Midnight

Hey blog (and Eugene),

Whoa, the blog entry format has upgraded since I last posted. There is a live preview button now.  Pretty cool stuff.

Anyways, it’s been a while and I’ve been meaning to update but I was naturally being lazy and pushed it aside, until I was rereading some of my previous entries and decided, hey, that this is a good juncture in my life to record on paper (or “digital paper” aka the web, holla). (<- whoa! run-on sentence.)  A lot has happened since I last updated and I will try to address each areas of my life and how it has changed since my last entry.

2012 for me has started with many uncertainties and worries.  And just the way it started, the worries and concerns about certain things I need to do and where I’m heading in the future is still there staring right back at me.  Shortly after my post in October, I got my MCAT score back which was decent.  I then started applying to schools and was finished by early November.  YET there are still schools that I haven’t heard back from.  I mean wtf some schools that I have applied as early as September still hasn’t gotten back to me.  Moreover, because my MCAT has pushed my applciation back, a lot of the schools I thought I had a decent shot at have actually put me on hold for interviews, which basically means they ran out of space and will “periodically review my file” (whatever the fack that means).  In the midst of all the discouragement, last week I did get one interview invite from Georgetown yet again, which was really just a huge breath of relief. And the fact that they are still reconsidering me after I didn’t get in last year being so close (being waitlisted) is actually promising to me (not to mention, it is one of my top schools that I would like to get in).  However, I am too smart now to naively think that an interview will guarantee me a spot (ex. unlike last year when I thought I had a decent shot to get into Georgetown, which only ended up breaking my fragile heart).  Consequently, I need to start planning for the what if’s and press on for other schools as well.  But frankly, I think I”m running out of my what-if options now and the next few months are basically going to be my make or break moment for getting into med school TBH.  Of course I don’t want to think about that until I get all feedback from all schools, but at this point, literally anything can happen.  So while it is an unsettling time for me, it is also something to look forward to and I am trying to look everything positively. 

Thinking about it now, this whole medical school applciation is such BS and crap but I will move onto a different and lighter topic now.

After I finished submitting my applications back in early November, I was fortunate enough to travel some bit and finally get my arse out of the DMV area for a change, which felt soooooooo liberating.  Visited one of my good friends in Boston and had a really good time there.  I also spent a lot of time with family as I took a trip to Jamaica and to Arizona with them.   Btw, my trip to Arizona was surprisingly one of the best trips I’ve been on and I would highly recommend to anyone looking for a very outdoorsy trip.  Thinking about it now just makes me nostalgic already (as I usually am) and makes me want to go back. My urge to travel hasn’t really been satisfied though and I find myself constantly wanting to explore more and see what not only the other states in U.S. but what the world has to offer.  It’s a bit strange to me that I feel this way cuz I’m usually a homebody, but maybe the adventurous me finally decided to show itself when I am in my mid-20′s (a tad bit late lol).  I would def love to travel more, and I hope as more doors open and things become more clear of where I’m headed, that traveling will become more and more of a possibility for me in the next upcoming months.

I also played a lot of poker during this time period since my last entry and I probably played 12 out of the 23 days at Charlestown in the month of December before I left for my trip (including the day right before I left like it’s degen).  I ran pretty well for a change and have been continuing to do so this month the few times I went.  I also played my first live tourney last week where me, Tom, and Minsoo played the $500 + 60 with re-entries.  I really was just trying to play for the experience to pop my live tourney cherry and was looking to either bust early or win the whole thing for yawn $160k.  Anything else and it would just feel like such a waste of time.  Ironically, I was the one who made it deep into day 2 and got a somewhat frustrating 43rd out of 1874 people by losing an obvious 88 < AK flip.  I am pretty proud of myself though as I was very in-tune during most of the tournament and made some very good plays during the tournament where I was literally surviving off of very well-timed steals and resteals.  Obviously there were some luckbox hands when I had to shove with J4hh and get there against AQ, and snap a CO shove against a reg with AJ against his surprising  AQ (wtf how do you show up with AQ there) and flop comes QJT, turn J loooool.  But for the most part my hands held up, which is huge in making far in a tourney and I’m grateful to make it far as I did.  However, I am definitely not looking forward to playing any tournaments in the near future as they are literally 10 times more draining and taxing than playing cash games imo, as I literally felt brain dead throughout the entirety of the trip from Tues-Sat. 

My new obsession thanks to my friend Min, however, is craps.  It is single-handedly all i have been thinking about since last week’s trip.  I am not one up for gambling (most of the people close to me know me as a huge nit when it comes to spending and gambling), but what I have tasted during our crap sessions at Borgata is something that cannot be unseen.  It’s not like I won an obnoxious amount of money or anything, but I just had so much fun with it that I’m already studying odds and can’t wait until I get to go and play again.  Next time I will hopefully have a hot roll (hasn’t happened yet, but w/e I’m due).  So looking back, I guess I did have a very fun past few months, and now hopefully I can just seal the deal at Georgetown (or [enter random medical school in the U.S.]) and move on forward to bigger and greater things! As always, thanks for reading.

 

 

Fucking October

I think I might have developed borderline seasonal depression around this time of the year: specifically the month of October. Even just thinking about the word “October” gives me cold chills down my spine. As some of you guys may know from my previous blog entries, I had a pretty shitty October back in ’09. I went through a really rough stretch where I was on a 5-fig downswing, which was a lot of money to lose at the time, and was unable to beat 2/4 on top of having to deal with my parents finding out me playing poker. But the monetary aspect didn’t even come close to the betrayal I felt from a lot of relationships being broken with people who I deemed to be close with at the time, and just struggling to adapt to the post-college life in general. I just felt so isolated not being around the people that I was used to being around with, and being away from the whole college bubble while my friends who were still attending college at the time seemed to be having a blast. It was as if they forgot about me and neglected me. I remember it was a very betrayal-filled, cold, bitter October that particular year. Not to mention around this time of the year is when it starts to get really chilly outside. And as many hopeless romantics do, I get quite sentimental when fall weather comes around.

Well even though history really hasn’t quite repeated itself (at least not yet?), it’s as if I have this glooming prediction that this month is going to suck. I really reaaaaaaally don’t want to be a pessimist but I think I have come to realize that what happened to me that year has left a lasting impression to my emotional state around this time. Even mother nature was playing tricks with me, as this October 1st started out with a drastic change in temperature: probably by like at least a margin of 20 degrees. It’s like as if it knew October started. And today is the 3rd of October and I just feel highly unmotivated. It feels like it’s as if I’m under a curse. I don’t know if it is the weather and what not, but I just absolutely don’t feel like doing anything productive. I think I’m even going to skip gymming today, which has never really happened since I started working out 5 months ago.

It’s not necessarily the weather that’s bothering me though, although it is definitely exacerbating my already dampened mood. Today I was feeling so down that I actually compiled a list of reasons of why I thought I might feel the way I feel (pretty dorky I know) and tried to find a solution of making myself feel better. I realized that on top of all the applications that I still need to fill out, which I am wayyyy behind schedule of, my MCAT scores are coming in tomorrow and I am really anxious TBH, esp. with the history of having received a worse score in the past and knowing how shitty that felt. I just keep thinking “what if that happens again?” I honestly don’t know how I will be able to get myself out of the disappointment. But I gotta remind myself that circumstances were a lot different this year than it was back then, and that I probably did a lot better. Besides, the test was already done a month ago and there’s nothing I can do now to change it. So that’s that. I’m just hoping that once I get done with all my secondaries, it will be a huge burden that I laid down off my back and that things will start to look up. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to finally act upon some things that I have pushed off because I’ve been so “busy” (most of the time it was simply cuz I was lazy). Just gotta look towards the prize! And keep striving. There’s not much you can do with the waiting part, so just live life to the fullest I suppose.

Here’s to a more cheerful blog entry next time! Cheers.

Mehhhh

Waddup

I just came back today from what feels like a very long and extended trip from the Borgata at Atlantic City. I was there since Saturday morning and pretty much played all day, every single day pretty much from when the game started until the game broke which was around 6-7am. Some of the dealers even asked me the next day if I ever got some sleep (lol). With all that playing, I was disappointed to be up only 1.9k, but still very grateful that I won for the trip. I had a lot of interesting hands that I won’t get into too much detail now, but my sessions over these past 3 days can be summarized by me being buried for about $10-$15k after losing a big pot and having to grind my way back up, which was pretty painful. After I did climb my way back up, i would lose it again by an ill timed bluff where i just always happened to run into the nuts of my opponents range. Then grind again. Rinse and repeat. I don’t think some of the bluffs I made were a massively +EV spot to be honest, but I was experimenting and seeing what worked and what didn’t. I think this trip really made me realize that while I most definitely think I am +EV for the game, I have soooooooooo much to learn about the live setting and that I’m not as good as I thought I was. I occasionally get… hm how do i describe it – it’s kinda like when a writer goes through a writing block? I get these “blocks” during a middle of a hand where for some reason because of the added pressure of the pot size or just the pressure of people watching the hand where I’m not able to clear everything out and think critically about my opponent’s ranges and what would be the appropriate move. I also have difficulty assigning my opponents’ ranges because live players play a lot differently than online. This actually lead me to lose one huge pot where I made a massive bluff for $8.5k effective with mid pair and got snapped by one of the regfishes that plays there, all because I got caught up in the moment and trusted my read that he was going to fold. My read turned out to be wrong, however, so it means that I need to think more critically about reads that I do develop during the game. So there’s still a lot of adjusting that I need to do in my live game I think, but I was still putting my opponents in pretty miserable spots, and I think I’m always good at adding pressure, as well as being able to exploit their tendencies. For example, I was giving hell to one of the more annoying regs, who basically raised too much preflop, cbets too much, using various methods. Once I got a pretty pristine read on him, I just made his life miserable and pretty sure I won about 8-9k off of him for the weekend. One night I probably had the most fun I ever did playing live poker because we played the show one card rule and a $100 bounty if you won with a 7-2. The game was really lively with a shitton of action so that was memorable.

During this trip I also got to see some “celebrities” that I’ve only seen on Youtube such as Allen Cunningham, Vanessa Selbst, and some other semi-famous gaks who came to play the ME of the WPT. Also Kinda random, but as i was chatting with this guy who sat to my right at the cash table yesterday, i found out he was the guy who tried to bluff kenny tran in this hand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhVimRvxxBY. Pretty random but it was weird and cool to see all of these people who i watched on youtube in real life. I also got to meet a lot of the guys I used to battle with online, which was also pretty dope. A lot of the guys were like “oh, you’re danlim1?” which i would typically reciprocate with “oh you’re [insert reg name]” and it was pretty cool to meet them IRL. I honestly don’t know too many people in person from the poker scene, so it was somewhat refreshing to see a lot of my online “peers” and being able to talk about certain matters such as what their plans were and just reminiscing about online poker.

Speaking of which, it’s already been about little over 5 months since BF. And honestly while I still very much miss online poker, I have a very hard time remembering how I was able to manage everything – starting from playing my A-game, to having fitting in somewhere in my schedule everyday, how i was able to play 12-16 tables and not sacrifice my thought processes, and etc. It just seem like ages ago and I have absolutely no clue how I was able to balance my life while pulling off such a feat. I just reread one of my posts from September and it just seems so foreign to me some of the things I said about hand thought processes, coolers, variance, graphs and all that jazz. It has also been about little over 2 months since I’ve moved out from DC but it all seems like a haze now. I can’t remember how it was living in the city; i def. wish i explored it a little bit more while I was there (not that it’s super far anyways).

Anyways, I prob be won’t be going out of my way to play poker anytime soon unless it’s to make a trip with some friends or something. My plans now are to finish my secondary applications within the next 10 days (pretty ambitious TBH) and once I have nothing left to do, I’m going to be making some serious travel plans. Not sure where or for how long though. One thing at a time! Peace.

This blog entry lacks paragraphs.

Update!

Hey guys,

I have been pretty good about updating this blog at least every month, but I happened to skimp out on August. I did write some entries in August but never got to finish them, and I probably won’t publish them in the near future cuz i’m laaazy. Plus, who cares about old stuff? So as far as updates go about things that have been going on in my life lately:

-I took my MCATs a week and a half ago. It went so-so. I’m not 100% happy of how it went, but at the same time, it could’ve been a lot worse so i guess we’ll just have to see what happened when the scores come out in the beginning of October. I’m going to be pretty busy over the next couple weeks trying to finish most of my secondary applications, and then finally I’ll have absolutely nothing more to do! I’m also potentially starting a new job where basically I’ll be doing the same thing I’ve been doing at the hospital, except with only one doctor with a set schedule (almost like a full time job) with set hours from 8:30am-5pm. I guess it could be kind of seen as a promotion. I’m just really looking forward not having to work crazy hours (11pm overnight shifts) with a decent lunch break.
-Shaved my head. Seems like I’m getting feedbacks as being one of two things: 1) A monk or 2) a gangsta. Either way, people constantly tell me that I look intimidating, which I kinda dig since I think it’ll help me with my image at the poker tables.
-Speaking of poker, have been playing a lot of live poker somewhat regularly and have been “live pro”-ing up. In all honesty, I’m just playing whenever I have free time and have come to enjoy the live setting more and more. I’ve been switching off between charlestown and the Borgata and have been running decent enough to win a good amount. Plan is to play in the upcoming weekend as it is anticipated to have a lot of action going on from the WPT main event going on. And then after that I’m not sure as to how often I’ll be playing.
-Have been ramping up my work outs lately, but i have been going through cycles where I workout intensely for a couple days, then take a few days off. I’m going to try to be a little bit more consistent until the end of the year.

I really really miss online poker. I miss stats, graphs, and all that good nerdy stuff that comes along with it. I miss multitabling and not have to be stuck with a bunch of people discussing “strat” or one guy ranting the whole 8 hours I’m playing about what happened the night before where they got bad beat for 200bbs effective. No one cares bro. Most of all, I just really miss the freedom that came along with online poker – being able to play whenever you want, and just really being able to be your own boss. Nowadays I find myself having to commit a day or two, or even three away from home if I want to get decent hours in, and it def. takes a toll on being able to have a balanced life.

So blah blah online > live, cool story bro. Anyways, to end this blog I figured I would end with these 2 hands played at the $10/25 NL game at the Borgata this past weekend. Both of them which I lost, but worth mentioning I think.

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Hand 1 happened in the beginning of my sesh and was against a really aggressive fish about in his 60′s whom I played once in the past that tends to overvalue hands (6bets with KK preflop like it’s the nuts preflop and basically stacks off 800bb’s by the river). He limps and I raise to $125 with 6d8d. We are about $10k deep. Folds around to him and he calls.

Flop: 5c – 7d – 9d

He checks and I bet $200 thinking “please raise please raise please raise.” After thinking about 5 seconds he raises $450 more to $650 total. As I’m performing somersaults in my head, I’m thinking of a good 3bet size (this is a no brainer 3bet spot since we are super deep and he almost has something when he c/r’s the flop). I pretend like I”m contemplating for a bit then 3bet $1200 more to $1850 total. After some consideration, he calls. I pretty much put him on two pair or sets at this point.

Turn: Jd

I make my flush, but I’m not too happy since this is a pretty big action killer. He checks and i’m thinking a bet is in order here to protect my hand and if he does have a set or two pair he’s going to have a hard time folding. I was trying to think of a good size and thought $1800 would oughta do it.

That’s when he unexpectedly announce “i’m all in” maybe about 3 seconds after i put my chips in. I wanted to puke. I was so sure in my head that he would’ve just flatted with a two pair or set, why raise now on a pretty bad card? I was thinking: “Maybe he’s shoving with a set since the board is now getting ‘scary’ for his set.” Or “maybe he made his straight with 8T and is now shoving to protect.” The problem with these rationales were that with a set, he most likely would’ve 4bet the flop, and with 8T he probably wouldn’t c/r. But does he really c/r the flop in that spot with a A-high FD? That was the dilemma I was having. In real time, I called pretty quickly -maybe after like 20 seconds – b/c I knew I couldn’t fold given that 1) he is a player that could’ve had a worse hand and 2) my read on the flop was that he had a made hand. What I failed to realize when the river bricked and he flipped over his AdKd is that he does, in fact, have the nuts in his range. Especially the way he came over the top on the turn without looking at my chips, I probably should’ve known that I was beat.

Still, it was so unlikely for me to think that he had it given how the hand played out (also I have flush blockers), but in retrospect it may have been have been just as unlikely for him to do that with a set. Yet, I’m not too upset with my call based on what I knew at the time about my opponent and the information I had at the time. Now I know better, but this is a call I didn’t particularly mind because it was a learning experience for me. Although losing a $20k pot drawing virtually dead maybe about 2 hours into your sesh is never a happy feeling, I wasn’t too upset about it.

Hand 2, on the other hand, happened maybe towards the end of my sesh that left me with a bitter taste in my mouth for what I’m about to explain in a moment. The hand was against a TAG-nit in his 40′s – he didn’t really have any speculative holdings in his preflop range and have been playing pretty much fit or fold throughout the whole game. He had put all of his chips in his rack by now and seemed like he was about to go home. He had about $6k and I cover.

I found KQo from EP and raised to $100. Villain calls from the button and a weak player from the BB calls.

Flop comes Jd – 7d – 3d (i don’t have a diamond in my hand)

BB checks and even though this is a pretty bad spot to Cbet, I know that button is about to leave soon and given how he was playing fit or fold I was banking on the fact that he wouldn’t continue with the hand unless he had something with a minimum of TPTK. And BB was a weak player that I could possibly make a read on later. I bet $250 and villain calls after much contemplation. BB folds. I’m pretty much ready to c/f the hand now.

Turn: Ko

Once I hit my king, however, it kinda put me in a shitty spot. However, I thought the best play at the time was to bet (pretty debatable imo) but I did end up betting $575. He once again thinks for quite some time, then calls.

The river is where it gets bad. The river comes 3h pairing the board, and I check pretty much intending on c/f’ing.

He thought for a very long time, maybe 1 or 2 minutes (felt like forever), finally he calmly takes out chips from his rack and gets together one orange chip and two black chips to bet $1200.

So I’m going to spoil the ending here without much suspense and let the readers know now that I ended up calling, which in retrospect (and what I felt at the time immediately after losing the hand) probably the WORST decision I’ve ever made at the poker tables in a very long time. I totally betrayed my read at the end, somehow in a very twisted way convinced myself that he might be bluffing before he leaves the table and ended up calling. I think a CRAI in this spot is pretty sexy, simply b/c I have all nuts in my range (with the K blocker) and he would have to fold most flushes. I still think the best play is to c/f, however, but i’m saying c/r would’ve been so much better than a c/c here. I was shown Td8d.

I really just wanted to kick myself in the nuts after this hand and felt really really terrible. Ironically, the hand I lost the previous day was worth 5x more and I didn’t mind it too much. Yet when I lost this hand I guess I was visibly frustrated as one of the guys next to me had to console me and say “it’s okay man it’s just one hand.” Lol. I guess I just felt really bad making that call b/c I just basically lit money on fire – I might’ve well just done that instead.

Anyways, just goes to show that poker is really all about making the right decisions regardless of the size of the pot. But still winning big amounts of manies is fun. Okay I’m off now. Ciao

Sick spot

I’ve been swamped with a lot of stuff to do lately, but I’ve been taking breaks here and there and have been watching the Big Game on PokerStars. I really like the structure of the game as well as the way they use stats and all that jazz (since I am an “internet guy” after all). I also enjoy the commentating which is a lot more sophisticated than what you would see in other televised poker shows. Anyways, there was an interesting hand that was played there between Negraneu and a guy by the name of Bryn Kenney, whom I never heard of before but seems to be crushing it as of late. I thought this spot was interesting so if you haven’t watched this hand, try to be in Kenney’s shoes and see what you would do.

6-max. Blinds $200/400 with $100 ante. Kenney and Daniel are both about $200k deep. The action starts with a sleeper straddle of $2k by rick salomon from UTG+1. Folds around to Negraneu from the button who opens to $4k (essentially a min-raise). Kenney finds AQo from the BB and contemplates a 3bet but just calls. Salomon calls.

Flop comes out 545r. Checks around to Negreanu who bets $6k. Kenney calls and Salomon folds.

Turn is the 8 completing the rainbow. Kenney checks. Negraneu bets $16k. Kenney calls.

The river is an innocuous 2 and pot is now around $56k. Kenney checks and Daniel bets $85k.

Kenney call/fold?

After you’ve decided, continue reading. Here’s how I would break the hand down.

Comment on Negraneu’s flop betting range: I’ve seen him play a lot in these cash games, and he’s def. not the type to cbet every flop, so i imagine him to check back strong aces (AK), other hands that have some chance of catching up (ex. JT) or even 4x I feel like he doesn’t bet all the time. He would certainly bet any overpair, any 5x, straight draws for value. He would also bet his air, I imagine, that he would deem has no likelyhood of improvement, (although on this kind of board, it is kind of hard to come up with a hand that couldn’t catch up on the turn since even hands like 89/8T still have some equity) It would have to be a really raggedy hand I suppose.

For that reason I think the flop call is very standard. We have the best hand (esp. against a minraise from the button) a very high percentage of the time. Even if the opponent wasn’t Negraneu this would be very very standard.

When Negraneu bets the turn his range is more defined and def. more polarized. He has all strong hands betting this turn, including straights, boats, and trips. He will continue to bet this strong with overpairs as well. He will probably check back 8x (gutshot that picked up a pair now), and also checks back a lot of his air I presume. Since there is just such little hands that Negraneu has to bluff with here (he is not a wild player by any means), and given Negraneu’s tendencies to play those small connectors, I think Kenney’s call here is questionable at best. But he decides to call anyways.

Then on the river, Kenney and checks Daniel decides to overbet the pot. Now here is a spot where I believe Daniel Negraneu is super super super polarized. Basically, I have never ever seen Negraneu overbet for value. Even if he was capable of firing an overbet for value, it’s such a spot where it makes no sense for him to do so given the board texture. Kenney can easily have a nutted range here (88, 55) that would probably play it the same, so if Negraneu decided to make this play for value it would mean that he himself would have to have top boat or quads. This means he would never do these with hands that can still put in a good sized river value bet such as sets or straights. This is of course different if they had some kind of dynamic going on, but there was no dynamic to begin with, and also Negraneu is still the type of player imo that will bet closer to $40k with a really strong hand. All this points to Daniel making a bluff, but here’s the problem: as mentioned before, it’s so hard to imagine Daniel just firing all 3 with some speculative hand that he deemed he had no improvement with (let alone imagining that he will fire 3 on a stone cold bluff). Remember this is under the assumption that he will check back hands like JT on the flop, etc. So he needs to have a really really bad hand that somehow did not connect with this flop that decided to fire all 3. But if you really think about it, Negraneu will never make this play with 33 or even 2x so we dont’ ahve to worry about bluffcatching with the worst hand.

Anyways, results of the hand:

Kenney folds without too much thought and Daniel does a little “whew” motion and shows his Q3o.

Pretty sick spot but I believe that a call would’ve been pretty sick there. Not saying that I would’ve made it on the spot for $85k, but would’ve been a pretty sick one.

Live pokers

So I know I don’t have a TR up and running just yet, but it is currently still in the works and I figured I’d post a quick update instead.

Winning at live poker is intoxicating to say the least. To able to see your winnings directly in front of you after a session makes you realize that the game actually does involve cold hard cash and not just some numbers you see on a computer screen. I was fortunate enough to win 5-figs from my last Borgata trip, and even after a couple days coming back from the trip I couldn’t help but daydream about how much money was involved and how much money I’ve won over the span of just merely a couple days. I don’t think I necessarily ran super hot since it’s not like I coolered people left and right nor have I sucked out on people like they have done to me in the past. In fact, I remember thinking to myself before this trip remembering how I’ve lost all of four 5-fig pots that I have ever been involved in: 3 of those times when I got the money in as a huge favorite (including a 1-outer on the river for the biggest pot of my life around $20k), and 1 of the times when we had about 1/4 PSB left in our stack by the river and he obv hits a flush on me on the river against my set. Anyways, I still believe I ran very good during this recent trip in the sense that I had a lot of significant pots go my way and that I did not lose any huge pots, which is really all it takes and is a huge factor that goes unnoticed and gets taken for granted. The big pots that I did win from this trip weren’t me holding the absolute stone cold nuts, but I was still very fortunate to not run into the tip-toppity of my opponents range to have the pots come my way.

Also after playing predominantly against regs at the Borgata, I felt perhaps for the first time the differences between live and online play. So lately I’ve been trying to delve deeper into the world of live poker by thinking of hands on and off scene, reading hands on forums, and the like. The biggest difference is that live play usually plays super deep, esp. in the 10/25 games I play in which the structure is uncapped. Although I def. have a lot of experience with deep play online, it would usually only go up to about 200, maybe 300bb effective stacks. Besides, I would say my real expertise is usually 100-150 bb poker anyways. But these games are easily 300bb effective, and can sometimes get up to around 1000, even 1200bb deep and is a totally different monster. Thus, I’m still learning more about the game and more about how to play deep poker effectively. I also still need to fully develop the skills of assigning an accurate hand range of my opponents as they do play a bit different from what I’m used to. There are def. more “fancy” lines that I encounter, such as situations where I flat a preflop raise IP, check/check, then face a c/r on the turn on AK3Ar. Or something like I flat a preflop raise and original better c/c’s a relatively dry flop, check/check turn, then check/raise river on what seems like an innocuous card. Situations like that do trip me over, and then I start asking myself questinos such as “what do they have? Do their hands contain non-nutted ranges, and can I fire a big enough raise that will get them to fold?” These are questions that I have been running in my mind lately and honestly I haven’t been able to pull a huge trigger just yet. But I can see myself experimenting in the future as I become more used to the deep structure and get a better read on my opponents. I just feel like there are a lot of different areas and spots that I haven’t explored yet and it is def. exciting to be able to uncover them. So I would say I play a pretty tightish game who occasionally 3bets with speculative hands here and there, but doesn’t get out of line too often. Most of my play consists of playing small pots that get to non-showdown when I take it down on the flop or turn and thus building up my stack slowly while taking the more pot-controlling route in bigger pots. I think a little more looseness could potentially do me a little good in the future, but at the moment I’m just trying to work at my comfort level rather than spewing chips in spots that I’m not used to.

I know I rambled a lot, but in short what I’m trying to say is that I have been doing a lot of thinking and I still think there’s a lot to learn in the live setting which is definitely exciting. At the same time, regs are still a lot more softer in the sense that the double barrel on a scare card will work almost every time and etc., so I still believe I have a strong edge in the game. Just need to explore more areas of the game that could potentially be more profitable. The only downside of live poker is that it is so inaccessible to me, esp b/c I have other responsibilities back at home and the casino is like at least an hour and a half away. It is also more time consuming and if I don’t dedicate at least a whole day then it would be absolutely meaningless to make the trip. But as I said, winning a huge sum of money became very addicting (or rather, the feeling of winning a lot of money) and I found myself degenning up for another short trip this weekend to win about $3.2k or so. Maybe I somehow run insanely good every time I go to the Borgata since I only had one losing session there out of the 9-10 times I’ve been there. Anyways, it is def. exciting to win again after having very annoying sessions for the past 2 months. It is also exciting to explore parts of the game that I have never explored before; you’d think after around 2 milliion+ hands you’ve seen it all but I really haven’t. It’s also very humbling at the same time. Anyways, I hope I can get this streak going while having more opportunities to play!

-Dan

Coming soon – AC Trip Report #3 (hopefully)

Hey guys,

Quick update before I have to leave. No miracle happened in the last month or so as I still have not heard back from Georgetown while a lot of my friends have already gotten off the waitlist. It is definitely discouraging and unsettling, but w/e life moves on. On top of that, I went to charlestown a couple more times and have run like absolute ass. That combined with a lack of patience has lead me to become stuck pretty big. It’s definitely disheartening considering how the drive is megatron long and the gaks there are extremely bad and lack basic fundamentals. So it’s definitely discouraging and at times irritating to come out short, but once again w/e life moves on.

I am extremely excited for what is intended to be a long AC trip at the lovely Borgata tomorrow with my boys Tom and Doug for what I imagine to be a pretty degen weekend. I am absolutely determined to play my best poker. And since time won’t be an issue this time around since I’ll be there for a good 3-4 days, I will remain to stay patient.

Run good one time! I promise to post an AC trip report regardless of how I do. Also withdrawing 5 figures from the bank to fund my BR for this trip, hope that goes smoothly.

-Dan

QUADS!!

Okay so since I have no poker content to post lately, I’m going to post this epic dream I had last night (felt pretty real).

As with most dreams, this dream was also convoluted and complicated. The setting was in my apartment in Korea (back in my middle school days), while the time setting was now, post-black friday, etc. It was memorial day, as it is today IRL, and my mom and brother still went to work and school for some odd reason. Anyways, I came across my mother’s laptop (which she normally takes to work with her) to see that she had a bodog client up and running. My gut reaction was like wtf? But honestly something possessed me, literally like some supernatural force took over and made me grab the mouse and join the only 10/20 table that was running at the time (it was HU at a 6-max table when i joined). I remember thinking to myself “man, I haven’t played high stakes poker online so much, I need to use this opportunity.” Thoughts of blowing my mom’s BR (LOLOL) didn’t even cross my mind, and I think subconsciously i was thinking “i’ll worry about it later.”

Anyways it was 3-handed, I raised from the button with some specuplative hand (maybe 95hh?) to $60 and the SB, a presumable reg), 3bet to $200. BB, presumable fish, folded, and I was thinking about flatting or making a play here, but I was like “meh w/e” and folded.

Very next hand, fish actually left, and so I became the BB, and presumable reg was SB yet again. I was dealt 9c9h (yes, i remember the exact suits). he raised, and normally while I think I would flat here, I 3bet with the intention of shoving (the whole i 3bet him too so maybe he’s making a move, blah blah) and he just flats. Btw, I think it’s funny how I would play it exactly the same if this actually happened in real life.

Flop: 9d – 9s – 7d

Jin.

I was sighing and bet out $220. I remember my reasonings for betting, which was logically intact even when I think about it now. That’s when he snap shoved all-in.

I was honestly just kinda w/e for some odd reason (yawn 2k?) and called.

He showed 87o and was drawing dead.

After that I somehow quit my session and saw that my mother’s BR (once again LOLOL) grew from $3.7k to like $6.1k (2.5k profit).

That’s when my brother came in and i was like “wtf did you know mom plays poker online?”

And then he was like “yea, you didn’t nkow? she plays those $50+5 turbos”

WTF.

So anyways, now i have this extra money in the account, but I’m pretty sure when my mother comes back she’s going to see that and think “WTF where did this money come from?” So, I thought a simple solution would be for me to just transfer that money into my own bodog account, and got really excited at the thought of being able to start 4-tabling and grind (lolol). I had such a hard time transferring the money though (cuz of black friday restrictions) and that’s where the dream ended.

Anyways, pretty uninteresting I guess but at least it’s something.

One time!!!!!!

I’m currently at Barnes right now and I can’t seem to focus on my studies for my upcoming finals, so thought I’d jot some random thoughts down.

Since this is a poker blog, I guess I’ll write some poker content even though it is almost non-existent in my life now (wonder if anyone still visits this blog haha). It’s been about a month and a half since black Friday and honestly I’m still feeling the withdrawal effects, which I guess is natural. It’s actually a weird feeling. I really can’t imagine myself grinding 12 tables of 5/10 again as it seems like such a foreign concept as of now. At the same time, I’m constantly feeling this need during my studies, this urge to want to play online poker. It’s really hard to explain, but once again, not surprising I suppose, considering how much time has been devoted to this game for me for my body to feel this way. It is really annoying when it debilitates me in my studying, however. That being said, I did go play live poker in Charlestown twice this month and booked a $1.5k win the first time and a $1.5k loss the second time, both @ 5/10, putting me even for the month. Sadly enough, even live poker can’t fill my degeneracy quota that is practically famished. While i’m playing I feel so impatient and unsatisfied, it doesn’t quite give the buzz feeling I got of quickness and brain stimulation I got from online poker. Sigh, hope that this will reside soon.

In other news, and as I have previously alluded to earlier, my finals are next week and it’s surprising to think that I’m almost done with this long and arduous program that has undoubtedly been one of the toughest years of my academic career. There’s a lot of stress involved with studying for these exams, finishing a thesis shortly after, then have to apply to medical schools again and having to restudy for the MCATs (god, just thinking about it makes me want to slit my wrists). My one hope, my one strong hope, is that I somehow get into Georgetown medical school this year as I am currently waitlisted. From our program, about 19 were accepeted with about 25 beign waitlisted, and it is suspected that at least half will gain entries. So I’m not going to lie and say that I do like my chances. If i somehow got in, it would be really really really awesome.

Anyways, not much in depth of a post today. I hope Charlestown will start to run 10/20 more often in the near future, cuz honestly I dont’ see myeslf making the hour and a half drive up there to play 5/10. I hate myself for saying that, but honestly i can’t seem to snap out of the stakes boring me. And I’m really hoping that good news will come back from Georgetown! Seeing how I won’t need a “one time” in any poker games in the near future, I think it’s safe to use it now. One timeeee! Hopefully next time I update it will be good news :]

-Dan

No longer becoming poker

Hey guys gonna post a quickie

Life without poker has been somewhat more manageable. I am getting used to the fact that poker is not a big part of my life anymore and my life returned to normalcy, somewhat. I’m able to keep track of things and organize my day as before and remain to be productive instead of watching dexter until 7am. But not much has been going on with me; just been working out a lot and organize little things here and there. I’m not gonna lie though, I really really do miss poker. I found out i have about 16 dollars left on bodog and i decided to go through the complicated verification process (for some reason they blocked my account) because i missed playing poker so much. So I proceeded to degen with the 16 dollars, goign through a bit of a roller coaster ride but now i’m down to 4 dollars, which is AWESOME. I was 4 tabling $5NL and surprisingly the play wasn’t as bad as i thought. GAMES ARE GETTING TOUGHER.

But it is definitely nice since I feel like a huge burden is laid off my back. I was thinking about how I came about getting to the point where I was before black friday, which was being a winning regular at 5/10, almost willing to take on anyone HU, and pretty much being a big force for the stake’s existence by constantly starting tables (how do you like me now with no more games to play, you bumhunters?). Playing micro stakes on bodog made me realize that there was definitely a time when poker was just “fun.” I mean, it was still fun when I was playing with serious money, but playing micros was definitely less stressful. The obsession I had of thinking about how much money was involved, or how i lost $x amount of money, or thinking about spots where opponents put me in a tough spot, or holding a grudge against a particular opponent wasn’t there when I was playing 3 tables of $30 sngs back in my bodog days. I guess there is a certain point when you are moving up the limits where the fun suddenly translates to serious business, and then your day just naturally fills up with poker: whether it’s the bad beats, the massive downswing, the massive heater, spots where you could’ve exploited your opponents, where you should’ve pulled another trigger or when you shoudln’t have pulled the trigger, where you made a hero call with K-high and you’re constantly thinking about how awesome it was throughout the day, and so on and so forth. Someone once said that if you want to beat poker you have to be poker. And I think that was only natural for the stakes I’ve been playing. Now that I don’t have that in front of me for the immediate time being, I find my days so much more relaxing and stress-free. Sure I’m not making any sizable income anymore, but it’s not like I needed the money anyways.

Moving on, there is one thing that I wanted to write about and that is how I view the whole UB/AP situation. I am going to be completely honest here. I don’t feel too bad for the players who have money stuck on there. It’s not that I am someone who who delights in someone else’s misery. But many of these people played on this site despite knowing of its many flaws in their security and credibility solely because it was softer or for whatever reason. Bottom line, most of them knew (or should’ve known) that there was risk associated with having money on that site, esp. if you had a significant amount of money. So ultimately, they are the ones who are responsible IMO and are now paying the consequences.

But despite of all of that, I really really feel bad for the people who have a significant portion of their money stuck on there, esp. those who absolutely needed this money to support themselves or their family. In the end everyone makes mistakes and everyone is unsure of the future and no one knew this was coming. So I do feel bad for them at the same time. I have even read that one guy needed the money on his account to support his baby that is due in the next couple of months. That really sucks. Since I know firsthand what it felt like to be uncertain of the fate of most of my life savings that was on PStars not too long ago, I know what a crappy feeling it is to not know the fate of a significant portion of your life savings. I’m really not happy or satisfied in anyway that some of my peers are going through the same shit that I had to go through, except with a darker cloud of uncertainty. What I am absolutely NOT cool with and what is seriously pissing me off are these scumbags on 2p2 who are taking advantage of this whole situation and are buying UB money at a ridiculous rate of like “$0.10/$1″ or something. In general, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with selling and buying UB money that is less than a dollar to dollar exchange; it’s a simple “risk/reward” thing and some just want to stay risk free, and some really do need the money ASAP. But from some of the posts, it is evident that some of these guys are just seeing this simply as an opportunistic gain to the point where they are insulting these players by basically trying to rob them, and disregarding any of their distress that accompanies the stressful situation. Even though most UB players probably won’t sell at this absurd rate, it is simply insulting to even propose such a deal. It ABSOLUTELY PISSES ME OFF to see posters on 2p2 whose intentions are as such. Seriously, grow up. Would you really feel great if you came out profiting in the end if UB decided to release its money if you happened to do it at the expense of someone else’s paranoia/fear that involves his or her family? Some of the naivety that exists just really ticks me off. How am I not surprised that there are such scummy d-bags out there only looking out for their own interest to the point where they disrespect others. It really disgusts me.

Anyways, end rant. Might be able to play some live this weekend so that might be a nice change of pace. Will update this next time.