Bluff Blogs

Bink

Adam Junglen — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:12:01 +0000

After spending the last 5 days or so at Ray’s in NJ, I’m finally at the Taj in Atlantic City. Tomorrow’s day 1 of the $5k USPC main event. I’m looking forward to building a stack and bringing my A-game. This is actually my first time in Atlantic City. You’d think through all my travels I’d have been here before, but it just hasn’t worked out that way.

I had planned on playing the Borgata $1.5k this past Monday, but it just didn’t work out. The tournament started at 11am Monday, but tragically I had to miss it. Around 9am I had just finished my 20hr+ Sunday session and was just too tired to play the Borgata event. I had a pretty good excuse though, this Sunday I wound up chopping the $535 buy-in FTOPS Main Event for $290k – my biggest cash to date.

Words can’t describe how great a feeling it is to bounce back in such a big way. I had busted out of all the other Sunday tourneys around 10-11pm, so I was one-tabling the FTOPS for around 10hrs, giving it my full attention. Guess it worked out though.

Thanks to everyone for the support, much appreciated.

Later,

- Adam

Busy playing

Jeffrey Romano — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:30:51 +0000

Got so banged up on the tables I didn’t feel like writing anything for the past 2 weeks. On my worst stretch I went 2 days in a row without cashing in a tournament or a sit n go!!! So my net for the last 1 1/2 months is -$4,000, pretty lame.

About a week ago I came 3rd in the $20 1r 1a on pokerstars for about $5000. The hand I busted on was a little interesting but I don’t think I will ever fold in this spot in my life. We were 3 handed and I was sitting small blind with 2.4 mil in chips, while the big blind had 3mil in chips, the blinds were large, 50k 100k I think. The button had 500k in chips which makes this hand interesting. Button folds and I have AK in the small blind, I make it 300k and the BB shoves and has me covered. If I fold I’m losing long run but I will probably move up another $1600 due to the fact that the button is going to bust soon. I call and the BB shows 55 and sets the flop, oh well.

This past weekend was wild. I went to NYC to visit my friends and we had an outrageous time. It was my first real experience in the city going out to clubs at night and all you can drink breakfast in the morning. Its awesome to just rip down a spliff and cruise the city drinking it all in. NYC has so much more style than anywhere else I’ve been in the world, too bad I can’t say the same for their sports teams. We got table service at these clubs, where the bottles were about $300 each, I believe. We got maybe 5 bottles at each club and paid $0 because of my friend’s connections, which was very gratifying. Its really funny to watch these dudes at clubs, with blowouts, creeping all over underage girls from Jersey. They are relentless and won’t stop until the mega mix does.

I realized this past weekend that time off from poker isn’t time off unless you get out of fcuk out of dodge. I can’t just take 2 days off in my apartment and forget about poker, it’s just not an option. Next time you get burnt out at your desk, just go visit friends in a different part of the country, its cheap and a lot of fun.

You probably have all seen this video but if you haven’t you have now….

Bad Beat on Cancer Charity Tournament on Full Tilt

Lee Childs — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:45:07 +0000

Please join me Sunday, November 15 for the Twitter Poker Tour Charity event to
benefit Bad Beat on Cancer on Full Tilt Poker.

Tournament Details
Place: Full Tilt Poker
Date: November 15th, 2009
Time: 6:15PM EST
Cost: $10 ($5 entry plus $5 donation to BBoC)
Tourney ID#: 113220604
Tourney PW: TPTFORBBOC

Additionally, there will be a live stream broadcast along with the
event, featuring Jan Mahrer, Andy Bloch, Andrew Feldman, and the Pro’s
of DeucesCracked, who will be giving away prizes to everyone who makes
the final table.

11 Red Pro’s are already signed up.

Lets raise some money for BBoC!!!

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Man is a creature made at the end of a week’s work when God was tired.”

Doyle Brunson — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:49:33 +0000

Congratulations to Joe Cada for winning the WSOP final table. Joe is the youngest player to win and I met him at the party in the ESPN Zone. He seemed to be a very likable 21 year old and I believe he will do his best to promote poker. I hear the new poker term is when you lose with AK vs. AQ will be you got “moon’ed”. Of course they will be referencing the hand Darvin Moon knocked Phil Ivey out with.

“Go die under a deck of cards” is what Joan Rivers told me to do. Unknowingly, a Miami radio station scheduled Joan and myself for interviews the same day. One of the announcers on the show had read my blog where I said f someone gave Joan Rivers a penny for her intelligence, she would have to give a refund. I was trashing Mrs. Rivers for her comments about poker players on the TV show, “The Apprentice”. Joan was mad at Annie Duke, who was winning the game hands down, but included the entire poker world, calling us “trash, gangsters and morons”. So until Joan apologizes to all the poker world, I’ll continue to insult her at every opportunity. She also bragged about having an IQ of 135, Annie Duke must have one of 270 because she was twice as smart as Joan on the TV show.

I guess my autobiography hit the bookstores yesterday. I had telephone calls from radio stations across America for interviews but I’m going to curtail those, also.

Things are finally winding down now where I can get some much needed rest. Since I got food poisoning 10 days ago, I’ve been groggy. I play in the HSP this Friday and then it’s clear sailing on my schedule. I’m going for 17 straight wins on TV cash games. I wonder if Friday the 13th is a bad omen? Nah, I don’t believe in that stuff. Still…..

-DB

Catching up

Jeremy (daisyxoxo) Fitzpatrick — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:56:31 +0000

I’ve been playing as much as ever lately. I’m involved in a big team points contest on PocketFives. There are a lot of great players involved. For the contest there are ten teams of five players apiece. At the end of the ten day contest period, each team uses their top thirty points scores with a max of ten scores for any individual contestant. It’s been interesting to see all these great players put in a lot of volume. Needless to say the online fields were a lot tougher man for man during the contest. Unless my team hits a full court buzzer beater we’re done. Honestly the contest really hasn’t changed my schedule that much but it was definitely entertaining to keep up with while playing the past couple of weeks. Also, the FTOPS kicked off this week. I’ve bricked everything so far but hopefully I can circle the wagons and hit something big this weekend. There are still several great events left on the schedule…bink it one time!!!
Since my last blog I’ve had some good results. I shipped a 6 handed $100K, a UB $20K and a couple of smaller tournaments. I had top 3 finishes in a $100 rebuy on Full Tilt, a Bodog Poker Open event, a $40K on Tilt, etc etc…It all runs together. Today I took down the $30K KO and a $6K HA. I finished 3rd in the $40K on Tilt and had approximately 100 min cashes including the $1K buy-in on UB. Weeeeeeee…
My two most interesting finishes were probably the 6 handed $100K on Tilt and a 19th in the Sunday $150 re-buy on Tilt. The $100K win was interesting because I took a chop for the first time ever. I’ve always declined chops but it felt right in this tournament for a few reasons. At the time I had about 18 bb’s and the two guys to my left had about 18 bb’s as well. They both seemed like good aggro players, making the whole situation extremely volatile. I was also chip lead shorthanded at another good final table and getting a little tired. When I considered the volatility/other action/my energy level the chop seemed like the play. After the chop I insta-busted the other FT and shipped this one. I’ve hated myself ever since but that’s probably results oriented thinking which is a no-no. The $150 re-buy 19th was interesting due to my bust hand. I had about 65ish bb’s for a top 5 stack. My table was playing 6 handed. I opened utg 1 with AQ and the only guy that had me covered flatted the button. This seemed like business as usual as I was opening a fair amount and the player on the button was playing a lot of pots. A good aggro player in the big blind shipped his 20 bb stack. At this point I felt like I was way ahead of the flat from the button and the squeeze from a thinking player in the big blind. I iso shoved with my AQ with little thought and didn’t hold against the button’s AA.. Pretty huge cooler. given the previous action, the pattern in this hand, and the fact that he was the only guy that had me covered at the table. I’m pretty sure I’m burning money if I don’t shove there…oh well. The great thing about the internet is you can always fire up another one.
In more important news, my Clemson Tigers beat up on FSU Saturday night. If we win out in conference we will play ACC Championship in Tampa sometime in December. That’s a road trip I want to take. Hopefully we can avoid the trap games and take it down.
Good luck at the tables,
Jeremy

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “He who buries his talent is making a grave mistake.”

Doyle Brunson — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:52:07 +0000

Well, I thought I would be pulling for Phil Ivey and Jeff Shulman at the WSOP final table. But when Daniel wanted to bet Ivey over Moon, I had to take Moon who has 5 times the chips of Ivey. It is a must-win bet so probably we won’t have action. Sorry Phil, I won’t be rooting for you now. Business is business.

The game is going every night at Bobby’s Room. It’s really great to get up and know there will be somewhere to go. I’ve been breaking almost even every night and I was worrying that I might be playing bad. I try to analyze the hands I play every night before I go to sleep and I couldn’t see that I was doing anything wrong. Finally, I made a nice win last night so maybe there is still some gas in my tank.

I try to slow down, but things just keep piling up on me. I have to do an interview with the Associated Press, meet ESPN for my thoughts on the WSOP final table (what thoughts), go to dinner with the winner of the Vegas Experience from DoylesRoom.com and then the CEO and marketing staff are coming in for all kinds of meetings. The Hall of Fame dinner is also this week and I’m supposed to do the “shuffle up and deal” for the final table, followed by a book signing. My dentist is waiting with some implants that are overdue and my wife tells me that I should move to the Bellagio because I never spend any time with her. Oh well, nobody ever said life was easy.

This Twitter business is getting out of hand. My followers are going up close to 3,000 a day. Don’t know why but with 115,000 following, I’ve starting blocking all the negative and name calling tweeters. I’ve got enough problems without folks taking their frustrations out on me.

I just finished another interview with a national magazine. They asked me what I attributed my success and longevity to. I had never thought about it but I came up with a pretty good answer. I told them I never let self-made limitations happen. I’ve always pushed the envelope in everything I do. Actually, that’s pretty profound, I surprise myself sometimes!

-DB

2nd thoughts

Jeffrey Romano — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:47:38 +0000

What the hell was I thinking yesterday? Planning to drive 2 hours to play a live $400 limit tournament was probably an indicator that I just running bad online. Now that I think about it I’d rather get a lap dance from Rossie O’donnel after she crushed 4lbs of barbecue ribs, than play live limit. I woke up at 8am, first time in a while, and went back to sleep 30 seconds later.

Yesterday was a losing day on all my sites, but the Yankees lost so I got that going for me. Also the Celtics might go undefeated this season, if they stay healthy. There is no team in the world as good as the Celtics when they have their full roster, and I really want to start putting money on them. However, I’m down about $5000 life time in sports betting so I’m probably not going down that road again.

I’m trying to figure out the trends in poker right now. I’m getting 3 bet now with hands like KJ and A9+. I’m starting to see that aggressive play is starting to bite me in the ass. Maybe this is just me running bad in the short run but the game has changed a lot. I’m thinking about playing a few days super tight and seeing how it turns out. Think about poker a while back, if you were 3 betting light during the moneymaker boom you were making a lot of money. So the super aggressive players were winning, and everyone noticed this. Now if the majority of players are super aggressive, its going to be the really tight players that make the most. Maybe I’m wrong, I really don’t know. However, I like to try to think about the game as opposed to just how I play. I’ve been running so ridiculously bad in the super turbos that I’m beginning to think I’m only going to be a break even player in them. However with rakeback I’m still making over 2k a month in those, which isn’t a bad way to bankroll my MTTs (where I make all my money).

I’m predicting that the music industry is going to shift. I believe the hit songs are going to be a combination of feel good techno and rap. Gangster rap is done, and the Kanye West college rap scene has to move on. Time will tell….

Been busy with TheMavenVT…

David Chicotsky — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:22:29 +0000

Spent most of the past three weeks writing and recording footage for my website. I have yet to include the hundreds of hand history examples my poker mentor Ari Engel and I are going to break down for the viewers.

It’s going to be nice to have a couple of days break from the project to go ahead and do a bit of grinding. Played tonight with no success, but planning on playing later in the afternoon online as well.

I had some students take down some big scores this week which is always nice. Nothing feels better than seeing them win.

I know this was a short blog, but I’ll try and drum up some more interesting stories over the next week and share them with you soon.

Everyone feel free to tune into the WSOP main event final table via bluffmagazine.com Nov. 7th and 9th. I’m going to be doing the commentating and we have a talent packed lineup of pros to come on and talk shop. Definitely looking forward to it.

Keeping your cool

Jeffrey Romano — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:43:40 +0000

Man every time I write that I’m running bad I win a tournament. Maybe everyday even if I’m running good I should just complain and say I’m doing the opposite. Yesterday I was running like absolute trash but ended up winning the $50 turbo on cake for about $2000. So I ended the day up around $900 and it snaps my streak of $3000 MTT losses.

I almost just started shoving every single hand because of the way I had been running. I really thought no matter how well I would play I would inevitably end up with KK vs A3 and lose to a wheel. However you just have to remind yourself that no matter what happens you have to stay collected. Whenever I have the big stack and I get knocked down to average I always try to take a 1 minute break. Realizing that you still have a good amount of chips to play with is a big deal, and often times it goes over looked. Think about the last time you had a big stack and lost about 50% of your chips. Did your goal become, getting back to your past chip stack, or was it playing solid poker? I guess they kind of go with each other but some times people will just rush into hands and overplay draws or stack off with AQ even though they really need to just cool their jets.

The $400 limit tourney is at foxwoods tomorrow which I think I’m going to play. If I do well in it I’ll drive back down there for the 1k, 2.5k, and 10k main event. It would really be nice to run like God and be able to play the 10k. If I don’t though, I’ll just get really wasted on Halloween and have a good time either way!!

I’m thinking about being Clint Eastwood for Halloween.

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “May the work that you have be the play that you love.”

Doyle Brunson — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:13:22 +0000

There is finally some poker action in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio. We have lowered the stakes and more players are coming in. It’s really dumb to play so high no one except the ultra rich guys can play. I was completely exhausted when I got through traveling but after playing poker for 4 straight days, I feel great again. It is really amazing how playing helps me. I guess I’m a junkie after all these years.

DoylesRoom.com is putting on a “Twitter Followers Freeroll” because I’ve got over 100,000 followers on Twitter. The winner gets a weekend in Vegas, dinner with me and partying with the young DoylesRoom pros. I guess they decided I couldn’t handle the partying and they may be right. The tournament is on this Sunday at 6pm Eastern time. I’ll tweet the password at 4pm Eastern the same day because our tournaments hold a few thousand players at a time. You have to have an account at DoylesRoom along with the password to play.

Cardoza publishing has already ordered the second printing of my autobiography because of the unexpected number of advance sells. It is going to hit the bookstores Nov. 10th and I’ve still got mixed feelings about writing this book.

I appreciate all the tweets, emails and phone calls expressing concerns over my toy poodle Casper. Casper jumped off a desk and knocked both his hips out of socket and Louise has to carry him everywhere because he can’t walk. I should say couldn’t walk because he is able to walk on level ground now, he just can’t jump or put any weight on his back legs. Casper is tough and I expect him to last a lot longer as he is only 13 years old.

I’m back in retirement on pro football. I bet on Minn +6 points when Pitt made 2 defensive touchdowns in the last 5 minutes to beat me. I had Miami +6 against N.O. Saints and was ahead 24-3 at the half and lost. Then, I had Houston -3 and was ahead 21-0 at the half and managed to tie that one 24-21. I’m sure I’m going to get lots of sympathy, all poker players are unlucky when betting on sports.

-DB