The Day After

Well last night we all headed to New York New York. We all had a few drinks I won $50 while playing at the video poker bar getting my free beer. After sitting and listening to the bar for awhile we decided to go somewhere that we could actually hear one another. We ended up at a single deck blackjack table which was payin 6:5 on blackjack. We basically were attempting to get a free drinks, but we all happened to win except Jim. Ace, Mike, and I went and got something to eat before heading back to the apartment.

Last night was probably the best poker I have ever played. It seemed that every decision just came to me and I just ran with it. I haven't been at a final table since March where I ultimately had 2 within a few days so it feels great to get back to one and ultimately win. I think the day before helping the other guy through his tournament helped me just by seeing it from the outside and actually just helped reassure that I know what I'm doing when it's easy to doubt it after not making a big score for such a long time. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come in September as I'm ready for a big month.

Today so far I've been knocked out of two little satellites for Aruba on UB and am currently 178/1215 in the $5 rebuy on Stars trying to win it back to back.

Guess I'll update when something else happens.

Nice Tourney Win!

After roughly 8 hours I finally won this $5 rebuy tournament which I had $15 invested. Mike, Ace, Bruce, Jim and I are headed to New York New York to celebrate this and Bruce's royal flush he hit yesterday.

Prolly have more to say tomarow after it all sets in.

Quick Session

Just played a little session before the $5 rebuy started at Stars. I finally had some action. I'll post the hands quickly just to get them up there. If there's some discussion I'll respond with a thought process.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?479952

http://www.pokerhand.org/?479960

http://www.pokerhand.org/?479962

http://www.pokerhand.org/?479965

http://www.pokerhand.org/?479967

I believe I ended up $4 for this little thing you call a session.

Paris Hilton, Midgets, and Pimps

Ace had heard on the TV that Paris Hilton was releasing her album and was hosting a block party and a party at Pure. Ace and I headed down there about at about 730 and it was pretty crowded. They had Caesars Way blocked off inbetween The Flamingo and Osheas. It was also a promo event for the opening up of Beachers Rockhouse so they had variety acts from the show and it's said to be one of Paris's favorite shows so whatever. We saw crazy asians swinging from poles by there hair and a midget KISS band and 80 year old dudes grinding on the stage with strippers. It was all pretty fun I got some pretty decent pictures of her and after debate she's pretty much hot. While coming out of the bathroom in the Flamingo we bumped into the owner of the Bunny Ranch and from the show CatHouse on HBO so we got a picture with him. Mike eventually met up with us and we had a cocktail and decided to hit the bowling alley. We only bowled 3 games and we were outta there.

I didn't really get to play to much after that first session. I was just sitting around and had the Cardrunners chat room open and a member named Eric asked for help once he got into the money of the $3 rebuy, which many of you know I love playing ha! Well I started talking him through the tournament when there was 297 people and about 4 hours later he had taken 1st for I believe $4k. Noone wanted to chop when it was 3 handed cause one dude had won a circuit even so it beneath him to chop in it but whatever. This type of shit I believe really helps me and I think thats kind of why I started this blog just to interact on different levels with other players. He said early on if he'd win he'd pay for a Cardrunners membership so that was pretty cool and I appreciate it. It seems when I'm watching on the outside I see more of the table and I can make some good decisions. I find myself saying for where when I'm playing myself I'm either rushing or hoping to pick up some chips and do something dump with 88 on a jack high board. Anyways....thats bout it it's 2pm. Think i'll watch some ESPN for a little bit and get caught up on whats going on and put in some good sessions since I'm not doing anything today.

Early Morning

I woke up around noon somehow. That equals about 8 hours a sleep. Think I was anxious to start playing and trying to accomplish something. I've played about an hour so far. This is about the only hand that had any significance.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?478060

I figured this is a pretty standard line. I was pretty new to the table but I noticed the one player was limping in quite a bit. I was intending to c/r to see where I was at which didn't really come together for me. On the turn the minraise really didn't tell me much. I figured it was just someone trying to accomplish something. I couldn't quite figure out what the minraise from the preflop raiser was all about. The coldcall definately made me aware that he was drawing, although I wasn't sure what it was too. I opted to push as there was plenty of money in the pot for me. I realized if I push the odds aren't there to call unless he puts me squarely on one pair of 8's which I had!?! I was ahead and thankfully my flush draw was live too. This didn't come out right in the end, but I believe I made the correct play.

Gonna make something for lunch and continue playing.

Go Packers!

Well, 3AM debating whether to play another little session before I go to bed or not. Umm...Sunday night Ace, Mike, and I went to meet up with JP and his wife as they were in for the weekend and we didn't have the chance to meet up before then. The 5 of us hung out in some bar in New York New York and listened to some cover band that played a little bit of everything. After that we went and tried to get a HORSE game going at MGM and played 2/4 until they decided to ultimately tell us they weren't going to spread it. Somehow I ended up approximately $150 and a 6pack of Heineken. We thought we wanted to continue playing some we went to the Excalibur for all of 4 minutes until we realized we were all pretty much done with limit hold'em for the night. We left after I lost to quad 2's.

Today I woke up and played a little bit and then realized I wanted to get outta the house for awhile. Ace and I went to the Venetian and I placed a small wager on the Packers because I'm pretty much the definition of a "homer". I just wanted to actually see a game since I haven't really focused on watching a whole game yet this year. Well we gave up on the whole idea after the poor showing by the Packers in the first quarter. We walked through the mall for a bit before we decided to head back home.

I did play awhile after I got home. I played for about 2 hours 2-3 tabling. Honestly since I started playing again I only have about 1,100 hands in and there's really nothing I would really post for my sake or anyone elses. I'm down like $60....I did try running a bluff that was going pretty well...guess i'll post this...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?477273

Villain(opponent) was in and out of pots. My image was pretty good at this table. I wasn't really getting anything in or out of position to play. Standard Cbet on flop. He seemed to hesitate to call, I put him squarely on the flush draw. My read was backed up further after the turn action as I believe if he had an actual hand he was being aggressive from what I could tell from watching previous hands. After the river was a nonheart I knew I had to bet when checked to to scoop the pot. For about 15 seconds I thought I had actually carried out a play and it worked.

I think these are spots I need to work on. I suppose I could have just given up after being called on the flop. I think from the actions I had a very good idea that he was on the flush draw. I think I may not even have to be doing this at 1/2NL, but I tend to get myself into situations. I basically had this one losing play, and chipped up on other tables to basically break even. I think I'm going to try to keep my sessions max. 1.5 hours as I tended to start wandering off and either not playing hands strongly all the way through or tossing in some play out of nowhere. Think I'm just used to playing longer, 4 tabling sessions at full ring where i'd setmine for 6 hours and just feel like a robot.

Guess I'll try to put in a little session here before I go to sleep or take a nap whatever it turns out to be. Hopefully I can get in at least 1k hands tomarow as I need to get my points to retain gold status at Stars.

PIECE OUT

Nothin I can do!

I watched Tiger win the golf tournament. Definately a good watch seeing as it went to 5 playoff holes. Definately think he could have closed it out earlier, but it seemed he forgot how to putt on 17 and 18.

Played a little session after........got 370 hands in so far today was going good then I encountered this hand. http://www.pokerhand.org/?475014

Really had no read on the guy as I believe he was only there for the 3 previous hands. This also means he really has no idea what I'm doing. I'm always leery of the minreraise, but I also believe more then half the time its just two live cards they're hoping. I'm not sure I can get away after the checks on both the flop and turn. I think he thought I was taking a stab and I just saw it as a desperate attempt to scoop the pot.

New Beginning

Its Sunday 2PM and I just got done playing a little session. I'm trying to ease back into it slowly. I tried numerous times this morning to qualify for the $530 Million tournament on Stars. I had no such luck and decided not to enter. I feel kinda bleh about it because I believe between FPP and cash satellites I probably dumped to much while trying to get a seat.

The last few days have been pretty crazy. My apartment was somehow invaded by a troop of flies. Thursday night I found a bunch up on my apartment light and quickly used the vacuum hose to get'em all sucked up. I was pretty on edge about it because I didn't understand where they came from. The next night Ace, Mike and I went to eat a seafood buffet at the Gold Coast and when I got back I was sitting on the computer and saw a fly go past the screen. I went into the kitchen and the whole slew of them were back again. I have no idea if it was the 2nd group or if they flew out of the vacuum but I went nuts. Mike ran me up to Walmart and helped me hang fly strips up in the kitchen. The strips are still currently hanging and I haven't seen a fly for 2 days. Between all the fly paper and the can of RAID I sprayed within the inside and outside of my apartment I'd be surprised to see any insect trying to get into my living quarters. I've still been kind of sittin here just waitin and watching. I just feel that if they keep coming something needs to be done by management, perhaps cleaning deadbodies outta surrounding units. It's not my apartment as I like to keep my space pretty clean at all times.

I'm going to make something up for lunch and watch Tiger win a golf tournament and then continue to play a few more sessions. I'll make sure to post something if I have any interesting hands in the upcoming hours.

Introduction

Well....As most of you know my name is Zach and I am 22 years of age. I have been living in Las Vegas since Feb. '06 and before that I lived in a small town in WI. I created this blog to keep track of what I've been doing both pokerwise and in life since I often get asked and it's hard for me to come up with anything. I figured if I took some time to write out some stuff throughout the day or whatever everyone would get more of a sense of what I do and how I operate. For everyone more on the pokerside I'll be trying to post hand histories to get some feedback and moreso just so I can continue to look at things.

A little of my background.....not sure where to start. I began casually playing poker probably around the summer of 2004 after seeing Moneymaker win. During this time I was sitting around back in WI without anything to do as I was in a car accident that had me laid up from about January 04 to about Sept. 04. I went to the internet and was just dumping a $100 here and there into PokerStars fooling around in mostly tournaments after receiving a settlement from the car accident. I think I started playing a little more serious in Dec. '04-Jan. '05. I started playing full ring low limit ring games after finding www.bonuswhores.com. I was pretty much a breakeven player mainly scooping up every bonus on every site possible which definately helped me. While I was doing this I was holding down a full-time 3rd shift job at American Orthodontics back home making braces for teeth for the most part. This job was a grind, especially being 3rd shift. It just totally screwed up everything, but I needed to be working at this time. In April or May of '05 I went to Vegas and met a bunch of the guys from bonuswhores. During my week there I learned of online casinos and my world got turned upside down. After this poker took a backseat pretty much until now. I'd dabble here and there in MTT's (Multi Table Tournaments), but wasn't playing for anything other then entertainment. The online casinos and there bonuses changed everything. In June of '05 I quit my job and took the first plane out of WI to Vegas and spent a week or so out there partying and playing and doing whatever. I came home from there with the plan of multi-tabling 2/4+ as a "job". This was put on the backburner after having a day playing video poker online where I had deposited a total of $2400 and cashed out approximately....$24,000. Ever since then....who knows. I decided to move out to Vegas because there really wasn't anything going on back home and I figured I was playing poker and gambling for a living might as well be in the mecca of all of it. One guy from bonuswhores was already out here and 2 others and myself decided to come out. Within the last week or so I decided to start taking poker seriously again concentrating both on NL cash games and MTT's. I've always faired well in MTT's I just never really focused on doing well consistently like the top players on the internet. Hopefully thats all about to change. I feel like I had an epiphany, the online casinos are pretty much done for me and I'm ready to move on. I think in the beginning of all of that I was using it as a quick way to either go broke and get a job or build a bankroll. Hopefully throughout this blog I'll be able to show progress in my poker ability.

I guess I should also give some background on my life. Well, the title of my blog probably seems a little crazy, but I was born with Spina Bifida and a clubbed foot and on my most recent visit home during the 4th of July while helping my mom move she had found these two little t-shirts from when I was born and one of them had "SpinaBifida Won't Stop Me." I assume this was put on me while I was in the hospital and what not. I guess I kind of thought about that and just realized that I've been through and came out of a lot of shit whether it be issues at birth or dumb shit I've gotten myself into like car accidents and being set on fire so I might as well enjoy myself while I'm young. A lot of people didn't understand why I quit work and just started doing what I'm doing now and to be honest I don't either. I was in college and in the 2nd year I stopped because I was sitting in some Engineering Calc and Physics classes not giving a dam about what was going on. I'd either go home and play poker or go play golf, so I realized I might as well quit wasting my time waking up and going and just stop completely until I realize what I really want to do. I figure I'd rather be doing something I want to be doing then be miserable without even knowing what will happen in the future. All of my friends would probably be quick to say that I'm a very laid back and easy going guy. I'm always up for anything no matter when or where. I don't like any amount of drama at all and am usually quick to either get myself out of the situation or completely tune it out. I like to think that I have a pretty good sense of humor and often try to do just about anything to lighten the mood for everyone.

I believe I'm finished writing this auto-biography. I almost feel wierd doing it, but my intent is to hopefully just get shit I'm thinking about outta my head and hopefully it'll allow me to focus on my poker. I believe I'll add some other blogs that I check up on as far as poker and what not and a few links. If you have any questions at all.....feel free to leave a comment or AIM=zeman216.