The Life Reset by Geese

The Year 2016 hasn’t gone exactly the way I planned. Ever since January 2016; it has been a downward spiral; my hoist of health issues (blood disorders) has dominated the year. I missed my first World Series of Poker in 13 Years; havn’t been to Vegas since January; havn’t played a hand of poker since January & I’ve actually spent more time this year in Hospitals than I have in casinos & in public combined. You’re probably thinking “Impossible; There’s No Way”.

It took me throwing my cell phone (one tough cell phone & it still works just like me) multiple times 

The 150K Tilt of Poker & Life: Part 2- The Blackhole

5 hands into this cash game & 5 hands I played-I lost. (Pocket 9s; AK; AJx; Pocket 2s; Pocket Kings) The stakes & HANDS didn't matter; Full-on tilt engulfed me. I didn't even remember buying in. Poker was imitating life & I was ready to let it rip. Life can sometimes smack you down over & over. If you aren't careful; being smacked & smacking is all you will know. I asked the floor person for chips & was told you already bought in; Chewey but there is a seat at 1/2!. I looked down at my once big stack to see a few dribbles remaining.

Life & Adjustments with Omaha 8/b

During the span of a lifetime, we are all involved in terrible, bad, ok, good, great, & excellent situations.Do you ask yourself "Why me?"; "How did we get here?" & then do you bemoan or gloat over your luck or lack of? Now you are reading this & thinking that Chewey has turned into Dr. Phil on you! I didn't come here to read the philosophy of life; I want to hear poker stories & illusions of endless glory.  Here comes the hook: Omaha 8, Omaha High/Low teaches you to learn, adjust & to foresee life on the fly. What is this Omaha 8 that  I speak of? Is it a city? Some 12 step program? No, it's a game.

Omaha 8 is a poker game

The 50K Conundrum

There are always choices & different paths to reach a final destination or end result. Did I make the right choice? Was I efficient? Could I have make it to the end faster? These are questions that I ask myself daily in life & in poker. You can't be in the game if you're out but you can't be out if you were never in. The past year has provided me much experience/resolve for my overall poker game. Playing in free-rolls, Invitationals based upon hourly play & playing more mixed-game/none Hold'em cash games has enabled me to stay in the game of poker & utilize one of my greatest skills: minimizing my risk & pushing the edge.

I have played Hold'em at The Mirage in Las Vegas to qualify for each of the last four 50K Quarterlys. Play at least

Mr. ThreeSix Offsuit at Flamingo 75K Invitational (Part 1)

I did not see Eskimo Clark this trip, see my last post to get the complete story of the curse or charm of Clark. Coming into this August trip/invite, there was an air of confidence that I've not felt in awhile. A three week stretch of nothing but poker - tournament & cash games with no distractions. Read on for the details of my deep runs in the Flamingo 75K Invitational & Rio Summerfest Poker FreeRolls.

Las Vegas feels much like home away from home away from home to me. I go there to have a little fun but mostly to get work/poker done! This trip entailed (4) poker freeroll invitationals in a 8 day stretch plus cash (ring) games which I will cover in the next post. Historically, up to last year; The Flamingo (Flaming-O) was a unlucky place for me as I never posted winning / break even sessions (poker & non-poker). 2011 has been a different story for me at The Flamingo as I've posted winning sessions due to poker & freeroll invites (Feb. Harrahs Invite @Flamingo) & have avoided the slots at The Flamingo.

Day 1 -starting stack of 1,500 shoot-out style, top 2 out of 10 from each table advance to Day 2. The normal fast structure, blinds up every 15 mins, antes in Level 2. My table quickly loses 3 players in the first 10 minutes. the 2 chip leaders have 4k & 3.5k. I manage to win a few small pots & am the low stack with 1,600. My image thus far has actually been loose calls pre-flop, aggressive post-flop. Another 3 players are eliminated by level 3, blinds 100/200/50 ante (now down to 4). The Level 1 chip leaders played too aggressive & were both eliminated. New tighter, chip leaders emerged & I was once again the short-stack with 1,200. I'm dealt A,3 off in the cut-off position & raise to 500, the big blind flat calls. The flop is 3, 7, 2. Big Blind bets me all-in & I call. To my dismay, he turns over pocket Queens. The turn is an Ace, two pair for me & the river blanks. A much needed double up for me; increasing my stack to 3,200. I end Level 4 with 4k. It is now down to 3 players. Level 5 is a grind as neither of the other 2 players (5,000 ; 6,800) want to double me up & risk being eliminated. Level 6 blinds 500/1,000/200antes. I pick up the aggression & win 3 consecutive hands with pre-flop All-in bets. My chip stack is at 7,600. I pick up pocket 6s in the button & raise all-in, Big Blind calls All-in with K,10 & misses. I advance to Day 2.

Day 2 chips don't carry over from day 1. The real tournament now begins. Starting stack of 5,000 with 20 min levels, blinds start at 100/200. Antes kick in Level 2. A field of 900 is now down to roughly 170 with 100 being paid. There is an aggro player in Seat 10, I'm in Seat 8. Seat 10 quickly grows his stack to 15k within the first 10 mins by being very loose. I pick up pocket Aces on the button & raise to 700 & Seat 10 (Mr. Three-Six off) calls. The flop comes 9, 2, 5. Mr 3-6 bets 1,000; I re-raise & announce All-In. Mr 3-6 quickly folds. I manage to end level 1 with 6,500. Level 2 blinds 200/400/100ante, I fold every hand, no face cards, connectors, etc. Mr 3-6 continues to eliminate new players brought to the table & we hit the money bubble at the end of Level 2. My chipstack is now at the starting stack of 5,000. Level 3 sees my stack dwindling to 1,300 as the blinds are 300/600/200antes. Every orbit costs 2,900 just by folding & not calling any additional bets. Mr 3-6 has a stack of over 55,000. We are way inside the money with 85 players left. I dial up the aggression level after folding pocket 10s in late position after a raise , all-in & a re-raise. I would've lost with pocket 10s had I called. The next hand, I wake up with pocket Js & double up through Mr 3-6 off to 3,700.

Level 5 begins (600/1,200/400antes), I increase my stack through a series of aggressive pre-flop raises & end the level with 15,000. I find out from floor staff that we are going to be the final table & will not have to move. This is a big plus as the chips will be moving into our direction.

Level 6 begins (1,000/2,000/500antes) & my chip battles with Mr 3-6 off begins. Mr 3-6 has been berating the dealers, really! He has also managed to be all-in & suck-out 10 of 10 times on the river. I was looking to do the table & field a favor by siphoning his chip stack. I call from the button position with 3,4 hearts (19k chipstack) & he raises to 4,500. This is a small raise for Mr 3-6 (95k chipstack) as he normally raises 4-5xs the blind regardless of position. Immediately, I put him on a mid-high hand such as J,10 or Q,J. The flop brings 3,3,8. He bets out 3k into a pot of over 14k. I flat call, looking to get max value for my hand. The turn is a 7. He bets me All-In for my last 13.2K & I insta-call. To my shock, he turns over 10,9 open ended straight draw. The river misses his draw & I double up to to 42k. Only 50 players left & I'm thinking to myself I am a lock for the final table. Most of the remaining field; over half have less than 2-3 big blinds left. I'm gunning for the 30k, 50k, etc for 1st place.

Level 7 begins (2,000/4,000/500 antes) With 77K remaining in chips I'm dealt pocket 9s after posting the big blind. Mr 3-6 off (78k in chips) raises to 8K . This starts a cascade of calls, I decide to re-raise to 18K. It's now heads up with Mr. 3-6off. The flop is 3, 8, 2. I bet 20K & he calls. The flop is a 10. I go All-In for my last 39K & after much deliberation he calls & shows me 3-6off. If I win this hand, I will be up to over 160K & a lock for the final table. After a 5 minute chip count he has me covered by 1K. The stinking river is a 6 giving him 2 pair & sending me to the rail in 37th place. I ask for a recount of the chips to make sure. He celebrates with a loud shriek & much pompous celebration. It's one thing to lose but to get sucked out on & have someone in your face celebrating, come on man!

I leave the table, go collect my min-cash begrudgingly. I nearly decide to not collect the cash & go back to the table to tell Mr.3-6 off "nice hand". Some people have all the luck. I tell him, "I'm saving a seat for you down stairs at the tables Mr 3-6". Two hrs later, he busts out in 8th place & comes down to the poker room to tell me has (2) $500 Giftcards & would like to sell them to me. I get up from my chair & speak my mind "Sir , I'm not paying a dime for it; you should give those to me for your terrible call/actions". Floor staff come over to see if everything is okay & cooler heads (mine) prevail.

The next 3 hours of live poker are very good as I my manage to nearly quadruple my buy-in at 2/4 Limit. It is not enough to make me forget about the painful sting of 3,6 off. My next post will be on the Summerfest 2011 (Pt 2) & my next encounter with Mr 3-6 & how I've become a Vegas local.

Thanks Mr 3-6 literally,
Chewey / 247poker

Eskimo Clark - Good Luck Charm or Curse 4 Chewey at WSOP?

As you read this post, the question of "Is Eskimo Clark- a good luck charm or curse for Chewey?" has yet to be fully answered. Only one thing is for certain; whenever I run into or see Eskimo Clark, my trip is either real profitable or real bad. Who is Eskimo Clark you may ask? Clark is a poker player that looks a lot a grizzly bear (pardon the description); nearly passed out in an event (stroke)that I played at during a World Series of Poker Event (back when they had overflow play in an unconditioned outdoor tent) in 06/07. Here is a brief rundown of my history when I play or see Clark at an event. My first WSOP cash, was in an event Clark played in 2007, my final table bubble at an Tunica event happened with Clark; my worst WSOP Circuit Event trip was when I saw Clark in 2008 at Council Bluffs My largest cash game profit happened when Clark was walking by in 2009 at The Rio. It had been a while, since I had a Clark sighting.

Before we get to the Clark Sighting, let's recap my life since March. Did terrible at the 75K Ballys Invite (March); Moved back to Colorado for the most part, Black Friday for Poker occurred- byebye FullTilt Money; Bodog (site I play mostly on) announced they are pulling out of the US end of 2011. So lots of stones are being thrown against my poker avenues- I will save this rant on the US government stance toward online poker & Black Friday for a future blog!

Fast forward to June & The WSOP. I did not play the bracelet events but focused on the lower buy-in DeepStack events at the WSOP. Great structure, lots of chips & MASSIVE FIELDS-I like. I had a group of friends/players there to support & cheer for as well. The first 3 events I played in, did not cash but I lasted longer & longer with each passing tourney. Wham, then I saw Eskimo Clark during the latter part of my 3 week stay. Fortune or Curse? Now it all made sense, I had been sensing a disturbance in the poker force, lol. I told one of my friends, Jay- that the trip was about to be psycho. During a 10pm DeepStack Event, several weird situations occurred: I was moved to at least 16 different tables; I was down to 700 chips when Blinds were150/300/25ante; I witnessed a overused dealer that had been dealing for days almost make a mistake before making a BIG mistake during the money bubble.

During my 8th table change, something like that; this dealer nearly pushed a pot, began to muck the board as 3 players were still in a hand & I stopped him. 3 hours later, we were down to 33 players & only 32 would be paid. I had 14,000 in chips with 800/1,600blinds/200ante; the following hand occurred at an adjacent table:
(Seat 2) Chipleader- Pocket Aces
(Seat 5) Mid Stack-Pocket 7s
(Seat 7) mid stack Pocket Aces
(Seat 8) Pocket Ks
(Seat 10) KQ suited
Seat 2, 5, 7 all-in preflop. Flop is ??? who knows, I wasn;t there yet. This should be routine but the dealer from 3 hours ago scrambles the flop & readies for the next hand. Wtf? This hand is not over & a huge commotion ensues, this is where I notice the Tourney Director running over as we are on hand for hand, the next person out gets no money! The entire table can't agree on what the cards were on the flop. So, the ruling is all of the folded/dead cards were shuffled & the flop was re-dealt. Wait for it, wait for it- the second flop was a mis-deal as well, the burn card was exposed. So, a 3rd flop was dealt & of course the 7 hits! Wow, the turn & river are blanks, short stack quadruples up big time & Seat 7 is crippled, Seat 8 out, Seat 10 out, bubble is burst but the hand took 20 minutes. You can't write better drama than this WSOP drama. Meanwhile, at my table we are all joking about whipping out cells & getting video footage of this. A floor person cautions me & says penalty of 1 Level of play- I decide not to! I go on to finish 13th in this event, decent cash.

2 days later, I played in another WSOP DS Event, field of 700+ & finish in 9th place. Had decent amount of chips but ran my pocket Aces into a rivered flush, ugh but felt good about cashing in my last 2 WSOP tournys. Had to leave town, did I miss my heater run? Don't think so, I'm back at it 2 months later in full force, alter ego "247poker", style+all & will be playing the 75K Poker Invitational at The Flamingo, 3 Events at The Summerfest 2011-Rio in the next two weeks.

Until the next Eskimo Clark Sighting, not!
Chewey

Flaming-O Streak Wrap-Up

It's been a month since I've cashed at The Harrah's $100,000 Invitational Poker Tournament. The tournament was actually held at The Flamingo or (The Flaming-O) as I like to call it. I never win or do good here. This tournament & trip marked an end to several bad streaks & the beginning of new ones.

On the start of Day 2, I am dealt pocket 10s in the button position with blinds at 25/50. I raise it to 175 & am called by both blinds. Uh oh, I think. The flop brings 10, 9, 8 with two suited hearts. The SB checks, BB bets 300 into a pots of 500. I go into the tank & wonder if the big blind has two overcards with a Jack open ended straight draw, flush draw or air. My first reaction is to lay it down, he has hit his straight already. Less than 2 minutes of Day 2, I'm put to the test already. It really doesn't help that you only start with 1,500 at the start of Day 2; but I don't make the rules. I do the unthinkable & fold. This hand has me curious, I just hope to see the turn & river cards. The SB goes all in & BB insta-calls with a straight & has a redraw to the straight flush. The SB has the sucker (low) end of the straight with 6, 7. BB ends up winning with his Q high straight. Wow, I think to myself, did I just avert disaster. I dislike pocket 10s, always have & always will.

I make it to Level 4 with the blinds 200/400/75antes & in a matter of minutes am dealt pocket Kings, A-K, A-Q, A-9. Don't worry, none of those hands held up & I'm busto around 100th place. I cash but am highly disappointed at what could have been. I played good for the most part but there were opportunities I feel that I could have padded my chip stack. Overall, the trip was blah. I was tired when I flew in & dug myself a hole in the first 5 hours by playing tired. Reflecting, it would help if I could play more live poker as work projects have filled my poker plate up lately.

For Jay-Z fans, I say it's on to the next one! I'm leaving the room for my next tournament "$75,000 Bally's Poker Tournament" in Las Vegas. March Madness is in the air & I'm looking to pull a Cinderella story of my own. Strap your laces boys & girls, this dance is about to begin.


Chewey

The Flaming-O Streak ($100,000 Invitational) Day 1

The Harrahs $100,000 Invitational Poker Tournament in Las Vegas was a tournament full of excitement, twists & turns. I always love getting invitations in the mail to Poker Invitationals that are comped. For the most part, these allow me the opportunity to leave town & actually play poker. Normally, I am able to walk away from these invitationals with a deep finish & some cash. The skill levels at these invitationals range from complete newbies to everyday grinders.

First twist is upon registering, I find out that the tournament venue is The Flamingo & not Harrahs. Uh-oh, I've never ever won anything at The Flamingo or (Flaming-O) on slots, table games, poker, nada, zilch, period in all my travels to Vegas. It has been along time since I set foot in The Flamingo. To complicate matters, I played some Mississippi Stud at The Flamingo on my 1st day of the trip & didn't fare so well. I almost always do terrible on the 1st day of a trip & after I bust out of a tournament, hmmm.

My buddy Jay, who won the last invite by Harrah's is here for his vacation & to watch me play. Day 1 of tournament begins & I feel like Brett Favre in a Vikings Uniform walking onto Lambeau Field. The Flamingo is a casino that I just have not done well. Day 1 Starting chip stack of 1,500. Top 20% of field advances. Below are highlights from Day 1 play, 2,100 players:

Level 1 (25/50)-In hand 3 of the day, I call from small blind with 5,9x & big blind checks. Flop is 9,2,5 with 2 diamonds. I bet 125 on the flop & bb calls. The turn is a 3 & I bet 200. Once again, bb calls. River is a J, I check & bb bets 600. I go into the tank & fold. The bb goes on a tear & becomes the table leader early. I end the level with 1,075.

Level 2 (50/100/25ante) - No face cards during this level for me. Got pocket 3s, 4s a few times but the action was raised before me. At one point I was down to 325 & feel the walls closing in on me. Jay watches on & I go chat a few minutes to clear my head.

Level 3 (100/200/50ante)- Mid level I pick up A3 suited in button position & limp with 4 callers. I start the hand with 850 in chips. Flop is A,9,6x. Everyone checks including me. WTF am I thinking? I'm looking to accumulate chips with a dangerous move. The turn is a 2. I go all-in for 650 & am called by the chipleader that I tangled with in Level 1. She turns over pocket 4s & my stack grows to 1875. I end the level with 1,200.

Level 4 (200/400/75ante) More than 60% of totals field is gone, I can see the finish line to Day 2 nearing. The blinds & antes numb me down to 550 but I pick up 5,6 hearts in bb position & flop a full house with 3 players in the pot. I check the flop, turn & finally on the river I put my last 300 in & am called by button position & win a pot of 1,475.

Level 5 (300/600/200ante) Over 75 % of field eliminated, top 20% advance. My survival game plan is working as experience is kicking in. Most players shove with any face, but I hold on & wait for position. My table image is tight & I will be changing gears from tight to aggro. Players that were chip leaders early on have been eliminated. The aggressive blind structure, varied level of player skill sets makes for an interesting tournament pace. We are down to 4 players at my table, I eliminate a player with 3,5 suite in sb position & make this a tighter race. I end the Level with 2,250 & chip stack is growing. A crowd of 40 gathers around our table as the once short-stack (me) is looming large. Floor personnel now guard our table as spectators are inches from us. I love the crowd & pressure as I've never been chip leader at our table but the other two players have.

Level 6 (500/1,000/200ante) The chip leader (seat 5), me (seat 3) & loose player( seat 6) are in a shove battle for the blinds. At the start of the level, seat 6- 14,500; seat 5- 5,100; me 2,250. Now , Seat 5-11,000; Seat 6- 7,000; & me 6,500. I shove every 1.5 orbits to grow my stack but never from the same position & each time my bet is not called. Most of my stack is comprised of green chips (25) lol. Each time I shove, my stack appears larger than the amount seems. jay stands in the background & shoots me a glance "almost there!".

Level 7 (800/1600/300ante) I'm dealt K,10 suited in button position. I just won a huge pot on the last hand & am taking the time to stack my chips & watch the other 2 players from the corner of my eye at the same time. I notice seat 6 (bb) reaching for chips & seat 5 (sb) reaching for his & eyeballing seat 6. I check my stack of 8,800 & realize it's not worth the gamble as I'm certain I will advance to day 2 after this hand. I do the unthinkable & fold. Sb calls, bb min-raises & sb instacalls. The flop is 7,8,4x. The sb checks, bb goes all-in for 3,100 into a pot of over 9k. Sb calls with pocket 9s, bb rolls over open ended straight & flush draws. The river bricks & I advance to hard earned Day 2. I was down to 325 in level 2 & still made it. Chip stacks would be re-set for all players on Day 2. All players advancing to Day 2 are in the money! So, my losing streak for The Flaming-O is over for now. My experience & composure were key in me advancing to Day 2.

Next time see how far I advance at The Harrahs $100,000 Invitational Poker Tournament that's held at The Flamingo or to follow my Vegas/life escapades on twitter . You can also view all of my blog posts since 2007 on Poker Across America (Chewey's Corner).

Caption: Me sizing up the competition at my table!

Stay Cool & Get Paid!
Chewey