December 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover Canterbury Park's Fall Poker Classic which is the longest running poker event in Minnesota and the closest thing we have to something as prestigious as the World Series of Poker. I also cover the Ultimate Overlay tournament.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/schneider-wins-canterbury-park-s-fpc-main-event.htm

November 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover the Midwest Poker classic held at Running Aces Harness Park.  This event featured one of the best structures ever offered in the Midwest.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/midwest-poker-classic-sports-great-structure.htm

Tourney Track November Tournament Preview

I've started writing the Tournament preview on behalf of http://tourneytracks.com for PocketFives and Ante Up Magazine.  Here's the November Article for PocketFives.

http://www.pocketfives.com/articles/pocketfives-u-s-live-tournament-preview-november-2012-587862/

You can get more info directly at Tourney Tracks.
http://www.tourneytracks.com/category/2012/11-2012/

Running Aces Hallow-Scream Tournament

I'm not a professional poker player.  In fact, like most poker players I have a full time job.  I play poker as my hobby and do some poker blogging/writing on the side.  After playing several events over the course of Running Aces's Midwest Poker Classic and Canterbury Parks Fall Poker Classic and still trying to cover the FPC events for Ante Up Magazine, I wasn't necessarily looking to play another poker tournament right away.

But Running Aces hosted it's Hallow-Scream Tournament from Oct 24th - Oct 28th and I was very intrigued by the event..  It was a $275 tournament with 4 day 1s and a $50K guaranteed prize pool, which they crushed, and first place paid $27K.  You could play multiple day 1s, and if you made day 1 twice, they'd buy back your lowest stacks for $600 each.  They also ran $70 qualifiers to play the event, and gave away 7 seats in their weekly freeroll.  This was a fantastic way to allow small stakes players to play a "big time" event with the possibility of making some serious money.

I bought directly into the event.  It is just below the $350 limit I have for direct buy-ins, so it fit my budget perfectly.  I only played one Day 1, although I would have considered playing it again if my schedule had permitted.  Each day 1 played 15  half hour levels.  So it took about 8 hours when you factor in breaks.  The  structure was great, I believe it was the same as they used for the Midwest Poker Classic.

I finished day 1 on a short stack with 35K chips.  It was the first time I'd made day 2 of a multi-day tournament, so I was pretty happy despite my short stack.  Day 2 started at 1,500-3,000 blinds with a 300 ante.  My first table looked to be very soft but I was only able to win the blinds once (with AK) before the table broke.  I was moved to a much tougher table that had a few players I recognized as good players.  I folded until the last hand of the level, and pushed all in with KQ to take down the blinds uncontested.

WARNING:  The next paragraph contains a bad beat story.  Please avert your eyes if you are inclined.  I will try to keep it as short and painless as possible.  Feel free to skip to the next paragraph.

The first or second hand of the 2,000-4,000 level a very good player opened to 11K.  I looked down to find QQ and shoved my 43K stack into the middle.  After thinking for a little bit, my opponent called with KT.  Flop came all babies.  The turn brought three spades on the board, so the king of spaces was no longer an out for my opponent, since I held the queen of spades.   My opponent was down to two red kings as outs.  Of course a red king came and I finished in 79th place, with payouts starting at 70th.

Despite not cashing, I think this is a fantastic event.  It really allows a much broader range of players to participate than even the $500 events.  With the multiple day 1s it generates a very nice prize pool.  I'd like to see more events like this.  I think it is an excellent event for all stakes of players.

October 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month's Ante Up Magazine article covers the Tournament of Champions at Running Aces Harness Park.  By the way I gave half my stack to the tournament winner Blake Bohn when I had Queens to his Kings.  At least he made good use of my chips.

I also cover the Twin Cities Poker open at Canterbury Park.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/running-aces-poker-hosts-its-largest-tournament-buy-in.htm

Midwest Poker Classic Initial Results

I'm excited about the Midwest Poker Classic at Running Aces followed up by the Fall Poker Classic at Canterbury Park. The Monday night free rolls have two seats to the Main Event added.  So I played on the 11th and the 18th and finished 15th and 5th, respectively.  Of course neither of those was good enough for a seat, although I won a little cash.

I then  played in the Friday night $125 20% qualifier.  I got married to Kings and crippled myself, and didn't cash.  So I decided to play the $150 bounty tournament.  I got knocked out early without earning a single bounty

Next up was the Sunday $150 Deep Stack.  I was finally able to make a deep run.  I made it into the final two tables which is where the money bubble broke.  When about 18 people were left I made a huge blunder and got all in with sixes against a set of queens.  Luckily I went runner runner to get a straight and stay alive.  I then made it to the final table with a reasonable chip stack, but then I went completely card dead.   I ended getting all in with AK vs AK and AJ.  Of course a J came to take most of my chips away.  I went out shortly there after in 7th place for a cash of $411.  Needless to say I was disappointed given that first place was over $4,500.

I also played the Monday Night free roll, but busted out quickly.  I even managed to dump 10K in chips when I misread the board thinking I had a straight.

I'm enjoying the tournament series.  I wish I could play them all.

pAIPS (Tournament Series)

I've been playing poker online since 2003.  The only real poker I planned in my calendar was the tournament series hosted by the Ante Up poker podcast.  AIPS or Ante Up Intercontinental Poker Series.  Of course since Black Friday shutdown PokerStars for U.S. players, we haven't been able to play.  So last year we took advantage of a PokerStars Home Game group that Gambit had started and launched pAIPS (play money AIPS).  Because we all know each other and we all want to win the title the games play fairly well, even though no money is on the line.

We play on the 6th, 16th, and 26th of each month.  The games rotate to all varieties not just no-limit hold'em.  You can view the full schedule here.

There is a points leader board, currently dominated by Gambit.  Everyone is welcome.  Join up and play.

Here is the original pAIPS announcement.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=1866

And here is the pAIPS 2012 announcement.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=2884

Labor Day Musings

My brother, Cameron,  came up to visit over the Labor Day weekend holiday.  During that time we watched the coverage of his televised table of the WSOP.  There were much rewinding and reviewing of shots.  Not to see Cameron, but instead to say, "I think I see my elbow."  Or "There's Dad's hand."  There were a couple of shots where you could actually see both of our faces on the ESPN coverage.  Unfortunately they didn't show a single hand Cameron played, so he just folded for the two hours.

Also while he was up here we played a couple of poker tournaments.  We started with the $150 Thursday night tournament at Running Aces.  Neither of us cashed, but I did last about an hour longer than he did.

Next we played the $180 Saturday morning Big-Stax at Canterbury Park.  Cameron busted in 12th before the money.  I chopped 4 handed for a little over $2500.  I had the most chips, so I got the credit for the win.  The money was nice, but beating my brother was priceless!

September 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I interview John Morgan about his experience playing in the $1 million Big One for One Drop event.  John Morgan is genuinely a great guy.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/minnesota-poker-players-get-chance-to-sweat-the-big-one.htm

Qualified for Tournament of Champions.

Saturday, August 4th I played in the $275 qualifier for the $2,500 Tournament of Champions being held at Running Aces Harness Park on August 10th.  There were 48 people in the event and 5 seats were given away.  I managed to get one of those seats.  This will be the largest buy-in tournament I have played to date.

The tournament has a great structure but it will probably be a tough field.

Here's hoping I take down the guaranteed $75,000 first place price!

August 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover the Running Aces Anniversary event, preview the Tournament of Champions and mention the Canterbury Park Mdewakaton Sioux Agreement.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/powell-wins-nearly-24k-at-running-aces-anniversary-event.htm

2012 WSOP Poker Player Sightings

Below is the list of poker players that I recognized (and still remembered when I wrote this) at the 2012 WSOP:

• Brandon Adams
• Matt Affleck
• Mickey Appleman
• Kristy Arnett
• Sam Barnhart
• Viktor Blom
• Liv Boeree
• Brad Booth
• Humberto Brenes
• Doyle Brunson
• Joe Cada
• Everett Carlton
• Norman Chad
• Johnny Chan
• Bill Chen
• Lee Childs
• TJ Cloutier
• Freddy Deeb
• Shaun Deeb
• Bryan Devonshire
• Antonio Esfandiari
• Ted Forest
• Jimmy Fricke
• Prahlad Friedman
• Phil Galfond
• Bill Gazes
• Kristy Gazes
• Jamie Gold
• Barry Greenstein
• David Grey
• Bertrand "Elky"  Grospellier
• Jordan Handrich
• Dan Harrington
• Dan Heimiller
• Maria Ho
• Sam Holden
• Chad Holloway
• Phil Ivey
• Alex Jacobs
• John Juanda
• Mel Judah
• Allen Kessler
• Phil Laak
• Guy Laliberte
• Ben Lamb
• Bernard Lee
• Andrew Lichtenberger
• Erick Lindgren
• Lon McEachern
• Jason Mercier
• Bryan Micon
• Ed Miller
• Darvin Moon
• Molly Anne Mossey
• Amanda Musumeci
• Daniel Negreanu
• Ali Nejad
• John Pham
• Dennis Phillips
• Kevin Pollak
• William Reynolds
• David "Doc" Sands
• Matt Savage
• Ylon Schwartz
• Kara Scott
• Huck Seed
• Vanessa Selbst
• Jason Somerville
• Sam Stein
• JC Tran
• Burke Veasy
• Cyndy Violette
• Jessica Welman
• Todd Witteles

Here are some pictures I took with my iPhone:

Doyle Brunson

Phil Laak

Phil Ivey

Jason Senti

Phil Galfond

Dan Harrington

Ben Lamb and Vanessa Selbst

Daniel Negreanu

Everett Carlton and Jason Somerville

Tales from the WSOP

I busted out of the $550 satellite without winning a Main Event seat.  Despite that my first time attending the World Series of Poker has been a great experience.  As a big poker fan it has been wonderful to see the places, the faces and the events of legend.

It was hard for me to focus on the satellite when I was playing it.  I kept noticing things like Barry Greenstein or Eli Elezra walking through the room, instead of focusing on my cards.  Next time I think I will be able to focus more on the poker and less on the spectacle.

My brother finished Day 1C with 54,625 in chips.  For perspective, this places him with the 649th largest stack of the more than 2,200 people that finished Day 1C.  He also has more chips than the 11,525 that Phil Ivey ended the day with.  Needless to say I am proud of his achievements and am rooting him on.  (I've also informed him that he has to wear an Ante Up patch if he makes it to a televised table.)



While my brother played Day 1C, I was able to walk through the Pavilion, Amazon, and Brasilla rooms that I had heard about on my podcasts.  I was also able to see the $11 sandwiches and overpriced beverages in the poker kitchen.  I sat in the stands where they record the ESPN feature table and I saw lots of famous faces.  For example all the complaining about the heat is somewhat justified.  With temperatures every day over 100 degrees, I felt liked I need a shower after the walk from the car to the air conditioned Rio.  Of course it is a dry heat and that does seem to make a difference.  110 in Vegas is like 95 in Minnesota.  Still way too hot.

I've seen several famous poker faces so far.  I practically ran into Joe Cada and Mickey Appleman.  I saw TJ Cloutier yell "Hello" to Humberto Brenes from across the room.  I saw Doyle Brunson riding his scooter down the hallway during the brake.  I watched Antonio Esfandiari playing on the ESPN feature table.  Other than actually winning the Main Event myself, this trip has surpassed my expectations.

Next year I may need to work on getting a press pass so I can have more access to the WSOP.  I met fellow Ante Up's Illinois ambassador, Joe Giertuga, and he informed me that the press passes are worth their weight in gold. And I haven't been shirking my duties for Ante Up either.  I've been on the been on the look out for fellow Minnesotans.

II took a picture of Minnesota pro Jason Senti playing his day 1.  I also saw Molly Anne Mossey (third place finisher at the MSTP event in Tama, IA) and some of her friends.  I know Erick Wright is also out here, at least according to his facebook posts.  Minnesota Poker Magazine has a good overview of the standings going into Day 2.


I'm having a great time.  Wish you all were here.

Playing Satellite Today

I'm going to play a $550 Satellite for the Main Event today. Hopefully I win!

Vegas, Baby Vegas!

I've been a poker player since high school and a poker fan boy ever since the poker boom started in 2002.  But I've never managed to make it out to see the spectacle that is the World Series of Poker.  I've had a long standing family fishing trip in the first part of June, so it's been hard to justify taking another trip so close behind.

But this year my brother has given me the perfect excuse.  He won a Main Event seat through playing in a series of tournaments with friends in Kansas City.  So of course I have to go out to sweat him, don't I?  And if I happen to play in one of the $500 super satellites, well so be it.

I really am excited about going.  After all, the WSOP is the Mecca of poker and seeing it is definitely on my bucket list.  I'd love to play in the Main Event, but I'm not willing to pony up the $10K to play so I'll have to get lucky in the satellite. But I'll play cash games and maybe a smaller tournament as well.

Of course this trip has not been without its drama.  My brother locked up his seat in May, but then on the way to the previously mentioned fishing trip he hurt his knee.  Turns out he fractured his leg, likely caused by a giant-cell tumor.  This is NOT cancer, thankfully, but he will have to have it removed as soon as we return from the WSOP.  Until then he is supposed to stay off his leg, and has to walk with crutches.  So he is going to rent a motorized wheelchair,so he can wander around the Amazon and Pavilion rooms without lugging crutches around

We'll be out there for a full week, from July 7-14.   Hopefully we will both be too busy playing the main event to do much of anything else.

Wish me luck!

July 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover the Northern Lights MSPT event.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/kirby-dominates-northern-lights-poker-event.htm

June 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover the expansion of Minnesota poker laws as well as the results of the Spring Poker Classic and the HPT.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/government-expands-poker-options-in-minnesota.htm

Ante Up Magazine Meetup

As I have announced before, Ante Up Magazine publisher Scott Long be in Minnesota on May 27th.  He will be hosting a 2 part meet up for fans of the Magazine and/or podcast. 

First we will meet for the 3:05 PM Saint Paul Saints game against the Sioux City Explorers. http://saintsbaseball.com/schedule/ If you would like to come, we suggest getting the $5 General Admission tickets.  We will try to get a block of seats where we can all sit together.  Scott will tweet our location at the ballpark.  Follow @anteupmagazine on twitter to get updates.

Then once the game is over we will be traveling to Canterbury Park for some poker action.  We hope to open a table so that all the Ante Up fans can sit together. http://canterburypark.com

Feel free to come and join the fun.  Invite your friends too.  Even bring your family to the game if you’d like.

Follow @anteupmagazine on twitter to receive any updates the day of the meetup.

Scott Long, the Saints and Canterbury Park

Ante Up publisher Scott long will be hosting a meet up for fans on Sunday May 27.  We'll start at the Saints game.   http://saintsbaseball.com/schedule/sioux-city-explorers-at-st.-paul-saints-2-2/?eID=100.  Let us know ASAP and we'll try to get some tickets that are all together.

Then we will be going to Canterbury Park for some poker.  

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3783

Minnesota Poker Law Signed

Governor Dayton signed the HF 2795 into law today.   This will do the following for the racetrack poker rooms.

• Increase maximum bet from $60 to $100
• Increase the number of tables from 50 to 80
• Allow for an unlimited number of tournament tables.

The card room will need to have any changes approved by the Minnesota Racing commission before they go into effect.  At least this is a step in the right direction.

New Minnesota Poker Law

Minnesota Poker laws may become slightly less arcane.


House file 2795 passed the Minnesota House of Representative and the Minnesota Senate on April 28th. The bill is still awaiting signature by Governor Dayton.


The bill would increase the maximum bet from $60 to $100. This would allow up to $50-100 limit games or $2-100 SLHE games. Additionally it would increase the number of tables allowed to be in service from 50 to 80. Both Canterbury Park and Running Aces often can't open additional tables do to this restriction. Additionally it would allow an unlimited number of tournament tables. Currently the tournament tables are counted in the 50 table limit, except for 14 day a year when unlimited additional tournament tables may be opened.


More tournament tables is a great thing. More cash game tables is a great thing too. (I still don't understand the need for a limit.) And while we still can't have NLHE cash games, $2-100 SLHE is closer.
1
http://www.startribune.com/politics/sta ... 84125.html

May 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I interview Mark Cardenas and Phil Fuehrer of the Minnesota based CPL Poker Podcast.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/cpl-poker-podcast-a-passion-for-these-guys.htm

Ante Up Minnesota Meetup May 27 (Coming Soon)

The meet up is getting close, let us know if you are attending!


Ante Up Magazine  Co-Publisher Scott Long will be in Minnesota at the end of May.  The meet up will be held on Sunday, May 27 2012.
The plan is to first meet at the St. Paul Saints game which starts at  3:05 PM.  


Let us know if you are planning to attend.  Scott is looking into getting a specialty group box if we get between 10 an 40 attendees.  Anyone is welcome.  Please let us know by May 15th so we can get a head count and reserve the section.


We will then go Canterbury Park to socialize over a friendly game of poker.  If we can get enough people, we may even be able to get them to open of our own table.

Let know if you plan on attending.  Send me an email at john.somsky (at) gmail.com, scott (at) anteupmagazine.com or post in the forum.

This meetup should be a fun event! 

Check out more information on the Ante Up Forums:

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3783

Black Friday Anniversary

Today is the one year Anniversary of Black Friday.  On April 15th, 2011 the Department of Justice seized the domains of the three largest U.S. poker sites, derailing the engine that funded much of the growth in the poker industry.  Fallout from this event is stall happening to this day.

Personally, I remember fondly playing on PokerStars with the rest of the Ante Up Nation.  I'm still jealous of our Canadian brethren that are still allowed to play.  Several professional players have either moved out of the country or commute to play online poker occasionally.  Some professionals have switched their focus to live poker, others have left poker as a profession to find a job in the "real world". And of course no one has been paid out by either Full Tilt or UB.  Some people have staggering sums locked up online.

The damage done by Black Friday probably won't be repaired until poker is regulated in the US.  But the world didn't end.  Poker is still the game I love and has a vibrant community.

Ante Up Minnesota Meetup May 27

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I'd really like to meet the owners of Ante Up Magazine and let them know in person how much I enjoy their podcast and magazine."  Well now Minnesotans have a chance.

Ante Up Magazine  Co-Publisher Scott Long will be in Minnesota at the end of May.  The meet up will be held on Sunday, May 27 2012.
The plan is to first meet at the St. Paul Saints game which starts at  3:05 PM.  Let me know if you are going and I'll see what I can do about reserving a block of tickets. (I don't know how that works so no promises yet.)

We will then go Canterbury Park to socialize over a friendly game of poker.  If we can get enough people, we may even be able to get them to open of our own table.

Let know if you plan on attending.  Send me an email at john.somsky (at) gmail.com.

This meetup should be a fun event!

Check out more information on the Ante Up Forums:

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3783

Spring Poker Classic And Heartland Poker Tour

Running Aces Harness Park has their Spring Poker Classic from Thursday, April 12th through Sunday April 22nd.  There are several events as well as several  satellites to the main event.  I'm thinking about playing the $180 Omaha H/L event on April 18th.  The $1100 Main Event begins April 21st.  It should be a great series.  You can get the full schedule here.

And then April 19-30 is the Heartland Poker Tour at Canterbury Park.  The $1650 Main Event has four Day One flights, beginning on April 26th.  There should be a big turn out.  Check out the details here.

3 Months $3,000 Summary

My 3 Months $3,000 experiment has reached its conclusion.  I was trying to win $3,000 over the course of 3 months playing live poker for the challenge.  Instead the challenge included my largest career downswing ever, although I did start mounting a comeback toward the end.  This blog is a summary of what I learned doing the challenge.

Over the course of the three months I played 167.5 hours of live poker spread across 58 sessions for a total loss if $2,749.  This compares to 4 hours of live poker played over the same time period in 2011.  Of course in 2011 I was still playing quite a bit of online poker.  And I've also increased my live play since becomming an Ambassador for Ante Up Magazine.  However I'd guess that the challenge caused me to at least double the amount of poker I would have otherwise played in that time frame.

I played 50.8 hours of live tournaments spread across 25 events.  I lost $2,306 without achieving any significant cashes.  I did make several deep runs and was within 4 or 5 places of cashing several times, but didn't quite make a big score.  Prior to becoming the Ambassador for Ante Up, most of my tournament play was done online.  Since most poker coverage involves tournaments, I thought I should increase my live tournament play.  I am still trying to become proficient at live tournaments, and hopefully that will be possible since I did have some success at online tournaments.  25 tournaments is small enough of a sample size to no be statistically significant, so it's unclear what conclusions can be drawn from the numbers.

I played  58.8 hours of cash games across 33 sessions.  At my low point I was down $4,023.  I ended up making a come back and was down only $433 in the end.  I probably had a couple of larger losses than I should have in the beginning, but I felt I was playing well toward the end.

Overall Impressions

I think I felt quite a bit of pressure from the challenge.  I am a little surprised by this.  After all no one forced me to do this challenge, and I could have stopped at any time.  Additionally my blog gets fairly low traffic, so not very many people are seeing it anyway.  Despite all that, the challenge added extra pressure to me and may have affected my play.  I must say I did have a harder time trying to actually blog about the challenge after a losing session.  And it isn't fun sharing your worst losing streak ever with the entire internet.  (Or at least the 7 people who actually read this blog.)

The losses playing tournaments aren't statistically significant so it's hard to draw conclusions, but I definitely think I need to improve my tournament game. Strictly speaking I shouldn't have played any tournaments for the challenge since the variance is too large for such a short challenge.  But I do want to improve my live tournament game so I kept playing.

I think there was a little bit of run bad too.  For example I had 70% equity in an $1800 pot with one card to come.  Had I won that pot, it would have cut my losses in half.  I think there were other examples of running below expectation in the beginning.  But it is also likely that I was running a little bit above expectation in the end, so maybe things evened out.

It does make me appreciate professional players who have to win day-in and day-out in order to make a living.  I, on the other hand, have a steady income and do not rely on poker winnings in order to pay my bills.  But just post the results to the internet was enough to throw me off my game.  I choked under the pressure I manufactured in my own mind.

Having said all this, I'm considering repeating this challenge next year.  I enjoyed the challenge, despite being demoralizing at times.  If I want to become a better player I need to handle pressure in all its forms.  I need to be able to win when it counts!

3 Months $3000 Results

Here are the results of all the sessions I've played for the 3 Months $3000 challenge.

• Running Aces is Running Aces Harness Park
• Canterbury Park is Canterbury Park
• St. Croix is St. Croix Casino in Turtle Lake, WI 
• NLHE is no-limit hold'em
• SLHE is spread-limit hold'em
• LHE is fixed-limit hold'em
• SLO is spread-limit Omaha hi
• Survival tournaments are no-limit cash games in tournament format
• Meskwaki Casino is Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel

Sessions

Session	Date	Type	Description	Hours Played	$ Won	Total $ Won
1	Jan 1	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($5K added)	3.9	-$133	-$133
2	Jan 1	Cash	Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE	3.4	$279	$146
3	Jan 2	Cash	Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE	1.2	$165	$311
4	Jan 2	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($1K added)	2.9	-$18	$293
5	Jan 5	Cash	Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE	3.9	-$600	-$307
6	Jan 8	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament	1.2	-$46	-$353
7	Jan 8	Cash	Canterbury Park - $4-8 LHE	2.1	-$193	-$546
8	Jan 8	Tournament	Canterbury Park - Survival NLHE Tournament	1.7	-$440	-$986
9	Jan 9	Cash	Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE	2.5	-$360	-$1,346
10	Jan 14	Cash	Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE	3.1	-$600	-$1,946
11	Jan 17	Cash	Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE	2.7	-$340	-$2,286
12	Jan 21	Tournament	Home Game	3.1	-$40	-$2,326
13	Jan 22	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament	2.5	-$250	-$2,576
14	Jan 22	Cash	Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE	3.2	-$301	-$2,877
15	Jan 27	Tournament	Running Aces -  Satellite	3.5	-$67	-$2,944
16	Feb 1	Cash	Running Aces - $2-60 SLHE	2.7	$46	-$2,898
17	Feb 4	Cash	St. Croix  -  $1-2 NLHE	4.5	-$502	-$3,400
18	Feb 11	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	0.1	-$2	-$3,402
19	Feb 11	Tournament	Running Aces -  Super Satellite	1.0	$159	-$3,243
20	Feb 11	Tournament	Running Aces -  Satellite	1.4	-$260	-$3,503
21	Feb 11	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	4.0	-$408	-$3,911
22	Feb 12	Cash	Running Aces -  $3-6 Kill LHE	0.6	$70	-$3,841
23	Feb 12	Tournament	Running Aces -  NLHE Tournament	4.2	-$8	-$3,849
24	Feb 12	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	2.2	-$174	-$4,023
25	Feb 13	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added)	0.3	-$15	-$4,038
26	Feb 13	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	3.6	-$300	-$4,338
27	Feb 18	Tournament	Running Aces -  Super Satellite	0.4	-$90	-$4,428
28	Feb 18	Tournament	Running Aces -  Super Satellite	0.6	-$60	-$4,488
29	Feb 18	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	6.2	-$320	-$4,808
30	Feb 19	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	1.8	$205	-$4,603
31	Feb 20	Tournament	Running Aces -  NLHE Tournament ($2K added)	1.0	-$16	-$4,619
32	Feb 20	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	3.0	-$25	-$4,644
33	Feb 25	Tournament	Canterbury Park - Survival NLHE Tournament	2.0	$105	-$4,539
34	Feb 25	Tournament	Canterbury Park - Survival NLHE Tournament	1.8	-$530	-$5,069
35	Feb 26	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	3.9	$35	-$5,034
36	Feb 27	Cash	Running Aces -  $3-6 Kill LHE	0.5	-$38	-$5,072
37	Feb 27	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added)	2.1	-$16	-$5,088
38	Feb 27	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	0.3	-$76	-$5,164
39	Feb 27	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE/SLO	2.9	-$184	-$5,348
40	Feb 28	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament	2.3	-$125	-$5,475
41	Mar 3	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	6.9	-$400	-$5,875
42	Mar 5	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added)	1.3	-$16	-$5,891
43	Mar 5	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	3.0	$4	-$5,887
44	Mar 10	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	4.1	$402	-$5,485
45	Mar 12	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added)	2.4	-$17	-$5,502
46	Mar 15	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	5.0	$36	-$5,466
47	Mar 17	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	10.9	$500	-$4,966
48	Mar 18	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament	4.0	-$66	-$5,032
49	Mar 18	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	3.1	-$28	-$5,060
50	Mar 19	Tournament	Running Aces - NLHE Tournament ($2K added)	2.0	-$15	-$5,075
51	Mar 19	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	2.4	$700	-$4,375
52	Mar 24	Cash	Running Aces -  $2-60 SLHE	6.4	$430	-$3,945
53	Mar 29	Cash	Meskwaki Casino - NLHE	5.4	$460	-$3,485
54	Mar 30	Tournament	Meskwaki Casino - $250 Satellite	2.0	-$250	-$3,735
55	Mar 30	Cash	Meskwaki Casino - NLHE	2.9	$776	-$2,959
56	Mar 30	Tournament	Meskwaki Casino - $90 Super Satellite	0.7	$160	-$2,799
57	Mar 31	Tournament	Meskwaki Casino - $250 Satellite	2.5	-$250	-$3,049
58	Mar 31	Cash	Meskwaki Casino - NLHE	8.2	$300	-$2,749

Hourly Rate

Type	Hours Played	Total $ Won	$ / Hour
Cash	58.4	-$443	-$3.80
Tournament	50.8	-$2,306	-$45.43
TOTAL	167.5	-$2,749	-$16.42

Progress Toward Goal

	Total $
Goal	$3,000
$ Won	-$2,749
$ Left	$5,749

April 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I interview Minnesota poker pro Jason Senti to see how he has dealt with Black Friday.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/poker-pro-jason-senti-making-the-most-of-situation.htm

CPL Poker Podcast

Last night I interviewed Mark Cardenas and Phil Fuehrer the CPL Poker Podcast for Ante Up Magazine.  The CPL Poker Podcast is the longest running poker podcast in the upper mid-west.  Mark and Phil have been pumping out the podcast since 2007.  They are poker pros, but instead just a couple of really nice regular guys.  Their podcast regularly features local Minnesota music and humorous banter reminiscent of Ante Up's own podcast.

This podcast is a must listen for any fans of Minnesota Poker and podcasts.  Look for the article in the May 2012 of Ante Up Magazine.

Confidence Back

Although the numbers haven't come back, I'm feeling good at the tables again. There's no way I dig my way out of the hole by the end of March, but I hope I can make a dent in the losses.  In any case it's good to be playing with confidence again.

Jason Senti Reacts to Black Friday

I recently interviewed Jason Senti for the April issue of Ante Up Magazine.  We discussed how his life has changed since Black Friday.

Jason is best known for being a member of the 2010 November Nine.  He ended up finishing 7th, much to the dismay of his fellow Minnesotans.  After making the final table he began traveling to lots of final live tournaments and didn't play much online all the way through March 2011.

As of March, 2011 I hadn’t played nearly as much online since the world series because of all the traveling I’d been doing.  I wanted to get back to it.  I really missed playing lots of hands with regulars in deep stack [online] cash games,” said Senti.  He planned on grinding lots of online poker from March until the beginning of the 2011 WSOP where he planned to play about 30 tournaments.  He played 5-10 hours a day five days week for the month leading up to April 15^th.

“Then (Black Friday) hit and I didn’t know what to do,” said Senti.  With so much uncertainty in the future of a reliable poker income he decided to change his plans and only play a handful of tournaments and instead concentrate on playing the lucrative cash games that pop up during the WSOP.  He also has maintained his position as a pro for the online training site Blue Fire Poker, as well as taking on the role of being a poker ambassador for the Canterbury Park card room located in Shakopee, MN. 

Senti has also set up a second residence in Vancouver, British Columbia where he has spent several months playing online poker.  He is optimistic that poker will be regulated in the U.S. soon.  “If poker was reasonably regulated within the U.S., I would probably have to plan on playing far more poker than I [ever have] in the first couple of years following [regulation],” Senti said. 

For now he will continue to commute to Canada to play poker and hope for regulation in the U.S.  If regulation doesn’t come, he will eventually need to decide to move somewhere else to play professionally, or perhaps make a career change.  But for now he’s hopeful that online poker regulation is on the horizon. 

Let's hope that we can all get back to playing the great game of poker online as well as live.

MSPT: Recipe for Success

The Mid-States Poker Tour held the first event of season three at Running Aces Harness Park in February.  the MSPT events have been steadily gaining popularity and resulting in ever growing prize pools.  This season's events will have both a Day 1A and a Day 1B, and allow people to re-enter into day 1B if the played and busted from day 1A.

February's event attracted 311 entrants.  This was an record number for both the MSPT and Running Aces for $1,000 events.  I believe this is the record for all of Minnesota.  When standing next to Gregg Barktu, Running Aces poker room manager,watching the final table, he mentioned they may consider multiple day ones for some of their other events.

I also watch some of the live stream for the final table.  It more compelling than I would have guessed.  Maybe I was more interested than the average person because I had to cover it for the magazine, but I thought it was very entertaining.  Seeing the hole cards made it much more interesting, and Bryan Mileski gave audio commentary to fill in information about stack sizes, blinds and antes.

Running Aces also put the stream on their big screen in the card room.  I heard many people in the card room talking about the the final table.  Many people assumed that repeat powerhouse Erick Wright would take down the final table, but in the end Rodger Johnson won the RF Moeller Diamond Championship Bracelet and $79,185.

Mileski deserves a big congratulations for the continued success of the MSPT.

Click here for more information about February's event.

March 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover the Running Aces Harness Park freerolls that are drawing huge fields.  Note Manessah Kunkel is a woman even though my editor changed the article to refer to her as "he" once.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/freerolls-gaining-popularity-at-running-aces.htm

Jason Senti Interview

I interviewed 2010 November niner Jason Senti today about how he has dealt with the fallout of Black Friday for the April issue of Ante Up Magazine.  He really is a nice guy, and a great poker ambassador.

Struggling Continued

Today I tried to win my way into the MSPT $1,100 tournament that will be next weekend.  I played a $90 single table sit-n-go and won my way into the $260 Satellite.  I busted out of that.  I lost about 25% of my stack trying to steal a pot, then ended up losing a race.  I think I played better in the sit-n-go than in the tournament.

After that I played cash.  I could not seem to win at all.  I had 2 pair at least 6 times and didn't win a single pot with them.  I don't think I played poorly, I just never seemed to have the winning hand.  I'd really like to start winning again.

This is by far my worst down swing of all time.

February 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

I'm suppose to keep articles under 250 words, so they will be short and sweet from now on.  This month I cover the the MSPT Season 2 finale, the POY winner, and HPT will host an event at Canterbury Park in April.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/vang-captures-mid-states-poker-tour-finale.htm

Short-term Stop Loss Program

Since I've been on a bit of a bad streak and I don't have a lot of time to recover for the three months $3000 challenge, I've decided to try a bit of a stop loss program on my cash games.  Usually I buy in for $200 and have 3 buy-ins for a potential total loss of $600 for a session.  Instead I'm going to try to buy in for $160, and have two extra bullets of $120, for a total of $400.  This should still give me a chance to take advantage of a good game, but also limit my losses if I'm not playing as well as I think I am.

I normally buy in for the maximum allowed because I tend to play better with a deeper stack.  But recently I've been running bad, so it seems like a good idea limit my losses at least until I have my confidence back

Largest Career Downswing

Recently I've had over a $1,600 downswing while attempting my 3 Months $3,000 challenge.  I looked over my records and it is the largest downswing I've ever had in my live poker career.  $1,600 is eight buy-ins to my average $2-60 spread-limit hold'em game.  I've had a 12 buy-in downswing in my online play (although that was for smaller stakes).  I don't have very many downswings more than 3 or 4 buy-ins, so this is a major downswing for me.  But I don't think 8 buy-ins is too far out of the norm.  I'm just going to make sure I'm focused and prepared next time I play.  I'm ready for a comeback!

CLARIFICATION: The downswing I'm referring to is consecutive downswings without booking a win.  If you include intermediate wins, then my largest downswing is closer to 10 buy-ins.

Crash and Burn Continued

The run bad continues.  In fact I've never had a downswing this large playing live poker.  I know a lot of it is just being on the bad side of variance.  I've been on the good side of variance before, so I can't complain when things even out.  Just suck to happen when I'm publicly tracking everything.  I think I'll take a few days off, make sure I'm in a good mental state and then play again.  I have a $1,300 hold to dig myself out of when I start back up.

Crash and Burn

Thursday night I went to the card room to try to schedule an interview with the tournament director.  After that was accomplished I thought I'd play for a little while.  It was one of those nights where nothing went right.  Chips were flowing freely around the table, but none seemed to head in my direction.

I honestly don't think I was playing that badly, not that I didn't make any mistakes.  I think it was largely just variance.  After losing 3 buy-ins ($600) I decided to call it a night.  After all one of the most insidious aspects of tilt is that you can't always tell when you aren't playing your best.  So even though I think I could have still beat the game, I left.  In retrospect I think that was a good idea.  Even if the game was beatable, I think there are softer games.  And I don't want to by trying to "chase" my losses.  It's better to start fresh with a clean slate.

Normally after a bad session I might take a couple of weeks off, to make sure I reset my mental state.  But with this challenge I don't have that luxury, so a couple of days will have to do.

Day 2

Today I won a little bit in a cash game while waiting for a tournament.  I busted out of the tournament just shy of the money.  I probably should have stayed in the cash game.  It was a good game and higher EV than the tournament.  Still had a fun night though.

That's two winning days in a row so far.  Not a bad start.

First Sessions

I played my first session today.  I started off playing a $5,000 free roll.  Well sort of.  You start with 2000 chips, and a $10 add on gives you an additional 5000 in chips.  I got a little carried away and ended up spending $133 on the "free roll".  (13 add on plus $3 in tips for drinks.)  In retrospect I think I spent too much on add on  I think 4-6 would have been reasonable.  There were over 600 players. It paid 60 places and I busted somewhere in the 90's.  First place payed over $4,000.

After I busted I switched over to cash games.  There I was able to re-coup my losses and  make a little profit after grinding for 4 hours.  Up $146 for the day.

January 2012 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I interview Bryan Mileski of the Mid-States Poker Tour.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/surma-wins-record-setting-mspt-event.htm