WSOP prop bet update : First blood!

The first score has been made! Thanks to Eric Lindgren cashing in Event #3 ($1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or better) I took an early lead.

Sure it's not that big of a cash and thus not a big lead... but hey it's better to take a small lead than not to take the lead at all!

Silly jitters

I am not a big donkament player and I have nowhere near the bankroll to go play in the WSOP in Vegas. Still... that time of the year kinda feels like Christmas to me. The 6 weeks circus that is the WSOP is always entertaining to follow ( and bet on! ).

So here I am, adding poker players I know to my twitter, talking about the WSOP, reading articles and interviews with players and of course finding myself wanting to play more than usually.

I had a pretty nice day of poker last friday. Decided to dedicate that day to playing and studying my game and something clicked. It came to me as a revelation in the middle of a session. I found out what was one of the big leaks I had created in my game and that was in no small part responsible for the downswing I am in. Without going into details, it's something about a kick ass article I read a few months ago that I started applying wrongly.

So here I am, waiting for WSOP results, trying to squeeze as much play as I can and filled with renewed focus and a lot of confidence thanks to what I discovered about my game.

WSOP Prop bet : 2009 edition

That's right, our WSOP draft is back this year but with a few changes.

First we are 3 to participate now. Also we each pick 3 players instead of just 2.

We decided to remove the NL Hold'Em 10K main event, the 50K HORSE and the special 40K NLHE event from the list. The big buy ins and/or huge fields of these events make for big cashes that could potentially tilt the odds too much.

We decided on a snake draft and since I suck at winning flips, I had the last pick in the first round.

Joff took a weird but interesting choice with the 1st overall in my opinion drafting Durrr. Durrr is definitly more of a cash game player, that said, I really feel that this year he's all about promoting himself and getting some TV Time. So I have a feeling he could make a big push in the WSOP. Joff's two other choices seem solid to me.

Alex stuck with the two guys he had crushed me with last year and he added Phil Hellmuth. This in my mind is a bad pick. The slower/deeper structures don't seem to favor Hellmuth and the WSOP made this years structure a bit deeper/slower than last year. That said I'm sure Hellmuth would love to prove me wrong here...

As for my choice, I think Greenstein and Lindgren are good all around picks. I'll be lucky if either of them repeats the results they had last year. My wildcard I think is Ivey. He could easily be sidetracked by juicy cash games, but I think he'll make a big push for a bracelet this year again. Hopefully he succeeds better than last year.

So there you have it! The tally is already posted (even though it's quite early) and I can't wait to rail these games from my home!

I can smell it...

Well since my laptop was stolen I have not been playing anything near my usual volume. That said, playing HUD-less has forced me to play more focused and while I suffered a bit from fancy play syndrome at first (I often do following a hiatus), my results overall have been pretty good. Add to that the fact that I'm currently clearing a bonus on CD Poker and I've quietly made it very close to my year goal of reaching NL50 by the end of 2008.

It's strange, in the past whenever I was getting close to move up I would get edgy, impatient and kinda nervous about it. Not this time. I don't know if it's the fact that I'm not playing like I'm used to (currently playing HUD less and on less tables), or the fact that I'm not playing as much or that I'm clearing a bonus... Anyway, I don't feel the jitters I had when closing in on NL25.

On another note, I have been talking poker strategy a lot with a good friend of mine who is struggling a bit right now playing on his first online money. I love this! Talking about lots of stuff forces me to think about it all and ask myself why I do certain things. I also tried to come up with a basic strategy that could make him an instant winner from NL2 to NL10 (and most likely even higher). My goal was to come up with an easy to teach playbook that would keep it simple and still be efficient. This has been a recurring theme for me lately. I was discussing a prop bet idea with Alex. The bet was that in 4 hours of coaching I could make someone with just basic poker knowledge (like a flush beats a straight type of knowledge) a winner at NL2. We have not come up with a candidate or the particular details of how this bet would work out but I thought it would be an interesting idea. So if you know someone who would be a nice candidate let me know!

Please oh please! Can September be over now?

Between driving to Quebec city and back to see my father at the hospital (he's doing better everyday btw), packing up my stuff to move to my new condo and organising the 30th birthday of my girlfriend I can't say I've had much time to play poker. Just to make matter worse, I might be without an internet connection for a few days after I moved. Hopefully one of my neighboors has an unsecured WiFi connection I can hijack!

The bit that I did play at the beginning of the month was not very focused and did not bring the best results. Thankfully though, I've been able to play a bit the last few days and things went well. I won back almost everything I had lost in the first few days of September. Hurray!

I am still grinding NL20 on iPoker playing 8 tables at a time. Play there is definitly nittier than it is on stars or party, that said most people are bad nits so it's pretty easy to make decent gains there. Once I go back to having a stable schedule I think it will be relatively easy to get to NL50. Especially considering I will most likely start bonus whoring the various ipoker skins!

I am also looking forward to another coaching session with SplitSuit. Seems like the last one was ages ago!

For October and November, Alex and me are starting another "volume bet". Whoever plays more hands in these 2 months wins. Playing more hands is one of my focus right now so this should help keep me motivated.

Mid-June update

Well other than the fact that I'm getting destroyed in our WSOP pool things are going good so far in June.

The month is in the green so far, even though I've had a pretty roug hevening last night. You know, the kind of evening where nothing hits, your borderline hands get re-raised all the time etc etc etc. The kind of night where you're dealt Kings 5 times and win only once with them... Anyway, not complaining, I've had my shares of insane heaters so it's all good. Anyway I managed to lose only about 60 Big Blinds in the whole evening so that was good.

The last few days, as a change of pace, I've started playing 0.25/0.50 HORSE on FullTilt. Strangely, Hold'Em is my worst game when playing HORSE. I just can't figure out Limit Hold'Em. Still, having lots of fun dabbling in these other games and I think I can hold my own. I roughly broke even last night. I find that patience is even more important at mixed games than when playing NL. I tend to want to play all the games, so if I spend a Razz rotation getting dealt a bunch of bananas for example, I tend to grow impatient.

Anyway, playing a bit of HORSE and doing my session review for 2+2 has eaten a bit in my NLHE time so I'm still behind pace for my goal. Not nervous though, I still think I'll hit it. All I need is a few big nights of play and a free week end.

WSOP prop bet update

Well it's not going well for Team Nic.

So far the only cash I have is a small cash by Cunningham while Seidel and Negreanu both raked in bigger cashes. The finish by Negreanu in the 10K Stud event is particularly rough. Just to make it worse, today is the 2-7 event which is one of Negreanu's good games.

Anyway, the WSOP are a long thing and it's still to early to call this thing off.

Quick start of June post.

Well my playing pace to begin June is already much better than it was in May. Yesterday was the first day of June I could play and I logged a thousand hands. Obviously it's still early in the month, and June is usually a pretty busy month. That said, I'm pretty confident I'll reach my 12K goal.

Alex and I made a prop bet about this year's World Series. We both picked 2 players, and whoever's team cashes more wins. I have Hellmuth and Cunningham and he has Seidel and Negreanu. So far none of our guys cashed, but this makes following the WSOP a bit more interesting.

Over & out.

Quick update

I can't wait to post my November graph. It might not be the best graph as far as constant results go, but it sure as hell would make an entertaining roller coster plan! I'm still managing to put up gains though and around 50% of my sessions are winning ones (which I consider pretty good). So far November is bringing more profits than September or October... that said the month is still not over so who knows where that roller coaster will bring me!

Alex and me have made a nice prop bets. Whoever logs more ring game hands until January 17th. So far I am about 400 hands ahead and I feel pretty comfortable about this bet even though my holidays should be busier than his. I think it will be a race to the finish, but still, being ahead early is always fun as it puts the pressure on him.

I have been dealing in another tourney last week. Went pretty well, not much to say about this except that bad poker players seems to like to throw their cash away in rebuy tourneys.

I'm doing OK in both my fantasy football leagues. Could be doing better but I am still in a good spot to make the playoffs, and once in I'm pretty confident my team will get me money.