January and WSOP Choctaw

I cant believe that we have almost made it through January and I haven't been able to scramble the time together to put a blog post down. My life in the first 25 days of the month has been a whirlwind of 18 hour days with little or no time to sleep.

Flux at the minute is pretty much consuming all of my time. We are taking on new players every day and working hard to establish ourselves as the premium staking company for online grinders. As our stable grows and word gets around the poker community, I am 100% sure that we will be just that but for now its a lot of work and its time consuming. We have our next live trip coming up the first 10 days of February when we are taking the team to the Venetian Deep Stack. It will provide me with the opportunity to check out the fully completed Flux house and I am pretty excited about that.

Away from Flux, my time at the tables has been spent playing live at the WSOP Circuit event in Durant, Oklahoma. I sold a package for 5 events (only managed to play 4 due to sickness) of the Series and was really happy with the way I played throughout. Yes, I bageled and went 0 for 4 but my play was good and I felt that I made the correct decisions throughout. The first event I lost a flip with AK v QQ after the dinner break and then followed it up by rebuilding to 12bbs before getting it in preflop with QQ v KK v TT. First example of live poker being rigged! Next event, the poker gods thought they would laugh at me further as I managed to get all of my chips in with JJ v 88 in a 4bet pot only for the magical 8 ball to appear on the river. The following week I was back at it again but this one was pretty uneventful. We had a guy trying to win the tournament by level 5 and he was making it impossible to get into pots without the goods. The good finally arrived in the way of JJ but despite getting my chips in good against AT on Txx, it wasn't to be and I was hitting the rail again after a nasty turn.

The main event, a $1600 buyin, was the one I was really looking forward to. We had 20,000 starting stacks and 40 minute levels with a great structure. The deck decided to smack me in the face for the first couple of levels and I had grown my stack from 20k to 32k at the first break. I came back feeling good and then the trouble started, I got into a 4bet pot preflop with AA that I was forced to fold postflop when then board ran out T9Q6K followed swiftly by having to fold QK as the pfr on K62Q. I was right with the fold fwiw but it killed all momentum. After that I played a few small pots where I'd raise pre and have to fold at some point post flop. I managed to get the last of my chips in with TT v AQ and couldn't hold, which led to be frustratingly leaving the room thinking about what could have been with a better run of cards/situations. The series however did make me want to play in more Circuit events and over the coming months I intend to make this happen.

The online felt has taken a backseat to live this month but I will be putting in a solid week before I head to Vegas for the Venetian event.

More updates to come. Good luck at the tables.

2010 Year in Review

Well its time for the post where I deem 2010 a success or a failure. Luckily for me, 2010 was a big success and I hope will form the platform for me to make an even bigger splash in 2011. Rather than make this a brag post of sorts, I am just going to list the highs and lows of the year with a brief commentary on them.

Highs:
1) Watching my friend KurtSF wreck shop and make a WSOP final table. Something that can never be taken away from him and such an amazing achievement.
2) Making a deep run in the $1k event at the WSOP before finally finishing 29th. Disappointing for sure but AK < K4 aipf will do that to you.
3) Joining Fluxstables and being involved with all the guys over there. 2010 was a solid start but I think 2011 will really blow that away.
4) Had a career year to date in cash games online. Soured a little with the move up progress but for the most part it was a personal decision.
5) Living for two months with the guys in the Micro Grind House. Clearly was a great experience and cant wait to be back there in 2011
6) Getting to do more and more coaching and seeing the progress that my students have made. So much more rewarding than playing myself.

Lows:
1) Busting out of the WSOP event so early on day 3. Its a tough thing to get over when you are so close to a possible $600k and lady luck doesnt smile on you.
2) Live cash games. This really just encompasses all live stuff. I really struggle with the boredom factor but its something I must address before Vegas in the summer.
3) Lack of online progression. Sure I had a great year at 50nl and 100pl but I really need to embrace moving up levels rather than being scared of failing.

It seems by the lows that I really should be disappointed in my year, but in truth I am very happy with it providing I use it as a springboard for 2011.

My goals for 2011 will be posted shortly.
Best of luck to all at the tables in 2011.