Was in Vegas from Fri thru Mon.  Played the 2/4 NL game at Mandalay Bay which is actually a pretty good NL game compared to many Vegas poker rooms (the best games, at least for me, are at the Bellagio, then the Venetian/Wynn).  The 2/4 NL game at Mandalay has a buy in from $200 to $400.  But anyway, the player composition was probably just right for me.  You had 3-4 guys who were really trying to play well, they really thought they played very well and talked out their strategy out loud.  So I just thankfully listened and was able to pick up who I could bluff off a hand and what types of hands they were playing and what they thought I was playing.  I can never understand why people at a poker table explain to others on the table (even their poker playing friends) what they were thinking and their strategy.  THere were 2-3 typical guys you see at a Vegas poker table, drunk, playing all kinds of stupid cards, and can't fold top pair, just calls on a draw/folds on the river when they miss. 

There was 1 guy who played pretty well but had a tilt problem and would play very aggressively when he missed his hands on the river or when the board got really scary.  He had about $400-$500 throughout the night.  I pushed him off 1 hand and was just waiting to get into a good hand with him while he was tilting.  But the situation never came to fruition.  This guy was funny, the first hand I see when I get to the table he calls a raise from early position.  Then the action get raised and re-raised when it comes back to him.  He thinks for about 20 seconds and folds.  After the hand was over (the other guys showed AA and QQ), I said to this guy, "you had 8's?"  He looks at me with a smirk and says "chhhhhhhh (or some sound effect like that), no".  Two minutes later he tells his friend at the table sitting next to him he had 9's.  Yeah, buddy, I was way off.  I really thought I was going to get him sooner or later.

I finally hit a casino high hand bonus.  I limped on the button w 6c 3c and flop a straight flush.  THe best part was that the big blind also had 6 3 and we get it all in on the turn and I double up to about $900.  I also get paid $500 for the straight flush bonus.  First time I hit any kind of bonus.  Hopefully it's a sign of good things to come.

Played at the Wynn on Sun night.  I first played the 5/10 game with an unlimited buy in. I bought in for $1,000.  The stack sizes were between $600 to $3,000.  This was the first time in 2 years that I played at the Wynn so I wasn't sure what to expect.  The game was pretty passive, lots of limping, limp/calling, etc.  Just make a hand and get paid off.  Or find that 1 or 2 guys that are trying to play really well and make a believable bluff against them.  I only played for 40 mins then had to go to dinner with a bunch of guys.  I wish I could have played more. 

About 4 hours later, I got back to the Wynn and there's only 1 5/10 table with a long waiting list.  So I jump on the 2/5 NL game and it has an unlimited buy in also.  I buy in for $500.  A trend that I've been seeing a lot in Vegas lately is that there seems to be 3-4 regulars per table who all know each other, talk to each other and the dealers by name.  So, these guys become my targets for bluffs.  If you're trying to grind out a living playing 5/10, you have a big target for bluffs since you probably make most of your money off of tourists who can't fold top pair or miss their flush draws.  Once I hear someone say something that sounds like they "play for a living", I fire at them at scary boards.  I figure if you're a "pro" and you're playing 5/10, how good can you be?  If you were really good, you'd be at least at the 20/40 games at the Bellagio, wouldn't you?  I would, if I was good enough.  Lately what I've been doing is play extremely tight for the first 1-2 hours (or long enough for these regulars to notice) while I try to call out/guess their hands.  Normally I get pretty close to what they have, so now they have to figure me for a competent player and have to give me respect.  Then I can make some plays at them when I don't have it and make big bets when I do have it, which by that time hopefully it looks like I've been stealing and they want to look me up.  We'll see how long this works.

Anyway, continuing with my results from 9/15, I'm +$1,065 playing live (which doesn't include the $500 straight/flush bonus since there was no skill involved in that) over 20.4 hours and +$38 online over 32 hours.  My cumulative total since 9/15 is +$3,036 live over 42 hours (not including the bonus) and +$1,642 online over 101 hours.  In summary, I need another $10,000 to go by mid Dec for my Bellagio 5 Diamond entry fee.

Most importantly, I think I figured out my online leak.  I sorted all my daily online results for 2007 and noticed that I seem to lose a lot during the week when I play after going to work.  This seems about right, hopefully it's the cause, since I tend to be tired from working on taxes during the day.  And when I'm tired, I tend to shove my chips in without much thought and run my big pairs into sets and I also tend to make a lot of bad calls.  So since mid last week I decided NOT to play on the days I go to work.  I realized this after some losing sessions last week, the reason why I'm about break even since the last post.  So, hopefully: 1.) this is my online leak that I've been searching to find for the past year and 2.) that I have the discipline to stay away from the online tables after work.  I really need another hobby to occupy myself.

My goal between 9/15/07 until mid December is to win $15,000 for an entry into the Bellagio 5 Diamond event.  This event is very close to my heart since in 2005 it was my first major tournament.  I wasn't able to play in it in 2006.  I tried 2 one table satellites and 1 multi table satellite unsuccessfully in 2006.  This year, I just want to win my entry in regular games before then.  And if I don't win the $15K, I'll decide if I want to fork out the money to play in it.  before I pay out my own money for these tournaments I can't help but think that $10,000 or $15,000 can buy a lot of things and that it's a pretty excessive expenditure, if not stupid.  But, if you want the big reward and big payday, you have to be willing to pay the big price, right?  At least that's what I tell myself. 

I'm hoping to play 20-30 hours a week between 9/15 until the end of the year.  Since my work busy season has concluded for the most part on 9/15, this should be possible.  But I can't make the same mistake last time and play mostly online, I figure I need to play 2-3 days a week live to have a chance of making enough money.  My online results are just not good.  maybe the online players are much better or I just play worse online or perhaps my live game is just much better, or maybe all 3 are true.  I've made some adjustments to my online game, so hopefully it's finally turning around for me. 

As an aside, I will say that one of the biggest differences between online and live play is that at least at the 2/4 No Limit online games, the average player is much more knowledgeable about "book" poker theory, pot odds and they seem to work much harder at their games than live players at the 5/10 tables at the Bellagio/the Bike or the 10/20 at Commerce.  But the online players definitely aren't focusing that much on the moment at hand since most of the winning players are playing between 4 and 12 tables at a time.  I have no idea how you can play more than 4 tables at a time.  I get dizzy playing 4 tables after 2-3 hours.  I'd say that a typical 9 handed online 2/4 game would have 1-3 fish, 3-5 break even players and 2-3 winning players.  Live 10/20 and 5/10 games typically have 2-5 fish, 2-4 break even players and 2-3 winning players.  Bottom line, there are plenty of losing players, about the same in comparision, but there's probably more winning players online.

anyway, so far, I've played 70 hours online and am +$1,605 (playing mostly 2/4 9 handed no limit games, messing around with .50/1 PLO and small HORSE games like 3/6 limit); and played 22 hours live and am +$1,971 (playing 10/20 at Commerce and 5/10 at the Bellagio/Bike); for a toal of $3,576.  Not a bad start, not great, but not bad - losing would be bad.  I need to pick up the hours to average 20-30 a week.

Another disappointing tournament for JK.  The structure was pretty good, starting with 5,000 chips with 1 hour levels, 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 100/200 +25 ante.  Again, I just couldn't get anything going.  I bust out at the 5th level after I push all in with AK and 2,000 in chips (more below on how I got crippled 10 hands earlier) against a Button steal who had K4.  The door card was a 4 and I'm out.  The guy who busted me was an older (gotta be close to 60) pro who's made over $1 million according to cardplayer.com.  Anyway, this old guy was just steaming because he misplayed pocket Aces the previous hand and lost a big pot.  And as luck would have it, I was the unfortunate beneficiary of his tilting.  Whatever, I can't complain, I got my chips in as a 70-30 favorite and got hit with the 30% bad result.  Besides, I never should have let my chips get that low in the first place.

The hand the crippled me was also during the 5th level with 100/200 blinds+25 ante.  I'm in the BB w AJo.  The CO, a different old guy, raises to 600.  I have about 8,200 or so in chips.  Just in case the CO is trying to steal my blinds I decide to pop him one time with a big pre flop raise.  So I raise to 2,200.  I actually threw out the wrong amount of chips I wanted to.  I meant to raise to 2,000 but forgot to pull back my 200 big blind.  Whatever, Opponent calls.  I decide after he called that I was done with the hand.  I figure he has like 10's, J's, Q's, maybe AK, AQ.  The flop comes K 7 4 rainbow.  While I did decide that I was done with the hand, the flop was just too dry for me not to bet and try to take it down.  the only problem was that I only had 6,000 left and a good sized, meaningful bet would consume a big chunk of my stack if I was wrong.  But with the flop of K high, the only hands I figured I had to worry about were AK, KK and maybe AA - I really doubted he had AA though.  And if he had 10's, JJ or even QQ, or AQ, it would be tough for him to call a big bet by me since I wouldn't have much left.  I bet out 3,500, leaving me with 2,500 left if I lose.  He instantly goes all in.  I instantly stepped in it and fold.  I think he had KK or AK.  Now I'm crippled with 2,500 in chips, the very situation I dread being in.  I really should have only raised to 1,700-1,800 preflop, that way my continuation bet could have been much smaller and I could have escaped with having still about 4,000 - just enough to be somewhat selective and have some folding power.  And I can't be thinking that every late position raise at my blinds are guys trying to steal.  Especially these older guys.  Gotta give them credit for a hand.

I was really off in this event, having lapses in my concentration, etc.  I really misplayed another hand earlier.  I actually bet out the wrong amount of chips again.  I'm not sure why, but I can't seem to focus 100% since the World Series and my tournament play has been dreadful.  I'm very disappointed in my Legends and this events performance.  So much so, that I'm not going to play anymore tournaments until the $15,000 WPT event at the Bellagio in December.  I'm thinking that maybe because the World Series was such an exciting, adreline pumping event, I'm not as anxious to play in other tournaments and therefore, can't maintain my focus/concentration.  I think I need to wait a while to play another one until I get REALLY anxious.  I'm not sure how those top tournament players do it, play consistently well every event.  I guess that's why they're TOP players.  I give those guys a lot of credit.  They have the mental stamina of an Ironman competitor.

The one hand I bet the wrong amount was I had Qs 9c in late position and tried to steal the blinds+antes and raised to 700.  The BB (who finished 70 something in this year's WSOP) called.  The flop came down Q little little, all clubs.  The BB bets out 750.  I figure he has some kind of AQ, KQ, QJ, Q 10 type of hand here.  But I really want to know if he has the Ace of clubs.  So I decide to make it 2,100 but throw out the wrong color chips so I barely throw out 1,400.  The dealer tells me I have to complete the raise and make it 1,500.  The BB just calls.  Since he just called I figure he doesn't have the Ace of clubs, if he did, I guessed that he would move it all in there.  So I decide that I'm going to represent that I have a big hand on the turn and since he doesn't have the Ace of clubs he also has to be concerned that I do.  The turn blanks off with no club, he checks and I think about whether to pull the trigger and move all in.  At this point, I figure I'm beat but I think there's a good chance he doesn't have any club and my 9c would be good if a club rivers.  I'm telling myself that I'm about 60% sure that he'll fold to my all in shove.  I don't think this guy would call off a big chunk of his stack with just top pair on a 3 flush card board without a draw to at least a K high flush.  I thought he was too good of a player for that.  But I'm really trying to be much more selective in choosing my bluffs.  I'm so tired of firing off a bluff against a player who can't fold one pair.  Anyway, after about 45 seconds or so, I move all in for about 3,500.  He thinks for 1-2 mins and folds.  He said he had K Q.  I told him I had AK with the Ace of clubs, just to get him steaming and he did steam. 

I really don't get it, but people really hate it when they get bluffed off a hand.  To me, that's like a boxer yelling and screaming everytime he takes a good shot to the body - so long as you don't get knocked out, getting hit every now and then is just part of the game.

Anyway, I'm just going to work on my cash games until December.  I'll write later how I've done in cash games since July.  I'm in Vegas now for the next few days and don't want to jinx myself.  As of now, I'm hoping to win my $15,000 entry fee by playing live games at least 2-3 x's/week.  And I really want to win at least $10,000 playing online by December.  But, I can't seem to consistently win online no matter what I do.  Hopefully I'll turn the corner soon because I really would rather just stay at home and play.

What a disappointment, I make it to Day2 and bust out within 40 mins.  When I woke up Monday I really thought good things were going to happen to me on Day 2 since I was so unbelievably card dead the first day.  Oh well, not even the top pros go far in every tournament they play in.  A recap of my Legends of Poker experience.

Day 1 - Card dead pretty much the whole day.  I did pick up AA 3 times during the day but got no action each time.  Can you believe that?  I know my image was extremely tight since I was so card dead, but I was making my usual late position raises when it was folded to me.  I even got caught check-raising a A 5 6 flop with pocket 4's and got caught making a big bluff with 6-2 on a flop of K 3 4.  And when the blinds were 400-800 + 75 ante, I only had between 13,000-20,000 chips, I must have pushed all in 3 or 4 times preflop within 2 hours.  And when I pick up Aces to a raise, I get no action???  C'mon, when do I get the dream situation when I have either AA or KK and the opponent has KK or QQ's???  That hasn't happened for me in quite a while.  I swear, that was a pretty card dead experience, even more so than at the World Series and I thought I was card dead then.  I can remember all the good starting hands I had on the first day and it's 2 days afterwards as I write this.  I had 10-10 1x (lost after I called a preflop raise), 4-4 1x, 3-3 1x, 2-2 1x (I won the blinds on this one after I raised pre-flop), 8-8 (I won the blinds) and I had AKo 1x and lost that hand.  No KK, QQ, JJ, not even AQ.  I had 98s 1x and raised with it and ended up losing the pot after I semi-bluffed on the flop - the guy had Aces.  Keep in mind that this is over a 12 hour period.  No sets, no flushes, brutal.  Anyway, I squeaked through Day 1 and ended up with 31,000 chips to start Day2 with the 500-1000 +100 ante.  I like to think that I got through with some good timed steals and by playing a short stack pretty well, but who know's, maybe I was just lucky.  But I think I'm getting pretty good with a short and medium stack in these tournaments.  I have no clue on how to play a big stack since I haven't been fortunate enough to obtain one yet.

Day 2 - After 35 mins or so, I raise UTG with AKo and the guy right next to me pushes all in and makes it 15,500 more to me.  I do a count of my chips and if I call and lose and I have 12,200 left.  If I win, I go over 50,000, still not that great of a chip position considering the blinds.  In a cash game this is a no brainer call I think.  I put the guy on 9's thru Q's or at the worst AQ.  So I figure I'm probably 45-55 against winning.  I think to myself that it's about time I get lucky in this damn tournament at this casino that I truly find disgusting so I make the call.  The guy shows 10-10.  I lose the race.  What a shocker huh?  I played for 12 hours the night before only to lose this race and get crippled.  Any comments on how I played this hand would be appreciated.  I think the best play was to fold, given that I really thought the guy had some sort of pair.  In other words, 55% of time I lose and cripple myself.  Oh well.  Not even Doyle Brunson does well in every tournament he plays in so at least I find some comfort in that.  By the way, Doyle's daughter Pamela Brunson was on my table on Day 1 and I think she's an excellent player.  Another shocker huh?

Anyway, this was my 4th big tournament that I've played in with a bunch of legitimate pros in it and I think I figured out what many of the top pros do (and more importantly what they dont do) to go far in these events.  That's the good news.  The bad news about these tournaments is that I really hate playing in them.  They're so damn tiring, frustrating and pressure packed.  I mean you have to play 12+ hours every day, while listening to a bunch of annoying voices, stupid stories and bad beats???  It's really brutal.  If it wasn't an opporunity to win hundreds of thousands or a million dollars I wouldn't even bother with them anymore.  I don't think I'm going to play in any more until the Bellagio $15K Five Diamond event in December.  Playing at the Bike was the complete opposite of what I thought it would be.  I thought it would be nice to play at home, being able to sleep in my own bed, etc.  It sucked, playing there in that ugly tournament room that I've played in many times before made everything seem so unspecial, just normal.  And even more so, this one Bike regular (who I think is so annoying and such a weak player) was on my table.  So everytime I tried to fire myself up by telling myself I'm playing in a big WPT event and need to hang in there and play my best, I'd look up and see this idiot.  What a drag on my enthusiasm.  No more tournaments for me at the Bike.  I don't even think I'd play in any at Commerce.  Just Vegas and out of town.  Besides, I really want to work on my cash games since the variance is so much lower.  So my immediate poker plans are to continue working on new things and styles on Full Tilt, play more live games (the 10/20 at Commerce once I'm not busy anymore with work) and play the WPT Bellagio tournament in December.  I want to win my $15,000 entry between now and December.  That's my immediate goal.  We'll see how that goes.

I played the $1,000 super satellite at the Bicycle Casino today.  There were 270-something players; I think I heard 27 seats were being awarded to the $10K WPT Main Event which starts Sat 8/25.  I decided around February that I wasn't going to play satellites anymore or any other tournaments unless I won an entry playing cash games - except for the World Series Main Event.  I really just wanted to play the WSOP Main Event this year because I felt that I've been playing poker for about 4 years and have never played in the Main Event.  I really just wanted to be able to say that I played in it.  ANyway, about today's satellite at the Bike...since I came off my deep finish at the WSOP, I thought maybe I was running really good and should press my luck.  So I made an exception to play in this sattelite. Bad idea.  Same type of tournament as many before and a very similar result that I'm all too used to.  I ended up busting out around 58-59-ish.  I really hate these 30 minute level tournaments.  There's just not enough play.  We started with 3,000 in chips and the first level was 25-25.  Sounds good, except that when you run card dead for an hour, your stack gets really short.  So, no more satellites for me.  After this one, I've lost in a total of 6 of these $1K satellites since the beginning of 2006.  That's it, gotta stop the bleeding.  No mas.

Despite the disappointing result and losing a grand, I felt I played about as well as I could have, given the situations I faced.  I was short stacked since the after the 4th level or so, but was able to keep my stack growing by making some pretty good timed all-in pushed pre-flop.  I tried to steal at least 1x every round and was just hoping that I would wake up with a big hand when everyone thought I was just pushing.  That didn't work out too well for me.  After I made 3 or 4 all-in preflop pushes without showing a hand, I finally pick up Aces after this one guy open raises from UTG+1.  This guy just got to our table so he didnt see how many times I was shoving.  So, I shoved on him and he took a while and folded.  He had a lot of chips.  I'm guessing he had 8's-10's and thought I had 2 overcards like AK, AQ, AJ and didn't want to race.  Bad result for JK. 

Well, at least I can say that everytime I got my chips in and was called pre-flop, I was ahead.  I lost w QQ v A7 and AQ vs 6-8 both times when we got it all-in preflop.  The 6-8 hand was the one that busted me.  The guy was in the cutoff and was just making a normal steal - I was in the small blind.  I guess he felt he was pot committed and this was the same guy I moved in on earlier with the Aces.  Oh well, what are you going to do...

I actually really don't care for playing tournaments, unless it's the really big ones.  From the ones I've played in, and I've played in a lot of $200 to $1,000 tournaments, there's just so much luck involved.  The levels are 45 mins at most and there's just not that much post-flop play.  Of course, I'm sure my dislike for these tournaments are because I've lost so much money playing in them, over $20K.  I'm sure if I was in the black, I'd like them a lot more.  I really prefer playing cash games.  I feel I'm about a 60-65% favorite to have a winning session in a live cash game for a win of $200 to $2000; and about a 20:1 shot just to make the money in a tournament.  Also, 80-90% of all the tournament players I've played with seem to be pretty weak overall (these percentages are for tournaments with buy-ins of $1,000 and below) - I figure if I can play with the weaker tournament players in a cash game, I'd eventually get their money.  Aghhhhhh, I'm sure I'm just rambling on about these weak players because I just busted out and feel pretty pissed about it.

Anyway, I'm playing the WPT Main Event on Sunday.  I bought in for the $10K entry.  I've always wanted to play a big tournament here at home, even though it is at the Bike.  I think that place is such a dumpy place. I mean you go to Vegas and play at the Bellagio or the Rio or the Venetian, and then you go to the Bicycle Casino???  Pretty digusting.  Well, we'll see what happens.  I really like the rush of playing with the big name pro's and just knowing there's a $million+ first prize.  So far I've cashed in 2 out 2 tournaments with $10K+ buy-ins - I'm very anxious to see if I can go 3 for 3...