, and breaking out of that slump is sweet. I cashed 3 tournies in a row, winning one of them for 4k, and having scores of about 1k in the other 2. I'm still down on UB since the DB started tracking it, but its a huge step in the right direction. Of course that 100R last night woulda been real helpful..

In live tournies, my Bellagio trip didnt go as planned and other than winning a satellite to the main event there (25k buyin) - which I proceeded to donk * out of early in day 2 - and a meaningless cash in the nightly 1k. Next stop is Las Vegas again for the WSOP and the surrounding tournies. Hopefully I can make a dent in the live poker world this trip.

* Folded to me on the button, I had just come to a new table, and I 3X'd BB w/ a8. The SB folded, and the BB reraised to about 10-12BB's. He had me covered, and when I reraised all in (for about 65BB's) he insta called me aa. An 8 on the flop just provided me wtih some fake hope.

White Jewish Male African American Vet

2007-03-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

My Brother has started a blog, he's one of the most interesting people around, and I'm sure you'll find what he has to say fascinating.
Link: SgtAvner

The Truth sometimes Hurts

2007-03-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

but needs to be said. The UN has abandoned their mission, and deserves severe reprimanding. The "Human Rights" council is just one example of that, but it is a pretty huge example.

They basically do one thing and that is denounce the actions of the only democracy in the middle east - Israel - yes, I'm referring to the only country in that region in which a muslim has been allowed to vote consistently over the years.

The following is a video that should be seen by all people that claim to care about human rights. It's time to change the way the UN works. Note the response, this is just so sick- I'm truly disgusted that some of my tax dollars go to people like him.

Happy Pesach All

2007-03-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here in the LAX aiport, on a 5 hour stopover on my way to New Zealand for Pesach (Passover). I'll be staying there for about 2 weeks, and then heading straight to Vegas for the Bellagio tournies. I'm def. going to be playing a bunch of their prelim events, but I don't think I (through my backer) will fork over the 25K for the main event. Doesn't seem like a very smart thing to do. Patience, Patience, Patience.

On a positive note, I've come 2nd and 1st the last 2 weeks in the FTP Sunday $200 Horse event. The fields have been getting smaller, but I am still extatic w/ my results, especially considering that my knowledge of the 3 stud variations is very very weak. Furthermore, my strengths lie in the fact that I am extremely aggresive, and not scared to put all my money on the line w/ or w/o the nuts. Limit Poker does not allow me to use those skills.

So why am I having all this success (+350% ROI in FTP Horse tournies through 37 tournaments, and +75% through 70 tournies on Stars)? Firstly it's only been a small sample so far, so it's possible that I'm just running very well.

I'm a believer that there are 2 kinds of players that enter into these Horse tournaments. Player one knows how to play tournaments very well, and just adds on 1 more to all the others that they are anyways playing. (It is Sunday after all) Player 2, on the other hand, knows some/all the games quite well, but they don't really play many tournaments (It's basically impossible to make a living off any variation of stud tournies.) So at the beggining, Player 2 seems to do well, as they get in their money with the best hand, and just overall play better than people who aren't as familiar with all the games. However, as the blinds get higher, and most of the players in player 1 category fall, player 2 does not adjust his play. This is where I come in, we are now getting deeper in the tournament, and although I don't have my favorite weapon (the allin button) I start to play more aggresively, and these players don't know what hit them. All of a sudden, the super tight guy is raising so many hands, by the time they figure out what's going on, they are very short, and there is not much they can do. (Besides in their mind, it is crazy to play anything but those hands that are profitable, while i look at it from my opponents point of view- ie: if they catch x, they'll have to fold.)

I've been away from poker from about 15 hours now, so if my ramblings are a little incoherent, please forgive me. I'm sure you understand how difficult this is for me:)

Poker is Fun for Everyone

2007-03-19T12:44:00.000-07:00

I pay close attention to the various online poker message boards, and I have developed my game to where it is, in large part from thinking about other people's posts. That is one of the reasons I'm happy to talk poker in public and "give away" some of my strategy.

One of the more frequent posts goes something like this: I am the best player ever, if only I had the bankroll, I could kill poker, but those donks in the $2.50 entry tourney, keep sucking out on me.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Poker is about finding weakness in your opponents game, and exploiting it. The lower the stakes, the easier it is to find your opponents weakness.

If it didn't kill my expectation, I'd be happy to play 500 $1 tournies, and I could almost guarantee I'd come away with more than 1k. (I have 100% ROI after about 2K tournies on Stars)

Another recent post I read (I would link to it, if I remembered where I read it) talked about focusing on the controllables, rather than the uncontrollables. I 100% agree with that advice. If there is nothing you can do about it, why worry? And if there is something to be done, change and move on. The past is there to learn from, but there's no reason to get stuck in it. The shorter your memory is in this regard, the easier it will be to withstand the constant pains of poker.

A Burning Desire to Play Poker- Staying Hungry

2007-03-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

In the past month, I had my biggest score ever, and then topped it again w/ the live win. I came home, and from past experience, I now that winning sessions can be a nightmare for your short term performance. (They also can provide you w/ the confidence to play better, but for a lot of people, (myself included) well, it makes them less hungry). So I decided to take off a day. The next morning I woke up, and still did not have the burning desire to play poker. Once again, I took the day off.

Now for a lot of casual observers, that might not mean much, but when you play 15+ hours a day, 6 days a week, taking off 2 days - for no real reason - takes a lot of discipline. I've learned that without that burning desire to sit down for a session, and play some solid poker, it is much much more difficult to have a winning session. You can almost forget about winning a tournament in that state of mind. Therefore, when I feel that way, I simply do not play. I believe over time this will save me a lot of money.

I came back from the break not really feeling too different, but a renewed sense of hunger. It had been a while since I won something, and I was now ready to play properly. Results wise, I had a satisfactory day, and my decisions were a little off, but I was able to stay focused, and play a solid game- something that was unlikely to happen w/o a hunger for poker.

Save Online Poker

2007-03-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

I have been calling my rep's at least a couple of times a month since the whole talk of banning online gambling started. Let's keep the pressure up, there's talk of a bill to repeal the "frist-law".

You can look up the contact info for your rep's here .

Unorganized Thoughts on Live Poker

2007-03-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

"Floor" should be one of your favorite words. Do not become intimidated by other players or the dealer, if you feel something has not been dealt with correctly, simply repeat the word "floor." Do not become upset, and certainly don't escalate your voice as that cannot lead to anything good for you. Simply repeat what you believe to be the full story in a calm and concise manner.

Many dealers simply do not have the experience or knowledge necessary to be a good dealer. Accept it, and go with the flow, or you will be tilty about 50% of the time. In a cash game, reward a good dealer through the tipping mechanism, unfortunately there is not much we can do in tournaments...

Patience is so big. Even if every casino was running at optimal speed (which they most definitely are not), with only one table, dealer shuffles, etc. you are seeing way less hands per hour. This must play a big part in your decision making.

In online poker, you have 30 seconds to make each decision (and maybe a 2 minute "timebank" to be used for extra time). In live poker, you can literally take forever to make your decision. Do not allow other players to rush you into a decision. Most of the time, the "clock" will not be called, until you have been thinking for a while, so use that time, and think clearly before you act.

Image is everything, manage it carefully, and then play accordingly.

The following is a true story from the recent $300 Wsopc that I won. With about 10 people to go till money, my table was broken, and I was moved to a new table. Shortly after I arrived, the 7 seat whispered something to the 6 seat and then to the 8 seat, and said aloud, pass it on. I received the message and it was, "It is not nice to knock out short stacks so close to the money, let's not knock out any on our table." Lol, I thought, but remained silent, as he went on with his talk about karma.

Basically, if you like abusing an online bubble, you're gonna love the live variation. People truly do not want to spend hours (and in some cases days) playing poker, and go home empty handed. Use this to your advantage.

There is no "tourney lobby" in live poker, so it is up to you to keep track of the statistics. I tend to view the lobby as a luxury online, and other than average stack, I don't really keep track of much else, but it is something to consider.

One of the most difficult adjustments to me is the lack of a marker in front of each person labeled with their stack size. Often, I will push allin thinking that an opponent has X, when in fact they have X/2-2X. I am working on guesstimating stack sizes, but there is nothing wrong with constantly asking for a chip count of your opponents.

Above all though, tournament strategy does not change between live and online poker, and that should be for the most part how you make your decisions. If anything, the fundementals of the average player at your table is going to be weaker compared to the same stake table online, so even if it is your first live tournament, you should feel confident going in. Of course - in my mind - it doesn't make too much sense going directly from $200 online tourneys to 10k live ones, but making the jump to 500-1K live should be fine.

Many poker "pundits" make the claim, that the slower blind structures in the bigger buy ins live allow for the skill to win out. I do agree with that claim, but not with what it implies: namely, that the faster blind structures do not allow skill to win out. They most definitely do, its just a different kind of skill, and I believe one that many online players are familiar with from stars tournaments. It's kinda comical that many of the people playing a 300 or 500 buy in tourney live won't have any idea how to play shallow stacked and may even laugh at you if you attempt to play properly.

Live Poker May Not Be Rigged Anymore

2007-03-11T07:52:00.000-07:00

The title says it all, as I'm pleased to inform all that I have officially taken down my first live tourney, a world series of poker circuit event in Atlantic City for $63K. I have also finished 49th in a 1K buyin in LA (36 paid), 49th in a 10K buyin in LA (54 paid, i got 22k) and 20th in a $500 buyin in Atlantic City (45 paid, I got $1270).

In the 10K buyin, I was chipleader for parts of the tournament, and received some publicity from that. Pokernews interviewed me in the middle of day 2, when I was up there in chips. Here is the link. Also, I was on Cardplayer's radio show "the circuit" which you can listen to here.

Nolan Dalla did a write up on my WsopC win, and while it contained some factual errors, the tone was very generous to me. You can check it out on pokerpages.

The following is my final table summary.

We consolidated tables at 10 people, but the official final table only began with 9 players, and the money started going up player by player when 9 were left, so I knew people would be playing tight.

The first hand, I open to 55k (blinds are 10-20K, w/ a 2k ante) it folds around to the big blind, who had previously noted my aggresive play. He immediately pushed in all his chips, got up and screamed across the room to his "buddy"- poker pro mike sica- I'm all in. It was hard to imagine he was bluffing and the numbers were such that I'd immediately call if I thought he had a smaller pair than 10-10, but that I couldn't call if I figured him for a big ace. In the heat of the moment, I was preety sure he had aq or ak, so I decided to fold. He showed KK, telling the table that Sica had told him not to bust early (or not too bluff-something to that extent). Oh-almost forgot- for some reason I did something I rarely do, folded face up, not really sure why...

I fold the following hand, and them raise UTG to 55k with kq of hearts, it folds to the cutoff- an elder woman- who pushes in for a total of 110K (55k more) and it folds back to me. I "know" I'm beat, but can't resist those odds. I call and she is drawing dead after a kk8 flop.

I fold a number of hands, and then raise in the cutoff with 86 to 55k when it gets folded to me. The BB (who is the 2nd shortest stack at the table) pushes in for 80-100K and I call. He shows a8 and holds on to win the hand, despite a 4-5-X flop.

The next hand I make it 55K to go when it folds to me in the hijack with KK, the cutoff - the player I had most to fear going into the ft, given his position and experience - pushes in for 300-350K total. I dodge his AQ.

The one guy I didn't knock out at the final table got knocked out when he reraised a midposition raisor with kq or kj or k10, and got called by a10, the flop came an ace, and it was GG. Interesting point though, I folded AJ in the BB that hand.

The shortest stack at the table was the button when I was BB, and he raised 3X the BB when it got folded to him, clearly 100% pot commited, i looked down at AA, and had him drawing dead on the flop.

The guy to my right was an elder man, and up to this point I hadn't messed w/ any of his opening bets, which generally were in the 4X range. When he made it 75K to go on the button, (blinds were still 10-20), I pushed (BB was short) w/ q5 of hearts for about 300K more to him. There were still 2-3 players shorter than him, but he insta-called me w/ kj. The flop came 987 w/ 2 hearts, and a heart on the turn left him drawing to a 1-out straight flush draw. He obviously missed GG.

We were now 5 handed, with chip stacks as follows starting w/ my big chip lead going left: short, short, short, and medium. UTG moves in for 130K at 13-30K (3k ante) blinds, and I tank on the button w/ a3, he's supposed to have a very wide range, especially w/ both blinds being short, but I'm not sure what exactly he knows about tournament theory. I eventually call, realizing that's it was a very small amount of chips, and figuring that it'd definately help all that meta-game "bs". I just say all in, because both blinds didn't have more than 1.5X the original bet, so i'd have been commited to call their all in anyways. The BB thinks for a bit and then mucks 99. UTG shows kj, and my a3 holds after an AAQ flop.

Once again, the short stack UTG pushes all in, and the BB immediately says, "did you look?" to the UTG raiser. He seemed weak to me, and I was completely unsure of whether he'd looked or not. I saw kj of clubs in the SB, and felt with the great odds, and the chance I have him beat, it was worth the call. He tabled a9, but the flop came k high, and he didn't hit an ace.

Down to 3 players, I had 2Mil, the guy to my right had 500K, and to my left 100K. I was very interested in keeping guy 3 alive, bec. I figured that the elder man w/ 500K wouldn't take his chances before the short stack busted.

However, my plans went to ashes when I pushed from the SB (thinking he had plenty of chips to still fold and play- I was close to giving him a walk) w/ q9. The BB woke up with 104 and for some reason called off. I didn't think he had the math to call, and I was definately gonna do all i could to keep him alive, but i digresss. My q9 held.

Heads up, we played 2 hands, both very passively, and then decided to take a 10 minute break. I came back and pushed 80% of hands from the SB, and 1/3 from the BB if he limped. I folded to each raise he made preflop.

Until, he raises to 220K with 350K left behind. I looked down at a9, and almost instapushed, "knowing" I was ahead, but instead figured that the stop and go would be a much better move. It was and is the better move, but he had sucked out, and flopped top pair on a 876 flop. He obviously called my push, but I had outs. Luckily the turn came 9 and river 2.

Friday afternoon Musings

2007-01-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

The internet poker world is aflame after the mega e-wallet netteller closed its business to US customers as the main middleman between them and the internet poker sites. I am very concerned as to how this will effect the long term profits of my business, but still remain optimistic that a solution will be worked out. Of course, if our main lobbyists have been the PPA, we probably have been doing ourselves a huge disservice. Everyone knows that not enough was done to stop the anti-gambling forces, but this post on twoplustwo really upset me.

In other news, Michael J. Totten, ie: the best independent journalist out there, writes about his travels to the Hezbollah heartland in Lebanon.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The once great artist Cat Stevens helps me enjoy and afternoon coffee and smoke with this lovely song. How disappointing to know, he'd rather have me dead nowadays than chilling to his music. I guess I don't feel too bad about the songs I have of his on my computer (that I obviously paid top dollar for...)

Travelling

2007-01-06T11:20:00.000-08:00

around a bit. I'm now in Israel, and will be going to Europe (Amsterdam) for a week before heading home to the US of A. I spent a year in israel after highschool, and it's been nice coming back, seeing the family etc... (It also has a much safer feel than 4-5 years ago) The only major problem is that I haven't wanted to stop playing the nightly tourneys, so I've been getting up @ 2am each morning, and starting my day then.

Amsterdam, should be fun, but in a different way. I'm really looking forward to 07, as I just started playing MTT's @ the end of 05, and 06 was a very succesful first year on the online circuit. I hope I can graduate to the major's (big live events) this year, but we shall see, patience is key, and I have no plans to violate my strict bankroll requirements. Getting backed has crossed my mind, but so far I haven't found any interested parties. Either way, it's not like the live circuit is going away any time soon (or so I hope) so if I need to wait until I'm 30 to play the big events on a regular basis, I don't feel like that would be so bad.

Online play has exposed me (I think) to alot of the positive and negative variances of poker, and I'm just no where near ready to handle a -42 tourney run @ the 10k level. (Which I have done online).

I haven't decided for sure, but I'm thinking of starting a little experiment on the cash game side, using Barry G's idea of buying in small into those games. Ideas, ideas...

Dealing with pain in Poker

2006-12-13T11:33:00.000-08:00

The nature of proper tournament strategy is such that you should be experiencing the "pains" of poker, much more often than the joys. (Playing a 500 person tournament, even if you are double as good as the average player, you should only win it 1/250.) Even highly successful players are not immune to this, so the sooner you/I realize the daily fustrations of tournament play will never go away the better it is. In my 1500+ tourneys on Stars, (where I have been highly succesful) I have suffered streaks of 15 or more straight out of the money finishes on 20 occasions. I once went 38 straight tournaments without cashing. On the flip side, I have never cashed in 4 tournaments in a row.

Getting used to all this losing is very very very very very hard. In fact, I'm not sure I ever will. And there is no doubt that negatively effects my other results. I have gotten better, but am always looking for new tips in dealing with the constant losing- while winning.

Goals

2006-11-27T15:36:00.000-08:00

Many people have wrote that setting goals is an important part of becoming a winning player. I am not so sure. I have never set a monetary goal for myself, and I feel like the inherent variance in poker make those kind of goals non-productive. Is it better for your long term game, if u repeatedly get your money in behind, but luck your way to a tourney win, or if you routinely get in as a favorite, but happen to lose money. Clearly, the latter is a better strategy, yet having a monetary goal will lead one to the wrong conclusion.

I try to be decision oriented rather than results oriented when it comes to evaluating my play and setting goals. My only goal for 2006 was to play my "A" game 80%+ of the time.

Another thing, what is the point of a goal? The bottom line is that at the end of every session, you will have issues to consider regardless of the outcome. By working on those issues, thinking them through, and trying to figure out the optimal move, you will become a better player. Meeting your monetary goal might just be enough to convince you that you are above this process, and that cannot be a good thing.

We Upset You

2006-11-27T04:46:00.000-08:00

Video Link

I stand with Israel.

Creating Fold Equity

2006-11-10T11:22:00.000-08:00

More and more, I'm realizing the importance of this. Ok lets say you're sitting in the BB, and your stack size is 8 BB's. If it gets folded to the button, he's likely to make it 3BB to go with a wide variety of hands. Of course, if you push all in there, he's obviously gonna call, getting greats odds even if his hole cards are very weak. However, if you just flat call, the pot will now contain 7BB's. Now on the flop, you can push all in (regardless of what comes out) for 5 BB's, and he can only call if he hit something. We all know that the majority of times, 2 cards will miss the flop. He'll be very hardpressed to call with the random 2 cards we put him on, and sometimes given the right flop, he'll even lay down the winner. (Imagine he raised with q9- and the flop comes a105- you're 67 will take it down with the push all in)

I noticed this same thing today playing a plo8 turbo sng on Stars. I was sitting on the button with 1135, and blinds were 100-200 (no anties in that game) with 4 people left in the tourney. Now in a regular sit and go, this would be push/fold time, but obviously, given that this was pot limit, that wasn't a choice. UTG folded, and the action was up to me holding 3357, a marginal hand, but one that I wanted to raise anyways given the situation. Given the 1-200 blinds, I was allowed to make it up to 700 to go. Of course, I realized if either of them called my 700 preflop, it would be foolish of them to fold on the flop for 435 into a 1600 pot. I chose to min raise, making it 400 to go. The small blind called and the big blind folded. So the two of us went to a flop with 1k in the pot. He checked on a flop of k106, and then folded to my bet of 735.

Creating fold is equity is very important, and was the difference in that Sng between 4th and 2nd.

It's been a while

2006-11-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

If you're looking to learn about poker, this probably isn't your best bet. I haven't really felt like posting much.

Today is a big day politically speaking, with the midterm elections. Ever since early in high school I've been following the US political landscape preety closely. In 2004, I happily cast my first vote, voting straight down the line Republican, except for one Libertarion that I threw in for the hell of it. I knew at the time that my votes counted for nothing (being in a solid Democratic area), but it was a great rush, and something that I felt proud of doing.

This year I used my free choice and along with a majority of citizens (or real close to it) exercised my right not to vote. Yes I care about alot of the issues, and yes, I definately still have a right to my opinion. (Those go vote commercials are a joke to me, if u wanna vote-go, if not- stay home. You're not special because you exercised your right to vote.)

If I had gone to vote, I just would have voted blindly. None of the candidates appeal to me in the least bit. I really hope we get some decent candidates for the 08 presidential elections. The thought of Hillary having more power sickens me. Of course, I'll be staying up late tonight following the results. I'm a junkie like that.

Enjoy your day.

Won

2006-10-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

2 small tourneys on Bodog last night, and been playing alot more more omaha hi lo cash games recently, both fixed and pot limit, and they have been treating me well. Hopefully, I can take some of this momentum, and have a nice sunday today. (Regardless of the majors, I have a good feeling for the Horse tourneys tonight on Stars and full tilt.) Bodog has recently upgraded their tourney schedule, and I have started playing there much more again. Without party around, Stars and Bodog are def my favorite sites to play on. (Although they both have major flaws, Stars has way too many good players as a percentage, in their larger buyin tourneys, especially the rebuys. And Bodog's software is definately not first class.)

Todays tenative schedule:

Bodog $109 , 100K
Stars 215, 1M
UB 215, 200k
Full Tilt 216, 250k (the pro's arent rich enough, they need the extra $1 rake)
Stars 215, 2nd chance
Stars 215, Horse
Full Tilt 215, Horse

Possible additions depending on how I'm doing/feeling:

Bodog 100, 1k added
Bodog 44, 25k
Stars 100R, 200R
UB 100, 40K
Stars 200, Omaha Hi lo

Haven't

2006-10-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

been posting much recently, because I really have no idea what the future will bring. If it stays the way it is right now (post the law being signed, but before its full effects are known or implemented) it will be a major "down" for online poker, but that's it. We'll be fine, poker is still profitable. Of course, for better or worse, it's not gonna remain the same, soooooooo we have a long way. And of course, there is nothing to little we can do to even sway the argument, let alone have it back to the way it was. To say I am disillusioned is to put it mildly.

All in all, I still think online poker will remain profitable, although I'm not sure how much of that is wishful thinking. I too am getting more accustomed to the idea of living in another country, although it is still not what I would like to do at the moment. Wait and see continues.

When in doubt, play aggresively. Had to throw in something poker related.

Interesting take

2006-10-05T01:05:00.000-07:00

A response to an earlier failed version of the anti-poker legislation: Truly Disgusting

And another: Link

Back in the USA

2006-10-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

I'm still clueless as to the how bill will end up impacting us. Of course I'm hoping for the best, but I really don't see anything I/we can change what will happen. (It might be better or worse than we expect, but that will have nothing to do with our efforts.)

The major issue for me has to do with the long run profitability of the game. I was asked during my travels if I planned on playing poker forever. I answered at least for the forseeable future. I no longer believe that to be the case. (I really, really, really etc. hope I'm wrong)

I'm going to keep playing mtt's for the short term, but I'm also going to plan for the day when/if poker is no longer profitable for me. Here's hoping to that day not coming! I still remain angry/confused/bitter/sad/upset that there is so little we can do in a vibrant democracy such as ours. And yes, we are still far, far advanced compared to most countries in the governmental system department- thats what makes the above line soo true. If I were in Cuba, I'd almost expect this kind of thing, and here Italy, a Euro-quasi socialist country legalizes online poker, and the USA, supposed king of the free market, outlaws it.

During my month abroad, I played much less than normal, and while I was playing things were not going my way. In general, my results were sub par, but then the couple of times when I did go deep, I ended in bad situations. In the only Wcoop event that I cashed, 200R, I ended up blowing an above average stack, 3 betting all in with JJ, in a situation where looking back I wish I hadn't, the 2nd raiser had AA, and that was that. I then was deep in 3 tournaments, Titan 250K, Bodog sat to 10K seat, Bodog 25K, and in all 3 I was disconnected for significant portions of the time, while the blinds were high. Not alot of fun.

I hope everything works out well, although I can't say I'm too confident it will.

Congress

2006-10-02T07:08:00.000-07:00

has voted to make the financing of online poker accounts illegal, which basically puts an end to my poker career. Officially, I am in a "wait and see" mode, but I will be starting up a job search when I get back to the USA later on this week. Not exactly the way I planned on ending my lovely vacation in Australia and New Zealand. If anyone has any good ideas/job leads for me, I'd be very appreaciative if you emailed me at BodogAri-at-gmail.com (Supposedly, that's the way of avoiding spam mail.)

It is said, that G-d works in mysterious ways, I sure hope this is an example of one of them. To say I am in a state of shock would be true. One week ago, I thought the entire idea of banning online poker was scare-talk by those paranoid, today it feels like a very bad dream. I certainly feel betrayed by the conservative party in power (whatever happened to less government is better?) although I'm not sure having someone like Hillary (video games kill people) Clinton in power would be better? It is simply amazing that in a democracy a voting citizen can feel this helpless.

New Year

2006-09-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year! I hope this one will be a great one for all of you and myself.

Sunday was just about normal, played in most of the majors, got my money in ahead most of the time and lost, crazy game we play. I'm in New Zealand for another week or so, and then not quite sure whats up, but almost for sure, back to the great US of A.

I decided to sit down with a bunch of full tilt pro's playing omaha hi lo tonight, and somehow came out ahead. It's preety cool, because for them it's low stakes and for me high, and I think they made many plays to just get at each other, without caring if i happened to scoop a couple of pots.

I got disconnected from one of the Party Poker tourney's I was playing last Thursday night, and they claim nothing they can do, so I'm a little pissed at them, and probably will show it by playing less there. (I'm really into symbolic/meaningless forms of protest:)

I'm going to visit my sister in Israel in December or January, and I'm trying to win a satellite to somewhere in Europe to play there on the way. There's even a tourney called the Amsterdam Poker classic, that'd be preety cool I figure, although I'm a bankroll management person, so I'm only gonna go if I can satellite in.

Thanks to all that have said congrats at the tables to me, sometimes I'm playing 3-5 tables, and I'll miss the chat, or see it but not be able to respond. Don't take it personally obv.

Donk

2006-09-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

I played a couple of sit and go's at crown casino in Melbourne, before I left Australia. (Been in New Zealand for a day and a bit now) In one of them, the first hand, I had 1010, and lost a middle size pot to an ace on an ace high flop. Immediately following the hand, one guys says, Christmas time, another one is like, soooooooo obv. As they all bust, I don't say a word, but secretly enjoy their money a little more than the others. Some people play for the enjoyment of calling others donks, some play to have fun, and some play for $$$. Decide what your goal is, and don't let others distract you from it.

It is my belief that if you've never been called a donk before, you're doing something wrong. Shannon Shorr wrote in his blog,

Q) Do you post or read at 2+2 or PocketFives?
A) No. I can't get excited about the idea of posting/analysing hands when you have no idea who the people critiquing (sp?) you are. Have they had more success than me in poker? Probably not, so I'm not going to post a hand and get flamed for it by $.5/$1 players.

For those of us that do read the forums, and are serious about improving our game, keep that in mind. Just bec. some dude in an internet forum wrote that you are donk, DOES NOT mean that it is the case. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with being open minded enough to listen to the opinion of others, even if they haven't had the same success as you.

As with everything else in poker, self honesty is king. Ego and self honesty do not match well, and when they clash, you must forgo your ego for a bit, so that you can actually improve. Not a day goes by, where I don't see errors in my game, and I'm sure I'm still missing alot of them.

PokerRoom 300

2006-09-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

Took it down, sweeeeeeeet. Haven't done much of anything else today, but who cares, this covers quite a few buyins. An interesting hand came up 5 or 6 handed. Myself and one other guy have the rest of the table covered by far, and I'm ahead of him, but a neglible amount. I raise 2.5-3X the Big Blind, and a short stack calls all in for less than the amount I bet. The other big stack is big blind and he also calls. I have k of clubs and q (x), and we both check (I'm in position) on a a,10,4 all club flop. The turn brings another clubs, giving me the nut (non-straightflush) flush. He bets into me quite large relative to the pot, and I just called. The river came a 5th club, and I was confident that he too had a club, so when he bet into me on the river again, i hesitated a while and overbet the pot by a large amount allin. He preety quickly called with the q of clubs, and busted. I preety much coasted (as in raised a ton) from there.

Day 1 of the wcoop went bad

2006-09-17T12:47:00.000-07:00

hopefully today goes better.

Already busted in the bodog 100K and party 300. But I have some chips in the pokerroom 300, and party and Stars big ones start soon.

Ads and Wcoop

2006-09-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

I've gone all commercial- notice all those ads on the side. If you click on them I get some money.

Wcoop (World Championchip of Online Poker) starts today, and I'm looking forward to it. I hadn't started Poker Stars last year at this time, so this is my first experience with the Wcoop. Hopefully I can take one (or more) down.

The first one starts at around 4am local time, so I'm not yet sure if I'm gonna play, although, its a game that I have come to enjoy-Razz- I'm still pretty inexperienced in it.

Aggresive Poker

2006-09-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

I like to play my draws fast and bet with them. It gives me two ways to win the pot, either my opponent(s) fold, or they call, and I hit. However, sometimes that can get you into trouble. For example, at last years world series, Joe Hachem at the final table check-raised his flush draw, and then was forced to fold, when Danneman came over the top all in.

Table $35k Gtd. Rebuy(826973) Table 28 (Real Money) -- Seat 4 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: BodogAri (35499)
Seat 2: jualia (8306)
Seat 3: samotJ (7805)
Seat 4: Fullerton__ (24690)
Seat 5: BAGSIK829 (2722)
Seat 6: fabcorleon (28614)
Seat 7: manticorePP (34557)
Seat 8: ARVIQ (19454)
Seat 9: nabirebs (9476)
Seat 10: clator2 (8674)
BAGSIK829  posts small blind (150)
fabcorleon  posts big blind (300)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to BodogAri [ 7c, 6c ]
manticorePP folds.
ARVIQ folds.
nabirebs folds.
clator2 calls (300)
BodogAri calls (300)
jualia folds.
samotJ calls (300)
Fullerton__ folds.
BAGSIK829 folds.
fabcorleon checks.
** Dealing Flop ** :  [ 4c, Ks, 9c ]
fabcorleon checks.
clator2 checks.
BodogAri bets (601)
samotJ calls (601)
fabcorleon raises (3353) to 3353
clator2 folds.
BodogAri calls (2752)
samotJ folds.
** Dealing Turn ** :  [ 8d ]
fabcorleon bets (24961)
fabcorleon is all-In.
BodogAri folds.

In the above hand, I choose to come out betting on the flop, when it checks around to me, and I'm second last to act. I then get checkraised, and figure him for some decent made hand, so I call, hoping to hit my draw. He then goes allin for an amount that I have 0 odds to call. Similar to Hachem's hand, If I had played it slower, I probably would have been able to see a river. (Notice I hit an open ended straight draw on the turn too, but it still was way too much too call.)

Having said that I like to play my draws fast, it only makes sense that I play my made hands fast too. All too often, I see players that are loose and aggressive, yet slow down, when they flop a set (or any great made hand.) In my mind, this makes absolutely no sense, and can easily be exploited. Once it is known that you play less than premium hands fast, you must play your big hands in the same manner, and you'll be shocked at the action you get from hands that are drawing dead.

Sept 12 and my thoughts

2006-09-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

Happy 22nd Bday to my brother and favorite soldier Avner.

To just pick up and leave our middle class Jewish suburb of Chicago in the middle of a war, and volunteer to join the army, is a sick act of courage, that few (if any) I have met have come close to matching. The fact that we can live the way we do, as we freely as we do, etc. is in large part to the efforts of soldiers throughout the years.

It was only a little more than 50 years ago, that American soldiers were rescuing Jewish people from the Nazi death camps. FDR (G-d curse his soul) didn't allow them to come sooner, and many (myself included obv) blame him indirectly for many more deaths than was neccesary.

When my brother went to Iraq, forgetting all the politics and other reasons for a sec, the fact that he was going as a Jewish soldier in American uniform to liberate an oppressed people from a murderous dictator, would have sent shivers down Hitlers (and many current day libs) spine.

Thank to all our soldiers, and have a great b-day bro.

Sept 11 and the various thoughts it brings out in me

2006-09-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

I love America. Terrorists be damn. Let freedom flow etc.

Our airline security is one huuuge joke. You really would think that the most advanced society ever, would have figured out a better approach. Oh well, gg lighter, toothpaste, and yes bottle of soda.

Poker playing will be outlawed in the future Islamic State of XXXX. (XXXX= any country where it is currently not outlawed) Forget Goodlatte or congress, there would be no ifs ands or buts. Lets not forget that the goal of Islamofascists is exactly that, to take over the world and convert everyone to Islam or kill them. Gambling, alcohol, and being non-Islamic are among countless of activities that are prohibits according to Muhammadean Law. Women's rights-LOL, and yet the liberals are loving Bush's stumbles?

The incredible amount of support for these terrorists absolutely baffles me. Goes back to that journalism comment a bit, what's the story with the Galloway's of the world?

It seems in this part of the world that I'm visiting (Australia and NZ) people would rather have Usama than Bush. Forget, it seems, there's no doubt, enemy # 1 to these people is the president of the greatest country in the world. WTF?

With all these Usama sympathesizers out there (clearly lacking something in the mental region) is it any wonder the amount of dead money out there? I went there, if u support Bin Laden over Bush, please come to my table.

Played some Live poker

2006-09-09T13:25:00.000-07:00

tonight at the Crown Casino (10-20 Fixed) and got killed for about 8-900 Aussie dollars. It's a nice casino, and the pokerroom has been renovated since I was last down here. However, I never seem to do well there. Hmmm.

Came home at 1 or 2 local time, and I realized that Party and Stars 300's were starting. I went preety deep in both, but finished short, finishing approx 70'th in stars, and 20 something in party. Oh Well, tommorow.

The local papers here are ridiculously anti-Bush/America. It's almost comical that this stuff passes as news. Unfortunately, it appears like most of the world has to suffer through this. Self loathing makes me sick, and for some reason it seems, like that is one of the traits neccesary to graduate from journalism school.

My party DB #'s have gone through the roof, which probably means I'm playing too tight everywhere else. I'll do a little experimenting tommorow. Hope all of you have big sundays, and finish 2nd to me in all the majors.

Embrace Failure

2006-09-08T00:36:00.000-07:00

So easy to write, so hard to do. I'm working on it, but given my competitive nature, it is very difficult to be satisfied losing. But that is the nature of the game we play, and I realize that it is something that eventually needs to happen. All I can do is play my game, it's not like I can win every tourney, and since I always play for first, obv. I'm gonna be unsuccessful much more often that not. But that is the way to make $ in tourneys.

First night in Australia= lots of beer. Even hit a beer bong:) We went through "millions" of beers, and no foster's in site fyi.

2 Years of Pro Poker Playing

2006-09-04T15:39:00.000-07:00

and thank g-d (no evil eye) I haven't gone busto. There is no doubt that I have gotten lucky, but through my experience i have learned to avoid some trouble areas.

When I sit down @ the table I don't fear anyone, but, when given the choice, I choose not to sit down against other good players. Game selection is huge, and although not too relevant in MTT play, it is huge in cash games and sngs. If u see a sng getting filled with Sheets, Shaniac and #1pen, there might be better spots, just hit unregister and go play something else.

A while back I won the UB sunday tourney, I proceeded to sit down at the 50-100 and above fixed limit tables on that site for the following week. Why, u ask? Well, I had a bunch of money in my account, and clearly I didn't suck at poker since I had just won it all.... buuut, (which I unfotunatly only realized after a significant portion of my tourney winnings) there was no need for that. I won a tournament, well guess what, that's my job. Winning a tournament should not change the way you go about your poker activities.

I alluded to this already, but if poker is your sole income, it is your job. Yes, I enjoy it, but that's not why I sign on daily. Try to always make decisions with long term profitability in mind, and not anything else. (Would you really be chatting on Im w/ friends while in the middle of an important business meeting?)

There are too many ups and downs in poker to get caught up in the moment. Like I said before, it's our (tourney donkeys) job to win tourneys, we do that by busting out of tons of them, in the hope that one day things will go right, and we will win. Most of the time, they go wrong and you lose. In my mind, bad beat, bad play, cooler, its all the same, I lost and that's what I do most of the time. If there's something to be learned from the situation, learn it, and then sign up for the next one.

Always play for the long run. So you're up 20K on Stars this year, but it used to be 30, and you've been on a horrible down streak. You're now sitting with 5 big blinds on the button w/ one left till money in the 50R. If you look down at 77, and say I haven't one a coinflip in ages, lets just ship it into the muck and gamble after I make the money, NOT GOOD!! Poker is the game of the long run, and long run profitable decisions is what brought you to where you are, no need to switch up now.

Hand of the day: Yesterday there was 108 people left in the UB sunday $200, that paid 100 people. I get moved to a new table, having just been crippled, and am sitting with 4.5 big blinds UTG+1. The big blind was the only stack at the table that had less than me, but my stack was enough to put a little dent into most of them. I decided that with only one more hand to the big blind, I could adopt one of two strategies. Either fold, and then fold utg, unless a monster, and then continue to fold the next 2-3 hands till we made the money. Or go all in, and basically pray that everyone folds. Remember, I had just gotten moved to the table, and therefore had no idea how tight/loose everyone else was. (and vica versa) I pushed, and it got folded to the sb who called with aq. I looked at the tourney page, and there was no 103 people left, but no suckout came, gg.

Yesterday was a sick day for me, here's a little summary.

I chopped the party 300 4 handed yesterday, but got money right in between the first and second payout. I coulda played it out, bec. I was probably the best player there, and had the chip lead, but I'll take it. Last thing I needed was to collapse out of big money to start my sunday. Also, I was deep in the pokerroom 300....

As we approached the bubble (40 paid) from about 55 players onward, I began to raise virtually every time it got folded to me. I arrived at the actual bubble 2/41 in chips, but proceeded to reraise ak with 23, and kk with aq. Neither time I sucked out, and we were still on the bubble. I was now in the middle of the field, when the ak guy raised, I decided to push from the button with 108, and was quickly called again with ak. The flop came aq6, but a 9 on the turn and j on the river, doubled me up. I then moved all in again once we got in the money with kk and against the kk vs. aq guy from earlier, and he quick called me with aj, to give me a nice stack again. My aggresion got the best of me when we got down short again with 2 tables left, and I busted in like 12-13 place.

I then proceeded to bust in the Stars (2nd chance too), Dise, Party and FT big tournies among countless other smaller ones. The last tourney of the night was the FT Horse, which i got 4th in last week, after Erick Lindgren played absolutely horribly and somehow got lucky every time to take it down. (I know, I know, he's amazing, obv. he wasn't treating it too seriously.) This week the final table included another pro, Andy Bloch (who got 2nd in the 50k Horse event). He kept drawing to half the pot in split games, and I bet every street with kkx unimproved in stud hi lo, to take down a monster pot from him, when his low never showed. I came in as a middle stack, but by the time we got shorthanded I was chip leader. Everyone proceeded to fold to me, to allow me an easy victory.

Leaving tommorow for Melbourne Australia.

Individual Rights and Victimless Crimes

2006-08-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

So, how did we get to the point, where congress is seriously interested in using their limited legislative time, to make certain kinds of online gambling illegal? I believe it began long before the internet was even around. Yes, we can thank one of our "legendary" presidents FDR. (Yes, the same FDR, who couldn't find it in himself to bomb the tracks to aushwitz...)

FDR, in his unsuccesful attempts to limit the effects of the great depression, instituted many ideas that are at the heart of a welfare state. While in a free society, a person is allowed to do what they want in their pursuit of llh (life, liberty, happiness) FDR believed that the government could do a better job of protecting its people, than they could do alone.

Today, we witness the culmination of the FDR effect. Last week, I walked into the local pharmacy to buy some dayquil for my cold. I went to pay, and was shocked to be told, that I couldn't buy dayquil. You see, the government now believes, that cold medicine is something that can be abused. (I am not saying they are wrong, but the fact is, their beliefs make it the law now.) In the end, it took 2 ID's, and a call to the manager, to convince the cashier that I was indeed over 18. After all that, they asked me to write and sign my name, on their (Meth-watchlist?) sheet. I wonder how many other "GFY" 's have bought dayquil?

If you truly believe that the government does not belong in our everyday lives, maybe its time to send a message to congress, and only vote "small-government"-ers. Clearly, this is not a repub/demo issue. The government has taken too much power from us. I liked the way Mike from Michigan, aka ArtieCat put it, I'm sick of victimless crimes.

Congress is being funded by us, and yet they are saying, that we are so weak, we need their protection? Get out of here, lets see how you guys do without our tax money. Leave us alone, or go get another job!

Supernova

2006-08-22T23:09:00.000-07:00

I'm now a supernova on Stars, which means that I have played alot this year. (Doesn't say anything about profitablility, although I can assure all my "fan's" out there, that I am having no trouble paying for Kosher Delight deliveries, jk BDA's fan, its all in good fun)

I'm gonna be travelling more (homeless for a while), going down to australia and NZ, but otherwise not quite sure when, what or where. I'll definately still be playing but not the same hours that I have in the past.

The other night, I'm up @ my brothers house in Binghamton NY, and I'm railing the Landlord (as in my former landlord, who goes by that screen name on most major sites) deep in the Party 40k, after I busted from my nightly tournies. He gets into the money with an above average stack when the internet goes down in the entire city. He ends up on the phone with a relative who is not very advanced poker-wise. The conversation that ensues was very interesting, and I think that this is an exercise that can produce alot of benefit.

Most good poker players base alot of their decisions on "feel", and the questions that you ask when you can't see the table allows you to focus in on things that get overlooked when you have everything in front of you. (Alot of you's, its late, and its been a long time since i was in school and had to do things grammatically and all, please excuse) I highly reccomend doing this at least once, and then thinking about the kind of questions that you need answered to play effectively, even without the screen/table in front.

Damn George Bush...

2006-08-13T08:42:00.000-07:00

Link : So the Europeans are invading the privacy of their own citizens, allowing them to be fired for smoking, even if they only do so at home. Must be Bush's fault...

I'm in S. Florida now, checking it out, and probably moving down here. Here's to a good Sunday, and bubbling 4-5 tournies today:)

Trying to Bubble

2006-08-08T20:11:00.000-07:00

One of my little mottos has always been, try to bubble, they won't let u, and you'll pick up alot of chips. The last 24 hours have been very succesful, in that I have bubbled 4 tourneys. (Within 5 people of $). Even though it is fustrating getting far in a tournament, and not showing any return, I believe that this is definately a long-run profitable strategy. Of course, like anything else in this game, alot depends on your table, situation etc. and but the general notion of trying to bubble has allowed me to get to many final tables in very good chip situations.

I will be leaving Vegas shortly, and although my wrist remains braceletless, I have had an enjoyable and educational experience. I have a long way to go, but this was definately a step in the right direction.

Main Event

2006-07-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

The Main event was fun, even though I joined the 10000 non-winners very early. I played very loose and fast, and unfortunately things didn't go my way. Normally, I do not play that style in the beggining of a tournament, but I had promised myself that I'd play the opposite of my table. They all seemed to be playing tight, not wanting to make any mistakes, so I figured I'd be able to pick up lots of small pots, and get paid off when my rags hit.

Thank you all for the well wishes, and now its back to the grind.

Bodog Party

2006-07-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

Bodog had it's crazy annual party, and supposedly it was real cool. I stayed home and played poker, not too big on the partying thing.

I start the main event on Sunday, hopefully things go well.

WSOP 1500

2006-07-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

So, I went deep in the 1500, finishing 31 out of 2K plus entrants. Obviously tourneys, are all about winning, and I didn't, so I can't say I was happy with the result. However, I'm 22, and hopefully will be in the situation again, so it's all a good learning experience.

This was my 4th event of the series, and I now feel like I am an expert in "Live poker". Lol. Here are some thoughts about the event.

The best live players (grinder, John Juanda, etc) are absolutely sick, and I have a long way to go to reach their level.

The average live player is equal or worse than an average entrant into a Stars 100 Freezeout. The competition in the Stars 100 rebuy is way better than you'll ever see at the average WSOP table.

Poker is poker, and the differences between live and online are not that great. Yes there are some additional factors that you can use for analysis when seeing the person in front of you, but all in all, I didn't feel any disadvantage (other than extreme slowness) playing live.

Thank you all for the support, I had a good time, and hopefully next time, I can take it down.
Marvin Garden (Chris Birchby) and ImsoLucky0 (Jordan Morgan) have both made the Final Table of the event I played, GL guys.

Congratulations

2006-07-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

to online player Pokertrip/Reactrix aka Jon Friedberg who won his first bracelet taking down event #17 @ the WSOP for over $526K. He came into the final table 8 of 9 in chips and obviously dominated. Sick!

People have been predicting that this will be the year of the internet player, but the truth is that this has been the year of the pros. It's just that your average "online pro" is basically just as good as your average live pro, and in alot of cases not nearly as rusty. Say what you want, but the game has changed dramatically, and you can see it in some of the results of these live "pros". And the people that have the most experience playing the new style of playing are succeeding whether they are internet players or not.

On the random WSOP commentary note, Carlos Mortensen has 3 top 10 finishes already. Damn impressive.

Played in the 200 Stud hi lo and 500 NL holdem at the Orleans Open, and busted early in both. But been having tremendous success online, so I'm just chalking it up to lack of attempts. I've gone 35 times in a row online before without cashing, and had 12 separate streaks of 15 or more tourneys out of the money. (Those numbers are just from Stars Multi-Tables, and come from thepokerdb.com, where I pay for the enhanced version) So I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing, and I'm fairly confident things will work out in the long run. Getting hung up in short term results is something I used to do when I started, but imo is just dumb, too many ups and downs in poker to get too caught up in the moment.

Busted

2006-07-10T16:45:00.000-07:00

in the 1K today early, and never really had much going. The highlight of the day was sitting next to Colson10, who played very well/aggresive early, and picked up about 1/3 of the pots w/o a showdown. He ran his JJ into QQ and busted shortly before I did. My story was a lack of good situations, and although I tried to play aggresively to make up for it, I never really had a shot, and busted shortly before the first break, when my k6 hh couldn't outdraw aq, even with a 2 heart flop.
Been playing well in general, so I have no complaints, although I certainly wouldn't mind winning a bracelet one of these days. Hopefully next time.

Sunday

2006-07-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Major's today. Hopefully a Big Day! Then tommorow, I'll be playing the smallest buyin wsop of the year, a 1K freezeout. Hopefully I can get a hold of some chips early, because if not it's likely to be a short day with only 1K in chips to start. Either way, I'm gonna start playing a little more live.

The Rio offers a 2nd chance tourney for $500 daily, but it starts at 5pm, and that's about the same time as the big nightly tourney's online. So I haven't played in it yet, but a couple of online players have been doing well in it, so I think I'll give it a try a couple of times this week.

Bubbled

2006-07-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

both the party "super" $150 and the paradise 30R. Both tourneys had fields of more than 1000 people and I got within 10 people of money before getting knocked out. One of the sacrifises that I sometimes make for overagrresive bubble play, but its all worth it because the serious money is only at the top. Still its not fun to go home empty handed, but I gotta to look at it longterm and realize that much and I mean tons of money is made on bubble play.

Forgot to mention that I sat with John Juanda the other day in the omaha h/l tourney, and I thought that he played like a true professional, both in his play (obv) and his mannerisms. A breath of fresh air. I'm looking forward to playing some more live as we approach the main event, and I attempt to get used to the boredom of 1 tabling, live dealers, and geniuses that need have a hard time folding they're j10 sooted in bet, raise, reraise situations without making a scene.

Played

2006-07-04T02:58:00.000-07:00

relatively well today at the 2k omaha hi lo event, but maybe a little too tight, either way things didn't go my way, and i lost a bunch of times when I was favored while most of the money was going, finished around 180/670 with about 60 paying, but never really had much going, reaching a max of 7k. Not sure yet when I'm playing next yet, and suprisingly, I'm not particularly upset, I did what I could, and sometimes you just can't make it. (Of course, that's not to say I didn't make any errors).

Happy B-day America!

Vegas is cool

2006-06-29T17:32:00.000-07:00

so far, but honestly havent been to the strip yet. Weather is nice, and i've been playing a bit online outside. (First time having wireless, great invention) Next event I play is the 2K Omaha Hi/Lo on Monday.

First Wsop of the year

2006-06-28T00:15:00.000-07:00

didn't go too well. Started off real good, when I got put a weak tight table and played aggresively early.

A couple of key hands early:

I got k8 hearts, and after a min raise and a bunch of callers, i call out of the big blind. The flop comes 975 with 2 hearts, and the SB checks, I check, the original raiser checks, and a shortstack bets 40% of his stack, I then reraise an amount that puts him all in. It folds to him, and he folds.

I have q4 hearts, and again there is a min raiser with a couple of callers. I come along for the ride too, and the flop is 875 with 2 hearts. I check, and then the original raiser bets and someone calls from the button, I then reraise an amount pot commiting myself, and I take down the pot without a showdown when they fold.

It gets folded to me on the cutoff and I raise the 25-50 blinds to 150 with a6. Only the BB calls, and we see a flop of j62, it goes check check, and the turn is another 6. The BB bets 300, and I make it 900 to go, she quickly calls. The river is an ace, and she bets 500, and I reraise an amount that puts her all in, she thinks for a while and folds.

I am eventually up to 6700 and end the first break at 5800. I then proceed to donk it all off, and am at home before the end of level 2. Damn, another day hopefully.

World Series Of Poker

2006-06-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

Event #2 is on Tuesday, and I'll be playing, hope I can have a big sunday today in prep.

Ship It!

2006-06-22T01:51:00.000-07:00

In my mind, I'm gone to Carolina- great James Taylor song. In real life , I'm off to Vegas today. Brooklyn, its been nice knowing u.

5th Sucks

2006-06-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday in the afternoon 30R on Dise, and today in the 100R on Stars.

Made a costly move reraising the UTG raiser who had tripled the blinds, and was 4/5 in chips. (I was 3/5) It got folded to me in the BB and I raised an amount that essentially put him all in, he quick called with aa, and I didn't get lucky. Next hand it gets folded to me in the SB, and I tap with kq and lose to a6 in the BB.

Hoping for a strong exit from Brooklyn. (My tournament poker birthplace) Only 2 more days left.

No Poker Sunday

2006-06-18T03:21:00.000-07:00

One of my old roomates, (one of 4 from my year after high school in Israel-we all still keep in touch) will be getting married in Baltimore, so I'm driving (ie: sitting in the passenger seat) out there with a friend. First time I'll be missing all the big sunday tourneys in a while.

Craaaaazy, good luck all, they're all yours today.

Here's what I'll be missing (w/o any withdrawal symptoms obv):

130pm: PokerShare $100 Entry, 25K guar.
2pm: Bodog $100, 100K
2pm: PokerRoom 300, 80K
3pm: Dise 30R, 40K
430pm: Party, 200, 1M
43o: Stars, 200, 1M
5: Ultimate Bet, 200, 200K
5: Paradise, 200, 150K
6: Full Tilt 200, 200K
615: Stars 200
730: Stars 100R
9: Dise 30R, 100K
930: Full Tilt 200 Horse, 20K

I almost feel like I played them, that was theraputic (sp?).

Went

2006-06-16T02:53:00.000-07:00

real deep in the 1400 person 10R, but couldn't close it, and finished 3rd. Played preety well, although a little too timidly at times, but these tourneys are made for first. The crazy thing was this daily tournament rarely sees 1 top player make the final table, and ours had 4. One might think that would lead to some crazy hyper aggresive play, but the game was played preety tight, and I never really took much advantage. Anyways, tommorow's a new day, maybe a win in sight.

The Concious of a Conservative

2006-06-14T11:01:00.000-07:00

I strongly supported President Bush's election in both 2000 and 2004. (2004 was my first voting year ever.) I am proud to be a conservative, and I support most of the same stances shared by conservative politicians and voters alike.

I believe (that all other things held equal) the less government involvement in American's daily lives the better. The government does have obligations to help protect its citizens including but not limited too establishing a police force, army and general security infastructure.

The government is not there too to "improve" the lives of the average citizen! That is not their job, and frankly, the average 65 year old WASP senator has no idea what "improving" my life means.

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness" - If 2 gay people want to get married, go right ahead, if that's what makes them happy. If 2 consenting adults reach a business deal, go right ahead, if that's what makes both of u happy. And lastly, if 2 (or 2 million) consenting adults want to play poker online, why the #&*% is our government (set up to protect our right to "pursue happiness") trying to stop us?

I really hope this is all one big joke. We are in the middle of a global war against a fierce enemy, who will stop at nothing to inflict any harm on us. Our borders security system is a joke. I haven't formed an opinion on the illegal immigration issues of the day, but the fact that millions of people have successfully entered our country, and we have no idea who/where they are, does not reflect well on an administration that touts its security credentials so highly.

There will be midterm elections in 2006, it is time for massive reforms in our system. Government has grown way too large. How many people know that their is an entire industry in Washington, that bribes congressman and senators, to take our money. The mainstream media likes to call them lobbyists. It is so fustrating that I have to put in double as many hours to live in the USA as I would if I lived in a low-tax country. And then they go and use MY (yes tax dollars are our money) to build railroads and bridges in towns in Alaska and Mississippi that connect towns of dozens of people.

This is not a conservative/liberal or democrat/republican issue. We all need to make it clear that our government has grown too large, and we will no longer accept these kinds of ridiculous behaviours by our legislators. The current "Goodlatte" bill is just one more straw. Mr Goodlatte it seems, feels that my daily activities of sitting in front of a computer, grinding away a living, working hard, making good decisions, being rewarded for risktaking, etc... is soo un-American, and pro-terrorist that I ought to quit my job, and go join a welfare line. In this way, I'd just be an added vote to the large government party known as the republocrats.

Tommorow (Thursday) P5's will be hosting a "call/write your rep. day". I beg all of you to do anything in your power to save our great "sport?" (and by sport, I mean no physical activity games)

If in the past, you have been inclined to vote for a big-government candidate, I ask that you please reconsider your beliefs prior to the 2006 mid-term elections. For the future of this great country, we need to dramatically (and I mean like 50%- it is huge- the budget is not readable). Only when the government returns to its core responsibilities will notorious ideas like getting involved in the Terry Schiavo case, proposing constitutiounal amendments to ban gay marriage each 4 years, and banning one of the most capitalistic games-online poker, return to the obsucrity that they belong.

Please vote small government, and tell your reps to get back to business and leave our business -poker, alone.

Had

2006-06-13T00:42:00.000-07:00

a good night. Final tabled a small 150 on paradise, but got 8'th there, and then took 2nd in the big 150 on stars. (Also, won a small $50 on Sunpoker earlier.) Played the tightest I ever have in both of them, but of course had to have things break my way a number of times. I'm still trying to strike the right balance, particularly when it comes short handed. In cash games in the past, I've been basically hyper-aggressive short, but that was almost all in Limit. (I used to play NL cash too, but it was always ring games ie: 9 or 10 handed)

When I first started tourneys, I took the same hyper-aggresive style short handed, but it hasnt done me much good, unless I'm a huge chipleader, which is an entirely different story. Well, basically I'd end up bleading tons of chips, because people would keep reraising me all in and I'd fold my garbage. Since then I've tightened up quite a bit, but feel like I'm playing too tight. Anyways, late, and I'm not sure where this is going, any tips on short-handed play in tourneys appreciated. TY

Today

2006-06-11T23:16:00.000-07:00

was alright, nothing special, kinda getting sick of this, but I know I just gotta keep playing solid poker, and hopefully I'll receive the breaks neccesary to have some major scores. Cashed in a couple of tourneys, bubbled in a few more, busted early in a few, busted in the middle of some, and came out on top but not much. Bottom line is, I've still got work to do.

Leaving to Vegas for the summer in a couple of weeks.

Had a

2006-06-11T01:43:00.000-07:00

decent evening, finishing 3rd in the late night 100R. Not particularly newsworthy, but had alot of solid competition (throughout the tourney) and I was forced to play much tighter than I otherwise would have liked. Redsoxsox (notice any trends with these 100R's) had the chiplead almost throughout, and used also seemed to be playing tighter than he normally would have. All in all, it was one of the few times that I wasn't so mad getting deep and not winning. I sucked out a few times earlier, and definately did not deserve to get as far as I did.

Makes up for bubbling the party 200K, where 120 paid, and I finished in 129 after aj lost to a9 all in pre-flop. Just in general, party players can drive a sane person to question his sanity, and without a long term view, it is very diffucult to succeed there.

I thought it was preety funny, when a railer in the 100R said, "ari folded on the button when he got folded to him-first time ever, must have been a misclick." It really was true, I'm preety sure I've never played that tight in a Stars tourney before, and I liked the results, so watch out all, no more 73 all in from me.

Hoping for a big Sunday.

Party 100

2006-06-09T01:20:00.000-07:00

well, the good is news is that I made the final table, I was decent stack, when the following occured: A guy who had been moving in alot, was short, now medium, pushes again but from early position. I'm in mid position, and decide to repush with aj soooted, a tiny stack also calls with JJ and is doing very well against both myself and the original raiser's a10. I figure the side pot is all mine but a river 10 destroys that dream. I'm now left with 2X BB, and fold one time, and then I'm UTG+1, and go all in with 108 sooted, the BB (A 10 guy) calls with a8, but a board of qj4a9 comes, and i double up. But still tiny.

Blinds are 8-16K and i have 37K, im UGT +!, and make it 33333 with j9, next guy insta calls, but then the button reraises allin, and I obv call, but the other guy folds. I'm hoping for ak, but he flips qq, and after a q on the flop, I figure I'm dead. But alas, I hit running cards to a flush and double up. I'm sitting 7/8 when it gets folded to me, I auto push with 33, and the big stack BB calls with aq, the board comes with 2 pair, and i'm out in 8. Oh well, next time.

The ups and downs

2006-06-09T00:05:00.000-07:00

of even a normal day are just so crazy. But, I'm grinding along trying to not get too high or too low. Had a bad start to the day, only cashed in one afternoon tourney and it wasnt a good one. At night, I went deep in a Stars 100, and was chip leader going into the final table. But lost a whole bunch of pots, and went out in 5 or 6.

I'm still alive in the midnight 100 on Party, there's 23/432 left, and I have 72K in chips (Ave=56K). Got tranquillo sitting to my right, and I'm preety sure he does very well on Party, so I'll try picking up some ideas. In the last few weeks, I've finally been going deep in party with some regularity, but I have, I think 3 finishes in the teens. It really sucks to get that far, and miss out on the real money that comes with a top 3 spot, but starts going up significantly at the final table.

Stars Morning 100

2006-06-07T10:31:00.000-07:00

So we arrive at the bubble, and I'm slowing builind my stack, down to 20 players (18) pay, and I'm probably 5 or 6'th in chips, when the button raises triple the 300-600 blinds, i'm in the BB, and make it 4200 to go. He flat calls. On a flop of aq2, I quickly go allin, and even more quicker get called by AA. Got trapped bad, but I had him covered. I have approx 2300, so not much fold equity, but it is possible at the right time, that they if I go all in I will get a fold, (that is basically my only way of surviving.) Well, I can't find a good spot, so I keep folding, and then I'm down to 1907 UTG (300-600 blinds). I have to go all in with any 2. Unfortunately, I get 82, (a little "trick" I've noticed, betting almost all, but not all your chips makes it look stronger) so I quickly triple the blinds, as if it's a standard UTG raise, (of course I only have 107 left behind in chips) somehow, they all fold, weeeeeeeeee. So i'm like 17/20 in chips, but of course still looking desperately to chip up at the right time. It gets folded to me on the button, and I have about 2200, again i do the 1800 thing, but this time I have 88, the BB, (a very solid player- can't rem. who it was right now) quickly reraises the small amount I have left, which is clearly the right thing to do with his a7. I don't hold, and am out 20.

Went Deep

2006-06-07T09:28:00.000-07:00

in both the Stars and Party 150's last night, but couldn't complete in either, and I busted in 20-40 range in both.

First time in a long time, I started pre-midday, in the 11am Stars 100 with 58/165 left, and i'm 9'th in chips.

I've been thinking a bit about who I'd like our next president to be, John McCain, Rudy, Hillary? ahhh, none of them seem good. So here goes, let's draft Phil Ivey for president. I'd love to see a President that believes in a government , that limits its reach in our personal lives, dramatically reduces both its intakes and outakes, and has a strong strategy for defending our country. Although, I have no idea whether Ivey actually believes in any of these principles, at least it'd be fun to watch Ahmadinejad try and tell Ivey that he has no dangerous intentions for his nuclear program.

My Alma mater in the news

2006-06-06T15:19:00.000-07:00

Someone does something useful with their NYU eduacation: link .