Day 3
Sunday August 10, 2008
The schedule for Sunday didn't start till 11 AM. Since most of us were at the night club for a while. This was my first time in Vegas, and I really didn't get a chance to do anything outside the weekend with daniels activities.
So I headed to an outlet mall and bought a few things. My brother and sister-in-law wanted to get a quick bite to eat. We found a McDonald's, and we found the most stressed out McDonald's worker in the world. She was in all out panic mood. It was the breakfast/lunch cutoff time, and she had no kept screaming to see how many sausage breakfast sandwiches were available.
The weather was a bit hot for my liking, and I just order a milkshake, since I would have be going to the catered breakfast soon. Well, the shake machine had a problem and it added even more stress for the manager working there. I haven't seen someone that stressed out like in a long time. All I know is, if I ever get stressed out, I would quit my job instantly. She literally, even had a tear in her eye. I just assumed that the job really means something to her and she can't afford to lose it.
In any case, my brother dropped me back at the Casino, and I headed to our private room. Early on we all had breakfast. Daniel came in later, and told us one of his friends got thrown in the slammer. A little too much alcohol. She threw stuff around in the hotel room, and other guests contacted security. She then 'confessed' to hitting her bf/husband.....which is an automatic date in the slammer for 24 hours.
Many of the other guys were hung over. And there was talk about how crazy a few of the other guys were. The breakfast was good, and we got ready for the day's learning activity.
Daniel had one of his guys cut up hands from high stakes poker. To be honest, there wasn't that many hands we looked at. The ones we did though, had a good material in it.
The first part of the HSP analysis, was basically DN, going through some of the hands he played. His thought process, the what the thought process of his opponents could be.
This part of the weekend was by far the most interesting/valuable to me. He showed hands were some of the games best made some clear mistakes.
After a few hands of those, we went through what he called player profiles. He looked at hands a few specific individuals, and how they play, and what you can look for against them....and how to counter their strategy.
We specifically looked at Sammy Farha, Jamie Gold, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, and Minh Ly. Each of these players have their strengths and weaknesses. DN dissects their game and showed a few ways to take advantage of how they play.
After going through these hands, Daniel had copies of his book, and signed one for everyone. In mine he wrote, who needs a job when you play as well as you do!
We were also given a digital picture frame with a SD card with a few pictures from the event. We all took a break and were to meet back at the poker room at 6:00 for a tournament.
I returned to my room to rest. I watched a bit of tv, and decided to take a shower before going back to play the tournament.
We were going to play a 11 handed SNG. The winner would get a PCA package to the Bahamas worth 12k, second place was a $4k Cartier watch, and the third place was a $1500 WSOP Academy Training package.
I knew I was one of the favorites to win the tournament. I really had no interest in the third place package at all. I wouldn't mind winning second place, as I'm sure I could win a PCA package, but would never buy a Cartier watch.
Before the tournament began, DN and the guys bet on the winner of the tournament. They had a snake draft with 5 people picking two horses. DN ended up drawing the first pick. I later found out he picked me first, but I basically knew I would be either the first or second pick.
In any case, the tournament begins with everyone with 10k in chips and 15 minute blinds. My initial strategy was to play a lot of hands and and be cautiously aggressive. The first hand, I played a bit poorly and lost more chips then I should have with A10 on a AKQ rainbow board...and lost to KQ.
That was fine, I tried to stay patient and still had plenty of chips. With 7800 chips and blinds at 100/200, a mid to late position player bumps it to 500, cutoff calls, I'm on the button with 5
7
, and make the call. Both blinds call and we head to the flop 5 way.
The flop comes Q
5
7
. A good flop for me, but very dangerous. The blinds check, and I'm counting the pot and figuring what size a bet I should be making...I'm thinking about 1500 into a 2500 chip pot is good....before that is possible, the cutoff bets 1500 into the pot.
I think about my move. Calling here would really suck. I would be guessing if a club, 3, 4, 8, or 9 comes. A queen would pretty much kill my hand, and if any high card like A, K, or J, and I may have let him hit a higher two pair.
If I raise, then I don't see how I'm not all in. There's already 4k in the pot and with 7300....I really want to protect my hand....and hope it holds against a hand like AQ or against Q+flush draw type hand.
There's only three hands in the deck I can be afraid of, QQ, 55, 77. The last two are just not very likely since I hold 57. It's just way more likely he has a hand like AQ, or a draw, then it is for him to have top set, so I shove trying to protect my hand. The rest folds to cutoff and he slowrolled me with QQ.
I really didn't have a problem with the hand. I don't really see how I could avoid the situation. I wasn't that disappointed at all. I knew I had learned a lot and wish the guys well.
I hung around and watched some of the action, as well as the Olympics with the guys. I talked to DN for a little bit and asked how I could improve my game. He told me to play different games. To play cash games and less tables to focus. He wanted me to think about the hand and the opponents more. And not just play the robotic shove or fold preflop in the regular turbo games I play.
I also talked to him about another card game I knew he plays. Big 2 or Choi Dai Dee, is a popular Chinese game that has elements of poker in it. This is kind of how I started playing poker. In any case, I asked what poker players actually play that game, since it's not a wide spread game. He said it was just a few buddies of his back in Toronto.
In that game, there's a simple strategy that is highly effective. The strategy is to never play your lowest single, unless you can win the hand. To people who have played it, it sounds like an insane strategy. And initially it's hard for guys to get their heads around.
DN had a similar reaction as to most...it took me about two minutes to change DN's mind and he could see how this strategy works. He was like you're right, I'll have to try it next time.
Most people I tell this to, never get it...and don't understand. It took less than two minutes to convince DN that the strategy had merit and could be used effectively.
While watching the Olympics, the womans gymnastics's competition was on. During one of the floor routines, one of the girls went from one corner to the other with somersaults tumbling and crazy flips and stuff. He turned to one guy and basically offered him a 100k freeroll if he could execute one of those crazy routines within a year's time.
The guy was seriously considering it, I was like, there's no way in hell...lol.
The tournament was still going on and they got to four handed. I had been talking strategy and was cheering for who I thought was the best player in out of the group.
It was evident he didn't play many tourneys, as he made a few brutal mistakes. During a break, I had asked him what he was playing for. He didnt' really understand my question. I wanted to know if he cared about finishing 3rd or 2nd or if he was only going for the win. He told me he only cared about the win. Which made how he played before that even worse.
Basically he had a huge advantage over his competitors, but he fail to realize/use it to his advantage. It was very obvious that there were guys that wanted to finish at least third. They played way too tight with the blinds so high and the action four handed.
If I was in the same position, I would have ran over the table pretty easily - or busted out trying to. Since your goal is to only win, that's a fine strategy for the bubble play in the late stages.
After the break he made the adjustment and doubled up off the chip leader. He put himself in a position to win, when he called the all in off the chip leaders with a flush draw with 107s vs his opponents 93, when both players missed the flop. (The chip leader was just trying to run over the table). In any case, the chip leader hit a 4 outer on the river and took a huge chip lead and went on to win.
After the tournament was over, we congratulated the winner and you could tell DN was exhausted from the weekend. We all thanked him before taking off.
I had an early flight out the next morning...instead of sleeping for just 3 or 4 hours, I decided it would be better for me to just stay up all night and enjoy the last night in Vegas. I ended up playing BlackJack for most of the night. I won about $250 pretty easily as I watch guys around me play really stupid. Guys hitting 17 vs a dealer 10. Then next hand standing on a 16. Coming in and out of the shoot. I ended up hitting 20's and BJ's like no tomorrow....and basically ended up making money on the trip...lol.
Not long after I got my stuff and headed for my limo to take my flight out return home.
The weekend was pretty awesome. I know $15k is a lot of money, but for guys that can afford it...you will probably make more than that back. I've won packages to the Aussie Millions, the PCA Bahamas, and 12k WSOP packages. I can say this weekend was more rewarding/enjoyable than those by far.
I learned a great deal over the weekend and had an awesome time. DN is a really good guy and what you see on tv is the same way he's like in person. He's one of the most accommodating players and go out of his way to sign autographs and take pictures for fans.