Weekend At Daniels - very long

[Windbreaker]

Part 2 -

Saturday August 9, 2008

I didn't get a ton of sleep the night before. Just a bit excited about the previous evening and looking forward to the next days event.

I got down to the meeting area and we all got to our private room next to the sportsbook in the Venetician where Daniel would be instructing for most of the weekend. We met around 9 am and had a catered breakfast. Nothing extraodinary, but definately had everyone one would need. DN came in the middle of breakfast and chatted around with some of the guys.

We got ready around 10, and basically everyone sat around in a semi circle as DN went through the day's lesson. Virtually all his material from Saturday is identical the information from PokerVT. I have not gone through everything in his latest book, but I believe it would be much of the same information.

I went through all the material on PokerVT before heading out to Vegas, so much of the information was a review. The material provides the fundamentals to poker and should be understood before a player can become more advanced. Most of the content is geared towards deep stacked tournaments, and/or deep stacked cash games. If players are interested in learning more about the small ball strategy and how to incorporate it to their game and/or seeing how small ball players approach the game, the book/PokerVT is a must have to improve your game.

In any case, most of the players obviously did not go through the material before hand. And very few of them took any notes at all. I took as many notes as I could, even though the majority was a review.

I believe we took a few breaks and maybe took a late lunch. By the time came to 2:00, we had covered preflop and flop play. From 2-4 pm, we all went to our private room at the Ventician poker room. The basic idea was to simulate early stages of a deep stacked tourney. Everyone started with 10k in chips and started with blinds of 25-50. Everyone would play their hand as they normally would. Any time a player folded preflop, but wasn't sure if it's correct, he would set the hand aside. Also any time a player folded after the flop, he would set it aside. After the hand was over, everyone would show their hands and we all discuss the hands.

Right off the bat, it was obvious some of the players were really bad. A lot of them had problems taking instructions (eg. raise 2.5x preflop if you're the first to enter or fold). I didn't have too many interesting hands. I mostly called raises pf and folded when I totally missed the flop.

There were a few interesting hands that came up. One of the other players had position and reraised the 2 or 3 other players pf with 66 (really poor play). He flopped a set and bet really small on the flop and 1010 decided to fold. DN was instructed how the pf raise was really bad, and the flop bet was also bad. It would have been better to check the raggity board and let your opponent catch up. So of course they rabbit hunted and a 10 peeled off. DN quickly changed the cards to help illustrate his point...lol.

I did play one interesting hand late in the session. It might help you guys more if I don't tell you the exact details of how it ended:

11 handed, I have 7800 chips. Blinds are 100/200 antes are 25. I'm in the SB with 6 8. Folds around to a MP+2 or so, who bumps it up to 500. Folds to me in the SB and I call. The pot is roughly 1500. Flops k 10 3. I check, and pf raiser bets 1500. I have 7300 left.

Answer these questions before you read the spoiler in white.
What do you guys do in this spot?
How long did it take you to make that decision?
If you folded - why?
What is your plan if the A comes on the turn?

I took a while to make this decision. I was checking the flop with the intention of calling anything up to 3/4 pot - relatively quickly. The pot size bet confused me - also I'm rarely play live. So I kept thinking weather it was worth the call or not. His pot size bet seem like he had at least a king. I took my time to think about the hand. Then I suddenly realized that I can't call this hand anymore. If I had a king, I would have called much quicker. If I had a 10, I could call or fold...but wouldn't take this long to call. There are no other draws - so my hand is basically face up. I folded the hand.

When DN saw that I folded, he said Wow. He looked at me and said I had to call there. I was getting 2:1 on my call. Also, my opponent might not have the K. He flipped over AKo. He told everyone we want to make straights and flushes and have top pair stack off. He told the dealer to peel the turn. It was the A. And said I should bet 2500 into the 4500 pot on the turn if I had call.

He then looked over to me and asked why I folded. I briefly said I didn't want to play the hand face up. He said Wow again. He was like yeah, yeah...because you took so long to make the call. I nodded and he said, you know what you can do against good players. If you have a strong hand, like a set, you can play it the exact same way. If the turn misses the flush, you can check the turn and your opponent will stack off.

There were no other hands I played that were at all interesting. One of the better other players ended up laying down QQ's preflop. Action folded to a shortty, who raised to 500. QQ calls in position, only to have the button pop it up to 2800. The short stack went in for about 4k. QQ didn't take too long to fold before the re-raiser called.

Everyone flipped open their hands and the 2800 chip raiser also had QQ's and the shortty had 55. When the good player folded QQ, DN was totally impressed and said most of the time, you're looking at AA/KK, in the spot he was in. We basically got to the point where, we're never that happy to be all in preflop before the flop - in deep stacked situations. It was an impressive fold, and I wasn't sure if I could make it.

In any case, after all that, we went back to the private room and went over turn play. We ended the session around 5 or 6. And it felt like a long day. I think everyone was tired. It was almost like going back to school all over again.

We all were free till 8:00. We planned to meet at Morel's - a steakhouse outside the Palazzo Lobby. The guys love choosing steak houses whenever they hang with Daniel as he is a vegan. We had our own private room in the back. I talked with some of the other guys. Mostly to one of the organizers of the weekend events. He usually helps with the production of the PokerVT material and plays a bit online.

We had oysters, shrimp, and octopus for starters. Unfortunately seafood isn't high on my list of things to eat. During dinner, DN shared some stories and we had some interesting conversation. He mentioned how hard it was for him to play lower stakes. Apparently he's been asked by railbirds - Halle Berry 6 hours dead or Kathy Liebert....that led to more interesting conversation. I also talked to the guys about how to multi-table and etc. Over dinner, I had a steak and it was one of the best steaks I've eaten. I'm usually not a steak guy, but this new york steak was delicious. We also got Creme Brulee for dessert. Needless to say, I was stuffed from dinner.

So after dinner, we headed to the Tao Beach night club. It's basically an outdoor night club...so since it's still hot, I thought it was a good idea to wear shorts. Apparently not. The bouncers there love their authority. They made up rules as they go. From no where, they decided people needed collars to enter the club. Then everyone needed pants....even though half the girls in there were half naked anyways.

So I returned to the hotel room which is a bit of a ways away and changed before returning. One of the coordinators came back to get me and when I back and the club was packed. We finally got to the top and we had our own private area. DN had some of his buddies over...and we had random woman coming in to get drunk. Nightclubs really aren't my thing. I never go to them, and really have no interest in it - I rarely drink alcohol. Anyways, I talked to a few of the guys....and grabbed a glass of Orange Juice. I'm just standing around and there's three chicks in front of me... I don't know it was, but it was hot out, I was tired, and condensation from my cup.... basically the cup slips out...and it was like slow motion in a movie as I saw the cup crash to the ground and all over the place. The girls screamed, and I was like *hit....I appologized so many times and felt so bad. Those chicks must have thought I was drunk...lol.

I recounted the story to DN and of course he had to share it all with his buddies. In any case, Mark Seif came by later to the booth. I hadn't really noticed on tv, but he's a bit bigger then I thought. I really didn't want to get into the whole AP scandal with him. He has been playing mostly online as of late and even on Stars. He found out I was a supernova and said he was platinum for a month, but couldn't find the time to keep up that pace. Apparently, when he plays online, he's often high....it sounded like he smoked a lot.

Talking to most of the other guys, I've been mentioned as the favorite for the tourney on Sunday. I really never thought much of it and mostly replied, whatever happens happen. Anything can happen in poker and it's not worth investing so much emotional interest into one tournament when you know there's another one right around the corner.

In any case, I didn't want to stay up too late and took off around 1:30 or 2. Before taking lost, I basically got lost in the club. It's pitch black and I have no clue where the heck I was going. Eventually I found the exit and looked down as there was a hot chick with barely anything on in a bathtub with flowers all over. Too bad I didn't bring my camera with me. I went back to the room and slept.

I later find out that the Tao Beach is actually a topless nightclub during the week. They apparently hire strippers about 100 bucks to lay out up top and get gocked at.

[Wes]

Wait, isn't Daniel a vegan and he served chicken in his house?

[Talking Poker]

Great report. Keep it coming.

Oh, and I would have folded the 68.

[Kurn]

Wow, there's a unique perspective. DN is a vegan who does not want to force his choice on others.

[lightfungus]

Good stuff windbreaker.

[Windbreaker]

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.

[Talking Poker]

Very, very cool. Great trip report. Glad you had such a good time!

[redbank09]

very good read, plus rep from me!!

[TurnRiva]

Amazing story sir, so very jealous.. Buying his book with FPPs as we speak.. Have hesitated as his last book was rubbish but obviously this one has indepth poker strat..

Also guess i'll get off my but and sign upto PokerVT which i've been saying i'll do for ages.. Thanks for the read, really great to hear..

I'm assuming he is an all round nice guy? Have any stories he shared with you.. Oh and obv im new here, met Mark (TP) through PTP.. Looking forward to checking out the site obv...