Post WSOP Stuff

I havent wrote a post in some time and thought it would be a good time to update some stuff from here and there. I got back from Vegas about 2 weeks ago and after a short break(5-6days) I was back in action at the Isle Florida State Championships. There is also a small series going on at Stax Poker Lounge here in Coconut Creek. During the past week I have been playing in both of those series back and forth.

Back to the WSOP, my Main Event was pretty disappointing for me. I was able to make day 3 for the 4th year in a row and actually made it the furthest I have ever gone. I was in the last level of day 3 which is (4000-8000) and I had about 76k in chips. My day 3 had been up and down while I had just got moved to a new table with a couple of known pros. I refuse to name any of them since one of them was completely obnoxious to the point that I almost felt bad for him. What can I say, the TV cameras do something to people that I can not begin to explain or understand myself. It seemed like the camera was stuck on me, I guess they were waiting for me to bust, LOL. As soon as the Espn people and cameras left, I was dealt AKo (7handed) and decided to open shove(go all in)!! I was quickly called by Sam Cohen (from south florida also), she had pocket Jacks and it held like steel and I was out of the biggest tournament of the year for a 7th year straight with no cash!! With tradition, my flight was booked 30 minutes after this hand and I would be home in South Florida within 30 hrs.

So back to the current moment, like I said I have been playing this Pompano and Coconut Creek series since I have resumed playing. So far in the Pompano FSC, I have cashed once and bubbled once. I am currently on the bubble of the 5k Main Event and after 4 people are eliminated I will be down to 18 and  in the money. First place is 291k and I really need to make a deep run so I will do my best as usual. In the Creek series I have played 2 events that were rather small, a $300 shootout and a $250 heads up event. I was fortunate enough to get second place in both for good money and a definite confidence builder going into the 5K that I began on saturday.

Well that is all I have for now. Just wanted to give a quick overview of my Post WSOP activities. I start day 3 of this Isle main in 30 minutes so gonna head out now. Until next time, thanks for giving these words a look.

SK

On to day 2 of the WSOP Main Event

Decided to give the old blog a quick update since we are finally at the crust of the pizza which is this WSOP Main Event. I played my day 1 yesterday, like I stated in the last entry. On monday, I actually arrived at the Rio at 10 am, as I wanted to beat the "Space Mountain" type of lines that any late registration for a tournament can get. Day 1c had over 3,000 players competing, which I am sure you can imagine what kind of wait it must have been. After getting my golden ticket for the price of $10k, I headed over to my favorite breakfast spot and had my usual mexican omelet.

After getting back to the condo and cleaning up I headed back over to the Rio to start my day. Even though this is my 7th Main Event, I still get butterflies like I am sure everyone except for Phil Ivey does. I actually wrote out a complete game plan for the situations that I thought would face early in the day. Most of my notes consisted of the instructions to "stay in position(last to act) and to limit my calling of other opponents". In my recent experience in the Main, early on many of the straight forward players usually have the hand they are representing and it is easy to fold in many key situations.

My day 1 went pretty smooth in all regards. My table consisted of 8-9 other players depending on the time of day because of the fact that you start the day 10 handed. To my immediate left was a guy from Bulgaria that played extremely well and 2 positions away from him was a younger internet fella. On the other side of the table were 3 pros in the 8,9, and 10 seats respectively. I had position on these guys since I was in the 2 seat and my only threat was the Bulgarian that reraised my opening bets quite a bit. Like I said in my notes, I didn't want to play o.o.p. and pretty sure I folded every time he reraised me as I decided to leave my pride in my backpack.

After 4 levels I had ~ 39k units with 2 hrs left in day 1. This was somewhat frustrating as you want to have as many chips as possible. Fortunately it was also in my game plan to stay patient and just wait for good spots to get my chips in the pot. I was able to win quite a few hands at the end of level and wound up finishing the day with 58k, which is over 100 big blinds going into wednesday. I can't complain about my first day of the ME as I survived with a nice stack and ready to move through tomorrow onto day 3 on thursday.

Well I said this would be a quick one. I am probably gonna see a movie tonight here at the Palms. A couple of my friends want to go see Ted and have offered to "treat" me. The only problem is that I have seen this movie twice and cannot imagine sitting thru it again. I think I am gonna go check out the new Pixar movie "Brave". Fitting title as I want to continue on in this Event. Pixar has not made a bad movie yet so at least I have a good chance not to be disappointed like so many other films have this summer. Time to go, I can't wait to update this thing with news on continuing to day 3. Until then, good bye and thank you for reading.

SK

Main Event Week

It is Main Event week here at WSOP and for many poker players who have been out here all summer it is the last chance to make some noise. I have been on a rather cold streak lately in these tournaments myself. The last few preliminary bracelet events did not go well for me as I did not make a dinner break in the last week or so.

In the last couple of days the focus for me has been on the mega satellite tournaments that you can win a $10,000 Main Event seat. In the last 72 hrs I have played 3 multi table tournaments for a seat along with 9 sit and gos. They offer these opportunities every day at the Rio, but at the end of the summer is when the biggest fields and the most seats are given out. Of the 3 tourneys I played, they were giving at least 82 seats in each of them. Fortunately, I was successful at the single table tournaments or sit and gos and this was able to pay for the 3 mtt format satellites that I did not win.

Tomorrow is day 1c of the Main and the day that I will start climbing this mountain. I have waited till the last day each time in the past 6 years of this thing. I guess I like the feeling of surviving in this tournament as long as possible. As I begin tomorrow, many of my peers have already been eliminated, including my roommate, Chris Bolek. CB has been on a slide lately and he will conclude his summer when he enters the Caesars 1K main in the next day or so, I hope he makes a run in that one.

I guess I don't have much to say at the moment. I am about to get some rest before I begin my journey in the morning. They are expecting about 3,000 people for tomorrows final day 1. In the first 2 days the field is at a total of around 3,100 so this will put the total amount of runners at ~6,100 or so. This should create a prize pool of nearly $61,000,000, which I would estimate first place at around $7.5 million. I really need to get my hands on some of that money as I feel I am overdue considering I am
0-6 lifetime in the Main Event. The past is the past they say, tomorrow may be the beginning of something special, I certainly hope so.

SK

World Series of Food

I feel like I am in my fifth week in vegas now, I guess I could always look at these receipts from the countless amount of tourneys I have played and determine my stay. As I move right along, I have pretty much given up on any attempt at all to eat healthy. Today for instance, I had an tasty mexican omelette and a slightly robust dinner at Michael Mina's "American Fish". The latter was absolutely amazing, the former is a 3-4 time a week occurrence. 

I have played a couple tournaments in the past couple of days and ran pretty poorly during these things. I played the $1500 no limit yesterday while double barreling the doubles event at the same time. I waited until an opportune moment to enter the 1500, it was a time when we were on a 20 min break in the doubles and then my partner Jeff Fogel was gonna play his turn, which is actually in 30 min increments. So by entering at this time, I would only miss 10 minutes in the first level I played because the 1500 went on a twenty minute break in 60 min. Don't worry, I realize that my explanation here is starting to sound like Inception, but it did not matter as I would bust the bracelet event in 12 hands. 

My bust out came up when I was dealt AKoff utg, I opened to 300/150 and got called by four people thru the button. The small blind was thinking of making a move but eventually folded, leaving the big blind to act. After I opened my Ace of diamonds flashed so that the 1-3 seats could see it.(me 4 seat) I said out loud, "I guess the leveling begins"! The big blind is a player from Florida that I actually know, he decided it was a good idea to snap shove for 6800 with J2dd. I guess he took a shot and figured I would fold like A10 but I would gladly call this freak with King high.  I beat this kid into the pot and obviously will never win in that spot, 10 high board with a Js on the river. AK<J2dd

While I was very disappointed in my exit from the $1500, I realized that I still had a great opportunity in the doubles event. Jeff was playing great, which also included adjusting well after losing a pot early on. I can honestly say that I have not felt that much pressure playing poker for some time. My partner was executing very well and I really did not want to make any mistakes or put myself in any spot where I would be gambling since I knew if we were careful, we would definitely make a deep run.

The bust out hand for our stack came when we were about 8 away from the money. It was my turn to play our stack and throughout the level I had passed up a lot of spots where I would be aggressive by either re raising or just shoving from the blinds. I was dealt KsKc while utg and opened to 35k/16k and the big blind decided to defend. The flop came J73hh and he check raised my 48.5k lead to 110k total. I did not hesitate to raise all in for ~160k more, he tanked about 5 minutes and eventually made a terrible call with J9off, 6d turn and 9c river. Getting knocked out of that event was right up there with the worst bust outs for me this Summer.

I played in the $1000 bracelet earlier today. I made a really bad call early with AK high on sixteen streets(never do this) and found my stack at 150 units(3000 starting stack). Really fought my best and got my stack back to 4100 even after losing a 3way all in with QQ VS JJ and AK. My major hand occurred when I was dealt KQo in the big blind. If you know me pretty well, you know that KQ is my favorite hand and I rarely folded especially when defending my big blind. The flop rolled out K108dd and we got it all in, unfortunately he had AK and it held. Got the last of it in with 33 to 44 and was out and about the RIO.

I wandered over to my friend Angela Moed's final table. Angela is a really amazing person and happens to be my buddy Mike Moed's wife. Mike has been around the scene for years, I remember playing against him back in the days where I was more than terrible. Anyways, Angie made the final table and finished 4th which is absolutely outstanding. I remember 3 weeks ago how disappointed she was when she bubbled a $1500, pretty sure she lost AA<89 or some other awful equity failure. It was so nice to see her make a final table 3 mtts later and I am sure this will propel her to be more confident in her game and probably take some shots at bigger tournaments. Great Job final tabling the WSOP while also cashing in the Venetians woman's event. #patience

I would also like to congratulate Kyle Julius on his heads up in the 5k. KJ finished 2nd at PCA and won the Sunday Million on Poker Stars in between. This guy is definitely one to watch and his brother Ryan is also an unbelievable player. Both of these guys have a ton of talent but more importantly, are also extremely  polite and professional. Could be the Peyton and Eli of poker, talent basically goes either way and you can book that!

In closing, something has to give with the eating habits. I understand I devour this stuff because its comfort food, but c'mon Karp. I am seriously considering eating only at home for about 45 days when I get back to Florida. It will probably be essential that I cut out all fluids except for water for a month or so, when I say this I mean no alcohol, not even wine. This wsop lifestyle I could never do 12 months a year and yes I know I can order All American Dave...

bye bi

SK

P.S. I had to add this, Anyways the other day in the 5k these 2 really known poker players were asking me who was a better spot in ONE DROP, Mercier or Negreanu? I couldn't even believe this was a real question and I asked them twice what they were talking about. This is not even close, Jason is always gonna execute in key spots and Daniel is gonna explore too much.(hero call)

On the board

I want to start out by stating that although I can not promise proper grammar, I do promise to update this thing more while I am out in Las Vegas. If my P's and Q's aren't in order, please forgive me.

As I stated earlier, since our last post, we are now on the board so to speak. In this past 10 days or so, I have actually cashed in a few events at the WSOP. This is the second summer of the seven that I will cash for at least 3 events and that is very exciting. I was also able to do this in consecutive events so that is special in its own right to me. It is just great to finally get something going after such a slow start.

But on to the bigger and better things about the summer so far. My roommate and very close friend, Ronnie Bardah won his first bracelet at WSOP. He accomplished this feat in the $2500 6max limit holdem event, where he beat longtime grinder, Marco Johnson. Marco is also a good guy and played great to get heads up with Ronnie. Mr. Bardah just ran extremely hot and played his big hands for max value and that was that. Great job Brockton Broth, nice face!

Another friend of mine that won a bracelet today in fact is Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi. Grinder won his 3rd bracelet in 3 years which is not even real. There is no player in poker that has been more productive in the past few years out here than Michael. I made a bet 6 years ago after the 50k began, that a player under the age of 30 would win this event within 5 years. Grinder has won this event twice along with another bracelet before he will turn 32, absolutely amazing! Way to become a legend and folk hero buddy.

Next event that I plan to play is going to be the "team no limit" tourney at the Rio on saturday at 10am. I am playing with my buddy Jeff Fogel and it should be a lot of fun. If we are unable to make a deep run I will register the $1500 nlh that starts at 12pm and I can get in till around 4:20pm, talk about a magical time. There are a few more events before the WSOP Main that I plan on grinding and making a deep run in. Trying to keep it positive, since this summer has about 2 more weeks of action in it and like I have said before, I don't plan on taking a moment for granted.

Off to sleep I go now. I promise to keep this thing updated sooner than later. I saw the movie "Ted" tonight and it was really funny. A few jokes went a little too far but it was a comedy that was a little different from the norm so I enjoyed it overall. Thanks for giving this pile of poor grammar another look, you must be bored!

SK

#4

Decided to call this one #4 because it is my fourth post to this blog. The other reason I decided on the title is because about 6 days ago, when I originally planed to post, my roommate Chris Bolek had already cashed for his 4th time out here in Vegas. Well I am obviously a procrastinator like 90% of the poker community and since I have been so slack with this, Chris actually now has 6(SIX) cashes. As you can imagine, this feat is completely outstanding. I am so happy for him even though I am actually 0-12 at the current moment, hopefully I can get something going in the $1500 WSOP tomorrow and actually have an accomplishment of my own to write about.

I guess it's not too bad out here in the desert for me. Although, since my last post, I have actually had some chips in another $1500 and $1000 WSOP respectively. When I say chips, I dont mean 10 big blinds but actual stacks of 25-45K in each of these events. If you are familiar with my style of play(stone nit) this probably surprises you that I have not converted these stacks to at least one cash. I guess that is the way it goes and I am humbly 0-12 like I have stated earlier.

There is other good news and also some bad. The good news is that my girlfriend and some of my most interesting friends and have come to town. One of my friends that have arrived is my buddy Jeff Fogel, who I have known about 20 years now. This is the first time he has been here for WSOP since 2006, many things have changed and he is taking it all in. The bad news, unfortunately, is that I have caught this nasty flu bug that is going around. This thing has attacked many poker players, including my roommate from Florida, the colorful, Ronnie Bardah. Pretty random that both of us are really sick with same flu, considering we havent even bumped into each other and shaken hands, WOW.

Try not to feel too bad for me, I usually complain plenty, and being sick with this bug takes that up quite a notch. I am so lucky to have my girlfriend here with me until friday and she has taken the best care of me. Without her I would be laying face down in the desert somewhere with the buzzards picking at my liver.

In closing, I would like to once again congratulate my roommate, Chris Bolek on his amazing start to this WSOP. It would not surprise me one bit if he catches up to me in lifetime cashes this summer alone; for now Chris is 4 in this summer and has 7 total cashes lifetime. I am willing to bet my last food comp that he is not done yet. It is always awesome to see hard work and preparation pay off, as CB has worked harder on his game than anyone I know. I also want to congratulate Matt Waxman on his final table in the 10K H.O.R.S.E. event. Matt late-regged this event and was selling action on Twitter at the last moment. Many of his friends made jokes that they would buy at .8, which is less than even markup, which I am sure highly motivated him to make the amazing run he did. This final table included Phil Ivey, Helmuth, John Monnette, and David Baker to name a few elite players. Although Matt finished 7th, in my personal opinion, I was equally, if not more proud of that final table than I was for his win in Paris for around $800K. Matt played amazing and I am sure this will not be his last final table at WSOP, especially in mixed games.

That should close this thing out, as I feel like a death sandwich and just tired of rambling ungrammatical nonsense. I will try to update this thing sooner than later, until then, thanks for giving it a look, you must be bored. :)

SK

Less is More..

Decided to call this one 'Less is More' because I am pretty sure I have been rambling a bunch. Anyways, since my last post, the $1500 shootout was no good. I raise called A10cc from the cutoff and the guy had me beat with AQoff. The hand held and I got my last in with J7cc against A3off and was out. On to the next one.

On Thursday I played the $1500 6max no limit event. I got off to a great start and had my initial 4500 up to about 10,500. But this is 6max and really volatile at all times so got back down to 5k in no time. Eventually I was moved to my second table, found some momentum, and wound up getting my stack up to around 20-25k. I would peak at about 64k after dinner, but after I lost 4 pots containing (14-30)K I found myself working ~32K @500-1000. Two away from the money, I was dealt 22(2nd favorite hand of SK) and after a middle position open to t2100 and a call from the small blind, I decided to see a flop of KK2cc. This checked thru until we saw the 7s where the small blind checked, I lead for 4600, all the money got in and the middle opener had K2dd. Great to be drawing stone dead on the flop and after 6 events I have lost twice full house to better full house.

I decided to take Friday off and play continued on Saturday where I participated in the $1500 no limit at the Rio. This one was pretty uneventful as I was out at (100-200) 25 ante where my QQ was out flopped by AKss. We all know how that goes. :)

Tried to keep this post filled with updates/hand histories from the past three events. I am playing the first $1000 no limit event at the WSOP today. This one has about 2600 in it so far and should be a nice prize for first place.

I will try to update this blog as often as possible. As for now, thank you for giving it a look and hopefully I will have some good news soon!

SK

Really? This is what Poker has come to in 2012?

Where do I start? I played my second bracelet event of this WSOP, a multi entry $1500 No-Limit Hold’em event that began on Saturday. I ended up getting knocked out on the 5th dealt hand. In this hand I defended 76dd from small blind, positive the BB was coming along... and they did. The flop came Qc7s4h and I check-called flop; turn was a 7c where I check-called too; river was 4d. My opponent bet almost half my stack, so I check-shoved all in. At this point, my opponent looked at me, shook his head, waited a good 10 seconds before he offered, "If you have quads your good". He then flipped them over and showed me pocket Queens for "Queens full!!!" What is wrong with these guys? They tank on the river with top full house and give a speech? In my opinion, this is insanity.

Anyways, I obviously entered day 1-b on Sunday, and needless to say, it was full of drama. I didn't play too big a part in this soap opera after I was eliminated at 100-200 no ante. My opponent opened from EP for 400, so I made it 1075 with AKss (with intentions of not finding many folds). Along comes a Ah7h2h flop, so we both find a way to get it All-In. He showed the old Q9hh for the flopped flush!! At least I didn't get in dead, but now I'm out again.

3rd re-buy for the event WSOP??? Of course. Which leads me to the drama....

A little backstory: To my left for day 1-b was my buddy, Will "the thrill" Failla. Will is a colorful gentleman from NYC, with heaps of success in the poker world, kicking extra-ass over the last twelve months or so. He won a WPT (BIKE LA) and I am pretty sure he hasn't finished worse than 6th in the last 6 months of play. Anyhow, it seems by the way of the "Twitter police", Will entered day 1-b twice in the same day!!! This is un-kosher; you can enter twice like I did, but only once each day, 1a and 1b respectively. OMG, the ethics board jumped in because of the cheating implications, and needless to say poker people were pissed. Will apologized over twitter, and many savvy followers responded with one simple word, "call" (hinting that he was full of shit)!

I don't have much to say about this, but if Will knew same-day double entry was illegal, then he was clearly in the wrong, If he was obtuse and honestly believed he could re-enter, then my biggest beef that he's a moron. Will is a "face" -- and a really loud and colorful one at that-- so he'd never "get away" with sneaking back into a tourney considering that when he busts, all his haters remember the hand and he'll stick out like herpes on the next break, day of mtt, etc..

My biggest issue is the "Twitter Policia" is comprised of a lot of the "cool kids" from the high-school culture of poker. I have heard many of these guys and girls -- ok, just guys; lets leave the ladies out of this (Ron Burgundy voice) -- call out the prospective cheaters many times before. In this instance they were all complaining about how bad the WSOP is run, etc., etc., and that Will clearly knew he was cheating, blah blah. Not for nothing, but these guys are constantly crying and drawing that definitive "line in the sand" (Walter Sobchak) over things like ghosting (multi accounting) in the past, but then 6 months later I see them tweeting "At dinner with so and so and his gf"!! If your gonna call someone out on Twitter, stick to it! If your gonna forgive someone in less than 6 months to a year then you guys better give Will "the Thrill" Failla the same benefit of the doubt over time. The complaints on twitter have ceased a bit in past few days, but I suggested that players upset about the way WSOP is run, they should all sit out of a standard small buy-in event such as a $1000 or $1500 NLH event. This was met by a huge LOL by my peer, Jason Mercier.

On the lite-brite side of things, my good friend Barry Hutter made a deep run in this reentry no-limit from above. Barry's been on a tear lately, playing at a high level. His run ended when he lost a 3 way all-in between Josh Duhamel who had 22, Brian Rast who held AQ; Barry's 1010 couldn't hold like steel. Brian won that pot and is now at the final table today with one of my favorite poker females, Amanda Musumeci. Amanda is an awesome poker player and an extremely hard worker as this shows as she has qualified for the WSOP national championship held this July 4th i believe. She may be going for her second bracelet in that one, GL Mander!!!

Well that re-entry took a long time to rant about, so back to me. My 3rd tourney was the 1500 Pot-Limit Omaha on Monday. OMG, I enjoyed the crap out of this one this one. I never played any Bracelet events out of the Hold’em discipline, but this one really kept me interested. My Omaha game needs some tweaking, but this mattered little with the considering the cards I was dealt -- all terrible. I actually managed to make it down to about 240 people out of the 960 that entered. 117 runners would cash, but after my KK52DD was out-flopped by AJ98HH, I was on my way to my second "In-N-Out" meal of the day (only thing that fills the void). My good friends Tristan Wade and Adam Adler were both still in this thing with 18 left, but Adam went out and Tristan is at his 4th final table in the past 2 WSOPs -- an amazing accomplishment! GL Tristan, I want to get first tryouts for your entourage!!

I am off to the 1500nl shootout that begins in 20 min or so. After a bowl of frosted mini-wheats I'll have my A-game and hopefully win my first table in this thing. I've hit 3rd or 2nd in the last 3 of these I played in, but unfortunately you money when you win the whole sit-and-go. Wish me luck; I also accept prayers in any form of religion.

In closing, I'd just like to thank my wonderful girlfriend for finally starting this blog for me. I've been asking some of my "boys" to do this for like 2 years, lol. Some of them have started their own blogs during this time, "cough, cough, TWADE"!! Also would like to thank Ryan Smith for proofreading these rants so whoever is reading them doesn't get any dumber looking at this "withered" collection of words. 

Have a better Day!

SK

The first cut is the deepest...

Okay so after years and years of making fun of others that have blogs especially with Daniel Tosh, I have decided to deliver to the masses (5 people + 2 small dogs) my thoughts from day to day.

The primary purpose of this thing I guess is to be able to give updates on poker and the blazay blah. I am currently in Las Vegas for the WSOP. This is actually my 7th WSOP that I have had the good fortune to be a part of, after all you have to be fortunate for people to continuously send you out to the desert with a big bag of money and not put you in a hole when you don't bring it all back at the end.

The first and only event I have played since my arrival was the $1500 Pot Limit Holdem that began on wednesday. I had been looking forward to that one for quite some time, but like many other things with that much anticipation it was over all to quickly. I started at a terrible table full of Langoliers (really good players) where I proceeded not to win one single hand. When that table broke, I got moved to another pretty bad (Larry David VOICE)  table that was a little better than the prior. Daniel Kelly (DJK123) was at this one and I guess it was kind of fun to watch him win every single time he put any money in the pot, free education! I made it to the break and on the very first hand of the 3rd level, I was dealt 99 and drawing stone dead by the time the turn gave us a 7c 3s 2d 4c board as my very arrogant looking opponent showed me the old A5off, well played sir!

I have kind of eased into this WSOP, in past years I probably would have been in 5 MTTs(multi table tournaments that run like 3 days) but this year I have kind of settled in and played more cash and some 1 table tourneys. Since I have been successful in these endeavors so far I will continue to do what I have done so far. I have added some activities to my poker life with this blog and The Poker Action Hotline podcasts that I have been doing in the past month. On wednesday after the failed $1500PLH, I was able to participate in the current podcast where are guests included Bryan Micon and Mariya Mayrinick. It was an excellent show done by our host Dave Lemmon, produced from a laptop and microphone in the Amazon room. I look forward to our next show where I hope to have my buddy Jake Bazeman as a guest, he just got 2nd place in the first $1500NLH for around $400k. He is one of a kind guy from Cincinnati, Ohio that I have traveled many places on the tour with. I also was able to secure Nick Jivkov, the guy who actually won the $1500 Pot Limit Holdem bracelet last night for the tune of around $200k, so that should be an excellent podcast also. I will be posting each podcast in this Blogspot or whatever we will call it.

Well that is a good start I guess. I will do my absolute best to update this thing as much as I can. Gonna head up and shower up for this $1500NLH that begins in a little under an hour. This is a reentry and the first of its kind for the WSOP, many are anticipating it getting a first place of around 1 million dollars. Thanks for giving this group of words a good look, I hope it didn't hurt your eyes to much. :)

SK