So me and Evy went to Vegas on 4th of December, and I was happily surprised by the weather. I mean I know it's not gonna be the blazing desert heat I remember from the summer, but I always automatically think of it when I think of Vegas. In stead it was only a little warmer than in Holland, but still pretty cold. No insane amounts of traffic, not the massive amounts of people wearing WSOP hats, just quiet basically. I really like Vegas best at times like this. It's like a whole different place in the winter.
We went a bit earlier because of the 5-Diamond WPT tournaments in bellagio. There were some 5k prelims we'd like to play before the main event. The prelims were sick structured as always in the US, but I never really got deep. One time I pretty much bubbled in a 5k tourney, but I had somewhat of a blowup to go out (REALLY?). The main event however was a great experience for me.
It was the first time I would play a tournament with a structure like this. 45k Starting stacks, 50-100, 90 minute levels, what......!?!? I was very anxious to start playing this cashgame. I didn't really know what to expect and I figured it was going to be something like, hardcore value monsters, pot control the hell out of overpairs or TPTK's in 3-way pots etc. We walk in and I'm half late but just in time to catch my hand utg. Unfortunately I'm eating candy have some water in my hands, and I have my paper to prove it's my seat, so it's all kind of chaotic. I look at my hand and I have {6h}{6d} and I make it 300 utg. Everyone folds to David Singer in the cutoff and he calls, as does the big blind. The flop is {2c}{6s}{Jh}, sweet.
However, we are 45k deep and the pot is 950. God it feels like a waste to flop a set here with 45k stacks. Is this gonna be like 800 call, 1800 call, 3400 fold type of hand where i increase my stack with 5%. I don't think so. I always wanted to try this and seeing I would normally not win a huge pot anyway in this situation in a tourney like this, it doesn't seem like a waste. I bet 8000, where I would've normally bet 800. I don't give it a lot of attention and people kind of laugh or gasp. The dealer says 'the bet is 8000' and I make my most sad Oh nooooees. Singer looks at it for a while and then calls!!! The big blind gets out of the way and Singer and me see a {10h} turn. I decide to go for the God-damnit-fuck-my-life-i-hate-confusing-chip-colours-check and hope he does something. Singer is a thinking player and he does some weird shit himself sometimes during live play, so I'm seriously thinking he could float me on the flop to scare the shit out of me. He thinks for a while and fires 7k.
I was really unsure how I wanted to proceed here. The problem is the turn is a nasty card imo. I seriously think he could float, cause he honestly thought I missclicked and he could take the pot away from me, but a lot of hands he can call preflop with, float on the flop, might get some outs on this turn. Also, if I call here, chances are big he is gonna put me on a big hand and shut down on the river. If i call and frontbomb the river, same deal plus I gave him a free card. I decided to go for a quick checkraise allin, trying to fake the agitated manner of someone who did something stupid in a big tournament and is desperately trying to get himself out a winner. He thought forever and then mucked his hand. I was satisfied with the way the hand went anyway, I won a lot of chips, plus the whole table thinks im a monkey now .
I ended day 1 with about 140k in chips, which put me in the top 10. I received the bold player of the day award from WPT, for being allin in the first hand I played and playing like a scandi all day long. Good times. Day 2 was going insanely well, where I bluffed 1 guy hard at the beginning of the day and then got some chips on a new table, where Benyamine was 2 to my right. We ended up in a pot at the end of the day where I raised utg with 79hh he called small blind and the big blind calls. The flop is {Qh}{10h}{4d} (FOR A SECOND I THOUGHT I FLOPPED A FLUSH BUT THEY DONT HAVE 4 COLOR DECK LIVE @!#@!#!@#@!) After they both check I bet 15k or so, Benyamine makes it 45 I shove 165 total, he tank-calls {Ac}{Qc} and holds for a 340k pot or something. That just blows, cause I would have had 500k and woulda been the leaderchip. Now I have 200k, which is plenty, but I don't feel good about it. Also, we had 2 hours left after that hand and I'd rather have him crippled. He played very well and was annoying even from my right.
Day 3 was just a whirlpool of runbads. I lost half my stack vs Nick Schulman (TheTakeover) with {Jd}{8c} vs {6d}{6h} on [8d}{8h}{6c}, which is pretty gross, but I'm happy I didn't go broke, because he had me covered. Then I had two interesting hands vs Amnon Filipe, one of which eh flatcalled pf from the sb with {Ac}{Kc} vs my hi-jack raise. He check-called the flop on {5h}{5s}[9h} turn {Ah} check check, river {10h} he checkcalls my 60%-pot bet. I had {Qc}{Tc} and I actually thought I was valuebetting against a low pair. He said 'Ok here's a gift' before calling with AK in that spot, which just goes to show how retarded live poker actually is. I mean I'm pretty positive I would only check the river to checkraise. To actually put someone on a flush or a 5 there or ANYTHING that beats you is pretty retarded. I don't mind flatting at all, but to presume your hand is dead is just so weak. Also I don't think it's cool to say 'here's a gift' and then after I showed my awesome valuebet turn over top pair top kicker, seriously wtf. Then I miss {Ah}{6h} vs his 99 on {Th}{8h}{7s}, to get down to like 80k. I folded down to 66k, when we're in the 2k-4k level and Justin Young opens in mid-late to 10,500. I crush his range with {Ac}{Td} from the big blind, so i stick it in. He has Kings and I'm out in 103rd place, where 100th place received, 22k$. Fuck my life, what a fucked up day.
Luckily we had Flight of the Conchords at home, which is an awesome show. They only have 1 season out but season 2 is coming, watch this clip!!!
Holidays and UFC
For the holidays we haven't been doing much. On Christmas Eve we planned a very lazy day, but David Williams asked to go out and have a 'sick dinner' with him his gf and Viffer. This sounded perfect to us, as we didn't feel like a huge party or whatever and these were people we know well, so you can just hang out. Unfortunately David had to cancel, but Viffer Evy and me went anyway. It was at 'Cut' in the new Palazzo Venetian building. We had a table a bit off to the side, which was very nice. David wasn't lying. The dinner was one of the best ones I ever had, if not the best one. Every little snack was the best I ever had. We stayed there for about 2 hours and then went on to have a drink at Encore, the new Wynn building. Viffers girlfriend works there so we went to check the place out, since it had only opened the day before. It looked absolutely gorgeous and classy. It has very un-vegas-like casino features. For instance, there is spot where you can see outisde. This sounds ... normal, but it's the first time I have ever seen it in a vegas casino. Actually see the sky, damn. Also there are a lot of big white columns throughout the main gambling area, which create somewhat of a room perspective. Very cool.
On first and second christmas day.. hmm.. I just read that out loud to Evy and she started laughing at me saying there is not second Christmas day here. Well in Holland we do have it, holllaaaaaaa. In fact Belgium has 3. Ok so we didn't do anything on Christmas day itself, which suit my lazy habits just fine.
On the third christmas day aka december 27th we went to the UFC!!!! I wasn't expecting going at all, but Erica Schoenberg had tickets and her and David weren't going, so we got to go. We went with Erica's family, who are awesome. Evy knew them really well already so it was really familiar anyway. We met them at Bellagio and from there went with a limo to MGM, where the actual fights were. Our seats were sick. We were on the second row next to the ring. We got to see everything really well and saw fighters coming and leaving etc.
The 3 most important fights were: Nogueira vs Frank Mir Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson vs Wanderlei Silva Forrest Griffin vs Rashad Evans
I wanted to see jackson vs silva the most, since they have been longtime favorites of mine. I have been watching MMA fighting for a long time now and I always love it. This was my 3rd time going while I was in vegas too. Nogueira was just a sad performance vs Frank Mir, he looked out of shape and he was fighting like a lazy chump. Nobody ever knocked him out or had a ref interfere in his last 34 fights, and now he gets dropped 3 times by Frank Mir. SERIOUSLY. I mean Mir is ok at boxing and all, but he is definitely not better than other people nogueira made it to the end against. I kind of hated to see the ref stop the fight so soon and the fluke win. He deserved it this fight, but it just felt fucked up. If Nogueira is in shape there is no way Frank Mir could even make Nog flinch while boxing him.
Jackson vs Silva was for me the most anticipated fight. I love them both like I said. I thought rampage would win, definitely seeing silva's previous fights. Well, I mean Rampage alledgedly fled from the cops and stuff, but he still seems a better fighter now. He lost twice to Silva before thought, and you could tell he was very nervous. He dropped silva without too much trouble in the first round with a KO and to be honest it made me very sad. I have watched videos and dvd's of silva fights from 6 years ago, and to see him lay down there was just wrong. I guess he isn't the same guy as he used to be and his career in the 205 division is basically over now. Rampage wants to rematch Griffin before fighting for the belt again, but he says it's up to the UFC. Here is how the fight ended
The Griffin fight was very cool to watch. Constant action and very good boxing. Evans kind of luckboxed his way into a KO. Griffin was overal better, but Evans prevailed and took the win. He KO'd Lidell in an earlier fight, so i guess he can throw some punches, but I don't think he is champion material to be honest.
Online
Ever since we got here, I have been playing a lot online. It was perfect because I kept waking up at 6 am because of jetlag. I have a new method to 24-table on my laptop and that's going realy well. I have had my best month this year and I haven't played that many days. I think I played a total of 15 days or something, but I did get in 200,000 hands. I have mostly played 5-10, but 3-6 and 10-20 have been no exception. The biggest difference with before is confidence. I used to look at the games and see a lot of regulars and give myself reasons not to play, also cause I wanted to do other stuff. Now I just sit down see wherever there's 24 tables and play those stakes. I don't care about regulars anymore and as you grow in that mindset, you can see a lot of them aren't that good, or have exploitable glitches. It was my birthday on the 29th, and basically the laziest I had ever. Evy had to go to the dentist and had her wisdom tooth extracted, so she is in a lot of pain. We're just chilling at the house and after new years I think ill get some hours in before the PCA starts. I'm really motivated that I got my grind back and I don't want to lose it again .
After the PCA I will go back to Europe probably and travel the circuit there. A lot of exciting tuornaments there and also some new added ones that I want to play. My schedule looks something like this the way it looks now: Vegas-Bahamas-Vegas-Deauville-Kopenhagen-Moscow-Dortmund-San Remo-Monte Carlo-Vegas. After the PCA I will be in Vegas for a week more and then go home so that I'm in time for EPT Deauville. We might decide to go to Australia after the PCA, but chances are slim, especially seeing it's the longest you can actually fly lol. I don't like flying that much, it's very exhausting to me.
Pokervliegen
A while back a friend of mine came up with an idea to make affordable Vegas travels. He finished up his product and it became pretty sick. He is offering packages where you can go to vegas, play a tournament and stay in one of the famous hotels, for the same amount people normally spend on their ticket alone. I believe right now it's mostly for Dutch players, but check out the site, it's all self explanatory.
Last time I wrote I really wanna change stuff, especially my rhythm. That is going pretty well. I have had a couple of slips going to bed at 7 am, but there was usually liquor involved, so I'll just put that in the relaxation department. I have been very busy with Pokernews Strategy, recording new movies and writing stuff, and new Poker programs that are gonna launch in Holland. Last time I couldn't really release a lot, but they just officially launched the site.
When you go to the site, they show a commercial we recorded past week. It was really cool to do and it's an amazingly well-constructed project. It's really the way poker programs should be constructed and setup and not some of the lesser quality shows that are only trying to get some money off the poker rush. I'm not gonna call it a hype anymore cause that's not what it is imo. My grandparents can be proud of me, I come off as a complete degen. At least they didn't show the vodka shot that was also recorded!
Tv shows, moves and games:
I have been working out ab it again and maintaining a better schedule, even though that's hard with all the godlike TV-shows. I'm really chronicing out on a lot of stuff. Oh evelyn told me I should watch True Blood, if you're into a bit darker TV and you can handle fictional stuff like Vampires, DOWNLOAD IT. It's one of the best shows I ever seen, cause it's really in my lane. I love the vampire stories and the show is dark and relentless, pure gold. Also I started watching It's Always Sunny in Philedelphia, a very very cool comedy. The jokes are very smart and not standard US Cable simple comedy bs. So those are two good tips. Also, which is gonna sound weird ripping on simple comedy shows 1 line back, I really like Wipeout. It's a spin-off from Japanese gameshows. The show, as opposed to the Japanese ones, which are all about athleticism and prestige, is hilarious and has a lot of good slapstick humor combined with lame commentators and MS Paint.
To stay in comedy:
In other entertainment; the new Fifa came out a week ago here. In the US it should be released tomorrow officially. I have been playing it for a bit and I absolutely love it. I fucking hated fifa 08, which is just too realistic, I thought i'd never say it, but it's true. They completely made throughpasses useless, they made distance shots a crapshoot, and put the game speed down to turtle. Fifa 07 is one of my favorite games ever, no matter what genre. This is basically a mix, where they made the game faster and fixed the passes and distance shots, but not as arcade like as fifa 07. I really liked the shit u could do with finesse and curve shots in 07, but it was kinda, if you know how to do it, u score most of the time, and im not a big fan of that. This is a perfect combination, so for all sport games fans, get it... and then lose your money to me, cause I'll rape you silly.
To stay in the video department, I mean holy shit. To anyone with a gamin history, Zelda has to be used. If you were one of the Sega donkeys, please stop reading my blog forever, you're not worthy . Anyways, I started playing Zelda when I was 7 yrs old on the Nes. I saw they have a trailer, of an upcoming movie. Please don't fuck up this movie.. i mean seriously? How many good movies of 'legacy' type themes have been fucked up. Some that come to mind, Alexander, Supermans, Hulk from a few years back (im happy they were gutsy enough to make a new one that quickly), the new Indiana Jones was a disgrace (lol southpark), Arthur was ridiculously bad too. IF they mess up zelda Im gonna invest my bankroll to hunt them down ^^. Anyways:
EDIT: I JUST HEARD THIS WAS A FUCKING APRIL FOOLS JOKE? AM I REALLY THAT FAR BEHIND, BUT WHOEVER DID THIS, I SHAKE MY FIST AT YOU SIR.
If its a fake and it is fan art, please burst my bubble and then sorry to get you excited, I havent actually researched it, so it might be bs. I also heard rumors about a DBZ movie, which would be awesome. As you might have noticed, I'm a complete nerd, and proud of it!
Poker
I have been grinding, also cause of the better rhythm, but to very good results. I lost a shitload of money, mostly on 5-10. I had some insane hands, which actually ease the pain. I dunno why people complain when they lose insane hands. You can do nothing wrong in sick setups. I had two hands, one being {Kd}{Kh} vs {Qc}{9c} on {Kc}{Jc}{Jh}{10c} and {As}{Js} vs {Kh}{Qh} on {Ac}{10h}{Jh}{9h}{Ad}. IF you lose hands like that, there is nothing you can do, you did nothing wrong, you are always gonna lose. That gives me peace of mind, whereas when you lose JJ vs AA, it might look like a setup sometimes, but you MIGHT have done something wrong. Ive had a lot of ridiculous hands, so Im pretty careless about the downswing. Also since I have been working out again, Im a lot stronger mentally. I think I'm gonna be playing a bit of 3-6 to regain composure and some confidence and not get demotivated.
Today I played the 400 euro bounty tournament in Rotterdam. I started of ok with a small stakc increase, but it just went horribly wrong after, I lost most of the hands I was in and one time folded an overpair when I was pretty obviously beat. I busted after pushing on the turn with {10c}{8s} on {10d}{9d}{9h}{3c}, to be called by {Ah}{10h}. The bounty structure was weird, the buyin was 400, 200 of which went to the bounties! Thats pretty steep, but reeally lucrative to play like an idiot and put people allin :D. I love 30-70's with half th ebuyin on the line.
Tomorrow is the 1000 euro buyin with a 15k stack. The structure should be awesome as it is a 3 day event with only a 100 or so players. I hope I can ship it, or play some cashgames if i dont :D. It's the biggest tourney up until the master classics. OF course i wanted to play the Dutch Open, but for some ridiculously retarded reason, they capped the tournament to 150 people, with only a 500 euro buyin haha. I mean, it's a really popular tournament, make it 2k and it will reach 150. This is just ridiculous and a lot of people are left out. I mean or don't cap it.
If anyone in Holland has a ticket, but is not playing, please, let me know!
Last week I went to a soccer match, which has been a while. I went with 5 friends to Holland - Iceland. It was a world cup qualification match, which is always pretty huge. It's so cool to go to the national team. The atmosphere is really good, a lot less aggressive then people behave during club matches. Netherlands won 2-0, after a decent match. Here's a video of it:
Btw, I keep saying it, let me know what you thought of my videos so far on pokernews strategy and what you think can be improved. As per request Im working on a lower stakes series, which should be up as some of my next videos. Also 2 MTT videos are done, so I hope you'll like those.
After the last blog Evelyn came to Holland. We were going to play in Cannes together for a Poker Battle tournament, as part of the Partouche Poker Tour. It was a good time to show her my house and Holland in general. Of course jetlag was there too, so we mostly did some chilling at my place and getting some rest for our trip to France. It was the third or fourth time I flew to Nice this year, pretty crazy. Everything there was organized nicely, a car to pick us up from airport, arranged hotelroom and constant transport from the hotel to the casino. Unfortunately we both didn't go deep. Evelyn did make day 2 though, only to bust out AK Vs A8. Apart from playing we had a good time at the beach and just treating it like a holiday. Of course there were also TV shows involved.
Around Cannes I started watching Smallville, this is basically a tv-show about supermans childhood. In the beginning it's kinda slow and simple, but it gets deeper and especially darker. I've also started watching the Office, which is really light entertainment and The Shield. Holy Shit, this show is the nuts. It's realistic from what I've heard and the creators are not afraid to shock the audience. Definitely a tip for people who are into TV-Shows.
After Cannes Evelyn went back to the US to attend a Guitar Hero 4 promotion thing, which wasn't badly timed, cause WCOOP started. I don't have good memories from this years WCOOP . I did get close to big scores finishing 10th in the PLO 6 handed tournament and deep in another PLO. Also a 1k holdem could have gotten big, but other than that, only disappointment. The schedule was gruelling and while I wanted to get back to a healthy life after Vegas I was forced to wake up every day at 6-7 pm :/ .
LOL:
London
Shortly before the WSOP Europe started i decided to go play. I travelled together with brummel (utreg) who had been running like Zeus up to that point. I was hoping some of his good luck would rub off on me :D. We arrived there on friday, met up with Eron, a friend of brummel that lives in London. After registering for the tournament we decided to go out, since we were playing day 1b anyway. Brummel had some good experiences with a club called Fabric, kind of an underground club. Later a lot of my friends told me it is indeed what it looked like and very popular in the techno/dnb scene. That night they actually played a lot of Drum and bass and it revived my appreciation for this genre. Dj Hype was playing that night and it was kinda crazy inside. A lot of happy people, a lot of drugs, loud music and Lex being kicked out. Arg.
Unfortunately after a couple of beers I decided it's not THAT big of a problem to have a no smoking rule inside. As soon as the cigarette touched my lips I saw a big blind spot appear in my vision. The bouncer didn't take kindly to my behaviour and dragged me down the stairs. I mean, I dunno how big the fines are, but chill the fuck out. It's not like I was molesting girls or something. I smoked a cigarette. 'Please leave sir' Lex: 'Sure sorry' would have done the trick. We went to the hotel to chill there a bit more. Btw when I told a friend of mine about drum and bass he said some new genre is getting popular, called Dubstep. He showed me a couple examples and i fucking love it~
The next day was a pure chillout day as we watched like 8 shield episodes and 6 smallville ones. I went to sleep around 1am, but it wasn't uninterrupted. Imagine waking up and you hear your door click in a hotel. This is the most common thing when you don't put up the Do Not Disturb sign, as house keeping comes in to clean. So I say, sorry no service, and I hear the door click. In stead of continuing to sleep however, suddenly there is a crazy person in his boxers in our room. WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!? I'm like, am i trippin? Then I hear brummels reaction and we're like what the fuck are you doing here. He replies, clearly on drugs, 'It's ok it's my room. Guess what, it's not ok. He actually wanted to crash on the bed, so we push him away and he walks out, or at least I think. I walk over to the door only to see him sit on the toilet texting someone........... Brummel called reception by now and they arrive shortly to take the guy out. It's very comforting to then hear that security let him in after he CLAIMED it was his room. I mean seriously.. Oh a drunken guy, lets quickly get him in a room, that he claims is his. We flip out to hotel management and they are kinda speechless. Imagine a guy on dope walking in on a girl like that. As compensation they upgrade our room and give us champagne the next day. Weirdest thing ever in my long hotel-visiting history.
When I got to the Main Event the only player I recognized at the table was Juanda. He was 2 to my left, which isn't that perfect, but not a disaster either. That was until John Pham sat down to my immediate left. And a sick euro player i recognized to juanda's left. Fuck my life. I started playing tight as soon as the other 2 sat down, and I lost some really unfortunate hands to get down to about 8k, from 20k starting stack. The euro player got knocked out and Hansen moved to his seat, lol. Then I raise to 600 in the 100-200 level with {As}{Kd}, Hansen called and the button called. The flop was seemingly perfect {Kc}{7c}{2s}, I bet 1600, Hansen calls and the button makes it 8k, putting me allin for 7.8k. With the draw and my top-top (lol) I'm never folding here. Then something weird happens as Hansen flat calls, with just 12k behind. The turn is a {4s}, Hansen folds to the buttons shove. I ask the button please have pair + draw, and he flips over a set of 7's. Hansen doesn't fail to mention 'everyone knew he had a set'. Well guess what Gus, only you knew YOU had the clubs, so that's a pretty retarded comment. Button either had a set or a big draw, so for hansen its pretty clear the button isn't drawing when he folds {Ac}{5c}, but that aside. Tournament was over and after Brummel got KO'd we planned our flight home the next day.
Time for change
I really don't like the way things are going. I'm not playing enough, I'm not playing the right games and i'm in terrible shape. The WSOP messed my whole rhythm up completely, as always. I thought about what I needed to fix and I can only come up with one thing; not travel for a while. I really need to grind the upcoming months and not destroy it by making myself more tired. I really feel if i continue what I've been doing it will destroy me, so I need to live more healthy and responsible. If i have everything in order in the basis, I can travel without it wearing me down, cause I have something to rely on. Now travelling only makes me impatient. Also I wanna be able to keep travelling, so a break here and there is ok. Luckily I have a superawesome girlfriend who understand my whining and she will visit me again this year and then beginning of next year I'm gonna go to vegas. I love being at her place and when there is no WSOP and 120 degree heat, it's not gonna drain me at all. However, I feel if i go to Vegas now, I'll kill whatever energy I have left, so this is the best thing to do imo.
I had to recover from a flu when I got back, but last days have been awesome. I took care of a lot of stuff, I grinded online, played tennis and went to the gym. Tomorrow I'm gonna watch Tony Drago play a pool tournament here in Rotterdam and soon there are some smallish poker tournaments 100 ft from my house, so I'll definitely attend those. It's called Rotterdam Freezeout Series and I'm playing the 200e 400e and 1000e event. After that it's a lot of grinding again and then the next live stop will be Amsterdam Master Classics of Poker. They have a lot of interesting events and also a 6500 euro main event, which has been one of the bigger European tournaments for yeeeaars.
There is also a lot happening with Poker tv-shows in Holland and I'm starring in most of them, so that's really exciting.
Pokernews Strategy
It's here! The site launched~ I'm so happy we got it online. There some bugs here and there, but everything is smoothed out quickly.
The whole idea is that you can subscribe for 29$ a month and then you get 1 new video a day. The team of instructors consists of Patrik Antonius, James 'mig.com' Mackey, Chris 'Genius28' Lee , Tony G and myself. I really appreciate all the feedback so far and never hesitate to give me some more. We're basically making videos for you guys, so let us know what you wanna see. I am currently working on a low stakes series cause there was a lot of demand for it. So stay tuned and check it out.
It's been a while since I posted a blog. The months right before WSOP I hardly played poker or did anything except tennis and XBOX, so that demotivated me a bit to blog. During WSOP I was exhausted and I had a rough schedule, so nothing really happened there either, sorry about that. However, I'm getting myself in grind mode again, plus the new site Pokernews Strategy is gonna be launched soon. For people that haven't heard about it, you can check it our here:
It's gonna be an instructional site, with Patrik Antonius, Chris Lee (Genius28), Corwin Mackey (mig.com) and myself as the main instructors. Of course you can be expecting lots of video's from others as well, but this would be our starting group. What I think makes us different, is that all the sites say that they give out all their secrets and then u see a lot of the same stuff or a lot of lower no limit videos. Also the main instructors post videos as irregular as 1 vid every 5-6 weeks in some cases. Antonius will be uploading a nice consistent stream of videos and also of highstakes! So stay tuned. Also our apologies for launching later than expected. We wanted to launch before the Main Event, but as that moment neared we realized it was gonna be close. The decision then was to do it exactly how we wanted it and make it what looks and works best for everyone, hence the delay. This time it will definitely be within a week or 2 from launch.
WSOP
Vegas is not good for me. At least when I'm living out of my suitcase. It's a very rough schedule and I don't have a lot of rest. Not only at night, but also mentally. It wears you down and becomes mentally challenging. Of course it would be different when you run hot or have some good results, then being tired is fine. When you lose and you're tired, it's hell . I had a rough WSOP, with a couple of huge stacks that got minimized in unfortunate ways, and sometimes mistakes by me. Even though the good results weren't there, I did learn and realize a lot. I improved greatly since last years WSOP, mainly when it comes to patience and shortstack tournament play. This is something I really had to learn. I was reading live updates after I got knocked out and I noticed every time it said: RaSZi loses big pot, it would say RaSzi busted 3 posts later. I figured there's no coincidence there, so I tried working on that, and I'm happy with the result. I did almost make the final table of the 1500$ shoot-out event, finishing 3rd at the second to last table.
Another thing i was really happy with, was beating CTS in the 2nd round of the 10k HU tournament. He is one of the sickest heads up players worldwide, so I wasn't too thrilled about drawing him. When they announced: 'If you wanna know who you are playing in the next round if you win your match, just look to the other side of the table. You're playing the winner of that match.' I look over to see CTS playing BrynKenny, are you serious?!?! I ended up drawing CTS, but I kinda had a freeroll idea. He is a better player than me, but I'm good enough to beat him, especially in a single heads up sng. So I did and I was thrilled, only to lose against a much weaker person in the next round, yugh. I learned a lot, but yay variance.
The best thing about Vegas was definitely 'meeting' my new girlfriend, Evelyn Ng. We already met two years ago in Vegas and got along great, but nothing specific. The past year we have been talking a lot online and we have a lot of things in common. I went to hang out at the charity barbecues for Phil Ivey's charity foundation, where Evelyn organized a Guitar Hero tournament for charity. In the week after we saw each other daily and we're going out since then. I actually stayed in Vegas for 2 extra weeks. So i came back from Vegas a winner in the end ~ :D.
Tennis
Ok, that was a quick wrap-up of what I've been up to. I'm back in Europe now and Im feeling better and better. Ive suffered from Vertigo for a while, but that's gone now too. Also I picked up tennis again! I actually had to play a doubles match 2 days ago. It was the first time in 8 years (!) I had to play an official match again. My partner was Bas de Zeeuw, with whom I play a lot. Him and his girlfriend Lies, really good too, are really cool and they are always up for some tennis, which is nice. We had to play at midnight, yes i know, in a city close to Rotterdam. We play in catagory 4 ( no idea what that would be internationally) and won! I was nervous as hell, but Bas kept me relaxed and we won 7-5 6-1. Jaco is making a lot of video's today and he shot this:
He also did an after-match interview, in which I'm exhausted. I wasn't used to the tension and exhaustion official matches can bring. I noticed a lot of people on the pokernews forum, if you like to see inside movies, Jaco posts them on http://www.blogmysport.tv/ You can also find blogs of Dutch athletes there. Hollaaa.
I'm playing again tonight, August 22nd at LTC Spijkenisse at 9 pm. People were asking me about it and some wanted to come watch, so there . Would be fun if people came, especially now that I am less nervous lol. Interview after match:
Talking about sports, shoutout to Fatima Moreira de Melo (wut) for winning gold medal at the olympics womens field hockey event today! I met her beginning this year and I'm really happy for her and she deserves it. Also, Thiemo de Bakker, a dutch tennis talent, is playing a tournament in Italy and just won the first set in his 3rd round match. He is 19 and ranked around 200 in the world, on his way up. Flippie~
Guitar Hero
I've been thinking about the subjects on my blog, but then I realized, this is my blog and what happens in my life. I don't mean to sound like an asshole, but if you don't like it, just skip the paragraphs you don't like :D. I play this game a lot and I love it, so I wanna spew it on my blog too. I've been making some movies which you can find in my youtube channel:
I haven't played online in ages. I was sick for about 3 weeks and I needed to get some energy back. I feel good now again so I started playing. I wanna get into shape again and learn how to grind so I started out 15-tabling 2-4 No limit. I played 13k hands first day and 6k hands yesterday, so I'm started out well. I'll be playing it a lot and also I'll be recording a lot of videos this weekend. I'll save my interesting hands to post once in a while.
I hope you guys will enjoy my blog, comments and questions are welcome as usual.. see ya.
This movie is the nuts. These two guys were raising a lion cub from birth, before releasing it in the wild. They wanted to see Christian the Lion again, so they went and looked for him TWO YEARS later. This is after Christian spent 2 years in the wild. Little dangerous if you ask me. Watch and enjoy.
Last week I decided not to play the 1000 euro buy-in event at Venlo, Holland. On Friday I decided to play the EPT Warsaw and happy I did, but more about that later. On Saturday I went to Holland Casino Rotterdam with some friends. We occasionally do this. There are 100$ 20-man sng’s there every night, and most of the time I’ll back a few of my friends for it. They don’t play poker regularly, but they watch me play a lot and we play some sng’s for fun at my place, so I think they actually have an edge in these.
We walked around a bit and since it was weekend they had a 5-5 NL game running. I decided to play for a bit. Boy did that kill my evening. Everything was nice and dandy until I lost a couple pots. I lost some preflop allins and postflop allins that put me on raging tilt. It’s been a loooong time since I felt that kind of explosion. Combined with some comments from people here and there and the run of cards I went loco. The low-point of the night was calling allin for 1k with {5c}{4s}, and yes that was preflop. I can’t remember the last time I tilted this hard, it must be over a year ago and I was embarrassed. After a while I packed my shit and left with a 7,000 euro hole in my pocket.
When I came home I wrote some gangsta shit to cool down a bit.
-week-sick-update.htm
Sunday Tennis and JDK Training
First day of the rest of my life. I played Tennis again. My god, it’s been too long. I used to play for 8 years, and frequently, when I was younger. Always loving it, it’s a shame I didn’t play for 5-6 years. How good it felt. We went to play with Sluiter, Bas and Lisette. Jaco joined along to hang out and laugh at me. The first 3 hits felt a bit weird, but after that it went better than expected. My backhand presented some troubles due to rustiness, but overall I was pretty satisfied. God, do I love playing tennis. I bought rackets from Bas last week and we went to play again last Friday. I hope I can continue to play regularly, but I’m sure I will, cause it’s in my own hands. Even though those hands have tons of blisters on them now :O. Obviously, my body was aching, but in a good way, cause it’s regaining some energy and circulation :D.
After I played tennis Joost de Krijger dropped by. He goes as JDK87 on pokernews and the internetz and CanUCallThis on liquidpoker.net. More and more I’ve been talking to him about poker, and the more we talk, the more I think he has sick potential. On top of his potential I recognize a lot from the way I played in the beginning. Unconventional, complete FPS-syndrome and arrogant without ever having achieved anything. I like it. Most of our strategy talk looks like trash-talk, but with some legit points . Anyways I think he can be sick and I hope I can help him to reach a certain level.
Normally I would always train for money, but with him I don’t care about that and I just wanna help him. Raw talent yo. Every time we play heads up I’m amazed how tough he is, considering the hours he plays (not many) and the stakes he plays now. He is tougher than most 2-4 regulars and he could hold his own in many 3-6 games. That says a lot about a guy playing 0,50$-1$. We had a lot of fun and talked poker a lot and both played. I have one 2x30” Dell setup and a 2x20,1” dell setup, so people that drop by can play very comfortably. Luckily I won a lot back from my casino tilt on 3$-6$ on ps. Sunday is always a fun day to play, cause the games are sick weak. Joost went down a ton but made a nice recovery and won a bit too. Some Jagermeister marked the end of a fun day. Btw Joost, if you read this.. I still think you suck and this would be a more appropriate career for you: (watch the whole vid it's sick)
-week-sick-update.htm
She doesn't look geeky anymore. In her next video's she looks a ton better and pretty cute. Or like Evelyn said: 'Daaamn, babygirl hit a salon'. That made me laugh :D.
EPT Poland, Warsaw
I was looking forward to going, also because I felt rested and energetic. Arriving at the airport, I met everyone from the Hotels.nl sponsor team. Michiel Brummelhuijs (utreg), Daan Ruiter (PokerDaan), Joep Durkstra (smokingjoep), Daniel Smidt (Danistar5) and their boss Kees. They were playing some Chinese while waiting for the flight. I joined them and we had a lot of laughs as is customary in the group of Dutch EPT travelers. Arriving at the Hyatt hotel I was pleased to see it was a nice environment AND that the casino was in the hotel. That’s just the best thing ever. You can walk down from your room waking up 15 minutes before the tournament starts.
I played on Day 1b, so I got to hang out a fair bit on day the first night. Day 1 A was railbird time for me. I almost never do it, but someone forgot to put my charger in my laptop bag, #$%#$@%^#$%, which means I had no internet the whole week. That was kinda tilting, cause I wanted to play online and grind, since I’m not playing enough when I’m at home. Luckily Ludovic Lacay busted out on day 1, which is a good thing for poker in general.
-week-sick-update.htm
Day 1 b was pretty uneventful for me. The table was filled with nits and 2-3 good players. I was playing very patiently and it felt satisfying. I made some minor bluffs, which all worked because of my image. Then I got {Kh}{Kc} and Theo Jorgensson limped in the cut-off at the 75-150 level. I made it 550 on the button and both the blinds and Theo called. Theo is a very dangerous and good player, so he worried me the most. The flop was {3c}{6h}{7h}, mehh. They all check and I bet 1450. The blinds fold and I hoped to take it down there, but Theo called. The turn is the {9h} and he bets out 2700 this time. This is a slamdunk fold. I feel he either is betting a set here so I’m not gonna check behind or he just has a flush already and thinks im checking so he tries to take one more street of value. Whichever, I’m fucked, so I folded and I believe it was a good one.
Later on in the 100-200 level, there was 1 passive weak player and Theo isolating him. I took the pot down it first happened and Theo ‘accused’ me of making a play. The very next hand I get {Jh}{Th} and the same scenario plays out. Fish limps, Theo makes it 800. If I make a move for it here again I think I’m gonna get shoved on by half of his range. I decided to flatcall. Fishy calls too and the flop is {9d}{9h}{Qs}, not too bad. They both check and I bet 2400, near pot. This is basically a committing bet, cause I play 8.8k when we start this hand. Sure enough the weak player folds and Theo checkpushes, indicating a massive hand. The odds are fine though and after the amount I invested I called the allin bet. He had {9c}{7c} and he held up, knocking me out. I wasn’t too disappointed because I finally followed the gameplan I had. I played pretty tight, not taking every weakness I observed as a possibility to bluff. Also, this was one of the first EPT’s where I didn’t wanna fly home the moment I busted. I’m happy I didn’t, cause we had soooo much fun drinking in the lobby every day. I was cracking up all the time and it really inspired me to play more live events. I’m rested and confident and I enjoy spending time at poker tournaments again.
I almost missed my flight back, cause the hotel was hustling Hans Ritburg into paying 1000 euro extra, which was unacceptable of course. Due to Polish carelessness and a double-paid cab-driver, we made it. No matter how fun trips are, god it feels good to be home. And god it feels good to have youtube again.
-week-sick-update.htm
Weekend
Friday I dropped by Jaco’s place. They were all going on vacation so we hung out there a bit. Saturday I went to Vlissingen to visit my parents and show my dad my Fender. He was completely in love with it and played on it for hours. Was nice to hear for me too cause I cannot play a single note still. Oh, I saw ‘The Bucket List’ in cinemas. Very nice movie, featuring Jack Nickelson and Morgan Freeman. If you have a chance to see it, gogooggo. Sunday I spent some time with my dad playing guitar and him explaining stuff about it. After getting a cup of coffee at my grandma’s place I went back home to play the Sunday’s online.
Tournaments on Pokerstars started an hour early. Nice, I missed the warm-up and the 100 FO starting around same time. Instantly demotivating me. I figured I would be chilling out and doing some blog-stuff. Luckily, Jaco convinced me in playing them, so I did. And how that turned out to be. First the T6-Sunday started, being a 150 euro rebuy. Remi came home when it was going for a wihle and we started drinking beers. By the time it got near the final table, I was completely hammered. That’s a good thing imo, cause I never cashed big in a tourney sober. Makes you think doesn’t it. I finished 3rd out of 1500 people, wooooot. Freerolling and still drinking I continued to play the pokerstars Sunday. From around 400 people left I had 10 bb’s the whole time. I managed to survive and pick my spots. When there were 100 people left I finally got hold of some cards and quadruple up in a couple hands. I was close to being leaderchip now and I hardly ever slowed from there.
At that point I stopped drinking, cause I was getting pretty dizzy. I made a pretty crucial call with {Ah}{Jh} allin for 110k in a 120k pot when I raised from the cut-off and the bb flatcalled. The flop was {Qs}{5d}{4h} and he stop and go’d shoved. I called and he showed me {Kc}{Jd}, wooooot. The rail started to explode from then and I went on to get deeper and deeper. I won some pots near the Final table, but overall my stack was diminishing. I entered the FT being 8 out of 9. I think I had by far the most FT experience of all the people that were there, so I still felt confident. Picking my spots I managed to move up a bit in stack until I won a big coinflip 22 vs AK to double up! LEEEE THANKS FOR THE ONE TIME. When it got down to top 3, no deals were being made, which was fine. One solid player and one weaker player were left besides me, and I moved myself in chipleader position. When I had 32 million vs 27million vs 16 million I went pretty cardead and had to slow down some. Then the uneventful bustout hand occurred. I raised {Ks}{5s} on the button and the solid player and chipleader by then called from the bb. The flop was {10c}{9s}{8s} and he frontbet 3m into a 4m, pot or so. I reraised to 12.8m and he shoved, with me calling obviously. He turned over 88 for a set and it held, busting me out. I don’t feel any regrets about the last hand, I was pretty content with the biggest tournament payday I had in my poker career.
The sickest thing is I played 2 tournaments and came in third in both of them. Both being Sundays of two different sites. It always feels good to come in third out of 7500 people. Hollaaaaaa. I’m not gonna forsake on my side-bet because of this score and I’m gonna do my best to win it. Thanks everyone for the support during the tournaments. I’m gonna chill out a bit this week and then play full throttle online before EPT San Remo and EPT Finals in Monte Carlo start.
OH I bought another guitar btw. Some present cause I did well this weekend. I think it’s important to treat urself after big hits, so you instantly see what you work for. Gibson SG Phantom BK
.
. Anyways, I started playing Zelda when I was 7 yrs old on the Nes. I saw they have a trailer, of an upcoming movie. Please don't fuck up this movie.. i mean seriously? How many good movies of 'legacy' type themes have been fucked up. Some that come to mind, Alexander, Supermans, Hulk from a few years back (im happy they were gutsy enough to make a new one that quickly), the new Indiana Jones was a disgrace (lol southpark), Arthur was ridiculously bad too. IF they mess up zelda Im gonna invest my bankroll to hunt them down ^^. Anyways:
