Bottle service at The Bank was ridiculous. #Ballin! Giannetti had a couple of tables for some of his friends and family that're in town to support him tomorrow (and hopefully tuesday!) at the WSOP ME final table. He told me that he is just antsy to actually get to playing poker instead of all the business/promotional stuff that is associated with being in the Nov 9. He didn't drink and is feeling really focused. Hell of a way to start off the trip, I can't wait for tomorrow when it all get's started!
I am just so happy for him, he's always been a super sicko at poker and has always been super motivated to grind real hard. He's been a successful live pro for a couple years now, but was pretty unknown outside of live cash game circles. He has had a couple of deep runs in some live events and online events pre-BF, but never made a prestigious final table or took down a sunday major. After making the Nov 9 and taking down WPT Malta, he's certainly becoming a more well known name in the poker world. Obviously winning a tournament doesn't mean that you're a poker badass, but if you happen to be one, it doesn't hurt. Stoked for tomorrow's FT!
Struggling for something to fill that void in your life post black friday? Ever wonder what I'd be like if I wasn't droning on endlessly about ranges, developing reads and taking notes?! Missing that empty feeling of drinking with strangers on the internet? Do you miss talking almost about poker and getting sidetracked? Then our* new** podcast maybe for you! Check out the most recent episode of Badugi All-Stars where yours truly is a guest host with NixontheGrouch and we have delcrossb on as guest. http://badugi.nixonthegrouch.com/?p=home
Also check out episode 10 where I was guest and we actually have some relevant content about poker coaching. /shamelessplug
In other news... the HPT is back in town, but unfortunately I can't play as I will be at another event. An event that is better than Christmas, the Super Bowl, and the Kentucky Derby all rolled into one: The Great American Beer Festival! Held annually in Denver, it's a gathering of all the great breweries from across our great nation. Yes, the Coors's and Bud's will be there, but as will the Avery's, the Dogfishhead's, the Russian River's will be there and will outnumber the big guys by a TON. The picture below shows about a quarter of the festival:
I am also proud to say that I've been back in the gym lately (will need to hit it hard after all the drinking on Saturday), and I honestly feel amazing because of it. If you are a slacker like I usually am or are lazy or don't go to the gym because you don't know what to do when you get there check out my boy Nate Green. His book "Built for Show" which has been pimped on this blog before is awesome, and a great place to start. I am moving on up to the Hero Workout. Working out regularly does amazing things for your poker game! If you're interested in any of his stuff check out http://www.thenategreenexperience.com/ Guy is awesome at life. /anotherplug
As for some actual poker related content... I have been playing live some and still have some money on Merge, but with the uncertainty about the DOJ situation it is kind of underwhelming to play on there... But this season on DC has been sa-weeeeet! terp, Ansky, chipchucker, WoT, Gman with some upcoming HU material, are you kidding me? Excellent stuff.
As for a sign off here's a track from the Tron: Legacy R3CONFIGUR3D album that I've really been digging:
*OK, not exactly "our".
** OK, not exactly "new".
P.S.! Congrats to my boy Matt Giannetti for taking down WPT Malta this past weekend! Such a sick and well deserved run for him. I hope he didn't use his "one time" on this!
Admittedly I'm a little behind on this, but I haven't blogged in a while so I figured that I should probably do that. One of my long time poker buddies and IRL friend, Matt Giannetti has made the November Nine! For those of you unfamiliar with him (3rd from the left in the white UT hat), he was known on stars as hazards21 back in the good old days and played the highest games available tangling with the legendary H@££INGGOL, tsarrast, B Buddy, thorladen, and all of the other top stars pros circa '06-'07. Shortly thereafter he moved to Vegas and began to primarily play live so he fell off of the online radar for a while, but would occasionally play some sundays and had some pretty deep runs in those as well.
He's always been a very very talented player, much better than myself. He has some real natural talent and even despite the variance of MTT's like this I think that he has a very good shot to go far and even to take down the whole thing! I'm going to be out there in November to see him hopefully take it down in person.
If you're looking for someone to cheer on when the time comes I know that he'd appreciate the support. Wicked chops seems to like his odds at least!
Also please please please check out my new mini-series Heads Upside Down. I'd love feedback, questions, and also new video submissions! Best of luck all!
In case you guys haven't checked out the sweet sweet news.... I am
finally a DC coach! This is a really proud moment for me, I've made this my
goal for over the past year and a half to get good enough, articulate well
enough, get active enough, and get on board with the best poker community on
the interwebz..... Deucescracked obv. Tough to really describe what this means
to me even in spite of Black Friday, I'm really glad to be giving back in some
official capacity to the community that helped me get to where I am today!
So a big thanks in particular to WiltonTilt, jk3a, balugawhale, chuck and Joe! I've got a new miniseries out and am always looking for some constructive feedback and suggestionsas to where to take it! I am also always looking for user submitted videos to review, so if you play 100nl or lower 6m or HU, feel free to drop me a video to review. Your chance to be part of a DC video! Depending on how many of these I get, I may not be able to use them all, but it can't hurt to send one! Additionally, if you have a hand history that you posted ot the forum and aren't getting a lot of love on the responses, shoot me a PM and i'll see if I can add some input to the discussion when I get a chance. I'm going to go tip back a fine scotch to celebrate!
In other news... Got my FTP rakeback from the week before Black Friday this morning. Which I hope is a sign of things going in the right direction as far as return of player money eventually. In the meantime, it's spring and getting close to summer which means a lot of things, but mostly it means warm weather and good times ahead! I recently moved near a very popular large park in Denver and there will be many weekends ahead filled with grilling, drinking, playing games in the gorgeous weather. I have already brought out some of the big guns in the grill at our house including some grilled BBQ Chicken, Steaks, Homemade Burgers, and even some grilled bacon wrapped brussel sprouts (HAAAAATED those nasty little things as a kid, but wrap 'em in bacon and grill them to deliciousness)! We also have a sweet park game called Kan Jam that's great for hanging out (we play that you must have a beverage in one hand at all times).
I hope that the rest of you are maintaining and that things are well, try to be as happy as this kid:
Life has been kinda crazy the past couple days. I've basically been glued to any kind of news that's been available. In summation follow @Kevmath on twitter, listen to #hey_smile, read WoT's blog post: http://plusevpoker.com/blog/?p=452, drink heavily, and let the dust settle. It's stressful looking for answers with nothing coming out.
I am not sure what the plan will be until the dust settles.
Pretty sure that poker is a lot like driving. Any rando that drives faster than you is a maniac and anyone that drives slower than you is an idiot. Any rando that's looser and more aggressive than you is a maniac, anyone tighter than you is a nit.
After 9.5 hours of play sometime after 2:30am we were done for the day and I still have chips and my mini T-rex!
The field is about the same caliber as the satellite that I played. I had UB pro Bryan Devonshire at my table to start, but he ended up busting fairly early on. To his credit he made a decent number of superuser jokes and assured all the live players that new UB was in no way connected to anyone involved. I didn't feel like mentioning the AP rigged Keno stuff... He and maybe only 2 other guys that I played with throughout the day had any clue what they were doing. There were so many head explosion moments, far too many to recount... In all seriousness I don't think that I got 3bet once all day other than maybe a shortstack reshoving. The guys immediately to my left (seat6) and 2 to my left (seat 7) got an ungodly number of hands and didn't 3bet any of them. Seat 7 literally flatted AA, KK, or QQ 7 times and flopped top set on 6 of them and busted Devonshire with KK>QQ on a low flop after calling a 3bet oop. Seat draw was obv rigged. For me I managed to double up fairly early on a 3way all in. I raised 88 from MP and got called by both blinds. JT8 and after a SB lead, BB all-in, I jammed and SB called too. I managed to bink the 8 on the turn to leave them drawing dead with KJ and QQ. Awesome. QQ>99. Blinds quickly went up and with the 2 cardracks to my left, my stack was soon dwindling. I got a pretty key double against seat 6 who was chipleader by a significant margin at this point when my A8 managed to outflop his AQ for like 7bb. He obviously found this unbelievable despite getting premiums every third hand for the previous 5 hours. From there I was able to eliminate some short stacks, steal some blinds, and work my stack up to where I was able to win my largest pot of the night. Vs a younger guy that was one of the 3 that seemed to know what he was doing, I had probably ~115k in chips and he covered at 4k/8k/1k he opened UTG to 18k, a shortstack jammed in behind after some thought for like 12k. I looked down at AA and feign some disgust/deliberation and toss out 2 black 10k chips to call, it folds the rest of the way around. While the dealer is counting out the chips for the side pot, he neglects to give me my 2k change back. I decided that if I visibly made kind of a big deal about getting my 2k change it would make my hand look weaker than it was since I was trying to save every last chip, some confusion ensued and I eventually got my chips. Flop QT7 UTG leads 16k into a now ~70k pot. I flat, turn 7. He thinks and then checks. With the pot over 100k I was unsure what was best, jamming seemed bad, checking back seemed decent in order to let him hit a K, maybe value bet a Tx, JJ, or Qx hand that he was pot controlling with. So I decided to bet small I think like 24600 or something like that. He's calling or crai any Qx or better, the 7 helped me counterfeit some of his outs if he had a Tx or Qx hand but I mena giving up a 2-4 outter kinda sucks too. He snap folded though. Curious about your guys' thoughts on that.
So with now a pretty sizable stack I was feeling comfortable and was looking to really chip up as the last level of the night was ticking down. This however didn't work so well with seat 7 constantly slowplaying his big pairs and flopping top set every time on me (though willing to totally check it down) He did get maybe 25k or so out of me that I probably should've just folded to on Q95 when he lead out with his top set of QQ vs my Q6 BTN vs SB. But the blinds and a few steal attempts gone awry I ended with 92.5k. I feel like I played pretty well considering the cards I got and was lucky to be in at all.
Starting day 2 tomorrow morning, there will be about 80-90 people left our of ~500 and top 50 get paid. First should be around $200k-225k and 50th will probably be in the $3-4k range.
Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some chips early, manage to get a decent stack rolling into the bubble and then exploit the hell out of these n00bs. The final 6 will be televised so I'll be sure to post something on DC or to my twitter @2fouroffsuit if I make that.
8
from MP and got called by both blinds. J
T
8