Doc

Doc is a Rheumatoid specialist in Cranston. He's a conservative poker player, only playing good starting hands, but ultimately lacking in any imagination or creativity. He's unable to play by feel, and when he likes his hand, it's really easy to tell what he has. He learned to play mostly by reading books. This makes him the ideal opponent for a pro. For Doc, poker is a little like prescribing medicine - when a patient has certain symptoms, he prescribes the same medicine every time. When he has a certain hand in poker, he makes the same play every time. To him it's a science, not an art. This makes him a huge target. In order for me to get him to do what I want, I just have to act a little. If I want him to think I have a big hand, I just do what he thinks someone with a big hand does. And then he folds. When I want him to think I'm weak, I act weak - and he stays in.

My problem is that cards keep getting in the way of me busting him. I've had him right where I've wanted him 6 or 7 times. He's right about to dump his whole chip stack to me and then BAM! One card destroys a beautiful plan.

On Friday I had him directly me to my right. I raised with A9 of spades, and when the action came to me he called. The flop was K99, giving me three 9s. He checked and I bet the size of the pot. He called, obviously with a King, thinking that I would not have made a big bet with three 9's. He paid another $150 on the next round of betting, and had about $300 left, which he was fully prepared to give me. The last card was a King, the only card in the deck that beat me. I knew this gave him a bigger full house than I had. He bet his whole stack, and I had to fold. He smiled at me, like he had caught me in a bluff. I resisted the urge to tell him how lucky he got. I stopped myself from telling him that if he kept coming to the game every week that he would lose thousands of dollars to me, and that I would take Amber to Disneyworld on his dime. No, no that's not the right thing thing to do. Instead, I tapped my hand on the table and said, "great hand, Doc. You caught me again."

Maybe today...

I'm in the middle of a deep run at a large tournament at the Mohegan Sun. With 74 people left out of an original 745, I have double the chip average, probably good for a top 15 stack.

The top prize in the tournament is $60,000+, but it is likely that a deal will be struck at the final table to divide the money more equally. I am guessing that the final ten will each get around $15,000. Deals like this are allowed, but it only takes one player to object. In this type of payout, however, it is very likely. $15,000 is roughly 4th place money, and 10th is only $3,000. Most players will take the guarantee of a good payout instead of playing for 1st. Hopefully I'll be there to make a choice.

No matter what happens today, I had a blast yesterday. I really can't think of a major mistake that I made all day. There are a few hands that I would have played a little differently, but overall when I put alot of chips in, I was a favorite. That's really all you can do in a tournament. I am loaded with confidence. If I don't make mistakes, and pick up a few hands, I'll be there when it counts.

As I mentioned before, I've been twittering updates, and will again today. You can find me at Bmaggiacomo.

Looking for any positive energy you can spare!

Update

It's been about a month since my last blog. I'm really tired and I don't feel like writing much tonight, so I'm going to just do some bullet point updates that don't require me thinking.

1. Vegas was great. I won a few thousand, and finished 8th in a tournament where the first prize was 14 thousand. Call it a near miss.
2. I didn't try to qualify for the World Series when I was out there. For five hundred dollars, there just wasn't enough value. There were so many other good games and tournament around the World Series that I decided there were better places for my time and money. There's always next year.
3. I've won 2 tournaments since I've been back, both small buyins but paying over a thousand. I'm super confident in my tournament game.
4. My cash game results have settled in at $35/hr., lower than the first month, but still 40 percent higher than I expected at this point. I'm playing about 30 hours a week, so I'm making enough to get by. The plan is to continue to grind the cash games and to find good tournaments to take shots at five figure scores. I'll definitely break through soon.
5. I'm starting to play online again, with good results. I want to build my bankroll there slowly as opposed to depositing alot of cash. It will be awhile before I am playing stakes online for as much as I play live, but if I play 10 hours a week or so, I should have built up a few thousand by the end of the summer. Then I can start playing bigger.
6. I am devoting some time to practicing other poker games, notably Omaha. It's keeping me interested on days where I don't feel patient enough to play good Hold'em.
7. I'm not sick of poker at all. I still wake up excited to play.
8. There is an unspoken agreement between the pros that play at Foxwoods. We don't play hard at each other - instead we go after the fish. I am realizing that selecting the right game is unbelievably important, and that it is important to get up when you feel that you don't have a very big edge because the competition is tough. That's a very difficult thing for a competitive person to grasp, but humility is a huge part of being a winning player.
9. I'm playing in a large tournament on Wednesday. There will be at least five hundred players, so my chances of winning are slim but...$50,000 to the winner...trying to put myself in position for my break. What is it that they say, "luck is when preparation meets opportunity..." something like that.
10. Several people have told me that I should Twitter my poker results. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with it, but I'll try. My twitter is Bmaggiacomo, or Brian Maggiacomo. I'm not sure how to find me but I'm on there under one of those names. I'll start tommorrow, with the tournament on Wednesday. I'm just going to do Poker stuff.

I hope to have a specific, one topic blog out soon.

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer as much as I am!

Vegas Bound

Tommorrow I fly to Las Vegas for 3 days. The plan is to take a few shots at tournaments with high payouts...as a result, it's unlikely that the trip will be profitable. However, it has the potential for a "big score."

I plan to play in tournaments on Monday and Tuesday at the Venetian and Caesar's palace, and also at least one satellite tournament to try to get entry into the Main Event at the World Series of Poker (the one you see on ESPN.) Just being in Las Vegas during the World Series will be a thrill.

I've got the tournament bug. Recently, I won one with 83 entries, and also have a 4th and 3rd place finish with large fields. I've been running well and playing well too. I'm loaded with confidence heading into the trip...

I'll give a full trip report when I get back. Wish me luck!!

World Series of Poker

I'm thinking of selling "shares" of my action in a possible World Series of Poker entry. People would give me a portion of the $10,000 buy in, and in return, get a proportionate percentage of any potential winnings. It may be fun to follow my progress, as I will be able to twitter live updates throughout the tournament. Shareholders may also earn a ton of money! I will have a huge advantage over the field. It is primarily made up of amateurs with cash to throw around, or online players who got lucky in a satellite and have little to no live tournament experience.

Even with that advantage, only 10% of the entrants make any money. I estimate my chances of cashing at 20-25%. There is a lot of luck involved in tournament poker. One unlucky break can send you home.

This idea is in it's infancy. Please email me if you are interested at bmaggiacomo@vzw.blackberry.net.

Also, please feel no pressure. There is no minimum, and this is not a charity. Think of it as a lottery ticket where the odds are with you instead of against you. I don't need to play - there's always next year, when I should be able to buy my way in, or at the very least win my way in through some 1k satellites.

Off to start another grinding week!!

Grinding on and on

It's been a good week back at the smaller game...up about 975 through 3 days. I've been playing well, and the cards still aren't running great - I guess that's the difference between the small and mid-stakes games for me right now. I can grind out a few hundred at the 1-2 table even when the cards aren't cooperating, but at the bigger game, I only break even without help from the cards. Breaking even when you're not running well is fine...I just want to book a few solid weeks of wins so that if I'm still breaking even when I go back to the bigger game, I can handle it emotionally. Hopefully, I'll run better. There are definitely some 4-5k weeks waiting for me.

Today I finished 5th out of 94 in a hundred dollar buyin tournament. It was nice to mix it up a little, and see how my improved play translated into a live tournament setting. I felt in complete control of the action the entire day. I think that over the next few weeks I will play a few more tournaments to keep sharp and to keep things interesting.

I've been writing a lot in a journal about Suzy and stuff. I may post that stuff in a blog, too, and maybe someday in a book...I've been told that my stories and thoughts about her help the people who miss her. It's definitely therapeutic for me - I'm just not sure about having 2 blogs at once...it seems a little self-important.

Either way I'll continue to update this blog. Right now I'm definitely just grinding...no TV appearances, celebrity run-ins, etc., so there's not a huge amount of interesting stuff for me to write about - I'm just a card player trying to make some money, and it's not very glamorous, but I love it.