Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Chopped the CPC ME for 105k !!!

It's finally good to be back home after all that grinding. I was only home for two days since the napt and grinded out a session for both of them. I finished up my sunday early last week so that I could have time to pack and take a nap before my flight. I ended up only sleeping for 1 hour and almost missed my flight to Chicago. Kyle picked me up from Ohare around 10am and we headed to the Horseshoe to play Mondays 6max 350$ event. I was so exhausted and played some of the worst poker in my life. I three barreled what i thought was flopped trips only to find out when my opponent called and saw my hand, I only had A high. I lasted for no more than 1 hour in that tournament. Needless to say I won't be playing any more live poker that tired again.

On Wednesday I played in the 1k Heads up tournament. I won my first match within 40minutes and won with 72s on a K4s5s7 board all in on the turn for 220bb pot. My opponent had A4o lol. The second match took a lot longer as the opponent played much more solid and open limped 90% of his buttons. We could not build a pot but my small ball style just grinded him away until he busted. My third match was against some douche bag also named Josh. I had a 2to1 chip lead going into the first break when my ipod died on me. I love being able to listen to music while I play and I really can't focus without it. Also he kept talking and it was distracting me from playing my game. He finally leveled me in a huge pot and ended up taking the match and I lost all my confidence and wanted to go home. I absolutely hate losing, especially heads up matches where I definitely have an edge.

I woke up late thursday, but luckily just in time to play the 350$ mega satelite to the main event. I would have bought into the main event if I didn't win a seat, but I would have sold some action. 8 hours later though I ended up winning the seat. I have never sold any of my action since I started playing on my own bankroll and I never intend to either, unless I really cannot afford it. I think I am way too profitable to just give action away like that no matter what variance is involved. I love being able to keep 100% of my big scores and just thinking about having to give half of something like that away makes me sick. I have been very fortunate to win enough money at crucial times to keep myself afloat. I think playing with my own money also makes me play better too.

So Friday I wake up to play the 3k Main event. I have a pretty easy table draw but most players are playing tight. I got to sit with aejones for a bit before he busted but that was about it. I don't remember any really significant hands from day 1 but I ended with 66k which was about 50bb going into day 2. Day 2 was good because I had a 2p2 guy on my right. He did not know me but I knew him because he was bragging on the forum about having 165k in chips. So I 3b him the first time with 79s and won preflop. The second time I 3b him again with TT and he flatted. I had about 50k behind and made it 10k pre so there really arent any hands he should be flatting. I cbet on the 8xx flop and he snap shoves... so I snap call and he shows AQo and I double up to 160k. After that the chip leader Nick Grippo got moved to the table and I had prime position on him. We ended up playing a few pots and I got the best of him in most of them and chipped up to 350k. I ended up finishing the day with 412k and there were 18left. After we finished we headed down to the bar where I got to meet dwyte pilgrim, lucky chewy, kevin saul and a few other leggo guys. They were all really cool and down to earth guys.

Day 3 I almost did not wake up in time and almost missed the tournament. I was so tired and exhausted from playing all week, but I was starting day three 6th in chips with 18left. I knocked a guy out right away and then lost a big all in pot right before we went to 10 handed. I was getting short at the final table when dwyte opened utg and the very tight sb called. I woke up with QQ and shoved and dwyte snapped with ak and I doubled up. The next hand the tight guy on my right opened and I 3b with TT and he shoved with 66 and busted. I was now the chip leader with 9 left. I got into a tuff spot when I opened and Nick who also had the same amount of chips as me 3b big from the sb. I 4b and he snap shoved. I sighed and called with AKo and said to him lets just chop it now as he flipped over AKo too. Right as I said that the flop comes out three hearts, and he has the A hearts. Thank god I did not lose that pot. I dont think its terrible but I did get all my chips in against the one person who could knock me out with 8 left at the FT. We were only 60bb deep though.

After hours of grinding and the eventual busting of everyone it was 4 handed with me, Nick Grippo, Ryan Julius, and some monkey. The monkey kept asking for a chop and we were all like no shot! Thank god he finally busted, and as soon as he did we all asked each other to look at numbers. By this point I had 1.475million and they both had 2.2 million in chips. The blinds were at 30/60k 5k ante. We decided that we were all very good players and that there was no need to see who gets coolered with stacks this short so we took a chop and played for 10k. My bustout hand was Ryan opened the button and I 3b the sb with AQo and nick shoved. I called and he had AK and I lost. The final results looked like this.

1st Ryan 122k
2nd Nick 112k
3rd Me 105k

I got to play with ryan and nick for the majority of day 2 and 3 and they are both very good accomplished players. Ryan plays a lot like me and I can't wait to go over some HH with these guys. I am glad I got to meet some really cool people and make some good friends while also winning some serious cash. I finally hit my goal of a 100k score and have already make 170k this year. I officially netted in profit over a quarter millions dollars in the last 6 months since I started playing mtts. Now I have to set my goals even higher and hope for the best!

8 comments:

  1. Congratulations man. I was observing you closely. I did not play in any of the tourneys but I was just observing the game. I have become a big fan of your game. I learned so much watching you, grippo, dwyte, ryan play. Let me ask you something, and I would love for you to post a blog on this topic. I wanna know how do you manage to maintain your focus, have that stamina while playing in a big tourney like the 3Gs at Chicago poker classic ME ? I would really appreciate to see a post. As such I have closely observed your game for the most part in the ME it will help me understand things way better than reading books. Congratulations once again, I am your biggest fan ! Thanks.

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  2. You are a machine and inspiration to us new-comers. GL and keep it up!

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  3. Thank you both! Its great to have the support!
    Most everything I learned about poker was done online. I grind very long sessions online all the time and that is where most of my endurance comes from. Listening to very peaceful music is also the second biggest thing for me and I don't think I could keep my full concentration without it. I don't like to be distracted when I am playing or listen to other people talk and music helps me get away from that. I also eat very healthy the morning and days of the tournament and try and get atleast 6 hours of sleep each night.
    If you have anymore questions just shoot away, and thanks for reading my blog and supporting me!

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  4. Thank you so much for the response. Its great to hear from you. I am very sure It requires alot of patience. When you signed up for a CPC ME and when you sat down at the seat from day 1., did you ever have a fear of getting eliminated or were you always confident that you will not do anything that would risk your tourney on the line, did you have a very strict game plan like playing super tight and just playing those 8 premimum hands kinda strategy ?

    Also what kind of music do you listen to while playing ? Like the artist, band name..

    You will be a superstar very soon, I am very sure about that. Keep up the good work Josh. Thank you for your time :)

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  5. Thank you so much for the response. Its great to hear from you. I am very sure It requires alot of patience. When you signed up for a CPC ME and when you sat down at the seat from day 1., did you ever have a fear of getting eliminated or were you always confident that you will not do anything that would risk your tourney on the line, did you have a very strict game plan like playing super tight and just playing those 8 premimum hands kinda strategy ?

    Also what kind of music do you listen to while playing ? Like the artist, band name..

    You will be a superstar very soon, I am very sure about that. Keep up the good work Josh. Thank you for your time :)

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  6. Great to read about you.
    Mike
    MikeLeeH

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  7. No I have no fear of losing, nor do I get nervous or giddy when there is a lot of money on the line. It is all about winning and making the best poker plays. I strive to play as many pots as possible, especially in the early stages because I feel I have an edge on everybody and can build a big stack. I like to listen to classical music like Mozart. Thanks for the compliments!

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  8. Thanks for the response. Can i request you to please signup with twitter, Its fast and easy blog and people like me can get updates from you very often. You can send us updates through cell phone. The thing is every time i post a comment here and click "post comment" It just doesnt go through and I have to do this atleast 3 times to see if the comment is posted. So what are the tourneys you are planning to play in the near future. Good luck Josh. Raf

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