I started Christmas shopping early this year, on the 21st.  I made it to one store, spent over $1500, and bought skis for me and a snowboard for Shelley.  I decided instead of PCA and copious amounts of $8 Kaliks that this year I’m going to spend a bunch of time in Colorado.  Very stoked with purchase one.

The next day I lasted about 15 minutes.  I went to Fry’s Electronics at Town Center to buy a Kindle for my Mom, a video game for my brother, and perhaps something for Jared.  I left without buying anything.  Pretty tough for me to do that, but they didn’t have Kindles and the salesperson knew nothing about the other readers.

I drove over to the Town Center parking lot, and most of southern Las Vegas was there.  It was insane.  I had my 5pm breakfast at Yardhouse, walked outside, and got blasted by the coldest wind I’ve felt in a while.  Screw it I’m going home.  That’s why you start shopping early imo.  I stopped at a Best Buy on the way home, again bought nothing, and resorted myself to online shopping and overnight shipping.  I bought the Kindle, it made it on time, and decided that I’d finish the rest on the 23rd.

I did, Shelley came back to town that night, and we drove down to Cali on the 24th.  Had dinner with my fam and Mom’s side grandparents.  Twas good.

My sister started school at Ohio State this semester and is broke.  Instead of giving her cash straight up I decided to have her gamble it.  I traditionally torture her usually with how I wrap the present, but this time I made the present a self torturing torturer.  We played “Let’s Make a Deal”.  I put values on 26 cards ranging from $0.01 to $1000, played it exactly as the game is played, and acted as the banker to make her offers.  Round one went great for her, and then on round two she got nailed.  By round three she was left with the $400 case as her only big one remaining.  She pushed on and eventually took an offer of $121 with 4 cases remaining; $400, $75, $25, and $0.05.  Her next pick would have been the $400 case, and she held the case worth a nickel.  Good deal.

That night drove down to Shelley’s fam’s house, did Christmas this morning, and are now on th en the way up to OC for my extended family gathering that’s always a blast.

Peace and Good Luck,

Devo

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So I came into day two with a decent pile, one that I was happy with to say the least after winning that flip vs. Paul Wasicka.  The unfortunate thing about my day two table, after promising to do my homework, was that I knew all the people at the table besides Brenden Steven, who turns out to own the Wichita Ford, Lincoln, Volvo, Subaru, Honda, and Mercedes dealership.  He even has a webpage containing all of his inspirational quotes.  Anyways, day two was pretty uninteresting for me except for one hand.  Daryl Fish, a good friend of mine who wasn’t at our starting table but who got moved there opened under the gun with blinds at 500-1000/100 for 2700.  I was two down the line and had AKo, a little over 100k, and decided to just call due to depth of stacks.  Sam Stein, another good buddy of mine and excellent player was to my left, and decided to re-raise to just under 9k.  At this point I’m not thrilled, but on the other hand I have a disguised ace king and two monkeys putting chips into the pot.  It folded back to Fish who tanked for a little while, and gave off enough physical tells and took long enough for me to feel pretty good about him not having AA or KK, and then he re-re-raised to about 28k.  It was my turn, my first instinct was to fold (because I’m a nit), but F these guys… “I’m all in.”

Sam’s turn, he took about fifteen seconds and folded.  Back to Fish, who didn’t snap, which obv made me feel good about my read, and he finally folded.  We played one more hand and then went on break, and Sam claimed to fold kings while Fish claimed to fold queens.

That night we had Fish as our guest for the pokerroad B team, and he confirmed that he had queens, and I disclosed that I had ace king, and we had a good laugh.  We both believed Sam.  Turns out he was lying.  He had the eight four of hearts.  Haha.

I ended up finishing the day with just under three thousand more chips than I started the day with.

The day three table wasn’t any better.  Andy Bloch was the oldest player at the table by a longshot, and turns out that I was the second oldest.  No wonder why they call me grandpa.  Fortunately the table broke soon, but unfortunately they moved me to another murders row with a ton of chips.

I hung out for a while, then went on a heater.  I turned a little over 100k into 570k in one level, climaxing with a set of deuces that I opened in early position with.  I was called on the button, flop Q32 with two diamonds, I bet 13,400, button raised to 40k, and I shipped for about 280k total, got called by Q9dd, and held.

Unfortunately the next level would prove disastrous, and it was mostly my fault.  Daniel Alaei was moved to the table.  I opened the cutoff at 3k-6k/500 to 14,500, Daniel called the small blind, and we saw a flop heads up.  It came AA6 with two spades, one heart.  Daniel checked, I bet 18,500, and he made it 42k.  This is where I should have shut down, simply because Daniel is good and isn’t going to spew.  Instead I said to myself, “Daniel, you can’t have ace king here, and the only things that beat me are A6 and 66.  There aren’t many ways to have those hands.  Fuck you.”  I re-raised to 108,500, and he called.  The turn was a four of hearts.  He checked to me, I bet 166k, a bit big considering that our effective stacks were 400k at that point, but I wanted to look bluffier and wanted to charge the draws that I was putting him on.  He went all-in, I was priced in, called, and lost to ace king.  I was wrong.

I clearly should have just called the flop check raise and then called him down in the interest of preserving a stack and playing small ball, but I deviated from that and got screwed for my stack, my own fault, and ended up busting shortly thereafter.

Sad.  The year’s over, I might have even lost this year (it’s close… +/- $50k on the year or so), but I’m glad to move on to 2010.  It was a good year in the industry and I’m still loving what I do.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Today I was catching up on some pokerroad shows and listened to the Matt Stout show from the Alfonse Lago Series in October.  He talked about how with all the information out there on the intertubes he is careful about the information he gives away and puts in his time to collect what others have let slip.  For example, every single hand of poker ever broadcast on TV can be found somewhere, usually on pokertube.com.  If somebody hasn’t played on TV, they’ve probably posted on a forum, or blog somewhere, or in some manner giving off insight to how they think about the game of unlimited Texas hold’them.  We’re passing up EV by not doing out homework.

I always do my homework for day 2’s and what not when I know the table assignments.  I have a pretty thick file folder now of 8.5″x11″ white pieces of paper that I drew a table diagram the night before, wrote chip counts, and noted information I got from their live results, much like OPRing somebody online.  I would then take notes during or post play and then stash the paper.

Couple problems.  I’m not taking advantage of all the information out there.  And I’m not doing it diligently enough.

There is a metric shit ton of variance in tournament poker.  It’s pretty easy to surrender to variance and rely on making the best decisions when presented with them.  There were many days that I spent my hour the night before looking up people for the next day only to have it all not matter ever.  Hell, it usually never matters.  That’s why variance is such a mother father because you usually can’t do a gosh darn thing about it.  And it fucking pisses you off.

It’s way awesomer playing video games or going to the bar or whatever than doing your homework and getting enough sleep for the next day.  And after a time or two of your homework proving fruitless, it becomes really easy to just say, “Screw it.”

Tim West has inspired me to lose weight, and Matt Stout has inspired me to do my homework more often and more better.  Both those men will always inspire me to have a banana, so I’m going to do two of those three things right now.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Good news:  due to my UB deal I’ll be blogging 8x per month now.

Bad news:  It has to go up there (blog.ultimatebet.com) first before I can republish it here.

Carry on.

Ugh… I did it again.  I entered a big(ish) buy-in tournament, and finished within one table of the money.  This time it was the $1500 NLHE Bellagio event, and this time I went into the final stages with a very healthy pile of chips.  But, this time, I ran into the top of their range every time.   Immediately upon coming back from a break, the UTG player with 7 bb’s total, 21k at 1500-3000/400 opened to 9k, I min re-raised to 15k with TT, everybody folded, and he (hopefully) obviously shoved.  Anyways, it was an easy fist-pump/give the neighbor a high five call, but I ran into aces.  Sigh.  Well, must be nice sir, but at least you had seven big blinds.. So I lose that hand, fold ever other one until my big blind, and everybody folds to the small blind.  He goes all-in for eight big blinds, I give the cat a high five (but not really because it was live, but if I had somebody to give a high five to I would have), say call as fast as possible, run into KQo, and lose to AKs.  Sigh how the f does he have that?!?  Then a dude shoves eight big blinds, I call in the big with A9s, lose to AJs, then we kick up the limits again, this time I have 13 big blinds, a dude opens, I shove 88 on the button, Alan Berry reshoves the SB with aces, but it didn’t matter cause the other dude had QQ.  Sigh.

So, I busto 24th, money at 18, and have another frustrating live tournament.  It’s pretty brutal playing for thirteen hours and then going home disappointed.

Had a fun night last night.  Shelley and I double dated with Jeremy Joseph and Krystal Seiling.  We had an awesome dinner at Capo’s and then went to see Eric Church and Dierks Bentley.  It was an awesome show.

I also purchased the Motorola Droid yesterday.  It’s pretty amazing.  So far so good that’s for sure.

$15k WPT main on Monday, online Sunday, and there’s a small chance that I’ll play the $5k on Saturday depending on field size.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Friday was a $500 NLHE event at the Bellagio.  I made a valiant effort but couldn’t keep up with the structure and lost two huge flips.  I went home, picked up Shelley, and we drove down to the new casino “M” on the south side of town to meet Eric Baldwin, Justin Young, Cody Slabaugh, and the womens.

I’d never been there before and was quite impressed all the way around.  We shot some dice, the dealers were funny and friendly, cocktail service was prompt, friendly, and they got you whatever you wanted.  We had dinner at the steakhouse there, ran up a thousand dollar bill between eight of us, which the M took care of due to some of our degenerate gambling habits.  After that Baldy pussed out so six of us headed up to Half Shell for a couple more drinks.  Jared and I renewed our “Will it snow in Vegas?” bet.  We flipped for choice, I won, and chose the do for $100.  We called it a night early though since we were all playing the Bellagio $1k rebuy the next day.

The good news with that one is that I only got in for $4k.  A Binger and a Fish were in for $12k each.  I got sweet pictures for caller ID, their smiling mugs holding up the buy-in receipts with REBUY REBUY REBUY REBUY stamped all over them.  Good thing the receipt had two sides.  The bad news is that Justin, said Binger, and myself all took somewhere between 19th and 24th place with the money at 18.  Sigh.

Sunday was another Sunday; I made several deep runs, but unfortunately they all ended in the 2nd from last table, not the final table.  7th in the Ultimate Bet $500 6max, 12th in the Stars $200r, and something like that in the FTP $75k.  I wasn’t happy with the way I played at the end and have decided to take today off as a result.  My car that my ex roomie crashed into a wall has been acting up still so I took that in.  It’s been raining all day and there’s snow in the forecast, so I texted this to Jared today:  ”I’ll go ahead and double that snow bet.”  We use a doubling cube in all of our prop bets and it’s an insanely fun twist to long term prop betting.  The doubling cube functions like this:  it’s available to anybody initially.  If Jared accepts the cube, he holds it and the stakes are doubled.  If he declines, then he must surrender for the agreed upon stakes.  However, now that I’ve passed him the cube, he holds exclusive control.  So say February rolls around and it’s 80 degrees again, he can re-double on me, at which point I would have to surrender for $200 or make it a $400 bet.

I currently hold the cube for “providing proof that a condom machine somewhere accepts $1 bills” by March 7th, 2012 and he holds the cube for “a commercially produced razor blade with ten blades” by the same date.  Both were $500 bets originally.  He claims that he’s found the condom machine, but I feel pretty good about them not coming out with the Shick de Diez anytime soon.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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Tuesday was the $1500 O8 tourney at Bellagio.  I never had a chance.  I hope that Frank Kassella won since Justin Young and I drafted him for the win.

Wednesday I played the $1k at the Bellagio, busted with queens pre-flop vs. one spazzy old dude and Tom McEvoy.  I opened to 500, spaz with 6k makes it 2500, Tom with 7k flats, I have 8k and queens.  I don’t think they’re folding and go all-in anyways, spaz has 88 and Tom has AA.  He tarped me and I fell for it.  Turns out though that the good news was that I made it home in time to play online, and ended up chopping the UB $1k with the chip lead for $30,800.  I was three handed with Sheets and Augie so it was kinda a no brainer.  Augie and I are like whatever Sheets you do the math we accept the fair ICM deal.

Thursday Shelley and I went to pick up Ryan Schmidt and his roomie Joe to head down to the Goldstrike Hot Springs.  The first time I went there it was an awesome experience and I was stoked to head back.  Things had changed a bit; of the upper two pools one was empty and the other was not cold.  So we continued hiking down to the first waterfall pool, and there was only one dude there, so we hopped in.  It turns out that this was the pool with the underwater tunnel that you swim through to get into the cave.  It was awesome.  Go underwater, about two feet.  Swim forward through narrow opening, a little wider than shoulder width at its narrowest, and travel about eight feet.  When the walls open up, pop up, and you’re in a sauna cave.  The water was warmer and trickling out of the wall.  It sounded like a small inside waterfall Homedics type thing.

While hanging out we met some awesome old dudes.  One who flew past us on the way down was in the pool and cool as hell.  Another dude showed up later, and he was very clearly one of the caretakers if not THE caretaker of the place.  He disappeared underwater and swam through a second tunnel to the right of the first one.  Nobody knew that one was there.  Ryan came back into the main pool from the cave, and I said, “There’s a man in that rock.”  Ryan looked at me funny, and then he popped out of the water behind Ryan.  He decided that he needed to give it a go, and disappeared underwater.  The thing with the first cave though is that there’s a thin crevasse that goes all the way back, so you can see daylight, hear people in the main pool, and have access to air (kinda) if you don’t make it all the way through on your first swim.  This second tunnel was pure rock.  Ryan didn’t say anything when he got to the other side.  I was scared for a little bit.

We hiked out at dusk, went to get pizza in downtown Boulder City, and had an excellent day.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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I didn’t do much of anything besides play poker and magic this weekend.

Saturday I played the Bellagio $1k, event #2 of the Five Diamond series.  I bluffed off half my stack to an old man, and I knew absolutely 100% what he had.  I thought he could fold it, but I was wrong.  He limped the small blind at 100-200, I raised to 600, he called.  Flop A96r, he checks, I bet 625, he calls.  Turn a 4, he checks, I bet 1625, he calls.  River a 7, he’s sitting in the ten seat and says, “Check.”  Dealer looks at me in the one seat, says, “Check.”  The old man rolls his hand face up.  Ace ten.  I bet 4k, he says, “Call.”  I throw my x high into the muck.

I busted to him about an hour later when he called the 578 flop, 9 turn, and my shove on the T river with J9.  I had 56.  Oh well.  I went home, fired up a cash game, and sat there for ten hours playing cash and magic online.  I’ve gotten re-hooked on that game.

Sunday was, well, another Sunday.  I final table bubbled the FTP $75k, took 12th in the UB Pro Bounty $1rebuy for $58 bucks, and sucked at everything else.

Today was Monday, I played another Bellagio $1k, bluffed it all off again, and lost again.  This time though I got it in (kinda) good.  An active old dude opened UTG at 100-200/25 to 600.  An eastern European calls, and I call in the big blind with 22 and about 10k.  Flop AT8r, I check, old dude bets 625, Euro calls, I make it 2500.  Old man can’t be strong due to bet size, and Euro isn’t strong due to a tell and the clues in the hand so far.  Old man folds, Euro calls, I still feel like he’s ace rag at best.  Turn’s a brick but 2nd club, I shove 6800, everybody goes on break, and he calls after about 90 seconds with QcJc, and I lose on the 7c river.

So now I’m home, ran to Petco and Wal Mart today, turns out that the one over here doesn’t make me sign stupid forms saying that I’m going to care for and nurture the mouse that I’m about to feed to a Ball Python.  Going on like three or four in a row.

Lotsa poker in the next few weeks.

Peace and good luck,

Devo

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