EPT
So me and Evy went to Vegas on 4th of December, and I was happily surprised by the weather. I mean I know it's not gonna be the blazing desert heat I remember from the summer, but I always automatically think of it when I think of Vegas. In stead it was only a little warmer than in Holland, but still pretty cold. No insane amounts of traffic, not the massive amounts of people wearing WSOP hats, just quiet basically. I really like Vegas best at times like this. It's like a whole different place in the winter.
We went a bit earlier because of the 5-Diamond WPT tournaments in bellagio. There were some 5k prelims we'd like to play before the main event. The prelims were sick structured as always in the US, but I never really got deep. One time I pretty much bubbled in a 5k tourney, but I had somewhat of a blowup to go out (REALLY?). The main event however was a great experience for me.
It was the first time I would play a tournament with a structure like this. 45k Starting stacks, 50-100, 90 minute levels, what......!?!? I was very anxious to start playing this cashgame. I didn't really know what to expect and I figured it was going to be something like, hardcore value monsters, pot control the hell out of overpairs or TPTK's in 3-way pots etc. We walk in and I'm half late but just in time to catch my hand utg. Unfortunately I'm eating candy have some water in my hands, and I have my paper to prove it's my seat, so it's all kind of chaotic. I look at my hand and I have {6h}{6d} and I make it 300 utg. Everyone folds to David Singer in the cutoff and he calls, as does the big blind. The flop is {2c}{6s}{Jh}, sweet.
However, we are 45k deep and the pot is 950. God it feels like a waste to flop a set here with 45k stacks. Is this gonna be like 800 call, 1800 call, 3400 fold type of hand where i increase my stack with 5%. I don't think so. I always wanted to try this and seeing I would normally not win a huge pot anyway in this situation in a tourney like this, it doesn't seem like a waste. I bet 8000, where I would've normally bet 800. I don't give it a lot of attention and people kind of laugh or gasp. The dealer says 'the bet is 8000' and I make my most sad Oh nooooees. Singer looks at it for a while and then calls!!! The big blind gets out of the way and Singer and me see a {10h} turn. I decide to go for the God-damnit-fuck-my-life-i-hate-confusing-chip-colours-check and hope he does something. Singer is a thinking player and he does some weird shit himself sometimes during live play, so I'm seriously thinking he could float me on the flop to scare the shit out of me. He thinks for a while and fires 7k.
I was really unsure how I wanted to proceed here. The problem is the turn is a nasty card imo. I seriously think he could float, cause he honestly thought I missclicked and he could take the pot away from me, but a lot of hands he can call preflop with, float on the flop, might get some outs on this turn. Also, if I call here, chances are big he is gonna put me on a big hand and shut down on the river. If i call and frontbomb the river, same deal plus I gave him a free card. I decided to go for a quick checkraise allin, trying to fake the agitated manner of someone who did something stupid in a big tournament and is desperately trying to get himself out a winner. He thought forever and then mucked his hand. I was satisfied with the way the hand went anyway, I won a lot of chips, plus the whole table thinks im a monkey now
.I ended day 1 with about 140k in chips, which put me in the top 10. I received the bold player of the day award from WPT, for being allin in the first hand I played and playing like a scandi all day long. Good times. Day 2 was going insanely well, where I bluffed 1 guy hard at the beginning of the day and then got some chips on a new table, where Benyamine was 2 to my right. We ended up in a pot at the end of the day where I raised utg with 79hh he called small blind and the big blind calls. The flop is {Qh}{10h}{4d} (FOR A SECOND I THOUGHT I FLOPPED A FLUSH BUT THEY DONT HAVE 4 COLOR DECK LIVE @!#@!#!@#@!) After they both check I bet 15k or so, Benyamine makes it 45 I shove 165 total, he tank-calls {Ac}{Qc} and holds for a 340k pot or something. That just blows, cause I would have had 500k and woulda been the leaderchip. Now I have 200k, which is plenty, but I don't feel good about it. Also, we had 2 hours left after that hand and I'd rather have him crippled. He played very well and was annoying even from my right.
Day 3 was just a whirlpool of runbads. I lost half my stack vs Nick Schulman (TheTakeover) with {Jd}{8c} vs {6d}{6h} on [8d}{8h}{6c}, which is pretty gross, but I'm happy I didn't go broke, because he had me covered. Then I had two interesting hands vs Amnon Filipe, one of which eh flatcalled pf from the sb with {Ac}{Kc} vs my hi-jack raise. He check-called the flop on {5h}{5s}[9h} turn {Ah} check check, river {10h} he checkcalls my 60%-pot bet. I had {Qc}{Tc} and I actually thought I was valuebetting against a low pair. He said 'Ok here's a gift' before calling with AK in that spot, which just goes to show how retarded live poker actually is. I mean I'm pretty positive I would only check the river to checkraise. To actually put someone on a flush or a 5 there or ANYTHING that beats you is pretty retarded. I don't mind flatting at all, but to presume your hand is dead is just so weak. Also I don't think it's cool to say 'here's a gift' and then after I showed my awesome valuebet turn over top pair top kicker, seriously wtf. Then I miss {Ah}{6h} vs his 99 on {Th}{8h}{7s}, to get down to like 80k. I folded down to 66k, when we're in the 2k-4k level and Justin Young opens in mid-late to 10,500. I crush his range with {Ac}{Td} from the big blind, so i stick it in. He has Kings and I'm out in 103rd place, where 100th place received, 22k$. Fuck my life, what a fucked up day.
Luckily we had Flight of the Conchords at home, which is an awesome show. They only have 1 season out but season 2 is coming, watch this clip!!!
Holidays and UFC
For the holidays we haven't been doing much. On Christmas Eve we planned a very lazy day, but David Williams asked to go out and have a 'sick dinner' with him his gf and Viffer. This sounded perfect to us, as we didn't feel like a huge party or whatever and these were people we know well, so you can just hang out. Unfortunately David had to cancel, but Viffer Evy and me went anyway. It was at 'Cut' in the new Palazzo Venetian building. We had a table a bit off to the side, which was very nice. David wasn't lying. The dinner was one of the best ones I ever had, if not the best one. Every little snack was the best I ever had. We stayed there for about 2 hours and then went on to have a drink at Encore, the new Wynn building. Viffers girlfriend works there so we went to check the place out, since it had only opened the day before. It looked absolutely gorgeous and classy. It has very un-vegas-like casino features. For instance, there is spot where you can see outisde. This sounds ... normal, but it's the first time I have ever seen it in a vegas casino. Actually see the sky, damn. Also there are a lot of big white columns throughout the main gambling area, which create somewhat of a room perspective. Very cool.
On first and second christmas day.. hmm.. I just read that out loud to Evy and she started laughing at me saying there is not second Christmas day here. Well in Holland we do have it, holllaaaaaaa. In fact Belgium has 3. Ok so we didn't do anything on Christmas day itself, which suit my lazy habits just fine.
On the third christmas day aka december 27th we went to the UFC!!!! I wasn't expecting going at all, but Erica Schoenberg had tickets and her and David weren't going, so we got to go. We went with Erica's family, who are awesome. Evy knew them really well already so it was really familiar anyway. We met them at Bellagio and from there went with a limo to MGM, where the actual fights were. Our seats were sick. We were on the second row next to the ring. We got to see everything really well and saw fighters coming and leaving etc.
The 3 most important fights were:
Nogueira vs Frank Mir
Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson vs Wanderlei Silva
Forrest Griffin vs Rashad Evans
I wanted to see jackson vs silva the most, since they have been longtime favorites of mine. I have been watching MMA fighting for a long time now and I always love it. This was my 3rd time going while I was in vegas too. Nogueira was just a sad performance vs Frank Mir, he looked out of shape and he was fighting like a lazy chump. Nobody ever knocked him out or had a ref interfere in his last 34 fights, and now he gets dropped 3 times by Frank Mir. SERIOUSLY. I mean Mir is ok at boxing and all, but he is definitely not better than other people nogueira made it to the end against. I kind of hated to see the ref stop the fight so soon and the fluke win. He deserved it this fight, but it just felt fucked up. If Nogueira is in shape there is no way Frank Mir could even make Nog flinch while boxing him.
Jackson vs Silva was for me the most anticipated fight. I love them both like I said. I thought rampage would win, definitely seeing silva's previous fights. Well, I mean Rampage alledgedly fled from the cops and stuff, but he still seems a better fighter now. He lost twice to Silva before thought, and you could tell he was very nervous. He dropped silva without too much trouble in the first round with a KO and to be honest it made me very sad. I have watched videos and dvd's of silva fights from 6 years ago, and to see him lay down there was just wrong. I guess he isn't the same guy as he used to be and his career in the 205 division is basically over now. Rampage wants to rematch Griffin before fighting for the belt again, but he says it's up to the UFC. Here is how the fight ended
The Griffin fight was very cool to watch. Constant action and very good boxing. Evans kind of luckboxed his way into a KO. Griffin was overal better, but Evans prevailed and took the win. He KO'd Lidell in an earlier fight, so i guess he can throw some punches, but I don't think he is champion material to be honest.
Online
Ever since we got here, I have been playing a lot online. It was perfect because I kept waking up at 6 am because of jetlag. I have a new method to 24-table on my laptop and that's going realy well. I have had my best month this year and I haven't played that many days. I think I played a total of 15 days or something, but I did get in 200,000 hands. I have mostly played 5-10, but 3-6 and 10-20 have been no exception. The biggest difference with before is confidence. I used to look at the games and see a lot of regulars and give myself reasons not to play, also cause I wanted to do other stuff. Now I just sit down see wherever there's 24 tables and play those stakes. I don't care about regulars anymore and as you grow in that mindset, you can see a lot of them aren't that good, or have exploitable glitches. It was my birthday on the 29th, and basically the laziest I had ever. Evy had to go to the dentist and had her wisdom tooth extracted, so she is in a lot of pain. We're just chilling at the house and after new years I think ill get some hours in before the PCA starts. I'm really motivated that I got my grind back and I don't want to lose it again
.After the PCA I will go back to Europe probably and travel the circuit there. A lot of exciting tuornaments there and also some new added ones that I want to play. My schedule looks something like this the way it looks now: Vegas-Bahamas-Vegas-Deauville-Kopenhagen-Moscow-Dortmund-San Remo-Monte Carlo-Vegas. After the PCA I will be in Vegas for a week more and then go home so that I'm in time for EPT Deauville. We might decide to go to Australia after the PCA, but chances are slim, especially seeing it's the longest you can actually fly lol. I don't like flying that much, it's very exhausting to me.
Pokervliegen
A while back a friend of mine came up with an idea to make affordable Vegas travels. He finished up his product and it became pretty sick. He is offering packages where you can go to vegas, play a tournament and stay in one of the famous hotels, for the same amount people normally spend on their ticket alone. I believe right now it's mostly for Dutch players, but check out the site, it's all self explanatory.
http://www.pokervliegen.com
Maybe I'll see you in Vegas
Peaaaace
