Matt Vengrin Blog

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Hey everyone, Its been a long couple of weeks with traveling.

I left Las Vegas on Aug 30th, a day after moving out of the house I was renting with Sketchy1 and Matt, a floor man at Bellagio. Moving is a bitch, but I finally got it done and left most of my stuff at a friends house till I get back to Vegas next month.

My first stop was home, where I saw my mom, dad, and my sister. One of my favorite restaurants is also back in my hometown so I made sure to eat that every day and night, probably packed on a few pounds as a result. I did not do too much at home, stayed there for about a week, and decided to go visit my buddies back at Plattsburgh University in upstate NY.

I arrived at my friends apartment at around 8pm, and he was already plastered drunk. I started drinking as well and we went downtown (where all the bars are) around midnight. I met up with a few other friends and we chatted and reminisced. Its really cool going back and seeing friends you have not seen for like a year, people that knew me before I had success in poker.

After that I went to the bar to buy a round and someone tapped me on the shoulder and was like ohhhhhh man, your Matt Vengrin! Congrats on the WSOP MAN! I was like thanks haha, chatted with him for a bit and then headed back out. It was really weird/surreal to have someone I’ve never met recognize me.

I also was tracked down by an old friend and asked poker advice for about a half hour, which was kind of annoying but fun at the same time.

After eating 2 hot dogs, we stumbled home and went to sleep. I slept HORRIBLE that night, and in the morning decided to get a hotel because I was sleeping on a 6 foot couch (I am 6’6).

That was Thursday night, I decided to just hang but not go downtown Friday night because I was saving myself for Saturday night when another one of my best friends from college was coming to visit also.

Saturday night was probably more fun then Thursday night in terms of going out, we all had dinner together, played some basketball, and then started drinking. It was a really good time and made me miss college a lot.

I decided to head up to Montreal on Sunday, since I was about an hour away, and visit my brother at school. He attends Concordia University. We both played the Sunday tournaments and I bricked out, but he got third in the 10R which was worth 8k, a ton of money to a college student especially to my brother. That really made me feel good to see him have success.

I then got the bonehead idea to drive down to Cape May, NJ, which is about 9 hrs south of Montréal. Now, this idea is not that boneheaded except for the fact that I was leaving at 1:30AM.

My family has a house in Cape May, and its been a place that I love to go to just relax and get away from it all. I also LOVE the beach, so I thought id go before it got too cold. So I hopped in the car, and started-a-drivin. Somehow I managed to get here in one piece at about noon after all the stops I made for Red Bull and bathroom breaks. I drank 3 redbulls that day, not proud of that but what can u do.

Now I had a dilemma, the WCOOP events started in 2 hours! Well I’m a big fan of sleep, but I knew if I slept I would not get up for at least 8 hours so I decided to tough it out. So I stayed up, and the last tourney was a Razz tourney. Now… Razz for those of you who have played it, its a very tilty game. So I had a bad vision that I would mega tilt because I was on no sleep and because it was razz. Well, Barry Greenstein badbeated me like 15 times and I went out just short of the money, complete waste but whatever.

I then slept like a baby for like 13 hrs after being up for 32 straight hours without sleep.

I have been here now in Cape May for about a week, and I am really enjoying this peacefulness. I go get fresh fish or lobster each day and eat pretty good. Unfortunately there’s no gym around here, so I am not working out, but ill start back with that once I get back to Vegas after my trip.

The trip I’m taking is Aruba, I finished 7th last year in the tournament and hope to do better this year. I also am excited to go on another vacation and I love tropical settings so I leave for that on the 24th.

I will be back in Vegas after that, hoping to get back on track poker wise (I have done nothing the past few months).

Oh, and I am also very excited, I just signed a deal with Full Tilt Poker a few weeks ago. I am very excited to be a part of a great team of people and players and I hope to represent Full Tilt as best I can.

That’s all for now.

-Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin

Comment

After the WSOP I took a short break and then got ready for the FTOPS events. I played a full slate of them on Full Tilt Poker, basically every tournament because I got involved in a team bet. The bet consisted of 3 people per team, and averaged their 8 best scores out of 25 events. I played 23/25 events, and had a good run, but my team and I were still behind a few other teams and we failed to cash. 60k to first would have been nice.

As far as the events, I believe I had 6 cashes or so, including one in the heads up tourney, which I’ve been working on a lot lately. The deepest I went was in the 100R plo, which I have also been playing a lot of. I managed to bust out 13^th, just before the FT in a field of 900+.

So all in all, it was kind of disappointing, but tournaments are riddled with high variance so I understand and I am ok with it.

After the FTOPS I was feeling burnt out, so I took a week off and just hung out with friends, went to the gym, and relaxed for the most part. After that week, I decided to go out to LA with a few friends and play the Legends WPT event. I almost did not play, but after looking at the structure sheet, I decided this was my kind of tournament because there was 30k starting stacks, and 90 minute levels.

Day 1 basically went steady. I was down to 24, up to 44, back down to 20, and I ended the day at 29775, basically right where I started.

Day 2 I was seated at David Pham and Eli Elezras table, but they busted out within the first 5 minutes, and I thought it would be an easy day. That’s until Crazy Zachery (who is still in) got seated to my left, and there were some other tough but predictable players. I have a few hands that id like to discuss from day 2.

The blinds were 300 600 and Zach raised UTG to 1625, I reraised to 4600 from the SB with JJ, the effective stacks were him 30k, me 40k. He called me after some deliberation. The flop came KQ7, with two diamonds. I checked, and he bet 4500. This bet seemed fishy for a few reasons. If he had a real hand why would he bet so small, and wouldn’t he try to trap me if he had a huge hand. Also if he had AK I think he would have reraised me preflop. I think he also folds out AQ preflop, so what hands could he really have? TT, KK, QQ, AA?? He probably flats TT, KK QQ, and AA. He either had to have TT, KK, QQ, or AA then. If he had KK or QQ I think he would have checked behind trying to trap. So that leaves AA, which I think he might reraise pre also. And TT. So basically, I thought he was weak, having something like TT due to the size of his bet. I reraised to 11k, leaving 11k behind or so. He thought for awhile and folded.

One other hand I played was I completed 29 out of the SB, after UTG+2 limped and it was folded to me. I know, kind of loose, but the guy who limped showed weakness every time he limped so I was hoping to flop 2p, trips, or take it away from him. The flop came 2 5 J, and I check called a 2k bet& blinds were like 500 1k. The BB got out of the way, and I checked dark. Then turn was the Th, putting three hearts out there. He checked behind. The river was the off suit Q. Now.. I felt like he had a small pair the way he played it, so I bet around half the pot and he folded what he claimed was 77. So basically I bluffed when I had a hand with showdown value because I put him on a specific range due to past experiences with him.

I had literally zero hands the entire day, and I was able to build my stack to 80k at its high point. I went 0/3 in flips, and unfortunately fizzled out in the last level of day 2. I was really happy with how I played, I earned most of my pots and had zero cooler hands against people.

Now comes to my personal life& My lease at the house ends at the end of July in Vegas, so I decided to store my car at a friends house and go back to NY for a bit to visit friends and family. Ill probably go down to my parents house in Cape May NJ, to play some of the WCOOP events and maybe the Borgata WPT. After that I plan to attend WSOPE in London, and then hopefully take a long vacation in Costa Rica. Then Ill come back to civilization and decide where I want to live for the next year.

That’s all for now, hope you guys enjoyed the hands and if anyone has suggestions on where is fun to live please share them..

-Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin

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So the WSOP is over, and its back to the grind as they say. A year ago I was playing multi table tournaments at least 5 days a week, usually 6 or 7. Flash forward to now, I am playing 2-3 days a week max. I am very fortunate to be able to play this little and still get by, and I also believe that playing less has made me get some of that fire back that I had when I first started playing poker about three years ago.

Anyways, I’m going to tell you guys about the Sunday that almost was yesterday..

I woke up at around 1pm PST, and the plan was to start with the Sunday million. So after I ate a bowl of cereal I started. I played probably around 15 tournaments yesterday, with my main focus on the stars million and the ftp million which was a monthly 500 buy in yesterday. I played some smaller tournaments, and had no success. However I did find myself deep in both the tournaments that mattered. First was the stars million:

I got off to a good start, having AQ get it in vs. my AA on a Q23 flop, and I held. That took me to about 30k early. From there I just sort of built up without many showdowns. I made some good calls, some good laydowns and at one point was just over a million in chips at 12500 25000 blinds. I then played a weird pot where I raised to about 70k from the CO and received 2 calls, from the button (who was at 1.6 mil) and the SB, who was at 1.2 mil. The flop came AQ7, with 2 diamonds. I had A3o and C bet I think 89k. The button folded and the SB shoved in for 1 mil.

Needless to say I was not happy with this shove, as the only other time he shoved he showed me KK preflop. I felt like his range was either Kqdd, or a medium to strong ace, something like AT-AJ, because I felt like he would re-raise a better ace preflop. Anyways, after some deliberation I just let it go, I was left with around 700k after that hand. A few hands later I raised QJ suited from early position and received one call from the SB who had 3 million in chips. The flop came T87, with 2 diamonds, and I had QJ of diamonds. This basically was a perfect flop for me as any hand he has I’m likely to be a favorite over. He checked and I bet around 80k and he shoved. I was hoping that he just raised or called so I could get it in with some fold equity but sometimes you just have to take gambles.

He turned over the ONE hand I did not want to see, the A9dd..

Questionable call out of the SB, but what can I do. So now basically instead of having what I thought was at least a flush draw and a gutshot, which is 13 outs, and hopefully at least AN over, and if I had both over’s I would have 19 outs, which is a clear favorite with 2 cards to come. Not only did I not have my flush draw, but he took away my jack as an out, since it made him a straight. So I went from a potential 19 outs, generally at least 13 which is around a coinflip, to 6 outs just the Q or the 9. The jack hit on the turn and I was drawing to a 9, which he already held one and I missed. It was very unfortunate, I think I was in 12^th place with 200 left or so, but what can you do.

While that was going on I was still in the ftp million grinding a short stack, and I mean grinding! I had between 10-15 bbs for 2 straight hours, and we had just got into the money. I then doubled AQ vs. KJ, and then re-shoved 25 off suit blind vs. blind, ran into AK, and a lone deuce on the flop sealed it up for me. Now I was up to 30 bbs, and just cruised until like 25 left. During that cruise, there was one interesting hand. There was this guy who was a complete maniac, I’ve never seen someone cold call so many raises, float on the flop, and then just bet then turn when it was checked to him. It was a miracle he did not bust in the time he was at the table. He did manage to build a big stack because nobody was hitting their hands. So the blinds are 2k4k and I have 150k. He raises UTG to 8k, a min raise which he has been doing, he gets 1 caller from MP so I decide to defend out of the bb with 79cc, knowing that if I even hit a pair id probably stack off to him. So the flop comes T72, rainbow. He bets like 16k, MP folds, I call. The turn is a 5, I check he bets 32k and I call. The river is a K, I check yet again and he thinks again and bets 32k again. No hand made sense to me, so I called and he flipped A8, nice bluff sir I win. This took me to like 300k, and I cruised all the way up to 500k or so. I then played a hand kind of bad, where I re-raised with 44 and it came J hi and I bet the flop and check raised AI on the turn and he had AJ, a hand I did not think he would cold call a re-raise with preflop. So the donk won, and I was out in 25^th place.

Its pretty heartbreaking to get deep in BOTH majors and have nothing really to show for it. But that’s why I play tournaments, the thrill of the endgame and sometimes you cant win.

Besides poker I’m just relaxing now trying to start eating better and going to the gym more, its really hard to maintain that during the WSOP.

Oh on a sidenote, I was eating some dinner ish meal at the wynn at 2am last night and there was this lady who was sleeping in a booth when we arrived. I thought nothing of it, but about 10 mins later she stood up and it was obvious she was very intoxicated. She stood up, started side peddling after losing her balance and just hit a table with these 2 women sitting at it. It was a really funny site, she was not hurt so I can laugh about it.

-Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin

Comment

So the WSOP is over, and its back to the grind as they say. A year ago I was playing multi table tournaments at least 5 days a week, usually 6 or 7. Flash forward to now, I am playing 2-3 days a week max. I am very fortunate to be able to play this little and still get by, and I also believe that playing less has made me get some of that fire back that I had when I first started playing poker about three years ago.

Anyways, I’m going to tell you guys about the Sunday that almost was yesterday..

I woke up at around 1pm PST, and the plan was to start with the Sunday million. So after I ate a bowl of cereal I started. I played probably around 15 tournaments yesterday, with my main focus on the stars million and the ftp million which was a monthly 500 buy in yesterday. I played some smaller tournaments, and had no success. However I did find myself deep in both the tournaments that mattered. First was the stars million:

I got off to a good start, having AQ get it in vs. my AA on a Q23 flop, and I held. That took me to about 30k early. From there I just sort of built up without many showdowns. I made some good calls, some good laydowns and at one point was just over a million in chips at 12500 25000 blinds. I then played a weird pot where I raised to about 70k from the CO and received 2 calls, from the button (who was at 1.6 mil) and the SB, who was at 1.2 mil. The flop came AQ7, with 2 diamonds. I had A3o and C bet I think 89k. The button folded and the SB shoved in for 1 mil&.

Needless to say I was not happy with this shove, as the only other time he shoved he showed me KK preflop. I felt like his range was either Kqdd, or a medium to strong ace, something like AT-AJ, because I felt like he would re-raise a better ace preflop. Anyways, after some deliberation I just let it go, I was left with around 700k after that hand. A few hands later I raised QJ suited from early position and received one call from the SB who had 3 million in chips. The flop came T87, with 2 diamonds, and I had QJ of diamonds. This basically was a perfect flop for me as any hand he has I’m likely to be a favorite over. He checked and I bet around 80k and he shoved. I was hoping that he just raised or called so I could get it in with some fold equity but sometimes you just have to take gambles.

He turned over the ONE hand I did not want to see, the A9dd&.. Questionable call out of the SB, but what can I do. So now basically instead of having what I thought was at least a flush draw and a gutshot, which is 13 outs, and hopefully at least AN over, and if I had both over’s I would have 19 outs, which is a clear favorite with 2 cards to come. Not only did I not have my flush draw, but he took away my jack as an out, since it made him a straight. So I went from a guaranteed 13 outs, possible 19 outs to 6 outs. Only a Q or a 9 would save me. The jack hit on the turn and I was drawing to a 9, which he already held one and I missed. It was very unfortunate, I think I was in 12^th place with 200 left or so, but what can you do.

While that was going on I was still in the ftp million grinding a short stack, and I mean grinding! I had between 10-15 bbs for 2 straight hours, and we had just got into the money. I then doubled AQ vs. KJ, and then re-shoved 25 off suit blind vs. blind, ran into AK, and a lone deuce on the flop sealed it up for me. Now I was up to 30 bbs, and just cruised until like 25 left. During that cruise, there was one interesting hand. There was this guy who was a complete maniac, I’ve never seen someone cold call so many raises, float on the flop, and then just bet then turn when it was checked to him. It was a miracle he did not bust in the time he was at the table. He did manage to build a big stack because nobody was hitting their hands. So the blinds are 2k4k and I have 150k. He raises UTG to 8k, a min raise which he has been doing, he gets 1 caller from MP so I decide to defend out of the bb with 79cc, knowing that if I even hit a pair id probably stack off to him. So the flop comes T72, rainbow. He bets like 16k, MP folds, I call. The turn is a 5, I check he bets 32k and I call. The river is a K, I check yet again and he thinks again and bets 32k again. No hand made sense to me, so I called and he flipped A8, nice bluff sir I win. This took me to like 300k, and I cruised all the way up to 500k or so. I then played a hand kind of bad, where I re-raised with 44 and it came J hi and I bet the flop and check raised AI on the turn and he had AJ, a hand I did not think he would cold call a re-raise with preflop. So the donk won, and I was out in 25^th place.

Its pretty heartbreaking to get deep in BOTH majors and have nothing really to show for it. But that’s why I play tournaments, the thrill of the endgame and sometimes you cant win.

Besides poker I’m just relaxing now trying to start eating better and going to the gym more, its really hard to maintain that during the WSOP.

-Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin

1 Comment

As the World Series is starting to wind down, I usually like to reflect on what has happened and how I feel about my game. I try to do this every so often because if you do not constantly question yourself and your game, or try to learn new things, your game will not evolve.

Looking back on the WSOP so far, I am happy as a whole. No matter what happens ill have a profit even if I blank the main event. I am very happy I was able to detach myself from poker when I was running badly and playing badly. That break helped propel me to that third place finish in the 3k which saved my series. I think its really important not to burn yourself out, as I’ve stressed before.

I am actually in the midst of another break, not having played since Sunday. Monday I did some work for the new poker training site I just got involved with. I had to meet with one of the owners, and do a few videos for the site. All in all I am excited for this opportunity to teach some people about the game, and I think I will learn some new things along the way.

For those of you who don’t know, I just signed a contract with Pokerswat.com which will be opening in July. I also have a few other projects going on which I am very excited about and will write about them once they get off the ground, I hate talking about these things before they happen because if they don’t happen I would be unhappy.

Tuesday was my birthday, and I celebrated by sleeping in. For those of you who don’t know me, I value my sleep a TON. I think it might be my favorite activity to do actually. After I slept I went and had some lunch with a friend, then went off to Phil Ivey’s BBQ, which was pretty fun. I just got in a little while ago. Basically, Ivey/Full Tilt rented out the whole outside area of the Golden Nugget. It had some great food including Filet Mignon and some really good chicken. It also had 6, yes, SIX open bars. I still cant believe I did not take full advantage of that but I was content just hanging with my friends and relaxing, while staying relatively sober.

On to the WSOP main event& I am SO excited for this event. I played it last year for the first time, but I believe between last year and this year my game has evolved a ton. I still feel I have a lot to learn however this year I have a great feeling about it.

That’s all for now, I am going to head over to the gym and swim for an hour or so.

Oh, also congrats to fellow Bluff blogger Gbecks for his 100k Sunday, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

-Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin

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Let me just say thank you to full tilt and poker stars for not having their majors last Sunday, because if they did I would never have played the 3k NL event. Instead of the majors they had insanely huge field satellites to the main event. And while unfortunately I was unable to play those, I was able to head over to the RIO and play the 3k NL.

I started off at a table with Theo Tran, Steve Sung, and Good2CU. Not a great table but I’m assuming its because were all lazy and registered late so serves us right. Fortunately we were able to break that table pretty quick and I was able to eek out a 2k profit in the first couple hours.

I then moved tables and recognized Mike Sica, and Stuart Paterson. There were also a few good live players and some younger online guys, one which was British and fairly well known I think however I cannot recall his name. I was at about 6k and the blinds were 100/200 and I decided to defend my bb from a sb raise with 42dd, planning on just outplaying this British kid. The flop came AT9, rainbow, he checks and I check behind. The turn was a 7 and he bet. I decided to raise here, because I felt he could not continue if I showed strength here. Sure enough he folded and I showed him the wonderful nut low hand& almost.

That got me up near 8k, and then I raised to 600 at 100/200/25 with 78s and Mike Sica shoved all in for 2400 total. Feeling charitable and like gambling I decided to call, he had KK. The flop was Q52 with 2 spades, the turn was the 6 of spades and the river was the 9 of spades. So I made a flush, and then rivered the straight flush. Needless to say he was not very happy, but that pumped me up to near 11k. A few hands later I moved to a table with Ryan Young and John Phan, 2 players I have a lot of respect for. Although I respect them, I was so glad I moved to their table because John had around 50k and Ryan had 30kish at 150/300/25 blinds. I was on Ryan’s direct left, and John was to his right so it was a dream situation meaning id either have a stack or bust out.

Things started out pretty slow, I let John and Ryan take turns stealing the blinds until this hand happened:

MP raiser makes it 1k at 150/300/25. John flat calls from the hijack(2 left of the button) and I raise it to 3500 on the button. I get 2 calls and the flop is 642 with 2 spades. MP raiser checks, John bets 3k which was pretty weak, I shove in for around 8k total and John calls after the original raiser bows out. He shows 77, and my QQ holds and more then doubles me up to around 26k. I steadily chip up and after the dinner break im sitting with around 35k with the blinds about to be 300/600/75.

After the dinner break is where the most interesting hand of the tournament and one of the most interesting hands in my entire career happened.

John raised to 1800 from the CO (1 left of the button) Ryan folded, and I re-raised from the SB to 5600 with A9ss. I also want to mention that the BB was not present, he had not returned from dinner yet. Basically I was just looking to steal it here because John had been raising so much, but instead he called. On the flop came Kd5cJd. I basically checked planning on giving up until he bet pretty weak. He bet 3500, I kicked it up to 8600, he kicked it back up to 17700, and I shoved for 11k more on top of that raise. Now at this point there was around 50k in the pot, and he had to call 11k more out of his 50k stack. So basically unless I put him on a stone air ball he was going to call me, and maybe even if he had an air ball he would justify it with pot odds and 2 cards to come. Anyways after 3 painful minutes he finally folded and I basically doubled up without a showdown.

From that pot on, I steadily chipped up and ended the day with 147k which was top 5 in chips going into day 2. Day 2 was pretty uneventful, I basically just grinded and was never all in. I chipped up nicely and when we were 10 handed I had 600k, which was good for second or third place at the time. We played a few rounds of 10 handed until UTG raised to 45k at 8000/16000/2000. I was in the SB with TT and re-raised to 140k, planning on him folding. To my disbelief he shoved in 240k more. I had decided preflop that I was going to call on the off chance he went all in. I called and won a huge coin flip against AK to put me at 1 million chips to end the day when our final table was set.

I had complete control of the final table for a long time, I busted the first 2 players and had grown my stack from 1m to 1.8m when we were 6 handed. Unfortunately I lost a few races, and made a borderline call for all my chips and ran into a bigger hand ultimately finishing in third place.

It really sucks getting so close to a bracelet and not winning it. However I am happy with my performance, 2 final tables in 2 years spanning only 20 events is pretty good. The money is nice also, and the possibilities that comes with it are even better. Congrats also to John Phan who won his first bracelet. He played great and deserved it.

I am going to play online today (Sunday) for the first time in 13 days, which is probably the longest time I’ve taken off from poker since I started playing three years ago.

My next event will probably be the 1500 PLO8, which is one of my favorite games to play and it will be a nice break from NL.

-Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin

Comment

Hey all,

The WSOP has not been going the way I would have liked so far, I am 0/6 now.

Since my last entry I played the 1500 6 max, where I got to 11k at the first break then lost a few races and busted shortly thereafter. I then played the 1500 shootout and had 1/3 the chips in play 4 handed and then had some unfortunate things happen and busted 3^rd. Then it was the 2.5k NL where I built my stack to 7k and then ran into a gutshot. My most recent tourney was the 5k NL.

I went into this tourney pretty excited to play, and immediately lost a race to sam farha at 100/200 blinds with AQ to his 99. I was down to 5k and steadily chipped up to 21k by dinner break. I then got moved to an unfortunate table with Nick Schulman, Tsarrast (Brian Rast) and Daniel Alaei to my left, respectively. Also to my right was Gavin Griffen and a solid online player who goes by the name of Bkice. I think I played pretty well overall given my horrible table position, but ended up losing to Q5 with 99 on a QQ34 board. I was really unhappy with my bust hand because I called off.

Whenever I start to play bad, and make bad plays to bust I always take some time off.

The last time I had to take time off was after the FTOPS where I was unable to even get a single cash. I took a week off after that, and came back with a clear head and ended up getting 2^nd In 2 majors after that. I think its very important to take breaks and not let the grind get to you.

I had to miss the 2500 PLO/PLH event though, which was the tourney I was looking forward to most- but I trusted my instinct and made myself miss it. I plan on playing the 3k event tomorrow after taking off a few days from poker entirely.

Some other news, I just recently signed with an online training site and ill be doing videos this coming week for them so I am very excited about that. I have always thought that teaching videos were pretty bad, and I still do, however if they are out there already I don’t think there’s much harm in adding some more.

Some videos off the top of my head that I’m going to go through will be the Sunday mil 2^nd place, full tilt 750k 2^nd place, 200r win, and I’m going to do a few on deep horse finishes and a PLO mtt that I won on UB a bit ago.

Annette_15 will also be in the house come Tuesday, even though she’s too young to gamble I think she’s going to get a fake ID and dress up like an old lady and start owning fools, well see though. She has been a big part of my game getting to where it is, and I consider her a pretty good friend. So that’s going to be fun.

That’s all for now, I am going to see the O show tonight at Bellagio, peace.

-Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin

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I have been meaning to start a blog for a long time, so thank you to Bluff for giving me this opportunity.

Between the ages of 5 and 15, I couldn’t sleep on Christmas eve. I would just imagine what Santa would bring me in the morning, and just the sheer excitement would cause me to lose sleep. Now that I am 23, that Christmas feeling has manifested itself into another time of year, the WSOP.

I managed not to lose too much sleep before the first event this year for me, which was the $1,500 NLH. This is one of my favorite events, I was lucky enough to final table this last year and was hoping to do the same this year.

I started off at a tough table for such a big field event. My table included Eric Seidel, Kido Pham, and TheMiltMan, who’s a solid online player. I stayed near the starting stack until Eric Seidel made it 3000 to go when it was folded to him in the SB at 100/200 blinds, effectively pushing me all in because I had 3300 in my stack. I looked down at the first card, the 9. At this point I am not really sure if I want it to be paired up but when I squeezed the second card it sure was. I thought about folding, but realized there was too good a chance he had a hand he really did not want action on, hence such a big bet. He rolled over 55, the door card was a 5 but there was a 9 right after it, giving me the win and doubling me up to 6600. Shortly after that the table broke and I got moved to a table with a slew of big stacks. The first hand I saw was KK, and I reraised a MP raiser and he folded adding a few chips to my stack. I then limped with AA and flopped an ace and got paid on all three streets. At this point my stack was up to around 16k. I then flopped Broadway with TQ in a 4 way pot but had it run down by 2 pair, crippling me down to 6k at 300 600 blinds. I then reshoved a MP raiser with AJs and he had AK and it was good game for me in my first event, no repeat final table in this event.

The second event I played was the 5k mixed holdem event. My first table in that included (to my left) Bill Edler, Danial Negranu, Isabelle Mercier, Doyle Brunson, E-Fro, Thomas Thunder Keller, and a few solid online guys. The first day was rocky, my high point was 28k and I ended the day with 15k after having a starting stack of 10k. Day 2 was not fun, I basically had no hands to play in the limit round, which in my opinion was way too high. (The average stack was 35k, and the limit round to start the day was 800 1600 blinds, 1500 3k limits, which put the average big bet at 11, which is insanely low.)When it got to NL I shoved in my 6k stack at 400 800 with ATo from the hijack and ran into the AJ of JC Alverado.

I am planning on playing a lot more events, including the 6max $1,500 NL tomorrow. 6 max is my favorite game. I enjoy it because you get to play more pots and you get to see more hands then you would at a 9 handed or 10 handed table. I also plan on playing some Omaha, Omaha HL, and H.0.R.S.E. events.

I am very lucky to be able to play these events due to the run I have been having lately online. This run is basically in the past month and includes:

Online:

2^nd Pokerstars Sunday Million

2^nd Full Tilt Poker 750k guaranteed

1^st Pokerstars 200R

3^rd Pokerstars 300 freeze

5^th Pokerstars 50R

Live:

45^th in the WPT 25k championship

I basically credit this run to what I have been doing outside of poker. Since I moved to Vegas 3 months ago, I have been eating better, working out, and putting in way less volume in poker. This has caused me to have a more level head and basically eliminate tilt from my game.

I believe these three things are the key ingredients in the recent success I have been having. I had a lot of trouble going to the gym in the beginning so I purchased a lifetime membership to force myself to go because I hate wasting money. So anyone who has been wanting to do it lately, I strongly recommend it. Speaking of which, I am off to the gym now for a swim, so I can get to bed at a decent hour for the 1500 tomorrow, so that’s all for now.

-Matt “Plattsburgh” Vengrin

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