TomBraband

Posts - August 2009

• taking a break to move in/ downswinging

  August 20, 2009

  The good news is that I am now in my own apartment and have space to myself to relax and regroup mentally. It's a one bedroom apartment near downtown huntington beach, CA that has a spectacular ocean view and a great location.

  I'm (hopefully) closing down one of the larger downswings of my career in the next few weeks. I haven't ran well at all since pretty much May. I haven't hit over a 15k score online since may and I've pretty much lost all the key pots that you need to win to win tournaments. I've looked at my game and looked at others and realized I'm playing very well, just certain adjustments in styles in certain situations (being over aggressive or under aggressive) have been made and I feel like the last 2 weeks online I've been playing extremely well. I've gotten in the top 20 in a ton of sunday majors in recent weeks so I don't think theres anything wrong with my game, if anything I think I am playing as good as I have in a few months. The next step is just to get out of this funk.

  I'm not the type to panic, as I have plenty of money saved up from my heater during the fall and spring so I'm no where near going busto, but my horses have under performed online since vegas so that doesn't help either. I have faith they will bust out of that and start hitting some big scores as well. WCOOP is coming up and so I'm anticipating a big series. I plan on buckling down, lowering volume in other tourneys to focus on those and hit a few big scores.

  I haven't played any poker since sunday because I've been busy doing things to get settled in to the apartment but I will play sunday and then probably wednesday and put in a few cash sessions before the start of WCOOP. Dave and I have a double lunch date and a round of golf planned out for tomorrow. That should be fun, especially because I haven't gotten to hang out with him for a few weeks because we've both been so busy. I'm confident that good things are on the horizon and am anxious to be able to look out at the ocean to relax while I play and have that lead to better focus and play. See you all for WCOOP!

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• Making the move to Cali. Life/poker update

  August 01, 2009

  So it's been awhile since I have posted a new blog so I wanted to share some updates on my life. After the series I finished the drive out to orange county, CA and have been living with mike and jake for a few weeks. I am currently in a hotel in newport beach for the week until I can hopefully find an apartment for a month before moving in with doc sands and/or pokerjamers in september. I haven't been playing a ton of mtt's since vegas as I am still on a slight burnout but I have been putting in a lot of hours at the cash tables online. I've had some good success so far as I continue to learn from my mistakes every day.

  I put in a session at commerce the other day with mike, jake and his buddy whitey. I sat with 3k at 10/20 and doubled up the first hand qq against a missed combo draw so that was pretty sick. I got in a couple questionable spots that I think I misplayed that cost me a lot of money that I'll share. I raised to 70 utg 6 handed with TT and both blinds called. The flop came JT9 rainbow and the sb immediately led out for 200. Kind of a weird spot I decided to raise to 550, didn't really like my raise size after I did it, i thought i shoulda made it more. He called. Turn was a brick 5 or 2, and he checked. I really thought about checking behind for deception/ pot control/ maybe catch a bluff on the end type reasons but i decided to bet 950 and he shoved for 2700 more and i reluctantly called knowing it probably wasn't a good call and he showed up with Q8 for a straight and I didn't catch up. That hurt a lot since I was playing in higher stakes cash games than i'm used to. Didn't buy in more and I had about 1500 left and I just grinded it back up to about 4k until getting coolered a8 to 88 on a A83 flop against a donkey, he check raised me on the flop and i just called, turn J and i called 600 again and he bet 1200 on a 6 river with 800 behind and I thought I was losing value against worse 2 pairs so i shoved, hating my shove in hindsight.

  The 2/4-5/10 6max games online have been treating me well, i've profited probably 10-12k in the last 3 weeks, although I did get all in on the flop last night with JJ against 66 on a QJ6 and he turned a 6 for a significant pot lol, but I guess those happen once in awhile.

  I actually got up at 8 this morning to grab some complimentary breakfast with apple downstairs and then we walked on the beach for awhile, really relaxing. I could definitely get used to living on the beach for the next 10 months thats for sure. Newport beach is beautiful, I hope I can make it my home and find a good place for atleast the next year.

  Hoping to get back into a tourney grind with upcoming ftops and wcoop series so that should be exciting, I'll probably take a break for a few days before thats starts and hopefully find some good plans for my birthday next sunday.

  -TT

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