Joe "Hoodini10" Udine Blog

On the Up and Up

Monday was a turnaround day for me after taking 2nd in the 109r for 28k.  This score helped negate a little spew I had in the past week and also uplifted my spirits moving into a big weekend with a lot of great ftops events left.  I am so hungry for a big score and look forward to a lot of good mtts upcoming in the end of FTOPS and then WCOOP starting up in September.

 Borgata 2k Deepstack went pretty awful. I started out very active and chipped up to around 40k from a 30k starting stack. This tourney had a very good structure so I was just looking for a lot of pot control and maintaining an unpredictable image at the table. I ended up play a real weird pot with this older guy who I kind of recognized from AC donkaments. 7 limpers on my bb at 100/200 and I look at 2 red aces. I make it 2k to go and get 1 caller to a flop of 10d8s7d. I bet 2/3 pot cautiously and he calls and we see a turn of 7s. Again I lead for a little more than half pot this time and he makes it 10k more putting in more than half his stack.  This was an amazing card for him to semi bluff a multiway draw or air and somehow I just believed him. I don’t know why because usually I get it in here but I folded.  I still had plenty of chips left until my day ended on a board of 3h4h3x with my 35ss against Ax3 gg.  Anyway, Ill be playing every day for the rest of the week so look for me deep!

Also, that tennis match v. sloppyklod is going down next week&

-Joe

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The last blog entry I wrote is a perfect example of letting a little variance mixed with some bad play in a few sessions get to me.  Looking into the past I’ve come to realize I kind of go through these cycles where I will be disappointed with how I’m managing things whether it be not balancing my schedule, bad play, etc.  It’s extremely hard to not fall into these periods of blah-ness when u r a full-time mtt player.  The last 2 days I’ve mixed it up in a few small sessions in cash and sngs while keeping my mtt schedule a little smaller and it felt great.  I recouped on some mtt losses from last week but more importantly restored my confidence big time that I can fight through any downswing and come out on top.  In the near future I also want to learn a lot more about PLO and some other forms of poker as I believe this also keeps you fresh and is vital in becoming a well-rounded player.  Anyway, just needed to get that off my chest.

In other news, I went to the Jack Johnson concert last night with my girlfriend Alexis and some other friends from high school which was amazing.  This was my first Jack Johnson concert and I hadn’t listened to his music in a while but he sounded great live.  I downloaded his most recent album, Sleep Through The Static yesterday and definitely recommend it.  SLOPPYKLOD and I had to delay the tennis match for now mostly because we were going to the concert at 5 and he didn’t get home from the shore until 230  but I’m sure he’ll tell you I backed out because I was scared haha.  I took him down in a HORSE match the other night and I can’t tell you how good it will feel to take more of his money in this tennis match considering all the talking he’s been doing.  I’m staying at his shore house this weekend for the Borgata 2k Deepstack so maybe we’ll get the match in somehow soon  Ill post some quick updates as the weekend progresses. pz

-Joe

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Quick Update

This past week has been a mess.  A few weeks prior I won the 109r and took 7th in the 1k for 2 small 5 figure cashes  only to be mostly given back the past week or so. I’ve gone deep in some big tourneys and have just not played to my liking.  This past Sunday I was killing the 109r nightly and right on the money bubble lost 1010<74o ai pre for an enormous lead. I then proceeded to go on uber monkey tilt and took 30th in the 2nd Chance on stars  busting to mattg after 3 betting ai with a9dd to his early po open 7 handed. Of course he goes on to win  you can thank me matt haha.  I also went crazy in the 200r  putting another awful awful awful beat on crazymarco who is noraflum on stars. We have become friends and have met at a few live venues so I definitely feel shitty it was him  but I honestly just lost my mind after a couple weeks of frustration and putting in some sick hours with really no return.  So, the bad news is that I went off track and kind of put a dent in some profits right before a few big months of tourneys with ftops and wcoop coming up. The good news is that before every big win I’ve ever had I’ve had a bunch of losing sessions beforehand to motivate me to play at the highest level I can. It really sucks how it has worked like that and it is something I am going to work hard on to stop because it just hurts overall confidence and is unnecessary to ever play as bad as I did throughout this whole past week.  Yes, I’ve run kinda shitty in some key spots but I hate blaming shit on variance  it never gets you any better.  I apologize if the first part of this blog was cluttered and all over the place but I needed to vent some and just start fresh and move forward.

Anyway, moving forward I am very anxious for ftops to begin this week and I am also going to be playing the Borgata 2k deepstack event starting this Saturday.  If you have read SLOPPYKLOD’s Blog, I will be playing him in tennis this Thursday and look forward to making him change his avatar to whatever I chose for the duration of wcoop (this is our little prop for the match). Ill be updating this a lot more now as Ill be playing a ton online in the coming months. Pz

-Joe

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Been a while since I’ve last posted and I’ll do my best to cover anything eventful that happened since now and the main event. First off, big-ups to Klod (SLOPPYKLOD) for his deep WSOP ME run this summer.  He had an impressive summer this year including a 2nd place finish to Greenstein in a 1500 Razz (haha razz) and 12th in the Main Event.  It’s been sick to watch his progress in the last year and I’m sure this is only the beginning.   My Main Event was pretty mediocre to say the least  I made day 2 only to bust ai vs a naked flush draw AK<A5dd on a Kd3d3x flop.  

Since the main event I’ve been taking it easy for the most part. I put in some decent hours 2 weeks ago and took 1st in 109r and 7th in the Super Tuesday 1k on Stars.  These deep runs were good for my confidence and I’m looking forward to putting in sick hours in August and Sept. for FTOPS and WCOOP.  A big part of my new routine is working out or playing sports 4-5 days a week. This definitely helps keeping a good mindset.  

In my spare time I have been going to the Shore and I went to my Cousin Mike’s wedding. Congrats! Mike and Pam the wedding was a lot of fun.  I plan to start reading more books also, although I can’t anticipate doing too much reading with all the action in Aug. and Sept.  In addition to FTOPS (Schedule) and WCOOP (Schedule) there is a 2k Deepstack Event at Borgata August 9th-12th and the Borgata Open in mid-September.  I am looking forward to managing my time well in the next 2 months and make the most I can out of a great schedule of events.  I’ve been thinking a lot about my work ethic for the past 2 months and decided it wasn’t even close to what it should be.  Poker affords you a lot of time to do whatever you need to be prepared and also learning more about outside ventures to further your business  and I plan on utilizing my time much better moving forward.  Anyway, time to do work  its Sunday and anyone who plays online mtts knows what that means – time to own haha.  Til next time&

Oh yea also just did an interview with Ryan from Bluff – check it out should be up for a few more days.

-Joe

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I am sitting in my apartment in Philly preparing for the flight to Las Vegas tonight.  I just returned to Philly 2 days ago from Lake George, NY where I was on vacation for a week after the Borgata Summer Open.  Since its about 2 weeks past Im not going to give any in-detail hands but just the sad bustout   (I promise to get some detailed hands up here on a regular basis soon!). There are 50 people left with 36 paid and I have a great table draw going into the bubble.  Im sitting with 255k which is just above avg. for the tourney so Im feeling comfortable. A semi-lag unknown sits down 2 to my left with around 600k in chips and is seeing a lot of flops for this point in the tourney.  With blinds at 3k/6k I make it 20k with AJcc from mid pos. and the dude with 600k flats me in the cutoff. Heads up to a flop of AdJd9d I bet 48k. He immediately raises me to 155k and I tank for a bit and decide Im not getting away and shove my last 100k or so over top. He starts to tank which makes me get fairly confident I am good and he throws in the call with AhQs drawing to 3 outs. River Qc and bam my Borgata 5k deepstack event is over.  I played great throughout and will definitely be back whenever Borgata hosts more events with a structure like this (I think there is another in August).
 
So, after busting Borgata the vacation to Lake George was great. I got to clear my head and refocus for the wsop main event. Im really anxious to start playing and Im pumped to put in a lot of hours in the next 2 weeks.  If any of you get the chance I highly suggest visiting Lake George. The scenery was beautiful and the lake is incredible.  Anyway, best of luck to everyone in the main event  I will post random updates throughout the next 2 weeks.

-Joe

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Quick Update – We start back up at 11am EST today for Day 2 of Borgata Summer Open.  Day 1 was a sick rollercoaster for me as I tried my best to adjust to my table.  I haven’t played much live recently which definitely was a disadvantage going into this event.  The players seem much less knowledgeable about stack sizes and pot control than any random online player.  Also, the average players range for 3-betting is much, much tighter than an aggressive online player which I’m used to.  However, the structure allowed for a ton of play so I made the proper adjustments and ended the day with 152k (starting chips were 50k).   I think average is around 115k or so with 125ish players left and blinds will start at 1500/3k ante 500.  I’m happy with my chip position considering the way I played overall yesterday and I’m looking forward to a fresh start today.  There was 1 interesting hand that Ill share that sort of propelled me to around 100k after getting off to a slow start.  With blinds 400/800 I limp utg with KsQc with around 65k in chips  followed by a button limp and blinds check.  Flop is QsJc8c and I lead for 2700 into around a 4k pot  called only by the aggressive player on the button.  We haven’t had much history up to this point although I could sense he was getting a bit frustrated with how his stack was fluctuating and he had lost set over set a few rounds ago.  Also he was probably the only player at the table capable of running a complicated bluff.  Turn is 6c and I check call a 7500 chip bet. River is a 6d and I check call 20k leaving myself a measley 15k or so behind. He flips 89o and I scoop a sizeable pot. Against any other player at the table I may check fold the turn considering how squeaky tight everyone was playing.  Anyway, I was upset that I got myself into a few flips towards the end of the day when some of the stacks got shorter.  Some of these spots may have been unavoidable but in a tourney this soft I hate to have marginal showdowns because it’s very feasible to chip up.  I will give a more complete rundown of this trip in my next entry  sorry for this one being so cluttered. For now I’m going to try and hit the gym and get a solid breakfast before we start up. Wish me luck. PZZ

-Joe

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I want to start this entry out with congratulations to Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki who recently finished 2nd to Barry Greenstein in the 1500 Razz event (haha Razz). Klod came into the FT 7th in chips and put himself in great position to take down the bracelet if Barry weren’t running like god. I know how 2nd can sting but I’m sure this is only the beginning of many deep live runs from the sloppy kliz. Also, I want to give props to Mike “Michnak” Michnik who has been killing the online mtt scene as of late pretty much going deep in everything everyday. I IM this kid last night to say gl at his FT and he goes, “bro, if I don’t win this one Ill be 0/5 today in FTs”. MBN to make 5 FTs a day nak. Anyway, the 3 of us grew up and went to Eastern High School together in Voorhees, NJ so its been alot of fun to travel together and help each other progress in poker.  It’s always a good thing in this business to surround yourself with people you can trust so I’m lucky in that respect. Each of us has unique styles and takes a different approach to the game. It definitely helps to have 3 great poker minds talking about how to exploit different spots that come up in tourneys.  I am excited to see what the future brings for each of us.          

I head to Borgata in AC tomorrow for a few tourneys that I’ve been looking forward to since I got back from Vegas a few weeks ago. Tomorrow I’m playing the 1k which starts with 12k starting chips at 25/50 and is a 1 day event.  Saturday is “satellite day” and I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I may just go to the beach and chill before the deepstack main event starts Sunday or just play online depending on the weather.  I’m pretty sure playing online is more profitable than grinding a few live satties for a 5k event but I may feel like playing live depending on how the 1k on Friday goes. Sunday starts the 5k event with 50k starting chips at 25/50 and is a 3-day event. They ran this tourney last summer around the same time and it got a good turnout of about 350 players so Ill expect even more this year. I made sure I was going to be around for this one because it has such a sick structure and soft field so I hope I can take advantage.  Ill try to post random updates throughout the weekend with some interesting hands that pop up.  I’ve been to many casinos and Borgata is still my favorite place to go even if it is in grimy Atlantic City.  All the local casinos have been forced to make renovations and additions to their casinos to keep up with the competition Borgata brings.  Borgata’s 2nd tower, called the Water Club, just opened a few days ago and I’m pumped to check it out. It’s a tower filled with higher-end rooms and suites and like 6 or 7 pools indoor and outdoor along with some more great restaurants and a club I think (they should hire me as a spokesperson haha).  

The past week I’ve played a few days of online mtts and did fairly well, winning a 55r on FTP and taking 2nd to djk in a 55r on Stars.  I’m very disappointed in the way I played this heads up match against djk, who is a well-known online player and one that I have respect for.  Basically, we went back and forth for 20-30 hands or so and then all of a sudden I self destructed – calling off on every street with middle pair putting him on complete air for no reason at all haha (btw he flopped the nuts). It was actually pretty comical to think about as I tried to keep my composure in the 5 other games that were running at the same time.  This lack of discipline at a key moment is just unacceptable so Ill hopefully just learn from it and move on.  I made enough to pay for my buyins this weekend so I can’t be too unhappy but there’s always room for improvement in this game which is why I love the challenge.  I’m really hungry lately and think I’m in pretty good form moving forward so we’ll see.  It’s never good to be too anxious so I try to stay on even keel and just play my best and find good spots for my chips. I’m going to go try get in a round of golf with my brother Ryan since after Borgata I am going up to Lake George on vacation and don’t want to get my ass kicked too badly by my uncle Glen from Florida or my bro himself Til next time…

-Joe  

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Hey guys,   

I hope everyone’s summer is going well thus far. Congrats to all the regular online mtters who have FTd at WSOP (gboro, chronic420, amak, bhanks, sowers, and others that may have slipped my mind).  As I mentioned in my 1st entry, I am not in Vegas for the summer except for the main event which half of me is definitely regretting as I see all the opportunities for big success pass by.  However, there are still some great events which I’ll be playing in the rest of the summer.  I’ll be back and forth between Philly and Atlantic City for the next 2 weeks as the Borgata Summer Open gets underway.  This series boasts a bunch of mid-stakes buyins as far as live events are concerned (300$-1k), finishing up with a deepstacked 5k main event which I am very excited about.  For those of you who haven’t been to Borgata, it is one of the nicest casinos I’ve ever been in – I’m very lucky to live so close by.  I’d say it borders on a combination between a Monte Carlo style casino with the great service and amenities any great Vegas casino would offer.  Anyway, all these events have an amazing structure with 1k events starting with 12k starting chips and the 5k main event starting with a sick 50k in chips.  Coming into this summer, I really wanted to make a conscious effort to stay selective in the bigger live events that I play – making sure not to over-expose my bankroll like I have done in the past. So, I’ll play a 1k prelim and the main event next weekend at Borgata, travel to upstate New York for a golfing vacation with my family the following week, and then prepare to travel out to Vegas again for the WSOP Main Event (tough life haha). 

The last year or so has been a pretty bumpy ride as I attempted to transition into higher stakes live events without ample experience or preparation, and with little success. However, these experiences have molded me into a much stronger player, and, in my opinion will yield good results in the future.  The great thing about poker is that you can never really become complacent with the way you are thinking about the game in any particular moment.  You always need to be thinking about new ways to approach situations and be constantly working to improve your game.  Every situation you encounter will be unique, and there is no better feeling than when there is big money on the line and you feel you have prepared well enough to be 1, 2, or 3 steps ahead of your opponents in every spot.  Anyway, I am excited to see what develops moving forward and hope to share some great stories along the way.

In the past week since I got home from my 1-week trip to the Rio for 2 WSOP prelims I have been very unsatisfied with the way I’ve played.  I played a full days worth of online mtts on Monday and Tuesday and just felt pretty pathetic in my approach on both days.  I went deep in a few 109rs and the 1k Monday but was basically just burnt out and lost focus in the endgame, putting my money in some marginal spots making for a disappointing session overall.  In the future I’ll try to save some specific hands to share so you can get a glimpse of when “hoodonkey10″ rears his ugly head haha.  Basically the past few days I wish I took off because I was putting too much pressure on myself and got over-anxious, which in my opinion is a direct result of not being well rested and not having ample breaks away from the game (which is crucial).  Moving forward, I made a few specific goals to focus on in the short term and long term.  First and foremost, continue to work out and stay in good shape as I believe it really helps with endurance and long sessions – which are always an issue when playing tourneys.  Also, never sitting down for a session unless I am 100% focused and prepared to play – which I’ve been very good with over the past 3-4 months, but a lack of breaks away from poker can always wear your hunger to win down.  The last goal is sort of longer term and involves making good investment choices and managing money and time a lot better in the 2nd half of 2008 and moving onward.  I’m hoping to have the opportunity for an investment in real estate in the next few years being as the market is looking prime for buyers.  In addition to these goals, spending time with friends and family outside of poker is always of utmost importance. To not take advantage of all the free time a poker lifestyle can afford you (since you do essentially make your own hours) would be a huge mistake and one that I definitely have made far too often in the past.  Having had a competitive nature my entire life, it is very easy to get carried away spending a ton a time in something you enjoy learning and doing – but finding that right balance is important in whatever goals you pursue.  Til next time..

-Joe

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1st Blog Entry

Hey everyone my name is Joe Udine (hoodini10) and this is my 1st entry as a Bluff Blogger.  My plan is to basically write about mostly poker-related things and whatever is on my mind as I play tournaments online or travel to bigger live events.  At the moment I am exclusively a tournament player but I plan on putting more time and effort into learning to make myself a better cash game player in the near future. I started playing poker at Upenn about 2-3 yrs ago and was fortunate to have learned the game with a few close friends from high school who are very knowledgeable about the game — Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki and Mike “Michnak” Michnik, not to mention my uncle, online great Joe “JOEYTHEB” Brooks.  They all kill the online tournament scene and I’m sure you’ll see random updates on their results in future blogs. Anyway, as for me, I’m currently sitting in my Philly apt. starting the day of tourneys.  I took my 1st Sunday off yesterday for the first time in a while and it felt surprisingly good not having to deal with a long, stressful day of high-stakes online mtts. Also, I went to my brother’s graduation party from Penn State so it was well worth it.  I got to see some family and friends that I hadn’t seen in a while which is always nice. Congrats Bro!!

I recently just got home from a week in Rome, Italy and a 6-day trip to Las Vegas to play a few WSOP prelims.  My plan going into this summer was to not overextend myself and get burnt out which I had some experience with last year at 2007 WSOP. So, I planned on playing a 2k and 1500 NLH WSOP prelim (which I played last week), playing a few prelims at Borgata Summer Open in mid-June along with the 5k deepstack ME, and then return to Las Vegas for WSOP ME and possibly a few events at Bellagio Cup and Venetian. There are so many tourneys to play year – round that I think it’s important to space things out well and be able to prepare for events rather than rushing to play everything. Of course part of me wants to play in 20+ events this year at WSOP but I want to take things slow transitioning into the live arena and be selective with the events that have good structures, etc. Also, its not fun being away from my beautiful girlfriend Alexis when she can’t travel with me (she made me write that obv haha).  I will get into more poker-related updates later after I finish the day of mtts.  I’ve had some good results recently in online mtts and hope it will carry over into some bigger success this summer as I grind bigger events – we’ll see

- Joe

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