Summer is coming!!!

I am so bad with keeping up with this. Everytime I write a new blog I tell myself OK, I'm going to keep up with it this time at least once every couple weeks, but then things come up, I get lazy, etc., and then I don't write for 6 months. O well here we go again, I am now going to keep up with this, LOL.

As many of you know online poker was made illegal to play in the US about a month ago and it hit a lot of us hard. A lot of the friendships I had made and the way I have gone about my work schedule has definitely changed. Probably the biggest change is I went from planning my day doing what I wanted to do and throwing in some poker when I wanted too rather it be a 30 minute session or playing some tourneys. Now that all hands I play are in a casino I plan my day around when I'm going to play poker. Lately I have been playing No limit holdem at a local casino here in Ponca on Monday nights, PLO on Tuesdays, and then picking somewhere to play on weekends depending on where the action is and where I am going to be. Overall it has been a good transition and to be honest I haven't been missing playing online all that much. Its nice to get out and put in some time playing live, meeting new people, and most of all playing against opponents who have not played 10k hands in there lifetime let alone 10k hands this week. Probably the biggest thing I miss is not being able to put in a tourney schedule on Sundays and the lack of game selection you can get at a casino. Pretty much the only game you can play around here is no limit hold em and although this is how I got my start, I actually get pretty bored playing this game at smaller limits. But for now it is what it is and I will continue to roll with the punches and keep building live mountains rather than virtual ones.

With online being gone for now I am so looking forward to playing some larger buy in tourneys and with the WSOP less than a month away I am so excited for it to get here. I have been working hard to get my mind/body in shape for this summer. Although most people look at poker and say meh what do you need to get in shape for, I will promise you it is tougher than it seems to play with full concentration day after day during the Vegas summer without getting worn out. So for me I will continue to prepare and playing as much as possible live to get the feel for opponents and what they are doing.

Well that is all for now and hopefully its not 6 months before I write again.

Gardy

Long Time no Blog

Hey its been a while since I posted last. Back at home for a while and going to try to get back to updating. I just got back from Vegas where the Bellagio didn't treat me too well. However the rest of the trip was a blast and I had some online success while out there.

Couple of interesting hands I played

1. - Playing 10-20 NLHE at Bellagio I am stacked 5k deep with the villain having me covered. I open 33 UTG and get flatted in 4 spots. Flop 33J, OHAI quads, felling good but with the deck crippled I am praying for action. (I got it) Flop Ck's around turn is another J to make the board 33JJ. I lead for 1/3 pot $60 in to $180 original flatter calls and there is a overcall from the SB. I'm loving life at the moment thinking they both have a Jack in there hand so my goal is to try to get the most money in the middle as possible at this point so I make it $800. Original flatter folds and the guy in SB flats putting roughly 2k in the middle. At this point I am semi leery but still thinking he has a random J, river A (board 33JJA) and he leads into me for$900, I am now thinking his hand is AJ for sure and decide to over ship the river for 3500 more, a look comes over his face as he snaps, I table 33 and he tables the JJ, my heart sank.....:(.

2. - Playing 25-50-100 PLO at Bellagio in a super juicy game that I decided to run a little below expectations. The game is very live and at this point I am stacked about 15k effective. I open UTG+1 to 200, Benba makes 800 (he is 3300 effective) and Sam Fahra flats the 800. At this point I am just doing the math to try to get all the money in the middle PRE because I know sammy is never folding. If I pot here then ben calls and it closes off the pot at me only getting 3kin pre leaving 1.5 pots behind which is not what I was wanting to do, therefore I re-min giving ben the option to ship, sammy calls and it allows me to re-open the pot for 90% of my stack like 13kish. Sammy obv calls this and I got what I wanted. Flop comes 4-8-9 2tone with diamonds and Sammy immediately sets the rest of the money in and shows me the 2-6-7-10 with a FD turning my preflop 61-39 equity into 20-80 and I'm a huge dog now :(. We run the turn and river twice and he turns me dead in both spots shipping him a 33k pot and me back to Ponca to grind the nubs.

However I did get some coaching (ty benba) and was able to score a 2nd place finish in the Sunday Mulligan on Full Tilt for 39k. Thank you for all the supporters during that. Felt like I played amazing and also ran amazing throughout the tourney. It was nice to finally turn a big stack into a big cash. I have been putting myself in some really good spots lately just to come up a little short so this was nice for the confidence.

Besides that nothing much new, its a rainy day here in Ponca so going to try to watch the entire season 2 of Sons of Anarchy, shouldn't be a problem and then to Stillwater tomorrow for the Nebraska game. Also booked my trip for LA for the NAPT in November, going to be staying with Alee24 and Neal so hopefully we can run good out there. Also looking at going to KC next weekend and a trip to the PCA in january. Needing some advice for the PCA though so holding off before booking it.

GLAI

Gardyone

Back in Ponca

Well after a fun and eventful summer in Vegas, I am back in Ponca City for a couple of weeks at least. Although it seemed as if I was on the go and extremely busy the entire time out there somebody asked me when I was driving back, "so what all did you do while you were in vegas" and sadly enough I could only come up with three things. Play poker, hang out with friends and jump off the stratosphere ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mggS81M2mAg ). I suggest doing the strat jump while you are out there :). Although I didn't ship any bracelets I would say the summer was a success. I learned a ton and will be ready to go for the series 2011. Out of the crew we had moderate success with the two big cashes coming from Chance (winning the 5k PLO) and Lauren (2nd in the 2500 PLO). I cashed in 3 of 9 events with no big scores.

My plans are kind of up in the air over the next couple of weeks depending on full tilt. Neal (seiwertsystem) won a package to a tournament in Cyprus Aug. 20th and we aren't sure if he will be able to turn it into tourney dollars or not. If he isn't able to, we will be heading to Cyprus for a couple weeks for a series of tournaments concluding with the 5k event he won the seat into. If he is able to turn it into tourney $'s we will just split the $ and I will be going to Winstar for their series at the end of August through the first of Sept that concludes with a 2k 3M gaurentee tourney. Kind of torn, have really been looking forward to the Winstar series but how can I pass up on Cyprus esp if the room is paid for. So depending on FTP's decision in the next couple of days will decide where I will be at the end of the month. Sure either way it will work out.

Well that is about all I got, I look forward to hanging out with friends here in Ponca and Tulsa, hopefully get a few rounds of golf in and maybe go fishing over the next couple of weeks. Also plan on spending a lot of time playing MTT's online this next month playing through the variance so if your board and wanna sweat look me up on tilt, stars, and cake (gardyone).

Gardy

PLO Day 2 here I come

Just got done with Day 1 of the 2500 PLO. I am roughly 5th in chips with about 105 left from 596 starting and 54 cashing. Kind of odd they are paying <10%>AAJ3CC on KQ6CC flop,Brick Brick turn and river and I instantly shot over 50k in chips with this hand and never looked back.

This is now my 6th event at this years series with 2 cashes and feel good about this one. But its PLO and we all know how quickly the chips can get in the middle in this game. As far as cash games things have been going really well. Had a few good PLO sessions last week and also a +2k 1-3 intoxicated NLHE at Aria where I think I won 80% of pots. Cool PLO cash game hand I got there against Benba, Tony Lay, and some random for about 6kish. I try to islolate a shortstack shove which would put me getting 2-1 AIP with the QJ85 (J high diamonds). My plan backfired as Benba shoved for 900, I reshove to 2600 (my stack) and almost immediatly Tony calls with 1200 effective and the guy behind him calls who has me coverend. Flop comes J22 and runs out Diamond Diamond to make me a J high flush and scoop. HAI.

Besides that nothing much has been going on here. Flights are cheap through allegiantair.com right now so if anybody is thinking about coming out be sure and look on there sight. Thats all I got for now so off to bed and back to DAY 2 at 2:30 tomorrow.

GL

Gardy

Bagging Chips

On to the next day On to the next day........ Well I'm in my 4th WSOP event and have made Day 2 for the second time. Really feel I played very well today then ran unlucky again on the last orbit. I will have 13.9K when I get back for Day 2 on Monday at 400-800 blinds with AVG being around 23k so I will be nitting up again to make the $ assuming I'm not already in it when we start; then looking for a good spot after that. Wish there were some interesting hands but as usual its tourney poker and nothing that special. Prob the highlight of the day was raising 5 straight hands, getting flatted by 1 person all 5, C-betting flop and them instantly folding.

As I type it is 12:30am here and I have been playing since noon today so I'm extremely tired. Will be playing Sunday's online tomorrow at Benba's then back for day 2 of the 1k Monday and hopefully moving on in that. Whenever it is over I plan on taking a day off. I have been grinding pretty much non-stop since arriving in LV and really need just a full day to relax and regroup. However it is really hard when you know your playing extremely well and all these chances to play in soft games. I used to read about all the pros talking about the tough schedule of the WSOP and think to myself "its poker" how can it be that tough. Well take it from me, I am drained and we are just getting started. Thanks to everybody who has been following on twitter and keeping me positive at all times. It truely helps out when you take a bad beat or are getting really tired and look down to GL gogogogogogogo more than you would think. Thank you also to Lindsey and Tessa who have been putting up with me being on edge for the last 2 weeks and going out of there way every chance possible to make things easy on me.

GL and GN,

Gardy

Focus

Well it is time for the 1st live tourney I'm playing out here tomorrow for the summer. Haven't decided but going to play either the Venetian 300 or Ceasers 500, I think there will be more players in the Venetian so prob a more +EV play. I also went to the RIO and regged the 1k for this weekend, I decided I would play it Sat. then prob online at Benbas Sunday. Remember that feeling when you were 5 and woke up and realized its C-mas morning; yeah I kind of got that feeling walking in the pavillion.

Haven't played a ton since I have been out here but the sessions I have played have been winners..............Including Carnival games. How does anybody ever lose at these I mean serious its like printing money. OBV JK but I have been running extremely amazing at craps then I lost 1/25th what I had been up in the last month and got steamed and made a rule I have to stay out of the pit the rest of the summer. The other thing I will be or not be doing for that matter is drinking for the rest of the summer. If anybody wants to prop me on this I will be more than happy to field all action considering that would also be a little extra motivation, but I will warn you that u are drawing dead. This is just part of some of the things I plan on changing.......No Aim on Sunday, no texting while playing (will tweet @gardyone during breaks etc), starting a healthy eating habit while working out a little (not gonna over do that one) etc, just mainly upping the focus levels to the top of my game.

GL

Gardyone

1st Blog

Well this is my 1st blog so I hope you like. I will be posting here to keep updated on how things are going as well as posting HH's looking for some constructive critisim as well as some different views. Please feel free to share all opinions.

I have been not working for about 5 weeks now and things have started off great, perfect time to heater a month IMO. To top it off I leave for Vegas Friday on a good note, had my largest cash game win last night, most hands were pretty standard but the last was the one that broke the game. We play a mix of games but the final hand was standard PLO high.

Hero QQ9-10 SSCC UTG, (guy in SB raises every pot) playing 5 handed so I limp. Button limp SB makes it 60 flat flat flat flat 300 in middle. Flop A-7-8 R 1C1S. SB leades for 300 (his range is any 4 just the style of the game), I flat, button flats. Turn Q, in a full ring I would still be cautious but in this game I have the immortal nuts, SB leads for 1200, I pot make 4800, the button snap calls 2600 all in and the SB snaps 4200 effective. At this point I am kinda scared with the SB snap and ask to open hands if they want to do any business (run twice etc.) He immediatly ask if I want to take some money back out of pot and I knew I was good then so refused obv. So after him refusing to open hand up (claiming he has 2 pair the entire time )I said RUN IT. River pairs the board A, my heart skipped a beat thinking O F, I'm sure I'm beat now, SB tables 88-j-4 and button immediatly mucks and I scoop........weeeeeeeeee.

Although there were a lot of big pots most were 5 card plo Hi/lo which are really uninteresting so with that I am off to Vegas Friday morning. Super excited, I am meeting Jerbow in Amarillo but will be on my own for most of ride. We will get there Sunday and I am going through a small Poker boot camp Monday-Weds to prepare for the series. Not sure how many events I plan on playing, most of the 1k's and 1500 PLO/NLHE events and I'm sure a lot of the Venetian deepstacks. If anybody is interested in keeping up on how its going I will try to update on here some and also tweeting (gardyone is name on there). And if anybody plans on coming out to Vegas June or July be sure and shoot me a text to hang out.

GL

Gardyone