Premier League - Won my first Heat

by Phil

1 Comments

Wow...

Won my first heat...

First I hit middle set against Negreanu's bottom two... Sick. 
It came 6c 5s 10c
I had 6d 6s and he had 5h 6h

I will win this match up 986 out of 987 times.  And I did.  (Running 5s could do me in.)

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Later I got it all in bad against Ian Frazer's KK... (I had 88)
but I hit an 8 on the flop and that was that...

Then there was a long stretch of normal (not all in crazy big pot style poker)...
And then a bit later.... the delicate pressure started to show its rewards and, and before I knew it ... it was Yevgeniy, JC Tran and I left.

(Random footnote... JC Tran was on my left... And on most of the unraised pots I looked down at junk and just went with the simple play.  Fold.  I folded LOADS of hands to him in that spot.   ... of course there were a few times where I raised with real hands, but for the most part he could pretty much assume I was folding the small blind because that was what I had been doing all night long.

However.... One time I went agro.  I raised with A8os (like this play) but I should have folded when he reraised me.  I felt I was beat and the math wasn't there.  But instead I went all in agro style and he made the quick call with 99.  Why do I donk style poker like this?  Such a spewtard move.  Anyway... I was needing an Ace for a HUGE ... mega huge pot.  I hit it.... And nearly broke him.)

Anyway... 3 handed I had an easy call to Yevgeniy shove and my hand held up.  So it came down to heads up between JC Tran and me. 

There was a bit of back and forth in the heads up play but he was in a tough spot to start as the lead started with me. (1,880,000 for me and 520,000 for him.)

On the last hand he had me preflop with A5os vs. my k7ss and that was that.  7 on the flop and it was over.

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So I have started the series with a perfect score.  16 points.  32,000$ bonus for the win, and my next match is tomorrow.

If you want to follow the action there are updates on...

http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/partypoker-premier-league-iv/premier-league-iv/day1/

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The luck spills over to the rest of my life as well.  Jennifer and I drove to the Bellagio afterwards to have dinner with my mum (who is in town for a few days).  Waiting at the bar in the restaurant for mum I thought it might be nice to catch her on her way in.  So out to the casino I went and tried to predict the path she would take.  Fail.  Too many options, too many people, bad idea.  Start walking back to restaurant (Jasmine - amazing Chinese food btw) and my buddy Noah from NYC (who I have not seen in 6 months) was just happening along on the same stretch of carpet.  He was also hungry.  He joined us for dinner and we had a great time.  

When you are on a streak the good stuff just starts hitting you from all angles... 

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A few random thoughts from tourney today.

1) Put some bubble gum into a pot today.  A first.  It was against Luke "Bubblegum" Schwartz.  (I like that for a nickname more than FullFlush.)  Seeing what I can do about starting to change his nickname.  I may fail, but heck, no harm in trying. He just looks like the type of guy who would chew gum and play cards.  And I think the name is just more fitting.

He won the pot.

2) Vanessa Rousso had killer shades on today.  Aviator, mirrored shades.  And Bubblegum Schwartz did too.  Vanessa and I donned ours 100% of the hands, while Bubblegum had them on only about 25% of the time.

Daniel Negreanu mentioned that he thinks they should not be allowed.  Huh??  That is crazy.  Shades, Hoodies and Free Speech is what I say!  However, Negreanu is in good company, Doyle Brunson thinks they are bad for poker as well.

3) JC Tran thinks that the buffet at the M Casino crushes (is better than) the Bellagio Buffet.  I thought it was close.

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That's it. More later.

Phil Laak
Degen for Life

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Pics below...

First one...  Starting Line Up...

And this one is me after I sucked out on JC.  My A8 (os) vs his 99.

And this is just some random pic of me at the start of Heads Up Play... Me vs JC Tran.

And then Finally... this is a pic after all the cards have settled.  My K7 (ss) out ran his A5 (os) to win the match, and that was that.

All these amazing pics were shot by Mickey May of Matchroom Sport.  She rules, and she happens to be the lucky lady married to Jesse May (Commentator and Author of "Shut up and Deal" (one of the top three poker books ever written).)