Week of Online and the Heartland Poker Tour

With the amount of traveling I have done lately I was looking foward to putting in some hours online. I consistantly fell short of real money scores as I made a handful of final 2/3 tables and one third place finish in the daily 50r. The scores were enough to start my year off in the positive direction, but not the kind of results you like after getting deep in a bunch of tournies. As a was sweating Mike Katz deep in the late 100r on PS I decided to play a bit of 8 game mix. I jumped in at PLO (one of my better games). I folded the first few hands and recieved 7d5c3c3d on the cutoff. I raised it to $60 ($10/20$ blinds), and the BB called. The flop was a dream 8c6d4c giving me the nuts with a flush redraw. Through a series of quick raises we got it all in. With the quickness of the BB raises I thought he might have a top wrap and flush draw or a set with a flush draw, or even worse the nuts with a big flush draw, but instead he turned over AsJs7s5h for just the nuts and no apparent redraw. After I saw that I was freerolling 35% of the time I minimized the screen to sweat Katz. A few seconds later a window popped up saying that I had insufficient funds at my table. I looked back at the board and it ran out 10s9d giving him a Jack hi straight. He had to hit exactly 10,9 and one of them could not be a club......and both of them could not be a diamond, because both scenarios would give me a flush. Im not recapping the hand because its a bad beat (well maybe 25% is), but because to illustrate how average some players are at higher stakes PLO. Now im not saying getting it in with the nuts is bad, but his hand selection for 100bb deep table is awful. And if it were a deeper table then fast playing the nuts on that board is very marginal at best. Ok maybe 50% is for me telling the bad beat, but im seriously happy about the play of PLO cash games online. I have been a winner playing them, but I did not see too many instances where people make blantant mistakes. It instills confidence.
Eric and I played the Heartland Poker Tour event at The Red Rock Casino. It was a 1k main event that was split up into 2 flights. We hopped in the second flight that started at 6pm. This may have been the softest field I have ever played in for 1K. The players were super weak and str8 foward. I built my stack from 15K to 60K without ever showing a hand. I would just raise small pre, if someone called I would c-bet. 80% of the time thats all it took. And if they ever played back at me I would fold or hope to have the nuts. After getting lucky against Jon Freidberg to push me to 85K I stepped on the gas and ran it up to 100K quickly. Then in one orbit I was out. I guy that had a bet sizing tell opened for 4x (meant he had a weak hand), I looked down at K4cc and 3 bet to 12K (blinds 500/1000). He himmed and hawed and went all in for 21K (9K more). I had to call and he announced it was a good call and he was bluffing, but it was with the best hand, A5ss. Despite flopping an open ender his ace hi held. I raised, c bet a couple times that didnt work and I was down to 68K. UTG who was a decent player raised to 4K (blinds now at 700/1400) and looked down at AA on the button. I just called looking to double up. The flop was a dream with 662 rainbow. UTG bet half pot so I just called on that non threatening board. The turn was a 5 and he bet full pot, 15Kish. I was sure he had about JJ so I ripped it all expecting a snap call. He did snap call, but he held 22 instead. I went from chipleader to out in one orbit in classic Justin style.
Oh, I watched "Drag me to Hell" last night because I like scary movies and while I was flipping thru shows a while ago a stumbled upon the "Scream Awards". No clue what it was but that movie won a bunch of awards. So I figured that if people who like scary movies like this movie than I would like it. Hahahahahahahhaahhahaah, not true as it turns out. I would have turned it off, but parts were too funny. No, but seriously, dont see this move. Its terrible.

Justin "robert07" Young

PCA

Despite a red eye with a 3.5 hour lay over in Philadelphia the trip out to the Bahamas went pretty smooth. I was upgraded to 1st class on both legs which made it easier to sleep/drink. The complex of Atlantis was impressive. It had absolutely everything you could want in a destination hotel: lazy river, water slides, basketball court, the beach and plenty of wildlife. Unfortunately the weather was a bit cold and windy to do much outside. I sucked it up the last day just to say I did some of the stuff. It was 65 and gusty, but I shivered around the complex.
The poker did not go much better, I was out of the main event by level 5. I do not think I played very well, but not many things went correctly for me. I ended up playing quite a few tournaments with the weather the way it was with no success. A played pretty well in the post-lims but only sniffed the money in 2 of them.
I dont plan on traveling the rest of the month, but February will be busy with the LAPC, Venetian, Valentines Day, and my buddy Nick is coming for few days. Untill then I will be playing a good bit online with a couple live sessions sprinkled in.

Justin "robert07" Young

2009 Year in Review

My poker started fairly slow. I skipped all of the January events and mainly just played online and searched for a house. I had a couple smallish scores online to keep my accounts floating plus Morgan and I found our perfect house. I went to LA in February for some events including the main event. I bricked all of them and somehow broke even on cash games. In March I managed to make three final tables at the Wynn, but zero first places. In April I took a terrible beat at a Five Star prelim to go out 8th, but I managed to find a deep run into the main event. I was a massive chipleader with 14ish people left, but I found a way to go out in 8th, leaving me just short of another WPT final TV table. It was a major opportunity that I let slip thru my fingers and one of the few tournaments I question my play in, long after the fact. A bunch of my buddies and I went on a boat trip the week prior to the WSOP. One of the best weeks of the year. The series was rough, as I only cashed twice in twenty some events. A 17th in the 10K PLH event was my deepest run. I lost a huge hand with AdQd vs KhKs on a Jd7d6d board and then a flip against Isaac to cripple me. This was another professional opportunity that I just missed out on. On the up side I watched a lot of my friends make final tables, including Eric winning his first bracelet. After the series I played mainly online. I was able to pull of a 1st in the Sunday Brawl and a 2nd in the Mulligan in consecutive weeks. These were my biggest two online tournament scores up to this point. I went to LA for the Legends main event and busted on day 2. Eric convinced me to go to Barcelona with him for an EPT. I made a final table in a post lim, but bricked everything else. It was my first time in Europe and I loved it. When I got back to the states I won my first WCOOP bracelet in heads up PLO. This was the high point of my year financially and confidence wise. The rest of the year included a trip to Aruba and plenty of tournaments here in Vegas. I did not produce any real scores the rest of the year. I did have lots of fun as I spent some time with family and got to watch Eric on his strectch run to the 2009 Cardplayer POY.
If I were ranking this year I would make it a 8.5. I did a lot of firsts that included buying a house in Vegas, going to the Grand Canyon, going to Europe, going to Aruba, and even snowmobiling. Poker was a bit of a drag, but its tough to ignore all the fun I've had this year. I feel I will be more focused and more selective in my live tournaments this year. Either way I am looking foward to whats next.

Justin "robert07" Young