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

Is $3,000 in 3 months realistic?

$3,000 is the arbitrary goal I set for myself to win in the first 3 months of 2012.  (Mainly because "Three Months Three Thousand" sounds cool.)  Depending upon your point of view $3,000 may or may not sound like a lot of money.  But here are some factors to consider:

• 6-8 sessions per month -  I'd like to play more, but I only have so much time.  I work full time and work as an Ambassador for Ante Up Magazine so I think 6-8 sessions is all I can expect.  That's probably double what I average, although I occasionally will play that often.
• $2-60 SLHE - I mainly play $2-60 spread limit hold'em.  This has a max buy-in of $200 and plays similar to $1-2 NLHE.
• Tournaments - The variance in tournaments is really too high and my volume to low to be realistic for a challenge like this.  However I'm really trying to play more live tournaments since that is mainly what is covered in magazines. So I'll be playing some tournaments even though it may not be the best strategy.

So let's say I play 8 sessions every month.  That's 24 sessions total which would mean averaging $125 per session.  It's definitely possible to win $125 in a session playing $2-60 SLHE, but it is a very aggressive goal to average that.  I may have to try to play additional sessions.  Of course this will only be worthwhile if I can keep my level of play up.

So I may need a little "run good" but I think the goal is achievable, but by no means easy.  I'm looking forward to starting.

Three Months $3,000

I remember for a while, back in the day, Daniel Negreanu was posting all of his session results.  I thought it took a lot of guts to post everything, the good, the bad and the ugly.  I've been thinking of doing the same thing for a short while.  It might make me think twice before calling that draw when I don't have the odds.  I was also a fan of the TV show Two Months Two Million.  That had four internet poker players trying to make two million dollars over two months.

Of course my plan isn't anywhere near two million.  In fact I'll probably only play 1 or two sessions a week, in my spare time.  But to make it more interesting I'm going to come up with the them of Three Months Three Thousand.

So starting January 1, 2012 I will publish the results of every live poker session I play for three months.  The somewhat arbitrary goal will be to make $3,000 by the end of those three months.  I'm hoping this will help my to kick-start this sorely neglected blog and help me focus on playing good poker.  Whenever I tweet things related to this event I'll use the hash tag #3Months3000.

Wish me luck!

December 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I review a poker room that was recently remodel.  It is for one of the smaller casinos in the state.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/prairie-s-edge-poker-room-smaller-but-successful.htm

November 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month I cover the results of the Fall Poker Classic and the Midwest Poker Classic.  This is the cover story of the magazine. Cool right?

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/hubbard-captures-canterbury-park-s-fall-poker-classic.htm

October 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month's article covers how Canterbury Park and Running Aces handle the betting limit in Minnesota.  I think it turned out well.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/featured-column/creative-ways-to-simulate-no-limit-hold-em.htm

September 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This months article previews Canterbury's Fall Poker Classic and covers the impact of the Minnesota state shutdown.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/tournaments/canterbury-to-host-fall-poker-classic-on-oct-1-15.htm

August 2011 Ante Up Magazine Article

This month's article was about how the Minnesota State government shut down affected Canterbury Park and Running Aces.  This one took a lot of research to write, but I like how it turned out.

http://www.anteupmagazine.com/news/two-minnesota-poker-rooms-re-open-after-3-weeks.htm