EricCrain

Today has been a very, very long day. I had a few buddies over last night to play some Madden on PS3. It is easily the greatest sports game I’ve ever played. This is a normal happening for us … usually 5-6 nights a week somebody is over, hanging out watching sportscenter or playing video games.
During a game between two of my friends last night, I got very, very tired. I did a zombie-walk to my bed and fell asleep at 10 pm! I was up at 130am and couldn’t go back to sleep. My friends were gone and I was stuck with nothing to do but play some poker.
I started off by winning in a few cash games, then I tilted after losing a plo pot to a guy who stuck 1500 in with 7632 on a T82 flop. Next thing I knew I had shot off about 5k, plus an additional 1500 I deposited.
I took a break, got a chicken biscuit sandwich from Burger King (they, by the way, are delicious) and came home to grind my last $179 I had online.
I started off at a 2/4 plo table and ran it up to 900. Then a different plo table got me up to 2k. Won another 1500 at 30/60 o8, some more at 10/20 plo, some at 1/00/200 o8 and then some more plo. Next thing I knew I had 11k in my account. As I say to my friends, I am Mr. Bankroll Management.
Now, I’m going to enjoy my win by … wait for it …. Signing up for school. I haven’t gone to college since 2005 and I’m scared to death to go back. I’m about 30 credit hours from graduating, which seems like it could take a lifetime to complete. I even have to take a 2nd Spanish class. The last time I took Spanish was when I was 18. I’m pretty sure I only passed because my teacher liked to talk football with me. I’m going to be lost when that class rolls around … if it ever does.
I didn’t think going back to school would be so intimidating. I don’t mind bluffing off half my stack on national TV, but the thought of going to class with a bunch of 21 year olds scares the hell out of me. Go figure.
Ok, I’m going to stop putting off going to campus to sign up for class. Hope I keep running good tonight and into the weekend. I’m due for a Sunday Funday score!

I’m awake at 7am. No, this isn’t a normal occurrence for me. It’s a rare thing that I’m up before noon. Today though, I’m sitting at my computer at 7 in the morning, watching West Wing reruns and waiting to play some super turbo sit and gos online. My what an exciting life I lead.
I’m only still awake because I’m trying to reset my sleeping schedule. Before the World Series of Poker, I had spent a month going to bed at 2am and waking up around 10am. By all accounts that is a perfect sleep schedule for me. The computer was shut off by midnight, allowing myself a couple hours to lounge in front of the TV, go hang with my neighbor or read a book. But then, Vegas happened.
Continuing my recently-renewed sleep schedule in Vegas proved to be next to impossible. Going to bed at midnight Vegas time turned into 1 am, then 3am, then 6am. At one point I’m pretty sure we were all staying up until 10 every morning while playing 4-deck Chinese poker. I unequivocally blame Get Crunk and Tommyboy for these unfortunate happenings.
The Chinese poker started off simple enough. $5 a point playing with one deck was the stakes. I didn’t really have a clue how to play, since I had only played locally in Southern Illinois a couple times. By all accounts, I was a novice.
Chinese poker is played with a maximum of 4 people. Each person is dealt 13 cards and has to make 3 hands – one 3 card hand and two 5-card hands. The 3 card hand has to be your worst hand, your first 5 card hand has to be better than your 3-card hand and worse than your back hand. Your back hand has to be the strongest of the three. Our variation was playing with 2-7 in the middle, meaning that your first 5-card hand (middle hand) was a low hand with the lowest hand being 2-3-4-5-7. To my grandparents reading this, I promise it’s not as complicated as it sounds.
What was once $5 a point turned into as big as $150 a point, largely due to Tommyboy tilting and continually wanting to kick it up. The stakes ended up leveling out at around $50 a point. We joked that we easily had the softest $50 a point Chinese game on the planet. I’d be shocked if we were wrong.
Toward the middle of the WSOP, we realized that hands, shuffling, dealing, etc. were taking longer than we wanted them to. While there was talk of hiring a hooker on Craigslist to come deal for us (topless, of course), we eventually decided on using multiple decks.
When we played with 3 people, we used 3 decks. We had the blue deck, the red deck and the crappy deck. All 3 decks would be dealt simultaneously, with the dealer of each specific deck getting and setting 2 hands. This cut the dealing and shuffling time by 66% and gave us what seemed like infinite action. While it was fun, our addiction only got stronger.
One night, Tommy and I were playing heads up Chinese using 2 decks. He was stuck to me and tilted and talked of going to get some food and then going home. Since I was winning, I didn’t want that to happen. Throughout our time in Vegas we used fish rules, meaning basically that whatever the guy who was losing wanted, he got. I agreed to comp Tommy a trip to Jack-In-The-Box. In an attempt to tilt me, he ordered two value meals, a shake, a couple pies and something else. I paid $25 for just Tommy’s part of the meal. Fish rules blow.
By the end of the trip we were still craving the action. 4-deck Chinese was a staple at our house for hours upon hours every night and usually into the morning. Of course, we still wanted to spice it up. Eventually we started playing blind Chinese, where each player would get dealt 13 cards and then would blindly set their hand (you were allowed to foul your hand with no penalty, obviously).
While playing 2-7 in the middle, pairs were suddenly the nuts as long as they were low enough. King high had an enormous amount of showdown value up top. Going from regular Chinese to blind Chinese was like giving crack to somebody who had only smoked candy cigarettes. We were hooked. At our big WSOP party, I woke up around 2pm and had a game of blind Chinese going by 2:30. Mark Vos said he couldn’t understand how he ever played any other form of Chinese poker. Neither could we. As Xmrstyle would say, it was the nut game.
Unfortunately, those habits have me sitting awake at my computer desk at 7:16am. I am going to try to stay up today until around 7pm. My hope is that if I stay awake all day today and go to bed early tonight, it will reset my sleep schedule and I can be back to waking up at 10am sometime soon. Next Wednesday I am leaving for Tunica. The plan is to wake by 10 or 11 every morning, golf, and then play a tournament at 2pm ever day. Of course, it’s going to be a little tough to do that if I keep getting up at 4 in the evening like I have been every since Vegas.
Damn you, blind Chinese. Damn you.

I have no clue how this is my first blog since May. Among all the happenings at the WSOP, I almost feel like I’ve almost had TOO much to write. The stories are almost countless.
Early in the WSOP, a group of us were sitting in the hot tub at Xmrstyle’s house, when Epistate suggested we go to this bar down the street, inappropriately called ‘The Bar’. ‘The Letdown’ would have been a better name.
While talking about the bar, I’m fairly sure he did everything but promise dozens of beautiful virgins to all of us. It was supposed to be THE place to go. It’s where all the action was supposed to be. Good food, great drinks, dozens of beautiful women, sports on the TV and a helluva good time. He was right about the drinks, which is good, because there is no way I could have been in that place for longer than 10 minutes sober.
After being greeted by the other five people in the bar, we got our drinks and gambled on some rock-paper-scissors. I quickly lost $200 to Get Crunk, and then lost again in the finals of a $20 buyin tournament. Even the bartender, who wrote out a sequence for me to use during rock-paper-scissors, couldn’t help me. I run so bad. I couldn’t have made it out of there fast enough. It should be noted, by the way, that Epistate still swears that it’s “the nut bar”. Yeah, right.
We headed down the street to The M, a brand new casino about 5 miles south of the strip. The night started with Mr. R hopelessly looking for a 3-card poker game (none were open). After a few more rounds of drinks, we all settled on blackjack. Get Crunk, Mr. R and myself sat down at the table with about $500 a piece while xmrstyle and Epistate watched.
Crunk was the first to rebuy, going to the ATM and paying the crazy juice after not knowing his debit card PIN. He was now in for $3500. Crunk got another $3000, followed by Mr. R throwing bank cards at Epistate to get him more money from the ATM. I’m pretty sure at one point he shouted his PIN number so loudly that the plastic owl back at our house heard what it was. It was no-holds-barred blackjack, and for once I wasn’t the one who was at the center of attention.
I took pride in not being the guy throwing debit cards across the casino since. A week earlier a friend had asked our group, “who has the most gamble here.” Everybody talked amongst themselves for a few seconds until somebody said, “Oh, jakz.” The table laughed and agreed. This time, at the M, I wasn’t that guy. It was weird.
Crunk ended up getting in for roughly $13000 and Mr. R for $5000. After losing my $500 I went up to the cage to get another $500 in chips. The cashier at the cage joyfully asked, “Oh, are you here with (insert Crunk’s name here).” I laughed, said yes, and went back to the table to break even. Crunk lost a little after a nice comeback and Mr. R ended up winning a bit.
All-in-all it was a successful trip, if for no other reason than me realizing I wasn’t the biggest degenerate in the house.

I’m going to try and get more blogs done during the next couple months with some stories at the WSOP, including playing 4-deck Chinese Poker, making my first WSOP final table, living in a house with roommates for the first time instead of living at the Rio, why I didn’t play the Main Event and where the hell I’m going to be living in a month (I still have no idea).

It was almost six years ago that I started playing poker. The game was .50-1.00 no limit holdem. Before that game, the closest I had ever come to a real poker game was playing for wheat thins while camping near Chicago.

I had seen it on ESPN … we had ALL seen it on ESPN. It seemed simple enough: you get two cards, as do your opponents, while five cards that anybody could use were dealt. The object was to make the best five-card hand combining your two cards with the five on the board. On the surface, it was as easy as making a grilled cheese sandwich.

I still remember the first hand I played. I was dealt J-7 and faced three people calling in front of me for $1. After a couple seconds of contemplation, a thought ran through my head. “If they just called and didn’t raise, they can’t have that strong of a hand.”

I moved all in for $50, stole the nearly $5 that was out there and was immediately scolded for my reckless play. Since that day, not much has changed. I still bluff too much, I still chase too many draws, still check raise too often with nothing and still try and get cute with big hands.

These were the things that drew me to poker in the first place. The mind-games you got to play with people were as powerful as any drug. Reading people, reading situations, figuring out how to make people scratch their heads - that was the addiction. It wasn’t the money or the general gambling. I love to mess with people, and it seemed as though this was the perfect avenue to do that.

It’s been a long time since I thought about what it was like for me as I started my improbable journey as a pro poker player. The poker world has a way of beating you down. People still berate me if I make a dumb play. I tell them that I’ll make worse plays, probably within the next 10 minutes. That rarely, by the way, is a lie.

Some of us started playing poker simply out of boredom. Some of us started because we were desperate to make money. After all, if Chris Moneymaker can win the World Series of Poker Main Event, why can’t I?

For me though, it was an outlet, a way out of an otherwise mundane life as a journalism student. Before poker, I would wake up, play video games, go to class, work at the local newspaper, rinse and repeat. Poker was like the sun shining on me for the first time. I wanted to learn all the ins and outs. I wanted to learn when to bluff, when to raise, when to fold and how to employ every conceivable strategy that had even been considered. I fell in love with learning something completely foreign.

Somewhere along the way, I did something that is way to easy to do with poker - I lost the desire to learn. Most of us see thousands upon thousands of hands every day. Our egos are such that we can’t fathom learning anything more about poker. The cards will run together, Kings after Queens after folding 7-6 off suit five consecutive times. Raise the button, fold weak aces preflop, don’t overplay hands and get value for your hands. Really, the robotic-style will take a toll on anybody.

Tonight, after an evening of drinking, my brother invited me back to his house to play mahjong. Mahjong is a game played with dominos that is a combination of Hearts and Rummy – only incredibly more complicated. I felt a rush that I hadn’t felt in some time. New strategies, new ways to win, multiple questions, suggestions from the table … there was so much to learn and I couldn’t wait to get my hands dirty.

About an hour into the game and away from the Captain Morgan, I realized the mistake I had been making with poker for the last few years. I wondered to myself how good I would be if I continued taking the interest in improving my poker game, just as I did my Mahjong game. If I had continued to seek improvement, would I be a much bigger winner than I am now?

It’s an important question that all poker players should ask themselves from time to time. “How can I bet better?” should be a constant thought for most people. Whether it’s via forums, blogs, training sites or chats with friends (the ones who have half a clue), it’s important to constantly be reevaluating your game and trying to improve. It’s like that in Mahjong, it’s like that in poker and it’s like that in life.

It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this relaxed heading into the WSOP. Usually I’m arriving in Vegas 12 hours before my first tournament, rushed to get setup in my hotel room and registered for the next days’ tournament.
This year is different though. I’ve already been in town for three days and I’m living in a house with three friends. All in all, it feels for the first time like I have a home-field advantage.
My first event is Friday the 29th – a $1500 omaha hi/lo tournament. I’m looking forward to starting with 4500 in chips this year, as opposed to 3000 last year and 1500 in years past. The extra chips should definitely make the tourneys more skill-based.
Honestly, I’ve never felt more ready to play the Series. I’ve been working out regularly and falling asleep at a decent hour, which are two things that I’ve never been able to accomplish leading up to the WSOP. For the first time since I’ve been coming here, I truly do feel 100% focused and ready to play my best in every tournament.
It’s so easy when you’re in Vegas to take tourneys off, knowing there is another one coming tomorrow. As much as anybody, I’ve been a victim of that train of thinking. That’s not going to happen this year though. I’m as focused as ever and ready to play my best.
Last night I played a satellite to the $40,000nl that ran earlier today. I tripled up early when I busted two guys with 99 on a Q93hh flop. One had 6-3 of hearts and another had J-T of hearts. We started the tourney with 105 and were down to 60 when I busted, going from a top-5 stack to busto in two hands.
The first hand I raised to 2000 during the 400-800-100 level with 55 from middle position. The big blind shoved 16k in. Normally this is a snap fold, but the guy had shoved in earlier on more than one occasion, one time showing T-8. Furthermore, I feel that you have to gamble in satellites to win seats and I thought we were flipping at worst. I called, he turned over A9hh and turned an ace. That took half of me 36k stack.
The very next hand I raised to 2k with 98hh and got two callers. The flop came 983 and I bet 3500, leaving myself with roughly 11k behind. One of the callers who had me covered shoved in and showed J-T after I called. Turn jack, river queen, gg me.
All in all, I feel I’m playing pretty well. Lately it seems every tourney I cash in I lose a key flip late to give me a monster stack and a shot at winning. Starting Friday, hopefully that will change!
Good luck to everybody at the Series! If you want to get updates to what's going on with me at the series, follow me at http://www.twitter.com/ericcrain

For the last week, I’ve been telling myself that I need to start packing for Vegas. My flight leaves out of STL on Tuesday and I’ll be in Vegas for 5-6 weeks. I’m a notorious slacker. Preparation and foresight are far from my best qualities. Inevitably, I will forget to bring something important to Vegas. In order to try and keep that from happening, I’m making a list of everything I need to bring. Let me know if you think I’m forgetting anything.

Cash
Clothes
Jacket
PS3
Sporanos DVD set
Various DVDs I haven’t watched yet.
Laptop
Set up Slingbox for laptop.
A couple books.
Golf clubs/shoes
Tennis racket
Sunglasses
Ipod
Headphones
Backpack
Dig. Camera
Ankle/knee braces
Good shoes, workout shoes, sandals
Hats
PS3 controllers/games
Tempurpedic pillow.
Workout gloves
Ipod charger
Toiletries
Contacts
Glasses
Cell phone/charger

This is just all off the top of my head. I’m considering not bringing my laptop this year. I did that last year and really enjoyed only being on the computer 15 minutes a day (using the comp outside of the Rio hotel rooms). This year, though, I’ve got a house with a couple guys, so a public computer won’t be as readily available to me. Last year, I lasted until after Day 1 of the Main Event. I made it through, then realized I was going to have to wait 5 days before playing again. I immediately went to best buy and bought a new laptop. I don’t want that to happen again, so I’ll probably just bring mine.

Like I said, if there is anything missing, put in a comment and let me know. I’m surely forgetting plenty of things.

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down at my computer on a weekday, fired up multiple tournaments and got rid of any possible distractions. Generally, I’m chatting on AIM and MSN, checking my facebook, watching ESPN all while play 4-6 tournaments. I know people who are talented and focused enough to do that. I’m not one of them.

Of course, this has hurt my bottom line. After all, how can I figure out what to do with AQ in middle position with a raiser in front if I’m busy trying to figure out how much hair gel the guy on TV is using?

For professional poker players though, this is a common problem. We see so many hands, use huds, focus on stack sizes and the bubble that almost everything in instinctual. It’s pretty easy to trick yourself into believing that it’s perfectly okay to play MLB: The Show while 6-tabling. Today, though, I’m forcing myself to just play poker. Even my phone is shut off.

It’s amazing the things that are noticeable when you’re actually paying attention! People are 3-betting me with 63o, it’s easier to find the people who are stalling at the bubble, it’s easier to pick up timing tendencies. I had no idea some of this stuff was happening at my table. People 3-betting rags didn’t used to happen nearly as often. Now, with the caliber of the average poker player being way higher than it was a few years ago, you simply cannot afford to give up any edge. When you start paying attention to the table instead of chatting with your ex-girlfriend of 4 years ago, poker becomes easier. The easier it becomes, the more money you can make, which is the reason we play the game.

Maybe this is why I’ve had more success live than online. Aside from the typical hot cocktail waitress, there are simply less distractions. It’s easier to pick up on nuance when you have eight opponents as opposed to 58. It’s also easier to figure out whom at the table to pick on when you know exactly what’s been going on.

It’s quality over quantity. It’s a rare group of people who can play nine tables and play their best at all times. Self-awareness is so important in poker, and it’s important to know what sort of environment you need to be in to play your best. Poker might not be as much fun if you’re ridding yourself of distractions or playing fewer tables. If you’d rather watch TV than play poker, go right ahead. Just remember that there will always be somebody out there way more focused than you, picking up things that you aren’t that could be the difference between a small score a huge score. Besides, in the end, winning is way more fun than watching TV will ever be.

Of course, right now I feel a bit like a hypocrite. I’m preaching against distractions, yet I’m playing what were five tables when I started writing this blog, but now are down to four. Time to focus and get back to work!