$10k HU Championship, $5k PLO, $10k Stud 8, $10k PLO, Worn out

It’s been a little while since my last blog, and I know lots of bloggers always say they don’t have time and most of the time that’s BS. However, this time, it really is true! I’ve been home awake for maybe a total of 4 hours in the last week. The only time I’m home is when I’m sleeping.

I played the $25k Heads Up Championship event and beat an online NL tourney player in 10 minutes or so in the first round. I was the second winner. Second round had a little mix-up as I was playing 100/200/400 PLO between matches and arrived about 10 minutes late to find somebody else playing in my seat! There was some confusion but after all was said and done, Hoyt Corkins and I played for about an hour and I was the victor. The next day I played William Thorrson who I played a lot of 50/100 and 100/200 HU NL with about 2 years ago and had his game on lockdown and won in about an hour. The fourth round match was against a guy named "Dragon" from Slovakia I think and that match was pretty fun and over in about 5 or 10 minutes. The fifth round was against Johnny Chan who I’ve played a lot with in Bobby’s room in all the games and had a good idea of how he would approach the match. I ran really cold and I made one mistake that probably didn’t influence the outcome of the match that much. I was really setting Johnny up for something that he might fall for but it never came to fruition because I never got a hand that I could play in the way I sensed he sensed was weak. He knocked me out after about an hour and a half and that was that. I cashed for $38k in 13′th place. Throughout Day 2 of the HU Championship I ended up playing the $2500 PLO and the $1500 HORSE as well and nothing really happened in those.

I ended up playing the $5k PLO and probably drew the toughest starting table in the tournament with over half the table being winning regulars at 25/50+ PLO on FTP. However, I picked my spots well and played okay on Day 1. On Day 2 I really made some big moves including 3 betting Bruno Fitoussi 3/4 of my stack with K732 on a J664 board. The second big move was when I limped on the button and Devilfish completed the small blind and an irish kid checked the big blind at 1500/3k level, the flop came AQ9 rainbow and Devilfish led out for 6k, the irish kid called, I made it 27k, devilfish called, irish kid folded, the turn came a 5 and devilfish check-folded for my pot allin. I ended up showing him three cards, T-7-5 which was pretty fun. I ended up min cashing in the event and as soon as I got my cash slip for $11,000 I ran over to the $10k Stud 8 Championship and arrived two hours late.

Again, I drew the toughest starting table in the tournament with Abe Mosseri, Erick Lindgren, Chris Reslock, Jennifer Harman, David Benyamine, Mike Sexton, and a tight tight tight asian guy I brutally misplayed a hand against. I waded through the table and came back on Day 2 with just a few more chips than what I started with. I was very picky with my spots on Day 2 and found much softer spots than what I was given on Day 1. I never had more than 65,000 chips until late in Day 2 when I went on a little rush when I got moved to my third table of the day. I held that chip position and dipped down a bit coming into Day 3 which is pretty much identical to what happened to me in the $10k 2-7 NL Event, just ended up running dry very late on Day 2. I came back yesterday on Day 3 for the final 12 of the Stud 8 and couldn’t even stay awake at the table so I slept between hands and grinded along winning a few pots until we reached the final table. During the short break before we moved over to the main featured final table Mike Matusow convinced me and basically dragged me outside to do jumping jacks and do windsprints. I couldn’t believe the kind of energy this gave me even though I felt like I was going to die. It really did the trick and I came to the final table feeling very focused and awake. I was the shortstack for 3 hours and had to make 3 very very big laydowns which were correct each time until I just couldn’t hold on any longer and went out 8′th for about $55,000 + $25,000 in side bets.

Despite how I felt starting the day, I felt able to play one of the most important events for me which was the $10k PLO Championship. I started with one of the easiest tables and ended up losing the first 10 pots I played with nothing I could do different. When Phil Ivey got moved to my table, everything changed though and I started to win pots. I really had great focus and I made two very big plays which I don’t want to talk about but I raised the turn both time and they folded both time. I also had to fold a full house to Andy Bloch which took me about 30 seconds to make on a ATT39 board and I’m pretty sure was correct. Our table broke and I got moved to a table where I again controlled the action and mounted top 5 chips until Steve Zolotow and I played a monster pot and had I hit my full wrap with flush draw, I would’ve had over 260,000 chips. However, I was knocked down to 70,000. I got moved from that table and chipped up to about 110,000 at my new table until a drunk Ziigmund with 220,000 chips got moved to my immediate left and raised every pot and I just played tight. Today not much happened besides making 1 really good move in a 3 way pot and getting coolered by Markus Golser on a J33 board with A663 vs AJ3x when I had 120,000 chips and RIGHT after I made a bet of $10,000 to win $260,000 with about 78 people left during break. I was crippled to 15,000 after that hand but within half an hour was back up to 110,000. I then repotted a hand with AKQT and whiffed completely and was forced to fold when I got potted into, and then I ran AA98 into 8743 flop 652 and out the door I went. Since about 10:00 tonight I’ve been hanging out at home relaxing and I can tell you it’s pretty nice. I’m going to decide tomorrow if I feel up to playing the $2500 Razz at 5:00 which should be a pretty juicy event. Razz is probably one of my better games and most people play it poorly. Hopefully I get good rest tonight and wake up refreshed tomorrow.

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