Back in Nebraska, ready for school

Well I’m back in Nebraska and I’m ready to finish up school. I had a good last week with my family as we got my sister ready for her first year of college. I went and played two nights of the 10/20 game and lost $600. Luckily I was being staked by the table owner who also plays in the game. The second night I was there, he was on the most amazing heater I have ever seen. After buying in for $500, he had over $3500 in front of him after only a few hours. He was getting so cocky that he started playing blind for fun and he was just winning everything blind too. Some hands he would wait until after the river to look while saying, “I must have a flush.” Sure enough, he would flip over a runner runner flush to bad beat Aces. It was just hilarious. Some of the other players were getting so pissed and leave, but I’m sure they came back though the next night. I just have never seen a rush like that, he didn’t even get paid off on many of his hands. He flopped at least trips every other hand it seemed. I ran horribly those two nights. For example, I ran 88 into 22 on a flop of 822. Thankfully, there was a $300 cap to the pots in Montana and there were two other guys in the hand so I didn’t even lose $100 on the hand. Even though the offer is always available, I don’t think I’ll have him stake me again. I just feel awful when I lose someone else’s money. I’ll probably just avoid that game all together.

I took my car in for a random check up on Friday of last week after I blogged and found out that my brakes were worn into the rotor (whatever that means…I don’t know cars). Also, my cooling tank is leaking. I have had problems with my car overheating when I go warm places such as Las Vegas and South Padre Island and have had to continually add coolant. Finally, a car shop told me what I already knew in that my cooling system was leaking. Others have said that there are no problems :( This place also said that it is using oil too. So yeah, the end is in sight for my car. My family and I decided that the best solution is to fix the breaks and then just keep an eye on my fluid levels and temperature gage and try to get my car to Nebraska. So we spent the over $500 to fix the breaks I drove to NE on Wednesday.

I stopped at Leah’s house for Wednesday and Thursday night before leaving early yesterday morning to meet Dave and Rebecca in Lincoln for breakfast. Nate and Nick joined as well. The Anderson’s were driving through because Dave got the job as the new Director of Basketball Operations at Lehigh University. This is a huge gig for him as he wants to be a Division I college basketball coach! Congratulations and best of luck Dave!

I spent the rest of yesterday unpacking and running errands. I wrote my last check to Concordia which is a great feeling! Last night then, some of my buddies came over and we watched some Olympics. I am going to be sad when they end tomorrow. Our basketball team needs to finish the deal over Spain! I am pretty confident.

Today I played some poker, I won a few small satellites and had a few shallow cashes for a positive day. Congrats to my friend David Jabs for double cashing in the early daily doubles today and may have the best combined finishes with I believe a 42nd and 45th finish. He is still waiting to see if he did have the best finishes. Tonight, some of my old college friends are in town playing in the alumni soccer game, so we are going to hang out tonight. It should be a fun one.

Tomorrow I am going to watch the USA basketball team win gold, help Leah unpack, and then who knows? School starts Monday. I have to be in class at 7:30 ewww!!!

Last Two Days

Yesterday afternoon, my family went tubing on a different section of the Stillwater River that we have never done before. This was the most intense tubing ride I have ever been on. It turned out to be an hour and a half ride of almost all rapids. Some parts were fairly dangerous. I think the few rafters we saw thought we were crazy trying to go down that river in single inner tubes. This is definitely something I would love to do with a group of strong friends who can swim well. It was a way bigger adrenaline rush than any rollercoaster I have ever been on. However, I was not that comfortable with my parents and sister on the river, but they handled the rapids really well.

Today, I watched the USA basketball team play pretty well against Greece which really made me happy. I am just so nervous going into those games because the other countries have nothing to lose and we have everything to lose, being the big favorite. As recent history has shown, you just never know what can happen when a loose team with no pressure takes on a huge favorite whose country will crush them if they do not win. Anyway, we are on the right track and I hope we finish it off.

After the game I made my daily trip to my grandparents’ house. I then came home and watched some more Olympics before going to the 10/20 game card room to talk to the owner of the 10/20 table. I know this guy fairly well and I thought there was a chance that he would stake me if I asked. I thought it wouldn’t hurt, so I went and asked. He agreed immediately on a 50/50 chop of my winnings. So I was ready to play when I realized that Thursday nights I guess are 5/10 Omaha nights. So that will have to wait until tomorrow night. Hopefully I can win some money for him tomorrow and the staking continues. I just don’t feel comfortable playing that game under rolled even though I know I’m by far the best player at that table. I left that card room wanting to play some poker and I remembered that I had this free $20 in chips coupon to this other 3/6 game in town. I must have signed up to be a VIP player or something in May because I received this coupon in the mail for my birthday. I bought in for $130 for $150 in chips. I grinded for the two hours required to use the coupon and cashed out for $171.

After playing, I called up an old high school friend, Zim, who I haven’t seen in at least three years and went over to his place for about an hour. We talked for a good hour before I headed home.

I came home and immediately hoped onto Cake. I barely was able to register for the $5 rebuy and the $1500 guaranteed $6 buy in 6 max turbo. I failed to cash in what would have been my 4th straight Cake rebuy tournament cash when I busted about 10 short of the money. I played well in all but one hand in the $6 tourney though and took 4th out of 284. I think I must love having the chip lead with 4 left and taking 4th in these turbos. I made a bad play 4 handed when the BB lost connection. The very next hand as the BB was sitting out with 4 left blinds 4K/8K. UTG was 2nd in chips and he raised to 30K because I thought he was trying to steal the BB chips as he was sitting out. He raised very fast and I just thought he wasn’t strong. Button folds and I push for 300K with Q2. He autocalls with AK and the board comes AKXXX to put me down to 40K and the shortstack. I busted 2 hands later when I pushed with 810 and same guy calls out of the SB with A5 and the board comes another AKXXX to send me to the rail. In hindsight of course that Q2 play by me was completely unnecessary because the guy on my right was very tight and the other guy was sitting out, even though it was only for like 3 hands. There is no need for me to sacrifice my chip lead to take down a 42K pot with Q2. I don’t know though, I took down pots making plays like that throughout the tourney that got me to that point without showing my hands. I’m just going to have to live with my decision I guess. 4th paid $128.

Alright time for bed.

Update

Yesterday, I went and played some cards with my grandma. Then my sister and I went shopping. I love TJ Maxx and Ross! We are getting a Kohl’s here in Billings in the next month or so also. Along with Gordman’s, those four department stores are my favorite. They have good brands and they are fairly inexpensive. Anyway, I improved my teaching wardrobe some yesterday. Last night, I played 4 2-table sngs on tilt and took 4th in one. My parents and I went to a Billings Mustangs game at 7 as I was able to see Billings’ new baseball field. It was a huge step up from the previous one. The Billings Mustangs are the Cincinnati Reds Rookie league team. Yes, that is one below A league. Surprisingly, the Mustangs have had their share of stars play for them. Some examples are Paul O’Neill, Trevor Hoffman, Bret and Aaron Boone, Adam Dunn, Jay Bruce, George Brett, and more that I can’t remember at the moment. Even though the Mustangs lost, it was a good time though.

Today, I went and played cards once again with my grandma and then came home and watched the USA basketball game. I then played in 4 tourneys. I shallow cashed in 3 of them (one was another rebuy on cake where my strategy didn’t fail me once again). Another tourney I cashed in was a $5 6 max tourney on stars where this funny hand came up.

PokerStars Game #19572774656: Tournament #100867838, $5.00+$0.50 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (200/400) - 2008/08/12 - 20:35:01 (ET)
Table '100867838 101' 6-max Seat #3 is the button
Seat 2: TooPoorToPay (11438 in chips)
Seat 3: titilijia (3070 in chips)
Seat 4: mmmmmmMike (6670 in chips)
Seat 5: CU_bball (20347 in chips)
Seat 6: gyppo pikey (11150 in chips)
TooPoorToPay: posts the ante 50
titilijia: posts the ante 50
mmmmmmMike: posts the ante 50
CU_bball: posts the ante 50
gyppo pikey: posts the ante 50
mmmmmmMike: posts small blind 200
CU_bball: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to CU_bball [7c 5c]
gyppo pikey: raises 800 to 1200
TooPoorToPay: folds
titilijia: folds
mmmmmmMike: folds
CU_bball: calls 800
*** FLOP *** [6c 8c 4c]
CU_bball: checks
gyppo pikey: bets 1200
CU_bball: calls 1200
*** TURN *** [6c 8c 4c] [9c]
CU_bball: checks
gyppo pikey: checks
*** RIVER *** [6c 8c 4c 9c] [6s]
CU_bball: bets 3200
gyppo pikey: raises 5200 to 8400
CU_bball: raises 5200 to 13600
gyppo pikey: calls 300 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (4900) returned to CU_bball
*** SHOW DOWN ***
CU_bball: shows [7c 5c] (a straight flush, Five to Nine)
gyppo pikey: shows [8d 8s] (a full house, Eights full of Sixes)
CU_bball collected 22650 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 22650 Rake 0
Board [6c 8c 4c 9c 6s]
Seat 2: TooPoorToPay folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: titilijia (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 4: mmmmmmMike (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 5: CU_bball (big blind) showed [7c 5c] and won (22650) with a straight flush, Five to Nine
Seat 6: gyppo pikey showed [8d 8s] and lost with a full house, Eights full of Sixes

I just plan on watching the Olympics tonight and maybe play a little. I’ll blog if I have a big score. Thanks for reading.

Heater over

Well, my heater is over. I played in 5 small buy in tourneys today and just shallow cashed in the early double A. I got knocked out on this funny hand.

Full Tilt Poker Game #7595409553: Early Double - A (57652686), Table 8 - 800/1600 Ante 200 - No Limit Hold'em - 19:22:01 ET - 2008/08/10
Seat 2: sputneck (17,515)
Seat 3: KandD (32,197)
Seat 4: zibra (17,083)
Seat 5: hennerz0 (34,000)
Seat 6: nemo636 (18,529)
Seat 7: Bobber32 (43,226)
Seat 8: yzt777yzt (19,150)
Seat 9: 1106leah (11,305)
sputneck antes 200
KandD antes 200
zibra antes 200
hennerz0 antes 200
nemo636 antes 200
Bobber32 antes 200
yzt777yzt antes 200
1106leah antes 200
1106leah posts the small blind of 800
sputneck posts the big blind of 1,600
The button is in seat #8
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to 1106leah [Qc Qh]
KandD has 15 seconds left to act
KandD raises to 4,200
zibra folds
hennerz0 folds
nemo636 folds
Bobber32 folds
yzt777yzt folds
1106leah raises to 11,105, and is all in
sputneck folds
KandD has 15 seconds left to act
sloppy zoppy sits down
sloppy zoppy adds 38,303
KandD has requested TIME
KandD calls 6,905
1106leah shows [Qc Qh]
KandD shows [Qd Kd]
sputneck: 55
*** FLOP *** [4s 2d Kc]
*** TURN *** [4s 2d Kc] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [4s 2d Kc Qs] [Kh]
1106leah shows a full house, Queens full of Kings
KandD shows a full house, Kings full of Queens
KandD wins the pot (25,410) with a full house, Kings full of Queens
1106leah stands up
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 25,410 Rake 0
Board: [4s 2d Kc Qs Kh]
Seat 2: sputneck (big blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 3: KandD showed [Qd Kd] and won (25,410) with a full house, Kings full of Queens
Seat 4: zibra folded before the Flop
Seat 5: hennerz0 folded before the Flop
Seat 6: nemo636 folded before the Flop
Seat 7: Bobber32 folded before the Flop
Seat 8: yzt777yzt (button) folded before the Flop
Seat 9: 1106leah (small blind) showed [Qc Qh] and lost with a full house, Queens full of Kings

Haha what a rollercoaster!!! I wasn’t too disappointed as we all have taken way worse beats and I wanted to go play the 10/20 live game in town anyway. I was thinking about playing this game most of the nights this week and make a couple grand, but maybe I should reconsider as I lost $400 today. I mixture of bad plays by me and horrible beats, my stack dwindled fairly quickly. I was at an ideal table with the crazy aggressive “gypsy,” as they call this darker skinned guy, on my right and the tight guys on my left. I 3 betted this guy a ton to isolate. But he seemed to have my number today. Just one of the multiple similar examples would be when I three bet him with KJ and we see a K high flop. Turn would be a 6 and he would check raise. He check raised complete bluffs many times before, so I called him down. He turned over K6. Like I said, this was just one example. I am going to take a few days off of live play and then decide whether or not I want to take one last shot at that game before I head back to Nebraska. I am without a doubt positive EV, but I feel too uncomfortable when I get down $100 right away. I should never feel that uncomfortable playing poker. It was a lot easier when I was playing this game and then going home and 4 tabling 20/40 online. The next option down though in Billings is a 3/6 game with one single $2 blind, which I do not like that much. So we’ll see.

After I blew that money, I met up with my buddy Colin. We went to the Montana Fair to meet up with his fiancé and sister. (I am going to be an usher in his wedding next June). I think tonight was a contest to see which girls could dress the skankiest. Last time I went, I was in high school and I just don’t remember it being that dirty. Sadly, I couldn’t look right or left without seeing a pregnant teenager. I noticed a new type of food they were selling…deep fried pepsi. This was just a head scratcher. I came home and googled it and I found this short clip about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTAOBQmFdNk
What will they come up with next? Maybe something healthy?

USA basketball team put on a decent performance with a 101-70 victory. They still have many flaws, such as 3-point shooting. I saw some of the Spain/Greece game the other day and Spain really scares me. I also saw the most incredible swimming race tonight. We snuck by favored France in the 4X100 freestyle relay. We were down the whole race and the anchor had an unbelieveable last 30 meters or so to win by .08 seconds. I still can’t believe it! Phelps still has a chance at 8 gold medals. Go USA!

Great Saturday, Lots of Poker

I woke up and went to my grandparents’ house for lunch. I then played some rummy and this game called “casino” with my grandma. I grew up playing a lot of different card games with her as well as a lot of pinochle with our extended family. Anyway, it was great to see my grandparents. They are always so thankful when I come over because, sadly, they do not do too much throughout the day.

After playing a few games with my grandma, I came home and played 6 tourneys. Here’s how they went:

$40 Cake poker satty that I freerolled into- Busted right before the first break.

$5 turbo on Stars- 4th out of 2206 for $661. This was a really good score for me. Sadly, I the chip lead with 4 left. I made what turned out to be a bad call with A10d in the bb after the button pushed all-in with AK. He held. I then was 4th in chips and I pushed with 7 10 and was called by KQ. He won. The $2300 for first would have been nice, but it didn’t happen. While I was focusing on this, I was grinding away at the early daily doubles on full tilt. Amazingly I was close to the money and I did not remember any previous hands.

$5 Daily double A- grinded into the money (216 get paid in each). Was down to 4.5 big blinds when the cutoff min raised. I pushed on the button with KJd and he of course called. He had 89 and the flop was 88X to knock me out. $9 was the payout.

$5 Daily double B- grinded into the money. I do not remember many hands but I patiently worked my way to a 13th place finish for $57. I received $13 for cashing in both after chopping 3% of the jackpot with the other double cashers. I was hoping to ship the best double finish for 2% of the jackpot for $385, but some guy finished 32nd and 67th for an average of 45th. I only averaged 70th.

$11 satty to the Sunday million on Stars- busted early.

$10 rebuy on Cake- I always join these Cake rebuys at the end of the first hour. I buy in and add on every time. So I received 4000 chips (close to average stack with around 25% of the entrants gone [lol at Cake players]) with the blinds at 75/150 for only $20. I have had a lot of success in the past doing this. Others use this strategy on Cake so I like to wait until there is a number divisible by 10 in entrants remaining before I register. This then puts me at a new table with only new entrants as well. So I am only going against guys with 4000 and 5500 (if they rebuy and add on) chips. I won this tourney in April using the same strategy. This strategy paid off once again. I ended up finishing 31st for $50.

I am playing some of the best tournament poker that I have ever played. It helps to have most of dominating hands hold up and to win a flips. So it looks like I invested $49.50 in buy-ins (excluding the fact that I had tourney chips on stars) and I cashed for $790 for a profit of $740. Great day online for me these days…and I wasn’t done with poker yet.

After going for a run and showering, I decided to ride the heater and go play a 10/20 game on one of the card rooms here in Billings. The same regulars were still there that played two years ago. They are all friendly as they asked me where I had been. I walked away after 3 hours up a nice $245. Needless to say, it was a great day of poker!

The USA plays China in basketball tomorrow. I’ll DVR it so I can go to church. They better not disappoint.

Had a good week. Back home in Montana.

I'm getting better at the 12 hour drive from Seward to Billings each time. Surprisingly, I wasn't really tired at all when I arrived in Billings around 8:30 tonight. It is great to see my family for the first time since early June!

It was a fun and productive week. I worked the Nebraska basketball camp Mon-Thurs from 8:30-5:00 each day. It was tough getting up at 7am every morning but I guess I'm going to be a teacher and have to start getting used to it. The camp was great. I thought it was well organized and well ran. However, there was not much talent at the camp and I have never seen a group of more unmotivated campers. I had to remind the kids multiple times that their parents paid for the camp and they should at least hustle a little haha. I don't think it helped that there were seniors in high school playing against 7th graders. On a positive note, I met some awesome people who helped out with the camp including some of the Husker players. I hope to build on some of those relationships in the future. One can never know too many people in the basketball and coaching worlds. I have learned that many division I basketball coaches started out as just team managers. If I ever decide to pursue a division I college basketball coaching position, connections will play a vital role. I do not see that being realistic for me at this point however. Overall, Huskers camp was a great experience. Getting paid well (in my opinion) made it even better :)

Each day after camp I would drive back to Seward and play some online tourneys until around midnight. Monday, I won an $11 satellite into the Sunday Warm-Up. I cashed out $215 in tourney chips for future use. Tuesday, I made top 20 out of over 3000 in a freeroll on cake and qualified for the $40 buy-in “freeroll into millions 250K semi-final.” I will play that on Saturday at 2:00 mst. GL me! Wednesday, I took 13th in my favorite tourney in the world (the $15 buy-in 5K guaranteed that I won over a month ago) in my 2nd time playing it since for $60. Other than a few shallow cashes, I struck out in my other tourneys.

After camp was over on Thursday, I decided to head to the Horseshoe in Council Bluffs. I played in the $70 bounty at 7pm. I have a history of being an awful bounty player and I stayed true to form as I last a little over an hour and a half collecting zero bounties and finishing in like 60th out of 90 people. Fine. I hopped in one of the 3/6 limit tables after a few hands, I found the beautiful J5h in the cutoff after everyone limped. I make a suspect limp and we take a family pot to the flop: Kh Js 9h. It is bet and raised before it gets to me. Two people behind me call the $6 before I act lol. So I make it $9 trying to build the pot. No one folds. Turn 6c. Checked to me. I bet to build. Everyone calls. River 2h. Checked to me. I bet. Every one calls haha. I saw a two pair and a lower flush out there. I ship the monster pot. I sit for a while longer, lose some pots and I decide to play some $1/3 no limit. I left the 3/6 up $66. Almost even on the trip. I sit down at the NL table and the first hand I see as I’m sitting down, the guy on my left bets $150 into a $60 pot and I start licking my chops. It turns out we never get in a hand together the rest of the night. I play tight for a few rounds and feel out the table before this hand came up. Everyone folds to an aggressive player in the hijack who raises to $15. I make it $45 in the cutoff with AJo. The bb, an older guy whose was playing his second hand (he posted utg haha) flat calls. That scares me. Flop comes A83 rainbow. Checked around. Turn J. BB bets $45 with what has got to be AK or AQ. Hijack folds and I just call leaving him with $70 more to give me on the river. River 7. He bets $45. I put him in and he calls and shows AK. I ship the $250 pot. I keep on building from there for another hour and a half or so before I decide to call it quits when the blinds get to me.

As I’m racking my chips, I find 88 utg and limp. A 30-year-old dude raises to $13 from the cutoff, button calls, sb calls, I call. Flop comes 10 5 2. Checked around. Turn 5. Checked to me. I bet $25. The preflop raiser makes it $75 and the others fold. I go into the tank for the longest time that I have ever taken in my limited live poker experience. I know we are only on the turn, but as I think it out, he just wouldn’t play AA, KK, QQ, JJ, or even 10 10 like that. The only hands he possibly could have had was either AK, AQ, or AJ and he was making a play. He had $100 behind. So I decided I was going to either push or fold (comments for how I played this hand are welcome). So it was a $150 decision. I’m trying to get some read on him and I was 99% that he had AK, AQ, or AJ. But I just couldn’t pull the trigger. I am embarrassed to say this, but after more than 5 minutes of me changing my mind in my head whether it was worth it or not. I finally decide to fold, up $240 at NL. I folded face up and told him that he had AK and that I was too much of a tight wad. He shows AK and I tell him nice play. I was so mad at myself for not going with my gut. I asked him if he would have called an all in on the turn and he said yes (debatable) because he had half his stack in there and he might have been good since it took me so long. So in retrospect, I could have been 6 outted. Still, drove home to Seward so mad at myself for not just following my gut instinct and making the correct and pretty obvious play of pushing because he really only could have had those hands. So I ended up $230 on the night which I can’t complain with at all.

I woke up Friday morning, packed and hit the road. I made it to Billings and had a good talk with my parents. I’m going to sleep in tomorrow, go see my grandparents, and then play my Cake tourney that I qualified for. After that, I will probably get together with one of my best friends Colin, who I haven’t seen since New Year’s. That will be good. I have no other plans for the rest of my trip here so I will update as things happen.

Side note: In the last three days, two people have said that I look like Jon Heder from Napoleon Dynamite. One of my players I coached said that I look and talk like him. A guy at one of the poker tables said that I look like him from a certain angle. I don’t really see the resemblance as Jon Heder probably has girls flocking him, but I do have one of those faces that people always ask, “Do I know you from somewhere?” or “Have we ever met before, you look familiar?” Anyways, thanks for reading. Updates to come.