Event One of the Southern Million Dollar Heater was Sick!

So I made the Journey Saturday to Biloxi, MS to take a shot at the 200k Gauranteed tournament. Feeling Confident and hoping for some run good to make a deep run. I learned that Day 1A already pretty much met the Gaurantee with 681 Entrants and they were expecting to crush it by Day 1B. Well they did, and then some. It doubled as another 772 players entered the next day and there were fish swimming everywhere at the tables hoping to get Lucky and enjoyed Gambling for fun.... so basically the typical players you love making money off of. That's if you are running well that is. And this weekend, was not one of those weekends for me one bit.

In the Tournament I lasted for 4 breaks and had the pleasure of some Laggro donk snapcalling my all in with K7 suited vs. my KJ in the SB and then flopping his flush draw and turning the flush to knock me out right before the Break and crush my hopes of making that deep run. I posted updates on my twitter Account @acadianapkrplyr so go follow me for future tournaments.

Well then shit got stupid. I talked myself into taking a stab at 1 2 5 plo that was running in the tournament room and sat with 320. I worked it up to $838 waiting for a poker buddy to finish his SNG. I was feeling super confident as these PLO players were just calling me down as I held the nuts or close to it each time I bet and I felted two different players who rebought in for more. Once my friend was done we went look for some supper and decided to eat at the HardRock since the line for the buffet was just painstakingly long and I felt the pits of my stomach rumbling in hunger. After we finished our supper I made the mistake of going to the restroom and be pleasured by the graceful sound of a man yakking in the Sink the whole time I was at the urinal almost losing it at one point and hoping I would finish soon so I could get the hell out of there. All I could here is HOOOOAAAARRRGHGBLBHFRAR, HUUAARGHGBALRRAAAH, Repeat 10x.
I tried to warn my buddy not to go in there because its no pretty sight or sound, but he insisted he had to go and even watched the guy after he finished his theatrics once he was done expelling his insides.

When we got back to the poker room he was starting to head home and I noticed they took my chips off the table and turned the 1-2-5 PLO into a 2-5-10 PLO game so I went searching for a 1-2 NL game and ended up losing a couple buy ins to basically put me back on square one of where I was at after I lost out of the Tournament. at about 1 AM I got with Mr. Bill Phillips of gulfcoastpoker.net and he let me crash in his room and we shot the shit about random topics before we were both exhausted and couldn't talk anymore.

When I headed towards the Cash tables the next morning I was searching for PLO mainly 1-2 but without any running, I put my name on 1-2 NL and 2-5 NL. They called my name for 2-5 and the beginning of being trolled by the Pokergods Began. Its like they were trying to get me to lose to either 3, 2, or 1 outs the rest of the day and it was just brutal. One of the main things I hate about the Beau Rivage cash games is there is no limit to what the players can buy in for, so if you don't have deep pockets you have next to no chance of being able to compete with taking the swings of poker. So if you start to run bad and take a tough beat, or 2 in a row for that matter, you are screwed and leave yourself shaking your head. First, I buy in for 350 and there is a straddle for 10 and myself along with 3 others see the flop which comes K86 and I have Kc9c goes check, bet 25, I raise to 75, fold, fold, Call from the guy who bet 25.
$195 in the pot and turn falls a 3 rainbow board. He checks, I bet $140 and he raises me basically putting me to a decision of all in or fold. So I shove and of course he turns over K3 for two pair and I don't catch up.
I rebuy in for $500 and about 5 hands later I have $480ish when a guy with about 1200 straddles for 10, I am on the button and look down at A10 os. Someone raises to $40, I flat along with 2 others and there is $160 in the pot. Flop falls A 10 5 and I have top 2. Straddle checks, another player checks, raisor pre bets $100, I opt to flat again with 2 others to act behind me, straddle guy calls and other player folds. There is now $460 in the pot and I have $340 left and the turn comes an ugly Kh. Asian guy bets $300 but I still think he has AQ or AJ and I shove all in. Well of course guy who straddled reraises over the top and gets the raiser to fold and shows QJ. I am just speechless, annoyed, and wondering why this dumb crap always happens to me. I go back regretting I didn't just open Jam the flop, but that is such a scared way to play it I didn't want to go that route.

Well I am fortunate enough to have both Ross Leitz and Blake B buy pieces of action for the $550 nooner which only had 156 runners and I was also gonna watch a bit of day 2 of the 200k gaurantee as I had a number of poker buddies still in and chasing the money. Well I show up late and quickly double up my stack but of course the trolling of the pokergods continued as this one guy just had my number. I first had to lay down top pair with QJ on a Q95 board where I raised pre bet flop and he raised me then on turn put me all in. Then about 2 revolutions later I'm UTG and limp with JJ and the same guy raises 1,100 with blinds at 100 200 25 ante. I have 9.8k and this bet just looks like a small to mid PP to me so I jam and he snap calls and shows AA.....FML I am out after about 3 hours in the $550.

My last shot at anything I was going to play a $100 SNG where first gets $550 and 2nd $350 and we all did a $20 last longer. Before I registered for the $550 Bill told me the SNGs have been really easy and I took his word for it. Well this was during event 1 of course and when I go sit down. Here comes Jerry Monroe that won the IP Biloxi WSOP Circuit main, a guy that cashed 6 out of 7 SNGs last night while I was playing cash, and Andy Moon, a very talented young grinder out of the Acadiana Area. Needless to say there was maybe 2 fish at the table and the rest were pretty solid players. I started out great doubling through one of the fish when he shoved a pair of Aces no kicker on a AK10 board (I had K10) and knocked him out. Then I won a nice pot with AA and in no time had 5700 as the starting stack was 2000. I get AA once again when my stack is at 4600 and there is a raise to 450, then a reraise to 1100 by Monroe. I chose to flat as I put him on KK, QQ, JJ and know he will pay me off with the right flop so no need to rush it pre. A guy behind me with like 400 left throws his chips in there and the original raiser folds. Flop comes QJ5 and Monroe shoves and I snap call and show AA, he sighs and shows KK and turn is the 8, river 6...baby stack had 6 5 and triples up. This will come back to haunt me but I now have 8400ish. Instead of just going walk away and eating Lunch or something I choose to continue to play like a dumbass. What happens?? well I guess the Pokergods find out how good I'm running and decide to show up and start trolling again. the 2nd largest stack decided he was going to start reraising me every time I raised. So when I looked at AJos and raise my standard 425 with blinds at 100 200 and he did his standard reraise to 775, I reraised to 2000 and he shoved and I snapped called, He showed KJ os and dont worry flop comes Jd8d5d neither of us have a diamond. Turn is a blank, Im almost clear, then here it comes Kd on river to rob me of what I deserve and blasts my stack down to 3500. I lose another pot and get down to 2650 and another gets knocked out so there is 5 left and I have 2nd smallest stack. I shove first hand and collect blinds. next hand I'm UTG+2 and look at 1010 and shove again, guy who cracked me with KJ shoves all in, then SB shoves all in. The Button shows KK and the SB shows AK and I ask the dealer for the 10 to save my ass. Right in the window the 10 rears its ugly head!! I'm saved and looking like I will be able to get this thing again. Until the Case freaking K hits the turn and laughs in my face and says...yea right dude, get the hell out of Biloxi.

Yet again, I am down to $0 thanks to running like absolute dogshit at the worst times. Looks like its back to the drawing board as my New Years Goal of $5000 profit is now in the back burners as I start the year out in the negatives.....awesome.

GL to the rest of you.
Matt Stroud

APP update. Cash game profit

Me don't think me's ahead, but me has a chance!

Last night was the Last regular season NL Holdem game. I thought I played pretty well and won some decent pots. But just got in a frame of the tournament where I went completely card dead. To start the tournament, I worked my stack to 43k, (start with 15k) and after folding ALOT and losing a couple decent sized pots I was back down to 21.5k with 10 players left. The blinds and antes were slowly chipping at my stack and I was getting nothing to play with, nothing to steal with, and with the players at the table I had to pick my spots cause I had too wide range players directly to my Left. I hated this but its something you have to deal with in poker. My last hand of the tourney the player, directly to my left (I will call him "Luckbox Leprechaun" in this blog) had flat called my preflop raised to 4500 with blinds at 1000 2000 and a 500 ante. We were both in Mid late position and I was first to act. There is 12500 in the pot and flop falls 9 6 3 with one heart. I have Jc10c and we both check to the turn. Turn gives a 8h and I put him on a range of just over cards and wasn't really worried about the suits so I shoved with my open ended draw. I was thinking he had anywhere between AK - KQos and A10 - Q10 suited. My bet was17000 into a pot of 12500 which NORMALLY people would fold this if they had an avg stack of 35-45k. But Luckbox Leprechaun here was CL and the call was about 1/6 of his stack. What makes matters worse is I made the right read.....to an extent....as he says, "You see Matt here's my dilemma" and he turns over KhQh as he debates the call (this is fine in my house as I don't kill the hand like in a casino). I see his hand in my peripherals but make no movement with my body. But once I saw how big his draw was I knew this player was never laying it down and I was screwed. Pretty much just waiting for him to call. I was asking myself....wtf couldn't it have been KQos damn it haha. He calls and the Rainbow river to the pot of gold splashed an A of hearts to destroy what dreams I had of sucking out one of my 10 outs I had that were none heart. Oh well dealt to the players up to 3 handed where they made a deal to split the money and we began a cash game.

I pronounced that it was going to be .25 .50 half no limit holdem half pot limit omaha so I could get some practice for the Tournament in Biloxi.Only one player was kind of annoyed about this so we said she can sit out when Omaha came around but she decided to just go ahead and play (way to be a trooper!) She really
did not play that bad from what I thought and got mixed up in a couple tough hands, Especially for someone who just learned the game but still a good effort on her part (Luckbox Leprechaun's sister, Leprechaunette)

If Leprechaunette looked this good, I'm sure my wife wouldn't have allowed her into our house...sigh

Anyway, I had a decent stance on my Table. Solid TAG player directly to my left, Super LAG after him, Luckbox Leprechaun and Leprechaunette then Semi LAG directly to my right. We started out 7 handed and eventually at the wee hours of the morning (I'm at work on only 2 hours of sleep sheesh) ended the game at 4 handed. I had some very interesting pots and probably one of the biggest pots of the night in Omaha, but felt I played very well in both NL Holdem and PL Omaha tonight. If you recall last time I played a mediocre game in Holdem but I found I just had a perfect strategy against the Super LAG that I was letting him take control of the pot when I had monsters and just really only Reraising when the pot was substantial. There was one No Limit hand that I called a raise with 10h 7h against Super Lag and another opponent and flop fell 10c 7d 4h. I was OOP and checked, LAG Player bets other player calls and I call. turn is the Qh and I check again and Lag player bets about 1/4 the pot. Other player folds and I try to think of how much I could get out of him without scaring him away so I raise to $24 into a $36 pot and he has about $53 left I have him covered. He shoves all in and I instantly call with the flush draw and 2 pair. He asks if I'd like to run it once or twice (which kind of confused me, but I said twice just in case something stupid happened even though I was pretty confident I was ahead) I made the flush on the First series and the Full House on the second series to scoop the whole pot.

There were 3 big Omaha hands that I got involved in. One where I flopped an open ended straight draw and 2nd nut flush draw and turned the 2nd nut flush. The pot on the flop was already about 75-80 bucks (In .25 - .50!!!) and before I could even act, LuckBox Leprechaun shoves all in for just under $40 bucks. I knew he had the Nut flush...I hated that I knew he had the Nut Flush....and hated that I was still enticed to call (I had about 180 in my stack at the time) Calling wouldn't necessarily hurt me but This was a hand where I knew in my gut and my mind I was right but just hated the fact that it was a cooler and donated 38.75 to see it. ....damn rainbows and pots of gold. ;)

The other big hand that I lost, Super LAG caught a 1 outer on the turn where the flop was 9 9 6, I was holding 9 J Q K single suited, Leprechaunette had flopped the full house with 66 and Super Lag had a flush draw JJ A 8 (yea idk). Turn of course is the J giving Super Lag the biggest full house of the 3 of us and I feel like we were chopping when he bet, I just couldn't put him on that....probably for the fact that it was the ONLY card in the deck he could have hit to win the pot and BINGO he got it. He lost a decent sized pot a little bit earlier (See the 10 7 suited hand above) so I didn't give him too much shit for sucking out haha.
I also Later get revenge on the 2nd to last hand of the night in NL Holdem where I flop top 2 with K 9 and turn the 9 for the full house and he says he had AA. I managed to squeeze about 50 in that hand but I think he was trying to Catch up as fast as he could. I'm sure if he would have been thinking clearly and not about the past money lost, he could have gotten away from the hand but hey...to the winner goes the spoils?

The Final Big hand of Omaha was a 3 way pot and I have Ad 8d 9s 5h and there was a raise pre-flop to 2.00 with me and 2 other callers. 8.75 in the pot. The flop comes 7d 3d 2c and I have the Nut flush draw with an inside straight draw. It is checked to Solid TAG to my Left who bets 7.50 and Leprechaunette calls As well as myself. Turn is the 10c and there is about 31.50 in the pot. Leprechaunette checks to me and I just got an open ended straight draw to add to my plethora of outs. I am loving this but don't really want to check here and him just shout "Pot" at me again and have to draw making a call for about 1/3 of my stack (have 75ish in my stack he has 58ish) I decide to bet $23.00 and Solid TAG goes in the tank, then finally announces Allin for 36.25 over my bet for 59.25 total. Leprechaunette grumbles and mumbles then finally muck and I am just trying to figure out how the hell I can get away from this or if he could cancel out any of my outs. I put him on a set of 7s for sure and wanted to get the flush draws away but I am pretty sure there is no way he puts me on the straight draws with it. Especially the added draws on the turn. I say Call and he asks Once or twice and I say its pretty much up to you and he says he's cool with twice so we roll the river twice. He shows 4c 3c 3s 6s with a set of 3s and an inside straight draw with the 5. All of my possible outs except the 2d and 10d are good giving me 20 good outs to win this hand! The first river dealt gives me the flush. The next river dealt is a 6 giving me the straight and it propels me to $240 (Unfortunately the cooler hand with King high flush vs. Ace high flush was about 4 revolutions after this but still managed a nice profit)

How I felt when I won that big Omaha pot

I ended up being in the game for $95 and cashing out $220. I tipped the dealer $20 for dealing for us the whole time. I actually did run well for the cash game having a bit of a horseshoe up my ass as well but there were some great plays that I made to maximize my profits and only pulled off a couple bluffs for minimal sized pots. Overall I was happy with my play for the night and the added funds will go nicely for my Biloxi Trip. Hope you enjoyed the read.

Good Luck at the tables.
Matt Stroud

Weekend Poker rundown

The Usual suspects of APP

Friday night was our APP league game. 2nd to last NL holdem and 3rd to last game of the season for points. The Championship Freeroll for the top 9 players is towards the end of September and there is a very close race from the players that are in the 6-13 spots. It will be a very exciting last 2 games and I also bought the Trophy which isnt huge but I really like it and is a great conversation piece. Last year I got a plaque but decided to go with the trophy for this year because I think they just look better overall and was about the same price for what I thought was a better product. As far as my play friday night I was not focused at all and pretty much going through the motions. I was tired from work, was still in rush mode for setting up the game, and The Saints first preseason game was on so I was kinda peeping my eyes on that as well. I made a horrible read on an opponent (well I put him on mid PP and was right about that, just not about the strength from the flop) I was holding Q 9 suited in late position and flop came 9 6 2. The bb who is a pretty LAG player bets into the pot and middle pos opponent reraised. I put the mid opp on PP 88 77 etc. and the bb player on straight draw. So thinking Im ahead I shove all in and bb folds. Middle Pos opponent goes in the tank, says something about 36% for a flush draw then flips over top set and calls. I was like wow, didnt put you on that at all and was wondering why he didnt insta-call lol.


Well we set up a cash game 0.25 0.50 NL holdem, I wanted to do half n half but 2 players declined. Everyone bought in for 30-40 and the grind began. I Won a decent pot, then picked a spot where I had middle pair and open ended straight draw. I bet it hard when the straight card came and almost took down the pot but someone just called a 6x bet pre-flop with 6 5 off and turned the low end of the straight. He was about to fold thinking I had the High end but ended up calling and took a hefty chunk of my chips. That's how most of the night went for me. Either picked bad spots and lost pots, won some pots with decent hands, then busted when people caught on me etc.

One hand a player considered was a "Bad play by both players" which was my last hand of the night I was just exhausted, annoyed and overall done after this. I straddled for $1 with $20 behind and the LAG player was in the bb for .50 and he was in the hole for the game but had about $65-70. there were 3 or 4 limpers and LAG bb raises to 5.25. There is 9.25-10.00 in the pot and I have 98 off. I know he is raising with a speculative hand here and figured I can get him off of it by coming over the top. but I didn't have enough to raise a portion of my stack so it was either all in or fold. I opted to go all in for 21.00 total and everyone folded and LAG player goes in the tank. Then a player out of the hand says "OK 2 of you HAVE to put each other on a hand first" I should have just stayed quiet not saying anything but like a dumb ass I chose to play along and put him on KQ or something to that range (A10, KJ, A9s) Since I said that he put me on 88 and gave some goofy logic saying "well I'm behind, I'm down some money and playing catch up, its virtually a coin-flip so I call"...lol
Flop comes out 9s 6d 5h and I have the lead but he still has 2 overs as he shows As 10s and I say give me the 7 just to cushion my lead more.
Turn is the 6s giving him more outs with the flush draw. And I ask again, Give me the damn 7....
River 8s giving me 2 pair but him the flush...and that's how I roll (Rolls eyes)

I just kinda laughed got up, LAG goes into justifying his play and saying it wasn't a bad call, I say yes it was, then Superstar says Y'all both made bad plays and the discussion ensued how I disagreed. You can base an argument on strategy, but when you incorporate results with strategy your logic is flawed. The thing I messed up on was playing into the game by putting him on a range when I should have just sat quietly and waited for him to act. But it wasn't a bad play at all in my opinion.

The next night we played Half NL holdem Half PL Omaha and my friends house in Carencro.
It was 4 of us from last night and 3 new faces I haven't played before. I was spot on with my reads in Omaha but early on picked a couple bad spots in Holdem, made some adjustments and played solid poker after that. I ended up profiting $35 for the night as I let someone borrow $20 of my stack and also cashed out $100. I was in the game for $85 and thought I played pretty well for the most part. I had an interesting Omaha hand Where the friend that was hosting was to my direct right all night and raised preflop to 1.50 I called along with 2 others making it 6 in the pot. flop came 989 and I told him I am only calling cause I like half my hand. Q9 suited 7 2 off, I was in the bb for .50 and needed to call 1.00 more into a pot that was already 3.00 so i figured why not. When I saw the flop i liked what I saw and they did have a possible flush draw as well so he bet 3.00 into a 6.00 pot and I raised pot immediately to get everyone else off their hand. He went into the tank for about 2 minutes then said Pot to me. I start to think about it and the Trip 9s is all I have, it was very possible for him to have A high flush draw with his trips or even flopped a boat with 88 and just didn't like it as I would have to call about 25-30 so i made the lay down and he showed 98 for the boat.

There was another hand where I had A4A8 double suited and hit the flop pretty hard with an inside straight draw and flush draw and guy who went all in asked to go once or twice, so I initially put him on flush draw and said once. He shows TOP SET 99 with no redraw so I need to hit my flush or one of the last 2 aces in the deck. I missed the turn. Then BOINK the Ace on the river!! I also made an interesting play against a player who had AA and not much of a redraw on a 10 4 7 board I was holding a back door flush draw and inside straight draw with top pair. We opted to run it twice as he was ahead statistically but slightly. First I hit the 10 on the turn for trips to take the pot. The next one I hit my runner runner flush! It was gross.

I have to say the best hand of the night goes to Mr.LAG though Beau Brewer. He made a spectacular play on my friend who was hosting in Texas Holdem with a J 8 6 board. There was a raise preflop by Beau and host called. Beau checked on the flop and host bet 2.75 into $4 pot Beau raised to $6. The host went in the tank then 3bet to $20 (when he does this I expect him to win the pot almost 80% of the time if not more because he plays a very solid game). Beau must have had either picked up a tell or had a dead on read on his opponent because without even thinking he announce all in and had the host well covered. I believe the host had about $40-50 behind and Beau had $80-100 after the $20 was in the pot. I was thinking to myself this guy has a monster to snap shove like this and I guess the host was thinking the same thing as he folded but didn't show (I put him on top pair, maybe KJ or AJ but not strong enough to feel confident calling all in). Then Beau turns over 9 8 off for 2nd pair on the biggest bluff of the night!

Pretty much my face after seeing the 9 8 off with a 4bet shove all in

I was literally left speechless after this as it was just a top of the line play and we were playing .25 .50 haha. We kept on giving him shit like where the hell did that come from etc., but some nights He is dead on and playing spectacular poker maximizing his profits consistently while other nights he is completely off his game and struggling to keep a composed head. Once this guy becomes more consistent though, he will definitely be a force to be reckoned with. He finished the game up $240 and I profited a small amount but was down the previous night so it felt like I broke even. the host also broke even for the night as most of the other players all ended up in the negatives.  I plan on playing half n half at least once or twice before I go to Biloxi, MS for the GCPC but so far I am really confident in my Omaha game. I just have to make sure I play solid poker and not get involved in pots I don't need to be involved in for holdem.

That was my weekend in a nutshell, hope you enjoyed the read.

Good Luck,
Matt Stroud