Archive for July, 2009

The last two months have been pretty brutal. Certainly part of that was due to whiffing the WSOP and a few failed shots at 40/80, but even my regular games have not been going well. Unlike in past downswings, I don’t feel that I’ve experienced extraordinarily brutal luck. There were some unfortunate spots, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that I haven’t been playing my best. I’m still in the early stages of evaluating what may have gone wrong, but one thing I noticed was a dramatic dip in my $ won without showdown. That could be due to playing too loose on early streets or bluffing badly, but I think at least part of it is due to folding too often. Thus, I played some 10/20 heads up today with a focus on catching bluffs. It went well:
Full Tilt No-Limit Hold’em, $20.00 BB (2 handed) – Full-Tilt Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB ($2080)
Hero (BB) ($2020)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6, 7
SB bets $60, Hero calls $40

Flop: ($120) 2, 4, 7 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $80, Hero raises to $210, SB raises to $380, Hero calls $170

Turn: ($880) K (2 players)
Hero checks, SB checks

River: ($880) 6 (2 players)
Hero checks, SB bets $1160, Hero calls $1160

Total pot: $3200 | Rake: $0.50  Read the complete post...

Maryland-based freelance reporter Bill Ordine recently penned an article for the LA Times entitled “Poker Professionals Ante Up for Charity“. While it’s primarily about high-profile projects like Ante Up for Africa and Bad Beat on Cancer, he uses yours truly as an example of smaller scale philanthropy enabled by poker:

“But the 26-year-old Brokos’ real passion isn’t poker. It’s coaching inner-city schoolkids in the art of debate. When he couldn’t get a paying job in education pursuing his interest in forensics, he used his poker winnings to support himself while he started the Boston Debate League, which has grown from three schools in 2005 to eight. Impressed with Brokos’ bootstrap work, the city school system provided funding for a full-time executive director to run the league, but Brokos continues to donate his time several days a week — with poker remaining as his means of support.”

I should clarify that technically, the Boston Public Schools (BPS) is not providing the full-time executive director. He’s solely an employee of the Boston Debate League (BDL), which is an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization that raises funds from individuals and public foundations (no poker tournaments yet). BPS does, however, provide stipends for teachers who coach debate, food and supplies for participating students, and train fare to help low-income students attend BDL events. Still pretty sweet to get this kind of national attention though!

When I made it through to Day 3 of the WSOP, my girlfriend came out to Las Vegas to be with me. Sadly, there didn’t turn out to be much more poker to watch, so we took the next few days to travel in the area. We were in Bryce Canyon last night, and tonight we’re staying in a quiet little Mormon town called St. George. Quiet except…

So we were outside in the pool, about to come in and shower before dinner. I was toweling off when I heard a sudden, angry shout, “Get down! Get down on the fucking ground!” I didn’t even really panic, because although it’s a scary thing to hear, you just don’t expect to get robbed in a La Quinta pool. I mean, is there a stupider place to try to rob someone than a hotel pool?

I looked up, and sure enough there were two men with two guns drawn. Thankfully, they were pointed at a third guy, who is indeed face-down on the ground. As best I could tell, the two with guns were undercover police officers. In any event, they had got no interest in us, so we quickly headed back inside. It was pretty surreal though to see guns brandished at a hotel pool in Mormonville.  Read the complete post...

Ironically, after surviving two days at three tough tables playing in some cases less-than-stellar poker, I busted at a great table after a few hours where I think I was playing quite well.

The day got off to a nice start. Blinds were 600/1200/200 On the third hand, I overcalled a raise with 22 on my BB, flopped K52, and led out for 4400. The pre-flop raiser called, and the other guy folded. Turn was a 6, I bet 7000, he called. River 9, I bet 15K, he tanked, called, and mucked when I showed my set. That got me up to 125K right away.

About 20 minutes later, I raised to 3000 with 54s in middle position. The same guy (the Czech) called in the SB. Flop JT3 with two of my suit. I bet 4400, he raised to 15K with about 40K behind, and I shoved. After some thought, he called with AJ. The turn was a 7 to give me a gutshot, but the river blanked and I was down to 60K.  Read the complete post...

Just finished up the first break of the day, Andrew is down to 26k after a couple hands didn’t get there. Table is much less intense than days 1 and 2 though, so we’ll see.

Updates on twitter fairly regularly, you can view the feed at www.twitter.com/thinkingpoker

Thanks to everyone for following along and for the good luck wishes!

First off, I want to say thanks to everyone who’s commented to wish me luck or to share intelligence. What an amazing thing that one of you is a Russian from Prague able to offer some insight into both a Czech opponent and a Russian one! I’m not going to lie to you: the WSOP is an awesome experience no matter what. But it’s so much more exciting to have people in my corner! Thanks for following along, I’m touched and flattered. Hopefully I’ll have a few more days of excitement to share.

I really didn’t play that many big hands on Day 2, but here are three kind of interesting ones:

At 300/600/75, Ludovic raises to 1500 UTG+1 and I call with JJ. Pagano calls behind me, Levy calls on the button, and a loose/bad Swede calls in the BB. Flop Tc 7c 5d. Ludovic bets 2600, I raise to 7000, two folds, he calls. Turn 2h, we both check. River 8d, he checks, I tank. Granted my hand looks like a busted draw, but his range for raising in early position, betting into four people on the flop, and calling a raise shouldn’t be that wide. Given that my hand looks like a missed draw, he ought to be checking even his strongest hands to me on the river, but in reality he probably isn’t. I decline to value bet, giving him way too much credit and costing myself probably 9-10K. He shows an 8. I show my Jacks and he calls me the worst player he’s ever seen and walks away from the table in disgust.  Read the complete post...

Don’t recognize any names, which is a nice change of pace:

Toriani, Keith 110,200 BR224 1
Lezcano, Ed 23,900 BR224 2
Hai, Le 113,100 BR224 3
Brokos, Andrew 92,200 BR224 4
Phung, Steve 26,500 BR224 5
Bykov, Andrey 27,500 BR224 6
Pages, Fernando 87,100 BR224 7
Fiala, Miroslav 103,500 BR224 8
Stanchewski,Paul 12,200 BR224 9

Keith Toriani- Nothing on him

Ed Lezcano- Nothing

Le Hai- Name is way too similar to common French, Italian, and Chinese words for accurate googling

Steve Phung- A couple shallow cashes in small live events, can’t find anything else on him

Andrey Bykov- He’s from Vladivostok and either is or shares a name with one of Putin’s top economic advisors. If it’s the former, I might have a new “Table of Death” to worry about!

Fernando Pages- According to his World Poker Showdown profile, he lost his job in December and has since been earning a living in local bar leagues and casinos. His interests include “meeting hot girls” and “poker cruises”.

Miroslav Fiala- Nothing in English nor anything in any other language that looked promising

Paul Stanchewski- Final tabled a $1500 Bellagio tournament.

Not much here, but this is one of those “no news is good news” situations. Seems like an unremarkable table, which is very welcome.

I did a “Turning Point” segment today with Cardplayer’s Kristy Arnett about a key hand from Day 2A of the WSOP.

Just to provide a little more detail about the hand: blinds were 300/600/75. I opened to 1500 with KJo, Luca Pagano called, Grant Levy made it 4500 on the button, I made it 11K (not 12K as I say on the video) to go with 33K behind. This isn’t a spot I’d put myself in against a player who can 5-bet bluff but I wasn’t worried about that here. The flop was QTx with a spade draw. I bet 16K, he tanked for what felt like forever and folded.