AJKHoosier1

hey guys,

just fyi therell be no posts here for the next 7-10 days. i injured my left hand and until my stitches are removed, im trying not to type with it.

since typing with one hand is incredibly frustrating, im gonna take a week or two off of blogging... trust me itd just be bad beat stories lately anyways.

ill be back with the full story and a big ftops recap in a couple weeks.

sorry guys... see you then

-ajk

Pretty fun game we play, sometimes.

Funny how in my last post, I have no action over a couple weeks, and then in the next few days, I come across two of my more interesting tournaments of the year.

On Saturday I played a few afternoon tournaments. At first it looked like just another brutal day, taking 8th in the afternoon PokerStars $320, and 7th in their $50+R. Buttttt... I kept battling, and played out my last table, the UB $320 100k deepstack.

I had a bunch of wild bad beats in both directions... I lost a huge 2 outer with 4 tables left, then won an even bigger one with 3 tables left. I hit a massive card rush just before the FT, and my short stack shot up to 2nd place.

My rungood continued at the final table. I had a good aggressive player, IEATDONKS, on my immediate left, making things tough for me. He was reraising me very frequently, and since we were the only two monster stacks, it was very hard to play back at him.

Fortunately, a little bit of good luck has a way of overriding these things. After getting 3-bet by him for the millionth time, I decided to finally play back a bit, and took a flop with QJcc.

The flop was 8c5c4x, a huge luxury for me, since I was planning on playing back at him on almost any decent flop. Naturally, I checkshoved, but somehow he showed up with AA... good timing by me, clearly. A Q on the turn gave me some extra outs, but they turned out to be unnecessary, as I binked a club on the river for an enormous pot. Yay.

I was pretty much able to ride those chips down to heads up, where I went in even-stacked (1 or 2 bb chiplead) with a pretty weak-tight player. First was ~~25k, and 2nd was ~15k. I took a shot, and said I would chop only if he gave me some extra, even though we had even stacks. I was very much willing to play it out, but I figured if I could avoid a 10k heads-up and take advantage of a good chop, that it'd be worth it. Long story short, I ended up taking $21.2k to his $19k flat. Even though we had even stacks. Pretty good deal, I'd say... and another much-needed big score/win (I'm counting it as a 1st, gfy).

Butttt... clearly karma was all over me when I was running good in that tournament, because it decided to instantly hand me a brutal Sunday, and a heartbreaking Monday night.

Even though I only played four tournaments, Monday was pretty unbelievable. I had some good luck deep in the PokerStars $100+R, followed by some horrible luck at the final two tables. Though I was briefly 4 of 13, I ended up taking a very disappointing 12th place. Little did I know how insignificant this would seem by the end of the night.

After this finish, I was one-tabling my long-time nemesis, the Full Tilt $1k Monday. This tournament has given me some of my biggest scores (a 2nd, a 3rd, a 4th, and a few more FTs) and biggest pains (AA<QQ for a monster CL or bust with 10 left comes to mind). Last night was just another for the books.

I was short stacked going into the money, but went on a big rush over three hands, going from 25k to almost 100k. At the final two tables, I got as high as 150k, when I lost a 100k flip blind on blind 33<JT. This put me back down to 100k, and one orbit later this hand went down, with 13 left...

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4825389

ehrjkjklqeklqekljeq. For a third place stack or bust, gg me in 13th place.

Nevertheless, I'm back at the tables as I post this, and plan on playing a lot over the next couple days. These close calls only make me hungrier, so I'll only feel OK once I take down another big tournament.

So I think I'm gonna go do that. = )

-AJK

Hm!

One of the difficulties in posting regularly to this blog is finding things to say when... there's nothing to say!

As far as poker, my horses have continued to crush, with Dave winning the UB $1k and FTP $30r on the same night last Wednesday for a combined ~60k, along with a few other stable scores along the way. Myself, I've pretty much bricked since the 1k 2nd place... a lot of close calls, but what can ya do.

I'm going home next weekend for a doctor's appointment, so I am going to miss Halloween in Bloomington. That sucks, just because of how much fun this town is on Halloween, but I'm not much of a Halloween guy anyways (haven't dressed up in years), so I'll get over it.

I was going to go to Hammond, IN (just outside of Chicago, IL) to play in the WSOP Circuit series that's currently running there, but decided against it. I think that for pretty much every event, I would have a better edge just playing that day online... so it was just a money decision for me. My next live stop will be the Bellagio for the WPT Five Diamond series in December. I'm definitely itching to get back on the (real) felt.

Otherwise, honestly, I'm just chillin. Sometimes no news is good news, so I'll take it like that and just move on. I'll try to make my next post more interesting. = )

Till then,
AJK

I'm back less than a week later!

After a healthy downswing since my Super Tuesday win (including WCOOP), I finally picked up a big score to erase it all, taking 2nd in the Full Tilt $1k Monday for $49,920.

It was a wild run to say the least, including some sick plays, big suckouts in both directions, and a few crazy hands. I'll skip the action ahead to the final table.

I was grinding at 10 bbs FOREVER, when finally I went on a huge card rush just before the FT, and started off in second place with ~250,000 chips. Unfortunately that didn't last long. On the FIRST hand at the final table, this went down:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4759549

Don't think there was much I could do differently there, obviously. Pretty massive cooler, and I was pretty shocked/disappointed when he turned over spades. He played it well, but obviously there's no way the money isn't getting in there. Anyways, this immediate setback put me back down to eighth place or so.

A few big hands and some timely double ups shot me back up near the top in no time. I was fortunate enough to double through lilholdem's A6 v my TT blind v blind, and soon after stacked anfo/4everunknown, making things a little easier on myself. I got down to three handed play vs. ChuckSty and IWEARGOGGLES, and a lotttt of action ensued. I found myself reraising every hand preflop, but most of the time I had a big hand... AQ, AK, QQ, TT, AJs... they just kept coming and coming, but I couldn't get the players to shove over me. I ended up losing a big hand that I honestly can't remember for the life of me, which put me at the shortstack three handed. But not for long.

IWEARGOGGLES raised the button to 2.5x, and ChuckSty flatted the SB. I had A2ss in the BB, and about 25-30 bbs, and went all in. GOGGLES folded, but ChuckSty made a good call with 66. Fortunately, I flopped a 2 and a flush draw, and turned the nuts, leaving Chuck drawing dead for a very big pot. I was able to get to heads up soon after.

Unfortunately, the luck I'd had all tournament didn't last very long heads-up. I overcame my slight chip disadvantage very quickly, but then lost a big pot with 87 vs Q8 on a 854 flop with two diamonds. This put me back down to 25 bbs. A few hands later, GOGGLES shoved the button with Q5dd, and I snap called my KQo. Unfortunately, the flop brought a 5, and that was the end of my tournament. Woulda loved the win obviously (especially in that tournament, where I now have a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, and a few other deep finishes. BUTTTTT no complaints, and ship the $50k.

Gonna get back on the grind this Sunday... see you guys @ the tables

-AJK

Honestly can't believe it's been that long since my last post here. Just looked at the last sentence of my last post and had a good laugh. Sorry guys!

Honestly, there's not too much to talk about. Our total profit in that 2 weeks 200k challenge ended up being something ~$50k, most of that coming from my friend Rafe's big score in the $500 cubed WCOOP, and two consistently good weeks from Greg. I and my horses have been playing at slightly worse than a break-even pace over the last week or so, so not much too exciting to say.

I am back on a minor downswing since my Super Tuesday win, but bricking WCOOP could've been worse. It sucks to think that it won't be back for another year, but that's just the way it goes. It's the same disappointment I've felt the last two years after the WSOP. Oh well... maybe 2010 will be my year.

On the plus side, I've finally got my apartment in shape. Ran a lot of errands I've been putting off since WCOOP, bought some necessities, built some furniture, hired maids, etc. I think that when I'm not winning in poker, my best remedy is a productive couple days off to start feeling good again. I also ordered a pimped out dell xps desktop + 30" monitor to finish up my office setup, and got myself a ping pong table, which I'm obviously pretty excited about. having a better environment to play in should also be helpful too, I think.

My girlfriend and a few of my other friends from town went to visit Ohio State, a trip I wasn't really up for, since I had all this stuff to do, and was just kinda wiped in general. since i got so many errands done today, I'll be playing pretty much 48-hours straight for the rest of the wekeend, since I'll have nothing else to do. So look for me at the tables!

Gonna try to be a lot more consistent in my posting, really sorry about that. Thanks to people who put up w/ it and read anyways.

Till the next one,
AJK

Hey guys,

Sorry I've been slackin on updates, but with WCOOP going on, I've got my mindset completely fixated on the pokers.

Anyways, I've been pretty much bricking everything despite a couple deep runs, but my horses have been KILLING it - one (Grayson) following up his $90k 5th in the WCOOP with a 2nd in the $1k Monday for $57k, and another (Rafe) just now taking 5th in the $500 1r1a WCOOP for ~$68k. I've had a couple smaller scores to make back some WCOOP buyins - I took 2nd in the Stars $109 1r1a turbo for ~$11k, and tonight won the $109+R 20k for ~$15k. Thanks to these scores I'm only down about 11k since WCOOP started, despite having no solid WCOOP scores (including a 10k buyin).

I plan on doing a full, detailed WCOOP recap once the Main Event is over, so for now just wanted to throw this up with some good news.

As far as the 2W200k challenge, we are now at about +$70kish, with only 2-3 days left. Not lookin' good, but obviously a good result overall.

Today's the $2k 8-game and the $500 PLO heads-up, two events I think will be a lot of fun.

GL everyone. Be back in a few days (for real this time).

-AJK

Hey guys,

Sorry about the week delay between updates, but it's been a pretty hectic seven days for me.

Three of my good friends from home (Kapie, Rafe, and Argoe) are in town, and are staying with me for the next two weeks. Since they're all poker players and in town for the WCOOP (amongst other shenanigans), we've set a goal for the period that they're here. Like the show "Two Months, Two Million" on G4 (which I have yet to see), we've set our sights on "Two Weeks, Two Hundred Thousand," a combined profit race involving the four of us, my friend Steve, and my girlfriend Sylvia (who will be "grinding" some $3.40 sng's).

Unlike the players on the show, however, we don't play high-stakes cash games (we're spread out between .25/.50-3/6 NL and a wide range of tournaments), so this is a completely unrealistic goal, but it's our goal nonetheless. I suggested a better idea would be "Two Weeks, Two Dollars," to which Rafe suggested "Two Weeks, Even."

I guess we'll see how it goes. So far, our profit number is a whopping $805.

WCOOP has been off to a rough start for me. I completely bricked a very big Sunday a couple days ago, including the $10k I was so looking forward to. No stories really. I bubbled a couple $100R FT's on some big flips, and nothin' much else. My number on the big board is -$15,159, so I guess i have some ground to make up.

Fortunately, despite this, I'm having a huge WCOOP... thanks to "graybone," one of my horses, taking a very tough but very big fifth place in the early Sunday $215 WCOOP event, for ~$90k. Another horse of mine also shipped a Full Tilt tournament for $13k or so, so my huge upswing is still in effect. Yay.

I'm gonna try to get some pictures up of my apartment (the setup with five computers in the main room is pretty interesting) and our "Two Months, 200k" profit board, if I can figure out how to post them, and how to be less of a bum.

Anyways, I'm about to start up the $320 Mixed Hold'em 6max WCOOP, which will be followed by the $1k tonight. If I hit anything in the next couple days I'll throw up a post, otherwise expect to hear from me sometime this weekend.

Till then GL everyone,
AJK

Very briefly gonna run down the results of my last couple sessions, Sunday and Tuesday.

On Sunday I had a lot of heartbreak until the very end of the night, finally running good in and winning the FTP $109 1r1a 33k gtd, for a little over $20k. I also did fairly well in MTT SnG's, and one of my horses chopped the afternoon Full Tilt $163 for about 30k. Another horse of mine got 13th in the FTP 750k, a tournament I also got 70th in. I had a few disappointments, but overall profited over $50k on the day.

This Tuesday night, I played a handful of tournaments starting at 7 PM EST, probably about 8 mtt's total. I had a rough beat in the money of the stars $109 40k, and in the FTP $403 20k, buuuuuut...

I took down the Super Tuesday, for $66k and change. weeeeeeeeeeeee!

I also put up some more solid numbers in MTT SnGs, and my Sharkscope on Full Tilt is starting to shape up very nicely. = )

Anyways I am obviously very excited and exhausted... will make another more detailed post along with a WCOOP preview in the next few days or so.

Till then,
AJK

Hey guys,

Sorry it's been so long since my last update... I've spent very little time at a computer over the past week or so, other than a couple poker sessions.

Sunday and Wednesday were both pretty painful, but I'm gonna save most of the bad beat stories. On Sunday, I was deep in a few huge tournaments at the end of the day, and nothing panned out. Fortunately, I took down a $5500 WCOOP Main Event seat in the weekly $500 satellite on PokerStars. On Wednesday, I went deep in the FullTilt $100R, losing with a gutshot straight flush draw vs. a set, going out 36th place. I also made my weekly brutal run in the UB $1k, only to lose these two pots at the final table, within 20 minutes of each other:

http://www.pokerhand.org/?4629427 (yes he shoved 180k at 1200/2400...)
http://www.pokerhand.org/?4629455 (sigh)

Ended up taking 4th for $16k... definitely not a bad score, so I'll stop complaining... but I think that's a pretty legit spot to complain.

Anyways, on the bright side, I am moved into my new apartment in Bloomington, IN, for the school year. The place is SICK, I love it. I am gonna try to take some pics once I have it fully set-up, and post them up here. The highlights will definitely be my office setup, the 72" in the main room, and the ping pong table. = )

Also, I've received word about a pending sponsorship offer that I can't really discuss here, but I'm VERY excited about... I'll keep you guys posted on that as well when I have permission to.

WCOOP starts a week from yesterday, and I'm pretty pumped. Gonna be playing nonstop for two weeks before I head to London for the WSOPE and EPT events in late September-early October. My agency is putting me up for free in a pretty nice hotel there, so that'll be a nice way to save a few thousand dollars - shit is EX PENSIVE in London.

Anyways, just wanted to fill you guys in on what's going on, and you can be sure I'll throw some more detailed updates up as soon as I can.

Till then,
AJK