Doc Sands

So I bused the Legends 10k day mid way through day three. I finished about 45 of 279 and missed the money by 20 or so spots. Overall I was very very pleased with my play. I played a fundamentally different game than I usually do online. Because the stacks are so deep and the structure is so much better in these live 10k's post flop play obvious becomes increasingly important. For the first two days, I felt like I was able to avoid marginal spots, play pots in position against weaker opponents, and overall adopt a much lower variance style of play. As an example, until my bust hand I was never all in the entire tourney.

On the whole I felt like I ran well below expectation but still gave myself a chance to win. Aside from running AA into Justin Young's KK (he only had 17bbs) I was in none of the juicy spots where you just get free chips. Even more amazingly, in two and half full days I had AK ZERO times and AA once. If your a math guy, and can tell me what the odds of never picking up AK in 13 hours of play, id be curious to know.

On day three I made one marginal call against Eric Hershler. I opened from the CU with 99, Eric flats from sb, bb flats as well. Flop Q76hh checks to me, I check for pot control. Turn 5 checks to me once again and bet 2/3 pot. Eric calls bb folds. River 9. He shoves what amounts to 2/3 pot I puke/call he has 88. I was sure he didnt have the best hand on the turn but really felt he was on the heart draw. I expected A8hh or air. He had 88. Still had 40+ bbs after the hand.

About a hr later, here is my bust hand. I have 72k at 12/2400. The big blind has less than 20bbs. Pralad Friedman has the button with a CL stack. I pick up AJhh and make it 7,200 from high jack. He makes it 20k total, and I shove (again 72k) total.

My problem with the hand is two fold. First, I dont have much FE. He is getting just under 2 to 1 to make the call and he has the chips to do it. However, based on his aggressive play when I looked down at AJ I initially, I really felt raise/folding was too weak and unprofitable in the long run. FWIW flop comes K72hh and I miss. Maybe he would have folded had I flat his 3 bet and shoved flop. I did have a pretty tight image, that was the first time I had been all in the entire tourney, as well as the first time I had 4 bet at a table with Pralad.

As I set at the outset of this blog, overall I was very happy with my performance in this tourney. I am feeling increasingly comfortable at the big buy-in tourneys and feel like I have developed a style that fits the structures well.

Chilling in LA till WCCOP. Planning to play almost every event and ship at least one bracelet. After WCCOP ends I will play the 2500 at Commerce near the end of September and then head to Aruba for the 5k in early October.

GLA

DS

Saw Inglorious Bastards last night and absolutely loved it. Quintin Tartantino is a truly amazing director with a style unlike any other. Going into the movie I had very little understanding of what the film is actually about. Without giving too much away, let me just say that the purpose of the movie is to make the viewer feel joy when a member of the Nazi party is brutally killed - an emotion that I have no problem feeling in large part because my mother is Jewish. If you are a descendant of any one of the multitude of groups of people that were murdered by the Nazis during WWII you will likely get more joy out of the movie than the average viewer. Regardless of your religion, descent or skin color, I feel this movie is a must-see.

Today I play the Legends 10k. Really looking forward to seeing some of my poker friends I haven't seen since the WSOP. Hopefully the new and improved facilities at the Bike will attract a few more players than last year. I will be updating chip counts @Doc_Sands/twitter.

DS

Been grinding a lot more than usual with FTOPS in full swing, and volume up across all sites. Since winning the 500 two weekends back I went on a small downswing with no significant cashes Sunday.

Things turned around this week as I have cashed in at least one 100r every day, got 2nd in a 109T for 5k+, and final tabled FTOPS # 16 PLO8 yesterday. Finished 3rd for 25k despite having all the money in twice as a crushing favorite 3 handed. Would have liked to ship a jersey in back to back FTOPS but unless your Chuck AKA Adam "csimmsux" Geyer thats just not very realistic

I have to admit I am very happy with non-holdem play. Despite never having played PLO8 regularly, I feel my understanding of tourney strategy, and ability to manipulate stack sizes, enable me to succeed even at these games I don't know well.

Congrats to Moorman1 for a very impressive 200k 2nd place showing in the 300r last night!

Taking today off and resting up for big Fri/Sat/Sun push.

DS

The games have begun. It is Saturday morning and I am sitting with a massive smile on my facing looking over today's schedule. Based on the last few days I estimate volume is up about 40% as a result of FTOPS as well as great deposit bonuses on Stars and FTOPS. Today we have a 535 PLO KO 6 max as well as a 109r with a 500k guarantee.

I was fortunate enough to have a great run the last 10 days taking second in the Stars Quarter Million and winning both the Sunday 500 and a UB 20k deepstack. The combination put me up about 130k, more than enough to free roll both FTOPS and WCOOP. Its difficult to overstate how nice it is to walk away with a large score right before a big series. Really takes the pressure off the higher buy-in events and allows me to play my best game. As a side note, I need a win on either Bodog or FTP before Sunday evening to complete my first triple crown.

Obviously planning to ship something big this weekend. I am currently 4th in Cardplayer OPY standings and any major victory should give me enough point to overtake Gboro for the lead. Should be a fun last quarter of the year! Stay tuned...

DS

Just shipped the Sunday 500 on Stars for 90k!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

So after I ate a wonderful, home-cooked dinner, I sat down to preregister for all my Sunday tourneys. After I finished I went out with my gf to get a new french press (kinda wish I had done something cool though, would have added to the story). When we get back we play with our dog for a bit to sit down and watch TV. Awhile later I get on my laptop to check my email and see a message in the Bodog lobby which read something like, "Your $150 buy-in 5k guaranteed is starting, click here to open table." Naturally I click ok. The table pops up and I see that I have 11 bbs left at 100/200. I check the lobby and immediately realize my mistake. I meant to register for tomorrow's, 100k guaranteed but I sorted by buy-in rather than date and then mis click preregistered the wrong tourney. I was 18 of 18 remaining players in what had been a 45 player field.

Ended up making one suckout double and then running my stack up to CL in time for the 5 person money bubble. Totally owned the money bubble but ended up coming in second for 1600. Moral of the story is always prereg but make sure to check you comp periodically after doing so.

For what its worth I really do think preregistering is +EV. Any serious player should be keeping track of every tourney he regularly plays. He should note buy-in amounts, cashes and net wins/losses. This can easily be done using online tools such as thepokerdb. Players should periodically evaluate there performance in each and drop tourneys in which they do not prove profitable. In doing this they gradually create a set schedule for each day of play. Once a player knows his schedule, he might as well register in advance to avoid accidentally missing a profitable tourney or rushing to register mid-day.

Good luck to those of you who are playing tomorrow. Two seconds this week. Only a win tomorrow will make me happy.

DS

So I played an afternoon session yesterday, I believe it was the first time I have played online during the week since before the WSOP started. My day got off to a disappointing start as I got it in AIP twice in the first hour of play with pair over pair and got two outed on the river both times, once in a three-way pot!

I was able to stay focused and composed despite the rocky start and finished 24th in the UB 80k sniper as well as 2nd in the Stars Quarter Million, the latter for a 37.5k. There were a staggering amount of top players still left in the 250k with three tables remaining including jornxx, DJK, Mendieta19 and Bhanks11. I got it in as 2 to 1 dog three times in the final 4 tables and won all three...guess its safe to say I got the "run-bad" out of my system Sunday

When I busted Bhhanks 4th after tank calling his 4bet overshove with AJ and holding aginst his JT I thought I had the thing all but won. Ended up going into HU play against a $25 average buy-in player with a 3.5 to 1 chip lead and losing. Although I flopped literally no more than 5 pairs over the course of the 1.5 hour HU match I am still extremely disappointed I could not close the door. There is really no excuse for not coming away with a victory in this spot. I take a great deal of pride in my ability to finish tournaments and am looking forward to reviewing the hand histories of this match with friends in an effort to look for spots to improve my play.

Unlikely to play again until Sunday. Plan to play just about every FTOPS and WCCOP day. Once these two series are over I am going to focus a lot more on live tourneys, starting with the Legends 10k at the Bike.

DS

So I busted day 3 of Main and decided to play Venitian 5k. Ended up 15 of 260 losing JJ to TT aip to bust.

Pretty interesting hand along the way I feel is worth sharing. Illustrates a fundamental difference between "online guys" and more traditional players. With three hands left in day 1, blinds something like 400/800 with 50 ante. Stack sizes are exact:

Agro young kid opens 2.6x CU, Devo (Brian Devonshire) flats button with 22bbs, sb flats, I shove 27bbs from bb with KQhh. Agro kid folds, Devo tank calls with ATo. We both flop a pair, he wins. I dont get his line at all. Maybe I need someone with more experience to explain the reasoning, feel free to PM me if you are said person.

After busting Venitian took a week off to relax Montana with my gf and fam. Missed my first Sunday in 6 months. Nice break.

Played yesterday in Vegas with Plattsburg. We both ran so bad that by the end of the night we were literally laughing out loud. Happens.

Back in LA now. Really looking forward to FTOPS and WCCOP. Prob playing Wed/Sunday between now and then.

DS

...starts in about two hours and I very much like my table draw. Although there are a ton of chips (2 225k stacks and a 465k stack) I don't really fear any of the players. Two older live guys with decent results as well as Lemke who shipped a 5k bracelet earlier this series, could be a lot worse.

I want to wish my dad good luck today. Around the same time Jerry Pollack tells us to shuffle up and deal, my dad will be entering surgery for his second hip replacement. Surgeries are always scary and even though it is a pretty standard procedure, he will be in my thoughts throughout the day.

Day 2 was very up and down, in exactly that order. After starting with 90k I built my stack to 175k with the help of a couple donations and some good aggressive play. One hand I limped button with 72cc after 4 had limped in front of me. Initial limper then put in three bets with me on flop and two more on turn to get it all in with TT on 7248 board for 60bb. A few hands later I get moved to a new table and on the second hand, the CO shoves 27bb with ATo. I wake up with AQo on button, tank call and win.

Things started to turn around however, when I opened EP with two red aces and got flatted in two spots. I lead J74 rainbow flop, initial flatter calls and second flatter overships. I call he has KJdd and it runs off dd to give him flush. Although I wasent tilted things didnt go too well after that. Lost min flatting late raise with 88 then losing only 1 bet on 642 flop v TT. Ended the day super card dead.

That will change today tho. I plan to continue to play well and start running like I do online. Who knows, maybe ill even suck out on someone. Honestly hasn't happened more than 3 times in 15 events.

If you want to follow my updates on twitter you can do so at twitter/Doc_Sands. Poker news is also streaming these updates on the right side of live updates page.

GL today me.

DS