Sorry for the external link but I'm being lazy. Feel free to comment here though.

http://icemonkey9.com/zen/nfl-playoff-predictions/

I put together an awesome interview with Verneer of CardRunners fame which is featured at PokerSoftware.com right here:

http://www.pokersoftware.com/articles/2010/09/verneer-discusses-when-hud-stats-converge.html

If you are a stats geek or are looking to improve the look/effectiveness of your HUD and learn about how to properly use the stats while playing, then this is definitely a must read.

Huge props to Verneer for lending his time for the interview!!!!

As part of my duties for PokerNewsDaily.com, I covered the auditions for The Raw Deal, which will be a new segment as part of the World Poker Tour broadcasts. Basically they are looking for the next Simon Cowell who will pull no punches and call people out when they play terrible. Fair enough. I got to try out which was cool and tbh I thought I killed it. Not sure if I should expect a call back though. At my personal blog I wrote about the entire process if you are curious about it:

http://icemonkey9.com/insider-stories/raw-deal-on-wpt-audition/

And at PND you can watch the interview I did with Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten from the judges table:

Sexton & Van Patten interview about RAW DEAL : http://bit.ly/9blkj6

Short notes: Shocked to see some "big" names try out for this including Joe Sebok, Bryan Devonshire and Ali Nejad. Everyone's jaw hit the floor when Clowie Gowan came in to try out.

So I picked back up my HU experience 2 weeks ago and things have been interesting. I've been studying my ASS OFF to say the least, much more so I think in the last 2 weeks than I have done all year long. The more I study and watch the more I realize how much my game lacks, has regressed and gotten rusty in 2010. The good news is that I'm learning and recognizing things that were well beyond my grasp before I started studying. I haven't checked my results this week but I am sure I'm down a few buy-ins. A few mistakes and a few coolers for sure ... but I'm learning and I can't do anything about beats and coolers so all I do is focus on not making the same mistake twice.

Really looking forward to my opening match in the HU contest too. I just hope I can last a few rounds rather than flame out in the first round!!!

Play started at noon and ended the next day at 6am. OMG so ridiculous. Great play and MAN there are some beasts in this field including the chip leader who I interviewed during a break. Great guy, great intense and aggressive player in Jonathan Duhamel. You don't know him yet but you'll love him soon. And his JJ suckout was disgusting against Matt Affleck and I am positive that ESPN shot me for a crowd reaction shot because I looked like someone just got murdered in front of me. Affleck did a classic "AND THE AGONY OF DEFEAT" pose.

Overall great final table that took FOREVER to get to 9. You guys are in for one hell of a treat when the Main Event rolls around on ESPN in a few weeks. And awesome stuff - ANOTHER big name pro makes the November Nine in Michael Mizrachi!!!! YES!

I'm back out in Vegas for the WSOP Main Event as play dwindles down to just 27 runners. Sick runs by Basebaldy and Roothless, and man the Grinder looks focused and like it's just his year.

Not sure if "it's cool" but if people want to follow my exploits/pics/etc from behind the scenes they can follow my twitter at @icemonkey9 . Not sure if there are any CR people left but I will research that now and try to give that guy some love if he's still around (Matt Reed right?).

In terms of my HU career, obviously working like a madman for PND has derailed my efforts but the good news is that things are going to be settling down soon since (THANK GOD) the next big event is back home in LA at the Bike.

Until then my friends!

Well the Heads Up experiment has definitely taken a big giant turn for the worse. I really wanted to put in 10k hands and have fun with this, but WOW does HU humble you in a hurry. It's crazy the emotional toll that this version of poker will have on you in a very short amount of time. It has me wishing that StarCraft II was out so I had a good alternative lol.

So, yes, it's been eight buy-ins which I am sure most will just say "hey tough s&*t" which is fine I get it, in HU there are huge swings. I'm just learning and of course I didn't expect to climb the ladder with any shortcuts. But the lows are part of the journey just like the highs were. But I am beginning to dread logging in and playing so obviously on some level, I'm tilted and need to take a step back for a sec and figure things out in a bigger perspective.

The last two sessions my W$SD% is a combined 39% which means I am showing up really bad at showdown obviously. There have been a few eye-popping "WTF" holdings, a few "I got rivered" and a few lost coinflips. But right now I think it's best if I take pause from even studying/thinking/anything and just come back to this whole experiment when I am ready. Unfortunately that might be a couple of weeks due to work, but hey, poker will always be there to mind-f*&k me whenever I want :)

Here's the graph ... and yes ... I'm up (yay)!

LOL, wow. Well, if there's something I learned about HU the last few days is that this game is real streaky. I was going well, huge profits, but running great. I knew that eventually it would even itself out, and wow did it even itself out in a hurry.

It'd definitely an interesting thing to experience, but I am still having fun but I wanted to write a blog entry to remember one key point and that's knowing when to quit. I just dropped 5 buyins super quick, it felt okay, I mean I lost a flip here, hit TPTK in a 3bet pot against AA, and always had my AA/KK/QQ folded to when I raised against massive 3bettors.

I am going to look through the hands but I think I made a couple of mistakes along the way looking people up a little lighter than I really should have. I just have to keep plugging away and remain confident and smart - and with those two feelings gone right now, I think it's better if I take a step back and analyze and reasses then hit the tables when I am ready to.

So - HU is fun, crazy, wild and streaky. Who would have guessed LOL! Still fun though, so hey, nobody's complaining.

RESULTS:



So hey the winrate is still awesome and the hands played is woefully small. I get it, it's cool. So at this point I think after a day like this, the best thing to do is take a deep breath, take a step back, and when I am ready analyze the hands, watch some videos, reread some notes then hit up the tables again. Good luck to everyone else today at the tables!

Well, I am almost 2000 hands into my HU life. I know that's not much of a sample to go off of, but hey I got a family, a full time job and a bunch of other stuff going on (my anniversary, my b-day, etc) that has prevented me from really playing a ton. I have been watching strat vids here at CR and been reviewing my play, so the study side of things is good.

At this point, I just need experience. I had a good chat today with knox828 who is a real nice guy. I'm looking to do a feature on PND about online players in Vegas and their grind-a-thon setups so I am hoping we can get something schedule because it'd be a good piece and fun to do. Anyways, knox had a bunch of good advice for a noob HU player like me, the best of which being of course is to put in hands and get experience.

So - here's the update almost 2k hands in ...



So that win-rate is pretty sick to look at, but it's also LOL considering the sample size. There are a ton of droolers I enjoy playing at 50nl HU and to say I am bumhunting would be a complement to what I am doing right now. But I'd rather play droolers, get experience, build up some profits and THEN take on some of the weaker competition (i.e. break even players) than just dive right in against regs.

I plan to play a bit tonight once I am done with work but I am not sure how much I can play with family stuff this weekend and a work trip to Vegas coming up. Until then, see ya next time.

The video from the CardRunners Happy Hour is up. Jeff218 is your host!

http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/cardrunners-happy-hour-12844/