I headed pretty much straight from Vegas over to Newport, Wales (lol) for this $20,000 6 person Texas Hold'em poker sit-n-go that I'd won a package to online. It was winner-take-all, and Annette Obrestad and I pretty much flipped for the $120,000 in equity as Tony G was very short. My ATo couldn't hold against her QJss as it came 9xx8Q.
I came back to the States and headed to Los Angeles for WPT Legends and had yet another disappointing early day 1 exit. From there, I embarked on another trip across the pond. This time it was London for 23 days for the WSOP Europe as well as EPT London. I really enjoyed my time in London (a city that most either love or hate) and roomed with a cool group of guys that I liked getting to know better. The poker was miserable though as I bricked everything there. There were several huge buy-in poker tournaments I played there, so my yearly figure had pretty much taken a nosedive back to even overall.
When I got back home again, I had a week off before heading for another 3 week or so journey. I went to Las Vegas and bricked a few prelims before busting the WPT Festa al Lago. The next stop was in Indiana just outside of Chicago for the inaugural $10k WSOPC Regional Championship. This tournament actually treated me well as I went on to finish 6th at the televised final table for around $100,000. After the final table, I headed up to Foxwoods in Connecticut where I bought in on day 2 of the WPT and busted in the last level of the evening.
I had one more tour to close out the year. I went to Los Angeles where I cashed in the NAPT event and then went to Florida where I cashed in the Fall Poker Open. I concluded the year with unsuccessful trips to Vegas for WPT Five Diamond and then WSOPC Atlantic City. I battled hard on December 26th, the final workday of the year to book a $37k winner by outright winning a tournament on UB as well as winning my 3rd PCA package. This helped to make my end of the year figure look more attractive.
All told, I'm satisfied with how 2010 ended up. I've resolved to make some changes to my routine both in and out of poker. As far as poker goes, I'd really like to play as many of the Sunday online tournament sessions as I can. In 2010 I played 32 Sundays, compared to 23 in 2009 and (surprisingly) 39 in 2008. There is a lot of value in playing these, although often a live event overlaps. Not to mention, I hit a few NFL games each year and there are other matters that sometimes cause me to miss one.
Outside of poker, I want to become more cultured and find some new things that interest me. I consider myself a very happy individual, but I want to continue to challenge myself, and I want to continue to grow everyday. I really want to get in tip-top shape, too. This starts by cutting down on the nights that I go out, sadly. It's just too easy to decline the gym trip when you're hungover as hell and I'm too often a slave to the nightlife schedule Thursday-Saturday nights. I'm in a very unique situation being young, financially stable, single and not having that many responsibilities, but that doesn't mean I hafta be out 3-4 nights per week, and I'll work hard towards finding a balance this year.
That's all I've got. Thank you very much to those of you who read it all. I encourage you to follow me on Twitter (shannonshorr), as I post a lot of random thoughts there as opposed to the much harder work that is blogging.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
2010: A Poker Year in Review (1 of 2)
2010 is over, wow. It seems like I was just writing my 2009 Year in Review blog entry. While the past year wasn't the best year of my life, it was definitely a very very good one. I managed to book another winning poker year (my 4th out of 5 years as a professional poker player, albeit my smallest winning one) and graduate college. I also felt like I grew a lot as a person, and I hope that I can continue to do so in 2011. Below is a bit of what I was up to in the past year.
I brought in the New Year at the bars in Birmingham, AL as I anxiously awaited my last semester of college. It was an exciting time for me as an Alabama fan, too, as I'd made plans to fly out to Pasadena along with my Mom, sisters Heather and Carly, and my brother-in-law Ben to watch Alabama play for the national football championship. In what I can best describe as a top 5 day of my life, I got to watch Alabama beat Texas with my loved ones.
My first poker trip of 2010 was a short one down to Biloxi, MS for the WPT poker tournament in January. I was out within a few hours and on my way back to Tuscaloosa. The year was off to a rocky start until I had a big Sunday in mid-February online. Things turned sour again in March and April as I had a rough couple months online all-the-while grinding out a difficult course load at school. When the beginning of May came around, I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel though as I was one week away from completing my final exams and graduating.
I was lucky to draw day-time exam slots in that final week, as I was interested in playing the FTOPS events that were taking place a few days before I graduated. In what was one of the most special, memorable nights of my poker career, I sat alone on the couch in my apartment in Tuscaloosa and outright won the $300 rebuy FTOPS event on Cinco de Mayo (after uncharacteristically turning down a friend's offer to get drinks) for $214,000, the largest score of my online tournament career. A few days later I won the $100 rebuy on Stars for $44,000ish.
As a college graduate at this point, I was now free to play a lot of live tournaments. I immediately went down to New Orleans to play the WSOPC event but again had a bad showing. From there I headed to Vegas for the 6 week long marathon that is the WSOP. This is the point that the year pretty much took a turn for the worse. I played a ton, ton, ton of poker, 34 events, which shattered my previous high of 29 events in 2009. I did manage to cash a career WSOP best 5 times, but none of the cashes was very large as I lost about $70,000 in events on the summer.
Additionally, I put a lot of money in action on other individuals in the main event and that did not materialize. For a minute, I thought I might make a very deep run in the WSOP main event. I entered day 5 with 1.5x the average chip stack with 550ish players left in an event that would pay the eventual winner $9 million. The most heartbreaking hand of my life occured as I had tens full vs kings full against a guy that covered me on KT33 to bust in 515th for around $30,000. I'm still without a WSOP bracelet, which is something I desperately want.
I brought in the New Year at the bars in Birmingham, AL as I anxiously awaited my last semester of college. It was an exciting time for me as an Alabama fan, too, as I'd made plans to fly out to Pasadena along with my Mom, sisters Heather and Carly, and my brother-in-law Ben to watch Alabama play for the national football championship. In what I can best describe as a top 5 day of my life, I got to watch Alabama beat Texas with my loved ones.
My first poker trip of 2010 was a short one down to Biloxi, MS for the WPT poker tournament in January. I was out within a few hours and on my way back to Tuscaloosa. The year was off to a rocky start until I had a big Sunday in mid-February online. Things turned sour again in March and April as I had a rough couple months online all-the-while grinding out a difficult course load at school. When the beginning of May came around, I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel though as I was one week away from completing my final exams and graduating.
I was lucky to draw day-time exam slots in that final week, as I was interested in playing the FTOPS events that were taking place a few days before I graduated. In what was one of the most special, memorable nights of my poker career, I sat alone on the couch in my apartment in Tuscaloosa and outright won the $300 rebuy FTOPS event on Cinco de Mayo (after uncharacteristically turning down a friend's offer to get drinks) for $214,000, the largest score of my online tournament career. A few days later I won the $100 rebuy on Stars for $44,000ish.
As a college graduate at this point, I was now free to play a lot of live tournaments. I immediately went down to New Orleans to play the WSOPC event but again had a bad showing. From there I headed to Vegas for the 6 week long marathon that is the WSOP. This is the point that the year pretty much took a turn for the worse. I played a ton, ton, ton of poker, 34 events, which shattered my previous high of 29 events in 2009. I did manage to cash a career WSOP best 5 times, but none of the cashes was very large as I lost about $70,000 in events on the summer.
Additionally, I put a lot of money in action on other individuals in the main event and that did not materialize. For a minute, I thought I might make a very deep run in the WSOP main event. I entered day 5 with 1.5x the average chip stack with 550ish players left in an event that would pay the eventual winner $9 million. The most heartbreaking hand of my life occured as I had tens full vs kings full against a guy that covered me on KT33 to bust in 515th for around $30,000. I'm still without a WSOP bracelet, which is something I desperately want.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Catching up
It's been over 2 months since I last posted, which is the longest I've gone since I became a blogger in early 2006. I'll do my best to catch you guys up on what I've been doing since late September.
I finished up my time in London in early October. To put things lightly, things went miserably there. I ended up airballing everything I played. My winnings for the year took a huge drop because there were several big buy-in tournaments that were hosted there. I did largely enjoy my 23 days or so in the city though and definitely got in my fair share of partying.
From London, I came home and took a week or so off before heading off on a 3 stop tour: Vegas to Chicago to WPT Foxwoods. I bricked all 3 Texas Hold'em poker tournaments I played in Vegas and was really hating live poker and considering cutting the trip short and just taking the rest of the year off. Instead, I trucked through to Chicago for the first ever $10,000 WSOPC Regional Championship poker tournament event.
I cruised most of day 1 in that event before I tried to give away all my chips on the very last hand of the night. One of the nicest guys in the business, Michael Pesek, opened up front to like 2300 at 500/1000 and I made it 6500 from MP with J7hh.
It folded back to Mike and I told myself if he 4bet then I was going to trigger a 5bet all-in. He did just that and made it 14500ish and I moved in for 65000. He called with Queens but I managed to double up and cripple him when the board came Jd5h3s4hTh. I kinda stubbed my toes and got unlucky once on day 2 and really had to battle hard. We played deep into the night, around 3:30 a.m. before finally reaching the money of 24 players.
On day 3 I had the misfortune of having elite tournament player David "Doc" Sands to my left for most of the day. He played very well albeit unbearably deliberately. I thought I, too, played well that day and eventually we made it down to the final table of 10 where Doc busted Steve Zolotow on the TV table bubble.
My mom, dad, and sister Carly flew into Chicago last minute for the TV table which will be televised on the Versus network. I entered the final table 3 of 9 but unfortunately busted 6th for around $100,000 after running into two huge coolers, once with QQ vs AA and once with JJ vs AA to bust button vs BB. I really enjoyed the experience and really appreciated how the eventual winner, a 20-something Ohioan named Jim Anderson, conducted himself at the table.
Early the next morning I flew up to WPT Foxwoods in Connecticut and bought in on day 2. I doubled up quickly but then lost a flip before running a big pair, tens, into Aces for the 3rd time in 24 hours. I was on the next morning's flight and got to spend another week or so at home in Birmingham.
My next stop was Los Angeles for the NAPT event there. This was a well run tournament that got like 800ish players, if I remember correctly. I pretty much cruised through this tournament and then in the middle of day 2 the wheels started to fall off. First, I opened two red Aces and this little Asian guy named Tom Lee shoved 27bb from MP the exact hand after losing a big pot and I was shown K6dd. The flop came like Kxx with two diamonds and the turn was a diamond. Lee shot out of his seat in celebration despite the fact that I had 7 outs. The river, however, was not a diamond. I battled back. A kid opened to 7500 and I decided to flat Aces. The button called and then the maniacal Lee pushed a stack of blue 5000 chips totaling 100,000 in from the SB. It folded back to me, I moved in, and he called off his last 50,000 with Jacks. A jack came in the door. I battled back again then 4bet all-in on the bubble with 54dd after Lee 3bet me for probably the tenth time that day. I flipped the cards in high enough for Lee to see the 4d on the bottom. We made the money and then shortly into it I opened 44, and Lee 3bet once again to 30,000. The flop came 653r. I checked with the intention of CRAI but Lee blasted it all-in for 222,000 into the pot of 75,000. He just looked totally full of shit to me, so I called and was shown ATo. The turn, remarkably, was a ten and Lee once again jumped out of his seat despite my 10 outs. I missed and was out like 87th for peanuts.
Finally, I went down to Florida for the Fall Poker Open in Fort Lauderdale. It was my first trip to South Florida, and boy did I fall in love with the place. My boy Tim "timkrank" Miles let me stay with him at his bad ass condo on the beach in Miami. This tournament was set up such that if you busted day 1a you could rebuy on day 1b. I did just that so I was in for $10,000. I kinda limped into day 2 but quickly rallied to an above average stack and we made the money later that night. On day 3 however, I played for an above average stack with JJ vs KJdd and the chips were pushed the other way and I was out 21st for a few hundred dollars in profit :/
The above probably sounds like one big bad beat story, so I apologize for that. Just sorta trying to report things as they were. A lot of people would probably forget to report the J7hh > QQ hand, I guess.
After Florida I came home and enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with my family before heading to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama vs Auburn game. I don't even wanna recall that experience. As I type this I'm in Vegas. I'll play the $5000 prelim and then the $10,000 WPT. After that I'll head home for a couple weeks before my final poker trip of the year, Atlantic City's $10k WSOPC Regional Championship.
I made out my schedule for all of 2011 up until the World Series of Poker. I'll be traveling a bunch. I have mixed feelings about that. I enjoy playing live tournaments, a lot, but it's quite a grind sort of living out of a suitcase and always being on the road. I really am past the stage of sitting in front of the computer grinding online tournaments, too. I'm kinda itching to play a lot live since I was trapped at school for 21 months recently, so I think I'll grind through the 2011 World Series and then kinda evaluate whether I wanna keep traveling a bunch. There are, though, some changes in my personal life that I want to make, and being on the road complicates that.
That's it. Thanks for reading. Next blog entry hopefully sooner than later.
SS
I finished up my time in London in early October. To put things lightly, things went miserably there. I ended up airballing everything I played. My winnings for the year took a huge drop because there were several big buy-in tournaments that were hosted there. I did largely enjoy my 23 days or so in the city though and definitely got in my fair share of partying.
From London, I came home and took a week or so off before heading off on a 3 stop tour: Vegas to Chicago to WPT Foxwoods. I bricked all 3 Texas Hold'em poker tournaments I played in Vegas and was really hating live poker and considering cutting the trip short and just taking the rest of the year off. Instead, I trucked through to Chicago for the first ever $10,000 WSOPC Regional Championship poker tournament event.
I cruised most of day 1 in that event before I tried to give away all my chips on the very last hand of the night. One of the nicest guys in the business, Michael Pesek, opened up front to like 2300 at 500/1000 and I made it 6500 from MP with J7hh.
It folded back to Mike and I told myself if he 4bet then I was going to trigger a 5bet all-in. He did just that and made it 14500ish and I moved in for 65000. He called with Queens but I managed to double up and cripple him when the board came Jd5h3s4hTh. I kinda stubbed my toes and got unlucky once on day 2 and really had to battle hard. We played deep into the night, around 3:30 a.m. before finally reaching the money of 24 players.
On day 3 I had the misfortune of having elite tournament player David "Doc" Sands to my left for most of the day. He played very well albeit unbearably deliberately. I thought I, too, played well that day and eventually we made it down to the final table of 10 where Doc busted Steve Zolotow on the TV table bubble.
My mom, dad, and sister Carly flew into Chicago last minute for the TV table which will be televised on the Versus network. I entered the final table 3 of 9 but unfortunately busted 6th for around $100,000 after running into two huge coolers, once with QQ vs AA and once with JJ vs AA to bust button vs BB. I really enjoyed the experience and really appreciated how the eventual winner, a 20-something Ohioan named Jim Anderson, conducted himself at the table.
Early the next morning I flew up to WPT Foxwoods in Connecticut and bought in on day 2. I doubled up quickly but then lost a flip before running a big pair, tens, into Aces for the 3rd time in 24 hours. I was on the next morning's flight and got to spend another week or so at home in Birmingham.
My next stop was Los Angeles for the NAPT event there. This was a well run tournament that got like 800ish players, if I remember correctly. I pretty much cruised through this tournament and then in the middle of day 2 the wheels started to fall off. First, I opened two red Aces and this little Asian guy named Tom Lee shoved 27bb from MP the exact hand after losing a big pot and I was shown K6dd. The flop came like Kxx with two diamonds and the turn was a diamond. Lee shot out of his seat in celebration despite the fact that I had 7 outs. The river, however, was not a diamond. I battled back. A kid opened to 7500 and I decided to flat Aces. The button called and then the maniacal Lee pushed a stack of blue 5000 chips totaling 100,000 in from the SB. It folded back to me, I moved in, and he called off his last 50,000 with Jacks. A jack came in the door. I battled back again then 4bet all-in on the bubble with 54dd after Lee 3bet me for probably the tenth time that day. I flipped the cards in high enough for Lee to see the 4d on the bottom. We made the money and then shortly into it I opened 44, and Lee 3bet once again to 30,000. The flop came 653r. I checked with the intention of CRAI but Lee blasted it all-in for 222,000 into the pot of 75,000. He just looked totally full of shit to me, so I called and was shown ATo. The turn, remarkably, was a ten and Lee once again jumped out of his seat despite my 10 outs. I missed and was out like 87th for peanuts.
Finally, I went down to Florida for the Fall Poker Open in Fort Lauderdale. It was my first trip to South Florida, and boy did I fall in love with the place. My boy Tim "timkrank" Miles let me stay with him at his bad ass condo on the beach in Miami. This tournament was set up such that if you busted day 1a you could rebuy on day 1b. I did just that so I was in for $10,000. I kinda limped into day 2 but quickly rallied to an above average stack and we made the money later that night. On day 3 however, I played for an above average stack with JJ vs KJdd and the chips were pushed the other way and I was out 21st for a few hundred dollars in profit :/
The above probably sounds like one big bad beat story, so I apologize for that. Just sorta trying to report things as they were. A lot of people would probably forget to report the J7hh > QQ hand, I guess.
After Florida I came home and enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving with my family before heading to Tuscaloosa for the Alabama vs Auburn game. I don't even wanna recall that experience. As I type this I'm in Vegas. I'll play the $5000 prelim and then the $10,000 WPT. After that I'll head home for a couple weeks before my final poker trip of the year, Atlantic City's $10k WSOPC Regional Championship.
I made out my schedule for all of 2011 up until the World Series of Poker. I'll be traveling a bunch. I have mixed feelings about that. I enjoy playing live tournaments, a lot, but it's quite a grind sort of living out of a suitcase and always being on the road. I really am past the stage of sitting in front of the computer grinding online tournaments, too. I'm kinda itching to play a lot live since I was trapped at school for 21 months recently, so I think I'll grind through the 2011 World Series and then kinda evaluate whether I wanna keep traveling a bunch. There are, though, some changes in my personal life that I want to make, and being on the road complicates that.
That's it. Thanks for reading. Next blog entry hopefully sooner than later.
SS
Saturday, October 2, 2010
In London
As I write this I'm sitting in a house in the Notting Hill district of London. I've been here for about a week and will be here for another 2 weeks or so. I've rented the place with poker players David "DavidP17" Peters, Joe "floes" Serock, and November Niner John "JRD312" Dolan. Keven "stammdog" Stammen will arrive tomorrow, I think. It's the first time I've spent significant time with these guys and they're all really chill. What brings me to town is the World Series of Poker Europe. Sadly, it's off to an inauspicious start. I busted the first 4 (out of 5) bracelet events and will play the WSOPE Texas Holdem poker Main Event in about 9 hours.
There's almost nothing interesting to report as I'm about a $26,000 loser on the trip so far. In addition, I had my Vodaphone internet card completely go out on me during a Sunday online poker tournament
session which had me time out of about $5000 worth of tournaments. After the WSOPE is over, the EPT London will take place. There are a couple of side events I'll take part in as well as the 5000 GBP main event. It would be really nice to knock something off here. All that said, I'm still enjoying myself. It would be hard to complain about being in London. This is my third time being here, and the culture here is always my favorite part. At any given busy pub, restaurant or nightclub there might be 15 different nationalities and tons of different languages being spoken. That might be my favorite part about the city. Things are really expensive here which is pretty annoying. I feel like everyone here must really extend himself because I for sure would go broke living in this city. I've been doing a bunch of walking around the city which has been nice. I've also been eating a lot of good, big meals and living a markedly unhealthy lifestyle in general as I've been sleeping all kinds of different hours.
In the rest of the month since I last posted, I moved into my condo in Birmingham. I really, really like it as it's pretty much a perfect fit for me. I have a ton of people I know in Birmingham which always makes for an interesting time. On the second night playing poker at the condo, I outright won the Full Tilt Poker $1k Monday for the 2nd time in my career. The score was worth $120,000 or so and was the second largest of my online poker career. The few online tournaments I've played have salvaged the calendar year for me as I've been getting bludgeoned live. All in all, I'm up a decent figure on the year.
I've got a fairly busy October planned as I'll likely play WPT Festa al Lago in Vegas, $10k WSOPC in Northern Indiana just outside of Chicago, and WPT Foxwoods. These tournaments will have to work around the Braves playoffs schedule provided they make it though. I'd kinda like to be back in Birmingham relaxing, but I also feel like I should work a little bit since I was sort of out of commission for 21 months while finishing up school.
That's it. I'll probably continue to just blog once every few weeks as I'm able to express random thoughts more easily via Twitter. I'm at a point in my career and my life where I don't have the drive to really sit down and recount or analyze hands like I used to. In fact, I could see myself completely stopping blogging at some point as the idea of keeping a super low profile is somewhat appealing.
SS
There's almost nothing interesting to report as I'm about a $26,000 loser on the trip so far. In addition, I had my Vodaphone internet card completely go out on me during a Sunday online poker tournament
session which had me time out of about $5000 worth of tournaments. After the WSOPE is over, the EPT London will take place. There are a couple of side events I'll take part in as well as the 5000 GBP main event. It would be really nice to knock something off here. All that said, I'm still enjoying myself. It would be hard to complain about being in London. This is my third time being here, and the culture here is always my favorite part. At any given busy pub, restaurant or nightclub there might be 15 different nationalities and tons of different languages being spoken. That might be my favorite part about the city. Things are really expensive here which is pretty annoying. I feel like everyone here must really extend himself because I for sure would go broke living in this city. I've been doing a bunch of walking around the city which has been nice. I've also been eating a lot of good, big meals and living a markedly unhealthy lifestyle in general as I've been sleeping all kinds of different hours.
In the rest of the month since I last posted, I moved into my condo in Birmingham. I really, really like it as it's pretty much a perfect fit for me. I have a ton of people I know in Birmingham which always makes for an interesting time. On the second night playing poker at the condo, I outright won the Full Tilt Poker $1k Monday for the 2nd time in my career. The score was worth $120,000 or so and was the second largest of my online poker career. The few online tournaments I've played have salvaged the calendar year for me as I've been getting bludgeoned live. All in all, I'm up a decent figure on the year.
I've got a fairly busy October planned as I'll likely play WPT Festa al Lago in Vegas, $10k WSOPC in Northern Indiana just outside of Chicago, and WPT Foxwoods. These tournaments will have to work around the Braves playoffs schedule provided they make it though. I'd kinda like to be back in Birmingham relaxing, but I also feel like I should work a little bit since I was sort of out of commission for 21 months while finishing up school.
That's it. I'll probably continue to just blog once every few weeks as I'm able to express random thoughts more easily via Twitter. I'm at a point in my career and my life where I don't have the drive to really sit down and recount or analyze hands like I used to. In fact, I could see myself completely stopping blogging at some point as the idea of keeping a super low profile is somewhat appealing.
SS
Monday, August 23, 2010
WPT
As I type this I'm sitting in a room at Commerce Casino with my boy Jon Little. Later today we'll play day 1b of WPT Legends of Poker at The Bicycle Casino. This will be my 32nd career WPT, my first of season 9 on the World Poker tour, and the first one I've had time to play since January of 2010. They've dropped the buy-in for this one down to $5000 from $10,000 which I actually think is a good idea as far as drawing numbers.
Since I last posted I'm still not in my condo. There was a hold up with some of the paperwork, but I can now officially move in when I get back to Birmingham next week. Hopefully I'll return as a WPT champion. Other then that, I spent a week up in Virginia helping my mom pack to move back to Birmingham. I have a new respect for people in the moving business. I then drove the 26 foot Penske truck 12 hours which was an interesting experience. I've also gotten some time to hang out with my sisters the last couple of weeks which was nice. I know they're ready to get me off their couches and out of their hair now :)
I've been playing a little bit of poker too. I made some FTOPS noise by final tabling the PLHE/PLO event and finishing 6th or something. I also finished 21st in the $150 rebuy rush tournament where first paid over $200k :( I posted back to back good Sundays after one week final tabling the $100 rebuy on Stars for $24k. This past Sunday was big as I snagged both a $15,700 PCA package and an EPT London package that is worth around $12,800 in addition to final tabling the PS $500 for $17,000ish. All told, the year has been solid so far.
I've pretty much got my schedule set for the rest of the calendar year. I'll be spending 24 long days in London for the WSOPE and EPT from September 12-October 6. I hate to be gone for that long, especially during football season and especially after getting a new place, but business is business and I can't really turn down the value that will be there.
Since I last posted I'm still not in my condo. There was a hold up with some of the paperwork, but I can now officially move in when I get back to Birmingham next week. Hopefully I'll return as a WPT champion. Other then that, I spent a week up in Virginia helping my mom pack to move back to Birmingham. I have a new respect for people in the moving business. I then drove the 26 foot Penske truck 12 hours which was an interesting experience. I've also gotten some time to hang out with my sisters the last couple of weeks which was nice. I know they're ready to get me off their couches and out of their hair now :)
I've been playing a little bit of poker too. I made some FTOPS noise by final tabling the PLHE/PLO event and finishing 6th or something. I also finished 21st in the $150 rebuy rush tournament where first paid over $200k :( I posted back to back good Sundays after one week final tabling the $100 rebuy on Stars for $24k. This past Sunday was big as I snagged both a $15,700 PCA package and an EPT London package that is worth around $12,800 in addition to final tabling the PS $500 for $17,000ish. All told, the year has been solid so far.
I've pretty much got my schedule set for the rest of the calendar year. I'll be spending 24 long days in London for the WSOPE and EPT from September 12-October 6. I hate to be gone for that long, especially during football season and especially after getting a new place, but business is business and I can't really turn down the value that will be there.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Wales Wrap-Up
Since I last posted I played my Texas Holdem heat in the Poker Lounge in Wales. Things pretty much went exactly as I expected, as the structure wasn't great. I fully intended on getting all the money in on a flip, and I did just that when my AT fell to Annette Obrestad's QJss 3 handed for 70% of the tournament chips.
I enjoyed the experience and look forward to seeing how the broadcast turns out. Wales was also a pretty cool country. The people were very nice and it was definitely a quaint little place. I would've liked to see a little more of the country but didn't quite have time.
The last week I've been in Birmingham. My lease ended in Tuscaloosa and I've been looking for a place to live in Alabama's largest city. Basically, my quality of life is better when I'm in the south as compared to the time I've spent in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and I could see myself living here the rest of my life, really.
I kind of wanted to make sure of that though, so I spent the week looking at condos that were open to the idea of me leasing for 6 months with the option to buy at the end of the lease period. I struck what I think is a very good deal and found some very good value by locking in a purchase price at a bad ass place called Hallman Hill in Homewood's (a suburb of Birmingham) SoHo district. I look forward to getting into the place this weekend and seeing if condo living is the way I wanna go.
Aside from that, its just nice being back in Birmingham. I went out with friends a couple of times this week and enjoyed myself. I've also played online the last 2 Sundays. Last Sunday was just miserable as I got blanked in online poker tournaments, but last night I found a 5th place finish in the $100 rebuy on Stars for $24,000 or so, which was enough to turn a decent winner over the two combined weeks.
As I type this I'm sitting in the terminal in the Birmingham airport headed up to Williamsburg, VA.
My mom is moving back to Birmingham, which is awesome, so I'm gonna head up there and help her pack and then drive the Uhaul truck back down here. Once I get back later this week, I'll get to relax in town for 2 weeks or so before traveling to Los Angeles for WPT Legends of Poker on August 20.
SS
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Poker In Wales...
As I type this entry I'm sitting on my balcony at Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales overlooking the golf course on which the Ryder Cup is played. I traveled 17.5 hours to get here, arrived yesterday at 10 am local time, and promptly slept 8 hours. Later tonight I'll play a $20,000 6 player winner take all sit-n-go tournament 40 minutes down the road in Cardiff. I'm actually still unsure with whom I'll be playing.
I've been told that as the online qualifier I'll be playing with 3 Full Tilt red pros and 2 other people who will buy in. The structure won't be great, and I fully anticipate having to flip it all off at some point. The tournament will be filmed and shown on British television's channel 4. I'll also make the youtube link available when it comes out in a couple months. Truth be told, I won this satellite on Full Tilt quite accidentally.
I bought into the $600 satellite a couple months ago thinking it was their standard WSOP satellite, and realized an hour into the tournament that it was a package to this sit-n-go. Hopefully I can win tonight and be $120,000 richer. Last night I had a great seafood dinner consisting of Fish Soup and a Swordfish entree at a place called Priory here in town. I did a little walking around then headed down to the more "posh" (as the Brits call it) Cardiff Bay area for some drinks.Some observations:Everything is expensive here. Honestly it makes Vegas seem cheap.
I've been getting vigged hard on the exchange fees. Last night I converted $500 at the front desk and only got 275£. The spot rate indicated I should've gotten 330£.The most average looking woman in Wales is probably only half as attractive as the most average looking woman in The States. Still, there's something to be said about how subtly attractive many of the British girls are. Several people have asked if my accent is Australian, wtf.
The currency is tilting me hard. Anything up to 2£ is a coin, and I'm too lazy to reach in my pocket and sort through them. As a result I came home last night with a pocketful of coins since I kept breaking the paper bills. I would for sure lose a ton of money here if I misplaced/lost coins at the same frequency as I do in the US.
I enjoyed the experience and look forward to seeing how the broadcast turns out. Wales was also a pretty cool country. The people were very nice and it was definitely a quaint little place. I would've liked to see a little more of the country but didn't quite have time.
The last week I've been in Birmingham. My lease ended in Tuscaloosa and I've been looking for a place to live in Alabama's largest city. Basically, my quality of life is better when I'm in the south as compared to the time I've spent in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and I could see myself living here the rest of my life, really.
I kind of wanted to make sure of that though, so I spent the week looking at condos that were open to the idea of me leasing for 6 months with the option to buy at the end of the lease period. I struck what I think is a very good deal and found some very good value by locking in a purchase price at a bad ass place called Hallman Hill in Homewood's (a suburb of Birmingham) SoHo district. I look forward to getting into the place this weekend and seeing if condo living is the way I wanna go.
Aside from that, its just nice being back in Birmingham. I went out with friends a couple of times this week and enjoyed myself. I've also played online the last 2 Sundays. Last Sunday was just miserable as I got blanked in online poker tournaments, but last night I found a 5th place finish in the $100 rebuy on Stars for $24,000 or so, which was enough to turn a decent winner over the two combined weeks.
As I type this I'm sitting in the terminal in the Birmingham airport headed up to Williamsburg, VA.
My mom is moving back to Birmingham, which is awesome, so I'm gonna head up there and help her pack and then drive the Uhaul truck back down here. Once I get back later this week, I'll get to relax in town for 2 weeks or so before traveling to Los Angeles for WPT Legends of Poker on August 20.
SS
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Poker In Wales...
As I type this entry I'm sitting on my balcony at Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales overlooking the golf course on which the Ryder Cup is played. I traveled 17.5 hours to get here, arrived yesterday at 10 am local time, and promptly slept 8 hours. Later tonight I'll play a $20,000 6 player winner take all sit-n-go tournament 40 minutes down the road in Cardiff. I'm actually still unsure with whom I'll be playing.
I've been told that as the online qualifier I'll be playing with 3 Full Tilt red pros and 2 other people who will buy in. The structure won't be great, and I fully anticipate having to flip it all off at some point. The tournament will be filmed and shown on British television's channel 4. I'll also make the youtube link available when it comes out in a couple months. Truth be told, I won this satellite on Full Tilt quite accidentally.
I bought into the $600 satellite a couple months ago thinking it was their standard WSOP satellite, and realized an hour into the tournament that it was a package to this sit-n-go. Hopefully I can win tonight and be $120,000 richer. Last night I had a great seafood dinner consisting of Fish Soup and a Swordfish entree at a place called Priory here in town. I did a little walking around then headed down to the more "posh" (as the Brits call it) Cardiff Bay area for some drinks.Some observations:Everything is expensive here. Honestly it makes Vegas seem cheap.
I've been getting vigged hard on the exchange fees. Last night I converted $500 at the front desk and only got 275£. The spot rate indicated I should've gotten 330£.The most average looking woman in Wales is probably only half as attractive as the most average looking woman in The States. Still, there's something to be said about how subtly attractive many of the British girls are. Several people have asked if my accent is Australian, wtf.
The currency is tilting me hard. Anything up to 2£ is a coin, and I'm too lazy to reach in my pocket and sort through them. As a result I came home last night with a pocketful of coins since I kept breaking the paper bills. I would for sure lose a ton of money here if I misplaced/lost coins at the same frequency as I do in the US.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
2010 World Series of Poker Wrapup - The Summer that Wasn't.
Where to begin? As I type this I'm 3 hours removed from day 5 of the World Series of Poker Main Event. I had high hopes as I entered day 5 with 1.25x the average and was feeling great, but it wasn't to be as I got two tens in against two kings on KT33 for a 2.5x average pot.
In total I played 34 WSOP events this summer. In 2009 I played 29 events, so needless to say I shattered that figure. This is a product of me becoming more adept at the mixed games, so I played a few more of those. I can say with confidence that I'm gonna be a long term winner in all 34 of those events because there is just so much dead money at the World Series of Poker. The reality is that one summer of live tournaments is such a small sample size. I'll play like 25 tournaments on a single Sunday online. Also, there is such high variance in these things due to the often big buy-ins. These things said, I'm completely at peace with how things went on the summer albeit very frustrated. Even with the miserable series, I'm still a decent overall winner in 2010 thanks almost entirely to my FTOPS win in May.
I managed to cash a career best 5 times on the Series. If you told me I was gonna cash 5 times in 35 events, I would've asked, "Where do I sign?" and written home to Mom about it as I expect to cash at right around that clip. Alas, in tournament poker you need to make very deep runs to cover buy-ins though, and none of my 5 cashes was for more than 4 times that tournament's buy-in. My deepest finish was 17th in the $2000 Limit Hold em event.
This is the first year in the last 4 that I failed to make a WSOP final table, so that's a little disappointing. Of course I still wasn't able to capture my first bracelet. I'm only 25 though and it will come soon enough, and I know that the moment it happens will be magical.
In total, I invested $128,500 this year in buy-ins (slightly less than last year's $131k) and found only $57,344 in cashes. As a result I was a career WSOP-worst $71,156 loser which amounts to a -55% ROI on the summer. My lifetime WSOP numbers are below:
In 2006 I cashed 3 times in 22 events and was a $35,135 loser.
In 2007 I cashed 3 times in 21 events and turned a $5,249 winner.
In 2008 I cashed 4 times in 22 events and turned a $314,498 winner.
In 2009 I cashed 3 times in 29 events and was a $59,600 loser.
In 2010 I cashed 5 times in 35 events and was a $71,156 loser.
In the 5 summers combined, I've invested $453,500 in buy-ins over the 129 events and have cashed for $607,356. This amounts to a $153,856 profit (34% ROI). All things considered, I expect that I've actually run below expectation over that small sample of events and hope to turn a much higher ROI over the next 5 summers in Las Vegas.
My next poker stop is in The United Kingdom next Thursday as I'll be playing in a made for TV $20,000 buy-in sit-n-go called "Poker Lounge" which is put on by Full Tilt Poker in Wales. I'll apparently be playing with 5 Full Tilt pro's and it'll be winner take all for the $120,000. I'll be updating on Twitter if anyone wants to follow.
SS
In total I played 34 WSOP events this summer. In 2009 I played 29 events, so needless to say I shattered that figure. This is a product of me becoming more adept at the mixed games, so I played a few more of those. I can say with confidence that I'm gonna be a long term winner in all 34 of those events because there is just so much dead money at the World Series of Poker. The reality is that one summer of live tournaments is such a small sample size. I'll play like 25 tournaments on a single Sunday online. Also, there is such high variance in these things due to the often big buy-ins. These things said, I'm completely at peace with how things went on the summer albeit very frustrated. Even with the miserable series, I'm still a decent overall winner in 2010 thanks almost entirely to my FTOPS win in May.
I managed to cash a career best 5 times on the Series. If you told me I was gonna cash 5 times in 35 events, I would've asked, "Where do I sign?" and written home to Mom about it as I expect to cash at right around that clip. Alas, in tournament poker you need to make very deep runs to cover buy-ins though, and none of my 5 cashes was for more than 4 times that tournament's buy-in. My deepest finish was 17th in the $2000 Limit Hold em event.
This is the first year in the last 4 that I failed to make a WSOP final table, so that's a little disappointing. Of course I still wasn't able to capture my first bracelet. I'm only 25 though and it will come soon enough, and I know that the moment it happens will be magical.
In total, I invested $128,500 this year in buy-ins (slightly less than last year's $131k) and found only $57,344 in cashes. As a result I was a career WSOP-worst $71,156 loser which amounts to a -55% ROI on the summer. My lifetime WSOP numbers are below:
In 2006 I cashed 3 times in 22 events and was a $35,135 loser.
In 2007 I cashed 3 times in 21 events and turned a $5,249 winner.
In 2008 I cashed 4 times in 22 events and turned a $314,498 winner.
In 2009 I cashed 3 times in 29 events and was a $59,600 loser.
In 2010 I cashed 5 times in 35 events and was a $71,156 loser.
In the 5 summers combined, I've invested $453,500 in buy-ins over the 129 events and have cashed for $607,356. This amounts to a $153,856 profit (34% ROI). All things considered, I expect that I've actually run below expectation over that small sample of events and hope to turn a much higher ROI over the next 5 summers in Las Vegas.
My next poker stop is in The United Kingdom next Thursday as I'll be playing in a made for TV $20,000 buy-in sit-n-go called "Poker Lounge" which is put on by Full Tilt Poker in Wales. I'll apparently be playing with 5 Full Tilt pro's and it'll be winner take all for the $120,000. I'll be updating on Twitter if anyone wants to follow.
SS
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