Here I am again, back in South Florida. This kind of came out of nowhere. I had no intention of coming down here. I was content to sit at home, get the Super Bowl squares wrapped up, the winners paid, and chill at home, thinking about where to go next.
Then, all of a sudden, a situation came up. Our friend 'The Claw' who has been in a self-induced state of retirement from poker the last six months after a blazing hot circuit run...had made the decision to accept an offer to play, staked, for a relative stranger...in the $3500 WPT Coconut Creek Main Event. Not feeling comfortable with accepting a free flight and hotel and any potential 'obligations' that may have come with it...my wife encouraged me to drive her down and stay with her...and play the event myself.
Well? Okay. On my last trip down here in August/September, I min-cashed the Main Event at Hard Rock...and last February I min cashed the Main at Palm Beach in the WSOP circuit event. The cash games down here are soft....really soft. So why not? I decided to go ahead and sell a package to my pool of investors, and welcomed in some new backers who were interested. I sold a package for about $8000...sold 50 shares. In one day...Thursday, I sold 43 of 50 shares. I have 7 unsold, which is fine. I wasn't in a spot where I absolutely HAD to raise the full amount. The package includes the $3500 WPT Main. Then the $1100 Event #9 event at Palm Beach and two potential bullets in the WSOP Palm Beach Main...$1675 twice. If I don't use the 2nd bullet (hopefully) they will all get a total refund.
Claudia and I left Biloxi at midnight Thursday. We managed to avoid speeding tickets, car trouble, running out of gas...and didn't run through any tolls. We arrived around noon, got moved into our room, unpacked, showered and went to the casino. I decided to play the $390 Mega at 3pm...thinking a nice way to start my trip would be to snap off a $3500 mega seat.
I started out...literally, the first hand I played...with a double up. I raised with JJ. Got five callers. Then the older guy in the BB re-raises...from 250 (blinds at 50/100) to 1250! Huh? Hmmm....smells like either a total steal...or AK. I called. One other guy called. The flop comes Q-Q-4. He bets 1500. I wasn't buying it. I call. His body language looked like he was concerned. Good. I like that. The turn was 7. He bets 1700. I call, again. He looked more uneasy. The river was a 3. He shrugs...and goes all in. I tanked, thought the hand out...and convinced myself he has AK...or a pair under mine. I called. And when he said "You probably have me" looked to see 10-10. Yes! That feels so good when you make those kind of calls, and end up being right. Love that! Double up, to start the game.
A short time later...this OMRG would raise under the gun....at 100/200 to 550. I have AA in middle position...and re-raised to 1300. It folds back to him. He calls. The flop comes Q-4-7. He leads out 850. I raise him to 2250. He calls. ??? I am completely putting him on KQ.The turn is a 5. Nothing suited out there. I am pretty sure I'm good. He checks. I bet 3200. He calls again. River is a ten. And he snap shoves. Weird. I call...since it wasn't much more...and he turns over...what else? Q10. Hilarious. I turn to Claudia, who ironically, had drawn the seat next to me, and rolled my eyes.
I was decked back down to 4500. I would made a comeback...and get back to 15,000...and we were down to 11 players, starting with just 29 (and three winners) in this mega. Then I had two big hands...one where I missed open-ended, with a pair...and the next where I got fed up with this guy constantly raising me and Claudia...knowing he was just preying on our short stack. I called from the SB with A2h...a min-raise at 600/1200. The flop came Q-9-5 and two hearts. I looked at the stacks. If I checked...and he bet, it was going to take away my check-raise options...meaning I would have to shove against his bet and NEED to hit a heart (at the least) to win the hand. Shoving all in, my 9200...I could likely take the hand down...a much needed pot of around 6k...which would get me to about 20,000 and some breathing room.
So I shoved. He tanks...and after a long time...calls. With K9 off. Middle pair. 9200, or a little under half his stack. Wow. The guy? The winner of the 2014 Million Dollar Heater at the Beau...who was quick to pass me his phone earlier to show me the picture of him posing for the 'winners' photo of that event. At the time, I congratulated him. I wasn't quite as happy for him after he made that semi-boneheaded call and faded the world...as I turned a wheel draw with a 3....needing a four, a heart, or any ace...15 outs...to get a huge double up. BRICK BRICK. Fuck! I left. Claudia got knocked out right after me.
She took my car to the hotel, and I opted to play some cash game. In for $300...I was quickly up about $300. Then I made a straight flush with 10-8h...to pocket another $150 for that half hour's 'high hand' promotion. Cool! After about 3 hours I was up $700. Noticing it was getting late...around midnight, I decided to play another 30 minutes then call it a night, get some sleep, and be fresh for today's $3500 Main Event...flight B. I had a rough last hour...missing every draw, getting every bluff called...it was nasty. Lost about $300 of my profit. But still cashed out a reasonable profit.
Once again...as I tend to always be...I was restless all night the night before a big Main Event. I hate that. I was the same way before the Super Bowl! Despite getting no sleep the night before, aside from an on-again off-again cat nap, while Claw drove the last four hours...I should have slept like a rock. Negative. But I feel fine. I'm fired up. Ready to go in there, use a great structure...with hour levels, a ton (30k) of chips, and all the blind levels, to my style of game...stay away from disaster..and try to bag up 100k or more at the end of the day.
I have 18 supporters on my bandwagon that I am playing for today. So I hope I can give them something to get excited about. And back home...I have a wife and little girl who I'll be trying to impress! I'm looking down at the clock...and see that it's time to go!!!
MONKEY
PS: Thank you to the reader who commented that Jim Rice, who I mentioned in my previous post as NOT being in the Hall of Fame (undeservedly) is in fact in the Hall of Fame...voted in as a member in 2009.
Then, all of a sudden, a situation came up. Our friend 'The Claw' who has been in a self-induced state of retirement from poker the last six months after a blazing hot circuit run...had made the decision to accept an offer to play, staked, for a relative stranger...in the $3500 WPT Coconut Creek Main Event. Not feeling comfortable with accepting a free flight and hotel and any potential 'obligations' that may have come with it...my wife encouraged me to drive her down and stay with her...and play the event myself.
Well? Okay. On my last trip down here in August/September, I min-cashed the Main Event at Hard Rock...and last February I min cashed the Main at Palm Beach in the WSOP circuit event. The cash games down here are soft....really soft. So why not? I decided to go ahead and sell a package to my pool of investors, and welcomed in some new backers who were interested. I sold a package for about $8000...sold 50 shares. In one day...Thursday, I sold 43 of 50 shares. I have 7 unsold, which is fine. I wasn't in a spot where I absolutely HAD to raise the full amount. The package includes the $3500 WPT Main. Then the $1100 Event #9 event at Palm Beach and two potential bullets in the WSOP Palm Beach Main...$1675 twice. If I don't use the 2nd bullet (hopefully) they will all get a total refund.
Claudia and I left Biloxi at midnight Thursday. We managed to avoid speeding tickets, car trouble, running out of gas...and didn't run through any tolls. We arrived around noon, got moved into our room, unpacked, showered and went to the casino. I decided to play the $390 Mega at 3pm...thinking a nice way to start my trip would be to snap off a $3500 mega seat.
I started out...literally, the first hand I played...with a double up. I raised with JJ. Got five callers. Then the older guy in the BB re-raises...from 250 (blinds at 50/100) to 1250! Huh? Hmmm....smells like either a total steal...or AK. I called. One other guy called. The flop comes Q-Q-4. He bets 1500. I wasn't buying it. I call. His body language looked like he was concerned. Good. I like that. The turn was 7. He bets 1700. I call, again. He looked more uneasy. The river was a 3. He shrugs...and goes all in. I tanked, thought the hand out...and convinced myself he has AK...or a pair under mine. I called. And when he said "You probably have me" looked to see 10-10. Yes! That feels so good when you make those kind of calls, and end up being right. Love that! Double up, to start the game.
A short time later...this OMRG would raise under the gun....at 100/200 to 550. I have AA in middle position...and re-raised to 1300. It folds back to him. He calls. The flop comes Q-4-7. He leads out 850. I raise him to 2250. He calls. ??? I am completely putting him on KQ.The turn is a 5. Nothing suited out there. I am pretty sure I'm good. He checks. I bet 3200. He calls again. River is a ten. And he snap shoves. Weird. I call...since it wasn't much more...and he turns over...what else? Q10. Hilarious. I turn to Claudia, who ironically, had drawn the seat next to me, and rolled my eyes.
I was decked back down to 4500. I would made a comeback...and get back to 15,000...and we were down to 11 players, starting with just 29 (and three winners) in this mega. Then I had two big hands...one where I missed open-ended, with a pair...and the next where I got fed up with this guy constantly raising me and Claudia...knowing he was just preying on our short stack. I called from the SB with A2h...a min-raise at 600/1200. The flop came Q-9-5 and two hearts. I looked at the stacks. If I checked...and he bet, it was going to take away my check-raise options...meaning I would have to shove against his bet and NEED to hit a heart (at the least) to win the hand. Shoving all in, my 9200...I could likely take the hand down...a much needed pot of around 6k...which would get me to about 20,000 and some breathing room.
So I shoved. He tanks...and after a long time...calls. With K9 off. Middle pair. 9200, or a little under half his stack. Wow. The guy? The winner of the 2014 Million Dollar Heater at the Beau...who was quick to pass me his phone earlier to show me the picture of him posing for the 'winners' photo of that event. At the time, I congratulated him. I wasn't quite as happy for him after he made that semi-boneheaded call and faded the world...as I turned a wheel draw with a 3....needing a four, a heart, or any ace...15 outs...to get a huge double up. BRICK BRICK. Fuck! I left. Claudia got knocked out right after me.
She took my car to the hotel, and I opted to play some cash game. In for $300...I was quickly up about $300. Then I made a straight flush with 10-8h...to pocket another $150 for that half hour's 'high hand' promotion. Cool! After about 3 hours I was up $700. Noticing it was getting late...around midnight, I decided to play another 30 minutes then call it a night, get some sleep, and be fresh for today's $3500 Main Event...flight B. I had a rough last hour...missing every draw, getting every bluff called...it was nasty. Lost about $300 of my profit. But still cashed out a reasonable profit.
Once again...as I tend to always be...I was restless all night the night before a big Main Event. I hate that. I was the same way before the Super Bowl! Despite getting no sleep the night before, aside from an on-again off-again cat nap, while Claw drove the last four hours...I should have slept like a rock. Negative. But I feel fine. I'm fired up. Ready to go in there, use a great structure...with hour levels, a ton (30k) of chips, and all the blind levels, to my style of game...stay away from disaster..and try to bag up 100k or more at the end of the day.
I have 18 supporters on my bandwagon that I am playing for today. So I hope I can give them something to get excited about. And back home...I have a wife and little girl who I'll be trying to impress! I'm looking down at the clock...and see that it's time to go!!!
MONKEY
PS: Thank you to the reader who commented that Jim Rice, who I mentioned in my previous post as NOT being in the Hall of Fame (undeservedly) is in fact in the Hall of Fame...voted in as a member in 2009.
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