Late Sunday Sundries

World Series of Poker November Nine final table starts tomorrow night. Woot! I've taped and watched all but the last installment before tomorrow's big day, so I'll need to find time to watch it before the action kicks off. Like the past few years, I will probably stay up as late as my eyelids allow, and then hit the record button to catch any late night action. Watching the shows thus far this year, I have to say the play has been very impressive. Yes, I know they edit for TV and air only the big and exciting hands, but some of the preflop action and reads have been fantastic. I'm also learning a few things about live tells that that I've been looking for on the telly. Good fun. The only (kinda) disappointing thing is the guy I previously thought I wanted to root for to win it all: Mark Newhouse. While I credit his amazing feat making back-to-back final tables, and he's clearly very skilled, the guy kind of comes off as a too-cool tool in the off-table interviews. Too bad, too, as there are only four Yanks in total to root for at the final table, and this guy is one of them. Billy Pappas and Dan Sindelar tie for my vote as to whom I want to win. But if I were a betting man--and you know that I am!--my money is on Felix Stephensen from Norway. He's second in chips and just comes off as a really solid player. Can't wait for the action to kick off manana.

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Been back in town for a few days and I'm finally settling back into "normalcy." Am even planning on playing Wednesday night in a local live tourney. Last time I played there was over five weeks ago, so I'm itching to get back on the felt and splash some pots.

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Got knocked out of the WRGPT "Glaciers" tournament in the practice round this week. Had a busted straight draw on the river and bluff shoved into two players who were calling my bets on all streets. One of these guys was Flyboy, which made my shove a high-percentage play, as he is way too solid to call off without the near nuts or better there, which I knew he didn't have given the earlier street action. Alas, the other player in the hand called with a lone pair and I was sent packing. Good thing it was all for practice. The real tourney should be heating up soon...

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Despite all the travel I've been on, Le Monsieur and I continue to make slow but steady progress on the lessons. We're transitioning to situations where you're facing preflop action from one or more villains....

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...which reminds me of a terrible, terrible, terrible call I saw on tonight's penultimate WSOP broadcast. One of the two remaining first-time amateurs at the table called off his entire stack with KQo against a preflop 4bet. He ended up facing AKs and got knocked from the tourney when there was no reason to do so. Now, don't take the wrong message from this; shoving with KQo there would have been fine and dandy, but calling off your stack when you're not short? No way. Remember, it's far, far, far better to fire the gun then dodge a bullet in poker. Fold to live another day in that situation. Even this bug knows that!

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Went pretty deep in an online 600 player tourney the other night in my hotel room on Bovada. Busted in 22nd place when my KK ran into AA preflop. Then yesterday I lost a huge stack in cash when my KK ran into another AA preflop. Then today I lost another monster stack preflop when I held the AA and my opponent setted up with his KK on a K-5-2. That's poker, but coolers suck, too.

All-in for now...
-Bug

Yes, I'm Alive...

...just unmotivated to post lately. Dunno why, really. I haven't been traveling much, so that's not a valid excuse. I'm also playing pretty much every day (and doing quite well), so I'm not really lacking for material. Also, Le Monsieur and I continue to poke at our training app, which has been both fun and informative. So not really sure why I'm not blogging. Guess it's just the mid-Summer doldrums messin' with my mind

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As mentioned, Le Monsieur and I are slowly but surely nudging the snowball that is our training app off the start-up cliff ledge. I've been involved in small business ventures with other people in the past, and a huge factor in the success (or failure) of said ventures is the chemistry of the personalities involved. So far so good on that front with Le Monsieur. We've had a number of short but productive Skype sessions, including one this week where some significant clarity and progress was made on organizing the training material. Good stuff.

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The week before last I had a big downswing that at the time felt like a punch to the gut. Over a grand lost at the tables. Ouch. I don't run HM2 or PT when I play online (due to the fact that Bovada doesn't allow for it), but the biggest losing hands I recorded in my journal that week were mostly coolers and beats, so in retrospect I don't feel too badly about the run-bad. Yes, there was definitely some poor play mixed in (plus it doesn't help that I continue to donk off money at PLO as I learn the game). Sigh. The good news is I had a very profitable run of sessions this week, and have more than recouped my losses. If the trend continues, then July will be another net positive month for this Bug. Woot.

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The November Nine is set for, uh, November. A lot of unfamiliar names at the table... with one big exception: last year's November Niner: Mark Newhouse made the final table again this year. Considering the incredibly massive starting field sizes, the huge dose of run-good-luck required, and the sheer marathon nature of the event, this is an awe inspiring accomplishment. Dan Harrington last did back-to-back finals in 2003 and 2004, but Action Dan "only" had to best a combined field size of 839+2,576 = 3,415 runners those two years. Newhouse, on the other hand, had to beat a combined field size of 6,352+6,683 = 13,035, or nearly 10,000 more players than Harrington to make back-to-back tables. Wow.

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The Guru has been in town for a few weeks, and we've hooked up a couple of times for lunch and general catching up. We also played one very brief (slightly) losing session of Zone poker together, plus a short (slightly) profitable session of PLO. Good to see the old goat back in the States, but alas he's jetting back across the Pacific Pond to his beach hut and family come Monday morning. He's leaving behind a cheesy short-but-good YouTube video he posted on position here. Now he just needs to buckle down and create more of these... You listening, Mark?

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(Non Poker News)

I've got a non-poker project rattling around in my tiny little brain, and to help understand the scope and organize the material I've been playing around a bit with mind mapping software. I've used this kind of thing in the past with mixed results, but for  this particular project (which has hundreds of constituent pieces) it's been a real boon. I've also used it a tiny bit with the project Le Monsieur and I are fiddling with. The software is web based, free, and very easy to use. It's called Coggle, and while it's not nearly as good as some of the commercial packages, it's perfectly adequate for helping focus me on my new project. Check it out: Coggle.

All-in for now...
-Bug

WSOP: And Then There Were Nine...

Well, the final "November Nine" table has been set for play on 4-5 November later this year. It was a long slug fest for the remaining players, with the clock ticking past 3am before the final table was finally set. And what a brutal ending for my one remaining horse in the race, Carlos Mortensen, who ended up bubbling the final table in 10th place. Carlos turned middle pair with the nut flush draw on a relatively dry board, but JC Tran had turned a disguised straight and the river didn't improve El Matador. To play seven long days of poker, work your way deep into the morning, get to the ultimate bubble... and then lose? Ouch. I can't imagine the disappointment. In some ways, it's worse than busting on something like Day 2, far from the money....

...Okay, maybe not. Carlos still walked away with more than half million bucks, but you have to admit it's gotta be very, very painful to know you fought to just this close to another ME final table, but came up wanting. Ouch, ouch, ouch.

Anyway, here be the chip counts of the chosen Nine:

1. JC Tran. T38M. Tran is the clear the favorite to win it all. He has the stack, obviously, and is also perhaps the most accomplished tournament player of the bunch. He's also been at or near the top of the leaderboard for days now, so he's clearly playing very good poker and not just relying on heaters and cards.
2. Amir Lehavot. T29.7M. Lehavot has a previous WSOP bracelet to his name, so he clearly belongs at this table. Very solid player.
3. Marc LcLaughlin. T26.5M. I don't know really anything about this guy's background.
4. Jay Farber. T25.9M. I watched some of this guy's play throughout the last few tables and he seems like just a solid player.
5. Ryan Riess. T25.9M. Again, don't know much about this player, but he comes off as very solid, too.
6. Sylvain Loosli. T19.6M. Loosli got a lot of attention over the last few days with his big run up the leader board. And his name seems to fit his style: loose and aggressive. Viva la France.
7. Michiel Brummelhuis. T11.3M. This Nederlander was just a chip accumulating machine during the last few days of play. Very impressive, but with a stack this short it's gonna be a tough uphill fight.
8. Mark Newhouse. T7.4M. Short stacked, but very skilled. Newhouse reportedly won a WPT title a few years ago, so he clearly has the chops to be at this table. But like I said: short stacked.
9. David Benefield. T6.4M. The shortest of the short, Benefield is an online cash game specialist who recently hasn't been playing much as he focuses on finishing school. He went from essentially last place on Day 6 to the final table. If I had to pick a dark horse, Benefield is my guy.

Unlike the last few years, where we've had 1-2 lucky amateurs squeak into the final table, this time around we have nine very solid, very, very good players in the hunt. The favorite clearly has to be JC Tran, as stated above, so that's who my brain is picking to win it all. My emotions, however, tell me to go with the shorty at the table, Benefield. Maybe it's the fact that he's a fellow cash game guy swimming with the tournament sharks? Maybe it's just the underdog rooter in me? Who knows. Benefield is short, but he's on JC Tran's immediate left, and all he really needs is one double through to be back in the hunt. Can't wait.

Ya gotta luv dis time of da year...

All-in for now...
-Bug