Due to many factors I decided not to play in the 40K event at the WSOP. So the first event I could play was the 1500 O/8. I am not a tremondous O/8 player, but certainly ahead of the field giving me a postive ROI. My initial table was fantastic with only two people who played well. Everyone played their hands face up allowing me to throw away A 10 4 5 on a AA978 board for one raise. I quickly mucked face up, and due to kindness or confusion of thinking I called, showed A823. I chiped up quickly to 13K from our 4.5K starting stack. I was moved twice in a very short period of time, and when I landed I was in trouble. Outside of 2 players everyone seemed to grasp the game better than me including Kabbaj, Thang Luu, Clint Steelman, and Warren Karp. I was picked down to 5.5K when I had a very fun hand that came up. Early position raised to 1K (blinds are 300/500, 500/1K limits) and I looked down at Ad2c4d4h. I called as did the button, SB, and BB. The flop came a dream for me, 9s4s3c. SB lead, call, call, and I raised, button folded and SB 3-bet me. Everyone called 2 more bets in the middle and I made the third raise. Everyone called and the turn was the 9d. SB led again and everyone followed. Still thinking I was good I raised again and everyone called. The river was the 6s putting a low and a flush on the board. They all check called, and my hand 3/4 the pot as 1 other person shared A2. The pot pushed me to 19K. I eventually got as high as 27K, but I didn't scoop another pot for the rest of the tournament. I dribbled down to 13K at the end of the night.
Day 2 did not get much better as I got scooped the very first hand of the day by Thor Hanson as my top two and nut low draw got conterfieted by a third pair. I found a good spot for my last 4K with KdJdJs10s against Layne Flack's Ac10h2c3c on a 10d9s3h3s2h board. Out 175ish/918.
I went over to Shannon, Katz, and Chuck's place to enjoy some pool, shooting some games of HORSE (which I won 400 on), and eating some sushi at RA while watching the Cavs/Magic game. I went home in a good mood and ready for the next week of poker. Next update will be soon to cover the 1k event.
Justin "robert07" Young
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Relaxing before the Series
I got back last nite from three seperate vacations, all back to back.
First, Morgan and I went to Greensboro, NC. We enjoyed dinner and drinks with Morgan's folks on the first nite, then visited Jane-Marie and Brandon's new house on the second. Their house was very nice, complete with a place to play ladder ball. We headed up to Smith Mountain Lake, where my in-laws have a house, on day 3. I got to meet my sis-in-laws boyfriend and despite not wanting to like him, I did. The whole family had a blast kayaking, swimming, and playing games. We went up to Blacksburg to watch Todd graduate from VATECH. Despite not having much room in my heart for anything not NCSTATE, I enjoyed myself. We flew back on that Sunday making me miss the FTOPS main.
Second, Cody, Baldy, Shannon, Katz, Adam, Marco, Zach, Evan, Ack, Renee, Mary and myself all rented this ridiculous 75' boat complete with satalite TV in everyroom, a party deck (with slide), 6 bedrooms, and a speed boat. We drank and played all day, drank and watched sports all afternoon, and drank and ate all night. I lost a solid 1k in betting on the week, which was ok because I was on the fishy side most of the time. With only a couple small arguements, the group had a blast. Hopefully we will win a couple bracelets and treat ourselves at the end of the summer with another trip.
Third, Morgan and I went to Pine Bluffs, WY, total population 1200. My niece, Jordan, was graduating from high school. My sister made so much good food for about 35 people that were coming in from out of town. The graduation itself was actually a lot of fun. Having only 21 people graduate allowed them to do some fun stuff. Although it made me feel old we hung out with high schoolers and adults alike.
Now that I am home I am trying to catch up with what few responsibilities I have and attemping to detox from 2 weeks and partying. I am still on the fence about which tournament I am playing first, but no matter what you will see plenty of me at the Rio over the next 6 weeks. I'll try and do short updates after everyday I play.
Justin "robert07" Young
First, Morgan and I went to Greensboro, NC. We enjoyed dinner and drinks with Morgan's folks on the first nite, then visited Jane-Marie and Brandon's new house on the second. Their house was very nice, complete with a place to play ladder ball. We headed up to Smith Mountain Lake, where my in-laws have a house, on day 3. I got to meet my sis-in-laws boyfriend and despite not wanting to like him, I did. The whole family had a blast kayaking, swimming, and playing games. We went up to Blacksburg to watch Todd graduate from VATECH. Despite not having much room in my heart for anything not NCSTATE, I enjoyed myself. We flew back on that Sunday making me miss the FTOPS main.
Second, Cody, Baldy, Shannon, Katz, Adam, Marco, Zach, Evan, Ack, Renee, Mary and myself all rented this ridiculous 75' boat complete with satalite TV in everyroom, a party deck (with slide), 6 bedrooms, and a speed boat. We drank and played all day, drank and watched sports all afternoon, and drank and ate all night. I lost a solid 1k in betting on the week, which was ok because I was on the fishy side most of the time. With only a couple small arguements, the group had a blast. Hopefully we will win a couple bracelets and treat ourselves at the end of the summer with another trip.
Third, Morgan and I went to Pine Bluffs, WY, total population 1200. My niece, Jordan, was graduating from high school. My sister made so much good food for about 35 people that were coming in from out of town. The graduation itself was actually a lot of fun. Having only 21 people graduate allowed them to do some fun stuff. Although it made me feel old we hung out with high schoolers and adults alike.
Now that I am home I am trying to catch up with what few responsibilities I have and attemping to detox from 2 weeks and partying. I am still on the fence about which tournament I am playing first, but no matter what you will see plenty of me at the Rio over the next 6 weeks. I'll try and do short updates after everyday I play.
Justin "robert07" Young
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Recap and the Month of May
I have said that I would recap some key hands in the 25K WPT Championship and the 5K Ceasars, despite being a little bitter.
After becoming a huge chip lead with 15ish to go (7M out of 32M) I decided to play a bit loose aggresive, relying on my reads to get me through the tough decisions that accompany that style.
Scotty raised up front to 2.8xBB, which generally meant he had a good hand, but not a premium one. I found Qc9c directly on his left and elected to call. The flop came down Jc9h5s, Scotty bet about half pot which was his standard C-bet. With middle pair, a backdoor flush draw, and position I called. The turn was a Qh giving me two pair. Scotty checked. Thinking I could get 2 streets of value I bet 60% pot. Scotty played with his chips and announced raise. The raise was smallish, but it pot committed him to the pot. Every bit of me wanted to fold, he played a very similar hand early in the day against one of the Hyman brothers, where he flopped a set and check raised smallish on the turn to pot committ himself. In addition, Scotty was playing extremely nitty. Day 5 was going so well for me that I convinced myself that he would play an overpair that way, despite the fact that his preflop raise and smallish c'raise did not indicate that. I shoved and he showed 99 for a set. Although it looks like a cooler, I should have folded it face up after 10 seconds of thought. Not telling if I was tilting or not I made a questionable play with AKo against a very tight player who had KK. I got lucky to knock him out, but now I was feeling that I wasn't playing well I wanted to play cautious till Day 6. I made a standard raise from the cutoff with Kh7h and both blinds called. The flop was 9c6h5h giving me a gutterball and a flush draw. Charder from the BB lead for 2/3 pot. Most times I would raise here to gain control of the pot, but fearing he had flopped a set I just called. Turn was 9d, and Charder lead for half pot. Folding should have been the play, due to the fact that I could be drawing dead or he had something like 10h9h. But I called again more from frustration of passive play on the previous street. The river was a 2c and Charder checked. I checked behind, and he showed A6o. In my mind I played the flop and turn very poorly. Even though I would not have liked it, I think a raise on the flop with intentions of mucking to a shove was the right play. I had shown the table my willingness to call in margainal spots, so Charder could not have ripped without a huge hand. Also just calling does not allow me to get paid if I do hit one of my outs. Charder is too good to go broke if I hit. I limped out of day 5 with over 4M and 4th in chips. Day 6 did not go much better. I went card dead, but more importantly I picked some bad times to open and C-bet. The only thing that worked for me was my read on Ran Azor who was on my direct right. Everytime he opened for 2.5x-2.8x he had a weak hand, and everytime he opened to 3.5x he had a monster. I 3 bet him everytime I could and folded some big hands when I thought he had it. I was never proven wrong, but it was not enough as I found myself with 11BB with 9 left. I kept myelf afloat with some steals, but with 8 remaining Brian Rast opened from early and I found 99 in the SB. Knowing his range was fairly tiny I was sure he would call my all in, but I was looking to gamble knowing there was a chance he had 88 or 77. He had the queens, and despite a cruel tease of a 9 on the flop the best hand won when a Q hit the river.
The 5K Ceasars had a couple interesting hands with a fairly weak table. I called a raise with A10ss in middle to a nitty UTG raiser. The flop came AJ4 rainbow and one spade. He lead 2/3 pot and I already hated the fact I called pre with my hand, but I called with intentions of folding to another bet. The turn was the Qh, putting a full rainbow on the board. Now he bet 20% of the pot. My insta muck turned into a bluff opportunity. Thinking he had AK and nothing else I clicked the raise button, leaving myself enough to fire pot on the river. He called, which I didnt mind, because there was no way he could call with AK on the river. The river was a blank and I ripped all in for just under pot. He tanked forever and talked about how he always made bad calls. Then called of course, I got up ready to go and showed my hand, but he quickly tabled his cards revealing A10 as well. I am unsure what he was thinking, but if nothing else I gained some lovely info. Alright this is my last hand recap, a nitty player opened from middle, a couple guys called from mid/late. It felt like a good place to squeeze so without looking I popped it. The SB called as did the original raiser, oops. I quickly looked down at 43o. The flop was J33 and I was already looking foward to the speech of how bad I play as someone left the table. They checked to me and I bet 50% pot, thinking that SB had QQ given the betting pre. He raised 3x and the other guy folded. With the stack sizes, I elected to just call giving me a perfect amount to rip if he bets the turn, plus if I reraised him on the flop I was scared he could fold QQ. The turn was a Q and I threw up a little in my mouth. He checked, and I was convinced he had it, so I checked with the intentions of just calling the river bet. River was an Ace and he bet 1/3 pot. I just snap called, and he showed AA for a rivered boat. I feel I played the hand well, just did not work out.
I am leaving to go to Virginia in the morning for my brother-in-laws graduation from VATECH, then will be attending a house boat trip with Eric, Cody, Shannon, Katz, Adam, Marco, Zack and a few others. I have seen pics of the boat online and it looks amazing. The day I get back from that Morgan and I are flying out to Pine Bluffs, WY for my nieces high school graduation. Tonite is the last time I was sleep in my bed for about 2 weeks. I am looking foward to taking a break from poker before the WSOP, but living out of a suitcase is never 100% fun.
Justin "robert07" Young
After becoming a huge chip lead with 15ish to go (7M out of 32M) I decided to play a bit loose aggresive, relying on my reads to get me through the tough decisions that accompany that style.
Scotty raised up front to 2.8xBB, which generally meant he had a good hand, but not a premium one. I found Qc9c directly on his left and elected to call. The flop came down Jc9h5s, Scotty bet about half pot which was his standard C-bet. With middle pair, a backdoor flush draw, and position I called. The turn was a Qh giving me two pair. Scotty checked. Thinking I could get 2 streets of value I bet 60% pot. Scotty played with his chips and announced raise. The raise was smallish, but it pot committed him to the pot. Every bit of me wanted to fold, he played a very similar hand early in the day against one of the Hyman brothers, where he flopped a set and check raised smallish on the turn to pot committ himself. In addition, Scotty was playing extremely nitty. Day 5 was going so well for me that I convinced myself that he would play an overpair that way, despite the fact that his preflop raise and smallish c'raise did not indicate that. I shoved and he showed 99 for a set. Although it looks like a cooler, I should have folded it face up after 10 seconds of thought. Not telling if I was tilting or not I made a questionable play with AKo against a very tight player who had KK. I got lucky to knock him out, but now I was feeling that I wasn't playing well I wanted to play cautious till Day 6. I made a standard raise from the cutoff with Kh7h and both blinds called. The flop was 9c6h5h giving me a gutterball and a flush draw. Charder from the BB lead for 2/3 pot. Most times I would raise here to gain control of the pot, but fearing he had flopped a set I just called. Turn was 9d, and Charder lead for half pot. Folding should have been the play, due to the fact that I could be drawing dead or he had something like 10h9h. But I called again more from frustration of passive play on the previous street. The river was a 2c and Charder checked. I checked behind, and he showed A6o. In my mind I played the flop and turn very poorly. Even though I would not have liked it, I think a raise on the flop with intentions of mucking to a shove was the right play. I had shown the table my willingness to call in margainal spots, so Charder could not have ripped without a huge hand. Also just calling does not allow me to get paid if I do hit one of my outs. Charder is too good to go broke if I hit. I limped out of day 5 with over 4M and 4th in chips. Day 6 did not go much better. I went card dead, but more importantly I picked some bad times to open and C-bet. The only thing that worked for me was my read on Ran Azor who was on my direct right. Everytime he opened for 2.5x-2.8x he had a weak hand, and everytime he opened to 3.5x he had a monster. I 3 bet him everytime I could and folded some big hands when I thought he had it. I was never proven wrong, but it was not enough as I found myself with 11BB with 9 left. I kept myelf afloat with some steals, but with 8 remaining Brian Rast opened from early and I found 99 in the SB. Knowing his range was fairly tiny I was sure he would call my all in, but I was looking to gamble knowing there was a chance he had 88 or 77. He had the queens, and despite a cruel tease of a 9 on the flop the best hand won when a Q hit the river.
The 5K Ceasars had a couple interesting hands with a fairly weak table. I called a raise with A10ss in middle to a nitty UTG raiser. The flop came AJ4 rainbow and one spade. He lead 2/3 pot and I already hated the fact I called pre with my hand, but I called with intentions of folding to another bet. The turn was the Qh, putting a full rainbow on the board. Now he bet 20% of the pot. My insta muck turned into a bluff opportunity. Thinking he had AK and nothing else I clicked the raise button, leaving myself enough to fire pot on the river. He called, which I didnt mind, because there was no way he could call with AK on the river. The river was a blank and I ripped all in for just under pot. He tanked forever and talked about how he always made bad calls. Then called of course, I got up ready to go and showed my hand, but he quickly tabled his cards revealing A10 as well. I am unsure what he was thinking, but if nothing else I gained some lovely info. Alright this is my last hand recap, a nitty player opened from middle, a couple guys called from mid/late. It felt like a good place to squeeze so without looking I popped it. The SB called as did the original raiser, oops. I quickly looked down at 43o. The flop was J33 and I was already looking foward to the speech of how bad I play as someone left the table. They checked to me and I bet 50% pot, thinking that SB had QQ given the betting pre. He raised 3x and the other guy folded. With the stack sizes, I elected to just call giving me a perfect amount to rip if he bets the turn, plus if I reraised him on the flop I was scared he could fold QQ. The turn was a Q and I threw up a little in my mouth. He checked, and I was convinced he had it, so I checked with the intentions of just calling the river bet. River was an Ace and he bet 1/3 pot. I just snap called, and he showed AA for a rivered boat. I feel I played the hand well, just did not work out.
I am leaving to go to Virginia in the morning for my brother-in-laws graduation from VATECH, then will be attending a house boat trip with Eric, Cody, Shannon, Katz, Adam, Marco, Zack and a few others. I have seen pics of the boat online and it looks amazing. The day I get back from that Morgan and I are flying out to Pine Bluffs, WY for my nieces high school graduation. Tonite is the last time I was sleep in my bed for about 2 weeks. I am looking foward to taking a break from poker before the WSOP, but living out of a suitcase is never 100% fun.
Justin "robert07" Young
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