For A Better Tomorrow

I’m a bit jaded right now. This week has been insane for me and I had no choice but to forfeit for the night. On Monday, I came off doing pretty well putting in a small 1500 hands and came up 3 buyin. Cool.

On Tuesday, I played for 6 straight hours and dropped 7 buyins. That’s fine, that’s all good. It’s normal, no big deal. I was slightly frustrated but it’s whatevers. I take a lunch and I come back to win it all back! Cool. Confidence is back up. I say to myself “heh, I knew I can overcome that, I just gotta keep my head up.”

On Wednesday: I play for 5 hours and guess what happens. I drop another 7 buyins! At this point I’m just pounding my head on my desk. How can I repeat that!? Two days in a row! You gotta be shitting me. Anyway, so what do I do? I keep my head up, went out to eat dinner with a friend. I come back at night and got rejected by everyone when I asked them to go watch Live Free Die Hard (Maggie Q <3). But no everyone had work the next morning (wtf!? people work thursday mornings? When did this happen?). So fuck it, I load up Full Tilt, I see a few fishes, I decided to sit down and 8 table. Bam, I win back my 7 buyins + 2 more buyins! W00t. Awesome. Confidence is back up. I say to myself “heh, I knew I can overcome that, I just gotta keep my head up.” Hell I did it twice, I’m proud of myself.

Today (Thursday): I wake up at 1130am and I played to 330pm. I swing up 5 more buyins- which is awesome. At 330pm, I decided to go eat lunch with some friends as I have not eaten anything all day because I’m a degenerate and I did not want to leave my Full Tilt tables unattended to microwave some T.V. dinners because of the new stupid clock that drives me nuts when I hear multiple tables screaming for my attention.*Breathe* Anyway, I come back from lunch/dinner, I load up my tables and play for 4 hours and guess how many buyins I drop…..guess come on… guess another 7 buyins. OMGWTFBBQ!

I mean okay, I managed to overcome that twice but how the hell does this happen 3 days in a row! I’m jaded. I’m gonna go excercise now. I know I’ll overcome my downswing but man I’m just so exhausted. My eyes are blurry and I can no longer look at the screen. *sigh* Oh BTW, 7 buyins is approximately $3,000.

Transformers is just around the corner. I honestly cannot wait any longer for this damn movie to come out. I’m not a transformers fan but I am a Michael Bay fan. After viewing all the trailers, I now know what this movie is going to be a cinematic experience. I’m hoping that the story will be great but to be honest, I’m only looking forward to the action, the quick cutting, the camera angles, and of course the beautiful cinematography. All of which, I have been a fan of for a very long time. If the transformers movie’s story is great, that’ll definitely be a plus. Obviously the story has to be “ok” for the movie to be good overall but lets face it, we’re all going to watch this for the action sequences.

As of late, the action genre has been declining. It seems that the general audience has been too spoiled in the 90s and are now expecting way too much from action movies. I don’t blame them as I am very critical about action movies myself. I guess that’s one of the reasons why I’m excited for this movie. Michael Bay is able to make his dry action look “beautiful”. The camera angles and shots are just so amazing. Don’t get me wrong when I say “dry action”. Dry action to me is just boring explosives and gun shots that were well received in the early 90’s. Nowadays, people are expecting something more. Perhaps something cooler and in my opinion, that would have be “flow”. Nowadays, action has got to have flow for it to be exciting. I’ve talked a lot about fluidity in action sequences in the past so I will not dive into it any further. It’s sorta hard to understand the idea of fluidity and flow in an action movie. Basically, it’s how the camera moves and how the shots that areg taken. Of course, the action sequence needs to be stylized with the right editing and cinematography as well. Some directors have it, and some don’t. There are a few action directors ( Michael Mann, Tony Scott, James Cameron, and Michael Bay) who are aware of this change in the general audience’s tastes. I feel that Michael Bay would be more of a newer director in comparison to the ones I just listed. Directors like David Fincher and the Wachowski brothers are perhaps more of the newer generation of action directors, but I can’t say that anymore as time has passed by quite some time since the early 90s.

I often wonder what the next generation of action directors will bring next. It’s hard to say, but I definitely think that they need to learn to stylized their movies. Zack Snyder (director of 300) seems to have a lot of potential it seems. I think if he’s given a good script, he might be able to come up with something fantastic. But until then, I think Michael Bay will continue to lead in the action genre. That is until James Cameron comes out of the closet for another shot. I hope to see more from Tony Scott and Michael Mann as well. Their action movies are definitely ones for us student directors to dissect if we ever want to become an action director. I also hope John Woo gets back into the mix as well. I’m sadden to see the absence of John Woo lately as he is one of the most influential action directors on this planet.

“When you see Optimus Transform in this movie for the first time and don’t get a chill up your spine — then fuck off - because nothing in cinema will excite you!!! ” - Michael Bay

I never really studied martial arts. I mean, I’ve taken northern praying mantis for 2 years a few years back, but I never really got to the core of the art form. But there’s one thing that I learned that will stick with me for good, and that is to take advantage of being able to learn. Many of the sifus in there told me that we’re all learning “to learn”. If that makes any sense. It’s basically learning the basics to eventually have the ability to comprehend the advance material. Lets just say, if you get a black belt in martial arts, you can probably do “ok” fighting against people who don’t know martial arts. Many people often quit once they obtain this information. Sadly, that is probably the worst time to quit as they have just barely acquired the ability to learn. Now how does this relate to poker?

Basically, I’ve been thinking about hitting the poker books again. There are many books that I have only glanced at when I should have been dissecting. I am confident to say that I am at a level where I am now capable of really learning poker. For the past year, I’ve kept myself from learning more because I have been basically just grinding and making money at a level where I’m very comfortable. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m always on twoplustwo and reading poker articles but, I’ve actually never sat down for an hour or two dissecting a good poker book. I really want to enhance my tournament skills and learning small ball. And of course, become a stronger 6 handed player and move up in tables.

I played some house game poker recently and tested some “small ball” strategies since the structure was pretty decent. It totally backfire on me but I did learn some valuable stuff. I think a good small ball player needs the right image. I could be wrong about this (please comment if you have something to say about this), but I think it’ll be very difficult for an “unknown” to come out and play small ball. I think you have to have an image of being capable of anything. Your opponents have to be extremely fearful of you because on any street, you are capable of making any play with any hand. And that gives you the ability to check to your opponent while still showing strength. I think that is key. And with that image embedded in your opponents, you can be very creative with your hands.

When a novice player bets into the pot, he or she will only have 1 or 2 reasons for it. When a pro bets into the pot, he or she will have a bunch of reasons why he’s betting. This same idea can obviously work for checking. In abc poker, checkin often means weakness. But, if you’re a professional, checking can now mean many things: Being weak, looking for a checkraise, knowing your opponent will raise if you bet so you check to raise your opponent with air, knowing your opponent will raise if you bet with a strong hand, so you check for pot control. There’s many more, but I don’t want to go through it all.

Even if I master small ball, I technically can’t go out there and just play it. I have to let me opponents get to know me better. I think that’s why pros like Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren are successful in this strategy. As soon as they sit down at a table, every player there will assume that they’re capable of anything because “they’re pros”. It’s definitely an advantage to have that image, yet it can also be a disadvantage.

I was trying to explain to some friends of mine on how Gavin Smith was playing, and they could not really comprehend his strategy. However, I believe that I understood it a bit. Which again lead me to think about my ability to learn. I guess that’s why I’ve been thinking about hitting the books again.

“The greatest wealth in life is the ability to learn” -Anonymous

I’m back from Las Vegas. It is just unbelievable what everyone in Las Vegas went through. I did not play a single event because the line to register was at least 3 hours long! I was really disappointed with what happened in Las Vegas. It was nothing but pure disaster. Any of you who went to Las Vegas, you know exactly what I went through. I arrived there on a Friday afternoon hoping to satelite into some events. I was actually going to buy into the 1500 NLHE event but I didn’t want to wait in that 3 hour line. From what I hear, their system broke down and they only had one cashier working at the register. I honestly do not know what they were thinking because I’m sure there would’ve been many more players had they resolved the long waiting registration line. On top of the long waiting list to register for the 1500 NLHE, I heard that many players who “preregistered” had to wait in that line also! That was when I realized that the WSOP went down the drain. I had a friend who literally said “I do not want to spend another dime at Harrahs”. And he is a big part of the poker community too. I was really disturebed annoyed. And to make matters worse, when I arrived on Friday, I got there at 3pm. I left at 8pm only succeeding in playing one FUCKING satelite! THe line for the satelite at that time was two fucking hours! and when we got our table, it took them one fucking hour to start the game. I’m sorry for the cursing but I was so fucking pissed. My friend Joe was jokingly telling me while giggling when we were waiting in line “So, basically we wait in this line for two hours then possibly get knocked out on the first hand and come back to this line again”.

On another note, My friend Joe, made it to the top two tables at the Pot Limit Holdem event. He was 6 away from final table T.V. When there were 4 tables left, I stood behind him watching his every single hand. I felt as if I was in the tournament myself. It was just an incredible experience. I was absorbed in the game as if I was in the tournament. I learned a few things about the great players in that game. i was watching Gavin Smith playing and I was extremely impressed by his style. I picked up that he was playing the small ball “passive” preflop but aggressive post flop game. He did not want to risk his chips by creating a big pot but he wanted to see flops cheaply with mediocre hands. At one point, he called a raise from the big blind with Q9s and flopped top pair. His opponent bet and he just flat called, then check on the turn. His opponet (being scared of Gavin Smith) decided to check as he did not hit anything at all. Gavin, surprisingly to me, checked on every street and got a cheap showdown with Top pair weak fucking kicker Q9. At first, I couldn’t quite figure what he was doing, but in the end I realized that he was just getting cheap showdowns with weak holdings when everyone was scared at the table.

Obviously, a couple of hands backfired against him as he played passively against another player. The player ended up holding 55 at the river betting into Gavin when they check all the way down the river. Gavin called (and I knew he had some kind of pair) but his opponet ended up rivering the straight 6784 and Gavin mucked his hand.

Even though Gavin gave him many “free cards”, he didn’t risk that much. I was trying to absorb Gavin Smith’s strategy and after some thinking, I knew that he was the most dangerous player at that table. I was worried for my friend whenever he was in a hand with Gavin. Small Ball opponents are perhaps one of the most dangerous in a tournament game. Even though the stacks were not as deep as 10k events, but the fact that there were no antes is what made it very effective.

This was a big motivation for me to try to learn more about tournaments. I have been a tournament player for a really long time and because of that thought in my head, I thought I knew enough. But seeing these playes repeating bracelets is just crazy. While watching my friend duke it out against so many good players, i realized that I have so much more to learn about tournaments. My friend played pretty solid against these guys but still, when he tried to steal, he’d get 3 bettted. It’s as if these “good players” knew that he was purposely playing the tight-aggressive, in order to make steals at the right time. In the end, I learned that playing tight is not necessarily the way to give your opponents the “respect” you hope to get.

At one point, Gavin did nothing except played passive by calling loosely. But immediately when he 3 bet an oppponent preflop, I honestly thought he was on an extremely “big hand”. After tanking, his opponent decided to “gamble” and call his all in with Q10. Gavin turned over a surprising 97s! but got lucky when he scored his 9 on the flop.

That whole situation got me to think more about the game. I asked my friend Joe if he “thought” if Gavin had a big hand when he went all in, and Joe did in fact thought that Gavin was on an extremly big hand. In the end, we were both fooled. Gavin knew exactly what he was doing. Eventhough Gavin was playing loose the entire time, the moment he raised, we both thought he was strong. I’m certain he knows this. My jaw dropped honestly because of one reason. How often do you play extremely loose, yet other players still think you are strong when you raise? I thought about this for a moment and realized many things. These pros are able to play loose and still represent a “tight image” sort of speak. This is definitely something that I must absorb if I ever want to suceeed in the tournament world. In the end, I am amazed at how these pros are able to deceive their opponents. Don’t get me wrong, there were other good poker players at the table. Rizen was there, and another player who was being railed by Taylor Caby had to be an excellent player. On top of that, I knew that there was one player who “looked dangerous” just by the way he played. Later I found out that he was Jon Friedberg. Rizen seemed to play slightly solid while Taylor Caby’s player was 3 betting players left and right. John Friedberg made moves to take pots away from opponents who were stealing a lot. He used his big stack to play flops and turns against his opponent. And if I was in my friend Joe’s shoes, I honestly would not know what to do. He was positioned in front of all of those guys, so stealing would pretty much be committing suicide.

In the end, I realized that there is much much more in tournaments that I need to learn no matter my “experience” on the internet. When you play agianst players who know how to think, you have to find a way to “out think” them, especially Gavin Smith. I was truly impressed by his ability. When I watched him play, I knew immediately that he was going to make it to the final table despite his low stack when there were only 4 tables left. When he built his low stack back up, I honestly thought he was going to win, but instead, he took 2nd place.

There’s definitely so much more to learn when watching these games. I just wish and hope that I have more time to be able to just “stand there” and dissect/absorb the final two tables. I find it being very valuable even though you’re standing there for 5 hours. The 5 hours where I can easily make money off the internet by playin cash games. Overall, those five hours would be a long long term investment. This is definitely something I am going to think about more often.

In terms of results in poker, this month has been by far the best month I have ever played. I recently spoke about the incredible amount of fishes that have been online as of late and that is definitely part of the reason for my running well. My win rate is much higher than usual in a decent sample size of about 50k hands for this month. On top of this good run, I have been playing excellent poker as well. My full ring game has improved incredibly ever since I experimented with 6 handed. It’s obvious that there were some tricks that I was not aware of in full ring prior to my 6 handed experiment.

The good run comes at a perfect time as I am 3 hours away from flying out to Las Vegas. I have not participated in the WSOP event since 2005. I guessed it’s because I was a little numb from my losses in 2005 and was not too eager to return in 2006. This time around, things are going to be different though. I have a much stronger roll now and I have definitely way more experience than before. I remember thinking I was on top of the world winning two seats in 05- lol. Now that I look back, boy was I such a donkey, but I don’t blame myself at all at that time. I hope to be able to do some damage at the game this year. I want to be able to play my best game. I would come out more disappointed if I find myself playing horribly. Depending on how well I do in satellites, I will probably play in one or two events during my 5-7 day stay. This year, my main objective is to focus more on cash games. I have definitely been a little rusty in tournaments and SNGS since I have been only playing cash games online. However, I believe that I will get a hold of my original game in just a few shots at some cheap satellites. We’ll see.

I haven’t been eating well at all lately. My exercise has been mediocre, but I definitely could’ve improved more in that area. The great news is that I have been sleeping very well lately. I hope to tone down on eating out too late while being in Las Vegas. I think my game would be much different if I were to sleep well and eat well.  I hope to see something interesting happen this year perhaps making a final table on T.V. or something.  Or better yet, winning a bracelet and a nice life changing 1st place prize of at least 800k Wish me luck.