Cardrunners Blog 7/2/11

Today marks the event I\\\'ve been waiting for all summer - the 50k 8 game \\\"Player\\\'s Championship\\\". I\\\'m writing this at about noon EST/9am PST while on a flight back from New York via Puerto Rico, where I spent the past 6 days with Julianna and her family.

My first flight left at 3am EST, and while I slept for 3 hours or so on that one, I can\\\'t even fathom sleeping now. I even finished up the rest of a poker book that I had been reading (sorry can\\\'t tell which!) on this flight. There are times when I question my choice to pursue poker professionally rather than using my Cornell economics degree, but this is NOT one of those times. A bit more sleep would probably serve me well, but with how pumped up I am I\\\'m not counting on it.

The tourney starts at 5 PST and spans 5 days, including a to-be-televised final table (unfortunately straight NLH, but if that\\\'s what the general public wants to see, I\\\'m OK with it). As always, you can track my progress (and other random musings and links to articles that I found interesting) on Twitter @brianchastings.

This summer has been a pretty up-and-down one for me. I\\\'ve played basically the exact tourney schedule that I had envisioned (minus skipping the 3k PLO to remain in a good cash game) and blanked them all, 8 or so. Nothing super noteworthy except the fact that I still have yet to cash in a WSOP event lifetime (well 2 1/4 series\\\' worth of it since turning 21), and nobody wants to hear about tourney runbad, so let\\\'s just move on.

I started out the summer of cash game play by immediately hopping in a 2k/4k mix game at Bellagio. The mix consisted of PLO (easily my best game, played 500/1k with 60k cap), 2-7 triple draw (my 2nd best game IMO, played it a ton this spring online pre-Black Friday, and O8 (somewhere in the middle).

I felt very confident in this mix and lineup (no name dropping, sorry again), but unfortunately the game broke after a few hours with me stuck about 240k. I was still feeling good and in the playing mood, so I headed to the Rio to see what was going on. I found a 200/500/1k PLO game with a seat open and decided to give it a go. After playing for 5 hours or so, I found myself a 218k winner (and almost even on the day!).

I got some excellent sleep that night.I thought this day could be the start of an action-packed summer, but as it turns out I haven\\\'t played stakes that high since, due both to the action dying down a bit and some long waitlists and annoying manipulation of them via must-move rules. One time I was playing 50/100/200 PLO and was on the waitlist for 200/500/1k and 3 guys (one whom I think instigated it) started a must-move game, played for 5 minutes or so, then quit. Somehow this allowed them to jump me on the list. I suppose I could have sat out and played for 5 minutes with them, but it just seems really distasteful. Stuff like this seems to occur way more in live poker than it should.

Anyway, after being stuck 50k at one point I did claw back to book a 30k win in the 50/1/2 game, so I ended up going home happy. Stuff like that just really gets under my skin. I\\\'ve also played a bunch of 1k/2k mix at Bellagio, mostly a lowball mix (usually containing 2-7 TD 2-7 NL SD 2-7 Razz and sometimes A-5 TD and 2-7 Limit SD), but also once a fun mix with PLO, Badacey, Stud8, O8, and 2-7 TD. I only had a few hours to play that day before a tournament.

Julianna was at Bellagio with me and when I started playing she was roaming around the casino. I got stuck 35k or so pretty fast, and then she came to the table to sweat me. I proceeded to go on a 50 big bet heater in the next hour and booked a 65k win. At one point (after I dragged my 4th pot in a row or so) Kenny Tran said to her, jokingly, \\\"You can\\\'t be here, you have to leave now!\\\" We were both very entertained. What can I say, she\\\'s my good luck charm.

Overall I\\\'m up low 6 figures playing cash games for the summer. I\\\'m not sure exactly how much but I\\\'ve at least subsidized my tourney buyins. I\\\'ve also had tons of fun with Julianna and my friends, including an evening of paintball, a few club nights, some great meals, two entertaining shows (Lion King and O), a birthday night at Stoney\\\'s, a day on Lake Mead, some intense Wii games, the aforementioned trip to Puerto Rico, and some equally enjoyable time spent just relaxing. Overall it\\\'s been an excellent summer for me, tourney woes aside. I\\\'ll blog more about the non-poker stuff later, but for now I have a tourney to win. Wish me luck!Brian