7k in 7days: Ahead of Pace

I had a decent day yesterday. Had it not been for a horrendous call that I made on a river, I would have done a lot better. However, to counter that horrendous call I made two great calls. I'll go through all three hands in the order that I played them:

1) Donk straddles, I'm on the button. Three or four callers, I call the button with T8 offsuit. Straddle pops it $100 more. Everyone folds and I call. Flop comes Qxx. Donk insta-checks. I bet out $80 to get a read, I know that he's not folding. He raises to $180. I call with a read that he doesn't have shit, planning to pop him on the turn or river. Turn is a ten. He checks. I check, hoping to induce a bet on the river if I can fade a king or ace. River is another queen. He bets $200, I call and he mucks his hand and I don't have to show.

2) I straddle with Q9 offsuit, five callers. Flop comes Q8x. I check UTG and the whole table checks. Turn is a 9, bringing a second club. I bet out $80. One caller and the button, who is the tightest player on the table, makes it $150 more. I put him on JT and call, hoping to hit my boat or bluff the river if a club hits. The other player calls as well, killing my club bluff on the river. The only other hand I can put the raiser on is 89. The river is an 8, which is pretty much the worst card for my hand. We both check to the button and he bets $600. I tank and finally call with a prayer that he's bluffing and he shows JT of hearts. Like I said, horrible call.

3) Four limpers and I have 55 on the button. I make it $60. The same donk from hand (1) is the only caller. The flop comes J-8-4. He checks to me and I bet $100. He raises to $200. I call, I don't have him on anything. The turn is another jack and almost before the card comes out he bets $260. I call. The river is a 7. He fires out $400 right away and I think for a long time. I'd love to be able to raise him in case he got lucky with a hand like A7 but I only have $150 after the $400. I eventually call and he shows Q4 and the whole table can't believe that I called with 55.

Today I'm working on some stuff for my new business and then going to the casino around 1/2 p.m. I got there late yesterday and missed out on some good action. I think I arrived around 3/4 p.m. and there was a great game going. I got on the list but by the time I got to the game it wasn't that good.

Day 1: -$170
Day 2: +$4320
Day 3: +$810
Total: +$4960

Good luck, 4 years (don't forget)

Off 2 Good Start

Well Tuesday after I posted on here I was motivated to go to the studio and record so I didn't get to the casino until like 9 p.m.

The studio session was very productive, I recorded four songs including the poker song (that was the worst by far) and I'm waiting for them to be mixed down so I'll post a couple once I get them.

At the casino I doubled up my first hand of the night at the $200 game (2/5 blinds) when I limped in the cutoff with 57 offsuit and flopped the nuts. I just smooth called a guy on the flop and turn and moved in on the river and he had to call.

Then I table changed to a table that had more donks and promptly went down 170. At this point my boy hit me and told me p.i. was in town and ready to kick it so I left to go out and the first night was a loss. Great discipline right? Someone asks me to go out and I leave down.

Yesterday was a different story. I beasted the $400 game ridiculously and was up nearly $3k when the table was about to break. On the last hand of the table I tried to move a tight player off his pocket kings on a Q466x board and doubled him up to drop $900.

The game broke and I went to the $500 game and did well in that game. It was a crazy game with some eccentric personalities but unfortunately I don't have time to write about them. The funny thing is I ended up winning the same exact amount at both the $400 game and the $500 game: $2160.

So far here are my 7k in 7 days results:

Day 1: -$170
Day 2: +$4320

About to go back to the casino now. 4years, peace!

7k in 7dayz

Here we go y'all.

Another challenge to myself. I really wish I had set a goal when I was in Vegas so that I was more focused and disciplined.

Tryin to make 7k in 7 days.

Basically the reason for this is that next Tuesday I'm flying to Hawaii for a week and then to Seattle for a week. I don't think I'm going to make much money during that time (the biggest drawback of playing professional poker is there's no paid time off) so I need to stack some before I go.

I figure if I can make 7k, that will do.

Right now I'm writing lyrics so I haven't started yet but I'll start this afternoon.

four years!

here's my poker song, I think i'm gonna record it today to lady gaga's poker face beat.

Hook
You wanna play me? Then raise me...
Cuz guess what man I'm crazy...
I don't give a fuck about my cash
Or any odds you lay me...

verse1
I'm sittin at my table, all these donkeys workin' angles...
They don't understand I'm quite willing and able to fanagle...
..I dangle invitations to the soft calling stations...
Then I pop 'em when I flop 'em and they can't believe I'm raisin...
Yeah, I'm a test your patience it ain't safe when I'm involved...
Cuz I might just fuck around, play it blind and bet it all....
Best believe me there's a reason to my rhyme like every time...
Crazy dude I'm makin' moves that will confuse and blow your mind...

verse2
I'm still grinding like Phil Ivey, just as grimey as Jerome...
And I been known to kill a table anytime I'm in the zone...
Mista murda, killa kev I'm on the hunt for any fish...
Friday night you playin' poker cuz you couldn't get a bitch...
Well fuck it now you mine, I'm a catch you with these nines...
Hit a set and stick 'em up your ass until they touch your spine...
Now our chips are all combined, in the middle lookin' juicy...
You keep on throwin jabs but your punches couldn't move me...
And did I mention half the cocktail staff are my groupies?...
Probly cuz they see me with more sets than a movie....

verse2
I get rich, you get poor, there's nothing else to be explored...
Guarantee I'm here tomorrow so come back and give me more...
Yeah, go and ask the floor, how much money I be stackin'...
They livin' off my tips, so they're dyin' for my action...
Yes I give it and I take it, I been called the corporation...
Tax you dummies for your money that's my only motivation...
Hesitations I see faces when they twisted cuz they missed it...
Taking chips like they pics, please come again thanks for the business...

Running good, playing better

I'm on my a-game right now.

I think it qualifies as a heater now and it couldn't have been more on time. Ten day winning streak and I hope to keep it going... forever. Yeah, Bobby's Room here I come. This is how it works right?

It's funny how winning or success breeds more success (winning) and actually does motivate me to get other shit done in life. In this case I'm talking music. I'm ready to get some business done.

Back to the poker, I've been running good but playing good. I would say almost as good as I've ever played. Everyone at my casino tells me that I'm running good and I like that. I like for people to tell me how lucky I am. Because that means I'm winning. To the outside eye, the guy with all the chips is always the luck box. To me, it's the guy who's willing to push a guy off his AQ with shit on a Axx flop when it can be done. And fold it when it can't be done.

There's two things that I've really been trying to work on the past month:

1) Isolating the bad players, or isolating anyone for that matter. This means a lot of re-raising pre-flop with a wide range of hands. I've done it with K2, JT, etc. if I feel like the original raiser could be outplayed.

2) Playing position against good players. This seems quite obvious but it makes a huge difference in the long run and I think it's easy to fall into early position traps and shitty situations with suited connectors, flush draws, top pair, etc. I'm trying to minimize my early position situations.

This weekend has been a good weekend as my guy big time aka fake drake is in town for the weekend from Wisconsin.

P.S. if you like hip hop, check out the new song I put up top. It goes.

Four Years.

I'm On A Roll

I'm an ass because I haven't posted yet this week and I told myself I'd be on here regularly.

Good news: I have a session winning streak that dates back to last Monday so that's Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Sun, Mon, Tues, Weds all wins. Much needed. My smallest win was about $200 and my biggest was $2700 with everything in between (although only one session over $2000).

The best part about this (or actually the worst probably) is that Hollywood Park has been pretty dead. The $400 game has been off-and-on ever since I got back from Vegas and the $200 game is full of grinders with a few donks mixed in but rarely have any donks touched the $400 game, which is my main game.

I celebrated with my boy who made the main event final table at the WSOP and he wanted to make sure that I'm at the final table. I've been in the audience three times when he's made the final table and he's won all three times, that includes two wsop bracelets and one WPT championship. So I can't wait until November to see it go down!! The game plan is already in place and I'm full confident that he'll be able to take down if he can avoid two or more bad beats while he's one of the smaller stacks. We're not really the euro-types to start chanting and singing when he wins a pot so we're thinking about just getting some t-shirts printed up so espn can identify his crew without us acting an ass. As my boy said "we're too cool to do that stuff." hahaha.

Hopefully all y'[all are killing the tables.

Peace.. 4 years!!

My WSOP tournament losses

I played three WSOP tournaments: the first 1k stimulus tournament and two $1500 tournaments. Due to so much missed time on here and me trying to slowly get back into the habit of writing, I'm going to break these up. I've also added a bunch of pictures to the side bar "famous foes," I'm sure you'll recognize some and won't recognize some.

In the first tournament I went deep into the 12th level, which was around 1:00 a.m. on the first day or so. I played fairly strong the entire day until the last couple levels. Basically what happened was somehow we had a huge fish with a huge stack at our table. So I tried to get involved in hands with him and it backfired. I called him down with KJ on a jack high board and he had aces. I was amazed that some horrible players had deep stacks late in the tournament.

This was my first real tournament experience and it's just amazing how many guys shove with A7 or better and get lucky by spiking an ace against any random pocket pair. There was one guy at my table late in the day who treated his ace-rags like they were kings.

Anyways I played day 1a with nearly 3000 players and it was estimated that if day 1b was the same, roughly 500-600 players would be paid. We were down to about 350 players in day 1a when I busted out. The part that really sucked was that when I was leaving the room they announced "Congratulations players, you've all made it to day two." Lol.

One thing that did really suck about the tournament was my first break. I headed to the bathroom to take a piss. I was in the middle of my piss when every single toilet in the bathroom (at least 20 toilets) started overflowing simultaneously. Great. Dirty piss water all over my Jordans.

This would be a sign of things to come.

Quick Update

I apologize to those who have followed my blog as well as offered their words of support in my poker quest/career.

When I went to Vegas for the month of June, I was expecting to have a live internet connection in my hotel room but due to some technical difficulties, I had no connection at the Bellagio.

My first month pro was good in Los Angeles as I made some money. However, I slipped in a few areas and I'm mad at myself for that. I stopped tracking my numbers by the hour and instead decided to keep a rough count like most of my peers do. You go to the casino with 1500, you come home with 2200, you know how much you made. Simple enough.

I think that not writing my numbers down and recording them made it easier for me to lose.

That combined with the fact that I was getting the worst run of cards in my life in Vegas and not cashing in any tournaments was a bad combination.

Now I'm back in L.A. and grinding again so I'll start posting more often and give this blog some much needed updates.

The good news is a friend of mine won two bracelets at the WSOP and is making a deep run in the Main Event right now. You can probably figure out who he is. He's also 3-0 at winning a final table when I'm there so I'm hoping he makes it to November and I can be present to watch him make poker history.

Peace.