Posts Tagged ‘poker stars caribbean adventure’

Fellow Poker Savvy Pro Andrew “achen” Chen is at the final table of the PCA $5000 Bounty Shoot-Out event, set to begin at Noon today. There were prizes for winning the first two tables, but now everybody has same chip count and it’s winner take all for the remainder of the prizepool ($200K or so). Gogogogo.

Oh some guy named Shawn Deeb also still in the hunt.

One month into 2010, it’s time to review my progress towards my Yearly Resolutions.

Goal 1: Average 15 Hours/Week Playing My “Regular” Games

I’ve found that 15 hours/week enables me to earn a pretty healthy income, far more than I could make at any real job I could get, without impeding too much on my lifestyle.

I consider my regular games to be anywhere from 2/4 NL to 50/100 NL as well as big tournaments like the Sunday Majors, the FTOPS, and the WCOOP; time spent playing any of these will count towards my goal.

Slightly ahead of pace: I played about 70 hours this month, not counting a few hours spent in smaller stakes games and the PLO8 tournament at the PCA.

Goal 2: Earn $X in NLHE Cash Games

It’s very tough to predict or control what I will earn playing tournaments. With cash games, though, it’s mostly a question of game selection and putting in hours. It’s not something I’m going to announce publicly, but I am going to set a target, and I am going to put in extra hours towards the end of year if I’m on pace to come up short.

Ahead of pace. Running good at 40/80 and 25/50 helps. A few more months like this one, and I’ll be a happy boy.  Read the complete post...

First hand of the day, I raise to 2500 UTG+2 with AKs. Older guy in the CO takes a minute to eye up my stack and think, then shoves some ridiculous amount like 35K. I’m pretty sure he has AQ, because of the hands he would monkey-ship, it’s the only he’s most likely to have to think about (AK/JJ he probably shoves a lot faster).

I’m equally sure he’s going to get there. Sure enough, dealer opesn the flop and it’s Q32 with one spade. Turn and river blank off and finished.

Phil Fucking Ivey

Paul Carrillo

Stephen Baines

Lars Graf

Alan Complainsaw Kessler

Aaron Szerencses

Daniel Walter

Nam Le

Andrew Brokos

That’s right, I’ve got Phil Ivey on my immediate left. To be honest, I’m pretty excited to play with the guy, though I wish it weren’t in a 10K. At least I don’t have many chips to lose to him.

I haven’t googled anyone yet, but I also recognize Kessler and Le.

I’ve always been impressed with the customer service at Poker Stars: the seed with which they respond to issues, the frequency with which they solicit and act upon player input from sites like 2+2, and their general willingness and creativity in addressing customer concerns. I don’t think their support has ever failed to address a request or issue I’ve brought to their attention, usuall within 24 hours and often with a sense of humor as well!

It’s been the same way on the road. Every year that I’ve played the WSOP, it’s been as a Stars qualifier, and I’ve also been among their players at EPT Barcelona and now the PCA. They’ve always had a great events team that’s friendly, flexible, and eager to go above and beyond to ensure that everyone has a great experience.

My flight for Nassau left early Monday morning, and on Saturday afternoon it occurred to me that I still needed to get cash from the bank. Well, I was spoiled in Boston by living just down the street from a flagship Bank of America branch that kept long hours. There were no branches open Saturday afternoon or anytime Sunday anywhere near me. Then I learned that Poker Stars would have a “bank” at the Atlantis where players could withdraw and deposit funds from their accunt. I withdrew some money last night, and it was a quick and easy process.  Read the complete post...

I’ve got myself a nice little room at the Atlantis Resort and Casino. I’m only on the third floor, so the view sucks, but I’ve got a little patio that’s large enough for a table and chairs, whichis kinda cool. The higher rooms just have a very tiny balcony.

I stupidly managed to bring my laptop but forget the power cord, so I’m stuck making this crappy tiny post from the barely functioning WebTB-ish thing they have in the room.

But yeah, I’m here, just got back from a very nice Poker Stars reception where I ran into Shaundeeb, who introduced to a bunch of young internet players I previously knew only by screenname: Adam Junglen, MrBigQueso, FatalError, etc.

I’ll be playing Day 2B (Wednesday), and I’ll do my best to keep you posted. Hopefully I can get this laptop situation straightened out. Technically they have computers here I can use, but like everything here, they are gallingly expensive (the “nominal fee” for the fitness center is $15/day, which is also what I’m paying for this shitty internet.

I’ve been spending most of my time these last few weeks camping, most recently at an amazing site in Arches National Park, and emerging only occasionally to play poker and catch up with the outside world. Annoyingly, this means I’m often at the mercy of either a hotel internet connection or my Aircard, neither of which provides quite as good of an internet connection as one would like when one is playing poker for thousands of dollars. So today the Poker Stars lobby was running at a crawl and I was trying to register for some tournaments while playing other games at the same time. I selected the $200 Sunday Million and clicked OK… or so I thought.

Half an hour earlier than I was expecting, a window popped up with my table. “Welcome to the $2000+$100 single table PCA satellite” it read, or something to that effect. Whoops.

It was definitely too late to unregister through the Poker Stars client. I quickly surveyed my opponents. They were a who’s who of high stakes sit-and-go sharks: Zangbezan, ActionJeff, busto_soon, stevie444, a few others recognized, and two I did not. Even the ones I recognized weren’t necessarily soft spots. For all I know, they could have been fantastic sit-and-go specialists. I hate the things myself and haven’t played them regularly for years. I was sure my proficiency with the proper and shoving and calling ranges was going to be rusty.  Read the complete post...