Adam LaBare's Poker Blog

While I was only in Vegas for 4 days, the realization that I must return to the real world is always a hard pill to swallow. The contrast between both worlds is just so extreme. Whaaaa...

Part II
With my last post I went into some level of detail with the action and results of my trip. I'll attempt to wrap that up with today's post.

Beyond all the glitz, glam, and poker, I was a little bummed. I was suppose to be picking up my press credentials for the WSOP. The plan was to write some stuff for LifesABluff.com. Bastards sent me a note the day I got there saying that the passes for that website had exceeded their allotment. Bullshit I say. I had hoped to get some time for an interview or two or at least get behind the ropes to give an inside report before things really got cooking out there. Not meant to be.

I certainly didn't let that get to me. Too many things to do. What did bother me though was my stay at The Tropicana. My god man. I sortof knew what I was getting myself into, but what a dump. Here's why I'm bitter. I get there knowing I'm already booked for a cheap room. I figure I'll not see much of it. Whatever. But the expectation was that it would be clean and slightly comfortable. I go to check in and the front desk manager allures me with this tremendous upgrade for a measly $30 more a night. At this point I'm thinking hmmmm, I'm really tired, I sure would like to be comfortable. I say screw it and do it with the understanding I would be getting a tower semi-suite. Whatever that means. For what it's worth, semi-suite is just another term for mostly-shitty.

• The room had an odd smell. I would describe it further, but what's the point. I'll leave it at stale smoke mixed with a vintage mold.
• The television when turned on, defaulted to a Telemundo channel with the volume at max level. Every frickin' time I turned it on. WTF?!
• The shower had no curtain. Interesting.
• There were no wall hangings which I guess I don't care about. But at this point, I'm feeling like the room was last on the list for decoration and maintenance.
• The two lamps on each side of the bed were without bulbs. I'm not even going to fathom a guess as to why.
• The carpet appeared to be part of several small forest fires.
• The bed, albeit a king size bed, was just as shitty as a hospital bed. You know those plastic beds that hospitals cover with a sheet in hopes of disguising as a bed? Same fucking thing.
• And don't even get me started on the buffet down stairs. UGH.

Alright. Enough bitching. In the end, my own fault. Once you've stayed at The Venetian, pretty much downhill from there.

On the positive side... After all was said and done I found myself at the airport with cash in my pocket. I was up a good bit on the trip. I wanted to fly home in comfort. After some discussion with the Delta agent, I was able to fly first class all the way home for $25. The perfect ending to a decent trip. Being the geek that I am, I was extremely happy having an LCD screen on the back of the seat in front of me. I was able to watch the Red Sox play the Yankees, play trivia against other passengers and still have time for a quick game of Zuma. Amazing how fast 5 hours of flight can pass when you're occupied.

Thats enough for now. Next time maybe I'll actually talk poker. I've been running decent on the home front. I've hit two $22 180 person SnG's this week at PokerStars.com. Keeping the dream alive.

Would also like to welcome Kerry and Cortney to Team Medallion. Looking forward to some great insight and discussion. Best of luck at the tables!

In the meantime, a quick moment to prostitute my advertisers. Go play poker:
Here
or
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Labels: Boston Red Sox, full tilt poker, lifesabluff.com, New York Yankees, orbitz.com, party poker, poker stars, pokerstars.com, the tropicana, the venetian, world series of poker, Zuma

Whew...where do I begin?

Before I get into all the details, let me start with an outline of the trip and I'll take it from there.

• I didn't do well in the Venetian Big Stack or WSOP event #3.
• I did play in 3 additional tournaments and walked away winning 2 out of the 3
• WSOP has a huge black eye in my opinion
• Must Rest
• Credentials
• Don't stay at the Tropicana
• First Class baby!

Part I
So, the while the intent when going to Vegas is generally to have fun, lose a little money, win a little money, etc. I do believe I have grander aspirations of greatness which I don't see as a bad thing. When I go out there, it's not with the mindset that "i can afford to lose this money". It's with the intent that this is the money I have to make the most possible amount of money during my time. With that being said, I was very selective over my game choice this weekend.

I started out on a good roll at the Venetian. When I hit that satellite and won the entry into the big tournament later that day, i was pumped. I had confidence and positivity going in. 8 hours later, I left the tournament pleased with my performance. I was close to the money and beat out the majority of the field. I played smart and picked my spots. Chip up here and there. Make it count the most.

As for the WSOP event #3. Let me summarize like this. Start with 3k in chips. This is by no means an excuse, but having just played the deep stack at the Venetian with 10k in chips, I think my mindset was a little skewed. I was still in deep stack mode. That being said, I'll conclude this even summary with this hand:

First level. (sigh)
Me: A8 spades middle position
One limp in front of me
I limp.
Cutoff limps.
SB calls.
BB checks.
Flop: 8d 8h 2s
Everyone checks to me. I check with the intent of trapping.
Cutoff bets out half of pot.
All fold back to me.
I raise double his bet.
He calls.
Turn: 9s
I check the turn.
He checks the turn.
River: Kd
I overbet committing me to the pot. He raises, i call all in.
I show my set.
He shows pocket deuces for the boat.

Before everyone beats me up, I do see several holes in this hand on my part. I should have bumped the initial bet. May have ridden the deuces to start with. On the flop, my raise back at him seems odd, but I wanted to see where I was at. His call should have set off alarms. However, to be perfectly honest, I put him on a range of hands and I did not include 22 in that mix. With his limp in late position, he obviously wanted to see a flop, cheap. I put him on a very weak A, or middle pair and KJ, K10, K9. I believed I had the best hand all the way through. My check on the turn was a mistake. I believe I should have put a little in the pot here to attempt further extraction of information.

Yeah, I'm kicking myself now. But hey, it was an exciting hand and I lost. Moving on...

I was still in a good place mentally and wanted to maximize my earning potential. I decided to hit a few tournaments elsewhere. Played a $100 rebuy at Caesar's Palace at 7pm and took that down for 1st. Nice cash.

Played in a smaller tourney down the street with more entrants and finished 4th.

So, all in all, I walked away from the trip considerably up. Granted, not "quit your job" up...but it was a nice boost.

As for the WSOP in general, let me just say that event organizers have GOT to get their shit together. I'm not sure this is being reported much, but you have a lot of unhappy players as a result of the cluster fuck at the RIO. People are waiting in lines 6+ hours long just to register. People have pre-paid their tickets and are still being forced to wait in these lines. Being turned away after 8 hours of standing? C'mon.

And apparently the complaints concerning the playing cards were so extreme, they had to fly in new cards putting them out $150,000. The cards were increadibly hard to read and people were misplaying their hands as a result. People were PISSED.

Anyway, i'm not really trying to harp on the subject, but how many years should it take to get it right? You know the interest you will have, you know what not to do from previous years. Should it be this hard? Anyway, I'll quit my bitching.

One things for sure when you're out in Vegas on a limited amount of time. You have to rest. I understand the party mentality when your sitting at a blackjack table with all your friends...but if you're there because you're serious about poker, you can't go 72 hours without some rest. As soon as I got some sleep, I had a great run in both tournaments and cash games.

Part II to follow

Labels: adam labare, las vegas, tournaments, world series of poker, wsop

So I spent a good solid week anticipating last nights $650 WSOP satellite at pokerstars. The build up was considerable. I had a decent week in the poker trenches. I was having tremendously beneficial dialog with a great poker friend. I had peace and calm on the home front. I was ready for a great showing. However, 3 hours into the tournament, I found myself low on chips, blinds were building, it was time to make a move. I pushed with 99 and lost to 1010. Next!

Before I go into the think tank and analyze, I want to give a special thanks to Crazyman22 for the rail last night. Crazyman22 has been a great friend since we first met in Aruba for the UltimateBet WPT event back in 2002. Crazyman22 is one helluva poker player and I value and respect his feedback a great deal. Again, my thanks!

I would also like to thank everyone else who checked in last night on my progress. Having that support means the world.

Okay...now for the analysis.
I played a good tournament. I really believe I did. After I busted, Crazyman22 provided many words of wisdom, but one thought hit home. While I was still coming down off the adrenaline rush, he asks me, "what could you have done differently to still be in the tournament?". He posed this question not to take a shot, but to promote healthy review of my play. I've been working this question ever since.

Here's the deal. Blinds just went up to 75-150 with an ante. Average stack was hovering around 5000. I was sitting just under 2000 with blinds coming my way. I wasn't necessarily in a hurry at this point, but I did want to make a move during this level to get my stack near 6000. That was my goal. Out of nearly 700 entrants, we were down to around 250ish I believe. I had just moved tables several times in the last 30 minutes and was adjusting as well as I could. At this point though, I had several smaller stacks on this table and I felt really good about the 99 with position. One limper. I pushed, he calls. Turns over the 10 10. No help. So, the simple answer to the original question...had I not played this hand, I would have still been in the tournament. I do not regret this play though. So...deeper I shall go.

While it is not an excuse, I firmly believe I would have been in better position had I not moved from my first table. I had executed a great table image and was chipping away making great progress. My bets were very well respected. Only regret I had on this table was my KK out of position. I made it 600 with blinds at 50-100. One smooth caller who hits a flush on the turn with his A7. While I'm not sure his motivation at playing the A7 against my 5x bet...such as life. That hurt but I quickly rebounded. After moving tables though, I ended up on a very loose table. While my chips were dwindling and I felt the pressure to make a move, the end analysis I have laid out for myself was to wait another satellite or two before making any moves. The short stacks on this table were moving a lot of chips. While I wanted to take advantage of that, I feel I could have picked a better spot. I think there was a level of desperation among the short stacks and the potential for pushing and calling was high.

So, the lesson here? Still need a little luck. But in the end, be patient. Next hand after that 99 could have doubled me up. Next hand after that could have tripled me up.

I begin the battle again tonight. We'll get there!

Labels: adam labare, crazyman22, pokerstars, Sunday's WSOP $650 on Stars, world series of poker, wsop

I pose the following question:
Why is it every damn time you outplay your opponent, he calls you a Donk?

Granted, this doesn't happen every time. And I generally ignore chat while playing. But usually, after a decent match...I'll quickly converse and say, "GG" (good game). Hell, even after a bad match, I try to be polite and type "GG". Just seems to be the right thing to do. Lately, more and more people just go off the deep end and start yapping about how they can't believe my donk play, or what a donk move. They resort to the Donk reference before they evaluate the situation and ask themselves, "why did he make that play to begin with?".

So, I guess the message here...before you go abusing the Donk reference...ask your subconscious, was it really a Donk move? Were you out played? Were you out chipped 3-1? etc. etc. Ask yourself the tough questions and I promise to ask myself if I really did make a donk move. heh.

I suppose this post serves as a semi rant. Out of all this, I did manage to win a double shootout last night which affords me an entry into this coming Sunday's $650 Satellite to the WSOP. I'll try not to donk my way through the field come Sunday.

Labels: adam labare, adamlabare.blogspot.com, pokerstars, world series of poker, wsop

Yesterday was my shot at greatness. However, it was not meant to be.

With a healthy bankroll, I played a few satellites and got myself into the big tourney at 4:30. I was feeling good. This was my tournament to shine.

First hour was a bit daunting. I made a few small hands. It became pretty apparent I had an individual at the table that was taking advantage of "scared money" that first hour. What I mean by this...this tournament can be intimidating to the first time participant. Many individuals find themselves thrown into this tournament through much smaller satellites and quite literally are out of their league. Certainly no disrespect intended. They just don't have the large MTT experience and it shows. Anyway, this guy just kept raising and check raising each smaller raise and everyone continued to fold to him. I finally had a good hand and went up against him. Didn't put a lot on the line but he sucked out on the river. Figures. Few hands later, similar situation presents itself. I raise small in late position, he re-raises in late position. I just call. I hit a set on the flop. He bets strong. I call. He bets strong again, I raise. He calls. He checks, I bet his remaining stack. He folds. This was the start of a good run for me.

Had a few bumps. Had to battle back at one point. But 3.5 hours in, I find myself at 60k in chips with only a few hundred left to the money. That might sound like a lot of people, but we started with some 6000 entrants and people were dwindling extremely fast.

It's at this stage I usually tighten up and ensure my placement in the money. From there I go on the hunt and play my aggressive game. However, for this tournament, I didn't just want to squeeze into the money. Perhaps I was over eager, perhaps it was just stupidity. But here's where things went south.

I'm feeling great with 60k in chips. Average at this point was 48k. I was second leader at my table...however, the chip leader at my table was also the overall chip leader. He was flirting just over 200k in chips. The one thing I said to msyelf, do NOT tango with this guy. Just stay out of his way and prey on the other stacks. Did I listen to my advice? Obviously not.

So I'm on the button and I'm dealt AQ diamonds. Fairly nice hand I'm thinking. One call in front of me, I raise about 4x the BB. I don't remember the exact raise amount. Chip leader is in the BB. I should have paid better attention. I raised unaware that he was in the BB and would probably play almost any hand at this point. He calls my raise. The other caller folds. Flop comes 9 8 3 with two diamonds. He comes out betting. Okay, my mindset went like this. He's obviously playing his stack, as he should be. However, I really think he's full of shit at this point. Call it intuition, call it a gut feeling, whatever. Point is, I really believed I had a better hand at this spot. And in the case that I did not, with the nut flush possibility on my hands, I saw this spot as an opportunity. Like I said, I did not want to just squeeze into the money. I wanted this to be my swan song. I took a chance. I pushed back and went all in. He insta calls with 55.

...

Turn and river bring no help and I'm out of the tournament. Just like that, in the blink of an eye...gone.

It took me a while to cool down. And obviously, I'm still bent out of shape over this. I'm sure other pro's would analyze this play and beat me up over it...but I felt good about my move. Had I walked away the winner in that hand, I would have been sitting with about $140k in chips and a commanding presence moving into the money. My goal was not to play too cautiously. I wanted to be aggressive in certain situations. I deemed these one of those situations and it didn't work out.

In hindsight, would I have played it any differently? I became too attached to this hand, that much I realize. However, thinking back, I should have paid better attention to whom was in the BB. I got carried away with my great position with a good starting hand. Had I just smooth called here, I believe he would have raised and I probably would have come off the hand.

Ugh.

Okay, I'm not going to torture myself. As my wife said last night, there's always next week.

Good luck everyone!

Labels: adam labare, poker, pokerstars, stars sunday million, world series of poker, wsop

So, In my last post I happily praised the poker gods and announced "I'm back".

I lied...

I could put a nice fancy slant on my current situation, or I can just speak the truth.

Boils down to this...
I've been playing a shitty game resulting in zero profit. I've been flirting with a dangerously low bankroll and have been limited with my game choices. When in a tailspin I tend to shut down my exposure to the world until I figure out what the hell is wrong and make the necessary adjustments. And to be perfectly frank, when I'm losing, the last thing I feel is inspiration to write about all things poker. This may be an error though as I find writing about it does help a lot. With recent holidays, job responsibilities, and everything else, I just lost my focus.

Psychologically speaking, I'm sure I could give a shrink plenty of material to analyze. God knows how mental this game is. Long story short, I've been letting negative results affect me personally. However, I can honestly say I will never give up. It's really a matter of understanding that bad runs will end. It takes confidence in your ability. Granted, confidence won't pay the bills unless there is a payoff...but you have to remain confident in your abilities. I've won in the past, I will win in the future. If you hit a brick wall...repeat this mantra over and over again.

For what it's worth, as I mentioned in my last post...separating from poker entirely for a certain amount of time can be refreshing. I didn't play much poker over the holidays but I was able to spend quality time with my new Nintendo Wii along with a certain warlock in World of Warcraft. For all those considering purchasing a Wii...it's worth every penny. Fun as hell. Only set back...you have to get off your ass and move. It's really great. Many, many thanks to my loving wife. She's the best gift giver ever! Not to get sentimental...but you know when people say they enjoy giving gifts more than receiving? These people in my experience are full of shit. Just a ruse in an attempt to appear better than others. My wife is truly the only person I know that I can honestly say enjoys giving more than receiving. She really is an amazing person with the biggest heart one could imagine. Okay...enough sap! As an added diversion I have also started a new blog which has absolutely nothing to do with poker. However, if you're ever in Jacksonville, Fl...might be worth checking out: jaxreview.blogspot.com

Anyhoo...I suppose the real reason I feel inspired to write today is due to the success I had last night on PokerStars. I've been having consistent money appearances in the $10 MTT w/ 1 rebuy and 1 add on at 7:15 each night. I generally stay away from rebuy events, but I like this format as I'm able to quickly accumulate chips and thrive on the poor play of others for the first hour. Just a matter of patience. After everything was said and done, finished 4th. A deep finish with the tournament has eluded me but I really felt like it was just a matter of time. With over 1000 entrants, it can be viewed as a lottery...but I choose to believe my skill has something to do with it. Anyway, this gives me much needed breathing room which will allow me to focus on the overall goal.

What is the overall goal?
Two fold at this point. One, get to this years WSOP to participate in several events. and two, transition from semi-pro to professional.

Tall orders to fill...but one way or the other, it's going to happen. As always, I will continue to document as I progress while sharing whatever nuggets of wisdom I can.

I appreciate all my readers hanging in there!

-Adam

Labels: nintendo, poker, pokerstars, wii, world of warcraft, world series of poker, wow, wsop