WSOP Coming Up

So I have a busy few weeks coming up before I leave for the WSOP on June 13th. This weekend is Memorial Day weekend, of course, and the whole family always goes to the beach. The following weekend is my brother's wedding in Key West so we will be down there for a long weekend. Once I get back from Key West I will be getting ready for Vegas. I leave June 13th and will be there for a whole week. I am actually only going to play 1 or 2 WSOP events. The Venetian Deep Stack is a much better structured event with deeper stacks, a nicer room (Venetian is the nicest room on the strip), and lower buy-ins.

With that in mind, here is my tentative schedule:

Sat, June 13th $1,000 WSOP Main Event Mega Satellite (1 in 10 gets $10k seat in ME)
Sun, June 14th $550 Venetian Deep Stack Omaha Hi-Lo
Mon, June 15th If I satellite into the $2k WSOP I will play that, otherwise the $550 NLHE @ Venetian
Tues, June 16th $1,500 NLHE WSOP
Wed, June 17th $330 NLHE Venetian
Thur, June 18th $550 PLO Venetian or $2,000 NLHE WSOP (depending on how week is going)

Of course, I will be playing a lot of cash games, satellites, etc. and will keep this up to date while I am out there. Getting excited and playing really well so who knows. ONE FUCKING TIME PLEASE!!!!

FTOPS just ended but I really didn't play much at all. I thik I played 2 FTOPS events total. I had a lot going on with family, golf, brother's bachelor party, etc and just didn't feel like committing the time to the events. I did play a lot of satellites leading up to the various events and had mixed success. At the beginning of the satellite period I ran like absolute death and was down ~$3k. I must have lost AK to AQ a dozen times and/or had big pairs lose to flopped sets repeatedly. Got pretty insane for a while. The one that I vividly remember was a satellite for a $216 NLHE tournament and I got KK all in pre-flop against 78suited at 25/50 blinds and the monkey flops 2 pair. Very frustrating. But variance is a bitch in these things so the only thing to do is play through it. Towards the end of the FTOPS I got back on the right side of variance and had eaten through most of the previous losses. In the end, I think I was down less than $300. SO that was a good comeback.

On PokerStars I can't seem to get past Step 5 in their Steps program. I have bubbled the Step 6 ticket 4 times and gotten replay tickets for Step 5. Just can't seem to win a key flip, etc. in these at the end. Will probably keep trying to go all the way through Step 6 as the WSOP package they offer is really sweet and includes spending money, free room at the Palms for a week during the Main Event, immediate upgrade to Supernova status, etc.

Live poker has been going MUCH, MUCH better. Had a big night in a home game last Thursday where I was up more than $1k. People kept playing Omaha Hi-LO with me and every time I put all my chips in the middle I had the nuts. That is probably my best game and most people just don't play it well at all. People seem to think it is a gambling game but in reality it is much less of a gambling game than Omaha High. The good players in Hi-Lo tend to rise to the top much more quickly than in Omaha High. Too many guys call off all of their chips trying to win half the pot. The key to the game is to play hands that give you a chance to scoop the whole pot. As Scott Clements (one of the best Omaha Hi-Lo players in the world) would say, you need "Triple Nut Hands" to win. Triple Nut Hands are hands that can win three different ways. For example, AK23 (A suited) is a powerhouse. You can make the nut flush for nut high (nut #1), you can make nut str8 (T-A) for nut high (nut #2) and you can make a wheel (A-5) for nut low and very strong high hand (nut #3). Now that doesn't mean you can only play Triple Nut Hands but those are obviously the most powerful hands and can be played from any position. Too many players start raising and playing any A2xx hand much too fast. That is bad as say A28T unsuited is a really weak high hand and you will have a very difficult time making the nuts both ways. More often, you will end up getting quartered (winning 1/2 of the low hand) when someone else holds A2.

Not a lot going on in golf right now. Have some guest days and client golf coming up but nothing competitve for a good while. I did not qualify for the MD Am which is very frustrating. I played on a terrible golf course with terrible greens and shot 80. I have been playing really well and this course's greens were just god awful and I didn't adjust well at all. Needed to shoot 78 to get in but with 39 putts that is tough to do. This will be the first time I am not in the field since 2003 and I think only the 3rd time in the last 15 years or so. Sucks but not much I can do. I have worked with my teacher a few times already this season and am really driving the ball well. That is typically the issue for me early in the season and I seem to have found my swing already this year. I am really going to zero in on the 2 USGA qualifiers this year (Amateur and Mid-Am) and have my game super sharp for those. Really want to get to the "Next level" in my game and that means I need to tighten every part of the game (driving, irons, pitching, putting, etc.)