Daniel Negreanu's Poker Blog
I dun' been Gamblin'
01 Jun 2006
No kidding man I've been in constant gamble mode the last few days. No Tivo, no writing, just high stakes poker and high stakes golf. Here's a recap from where we left off in the last blog:
May 28th- I had a golf date with some of the boys- Chip, Matt Savage, and Mike Minor (not Sexton). I played "ok" and had one big bet with Chip and a few small bets with Matt and Mike. Matt is just a joke to play golf with, man oh man. This guy should have been wearing a ski mask out there on the golf course the way he was robbing us! Matt played consistently well and it was clear I had little to no chance in that match.
Oh well, that wasn't the one to worry about anyway. My match with Chip was very fair and very close. Not once was any of us up more than one hole at any point.
We played at TPC Summerlin and I had one highlight reel shot that made me feel better about an otherwise poor showing of 57-53=110. From about 110 yards out I was stuck behind two trees which meant I couldn't hit a 9-iron which is the club I would normally hit from that distance.
So instead, I pulled out my 4-iron and decided to hit a low half swing and let the ball roll to the green. Roll it did, as I hit the ball inside the leather! (within a foot)
Before that round I only got in about 4 hours of sleep as I played poker till late the night before. So I headed home to watch a couple of the playoff games, both hockey and basketball, before heading into the Bellagio to play a little poker.
Frankly I'm a litte confused now with what happened on what day, but I do know that I had a $252,000 win squeezed in there somewhere... must have been the night before. Oh that's right. I was stuck $350,000 early in the session the night before and was playing a little sloppy early. I got it all together by morning, though, and ended up winning a quarter of a million.
So where was I... oh right, after golf I headed to Bellagio for some $4000-$8000 action. We were playing all the games as usual which I just love. We tried to add Badugi in there but since David Benyamine has never played the game before he vetoed it. Too bad too, because it's such an action game that I just know for a fact that he'd love it.
Anyway, to make a long story short after about 8 hours of play at about 6:30am on four hours sleep and a round of golf under my belt I found myself just buried in the poker game, stuck about $850,000.
I lost back to back capped pots, running it twice both times. That's tough to do, especially when you are a statistical favorite. I was a little steamed up and considered just quitting right there, but then a thought took over- I wanted to test myself. Could I play well under these circumstances? Could I fight fatigue and still compete?
I've noticed that my stamina has weakened due to a lack of play so I decided to turn this session into a mission of sorts. Bear down, try to play my A-game, and try to will myself past the fatigue.
I'm happy to say that I fought really hard. This was a great test for me and a great way to prepare for the grueling month ahead at the WSOP in July. I wasn't at my best, but I did maintain a level of play that I was comfortable with. A little sluggish, a little off on my reads, but overall not terribly bad for my first long session in a long time.
Before I tell you how I did, I have to tell you about one hand that I found interesting: Playing 7 card stud hi-lo regular I had 4-4-6-7-8-9. My opponent held 2-5-6-7-9-J.
Based on our boards it was obvious that I had to either have the low side or the high side at that point. David, my opponent raised me 600 times it felt like before I finally decided to stop raising. I was pretty certain that my hand was the favorite, but decided to stop after it got crazy.
David, of course hit an 8 to make a straight while I hit a 9 for two pair and a worse nine low. He scooped me on that hand, but I decided to ask him if he wanted to run the hand again from sixth street for more money. He quickly said sure, thinking that he had to be the favorite in the hand.
Hmmm... I don't think so David. Later when I got home I ran the hand on the computer and found that I was about 51.5% favorite on the hand.
By morning, Doyle and Allen showed up to join me Eli, David, and Barry. Some fresh meat for a game that didn't look like it would ever break. I finally played until 8:00pm before quitting, about a 21 hour session where I was stuck almost a million. The final tally was -$190,000 in poker and -$26,000 in Chines Poker. Not a horrible result at all, especially considering where I was at earlier in the night.
I got home at about 9:30pm and hit the sack hard.
I dun' been Gamblin'
01 Jun 2006
No kidding man I've been in constant gamble mode the last few days. No Tivo, no writing, just high stakes poker and high stakes golf. Here's a recap from where we left off in the last blog:
May 28th- I had a golf date with some of the boys- Chip, Matt Savage, and Mike Minor (not Sexton). I played "ok" and had one big bet with Chip and a few small bets with Matt and Mike. Matt is just a joke to play golf with, man oh man. This guy should have been wearing a ski mask out there on the golf course the way he was robbing us! Matt played consistently well and it was clear I had little to no chance in that match.
Oh well, that wasn't the one to worry about anyway. My match with Chip was very fair and very close. Not once was any of us up more than one hole at any point.
We played at TPC Summerlin and I had one highlight reel shot that made me feel better about an otherwise poor showing of 57-53=110. From about 110 yards out I was stuck behind two trees which meant I couldn't hit a 9-iron which is the club I would normally hit from that distance.
So instead, I pulled out my 4-iron and decided to hit a low half swing and let the ball roll to the green. Roll it did, as I hit the ball inside the leather! (within a foot)
Before that round I only got in about 4 hours of sleep as I played poker till late the night before. So I headed home to watch a couple of the playoff games, both hockey and basketball, before heading into the Bellagio to play a little poker.
Frankly I'm a litte confused now with what happened on what day, but I do know that I had a $252,000 win squeezed in there somewhere... must have been the night before. Oh that's right. I was stuck $350,000 early in the session the night before and was playing a little sloppy early. I got it all together by morning, though, and ended up winning a quarter of a million.
So where was I... oh right, after golf I headed to Bellagio for some $4000-$8000 action. We were playing all the games as usual which I just love. We tried to add Badugi in there but since David Benyamine has never played the game before he vetoed it. Too bad too, because it's such an action game that I just know for a fact that he'd love it.
Anyway, to make a long story short after about 8 hours of play at about 6:30am on four hours sleep and a round of golf under my belt I found myself just buried in the poker game, stuck about $850,000.
I lost back to back capped pots, running it twice both times. That's tough to do, especially when you are a statistical favorite. I was a little steamed up and considered just quitting right there, but then a thought took over- I wanted to test myself. Could I play well under these circumstances? Could I fight fatigue and still compete?
I've noticed that my stamina has weakened due to a lack of play so I decided to turn this session into a mission of sorts. Bear down, try to play my A-game, and try to will myself past the fatigue.
I'm happy to say that I fought really hard. This was a great test for me and a great way to prepare for the grueling month ahead at the WSOP in July. I wasn't at my best, but I did maintain a level of play that I was comfortable with. A little sluggish, a little off on my reads, but overall not terribly bad for my first long session in a long time.
Before I tell you how I did, I have to tell you about one hand that I found interesting: Playing 7 card stud hi-lo regular I had 4-4-6-7-8-9. My opponent held 2-5-6-7-9-J.
Based on our boards it was obvious that I had to either have the low side or the high side at that point. David, my opponent raised me 600 times it felt like before I finally decided to stop raising. I was pretty certain that my hand was the favorite, but decided to stop after it got crazy.
David, of course hit an 8 to make a straight while I hit a 9 for two pair and a worse nine low. He scooped me on that hand, but I decided to ask him if he wanted to run the hand again from sixth street for more money. He quickly said sure, thinking that he had to be the favorite in the hand.
Hmmm... I don't think so David. Later when I got home I ran the hand on the computer and found that I was about 51.5% favorite on the hand.
By morning, Doyle and Allen showed up to join me Eli, David, and Barry. Some fresh meat for a game that didn't look like it would ever break. I finally played until 8:00pm before quitting, about a 21 hour session where I was stuck almost a million. The final tally was -$190,000 in poker and -$26,000 in Chines Poker. Not a horrible result at all, especially considering where I was at earlier in the night.
I got home at about 9:30pm and hit the sack hard.
