I've been away for a while so I figure now is a great time to let you all know what I've been up to and what's in store next for Outstanding Poker!

I spent the last 2 weeks out in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker.  This was my first time participating in the event.  As I'm primarily an online cash game player, the WSOP doesn't appeal to me as much as it does for MTT (multi-table tournament) grinders but I figured this year it might be fun (and profitable) to play in the Main Event.

I flew out in early July and planned to play in one of the $1500 No Limit Holdem WSOP bracelet events as well on July 5th.  After getting the "shuffle up and deal" from Jonathan Duhamel (2010 WSOP Main Event winner) we got going with 4500 starting stacks and starting blinds of 25/25.  

Nothing happened much until level 2 (25/50 blinds) for me, when I picked up KK in the small blind.  UTG+1 opened to 150 and got 2 callers when the action got to me.  I squeezed up to 725 and it folded to the last caller who already had a double stack.  He asked how much I had and then pretty quickly said "all-in".  I snap called obviously, as it's almost impossible for him to have AA in that spot after over-calling previously to a raise and a call.  He rolled over 77 and I was feeling pretty good...

... For about 3 seconds until the dealer turned over the flop where the first card was a 7.  I couldn't manage to spike a King so I was out pretty quickly.  That's the life of a tournament grinder I suppose.

I ended up spending the next two days playing live cash games at the Rio where the WSOP was being played.  There is a ton of action there leading up to the Main Event, as they run continuous satellites to qualify for the ME around the clock.  You can buyin I believe for as little as $550.  For every $10,000 in tournament entries they award a seat to the Main event.

Aside from the satellites, they run a ton of cash games as well.  I grinded mostly uncapped $5/10 during my non-tournament days and did pretty well.  My physical live game isn't that great as I don't play live very much, so I mostly just try to not give off any tells myself and don't put too much emphasis on getting physical reads off others, as I don't want to get fooled by a reverse tell at the same time.  The strongest reads you can make regardless are of a players aggression style and their bet sizing, which doesn't change whether you're playing live or online.  I find myself getting very bored playing live, as the 30 hands per hour pace just doesn't compare to playing 500 per hour while multi-tabling online.  It's very tough not to do something dumb with a weak hand live when you've been card dead for two hours straight.  Hands like K9-suited in early position become very tempting to play even though they should be insta-folds.

My good friend and fellow Outstanding Poker Guest Pro Ryan Smith also came down to play in the Main Event.  We decided to play Day 1A on Thursday July 7th as we figured the field would be softest then.  Although looking back I don't think it makes much of a difference when you play.  There is a lot of luck involved in your Day 1 table draw.  If you end up with a lot of amateurs you have a great opportunity to quickly accumulate chips.

Unfortunately my table draw was a lot tougher than average - pretty much all young internet pros and no one spewing chips (which is pretty common in the early levels of the main event).  Starting stacks were 30,000 chips with 50/100 blinds to start, and 2 hour levels.  I splashed around a little bit during Level 1 but couldn't manage to hit anything which bled me down to about 20k chips.  I had a super aggressive guy to my direct left who was 3betting me very often.  Level 2 hit with blinds moving to 100/200. I finally picked up AA in early position during Level 2 and raised to 500.  The internet kid of course 3-bet me to 1125 and everyone else folded.  I went ahead and 4-bet him to 2200 and he decided to 5-bet me back to 4000.  I then pushed my stack in hoping he had Kings or something but he insta-folded, signaling he was just making a spazz bluff.

Level 3 hit with 150/300 blinds and I was down to 18k chips after being pretty card dead where I picked up KK.  Another young internet kid opened and I 3-bet him.  He called and the flop came 866 with two spades.  He checked and I continuation bet.  He then reraised me and I then went all-in.  He snap called and showed pocket-Tens.  I held and managed to double up to 36k chips.

About an orbit later I picked up AKo in the small blind.  A new player to our table opened in early position and it folded to me.  I 3-bet him and he called.  The flop came down a beautiful AA6 with two spades.  I lead out on the flop and my opponent smooth called.  Turn was an offsuit-9.  I bet again, and my opponent raised me a good portion of my stack after some deliberation.  With trips and top kicker I was pretty confident in my hand, so we got the money in and he flipped over 66 for a flopped full house.  He had previously 3-bet bluffed on a dry flop versus another internet kid's check-raise (flop 966 where he showed KJo after everyone folded) so I couldn't squarely put him on a super unlikely flopped monster.  He also could easily have had AK for a chop or potentially trip Aces with a worse kicker.

So that was my main event, and I was out before the dinner break on Day 1.  Hopefully I can run better next year!

Ryan Smith ended up doing very well, and lasted until the bubble on Day 4 where he unfortunately got all in with 99 versus 33 and ended up losing.  Had he won that he easily would have cashed and potentially went deep.  I'll try to get him to blog about his experience at the WSOP as well.

I continued to play the cash games for a while, but Vegas becomes a black hole after being there for more than a few days and I was itching to get back to my online home.

While trying to adjust my sleep schedule back, I got an MTT bug and decided to play some online MTT's this past Sunday.  As luck would have it, I managed to win the PKR.com $530 Sunday Mega for $16k in a field of 123 players.  I guess the tournament world isn't so bad after all :)

In OP news, I'll be putting up a bunch of videos from myself, hockeyguy and mattutaylor to make up for the recent absence.  I have a good feeling that poker will be legalized and regulated in the US in the next 6-18 months so we're going to keep OP going strong and continue to pump out the content.

I love hearing how everyone's game is doing so keep writing your blogs and posting in the forums.  Also please let me know if there's anything specific you want covered in future videos.

Glad to be back!