balugabay.com

So first today, while half the field got byes, I drew this guy who’s online name is xMonsterxDongx, which is pretty hilarious.  As an aside, you’d think that once this guy became pretty well known, he’d change his name, but no, I asked him, and he’ll be MonsterDong for the long haul.  Either way, MonsterDong played in the 100k event, final tabled both that and the opening day 1k event, and so appeared to have a decent rep.  Oh yeah, he also was wearing a Hornets jersey (a day after Chris Paul beat my blazers at the buzzer), so I pretty much had to win.

And win I did.  The format was a best-of-3 series.  Game 1, I limped Q4 suited in spades on the button, and he checked.  Flop was JT2 all spades, he c/c.  Turn was a 9 offsuit.  He checked, I bet 650, he check-raised to 1300, I jammed, and he snap called with 92 offsuit no spade.  I’ll refrain from commenting on his play, other than that I think it’s pretty bad.

Round 2 i got it in with AK against TT and won a flip.  nothing interesting there.

Round 2 I played against some no-name that I instantly underrated, and he ended up taking me down to the ropes.  Round 1 was a grind, which he won eventually.  Round 2 I won on the 3rd hand when I turned trip 3’s against his top-pair top-kicker.  Round 3 I was down really low, and then this happened:  he limps for the first time all game, so I raise Q6o expecting him to fold every time.  He calls.  Flop is KQ9 rainbow, I bet, and he calls.  Turn is a 6, I jam, he instantly calls with JT for the straight, and I spike a Q for the boat and the win.  whew, that was close.  Mike mcwhirter, you are not bad at poker.

Round 3 I get the unfortunate pleasure of playing against my good friend Dani “Ansky” Stern.  Round 1 I am hit in the face with the deck and can’t miss any flops, and it goes fast.  Round 2 takes literally forever.  The blinds are huge, we both have no more than 25 big blinds ever, and I shove J7o over his minraise only to be snapped by QQ.  Too bad the flop is 984, turn T, river 8, and I take the win 2 games to 0.

Tomorrow we play televised.  Me, Vanessa, Brian/Flawless, and LuckyChewy are all in the final 8, so it should make for some good tv.  will let you all know what the deal is.

Oh, and 8th place books an 8.5k win, so even if I lose, I pretty much secure a +40k trip.  hooray.

gl all,

Andrew

First, Vanessa, Dani, and I got hooked up with tickets from the Crown Casino to go to the Australian Open.  They were special gold passes, which, it turns out, got us almost nothing special.  But they still looked cool.  Our seats, on the other hand, were absurdly close to the acfion (about 7 rows up and directly behind the court, which is ideal in tennis).  We saw Roddick vs Lopez first, and this is where the propbetting began.  First, I lost a ton of money betting on random things with Vanessa.  However, I made it all back and then some by betting against both Dani and Vanessa on the over/under on grunts per point.  I kept taking the under at 2.5 grunts.  Lopez serves (1 grunt), roddick returns (no grunt), lopez hits a winner (1 grunt + 1 grunt = 2 grunts, I win).  +720 from propbetting at the tennis match.  We then watched some of Del Potro vs Mayer, but del potro was crushing and it was boring so we left.

Later that night I played some 10/20 deep at the same table with Vanessa.  We decide it will be our last hand (cause we were meeting up with DC people for bowling and lazertag, super sick).  I raise ATo in mid position, she calls on the button, another guy calls in the blinds.  Flop is A56 with two hearts. I bet, V calls, other guy folds.  Turn is an offsuit 3.  I bet again, she calls.  River is a 4, putting a 4straight out there.  I check, vanessa insta-jams, and, confused, i mumble something about how she bluffs all the time and stuff but that i have to lay it down blah blah blah and so I fold, and she says, “do you want to see it?” at which point I obv say yes, and she shows me the Q3hh.  A really sick hand that is prob well played all around, if you ignore Vanessa’s preflop crazy.
Dani’s playing in the 100k event right now, so GL to him.

Peace yo!

So tonight, after spending a day at the zoo, we got a little degenerate.

First I won an 8-1 bet with emil on 100 dollars that Krantz would show up after me, emil, chris, and others to dinner.  As we’re walking to dinner, we get a text from joe Tall saying “Where is everybody”.  I was sure I was screwed.  then, we see Jay talking with Joe upon arrival.  +800.

Then, I dodge yet another credit card roulette, still +800 after a meal with a 1800 tab.  There were 16 of us or something though, so no biggie right?  still +800

After, we decide to try the high-stakes Mahogany Room to degen with some high stakes blackjack and stuff, and because the Crown Casino in Melbourne can be absurdly retarded, they say that they cannot accommodate our group in the Mahogany room because some of us didnt have cards and because there weren’t enough tables.  As I said earlier tonight, they could’ve given 4 guys 1k each to carry a table upstairs and it would’ve been a profitable venture.  So, fed up, we wandered downstairs to the main casino where we found a table with a $30 min and a $1200 max, classic blackjack rules.  I proceed to lose pretty much 1550 straight.  -$750.

I’m playing with a certain world champion who decides to start going max bets.  1200/bet.  A rail develops of probably 30 people peering in to watch.  This certain world champion started down 10k, ran herself up to nearly even, then busto!  either way, about the most degenerate thing I’ve seen was her having three hands of max bet, splitting one of them and doubling down the other.  6k on the table, pretty legit. maybe im not that baller if thats the most degen thing ive seen so far, but it was pretty sick.

So basically I’m still up something like $50k aussie on the trip, and looking forward to both *hopefully* seeing federer play tomorrow, to play in the aussie millions main event on Sunday, and to actually get some beach time somewhere in here.

good luck all

Andrew

1) Just finished playing in a 25/50/100 NL game where I was sitting about 27k deep.  I ended up +40k or so on the session.  Very, very happy about that.  Also +700 betting on black or red flops, haha.
2) Tomorrow I’ll be playing in the Bounties Tournament.  I have a free entry (more or less) as a rep for DeucesCracked.  It should be fun.  I’m lookin to win it.
3) Last night I sang Marvin Gaye at karaoke with Chuck.  Let’s get it on.

4) I have a piece of Flawless Victory’s shirt that tore off in my hand when we played pickup tackle football.  He signed it.  Maybe I’ll sell it on Ebay.

5) We saw Andy Roddick play tennis.  He serves really hard.  The proposed prop bet was this:  how many straight poker players would it take to beat Andy Roddick?  He can’t rest.  Once he beats one of us, its on to the next.  No sleep, no food.  Water is allowed.  How long could he go?  Some guesses included 2 days, 3 days,e tc.  I think at least 2.5 days.

6)  Walked around Melbourne today with Rob (entity), Kate (his wife), Brian (flawless) and Cassie (his girlfriend).  We got dim sum (fantastic), then went to the queen victoria markets where I got a SICK throwback LSU Shaq jersey.  So psyched.  I also got an aussie headband i wore the whole time i was crushing tonight.
some hands from tonight:

I raise AKo UTG, reg-ish guy 3-bets me UTG+1 (this is full ring), folds to Vanessa in the BB who 4bets, I muck, other guy mucks, she shows Q5o.  100bb deep (if you count the straddle).  What a sicko.

A guy raises, I flat OTB with KQhh, Clark (Snake8484) 3bets, I flat, flop is KKT 2 spades.  He checks, I check.  Turn is a blank, he checks, I bet 2k, he calls.  Riv is a blank, he checks, I bet 6k, he calls and mucks.

Last big hand, I raise AA in MP, get a caller, Clark 3bets, I 4bet, he ships the remaining 15k in with KK, and I hold.
Hope you all are running as well as I am,

Andrew

So despite Jay, Rob, Joe Tall and I busting out of the opening tourney on Day 1 (Chuck, Vanessa, Josh, and Wilt still in it), we had another chance to rebuy into it today (saturday).  We decided to play basketball instead.  Turns out that Flawless is basically the steve nash of poor quality poker player pick up basketball.  you just can’t give him the midrange jumper.  Vanessa was also kind of like kobe in that she jammed her finger but then drained some jumpers, but also like kobe in that her team lost to Rob (our team’s Jeff Pendergraph) and my team (the blazers, if you will).

Tonight I played some poker and continued to simply crush it at the tables.  +7k, putting me up like 12k on the trip.  Word.  Some hands:

Five limpers, I limp in the CO with 52cc, BTN (a decent reg) raises large, one guy calls and then I call cause we’re deep.  The flop is Q86 w/ 2 spades.  It checks through.  The turn is a 4 of spades, it checks to me and I pot it as a bluff, and the BTN calls me (other dude folds).  River is an offsuit 2, and I check-snapcall a bet of 450 or so on the river.  He said, you win, I said, what do you have, he said, Ten high, then I showed.

One hand I misplayed slightly:  Deepstacked, a guy opens to 145 at a 5/10 game when the straddle was OFF.  like, whatt, so obv I call in position with A4s.  A big fish calls in the blinds (fish had just won a decent sized pot off me when he flopped a flush with 59cc on an A84ccc board against my A8hh.)  Flop is 764, checks to the pFR who bets, I have a BDFD so I call, fish calls.  Turn is a K of spades giving me the FD, and it checks through.  River is an A, and the fish leads out for pot.  I get finnicky and flatcall, getting shown AQ.  Gotta be a raise I think.

Then, the real clincher hand, the nice guy from hand 1 and I are sitting about 450bb deep (he had stacked some guy with an underset when he 1-outed his quads).  He tells me its his last hand.  I’m on the button, he’s in the CO.  Five limpers, and I raise to 150 with J9s (the straddle was on).  He calls, and its HU.  Flop is Q86r.  He checks, I bet, and he checkraises to 650.  It was his last hand.  He’s obv got a set here.  So, I Call.  Pot is 1600 or so.  The turn is a 5, double gutting me (uh oh), and he bets 800.  At this point I’m saying to myself well, I’m already up 3k or so, so if I call this 800 and brick, Ill still book a +1500 session, but if I call and spike, I’ll book like a +7k session.  So I called, river was a T, and he c/c my shove with 66.  fun times.
looking forward to playing the best in the 5k HU challenge and also the main event.

Word up

Andrew

tourney 1 was a 1k buyin event that was pretty massive– first place was looking to take over 200k.  Seven of us DC guys played (myself, vanessa, joe tall, krantz, josh/sthief, wiltontilt, and danzasmack).  Unfortunately, Josh and I got pulled to the same table while everyone else split up to start (though Vanessa and Danza/Chuck both ended up on the same table).

I basically picked up no hands for the entire time.  The closest thing I had to an interesting hand was where a guy opened in MP, another guy called, I called on the button with JT, and the blind called.  The flop was Jd6d2c.  Blind checks, PFR checks, other guy bets small, and I decide this is a pretty good time to raise (squeeze everyone out, possibly get value from draws, possibly set up scenarios where you could make better hands fold).  Everyone else folds and the guy flats OOP, and the turn is an A.  This is pretty bad for me because I felt like two of his likely hands would be AJ and the NFD on the flop, so I check back.  He then leads out for 1/8 pot on a blank river, i weep silently and call and get shown AJ.

that put me pretty low, then I picked up A4dd on the button and the cutoff, a decent player raised, I shoved, he snapped with AK, and thats all she wrote.  I was the first DC player to be eliminated, a sad fact I realized while wandering around trying to find other DC guys to hang out with and finding them all owning their tables.  Except for Krantz, who joined me shortly after.  As of writing this, Josh, Danza, Vanessa, and Wilt, are all still in the mix.  A pretty good showing.  My money’s on Vanessa.  Here’s a pretty sick hand she played that I saw:

She raises (had been opening about every hand while I watched) and got calls in 3 places.  The flop was 965.  the blinds checked to her, she bet, the button called, and the small blind tried to call but accidentally dropped a couple larger chips in than intended, which the floor ruled as a raise.  A real-life misclick.  While she was arguing that she should be allowed to take her money back, Vanessa already realized that this other woman was done with the hand and quickly turned his attention towards the button (the other guy had folded).  Then, she moves in, the button folds, the other guy folds, and she shows T8o.  Pretty legit.

I was about to go home, but then some 5/10 deep w/ straddle opened up, so i played that, notched a +4k win, and now will be going to sleep for a few hours before I help lead the first Aussie Millions Academy seminar presented by DeucesCracked.com.  Hooray.

Hope all is well,

Andrew

PS:  i’ll also be doing the main event and the 5k HU challenge (64 player max)

And my $$$ made it too.  No dramas on the wire transfer, booya.

Let the DC domination begin

is this twitter or something jeez

What’s up guys,

Been a while since I offered a poker article to you guys, but I have a thought that’s been kickin around in my head so I thought I’d share it with you.  It’s probably most relevant in HU matches but is definitely still applicable in a 6m setting (possibly even full ring, but individual relationships are way more hard to develop when you’re playing with 8 others instead of 5 or 1).

If you’ve ever played HU, think about how tilting it is when your opponent is running hot.  You raise, he 3-bets, you 4-bet bluff, he shoves.  You fold.  You bet the flop, 2-barrel the turn, and then he bets the river.  You fold.  You thinly value bet the turn and he raises.  You fold.  Let’s be honest here, you’re still playing great.  But you’re kinda pissed off.  More so than if he had checked that river and won, more so than if he had just called that turn instead of raised.  In short, not seeing your opponents cards does two things– it keeps us from knowing how they play (this is common knowledge), but it also keeps us from satisfying one of our most instinctual, natural psychological necessities– knowing the intangible answer or conclusion to the hand.  Let me put it this way:  every good joke has a punchline.  If we hear a joke and then not the punchline, it frustrates us.  Every good story has an ending.  If you get left on a cliffhanger without a resolution, you get frustrated (and thusly tricked into watching LOST again the next week, but that show is so good that its okay).

The same thing happens over the course of a poker hand.

The simple idea is this– not allowing your opponent to see your cards does more than simply deprive them of valuable information they could use against you.  It is tilting.  There is a psychological edge in making your opponent muck that will manifest itself later in the match.

This means that when you have close choices (do I bet for thin-value or check?  do I make this bold, thin-bluff raise or not?  4-bet bluff or flat call?)  you should be inclined to take the more aggressive option. Even if its slightly wrong, it won’t be too wrong, and it does wonders for game flow.

Now i’ll try to think of a few examples that might elucidate:

in a HU match, you raise Q8 OTB and get a call from the blinds.  The flop is Q43 w/ a FD.  He checks, you bet, and he c/r.  You don’t really think he’s good enough to c/r a top pair hand here (maybe AQ, but he’d probably 3-bet).  So his range is either monster stuff (sets or slowplayed big stuff), but more likely draws or air.  You call.  The turn is a 9, and he fires again.  Let’s say that you know he probably only fires the turn with some kind of equity, and you think he probably c/f the river some percentage of the time when he misses.  Its a close call– raise or fold?  This is a spot where I would raise.  Call it capitalization of dead money, value, both, or whatever.  Either way, if he had the nut flush draw, or 56 for a straight draw, it is tilting to muck there.  That’s the basic idea.

Anyway, try it out, get aggressive, and check out the Aussie Millions Academy presented by DeucesCracked!

Andrew

Hey guys,

Currently cruisin up north from a sick week in NYC to Dartmouth to have a few days of fun before I hit Melbourne for the Aussie Millions.  In case you guys didn’t know, DeucesCracked is sending a group of us (Executive Producers+Founders+Flawless_Victory+me, lol no idea how I got included in that ridiculously elite group) to Melbourne (Melby, or Melly, as they might call it in Aussie) to throw back some Bundys, have some barbies, and some final tables.

But it’s not just all fun and games and bundys.  We’re also running the Aussie Millions Academy.  You can attend some pretty sick seminars I’m helping to design and teach for just about every game you might want to learn.  Plus, given all the action that will be running during the Aussie Millions, you can pretty much take the knowledge straight from the seminars to the tables.   There will be seminars running just about every day, you can check the schedule at the link above.  Not the Bundys link.

So basically, if you’re in Australia for the Aussie Millions, you should attend at least one of these seminars.
If you attended my 3-betting seminar last March, you should fly to the Aussie Millions and get some more of the good stuff.

If you aren’t going to be in Australia and haven’t attended a seminar before, get your act together!

Good Luck squad,
Andrew

URGENT DISCLAIMER:  THERE HAS BEEN AN IMPOSTOR TRYING TO PRETEND TO BE ME VIA BACK-CHANNELS ON 2P2, SKYPE, AND DC.  DO NOT TRUST INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM: 2P2 USER QOFCARDS, SKYPE USER ANDREWSEIDMANN, OR MSN USERS ANDREW.SEIDMAN@BALUGAPOKER.COM OR SUPPORT@TWOPLUSTWO.COM .  THESE ARE NOT RELATED TO ME IN ANY WAY.  PLEASE, IF YOU EVER HAVE ANY DOUBTS, PLEASE MESSAGE ME AT BALUGAWHALE ON 2P2, OR WRITE A COMMENT HERE IN THE BLOG.  THANK YOU.

Hey guys,

First:  yes, yes I know, I haven’t blogged in forever.  Yet, here I am, ready to bring it back.

To start with, lets wrap up 2009 in two ways– poker and non-poker.

Non-poker first:

I graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Middle Eastern Studies

Spent time in the Grand Caymans and Jamaica

Hit up the South of France (also crushed at the Casino Royale)

Went to Las Vegas... again

Surfed/Scuba'd/Partied in Australia

And lived and traveled in Argentina

So, all in all, it was a pretty awesome year.  I released a book about poker, for which I’ve received a lot of kind words from people who’ve enjoyed it.  I made several video series that received positive reviews.  I got a college degree.  I saw the world.  Not too shabby.

Pokerwise, the year was less than awesome.  After crushing pretty much end to end in 2008, I started off with a +75k month in January.  I had a dream of my million flash before my eyes.  Then, the bad news bears started.  I was playing mostly 25/50 deep for my first session in February, and lost 20k.  So, I stopped for a week or two, then my second session I did the same, and lost another 20k.  So I played twice in February at -40k.  Then, I did more-or-less the same in March, another -40k.  I kept playing less and less hands, generally at the highest stakes running for 6max games (though I did play some epic HU matches as well), and kept losing more and more.  I can remember peak moments throughout the year:  I got AQo in for 13k on a KJTr board against AQo and AQs 3-way, and saw the suited guy run down the flush.  I played RunItTrim HU 25/50 and got AA aipf against KK for 13k and lost, etc.  I never really got into any kind of winning rhythm.  To make matters worse, I had just paid off about 80k in college loans and still had another 50k to go.  College is expensive.  So, around October, I fully stopped playing, took most of my money offline , and decided to focus on living my life a little bit before I grind.  Once I get a place, stop traveling every two months, and settle into a routine, I will be back playing poker in force.  Until then, I’m just going to play it one step at a time.

I’ve received a lot of questions lately about whether or not I’m still a winning player.  I’m 100% confident that I am.  I also don’t believe that losing money at very high stakes to incredible players is something to feel ashamed about.   I have read the “well” posts of many players and listened to conversations in IRC and 2p2 and DC over the past few years, and many great players have gotten crushed for a long time.  Whether it was CTS 100k hand breakeven stretch, Skier or MagicNinja’s (this might be KingDan, but I think it’s magicninja) yearlong downswings, or Viffer’s repeated trips to busto in his youth, as always in life, what happens isn’t important– how we respond to what happens is what defines our character and our chance of success.

So, I’m going to be fine.

I opened a company, balugapoker.com, in the Spring of 2009, planning to offer cheaper coaching services like classes and seminars.  The idea remains a good one.  The infrastructure exists to make it worse.  I’m in talks w/ a web designer.  I have ideas, haha.  balugapoker.com is a caterpillar and it will become a butterfly once the pieces are in place.

Lastly, I will be headed with the DC crew of EPs + me and flawless (a group that I’m ridiculously honored to be a part of) to Australia for the Aussie Millions!  So I will be blogging about how I’m doing in tourneys and cash games there, as well as everything else I expect to beat my opposition in– basketball, roshambo, drinking (prob not haha), etc.  Word!

In 2010 I have a few more trips planned (to China in March, Sweden in June, Peru in September, and possibly Jordan at some point in there too).  Plus I’m planning on getting my first legitimate place (either in San Fran, Portland, Seattle, NYC, or Buenos Aires).  So should be a lot of excitement there.  Poker goals will begin with winning money (ha ha), but more importantly, improving as a player, regaining some confidence, and investigating some elements of theory that have as of yet eluded me.  A large but manageable task.

Hope everyone had a great Xmas, will have a great New Years (I’ll be in San Francisco, let me know if you’re there and want to hang! I’ll be at the Westin St. Francis Alist party).  On New Years Day I’ll be watching my Ducks pummel the Buckeyes in the Rose Bowl, then flying to New York, so if you’re there then let’s hang out too!

Happy New Year and a prosperous 2010,

Andrew