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